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~. if? V, W._..-_.. .....____._.s I I c-..__.___.,__ ._-._--____ - .._ dark lady was ushered by a. clerk in- in a. black satin dress, with a color~ l JljBSl [fore I went down I received a. letter. ' “ '1" “I. to the office of an Edinburgh shareâ€" ed shawl round her shoulders, and {1' JJ 4 l) .J- L I i . _ i 'and would either leave it where it . op ‘ '1‘ broker on the Royal Exchange. She Handsome white lace veil, was pale _ â€"â€"â€" i . . . :1: i had a. few shares in the Amions and and calmâ€"“a handsome tigress," asiONE OF THEM TELLS OF. HIS was or bring it to a. certain place in E I and left him. Two days later she that you Will take Boulogne Railway, she explained, of one of the spectators described her. i EXEERIEIICE5_ Lmldo“, 1 Shoum be handsomely 1‘0“ M ' _, annmgs called again». The shares had not her !” which she wished to dispose. The "It was she who Prompted thel ' __ The letter was “0t Signed» ‘ MWT‘I‘TTMT' “by! {+44% been sold. Mrs. Smith was disap- sayiug that, if I discovered anything “ 'L i l l I worded. but i have little doubt that it was sent by the party who had most to lose by the discovery of the will. . I One of my Inost exciting jobs was rv- - . . . .- , . ,with a privatey-equipped expedition lne “15mg 0f me submdnm A1 iwhich went to Central America. for broker promised to do what he could crime! It was she who fired thciHas It was she who brought me! I ask your pity, and] vengeance (5n Been at the Bottom of thei Sea Many Times, and Seen Strange Sights. to find a purchaser, and Mrs. Smith shot! her name and address, to stand here! wrote down W‘VPM Such, I. I was in my old’friend Serjeant piece of pointed, and, above all, she showed Manning made by his counsel. The the greatest anxiety to recover the eyes of the pale. darkâ€"haired woman paper on which she had Ballantine’s chambers one day When: written her name and address. She q'ummaging in a, drawer. he SUddenlY grew quite excited when, in spite of 21 produced something which be tossed search, the scrap of paper was not to me. ‘ “What do you think of that?” he sharebroker wondered what could be could avail her? asked. It was a woman’s rather worn black silk glove, with four little pearl buttons at the wristâ€"a glove so slim that I could easily pass . . _ ‘ it those, shares be those about through my Signet ring. The fingers He had read Something in the to be found; and when she left .the meaning of her anxiety. II. Amiensâ€"Boulogne Railway! Could which 11 0 \V S- °f its wearer had been long and tap‘ papersâ€"something about their havâ€" ‘ering. “It is a relic of one of my cases," he observed. “The filled that glove had a terrible tory connected with it." It had belonged Marie. Manning. A tall, dark, fashionably lady was standing one August after- noon at the door of a. house in Green wood Street, London. With her deliâ€" cately gloved hand she knocked and rang impatiently. “Is Mr. O’Connor in?” she asked. as the door was opened. Mr. O’Connor was out. The lady turned away as if disappointed; and then said she would enter and wait his return in his sittingâ€"room, to which she was showa. The lady’s name was Maria Manning, and she and her husband were intimate friends of‘ Mr. O’Connor, a some- what wealthy officer in the Customs, and Mrs. Manning often waited in the sittingâ€"room when on calling .she found O’Connor out. She re- mained there now for nearly an hour; but O’Connor did not return, and she left, expressing her disappointâ€" ment. Seven days passed, and nothing was seen of the Customs House oiliâ€" cer. His landlady, becoming alarm- ed, sought the aid of the police, and a couple of detectives were chpatch- ed from Scotland Yard to search his rooms to seek a clue to his mysterâ€" ious disappearance. “Mr. O’Connor was a, most careful and tidy manâ€"most tidy!" declared his landlady, in answer to a ques- tion put to her by one of the detec- tives. , ' “Then how is it his papers are like this?” asked the officer, pointing to an open drawer in which lay a mass «of documents scattered in confusion. ' The landlady shook her head. “It looks as if some stranger had been rummaging," went on the deâ€" tective. “Who has been in the room since Mr. O’Connor left?" The landlady could remeber no one save his Visitor, theSwiss ladyâ€"Mrs. Manning. In a few minutes the deâ€" fectives were on their way to Mr. Manning’s residence, a little house in Miniver Place, Bermondsey. The place was empty. The most vigorous knocks at the door failed to bring any answer. 'And at last one of the neighbors informed the detectives that Mr. and Mrs. Mann- ing had left. the house some days pie- viously, having sold their furniture “all in a hurry." It was a strange coincidence which made the officers keen to enter and see whether in the deserted house there lay some clue to the reason of Mr. O’Connor’s disâ€" appearance. Nothing. They had searched from top to bottom. If those silent walls those empty, bare rooms. held a secâ€" ret it was well concealed. The deâ€" tectives turned their attention to the little back garden, and dug it foot ‘by foot. Nothing! The house in Miniwer Place Would apparently fur- nish' no evidence against its'occu- pants. Rather, it testified in their favor. ‘ It was marvellously clean. The flagged kitchen floor had been recently hearthstoned till it Was as white as snow. One of the detec- tives gazed at it admiringly, and started. Then he went down on his knees, and, taking his penknife from his pocket, dug it into the cement between two of the flags. ' “New. Hardly set!” he exclaimed excitedly, examining his knife. "The flags have only been recently laid. What lies beneath them?" ‘ The house infMiniver Place was nbont to give up its ghastly secret. . Beneath the flags, buried under a foot or two of soil, the detectives came upon the corpse of a man, into whose sinister grave {Lu quantity ‘of quicklime had been poured. The body was that of Mr. O’Connor, and he had been killed by a bullet disâ€" charged into 'his temple. dressed the head Eighteen door, to his knock. ing been abstrated from the drawers early in the room of the man O’Connor, hand for whose murderers the police were hisâ€" scouring the country? The stock- broker rushed off to the police-sta- to the notorious tio-n to inform them of his strange visitant, and in less than an hour of the Edinburgh ,police stood in Mrs. Smith’s room. , She received him with frigid polite- ness. As his keen eyes noted how strangely Mrs. Smith agreed with with the description he had, received of the soughtâ€"for Mrs. Manning, his growing conviction that the woman he wanted stood before him was re- buffed by her marvellous coolness. “The reason of this visit isâ€" what?" She asked, standing before him calmly and dignified. . “I have reason to believe, Mrs. Smith," he replied “that you are one Mrs. Manning, suspected of the mur- der of a gentleman named O’Connor. I must ask you to allow me to search your luggage,” “Certainly! With pleasure! You are quite welcome!" answered ‘the imperturable Mrs. Smith, handing him a bunch of keys. Ten minutes' search in Mrs. Smith’s boxes amply revealed her identity as the lady they were hunt- ing, and very soon the new whiteâ€" faced, dark-eyed, yet still perfectly composed woman was being carried in a cab to the policeâ€"stationâ€"a pr-is- onel‘. Charged with the wilful murâ€" der of that man discovered in -the grave beneath the kitchen flag-stones! The sleuthhounds of justice had run down Mrs. Manning, in spite of her clever trick of the boxes labelled to Paris. Would they be able to hunt down Manning? He had left Miniver Place, so the police learnt, two days later than his wife. By all accounts, he was a man of fact, confirmed by the experience of the best English and French detecâ€". tives, that the meanest intellects are very often those which display, the most baflling\ cunning in committing criminal deeds and cleverness in eludâ€" ing capture. Every clue followed by the detec- tives failed, and at last a large re- ward was offered for information which would lead to his arrest. “Murder! Wanted, Frederick George Manning!" The words in large type 'stood out in the columns of the newspapers and on posters on the, walls through- out the length and breadth of Briâ€" tain. They met the eye of a young lady who had known Manning, and who, strangely enough only a. few days previously, while travelling to Guernsey, in the Channel Islands, had seen Manning on the boat, and, unsuspected by him, had learnt that he was going to Jersey. She wrote, stating these facts, to the Governor of Guernsey, who telegraphed them to London; and in hot haste the keenest trackersfrom Scotland Yard were sent over to Jersey to find if Manning were there. -~ “We've got a queer chap down here, lodging near Baumont," confided one of the publicans to a. detective. “Hes staying at a. cottage. Drinks brandy near enough to drowa him. Stops inâ€" doors most part. of the dayâ€"and n-o , wonder, after the drink he's had. “What is he like?” asked to officer eagerly. III . The publican described him. ‘In some respects the description was that of Manning, and the detective resolved to take the reSponsibili‘ty upon himself of making an unexpect- ed descent .upon the visitor.» It was a. beautiful autumn .eveni ing when the detective, with two other ofiiders, made his way. to a. lit.- tle thatched cottage. " ‘ " “I am a detective,” said the officer to- the bent man who opened the -;“You have a . 1' terrible wounds on the head, inflict- lodger here. I believe he, is one Mans ed with a hammer or some such inâ€". mug. Who is wanted fol? ‘mm'del' !” strument. showed-that his murderer The Old _, had resolved to make doubly certain dropped his candle. of his awful purpose. - . A terible crime had 'been committ- ed. Who were its perpetrators? Where were the Mannings ‘? For many 'days the acutest detectives in Lon- don hunted in vain to discover a trace of them. Had any cabman carried a tall, dark. handsome lady, speaking English with a bewitching French accent, to any of the railâ€" way stations? Every driver was exâ€" amined, and found who remembered such. a fare. He had driven her to the Eastern Railway station at London Bridge, and she had two boxes with her, labelled "Mrs. smith, passenger to Paris. To be left till called for." The boxes were still in the left-luggage offiw. . “Mrs. Smith, sir!” handsome, A tall, well-dressed, at last a man was ‘ Southâ€" ,bedside, and holding man started, and “Show me his room. I must see him at. once.” ,f The old man led the Way along "a passage to a. door. The detect-We took the candle from his hand, lift: ed the latch of the door,‘. and enterâ€" ed. In a corner of the room a .man in bed raised himself on his elbow," and turned towards the intruder a white, startled face. ‘ "Who are you, and what. do you want?” he cr‘ed. ' ’ “I am a detective,” stranger, stepping replied the that its beams fell full upon the awakened man’s face.” (‘And you are George Frederick Manning. I arâ€"‘ rest you for the wilful murder of Mr. Patrick O'Connor!” A liangdog, pitiful villain, Manning appeared, pale and trembling, in the dock at the Old Bailey. His wife, I the heard at the Old Bailey. mean ability; but it ‘is a, nearly. swiftly to his ' the candle so - ' with the firm-set mouth beside him in the dock flashed as she listened. On her behalf Ballantinc made one of the most eloquent speeches ever But what What could avail him? . “Guilty!” ' She stood pale, rigid, her eyes flashing before. the judge as lie assumâ€" ed the black cap, and, seizing a bunch of flowers tying before her on the dockâ€"ledge, she hurled it out into the body of the court “Base, shameful England!” she cried. “I am a foreigner, and you treat me like a wild beast 'of the forest!" A few weeks later the two were executed. Undaunted to the 1ast, and costumed with the greatest posâ€" sible care, she stepped firmly to her doom, while Manning was hardly equal to walking to tho gallows. “A tigress! No other word desâ€" cribes her so fitly!” declared Ser- jeant Ballantiue, as he took the glove back from rueâ€"London An- swers. ____._+______ PAYS TO BE RULER. Prince Is Taxed by People of His Principality. ’21 people who tax their Prince. A country, almost unknown, in the very heart of central Europe. An inde- pendent and whimsical principality of sixtyâ€"eight square miles. It is in the eastern 'Alps, bordering the up- per Bhine. Hemmed in by Switzer- land and Austria, arid but a few miles from the German frontier, it has been independent for over two centuries, and was forgotten by Bisâ€" marck, so runs the local peasantry, in the reorganization following the Prussian wars with 'Austria and Franco It is not tucked inaccessibly away. Thousands of‘ travellers on their way to Innsbruck, have seen from the train the towering mountains of the little State. Others, on their way to Davos-Platz, have glanced at a distant little town, at the foot of a castled rock, without suspecting that they were looking at one of the cap- itals of Europe. There is no military service. There is no national debt. There is a nominal tax, only a tenth as large as that of Austria. The ruling Prince gives freely for the good of the people out of his huge private fortune. So far from deriving any revenue from his principality he pays heavin for the pleasure of holding it. Following the close of the war beâ€" twoen Austria and Prussia, in which Liechtenstein allied itself with 'Ausâ€" tria, there came another gravely pre- sented protest. The citizens were weary of the expense of a standing army, an army which, consisting of eighty men, with a Captain and a trumpeter, had bravely marched to- ward the scene of hostilities, but too late to arrive before the war had come to its swift end. ‘There is now a written Constituâ€" tion. There is a little Parliament of fifteen members. Three members are named by the Prince. Twolve are elected by the people, every man in Liechtenstein over 24 years of age having a vote. The little body meets once in every year and remains in session for several weeks, engaged in the very attenuation of discussion of petty things. It is Lilliput ruled by its Gulliver. And although, on account of the fisâ€" cal arrangement, Austrian coins and stamps are generally used, the Prince's personal pride in his pos- session has led him to have his own stamps and ,coins as well, bearing his name and face and title. .And there is another touch to add tothe unreality of it all. Coming to Vaduz only at infrequent intervals, and busied as heis at his private estates or at Viennaâ€"«for, besides beâ€" ing, Sovereign Prince of Liechtenâ€" stein, he bears an 'Austrian title by virtue‘of which he is a member of the Austrian House of Lordsâ€"he can at‘ any time call up his principality by leng distance telephone. "A’ wOMAN’is .CURIOSI’I‘Y. She cycled up'ivto3 the butcher’s shop, and came in with a smiling face. ‘ “I want you to cut me off twentyâ€" five pounds of beef, please,” she said, .. ‘ rThe butcher was incredulous. “Twenty-five pounds?" “Yes; please." ‘ tilihen he had finished, he asked her whether she would take it or have it ,sent home." . ’ Oh, I don’t want to bliy it," she explained. “You” see, my doctor tells me; I have lost twenty-five I wanted to see what it looked like in alump. Thank you so much." Fatherâ€"“I’m very. much that Millie will young rascal." think so, dear. . Elevening that girls _Motherâ€"â€"“I who eloped got 3 that my werds heart.' ' shortly, was the defence has been Considered by many to have pounds of flesh‘ through cycling, and afraid clope with that Inboard ship. lno wedding presents, and'I feel sure “was that the ' sank deep into her been one of the most successful 5111-: vugc works undertaken by divers, bu! it is by no means the most imporâ€" tant or the strangest. I have been down in almost all the oceans and seas on the globe, said a diver attached to a wellâ€"known firm the other day to a London Titâ€"Bits representative, and some of the jobs I have had would astonish most peoâ€" ple, who know little or nothing of the work. It is now twenty-seven years ago since I made my first des- cent, when little morc than a big lad. We were engaged in salving a ship which contained a lot of bullion off the coast of Ireland, and our secâ€" ond diver got badly injured by the tide against. the ship. I was thought too inexperienced to go down below, but as the illness of the diver was a serious matter, and as I was keen on the job, I was allowed to try. Well, 'I can assure you it wasn’t an altogéther pleasant experience to feel oneself sinking to the bottom in about ten or twelve fathoms of waâ€" ter. But I wasn’t one to give in, and so I‘set to work with the head diver, and was lucky enough to be the first to locate the bullion, which was half buried in sand in the treas- ure chamber. I had a nasty fright that first job, for the weather was warm, and whilst we were at. work one day A BIG SHADOW seemed to be hovering above us, and on looking up my mate discovered a sharkâ€"a stray one, probably, out of the Mediterranean. He managed to make me undermand, and we both retired for a time into the treasure chamber. Fortunately the rascal slicered off and we did not See him again. I soon, continued the speaker, was put on the regular list of divers ' at- tached to the. firm, and found it more interesting work than pumping air on or attending to the lines. My next job was at a little place on the banks of the Seine, endeavoring to recover a lot of fewellery which was supposed to have been thrown into the river' many years before. We didn’t find the jewellery we were in search ofâ€"no doubt it had washed down many miles or even into the sea‘ long beforeâ€"but we found some gold ornaments, which a gentleman said were more than 800 years old, a beautiful mug of solid gold, a sort of crown. several daggers which had jewels in their handles, and also a couple of skeletons with heavy rusty chains round wrists and legs. I was told there was a story about them, which said that they were the bodies of a noble’s daughter and her lover, who were thrown by her father into the river from the walls of an old castle which used to stand thereâ€" abouts. Anyway, the country folk were so alarmed at those old bones that they would scarcely go to bed till they had been buried. MY NEXT JOB was salving the wreck of a yacht lost in the B'Iediterranean. We were emâ€" ployed by the mother of the owner, who was an only son. and as soon as the news of the disaster came to England We were dispatched with all our gear (except boats) overland. The job- must have cost $3,000 or $3,500 first and last. We found the body without much difficultyâ€"the yacht lay in about eight fathoms in one of the little bays along the Itaâ€" lian Rivieraâ€"and in the young felâ€" low’s arms, in the cabin, was clasp- ed the body of a beautiful young woman he had carried away from Paris. This fact, I may say, was never allowed to get into the papers, both I and my mate being well paid to hold our tongues at the time. I. had a job at the Toy Bridge, continued the speaker, and never want another like it. Of all the lucr- rible sights, some of those poor, dead folk beat all. At last, after ’ more than a week of it, the. whole thing got so on my nervesâ€"the waâ€". ter 'was dreadfully coldâ€"that I had to give it up- for several shifts. ‘I can tell you that, though I'm not in the least a, nervous sort of chap, I couldn't sleep at nights for several weeks. We were well paid; but nothâ€" ing could pay. for what we went through. And when we went ashore we were often beset by relatives of the victims, simply hungering for the information.’ One poor ladyâ€"I am neyer likely to forget her faceâ€"used . to spend the whole day on the bank in all , . I THE TERRIBLE. WEATHER of January," February and March whilst I was‘engaged on the job. She lost her husband in the disaster, and I heard tell she afterwards lost her reason, poor thing. I was once employed to,_ go down a well in the southern counties, as it was-supposed that the will of an old gentleman had been thrown there by the next of kin. I have seldom, I think, been dowu in colder water, and there was a regular collection of articles at the bottom. For one thing there were several tubs of spirits sunk by smugglers many years before, any amount of old chain, and a sde cup of the reign of George l.II., and sure enough ,the missing will in an airâ€"tight tin I believe was formerly don’t case, which I reminded her’ last iused for keeping important papers in The result of my find property went to a niece of the old gentleman‘s instead of to the next of kin. The night beâ€" the purpose of attempting to discov- or a couple of treasure ships which had been sunk about 150 years before near THE COAST OF PANAMA. The story of those ships as told me by one of the syndicate of gentleman who found the money for the venture would make exciting reading if put into a book. We found two ships within a mile or two of the place the ones we wore in search of had been sunk according to our chart, but they were so broken up that any treasure there was in them had been washed out; and although we found a. good many loose Spanish doubloons and some gold church ornaments worth, so I believe, about $520,000, there was no profit for the syndicate when all the expenses had been paid. One of the most troublesome jobs I was ever engaged on was doing the repairs to a sunken vessel in Australia. But we salved her, and I earned $60 a week whilst out there. Then I have done many little jobs on. my own account, such as going down at a Wellâ€"known southâ€"coast watering place after a gold presentation watch which the owuer’s little child dropped into about seven fathoms of Water off the pier. The watch was worth about $125 I suppose, but the gen- tleman so valued it that he spent (with what hegave me) nearly $200 in recoverng it. Then, whilst I was working in‘ the United States, I was once engaged to find the weapon with which a. well known man had shot a. young girl whom he had abducted and taken to a place on the Hudson. I found it AFTER A WEEK’S SEARCH, which cost the relatives upwards of $2,000 in addition to the cost of the handsome gold watch they gave me. One of my most interesting exper- iences, said the speaker, in conclu- sion, as he commenced to get ready to go down below once more, was on my Australian trip. When the work was done on the steamer 1 was offerâ€" ed a job to go to a. pearl bank and dive for oysters. I was six months at the place on and off, for we could not work sometimes for days to‘ gether owing to bad weather, and I can truly say that I learned more of the bottom of the sea and the ihiugs that swim there and crawl about than during three or four years .of other work. For one thing I’m sure I saw the seaâ€"serpent. or his first cousin one day, although my mates chuffed me anal said it could only have lecn a conger. Anyway, it was pretty well as long as a. SOD-ton ship, and had a monstrous head with a horn-like growth on it. I never saw it tgain, and never wanted to. If I ind I think I should have refused to go down any more. We got up about twenty-five tons of oysters iltogether aal, although the yield was lLL‘Ch poorer than the parties employing us expected, I believe there were about $75,000 to $100,000 worth 0f pearls washed out of the putrid mass. _._â€"____(?_____. ENGLAND HAS THE ROT. ...â€".a To Die for the Country Is Not a. Glorious Thing. a letter signed “R.- V.," which rLppcared in the London Times recent- ‘iy, upon what are asserted to be changes of recent growth‘in national characteristics. The requirements of a nation that is to win a war are, it is" stated, three in numberâ€"money, brains, and bravery. it has been the custom to assume that what Englishmen lacked in the second qualification they made up by possession of the last to an unusual degree. The writer believes this is a mistake that may some day lead to disaster. “The. fact. really is that we ‘have lost, as a nation, that absolute fear- lessness that we once possessed." There is a “rot” in the national spirit, a lack of selfâ€"sacrificing pat- riotism. “What would be thought." it is asked, “if one were to meet the fa.- thor of a young man just killed in action and Were to congratulate him on his son’s death for his country, as they do in Japan, and have, no doubt in England? I am afraid it would not be prudent. The spirit is not there, and until we go through the fire and give death its proper value we shall remain so clogged with prudence as to he apparently afraid. “It is not too late to stop the ‘rot.’ but as every step backward mus-t be paid for, so nuist this, and paid for with some sacrifice. “Let us teach our children, in school and out, that it is a glorious thing to die for England. and per- haps in time we may return to our old ideas. and the temperament of the JapaneSo in this war. An Irishman was charged with 8. petty offence. “Have you anyone in court who will vouch for your good character?” queried the judge. “Yes, so-rr; there is the chief constable yonder," answered Pat. The chief constable was amazed. “Why, your honor, I don’t even know the man," iprotested he. "Now, SOI‘I‘." broke lin Pat, “I have lived in the borough ‘for nearly twenty yem‘S, and if the ‘cliief constable doesn’t know me yet, .isn’t that a character for yet?“ Some striking points are made in: .-I.._-.,-.-I_....___.._..;_,_.__..;:__..r.,~,_._--...__..,-.... _ .. _ A .. .v â€"I-. . Avisâ€"~M_ -vaâ€"~;-<Vâ€" . r _ , : z. A”. '