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chain of rural schools. This is the |
first time that such a plan has been !
made upon so large a scale, though
U has worked out in townships be
fore. Its success will be watched by
the country at large.
These schools, according to Act
ing Secretary of Agriculture Hays
and his assistants, are expected to
accomplish great results in the re
juvenation of country Iff a, will per
mit thorough instruction hi agrfrnl
ture and economics, and if adopted
on election day and proven feasible,
may be followed by similar work
elsewhere in the United States.
The county Is to be redistrlcted
if the bond issue Is voted, and pro
vision will be made for -transporting
at public expense all students who
do not live close to the schools.
Swift Justice.
There are comparatively few mur
ders in England. Human life there
has high value. The reason of the
wide 'ifference in this respect be
tween England and America, and
particularly between England and the
South, Is not difficult to define. The
trial of Dr. Hawley H. Crlppen, for
the murder of his wife, began Tues
day and ended Saturday, is illustra
tive.
In five days a case of internation
al Interest was concluded; after thir
ty minutes' deliberation the jury re
turned a verdict of 'guilty in the
first degree,' and a few minutes
thereafter the murderer was senten-j
ced to be hanged on November 15?
a little more than three weeks hence. (
It is explained that as there is a preju
dice in England against executing a
person convicted on purely circum
stantial evidence, the jury probably
suggested to the judge a life-sen
tence term and that recommenda
tion, if made, will go to the homo
secretary, who has Jurisdiction in
such matters. There was no motion
for a new trial.
Suppose the trial of Crippen had
been in this country. If In a big
city of the North, it would have drag
ged on for weeks. There would have
been endless and useless cross-exam
ination of witnesses?chiefly for the
advertisement of attorneys. There
would have been at least a week of
expert testimony to prove and dis
prove Crippen'8 insanity. And If
the Jury found the man guilty; there
would have been a new trial or oth
er barrier raised to punishment.
If tried in the South, the Jury
would have found Crippen not guilty,
or there would have been a mistrial.
A Juror would not 'believe' in cir
cumstantial evidence; or would be
on friendly terms with an uncle or
cousin of Ethel Le Neve, and if
Crippen were convicted It might go
hard with the girl. So he would
fight against Crippen's conviction'.
In England the law is mighty,
murderws are punished and, so, mur
ders are Infrequent. Here It is dif
ferent.?Columbia (S. C.) Stat?.
ENORMITY OF PANAMA'S GATES.
Mighty Portals That Are to Opsn
And Close on the World's Com
merce Being Built in Pittsburg By
a Small Army of Men?Will Tike
Three Years to Complete.
Pittsburg, Pa., Oct. 30.?Mis
chievous boys dreaming tonight of
gates they will seize as Hallowe'en
trophies would not in the wildest
nightmares Imagine sueh enormous
gates as are being made In Pitts
burg for the Panama Canal. They ;
will be the largest in the world. Any j
one of the 92 of them, for there are I
to be 46 pairs In all. will be about
as high as a 6-story building, as
?wide (65 feet) as many city build- 1
dings are and 7 feet deep, or thick. .
The structural steel that will go to
make thsm will weigh 60.000 tons, or
more than 8- times as much as was
used to build the Eifel Tower in
Paris.
The mighty portals, designed to
admit a world's commerce from one
ocean to another, will cost $5,500.
000. The builders are the McCllntic
Marshall Steel Construction Com
pany, a half of whose Independent
plant here has been given over entire
ly to the gate contract. Of the
60,000 tons of steel required the
heaviest single pieces will weigh
about 18 tons.
The thousands of individual pieces,
numbered and fitted to go together
as children's blocks, will be shipped
by steamer via Baltimore and with
them will go over 400 skilled struct
ural-steel builders from Pittsburg to
set them up. The advance guard of
experts leaves here in December and
the first work will probably begin
early In 1911. It will take three
years to complete the Job.
TWINS GIVE A PARTY AT 87.
Brothers, Oldest Pair in New
England. Hope to Reach Century.
Boston. Oct. 31.?John and William
Caughey, of Waltham. the oldest
twins in New England, were 87 years
old to-day, and celebrated with a fam
ily Hallowe'en party this evening.
William Caughey is seen on the
streets every day. John Caughey has
been ill for the past two years, and
does not get out as much as his bro
ther.
The twins retain full use of all
their faculties, and bid fair to live
many more years. They were born
In Ireland. Everybody knows them
as Uncle John and Uncle William.
Uncle John has a wife, but no chil
dren. Uncle William has two sons.
DIES IN IMITATING FATHER.
Four-Year-Old Drinks Whiskey With
Fatal Result.
Trenton, N. J., Oct. 28.?Wednesday
night 4-year-old Andrew Budas saw his
father sitting at the table in the
kitchen of their home on Grand
street, drinking whiskey. Yesterday
morning the child was left alone in
the house for a time. lie strayea in
to the kitchen and saw on the table
the bottle and the glass he had seen
his father use the night before. Imi
tating his parent, the boy poured
out a big drink of the liquid and
gulped it down. Some time later
his mother heard him falling about
a room on the second floor, and, go
ing to him, discovered him reeling in
a drunken stupor, the whiskey bottle
still in his hands. In a few minutes
the child fell into a heavy sleep,
from which he had not awakened
this morning. A physician was sum
moned and he pronounced the child
lead.
Good Roads Referendum.
The referendum is coming increas
ingly into vogue. Quite a number of
States will vote next month both for
public officers and on some propos
ed meausree of public policy. In one
State, Louisiana, the people will cast
a vote either "for a tax for public |
roads" or "against a tax for public
roads.''
Without a special tax it seems that
: there will be no improved public
| roads, so 'hat It is fairly up to the
people of I.