Norman Democrat--Topic. (Norman, Okla.), Vol. 17, No. 38, Ed. 1 Friday, April 9, 1909 Page: 3 of 8
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The "Black Hand" at Tony's
By GEORGE F. BUTLER and HERBERT ILSLEY
Dr. Furnivall in the Solution of a Perplexing Case.
0N the 12th of July at two o'clock
in the morning "Little Italy"
was startled by a sound that
sent its constituent parts tum-
bling out of bed and scamper-
ing about as If demented. It was
tho report of an explosion, like that
of a gun discharged suddenly in
the silence of the night. While women
in nlghtclothes ran wildly here and
there, squalling babies in arms, and
men nearly naked vociferated excit-
edly and rushed for weapons, three
tilings happened In front of No. 110
with the suddenness of a flash of
lightning. A first-floor window vom-
ited a policeman to the sidewalk, the
door flew open disclosing another po-
liceman In the entry, and the near-by
alley emitted a breathless third.
Meeting at the foot of the stairway,
these three officers regarded each
other blankly.
"Uo took the stairs—where Is he,
Murphy V gasped the one who had
oomo by way of the window.
"What!" cried Murphy. "You must
be bughouse. I was right here all the
time. He couldn't slide by me—what
do you mean?"
"You don't say you've let him slip,
after all the fine plant we put up?"
The third officer, who was in plain
clothes, peered at his colleagues in be-
wilderment, chagrin and condemna-
tion all struggling for expression in
his face.
"We!" exclaimed the two In a
breath. And Murphy continued, ac- j
cuslngly: "Where was you, Mr.
liirsch? He must havo climbed In
y<H*r way, for he didn't mine, and here i
was FInnegan right on the landing.
A mou.se couldn't squeak by us. Did
you hear anything, FInnegan?"
"Not a yip, till the thing went off,"
FInnegan responded, regarding the de-
tective with disfavor. Ho said no
more, but It was evident that he had
placed the blame for the miscarriage
of their plans. The plain-clothes man
saw this and answered with heat:
''Well. 1 wasn't asleep either, if
tfiat's what you're getting at. I was
right under tho fire-escape and not a
cat could purr In the whole alley with-
out my hearing it. It's somebody
from inside that's turned the trick,
Hint's what. Hut," he added, as he
harried to the first floor, followed
olosely by the others, "what did you
tamblo out for, FInnegan, instead of
getting into Tony's? We don't know
t_*ven what has happened yet—"
"Why," said FInnegan, "as soon as
the door of Tony's room opened and a
man waltzed out on the fly and down
tho stairs I scooted through the win-
dow to head him off."
"But you knew Murphy was In the
lowor hall—"
•'My orders was to nab the Black
Hand," FInnegan interrupted curtly.
"I didn't figger that I could put up
.my brilliant service finding out what
the damage was while the murderer
was doing the vanishing act down the
stairs."
"But there was no ono on the
stairs, and he didn't come down,"
oried Murphy.
"Man, I tell you I saw him!" con-
tradicted FInnegan. "He banged open
Tony's door and hit the landing in
two jumps and down he went. I was
looking right at him. And I heard
h4m on the stairs. He was in his
stocking feet, by the sound."
"1 heard sounds all right, and that's
why I opened the door—to let the light
in from the street lamp so I could see.
But nobody showed up."
Detective Blrsch said nothing, but if
the darkness had been less dense they
would have seen that his face was set
a«d grim. In the hall a thin line of
light ran beneath a door, from behind
which came sounds of sobbing and
moaning, and entering without cere-
mony they beheld, through little
wreaths of smoke, a woman sitting on
a bed, holding in her arms a young
follow down whoso face the blood
streamed, and a man on his knees In
tho middle of the floor praying ve-
hemently with uplifted hands.
"Tony," he said then to the praying
man sharply, "anybody but him in-
jured?" motioning towards the bed.
"None-a bud da boy," he answered,
and in the same breath continued his
screaming supplications.
Whilo the two policemen gave their
attention to the apartment, which con-
tained only two rooms, Detective
Birsch leaned over the bed. Tho vic-
tim was one of those very handsome
youths so often seen flowering the soil
of o«r "Little Italys," about 19 years
of age, with nothing in the way of
clothing on but an undershirt, blood
streaming down his face. The mother
lookod up appealingly as Blrsch ap-
proached, holding tho iimp form still
closer, as if to protect it from further
harm. But the youth, though he ap-
peared half swooning, smiled, nodded
and put out his hand. The detective
shook it warmly.
