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About The Loup City northwestern. (Loup City, Neb.) 189?-1917 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 25, 1904)
JOHN BURT 3y FREDERICK UPHAM ADAMS I Aathor of *‘Tb« Kidnapped Millionaires.’* '•Colonel Monroe's Doctrine,” *_ Copyright, i»02. bt fbkdbuick Upham Adams All rights reserved msgmzirm OOPTUIGOT, ISOS. BT A. J. Dhiiel Biddle CHAPTER XXV.—Continued. The valet opened the door and John Burt entered. F or a moment Blake did not recog rize him. The moustache and beard had disappeared, and the strong regu lar lines of John Burt’s face were in perfect harmony with the keen, calm and discerning eyes. “Hello, Jim; what's the matter with you ?” * M all right, John, ol’ fellow; m'all r’ght! Glad to see ve, dear ol’ John! Have a drink, John! Glad to see ye!” Blake swayed and fell into John Burt's arms. His flushed face and reeking breath told their own story without the help of the emptied de canter. Blake weighed two hundred pounds, but John picked him up and laid him on the couch as if he were a chilck, “You’re knocked out, Jim.” he said. “Take a nap, old man. and you'll be all right when you wake up.” With a dull smile on his lips Blake sank into a deep slumber. The minute hand of the little clock crawled half its way around the circle before John Burt left the side of his friend. His eyes were fixed on the motionless figure, but his thoughts wandered far away. Blake groaned and muttered in his sleep. At first his words were inco herent, but as his excitement grew his voice became distinct, and in a higher key he exclaimed: “This is awful—awful! What shall I do; what shall I do? I love her! I love her, and no one shall stand be tween us, no one, by God! no one, rot even—” The sentence ended in a moan and again he sank into quiet slumber. Pacing up and down the room John stepped on a crumpled newspaper. He picked it up, glanced carelessly at the a scrutiny which did not escape John Hurt. “In your new disguise—or lack of disguise—you strangely remind me of some one.” said Mr. Hawkins sud denly. “You told me once, as I re member, that you were born in Massa chusetts, didn’t you?” “I did,” replied John, “and I also told you that Burton was not my right name. Now\ I’m going to tell you who I am. though you must guard my secret for a while yet—a short while, I hope.” “ ‘John Burton’ is good enough for me,” asserted the magnate, grimly. “I know you’re all right, and I’ll bet a million on it. Don’t tell me, my boy, if you run any risk by doing so.” “There is no reason why I should not tell you,” said John, after a mo ment’s pause. “Here is an advertise ment I recently ran across in a San Francisco newspaper. Read it.” John Hawkins adjusted his glasses and real the following: “To John Burt of Hingham. Mass.— All rewards offered for your arrest by Randolph or Arthur Morris are hereby withdrawn, and you are exempt from prosecution at our hands. “(Signed) “Randolph Morris, “Arthur Morris.” John Hawkins read it slowly and looked searchingly into the face of the young man. “So your name’s Burt? Ever have a relation by the name of Peter Burt?” “My grandfather’s name is Peter Burt,” replied John. “Was he a whaling captain?” “He was captain and part owner of the whaler ‘Segregansett,’ ” answered John. i Hawkins vented his surprise in ^ 77iT KIZjETT QQE7V-Z? TTIFjQOCX? 1 ASJD 'JCkc£Vr &CZP7- -£7V72G£i£Z>. rate and name and ran his eye over the pages. The first words that caught his at tention were “Miss Jessie Carden.” John Burt stood like a statue and j read the paragraph which had thrown Blake into a frenzy o? fear. Every word burned itself into his brain. Instinctively he drew back like ; one menaced by a blow struck in the dark. Then the enormity of the thing came to him. Crushing the paper in his hand, he strode across the room and towered over the figure of the man who had requited years of friend ship with an act of treachery. Blake's face was turned toward him —the handsome, clear-cut features oi the one he had known since boyhood. For an instant the impulse to strike this man dead in his sleep came to John Burt. Then a flood of feeling checked the swelling tide of his rage. “How could you do such a thing, .lim?” he exclaimed, unconsciously aloud. For hours John Burt concentrated his mind on the strange problem which had so suddenly arisen. At times a wave of anger swept over him, but in the end charity won against odds which seemed overwhelming. It was dark when Blake awoke from his stupor. He raised himself on his elbows and stared wildly about the room until his eyes rested on John Burt. John laid aside the book he had made a pretense of reading. “Do you