DANCING'S FINE HID, Pittsbi'rg Woman Describes the Value of Beautiful Thoughts. SAYS SOUL MUST BE REACHED Miss Margaret THuma Tells National Dance Experts Why Lofty Ideas Are Pillars of Exquisite Dancing—Quips of Skeptic From St. Joseph, Mo. Beautiful thoughts! These are the pillars of exquisite dancing. One must possess them before otie can properly 1 "Merry Widow" waltz or even buck and wins. This sweet truth was grav- ! en the other day in the minds of the delegates to the third session of the twenty-fifth annual convention of the I National Association of Dancing Mas ters which was held in Chicago. Miss Margaret Thuma, a dancing instructor well known in Pittsburg, was the lec- | turer. She soon proved that the city of smoke is the core of tilings aesthet- ! ic. She drilled her follows in ways of j dancing instruction that few ever | dreamed of before. Miss Thuma main- J talned first and foremost that one must | entertain beautiful thoughts before one j can do beautiful dances. Then she told I them how to have ornnte ideas. Miss Tliunia, arrayed in becoming i and close fitting black, stood before I her auditors in a position statuesque, j Iler arms slowly and majestically were j lifted upward until the limp fingers j touched above her pompadour. She : calls It a "mental circle." Her eyelids i closed dreamily, and in musical ac-' cents she delivered her tenet from Pittsburg. "To dance in a way that is lovely j and harmonious one must reach the j soul." she said. "The soul responds j with its flow of personal magnetism, and it is then registered at the brain, J which is, as you must understand, the | seat of all intelligence." "How true!" murmured several fem- j inine hearers. "Then the mind, or, as I might say, the mental force, gives out this soul | feeling," continued Miss Thuma in i softer tones. "When this has lieen. | done we will have completed the true | harmony of the soul." "Isn't it lovely?" whispered a slender j girl to her masculine neighbor. "Great!" said the man, who repre- j sented St. Joseph, Mo. Miss Thuma, as If In heavenly rap- | ture, went on: "Force generates different elements i In man. Mental force is related to the | mind. All spiritual force is related to i the heart. Hut, remember, life force i is the inner atmosphere of ourselves. | When we have fully cultivated the soul we multiply personal magnetism, j although I prefer to call it soul mag netism." "It must be a help in a barn dance," | muttered the man from St. Joseph, Mo. ] "1 have one line of thought which I call *A Vision In a Garden Fair.'" said ! Miss Thuma, all oblivious. "One may I imagine one is meeting Apollo in a' garden of Eden or one may picture the j tete-a-tete of Romeo and Juliet. She is In a balcony, we may conjure, and i he calls to her. She Is apprised of his ; presence here. Then it is his heart to j hers and finally his lips to hers." "I wonder if Missouri would stand ! for it." said the man from St. Joseph. : "I have still other modes of thougVt i which must l>e absorbed by the I dancer," said Miss Thuma. "There is j the 'Vision of the Accursed,' in which | the reviled one is groping onward, on- ; ward in Stygian darkness. Then there 1 is the 'Vision of the Graces,' a kaleido- j scope of flitting, blending goddesses, j with garlands intwined. All this, my friends, will tend to give you complete ! control of the centers mental, physical j and emotional, and finally you will j have attained the true grace of luind." A patter, a refined and delicate pat- j ter, of applause vignetted Miss Thu- I ma's address; then a bunch of the men ! got up and jigged about to see if their emotional centers had rusted. Miss Thuma lined up all the other { dancing teachers and showed them how to net out the soul stuff. She had | them raise their right hands and nod ! the palms gently to waltz time. Then they were ordered to sway their left hands gently attuned to the piano. >iext the forearms were brought into play. Gradually, almost imperceptibly. Miss Thuma coaxed her pupils into mo tions that grew more and more stren uous. At length the affair became a hopping, dipping, swinging ordeal that was neither soulful nor pleasant for the stout men. Once she bad them pose as Mercury. I)ld you ever see a -!0<) pounder imitate Mercury? When it was all finished the party was still iu an unsoulful mood. This was proved when I*n '< ■ Sampson, the general instructor roposed to teach them a new baiut step. The men demurred. "Aw, show us the buck and wing!" they shouted. And so It came to pass. Generous Mrs. Crewe. A gambling story is told of Charles James Fox that rather reflects on his honor. lie was one of the ardent ad mirers of Mrs. Crewe, a noted beauty of lier day, and it is related that a gen tleman lost a considerable sum to this j lady at play and, being obliged to i leave town suddenly, gave Mr. Fox the money