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About The Columbus journal. (Columbus, Neb.) 1874-1911 | View Entire Issue (April 12, 1905)
-?. 'jj ?Wlf 5J 5 t Mistress Rosemary Allyn By MILLICENT E. MANN Copyright. 1904. by CHAPTER XVII. The Affray at the Tabard. The words. "The Kins s Blues will he here." had hardly fallen from her lips before Gil had turned and given a command to Torralne. He found the fellow (and he was not the only one) staring in open-eyed and open mouthed admiration at Lady Felton; at her lovely shoulders and arms gleaming; like ivory through the yel low lace of" her gown. Her cloak had slipped from off them. Small blame to him; does not a strong man al ways admire a beautiful woman? It required a sharp kick, which Gil meant to he secretly given, hut was only too evident, to make him pull himself together and drop his eyes abashed before Gil's stern ones. His consternation and loud "ouch!" caused the men to laugh; even the lady smiled. Upon which he heart ened himself to another peek, but Gil would have none of that. He marshaled the men quickly and has tened their exit from the room. Gil was following, hut when he heard the next words of Lady Felton's he stopped. "One of your men betrayed you," she s.tid. "'Tis Jim Scrugs. the traitor!" Gil cried, and he put himself through the opening after Torraine and his men. I felt pity stir within me for the fellow, traitor though he was. I knew what the reckoning would he when he should meet Gil. "You are wet. Lady Felton, come nearer the lire," I said, and took her hand in mine "Did you not understand me?" she queried with dilated eyes. "I said the guards would be here in twenty minutes or less." "Twenty minutes is a long time," I answered as I !r-w her before the Hr' ami seated her. "Was your prison then so enjoy able you would court It again?" she Hskcd. "G il forbid!" I muttered. "I am afraid you will take cold you are wet." I touched her dress lightly with my hand. "Poof, no, only my cloak," she said; Tin as dry as an empty glass." She glanced at the array of empty bottles and glasses still upon the table. "How stupid of me," I cried, and rapping on the table I ordered wine ami supper for the lady. "No, no, only a glass of wine." she said. "I am thirsty with the ride." "I should think you well might he," said I. I poured her a glass of wine which the landlord immediately brought. As I held her cloak before the flame to dry it I devoured her sweet face with eager eyes. 1 would have taken her hand again, hut I saw that my proud lady would I drew her before the have no love making In a tavern. In deed her eyes looked so coldly into mine 1 wondered if perchance I had dreamed dreams and seen visions four nights agone in that old mansion of Lord Felton's? "I take it as a great honor, Lady Felton, that you should have ridden 11 this distance to warn me," I saia finally. "Put not the credit upon my shoul ders." she returned, and she shrugged those adorable ones set about with lace. "It was forced upon me. I -ould scarce help but come when o sweet an one as Nell Gvvyn sent me word, and asked me to see that you had warning. Indeed, I would iot have come even for her she may take care of her own lovers; I have ;ft told her that sitting upon so many tools she'll e'en find herself upon the floor some day but the night be ing fine and I wanted a ride to hlow away the megrims." I was amused at my sweetheart. She was piqued about something. At my look of incredulity I glanced at the window where the rain beat against the pane with a clicking round she instantly added: "Oh, it has only been raining a short time. Moreover Dream House was so dreary; Aunt Elaine had gone to bed, that I was like to die of ennui, so I welcomed Nell's message." "You need make no more excuses. Lady Felton." I retorted. "Could you not have sent some one?" "There was no one," she replied. "Nell would never have forgiven me if word had not been gotten to you." "Nell's a charming creature," said I sttmg by my lady's way of putting IL "Charming indeed." she admitted loyally. Then: "I see, sir, that you, too, follow the fashion set by the King. Wouldst rival him? Have a care." "Rival the King?" I exclaimed. "Not I." "You would not be the only one. Really she has enough lovtrs." she said. with a shamed lilt in her voice. "Amen to that." I said fervently. "She and Lady Felton have between them, 'tis said, scoured all London till there is not a creature upon two legs but swears fidelity to either one or the other. London is agog with their amours. In Nell's case it may be true, but as for Rosemary Allyn, Lady of Felton. I think she is too proud to give her lips to be kissed by any one but the man she loves." I looked down deep Into her heart through clear mirrors, and what I saw made me tingle through all my being responsive. "I believe you are right, sir." she sid. Tv "T"t T have not told to """7yV vV"V V'piEMSln55SSBWaBIMSSaaSSmCCiBEipvlSJSmnSMy3g!gTyS MCAS - LIXX)LX CO how Nell found out that the inn was to be surrounded and you recaptured, and I must I.urry, the time will soon be up. You must know first that there are high doings at Whitehall to-night a dance, and then the King dines with Mistress Nell. Poor me is kept at home. 