HIS FRIENDS
He Entertained Them but Once
By DANIEL K. VON TROMP
Copyright, 1910, by American Press
Association.
; Having occasion to visit a little town
nestling among the green bills of Ver
mont one autumn on a matter of busi
ness, 1 was walking, satchel iu band,
from the station to tbe hotel of the
place when 1 was accosted by a cheery
man, who asked me if I were going to
stop overnight In the town. Upon my
telling him that such was my inten
tion he said to me:
"I sometimes receive guests in my
house and if you like will entertain
you." -
. Not relishing a stay in the average
country hotel, I concluded to go with
the man. He led me to the handsom
est house in the place. It hud no ap
pearance of being a hotel. Indeed,
there was nothing public about it. I
was shown to a bedroom containing
every comfort and convenience. 1 ar
rived near the dinner hour and when
I went down into the dining room
found there only mine host and his
family about a table at which there
was but one vacant seat. My host in
troduced me to his wife and daughters
and motioned me to the vacant chair.
Never was I more puzzled. I had
been solicited, I supposed, by either a
hotel runner or a landlord, yet I seem
ed to be in a private house. The con
versation was general and was enliv
ened by a bottle of wine. This em
barrassed me, for landlords are not
used to furnishing wine unless duly
ordered to be paid for. I hud ordered
no wine and did not know whether I
would be permitted to return the
host's civility by doing so. After, din
ner I spent a very pleasant evening
with him and his family and at bed
time retired to my room. '
I was given my breakfast the next
morning alone, and, as nothing was
said about remaining longer after 1
had eaten. I took up my satchel for
departure. Each one of the family
cordially bade me goodby, not one of
them expressing a desire to see me
again, though the eldest daughter's
eyes sank to tbe floor at a pressure of
tbe band I gave ber. 1 could not
bring myself to call for a bill. I con
tented myself with expressing my
thanks.
Going straight to the office of a man
with whom I had business, I informed
him of my adventure and asked if he
could give me an explanation. He
smiled and said:
"Have you read in the 'Arabian
Nights' Entertainment' the story of
the man who. disgusted with the self
ishness of humanity, every evening
invited a stranger to sup and remain
tbe nigbt with him and turned him
away in the morning?"
"I have."
"You have been entertained by such
a man."
"And I will not be admitted under
his roof again?"
-No."
"We shall see about that. But tell
me the story."
"Evan Thompson inherited the
wealth of bis father and grandfather.
Evan was always very tender hearted.
As soon as be came into his property
he began to give it to any one who
needed it. He never wasted a penny
of it. Every cent was a blessing to
whomsoever it was given. To con
dense the story, he gave away his
whole patrimony. Including the house
In which be now lives.. Not being sat
isfied to remain a poor man among
those who had been bis associates in
prosperity, he went away and was not
seen again here for ten year Then
be. appeared oneday ragged, and, for
lorn iooking. There was scarcely a
person in the town who had not tit
some time been assisted by him. He
applied to one after another for help.
What assistance was given him was
so trifling that it served him but for
a brief period. Some of those he had
helped to prosperity made him small
loans, realizing that until they were
paid he would not trouble them again.
Some paid no attention whatever to
his solicitations. And so, after he bad
asked for help from everybody and
all had either refused him or put him
where he could not well ask for more,
he discovered that his former friends
when they saw him coming would
turn down a cross street before meet
ing him. Indeed, everybody wished
he would go away again and stay
away.
"He disappeared one morning, his ab
sence being made manifest by his fail
ing to call on a man who had promised
to lend him a quarter. The man told
others of the circumstance, and it soon
got abroad that 'Seedy' Thompson, as
he was called, had relieved the town
of his presence. Then one day some
thing happened. The owner of the
Thompson homestead announced that
he had sold It for twice what he gave
for It. The next startler was the reg
istry of the deed to the' premises in
the name of Evan Thompson. Lastly,
one morning a maiden lady passed the
Thompson house and reported that she
had seen 'Seedy Thompson himself
sitting on the porch puffing a cigar.
The end of it all was that Thompson
was there with a wife and children.
