THE MEYERSDALE
COMMERCIAL, MEYERSDALE, PA.
LOVE LINKED WITH DEATH.
In Tucopia Girls Propose Marriage and
Mest Dis if Rejected.
In the Pacific ocean between Fiji
New Guinea, New Caledonia and the
continent of Australia lies the Melane-
glan group of islands, where head hunt.
ers and cannibals abound. Although
strange and grewsome are many of the
customs of the tribes, there are some
that are most romantic. For instance,
on the island of Tucopia the women
propose marriage instead of the men.
When a girl of Tucopia sees a man
whom she thinks she would like to
have for her husband she does not rush
up to him and ask him to marry her.
On the contrary, she gives the subject
deep thought and often the man a most
careful investigation before she '*pops
the question.” The reason is that his
answer spells life or death to her,
It is a tribal law that any woman
who has been refused must forthwith
kill herself. Therefore a woman asks
a man’s hand only when she feels sure
that his answer will be the happy one.
Many are the strange and seemingly
- inexplicable questions with which the
women of Tucopia ply the stranger,
who cannot realize the personal mo-
tive back of the solicitude of the dusky
belles who inquire if he is married or
not and the state of his wife’s bealth.
Romances are consequently very apt
to turn out in happy marriage.
But there have been innumerable in.
stances when a poor girl, smitten by
the newcomer’s charms; has been com-
pelled to kill herself because the man |
with whom she has fallen in love has !
had to refuse to marry her.
Baldness with the women of Tucopia
is a sign of beauty, and never until she
is bald does a Tucopia woman become
fully convinced that she is really love.
ly. But bald or not she takes great
care whom she asks to marry her, for
the tribal law has never been known
to fail. If a rejected woman does not
kill herself she is executed by the lead-
ers of the tribe.—Pearson’s.
RED MONDAY IN PETROGRAD.
One Scene of the Revolt That Ended
the Romanoff Dynasty.
Bullets flew in the streets of Petro-
grad one Monday during the revolution
which overthrew the Romanoffs. A
British nurse, telling Londoners of her |
experiences in the Russian capital on
“Red Monday,” says of one scene:
“lI saw in the streets a wonderful
procession of revelutionists, the van-
guard of the brave liberators of Rus-
sia. The soldier patrici: in their gray
coats, on foot and in i. iorcars, were
going down the strect ia a steady, or-
derly manner, protec ing a crowd. of
starving men, wom. wii ¢hildrén who
were walking in t- center of the pro-
cession. At their bead was a band
playing the ‘Marseillaise’ and a large
red flag borne aloft.
“As the procession neared the Hotel
Moscow,” where the Nevsky begins,
there was a sudden outburst of fierce
firing from above, and the soldiers and
women and children fell to the ground
and the street soon became a sham-
bles. The firing was from machine
guns controlled by the police, who were
in ambush on the roof of the hotel and
who tried to bring about a wholesale
slaughter of the people.
“It was astonishing how self possess-
ed the crowd was in the face of this
* murderous attack. I saw the soldiers
who had not fallen immediately enter
‘the hotel and make their way to the
roof, where they shot the cowardly po-
lice, captured the machine guns and
brought them down to the street.”
Lending Money.
“And now, my son,” said the old
man, “I must give you a bit of parting
advice.”
“Yes, dad,”
man patiently.
“Never lend money to a friend.”
“What, never?’
“No, never.”
answered the young
“But why? Surely some friends are
honest?”
“Undoubtedly. But if you lend
money and try to get it back you will
be called a tightwad, and if you lend
money and don’t try to get it back you
will be called an easy mark.”—Cleve-
land Plain Dealer.
Stepniak as Prophet.
A correspondent of the Manchester
Guardian in England records an inter-
esting statement made by Stepniak,
the great Russian revolutionary, which
is worth quoting. When he first met
Stepniak, in 1889, the writer says, he
asked what real prospeet there was of
any revolution in Russia. The reply
was: “A great European war will be
our chance. It will show the bureau-
cracy to be quite ineapable of manag-
ing the affairs of the nation in a cri-
sis.” ;
Efficiency.
