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About Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1903-1919 | View Entire Issue (May 20, 1916)
THE DAILY CAPITAL -TO "VAL, SALEM, OREGON, SATURDAY, MAY 20, 1916. rfj yn rz BY A.COXAN DOYLE Copyright, 1912, CHAPTER III. "!fi Juafthe Very Biggest Thing In tha World." ARDLY was It shut whim Mrs. Cballenirer darted out from iH. "le dining r"UID' T,le small woman was in a rurious tem per. She barred her husband's way like an enraged chicken In front of a bulldog. It was evident that she had Keen my exit, but had not observed xny return. "Yon brule, George!" she screamed, "i'ou've hurt that nice young innn." . He Jerked backward with his thumb. "Here he Is, sufe and sound behind . HI,?." j She was confused, hut not unduly so. I "I am so sorry. I didn't see you." "I assure you, madam, that It Is all "He has marked your poor face! Oh, (n;oi'ge, what a brute you arel Noth ing but scandals from one end of the week to the other. Kvery one hating b.hI making fun of you. You've flu Idled my patience. This ends It!" "Jlrty linen," he rumbled. "It's not a secret!" she cried. "Do you suppose that the whole street the whole of liondon, for that matter Opt away, Austin. We don't want you bore. Do you suppose they don't ilil talk about you? Where Is your dignity? You a man who should have been rcglus professor at a great uul- f 'ixlty with a tbousaud students all r 'Verlng you! Where Is your dignity, !corge?" "How about yours, my dear?" "You try me too much. A rutBan, a common brawling rutlliui-that's what y 'ill have become." ''Be good. JeNHle." "A roaring, raging bully!" "Thai's done It! Stool of penance!" mUl he. To my nniawment, he stooped, pick- e. l her up and placed her sitting upon 11 high pedestal of blin'k mat'hlu In the angle of the hall. It was at least sev uu I'eot high and so thin that sho could hardly balance upon It. A more ab wiid object thnti she presented cocked ni there with her ace convulsed with Miigcr, her feet dangling and her body ib;ld for fear of an upset, 1 could not Imagine. "Let me down!" she walled. ' Say 'please.' " "You brute, George! Let me down tliis Instant!" "Come Into the study, Mr. Malone." ' Iteally, sir" said 1, looking at tho bi'ly. 'Here's Mr. Malone pleading for you, Jessie. Suy 'please' and down yon come." "till, you brute! Please, please!" lie took her down as If she had been it canary. You must behave yourself, dear. Me. Malono Is a press man. He will Imve It all In his rag tomorrow and sell iki extra dozen among our neighbors. 'Si range Story of High Life'-you felt f. ih'ly high on that pedestal, did you jot? Then a subtitle, 'Glimpse of a lingular Menage.' He's a foul feeder, Is Mr. Malone, a carrion eater, like all jl' his Uind - porcus ei giege dlalioll h nu hie from the devil's herd. That's if. Malnne-what'" "You are really Intolerable!" said 1 h"Oy. tie bellowed with laughter. "We Bhall have a coalition present ly." he boomed, looking from his wife ( me and pulling out his enormous client. Then, suddenly altering his (me, "Excuse this frivolous family badinage, Mr. Malone. 1 called you back for sunie more serious purpose I tin u to mU you up with our little do uiestlo pleasantries. II im away, little woman and diut fret." He placed a huge hand upon each of her shoulders. "All that you any Is perfectly true. I hi t. .i 1 1,1 bo a better man If 1 did what yni adrlse, but I shouldn't be ipilte 'leiirge I'M wa r,l Challenger. There are plenty of better men, my dear, but only kmc (i. K. V. Ho make the best of him." Ho suddenly gave her a resounding I; i .-i, which enibai riissed me even more Hum his violence, had done. "Now, Sir. Malone," he continued, with a ureal accession of dignity, "this way, if von please." We re-eutereil the room which we (n l left so tuuiulliiously ten luluutcs before. The professor closed the door cmvfiilly Itelilnil us, motioned me Into mi armchair and pushed a clgnr bot iiinler my nose. "Heal Man Juan Colorado," he said. "Mi-HaWe people like you are (ho bet ter for narcotics. Heavens, don't bite 11! Cut, ami cut with reverence. Now I ''in buck and listen attentively to whatever I may care lo say to you. If ii v remark xhould occur to you you chii reserve It for some moro opportune, (lom. "t'lrst of all, as to your return to my liuiie after your most Justltluhle ex-piiisliiii"- he protruded his tiearil and irc,l at me as one who challenges ii.el Invites contradiction "after, as I nay, your well merited expulslou. 