Nebraska Newspapers

    Loup City Northwestern
J. W. BURLEIGH, Publisher.
LOUP CITY, - - NEBRASKA.
Secretary Hay is a grandfather and
it'a a boy. Bring on the little
breeches.
Evidently the great need of the day
is some man that can stand before
Prof. Jim Jeffries.
When a Japanese wrestler loses the
championship he can always qualify
as a fat man at a dime museum.
The sultan of Turkey, like one or
two illustrious Americans, hates to
give up money and never takes a va
cation.
Why cannot Uruguay and Paraguay
unite, thus consolidating the revolu
tion business and saving costs of pro
duction?
More than $2,000,000 in Uncle Sam’s
gold Is to sail on a transport for Ma
nila. What a chance for a good enter
prising pirate!
A Louisville judge has decided that
a man may beat his wife. He doesn’t
say, however, whether with a club or
at bridge or poker.
Another elopement in high society is
proof that Love is still laughing at
everybody and everything that seeks
to thwart his plans.
Canada is moving for the protection
pf its musk oxen. North Africa should
fall in line and prevent the further de
struction of its civet cats.
Get out of the way, you ordinary
Carnegie heroes. You never played
third and, after breaking your leg,
put out a runner and won the game!
As to the story that Patti will tour
this country in an automobile, it
should be said that the lady is much
too humane to seek revenge in that
way.
Really, it isn’t necessary for you to
save your bands. A well known band
master estimates that there are at
least 20,000 of them in the United
States.
If the Standard Oil monopoly is ne
gotiating for the purchase of a bank
in London, as the Times says, why
does it not offer to buy the Bank of
England?
Munroe’s share of the gate receipts
at that prize fight amounted to over
$6,000. This may account partially for
the vigor with which Prof. Jeffries
thumped him.
A woman has just died in Indiana
who knew Aaron Burr when she was
a child, which is another reminder
what a youngster the United States j
is in the family of nations.
A dispatch from Newport mentions
that one of the prominent society lead
ers there expects to sue for divorce in
the fall. The number of invitations
she intends to issue is not given.
When one of the visiting milliners
speaks of a “stunning creation’’ she
alludes to the effect of the hat on the
public—not to the effect of the bill on
the husband, as might be inferred.
It is Interesting to observe that the
people who are willing to inform you
that they don’t consider this country
fit to live in are not rushing to take
advantage of the reduced rates to
Europe.
The secret service men who drown
ed a goose believing they were soak
ing danger out of a bomb must have
felt a brotherly sympathy when they
discovered the Identity of the object
of their effort.
Here’s hoping that the clergyman
who both in 1895 and in 1904 has cap
tured the biggest cod caught in those
years off Provincetown, is equally
successful in his working season a3
a fisher of-men.
I
The young woman who objects to
paying G7 cents for the privilege of
saying two swear words hardly has
the masculine appreciation of ex
pletive. And 67 cents looks like a bar
gain price at that.
From London now comes the news
of the successful initial trip of a fly
ing machine, the invention of Sir
Hiram Maxim. Flying machines are
so numerous now in various parts of
the world that it is not easy to keep
track of them. And still we cannot
fly.
A business man, who is on the verge
of nervous prostration, has been or
dered by his physician to go into the
country for a month and do absolute
ly nothing with his mind. As a part
of the regime the doctor has pre
scribed the reading of a dozen popu
lar novels.
Just as we expected! The report
that a Norwegian whaler had found
north of Spitzbergen a bottle contain
ing a letter from Prof. Andree, dated
in 1898, proves to be a hoax. Now
aren’t you glad that you didn’t get ex
cited?
The beginning of active work on
the Panama canal is signalized by
large requisitions for dynamite and
powder from the isthmus. How much
better is it to have these explosives
used in this great work of peace than
in the atrocities of war.
A Philadelphia man saved a woman
who weighed 250 pounds from drown
ing at one of the eastern watering
places the other day. The report says
that he held her up with one arm and
swam ashore with the other. Atlas
had an easy job compared with what
the Philadelphia man had to do.
Not long ago a disappointed suitor
slashed the face of the diffident sweet
heart, and she promptly married him.