"Quod boy!" he said encouragingly.
"You've got the right stuff in your in
side. It takes more than a little
thing like this to knock you out, hey!
Now, tell us about it."
"I don't think I know much." the
boy returned In a weak voice, but In
good Knglish. "I woke up and saw
somebody outside my room on the
fire-escape, and I asked who was
there. Then something struck me on
the head, I heard a big roar, and I
suppose I fell out of bed, for when I
came to myself my mother was drag-
ging mo across the floor."
"Well, but say!" cried the aston-
ished detective, "tho window was
closed and locked, wasn't it, as 1
fotMid it Just now? How could any-
body throw a bomb through it with-
out breaking the glass? It ain't
broken, and it was fastened when I
went to put it up."
'It is strange," said the youth. "Be-
sides, father and mother heard some-
body hurry across this room, open
t/ho door and shut it, and then run
downstairs.'
The detective looked Inquiringly at
tho woman, who nodded.
"We heard-a da one," she said, in
the midst of her moaning. "He make-a
da foot on da floor, on da floor, an'
make-a da door go bang. We hear
for sure."
Detective Birsch started suddenly
Into the next room, the sleeping quar-
ters of the parents, and the living-
room of the family as well. On the
way he raised the praying little Ital-
ian by the collar, and, carrying him
along, deposited him on a chair.
Then carefully closing tho connecting
door he gazed sternly at the fright-
ened countenance of the man who in
the neighborhood was known as Tony
the Barber.
"Look here," he said, with all the
weight he could put Into his manner,
"didn't I say you mustn't let a llv-
lug soul know you had received a let-
ter from the Black Hand? Yet here
you go and tell It—"
"Non, non, 1 no tal-a!" the Italian
interrupted. "You tal-a me no tal-a
anybod'. I tal-a nobod', for sure. Da
boy he ask for why I clos' da wind'
sosh da hot night, I no tal-a da boy.
I tal-a nobod', non non!"
"Well, but it's a sure cinch they
were on the lookout for us, or the
thing wouldn't havo been pulled ofT
so slick. They must have been onto
the game for fair, however they got
there. Why, here was Murphy at the
foot of the stairs. FInnegan almost
right at your keyhole, and I myself
in the alley under your window; yet
this slick gazabo scoots in, bangs the
bomb and slides to cover without any
trouble. The thing is impossible. It's
impossible any way you look at it.
Now—"
Tho detective's puzzled gazo hap- .
pencd at this moment to light upon
Murphy, who was poking around in
a closet with his night-stick, and a
gleam of surprised intelligence shot I
into his face. He paused abruptly
in his speech and stood considering. '
Then he looked at his watch. "I'll
leave this to you, Murphy for the
present," he said, finally. "You know
what to do, and I'll see you later. I
am due somewhere else now." And
he went out.
"Dr. Furnivall," said Detective
Birsch, "here is something that will
interest you, or I am mightily mis-
taken."
He passed a letter to the celebrated
psychologist as he spoke, his thin,
clean-shaven face flushed with eager- j
ness. Dr. Furnivall, sitting back in
his chair, glanced at his visitor, and.
taking the dirty sheet of paper, read
slowly aloud:
" 'Tony, you gotta four thous-a dol- ;
lar wat wo gotta get from you
Wednesday, sure. We donna wan no
foolin'. We need-a da mon bad, an'
gotta get it by this-a time Wednesda'
da 10 July, or we kil-a you. We kil-a
da boy firs' an' da worn'. Thursda'
we kil-a da boy if we donna getta da
mon Wednesda'. You sen in letter
to Jon Kilbraith, General Delivery,
San Francisco, Calif. We ineana da
biz now, an' we donna wan no chin
about da mat. You sea da mon or
we kil-a sure.'"
Heading the sheet were a rudely
drawn black band and coffin* Dr.
Furnivall regarded ii in silence for
some seconds after finishing the read-
ing. Then he examined the detec-
tive through his colored spectacles.
"Well?" he asked.
Detective Birsch leaned forward in
his chair.