to pay her, begging htm to apol ogize to lier for Ills not having paid the debt of honor in person. Fox lost i every shilling of it before morning. ; Mrs. Crewe often met the supposed j debtor afterward and, surprised that j he never noticed the circumstances, at | length delicately hinted the matter to j him. "Bless me!" said he."l paid the j money to Mr. ♦ s -->n months ago." > "Oh, did you, sli oul j Mrs. Crewe | good naturedly. "Then probably he paid me, and I forgot It." Tommy Spoke. Jlinister—lf any one present can show cause why this couple should not become man and wife, let him speak now or forever hold his peace. Tommy —I kin, mister. He thinks aunty's only twenty-flve, and she's forty. Economy may be the road to wealth, but nine-tenths of those who are com pelled to travel it never reach the goal. —Chicago News. WARDED B* DESERTS What These Sandy Wastes Mean to Mother Earth. A DEATH GRIP ON THE WORLD They indicate the Beginning of the End of Our Beautiful Planet, Which Is Doomed to Roll Through Space a Parched and Lifeless Orb. Deserts already exist on the earth, ! and the nameless horror that attaches to the word in the thoughts of all who i have had experience of them or are i gifted with imagination to conceive is | in truth greater than we commonly i suppose, for the cosmic circumstance ! about them which is most terrible is j uot that deserts are, but that deserts have begun to be. Not as local evita ble evils are they only to be pictured, but as the general inescapable death i grip on our world, for it is tlio begin ! ning of the end. What depauperates ! the forests to grass lauds and thence to j wastes must in turn attack tlie sea bot toms when they shall have parted with their seas. Last of the ftrtlle spots upon the j planet because of the salts the streams have for ages washed down and of the j remnant of moisture that would still j drain into them, eventually they must ' share the fortune of their predecessors j and the planet roll a parched orb | through space. The picture is forbid I ding, but the fact seems one to which 1 we are constructively pledged and Into j which we are iu some sort already ad [ ventured. Girdling the earth with what it takes j but little personification to liken to the ! life extinguishing serpent's coils run ! two desert belts of country. The one ] follows, roughly sneaking, the tropic of Cancer, extending northward from it; I the other, the tropic of Capricorn. Arl- I zona is in the northern band, as are the ■ Sahara, Arabia and the deserts of cen- I tral Asia. | Now, these desert belts are growing, j In the great desert of northern Arizona i the traveler, threading his way across I a sagebrush and cacti plain shut in by | abrupt sided shelves of land rising here ! and tnere some hundreds of feet high er, suddenly comes upon a petrified for est. j Trunks of trees In all stages of frac ture strew the ground over a space | some tulles in extent. So perfect are ! their forms he is almost minded to i think the usual wasteful woodcliopper i has been by and left the scattered | products of his art In littered confu ! slon upon the scene of Ills exploit Only their beautiful color conveys a | sense of strangeness to tlie eye, and, | leaning down and touching them, he finds that they are—stone; chalcedony, j not carbon! Form has outlived 6ub ] stance and kept the resemblance, while | tlie particles of the original matter have all lieen spirited away. Vet so | perfect is the presentment one can j hardly believe the fact, and where one | fallen giant spans a little canyon one ! almost thinks to hear the sound of wa ter rushing down the creek. ! But it is some millions of years and more since this catastrophe befell, and 1 the torrent, uprooting it, left it prone, j with limbs outstretched in futile grasp j upon the other side. A conifer it was, | cousin only to such as grow today, and i flourished probably In the cretaceous I era, for the land has not been -"ler ! water here since the advent of tertiary | times. j Nowhere near It, except for the rare | cottonwoods along the bank of the Llt- I tie Colorado, grows anything today. | The land which once supported these 1 forests is incompetent to do so now Vet nothing has changed there since except the decreasing water sup- I ply. During tertiary and quaternary j time the rainfall has been growing less j and less. Proof of this is offered by j | the great pine oasis that caps tlie pla tooiv r\f vrhlrh thpse notrtfiod for'*** 4 .