Now another suitor has • given his
heart’s love twe slashes. It seems to
be up to her to marry him twice.
^ I
I_I
At Tea With Polly.
When Polly puts the kettle on.
And lights the lamp, and spreads the
cover.
Politeness tells me to be gone;
But shamelessly I, lingering, hover.
In hopes that she will bid me stay.
For naught on earth is half so jolly.
As that half hour of twilight gray,
In paradise, at tea with Polly.
When I am tired, and worn, and sad,
I love to hear her china tinkle.
Its music makes my spirit glad,
And smoothes away each worrying
wrinkle,
All else on earth may fall to drive
Away the shade of melancholy.
But not a trouble can survive
The Joy of taking tea with Polly.
To see her as she cuts the bread.
And spreads it daintily with butter.
To watch her shake her charming head.
At compliments I’m fain to utter.
An anchorite ’twou'd surely move,
Make him forget that life is folly.
And tempt him straightway into love.
If he could come to tea with Polly.
And wAen she pours the amber stream,
I long—but long in vain—to hug her.
She asks so sweetly, ‘‘More of cream.
Or. "Just another lump of sugar?
To live at peace I always try.
But willingly I’d face a volley
Of sh-'t and shell, provided 1
After the war. took tea with Pollj.
—Brooklyn Eagle.
NEWS OF THE LABOR WORLD.
Items of Interest Gathered from Many
Sources.
The milling industry in the United
States is the third largest in the coun
try.
At Canonsburg, Pa., the Standard
Tinplate company, employing 3j000
men, has resumed operations.
Building operations, which had been
tied tip for fifteen weeks by a lock
out of the carpenters at Sharon, Pa.,
have been resumed.
The 800 miners at the Barnum col
liery of the Pennsylvania Coal com
pany at Pittston, who have been out
on strike for two weeks, returned to
work.
•The big building strike at Hartford,
Conn., which started in a disagree
j ment over 70 cents, has been ended
by a complete surrender by xaf* con
tractors.
The grand lodge of the International
association of machinists has levied an
assessment of $1 on journeymen and
50 cents on apprentices for the Santa
i Fe strikers.
•' Engineers and switchmen operating
the dummy engines at the Illinois
Steel Company's plant at Joliet, III.,
struck because the management cut
off the spell hands.
The Cleveland Civic Federation at
tempted to settle the cloakmakers’
strike by arbitration, but the manu
facturers declined to hold a confer
ence on the ground that so far as they
1 were concerned there was nothing to
' arbitrate.
The executive board of the United
Mine Workers of America voted $500
to the support of the packing house
strikers. Secretary Treasurer Wilson
said: “We shall not make further
contributions at present, as thousands
of our own men are on strike.”
At the meeting of the National Gar
ment Workers’ association President
Larger said that in the last year the
organization had had the most stub
bornly contested strikes since i895.
These contests have only served to
emphasize the strength of the union,
he declared.
After a long conference between
Vice President Bryan of the Interbor
ough Rapid Transit company and a
committee of the New York elevated
railroad employes it was announced
that an agreement satisfactory to both
Bides had been reached and that there
will be no strike.
Notices were posted in the Home
stead plant of the Carnegie Steel Com
pany at Pittsburg announcing that the
33-inch, 119-lnch and converting mills
would go on double turn. This leaves
only the 84-inch mill idle in the entire
plant. The resumption gives 650 addi
tional men employment.
The Charleroi plant of the Macbeth
Evans Glass Company, which recently
severed connections with the Amer
ican Flint Glassworkers’ association,
partially resumed operations on a
non-union basis. About sixteen old
skilled employes reported for duty.
The plant employs 300 hands.
By a referendum vote the miners of
the Crooksville district have rejected
the proposition of the operators and
the strike will continue. The men
have been out over five months. Over
2,000 miners are involved. Officials of
the Miners’ union were disappointed
when the result was announced.