'In sooth.' sayeth ma tante, 'it is not seeming in an Allyn to take up with all the wild doings of a dis solute court." She mimicked Lady Dwight to a nicety. "So I am kept at home as close as a babe in swaddling clothes. Moreover she has heard ru- i mors that the King has cast his eye upon a new face which suits his fancy. It was at the last hall that the King commanded that I dance with him, so she draws her inference from this, that mine must be the face he admires. Her eyes are ever upon me and I am kept from court func tions, lest I fall a victim to his Majes ty's fascinations. She regards Mis tress Nell with slight favor, and as for Lady Castlemaine she is quite be yond the pale. Well to continue, in the early hours of the ball the room was agog with a scandal. Lord Jef freys had been halted in Epping forest by a gang of men highway men, and made to sign a paper it was supposed for a large sum of money. They left him tied and gagged in the Forest Lodge, not a very dignified manner for his lordship. A message revealing this state of affairs some how came to the King's ear. and he sent to the lodge to find out if It were true. They found my Iord Jeffreys tied fast and madder than a baitea bear. I assure you the tale lost none in the telling and retelling as It ran from mouth to mouth in the ball room, provocative of much laughter and merriment. It seems that it was not for a sum of money hut the re lease of a prisoner that he had signed I the paper. His Lordship freed at I once sent a constable to apprehend the prisoner, and he himself hastened to the King to explain the outrage to him. His Majesty, being for the time at outs with Ird Jeffreys, never gave him the chance for explana tions, but enjoyed the joke with the rest. Now my lord, you know. Is rightfully hated by many, so their contempt was too much for him, and with a face purple with rage he left the room in a huff. His Majesty, however, laughed another kind of laugh when, later dining with Nell, it was brought to -his notice what Lord Jeffreys had signed the pardon of a young man. Quentin Waters by name, whom he himself had had con fined in Ludlow. The way of this was, a young man (it was no doubt Jim Scrugs) importuned to see the King. Now every one knows that nothing puts the King in an ill-humor so quickly as to be disturbed in his amours. Hut the man insisted so persistently upon an interview that they at last took him to the King, fire and seated her. where he explained all. and that you were to be caught napping here." She stopped a moment. I did not feel so much pity for the fellow as I had. He had been taught to know at Long Haut how summarily traitors were dealt with. "Nell tried to make the King still see it in the light of a joke," she continued. "She brought her most daring mimicry into play; but cajole she ever so much it was of no avail. The gross insult to his Majesty must be avenged. He gave the order for your rearresL Nell, finding she could not turn the King from his set pur- I pose, sent me word by Mister Arnold, who wished to come with me. but I insisted upon his going back, for after your escape some one might remem ber that he had left the ball room and that he was your friend." She had finished. "It is a rare delight to me to see you, and I thank you." I said, "but you should have let him conn? with you: It was a dangerous thing to do." "Twenty minutes, as you said, is a long time." she merely observed, "and it must be nearly up." "Twenty minutes is all too short for me." I returned. "I would have it twenty times twenty, and times that again and so as to stretch those minutes somewhat I shall take you home." "Torraine can escort the lady back and meet us at the marsh west of the town," put in Gil as if he had settled the question. "The horses are at the south wall, by the old well. It lacks a few minutes of the time." "You have planned very well, Gil," said I, "save in one particular, I, not Torraine, will take the lady back to town." "No, no," Rosemary cried; "Gil is right. You might be captured on the way." I smiled .at her, nor was I to be persuaded from my purpose. Gil opened his mouth to argue the point, but I cried: "Quick, they are here to your men. They are evidently sure of their man, they come with so robust a tread." He rushed from the room. I blew out the light. Taking both the lady's cloak and my own, I grasped her hand. Thus we followed mine host of the Tabard through a pantry door, down the kitchen garden path to the south wall, where he im mediately left us, hastening back. Rosemary and I, Btanding hand in hand, heard the clash of steel upon steel as Torraine and his jolly boys met the King's Blues. The voice of Torraine rose above it all, growling like a bear over a csrfjc ivit ",: it was different. He never uttered an unnecessary word a name called sharply, a jesture or wave of his K .sword was enough to the men, whi -new him. . xl understood affairs. Gil was keep ing the men from entering the inn as Ivig as possible. Presently we heard the crash of the heavy oaken door, atcompanied by a shout The Guards rtghed for the tap room. I felt Rosemary's hand tremble In mine. I pressed her fingers warmly to reassure her, and now considered it time to mountN our horses, which we could barely discern in the gather ing fog. The miizle had ceased. What happened after the King's Blues forced the tap room door, I learned later from Gil. He chose from among our men one about my height, and had him in the tap room almost as soon as I had left it. He told him to stand where the firelight would throw his shadow out upon the wall, so that those outside might see it. The Guards advancing saw and immediately fell into the trap. They shouted with loud cries of exultation, as they rushed for the doors and win dows. When the Blues entered, the man, as if taken by surprise, made a daah. for the kitchen. The crowd clattered after him. He led them a lively dance about the kitchen, knocking