North Carolina Newspapers

i J"J v 7" THE MOTHER The mother by the gallows tre. The gallows tree, the gallows tree, (While the twitching body moclral the sun) Lifted to Heaven her broken heart And called for sympathy. Then Mother Mary bent to her. Bent from her place by God's left side, And whispered: "Peat; do 1 not know".' My Son was crucified!" "0, Mother Mary," answerpd she, "You cannot, cannot enter in To my soul's woe you cannot know. For your Son wrought no sin ! " Then Lord Christ bent to her and said: "Be comforted, be comforted; I know your grief; the whole world's wo 1 bore upon My head." "But, O, Lord Christ, you cannot know, No one can know," she said, "no one" (While the quivering corpse swayed in the wind) "Lord Christ, no one can understand Who never had a son!" Don Marquis, in Fulnam'a. $ A VOYAGE BY By FRANKLIN IELLES CALKINS. In May, 1S73, I rode from a sta tion on the Union Pacific to Fort Laramie, Wyoming, to go with a freight outfit to the gold-fields of Montana. I was too late to catch the freighters, but there was at the fort an old prospector and plains man named Len Gaskett, who was about to start alone for the same des tination. By advice of the post com mandant, who had often employed Gaskett as a guide, I went with him. Aside from the fact that we had to make our night camps, for a time, with reference to prowling Sioux and Cheyennes, we had an uneventful trip until we reached the mouth of Grey Bull River, on the Bighorn, and then, despite the thirty-five years' experience of my guide, dis aster overtook us. Believing ourselves now out of range of the hostiles, we had staked our ponies on a flat bottom, where there was abundant grass, and made our night camp within the shelter of a cluster of mountain-ash. We were sound asleep, when there came up one ,of those fierce thunderstorms which are known in this region as cloudbursts. The wind blew eighty miles an hour, and the rain fell in torrents. To keep our feet in that hurricane was out of the question. It was as much as ever we could do to crawl off the flat bottom, dragging our small camp equipage, to higher ground. Nor was it possible to look after our horses, and when the storm was over, and the river-bottom roaring with a flood, the animals were gone. Whether they were drowned or had pulled their picket-pins and fled lown the valley we never discovered, although we spent two days in search of them. "We were still a long way from the Gallatin valley, whither we were bound, and we were uncertain wheth er to go on or to retrace our steps to Laramie and procure fresh stock, when a herd of buffaloes came off the hills and settled the question for us. I got the first shot, and brought clown my game, and as that was enough for meat, I was surprised when Gasket brought his big rifle to bear and knocked over two large bulls. But the shots were admirable ex hibitions of marksmanship, and pres ently he explained. "Nov," he said, "I'll make a bull hoat, and we'll go down the Big horn. I know all the Crow Indians along the river, and we can pass 'em safe, and when we get to the Yellow stone, we'll soon catch a flatboat or steamer going up. They run pretty reg'lar to the first of July." Immediately he set to work with the skill and the patience of a Sioux. At t'e end of three days he had, by tho help rf an awl and some coarse needles f ro"i my kit, sewed together three has '"dried buffalo pelts, and stretched then over a stout frame of willows. When completed, his craft re sembled the bowl of a big spoon. The biggest bull's pelt was stretched over the bottom, and the rim and tip of the "spoon" were of lighter strips, and all were sewed on with the hair outside and lying toward the stern. By this means the ordinary draft of the boat was kept below the seams, and the "lie" of the hair was a help both in running the boat and in preventing leaks. A light paddle of ash completed the outfit, and on the fourth day we put our selves afloat on the Bighorn. I would hardly have believed that such a tub as ours could prove a sea worthy craft; but, in fact, it seemed admirably adapted to down-stream navigation, and we were borne along, at four or five miles an hour, in such easy and comfortable fashion that I hardly regretted the loss of our ponies. It was not tmtil we came to the canon and rapids of the Bighorn that the perils of this venture were fully apparent. No one who had passed through it would be likely to forget that breathless experience of fourteen hours. Time and again we were hurled through narrow passes, or pitched over tumbles of rocky rapids, as a leaf is tossed on a similar cur rent. I could only sit in the bottom and let Gaskett manage the craft. I was, inaeed, kept busy in bailing with an iron skillet, while Len fend ed our ungainly tub of" the too rag ged edges of threatening rocks. Off the surfaces of the smoother rocks we glided harmlessly as a turtle glides. Although the bull-boat est-i-esced and pitched and tcssed, and BULL-BOAT. let in gallons of water at the stiches, it seemed impossible to over turn it, and we came through the canon very wet, but none the worse for our venture. The weather had become hot, and we slept during the middle of the next day, taking up our run again by the light of the stars. It was toward midnight, and we were placid ly floating, when we were roused from our reveries by a voice hailing us from the near-by river-bank. I needed no telling that the man who called to us was an Indian, or that ho supposed himself speaking to other Indians. Gaskett shouted somo Indian words in a careless fashion, and my fears were set at rest. Len said nothing to me, and we drifted on in.silence for two or three hundred yards. Then, as we passed a piece of broken, rocky bank, I heard the sharp flit as of a night bird passing close to my ear. And now my comrade spoke. " 'Twa'n't right good shootin'," he said, in a low voice, "but get down as low as you can, so's not to give too big a mark." UNPOPULARITY OP MARRIAGE. From an Editorial in the New York Times. One of those London papers which constantly and ingeniously contrive debatable subject which draw forth hosts of letters from their unsuspecting and responsive subscribers, is just now prolifically pondering over the question: "Is marriage too expensive?" The consensus of opinion seems to be that it is, and for two reasons: The increasing love of dress and pleasure and their un fitness to maintain a household on the part of women. To quote one sage: "Women of to-day marry for ease and luxury and not to be a helpmate to man." With all due allowance to British chivalry, it seems to us that the testimony presented is ex parte. It savors too much of conscious fear on the part of the British marriageable man that he is losing his honorable and traditional "grip" on the opposite sex, and he argues that, if he fails to please, it must be their fault and not his. He has no suspicion of the fact that they may have outgrown him and his ideas of female subservience. F. Marion Crawford, the novelist, who may be supposed to know something about the subject, in his latest novel, "The Prima Donna," declares that the single state "is not for poor girls, nor for operatic singers, nor for King's daughters, none of whom, for various reasons, can live, or are allowed to live, without husbands. Unless she be a hunchback, an unmarried royal Princess is almost as great an exception as a white raven or a cat without a tail; a prima donna without a husband alive, dead, or divorced is hardly more common; and poor girls marry to live. But give a modern young woman a decent social position, with enough money for her wants and an average dose of assurance, and she becomes so fastidious in the choice of a mate that no man is good enough for her till she is too old to be good enough for any man." This is entertaining, and also convincing, as far as it goes, but, like other evidence presented in the case, it does not go far enough. It presupposes that all women desire to marry at some time or other and ignores the possibility that bachelorhood may be quite as dear to some women as it is to some men, and quite as worthily and profitably enjoyed by the gentler as well as by the harsher sex. - "Was that an arrow?" I asked. "That's what," said Len. "And there'll be more of 'em if the fellow's quiver's full. He's a Blackfoot, I reckon, and he thought he had dis covered some of his friends. I tried to fcol him, but I didn't." "Him!" I ejaculated. "There may be a whole tribe at hand. We'd bet ter be getting to cover." "There's only one," declared Len, coolly and positively. "I know by the sound cf his voice he's a lone hunter or scout. Not even an Indian can fool me when he has been out for days by himself, and thinks he's met up with friends that way. But if he takes a notion to follow us up, he may turn out worse than a whole tribe." Tipfnrs manv hours I had dis- covered how keen and discerning was Len Gaskett's judgment. Yet as we floated on for half the night, buried to our ears in the bull boat, and neither heard nor saw any thing further of the lone Indian, I began to feel confident that he had given up the chase, after all. We stopped for breakfast, choosing our temporary camp upon an iso lated sand-bar, and out of reach of arrow-shots, at least from any cover that a single enemy would dare take. I noted, however, that my compan ion'? gaze constantly roved, search ing the river-banks. And while I slept for a couple of hours, he sat with rifle at hand. Althf agh I urged him, when I awoke, Gaskett refused to lie down for a nap, ?""d we again set our craft afloat. My companion now sat with cocked gun across his knees, and only used the paddle to keep our tub in the middle of the current. I was almost inclined to laugh at his precaution, deeming it altogether improbable that a single Indian could dare to "follow two well-armed men in broad daylight. Just before noon, however, as we were again passing a rough bank with cover of bush and rock, I saw my companion suddenly throw him--lf upon his back and heard the Sit of a feathered shaft. I also saw the sand fly upon a bar behind, and then the notch of the Indian's arrow stirking out of ita bank. Len's shot, too, rang in my ears almost instantly, and with a yell our enemy broke cover and dodged Into a coulee before I could bring my gun to bear. "Let's land and get that -fellow," I urged, now thoroughly roused to the necessity of getting rid of such a dangerous follower. "Huh!" grunted Gaskett. "We might as well try to catch a jack rabbit. That Indian can run like an antelope and dodge like a hawk on the wing." "Well," I said, "I don't understand why one Indian, armed only with a bow and arrows, should follow two men with guns." "That's because you don't know the critters yet as well as I do. I've known one to follow a whole com pany of trappers, or a tribe of In dians on the move, watching for a chance to pick off his man or steal some horses. This fellow I take to be a Blackfoot, who has set out from his country on foot, vowing he would bring back horses and scalps, and so make a name for himself. It's like an Indian of any tribe to go on such an expedition, but it's more like a Blackfoot than any other. " 'Twould be a big thing for that chap, too," he continued, reflectively, "if he should pepper both of us, get our guns, and go home down the Yellowstone in our bull-boat." "Well," I replied, rather testily, "it wouldn't be a big thing for us if we let him do it." "I'm doin' the best I can to pre vent it," said Len; and I hastened to make amends by admitting that I certainly thought he was. "He ain't got a great sight of arrows," Len added, "for he's shoot ing now to hit a sand-bank if he mioses us. We ought to have stopped anfl gathered that last one." "That's so," I replied. "He'll wade over and get it, and so not waste a shot." That afternoon was a repetition of the forenoon. We floated on the centre of the current, warily and con tinually on the watch. Before night the situation began to wear on me. I had never felt so pestered and goad- ed; and even the stolid old frontiers man showed something of the same feeling in his restlessly roving eye and ,in the dogged look of one stealthily hunted, that settled upon his face. The hours wore on wearily, and night fell with no further sign of the Indian. And that night we made our camp in a peculiar fashion. Len chose the spot, a point of high sand-bar; and after dark, using his paddle for a shovel, he scooped a trench big enough to hold the bull boat. Into this pit we hoisted our light craft, and spreading our blank ets, lay down, feeling safe from at tack of one Indian, at least. For no Indian would be reckless enough to walk out upon that bar to attack two men so well covered. At any rate. we felt secure enough to get a good unbroken rest of eight hours, and we awoke much refreshed Again I ventured to hope that the Indian had given over the quest for our scalps, but this hope was of short duration. We had not been afloat an hour when an arrow, shot from the mouth of a bushy run, pierced the bull-boat and passed within two inches of my body. Again Len's rifle cracked, and the Indian fled with a derisive yell. A single glance showed us how cunningly he had chosen another point of attack. There were rough hills, with numerous coulees and ravines, within a short run of the river-bank. "This thing's getting mighty in teresting," said Len. "I'd like right well to go after that chap, but I ain't fond of chasing coyotes on foot." "He'll get one of us yet," I prophe sied. "Shouldn't wonder," admitted Len, dispassionately. "But s'pose we change the program a bit. Let me have your magazine gun. My old rifle's too heavy for snap-shooting; and now you steer a while, and let me get in front." We shifted place?., and Len with my rifle thrust into the tip of the crall, disposed himself in s. comfort able fashion. Weary hours wore on asr.in. When we came to a straight stretch of cur rent, where the banks were tolerably clear, I plied the paddle hard, not only as a relief from the nervous strain of suspense, but in the hope to tire out the follower upon our trail. This we could long since have done but for the many crooks of the channel, which robbed us of the ad vantage of our speed. I believe it was about 4 o'clock that afternoon before we again heard from our enemy. Len was lying at ease, apparently forgetful of danger, and wo were passing under a rough ledge. I was keeping the bull-boat to a far edge of the current, out of the near range of cover, when Len lazily rolled over upon his back. My rifle came to his face and spat its report and its thin puff of smoke. And then my comrade rose to a stand ing posture in the boat with a great shout of laughter. "Bring her to land!" he shouted. "Bring her to land! I've fixed that Blackfoot a plenty!" Believing that he had actually shot the Indian, I turned the nose of our boat, and wc leaped out upon a dry bar. "Ha! ha! ba!" roared Len, and immediately laid his gun aside, and began to make signs in the most be wildering fashion. "Throw down your gun!" he cried. "I've fixed that Indian!" Much mystified, I obeyed; and again Len began making signs which were Greek to me. There was a minute or so of sus pense on my part, and then, as I stood looking up at the ledge, I saw a half-naked savage step out from cover of a rock, and with a pacific motion of the hand; answer my com rade's signal. He was fifty yards away, but I saw the Indian had a grin upon his face, and that he evidently had no further hostile intention. To my imagination he really looked sheepish and abashed. Len shouted some words in the Crow tongue, and then slapped his thigh in another hearty laugh. "Len," I said, "do tell me what this means." Again Len laughed joyously. "Why, just this," he said. "I caught a glimpse of the end of that fellow's bow sticking out from be hind a rock, and just as he was going to step out and let go at us, I spoiled hi3 little game shot off the end of . his weapon as clean as you could cut it with an axe." And now I joined my comrade in his laugh. And I must say that the Indian evidently appreciated the hu mor of the situation, for his grin was still broad enough to be seen. "And now," said Len, "there's no use making enemies when you can just as well make friends." And he stepped into the bull-boat, brought forth a big piece of dried buffalo meat, and tossed it upon the sands. "Come over and get it!" he shout ed, pointing to the beef. "You'll need it before you get home!" And without more ado we got back into our craft and drifted away, leaving an amazed and harmless sav age standing upon the cliffs. Some days later, at the Yellow stone, we caught a small steamer bound for the head of navigation. . From the Youth's Companion. SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL. Rutilo Is described as the purest ore of the metal titanium. They think that this metal is going to be in groat demand for the bearings and axles of flying machines. A big de posit of rutile ha3 been found in the Timaroo district of Queensland. A gentleman, fond of scientific ex periments, captured a spider, and by means of weighing it and then con fining it in a cage found that it ate four times its weight for breakfast, nine'times its weight for dinner, and thirteen times its weight for supper. The known number' of little mem bers of the solar system continue to increase every year. Up to June last the number to which permanent designations had been given was 635. Many reported discoveries turn out to be simply the re-finding of asteroids already known. Fifteen instances of this kind occurred in 1906 and the first half of 1907. Over one thousand years ago Switzerland possessed a forest sys tem, and had developed a scientific forestry by the fifteenth century. As early as Louis XIV France awoke to the fact that her forests and her life were draining away together. But it was too late. To-day she is spend ing 534 an acre to reforest her water sheds. The same experience is cost ing Italy ?2 0 an acre. Henry Farman, the French aero naut, who recently won the Deutsch Archdeacon prize, says he foresees the time when an aeroplane omnibua will cover the distance between Paris and London in five hours. He says he feels certain that within twelve months aeroplants will be able to travel seventy-five to 100 miles at an insignificant cost compared with the expense of running an automobile for the same distance. A Frenchman, Raphael Dubois, re ports to the Academy of Sciences the results of experiments with phos phorescent animalcnlae in producing an illumination useful to man. By cultivating in suitable media a large number of micro-organisms capable of emitting light M. Dubois suc ceeded in illuminating a room with a decree of intensity about equal to that of moonlight. No radiation of heat appears to attend the produc tion of this physlcloscal liahi. CHILDREN'S je . A STORY OF FIVE LITTLE BEARS. Five little bears in the mountain; One heard a lion roar! It frightened him till he quickly died; . And then there were but four. Four little bears in the mountain: One fell from a great high tree! Ee broke his neck as soon as he struck; And then there were but three, Three little bears in the mountain; One fell some thin ice througn; But beneath the water was very deep! And so there were but two. Two little bears in the mountain; They thought to have some fun; One got too near to a precipice! And then there was but one. One little bear in the mountain; He was so lonely night and day, That at last he emigrated To a country far away. -Maud Walker, in the Birmingham Age Herald. A GENEROUS HORSE. The horse is generally rated as one of the most intelligent of animals, and a pretty incident that was wit nessed by a number of persons re cently shows that generosity also en ters into his character. Two fine looking horses attached to singlebuggies were hitched at the curb opposite the Chestnut street en trance to the Merchants' Exchange. They were hitched several feet apart, but the hitching straps allowed them sufficient liberty of movement to get their heads together if they so de sired. The ownerof one of them had taken the opportunity of a prolonged stop to give the horse a feed of oats, which was placed on the edge of the sidewalk in a bag. This horse was constantly munch ing his oats, when his attention was attracted by the action of the other horse. The other horse was evident ly very hungry. He eyed the plenti ful supply of oats wistfully and neighed in an insinuating manner. The horse with the feed pricked up his ears politely and replied with a neigh, which must have been in horse language an invitation to the other fellow to help himself. Evidently he accepted it as such, for he moved along in the direction of the bag as far as his hitching strap would per mit. But the strap was not long enough, and his hungry mouth fell about a yard short of the bag. The other horse noticed and seemed to appreciate this difficulty. For tunately there was some leeway to his strap. So he moved slowly along the curb, pushing the bag with his nose until the other horse was able to reach it. Then, after a friendly nose-rub of salutation, the two horses contentedly finished the oats together. St. Louis Republic. SOME BIRD ACQUAINTANCES. First come my friends, the Red iyed Vireos and their family. The pretty mother built her little basket aest in the apple tree just outside my window. Mr. Red-eyed Vireo did not help his wife in her work, but was ever near at hand to cheer her with his song. It was wonderful to see aow skillfully this tiny creature wove the Irits of material into a charming little home. Soon there were four pretty eggs in the nest, and in due time three tiny, squirming, naked little birds, and one unhatched cg,g, which Mrs. Vireo calmly poked out of the nest. While the mother bird was on the aest, I spent a great deal ot time by 4iat window, and auor a izw da; 3 J 0EPSRTMENT; P - h s she did not mind me in the lea3 Once I almost touched her, and sh never moved. "When the three little Vireos bega learning to fly, there were exciting times at "Shadyside." Often Mrs. Red-eye came to the veranda whers I was reading, and invited me to step round and rescue her children, onc from Miss Day's good, toothless old ; pussy-cat, and several times from a, mass of tall, wet grass. Soon. I con-i eluded to bring the youngsters to the vine on the porch,' and after that I had an easier time. Then, too, I could watch proceedings from my comfortable steamer chair. One day j it occurred to me to try my nana at r feeding these young Vireos. So I got 1 a few meal-worms and offered one to , a youngster. My, how quickly he opened his mouth! Down went the poor worm into what looked to me like a deep well, and his parents had been feeding him almost every mo ment since dawn! While I stood feeding them, the parent birds came into the vine with food In their bills. Did they fly off in alarm? Not they. Instead they waited until I had dropped my last worm into the mouth of a nestling, and then proceeded to take their turn as undisturbed as you please. You may be sure I was very happy to be taken into partner ship by these nsighbors. Emma L. Drew, in Bird-Lore. SOMETHING ABOUT STAMPS. "We take so many things for grant ed that at times, when we learn of the amountof trouble a simple appear ing thing has cost,' we are amazed. For instance, how many, when they glibly stick a postage stamp on a let ter, think of the trouble that has been taken to put Just the right amount of mucilage on the stamp? And yet the labor and care expended on the backs of stamps is consider able. It is a most delicate operation. After the printing, great sheets of stamps are passed under a rollei from which they receive a thin coat Ing of gum; then they are gradually dried over steam pipes. Of course care is taken to make the coating even. Tests are hourly made to se that the heat and humidity are ex actly right. Then for each season of the year allowance must be made. A harder gum for summer, a thinner one for winter. In winter the gum ia apt to crack and care must be taken to prevent that. A third grade foi spring, and fall gum is known as in termediate. So you see even so small a matter as a postage stamp is an item of interest in the country's work snop. Washington Star. FOR YOUR FISHING TRIP. To make this useful bait box foi your fishing excursion select twg. pieces of lumber about eight inchei square. Saw sixteen pieces of latlj about a foot long, and nail them around your eight-inch piece of board, leaving one-quarter inch spaci between the laths. Make the door o two of the laths, the hinges being Ini dia rubber, and a button of a pieci of lath and a screw like Fig. 1. But in making this box be careful how you hammer the nails, cautions Philadelphia Ledger. Look at the point and place it just the way you think it ought not to go. The point is broad one way and not the other; put the broad way across the grain of the wood like Fig. 2, otherwise the nail forms a wedge and splits your lath. You may generally observe a faint line running across the head of a nail, even in tacks; these lines run with the grain cf the wood when the nail has been properly driven. THE GROUNDHOG SLEEPS. The woodchuck's is a curious shift. a case of nature outdoing herself. Winter spreads far and fast, and woodchuck, in order to keep ahead out of danger, would need, wings. But he wasn't given any. Must he perish then? Winter spreads far, but does not go deep down only about four feet; and woodchuck, if ho cannot es cape overland, can, pernapa, under land. So he goes through the winter, down into a mild and even tempera ture, five long feet away, but as far away from the enow and cold as bobo link among the reeds of the distant Orinoco. Indeed, woodchuck's is a farther journey, and even more won derful than bobolink's, for these five fest carry him beyond the bounds of time and space into the mysterious realm o sleep, of suspended life, tr the very gates of death. That he will return with bobolink, that he will come up alive with the spring out of this dark way, is very strange. Dallas Sharr.r, is The Atlantic.