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L . • . • 1 * v ' . . i ? * , ' 1 •$ */ . . ' f * • * f ?: t- The Iron Pot-Still a By a Former Secret Service Man Ex-Operative Tells of Cleverest of Counterfeiting Plots Captain Dickson Relates Tale--He Tells of En­ countering Desperado Gang and the Ultimate Consequences--Nan with Bulldog Jaw and His Dar­ ing Escape from the Grip of the Law. $ $ $ % b & rip I J DIET AND HEALTH By DR. J. T. ALLEN /r Ms r//fVfsd£i M//C////#/) t/l///<7 « oy£/?rs/£f//?£ y/<5>/sz& p/£ Cowrfftmr£#& .•if % % ; I ' . & fes f'f Er;'- §!:\ HERB are few mysteries which are never cleared up," commenced Capt. Dickson, as he sat be­ fore the cheerful wood fire of his cozy study one night last winter, "al­ though some of them slum­ ber for years among the things forgotten, until the denouement is accident­ ally developed by some person who, perhaps, never •>earil of the original matter. Such fras the case which I have come to •emember as that of 'The Iron Pot.' ijt was a vessel of this humble charac­ ter that finally cleared up a great mys- |f»ry and brought the guilty to Justice. 1 ' "You are well aware that the silver foliar passes current for something like 49 or 50 cents more than the Actual silver in it is worth. This fact Jla« not been overlooked by counter­ feiters, and because of it the secret fervlce has had some knotty problems to unravel. "The largest percentage of counter­ feits of specie are crude, black, leaden things that are readily detectible and iifficult to pass. The handling of these Coins is beset with excessive danger. Put there have been some cases where counterfeiters have so perfectly imi­ tated the silver dollar that experts •ave been deceived by it. Such a coin was brought out by a gang operating |n St. Louis some years ago. Their foliar was of the same fineness and weight as the coin cK the government's pint and had the same quantity of al­ loy, The only difference between the two was that the spurious coin was ) shade thicker than the genuine, Which fact was due to the machinery (f the counterfeiters being somewhat ghter and less powerful than that of the federal mints. "The popular idea that coins are (ast or molded is quite erroneous, 'hey are stamped or pressed out of yarrow strips of metal. It is only by )his means that they can be sufficient­ ly compressed to stand the wear to nrhich they are subjected in circula­ tion. The machines used for this pur- rse are heavy, ponderous things, and is difficult for counterfeiters to se- ure the manufacture of such a ma­ chine, and quite as hard a proposition them to find a suitably secret «lace in which to operate it, once ley have got it made. "The St. Louis gang had their plant a cleverly constructed cave in a suburban district. It was an artificial «tave, dug back in the face of a clay P, *nd gravel bluff. The entrance was ; through the shanty of a poor Irish family, a circumstance that diverted Suspicion from it and one to which is ^partly due the long immunity the fang enjoyed. "There was no scrap of metal, no | V foins, chemicals, or other thing used the art. Only the machine and a Pf 1 A<iew wrenches and similar tools. The gfang had skipped out. The Irishman v.V'ic. Vas half-witted, and his wife was too J. * v (f'ev®r to be caught in the traps we j-V »*},• laid for her. We had made a water- ij* J-AJiaul, except for the machine, which lngton we maintained secrecy about the entire matter and nothing of it got into the newspapers. 'T found one thing in the shanty which might or might not" offer a clew to the counterfeiters. It was an empty envelope bearing the postmark of an obscure railroad station in the sunk- land district of northeastern Arkansas- I had long ago learned that it is the seemingly insignificant things that lead to the discovery of criminals, and while this envelope might mean noth­ ing, on the other hand, it might be of the gravest importance. It had been found beneath the sheet of metal on which the cook stove stood, the tip of one corner, discolored and grimy, at­ tracting my attention. I had secured it and pocketed it without attracting attention. "If the gang had never existed it could not have disappeared more effec­ tually. We were face to face with a biank wall. This made us the more anxious to capture the counterfeiters. As nothing better offered, the chief suggested that I follow up the clew of the empty envelope. "With as cumbersome and complete an outfit as every city sportsman carries into the woods with him, I left the train one day at the wayside sta­ tion which bore the name of the post­ mark. Securing a guide and cook, in the person of a lanky native, I had my truck hauled out to the St. Francis river, only two miles distant, where I pitched camp and made preparations for an indefinite stay. "It was the greatest game country I have ever seen. There were deer with­ out limit and a good sprinkling of tur­ keys, some bears, and water fowl of every kind, until the killing of them lost much of its charm, and became more like ruthless slaughter. "I had a plentiful supply of liquors and cigars, a fact my guide lost no time in spreading broadcast about the country. This was just what I wanted him to do, for it brought the natives flocking to my camp to partake of the liquors and cigars which I distributed with a lavish hand. It gave me the opportunity for which I was playing. "By making inquiry of my visitors, I learned that about five miles down the river were camped, in a snug cabin built by themselves, three gentlemen from parts unknown. They maintained the place as a sort of club and had spent the spring season there. They left about March and were gone until October, when they returned one night and again took possession of their cabin. Our raid on the cave had been made on the 15th of October, and this caused me to think that perhaps the empty envelope was making good. "As the three gentlemen did not deign to visit my camp, I decided to make a call upon them. "I started oijt in a folding canvas canoe, late ip the afternoon, and ar- rivedln the vicinity of their camp just at nightfall. With a sharp cypress tree, aided by a jagged cut from my hunting knife, I succeeded in punching a bad hole in the bottom of the canoe, and with the boat rapidly filling with water, I landed just after sunset at the fiiras destroyed. The cave was filled very door of their cabin. The three •>'* .v#p. Acting under orders from Wash-i men were at home and they welcomed •? #ur ; fe me with the open hospitality of camp­ ers, insisting that I spend the night with them. This was just what I had been playing for. "It was easy to see that the men were crooks. There is always some­ thing to disclose the counterfeiter, if the observer is only sufficiently versed in their ways and mannerisms to rec­ ognize the telltale signs. I was pretty Bure, before the evening was over, that these were the men who had done the job in St. Louis. "Nothing about the cabin was the least bit suspicious. A large iron pot bubbled invitingly over the open Are, the fragrant odor of boiling meat is­ suing from under its lid when the steam pushed It up on one side. A steaming haunch of venslon, cooking with some vegetables and dumplings, was produced from the pot for our supper, which was served soon after my arrival. In the center of the room was a big table, crudely constructed of heavy oak timbers. The cabin was well lighted, the lamps being of expensive character and great brilliancy. Guns and fishing tackle and hunting tog­ gery of every kind gave the cabin the atmosphere of a sportsman's club. "The men talked freely of everything but themselves. They spoke of many cities, but never of their homes. They told me they were college chums who had always made it a custom to spend a few months together each fall in the woods. They were clever men and readily passed for the lawyer, the doc­ tor and the merchant, the characters they respectively pretended to be. The one to whom the other two deferred in everything was a large, powerful man with clean-shaven face and a Jaw like a bulldog. His face was too shrewd to be pleasant. He watched me furtively, a sinister, amused smile playing about the corners of his mobile mouth. That smile spoke volumes. It made me lie awake all night. It seemed to say that he knew my real character, and there­ fore I thought It best to keep on the watch. The man seemed capable of offering me personal violence. But the night passed away without inci­ dent. After breakfast, I repaired the leak in my canoe and paddled slowly up-stream, trying to figure out where I had seen the big man with the square jaw before. "While I was smoking a last cigar before retiring that evening, it came to me where I had seen him. It was on a street car In St. Louis, on one oc­ casion when I was shadowing the shanty at the cave. He had been on the same car and had kept his seat when I alighted near the hut. He had looked at me then as if he wanted to know me the next time he saw me. I was assured that he was one of the counterfeiters, and made up my mind to arrest the three -of them the first thing next morning. "Here I learned a lesson in procras­ tination. While I hastily gobbled down my breakfast the next day, a trapper, who camped near by and who had gone to the village the night before foij sup­ plies, happened along and told me a most disconcerting bit of news. The three men had taken French leave. They had caught a through freight about midnight, taking little or no baggage with them. I hastened to the village, and although I worked the single telegraph wire to its utmost capacity, the three men succeeded in making their escape. "Sending a full cipher report to Washington, I repaired to the cabin in the swamps and made a careful search of it.t Everything within was in the greatest confusion. Clothing and j shells, guns and fishing-tackle were strewn about the floor, evidencing a precipitate departure. It was tantaliz­ ing to again allow the criminals to es- j cape. I felt deeply chagrined, and re­ solved never again to put off a matter of this kind. The men had forestalled me by only a few hours, for I had in- j tended arresting them that morning, ! and there had been nothing in their conduct during my visit to their cabin . to indicate that they thought of flight "In one corner of the cabin, beneath the very bunk on which I had slept, there was an excavation three feet square and as many deep. The cover j was down and dirt was strewn over it which gave it the same appearance as the dirt floor of the house. I discov­ ered it by a hollow hound when 1 tapped over the spot. It was empty. | "I noticed the absence of the pot j which had supplied my supper, but it 1 was rather a subconscious notice of it. ! The fact really made no appreciable impression on me at the time, nor did i it, in fact, until more than a year had passed. It was then recalled by a j newspaper dispatch under date of the I small village. | "Some of the boys in the village had appropriated the cabin as a sort of clubhouse, after the three men had fled. They would spend Saturdays . there, fishing and swimming and hunt­ ing. Immediately in front of the cabin was a steep bank, and the river wi­ dened out into a broad, deep pool , which afforded good fishing and swim- ! mlng. The boys would throw white pebbles into this hole and dive for them from the bank. One of them had struck his head against something hard at the bottom of the river and had been pulled up a corpse, his skull having been fractured by the impact j of the blow. I "The others investigated and found a large iron pot half buried in the soft mud. Its cover was sealed down and its weight had been so great the boys couldn't lift it from its oozy bed. Ths dispatch stated that the pot was to be raised and its contents examined. i "I was In Little Rock when I read this dispatch and, without waiting for instructions from headquarters, I boarded the first train and set out for j the village. I was in a state of fever- j ish excitement, fearing I would arrive there after the pot had been secured, i I wanted to be the first to view its con* ! tents. I felt sure I knew what was ' in it. I "After a journey that seemed inter­ minable I arrived at the village and inquired about the pot. My fears had been groundless. With the indifference so characteristic in country people the villagers had forgotten, after the funeral of the unfortunate young man, the incident of the pot. While there had been some talk of raising it, no one had taken the lead, and there the matter had rested. "Securing a team of mules and some strong ropes and chains, I drove out to the cabin. By dint of much diving I > succeeded in fastening the chains about the pot and had my assistaant drag it out upon the bank. It was the vessel which had hung over the fire when I had visited the counterfeiters in their lair. Then I remembered its absence, when I had searched the hut after their departure. It was sealed with paraffin and sealing wax, and not a drop of water had passed the lid. "I contained a complete set of en­ gravers' tools, several bottles of power­ ful acids, glass stopped and sealed, a number of bars of silver, some three hundred odd counterfeit silver dollars, and the dies with which they had been stamped out. The dies were thickly coated with wax and were as bright and fresh as when they beat out the false coins in the secret cave. "After swearing my assistant to secrecy, I returned to headquarters with my booty. "Not many weeks later two of the men were captured. I had given the department a mifiute description of them, after their unceremonious de­ parture, and its vast machinery had been set in motion for their apprehen­ sion. It is a maxim of the service that a man once a counterfeiter Is al­ ways a counterfeiter. This rule held good with reference to two of the men, at least, for they were captured and convicted of another Job. The in­ cidents I have Just related were not introduced In evidence against them and consequently escaped the press. The man with the bulldog jaw escaped completely at that time, but I met with him, year3 after, under circumstances neither of us will forget so long as we live." (Copyright, 1906, by W. O. Chapman.) (Copyright in Great Britain.) Prsctleal Labor. "George," spoke his better halt "you are interested in the temj>eranc« movements, are you not?" "Why, cer­ tainly I am," he answered. "Well, sup­ pose you go out and make a few of them with the pump handle. I am In need of a pail of water right awafr."--- Bohemian. A.utbor of "JZat/nJ for a •Purpose." "The jV#tw Gospel of Health.*' Etc. (Copyright, by Joseph B. Bowles.) MILK FOR BABES--BUT­ TERMILK FOR ADULTS All authorities on diet say that milk is a perfect food. This is true in a sense; and in another it is alto­ gether untrue and misleading. The natural food of the infant is mother's milk. But the appalling mor­ tality of infants is due chiefly to the use of cow's milk, carrying the seeds of disease from the cow, the air and water, and planting them in a soil made favorable by improper feeding, lack of fresh air, bathing and ex­ ercise. Not even cereal starch kills more uilants between the ages of one and six than does milk in the first two years. Cow's milk differs materially from the infant's natural food, containing twice as much proteid and only about half as much sugar, but the danger lies more in the contamination of the milk sold in the cities. Fortunately good work is being done in many places to remedy this evil. Milk is called the perfect food be­ cause it contains all the elements nec­ essary for the growth of the infant, and in the proper proportion. But the physical constitution and development of the infant differ much from those of the adult, and the food should dif­ fer accordingly. The growth of the infant in the first six years is rapid, and a large proportion of lime is necessary to build the bony framework. Milk is In this respect an appropriate food for the infant and inappropriate for the adult. The lime of milk being little needed for maintaining the bony framework of the adult, 'is largely de­ posited in the arteries, contributing to the distinctive disease of old age-- hardening of the arteries. The prime eause of hardening of the arteries, which is also a cause of "heart failure" and of certain forms of insanity, is auto-intoxication, or self- poisoning, resulting from the ab­ sorption of waste matter from the lower part of the alimentary canal, of which I shall have more to say in deal­ ing with "Bread," in a subsequent ar­ ticle. Deficiency of iron in the blood of the adult is serious; the percentage of iron in cow's milk is small, corre­ sponding to the nervous inactivity of the Infant. In this particular milk is a very unsatisfactory adult diet, though it sustains life Indefinitely. But the unsuitability of milk to the adult is more evident on comparing the infant with the adult anatomy and physiology: In the infant, for in­ stance, the upper part of the alimen­ tary canal is almost a straight tube, allowing the milk to pass quickly to the intestine, which is adapted to its digestion. The adult stomach is a deeply curved pouch, which in certain' abnormal conditions retains the food for several hours longer than the proper time for digestion. The fer­ mentation of milk alone is not always serious, but the fermentation of meat, cereals and fruits in the stomach, through the agency of milk, leads to serious results. The proportion of iron in the blood is very small, but very important. When it is found to be deficient, it is very difficult to supply It. Probably its best source Is the brown part of wheat which is excluded from our fine patent white flours, of which we shall speak later. Grapes, the brown part of wheat, cabbage (raw) and lettuce readily supply Iron. It has been found that persons living exclusively on milk lack "sand," a quality which the infant never needs to display, since it is absolutely de­ pendent. In the infant the liver is relatively much larger and more active than in the adult. In a number of cases in which the results of an exclusive milk diet were found to be injurious, the liver was weak and inactive, as indi­ cated by sallow skin, jaundiced eyes and internal indications. In such cases, as a rule, unfermented grape juice, pineapples, lemons and oranges are Indicated. Sweet milk is always injurious in these cases in adults. In flesh-eating animals the stomach and liver are much larger in propor­ tion than In the vegetable-eaters. An apparent exception is found In the ruminating animals, like the cow, which gathers a large quantity of food and stores it in the first of a series of stomachs for future chewing. The de­ velopment of the food tube indicates the food adapted to the animal. Al­ though the infant digestive organs are better adapted to milk than the adult's, they are not perfectly adapted to cow's milk. To feed a dog or a child of two years on "what we eat our­ selves" indicates a sympathetic hut thoughtless disposition. Sterilized or boiled milk Is open to the same objection as roasted peanuts. Its vitality, its real life-giving quali­ ties are largely destroyed. It is most unfortunate that our peo­ ple are ignorant of the value of goat's milk, especially for infant feeding. The goat is the healthiest of all ani­ mals and the slowest to degenerate when domesticated. Rarely, if ever, is the goat known to contract tuber­ culosis or any other disease. The milk is superior in every way to cow's, and the poorest can own & "poor man's cow," which can be fed on the potato peelings, cabbage leayes or anything else that is clean. Hardly any other food is compat­ ible with milk, except uncooked, whipped eggs, rice or toasted bread. Flesh meat, being a stomach food, is particularly inharmonious with milk. The Jewish Instructions on diet pro­ hibit eating meat and milk together. though this may be far an ethical reason. . The writer has recently made sev­ eral days' tests of an exclusive milk diet on himself and others, carefully recording results. A change from the ordinary^ mixed diet to any mon- odiet is beneficial, and milk 1b not an exception. But the benefits de­ rived from the milk diet which have recently been much advertised should be credited to the monodiet, avoiding the injurious effects of miring several Incompatible foods at the same meal. Equally satisfactory results can he shown from many other monodiets-- even the peanut, which is the most concentrated of all foods, containing an excess of albumen. Great gains have been recorded from exclusive diets of beans, oatmeal, wheat, etc., as well as milk, pursued for 60 days or move. • • . • • Prof. Metchnikoff, head of the Pas­ teur ifiititute, who has made most praiseworthy investigations into the causes of our early decay, has con­ cluded that the failure of the average man to live his natural term of life, 100 years, is due to the development of pathogenic germs in the lower part of the food tube from improperly di­ gested, superfluous food, and recom­ mends the use of buttermilk J as an antidote. The chief causes of the