SULLIVAN REPUBLICAN. W, M. CHENEY, Publisher. VOL. VIII. A whaling captain who has been up among the Eskimos says tHat all the chil dren are now taught to speak English as soon as they can talk. j; The American Dairyman asserts that no organizations in the United States have multiplied more rapidly in the past ten years than the sick-benefit, funeral' aid, death-benefit and other kindred societies. 1 An official report shows that there arc 283 Indian schools in the Dominion of Canada. Of this number 84 are man aged by the Church of England, 80 Roman Catholic, 33 Methodist, 10 Pres byterian and 6 undenominational. A numismatist suggests that a certain coin—say the fifty-cent pieces—issued during any administration be stamped with the head of the President of that date. They will thus serve as an aid to history, as do the coins of ancient days. Von Moltke, whom the Atlanta Comti tution calls the greatest soldier in Europe, nays that the long-predicted war is bound to come. He thinks that it will be a war of the masses against the classes. If such a war comes, it will be short, cruel and bloody. Northern lumbermen are picking up all the Southern timber land they can get, as they figure out a general advance in Southern timber within a few years. Heavy shipments of Southern hardwoods are being made into Michigan aud other Northern State's. An anti-gambling league is announced as forming in England, the Earl of Aber deen to be the first President. The qualifications for membership will be an agreement for the annual payment of a shilling and the signing of a pledge "to Abstain from betting." A Pennsylvanian drove a lot of boys who were teasing his mule out of his field. He then returned to condole with the mule, when the animal kicked him once, killing him instantly. "Grati tude," sagely comments the Chicago Herald, "is not the mule's redeeming trait." The farmers of Ottawa and Cloud Counties, Kansas, have adopted resolu tions asking the Government to lend them money at two and u half per cent, to the amount of one-half the value of their farms, and declaring that if this re quest is not granted they will pay no taxes or interest after December 1, 1890. A Hoosier maiden sued Charles John son for breach of promise. Charles acknowledged the engagement, but proved that he broke it only after seeing the plaintiff knock her father down be cause he asked her not togo barefooted around the house. The v jury were only five minutes returuiug a verdict in his favor. The New York Times observes tliat the old fashion of working out the road tax has become a mere farce in most rural re gions. The only rational plan is to have highways made and repaired by contract under the supervision and after the plans of a competent engineer. The taxes paid for this purpose will be far more than repaid to every farmer by the im provements to the roads. Some strange judicial proceedings are reported from Queensland, Australia. The presiding judge was in a hurry to get away, and tried cases continuously for thirty-six hours. At one stage all the available jurors were occupied consider ing verdicts, and, not to lose time, the judge ordered the doors of the court 100m to be locked, and then impounded every person in the audience qualified to serve. Many of the jurors were so ex hausted by continuous service that they fell asleep in their seats, but the trials ■went on. General Verdy Duvernois, the German Minister of War and one of the ablest of the younger Generals of the German army, is, as his name implies, of French descent. He is descended from a Hu guenot family expelled from France by Louis XlV. 's revocation of the edict of Nantes. It is a striking example of the folly of religious and political proscrip tions, remarks tht Chicago Herald, that the descendant of one of the French exiles should be the man destined to pre pare the plans for the next German in vasion of France. It is also singular that two of the foremost men in the German army to-day should be of foreign birth. Von Caprivi comes of *n Italian fcunily. TO-DAY. You ask we why my face is bright To-dnyf I What can put my gloom to flight To-dnyf Why is my heart so free from care? Why e'n made to pay damages fur putting 'ho thin;.