Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 2, 1930)
Tie copper house A Detective Story BY JULIUS RECIS AUTHOR OF "NO 13 TOFONI" 1 On board the lighter, the flanking of machinery became audible, and the tow-line was last loose. The submarine shot twav, and steered for the open lea, leaving a white trail of foam in it s wake. The speed a tors began to run along the beach, and came out on the lit tle promontory. On land, the >olice had completed their 4round-up,” which yielded a larveat of fourteen abandoned, Rejected individuals, all cap tured unarmed, and asserting their innocence. But it looked is though their Ohief was to get away in spite of every thing. Waliion stoo 1 on the furthest point, looking out to »ea. “Fog!” lie remarked, la ionieally. t A dense, gray wall was ris ing out of the Baltic, and driv ing in towards the land. The submarine continued to steer east, at full speed, leaving the lighter to shift for itself; both entered the fog-belt, and dis appeared. Robert. Lang reproached himself bitterly for his rc tnissncsa, but Wallion said: “You couldn’t have known It, and besides, what matter if he slips through our fingers for the lime being? He lias . nothing left to hope for. . ]Io spoke in a low tone, and without shifting his gaze from the sea. Was he waiting for lomething? Ten minutes passed. Then the sea of fog was tinged with « sudden crimson glow, which loomed to come from a point du e east, of the outlying | Islands. A deafening and pro longed ex plosion rent the air; then darkness settled down tgain, and silence reigned once more over the sea. They looked at one another. “A mine explosion?” sug gested some one. “The submarine!” cried Robert, Lang. “It came from that, direction. A catastrophe must have occurred on board.” “Or—something else!” cried Wallion. “Ortiz went on • board as a defeated man—and Rnstakov’s comrades. . .” He bent his head and turned u way. “It is Into. Let us go.” Tivo days later, quite a lit tle company was .assembled in Lawyer Burchardt’s office. There were Leonard Grath, Lena Ivanovna, Sonia and Sergius. The lawyer trotted up and dotvn his sunny room, and looked incessantly at the clock. All faces were cheer ful and free from anxiety, but a certain solemnity pervaded the atmosphere, and nobody seemed inclined to talk. Twelve o’clock struck, and the lawyer stopped his pacing, and looked expectantly at the door. It opened, and admitted Maurice Wallion in travelling costume. “Good morning,” he said, with a smile. “I have to go abroad this afternoon, so you must excuse me if I seem a lit tle hurried.” He shook hands with every body, and gave Loo a small packet, saying as ho did so: “Take back your property; it is an atonement from a man who is sincerely repentent.” t. The young man opened the parcel, and colored with aston ishment. “The mortgages on the Top per House!” he exclaimed. • “Yes,” answered the jour nalist, smiling. “Take them, you deserve a reward after all you have gone through, but ask no questions.” He turned to Lona Ivanovna. “I have a message for you. You know that Marcus Tnssler quitted the Copper House when Ortiz threatened your son’s life. From that minute, be became another man, and fled from Ortiz’ neighbor 29 hood, never to return. He . wishes me to tell von that he regrets the past, and that you will never see him again.” The old Russian lady ap peared deeply moved. “Did you go and look for him?” “Yes, 1 have had a talk with him.” “And—you let him go?” “Yes, lie is broken and changed. \Ye must be merci ful. . . .” The old lady bowed. “I thank you,” she said simply. “f have another very impor tant piece of news for you,” i Wallion continued.. “Raebel and 1, with the help of certain interested persons in various quarters, have settled the ques tion of Tarrascliin’s memoran dum, which is now in the hands of its rightful owner. Yes, Sergius Tnssler, you must forgive me, but you know you had really no right to it at all! You shall not be a loser in the matter. I am authorized to in form the Bernin family • that they are at liberty to return to Russia.” lie smilingly deprecated their delighted expressions ot’ gratitude, and continued: “This brings the whole matter to a definite conclu sion. Gabriel Ortiz’ gigantic ‘coup’ has failed, and he him self has vanished without leaving any trace. I suppose you have seen the notices in the newspapers about the mys terious mine-explosion? That’s the end of a many-sided ad venture. By special request from an influential quarter, no official report will be pub lished. The fourteen men who were .arrested will be de ported. Whatever the future holds, my friends, none of you will ever hear anything more of Gabriel Ortiz.” lie was silent for a little. “Jle was a man, after all!” he added, but he saw that none of them quite understood him. Sonia had clasped Sergius’ hand, and regardless of them all, was pressing it to her cheek. Wallion bowed gal lantly to her. I wish yau a happier and brighter future," he said, smiling; “you are worthy of it!" With these words, he left the room, and they looked after him with a pang of re gret in the midst of their hap piness, for they felt that they were losing a friend, and that his path might never again cross their own. —0— A letter from Maurice Wal lion to the author, dated Mon treal, July 20th, 11)18. “My dear Author, “I suppose it must