Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, March 1, 1903, Page 11

ESTABLISHED ¥AY WHO ROUTED THE GANG Obaracteristios of Joseph W. Folk, Prose- outor of Bt. Louis Boodlers. FAME ACHIEVED BY A COUNTRY LAWYER Stupendous Blufing Necessary to Se- Docu Proof of Municipal Rottenness—A Terror to Crooks. cure tary Tt has been ten years since Joseph W. Folk, seeing no future for himself beyond a comfortable living in the practice of law o his native town of Browneville, Tenn., decided to go to Bt. Louls, the metropoll of all that region, and hang out his shingle He landed there an unheralded and un- known country lawyer and for seven years the average resident of St. Louls knew that Do such man existed. Then, by a queer turn of the political machinery, the demo- eratic leaders picked out this young man as thelr candidate for circult attorney and elected him. Today Joseph W. Folk is known not only 1o St. Louls, but in all America, as the man who pulled down about the heads of the “bosses” who elevated him the corrupt political structure they had spent years in rearing; who has sent fourteen men, in- cluding the democratic leader, a millionaire or two, and city lawmakers, to the peni- tentiary for the crimes of bribery and per- Jury; who hopes to convict ten more men on similar charges, and who has caused four others, one a multi-milljonaire, to be- come exiles from Americon soil In less than threc years this country lawyer hae cleansed St picipal debauchery that had infected it for twenty. Alone and unaided he has per- formed this monumental task by biuff, hard work, and his knowledge of criminal law gained while defending petty offenders be- fore the courts in his home town of some 3,000 population. Mr. Folk Goes to St. Louls. When, in his 234 year, Mr. Folk set himself up in St. Louls, it was with the de- termivation to begin all over again. He decided to drop criminal law, which he had been practicing ever since his graduation from Vanderbilt university three years be- fore, and to take up the civil end of the profession. Gradually he succeeded In get- ting business men to trust their legal in- | terests to him, and so firm had his purpose become never to meddle in things criminal again and so remunerative was his civil list, that when, unexpeotedly, “Boss” Ed- ward Butler, democrat, appeared before him and asked him to become the party's nom- inee for circuit attorney, Mr. Folk in- stantly refused to consider such a proposi- tion. Nor could days of argument budge him, and then the “boss’ threatened: “We'll nominate you apyway and make you refuse the honor on the floor of the convention.” “Very well,” was the reply, “T'll refuse.” Then Mr. Folk's clients, backed up by other business men, stepped in and inter- ceded with him to take the office for the welfare of the city. They finally induced him to surrender, but when he sald to *Colonel” Butler's committee, “Very well, T will accept,” he added: E “As 1 intend to do my duty if I'm elected, some of you fellows had better look out, for some day I may find it my duty to prosecute you. In so many words did Mr. Folk give fair and timely warning to the men he has sent to prison. Where Mr. Folk Got the First Clue. The year 1901 found a civil lawyer oceu- pying the position of circult attorney of St. Louis, and his name was Joseph W. Folk. Naturally, Mr. Folk fell immediately back on his knowledge of criminal law gained in his home town, and he worked at night to improve this. He was thus occupled, when, one day, he saw a “squid” in & newspaper stating that it was rumored that certain members of the house of delegates (St. Louls' lower legislative branch) were having some trouble in getting at $75.000 bribe money in a safe deposit vault, which they felt they were entitled to have. Mr. Folk's idea of politics is ideal—that politics should be clean. “He who vio- lates the law is not a democrat, is not a repubilican—he is a criminal” he has said. Here was a hint at the worst kind of mu- nicipal crime, and although he knew that, 1f it were true, men of his own party and some of his friends would be implicated, he quietly began investigating. A few daye’ Inquiry satisfied Mr. Folk that the clipping referred to an attempt on the part of the Suburban railway to secure the passage of an ordinance enbancing the | value of its property several million. Then, although he had absolutely nothing except his suspicions that this was o to back him, he sent for the railway's millionaire president, Charles H. Turner, and its leg- islative agent, Philip Stocke, to appear be- fore him. When they came he informed them that he wanted them to tell him about the attempt which they had made to bribe the house of dclegates to pass house bill No. 44. They denied that any such thing had been attempted A Scared Mil “Very well gentlemen,” sald Mr. Folk “it will be my duty to issue warrants for your arrest and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law. Would you rather bave me do th 1l you come back to me #t the end of three days and give me the mformation demanded?” At the cnd of the second day ex-Gov- ernor Charles P. Johnson of Missouri, one of the leading criminal lawyers of the mid- dle west, walked into the prosecutor's of- “Mr. Stocke is my client,” he said. “I have come to tell you ahat he is so il that he cannot appear before the grand jury to- morrow." “Governor,” was the reply, “I'm sorry that Mr. Stocke is i1, but appear be must | before me tomorrow and tell me what 1 demand of him, or 1 shall see to it that he is arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."” The quiet, determined manper of the young man and the set of his promivent jaws made the older repert to his cliemt that “Folk means business, and you'd bet- ter 4o s he says” The result was that next day, not omly Stocke, but his mil- lonaire employer, Turner, walked into the grand jury roowm and told of the boodle clique in the house of delegates and eity council, and of he railway's attempt to put through house bill No. 44 with the ald of §135.000 in bribes, $75,00) for ihe del- | egatos and $60,000 for the councilmen. Amother Ambitious Biuf. The hluff had worked, but it was legsily Decessary to see the bribe meney which bad been placed 1n the cure of two safe de- posit companies. So Mr. Folk began sb- otber bluff. He went to the president of one of the banking hous “Mr. Blaok.” he sail, “these three wen who accompany me are grand jurors. We Louls of the mu- | OMAHA, SUNDAY MOR want you to open box (giving the number), which containe $75,000 in bribes for mem- bers of the house of delegates.” | The trust company's head, an old friend | of the prosecutor’s, laughed ‘Sorry, but 1 can't sccommodate you," he sald. “That box Is sacred to the | tessees.” | " Mr. Blank" asked Mr. Folk, “do you realize that, by the confession of two of | the men who have deposited the money here, ‘bribery has been committed? Do | you realize that bribery is a crime? Do | you realize that the bribe money is in your vaults—in your possession? And do you realize that you are, therefore, an scces- ory to the crime of bribery and can be arrested and prosecuted and punished therefor? 1 sball do this very thing if you | dou’t open that box for us.’ It was etupendous bluff—its maker had to bluff—but it worked Fifteen minutes | later the pale and sbaking trust company president led the way to the vau the box was opened, and there lay $75,000 in | bribe money before the very eyes of the circuit sttorney and the three grand jurors An hour later the same bluff was worked, but with more difficulty, at the bank which was repository for $60.000 and the first chain of evidence was complete, which later on was alarmingly amplified by the confes- sions of & fugitive, John K. Murrell, and by members of the house of delegates of the city council while under cross-examination in the grand jury room. ‘How Mr. Folk Prepared for the Tria | Then Mr. Folk set to work studying crim- | inal law for eighteen and twenty hours a { day, o that he could be prepared to meet the onslaughts at the trials of the famous |array of legal talent that the defendants bad retained. This midnight toil had its reward—the trial records show that when- ever this or that opposing legal light raised a point the prosecutor successfully met it | with another always a little better. Bluff, unceasing work, a country court experience and a determination unshaken {even by threats of mssassination and the | bitter knowledge that he would have to work for the downfall of friends—these are the weapons which have caused Joseph W. Folk, just turned 33, to bring about the biggest collapse of a corrupt political ring since Tweed was sent to jafl, and which have placed him in the foremost rank of { the leading criminal lawyers of the day. And yet, for all the reputation that has | come to him within the last two years, he |18 as modest and unassuming as in the days {when he was a green lawyer in little | Browneville, Tenn., or when, a carefree #chool boy, he played town ball on the com- mons—which, according to Mr. Folk, was | the only exeiting event in his career umtil | he unearthed the boodle gang of St. Louis. QUAINT FEATURES OF LIFE. Mrs. Abram Van Howe of Sodus, N. Y., 80 years of age, is cutting her third set of teeth. Two weeks ago she experienced a peculiar sereness in her gums where her teeth had once been, although she lost them all many vears ago. A physician was called in and found that a full new set of teeth was struggling to get through the gums on both jaws. Mre. Van Howe has never worn false teeth. The center of the mother-of-pear! shell industry is Singapore. The shell oyster ! %ix to tem Inches long, the ones weighing as much as ten pounds. It is found on hard bottom channels between islands when the current is strong. In gathering it a diver takes with him a bag of coll rope one-fourth of an inch In dlam- | eter, made in large meshes, which while suited for holding the shell, does not im- pede his traveling along the bottom. The apparatus for diving has not been intro- duced in the Philippines, although the Manila shell brings the high price of §1 a pound. Perhaps the most remarkable pension ap- plication ever presented in congress is that embodied in a bill introduced by Congress- man Pearce of Maryland. It recites with great gravity and a wealth of circumstan- | tial detall that the applicant, when a child {in arms in 1861, was so frightened by Yankee invaders in Maryland that he be- came paralyzed and has never been able to do any work. There is talk of awarding Congressman Pearce some kind of a cham- plonship in view of originality of his dbill. All the tramway car vestibules of Den- ver, Colo., are to be fitted with mirrors as STILL WORSHIP AZTEC GODS | Mexican Indians 8till Devoted to Long Forgotten Shrines | STRANGE TALES HEARD BY EXPLORER | Teobert Maler Gives Some Account of | the Peabody Museum of His Work So Fruitf Archaeolo- sleal Rewnl | Anotber chapter has been added to the | evploration of the ruined cities of Central 'imnrvra once the seats of Aztec civiliza- tion destroyed by Corter mearly five cen- turies ugo, in the recently publiched report | of Mr. Teobert Maler, who for several years | has been conducting researches mong these | ancient ruins in the interests of the Pea- | body Museum of Archaeology and Bthnology | | at Harvard university, and whose fully illus- | | trated account of what he has seen and found is shortly to be issued as one of the | publications of that institution | Dr. Maler's explorations stretched over | | three years, and were carried on mainly in | the Usumatsintla valley, in southern Mex- |ico. Among the long-forgotten cities which | Mr. Maler visited were Yaxchilan, literally | | the “City of the Green Stomes:" EI Cayo, | the “Place Where the Banks are Strewn | with Stones;” Budsilha, or “Smoking Water,” from the mist arising from an ad- { Jacent waterfall; El Chile, so called from the herb from which chile sauce is made; | { Anaite, named for the white lflies that | flourish on the banks of the river, and El | Chicoxapote, named from a tree which pro- | duces & well known Mexican chewing gum. These cities are all hidden in the tropical | Jungle, some entirely unknown even to the wandering woodcutters and gum collectors, | and others visited only by mysterious bands of Indians who still come to make occa- | | sional sacrifices on their fallen altars. | Definite Results Extensive. The definite results of Mr. Maler's inves. tigatione were the study and photograph- ing of some twenty stelae, or carved mono- lithes, on which are represented many of | | the scenes of Aztec daily life, in particular their religious rites; the restoration of be- | tween twenty and thirty ruined buildings— | temples, tombs and communal dwellings, | and the examination of mearly fifty carved | and painted lintels, many of them exca- vated from long-accumulated debris and | never before noted by the modern explorer. { In many cases the expedition has preserved | the record of objects that in another cen- tury would have entirely vanished, for the | changing course of the Usumatsintla tides has already eaten away the former water | tront of some of the cities. Tenasique, where Mr. Maler msde his | preparations for plunging into the Mexican | wilderness, is a small town about five days’ | sail from the Gulf of Mexico up the Usu- hatsintla, which here flows between mod- ern Mexico and Guatemala. From bere to El Cayo, the first of the ruined cities, was another four days’ journey, overland, with camp equipage, cameras, servants and pack | animais. Budsilha is not far from El Cayo, and La Mar—another town visited by Mr. Maler—is in the same neighborhood, but The tws Are eparated by a tangle of trop- | ical vegetation through which the explorers made their way only with the greatest diffi- culty. Interesting finds were made in all these places—in El Oayo, for example, the figure of a god that dates bhck, perhaps, | to the very earliest period of the city yet | which had evidently been worshiped even up to our own times, as was shown by the presence of several broken incense vessels in the tumble-down room in which the image was discovered. Outlines of a Oity. At La Mar there still remained sufficient evidence of its ancient structures to recon- struct a very good picture of ome of the smaller cities of the Astec period. The | architectural center of the city, it was | found, was formed by two temples, now in | ruins, which crowned two pyramids, one facing to the east and the other to the west. | | Between the pyramids was a wide plaza | bordered on the morth and south by smaller | | bulldings. The plaza was originally orna- | mented with stelae, one of which, although | | serving only to adorn so small & city as La | Mar, 1s a splendid epecimen of the best con- temporary Astec sculpture. | It has been suggested that Yaxchflan, the | wettled myself within | most | count of the tigers. | deeply buried under a fast as they can be placed upon the cars. |most important of the ancient cities which { This does mot mean that the motormen | Mr. Maler visited, may have been the town | are going into the beauty culture fad. The | referred to by Cortez in a letter to his mas- mirrors, which are of heavy plate glass, | ter, the Emperor Charles V, although Mr. are bung out at ome side of the vestibule | Maler himself rather doubts the identifica~ at just such an angle that without turn- | tion. The ruins have been visited in mod- ing his head the motorman can see exactly | ern times by more than one explorer, and the condition of affairs on the steps. He 'fn 1882, when the city was visited by Mr. can thus watch the rear platform, and there will be less danger of the car being accidentally started up again while a pas- | senger 1s getting on or off. An unsentimental wedding in Kansas Is thus described by the Marysville New: “The ceremony was performed in Char- ley's business office, and was dome up in short order so that busfness was inter- rupted only for & few minutes. Charley came from behind the counter in his shirt sleeves and with his apron on and was | ready for the ceremony, but at the judge's | request removed his apron and donned his | coat. The judge tied the knot good and solid, the groom kissed the bride, removed his coat, put on his apron and resumed | business. The witnesses were Herman | Brenneke. Joseph Sedlacek and George T Smith. Somebody may want to know what kind of a business house this is where this marriage took place, but as this is Kansas we will have to say that all we know bout it is that it Is not & dry goods house. The Bremen boys celebrated the occasion with firecrackers, guns, tin pans and all kinds of musical instruments, and Charley took them in and @id the right thing by them. This is the season of the year when the Indian chiefs come in from the reserva- | tions to see the Great Father. There are a score of them in Washington now. A group {of half a dozen standing on the curb | watching an automobile recclled to some | Texans who were passing the story Colonel | Bl Sterrett used to tell about the man { who went Into the Indian territory to sell | baby carriages | Everybody sald he was crazy. | sdmitted that there was a fine { bables in the territory, but no ome could { see what the squaws, who were used (o | packing their oftspring on their backs, could { do with baby carriages Still, orders began to come back, first 16r dozens and then for carloads, and final Sterrett went up to investigate. He went into one of the Indian villages. “And 'l be dashed,” said Colonel Bill, “if 1 didn’t see & dozen big fat Indians sit- ting in baby carriages, all scrouged up, while the squaws were pushing them around. The baby carriage man had made the Indians believe that baby carriages were the right kind of pleasure rigs for the noble red mean.” 1t was crop of | Desire Charpey, a French archaeologist, whose expedition was supported by funds from his home government and from the American millionaire, Lorillard, in whose | bonor Mr. Charney called the place “Loril- | lard City.” Mr. Maler, however, has suc- | | ceeded mot only in uncovering numerous bitherto unnoted sculptured stome monu- ments from the debris that now overflows its terraces and esplanades, but also in dis- covering certaln important temples. Getting Up the River, ““There must have been heavy ratnfalls in distant Guatemals and eastern Chiapas,” | says Dr. Maler in the new Peabody musenm report, describing his approach to Yaxchi- 1an, “for the Usumatsintla was exceasively bigh, having risen to the very edge of the | high benks, which made progress up the river exceedingly difficult, since the poles | by which the cayuco s propelled could not reach the hard bottom. Under such circum stances forked branches are made fast to the end of the poles, and with these ‘hor- quetas’ the men seize the overhanging branches of the trees and shrubs and push the cayuco forward, while those not occu- pied with the poles grasp the branches, if | possible, with their hands, and pull with all their might. This procedure is exceed- | ingly laborious, and progress is slow. In this manner it took us a day and a half to overcome the short distance between Anaite and Yaxchilan. When the river is in this condition 1o one attempts to go upstream, the labor and the danger are too great. In point of fact, we had & terrible struggle. We had to foree our way through branches of trees projecting out of the water, and ,often we had to use our machetes to remove the obstacles impeding our way. In spite of all our exertions we were frequently { whirled round by the force of the current and carried downstream. Masses of trees which reached far out into the river could Imot be surmounted, mor powerful rapids overcome, without two or three successive attempt | Evidences of Herofam. { | { { | . When we rested at night,” be continues 'we fastened our cayuco to the branches of | & great chimon and protected ourselves and our baggage as well as we could with olled | | eloths agalust the heavy night rains. It | was not possible to go on shore every- thing was Sooded. At moon of the secend day we finally arrived at the ruined city, | ihe location of which one of my mes recog- | NING, MARCH 1, 1903. nized by certain signe. The ‘cuyo’ on the low shore which generally serves to mark the spot, had entirely vanished under the water. We now breathed more freely, and, glad of having thus far surmounted all M- | How a Looal Com: culties, we fastened our caruco to a tree. My men admired eath other as heroes and each one asserted that had it pot been for him we never could have come up the river. In the meantime we sought shelter ‘in the neighboring ‘shore temple.” But as the entire stone structure was soaked with rain and all the ceflings dripped with moisture, my men constructed for themaelves a palm- leaf hut, while 1, after discovering the ‘Labyrinth,’ (Dr. Maier's name for a struc- ture afterward explored more thoroughly) its walls with my important bageage, for the ceilings were dry, and the great stone benches were very convenient for spreading my things upon them. It was rather dangerous to spend nights alone in that solitary ruin on ac- But fortunately we escaped all collision with these feline which are always to be grestly feared We were so fortunate as to have a month of glorious weather, which greatly les- | sened the dificulties of my work among the ruins. It genmerally rained at night and hardly ever by day. Even the Usu- gerous level to contend against. Our stock of provis- ions bad run very low, because the men when living at some one else's expense eat enormously and know no moderation.” Later, obtained and some three months were spent in examining and excavating the ruins so tangle of trees, shrubs, and tropical creepers that it wi only poesfble to picture the gemeral plan of the city after each structure had been examined in detafl. City of But this plan, once completed, presents a curlously vivid picture of temples, dwell- ings, altars and palaces. The anclent city was not a city of streets but of terraces rising from the water.front that is slowly and inevitably being eaten away by the turbulence of the river. Many of the struc- tures were so overgrown that they could not be excavated and photographs of vi rious parts of the ruins had to be taken at special moments when the sun forced its way through the thick follage. Here and there were found circular stope altars, probably set up over the graves of persons of rank. About the temples were many beautiful stone stelae carved on both sides —the side facing the temple almost invari- ably representing the anclent god Ketsal- koatl, who seems to have been the wpecial Terraces. defty of the city, while the other aide represented a human figure, Perhaps the most remarkable of the memorials Mr. Maler discovered is & sculptured lintel which he considers the finest plece of sculpture yet found in the city. It was dome in fine-grained lime- stone of a light yellow color and so well preserved that it looked as mew as if it had just left the hands of the sculptor. The figure is that of a warrior, holding in bis right hand what appears to be & quiver with bow and arrows which he ex- tends toward a second warrior. From his shoulder hangs an ornement of cords to which are attached the five human heads of a& many.slsli memies. He wears a huge helmet. adorned with feathers, on the front of which is fastened the small figure of a man holding amether human bead. A serpent with open jaws rises from the top of the helmet. The warrior him- self, it may be, lies burled on the plat- form of the temple which the lintel was carved to adorn. Great Figure of a God. Here, also, in the temple of Ketsalkoatl, much of which is still standing, the ex- plorer found a great figure of the god sitting crose lepged and yet so tall that it originally must have almost touched the ceiling. As a whole it is curlously sugges- tive of some of the eastern representa- tions of the Hindoo Buddha. The eyes, also, are oblique, like a Chinaman’s—two facts which are interesting in view of the theory that America was settled tfrom Asia. More curious still is the story of the woodcutters who work in the neigh- boring forest and who told Dr. Maler that | the Indians still come and offer sacrifices to this very image, burning incense in vessels adorned with feathers, and per- forming strange dances—one of which is called the “Dance of the Toucan™ because the dancers wear the stuffed skin of this bird as & head dress. Whence they come and whence they go Dot even the wood- ocutters can answer. —_— PRATTLE OF THE YOUNGSTERS. Tommy—What did your mother do for your cut finger, Johony? Johnny—She didn’t do mnothin’' but liek me for cuttin’ it. Mamma—Tell me why you dislike your new doll, darling? Little Elsie—Cause she’s like Aunt Jane; ber complexion rubs off Small Willle had done uncle, who merely sald “Oh,” rejoined Willie, *“Thank you." it tnat's all it's worth, 1 suppose you're welcome. But I was figuring on & nickel at least.” Little ®lmer was saying his pravers be- fore retiring, and having got as far as “if I d die before I wake” he hesitated. what's next? asked his mamma. | replled Elmer, suppose & funeral would be the next thing.” Small Bobby hurt his finger while play- ing, an w8, hissed him and began to dry his with ber handkerchief. tears “D-Don't wipe m-my eyes yet mamma,” “I a-ain’t done sobbed the little fellow. c-erying.” Memma—Didn't you feel afrald of some- thing when you went into the closet to get a plece of cake without permission? * Elmer (aged 5)—Yes, mamma. Mamma—And do you know why you had that feeling of fear? Elmer—Sure 1 do. find the cake. He had recited to his class the story of Abrahem entertalning angels unaware Feeling that the children might not know e meaning of the word “unaware,” he ked them if they ald nt up promptly, and the smallest girl in the class said “The thing you wear mext your skin.”— | Harper's Magarine for March. The Same Old Game. “And who,” whispered a member of the legislative committee, “‘is to get the heot end of this deal™ “The people,” wildly exclaimed the irate member who was floating with the reform- ers. 0 well, then, go ahead ™ member, in a relieved tone, “I didn't know but what it was to be one of us for a chasge. —Baltimore American. said the first it may be added, provisions were | an errand for his | One little hand | 7 | | | for sleeping purposes or | the | | his mother caught him up in her | | ily consented | an jssue. | years for this railroad to build in | been worked without avail. matsintla soon sank again to a léss dan- | | But we had another trouble | the Jast one wae sent out by the North- 1 was afraid T couldn't | Teference to the dissolution of the Niobrara, MOBRARA AND THE ELKHORN pany Made Terms with Great Railroad Bystem. NORTHWESTERN SCARED OF MILWAUKEE de Story of the Niobrara Exten- siom of the F., E. & M. V. and How & Lawyer an Editor Caused the Northwestern to “It's rather a strange ocoincidence,” sald E. A. Houston up at Niobrara, as he fin- | ished reading The Bee's report of the out- | come of the Northwestern's absorption of the Elkhorn, “that Niobrara seems the in- direct cause of this whole mess | to Prestdent reference. Mr. Bidwell was buey writing Hughitt and trylng to catch the 3 o'clock train for a return trip to Nio. brara. But it was 9'30 that evening befor the special pulled out from Webster street depot—having been kept hot there ready to #tart at any moment, with all traffiic be- tween Omaba and Fremont blockaded from 3 to 5:30, when the dispatcher was re lieved of a tremendous burden, as he after- ward informed Fry. At 9:30 we left on the special for Verdigris at fifty miles an hour. “Mr. Bidwell that morning n reach ing Fremont, remarked that he had for once escaped the newspapers. Fry, being a newspaper man, took time to go up to The Bee building, where he saw Charley Best and asked him if he was prepared for a ‘beat,’ and then it was that The Bee sur- prised its readers with a big plece of news for its last afternoon edition. Taking it up to Mr. Bidwell's office, where we were yet hard at work arranging our affairs, Fry re “Ed Fry and myself were secretary and president, respectively, of the corporation | that brought it all about, or at least forced | Niobrara had waited over thirty | During | this time Omaha and Niobrara delegations | had waited on President Hughitt without moving him. All manner of schemes had We had asked for engineers to look over the ground and | western, who reported adversely, saying to our committee, ‘We don't have to come to Niobrara to reach the country west.’ Stoux City organized a company about thie time and established a survey, but the financial crash of 1893 submerged it in the same heap with other enterprises. “It got to be pretty desperate when the county eeat took wings, and ‘last straws’ were being grabbed at with no definite pur- | pose. Finally a half-hearted gathering as- sembled and nobody but Fry had a word to offer. He suggested the harnessing of the | Niobrara river for a great water power, or | at least find out how much of a power we | had s0 as to lay right foundations for the future. This elicited considerable interest | and we went to work at once to make the | survey. When it was discovered that there | was a fifty-two-foot fall & permanent eur- | vey was ordered and & competent hydraulic engineer engaged. It wae while Fry was | industriously engaged seeking capital for this project that he ran up against the rail- road situation and found men who would | build the raflroad.” Here Mr. Houston went on to give a his- tory of the Niobrara, Missour! River & Western railroad, with himself as president and Mr. Pry as secretary. He sclected his incorporators, who cheerfully put in their money, and organized under the New Jer- sey lawe, the eastern end of the corpora- | tion taking the viee presidency and treas- | ury and being a part of the directory. Not word was said to anybody outside of the ones directly interested, and nobody out- side knew that any such organization had been effected untll the Associated Press dispatches announced the fact in the news- papers. In the meantime Fry's printing | office had been busy with stock certificates | and other necessary work for the corpora- tlon and as soon as the certificate of do- mestication in this state had been received here the right-of-way from here to the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missour! Valley rail- 1oad grade ai Verdigiis had beea secured before the Omaha officials were scarcely aware of it. | A few days after Division Superintend- | ent Reynolds arrived at Niobrara,” con- | tinued Mr. .Houston, “and Fry being ac- | quainted with him, was sent on a mission to discover his business here. Reynolds had gone to interview one of our merchants | end Fry waited at a convenient distance until the railrosd oficlal came out. Then he sauntered up the street in great haste, and meeting Mr. Reynolds and his engineer, accosted him with affected surprise: | ‘'Well, Mr. Reynolds, are you not off your beat? ““I think not. Why do you ask that? “ ‘It seems strange to see you in Nio- | brara—you usually turn at the bridge and | 80 west.' *‘ ‘Have you any new railroads in sight ™ asked Reynolds. “‘Oh, yer replied Fry, ‘we have one pretty well along.’ Is it local capital? he asked. * ‘No, sir; it is eastern capital. Our pres- ident is here, however, and I should ke | you to meet him.’ He hesitated, but finally | walked across to my office and the form- | alities over, the railroad subject came up | and 1 went over the situation frankly ll'ld‘ truthtully. Mr. Reynolds was very atten- tive and drank n every word I had to say, took the address of our treasurer and gath- ered such other information as I cared to offer. “By a mere accident I learned & week after that ‘a friend of Sanford Parker of Spencer desired to meet him at Niobrara | Thanksgiving morning.' I knew something | was up, but did not look for the surprise that met my gaze Thanksgiving morning, | | | 1901 General Manager Bidwell Surprises. “Thanksgiving day will always be a red- letter day for Niobrara. General Manager Bidwell and two corps of engineers, with Hon. John B. Barnes of Norfolk as counsel, were early arrivals. Fry bad gone to his pasture and his daughter sent post haste | after him, for Mr. Bidwell had sent for us that a consultation could be had. At 9| o'clock Fry and 1 had gathered ourselves together, consulted such of the local di- rectors es we could on short notice, and | appeared before Mr. Bidwell as invited. He had come with the olive branch and stated before the assembled business men the position of the Elkhorn toward Niobrara and its full willingness to build into Nio- brara. He acknowledged that we had pro- | cured considerable inside ground that both- | ered him. Then I gave a history of our | effort, and every now and then Mr. Bidwell would break in, ‘You went sbout it just right,’ and finally with this general under- standing, we agreed to let the Elkhorn in provided our eastern friends were properly | taken care of.. All these plans were read- to. After some important matters brushed away, Fry and myself were requested to mccompany Mr. Bidwell to Omahs that night to fix up the detalls in Missouri River & Western Railroad com- pany. Hot Engine and Special. “We were rafiroad magnates for a day at least, and dived &t the Omaha club! We had put them all to thinking. Ben White, the general attormey for the Elk- | horn, was blind es & bat on the New Jersey law. Here is where Messrs Bidwell and | White had to show a little inside interest | thet bad hitherto not crept fn. We had | not taken with us any coples of our arti- | cles of incorporation—a very exbaustive | document on which 1 had spent many | weary hour during that ful August | weather of that year—and White wanted | us to explain some things there. It was with some hesitation that he brought down trom his office a certified copy from the secretary of state’s office, something like | 8fty typewritten pages, for our inspection. | It had been pretty well studied by the legal | Bidwenl satd that marked to Mr. Bidwell, ‘The newspapers caught you this time When reference was made by The Bee about the Niobrara, Mis sourl River & Western railroad being t cause of this extension, Mr. Bidwell's pride was considerably touched, and he remarked that ‘that's not so!' Fry had a twinkle in his eye and we exchanged winks, but sald nothing. But on our return home Mr. Bid well here and these dropped some secre which were not intended The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, which is opposite Niobrara, was the greatest bugaboo he had on his mind, and it was thought we were in close alliance with that great system in our scheme to build a railroad. It is not saying but that this may have resulted to the Milwaukee's advantage had the Elkhorn not stepped in. We held the key to the situation for the time being and as matters revealed themselves proved how well we had our organization in hand “Two weeks before the Northwestern ha engineers here watching our course. Fry and I kept our own counsel and the direc tory was blind to what was going on, ha ing confidence in our ability to cope with the other schemers. So secret, also, was the Northwestern (under whose exclusive control the late extension was constructed) that the engineers who were shipped here to do the work read thelr transportation to ‘Atkinson’ and found themselves upon awakening next morning at Verdigris. Mr. get in on the ground floor eminated from | Chicago by wire and no time was allowed for undue delay. “I therefore say, it 1s a strange coinci- dence that Niobrara unwittingly has re- tired several high officials and been the means of blotting out forever the name of ‘Fremont, Elkhorn & Missour! Valley rail- road’ But Niobrara got what Fry and I started out to get, and if anybody thinks | we had no hard sledding they want to place themselves In & like position. Everything has gone to show that we proceeded right, for the great danger that Niobrara felt was taht instead of crossing the Niobrara river at the mouth where it does it would have crossed at the mouth of the Verdigris, four miles south, and engineers who worked on this extension declare that the Verdigris crossing was the cheapest and easiest to malntain. 1 don’t like to see our Elkhorn offictals stepping out. but we ball the Northwestern coming i GOSSIP ABOUT NOTED PEOPLE. Prol. Mommsen, the German historian, whose flowing white locks caught fire at a gas jet in his library a few days ago, is 85 years old, but has lost little of his physi- clal and none of his mental activity Twenty years ago he was almost cremated whén the valuable library in his home at | Charlottenburg was destroyed by fire. In the more recent accident his face was somewhat scorched and the professor re- marked whimsically: “It is all over with my beauty.” Why didn't Senator “Tom" Platt devote himself to a diplomatic career? “Will President Roosevelt go into the next na- tional convention with the New York dale- gation? he was asked the other day. “I think,” eaid the senator, with appar- ent deliberation and evidently weighing every word, “It would be absolutely safe to y that he will not “And why mot?" the Interviewer followed up hotly, scenting e big plece of news. “Because it 1s customary for a president | who is seeking renomination to s in Washington while the convention is in progress.” Not long ago Sir Richard Powell, a famous London physician, was called to treat King Bdward. The king's regular physician, Sir Francis Laking, wes present. After examining his august patient Sir Richard said in his characterictically brusque way: “You have eaten and drunk too much. 1 will send you a prescription that will put you right.” Then he hurried out to see other patfents, when fir Francix followed and protested against his abrupt way of treating the king. “My dear Lak- ing,” sald Powell, “if there is any squirm- ing to do you return snd attend to it. 1 really haven't the time." John Jerome Kelly, son of the late John Kelly, who was leader of Tammany hall next before Croker, became a member of the New York stock exchange a few days ago and was initiated with & degree of vio- lence which bore testimony to his popu- larity. The members daubed his face with paint and made him dance as Indlans dance in geography pictures. The reason they | hazed him that way was because his father a political Indian and because Mr. Kelly expects to do whatever brokerage business there is to be done for the Tam- | many Indians of this day. A citizen who has just trip in Europe says that the sword pre- sented to Admiral Dewey s a beauty, but that in the matter of downright gorgeous- ness it is rather a poor second to that given to Lord Roberts by the city of Ports mouth recently. The American, who has examined both weapoms, says that the one owned by the little English soldier is probably the costliest thing of its kind in the world. The band-made blade is of English steel ipscribed with all gagements in which Lord Roberts has taken part. The grip ie of gold and carved ivory, the guard of solid gold ornamented with rubles, diamonds and sapphires, and the scabbard is splendidly decorated. returned from a Dr. Edward Everett Hale addressed the Mothers and Fathers club of Boston a day or two sgo. He startied his audience somewhat by saying: ‘‘Temement houses, some seventeen stories high, packed with people and causing all kinds of tenement- house laws to be made, are as wicked hell.” He expressed the bope that in & hundred years from now there would be great cities “What want,” said the orator, “is to Initiate our children to lve in the open air, 1o grow to love the coun- try, 8o that they can know the difference between & turnip and & potato and between grass and hemlock. When this has been brought about we will have been comverted from the miserable mechanical machine life | department and not a little marked up for| we are now living” all this organization to| the en. | MODERS IN SECOND PLACE Omaba Book Borromers Btill Oling to the Btandard Works of Fiotion. | EXPERIENCE OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY [ Miss Tabitt Gives Some Information A% 1o the Demand for Stories of Var | Other Writin In these daye when the printed page plays €0 large & part in our scheme of ex- istence, anything which gives information as to the relative popularity of autbors and their various books and helps to show which works have the merit to outll their first burst of popularity, is of col | siderable interest. A report from the ity library for the year 1902 gives us some resting comparisona The works of fiction are of course the most popular and are read by all classes. Next in demand are works of a religious character, especially those of an optomistic | and reassuring nature. Books classed under literature, biography and travels rank next and are all about equally popular. Books dealing with philosophical subjects seem to have a certaln popularity and works classed under useful arts, while in no case | rising to great demand, have u high aver- ege of circulation. Books of poetry have B0 large popularity and the historical vol- umes are not read as much as ene would expect to find them One Volume Wins. the department of fiction it seems the popular book is the one-volume tory. Readers do not like to carry home two volumes at ome time and frequently 0 not read the second at all, either be- | cause they have lost interest, or are at- | tracted to some other author whem they return the first volume to the library. The short story, unless the collection s of marked excellence, does not seem popular. The reader, at least here in Omaba, ap- pears to enjoy best the book with a con- | siderable and well worked out plot. The In hat | novels of the romantic school do not have the popular demand which they are sup- | posed to excite, and while when first intro- duced Into the library, there is a rush among certain readers to obtain them, this is satisfied during the first year, and the books fall to a comparatively low average of circulation. It has been Miss Tobitt's observation, that taking & period of five years in the library, such books as Wey- | man's, Anthony Hope's and others of the | kind, fall in average circulation below | some of the old standards, Dickens or | Dumas for instance. ° This 1s contrary o | the popular belief, and goes far to refute | the statements of decadence in modern lit- | | erary taste. As a rule, some particular work of an author rises far above his other books in popular favor. One such popular book, however, draws attention to the other storfes of the writer and secures for these an increase of circulation, owing to the curfosity of those who have been pleased by the popular tale. While there is a demand emong a class of readers for stories of foreign countries and characters, the books most generally read deal with can lfe. Of these the books of plain living, lead. The second velumes of various works do not reach the circulation of the first. Popul Among all the recent authors Stevemson has perhaps the highest average of popu- larity and this interest in his books seems te be growing. “Treasure Island” has & demand among all classes. “St. Ives” is also popular. There is a emall, constant circulation for all of Dickens' works and Dumas is in considerably larger demand. | “Monte Christo” is the great favorite of this writer. Thackery and Bulwer are also wanted. The books of Jane Austen seem to be rapidly growing in popular tavor, especially “Sense and Sensibility" and ¢Pride and Prejudice.” “Janice Meredith” enjoys a large and well sustained circulation and a number of new coples have been ordered to replace the wermout books. | The library list was made with the idea of ascertaining if the books were being purchased which the people wished to read. From orders made at holiday time, 1901, & list of volumes In each department was made, taking them as purchased, without any selection. The circulation for the year rity of Authors. was then obtalned. Crawford's “Marietta,™ Ludlow's “Deborah,” Dalrymple's “That Wager of Dot's” and Waterloo's “The Seekers” ran out ome book card, or over forty times in circulation. These were among the sixteen books first on the pur- chasing 1'st. Habberton's “Caleb Wright" was taken out forty times; Chestnutt's “Marrow of Tradition,” thirty-four times; Oppenheim's “The Survivor,” thirty-thres times; French’s “The Colonials,” thirty-o times, and the lowest in the list, Bourget’ “The Screen,” thirteen times. Moffett's “Career of Danger,” twenty-seven times, | was the most popular juventle. | Other Than Fiction. | Poetry and the drama: Field's “Book of | Tribune Verse” went out twenty times Well's “Mother Goose's Menagerie,” twel times, apd Dunbar's “Candle Lightin' | Time,” eleven times. The average for the | other twenty-four books was only three times out, with seven books not out at all In the natural history list, “Amateur Bee Keeper” reached it on the Stage” (literature), Morrison, was circulated twenty-nine times; *Bible Stories” was out twenty-seven times; “Life | Everslasting.” twenty-three; “Life Beyond Death,” elghteen; *Making of an Ameri- | can” (biography), twenty-four, and Custer's | “The Boy Gemeral,” twenty-two. “Method | of Bookkeeping” was the most popular book second card; “Life | of the science list. “How to Make Commen | Things,” “Gala Day Luncheons,” “Farm | Poultry” and “Theory and Practice of | Cooking” were the best liked of the useful art books. “Intervals, Chords snd Ear | Tratning” and “Romantic Castles and | Pala lead the fine art list, and Halp- hide's “Physic and Psychism" and James' “Will to Belleve” were the most popular of the works on philosophy. The books on language and education had an average circulation of five. . An Easter Hen. There is a person residing in Greenup who has & number of hens, and he heard that to place Venetian red in the drinking water for chickens would keep off disease and improve the health of his chickens. He tried it, putting a large quantity of the powder in the water. The chickens @id not take kindly to the colored water, except one hen that appeared te have a natural fondness for the liquid. She drank fre- quently and long of it, with the result that what should be the white of her eggs 15 & beautiful Venetian red. This is no exag gerated statemeut, but a fact.—Greeaup (Pa.) Gaszette