The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

"•it & CHAPTER XIII--Continued. --11-- I shot my eyes dad held my breath. Ifr. Hernack hadn't the slightest Idea p<| what thin Ice he was skating over, or how this easy mention of Mr. Van ^jBritt might be just like rubbing salt Into a fresh cut. By this time It was growing dark, and we were running I : Into Portal City, and I was mighty glad that it couldn't last much longer. The boss didn't speak again until the yard switches were clanking under **'. the car, and then he said: "'Upton is well able to take care of himself, Hornack, and I don't think „ , we need worry about him," and then over his shoulder to me: "Jlmmle, It's time to wake up. We're putting In." As he always did on a return trip, Mr! Norcross ran up to his office to . see If there was anything pressing, before he did anything else. May was still at his desk, and In answer to the boss' question he shook bis head. "No; nobody that couldn't wait," he said, referring to the day's callers. "Mr. Hatch was up with a couple of men that I didn't know, but he only wanted to Inquire if you would be In the office this evening after dinner. I told him I'd find out when you came, and let him know by 'phone." T thought. after ail that had happened, Hatch certainly had his nerve jnt to come and /make a taljc Ills hired assassins were Jrder. But If Mr. Norcross piew of It, he didn't show contrary, he told Fred it right to telephone Hatch ; coming down after dlnn* r and the office would be open, as usual. 7; \s I slipped out and went to Mr. Van < iBritt's office at the other end of the tiZ't /jhall. Bobby Kelso was there, holding "the office down, and I asked him Where If'* :dl could find Tarbell. Luckily, he was WOHlf] ' ?;fhat li> ' SNi "• able to tell me that Tarbell was at that moment down in the station res- Itaurant, eating his supper; so down ,il went and butted In with my story *-of the Hatch call, and how it was to ^Ibe repeated a little later on. Til be there," said Tarbell; and p;rf with that load off my mind, I mogged gjv . off np-town to the clab to get my own flf: ' dinner. When I broke Into the grill-room at ^ . the railroad dub. I found that Mr. Norcross had beaten me to It by a few minutes; that he had already ordered his dinner at a table with Major Ken- ' . drick. I suppose, by good rights. I > " ought to have gone off Into a corner ; by myself, but I saw that the boss had tipped a chair at the end of the table t : where I usually sat, so I Just went aliead and took It. Coming In late, that way, I didn't : get the first of the talk, but I took it that the boss had been saying some- ? .vl"' thing about his rare good luck In hav- Ipr^-lng the major for a table-mate two days in succession. "The honoh is mine, my deah boy," the genial old Kentuckian was telling :r.f; " him as I sat down. "I was by way 5; * of picking up a bit of Information £>• late this afte'noon that I thought ought to be passed on to yon without 1*1 any great delay." V. The boss looked up quickly. "What | Is It, major?" he inquired. "Are you going to tell me that something new - *• has broken loose?" "I wish I might be that he'pfully ?:'• definite--I do-so, Graham. But I cant It's me'uhly a bit of street talk. They're telling It, oveh at the Commerrial v % club, that Hatch and John Marshall-- h you know him--tliat Sedgwick stock :• Jobbeh who has been so active in this 4 Citizens' Storage & vWarehouse busl- ^ nesa--have finally come togetheh." , i "In a business way, you mean?" ^ ^ The major gave a right and left .twist to his big mustaches and shrugged one shoulder. L "They are most probably calling It business." he rejoined. " The boss nodded. "I know what has happened. In spite of the fact that the local people know that their economic salvation depends upon a wide 5. and even distribution of their C. S. ' * W. stock, there has been a good . bit of buying and selling and swapping around. I remember you prophesied that In a little, while we'd have another trust in the hands of a few men. You may recollect that I didn't dispute your prediction. I merely said that our ground leases--the fact that all of the C. S. & W. plants and buildings are on railroad land--would still give us the whip-hand over any new monopoly that might be formed." "Yes, suh; I "remember you said that," the major allowed. "Very good. Marshall and his pocket syndicate may have acquired a voting control In C. S. & W., and they may be willing now to patch up an alliance with Hatch. But in that case the new monopoly will still lack the one vital ingredient: the power to fix prices. there is a new ^combine, and it tries tfr,rnake the producers