Efficiency is no new invention; it is
as old as intelligence itself. None re-
alize efficiency so completely as the
ereative genius—our Darwins, Farg-
days, Edisons and Fords—and none so
completely practice and exemplify
working explosively. Genius itseif, we
are told, is the capability for taking
infinite pains.—Willlam H. Smith in
Industrial Management.
Good Advice.
“What did the doctor say when Tom
shot off some of his digits fooling with
a loaded pistol?”
“He thoughtfully told him he should
remember that fingers are good things
always to keep on hand.”—San Fran-
cisco Chronicle.
Making It Worse.
“Did you try counting sheep for your
insomnia ?”’
“Yes, but
it only made matters
worse—the sheep reminded me of my
butcher's bill.”
—Boston Transcript.
i like a dog, and this misery he endured
‘not got thier and should make an al-
OLD JAIL HORRORS
i
When Imprisonment For Debt
Was the Law of the Land.
TORTURE FOR ITS VICTIMS.
Poor Wretches Unable to Pay the Tri-
fle They Owed Were Flung Into Pris-
on to Starve to Death Unless Res-
cued by Charity or Their Creditors.
In the early part of the last century
there was started an earnest effort to
entirely abolish or at least to regulate
the old colony law of imprisonment
for debt. The movers in this abolish-
ment felt that no class of the commu-
nity deserved consideration more.
Jt had been the inhuman rule that
for the smallest debt possible to con-
tract, though it were but a cent in
value, the body of the debtor, whether
man or woman, would be seized bx
the creditor and cast into jail.
Each year poor wretches had been
dragged to prison by thousands on
what were truly called “spite actions.”
Once behind the prison walls they were
consigned to a fate harder than that
which awaited worse criminals. :
Murderers and thieves, forgers and :
counterfeiters, real criminals of all
kinds, were fed, clothed and cared for
at the expense of the state, but for
the unhappy rian whose cay
was his inability to pay a trifling sum
of a few cents no such provision was
made. The food he ate, the shreds that
covered him, the medicine he tooiz—
nay, the very rags he wrapped about
his sores—were provided, if provided
at all, by his friends, by the public or
by some humane society.
he room in which he was confined
with scores of other offenders was ut-
terly without furniture of any sort.
In it were neither beds, nor tables, nor
chairs. nor so much as a bench or
stool. He sat on the floor. ate off the
tioor and at night lay to sleep on it
siende
until Ife died or his debt was paid or
hig creditor released him.
Aoeinst this at length humanity re-
volted, and in 1794 a change for the
better was ordered. It was stipulated
(hat the insnector should provide fuel
and blanke's for sueh debtors as. by
reason of their dire property, could
lowance of 7 cents a day for food and
charge this aguinst the creditors. If
any creditor refused to pay after ten
days’ motice his debtor. was to be dis-
charged.
I'or twenty-two years the communi-
ty seemed to have thought that this
niild concession was all that humanity
required, for no further change was
made until 1814. Then was passed,
the “bréad act” inder which each pris- |
oner whose debt did not exceed $15
was entitled to a discharge after an
imprisonment of thirty days.
From documents. presented to the
senate of New York in 1817 it appears
that the keeper of the debtors’ jail in
New York city certified that during
1816 1.984 debtors were confined and
that upward of 600 were always in the
prison. The sheriff of the county cer-
tified that 1,129 were imprisoned for
debt under $50, that of these 729 owed
less than $25 and that every one of
them would have starved to death but
for the assistance of the Humane so-
ciety.
One man remained, it was noted. in
the New York jail for three years, who
was only indebted to the extent of $50.
before death ended his misery and
during the entire time was fed by the
Humane society. Anothér unfortunate
had been imprisoned six years and
was supported by charity. In the face
of such striking evidence the legisla-
ture of New York state relented and
in 1817 forbade the imprisonment of
debtors for sums less than $25. This
Ted the ‘way. and state after state fol-
lowed.
When the new states in the west
framed their constitutiens they order-
ed that no one should be imprisoned
for debt. The old statute was finally
stricken from the laws of the eastern
states until today none of our states
has a law requiring that a debt is
punishable by imprisonment, unless it
has been contracted under some fraud-
ulent misrepresentation.—Philadelphia
Press. >
When Death Cools His Sting.
