THE IRON PIRATE
A Tlain Tale of Strange
Happenings on the Sea
By MAX PEMBERTON
-OQO-
CnArTER XXII. (Continued.)
No man has ever looked on a more aw
ful sight. We had struck the battleship
low amidships we had crashed through
the thinnest coat of her steel. She had
heeled right over from the shock, so that
the truns had cast free from the carriages
and the seas had filled her. Thus for
one terrible minute she lay, and then,
with a heavy lurch, she rolled beneath
the waves: and there was left but thirty
or forty struggling souls, who battled for
their lives with the great rollers of the
Atlantic. Of these a few reached the side
of our ship and were shot there as they
clung to the ladder.
For ourselves we lay, our bows split
with the shock, our engine room in fear
ful disorder. The other warships were
yet 8om distance away; but they opened
fire upon us at hazard, and, of the first
three shells which fell, two cut our decks :
nnd sent clouds of splinters of wood and
of human flesh flying in the smoke-laden
air. At the fifth shot, a gigantic crash
resounded from below, and the stokers
rushed above with the news that the fore
stoke hold had three feet of water in it.
The hands received the news with a deep
proan. They bellowed like bulls at Black ;
they refused all orders. lie shot down
man after man, while I crouched for safe
ty in the tower; and they became but
fiercer. Our end was evidently near.
Anon they turned upon the captain and
myself, and fired volleys upon the conning
tower; or, in their terrible frenzy, they
pitched themselves into the sea.
Through all this our one engine work
ed ; and so slowly did the great ironclad
draw upon us that the end of it all came
before they could reach us. Suddenly the
men rushed to the boats and cast them
loose. Fighting with the dash of mad
men, they crowded the launch, they
swarmed the jolly-boat and the lifeboat.
We watched their insane efforts aa boat
after boat put away and was swamped,
leaving tie men to drown. When C
o'clock came, Black and Karl and myself
were alone upon the great ship. Black
jmlled me by the arm and said :
"Boy, they've left nothing but the
dinghy. The old ship's done; and it's
time you left her."
"And you?" I asked.
lie looked at me and at Karl. lie
followed me slowly, as one in a dream, to
the davits aft, and freed the last of the
boats. Then he went to his cabin, and to
the rooms below ; and I helped him to put
a couple of kegs of water in the frail
craft, with some biscuit, which we lashed.
When all was ready, the captain went
to the engine room and brought Karl to
the top of the ladder; but there the Ger
man stayed, nor did threats or entreaties
move him.
"He'll die with the ship," said Black,
"and I don't know that he isn't wise;"
but he held out his hand to the genius of
his crime, and after a great grip the two
men parted.
For ourselves, we stepped on the frail
est craft with which men ever faced the
Atlantic, and at that moment the first of
the ironclads fired another shell at the
nameless ship. It was a crashing shot,
but it had come too late to serve justice,
or to wreck the ship of mystery; for Karl
had let the hydrogen into the cylinders un
checked. And in a cascade of fire, light
ing the sea for many miles, and making
as day the newly fallen night, the golden
citadel hissed over the water for one mo
ment, then plunged headlong, and was no
more.
A fierce fire It was, lighting sea and
pky a mighty holocaust ; the roar of
great conflagration ; the end of a mon
strous dream. And I thought of another
fire and another face the face of Mar
tin Hall, who had seen the finger of
Almighty God in his mission ; and I said,
"His work is done !"
But Black, clinging to the dinghy, wept
as a man stricken with a great grief, and
he cried so that the coldest heart might
have been moved
".My ship, my ship !"
CHAPTER XXIII.
About midnight a thunderstorm got up
from the south, and the sea, rising some
what with it, wetted us to the skin.
The lightning, terribly vivid and incesss
ant, lighted lp the whole sea again and
again, showing each the other's face, the
face of a worn and fatigue-stricken man.
And the Tain and the sea beat on until
we shivered, cowering and were numbed.
Yet Black held to silence, moaning at rare
intervals as he moaned when the great
hip sank. It was not until the sun rose
over the long swell that we adept for an
hour or more ; and after the sleep we were
loth calmer. The captain was very quiet,
and he gazed at me often with the ex
pression I had seen on his face when he
saved from his men.
"Boy," he said, "look well at the sun,
lest you never look at it again."
"I am looking," I rplied ; "It Is life to
me."
"If," he continued, very thoughtful,
"you, who have years with you, should
live when I go under, you'll take this belt
I'm wearing off me ; it'll help you ashore.
If it happen that I live with you, it'll
help both of ui."
"We're in the track of steamers," said
I ; "there's no reason to look at it that
way yet."
"That's your way, and the right one,"
be answered ; 'Tjut I'm not a man like
that, and my heart's gone with my ship;
we shall never see her like again."
The captain pulled himself together
vith a great effort, and sat aft, sculling
with the short oar in a mechanical and
altogether absent way.
Black continued to brood, and when the
sun fell low in the west, and the whole
heavens were as mountains nad peaks of
crimson fire, I knew by his mutterings
that the frenzy of madness was upon him.
He raved with fierce threats and awful
cries at the American he had buried, or
mad desu rat appeal to iomt appari
tion that came to him In his dreadful
dream. But at the last he grew almost
incoherent. I was nigh dead with want
of sleep and fatigue, for I had not rested
during the fight with the ironclads, and
I went to sleep at last.
When I awoke for the third time, the
dinghy was held firmly by a boat hook,
and was being drawn towards a jolly
boat full of seamen. I rose up, rubbing
my eyes as a man seeing a vision ; but,
when the men shouted something to me
in German, I had another exclamation on
my lips ; for I was alone in the boat, and
Black had left me.
Then I looked across the sea, and I
saw a long black steamer lying to a mile
away, and the men dragged me into their
craft, and shouted hearty words of en
couragement, and fell to rowing with
great joy. Yet I remembered dreaming,
and it seemed to me that the voice I had
heard in my sleep was the voice of Black,
who cried to me as he had cast himself to
his death in the Atlantic.
Ws the man dead? Had he really
ended that most remarkable life of evil
enterprise and of crime ; or had he by
some miracle found safety while I slept?
Had the man gone out of my life wrap
ped in the mystery which had surrounded
him from the first? Or had he simply cast
himself from the dinghy in a fit of in
sanity, and died the terrible death of the
suicide? I could not answer the tremen
dous question ; but I had not reached the
shelter of the steamer which had saved
me before I made the discovery that the
belt of linen which had been about
Black's waist was now about mine. I
found that it was filled with some hard
and sharp stones. Instinctively I knew
the truth ; that in his last hour the mas
ter of the nameless ship had retained his
curious affection for me ; had made over
to me some of that huge hoard of wealth
he must have accumulated by his years
of pillage ; and I restrained myself with
difficulty from casting the whole there and
then into the waters whidh had witnessed
his battles for it. But the belt was firm
ly lashed about me, and we were on the
deck of the steamer before my benumbed
hands could set the lashing free.
It would be idle for me to attempt to
describe all I felt as the captain of the
steamship Hoffnung greeted me upon his
quarter-deck, and his men sent up rounds
of cheers which echoed over the waters.
I stood for some minutes forgetful of ev
erything save that I had been snatched
from that prison of steel ; brought from
the shadow of the living death to the
hope of seeing friends and country and
home again. And then there came a great
sense of thankfulness, and tears gushed
up in my eyes, and fell upon my numbed
hands. With many encouraging pats on
the back, they forced me down their com
panionway to the skipper's cabin, and so
to a bunk, where I lay inanimate, and
deep in sleep for many hours. But I
awoke as another man, and when I had
taken a great bowl of soup my strength
seemed to return to me with bounds, and
I sat up to find they had taken away my
clothes, but that the belt which Black had
bound about me lay at the foot of the
bunk, and was unopened.
It was not heavy .being all of linen
finely sewed ; but when at last I made up
my mind to open it, I did so with my
teeth, tearing the threads at the top of
it, and so ripping it down. There fell
upon my bed some twenty or thirty dia
monds of such size and lustre that they
lay sparkling with a thousand lights
which dazzled the eyes, and made me utter
a cry at once of surprise and of admira
tiou. White stones they were, Brazilian
diamonds of the first water; and when
I undid the rest of the seam, and opened
the belt fully, 1 found at least fifty more,
with some Buperb black pearls, a fine em
erald, and a little parcel of exquisite
rubies. To the latter there was attached
a paper with the words. "Take these ;
they are honestly come by. And let me
write while I can that I have loved you.
Remember this when you forget Captain
Black." That was all; and I judged
that the stones were worth five thousand
pounds if they were worth a penny.
The Hoffnung was bound to Konigs
berg, but when the skipper and I had
come to understand each other by signs
and writing he, with great consideration,
offered to put into Southampton and leave
me there. I put off in his long-boat with
a deep sense of his humanity and kind
ness, and with hearty cheers from his
crew.
I should have gone to the quay at once
then, but crossing the roads I saw a yacht
at anchor, and I recognized her as my
own yacht CelsU, with Dan aboard. To
put to her side was the work of a mo
ment, and I do not think that I ever
gave a heartier hall than that "Ahoy,
Daniel !" which then fell from my lips.
"Ahoy!" cried Dan in reply. "Why,
if it ain't the guv I'nor !"
And the old fellow began to shout and
to wave his arms and to throw ropes
about as though he were smitten with
lunacy.
CHAPTER XXIV.
I had sprung up the ladder before Dan
had gathered his acattered wita to re
member that it was there. It was worth
much to watch that honest fellow aa he
gripped my hand In his two great paws.
I asked him if Roderick and Mary were
aboard.
"They're down below, aa I'm alive, and
the hands is aahore, but they'll come
aboard for this. Shall I tell 'em as you've
called in passing like? I can hardly see
out of my eyes for looking at you, sir."
Poor old Dan did not quite know what
he was doing. I left him in the midst of
his strange talk and walked softly down
the companion way to the door of the sa
loon, and I opened it and stood, I doubt
not, before them as one come from the
dead. Mary, whose childish face looked
very drawn, was sitting before a book,
open upon & table, her bead resting up
on her hands, and a strange expression of
melancholy in her great dark eyes. But
Roderick lay upon a sofa-bunk, and was
fast asleep, with the novel which he had
been reading lying crumpled upon the
floor.
I had opened the door so gently that
neither of them moved as I entered the
room. It was to me the best moment of
my life to be looking again upon them,
and I waited for one minute until Mary
raised her head and our eyes met. Then
I bent over the cabin table and kissed
her, and I felt her clinging to me, and
though she never spoke, her eyes were wet
with hot tears; and when she smiled
through them, it was as a glimpse of
bright sunlight shining through a rain
shower. In another moment there was
nothing but the expression of great child
ish joy on her face, and the old Mary
spoke.
"Mark, I can't believe it," she said,
holding me close lest I might go away
again, "and I always guessed you'd come."
But Roderick awoke with a yawn, and
when he saw me he rubbed his eyes, and
said as one in a dream :
"Oh, is that you?"
The tea which Mary made was very
fragrant. It was a long story, and I
could give them but the outline of it, or,
in turn, hear but a tenth part of their
own anxieties and ceaseless efforts in my
behalf. It appeared that when I had
failed to return to the hotel on that night
when I followed Paolo to the den in the
Bowery, Roderick had gone at once to the
yacht, and there had learned from Dan
of my intention. He did not lose an in
stant in seeking the aid of the police, but
I was even then astern of the Labrador,
and the keen search which the New York
detectives had made was fruitless even in
gleaning tidings of me. Paolo was fol
lowed night and day for twenty-four
hours ; but he was shot in a drinking den
before the detectives laid hands on him,
and lived long enough only to send Mary
a message, telling her that her prettv eyes
had saved the Celsis from disaster in the
Atlantic. On the next day, both the skip
per and Roderick made public all they
knew of Black and his crew, and a greater
sensation was never made in any city.
The news was cabled to Europe over half
a dozen wires, was hurried to the Pacific,
to Japanese seas it shook the navies of
the world with an excitement rarely
known, and for some weeks it paralyzed
all traffic on the Atlantic. Cruisers of
many nations were sent in the course of
the great ocean-going steamers ; arms
were carried by some of the largest of the
passenger ships, and the question was
asked daily before all other questions, "Is
the nameless ship taken?"
Meanwhile Roderick and Mary, who
suffered all the anguish of suspense, re
turned to London, there to hear the whole
matter discussed in Parliament. Several
warships and cruisers were dispatched to
the Atlantic, but returned to report the
ill result of their mission. Nor was my
oldest friend content with this national
action and the subsequent offer of a re
ward of 50,000 for the capture of the
nameless ship or of her crew, for he put
the best private detectives in the city at
the work, sending two to New York and
others to Paris and to Spezia. When the
weeks passed and I did not come, all
thought that I had died in my self-ap
pointed mission another of Black's vic
tims. It was but a few days after this sor
rowful conviction that Black and I went
to London, and were seen by Inspector
King, who had watched night and day
for the man's coming. The detective had
immediately telegraphed to the Admiralty,
and to Roderick, who had reached my
hotel to find that I had already left. Then
he had hurried back to Southampton,
there to hear of the going of the warships,
and to wait with Mary tidings of the last
great battle, which meant life or death
to me.
Long we sat discussing these things,
and very bright were a pair of dark eyes
1
that listened again to Roderick's story, I
and then to more of mine. But Roderick
himself had awoke from his lethargy, and
his enthusiasm broke through all his old
restraint.
"To-morrow, why to-morrow, you'll as
tound London. My dear fellow, we'll go
to town together to claim the 50,000
which the Admiralty offered, and the 20,
000 from the Black Anchor Line, to say
nothing of American money galore. You're
made for life, old man ; and we'll take
the old yacht north to Greenland, and
hunt up the place and Black's tender,
which seems to have escaped the iron
clads, and it'll be the finest trip we ever
knew."
"What does Mary say?" I asked, as
she still held my hand.
"I don't mean to leave you again," she
answered, and as she spoke there was a
great sound of cheering above, and a
great tramp of feet upon the deck ; and
as we hurried up, the hands I loved to
see crowded about me, and their shouting
was carried far over the water, and was
taken up on other ships, which threw
their searchlights upon us, so that the
night was as a new day to me, and the
awakening from the weeks of dreaming
as the coming of spring after winter's
dark. Yet, as the child-face was all light- !
ed with radiant smiles, and honest hands
clasped mine, and the waters echoed the
triumphant greeting, I could not but think ,
again of Captain Black, or ask myself, .
Is the man really dead, or shall we yet
hear of him, bringing terror upon the sea, '
and death and suffering; the master of
the nations, and the child of ambition? i
Or is his grave in the great Atlantic that I
he ruled in the mighty moments of hi
power?
Ah, I wonder.
(The End.)
Willing; to Oblige.
Wiggins I'd like to borrow your
lawn mower, old man. The doctor says
I need a little exercise.
Higglns All right Come over and
I'll let you have It long enough to mow
my lawn.
New Idea for Play.
Manager I've got a new idea for a
melodrama that ought to make a hit.
riaywrlte What is It?
Manager The Idea Is to Introduce a i
cyclone In the first act that will kill
all the actors.
Twii Etr Tbna.
Interviewer And do you always wait
for lnsoiratlon before heeinnlmr n
poem?
Great Poet Oh, no. Sometimes I
need the money. '
God's Meaaenurer.
"I was visiting," said Arnot, "among
my people lu the wynds and closes of
Edinburgh. I stood away back and
looked up at the high houses to see
whether Betty Gordon, an aged saint of
God, was at home. I knew that she
was at home by this sign, that her little
flower pots were out upon her window
fill, that, the blind was up. I knew
Betty was 1n, for when she went away
she carefully took In the flower pots
and pulled down the blinds.
"I knew that she was poor and
needy, but she trusted God, and I was
so glad that somebody had given me
some money that morning to give to
the poor. I put aside Betty's rent for
a month In my pocket and went Into
the close, and climbed up the winding
stairs to Betty's door. At first I knock
ed softly, but there was no answer.
Then I pulled the bell, but there was
no answer. Then I knocked louder,
but there was no answer. At last I
Bald, 'Betty forgot to pull down the
blinds, and she has gone out, leaving
her flower pots there. What a pity!'
Then I went down the stairs.
"The next morning I went back and
knocked at the door. After a little
waiting Betty came and opened It.
"'Oh,' she said, 'Is It you, Mr. Ar
not? I am so glad to see you. Come
m.' There were tears In her eyes and
a look of care.
"I said, 'Betty, woman, what are you
crying for '
" 'Oh,' she said, 'Mr. Arnot, I am so
afraid, I am so afraid of the landlord.
He came yesterday and I had not the
rent, and I dlnna open the door, and
now I am afraid of his coming, for he
!s a hard man.'
"'Betty, what time did he come yes
terday?' " 'He came between eleven and
twelve o'clock,' she said. 'It was twenty-five
minutes to twelve.'
"'Well,' I said, 'It was na the land
lord ; It was I, and T brought you, Bet
ty, this money to pay your rent.'
"She looked at me and said, 'Oh, was
it you? Did you bring me that money
to pay my rent, and I kept the door
shut against you, and I would not let
you In? And I heard your ringing, and
I said, "That is the landlord; I -wish
he would go away." And It was my
aln meen slstor. It was my aln Lord
who bad sent ye as Ills messenger, and
I would na let ye In.' "
That Is Just like some sinners. When
Jesus Is knocking at their hearts they
treat nim as If He were a hard land
lord, and will not let Him In.
God 'a Power.
Men are apt to ascribe trm !imit.
tion of God's manifestations In the
world's affairs to Ills lack of power,
to His lack of interest. Tho material
istic scientific view Is that Nature's
laws are Inexorable ; that they are not
subject to modification or alteration,
and that therefore prayer Is futile. Too
hasty acceptance of this view often
paralyses or Bterlllzes the prayers even
of the devout In heart. The limita
tions of God's Intervention are put
down to man's limitation of faith. We
expect nothing and get nothing. We
expect a little, and God stays His
hand, but not without reminding us
that absolute fullness of blessing Is at
the command of those who believe that
God Is willing and able to show His
power to the uttermost It la a form
of natural law in the spiritual world
that those who trust Nature fully and
commit abundant seed to tho enrth,
reap more abundant harvests than
those who fear the apparent waste. It
Is a notable fact that the testimony of
people with abundant faith Is that God
fulfills every promise to tho uttermost.
Affliction.
Stars shine brightest In the darkest
night; torches are the retter for beat
ing ; spices smell sweetest when pound
ad; young trees root the faster for
shaking ; vines are the better for bleed
ing; gold looks the brighter for scour
ing; glow-worms glisten best In the
dark; Juniper smells sweetest in the
fire; pomander becomes most fragrant
for chasing; the palm tree proves the
better for pressing; camomile, the more
you tread It the more you spread It.
Such Is the condition of all God's chil
dren; they are the most triumphant
when most tempted, most glorious
when most afflicted, most In the favor
of God when least In man's; as their
conflicts, bo their conquests; as their
tribulations, bo their triumphs.
Heavy afflictions are tho best bene
factors to heavenly affections. And
where afflictions hang heaviest corrup
tions hang loosest, and grace that Is
hid In Nature, as sweet water In rose
leaves. Is then most fragrant when the
fire of affliction Is put under to distil
it out Spencer.
Onr Standing; Before God.
In the Epistle, to Philemon, which
gives us the story of the running away
of Oneslinus, his conversion under the
Influence of Paul, and his return to
Philemon, his master, Paul uses this
significant expression, "If thou count
me, therefore, a partner, receive him as
myself. If he hath wronged thee or
oweth the aught put that on my ac
count;" and It gives to me an illustra
tion of what I am privileged to enjoy
as a follower of JesusChrlst My stand
ing before God Is tho same as that of
Ills Son, and all who have been born
again may claim the same blessing be
cause our standing is the same, our
fellowship Is In Christ, and wherever Tjgjj pQK OLD CARPETS.
the name of Jesus Is spoken there Is a
band of union. J. W. Chapman, D. D. Firemen on Ocean Steamahlpa Need
I Them to Handle SUeebara.
The Power of Prayer. I
Prayer, not only In the morning Tho 8ullor8 betflel ' Boton
watch, but prayer sent voiceless from 'ound a w outlet for Its activity, says
the heart from hour to hour, then Ufa the New York Tribune. It is collecting
Is wakeful, hallowed, calm. It becomes old carpets to supply the firemen on
beautiful with that beauty of God, the ocean steamships with holders. The
which eye hath not seen. And day be- heat In which these men work Is bo
lng hallowed thus, do not omit to great that a man who bad not grad
make holy tlie night. Take by the ually got accustomed to It would find
power of prayer, through the wild land it actually Insupportable. One of the
of dreams, the sanctifying presence of hottest things around a boiler room Is
One who loves us. Prayer, con- the sllcebar, with which the firemen
tlnually lived in, makes the presence from time to time poke the fire to pro
of a holy and loving God the air which , vent the coal from caking Into lumps,
life breathes, and by which It lives, so These bars frequently become red
that, as It mingles ennsclouely with tho hot and unless the fireman protects his
work of the day, It becomes also a part hands serious bums result Experl
of every dream. To us, then, It will be 'inents have been tried with holders
no strange thing to enter heaven, for t of various materials, but old pieces of
we have been living In the things of
heaven. Stopford A. Brooke.
Oar Own Company.
No company depends bo much upon
what we bring to It as our own. Soli
tude blesses when we bless, and curses
when we curse. If we are noble, It
gives us back our life's Integrity, Iri
descent with the divine glory; If we
have been pure, its quiet breezes chos
ten our purity and whisper peace. If
we have been mean, It searches out our
meanness and strips us naked. The
night shlneth as the day, and In vain
we try to hide ourselves. There is in
the silence a forecast of wrath to come.
Rev. W. Charter Piggott
The Life of Lot.
We lose what on ourselves we spend'
We have, as treasure without end,
Whatever, Lord, to Thee we lend,
Who givest all.
Whatever, Lord, we lend to Thee,
Repaid a thousandfold will be,
Then gladly will we give to Thee,
Who givest all
To Thee, from Whom we all derive;
Our life, our gifts, our power to glvt
O may we ever with Thee live,
Who givest all.
Do Good.
Do good, and leave behind you a
monument of virtue that the storms of
time can never destroy. Write your
name In kindness, love and mercy on
the hearts of thousands you come In
contact with year by year; you will
never be forgotten. Your name, your
deeds, will be as legible on the hearts
you leave behind as the stars on the
brow of evening. Good deeds will
shine as the stars of heaven. Dr. Chal
mers.
SALT RIVER IS NO FABLE.
Stream of That Name Flows Into the
Ohio Booth of Lonlavllle.
Salt River, sacred to defeated can
didates, Is a real stream. While not
navigable, It Is used every winter as
an Ice harbor by the towboats which
go out of Pittsburg for the south.
Salt River empties Into the Ohio
about twenty-five miles south of Louis
ville. It Is a small stream which flows
from the Kentucky hills to the great
water and Is as tortuous, as crooked
and as unpleasant to navigate as the
mind can Imagine. Yet It is navigated
for a short distance from Its mouth
by steamers o,f light draft Flatboats
and rafts are floated down upon Its
bosom. Before the Civil War it was
an Important stream In the matter of
bringing Kentucky whisky down in the
flatboats to a point where they could
be unloaded to a river steamer. Re
fractory slaves were generally assign
ed to the task of bringing these bqats
down, as the work was arduous.
Salt River became a bugaboo among
the negroes and It was from the un
pleasant character of the work on this
river that "a trip up Salt River" came
to bo used in politics to express the
destination of a defeated candidate.
The name Is supptyed to have come
from the salt springs which flow Into
It at Its source.
Summer Frllla In Storage.
"As everybody knows," said the
householder to a New York Sun writer,
"people send their winter furs to stor
age warehouses and to dealers for safe
keeping through the summer. This is
an ancient practice. But later this
summer storage of winter-worn articles
came to Include many other things be
sides furs; people took to sending in
winter garments of all sorts, woolen
cloaks md overcoats tind suits of
woolen clothes, and In time there came
to be Included rugs and carpets, and
now there are stored In summer fine
furniture and taiestrles and Innumera
ble mounted heads of fur-bearing ani
mals. "Yet while I had had occasion to
know something of all this, I had sup
posed that this form of storage was a
summer business only, whereas now I
discover that it is carried on through
out the winter as well.
"We found our summer clothes In the
way and we needed the room they occu
pied. Why couldn't we store them, we
thought, and really that seemed to us
a bright Idea, and we went down to
the place where for years we had turn
ed In our winter clothes In the spring
for storage through the Bummer and
asked them about it and they Bald,
why, certainly, they took summer goods
for winter storage and they'd send for
ours right away.
"So we shan't be bothered with look
ing after those thin clothes any more
through the winter and we shall have
the space they occupied for other
things. And Incidentally we discovered
that a business that once was confined
to summer alone Is now kept going the
year around." New York Sun.
Wise Is the man who doesn't expect
to get a square deal where the horses
go round.
carpet have so far proved to be the
only thing which will surely protect
the hands of the men. With pieces of
carpet the bars can be handled with
out danger. An idea of the high tem
perature of these bars may be obtained
from the fact that a siugle day's use
will bum up eveii the thickest piece of
carpet.
A representative from the bethel has
been scouring Boston auction rooms In
search of old carpets which have serv
ed out their usefulness as floor cover
ings and could be cut up Into strips
for the firemen's use. He found sev
eral rolls that could be bought for a
small sum each. These he purchased
and divided Into three or four lots,
sending one lot to each of the several
Institutions doing work among the sail
ors. There they are being cut Into
strips and distributed as fast as they
are called for by the firemen.
The bethel has solved In this way
one of the perplexing problems beset
ting the fireman. Hitherto he has of
ten been unable to get the carpet, ne
had not the time to go after It, he
could not afford to buy it and he did
not know where to look to find it
When he hjirns his hands and cannot
work he is laid off. The collecting and
distribution of old carpets to the fire
men la a real and practical help to
them.
However dull campaigning In Africa
may be, no one could reasonably com
plain of guard duty bv n'.rlit on that
score. In his book, Campaigning on
the Upper Nile," Lleutensr.t Vamloleur
quotes a few entries from the records
of a post commander. Tho entries, it
Is true, present great uniformity, but
they are of themselves sufficiently ex
citing. April 10th. Lion visited camp dur
ing night and carried o2f woman.
April 20th. Lion camo again and
took another woman.
April 21st. Lion carried off Buuyoro
man. Seen by patrols and fired at He
visited cattle-house, and was wound-fd
by guard.
April 22L Section went out to 'ook
for lion and found him near river. Bad
ly wounded, but very fierce. Was kill
ed and brought into camp.
April 24th. Another lion (probably
lioness) visited camp last uiht, and
carried off Nubian child. Wa seen by
patrols and fired at.
April 25th. Lioness came again, and
went to cattle-house, whre guard fired
at and wounded her. One of the shots
struck house at considerable distance,
and entered thigh of Nubian woman,
where It still remains. Woman appar
ently little the worse.
Forster told me that he found that
the tracks of the lions passjd one night
two yards from the door of my house.
As the door was made only of grass
and could easily have hee-i jushfd
down, I congratulated myself on not
having been at home.
Lions had never been heard of here
before, and It was an extraordinary
circumstance that they should have
come here through the dense grass and
undergrowth. Precisely the same thing
happened at Kltanwa In July, when a
Kon visited the place three nights run
ning, taking a child the first night, a
woman the next, and a child on the
third night, when I happened to be
camping there on my return from Lake
Albert
I.lttle Kconomlea.
"I once made up my mind," said a
London man, "that I would become the
possessor of a good gold watch. I
saved up the money for It In this way :
When I felt like eating a shilling
luncheon, as I often did, I kept It down
to tenpence. I put the twojenee saved
toward my watch fund. You will hard
ly believe me, but with little economies
like this I had in less than six months
saved enough money to buy my gold
watch."
"But" said a listener, "where Is your
gold watch? You are wearing a poor
little gun metal thing."
"Well," was the reply, "when I found
how easily I could get along without
shilling luncheons I concluded I could
get along with a ten shilling watch In
stead of a ten pound one. So that the
watch fund grew until It purchased for
me my own house." London MalL
Tho Soulful Boaton Meaaena-er.
A short time ago a gentleman In Bos
ton sent a small boy In his neighbor
hood to deliver a note to a young lady
who lived a few blocks away. He gave
the boy a quarter to make him hurry.
After a short time the messenger c.me
back and, handing the money, said:
"Miss X says she will be glad to see
you to-night but she didn't want th
quarter." Judge's Library.