WAR ON FARMERS' PESTS THEIR DISEASES NOW THE SUB JECT OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY. Tovel Scheme For Destroying CJrassliop pers and the Ctorm—Tumblers Pull >f Pestilence- How a Kuctm-iologUt Can Win Fortune. The use of diseased bugs to produce wholesale pestilence among their kind and ultimately effect extermination thereof is an ingenious scheme lately devised by Uncle Sam's scientists. The idea of enlisting the dread dis ease germ in.o useful service is. in deed, a novel one. Our medico-legal authorities have considered its dan ger as a factor in deliberately plotting homicide. But wltb lias dreamed of its possible value as an agency of in •ecticide? Tile entomologists of the Agricultur al Department lately learned how to concoct several deadly and malignant bug diseases, ltow to bottle tbem for Shipment, bow to spread then: among the vast insect fraternity and how to make infected bugs carry the scourge to their 1 unsuspecting kind. The pecu liar diseases in question are not com municable to man; otherwise they would not lte employed, of course. The discovery of malarial germs In the mosquito has directed scientific at tention to bugs as a means of trans mitting contagion. It is being discov ered that these minute disturbers of the farmer's and householder's peace and happiness have their character istic distempers, some of them highly contagious. To artificially propagate their baneful germs in incubators, where the latter are fed and multi plied, is found to be an easy matter. GRASSHOPPER DISEASE IN BOTTI.ES. Mr. Grasshopper is one of the chief victims proscribed by the conspiring bugologist. He has been cutting unbe coming capers in our farm lands since 10, these many years, annually filching thousands of dollars from the indus trious tiller of the soil. Did wily Mr. Grasshopper but guess the ghastly ,fate awaiting him he would hasten his kinsmen to pack up, bag and baggage, |and to seek asylums where bugs en- Boy their natural rights and privileges. [The American grasshopper lias always been a healthy bug. In Australia and (South Africa, however, have been dis covered cousin species which suffer a hideous disease compared to which hu man leprosy is a means toward pleas ure and adornment. The unsparing bugologists are importing from the bacteriological institute of Cape Town phials filled with the pestilence, nnd eighteen such vessels have lately been shipped to flourishing grasshopper colonies in Mississippi, Nebraska and Minnesota. And this is how the new grasshopper disease is prepared: Grasshoppers killed by the disease nre collected iu large quantities, dried and ground into a meal. This meal is mixed with a gelatinous substance and put up in tlie glass plilala for ship ment. In these vessels the disease ele ments multiply until capable of kill ing manifoldly more grasshoppers than originally used in the preparation of the deadly concoction. Ou receiv ing the phials the Yankee farmer is Instructed to thoroughly mix the con tents of each with two teaspoonfuls of sugar, lie adds this dose to three fourths of a tumbler of water, previ ously boiled nnd allowed to cool. Into tlie tumbler be places several pieces of cork. SCATTERING THE GF.RMS. After allowing the mixture to stand a day, during which time tlie disease has attacked the cork and thoroughly contaminated tlie fluid, he dips various and sundry grasshoppers, alive and kicking, into tiie liquid, the more thus doused being the merrier for the prom ised result. After being vigorously ducked and thereby terrified the pro testing victims are imprisoned in a box and fed ou green plants well moistened with the same fatal liquid. Having been fed ou this poisonous diet for twenty-four hours, tlie prisoners nre liberated, generally in the evening hours. Then they hop gleefully away to mingle once more with their anxious friends. Returning to their haunts they innocently disseminate their con tagion far and wide, among all of their kind which approach to rejoice at their safe escape and marvel at the accounts of their terrible experiences. And as a result of repeated hoppings nnd gnl llvantings hero and there, from one green field to another, the scourge is spread. Then other grasshoppers, big nnd little, soon begin to indis posed and as each surveys himself he is horrified to discover that he is bo coming covered with a furry, mouse colored crust. This Increases until eating into his very vitals. Then he gives up his ghost to the realm where the dead grasshoppers go. Mr. Fanrmer soon appears on the scene, bears away tlie corpse together with all others he can find, dries them all into state of mummification, grinds them into powder and concocts many more tumbersful of the liquid pes tilence. The contagion is thus sowu to multiply over nnd over again, a greater harvest of death being reaped each time until extermination is com plete. Ground fairly covered with dead grasshoppers thus killed was seen in Beehuaua.iand, South Africa, after an experimental distribution of the dis ease there. But the black natives of this territory, who eat grasshoppers, objected to sueli wholesale contamina tion of their diet. FATAD TO CHINCHBUGS. Mr. Chinchbug is "it" in a very sim ilar game devised by tlie enterprising bugologists. This ravenous iusect yearly costs the Americar farmer millions. The most dendiy ill to wbicb its flesh is heir is discovered to be tlie "white fungus." It attacks him in much the same manner ua the afore- mentioned furry growth infests Mr. Grasshopper, save that a white rather than a mouse-colored crust covers his body and eats out his life. The dis ease is highly contagious among his kind. The seed with which the pestil ence is sown is prepared in this man ner: A bottle of raw cornmeal, mixed with beef broth, is sprinkled with the white particles of the moldy growth previously separated from the dried insects dying of the scourge. The mold rapidly multiplies after taking root iu the new media and soon con taminates the contents of the bottle. Live and healthy chinch bugs, caught in the wheat and corn fields, arc con fined in "contagion boxes" wherein quantities of tlie infected mixture of broth and batter have been left ex posed. The insects thus brought in contact with the pestilence saturate their systems with it. They are then liberated in the fields where originally found. Mingling with their healthy kinsmen they effect just such a widesweeplng pestilence as noted in the above case of the grasshopper. Death ensues a few days after exposure to the disease. After death tlie white mold increases in numerous spores. Tlie mold is then collected, placed back iu the cold broth nnd batter and left to multiply. THE DISTKIBUTING OENTEB. Uncle Sam's agricultural experiment station at Urbnnn, 111., Is being utilized as a distributing center for chinch bugs thus artificially infected. This institution lias been corresponding with farmers in various parts of the country requesting them to box up and ship by express as many of the live insects as they can collect. After exposure to the disease-laden broth and batter at the experiment station the contaminated bugs are shipped back to (lie farmers. The latter are instructed to keep the bugs confined until dead from the disease. The farmers then capture as many live in fants as can he caught and confine them with the carcasses of their rela tives until they show symptoms of the disease. Then they arc let loose in the fields in time to create a wholesale pestilence. Some farmers not only dis tribute the live bugs thus, but scatter the dead oues left in their contagion boxes, attaching them to vegetable growths threatened. Other farmers have applied the broth and batter mix tures directly in plants preyed upon by large colonies of the ravenous in sects. Caterpillars, seventeen-year locusts and various other insect pests have been experimented with, the object be ing to determine some infectious dis ease capable of their eradication. But iu these eases difficulty is as yet met. Insect diseases are little understood. Mail was ignorant of the ailments of domesticated animals until compara tively recent times. Now the Govern ment annually spends thousands of dollars a year for studying diseases of such beasts. Such studies were orig inally devised by man with tlie direct motive of self-protection against pois onous bacilli and parasites. Doubtless in tlie future wise governments will lie Instituting laboratories for research in diseases of the insect kingdom with the selfish motive of sowing seeds of such diseases among ill-behaved hugs. And perhaps in those progressive days there will have sprung up nnti-vlvi sectionist societies for tlie protection of such unfortunate insects or for tlie dictation of the mode of slaughter to be meted out to them. STUDYING DISEASES. Insects no doubt suffer from as many characteristic disorders as do men and beasts. It must be a terrible ordeal for one of the many three-stomached species of bugs to suffer indigestion pains in ail of his dinner receptacles at once. And imagine what a poor butterfly would suffer if all of his 23,(XX) eyes were sore and running as a result of liny fever. Then pity the centipede attacked with "rhcumatiz" iu all of his legs. And think of the ravages of a hereditary disease which might lie bequeathed by our persistent friend tue housefly to tlie 740,400 off springs which she produces iu the three months of summer. A fortune of uncountable millions is certainly iu store for tlie practical bacteriologist who can successfully concoct nnd patent a brand of deadly mosquito smallpox, housefly plague, caterpillar yellow l'ever, cockroach diphtheria or some pestilential means of erasing any of the famous insect names now upon the black list of the farmer and housekeeper. And per haps science will some day brew mal ignant diseases fatal to such larger pests as rats, mice and snakes.