THE NEWS OF ALL NATIONS.

Big Indiana Gas Well.

A gas well which gives more than 12,000,000 feet volume has been drilled in half a mile from Linton, Ind., on the Gillett farm. It is the largest gusher in the central States.

Missouri River’s Jokes with Farmers.

Suppose that, years ago when you were a young man, you came to Missouri and bought a farm on the banks of the Missouri River, and spent the next fifteen or twenty years in clearing the land and bringing it into a high state of cultivation. And then suppose that, just when you had begun to derive some benefit from your years of toil, the river should suddenly reach out and swallow up about half your farm.

Then suppose that the river, after keeping your farm for several years, should grow seemingly repentant and replace your farm, you would no doubt feel that all the land within the bounds mentioned in your deeds was your own as much as it ever was.

But that would all depend on the precise manner in which the river replaced your land. That is where the accretion law of Missouri comes in, and it is a fearful and mysterious thing. If the river, in putting your land back, began piling it up against your bank and continued doing so, the land to the water’s edge would be yours, even if it went beyond your original boundaries. But if the river, as it often does, should first throw up a bar out in the channel and then gradually fill up the space between that and your land until finally the current changed and left the island thus formed joined to your land, you would have no claim to any land thus formed. It would belong to the county, and could be surveyed and sold to the highest bidder, and the money it brought would go to the school fund.

The Missouri River is a malicious stream, and if it ever comes to judgment, will have a lot to answer for. Instead of pursuing its course in an orderly manner and sticking to one established course, it is forever changing, eating away the bank on one side and throwing up new banks on the other side, cutting out old sand bars here and building new ones there, so that the main channel is never the same for very long at a time.

In Holt County, near Fortescue, there has been a great deal of excitement lately, caused by the disputes over the possession of some of the land thus formed, commonly known as “bar land.” Several men had fenced land which was claimed under deed by John C. Hinkle, a Civil War veteran, who has lived on this land for the last fifty years. About fifteen years ago the river took five hundred acres of Mr. Hinkle’s land and afterward put it back as a bar. Mr. Hinkle claimed the land on the ground that the bar had made to his land, and the other men claimed it on the ground that it had been put back as an island, which finally joined Mr. Hinkle’s land, and was therefore as much theirs as any one’s. The court upheld the squatters’ claim that the land did not belong to Hinkle, and this decision was the signal for squatters to rush in and seize bar land all along the river front. In the last thirty days perhaps a dozen men have settled on these bars.

The fact of possession seems to be given considerable weight in this matter, and the land has generally been seized in the night. A squatter will pick out a piece of land that most suits his fancy, get some help, slip in at night, put a fence around it, and build a shack on it. Of course, it is not much of a house or much of a fence, but it is enough to establish proof of possession.

Sometimes two different men will have designs on the same piece of land, or perhaps the man whose deed calls for this land will offer objections to its being seized, and these conditions have given rise to several exciting encounters. Several houses have been torn down, many fences cut to pieces and in at least one instance men have been escorted from the land of their choice at the point of a Winchester, with instruction to “beat it” and not to come back. While no blood has been shed so far, it is freely predicted that it is only a matter of time until somebody is carried out “feet first.”

The county has ordered the land surveyed, with the intention of selling it to the highest bidder, but the law says that the ones in possession have a right to buy it at the highest bid, so that even if the county sells the land, the ones actually on the ground have a big advantage. This fact will probably cause others to try to seize land before the survey is made.

The land is not so very valuable except in a dry year, as it is liable to overflow any time the river rises a few feet.

Cowboy Sheriff.

Many who have visited the Pawnee Bill and Buffalo Bill Wild-West Shows wonder what has become of all the likely looking cowboys whose daring feats ahorse and with the lasso excited wonder and admiration.

Some are with other shows, some perform for moving pictures, but most of them have quit the business and settled down. Among those who quit when Pawnee Bill and Buffalo Bill closed is Tom Tait, who has located in Gillette, Wyo., county seat of Campbell County, where he has been elected sheriff. All his life has been spent on the cattle ranges of Wyoming, Montana, and the Dakotas, with the exception of the time he was on the road with the show. As a tamer of wild horses he has few equals, and as a “cow hand” none at all.

All Six Died with Boots On.