There is a curious superstition in
Jamaica that if a death ceccurs in the
house all the water in it is poisoned at
once and must be thrown away, the
reason given beinz that Death cools
his “sting” a ter destroying life in the
first water he finds, and as no one can
tell—death being invisible—what jar he
may choose it is safest to throw it all
away. Careful people to save. trouble
even carry all water out of the house
immediately before a death is expected.
Imitation Marble.
If by any chance you should happen
to be admiring some very fine carved
marble it would not strike you that the
so called marble might easily be saw-
dust. Wonderful imitations of valua-
ble woods and marbles have been made
from sawdust, and even experts have
been deceived at first sight. Spirit.
too, can be made from sawdust.
Pretty Close.
Genevieve—Do. you carry Fred's pic-
ture in your wrist watch?
Mabelle—Certainly I do.
“Well, my dear, that comes pretty
close to wearing your heart on your
sleeve, doesn’t it?'—St. Louis Post-
Dispatch.
It is less pain to learn in yeuth than
to be ignorant in age.
PRONOUNCING WORDS.
A Test and a Flippant Fling at the
Critic and His Theory.
Comes now another to trouble us in
these days when the wayfarer has al-
ready enough bothers to keep him from
lingering overlong in his humble re-
pose. It is a man who has discovered
that there are 25,000 English words
more or less commonly mispronounced
and who would show us how to rescue
ourselves from the disgrace.
By way of illustration he challenges
all couiers to try to pronounce offhand
such words as actinism, archimandrite,
batman, beaufin, bourgeois, brevier,
buoy, demy, fugleman, fusil, oboe, row-
lock, tassel, vase and velleity. He in-
timates that anybody who can give
them all correctly can qualify as a .300
hitter in the pronunciation league, but .
still has a long way to go before he
reaches perfection.
But what of it? An oboe sounds as
* sweet whether one calls it an oh-bow
or an oh-boy. If the writer of this
article told his printer to set it in boor-
zhwah type the printer probably would
call a w:eeilag of the chapel and insist
on a sirike tote. You can call it a vase
or vawne, i,ut it takes a dime to get it
filled, where it used to cost only 5
cents. As to demy and velleity, most
of us have :ot along very well for a
good many ears without writing or
speaking either of them and hope to
struggle alonz the same way at least
until we have a little rest from worry
over the hil cost of potatoes.
The har¢est thing about it is to de-
sriine which of several schools of
pronunciation is most desirable—the
London, the Melbourne, the Canadian,
the Texas, the Massachusetts, the Ala
bama, the: Georuia or the Missouri.
Moreover, if 25.6.0 words are mispro-
nounced most of us are democratic
enough to let {he majority rule and be
willing to make it unanimous. — Ft.
Louis Post-Dispateh,
AMERICA AWHEEL.
The Case of Pippkins Willi Do to llus-
trate the Point.
“My neighbor, Pippkins, has changed
his manner of vacation,” declares Ed-
ward Hungerford in Everybody's. “In
other years his annual outing was a
rather portentous affair. The family
began to plan it some months in ad-
vance. There were railroad and
steamboat and hotel booklets on the
library table. When the time came
Mrs. Pippkins and the girls went to a
huge wooden hotel on the edge of a
lake. They dressed three times a day.
When Pippkins ran down on one Fri-
day of each fortnight he boarded a
het, dusty, overcrowded train and rode
for five uncomfortable hours. They
insisted that he don a Tuxedo each
evening for dinner. He used to won-
der if the game was quite worth the
candle,
“Today there are no such doubts in |
Pippkins’ mind. He has a car—so have
four-fifths of the families in our quiet !
street. Pippkins caught the fever ear-
ly in the game. Today he is a veteran
and hardened motorist. He talks
earnestly and learnedly of gears and
of transmission, and he is superlative-
ly critical of every car except his own.
1 might write a story upon how that
car and its predecessors in the Pipp-
kins family have changed their very
soul, but this is not the time nor place.
Sufficient is it to say that Pippkins is
now a motor expert, and Dr. King
down at our corner says that Pippkins
has grown ten years younger.
“Mrs. Pippkins and the girls have all
but forgotten when they have been on
a railroad train in summer. They live
in the family car. 8
“Multiply Pippkins all the way
across the face of the land, and you
begin to have a definite berceptjon of
America awheel.”
A Pie Without Flour or Lard.
Two and one-half cupfuls cold boiled
rice, one-half cupful sugar, one-half
cupful milk, one egg, one teaspoonful
butter, a pinch of salt, grated nutmex
or flavoring to taste, fruit. Brush a
pie plate with butter and spread the
rice even on the plate. Beat half the
sugar, the egg, milk, salt and flavoring
together and pour over the rice. Cover
top with halves of canned peaches or
stewed dried peaches and sprinkle the
rest of sugar over the fruit. Put in
moderate oven and bake thirty-five
minutes.
Any fruit can be used, either fresh,
canned or dried stewed fruit—Mrs.
Anna B. Scott in Philadelphia North
American.
He Liked It.
Jock Russell was a farm servant.
One day when Mrs, Brown, the farm-
er’s wife, went into the milk house she
found Jock down on his knees before
a milk pan, skimming the cream off
with his finger and putting it in his
mouth.
“Oh, Jock, Jock,” she exclaimed, “I
don’t like that!”
“Ah, wumman,” replied Jock, “ye
dinna ken whit’'s guid for ye.”—Pear-
son’s Weekly.
They Get Busy.
“I suppose a great many ask for in-
formation who have no idea of taking
a train?”
“Yes,” said the weary official. “When
some people spy a free bureau of in-
formation there’s a strong temptation
to stock up.”—Kansas City Journal.
Literature.
“Dasher your favorite author? Why,
he doesn’t average one short story a
year.”
“That's why he's my favorite au-
thor.”’—Puck.
It is better to say, “This one thing I
do” than to say, “These forty things I
dabble in.”
the passage of the food bill.
duced in the future.
PRICE OF COAL
10 BE LOWERED
Action by Government This
Week Is Expected
PRODUCTION POOL IS PLAN
Alleged Profits Ranging From $1.35 a
Ton on Anthracite to $5 a Ton on
Bituminous Too High.
A reduction of coal prices to con-
sumers is soon promised. It is
likely to be general throughout the
country and will be a direct result of
The first
definite move which the administra-
tion will make in regard to price fix-
ing will be coal.
icy is looked for this week.
The food law contains provisions
which empower the president through |
the federal trade commission to:
“Fix the price of coal wherever sold |
and to establish rules for its produc- |
tion, shipment and distribution.
“To take over the plant of any deal- |
er who refuses to conform to such!
prices and operate it for the govern-
ment.”
As an alternative plan the presi |
dent through the trade eommissios |
can require all producers of coal in ;
the country or those of any particular
‘areas, if conditions are deemed to war-
rant it, to sell their product to the
government, which through some
agency to be designated—probably the
trade commission—can then sell the
coal to the people at prices fixed by
the government. These prices are io
be based upon a “fair and just profit
over and above the cost of produc-
-tion,” as determined by the commis-
sion.
The commission which is conduct
ing an investigation into the coal situ.
ation issued a statement as follows:
_ “Barring increased wages to mine
labor present prices of anthracite at
the mines will not increase beyond the
normal 10 cents a ton Sept. 1, which
will bring prices up to the winter ¢ir-
cular levevl. Any proposed increase
in anthracite prices greater .than 10
cents a ton on Sept. 1 is, therefore,
totally unjust. Present indications are
that bituminous prices will be re-
Further indul-
gence in high prices and excessive
margins, on the part of dealers of
‘Washington or of other cities can be
regarded only as an open declaration
of a policy of ‘profiteering” on the
part of dealers.”
The statement was issued after a
heated session between the commis-
© sion and representative Washington
coal dealers, whose profits, in the opin-
ion of the commission, based on the
dealers’ own figures, have been exces-
sive on both bituminous and anthra-
cite in the last few months,
According to the figures gross
profits on bituminous sometimes were
as high as $5 a ton and the net profits
on anthracite were $1.25 to $1.35 a.
ton.
The pooling plan in the food law is
largely a result of the trade commis-
sion’s recent report to congress. In
that report it said that equitable dis-
tribution and stable prices cculd only
be secured by pooling coal and coke
production in the hands of the gov:
ernment.