More than 100,000 wage earners are
idle as the result of strikes and lock
I outs affecting four prominent indus
tries. Probably as many more have
been thrown out of employment dur
ing the last month by the wave of in
dustrial discord and depression which
seems to be sweeping across the coun
try. \
Clairton furnace No. 2 of the United
States Steel corporation has been or
dered in blast and notices to resume
in mills Nos. 8 and 9 have been posted
at the W. Dewees-Wood plant of the
American Sheet Steel and Tin Plate
company at McKeesport. The re
sumptions will give employment to
over 1,200 men.
the same union, and John B. Farrell
a member of the same organization
The purpose is to conduct a banking
business for all labor organizations in
the city. The management and direc
toratejsf the institution are to remain
in the control of active trade union
istc.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Com
pany made the most sweeping reduc
tion in the time of the men employed
that has taken place since the panie
of 1893. The employes of the machins
shops were notified that they would
be divided into shifts, each shift tc
work every other day, eight hours tc
constitute a day’s work. On* shift
will work Mondays and Wednesdays
and the other Tuesday and Thursday.
The remainder of the week tile shops
will be closed down entirely. It is
not known how long the order will
continue in effect.
A few sheds erected in 1862 at Ja
malabore for repairs to rolling stock
of the East India Railway have ex
panded into a plant covering 100 acres
at the present time, and with an out
put valued at more than 5,000,000
rupees a year. There are 90,000 labor
ers employed, and in magnitude the
shops are said to be exceeded only by
those of the London & Northwestern
Railway Company at Crewe. The
Railway World says that at Jamala
pore the railway locomotive is liter
ally manufactured from the raw ma
terial—old iron, ingots of copper, zinc
and tin—'nto the finished machine
ready for service.
Alfred Kolb, councilor of state of
| Germany, has just issued a book on
the labor question in this country. He
worked as a laborer here while mak
ing his observations. In his book he
says: “I went to America with the
intention of gathering material for a
book in which I had hoped to prove
the injustice of the demands of the
working classes, but my practical ex
perience entirely changed my views
of the labor question. I found prob
lems of whose existence I had no idea
and I cannot deny that my sympathies
are no longer with the employers, and
must admit that most of the demands
made by the unions are just and fair.”
The firemen's union international
convention at Washington elected the
following officers: Timothy Healy,
New York city, president; James P.
Conroy, St. Louis, Joseph O'Donnell,
Whiting, Ind., H. W. Bausch, Toledo,
O., Thomas Kane, Danbury, Conn., R..
E. McLean, Newark, Chas. R. Moran,
Holyoke, and Frank Huldane, Rum
ford Falls, Me., vice presidents; C. L.
Shamp, Omaha, Neb., secretary-treas
urer; delegates to the A. F. of L. con
vention, Joseph W. Morton, Chicago;
C. L. Shamp, Omaha; Timothy Healy,
New York. Amendments to the con
stitution w'ere adopted fixing the
terms of officers at two years and
providing for biennial meetings in
stead of annual.
In a recefft address Justice Brewer
of the United States Supreme Court
said that workingmen have a legal
right to strike when not bound by con
tract to the contrary. Employes may
quit work, singly or in a body, but in
case they quit work, there is an equal
right on the part of the employers to
seek other employes and there is the
same right of these employes to ac
cept such employment. “These prop
ositions are too plain for argument,”
declared the judge. While he, of
course, took a strong position against
violence in times of strikes, Judge
Brewer said that criminals always
seek the multitude. Let a strike be
announced and a mob is there at once,
with active criminals scattered
through it to do their work.
Melbourne, the capital city of Vic
toria, has a population of about 500,
000, and it is the chief manufacturing
city of Australia. At the recent par
liamentary election the labor candi
date was Dr. William Maloney. The
retiring member was a candidate for
re-election. He was Sir Malcolm Mc
Eacharn, Lord Mayor of Melbourne, a
ship owner and a merchant of excel
lent standing in the capitalist ranks.
The returns of the election gave Sir
Malcolm a majority of seventy-seven.
The labor party alleged fraud and pe
titioned for an investigation, with the
result that the returns were thrown
out and a new election ordered. The
result of the new poll was 8,667 votes
for Maloney and 7,808 for Sir Malcolm,
a majority of 859 for the labor candi
date. The labor party is very jubilant
over its victory.
One of New York’s daily newspapers
said editorially the other day: “In
the industrial readjustment now tak
ing place the ties which bind men to
their unions are weakening.” What is
meant by “the industrial readjustment
now taking place” is not clear unless
; the combinations that are being made
of employers is meant. It is true that
these combinations are being made to
fight the unions, but so far they have
had the opposite effect. No adjust
ment made by capitalism that implies
war on unionism will weaken the ties
that bind union men. Labor organi
zations can be seriously injured only
by their own acts. The union move
ment has now reached a pomt where
only internal strife can destroy It. In- <
spired by faith in the purity c- its mo
tives, cemented by mutual respect and
confidence, and guided by wisdom
the American labor movement will not
die while there is need of it.
A sensation was sprung at Pittsburg
when members of the Window Glass
Workers’ union went into court and
asked for an accounting of the organ
ization’s finances, the appointment o'f
a receiver, the dissolution of the as
sembly and a distribution of the funds
in its treasury. The bill in equity
was filed by Schoyer & Hunter, at
torneys for Arthur Witterbort, Jules
Hugg, James K. Tarr, David G. John
son and Leo Walker, members of local
assembly No. 300. It is charged that
discrimination in favor of the Ameri
can Window Glass Company was
shown by the officers when they al
lowed that concern to operate Its fac
tories and employ cutters and flatten
era on and alter Aug., 28, 1903, when
an order had been issued that mem
bers should not aqpept employment
before Nov. 10, 1903. Secret rebates
to certain manufacturers are also al
leged.
Two strikes, affecting 2,000 men,
were declared by the Amalgamated
Association of Iron, Steel and Tin
Workers against the plants of the Re
publican Iron and Steel Company at
Pittsburg and the Monongahela Steel
and Iron Company near McKeesport.
The trouble is not over wages, but
over recognition of the union. Super
intendent Pendleton said the company
would pay the scale, but would not
sign it
Indignation In labor circles Is gen
erally and emphatically expressed at a
certain action of the Brotherhood of
the Union at its state convention in
Columbia, Pa. There it was decided
that the name should be changed by
the national circle so the brotherhood
should not be confused with trade
unions. Union men claim that the
term "Union of States” should, for
like reason, be dropped to suit the
opponents of trade unions.
Organized labor of Chicago soon is
to have a banking institution of its
own. A permit for the First Union
Labor Bank of Chicago, capitalized for
$200,000, has been issued in Spring
Held. The incorporators are Charles
F. Strubbe, financial secretary of Dis
trict Lodge No. 8 of the Machinists'
Untoi; John IS. Senne, treasurer of
Cleansing Public Reservoirs.
The department of agriculture is ex
perimenting with a process of treating
public water supply with a solution
of copper sulphates—one part in 1,
000,000 parts. The purpose of this
is to destroy certain forms of agla
or plant growths, which so frequently
render water foul appearing and ill
smelling, although the sanitary quality
of the water is not affected. These
growths flourish best in the purest
waters, pressed through sand filters,
and for this reason large storage of
filtered water is not advisable unless
the reservoirs are covered. As to the
effect upon the consumers, a person
drinking three pints of water per day,
with 1 part to 1,000,000 parts,
would in a year consume but
seven to eight grains of sul
phate. As a mater of fact, how
ever, the treatment would not be con
tinuous. Two or three applications a
year would probably suffice, and be
sides this the sulphate would enter
into combination with the organic life
and would then be precipitated. Cer
tain of the algae are killed by solu
tions of only 1 part in 3,000,000, but
it is possible that others will require
much stronger solutions. In this case,
which remains to be determined by
test, the reservoir may be shut off
from us during treatment, or there
may be a supplementary process to
precipitate any copper sulphate re
maining in solution.
Improved Chiffonier.
There has just been patented a chif
fonier, or dresser, of decidedly useful
construction, and the honor belongs to
an Indiana citizen. The accompanying
cut shows the chiffonier, with its new
feature, which is nothing more nor
less than a washstand extension.
It can be seen that the washstand
slides into the end of the chiffonier
and closes the end shelves or compart
ments when the stand is not in use.
The whole arrangement is particularly
The New Chiffonier.
ingenious and forms a compact and
useful article of furniture for milady’s
room.
Porcelain Water Conduits.
Bizarre though it may seem, there
is agitation on the continent regarding
the replacing of the ordinary water
pipes by porcelain conduits. In fact,
:he manufacture of the latter has al
ready begun in Saxony. The porce
lain tubes are to be extremely slender,
and placed in the interior of lead
conduits in which they form a lining.
Between the metal and the porce
lain will be a layer of cement. It is
well to remember that porcelain is,
so to speak eternal; further, that the
water in this way is not exposed to
contamination with iron, and that rust
cannot reach the metal walls and per
forate them with holes, as is often
the case in present day conduits. At
present rates the transportation of
water through porcelain in pipes of
the usual diameter costs 2,000 marks
the kilometer.
Electric Switching Engines.
The great weight of storage bat
teries, which is so serious an objec
tion to their use on passenger cars
and smaller carriages, is an advan
tage on switching locomotives, as it
gives necessary adhesion. Such a lo
comotive is being tested in the yards
of the Prussian state railways. Among
its special merits it claims that of
being always ready and that of cost
ing less than steam for irregular ser
vice. The battery of 200 cells is
charged once a day from a source of
constant current at 110 volts. The
total weight of the locomotive is 59,
000 pounds, of which 22,000 pounds is
the weight of the battery and 9,500
pounds that of the other electric ap
paratus.
What Lightning Is.
It has generally been supposed that
the luminous material forming the
electric spark is made up of minute
particles torn from the poles of the
discharge and heated to a white heat
by it. But a Russian experimenter,
Semenoff, reports to the Paris Acad
emy of Sciences the results of experi
ments which show that the poles suf
fer no such dismemberment, and that
the heated material comes solely from
the air or gas through which, the
spark passes. In a lightning flash the
air is simply heated momentarily to
incandescence along the path of the
discharge.
. To Measure Fall of Dew.
Accurate measurement of dew has
always been impossible. A new Ger
man drosometer, reported to give ex
cellent results, is a sheet of specially
prepared paper soaked in a chemical
solution, and the amount of dew fall
ing in a night can be closely estimated
from the degree of discoloration of
this paper. Experiment has given a
scale of discoloration. Paper of 3 de
grees of sensitiveness is provided, and
it is advised that two kinds be ex
posed together, in order that when the
amount of dew is too great for one it
may be indicated by the other*
> I:*''-* / I . ..
TO MAKE OVER BARN.
Plan Will Ensure a Commodious and
Comfortable Structure.
A. C. Mcl.—I wish to remodel a
barn, 48 by 84 feet, the floor of which
runs through the center from end to
end. The barn stands north and south
and the dwelling house stands about
150 feet south of the south end. I
wish to run the floor across the barn
and to arrange a cow stable to hold
forty-five cows, convenient for feeding
and clearing out.
We do not know how far the bents
are apart in your barn, nor how many
there are, so that some of them may
come directly over the mangers or
gutters behind the cattle. If you adopt
the plan shown and the bents come
over any of the gutters or mangers,
so that the posts would interfere with
your stable, two posts opposite each
Ground Floor Plan of Remodeled
Stock Barn.
A, cow stalls; B, passages behind cattle;
C. feed rooms; D. box stall: E, gran
ary; F, drive floor; G, windows.
other can be placed on each side of
the sill, and a 10 by 10 or 12 by 12
inch timber placed on top of posts to
carry the sill.
The plan shown provides for bents
of the following lengths, commencing
at the south end: 14, 14, 20, 12 and
24 feet, making in all 84 feet.
There is an over-shoot of six feet
on the south side of the driveway to
feed the first row of cattle from. The
windows on the west side are close to
the doors and come directly over the
gutters in order to let in light. In
cleaning out the cow stable the doors
can be made wide enough to drive in
from the east side through the stable,
and out of the west side. The stalls
are single stalls for swinging racks
fqr mangers, but if swinging racks are
not used the stalls can be converted
into double ones if desired. There are
thirty-nine cows stalls and one box
stall; if the box stall is not required,
three single stalls can be made of it
Growing Rhubarb.
P. M.—At what season of the year
is it best to plant rhubarb roots? Is it
advisable to protect the roots in win
ter.
There are two ways to start a rhu
barc! bed: First, by using roots which
may be secured from an established
plantation. If these are used, they
may be planted in spring or any time '
from the first of September until the
middle of October. I prefer the early
autumn. The second method is from
seeds. If rhubarb seed is sown in well
pulverized soil in early spring, the
seedlings will be large enough to trans
plant in the autumn. Or they may be
allowed to stand over until the follow
ing spring. When the roots or seed
lings have been set out in the autumn,
it is altogether advisable to mulch
them heavily the first winter. Rhubarb j
does well on a variety of soils, but one i
which is deep, tairly heavy and moist
is preferable. If you want early rhu
barb, select a warm site.
Roomy and Up-to-Date Stable.
A. McT.—Please publish a plan for
the basement of a barn 76 feet by 40
feet, to have 6 or 8 stalls for horses,
Ground Floor Plan of Handy Stable.
A, horse stable; B, feed rooms: C, cat
tle stables: D. passage behind cattle;
E, box stalls; F, room for cattle to run
loose.
4 or 5 box stalls, stalls for 18 or 20
head of cattle tied, and a place for
8 or 10 head to run loose.
The above plan provides for six
horse stalls, ten double cattle stalls,
four box stalls and a room for young
cattle to run loose in. The box stalls
have doors in from outside, so that
they may be cleaned from these. The
passage behind the cattle is nine feet
wide, allowing room for a wagon or
cart to be backed in to draw out the
manure.
Cost of Four-Room Cottage.
J. E.—I intend to build a four-room
cottage, with bath room and pantry.
It would have an 8 foot basement and
colonial roof. It would be finished in
yellow pine. What would such a build
ing cost, with lumber worth $35 tc
$40 per thousand feet? The house
would be 24 by 30 feet. It would have
three bay windows and front porch.
Your basement walls and floor would
cost, if built of concrete, about $135
provided the walls are one foot thick
and the concrete is composed of one
part of Portland cement to seven ol
clean gravel.
It is difficult to give a close estimate
of the cost, and amount of material*
in the frame work of your house un
less one has a detail of the class of
work required in finishing. Roughlj
estimating, the plastering would
amount to sixty-six dollars; lumber
and other materials would amount tc
about five hundred dollars not includ
ing work.
Clovers for Silage.
F. W.—What kinds of grass or
legumes may be used for making en
silage?
Any of the common clovers, such as
alsike, red, or lucerne, may be used
for making ensilage. Hollow stemmed
plants, such as grasses, cannot be
used successfully for this purpose.
Rape has beei^tried, but without satis
factory results owing to the high per
centage of loss by decay.
Taking a Straw Vote.
Canvasser—Who is Mr. Henpeck go
ing to support.
Mr8. Henpeck—Me.
DUELS ON LAND AND WATER
Strange Weapons That Have Been Chosen to :
Decide Deadly Quarrels, and Conditions
That Have Caused the Challengers to With
draw.
From time immemorial duels have
been fought in every land under the
sun. Premeditated combats have tak
en place between two persons for the
purpose of deciding some private dif
ference or quarrel and have been
fought with deadly weapons and with
a purpose to take life.
The challenger has generally been
one who was confident that he could
worst his adversary with pistol or
sword, but there have been many in
stances where men, goaded to des
peration by persecution or slander,
have challenged the ones who made
life unbearable even when they felt
that the chances were against them,
but like the man who meditates sui
cide, they felt it was the easiest way
to end their troubles. However, in
most cases, duelists are either selfish
or wantonly thoughtless, for “the duel
ist values his honor above the life of
his antagonist, his own life, and the
happiness of his family.”
In France and Germany dueling en
I Joys a certain amount of popularity,
j although the laws forbid it, and, until
I a half century ago, a fight with swords
or pistols between prominent men in
this country, who wished to settle a
contention, was by no means uncom
mon, and a description of several of
these incidents occupies many pages
of American history. They invariably
resulted fatally for one and sometimes
for both of the combatants, so that
dueling became exceedingly unpopular
i with Americans.
Duels have been fought not only
with all kinds of weapons, but in vari
ous otter ways, some of them under
the most dramatic circumstances and
I with the most'tragic results. The
I methods employed have been most
original; some have been fiendish,
I with the outcome utterly hopeless for
either duelist.
Davy Crockett, frontiersman, Indian
fighter and congressman, was once
challenged to mortal combat by a
famous duelist in Washington. Crock
ett's bravery was unquestionable, but
the odds were against him with sword
or pistol, for the skill of the challenger
with either weapon was world re
nowned. However, Crockett accepted,
and, being the challenged party, had
the right to name his choice of weap
ons.
He had gone into the wilderness on
numerous occasions and with his
brawn and a sharp axe had cleared
I hundreds of acres of timber land. His
prowess with the broadaxe was fa
miliar to everybody, and when he
.chose broadaxes as dueling weapons
; his challenger hastily apologized to
him. Then what might have been a
i famous duel was averted. Crockett
! regarded his would-be antagbnist as a
coward, and he proved it.
The hero of the broadaxe, a few
years later, fought to the death with
a little band of brave men in the
i Alamo, of whom it was written; "Mar
athon had her messenger of defeat;
I the Alamo had none.” The moral of
I this incident is obvious.
A few years ago two Swedes went
out upon a railroad track in a cut in
the mountains of Pennsylvania and
fought until an express train killed
them. Both saw the approaching
train, and taunted each other to con
tinue fighting where they were. They
battled to the death.
Daniel O’Connell’s son was chal
lenged by an English student to fight.
He went to his father, the great
emancipator, and asked what he
should do. The father advised him to
accept, to choose pistols, the condi
tions of the fight to be that, facing
each other and toeing a mark, they
should place the muzzles of the pis
tols in each other’s mouth, and, upon
tho word from a referee, they should
fire simultaneously. When young
O’Connell’s conditions were made
known the bullying Briton declined to
fight
Two expert swimmers, whose repu
tations are international, engaged in a
hot argument one night several years
ago at a beach near Boston, and a
novel duel was the result They
agreed to swrim at midnight, straight
out to sea, in the rays of the moon
light, no boats to follow, until one or
the other became exhausted. They
swam several miles, and the Boston
swimmer towed his adversary back
to the beach and restored him to con
sciousness.
Dess than ten years ago two locomo
tive engineers in Texas, who had sev
eral petty differences which they
wished to settle, decided upon a most
original duel. Taking two engines,
they went out upon a plain on the
same track, and when half a mile lay
between them they whistled for the
beginning of hostilities, opened the
throttles wide and hurled their loco
motives at each other with tremen
dous speed. In a few seconds there
was a frightful crash, the boilers ex
ploded and the explosion was heard
V\^N/Wvrv^x w ^ — -- --— —
Happily Located.
Rastus—Am yo’ lot cast in pleasant
places ermongst yo’ new neighbors,
deacon.
Deacon Snowball—’Deed, yes, sah',
Brudder Rastus. The fambly naixt me
on de lef’ hab got a watermillion patch
and de fambly on de right done got to'
hundred chickens. Mah neighbor on
de right am deaf, and de brudder on
mah lef’ goes to chu’ch six nights out
ob de week an’ lose so much sleep he
sleep like er log de seventh night.
Yes, sah, yo’ mout’ say mah neigh
borly surroundin’s was mos’ obse
quious, sah, mos’ obsequious, foh a
fact!—San Fran disco Bulletin.
The Soul of Wit.
A caller stopped at the house of a
certain man and asked if he was at
home.
••’Deed, an’ he’s not,” replied the
woman who answered his ring.
"Can yon tell me where he is?”
•*I cxrokl not.”
"When did you see him last?”
"At his funeral.”
- "And who may you be?”
/*Tm his remains,” said the widow,
and she closed the door.
for miles, attracting a large crowd te
the scene. It was found that the two
engines had collided and that the two
engineers had been killed. The ab
sence of firemen In the locomotives
brought out the fact that a duel had
taken place.
Capt. Castentenus, Barnum's origi
nal tattooed man, who died a few
years ago, engaged In a peculiar duel
many years ago.
Castentenus was a Greek and in
early life belonged to a crew of pi
rates which operated in the A< .. an
sea. When pirating proved hazard.
on account of cruising war vc.- ••
he had himself tattooed from head
foot, came over to America and be
came a very popular freak.
During his career as a buccaneei
he became enamored of a very pretty
girl, daughter of the mate of the
blackflag craft which he command* >L
but he had a rival. Under oaths which
bound them together they could not
fight, and so they appealed to the*
girl's father to decide their respective
claims upon his daughter's hand. The
father knew Castentenus and his rival
as desperate men, and so he r«-s<>!v<-tl
upon a desperate method to test their
love for his daughter. He outlined his
proposition to them and both accept
ed.
One night he went into the small
forecastle and set a barrel cf sulphur
ablaze, and then ordered both men to
go down into the stifling gases and to
remain there l»r ten minutes. They
did as he directed, and upon the ex
piration of that time he signaled the
lovers to come forth.
Castentenus, who was a man of re
markable physical powers, groped and
staggered up the companionway to
the ueek, bearing on his shoulders the
limp and unconscious form of his ri
val. Castentenus was bleeding from
the eyes, ears and nose. When he got
into the fresh air he swooned. He
revived an hour later, but his rival
passed into the great beyond. He had
lived but a few moments after being
carried out by the tattooed man.
The woman for whom the great sac
rifice was made never married, for
she was taken sick and died in a few
weeks.
There have been electrical duels,
duels with poieon wherein two rivals
have dared each other to quaff a
deadly draught at a specified time,
and early last month two Boston long
shoremen engaged in a conflict that
was decidedly novel, to say the least.
The story of the battle in which they
engaged has only just come to light.
Bad blood had existed between
these two sons of toil and they con
cluded to settle their differences. Both
were fine specimens of that type of
hardy manhood which is employed in
loading and unloading the great ocean
liners—men who usualy settle their
troubles at fisticuffs, which fact makes
this incident all the more startling
and interesting.
One night they went down upon the
New York & New England docks at
South Boston, and, removing their
clothing, they plunged into the wa
ters at South bay and proceeded to
drown each other. They battled for
at least twenty minutes, during which
time the results were about even,
when suddenly one seized the other by
the neck and began to strangle him.
At the same time both sank beneath
the surface. How many feet they went
down is not to be recorded, but the
strangler, becoming exhausted, rose
to the surface. A moment later the
apparently lifeless body of his adver
sary made its appearance.
In the dim lights cast upon the wa
ters by the distant electric lamps the
victor realized that his deadly work
was accomplished, the strife at an
end. Thoughts of arrest for murder,
the electric chair, crowded upon hia
mind and his almost benumbed senses
were quickened. He grasped his vic
tim and shouted lustily for assistance.
A party returning in a catboax after
a pleasant day’s outing in the harbor
heard his cries and reached both men
just in the nick of time. They were
taken into the boat and after artifi
cial respiration had been applied for a
time they were restored to conscious
ness. After a bracer or two of brandy
they were put ashore at the public
landing on Long wharf and arm in
arm started for their homes.
A small paragraph appeared in the
morning papers which stated that two
men were rescued by a yachting party
and cared for until they were able to
go home.
But there had been a duel In the
dark waters of Boston harbor “the
night before the Fourth." He who
would have been a murderer became
a life saver; hig magnanimity has
been recognized by the man who
might have left him to his fate had
he been as successful in that terrible
conflict as the other, and now both
vow eternal friendship.
What’s in a Namef
Nelson, a thriving little English
town to which Andrew Carnegie pro
poses now to give a library, is a liv
ing instance of the value of a name.
Not long after the battle of Trafalgar,
some tinker, tailor or other person
established a tiny wayside inn, and
called it after the naval hero. There
was nobody on the spot from whom to
expect custom, but the road led to
and from populous districts. Travel
ers stopped at the place and presently
a cottage or two began to rise, then
more of them, and the name of the
public house answered for the whole.
That was the nucleus of the present
town. Now 40,000 people livb around
the site which the old innkeeper chose
and called after the name of his hero.
Telephone Wire in America.
In 1903 there were 4,350,483 miles of
single telephone wire in the United
States and 2,315,297 telephone Instru
ments. In 1902, 5,070,000,000 mes
sages were spoken over the wires in
cluding 12,000,000 long distance calls.
The gross revenue was $86.800,Ou*
the expense nearly $62,000,000, and the
I income more than $22,000,000.