* , form si part and is kernelcil by tlie Sa.i ; Francisco peaks. The height above 1 sea level of the spot where the chal ; <fl>>ny trunk., are strewn Is about 4.. r )00 feet. The lower present limit of the pine In Its full development is i 0.500 feet. Two thousand feet upward i i the verdure line has retreated since the former forests were. And this Is no local alteration, for upon the other side of the plateau petrified remains of trees are similarly found. The line < perpetual green has risen j because desert regions the moisture i is found most plentiful nearest to the j clouds from which it falls upon a | parching earth. Streams, instead of gathering volume as they go. are lar gest near their source and grow less and less with each fresh mile of flow. The brooks descending from the Anti- I Lebanon, iu Syria, water the gardens of Damascus and, thence issuing upon I the plain. lose themselves just beyond the threshold of its gates So in the j Arizona desert, thoug'i in a less do- j gree, and those who live there know it but too well.—From I'ercival Lowell's "Mars and the Future of the Earth' in Century. Creaking Wire. Anybody who lias tried to break :i j ?!ece of wire without the aid of pah t pinchers will probably agree that tlie | ■ >!> ution Is both a difficult and pnln- i i fui - There is a method, however, < bv v.'i!eh it may be easily accomplish ! ed. IJy bending the wire Into a loop | j and pulling both ends as tight as pos- | sible an injury will be caused to the j wire, which oa being straightened will ; I immediately break. By this means | Wire up to No. 12 gauge may be suc | cessfully dealt with. j Fire and sword are but slow engines j of destruction in comparison with the babbler.—Steele. Telling Tales. Unsophisticated Visitor (trying to use j the telephone)— Kitty, what do you say when you take this thing off the hookl Little Girl—Papa always says, "Darn, jou, central, you've given me the wroug number!"— Chicago Tribune. A Domestic Debate. "What kept Mrs. Clubleigh at home?'' "A discussion of the servant girl question." "With her club?" "No; with her girl."—Cleveland Flaln Deaier. Wait Is a hard word to the hungry. •—German Proverb. ILLINOISANS AT PLAY, "Presidential Possibilities" Grilled at Society's Dinner. DARK HORSE WAS ELECTED. "Andrew Carnegie" the Host and ; "Booker Washington" a Waiter. ! Amusing Skit on the Candidates. 1 Scene of Feast Like Convention Hall. The next president of the United J States was on the stage in the ball room of the Waldorf-Astoria, In New York city, the other night—that Is, he 1 was there in efßgy; also ho was elect jedby a rising vote. And in these par lous days of booms the affair was bal anced and adjusted to fit, or, rather, not to offend, the most enthusiastic boomer of them all. By way of explanation, these great doings were part of the "grill room convention"of the Illinois society ia New York city. It was modeled after the rites of a club of writers in Wasll : ington who ameliorate the hardships of 1 exile In the provinces by lambasting those who make "news." The nucleus of the affair was called "Presidential Possibilities—A Satirical. Farcical Episode (With Apologies to the Eminent Men Concerned)," by Herbert Hall Winslow. The programme gave it to bo understood that the characters began with "Mr. Carnegie" and ran through the list of men whose names figure in the headlines and at the be ginning of columns introduced by such words as "he spoke as follows." That was all the 230 guests knew when they came Into the ballroom, to' find it decorated like a convention hall, with placards attached to poles over the tables, says the New York Tribune.; These banners, although they bore sltn ply numbers instead of the names of states, carried out the convention idea. After everybody had been seated and had been surprised by the "Merry Widow" (apologies to Henry W. Sav . age) waltz from the orchestra the cere-1 I monies were opened by brief speeches by Charles E. Hall and Elbert li. Gury, president of tlie society. Then the cur tains parted to show "Andrew Carnegie" | standing behind a dinner table with "Booker T. Washington" as Ills butler. | ! The pair were in earnest conversation, j and the facts were that Mr. Carnegie: \ had been disappointed by the "regrets" [of his guests. The dinner was ready, i and he wanted somebody to eat It. lie 1 | ordered "Booker" togo out into the : street and Invite tlie passersby to ! come. "Booker" retired and in a mo i ment reappeared, saying: "I've got 'em. I can't say how good they are, but ; they look respectable—they're presi ! dentlal possibilities." "A large, open faced man, who won't come in until he gets three cheers," was the way "Booker" intro duced "Uncle Joe Cannon." Sure I enough, he entered, white chin whlsk | ers, uptilted cigar and determined stride. He took the seat at the bead of the table and rapped with the gavel after having shaken hands with Mr. Carnegie. The host, by the bye, wore kilts with his tuxedo. The orchestra struck up "Coon, Coon, Coon," and Senator Foraker rushed in. j Ignored "Carnegie" and shook bands with "Booker," the butler. "Was my speech on the Brownsville affair read to the graduating class at Tuskegee?" was his first question. As sured by "Booker" that it was,"For- I aker" took bis seat next to "Cannon." ! The national anthem of Sweden an ! nouueed "Governor John A. Johnson," ! who came in carrying a big valise la beled "The Swedish Vote" and an ac - cent that didn't sit on straight I Then arose "I Won't Co Home Till Morning" from the orchestra as a i boom for the dairy byproducts and i "Vice President Fairbanks." He was ; hardly in Ills seat when "Booker" step ped behind him and presented a full , pint cocktail. "That's an insult," said "Fairbanks," but "Booker" corrected | him with, "No, sir; It's a Manhattan." ' Just at this moment the orchestra ! struck up a fearful discord. There were wild yells of "Copy!" "Catch the edi tion!" "Fake It!" "Get Busy!" Then from the flies burst "William Uan i dolph Ilearst," dressed in Ink smeared J white overalls and carrying a bundle of his famous 11 o'clock pink edition that cheers the milkman on his route. ; "Latest edition of day after tomor row's paper!" yelled "Hearst." When "Governor Hughes" burst 1 forth with his hands stuck In Ills pistol i pockets and his tight fitting frock coat flying behind he yelled through his por tiere whiskers: "What's that about two mill; wagons racing on Fifth avenue? What's that? Call a special session of the legislature, and don't send Grady an invitation." The tomtom motif of "Tammany" announced the coming of "William | Jennings Bryan," who was reproduced almost t ■ the life by Charles Kennedy. "My friends." began "Mr. Bryan," "I thank you. lam the great harmonizcr. But what's the matter with that spot ! light?" This last was addressed to the gallery, and after the spot light had played on the peerless guest he took Ills place at the table. ; With a boom and a thud of what i might have been \\ agnerian music, j but which nobody about the press ta ! ble recognized, there paraded into view "Secretary Taft." lie was none other than "Doc" Cannon, ballyhoo in Dreamland last summer. "Doc's" voice was at its strongest, having been well trained all winter, and he shouted: "I have a secret. I have fifty-seven more votes pledged than there will be In the I convention." "Mr. Taft." of course, broke a chair, and when he sat down and while he was recovering the strains of "Hall to the Chief" sounded. To this entered "Mr. Itoosevelt," car rying a big stuffed club and smiling like a deutlfrlce advertisement. After his first "de-lighted" he shook hands ! with "Hearst," and then a telephone j rang. "Hello!" shouted "Itoosevelt," jump ing to the telephone. "Yes, hello, king! ; Certainly, he'll make a good prime j minister. All right. Goodby." To another message that came in j while he was greeting "Mr. Carnegie" | he advised nutting a Dr. Dope In com ■ an 01 uie neec wnne tne aamirui | va.-> sick, anil then again to a mother <<{ thirty-seven children he said he | I was not only delighted, but he would j permit her to name them all after him- 1 I >elf. | After the guests were all seated I "Ilearst" jumped on the table, waved I his armful of papers and asked "my ! free-ands" what would luippeu if all of , I Ills "ninety-seven million readers" j j voted for him. ! "Mr. Bryan" butted in, and there i was a general taikfest until "Mr. Car- I negle" asked them to be quiet while ' the "dark horse" came in. This gen tleman, masked and riding a hobby, rushed around the room and disap peared. The guests then sang "Auld I-a us Syne." I To show that there was no partisan feeling the speeches after this skit "knocked" all the candidates, and by a standing vote the "dnrk horse" was elected president. A PECULIAR SPIDER. He Catches Birds as Big as Larks In His Mammoth Web. Far up in the mountains of Ceylon there is a spider that spins n web like bright yellowish silk, the central net of which is five feet In diameter, while the supporting lines, or guys, as they are called, measure sometimes ten or twelve feet, and, riding quickly In the early morning, you may dash right into it, the stout threads twining round your l ace like a lace veil, while, as the creature that has woven It takes up his position in the middle, he generally catches you right in the nose, and, j though he seldom bites or stings, the j contact of his large body and long legs [ is anything but pleasant. If you for- ! get yourself and try to catch him, bite he will, and, though not venomous, his jaws are as powerful as a bird's j beak, and you are not likely to forget j the encounter. The bodies of these spiders are very handsomely decorated, being bright J gold or scarlet underneath, while the j upper part is covered with the most delicate slate colored fur. So strong i are the webs that birds the size of ] larks are frequently caught therein, and even the small but powerful scaly lizard falls a victim. A writer says ! that ho has often sat and watched the j I yellow monster measuring, when : waiting for his