be! Tell what happened at the Copper House in your own way; of course, there will be more fic tion than fact, but that can’t be helped. “You can say that I was mistaken as I have never been mistaken before; (except in the case of Madame Loretta Chandeloup, whose story I will tell you some day). I be lieved that Gabriel Ortiz could be conquered, and I was wrong. The man died uncon quered. I salute his memory; I could have wished to be his friend. “Don’t forget to lay stress upon one thing; that two im portant points in this mad ad venture have never been cleared up. First, what be came of all that was left of Ortiz’ millions? They disap peared. as though by magic, from the banks, between the 10th and 20th of July, 1917. The Whirlpool engulfed them, and it is a mystery to me what became of them. “The second point is: is Ga briel Ortiz really dead? What THE MASTER MAN BY RUBY M. AYRES Author of •‘The Phantom Lovor," “The G!rl Next Door," etc. Tliey had turned in at the little station yard, and Patri cia had thrown open the low door of thp ear and tried to get out before he had brought it to a standstill. “Do you want to break your neck?” he asked angrily. She turned stormy eyes on him. “You wouldn’t rare if I did.” she said. “1 believe you’d be glad.” Mllward laughed outright. The ear was at a standstill now, and he took her dressing ease and followed her into the station. “You’ll have to hurry—the train is in,” he said. He found a carriage for her and deposited the ease on the rack. There was only a moment before the train started. Milward stood at the open door, a little breathless with his hurry. “Goodbye, and try to for give me,” he said. Patricia ignored his offered hand. “I hope I shall never see you again,” she said. lie stood back from the door as the train began to move. “Oh. I think you will,” lie answered easily. CHAPTER II. “But it’s monstrous—mon strous!” said Patricia. She leaned forward, her hands clutching the arms of the big chair in which she sat, and stared at the man who had just finished reading from the pile of papers on the table before him. Her face was colorless and her beautiful eyes blazed. “He must have been mad,” she said again hoarsely. “He always told me that every thing would he mine—every body knew it!” She tried to laugh. “Oh, there’s some mis take, of course; there must he another will.” Mr. Phillips shrugged his shoulders. “I am afraid there is no mis take,” lie said, with unwonted gentleness. “This will was only made a month ago, and Mr. Rolf knew quite well what he was doing. It was a sur prise to me, I admit. I always looked upon you as his heiress —everybody did. I had no idea that Mr. Rolf had ever in tended to change his will. I most certainly had no idea that his son was still Jiving.” Patricia leaned back again actually happened that night out in the Baltic? The red glare haunts me! “You know that Russia is still suffering. Kerensky’s fall soon succeeded that of Ortiz; neither of them was strong enough to steer the drifting ship, which still awaits its master-pilot. Bolsheviks, Cze cho-Slovaks, monarchists, and foreign powers are injuring themselves without gaining one atom of honor or happi ness in exchange for all the blood they are shedding. Ts Ortiz still behind the scenes? Has he risen from his grave to play the ‘grand jeu,’ I can not tell. You may say: after all, he was only a grain of dust in the whirlpool. Possi bly. Has not a grain of dust been able to change the course of the world before now? “It is just a year today since I fought him at the Cop per House for Tarrasehin’s memorandum. Somehow I feel that I shall see him again; I would stake my life on itT “Good-bye, and, perhaps, ‘an revoir’l “In haste, between two ad ventures, “Yours very sincenjy, “Maurice Wallion.” THE END. 1 in her chair; she felt faint and giddy. ‘‘1 don’t believe he is alive,’ she forced herself to say. “I believe it's all some cruel joke —he was always cruel! He told me himself that his son had died years ago. He never spok* of him. Oh, I am sure that it cannot he true.” Mr. Phillips did not answer lb* felt very sorry for this girl He had done his best to per suade his client, to leave her al least a small income. lie re called his own indignant words now as he looked at Patricia’s stunned face: ‘‘You have brought her up in luxury; you have encour aged her in extravagant tastes for 14 years, and now you leave her without a penny! What will become of her? What can she do?” And a little shiver of dis taste shook him as he remem bered Peter Rolf’s mirthless laugh as he had answered: “She can go back to where she came from; it will do her good. She never showed me any affection—I owe her no consideration. Now, then, are you going to draw up that will, or shall I get someone else to do it?” Peter Rolf had always been a determined man, and, even while he made bis protest, Mr Philips had realized its hope less futility. So the will had been made, leaving everything to this son whom everybody had believed to be dead. It seemed a gross injustice. Mr. Phillips thought, as he looked at Patricia. He won dered what she would say if she could know how Peter Rolf had chuckled to think of hei discomfort when the terms of his will became known. He said again, gently: “1 hoped to be able to make him change his mind, or at least, to leave you something. Miss