I would, ere I go, eradicate the blot." With ghostly sleight of hand the figure procured a huge ink eraser from the atmosphere, and falling on Bertie commenced to rub him out. But at this point the cringing victim mercifully fainted, so that the subsequent proceedings suffered somewhat from his lack of attention.

When Mr. Sipkins came to himself dawn had broken, and the light of day was filtering in through the blinds. For a space his modicum of brain matter refused to act. Then recollection overwhelmed him like a flood, and the next moment he was out of the office, and had shot down the stairs with the swiftness and velocity of a sack of coals down a hopper.

How he reached his home he can never remember. He can only recall flinging himself into his mother's arms, and sobbing out his grievance on her ample bosom.

Although there are some inclined to the belief that Bertie dreamt the whole thing, who assert that he should have pinched himself to make sure he was awake, and argue that if he did he didn't do it hard enough or in the right place, it is none the less a fact that there is not a clerk in the establishment who would now willingly pass a night alone in that office.

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy," and Bertie evidently had the misfortune to strike one from the place that Shakespeare is too polite to mention. -By J. R. SCULLY, in The South African Railway Magazine.

AN ESCAPE.

OE GREEN, a boy ten years old, lost his father, then his mother, and was thrown out upon the world at an age when he should have been subject to the necessary training to direct him in an honorable career.

Joe was a bright boy and fitted for a better life than robbery and passing the principal part of his life in jail and the rest of it undergoing the risk of jail or something else. But the time had not come for him to show strength of character enough to enable him to break away from the path in which fate had placed him.

When he was fifteen he and some other youngsters attempted to rob a man who defended himself till a policeman arrived, and the boys were all caught in the act.

Joe, who was the youngest of the lot, was sent to a reformatory. It was one of those prisons where boys are taught some trade by which to earn an honorable living. There was a power house, with an engine to drive the machinery in the other buildings. Joe was interested in this engine as soon as he saw it and succeeded in getting himself assigned as a helper to the engineer. He began by shoveling coal into the furnace, but showed such aptitude for mechanics that he was advanced to the post of assistant engineer.

To be more explicit about Joe's aptitude, he was full of resource. Where another person would take an ordinary way to accomplish a mechanical result he would take a short way. The first notice that was taken of this faculty was one day when a machine broke. A piece of work that was due to be finished at a certain time was dependent upon it. It would require some time to procure the broken part, and it seemed that the work it was doing must stop. Joe suggested a way by which it might be temporarily repaired and the work go on. His suggestion was acted upon and the work finished in time.

Joe became so infatuated with machinery that he was anxious to get out into the world and become a machinist. He was not a patient boy-few persons whose abilities are of the kind called genius are-so his inventive brain turned toward a method of escape from the reformatory that he might go to some place where his past would not be known and enter upon a career connected with machinery. He thought over a number of plans by which he might get out of the prison, but none of them were practicable.

But at last he hit upon an original conception, one that was allied to the science of mechanics. Some mathematical knowledge was required to put it into practice, but there was a school in the reformatory which the boys were required to attend, and Joe showed a considerable aptitude in a mathematical way.

The suggestion came in this way: The power house was built against the prison wall. Besides the engine, it contained a broad leather belt turned by the shaft, the upper end running over gearing attached to the ceiling. Besides this gearing was a window, which was usually kept open in order to let out the heated air of the engine and furnace room.

One morning it occurred to Joe that the belt might possibly be used as a conveyance to carry one to the window, whence he might lower himself to the ground outside the prison wall.

But no one could jump from the belt to the window without running the risk of being dashed against it or falling to a brick yard pavement below it, or both. There was but one time when such a ride could be taken. That was when the steam had been shut off and the belt was slowing up previous to stopping its revolution. This was attended to by the engineer himself at 6 o'clock every workday evening, and there were usually other persons, prisoners or officials, about during the closing hour; therefore the feat must be performed in presence of others.