down pots and pans. Being a fellow of re sources, and minding Gil's instruc tions that he should keep the crowd at bay as long as possible, he slid into the cellar, and banging down the door after him clamped It. (To be continued.) BE ON WATCH FOR CHANCES. Writer Points Out Danger of Oppor tunities Being Invisible. It is a dangerous thing to wait for opportunities until it becomes a habit. Energy and inclination for hard work ooze out in the waiting. Opportunity becomes invisible to those who are doing nothing, or looking somewhere else for it. It is the great worker, the man who is alert for chances that sees them. Some people become so opportunity-blind that they cannot see chances anywhere they would pass through a gold mine without noticing any thing precious while others will find opportunities in the. most barren and out-of-the- way places. Bunyan found opportunity in Bedford jail to write the greatest allegory in the world on the untwisted1 paper that had been used to cork his bottles of milk. A Theodore Parker or a Lucy Stone sees an opportunity to go to college in a chance to pick berries. One boy sees an opening to his ambition in a chance to chop wood, wait on table, or run errands, where another sees no chance at all. One sees an oppor tunity to get an. education in the odds and ends of time, evenings and half holidays, which another throws away. O. S. Marden in Success Magazine. MIKADO'S ADVICE TO BOYS. Wise Precepts Laid Down By Seem ingly Enlightened Ruler. In view of the astounding progress of Japan it is interesting to recall the following rescript whicn was issued by the emperor to the Japanese schools some fifteen years ago: "Be filial to your parents and affectionate to your brothers; be loving friends; conduct yourselves with modesty and be benevolent to all. Develop your intellectual faculties and perfect youi moral powers by gaining knowledge and acquiring a profession. Promote public interests and advance public affairs. Ever respect the national con stitution and obey the laws of the country, and, in case of necessity, courageously sacrifice yourselves to the public good." Recent events have proved that the last injunction at least was taken to heart by the youth of Japan. The Graphic. Record-Breaking. A comparatively young man was re lating his experiences in the late Civil War to an attentive crowd. With en tertaining detail bo described numer ous engagements in which he had par ticipated, laying particular stress up on those in which hand-to-hand en counters were most evident The con versation drifted to other topies, when an old man present suddenly asked him: "In what year were you born?" "I was born in 1859." "Strange." commented the elderly party. "You were born in 1859, and could not have been over 5 years of age at the time you served in the army. How can you explain that?" Without a moment's hesitation and without even the tremor of an eyelid, he answered: "My father carried me on his shoul der." The Main Thing. "A village client of mine had been trying through me for seven years to collect a claim against the govern ment." said the lawyer, "and at last the claim was allowed and I received a check for $8,000. "As the man was poor I knew that this would be a great windfall for him and it was with considerable ex ultation that I put the check in my pocket and started for the house. The man himself was away somewhere, but as his wife answered my knock I showed her the check and called out: "'At last, Mrs. Davis at last! "What is it?' she asked. "'The claim has been allowed and here is a check for 18,000.' '"Yes, I see, she answered, 'but please don't talk quite so loud or you will wake the baby up!'" An Anglo-American Incident. This story ,is told by J. P. Carter, of the American embassy in London. It was a fashionable function, and the orchestra had been playing somewhat loudly. A well known Englishman was discussing the friendly relations of England and America with a very attractive American woman. The music stopped suddenly, and in the silence which followed the English man was heard to remark in heartfelt 1 accents: "And the more we know one another the more dearly we must leve one another." Both hastened to offer explanations as to the entirely political character of their remarks, but nothing could top the laughter of the delighted audience. A Financier. Bismarck had to confer with the Iron Cross on a hero in the ranks one day and, thinking to try his humor, which was of the elephantine order, on the man, he said: "I am authorized to offer you, in stead of the cross, a hundred thalers. What do you say?" "What is the cross worth?" quietly asked the man. "About three thalers." "Very well, then, your Highness, I'll take the cross and ninety-seen Am Mr. Wragg Invites contributions ot anv now ideas Unit readers of this de partment may wtsti to present, ana would be pleased to answer correspond ents desiring information on s,"l,Jecl' discussed. Address M. J. Wragg. 