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Show fe , SECRETARY 11 1 OF THE NAVY METCALF BOYHOOD LANDMARK MARRIAGE CATACOMBS OF ROME Son FOR GRAVE. Journeys Far to Bring Bowlder Dying Father Asks For. PACIFIC COAST BACHELORS FORM AFFINITY CLUB. Scarcity of Maids Results In 8ociety Which Plans to Import Women Organization to Pay Wedding Expenaet. 111. In compliance Bloomington, CURIOSITIES OF THE 'EARLY with the dying request of his father, CEMETERIE8. CHRISTIAN Dr. Walter O. Blaisdell, Jr., of Punxsutawney, Pa., Journeyed all the Their History and Purpose Made way from central Illinois to Augusta, Me., after a huge bowlder, which lay Clear by Modern Research Galon the old farm where his father had leries Extending Hundreds of spent the happy days of his boyhood. Miles Under Ground. Tbe great mass of red granite, relic of . some glacial formation ages ago, was Rome. Modern research haa estab- loaded upon a flat car and then lished beyond doubt the original ex- shipped 1,500 miles to McDonough clusive use of the catacombs by the county, this state, and placed upon the Christians as places of burial and of grave. holding religious assemblies, and the The remarkable request and filial various other theories put forth to ex- compliance attracted wide attention. plain the origin of these cemeteries The elder Blaisdell amassed a comhave all been proved to be unfounded. petency and ranked high In medical The Christian mode of burial In the catacombs seems to have been copied from the Jews. A short time before the birth of Christ Judea was made tributary to Rome by Pompey and many thousands of Its Inhabitants were transferred to Rome, where ft special district on the right bank of the Tiber was assigned for their habitation. These first Jewish settlers adhered to the customs of their forefathers, especially in a matter so sacred as funeral rites, and they laid their dead In rocky sepulchers outside the gate nearest their quarter. Here, in fact, was discovered in 1860 the Jewish catacomb, which tt may be assumed was the prototype of later Quaint Blaisdell Monument Christian sepulchers. The earliest Roman Christiana were circles. He was taken ill a few weeks very probably converted Jews, were ago and hla son was summoned from When It naturally familiar with the JewlBh his home In Pennsylvania. mode of burial, and In all prob- was seen that the end was near the A son asked his father If there was not ability adopted it for themselves. In one of some last desire that he might wish discovered gravestone the Roman catacombs bears the date gratified. The parent thought a few of the third year of the reign of moments and then replied in the afVespasian, A. D. 71, and thus affords firmative. proof of the antiquity of the cataAs he lay on his couch realizing that combs os places of burial. his mind bis days were numbered In early times Christians were his childof to scenes back the strayed probably burled on property, a garden hood, back to the farm In faraway or vineyard, belonging to private fam- Maine, where he was born and where ilies, and In fact nearly all the an- - be spent his youth. He recalled particularly a bowlder which stood near the old homestead and which was the center of his playground. With voice shaken with emotion he asked his son to place that bowlder upon his grave. He declared that he could secure no monument so satisfying as that rough pile of stone around which such pleasant memories associated. The son found the bowlder Just where his father said that it lay and It was shipped to the weBt. Carved upon Its flinty side Is the word "Blaisdell." That Is all, but It tells a story that Is more eloquent and pathetic than could be expressed In columns of descriptive prose, of the tender memories of that are recalled wbeq old age youth Entrance to Catacomb of 8L Potronllla. reminds that the night is coming. That three tons of granite, lasting uncient names of tbe catacombs were til the end of time, will mutely tell of taken from those of the owners of the heart hunger of the elder Blaisdell the land. for some remembrance of tbe misty With the passing of time and the past and of the happy days of his boyIncrease In the number of Christians hood "down on the farm. It will also the original cemeteries were extend- tell of filial love and duty well per ed, excavations on a larger scale were formed. undertaken and gradually the catacombs were formed. IS NOTED FOOD FADDIST. The catacombs originally were used exclusively as cemeteries, but later Chew-CheFletcher a Believer In they provided places for religious asThorough Mastication. sembly and In some cases worship. In apostolic times they generally met New York. Horace Fletcher Is the in the house of Borne wealthy memof the Later they most noted of the food faddists ber of the community. "chew-cheas Is the known He After Diocletian lu day. built churches. 