Joe found time when he was supposed to be studying to calculate a point where he could jump on to the belt, be carried to the window and stop there, though the basis of these calculations was obtained by watching the belt revolve previous to stopping, noting especially the position of the lacing with reference to the point at which the belt must be boarded.

He was months making these notations and calculations and at last was enabled to fix a point which many notations at the closing hour showed always stopped at the window.

One evening when there was no one but the engineer and Joe in the engine room the former saw the boy seize a coiled rope that he had kept ready for his purpose, jump on the belt, hold on to each edge, ride to the window and disappear. The engineer was too astonished to give an alarm, and whether he gave one at all was not settled at the investigation that followed the daring feat.

It was midwinter when Joe Green made his experiment, and it was not only dark

without, but a snowstorm was raging. Joe was never heard of again, but a much respected and wealthy contractor for machinery named Joseph Greer is living in Rio de Janeiro. He never talks about his boyhood, but has given away a fortune for the betterment of boys who are deprived of a home training and has helped hundreds of young men who have served terms in prison to a means of earning an honest livelihood. By Lucy K. WYNKOOP, in The Iowa Unionist.

S

"SAFETY FIRST."

AFETY FIRST" is a slogan heard in every American mine and shop that is keeping abreast of the times. It bespeaks a higher appreciation of human life and a recognition on the part of capital, as well as of labor, that the body of the worker is the first and most important thing to be preserved. All risk to life and limb never will be eliminated from the mine or from the great manufacturing plant. But it is possible greatly to reduce the number of accidents and to eliminate entirely those that are preventable, or that are the result of careless methods or faulty machinery.

The mining industry has caused the greatest number of fatal accidents, as well as serious injuries. The mining operators realize this fact. Last year the American Mine Safety Association was organized, which will hold its second meeting in Pittsburgh on September 22d. At this meeting all of the great mining companies of the country will be represented. The object of the organization is to increase the safety of mines, especially coal mines, by taking every possible precaution to prevent accidents and to provide for the promptest possible rescue of miners from a mine in which an accident occurs.

One of the most thoroughly organized safety systems in the world is now in operation by the United States Steel Corporation. The different branches of this great trust had been attempting to lessen the number of accidents for several years. The corporation itself had a liberal system of compensation for accidents, but the work was not systematized. A committee of

safety has now been provided to organize a harmonious safety scheme. The members are selected from the different departments and sufficient funds are provided to carry out the plans suggested. The committee has spent over $5,000,000 since its organization, but it has reduced the number of accidents 43 per cent. This means 2,600 fewer accidents and a saving to the community of at least $2,000,000 a year.

Care upon the part of the workmen is essential to the success of every safety movement. A campaign of education along this line is being conducted in almost every great industrial plant. Lectures are given the men and demonstrations of the dangers to be avoided in various parts of the works are frequent. Mottoes are printed upon the pay envelopes and upon the walls in every available place. In some plants these are changed frequently. Among the most practical are: "Remember, it is better to cause a delay than an accident." "The prevention of accidents and injuries, by all possible means, is a personal duty which everyone owes not to himself alone, but to his fellow workmen." "Let every employe be a committee of one, to prevent some one accident." "Look out for the other man; you might hurt him." "Foremen, carelessness is dangerous; if workmen insist upon being careless, discharge them."

In large shops much of the machinery is operated by electric power. So far as possible the electric wires are covered, but wherever the slightest danger of a shock is possible a large sign is displayed. One of those much used is startling enough to be understood by the most illiterate foreign workmen. It includes a skull and crossbones, a clenched hand from which radiate flames and, between them, the word "elektrika." In some shops this sign is kept illuminated by electricity. The electric illumination over some of the entrance gates to the works of the American Steel Corporation has taken the form of the following sentences:

Work for safety. Think for safety.

Talk for safety. Boost for safety.