—, John Elfretli Wntkins, Jr., in the Washing ton Star. Educated Men in Demand. Never before was the call for trained men so loud as now. They are in de mand everywhere. Not only In the pro fessions, but also in business houses, manufacturing establishments nnd even on the farm, they are in great de mand. The farmer who understands chemistry, who is able to analyze the forces of nature, to mix brains with his soil, will be the great farmer of the future. There is an increased de mand everywhere for college-educated men. We find tliem occupying the best positions in our insurance, banking, manufacturing and transportation in stitutions. Never before was tlie call for liberally educated men and women so great as to-day.—Success. End of Hi. Career. A man drifted into town . -day pen niless, and with holes in his shoes, and ids friends are recalling that when he left Atchison four years ago, giving up a good position, they complimented him upon his ambition to "get out of tho old rut"—Atchisou Globe. NEW WAYS OF COWBOYS CHANGED METHODS ON CATTLE RAN GES OF THE SOUTHWEST. Old-Time Cattle Karon* Would Rorome Bankrupt lu Tlic*e liny* of Economy— Cowpuncliera Toned Down—The Texas Steer'* Lost Horns—Greater Humanity. A Holbrook, Arizona, village 011 tlie red, muddy hank of the Uio Colorado in northeastern Arizona is the ntost im portant cattle market in the Territories and is the rendezvous of cowboys and vaqueros from all this region, writes a correspondent of the New York Sun. From April to December, almost every day, carloads of cattle are started from Holbrook toward Kansas City, Chica go and Omaha. Last year more than 130,000 head of cattle were shipped eastward from tills little frontier town, and there is little doubt that the ship ments this year will foot up about 148,000, worth, on the curs here, about $3,350,000. In the early spring months, when the shipping season opens, it is common to see 10,000 or 12,000 cattle bunched together In the enormous cor ral along the railroad tracks. There is an abundance of material for the seeker of picturesque In this cattle community. At almost any hour in the day during the spring nnd fall months the main street in Holbrook is months the main sreet in Ilolbrook is lively with from 100 to 200 horses from the ranges. Every horse carries a huge saddle a lariat hanging in colls from the pommel nnd a blanket rolled and tied at the rear. Some saddles are elaborately decorated with silver tneks and emblems, and the tlie bridles on many horses cost several times more than the animal themselves are worth. There nre knots of cowboys here and there on the street, while all the sa loons are filled with them 20 out of every 24 hours. They wear great gray felt sombreros with gaudy leather straps for bands, skin tight trousers and short fancy conts with showy but tons. All of them wear high boots with high and sharp heels, and four fifths of them carry a belt of cartridges about the waist and one or two shin ing and finely constructed revolvers at their hips. Sometimes there are drunk en, swaggering, swearing cowboys who raise a din in Holbrook, hut a large majority of the cowboys, in the Southwest, at least, are decent sort of fellows, who are proud of their ad turous work nnd their skill among cattle, and despise the drunken fellow who brags about a bar and thinks it fun to shoot to frighten other people. The changes in the methods of cattle ranching in the Southwest during the last ten years have removed a large element of romantic picturesqueness. The famous cattle barons of tlie West of 25 and 30 years ago could not keep out of bankruptcy in these days of strict business methods and careful economy on the ranges if they followed the old methods. Economy and com mercial prudence are at the bottom of tlie innovations on the cattle ranges. The financial disasters which de throned many a rich cattle king from 1887 to 1898 have necessitated econo mies where prodigal waste once pre vailed. Tricks of saving, once thought contemptible, are in vogue in all up to-date ranges. Nowadays the bones of cattle nre saved and sold. No one thinks of leaving the pelt on an animal found dead on the range. Time was when such economy was despised and left for the poor half-breed Indians. Even the piles of horns left after de horning operations are over nre now collected and made a source of reve nue. The fertilizer that went to waste on the ranges is shipped at so much a ton to horticultural districts in Cali fornia and Colorado for use In the or chards. Cowboys are fined for drunk enness on the range nowadays. A gen eration