offending conditions in the colon, the large intes­ tine, leading to a constant poisoning Of the stream of life, are: Too much food, eaten hurriedly- too much starch and not enough fruit, and bad combi­ nations of foods, good in themselves. Buttermilk is not a natural corrective of these abnormal conditions, although it no doubt serves as an antidote, nor is the "internal bath," good in a way, the true remedy; the cause should be removed. It has been said that "wine is the milk of age," and of unfermented wine this is true. The grape contains much sugar, acid and iron, which are de­ ficient in milk. The most noted case of prolonged life in history, that of Cornaro, the Venetian nobleman in the j sixteenth century, was due to a unl-l form diet, consisting chiefly of unfer­ mented wine with an egg daily. The! e g g s u p p l i e d t h e f a t , s u l p h u r a n d a l - J bumen deficient in the "light wine," or grape Juice. Broken down at 40 by indulgence In eating and drinking, .Cor­ naro lived to be jnore than 100 by sim­ ple living. HOW TO MAKE GOOD BUTTER­ MILK AT HOME. You can make the best buttermilk any day in your own kitchen. And there is nothing better for digestive disorders, and especially for Intestinal troubles, or as a substitute in infant feeding, in certain cases. You can get at the drug store tab­ lets containing the lactic acid bac­ terium culture that will convert sweet milk into full cream buttermilk by simply dropping a tablet into a quart bottle of milk and maintaining the proper temperature, according to the instructions. Not only because this full cream buttermilk contains the fat in emulsified form is it better than the buttermilk you buy of the butter­ milk man, but because the lactic acid bacterium prevents the development of injurious bacteria in the milk. This is important In the case of infants. Cholera infantum, some forms of diarrhoea and perhaps typhoid can be avoided la this way. Here is the most important practical application of the germ theory yet made, a boon for in­ fant humanity, a recovery in some de­ gree of the loss due to departing from nature In infant feeding as a result of departing from nature in other ways. Prof. Metchnikoff discovered that the Bohemians have a greater percentage of centenarians than any other people, and the Bohemians drink more butter­ milk than any other people. It has long been known that butter­ milk is a valuable food medicine--- even when soured by lightning. We can not always command the thunder, but science has discovered how to make buttermilk without a churn and without lightning, and without sepa­ rating the butter. Butterless butter­ milk is good, full-cream buttermilk is better in most cases. Cow's milk is digested by the infant with difficulty, often resulting in com­ plete breakdown of the digestive and nervous system; but the adult diges­ tive system is not so well adapted to the digestion of milk and hence flatu­ lence and absolute revulsion often re­ sult from its continued use. But buttermilk causes no such difficulties, because it is in a sense largely pre- digested, the coarser curdB of the casein in cow's milk being finely broken up. « This removes the greatest objection to cow's milk as a diet for infants and as an ideal monodiet for adults in severe stomach and bowel troubles. A certain amount of fat is necessary to the best conditions for normal nutrition, and fat is about 2V& times more valuable as a heat and energy producer than other forms of carbon; and of the fats, butter is the most easily assimilated, except peanut and olive oil. But emulsified as the fat Is in milk, it is much more easily assimi­ lated than as butter. For this reason, and for others, the new way of making buttermilk gives a much more nutri­ tious product and more digestible, es­ pecially for the infant. Cow's milk cannot be made identical with the infant's natural food, but it can be approximated to it. The chief difficulty to be overcome is to adapt the large curds that tend to remain in the stomach longer than they should, as the development of the calf s stom­ ach requires that its food shall have a much heavier curd than that re­ quired by the Infant in which intes­ tinal digestion is more important. The use of buttermilk tablets obviates this difficulty, besides overcoming other objections to the use of cow's milk. But the objection naturally arises that soured milk is not natural. The reply that cow's milk is not natural. Certainly tests of buttermilk have proved K very satisfactory. Expert Advice, Butler--Pardon this Interruption, but there is a deputation of unem­ ployed waiting for you at the door. His Excellency--Tell the people to go home quietly. (Drains a glass of champagne.) People in this world can get on very well without work-- at least I find It so.--Wahre Jacob. EXPENSE IS FOR NttCE SSfTl E8 Of* A MOD*** RAILROAD. ' Rolling Stock «nd Such Other Vital Items Are But the Beginning the Demands Made on Com- / " * pany's Treasury. ^ ^ When we think of a railway we gen­ erally think of the locomotives and cars which make up the trains, the track on which they move and the de­ pots and booking offices where we get our transportation, says Chambers* Journal. So one would imagine that most of what a railway company needs to buy is its rolling stock, the rails and ties for its tracks, the fuel and water for its engines. But such are only a few of the necessities of a great modern system such as those which cross the United States. In­ deed, the money expended on articles, which would not occur to us is , large that it Beems beyond belief* The fact is that such a railroad must provide a multitude of tilings, especially where it operates cars where travelers can not only sleep but have their meals as in a hotel. So the company may employ a purchasing agent, who might better be called the "general housekeeper." He buys ne­ cessities for the cars and for depots; and It is a part of his business to see how much money he can save for the company by selling material which to no longer of any value to it. To give an idea of the importance of "Railroad housekeeping," as It might be called, we will take one of the larger companies of the United States whose trains run over several thousand miles of track. During one year the "general housekeeper" pur­ chased and distributed 26,000 brooms to keep the stations and offices of the company clean; 20,000 boxes of soap, 25,000 scrubbing brushes and a simi­ lar number of hand mops also figure in the expenditure. The housekeepers of the individual stations and offices rep­ resent a formidable army. Upward of 10,000 of these are employed. At many of the small stations the agent Is his own housekeeper, ticket taker, teleg­ rapher and general freight agent, but at the larger stations scrubbers and cleaners are employed by the year. The employes and officials of a big railway must have pens, Ink, paper and even pins. The quantity of pins bought by the general housekeeper and distributed to the employers weighed over 3,000 pounds; 40,000 pens were also used, and 50 barrels of ink. There were enough lead pen­ cils used to reach from Chicago to New York and half way back again if they were placed end to end. The care of the linen of a single trunk line is an Important task. . No hotel or series of hotels offers a com­ parison. The napkins and table lin­ en- for the dining service of this rail­ way mount up to thousands of pounds, and the towels and bed linen for the sleeping cars represent nearly as many more. The annual laundry of the sleeping and dining car service amounts to an expenditure of 926,090, although it is nearly all done by steam machinery. To keep up the supply of linen upward of 10,000 separate pieoes are purchased annually. On this line more money is spent on the table and bed linen than on spch apparently im- portant articles as car brackets for hats and coats or cushion seats for passengers. Yet so careful is the sys­ tem that every napkin, towel, table­ cloth, sheet or pillowcase must be ao> counted for, and not one can be lost without some adequate explanation. So numerous are the dining cars and cafe cars on this railway that to sup* ply them with all the necessary pro­ visions and articles of diet to suit the most fastidious the general house­ keeper purchases wholesale quantities all along the line. This railroad sys­ tem will want upward of 50,000 barrels of flour a year for the dining-car serv­ ice, 40,000 pairs of poultry, 10,000 quar­ ters of beef and tons of fruit, pastry, coffee and vegetables. But the amount of money which the railway housekeeper gets from the sale of what Is called waste material (that which is of no further use to the company), is astonishing. Again re­ ferring to this American line, fjrom waste paper alone in one year it re­ alized a profit of $5,000. Pens, shin­ gles and nails proved of Important value. The total sum of the "scrap heap" of old machinery reached the enormous figure of 11,250,000. Of course the greater part of this waste came from the worn-out locomotives and cars which are sent to the scrap heap after they have ceased to be of further use to the company. But on the small "household items" men­ tioned upward of $100,000 was re­ alized. Everything is saved, and everything is economically disposed of. Even the ashes are sold « utilized for improving the roadbed. Wind Gauge for Tralna. • singular device for the protection of railroad trains crossing a viaduct exposed to heavy winds has recently been employed at Ulverston, England. It consists of a wind-gauge fixed at the west end of the Levens viaduct. When the wind pressure reaches 32 pounds to the square foot, an electric contract is made automatically, and bells ring in the signal cabins on side of the Viaduct. Upon this all trains are detained until the force of the wind abates. The interruption is telegraphed along the line. The danger of very high winds to trains on an ex­ posed bridge or viaduct was tragically illustrated many years ago by the lamentable Tay bridge disaster in' Scotland. % Russian Railroad Building. Russia's ministry of ways of commu­ nication demands about 80,000,000 ru­ bles (a ruble equals 61.5 cents) tor new railway construction. Out of this amount are to be taken the funds tor buUding the Amur road, double-track­ ing the Siberian road, building a briflge across the Volga at Yaroslafl and connecting the Russian and Fin­ nish railway aystems at St. Peters­ burg. !#• Japan Building Locomotives* -J Japan is building her first IpM* made locomotives. * "i: ? yiittSi