300 Uood Iilock. Des Moines. Iown.1 A subscriber asks how to graft ap ple trees after they have had consid erable growth, also a recipe for graft ing wax. If a fruit tree is a healthy grower, but a poor hearer, or if the quality or season of its fruit is unsatisfactory, 1t can be reformed by top grafting. This work is best done after the buds swell and before they burst into growth in the spring. The cions should have been cut in early winter, packed in damp leaves, and kept in a tempera ture only a degree or two above freez ing, and their buds should be dormant at grafting time. The cions are best taken trom bearing trees, as one may then know the exact habit of the variety grafted. The operation is simple, but to be successful must be skillfully done. The tools required are a saw, chisel and mallet for heading in the branches to be grafted, a sharp knife for shap ing the cions, and for covering the wounds. The branches of the trees are from one to two inches in diam eter, the general symmetry of the head being kept In mind. Each stump is then split in its diameter with the chisel, the cleft being kept open with a wedge about an inch long, varying with the diameter of the cion. Qut the cion three or four buds long. In the smaller limbs one cion is placed, and in the larger two, care being taken that the cion shall rest in the line of the inner bark of the limb, or between its wood and bark. The sides of the cion wedge should be com pletely covered by the limb when the cions are in place: the grip of the limb will hold the cions securely. The entire wound and ends of the cion are then completely covered with grafting wax. When the cions have made one year's growth all the side branches below them should be pruned off, and the tree thus becomes changed to the grafted variety. If too many shoots appear below the graft the first year they should be thinned out. There are many waxes. Either of the following is satisfactory: 1. Resin, 4 parts by weight; bees wax, 2 parts; tallow, 1 part. Melt together and pour into a pail of cold water. Then grease the hands and pull the wax until it is nearly white. One of the best waxes, either for in door or outdoor use. 2. Melt 0 parts white resin with 1 part beeswax, remove from stove and partially cool by stirring, then add gradually with continued stirring enough alcohol to make the mixture when cool of the consistency of por ridge. TALK UP YOUR BUSINESS. I met a man on the train the other nay who set me to thinking. He was agent for a firm handling agricultural implements, and every minute of the time we were together he was talking about those machines. He was sure that no other house in the world made implements anywhere near as fine as those he was selling. He was certain ly a most inspiring speaker on a sub ject that might not prove really in teresting. You have met such men sometimes. They tell of a man who talked fruit trees and fruit culture all the way from Buffalo to Rochester one time. He had been attending a horticultural meeting and was chock-full of the sub ject. Everybody sitting near him went home feeling that he must set out trees and take care of them, or die. Now I have met lots of farmers who never seemed to have much to say about farming. You meet them and they fall to kicking against the administration or finding fault with the weather, or some such thing; but if they say anything about their own occupation you have to draw it out of them and then they will seem to be almost ashamed that they are in any way connected with the soil, as if it were a disgrace to be a farmer. Of course you could not get up any kind of an argument with me on the subject of the success of the man who never has anything to say about his business. We all know that he stands far down the line. No first places for him anywhere. The man who wins in anything in life must think about his work, talk about, dream about it and be so in earnest about it that to him there is no other occupation in all the world in any way to be compared to his. C. J. K. Don't forget that little memorandum book. At no time will it be found so handy as now. Keep it in the pocket and put down everything that needs attention, and then one can look it over occasionally and do that which needs being done the worst without delay. Much loss is prevented in this manner. I have sorted potatoes when I should have been sowing grass seed, and a sudden shower came and some other work had to be hunted up. The little "want book" revealed what should be done. MONEY FROM FARMING Says Bret Harte, is "the cleanest fortune; of all ways of making money it's the squarest and most level; no body is the poorer for it; our luck brings no misfortune to others. The gold was put there ages and ages ago, for anybody to find; we found it. It hasn't been tarnished by man's touch before. I don't know how it strikes you, boys, but it seems to me that of all gifts that are going it is the straightest. For whether we deserve it or not, it comes to us first-hand from God!" The three cardinal points for the farmer and gardener to observe are: One, keeping down the weeds; two, thinning out the growing plants; three, keeping the ground mellow by frequent cultivation. A farmer's character is easily read by the kind of farm hands he keeps around him; and his disposition told by his horses' ribs. Rake some white clover seed into bare spots on the lawn. CARE OF TREES WHEN RECEIVED FROM THE NURSERY. Whether purchased direct from the growers or ordered through agents, care should be taken that the roots of the trees are not exposed to the ac tion of the sun and dry winds, says a recent Michigan bulletin. The prac tice of many farmers of placing the bundles in their wagons and driving home without taking any pains to cov er them to prevent the drying of the roots has undoubtedly caused the loss of thousands of nursery, trees. Wet straw and blankets should always be provided when notice has been re ceived that the agent from whom the trees have been ordered is to make a delivery, and, as soon as possible, the trees should be either planted or heel ed in. When received in the fall, un less one has a cellar, where the tem perature can be kept just above