IS FATE FLIRTING WITH PRESIDENT BOOSEVELT?
THE PRESIDENT HAS HAD FOUR NARROW-ESCAPES FROM SEIMOUS ACCIDENT RECENTLY.
Strenuous as his whole term Las been, President Roose
velt's final- days In the While House are proving most
exciting. Of late be lias given Indications of being a poor
accident Insurance risk. Three times recently be has
been nearly run down on the streets of Washington. Not
long ago he was unhorsed while out riding. Altogether
he has been getting as many thrills right In well-disposed
Washington as he could expect In the fastnesses
of Africa. In the riding accident Mr. Roosevelt was in
grave peril when a young horse threw him on a steep
bank and nearly rolled on him. The President was only
shaken up and was able to remount and ride to town.
This happened In the country near the capital.
There were other actors in the three accidents whicli
occurred on the streets of Washington. While walking
with secret service men Mr. Roosevelt stepped off the
sidewalk and was brushed by a negro boy who was
swiftly riding a bicycle and steering It with only one
hand. The President uttered an exclamation, but th
boy pedaled away, grinning. He was pursued by secret
service men, who reprimanded him. A few days later
the President was scraped by the mudguard of a promi
nent citizen's automobile as he was crossing the street.
The machine had been slowed up or the President would
have been struck harder. He himself admitted It was
a "close shave." The very next day, while out driving,
the carriage containing the President was in the path
of a hose wagon going to- a tire. The fireman driver
avoided a disastrous collision by pulling his horses to
their haunches, the carriage passing unscathed. Shivers
enough to satisfy the most adventuresome, doesn't It
seem?
THE LABORER'S REWARD
W labor best in life's long day,
When most we labor for the pay
That is divinely given.
The laborer worthy of his hire
It he whom angels can Inspire
With love sent down from heaven.
Life's labor is not lost to him
Who fills his cup of life to brim
With love's own satisfaction;
Or seeks In toil to realize
The joy of labor's perfect prize,
The prize of art's perfection.
No man can pay the fairest price
Of love's most willing sacrifice;
No human hire rewards us ;
But we have in the strength and Joy,
Which ofters gain in our employ,
The best that life affords us.
Life's true reward is In Itself,
Without the gain of sordid pelf
It Is the joy of living !
No pay in gold or honor rare
Is compensation to compare
With just the joy of giving !
Rev. J. J. G. Graham.
I LooKino inio ilie Sunsel
Yes, thus lived Miss Spencer (at the
time of which I write) all alone with
Richard of the Lion Heart, and if you
isk me for further particulars of Rlch
d I JBUlf-mti'tknClw was a canary
wuoee pleasure aim uuiy u iu
mind his mistress and keep her safe
from barm.
Oh, but he was a champion bird,
was Richard! Afraid of nothing, chat
tering fierce warnings to the butcher
and the groceryman, and tolerating the
baker In a peremptory sort of way only
because he was the man who brought
the bread; and when anybody sought
to Ingratiate themselves with this spir
ited bird by inserting a finger between
the bars of his cage he almost fell off
his perch at the Impudence of them
and straightway fell to sharpening bis
beak ou his bit of cuttle, bis chirping
turned to the horrid croaking of a
feathered pet who Is presently going to
bite a finger oiy
Well, then, It began with slight
hoarseness In Richard's highest notes
md the moment she heard it Miss
Spencer folded her needlework she
was knitting a pair of shoes for some
fortunate little orphan and mixed a
little flaxseed with Richard's birdseed,
and shut a door and a wludow to keep
the draught off him, but all In vain.
His hoarseness Increased to an extent
that would have discouraged any other
bird, but Richard, Justly named the
Lion Heart, persevered In his song un
tlll It sounded almost as shrill as a
very rusty Raw going through a very
hard kuot. In vain he hopped from
one perch to another ; in vain he st
aled along his perch, as he sang, his
poor little beak opened so wide that
he had to shut his eyes ; his cold grew
worse and worse and he begau to neg
lect his food.
Lettuce tempted him not, except for
hopeful moments; he turned up his bill
at celery tips ami green peas, and as
for birdseed, he simply wouldn't look
at It. Atid there he stood, day after
day, on the end of his perch, leaning
against the side of his cage, silent,
moody, drooping ami only showing a
flare of his old-time spirit upon seeing
the butcher and the groceryman, when,
Indeed, he gave expression to a few
aeutlments, of which It Is only char
itable to say nothing at all.
And that was how Miss Spencer
missed going to church for the first
time In twenty years, since the year
f the great bllw.ard, to be exact, which
brings us to the doctor, w hom you will
bt able to picture clearly w hen I whis
per to you that he was an elderly blue
eyed gentleman, beloved of everyone,
who lived In considerable awe of his
housekeeper and was famous for the
great age of his horse.
"I didn't see Miss Spencer at church
this morning," said the doctor as he
obediently sat himself at the dinner
"Out of town, niebbe," snapped the
housekeeper.
"No," said the doctor, "she never
gocR out of town."
The housekeeper rattled a plate.
"Itisthefirst time that she has missed
church," said the doctor, "since I can
remember.
The housekeeper rattled another
plate and the doctor relapsed Into
silence, but soon after dinner he har
nessed the ancient nag, and half an
hour later Richard the Lion Heart had
his little beak opened and a doctor of
medicine was trying to look at his
tongue r lfiS?lrfl
A fortnight passed and the doctor
called every day, tempting Richard's
appetite with chlckweed slyly rubbed
with olive oil swathing his cage with
flannels, coaxing him back to activity
and song ; so that at the end of the
fortnight the doctor announced that
his patient was entirely well, and re
gretfully added that his visits, his very
pleasant visits, for which he would
take no other fee than one of Richard's
lion-hearted songs, would have to cease
and determine. He stayed away a week
and then he called one evening, "Just
to see," as he told himself, "how" his
pntlent was getting along."
Little Miss Spencer was sitting at
the window knitting a pair of socks
for another of those unfortunate or
phans, and Richard's cage was on the
sill, where he was playing with a bit
of yarn, trying to unravel It and call
ing to the homing sparrows. What Miss
Spencer's thoughts- had been I do not
know, hut as she knitted away and
looked at the sunset it sometimes hap
pened, I think, that she knitted a tear
Into those little woolen socks, but yet,
when the doctor entered, her eyes were
very bright.
"Well," cried the doctor In his mild
his Image as in an ordinary looking
glass. But when light Is allowed to
come through the glass from the other
side, as when it is placed In a window,
it appears perfectly transparent, like
ordinary glass.
By constructing a window of plat
inized glass one could stand close be
hind the panes in an unllluminatcd
room and behold clearly everytSThg
going on outside, while passers-by look
ing at the window would behold only
a fine mirror or set of mirrors in which
their own figures would be reflected,
while the person Inside remained' In
visible. In France various tricks have been
contrived with the aid of this glass.
In one a person, seeing what appears
to be an ordinary mirror, approaches
It to gaze upon himself. A sudden
change in the mechanism sends light
through the glass from the back,
whereupon It instantly becomes trans
parent, and the startled spectator finds
himself confronted by some grotesque
figure that had been hidden behind tho
magic glass. New York Tribune.
t didn't see miss bpenceb at church.
and cheery manner, "and how's the pa
tient?" He sat, too, at the window.
"He thinks he's making a nest,"
smiled Miss Spencer.
"But what Is ho chattering about?"
asked the doctor.
"I think," said Miss Spencer, her eyes
brightly ou her work, "I think he Is
calling to his mate."
And si 111 the busy pins clicked In and
out of that fortunate orphan's socks, a
little bit damp In a place or two, but
none the worse for that, and still Rich
ard the Lion Heart unraveled his bit of
yarn and softly called to the homing
birds.
"He's lonely," said the doctor, In a
voice so low you could hardly hear him,
"and so am I," he breathed, "and so am
I but if you would care to be a poor
old doctor's wife Ann "
And after Richard had quite recov
ered from his surprise, nud had sung
his evening song, and had tucked his
head under his wing, and had carefully
drawn up one of his feet and hidden it
among his feathers, his mistress and the
doctor still sat there, hand In hand,
gazing Into the sunset little Miss
Spencer with her Hps parted, her eyes
shining, and that tender look of happi
ness which tells of dreams fulfilled.
Evening Suu.
Ilia Idea of the English.
The following Illustrates Louis Phi
lippe's idea of England and the Eng
lish. He one day asked Hugo if he
had ever been In England and on re
ceiving a negative reply continued:
"Well, when you do go for you will
go you will see how strange It Is. It
resembles France in nothing. Over
there are order, arrangement, symme
try, cleanliness, well mowed lawns and
profound silence on the streets. The
passersby are as serious and as mute
as specters. When, being French and
alive, you speak In the street these
specters look back at you and murmur
with an Inexpressible mixture of grav
ity and disdain, 'French people !' When
1 was In London I was walking arm
in arm with my wife and sister. We
were conversing In a not too loud tone
of voice, for we are well bred persons,
you know, yet all the passersby, bour
geois and men of the people, turned to
gaze nt us, and we could hear them
growling behind us: 'French people!
French people!'" "Memoirs of Victor
Hugo."
St. Peter and the Widower.
Bernard Robbins, head of the legal
department of New York's Court of
Tears this charity helps the poor to
adjust their marital troubles without
going to the expense of lawsuits said
the other day to a newspaper man:
"Such work as mine makes you, if
you are not careful, pessimistic about
marriage, so that you find yourself tell
ing grimly over and over again the
story about St. Peter and the widower.
"What? You don't know the story?
Well, It seems that two souls ap
proached St. Peter side by side, and
the younger wns repulsed sternly by the
saint on the ground that since he had
never been married he had never known
suffering.
"The older man advanced with glad
confidence. He stated that he had been
married twice.
"But he, too, the saint repulsed, say
ing: 'This Is no place for fools."
MAGIC GLASS.
A Curloaa Mirror That Mar Be Made
Transparent.
One of the most curious inventions
of this age is what Is called platinized
glass. A piece of glass Is coated with
an exceedingly thin layer of a llqulfl
charged with platinum aud then raised
to a red, heat. The platinum becomes
united to the glass In such a way as
to form an odd kind of mirror.
The glass has not really lost Its
transparency, and yet if one places it
against a wall and looks at l( he sees
GILA MOIfSTERS UlCREAJSIffa.
Whether Bite of Title LUard la Fa
tally PoUonous to Man Unsettled.
"Naturalists who recently visited the
llojave desert in Arizona say tb-tt
there has been an Increase in the num
ber of glla monsters in that region,"
said Dr. A. B. Cedron of Prescott,
Ariz., according to the Washington
Post.
"These lizards are of great interest
to naturalists, for in spite of investiga
tions, authorities still differ as to
whether the bite of a glla monster is
fatally poisonous. I have had several
Instances come under my observation
when men have been bitten by glla
monsters, but none ever died. In the
case of a glla monster biting a guinea
pig, however, the poison was fatal a
few minutes after the guinea pig had
been bitten. The natives of the South
west, particularly the Indiana of Mex
ico, sincerely believe that the bite of
a glla is fatal to a human being and
the lizard is held in much awe by
them.
"It is likely, however, that this fear
Is occasioned largely by the repulsive
appearance of the reptile. The head is
very prominent, comprising about one
fifth of the total length of the body
and, like the back, is thickly covered
with yellow and black tinted tubercles.
Its skin Is very tough, and, although
the bones of the tail are fragile, this
part of the reptile is very strong, it
being possible for, the monster to raise
itself and balance the body on the tip
of the tail, thus enabling It to climb
rocks and steep ascents. There is no
doubt that the teeth lead to glands con
taining poison. It is very slow in its
movements, but it is not timid like
other reptiles. If one attempts to
trlke the glla with a stick it will
grasp the weapon in its jaws like a
dog does, and when angered It emits
its breath In a succession of quick
gasps. It is supposed that the breath
of the gila has a drug-like effect on in
sects, and as it can be detected at a
considerable distance, it is believed
that this is the way it catches Its
food."
m
SOMETHING FOB EVEEYBODT
An Awful Animal.
"Really," said the stylish lady, en
thusiastically, to her friend, "it is quite
worth while going to the zoo, If only
to see the wonderful supply of rhodo
dendrons."
"Is It?" replied her friend, languidly.
"I'd like to look at the great, big, clum
sy beasts, too, but it always smells so
unpleasantly round the cages." Lon
don News.
The Flerceneaa of Debate.
Campaign Adviser You think yoo
next speech will make an impression?
Candidate I do.
Campaign Adviser Have you any
new arguments to place before your
opponent?
Candidate No; but I have a lot of
new names to call him.
Legal Information
In Cunningham vs. Castle, 111 New
York Suiiplement, 1057, plaintiff was
injured by an automobile which the
chauffeur had been granted permission
to use for his own pleasure by the own
er -Plaintiff recovered Judgment In
the lower court, but on appeal the New
York Supreme Court reversed it, on
the ground that the chauffeur was not
engaged in any business of defendant
at the time of the injury, and that the
permission to use the machine made no
difference as to defendant's liability.
The Alabama statutes of 1907 regu
lating freight and passenger rates on
Intrastate business were declared in
valid as denying due process of law by
the United States Circuit Court, in
Central of Georgia Railway Company
vs. Railroad Commission of Alabama,
161 Federal Reporter, 925. The pro
ceedings were to enjoin the State offi
cers from enforcing these statutes. The
defense was that this was an action
against the State, and beyond the Jur
isdiction of the Federal courts. The
court held otherwise.
Plaintiff and her brother were the
only heirs under their mother's will,
which gave the brother practically ev
erything. Plaintiff thereupon entered
into an agreement by which she was to
receive one-third the estate for not con
testing the will. The will having been
duly probated without contest, the
brother tried to escape the compromise
agreement. In Blount vs. Dlllaway,
85 Northeastern Reporter, 477. the Su
preme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
held that, although a win contestant
had a statutory standing in the probate
court to enforce compromise agree
ments, it did not prevent equity taklug
Jurisdiction under these circumstances
and granting specific performance
against the executor,
The Wisconsin tenement house act,
which provided that every tenement
house must have courts of certain di
mensions, and must be equipped with
the ordinary modern Improvements as
to water supply common to cities hav
lng public water and sewer systems,
and that any person violating the pro
visions should be subject to fine or im
prlsonment, was declared unconstitu
tional In Bouuett vs. Vallier, 116
Northwestern Reporter, 8S5. The Wis
consin Supreme Court held that the
statute was such that an ordinary per
son would relinquish his right to use
his real estate for tenement houses
rather than take the chances "of vio
lating the statute, and that the effect
of enforcing the penalties would be to
take property , without due process of
Taw.
Cnrb Widow' Expenditures.
The Lambeth (London) Board of
Guardians has decided that no outdoor
relief should be given to the widow
during the first six months of widow
hood if they have spent lavishly on
funeral and mourning any money re
ceived from a club. Insurance society
or other source,
Another Anthorlty.
Mr. Howe I suppose you have
studied all the authorities on social and
economic questions? Mr. Wise Not
quite all. My daughter's graduation es
say ! not out yet. Life.
Other people may have good tastfe,
but of cours yours is a shade bet
ter.
Co-operative Pnrehaalns Aa;eaer
A co-operative purchasiug agency is
being organized in this country for
supplying American and English mis
sionaries with certain necessary sup
plies. '
When a woman says her husband
will not give her any satisfaction when
she accuses him, she uieaus he will not
confess.
Bog comprises about one-seventieth
of Ireland's area.
The Servians look upon light hair
with marked disfavor.
The average snowfall in the vicinity
of New York is seven feet.
A man's beard is generally heavier
on the right side of his face.
The latest storm doors for large
business places are revolved by electric
motors.
In 1652 a duty was imposed on ne-
groea imported "into New Netherland
to work on their Bouwerles."
The chief publishing centers of Ger
many are Berlin, Leipslc, Vienna,
Stuttgart, Munich, in the order here
named. '
An electric wagon with a platform
supported by a strong telescope tower,
is used in New York city for trimming
and repairing the street lamps sus
pended high above the thoroughfares.
The Avfgust meteors, according to a
leading astronomer, form a stream so
broad that the earth, though it travels
fatter than eighteen mjles a second,
takes seven weeks to cross it.
In Japan about OS per cent of the
males of school age attend the educa
tional establishments and 93 per cent
of the females. In Mexico only 16 per
cent of the population can read and
write.
The Tuilleres hydro-electric works,
the largest of the kind in France, is
nearly completed. It is built on the
river Dordogne, where nine 2,700-horse
power turblnea produce 23,000 electri
cal horse power.
The Michigan Central will electrify
lti terminals at Detroit and the main
line as far as Ypsllantl, thirty miles
west of the city. Electricity will be
obtained from the water power of the
Huron river at Cheslea, Mich.
Edison, who has not done much in
the way of Improving the telephone
for some time, ! now working on a
new tranamiter, which is very sensitive
and enables conversation to be carried
on with greater eaae and lesi liability
of error.
Manitoba became a province In 1870.
Iti population was 62,260 in 1881, 152,-
506 in 1891 and 255,211 in 1901. The
value of Manitoba's harvest last year
was a little short of $70,000,000. The
census of 190 gave Winnipeg, Its cap
ital city, a population of 90,000. There
is nothing wild in a guess that its pres
ent population Is not far from 120,000.
Servians in their good nature and
love of humor are laid to remind trav
eler! of the Irish peasantry. They are
hospitable to strangers; their patriot
ism is vehement, almost quixotic, and
they take great interest in politics.
Many of the domestics in the .towns
and cities com from abroad as the
Servian girl Is too Independent for do
mestic service.
London ladles stimulated by the
Olympic games of, last summer have
taken to the foils, and fencing is now
the fashion. Indeed, an official of the
Sword Club holds that fencing is like
ly to have an even wider vogue among
women than among men. Many women
prominent in the social world are act
ively Interesting themselves in the
foils, and there seems every likelihood
that something approaching a craze may
be'atarted in the fencing world during
the coming season.
Boston women established the first
playground in 1902. Last year there
were eight, and nearly $2,000 was ex
pended, or about $1 for each child, a
very cheap price for the amount of
good obtained. The Playground League
Is the name of the society of the play
ground boys themselves, who wear
buttons, and discipline all bad boys,
thus making the government easy
enough for those in charge. Not the
least important result of the play
grounds in that city Is said to be that
involved in the self-government
In the year 1694 William Patterson,
founder of the Bank of Scotland, con
ceived the grand project of planting on
the Isthmus of Darlen a British colony
which, in his own words, "should se
cure for Great Britain the keys of the
universe, enabling their possessors to
give laws to both oceans and to become
the arbiters of the commercial world."
This colony waa actually founded at a
placs still known as Puerto Escoees,
but its people were aubsequently forced
by the Spaniards to evacuate and re
turn to Scotland.
A suggestion that shoe repairing, or
cobbling be made a part of the manual
training activities in the ungraded
schools and in the Parental School of
Baltimore hat been made to the au
thorities, but the Sun of that city sees
no merit In the scheme. It lays
"That class of boys who would profit
by learning the trade have, as a rule,
only a few years to devote to school,
and those few years had best be de
voted to learning how to read, write
and cipher, with such other practical
and necessary elementary atudles as
their time will permit"
Having raised $500,000 to duplicate
Andrew Carnegie's gift and having re
ceived Mr. Carnegie's check for the
half million, the Unlversty of Virginia
now has $1,000,000 In cash to add to its
endowment The $500,000 given by Mr.
Carnegie will become the permanent
endowment of at least six schools In
the university the school of engineer
ing, the school of political economy and
political science, two chairs In the
school of law, the school of English
and the school of pathology. These
will be named for great men who have
helped build the university and the re-
publto .
Oecatlon for Aunt Kllaa'a Statement
of Matrimonial Philosophy.
Uncle Joshua was catching flies. Un
cle Joshua's method' of catching flies
was to stalk them one by one, follow
ing them about the room with a stealthy
shuffle and bringing his big hand down
with a ponderous slap, which nine flies
out of ten easily evaded. It must be
confessed that if a fly was caught. It
proved fatal.
Betty, watching Aunt Eliza beat up
a pan of gingerbread In the kitchen,
listened to the shuffle and thump and
muttered exclamations till It got upon
her nerves. Aunt Eliza's fate, over the
gingerbread, was full of placid con
tent. Finally Betty could Btand it no
longer.
"Aunt Eliza," she asked, "doesn't It
drive you wild to hear Uncle Joshua
catch files?"
Aunt Eliza laughed. "Bless you, no,
child. It don't hurt the files any. By
and by, when I get round to It, I'll
drive them out. There ain't more'u
half a dozen In there, ever, but he
likes to think he's clearing them out."
"But he thumps so," Betty answer
ed, laughing, and yet persistent.
Aunt Eliza glanced at Betty's left
hand, and her wise eyes became grave.
"There was a time once," she said,
slowly, "when Joshua's chasing flies
nearly drove me wild. It was the sec
ond year we were married. If we'd
discovered nerves in those days, I sup
pose I'd have said It got on my nerves,
and gone off to a rest-cure or some
thing. As we hadn't, I fought it out
myself.
"Joshua was real kind and thought
ful and a generous provider in all the
big things, I knew he was a man In a
hundred. And he was patient, too, over
my quick speeches.
"Then I thought about the other
men I knew. Eli Potter used to sit
with his feet in the oven I couldn't
have stood that, anyway. And Jacob
Jarvls was the worst hand for tracking
in mud you ever saw, and Jont KI1
grove never would wear a collar, even
to church and so it went. It seemed
as if every man had to let off steam
somewhere ; and when I thought it all
over, I concluded that flies were about
the best of the lot ; they don't "last
more'n three months, anyway.
"So after that when Joshua chased
flies, I'd go and do something I spe
cially liked to do till 'twas over, and
presently it got so I didn't mind It a
bit Mercy sakes, child, the best man
that ever lived will have some llttlo
way or other that you'll have to get
around. The secret Is in seeing how
little it is beside his love."
Betty, looking thoughtfully at her
ring, was silent From the sitting room
same a thump and a triumphant ex
clamation. Uncle Joshua had caught a
fly. Youth's Companion.
Hotel Cella.
The chief difference between the av
erage hotel cell and the average pris
on cell, viewed from the standpoint of
social psychology, Is that one is locked
on the inside to keep outsiders out,
while the other is locked on the out
side to keep insiders In. The occu
pant of the hotel cell is afraid that
something will be done to him or that
something will be taken from him by
some one who ought to be in a prison
cell. That Is the theory of it.
"Lock your door and leave your val
uables at the office," cautions the oblig
ing innkeeper. "If you had valuables
you wouldn't be here," observes the
witty prison keeper. That is to say,
the question of valuables seems to en
ter largely into the matter.
It would be great to have a civi
lization which considered valuable only
those things which could not be stol
en, such as mental and moral equip
ment, skill and goodfellowshlp. Then
we could be a little more sociable. We
coma uuk to eacn oiner wiiuoui oui
toning our coats or feeling for our dia
mond studs every few minutes. Then
the man who willingly secluded him
self in a stuffy hotel cell could be lock
ed in and made to stay there, on the
ground that something terrible was
the matter with him. Success Magazine,
The Boss So it was your grand
mother's funeral kept you away from
the office yesterday? Wrho officiated?
Johnny De umpire.
On Hla Side.
Satan danced in mad glee as he
held the sheet and glanced over the
spring fashions.
"Why do you rejoice?" asked a sad
shade.
"Somebody loves me," smiled Satan.
"Who loves you?"
"The man who Invented Btyles fox
women."
It Depended.
"Is your mother at home, little
girir
"Are you the lady with the new
dreu or the nne from tho Installment
house?"
The empty back seat of a big auto
mobile is one of the things that add
to the discontent of a man on foot
If there is so much fun in dancing,
why don't families dance by tbeor
elvcs at home) ,