At the trail's beginning was a warm house. The winter day was gray, and there was no sunshine in the living-room of the house but that of'a mother's smile and 'the langhter of young people. The last tardy one came running up the steps of the house and joined the waiting group. Then there was a denning of wraps and-a happy dis- order as young people crowded through the door into the open and stood upon the winter-bare trail, which began' at the house steps. One of the girls, the gayest, passed ahout red strips of paper of differ- ent lengths, one set to the young) men.and another 'to the girls, andt e strips | the bark of trees, acorns, and buck- -the young people matched th and* re-grouped themselves: accord- ingly; Because an unsympathetic busi- ness world had kept one from fol- lowing the trail, the jolliest young! man took two of the girls into his! keeping and led the way, a hilarious | party of three. Following the three were two who had yet to know each! other, Last upon the trail were two whose hearts were beating quickly | with happiness, two who were thanking the kind destiny who had} given them one to the other in that game of chance. And from the door! of the house. watched the mother's -éyes, until the merry throng went straggling down behind a nearby; wil. At first the toni heid a chaiteting knot of sociability, so interested was each of the seven in the others. Then gradually, but surely, the dis- tance between lengthened, until those last with whom walked happi- ness were lost to view;s and the _ three Were swift' of foot; so that they no longer talked with those be- hind them on the trail, but kept in touch with long, trembling yodels: that echoed through the woods. With the buoyant three fun ran riot as they sped over the path, tlipping, sliding and climbing, but alwtys fleet, eager to get to the end of the trail. The two who were al- most strangers followed more slow- ly. They had touched upon a com- mon ground, the philosophy of life. But those who were last of all thought not of the three and two ahead nor of the trail's end. The future mattered not. Tenderly the man helped the girl over the rough places, and though Love had not ; Jhis mask of was pleasant to be helped. Almost had the three reached the 'trail's end. Through the leafless branches gleamed the walls of small white inn. More quickly than ever sped they over the remainder! of the trail, for at the end was light | and warmth and dainty food More slowly walked those who | spoke of philosophy, and once they | even dared to speak of Truth: itself. Once, as they talked, the girl pre- tended, for the man's wisdom was, greater. But the man knew and smiled kindly, and thep the girl was eontent to listen, At the end of the trail the door of! the eld white inn opened to receive the three It was the end of the. tramp and the rest before the re- turn journey. Gratefully they en tered the warmth of the quaint! colonia! hall and responded genial-| ly to the landlord's comments on the frosty weather. With much langhter the landlord was instruct- ed to hold back the tea-hour for the| late ones, Just then the inn door again swung open, and the philoso- pher and the girl who listened came in and joined the laughing group, denying all knowledge of that other laggard two. No one knew, least of all the laggards themselves, that they had wandered from the trail and were going steadily in an op- posite direction from the little white inn. As they wandered on, those two loet laggards, the dark came ereep- | ing about and turned the tre trunks to shadows and the shadows to seeming tree trunks. Then it was that the two kuew they were lost, for the man's loud calls were answered only by the echoes. Real and not imaginary danger there was on the return journey. At each slip of the girl's foot fear clutched the man, and thus he learned how dear to was her safety. But the girl had no fear. Danger was sweet with the protecting strength of the man rear. When they found the mein trail it was too late to reach the inn, and so they turned home- ward. At the inn the hungry group wait- an to bring in the steaming chooolate, the toast and little cakes, and the jolly young man in lordly fashion commanded one of the girls to brew the tea. Then the five nibbled and chattered merrily. e burning logs sputtered sosiahly, and joyous youth ag at over by the iedlont's black cat. Tho laggard two were out in the night. Only darkness and silence and increasing cold were about inking | exhibitors will include some of the resided | his head Saar y the aiancn: ae the a them nearer- to. each other on the py onels trail op ges oS MANY eta oie EN JAPAN. Famine District ( Covers Over a Million. Acres... The famine district of Hokkaide, in the north of Japan, covers more than 1,000,000. aeres which are de- voted to. rice. culture and general farming. The loss nen amounted to "about - $10,000,000, and r- suns dre in need of help, ae to an official report. It contimues: "For the last threeyears the farmers have had poor crops, and the failure on account*of the frost this year leaves them im a pitiable | t condition.' "Men are subsisting on. straw, i wheat:chaff powdered and made into gruel. Mothers living on 'such food 'have been unable to feed their | babies, and have made a milk sub- stitutes out of the hulls of rice, | which they beat into a powder and mix with boiling water. The young men have left' home in search of ork, while the aged and the chil- den are Jeft behind to freeze or starve unless outside relief is | pesustd to them.' A sad story of the famine district \is told by the Rev. Chigan Taka- | hashi, a missionary. A tenant in ' Yubari district, whose wife was dy- ing from starvation and | illness, | stole a bale of potatoes from his -- The wife was grateful -for the kindness of her husband, but said: "1 do net wish to live any longer if it must be on stolen food,' and urged him to return the goods. The husband, conscience 'stricken, was carrying back the potatoes when he met the 'land owner. He confessed his theft and asked for- giveness. | The landowner was impressed by j the sad story and: nof only forgave | the offense, but made a gift of the potatoes tu the farmer. The happy man returned home--and found his wife hanging dead. The husband then hanged himself. The Japanese have organized a national relief association. EELGRASS IS EXPENSIVE. One Car a Year soya ata That Is Worth $2,393. Every year Boston ie a cargo-of ummer months, cnt Fave ial A | do some swimming where the tall, rough eel-grass abounds, have fig- ured out that. it isn't good for much of anything except to be cussed. | | lis of some use; use that last year Boston people | patd $2,393 for a single cargo of it. | It is used by a big Chelsea paint veoncern in the manufacture of : lampblack The grass could be gathered some- what nearer home than Yarmouth, |N.S., but the best quality of the grass is more easily to be secured off the Nova Seotia coast than else- | where. 7 As a rule, one cargo of the grass / is enough to furnish the paint man- ufacturers for a year, and the gath- ering of the grass cannot be espe- 'cially profitable. Exceptionally | | low tides are taken advantage of by | the reapers of the grass, who, with | scythes, cut acres in a short time. To Show British Industry. A moving picture exhibition of British industry will start on a world tour this year, visiting north- ern Europe, then the North Ameri- can continent,-and afterward South America, South Africa, Australasia, India, and the far east. In all eighty- eight cities are included. The ah Mua | | leading manufacturers of Great Bri- tain, and the films will illustrate | | their methods. A commerciai refer- =| ce book, 'Industrial Expansion seinted | in English, French and Ger- | man, will be distributed, and -- if ous efforts will be made to possible customers at cathe ca visited in direct touch with the home firms. It is proposed to hold the Panama exhibition. Danced Himself to Death. sulting marine engineer, of Sprin dale,.Charlton Road, whose d death occurred at the Wingrove Seafield, Charlton Road, stated that she attended the dance given at the hotel. Shortly after t she was dancing a waltz with him, phe he vidbaaly. fell penne Shen -that he was she Bhe had previously danced him, and he then remarked that he felt: exceedingly well. He died them, but they cared not! The about two minutes afterwards: | rane, erie -grass from Yes e N.S, oat of th 4 ly, n: : nt ee It seems, however, that eel-grass) eyenings." indeed, of so much | j tar io," a bouklet issued by Ern an exhibition for one month in the Co grounds at San Francisco during ~ waslnal success it is at once sugges Miss Agnes Gerturde Forster, of| kno | Pelt ain oni vs Cut Bi, were friends, for did they not draw IT PARALLELS THE NORP STATES. Geographical Location Po . ~Out -- Climate of the Country. Continual reference to New Ontario," create a false impression regard the geographical Jocation ots clay belt." People who would e ly seize the opportunity to at nment gran Southern "Manitcbe. 8 kas or Alberta, if such were availabli shudder at the thought of locatin in a district a few hundred m north of Toronto. : There is a genuine surprise pression that Timiskaming is a re: mote section bordering on the Arc tic Circle if they will spread out a reecnt map of the Dominion - of} Canada and study it for an instant, | It will immediately be seen that aly most the whole district to which re- ference has been made in these ¢ol+} store for those. who have*the im- 5 * we Srentesenbation can only harmful to any-country in oeaniiision issties the tallow: rning against giving up the 'in the hand -to. seek the: two in sh, yet it. points out to those e empty-handed that there is td or two in the bush of the it -- Not All Sunshine, 'But if a man be making a com- however, be doing himself | those depending upon him an nd hout first-looking it over and nm asking himself if he can make the best of these opportunities. Too puch thotight cannot be put on this 'one point, to A man may have ability make good progress in an older setiled district, but for him to. go pwhere conditions are as different as pday and night, he may have disap- /pointments at first. Then, again, for the man who has less at stake, umns lies. south: of the latitude $f the city of Winnipeg, while a large portion of the clay. belt lies sduthe the man.who finds he cannot make ends meet, to-New-Ontario and a of the latitude of the internatich aa boundary -between the Canadian' Northwest and the American Ng rtb= west States. { "Having located the town of Coch at the junction of the T. N. 0. Railway, and the National} Transcontinental, then trace a line westward into Manitoba. It wilh be found that the city of Winnipeg} lies some distance north of line. ' Minnesota. Having correctly located the cil belt all fears of arctic blasts polar bears will be dispelled. clay: -- is a Northland in relatiy to Toron It isa , South-East Region in relation to, the city of Winnipg it is far in. 'the south when ca ie portunities for Settlers in Northland,'" a pamphlet issued # the Timiskaming & Northern Fgood health and that A line drawn westward f down will land . in northel '|cause, as it was then alleged, tivery much alive, homestead farm is the answer. In 'any event a man with only ordinary business-ability, in possession of strength, there need be no fear as to his making rogress. Thousands of others are 'doing it, and in the majority of cases the etart wasomade under oe most adverse conditions. No on need starve in New Ontario, ond noone needs to be idle if he is able Band willing to work." a CHARLES W. MORSE. Released from Jail Because He Was '"'Dying,'? Is Much Alive. Charles W. Morse, who was par- doned by former President Taft be- the financier convict was at death's door, arrived in New York the other day aboard the «ss. "Imperator,"' with not even a thought of departing from this life. | He was (with the exception of his tario. Railway Commission: 'The climate- of the: cotntry-is -attractiv > year. The' from nan eee aad ai March. The * from 60 to 65 deg. F. ° , which he had rid himself 'of) the Bame Charley Morse who was known to the world of finance s the panic of 1907.. With on summer season the mid-day heat}i inclined to be intense, with ed In "Opportunities in New € Hatin, Toronto, the climate -is ferred to as hot in summer; & but dry in winter. 'Summer fro are rare, the crops, ripen more pidly than in the south, longer hoars of sunlight." The writer has visited the ¢ belt on several occasions and £ the climate there but little differ from that of the most souther portions of the Province. : In another pamphlet, issued [by the T. & N. O. Railway Comnfis- sion, entitled "The Great Clay Belt of Northern Ontario,' ' the climpte lis dealt with thus: 'Owing. 'to the long days and to the gagater num- ber of hours of sunshine,' crops ma- ture very quickly in New Ontario. The air is dry and healthful all the year. To spend a September. in the North is a délightful experi- ence. The Air Is Usually warki=: , hazy and invigorating. In the win- ter, while the mercury sometimes touches a lower notoh than at Ot- tawa or Montreal, the cold is not. felt nearly 50 much as at either 'place, owing to the dryness: of: the The rare productiveness of the lands of the Clay Belt is referred to " follows :--"There is no place Ontario where bigger crops: of iy, roots, barley, peas, oats 7 wheat can be grown. Alfalfa, is quite at home in New O ; > n--"Where clover, Bele ioxita barley and other gra can be grown with such pheno} alfal fa, me- that truly ideal conditions exist districts in the world." "Fairness in every detail ch terizes the writings of those. -¥! have, undertaken to introduce the world the magnific PIP tunities which are offered in land of Timiskaming. "It has" are strength and cou §) used for stocking postal Often t Charles W. Morse- Mr. it is said by Mrs. Morse, to the cure at Wiesbaden, which had béen a great success, having restored an almost "dead" man to a man full of health and vigor. Mrs. Morse rought a unique educational toy for her young son which she bought in don. It is a complete ant's nest with a queen, with the indus- trious workers running about in an inclosure. Mrs. Morse explained that the ants had to be fed once a month. a Tons of Stamps Used. The official storehouse of stamps is not the London (England) Gen- eral Post Office, as might be sur- 45 mised, but Somerset House. - Here several strong-rooms, in various parts of the building, are entirely stamps. n the value of the stamps held eon House is nearly ten million pounds--the limit value of the which the law allows the Controller of Stamps to stock at one time. ] p staff is employed to deal with the five-ton tea of stamps which are dis- patched daily, an amount which is not easily imagined in figures. This average daily quantity is quite put in the shade at special seasons, such * {as Christmas, when the weight of stamps sent out. each diay by the 'staff from Somerset House would be found nearer ten than five toas. ---- ----k__--_. A nan usually gets the short anid belt is no place for 'the Yok it after cutting his wife's allow- | ance. TO GREAT BRITAIN... Picturesque Career of Briton; Born In India, Who Opened Oriental Lands, Colonel Sit Francis Younghus- | P band isicredited wit nowing more about*the con of. than! other man living, ee was 'already amous as an explorer when just ten years ago he won for himself a place in the pages of history by suc- t cessfully leading an armed expedi- tion to. the mysterious stronghold of Lhasa, capital ofthe hermit state of Thibet, which until that time* had been rigorously closed to the outer world. very. white man who endeavored to penetrate into the eountry, and to reach the holy city of Lhasa, had been either'killed or turned back, fortunate indeed if he escaped with a whole skin. It was Sir Francis Younghusband who first drew aside the thick veil by which Lhasa, and, indeed, all Thibet, had been concealed from view, and by forcing his way through, in the face of almost in- superable obstacles, and by exact- ing not only. reparation from the Grand Llama for Thibetan attacks upon the frontier states of' India, but by also concluding a treaty of friendship with that sacrosanct po- tentate, created a profound impres- sion upon all those races and tribes of Asia, which, professing various forms of Buddhism, regarded Llasa as the Holy of Holies, and the Dai Lhama, not merely as their supreme pontiff, but even in the light of a divinity. o Indian Lore Born Within Him.. « Born in India, within the sight of the Cashmere Mountains, Sir Fran- cis belongs toa family, the name of which is one to conjure with in En land's great Oriental Empire. Both his father and grandfather distin- guished themselves as generals in those wars, by means of which Great Britain established-her mas- tery over India, his brothers an cousins have achieved military and administrative renown there, while his mother was the sister of that Robert Shaw who was the first Eng- lishman to cross the Himalayas to ihe Riaios of Turkestan beyond. While serving as a captain of the Dragoon' Guards: in: Northern mself to the task mo m: Pe ; dia, crossing the Gobi desert, push- mg through Turkestan to Kashgar, surmounting the Himalayas, in- cluding the 19,000 feet Mustagh Pass, and finally reaching Cash- mere. ' This unprecedented feat led him to be transferred to the Indian Political Department and Secret Service, as well as to the Indian Staff Corps, and from that time forth until he retired in 1910 there was no British officer who was the object of more unremitting atten- tion on the part of the Russian Government than Frank Younghus- band. When He Bested Curzon. His first encounter with Lord Curzon was a.curious one. In 1889, before Curzon had entered Parlia. ment, or -before. even he was thought of in connection with In- 'dia, he read a paper before the Royal Geographical Society in Lon- don on the subject of the Pamirs, which he had recently visited. Cur- zon in those days, much more than in the present time, was inclined to be very positive in his statements, to assume a knowledge of his sub- ject superior to everyone 2 Curzon had no sooner finished his address than there arose from the benches a quiet-looking man, ag unknown to ow present, and pleasant v singularly sof of middle height, square-jaw with heavy eyebrows, moustaches, who proceeded to apply to Curzon's paper, in a very simple mangas. a criticism sharpened and poin 9 at every turn with personal experi- ences, all the more scathing and "| gevere because it was spoken in a conversational tone, with slow, de- precatory gestures, and without the slightest passion or prejudice. Not until he had finished speaking did his hearers become aware that he was Frank Younghusband, of the Indian Staff Corps, the hero of pi at that- time quite recent jour- y from Pekin to. India, through ihe heart of the Asiatic continent. Promoted by Curzon. became his Lord Curzon, when he Viceroy of India, did not for; critic, and as soon as Calcutta appointed Younghusband to the important and. difficult post of British Resident at the Court of the M -- of Indore, subse- quently reakaing the dream of the colonel's life by S ing bins the com- of the expedition to Empire. Sir Frank'é last p wael! that of British. - Oush- i EAT O'S GATES]: YOUNGHUSRAND'S. WORK LOST to In-}; : mere, and * he was 'allowed to a re from the service without any. additional honors: it was because of the vigorous criticism to which ho- subjected -the policy of the present: raccota tai in withdrawing its' agents from Llasa and in sacrificing all the advantages and privileged, position. which: he and Lord Curzon. had' secured in Thibet by meahs of his expedition to Lhasa. : China-at India's Gates, These sacrifices were mad¢ for the urpose of cementiig'™" British. Habe shee me Pena a ut the re-i4 unfortu «. For? s 5 ite 8 Se ane wag regarded' throughout Asia as a sign of weak-! ot and Chi took advantage' f to transform her purely: nominal suzerainty into effective sovereignty, converting Thibet into ~ a Chinese province, and now main- taining there-a large body of troops.|: Whereas Sir Francis- Younghus- ad| band's treaty with the Dai- Llama: had left Thibet as a friendly buffer, state;. between China. and . Britieh' India.* China may now be said to' be, thanks to her mijitary occupad tion of Thibet, at the very gates of British India. Since his. return to England, Francis, who has the gold medal the Royal. Geographical Society and onorary degrees from most of the universities of the United Kingdom, has been Rede lecturer at Cam- bridge, has travelled extensively in South Africa, and written mu about that part of the world, and iq married to the widow of Colonel thd Hon. T. Vesey Dawson, of the Cold stream Guerds, who inherited & very large fortune from her father, the late Charles Magniac, M.P., Street banker, in London. Finally Hit by Auto. A couple of years ago Sir Frank 'was knocked down and run over by, an automobile in Belgium, w walking in the vicinity of Spa, sus taining, among other injuries, 5 compound fracture of the thigh, ta which congestion of the lungs suy pervened, his recovery being in the' nature almost of-a miracle. ; That after escaping from extra- ordinary dangers. in barbarous. and unknown regions, and in the. nu- merous campaigns in which he par- ticipated, he should have been over- taken by- an' utterly commonplace accident such as this, at Spa, is entirely in keeping with the lot of other 'equally famous explorers.! Thus, John Speke, one of the dis-, coverers of the source of the Nile, after the most hairbreadth escape) from death in Central Afrioa, re- turned in safety, and_ wholly anin- ared, to England, k f Bath ne ero are Ze: least a dozen other instances of the' same kind that could be men- tioned, a ABOUT AUSTRALIA: What the Commonwealth Is Doing In the Way of Development. Australia's importance to the Bri- tish Empire has greatly increased during the past few years. It would appear that the people of the Com- monwealth have awakened suddenly and fully to. a sense of their impor- tance and responsibilities. Enor- mous strides have recently been made in the development of al] in- dustries, and especially in the open- ing up of the vast new territories of the rich agriculaural soils which are Australia's best asset. A few years ago. Australia was making no gain by immigration. Then came the assisted movement. In 1908 tha new settlers of all classes numbered 17,000; in 1909, 29,000; in' 1910, 37,- 000; in 1911, 67,000; 1912, 93,000; and the stream ts stil growing. The ordinary third re to Aus- tralia is £18. The. approved farm laborer is granted an assisted pas- sage to New South Wales and Vic- toria at £8 is guaranteed em- | Eve ment at from 20s. to 25s. a week in addition to free board and lodg- ing. Lads between 16 and 20 years are granted passages at £7, and a portion of the money required is sometimes lent by the Government. The boys get from 108, to 15s. a week as well as free board and granted passage a guarantee of work at from 12s. 6d. to 25s. per week. Paris Remedy for Drunkenness. A cure for confirmed drunkards by, means of an anti- alcoholic serum called antiethyline, taken. from horses, was discovered in. 1900, an has been submitted to écientific tests during the past twelve years. More than 250 drun s of both sexes and ages , varying from 26 19 50 years, & at different nationali- ties, have been treated, and m reports just. made show a result 'of 83 per cent. completely cured. Sim- geeks of reac y ordinary method in special csylame -- rs 30 pen cent, | apeetions of the serum,-which re- qualities for more ens The um,_adminis- ' ive doses heutral- while = paticnts bis their craving. : '