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AFTER HARVEST.
The days of harvest are past again;
We have cut the corn and bound the
sheaves,
And gathered the apples green and gold,
’Mid the brown and crimson autumn
leaves.
With a flowery promise the springtime
came,
With the building birds and blossoms
sweet;
But oh, the honey, and fruit and wine!
And oh, the joys of the corn and wheat!
What was the bloom to the apple’s gold,
w And what the flowers to the honeycomb? ;
Wfiat was the song that sped the plow
To the joyful song of Harvest Home?
When the apples are red on the topmost
bough,
We do not think of their blossoming hour;
When the vine hangs low with its purple
fruit,
We do not long for its pale green flower.
So then, when hopes of our spring at last
Are found in fruit of the busy brain,
In the heart’s sweet love, in the hand’s brave
toil,
We shall not wish for our youth again.
An, no! We shall say with a glad content:
“After years of our hard unrest,
Thank God for our ripened hopes and toil!
Thank God, the Harvest of Life is best!”
BALKED OF HIS PREY.
If you were certain in vour own mind
that a man sought your life, and that he
would not desist until one or the other
of you were dead, the feeling would be
a strange one. No matter how brave you
were, you could not hide your anxietv
and alarm. No matter how strong 6 your
nerve, you would feel broken up Let
me send you word to-day that I seek
your life and will not rest until l have
seen you dead at my feet, and an hour
after you receive the message you wiil
be a changed man. You can’t help but
worry, and the more you worry the
sooner your nerve will so. If I was to
hesitate. fight you fair and openly, you would not
It is the knowledge that I am
to strike you at an unexpected moment,
that I may stab you in the street car, shoot
you down in the park, cut your throat
while you sleep, that unsettles you and
makes your flesh creep.
While a member of Pinkerton’s de
tective force I made thearrest of a high
way robber at Madison, Wis. He was
arrested for a robbery committed in Illi
nois five months before, and I had been
on the case two months when I finally
ran turn down. He was a machinist by
trade, and was then working in a shop,
I proved h.m to be an old crook and a
dangerous one, and was satisfied that he
went into the shop to ba'fie pursuit- but
it seemed to strike others differently,
The reporters wrote him up as one anx
ious to reform, and they wrote me down
as a bloodhound hanging to his trail,and
so considerable public sympathy was
aroused for him. I then had proofs of
four other crimes committed by him, any
one of which would send him to prison,
but I had to keep silent and take public
criticism. My man got a sentence of live
years, and he had scarcely departed for
prison when I received through the mail
a note “You reading:
have by money and perjury sent
an honest man to prison. You knew he
was honest and hardworking. Yen
wanted to glorify yourself. The poor
fellow is a friend of mine, and I have
sworn to revenge him. Take notice
that I will have your life on the first
opportunity!”. There
was signature _ to the letter,
no
but I knew at a glance that the writer
meant business. It was a plain, bold
hand, and after half an hour’s study I
made these deductions:
1. It was wri: ten by a crook.
2. It was written in prison.
3. The writer was in dead earnest.
4 . He was a large, muscular man. with
light hair, blue eyes and fair complexion,
5. He would wear a silk hat and dark
ish clothes.
6. He would aim to either throttle me
or strike me down with a club.
How did I reach these conclusions?
Well, the average detective catches on
to a crook’s chiography by instinct. It
was written on a half sheet, and the pen
and ink were poor. The paper was
crossed and soiled, and I felt cetain
that the writer had passed it t<*& pris
oner ter had about mailed to be it discharged. to The lat
addressed by himself. me The in an chiography envelope
Qf the letter was bold and earnest. Large
men are bold and more sympathetic than
small ones. Large men who betray this
sentiment They are of sanguine and temperament,
are also vain dress well and in
taste. Large men seldom ambush a
victim. They depend on their strength,
This is about the way I figured it out,
and 1 was so firmly satisfied that I was
right that I founded my programme ac
cordingly, and permitted believed no change the to
creep in. I further that
writer would not be out of prison for a
month, and I had ample time to get
ready for him. Had he been out he
would not have written. If he had sev
eral months to serve he would not have
written. I was a bachelor then, having
a room on State street and taking my
meals at a restaurant. My room was
reached by private stairs, and I alone had
the key to the street door. From a side
window in my room to a side window in
a real estate office was a distance of only
five feet. As there were bars on the oth
er window I had left mine unguarded,
I now had them put on, and there was
no way to reach me in my room ex
cept to open the street door and come up
stairs. I had the inside of the door cov
ered with sheet iron, and arranged a
spring gun for the stairs.
Was I afraid? No, I had plenty of
confidence in myself, and I wanted to
get the drop on the stranger first. He
had pitted his wit, nerve and courage
against mine, and my professional pride
was aroused. He had a big advantage
in knowing me and my habits, and it was
only fair to offset this by taking * some
extra I precautions.
gave the writer of the anonymous
1 letter thirty days to come out of prison,
| and begin ten the more campaign. to get himself I in shape not far to
was
receiving wrong. On the the warning, thirty-eighth boarded day after
as I a
State street car to come down town, my
ma n was a passenger. He was a man
who exactly corresponded to the picture
I ^.d drawn, and it never occurred to
me that I could be wrong. the" While I was
him up from corner of my
e .ve, I saw that he was taking my meas
" l(i - I purposely turned my head to let
him see a scar on my neck, and when
glanced at him again I was sure that he
chase was satisfied had of my identity. Now, the
! begun. He had sworn to have
my life, and 1 knew by the set of his jaw
i and the compression of his lips that he
had still further resolved. Where had
j be been in prison, and what for? Ills
1 face was strange tome. Had I desired
to take an unfair advantage, I could
have run him in as a suspect, or trumped
U P so his '. ie record, ‘barge to but hold I wouldn’t him and do invest!
gate that,
! was to be a fair fight. He would ask
or I l 0 outs i d e help, and pride would
for , b' d to
me
When I left the car he followed me to
the office, I stopped at the door to speak
to a messenger, and he asked the mes
senger who I was. Then he had me
“dead," as the saying is, and 1here was
room for no further doubt. It so hap
pened that at the that time I was detailed
on a case in city. But for this I
should have been going and coming,
and he would have had hard work to
keep me in view. I was very regular in
my routine. I had my meals at the same
hour each day, and at the same place.
At a certain hour in the eveninglwent
to a certain hotel, played three games of
pool, drank one glass of beer, sat and
smoked a cigar, and then took the car to
my door and went to bed. The dullest
kind of a ploughboy could have picked
up my trail.
On the evening of the second day my
would—be murderer appeared at the bill
iard room of the hotel as I was playing
my first game of pool. I was expecting
him, and I so arranged it as to ask him
to play the next two games. He was
puzzled and nervous. If he was ner
vous over the idea of handling a cue
alongside of a man whose life he was
plotting feeling bit to take, I to was find excusable would-be for
a queer my
assassin skill. offering I entertained me a cigar and praising
my him better than
he did me, because I kuew his game and
he supposed me ignorant of it. When I
was ready to leave for home I invited
him to meet me at the hotel the next
evening. He compressed smilingly his assented, lips. hut
next instant This
meant: “This detective is not the fel
low I supposed he was. He is pleasant
and chatty, and wants to be friendly,
and I rather like him. But he sent my
friend to prison, ‘ and I have sworn to
take his life He shall not escape me."
key That the night, lock some of one broke door. a skeleton
in my street How
foolish to suppose I wouWtrustto locks!
It was no doubt my friend, making his
first attempt on my life. It is a curious
trait in criminal nature that two out of
five men will abandon an undertaking if
meeting with disappointment on the first
attempt. dangei Those than who before. persevere become
more ous It was a
question now of how my enemy would
act, but I was satisfied as soon as I set
eyes on him the next evening. At sight
of me he compressed his lips. The fail
ure had fired his zeal, and I realized
that from this on I must certainly be on
my guard every hour in the twenty
four.
We played three games together, sat
side by side and smoked cigars, and an
outsider would have supposed us the
best of friends. The man perhaps
feared that I would wonder and specti
late about him, and he handed me his
card and explained that he had come on
from the Hast exporting dime to engage in the
lumber business. His was printed
as “S. R. McKnight.” Could I be mis
taken in him, you ask? I had no doubt
that he was the writer of the threatening
letter. If I had doubted, something
occurred as we sat smoking that would
have reassured me. A man who was
known to me to be crooked entered the
btlliard room for a drink. He started
in surprise approach at seeing McKnight, with and was
about to him extended
hand when a signal stopped him. Unless
McKnight knowledge was a “fly” the man he could have
no vacancy, of other. I pretended
to see and parted with my
enemy in the greatest good nature. That
night an attempt was made to bore a
panel out of my door, but the bit was
stopped Idid by the sheet iron.
ing not the see McKnight but the next even
nor next, be showed up on
the third evening and explained that he
had been to Milwaukee. I knew better.
He had been trying to work out some
new plan to get at me,- and had spent a
portion of the time at a crook’s resort,
He had hit upon a plan. I knew this
from the cordiality ot his greeting, and
all through our games I was wondering
what scheme he had hit upon. It was
revealed to me at midnight my° that very
night that I had a bell on door, and at
hour it was vigorously pulled. In
case of my being wanted at the office the
messenger was instructed to ring in a
certain manner. As this was not his
ring I waited for a few minutes, when
the bell jangled more vigorously than
before. I slipped on my pants and went
down and opened the slide in the door.
McKnight what stood there, and when I asked
was wanted he replied:
have Really, old fellow, I am sorry to
troubled you, but I come to as k
your advice. I was handed a very queer
letter after I left you, and I want you to
read it and tell me how to act. I’ll go
up stairs with you.”
I told him that one of our men was oc
copying the room with me that night,
ana advised him to see me at the office
next morning. He had planned to get
to my room and pounce upon me, but I
snuffed the game. He did not .■-how up
again. pected him, He may and have believed that I sus
was determined to keep
out of my way until he appeared to strike
the fatal blow. Next door to me, on the
down-town side, was a vacant lot. One
day, a week after last seeing McKnight,
several this lot dry-goods and piled boxes were brought
to up in such a way
as to door. form a 1 good scented hiding place next to
my an idea as I in¬
vestigated, of and the that night when^ within
a square place, I met a couple of
young fellows and offered them a quarter
to go and d splacethe boxes, explaining
that a vagrant had taken up his quarters
there. They went with a whoop, and a
man rushed out of hiding and ran off.
H was McKnight.
The next day I was sent out of the
city and was gone two weeks. I had not
been back two hours when I discovered
that a boy doubt was in dogging the me about. He
was no pay of McKnight,
who would now be ready for some other
move. I had no sooner reached my
room than I made the discovery that the
windows had been tampered with,
two having been that wrenched out
and all loosened so a little work
would remove them. That night I
asked a friend to stay with me. While
I sent him to the room before dark I
made my usual rounds and did not turn
in until eleven. If McKnight was look
ing for me he saw me. We turned out
and the gas, placed our the revolvers at hand,
sat down near window to wait,
At one o’clock McKnight climbed a shed
from the alley, entered the insurance
office by a back window, passed through
two rooms, and appeared he at the window
opposite mine. When had raised the
sash he pushed a plank across the five feet
of space, and rested the end on my window
ledge. sash It was a but summer evening, etly did and the
my was up, so qu
man work that the lightest sleeper would
have heard no sound. He waited and
listened, and then came across. We
moved to the right and left, and he could
not see us as he put his face to the bars,
He must have been certain that I was
asleep, opening for he began which work, and soon had
an by he could enter,
did McKnight had come to kill me, but I
not thirst for his life. As he bent to
enter the window I fired over his head
and uttered a shout. He straightened
up, lost his balance on the plank, swung
half way round, and tumbled to the
ground. It was only from the second
story, and had he alighted on his feet
he might not have been hurt. But he
turned over and struck head first,
aad never knew what hurt him, his neck
being broken by the collision. When he
was dead he was identified as a New Or
leans crook named Red Pete, and when
he wrote me the letter he was in Joliet
prison. His only weapon was a knife,
but one thrust of that would have set¬
tled me forever .—New York San.
Cutting a Five-Pointed Star.
, lTV . „„„ , klow . h °w homake . . the stars ,
°star-ispan,gfied , banner? inquired
d f k wUh a
f ° * P t and a scissors
n his hand
* ?„ ut .___ tka .. . _ ™ uld . :lo °. k .
companion ' ’
__...__ . , } T
^ k «" r f/"'. “ a f. ld * ° m
™ tlC *
jA „ . , / t0 "tno tke
a P p Dointed p °\ to reT)0rt | a des^e-r^for | thFna
t a engi " aU d ? M R ’
d jHiiiadelnhia” , : l; . d 6 n - •
for waf suggestions ™ their
. This ladv S, *£ Dossessed L of ex '
„ t , - rla .- i t
n n „
h paH^t b , ls i DPS TL , and was witbd an ardent- Sk
P V storv goe hatwnile e
2' a^ _ U .Se^ “t
Mded a sheet of P br
. , f . i she cut out
2 g f f sc S8 ors “ “ a
that^he ; t , Tt h
committee was disnlavedLs as <weatlv uleased
w ; lh th ; t P la y ed as with with
.. ®
. .
ado “. J P ed it ° Th - was in^Anreven
.. the five J nointed P
® . , £trv’s „ d j fi ehl
f cou e Neither Preble
nor anv 7 other authority teds how Mrs
ab^ce R ol( j ed information’ the naner and in the
of one lee will find
it a I rath( . r difficult feat to omnlish
0nc known the Drocess is verv simnle
Take ^ a sheet * of ff paper make! of any si e and fold
j t acr this" n fold at purpose riffht
angles to merely for the
of determining the center of the paper,
Throw the sheet back upon the "single point
f 0 j d and i et the center point be the
completed*? 0 f a triau<rie when all understood'that tbe folding is
It must be
t0 j iave a fl ve -poiuted star there must be
0D e single and two double folds the folds
beio« made outward from the center
point. 'j This about^four-fifths single fold should be made
t0 a nt of the dis
tance to the middle line made when the
center of the paper was determined.
The first double fold is made by folding
the further side of the sheet as it is left
after the single fold, back upon the outer
edge is of then the latter. made by The folding second what double¬
fold is now
double upon what is triple. To obtain
the star, now make a cut with scissors on
a straight line diagonally distance across from a
point some little removed from
the apex, to the extreme outer lower
point of the fold. The cut may be made
from either regular side of the triangle.
The eye must be guide as to the acute¬
ness or obtuseness of the angles of the
star. A very little practice will soon
enable you to cut one of these stars with
entire accuracy. Comparison of a star
so made with a geometric star will show
it to be far more symmetrical and grace¬
ful than the stiff, mathematical product.
— Chicago Herald.
A Homerie Fragment.
The explorer of the. Fayum, Mr.
Petrie, has discovered 1 ‘a splendid frag¬
ment of the Second Book of the Iliad,
written on papyrus in the finest Greek
hand, before the rounded uncial or cur
sive . scripts ... came into . use. I ms
precious
document was found rolled up under
e ld °f a mummy which was buried
simply . , the sand, without the protec
in
tion of a tomb. It measures apparently
om t “ ree ^ n a to ‘ our e j; I n
, ‘ength. ., The date j of , the manuscript . is .
aboutthe second or third century. It
WId be edited by i rotessor Bayce.
Kerosene oil is responsible for nine*
tenths of the fires that take place in*
China.