The Grim Reaper has surely played relentless and strange havoc with the Law family, of Muscatine, Iowa. Brad E. Law, a popular grocer, died recently while sitting in a chair at his home. He died “with his boots on,” so to speak, and so did his two brothers, his father, and his father’s two brothers. One of the grocer’s brothers, an engineer, was struck by a piece of a flying wheel, which broke and severed his head, and the other brother died while at the dinner table. His father died while plowing in the field, and one of his father’s brothers died in the pulpit, while preaching a sermon. His father’s other brother died while driving to town on his farm wagon.

They all met death while they were not expecting it. Neither of them was sick before his death, and sickness was not the cause of any of the deaths.

Tourists Welcome in Canada.

Numerous items have appeared lately in the press, advising residents of the United States to obtain passports when visiting or passing through Canada. Officials of the Canadian Pacific Railway made inquiries of the government at Ottawa whether passports are now required. The government announces that its officials are in no way interfering with bona-fide tourist traffic, and that persons desirous of visiting points of interest in Canada or of passing through Canada en route to other places will be accorded the same courteous treatment as was customary before the outbreak of war, and that passports are not required.

Why Belgium Thanks United States.

More than $21,500,000 has been received and the greater part of it spent for Belgian relief, according to a statement issued in New York by the commission for relief in Belgium.

One hundred and ten thousand tons of foodstuffs, cargo for twenty ships, are now on the way to American seaports from interior points, the statement adds.

Nearly sixty cargoes of foodstuffs, valued at more than $20,000,000, had been sent to Rotterdam up to the middle of March by the commission.

New Way to Hunt the Coyote.

Hunting coyotes on motor cycles is a popular sport in Sherman County, Kan. A party of ten young men went coyote hunting in this manner from there, and in one day succeeded in capturing three of the prairie pests.

New Attachment for Razor.

A Canadian inventor had secured a patent on which appears to be a simple attachment for converting an ordinary razor into one of the safety type.

The device consists simply of a piece of springy sheet metal folded so that it may be slipped over the razor blade. By holding the razor so that the side of the attachment comes in contact with the face, the right angle for the blade is attained.

Girl’s Foot Worth $14,000.

Fourteen thousand dollars was the price set on the right foot of a seven-year-old girl of Kenosha, Wis. A jury in the circuit court awarded that sum to Minnie Extra, daughter of a Kenosha laborer. A car on the Chicago & Milwaukee Electric Railway had mangled her foot so that amputation at the ankle was necessary.

Dog Politician Aids Master.

Joseph B. Steele, Independent candidate for the mayoralty nomination at the primaries in Granite City, Mo., has no “houn’ dawg” to aid him, but a devoted political worker in “Queen,” a bright little terrier. He picked up the dog on the streets recently and give it a home.

In way of repayment, the dog trotted about the town carrying in its mouth a card bearing Steele’s picture and an announcement of his candidacy. According to Steele, the dog is so intelligent that on meeting a doubtful voter it rises on its hind legs to call the sign more emphatically to his attention. The dog campaigner attracted much interest in Granite City.

Steele obtained the idea of enlisting Queen from the dog’s fondness for retrieving sticks and carrying objects about in its mouth. After a short training in carrying the card, the animal showed a remarkable enthusiasm for politics.

This Boat Travels on Land.

The visitor to the lumber districts of Canada may occasionally see what is to him a very remarkable sight—a primitive-looking steamboat high and dry on a road, crawling along quite comfortably, apparently just as much at home as in its natural element.

These boats are known as “alligators,” and are used for towing the rafts of logs down the rivers and lakes to the mills. Sometimes it is desired to transfer one of these craft to a new sphere of operations, which can only be reached overland, and the boat is then hauled out of the water, placed upon rollers, and travels to its destination by means of its own power.

“Dead” Fifty-two Years. Still Alive.

After being mourned as dead for fifty-two years, John Wesley Franse, a Civil War veteran, has been found living in a small town near San Francisco, according to a letter received by relatives in St. Louis, Mo. Franse was found by his sister, Mrs. William H. Marvin, of Kirkwood, a St. Louis suburb.