Ideas for additional safety devices are always in demand. Some plants award prizes to workmen who suggest safety ideas for their own protection or that of other workers. That the safety movement extends to every department is evidenced by the fact that one plant has expended the sum of $32,500 to prevent accidents to lamp trimmers and window cleaners.

One of the devices which checks many accidents permits a workman caught in the machinery instantly to stop the wheel. A wire is stretched within easy reach, which is connected with the switches. This enables the man whose finger or clothing gets caught in a wheel or cog to stop the machinery by a single jerk of the elbow. The invention has already saved the loss of many arms and legs.

The United States Bureau of Mines is entitled to much credit in originating the safety campaign which is now extending into every industry. This bureau, created by Congress in 1910, has originated many of the safety devices now being introduced into the different mines. It conducts an experimental mine in Pennsylvania for the purpose of testing new methods and machinery for coal mining, designed to lessen the risk to the miners. Safety explosives have been the subject of special investigation. Over 10,000 tests were made last year in analyzing the explosives submitted for examination. The experimental mine is equipped with apparatus for recording the speed of an explosive and the pressure produced. Safety explosives are now used in many of the largest mines in the country. Aside from their advantage in safety, they are more economical than the dangerous ones formerly used.

The bureau of mines has six rescue stations located in the parts of the country where mining accidents are most likely to occur. It has also eight rescue cars which may be sent promptly to the scene of any mining disaster. At the stations and also on board the cars, mine safety lectures are delivered and instruction in rescue and first aid work given to miners who desire to take them. The interest manifested in these lectures and instructions has been

most gratifying. More than 30,000 miners attended the safety lectures last year, and more than 10,000 took part in the rescue and first aid work. About 1,000 certificates were issued to men who completed the course. These are highly prized by their recipients.

Each of the mine rescue cars contains eight oxygen helmets, a dozen safety lamps, a field telephone with 2,000 feet of steel wire, a collapsible steel mine cage, a pulmotor, and a generous outfit of the bandages and other appliances used in first-aidto-the-injured work. Each car has had a regular itinerary, stopping at different mines and demonstrating its apparatus. As a result most of the larger mines have within a few months installed modern rescue apparatus of their own. A crew of men, selected from volunteers among the miners, is trained by government experts in the operation of the apparatus.

Some features of the training are difficult and most uncomfortable for the men taking it, yet they gladly undergo the unpleasantness for the sake of the rescues it will enable them to make. One end of the car is fitted up as an air-tight room to be used in training the men in the use of the oxygen helmet. This room is filled with noxious gases. The miners wearing the helmets remain in it two hours in an atmosphere that without the helmets would kill them. Wearing these helmets, a crew can enter a mine immediately after an explosion and rescue miners who would be past help if they waited for the gases following the explosion to clear. The helmets were instrumental in rescuing twenty men who otherwise would have perished in the Cherry mine disaster.

The pulmotor is almost as important as the helmet in mine disasters. It provides artificial respiration for those who have become so overcome with gas as to be incapable of breathing naturally. This instrument was introduced into this country from Germany by the bureau of mines. Its use extends outside of mine rescue work. Life-saving stations have adopted it to resuscitate drowned persons, and it may be used to revive persons asphyxiated from any cause. American physicians saw

in it a valuable aid in saving the lives of babies apparently stillborn. Many hospitals now have in use a baby pulmotor made by the same German firm which supplies the mine pulmotors.-By FREDERICK J. HASKIN.

E

STRANGE COINCIDENCE.

DWARD M. SMITH was forty years

old and a widower. At least he passed for a widower, because he had reason to believe that a marriage he had made years before had been annulled. He had since lived a single life and became very tired of going to his lonely room every afternoon on his return from business and having to drag himself out for company in the evening.

Mr. Smith lived at a family hotel, and the room opposite to his was occupied by a Miss Isabel Jones, a spinster a few years younger than he. When Mr. Smith would come to his room in the evening Miss Jones could hear him heave a deep sigh. She knew what it meant, for she often lamented her own loneliness. She often met Mr. Smith in the corridor and was much pleased with his appearance. There was something in his figure, his walk, his face, that reminded her of someone she had known, but who this person was she could not for her life recall.

One evening Mr. Smith was asked to take a hand at bridge whist in the hotel drawing room. Miss Jones was one of the players and Mr. Smith's partner. After that when the two met in the corridor or in the diningroom they exchanged greetings. Mr. Smith asked himself, "Why should this lady and myself live alone in the world when we can as well be companions?" Then he would think of the uncertainty overhanging him with regard to his previous marriage. How inconsiderate is youth! Instead of making an effort to learn the exact truth he had drifted on from day to day, month to month, year to year, without doing so.

The marriage took place when he was nineteen years old. He was a clerk in a store. A girl barely sixteen came in one day to look at some ribbons. She was pretty, and the clerk was affable. He un

rolled a great many ribbons and got them all in a tangle. Perhaps this had something to do with that other tangle into which he and the girl insensibly drifted. How easy lovemaking was when they were in their teens-far easier than at forty! The first thing they knew they were married. It did not seem of much more importance then than drinking a glass of soda water together. Now wedlock appeared like jumping off a cliff in the dark, not knowing whether there was rock or water beneath.

They had gone to drive together and incidentally called upon a parson, who had married them. Then they drove back to town, pulled up before a confectioner's, where they partook of ice cream, and after that separated, the girl going home, the boy back to his place of business. The secret was not long kept. The two were seen too often together. The girl's parents grew suspicious. They forbade her to see her boy lover, whereupon she confessed her marriage.

They took her away-he knew not where -but she contrived to get a letter to him telling him that she was in New York. He had a few hundred dollars, which he got together and started for that city. Despite the watchfulness of her parents they communicated and laid a plan to sail together for a foreign country. The young husband, learning that a ship was about to sail for Rio de Janeiro, engaged passage for himself and his wife, and, meeting her by appointment, they agreed that they would go to the steamer separately and not meet till after it had left port and was well out at sea. This would facilitate their eluding the bride's parents.

On the day the vessel sailed the bride's mother caught her doing some packing and, becoming suspicious, locked her daughter in her room. The groom boarded the vessel before the other passengers began to go up the gangway and hid himself. It was not until the ship had passed beyond the bay and was standing out at sea that he left his hiding place and began to look about him for his wife. She was nowhere to be found.

It was some time before he made up his mind that she had been left behind. Then he wondered that he had not thought of such a contingency and laid his plans to prevent it. His wife was at home and he on his way to South America, with no stop until he arrived there. But was this last move any more inconsiderate than the marriage?

When young Smith reached Rio de Janeiro he had $12 in his pocket and no more. A new problem stared him in the face. He must sleep somewhere and eat. He could find places to sleep and buy things to eat till his money was gone, and so long as it lasted he was troubled about his bride, but when it was all gone and he began to get hungry his attention was drawn from sentiment to stomach. When he got very hungry he met an American coffee merchant, who gave him a job in his office. From this time romance for Edward Smith retired and reality took its place.

came

He wrote his wife, but without much hope of her receiving his letters. Nor did she. She confessed her intended flight to her parents, and they took every precaution to keep her from her husband. They did not know where he was till a letter from him post-marked Rio de Janeiro. They opened it and from its contents discovered that the affair was in a very satisfactory condition-i. e., from their standpoint. They at once applied for an annulment of their daughter's marriage on the ground that both she and her husband were under age when they were married.

Smith was offered a position on a coffee plantation in the interior and accepted it. This led him out of the world for many years. Legal documents concerning the dissolution of his marriage tie were sent to him, but never reached him. His object at first was to make money enough to get back to New York and secure possession of his wife. But he was a long while accumulating the necessary funds. He met with setbacks and advances that never seemed to get to a point where he could break away and go home. And so he drifted on and, not hearing from his wife, at last concluded that her parents had dominated her and had probably secured an