prey, with his legs ! stretched out. fully six Inches—striding j across the middle of the net and noted j the rnpid manner in which he winds ! Ills stout threads round the unfortu ' uate captive. lie usually throws the coils aliout J the head until the wretched victim is j first blinded and then choked. In j many unfrequented dark nooks of the j jungle you come across most perfect skeletons of small birds caught in these terrible snares. Violet Ink the Cheapest. "Look here, you, a literary man can't afford the extravagance of violet ink." The literary man tore thoughtfully a pendent piece of leather from the sole ; of his shoe. "I know,"he admitted, "that violet ink costs thrice as much as black, but black corrodes a pen in a week, whereas violet Is noncorrosive. and with its use it is possible to make one pen last six or seven months. The late Russell Sage, who used violet ink ex clusively in his office, revealed this great truth to me during my brief cler ical career in his office."—Exchange. BIDDLE'S NEW VENTURE. Society Leader, With His Family, to Explore Canada In Big Automobile. Anthony .1. Drexel Kiddie of Phila delphia, society leader and clubman, who has already gained laurPs as an author, amateur athlete as a motor ist, is nliout to turn Ills attention to new fields. Accompanied by Ills wife, his three children, his chauffeur and a mechanician, he will invade the path less forests of Canada to explore the country north of the province of Que bec and study the flora and fauna as n representative of the London Geo graphical society. Ills destination will be Labrador, and he will leave Philadelphia about July 13 in a forty horsepower Loco mobile touring car. The journey is ex pected to cover about 4,000 miles, and Mr. Blddle expects to return to Phila delphia in September. Mr. Piddle, while in the midst of his preparations, discussed with a Phila delphia Press reporter the proposed tour with all lils well known enthusi asm and energy. He said: "We are preparing now for a trip and will start for Canada almost Im mediately upon our return. We go from Philadelphia direct to Portland, Me., and then across the Canadian border and up to IMviere de Loup, be yond which no automobile has pene trated. Ezra Fitch made this point, and he has placed all the Information he had in ray hands. After that we will depend on woodcraft and the in formation I have picked up from other sources. There are no roads, and most of our route will be along paths made by hunters and wild animals." Here Mr. Riddle opened a small bun dle and pulled out a commodious tent of balloon silk; then, with the air of the experienced camper, he opened up a neatly arranged package of alumin ium camp utensils, the entire package weighing no more than an ordinary frying pan. "Vou see,' he continued, "we will have all the equipment in such shape that we can stow everything away in the car. For supplies we will depend to some extent on settlements, traders and on the flsli and game. We have figured it ail out, in fact, down to what each person will eat on the trip, for we have all been camping before and have made note of these points." Mr. Riddle expects his scientific re searches to be of considerable value. Mrs. Riddle spoke as enthusiastically of the coming trip as did her husband. She looks forward to the hardships from the 'viewpoint of long experience In camping, shooting and fishing trips with her husband and children. The Changed View. Every man takes care that his neigh bor does not cheat him. Rut a day comes when he begins to care that he does not cheat his neighbor. Then all I goes well. He has changed his market | cart Into a chariot of the sun.—Etner son BLIND WS DEBIT, How the Negro Musical Prodigy Was Discovered. WONDERS OF HIS MEMORY. Played a Mazurka Just as He Had Heard It Played Twenty-eight Years Before Sample of His Great Strength—Remarkable Imitator. Over fifty years ago a little blind ne gro baby wandered from his mother's cabin and in the dark of the night climbed upon the piano stool in the parlor of the aristocratic old slave holder General James N. Reticle of Georgia, ne ran his baby fingers over the keys, and the household was arous ed by music so sweet and delicate that it seemed like fairy music—and that was his debut. The little "nigger" was the greatest colored musical prod igy the world has ever known. He was Thomas Wiggins, known as "Rlind Tom," the famous negro pianist, who recently died at Hoboken, N. J. Tom was born a slave on General Bethune's plantation and was looked upon as an incumbrance which must be fed and clothed simply because it would have been inhuman to make way with him. lie was about four years old when the daughters of Gen eral Retliuue were given a new piano. One of the daughters played a sweet, plaintive little melody upon the new instrument, and it was that melody the blind