“If the producer at each mine were
paid his full cost of production, with
allowance for depletion, maintenance,
upkeep and all the usual items, and io
this were added a fixed and uniform
net profit per ton, with due regard to
quality, the coal thus produced at
widely varying costs, if pooled, could
be sold through the government at an
average and uniform price, quality
considered, which would be entirely
tolerable to the consuming public and
a price much lower than could be
fixed if an effort were made to fix a
uniform price to the producer.”
The pooling of all coal in this coun-
try in the hands of the government, in
the opinion of some members of the
commission, will be the most accept
able form of price regulation. It is
held that it can be put into effect
within a few weeks after the commis:
sion’s investigation into the cost of
production is announced. It is con-
tended that it would result in immedi.
ately reducing prices to consumers on
their winter supply.
Some members of the administra:
tion believe that by securing a reduc-
tion in coal prices for the publi¢ be-
fore the winter sets in through resort
to this provision of the food law the
president will range public sentiment
solidly behind him in whatever he
may attempt in other directions along
the line of price regulation.
May Be Coal Probe In Pittsburgh.
That war pledges have been broken
by some coal companies in the Pitts-
burgh district and that exorbitant
prices being asked are about to be in-
vestigated by special agents of the
federal trade commission or the Na-
tional Defense Council has been ru-
mored in Pittsburgh during the past!
Numerous complaints are .
few days.
reported to have been sent to Wash-
ington because some companies are
not adhering to the prices agreed to
at the conference before the federal
trade commission in Washington on
June 26. Because of the reported ac-
tions of some of the companies, it has
been pointed out that under the pro-
visions of the food act the mines can
be cmmandeered by the president.
Action that will!
reveal clearly the government's pol: ;
Head of Chautauqua Light Opera
Company Famous In Stage World
J. K. MURRAY AS GEOFFREY WILDER.
R. MURRAY during his long career before the public in opera has been
M ‘connected with some of the most famous operatic organizations. He
has been associated with Francis Wilson, De Wolf Hopper and practi-
cally all of the other stars. He starred for a time in Irish drama and played
in Hoyt’'s “A Tin Soldier,” “Nanon” and many other pieces. His great fame,
as well as that of Mrs. Murray (Clara Lane), lies in the fact that they prac-
tically made the noted Castle Square Opera Company of Boston. They were
engaged to head the company when it was at its lowest ebb, and through their
efforts it was brought to the high standard which it afterward attained.
For the past two seasons he has sung the leading male part in “Sari” un-
der the management of Henry W. Savage. “Sari” ix one of the most popular
and successful light oneras which has been put on the stage in several years,
and Mr. Murray's excellent work contributed in no stall part to its success.
Mr. Murray was born in Liverpool, England, but is a true American in
every sense of the word. Both he and Mrs, Murray are delichtful people as
well as sing r< of hizh merit. They are prominent in the cast of the light ,
opera “Dorctay,” to be given at the local Chautauqua. :
—.
PR
@ 3) /
Let the Long Blue Chimney Do Your Cooking
HERE'S no need to burn up your strength'over kitchen drudgery,
T It takes energy to cook meals, but it ought to be heat energy,
not human energy.
You don’t do all your own cooking on the New Perfection—the Long
Blue Chimney does it for you.
No coaling up, no shaking down; no soot, no ashes, no fussing.
Visible flame always—steady ways. Easy to light and cooks fast or
slow as you like. The stove of steady habits. In more than 2,500,000
homes.
Come in and see the new reversible glass reservoir, a new fea-
ture that makes the New Perfection better than ever.
Moliersdale Hardware 00
BALTIMORE & OHIO
SEASHORE EXCURSIONS
FROM MEYERSDALE, PA, TO
Ablantic OIL
CAPE MAY, SEA ISLE CITY, OCEAN CITY,
STONE HARBOR, WILDWOOD :
AUGUST 9 and 23, SEPTEMBER 6
' TICKETS GOOD RETURNING 16 DAYS
Secure Illustrated Booklet Giving Full Details From Ticket
Agents, Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. 30-34
)YAL
BAKING POWDER
Absolutely Pura
No Alum —No Phosphate
$8.50
Good in Coaches Only
$10.50
Good in Pullman Cars
With Pullman Ticket
wn Tol
——
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2 ni
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