the freezing point, in which they may be placed with their roots in the soil, it will be desirable to heel in the trees in some well drained spot, where there will be no danger from standing water. A trench should be dug a foot or so in depth and about three feet wide, in which the trees should be placed with the tops inclined towards the south at an angle of about twenty five or thirty degrees from the hori zontal. The bundles should be open ed and the sbil thoroughly worked among the roots and pressed about them. It is always advisable to have the trunk and greater part of the branches covered, especially in the case of peach and other tender fruits and whenever fruits have not been thoroughly ripened. Care should be taken to have no straw or rubbish about the trees, but it is a good plan to use evergreen boughs to break the sun's rays and prevent the alternate freezing and thawing, as well as the rapid thawing of the trees after a se vere cold spell. A trench should al ways be dug to carry off any surface water about the trees. Remember it pays to look after a colony of bees, even though it may seem to have only a few bees in it. A pint of healthy bees now, with a good active queen, means a strong colony by the time clover is in bloom, if they have plenty of stores. If you are compelled to feed earl', do it as quickly as you can, for it is not a good idea to disturb bees any more than you can help when it is not warm enough for them to fly out in the day time and break the cluster, and go anywhere they wish in the hive at night without getting chilled. One bee alone chills very easily, but when they are clustered, as they are in the win ter, they can go through an intensely cold spell and take no harm, if they are where they can keep dry. Bees should never be fed liquid or be en couraged to fly out when the wind is raw and cold. SWINE NOTES. Twenty-four hours after the pigs are born give the sow a slop of wheat middlings or bran. A little warm wa ter or milk will do no harm at any time. A small handful of oil meal will have a good effect on the system. Charcoal given to the sow will cor rect scours in the pigs. When the pigs begin to smell around the trough give them some milk and oats or middlings in a small trough, in a pen not accessible to the sow. Get the pigs out on the ground as early as possible, as they become crip pled if kept on board floors. If the April farrowing sows are well fed after farrowing they will have a second litter in August or September. The sows should be well supplied with water and salt, and ashes and charcoal should always be within reach. Young sows that do well with their first litters may be considered good brood sows. Watch the hogs and be sure that they are not lousy. If lice are found spray the hogs with some good dip or kerosene emulsion. Drain off the filthy wallowing holes and give them a bath of clean water to plunge in. The hog pastures must have shade, or shelters, and abundant water. In castrating, make the incision at the lowest possible point, so that the puss will drain out. You thus prevent "puss sack" and hasten the healing process. Should a gopher get to digging too uncomfortably close to newly set cherry or apple trees he should be met half way and given a shot of bisulphide of carbon. In all probabil ity nothing has been made with a more disagreeable smell than this substance. It kills while you wait and while you sleep. No gopher will turn up a second mound after having breathed the fumes of this drug. Dig down to the open burrow, saturate a piece of cotton or cloth with the drug, place it in the open burrow and cover it up so the cotton will not be covered. The evaporation of the drug will fill every portion of the burrow with a deadly gas which produces death. If any one wants a beautiful hedge for lawn they should plant Berberis Thunbergi. The plants should be set about eighteen inches apart. They can be purchased cheaply of any of the leading nurserymen. When a man starts out on a bright, breezy April morning to sow oats or grass seed by hand he feels confident that March did not succeed in using up the visible supply of breeze. In my early days I have set out a fire to burn the "fire break," when there was not a particle of breeze apparent, and before the fire had started a good breeze would appear on the scene. Have you made any bird houses for your wild pets yet? Nail them high and strongly, roof well and paint a dull color and do not meddle with the renters. This is grafting season in the coun try. The politicians have been "graft ing" the entire year in the city. Vim. vigor and virtue are just as good graces as any fanner need "covet. HEN "?-- Twtsan CLOVER AS A FERTILIZER. The beneficent influence of clover on land where other crops are grown has never been sufficiently under stood, especially throughout the north west. We do not mean to say that some farmers have not grasped the importance of the thought and that they have not utilized it to as great an extent as is practicable. The fact remains, nevertheless, that the splen did influence which clover exerts on soils is but imperfectly understood. Those who read agricultural papers nowadays must be more or less con versant with the fact that clover en riches soils by bringing nitrogen to them which it has extracted from the air. It is probable, however, that; many lose sight of the mechanical ef fects which clover has upon the soils. When a clover field is broken up. the plants fill the soil with roots and rootlets; hence, they keep it in what may be termed a friable condition; that Is, a condition in which it is eas ily cultivated and in which the roots of young plants can readily push through between the interstices in the soil. The presence of so much plant food in the soil in a form which read ily decays provides abundant food for crops grown on overturned clover sod. The humus thus provided is most help ful in the retention of moisture. Con sequently, when clover sod is broken up, no matter what the kind of crop that is sown or planted above it, in an ordinary season it may naturally be expected to grow with much vigor. Is the auto come to stay, or is It a fad, a craze, like the old bicycle craze? The horse has been with us thousands of years, getting bettqr all the time; we all love him. Who can love a noisy, bad smelling, madly rushing road machine, guided by what appears to he a goblin-eyed monster? The source of power required for the ma chine is in the mine and oil well; is this likely to be as cheap and as per manent as the source from which the horse derives his power the soil ': Corn and hay and oats against coal and kerosene which have the greatei staying power? WITH THE POULTRY. The other day a man was complain ing that his hens had not laid a dozen eggs this winter, while another man said his wife had sold $15 worth of eggs since the first of December. Man No. 1 kept 125 hens and they roosted all winter in a couple of walnut trees, eating with his hogs. Man No. 2 had a 12x20 henhouse that cost $20, win tered 90 hens on wheat, corn and oats, and at less cost than those of Man No. 1. Can you build a 12x20 henhouse for $20? Yes, sir, if you can get lumber at $1.25 per hundred feet. Build it box fashion, gable roof, 5 feet to the square, 2x4 stuff for frame and raft ers, rough stock boards for siding and shingle roof. Any carpenter can help you put it up in two days, root in cluded. We don't like a floor in a henhouse; in fact, would not have a floor, ex cepting of cement, put in free of cost. Grade up the spot you want to build on until no water can soak in; then wheel in earth, clay is best, and with a rammer tamp it solid. Rats seldom or never trouble in an earth floor house, while one with a board floor of ten becomes a perfect rat harbor. A planter of any kind which does poor work will be a most expensive machine. Many planters will be the means of obtaining a poor stand, foi the reason that the seed fails to drop, or it may be dropped irregularly and at uneven depths and thus create a loss. I would not take a planter as a gift that will not do good work, could not afford it. BLACK PRAIRIE SOILS AND CLOVER. It cannot be denied that many of the light loose-lying black soils of the prairie are not as well adapted to the growing of good crops of clover. From what has been said, there are reasons for expecting that there will be im provement in this in the future, but they do not seem to be stored as well with food such as clover require? as the soils on which hardwood tim ber has grown. This view finds furth er confirmation in the fact that if the loose lying humus soils are removed from the surface and the subsoil is broken up, clover seems to grow with a good deal of vigor on the subsoil. This would seem to point to the fact that food supplies in the loose surface soil were not exactly such as clover wanted most, and to the further fact that the mechanical condition of these was not exactly right for clover. Eighteen inches is not deep enough to set a fence post. It should be set at least twenty-four and thirty inches will be better. Tramp the first two shovelfuls hard and firm and tamp all subsequent dirt until it is firm to the top. Some people make a mistake by putting in too much dirt before tamp ing. EARLY POTATOES. It will soon be time to plant early potatoes and therefore it is important that we make some preparation now in planning for the crop. In the first place I want to select land that is ir a good state of fertility, and one that has good drainage and contains a con siderable amount of humus, as then it will retain moisture and will not pad so from a heavy rain. I prepare m land by plowing deep, taking care that it is not done when ground is too wet harrow it well and thus prepare s good seed bed. Some folks do not like to be tickle in the ribs. Not so old Mother Earth And she enjoys It best of all when i is dong with a good hoe or a we? made harrow. The farmer whose head is stnm enough to hold his tongue and keer lut of his neighbors affairs Is alwa; he most successful and mos. - spectcd. Eighteen inches is not deep eno.r;! !or a fence oost: make it two ' ?, i ? War. Long haunted by a guilty giant dream. He sought the storied Holds of bloody strlfe. And many places of the skulls ho found Many Golgothas wbere the llesh was rent. These he repeopled with his restless dream. And ns he watched the phantom violence. He fiercely loused to take the victors place And. leaplns in the Tast. strike living men. Another, looking on those troubled tields. Saw children weeping in their mothers arms. With only tears to wash their tears away: Saw. widows, mothers, grieving for their own. With only crape to cover o'er their grief: Heard oft the elden death cry of the faith Of heaven's children in their mortal strength "Father, why hast thou so forsaken me And shall we serve the man of guilty dream. Or children of the kingdom? Save us. God! 'Twere better every throat that speaks for war Went strangling to the sea's abysmal base Than that we spit upon the Innocent And stain their heaven with our lustful blood Yea. better that the pride of empires break Than break the hearts and slay the faith of these! raul W. Marlty. As They Fought at Lookout. Stories of losses in battle in Man churia may be received with reserva tion. A perspective of fifty years Is really required through which to view what actually happens on momentous dates. Lookout Mountain. Gettysburg. An tietam. the Wilderness, may now be seen through the light of the truth prejudice, false colors have disap peared. It is a reasonable belief, even with the truth of Port Arthur's de fense and fall, gradually coming out. that as yet the Tartar-Russ and the Manchu-Jap have not met each other in the same fury of hand-to-hand grip as characterized Lookout Mountain in our own civil war of '63 -or the death clasp at Gettysburg. In Hongkong there is a saying: "The Russ is a charming liar; the Jap lies charmingly." This being true ore may feel that as to actual number of men engaged in the fighting from the Ya.u to Mukden and at Port Arthur, and the losses on both sides, much has been grossly exaggerated for purposes best known to that antithesis of the western mind the oriental. It does not appear, so far as the fig ures funished by the cables can be conservatively sifted, that in any of the great battles in the Orient during the last thirteen ntonths a greater loss has been inflicted upon either army than 6 per cent of the whole force en gaged on either side. One reason for this is that the fight ing, with the exception of the last charges and assaults at Port Arthur, has been at long range, and M. Bloch demonstrated long ago that far-range fighting meant a large diminution in the actual number of men put out of service, temporarily or permanently. Those who take much comfort in peace and who disbelieve in war may, therefore, have comfort in the thought that with modern guns, modern am munition and modern tactics earlier and notable battle scenes could not be repeated in this war of peoples who really in the beginning came practi cally out of the same womb. Taking Harpers' Book of Facts for authority in the famous Fredericks burg or "Mud" campaign of the civil war, the total number of men engaged on both sides, was 207,000 and the total losses about 26 per cent. There men fought shoulder to shoulder, jaw against jaw, hand upon throat. One or the othef must die in short-range fight ing. At Gettysburg about 66 per cent of all the men engaged. North and South, were killed and wounded, a record not paralleled by any engagement be tween the fanatical "Japs" and the stolid Russians. In the battles which immediately led to the capture of Lookout Mountain, 30 per cent of the total forces engaged were killed and wounded, a record not even to be measured by Port Ar thur's attack or defense. And when you think of Port Arthur made by man, turn back to Lookout Mountain, made by God, and read the old story: "Away to your left is a shining el bow of the Tennessee. At your right you have wooded undulations. Three fourths of a mile distant rises Or chard Knob, a conical mound, perhaps a hundred feet high. Then ledges of rock and narrow breadths of timber and rolling sweeps of ground for two miles more, until the whole rough and stormy landscape seems to dash against Missionary Ridge, three miles distant, that lifts like a sea wall 500 feet high, wooded, rocky, precipitous, wrinkled with ravines. "On the top of that wall are rebels and batteries; below the first pitch. 300 feet down, are more rebels and batteries, and still below are their camps and rifle pits sweeping five miles. "The assault on Lookout began. The federal troops stood 'twixt heav en and Chattanooga. But above them lifted a precipice, grand and sul len; and they were men, not eagles. The way wa3 strewn with natural for tifications, and from behind rocks and trees the enemy delivered Its fire. "On the shorn side of the moun tain suddenly appeared the head of the federal column. And there it held, as if riveted to the rock, and the line of blue, a half a mile long, swung slowly around from the left, like the index of a mighty dial, and swept up the brown face of the moun tain." Five hundred feet of sheer ascent in the face of the fire of at least 65. 000 brave men above; roots and shrubs to cling to, rocks to hold by, officers down, orders forgotten, noth ing ahead but the rim of the confed erate fire and the flag of the Union still held in the advance. The flash of the guns fairly burned through the clouds. One tree stood in the way in which twenty-eight bul lets were found afterward. The ene my rolled rocks down that gashed the bodies beneath. No fanatics, these men in the fight of Lookout the men above defending and the men below attacking each believed in the same God. No temples or sacred tombs to be overturned or desecrated only man of the West, man of the East and man of the South meeting in marvel ous test of courage for a principle of government and the freedom of a man of another color. This was war where the highest In telligence of the western world wash ed its linen in its own blood and on its own ground no Tartar trait there; no ages of superstition making battle color in the clouds, just the highest form of man meeting its equal. And oae triumphed over the M WW A i sW Ir ui yinnmms , f z mM m& other the battle flags of the Union floated at sunset over Bragg's head quarters and the men who had wo gave necessities to the men who had lost and been taken. And one-third of those who fought above and those who charged front the mountain's base to the peaks were put out of the running. We have yet to hear truthfully from the dead Maa churian plains that the backward Russ. without Hope, and the dissiara lating Jap, with Hope to be master of the white man some time and some where, have matched such valor, suck giving of blood, as were heaped aad sprinkled upon the altars of Lookoat- May it not be that men who believe in a one God fight closer, deadlier, than those with whom the ghosts eff the Past are always; who have al ways a phantom by their side? H. L C. in Chicago Post. Veteran's Fondness for Trees. "Do you know," said tho Sergeant, "that I often spot one of the old boys by his maneuvers in a restaurant. I am given myself to looking for a seat near a post or pillar. I didn't know I was addicted to this habit until my daughter asked me why I liked a seat near a post at a theater or in a din ing room. I had to say something. so I explained that in sleeping without shelter soldiers felt more at home If their heads were near a tree or a stump. "In the course of time going to bedi in a temporary camp was a very sim ple affair. Tho soldier put his head against a tree, milled his overcoat cape over his head, folded his arms over his rifle, and was off to dream land without fidgeting. .If there wero no trees or stumps going to bed was more of a ceremony, the men having an unsettled feeling. like a horso away from his hitching post. "As I was making this explanation I saw a very dignified individual como toward us with a quick step, and then with a disappointed look on his faco wheel to the right and settle down close to another post. I wagered my daughter a pair of gloves that he was i an old soldier, although he looked like a banker, and I went over to him. Ho admitted that he had been in the ser vice, and that he liked to sit with his back to a post. Ho indorsed my theory and amplified it. He said a I tree was a stand by in time of battle. a fortress for the riflemen on tho sklr mish line, and a shelter in a bivouac, and he told of an adventure in which a limb had fallen from a tree and pinned him to the earth without hurt ing him. A man had rescued him with the remark that tho accident ought to cure him of the tree habiL "Then I placed my man. because I was the fellow that made that remark. We had lived in Chicago since 1873 without seeing each other, and met at last through the evolution of tho old tree habit into the post habit. Tho accident did not cure him. and I never heard of an accident or any experi ence that turned an old soldier from the disposition to sit near a post or a pillar." Chicago Inter Ocean. Grand Army Ranks Thinning. According to tho annual report of Department Commander Robert Mann Woods of Illinois, death is rapid ly thinning the ranks of tho Grand Army of the Republic. In fifteen years tho death rate has increased from 1 per cent to 3.6 per cent. Tho Illinois posts last year lost 737 mem bers by death, while 1.150 were drop ped for nonpayment of dues. The report shows that Jan. 1, 1904, there were 513 posts in Illinois, with 20,519 members. "There were added during the year from different sources 1,360 members. The total losses for the year were twelve posts and 2,330 members. The total remaining in good standing Dec. 31. 1904, were 531 posts, with 19,549 members. There was expended for charity $5,- 970.66. The total disbursements were ' $49,396.33, and the total cash on hand and the value of real property Is $154.- 505.02. Honor Legion Commander Dead. Gen. Lewellyn Garrish Estes, com mander of the Medal of Honor Legion. died suddenly in Washington, of pneumonia Feb. 21. Gen. Estes en tered the service of the United States as first sergeant of Company A, First Maine cavalry. October 19. 1861. He was promoted first lieutenant March 24, 1862. and captain August 1, 18C3. He was appointed captain and A. A. G. volunteers September 4. 1863. and major and A. A. G. volunteers Feb ruary 2, 1865. Ho was brevetted lieutenant colonel and colonel volun teers March 13. 1865, for gallant and meritorious service durintc the cam paign in Georgia and the Carolinas and brigadier general volunteers for faithful and meritorious service. Ho was honorably mustered out Sept. 29. 1SG5. Gen. Estes was awarded a medal of honor August 2S. 1894. for , having voluntarily led troops in a charge over a burning bridge at Flint River, Ga.. Aug. 30. 1S64. Women In Soldiers Homes. The thirty-eighth annual encamp ment of the Department of Minnesota. G. A. R.. appointed a committee to con sider the matter of admitting wives. widows and mothers of soldiers to tho Minnesota Soldiers' Home. This committee carefully InvesX'gated tho subject by visiting the soldiers' homes in Iowa and Wisconsin. were the women are admitted, and they have renorted to the department command- I er that the plan adopted by these i states is most satisfactory In its work- ing. They recommend the adoption of similar plans Tor the Minnesota State Home. Old Military Order. Among some papers in the posses sion of Alice V. Langdon of New Haven. Vermont, was found a war rant from Elias Post, captain, to Moses Stowe, corporal, commanding; him to warn all officers and soldiers belonging to that company to appear in the east parish of Rutland, com plete in arms in order for exercise. It was dated Rutland. April 26, 1792. at 3 o'clock In the morning. Pension Plan Delayed. With the adjournment of the Fifty eighth Congress all hopes of the pass age of a service pension bill for tho relief of the aged and helpless veter ans of the civil war is postponed for the present year. The justice of tho proposed measure was everywhere conceded, but the plea of deficit in the national revenues was urged against any present action in that di rection.
