Lies and The Liars

1895

THE WORST OF ALL EVILS AND MOST DIFFICULT TO CONTROL.

Growth of the Habit Due In Great Measure to Self Deception — The Causes an Interesting Study — Liars Should Be Shut Up In Asylums as the Insane Are.

There is nothing in the power of the human being so bad as a lie. There is nothing that smirches character so bad as a lie. There is nothing that turns one so against himself as a lie. There is nothing that so destroys the confidence of our friends as a lie. There is no compensation possible for the evil of a lie. It eats back corrosively into yourself, and you cannot get back your soundness. It rarely ever even temporarily makes a profit, and I think in the end never.

The puzzle of puzzles is why some people lie so easily. They rarely undertake to be exact and yet do not recognize themselves as liars. It is their first impulse to avoid straightforwardness, and they plunge ahead in conversation, simply trying to get around point after point. It is a mistake and a misfortune to form such a habit. It grows on the victim, and it increases its power. In nine cases out of ten the simple facts would be easily told, and the telling more advantageous than either concealment or a falsehood, but the habit has been encouraged to misrepresent or conceal, and the whole mental nature exhausts its fertility in a purpose not to be open and honest. When this appears in a person of good ability, mild disposition and industry, it is lamentable.

The power of lying as a habit to grow is amazing. The reason probably is that the liar lies to himself as badly as he does to others — that is, he tries to believe he is truthful until he believes what he says is true, or at least is uncertain about it. I know one or two persons with whom you may say lying is a chronic disease. They talk on at entire random. Their whole life becomes a romance. They may occasionally touch bottom on a fact, but they do it by accident. They do not know it. It is simply because facts are so many as to get in their way. "What an unconscionable liar that creature is," said a friend. "She cannot tell the truth." I am not sure but we should have a new name for this sort of people. The fact is they have lost all sense of the true and the false, as they have of right and wrong. Louis Stevenson's novels are no more a piece of intellectual manufacture than are their everyday conversations. This is true not only of some of the lower class, but of an occasional person in the highest ranks of society. I know an eminent litterateur who is so snarled up among the creatures of his imagination that he cannot tell the real from the fictional. It is dangerous to be his friend, for he is liable to get you woven into a great web of his fancies, and then with all his might he believes you are guilty of absurdities or worse that were enacted only in his brain. he will swear to these "facts" with all sincerity. His life can never be restored to a basis of realities.

There should be hospitals for liars, or retreats, such as we provide for the insane when their cases become chronic and dangerous. They become dangerous to the community, quite as dangerous as forgers and shoplifters, and far worse for our own peace and happiness. If by accident you get one of these people into your household, you never will get the confusion rectified. East becomes west. Love is perverted into evil intent. Even facts fail to tell the truth. Everything is wrong end foremost. Half the suicides come from liars' tongues. The worst cases should be treated as insanity and mild cases sent to a hospital.

It would be an interesting study for an analytic mind to study the causes of lying and liars. It is in some cases no doubt a matter almost wholly of heredity. Mothers and fathers hand down moral traits more easily than they do intellectual. A mother should make it a law of her life to be sincere and undeviating. If not, she is sure to reap a sore punishment in and from her children. Practice a habit of living very open hearted. I do not mean prattling facts all the while, but with no chests locked against your beloved ones. An open heart is better than an open mouth.

I pity a really honest person who has tumbled herself hastily into a lie. The temptation came on suddenly, and before she was able to be quite self masterful she prevaricated. Now, to back out of a lie is like backing out of a slough of mud. You get out with mire on you. But is it any better to stay in the slough and wallow about? There is nothing gained, my friend, by sticking to a falsehood simply because you are ashamed to back out. Be as frank as your better nature suggests and get as quickly as possible on the line of absolute honor.

