Pittston Gazette

              5SK5KSP8SR8- S Oldest Newspaper in the warning Valley. PITTSTON, LUZERNE CO., I "A., FRIDAY. APRIL 10, 1S9G. A Weekly local and Family Journal. 1,1S?IS?2^ toOK mm rapiuiy across me rcu iruu upuks, and when the trimmer was already In midair the donkeyman's huge paw descended upon the slack of his black breeches and drew him back as though he possessed the weight of a feather pillow, wheroat the crowd at the pierhead yelled with delightful laughter, and the dingy steamer made her way stolidly on to the muddy waters of the Mersey ebb, which bubbled against the Up of the walls beyond.and the engineers, plucking up courage first, led the way below. Some one clattered a shovel on a firebar. Instinct made the trimmers obey the signal, and they went to the bunkers. The firemen followed, and the steam gauge remounted before It bad received any appreciable check. It was all an affair of five minutes. neavy coots mane hscii nuaru on ino engine room ladders. Then there was a murmur of voices and a pattering of foot steps from the forecastle, and presently a steady stream of men began to ascend the bridge deck ladders. Among the growing babel of voices came references to the gold, "Half a million yellow sovereigns, boys!" and threats there was no mistaking, "Teach the old man manners or put him over the side." There's nice snug bays in Cuba where the guurdu costas don't ask questions. Or if they did, a bit of yellow ballast out of the boats would stop their jaw quick enough." thrust into the waist neit ot lils breeches. As officer of the watch every time he passed the binnacle he faced front and took a regulation peer round the foggy saucer lip of horizon, with an utter blank lack of interest, and a face wooden and gnarled as a walnut shell. He was an elderly man, the third mate, and the sea held no more surprises for him, and no mora interest, and no more pleasures. If ever he had ambition, he had lost It years since. His aiiu in life was to hold a position of small responsibility and earn a monthly waee with the smallest oossiblc outlay of exertion either mental or physical.AUSTRALIA'S VARIED SCOURGES. REAP AND JOYCE CHAIRMEN Typhoid Fever and Diphtheria Following The voice laughed again and ceased. "Who spoke there?" Captain Kettle demanded.the Great Hea an 1 he trio Htormn. Klec- Elected by the New City Councils The Gazkitb has printed some facts regarding the intensely hot season through which Australia recently passed, and the following from the New York Sun will be read with lntereet: Monday Morning. Out rolled Into the bright circle the massivo body of the donkeyman. "You!" Kettle passed a forefinger round the inside of his shirt collar and strolled across with Cambel to where the deck chairs straddled in the shade. By an evldont previous arrangement the men were mussing themsolves on the port side of the bridge deck. The donkeyman knuckled his greasy cap in assent, but added that he was no mutineer. "I'm your man, captain'" he said, "but I'd be pleaseder to help ye carrvins out tho crew's wishes than coins agin thorn. Ye'll bo dealt by honestly, captain—llborally, yes, better than ye ever have beon in this world yet or ever will be again. It's a chance that won't come of six years of Sundays—an—the steamer will be lost at say. Blowed to rivuts an ould iron by a conspirator's bomb. It's a roost natbrftl ending for her." reorganization very harmonious "Curse you," snarled the trimmer, "what's that for?" Australia's scourging by no means ceased with the dasslng of the terrible heat wave and the sab iding of the electiic storms and oyclonee which followed close upon the heels of the heat. The last mall advices from the sorely efti ".ted c ntinent tell of a widespread epidemic of typhoid fever, a direot consecquence ot the heat. Almost all the wells In many districts were dried op, and creeks and rivers ceased to flaw. A water famine resulted, and the Inhabitants were compelled to nse impure water. As a reenlt typhoid broke ont, and the mortality from the disease was, at last acoonnts, even greater than that caused by the terrible heat. Melbourne was badly tfli.cted The fever wards In the hospitals soon filled up, and very many patients had to be turned away. The same conditions obtained in Alexander, Wagga, and Waterloo, and outbreaks of typhoid were reported from very many parte of the continent. Diphtheria, too, broke ont in many plaoee, and caused many deaths. "They're a holy crew, aren't they?" said the master of the Port Edes. The Mew Chairmen Make Brief Addresses— "Because we're short manned in the stokehold already, me son, and if there's a hand goes it's meself that'll have to stand watch and watoh in his place. Havln got you, I shall be a jlntleman now and slape in me bed at night all the way to New Orleans. See that?" "I think they're what we want. We should be rather out of it with a plucky lot who insisted on standing by us at a pinch." "Mutiny, by James, that's what this moans!" commented Captain Kettlo in an unaercone. tie was cool as ice ana on tno moment had decidod how to act. "Now, Mr. Cambel, Blip into tho chartroom for your pistol. I have mine in my- pocket. It's us two against tho lot of 'em, and we'll finish out top side. Oh, don't you make any error. It'll bo a rod night's work for those dogs. But wo,11 rub tho fear of death into them before wo've done this time—into those that are left, tbnt is. Get your pistol, quiok, sir, and skin your eye for bandy shooting." Both Councils Meet in Joint Session, Re-elect Captain Flannery City Clerk Without Any {Opposition, and Thea The remaining occupant of the bridge sat on n campstool under tho lee of the weather dodger with his red peaked beard on his chest, his slippered feet stuck out in front, his olbows crooked out behind him and hands deep in' his jacket pockets. Every time the third mate's footsteps neared him his eyes opened and for an Instant flashed round to the right hand angle of tbeir u' ' between whiles he slept. It waf owing to this faculty of literally snatching moments of rest that Captain Kettle at the end of his 30 hours' spell on the upper bridge was as fresh as though he had just got up from a clear night's sleep. This watchfulness was necessary, for, as the experienced skipper was quite awure, fully half the hands would have gladly tossed him overboard if they could have grappled him without danger to themselves. Presently, however, h*1 dropped his doze with a snap and slewed round to face the head of the bridge ladder, entirely wakeful. A head showed itself, black haired, with a clean shaven, Adjourn. TMf AMI "Oh, don't you make any error about that," replied Kettle. "They'd have beon shaky anyway, but this bogus clockwork devil of yours fixes them to a nicety. It'll lie every Jack for himself when the scare comes, and Davy Jones take "the steamer and the others. Oh, they'll run like a warren of rabbits. The brutes!" Both branches of council met in the City Hall Monday morning and organized for the year, and If today's sessions are a foreshadow of those to come during the year, in regard to quiet and business like meetings, the work ought to be produ jtive of much good. The expected squabble for offices did not materialize but instead everything was unanimous. All members of bothcounoils wera preeent. The new men were sworn in by 'Sqafre Gibbons. CHAPTER VII. THE SENDOFF. daddy. 