"Thompson has told me that be nev
er read the story in 'The Arabian
Nights' Entertainment.' He seems to
have hit upon the same method of pro
cedure by coincidence. He will invite
a stranger to stay at his house for one
night, but will never receive the same
person twice."
It was my good fortune to break his
rule, but I did it through his eldest
daughter. I married her.
SHE WAS NO SHIRK.
And She Had No Patience With Mod
ern Cooking Methods.
Different persons have varying ideas
as to what constitutes a good house
keeper. The ideas held by Mrs. Dana
Goodyear were her own and firmly
fixed. "I've got nothing to say against
those that follow after these modern
notions of cooking, like the minister's
wife," she remarked one day, "but all
I can state is that her ways aren't my
ways and never would be."
"She's been to -a city cooking school,
I hear," said Mrs. Goodyear's visitor,
"and does her work all the newfangled
ways."
"I presume so," and Mrs. Good
year's chin took on its firmest expres
sion. "She was telling me yesterday
how she could do a morning's baking
bread, cake, pies and get the regular
dinner, too, and only have three bowls
and three or four spoons to wash when
she's done aside from the dinner dish
es. She told me 'twas by cooking
school system she did it, planning and
rinsing out as she worked, and so on.
"She seemed real proud of it, but It
struck me as a pretty slack way of
doing kitchen work. There isn't a lazy
bone in my body, if I do say it, and
when I've done a Saturday's baking
I'm safe to say that there's hardly a
bowl left on my pantry shelves, and
I've got a good hour's work before
me right in my kitchen sink where
anybody that comes in canee It."
Youth's Companion.
KING OF THE METALS.
The Importance of Iron to the Elec
trical Industry.
The very root of the electrical indus
try is iron. Without iron it is doubt
ful if the larger generators and the
mighty, motors could, be builtv forjjhe
powerfuF magnets upon which these
Inventions depend for their power are
all made of soft iron either in the
form of thin plates or long wires cov
ered with insulation.
Nearly every one is familiar with
the common horseshoe magnet, which
is but a piece of steel bent in the
shape of a horseshoe and charged with
magnetism. When a steel bar of this
shape is rubbed against auother mag
net it is "charged" and will remain so
for a long time. The magnets used in
electrical machinery are of the induc
tion type that is, the magnetism van
ishes just us soon as the current is
taken away from them. If you wind
a long insulated wire tig itly around a
soft iron core and send through this
wire a weak current of electricity the
core will be instantly possessed of
strong magnetic qualities. This fact
is the basis of all electric motors and
generators. The field coils are usually
made of a soft Iron core wound with
yards and yards of insulated wire.
When the current is sent through this
wire the soft iron core is turned into a
powerful magnet, and this magnetic
power is used to drive motors or to
generate more electricity. Electrical
Bulletin.
Elephants In Captivity.
The trainer flashed for an instant his
dark lantern on the long line of ele
phants. "They are asleep." he said. "In cap
tivity elephants always sleep stand
ing." "Why is that?" the visitor asked.
"They lie down to sleep in the jun
gle." "Yes," said the trainer. "I don't
know why it is. But you'll never see a
captive elephant sleep lying down.
Some people say a captive elephant
never really sleeps sleeps sound. I
mean at all. He never has complete
confidence, you know. He grieves. He
longs to be free. Why, as a matter of
fact, this light, standing sleep of his
only lasts about three hours at that.
All the rest of the night he rocks from
side to side In the dark." Cincinnati
Enquirer.
Hopi Courtship.
When a Hopi maiden decides which
of the eligible young men of the tribe
she wishes to marry she goes and sits
in bis bchise and grinds corn until he
is sufficiently impressed by her indus
try to marry her. After the ceremony,
which is an elaborate one, the couple
go to live in the wife's bouse. If she
tires of ber husband she can obtain a
divorce by merely throwing his saddle
out of the house. After marriage the
house, fields and all their property ex
cept the herds belong to the wife.
The Hopis are indulgent parents.
The right of the children to ,do as
they please is never questioned."
" CROCODILE TEARS.