ago the cattle kings bought whiskey and brandy by the barrel for the cowboys to help themselves to. By new methods time nnd wenr and tear on the horses are saved. A half dozen horses and cowboys to do twice as much work nnd cover twice as much teritory as formerly. The brand ing of calves is done by time-saving contrivances. A dozen inventions have been made In cattle cars whereby the loss from the trampling to death of animals while In transit to market has been minimized, and. also, by wldeh more stock may bo put in a car. In other particulars the conditions have changqd also. In former years the round-ups each spring, generally about May, were trying times with the cowboys. Where 15,000 or 20.000 calves were to be cut out of a herd and branded the work often extended over a month, but i9d r the later methods the work Is very materially lessoned. Now, instead of having to throw nnd tie each unbranded calf and steer the animals nre cut out and run into a. separate herd. They nre then driven into an Inclosure where Is ail outlet so narrow as to permit the mov ing of only one animal at a time. There, as fast as the string of animals pass, a branding iron is extended through the open cracks of the heavy fence and the necessary decoration made upon the flnnk of each calf. Y'et even with all the Improvements the round-up remains a feature of ranch life. Here is the greatest op portunity for the cowboy to display lils dexterity with the lasso and bis horsemanship. Some ranches at the round-up season require 400 or 501 horses. The riding Is always fast and furious nnd seldom Is an animal used more than two hours consecutively. The famous Strasburg clock, which gave all the movements of the sun, moou and planets, was constructed 550 years ago. TRAMP NUISANCE IN SIBERIA. j Yeari of TranaportHtion Ifuve Deluged the Land With Criminal*. Says Solomon, Russian director-iu cbief of prison administration, in The Independent: From 18U7 until 1800 Siberia received from European Russia 8154.04'J transported persons, including their families. That is near ly the sixtli part of the actual popu lation of Siberia. If we confine our selves to the last dozen years we shall see that Siberia has received in that space of time 100,582 transported per sons, of whom 05,870 were men and 4700 were women. Of the families of transported persons there were 155 husbands, 17550 wives .and 40,000 eliil- l dren. Siberia lias thus received *.n the course of 12 years 150,101 individuals, | one-thirty-sixth of the total popula- ! tlon. If one takes into consideration j the number of the transported only without their families we shall i that during that period Siberia has J received for each 57 inhabitants a | criminal or a man recognized as more or less dangerous in the country of his j origin. These figures permit us to j draw certain important conclusions. First—Transportation does not con tribute to the colonization of a coun try, owing to the great proponderanee of unmarried persons. Second—The number of vicious elements introduced into the country passes all reasonable I proportion. Of the number of tran- j sportated males, only 17,550 were j married; the other 78,322, or 81 1-3 per cent., were unmarried. These conclusions nre completely confirmed by a detailed study of the conditions of transported persons. The number of transported persons resid ing in Siberia in 180(5 was 208,574, or nearly 300,000 individuals of both sexes. Half of these were criminals condemned to transportation under the criminal code, tlie other half under administrative authority. But they ! can hardly lie distinguished one from i the other. The opprobrium of their ! situation nnd the misery of their ex- | istence have reduced them to an ab- ' solutely uniform mass. The third of this mass, 100,000 men, escape all con- j trol. The place of their residence is I unknown to tlie police. They stenl on ! the highways and in villages, they j beg nnd extort money In every way | possible. In the summer they bivouac under the stars nnd conceal them- j selves in the forests of Siberia; In the j winter they move toward the cities ' and use every method to secure a j lodgment in tlie local prisons. The j second 100,000 men nre equally in a ! state of vagabondage, but tlioy change their residence to find work. If they ! have not lost tlie habit of work, and j if they preserve some spiritof honesty, i they may succeed in establishing themselves again; if not, they soon j augment the ranks of criminal vngn- j bonds. Of the 100,000 who arc left, ' about 30,000 are cultivators of the I earth and furnish an element of order, j It is remarkable that this number cor- ' responds to the number of the 1 transported married persons. Tlie other 70,000 arc workmen. So long j as they arc young and in good health ; they gain their dally bread, but when