1 tcil you sne was that took on the idea she'd hear no refusal, and I bad to write a letter to owners and get them to wire baok a 'No' she could read for herself. It'd look well set to music, that tale, wouldn't it? Sort of jumpy music, you know, with a yo-hoave humbug chorus to it, same as all sailors' songs that you bear in the halls." —xnis mucky old tramp'll be blowed np Bute's death, and I shall be killed." The Port Edes had gained the name of an unlucky ship. She had slain three men in her building, she had crushed anothei to death the day she left the slips, and though only three years in the water she had alroady maimed enough bands from various orews to make her a full complement. Some vessels are this way. From no explainable cause there seems to be a diabolical fatality about them. It is not to be supposed that uflorroen rush to join a craft of this sinister reputation. They may be asses in the balk, but they are only asses in part. They always try for the best berths first. But because there are not enough of these to go round, and because, thanks to the Dago and the Dutchman, there are not sufficient berths of any sort whatever to supply all aspirants, it is always possible to man any ves sel which a board of trade official will pas* through a dock gates. "Well, bless me!" retorted the donkey man, "who'd miss you if you wore killed' Always supposin you weren't wanted for our furnacos. Here, got up, you half baked scum ot tne worKiiouse, and tumble be low. Thank your stars the old mau hasn't seen you from the bridge, but .don '4 give me any more of your lip, or I'll report jrou to him and the chief to boot. Now, mosey I" Kettle stared at the donkeyman with his mouth ugape and th« eyos standing out of his head. His face was thrust out at full neck's length; his fingers beat a vague tattoo on the white iron rail of the bridge. Kettle broke off abruptly and stared moodily over the gulf stream. A flying fish got out of the blue water and ran :tcross the ripples like a silver rat. A school of porpoises snorted leisurely up from astern and passed the steamer as though she had been at anchor. And the tangles of gulf weed floated past like reefs of tawny coral. Cambel shrugged his shoulders. "What can you expect at the price?" he asked. "This isn't a £13 a month berth, and you've thrashed across Atlantic in a worse ship for less." CHAPTER IX. MUTINY. Then the crew's original spokesman lifted up his unlucky voice for the second time: "Ach, friends, we're vasting minutes. We huf made up our mindts. Why should wo not go and tivido ter cold without furder pother? Cood ole man, du bist gorichring, you'll comoand scramble for a share like ter rest of us, von'i-you?" t- Patrick Cambel came out of the chartroom with all the armament ho could luy bands upon—to wit, throe revolvers. Ho gave one to tho captain and put the others in his own jackot pocket, so they had a brace apiece. From tiwotlier side of tho bridge deck tho clamor of the men rose high into the night, and tho steamer's fore truck began to swing past tho stars. Her engines had stopped, tho quartermaster had deserted the whoel, and tho gulf stream was taking lier as simple flotsam whither it listed. "Don't you mistake me," retorted Kettle. "I'm working for full value received, and there's many an old sailor'd like to be in my vhoes if he only knew. I'm not grumbling at the berth, only when a man's on a racket of -this kind it's a bit bard on him to have a wife and kids he's fool enough to be fond of. It's an ugly amusemont lying to them like a play actor when you know It's ten chanoes to one you'll ever see English mud again. That's the way it cuts, though I suppose you'll think it all a sailor's grumble. Perhaps you aren't a married man?" The ooal trimmer blew lils nose on hi* gray neck handkerchief and shambled off below, muttering. The donkeyman returned to his wineh, unbent the chain and'sell? It flown into the adjacent hold. Then he returned to the poop deckhouse, where he lived with the carpenter and boatswain, and offered to bet those worthies, who had just come in for dinner, that Captain Kettle shot some one on board before the Port Edes tied up against New Orleans levee. The Select cpuncil went into session first. Mi. Reap was made temporary chairman and John T Flannery temporary clerk. The fiist order of business was the election of a permanent chairman. Mr. Kearney presented the name of George B Heap and Mr. Keating nominated James Laogan. The result of the vote was as follows: Mr. Beap, seven; Mr. Langan, four. The members voted as follows: For Beap—Kearney, Buhan, Thompson, Demp* sey, Keating, Clifford, Langan. Foi Langan—Beap, Tighe, Hennigan, Kennedy. Oa -notion of Mr. Bohan, the eleotion of Mr. Beap was made unanimous. After thanking the gentlemen of council for the honor confered, President Beap said ai there was no more baslness and that a motion to adj )urn would be in order. A motion was made to have a recess until the C »mmon Counoll had organized, then to hold a j Dint session for the election of a city clerk, which was carried. "Do you ever read poetry?" the skipper suddenly asketf' ~ uambei siewea rerand nis neaa ana stared. The idea of this vinegar mouthed little Ravage talking of poetry very nearly made him break into wild laughter. With in effort he steadied his face and said juietly, "Sometimes." Slowly Captain Kettlo stiffened. His eyes lost their stare and glinted unpleasunt fire in tbeir more proper orbits; his lower jaw closed up with a snap; lil-a fists slid to his jacket pockets and gripped there. right, determined face. The correspond l.g lrxly followed, lean, tall, muscular. "I'm glad of that. Somehow I hadn't taped ask you before, but now I know, Mr. Cambol, I like you all the better. It ;ives us something in common we can alk about without being ashamed. We ••an't very well discuss the other matter ffhich binds us together and respect ourselves at the same time." "You painted Dutchman!" Thewords came snarled through clinched teeth. The storms that fallowed the be it interrupted communication, blowing down tele graph wires and washing away bridges and roade, and when the last mail advices left Australia, bnt meagre reports were obtainable of the death and destruction caused throughout the continent and in Tasmania and New Z island by the extraordinary climatic conditions After the heat and the storms came earthquakes. They were not serlons, and no considerable damage had been reported at last acoonnts. Tney were most felt in Qaeenaland The eafth trembled and windows rattled and crockery was shaken from shelves. Half a doz-tn towns in the oolony reported having experienced the shooks. The shocks passed from east to west. Just as do man Is ever successful to anything without due course, so per con tra few sailormon are down on their luck except through some peculiar trait of ih capacity, so that on your unpopular ship, be she tramp steamer or eke weeping wind jammer, you do not get much pick of a crew. You have to put up with what other people have left, and it does not take you long to learn that your beauties have not been rejected for their excellencies. "He's a just holy terror, our old man,' observed the donkeyman cheerfully. "I sailed with him once before, and he unbent a quartermaster's front teeth with the bridge telesoope before we'd been threa days out. With the smudgy crowd we'v* got here now it's a pound to a brick theD start him moving even sooner than that Not that I mind myself. Sea's dull enough as a general thing, and I liky to see a bit, of life throwing about, and at that gamn little Red Kettle's good as a Yankee skip per any day." There was no starboard ladder to the upper bridge, but Kettle swung himself lightly up by a funnel stay and a stanchion and climbed over the canvas dodger. Cambel followed as nimbly. The mate of the watch received them with a frightened sidelong glance, but no words, and then he vanished into the darkness. Tho crew rustled uneasily. "Ah, Mr. Cambel, you've brought me lomo provonder? Thanks,.indeed. What, landwich and tea! Couldn't be bettor." ''Do I live to hear a sot of dogs like you dictating to me? Does any man here think he's going to have an inch of his own way aboard of me?" "No, I'm not." "I have whisky in my pocket." "Not for me now. Wait till we get ushore, and then I'll booze with any man to his heart's content. The game I'm on now is like a boat race—if a man wants to win, he's got to diet himself accordingly." The third mate, to show to any chance onlooker that he was not in sympathy with the unpopular captain, planted himself in the angle of the lee dodger, which was the greatest distance that the ties of duty would allow him to depart. Kettle, with an acrid grin, drew his companion's attention to this move. "But you've got people who care for you?'' "Come, Captain Kettle," said the quartermaster who had talked before, "don't be unreasonable. Tho Dutchman means well, though ho didn't put it Bristol fashion. And besides