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W" "M^ VOL. 19. NO.26. AT ST. PETER'S GATE JOSEPH BERT SMILEY'S FAMOUS POEM. Joseph Bert Smiley, author of "St Peter at the Gate," is dead. He was found dying in the woods near Ken dallville, Ind., with a bullet hole in his temple. His poem brought him a national reputation. It is given below: St. Peter stood guard at the golden gate With a solemn mien and' air sedate, .When Mp-1 -the toir-ofthe1 golden -stair A man and a woman, ascending there, Appled for admission. They came and stood Before St. Peter, so great and good, In hope the -City of Peace to win, And asked St. Peter to let them in. The woman was tall and lank and thin, "With a scraggy beardlet upon her chin. The man was short and thick and stout. His stomach was built so it rounded out, His face was pleasant, and all the while He wore a kindly and genial .smile. The choirs in the distance the echoes woke. And the man kept still while the woman spoke. "Oh, thou who guardest the gate," said she, "We come hitheij, beseeching thee To let us enter the heavenly land," And play our harps with the angel band. Of me St. Peter, there is no doubt. There's nothing from heaven to bar me out, I've been to meeting three times a week, And almost always I'd rise and speak. I've told the sinners about the day When they'd repent of their evil way, I've told my neighborsI've told 'em all 'Bout Adam and Eve, and the Primal Fall, I've shown them what they'd have to do If they'd pass in with the chosen few. I've marked their path of duty clear Laid out the plan for their whole career. I've talked and talked to 'em loud and long, For my lungs are good and my voice is strong, So, good St. Peter, you'll clearly see The gate of heaven is open for me, But my old man, I regret to say, Hasn't walked in exactly the narrow way.' He smokes and he swears, and grave faults he's got. And I don't know whether he'll pass or not. He never would pray with an earnest vim, Or go to revival, or join in a hymn, So I had to leave him in sorrow there While I, with the chosen, united in prayer. He ate what the pantry chanced to af- ford,-.. _, While I, in my purity, sang to the Lord. And if cucumbers were all he got It's a chancee if he merited them or not. ic Peter, I love him so pures of heaveve. please let But oh, St. To the plei him go. I've done enoFSha been I saln Won't that atfone? Can't you let him in? /~^~*.ie. wrttnrepentaiv r^antt nis- woJ Third st*inS xmiu ou \fo ^u5t fry below, ther soe wa you can see tion to themay entemr who's dear to me? THE Ni irro 0Spei Wm. E. I pray,way chosengexpectwhicbribing to find some or fooling or you the **v relati aseems amble through. Latest "y j/tr. Petero itc to me Lady asat isn't kept as it ought to be. i., ight to stand right by the opening Qentlnere rooms never sit down in that easy chair. t?nd say, St. Peter, nay sight is dimmed, I don't like the way your whiskers are trimmed. They're- si'But cut too wide, and outward toss They'd^ lQok T5ettsr. MSISSl .Jt Straight across. --*e-s ii Well, we must be going our crowns tc win, So open, St. Peter, and we'll pass in. St. Peter sat quiet and stroked his staff, But spit* of his office, he had to laugh, Then said, with a.fiery geam to bta*?* "Who's tending this gate, fHr J? And then he arose, in his stature, tall, And pressed a button upon the wall And sajd to the imp who answered the befit T? 'Escor this female around to hellt" *The roan stood still as a piece of tone Stood sadly, gloomily, there, alone, A life-long, settled idea he had That his wife was good and he was bad. He thought if the woman went down he That he would certainly have to go That if she went to the regions dim There wasn't the ghost of a show for him. Slowly he turned, by habit bent, To follow wherever the woman went, St Peter, standing on duty there, Observed that the top of his head was up railed the gentleman back and said, ^Friend? how long hast thou been wed?" "Thirtv vears" (with a weary sign) And then he thoughtfully added. "Why?" St. was He Th Slo silent. With head bent Peter raised bis hand and scratched crown.' 't-'-ji' MOST How the Saint and the Sinner Went Hand in Hand to the Portals of the City of Peace, and the Welcome Accorded Them. his en sejetaing a different thought to take, to himself, he spake. Thirty years with that woman there? -tfo wonder the man hasn't got any hair! /swearing is wicked. .Smoke's not good He smoked and sworeI should think he would! Thirtv years with that tongue so sharp! Ho! Anlel Gabriel: GIVE HlM A HARP! A jeweled harp with a golden string! Good sir, pass in where the angejs sing! firrie srive him a seat alone One with the cushion-up near the throne! Call up some angels to play their best, Lret him enjoy -he niusUv and rest. See that on finest ambrosia he feeds, He's had about, all the hell hs needs. It isn't just hardly the thing to do To roast him on earth and the future. too." They gave him a harp with golden stxinsrs A glittering' robe and a pair of jwtags, And he said as he entered the Realms of Day, "Well, this beats cucumbers, anyway! And so the Scriptures had come to pass, "The last shall be first and the first shall be last." Vineland Family's Many Misfortunes. The extraordinary ill-fortune that has followed William Cromwell and Ms family of Vineland, N. J., for tie past several ^months has aroused^the sympathy of the entire community. Mouday the climax was apparently reached when Mrs. Cromwell fell down stairs and injured her spine so badly that Mr. Cromwell had to give up his' position to be with his family. First_Mrs. Cromwell spent nine weeks in a Philadelphia hospital then a son, Melvin, had his collarbone broken at .school. Mr. Cromwell was then bit ten by a mad dog, which sent him to 'the Pasteur Institute at Baltimore for several weeks /-*Nex a' daughter Mabel, had an arm broken at school, tand a son Oliyer, received a fracture .of the skull by being struck by a train on the Central Railroad. He had just returned from, the hospital when 'Mabel was taken ill with diphtheria. Philadelphia toouirer^j^. ^,v^- 1 RIDING A BUCKING STEER. it Is Called a Harder Task Than Stick ing on a Bucking Bronco. "A bucking broncho," said the re tired cowboy, "is generally considered the hardest proposition to ride in this land, but until a man has tackled a bucking steer''he has not realized all the possibilities of the gentle art. "Out in the cow country they have just begun to learn the art. None of the Wild West shows has got! hold of the few fellows who have mastered the straddle and seat, and until they do their congresses of rough riders will not be complete. "You can cinch a horse up until there is little possibility of the sad dle's slipping, but it can not be done on a steer, for -the simple reason that the-^kiir lff-so much looser and ther^r is no place in which to gather up lost motion. The hprse has eighteen ribs and a steer but thirteen. "When the horse bucks, as he does when he is burdened with something he doesn't want to carry, his rider can get a pretty firm bridge at most any place between the Crupper and the shoulder. When the itee* bucks, as he generally does wlunne leels a saddle on his back, there is a rolling motion that is for all the world like tnat of a vessel at sea. The steer pitches with a head and tail movement, while a horse stops his side swings before they range far. "The steer riding fad had its start down in Texas, where the animals are wild enough to suit even *the most exacting cowpuncher, and it is now being introduced further North. A puncher's playtime is often long enough to give him a chance for ex? periments, and some of the more skil ful have got it down to a fine point. "But the hombre who thinks it is an easy task to stick to a wild boy who knows enough to do the grand buck and pitch is down for an experience he will carry in his book of remembrance for a long time." FORGOT THE TAILOR'S NAME. Unfortunate Experience of Youth in New York. "It is not very often that tailors collect cash for clothes they are un able to deliver," said an up-town mer chant, "but a singular instance of that sort came under my observation last week. A young man from the West was in here wanting to know whether he had left $50 on deposit for clothes. He seemed very much disappointed when I.told him he had not. -wafffed^DoTir ?300worth of clotnTSSTir a hurrytwo or three business suits, dress clothes, and some trousers. He saw some patterns that he liked in a shop window, was measured, and com plied with the request for $50 on de posit without a word. He got a re ceipt for it, of course, and thehxwent down town to see some fellows Jie knew from the West. They gave him a rousing good time all day\ an *ok him to the theater at night. "When he looked for that receipt in' the morning he couldn't find It. Then 'fid 4j|a$M from the hotel, thinking it wojl|jte an ~eas thing to find the tailor' from, whom ne ordered the clothes. Buthe couldn\jrejaember the name^oj tnTlffflTSor wasTie sure he couTdrecognize the shop unless the game goods were in the window. The chances are ten to one they would not be, or, at least, not arranged in the same manner. About all that youth knew was that the shop, was on one of the cross streets somewhere between Forty-second and Twenty-third, but he didn't remember whether it was East or Westj He trotfed around for two or three hours telling other tailors the same story he told us, but he hadn't found his clothes when we bade him good-bye. That is the funniest case of forgetfulness I have run across in my experience in this business." New York Times. Fugacious Time. There is a sort of revival of "Uncle Chet" Thomas stories. The Topeka Capital tells this one: One day "Uncle Chet" drove out to South Topeka to sell a man a tyorse. The man was no judge of hdrseflesh, and he knew it. So, after looking the animal over, he told "Uncle Chet" to come out again in about ten days. "A friende of minie who knows a when see a ors will be here then," he Baid, ifand I'll see what he thinks." And, by the way," he added, "how old did you say the horse was?" "Seven years old comin' February," said "Uncle,Chet/' as he gathered up the reins and drove away. In about ten days "Uncle Chet" drove out to South Topeka again. The prospective purchaser's friend was' there, and after looking the borscKin" the mouth, asked his age. "Twelve years old this spring," replied Uncle Chet," smiling blandly. "But," broke in the man who'wanted to buy the horse, "you told me not ten days ago that he was only seven. "So I did." squeaked "Uncle Chet," "so I did. Heavens, how time does fly!"Kansas City Star. The Home Ruler. A short time ago a party of young men, who in their boyhood days had been chums, met by chance. They had all got married since they last met, and the conversation drifted 4o their wives/'and, incidentally, as to which ,was "boss1' of the house. One of the party was so vehement as to bis "rul ing the roost" that the others" thought they would investigate. A few days afterwards one of them went to his house on pretense of visiting him. His wife answered.th* helL tod she was askeds: /'VSS^WJ the boss tar:tH j? "I am boas here/' she replied. ""U you mean George, he Is in the kitchen nursing the baby.' "Is tttt*m**tttt***+9*+tt**+*********^^ "What about Capt. Eisenbraum, and his little dory Constitutionhas any thing been heard of them?" "Anything Leard of them? Why, we hear frequently that they have been sighted by ocean liners. They will reach the other side as sure as you're born." One of the old sea captains who was seen at the Mariners' House at Boston a day or two ago was interviewed on the latest attempt to cross the Atlan tic jn,janjo^n^h^^^..^^.A*...^.. "Isn't there danger of an accident?" "Danger! Til tell you, sir, there's no more danger to him in that seven teen-foot craft in mid-ocean than there is to you sitting in that chair. She's the stanehest little boat that was ever put together in this section, and is capable of weathering the worst of storms." "How about the risk of being run down by ocean liners?" i "Leave it to Ludwig Eisenbraum to look out for that. He knows his busi ness. He hasn't been following the sea for the past twenty-four years without knowing something about navigation. He has, laid out his plans to avert any mishaps of that kind." Somewhere on the big, wide ocean the little ship is now sailing, and tid ings of her whereabouts are eagerly sought after by the old salts. Capt. Eisenbraum is well known along the coast, and everyone is interested in his welfare. She left before a good breeze, and just twenty-four hours later she was sighted 185 miles out to sea. According to schedule she should now be in the gulf stream, well on her way to the other side. It is expected that the trip of 3,000 miles will be made in 35 days, and with favorable weather, the doughty skipper can cover the distance in much less time. No man on the Atlantic coast is better fitted to make such a hazard ous trip than Capt. Eisenbraum. He has demonstrated his ability as a sail or in two navies. He was born in Ger many thirty-four years ago, and when a mere lad took to the sea. When but nineteen years of age he. was com missioned as an officer in the naval service of the Kaiser, and for six years he made a fine record.. He thought, however, that a brighter fu ture awaited him in America, so he resigned his position in order that he might become a citizen of the Repub lic Coming to Boston nine years ago, he went into the merchant marine service, and soon demonstrated to the Yankee tars that he was a man to be reckoned with. He demonstrated his ability as a navigator on two or three stormy cruises, and on one occasion saved the lives of a ship's crew dur ing* a storm off the African coast. For a number of seasons past Capt Eisenbraum has been an officer on one or another of the racing yachts, and he Is thoroughly familiar with most of the craft on the New England coast. He was second mate on the yacht Mar line, and last year was first mate on the Constitution. He had an offer to go out again this year, bat declined in order that he might take the European ^i"This is no plan of a fanatic,"'he taJd, wnen speaking of bis proposed trip'a beforinhisydeparture. MI harabort hadtime th plan head for y*ar*/and have only been waiting to secure financial backing, I have no ST. PAUI AND MINKEAPOtlS. MJJSlC SATURDAY. JUNE 27.1903. fe DARING SAILOR. IS CROSSING THE SEA I&AN OPEN DOR.Y i doubt of the ?ucces|bfjiny venture and have no fear of San accident. The great trouble with ^btiise in the past who have failed in ^b$ir endeavors tot cross the Atlantic in |ui open boat is that their craft wa? ilbt of the right selection. The boat sin! which I intend making the trip will $esafer than a sloop or tugboat." The management ofvthe boat during sleeping time, he sai^ was an easy matter. "From two -fto three hours' sleep^jn^^t^ntj^Quy\.^ll be sufficient oh the voyage/' he saij ^'During that time. I shall drop otit a sea anchor, which will assist int keeping the boat always with her head to the waves. This is a most important feature of a trip of this kind. In-jny opinion, An drea and others who.nave had much larger boats than the Constitution have met their end by turning broads side when they wer^ sleeping, and capsizing. "L. Cheinstein, who] was a playmate of Eisenbraum's in^Kruhnach, Ger many, where he was born, is putting up the capital for the undertaking. So far he has spent about $500, and the expenses will be considerably larger before the completion of the trip. He is just as enthusiastic add as confident of the success of the venture as Capt. Eisenbraum, and is ready to post a wager that his friend will make the trip safely. "We have been working on the project for the past eighteen months," ne said. "The boat, which is what is known as a Swampscott dory, was built especially for the trip. "Capt. Eisenbraum comes from a seafaring family, although he was born in the middle part of Germany- His father, Jacob Eisenbraum, who died a year ago, was an admiral in the Ger man navy, and he also had a brother who was in the navy. Ludwig went into the navy when quite young, and remained there until he was twenty-, five. Then he came to this country, and did not return home again until the death of his father, a year ago. He is a naturalized American citizen, and makes his home in Boston when he is not on the water. "When he started I presented him with a beautiful American nag and told him to hoist it at whatever port he might touch. He is fond of his adopted country and knows that his allegiance to Old Glory will be ap preciated. His first stop will be made at Queenstown, from where he will go to London. He will also go to Ham burg and Berlin, and will undoubted ly be royally received by the people of his native land. He will also visit Paris and probably other points in Europe. The return trip will be made in an ocean liner." At least a score of daring navigators have left, these shores to cross the Atlantic in small boats during the -past ten or fifteen years. Some of them have given up the task after getting out on the ocean a short dis tance and have made their way to some other seacoast town than the one from Which they started. Still there are some few who have accom plished the feat. Some years ago Capt Crepo of New Bedford made the trip with his wife in a double-ender, something like a whaleboat. Later he became master of a vessel and was drowned in the West Indies. i Capt. Andrea is one of those who started to make the' trip, and from whom nothing has ever been keard. *m S9i Defective Page Shortly after his marriage last year he and his wife left one of the sea shore resorts in a small boat for the purpose of going to England. Neither of them have been heard from since, and no trace of their boat has been found.. :'.-SX ~J Capt. Blackburn of Gloucester and Capt. Perry of Swampscott have made the trip across the Atlantic, but they used much larger boats than the one in which Capt. Eisenbraum is sailing. Boston Journal Indian Postal Humor*. Comment, says {he London Tele graph is made by the Civil and Mili tary Gazette of Lahore on the public inconvenience of the custom house regulation by which letters sent to India containing dutiable articles un declared must be opened by the ad dressee, possibly in some remote up country station, in presence of the local postmaster, and then reported to Bombay or Karachi for assessment of duty before final delivery. The public, says our contemporary, are irritated at the delay, and at times take vigor ous action by way of protestlike the peppery up-country colonel who, re ceiving a back set of false teeth sent home for repair, for lack of which he had been living a retired life, clapped them into his mouth on being told they must go back' to Karachi for assessment of duty, and defied all the departments to take them away while he drew breath. Another case is that of a lady who received a fine ostrich feather by post and duly opened it in the presence of the native postmaster, leaving it to him to settle if It was dutiauie or not. After anxious turning over of leaves to find correct classifi cation that official decided: "Madam, it is rags and bones it iz not liable for customs." Warfield an Original Humorist. David Warfield, the actor, was a very promising scholar as a lad when he attended the public schools of San Francisco. "I remember an examination," said he, "which was the hardest thing I ever had to get through. The teacher, I understand, has kept some of my answers, which she says are much more humorous than edifying. Among a bunch that she sent me recently was my answer to the query, 'What is a synonym?' It ran: "'A synonym is a word we use in place of one we don't know how to spell.' "Clever, wasn't'it? Yet a lot of fel lows have appropriated that as theii own, and Belasco says other fellows' were just as bright as I was, years before I was born. Isn't that discour aging to a budding genius?"New York Times. Nye Knew the Place: State Senator Shirley of Maine wa* reminded the other day of his firsl meeting with the late "Bill' Nye. Th conversation naturally turning to the State of Maine, Nye remarked thai he was born at the town of Shirley, ir the Senator's state, adding that doub less the town had been named for on of the senator's ancestors. "I replied," said the senator, "that didn't know that there was such town in Maine as Shirley.", '%,$ 1 didn't know it either,* said Nye until I was born there.'"New York Mi GREAT POWER OF MAGNETS. Force Is Applied to Many Useful Pur poses in Three Days. One of the practical uses of a mag net, but to those immediately con cerned a highly important use, is that in which it is sometimes em ployed to withdraw small pieces of iron from such out of the way places as the human eye. Another use of the tractive force of magnetism on a much larger scale was that to which it was put by Edison in his magnetic ore separator, in which the ore, pre viously crushed, to a fine powder, is dropped down a chute past the poles of powerful electro-magnets, in pass ing which the iron particles of the ore are deflected to one side, while the nonmagnetic stone dust contin ues undeflected down the Chute. Still another instance of the employment of magnetism in a small way is that in which a magnetized tack hammer is used in the manufacture of straw berry baskets on a large scale in con junction with a mechanical device which presents the tacks, one at a time and head up, to the operative, thereby greatly facilitating his work. It is a far cry from lifting a tack by means of magnetism to the lifting of massive iron and steel plates weighing four, six and twelve tons by this same force, which is now being done every workday in a number of large steel works. Electro-magnet ism, of course, is utilized, the form of the magnet being usually rectangu lar for this work and presenting a flat sunface to the plates lifted. The magnets are suspended by chains from'cranes and pick up the plates by simple contact and without the loss of time consequent to the adjust ment of chains and hooks in. the older method. It is also found that the metal plates can be lifted by the magnets while still so hot that it would be impossible for the men to handle them.Cassier's Magazine. STOLE LIGHT FROM WIRES. Hotelkeeper Thought It Cheaper Than Feeing Electrical Company. A hotelkeeper in the City of Mexi co, whose place was always brilliant ly lighted by electric lamps, appar ently without regard to cost, has I ecently been convicted by a local juage for stealing from the electric light company the current with which iiis hostelry was lighted. He was condemned to a year's imprisonment and a fine of $33.70, and, as an addi tional penalty, was "disqualified for tall kinds of public honors, and em ployments." ,:.'r__-i_ ^%g wired his house and made a connec tion with the company's cables, with the intention, as he pleaded, of call ing at the office of the company and explaining the matter at a later day. He also declared that he had used the current for "only a month." The company had its suspicions aroused and applied to the court for authority to make an examination of the hotel lighting system, which was granted, with the result of revealing the fraud. The legal point of interest involved in the case hinged upon the definition of the word "robbery," which the dis trict code thus elucidates: "He com mits robbery Who possesses himself of a movable thing belonging to an other, without right and without the consent of the person entitled by law to dispose of it." Timid. The man who is never seriously sick was finally persuaded by anxious friends to apply to the physician for a prescription. He looked at the ab breviated Latin and the signs which indicate quantity and said: "I suppose you got this out of a book?" "Yes, originally," "A man had to trust to his memory or copy it out of another book." "Certainly." "And a compositor set it up." "Yes." "And a proofreader took a turn at it." "Naturally." "And now you're depending on your recollection to get it correct." "But, my dear sir-" "I knowyou're not a man to take needless chances. But I'm too timid to trust my physical safety to any thing that seems so much like hearsay evidence."Washington Star. The Proper Thing. "My name is plain- JTotm Smith," he said, To the gracious tombstone man, "I want to fix things when I'm dead As only a live man can. So listen, friend, and take these down I'd have them loom In state From my modest slab, be it gray or brown, Or of marble or common slate. "Just say, in all my married life /I never once got tight, Nor did I grieve my loving wife By staying out at night, And add these lines (they're strictly true, As I expecWto die!) 'Unto said wife his whole life through He never told a lie.'" The tombstone man drew forth his book And wrote the lines therein. And said: "I must not overlook The words thatj shall begin. From what you've said, 'tis my surmise {Since fibs"you so abhor) You wish me to begin: 'Here lies John Smith: A Bachelor." Tom Masson. Accounted For. ''Of late years," said the pessimist, "I have spent nearly all my time in solitary meditation." "That," rejoined the optimist, "may account for the poor opinion you have of mankind." Vs ft I, 'MWorks Botn Ways.' SheIf it wasn't for tjhe old bache lors there would be no flirts. Hett it wasn't for thy Hirts there f m \s&: Uier 9 w6uM be no^Old'bachelora, -&$&*#$ $2.40 PER YEAR* HUMOR OF THE WEST COWBOY8 NOT ALWAYS PAR- TIAL TO 81LK HATS. Thaf Particular Headgear 8avoredf Too Much of Eastern Civilization How the Wearer of One Made Himself Popular With the Crowd. Recently the telegrams brought from Fagan, Texas, a story of how the town roughs had. set upon and killed a Bible agent whose sole of fense was that he wore a long-tailed coat, patent leather shoes and a plug, hat. Commenting on the story, the Wellington (Kan.) Mail declares that "a similar incident occurred in the early days of Caldwell." However*. the plug hat shooting in Caldwell was a different affair from that of Pagan. In April, 1872, one McCarty, a local "bad man," entered a store in Caldwell and found there Dr. An derson, who was known throughout the Southwest as "the plug hat man," because he was usually adorned with that kind of headgear. Anderson was not a "tenderfoot." He had been a prominent member of the Butler county vigilantes, and it Was known that McCarty had a grudge against him. When McCarty entered Thomp son's store and found Anderson there he pulled a six-shooter and said: "Watch me put a hole through that hat." He did put a hole through the hat, and when Anderson protested he fired again, this time putting a hole through Anderson's head and pausing his instant death. McCarty was pursued by the indignant citi zens of the town and took refuge at the ranch of Curley Marshall. When the ranch house was surrounded h& refused to surrender and then thei^ house was set on fire. In the run ning fight which followed, he man aged to escape, after wounding sev eral of his pursuers, but a few days later he was overtaken and his dead body was left on the prairies. There is no well authenticated ac count of a killing in Kansas on ac count of the wearing of a plug hat, though it, is popularly supposed that the incidents were frequent. It is quite true that when a stranger ap peared in one of the border towns wearing this kind of head covering, he was always greeted uproariously, and the hat came to grief, but the affair usually went off in the best of humor. The first plug hat worn into Hays City, for example, was on the In 1868 he went' to "Fort' Hays to be a clerk in the quartermaster's depart ment. He was a good dresser, and when he stepped from the train he wore a tall silk hat. At once the town loafers and joshers and killers congregated at the depot. They said nothing at all to Henley, but they formed close behind him a proces sion, and whenever he walked they walked, keeping up the lockstep. The foremost man walked so close to Henley that he could not even turn around to see his tormentors, and it was a sight-r-that procession solemn ly moving along, each man with his: hands on the shoulders of the cne in front of him and all keeping step. Then an inspiration seized Henley and he steered straight for Tom Drum's saloon, the most popular place in town. Walking up to the bar he set his silk hat down, bowed po litely to the barkeeper, and said: "These are my friends, and they are all drinking with me." It happened that there was a big bowl of torn and jerry on the bar. Some one emptied it into the plug hat and some one else got a dipper and passed the drink around. Pres ently the liquor soaked through fie top of the hat, and thereupon it was placed on the top of a post, and every man in the crowd took a shot at it,. riddling it into rags. Henley came off from the encoun ter with every man his friend. He had met the rude introduction of the West with good nature, and his place was made.Kansas City (Mo.) Jour nal. The Champion Economist. Albert J. Barr, proprietor of the' Pittsburg Post, while in New York at tending the annual meeting of the As sociated Press, was discussing with a group of friends the queer economical traits some men develop. "I heard of a~ miserly chap In Western- Pennsylva- nia," said Mr. Barr, "who determine* to save on his undertaker's bill, so he made his own coflln and had it ready when he needed it." "That's nothing," remarked one of the'party. "I frequently have heard! of people making their own cofflLns." "Yes," said the Smoky City Journal ist, "but when the part of this man'* house devoted to bodily cleanliness was undergoing repairs, to keep down the plumber's bill he lined the coffin with zinc and used it as a bathtub for the rest of his life. Then he .was' buried in it."New York Times. Largest cf Oyeratoot Wheel*-- The largest overshot water wneeB still in existence is said to be that at the Great Laxey mine, on the Isle-on iMan. According to a description fa lUm don Engineering this wheel is 73? featt in diameter and capable of developing. about 200 horse power. It has for many years driven the pumps for draining the mine but in the* extensioni of the workings a greater quantity, ot water was met than the pjumnsb could* handle, and the mine.has been floodedi to a total depth ef about l}O0(hfeeti. ?%A temporary iteamfliimpin^Rtentl now to be installed to unwater the mine and later a permanent electrical, numMng plant will be Installed ^W^ffifim St &