feel better, Jim?” he ask ed, as Blake struggled to his feet, and passed his hand wearily across his eyes. “I beg pardon for this foolishness!” exclaimed Blake looking ruefully first at John and then at the decanter. “As you know, I’m not given to drink ing. I felt very bad this morning and took some brandy on an empty stom rch. Are you sure I said nothing to offend you. John?” “You have said nothing to offend me since that day we had the fight near the creek in old Rocky Woods,” teturned John, looking Blake frankly in the face. The latter’s eyes dropped in confusion. “We’ll say no more about it,” added John. “Take your bath, and by the time you are ready, I will see that Roberts has dinner served.” During and after the meal John led the conversation back over the years they had spent together. Blake was strangely silent. As a rule he took the lead over his quiet companion on such occasions, but this evening when he attempted to Join in the conversa tion, something arose in his throat and choked him. CHAPTER XXVI. Hawkins Makes a Discovery. John Hawkins strode into the office of James Blake & Company at an early hour the following Monday morning, and after greeting the nomi nal head of the firm was shown to John Burt’s room. “Mighty glad to see you, my boy,” his deep voice rumbled as he laid a giant palm on the shoulder of the younger man. They talked for several minutes on commonplace topics. Mr. Hawkins studied the face of the younger with rtrange exclamations, and John Burt j was silent, in puzzled amazement. “John Burt, grandson to old Cap tain Pete Burt! This is too rich! My hoy, there’s a feud between the houses of Burt and Hawkins, but it shall not extend to your generation. We'll bury it right now! Did the old man ever mention the name of Jack Hawkins to you?’’ “Never.” “I suppose not. It isn’t likely he would," and again Mr. Hawkins seem ed vastly amused. “Well, I was his first mate on the Segregansett. Cap. Burt was nearly sixty years old then, and I was about twenty-six. There was an idea abroad that no man who irod a deck beneath an American flag could lick Jack Hawkins, and, barring one man, I guess they had the facts rized up about right. Do you see that scar?” He ran his fingers through the iron gray locks and pushed them back from his forehead. There showed a livid mark with four black circles. “Those round black marks are the prints of your dear old grandfather’s knuckles.” he said, letting the hair crop back into place. “They’ve been there thirty odd years. I’ll tell you how it happened. Captain Burt was a very religious man. according to his own standards. He was particularly down on swearing. A cuss word drove him crazy and I’ve seen him pound a man nearly to death for a harmless ‘damn.’ “We had a sailor named Bilson,” continued Mr. Hawkins. “He was one of those clumsy, aggravating fools whose very looks were an incentive to profanity. It came on to blow one right and I sent Bilson aloft. He man aged to foul the fore-royal clew lines and when I yelled at him he laughed in his idiotic way, and I was boiling mad all over. While I was relieving my mind I felt a hand on my shoul der, and it wasn’t a gentle one, either. “ ‘Not another word from your blas phemous mouth, Jack Hawkins!’ said Captain Burt. “‘You go to hell!’ I said, so mad I didn’t know what I was saying. “He gave me a cuff on the side of the head with the palm of his hand. It was not heavy, but it made me crazy. “ ‘Go below and pray God to forgive you,’ he said. “No man had ever struck me before tnd I swung at him with my right. I caught him a glancing blow above the eye. He didn’t even raise his hands. “ ‘Hit me again. Jack Hawkins!’ he said, calm as if asking me to pass him the salt. “I aimed for his chin, but caught him on the neck. It was like striking a brick wall. His arm smashed through my guard, and his flat landed full on my tempie. It was a frightful blow and I went sprawling to the c-eck. Before I could make a struggle be picked me up and hurled me over the rail. As I came up I caught one glimpse of the Segregansett through the mist, as she heeled to port in the gale. “The water revived me, and I suc ceeded in kicking off my boots. I swam in the direction of the ship, and by sheer good luck bumped into a hen coop, which some one—Captain Burt most likely—had thrown overboard. I floated around on that hencoop untif morning. “Along about noon I heard a splash -tig, and a big canoe filled with na tives came in sight. I yelled at them and after much palaver they took me in. They were friendly savages on a visit from one small island to another. I went along as a guest, and it was months before the boats of the ‘Jane to' came