?\'i A I IT IS IN HOMES LIKE. THIS THAT C ■ THE STRIKING ANTHRACITE ftsti COAL MINERS UVE ^ Since the outbreak of the great an thracite coal strike general curiosity has been aroused as to how the idle aess of an army of 150,000 affects the hundreds of thousands of women and children dependent on them. There ‘.a much misapprehension as to the condition of the miner in the coal belt »nd the standing of his family in the community. It is with the miner as with the people in other walks of life. One is thrifty, another is not; one builds a home for himself, the other never gets further than the tumble down shanty; one is sober, energetic and ambitious and saves his earnings, the other is reckless, drunken and desperate, and rears his family in the midst of squalor. The sons and daughters of the for mer class of miners are among the prominent people in this community. They are among the most cultured of local musicians; the peers of any as members of the local bar; are shining in the journalistic world In many cities, and are eloquent pulpit orators. The miner himself, if thrifty, is the H0U5E5 OF FOREIGN MINERS NEAR TAYLOR.PA. possessor of his own home and his •jit of land to go with it. Flowers bloom about his door, the summer breezes rustle the vines that cling about his windows; his garden pro duces the vegetables that make his 'able a delight during the summer, and in many instances a substantial bank account has been accumulated to tide over just such a trying time as the community is now suffering from. To date the strike has brought no suffering to the families of the min ers of this region, but much apprehen sion. The worriment upon the faces jf their thrifty wives tells of the cares that burden them. The Press correspondent strolled through one of the sections of the city in which the poorer classes of the miners reside. At one of the doors stood a weary-eyed woman, her shoul ders stooping as the result of the toil of years. Several barefooted and rather poorly clad children were playing about and the sound of an infant's wail came through the haif opened doors. “The good Lord only knows what we will do. sir, unless this strike soon ends.” she said in answer to a query. “James—that’s my husband—sir, has only worked a few days at whatever he could get since the strike was de clared. It’s mighty little that he can do now for me or the childer. The grocer has begun to look sour when ever we ask for more credit. As for buying clothing and the like of that, why that can wait until after this strike is settled. All that we are trying to do now Is to make sure that we get enough to eat so that we will oot have to go hungry. It’s little enough that we have now, but up to this time there has been enough to satisfy hunger. “What do I think about this strike? Why. I think as my husband does. What does he think? Well, you 1 know wo were not very much taken with the strike idea up here. To tell you the truth, we women were against it. But the men are running the thing. When we seek to interfere we're told to mind our washing and our cooking and to let wiser heads think this thing out. So we have nothing to say and go right on trying to provide for our little ones out of our slender means.” A few blocks away lives a prosper ous miner, who has saved his earn ings and who not only owns the house he lives in. but several others on the same block. A pleasant-faced, elderly woman, nicely garbed, came in in the course of a few minutes. She smiled when questioned regarding her impressions concerning the strike. “My husband,” she said, "was not. for the strike, but is a member of the union and will not go back until the others do. He has saved up enough for a rainy day and is now busying himself about a little matter that will yield him almost as much as would his position at the mines. But 1 am sorry for the familes of some of the Polish, Hungarian and slavish people who were thrown out of em ployment by the shutting down of the mines. Many oi these are rapidly ap proaching a condition of extreme want, 1 am told, and unless the strike ends soon all the charitable associa tions of the city will be kept busy caring for them.” The class of people referred to is the one that wil feel most keenly the effects of the miner's strike. Few of these are miners proper. They work about the mines, both outside and in side, as laborers, at a compensation generally of a little over $2 a day. They have put nothing by for their future. They live in the worst habi tations that the regions afford, large families of them accumulating in small rooms, many in a house. Their condition, even during prosperous times, is sufficient to arouse commis eration. Most of the members of these families cannot speak English and the people who seek to succor them are made to understand their wants with difficulty through some addle-headed interpreter. The fact that many of the miners have secured temporary employment j elsewhere is lightening conditions. Yet if the strike is continued until October the families of the most fru gal of the miners will be reduced to want. It is this thought that is caus ing a cloud on the happiness of many homes not yet materially affected. ; This is the fear that caused the wife of the well-to-do miner to guard her expense account with jealous eye, to refuse to make expenditures that in previous years she deemed absolutely necessary. The accompanying illustrations give a proper idea of homes to be found among the miners in the coal regions. Two of the houses shown are those of frugal miners, who have erected com fortable homes on land purchased with the money put aside from year to year. Oue shows a house with the vines creeping about the doors and windows, the other a modest little house with the mother and the sons and daughter of the family grouped in front of the door, the husband and father being away at the time. An other picture shows a group of min ers' houses at Taylor, a suburb large ly occupied by the foreign miners or those whose desire for strong drink absorbs the major portion of their earnings.—New York Press. How to Kill Mosquitoes. First lie sure that the specimen se lected for execution is of the large, full-eyed soprano type of mosquito. Then, having rolled up the sleeves and thoroughly disinfected the hands, put on your automobile glasses and begin the pursuit. Red golf coats and white ducks arc fashionable costume for the mosquito chase, though many prefer pyjamas. Waving caught the specimen, if ho refuses to be converted, the water i cure may be administered. This fail 1 ing, tie him to any projection on the ! front porch, or cage him while you ! procure a weapon wherewith to exe I cute him. Any convenient weapon may be used. My experience has caused me to lose faith in machetes, bolos anil bowie knives. On the whole, I would i recommend taking a ping pong racket and swatting him gently but firmly. Be sure to hit square between the eyes. The mosquito of commerce will gen erally be found to yield readily to such treatment. First of the State Flowers. California was the first state in the Union to cnooso a state flower. In 1890, at a meeting of the State Floral Association, the guide; poppy was I chosen. *4 STRirtiHC ;11N£R5 i>3CU55triC_J CD TtU SITUATIONE? • OURCE OF ELECTRICITY. Most Eminent Physicists Unable to Explain It Satisfactorily. At a time when electricity Is rapidly transforming the face of the globe, when it has already in great measure annihilated distance and bids fair to abolish darkness for us, it Is curious to notice how completely ignorant "the pialu man" remains as to the latter de velopments of electrical theory. Some recent correspondence has led me to think that a vague notiou that electric ity is a fluid which in some mysterious way flows through a telegraph wire like water through a pipe is about as far as he has got, and if we add to this some knowledge of what he ('alls ‘‘electric shocks" we should probably exhaust his ideas on the subject. Yet this is not to be wondered at. Even the most instructed physicists can do nothing out guess au to what elec tricity is. and the only point on which they agree is as to what it is not. There is, in fact, a perfect consensus of opinion among scientific writers that it is not a fluid, i. e.. a continu ous stream of ponderable matter, as is a liquid or a gas; and that it is not a form of energy, as is heat. Outside this limit the scientific imagination is at liberty to roam where it listeth, and although it has used this liberty to a considerable extent, no definite result has followed up to the present time.— The Academy. HAD MADE A DISCOVERY. But Non-Enthusiastic Friend Made Ribald Remarks. When speaking “In Praise of Hooks” at the commencement exercises of Bryn Mawr College. Richard Watson Gilder told of a good friend of his who found in almost every new book taken up something to surprise her. “Some thing so very much in the nature of a discovery,” he said, “that it became a sort of joke among us—these ‘discov eries' of hers. “A party of us were making that ever-wonderful Hudson river trip once,” he went on, “and this woman, whom I regard as one of the ablest of her sex, had a great deal to tell us of the workings and appearances of the devil idea in literature, both sacred and profane. It was obviously her latest discovery, and her enthusiasm was such that at Peekskill one of the party went ashore and wired a mutual friend in New York: “ Emma has discovered the devil.’ “The telegram did not reach its des tination until quite late that night, and the recipient was feeling a bit under the weather. It was this combi ■ nation, taken with the seeming trivi ality of the message, that inspired the reply: ‘Tell Emma to follow up her discovery.’ ” The Mont Pelee Reports. Every man who has written from Martinique seized the proposition in a different way from his fellow's way. The correspondent of one of the morn ing papers had the singular taste to treat it as a humorous opportunity; his description all revolved around the fun he had with the geologist who was blessed with strong individual charac teristics and a picturesque name. An other treated it as a literary proposi tion, and two or three wrecked their stories on the rock of the mere news requirement. It was found hard to unite the literary and the news as pects. The best story of the actual calamity yet produced is that contained in an interview with the priest who, from his perch in the hill village of Morno Vert—rising from the sirocco of hot and sutfocating air that had swept over him. and daring the rain of stones that was still falling—sat and watched St. Pierre flash into sudden fire when the mountain blew its breath of flame upon it. This supreme mo ment will oe the thing that the inter est of the world will be forever cen tered upon; and fate has mocked the Genius of Journalism, demigod as it is, by leaving the telling of this tale to shepherds or water-carriers or vil lage priests who chanced to see from afar.—New York Mail and Express. She Runs an Engine. In the city of Cleveland lives the only woman engineer in the country' —a Mrs. Marten, who understands the business thoroughly and gives excel lent satisfaction. She recently took the place of her deceased husband and has. been faithful to every require ment of the place thus far. Mrs. Marten had often been her hus band’s helper in his work, and so learned the ins and outs of his trade. The day after his death she went to the office of the building and asked for the position that had been her hus band's. The owners of the building, knowing that the family was in poor circumstances and that the woman, from her familiarity with the engine, was capable of holding the position, gave her the place at the same salary that had been earned by her husband. "I’liere is a janitor in the building who carries the coal, but Mrs. Marten han dles the shovel and does not shirk any task. Sho keeps the engine-room as spotless as such a place can be, and the engine shines like a new piece of machinery.—Chicago Chronicle. Tried It Inverted. An amusing and somewhat curious experience recently befell a certain French painter, who shall be name less. He had gone to tho Salon, ac companied by a friend, who was a member of the Committee of Selec tion, and who had been instrumental in procuring the acceptance of tho painter's work. When the artist came near his picture ho exclaimed, “Good gracious! You are exhibiting my pic* ture tha wrong side up!’’ “Hush!’’ was the reply, "the committee reject ed it the other way up.” An overproduction of rubber would result In a gum-drop. Mrs. Winslow'* Soollilng Syrup. For chii.lrsn tenhlng. softens the gums, reduces In Bcimuatlon ullsj-s pain, cures wind colic. iv a bottle. A man seldom marries unless he's in love or in debt. INSIST ON HUTTING IT. Some grocers say they don't keep De fiance Starch. This Is because they have a stock on hand of other brands contain ing only 13 os. In a package, which they won't be able to sell first, because De fiance contains 18 o*. for the same money. Do you want 16 oz. Instead of 13 oa. for same money? Then buy Defiance St arc U. Requires no cooking. No man ever realizes how much trash he owns until he moves. A Place to Spend the Summer. On the lines of the Milwaukee Rail way in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa are some of tne moot beautiful places in the world to spend a sumaie.' vaca tion. camping out or at the elegant summer hotels. Boating, fishing, beautiful Takes and streams and cool weather. Okoboji is the nearest of these re sorts, but all are easily reached from Omaha, and the round trip rates this summer are lower than ever before. Full information on application. F. A. NASH, Gen’l Western Agent. C. M. &. SL P. Ry., 1504 Farnain SL, Omaha. An Overzealous Official. Two printed forms, valued at one farthing, were lost recently at Baku on the Trans-Causasian railway, and the station master had telegrams sent to every station in the Russian empire to ask if they had been seen any where. The company has since had to , pay telegraph charges amounting to ; nearly $10,000, and the over-zealouB official ia now out of employment I am glad that my ancestors are dead. It gives me a chance. RUPTURE permanently cured In HO to RO days; send for circular. O. S. Wood. M. !•>., 521 N«w York Life bldg., Omaha, Neb. If a man lives as he should the j world will not be very much better by his getting out of It ARE YOCB CLOTHES FADEDf Use Red Cross Ball Blue and make them white again. Large 2 oz. package, 5 cents. The man who persists in doing nothing is entitled to first prize for perseverance. No chromos or cheap premiums, out a better quality and onc-third more of Defiance Starch for the same price or other starches. FTe is a wise son who knoweth the proper time to strike his father for a loan. - | MORE FLEXIBLE AND LASTINU, won't shake out or blow out; by using Defiance starch you obtain better results than possible with any other brand, and one-third more for same money. A rolling stone gathers momentum at every jump and is a good thing Co keep away from. Plso's Cur® Is the best medicine we ever used for all affections of the throat and lunes.—Wli. O. END9L.KY, Vanburen, Iud.. Feb. 10, 190% About the only martyrs we have at this stage of the game are the base ball umpires. DELIGHTFUL EASTERN TRIPS. The Lake Shore & Michigan South ern Ry. has Just issued a new sum mer book, “Lake Shore Tours,’’ show ing a selected list of eastern resorts, with routes and rates. Copy will be sent on application to C. F. Daly, Chief A. G. P. A.. Chicago. Janitors’ Demand for Recognition. An official of the new Janitors' so ciety says its object ia “the elevation of our profession not only financially, but socially. Big people are beginning to recognize U3.” Big people, also small and middle-sized people, always have recognized the janitors if they wanted a quiet life. It sometimes happens that a man is absent minded when hia wife's away. Send *11 yonr order* In Gr»ln, rrovlsiont »n