303 ordered the churches to be de- man because his fad la careful mastieat expensive stroyed the Christians evidently then cation. He does notmore satisfaction took refuge in the catacombs, which, food because he gets la more although known by their persecutors In inexpensive food there to exist, could not be reached or entered, as neither their precise position nor their entrances . could be IN HAND BATTLE FRENCH COUNTESS WITNESSES DESPERATE FIGHT IN CANADIAN WILDS. J Spokane, Wash. Designed to solve the problem of the scarcity of marriageable young women In the Island empire, the Spokane Affinity club has been organized In this city by 25 bachelors under 30 years of age. The society proposes to bring 5,000 young women Into the Spokane country from the eastern states, find employment for them, and act as general sponsor. When any of the Imported young women la convinced that she has found her soul-matall marriage expenses will be borne by the club, including the license, the ministers fee, a wedding dinner and flowers. J. C. Power Brown, secretary of the Spokane mining brokers exchange, Is president df the new society. The secretary and treasurer Is Wallace A. McBurney, vice president and manager of the Falls City Lumber company, and the manager of the society is Cadwallader Jones, manager of the United States Steel and Equipment company. The membership Is drawn from the beBt circles of Spokane society. As a member must have property of value greater than $1,000, they are all eligible young men and entirely liable In case they find their affinity among Branches are to be the importations. instituted In every city and town ol more than 500 inhabitants throughout the Inland empire. Shortly after the organization of the club President Brown gave out the following statement: The purpose of the club Is to Induce young women to come into this district There Is a scarcity of young women in the northwest, and the Inland empire Is no exception. I am not the fact when I say overestimating that 5,000 women between the ages ol 20 and 30 years could find good husbands and comfortable homes In Spokane alone. This may seem an extravagant statement in a city of nearly 100,000 population, but the fact is that many more men than women have come Into the city during the last 18 months. "The first step In the campaign to bring young women Into the country will be to write to our friends and acquaintances in the old homes In the middle, western, eastern, southern and New England states and eastern Can ada, urging them to come to the northwest, and then prevail upon them to In write to their girl acquaintances. that way a chain system will be established and the . problem finally solved. ; Any man between the ages of 25 and 40, Industrious and of good character, and possessed of at least $1,000, or Its equivalent In realty. Is eligible to membership in the club. e 9P7 right 87 Wtldoa UMti ' In connection with mlana the recent sailing of the Pacific fleet the name of Victor Metcalf, Secretary of the Navy, has often come In tho public print. Mr. f'etcalf for two years held a seat In tho Presidents cabinet as Secretary of Commerce and Labor. He Is a native of California and. was a member of ongreis before entering the cabinet. t 14. Mos1 f iresea-- le Mlt 388, b 22 1 jr led COAL TRADE GROWING It irth l I let t of tin CITUMINOUS TONNAGE FAR MORE THAN OF ANTHRACITE. ive ver 1 1 ' ' I Cuslnest lictun ; Us sit e L r ave teel 1903. b t point: lommli the it llonik , North vlob E Hnto. leredit Skinner womar Arro woma: ;emptei t W In Sit for tt nal for srvlson al dar iters 1 c boon he Eas mile maste burie I escape yees Amer any, tt was t Is k y setti tt state the pa rn trst Orlenu secure e trip il Merr rles F ite J. wealth left fe larch ig abff as ;h It t It . In t Indian-- n rand mdcblt rallro jolora' assenr t were fatL I loll, The year of 1907 was a record one Sbr coal, production of all kinds, and particularly Is this shown in the out put of bituminous coal, which aggre gated a volume that would have been unthougbt of, say, even five years ago. Hero we are with over 1,000,000 tons a day put out of the mines, and until a few weeks ago there was not A few facts ""enough to go around. la' regard to the growth of the soft coal trade of this country are of more than passing Interest at this time. Only thirty-odyears ago Illinois and Pennsylvania took a year to produce a tonnage that now could be (and Is) turned out In one month, while West Virginia In 1907 produced la less than & week as much coal as was produced In that state in the year - In JaH dlstrle rests Baltimore, Md. In a recent issue of the Manufacturers Record, Mr. Fred erick E. Saward, the New York authority on coal industry, noting that the United States Is now mining more than 1,000,000 tons of coal a day, writes: loymett' if In 80ft Coal Has Quintupled Since Year 1885 and Hat Grown - 80,000,000 Torn Since bo 1869. Is the Particularly noticeable growth of the soft coal tonnage In the last half dozen years. It might reasonably be supposed that with output on such a large scale the rate of Increase would become smaller, but It goes forward with mighty strides, and a prolongation of the line of output Indicates a tonnage of 500,000,000 tons, 1,500,000 tons a day for every TTHE LIGHT IN THE WINDOW. Mother Burns It Nightly for Ton Year Till Son Returns. Whitings, N. J. Given up as dead by all the family except his mother, George Harrington returned home the other day and occupied the place at tho table where she had always kept a plate for him during the ten years of his absence. Tiring of farm work and having a n quarrel with his father, young ran away from home and went on board a Bhlp to China, and finally to India. He wrote homo, but, receiving no answer, thought that his family was too angry to care for him any more, so he did not write again. Throughout the years of his absence his mother would not permit any one to sit at her sons place at the table, where a plate was always put for him, even after all the others believed he was dead. She lighted a lantern the last thing she did before going to bed every night, and placed It at a window, so that It the wanderer ever came back he would know a welcome awaited him. Har-rlngto- engaf cisco, ire do shoe le Soot." i's afff sBman I charF r on Ores' ts, ie r tb b erw' of V To Alaska for Leap Yoar. Freeland, Pa. P. n. Ferry and James Brehm, handsome and athletic young miners of Upper Lehigh, have declared their Intention of spending leap year In Alaska, "In order to avoid t" a Importunities of young ladles who nuy ask ua to wed. Ferry declared here that he waa asked to become the husband of more than 30 girls last leap year, and Iirehm had many more offers. Both are very good looking men In tho prime of life. Each man Is about 30 years, six feet UJ1, and weigh over 200 pounds. day in the year, practically, at a time no further distant than 1912. At present the bituminous tonnage is more than five times as great as the anthracite output. Pennsylvania continues to supply its full proportion of the entire output, and (Including anthracite output) turns out nearly as much coal than 1894, and five times as great as In 1885. The bituminous coal trade has quintupled since 1885. The Increase alone of the year 1903, as compared with 1900, Is as much as the whole aggregate output of the United States in all years prior to 1857, and since 1903 the tonnage has grown 80,000,000 tons. Since 1896 the Increase In tonnage has been constant (save for a standstill In 1904), and has amounted In all to 230,000,000 tons, and has nearly trebled the tonnage In ten years. The bituminous trade may now be said to be six times as large In volume as the anthracite business. It Is three times as great now as it was no further back than 1885. The output last year was as great as the total production for all years prior to 1874, and adding the output of 1906 and 1907 we have a tonnage equal to all the business prior to 1882. Scarceless less noticeable than the volume of bituminous business is the concentration of control, bo that now a score or more companies control a tonnage equal to fully of all the soft coal used In the United States, and as to the utilization of bituminous coal, there appears no reason, despite the large Increase In tonnage, to change the assertion of a few years back that nearly one-hal- f of the whole output, aside from that exported or used for Is used by the railway and steam navigation companies of the United States and Canada. . one-thir- coke-makin- MAUD HAS HER BUSY DAY. Meek-Eye- Mule Slips on d 8eek 8treet an Revenge with Heels, San Antonio, Tex. Maud the mul d a quadruped who earns h dally alfalfa by hauling a Mexlca peddlers cart, created great exclt ment on West Commerce street tt other day. Maud was a meek-eymule with a look of patient resign; tlon In her mournful eyes, but Bh carried a charge of dynamite In eac hind heel. While ambling down the street st slipped on the wet pavement and fe down, tangled In a maze of home-maharness. With great presence of min she lay quietly until her driver sougt to unravel the harness. Then st handed him a left foot Jolt In the shoi ribs that sent him careening Into tt lop-eare- - e d gutter. PAID WITH KISS; LOSES SUIT. When Girl Grew Cold Carpenter 8ent in Bill Demanding Money. Mlneola, L. I. Bennette Bonanno of Manhattan sued John Lester and his wife Mary of Rockville Center, here for $309, which he said was due him for carpentering and other work done for them. The defense set up the claim that the work waa paid for with a kiss. It was asserted by the Lesters that the work was done In a friendly way and was not to be paid for. Bonanno made no demand for pay until he and Rosie Vitro, the pretty daughter of the Leaters, ceased to be friends. Mrs. Lester told about a bird house which she said Bonanno had given her adopted daughter. In hla bill the bird house figures as a $35 charge. She, her daughter and Bonanno were admiring the house and the girl exclaimed: "Oh! how can I pay you?" To this, Mrs. Lester said, Bonanno replied: "Id take a kiss for pay." Waa the ktss given?" asked the - court "It was, responded the witness. Miss Vitro told the same story. She said she had done some sewing for Bonanno, who was calling on her very frequently, and he promised her a present and sent her the bird house. She admitted paying with a kiss. Justice Garretson granted a non- suit GIVES CANNON THE IRON GRIP. In every crowd, volunteered to releai "Baby? Member, with Vlaellke Handshake, Makea Him Wince. Would Stop 8unday Funerals. Los Angeles, Cal. Undertakers ministers of this city have combi to stop Sunday funerals. The un takers will Insist that all funerals held on week days and the minis will refuse to officiate at Sun funerals. and young man Is Representative Harry Wolf of Baltimore, aged 27, the "baby" of the present house, and who began life as a newsboy. He was Introduced to Speaker Cannon. The speaker extended his hand. Wolf took a good, firm grip on It Tfce speaker winced and pulled his hand away as quickly as he could. The fingers were In a bunch and almost paralyzed. The "baby member haa a grip like a vise and work it all the time without thinking. "Young man," laid the speaker rue fully, as he shook the circulation back Into hts crushed paw, "If you have grip on your district like that afraid I wont live to see another Re publican elected from ft" "Johnny Buttlnsky," who is presei Maud from her tolls. He got a swl kick on his hip pocket which place him hora de combat, and thereupc he withdrew to the backgroum Finally Maud grew tired of her r cumbent position and calmly arose. Shaking her long ears In a coque tlsh manner, she meditatively klcke an Innocent bystander into the guttr and then went to sleep, while tt wounded driver attached the guy rop to the cart Washington. unatbletlc-lookln- A g Ia ascertained. The catacombs were also used occasionally as places of concealment Several popes used them as hiding places from the beginning of the sec- ond century onward. St. Stephen was murdered In the catacombs, where he had lived for some time during the Valerian persecutions, and hla successor, St. Sixtus, was also martyred In the catacombs. For several centuries the catacombs were used as places of devoThe entrances of the catation. combs were rendered public. Shafts or air holes called lumlnarla were opened for purposes of ventilation. About the middle of the fifth century a portion of the catacombs was rifled by the barbarians In hopes of finding treasures, and thus began the devastation which led ultimately to their neglect and ruin. From the thirteenth to the fifteenth century all knowledge of the ancleut cemeteries seems to have perished. The accidental falling In of a portion of the high road outside the Porta Salarla In 1578 led to the discovery of the Catacomb of St. Priscilla. Public Interest In the subterranean Christian cemeteries was awakened and archaeologists turned their attention to their examination and study. The name catacomb Is, comparatively speaking, modern. The Chris-tlocemeteries were named either after some saint burled In them of the person who originally owned the land where they were situated. The ubo of the present name dates back to about the sixteenth century. Almost all the catacombs are outside the walls of the city. The aggregate length of their galleries Is said to be about 587 miles, and they are excavated on different levels and cross and rocross each other. Hence although the area which they underlie Is not considerable, yet If tho galleries were stretched In a continuous line they would extend through the whole of Itay. n RECOUNTS LIVELY EXPERIENCE Lay Bthlnd Windfall While Four Ravenous Timber Brutee Attack Bruin Finally Ends Unequal Contest. Seattle, Wash. With four ravenous timber wolves battling fiercely with a black bear in the wilds along the upper Peace river, In Canada, Countess Meherenc de St. Pierre of St. llrleuc, Brittany, Fraqce, lay concealed behind a windfall less than 200 feet away and watched the struggle ions. Countess de SL Pierre, who Is In Seattle at present. In speaking of the struggle, said: "For a time the honors of war were about even, and so Intent were the participants upon the fight that they did not notice the approach of the Indian guide and myself. We had been breaking trail through a heavily wooded forest, the Indian making his way through the timber and underbrush without any more noise than tbe occasional crackling of a twig beneath his moccasins. Following his Instructions, I placed my feet In the tracks left by his moccasins, and In this way we were able to advance quietly. "My first Impulse when I came upon the four wolves fighting desperately with the bear waa to shoot I raised my rifle, but suddenly the spirit of tbe struggle seemed to take possession of me and 1 motioned to the guide to drop behind a fallen tree. From the concealment thus afforded we watched the battle for several minutes. "The timber wolves assailed the bear on all sides, snapping viciously at his heels and springing away before the bruin could turn. As the slow-movin- g The Bear Was Losing Ground. bear wheeled to meet one assailant another would spring at him from behind, and thus the combat continued. The bear was losing ground under the vicious attacks, and It seemed but a matter of minutes until It would be Tbe timber completely exhausted. wolves kept up a continual din of sharp yelps, while the bear would occasionally emit a roar of rage and pain after one of the wolves had made an unusually successful attack. "Bruin had all but given up the fight when a realization of the unequal contest dawned upon me. 1 could stand It no longer, and, bringInto play, I felled one ing my of the wolves. The other three scurried away, while the bear, after taking a look at the new arrivals, trotfashted off In a sort of ion, appaiently undecided whether to be pleased with the outcome of the encounter or not. The first time I ever saw a timber de St. wolf," continued Countess Pierre, "1 thought It was a dog, and did not shoot. The animal loped away with the peculiar swinging gait that Is characteristic of the wolf,- - and 1 thought ao more of tbe Incident untill 1 returned to camp. When I Informed my guides that I came near shooting a dog they laughed, and after exchanging several comments in their native tongue explained that I had met a wolf." , In discussing nature faking, Countess de St. Pierre said: "I doubt It a timber wolf could ever kill an elk or a moose, although such claims have been made by writers. A timber wolf, so my guides Informed me, never travels alone. The Indians say that a wolf, unaccompanied, would hesitate to attack anything more danger-ou- s than a rabbit, but three or four timber wolves will give battle to any animal that roams the woods. And In most cases they are successful. We found a number of bear carcasses, and the guides explutned that the monsters hud fallen victims to the attacks of wolves. I am Informed that wolves are subject to hydroWhen In this condition a phobia. timber wolf will fling himself upon anything from a man to a mountain lion. But such cases art rare. 30-3- half-satisfie- d chew" in It. Mr. Fletcher lives at the Waldorf when In New York, but it must be that Mr. Boldt, the manager, does not take him seriously for his theories would break up tho restaurant business. Mr. Fletcher says he lives on a few cents a day for food and la as active at 58 as most men at 40. One of hla kindly crltlcB points to the fact that In his youth Mr. Fletcher was an athlete as pretty good evidence that he had a better physique than the average man and should therefore bear his years better. Mr. Fletcher when at home lives In a Venetian palace. He has written many books on nutrition. d Temperance In Scotland. ago water-drlnklnof civic chairs were very rare In Scotland. Total abstainers, however, can claim as a result of the recent elections that 46 Scottish burgs are presided over by abstaining provosts. The list Includes Sir William Blsland, Hart., lord provost of Glasgow, and Lord Provost Gibson, A generation g for nearly a quarter of an hour. This occurred several weeks ago while the titled woman from across the Atlantic was making a trip through the unexplored region north of Edmonton, with only Indian guides for her compan- |