baby reproduced and improved upon that night. After that the little negro was brought in as a curiosity to play for und amuse the general's guests. When he was six years old the general's son, John G. Rethune, ar ranged a tour for Tom and continued as lils manager for many years. After iiis death his widow kept the negro lie fore the public. After ills musical gift Tom's memory was the most wonderful thing about him. He could play more than 5,000 compositions. Once lie heard a piece he would repeat it exactly. Mrs. Re thune used to tell of an incident which shows how retentive his memory was. A stock actor In Denver met Rlind Tom in 1804 and asked him if he ever met his father, Theodore M. Rrowne. Tom replied at once, "I met Theodore M. Rrowne (lie always repeated names) in St. Louis in ISGO." Mrs. Rethune then asked him what Mr. Rrowne played for him, and the negro replied, "He played a little mazurka of his own." "Play it," said Mrs. Rethune, and the blind musician played it just as lie had heard it twenty-eight years before. This way of remembering people he met was unique. When first presented to a person he wished to remember, lie asked him or her to speak plainly. Then he placed his finger on the back of his or her neck and stnelled It. After this he never forgot that individual, seeming to associate tho sound of the voice witli the name and the smell. lie could hear a sermon and repeat most of it after he returned from the church and, furthermore, mimic the preacher. Rlind Tom was practically an Imbe cile. liis amusements were very odd. He was particularly fond of dancing. He would stand on one foot and with the other leg put out at right angles would spin around, and around with marvelous rapidity. He spun round like a dancing dervish. This he kept up for several minutes. Another favorite trick of lils was to lean over the foot of the bed and bump iiis head on the springs. Tom was very powerful, and as an example of his strength a story is told of him at Williamsport, Pa. He was staying at the City hotel. Some friends of Dr. Eubank, who was with Tom for many years, asked some gentlemen to drive with them. Before leaving Tom, Dr. Eubank wanted to make him comfortable and explained to him how to regulate the register. He said: "Tom, if the room gets too hot, just turn tills knob to the right." "Yes, sir," said Tom. "And if it gets cold turn it to the left." "Yes, sir." "Now, let me see you do it. If it gets too hot, what would you do?" Tom took hold of the knob with both his hands, but instead of turning it to the right he pulled the register out of the wall. Tom thought it was a good joke and danced about the room, clap ping his hands. In early childhood he Imitated the cries of farm animals, the call of birds and the sound of the wind and rain for the amusement of General Re thune's household. By night he would steal Into the house of his master to Imitate in undertones on the piano the pieces he had heard others play during the day. lie had the power of being most marvelously imitative. During his public appearances he fre quently played one melody with his right hand and another with lils loft, singing or whistling a third, as fre quently the classic compositions of Bach, Chopin and Meiulelsshon as "Yankee Doodle," "Sailor's Hornpipe" or other pieces of that class. On occa sions he played pieces with his back turned to the piano. He could Imitate the sounds of other musical instru ments and deliver connected addresses In foreign languages without under standing a word he uttered. The eccentricities of Blind Tom on the stage pleased audiences as much as lils playing. He always referred to himself In the third person and would announce his pieces by saying, "Tom will now play a beautiful piece he heard recently." He frequently jump ed about wildly and started the ap plause himself when he finished a number. The Oldest Encyclopedia. The most ancient encyclopedia ex tant Is Pliny's "Natural History," In thirty-seven books and 2,403 chapters, treating of cosmography, astronomy, meteorology, geography, geology, bot any, medicine, the arts and pretty near ly every other department of human thought known at the time. Pliny, who died 70 A. D., collected his work In his leisure intervals while engaged In public affairs. The work was a very high authority in the middle ages. Against God's wrath no castle Is thunder proof.