Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, September 6, 1902, Page 9

Angel of Piety Flat By 1ZOLA L. FORRESTER. (Copyright, 1908, by Tz0la L. Forrester.) Tt would have been different if she hadn't looked like but when the ge drove up to headquarters tent, that spring morn- ing, and Len Mason helped her out, little Put called her Angel, just on the strength ©f general appearances, and the name clung. It was a first impression. One of the § spoclaities of Piety Flat was firét impres- sions. Bometimes they were vivid. There was once a man who roge in from some- ‘where. He wore am alpaca coat, carried a kodak and looked at Plety Flat through eyeglasses. One day he kicked a dog. It ‘was little Put's dog. The third day after Angel came Put took her across the wi and showed her where we dropped the kodak man, down into the river bed. .It ‘was one of the Flat's first impressions. “DAd he dle?" asked An, made little Put hunger after the slaughter of th kodak man, that he might tell the tale of gory vengeance, and see her weep, “No,” be sald, regretfully. “We dropped him easy. I did it myselt, the same way he did the dog, you know. He Just had to take ither way back home. That was all. It was a good dog.” Flung out Into the heart of the wilderness ‘was an extra ridge of wilder wilderness, with the glant cactl upspringing on t edge of the desert like a thorny barrier, be- \vl'l'lt and the outer world. A few men had ventured beyomd the barrier and pitched their tents on the ridge and called it Plety Flat. Incidentally, across the wash they struck copper in the foothills and they lived and worked and hoped with the promise of the future luring them on. ‘There was sand and tents and more sand and lizarde and a little more sand, and then nothing untll you struck -the river and could look up at the ragged purple line of the foothills stretched out against the weatern sky. Nothing much happened. Sometimes there came & sunset so glorious that it made little Put get out his mandolin and go mad un star time came and we put him to bed gently. There was the stage from Florence three times a week. Sometimes there was & sudden flash of excitement over on the (othe? side of the wash, where the copper diggings stabbed the hillsi Little Put or some one else had hit a run and was celebrating. The celebrations usually Iasted ten minutes, then we woke up again and went back to grubbing, The stage and sunsets were perpetual. The celebrations ‘were accidental. 8o was the Angel. Put sald she was besutiful that day when she faced us all. It had been over a year since any of us had viewed angel clal color, just flufty and undecided, and the deep soft brown gold that the frost brings to the cottonwoods on the hills in October. There was a long wavering knot of pale blue ribbon, tied sallor fashion, at the collar of her white shirt walst. We ‘wondered why all the other angels in our o $ad 5over (hought to wear biue rib- bons. ‘It was another impresston, but we ‘were glad little Put had called her Angel. “Im't Jact Raymond here?" she asked, and somewsy she looked at little Put. We folt for h¥n. It was the toughest proposi- tion had ever faced. At that moment ho bore all Plety Flat on his shoulders and saswered for it. “He was here,” said little Put encour: ingly. ~ The Angel's lips did not tighten of com- press, they did a little act all thelr own that would bave wrung the heart of a dead Apachie. A little pursing up of the special center nerves, a little wistful dreo) the 8106 curvés and the ‘deed was done, Piety Fiat beheld and bowed in adoration. Bo aid little Put, “But he will be back?" Put rallied, and there was the red light of battle in his eye. We knew he would carry his colors to the death. “Any day at all. Just struck out a little farther west to see how the land lay."” “How long has he been gone? Put swallowed back the lump in hia throat and smiled reflectively, “Abqut & week or The Angel set her the ground and pondered. “It's awfully queer,” she sald at last. “He knew I was coming. I wrote him two ‘weeks ago, and he sent back word just when to come, so I came of course.” Put laborfously marked a star out in the sand with the toe of his boot, then he asked gently: “Mrs. Raymond ?** The girl flushed warmly. “Why, mo, of course not. I'm Jagk's ter, Dolly, don't you know? Dorothy mond." igator satohel on The sand star was obliteratod swittly. b & * she mdded a trite nervously, 1 .Inm. to stay, now I'm here. And he may be back any day. I think I had &0 to his—his, has he & tent or any- special where I could stay?" indesd,” Put’s eyes were clear Here at least ho was on safe atove rough boards of a ne “That's bis place,” he said, in & tome of triumphant pride, which only Plety Flat could undérstand. “You'll flud his things there, and it's yours just the same, you know." “Just as he left it?” “Yes'm, just exactly,” Put sald earnestly. “We didn't disturb a thing. I guess things wre kind of mixed up and muddled, maybe, for you." “Oh, I'll soon straighten that out. I shall love to do that for him. He won't know Bow badly he needed me until he sees how it all looks when he comes back. Tomor- row, aid you say?!” “Any day, Miss Raymond, any day at all” sald Put solemnly, and we watched her in silence as she walked slowly toward the mew shack under the cottonwood. There was a counsel of state held that might, and little Put made & speech. Bpeeches were one of his strong polnts. Flat held that he bad many. He stood on & wooden box up at Bddie Bar- ton's tent. We chose that one because it ‘wis farthest from the shack. It was & great speech. Eddie told bim it he would 1t down for him to learn by heart b ," $ald the Angel lovingly, stood tall and slim and sweet as the surveyed Sa- HhhE 4be’s the best one on the Flat,” he ¥ “‘Jack always wanted the best.” she sald, - “What o boy.he is, len't be, po— “Chadwick,” sald Put, sedately. “Putney } Chadwick anywhere on earth but here. I'm Just Put on the Flat."” 1 don't remember the name, and Jack told me of lots of the boys in his letters.” Put nodded, and studled the pattern on the Indian blanket. “Did you find the pail of water all right?” he asked, mildly. “It was delicious. 8o cool and fresh, and there was everything here to eat. 1 found the box of canned goods he had hidden away under the cornmeal tin, and the coffee and the crackers.'” sirup in the jug up over 'ut interrupted, eagerly; “and the bacon's hanging right back of it on & nail.” s it? He's an extravagant boy, lsn't he? But then, there is the mine. I sup- pose you are all budding copper kings, aren't you? 0, yes, 14 Put, heartily. ““Then I must be a copper queen. I've been watching you work over there, and wondering which was our mine. Jack's and mine, I mean. You know,” she went on, confidentlally, “when Jack wrote first for the money 1 didn’t want to send it to him. It was all that we had left, you see, and THE OMAHA DAILY BEE: SATURDAY, SEr1£E£MBER ¢, 1902. | cabin and watched him as he walked lei- surely back to the diggings It was 0 in the morning. There had been a helter- skelter shower for five minutes, scurrying across the flat as If it were frightened to death over the possibility of having to water such a waste, and leaving a fresh, vague sweetness in its wake that called one from the sand and alkall to the cool greenness of the hills. As soon as the figure of little Put had disappeared over the yellow ridge the Angel went over to Samantha's side and deliberately, seremely, with malice aforethought wash ‘When Put came up at noon for dinner he missed Samantha from the lone cotton- wood's shade and investigated as special | aeputy. Ten minutes later he rode out over the flat, following the trail of a burrd that led westward. Fourteen miles away the smoke of tepees rose straight in the still noon alr. Between lay the river and hill range, and then sand again and alkali and cactus and little Put's face was puckered and grim, as set out for a ride beyond the | 9 that when Broken Arrow and his men drew near Put went to méet them and be was smiling sweetly and benignly and wondering in a rampant Boyish fashion whether It would bring & quicker finish If he put & bullet between the old chief's close wet, beady eyes. Put there are polnts of hoor even in Arizona and he had been a welcome guest at Broken Arrow's tepee, 50 he lstened in si- lence to the story of what the white witch had done and rode back to the Angel with a | Aive-minute truce. “They want you,” he said. “The last one you took, little Sun Dog, you know, has | been gone since last night.'! | "“The baby? she cried, the woman's fear | and chila-love leaping to her eyes. | “Yes. They say you have eaten him, dear, or given him o the devil in the black box.” He spoke very gently. “I can do one of two things. I ean turn around and shoot. It would probably settle about three of the brutes. The rest would eettle us he thought of the word he had recelved | from the Indians concerning a white girl that dealt in magic and shot death and woe from a terrible black box, a small black box that clucked like a enake and Wwinked its eye and let loose a devil among the tepees. Just over the hill range he overtook her and found that his education in an- PRI CA I e TR R VU™ even when he told me of the big strike he had made 1t seemed a dreadful risk to take. I'm not sorry now, though. D& you know which is our claim, and is it very rich?" Little Put looked away from her, and the lids of his brown eyes narrowed. There was & mosquito settling daintily on Sama- of | ity ear. He-struck it a blow that would have felled Samantha, and his heart was full. He did not know it was quite as bad as this. 1 guess it must be that last one this side the break in the ridge,” he said, steadily. “Has it & bame?" He nodded. “Paradise mine Jack called it."” That night in the big tent he told us all which was Angel's claim, and that he was going to work it for her until Jack camp back. Then the spirit fell upon us all. Len Mason lugged his best elde of bacon, and & new blanket over to the shack, and swore Jack had loaned him bacon when he was starving. Blg Tom Wyndham slipped over on ening when we couldn’t see him and left his pet frying pan on the doorstep, to- gether with a brand new oll lamp from Florence that he had flaunted at us for weeks as an evidence of superior clviliza- tior” Little Put was all in at the end of i week. Eddle Barton gave him a shak down in the corner of his tent and he never murmured. “It's got to be,” he sald defilantly, when blg Tom stood him on his head and told him not to make too glgantic a fool of himself. “When she told me he'd got all her momey to buy a mine with out in this devil's desert, I didn't give a hang rap what happened. She's here and Plety Flat's got to look out for he “Until Jack comes back?" asked Tom, and Put wilted. “Not untll we have to, Tom,” he sald pleadingly. “Let it go untll we just have to, don't you understand? She belleves in him something terrible, and s s sis- ter. Wait until It comes of ite After the first week she grew worried, and it was up to Mttle Put to keep her busy. ‘We made him special deputy and he worked over time. He taught her how to ride Ba- mantha, and en that palled he trotted her down to the river and southward to the Indian camp and let her smile on Broken Arrow and his family of seventeen. She was disappointed. “They're picturesque, in & way, and the blankets are lovely, but they don't look 1t they had any go to them. Do they ever " sald listle Put grimly, “but they Then there was her kodak, and she shot everything in the place with it ai vel- oped the films herself. But the Indl kicked every time she polnted it at them, and Put drew the line there. | “It's only prejudice,” he told her, “but they have nightmare over those littlé preju- “Only one more,” the Angel begged. “It 1 don't get a shot at that funny little tad over there 1 shall break the kodak.” ‘:l looked, and there in fromt of cne of the tepees was & ploture, ready posed. Broken Arrow’s youngest, Sun Dog, stood in the sunshine staring st them. He was knes high to Samantha. A shock-hal 3 ugly, dirty, balf-clad statuette in copper, and the Angel's beart went out to the heathe: She had caught him on the film before he moved, but the iastant the but- tom clicked, be let out & yell of terror and | made for the tepee. There WAS an Uneasy movement among the Indisns sround, and Put hurried the two burros on, out of the village without | asking permission. “First sign of nightmare,” he sald, in re- sponse to the Angel's query as to their haste. She d4ld not see the point, but was Jubllant over securing Sun Dog's picture, be lot the matter drop, for little Put in these ways in spite of his 24 want to worry her, he sald /% VA iy ) e 4/’ ¢ ¥ ie sz S v “THE BODY OF LITTLE PUT LAY AT THE FOOT OF THE ANGBL.” gels was as yet incomplete. She saw no necessity in his riding to the rescue. She laughed and It was not a friendly laugh. It was a laugh of angelic derision, but still Little Put rode on beside her and, therefore, was he honored by Piety Flat as above his kind. The Angel couldn’t rattle him worth a cent. she sald. “And, even it it were all true, that they want my scalp—and by the way, I don't blame them for it— it's & very nice scalp—do you know what 1 would do?" Put glanced back over his shoulder. The hills lay in & low half moon behind them. Before was the desert of sun- baked alkall, seamed in great cracks, and the edges curling upward like scorched In the blinding haze of flashing ht ahead, a few black specks like ink blocks, peared and vanished, and reappeared larger than before. ““What do you suppose I'd do?” she re- peated. “Run, yell or faint,” sald Little Put, and he whistled under his breath softly. The Angel smiled and put back a whisp across her eyes. “It isn't a joke. One doesn't really do those things, don't you know, not when it's a funny, little old man like Broken Arrow and those other greasy, half-dead- looking Indians. Why, I'd just take the camera to pleces and explain it to them, logically and practically, and—" “Turn back to th Little iaid his hand on and jerked her head around. that kodak?” He took it from the supporting strap around her shoulders and dropped it In their tracks. ‘““To keep them busy for & while,” he explained. “There are ®bout tweuty red gentlemen chasing and they all have prejudices. They'll tend to that logically, practically otherwise and God grant it gives us time to make the river.” They rode steadily for half a mile. Angel was very quiet. She did not even whiten, and he loved her for that. It showed grit. So did the way she gulded Samantha's protesting hoofs, when some- thing whizzed past her ear and Aug a neat round hole in the ground ahead of them. Put looked back. | “They went around the kodak, and shot at it," he sald, with a grin. I wish It had been a bom! Samantha answered the question by stum- | bling forward on her knees. Put caught the girl around the walst and lifted her back safely. ““They’ve clipped one of her legs, “Get on my horse, quick. You can make the ri all right, and I'll explain to the red lemen." | They stood side by side between the fal- en burro and Put's bay. The Angel laid her hand tenderly on Samantba's hearing ide. “You poor old dear,” she sald tiy. Then, looking at the group of Indians xid- ing half & mile behind, “I wonder they’ll do to us. I wish Jack were here. Put | s as It the sun glare blinded him. try to take his place,” he sald. “Will you go?"' “No. I hardly think it worth while. It they cculd shoot Bamantha they could hit me, and I like company. It is better to- gether, don't you think so® She raised ber lashes and looked at Put. There was no time for explanation or { prepatory overtures. Littie Put took off Bis gray slouch bat and kissed her like a man, end all the world was sunshine and glory, and the alkali desert s holy of holies “It's perfectly absurd, all this fuss about | of the nut-brown hair that fluttered lazily | nd | The | Can you ride a little faster?" | Little Put drew in & long breath and shut | with variatios two miputes. ““What else?” “We can ride to their camp, and I will leave you and go for thelp.” She thought for a moment. ““Will you please give me one of your re- volvers?” It was pure grit.. Little Put could have | shouted aloud to the whole world the cour- age of his lady fair, as he drew a small, hammerless Smith & Wesson from his hol- | ster and gave it to ber, ‘1 can get help by dawn,” he sald. wouldn't dare— “But if they should,” she smiled up et | him. “Don’t worry. Only when Jack comes back, you must tell him.” Her volce broke a little, and Put saw there were tears In the eyes that looked westward, where he had told her Jaék had gone. He looked at his watch. There were two minutes of the truce limit left. “Dollie!" Something in his tone made her start slightly. He had never called her by her name before, and no one but Jack ever sald Dollie. “Don’t be angry. You' brave, you know. You're awful brave Put dashed ahead recklessly. He wished they had told her that first day. He wished she would pot look at him so frightened. “‘He--he won't ¢o back.” “Jack!" “He dled a week before you came.” She was white now. The color that bad defied the Indians fled at his words and her bands closed on each other tightly. When | she epoke her voice was trembling. | “Oh, why, why, didn’t you tell me. It wasn't kind all these weeks—. What did | he die of?” | Put closed his eyes a moment and prayed | for the gift of Beezlebub, as he remembered the death of Jack Raymond. The fight at | headquarters tent, the quick shot that set- | tled it all, and Jack's face upturned on the floor among the scattered cards and broken gla: It had been very white, as white - e Angel's now, and the tw uch alike, As he looked at her the strength to lie came to him and he knew all Plety Flat | would stand by him. “It was fever. He had a chum, and nursed him first, then took It himself and died. | The chum went away afterward.” | He stopped. That last was true! After o had fired the shot Rogers had made tracks for the Mexican border. There was no danger of pursuit, though. Ne ome | blamed him. | The Angel drew a long, deep breath. )'l'hlrl Was 4D uneasy movement among the Indians and Broken Arrow held up his band, nd 3 and winaer chords in about “They | palm upward. Put raised his in answer bead toward them. the mine and every- | thing"—faltered the Angel. | “They were Jack's and mine, |Put. “They are yours now." glimpse ber. " sald little He caught & of her face and put his arm around on't, dear; don't feel like that. He died—like a hero. The ride to the tepees was hot and tire- some. Put rode on one of the Indian ponies beside Broken Arrow. The Angel was on the bay the other side. Her face was sad. Not for fear of the future, but for grief over Samantha, left to die within sight of the |river. Some way the other news seemed |like the half-forgotten memory of & dream. |Put argued and threatened. The chief's |tace mever changed its expression. Just before you resch the Indian cami there is the sigeag bed of a dried-up |to cross. The ground is like qu'cksand, and strauge, shy snakes o\ way "l Jeck's llo( the sbrine of his love. Bo it happeued |lizards slip swittly out of [ horwes sitae and serambie up the wott, stip- pery sides. Put stopped midway on the slope ung off his pony to examine a mark in e clay. It was a slight, lttle impression heel, ape had stepped t and called to Broken Arrow, and showed him the marks. “It polnts east to the desert,” 1d It is no witeh- coyote and it runs away, Is it black devils?" The obief spread out his hands. ‘“Where is he?" Put polnted to the east, where the great desert spread out und e hot sunshine. 1t 1 follow and bring him back will you belleve? Broken Arrow nodded slowly. ‘It he still lives. Put hesitated. He pushed his hat back restiessly on his head, put his hands In hi pockets stared at the chiet, and his face was troubled. “I want unt{l sunrise,” he sald. “I'll come back then, unless I'm Iying around dead out yonder somewhere. And, say, we've been friends, you know. That day & year ago, when four of your boys stole our horses and ‘we caught them. Remember? Big Tom was going to awing them up on the dead cotton- wood and let you know we objected, and I fixed things up for you, and one was your own boy. Remember " The old man looked at the warm, eager, boyish face and nodded grimly. “Then I ought to have some kind of a pull with you, don't you know. You owe me for that yet, and I'm going to call you now. Just be good and fair to her untll sunrise. Don't let them devil her yonder in the camp all sight. Wailt until sunrise.” Broken Arrow put out his hand. “Until sunrise,” he sald, and added: “Your squaw " Put flushed crimson. “Not yet, old man. Some day, plegse God,” and under his breath as he sprang to the saddle. “If I live to see sunrl They would not let him #) He raised his hat and waved it and she lald her hand on her breast, where the revolver lay, and they understood. Then he rode y slowly toward the east, following the track of Sun Dog, and Broken Arrow took her to his own tepee and set a guard on it uptil sunrise. And all night the Angel sat there, sleep- less and walting, with only the crackle of the watch fire to break the stillness or the sudden sharp wail of a mother mourn- ing for her lost baby boy, in the next tepee. o The moonlight slipped through the rift where the flap of the skins closed the en- trance. She watched it with a kind of fascination, and when it faded and turned gray and she could trace the outlines of the tent poles over her head, she drew out the revolver and lald her head back on the blanket of the couch and tried to think of something beside the kiss of Little Put. Broken Arrow played falr and true. Not until the sun had risen a man's hight above the jagged horizon line of the desert, did he order the watch fires trampled out and the tepes opened. And at the threshold he paused, for there was no terrified, white- i woman to greet him, but a and turned back to the east agala for a last look. And there was great stiliness amung the group of gaunt, half-nude figures #anding in the red glow of the sunrise, for some- thing moved like a wounded animal on the face of the desert, and when it had veached the edge where the glant cactl threw up great thorny epikes it fell forward, and Broken Arrow bade them go and briag back what was left of Little Put. It the shriek of the woman who had -mux that awakened the Angul, and $he prayed in her heart, and kisled the revolver and rose to tace the sunrice. But when the tepee opened there were fio cries of vengeance to greet her, no leaptag fires of torture, only a ~¢lad Indian woman crooning and. weeping over & tarvod-eyed, frightened boy child on her knets, and before her the body of little Put lay at the feet of the Angel. The rest is on record at Plety Fiat in the hearts of the boys who rode out at midnight to find the lost omes, or wipe every Indian within twenty miles off the face of the earth. They searched the river bottom, and the washes and the hills, and found only the body of a dead burfo and & smashed kodak, but when the siln rose they entered Broken Arrow's villnge, re- volvers in hand, a troop of sinewy, sun- burned, resolute American boys, looking for their own. * That night a memorial jubllee was held up at the headquarters tent. They lfted Put up on & table and he broke tke news, while the Angel smiled sadly at thy eager, joyous faces of Jack's chums. “I found the dirty little beggar out under a cactus shade, sprawled out like & lizard, fast asleep,” said Put. “It was the getting back that broke me up. I bad to leave the horep back there some- where when he fell and rolled on my foot and it was hard dragging along with dawn chasing you up and a squalling, starved Indian cub hanging to your back. And that's all, boys, except that we fixed it up all right with Samantha as witness. She's going to be Mrs. Putney Chadwick and T'll try to take Juck's place.” That was the cue. Put had passed the word around when we first reached cam; and everyone was ready for the memorial service. Put led. He told how Jack Ray- mond had come out with Sim Rogers among the firet bunch to hit the Flat; how his hope and jolly good fellowship had kept the rest alive and how we all loved .I‘T'itl Big Tom started to tell how Sim had esught the fever, the horrible insid- jous fever that like polsonous guicksilver throug! vel of & man anll leaves him as the fever in India leaves its thousand “We were cowards,” eald Tom huskily. “We left the boy alone over under the cot- tonwood and Jack took him home and nursed him all through the might.” “He battled with the fever,” put in Leu Mason with gloomy emphasis. “And beat it,” concluded Tom. “And then before we knew it he was down hime solt and he died like & hero in Little Put's arme.” “Put!” The Angel rose and stretched out her hands to him. “Put, and you mever told me that." We stood back to let them by. Put limped and she made him lean on her arm. Tt was awfully pretty, we thought. At the door they looked back. The Angel's face was wet with tears, aad Put's was & study in happy misery. “1 shall ride to Florence tomorrow, boys,” he sald. “And I'll bring one back with me. You're all invited to the wedding.” Plpty Flat cheered. Gathered en masse its citizens howled over the joy of little Put and danced for the honor of his fair lady until they were out of hearing. Then there was a strange dead silence. Big Tom broke it. He gently moved the box on which the Angel had sat over to the doorway, where he could see the stars. watched him meditatively take out his bag of Seal of North Carollna plug cut and fill his pipe bowl with its golden brown treas- . Thes he spoke. “And he was the dog-gonedest, meanest, ISCIENCE OF APPLIED CRAFT Marvelens Bohemes for Beparating Foel from Their Money. BARNUM'S EPIGRAM RIPE FOR REVISION People Seeking to Get Worked to a FI Schemes Reve PostoMee De; Rich Quickly “Notwithstanding the fact that we are generally credited with being & newspaper- reading nation I'am often tempted to belleve that there must be many miliions of intelll- gent persons in the United 8 e who never so much as glance at the headlines of & newspaper,” relates an official of the Post- office department in the Washington Star. “At any rate, If these millions to whom I refer ever actually do read the newspapers, their gullibility must be so profound as to the unfathonable. The Postoffice depart- ment fs constantly fssulng fraud orders against individuals and alleged firms en- gaged In getting rich In the operation of schemes that it would seem any shrewd child of 10 ought to be able to see through without the least bother. “The other day, for example, the depart- ment got after a chap out {n Cincinnati who for some months had been conducting what he called & ‘turt bureau.’ He alleged In his really admirably written circulars that he had private and absolutely certaln methods of obtaining information to the horses that were slated to win races on tracks all over the United States and he guaranteed returns of tremendous proportion: ‘Well, when wi looked this fellow up he promptly skipped and his incoming mall was seized. It seems incredible, but every day's mall brought in thousands of dollars, in amounts ranging trom $5 actually up to $500, and the letters - | inclosing cash and checks were nearly all of them apparently written by persons of education. The book in which the man kept his simple account of cash recelved showed that since he put his scheme into operation he had taken in no I & sum than $465,000, almost out of the question, as it may pear. He has got away, but, even If he is captured, 1 very much doubt it any very heavy punishment can be visited upon him. These slippery chaps who work their dodges by means of the malls have the momey to employ first-rate lawyers and th lawyers nerally successfully construe their circulars as not having really prom- ised anything to the gulls, after all. Endless Chain Schemes. “The endless chain schemes that the de- partment runs down year after year are all of them money makers for their opera- tors. It would actually seem as if all a ‘busted’ individual had to do to get rich is to get a lot of circulars printed and send them out, borrowing the money for post- age, and there will always be emough gulle to start him on his way. The cherry tres scheme worked by a gang of southern men, one of them a clergyman, was a colossal success for its promoters, and yet not a man in the crowd had a coin to biess biui- self with when they started the endless chain echeme in motion. The more recent fountain pen fraud, worked by a couple of Pennsylvanians, ylelded returns that went into the thousands every day, and I haven’t a doubt in life that any number of similar endless chain schemes are being worked this very day that we shall have to go after later on. “The people who bite on these endless chain schemes all obviously want a whole ot for nothing, or lttle or nothing, and this, combined with their strange stmplicity, s at the bottom of the success of the fel- lows who attempt to make thelr fortunes through the use of the mails “You would paturally suppose that per- sons sufficiently intelligept to possess an interest in stock speculation would be able to steer clear of ‘Investment agents' whom they only know of through circulars, would you not? And yet the department is con- stantly in receipt of tales of woe from In- dividuals who have invested sizable sums of money with New York and Obicago swindlers claiming to conduct speculative businesses, who operate entirely through clearly established, but it seems impossi- ble to drive these fellows who run the al- leged Investment agencies wholly out of business. mted Suckers. “The game's too easy for them, and they are fully aware of the great difficulty found in convicting them. As soon as one ‘brok- erage’ firm that carries on its business en- tirely by mall is smashed the men who have been successfully conducting it simply move down to another block and open up another ‘brokerage’ office under another firm name, The shift only involves their getting out another batch cf literature, The thousands and thousands of dollars which these sharp- ers take in year in and year out from peo- ple whose way of expressing themselves on paper makes it patent that they are edu- cated men and women is & perpetual source of astonishment to me. “The smaller fry of the mail swindlers are the fellows who advertise that they will ‘send ‘solid gold watches' and all that sort of thing upon the receipt of $1. Now, doesn’t It seem reasonable to imagine that any man or woman sane enough to run loose in & civilised community ought to know perfectly well that & solid gold wateh, or whatever other article it may be, per- haps a ‘genuine diamond ring,’ canmot be bought for the sum of §1? And yet there are responses to these ads, reaching liter- ally in the millions, and the promoters of these dodges nearly always get rich. Last year we routed out a fellow in Boston who advertised in'a very elaborate and splus fashion throughout the country that he got hold of a lot of ‘lucky stomes' en hi travels through India, which he was willing to purvey by mail upon the receipt of §1 per stone. The money that chap got was something fabulous. The dollars were just relning when the inspectors swooped down on his office and cleansd him out. He didn’t care then whethe: was cleaned out or not. He bad got the mone Game of & Shrewd Woman, “‘Something over a year ago the depart- ment pailled & clever woman who was operating her little dodge down in Florida— 4 woman of tremendous shrewdness this one was, sure enough. She advertised and sent out circulars to the effect that she was & natural born healer of any old ease that w er included fn & medical book, mental or physiclal, and forth the fact that, if anythin some better as an ‘absent healer’ than she was a8 a contact healer. All the person affiicted with any sort of disease had to do was to hike a $5 note along to her, and she would spend five minutes at a certaln Eour of the day or night thinking of the person remitting the monmey. Thus the affiicted one would be made whole. If 1 remember correctly, this little woman pulled io something like $300,000 with scheme, and, if she had lly devoted f minutes of thought each day to each of her subscribers, the day would have had to be about two months long. The beauty of the situstion in her case was that absolutely thing could be done in the way of pun- ishment to her. She cf to it when nalled that she really was bsent healer all right—although there was & merry twinkle in her eye as she said it—and the government hado't any way of proving that she wasn't what she olaimed to be, even had the government been dieposed to establish any such contention. “Not in recent years have any of thess mail swindlers been %o bold as that hue morist who, advertising that he would send A certaln way of getting rich on receipt of a dollar, sent out little slips containing the words, ‘Work hard and never spend & cent,’ but manipulators of the malls almost aa brazen are constantly requiring supe pression. When one stops to reflect upon how many years this sort of mall swindling has been going on, and then considers how many tens of milllons of newspapers cone talning accounts of such swindles are con- stantly being thrown off of American presses, one is tempted to take stock in that old aphorism of Hungry Joe's that ‘there's er born every minute, and they never NO RADICAL CHANGES. Wenther Record Confound the Oldest Inhabitant. “There s nothing so untrustworthy unaided human recollection,” once remarked the late John G. Nicolay, who helped to write the Lincoln memoirs; he referred particularly to historic controversies, and intended to discredit those observations which had not b put in black and white at the time of the occurrence of the event, but instead had been allowed to grow. A forcible {llustration of Bis truth, says the New York Evening Post, is found in the popular estimates of the weather. It was only 1 year that we A summer so hot to break the records of the Weather bureau, and yet this summer the country. men hereabouts are saying that “the clf- mate Is changing,” and specifically charg- ing that “the summers are ndt what they used to be.” The climate remains the same, will be proved by the truthful records of scientific appliances. There are periods during which it varies; times when cold or rain or heat prevails to a larger extent than the more mal. But when the whole s summed up, covering a reasonably long period of time, 1t 1s found that the frost llne is just where it used to be, and the cold or hot or the rainy periods are no more or less frequent than when grandfather was a boy. Thom Jefferson was a victim to the popular delusion, and writing in 1771, sald: “A change of climate is taking place very sensibly. Both heats and colds are becom- ing more moderate within the merbory of even the middle-aged. Snows are less fre- quent and less deep. They do not often e below the mountains more than one, two ays, and very rarely a week. The snows are remembered to have been formerly frequent, deep and of long con- The elderly {nform me that the But in those days there was no weather bureau, and th Iderly"* were free to give their recollections without the danger of an official observation being | quoted. In Burope accurate records have been kept of the dates of the opening of nmavigation of streams at certain points for several cen- turfes, and it is shown that, covering a long period of years, there has been no ap- preciable change. The first twenty years of record, compared with the totais of the last twenty years, gives the same result. Observations made by geologi convince them, and Prof. Moore of the Weather bureau, than in our lake regions no changes of climate have taken ple thousand years. Ossian Gu! civil engineor, says that “‘the same variety of trees now growing in the lake rogi were growing soon after the glaolal epoch.” The records of the Weather bureau show that the maximum of heat recorded in the United States was in Colorado, at Mam- moth Tank, a station In the desert, where in 1887 the th ometer recorded in the shade 128 degrees Fahrenheit. Agaln n 1884 124 degrees was reached in the same place. Prof. Maore advises people not to stand in doorways or at open windows durin evere electric rms. ‘The n borhoods of trees and fireplac are to be avolded. On the other hand, he says it will do little or no good to wrap up in & feather bed. Alarm, in case of lightning, is quite super- who lives to need not comcern Bimself about the possibility of harm from that flash. Also recollect that heaven has more thunders to alarm than thunderbolts to punish. It serves also to calm the spirits to think that even though struck by light- the consequenc: not always even If stunned and apparently dead the victim may be resuscitated. Prof. Moore says not to cease efforts at artificlal respiration and stimulation for an hour. Lightning stuns, but does not often kill. It you eat without appetite you need Prickly Ash Bitters. It promptly re- moves impurities that clog and impede the action of the digestive organs, crestem good appetite and digestion, strength of body and activity of brain One Fare and Twe Dollars. CHICAGO, Sept. 5.—The Western Pas- senger assoclation today granted a round trip rate from all points in its territory to the International Live Stock exposition at Chicago of one fare plus §2 for three selling days beginning November 30. For exihibitors a certificate plan has bee: ranged, at the same rate, to be on from November 25 to 30. CHILL WINDS Are the dread of those whose “weak.” fortunate