i infirmity comes many of them take to begging and often terminate their ex- ! istence in prison, which they have | avoided until that time. SAVED BY PALMISTRY. Tattered Individual Trove* HI. Case bv Showing HI. Hand.. "Kensontng from antecedent probn- j blllty," snid .Instleo Kcrsten to a prls- I oner with a soppy straw bat and a j turned-down moutli, "I would say that j when this policeman accuses you of i being a tramp he is speaking with a j high regard for the truth." "Knowing lrstlo about logic," tlio ■ defendant replied, "I am unable to say j whether 1 am guilty on that proof. , But by palmistry I am innocent. My life line Is good, my capacity for hard I work is simply astonishing, and my ' confidence in my own ability is sup- ! erli." "Score one for palmistry. Now hold up your, hands." They went up. "I can't tell whether you have | worked by the looks of those hands," | snld the justice. "But in the interest I or the spread of knowledge I will dl- ! gress and say to you that all article j known as soap was invented some | years ago." "Never hoard of It." said the prison er cheerfully, "and I know just as much about my guilt or Innocence as I do about soap. You might try me by a jury of my peers." "Your poors are too busy telling fairy tales to bartenders on tills mug gy morning to coine out to help the ends of justice. The dollar they'd get for jury service would make them die of heart disease." "A doctor told me I'd never have that," the prisoner said. "I'm not intensely interested In the state of your health," Justice Kersten I said coldly. "I don't know whether you're a tramp, and neither do you. I am Inclined to the opinion that you are, but I guess no policeman will arrest you between here and the cor ner." The prisoner made the trial trip suc cessfully. and was seen no more.—Chi aego Journal. Anticipation and Realization. Whenever s mother tells her daugh ter to sweep n room, tho girl thinks cn v.vingly of tlie day when she will bo married, and "her own boss." And the manner, by the way. In which a mar ried woman Is "her own boss" Is enough to make that noble bird. Free dom, drop its tall feathers nnd close its eyes In death.—Atchison Globe. Thought Him An Angol. The late Gen. John M. Palmer used to enjoy telling of being once mistaken for a person of greater dignity than the President of the United States. "While I was military governor of Kentucky," said he, "a disturbance oc curred in some town in the interior. I was at a distance, but was needed at the scene. There was no train, no carriage, no buggy to be got; the only vehicle available was a big girdled circus char iot left by some stranded show com pany. I didn't like it, but there was nothing else to do, so I got in. You may imagine. I cut a great dash as I drove through a small town. People turned out in droves to see me pass. When I left the town behind me and reached the plantations the negroes saw me and stared with open mouths. They followed me at a respectful dis tance, until presently they were joined by an old, white-haired preacher, who, on seeing me in my magnificent chariot, raised his eyes and his arms on high and, in a voice that stirred all within hearing, cried; " 'Bress de Lord, de day of judgment am cum. an' dis gemman am de angel Gabriel hisself. Bredren, down on you* knees and pray, fo' yo' hour am hyar!" Siberia Settled Largely by Exiles. Deportation to Siberia began as long ago as 1591, and at the present moment many of the principal towns are almost entirely peopled by exiles who have completed their terms of imprisonment, and by their descendants. Now, how ever, that Russia is intent upon the de velopment of the country, they no long er send criminals, but encourage and aid the respectable peasant class to emigrate, giving them pieces of land, which they hold at a nominal rent di rect from the Crown.—London Sphere. Hops Grow Wild in English Counties. It is a somewhat remarkable fact that the hop, although only cultivated in a few districts in a few English counties, yet grown freely in a wild condition in very many places. It is a perennial, flowering in July and August, and to be found in hedges and thickets. The plant is only cultivated, for instance, in the northeastern portions of Hamp shire, and about Petersfield, and even there it does not cover 3.000 acres in all. It grows and flourishes, however, in a wild state all over the county, in cluding the Isle of Wight.