But there are other causes for the liar's character besides heredity. Society is not based on honor, but very largely on pretenses. The good half of social intercourse is offset by another half of deceit and insincerity. This, of course, is stamping itself on character. People cannot live lies and not be liars. The Quakers felt this social degradation and tried to correct it. Let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than this cometh of evil. The Quakers, however, do sometimes lie, and all the worse because they have placed so much emphasis on the yea, yea, as better than yes, yes. But they do not make a mistake in insisting on the importance of words. Social flattery and much of social manners are a cover for lies. There is no truth in it. Are you a social liar? — Mary E. Spencer in St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

Friendly Bugs

1895

The New York Entomological society has been having a sale of bugs, and in the list of sales we find that a long horned tickler, alias the Monohammus titillator, was knocked down for 30 cents. It is related as a peculiarity of these bugs that when two of them meet each other on the road they stop and wave their horns at each other. This is equivalent to a handshake without the drink that usually goes with it. — Boston Herald.


Character

Into one's character, as into the characters of others, one gets little flashes of real light here and there, now and then. The moments are not agreeable. They are the flashes of a policeman's lantern. While they are shining disguise is impossible.


Millet

The Italian millet now used almost entirely as a food for birds was formerly sustenance for men.

Self Dependence

1895

A man must have a reserve of character and purpose.

To the good man no harm can come, be he alive or dead.

He must have a reserve of reputation. Let others think well of us; it will help us to think well of ourselves. No man is free who has not his own good opinion. A man will wear a clean conscience as he would a clean shirt if he knows his neighbors expect it of him. He must have a reserve of love, and this is won by the service of others. "He that brings sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from himself." He must form the ties of family and friendship, that, having something at stake in the goodness of the world, he will do something toward making the world really good.

When every American citizen has reserves like these, he has no need to beg for special favors. All he asks of legislation is that it keep out of his way. He demands no form of special guardianship or protection. He can pay as he goes. The man who cannot has no right to go. Of all forms of greed, the greed for free lunches, the desire to get something for nothing, is the most demoralizing and in the long run most dangerous. The flag of freedom has never floated over a nation of deadheads. — David Starr Jordan in Popular Science Monthly.

Good Word for Americans

1895

Credit Given Them as Being the Kindliest Race In the World.

Take them as a whole, the Americans are the kindliest race on the face of the earth. In spite of their eagerness, their push, their desire to be in the front rank at all times and all seasons, the true American seldom fails in kindness. He wants badly to prevent any one getting ahead of him mentally, physically and morally, but if his competitor falls in the struggle he will make untold sacrifices to help him up. The rule in American business is pure cutthroat competition carried to its logical conclusion. You are expected to press and push every point as far as it can possibly be pushed and pressed, and no one is expected to consider whether in making a commercial coup you will not ruin Brown, Jones and Robinson. The moment, however, that Brown, Jones or Robinson actually goes under he is treated with the utmost generosity and consideration.

The hand which struck him down is instantly stretched forth to help him, and as much care and trouble are used to put him on his feet once again as were originally employed to knock him off them. In social intercourse this kindness and sunniness is specially attractive. The American will take infinite pains to make the merest stranger happy. He is courteous and pleasant spoken, not, like the Frenchman, from convention, but from the sense of pleasure which his instinctive optimism teaches him to diffuse. His optimism has even proved strong enough to break down the shyness which naturally belongs to the English race. One sees no doubt survivals of it in the American, but in most cases the sense that all is for the best in the best possible of worlds has mastered it altogether. — London Spectator.

Eight Rules For Popularity

1902

First — Remember that a good voice is as essential to self-possession as good ideas are essential to fluent language, The voice should be carefully trained and developed. A full, clear, flexible voice is one of the surest indications of good breeding.

Second — Remember that one may be witty without being popular, voluble without being agreeable, a great talker and yet a great bore.

Third — Be sincere. One who habitually sneers at everything not only renders herself disagreeable to others but will soon cease to find pleasure in life.

Fourth — Be frank. A frank, open countenance and a clear, cheery laugh are worth far more oven socially than "pedantry in a stiff cravat."

Fifth — Be amiable. You may hide a vindictive nature under a polite exterior for a time, as a cat masks its sharp claws in velvet fur, but the least provocation brings out one as quickly as the other, and ill-natured people are always disliked.

Sixth — Be sensible. Society never lacks for fools, and what you consider very entertaining nonsense may soon be looked upon as very tiresome folly.

Seventh — Be cheerful. If you have no great trouble on your mind you have no right to render other people miserable by your long face and dolorous tones. If you do you will generally be avoided.

Eighth — Above all, be cordial and sympathetic. True cordiality and sympathy unite all the other qualities enumerated, and are certain to secure the popularity so dear to everyone. — New York World.

Glossomancy New Science

1914

Reads Character by the Shape of the Tongue

PARIS, Aug. 1. — Glossomancy, or reading the character by the shape of the tongue, is a new science which has just come before the public and is creating quite a furor.

The glossomancers, or glossomancists, assert that a long tongue shows frankness; a short tongue, dissimilation; a broad tongue, unreservedness; a narrow tongue concentration.

When the tongue is long and broad the owner is inclined to be gossipy. When the tongue is long and narrow, he is moderately open and frank.

Those who possess short and broad tongues are untruthful; those whose tongues are short and narrow are sly as well as bad-tempered.

Bowlegged Fellows Are Not Likely to Face Poverty

1919

Bad Luck for Turn-In Toes

There is an old saying that a bandy legged boy will never lack warm stockings, meaning that he will never be in want of money, so that folk whose friends are apt to be rude about their manner of walking may find consolation therein, says a writer in London Answers.

On the other hand, persons who walk in a fashion which quickly wears down their heels are likely one day to be in need of cash, while knock-kneed folk, though they have the ability to get wealth, have not the power to attract love — so it is said.

A long stride and a swinging walk are good — they imply that there may be ups and downs, but good fortune will never get far away, and will come out on top eventually.

Bad luck follows in the train of those who habitually turn in their toes, however, and an ancient adage has it that the man who always walks on the tips of his toes is likely to end his days in prison.

So watch your step!

Clothing Makes the Man

1905

Historical Personages Stripped of Accustomed Raiment Seem Unreal

A meeting of the Custom Cutters' Association of America was held in Philadelphia the other day. J. O. Madison of New York, in explaining the part that clothes play in making the man, said:

"An undraped Caesar never could have quelled rebellion with a speech, nor could, undressed, our great Washington have awed his friends with his impressive dignity. What do we know of Moses, not knowing how he was dressed? And how much greater would our interest be in Aristotle if we knew the kind of clothes he was in the habit of wearing?

"What do we know of Nero or of Judas, ignorant, as we are, of what their clothes were like? And if we knew how St Patrick clothed himself how much more feelingly would the Christian world do reverence to his memory. We know that Adam wore a fig leaf, and he seems, because of this historic fact, more real than if we knew him only as the man whose appetite for apples made tailoring necessary."

Wise Words — "Frenzy and Folly"

1896

Frenzy is the safety-valve of folly.

How fast we learn in a day of sorrow.

If thou desire rest unto thy soul; be just.

Nothing multiplies so much as kindness.

The fire of hate usually flashes in the pan.

Humility is the truest abstinence in the world.

Discretion of speech is more than eloquence.

A sunbeam in the heart is bound to light the face.

Sometimes a man doesn't like justice when he gets it.

A man without mirth is like a wagon without springs.

It never does any good to talk religion with a snap like that of a steel trap.

It is easy to discharge a man who realizes that he is not entitled to anything.

The woman who marries a man to reform him is a noble example of wasted effort.

When you call a fellow a gentleman and he gets his back up it's a sign that you are lying.

The dignity of the law is interesting to contemplate. The men made the laws and then they represented justice by a woman with a bandage around her eyes. They have hoisted this travesty around on monuments and court-houses too much. Justice has been "going it blind" long enough.

Bombonnel — One of the Ugliest Men in Dijon

1900

Bombonnel, the panther-slayer, was a name at one time known all over France; later, the mighty huntsman's fame in the chase was overshadowed by that which he acquired in the Franco-Prussian War as a leader of sharpshooters. Miss Betham-Edwards, who knew him well, gives, in her recent "Anglo-French Reminiscences," many entertaining glimpses of this remarkable man.

It is as a mighty hunter that the world outside of France finds him chiefly interesting; and the more so as it was he who suggested the "Tartarin of Tarascon" of Alphonse Daudet, and figured in many respects as the model of that delightfully comic hero, who has brightened the study of French to so many aspiring students.

It is only fair to add, that if Tartarin was a talker, first and foremost, and a man of adventures with scarcely more than a peg to hang his narratives upon, Monsieur Bombonnel was a great talker, indeed, but had great things to tell.

Bombonnel's panther-hunting took place in Algeria. He had slain more than fifty of these beasts. One nearly slew him, for he met it in a hand-to-claw encounter, and emerged from the conflict victorious, but frightfully mangled.

He had received five wounds on the left hand, eight in the left arm, four in the head, ten in the face, four in the mouth, and besides these his nose was broken, he had lost several teeth, and one cheek was clawed to shreds. It was at first supposed that he would die; then that he would be disfigured to monstrosity. But fortunately, although in a remote place, without anaesthetics or proper nursing available, Doctor Bodichon, a famous surgeon, was at hand to patch him up.

"I can in great measure restore your physiognomy; at any rate, I can give you features that will be human," said the physician, after examining his hurts. "But I warn you beforehand, the suffering will be horrible."

"Doctor," was the reply, "do your best. I can answer for myself. My heart is sound."

So was his courage. He endured like an Indian, and emerged from the ordeal a battered and ugly man, it is true, but of a countenance not monstrous nor repulsive. Such disfigurement as did not disgust his friends did not trouble him at all.

He was walking one day with Monsieur B., a man of unfortunately harsh features, when the pair were startled to hear a street boy sing out:

"There go Bombonnel and Monsieur B., the two ugliest men in Dijon!"

"Not so loud, my little friend. Let folks find it out for themselves," said the amiable Monsieur B., while Bombonnel burst out laughing, and was always delighted afterward to relate the incident.

Ugly or not, Bombonnel became very popular, and was much feted by fine ladies and distinguished people.

"Whenever I am now in Algeria," he related, quite in the "Tartarin" manner, "a cover is always laid for me at the governor's table. But I invariably come away hungry as when I took my place! Great folks invite me not to feast, but to tell stories. It is, 'Now, Monsieur Bombonnel, for the lion of the Corso,' or, 'Now, Monsieur Bombonnel, for the lion of Batna,' and so on, and so on, all the while. What would you have? Fame is not to be had for nothing." — Youth's Companion.

"Bread Upon the Waters"

1900

The reward of a generous deed seldom comes more opportunely than it did in an instance reported by the Cleveland Leader. It appears that a prominent Clevelander named Cole, who has recently died, was forced to leave Cornell University at the close of his sophomore year, for lack of funds.

He went to New York, and began a canvass of mercantile houses and offices, in search of a position. Among many others, he visited the office of a produce merchant, who seemed greatly taken with his personality. The result of the interview was that the merchant said to Mr. Cole:

"Young man, go back and finish your college course, and I will foot the bill."

Mr. Cole accepted the offer, completed his course with credit to himself and his strangely found friend, and at once entered upon a business career. It was not long before he prospered in a business venture, and found himself able to repay the sum advanced for his education. He went to New York, sought out the office of his friend, and stepping up to his desk, laid down seven hundred dollars.

"Mr. Cole," said the old merchant, "if it were not for this money my credit would have been dishonored to-day. Maturing obligations would have gone to protest. You have saved me!" — Youth's Companion.

Narrow and Heartless

1899

There are two sisters whom everybody who will read their story here has met, in cities or farmhouses, at home or abroad. They have eyes and ears, the full complement of all the senses belonging to ordinary human beings, but they go through life blind and deaf.

Every morning, when they rise, God opens the world before them like a full book to tell of His power and love. The sunshine, the wind, every flower in the field, every insect in the grass, all the countless living things about them, have some word to speak of Him. They see and hear nothing of it all.

Around them, all through the days, press multitudes of men and women, each working out a little tragedy or comedy of life, each differing from the others, mean or noble, pure or vile, but all alike struggling along a path where help may be needed and life's burdens made less hard to bear.

These women have brains and hearts, but they never use them for the benefit of a single soul. They hold out no helping hand, they give no friendly thought to any fellow-traveller.

Why?

One of them is made blind by her sense of her own importance. The petty cause of her importance is known only to herself. There was a man of title among her forefathers; or she has a larger sum in the bank than her neighbors; or she numbers some fashionable woman among her acquaintances; or she has costly gowns. But she wraps herself in this remembrance as in a robe of state, and so struts proudly through life.

Her sister has a grievance; usually a different one each day; an aching limb; a small income; an idle servant. These cover her as his cloak covers the monk. She thinks, dreams, talks under their pressure. These women thus shut themselves in and are kept apart through life from the influence and help of nature, of their fellow-men, and of God.

It would be wise to ask ourselves, now and then, if we are in their case. Do we give out healthy, happy influences to people about us as we go through the world? If not, what cloak do we wear that shuts us in to our own littleness? — Youth's Companion.

Sandglasses Still Used To Measure Time

1900

A Sure and Silent Timer

Strange to say, the sandglass is still used to measure varying periods of time. The size depends upon the purposes to which they are to be put. The hour glass is still in use in the sick room, and in the music room, in both places affording a sure and silent indication of the progress of time.

Half-hour glasses are used in schools, and fifteen-minute glasses are used for medical purposes, and the sandglass also goes into the kitchen as an aid to exact cooking. There are also ten-minute glasses, five-minute and three-minute glasses, the two latter being used to time the boiling period of eggs. The three-minute sandglass is called an "egg boiler." Sand-glasses are also used for scientific purposes and on shipboard.

The sand is carefully prepared by a thorough cleaning, including boiling. It is then baked dry, and then ground into the requisite fineness and uniformity, as sharp sand would be likely to become wedged in the opening between the two sections of the glass. The sand is then introduced into the glass through an opening left for that purpose in the end of one bulb, the opening then being sealed, the right quantity in each sand glass is gauged by actually timing the flow from one part of the glass to the other, and every glass is individually treated like a good thermometer. The glasses are usually mounted in cylindrical frames or holders, so that the twin bulbs can be seen at all times.


Why We Are Like the Crow

Aside from the special question of profit and loss, we have a warm side toward the crow, he is so much like ourselves, said the late Henry Ward Beecher. He is lazy, and that is human; he is cunning.and that is human. He thinks his own color is best, and loves to hear his own voice, which are eminent traits of humanity. He will never work when he can get another to work for him — a genuine human trait. He eats whatever he can get his claws upon, and is less mischievous with a belly full than when hungry and this is like man. Take off their wings and put them in breeches, and crows would make fair average men. Give men wings and reduce their smartness a little, and many of them would be almost good enough to be crows.

Short Shorts

1900

Conventional Wisdom

The duelist's aim is at the point of honor.

Some business men only win financial success through failures.

The fresh young man is generally not worth his salt.

If a lazy man is comfortable he is happy.

The woman who is fond of home isn't necessarily homely.

A vain woman is like a street piano — she is full of airs.

Never judge a man by his relatives — they are not of his own selection.

Every man who isn't prominent imagines he will be some day.

The boy who works in a bowling alley earns his pin money.

The aristocratic dentist should be a man of excellent extraction.

There are few people who think they are worse than they really are.

Wit is a diamond in the rough that is polished by adversity.

The only step from the sublime to the ridiculous is usually a short one.

The flustrated bride usually has all sorts of presence except presence of mind.

He who lacks time to make also lacks time to mend.

A woman who probably speaks from experience says a husband who can be led isn't worth leading.

You will observe that men who post as fancy whistlers seldom amount to much.

Return good for evil. If your enemy heaps coals of fire on your head, pile chunks of ice on his.

Rides to His Death in Locomotive Cab

1920

Engineer Stakes His Life in Effort to Save Train

MUSKOGEE, Oklahoma — Joe Lambert of Denison, Texas, engineer on Missouri, Kansas & Texas southbound passenger train No. 7, was killed when his train crashed into the rear of a southbound freight which had been forced to stop when it struck a company motor car in a heavy fog one and a quarter miles south of Muskogee.

Lambert stayed with his engine when he saw the caboose of the freight loom up out of the fog and was crushed between the tender and dock of the engine, as the cab crumpled up in the impact. His fireman jumped and was uninjured.

No one else was injured, but passengers on the passenger train, a thru fast train from Kansas City to Dallas, were severely jolted.


1915

Self-Control

One valuable way of practicing self-control is in checking grumbling, and in unnecessary display of vexation at petty inconveniences.

A workman has fulfilled his task imperfectly, some order is wrongly executed, some one keeps you waiting unreasonably; people are careless or forgetful, or do what they have in hand badly. Try not to be disturbed, be just, and show the persons to blame where they are wrong, even (if it be needful) make them do the thing over again properly; but refrain from diffuse or vehement expressions of displeasure.

A naturally quick, impetuous person will find that to cultivate a calm external habit is a great help towards gaining the inward even spirit he needs. — H. Sidney Lear.

Ways of the Popular Girl

1915

She Is Always Optimistic; Loyal to Her Friends and Finds World Good Place to Live In

She smiles when things go wrong, and does not consider every little disappointment a calamity.

She shares her pleasures with others and keeps her troubles to herself.

She never makes the faults of her friends a subject of conversation; is slow to criticize, and can always find something kind to say about everyone.

She accepts favors gracefully and returns them gladly.

She does not shift her responsibilities on to others, but cheerfully lends a hand to lighten her neighbor's load; strives to keep on the sunny side, but is ever ready with helpful sympathy for those who walk in the shade.

She is loyal to her friends, tender and devoted to those she loves, and generous to all; and she finds the world a good place to live in.


The Second Stage

"Young Gadson and Miss Doppel have reached the second stage of their courtship."
"What is that?"
"They have stopped playing the Victrola and have started to reading poetry together."

Paul de Kock — A Great Novelist's Oddities

1874

During the whole life of Paul de Kock he never left the suburbs of Paris, simply because he was mortally afraid of meeting with an accident in traveling. He never, in his long career, rode in a carriage, and the idea of entering a railway car seemed frightful to him.

He was so notional that he could not write with any pen except coarse goose quills, which he cut himself, and one day, when he had to sign a document, at the "mairie" of his "rondissement," he took his old goose quill to write his name with it. He wrote a very fine hand, but very legible. He never read his own proofsheets, because typographical errors, which he considered inexcusable, owing to the legibility of his copy, made him exceedingly angry.

Most romantic was his first interview with the woman who afterward became his wife. One day in the winter time a sleigh drove past the little Belleville where Paul de Kock kept bachelor's hall. In the sleigh sat a young woman. The horse ran away and the young woman was thrown out. The fall had stunned her, and De Kock carried her kindly into his house and cared for her. She proved to be the daughter of a well-to-do hack-driver, was only eighteen, and very pretty. Paul de Kock fell at once in love with her, and four or five days afterwards his betrothal with M'lle. Jeanne Perrin was duly celebrated.

Note: Paul de Kock is mentioned in James Joyce's Ulysses as an author Molly Bloom read. "Yes. Get another of Paul de Kock's. Nice name he has."

Your Eyes and Others' Eyes

1900

Upturned eyes are typical of devotion.

Wide open eyes are indicative of rashness.

Small eyes are supposed to indicate cunning.

Side-glancing eyes are always to be distrusted.

Brown eyes are said by occulists to be the strongest.

The downcast eye has in all ages been typical of modesty.

People of melancholic temperament rarely have clear blue eyes.

The proper distance between the eyes is the width of one eye.

Eyes of which the whole iris is visible belong to erratic persons.

Eyes with long, sharp corners indicate great discernment and penetration.

The white of the eye showing beneath the iris is indicative of nobility of character.

Gray eyes turning green in anger or excitement are indicative of a choleric temperament.

An eye the upper lid of which passes horizontally across the pupil indicates mental ability.

When the upper lid cover half or more of the pupil the indication is of cool deliberation.

Unsteady eyes, rapidly jerking from side to side, are frequently indicative of an unsettled mind.

Eyes of any color with weak brows and long, concave lashes, are indicative of a weak constitution.

Eyes that are wide apart are said by physiognomists to indicate great intelligence and a tenacious memory.

Wide-open, staring eyes in weak countenances indicate jealousy, intemperance, and pertinacity, without firmness. — St. Louis Star.

Daddy's Bedtime Story — "Where the Bad Boy Found His Manners"

1911

The Bad Boy in the Ditch

"He was really a naughty, ill mannered boy," began daddy. "His parents were wealthy, and they left him to the care of servants, who did not know how to make a good boy of him. The result was that he was impudent to the servants and cruel to dogs and cats and insisted on having his own way always. I shall tell you how he learned a good lesson.

"It happened in the summer time. One day this naughty boy, whose name was Dick, was standing at the gate of his father's house when another boy came there. He was a poor boy — you could tell that by his old clothing — but his shirt waist and his knickerbockers were clean and neat, and his face shone with good nature as well as soap and water. You could tell by looking at him that he was a jolly fellow. He carried in his hand a tin can full of ripe, juicy blackberries, and he asked Dick to buy them.

" 'Go away from here,' said Dick, with a frown, 'or I shall set the dog on you. We don't need your berries. We have everything we want!'

" 'If you have, please give me a drink of water,' said the poor boy. But Dick threatened again to set the dog on him, so he went away whistling.

"Then Dick said to himself: 'Those blackberries looked good. I think I will go and get some for myself.' He went out of the gate and down the road to a place where he knew the blackberries grew. The bushes were on the far side of a wide ditch, which was filled with mud. Dick was too lazy to find a good place to cross, so he tried to jump the ditch.

"He landed right in the middle in mud up to his waist When he tried to get out he found that he was stuck fast and could not free himself. Then he called for help. But it was a lonely spot, and for a long time he heard no answer. Then he heard a voice saying, 'Who's there?'

"Then Dick called again as loudly as he could, and soon he saw at the side of the ditch the poor boy whom he had treated so rudely. 'Hello!' said the boy. 'How did you get in there?'

" 'I fell in,' said Dick. 'Please help me out?'

" 'All right,' said the other boy. And he lay down at the side of the ditch, not minding the mud on his clothing, and reached out his hand to Dick. He was a strong boy, so he soon was able to get Dick out. Dick thanked him and went home to be cleaned off.

"The next day when the poor boy came around again to try to sell his berries Dick was very nice to him. 'Where did you find your manners?' asked the boy. 'In the ditch,' said Dick."

Eccentric Tramp Character Dead

1914

"Johnny" Wire Wealthy, But Dressed and Lived as a Tramp

York, Pa., Jan. 24. — "Johnny" Wire, one of the most familiar figures of York county, died here.

He was known over the county as "the rich tramp." Wire was possessed of a fortune, but dressed as an ordinary tramp, wandering from place to place over the country and walking many miles to get a free meal from some of the farmers.

His brother died some time ago leaving an estate of several hundred thousand dollars. Wire was about seventy years old.


Superstitions of Miners

As a man of perilous occupation, the miner has many superstitions. One widespread belief is that to introduce a rabbit into a mine is to court disaster, and many stories are current of catastrophes heralded by the appearance of a white rabbit to the men who were doomed to die. He would be a bold miner, too, who would whistle at work for whistling is a direct invitation to disaster, and though miners are cleanly folk, very few ever wash the small of their back, lest the roof should fall on them.