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THE RICE BELT JOURNAL WELSH PTG. CO., LTD........ Pubs. WELSH : : : :: LOUISIANA The Nat,, n's Bread. That bread is justly entitled to be called the "staff of life" is fully borne out by investigatil,ns of the United States department of commerce and labor. This dlepartment made an in' Vestigation to determine the amount spent for food by a "normal" laborer's family. The data obtained from the 11,156 families whose expenses were studied showed the average amount spent for food by a family consisting of husband, wife and five children to be $329.19 pre year. It is interesting to note how the so-called normal fam ily of the average laborer, which seems rather above the normal in size, apportions its money for food anl )ther necessities. Twenty-nine dollars and 20 cents is expended for bread, flour and cereals, and while the cost of the bread is small compared with that of other foods, the amount of nutri cments and energy derived from it is large. The laborer's meat bill is the largest of all. lie stnlds $110.50 per year for all kinds of no-at, three and a half times as mulch as for bread. Ilis butter costs him about as much as his bread, and su:ar half as much, while about the same sum is spent for potatoes and vegetables as for bread. Thirty-eight dollars goes for milk and ePs. .IMore coffee is used than tea; about $10 is spe,,nt for the one and five dollars for the other. Re ligion, charity and tobacco claim near ly equal amounts, while intoxicating liquors come in for a much larger share. Labor organizations get about nine dollars per year, while $5.79 is contributed to the support of state and local governments in the form of taxes. Sickness and death on the average claim $20.51. It is quite ap parent. says iHarry Snyder in Harper's Monthly, that bread and flour do not form a very large item of the food ex pense of the normal laborer's family, as only nine per cent. of the cost of the food goes for bread and 91 per cent. for all other food articles. The Effort of Life. Charles Erskine Scott Wood voices his creed of life and the hereafter in the Pacific Monthly in these words: "[ like to insist again and yet again that the effort of life is virtue, not vice (if virtue be the upward flight). That the decree of life is happiness and that as one mode of happiness there is beauty everywhere-by day and night, in summer and winter, storm or sunshine, in desert or mountains, or on the salt and restless sea. The earth is marred by man, not man by the earthly life. The earth is kind to man. It is man who is ferocious unto man, and ravenously covetous. It heaven be not found in this life, on this earth, it will never be found any where. He who believes It will be found here and seeks to realize it Is no dreamer, but the builder of a solid edifice; and he who seeks it in some vague hereafter, content to submit to the tyrannies of this life, in hope of a reward in another, is the visionary." One of the most striking signs of this age Is the entrance of science into every department of life. A symbolic picture of the twentieth century might present the spirit of science stretch g her hand out over the temples of earning, religion and law. The state of Chihuahua, in Mexico, has passed a sanitary law regulating theaters, churches and other public buildings. All such buildings must have ample fire protection, be propierly ventilated, and provide suttllcient seats. In the churches it has been the custom of worshipers to sit and kneel on the foors. This Is forbidden by the new law, which looks to the health of the people. Old customs are suddenly, sometimes violently, uplset by new knowledge1 but there never was an a ~~.o onfident of its new knowl edge and more competent to produce the facts than the present age. The old monitor style of warship is still good for something. One of the class, the Florida, is to be made the object of attack by modern ships and guns, and also by torpedoes, with a view to ascertaining the effect of the Sfire maintainthed under such couditions. Several of fhe obsolete vessels of the British nar have been been utilized in this mapner, and though it seems like an igniminious end for the gal lant craft, the practical knowledge gained is ~nsidered more than an offset to any sentimental associations. In fact, rude war takes little account of sentimebt. A dog in a burning building in Rochester saved the lives of 80 people :-by its timnly warning of danger, , which forces the pessimistic but inevi : table conclubion, original but sad, that sl.ome