Franse served in the Confederate army under General Sterling Price. The entire regiment to which he belonged was captured and placed in the Union prison at Alton, Ill. Believing that he had died there, members of the Franse family for more than fifty years visited the Alton cemetery each Decoration Day and placed flowers on one of the unmarked Confederate graves.

At a social in Los Angeles recently Mrs. Marvin mentioned that her maiden name was Franse. Another guest said he knew an old man near by that name, and the search followed which resulted in the finding of the long-lost veteran.

Found in a Pound of Raisins.

One pound of raisins purchased from a store in Derry Church, Pa., by a special agent of the dairy and food commission was analyzed by State Chemist Charles la Wall. He found: Prunes, rice, beans, and fuzzy dirt; human and animal hairs, straight and curly; fibers of cotton and wool dyed green, yellow, brown, pink, and gray; straw and a little bit of bran, sand, cornstarch, broken wheat, and yeast spores; pine wood and fragments of unidentified other timber; tobacco leaf, cigarette paper, and cigarette tobacco. Also, the wings and legs of a few unfortunate insects. Otherwise the raisins were all right. The groceryman was arrested.

McManus Sisters in Doubt.

That adequate reparation for the murder of John B. McManus, the former Chicagoan, killed on his ranch outside of Mexico City, would not be exacted by the United States government is the belief expressed by his two sisters living in Chicago. They have taken the matter up with a number of Chicago Congressmen.

“I doubt if a proper indemnity will ever be paid Mrs. McManus,” said Miss Elizabeth McManus, when seen with her sister, Mrs. Mary Dorgan. “And it seems as if the matter of bringing the murderers to justice would also be allowed to lapse, as in other cases. Outrages were committed against the sisters of the Sacred Heart in Mexico City, and I find the state department did nothing further than to complain to the Mexican government.”

A letter from Counselor Lansing informed Miss McManus the Brazilian minister had placed the “full facts” before the new minister of Mexican foreign affairs.

This Potato King is a “Jap.”

Reading a story of the visit of George Shima, the potato king of Lodi, Cal., to Los Angeles, in a paper of that city, merchants of Lodi recall that not many years ago the Japanese capitalist could not obtain credit in the stores of this city, not because he was not honest, but as a newcomer he had not established credit.

Those business men who refused to trust him did not anticipate that in a few years Shima would control 37,000 acres in California and have 6,000 acres in his own holdings, and have established a large credit in California banks.

Last July Shima owned about a quarter of the 4,000,000 sacks of potatoes in California, and to-day he owns half of the 500,000 sacks unsold in the State.

Ready for the Golden Shore.

William Reid, a negro, who has lived in Red Bank, N. J., since he was mustered out of the Union army in 1865, celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday and vouchsafed the information that he had made preparations for a pleasant funeral.

He told his friends he dug his own grave in Whiteridge Cemetery, South Eatontown, four years ago, and that a slab now covers the space which he some day expects to fill.

During his spare moments he has constructed his own coffin, and this is stored with Reid’s favorite undertaker. Reid told his friends that while he was ready for the golden shore, he didn’t care how long the storage charges continued.

Unique Fire Tower in Forest.

Harry Childers, of La Pine, Ore., has been appointed fire guard by the forest service for the Rosland ranger station. The lookout at this station is one of the most unique in the State, being a 250-foot tower built on a big yellow pine. The trunk of the tree is divided about twenty feet from the ground and forms two parallel supports for the tower up to a height of nearly 200 feet. The lookout’s station in the top of the tower sways from two to ten feet in the wind.

Forty-one Years Postmaster.

John K. Gaither, for forty-one years postmaster at La Center, Wash., a few miles northeast of Ridgefield, will retire from the service as soon as Patrick M. Kane, recently appointed, can file his bond and get his commission.

Mr. Gaither, who is seventy-six years old, came west from Indiana in the year of 1873, and the following year was appointed postmaster. When he took over the La Center post office, there were only four patrons who subscribed for newspapers. Mr. Gaither is hale and hearty and active in several societies.

Jailer’s Order Kicked Back.

For permitting a prisoner to leave the jail before completing the reading of three chapters in the Bible, Jack Sheehan, warden of the city prison, in Johnston, Pa., was sentenced by Mayor Joseph Cauffel to read the same three chapters of the book of Corinthians. Sheehan did it.

J. R. Edwards had appeared before the mayor on a charge of having imbibed too freely. He was sentenced to read the three chapters aloud, and Warden Sheehan was delegated to listen to see that the sentence was fully complied with. Sheehan could not stand the prisoner’s reading and told him to go, it is alleged. Sheehan was then sentenced to do the reading.

Kentucky Woman, 112.

“Aunt Crissie” Stallard, who is probably the most noted woman in Kentucky, has just celebrated her one-hundred-and-twelfth birthday, and is still hale and hearty. “Aunt Crissie” was born in West Virginia and came to Kentucky at the age of twenty, and married James Stallard that same year. Her husband died twenty years later.

This aged woman has outlived all of her children except one who has been helpless for years. She is still living on her farm, near Hilliard, where she lived in 1823. She does all her own work—milking, gardening, getting her own firewood, just as she did back in the old days.

Her neighboring friends have offered to supply her with plenty of coal, but thus far she has repeatedly refused their offers. Aunt Crissie has a farm of 240 acres of land, with mineral and timber on it. Companies have offered large sums of money for the farm, but her reply is always the same: “I will never sell so long as I can provide for myself.”

Through High School at Ten.

Whitesburg, Ky., can perhaps boast of the youngest high-school graduate in the State. Miss Grace Newman, ten years old, daughter of Attorney J. H. Newman, of that place, is the heroine. Having entered the high-school examination at Whitesburg, and averaging among the best, she received her diploma and a good compliment. She is exceedingly small for one of her age.

Traded a Colt for 160 Acres.

Charles Watson, of Fort Scott, Kan., swapped a two-year-old colt for 160 acres of land in 1856, and the man rode the colt away because he feared Watson would go back on the deal. To-day the land is worth at least $16,000, and “Uncle Charlie,” as Watson is familiarly called, is rich. He is a veteran of the Civil War.

Thousand Killed in Mines.

More than 1,000 lives were lost in and about the mines of Pennsylvania in 1914, according to statistics made public by the state department of mines. Six hundred men and boys were killed in the anthracite mines—a reduction of twenty-four, compared with 1913—and 413 lost their lives in the bituminous regions—a decrease of 198, compared with the previous year.

The total production of coal in the State was 237,251,835 tons. The anthracite output amounted to 91,367,305 tons, a decrease of 259,659 compared with 1913, and the bituminous production was 145,884,530 tons, a decrease of 27,081,129 tons compared with the previous year. The number of persons employed in and about the mines last year was 376,831.

Some Quaint Tricks of the Numeral Nine.

There are some curious facts and fancies connected with numbers. The number nine is, perhaps, the first as regards such experiments, although number seven is more prominent in literature and history. When you once use it you can’t get rid of it. It will turn up again, no matter what you do to put it “down and out.”

All through the multiplication table the product of nine comes to nine. No matter what you multiply with or how many times you repeat or change the figures, the result is always the same.

For instance, twice nine equals eighteen; add eight and one, and you have nine. Three times nine equals twenty-seven; two and seven make nine again. Go on until you try eleven times nine equals ninety-nine. This seems to bring an exception. But add the digits—nine and nine make eighteen; and again, one and eight make nine. Go on to an indeterminable extent and the thing continues. Take any number at random. For example, 450 times nine equals 4,050, and the digits, added, make nine once more. Take 6,000 times 9, equals, 54,000, and again you have five and four.

Take any rows of figures, reverse the order, and subtract the lesser from the greater—the difference will certainly be always nine or a multiple of nine. For example, 5,071 minus 1,705 equals 3,366. Add these digits and you have eighteen, and one and eight make the familiar nine.

You have the same result no matter how you raise the numbers by squares and cubes.

One more way is given by which number nine shows its strange powers. Write down any number you please, add its digits, and then subtract the sum of said digits from the original number. No matter what numbers you start with, the sum of the digits in the answer will be nine.

Try these experiments, and you will be delighted with the exact manner in which they prove the statement. Some quaint puzzles have been made based on these fixed principles.

Launch New United States Ship in June.

The new superdreadnaught Arizona will be launched early in June. As soon as it takes the water, preparations will begin for the laying of the keel of the still greater superdreadnaught California. The launching of the Arizona is expected to prove one of the greatest naval celebrations in the history of New York.

Ninety-pound Voter, Still in Knee Pants.

John Smith, of Recluse, Miss., still in knee pants and weighing a little less than ninety pounds, is the smallest voter in the South. John attained his majority a few days ago and hastened to the depot for a ticket to Gulfport, the county seat, to get out his registration papers and be qualified as a full-sized man voter.

When he asked for the ticket, the agent handed him a child’s half-fare one. John was set back at this, but remarked that the agent didn’t know anything anyway. He would show them something when he came back from Gulfport.

When the conductor passed him in the train and shouted “Ticket, sonny!” John wanted to fight, but again he managed to control himself.

When he entered the court clerk’s office in Gulfport, he was asked:

“Want an errand boy’s job, kiddo?”

“No, dog-gone it,” yelled John, “I want to register.”

“The deuce you do,” shouted the clerk. But John submitted birth-registration papers and took oath as to his age. He was registered and now had the right to vote. His chest swelled.

Just at that time the candidate for next term of court clerk entered and said, “Hello, kid.” “Now, that’s where you lost a vote,” answered John indignantly. The candidate apologized when he learned the facts.

John, with his ninety pounds, knee pants, and registration papers, went back to Recluse. He now struts about the town discussing the tariff, the effect of the Mexican situation on the chances of the Democratic party, and everything his father talks about. And he doesn’t stand for any “kidding” about it, either.

Man Shows a Prophetic Egg.

J. P. Edwards was in Piggott, Ark., recently, showing a curious egg one of his hens laid the day before, and the exhibit surely aroused the most profound wonderment. The egg is an ordinary one in shape and size, but on the surface of the snow-white shell there appear to be faint maps of the eastern and western hemispheres. North and South America are intact, except a part of the extreme southern point, the Gulf of Mexico and Panama Canal being plainly shown.

On the eastern hemisphere everything looks as though having been torn by cyclonic winds and in danger of being scattered to the “four corners of the earth,” wherever they are.

Some say this freak egg is simply one result of the European war, earthquakes, land monopoly, et cetera. Those who are of prophetic vision see “signs” in this egg which prognosticate the future face of the world.

Girl Plumber-Butcher Quits Her Laundry.

“Cattle are more interesting than clothes,” says Miss Allie Pitts, of Eureka Springs, Ark., who has forsaken the butcher business to run a laundry. Miss Pitts is twenty-seven years old. She was accustomed to killing her own cattle and hogs when she was in the meat business. This summer she plans to quit the laundry, buy a cattle ranch, and ship her own stock to market.

Before she became a butcher Miss Pitts was a plumber. At an age when most girls are giggling over beaus and party dresses, this mountain girl was repairing broken water pipes and defective drains.

“I guess it’s because I’m just naturally odd,” she says bashfully when asked how she came to choose such odd professions. “I went to keeping books in a meat shop, and one day when the butcher was taken sick I offered to take his place. Then I bought a shop of my own in Granby, Mo. With the help of a man I employed I did all my own butchering, cutting up the beef, and rendering the lard. I knocked the animals in the head as they came down the runway. Oh, yes, I hated it at first, but I soon got used to it. Some way I hated worst to kill the hogs.

“Cattle are interesting,” she continued musingly; “much more interesting than clothes. I’m going back into the cattle business.”

The restrictions of corsets, high heels, and frills are unknown to this wholesome mountain girl. She dresses very plainly in a short, dark skirt, mannish waist and tie, and knockabout hat. She has mild blue eyes, curling dark hair, and talks with a little lisp.

Edison Will Make Benzol.

Another step for the manufacture of benzol in this country has been taken. Thomas A. Edison has opened a factory in Johnstown, Pa., for the manufacture of benzol from coal gas, a process never before developed in this country.

Carbolic acid and aniline dyes are made from benzol, which heretofore has come chiefly from Germany. Since the war there has been a great shortage of this product, and chemists and manufacturers have given much attention to producing it in this country. Recently Secretary of the Interior Lane announced that Doctor Rittman, one of the department’s chemists, had discovered a method of producing benzol from petroleum, and this week he announced that he had made arrangements with a manufacturing firm to use the Rittman method.

Rancher Battles with Trapped White Wolf.

