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The Starkville news. (Starkville, Miss.) 1902-1960, August 14, 1903, Image 1

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THE STARKVILLE NEWS.
VOLUME 11.
A SONG OF DUTY.
Borrow comes and sorrow goes.
Life is flecked with shine and shower.
Now the tear of grieving flows.
Now w© smile In happy hour;
Death awaits us, every one—
Toller, dreamer, teacher, writer—
Let us then, ere life be done.
Make the world a little brighter!
Burdens that our neighbors bear
Easier let us try to make them;
Chains, perhaps, our neighbors wear.
Let us do our best to break them.
From the straitened brain and mind
Let us loose the binding fetter.
Let us, as the Lord designed.
Make the world a little better!
Selfish brooding sears the soul.
Makes the heart a nest of sorrows.
Darkening the shining goal
Of the sun-illumined morrows;
Wherefore should our lives be spent
Daily growing blind and blinder?
Let us, as the Master meant.
Make the world a little kinder!
—Denis A. McCarthy, in Good Counsel
Magazine.
At the End
of the Trail
By J. W. HUNT
(Copyright, 1903, by Daily Story Pub. Cos.)
Uncle Amos, somebody’
killed Marjory!”
The speed with which she had come
left scant breath to deliver her mes
sage, and she jerked it out in short
g*asps to the old man sitting so peace
fully in a rocking chair on the litGe
porch, bringing him to h*s feet with
something of the vigor of 20 years be
fore, while a motherly little old wom
an hurried out from her task in the
kitchen, her flour-smeared hant*s
raised to Heaven in shocked surprise.
Horror was on the faces of her au
ditors as the girl sobbed her tale. They
had been gathered about the piano,
she. Marjory and two girl friends.
Marjory was playing. The windows
were open. In the midst of the mus'fC
there was a shot and Marjory, clash
ing her side, tumbled from her se?*i
and died, almost without a word. Who
had done it? They had not stopped to
Inquire. While a servant had run for
the nearest doctor she had hurried fop
Uncle Amos.
As he listened there were reflected
in the old man’s eyes the qualities
which had made him the recognized
power that he was in the little com
munity. the shrewd common sense, the.
unfaltering resolution, the undaunted
courage of a born leader of men. A
few rapidly spoken orders set busy
hands at work on strap and buckle.,
and almost before the messenger had
finished her tale a buggy, drawn by a
fast-stepping horse, was brought
around from the stable and Unck-
Amos had taken his seat and ttirnrd
the animal’s head into the shady la:ie
that led toward the scene of the term
ed y.
It was a setting fitter for a pastoral
than a tale af blood, that rambling
house, hiding its gable ends in clam
bering rose vines and crouched in the
shade of noble elms. Always one of
the picturesque spots of the neighbor
hood. it had lost nothing of its attrac
tiveness in the hands of its new ten
ant. Mrs. Dennison, who two years be
fore had come into the community and
made her home at Rose Gable. As she
made no secret of the fact that she was
unhappily married and had separated
from her husband, the good people re
garded her rather askanpo, untit, won
the charming simplicity and blame-
Jessness of her life, they had recon
structed their code of ethics on a
broader scale and had ended by loving
her. And now' she was dead. 4 mur
dered! Who could have done it? What
did it mean?
Uncle Amos asked himself these
questions time and time again while
his trotter drew' him swiftly to the
scene of the tragedy, but he was far
from imagining an answer when he
drew rein in the drive before the house
and confronted the tear-stained faces
of the household. Silently lie listened
to their recital of the occurrence,
•which added nothing to what he had
already learned from Lucy.
“The shot was fired through this
window; the position of the ground
proves as much, and the assassin prob
ably fired 1 from that- clump of lilacs,
gee, it is a perfect line from there to
the piano.”
It was the doctor who spoke.
“And has search been made that
*ray?” asked Uncle Amos, waving his
hand in the direction of the lilacs.
“Every foot of the ground has been
gone over, clear to the road.”
* “And you have found —”
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing, ex
cept a broken stalk of the lilac bush.”
, “Broken, how?” -
STARKVILLE, MISS., FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 1903.
“With the hand, apparently. It is at
about the height cf a man and looks
as though it might have been twisted
aside and broken by someone hieing
there who wished a clearer view of the
house.”
“And has any one touched it since?”
“Touched it? No.”
“Then there is a way,” Uncle Affios
exclaimed. “See to it that no one dis
turbs the place until I return.”
“But what are you going to do?”
“Get the bloodhound from the peo
ple at the old quarry and put him on
the scent; arouse the neighborhood
and run the scoundrel to earth.”
Without further words he clambered
into his buggy and, gathering up the
lines, was whirled away into the
lengthening shadows of the after
noon.
The sun had almost set when the
buggy, followed by men, women and
children, all who were able to walk,
again drew up before the door of Rose
Gable. The great brute was lifted out
and stretching its gaunt, powerful
form after the cramping ride, rolled
on the soft, cool grass, like a puppy.
And the crowd watched it in silence,
awed by the thing they had come to do,
standing in the shadow of this house
of death. Guided by the doctor and
Uncle Amos, the foreman, grasping
the nail-studded leather collar of the
dog, led him to the clump of lilacs,
raised his heavy muzzle and laid it
along the broken stalk. Mute sur
prise in the beast’s eyes only. Fur
ther along, above the fracture. An
eager sniffing told that it understood,
that it had the scent.
Dropped to all fours, the dog sniffed
the ground eagerly, ran hither and
thither, circled around the lilac bush,
then, tossing its head high, with a long
deep-chested bay, it laid its muzzle
once more to the ground, and, drag
ging the quarryman who held it with
a stout leathern thong, it set off across
the lawn. It was on the trail.
And those who heard, thrilled with
the savage music of that bay, which
awoke in their own breasts the latent
savagery of the human beast, iheir
pulses beat to a faster measure, the
righteous indignation of an outraged
neighborhood, for the moment gave
place to the fierce exultation of the
hunters of wild beasts. Primeval man
aw oke in them and. scorning the chas
tening effects of centuries, rejoiced in
the chase.
Eagerly the dog tugged at his collar,
as eagerly the crowd of young and old
pressed in its wake. Yes, here was
where he got through the hedge. It
could be seen plainly, the gap. now
that the dog pointed the way. To the
right along the lane as far as the stile;
over this and across the fields by the
footpath to the parsonage, straight
on into the village. What stranger had
passed through that day? Eagerly
they asked each other the question.
None could answer it. And the won
der grew' as step by step the keen
scented dog tracked the footsteps of
this unknown fugitive, followed them
into the various familiar places in the
village, the store, the blacksmith shop,
the post office. Men looked at fach
other with wonder and suspicion.
What did it mean? Eagerly the dog
strained at his leash; quicker and
ever quicker he dragged his keeper
along. Again into the fields, back
again into the village, then along the
road, back to the house of death. Un
erringly, without a moment’s hesita
tion, the great beast -rugged along.
TO DETECT BAD FOOD.
/
Microscopic Laboratory I* Estab
lished in Connection with the
Department of Agriculture.
For the purpose of insuring pure food
for the people of this country Secretary
Wilson has established a microscopic
laboratory in connection with the chem
ical division of the department of agri
culture. Already it has been demon
strated that unscrupulous dealers are
palming off artificial coffee and other
impure food on the public. The sup
posed coffee berries were regularly
shaped and colored, but were composed
of chicory, starch and other ingredients,
and when ground presented about the
usual appearance of coffee.
Cocoa has come in for some curious
results under the microscope, and in fact
there is now no branch of the depart
ment of agriculture where this instru
ment does not play an important part.
A large photo-microscopic camera oc
cupies one side of a large room, and is
so arranged that foods under inspection
may be photographed and the picture
thrown upon a screen in the natural col
ors —a thing of inestimable value to
students of grain and vegetable dis
ease. I
▲ microtone for cutting up articles for
waking the echoes of the coming night
with his deep-throated bay, which an
nounced that he still held the trail
and it was growing warm. Tense with
the eagerness of the ques% they fol
lowed the hurrying dog. shrinking
each from the other in the nameless
suspicion fast grow ing in every breast.
Arrived at the lawn before the house,
the hound turned promptly toward the
lilac bush. But it did not go quite to
it. At a point some dozen feet short
of the shrub it turned off and headed
again across the lawn toward the gap
in the hedge. Again to the right, along
the lane, over the stile, across the
fields. The dog was tracking the track
ing party. Among those who followed
this hunt for a man was the hunted
man himself. Lifelong friends eyed
each other askance: in each face was a
look writ by horror and trepidation,
which to the superficial might appear
the look of guilt itself. Each suspect
ed his neighbor and felt himself sus
pected. Vain in that universal uneasi
ness to seek to read the really guilty
one. Nothing to do but to follow on
this overlying trial, around and around
until the end.
Back a third time to Rose Gable, the
attendant followers now lengthened to
a trailing que, as the dog pressed more
eagerly forward, and the more infirm
among the followers lost ground, un
able to keep up. though none dreamed
of dropping out. Ranting, nearly over
come, a little group brought up the
rear, entering the grounds just as the
head of the party, led by the indom
itable hound, was emerging from the
gap in the hedge. The man holding the
leash stumbled and the dog, thrown
forward by his own weight, overran
the scent and for a moment was at
fault. He had it again in a second,
however, and with a bay of rejoicing
resumed the tracking, but in the other
direction. Back again to the gate of
Rose Gable, back across the lawn, and
with a snarl of rage the great beast
tore itself free from the restraining
hand that, held him and sprang at the
throat of Jasper Downes.
“And the sentence of the court is
that you be taken back to the place
where you have been confined and be
kept there until the 20th of March,
when you shall lie hanged by the neck
until you be dead. And may God have
mercy on your soul.”
The famous trial was over at last,
and the villagers filed out of the court
room. silent and awed; still under the
influence of the impressive scene in
which they had just played a part.
“VVho’d ’ve thought it? Jasper
Downes, of all men! Why. I’d ’most
as soon ’ve believed it of myself.”
It was Homer Gough who spoke to
Uncle Amos, but he voiced the thought
of the country-side, which had not yet
recovered from the amazement into
which the unexpected climax of the
Rose Gable tragedy had thrown them.
For Ja-sper Downes had lived all his
life amongst them, beloved for his
gentle nature.
“The human heart is a curious puz
zle,” said Uncle Amos. “There’s never
any telling what anbody’H do. You
all know how Jasper loved his half
brother. and how he took that broth
er’s going to the bad to heart. Of
course he thought it was the wife’s
fault, and when he saw' her living re
spected by the community, happy ap
parently. while his mother’s son, the
man he loved better than he loved his
life, was an outcast and drunkard, he
lost his head.”
investigation, such as fruit, vegetables
and grain, to the two hundred and twen
ty-five-thousandth part of an inch, is
one of the new equipments. Arrange
ments are made for photographing these
minute wafers while under the micro
scope, and from the enlarged sections
are made transparencies for throwing
upon the screen.
A test was made recently of spruce
and linen pulp for the manufacture of
paper in this country, and it was found
the manufacturers were being imposed
upon by the importers, and through the
determination of the microscopist thou
sands of dollars were saved. In import
ing sumac into this country fraud was
constantly practised on dealers and
manufactures. This was stopped
through this department. This ap
paratus Is also used for getting at the
disease of wheat and other grain, and
also the adaptability of certain varieties
of wheat to different climates, besides
ascertaining the amount of starch and
other nutritive qualities devloped under
certain soil and climatic conditions.
Servla’s Time Pf*
The Chicago Daily News remark*
that Bulgaria is thinking of having
a war. Servia cannot be permitted
to monopolize all the notoriety in the
Balkan*
Parks a Cure for Crime
By HON. CHAS. S. DENEEN,
State's Attorney for Cook County, Illinois.
classes thrive and multiply, and at the same time,
establish that environment which produces
bodies and clean habits, and a great stride has been
taken in solving the crime problem which confronts;
every large city. Ninety per cent, of the criminal
class in Chicago is due directly to environment.!
Here in a city that has the largest criminal court in;
the world the acquired traits of criminality must be*
attributed to physical conditions on the West side,|
in the First ward, and along the river, southwest,
and northwest, where 90 per cent, of the criminal clasi* is found.
Our jails are not filled with elderly criminals, but with boys from
i6 to 20 years old, who have taken to crime as the natural outlet for
their restless disposition, and they make the most dangerous class, i
Whether David in his hasty declaration that all men are liars
was correct in his judgment or not, I am not prepared to say, but of
this I am strongly convinced, that all children are liars. They can't
help it. They see things in the concrete, and until they are trained
they can’t associate ideas with truth.
For this reason the surroundings of child life must be those
which will most surely aid in overcoming these natural tendencies. 1
Crowded tenements must give place to sanitary and wholesome and
roomy buildings in which the poor can live. The street as a play
ground must be abandoned for the greeen sward and well-equipped
and well-managed playground.
There were 70,000 arrests in Chicago last year, and if crime is to
be reduced, the city must spend less money for police pro
tection and more for parks and playgrounds in the congested dis
tricts.
I HM
COST OF TRAIN LUXURY.
Room and Comfort for Paienser
Materially Add* to the Ex*
/ prune of Travel.
It may be asked why the railway loco
motive does not pull passengers at a
lower rate. Because, says the Engineer
ing Magazine, it gives passengers so
much room, comfort and hig speed that
it has to carry a ton of dead weight for
each passenger. A locomotive weigh
ing 100 tons pulls, at 45 miles per hour,
12 cars weighing 600 tons and contain
ing 760 people, weighing 50 tons, assum
ing the passengers to be men, women
and children, but chiefly men, and to
average 131 pounds each; 1,400 pounds
of dead weight per passenger, when
every seat Is taken. But cars cannot
average more than seven-tenths full.
The railway carries free the passen
ger’s 150-pound trunk, and sends with
him toilet rooms, heating stoves and
bedrooms. These houses on wheels, and
the locomotive which draws them, have
to be made very heavy in order to get
the great strength made necessary by
high speed. If the railway could dis
pense with these comforts and luxuries,
and carry passengers packed closely in
side and on top of low-roofed, ram
shackle, vehicles, like the old
stage, and at slow speed, it could pull
passengers at one-tenth to one-twen
tieth the price of the old stage.
Ooald Never Happen.
Mrs. Leslie M. Shaw, wife of the sec
retary of the treasury, has always been
noted for her wit. It is said of her that
a young man of humorous bent one day
exclaimed in her presence; ‘‘What
could be more dreadful for a woman
after mending her husband’s coat
than to find in one ot the
pockets a love letter from an
other woman?” “Fortunately,” said
Mrs. Shaw, “that could never happen.
The woman would find the letter first,
and then she would not mend the coat.”
Rather Qare Him Away.
Fond Father (showing off his off
spring’s intelligence)—Now, Elsie dear,
what is a cat?
Elsie —Dunno.
“Well, what’s that funny little animal
that comes creeping up the stairs when
every one’s in bed?”
Elsie (promptly) —Papa.—John Bull.
Uncle Reuben Sayit
When I find & wallet in de road 1
look at de facts in de case an’ keep it;
when I lose my own I look at de prin
ciple of de thing an’ expect de finder to
return it. —Detroit Free Press.
On tbe Same Plane.
Foreign Attache—Are they on the
same plane socially?
American—Oh, yes; they exchange
snubs regularly.—Town Topics.
A Justice ot tbe Peaee.
Patti's husband, Baron Cederstrom,
has been appointed a justice of the
peace in the county of Brecon, Wales.
NUMBER 23.
AMERICAN LITERATURE.
Vaat Majority of Oar Reading Prac
tically Worthless from a Lit
erary Standpoint.
A cursory glance through the various
magazines of the day presents to the
reader a very discouraging outlook and
yet one which has been long expected.
With a few exceptions, the vast major
ity of our reading matter is practically
worthless, from a literary standpoint. It
is a mere dainty bubble, good only for a
few short moments, and then breaks and
is gone. It has no stability, no worth,
expresses no meaning, teaches no lesson.
The world of to-day, so far as literary
pursuits are concerned, is like a small
child who reaches for the sweets and lets
the solid foods go untouched. Pleasure
first, by fair means or foul, is the motto
of the present day generation. And the
majority of our publications are awak
ening to this fact and preparing to cater
to the public taste. Periodicals that
have hitherto occupied a distinguished
place among the literary guides have
abolished to a certain extent all matter;
that would be helpful and needful to
mankind for the lighter style of work.
Even those who still cling to the old idea
of giving food for thought to the serious
minded reserve some space for love sto
ries, light poetry and the like, all of
which, sooner or later, will encroach
upon the other’s territory until it en
tirely occupies the pages of the periodi
cal.
Asa matter of fact, we take life too
lightly. Few really seriously consider
the tasks set before them. If any con
scientious thought presents itself, we
push it aside for some frivolous, idle
notion that can do no good and may
bring harm, says the Memphis Commer
cial-Appeal. Literature has for ages
been looked upon as one of the highest
branches of man’s education. It is the
means whereby the persons most fitted
for the task may give to the world such
truths and teachings as are necessary to
their intellectual life. And no one can
gainsay the fact that without the liter
ary efforts of the few of our older writ
ers latter-day scribes would not occupy
the positions they now fill.
His Church Record.
Jacob Riis began life as a Lutheran,
then became a Methodist, later a Con
gregationalist and is now an Episco
palian.
Couldn’t Scare Him.
“Colonel,” said the fair hostess to the
hero of many battles, “are you fond of
classical music?” ,
“Madam,” replied the gallant colonel,
“I’m not afraid of It.” —Chicago Daily
News. \
Victim** of Cancer.
Among sailors 445 in a million die of
cancer; among miners only 122 per mil
lion die of this disease.
Farias Expense* Now.
Madison Square Garden paid expenses
last year, for the first time since It wa*
built. 4 -

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