dogs are of far more use in tL torld than some people. . It is an extraurdinary fact that is $250,000 in the New York city reasury, an accumulation for 25 years s uelaimed salaries, wages and war Sts general. How careless some mre about money! SERIAL STORY be LANOFORD nd ont of the he of he e THREE nt og BARS) ch By KATE AND VIRGIL D. BOYLES rs (Copyrighit by A. C. Mc 'llurg & Co., i107.) of SYNOPSIS. at - iI George W'illiston, a poor ranchman, htgh nunlin " and cultulrt. il :searches for is I cattle nssing fro m his ran'h-the "Lazy S." On a w oodI d sp it in the river'. bed e that would !:ave 1,,, an an island had the or Missouri btin at liit wit.r, heo discovers a band oif h us' thIlie'V'S ,'ngagel in work S Ing over brands on a:tt' I. lie creeps d. lar enough to nite the htanging of the "Three Bars" brand on one steer to the as "J. R." brand. h, CHAPTER II. nt "On the Trail." or Williston himself came to the door. or His thin, scholarly face looked drawn d and worn in the Inid-day glare. A e tiredness in the eyes told graphically e- of a sleepless night. ". "I'm glad to see you, Langford," he said. "It was good of you to come. e' Leave your horse for Mary. She'll ut give her water when she's cooled off is a bit." "You sent for me, Williston?" asked Ithe young man, rubbing his face affec of tionately against the wet neck of his 1e mare. P- "I did. ' It was good of you to come 's to soon." ot "Fortunately your messenger found x. me at home. As for the rest, Sade, here, hasn't her beat in the cow country, if she is only a cow pony, eh, Sadie?" At that moment Mary Williston came into the open doorway of the rude claim shanty set down in the very heart of the sun-seared plain Is which stretched away into heart-chok in ing distances from every possible -, point of the compass. And sweet at she was to look upon, though tanned and glowing from close association with the ardent sun and riotous wind. Her auburn hair, more reddish on the endges from sunburn, was fine and re soft and there was much of it. It id seemed newly brushed and suspicious ln ly glossy. One sees far on the plains, s, and two years out of civilization are le not enough to make a girl forget the Suse of a mirror, even if it be but a to broken sliver, propped up on a pine board dressing table. She looked sitrangely grown-up despite her short, rough skirt and badly scuffed leather )n riding leggings. Langford stared at y- her with a startled look of mingled be admiration and astonishment. She 15 came forward and put her hand on ta the mare's bridle. She was not em ne barrassed in the least. But the color to came into the stranger's face. He of swept his wide hat from his head quickly. "No indeed, Miss Williston; I'll water Sade myself." of "Please let me. I'd love to." to "She's used to it, Langford," said Ic Wllllston in his quiet, gentlemanly ht voice, the well-bred cadence of which h- spoke of a training far removed from of the harassments and harshnesses of life in this plains country. "You see, she is the only boy I have. She must a of necessity be my chore boy as well rs, as my herd boy. In her leisure mo s. ments she holds down her kitchen le claim; I don't know how she does it, d, but she does. You had better let her he do it; she will hold it against you if of you don't." he "But I couldn't have a woman do ing my grooming for me. Why, the he very idea!" He sprang into the saddle. ly, "But you waited for me to do it," 3W said the girl, looking up at him cu an riously. Kl- "Did I? I didtn't mean to. Yes, I ce did, too. But I beg your pardon. You see-say, look here; are you the 'little girl' who left word for me this morn is ing?" he "Yes. Why not?" he "Well, you see," smiling, but apolo getic, "one of the boys said that Wil d liston's little girl had ridden over and a said her father wanted to see me as he soon as I could come. So, you see, I nU, thought----" :he "Dad always calls ne that, so most :ed of the people around here do, too. It ms is very silly." ;al. "I don't think so at all. I only Ig wonder why I have not known about a you before," with a frank smile. "It must be because I've been away so much of the time lately. Why didn't you wait for me?" he asked suddenly. "Ten miles is a sort of a lonesome run-for a girl." ple "I did wait a while," said Mary, honestly, "but you didn't seem in any Shurry. I expect you didn't care to be bored that long way with the silly at chatter of a 'little girl.'" S "Well," said Langford, ruefully, "I'm afraid I did feel a little relieved when I found you had not waited. I never iat will again. I do beg your pardon," he Ity called, laughingly, over his shoulder us as he galloped away to the spring. ar- When he returned there was no one me tO receive him but Williston. To esther thy entered the house. It was a small room Into which Langford wasi ushered. It was also very plain. It was more than that, it was shabby. An easy chair or two that has sur vived the wreckage of the house of Williston had been shipped to this "land of promise," together with a few other articles such as were abso lutely indispensable. The table was a big shipping box, though Langford did not notice that, for it was neatly covered with a moth-eaten plum-col ored felt cloth. A rug, crocheted out of parti-colored rags, a relic of Mary's conservative and thrifty grandmother, served as a carpet for the living room. A peep through the open door into the next and only other room disclosed glimpses of matting on the floor. 'T'here was a holy place even in this castaway house on the prairie. As the young man's careless eyes took in this new significance, the door closed softly. The "little girl" had shut herself in. The two men sat down at the table. It was hot. They were perspiring freely. The flies, swarming through the screenless doorway, stung disa greeably. Laconically Williston told his story. lie wasted no words in the telling. In the presence of the man whose big success made his own pitiful failures incongruous, his sensitive scholar's nature had shut up like a clam. Langford's jaw was set. l1is young face was tense with interest. Ile had thrown his hat on the floor as he came in, as is the way with men who have lived much without women. He had a strong, bronzed face, with dare-devil eyes, blue they were, too, and he had a certain turn of the head, a mark of distinction which success always giv','e to her sons. lie had big shoulders. clad in a blue flannel shirt open at the throat. In his absorptil n he had forgotten the "little girl" as complete ly as if she had, in very truth, been the 10-year-old of his imagination. How plainly he could see all the un holy situation-the handful of des perate men perfectly protected on the the little. island. One man sighting from behind a cottonwood could play havoc with a whole sheriff's posse on that open stretch of sand-bar. Nothing but a surprise-and did these insolent men fear surprise? They had laughed at the suggestion of the near "Who Could J R Be?" presence of an officer of the law. And did they not do well to laugh? Surely it was a joke, a good one, this idea of an officer's being where he was needed in Kemah county. "And my brand was on that spotted steer," he interrupted. "I know the creature-know him well. He has a mean eye. Had the gall to dispute the right of way with me once, not so long ago, either. He was in the cor ral at the time, but he's been on the range all summer. He may have the evil eye all right, but he's mine, bad eye and all; and what is mine, I will have. And is that the only original brand you saw?" "The only one," quietly, "unless the the J R on that red steer when he got up was an original one." "J R? Who could J R be?" "I couldn't say, but the man was -Jesse lBlack." "Jesse Black!" The repeated words were fairly spit out. "Jesse Black! I might have known. Who else bold enough to loot the Three Bars? But his day has come. Not a hair, nor a hide, not a hoof, not tallow enough to fry a flapjack shall be left on the Three Bars before he repents his insolence." "What will you do?" asked Willis ton. "What will you do?" retorted Lang ford. "I? What can I do?" in'the vague, helpless manner of the dreamer. "Everything"--lf you will," briefly. He snatched up his wide hat. "Where are you going?" asked Wil Ifston, curiously. "To see Dick Gordon before this day is an hour older. Will you come along?" "Ye-es," hesitatingly. "Gordon hasn't made much success of things so far, has he?" e "Because you-and men like you are under the thumb of men like SJesse Black," said Langford, curtly. S"Afraid to peach for fear of antag e onizing the gang. Afraid to vote against the tools of the cattle thieves for fear of antagonizing the gang. a Afraid to call your souls your ewn I for fear of antagonizing the gang. Your r 'on the fence' pollicy didn't work very e well this time, did it? You haven't r found your cattle, have you? The angel must have forgotten. Thought e you were tainted of Egypt, eh?" "It is easy for you to talk," said Wil a liston, simply. "'It would be dimeoult it y Vour bread and butter and you little t girl's as well depended on a scrawny little bunch like mine." "Maybe," said Langford, sl-ugging f his shoulders. "Doesn't seem to have s exempted you, though, does it? lhat a illack is no res;ecter of persons, you -I know. However, the time has comn s for Dick Cordon to show of what stuff I he is made . It was for this that I V worked for his election, though I con fess I little thought at the time that t proofs for himn would be furnished S from my own herds. Present condi tions humiliate me utterly. A.\m I a weakling that they should exist? Are a we all weaklings? " 1 A faint, appreciative smile passedl over Williston's face. No, Langford s did not look a weakling, neither had 3 the professed humiliation lowered his 1 proud head. 1 Langford strode to the door. Then he turned quickly. "Look here, Williston. I shall maie you angry, I suppose. but it has to go in the cattle country, and you little fellows haven't shown up very white in these deals; you know that your. self." "\\'ell?" "Are you going to stand pat with us?" "If you mean, am I going to tell what I know when called upon," an swered WVilliston, with a simple dig nity that made Langford color with Ssuddeln shame, "I am. There are many of us 'little fellows' who would have ,,'en glad to stand up against the rust!ing outrages long ago had we re 1 ceived any backing. The moral sup 1 port of men of your class has not been f what you might call a sort of 'on the spot' support, now, has it?" relapsing into a gentle sarcasm. "At least, un t til you came to the front," he quali. I fled. "You will not be the loser, and there's my hand on it," said Lang ford, frankly and earnestly, ignoring - the latter part of the speech. "The " Three Bars never forgets a friend. They may do you before we are through with them, Williston, but re. member, the Three lars never for 'gets." Mary Williston, from her window, as is the way with a maid, watched i the two horsemen for many a mile as r they galloped away She followed them with her eyes while they slowly be came faint, moving specks in the level distance and until they were altogeth er blotted out, and there was no sign of living thing on the plain that stretched between. But Paul Lang ford, as is the way with a man, for got that he had seen a beautiful girl, and had thrilled to her glance. lie looked back not once as he urged his trusty little mare on to see Dick Gordon. (TO BE CONTINUED.) AS EXPLAINED BY rHE EDITOR, Drastic Action Evidently Was Neces sary, 'and It Was Taken. The Buie's Creek (S. C.) Index to the Times recently came out with a double-leaded editorial as follows: "We wish to make our abject apolo gies to Hon. Hezekiah E. Kinney for having said of him in our last is sue that he 'fumigates his garments.' What we meant to say was 'fulminates ais arguments.' We have had our eye on the printer ever since he twisted a phrase which appeared in an editorial of ours from 'full of internal rotten Sness and dead men's bones' into in Sternal rattlesnakes and dead wren's Stones.' And as soon as our eye lit upon this gratuitous insult above to the Hen. Hezelkiah E. Kinney we e armed ourselves with our repeating Sshotgun, sought out the guilty party and shot him down in cold blood, not Swithstanding the fact that the now Sdeceased was the only support of a e widowed mother and possessed a large and flourishing family. We wish to Sassure the Hion. Hezekiah E. Kinney that in the future his person and his I speeches will be handled in these col umns with respect."-New York Press, e A Backwoods Humorist. The eastern tourists decided to have a little fun with a Billville citizen to whom they had applied for informa. tion as to the road they were travel ing. "ttow long have you lived here?" they asked. "Long'enough to know better." "Don't you like the country?" "When it goes to suit me." "Ever been up in an airship?" "No. When I make up my mind to fly, I'll know whar to light." "Ever ride on a railroad train?" "No. Nigiest I ever come to it wuz - bein' blowed up Dy a sawmill." "Well, tell us what 'moonshine' liquor means." The Blilville man shifted his "chaw" of tobacco from one jaw to the other, spat on the greensward, and as She prelpar'ed to climb a fence, said: "II--1, and a heap of it!"-Atlar.t SConstitution. S Turkish Labor Too Cheap. e An American manufacturer of laun dry machinery tried to introduce it n into Smyrna, Turkey, but Consul 5 Ernest L. Harris has reported that so long as the price of labor in that - Turkish city remains so low the prao. e tice will continue of doing the wash. P- Ing at home, and there will be no op. - portunity for the sale of laundry ma e chinery. Of late years in Smyrna it s has become the practice, he says, to a - certain extent to send the washed linen to public laundries for ironalng r and starching, but even this is ceas Y ing. Specifications were drawn up for t the establishment of a laundry after e the American plan, and careful consid t eration was given to the price of coal and labor. It was found that the mar 1- gin was so small that the undertaking itwas oouad to be a falur. World's Coal Beds Going Fast Will Be Wholly Exhausted Within Onet Hundred and Fifty Years-China to Be Great Future Source of Sup ply-Water Power Insignificant Substitute for Coal-How Great Coal Deposits Were Formed. BY GEORGE FREDERICK WRIGHT, A. M., LL. D. [Author of "Ice Age in North America," "Man and the (;laial Period," "Asiatic Russia," etc.] (Copyright, by Joseph B. Bowles.) Coal is the chief corner stone of inodera civilization. Nearly all the labor-caving appliances must have coal to make them effective. Outside of the muscles of men and animals the chief sources of power available for the use of man are gravitation as it is set free in falling water and heat arising from the chemical combustion of coal. But waterfalls are stationary, and even with the ability to distribute their power through electricity, it is avail able as yet over only a limited area. If all the power of Niagara should be turned into electricity it could not profitably be distributed beyond the limits of western New York, whereas coal can be carried to the ends of the earth and its power set free for use wherever it is needed. If the prairies of the west and the compa:ratively lev el regions the world over, where are found the best agricultural lands, were limited, as formerly, to water power for running their factories and mills, these would necessarily be few and insignificant. Such great manu facturing centers as Cleveland, De troit, Chicago, St. Louis and Cincin nati would be impossible away from the mountainous districts. It would be a tremendous setback to the agricul tural interests of the Mississippi valley if they were compelled to dispense with steam thrashers and steam trac tion engines and substitute in their places the work of innumerable droves of horses and mules. It is therefore rather startling to be compelled to face the fact that coal belongs to the limited and rapidly dis I -. V Y v .VAy V Je' - - 4 v"/v 4 Coal Fields of the United States and Nova Scotia Shown in Black. appearing reserved stores of nature. In using coal the human race is'in trenching upon its capital, and reck lessly hastening an ultimate but in evitable catastrophe. It is estimated by the highest authorities that the total available coal treasures of North America cover 220,000 square miles, with an average thickness of six feet of workable seams, which would yield 4,800 tons to the acre. The total amount of coal, therefore, that is pos sibly within our reach in America could not exceed 700,000,000,000 tons. But in the year 1900 alone we were mining but little short of 300,000,000 tons, while the expansion of popula tion and of business is demanding an increase at such a rate that two or three times that amount will soon be necessary to meet the annual demand. At the present rate of increase in the use of coal, therefore, the entire amount accessible in North America would be consumed in less than 150 years. If we look to the rest of the world the prospect is not more encouraging. The coal fields of Europe are mostly conftned to small areas in England and the northwestern part of the con tinent. Spain, Italy, Greece, Russia, Scandinavia, and the larger part of the German empire are dependent on England for their coal. At the pres ent rate of increased production these fields will be nearly exhausted in 50 years. The remaining great deposits of coal are mostly found in China, where they equal, if they do not ex ceed, those in the United States. It may therefore be fortunate for the world that China is so slow in her de velopment that her reserved sources of fuel shall yet be available when that in the countries more advanced in civilization shall fail. The insignificant role which water power in this country can possibly play in keeping up bur industries ap pears on brief examination of the facts. It is estimated by the best au thorities that if the entire rainfall over the state of Pennsylvania w-e utilized with a head of 150 feet, it would not yield one-tenth theamount of power that is now derived in that' state alone from the consumption of coal. But on the most extravagant calculation it would not be possible to make available in that mountainous state one-tenth of this theoretical amount of water power. What then would be the condition of those vast areas of the Mississippi valley where water power is far less available? But, for the moment, leaving aside these rather s,,e!in rtfl''(tctions to the far-seeing statesman andl philosopher we will turn to the conlsideration o those interesting ioce,'sses by which even the existing limi:nvi amount of this useful material has bLin brought within our reach aml preserved for our use. Coal is an accumulation of vegetable matter which has dc,.:eyed under wa. ter where oxygen coild not get access to the carbon to covminie it and trans. form it into carbonic acid gas. as it does in the open air. The conditions of the coal fields, therefore, during the accumulation of the coal must have been that of vast swampy regions, where there was not lepth of water enough to destroy the \#l-etation or to admit of the intrusion of gravel, sand and mud, which, brought in from sur. rounding highlands. worIld have ren. dered it too impure for use. The char. acter of the vegetation which supplied these great accumulations of coal is amply shown in the fossil forms which appear, especially near the top and bottom of the coal sams. while in some cases tbo '"'! :':; of trees are found still stau!rlln in place, with their roots penetrating into the under clay which supported the vegetation. In Nova Scotia there are found no less than 76 seams of cal separated by beds of sandstone and shale. Each of these beds indicates a change of level which took plac in the region during its accumulation. During the accumulation of the coal the swamp was so shallow that no currents of water could carry into it sand and gravel to interfere with the growth or to bury it. But after a certain amount of vegetable deposits had accumulated there was a subsidence of the area allowing access to currents of water carrying sediment sufficient to bury the deposit of coal, and furnish the basis for the growth of vegetation in another swamp on top of the accumu lated sediment, and so the process went on indefinitely, as long as the climate continued favorable, and these changes of level continued to proceed with the appropriate rate of rapidity. The fossil plants of the coal period seem to indicate that the climate was at that time warm and moist and unil form, while the amount of coal accu mulated shows that the air was much more fully charged with carbonic acid gas than it is at the present time. Of the coal plants of Great Britain about half were ferns, many of them grow ing to the size of trees, the most of which are tropical species. Indeed, during the coal period in Great Britain the proportion of ferns there to the other plants was far greater than it is in the tropics at the present day, while tree ferns are now wholly confined to tropical regions. Abundant tropical forms of vegetation are found in the coal seams in Greenland and on Mel, ville Island as far north as the ser enty-fifth degree of latitude; indeed, everywhere during the coal period the climatic conditions not only of the temperate zone, but of the arctic lands, were closely similar to those of the present torrid zone. But, for man's use, it was neces sary not only to have coal accumulate: it must be preserved for distant ages and brought within his reach. If the Mississippi basin had remained for ever below the ocean level its stores of accumulated coal would have been unavailable. But, through causes which we can but dimly comprehend, at the close of the coal period the land all over that area, which had up to that time been slowly sinking, re versed its movement and began to rise. This elevation was produced by lateral pressure, which folded up the Allegheny mountains and produced a number of diminishing waves, so to speak, in the surface of the land ex tending to the center of the MIssle sippi basin. But no sooner was this land elevated above the sea than erosive agencies went to work to dissect it and to re move Its more elevated portions. Con sequently it is estimated that more than nine-tenths of the coal which was originally deposited over central and eastern Pennsylvania has been carriy away by the rivers, and hopelslý scattered over the bottom of the sea, while the one-tenth which remains is so folded up in the rocks that it is obtained with great difficulty. In the more central portions of the Mbisiasp pi valley, however, the disturbance of the strata has been less, and it is comparatively simple matter to obtain the rich deposits 4