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TI :lE TRUE -DE.IOCRAT. PUBLISHED WEEKLY AT ST. FRANCISVILLE, LOUISIANA. I The returns of causes for insanity in England show that in every 100 cases 24 are hereditary, 2-1 may be at tributed,to drink, 12 to business and money troubles, 11 to loss of friends, 10 to sickness and 11 to various causes. Dr. Seneca fEgbert of the Medico Ohirurgical College, Philadc!phia,says that rheumatism often results from drinking too little water, and that the cures wrought at watering places are to be attributed to the free imbibing of that fluid, rather than tb the nain orals contained therein. American cotton is rapidly super lding that of India in the markets of Japan because of its superior length and strength, and a reprcocutative of the Japanese governm,:nt is making an investigation into the methods of cultivating and handling the staple in Texas and other southern sattes, from which vejuable results a'o likely to follow. The town of Fairtiell, Conn., has a large contract on hand. The records of the town have not been indexed since 1800. The selectmen are now consid ering the best method of beginning the large undertaking. The records comprise seven large volumes, and to index these will require at least a year's labor and an expense of between 12,000 and $3,000. It is said that more than ninety per eont of the railway passengers in Eng land travel third-class. They con tribute about eighty-three percent of the receipts. A goodly portion of the remaining seventeen percent, it is safe to say, is contributed by wealthy American tourists, who are conspicu ous patronizers of the first-class car riage during the summer months. Nansen invented the model of the 'ram,making her hull round and slip pery, like an eel, with no corners or sharp edges for the ice to seize upon. She is the strongest vessel ever used in Arctic exploration. Ie said that pressure would simply lift her on the ice, and so her bottom, near the keel, was made almost flat in order that she might not capsize while on the iee surface, and her screw and rudder were also ingeniously protected. The many experts who said her design would not save the Fram from instant destruction wore mistaken, for she met these resistless ice pressures, and they merely lifted her out of her cra dle, and she rested safely on the sur. face, In the heart of San Francisco is the city's principal cemetery, where are buried the bodies ofher famous dead, and where loom up in the sky the grand mausoleums of her millionaire mining and railroad kings. A movre ment to bisect this cemetery with a new street has aroused much opposi tion, yet it is by no means certain that sooner or later the who!e cemetery will not be moved to a quarter where the dlead would cost less in real estate and taxes It seems that when grave yards were started the founders of cities did not know where to place them. For years in Boston the old graveyard on Tremont street showed that some of the most valuable prop erty in the city was oocupied by dead beads. Instead of resenting the action of this country in restricting foreign pauper immigration, the Italian gov ernment has recenatly adopted meas ures preventing the idle hordes of that country from emigrating to the United States In Italy, says the Philadelphia Public Ledger, the dis tinction between worthy and unworthy people is broader than in almost any other country, especially in the class that furnishes the most of the emi grants. The Italian peaantry is largely composed of thrifty, industri ous people, such as may be seen any day in our own city, who are willing to work hard for small wages and con trive to save enough out of their scanty earnings to provide for ohl age. Such people form a valuable addition to the population. But it also contains a class of vicious idlers, who will not work, who have no re. spect for law, whose passions are eas ily roused and,when roused, are never restrained,and who make a profession of crime. From this class the Mafia and the brigands are. recruited, and it ia this clasues that the government agents are obliged to keep at home ander heavy penalty. T:3 MEN WHO LOSE, iere's to the men who lose! What though their work be e'er so nobly planned And watched with zealous care, No glorious halo crowns their efforts grand; Contempt is