ashore and took me off. “A year later I landed in ’Frisco, just in time to be in the gold excite ment. That’s all. If your grand father hadn't thrown me overboard in the middle of the Pacific ocean, it’s not likely I’d have located the Chal lenge mine. I forgave him years ago, and you can bet I harbor no grudge against his grandson.” “He has been the one to suffer,” said John. “He imagines himself your murderer, and for years has prayed i for forgiveness. I expect to go back to him in a few days, and you must go with me.” Then he told John Hawkins the story of his boyhood and of the shoot ing of Arthur Morris. He told of his love for Jessie Carden, and of his de- j termination to restore to General Car den the fortune filched from him by the elder Morris. “When last I saw Miss Carden,” | said John, "she was the heiress to a comfortable fortune. I had nothing ! but health, strength and ambition, but she believed in my future, and some thing has told me that she would wait lor me. I shall see her in a few days, and I wish her to be as proud and independent of my wealth as on that night I left her side, five years ago. She has been robbed of her birthright, but if my judgment of the value of L. & O. is accurate, it will be restored to the keeping of her father.” “I have news for you about L. & O.” said John Hawkins, “but first tell me exactly how you stand.” “The company is organized with one hundred thousand shares, of a par \alue of one hundred dollars each,” he said, “with bonds to the amount of five millions more. Morris holds ihirty-five thousand shares, and his associates twelve thousand. That is three thousand less than control, but he imagines that General Carden can not exercise his option on ten thou sand shares. As I wrote you. I’ve had Plake acquire this option trom Gen eral Carden but of course, Morris knows nothing of this. By private purchase and in the open market, our cgents have picked up twenty-nine thousand shares.” "Let’s see,” mused Hawkins. "I have 7,460, you have 29,000 and an option on Carden’s 10,000. That i makes a total of 46,460 shares. You 1 yet lack 3,541 of control. Go into the I market and buy ’em, my boy! You’ve oone a great piece of work; a bigger one than you realize.” (To be continued.) HE BROUGHT THE RAIN. Hungarian Mayor Either Worked Mir acle or Made a Great Bluff. Hungary's great centra! plain has ; lately been suffering from lack of rain and the agricultural population i are disquieted in consequence. At a village near Grosswardein called Rozasalva, the district judge—a gov ernment official and a man of univer sity education, who must have taken ?. legal degree—convened a meeting of the inhabitants and informed them i that the drought might infallibly be i brought to an end if they would fol- i low his instructions. The great bell j in the church tower must be solemnly taken down from its place and depos ited beneath the water of a deep well. This proceeding would have the ; effect of attracting the clouds and ! rain would result—of that his hearers j might rest assured. Full of admiration for the profound ! wisdom of their judge, the men of ! Rozasalva went to work without de- j lay. The local clergyman blessed the undertaking and offered prayers for its success and the bell was solemnly lowered into the well in the presence of a believing and deeply impressed multitude. And the next day brought the longed-for rain. Whether the immersed bell exer cised any sort of influence upon the clouds that so soon began to collect above it, readers probably will be in clined to doubt, though the peasants of Rozasalva regard the miracle as proved up to the hilt.—Chicago News. Good Reason. Two little boys and two little girls were playing “house,” the boys being the papas, of course. All went well until the papas insisted upon coming home to luncheon, although their wives repeatedly told them that they should stay down town in their offices and kill bears until 5 o’clock. The argument finally grew so noisy that auntie came to investigate. “Boys, why do you come home when the little girls ask you not to. Is it because you are so fond of them you cannot keep away?” “No," said Tom disgustedly. “Is it because you wanted another look at your beautiful children?” "No,” said Rob, with even more dis gust in his tones. “It’s because the girls eat chocolate for lunch and we want some.’ ” Reason for Marrying. They were talking about a friend of hers who had married a bishop stationed in Kamchatka, or Timbuktu, or some other heathen land. “I never could understand w'hy she married him,” said the young woman. “She seemed the last girl on earth to marry a bishop. She cared so much more for having a good time than she did for church work and sewing cir cles!” “Girls are pretty wise nowadays.” said the young man, “and they gener ally have a good reason for marrying the way they do. A girl friend of mine married a doctor so she could always be well for nothing; and may be this girl married the bishop so'she could be good for nothing.”—New York Tribune. Lake Baikal Wireless. Advices from St. Petersburg tell of a service of wireless telegraphy at Lake Baikal, which is almost com plete, and will be in working order soon. It will consist of three sta tions, one of which will be on board the ice breaker, which will be enabled to communicate with both shores dur ing its passage across the lake. The turf grows as green in Illinois as in Ireland—in places. There are pine and spruce trees in the forests of Wisconsin and Michigan as tall and lair as any in Norway. Milwaukee, it is averred, brews as good beer as Munich. And, incontestably, the sun shines as bright and water runs as clear in the new world as in the old. Yet sooner or later the American citizen of foreign birth begins to doubt these and similar facts, or if he ad mits them he is still conscious of a feeling that sunshine, green fields, mountains, trees and ruins are at least placed in happier combination in his native land than elsewhere. Then, in spite of his pride in his Americanism—a pride which is often intense—he has an inward and grow ing conviction that the customs of that native land are in some respects immeasurably superior to those of the I land of his adoption. There comes a time, at last, when the call of country sounds clearly and unmistakably in the alien's ear. He hears it as he sits at his desk, and he -drops his pen and closes his ledger; as he tills his field, and the plowshare i? left to rust; it comes to him in the darkness of a Pennsylvania mine and in the blaze of an Arizona sun, amid the whir and clatter of shops and mill or in silent desert solitudes —an imperative, Insistent call. Forthwith the vague hope our for eign-born citizen has cherished blos soms into an actual and definite pur pose; the difficulties that oppose them selves to its achievements are exam ined—and truly they do not appear to be great now that the purpose is formed. A few days of a land jour ney; a week, or little more, of a sea voyage, the expenditure of a few paltry dollars and the thing is practically done. Certainly not a great deal of expense for the ocean voyage if one does not insist upon the pomp and luxury of a saloon passage. That would be very well if one were con tent to wait for the attainment of wealth, but when one is obeying the call of home it is different and a few days, more or less, of trivial discom fort in the steerage seems insignifi cant. Here is a newspaper clipping that one of the big steamship lines has cut its eastward steerage passen ger rate $10. That would bring it to less than $20. 0*ve's heart’s desire tor $20! There are a few other items of ex pense to be considered, but the At lantic has always seemed to be the insuperable barrier between the for eign-born citizen and home. Now he wonders why he has never j looked into the thing before. Well, he will go, that much is certain. And so the days from the time that his decision is made are full of the activi ties of preparation and the nights are sleepless, with feverish anticipation. A thousand pictures of the scenes of his youth present themselves to his imagination with astonishing vivid ness. His memory becomes crowded with the faces of folk he had forgotten or thought he had forgotten, and his heart yearns for an actual sight of them. He hardly realizes that the children he remembers have become Forgotten by Most, men and women, that the blooming naidene of lang syne are by this time :omfortable elderly matrons and that those he left in their prime must be bowed down by age and its infirmities. Then, too, the fact that be has been wholly and utterly forgotten by most af those very folk of whom he thinks with such fond warmth of affection is yet to be forced upon him. The home-goer finds himself at length standing in the magnified shed of the steamer dock in New York, among five hundred-odd other second and third class passengers. (The ‘ steerage,” be it understood, has been abolished—it is “third-class” now, and there is a difference apart from the name, as shall hereafter be shown.) There are two gang planks leading to the steamer, which elsewhere is con cealed from view by a high board fence; one of these gang planks is amidships and is guarded with snowy canvas along its length. That is for the first-class passengers. The other is placed aft, is plain and somewhat dingy; it is closed, moreover, with ropes. A clause of the instructions to passengers in the third-class tickets warns them to be on board at least two hours before the advertised time of departure, which is 10 o’clock in Over the Gangway. the morning:. It is past 8 now. but apparently the second and third class quarters are not yet in readiness and the punctuality of the passengers is rewarded by a dreary wait. All things come to an end at last, however, and eventually the ropes are removed and the crowd goes over the gangway with a rush—“single women and families aft. single men for'ard.” Forward and aft they troop, down the hatchways to the lower decks, there to become involved in hopeless confu sion. It is evident that there is no immediate chance of an assignment of quarters, and friends are waiting on the dock to wave a last farewell; so they clamber back, bag and baggage, to the upper deck and there lean over the bulwarks and wait for the start. Presently the steamer begins to toot hoarsely and the crowd on the deck begins to w ave hats and handkerchiefs and shout farewells, which demon strations are returned from the docks of the steamer. Flowers are thrown —which invariably fall short of their mark into the water or on the wrong side of th» fence. Then nothing hap pens and the handkerchief waving sub sides and painfully constrained smiles appear on the faces of the passengers and their waiting friends, it is one of the greatest sorrows of parting to be obliged to stand and grin for ten or fifteen minutes at a stretch at the friend you are “seeing off.’’ The third-class gang plank is haul ed away and after a pause the first class gang plank goes also. A few more minutes of agony and the whis tle sounds again, a bell jingles some where, the big hawsers are cast off and the black leviathan slowly, almost imperceptibly, begins to back out from the dock. The home journey has be gun.—Kennett Harris in Chicago News. Tight Shoes Caused Trouble. A lady was traveling on a train. She carried in her arms a baby who cried piteously, and nothing which she could do seemed to pacify the child. The poor mother was getting w’orn out, when a benevolent-looking gentle man who sat behind her, leaned for ward and said, in a low tone: “Madam, perhaps the baby’s shoes hurt its feet.” The woman did not ap pear to be particularly pleased at this suggestion, which she perhaps consid ered in the light of an interference, but nevertheless she removed the child's shoes. The baby stopped cry ing almost instantly, and in a couple of minutes was fast asleep. Had to Search His Memory. Beerbohm Tree tells that recently, while playing golf, he had a particu larly silent and stupid-looking caddie, who followed close at his heels with out saying a word. But since silence sometimes speaks louder than words, the actor was nervous and, after a particularly bad drive which seemed to demand an apology, exclaitned: “Did you ever see a worse player on ihese links?” The caddie said noth ing. A still worse drive from the next tee called forth the same query, fol lowed by the same silence. Finally. "I eay, did you ever see a worse play er?” The caddie stared silently for a few moments. “I heard what ye said richt enough,” he at last slowly re plied; i’m just theenking.” Value of Pneumatic Tubes. Pneumatic tubes now take letters from Twenty-third or Forty-seoond street, New 'fork, to the general post office downtown in less than four min utes. A special delivery letter is de livered anywhere in the residence sec tion of the city quicker than a tele graph message will find its way to the same place. Howells Not an Authority. Mr. Hamilton Mabie tells of a gen ial dispute with reference to the words “lunch” and “luncheon” that once arose between Mr. and Mrs. William Dean Howells. The novelist contended that “lunch” was proper, while his wife favored “luncheon.” Finally the dictionary was consulted. “Well, I was right,” chuckled Mr. Howells, when he had found the reference, and he read aloud an extract quoted as showing the cor rect usage: "We lunched fairly upon little dishes of rose leaves, delicately prepared.” “From what author is the extract taken,” queried Mrs. Howells. “William Dean Howells,” was the smiling reply. “Tut, tut!” exclaimed the wife. “He’s no authority!” Germany’s Foreign Trade. For the first time this year, Ger many’s foreign trade for May show*5 a decrease in both imports and ports. Imports amounted to 4,0!W, 400 tons, or 111,680 tons less than for May, 1903, and exports were 3,010,800 tons, being a drop of 203,600 tons. Making Use of Radium. An instrument lately devised by R. J. Strutt makes ingenious use of the emanations of radium. An electro scope with dividing leaves is sealed up in a vacuum tube along with a speck of radium. The inner sides of the vacuum tube are partially coated with tinfoil, which communicates by a wire fused in the glass with the “earth” outside. Thus, if the elec troscope be charged with positive electricity, its leaves, expanding, will touch the tinfoil surface; will be dis charged and will fall together again. But the spark of radium which is al ways discharging negative ions through the glass walls of the vacu um tube is, in consequence, continu ally creating and maintaining an at mosphere of positive electricity within the tube, and therefore as often as the electroscope is dis cnarged recharges it. Thus the leaves of the electroscope ceaselessly expand and fall together again. The instru ment has been variously called a radium clock and a perpetual motor. Both descriptions are wanting in ac curacy, for there is reason to believe that the instrument will not go on working forever, but only during the 20,000 or 30,000 years of the radium's life; and there is no guarantee that it will go on working with chrono logical accuracy. Still, it is the near est approach to perpetual motion that has ever been artificially at tained. Operated by Electricity. Doubtless the man who first invent ed the typewriter felt satisfied that he had attained the summit of speed in writing when he had perfected his machine to respond to the touch of Current Manipulates the Levers. me nngers on tne Keys. And with a few minor improvements, which have not changed the principle of the in vention, it has filled an important place in the business world. It has always been necessary to depress the keys sufficiently to* throw the type-bar against the inking ribbon and leave its impression on the paper, this ac tion releasing a universal bar to allow the carriage to move forward one space as each letter is printed. Now it is done by the aid of the electric current. Each rod proposed to do all this work automatically which oper ates a type-bar, is now connected with a little electro-magnet and as soon as the current enters any coil its corres ponding rod is thrown forward just far enough to hook the lower end of it be neath the edge of the central disk as shown. Just as this connection is made the passage of the electric cur rent through another electro-magnet depresses the disk, pulling the rod down and striking the type face on the paper as though it were done by the depression of a key with the fin ger. To form the connection between the individual magnets and the oper ating mechanism the writer wears a set of metallic thimbles on the fingers, which are wired to the source of the electric current. The instant connec tion is made with one of the metallic plates on the keyboard the current passes through the plate into the cor responding magnet and hence to the disk in the center of the machine. William E. Roberts of Newark, N. J., is the inventor. . A New Kind of Steel. Samuel Maxim, a brother of the Maxim of rapid fire gun fame, has made a discovery in a process for producing steel which has remark able qualities. Mr. Maxim is a farm er who lives in Maine. For some time ho has been experimenting with vari ous method^ for making blades which will vie with the Damascus blade of immortal fame. After reading some old Hindoo books he constructed a forge on the Indian plan, and from this produced an ingot which he forged into a rough drill. This drill bored an iron file as easily as if it had been a piece of wood. Tried with a scale of metals gradually increasing in hardness, this drill penetrated them all, not stopping at the best steel obtainable. In case this steel should prove to be like that of the ancients it will open a vast field of possibilities. New Milk-Drying Machine. The Just-Hatmaker milk-drying ma chine is extremely simple. The cylin ders are heated by steam to a surface temperature of about 230 degrees Fahrenheit. They are separated from each other about one-eighth of an inch and revolve inversely, making about six revolutions a minute. The milk to be dried is fed continuously upon the revolving cylinders and, passing between them, is spread in a thin, uniform layer upon the surface of each cylinder. The milk solids are then removed in continuous sheets, as the cylinders revolve, by stripping knives held in contact with the cylin ders. By this process milk is reduced to dryness in less than thirty seconds. The sheets of dry milk are afterwards pulverized by being passed through a sieve. Remarkable Winding Machine. An electrically driven winding en gine, employing the Koepe system of winding with only one rope, is hoist ing 1,000 tons of coal every six hours from a depth of 1,650 feet at the Gelsenkirchen colliery, in West phalia. The two electro-motors used are each of 1,400 horse-power. As Others See Us. Greer.—Hear about Bifkins? Brown—No; what about him? Green—He irarried his cook last week. Brown—That’s Just like Bifkins. He'd rather fight than eat. HANDY FARM GATES % TWO FORMS WHICH HAVE GIVEN SATISFACTION. Some New Ideas Put Forth By a Canadian Agriculturist—All May Be Constructed at Comparatively Little Expense. Mr. Wm. Scott, a Manitoba farmer living in Provencher district, contrib utes to The Family Herald and 'Week ly Star illustrations of two forms of gates which are used with satisfaction on his farm. The gate represented in Fig. 1 is used over the farm, while Fig. 2 represents the small garden gate. Mr. Scott has five of the larger gates, three of which have permanent wheels, and when harvest is over the wheels of the horse rake are attached to the A Fig. L ‘ remaining two. The gate rests on the wheel, whether closed or open, the re volving wheel carrying the gate around whether opening or closing. The gate rests on the back end on a block of w'ood, in which there is a socket, and in this a gudgeon at the foot of the gate head rests and turns. Mr. Scott says his three-year-old boy can open an 18-foot gate of this sort with ease. The garden gate shown at Fig. 1 swings across the open end of a fixed V-shaped enclosure. To pass through one steps into the enclosure, draws the gate past himself and passes out on the other side. Mr. Scott remarks in his letter that whenever this gate is PI g. 8. opened it shuts in the same operation. The gate shown in Fig. 3 was recom mended by Mr. Henry Burton, Ontario County, Ont. Mr. Burton describes the gate and its construction about as follows: The gate requires about 40 feet of good inch pine lumber, which is worth about $25 per thousand feet. The top and bottom bars are each six inches wide, the others being four inches. The spaces between the bars, commencing at the bottom, are four, six, eight and ten inches. When nec essary, one wire is stretched length wise between the top and second bars. The uprights and braces are all four inches wide. The upright pieces are fastened on with nine nails on both Fig. 3. sides. One is put on at a time and the nails are clinched. Wire nails three or three and a half inches long are used. After the braces and strap hinges are put on the gate is bolted at each of the corners with three eighth inch bolts. This gate is strong, cheap and easily made.—Montreal Herald. Timber For a Barn. A. J.—How heavy should the frame work be for a barn 30 by 50 feet? What should be the length of each rafter? How many shingles would be required for the roof? How much two-inch plank would be required for a thrash floor 12 feet wide across the barn? 1. Posts and beams should be nine by nine inches. The posts support ing the beams should be not more than 12 feet apart. Giving the roof one-third pitch each rafter would re quire to be 19 feet three inches, allow ing 15 inches of the rafter to project over the plate. For this roof about 20 squares of shingles would be re quired. Making the roof a little steeper, giving it a two-flfths pitch, the rafters should be 20 feet three inches. The roof would then require 21 squares of shingles. The threshing floor would take 360 square feet of planking or 720 feet board measure. Couch Grass. P. Y.—I have seven acres mostly clay, which has a great deal of couch grass in it. It is now seeded to clover but I would rather work it and save the clover. I would let this stand until the first crop of clover is ready to cut for hay. After the crop is carried, plow shal low not more than four inches. Be fore the time for seeding you will be able to give two cultivators which will drag out the couch grass and destroy seedlings of other weeds. Yard for Fifty Hens. A. H. M.—What size of yard would be required for fifty laying hens, and should it be divided? If the hens are to be confined to the yards, the larger they are. up to a certain point, the better. Fifty hens are considered too many for one flock, so that it would be well to divide the fifty hens into two flocks. Twenty five hens should have a house having 160 square feet of floor space, and a yard of about 4,000 square feet. Fowls Losing Feathers. A. C.—A number of pullets have lost the feathers from their heads, which are quite bare. The trouble is spreading. The loss of the feathers is caused by a mite which burrows at the base of the feathers. Rub carbolated vase line on the parts affected. It will be a preventative to give all the fowls similar treatment. Thoroughly disin fect the pcultry house.