and merchants Io^inore than the agreed percentages for Mornge and handling " "I miow," the major cut in. "You-all will rfit up in the majesty of, youh wrath a%l put it out of business by terminating the leases. I hope yop nyiy: I sil|t'inly do hope you may. But you'll reflect that I didn't advise you on that • j><>int, suh. You took Mlsteh Ripley's opinion. Maybe the cou'ts will hold\ith you, but,"candidly, Graham, I dofibt it--doubt It right much." % The boss didn't «eem to be much scared up over the "doubt. He Just smiled and said wtd fafe likely to find ont wha* was in the wfod, and that before very iong. Then he spoke of Hatch's afternoon ml) at #jr offices, and mentioned the fact tha|the Red Tower president woul-i profii^bly try again, later in the eventn flatter drop, and he was working his way patiently through the salad course when he looked up to say: "Was there anything In youh trip to Strnthcona to wafratat Sheila's little telegraphic dangeh signal, Graham?" "Nothing worth mentioning," said the boss, without turning a hair; doing it, as I made sure, because he didn't want Mrs. Sheila "to be mixed up In the plotting business^ even by Implication. The major didn't press the Inquiry any farther, and when he spoke again It was of an entirely different matter. "Away along In the beginning, somebody-- I think it was John Chadwick-- spoke of you as a man with a sawt of raw-head-and-hloody-bones tempeh, Graham: what have you done with that tempeh in these heah latteh days?" The boss' smile was a good-natured grin. "Temper is not always a Matter of temperament, major. Sometimes it is only a means to an end. Much of my experience has been In the construction camps, where I have had to deal with men in the raw. Just the same, there have been moments within the past six months when I have been sorely tdiinpted to burn the wires with a few choice words of the short and ugly variety and throw up my job." "Which, as you may say, brings us around to President Dunton," jrat In the old lawyer shrewdly. "He is still opposing youh policies?" "Up to a few- weeks ago he was still hounding me to do something that would boost the stock, regardless of what the something should be, or of Its effect upon the permanent •aloe of the property." "Did I undehstand you to say that these--ah--suggestions from Dunton had stopped?" the major Inquired. "Temporarily, at least. I haven't heard anything from New York--not lately." ' "Then Dunton's nephew iiasat made himself known to you?" "Collingwood? Hardly. I'm not In Mr. Howie Collingwood's set--which Is one of the things I have to be thankful for. But this Is news: I didn't know he was out here." The news-giver bent his head gravely in confirmation of the fact. "He's heah, I'm sorry to say, Graham. He has been heah quite some little time, vibratin' round with the Grigsbys and the Gannons and a lot mo' of the new-rich people up at the capital." " It was the boss' turn to go silent, and I could guess pretty well what he was thinking. The presence of President Dunton's nephew In the West might mean much or nothing. But I could imagine the boss was thinking that his own single experience with Collingwood was enough to make him wish that the nephew of Big Money would stay where he belonged--among the liigh-rollers and spenders of his own set In the effete East. "I can't quite get the proper slant on men of the Collingwood type," he remarked, after the pause. "The only time I ever saw him was on the night before the directors' meeting last spring. He was here with his uncle's party in the special train, and that night at the Bullard he bad been drinking too much and made a braying ass of himself. I had to knock him silly before I could get him up to his room." "You did that, Graham?--for a strangeh?" "I did it for the comfort of all concerned. As I say, he was making an ass of himself." There was another break, and then the 'major looked up with . a little frown. "That was befo' yon- had met Sheila?" he asked, thoughtfully. "Why, no 1 not exactly. It was the same night--the night we all dropped off the 'Flyer* and got left behind at Sand Creek. You may remember that we came in later on Mr. Qhadwldc's special." The major made no reply to this, and pretty soon the boss was on his feet and excusing himself once more on the after-dinner smoking stunt, saying that he was obliged to go back to the office. The major got up and shook hands with him as If he were bidding him good-by Tor a long journey, "You are going down to keep that ap polntment with Mlsteh Rufus Hatch?" be said. "You take an old man's advice. Graham, my boy, atid keep youh hand--figuratively speaking, of cou'se --on youh gun. It runs in my mind, somehow, that you are going to be hit--and hit light hard. No, dont ask me why. Call it a rotten suspicion, and let it go at that. Come up to the house, afte'ward, If you have time, and tell me I'm a false prophet, suh; I hope you may." The boss promised plenty cheerfully as to the calling part, as you'd know he would since lie hadn't seen Mrs. Sheila for I don't know how long; and a few minutes later we were on our way, walking briskly, to. keep the Fred May engagement with the chief of the grafters/ mon, was a political plawhttftMb" Who had once been sheriff of Arrowhead county. "You've kept us cooling our heels In your waiting-room for Just about the last time, Mr. Norcross!" was the spiteful way In which Hatch opened fire. "We've come to talk Btralght business with y,ou this trip, and it will he more tc your Interest than ours If you'll serid your clerk away." While they had been dragging up their chairs and sitting down, I had heard Fred May lock up his typewriter and go, and had been listening anxiously for some noise that would tell me Tarbell was on deck. I thought I heard the door of the outer office open again just as Hatch spoke and It comforted me a whole lot. The boss didn't pay any attention to Hatch's suggestion about sending me away; acted as if he hadn't heard It Opening bis desk he took a box of cigars from a drawer and passed It. With this concession to the small hospitalities the boss swung his chair to face the trio. "My time is yours, gentlemen," he said; and Hatch jumped in like a man fairly spoiling for a fight. "»or six months, Norcross, you've been mowing a pretty wide swath out here lu the tall hills. You've been posing as a little tin god before tye people of this state, and all the while you've been knifing and slugging and black-jacking private capital and private business wherever and whenever they have happened to get In your way. Now, at the end of the lane, by Jupiter, we've got you dead to rights-- you and your d--d railroad 1" "Cut out as many of the personalities as you can, and come to the point," suggested the boss quietly. 'You think I haven't any point to COme to?" barked the grafter, with rising anger. "I'll show you! You thought you were the only original trust-buster when you started your scheme of locally owned elevators and warehouses and coal and lumberyards and ran us out of business. But I'm here to tell you that your finehaired little deal to rob us began to die about as soon as it was born." "How so?" Inquired the boss. "It wasn't a month before your little local stockholders began to get together and swap stock and sell It. In a very short time the control of the whole string of local plants was In the hands of a hundred men. To-day it's in the hands of less than twenty, with John Marshall at the head of them. Citizens' Storage & Warehouse is now a consolidated property, and John Marshall, Henckel and I control a majority of Its stock. How does that strike you?" 'It strikes me that the people most deeply interested have been exceedingly foolish to sell their birthright. But that Is strictly their own business, and not mine or the railroad company's." "Walt!" Hatch snarled. "It's going to be both yours and the railroad company's business, before you niW through with It. Marrow, here, represents Marshall, and I represent Henckel and myself. What are you going to do about those ground leases?" "Nothing at all, except to Insist upon the condition under which they were granted by the railroad company." "Meaning that you are going to try to hold us to the fixed percentage charge for handling, packing, loading, and transferring?" "Meaning just that. If you raise the proportional market-priee charge on the producers and merchants, the leases will terminate." "I thought that was about where you'd land. Now listen: we're It-- Marshall and Henckel and I--and what we say, goes as It lies. We are going to use the present C. S. A W. plant* and equipment, charging our "We'vB Got You Dead to RlghUii and Your D--d Railroad i" 9HAPTERXI* •i.v.-f.IThs malor let the business The Dead-Line We found tbe three disappointed afternoon callers already on hand When we reached the headquarters. The boss said, "Good evening, gentlemen," as pleasant as a basket of chips, And invited the waiting bunch into the private office, snapping on the lights as he opened the door. No introductions were needed. One of the pair Hatch had brought with him was a lawyer named Marrow, whose home town was Sedgwick; a sharp-nosed, ferret-eyed man who figured as one of the many "local counsels" for Red Tower. The other, Q*down storage and handling percentages, based on anything we see fit. If you pull that ground-lease business on u» and try to drive us out, we'll fight you all the way up to the Supreme court. If yOU beat us there, we'll merely move over to tlie other side of your tracks to our old Red Tower houses and yards and go on doing business at the old stand." The boss sat back tn his chair, and I could tell by the set of his Jaw that he .was refusing to be panic-stricken. "You are taking altogether too much for granted, aren't you?" he put in mildly. "You are assuming that the courts will eventually nullify the terms of the ground-leases, or, if they do not, that the railroad conjpany wilt do nothing to save its p«|r^ |5h(» falling into this new graft trap." Hatch snapped his fingers. "Now you are coining to the milk in the coconut 1" he rapped out. "That is exactly what we're assuming. You are going to let go. once for all, Norcross. You are not going to fight us In the courts, and neither are you gotag to harass us out of eRrtitance with short cars, overcharges, and tbe thousand and one petty persecutions that you railroad buccaneers make oae of to line your own pockets!" "But If we refuse to lie down and let you walk over us and our patrons-- what then?" the boss inquired. That brought the explosion. Hatch's eyes biased and he smacked fist Into palm. "Then we'll knife you, and we'll do It to a velvet finish 1 After so long a time, we've got you where you can't side-step, Norcross." The boss refused to be panicstricken; or, anyhow, be looked that way. "We have heard that kind of talk many times in the past" he salt "The way to make It effective la to produce the goods." "That's just what we're here to do!" snapped the Red Tower president vindictively. "You, and the Big Fellows In New Yofk, want a lot of the state railroad laws repealed or amended. If you can't get that string untied, you can't gamble any more with your stock. Well and good. You came here six months ago and set out to manufacture public sentiment In favor of the railroad. You ran up your 'public-be-pleased' flag and beat the tom-tom and blew the hewgag until you got a lot of dolts and cljucklehends and easy marks to beHev^ that you really meant it." "Well, go on." >v ; "With all this humbug and hullaballoo you still couldn't be quite certain that you had made your point; that your measures would carry through the incoming legislature. After the primaries you counted noses among the candidates and found it was going to be a tight squeak--a d--d tight squeak. Then you did what you railroad people always do; yoil slipped out quietly and bought a few men--»Just to be on the safe side." So it was sprung at last. Hatch was accusing us of the one thing that we hadn't done; that the boss knew we hadn't done. "I'm afraid you'll have to try again, Mr. Hatch," he said, with a soar little smile. Then he added: "Anybody can make charges, you know." Hatch jumped to his feet and he was almost foaming at the mouth. "Right * there is where we've got you!" he shouted. "You were too cautious to put one of yoHr own men In the field, so you sent outside for your briber. He was a stranger, and he had to have help in finding the right men to buy. Dedmon, here, was out of a job--thanks to you and your meddling--and the steering stont offered good p§y. Do you want any more?" Tlie boss shook his head. "It Is a matter of complete Indifference to me. I don't know in the least what you are talking about, and you'll pardon me, I hope, If I say thai It doesn't greatly Interest me." "By heavens--I'll make It Interest you! The easy-mark candidates were found and bought and paid for--and maybe they'll stay bought, and maybe they won't. But that Isn't the point. For a little more money--my money, this time--each of these men has made an affidavit to the fact that railroad money was offered him. ' They don't say whether or not they accepted it, mind you, and that doesn't cut any figure. They have sworn that the money was tendered. That lets them out and lets you In. You don't believe it? I'll show you," and Hatch whipped a list of names from his pocket and slapped it upon tlie boss' desk. "Go to those men and ask them; if you want to carry it that far. They'll tell you." I could see that the boss barely glanced at the list. The glib story of the bribery was like the bite of a slipping crane-hitch--slow to take hold. So far as we were concerned, of . course, the charge fell flat; and upon any other hypothesis It was blankly Incredible, unbelievable, absurd. "The affidavits themselves would be much more convincing," I heard the boss say, "though even then I should wish to have reasonable proof that they were genuine." Ha'tch was sitting down again and his grin showed his teeth unpleasantly. "Do yon think for a minute that I'd bring the papers here and trust them In your hands?" he rapped out Insultingly. "Not much! But we've got them all right, as you'll find out if you balk and force us to use them." At this point I could see that something in the persistent assurance of the man was getting under the boss' skin and giving him a cold chill. What if It were not the colossal bluff It had looked like in the beginning? What If . . . Like a blaze of lightning out of a clear sky a possible explanation hit me uuder tlie fifth rib, and' I guess it hit the boss at about the same Instant. What If President Dunton and the New York stock-jobbers, believing as jtliey did that nothing but legislative favor would give them their trading capital In the depressed stock, had cut In and done this thing-with' out consulting us? The boss stirred uneasily In his chair and picked up the paper-knife-- a uttle unconscloujB trick of his when he wanted time to gather himself, "Perhaps you would be willing to give me the nam* of this briber. Mr "As If you dldnt knpw it!" ^"tbfc scoffing retort. "There were two of them; one who was hired to do the talking while the real wire-puller stood aside and held the coin bag. We'll skip the hired man." Then he turned £0 the ex-sheriff: "Write out the name of the bag-holder fo*- him, Dedmon," be .commanded, tearing a leaf from his pocket note-book and thrusting it, with a stubby pencil, into Dedmon's bands. ^ Tlie man from Ar^wheed county bent over his knee and wrote a name on the slip of paper, laying the slip on the drawn-out slide of 'Out boas' desk when he had finished the, slow penciling. The effect of tin thing was all that any plotter could have desired. I saw the boss' face go gray, saw him stare at the slip and heard him say, half 'to himself, "Howard. Collingwood I" Hatch followed up Ms advantage promptly. He was afoot and struggling into his overcoat when he said; "You've got what you were after, Nor- The 0oes Sat Staring at the tlip of Paper. cross, and It has got your goat. We've known all along that you were only bluffing and Bparring to gain time. We've nailed you to the cross. You let this deal with Marshall and hispeople stand as It's made, or well show you up for what you are. That's the plain English of It." "You mean that you will go to the newspapers with this?" said the boss, and It was no wonder that his voice was a bit husky. "Just that. We'll giv* you plenty of time to think It over. The Joint deal with C. S. & W. goes into effect tomorrow, and it's up to you to sit tight in the boat and let us alone. If you don't--If you butt In with the ground-leases, or In any other way-- the story will go to the newspapers and every sucker on the line of the P. S. L. will know how you've been pulling the wool over his eyes with all this guff about 'justice first,' and the public be pleased.' You're no fool, Norcross. You know they won't lay It to Dunton and the New Yorkers. You've taken pains to advertise it far and wide that you are running this railroad on your own responsibility, and the people are going to take you at your word." Dedmon, and the lawyer -- who hadn't spoken a single word In all die talk--were edging toward tbe door. The boss didn't make any answer to Hatch's wind-up except to aay, "Is that all?" Tlie other two were out, now, and Hatch turned to stick his ugly jaw out at the boss, and to say. Just as if I hadn't been there to look on and hear htm: "No, by Jupiter--It Isn't all! la the past six months you've made Gus Henckel and me lose a cold half-million, Norcross. For a less provocation than that, many a man In this neck of woods has been sent back "east in tbe baggage-car, wearing a wooden overcoat. You climb down, and do it while you can stay alive!" For some time after the three men went away the boss sat staring at the slip of paper on the desk slide. At last he got up, sort of tired like, I thought,'and said to me: "Jlmmie, you go down and see if you can find a taxi, and we'll drive out to Major Kendrick's. I promised him Fd go out to the boose, you remember." When our taxi stopped at the major's gate, somebody was coming out Just as were getting ready to go in. The man had the visor of his big flat golf ca|> pulled down well over his eyes, but I knew him just the same. It was Collingwood! This looked like more trouble. What was the president's nephew doing here? I wondered about that, and also. If the boss had recognized Collingwood. If he had, he made no sign, and a moment later I had pushed the bell-push and Malsle Ann was opening the door for us. "Both of you? oh, how nice!" she said, yvith a smile for the boss apd a queer little grimace for me. . "Come in. This is our evening for callers Cousin Basil Is out, but be'll be back pretty soon, and he left word for you to wait If you got here before he did, That message was for the boss, and 1 lagged behtnp in the dimly lighted hall while she Was showing him into the back parlor. I had dropped down * up and say, "At last! It seei|)p^||; if you had been gone a year jwj|i| than a fortnight," and then Ma lite Ann came dodging out and plunked Jk herself down on the settee beside me. You- needn't tell me that we had no^ right to sit there listening; I know it well enough. On the other hand, I was joat sfairky enough to shift tbe responsibility to Malsle Ann. She didn't make any move to duck, so I didn't. "You came out to see Cousin Basil?" Mrs. Sheila was saying to the boss. And then: "He had a telephone call from the Bullard, and he asked me to tell you to wait." After that, f guess she sat down to help him wait, for pretty soon we heard her say: "Cousin Basil has told me a little about the new trouble: have ybtt been having another bad quarter of an hour?" "The worst of the lot," the boss said gravely, and from that he went on to tell her about the Hatch visit and what had come of It; how the grafters had a new claw hold on him, now, made possible by an unwarranted piece Of meddling on the part of the New York people In the political game. It was Miile he was talking about this that Maisle Ann grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me bodily Into the darkened front parlor, the door to which was just on the other side of the coat rack. I thought she had come to her right senses, at last, and was making the shift to break off the eavesdropping. That being the case, I was simply horrified when I found that she was merely fixing it so that we could both see and hear. The sliding doors between the two parlors were cracked open about an inch, and before I realized what she was doing she had pulled me down on the floor beside her, right In front of that crack. "If .you move or make a noise, F!1 scream and they'll come In here and find ua both!" she hissed In my ear; and because I didn't know what else to do with such a klddish little termagant, I sat still. It was dastardly, 1 know; but what was I to do? When the boss finished telling her about the Hatch talk, Mrs. Sheila said: "You mean that Mr. Dunton and his associates sent somebody out here to Influence the election?" "JTes; that is it, precisely. But how did you know?" (TO BE CONTINUED.) \ \ MATHEMATICS VS. THE Association Is Awakening to the Fact jtV the Former la (Hi r Attractive, "i The Mathematical Association of America has discovered that interest in the study of mathematics in high schools and college preparatory Institutions Is lagging. Under present methods of teaching, only the mathematically inclined are able to pursue the courses with any degree of Interest or enjoftaeot. It will be good news to thousand! of students, badly winded after a feverish pursuit of the elusive x, to learn that the association plana reforms. Mathematics has been dry for most students. Young ininds that thrill to tlie mysteries revealed by physics or chemistry have been found singularly calm and considerably cloudy after contemplation of the binominal theorem. Extracting the cube root of an incomprehensible number has been the dullest sort of drudgery compared with the study of the Napoleonic wars or the glory that was Greece and * the grandeur that was Rome. The melodies of dead poets and th$ masterpieces of literary geniuses have warmed hearts and fired minds which Euclid leaves cold and. calm. The energy expended and the brain cells shattered In prodigious wrestling matches with decimal fractions, logarithms, algebraic absurdltleqr'geometric obscurities and trigonqmetrlc absurdities have constituted an enormous waste. It is well that the mathematicians have awakened to the fact that their specialty „ needs buma^i^jt^rdjol^ Trio Arrive In Elizabeth Footsore 'a*T>^ Weary and Mayor Takes Up Col- v. '| - 'teuton to Pay Fare f i .. « Way. : BittjjtfBi. n. J.--1'unliing m wijij S threo-Wl|eeled baby carriage, tfc*:i$las- ^ • ing wheel in one hand, and balancing ' ^ her three-year-old son, Robert, on bar shoulder with the other, Mrs. Mary , Allen of Baltimore trudgog Jaitc Eliza- < beth recentijr eo She v«ce «€ exhaua- * tion but detwmrfned to the raat of the way to Wmbaaiii lad., where she says a brother wilt take her and bar two children into- **s home. i Her other child, Lillian, ten yceqi old, was walking beside her. { Within two minutes after tlM strange trio and their disabled baby prairie schooner came to a halt in the local police station both babies were asleep in the arms of big policeman, who know just how to treat tired babies. 1 Fifteen Days From Baltimore. ^ I Mrs. Allen walked all the way frdir Baltimore to New York, she said, and, after falling to find a half-sister, she put the children in the carriage again and started to walk to Indiana. The trio have been 15 days on tlM road, both children riding in the cftl* riage until Thursday afternoon, when one wheel came off on the road between Newark and Elisabeth. Little Robert, like a man, got oat and walked until he could walk no longer and than his mother shouldered him the rest «£ the way. For two days the mother and children were in a-hospital at Rutherford, N. J., having been caught on the road at night in a terrific rainstorm. The husband and father is in*a sanitarium in Baltimore, with tuberculosis. Landlord Starts Trouble. * ' Tve had my troubles but i .dom want to bother anybody with then^* said the plucky little mother to tli» r Intelligent QitN. Many are the cases on record of geese whose masters or mistresses endeared themselves to them and as a result were followed about everywhere by the geese Just as they might have been by dogs, and dogs are supposed to be the most intelligent of animals. There is the historical case of the aged blind woman who was piloted to church on Sundays by her goose. The little old lady would totter along, and when she would be on the point of taking a misstep the silly goose would pluck her by the skirt and guide her In the right direction. In the steps of the church the x>ld woman would be guided to her pew by her neighbors. while the goose retired to the near-by cemetery to nip grass. When service was over the goose would be beside the church steps waiting to guide Its mistress home again. next to the coat-rack, and when Urs. Sheila came down-stairs and went Hatch?** he said, fitter a little pause, j througb t>e hail, she didn't see pa Who Mads the First "Specs?* All European references to the use of spectacles before the year 1270 are dubious. Pliny's description of Nero looking at the gladiatorial combats through an emerald means at best only a lorgnette, or most probably a reflecting mirror. Roger Bacon In 1276 seems to have known of magnifying lenses, which soon became ceamien enough, but the probable Inventor of spectacles, as such was a Florentine worthy on whose tombstone In the church of Santa Croce was the Inscripon the hall settee, in the end of it tion: "Here lies Salvtno d'Armato degtt Armatl of Florence, the Inventor of spectacles. Anno Domini lSlT." fi® nuts Walked All the Way. t' policemen who surrounded her, offer* ing money out of their meager pay. "But the last was when our landlord turned us out tn Baltimore. I decided to walk to New York to find my halfsister and when I couldn't see her |n the crowds there I decided to walk to Indiana." «- The mayor of Elisabeth ordered tbfct Mrs. Allen and the children put up at a hotel at his expense and In the morning collected funds to buy theo> tickets and Pullman cfeace to WabasKi COW KICKS OUT TAIL LIGHTS A-; Antoisfs Novel Tale to Judge In WW|t ,,.3-' tMirgh Fails to Save Him } - ; ^ From Fine. Pittsburgh.--Chicago's fire-producing - . : cow, Washington's dynamite-eating " bovine and the mythical moon-jumpier " have a rival in a Pennsylvania cow that specialises In .kicking oat aut^- : ' mobile tail lights. Fred Holman of Ingomar, when 4k* tested on a charge of driving without showing a rear light, told Magistrate ^ Succop that after purchasing a cow he r roped it to the back of a truck and started home. Soon afterward the anl- * mal kicked out the light, according to | the buyer. Ten dollars wae- added to -p the cost of the cow when the magf»> trate Imposed a fine. Thlevee Robbed Girt Entering Banlfc Cleveland. O.--Two armed thieve# snatched a handbag containing $1,500 from Miss Margaret Tallett, restaurant cashier, as she was entering a bank. One of the bandits knocked Miss Tal* let down and then grabbed the handk bag. The thieves escaped. Robbers Bound Grocer With Own Reps Homestead, Pa.--A clothesline lie had just sold to them was used by robbers to tie up William Campbell, a grocer. One of the two "customers" knocked him down and the other bound him with the rope. They took $78 from the safe. X. s Jury Awarded Woman'1 <fc*nt f# tdlfc. Frost burg. Md.--A verdict of 1 cent was awarded Mrs. Bertha Hunter by a jury which heard her slander suit for $5,000 damages against Willi a* ^ Atkinson, fifty-seven-year-oid farmer* •it. . *• • < u'- 3m ' *T ifr "" t*:'. V- , ' • ' fr -I* •* •?-,