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U fII / UMI UlIIl rur Buy a lot 45xl50 and build your own house, or buya house and lot from Gussenhoven, all finished and ready to move in. hardly any taxes and insurance, water in the houses. We Will Sell HO US ES andLLOTS or build you a house on the Installment plan, only a little cash required, will let you have baance at eight per cent per annum on the installment plan. This Beats Anything That las Ever Been Offered .L0AX~ A PARTY WIRE MUDDLE. [Original.) Those who use a party wire tele. phone need to exercise caution. The party wire in a certain location took in four families, the Alstons, the Hammonds, the Winstous and the Chapias. It so happened that all were acquaintances and the first three friends. The Alstons and the Win stons were especially intimate. In deed, Mabel Alston was engaged to Herbert Winston. The Chapins and the Hammcnds were cousins. There was also a growing intimacy between Mrs. Chapin and AMrs. Hammond. One day Mrs. Alston wished to speak with Mrs. Winston. "Hello, central!" she said. "Give me 3720 L!" "Your letter, please?" "My letter is L." There was a good deal of buzzing and bur-r-r-ing, accompanied by airy voices, then suddenly a well defined -woman's: "I am Mrs. Winston. Who are you?" "Oh! Is that you, Clara Chapint I'm Dora Hammond. I've been trying to get you for some time. These party wires are a perfect nuisance. Yester day I had to wait half an hour while somebody was giving instructions t' her dressmaker." Mrs. Alston's sense of honor led hel to drop the receiver; but, recognizing herself in this "somebody," her sense of honor was not strong enough to bear the strain. She listened. "Yes," replied the other, "we're go ing to have our telephone taken out. It's singular how little regard some people have for other people's rights." "What I called you up for was to inquire if there is any truth in the report of the breaking of the engage ment between Mabel Alston and Her bert Winston." "I haven't heard such a report." "Haven't you? Everybody is talk ing about it" "I always considered Herbert too good for her. She's a nice enough little body, but no style about her. Herbert Is one of the best dancers I ever saw." "Mabel is very plain." "Herbert is handsome as a picture, What do they say is the cause of the break?" "Herbert's attentions to his cousin, a Miss Meriweather." "You don't mean it! I've met her. She's very pretty and stylish. You see, she wears the right kind of cor set. No woman can have a figure in the present fashion without a modern corset. That's the trouble with Mabel Alston; she wears some kind of a waist." "And studies Greek. Ha, ha! Just think of it!" "That's the folly of sending girls to college. It takes away all desire for social advancement." "By the bye, have you decided how to have your new pink silk made up?" "Only as to the neck, which is to be cut square." Mrs. Alston listened for forty min utes while the dialogue proceeded, but since it was a wardrobe discussion she became tired and dropped the receiver. She repeated the dialogue she had heard pertaining to the broken engage ment to her daughter, who assured her that there was no foundation for it, at the same time gently chiding her for eavesdropping. The next day Mrs. Aiston, with a light in her eye and a cold look about her mouth, stepped to the telephone and called up Mrs. Chapin. "Is that you, Clara? I'm Dora. I want to tell you that I've made inqui ries about the breaking of the engage ment of Mabel Alston and Herbert Winston. It isn't broken at all." "You don't mean it! How did you find out?" "I went straight to Mabel's mother." "Did you tell her who told you?" "Yes. I had to. She said if I didn't she'd never forgive me. It's very un fortunate. She told me that the next time you met her you needn't trouble yourself to speak to her, for she had no further use for your acquaintance." "Dear mel Upon my" Mrs. Chapin heard fli more, for there was a click, and she was cut off. Then Mrs. Alston called up Mrs. Hammond: "Is that you, Dora? I've called you up to say that I was mistaken about that breaking of the engagement be tween Mabel Alston and Herbert Win ston." "Yes?" "I may as well confess that I made it all up out of whole cloth." "For land's sake!" "Afterward I became conscience stricken and went to Mrs. Alston and told her what I had done; also of our conversation about it. She promised to forgive me if I'd tell her what you said, so I told her." "Qh, my goodness gracious!" "She said if her daughter didn't have a made up modern figure she had a natural symmetrical one and some brains in her head besides, which was more than you or I have. She told me to tell you that you needn't return her last call. GoQdby." The next time Mrs. Chapnlu and Mrs. Hammond met there was a mutual dead cut. When either of these ladies met Mrs. Alston they did not dare look at her, knowing that she would pass them with her nose in the air. The telephone company received a simul taneous notice from three of the party wire subscribers to take out the tele phone. It was a long while before Mrs. Chapin and Mrs. Hammond found out through mutual friends that some one had been personating each one of them to the other, but by this time their enmity was so great that they re fused to be reconciled. Mrs. Alston is the only one of the four who retains her telephone. She considers it a great convenience. CONSTA.NCE WILD. [Original.] A number of detectives were loung ing at headquarters awaiting assign ments and swapping stories. All but one had told of some puzzling case that he had solved, and he was called upon to help the party pass the time. "Come, Billy," said one of the num ber; "don't sit there mum when we're giving experiences. Tell us the most diffcult case you ever tackled." "You've all been giving that kind of cases. Suppose to vary the entertain ment I give you the easiest case I ever tackled and you fellows guess how I solved it?" 'That's a good idea. Proceed." "It was a case of identification, not one to discover a criminal, though I solved that, too, afterward. When I was on the secret service force of the town of Yardley a telephone came from a farmhouse a dozen miles in the coun try that the dead body of a man had been discovered lying beside a road so stripped and mutilated as to be unrec ognizable. They wanted a police force sent out to attend to the matter. The captain told me to take the patrol wagon and a man or two and drive out to the place where the body lay. He charged me especially to find out the name of the murdered man, since it is bothersome for the police to keep a body and it's bad policy to bury it without identification. "We drove out to the farmhouse from which the telephone was sent, where I found Farmer Bowers, who led me hilf a mile down the road and showed me the body. Whoever had done the job had taken great precaution to con ceal the identity of his victim. Why he did so afterward gave me a clew by which I brought him to the gal lows. The outer clothing had been taken off the body, and there was not a mark anywhere on his undergar ments. A small bit of material had been cut out at the bottom of the shirt bosom, where shirtmakers usually place the owner's initials. The shoes probably bore the maker's name, for they had been taken away. As to the face, it had been mutilated beyond recognition. I looked for some defect on the body, like a mole or a birth mark, but there was nothing of the kind. No dog whined beside his mur dered master. Indeed, there was no living thing about him, except the oc cunants of a dovecot on a barn near by and a cat in the road watching them. "I confess I was puzzled. The only way I could see to find out who the man was was to take the body to the police station, publish the facts and wait for claimants. But this was not what the chief wanted. 'So I did a hard job of taking in surroundings and in fifteen minutes hit on an ex pedient. Two hours and thirty min utes after I arrived on the ground I had brought the murdered man's son from a distance of fifty miles to his father's body, which he identified at once beyond the slightest doubt. Now, how did I do it?" There was a long silence, broken at last by one of the party, who claimed that some missing article, like a handkerchief with a name or initials on it or a paper tossed about by the wind, had been found. But the story teller averred there was no such arti cle of any kind whatever. Then one man guessed that the cat mentioned belonged to the dead man and had his name and address on the collar. The reply to this was that the cat belonged on the farm where the barn stood. Then there was a guess that the man's son knew where his father was and came of his own accord. This would not do, for Billy had sent him a mes sage to conme and where to come to. One superstitious detective guessed that the murdered man's ghost gave the necessary information, and anoth er suggested that it was a case of mental telegraphy. Finally every man gave up the conundrum and asked for the solution. The story teller resumed: "Among the doves in the cot," he said, "I saw several of a different breed entirely from the rest. They were fraternizing with the others go ing and coining to and from the cot, but not at all like them. The reason why I noticed these apparent strangers was because I have always had pi geons on my barn at home, and I had never seen this variety before. I had seen pictures of them, but I couldn't remember the breed. "While I was thinking a boy came up to the crowd carrying a wicker bas ket with a cover. He said he had found it a short distance up the road. I couldn't see any connection between it and the murdered man unless pos sibly he had been carrying something in it. Why it occurred to me 1 don't know, but 1 connected It with the pigeons, "Suddenly I recollecfed. They were carrier pigeons. It's wonderful how rapidly sometimes one idea will lead to another. Suppose these interlopers had belonged to the murdered man? Without waiting to think about the im probability of such a contingency I went to the I)arn, climbed to the clove cot, caught a carrier pigeon, wrote on one of my cards, 'Come at once to Bowers farm, one mile east of Ger retsville,' tied it to the pigeon's leg, carried him away from the barn and let him go. "That pigeon must have flown with incredible swiftness. He was received by the family of the murdered man who owned him and who was when killed taking his birds out on a trial trip. Fearing something had happened. the oldest son was commissioned to an swer the summons. An express train left just in time for him to catch it, making but one or two stops before reaching Gerretsville." OSCAR COX. FOREIGN OL[MPIANS1 Feats of Some Men Against Whom Yankees Will Compete. SWEDES ARE DANGEROUS, May Capture Many Running Events With Lindborg, Svenberg and Lund berg-France Has Some Good Dis tance Men-Jarvinen, Finland's Star. Now that the three tryouts are over and the committee has selected the American team which is to battle for Old Glory in the London Olympiad something about the men of other na tions who are going to compete in the big games will make interesting read ing for athletic fans. Uncle Sam will be represented by the biggest and best team that ever carried the athletic war across the big pond. Collectively the men form the greatest galaxy of stars that ever was gathered together un der one emblem. There's not a weak link in the chain, but there are a few places where the team might be strengthened. Sport followers are wondering why. Joe Forshaw was placed on the tirsi team and Alexander Thibeaux, who has whipped Forshaw four times and who won the middle west Marathon, received a berth on the supplemental list; why Frank Rtiley was omitted from the first team after having run 1,500 meters in faster time than either of the western events was won in; why Jacobs was chosen as a pole vaulter when there are a dozen imen in the country who have better records than he has; why Narganes, the wres tiler, got a place on the team, and why, Harvey Cohn, who has shown himself to be one of the greatest distance men in the country, and George Cameron. the king of the amateur cyclists, were placed on the second team. There are men on the second team who have a mighty good chance of scoring for Uncle Sam. When the com mittee wakes up and gives Thibeaux, Riley, Cohn, Cameron and others what is due them, the old fellow with the goatee, whether he twists the lion's tail or whether his own whiskers be pulled, will know that there was put into the field the strongest team that America could get together. England, Germany, Canada and Fin land are the only other countries which have had their tryouts. The English tryouts were held in the stadium at Bheppard's Bush, where the Olympic games are to be decided, on May 80. With the exception of two events, the results were not gratifying to the Brit ishers and certainly not worthy of throwing a scare into the Yankees. England's best men did not compete in the tryouts. One will have to wait till the northern counties, midland coun ties and British national championships are heard from before a good line can be had on John Bull's form. England has few men in the field events who class with the cracks on this side of the pond. In Con Leahy Ireland has a dangerous man in the jumps, and Nicholson of Scotland has a chance for fourth in the hammer throw. The German tryouts which were held in Leipzig a few weeks ago, whilere suiting in the smashing of four Ger man records, produced nothing which ouiould cause the Yankee athletes any worry. Johannes Runge, who represented Germany at the Olympic games in St. Louis in 1904 and at Athens in 1900 and who till recently was undefeated in his own country, was beaten by Braun in both the 800 and 1,500 meter events, the records going in both in stances. The Canadian tryouts were held on June 6, some of the events being held in Montreal and the others in Toronto. The boys across the border hung up some great performances. Galbraith won the five mile in faster time than did Bellars at Philadelphia. The pole vault was won at 12 feet 5 inches, the 1,500 meter in 4 minutes 5 seconds and the quarter mile in 49 4-5 seconds. Con Walsh, erstwhile member of the Irish. American A. C. of New York, threw the hammer 161 feet 5 Inches, and Bobby Kerr won both the dashes In good time. Bricker of Toronto cap tured the running broad jump with , leap of 23 feet 2½ inches. On such per formances the Canucks will take a lot of beating at London. Sweden and France will be the hard est competitors of the United States and Gr-eat Britain. Sweden has been In the throes of an athletic fever for the last two years, and her men are showing such form as to warrant their being dangerous antagonists. In the 100 meter event Sweden has Knut Lindborg, a consistent ten second 100 yarder, who has two victories over J. W. Morton, the English champion, to his credit. Lindborg may cause a sur prise in the sprints. In the distances above a mile Sweden will depend on John Svanberg, who is capable of giv ing any man in the world a race for five miles. Svanberg and Ivan Lund berg will carry Sweden's hopes in the Marathon race. Neither one of them will be far behind when the winner crosses the line. Though few sport followers in this country are aware of it, France has some of the greatest distance runners in the world. Ragueneau is the star. The little Lyonnese loper has trimmed the cream of the Britishers time and again. Only once was he beaten on English soil. That was last year 1it the international cross country. } The star of the Finnish tryouts ,ýas Jarvinen. The giant Finn captured all the weight events. He is said to have thrown the discus 143 feet 4 inches, but the mark Is not credited in this coun try.