TfflE INVENTIONS OF HAWKINS
gyo EDGAR.FRANKLIN
HAWKINSITE.THENEW EXPLOSIVE
ed, and I shot through the opening,
I saw the hallway before me;; I re
member observing with vague wonder
that the gas-light went out Just as it
caught my eye. And then an awful
flash blinded me, a roar of 10,000 can
non seemed to split my skull—and that
was all.
My eyes opened In the Hawkins'
drawing-room—or what remained of it.
Our family phystcian was diligently
winding a bandage around my right
ankle. An important-looking youth la
the uniform of an ambulance surgeon
was stitching up a portion of my left
forearm with cheerful nonchalance.
My brand-new dress suit, 1 observed,
bad lost all semblarce to an article of
clothing; t&ey had covered me, as 1
lay upon the couch, with a torn
portiere.
The apartment was strangely dark.
Here and Ihere stood a lantern, such-as
are used by the Are department. In the
dim light I saw the figure of a police
man standing tiptoe upon a satin chair,
plugging with soap the broken pas
pipe which had once supported the
Hawkins' chandelier.
The ceiling was all down. The walls
were bare to the lath in huge patches.
The windows had disappeared, and a
chill autumn night wind swept through
the room.
Bric-a-brac there was none, although
here and there, in the mass of plaster
on the floor, gleamed bits of gla3s and
china which might once have been
parts of ornaments. Hawkinsite had
evidently not been quite a3 powerful
as its inventor had imagined, but It
had certainly contained force enough
to blow about 10,000 dollars out ol
Hawkins’ bank account.
From the street came the hoarse mur
mur of a crowd. 1 twisted*my head and
my eyes fell upon two firemen in the
hallway. They were dragging down
a line of hose from somewhere up
stairs.
Across the room sat my wife and
Mrs. Hawkins, disheveled, but alive
and apparently unharmed. Hawsins
himself leaned wearily upon a
divah, a huge bandage sewed about his
forehead, one arm in a sling, and a
police sergeant at his side, notebook in
hand.
In tho country, social intercourse
between Hawulns’ family and my own
is upon the most informal basis. If
it pleases us to dine together coat
less and cuffless, we do so; and no
one suggests that a national up
heaval is likely to result.
B«fi 5c town it is different. The
bugaboo of strict propriety seems to
take mysterious ascendency. We
still dine together, but it Is done in
the most proper evening dress. It
seems to be tho law—unwritten but
unalterable—that Hawkins and I shall
display upon our respective bosoms
something like a square foot of
starchy white linen.
I hardly know why I mention this
matter of evening clothes, unless It Is
that the memory of my brand-new
dress suit, waich passed to another
sphere that night, still preys upon my
mind. a
That night, above mentioned, my
wife and I dined ia the Hawkins’
tome.
Hawkins seemed particularly jovial.
He appeared to be chuckling with tri
umph, or some kindred emotion, and
his air was even more expansive than
usual.
When I mentioned tlie terrible ex
plosion of the powder works at Pomp
ton—hardly a subject to excite mirth
In the normal individual—Hawkins
fairly guffawed.
“But, Herbert," cried his wife, some
what horrified, "is there anything hu
morous in the dismemberment of three
#oor workmen?"
“Oh. it isn't that—it isn’t that, my
dear," smiled the inventor. “It merely
struck me as funny—this old notion of
explosives.”
“What old notion?” I inquired.
“Why, the fallacy of the present
methods of manipulating nitro-giveer
lne.”
”1 presume you have a better
scheme?” I advanced.
“Mr. Griggs,” cried Hawkins’ wife,
In terror that was not all feigned,
“don’t suggest it!”
“Now, my dear—’’ began Hawkins,
stiffening at once.
“Hush, Herbert, hush! You’ve made
mischief enough with your inventions
but you have never, thank' goodness,
dabbled in explosives.”
“If I wanted to tell you what I know
about explosives, and what I could
do” declaimed Hawkins.
“Don’t tell us, Mr. Hawkins,” laughed
my wife. “A sort of superstitious
dread comes over me at the notion.'
"Mrs. Griggs!” exclaimed Hawkins,
eyeing my wife with a glare which In
any other man would have earned him
the best licking 1 could give him—
but which, like many other things,
had to be excused in Hawkins.
“Herbert!” said his wife, authorita
tively. “Be still. Actually, you’re quite
excited!”
