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V VOL. X. PLYMOUTH, N. Ci, FRIDAY, JULY 21, 1899. NO. il
J ASLEEP ON PICKET. I
4
i
An Incident of
HY 33. TP.
r-jy sy y jy jsji st ly
It was the night after the terrible day
at San Juan, and Private George Mor
ton of the regnlars was doing picket
duty on the heights. Not much to make
a story out of, for after the exciting
events of that day, ever to be memor
able in our history, anything else that
can ha told must seem simple and com
monplace. But to Private Morton
( there at his post by the deserted
trenches it was destined to be even
more eventful than the scenes he had
just beeii through.
Ever since the landing of his regi
1 ment, two days before, the moments
had been filled with excitement and
rough work that left little time for
thought. But Private Morton, as a
gfifteral tn wa9 nt much given to
tltjught. A private 'in the regular
army must be made into a part of one
splendid fighting machine. So Pri
vate Morton was content to do his
duty and lot the officers do the think
ing. 1 Though apparently not over 30
years of age, he was now serving his
second term of enlistment and had
seen enough of active service in the
Indian campaigns in Arizona and the
Bad Lands to make war for him no
novelty. He was counted a good sol
dier, and he knew by heart all the
"rules of war" by which the sharp
discipline of the regular army is en
forced. But tonight it seemed to the soldier
that the burdens of the service were
mxvs than ordinarily oppressive. For
dearly 48 hours ha had beeu on con
stant duty, without rest or respite,
marching through the tropical rain,
wading streams, plodding in the mud,
fighting,famishing; for in all that mad
. rush of the preceding days there had
been no time for rest and hardly a
thought for food and drink, for even
the regulars had caught the infection
and were nearly ns reckless and im
provident as the less disciplined and
thoughtless volunteers. The one
thing to do was to possess that Span
ish line before it could be reinforced
and before the dreaded fever should
thin their owu lauks. It whs death
in front, but just as certain death
wai stalking in the rear. And so
. during- those last two days there had
jbeen no rest from duty, no rao.neut in
Svhich to catch a little sleep or relieve
the muscles or mind from the terrible
strain. The line had been won and
now must be guarded from surprise
and recapture.
In detailing the guard for that im
portant service there were no fresh
men from whom to select; the fatigue
of two days' constant matching and
fighting could be no exeuse.else there
could bo no guard, for all were equally
worn and exhausted. When Private
Morton heard the orderly sergeant
call his name a3 oue of the detail for
guard duty he had just flung himself
. down on the rain and blood soaked
ground beside a dead Spanish soldier.
There had beeu no time to select a
resting place; the tired limbs had re
fused duty the moment discipline was
relaxed, an I he had fallen almost as
" a dead man there among the really
dead, vith all his accoutrements still
Btrapped about him and firmly grasp
ing his heavy army rifle. But with
the calling of his name the habit of
discipline ' returned, and he was
promptly on his feet to form one of
the little squad that marched away
into the growing darkness toward the
front for sentinel duty.
He was stationed in the shadow of
a few closely growing trees, just be
yond the now deserted trenches lately
so stubbornly defended by Spain's
bravest soldiers, with orders not to
expose himself in the open, but to note
(the least movement or sound from the
direction in which the enemy had re-
fi treated, for it was deemed ,very likely
that a night attack might bo attempted
for the recovery of the hill.
For a short time after his compan
ions left him Private Morton did not
give much attention to himself. He
followed, first with his eyes, then by
the ear, the movements of the little
band, as guard after guard was placed,
and tried to keep in mind the location
of the different men. It was no new
work for him to be on guard,and there
yas no special novelty to him in the
situation. War was war, whether in
Cuba or Arizoua. He knew that
across that xlark cacyon, concealed by
the darkness and the thick growth of
timber, was the Spanish line and that
" any moment a flight of Mauser bullets
inight come in his direction from out
those dim shadows, or even a line of
yelliug Spaniards spring from the
jungle down there a little way below
him and come charging up to bear him
and his comrades back from the hard
earned field. But be had been in
equally bad places before and did not
know what it was to fear anything in
the shape of foe. He knew the im
portance of his task, the perils it in
volved and the consequences of fail
ure. Bat now the new-found strength
that e4':i'e to him when called to this
now talk began si adually to fade away.
the War in Cuba.