"A week ago yesterday," he said,
speaking rapidly and in a low voice,
as if fearing possible listeners, "Tony
Macaluso, the barber, brought this
letter to our station. He had just
received It by mail. It seems he has
saved up $4,000 to put his son. who
graduated from the Latin school last
month, through a college In Home and
make a priest of him. Now, the
strange thing Is that nobody but Tony
and his wife knows he has this money,
not even the boy, for they iutended
it for a surprise for him on his birth-
day, which comes next week. They
have lived so poorly In order to scrape
the stuff together that they are sup-
posed to be about down and out. So
It's a puzzle from the start who
could write that letter. We told
Tony to hold his grip on the cash,
and we would soe him through. First
we sent a dummy letter to the San
Francisco general delivery, and then j
notified the police there to look out !
for It. At this end of the line we ,
could do no more till yesterday, Thurs-
day, because nothing was threatened
against the boy Until then. We kept j
the whole family covered all day, and
last night l hid myself under the fire-
escape, within eight feet of Tony's
windows: another man, Murphy,
sneaked around In the lower hall,
where he could see everybody that
went over tho stairs, and still another
man, FInnegan, laid on the landing
alrnoBt right at Tony's door. Just the
same, at two o'clock this morning,
nobody being seen going in. we all
heard an explosion, which turned out
to have been lu Tony's room. FInne-
gan heard a door open and shut right
on top of tho axplosion, snw a man
jump out of Tony's rooms, and heard j
him running down the stairs towards |
the front door, where Murphy was
posted, and out goes FInnegan from
the hall window, dropping right In
front of tho door. There standR Mur-
phy, rubbering it up the si airs, be-
cause he heard some noises. But
when FInnegan asks him for his man
he swears he has seen nobody!"
The detective paused and looked
suggestively at Dr. Furnivall, who
smiled delightedly.
"Go on," he said.
*"We hiked It for all we were worth
for Tony's, and found him praying on
the floor, und the boy with a gash i
foot long, more or less, in his face,
his mother holding him up in bed. and
scattered all round were marks of a
bomb good and plenty. The boy was
hurt so that he was only half taking
notice, but he was leaking grit, just
the Fame, and managed to toll me all
he knew, which wasn't much. He
said that he woke up in the night
and saw a person on the fire-escape
outside his window, and when he
asked who was there something struck
him in the head, and he fell out of
bed unconscious. Tony and the old
woman heard the sound of feet run-
ning across the boy's floor, heard the
door open and shut and the feet go
pattering down the stairs—just as
Finnegan says. And Murphy swears
nobody came down."
He paused again, regarding Dr. Fur-
nivall earnestly, and again his listen-
er smiled delightedly, but said noth-
ing.
"Now." Birsch continued, "the sec-
ond stiange thing, or a bunch of
strange things, is that the boy's win-
dow was shut and fastened, the per-
son he saw was outside of It, the
homo that person threw struck the
boy without breaking the glass, and
without the sash being raised, and
the mother and father heard some-
body cross tho room, open the door,
shut It, and skip downstairs. Finne-
gan saw this somebody, heard the
door open and shut, and saw and
heard the person going down tho
facts that you possibly can. and then
understand thai you almost certainly
have not learned them all. and par-
ticularly the most necessary ones
Then, making large allowances for
what you don't know, you should
round up the person concerned whose
character fits snuggest into all the
circumstances and question him. The
usual method Is to g<>t a few facts and
then iio at the job without the slight-
est regard for the character of the in-
dividuals involved, neglecting to allow
for the facts that are unknown. In
this way always some innocent person
becomes the first suspect. In this
particular case you say there is only
one way In which this peculiar assault
and still more peculiar escape could
have happened. That is one of the
things you don't know, and for which
you have made no allowance in your
deductions. Suppose, for example,
that a criminal, after starting down
the stairs, and seeing or hearing Mur-
phy there at the foot, hurried back
again and tip the higher flight? Fin-
negan had dropped to the street, and
he could easily have done so. making
his escape by way of the roof—"
Detective Birsch made an lnvolun
tary movement of chagrin.
"You see," smiled Dr. Furnivall,
"you had your idea, the first that
came to you. so firmly fixed in your
mind, jumped to the belief in Mur-
phy's guilt so quickly, not seeing any
other way, and were so incapable of
entertaining any other idea that you
really could not recognize this other
way out though it so openly confront-
ed you. Then you never dreamed of
considering the characters o the sev-
eral persons concerned. There were
three people in that tenement, anyone
of whom could, as far as physical pos-
sibilities go. have done the act, and
it seems as if nobody else could. Not
the brains, or the spunk, either, to fix ■
up such a plant and get up at two
o'clock in the morning and throw u
bomb Into his own Hon s room. Bosh!
The notion Is ridiculous." The detec-
tive sniflfed in contempt.
"Well, you are improving," the doc !
tor grinned. "You do finally glance.
If ever so slightly, at character iu this
instance. And you put Tony out of j
it. Now we have left only the moth-
er." The doctor proceeded In,per
turbably iu the fact* of his listener^
look of Incredulity and downright dis
gust. "Had the mother any renson,
could she have any reason for doing
such a thing, and if so, has she the
qualities neccssary to the carrying
out of so bold a plan?"
"I don't see what you're getting at."
growled Blrsch. "and it don't seem to
me there's any sense In this kind of
business, guessing at all these things,
and wondering which one of 'em done
It. None of 'em done It. Somebody
else done It, and If you know who It
Is, which I doubt, tell me, and I'll go
and nab him."
"Now," the doctor continued, as If
tho other had remained dumb, "you
have practically eliminated the three
who were the only persons In a posl
tlon, physically speaking, to do this
thing, and that settles the matter,
with you. as far as they are con-
cerned. You would take your oath,
wouldn't you. that neither one of
these persons is, or reasonably could
be, the culprit?"
The detective eyed the doctor dog
godly
"Yes," ho replied, shortly. "Keep
up your jollying if it does you any
good, but I'd go my oath on th^se peo-
ple. just the same, and 1 guess you
would yourself. It ain't in any sort
of reason that one of them done it.
It was the man outside on tho fire-
"Why, uneducated, of course**
turned Hlrsch. "See the spelling,
the language Or cltr it was an
a led pt
:-ated."
on trying t<
unedu-
i
m
h
My arm/) v/r//w Cfw/mr cw
m scfNf OF MZD immnw
stairs, but Murphy at tho foot of tlK'se
stairs sees nothing of any pcrbon of
the kind!"
For the third time the detective
paused meaningly. Dr. Furnivall
laughed and stroked his beard.
"I see," he said. "Murphy let the
bomb-man In and out. That's why
he didn't see him!"
The detective appeared gratified at
this evidence of perspicacity on Dr.
Furnlvall's part. But only for a mo-
ment. Then he searched the bearded
face with his eyes. He did not like
the tone of that laugh.
"There's no other way out of it—"
he began.
"I could give you bIx different ways
out of It," tho doctor Interrupted.
"But the one In which it really hap-
pened will do. I suppose you have
come to ask me to hypnotize Murphy
and extract the truth from him—is
that it?"
The detective flushed and gnawed
his lip.
"Yes," he answered, shortly.
Dr. Furnivall rang for a maid, and
scribbling a note, passed it to her
"Read that aloud—all but the ad-
dress," he said.
" If you will come with the bearer
of this note," the maid read, " 'to my
office, you may save yourself some
trouble, and the humiliation of being
taken to the police station, instead
of here. Dr. Furnivall.'"
The doctor looked at the detective,
whose face was blank, and then said
to the maid:
"Explain that to Mike and let him
deliver it. Tell him to hurry. Now,"
he continued briskly to the detective,
"you shall see tho culprit and hear
his confession. I havo no time to
waste over this affair, and while we
are waiting we will improve the mo-
ments by indulging in a word or two
of psychology. In the first place, you
should know that tho proper method
ot beginning the search for the perpe-
trator of a crime is to learn all the
another soul was near. The first
question you should have put to your-
self is, which ono of these three has
the character in which lurks the pos-
sibility of throwing that bomb. Let
us in fact begin the inquiry now.
You have seen them all, while I never
even heard of any of them before.
Now tell me if you think the boy
could be guilty?"
"Him? Hardly," the detective grunt-
ed. "He wouldn't be likely to bust
his own face all up. Besides, the
money was for him, anyway. It would
be only stealing from himself, for he'd
have it in a day or two. An^ on
top of that, he didn't even know that
his father had the stuff, and was all
broke up because he couldn't go to
college and be a priest."
"Very good," smiled the doctor.
"Facts, facts, facts, and never a word
of character! 1 fear you are incor
rigible. However, so much for the
boy—he's obliterated. Now, how
about Tony? Did he really wish the
boy to have all that money? Could
| he afford to let him take It? Did
! you inquire into his business, lti or-
iler to find if lie happened to be des-
J perately pressed for money just now,
; as most men are sometimes?"
Blrsch appeared uncomfortable.
I see that this phase also never
occurred to you," Dr. Furnivall said,
dryly. "Still." he went on. "leaving
that out for the present, could Tony
commit sucli an atrocity for any rea-
son whatever? It requires certain
qualities to carry out a project of
that nature, and has Tony these qual-
ities?"
"Why, anyway," the detective ex-
claimed, "it was Tony himself who
brought us the Black Hand letter and
told us about It, asking us to send
men to protect him. He wouldn't do
that, would he, if he had this thing
up his sleevo? Besides, he's scared
bjue. I never saw anybody before
frightened clean in to his mar «iw, the
way he was last night. He ha«i
I escape, and that skipped downstairs,
or up, and that Fiirnegan and Murphy
and Tony and the old woman heard,
and that Finnegan saw as well as !
heard."
"Then the ramifications of the prob-
lem must be, to you, how did this '
man reach tho fire-escape without
your knowledge, you being right un-
der it; how did he enter the room
without raising the window or break
ing it; how did he escape so miracu-
| lously; and what did he enter the i
j room at all for? For he could have j
; thrown the bomb through tho glass,
j you know, and it would have been
j both safer for him and more within
I reason."
i Birsch set his lips and for a moment
said nothing. Finally he burst forth:
"Seems to me you ain't helping any-
thing great! In a minute you'll make
it out that nobody could do it. and
that consequently it wasn't done!"
"I am only showing you, so far, my
friend, what your method amounts
to," said tho doctor "By it I can
I prove or disprove anything under the
sun, because It has to do with an
pearances. instead < f haracter, with
j the puperflcials as distinguished from
the realities. 1 can even turn com-
pletely around and prove to you, by
your method, that each ono of these
persons whom we have, by my meth-
od, proved Inuoeent, is the only per-
son who could have committed the
crime. What you lack is—psychol-
ogy." Dr. Furnivall did not wish to
say "brains," nor "learning," nor "In-
telligence," nor even "training," so,
after some hesitation, he said "psy
chology." And he continued: "Now.
tho moment 1 saw this letter snd
heard the story, I know Indubitably
the guilty party."
"The—the nation you did!" burst
forth the detective, involuntarily.
"The easiest thing Iu the world."
smiled the doctor. "Just consider
j this letter—was it written by an odu-
v catwu or aa uneducated person?"
A broad grin apre/td ov r the dela-
tor's bearded face.
I fancy It was one or the nthf"- -
he said, "but which?"
"How do I know?" respond" I Blrsch
fatuously The doctor smoothed his
features and answered', mildly:
"That i. where, psychoid yes.
psychology—gives me the advantage
of you. Would an uneducated Italian,
such as apparently wrote this letter,
-pell Wednesday' with a d' Invarl
ably in the first syllable, once with a
y . as if to let the reader know that
he really knew how to spell it. and
then write it twice without the 'y,' as
well as to leave the same letter out
of Thursday?' Would an unedu*
cated Italian spell 'thousand* with a
dash, 'thous-a.' would lie write 'need-a'
for need.' or kiln' for kill, and so
on? He would speak this way, but
he would require some education in
order to write this way. Moreover,
the punctuation and use of capitals
are perfect—two positive proofs of a
certain degree of education. And to
clinch the evidence, look at the hand-
writing. It is disguised, but Irregu-
larly. as if done by an immature mind,
and the vertical penmanship taught a
little while ago In our public schools
sticks out ;iU through the letter. The
character and attainments of the
writer of this letter, taken together
with the injured boy's testimony,
poinjs with finality to a certain one of
the persons knowu to bo concerned.
In short, whatever his motive may
be, and impossible as tho known facts
alone seem to render it—"
The doctor paused as footsteps
sounded without, and then went on—
"the person who threw that bomb
was—"
"Master Frank Maealusco," an-
nounced the maid, opening the door.
And forward stepped the son of Tony,
his face bandaged, but wearing a
smllo of deprecating good humor.
Detective Blrsch stared at tho boy
and then looked at tho doctor.
"You don't meau—" he began, and
paused. Dr. Furnivall smiled some-
what grimly.
"Take a seat, Master Frank," he
said. And when tho grinning youth
had taken a tentative position on tho
edge of the couch, hat in hand, tho
doctor continued: "Shall I be com-
pelled to hypnotize you, or will you
tell your story freely?"
"Oh, it's all off now, and I might
as well talk," the boy answered. Far
from feeling embarrassed, ho seemed
to enjoy the situation, grinning im-
partially at each of his hearers as
he proceeded with his confession.
"You can tako it straight," he said,
In schoolboy slang, "that it wasn't me
for tho priesthood. It was my folks
that put up that job for me. It Is
me for the stage—I'm going to be an
actor. It wouldn't do to let my father
know that, though—he'd go nutty. Ho
thought It was all settled long ago,
and I let him think so because it
would be no good to start In fighting
him before I had to. Of course I
knew he had the money saved np.
How couid I help getting wise to it,
when they're always whispering about
It to each other, looking mysterious
and acting funny, me right there with
'em so much? So I fixed up this deal
to lift tho money from father. I
wouldn't use it—all I wanted was to
make sure he wouldn't send me to
college. 1 could not do that this way
without making him mad at mo for
not doing as he wished, and I could
give the stufT back to him later. I
knew he was easily frightened, and
thought he would give up right off
as soon as I was threatened, without
goln.j to the police, but when I heard
him in the other room talking with
mother about the letter and the trap
the polico had set I didn't know what
to do. At first I thought I'd call It
all off. It was too risky. But the
excitement sort of appealed to me,
and I thought that as I was bound to
be an actor, this was as good a time
as any to begin. So finally I hit on
tho thing 1 did. Last night 1 got an
old piece of lead pipe and split it, to
mako It look like an exploded bomb,
and put It on the rug, which I
scorched with a match, cut my face
a little with my razor, and then
touched off a cannon firecracker. I
had no gun, you know, and these
things wouldn't tell any tales. I had
my door already unlocked, and ran
and opened It, and slammed it back
without latching it, jumped a few
steps downstairs, and then ran back
again, closing the door softly. I had
meant to unlock my window, to make
believe the Black Hand got In that
way, but I guess I was a little nervous,
and I forgot It, and so had to say the
man I saw was on the fircvescapo out-
side, instead of in the room, as I had
Intended to say. The situation was
impossible, wasn't it? It was funny
the way everybody swallowed such a
stiff as that!" He threw the cha-
grined detective a sly glance. He
was the "everybody" referred to.
Then the boy, this would-be actor,
thrilling with a pride over his ex-
ploit that not even Its detection and
failure could materially lower, added:
"I told father In tho letter to send the
money to the San Francisco post of-
fice, then 1 wrote to them there to
forward any letters for John Kil-
braith to another post office, and I
wrote that office to forward the mail
to another, and so on, and the last
one was to forward It to our general
delivery here, whore ! could get It."
Ho paused, looking at the detective,
who examined him a moment as If he
would like to take him across his
kneo, and then turned to Dr. Furnivall.
"It seems plain enough now," ho
said, somewhat sheepishly.
"So does everything, when made so
with a little—psychology," remarked
Dr. Furnivall.
(Copyright, by W. Q. Chapman.)
(Copyright In Great Britain.)
PE-RU-NA
j *'l was troubled with cramps in the
stomach for six years. I tried many
kinds of mcdicine, also was treated
by three doctors.
"They said that I had nervous dys
pepsia. I took the medicine for two
years, then I got sick again and gave
up all hopes of getting cured.
"I saw a testimonial of a man whose
case was similar to mine, being cured
by Peruna, so thought I would give it
a trial. I procured a bottle at once,
and commenced taking it.
"I have taken nineteen bottles, and
am entirely cured. I believe Peruna
is all that is claimed for it."—Mrs. J.
C. Jamison, 61 Marchant St., Watson
ville, Cal.
SNAP FOR JIMMIE.
His Fatal Sneeze.
Tho fishery guard C.anne, master of
the patrol launch Chantonay, wjIc'.i
protects the Ashing at the mouth of
tho Loire, was drowned off Palm-
boeuf. Rising from his bed he went
on deck after midnight In his night at-
tire, and the cold brought on a sneez-
ing fit which caused him to slip on tho
ice covered deck and into the wator.
The engineer, wakened by tho no!*e,
tried to rescue him, but lu vain.—Petit
Parisian.
"Oh, Jlmmie, our pa's been appoint'
ed postmaster!"
"Good! Now I won't have tor put
any stamps on do letters I seeds
j youse!"
Laundry work at home would ne
much more satisfactory if the right
Starch were used. In order to get the
desired stiffness, It is usually neces*
p«ry to use bo much starch that the
beauty and fineness of the fabric it
hidden behind a paste of varying
thickness, which not only destroys the
appearance, but alBO affects the wear-
ing quality of the goods. This trou-
bio can be entirely overcome by using
Defiance Starch, as it can he applied
much more thinly because of Its great*
cr strength than other makes.
Punishment and Crime.
"She seems to bo having a pretty
good time now that she and her hus-
band aro separated," whispered the
three girls in tho corner as she en-
tered the room.
"I don't blame her," said one. "He
! beat her, didn't he?"
They looked her over again.
"Well, I don't blame him for beat-
ing her," the third declared, "If she
dressed like that. That red is awful."
The extraordinary popularity of fine
white goods this summer makes the
choice of Starch a matter of great im-
portance. Defiance Starch, being free
from all Injurious chemicals, is tho
only ono which Is safe to uso on fine
fabrics. Its great strength as a stifTen-
er makes half the usual quantity of
Starch necessary, with the result of
perfect finish, equal to that when the
goods were new.
Pol.te Interruptions.
"And It's awfully Impolite to Inter-
rupt ono who Is talking, isn't it,
mother?"
"Except when a woman is describ-
ing clothes, my dear, and then It Is
polite to constantly ejaculate 'How
lovely!' or 'How ridiculous!' as the
case may bo."—Kansas City Times.
The Insignia.
"What makes you think that man
would mako a detective?"
"Because it some natural to him to
wear a slouch hat and a white neck-
tie."
Give Him Time.
"Do you cultivate the muses?"
"No—I'm a stranger in town, and
only know a few people, so far."
Dyspepsia and constipation are avoidable
tniaeries take Garfield Tea, Nature's Herb
laxal ire.
Samson was the first actor on record
to bring down the house.
WORTH
MOUNTAINS
OF GOLD
During Change of Life,
says Mrs. Chas. Barclay
Oranltevillo, Yt. — " r was passing
through theChangeof Lifeandsufferea
from nervousness
and other annoying
symptoms, ami 1
cai truly say that
Ii> liaK.rinkham's
Vegetable Com-
pound has proved
worth mountains
of gold to me, as it
restored my health
and strength. I
never forget to tell
my friends what
I. (diaiv I'ink ham's
Vegetable Compound has done for me
liming tliis trying period. Complete
restoration to health means so much
tome that for the sake of other suffer-
ing women ( am w illing to make my
trouble public so you may publish
this letter."—11 liS. ('HAS. JjAliCLAY,
K.F.IX.Clranlteville, Vt.
No other medicine for woman's ills
has received such wide-spread and un-
qualilled i ndorseni' i t. Noothermcd-
leine wo know- of has such a record
uf cures of female ills as has Lydia li.
I'lnkham's Vegetable Compound.
For more than ao years it has been
curing female complaints such as
inflammation, ulceration, local weak-
nesses. tibroid tumors, irregularities,
periodic pains, backache, indigestion
and nervous prostration, and it is
unequalled for carrying women safely
through the period of change of life.
It costs but little to try I.ydia E.
i'lnkham's Vegetable Compound, and.
us Mrs. Barclay says,It Is "worth moun.
tains of gold •' to suffering womeu.
samson nnrmwn
ASPHALT FELDSPAR llUUl 111®
Handsomest and most Uuruble eooflnfc made.
by the Uadiutf UttUwaj < oui|>atil«*H.
H.-iul for sample* uii'l price*. If your hard-
wuiv or lumber don't handle It—wrlia
HT. LOUIS ABFUALT CO., Manufacturers,
Fully Guaranteed. louis, mo.
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Norman Democrat--Topic. (Norman, Okla.), Vol. 17, No. 38, Ed. 1 Friday, April 9, 1909, newspaper, April 9, 1909; Norman, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc153054/m1/3/: accessed April 24, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.