'I lie lesson lay In your answer to that lost oltlclous policeman, lu which I H -ciiuil to dlmwa some glimmering of g i l feeling upon your part-more, at - "- a by A. Conan Doyle. w. , v. "Let ma down:" she wailed. any rate, than I am accustomed to as sociate with your profession." Alt this he boomed forth like a pro fessor addressing his class. He had swung around his revolving chair so as to face me, and he sat all puffed out like an enonuousi bullfrog, his head laid back and his eyes half cover ed by supercilious lids. Now he sud denly turned himself sideways, and all I could see of lilm was tangled hair with a red, protruding ear. He was scratching about among the litter of papers upon !ils desk. He faced me presently with, what looked like a very tattered sketchbook In his hand, "I am going to talk to you about South America," said he. "No com ments, If you please. First of all, 1 wish you to understand that nothing I tell you now Is to be repeated lu any public way unless you have my ex press permission. That permission will lu all human probability never be given. Is that clear?" "It Is very hard," said I. "Surely a Judicious account" Ho replaced the notebook upon the table. "That ends It," said he. "I wish you a very good morning." "No, no!" I cried. "1 submit to any conditions. So far as I can see, I have no choice." "None In the world," said he. "Well, then, 1 promise." "Word of honor?" "Word of honor." He looked at me with doubt In his Insolent eyes. "After all, what do I know about your honor?" said he. "Upon my word, sir," I cried angrily, "you take very great liberties! 1 have never been so insulted lu my life." He seemed more Interested than an noyed at my outbreak. "Hound headed," lie muttered, "r.ruehycephallc, gray eyed, black haired, with suggestion of the negroid. Celtic, 1 presume?" "I am an Irishman, sir." "Irish Irish?" "Yes, sir." "That, of course, explains It. Let tne see, you have given nie your prom ise that my conlldence will be respect ed .' That conlldence, 1 may say, will be far from complete. Itut I'uiu pre pared to give you a few Indications which will be of Interest. In the first place, you are probably aware that two years ago 1 ihhiIb a Journey to South America, one which will be classical lu the sclentltle history of the world. The object of my Journey was to verify some conclusions of Wal lace and of Hates, which could only be done by observing their reported facts under the same conditions In which they had themselves noted them. If my expedition had no other results It would still have been noteworthy, but a . curious lucldciil occurred to me while there which opened np an entire ly freh line of lunuliy. "You are aware or probably, lu this half educated age, you are not aware that the country round some putts of the Auihioii Is Ht 111 only partially ex plored und Hint a great number of tributaries, some of them entirely un charted, run Into the main river. It was tny business to visit this little known back country and to examine Its fauna, which furnished me with the materials for several chapter for that great and munittueulal work upou loolugy which will be my life's Justifi cation. I was returning, my work ac complished, when I had invasion to spend a ulnht nk a small ludtau village at a jMiliit where a certa'u tributary the name and posltlou of which I with hold opens Into the main river. Tha natives were Cticatiia ludlans, an 11 l WIJ afM l4 . mm, l Ail til J 7, J fU, aVW ' Vl'l amiable but degraded race, with men tal powers hardly superior to the aver age Londoner. I had effected some cures among them upon my way up the river and had Impressed them con siderably with my personality, so that I was not surprised to find myself ea gerly awaited upon my return. I gath ered from their signs that some one had urgent need of my medical serv ices, and I followed the chief to ono of his huts. When I entered I found that the sufferer to whose aid I bad been summoned bad that Instant ex pired. He was, to my surprise, no In dian, but a white man. Indeed, I may say a very white man, for ho was flax cu haired and had some characteristics of an albino. He was clad lu rags, was very emaciated and bore every trace of prolonged hardship. So