Republican news item. (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, November 24, 1898, Image 6

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    Of the new pof»toffice9 established j
wince the first of July seven are named ,
Dewey. Being all of the fourth class,
however, they are away below the ad
miral's lank.
The Arkansas elopers who killed the
girl's pursuing father and took his
body with them to the place where
they were married are strong exam
ples of the theory that love will find a
way.
Medina, Pa.,schools have just inau
gurated a clever plan for decreasing
tardiness. They will grant to the de
partment showing the lowest percent
age of tardiness for each month an
extra half holiday.
According to a statement prepared
by the Rev. Dr. Strong, the mission
ary societies of the United States,
Great Britain, continental Europe,
Asia, Africa and Australia number '249,
with -4(594 stations and 15,200 out
stations. There are 11,095 mission
aries, 65,030 native workers and about
a million a id a quarter communicants.
The income from all these countries
approximates 813,000,090.
Losses to the farmers by the doing
away with horses as motive power on
surface railroads,and consequent fall
ing off in the demand for hay aid
grain, are being estimated. Large as
these losses undoubtedly are, they
have been made up ninny times over
by advantages which the trolley sys
tems have conferred upon owners of
farm lands. The trolleys have doubled
the value of real estate in many in
stances and reduced the cost of travel
to a minimum, observes the Brookiyu
Standard Union.
The cleverness of colored boys in
Atlanta, Ga., has been perverted to
teaching dogs to steal chickens. When
this explanation of the disappearance
of poultry was made by the losers the
police were sceptical, but all doubts
vanished when, on the arrest of four
suspected boys, a dog with a chicken
in his teeth followed the patrol-wagon
to the police station. The boys con
fessed and explained their method < 112
operation. They would get a chicken
in the old way,by theft from the roost,
and then teach a "likely" dog to catch
and fetch it. After a little practise of
this kind the dog would be taken
through premises where chickens were
at large and would be incited to at
tack. Soou thereafter the dog could
be depended upon to do the purveying
without assistance or suggestion. Two
of the trained dogs were captured by
the police and were condemned to
death as dangerous to the welfare ol
the community.
The forest tires which have raged
in Colorado and Wisconsin onforce the
argument for forest conservation and
the extension of the fire-warden sys
tem. Protection would not cost a
fraction of what is lost through indif
ference. This loss is not alone iu t lit
destruction of hundreds of thousands
of dollars' worth of timber, but ill the
injury to the soil, which can only be
repaiVed in years, and in the loss ol
summer moisture to the lands depend
ing on the slow melting of the snow
on the tree-sheltered hills. The
warnings to take precautious come
periodically. The fire in Wisconsin
is the fourth large one iu the north
west in the last 30 years. By the
three preceding ones at least 2500 lives
were lost, and about $ >,000,000 worth
of property was destroyed. Thai
was the immediate material loss. The
greater loss was in the destruction, as
scientists estimate it, of over 75 per
cent, of the fertilizing nitrogen in the
soil.
School congestion is as severe iu
Philadelphia as in New York, and
much pressure is being brought to
bear to force requisite appropriations
to remedy the deficiencies. The health
of the children is endangered by pres
ent conditions. In many of the class
rooms for small children the pupils sit
three and four in a seat intended foi
two. Still worse conditions exist in
the makeshift quarters provided.
Rooms have been rented in dwelling
houses, where ventilation can be
obtained only from the wiudows
nti 1 heat a stove. In one
district the pressure was so great
that a private stable was obtained tem
porarily and fitted up as a kindergar
teu. In another district a kindergar
ten class of 10(5 is being taught in a
cellar, and in a third quarters have
been fitte 1 up iu an outbuilding for
merly used as a woodshed and placo
of storage. There are classrooms in
the basements of churches, over stores
and in the basements of schoolhousea,
and quite recently a school boa> d in
the northwestern section of the ci.y,
being uuable to iiud better accommo
dations for a half hundred children, had
t-o decide between the second story of
a building, directly over a blacksmi'h
•hop, or nothing.
j A petitioner to the general Meth
| odist conference in Canada recently
asked that body to "protect congre
gations against the growing evil of
manuscript preachers."
One of Scotland's foremost physi
cians declares that bicycle riding is a
sure cure for many forms of insanity.
His theory seems to be that external
wheels will cure internal wheels.
That Chicago burglar who found the
$3200 which a householder had hid
len under a stair carpet was undoubt
jdly guided by kindred feeling. He
shared the distrust in banks of the
man who owned the money.
Active, rapid and decisive—that is
the text of the present age. The
jelerity with which great events eveut
late is illustrated by the experience
jf the Maine merchant skipper who
left Manila in a sailing vessel for a
royage around the Cape, stopping at'
St. Helena, When he started there
ivas no expectation of war; when he
reached Maine the war was over.
This is the way the whirlgig whirls.
The physical health of many modern
cities has been immensely improved
by careful, systematic attention to
imitation. During the greater part
of the last century the death rate in
Loudon was about 50 per 1000 each
pear. It had decreased to 24.8 in
1850 and fell to 17.7 per 1000 last
/ear, though the population of the
city has doubled during that time,
l'he death rate in London is now only
i little larger than iu rural districts of
E Jgland.
It is safe to hazard the prediction
tluit the next five years will see Mex
ico make more progress than in the
last ten, says the Mexican Herald.
The installation is pretty well doue
now, and the country already feels
the new motive power. New financial
institutions, new factories, new rail
ways, new improvements of all kinds
*re projected by substantial people,
ind one of the most conservative of
our bunkers, who never talks for ef
fect, says, "Now Mexico is really
making money."
"Should Curates Marry?" is a ques
tion which has been agitating the ec
clesiastical minds of New South
Wales. At the recent provincial synod
n motion was submitted by Archdeacon
White which recommended to bishops
of the province "to require as a con
dition of admission to the diaconate
that candidates remain unmarried foi
live years." The discussion natu
rally trenched upon interesting facts,
as when reference was made to Rich
nrd Baxter's marriage with a young
woman who wished to be more close
ly ac.iuainte 1 with such a pious and
eloquent man, and also to a bishop ol
Durham who had married four timet
and who gave to the fourth lady of his
choice a ring bearing the inscription,
"If I survive I'll make it live." The
motion was rejected.
Consul Ruffin of Paraguay says that
the butter supply for that countrj
comes mainly from Europe and is in
ferior to that made iu the United
States. He thinks the superior qual
ity of American butter would insure
its rapid sale and states thut there
t.iil price is from 35 to 40 cents, gold,
pjr pound. Foreign butter, however,
pays aSO per cent. duty. The consul
suggests the following innocent trickf
of the trade: "Let any butter manu
facturer cater to the whiuis of the peo
pie by placing on his small cans a pic
tnre of the president of Paraguay, oi
those of some of the leading states
men and an old historic house or two,
which would catch the eye of the peo
pie and cause it to be talked about
This would give popularity to tin
American brand and ought to lead tc
quick and profitable sales. Nothing
of this sort exists in the country."
An extended study of the phenom
ena of insomnia by De Menaceine, t
Russian authority iu medicine, brings
him to the conclusion that it i»
zharacteristic of persons who blush,
laugh, weep readily and whose pulst
is apt to quicken upon the slightest
provocation, remarks the New York
Tribune. Loss of sleep, however, lit
admits, most frequently results froic
overwork of either mind or body; over
strain of either kind dilates the blood
vessels of the brain and eventuallj
paralyzes them, extreme cold produc
ing the same results. Experiment!
i also show that exercise of the emo
! tions causes a rush of blood to the
brain and sleeplessness, if occurring
near bedtime. There is a common theory
that sleep is -squired in proportion tc
the scarcity of red corpuscles in the
blood,and thus all persons do not cor-
I respond in their need of sleep, and
many authorities agree that the need
, of sleep depends upon the strength of
consciousues*.
/WxtWU/yJi Turkey In the pantry, 1//
! f/\}\A\j/\ )\f/yJ Chicken In the pot,
/ Mother choppin' apples,
/1 Oven roaatin' hot. >^rC\V\
llf/frjl' fljj Grandma seedlu'raisins, k((
\lll/l/( rl Molly mixln' spice;
vu(\ \\ J Gracious, but the kltohen
■' v\ )1 Smolls uncommon nice.
\ ml/jr Cranberries a poppln', { (J I
\OJt/ Pies all in a row, X a/J
In[ Gee, but don't that mince-meat "*7
(AH Tempt a feller, though, fy
\lv\t\ Silver spoons a shlnin', WilliUll/fyz \
yn]) Cake with Irostin' thick:
] / II Say, I think the Governor's V"
XUY/ A regular old brick. fj\ >y^y\
No lessons to be done, Mr ...Am'
Wisb it would come often;
Best of all, I say, /WYljO,
Is this November Thursday,
Folks call "Thanksgiving Day."
1 A HARD WON TURKEY. g
5 j
How fled Brought Home the Thanksgiving Turkey—lt Was a
Dreary Outlook, But a Boy's Pluck Triumphed.
§ ' §
6 By F*. K. BLACK, <f>
rfji 112 w'SE been looking, I
JB I have, 80 I ought
R to know," said
112~ t 5& fl Lucy, withatear
face > "ind
i / j thero's only beans
' Wsj aru * P an ' a
wee, weo pioce of
C beef pop bought
" - from tho cowboys.
There's no cranberries an' there's no
turkey an' main's not makiug no—no
—p-pie."
"Mam's busy looking after pop,
Loo," said Ned, in great worriment,
"an' he's awful down with 'laria. I
guess we'll have to do without pie this
Thanksgiving."
"No pie! An' no turkey! Wo al
ways have pie an' turkey on Thanks
giving, Ned, else it ain't no Thanks
giving. It can't be Thanksgiving."
"But ye ain't on the farm now,
Loo," her big brother remonstrated,
"we're in the Injun Territory."
"I don't care," cried Miss Loo.
"Ain't there turkeys an' cranberries
in the Injun Territory?"
"I guess there are, but I ain't sure
about cranberries."
"Then, why don't you buy one?"
"Cause there's noboby 'round here
for miles an' miles an' miles to buy
from, and,"he added dolefully to
himself, "there's 110 money to buy one
with."
"When I was a little wee giri,"said
Miss Loo, reproachfully, "I once
caught a turkey all by myself, in the
yard, I did."
She rose from the bank of the creek
and walked slowly and tearfully back
to the wagon. She was only eight
years old, but she was already posi
tive about the rights of little women,
and one of these was unalterably the
proper celebration of Thanksgiving.
Her brother, Ned, sat by the chilly
waters and thought dismally. He was
thinking and just old enough to real
ize plainly that things with his family
had gone all wrong. He knew that
times had been hard in Wyoming,
where they had come from. He knew
that his father had lost all his cattle
and had had to leave the ranch. He
knew they were traveling with their
few household goods down to join his
uncle in Texas—traveling in the slow
est, most laborious but cheapest way,
with his father's last wagon, and his
father's last four horses.
Ned sat until the falling sun warned
him it was time to fetch wood for the
fire and help his inothdr make the
poor meal they were getting accus
tomed to.
"Mother," he said, as they hung
over the tire together, "to-morrow's
Thanksgiving."
"A poor one for us, sonny," she
answered. "No pie for little Loo to
morrow I'm afraid —poor child. But
we'll soon be in Texas, Ned."
"Ain't there turkeys in the terri
tory, mam? Wild ones, I mean?"
"So I am told; but gracious, you
can't expect your father to get up sick
as "he is, and shoot turkeys."
NED FIBED ALMOST BLINDLY INTO THE
FLOCK.
"Couldn't I? I've shot pop's gun
off twice. An' Loo wants turkey.
She's tired of pork and flapjacks."
"Your father said, when we left
home, you were never to leave the
trail. You might get lost on these big
prairies."
"He said 'unless necessary,' and
when wo entered the territory, the
people told us we were quite safe.
The Indians are all quiet on their res
ervations, and we've only seen two
all the way throufili, so there's no
dangor off the trail."
"Get the coffee, Ned," said his
mother, "and don't talk nonsense."
But Ned thought long over the fire
that night and early next morning
whon his mother got up she found the
camp fire ready lighted and a ragged
piece of paper attached to the wheel
of the wagon. She read it with diffi
culty.
"Ned has gono to catch a turkey
for Loo. It's necessary."
Far off on the never-ending plain
ho rode on his fresh and willing horse,
the gun resting, both barrels loaded,
on the pommel before him. The
chill of the morning air was speedily
softened by the rays of a warm sun.
Tho boy began to feel the real glory
DIMLY THE BOV SAW SOMETHING HAD
HAPPENED AND HEARD THE INDIAN
SCREAM WITH PAIN.
of the plains, as the wind swept past
him, and the galloping hoofs of his
horse made music in his ear. His
cheeks flushed; his uncut hair floated
behind him; his eyes shone, and he
shouted with novel delight. But he
saw no turkeys. If he had known
more he would have got up at night
and "potted" them from their roosts
in the branches of the scanty trees—'
unsportsmanlike, but efl'ective. Now
they were far übroad feeding. Ned
stopped shouting, but did not halt in
his pursuit. At length his eager eyes
noticed a flutter among a clump of tall
dead sunflowers, and his Wyoming
learning taught him that these birds
were feeding on the fallen suuflower
seeds. But he did not want prairie
chicken; ho wanted turkey. Once
again he looked and there was a heavy
flutter and movement among the tall
sunflowers. They were turkeys—a
a big covey. Shaking with excite
ment the boy picketed his horse and
crept on foot near the busy birds.
He was afraid they would hear his
heart thump and take fright, but still
he got nearer and nearer, with his
finger on the trigger. Then an old
wise gobbler got alarmed when Ned
was within thirty yards and the covey
started, half running, half flying, in a
great*state of excitement. Ned fired
almost blindly into the midst of them,
both barrels. He saw something
and ran to it. Turkey it was, a
whopper, and something was hopping
away among the sunflowers. Ned ran
to that and killed it with a blow of his
gun. Two! He sat down and laughed
gleefully. Then he thoughtfully said:
"Now, if only one oould have been
a big mincepie, Loo would have been
happy."
Speedily he fastened a bird on each
side of hi* saddle and mounted togo
home. But that was easier said than
done. His father had been right when
he had warned him how easy it is to
get lost on the plain. After half an
hour's riding, and recognizing none of
of the ground he had galloped over in
the morning, and after doubtfully
studying where his shadow had been,
and where it ought to be now, Ned,
with a sinking heart, acknowledged ha
didn't know where he was.
At last he reached a higher bluff
than any before, and from it he could
see a succession of lower bluffs, and
then again a high one behind. He sat
on his horse for some time and then
rode toward the other big bluff, and
so high it was he could not see its
summit even from the hollows, with
the other bluffs between. He rode
along, slowly now. for his horse was
not so frosh, and was in one of the
hollows, when suddenly far in front of
him there came to his ears a strange
sound—the long, ringing notes of a
cavalry bugle. Ned stood in his stir
rups to stare about, plunged all at
once into a high state of excitement.
But his horse; never had that patient
and docile animal behaved in so ex
traordiuary a way before. It pricked
up its ears and threw its head back,
and plunged. Again, across the plains,
sounded the blood-burning bugle, and
all at once over the further bluff, came
running men and the sun shone on the
weapons in their hands. The bugle
sounded yet again, and one of the men
waved a Bword, and so clear was his
voice when ho spoke the words that
Ned distinctly heard them:
"Commence firing!"
Then there was a noisy cracking of
many carbines, and the men running
forward, stopped every now and then to
kneel and fire again. But Ned knew
little more; it was all he could do to
hold onto his horse, who, with one
prolonged neigh, had taken the bit in
his teeth, and was charging, apparent
ly, with the most joyous feelings to
ward the enticing bugle. Up one bluff
.vnd into the hollow, and up another
tlii! unwilling boy was carried directly
toward those dangerous puffs of white
smoke, the turkeys Hopping by his
side, and at the top of the nest bluff
he nearly fell off his horse from sheer
fright. Coming to meet him, helter
skelter, save who save can, came a
band of Indians in full retreat, with
bullets popping around them right and
left. They were as startled as was
Ned. His white face doubtless led
them to believe that a party of white
men were cutting them off. Without
a shot they turned and fled right and
left; utterly scattered—save one, a
huge man with a large war bonnet.
He was apparently mad with rage and
came swooping down on Ned. The
instinot of self-preservation, rather
than reason, made the lad raise his
shot-gun to his shoulder and fire, al
though no bullet, but mere buckshot
were in his cartridges. Dimly the bov
saw something had happened and
heard the Indian scream with pain,
and again heard the commanding of
ficer's voice hurriedly shout: "Cease
firing."
His horse swept on, through the lines
of amazed soldiers, and nt last, with
overy manifestation of delight, ranged
quietly up behind the men, by the side
of the horses, loft riderless in charge
of a few soldiers, whose comrades had
dismounted to fight on foot.
Ned rolled off his apparently iusane
horse, and sat, with dizzy head, see
ing nothing clearly, until a tall man
with a saber stood in front of him and
looked sternly at the boy.
"Who on earth are you?" he said.
"The idea of charging right into the
teeth of our fire."
"Please, sir," said Ned, very much
frightened at the look of the big saber.
"I didn't mean to. Baldy ran away
with me."
The oflicer broke into a smile, and
lifted the boy to his feet, and sheathed
his saber.
"It's lucky you were not killed,"ho
said. "Tell me how it all came about.
Do you know you knocked an Indian
ofl his pony, that one of my men is
bringing prisoner?"
"Oh! please, sir," cried Ned, turn
ing white. "Is he killed? Oh! really
I didn't mean to."
"The beggar's sound enough," said
a bright young officer coming up.
"He'll probably be blind though. He
got that shot full in the face.''
The two officeis turned to Ned then
and questioned him, and with boyish
innocence he told them all—about
their hardships, his father's sickness,
his mother's weariness and worry,
and little Loo's desire for a Thanks
giving turkey. As he concluded a
smiling sergeant led up Ned's horse.
"Its our old Baldy, sir," he said.
"We had him when the troop was in
Wyoming and he was condemned and
sold. He ran, of course, when he
heard the bugle, and ranged alongside
like the veteran he is."
The men crowded round the old
troop horse with many jokes and
caresses, but Ned looked at him in
dismay.
"My turkeys!" he cried.
They were gone, thrown off in that
wild charge, and Ned broke down and
burst into tears, thinking of poor, dis
appointed Loo. But the captain sent
two horsemen over the way the boy
had come, and they brought them
back safely. So that was all right and
much more, for the younger officer,
who was a doctor, had some quinine
in his saddle bags, and showed Ned
the way home in triumph, and there
he doctored the boy's father and made
him comfortable, so that thty got home
to Texas safely.
The dinner that night was very
fashionable, if the time they ate it
counts for anything, for it was 9 o'clock
before the turkey was cooked.
"But," said Loo, cuddling grate
fully against Ned, "it wouldn't, it
couldn't have been Thanksgiving Day
with only flapjacks. Could it, now?"
Poor Loo!
A Query
Thanksgiving Is a joyous day
Throughout thi9 mightv nation;
But on one point about it I
Would liko some information.
Why is it that always, when
We should (eel most enraptured.
Hanker for the piece of turkey that
Some other person captured.
| FAMED FOR mSI
O The Birds Are Raised to Perfection X
O on Block Island. jj
112 WOULD be hard to
find anything more
picturesque than
the Thanksgiving
harvest on Block
Though Block
Tsland is only thir
ty miles off the
Rhode Island coast,
and lies almost
midway between
' Montauk Point aud
Point Judith, the
impression that it
makes upon the
visitor is that of being far removed
from every other part of the country.
Its unique business is the rearing
of the festive and succulent Thanks
giving turkey. Rhode Island turkey
has a fame as farspreading as that of
Philadelphia chicken or Maryland
terrapin. The turkey experts tell us,
too, that the particular brand of the
noble American bird produced in this
quaint ocean oasis stands in the same
relation to the ordinary Rhode Islander
as that aristocratic bird does to his
less blue-blooded fellows in York
State, Jersey and the West.
A TURKEY FARM ON BLOCK ISLAND.
To the Block Islander turkeys are
what his cattle are to the native of
Holstein or the Isle of Jersey—the
object of his chief concern and atten
tion. When one has been long enough
on the island to be familiar with the
care and attention that is lavished on
its turkeys there is no longer any won
der that the Block Island gobbler is
the most arrogant bird on earth or
that when turkey is quoted at twenty
cents the Block Island brand brings
thirty-five. Most of the birds, it mity
be remarked, goto Boston and New
York, where their reputation is known
and their fine qualities appreciated.
Siuce every little farm or plot on
the island has its flock of turkeys, and
the growing of the birds is the princi
pal land occupation of the place, the
harvest has been on for some time.
Some of the scenes that are to be met
with are worthy the brush of a Millet.
On days when the steamer visits the
place a stroll of a couple of miles from
the town will bring one across a dozen
great flocks of turkeys traveling iu
droves, like cattle, toward the harbor.
They are driven by women in short
skirts, heavy shoes, woolen stockings
and with queer little sanbonnets on
their heads, or by boys in nondescript
trousers, cowhide boots and south
westers, the prevailing male attire.
The drivers stroll along silently ex
cept for the "cluck, cluck" with which
they stir up a straggler or hasten their
flock. The birds march along as
sedately as their masters, aud give the
latter little trouble, for they are well
fed and lazy, and one can almost see
the roll of their fat sides beneath the
glossy feathers.
At the landing the scene is one that
for picturesqueuess outdoes even a
Bavarian goose market. The birds
stand together in compact patches
of glistening color, sequestered from
neighboring flocks by their guarding
drivers. The buyers move about from
one group to another examining the tur
keys or haggling with their owners
over the price to be paid. The hum of
voices is now and then drowned by
the resonant "gobble, gobble, gobble,"
of some red-wattled major domo or
punctuated by the sharp "quit, quit,"
of a frightened hen turkey. There is
u pleasant stir of life and chatter about
it all that is set off by the blank ex
panse of sea all about.
A Great Dinner on Thanksgiving Hay.
"We never had such a dinner as
this."
"I don't believe we could eat anry
more if we bad it."
Every week a car of eggs is shipped
from St. Mary's, Kan., and it takes
61,200 eggs to make np such a load.