Rolf, but—” , Patricia turned on him furi ously. , “Don t call me Miss Rolf— don’t call me by' his name; I won t have it. He must al ways have hated me—I am sure now that he did.” Her voice trembled suddenly. “What do you suppose will be come of me? What in the wide world can 1 do?” The lawyer, cleared his throat nervously. “ ^ on will probably marry,’ he said, courteously. “And. of course, young Mr. Rolf will see that something is done to provide for you; I am sure that he will do so.” She laughed scornfully. “If he is anything like his father, he will hate me, too,” she said. “Do you know him? Where is he now? And does he know about—about this— l injustice?” “1 have not seen him or hoard anythin# of him since he wont away, 15 years ago. 1 always understood that he was dead. I can assure you that it was as much 3f a surprise to me as—” She interrupted impatiently: ‘‘But now — where is iie now?” “In Australia.” “And he knows — about this?” Mr. Phillips shook his head. “I wrote—at Mr. Rolf’s wish as soon as this will was made, but he cannot vet have got the letter. I have sent a cable, of course. He will probably sail for England at once, but even then it will be six or seven weeks before he can possibly get here.” ‘ And in the meantime what am I to do? Where ain I tc go?” (TO B» CONTINUED) -- M In Bath, England, water Is stil) flowing through the lead pipes that were used in Roman times. u“'- .Whole System Putrid. A Prom New York World. Tft fell to Senator George of ' Georgia to make the really final • comment on the affair of Senator Bingham and Mr. Eyanson. The nmj'orf of the Caraway committee as ^STif wrpectcd, confined itself to facts 'without censure.* In debate. Mr. Caraway ably brought out the im propriety of introducing a salaried agent of local interests into the group of senators drafting a great national measure to see that these local intertsts were g'ven the special privileges they craved. But Senator George went beyond this In showing hew the episode is typical of the whole selfish "system” by which tar iff legislation is drawn and passed. The system comprises a broad interlocking structure of devices— pressure, manipulation and log rol | iir.g—by which powerful economic groups get special privileges, sub sides and exemptions at the public expense. They bring.almost irresist ible inlluence to bear on senators and representatives. Their lobbyists besiege congressional committees where the agents of the consumer are never, and of the farmer seldom, heard. We have seen how they worm their way into the committee room to influence rates. They raise huge campaign funds, as Mr. Grundy calmly admits he did, in the expectation of reciprocal tariff fa vors; and when the campaign is over they proceed to collect just as a business man does on a promissory note. They arrange lcg-rolling deals by which one interest trades votes with another to gain selfish ends of both. As the eider La Follstte said of Aldrich in his autobiography, they convert legislators who are sup posed to look at the national inter est into well rewarded attorneys fcr local and special interests. It is a consolation to think that the ‘system” is be^ng more effect ively shown ud this year than even when La Follette, Beveridge and Dolli-jr exposed the Aldrich bill, or when Senator Quay was forced to admit speculating on his inside knowledge of pending tariff changes As various senators said *he pending bill has fallen under * «iadow ol. general discredit. A little m-rfre, ano public disgust will make it possible tc do away with the system entirely and resort to the sane type of alter native procedure which Governo’ Smith outlined a year ago. Q. Is poor eyesight a commor failing? D W. A. It is estimated that at leas cne person out of four, has vision defective enough not to be able to do close work without serious eyt 'train. OF INTEREST TO FARMERS ■ mm i i m 1« i i — iMi NEW ERA IN BEEF PRODUCTION We are m a new day of be;! pro duction. In thio new era here in the Middle West we are taking much of the speculative element out of beef-cattle feeding. The young, early maturing, fed-fiom-birth-to-market babv beef is definite'/ and finally replacing the older, heavier cattle. Baby-beef production is taking the gamble out of cattle feeding. With the old system of buying and feeding out heavy cattle, a feed er hesitated to make the venture un less he felt confident of a wide mar gin. Even then he could not be sure of the outcome of the enterprise. It was this type of feeding which gave the cattle-feeding game the gamb ling reputation. In order to help meet this chang ing condition and to aid farmers with the newer system of cattle feeding, we have built a part of our animal husbandry extension work around a state-wide car-lot baby beef feeding contest for the last two years. We have just completed the second of these contests. Out of these contests we have derived some valuable lessons. First of all, we have found some most efficient baby-beef producers. J. H. George, Corning, la., who has wen the contests in both years, has been able to make his whole car loads of calves gain almost a pound and a half a day from the day they were born until they went to mar iet. weighing 1,000 to 1,100 pounds it 13 to 15 months of age. One point driven home by the rontests is the heavy losses incurred from diseases, some of which