FLOYD.
ygr-aq y m y jg jgt j, yiy
and he 'could realize how tired and
faint he was. He could easily count
up his rations for the last two days
just five hardtack, soaked in muddy
water, in all that time, and as for
sleep, when he came to think of it he
did not believe that he had had any,
unless, perhaps, lie had slept awhile
between the fighting and the detail for
guard duty.
How tired he was now and how he
would like to sleep! No, that was
too risky. It meant death to be caught
asleep. He could stab a hole through
his shoe with his bayonet and wound
his foot; the pain must awaken him.
Somehow, the blood felt so worm and
comfortable - there was he going to
sleep after all? He took a cartridge
from his belt and bit it savagely till
he broke a tooth, and his mouth filled
with blood; but he let it run down his
face and across his blouse, with no
care for the pain or relief from that
terrible call of overstrung nerves for
rest in sleep.
How long Private Morton fought
this terrible battle with himself a
battle more dreadful than any on that
bloody field the day before we can
not tell. It seemed ages to him; it
might have been only the latter part
of his time of duty, but at last the re
lief was coming. He could not be
mistaken that was the sound of his
approaching deliverance yes, there
was the head of the line within 50 yards
of him. Now hi) could sleep. "O!
how tired I am; how blessed this
sleep!"
And so they found him, sound
asleep at his post. It might have
been for a moment; it might have been
for two hours. Asleep he was, at any
rate, when relief arrived. His post
was the most important on the whole
line, and its sentinel asleep! How
could they know he had fought so
hard to keep awake and he had only
fallen as they were at hand? They
had found him so, and it was death.
He knew that. He had not been in
the service six years to forget that.
There was no excuse that would save
a sentiuel from death who fell asleep
at his post in time of war and in the
face of the enemy. As tha grim faces
of the men that fell in about him to
take him to the guardhouse showed no
sign of compassion, so Morton real
ized that he could expect none from
any quarter, but must suffer the full
penalty of his crime.
It did not occupy much time, his
trial and conviction. The days were
too busy fan' that those days before
Santiago, between El Cauey.San Juan
and the surrender.
They were grim and powder-black-eued,
with torn and faded uniforms,
that group of officers quickly called
together for court-martial, but they
were stern and just. The evidence
was clear there was no defence the
sentence brief. Private Morton for
sleeping on post was to be shot to
death, in the presence of his regiment,
the following day at noon. The action
of the court-martial had been approved
by the commander, and but a few short
hours remained for the condemned
man between this and another world.
In the old Sau Juan blockhouse,
that served as a prison now, lay Private
Morton, stretched on the rough floor
and covered with his blanket. There
was time enough to sleep here, and
that sleep which seemed so precious
but a short time ago, and which would
finally cost him his life, why would it
not come to him now and shut out the
awful realities of his position? Why
could he not stop thinking for a mo
ment and sleep? Perhaps it would
come if he would only turn on the
other side. No, that foot pained too
badly. Why did it not pain enough
to keep him awake that dreadful
night when was it, a year ago or orjy
last night? He could not tell, for he
had lost all sense of time. Was he
going crazy? It was not such a dread
ful thing to die. He had faced death
a thousand times and was not afraid
of that. During that charge up the
hill the lieutenant had called to him,
"Private Morton, cut these wires."
He was not afraid then, but had
stepped out of ths brush into that hor
nets' nest of lead and with his nippers
cut every wire before he left and not
a bullet hit him, though the lieuten
ant and eight or ten other men fell
dead before they got through the gap
he had made. Perhaps he bore a
charmed life, and they might not hit
him when they came to try to kill
him next day. It was the disgrace of
it all, though. "In the presence of
his regiment" thathad been the sen
tence, and the disgrace of standing
before his comrades, condemned for
neglect of duty, he, Private Morton,
who had served six years in his regi
ment and had never a, mark against
his name before. This was worse than
death. If he could only sleep a little
while and forget that part of it. But
that tooth would persist in paining
so, and one ragge 1 point kept cutting
his tongue and filling his mouth with
blood that almost choked him at times,
so tkat no sleep would come.
With such feverish fancies did the
night pass away, and then the brief
forenoon seemed all too short. They
would come for him in a few moments,
and he would march out and meet his
doom before the whole regiment. Who
would come, and who would be told
off for the firing party? He hoped
they would be good shots. "Reddy"
James would surely be one; he was al
ways on every special detail, and that
bristling red moustache would be sure
to stand out stiffer than ever today.
"Mealy" Mason would be another.
He was the man the sergeant always
detailed to shoot the sick and disabled
horses the summer they were up in
the Bad Lands. But before he could
count up anymore the lieutenant came
to inform him that the time was up
and he must march to the place of ex
ecution. It struck him as a little peculiar
just then that no chaplain had beeu
sent to help smooth his pathway to
the grave; but it did not give him
much concern, as he never had much
use for a chaplain anyway, and all the
boys knew it. Another thing seemed
queer. Had he not seen the lieuten
ant fall there at the barbed-wire fence
with a bullet through his head? But
here he was and did not seem to be
any the worse for it, only his face
was terribly white and ghastly, and a
great splash of blood almost covered
his once white gauntlet. Now he came
to think of it. "Mealy" had fallen at
the fence with the whole side of his
head torn away, so after all he would
not be one of the firing party. He
wondered if his mother would know
of his disgrace and if she would be
there. He remembered now that he
had heard her voice singing "Rock of
Ages" some time last night, just aa
she used to when he was a little chap
and she sang him to sleep at night.
The officer started to read some
thing from a large roll of manuscript,
but stopped with a scowl. "You
know what it i$,"he said; "forward,
march!" And Private George Morton
took his blanket from the Boor.rolled
it up properly as became a United
States regular and followed his lieu
tenant to the scene of his death.
He began to wonder how it would
feel to be hit; whether he should know
auything about it and how long it
would take to die. He watched the
firing squad as it slowly filed into po
sition. He counted them as they
wheeled into place. One, two, three,
four, five, six, and the officer. Why
did it take so many to kill a man?
It seemed to take a long time to
get everything ready, though perhaps
his thoughts were running alittle more
rapidly than usual. One thing brought
him satisfaction there would be
plenty of time to sleep after it was all
over.
His imagination must be playing
him false again, else how was it that
he saw the white, agonized face of his
mother there, breaking through . that
solid line of blue on the right? He
wanted to rush to her and tell her it
was all a dream, that he would not be
hurt, but he could not bring his
limbs to obey his will, and then in a
moment the stern, fixed faces of the
men in front brought back with sick
ening force the reality and awfulness
of it all.
It must come to an end some time.
Yes, the officer at the head of the
squad had stepped a pace forward, and
a command was given that he could
not understand, but the guns weie
lowered with a jerk; auother command,
and with a jerk and clang the guns
came to "aim" and all seemed point
ing directly into his eyes.
There was a flash, but he could hear
no report. Would those bullets never
come, or must he stand there through
all eternity waiting for the end? Could
they have missed him? Perhaps he
was dead already. Death had come
with the flash, and death was not so
different from life, after all. Then
"Yes, I am hit, after all!" he shouted,
grabbing frantically at his left arm,
which suddenly seemed a mass of
molten iron. "Of all those guns only
one was loaded, and that hastaken off
my arm."
Dazed and stupid from sleep and
pain, he opeued his eyes to see the re
lief still some 20 yards away, but mov
ing with the brisk swing of the regu
lars to his post. His left arm seemed
on fire yet, but he managed to bring
his gun into position and challenge in
the usual manner.
"How is this?" said the officer.
"Wounded? It must have been that
shot that just came from across the
canyon." "Yes, I believe I'm struck
a bit," said Morton, "but it don't
amount to much, and I'm mighty glad
to get out of this hole even if my arm
is broke. It's a sight better than hav
ing the whole six in my carcass."
With those rather unintelligible
words Private Morton "fell in" and
marched away to his quarters.
After the surgeon had fixed up his
arm it was some time before he could
reconcile his mind t j dreaming so
much in the time it took that relief to
march 30 steps.
How sweet it was to sink down at
last upon that glorious couch, his army
blanket and the muddy ground; to
feel the drowsiness creeping deli
ciously through his very soul; to
smile with contempt at the futile ef
forts his wounded arm was making to
keep him awake, and at last to fall
soundlv and really asleep! Overland
Monthly.
FEESH BEEF FOR MANILA
PROBLEM OF SUPPLYING IT TO OUR
TROOPS THERE SOLVED. .
The Refrigerator Vessel Glacier and the
Novel Cargo She Carries Five or Six
Days Required to Cool the Meat Suffi
ciently A Novel Defrosting Process,
Two million pounds of beef which
cannot spoil has left New York for the
Philippines, states the Sun. All went
in one vessel for the feeding of the
navy and army engaged in operations
in and around Manila.
. The problem of sending fresh pro
visions to the Philippines was much
greater than Cuba or Porto Bico pre
vented. a Two difficulties had to be
overcome. One was distance, the
other was climate. The simple de
vice of keeping the meat fresh by
placiug it in rooms cooled to 30 de
grees, which is sufficient for a short
trip and moderate climate, would be
a osolutely worthless if attempted for
a long trip and the high temperature
through which a vessel must pass in
going to the Philippines. To overcome
the difficulty a ship specially built for
carrying fresh mutton from Australia
to England was purchased. She is
now the United States refrigerator
vessel Glacier.
She proved herself practical for that
work, and is therefore not even an
experiment now that she has to do
similar work for the United States
troops at Manila. The navy depart
ment advertised for sealed bids for
between a million aud a half and two
million pounds of prime beef for the
cargo of the vessel last month. The
contract was awarded. Experiments
as to the shrinkage in weight of frozen
meat were made, proving that there
was not more than one-quarter of 1
per cent, loss iu the process of freez
ing. These tests showed that the
whole substanco of the meat must re
main in it or there woahi have been
far greater losses in weight. Orders
were then dispatched to the western
agents of the company to which
the contract was let to purchase 28,000
of the very best stall-fed beeves.
These were loaded on 100 of the best
cattle cars and shipped to New York.
Here they were unloaded, kept for a
few days until they had recovered en
tirely from the trip and then slaugh
tered. Each animal was carefully ex
amined, and if found in any way
defective was rejected. As each car
cass was passed it was hurriedly quar
tered and slid into the refrigerating
room, where, hanging on huge hooks,
it was gradually cooled. Tests had
been made here also to ascertain how
long it would lake these quarters to
freezo through to the bone.
It was at first thought that when
submitted to a temperature of
15 degrees only 72 or 90 hours at most
would be necessary to freeze the meat
through so hard that a knife could not
be pushed into it. Experiments
proved that from five to six days were
needed for absolute certainty, so all
of the 2,000,000 pounds of beef have
been frozen fo sis days before being
loaded ou the Glacier. The method
of testing the freezing is itself inter
esting. A brace and bit is used, just
as if you were going to bore a hole
into an oak door to put ou the
hinge--. At first the bit is sunk only
four inches in the thick hiudquarter.
It is drawn out, and then a small
thermometer like those used by phy
sicians iu taking the temperature, is
inserted. It is left in a few minutes,
and when drawn out should show a
temperature of about 20 degrees.
Then the hole is bored deeper, going
right to the bone; the thermometer is
again inserted, and if it again regis
ters 20 degrees it is certain that the
quarter is frozen through.
After the first lot of 250,000 pounds
was well frozen, the task of loaditig
began. The engines of the refrigerat
ing apparatus on board ship had been
at work, the pipes ruuniug all around
the sides, the bottom and top were
heavily coated with frost. If you
wanted to go in there you had to
wear a heavy overcoat. It was arctic
and was meant to be. Night after
night the work went on, 250,000
pounds of beef being packed away
each night. By the use of refrigera
tor cars for transportation across the
river not one of the quarters of beef
was exposed to the air for more than
ten minutes.
At Manila a tremendous refrigera
tor storehouse is now being completed
lor receiving the cargo of frozen beef.
It will not be exposed to the tropical
heat of the Philippines for many
minutes only long enough to put it
into the refrigerator rooms. Nor will
it be delivered to the navy aud army
immediately, for if this frozen meat
were allowed to thaw out suddenly in
that terrific heat it would not be in the
best condition for consumption. There
is a defrosting arrangement in the
Manila refrigerating storehouse. It
is a series of rooms with gradually
rising temperatures. The first room
is kept at a temperature of 20 degrees
aud then gradually raised to 35 de
grees. The second starts at 36 de
grees and carries the temperature up
to 45 degrees, and thus the process of
defrosting continues, gradually -ising
the meat to the temperature pf the
normal carcass. In this way the fla
voring juices of the beef are preserved,
so that roast beef will taste as if tht
ox had been killed only a day or two
before.
When it is remembered that the
trip to Kanila from New -York will
occupy ten weeks, even though the
Glacier goes by way of the Suez Canal,
it can be easily understood that any
thing less than freezing the meat
would not preserve it. Beef is shipped
to Europe unfrozen, being kept at a
temperature of about 36 degrees, and
arriving in good condition, but the
trip is n short one and the temperature
of the air is moderate, but only a freez
ing temperature ,will preserve meat
properly for so long a time as ten
weeks, especially when the vessel has
to pass theough the Mediterranean
and the Red seas, the Indian and Pa
cific oceans. The Glacier will stop
only four times for coal and water be
fore reaching Manila. In fact this is
the only element of risk in the entire
trip. The only possibility of any mis
hap lies in the breaking down of her
machinery or the giving out of coal
and water. Every precaution has been
taken in these particulars, for the
vessel has just come out of dry dock,
where she received a thorough over
hauling from stem to stern, and all
arrangements for getting coal and
water at Port Said and other coaling
stations have been perfected.
It is the first time that frozen meat
has been shipped in any such quan
tity anywhere in the world. The
pains were taken to make this trip a
success are warranted by the antici
pation that it is by no means the last
load of fresh beef which the Glacier
will have to take to Manila. Even
though Aguinaldo surrenders prompt
ly, the army aud navy will have to re
main in the Philippines for many
years to come, and the Glacier will
solve the problem of furnishing fresh
and nourishing meat.
An Ounce of Prevention.
The high death-rate among con
sumptives revealed by statistics easily
accounts, if nothing else could, for the
increased interest recently shown in
the question of cures, and of hygenie
measures for combating the ravages
of this painful malady. Not many
weeks sinca an account was given of a
meeting held in the city of London, at
which the Prince of Wales presided,
and of a discussion of some of the ways
and means by which the dangers of
contagion might be averted.
Nothing is more difficult, as we
knew, than convincing invalids that
fresh air is important that it is vital
to their well-being, in fact. Consump
tives used to be kept in hot rooms,
from which all cold air was excluded.
Now they are made to sit out-of-doors,
even at night, . with the thermometer
four degrees below zero wrapped in
furs, of course, but playing games or
reading by electric lights. They dine
out-of-doors. And, more than all, in
some cures, they are taught not to
cough. "People of refinement," one
doctor is reported as saying, "do not
scratch themselves in public. This
tickling sensation of your throat is
really an itching; it would be as in
delicate to relieve yourself by cough
ing as to scratch yourself in the pres
ence of others."
Heroic as these measures seem, and
startling as the insistence, on aesthetic
grounds, of the impropriety of cough
ing, certainly few of us can abstain
from wishing that fresh air and the
self-control which consideration for
others inspires might be preached
even among those whose maladies are
of a less serious character. Harper's
Bazar.
Trees in Paris.
There are some things that the
French do infinitely better than the
English, and one of them is the em
bellishment of their capital city. No
absolute reason exists why London
should not be as cheerful and beauti
ful as Paris. The difference in cli
mate is small, aud it is not wholly to
the advantage of the French metrop
olis. And if money could be a con
sideration, there is quite as much of
that commodity in London as in Paris.
Statistics, however, which have just
been published, throw an interesting
ray of light on the cost of ke ping
Paris- bright and attractive. It ap
pears that the title of ville lumiere is
not as well earned as one might imag
ine, seeing that there are but 52,460
lauterns, more than half of which
have but one burner each. The
boulevards and avenues are ornament
ed with 86,400 trees, which is no medi
ocre feat to accomplish, considering
the inhospitable nature of the soil.
They are, to a large extent, plain
trees, which have been found more
suitable than most other kinds. There
are, however, no fewer than 14,500
chestnut trees, whereas the number of
elms is still greater by a hundred.
Their maintenance costs, in round
numbers, $6c, 000 a year. There are
8300 seats in the trees and squares,
which cost the weary foot passenger
nothing, and a very large number of
supplementary chairs which cau be
had for two cents. London Tele
graph. Schlffv's Adventure in a Balloon.
Admiral ScL!ay likes to tell how he
was once an amateur aeronaut. As a
boy be Waited a Maryland county
fair, ascended in a balloon, which rose
eighty feet in the air, was wrecked
and let its occupants fa'l into an applfc
tree. All we e more or or less hurt,
Schley escaping with a few contusions.
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.
The most serious epidemic of trichi
raosis on record happened in 1865. In
the little town of Hedersleben, in
Saxony, a butcher killed three hogs
and made them into sausages. They
were eaten by a large number of the
inhabitants of the little town. Sev
eral hundred persons fell desperately
ill and over one hundred died.
The record in steel rail making is
claimed by the south mills of the
Illinois Steel company, South Chicago,
111., which recentlj' rolled 1310 tons in.
a 12-hour run. It is Btated that the
best previous record for the same
period of time was' 1301 tons, and this
record was also made by the same
mills. The men engaged in the record
breaking run were not selected for
the occasion, but coito prised, it is
stated, the regular night shift.
Dr. Koeppe notes that distilled
water is decidedly deleterious to pro
toplasm, absorbing from the same
saline constituents and swelling its
tissue even to the extent of destroy
ing the vitality of the cells. Distilled
water has a similar action on the cells
of the stomach, producing in some
cases vomiting and catarrhal troubles.
He concludes that the toxic property
of certain glacier and spring water is
due to its absolute purity, which also
explains why the sucking of ice and
drinking of glacier water sometimes
causes stomach derangement.
The Digboi oil wells, situated in
a remote corner of Assam, turn
out, with their present small re
finery and plant, twelve hundred
candles daily, and should, in the
course of a few years, be capable of
meeting any demand for oil and wax
that is likely to arise. Recent drill
ing operations, indeed, afford conclu
sive evidence that the territory may be
made to yield at least five hundred
thousand gallons a month of petro
leum of excellent quality. The spec
tacle of four jets spouting black oil to
a height of 70 feet supplies a striking
picture of the resources of these wells.
The oil falls into a natural reservoir,
one end of which is artificially dammed
up, and the supply is considerably in
excess of the capacity of the existing
refinery to work off.
Flexible films have recently beea
employed in spectroscopic photography
with considerable success, and are
particularly valuable when used with
large conclave gratings, whose foeal
planes are somewhat curved. Sir Nor
man Lockyer, using a Rowland gyrat
ing, with 20,000 lines to the inch ruled
on its surface, and having a radius of
21 1-2 feet, has receutly made a num
ber of photographs 30 inches in length,
comparing the arc spectrum of iron
with the spectrum of the sun. It is
believed that the use of films will
facilitate the making of photographs
at the next solar eclipse, as the ease
with which they may be shifted will
enable the operators to make an in
creased number of exposures in the
all too short time available. Even
after careful practice and experiment
ing by two expert photo-astronomers,
it was only possible to secure ten pho- ;
tographs of the chromosphere at the
beginning and end of totality at the
last eclipse, and improved apparatus
is now being designed, which, by the
use of films, will greatly increase the
number of exposures and offer more
data for researches in this department
of astronomy.
A Novel lllcjcle Railway.
"The greatest novelty in the way of
a bicycle railway," observed an oj
cial of the naval observatory, "runs
between Smithfield aud Mount Holly,
N. J., a distance of about three miles.
The fare for the ride is five cents, but
each passenger has to work his own
transportation. It is simply a one
track road, about the height of the
second rail in the ordinary country
fence. Indeed, it seems as if one was
lidiug on the top of a fence. Tre
mendous bursts of speed cannot be
made on it for the reason that it is
quito dangerous to go as fast as you
can, for there are breaks in the rail at
a half dozen places, or at least places
where there would be breaks- if the
gates were not closed. There or four
country roads cross the rail at differ
ent points. The bicycle used is of
special build, and besides having the
wheel which takes the rail, has two
smaller ones below, which run along
on either side of the lower rail of the
fence, thus keeping the bicycle on the
fence rail. There is but one track,'
and when parties meet one has to get
off and take his machine from the rail
so as to 1st the other pass. Notwith
standing this and other peculiarities
of the road, it pays, and in summer
time pays handsomely. Besides three
miles of country, a wide river and
three large streams are traversed, via
a single-rail bridge." Washington
Star.
She Was Pondering.
Mrs. Wilson What are you think
ing so intently about, Mary?
Mrs.Gilson (slowly) I was just try
ing to decide whether Mr, Gilson was
more eloquent in declaring his undying
passion for me before our marriage ot
in making excuses for his shortcom
insrs afterward. Somtrville Journal.