The Loup City northwestern. (Loup City, Neb.) 189?-1917, April 24, 1913, Image 4
— Sable HORACE Lhrcha HAZELTINE COPY/?/G/i7; J9JZ. A C SfCCZURQ & CO. 17 SYNOPSIS. Robert Cameron, capitalist, consult* Philip Clyde, newspaper publisher, re garding anonymous threatening letters he has received. The first promises a sample of the writer’s power on a certain day. On that day the head is mysteriously cut from a portrait of Cameron while the lat ter is in the room. Clyde has a theory that the portrait was mutilated while the froom was unoccupied and the head later Removed by means of a string, unnoticed by Cameron. Evelyn Grayson, Cameron s ntecs, with whom Clyde Is in love, find* the head of Cameron’s portrait nailed to a tree, where it had been used as a target. Clyde pledges Evelyn to secrecy. Clyde learns that a Chinese boy employed by Philatus Murphy, an artist llvftig nearby, had borrowed a rifle from Cam eron’s lodgekeeper. Clyde makes an ex cuse to call on Murphy and Is repulsed. He pretends to be Investigating alleged infraction* of the game laws and speaks of finding the bowl of an opium pipe un der the tree where Cameron’s portrait was found. The Chinese boy is found dead next morning. While visiting Cam eron in his dressing room a Nell Gwynne mirror Is mysteriously shattered. Cameron becomes seriously ill as a result of the •hock. The third letter appears mysteri ously on Cameron’s sick bed. It makes direct threats against the life of Cameron. Clyde tells Cameron the envelope was empty. He tells Evelyn everything and plans to take Cameron on a yacht trip. The yacht picks up a fisherman found drifting helplessly in a boat. He gives the name of Johnson. Cameron disap pears from yacht while Clyde's back Is Turned. A fruitless search is made for a motor boat seen by the captain Just be fore Cameron disappeared. Johnson is al lowed to go after being closely questioned. Evelyn takes the letters to an expert in Chinese literature, who pronounces them of Chinese origin. Clyde seeks assistance from a Chinese fellow college student, who recommends him to Yup Sing, most prominent Chinaman In New York. The fatter promises to seek Information of Cameron among his countrymen. Among Cameron’s letters Is found one from one Addison, who speaks of seeing Cameron In Pekin. Cameron had frequently de clared to Clyde that he had never been in China. Clyde calls on Dr. Addison. He learns that Addison and Cameron were at one time intimate friends, but had a fall ing out over Cameron’s denial of having been seen in Pekin by Addison. Clyde goes to meet Yup Sing, sees Johnson, at tempts to follow him, falls into a base ment. sprains his ankle and becomes un conscious. Clyde Is found bv Miss Clement, a missionary among the Chinese. He is sick several days as a result of inhaling charcoal fumes. Evelyn tells Clyde of a peculiarly acting anesthetic which renders a person temporarily unconscious. Mur phy is discovered to have mysterious re lations with the Chinese. Miss Clement promises to get information about Cam eron. Slump in Crystal Consolidated, of which Cameron Is the head. Is caused bv n rumor of Cameron’s Illness. Clyde finds Cameron on Fifth avenue in a dazed and emaciated condition and takes him home T*ameron awakes from a long sleep and speaks in a strange tongue. He gives or ders to an Imaginary crew In Chinese Jargon. Then in terror cries: “I didn’t kill them.” Evelyn declares the man Is not her uncle. Evelyn and Clyde call on Miss dement for promised Information and find that the Chinaman who was to give it has Just been murdered. Miss Clement gives Clyde a note asking him to read it after he leaves the mission and then destroy It. It tells of the abduction of a white man bv Chinese who shipped him back to China. The man Is accused of the crime of the “Sable Lorcha” in which 100 Chinamen were killed. The ap pearance In New York of the man they supposed they had shipped to China throws consternation into the Chinese. The brougham in which Clyde and Eve lyn are riding is held up by an armed man. Clyde Is seized by Murohy and a fight ensues. Evelyn and Clyde are res cued bv the police and return home. Thev find Yup Sing and the Chinese consul awaiting them. Yup tell* Clyde the storv of the crime of the “Sable Dorcha.” In which 97 Chinamen were deliberat'd'’ sent to their death by one Donald M’Nish. whom they declare is Cameron. They de clare that M’Nish can be Identified bv a tattoo mark on his arm. Clyde declares that Cameron has no such mark. The nurse is called In and describes a tattoo mark on his patient’s arm. Clyde goes to Investigate and finds the patient at tempting to hide a letter. It is addressed to Donald M’Nish. CHAPTER XXIV. Another Problem Crop* Up. There are, I dare say, those who will not hesitate to charge me with an un pardonable lack of perception. “Even from your own telling," they will prob ably declare, “we