Evening Star Newspaper, August 30, 1925, Page 78

‘THE SUNDAY . STAR, WASHINGTON, THE CIGARETTE )y Ben Ames Williams The Crime Was Planned With the Utmost Care. HIS story should properly dedicated to Tim since it Is the record of first appearance of t strange talent of his—that gift for seeing beneath the surface of things; that ability to stand in the background like a piece of furniture, %o little regarded that men forgot he was there, while he read their minds Worth some attention, this Tim | O'Hearn. But the tale more properly concerns itself with the affairs of Dr. Ralph| Hounder —and the cigarette he smoked and laid aside 5 That he should have come into po: session of the pistol at all was stroke of good fortune: he had some inkling of this at the time. He was| in the north woods with a guide who | was also game warden: the, stopped one day at a squatter shack in g iring where once had | roared a er camp, and Dr.| Hounder's guide went indoors to question the squatter. Dr. Hounder, staying outside, was surprised to see the pistol drop from | an open window at his very feet. He| picked it up and saw a cheap weapon, | S-caliber, with a barrel from which | the nickel had chipped off and a han- dle of which half had cracked away. He smiled a little, imagining the | squatter must have had some reason When turned in his he left Mr. homeward, thoughts, F he to rraday and committed, urder. His plans were laid with scientific accuracy and with artistic simplicity. The ordinary doctor, he told himself, if he decided on murder, would choase a drug. The very use of the pistol was, he felt, a stroke of genius on his part. He sat late that night, con- sidering the project. until there awoke in_him a certain zeal for it He knew something of the Farraday menage: knew the routine of the great house. It stood at the corner of two intersecting streets, in a neighborhood not much frequented, and the house itsélf was near the sidewalk. Mr. Farraday was accus- tomed to receive callers in his big liv- ing room on the ground floor; he had desk there. Behind his chair, in the huge fire- place. a small five burned, even when the days were warm. “The old fool's cold-blooded as a snake,” thought Dr. Hounder. French windows opened on the veranda; there was a mail box at the corner, not slx steps from the veranda rall. It was secured o & post set in the hedge that surrounded the grounds. Dr. Hounder took care to visualize this mail box in his mind; it had a part in what he meant to do. Mr. tor wishing to get rid of the thing, | and dropped it into his pocket. Later | that day the whimsical thought oc- | curred to him that if he ever wished | to commit a murder, this would be a | useful possession, this na tol rom a nameless source. | Hounder knew that murderers had in{ the past been traced by, the weapon they used. He kept the pistol: had kkept it ever since. He was a bache-| lor, and there was no woman in his house to discover it and throw gingerly away The original car- tridges were still in the cylinder. He| fired the thing one day, and was in- terested in the discovery that the re- | port was not loud: was no more than | a flat, snapping crack. He kept the | pistol locked away in a steel box in| his office safe. His own personal and | private pharmacopoeia was also kept | in the box. The pistol was not the| doctor's only secret | The mistake he made would never have been made but for this other | secret of his. Some slight difficult replenishing his supplies of the drug he desired had left his nerves in an uncertain jangling state. | Then Dr. David Mills called him in consultation on Mrs. Farraday, and they agreed upon w dosuge which— Dr. Mills having departed and the nurse being delayed alsewhere—D: Hounder administered. His hand ! shook a little, {n the measuring. and Mrs. Farraday died before mor ing. Her death had not been unexpecter the poor lady had been ill for weeks, and she was old and ready to dfe. Nevertheless, it was a shocking thing for Dr. Hounder. As soon as he real. ized his mistake, he had, of course, taken his precautions; her death might have been expected in the | natural course of events without that | mistake of his, and there was no rea. son to suspect him of mistakes i DR nouNpe the time body was buried and the of an examination was past, had de- clded that be was =afe from discovery. And then, three or four days after the obsequics, James Farraday Tor him. Farraday and his wife were old; the 33 | the danger sen bad had no children, and they lived | the revolver Inside. and affixed the | very much alone in a great house sur- rounded by plessant hedged grounds. where an old servant or two attended them. | Farraday s it was un- derstood that his death would profit certaln worthy institutions. There was certainly no reason to suppose | that it would in any wise profit Dr. Ralph Hounder. This was the | strength of the physician’s position, as he saw it after his call in response to Mr. Farraday’s summons. That summons itself had startied him; the reason for it wasat first more startling. 