failure's share. Here's to the men who lostl If triumph's easy smile our struggles greet, Courago is easy then; The king is he who, after fierce deicat, j Can up and fight again. IIe;e's to the men who lose! Tho ready plaudits of a fawning world Ring sweet in victor's ears; The vanquished's banners never are un furled For them there souni no cheers. Here's to the men who lose! The touchstone of true worth is not success; There is a higher test Though fate may darkly frown, onward to press, And bravely do one's best. Hero's to the men who lose! It is the vanquished's praises that I sing, And this the toast I choose; "A hard-fought failure is a noble thing. Here's luck to them who lose." -George H. Broadhurst. An Unusual Burglary, M" ARY R. P. HATCH, EOPLE are decry ing the sophisti cated state of the country, and by people Imean writ. ers in particular. . They say that there S is litt le pictur esqueness except in the backwoods and in districts far removed from the en vironments of railroads and electricity, and that dialect peculiar to each lo cality is being flattened into monotone by the omnipresent schoolmaster, who, they complain, has his way far too much in this proudly new world of ours. But if this be true, as a whole, there are delightful exceptions. A carriage drive of a few hours, or the whirl of one's bicycle an hour, brings one to the home of folk lore and pro vincialism capable of causing ecstatic thrills in the heart of the dialect-mon ger. Such were my thoughts as I alighted from my wheel at nightfall, one cold autumnal day, and rapped (there was no bell) at the door of a low-browed cottage, behind which clumps of bushes shut off the horizon and seemed to narrow the world down to the little house, the yard, and myself, with a heavy heart, standing before it, steady ing my wheel, for I was tired. Presently an old lady came to the i door. Her comfortable, rotund form 6 and mild blue eye but decided chin 3 impressed me with instant respect, while the inborn ladyhood of her nature was evidenced by her courteous greating and invitation to enter. "Do you ever keep travelers over night?" 1 inquired after a decent inter val had elapsed. * "We do and we don't," she replied; t "but you can stay in welcome. Sit C up and eat with me if you hain't had no supper." "I haven't," was my reply; and " presently the old lady and I were dis cussing her homely but toothsomo supper, and doing it ample justice in the way of testing its quahties; at least I did. "My husband has gone to town," re- a marked my hostess, "and if you hadn't come I should a ben here all alone to- ! night." 1 "Would you have been afraid to spend the night alone?" J "Oh, nol But to-night I feel dif- I1 'runt, for, you see, at last we're ready to lift the mortgage. It's two hun- I dred and thirty-three dollars an' one cent. That last cenot I got by selling a an aig," she said with a happy laugh, t "and now it's altogether 'twixt the 1 straw bed and feather bed in my room; and husband, he's gonter pay it off to- 0 morrer-if he lives," she added, with I the reverence felt by the old who have ' seen so many hopes fade and friends a die that they never dare to speak even I of almost certainties without an "if." a "But are you not unwise to speak of a your money to a stranger?" I asked as c a warning. "Oh, no I" she said, laughing pleas antly, "I know an honest man when I t see him, and I was glad the minute 1 see your face and knowed that you wanted to stay all night. 'Taint likely e anybuddy would steal from me but stragglors. One has been seen 'round, d and I feel a little mite uneasy." C My hostess and I spent a pleasant evening together. She showed me a many qn heirloom which had been handed through five generations from r an ancestor who had been a great man in colonial diays. There was a silver I punch bowl and a gold snuff box, I either worth more than the sum treas- W ured so carefully in the owner's bed; but I suspect she would have parted with her life as quickly as with either fi of them. e "They are Jamese," she said, "or will be when husband and I are done with them. James is my nephew, and Y he's out to Chiny now. HIe's had lots of pullbacks, James has, or he'd helped a us. But you look tired, Mlr.-" t "Bradley." "Mr. Bradley, you look zif you s doughter be to bed. I'll light you up." p Ascending the short flight of stairs, I learned that my room was exactly- g over the old lady's "settin'" room, as she called it. 'There was a sort of reg ister over it, through which the warmth E straggled agreeably enough. How- a ever, I should have closedl it had not Ii a sense of the old lady's unprotected i situation impressed me, and so i re- b tirol to bed and dreamland, where Ig wandered lazily until awakened by voices beneath, . Evidently the first word had roused g me, for as I sat up in bed, wide awake h in an instant, I heard the old lady say in a matter-of-fact tone-- a "Good-ovenin'. Set up to the stove and warm ye." Peeping through the register, I saw a ragged, unkempt man creep toward the stove, blinking uneasily. He had come up the cellar stairs, not through the outside door, which sufficiently evidenced his predatory intentions. However, had the old lady's visitors always made their entrances through the cellar shabe could not have been more at case than she appeared now as she bustled about, setting him, a chair, putting wood into the stove, and other wise mystifying her midnight caller by her careless, friendly manner. Admirable as was her acting, I knew that she had not dared to retire; and while regretting that I had not sus pected her intentions, it now seemed wisest to remain where I was unless she should need n.y assistance, as she probably would very soon, I reasoned. Cocking my pistol and otherwise pre paring myself for the emergency, I sat down on the floor, where I could watch the couple without myself being seen. "It's turrible cold out for a fall night, ain't it?" "Yes, it is," said the man. "Wall, jest set here by the stove while I set the teapot for'ard and git you somethin' kinder warmin'. Mebbe you're hungry, too," she added. "Mebbe I be." "Wall then, I'll set onto the table somethin' to eat," she said, moving about the room with a pleasant, bust ling movement which must have tilled the burglar with wonder, as it did me. "There now," she remarked at length, "set right up and make yourself to home. Mebbe you'd like to wash, though. I'll git you some warm water outer the teakittle." "'Twould seem good. I hain't washed for a week," he replied. "I wanter know ! Ben trav'lin' and hsin't had no chance, most like. Here's the soft soup, and there's a cake o' hard I keep for comp'ny." "I'll use the comn'ny soap," said the man with a sardonic laugh, And then he sat down to the table. He must have eaten ravenously, for where I sat I could see his elbows working rapidly, while his hostess remarked voluntarily, "Poor cretur I How hungry you be!" "It's the first square meal I've had for six weeks," he said with his mouth full. "I wantes know !" And rising, his hostess brought from the pantry a plate of cold meat and set it before him. But at last the meal was ended, and the couple sat down by the stove on opposite sides, she with her knitting, and be fingering uneasily his old hat. "Say I" he broke forth at last in the midst of some friendly inquiry re garding the state of the roads. "Quit your foolin'. You know what I've. come for. It's that money you've got hid in your bed." "How do you know I've got any there?" she asked, without a quaver in her voice. "I see you pack it away just before your husband left. Then I crept into the cellar when you went to see him off, and hero I be come for it. I've ben hid there six hours. Come, hustle round, old lady, and fetch it out, or I shall have to git it myself." "I know better." "Know better ?" "Yes. I know you ain't no sech kind of a man as to steal from an old woman like me. You are too much of a man." "I be, be I Wall, I guess not! You won't never miss it, and it would be the making of me." "How long you sp'oao me and Josiah's ben gittin' that together to lift the mortgage ?" "I don't know. Ain't your place paid for?" "No, and we've ben twenty years a scrapin' together two hundred and thirty-three dollars and one cent. You see Josiah's lame and can't earn much, and I ain't so smart as I was once, and we haf to live. The times hot hard jest the wrong time for us. We used to have enough, and so we used to take a child from the poor house every five years and fetch him up. Four of 'em we got started, and all smart children, every one, and dreadful good to me ihd Josiah." "Why don't they help you?" "They're jest beginnin' to do for theirselves, and we don't want 'em to. James is in Chiny, Eben's workin' his way through college, Philaster's clerkin' down to the Corner, and Horace's jest married and come in debt for a little place of his own. Can't you get no work?" "No, I can't. I've tried for weeks, and tramped miles; but nobody wants a tramp when there's them they know ready to work." "That's so. I see how 'tis. I wish I could do for you,'but I don't see how I can, I s'pose I might lend you our sick money." "Sick money?" "Yes. We've always kept laid away fifty dollars to bury us with, which ever goes first, Josiah or me; but we don't like to speak it right out, and so we call it 'sick money.' I could lend you that." The man did not reply at first, but after awhile said in a strangely altered tone: "Do you really mean that you would lend me that money with the ex pectation of getting it back?" "Yes, I would. 1 think if you can get work you will pay it back sure." ,"Mnybe you'd like a not for it." "Of course! I 'most forgot that. Here's the ink bottle and Josiah's pen and a half sheet of paper that's source ly got a mark on't. Set right here." And the old lady pushed the dishes back into the middle of the table to give him a better chance to write. "You know, don't you, that I could take the whole of that money you've got hid between the straw bed and feather bed if 1 wanted?" "Yes, bat you won't, because you are too much of a man to steal irom two poor old creturs when you can berry it." "That's so, I be. You shall have that money back if I live, old lady, and int'rest too, I promise ye. 1 feel like a man a3'in, and it's you thai made me." "Oh, no! You was a man afore, but kinder unfortunate, that's all." "Well, here's your note. I've wrote it to pay in a year's time, if that will do." ':It will, 'less one of us should die, and then 'twouldn't be as if we hadn't got that note to show." The man laughed a laugh of amuse ment and relief. I watched him as he went to the door, and this time his head was up and his shoulders were square. In listening to the colloquy had entirely forgotten or overlooked the fact that I had constituted myself the guardian of the old lady's slender fortune. What to do I did not know. The man seemed anxious to pay the borrowed money, and she was ready to trust him, Perhaps I would better let the matter rest as it was, and in case he did not return to pay it in a year pay it myself as a fine for my negligence, which would then have been proved culpable. When I descended, which I did as soon as the man hail been gone several minutes, I found the old lady to be very nervous. "Why !" she said, starting to her feet in alarm at my entrance, "I clean forgo.t there was anybuddy in the house but me." "So you wish I had come down be fore and p)reveted the loan you made?" "No, I pitied the poor cretur' so. He'll pay it back if he can, and if not it'll be jest another orphan we've helped. Most like bein' so old, both of us up'ards of seventy, we shan't do for no more ias we have done, and we shall git buried some way." "Don't worry. If he doesn't pay it I will," was my reply. "You needn't think nothin' about it. I've saved the motigage money and given a man a lilt on the road to heaven, and I'd oughter be satisfied. I be satisfied," she said fervently. "And you have reason to be," I said. We did not go to bed, either of us, and in the morning I returned to the city. But I'did not forget the old lady nor the burglar. I felt convinced that he would return the money on the exact date when the note was given, if at all, and accordingly, in just dbo year, I made it convenient to visit the old lady at her residence. This time I was so fortunatq as to see her husband, and I immediately discovered that he was just such an other guileless person as herself. They were expecting the man to pay the note, and it lay ready for him on the mantel when I entered. Sure enough, at ten o'clock a firm, stalwart man walked up to the door, where the old lady met him with a cordial grasp of the hand. "You did Bit work," she said. "Yes, I did, and it was you that saved me from crime. I had tried every way to find something to do un til that night, and the fifty d' llars put me on my feet square and firm. I got a chance in a shop where I got good pay, and here's the money and the interest." "The interest! I didn't ask you no interest." "But I mean to pay it." I do not know whether he ever heard thatI was in the house that night or not. It doesn't matter. I saw him several times afterward, and he seemed both prosperous and honest, and I don't doubt that he was. The fact did not tend to make me neglect my hobby, which was that crime, when it is not.a disease, is either the result of inherit ed evil tendenoies or of misfortune, and that circumstances keep and make some men honest and others dishonest. i-Waverley M3agazine. Cause a IRun on Thernmometers. "Extremes in thle weather," re marked a druggist who handles a large line of thermoineert, "oither in cold or heat create a run on thormaometers, and though I had a rather large stock on hand, the fall in the weather which started on Sunday last nearly cleaned me out, On Mouday, I think, I sold more thermometers than on any other day that I have beauen in business. Or dinarily people give but little atten tion to thermometers, but let a very severe change come and they will have them,it matters not how much they cost. I don't exactly understand it, but it appears that many persons are more thoronghly convinced that it is very cold or extremely warm when they read their own thermometers. Aiiother thing is that they seem to enjoy see ing the meracury go down or rise and for that reason like to have the weather measurer in their possession. Trade was exceedingly dull in thermometers, but somehow, though, they are gen erally 'bought freely at Christmas time, there were but few purchasers until about Monday last. Then it was very active."-- Washington Star, Woman's Position in China, A paper published at Shanghai says that "in China a woman is not her hus band's companion and cannot be so, a* society is at prcdent constituted. When a young wife is introduced to a new family her husband seems to be Ithe last person with whom she has ianything to do. He would be ashamed to be seen talking to her, and if he should exchange views with her he would be laughed at by the whole family." British Postal avlngs. One of the greatest bankers in the world is the British government. As a bank it holds nearly $500,000,000 in postoflice deposits payable practically on call, and pays interest at the rate of two and a half per cent. per an num to its depositors. Last year the deposits increased $50,000,000,--San Francisco News Letter. SBUDGET OF FUN. y, HUMOROUS SKETCHES FRO3 el VARIOUS ~OURCES. He'll ireak You--Cared For-Up righlt in One Thing-The Pass ing .or Love -Served Hlnm Right, Etc. tLo may brink, you may shat, The vase if you, vill: Dut you can't faze the ilorist Who sends you the bill. 3- -Chicugo Recold. is CAsIID For.. :e "There are 100 poets in Indiana." I "Yes; and they are establishing new d reformatories all over the State, too." if -Chicago Record. P" UPRIGHT IN ONE THIING. e Our cashier's defalcation was a great 3 surprise to us."' r "Why?" ."He wrote such a beautiful vertical a hand." re WANTED SOMETHING NEW. as "Did you accept that poem entitled al 'Winter's Snow?'" e "No; what we particularly wish to encourage this year is snow in sum ?r mer."-Chicago Record. tO THE TOUCH OF NATurE. Mrs. Joikins-"This book on na tural history says that seals sometimes u shed tears just like men." Jorkins-"Yes. Just like men who * have to pay for seal skin jackets." SA MYSTrrY. "o While Miss Fitz was awrlay George took her parrot." "Anything happen?" "I don't know; she keeps the par rot down cellar, and the engagement t s off. "-Life. O PROFITABLE FLATTERY. . Ted-"How did that English noble man manage to borrow the money . from Chollie?" S Ned--"On being introduced he e asked him if he wasn't born on the other stde. "-Judge. t THE PASSING oFF LOVE. o "I'm afraid he does not love me say more." 0 "Why, what change have you 8 found?" "None. His pockets are empty of 0 late."-Cincinnati Enquirer. THE REASON. "Too bad about young Baldy being 0 struck by lightning, wasn't it? I sup pose it was because death loves a shin ing mark." "No; because nature abhors a vacuum. "-New York Journal SERVED HIM RIGHT. Sansmith (endeavoring to be very, d very funny)L-"Miss Oldgal, I-tee hee-think I will give you a-aw s goose for a birthday pwesent." I Miss Oldgal '(joyously)-"Oh. Mr. t Sapsmith, this is so-so sudden." PREVENTIVE OF FAILURE. S "There are six necessities, you know, for a happy marriage." "What are they?" "First, a good husband." C "And the others?" S "The other five are nmouey,.'".-La 1 Caricature. TRE SUPERLATIVE. Herbert-"My pa is richer in your Spa." Freddie-"No, he ain't." S Herbert--"y pa owns three houses on this block." Freddie--"Um; "but my pa owns the mortgage on 'em." HIS FADS, " Last year Mr. Giglamps used to be always smuggling home valuable books he had bought without his wife's knowledge." "Doesn't he do so yet?" "No; now he smuggles in expensive attachments for his whoel."--Chicago Record. uons DO COiIBAT. "My man can't meet yours to-motr. row," said. the ambassador of one pugilishat to the envoy etraordinary of . another. "What's the trouble?" ! "He has sprained his" "Ankle'?" "No; he has sprained his tongue." A sAD mENINO. "Have you reaT the 'Story of the Baptist Yo'uth and the Presbyterian Maiden' that has just come out?" "No. It ends unhappily, and I make it a point not to read tragedies." S "Ends unhappily? Why, it ends with the marriage of the youth and the maiden." "I know it does."--Chicago Tribune. HE ADVEPTISED FOs FAIR, Wife-"Be sure to advertise for Fido in the morning newspapers." Next day the wife read as follows in Sthe newspaper: S "Ten Shillings Reward.-Lost, a mangy lap-dog, with one eye and no Stail. Too fat to walk. Responds to the name of Fido. Smells like a monkey-house. If returned stuffed, Sthirty shillings reward."-Tit.Bits. ON BOTH SIDES. b He was looking for work, and had * button-holed the manager. 2 "My motto," he said proudly, "is r printed on the outside of your door. SIt is 'push.'" "That's very good indeed, though B somewhat old," remarted the man 1 ager, "provided you've got what's orinted inside our door." to the Judge. The Fort ept of the- We had some' this part of the one of the best b loose by the lows in which a eat s sparrows planei The cat, Cbico low, belonigs to county, who is the story. Elliottsayes - of last week, whet ready pretty .thi Chico came into, mighty well fedl, parently dead spa The cat had evid4 meal, but had anej tin gencies, so he`d an overturned b and wentout. again with antth/ in the basket ani pear still'again,'l fact, these trip dozen sparrowa] basket, and trh. under the stove t The kitchen ias one and by.and.hj kind of lively"i beat got in its lit to life the half.fth then another of th heels under, st legs, spread his Presently the whol out, fluttering abo ing on the shelve to crumbs andfeel generally. Indeed, and set up snuchas awakened Chico frd when the big fello* stretched himself.t basket, thinking t cat with a toothsom look of astonislbi on his features is the birds were ' take in the situatio At Chico's.firat: make themselv& he recovered from. the last one had BA the ills they kneow trophe they woet o was fooled, Chio 1 the basket all day;" comforted beeauids there. No doubt finds a good thing and let the "rainy0' itself. Cheap LandsJ From 800 to 10 Chicago we have.:: Carolina, Georgia' a climate :that ca any other portiono lands will prodlaI each year from th from four to six~ be obtained dnring rigation is require age rainfall is a month during t ready for cultiti the places being buildings and~d large section~s we tions. These I for $5 an acre, largest markets o! citn be reached be rail transportatio Washington, llt Nmew York, Brookr may be reached atj transportation. thropic, patrioti&. form a beneigolet 000 of Ohicn.' serving citizeie taining onthese~ ord. That a matn 0 live inches in a seems strangz~, Robert Merti.l at Cha mbofrli, done for soW8e, years ago it was-, was a hole in th gold's head a'ooiti and ever since thi stantly growingj covers the hole, '% ing over the mal oians who l at a loas t'o kn0 disease or what ii, gold, who is over. old, never felt' s his strange aflitiO years ago, but". mind has been -Detroit Free The Oldest In the royal gI is a branch of vw oldest tree in tihe dragon tree (Dr tava. This tree, by a great gale 5o the new weeklyi says, supposed to6 3000 years old much longer grd. removed irom it where it still thrL in the Economic - Gazette. Cauads'sS The late M1gr. treal, was atho ment and sy0P Weekly, and didi press the latter in some of which ba D)ining one daY Governor-.Gener0 he referred in do to "France, our your mother '"b "what, then, is Bishop smilingly dersa ndrePlied: