wmKxrrr" '.uiss'l,*'. i -■ u wwuj,wa« THREE PROPOSALS. i. OW many lumps?" nhe asked anxious ly, “one, two, three?” She holds my fate with my cup in her fair hands. I see the slow Juices of the Flori da cane rising from the moist earth un der the sun’s com pelling kiss. I hear a rustling among the yellow stalks of sorghum as the wind waves their silken tassels. Vis ions of blood rod beets, dissolved In the Ichor of their souls, visit me. Verily, all these htc sugar. And yet- these are not all! "Three,” I make shift to reply, re garding her gravely as she poises the old Dutch sugar tongs tentatively over my cup. As she offers the Assam-Pekon In Its Jeweled bauble of a chalice, a wave of the fragrant liquor overflows upon my wrist. "Oh, I have hurt you!" she cries. "Irremediably," I reply. The word, as I utter It, sluggers with significance. Hhe lifts her eyes, under puzzled brows, to mine. “Surely," she hazards, softly, "the pain will noun he gone?" "It Is undying," I uver solemnly, "and yet," I add, “I cherish It.” “Then I may give you another brim ming cup, since you woo pain?” Alas, might silo not have said more truly, "Since you woo painfully." "No, I will have no more tea." "I may give you coffee, then?” "Nor coffee." "Chocolate?" I for hand rests upon the fantastic lid of the silver box which eontaink the perfumed powder. She has lifted the carved handle of an apos tle spr.on to her lips. At the sight my passion breaks its bounds. I bend over her until my breath Htirs the lock of hair in [to warm noting place on the nape of her white neck. vim c'ii’duu (i /Iniitl nrtntttln with a living disciple so near?" I whis per. Her answer cornea so low that I am fain to nsk for it ugaln, and yet again. I^ie apostle hears it, and laughs In his lontf heard. h'ur has not he, too, been kissed? II. A shadow from the old ehureh lower fails upon two figures, the shadow of a trot*. Within their walled garden mission priests chant midnight prayers for souls In purgatory, Betty's black eyes burn, her breath comes fust; she Is young and bold. As she leans against a slender -ot tnuwood, the south wind whispers to Its heart shaped leaves, and the girl thrills frith the tree's tremulous reply. Or do her pulses march with her lover's at the touch of his arm against her sleeve? "Betty?” 'The pan stoops to the black eyes, out of which there leaps a sudden fire— nearer 40 the red lips, ripe as the blos som of a cactus. Krom a clump of high sage, ghostly gray even in the splendor of the night's high noon, the soul of the hour speaks in an owl's cry, once, twice, three limes, the thick, soft, echo less notes robbing It, In a breath, of all Its safety and sweetness. "They passed me in the canon. I crouched behind a bowlder and heard them curse each other for having lost my trail." The man shakes his shoulders at the recollection. In the luminous lmze which has overspread the sky. the scar let handkerchief about his throat changes oddly to the likeness of a gap ing wound. He takes the girl's dusky face be ifi VWIIIIIIlA I'ilfrr . • MY WOMAN. BY TIIK LORD.'* twuc Ins baud* and toMtrcbc* u avid tou*ly. "You lav * pm. HMiy!'' A* |i«r waim utouth ut««M th* pa* •i»u ut blit. » t>a»»ti!R cloud upon tb mnvb'» lair '»«* blot* out «mm arm o th. ct'ntBlt. *>> that th* pair .Sand tv lot.gar in tb* .Uadu* w! a vroo*. but a * M'tb*' I bv girl do*a not iu4'h li. nor It** tb* - It by put smug luotitrp* wbb’l Mo* . a tb* *b*tt*r of a ptuj*<-t|*g an gl. of th* wall, n* b*r U «*r «bi»p*r» Alt** or 1 hoard They stay in this way for set | rial weeks, warming up to some ei > ' tent, and this fermentation Is nevestwr I to complete the ripening and to develw the fragrance and flavor, Alter agat f I taring dried by hanging a few days or la i tng spiel to chick th« farm.-Hienui • th» hands are packed In tight bud where they Anally t'ttlf 4114 lit* t&flU * marketable or usable Nothing ware * needed for use Hut It Is a romnoi pi e i e fug h"t*>e u*> to dt|( the |eli In aw wet water ur diluted motwasee as II twist them into a,sort of short rope j doubting them and thus waking mu. • hr ward In this con.lit ton for wsukit or vh«*tng Hug tohaiet u made I laying the leave* stripped troin tl gftM sad dieted In sweetened Wats j ■lovdi'at.lv moulds and pcesatwg the wader 4 heavy pfeaa t dwl by a acre1 w mitt they be* om* solM *k*a Verne • flavoring ti'tffe are weed by the naan It lac t 4iVt« «f »••*•* *0 * flat pats. *t Always Went Straight to ttailing ha*hi Uatawta nha ,« j .bail | say uow • Hat per , lta« r ! ||e | undereiend lb rthhler he m 1 m«.J« * Mg hit With Ms navel | did a i i lust he ••• clever'* She Its Ian It { rtever h* • shrew! Il'l . ba»wt wi * ) gun I tath *'u»tt nntthiag but, by.wt-a, 1 - Philadelphia R**ofd IT HAS iNO POWER. OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF IN TER-STATE COMMERCE COMMISSION. Th«« llo«ly Cannot I Is Frp||{ht nr !*•»» Ningpr Charters Without Farther Au thority from CongreM— What the Coniinltftlon Hays Ahont It. The Supreme Court of the United States decided !n May last. In what Is known as the Freight Bureau cases, "that under the Interstate commerce act the commission has no power to prescribe the tariff of rates which shall control In the futuro," and "that Con gress has not conferred upon the com mission the legislative power of pre Fcrlblng rates either maximum or min imum or absolute." This decision was rendered In cases where the commission had held the rates complained of to be unreasonable and unjust In violation of the Inter state commerce law, had found what rates would bo reasonable and Just, and bad ordered the carriers to ceuse and desist from charging moro than the reasonable rates so determined. That the commission was authorized to require carriers not to make higher charges than those shown and found to be reasonable In cases Investigated by tt had been generally believed, and the commission had In that way en forced the provision In the law for "reasonable and Just rates" since Its organization. The commission has recently. In an opinion by Chairman Morrison, ren dered a decision In a case against the l.ureka Springs Ity. Co., Involving the I reasonableness of rates complained of. ! In the concluding portion of this decl ■ sion the ruling of the Supreme Court ! In the Freight Bureau Cases Is ills j tinned, and uicnllon Is there made also i of a prior Supreme Court decision ! Iri the "Social Circle Case," which re ! ferred In an ambiguous way to the 1 power of tlie commission in respect to future rates. The commission says: "While thus deciding that under the interstate Commerce Act, power to prescribe rales which shall control In the future has In no case been given to the commission, It is conceded that the act has given the commission power 'to determine what in reference to the •past was reasonable and just, whether is maximum or minimum or absolute, rates. How this power to say what was reasonable and Just In the past will benefit the public, correct any abuse, be of any advantage or afford any relief to shippers who are made to pay whatever unreasonable rates and charges the carriers may In the future establish or continue to exact, Is a matter about which the court gives no information.” In the “Social Circle ease” the court said: “The reasonable ness of the rate In a given case de pends on the facts, and the function :jf the commission Is to consider the ■ facts and give them their proper i weight. What Is their proper weight ; which can he given them us to the | past? For what purpose is the com i mission to consider them? How can the fact that the rates were unreason able and unjust in the past be given or have any weight while like unreasonable and unjust rates are, and may continue to be, exacted In the future? In this i case the court adopted the view of the late Justice Jackson that 'subject to the two leading prohibitions that their charges shall not be unjust or unrea sonable, and that they shall not un justly discriminate so as to give undue preference or advantage or subject to undue prejudice or disadvantage per sons or traffic similarly circumstanced the Act to Regulate Commerce leaves common carriers as they were at com UIWU inn. “We are here advised that the act to regulate commerce subjected common carriers to two leading prohibitions to which they were not subject at com mon law, one of which Is that their charges shall not be unjust or unrea sonable. Until the court decided to the contrary in the Freight Bureau cases it wus believed that this prohi bition meant that the charges of com mon carriers shall not be unreasonable and unjust In the future or after the time the act was passed. In these lat ter eases the court says: 'The fset that ! the carrier Is given the power to es i tabllsh rates In the first instance, and the right to change, and the conditions | of such i linage specified. Is irresistible i evidence that this action on the part of the carrier Is not subordinate to ! and dependent upon the judgment of ; the commission.' liut it Is nowhere j decided or claimed that under the In terstate commerce or other act the ' right of the carrier to estahlUh and to change Its rates Is subordinate to or dependent upon the Judgment or ae i tlon of any other tribunal, and freed j from (he Judgment and made Inde pendent of the 1-iinmlssluli. Interstate renders are not subject to any provl i dun of lit requiring their rates and chargee to be just or reasonable.'* "The llret eretl»n of ibe ad to regu late commerce provides that all charges tiiada for any transportation service shall be reasonable aid Just, •nd every unjust and unreasonable charge for such service Is prohibited and de* fared to be unlawful.* Under lh# decision of the Supreme Court no ctvatge tor iisb set v lee la prohibited Keweoaable and Joel rales are content plated, not required " > | "Under the law sw quMtrued. the contact salon baa power tu say what ia I reaped la Ibe past was uareasons;tle and unjust. bur *» to rales i rtiMpialaed of II unreasonable I uajuet and ttalawfwl, and m found b i i« in ibe rate under son rid- ration 1 lh# s-.>nmtminn ran male no peer isms * . it order t 'i lb-dr reduciian which I Its 1 courts are required la endures nr the carriers are obliged to obey. Having, In the light of these decisions, given the facts due consideration, we ascer tained, found and reported the rates which would be reasonable from and to St. Louis, Springfield and Seligman, Mo., to and from Kureka Springs, Ark., nnd have recommended that the car riers reduce and conform their charges to the farts so found and reported. This recommendation may Impress the car riers only an may seem to accord with their own IntereHta, since In the present state of tho law, as declared by the court, common carriers have the power to establish, change and exact rates Independent of the Judgment of the commission.” "The court roncedes to the commis sion power under tho Interstate com merce act ‘to determine what, In refer ence to the past, was reasonable and Just.' In the eaae under consideration, the commission has determined that tho rates complained of and which are now charged by the defendants, wero in the past and are now unjust, un reasonable and In violation of the statute, Tho duty of notifying and requiring the defendants to cease and desist from such violations Is enjoined upon the commission by the act.” It Is evident from this oSIcial state ment by the commission that shippers and travelers are deprived under the ruling of the Supreme Court of their supposed right to compel through the commission the adoption by rullroad carriers of ascertained reasonable charges, and that they can only recov er such right by securing favorable action In Congress. VACATION SCHOOLS IN CITIES. A few years ago It would have seem ed odd to choose I lie close of summer nir ii review oi educational progress. Hut the summer schools have changed all that. Nowadays much of the best work lu education Is done In summer. Moreover, u new kind of summer school, very interesting In many ways, has lately come into notice. In the summer of 1894 The New York Association for Improving the Condi tion of the Poor began on a largo scale the experiment of vacation schools, for the children of the tenements. Kdu catlon was not the sole purpose of the enterprise, which was, In fact, closely akin to fresh air funds and other schemes for brightening the lives of the boys and girls crowded In the nar row streets and stifling houses of the poorer quarters of the city. The Department of Schools and Kd ucatton granted the use of three cool, roomy grhoolhouses, and the managers undertook the task of coaxing the chil dren Into them. Books wore discarded. The children wore invited to come anil play. (Jrad ually the play was made work, but work of such a sort as to keep the pupils Interested and pleased. All the devices of the kindergarten were em ployed. There were singing, dancing and gymnastics. The children were taught to play at sewing, at carpeting, ut drawing and clay-modeling. Some of them learned something useful; and ull were comfortably and cleanly housed during the school hours, and kept off the hot streets and away from vicious associations. There lias been no trouble about get ting the children to come since they have found out what, the vacation schools are like. The average dally at tendance during the first summer was nearly one thousand. The second sum mer It was more than three times as great. During the session just closing eleven schoolhouses were used, and the average attendance during the first week wus more than six thousand. The cost per day for each child was about eleven rents and a half In 1894; in 1896. by better management, it was reduced to less than five cents. The officers of the association main tain that the vacation schools are no longer an experiment, and accordingly they ask the city to make the system a part of its educational work. Other cities have done something in the same direction, but nowhere else has the plan been worked out so fully us in New York. IteiuemUer lint t'liOUreu. "Don't ride roughshod over the chil dren's tastes and preferences," says u motherly woman, writing of dress. "It Is an old time notion that a little con sultation and yielding here panders to vanity. Our tastes do not come upon us like a birthday gift at sixteen. It ta attention uud skillful pruning, not a snip at every turn, that develops the little girl's crudities Into a woman's delicate tastes. Ifcin't drive the little girl into self-conscious awkwardnriat by compelling her to wear something that some twist of childish faury ren ders hateful." 