wg've made up our minds to share in that gold, and you'd iwtter chip in and share, too, without a dust. It'll bo a deal comfortabler for all hands, and besides it's got to be done nnyway. We're all determined, and we're too many for you, even if Mr. Cambel iloos stand in on your side." Cambel gave the ghost of a smile and then laughed. "No," be said, "1 oan't even boast of that. Acquaintances are mine In thousands, but friends—well, all friendship has its breaking strain. I'm a bit like that contemptible person, the miller of the Dee. I believe I did care for somebody once, and she made me think she cared for me. Probably she lied, because under persuasion she went off with another man. Bah, though, what does it matter? Kettle, we're talking rank sentiment, and that's an unprofitable employment for men engaged on a piece ol delicate business. And—here's a gentleman come to tell me that the consignment of specie Is just commencing to arrive. Now, captain, the stuff'11 bo in Iron bound boxes, and you and I have got to weigh each one separately and check the invoice. Then we'vo to act as our own stevedores and stow half of it In the cabin next my room and half of it across the alleyway next the mate's." "Quite right. You and I, captain, are shouldered to common piracy by the force if circumstances, but I always kick myself vhen I think about it. There's no glamour if romance about our Intended villainy ir the way it's being led up to." Captain Owen Kottle stumped cheerfully across to the port side of the bridgo and looked down. Beneath him, massed and moving, was apparently every man of his crew. The electric lamp from insido the head of the couipanionway blazed full up on them, dazzling some of the group and blinding the others with dense black shadow. With folded arms ho looked, down on them for a full minuto with a silent sneering laugh till the upturned faces which had been quiet in expectation began toCgrow clamorous again. Then ho waved them to noisoleasnuss and spoke. It was this way on the Port Edes. Forward and aft, engine bold and pantry, each man on board of her had his private sea failing. Between them they lacked wakefulness, eyesight, decision, strength of fist, strength of language, seamanship and common sobriety. Among the deck hands there were virulent sea lawyers; in the stoke holds there were ames damnees wanted by several governments. The engineers were skillful In gaining the smallest possible koottage per ton of coal; the mates were all slipshod navigators, untrustworthy even to oorrect a compass and useless to drive a truculent crew. Common Council came together and organized temporarily »y the election of Mr. Gallagher chairman and Mr. Flannery temporary secretary. For permanent chairman, Mr. Clifford placed in nomination the name of P. F. Joyce. Mr. Wlntle nominated Bobert W. Smiles, and Mr. Doran presented the name of J. H. Foy. Mr Joyce moved that the candidate receiving toe lowest number of votes b* dropped. Carried. The result of the vote was as follows : First ballot—Joyce, 11: Smiles, 7; Foy, 2. Second ballot—Joyce, 14; Smiles, 8 The connci men voted as follows: For Joyc3, first ballot—Hession, Gallagher, Joyce, Gerrity, Lynott, Oonnell, Madden, Baker, O'Boyle, Heff Dron, Fox. 8miles— Nellson, Drew, Wlntle, Drury, Lovell, Smiles, Lewis. For Foy—Doran and Mc- Donaugh. Second ballot—Joyce—Session, G*lla«her, Joyce, Gerrity, Lynott, Oonnell, Heff tron. Brown, Baker, Foy, O'Boyle. McDonaugh, Djran, Madden. For Smiles —Neilron, Drew, Wlntle, Drury, Lovell, Smiles, Lewis, Pornell. " On motion of Mr. Smiles the election of Mr. Joyce was made unanimous. Mi. Joyce thanked the gentlemen In & few chosen words and then adjourned to meet in j 4nt session, for the election of a City Clerk. "Not a bit. Byron wrote about piracy, mt Byron was no seaman, and he didn't .now what hazing a crew meant. A r.hief's a dirty scoundrel all the world over tnd always has been, and a sea thief, having the scum of the earth -to handle, has o make himself the cruelest brute on 'arth if he wants to suooeed. I think It's hat which put me out of liking with iyron and all those poets who've written ibout movement at sea. They give a -vrong idea of men'* motives and actions, md when they get talking ou shop they're hat lnaocurate and absurd they make one irod. No, Mr. Cambel, give me a land ioet, who talks about farms and primuses and tinkling brooks and things ho inderstands, and with that man I oan sit hrough two watches on end. Reading ilru may make me feel low, but it doesn't lo a man harm to be that way sometimes. \fou see, Mr. Cambel, a souffle or a row vith a mutinous urew is just meat and Irink to me. Yes, sir, that's the kind of Drute I am." CHAPTER VIII. GROUND BAIT. For reasons the Port Edes took the "north about" conrse—that is, she headed across south of the banks of Newfoundland nearly to Cape Hatteras and then braved the three knot current of the gulf stream by passing down the Florida channel on the western side of the Bahamas. They had carried good weather with thein— light head breezes or calms—all the way, and although coals were dear, owing to a strike, and the day's outlay was limited to 88 tons by order, the steamer usually averagod knots despite the unsklUfulness of the engine room staff. "What'll that chap do tonight when the fun begins?" asked Cambel. Kettle's face lit up with tho joy of battle. "Are you, by James?" he snapped. "Bolt like a rat at the first alarm. He'd show pluck if he was paid for it, would my third mate, but not being paid he'll take the best care possible of his own ugly hide. He isn't a fellow who'd ever like a tight corner for its own sake. There's not an atom of tho sportsman about him." "We'll see about that. I'd handle twice your number to my own cheek any day. I've done It before on a dashed sight uglier lot than you and came out topside, and I'm going to do it again now. Mr. Cambel's with me, too, this time, and we'vo got 20 bullets among us that'll all go home in somebody's ribs before any of you get at hand grips with us. Now, just play on that, you scum. Thore's not a one of you got a pistol." The Australian papers are filled with stories of the great heat and storms ani the loss of life and property resulting therefrom. The greatest heat reoorded during the hot spell, which occurred in January, was in Adelaide, 172 ° in the sun and 111 ° in the shade; in Melbourne, 112° in the shade; Hopetiwn, 118°; Swan Hill, 116® ; Bourke, 118 9 ; and Mil dura, 120°. In Bourke, N. 8. W., a town of 3,000 inhabitants, thlrtj-five died in one week of heat apoplexy. People fell in the streets and dlei without regaining consciousness A woman attending her dying husband became suddenly ill from the heat, and died an h ur before bC t husband. A son in-law of these two died from the heat while making the funeral arrangements. * Many people were found after the hea1, was over, dead In the country roads andjin the fields. The railway departmentof the various colonies made special rednced rates to enable people to escape to the cooler districts of the Alps, and the residents of the plains fl 3d to the mountains panic stricksn. The man's words were not conciliatory. He addressed his hearers as dogs and wished to know in the name of the pit why they had dared to leavo their dutio* and their kennel and come to sully his bridgo deck. The harangue was brief and beautifully to tho point. An ordinary sea man stood out into the middle of tho cir cle of light and mado reply. Over all was Owen Kettle, master mariner, and whatever his failings might be —and the index of them tailed out—they did not show prominently at the head of such a ship's company. Like all men in the merchant marine, he had been brod In •ne rougnesi scnooi, out uniise "is successful brethren he had not graduated later on to the smooth things of a well manned passenger liner. For his sins he fead remained the pitiful knoeksbout skipper, a man with knife edged words always fettdy on the lip of bis teeth, a leaden whistle In ono jacket pocket and a lethal weapon in the other. Cambel laughed. "You're the other way on, captain." Kettle's face clouded. "It's a fact," he said. "Times I am that way, curse my aantankerous luck." "Why divide it?" In a canvas chair on the bridge deck under the lee of the fiddle sat Patrick Cambel, with a pipe Ixitween his teeth and Pierre Ixjti's "Fantome d'Orient" in his lap. He was distinctly idling. For the moment he was wondering how, from so transparently blue sea, the spray which jumped from tho wave crests could be colorless and opaque. Then by following with the eye a tangle of yellow gulf weed which floated past his attention was carried away to some little gray apouts of fog which told of whales and their calves taking a summer outing In the milk warm waters of the south. Beyond his eye fell upon one of the screw pile lighthouses with which the United States government has fringed the Florida shoal, and on the far horlxon spouted the wind thrashed tops of some scattered cabbage palms, wbloh told that there at least the shallow sea was sea no more. At the back of those palms lay the mysterious shelter of the Everglades. "Because the weight is big, and It would give your steamer a heavy list to starboard. " ''You gall us togs, und you dreat us as togs, und ve're nod going to schtandt it no longer. Dis grew temants its rechts." "Oh, haven't wo?" commented a nasal voice on the outskirts of tho crowd. "I guess you're out there, mister. I'm heeled for one." "Your weakness In that direction came in handily for me yesterday." "You'ro right, Mr. Cambel, right all through. By my soul, I'd half a mind to chip In with these rogues and grab what I nould. It was a tempting chance, and it would have been a heap more profitable to me than what I'm in for now. As for the honesty of the thing, there wasn't a pin to choose between It and this racket of yours and Mr. Shelf's. But it was that Dutchman's gall that put me off. If he'd held his silly jaw, and if those other bladderheads had let me understand I was to hold the pistol hand over them—well, tboN Port Edes would have coral rock spouting through her bottom plates this minute, and I'd be a man owning a matter of £8,- 000 to £5,000. That's putting it straight." "Oh, as to that, never mind. We can easily bring her up again with a trimming tank. And I shouldn't feel comfortable if any of the stuff was In that room next the mate's, you see, Mr. Cambei, any one on board can go down that alleyway. In fact, It's the only road from end to end of the ship unless you go up over the bridge deck. And I'd not guarantee but what the bait would make some of them beauties try and tamper with the door. It's big enough to smudge the honesty of an archbishop if he was only earning £4 a month. Now the room next yours has iron walls and opens only into the Inner cabin. There's a good lock on it already, and if I make the carpenter bend on four more yoir'll have a strong room the Bank of England might boast about.". "Hello," said Kettle, "got a blooming Dutchman to speak for youl Well, you must be a hard up crowd. See here, now, if you do want to talk, have your say and be done with it. English is tho official language on this ship. Understand thw and don't waste my time." "Crack I" The man shrieked and fell in a limp heap on the deck. His woapon. clattered down beside him. Kettle kept his smoking pistol muzzle raised steady as an iron wrist could hold It. They chatted and basked during the  Df the afternoon, while the two mates off vatch painted ironwork, and the orew off luty grumbled and smoked and slept in she stuffy forecastle. The cabin tea came. Settle at the bead of the table preserved a •our silenoe, and Cambel and the mates imong them a strained civility. And then •kipper and supernumerary officer re urned to their canvas chairs beside the Iddle on the bridge deck. He was an excellent seaman and navigator, a man capable of going an entire voyage without taking off his clothes or enjoying one watch of regular sleep. Taking into account these qualifications, It may be understood that while in command at sea he credited himself with the powers of a czar and was entirely unscrupulous in gaining ends which expediency or bis owners laid down for him, and though not physically powerful he had the pluck of a dog and an unholy reputation for marksmanship. For the handling of such a menagerie of all nation scoundreldom and incapacity as bunked in the steamship Port Edes no better man than Owen Kettle breathed In either hemisphere. The German seemed inclined to bluster and hold his ground, but he hud no back ers. "I told you how It would be If wo put the Dutchman up," said one. "Why, 1 can't hardly understand the beggar myself," said another. The others instinctively drow at first away from the fallen man, but one ordinary seaman, younger and more plucky than the rest, darted forward to regain the fallen revolver. As his fingers closed over it his eyes instinctively sought the bridge. Cambel had his revolver sighted over tho crook of an elbow, Kettle his at arm's length. Both were covering hlin. Then both councils convened in joint session. Mr Joyce moved that Mr. Langan act as chairman of the session. Tais Mr. Langan declined in favor of Mr. Beap, he thinking it was that gentleman's right. Mr. Beap was made ohairman, and stated the object of the meeting, that of eleoting a city clerk. Mr. Smiles placed in nomination the name of John T. Flannery, and ss there was no opposition he was elected by a unanimous vote Tte following building permits were granted: Mnngo Thompson, to repair house on Broad street recently damaged by fire. T. J Bead to build a one-story office on South Main street; C. A. Frantz, to repair house 06 South Main street. "If you're undecided," suggested Captain Kettle, "you've got a nigger among you. Why not set him on to talk? If you were men, I wouldn't Bay it, but as it is he's as much a man as any of you, and perhaps he'll throw in a sand dance to en liven proceedings." The gulf stream rippled over the steamer's wake astern, and the small wavelets Df a calm licked the yellow rust stains which patched her sweeping flank. Before them tho narrow sea was the color of i dull blue roofing slate. The bright hot lay had faded, the brilliant cobalt had lltered away from overhead, and a silver nail paring of moon peered from a sky of imorpbous violet, still lighted in its higher flats by the sun's afterglow. On the horizon line was what at first appeared to De a steamer's ..smoke, but what the glass ihowed to be the reek of a fire on the invisible low lying Florida coast. No blaze glow could be seen. It might be a fisher's jampfire on an outlying key; it might be a game driving of Seminole Indians beyond the explored ooast fringe, in that unknown tAngle of trees and grasses and lagoons, the Everglades themselves. "Fling that thing overboard, or you'll be doad before you can wink!" "So," said Cambel, "I suppose I have to thank the said Dutchman for carrying a sound windpipe this minute." "That sounds sensible,'' commented tbe envoy from the bank. A thought passed through Patrick Cambers mind, a thought of the drama to be played under shelter of those recesses within the next few days, and ho frowned. He thrust tho thought from him as an impertinence and turned again to his novel. But he was destined just thon to road no more from that dainty vignette of Stam bool. Through the grating of the fiddle above his head came a frightened shout, then a chorus, thon a prolonged clattering as iron tools were thrown on the floor plates and the boots ctf scared men smote tbe rnngs of the ladders. The negro from somewhere on tho outskirts of the crowd broke Into a loud gnffaw till soma one kicked him on tho shins and sent him away yelping diininuondo into the farther darkness. Anangry growl went up from the white men at the taunt, and one of them, a whiskered quartermaster in a cardigan jacket, stepped out and spat into the circle of light. He looked round to catoh the encouraging glances of his mates and then lifted up his faoe toward the upper bridge. The crew's only revolver spun through tho air and hit the water with a tinkling .splash. "No," replied Kettle thoughtfully, "I don't think it. I fancy you'd have behaved reasonably over the new deal, and then I'd have stood by you, especially," he added slowly, as though from afterthought, ' especially if those dogs thought that you'd have been safer out of the way. What," he asked, with sudden frowns, as though the subject annoyed him, "what havo you been doing with yourself this afternoon?" Millions of fish perished in the lakes throughout the country, because of the water drying up. The pelloans profited rather than enffored by the heat. They thronged the banks of the lakes in thousands, gorgtng themselves on the fish exposed by the evaporating waters. Birds fell from the trees and died in great numbers. The wax cells of beehives melted and imprisoned large numbers of bees, which were thus smothered in their owj sweetness. Cattle and sheep died in droves all over the continent, and the price of stock h*s gone up greatly. Smelt lng was suspended in most of tW mining towns, and eurfaoe laborers of all kinds had to cease work. The grape orops in many districts were ruined. In Sydney one hundred tons of ioe were consume! daily, and the supply of lemons was com pletely us»d up. "Very well," said Cambel, "I believe It is the boat plan. Now, If you please, we'll have tbe weighing mnohlne In the main cabin, and If you, sir, will instruot your men to bring in the boxes one by one I'll satisfy myself that tbey agroo with tbe tally, and Captain Kettle shall build them up in the stateroom before us both. It's a very responsible job we have upon us, and tbe more counter checkings and precautions wo can put into it the better for our several reputations." "Now, stand forward, thetwo fools who havo been your spokesmen." The crowd stood liko men petrified. "Quick, or I'll make practice into the brown of you!" The crow signed their marks on the articles at tbe shipping office in the Sailors' home and went grumbling to get rid of tbelr advances. Later most of them turned up on the steamer, some with their worldly goods done up in dunnage saoks, which look to tbe uninitiated like pillowslips, some apparently possessing nothing but the squalid raiment they stood up in. There was not one of them dressed like a sailor, according to the conventional idea. Yet most of them had made their bread upon the seas since early boyhood, which shows what conventional ideas are sometimes worth. Tbey were most of them oldish men and looked even older than their years. The reelection of George B Reap, aa chairman of the select branch of the city 09ii nolle le a deserved tribute by bis colleague to the marked ability he displayed aa presiding officer daring the past year, and they are to be oommended Ifor their wise seleatlon. Tne past year, being the first in the life of the new city, wasfraught with great responsibilities to the new oonnollmen bnt under the guidance of Mr. Reap municipal affairs moved along aa well cs coald reasonably have been expected aider the circumstances, If not better. As chairman he haa always bsen fair, impartial and above bias, and always for pablic good. Representing, as he does, the Seventh ward, the largest and most important, commercially, In the city, and being the manager of the affairs of the Reap estate, which has eneh large landed interests in the city, the Important office of ohairman oonld not have been conferred upon one more quallfiad to discharge the duties of the offioe. With him as ohairman the past year, the sessions of the npper branch have been free from the unnecessary squabbling and personal plokerings that were the marked characteristics of so many previous councils, and his re ■ election ensues a sound, business like administration of affairs, and smooth sailing for the ensuing year. The choloe of Mr. Joyce as chahman of the lower house, ought to prove a good one frcm the fact that that gentlemen has served three years as seoretary of the old boron jh council and been a member of the present body , one yeir, thus giving him an insight to the workings of city affairs. O i the whole, it may fairly be expected that the oouncllmanlc affairs of the year will be conducted In a business like manner. The quartermaster in tho cardigan jacket stopped out of his own accord, undeflant now and white. The Oorman was hustled to his side. ' " Physic) ng a sick fireman principally. The stokehold temperature was 105 degrees, and as he amused himself drinking cold condenser water by the quart together the somewhat natural consequence was oramp in the stomach. They sent him up by the ash lift, and your steward dosed him with ohlorodyne and laudanum and tincture of rhubarb. The result wasn't encouraging." "See here, Captain Kettle, you'd hotter not try us too far. This isn't a slave ship you're commanding. It's an ordinary, oommoa, low down British tramp, and the law looks after the deckhands and all the rest of us." "Have you got a coin, quartermaster?" "No, sir." "Have you—sausage?" L "Yes, herr." It was a responsible job. Mot every day is specie to tbe tune of 600,000 British sovereigns shipped from a Liverpool dock, and because gold boxes are made in a conventional pattern tho shipment was spotted, and crowds gathered to stare at tbe o«sod in wealth. Cambel gave a quick smile to himself, as though he understood something, then mounted a look of oonccrn on his face, and getting up from his chair crossed to port and strode up to the break of the bridge deck. The captain, coming out of the charthouse, joined him. From the door of the alleyway beneath them rushed a "Then spin it out, and do you, quartermaster, call to him. And mind you call right, because I'm going to shoot the loser, and perhaps you're the least useless of tho two. Spin, confound you. Spin, sausage, or, by James, I'll shoot you where you stand and settle it that way." "It's worth living, Mr. Cambel, times like these," said Kettle when they had sat there In silence till the warm night had spread all over and the white stanwere beginning to show in multitudes through its gaps. "Now,that's fair speaking," said Kettle. "I've a profound respect for tho merchant shipping act and all the rest of the laws. My lad, if you fancy you've anything to lomplam ot, a sea lawyor like you must know the remedy. Get your witnesses And go with them before the British conlul in New Orleans." Tbe engineers oame on board early, for tbe most part in scrubby blue serge and sour black temper. Tbey grumbled at the mess room in broad Glaswegian, prophesied evil (in advance; about the capacities of the mess room steward and the ship's oook, dumped their belongings into their various rooms and changed to apparel more suitable for tail twisting in tbe unclean regions below. Then they went on duty, quarreled with the donkeyman who was maktng steam for the winches and proceeded to split up their crew of firemen and trimmers into watches and apportion them to furnace doors and bunkers. Tbe three mates, the boatswain and tbe carpenter were also on board hetimCw, most of them large headed with recent libations and feeling cantankerous accordingly. There was a small general cargo being shipped for New Orleans, and It gave these worthy officers ease to find occasional acid fault with the stevedore's crew or the crane men on the wharf, but for tbe most part they shuffled about the decks in easy slippers, attending to the various ship duties in massive sneering silenoe. As staring dumbly is dry work, self appointed orators among the crowd naturally distribute gratis their own private opinions upon the situation, and, according to their luck or eloquence, these attracted larger or smaller audiences. No one took them very seriously, and they, for the most part, treated the subject In a jocular vein. It was not till Captain Kettle and the Mersey pilot bad gone Into the upper bridge and the mate on the foredeck had oast off tho first bow fast that a self appointed prophet arose who spoke of tbe gold shipment in another key. He was a wild, unkempt, knockkneed man, who first attracted attention by tying a crimson handkerchief to an umbrella and brandishing it above his head. Being on the face of him a creature who never if he could avoid it put his band to honest labor, he naturally addressed the crowd at large as "fellow workers." These things awoke a slight humorouslnterost, and because tbe man had the gift of glib and striking speech tho crowd continued to listen after tbe first pricking up of their ears. "Oh, there's never any knowing what to do with a sick stoker's inside. But one of these drugs ought to have fetched him." The other nodded, 6ucklng at his cold pipe. The German put something between hi9 dished palms and shook it violently, then clinched one hand and thrust it out into .-^35■I,"""'- ■' "Perhaps one did, but the other two didn't seem to fit his ailment." "None of those poets have ever put all this down on paper. They've got parts, bits, but nut all. I fancy it is because they haven't seen the thing for themselves. I've tried myself, but I haven't made much account of it." "Well, he had them for nothing, so I don't see what call he bid to complain. I never saw such a crew for physio. They have drunk that big chest half dry as It is, and if I'd let 'em they'd have drunk it three times over. What did you do to the chap? Fill him up on the same again or try a pill? There's ten sorts of pills in that chest, beauties some of them. You should have tried him on those little silver coated chaps marked C. They're regular twisters." "A fat lot of good that would do," retorted the man. "What consul over behoved an ole sailor against the skipper? No, sir, we'd only get penitentiary for our pains. Besldos, what we want—and what we intend to have—is an alteration in things, beginning now." Serious fires occurred not only in the bush and the country districts, but also in the oltlee, started by sportaneons oombua. tlon. Extra guards were placed at many factories and warehouse) to watch for and guard against fire in closely stored goods. Bash fires prevailed all over the oountry, and the fate of many settlements ia still in doubt. "What—yon--you're a poet?" rapped out Cambel. "I knock off abitof verse occasionally," said the skipper complacently, "when I'm in the mood, that is. It generally oomes times like this, when I've been toil twisting the hands and have a spell of a rest and a think afterward." "Ah, I seel And what would you like? Shall I have a hold cleared out and fit up with four post beds for you to mako a drawing room of? Shall I order my steward to hand iced pop round to the gentlemen who are heaving coals in the stokehold? Come, njw, out with it!" "Well, you see he was twisted enough already, poor devil, and if it hadn't been for the d*onkoyman holding him he'd have been ovorboard through the ash ohute to be rid of his misery. So, as it was, I gave bim "a tumbler full of raw whisky, and that seemed gradually to untie him again out of his knots." The damage in Q leensland from the storms whloh followed oloee after the heat wae very great, and only meagre reports had yet been ooilected three weeks ago Houses and buildings of all descriptions were swept away in the floods, and the damage to orops, almost ready for the harvest, was enormous. Tbe Comet River rose forty feet in twelve hours, the Noga twenty feet, and the Yama twelve feet. At Payneham the Kngllsh Church, one of the finest structures in the colony, was leveled to the ground by the oyolonio gale and the succeeding floods. At Gjmpie ther mines were fl loded, and all mining operations In the dlatrlot were suspended. Great suff ring prevailed in all quarters heard from, and great destltutlou mnat reenlt from the ruin of tbe orope. "I see. The outcoineof vivid contrast," said Cambel. He imagined to himself that these boasted poems would be of the "heroic" order to the verge of melodrama. As it happened, he could not conveniently have made a worse guess. Kettle, tugged irom itis pocket a doubled up exercise book reddened slightly under the tan and handed It across. His companion flattened out the crease, and in the light which came from a chartroom port dipped into the manuscript verses for himself. To his astonishment they were one and all sonnets and ballads which might well have been written by a sentimental schoolgirl. They breathed of love and devotion and premature fading away, and at least three gushing adjectives qualified each tender noun. The little captain was deliberately irritating the men, and Camliel marveled at his recklessness Once lot an outbreuk start, and he aud Kettle stood not one chance in a million of living through it. But Kettle knew his game and was playing it well. The captain snorted. " You're greener than I thought, Mr. Cambel. If we'd been going on, you'd have had half the crew sick on your hands for a dose of that kind. They're bad enough after our sour doctor's physio, but for a tumbler of liquor and a spell of Idleness an old sailor would have an ear and three toes cut off any day. However," he added, rising stiffiy to his feet and stretching, "the chief and the donkeyman'll see he doesn't malinger for long. They are none of them sweet on doing another man's work, that gang. Heigh ho! See that line of surf we're bringing ovor the lee quarter?" ' Only one man laughed, and his laugh closed up again in a moment like the snap of a watch. Some scowled; a few swore; the quartermaster in the cardigan jacket alone remalnod unmoved. Of Kettle's outrageous raillery he took no notice whatever, but continued his plaint in a solid monotone, as though he had been reading it from a book. The man's discourse need not be reported In detail. He was an anarchist, red, rampant and ruthless, and by means of arguments, some warped, some fair enough, be pointed out to his hearers that the mission of the Port Edes was another knife thrust of oapltal into tbe ribs of labor. The statement met with a very mlxad reception, but the anarchist silenoed both the jeers and the applause with a beseeching wave of his hand and followed along the curb of *the wharf the steamer whloh was commencing to float toward the dock gates. He spoke to those on board her now rather than to his more Immediate following, and unclean faoes stared at him from over tbe line of bulwarks.Patrick Cambel came into the chartroom on the bridge deck, closing tbe door behind blm. "A cheery, amiable crowd you've collected," he said. "Do you ever read poetryT" DEATH OF DR MURPHY. crowd of frightened men—trimmers, stokers, stripped to the waist; engineers in dungaree, all the human contents of the lowest hold. Kettle singled out the chief with his eye and addressed him with sour irony. One of Wllkeabarre'a Moat Prominent Res- "Aren't they?" replied Captain Kettle from a sofa locker. "They're just a terror of a crew. You wait till we get to sea, and tbey start on mischief. My mate's a cur. He wouldn't stand up to a Chinaman. And the rust of the after guard is much of a pattern, picked that way on purpose. Oh, I tell you, Mr. Cambel, that 1 stund alone, and I shall have my hands full. But let 'em start, the brutes! I'll haze them. It isn't a new sort of tea party this witli me." idents Pum Away Dr. Joseph A. Mnrphy, the prominent Wllkeebarre physician, died at twelve o'clock Saturday at his home In that city Though Dr. Murphy had been in 111 health for the past six months, his death was somewhat of a surprise, it not having been generally known that he had grown worse. "In the first instance, it's the grub we complains of, pcrticularly tho sugar. It ain't sugar at all. It's just a slumph of molasses.'' T ie wan *}iricked hihI feV in a limp heap. the full blaze of the lamp light. Th« quartermaster cried heads. Tho other unwrapped his grimy fingers with slow jerks and showed. The coin was a halfpenny, Britannia uppermost. The quortcrmastci buttoned his cardigan jaoket and drew himself up to face tho upper bridge. There was no word about the sea on which their author had spent his life or of the things of the sea wtyh which he had had all his dealings. He knew about these is ipw men aid, out they see men common to him and unclean. Consequently he had delivered himself to an ode of that spring which he bad never witnessed ashore and love songs to ladies he had never met outside the covers of cheap Action. It was all imagination, and untutored, uninspired imagination at that. "Afternoon, Mr. MoFee. Fine, isn't It, for tbe time of year? Have your curs forgotten they're paid to work this steamboat up Mississippi river to a city called New Orleans, or have they induced the other watch to go