Newspaper Page Text
—» - s-<v-t- rj&v>*&ojr./* y cwa«<2WP»» MWMwooa <nrrv-r "■■"■"S! VKItY time the czar goes TT"». | traveling adds ten years I to the lives of his minis | tors, and precautions without number are ta ken to insure the safety I®' W S " 112 ,he kittle Father. Con- Jfelf t sequent ly, when the czar 111 vix 11 j announced his intention A—v-vr; 1 | t 0 visit the king of It [ 'y* *>. ] i; aly a somewhat worried ■tin ill ii 11 ' co ' < s, °' e over their of ticially smiling faces. Contrary to public report, Nicholas II is not the terror-stricken being who when he is not immured in the palace of Peterhof, is scouring the seas in his private yacht, where he may b< secure from the liontb, knife and r-volver of the nihilist. As a matter of fact, though he has been acting on the advice of his ministers and keeping in retirement, he is real izing that to show fear is to court the fate of his grandfather, and he has lately taken to driving through the streets of St. Petersburg without his usual escort. His ministers are taking no risks. though, and his steps are followed and guard ed by the secret police, who on the slightest indication of an accident, would appear in the guise of beggars, street merchants, passersby It is when he goes on the railroad that the risks are greater. There is no simple sending his secretary to get a ticket and book seats. No! The v.hcle railroad system over which he is to travel has to be mentally reviewed. The offlciab have to be called to a conference with the minister in charge, when the route is ar ranged, the time table fixed and then the tele graph gets busy. The special train is prepared and - t«.:am is kept up ready to start at any minute. Word is sent ahead to the garrisons alor. the line, and the soldiery have to be pre pared to take positions along each side of the line at distance of a very few yards. Station masters are warned and the whole plan is ab solutely perfect.. Hut one thing is wanting, the exact day and hour of the journey. That is known only to the czar and one or two in his complete confidence. Once his mind is made up his train leaves, and word is passed on just ahead of Jit. A pilot engine with carriages is run a short time in front, and no one knows whether the czar is pn the pilot train or the train behind; but both trains are impartially saluted. Any person found lurking In the vi cinity of the railroad is liable to be shot, for It. is not once, but many times that the secret kept so closely has leaked out by some un known channel, and the rails have been under mined. bridges have been partially destroyed, and all kinds of infernal machines deposited on the track, timed to explode at the exact mo ment of the passage of the train. It is the same whenever the czar travels, his presence in a foreign town Is always de noted by the number of apparently casual vis itors-of Russian appearance. Whatever his feelings may be, the czarina makes no secret of her fear for herself, her little girls and the little Czarevitch Alexis, whose kidnaping may take place at any mo ment. Meanwhile the czar himself safely met his royal host. Nothing ostensibly occurred to dis turb his enjoyment. The numerous functions passed off safely, and now that he has returned by a circuitous route to St. Petersburg, the czarina can breathe freely—until the next time he goes a-travellng. Government pawnshops are the latest move on the part ol Russia to raise money for her revenue, and ostensibly to help the people. Of course, behind every scheme of this klnrl there must be a "popular" motive; and to supply this the Russian government attacks the "terrible Jew money lenders," who have so lons preyed upon the poor. The people themselves are be tween the devil and the briny deep; but per haps of the two evils the government is the lesser. After all, it comes down to a question of per cent. The .lews charge 24 per cent, on loans and as much more as they can reason ably squeeze. On Ihe contrary, the government proposes to charge only G per cent. llavins taken the monopoly of vodka —the popular Russian intoxicant —thereby increasing the revenue by some $10,000,000 yearly, the ministry of finance in Russia Is about >o start Imperial pawnshops. The author of the project, M. Kokovceff, says that it will. In the course of a few years, prove a source of about $50,000,- 000 yearly. Not only this, but It will enable the poor to obtain credit at a hitherto un known rate, that of G per cent, per annum. The lowest, loan will be 2 rubles —not quite $1 and money will be advanced on every con ceivable thing. The Imperial bank wll'r-supply the capital needed to start the pawnshops at the rate of 4 per cent, interest. The central pawnshop will be at St. Peters burg; at first branches are to be opened In the larger cities, including Kiev, Odessa, Riga, Tif lis, Kharkov and Warsaw. When these aro fairly started others will be opened in smaller towns, till the whole empire is studded with imperial pawnshops, just as it Is with vodka shops at the present moment. The accounts will be audited by a branch of the imperial finance control. In time private pawnshops will be bought up by the state. The authofs are con fident of success and there seems little doubt that the enterprise will prove a very great blow to similar establish ments kept by private people or small com panies. These are per fect sharks. In some towns they have found ed a trust, so as not to lend money on pledges at less than IS per cent. This is the case in large cities like Peters burg, Odessa and War saw. In the last there are two enterprises which hold the pawn- shops in their Blip. According to law they are not allowed to take more than 6 per cent, per annum. But to this they add 6 per cent, for accommodation and 6 per cent, for insur ance. The owner of the largest six pawnshops Is a Count Lublenski, a man of good family and considerable wealth. The owners of the oth ers are all well to do. Needless to say, they find the business most lucrative, and have ex pressed their determination to use all their In fluence against the introduction of these new pawnshops Nobody will pay them 18 per cent, when they can get the same thing for 6. They know only too well that their days are num bered as soon as the project becomes law. The rich owners of these pawnshops are cor dially hated by the poor classes and by the so cialists. From time to time they are attacked by the latter. Not very long ago there was an epidemic of pawnshop raiding in Russian towns. Some socialists armed with revolvers and supported by a large following, attacked the shops, took away all the pledges, returned them to their owners and told them to take them home. Those who had pawned bedding, warm clothing and such necessities paid noth INDIA STILL HAS ITS MURDERERS Discoverers of Buried Treasure Feel Knotted Handkerchief. India has many false delusions, one of them being that crimes practiced in days gone by are now extinct. I have seen it written that thuggee has been eradicated. It has been generally accept ed that the fearful method of making away with mankind disclosed years ago by Mr. Tay lor in"The Confessions of a Thug" has disap peared; but in rny opinion as long as India is India that ancient system of murder will re main as an heirloom to the race of Asiatics prone to that particular crime, says a writer in London Field. The story I have to relate is indirectly connected with dacoit Tantia and his followers. It was in 1834 that I searched a certain water course in the Asseerghur Jungles for tracks of a tiger. I found them about five miles from a village c<4led Kak.ia, in sur roundings that suited my methods in every way for the erection of a machan, and I called upon my followers to tie up the buffalo and prepare the place for a kill. Near by was a temple, ancient and moss bound. CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, JANUARY 20. 1910 lng, whereas those who had jewels were close ly questioned as to their origin, and when they were proved to be stolen the trinkets were returned to their rightful owners. In country places the pawnbroker's shop does not exist. Its work Is done by Jews, who keep a general shop or do factor's work In the neigh borhood among the peasants and 'squires. These men lend money on anything. Some will advance it on condition that they take all the farmer's milk or eggs for some time. Others give money to the 'squires when the corn Is still young, claiming the crop when it has been reaped. It does not always happen that the pawnbroker has the better of the bargain. The Russian peasants and 'squires are often far from honest in their dealings. A 'squire will manage to borrow money on one field of wheat or one crop of clover from three distinct Jews in three districts. When the two last come they find the clover has gone. They do not, as a rule, trouble togo to law about it, as jus tice is tardy as well as partial. Sometimes those who have thus been taken in are quite enthusiastic about the other man's cleverness. There is a sporting spirit on each side, and the man who gets the better of the Much to my surprise, my men refused en masse to help me in any way. They at first offered all sorts of feeble objections to the position, which did not deceive me. I felt that there was some strong supernat ural repugnance which made them hostile to a maclian being erected on that particular spot. I went to my tent and pondered, and while so doing my head shikaree approached me and told me that he would explain matters to the best of his ability. What the shikaree said to me I will en deavor to repeat in his own words. "Sahib," he said, "Tantia the dacoit is in these regions. He is a friend of the poor, but a bitter enemy of the Feringee sahib and the rich. He has murdered many men and the riches he has gathered are hidden 111 many places. Cheetoo, one of his followers, has served you well and he once knew what I am saying is true. "It had become known that Tantia Pheel had hidden half a lac of rupees in the vicinity of the temple, near where you wish to erect a machan. Cheetoo, your late hunter, knew it also and he communicated the news to his brother. They both resolved to gather the wealth while Tantia was elsewhere and having collected some diggi^ 1 ; implements they set out at sundown for t*d temple. "The treasure was actually buried beneath the temple idol. Cheetoo and his brother Ru goo never returned to their homes, and when bargain earns his opponent's approval for hav ing done a good thing. There are cases, too, of diamond cut diamond. But these rural pawnbrokers have no fear of the new project. It cannot affect them, be cause they advance money on things which im perial pawnbrokers cannot, and run risks they would not. A miserly peasant in the government of Mos cow used a pawnbroker for the sake of depriv ing his sons of their small inheritance. He was on very bad terms with them, and committed suicide. But before doing so he pledged hla crops and cattle, determined that his children should have nothing but debts after he died. They searched for the money when he was buried, on learning that the estate was pledged for gold, but could not find it. Years passed and they forgot about the trick he had played them. The other day they were told that their father's corpse was to be removed to another part of the cemetery. One son went while the transfer was being made, and when the grave diggers opened the coffin they were astonished to find Inside the skeleton a number of gold pieces, which Ihe man had evidently swallowed before committing suicide. two of their relatives set forth to find them they likewise returned not. "Some days after these events a broth, of mine was hunting for thatch in the neigh, borhood of the temple and came across four dead bodies. Two of them were skeletons, the third was partially devoured, but the fourth, which was inside the temple, was—owing to the incident having occurred about Christ mas—in a fair state of preservation. There were 110 wounds on the body, but simply a dark blue mark around the neck, proving strangulation by the thug's knotted handker chief, and a bruise at the nape of the neck." The shikaree added that. Tantia had in his employ two renowned thugs who could kill their victims before they reached the ground, and those experts watched Tantia's treasure. I was not surprised that the shikarees avoided the spot, though it was known that Tantia had long lifted his ill-gotten gains and planted them elsewhere. ILLUSTRATE CRUEL PRACTICES. The New York Antivivisection society, of which Mrs. Diana Belais is the president, gave an exhibition recently of the work on animals, showing stuffed creatures fastened to boards, furnaces in which tlie trial by lire was made, and other demonstrations of vivisection. The ladles goon the principle that what one sees is more convincing than what is read or heard. FAME AND FORTUNE OFFERED Rich Prize for Man Who Discovers the i-ong-Sought Cure for Tuberculosis. Dr. George W. ISloomer of Yale uni versity, acting as spokesman for an anonymous giver, has announced that a prize of SIOO,OOO lias been set asid>°. to be awarded to the first person an)- where in the world who discovers a cure for tuberculosis. The gift is un conditional as to time, place, or kind of cure, the only real condition being that the new cure must have been in constant use at least five years, and that the promoter of the cure con vince the investigating board of the merits of his discovery. A large number of physicians have been working for years to perfect vac cine. or anti-toxin for tuberculosis, or to find some agent, such as tuberculin, which will assist in the cure of the dis ease. Thus far, the experiments have not furnished a product which will either absolutely cure or prevent con sumption. or render the patient im mune against the disease. Many of these serums have proved effective in increasing the resistance of the pa tient and thus helping in the cure, but no scientist of repute to-day claims to have discovered a tuberculin which will produce a cure without the com bined aid of fresh air, rest and whole some food. His Little Mistake. They stood beneath the stars, silent as the heart-beats of the night, look ing into the diamond-studded shirt front of the sky. "Is that Mars?" he whispered, as he slipped his arm round her taper waist, and gazed upon a glittering orb in the distant blue. "No, it isn't," she exclaimed, jerking away; it's mine; and if you think you are hugging mother, I can tell you that you are very much mis taken." The matter was amicably adjusted before anything serious resulted. —Ex- change. Quick as Wink. If your eyes ache with a smarting, burn ing sensation use PETTIT'S EYE SALVE. All druggistsorHowardliros.,Buffalo, N.Y. During the first six months of his married life a man pities old bacliel lors. After that he envies them. What J.f. Hill, the Great Railroad Magnate ( Says About its Wheat-Producing Power} M The Rreatpst need of this country . [United StatcH) in nnothcr in nom or II bo tho pro poop Io and producing I or tfu'ra. Tho 3Mm II I «s h wheat exporting ■ H|l I country uro gone, (.'an llmkVl P IV I a '* H lH to 1,10 tireut JI wlioutcountry." A This Rrcat railroad mag hV unto it) taking advantann < 4 f* 1 n IS of tho situation by ex -7 tensive railway build ln«r to I ho u hoat fields ■ ■■ | of Western Canada. /" An \ Upwards of 125 Million Bushels of Wheat were harvested in 1009. Average the throe provinces of Allwrta. ftaalcutchcwnn and Manitohu will bo ■ JdDn upward:*.of Ji3 bushel* por acre. £ Free homestead* of 100 acres, lf£ 3j mid adjoining prtM-niptlonH of 11* kl 100 acres (at $3 per acre), aro to tu •' be had in tlie choicest districts, ''i 1 Schools convenient, cllmute "/mm[ I I J | excellent, soil tlie very l>est, LmJ I| A M | railways close at hand, bulld jUl 1 I hitr hiinbcr clicn *\iel eusy to h \ VUm set and reasona in price, n \ water easily jiroc. eil; mixed SR farming a shorens. «» rito as to \ l*ent piaco for settlement. settlors' fT o ji \y low railway rates, descriptive illus-j Y! \y truted "Luwt Host West fnent frea on application), and other informa «9R tion, to Kup't of linniiyrution, -am Ottawa, Can., or to the Cumuli<*a Government Agont. H. M. WILLIAMS Law Building Toledo, Ohio (Dbo aJdresß nearest jom). (4) A Clean Face Will be a Habit NO STROPPING NO HONING KNOWN THE WORLD OVER BROWN'S BRONCHIAL TROCHES Save the voice in all kinds of weather. Singe:.: and public speakers find them invaluable for clearing the voice. There is notHng so ef.er.tive for Sore Throat, Hoarseness and Coughs. Fifty years' reputation. Price, 25 cents, 50 cents and SI.OO per box. Samples mailed on request. IPATENTS SKHSS McOlll Bldff.. Wnshllißtoii. I>.<\ Nlw ycar'.l';*- [aiuintT U.S. I'ut. "IT. Mi'iiihrr llitr I'.S. Sup. Court. (F~~CLILMRCN LIKE D | S fttt Btst TOW It is so pleasant to take —stops the cough so quickly. Absolutely safe too and contains no opiates. All Drunuto, 25 cetitm. 1 3