Ad Legends That the Brutes Shed
Them Over Their Prey.
There was an old story, to which we
find constant reference in Elizabethan
writers, that crocodiles wept over
their prey. No doubt the legend arose
because the crocodile possesses large
ly developed lachrymal glands, but it
appears In various amusing forms.
As early as the fourteenth century,
in "Mandeville's Travels," we find: "In
that contre ben great plentee of Coka
drilles. Tbeise serpentes slen men. and
the! eten hem wepynge."
An odd turn is given to the tale by
the narrator of one of Sir John Haw
kins' voyages. Whether he was a mar
ried man or not we do not know, but
he writes: "His nature is ever, when
he would have his prey," to cry and
sob like Christian body, to provoke
them to come to - him, and then he
snatched at them! And thereupon
came this proverb, that is applied unto
women when they weep, Lachrymae
crocodllJt the meaning whereof is. that
as the crocodile when he erieth goeth
them about most to deceive, so doth a
woman most commonly when she
weepeth."
In Fuller's "Worthies" there is the
added information that "the crocodile's
tears are never true save when he is
forced where saffron groweth."- Shake
speare. Spenser and Dryden allude to
this old world fancy.
LOVELY LUCERNE.
The Tourist Center of the "Playground
of Europe."
Lucerne, situated in the heart of
Switzerland, stands, as it were, en
shrined amid the grandest and most
picturesque features of Alpine scen
ery and is, of course, the tourist center
par excellence of the "Playground of
Europe," three main lines of railway
converging on the famous town beside
the lake. Nor could nature, indeed,
have well done more for "Lovely Lu
cerne." as all the world acclaims it
(declares a writer in London Sketch I.
On one side stands the Rigi. on the
other Pilatus (7.000 feet! high), with
between them the fair, shimmering ex
panse of the Lake of the Four Can
tons and beyond it again a widespread
panorama of the glaciers and snow
peaked ranges of the Alps.
From the Rigi (6.000 feet), easily
climbed by aid of its famous "nioun
traiu train." the view takes, in the,
Bernina. Gothard. Unterwalden and
Bernese Alps, stretching far and wide,
from the Sentis in the east to the
Blmnlisalp In the west, and to north
ward the Jura mountains, the Black
forest and the Vosges barrier between
Frank and Teuton. From the Rigi
some fourteen lakes are visible on a
clear day. among them Sem'pach. 'by
the shores of which was fought the
famous battle where the Swiss won
their freedom.
Naming a Yaht.
The naming of a book is no holiday
task, and authors, particularly proud
of a title are tolerably sure to discover
that it has been already used. But the
naming of a yacht is almost a greater
perplexity. Plagiarism may in thi
case result in practical confusion car
rying the most awkward consequences,
and not all titles to which. In search
of variety, recourse has already been
bad are satisfactory from nil po'nts of
view. .Not long a.aro. for inslm :(. . a
very grave British cabinet minister,
perhaps wishing for once t? be spright
ly, called his yacht Flirt. lie had not
consulted his family, who were, how
ever, quite sure, he thought, to delight
in his outburst of gnyety. However,
his daughters naturally remarked how
very disagreeable it would be to go
ashore with that label around their
hats.
Where Ears Grew Sharp.
A French balloonist has recorded tbe
clearness with which sounds coming
from the surface of the ground can be
heard at a high altitude. At the
height of 5.000 feet the ringing of
horses' hoofs on n hard road was
clearly audible. xAt 4.000 feet the
splashing sound made by ducks in a
pond was heard. The barking of dogs
and the crowing of cocks could be
heard at seven or eight thousand feet.
These sounds penetrated through a
white floor of cleud that hid the earth
frcm sight, says Harper's Weekly. In
the perfect silence of the air the In
vestigator was startled by what seem
ed stealthy footsteps close at hand. It
was ascertained that this noise was
caused by the stretching of the ropes
and the yielding of the silk as the bal
loon continued to expand.
Few to Collect.
Cholly Give me time to collect my
thoughts. Miss Keen Certainly. Mr.
Sapleigh. You can have two seconds.
Boston Transcript,