- on market. An' that powder*:md-shot rat' trap that tired off into Charlie Smith's leg when he forgot it and went into the but'ry in the dark was jest as bad. They can talk aoout 'Spriggs's inventivene it's my opinion a man that'll spend his time lur twenty years piitterin' over things that never bring him in r. cent ain't any more or less than a crank." | "That's so," assented several in the crowd, recollections of the various times when they, too, had been victims of "Spriggs's inventiveness," lending em phasis to their words. But old, blear eyed Jerry Tolles, seated in the farthest corner of the store, roused up to shake his head with a confidence that all the defective wagon-jacks and rat-traps in the world could not unsettle. He be lieved in the inventions. He always had believed in them since the days when he was hired man for John Spriggs's father, and John himself played truant from school to stay all day in the shop and study out wonderful contrivances of wood and wire. He had been hit in the face With the wagon-jack, and cut with the can-opener, and "kicked" with the new kind of gun; he had given ten dol lars for John's rat-trap, and used the alarm clock till it burst; but his faith in their final success never wavered. "The boy'll mount to somcthin' yit," he mut tered, teeliug in his pocket for the old clay pipe. "He'll make his way iu the world." "If he does 'twill be Polly that pints it out for him." grunted Jim Bates. Polly was John Sprigg's daughter, and, in the vernacular of the village, "had common sen e fur her an' him both." Scrogsvillc was proud of Polly. Not only was she the handsomest girl around, the smartest and the best cook, but she was city educated. At least she had spent six months at the home of her un cle in New York, and that amounted to the some thing There had been fabulous stories of Polly's success in society duvlng that stay in the metropolis; and though some of the more skeptical in Scrogsvillc affected disbelief cn the subject of her being introduced to the Mayor and par ticipating in the Charity ball, it was the recollection of the season in New York, even more than her black eyes and stirring ways, that inspired the neighbors with pride an admiration. "If it wasn't for her father's being what he is, and every dollar she earns going to help him along, I wouldn't say a word against Charlie's taking such a fancy to her" declared Mrs. Smith that evening, when her husband recounted the conversation at the store. "But whoever marries her will have to mary him, too; an', the way things are—" and the good woman ended her sentence with a sigh, and firmly resolved not to have Polly stay at her house again, even if she never had any sewing done. Mrs. Smith was not the only careful mother who had deemed it prudent to resort to this ex treme measure; and it is highly probably she would have held to the resolu tion had it rot been for the unexpected arrival, one washing-day afternoon, a few weeks later, of Mrs. Latham and Mrs. Latham's little girl. Mrs. Latham was Mrs. Smith's cousin, and lived in the city. Her husband was foreman in u shop, and Mrs. Smith had planned to have baked chickeu and cream pies, aud the front parlor open every day, when they came to visit her. No wonder that now, with both visitors to entertain—Daniel coming on a later train—and cake and biscuit to be baked for tea, Mrs. Smith forgot her fear lest "Charlie should make tt fool of himself," and sent down for Polly Springs. "Though I don't know what you'll think of my wanting you to do housework," she said, anxiously, upon that young lady's arrival, "and if you're going to take it amiss, just tell me; but with that child, who's enough to try the patience of a saint, unless she changed from what she was last time, and her mother so easy she'd let her burn the house down without saying u word, I don't see what I tan do." Polly had tuken off her hat. "I hail as soon do housework as to sew," she replied, cheerfully. "And it's only two o'clock now; plenty of time to put things in order and have something b#ke4 foj tea. You stay in the other LAPORTE, PA., FRIDAY, JULY 11. isoo. toom, Mrs. Smith, and leave the kitchen Work for me." And Mrs. Smith left the kitchen with the serene consciousness that the biscuits would be as light, and the tea-cakes as delicately flavored, as if she herself had made them. So heartfelt was her grati tude, that half an hour later, when they had exhausted the subject of city life, tho neighbors, and piecing bed quilts, she surprised her cousin by waxing eloquent over Polly, Polly's father and Polly's wrongs. It took nearly an hour to tell the story, allowing for the inter ruptions occasioned by little Effie, who wns of an inquiring disposition; but Mrs. Latham was interested, and listened de lightedly. "And wouldn't it be a surprise to everybody if her father's inventions did turn out to be worth