John S. Sherrod, the rancher near Glenwood Springs, Col., who caught a huge white wolf in his traps near Fruita, was in Glenwood Springs and admitted having experienced a very thrilling time in connection with the wolf, and the near loss of his life in the Grand River.

The wolf was caught on the south side of the Grand River, and Sherrod had to cross in a boat. When landing on the north bank, the wolf sprang at the trapper, who grappled with the beast in order to save his life. The strain on the chain attached to the trap was too much with the two pulling on it, and it gave way, allowing the wolf and his captor to drop into the river, which is quite swift at this point.

Sherrod was almost drowned in his efforts to keep the wolf’s head under water, but he finally succeeded in besting the animal, which he pulled out on the bank and killed with a club.

The wolf’s pelt is worth one hundred dollars, and Sherrod seems to think he earned every cent of it.

Some Facts You May Not Know.

Among the rare specimens not open to public inspection in the Harvard Zoölogical Museum is what is asserted to be the largest frog in the world. It weighs about six pounds, is twenty-seven inches long from tip to toe, and of a slaty-black color. Its web feet are equal in size to those of a large swan. Only three of its kind have ever reached the United States.

The smallest cows in the world are found in the Samoan Islands. The average weight does not exceed 150 pounds, while the bulls weigh about 200 pounds. They are about the size of merino sheep.

The Siamese have a superstitious dislike of odd numbers, and they studiously strive to have in their own houses an even number of windows, doors, rooms, and cupboards.

There is a tribe of Indians in Mexico whose language is limited to about 300 words and who cannot count more than ten.

Next to the United States, Germany has the greatest number of telegraph offices and the largest line mileage.

Sugar exists in the sap of about 190 plants and trees.

The Chinese pupil reciting his lesson turns his back on the tutor.

Warships taking refuge in a neutral port are liable to be disarmed after twenty-four hours.

In some parts of Siberia milk is sold frozen around a piece of wood, which serves as a handle to carry it.

Herons, which average only four pounds in weight, often have been known to eat more than three pounds of fish at a meal.

In 1850 only one woman worked for wages to every ten men; now the ratio is one woman to four men.

His Second Fall Cures Him.

W. J. Parker, a Corunna, Mich., lawyer, unwittingly took the part of the wise man in the Mother Goose story, with results as satisfactory as the tale sets forth. He recently slipped on an icy sidewalk and sustained a sprain of his ankle that compelled him to hobble about on crutches.

On a recent evening when he started down cellar to fix the furnace fire, he slipped and fell downstairs, and when he picked himself up, found his ankle was all right again and that he could walk without crutches and without pain.

Surgeons who examined the ankle say the first fall caused an obscure dislocation and that the second one reduced it. Parker has discarded the crutches permanently.

Has Lived Seventy-two Years on Same Farm Land.

Luman Owen, resident of Oak Grove, Wis., who has lived on the same farm seventy-two years, says he is the oldest living white person in Wisconsin who was born in the Badger State.

“My father came to Oak Grove, Dodge County, with his family and took up land from the government in the fall of 1842, which is seventy-two years this last fall,” said Mr. Owen. “I have lived on that same land continuously ever since, and am the last survivor of the family of nine persons. However, this was not their first place of settlement in Wisconsin. They came to Waukesha in the fall of 1836, from Ogdensburg, N. Y., and were on a boat from the time they left Ogdensburg, until they landed in Milwaukee, seven weeks and four days. They could have walked the distance in less time than that.

“My father took up land from the government in Waukesha, then called Prairieville, and there, in the spring of 1837, I was born. In 1842 our family moved to Dodge County, and again took up land from the government, the patents for which are signed by President James K. Polk. There was no homestead law in those days. Land had to be bought from the government at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre.

“When we came here, this part of the country was wilderness, inhabited by wild animals and Indians, but it settled up fast, and as soon as people began to raise more than they wanted for their own use, the next thing was to get to market. We were sixty-five miles from Milwaukee, where all surplus farm products had to be hauled, and most invariably by an ox team, which was a long, tedious journey. If a man took in a load of produce to market and was fortunate enough to get a load of merchandise or immigrants or something of the kind to bring back, he would come out about even financially. But if he failed to get the load back, he would come home owing hotel bills along the road.”

Man Who Dumped Brewery is Dead.

Reverend Abraham de Kack, one-time prosperous brewer, who emptied the contents of his brewing plant into Grand River and later became a Methodist minister, is dead in Ionia, Mich., of pneumonia.

De Kack, more generally known as “De Quack,” and familiarly to his immediate circle of acquaintances as “Quackie,” which appellation is by no means lacking in the respect that it would seemingly fail to convey, was once a brewer in Holland, and later a celery grower, and finally a preacher of the gospel.

It was many years ago that De Kack brewed beer—it was considered good beer, too—but when he saw the harm that alcohol does, even in small amounts, he at once went to his little brewery, discharged the help, opened up the spigots of the beer vats, and, at the loss of a small fortune to himself, drained all the beer into the sewers. Then he became a minister.

It was a habit of De Kack’s to pay his hired help daily as far as possible, for he took seriously the biblical saying: “Owe no man.” Martin Dows, of Grand Rapids, one of De Kack’s employees, received his pay every night for twenty-nine years.

Old Nag Dies After Race.

After serving his master, Peter l’Heureux, of Marlboro, Mass., for the most of his twenty-six years of life, Mr. l’Heureux’s faithful family horse, either out of shame because he was beaten or because he felt bad about putting his owner out of pocket, turned around and died after he had just lost the second straight out of three heats in a race against the equine owned by Joseph Chaput on the Lakeside Avenue Straightaway.

For some time there had been arguments between the two men relative to the merits of their horses as “steppers.” It was decided to settle the matter. Bets were placed and all concerned repaired to the scene of contest. There were friends of both parties, probably 500 in all, assembled to see some free racing.

The distance was to be a quarter mile, best two heats out of three, and, after the stationing of officials, the race was on. L’Heureux’s horse was beaten by a good ten yards in the first heat and was a bad second in the next sprint. The animal was just turned round by the driver and headed in the direction of home when it suddenly pitched out of the shafts—dead.

“Boy” Prisoner Proves to be Married Woman.

After fraternizing with men prisoners in the jail and sharing a cell with Robert Stewart for several months, “Frank A. Dawson,” alias “Frank Morris,” of Oklahoma, arrested in Sutton, W. Va., on a charge of burglary, was found to be a woman.

Dawson, who appeared to be a youth of sixteen years, sent a note to Jailer Hyer, when her case was to have been called in court, and informed him that she was in disguise.

Dawson’s story was confirmed by a matron, and she further asserted that she is Mrs. Frank C. Dawson, of Clarksburg, and that she has a mother, brother, and a young child residing in that city.

Mrs. Dawson is a very pretty young woman. She and Stewart have occupied the same cell at night and she has daily associated with the other prisoners in the corridors. Stewart asserts that he was not aware of her sex.

According to the police, Dawson and Stewart are responsible for a number of daring burglaries in this vicinity, in which they are said to have made away with several thousand dollars’ worth of jewelry and valuables.

Boy Risks Life for Thirty-five Cents.

While Lee Mills, nineteen years old, was returning to his home in Webb City, Mo., from a “movie” show, at a late hour, two rough-bearded men stepped from behind the corner of a building, each holding an automatic revolver, and commanded “Hands up!” Instead of complying, young Mills, who was carrying an umbrella, used the latter as a “spear” and attacked the two holdup men. They opened fire upon him, but Mills, undaunted, continued to use his stout umbrella until he had put both men to flight. They fired many shots at him, but only one took effect, striking him in the right arm and passing through the fleshy part, without breaking any bones.

When young Mills was taken to a hospital for treatment, the doctor, thinking his patient must have a considerable sum of money with him to have put up so fierce a fight against such odds, asked him if he wanted his valuables taken care of.

“Oh, no,” replied Mills, “it isn’t necessary, as I only have thirty-five cents,” which statement proved true.

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$ OLD COINS WANTED. $4.25 EACH paid for U. S. Flying Eagle Cents dated 1856. All U. S. Large Cents, 1/2 Cents, 2c Pieces, 3c Pieces, Gold Dollars and Hundreds of other U. S. and foreign coins command a CASH premium. Send TEN cents at once for New Illustrated Coin Value Book, 4x7, showing GUARANTEED prices. Get Posted, it may mean your fortune. Clarke & Co., Coin Dealers, Box 67, Le Roy, N.Y.