realized from the first that the creature you discovered at two in the morning, supporting him self by means of a Fifth avenue area railing, was not Robert Cameron, but his physical counterpart, and a not very deceptive counterpart at that." I shall not dispute the justice of the . criticism. As I look back at it all now, I sometimes wonder, myself, how I could have been so blind, so credulous. And yet there is something to be said on the other side. too. An able advo cate, I believe, might make out v fair ly strong case for me if I were dis posed to defend myself; which, as it happens, I am not, since the verdict can make no possible difference either t» you or to me, and would only delay the culmination of our narrative Nevertheless I must tell that for some minutes after reading the letter which had so opportunely fallen into my hands I stood at the foot of the bed, and in the glare of the blazing electrics, studied with keenest scru tiny the faoe which had so deceived me. In general contour and individual feature the likeness to Cameron was monstrous in its fidelity. The same rugged power, inherited from Scottish forbears, was traceable in every linea ment. But there the similarity ended. The faoe 1 gazed upon lacked illumina tion. Character, so strongly indicated in the other, was from this totally ab sent. In its place was an admixture of craft and brutality, so palpable, now —so clearly, unmistakably evident— that I marvelled at my former delu ' sion. It was the newspaper puzzle picture over again. Having at length discov ered the hidden rabbit I could see nothing else whatever. It dominated the drawing. It fairly sprang at me from out the printed page. There was still another feature oi the revelation, however, which held a contrasting pathos. The letter which carried conviction beyond all possible dispute was from Donald McNish’s aged mother. And while it tempered in a measure the harshness of mj Judgment against the son, it was ol tragic import, in that it was one po tent piece of evidence in his undoing 'severing the last link in the chair iwhich connected his identity with thal of the shamefully maligned Cameron Eveiyn wept over this letter, and'] s-va not bit* but that my own sighi grew hazy, too, as I read the fond, quaintly couched phrases of endear ment, penned half a year back In Dun dee, by this God-fearing old Scotch woman, to that Infamous, blood-stained reprobate, who, to her, was still her "ain bonnie bairn." It all came out, eventually, that Mc Nish had traveled the world over in the sixteen years intervening since the coolie massacre, employing a score or more of aliases and so studiously avoiding the name by which he had then been known, as to have almost forgotten it, probably, himself, until, yielding to the call of home, he had at some early period of the last twelve month returned for a brief visit to his native town and his septuagenarian mother. It 'Was then, most likely, that he gave to her the address of the New York hotel. Fate Influenced the moth er to write, and Fate sent the son there six months later to get the let ter, and so carry upon his person the confirmatory evidence of his identity, just at the time when it would prove fatal. “How did it happen,” I have been asked, “that you didn't examine imme diately the clothes that the supposed Cameron wore, when you found him?” In view of subsequent events it is very easy to see what an important bearing such an examination would have had. But at the time, there was no one who thought of it Our chief purpose then was to get the injured man to bed, and to secure a physician and nurse to minister to his recovery. If he had been found dead, then, of course, we should have gleaned what Information we could from his pockets. But we daily expected him to be able to tell his own story, and in the anx iety and confusion of the moment the possible pregnancy of the disclosures that lurked in his apparel was entire ly lost sight of. When we did make the examination, on the morning following the episode of the letter, it was to discover that the suit and overcoat worn by McNish were of Scotch manufacture, having been made in Dundee, according to sewn-in labels, early in the current year. The contents of the pockets were not significant. The letter he had been so anxious to secure and destroy was the only letter, apparently, he had carried. There was a cheque-book on a Chicago bank, and there was a wal let containing a small sum of money in bills, and a few business cards of importing houses, which we took to Indicate that the possessor was still desultorily engaged in trade, or some species of smuggling, with the Malay states and the Straits settlements as his field, since most of the cards made reference to goods of such origin. That morning, which succeeded the night of exciting events already de tailed, was crowded with another suc cession of happenings scarcely less sensational. At seven o’clock, O’Hara, In obedi ence to my instructions came to my room in the Loyalton, rousing me out of a heavy sleep; for I had not got to bed until four, and then had lain awake with teeming brain until after five. I received him in bath robe and moles, sitting on the bedside, and sip ping cofTee, while he, perched on a low, brass-bound clothes chest, poured forth his story. "Sleep!” he echoed, when I had made my apologies. "I haven’t had a wink, myself. I’ve been with the boys all night doing as pretty a round-up as you ever see. We’ve got the bunch right this time, Mr. Clyde, and there’ll be a clearin’ out down there in China town such as hasn’t been known since the Chinks discovered Doyers street.’! “Yes,” I said, encouragingly. "It’s another war of the tongs,” he went on. "They have 'em periodically, you know, and there’s always a few of the moon-faced boys snuffed out, which ain’t much loss nohow. But this time they interfered, you see, with you and Miss Grayson, and they beat up that driver of our buzz-carriage something fierce; and the Commissioner's issued orders to put the whole yellow popula tion on the pan if necessary to get the ones what is responsible.” "Were any arrests made?" I in quired. O’Hara smiled. ”WTere any arrests made?” he repeated in a tone that in dicated supreme pity for my ignorance. "Why, we took ’em in by the whole sale. We lowered the net and dragged it and you ought to see what come up. There was one fellow, a skinny old geezer half-breed, neither Chink nor white man, but a slimy mixture of all that’s bad in the two. We’ve had him on the griddle all night. Talk about the third degree! He got it good, and he’s made enough admissions already to send him straight to the chair.” “And Murphy?” I suggested. "He’s a tough one, that lad! When they’d brought him to, they figured they’d get him to convict himself in the same old way. But there was nothin’ doing. He just shut his trap, and not a word would he answer one way or the other. But his turn’ll come, all right. I’ve got it on him, Mr. Clyde. While I've been shadowin’ him for the past month I’ve picked up a bunch ot stuff that will come in good. To be gin with, his name ain’t Murphy. It’s Pat Moran, and his mug’s at head quarters.” “His mug?” “Sure! in the Rogue's Gallery. And his record's there too. He’s done time, already." “For what?” “For stabbin’ a man in the back.” It requires no great mathematical ability to put two and two together The result is always either four 01 twenty-two. So, in logic, the answer if % Invariably either right or wrong. Mur phy had stabbed a man' In the back; McNlsh carried the scar of a knife wound under his shoulder blade. There were the two and two. "What were the facts?" I asked, with kindled Interest. "Whom did be stab? When? Where?” “The bloke’s name,” O’Hara an swered, after a moment’s thumbing of his note book, "was MacNlchol—Doug lass MacNlchol. It was In Buffalo, In 1900." \ My putting together of names could hardly be a coincidence. "Pat Moran served five years in Au burn,” the detective added. "You don’t know what became of McNish—I mean MacNlchol?” "No.” "Nor any facts about the cause of the stabbing?" “That’s easy got," O’Hara informed me. “But it ain’t in the record at headquarters. W’hat is there, though, is that Moran had lived in Chinatown in Frisco, and was arrested there and tried for smuggling opium, but was ac quitted for lack of evidence.” For a moment I sipped my coffee in thoughtful silence. “The skeleton guy knows Moran, all right,” O’Hara broke in. “You mean the half-breed?” “Yes. He give that away." “What does he call himself?” "He’s known in Chinatown as John Soy. He says he's a cook.” Once again I wras busy with two and two. Unless all signs failed this John Soy and Peter Johnson and the Eura sian cook of the Sable Lorcha were a single entity. “O’Hara," I said, finishing my cof fee, and putting down the cup and sau cer, "I have the key witness in this case. You and I together are going to take him with us and have him con front both Murphy and John Soy. I promise you the result will be Interest ing." The detective looked his perplexity. “Some one who knows them?" he asked. “Unless I am very much mistaken,” I answered, "it is some one who knows them both better than any other per son in New York. Unless Heaven is Just now engaged in constructing enig mas simply for the bewilderment of us mortals, the witness I have is the man whom Murphy stabbed in the back, in Buffalo, eight years ago.” But before I could carry out my plan there were several minor mat ters which claimed my attention. Ever since reading the note which Miss Clement placed in my hands I had been uneasy concerning her safe ty. To Judge from O’Hara's report Chinatown had been in a ferment most of the night, and I feared lest the blame for the disturbance be vis ited upon