—London Express. A pound ot phosphorus heads i.ooo, 000 matches. The ordinary every-dav life of most of our women is a ceaseless treadmill of work. How much harder the daily tasks become when some derangement of the female organs makes every movement painful and keeps the nervous system all unstrung I ; One day she is wretched and utterly miserable ; in a day or two she is better and laughs at her fears, thinking there is nothing much the matter after all; but before night the deadly backache reappears, the limbs tremble, the lips twitch —it seems as though all the imps of Satan were clutching her vitals ; 6ho goes to pieces and is flat on her back. No woman ought to arrive at this terrible state of misery, because these symptoms are a sure forerunner of womb troubles. She must remember that Lydia E. Pink liam's Vegetable Compound ic almost an infalliblo cure for all female ills, Such as irregularity of periods, which causo weak stomach, sick headache, etc., displacements and in flammation of the womb, or any of the multitudes of ill nesses which beset the female organism. Mrs. GootScst wrote to Mrs. Plnkham when she was f.) groat trouble. Her letter tells the result. " DEAR MRS, PINKHAM:—I am very grateful to you for your kindness and the interest you have taken in me, and truly believe that your medicines * .laj--,.and advice aro worth more to a woman than all the 1 , ijdoctors in the world. My troubles began with inflam mation and hemorrhages from the kidneys, then : inflammation, congestion and falling of the womb, am ' inflammation of the ovaries. I underwent local miafllS treabnont ever y day for some time; then, after nearly two months, the doctor gave me permission to go riggS V F back to work I went back, but in less than a week -Si I was compelled to give up and go to bed. On break- "V / inft down the second time, I decided to let doctors V. / and medicines alone and try your remedies. Before OnL "jmbtfec th o first bottle was gono I felt the effects of it. Tliree bottles of Eydia E. Plultlinm's Vegetable Compound and a package of Sanative Wash did MRS L J CiOODLN ma more good than all the doctors' treatments and * medicine I have gained twelvo pounds during the last two months and am better in every way. Thanking you for your kind advioe and attention, I remain. Yours gratefully, " MRS. E. J. GOODEN, Ackley, lowa." Stf 1 " RFWARn IS H M Wel the genuinenw of the testimonial letter* M ftl Ptl H 1 m H deposited with the National City Hank, Mass., $5,000, jj ■ il uj ['{] H J El FJ which will be paid to any person who will ahow that the above WrJy Hii f w)sfy testimonial is not genuine, or was published before obtaining the W wßw writer's special permission.—lYDlA li. I'INKBAU MEDICINE CO. I A Great Boon to Humanity. Bioxide of sodium seems to be one of l the greatest boons to humanity which I the century has given—that is, if the reports as to the recent demonstration of is qualities before the French acad ' erny of science prove to be substan- J tinted. i It is said that this product possesses j the property of renewing oxygen, the life-sustaining principle in air, as well |as of absorbing carbonic acid as it is given oflf. Two men with a new appar | ntus containing bioxide of sodium are alleged to have put on diving dresses from which all air was excluded, and remained for the space of two "Fours under these conditions. Subsequently they remained under water for half an hour under similar conditions. The availability of this new mean of vitalizing air in the case of sub marine craft seems obvious. But its use is likely to be very extended, en abling firemen to penetrate the densest smoke without danger of suffocation, and miners to pursue their calling safe ly, by depriving "fire damp" and nox ious gases of their power to work harm and death.—Boston Globe. Pessimists in the Days of Jefferson, The wails about the young men being crowded out or opportunity being de nied them were just as prevalent in the davs of their fathers and their grand fathers. Such lamentations against the Federalists and the "aristocrats" were common in the times of Jefferson. It was the popular complaint, for exam ple, that men like Robert Morris were enriching themselves at the expense of I the poor, that youth no longer had a chance to compete with the favored few, that the way to education was open only to the opulent.—Philadelphia Bulletin. Big Trees in Danger of Being Logged, j Lumbermen are cutting down the big I trees of California. The finest of all, | the Calaveras grove, which has the big gest trees, came into possession of a lumberman last April. Some of these trees are from 4,000 to 5.000 years old; older than the pyramids and most of the temples in Egypt. Congress can save these groves by making National parks of them, as an effort will be made to have it done next winter. But it will have to be done quickly if it is to suc ceed. It comes near being sacrilege to put these venerable monsters through lumber mills.—Harper's Weekly. 1 Possibly the reason why the Japan ese are so orogressive is because they arc so cleanly. Public baths arc pro vided on every street. Japanese work j men bathe once or twice every day.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers