San Francisco is the financial center Tor the western half of the American continent. It Is a very inconsequential town in deed that has not either a homicida mystery or an exposition on hand. Now that petroleum has been dis covered in Egypt, the phrase "Egyp tian darkness" may become wholly reminiscent. European governments are some times in doubt as to the exact purport of the Monroe doctrine. They can al ways get an efflcial and authoritative Interpretation by applying to the United States. Wireless telegraphy may yet rob fog-bound coasts and the graveyards of the deep of their haunting terrors. It may keep the ocean traveler in touch with the world's events. It may be the means of saving vessels from disaster and their passengers from death. The Brooklyn woman who married a former convict in order to make sure of his reform believes in heroic measures. If she is disappointed, sin will got a precious little sympathy any where. For if there is one thing absolutely established by some cen turies of experience it is that reforma tion, to be genuine and safe, should precede marriage, not follow it, re marks the Seattle Post-Intelligoncer, Trade between the United States and all South American countries is seriously handicapped for want of sat isfactory transportation facilities and by excessive shipping rates. The transportation companies operating between the States and South Amen can ports, as well as between Europe and South America, are none of them controlled by American capital, and, as a result, it costs about one-third more to ship a ton of freight from the States than it does from European ports. An industrial arbitration law, mod eled on the New Zealand plan, has just been placed upon the statute books of the commonwealth of Aus tralia. It recognizes only registered industrial unions of both employers and employees. The president of the court must be a judge of the supreme court. Every care has been taken to make the court an independent and dignified tribunal. Its powers are-very large and no appeal lies from its decision. The compulsory provisions of the New Zealand law are of course retained. That the world in general is ad vancing toward temperance is the be lief of John G. Woolley, a prohibition leader, who just has returned to his home in Chicago from a seven month'i trip around the globe. His expedition was taken for the purpose of studying the condition of the liquor traffic in foreign lands. He addressed more than 90 temperance meetings, speak ing against rum in Australia, whiskey in Scotland and kava in Honolulu. Mr. Woolley says that "among all the greater nations I that Ameri ca is at present the farthest advanced In the struggle for prohibition." The supreme court of North Caroli na in a recent decision held that as a trolley car cannot go around a ve hicle, a wagon must turn out for a car whether going in the same or oppo site direction. Another reason that is feiv?n for the superior rights of th.-; car is that the public demands it shall travel at a greater speed than an or inary vehicle. At crossings, how ever, the rights while not equal are greater in the case of the wagon than they are between corners. The right is reserved for pedestrians, with the exercise of reasonable care to cross the track at any point that is convenient. The temporary weakness of the authorized legal authorities, when op posed to reckless lawlessness, was curiously illustrated recently at Pen tonville prison, in England. A con vict who managed to elude the war ders, established himself on the roof of the prison, and for thirty hours baffied all attempts to dislodge him. Thousands of spectators showed their sympathy for what was in the end the under dog by giving him a time.- ly warning of the movements of his would-be captors. Ladders placed against the walls were promptly thrown down by the occupant of the roof. He collected a large pile of slates and hurled them at the heads of the officers who attempted to scale the ladders. The lame and impotent conclusion was that he surrendered for a mess of pottage. Hunger ac complished more than the representa tives of organized society were able to accomplish. The geologists have discovered soan springs in Arizona. They should nest dig up some petrified laundrymen. A Chicago woman writes books ia her sleep, but the despatch doesn't state whether they are sweet dreama or literary nightmares. » The telegraph messengers of Chi cago have been inspired to speed and activity by a change in the method of payment, from monthly wages to a fixed fee of 1 1-2 cents per each mes sage delivered during the day. Since the new rule became effective, some of the boys have been seen to run. According to the Naval Register fop 1902 Uncle Sam has now afloat and available for service 225 war vessels of all sorts, with no less than GO in process of construction. Of the latter eight are battleships, six are armored cruisers (a type in which the United States navy is strikingly deficient) and nine are first-class protected cruis ers. These 23 vessels alone would constitute in an emergency a most for midable fleet for offense and defence. The United States have in the last five years enjoyed such wonderful prosperity that it finds no parallel in the record of any other people. In a period measurable by months and days we have marched forward into tha foremost rank of commercial nations, and also at a single bound have taken aur rightful and acknowledged place as one of the powers, with whom in the international questions other great peoples must consult, remarks the New York Tribune. The advocates of the project of eleo. ting the president and vice-president by popular vote and not by the inter vention of electors chosen in the sev eral states are again exerting them selves through petitions to congress and the adoption of resolutions and preambles in meetings which they have held in some of the states. Such a radical change in the method of electing a president as tney propose, could be obtained only by a constitu tional amendment, which after adop tion, by congress, would have to be ratified by the legislatures of two thirds, of the states, a slow proceeding since, with six exceptions, all the stages have now biennial sessions. A curious story of English naval dicipline has just found its way in'.-j print. When the Ophir, with the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall on board, was nearing St. Helena, the signal was made to the attendant crui sers St. George and Juno, as it was desirable to reach port before night fall, "Can you steam another knot?" and the Juno replied, "Yes, four if you please." This answer was regard ed as impertinent, and when the ves sels reached Portsmouth, as a mild form of punishment the Juno was or dered to lie up the harbor, while the more respectful St. George eamo alongside the dockyard. And the Juno, at last accounts, is lying at her | moorings still. A Chicago horse-dealer was in Washington the other day, selling a couple of fancy saddle-mares to a prominent young Washingtonian the other day. He spoke of President Roosevelt's objection to the custom of docking tails saying: "That is all right, but why does he not go after the practice of branding government stock? I have sold 3000 horses to the government during the last year. They have all had to be branded as soon as accepted. The horses suffer agonies when the hot iron is slapped upon the flesh of their haunches. 1 have seen a horse jump five feet into the air and cry out in pain. It would be just as effective to brand on the hoof. They would not feel it, and it would last for months or years before needing to be renewed." There are many things which canst the Americans to be objects of par ticular interest to the English. We are talked about and written about much as would be a newly discovered pea pie. Indeed, there has been a recent discovery of America by the English. The invasion of England by the Ameri can Trust, the successful rivalry of American enterprise in the makets to which Great Britain has paramount claims, the marriage of American heir esses by British noblemen and the In creasing numbeis of the American col ony in London, as well as the buying and renting of famous English mansions by the Yankee millionaires, combine to center pub lic interests there in the "kin beyond the sea." Even the person.il characteristics of the American are described much as would be the aji pearance of an unfamiliar tribe Jf Africans. The Writing on the Wall. # By Thomas C. Harbaugh i Brant Durivage was in the neigh t borhood of 40 when he came back to the home of his ancestors. He was a bachelor, very tall, and dark of feature. He had been abroad 10 years, and as I, a young physician, had but lately settled in the adjoining town. I had never seen him. I had heard, however, that he had visited many countries, civilized and savage, and had concluded that he was tired of roughing it and glad for a chance to settle down beneath the roof of his fathers. His old acquaintances did not see much of him after he came home. He i nodded to his former friends, or passed them by without so much as a bow. Not long after his coming home we learned that he was courting Annie Kimball, the prettiest girl of the neighborhood, already engaged, as we believed, to Steve Morgan, a young man of steady habits, but without a tithe of the wealth possessed by Brant Durivage. Old Kimball, Annie's father, was dissipated, and, just then, financially embarrassed, and the truth is that he sold his child to Brant Durivage, forc ing her to break her angagement with | young Morgan, who denounced the ! bargain in bitter language whenever : he could find anybody to listen to him. At times he swore that he would "get even" with the man who had come be tween him and Annie. For several weeks matters drifted along quietly. If Durivage heard of Morgan's hot words and threats, he said nothing. He seemed perfectly contented with the conquest he had won, the wedding day had been set, and Annie had become resigned to the fate from which there seemed no es cape. Steve Morgan had given up his trade, but not his daily habit of curs ing Brant Durivage. He had lost flesh, and his eyes had a wolfish, vengeful look. In common with oth ers, I fully expected a tragedy of some kind, and I went so far as to share my opinion wim the constable, who nod- I ded approvingly. The tragedy came, but not in the | manner expected. At ten o'clock on | the night before the day set apart for j the wedoing a man whom I knew to I be Brant Durivage's factotum, threw j open my office door, and rushing in, j startled me with the intelligence that | his master had just been shot. Thinking immediately at Steve j Morgan, I promised to repair to the | house at once, and in a short time I I crossed the threshold for the first I time. I was conducted to an upper | room, where 1 found the dark-faced man lying unconscious on a bed, hav ing been carried to his chamber by a j servant who, standing by me, said I i~at Durivage had ben shot through tr)e open window of the library, which | was on the ground floor. "I pulled this out of the wound," continued the man, taking an arrow | from the table, "but I'm afraid there's a bit of it left. He's shot under the left shoulder and and from behind; a bad wound, I'm thinking." And the | servant shook his head. I fell at once to examining my pa tient, and discovered that while the barb had not gone deep enough' t r . touch a vitai organ, the wound was dangerous, especially u nie shaft had poisoned. I found also that the servant was right about a piece of the arraw head remaining .n the hurt, for PI removed it with my forceps and laid jit alongside the weapon on the table. Meantime the people attached to estate were looking for the person #who had attempted Durivage's life. The town constable had been sum moned and the town itself was al ready in an uproar. I remained with Durivage until I could leave him to the care of a nurse, and with ar row and the detached head, I went back to my office. I was clear to me that the shaft had come from some distant land. I had seen many savage weapons in collections, but never one like it. The shaft proper was a light reed, very straight and hard. One end had been cut off transversely and the other notched in order to receive the bow string. Next came a piece of bone nearly three inches in length. One end of it had been passed into the split, or open end of the shaft, while the other end of the bone was slipped a short piece of reed, over which, in turn, a strong wrapping jf intestine had been placed. All this formed a socket for the true head of ti-e arrow, the uone merely giving tho shaft proper weight. I saw this much by the light of my office lamp; but I saw more. I The "head" was the piece I had ex tracted from the wound. It was of ivory, and I now saw that it had been attached to the bone weight in such a manner as to loosen itself when anyone attempted to pull it from the victim's body. Under the microscope I saw that the head of the singular shaft had been coated with a sub stance resembling glue, but which I decided was some deadly poison. It was bitter an nauseating when applied to the tongue, and I had no doubt thiit Its virus was then spreading itself through out Brant. Durivage's system. 1 went back to the estate again be fore daylight, and found my patient raving in delirium. I administered opiate after opiate, and a long time passed before the medicine produced tho slightest effect. The servants said ho had not spoken rationally since tho shot, not even during his juiet moments, and this gave me , small ho*»es of pulling him through. The next morning Steve Morgan was arrested on susic-ion. This did not astonish me after what the pig headed constable had said the -night before. Nobody believed the young man guilty, though he did not express any sympathy for Durivage, and after a hearing he was discharged. He was strangely non-committal during the ex amination, and when it was over he came into my office and took a chair. "Doctor," said he, leaning toward me with a smile, "they didn't ask me to tell what I saw, did they?" "I believe they dia not, Steve," I answered, wondering what he knew. "I saw the man that did it!" I looked strangely at him, wonder ing if he was not losing his wits. "I saw him, but not till after the shot," Steve went on."I was up to the house last night. I went there to ask Brant Durivage to listen to me for a minute, though I don't Sipeot he'd have done it. Just as I was en tering the garden, for I knew I would find him in the library with the win dow up, I heard a sharp cry, and the next moment there passed a little man carrying in one hand a box. This is as true as gospel, doctor! He never saw me though I could have touched him while ho -was passing; but 1 would not because I thought he had finished Durivage. Morgan then went on and described the man with a minuteness that as tonished me. He did it so well I thought I could see him before me, and at tile end of his story he declared his intention of repeating his adven ture to no one else, not even in the interests of justice. '"lf he gets well, he'll marry An nie," said Morgan, savagely, "and if he dies, let him rot without being avenged!" I watched Durivage closely for ten days. I could see that the secret poison was at work, and the case was a queer study that opened up to me a new field for investigation. During those ten days the wounded man seemed to suffer a thousand deaths. On the afternoon of the eleventh day I was hurried over to the house by the butler, who said that Durivage was writing on the wall before his cot. At the foot of the stair we were met by the nurse, who with blanched face cried that all was over. Bounding up the flight two steps at a time, I rushed into tho bedroom and found Durivage lying on his face on the floor. "You should have seen and heard him," said the frightened servant. "He awoke and called at the top of his voice for a pencil. Iran and got him one, thrusting it into his hand when I came back. As his fingers closed on it he laughed like a fiend, and rising in bed, wrote what you see on the wall yonder, and then fell back and writhed till he pitched out upon the floor. Before this I was at the cot and with burning eyes was looking—nay star ing—at the writing on the wall. "K'AA—K'AA—K'AA." Here was another mystery. "What did he say after that?" I asked, turning to the two servants, while I pointed to the writing on the wall. "Ho pronounced three times some thing that sounded like idle' or 'Kala haetlwe,' " was the nurse's answer. "Before I could reach him he was dead." I was more than ever mystified. I have never heard of the written or spoken words. They were all "Greek" to me, but I felt that they were con nected with the awful death Brant Durivage had died. During the next few days there ran through my mind nothing but "K'aa, K'aa, K'aa." I had the nurse repeat "Kala haetlwe" until I had mastered it, and until I left the Shropshire village and located in London, an event in my career which took place a year later, I did not let the singular words escape me. During this period Steve Morgan did not go back to Annie. He wrote me that he would not do so until the mys tery conected with Durivage's death was solved, and I felt that the solu tion would never come and bring the two young hearts together. One evening I was called to attend a man who had been run over by a butcher's cart near the Strand. He had been carried to his lodgings near by. and lay bloody and gasping on a rallet of dingy rags. The moment I saw the man a strange thrill took pos ssion of me, and I rccallej Steve Morgan's description of the owner of the poisoned arrow. When I had dressed the wounds made by the heavy wheels of the cart, and had my patient sitting up, with a hot drink before him and his leng dark Angers encircling the glass. 1 asked him who and what he was. "I'm a Bushman," said he with a chuckle, and then, seeing the look of disbelief that I exhibited, ho went on: "You don't think so? I can prove it. Look here." He leaned toward his pallet, and to my utter astonishment took from beneath the pillow of rags a bow and two arrows. 1 could not repress a cry of amazement, and did not try. The dark-faced little man was hold ing the arrows toward me, and I could see that they were exactly like tho one which had killed Brant Durivage. "I had three, but I lost one "orae time ago." continued my patient. "Where did I lose it? Never mind that, doctor. I could go back to the spot, but I will not. Ho, ho. He knew what it was all the time. My little arrows are more dangerous than they look. I prick your hand with one, and all your skill cannot save your life. The marurn tree grows no where but among the Bojesmen, the little men of South Africa. It looks like your elm. but it has many thorns. Its leaves are the homes of the grub that builds house's like the silkworm. When