Hawkins lapsed into sulky silence,
and the meal ended with just a hint of
constraint
Mrs. Hawkins and my wife adjourned
to the drawing-room, and Hawkins and
I were left, theoretically, to smoke a
post-prandial cigar. Hawkins, how
ever, had other plans for my enter
tainment.
“Are they upstairs?” he muttered as
footsteps sounded above us.
“They seem to fce.”
i “Then come with me,” whispered
Hawkins, heading me toward the serv
2Ui.s’ staircase.
t ’Where?” I inquired, suspiciously.
There was a peculiar glitter in his
eye.
“Come along, and you’ll see,” chuck
led Hawkins, beginning the ascent.
“Oh, I’ll tell you what,’’ he continued,
pausing cn the second landing, “these
women make me tired!”
“Indeed?”
“Yes, they do. You needn't look
huffy, Griggs. It isn’t your wife or my
wife. It’s the whole sox. They chatter
and prattle and make silly jokes aoout
things they’re absolutely incapable oi
understanding.”
“My dear Hawkins,” I said, sooth
ingly, “you wrong the fair sex.”
“Oh, I wrong ’em, eh? Well, what
woman knows the first thing about ex
plosives?” demanded Hawkins, heated
ly. “Dynamite or rhexite or mergan
ite or enrbonite or stonite or vigorite
or cordite or baUistitg or theorite or
maxamile—”
“Stop, Hawkins, stop!” I cried.
“Well, that’s ail, anyway,’ said the
inventor. “But what woman know3
enough about them to argue the tning
intelligently? And yet my wife tells
me—I, who have spent nearly half a
lifetime in scientific labor—she act
ually tells me to—to shut up, when I
hint at having some slight knowledge
of the subject!”
“I know, Hawkins, but your scien
tific labors have made her—and me—
suffer in the past.’’
“Oh, they have, nave they?” grunted
Hawkins, climbing toward the top
floor “Well, come up, Griggs.”
I knew the door ai which he stopped.
It was that of Hawkins’ workshop or
laboratory. It was on the floor with
the servants, who, poor things, prob
ably did not know or dared not object
to the risk they ran.
[‘What’s the peculiar humming?” I
asked, pausing on the threshold.
“Only my electric motor.” sneered
Hawkins. "It won’t bite you, Grigg®.
Come in.”
“And what is this big brass bolt on
the dcor?”I continued.
“That?” Oh, that’s an idea!" cried
the inventor. “That’s my new spring
lock. Just look at that lock, Griggs.
It simply can’t be opened from the
outside, and only from the inside by
one who knows how to work it. And
I’m the only one who knows. When l
patent this thing—”
“Well, I wouldn’t close the door,
Hawkins,” I murmured. “You might
faint or something, and I'd be shut in
here till somebody remembered to hunt
for me'.’
“Bah!” exclaimed Hawkins, slam
ming the door, violently. “Really, for
a grown man, you’re the most chicken
hearted individual I ever met. But—
| what’s the use of talking about it? To
get back to explosives—”
“Oh, never mind the explosives,” I
said, wearily. “You’re right, and that
settles it.”
“See here,” said Hawkins, sharply;
“I had no intention of mentioning ex
! plosives to-night, for a particular rea
son. In a day or two, you’ll hear the
country ringing with my name, in con
nection with explosives. But since the
subject has come up. if you want to
listen to me for a few minutes, I’ll
interest you mightily.”
Kind Heaven! Could I have realized
then the bitter truth of those last
words!
“Yes, sir,” the inventor went on, “as
I was saying—or was I saying it?—
they all have their faults—dynamite,
rhexorite, meganlte, earbonite, ston—”
“You went over that list before."
“Well, they all have their faults.
Either they explode when you don’t
want them to, or they don’t explode
when you do want them to, or thev’re
liable to explode spontaneously, or
sticky mess, through which an agita
tor, run by the electric motor, was re
volving slowly.
“That’s Hawklnsite, in the process
of manufacture!” the inventor an
nounced.
A sickly terror crept over me. I
made instinctively for the door.
“Oh, come back,” said Hawkins.
“You can't get out, anyway, until I
undo the lock. But there’s no dange:
whatever, my dear boy. Just sit down
and I’ll explain why.”
I had no choice about sifting down;
a most peculiar weakness of the knees
made standing for the moment impos
sible. I drew my chair to the diag
onally opposite corner of the apart
ment and sat there with my eyes glued
upon the vat.
“Now, when all these fellows go
about nitrating their glycerine,” said
Hawkins, serenely, “they simply over
look the scientific principle which I
have discovered. For instance, out
there at Pompton the vat exploded in
the very act of mixing in the glycerine.
That’s just what is being done over
in that corner at this minute—"
“Ouch!” I cried, involuntarily.
“But it won’t happen here—it can't
happen here," said the inventor, impa
tiently. “I am using an entirely differ
ent combination of chemicals. Now, if
there was any trouble of that sort com
ing, Griggs, the contents of that va*
would have begun to turn green be
fore now. But as you see—”
“Haw—Hawkins!” I croaked, hoarse
ly, pointing a shaking finger at the
machine.
“Well, what is it now?"
“Look!” I managed to articulate.
“What Are Those Bubbles of Bed GasP”
something else. It’s all due, as I
have Invariably contended, to impure
oitro-glyceriae or unscientific handling
of the pure article.”
“Yes.”
“Yes, indeed. Now, what would you
say to an explosive—”
“Absolutely nothing,” I replied, de
cidedly. “I should pass it without
even a nod.”
“Never mind your nonsense, Griggs.
What would you—er—what would you
think of an explosive that could be
dropped from the loof ofm house with
out detonating?” ®
“Remarkable!”
“An explosive,’ continued Hawkins,
impressively, “into which a man might
throw a lighted lamp without the
slightest fear! How would that strike
you?”
“Well, Hawkins, ’ I said, “I think I
should have grave doubts of the man's
mental condition.’
“Oh, just cut out that foolish talk,”
snapped the inventor. “I’m quite seri
ous. Suppose I should tell you that I
had thought and thought over this
problem, and finally hit upon an idea
for just suen a powder? Where would
dynamite and rhexite and meganite
and all the re3t of them be, beside—”
He paused theatrically.
“Hawklnsite!”
“Don’t know, Hawkins,” I said, un
able to absorb any of his enthusiasm.
“But let us thank goodness that it is
only an idea as vet.”
"Oh, but it isn’t!” cried the invent
or.
“Hawkins!” I gasped, springing to
my feet. “What do you mean?”
“I mean just this: Do you see that
| little vat in the corner?”
! I stared fearfully in the direction in
i dlcated. A little vat, .indeed, I saw.
i It stood there, half-filled with a
“Oh, Lord!” sniffed the Inventor. “1
suppose as scon as l said that, you be
gan to see green shades appear, eh?
Why—dear me!”
Hawkins stepped rapidly over to the
side of the mixer. Then he stepped
away with considerably greater alac
rity.
There was no two ways about it;
the devilish mess in the vat was taking
on a marked tinge of green!
“Well—I—I guess I’ll shut off the
power,” muttered Hawkins, suiting the
action to the word.
“When the agitator has stopped,
Griggs, the mass will cool at once, so
you needn’t worry.”
“If It didn’t cool, would it—^ould It
blow up?” I quavered.
“Oh, it would,” admitted Hawkins,
rather nervously-. “But as soon as the
mixing ceases, the slight color disap
pears, as you see.”
“I don’t see it; it seems to me to be
getting greener than ever.”
“Well, it’s not!" the Inventor
snapped. “Five minutes from now,
that stuff will be an even brown once
more.”
“And while it’s regaining the even
brown, why not clear out of here?’’ T
said, eagerly.
“Yes, we may as well, I suppose,”
said Hawkins, with a readiness which
refused to be masked under his as
sumption of reluctance. “Come on.
Griggs.” ,
Hawkins turned the lever on his
fancy lock, remarking again:
“Come on.'’
“Well, open the door.”
"It’s op—why, what’s wrong here?”
muttered the Inventor, twisting the
lever back end forth several tlm°s.
“Oh, good heavens, Hawkins!” 1
groaned. “Has your lock gone back
on you, too?”
"No, it has not. Of course not, ’
growled the inventor, tugging at his
lever with almost frantic energy. “It’s
stuck—a Uttle new—that’s all. Er—
do you see a screw-driver on that table,
Griggs?"
I handed him the tool as quickly as
possible, noting at the same time tnat
degpite the cessation of the stirring
“Hawkinslte” was getting greener
every second.
“I’ll Just take it off,” panted Hawk
ins .digging ar one of the screws. “No
time to tinker with it now."
“Why not? Thete’s no danger."
“Certainly there isn’t. But you—you
seem to be a little nervous about it,
Griggs, and—’’
“Hawkins," I cried, "what are those
bubbles of red gas?”
“What bubbles?” Hawkins turned
as if he had been shot. “Great Scott,
Griggs! There were no bubbles of red
gas rising out of that stuff, were
there?"
“There they go again,” I said, point
ing to the vat, from which a new ebul
lition of scarlet vapor had just risen
“What does It mean?”
“Meah?" shrieked Hawkins, turning
white and trembling in every limb.
“Yes, mean!" 1 repeated, shaking
him. Does it mean that—"
“It means that the cursed stuff has
overheated Itself, after all. Lord! Lord!
However did it happen? Something
must have been impure. Something
»»
“Never mind something. What will
it do?"
“It—it—oh, my God, Griggs: “It’ll
blow this house into 10,000 pieces with*
,T' two minutes! Why—why, there s
power enough In that little vat to de
molish the Brooklyn bridge, according
to my calculations. There’s enough ex
plosive force in that much Hawkins
ite to wreck every office building down
town!”
“And we’re shut In here with it!”
“Yes! Yes! But let us—”
“Here! Suppose I turn the water
into the thing?”
"Don’t!” shouted the inventor, wild
ly, battering at the door with his lists
“It would send us into kingdom come
the second it touched! Don’t stanc.
there gaping, Griggs! Help me smash
down this door! We must get out.
man! We must get the women out'
We must warn the neighborhood’.
Smash her, Griggs! Smash her! Smash
the door!”
“Hawkins,” I said, resignedly, as a
vicious "sizzzz” announced the evolu
tion of a great puff of red gas, “we
can never do it in two minutes. Bet
ter not attract the rest of the house
hold by your racket. They may pos
sibly escape. Stop!” ,
“And stay here and be blown to
blazes?” cried Hawkins. “No, sir! ]
Down she goes!”
He seized a stool and dealt a crash
ing blow upon the panel. It splintered.
He raised the stool again, and I could
hear footsteps hurrying from below.
I opened my mouth to shout a warn
ing, and—
Well, I don’t know that I can de
scribe my sensations with any accu
racy, vivid as they were at the time.
Some resistless force lifted me irom
the floor and propelled me toward thp
half shattered door. Dimly I noted
that the same thing had happened to
Hawkins. For the tiniest fraction of a
second he seemed to be floating hori
zontally in the air. Then I felt my
head collide with wood, the door part
I felt a fiendish exultation at the
sight of that official; for one fond mo
ment I hoped that Hawkins was un
der arrest, that ae was in for a life
sentence.
“He’s conscious, doctor,” said the
ambulance surgeon.
“Ah, so he is,” said my own medi
cal man, as the ladies rushed to my
side. “Now, Mr. Griggs, do you feel
any pain in the—”
“Oh, Griggs!” cried Hawkins, stag
gering toward me. "Have you come
back to life? Say, Griggs, just think
of it! My workshop's blown to smith
ereens! Every single note I ever made
has been destroyed! Isn't it aw—”
In joyful chorus, my wife, Mrs. Haw
kins and I said:
“Thank Heaven!"
“Eut think of it! My notes! The
careful record of half a—”
“Herbert!” said his—considerably—
better half. “That—will—do!”
“It—oh, well,” groaned the inventor,
disconsolately, limping back to the
divan and the somewhat astonished
sergeant of police. Hawkins must have
had seme sort of influence with the
press Beyond a bare mention of the
explosion, the matter ifever found U3
way into the newspapers.
After I got around again I tried in
vain to spread the tale broadcast. I
aad some notion that the notoriety
might cure Hawkins.
But, after all, I don’t know that it
would have done much good. I can
not think that a man whose inventive
genius will survive an explosion of
Hawkinsite is likely to be greatly wor
ried by mare newspaper notoriety.
(Copyright, 1906, by W. G. Chapman.)
Blessed Sleep.
The German emporcr rises at Are
o’clock in the morning and goes to
bed at one o'clock at night, his regu
lar hours of sleep being thus reduced
to four. During his lcng day of 20
hours there naturally occur intervals
of leisure. He possesses the happy
faculty of being aide to fall asleep
anywhere and at any time. If he
throws himself in full uniform on a
sofa he can be sound asleep within
GO seconds. Blessed arc they who can
make sleep come when they call her!
Napoleon had this power; Grant had
it. Gen. Horace Fcrter relates that
the night before the great fighting
that culminated in Lee's surrender at
Appomattox, Grant, telling his offi
c;rs that they had better get a lit
tle sleep, as they would have a good
deal of hard work the next day, threw
himself on a. lounge and was asleep in
two or three minutes.
Probably True.
Wholly unintentional, but felt, sharp
ly by its recipient, nevertheless, was
the rebuke an old calmed “mammy"
administered the other day to her mis
tress, who belongs to an amazing
number of clubs. The- family has a
mansion in one of the suburbs. The
privileged old servant does not alto
gether approve of some methods of
the modern woman. One day her
mistress had a dozen club friends out
to luncheon in her home, and iho
f-ast was spread cn the porch. By
and by the hostess heard a lively col
loquy between her eide3t hopeful,
seven years old, and the nurse. “You
just git down outen dat tree,” said
the nurse. “You want to fall out and
kill yourself, do you? Well, you just
try it, and see what good it’ll do you.
You’ mother, she dat busy right now
she won’t even hah time to go to you’ |
funeral.”
Church—Is the janitor of your flats
kind to children?
Gotham—Oh, very kind. Why, he
won’t let ’em live in the same flats with
him!—Yonkers Statesman.
Unkind Insinuation.
The story Is told in Boston of a dis
cussion among the judges as to the
choice of a stenographer. Most of
them preferred a woman, but one ob
jected.
“Now, why don’t you want, one?"
asked Judge S. “You know they ara
generally more to be depended on
than men.” »
“That may be all so,” replied Judge
B., “but you know that in our cases
we often have to be here very late.
There are always watchmen and other
guards In the corridors. Do you think
it would be prudent to have a wom
an staying with any of the judges as
; late as might be necessaty for a
stenographer?”
“Why, what are you afraid of?
Couldn’t you holler?” questioned
Judge S.
Joked With the Bureau
Ex-Commissioner of Pensions Ware mer patiently explained that the 50
told an amusing story of the expense cents had been given to the porter
accounts of a special examiner of the cn a train for helping with his bag
bureau in the American Spectator, gage. He was then informed that
The first account, when examined at tho item would be allowed,' but that
the end of the montfi. w* found to in future in similar cases he would
contain the item: “Porter, 50 cents.” use the form “porterage."
The auditing office promptly notified When the account for the following
the examiner that the government did month was received the auditor was
not pay for the malt refreshments of • astonished to f.nd a charge of two
its servants; whereupon the exam-j dollars for *
“Ha must be rnnn-'ng a boarding
house or a rabbit farm,” was the of
fleer’s comment.
It was only after another exchange
of letters that it developed that it
had been for local transportation, ami
not for vegetables, that the expendi
ture had been made.
Armored Train in Warfare.
The first armored train was used
at the siege of Paris in 1871.
THE WORLD’S NEED
A 8TICKLESS BUREAU DRAWER,
SAYS MR. SNORTLY.
HU Experience Has Shown Him How
Much the Human Race Would
Be Benefited by Such an
Invention.
“A fortune, a large, a mountainous
fortune,” said Mr. Snortly, “awaits the
furniture manufacturer who will put
on the market a bureau with drawers
that won't stick.
“As it is, I suppose that half the bu
reaue in the world have drawers that
can’t be opened without a struggle,
that couldn't be entirely closed with
out a mall and that could not then be
opened without an axe. I have one
such bureau myself—a bureau with
drawers that will never close entirely;
a bureau that tries me sorely; and I
am a man of even temper.
"If bureaus of this sort affect a man
of my self^ommand in this manner,
what must their effect be upon
myriads of people of dispositions more
excitable and explosive? See what
trouble one of these sticky drawer bu
reaus has brought to a friend of mine:
"He was a nice man, but impulsive
and somewhat given to self-indul
gence, and he fought with himself un
til one after another he had cut out
all his vices except swearing, and last
spring he cut that out and came forth
that strongest of all men, the man who
has conquered himself. In that splen
did strength he continued until day
before yesterday, when he fell.
“On that day, confident of his own
strength of mind, never doubting,
never thinking of it in fact, he had
become now as he supposed so settled
in his power of self-control, he tried
to get a collar out of his top bureau
drawer.
“This drawer had stuck before, but
up to that day he had always managed
to open it somehow, and what was far
greater, to keep his temper in opening
it; but on that day it wedged and
stuck and resisted in a manner that
would have tried any man and that
proved, alas! too much in the end,
for my friend.
“For when the drawer wouldn't
come, anyway, a cloud seemed to come
over his mind, and he grasped the two
handles of it with his two hands and
planted his foot firmly against the
face of the drawer below and pushed
with that while he pulled on the draw
er, viciously.
"The drawer did yield at last, but
when that came the bureau went over
under the pressure of the foot he had
against it, and the heavily loaded
drawer came down with its sharp back
edge square on the toes of the other
foot.
“All the neighbors said—the win
dows being opened everywhere, as at
this season so that all could hear—
that they had never heard anything
like it, never; and my friend has got
to move. All were willing to admit,
when they learned the cause, that the
provocation had been great, but they
won’t take another chance, and my
friend must go.
“And all because of a sticky bureau
drawer!
“Bureau builders! Think of the
benefits you would confer upon hu
manity by making bureaus wdth draw
ers that would open and close easily!
But I don't appeal to your philan
thropic side. I appeal to your cupidity.
A fortune, a Himalayan fortune, awaits
the bureau builder who first puts on
the market a bureau with drawers that
won’t stick.”
Printing in Venice.
A new institution has just been
founded in Venice for the revival of
letter-, in that city, under the name of
“L’lstituio Yeato di Art! Grafiche.”
Its object is to promote printing in all
its various branches and to restore an
art which was once of such wide
spread fame in Italy. That Venice
should be chosen as one of the spots
for such a purpose is peculiarly appro
priate, for, as is well known, it wras in
Venice that printing was most warm
ly encouraged and developed when,
after its invention in Germany, it was
introduced into Italy. No less than
1G4 printing presses were set up in
Venice in the second half of the fif
teenth century, and during the first
30 years that they were at work the
number of books primed is estimated
at 2,000,000. Aldo Manuzio settled in
Venice in 14S0, and lived and worked
there till his death, in 1515. During
those years he commenced the pub
lication of the Aldine editions, which
his descendants carried on after' him,
and which have made his name fa
mous throughout the world of letters.
Chartreuse.
Chartreuse is named after the orig
inal Carthusian monastery founded in
the eleventh century in a wild, ro
mantic valley forming a portion of the
French department of Isere. This
liqueur has a large sale, both the
green and yellow being popular. It
is distilled from various herbs which
are supposed to possess peculiar stim
ulating and aromatic properties, its
repute has been maintained by the
monks despite the enormous difficul
ties which they have encountered from
time to time. The order is supposed
to have been considerably enriched by
the revenue from this country. The
monastery which contains the distil
lery has long been a famous resort
for visitors.
Remarkable Coincidence*.
Some remarkable coincidences are
recorded in the case of two men, Wil
liam Connolly and Patrick Cantwell,
who were drowned a short time ago
by the upsetting of a “float” on the
Grand canal, near Tullamore, Ireland.
The two men were born on the same
day 36 years ago; they were baptized
in the same water; they were
drowned together in the Grand canal,
and they have now been buried to
gether at Rahan, King's county.
Mommsen and Bacon.
Trinity college, Cambridge, posseses
a famous portrait of Bacon. The other
day when a party of visiting German
editors viewed it, they were told how
Dr. Mommsen, when it was pointed
out, to him, stood with folded arms
in i-ont of it, and observed: “So.
it is you who gave U3 Ladj Macbeth
and Falataff.”
TELEGRAPH OF THE KAFFIRS.
How Messages Are 8ent Between
Chiefs in Zululand.
Mention has been frequently made
during the recent native troubles in
South Africa of the “Kaffir telegraph,"
the strange system by which news of
any importance is communicated from
one extreme of the native territories
to the other with almost incredible
rapidity, and the working of which,
it has been stated, is still a mystery
to the white man.
This latter statement Is scarcely
correct. Numbers of up-country resi
dents, traders, and the like are well
acquainted with many of the ways in
which communication passes from
tribe to tribe.
When a chief receives a message he
selects a fast runner, and gives him
the words, and instructs this man to
run in a given direction as fast as he
can—horses are never used in this
work—until he is exhausted. When
he can run no longer he enters the
nearest kraal, selects the chief man.
gives him the words, and this man in
his turn picks out his fastest runner,
who at once starts off until he also
is exhausted, when he acts in a similar
way.
With relays of runners like this 100
miles can be covered In 24 hours.
The system of "calling messages”
is largely used by the natives in war
time. The air in South Africa is so
dry that sound carries a very long
way. Native messengers are stationed
at the tops of hills to call messages
to each other.
It is no exaggeration to say that
they can make themselves heard and
carry on conversation a quarter of a
mile distant; but for obvious reasons
they cannot be stationed so close to
gether, so a system of signaling by
smoke is carried on at night, but this
means is not followed in such a case
as I am trying to describe.
A white man named Groom had set
tled down among the Pondos and
adopted their ways, and, except for
the trifling difference of color, was to
all intent a Kaffir himself. This man
once, in answer to an argument which
took place outside the store in Mt.
Frese, offered to have a message de
livered in Komgha, about 200 miles
away, on the day after the one on
which wo were .speaking, and a note
was accordingly written to a store
keeper in that village and given him.
On the second morning a Kaffir
walked into the store in Komgha and
placed the paper in the storekeeper s
hand and walked out; but we never
found out how this had been accom
plished.—London Field.
Foreigners? Stick to Cities.
The commissioner general oi Immi
gration has made it apparent in his re
ports that the timbers and quality of
the newcomers to our shores do not
exhaust the problems of immigration.
One of these which causes much trou
ble and embarrassment is the matter
of distribution, it being claimed that
the new swarms show a disposition to
cling to the congested life of the cities.
Professor Wilcox of Cornell univer
sity and a special agent of the United
States census bureau whom we have
recently quoted employed statistics to
show that there Is a general move
ment cmong immigrants away from
the cities. On the basis of his figures
it appears that nearly one-half of those
who have arrive! within the last five
years are to be found outside the
cities ef 25,000 and over. Even with
out disputing his figures and state
ments they hardly strike at the root
of the matter. With a fc-eign Incre
ment at the rate of about 1,000,000 a
year it is becoming increasingly dif
ficult each year to obtain help to
gather the fruits of the earth What
ever may become of these new re
cruits when they leave the large cities
they appear to studiously avoid the
fundamental industry of the country.
—Boston Transcript.
Nature’s Sherlock Holmes.
The sun has revealed an interesting
scientific discovery which will delight
archeologists. At Castle Park. Col
chester, England, as elsewhere, the
great heat of the last few weeks has
considerably modified the natural
greenness of the grass. But In one
place there were noticed paraPel and
transverse bands of grass which were
much browner than the surrounding
verdure. Closer examination showed
'hat the brown bands formed the
ground plan of a spacious Roman villa.
The shallow soil over the ruined walls
of the villa had teen dried more thor
oughly than the deeper soil on either
side of them, and thus the sun had
made a tracing of the villa for the edi
fieation of scientists.
Use Guns to Plant Seeds.
“It is sometimes necessary," said a
landscape gardener, “to use artillery
in my business.”
Artillery in gardening.' Absurd:
“Not at all. You see. we often want
to plant certain kinds of trees or vines
or mosses upon inaccessible peaks
In such cases we load a number of
canisters with seed and fire them from
a big gun at the place where they
are to grow. The canisters strike the
rocky height, the seeds fly here and
there, some light on fruitful soil and
in due season the gray cliff turns
green.
“Soldiers with their guns destroy
life, whereas we landscape garden
ers with ours create It.”
Giving Up Completely.
Two Irishmen were haring their
first experience in ocean travel. Mike
became very sick just arter leaving
Queenstown and leaned over the rail
in his endeavor to lighten the cargo.
He knew he would die. Pat stcTod
beside him with vain words of
comfort.
"It's no use, Pat,” said Mike. “!
am a doomed man. Tell Biddy and
the children I thought of them to the
last.”
• Shure,’ 'said Pat. "and what am
I to do with the remains?"
“Never mind,” said Mike, as her
trembled with a paroxysm of pain and
felt the soles of his feet start upward.
“Never mind, there ain't going to be*
any remains.
England’s One Thatched Church.
The only thatched church in thti
United Kingdom is at Markby, a l’niu
village three miles from Alford. Lines*