the brave woman mission ary and some measures of vengeance meted out to her. For hair an hour I tried unsuccess fully to reach her by telephone. The Mission did not answer. With my anxiety intensified by this repeated failure. I ordered my motor car around at once, and taking O’Hara ■with me. made the trip to Pell street In record time, despite obstructive trucks and other vehicles which were encountered. Eager inquiry ot none-too-loquacious neighbors eventually elicited the in formation that Miss Clement, alive and uninjured, had started at day break, if not indeed before, to hunt up a brother of the murdered Ling Fo, in Long Island City. Half an hour later, having stopped at Bellevue hospital on the way up town to inquire as to the condition of Elol Lacoste, the injured chauffeur, and leave instructions that every thing possible should be done for his comfort. I alighted from the car at the door of Dr. Massey's office on West Fifty-sixth street. I trust I am not that type of man which, when guilty of error, delights to shift the responsibility to other shoulders. I had small excuse to make for myself in confounding Mc Nish with Cameron, yet I confess I had much less for the family physi cian, who had been so easily deceived. Dr. Massey greeted me almost Jo vially, but checked himself as he ob served the seriousness, the coolness even, of my manner. "Our—our patient is not worse?” he questioned, taken aback. "No. doctor,” I answered, tempted to a grim humor, “that would be im possible, I fancy.” For a second he regarded me with frowning incomprehension. “Our patient,” I repeated with a sarcastic emphasis that could not be misunderstood, "long ago, I fancy, reached the limit of blackguardism.” The doctor’s eyes widened, his lips parted and he stood aghast. “But—but—I don’t quite see.” he stammered. “You have quarreled with Mr. Cameron? You have—” “No, no.” I returned, interrupting him. “Would to God I had him here to quarrel with. Miss Grayson was right. The man you have been using your skill upon is no more Robert Cameron than I am.” I hardly knew whether to be irritat ed or amused by that which followed. Dr. Massey threw back his head and roared with boisterous laughter. “Ha! Ha! Ha! That’s the rich est kind of a Joke, my dear fellow!” he exclaimed, as his mirth subsided. "Not Robert Cameron? Why, do you know, Mr. Clyde, how many years I have been his physician? No. Of course you don’t. Ten years and over, and I know Cameron as I know my self.” “Then tell me,” I said, irritation having its way, “why on earth he X . ever had the Initials D. M. N. tattooed on his left arm?” The doctor’s quick changes of ex pression were becoming an interest ing study. The smile which had lin gered after the laughter now gave way to a lowered brow and pursed lips. "A tattoo mark on his left arm?” he repeated, slowly. -There’s no such thing there.” “But there is.” I insisted; “there is. at least, on the left arm of the man you’ve been treating." Dr. Massey was still thoughtful. “There is some mistake,” he decid ed. “No, there is no mistake,” I as sured him. “Miss Grayson’s eyes were better than either yours or mine. She saw at once that this outlaw was not her uncle, and you and I fancied we knew better. If you are still un convinced, doctor. I’ll run you up in my car, which is at the door, and you shall satisfy yourself. Meanwhile I’ll give you some of the confirma tory evidence." He went with me; and to him and O’Hara, at the same time, I related the dumfoundlng occurrences of the previous night. “And what did this McNish say?" the doctor inquired, when I had fin ished. “Did be admit the masque rade?” “He became delirious. There was no getting a sensible word from him. My own idea is that the delirium was feigned.” “Possibly.” "Isn't It equally possible, doctor,” I asked “thatv he has been feigning since the first?” “No,” was his answer. "I don't think so. He may have exaggerated his symptoms, when conscious, to gain time; but if he had been able to think clearly he would have secured that letter before last night. You may rest assured that that was the first opportunity he had. after regaining the power of thought continuity. And still,*’ he continued, “I am not en tirely convinced that he is not Rob ert Cameron. If It is merely a resem blance, as you claim, then it is the most remarkable case of likeness that I have ever encountered. Moreover, ! there is one thing we must not lose sight of His abductors, as has been demonstrated by everything they have done, are an unusually clever and cunning lot of men. To counterfeit age. so far as the tattoo mark is con cerned, is not so difficult as you might imagine; and I should have to see the scar before admitting that it is not of recent origin. The letter might have been a forgery, or a real letter, se cured and placed in Cameron’s pocket for this very purpose. And hypnotic suggestion would easily explain his de sire to secure and destroy it. The use of a foreign tongue in his dementia even, could be accounted for in the same way.” It was natural that Dr. Massey should exert his ingenuity to reconcile these divergent points. To him it seemed, as it had to me, that a mis take as to the identity of the patient was incredible. But now I simply shook my head in negation. “Wait until you see him again, doc tor,” I requested. “Wait until you read his face, not for what Is on the sur face but for what is behind it.” The motor, drawing a swift diagonal to the curb, came creepingly to a halt before the Cameron house. As I was about to alight. Dr. Massey laid a de taining hand on my arm. “If jour conclusion is correct. Clyde,” he said, gravely, "what course do you propose to take? Do you real ize what is involved? Don’t you see that your conviction and mine is one thing, but that to convince the public is an entirely different matter? Can we afford to give this man up for his crimes. until we have Cameron actu ally here to prove that it is not he who was thus involved sixteen years ago.” In the recent result of developments I had not thought of that. But I saw now that it presented a problem no less perplexing than some of those which had Just been solved. CHAPTER XXV. Enemies Face to Face. As events shaped themselves the problem presented by Dr. Massey found a speedy solution. Had I been compelled to grapple with it unaided I am not yet sure what course I should have pursued. Of my own volition I must have hesitated to take a step which could not fall to throw suspi cion—at least among the only par tially informed—upon my absent and defenseless friend. But all choice in the matter was denied me. I arranged with Dr. Massey that he should go unaccompanied to his pa tient’s room. and. without so much as a hint that he was cognizant of what had transpired on the previous night, make whatever examination he deemed necessary to a definite conclu sion. In the meantime, having learned' from Checkabeedy that Evelyn was in the breakfast room, I joined her there. Her curiosity had ripened by a night's suppression; and having dismissed the footman who was serving her, she at once demanded the fulfillment of my promise to tell her everything. "It's another case where you have the right to say, ‘I told you so,’ ” I be gan, as I took a chair next to her. In her wide blue eyes I read that she divined my meaning. "Yes,” I went on, "the man upstairs is not your uncle. We have been nursing a viper, it seems, who prom ises to give us a deal of trouble be fore we are through with him.” There was no need for her to ques tion me. Rapidly, succinctly. I told her the story I had learned from Yup Sing; told her, too, of the scene In the bedchamber, after I had left her on the previous night; and showed her the letter from McNish's poor old Scotch mother. "There, there,” I soothed, as in si lence but with quivering lips and eyes overflowing, she started to read the tremblingly penned sentences a sec ond time. "I'm sorry for the dear old creature, too, but—” "Philip," she interrupted me, her face and voice alike pleading. “Let us send him back to her!” “Send him back!” I repeated in amazement. “Yes. We can. can't we? We don’t have to give him up to those horrid Chinamen, do we? He’s well enough to go. isn’t he? Why can’t we call a cab, give him enough money for his passage and send him. at once? There’s a steamer sailing this morn ing. isn’t there?” For Just a moment I was on the point of yielding. Seldom has a vil lain had a more puissant advocate than had McNish in this enthusiastic, resolute girl, spurred to his salvation by the pathetic appeal of that mater nal yearning which breathed from ev ery line of the letter before her. The unselfish purity of her cause illumined and transfigured her. Her beauty was radiant. “Answer me!” she insisted, impa tient at my silence. “Isn’t it possible? Isn’t it really the very best w-ay out of a difficulty? It will never do to admit that we have had that man here in mistake for Uncle Robert, you know.” “But there is something you have forgotten, my dear child,” I objected, with all the mildness I could bestow upon the words. “In your wish to give Joy to this poor old mother—and in that I am with you heart and soul— you have quite overlooked the fact that we are still with scarcely a scin tilla of Information concerning the present whereabouts of your uncle.” “Oh, no. I haven’t,” was her prompt rejoinder, “but I don’t see what that has to do with it. except that it makes it all rr.e more necessary to pretend that we still believe this McNish is j he. How will sending McNish abroad ! hinder—” And then she broke off, j suddenly, as I had rather expected she 1 would, knowing what a keen brain she • had and how once she got a clear per spective on the situation, she must see again the very point she had suggest ed once herself, and which I had still in mind. (TO BE CONTINUED.) Duck Rid Room of Flies Management of Chicago Hotel Will In the Future Pin lt« Faith to Domestic Bird. The manager of a big Chicago hotel has found a very simple solution of the fly problem. It Is a flock of ducks. The ordinary hotel perhaps has no particular accommodations for live ducks; but in this there is a fountain in the center of the approaches to the various dining rooms. The fountain has a large basin, and just by way of novelty the manager several months ago placed a few ducks in the water. They paddled around and enjoyed it, and the guests enjoyed seeing them. But, better still, the ducks also enjoy ed the flies that attempted to enter the dining rooms and feast upon the good things therein. The flies—in Chicago, at least—fly low; and ducks, as any one tyho has ever seen tham knows, are especially quick in catch ing insects. The consequence is, this particular hotel, once troubled with flies, now has practically none. And the ducks, once lean to verge of scrawniness, are fat and sleek. The duck method of disposing of the fly nuisance cannot, of course, ob tain in private households to any de gree; but in this particular hostelry the ducks have caused the wire fly swatter and traps to be thrown into the ash heap. Perhaps next year the enterprising manager will attach some sort of a meter to every duck, so that at the end of the season he can tell how many flies each busy fowl has disposed of with neatness and despatch. One Way of Putting It. Even the women admit that a cer tain Topeka baby is homely. But they put it diplomatically. They say it looks like its father.—Topeka Cap ital. UNITED STATES LAGS Way Behind in Matter of Im proved Highways. Of 2,200,000 Miles in This Country Lesi Than 200,000 Are Up to Date— $250,000,000 Is the Annual Loss to People. What is the use of rural free deliv ery mail routes and the parcel -post system if there is to be no improve ment of the public roads for the eco nomic delivery of parcels and mails 1 According to a bulletin issued by the office of public roads, there were in the United States in 1909 2,199,645 miles of public roads, and the total mileage of improved public roads was only 190,476. Yet we boast that the United States- is a highly civilized country and make faces at the eflete countries of the old world, in some of the most decadent of which, as we are accustomed to call them, the people know where they are going when they start, and have some idea of when they will get there and v.-hat it will cost them to make the journey There is a good deal of humbug in the claims we make for ourselves, particu larly when it comes to practical things although we are willing to admit with out argument that we are the most practical people in the world. Recently what is called the second National Good Roads Federal Aid con vention was in session in Washing ton. The place of meeting could not have been better selected; the time could not have been more inauspi cious. Nobody was thinking about good roads, except the nearest cut tc the White House and the offices wait ing for distribution. It was announced in the official program of the meet which was called by the American Au tomobile association, that "the distinct purpose of this gathering is to create a concrete plan which shall logically involve our national government in the highways progress of the country." That is a tine purpose; but with the old ones going out in shoals and the new ones coming in without any spe cial purpose or any purpose that has been formulated clearly, this was hard ly the time for the association to make a very deep impression upon the leg islative and disposing mind. For two days the convention dis cussed good roads in a most intelli gent way and a mass of valuable in formation was obtained from expert testimony, foreign and domestic, that would lose much of its force if it should be suffered to "perish with the using” or the speaking. The main contention of the association is that “it is the duty of the federal govern ment to supplement state and county systems with a plan of national roads connecting all parts of the country. That is a most ambitious project, but none too ambitious for a country so big as this. There are something like 3,000 counties in the United States and it is well within the mark to say that in not one-half of these counties is there anything like what could be called by the utmost stretch of cour tesy a road “system.” The official fig ures prove this without argument. The ratio of good roads to bad roads Is as 199,000 is to 2,000,000, and, a3 Mr. Dooley would say, "there ye are.” But it is as certain as taxes that good roads are coming. The idea is taking hold of the public imagination and will soon make its way into the public pocketbook. It costs from five to ten cents, according to the classification, to haul a ton of freight by the much abused railroads' a hundred miles or so; it costs about tw'enty-three cents a mile to haul a ton of almost any sort of freight over most of the public highways in this country, and these highways are in the daily use of the people in their most intimate and nec essary business. It has been estimat ed that bad roads cost the people ot the United States not less than $250, 000,000 a year. Cost of Transportation. It costs the American farmer 25 cents a ton per mile on an average to haul his produce to market or to the railroad station. In England, France and Germany hauling costs from 7.7 to 13 cents per ton qiile. The differ ence is due mainly to the improved roads in Europe. Keep People in Country. Good roads will keep people in the country and will bring city people to the fresh air. To Town by Telephone. Did you ever hear this ? The roads were so bad that the only way he could get to town was by telephone. Increase Morality. Good roads will increase health, happiness, education, religion and morality. Decrease Profanity. Good roads will decrease profanity, discouragement, back taxes, sheriffs’ sales, sour grapes and grouches. Good Trade Mark. Improved roads are a good trade mark for any community. Invoke a Blessing. Good roads invoke a blessing upon any people who build them. Horse Knows. If you want to know if good roads are a good thing, ask a horse. Prosperity and Profanity. Good roads promote prosperity; had roads provoke profanity. Does Backache Worry You? Many who suffer with backache and weak kidneys are unnaturally irritable and fretful. Bad kidneys fail to elim inate all the uric acid from the sys tem, keeping you "on edge" and caus ing rheumatic, neuralgia pains. When your back aches, and you notice signs of bladder irregularities, suspect your kidneys and begin using Doan s Kidney Pills, the best recommended special kidney remedy. Ail Arinina* Cue Mrs. Joseph Gross, Church St.. Morri 11 ton, Ark.,says: “For weeks I was all dou bled over with pain. I became so dizzy I had to grasp some thing to keep from falling and my an- , kies were swollen to nearly twice their natural size. None of the doctors under stood my case and I felt m/self sinking lower day by day. I Improved rapidly through the use of Doans Kidney Fills and before long was entirely cured. "Bvtry Pictun TJli a -Story. ** I Gat Doan’s at Any Store, 50c a Box DOAN’S SKiP POSTER-MILBURN CO- B«fMo.N«w Vorh SPECIAL TO WOMEN Do you realize the fact that thousands of women are now using A Soluble Antiseptic Powder as a remedy for mucous membrane af fections, such as sore throat, nasal or pelvic catarrh, inflammation or ulcera tion, caused by female ills? Women who have been cured say “it is worth its weight in gold.” Dissolve in water and apply locally. For ten years the Lydia E. Pinkham Medicine Co. has recommended Paxtine in their private correspondence with women. For all hygienic and toilet uses it has no equal. Only 50c a large box at Drug gists or sent postpaid on receipt of price. The Paxton Toilet Co., Boston, Mass. Anyway, the sign of old age is never a forgery. Red Cross Ball Blue gives double value for your money, goes twice as far as any other. Ask your grocer. Adv. The two most important needs in a woman’s life seems to be love and money. Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup for Children teething, softens the gums, reduces influrama uon .allays pain,cures wind colic,25c A ootUejtd* A soft answer may not turn away wrath, but it saves a lot of useless talk. Dr. Pierce's Pleasant Pellets first put up 40 years ago. They regulate and invigorate stomach, liver and bowels. Sugar-coated tiny granules. Adv. The old fashioned mother and her slipper have qualified many a man for the presidential chair—even if he didn't land. Women who spend most of their time trying to improve their com plexions never think of the old fash ioned method of steaming it over a washtub. Both True. “I heard quite a paradoxical remark the other day." “What was it?” “That though there is no excuse for crime, there is generally a* war rant for it." A Negative Merit. She—Have you any strawberries? Dealer—Yes'm. Here they are, a quarter a box. She—Goodness! They're miserable looking, and so green. Dealer—I know, mum, but there ain’t enough in a box to do you any harm. Alarmed for His Mother. Little Harry, hanging about the kitchen, saw a 6tuffed fowl sewed up before roasting. He was much im pressed by the sight. A few nights later his mother, hastily dressing to go out, found that a new frock had been sent home without the proper al lowance of hooks and eyes. Summon ing aid, her sister basted the frock to gether up the back. "Grandma,” said Harry, seeking the source of perennial sympathy and com prehension, "come and see what aun tie’s doing to mamma. I think she’s going to roast her, for she's sewing her all up.” 0 /