we want poison for our arrows we take a grub between thumb and finger, and make it shed its greenish fluids upon the ivory head of the shaft. That is all. The marurn grub i3 death. How does the victim lie, 'eh? He writhes in agony. He be comes a giant in his madness. He has few lucid intervals. It is terrible, ho, ho!" I was holding one of the arrows in my hands. "What do you call your poison?" I asked, looking up into his face, which had the leer of a fiend incarnate. "K'aa, answered the little man, with a laugh. Some people call it N'gwa, but K'aa is its name." I was calm now. "And its antidote?" I said. "We seldom tell that it has one,*' grinned the stranger. "But I'll tell you, doctor. The antidote is 'Kala haetlwe,' the product of a small plant that in our country beats little star shaped flowers." The man on the pallet allowed his gaze to wander from my face to the arrows. He seemed to be rejoicing in spirit over some stirring event. "Your lost arrow is in my office," 1 said, fixing my eyes on the man."l took the ivory head from Brant Durl vage's back. I now know why he wrote 'K'aa, K'aa!' on the wall and died crying 'Kala haetlwe.' " The man from South Africa fell back, and regarded me with gaping mouth. "Why didn't he let me alone in my love affair?" he exclaimed. I tol.l him that if he took Mina away from mo, I'd follow him all over the world with my arrow tipped with K'aa. He would not take my warning, and 1 was forced to keep my word. Did he die hard, doctor?" The next day I wrote Steve Morgan down in Shropshire all about my startling discovery, and when I sent an officer to look after my patient he was found to have gashed his throat with one of his own arrows, and in an hour was dead. In course of time. I am pleased to relate, Steve and An nie became man and wife, but I am told that for many years on the wall of a certain room in Shropshire was to be seen this singular thrilling in scription: K'AA!—K'AA—K'AA! " —The Home Magazine. QUAINT AND CURIOUS. A man should weigh 26 pounds foi every foot of his height. Mozart holds the record of having written G24 compositions. A New York assemblyman has in« troduced in the legislature a bill mak ing it a misdemeanor to "flirt on a public thoroughfare." In ISB2 the speed record on a high bicycle was 20 miles in an hour and 12 minutes. Behind a motor pacer a rider has recently covered 40 miles in an hour. The skin of the muskox, which is a denizen of the "Barren Grounds" and the Arctic region of Canada, has tak en the place of that of the extinct buffalo for sleigh robes. It varies in price from SSO to as low as $5 for a poor article. An immense geyser has been discow ered in Rotomahona, New Zealand. It covers an area an acre in extent and constantly throws columns of water to vast heights, some of them ascending 300 feet, with clouds of steam which go much higher. The lowa supreme court has again fixed the limit of value that may be placed on a man's leg at SBOOO. In a similar case some years ago the lowa supreme court decided that a verdict for $12,000 was excessive, and that it should be cut down to SBOOO. The telephone exchange of Cleves land, 0., has instituted an information bureau, from which subscribers may ask and receive whatever knowledge they wish that can be supplied from a large reference library. During the six months of its operation it is said to have demonstrated its value and to be a pattern that might be followed in other cities. Seven miles west of Connellsvillk, Pa., a portion of an Indian mound has been uncovered and innumerable in teresting relics have been found. A baby's remains had a necklace of beads made out of curiously wrought deer horns. Strangely-shaped pipes, many arrow heads, sandstone wheels, which are supposed to have been used by the aborigines for the making of stone implements; marine shells and many other trinkets were also found. The Longniit Stone Arcli Bridge. The work upon the great stone an h bridge whicn is being erected by tlie Pennsylvania railroad across the Sus quehanna river at Rockville, about iivc miles above Harrisburg, is rapidly ncaring completion. The masonry work of the bridge, consisting of 48 70-foot spans, has been completed, and the contractors are now putting the asphalt covering over the arches. When this is completed the work of filling in, grading and ballasting will be begun and the four tracks put down. Work upon this, the longest stone arch railroad bridge in the world, was begun less than two years ago.— Philadelphia Record THE MYSTIC KINSHIP. Not a thing that lives and move* But the mystic kinship proves; In the deep, the blue above. All the mid-air ways along-r Hark ! the same eternal song Hinging on the lips of Love. J! ur ' °' stream and twirl of leaf— -1 nere the voice ot joy and grief, Love's divine, undying art. Waving grass and swaying tree, Swinging of the star and sea— 'Tis the beating of thy heart, —Thomas Hardy. HUMOROUS. Sillicus —All the world's a stag*. Cynieus—And all the men and women merely kickers. Blobbs—How did your friend, the weather prophet, lose all his money? Slobbs—Betting on his own predic tions. Nell—She's so deceitful! Don't vou think so? Belle—Well, I certainly hate to have to listen to her "voice of con science." Mrs. Muggins—Mrs. Bjones is al ways having trouble with her ser vants. Mrs. Buggins—Yes; they either refuse to stay or refuse to go. Mr. Botts —I think, my dear, I have at last found the key to success. Mrs. Botts—Well, just as like as not you'll not be able to find the keyhole. "Her little boy aas such a manly way about him." "Yes, I noticed when I was there the other day that he found fault with what they had to eat." "There is always room at the top," said the Good Adviser. "Indeed, yes," answered the Unfortunate Person, "but the elevator is not always running." Hook —Bjones is the most melan choly fellow I know. Nye—That's right. He proposed to a girl once by asking her how she would like to be his widow. "Is he a golf enthusiast?" "Oh, no. He pretends to be, but he isn't." "How do you know?" "Why, he gives i;p playing when the thermometer gets down to zero." "He never washes his hands." "Non sense!" "No; it's a fact." "Then he's a crank, eh?" Not at all. He saya it would take too long. He employs 200 in his mill." Tommy—Pop, a husband and wife are one, aren't they? Tommy's Pop- So we are told, my son. Tommy— Then it doesn't always take two to make a quarrel, does it? Con. C. Tedbore —Really, I'm getting to be very absent-minded of late. Miss Kostique—l can hardly believe that. An absent-minded man is ono who for gets himself, is he not? Photographer—Look pleasant, gen eral. Remember this picture is for your friends. The General —A suldier should have no friends, sir. This pic ture is for my enemies to look at. Teacher —Why were you not at school yesterday? Willie Green — It was my birthday. Teacher—l don't stay home on my birthday. Willie Green —Well, I guess you've got used to 'em. Miss Upton—Did you tell him that I was not at home? New Servant—Yes, mum; but lie didn't seem to belie/e me, bein' as I'm a stranger. Mebby you'd better go, down and tell him yourself, mum. "This is tough luck," said Ham, mournfully, as he leaned out over the side of the ark. "What's wrong now?" queried Shem. "Why, all this watar to fish in," repliel Ham, "and only two fishin' worms on board." THE VAN ISHINC LOBSTER. in Spite of All Ktt'orlfi tin; Deurtli Stil) Continue*. The annual report of a dearth in lobster fisheries has made its appear ance reinforced by the United States fish commissioner who reports that each year it becomes more difficult tc obtain lobster eggs along the New England coast. This decrease is most noticeable south of Cape Cod. Meas ures for the protection or ostensibly designed for the protection of lobster fisheries are an established feature of annual legislation on the North At lantic seaboard. In 1899 the Maine legislature reduced the penalty for the taking of "short lobsters" from $5 tr $1 and New York diminished the pen alty in the same year. In 1900 ivlassa chusetts adopted a law prohibltini lobsters from being caught in the waters within or adjacent to that state by any one not having been a resident of it for one year, and the same legis lature made it unlawful to sell, or tc have on hand, a lobster of less thar. 10 1-2 inches long. Virginia adoptee a law authorizing the board of fish eries, on petition of 50 citizens, to la> off shoals or rocks for erabbin grounds, and South Carolina adopte a statute for regulating the catch, sal* export and canning of clams, oystefs and lobsters. The two states which have adopted the most comprehensivt and stringent methods for the regula tion of deep water fisheries are Mary land and New Jersey. Massachusetti and Virginia have followed, while Ne> York and Connecticut have fewei though New York is the great lobste consuming constituency of the Unite States and probably .of the world. Although 00,000,000 lobster egf were planted in New England wate the lobster dearth still continues i consequence of a constantly enlargii demand. High prices are the rule an recourse has been had to the wate of the Pacific coast as a source of a< ditional supply and the propagatk of lobsters there is said to have bee attended thus far with groat succes A Klondike baker who has bet burned out three times and lost whole cargo of coal has neverthelc cleared $20,000 in three years.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers