U fII / UMI UlIIl
rur
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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.