far as I could understand the account of the natives he was a complete stranger to them and had come upon their village through the woods alone and lu the last stage of exhaustion. "The man's knapsack lay beside the couch, and I examined Hie contents. His name was written upon a fab with in It 'Maple White, Laku avenue, De troit, Mich.' "l-'aom fhe contents of tho knapsack It was evident that this man hud been an artist and poet In search of effects. There were scraps of verse. I do not profess to be a Judge of such things, but they appeared to me to bo singu larly wanting In merit. "I was turning away from him when I observed that something pro jected from the front of his ragged Jacket. It was this sketchbook, which was as dilapidated their as you see It now. Indeed, I can assure you that a first folio of Shakespeare could not be treated with greater reverence than this relic has been since it came Into my possession. I hand It to you now, and I ask 'you to take It page by page and to examine the contents." He helped himself to a cigar and leaned back with a fiercely critical pair of eyes, taking note of the effect which this document would produce. I had opened the volume with some expectation of a revelation, though of what nature I could not imagine. The first page was disappointing, however, as it contained nothing but the picture of a very fat man lu a pen jacket, with the legend, "Jluiiiy Colver on the Mall Boat," written beneath It. There fol lowed several pages which were tilled with small sketches of Indians and their ways. Then came a picture of a cheerful and corpulent ecclesiastic In a shovel hut, sitting opposite a very thlu European, and tho Inscription, "Lunch With Fra Crlstofero at llo sarlo." Studies of women and babies accounted for several more pages, and then there was an unbroken series of diilnial drawings' with bucIi explana tions as "Manatee Upon Sandbauk," "Turtles ami Their Kggs," "Black AJoutl I'nder a Mlrltl Talm," the mat ter disclosing somo sort of piglike ani mal, and finally came a double page of studies of long snouled and very unpleasant saurlaus. I could make nothing of It and said so to the pro fessor. "Surely these are only crocodiles?" "Alligators! Alligators! There Is hardly such a thing as a true crocodile In South America. The distinction be tween t hem" "I meant that I cou'd see nothing unusual nothing to justify what you have said." He smiled serenety. "Try the next page," said he. I was still unable to sympathize. It was a full page sketch of a landscape roughly tinted lu color, the kind of ; painting which an open air urtlst takes as a guide to a future more elaborate effort. There was a pale green fore ground of feathery vegetation, which sloped upward and ended In a line of cliffs dark red lu color aud curiously ribbed like some basaltic formations which I have Been. "Well?" he asked. "It Is no doubt a curious formation," said I, "but I am not geologist enough to say that It Is wonderful." "Wonderful!" he repeated. "It Is uulipie. It Is Incredible. No one on earth has ever dreamed of such a pos sibility. Now the next." I turned It over and gave an ex clamation of surprise. There was a full page picture of t lie most extraor dinary creaturo that I had ever seen. It was the wild dream of nu opium smoker, a vision of delirium. The bend was like that of a fowl, the body that of a bloated ll.ard, the trailing tail was furnished with upward turn ed spikes, and tho curved back was edged with a high serrated fringe, which looked like a do7.eu cocks' wat tles placed behind each other. In front of this creature was nu absurd manul k I ii or dwarf lu human form, who stood staring at It. CHAPTER IV. Challenger's Proof. i:i.L, what do you think of that?" cried the professor, rubbing his bauds with an air of triumph. "It Is monstrous-grotesque!" "Hut what made aim draw such an aulmal?'' "Trade gin, I should think." "Oh, that's the best explanation you can give, Is It?" "Well, sir, what Is yours?" "The obvious one that, the creature exists. That Is actually sketched from the life." I should have luugbed only that I bud a vision of our doing another Catharine wheel down the passage. t "Look here!" he cried, leaning for ward and dabbing a great hairy mm-sa-ge of a linger on to the picture. "You Sce that plant behind the animal? I suppose you thought It was a dande lion or a brussel sprout what? Wei!, It Is a vegetable Ivory plant, and they ruu to about, fifty or sixty feet. Don't w you see that the man Is put in tor a purpose? He couldn't really have stood In front of that brute and lived to draw It lie sketched himself In to give a acalo of heights. lie was, we will say, over five feet high. The tree Is ten times bigger, which Is what one would cxiiect." . "Good heavens!" I cried. "Then you think the beast was Why, Charing Cross station would lntrdly make a kenjiel for such a brute!" "Apart from exaggeration, be ts cer tainly a well grown specimen," said the professor complacently. "But," I cried, "surely the whole ex perience of tho human race Is not to be set aside on account of a single sketch" I had turned over the leaves aud uscertuined that there was noth ing more In the book "a single sketch by a wandering American artist, who may have done It under hashish or In the delirium of fever -or simply In or der to gratify a frenklsb Imagination. You can't, as a man of science, defend such a position as that." For answer the professor took a book down from a shelf. "This Is an excellent monograph by my gifted friend, Uay I.unkester," said he. "There Is an illustration here which would Interest you. Ah, yes, hero It Is! Tho Inscription beneath It runs: 'Probable appearance In lite of Hie Jurassic Dinosaur Stegosaurus. The hind leg ulono Is twice as tall as a full grown man.' Well, what do you innke of that?" He handed me the open book. I started as I looked nt the picture. In this reconstructed auluiul of a dead world there was certainly a very great resemblance to the sketch of the un known artist. "That Is certainly remarkable," I said. "Itut you won't admit that It Is final?" "Surely It might be a coincidence, or this American may have seen a pic ture of the kind and carried It In his memory. I,t would be likely to recur to a man In a delirium." "Very good," said the professor In dulgently. ' "We leave It nt that. 1 will now nsk you to look at this bone." He handed over the one which he had already described as part of the dead man's possessions. It was about six Inches long aud. thicker than my thumb, with some Indications of dried cartilage at one end of It. "To what known creature does that bone belong?'! asked the professor. I examined It with care and tried to recall some halt forgotten knowledge. "It might be a very thick human col lar bone," I said. My companion waved his hand In contemptuous deprecation. "The human collar bone is curved. This Is straight. There Is a groove upou Us surface, showing that a great "Don't you as that tha man ia put in for a purpose." tendon played across it, which could not be Hie case with a clavicle." "Theu I imftt confess that I don't know what It Is." "You need not be ashamed to expose your ignorance, for I don't suppose tho whole South Kensington staff could give a name to it." He took a little bone the size of a liean out of a pill box. "So far as I am a judge this human bono Is the analogue of the one which you hold In jour hand. That will give you some Idea of (he size of the creature. You will observe from the cartilage, that this Is no fossil spec Imeu, but recent. What do you say to that?" ".Surely In an elephant" He winced as if In pain. "Don't! .Don't talk of elephants In South America. F.ven in these days of board schools" "Well,". 1 Interrupted, "any large South American nulnial-a tapir, for Maniple." "You may take It, young man, that I am versed lu the elements of my business. This. Is not a conceivable bone either of n tapir or of any other creature known to .eulogy. It belongs to a very large, a very strong aud. by all analogy, a very fierce animal which exists upon the face of the earth, but has not yet come under the notice of science. You are still unconvinced:" "I mil af least deeply Interested." "Then your case Is not hopeless. 1 feel that there is reason lurking lu you somewhere, so we will patiently grope round for l(. "We will now leave tho dead Ameri can and proceed with my narrative. You can imagine that I could hardly come away from the Amazou without probing deeper Into the matter. There were Indications as u the direction from which, the dead traveler L5 come. Inrtbia legends would alOrS have been lyXVilde, for I found JM rumors of a strange land were com mon among all the riverine tribes. It was my business to find out more." "What did yon do?" My flippancy was all gone. This massive man com pelled one's attention and respect. "I overcame the extreme reluctance of the natives a reluctance which ex tends even to talk upon the subject and by judicious persuasion and gifts, aided, I will admit, by some threats of coercion, I got two of them to act as guides. After many adventures which I need not describe, and after traveling a distance which I will not mention, In a direction which I with hold, we came at last to a tract of country which- has never been de scribed nor, Indeed, visited save by my unfortunate predecessor. Would you kindly look at this?" He handed me a photograph, half plate size. "The unsatisfactory appearance of it Is duo to the fact," said be, "that on descending the river tho boat was up set and the case which contained the undeveloped films was broken, with disastrous results. Nearly all of them were totally ruined an Irreparable loss. This Is one of the few which partially escaped." The photograph was certainly very off colored. An unkind critic might easily have misinterpreted that dim surface. It was a dull gray landscape, and as I gradually deciphered the de tails of It I renllzcd that It represented a long and enormously high lino of cliffs exactly like an Immense cata ract seen In the distance, with a slop ing, tree clad plain In tho foreground. "I believe it Is the same place as tho painted picture," said I. "It is the same place," the professor answered. "I found traces of the fel low's camp. Now look nt this." It was a nearer view of the same scene, though the photograph was ex tremely defective. I could distinctly see an Isolated, tree crowned pinnacle of rock which was detached from the crag. "I have no doubt of It at all," said L "Well, that is something gained," said lie. "We progress, do we not? Now, will you please look at the top of that rocky pinnacle? Do you otertf something there?" "An enormous tree." "But on the tree?" "A large bird," said I. He handed me a lens. "Yes," I said, peering through It, "a large bird stands on the tree. It ap pears to have a considerable beak. I should say it was a pelican." "I cannot congratulate you upon your eyesight," said the professor. "It la not a pelican, nor, Indeed, is it a bird. It may interest you to know that I succeeded in shooting that par ticular specimen. It was the only ab solute proof of my experiences which I was able to bring away with me." "A monstrous bat!" I suggested. "Nothing of the sort," said the pro fessor severely. "Living, as I. do, In an educated and scientific atmosphere, I could not have conceived that the first principles of zoology were so lit tle known. Is it possible that you do not know the elementary fact in comparative anatomy that the wing of a bird Is really the forearm, while tho wing of a bat consists of three elongated fingers with membranes be tween? Now, in this case the bone is certainly not the forearm, and you can see for yourself that this Is a single membrane hnnglng upon a single bono and therefore that It cannot belong to a bat. But, if it is neither. bird nor bat, what Is it?" My small stock of knowledge, was exhausted. , "I really do not know," said I. He opened the standard work to which he had already referred me. "Here," said he, pointing to the pic ture of an extraordinary flying mon ster, "is an excellent reproduction of the dlmorphodon, or pterodactyl, a fly ing reptile of the jura.lc period. On the next page Is a diagram of the mechanism of Its wing. Kindly com pare It with the specimen in your hand." A wave of amazement passed over me as I looked. I wus convinced. There could be no getting away from It. Ihe cumulative proof was over whelming. The sketch, the photo graphs, the narrative and now the ac tual specimen the evidence was com plete. I said so I said so warmly, for I. felt that the professor was an III used man. He leaned back In his chair with drooping eyelids and a tol erant smile, basking in this sudden gleam ef sunshine. He purred with satisfaction. "And theu, sir, what did you do next?" "It was the wet season, Mr. Malone. and my stores were exhausted. I ex plored some portion of this huge cliff, but I was unable to find any way to scale It. The pyramidal rock hikui which I saw and shot the pterodactyl was more accessible. Being something of a cragsman, I did manage to get halfway to tbo top of that. From that height I had a better Idea of tiie plateau upon the top of the crags. It appeared to tie very large. Neither to east nor to west could I sec any end lo the vis ta of green capped cliffs. Below It Is a swampy. Jungly region, full of snakes, Insects and fever. It Is a natural pro tection to this singular country." "Did you see any other trace of life?" "No, sir, I did not, but during tho week that we lay .eucnmped at the base of the cliff we heard some very strange noises from above.". "But the creature that the American drew how do you account for that?" "We can only supposo that ha must have made his way to the summit and seen It there. We know, therefore, that there Is a way up. We know equally that it must be a very diffi cult one; otherwise the creatures would have come down and overmu the surrounding country. Surely that -iiear.'L It Represented a Long Line of Cliffs. '"But how dla tiiey come to be there?" "I do not think that the problem Is a very obscure one," said the professor. "There can ,only be one explanation. South America is, as you may have heard, a granite continent. At this single point in the interior there has been, In some far distant age, a great sudden volcanic upheaval. These cliffs, I may remark, nro basaltic und there fore Plutonic. An area as large per haps us Sussex has been lifted up en bloc with all Its living contents and cut off by perpendicular precipices of a hardness which defies erosion from all the rest of the continent. What is the-re3it? Why, the ordinary laws of nature are suspended. The various checks which Influence the struggle for existence in the world at large are all neutralized or altered. Creatures survive which would otherwise disap pear. You will observe that both the pterodactyl and the stegosaurus are Jurassic and therefore of a great age In the order of life. They have been artificially conserved by those strange accidental conditions." "But surely your evidence Is conclu sive. You have only to lay it before the proper authorities." "So In my simplicity I had Imag ined," said the professor bitterly. "I can only tell you that It was not so; that I was met at every turn by In credulity, born partly of stupidity and partly of jealousy." "My wife has frequently remonstrat ed with me upon my violence, and yet I fancy that any man of honor would feel the same. Tonight, however, I propose to give an extreme example of the control of the will over the emo tions. I Invite you to be present at the exhibition." He handed me a card from his desk. "You perceive that E'ertival Waldron, a naturalist of some popular repute, is announced to lecture at 8:30 at tlie Zoological Institute hall upon 'The Itecord of the Ages.' I have been specially Invited to be present upon the platform and to move a vote of thanks to the lecturer. While do ing so I shall make it my business, with infinite tact and delicacy, to throw out a few remarks which may arouse the interest of the audience and cause some of them to desire to go more deeply Into the matter. Nothing contentious, you understand, but only an Indication that there nre greater deeps beyond. I shall hold myself strongly lu leash and see whether by this self restraint I attain a more fa vorable result." "And I may come?" I asked eagerly. "By all means come. It will bo a comfort to me to know that I have one ally in the hall, however inedkicnt and Ignorant of the subject he may be." "But Mr. McArdle, my news editor, you know, will want to know what I have done." "Tell him what you like. You can say, among other things, that If he sends any one else to Intrude upon me I shall call upon him with a riding whip. But I leave It to you that noth ing of all this nppcars In print. Very good. Then the Zoological Institute hall at 8:30 tonight." I had a last im pression of red checks, bine rippling beard and Intolerant eyes as he waved me out of the room. (Continued next Saturday). There Is more Catarrh In this section , the country than all other diseases pul together, and until the last few yean was supposed to be Incurable. For a ffreat many years doctors pronounced It a ocal disease and prescribed local reme dies, and by constantly falling to cure with lo'ail treatment, pronounced It Incur able. Science lias proven Catarrh to be a constitutional disease, and therefore re quires constitutional treatment. Hall't Catarrh Cure, manufactured by V. J. Cheney & Co., Toledo, Ohio, Is the only Constitutional cure on the market. It li (alien Internally. It acts directly on the blood and mucous surfaces of the aystem. They offer one hundred dollars for any cime It falls to cure. Send for clrculari and testimonials. Addrfw:F. J. CHENEY CO.. Toleo. O Sold by Druggists, Tfic. Take Hall's Family Pllla for constipation STENOGRAPHERS Whj Not Use Columbia QUALITY CaxboiuT Made in Oregon 100 Copies purtranteed from Each Sheet. Oolambl Carbon Prr Mfg. Oo. 83rd t Broadway, Portland, Or. "Individual tombstones for women" is a new slogan of the D. A. It., but it can hardlv stand for a live issue. 3 Tliiu thy CAPSULES artiussiiortsfi'lum ef Comibi. Cubttit sf lnjctiom,ind RELIEFS la (MIDY) 24 HOUnS M W us disuses with out incwivenisnca. if0J DIGESTIVE EFFICIENCY Must come from a strong Stoin- Q ach, active Liver and Bowel regularity. Watch these organs ' and at any sign of weakness try J HACTFTTFDJC n.!V7JILI ILI a u Stomach Bitters UST word Mr.Tw. Isr Mr. Horn LoOot UST enter Hotel Noc tonia's hotpitabla docn UST (elect a large, cheer ful room Jor youi stay UST Stop long, long b ml or a ehort, ihoi t tima , UST trj a I ervice that an ticipates everything. an atmoa phare that delightl UST make a start totfani better heelth-enloy' the mem InS .noon" evening meal- UST meet and Hobnob with friends In tha airy lobby USTresty- our weary bones on a truly luxurious bed anal surrender to pleasant dreams UST the tiling that appeals moderate prices. Rooms With privilege of bath St or more the dey. Rooms with, prWste bath $1.5 0 or more the da n off Washington 12m and Washington Portland Another Railroad for Alaska Is Considered Washington, 5Iay 19. Another gov ernment owned railroad in Alaska is being considered today by the,, nenata territorial committee. John McKenr.ie of Cordova was a witness, giving in formation about such a project. The committee instructed Chairman Pittman to write Secretary of the In terior Lane that the body wa im pressed and desired the advice of hi department. A railroad like tho one contemplated would open up tho gov ernment's Bering coal fields. TO THE LADIES OF THE CHOETJS Mr. Hopper introduced us at a Wednes day matinee, She was tall and she was lovely, in a grand and queenly way, And I asked, "Who is she, Horner!" in a whisper far from loud, And he Baid, "She's in the chorus." men i lost mem in me cruwu. e But I went at eight that evening to tha theatre where they played, For I felt I'd know that face again, no matter how arrayed, And I waited for the chorns in my dollar-fifty seat, With a pair of opera glasses and a heart that wildly beat. There were fifty in the chorus, ea.:h aa fair as fair can be, But I looked both long and vainly for the face I'd come to sec, And I vent again the next night, and the next one and tic next, 'Til my brain grew dull with pressing and my soul wag sore perpl-xcd. By a process of rejection I dis:V,led all but ten, The Ten Athenian suitors, ulio arr girls made up as men. But even then Fate baffled me, ami tears flowed from my eyes, 'Til the people sitting near me, were exceedingly surprised. For the Ten' Athenian snitors, those aristocratic sprigs, All dress and talk and walk alike and all wear yellow wigs, And upon my soul I cannot tell which is the girl I know. And it drives me to distraction, for I really love her so. "Is she the tenth!" I asked myself, "or is she number three!" In every act I think that each, in turn, is surety she. I know she's there, though sad to tell, I do not know her name; But, still, no matter which she is I love her just the same. I've asked the ushers one and all, I've pumped the stage-door man; At its dim portals every night each muffled face I scan. They'll leavo us and I'll miss her, though I haven 't found her yet, But that face, whichever one it is, I never will forget. And when the Colonel takes them off to one-night stands out. West, I know my soul will hunger with a feel ing of unrest; And I'll follow to Chicago the subject of this lay, To whom Hopper introduced me at a Wednesday matinee. R. H. Davis. A distinctive characteristic of 191ft is that it is a prosperous presidential year. BIN SIN Best Chinese Dishes Noodles Chop Suey ... Bice and Fork .10c .25c .10c 410 FERKY STREET JT 3 01 f i HI.