something, after all:'" she exclaimed. "Things like that have happened, 1 read of a man of that kind getting twenty-tive thousand dollars for a patent once." "He won't," declared Mrs. Smith, slioitly. "We used to think about it at lirst (look out, child, don't drop that vase) j but there's be'n more than a dozen come to look at his inventions, different times, and they all agreed they wa'a't worth the stuff that was putin them." "I suppose they ought to know," re luctantly admitted Daniel's wife. ("Eflie, dear, don't cut, holes in tho sofa. I'm afraid Cousin Ann won't like it.") And Daniel says that there isn't one thing out 01 a thousand like that that pays. But 1 always think of what might happen. And you know there is a chance." Mrs. Smith tiptoed to the kitchen door. "Polly's a good girl to work, if nothing else," she declared, co:ninp; back well pleased with the 112 *V of the creamy custard and nicely i_ jwued biscuit. "She's as quick as a flash of light ning." "Yes, and so handsome," chirruped Mrs. Latham. "If she was only as rich as some of the girls that " "Mamma!" it was a wild shriek of terror and pain. Eflie, in her endeavor to flnd out where the smoke went, had stood too close to the open fireplace, and her thin muslin apron was in a blaze. "Help! Save her! Water! Where's the water? Oh, my baby, my baby!" shrieked the frantic mother, at that in stant hardly less sane than the child, who was running wildly about the room. Mrs. Smith rushed into the kitchen, screaming as she went: "Fire! Help! Fire! She's burning to death!" < "Who?" gasped Polly, dropping her armful of wood with a crash. The next instant., before Mrs. Smith had time to realise her purpose, she had rushed into the other room, caught the frantic child, and wrapped her in her woolen dress skirt. It was only for one minute. In the next, Mrs. Smith had deluged them with water, Polly was ruefully regarding her burned hauds, and the tire was out. But that minute made the iuventor's daughter the heroine of Scrogsville. They talked about it at the store, and the sewing society, and on their way to church. The weekly paper devoted half a column to a description of the inci dent, and the 11. S. S. Association pre sented her with a copy of "Les Misera bles" as a testimonial of her valor and courage. As for Effie's father—"l'm not a rich man,"the big, broad shouldered mechanic declared, when his wife, with th» tears running down her cheeks, told him the story, "but some way or other I'll try to make up to that girl for what she's done for us. If there s anything in her father's inventing that any amount of my work can fix into paying him ordi nary day wages for the time he's spent on it, I'll flnd it. And what's more, he won't have to reckon with anything but the gross proceeds. The expenses I'll pay out of my own pocket." And that was how the investigation commenced. From the first Scrogsville people did not put much faith in it. It was a very thorough one. All John Spriggs's inventions, brought from garret, storeroom aud barn, were examined, taken to pieces, studied, put together again, turned this way and that, and ex perimented with in every possible com bination. But the more Mr. Latham worked the less hopeful he became. And after a week of patient labor he was forced to agree with the others who had tried that "the inventions wa'n't worth the stuff they were made off." He came into the Spriggs's kitchen that day look ing rather crestfallen. "No; there's nothing in them," he said, in answer to Polly's inquiring glance. "Nothing that I can find, and I used to call myself a good hand at that sort of thing. It can't be helped. But I wish I hadn't said anything about it now." John Spriggs looked up from his work with a reassuring smile. He had been the least interested of any in the in vestigation. "Oh, you needn't be," he responded, cheerfully. "It was very kind of you, very kind of you; but it's hardly to be expected you'd find any thing of consequence in these old con trivances of mine. Now, this weaving machine, when I get the idea worked out, Mr. Latham, I wouldn't take twenty five thousand dollars for the patent." Daniel rubbed his head. "I s'p'ose not, sir. You—you won't mind accept ing a little money from me, Miss Polly, for the time you couldn't work on ac count of your hands? But I'm sorry— what are you doing?" Polly was unfastening a jar of pickles. Shi turned around. "It is a cover father fixed for me because it was such hard work to unscrew the others. You press on this spring, you see, and it slips right off. It's ever s