below and glvo them a spellf" "That," "is due to your own u BUKar barrel's always that way unless you turn it end for end every day or so. Tho molasses'd settle through the queen's sugar at Windsor and spoil half of it unless the barrel was looked to. So that knocks in tho head your first complaint. By James," he continued, with a first show of fury, "is it for this you dogs have turned yourselves into a howling pack of mutineers and let my ship drift iike a hencoop toward Newfoundland?" "The Tortugas?" "The Dry Tortiigas. There's a Yankee conviot station on one of them." "Don't mention it." It will doubtless be many -weeks before the complete story of Australia's extraor dlnary climatic scourge Is learned, and all the Indications are that It will be a terrible and sorrowful tale. Dr. Murphy was bam February 17: 1812 In Chanoeford, York County, Pa., having been a son of John A. and Nancy Clarkson "Murphy. He stalled medicine in the University of Pennsylvania, and graduated in 1869 After one year's practloe in Columbia, Pa., he removed to Wilkeebarre, and slnoe April, ,1869, that oity has been his home. Ia 1872 he was married to Farrlsh, who, with several ohildren, survives him. "Hold up your hand!" Kettle grinned. "We shall have made enough westing soon, and then our course will bo pretty nearly duo north, so as to dodge the gulf stream as much as possible, and," ho added in a lower tone, "to get the ship as near as may be to your channel into Florida before wo jettison the crew." "You're going Into it with your eyes open anyway." "To any man of you who values life," he orled, "I offer a solemn warning. That •hip la doomed. Bhe will sink in midooean, blown apart by our petards, and her 111 gotten cargo will be hurled out of capital's reach forever. Those who are misguided enough to be her guardians will be blasted into space. Listen, you men of her crew. Jump on the pier head yonder as she passes into the basin and take the consequences. The brutal laws of this oountry will hurl you Into prison, but better a season dragging out a martyr's sentenoe than death as an enemy to the workers' cause." "tiuld God, sir, dinna jest!" replied the chief. *'Ye remember what yon scoundrel said on Liverpool dock wall? Wael, he's been as guid as his words, sir. We've found an infernal machine already!" It shot up to the full length, Ungert splayed out. Then, crack! and a bullet ripped through the middle of the palm. The follow let out a short yelp of surprise and clapped tho wounded member tightly under his urmpit. Tho men around him, utterly cowed, stood in frozen silence, and Captain Owen Kettle, from the bridge, waved slow patterns over them with a revolver muzzle. Then he crammed both weapons into his jacket pockets again and gave orders sharply and with crlspnoss. "Oh, don't you make any error," said Kettle. "I know my job. And if I warn you it's because you'll see things for yourself and perhaps join In at thein. 1 don't go and tell everybody. Not much. They think ashore I've got a real soft thing on this time. Why, do you know, Mr. Cambel," be added, with a thin, sour grin, "my old woman WHntod to come with me for the trip? She said It was so lonj. since she's had a whiff of outside air tha now I'd such a tidy steamboat under mC she couldn't miss the chance. Yes, am. sho said she'd brlna one of the kids witl. SERIOD8 FIRE AT BKKDHAM As a result, Cambel found the poems too killingly funny for words and was consumed with a wild desire for laughter, but that red bearded little savage, their marker, glaring anxiously at him from the opposite shadow, he dare not let so much as the tall of a smile dance from the corner of his mouth. He had to enjoy and endure In silence, and with the exercise book thrust out to the yellow light, then be read on through the stanzas diligently. "Well?" drawled Kettle. "Man, wo may be blown to the sea floor any minute." Th« Shops of Jermyil No. 1 Colllory D»- The quartermaster was obviously disconcerted by the attack, so much so, in fact, that he missed tho next few counts of his Indictment and came at once to the main head, which he had hoped to lead up to more gently. "It's a rise of wages that we insist on principally," he said. "Wo take It we've been signed on for this run to New Orleans under false pretenses. Nothing was said about tho sort of cargo we was to carry, which naturally incites them anarchist chaps to vlolenco. We're suffering undue risks. There's been one devil machine found already, and as like as not there is others besides. The blooming ole tramp may go up any minute, and because we're standing that risk wo say we ought to be paid according. Tho cargo can stand the pull, and if you aren't willing the hands here has made up their minds to broach it for themselves.". "We shall run into the ship tracks from all tho northern gulf ports to Europe." No. 1 ooliiery of Jermyn & at Rendham, was the soene of a serious fire at seven o'olook on April 2, the reflection of the flames In the sky being plainly visible from this violnlty. A large frame building, 50x150 feet, used as a machine shop, blacksmith shop and car shop, was totally destroyed, together its machinery, tools and other contents, valued In all at about $15,000. The building was looated about 200 feet east of the breaker and engine house, and these structures would have been in great danger had not the wind very fortunately been bl wing in the opposite direction. As It was, nothing but the shops were burned. The hose company belonging to the ooliiery was on hand and did good servioe. Tae fire did not last long, but made a fearful blaze for a short time. There is not the slightest clue as to the origin of the fire. The loss is fully covered by insuranoe In Scranton agencies. •troyed, Entailing a Lou of SI 5,000. "Sea whisky! Sea grandmother!" "MaD, sir, see with your own een. By God's guid mercy the donkeyman picked it from among the coals, or we'd l)e with him this moment—or with the deevil." "I know, and we must tako our chance of not being spotted. For a western sea there's a regular string of traffic trailing down to tho Dry' Tortugas. There you are for one. Lkh& at that old wind jamuior."Dr. Murphy was very successful In the practice of medicine, and hal gained a wide reputation, his practloe extending to all parts of the oonity. In other lines of city life he was active, and in a general way was one of Wllkesbarre's most prominent citizens. "Watch below, get forward and turn in, Watch on duty, go to your posts. (Quartermaster of the watch, tumble up here. Southwest and by sou'." "Hand It up here," the skipper com manded shortly. At this point the strong right hand of the law desoended on to the speaker's elbow, and then, because he attempted to resist, the willing right knee of the law jerked up suddenly Into the small of that anarchist's back, after which he was hauled ignominiously to a police station, and the plaoe of his speaking knew him no more. The burly donkeyman, half grinning, half afraid, came up the iron steps and handed the captain a box painted to look like a knobof coal. "It was ticking when I picked it up, sir," he said, "but when I handled it the ticking stopped." In one, evidently autobiographical, the writer spoke of himself as a "timid, frail gazelle," in another he addressed his remarks from the mouthpiece of a "ooy and cooing turtledove" to a "sylphlike maiden of haughty mien" who at the time of narration was the " bewitching, entrancing, unpur^llrU*iLit«eeniJTJfTnother gentleman's hearth. An ''Ode to Excellence" which commenced "Hairy Alfred, brother bard," was evidently directed at a contemporary, but the past was carod for in "Cleopatra, a Lament," which a footnote stated could be sung to the tune of "Greenland'8Icy Mountains." Probably as a collection Captain Kettle's was unique In Its clumsy, maudlin sentiment And Its general unexpectedness. He jerked with his thumb toward a green painted wooden Italian bark whioh was squattering past less than a quarter of a mile away, right athwart the last rays of the windy sunset. She was driving merrily homeward, sending her bows into it till the seas creamed against her catheads and darkening her jibs with brine up more than half their height. She was methodically reducing sail, and a dozen many hued pleturcsque tatterdemalions were aloft on the foretopgallant yard hammering the struggling canvas into tho gaskets. A quartermaster ran briskly up th» bridge ladder. "S'west and by sou', It is, 6ir," he replied. It was the only comment any one of the crew mado to Captain Kettle on hit method. BOGERT FOR PJ8TMA9TKR. The captain took the thing in his hand. It started on a fresh cluck, cluck, and the grimy men on the iron decks below humped their shoulders as though to better recelvo a blow and began to shuffle away toward the bows. "Oh, It may be something dangerous," said Captain Kettle and hove his burden over the side, Appointed for Wllkaabarre by the Presi- CHAPTER X TONIGHT. dent Today. But the fellow's threats had not been without their result. Every band on the Port l£des' deck had heard them distinctly, and disquiet arose under the belts of nine out of ten. The mates grew nervous and the men inattentive, and from the bridge Captain Kettle's voice and whistle kept ringing out with biting clearness. As It was, only one man attempted to put the warning Into practical effect. He was a miserable half olad wretch, a coal trimmer by rating, alrendy repentant of the spell of physical toil which be had signed on for. The long drawn out struggle for the Wilkeebarre postmastership is at an end, and E F. Bogert, editor and proprietor of the Evening Leader, who was supported for the office by ex Congressman Hlnes, comes out the victor Editor Bogert's name was sent to senate Monday by the President His chief opponent was I-Caae Livingston, a well known Wilkeebarre merchant The term of L B. Laudmeeser, as postmaster has already expired, and the new postmaster will probably tske hold as soon as his appointment Is confirmed Another day and another sky. Now the blue gulf water was as leaden and dense as that one looks upon in a hard North bob gale, and tho heavens overhead were at full of lurid grays which raced one anothei in sliding chaso till they were lost in tho northern mist drifts. The steamer rolled heavily to a steep 'beam sea, and When they could bo seen tho iron of her lowei (leeks forward and aft gleamed as though It had been new coated with ocher varnish. But this was not often, for foiDi" minutei out of every live they were fTTloU with g churning, hissing pond of greoH* and cot ton white, whioh tho scuppers could only empty piecemeal. "You great fools!" cried Kettle, "This Isn't an ordinary cargo that you can help out of and let the underwriters stand treat. You bet the tallyman won't wink at any yarn about damaged in tron alt over the stuff we're bringing them. If there's so much as a miserable half sovereign missing, the whole crowd here, oook and captain's dog, stay In a New Orleans calaboose till it's found and then come out with their tickets dirtied. Oh, you one eyed, mutton headed fools!" "The cowardly Dagos," said Kettle. "That's always their way. Snug down to topsails as soon as it gets dark, even if there's only a catspaw blowing. By James, with a breeze like this I'd be carrying royals on that old tub. And yet," he went on, with his beard in the heel of his fist and his eyes gazing out over the tumbling waters, "and yet they say thero used to lDe poetry In a craft of that sort, while tliore was nevor and never will be with a steamer. I suppose the reason is that a poet has to bo a man who knows nothing whatever about what he writes upon. I know that some chaps who string verso now»days have been on a steamboat and smelted the smells of her and seen her lines and watched the mon who do the work, and yet they make no poetry about It. But of the old crew who wrote about moaning harbor bars, and fair white pinions, and lusty wooden walls, and trusty hearts of oak, why, they know no more about the thing than a Ixindon bobbv does "or It mayn't. Looked to me like a toy to frighten flats. There's only one man with the pluck of a roach among yoti, and here's half a crown for him." The donkeyman's black forefingerknuokled his greasy cap. Meanwhile the author was fidgeting nervously. He had not got over that initial nervousness which publication gives. He hungered for a criticism—favorable if possible. At last he mado bold to ask for it. • As for the rest, your mothers mnst have suckled you on pigeon's milk and then sent you to a girls' school to dry nurse. You pack of beauties! Oh, you white livered bobby hunted gems! If the thing was found—well, found It was, and the donkeyman brought It on deck. What do you want to foul the clean air for with your foul, stinking carcasses before your watch was out? I'll log every man of you for this—yes, Mr. McFee and Mr. Second and Mr. Third, I'll dirty your tickets for you as well, or if you give me another ounce of bother I'll take care you none of you ever get another berth so long as the universe holds water to carry shipping. You cowardly hounds! Oh, you trust me!" Passing through the lock gates into the basin, the steamer's port quarter swung gently toward the wall. A sailor in readiness dropped from above and ran aft with the lanyard of a cork fender. The trlmtner jumped on the bulwarks, and on« might havo thought that be was going to bear a hand—an unnecessary hand. The sailor did so and cursed him for his offlolojuness. The donkeyman, however, Wfio was oiling the afterwfsob, had other ideas on the subject, and stood by for a rush; hence, when that trimmer was getting himself ready for a spring back on the (jueyhead, the donkeyman's long legs For St. Panl and Minneapolis, "You're a wonderful man, Kettle," returned his oompanlon, quite meaning what he said, "and unless I had seen those verses for myself I'd never have believed you capable of produolng them, no matter what had been told me about your powers."The "North-Western Limited," sumptuously equipped with buffet, smoxlng and library cars, regular and oompartment sleeping cars, and luxurloas dining cars, leaves Chicago via. the N nth-Western Line (Chioago & North-Western B'j) at 6:30 p. m dally, and arrives at destination early the following morning. All principal tloket agents sell tickets via. this popular route. 19m8tw Cambel stared at him curiously. His truculent tono had left him completely. His hands had quitted tho pistol butts and were gripped on the bridge rail. His el bows were beating nervously against his ribs. Tho time was evening, 20 hours aftei tho quelling of tho mutiny, and the three tenants of the upper bridge were the only human beings on any of tho outer docks. On the midship grating stood a highet heeled quartermaster, holding on to the spokes of tho steam wheel, browsing on plug tobacco and keeping his eyes mechanically fixed in tho jumping compass card. Alternately climbing and descending athwart ships as tho bridge swung undoi him, thi third mate took his sea constitutional lb rubber thigh boots, with hand* We have for sale at the Wyoming Valley Lumber Company yards, Wsst Pittston, Canada Hard Wood Ashes of the best quality. Parties wishing tD use a few tons for the spring orop will do well to calt on C. F. Watrous, Jr., at the Lumber Co.'a offioe, who will sell yon any quantity rcqaired from a bushel to 20 tons. Special arrangements can be made for car load lots. B. F. Mathers, lien. Manager, The poet gave a sigh of relief, and was going to pursue tho subject further when something fell upon his ear whioh turned his thought* into a very different key. From some mouth In the blacker shadow came a deep, derisive laugh. Then a voice, presumably from tho laugher, said: "Who wants to go to New Orleans? Who wants to go nearer than tho next key or reef or sand bank or whatever it may be? Let's pile up the blazing old tramp on that and then boat cruise across to Cuba. "To any man of you who value* life 1 nfer a solemn teaming." "By James, there's the engine stopped. What's up now, I wonder?" Wall paper, cheapest and beat, at Williams & McAnulty's.  torn that wanted to be a sailor. Ilka his The men slunk back Into the alleyway atraln out of shot of the skinner's tonsrue. He jumped to his feet and stood with nook craned out, listening. The ring ot Contlanrd on Fourth Page. Kingston, Pa.