8t. laiul* illobs1-Demo crat. Oaltimore supplies the shops of all ■ nations with saiia. That etiy is the | center of the cotton duck Industry uf ; tke world, and not only furnishes sails ' fur feu sign nartea. kut tenia for Ktr | sign arm lea. tke ptoda* turn uf tta ! |art** factories being greater Iksu Ilia ! product uf sit etket facturlea in tka 1 world combined It ta a strict rule wttk Iks ktg trane ! sits trite *item*hip cowgante* that lk« ' a .ts of tke saprsiu sfcatt net ttarcl In ' his skip. Tke tugpualthin ts tknt if I asytblag should happen ta tka skip, : ilia rapt sin ta*i«ad of atlsading la kta patrlte duty •« «14 foul* kit atteatlon aualatjr la the safety ef kta *»'* THE REPLY OF SPAIN. THE LONG f XPECTED DISPATCH FINALLY ARRIVES. -— It Coror* In Installment, amt Ocenplaa Many Ilnur* In Tran»ml**lnn—Snc rnla ry Porter Decline* to Make Public a Ntaleiueut of It* Content*—The Mat ter Will Heat Until Congr*** Assembles. t'ableiriam From Mlnl*ter Woodford. WASHINGTON. Oct, 28.- The event of the (toy at the Staid Department was t.ho rtcelpt of the long-expoctetl cablegram from United Stati-s Minister Woodford at Madrid transmitting the I answer of the Spanish government tc I his representations In the Interest of j iwace In Cuba. 'I his message liegan to I come in Installments it 2 o'clock this | morning, and It was nearly noon today | before It was all In. It was not the length of the mo-sigo that occupied the win s all the ttmo, but the fact | that It was all lu groups of figures and | that It was probably being filled In email hatches as It was turned into the complicated State Department cipher In Madrid. All of this work had to lie undone at the State Department, and the message translated from the r I ack ngj.'n Into good Kngllsh. This occluded no 'ly all 'iy, so ths, it was 3:30 o’clock before the first, lopy of the nwsmgae was turned am It was not bo long In fact, there he v Inga tittle leas than 1,000 words In tho\ missngc, for Mr. Woodford, Instead of | '’aiding the whole of the Spanish un j irwer to tits note, had contented him self with reducing the mater to a brief outline. The first copy was taken at once to the president, not ladng cn j trusted to a inessongf r. but being d® IIval i d by Chief Clerk Michaels In per il hi at the w i i e house. After due opportunity had been | allowed the prcsl oil to rind Hie me - * nn unnllcM 1 Inn wan made for a ; statement of III i< ntents or nature. Tills was declined hy Secretary Pur ler and It was r ild that under no elr ‘ ' cii instance* would the correspondence j he made public before the considera tion of the cabinet, Krom official In formation that has reach* 1 certain of j fleer* In advance of Mr. Woodford's j message It Is evident that In neither ! language rr r subject matter Is the message likely to be taken c# offens-. Ive. It may la., It Is true, regarded as Insufficient to nice! the Issues pre sented by Mr. Woodford In Ills note, but officials of the State Department, ray that. In view of what, lias already been accomplished by the m w Spanish ministry an* cabinet In reforming a basis in Cuba, In removing Weyler and *"■ In projecting what, appear* to be a lib- » era! measure of autonomy, our govern ment will certainly rest, el least until congress assembles and nfford the new Hpanlsh government time to ca.rry out It* plana,_ COURTS CONFLICT. Tits llsllot Matter In low* Create* Some Trouble. DBS M0INB8. Ia., Oct, 28. -The su premo and district courts have come I in direct conflict over the ballot caae ami tomorrow will n « the alt nipt of the Polk county district court to en force un order In direct opposition to j ih< supreme court. The attorney general and auditor of | state, members of the (lection board, appeared before Judge Spurrier In dls I trlct court and were comm; tided to at ! once show why they should not bn at | j,ached and Jailed for contempt, in re vising to revise I he certificate i of nom ination as ordered by the court. At lorney General Rem If y asked till 5 o'clock to make a showing, which was granted. He went, direct to the su premo court and presented a petition for e, supersedeas to stay the lower court from committing the board to jail. This was heard by Justice I teem y their tour-re of ImatneiMi The drclaloii waa that the contnileaion k.ta no power to rompei a i through rate, and no lwia> of law or fai l kiting taeeu presented oyer whl-h the o-miii* liw Ml lorlatltclliin. tho et nipUtul ahould he tlhunlwnl Mrt Ptc OM l*< ► «r I W MtlllNUTtiN ttrt Jit Karllkak *» who rear tied ilbt tliarnw Irun a nrhioa In Havana waa the .. of honor at a dinner liven In kta honor to hta fellow newyptpvr wwrhan of " »-«hiMgto» lienee ai iilve Vm>n J Cumntinga uf New York Mr IWfcar a let U*h*«a nueia *p»w» hew *»»*•* %• * Mft « l»t« * VY VSttINMTUN twt |« Cuaaul Mead at Tien Tain, »p u« te the Mat* ItepnrtnMrnt that d***i.»r* IMiigi** and Carter and • * H*a*tur laioM gr itted tn tea Tain tat,.her tt and pro* tended to tatla the t*db#n mp d»r