1t appeared Mr. raday had conceived th ‘wife's death need not “Not yet at least, Dr. Hounder," explained. “Yon understand that I know she was very ill; and she and 1 He amended him- smiling pitifully “Were both * he said, and continued: “But 1| saw no sign of an approaching crisis | in her on the day of her death, and Ter more serious attacks were usually | preceded by indications which T could | see. I may say that her death was a | shock to me.” The old man’s feeble eyes filled with tears. My grief prevented clear thought at first; I had sought to think more clearly. It seems to me possible that Dr. Mills made a mistake in his | prescription. Dr. Hounder heard this with an in- | audible sigh of relief; the tension of his nerves and muscles relaxed. IHe said diplomatically: It is possible you are right, sir. 1 am inclined to doubt Dr. Mills is very careful. We| agreed on the course of treatment. he | and 1. before he left the house that day. T remained to talk with your | wife for a lttle, a few minutes, until the nurse should return.” “1 appreciate all you did, Dr.| Hounder,” Mr. Farraday assured him. “I have no thought of blaming vou. Dr. Hounder bowed hat is very generous of you, sir. *But somebody’s to blame," said Mr. Farraday, a little heatedly. “Som body’s to blame. Or maybe no one i That's what distresses me now, si I Not knowing whether any one is to ba blamed or no.’ I “When our loved ones us.” | Dr. Hounder suggested, “‘we are too Apt to accuse ourselves, too apt 1o | hink we have been remi: or care- | or have done less than we might. | We' should not thus distress our- selves.” Dr. Hounder's tones were re- | assuring. | The old man had the stubbornness | of age. “You are right, of course he assented. “I know that I am un reasonable.” e smiled placating! “Yet I am unreasonable, and dete minedly so. I wish to be sure, in this matter, Dr. Hounder. I sent for you to ask a simple thing. Would You object to my seeking an order to | exhume and examine my wife's body?” Dr. Hounder found himself reply- ing, in the suave tones long habit had taught him, that he would not object in the least; at the same time a sud- denly awakened panic in him was ob Jecting very violently indeed. ok ¥ % F\'E.\' while he reassured Mr. Farra- ~ day, consenting and applauding the wisdom of his plan, his thoughts were bent on that scene by Mrs. Far- raday’s bedside, scarce a week before. Already the scene was In his mind distorted; even at this short distance he could not be sure what had hap- pened. His nerves had been all awry. The old woman was near death, any- way. Why co much bother? He €aw quite clearly that if Mr. Farraday went ahead with this plan of his, it meant ruin for Dr. Ralph Hounder, the fashionable practitioner. “ ... Write the letter,” he heard himseif saying to Mr. Farraday. -“I suggest that you write it tonight, and T will call tomorrow morning and con- sult witk you on its terms—before dis- patching it. May I suggest that the matter be kept between us two? In the meantime I will consult with Dr. Mille.” Mr, Farraday objected to that: and Dr. Hounder argued the point auto- matically. his words not mirroring his thoughts at all. He yicided at lasly wealthy Fa idea that his he | leave | the box | own Farraday's man-servant was an old man, and, like Mr. Farraday himself, somewhat hard of hearing. Another thing worth remembering, Dr. Hounder reminded himself. He closed his eyes and visualized the 1i ing room where he would see Mr. Farrad tomorrow morning — the door in a side wall. opposite the win- dows; the desk table where Mr. Far raday would be sitting; the fireplace, half ‘a4 dozen feet away; the book shelves along the wall. He weighed his plan and all his movements with some care. Only one thing needful to his success: this one thing easily managed—that the servant should be elsewhere at the moment when h Dr. Hounder, entered Mr. Farraday’ living room. | ¥ ox % | WHEN his plans were complete he | sought out a small cardboard | box of « fit size to hold the pistol: he | cut out one end of this box and laid | the piece of cardboard aside. Then itself he wrapped in stout | paper and tied three ways with cord leaving the open end free. The pa- per at that end he did not fold.| Loose ends of the cord dangled. | He tested this device to be sure it | was practical; practiced inserting the | pistol, adjusting the cardboard end of iite box, folding the paper and trying the final knot, until his fin- gers moved like mechanism. Satis fied with his skill in this maneuver, he tried a in a handkerchief and placed it in| his right-hand coat pocket: sneezed, | drew out the handkerchief and pistol|{had been In my imagination, and 1| |as though to blow his nose—and went | crossed the hall and knocked. There | turning with it through a pantomime of pulling the|Was no reply, but Mr. Farraday was|mnust be, if he could find it trigger. There were other movements he Le|and at about the same time reached [taken cold,” Mr. Farraday suggested O'Heurn, | his own decision. the | with solicitude. The physictan shook his head. At the same time, from his right-hand {coat pocket and in the :most matter {of fact way, he drew a handkerchief. The folds of the handkerchief and the fact that the-pistol muzzie almost touched Mr. Farraday’s head muffied the explosion. Mr. Farraday tilted for- ward across his desk with a little thump, cured of all worldly cares and ills. Dr. Hounder wasted no time. He laid the pistol down upon the edge of the desk and reached for the letter. Mr. Farraday's hand still clutched it. Chance had it that the-thing had fallen |just beneath his head. Dr. Hounder | instantly perceived that unless it were snatched away there would be a damn- ingly clean space upon the blotter where it had lain. e had it fn his hand within a split second, and was reassured to see that the sharp edge of the stain on the blotter was already being marred and blotted out. Yet this might not be the right letter. He opened it, made sure. Into the fire. It flared there. While he watched it burn he picked |up the pistol and handkerchief and cleaned his hand with the latter. The letter was crisping into ash. He turned toward his bag, found the cardboard box, thrust into It pistol and handker- chief, and with half a dozen swift mo- tions closed the end and tled it. By the time the knot was tied he stood at one of the French windows. No one was visible without. The win- | dow opened easily. He stepped lightly across the lawn and reached over the hedge and laid the parcel, stamped and addressed, atop the mail box to awalt the collector. Instantly back into the living room again, he crossed, picked up his bag and opened the door into the hall. * % % ¥ HESE movements had occupied = him since he first entered the liv. ing room a scant 60 seconds’ time. | Now he dropped his bag and ran along | the hall toward the rear of the house, shouting for the serving man. There was very realistic consternation in his | tone: Dr. Hounder himself telephoned the police and volunteered to await their arrival. He waé at the house when Dr. Spargent, the medical examiner, arrived, and the two professional men consulted gravely. Dr. Hounder's story was explicit. “There was raday when I arrived,” he sa 1 walited in the music room. After a while the caller went out through the front door, but T happened not to see him, 60 I don’t know who he was. I was about to knock at the ltving room door when it seemed to me I heard volces inside, so I assumed that there | was some one still with the old man. iother—wrapped the pistol | 4 little later I thought T heard a book | drop on the floor. Nothing more. “After a while I decided the voices slightly hard of hearing, so this did not. surprise me. I opened the door ome one with Mr. Far- | of people there; servants; a woman grieving aloud; a reporter or two al- ready on the scene. Other policemen appeared, but did not enter the room. A plain-clothes man arrived and stood beside the pa- trolman, watching Dr. Spargent’s ac- tlons with respect. The silence of these others began to disquiet Dr. Hounder; he thought there was suspiclon In’their bearing. But he lifted his head with confidence that even though they might suspect —ridiculous enough—they could never prove. The plstol was safely gone: he himself had, as it were, an alibi, since he could prove he had not left the house. They could suspect on hix part no slightest motive. His confi dence returned. It was at about this time that he first saw the finger print on the edge of the desk. Dr. Hounder had always known that criminals were sometimes detected by their finger prints. Considering this danger in advance, he had weighed means to avoid it. Gloves? Awkward and In_themselves calculated to be. tray. The simple thing was to avoid leaving any prints. A relatively casv matter. If any were left, it after all. be possible to point out that he had been in the room the night be fore. 5 Dr. Spargent had asked him idiy “Did you touch the body after you discovered it?” Dr. Hounder had replied: “No! T | only came to the end of the desk. No | need of touching it.” { PR | T)R. SPARGENT wished to make n | photograph of the desk from the | | door and asked him to step back out | of range of the camera. Dr. Hounder leaned against the bookshelves. The | desk was between him and the light | and he saw, on its edge, the print of !a finger tip Even on the red ma | hogany this print seemed to him glow {ing and red. He remembered his own | fingers had been red when he finished | handling the letter. His thoughts { cuddenly leaped Into gear, began to | race. The pistol had been lying there on the table; the handkerchief beside {1t When he picked up the handke: chief to wipe his hands, one fing | mus* have touched the polished sur |face. He had left his mark there. | In blood! Fit to hang him! ’ | In the sflence the shutter of the {camera clicked, and Dr. Hounder | started at the sound. “Nervous, 1 | guess,” he sald apologetically. His | thoughts were racing. What to do | What to do His whole body cried aloud the im pulse to rush forward and with one sweep of his hand obliterate mark, but caution held him back. Folly to betray his apprehensions. They might not remark the print {all; it might be blurred, indecipher able. He stifled panic, held himself | in check, fought for a moment's clear {and accurate reasoning It came to him, his confidence Some way there He bad | a great contempt for these muddlers here: Dr. Spargent and his inane t considered and rehearsed, alone there |&0d saw him crumpled down on his | Photographs. grisly relies of the tras in his office till late in the night, and | at times he talked to himself in lo and tones. When he was satistied detail. he went to bed and nself to sleep. In the morning, as a final touch, he | addressed the box which would con- tain the pistol to John . Hands, 231 A Streel. Lancaster, Calif. The name Lancaster he got from a wap; the rest was fiction. He then welghed it, | proper stamps. About hal into his car past nine he stepped | and drove toward the| home of Mr. Farraday. When he ap- proached the house he drove more slowly, passed, turned at some di tance and returned: passed again. He thus waited without being con- spicuous until he saw a man go in at the Farraday entrance. Thus assured | that Mr. } | arrival, be engared, he drove boldly | up to the house, stopped his car, got | out, went up the steps and rang. The pistol was in his right-hand pocket, | wrapped in a handkerchief; the card- board box was in hi¥ physician's bag. > h had personally stage wanaged matters could not | The old | serving man admitted him, told him | that Mr. Farraday was engaged, and | suggested ‘that he wait in the small| music room across the hall from the | living room. Dr. Hounder told the | man he need not return. “I'll just knock and,go in when his | caller goes.” he explained, and the old feliow nodded and went mumbling to- ward the rear of the house. Dr. Hounder settled himself to wait. His nerves were shaky, but he knew a remedy for that and applied it. There- | after his senses became more alert, | attuned. He listened acutely to the sounds that come from the closed room across the hall—low voices, sometimes rising. and once with a faint sugges tion of heat. Farraday must on occa. | sion be an irascible old man, the doc- | tor thought. | By and by the caller departed Mr. Farraday permitted him to find his way to the front door, himself staying in the lixing room, with the door open. It appeared be had not heard Dr. Hounder's arrival. After an interval the physiclan rose, his bag in his hand, crossed the hall, and stood in the doorway. i Mr. Farraday said: “Ah, good morning, Dr. Hounder.” He did not rise and he apologized for the omis. ion. "My old legs are a thought in- firm.” he explained i Dr. Hounder reassured him. think of it, sir. Sit stil” He closed the door, deposited his bag on a chalr and approached the desk. “Well, have ou written?’ “I have the letter right here,” Mr. Farraday replied, and drew it from hi pocket. Dr. Hounder sneezed. “You'v: what followed, have gone more to his faney. arraday would, on his own | | the hall, or I'd have seen them. desk. I started toward him, and, of course, saw at once that he was dead. The wound was visible as he lay. “T sumimoned the man and we tele- phoned. A grim thing, certainl Dr. Spargent nodded. They were standing just within the room where Mr. Farraday had been killed, and the medical _examiner’s cyes were busy. In the hall behind them a patrolman who had come with Dr: Spargent stood npassively, awaiting orders. Dr. Spargent paid no heed to him. He said to Dr. Hounder- “There's no reason why you should stay. T may, want to talk to you later.” He knew the reputation of the emi- nent practitioner and respected it. “I'm interested,” Dr. Hounder re- plied. “Interested in what vou do. And—T liked the old man. Dr. Spargent nodded. “First thing 's photographs with me,” he said. “The eye sees even still objects in distortion: but a photograph is rea sonably relixble —and permanent.” He produced a camera and folding tripod from his bag and busled himself about the room. photographing the scene and the body at many angles. Dr. Hounder watched, keeping in the background. * HE medical examiner was not talkative, but Dr. Hounder found hithself impelled to speech. He kept up a running. commentary on the other's movements, a running fire of conjecture as to the murder itself— returned to his subject again and again. Who would have wanted to kill the old man, do you suppose?’ he would ask; and, when Dr. Spargent made no reply: “He was a lovable old fellow.” After an interval: “‘Whoever it was couldn’t have gone out through Must | have come in by the window and gone | that way. He crossed to the window to look out, and saw the blue-gray of a post- man’s uniform passing: saw the post- man pause at the box on the corner to collect the mail there, and felt & burst of high relfet at that—became more garrulous. The others paid him little | attention. Dr. Spargent was busy | making photographs and measure- ments and notes; the policeman at the door held back an increasing number 0y THE PISTOL IN A STEEL BOX, IN HIS PRIVATE, OFFICE. edy; the plain-clothes man silent by the doorway the flat-footed patrolman with his back repelling the crowd out | slde. They were beaten; he was safe —but for that faint ar of blood upon the desk top. The print was almos! | where he stood: but for a slan! which made it seem nspicuc would never have discovered 1t {was at the very edge of the desk jand as he stared at it the thing | sumed monstrous proportions. ar. A scar upon the wood A scar! He perceived, considering this wood { the it solution of his problem, and he laughed to himself at the perfect sim plieity of it. Dr. Spargent was pre paring to set up his camera at th nearer edge of the desk now; he | muddled and puttered to and fro. Dr. | Hounder lighted another cigarette and | puffed the smoke with delight He | watched Dr. Spargent thoughtfully; ut |length moved forward. “Let me help you? Hold something?" he suggested Dr. Spargent handed him plate holder; muttered thanks. Dr. Houn der took the thing in his left hand After a moment he sneezed londly | Casually enough, he took the cigaretie from his lips and laid it on the edg of the desk. thus freeing his hand to reach for a handkerchief. He had laid the cigarette with some care exactly upon the finger print Standing thus divectly above the spot, he could not see the print at all; but | he had marked its location weil, and was sure the cigarette was properly placed. His impulse, even then, was to smudge the thing; but he noticed that the dull e3 were upon him, and feared to arouse suspicion. | !parent that he had forgotten h cigarette entirely. It burned, a litt | wisp of smoke twisting upward from its end. By and by it would reach the wood. still burning, and obliterate that damning mark. Covertly he watched it, measuring its progres | The shutter clicked; another picture done. Dr. Spargent put up his camera, dis- Jointed the tripod and put it away. He withdrew to the further end of the |room and sat down at a table there, collating his notes and measurements. The plain-clothes man joined him, and { Dr. Hounder approached them confi- dently. The cigarette had almost reached the desk’'s edge. Three minutes more and its heat would begin to cause the finish of the ma | hogany to buffie and scorch. Safety | three “minutes away! “Anything 1 | can do?” he asked. I ought to move | along. | Dr. Spargent said courteously: “You ! might tell Riley here what you told me. How you found the body there.” Dr. Hounder repeated his story with | just enough variation to lend an air !of truth to it. The plain-clothes man | listened with downcast eyes, asking a | question or two. Dr. Hounder #mughing to himself. A ridleulous | thing,this: setting such men as these {to catch clever eriminals. So easily befooled: He talked mechanically on. i Across the room a iittle thread of | smoke lfted upward from the cigar- |ette. While he talked to Riley, the | plain-clothes man, he watched this | smoke with secure and dreamy sati {faction. So soon as the cigarette should have burned but a little further, he would be safe, all his | tracks covered, nothing more to fear. He turned his back on the thing at |last with fine indifference, gave his | attention more fully to Riley's slow | questions. | While they still talked together, while Dr. Spargent scratched at his notes, ‘the policeman in the doorway left his post there; he crossed to the desk beside the dead body and looked |down at the smoldering cigarette. Then he picked it up, gingerly, be- tween finger and thumb and studled the surface of the table where it had {lain. Dr. Hounder, his back turned, | did not observe him. ‘When his scrutiny was finished, the | policeman walked slowly across the { room, still pinching the butt of the cigarette in his great hand, and touched Dr. Hounder on the elbow. | The eminent practitioner turned. | “Here’s your cigarette,” said ®the patrolman. “It would have burned the table in a minute.” Dr. Hounder received this communi- cation with a quite uncontrollable quiver of disappointment. which meiged into alarm. Fle stared at the pawolmun, whose eyes were blank sm he | ok % R. SPARGENT still puttered. Hounder stood patiently b plate holder tn his hand. It was ap- would, | that | right | of the patrolman | f and dull. In their very blankness the hysician read a deadly menace. Dr. Spargent had opened one of the French windows, to admit a little of the balmy morning air. Not o far away. | | | | | BY IRVIN N. HOFFMAN. N the American Museum of Nat ural History, in New York Cit are many paintings, mostly birds, by the eminent ornitholo gist, John James Audubon. While the writer was in this museum one day discussing the merits of these pictures with one the curators the latter criticized the artist for' his inaccuracy in not drawing the proper number feathers in the different birds' wings and tails. At that time it would not have occurred to the writer to make such a_criticism, for although he had died birds for years, had not given this particu lar subject any thought This incident aroused my that I determined to inves I found that all the-birds to the order Passeres, largest class or o cludes all the have invariably amine any cana robin or catbird jthat they always Then, too, they | inite number of he curiosity gate. belonging which iz the or of hirds and in songbirds Ex- common tail feathers Sparrow, erow you will find e 12 tail feathers have certain def wing feathers. The birds just mentioned all have 10 | primary wing feathers; that fs, there are 10 feathers from the extremity to the first joint of the wing. The rest | of the wing has about efght feathers. | _The albatross, which has the long est wings of bird | greatest number of win athers, having 48 on each wing. while the smallest of birds, the humming birds, have only 16 wing feathers and 10 | tail feather There are over 500 distinet species of these little gem: land I have never found the nupiber | of their feathers to vary onany which | T have examined. Many species of ducks, including the fintall and | wWidgeon (or baldpate), have. 16 tail | “eathers. WHEN counting feathers on birds care must be taken to choose a time of the year when they are in full plumage. Otherwise, of the test would be inaccurate. I have just mentioned these few instances to show with what wonder- ful regularity even feathers are placed on birds. Different classes of birds bave different numbers of feathers, conforming to their varied needs. Even their body feathers do not grow at random any-which-way, but are placed with great regularity and evenly | spaced.’ forming what are known as | feather tracts. It is apparent how difficult it would be for a bird to fly if there were not exactly the same number of feathers on each wing, even one feather | more or less would throw the bird out of balance. During the molting sea son the wing feathers are always shed in pairs, one on. each wing, so that this difficulty will not oceur. ANl through nature we can find uni- | formity in the numbers of different features. Consider the lowly turtles and tortoises. Nearly every one, no doubt, has noticed that the bony shell {or covering of tHese creatures di. ! vided into many well defined sections {or plates. Count them and y !find that there will always be lalong the middie and 4 on each | side,” making 13 in all. There are | many species of turtles and tortoises in the world, all of which have 13 der- mal plates on their back shell, and in addition there is a row of small, mar- ginal plates around the edge of the shell. Thirteen is considered a “hoo. doo’” number, but the turtle seems to fare about as well as any other rep- and a has also the =i as | 0 course, | ou_ will | . i D. €, AUGUST 30, 1925—PART 5. i \\ (i “I looked at the table close,” said the patrolman. “You didn’t burn it any.” Dr. Hounder, at these simple words, Dr. Hounder | gave way to panic utter and irrevoca could see his car, but by the gate.|ble; he struck past the dull patroiman | toward that open window. {as a terrier has its rat i S NS, , But, of course, these men were| trained to action; they had him. quick | There was | riously ratlike in his ab- | something ct ject and sudden squealings. . “I was watching him,” the patrol THESE MOVEMENTS HAD OCCU PIED HIM SINCE HE FIRST EN TERED THE LIVING ROOM, A SCANT 60 SECONDS. man explained slowly when Dr. Spar gent questioned him. “The rest wa guessing.” “A mighty good guess, O'Hearn the medical examiner applauded. ot all gueesing,”” O'Hearn con fessed. “There was once I saw he was worried; and him staring at th table. Then he put the cigarette about where he'd been looking—an: he didn’t look to me like a man that would be carcless of nice furniture And when I picked up the butt and saw it was right on top of that finge print, T was pretty sure what he'c meant to do.” “But it wasn't his finger print. maid left it when she oiled the this morning O’'Hearn nodded assented. “But the doc didn't know that. You heard what he sa thought he'd make it—in blood “I was surprised. at that, to see tk way he talked wher nailed hin Riley suggested. “The clever ones : s do the mo: talking in the end,” replied O'Hearr (Copymight, 192 Th de: That's so,” he Mother Nature Holds Fast to Certain Numbers tile. All the turtles and tortoises long-lived, and no other class of tiles is well protected from their enemies. I Among the flower: one can find uniformity in th als, stamens and other fo the great pse family. known Rosac 3 for example, ich nof only includes all the roses. but a most of our northern fruits, such as apples, pear , ckherries, raspberries and others. All of the dif. ferent wild roses b five petals, and although the culti ed ones have be- | ome double through selective breed- ing, you will find at the base of the flower, {f viewed from the back, the orfginal five petals. Very often when roses drop their petais the five basic ones are the last to fall. The flowe of apples, pears, quinces nd, in fact, of all fruits that belong to the family Rosaceae, that have come under my observation have uniformly five pet als. 1 believe this to be general through this whole group of plants ok ko “HE lily family. or Liliaceae, repre- sentdtives of which can be found alm the whole world, have without exception six petals. You will find the flowers compesed of three outer petals which form the bud and | three inner ones. Baster lilies, St Joseph or Madonna lilies, Tiger lilies, | Speciosum lilies from Japan, our Turk's Cap llles and all the other: haye six petals. and, I might add, six stamens as well. It is remarkable | that this characteristic should be so uniform in plants distributed so wide- ly over the earth. A few plants er-| roneously called lilies, such as the Calla lily, which belongs to the Arum | family, cannot, of course, be classed with_this gronp. Other families of plants are con-| istent in having a specified number | of petals in their flowers, but 1 will| enumerate only a few examples. The irises invaribly have six petals, the triljums and tradescantias have three, the primroses five, and so on. The large group of plants known as the composites, or Compositae, | have usually a large number of what over | | |on examination up spear to be petals although they e not strictly so, but are known to botanists as bracts. These bracts z extremely variable in their number and there seems to be no set rule in this regard. The composites incl such plants astes flowers and rdlas ‘The centers of the composite flowers are made up of many tiny individus flowers. These flowers will be found o he uniform as to the numbers of petals, usually having five Of all iving things, insects are the numerous both in species and numbers, and yet I doubt if there exist single ‘species that does not have six legs. Kven the so-called four-footed butterflies will be found asters, su quite their on examination to b of atrophled f become so through disuse some m that they | an extra pair ont lezs, which have The more various phases that the ferce or the world of livi telligent and _in one, even in the smallest not a blind and dumb cause as some would have believe us Athletes as Models For Greek Statues PARIS, August 16. FRENCH authority n athletic sports and an all-round phys ical trainer have been ex changing impressions of the bodies of the men who come under their observation. Each asked the other: “Have the men you see as perfect a form of body sculptors show in their st ? The men of athletic sports acknowl- edged: “If I had to furnish a model for a statue, I should have to cut several champions and take one part of the body from one and an- other part from another and piece the model parts together to have a per fectly made man. Runners would give me legs, and iweight lifters rather than throwers would give me arms In between 1 should have to find a mode! trunk. In all my experience of athletic sports the best developed hodies I have seen were not more than half beautie: “That is an old story in my work said the physical culture man. : | yeloped ads each partie specializes some and develops it. It t les: of proportion | part the body. | advantage of this in | comic pictures of sports. The Gre | had their Pentathlon or five sports, very different and their athletes p ticed all commonly | *“More than that; they were broug) ried gymnastics, and withos s ithietic =port the body S to be mol vith the oth ricaturists tal making _the one part of out up to v | clothing “In vour own there little clothing as the law allows, | the athletic sport professional | “So much the better annuated champions w to me to have their stomachs reduced. 1 nd in them something more than th irreparable outr: vears,” re torted the physical trainer quotin {line of French poetr I tell you tha | for the most part vere ne: complefely and | de The Greel star before they thought super annuated, after. the strongest | freest exerci were oiled @ 1,\173))(\:] and stretched and rubbed a over.” classes is for the supe: come es of the oniously from the of being | The reporter of the principal sports | journal of Paris put in his word: “We | ought to have been Greek enough in | my college days. for they were alway | preaching to “Get your gener education first and specialize afte ward.’ What is all this we hear no about physical culture going out and {only a few specialized sports remair ing “Every boy in school. according | vou. is golng to alter his statuesqu. Qqualities, if he ha 3 |one or other of these {sports. Then all of us | pecultarity that would not look mnice |in a statue—legs too long or too sho | for length of the body, for example That is natural and cannot be helpe But if what you say true, all me {and some women are going fo be pu | out of shape, and it could have Lee: | helped. Is- that the reason why ou public men have only busts of ther selves made lately and never risk u statue?"” he public men come to me too late,” said the physical traines “Their busts are already lopsided and their stomachs are too blg because they are filled too often and too much at a time, and their underpinning wobbly.” 1 could not help thinking two extremes of our Americ air men who are neither senerally trained nor special athletes. 1 mean golf players and base ball or foot ball rooters. of the n open