are easily preventable. For example, line out of 50 farmers who en ;ered the first contest had to drop )ut because of the losses from blaok eg. This was amazing, for a safe, :asy, inexpensive and sure method las been in use for some years in oreventing this disease. The pre ventive, of course, is vaccination. The contests also have showed ;hat heifers are not so good feeders as steers, on the whole. The heif ers averaged 7 per cent lighter than the steers in the state contest. It has been urged that it Is wise to castrate and dehorn feeder calves while hey are young. That this is good policy has been demonstrated in the contests. Another outstanding lesson from these contests has been the differ ence in cows and bulls to transmit the ability to their progeny of mak ing good use of their feed. In the same herd, calves from certain cows forge far ahead of others by the some sire. All, of course, had an equal chance. Why should we not work out, as Is obviously needed, some kind of record of performance for beef cat tle to measure their productive abil ity, such as we have had for 50 years with dairy cattle? OLD METHODS VS. NEW We frequently come across some one who knows of some new and bee ter way of doing things. Every where there are new inventions and improvements, many of which can * not be patented, but which never theless are going to have a lot of influence on our ways of doing busi ness. Most people do not realize how rapid has been the change in our ways of feeding both human beings and animals. High powered advertising has so shell-shocked us that sometimes we fail to recognize the truth merely because it is shouted at us too loudly. Cod-liver lil and Vitamin D have undoubt ;dly revolutionized the poultry busi ness. The mixing of tankage with vlfalfa meal, linseed oil meal, min erals and other feeds has made the vinter feeding of hogs far more profitable. Trapnesting and selec tion have made the White Leghorn into an extraordinary egg machine. Of course, in the machinery world changes are stealing up on us all the time. It was only a few years ago that a tractor was developed to cultivate three or four rows of corn at a time, and now we have suc cessful two-row tractor corn pickers, which, in good corn, have husked over 1,500 bushels of corn in a day. Some farmers are actually produc ing their corn and small grain with only about one half as much labor as they used to require. Of course, the saving in labor Is offset to some extent by the Increased outlay in machinery. In fact, these wonder ful new' inventions oftentimes cost more than they are worth during the first few years after their in 1 troduction. But after a short time they are either improved or the price is cheapened, and the result is that thousands of farmers find that they can out-compete their neighbors by using the new devices. The inven tive urge is in the air, and this means that all of us must be on our toes continually, reading the pa pers, attending fann demonstra tions, talking to machinery people, and learning from county agents. It also means thait some of us must be on our guard not to spend too much money on things which have not yet been fully proved. Others of us must be on our guard against the inclination to stay in the old rut long after it has been proved possible to make more money by the new methods. BLUE RIBBONS In our rush for egg production, meat quality and so-called utility characteristics of poultry, there has been a growing tendency to disre gard the finer points of breed, type and color and those characteristics of beauty and refinement which go to make up a pure-bred bird. We must not lose sight of size, type, color and purity of breeding, or we will find ourselves a nation with mongrel poultry. We are just en tering the show season. For the next two or three months, fall and winter shows will be held in almost every community throughout the nation. These exhibitions offer an opportunity for every poultryman to enter his birds or products, and the results can be used by him as a —a— — - ... ■ measure of his proficiency in breed ing, feeding ana management. There is no greater incentive to any poul try keeper than the blue riooon. It isn't only the fun and pleasure of winning, but it is the wonderful educational opportunity which the poultry show offers to study the methods of different breeders and irom such study measure the effi ciency of one’s own operations. The race for a maximum number of eggs has led us into dangerous practices, which have resulted in a decrease in weight and size of our birds, and consequently a decrease in the size of the eggs produced. They have also given us a poultry population which is way off color in many breeds from what the standard re quirements call for, and there ha3 been a rapid deterioration in shape and type. The greatest benefit that could happen to the poultry indus try of the nation would be ' for greater attention to be paid to some of these fundamental breed char acteristics. The forthcoming poul try shows offer the best opportunity of getting such improvements under way. -- CONDITIONING PULTJETS Pullets just coming into full lay ing condition are in a peculiar con dition physically. In cne way, thej are or should be, at their best, vigorous, strong and full of health But in another way they arc just passing from a growing stage intc an entirely new phase of living, tin laying stage, wherein new function* within their bodies begin to appear tied up closely with the nervou* system, the digestive system and th* like. In this delicate physical con dition they are very susceptible t« environmental conditions and treat ment. They must be handled wit It a full appreciation of this fact. Th* pcultryman must be ready to pro tect his pullets at this time, and recall that this change in theii existence comes just as the weathei grows wilder, the temperature drops winds blow, and snow- comes. Thj first step lies in getting the matur ing pullets into good flesh and up to weight before forcing them for winter egg yield. If on examina tion of the good pullets as they come into winter quarters the flock is not in good flesh, heavier grain feeding especially yellow corn, should be practiced to gain the sur plus of flesh and fat that will be needed as the birds progress through a long season of egg pro duction. It will, net pay to get a few early eggs by premature forc ing, and have to accept short sea son of yield as a result of the pul lets not having sufficient strength to stand up under the strain. FEEDING NURSING SOWS The spectacle of a bunch of squealing pigs trying vainly to-tug life and nourishment from a half starved sow which is compelled to subsist on straight corn and water is still too common a sight through out the corn belt. Milk is an idea! feed for the young growing animal. Corn is a feed unsurpassed for fat : tening purposes, but unsurpassed for fattening purposes, but notor iously deficient in the flesh and bone building substances. A sow cannot secrete milk on corn alone because corn does not possess the food materials out of which milk is made. It is not necessary to follow any one system or method of feeding to obtain good results with the nursing sow. The feed may be self or hand fed, dry, wet or soaked, with little fidderence. The essential thing is to supply liberally feeds that make a complete and balanced ration. Hhere are some samples of good rations: (1) Four parts of corn, two parts cf ground oats, one part of wheat middlings, and 10 parts of skim milk or buttermilk, by weight. (2.) Eight parts of com, two parts of ground oats, one part of best grade tankage or fish meal, and green forage or fine quality alfalfa had. (3.) Eight parts of ground oats or barley, two parts of wheat, shorts, one part of tankage and linseed oil meal half and half, and half a pari of alfalfa meal. A good mineral mix ture, such as equal parts by measure of bone meal, limestone dust, wood ashes and salt, should be available for nursing sows. .BOVINE “T. B.” ERADICATION. Those who have objected to th* program of eradicating bovine tu berculosis and held that it was im possible to eradicate this disease, must get little comfort out of th* results which are being obtained Much evidence can be cited to show how erroneous the reasoning is oi those who would let bovine tuber culosis run its course. Many state* offer substantial evidence that tu, berculosis is on the decrease and notwithstanding the imperfection ot the tuberculin test, real progresi is being made in subduing this cat; tie disease. A report from one west ern agricultural college states tha> in one county in their territory les* than .07 of 1 per cent of the ani mals are affected. Th'5 is almost absolute eradication. Nearly 12.00C cattle were tested and only 9 re actors found. In another county where 32,000 cows were tested, only 212 reactors were found, when on first test there were nearly 1,500. In other words, the percentage of in fection in this oounty on the first test was 4.78 per cent, while cn the second test it was only 0.66 per cent, W> hear some say that the tuber culin test does not reveal the dis eased animals To this it can ba stated that the animals slaugh tered from these sections show a marked decrease in tuberculosis. In fact, in some sections scarcely any diseased animals are found upcn slaughter at the packing nouses. A DUCKLING RATION The best food for the new hatchew ducklings is bread moist ened with milk, with a little fine ; grit and powered charcoal sprinkled on it. LANTERNS IN HEN HOUSE There Is no question but what providing the laying flock with a 12-hour day throughout the winter oy means of artificial light at the beginning or end of the day, or both, pays under western conditions. More and more farm flocks are be .ng thus helped to make the best of warm houses and good rations dur .ng the months of short days. Gen erally, providing the poultry house with lights has been assumed to go hand in hand with electricity on the farm. But as yet a compara tively small per cent of farms are electrically equipped. During the last two years I have visited at j least a dozen farms, says an investl ' gation of poultry l'fare, where It : was called to my attention that lanterns had been used to furnish 1 light for the chicken house. In most i cases, these were gasoline lanterns, | although I know at least one farm woman reported the use of an oil ! pressure kerosene lamp. If equipped with reflectors of the right sort ana hung in the right part of the poultry house, these lanterns have proved a safe and desirable sort of light. For those without electricity, this sort of lighting for the poultry ' house is worth investigation and f trial.