THE IRON PIRATE
A Tlain Tale
Happenings
By MAX
-00-
CnAPTER XX.
It was later that Cnptain Black, Doctor
Osbart and myself entered the 7 :30 train
from Kamsgate ; leaving the screw tender,
now disguised, with the man John and
eight of the most turbulent among the
crew of the nameless ship aboard her. We
had come without hindrance through the
crowded waters of the Channel; and, styl
ins ourselves a Norwegian whaler in bal
last, had gained the difficult harbor with
out arousing suspicion. At the first
Black had thought to leave me on the
tteamer; but I gave him solemn word that
I would not seek to quit him, that I would
not in any way betray him while the true
lasted, and that I would return, wherever
I was, to the tender in the harbor at the
end of a week.
I will not pause to tell you my own
thoughts when I set foot on shore again.
I could not help but carry my memory to
the last occasion when, with Roderick and
Mary, I had come to London in the very
hope of getting tidings of this man who
now sat with me in a Kent Coast express
Where were the others then the girl
who had been as a sister to me, and the
man as a brother: how far had the fear
of my death made sad that childish face
which had known such little sadness in its
sixteen rears of life? It was odd to think
that Mary might be then returned to Lon
don, and that I, whom perchance she
thought dead, was near to her, and yet,
in a sense, more cut oil from her than in
the grave itself.
It was after 10 o'clock that the ride
terminated, and, following Black and Os
bart into a closed carriage, I was driven
from the station. We drove for fifteen
minutes, staying at last before a house
in a narrow street, where we went up
stairs to a suite of rooms reserved for us.
After an excellent supper Osbart left us.
but Black took me to a double-bedded
room, saying that he could not let me out
of h's sight.
"Boy, if you make one attempt to play
me false," said he, "I'll blow your brains
out."
On the next morning Black quitted the
bouse at an early hour after breakfast,
but he locked the door of the room upon
Osbart and myself. "Not," as he said,
"because I can't take your word, but be
cause I don't want anyone fooling in
here." He returned in the evening at 7
o'clock, and found me as he had left me.
reading a novel.
The following day was Thursday. I
shall always remember it, for I regard
It as one of the most memorable days in
my life. Black went out as usual early
In the morning; his object being, as on
the preceding day, to find out, if he could,
what the Admiralty were doing in view of
the robbery of the Bellonic. We had been
left thus about the space of an hour when
there came a telegram for the doctor, who
read it with a fierce exclamation.
"The captain wants me urgently," said
he. "and there's nothing to do but to leave
you here. You must put up with the In
dignity of being locked in. The man wno
owns this house is one of us."
When he was gone I sat in the great
armchair, pulling it to the window, and
taking up my book. I could hear the hum
of town, the rumbling of buses, and the
pubdued roar of London awake. I could
even see people in the houses at the other
side of the leads, and it occurred to me.
What if I open that casement and call
for help? I had given a pledge, it Is true:
but should a pledge bind under such con
ditions? I was in the very throes of a mental
struggle when the strange event of the
day happened. I chanced to look up from
the book I had been trying to read, and
I saw a remarkable object upon the leads
outside my window. It was the figure of
a man, looking into my room ; and pres
ently, when he had given me innumerable
nods and winks, he took a knife from his
pocket, and oi-ned the catch, stepping
into the chamber with the nimble foot of
a goat upon a crag path. Then he drew
a chair up to mine, slapped me upon the
knee and said :
"In the name of the law! I take you
by surprise; but business, Mr. Mark
Strong. In the first place I have wired
to your friend, Mr. Roderick Stewart,
and I expect him from Portsmouth in a
couple of hours; in the second, your other
friend, the doctor, is under lock and key,
on the trifling charge of murder in the
Midlands, to begin with. When we have
Captain Black, the little party will be
complete."
I looked at him, voiceless from the sur
prise of it, and he went on :
"I needn't tell you who I am: but
there's my card. We have Kix men in the
street outaide, and another half dozen
watching the leads here. You will be
sensible enough to follow my instructions
absolutely. Black, we know, leaves the
country to-night in his steamer. The
probability is that he will come to fetch
jou at 7 o'clock I have frightened it all
out of the people downstairs if he does,
you will go with him. Otherwise, he's
pretty sure to end someone for you, and,
es you at the moment are our sole link be
tween that unmitigated scoundrel and his
arrest, I ask you to risk one step more,
and return at any rate as far as the coast,
that we may follow him for the last time."
I looked at his card, whereon was the
Inscription. "Detective Inspector King,
Scotland Yard and I said at once :
"I shall not only go to the coast, but
to his tender, for I've given my word.
What you may do in the meantime Is not
tny affair. I suppose he's made a sensa
tion?" "Sensation ! There Isn't another sub
ject talked of In any house In Europe
but, read that ; and it s ten tnousana in
my pocket, any way !"
Detective-Inspector King went as he
had come, passing noiselessly over the
leads : but he left me a newspaper, where
in there was column after column con
cerning the robbery of the Bellonic. At
last, the police were on Ui trail ol Cap
of Strange
on the Sea
PEMBERTON
tain Black ; yet I saw at once that, lack
ing my help, he would elude them.
It was half past six when at last a man
unlocked the door of my room and entered.
He was one of Black's negroes.
"Sar will come quick," said he, "and
leave his luggage. The master waits."
He gave me no time for any explana
tions, but took me by the arm, and, pass
ing from the house by a back door, he
went some way down a narrow street.
There a cab waited for us, and we drove
away, but not before one, who stood on
the pavement, had made a slight signal
to me, and called another cab. In him I
recognized Detective Inspector King, and
I knew that we were followed.
CHAPTER XXI.
We drove rapidly and took a train for
Tilbury. The journey was accomplished
in something under an hour; and when
we alighted and got upon the bank of
the river, I saw a steam launch with the
man John in the bows of her. I entered
the launch and we started immediately,
going at a great pace towards Sheerness ;
and reached the Nore after some buffet
with the seas in the open. At this point
we sighted the tender, and went aboard
her, when we made full speed towards the
North foreland.
Black had made a colossal mistake,
from his point of view, in setting foot in
England; but the crowning blunder of his
life was that fatal act of folly by which
he had sought to shield me from the men.
Now the object of letting Black reach his
vessel again was as clear as daylight ; it
was not so much the man as his ship
which they wished to take.
But were we followed? I had seen
nothing to lead me to that conclusion as
I came down the Thames ; and now, fa
vored by an intensely dark night, we
promised, if nothing should intervene, to
gain the Atlantic in two days, and to be
aboard that strange citadel which was our
stronghold against the nations. There
was no sign of any warship pursuing ; no
indication whatever that the tender, then
steaming at thirteen knots towards Dover,
was watched or observed by any living
being.
I was dead worn out and slept twelve
hours at the least, for it was afternoon
when I awoke. Black was not in the
cabin, and I went above to him on the
bridge. There was no land then to be
een ; but the clear play of sparkling
waves shone away to the .horizon over a
tumbling sea, upon which were a few
ships. Upon one of these he constantly
turned his glass.
By and by all the crew began to ob
serve Black's anxiety and to crowd to the
starboard side : but he told them noth-
ng, although he never left the bridge. It
was somewhat perplexing to me to ob
serve that, while the great ship was un
doubtedly following us, she did not gain
a yard upon us.
This strange pursuit lasted three days
and into the third night ; when I was
awakened from a snatch of sleep by the
firing of a gun above my head. I got on
deck, where my eyes were almost blinded
by a great volume of light which spread
over the sea from a point some two miles
away on our starboard bow. We had been
in the Atlantic then for twenty-four
hours, and I did not doubt for a moment
that we had reached the nameless ship.
Had there been any uncertainty, the wild
joy of the men would have banished it.
I heard the voice of Black singing,
"Hands, stand by to lower boats !" At
that moment the cruiser showed her teeth.
Suddenly there was a rush of flame from
her bows, and a shell hissed above us
the first sign of her attempt to stop us
joining our own ship.
We were no more than a quarter of a
mile from safety, but the run was full of
peril, and, as the launch stood out, the
nameless ship of a sudden shut off her
light, if possible to shield us in the dark.
But the pursuer instantly flooded us with
her own arc, and. following It with quick
shots, she hit the jolly-boat at the third.
Of the eight men there, only two rose
when the hull had disappeared.
"Fire away !" cried Black, shaking his
fist, and mad with passion ; "and get your
hands in ; you'li want all the bark you've
got just now."
But we had hauled the men aboard as
he spoke, and. though two shells foamed
in the sea and wetted us to the skin in
the passage, we were at the ladder of the
nameless ship without other harm, and
with fierce shouts the men gained the
decks.
For thm it was a glorious moment.
They had weathered the perils of a city,
and stood where they couiu best face the
crisis of the pursuit. It was a spectacle
to move the most stolid apathy ; the sight
of a couple of hundred demoniacal figures
lighted by the great white wave of light
from the enemy's ship, their faces up
turned as they waited Black's orders,
their hands flourishing knives and cut
lasses, their hunger for the contest be
trayed in every gesture.
"Boys," cried Black, "yonder's a gov
ernment ship. You know me, that I don't
run after war scum every day, for that's
not my business. But we're short of oil,
and the cylinders are heating. Boys, it's
swing or take that ship and the oil aboard
her."
"Look out aft the torpedo!"
A tiny line of foam was just vis ibis
for a second in the way of the light ; but,
the moment the cruiser had shot it from
her tube, she extinguished her arc, leav
ing us to light the waters with our own.
There was no difficulty whatever in fol
lowing the line of the deadly message.
"Full speed astern!" roared Black, and
the nameless ship moved backwards, fast
er and yet faster,. But the black death
bearer followed her, as a shark follows a
death ship ; we seemed even to have back
ed into its course it came on as though
to strike us full amidships, but the great
ship swung round with a majestic sweep,
and as we waited breathlessly, the torpedo
passed right under our bow, missing the
ram by a hair's breadth.
We fired at the cruiser, hitting her
right under the fuuuel, aud a second time
near her fore guu. Nor did she answer
our firing, but rolled to the swell appar
ently out of action.
"Skipper, are you going aboard her
now?" asked the man "Roaring John."
"Sho's done by her looks, aud you'll get
no oil if ye delay. Karl, thoro, he ian't
... ,. . I.. 1,1- ,,! "
as comtortaDie as u ne wer m u
The little German engineer was very
far from it. He was almost desperate
when minute by minute his stock of oil
grew less ; aud he ran from one to the
othr ns thomrh we had grease in our
pockets, and could give it to him. BWk
took due notice, but did not lose his calm.
"You're quite sure she's doue, John?"
he asked, turning to the big man.
"She's done, 1 guess, cr why don't she
spit?"
The words had scarce left his Hps
when the cruiser's aft guns thundered out
almost together, and one shell passed
through the very center of our group. It
cut the man John in half as he might
have been cut by a sword, and his blood
and flesh splashed us, while the other half
... . . .
of him stood up like a bust upon the deck,
and during one horrible moment his arms
moved wildly, and there was a horrid
quivering of the muscles of his face. The
second shot struck the roof of the turret
obliquely, and glanced from It into the
sea. The destruction seemed to move
Black as no more than a rain shower. He
simply cried : "All hands to cover ; I'm
going to give 'em a taste of the machine
guns ;" and we re-entered the conning
tower. Then, as we began to move again,
I swept the horizon with our light; but
this time, far away over the black waste
of water, the signal was answered.
"Number two !" said Black, quite calm
ly, when I told him, "and this time a bat
tleship. Well, boy, if we don't take that
oil yonder in ten minutes you may say
your prayers."
CHAPTER XXII.
The nameless ship bounded forward in
to the night, and soon was not fifty yards
away from her opponeat. Never have I
known anything akin to the episode when
bullets rang unon our decks in hundreds,
and the dead and the living in the other
ship lay huddled together, in a seething,
struggling, moaning mass. We had open
ed fire upon her before such of her men
as could be spared had got below.
"Let 'em digest that!" cried Black, as
he watched the havoc.
I, who had not ceased to watch that
distant light which marked another war
ship on the horizon, knew that a second
light had shone out as a star away over
the sea ; and now, when I looked again,
I saw a third light. We were being sur-
rounded. The searchlights of the distant
snips were Clearer io my view .- portions of the town Or to the
ment. Black saw them, and took a sight , . , .. . .
from the glass. BUnurbB' or camped in the parks and
"Boy," he said, "you should have told slept between the graves In the ceme
me of this. I see three lights, and that terles. The beautiful walls of the church
means a fleet." stood cracked by the earthquake and
"Are you going to run for it?" I asked. ; blackened by the fire.
"Run for it, with two engines, yes ; I jn time a temiwrary place of meeting
but it's a poor business. And we'll have " found) aml R SuIldny 8ervlce was
to fight. Jhild, a pathetic contrast to the over-
I saw the foremost Ironclad but two ; " ' it .
miles away from us, and the others were : frng services of the days before the
sweeping round to cut us off if we at-,' disaster. The Sunday school was re
tempted flight. We lay with but two en- organized on the same day. A pitiful
gines working, and a speed of sixteen handful of children appeared, and the
knots at the best. Nor did we know from
minute to minute when another en?ine
would break down. At that moment there I
n knwiVjA anunil rvf trvatntr fln1
-
tearing from the engine room, and it was
succeeded by a moment of dead nad chill-
ing silence.
"The second engine's gone!" said a
man above, quite calmly.
We found the crew sullen and mutter
ing, but Friedrich, the engineer's eldest
son, sat at the top of the engine room lad-
,1 .. nnA m fa (Ifurn his fnpn TVia
great ship still trembled under the shook I
of the breakdown and was not showing-
ten knots. The foremost ironclad crept,
up minute by minute; and before we had
realized the whole extent of the mishap,
she was within gunshot of us; but her
colleagues were some miles away, she out
pacing them all through it.
"She signals to us to let her come
aboard," said "Four-Eyes."
"Answer that we'll see in chips first,"
said Black, and he called for Karl and
made signs to him.
Those on the battleship made quite sure
of us now. for they steamed on and came
within three hundred yards of us. Black
watched them as a beast watches the un
suspecting prey. He stood, his face knit
n savage lines, nis nana upon me oen.
I looked from the glass, and saw that no
man was visible upon our decks, that our
engines naa ceasea 10 move. e were
motionless. Then in a second the bells
rang out. There was again that frightful
grating and tearing in the engine room.
The nameiesb ship came round to her
helm with a mighty sweep; she foamed
and plunged in the seas; sne turned her
,.ii,f oi iho nrhnr- nH rrrnin.
l dill nil 'iiiii - ..... j r,
as a great stricken wounded beast, she
roared onward to the voyage of death. I
knew then the fearful truth ; Black meant
to sink the cruiser with his ram. I shall
never forget that moment of terror, that
grinding of heated steel that plunge into
the seas. I waited for tne crash, and in
Z .n. n,.r. seemed to x,
I last there was anfrr the sea a mighty clap
' - . ' '
of submarine thunder. Dashed headlong
from my post, I lay bruised and wounded
upon the floor of steel. The roof above
me rocked; the walls shook and were
bent; my ears rang with the deafening
roar in them; seas of foam mounted;
shrieks and the sound of awful rending
" ' . . , . .
and tearing drowned other shouts of men
going to their death. And througH all
was the hysterical yelling of Black, his
defiance, his elation.
(To be continued.)
Couldn't Fool Her.
Miss DePlayne (proudly) A dozen
men offered me their hands at the sea
shore this summer.
Miss WIserly Indeed !
I
How long
have you been a student of palmis
try?
Wanted Pmrtlenlara.
"Have pity on me, darling." pleaded
the poor but otherwise honest young
man ; "I cannot live without ycu."
"What's the matter,'
homely heiress; "have
Jobr
queried
the
you lost your
London cab drivers earn aa aggre
gaU of over f 40,000 per day.
"Toodles."
He had another and a better name,
111
was entered In the Sunday school class
1 I.. .1 1.... It U.l,t-
book ; but "Toodles" was the name he
gave, and Toodles was the name by
which he had' gone during the greater
part of his life; and Toodles is the
only name by which he shall be known
to the readers of this article.
"Where do you live?" asked the
teacher.
"Around the corner," was his reply.
It was the only residence given for rec
ord. But -what corner he lived around
Is not yet known ; he lived mostly
tl ,n ,1 .-. M .. 1 ..Ulrnil nn
11,111 u,lu
n miscellaneous fund of Information
there
Toodles liked the Sunday school. To
some of the boys with plenty of home
privileges, Sunday school was a com
monplace blessing, If a blessing at all;
but Toodles counted It among the lux
uries of his scant life. It Is cheering
to the heart of a Sunday school teach
er to have an appreciative pupil. It
more than compensates for some uncon
ventionalltles In the matter of apparel
ai:d speech.
There Is no place for the recording of
the deficiencies of Toodles. Indeed,
they are forgotten. His was a loyalty
and enthusiasm that would have hid a
multitude of infelicities, if there had
been a multitude to hide. There were
not many ; it Is hard now to believe
that there were any.
Toodles became a diligent propagan
dist. He brought more boys Into the
Sunday school than did any other mem
ber. There was not even a teacher who
, had so many to her credit
And Too-
dies' recruits, brought in from his own
stratum of society, he regarded as un
der his care, and they looked to him as
their leader and representative.
Then came the earthquake and the
fire.
The church of eight hundred -members
seemed to have disappeared In a night.
There was a hardly a member whose
home was not burned and whose busi
ness was not destroyed. Scores of them
, ,eft tfae c,ty ftnd hundred8 mnoved to
!que8tIon was what to do. Could the
' b oys and gIrls le foUnd? Could enou gh
of them be assembled to make a Sun-
'day school In the heart of the burned
,
.district?
Then entered Toodles. He had walked
thirty-nine blocks to get there, and was
late. But the school Informally re-
solved Itself Into a session with Too
dles. There was not a camp within or
about the city which he had not vis-
and he knew Just who were there,
He was able to give lists from memory
of more of the church families than
even the minister knew. He knew where
the boys were.
The minister and the superintendent
and the teachers got out their note
books and sat at the feet of Toodles.
Among the most encouraging facts In
the reorganization of that Sunday
school was the practical assistance
given by this waif. And the minister
said, "Brethren, It always pays to help
a Iwy ; you never know how soon he
will be able to help you. Who of us
eupiosed when we took this little lad
off the street, and gave him what we
could in the Master's name, that
goon we should find him one of
so
our
best helpers? '
They thanked God for Toodles, and
took courage. Youth's Companion.
Christian Contentment.
Poverty Is largely a matter of fancy.
The real poverty is in the mind In
the mind's attitude. There Is such a
thing as being rich without money,
That man Is rich who Is rlcn In integ-
ritTi and wno has that best of all
biw'sings a contented mind Christian
contentment. This last great boon is
. . , , .
gained through making the most of our
l"le enjoyments, through making the
. . M 111.. . I 1. .. I. V. -1.1 .
least or our nine im:s, uuuuku uuuig
our best at our little duties through
trusting In God and doing the right
jQ be sure, we cannot all be money
rlcb Some money-rtch people are very
Rut we aI, millionaires
' . a . i
oharacter and of faith, possessing
OI t,ln,utlcl 14
that godliness which, with contentment,
Is a great gain, the real gain, the high-
est riches. G. B. . lianocK, u. u.
Jwett Hour of Prayer.
Christ la the only teacher of real
prayer. ie xeacues uy triuuipie aim
:r,rHiit. He prayed trustingly, con-
stantly, In Intimate friendship with the
u.. tto taachM ii a to nrav ns He
r ii i ir i. " m
did. Solitude, Isolation and retirement
are essential to prayer. Get away from
i, u-nrld somewhere, alone. Our
leaseholds must be so arranged as to
permit a quiet time alone each day,
without Interruption or observation. In
prayer there must ne aosoiuie concen-
tr.tirm of the mind ueaa tne uime
prayerfully. Here God talks to his
children. Let the thought of earthly
communion with the heavenly Fatner
become habitual. -Practice the pre-
ence of God." Look forward to the
hour of prayer aH the most delightful
season of the day. Keep the Quiet
Hour. If you thus learn to pray lu
secret, your public prayers will tako
care of themselves.
1,1 fe a Discipline.
Sooner or later we lind out that Ufa
is not a holiday, but a discipline. Ear
lier or later we will discover that the.
world In not a playground. It Is qui to
clear that God means It for a school.
The moment we forgot that, the puzzle
of life begins. We try to play In school.
The Master does not mind that so much
for its own sake, for He likes to see
His children happy; but lu our play
ing we neglect our lessons. We do not
.see how much there Is to learn, and wo
do not care. But our Master cares. He
has a perfectly overpowering ami Inex
plicable solicitude for our education;
and because He loves us He wines Into
the school sometimes and speaks to us.
God's I)enltn.
In our whole life-melody the music
Is broken oft" here and there by "rests,"
and we foolishly think we have come
to the end of the tune. God sends a
time of forced leisure, a time of sick
ness and disappointed plans, and makes
a sudden pause in the choral hymn of
our lives, and we lament that our
voices must be silent and -our part miss
ing In the music which ever goes up to
the ear of the Creator. Not
without design does God write the
music of our lives. Be it ours to learn
the tune and not be dismayed at the
"rests." If we look up, God will beat
the time for us. Ruskin.
SPIES ON THE MACHINERY.
Clock Arrangement Telia Automati
cally When It Worku or Bents.
The Introduction of modem detail
cost accumulating methods, which have
done much to systematize and cheapen
manufacture, has led to the develop
ment of an ingenious apparatus which
Indicates at a distance when any ma
chine is stojied and the output of any
machine for a given period. Moreover,
the device makes an automatic record
of all these facts so that at the close
of the day the manager, by acanning
their graphic records, can tell the ex
act output of any machine and the
length of time It was In operation,
thereby enabling him to form an accu
rate Judgment of the reliability of dif
ferent operators. The beauty of this
device Is that the workman knows his
every movement Is being reported In
the manager's office and he Is helpless
to misrepresent conditions.
The recorder consists of a control
ling clock, which revolves a series of
time charts, one for each machine un
der observation. The hours and divi
sion of liours are printed vertically on
the chart, In addition to which a series
of pencils are rigidly fixed. The ad
justment Is such that the machine can
lie made to indicate every single revo
lution or any multiple desired and each
horizontal stroke of the pencil Indi
cates one of these units, which Is made
opposite the corresponding hour and
minute. When there are no strokes It
Indicates that the machine is stopped.
By simple mechanical nrrangeimnt
an air piston Is operated, which in turn
establishes an electric connection, the
impulse of which is transmitted to the
recording machine controlling its mech
anism. It Is suggested that his device
could be used to great advantage in
connection with the engines of tteam
shlps, as a graphic record is made of
speed and the exact moment when any
order is carried out. Manufacturer.
WALL PAPERS FROM CHINA.
Dallr of Feklnar, Now In Its 1,200th
Year, Printed on Silk. j
We are apt to forget, writes Miss
Kate Sanborn, in her new book, "Old- I
Time Wall Papers," how much we owe
to the Chinese nation the mariner's
compass, gunpowder, paper, printing by
movable tyjies (a dally paper has been
published In Peking for 1,200 years
printed, too, on silk). They had what
we call the golden rule 500 years before
Christ was born. With six times the
population of the United States they
are the only people In the world who
have maintained a government for
3,000 years.
The earliest papers we hear of any
where were Imported from China and
had Chinese or Indian patterns, coin
ing first in small sheets, then In rolls.
Some of the more elaborate kinds were
printed by hand ; others were printed
blocks. These papers, used for walls,
for hangings and for screens, were
called "pagoda papers" nnd were dec
orated with flowers, symbolic animals
and human figures.
The Dutch were among the most en
terprising. Importing painted hangings
from China and the East about the
middle of the sixteenth century. Per
haps these originated In Persia; the
word "chintz" Is of Persian origin
and the French name for Its Imitations
was "Perses."
About 1745 the Vompagnle des Indes
began to Import these papers directly.
They were then also called "Indian
papers." Aug. 21, 1874, we find an
advertisement: "For sale 20 sheets of
India paper, representing the cultiva
tion of tea."
Such a paper, with this theme was
brought to America 150 years ago a
hand-painted Chinese wall paier, which .
has been on a house ever since and Is
to-day In a good state of preservation.
Proof Posit It.
Maude Fred proposed last night,
and he was awful rattled.
Clara Well, I'm not surprised, I al-
ways thought be bad a screw loose
somewhere I
A great deal of harm Is done by self
drugging for the relief of various real
or lmaglnery Ills.
Thero Is nothing easier. The only ob
jection to the plan Is that what Is good
fcr the cough may bo bad for the
cougher.
So It Is with a headache. Almost any
pain In the head not due to actual
brain disease may bo moderated. If not
relieved temporarily, by some form of
"hendache powder"; but a frequent re
course to this means of cure may fa
tally weaken the heart When this
stops beating the headaches cease to
trouble, but the patient Is not In con
dition to know or care.
Every man, of course, believes him
self a doctor, and often thinks he Is
better able to attack a comih or a case
of rheumatism or a headache, whether
It be his own or another's, than those
who make the cure of disease a special
f.tudy. All he has to do Is to make up
his mind what the trouble is and any
one can tell a cough when he has it
and then to take something that Is
"good for a cough."
Less serious, but not much so, Is the
abuse of tonics. A true tonic Is any
thing that promotes the nutrition of the
body. This may be done by increas
ing the anetlte and Improving diges
tion, which Is the function of the bit
ter tonics ; or by Improving the condi
tion of the blood by adding to It the
lior. It has lost; or by supplying the
system with some needed substance,
such as fat in cod liver oil ; or finally
by stimulating the tissues to Increased
absorption, an action which Is ascribed
to arsenic, mercury and others of tho
mineral topics.
But these are not the "tonics" to
which people are apt to resort when
they run down. They take to stimu
lants, alcohol usually, and think they
are getting strong because they feel
better after each dose. The alcohol
In the "tonic" Is often disguised, nnd
the user, perhaps a conscientious tee
totaler, would be shocked to learn that
what he was taking to give him
strength had aiore alcohol In It than
has the strongest whisky. If the system
Is seriously run down, a physician
should bo consulted, who will lie able
to jrlve what Is needed, whether Iron,
or lark, or gentian, or cod liver oil,
to correct the underlying condition that
causes tho debility. Youth's Compan
ion. The Ulrd In Hand.
Instead of getting nugry, Clarkson
was rather amused at the actions of
his pet waiter. For two years he had
dined at the same restaurant almost
dally and August knew his every wish
and had always been liberally tipped.
That day, however, Clarkson was
shamefully neglected. He had to ask
for butter, his napkin was damp and
soggy, the particular sauce he liked so
well was not on the table, and, In fact,
August was the antithesis of a devoted
servitor. All his attentions seemed
concentrated upon a man at an adjoin
In gtable. August hovered around him
like a bee around a flower, anticipating
every wish and bringing him sundry
little extras.
The customers was evidently a stran
ger. Clarkson could not recall having
seen him before, and from his long pat
ronage of the place he had come to
know all the regular customers by
their faces at least. Ills curiosity got
the better of him and as he was leav
ing, after bestowing the customary tin,
he asked :
"Why Is It, August, that you have
been so attentive to that man and so
neglectful of me? Is he In the habit
of giving extra large tips?"
"Oh, no, m'sleu'," said August. "He
Is a stranger. He has never been hero
before." Then he added, niiologetlcul
ly, "And I am sure of you, m'sleu'."
The Other Side.
"Don't you get homesick for those
beautiful old Colonial mansions In the
South?" they asked the Kentucklan on
the night that the thermometer froze.
"Not this weather," she answered. "I
haven't forgotten yet how the wind
used to blow through the cracks of tho
windows and doors of those beautiful
old Colonial mansions, and how we
used to sit in rooms about the Rlze of
ballrooms, huddled around a two-by-four
grate, our faces scorching and the
bitter blasts blowing through our back
hair.
"Oh, no; In such weather as this the
steam heated luxury of the Chicago flat
for me," she decided. Chicago Inter
Ocean.
Proof Positive.
Bertha But, papa, what have yon
against Charles? Wouldn't he make a
good husband?
Father lie's a fool, and besides he's
only after your money.
Bertha Oh, papa, I know he would
marry me without a penny.
Father You see? lie's even more
of a fool than I thought! Le Pele
Mele. We do not like to have any child
coaxed to speak a piece for us or to
' give us a kiss.
j
j Trying to avoid work is often the
hardest kind.
t