—Spanish Proverb. IMPROVING PUN Mrs. Wieland Will Adopt Sixty Babes Yearly. LIFE PREDESTINED BY NAME Infants Will Receive New Cognomens and Be Put to Work Early at Rens selaer Falls—To Rear Large Family on Vibratory and Color Principles. To improve the human race Mrs. F. P. Wieland Is planning to adopt sixty children a year for ten years. She, with her husband, John C. Wieland of Rensselaer Falls, N. Y„ aud lieuja min Franklin of New York city, has Incorporated the Commonwealth under the laws of the state of New York. Eight acres of land, a house, a mill and a stream, with sufficient water power to light a town, are in the pos session of the corporation at Itensse laer Falls. Here the adopted children are to be "trained to right mental, physical and manual effort as a prac tical demonstration of the laws of vi bration." Mrs. Wieland gave an enthusiastic exposition of her theories, prospects and hopes at the Sign of the Green Teapot, in New York, the other after noon. Names, numbers and colors are fundamental principles in her plan. She wore a surplice of pale blue, lie cause that Is her color. Some pam phlets which she had printed had fail ed in efficiency because they were yel low and red, inharmonious colors for her. All the sixty children who are to be adopted are to have new names. Mrs. Wieland prefers to get possession of babies, the younger the better. With her system, she said, it would be just as easy to manage twelve as one. Mothers gasped at this, but Mrs. Wie land insisted that a comprehension of the laws of vibration aud mental sci ence reduced work to the vanishing point. It is proposal later to have mothers as well as infants in the Common wealth, so that they may be properly instructed in the duties of motherhood. Mrs. Wieland is her own nurse and physician and files the birth certificates herself. She displayed four certifi cates to prove her case. Her children begin to work as soon as they can walk, and that principle followed with sixty babies would prove quite profita ble. One of her children, she related, carried wood into the house and ar ranged it neatly in rows at the age of eighteen months. At the age of two and a half years the children begin gardening. When they are five and els years old they raise corn, two ears being shown us a part of the crop raised by children of that age. The first of the sixty has already been adopted. She is a Russian Jew, three months old, and has not yet been named, because it is necessary to get the date of her birth from Gouverneur hospital before the right name can be selected. Mrs. Aso-Neitch W. Cochran, who gives "character readings in vibration through name and birth number, with color and keynote," explained that there are so many failures in life be cause persons are handicapped by be ing badly named. Given the date of birth, Mrs. Cochran will mathematic ally reckon the correct name one should bear. Children are often irritable and even ill because their mothers deck them out in frocks and hair ribbons of the wrong color. It is as essential to dis cover the proper color as the correct name for each individual. All of that will be worked out carefully in the Commonwealth. ' AN AUDACIOUS PLAN. How Captain Haraden Bluffed th» Britisher Into Surrender. A fight is a fight for 'a that, and Just as an exam pi# of early American "nerve" a story unearthed by Ralph D. Paine in the old sea logs at Essex Institute, in Salem, is of much interest. It is told bj Mr. Paine as follows in Outing Magazine: The king's packet was a foe to test Captain Haraden's mettle, and he found he had a tough antagonist. They fought four full hours, "or four glasses," as the log records it, after which Captain naraden found that he must haul out of the action and repair damages to rigging and hull. lie dis covered also that he had used all the powder on board except one charge. It would have been a creditable con clusion of the matter if lie had called the action a drawn battle and gone on his way. It was In his mind, however, to try an immensely audacious plan which could succeed only by means of the most cold blooded courage on his part Ramming home his last charge of pow der and double shotting the gun. he ruuged alongside his plucky enemy, who was terribly cut up, but still un conquered, and hailed her: "I will give you five minutes to haul down your colors. If they are not down at the end of that time, I will fire into and sink you, so he'.p uie God!" It was a test of mind, not of metal The British commander was n bravo man who had fought his ship like a hero. Rut the sight of this infernally indomitable figure on the quarter deck of the shot rent Pickering, the thought of being exposed to another broadside at pistol range, the aspect of the blood stained, half naked privateersmen grouped at their guns with mntches lighted, was too much for him. Cap tain ilaradeu stood, watch in hand, calling off the minutes so that his voice could tie heard aboard the packet: "One." "Two." "Three." But ho had not said "Four" when the British colors fluttered down from the yard, find the packet ship was his. A Little Ball. Cassldy—Ah, well, no wan kin pre rint w'at's past an' gone. Casey—Ye could If ye ouly acted quick enough. Cassidy—Go 'long, man! llow could yer? Casey—Stop it before it happens. —Kansas City Independent "They seem to live happily togeth er." "Yes; he lets his wife select his neckties anil his stenographers."—Nash . vllle American. CUBE ROOT. Do You Know the Method of Extract ing It Without Pain? I Think of the Inestimable value of knowing how to extract cube root! Ah, there is the priceless boon! Knowing that has saved us money many and many a time, to say nothing of the social blunders it has assisted us to avoid. Do I know yet how it was done? Certainly. I know It Just as well as If it were yesterday that I stud led It. You take the number whose cube root Is paining It so that nothing but extraction can relieve it.put it down on u piece of paper or on your slate and divide it off into periods of three figures each. Write 4-11-44 to the left, multiply that by 300, divide it by something, then pour some red ink . on your handkerchief, tell teacher you i have the nosebleed and go home. That's the way I usually did It. No doubt it Is done much the same way by the Ingenious youth of the present . generation. Is there a successful man living to day and holding up his head nmong , other successful men who cannot pain lessly extract the cube root without giving the number an anaesthetic? If so, he should he ashamed of himself, lie is a freak, and he attained distinc . tlon by a fluke. Some day the muck i rakers will get to probing around, and ! when they discover that he can't ex tract the cube root of anything his career will be ended and his gray hairs will sink in sorrow to a dishonored, jimson grown grave. The jails and asylums are filled with vacant faced and craven hearted wretches who never learned the way to remove a cube root no matter if tho number con taining it was threatened with blood poison. They don't know whether to run a horsehair loop down its throat as In the case of gapes, or whether to use tweezer*-. Let us try to impress upon our chil dren—by precept—the importance of cube root extraction, but let us have business elsewhere in case they ask us to show them how.—Strickland W. Gillilan in Chicago News. A Genuine Grouch. A certain farmer noted for constant complaining was met by a friend one morning. "Fine weather, James." said the lat i tor. "For them as ain't got to work." i was the response. "Your farm looks In fine condition." , "To them's as ain't got to dig in it." "Well, James, I'm glad your wife's better." "Them as don't have to live with her 1 may be!"—l.ondon Family Herald. The Rubicon. The Rubicon was the small stream i separating ancient Italy from Cisalpine i Gaul, the province which had been allotted to Caesar. When Caesar cross ed this stream at the head of an armed force ho passed beyond the limits of his own province aud legally became an invaJ.T of Ttnlv SHORT RANGE ALIEN STUDY. Party of Students to Go Through Southern Europe on Foot. Ten students and a professor recently sailed from New York on the Austro- Aruorican steamship AHce to spend a . year studying at first liaud the home ' conditions and customs of the aliens who pour into the mining regions of Pennsylvania by the thousands each year. Edward A. Steiner, professor of applied Christianity in lowa college, , Griunell, la., is in charge of the stu dents, who are preparing themselves for work among the foreigners of the mining region under the auspices of the Pennsylvania Young Men's Chrls tion association. The party will laud at Trieste, travel through Austria, Hun gary, Russia, Poland and Italy, cover ing much of the country on I\»4 with packs on their backs and returning in the steerage with the immigrants. The expenses of the party are borne by va rious committees and groups of citi zens in different parts of Pennsylvania. All communities in the mining districts of that state have loug been wrestling with the problem of making good American citizens out of these aliens. Professor Steiner. who is an Austrian, by birth and has given much of his life to a study of this problem, believes that an intimate knowledge of the Im migrant's customs, language and con ditions in his home land is necessary for any one who wants to inflt.ence him in America. Misunderstandings, due to lack of knowledge, he thinks, cause most of the trouble in the mining region, and lie believes a year spent in studying the classes in Europe from which the immigrants come will pre pare the studeuts better than anything else for work among the foreigners iu Pennsylvania. Sign of Precocity. First Magazine Editor—l believe my youngster !s cut out for an editor. ; Second Edilor— Why so? First Editor i —Everything lie gets his hands on he runs and throws into the wastebas [ ket.—Lippincotfs Magazine. sis in A Reliable TO SHOP Tor all kind of Tin Roofing, Spoutlne nnd Csneral Job Work. Stoves, Heaters, Ran«es t Furnaces, eto- PRICES THB LOWEST! QIiiLITY TDK BEST! JOHN HIXSOJV HO- ltf E. FRONT AT.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers