THE SUXIUT OREGOXIAX, PORTLAND, MAY I?, 1908. S SAY, If I hadn't been havin a dopy streak I'd a known somethin was about due.' There hadn't a thing happened to me for more'n a week, when Plnckney blows Into the studio, just casual like, as if he'd only come In cause he found the door open. That should have put me leery; but it didn't. I gives him the hail and tells him he's lookin like a pink just off the Ice. "Shorty says he, "how are you on charity?" "I'm a cinch," says I. "Every pan handler that's north of Madison Square knows he can work me for a beer check any. time he can run me down." "Then you'll be glad to exercise your talents in aid of a worthy cause," says he. . "It don't follow," says I. "The de-r serving poor I passes up. There's too much done for 'em as it 'is. It's the unworthy kind that wins my coin. They enjoys it more, and has a harder time glttin' it." "Your logic Is good. Shorty," says he, "and I tidnk I agree with your senti ments. But this Is a case where charity is only an excuse. The ladies out at Rocky wold are getting up an affair for the benefit . of something or other, no one seems to know just what, and they've t put you down for a little bag punchin' and club swinging." . "Then wire 'era to scratch the entry," says I. "I don't make any orchestra circle plays that I can dodge, and when it comes to fightin' the leather before a bunch of peacock millinery. I renigs every time. I'll put on Swifty Joe as a sub, -if you've got to have some one." Pinckney shook his head at that. "Xo(" says he, "I'll tell Sadie she must leave you off the programme." "Hold on," says I. ""Was it Sadie billed me for this stunt?" He said it was. "Then I'm on the job," says I. "Oh, you can grin your ears off; I don't care." Well, that was what fetched me out to Rockywold on a Friday night, when I had a right to be watchin the amateur try-outs at the Marlborough Club in stead. The show wasn't until Satur day evenin, but Pinckney said I ought to be there for the dress rehearsal. "There's only about a dozen guests there now; so you needn't get skittish," says he. And a dozen don't go far toward fillln up a place like Rockywold. Say, if I had the price, I'd like a shack where I could take care of more or less com p'ny without setting' up cot beds, but I'll be blistered if I can see the fun in runnin .a free hotel like that. These amateur shows are apt to be prptty punk; but I could see that, bar rln' myself, there was a fair aggrega tion of talent on hand. The star was a googoo-eyed girl who did a barefoot specialty, recitin' poems to music, and accompanyin' herself with a kind of parlor hoochee-coochee that would have drawn capacity houses at Coney. Then there was a pretty boy who could do things to the piano, a funeral-faced duck that could tell funny stories, and a bunch 01 six or eignt iiKeiy-iooKin laaies ana gents who'd laid themselves out to prance through with what they called a minuet, lastly there was me an Miriam. She was one of these limp, shingle- chected girls, Miriam was. She didn't have much to say, so I didn't take any particular notice of her. But at the re hearsal I got next to the fact that she could tease music out of a violin in great tyle. It was all right if you shut your eyes for Miriam wasn't what you'd call a pastel. She was built a good deal on the lines of an Iwoad pillar, but that didn't bar her from wearin' one of these short-sleeved, square-necked, girly-glrly dresses that didn't leave you much in doubt as to her framework. Yes, Miriam could have stood a few well-placed pads. She'd lived long enough to have found that out, too, but they was mlssin. 1 should guess that Miriam had begun exhlbitin' her collar-bones to society about the time poor old John 1. fought the battle of New Orleans. Yet when she snuggled the butt end of that violin down under her chin and squinted at you across the bridge, she had all the motions of a high-school girl. Course, I didn't dope all this out to myself at the time; for, as I was sayin, I didn't size her up special. But it all came to me afterwards yes, yes! The excitement broke loose along about the middle of that first night. I'd turned In about an hour before, and was poundin' my ear like a circus hand on a Sunday lay-over, when I hears the trouble cry. First off I wasn't goin' to do any more than turn over and get a fresh hold on the mattress, for I ain't much on routin' out for fires unless I feel the headboard gettin' hot. But then II waked up enough to remember that Rockywold is a long ways outside the metropolitan fire district and I begins to throw clothes onto myself. Inside of two minutes I was outdoors lookin' for a chance to win a Carnegie medal. There wasn't any show at all, though. The flre, what there was of it, was in the kitchen, in the basement of the wing where the help stays. Half a dozen stablemen had put It out with the garden hose, and were flnishln' the job by soakin' one of the cooks, when I showed up. I watched em" for awhile, and then started back to my room. Somehow I got twisted up in the shrubbery, and in stead of goin back the way I came. I gels around on the other corner. Just about then a ground-floor window is shoved up and a female in white floats out on a little stone balcony. She waves her arms and begins to call for help. "You're late." says I. "It's all over That didn't satisfy her at all. though. Some smoke and steam was still com in from the far side of tne mnldin', and it was blowin in through an other window. "Help, help!" she squeals. "Help, before I jump!" "1 wouldn't," says I. 'They've gone home with the life net." "The smoke, the smuke!" says she. "Oh. I must jump!" "Well, if you've got the jumpin fit, says I. "jump ahead; but if you can hold yourself in a minute. I'll bring a step-ladder." t "Then hurry, please hurry!" says she. and starts to climb up on the edge of the balcony. It wa'nt more'n six feet to the turf o n v-x-o v n nH it vnulHti't Viav Vpr any killtn matter if she had jumped, less'n she'd landed on her neck ; but she was as loony as if she's been bland in on top of the Flat-iron Build- in". Bein as how I'd forgot to bring a step-ladder with me, I chases around after something she could come down on. The -moon wasn't shinin' very bright, though, and there didn't seem to be any boxes of barrels lyin around loose, so I wasn't makin much headway. But after awhile I gets hold of something that was the very ticket. It was one of these wooden stands for flower-pots. I lugs that over and sets it up under the win dow. "Now, if you'll just slide down onto that easy," says I. "your life is saved." She looks at it once, and begins to flop her arms and take on again. "I never can do it, I know I can't!" says she. "I'll fall, I'll fall! Well, it was a case of Shorty Mc Cabe to the rescue, after all. "Com ing up!"' says I, and hops on the thing, holdln oat me paws. She didn't need any more coaxin. Wb w fr $ "MIRIAM, I THINK IT WAS She scrabbled over that balcony rail and got a shoulder clutch on me that you couldn't have loosened with a crowbar. I gathered in the rest of - her with my left hand and steadied my self with the other. Lucky she wasn't a heavy weight, or that potTholder wouldn't have stood the strain. It creaked some as we went down, but it held together. "Street floor, all out!" says I, as I hit the grass. r But that didn't even get a wiggle out of her. "It's all over," says I. "You're res cued." Talk about your cling-stones! She was it. Never a move, I couldn't tell whether she'd fainted, or was too to do something. I couldn't stand ! there for the rest of the night' holdin' a strange lady draped the way she was. and it didn't seem to bo just the right thing to sit down to it. Besides, one of her elbows was tryin' to punc ture my right lung. "If you're over the fire panic I'll try and hoist you back through the win dow. Miss," says I. She wasn't ready to do any con- versin" then, though. She was just holdin' onto me like I was too good a thing to let slip. "Well, it looks to me as though we'd got to make a front entrance." says I; but I hope the audience '11 be slim," and with that I starts to finish the lap around the house and make for the double doors. I've carried weight before, but never that kind, and it seemed like . that blamed house was as big around as a city block. Once or twice we butted Into the bushes, and another time I near tumbled the two of us into the pool of a fountain; but after awhile I struck the front porch, some out of breath, and with a few wisps of black hair in my eyes, but still in the game The lady hadn't made a murmur, and she hadn't slacked her clinch. 1 was hopln' to slide in quiet, with out bein' spotted by anyone, for most of the women had gone back to bed, and I could hear the men down in the billiard room clickin' glasses over an extra dream-soother. L,u"k was against me. though. Right under the newel-post light stood Pinckney, wear in' a silk pajama coat outside of a pair of black broadcloth trousers. When he sees me and what I was luggin', he looks kind of pleased., "Hello, Shorty!" says ' he. "What have you there?" "It might be a porous plaster, by the way It sticks," says I, "but It ain't. It's a lady I've been resculn', while the rest of you guys was standin' around watchin' a wet cook." "By Jove!" says Pinckney, steppin' up and takin' a close look. "Miriam!" "Thanks." says I. "We ain't been introduced yet. Do you mind unhook in' her lingers from the back of my neck?" But all he did was to stand there with his mouth corners workln' and them black eyes of his winkin' like a pair of arc lights. "It's too pretty a picture to spoil," says he. "So touching! Reminds me of Andromeda and What's-his-name. Just keep that pose a minute, will you. until I bring up the rest of the fel lows?" "You'll bring up nothin'," says I, reachin' out with one hand and gettin! a grip on the collar of his silk jacket. "Now, get busy, or off comes your kimono." With that lie quits kiddin' and goes to work on Mirjam's fingers, and in about a minute she gives a little jump. like she'd just heard the breakfast bell. "Why!" says she. "Where am I? "Right where you landed five minutes ago," says I. Then she shudders all over, and squeals: "Oh! A man! A man!" "Sure." says I, "you didn't take me for a Morris chair, did you?" Miriam didn't linger for any more. She lets loose a holler that near splits me ear open, slides down so fast that &ui f..:.( . i :..".n " . v-af .S.S. . her bare tootsies hit the floor with a spat, grabs her what-dye-call-it " up away from her ankles with both hands, and sprints down the hall as if she was makin' for the last car. "Say," says I, gettin me neck: out of crook, "I wish that thought . had come to her sooner . I feel as if - I'd been squeezed by a pair of Ice-tongs. If she can hug like that in her sleep, what could she do when she Is wide awake?" "Shorty," says Pinckney, with his face as solemn as a pTeacher's, "I'm pained and astonished at this." ' "Me too," says I. "Don't jest," says he. "This looks to me like an attempt at kidnaping." "If you'd had that grip on you I guess you'd have thought it was the real thing," says I. "But here's a litde tip I want to pass on to you. Don't go spread In' this josh business around the : - .t'V-' , M. . HIGH TIME YOU RETIRED." lot, or your show'll be minus a star act. I'll stand for all the private kid din' you can hand out, but I've got my objections' to playin' a public joke book part.' Now, will you quit?" He was mighty disappointed at hav in' to do it, but he gave his word like a little man, and I makes tracks up stairs, glad enough to be let off so easy. . "It was a" queer kind of faint, if that's what it was." says I to myself. "I'll bet I fights shy of anything more of the kind that I sees comln' my way. This is what I gets for strayin' so far from Broadway." But a little thing like that don't incerfere with my sleepin' when slum ber's on the card, and I proceeds to tear off what was. due me on the eight- hour sched., and maybe a little more. I didn't get a sight of Miriam all day long. Not that I was stralnin' my eyes any. There was somethin better to look at Sadie, for instance. Course, Pinckney was bossin' the show, but she was bossin' him, and anyone else M5 EOFSt CB?R Entered 2nd CU Male Matter Under Royal Patronage PA THUNDERBOLT No. 2 We notice -that' our rival candidates for the Presidency are as timid about the money question as if It was water and they had hydropho bia. We are different. We fear nothing, not even money! The whole trouble with money is that some one gets it and keeps it. As soon as we are elected, we shall settle that once and for all. Under our ad ministration, all money will be stamped with a time stamp when issued, and it won't be good for more than twenty four hours. Solredl Solved 1 This law wil 1 cause annoyance only to Messrs. Rockefeller, Morgan, Ryan and Harriman. The rest of the country has never been able to keep money 24 hours anyway. We feel kind of sorry about Taft, now that we have launched this. However, we will do the right thing by him. As soon as we are inau gurated, we shall pass a law provid ing that thereafter it Bhall be a cap ital offense for any one to run for President except himself. AMERICAN FASHION NOTES N. Y.. May 16. Society Is experi encing great trouble thi leaving town. Th ralli-nari otottnn. and ferries are completely congested wiLu aeteciives. Newport, R. I., May 16. Tt is re ported here that the swagger set this BPflgnn will nraa j.MvAannn A . .. "... V . U. fJ UUCU each arm. on Gopher, Arizona, May 15. The annual horse season here was opened with great eclat. The debutante wore a stunning lariat. that was handy. They were goin' to pull off the racket In the ball-room, and Sadie found a lot to do it. She's a hummer, Sadie is. Maybe she wa'n't brought up' among bow-legged English butlers and a lot of Swedish maids, but she's learned the trick of gettin' "em to break their necks for her whenever she says the word. All the forenoon more folks kept comin' on every train, and there was two rows of them big deep-breathin' tourin' cars in the stables. By dinner-time Rockywold looked like a Sara toga, hotel durin' the racln'. season. Chappies were playin' lawn tennis, and luggin' golf bags around, and keepln' the ivories rollin', while the front walks and porches might have been Fifth-avenue on a Monday afternoon, from the dry goods that was - bein' sported there. I stowed myself away in a corner of the billiard-room and didn't mix much, but I was takin' it all In. Not that I was feelin' lonesome, or any thing like that. I likes to see any kind of fun, even if it ain't just my kind. And besides, there was more or less In the bunch that I knew first-rate. But I don't care about pushin' to the front until I gets the call. So everything runs along smooth, and I was flgurin"' on makin' a late train down to Primrose Park after I'd done my . little turn. I didn't care much about seeln' the show, so I stuck to the dressin'-room until they sends word that it was my next. We'd had the punchln'-bag apparatus rigged up in the forenoon, and .there wasn't any thing left to be done but hook on the leather and spread out the mat Pinckney was doin' the announcing and the jolly he gives me before he lugs me out was somethin' fierce. I reckon I was blushin some when I went on, and maybe that's what called out such a hand. I-Just took one squint at -the mob and felt a chill down my spine. Say, it's one thing to step up before a gang of sports In a hall, and another to prance out in ring clothes on a platform in front of two or three hundred real ladies and gents wearin' their evenin' togs. There I was, though, and the crowd doin' the hurrah act for all It was worth. When I gets the bag goin' I feels better, and whatever grouch I has against Pinckney for not lettin' me wear my gym. -.suit I put into short-arm punches on the pigskin. The stunt seemed to take. I could tell that by the buzz that came over the footlights. No matter what you're do in', whether it's making' campaign speeches, or stoppin' a comer in six rounds, it's always a help to know that you've got the crowd with you. By the time I'd got well warmed up, and was throwin' in all the flourishes that's been invented and so on I felt real chipper. I makes a grandstand finish and then has the nerve to face the audience and do a matinee bend. As I did that I gctsKmy lamps fixed on some one in the front row. - Say, if you've ever done much on the platform you know how sometimes you'll get a squint at a pair of eyes down front and can't get yourself away from 'em after that. Weil, that was the way with me then. There was rows and rows of faces that all looked alike; but this one phiz seemed to stand right out, and to save me all I could do was to stare back from the rest. It belonged to Miriam. She had her chin tucked down,' and her head canted llliSs MAY 17, 1908 THE FATAL EGG; or, CHAPTER IV. If the reader were an American heiress, he or she might have witnessed a festive scene that beggars description about 10 days 4 hours and 69 minutes Eastern time after the terrible explosion that blew up the last chapter. The ancestral halls of the haughty from Liverpool, Eng., were ablaze girls entirely surrounded with money, French, Italian, Magyar and Russian from them every few minutes. The Arfeiurf Palace. In the darkness the gifted reader will have recognized them before we poke. They were peerless Susan Endive, the Lady Chauffeur, and Willie Co lander, the beautiful vest-model! How they got there would be a long story. We will cut It out. "Listen!" Susan Endive was saying. "I have discovered the secret of the Dukess of Arfenarf! She has attained her power among the railroad rebaters by owning a fell engine of destruction on which they depend to defeat Roosevelt! She feeds hens on glycerine and nitric acid! The eggs they lay are fatal! They are full of nitroglycerine!" Willie Colander shuddered audibly. "But I have her! Before I was thrown into this here dungeon, I smuggled one of the loaded eggs into the pantry. Soon the Dukess of Arfenarf will begin to mix an egg nogg, for which she is justly famous! When she does ha!" said the Lady Chauffeur. "But the American heiresses!" whispered Willie Colander. "Will they not get blown up too?" "They are used to it! They get blown up all the time by their titled husbands'." replied the Lady Chauffeur. At this moment the sound of a terrible explosion was heard! This awful exposure will be continued in our next. WANTED! A Position To Do Honest Work By a Wall Street Capitalist (tem porarily e m b a r rassed). Inexperienced, Wall St., H. T. Cmt. Address to one side, and her mouth puckered into the' mushiest kind of a grin you ever saw. Her eyes were rolled up real kittenish, too. Oh, it was a combina tion to make a man strike his grand mother, that look she was sendin' up to me. I wanted to dodge It and pick up another, but there was no more get tin' away, from it than as if I was bein' followed by a search-light. Worst of it was, I could feel myself grinnin" back at her just as mushy. I was get tin' sillier every breath, and I might have got as far as blowin' kisses at her if I hadn't pulled myself together and begun to juggle the Indian clubs, for the second half of my act. All the ginger had faded out of me, though, and I cut the rest of it mlghVy short. As I comes off Sadie grabs me and begins to tell me what a hit I'd made, and how tickled she was, but I shakes her off pretty quick. - . j - " ' - 1 i ' f ' jHfst - ' ' " t " , 1 i IsW? hxr rj4t "HELLO, "What's your rush, Shorty?" says she. "I've got a date to fill down the road," says I, and I makes a quick break for the dressin-room. Honest, I was gettin rattled for fear if Miriam should get another look at me she'd mesmerize me so I'd never wake up. I skins into my Back suit, leaves word to have my bag expressed to town, "and was just about to make a sudden exit when I bumps into some one at the front door. - "Oh, Mr. McCabe! How did you know where to find me?" says she. Say, I'll give you one guess. Sure, it was Miriam again. She was got up expensive, all real lace and first-water sparks, and just as handsome as a towel rack. But the minute she turns on that gushy look I'm nailed to the spot, same as the rabbits they feed to the boa constrictors up at the Zoo. "You didn't think you could lose me so easy, did you?" says I. "What a persistent fellow you are! PA SUNSHINE SOCIETY A WOEFUL WOOING Arfenarfs, just around the corner with light and crowded with American and followed by their noble British, husbandB, who borrowed a dollar Outside, among the peasantry, staring with simple gratification through the windows, stood the Amer ican Parents, snatching what glimpses they could ere the Arfenarf myrmidons drove them away. At Intervals an American parent approached the portals timidly and humbly offered the ferocious sene schal a coal scuttle full of money to placate him. While this glittering scene was working, a different scene might have been seen by anyone with a lantern. In the ancestral dungeons under the ancestral left wing and next to the ancestral moat sat two figures loaded with 200 feet of the best Al fetters. 'Even ANoble Husband PA NEWS AND NOTES Pa Hen Fethers last week fell into an artesian well that he had just im ported from England and was nearly drowned. Demijohn Swiggerly, a well-known pa, was attacked and nearly assassi nated a few days ago by a window screen. It knocked him down and began kicking him when help arrived. Pa Flitters yesterday drank some furniture polish by mistake and was saved only by- hastily wallowing a rag. says she. "But after you behaved so "eroically last night I suppose I must, forgive you. Wasn't It silly of me to be so frightened?" "Oh, well," says I, "the best of us is apt to go off our nut sometimes." "How sweet of you to put it that way!" says she, and then she uncorks a giggle. "You did carry me nicely, too." That was a sample. I wouldn't go on and give you the whole book of the opera for money. It's something I'm tryin' to forget. But we swapped that kind of slush for near half an. hour, and when the show broke up and the crowd began to swarm towards the buffet lunch, we was slttin' out on the porch in the moonlight, still at it. Pinckney says we was holdin' hands and gazin at each other like a couple of spoons in the park. Maybe we was; I couldn't swear different. All I know ts that after awhile I SHORTY!" SAYS HE, "WHAT HAVE YOU looks up and sees Sadie standin there pipin' us off, with her nose in the air and the heat-lightnln kind of glim merin' in them blue eyes of hers. The spell was broke quicker'n when the curtain goes down and the ushers open the lobby doors. Course, Sadie's nothin more'n an old friend of mine, and I'm no more to her; but you see it hadn't been so long ago that I'd been tellin her what a sweat I was in to get away. She never said a word, only just sticks her chin up and laughs, and then goes on. Next minute there shows up in front of us a fat old lady with three chins and a waist like a clothes hamper. "Miriam!" says she, and there was Pneumonia Most Deadly Scourge Kveii Outranks Tuberculosis as ''Captain or Men of Death.' CONTRARY to the general opinion, tuberculosis Is no longer the scourge of society. Its place as a death-dealing destroyer has been taken by another disease which Is making great havoc the world over. This dom- ! inant slayer of the race Is pneumonia. It is now the most deadly of all dis eases. Every year it is killing off about 140,000 persons in the United States. Allowing a mortality rate of one-fifth of the total number of cases, this means that there are about 700,033 cases annually in this country. In New York, with Its sudden changes of weather and severe Winters, 36 In every 10,000 persons die of the disease every year. Boston comes next with a death rate of 30 In every 10,000, and Philadelphia and Chicago are not far behind. ' In some European cities, however, the ghactly results are much worse than in the United States, notably in Vienna, where pneumonia carries off 40 in every 10,003 persons every year. London's population suffers severely from the inroads of the disease, as also that of Stockholm and other cities. Berlin is perhaps the best off of the Europpan cities in this respect; Its mortality rate from pneumonia is about 16 in every 10.000. "Pneumonia," said Dr. Thomas Darl ington, Commissioner of Health of New York City, "has been second only to pulmonary tuberculosis. Now It has outranked even that 'captain- of the men of death. During the period from 1881 to the present, pneumonia has in creased in practically every place in the United States and Europe. "In this country, in the ten states where vital statistics are accurately recorded, there was a general increase in the number of cases during the period from 1900 to 1904. In 1905 the number of deaths markedly decreased, while since then an upward tendency In the death rate has again been ap parent. "In all of these states tne death rate In the cities has been and Is per sistently higher than in the rural re gions. This condition is not peculiar to this country, for a recent Register General's report states that in England and Wales the city rates were in ex cess by between 80 and 90 per cent. Of course, in the cities there are va rious provocative conditions. The artifi cial manner of life, the rush and strain, the constant inhalation of dust, smoke and other irritating foreign particles, all have their undoubted effect. Then there is the question of climate in its relation to the prevalence of this disease. It would be of vast importance to know the exact climatic conditions, temperature, humidity, altitude and state c the soil in those fortunate localities where pneumo nia is practically non-existent. "It will be recalled that the Eskimos brought back by Commander Peary from the arctic regions several years ago prac tically all succumbed to pneumonia soon after reaching New York. Yet the disease is unknown in their home climate. In a recent lecture Commander Peary made the statement that during his latest trip to the Far North none of his party suf fered from coughs or colds, yet they lived for many months in a temperature of from 25 to 75 degrees below zero. No sooner did they get back to this country than all were taken down with respiratory troubles." The problem presented by the very large and constantly increasing death rate from pneumonia has been such a cause of seri ous concern to the New York City Board wire nails and broken glass 1n the way she said it "Miriam, I think it wa high time you retired!" "Bully for you. old girl!" I sings out. "And I say, I'll giv- you a dollar If you'll lock her in until I can gel away." Perhaps that 'was a low-down thing to say, but I couldn't .help lettin" It come. I didn't wait for any. more re marks from either of 'em. but I grabs my hat and makes a dasli across lota. I never stopped runnln until I fetched the station and it wasn't until after the train pulled out that I breathed real easy. Bein' safe here in the studio, with Swifty on guard, I might grin at the whole thing, if it wasn't for that laugh of Sadie's. That cut in deep. Two or three days later I hears from Pinckney. "Shorty," says he, "you're a wonder. I fancy you don't know what you did THERE?' In getting so chummy with Miriam under the very nose of that old watch dog aunt of hers. Why, I know of fel lows who've waited years for that chance.' "Back up!" says I. . "She's a freak. "But Miriam's worth three or four millions," says he. "I don't care if she owns a bond fac tory," says I. "I'm no bone connois seur, nor I don't make a specialty of collectin autumn leaves. Do you know what I'd do if I was her aunt?" "What?" says he. "Well," says I, "I'd hang a red lan tern on her." (Copyright Associated Sunday Maga zine, Inc.) of Health that a medical commission was appointed by the board to conduct an in vestigation and find out, if possible, the causes for the great prevalence of pneu monia in the city. This commission ia composed of Dr. Edward G. Janeway, Dr. William Osier, of Baltimore; Dr. T. Mitchell Prudden, Dr. Theobald Smith, of Boston; Dr. William H. Welch, of Baltimore, Dr. Frank Billings, of Balti more, Dr. John H. Musser, of Philadel phia; Dr. L. Emmctt Holt and Dr. Francis P. Kinnlcutt. The commission and its assistants spent a great deal of time in investigating the vagaries of the pneumococcus, the specific germ of pneumonia. It Is a rather large, lancet-shaped creature, as germs go, and nearly always travels in pairs. It de velops with unbelievable rapidity; millions of the germs may be found in a single culture. After an exhaustive series of experiments the commission set forth this opinion: "It seems, therefore, more than prob able that practically every individual, at least during the Winter season, when ex posed to environmental conditions such as those existing In New Y'ork City, acts as the host at some time or other, and probably at repeated intervals, of organ isms of the true pneumococcus type." The work of the commission was neces sarily largely technical in "character, but it established the fact that pneumonia germs are prevalent even Unhealthy per sons, and that the disease probably in communicable. Under natural conditions these germs do not muKiply to any ex tent; persons in good health, therefore, can fight them off, as a rule. One of the chief dangers, however, is apparently from infection. Pneumonia can be taken by infection the same it would seem as any other infectious disease. This fact is a very important one Inasmuch as now that the infectious nature of pneumonln, Is known it can, to some extent, be ward ed off by precautionary methods at the proper time. These are some further interesting facta brought out by the commission: Two-thirds of the patients suffering from pneumonia that it examined wore unmarried. Of the remainder 29 per cent, were widowed. - Only about 16 per cent followed outdoor occupations. More than half the patients lived in tenements. Most of the Philadelphia cases lived in private houses. The prj portion of lodging and boarding-house cases was high in Philadelphia and Chi cago. In only 16 per cent of cases were th3 sanitary conditions escribed as bad. i 10 per cent the air space was said to be Insufficient; in 15 per cent the ventila tion was bad. and in nine per cent the light was unsatisfactory. In 70 per cent the premises were overheated. Steam Heat. Judge. Oh, my baby child, Decatur. Don't go near that radiator! Precious little locks of gold. You will catch your death of cold! Don't you see? Have you not noted How with fropt the heater's coated? Icy iciHes abound it See what glacierettes surround it! For. Decatur, you must Know How the Jant., 'way down below. Fills those pipes with steam. I'm told; But that steam grows very cold. Thus, as through the pipes it squeezes. All that vapor quickly freeses Long- before our flat Is reached That old Jant. should be impeached. So be careful, darling baby. Don't go near it. love, or maybe You'll get grippe, or even freeze Heaven's sake! He's going to aneegel