ture from which, evaporating, kept the
contents cold as spring water. They
watered the horses scantily. They
watched by turns and started out al
dawn. It was ten miles to the nearest
water pool, where the water bags were
to be refilled.
“ I believe we’ve missed the pool,"
said James, toward noon. All around
them was the shimmering desert, de
void now even of thorn scrub. The
horses panted from the heat. James
gave then, the last of the water.
"W eil strike another water hole
before dark,” he said to his compan
ion.
By
But they did not strike the water
RST among the commercial to its left bank on the ground that the
h [. M . E G B E R T
hole, and by sunset the horses were
rivers of civilization, the most Rhine formed the boundary line of
unable to proceed farther. James'
important geographical feature Roman Gaul. Though the Roman em
was down, and Vanderhulzen’s stood
of central Europe, a hotly con pire reached out beyond the broad
trembling, and evidently on Its last
(C o pyrigh t, l i l i , by W . O. Chapman.)
tested boundary for more than Rhine, the river formed, nevertheless,
legs.
two thousand years, one of the rich its effective barrier against the north
Vanderhuizen, the big Dutchman,
"W e had better press on afoot,"
Stepped aboard the downcountry train said James. “ I know there Is a water est among the streams of the world barbarians. However, when the realm
from Kimberley, South Africa, en route hole at the foot of the mountains.” in legend and folklore, and incom of Charlemagne was divided and the
for Cape Town. He laid hie suit case And he pointed to where the blue out parable for the beauties of its course, boundaries of Verdun established, the
carelessly upon the rack, placed bis lines of a distant range rose against when one calls to mind ihe Rhine of Rhine became wholly the property of
Germany he thinks upon one of the Germany, and France early began her
hand upon his breast to make sure the cloudless sky.
most important elements of the cul centuries-long policy of winning the
that the package for which he had
He removed his saddle bags and
risked many years of freedom, was slung them across his shoulders, and ture and the history of his race, stream back again. Complete success
there, and sat down in a seat, look the two men proceeded wearily. James whether he be of its Latin or its Teu crowned this policy under the Napo
leonic empire, and the Rhine became
tonic branch.
ing out at the desert landscape.
lagged behind Vanderhuizen, who, tor
once more the boundary of Gaul. The
The
Rhine
and
the
Germans
came
At Boshof a stranger came Into the tured by thirst, walked like a man in
train, looked keenly about him. and a nightmare. On they went, hour aft upon the stage of history together, Germans reassumed sovereignty of
finally, spotting Vanderhuizen, seated er hour, till suddenly the big Dutch and their fates have been Indissolubly their beloved Father Rhine after 1871,
bound together ever since, says the and In the present war the posses
himself opposite him. Vanderhuizen man went down.
sion of the historic river is one of
recognized him as a man named
“ You’d best leave me; I’m done for," National Geographic society’s bulle
tin. His kindred with this mighty the most critical questions.
James, from Kimberley also; he had he murmured.
The Rhine, like a mighty tree in
once been a mine guard, but had been
James set down his saddle bags, river, Father Rhine, Is one of the
dismissed for some dishonesty. He opened them, and pulled out a bottle more conscious elements of each Ger form, receives its waters from count
had contrived in some way to avoid of water. He held it in the air. Van- man’s life, and to this his folklore, less tributaries, and gives them up to
the clutches of the law, always severe derhuizen leaped to his feet, to find his literature, his war songs, his opera the sea through innumerable off
on buyers of diamonds from the native himself looking down the muzzle of a and his blood offerings have testified. shoots. Its principal source Issues
Few geographical features have af from glacial Ice 7,271 feet above the
Quarrymen.
revolver.
Vanderhuizen nodded surlily. James
“ Hand over the bag," said James,
was the last person in the world that briefly.
he wanted to see Just then.
"You scoundrel!” shouted Vander
James smiled sardonically. “ Come huizen, through his swollen Ups.
Into the smoker, Van,” he said, "and
"This bottle for your half,” James
we can discuss business."
pursued. “And—I know where to find
Vanderhuizen uttered an oath and the water hole.”
his hand stole in a betraying manner
Vanderhuizen glared at him; then,
to the package Inside his coat. He with a gesture of despair, he took the
saw James’ eyes follow the movement precious bag from his breast and tossed
and realized that he was trapped. Sul it to the other. For a man will give
lenly he arose and accompanied him.
all that he has to save his life.
“ WellT” he growled, as they took
Next moment Vanderhuizen tnd
their places in the empty smoker.
knocked the heed off the bottle ano
“ Halves!" said James, laconically. was gulping down the life-giving
"I’m fly.”
fluid. James watched him sardonic
"Curse you!” said Vanderhuizen.
ally.
“ It’s a lucky thing you met me,” re
“ You will find the water hole half a
turned James, quietly. “ Do you know mile distant, at the foot of that eleva
Thompson of the Kimberley police?”
tton," he said, indicating a hummock
"What of him?”
in the sand. And he watched Vander
"He’s in the next compartment. He’s huizen stagger away.
undoubtedly waiting to arrest you bb
He went back to the horses and,
knocking the heads off the other bot
ties, poured the contents down theii
throats. The animals, revived, stag
gered to their feet. His own horse
was done for, but Vanderhuizen’«
seemed capable of carrying him to hi«
destination—another water hole along
the wagon route across the desert
which he knew like a book.
He clasped the diamonds to hit
breast as he rode, and chuckled. The
scheme had been an excellent one and
had worked out better than he could
have expected. He had heard In Kim
berley, by the merest chance, thal
Vanderhuizen Intended to go down
country. He himself had never dared
B lN O E N AMD T H E R O H A M B R ID G E .
to purchase diamonds from the na
tives, but he knew Vanderhulzen’s fected the conscious life of a race so sea within the confines of the most
reputation as a successful and daring deeply as has the German Rhino.
independent canton in Switzerland.
thief, and it had occurred to him thal
Rising in the highest Alps in cen On its way the Rhine is fed, directly
there was a splendid opportunity ol tral Europe, the Rhine reaches the and indirectly, by 12,000 tributaries,
compelling the man to share his plun Korth sea after a Journey of 850 and it drains more than 75,000 square
der with him.
tnlles, and the last part of its course miles. Where the Rhinl enters Ger
The advent, upon the scene of In Is through a lowland whose surface many, at Basle, it Is about 600 feet
spector Thompson had been a little id below the tides’ crest. The river broad, and, for the smallest river
disconcerting; but the same chance gathers its water at the base of melt boats, navigation begins here. There
which had told him of Vanderhuizen’! ing glaciers, plunges over great rock is a project to make the Rhine navi
maneuver had given him information masses toward its lower levels, cuts gable from Basle to Its source for
that the police were on the man'i through the wildest mountain valleys, larger lighters and small steamboats.
trail. He had then telegraphed to traverses a wonderful high, broad
"Hand Over the Bag!”
Lovers of natural beauty mention
soon as you step off the train. If he Kliptontein for the two horses—and plain, and then, entering its famous the German Rhine and the American
gorge, wanders through exquisite pan Hudson in the same breath. The
can get you to Cape Town without do everything had gone like clockwork.
It was no wonder that he chuckled oramas, through a lane everywhere Rhine, however, has many traits In
ing so, he will save himself a lot of
trouble. That's why I came—I got Looking back he could see the horse mantled with ruins of historic castles, common with the American Missis
still lying upon the sand, and Vander abbeys, churches, and every foot of sippi. It is Europe’s most important
wind of the affair.”
Tho big Dutchman scowled fearfully. huizen, a tiny figure under the moon, its way celebrated by legend or his river, It drains one of the greatest In
8even years on the breakwater for marching painfully back. His own tory. After emerging from its gorge, dustrial regions on earth, and it Is
Illicit diamond buying war. the last plans could not fall him. He would It flows through a plain where power one of the main factors In German
thing in the world that he wanted. strike the water hole, refresh hlmsell ful steel, textile and chemical Indus commercial development. Moreover,
And the stones in his breast pocket and his steed, and then proceed In a tries center. Through Germany and the great timber rafts upon the Mis
were worth twelve thousand pounds leisurely manner toward the wagon Holland the Rhin% forms the principal sissippi, as Mark Twian describes
path.
.
water avenue of central and western them, can be seen in season floating
anywhere.
At last he reached the place. H< Europe, and an enormous commerce down the Rhine. Some of these rafts
“ What’s the game?” he demanded.
shackled his horse to a torn tree and is handled through its ports.
are 800 feet in length, and are guided
"Halves?” questioned James.
climbed the ascent toward the hollow
“ I suppose so.”
The Rhine is international. It Is down the river by more than two hun
"I've telegraphed for two saddle crater in which lay the pond. But when divided between Switzerland, Ger dred men who live upon them in little
horses to wait at Kllpfonteln station he reached the summit he found him many and Holland. That part of the huts, a whole village adrift They
W e’ll get there at dark. We can make self staring down into a dry mud hole river which lies in Germany, 450 closely resemble the rafts which
The water had dried up under the miles In length, has been most dis Huck Finn met in his travels down
a dash from the train, mount and be
away before Thompson spots us. The influence of the hot sun and an unus puted. The French have laid claim the American river.
saddle-bags are loaded with a week’s ually long dry season.
For a few minutes he could not be
food. In three days we can cross the
desert to Khama’a I.and. where we can lleve his eyes. Then he lost his self
pick up ac ox wagon and make our control. He would have to go back to
way into Johannesburg. Thompson Vanderhuizen. And his bottles were
will be clean off the scent. It will empty. He was parched with thirst,
take him a couple of hours to find a and his animal was Incapable of pro
horse, and then he won't know for ceedlng farther.
For hours he raved beside the watet
sure that we are going to Khama’a
hole, clenching hts fists and calling
Land.”
"I’m with you.” replied Vander down curses upon his luck. He spread
the diamonds in a little heap before
huizen. curtly.
At Kllpfonteln the program was him and looked at the dull pebblea
carried out. As tho train drew, shriek each one worth a little lake of wine.
ing. up to the station, the confederates And for all these he could not get so
leaped from the carriage. At the rear much water as would wet his lipa.
"I’ll go back then—back to Vander
of the platform a native man was
waiting with two saddle horses, tough huizen,” ho muttered, and flung him
little Basuto ponies, of tho kind that self upon the rocks. "When 1 am
would carry their loads where no rested. . . .”
But nature, outraged, revenged her
European horse could go. Two leaps
Into the ssddles, two pulls at the reins, self upon him by drawing down hit
and the thieves were psddlng quickly eyelids, and he slept profoundly.
"Oct up, James!”
through the single street of the settle
He started to his feet. The sun was
ment and out Into the desert.
They looked back when they reached high In the sky. Before him stood
the sand. In the distance they saw a Vanderhuizen and—Inspector Thomp
crowd gathered about a tall man who son.
“I want you, James,” said the In
was making futile efforts to strike a
quick bargain for a horse.
spector, fingering the bag of diamonds
They rode till evening. When the which he had taken from beside the
moon came up they w-ere alone upon sleeping man. “ I thought Vander
the desert. They dismounted, made a huizen was the man I was after, but—
fire from the scanty thorn scrub, and well, you understand. Your horse It
cooked some of the meet In James’ dead, but you won’t mind a little walk
saddle bags. On either side of the sad of twenty-fire miles or so? Yoq see
C A S T tX o r GU TLM TtlB AMD INLAND F O R T R E S S CT TVC PFATZ
dle hung a large water bag, the mote j w*’ve got plenty of water.”
OWN the
RIED
HIÑE
Dl IA M 0N E IS
ro IR A DRIP IK
F
POINTS OUT NATURE’S ERROR
Mr. Gwlmpieton Turns Aside From
Daily Duties to Discourse on
Matters of Conscience.
THREE DAYS IH ONE
Seeming
"Wealth, as we know,” said Mr.
Gwlmpieton, "Is very unevenly dis
tributed, but conscience is more so.
“ Som* men are overburdened with
conscience; some have none at all.
Some people worry themselves sick
over this or that real or imagined
transgression of the civil or the moral
law.
"There are others who worry only
that they cannot safely transgress the
more.
"Between these two extremes we
have the man commonly described as
overconsclentious, meaning one wor
thy but timid, who lets a conscience
too keen and active keep him from
betterments of his fortune that he
might otherwise compass. Then we
have those people who are not trou
bled in such ways, who are all but
conscienceless and whose conscience
really lies dormant
"It Is true, too, that a thing that
may stir one man's conscience may
not touch another’s; we are differ
ently constituted. There appears to
be no absolutely definite standard of
conscience applicable to and actuat
ing all men alike. This enormously
complicates the conscience situation.
“ But still the great primary diffi
culty lies in the uneven distribution
of conscience. If we could only have
something like an even distribution
of such conscience as now exists it
would, for one thing, in some meas
ure reduce piracy in Its manifold
forms as now practiced under civilized
conditions by men without conscience,
and for another thing, it would by
reducing the stock of the man of ab
normal conscience, spare him the wor-
riments that now beset him and let
him take without qualms whatever
benefits rightfully belong to him. In
fact, a more even distribution of con
science would tone up the world gen
erally and make it in many ways a
vastly more comfortablq world to live
In.
"Pending that happy day It be
hooves us, I suppose—at any rate, my
friend MacBlink, a well meaning and
cheerful but not always overtrustful
man, says it does—to be still more or
less wary in our dealings with our
fellow man in order to avoid subject
ing our well meaning but weaker
brother to undue temptation, and to
avoid being circumvented by some
body who was perhaps overlooked en
tirely in the conscience distribution.”
Aeroplane Carries Off Prisoner.
The story of an aviator who came
back to the Russian lines with an
Austrian prisoner strapped to the tail
frame of his aeroplane is told in a
Petrograd dispatch from the front in
Poland:
“The airman, Terentic Paschaloff,
ascended from the aviation headquar
ters in the rear of General Ivanoff's
army in his 150-horsepower machine,
accompanied by his mechanic. The
machine carried a small gun and a
number of bombs.
"Owing to motor trouble, Paschaloff
had to descend two miles behind the
Austrian lines. While the mechanic
was repairing the motor six Austri
ans approached. Paschaloff turned
his one-pounder on them and fired
one shrapnel Bhell, which exploded ac
curately and felled five men. The
sixth surrendered.
"Then came the problem—what
would he do with his prisoner? Pas
chaloff decided to abandon his stock
of bombs and tie his prisoner to the
tail frame of his machine. Thus bur
dened, the aeroplane rose and flew
over the Austrian lines amid a storm
of bullets, regaining the Russian lines
without damage.”
Man Who Was Always Late.
P rivate------was known to ail his
chums as “ the early bird,” probably
because It was an exact description of
the very opposite to what he really
was, for "the early bird” was always
late, the last man to get out of bed
at reveille and the last man on pa
rade, and when his regiment sailed
for France his chums declared that he
was the last into the transport ship
and the last out of It.
When his regiment was doing r
spell In the trenches “ the early biru
was sent for by his officer, and as he
was creeping along the trench towards
the dug-out a stray bullet caught him
in the shoulder, Just as he was outside
Ithe officer's shelter.
After seeing that he wasn't seriously
wounded, the officer exclaimed, with
a twinkle In his eye. "If you had Just
been a second earlier you would have
missed that.”
"I would, sir," returned Private------,
"or If I had been a second later It
would have missed me."—Loudon Tit-
Bits.
Photographic Marvels.
In making photographs of the splash
formed by a falling liquid Professor
Worthington of the Royal society, in
London, has succeeded In giving an
exposure of less than three one-mll-
llonths o f a second. This Is effected
with an electric spark, which can be
so accurately timed that the operator
can select any desired stage In the
progress of a splash within limits of
error not exceeding two one-thou
sandths of a second.
A photographic printing machine
exhibited at a recent meeting of the
society had a roll of prepared bro
mide paper fed In at 6ne end and
turned out finished
photographic
prints at the other end at the rate of
1,000 to 3.000 per hour. These photo
graphs may be used for Illustrations
In newspapers and magazines.
Impossibility
Easily
Shown as a Fact.
Irregularity of Date Line Accounts for
the Paradox— Explanation Given
by Scientist in the New York
Sunday World.
Three days can exist at the same
time! It sounds impossible, but It la
nevertheless a fact that when It Is
very late Sunday night at Attu island
It is Monday noon at London and Tues
day morning at Cape Deshnef, Siberia!
If one travels westward, one loses A
day in going round the world; If one
travels eastward, one gains a day,
writes Hereward Carrington in the
Sunday New York World Magazine.
Could one travel at the rate of 16
degrees a day, one would lose- exactly
one hour each day. In twenty-four
days the circuit would be complete.
Inasmuch as sun and earth are con
stantly revolving and day merging in
to night, Sunday passing into Monday,
etc., it is obvious that at one point
on the world's surface an arbitrary
line must be set, to the east of which
Is one day, to the west of which is the
When It Is Noon Monday in London,
6 A. M. Monday in Chicago and 6
P. M. Monday in Calcutta, It Is Still
Sunday at Attu Island and Is Al
ready Tuesday at Cape Deshnef.
next day. This immediate “Jump” of
a day regulates the calendar for one
circumnavigating the globe. This “in
ternational date line,” as it is called,
passing north and south and dividing
our world into two equal parts, is the
180th meridian and crosses the Pacific
ocean—where fortunately there is very
little land— taking a slight bulge out
ward to Include Siberia, and one the
other way to include Attu island,
which belongs to Alaska geographical
ly. The map will show this. West of
this line is Monday and east of It Is
Sunday.
When it Is noon Monday in Lon-
day, Tuesday has already begun at
Cape Deshnef, Siberia, but Monday
morning has not yet dawned at Attu
island; nearly half an hour of Sunday
still remains there. We are thus con
fronted with the paradox of three days
co-existing at the same time!
We must remember that every day
begins at midnight. If we could travel
round the world at the same rate that
It travels, beginning our flight at noon.
It would be perpetually noon all thq
way round! Yet we should lose a day.
While at any particular point on the
surface of the earth a day is twenty-
four hours long, every day, as a matter
of fact, lasts forty-eight hours—some
times even longer. This seems another
contradiction. Yet it can be explained.
Any given day, say Christmas, begins
(as that day) immediately west of the
180th parallel. One hour later Christ
mas day begins 15 degrees west of the
date line, two hours later 30 degrees
west of the line, and so on round the
globe. Those living just west of the
date line would have enjoyed twelve
hours of Christmas when It reached
England, eighteen hours when it began
in the United States and twenty-four
hours (a whole day) when it began In
Alaska. Already Christmas had ex
isted twenty-four hours on this globe,
but having lust Degun in Western
Alaska, it will last there twenty-four
hours longer.
We have Just seen that each day
lasts for forty-eight hours. As a mat
ter of fact, a day lasts in some places
more than forty-nine hours This is
because of the irregularity of the date
line previously mentioned. Let us
begin an Imaginary Journey from Cape
Deshnef. Siberia, at midnight As mid
night sweeps westward successive
places see the beginning of the day.
When the day begins in London it has
been that same day at Cape Deshnef
twelve hours and forty-five minutes.
When this same day arrives at Attu
Island It has been twentv-flve non re
and twelve minutes since It began of
ficially at Cape Deshnef. Since the
day will then last twenty-four hours
at Attn Island, before it is spent
forty-nine hours and twelve minutes
will have elapsed from the beginning
of that day until the tim<( It closes.
Thus three days can exist at one time,
as before explained.
Duae Refuses to Help.
The New York World's correspond
ent at Rome writes to that paper that
Eleanora Duse, "who sits In a corner
and feels lonely while women of her
age are making huge successes on the
stage.” refused to take part In char
ity performances In aid of earthquake
sufferers.
"Why should I exhibit my voice,
tired with emotion, and my face, lined
with care, to well-dressed women In
■tails and boxes V she asked. "Let
them give the price of their beautiful
Jewels and gowns for the poor.”
And ehe wrote to the eav ihquake
eommtttee to that effect, toe«