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and elaborate restaurants, whose diners little dream what labor was entailed to get those shining metals clear for their opulent flyer. In Canada one may see in the Rocky Mountain section eight linked engines charging impotently against colossal snow-banks. A marvelous sight in dense darkness, with each roaring and hissing locomotive throwing a fitful light on the wood-laden tenders, and great snow walls, from which emerge here and there tall silent trees that seem to press round and mock by their awful stillness this useless fuss and fury. And when dawn comes you will see the rotary, with its twelve-foot rosette flange, boring its way amid a graceful arch of silver dust, flung rainbow-wise into the freezing air to descend like fountains over the half-buried posts of the telegraph.

Nor are the British Companies free from this trouble, especially in Scotland. The Highland Railroad is perhaps the worst sufferer; and the Sutherland and Caithness section will be totally blocked eight or ten times each winter by wreaths many miles long and forty feet deep. In such a drift two or three trains may be entombed for a whole week and it is a

difficult and dangerous business to feed the marooned passengers and get out the mails.

One snow-wreath on the Inverness and Perth Line was attacked by two hundred and thirty men with scarcely a break for two months before a single train could be got through. The snow nearly reached the telegraph wires. Traffic was totally closed for six weeks, and whole trainloads of fish and live stock were lost. Given certain conditions on the Highland Railroad in winter, a strong breeze will obliterate the railroad track in five minutes, even though no snow may be falling at the time. A striking feature of the landscape from the Perthshire Grampians to the shores of Pentland Firth are the snow-screens and corrugated iron slopes intended to frustrate both snow and sand, driven into the cuttings on the bleak moors of Caithness and Sutherland. Another Scottish Company, the North Eastern, has lost as much as $5,000,000 in one winter through snow; this enormous sum including loss of traffic.

But perhaps the special enemy of the railroad in the old countries is the

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THE ROTARY SNOW-PLOW CHARGING A BIG DRIFT ON THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY.

Fog-Fiend. The Midland Railroad of England pays $50,000 a year to men who place detonating fog-signals on the tracks; besides. $15,000 for the little hollow metal discs themselves. The London and North Western Railroad frequently uses 20,000 detonators during twenty-four hours of a bad fog. But we may be

sure that no matter what new move the forces of Nature make to embarrass the railroad companies of the world, the brains and intelligence controlling these corpo

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Scene along the Highland Railway, Scotland. Waiting for the Surfacemen to dig them out.

rations will always devise means of getting the upper hand. It must be so, otherwise we should be deprived of one of our most vital necessaries in complex modern life.

Thus, when Nature has done her worst along come the busy gangs to repair the

damage and plant new and improved defences that win victory and then stand tentative another season, until their designers see how the protean enemy take them, and what new move will be attempted as a counter-attack. Yet Nature always has some new surprise for them.

A Quiet Life

Warm fireside nooks-the newest books,

A chummy friend like you,
A wife that's fair-an easy-chair-
A bowl and pipes for two,
A song or two, the kind that woo

Our thoughts from care and strife,
A mind that's bent on sweet content;
This is the Happy Life.

-BY HARVEY PEAKE, in The Bohemian.

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OLDEN went carefully over a formula in his mind, as he sat by his laboratory. table intently watching the solution in the test-tube before him.

Then he added the contents of a small vial, drop by drop. As the liquid from the vial settled in independent globules to the bottem he arose to his feet, the better to watch the chemical action that was taking place.

The globules sank slowly down. Just before reaching the bottom, they shattered and an ebulition began which, gradually rising upward, took on a glow of a wholly strange and unnatural light, increasing in intensity momentarily.

John Holden had passed through many trying and some thrilling experiences in his search for knowledge on chemical matters, but this experiment, the final test upon the value of months of arduous, painful work and experiment, was to cap the climax, to set the crown of genuine discovery upon his efforts.

But already the glow in the tube was proving strong to a degree of which he had never dreamed. So intense, so powerful was it that it seemed to be gaining a hold upon him, upon body and mind, demonstrating a slow but growing mastery over the brain that had created it;

and he leaned upon the table, unnerved and helpless. Startled first, then astonished, he grew quickly terrified by this Frankenstein of light he had unknowingly brought into existence. It seemed fairly to penetrate his brain and to numb his faculties, and suddenly he felt its power strike in upon him like some superhuman force which grappled with his mind and conquered. Something hissed in his ears like the tongues of serpents. He straightened up in an agony of pain, at once physical and mental, and, clasping his hands over his searing eyeballs, he fell back into his chair and thence, unconscious, to the floor.

It was midnight when the final experiment had reached its climax. When Holden opened his eyes again, the sunlight was struggling through the crevices of the shutters and mingling with the garish gas-light. With dizzy head and aching muscles, he slowly dragged himself from the floor to his chair. Amazement and dismay possessed him first, then the scientific mind forgot all else in searching for new knowledge to be gained from the experience. He pondered upon the exact conditions that had brought so strange a result.

But the events of the night seemed far back in the past-all but the memory of

that blasting light which remained like a fire in his brain. Nothing in the room appeared changed in any way except the glass which had held the solution; that was empty and dry, and had passed through such a shattering experience that, as he picked it up from the table, it crumbled into particles in his hand.

But he could see with his usual distinctness. Before his eyes brown spots seemed to float which annoyed him excessively. His nerves were on edge from the shock they had received and rest seemed imperative before study could be resumed. He donned his coat, therefore, drew on his gloves and descended to the street, calculating to take a cab to his home up town.

He walked slowly down to the corner of the block, his gaze upon the flag-stones and his tired mind striving to throw off thoughts of the strange results of his experiment. At the street intersection he paused and looked about. A mangy dog ambled aimlessly across his path and his eyes followed it idly. Suddenly the animal gave a startled yelp of pain, bit savagely at a place on its back and went scurrying down the street as if pursued by the seven devils.

John watched the cur until it was hidden from sight by passing vehicles. He wondered vaguely at its behavior, but forgot it presently. He turned his eyes upon a portly old gentleman passing, who suddenly appeared to be behaving

strangely. He started, struck at something on his neck, and stumbled against a young lady carrying a music-roll. John glanced at the girl and, almost instantly, her hand went to her cheek and she gave a little shriek of surprise and pain. A dozing police-officer was roused from his resting place against a lamp-post. The valiant officer, with visions of mad dogs before him, waddled forward, but, as he came within the range of John's vision, he abruptly commenced fighting the air before his face, as if brushing away a host of wasps. Then grasping his club in a firmer grip, he started away on a run down the course the dog had taken.

John, to whom the antics of the trio seemed inexplicable, watched with interest the unusual activity of the blue-coated guardian of the peace, while the others hurried their respective ways.

The brown spots. danced before his eyes in increased quantities, but he laid it to the glaring daylight and his last night's work. As an uptown car came by, he partially shielded his aching optics with his hand and swung aboard. There were but few passengers and he walked to the forward end of the car. Taking a seat he gazed idly through the front window up the street. How the brown spots annoyed him. annoyed him. They seemed more aggressive than before and he closed his eyes and leaned back wearily in his seat.

At the junction of a cross-town line, the car speedily filled up, but John

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remained in his corner with eyes closed. A faint breath of perfume was wafted to his nostrils and a rustling of feminine garments aroused him to the fact that he sat while a lady stood. He opened his eyes and beheld a young lady clutching a strap as if it were the only tie that bound her to earth. As he stole a glance at her unusually charming face, he straightway lifted his hat and arose precipitately to his feet. She thanked him demurely for the seat and, as she sat down, lifted her veil and rubbed her cheek with nervous vigor. John, whose six feet one of athletic manhood disdained to use dangling straps, leaned against the door.

hair of an unwilling schoolboy, John's glance slowly traveled. From his position in the front of the car, he had them all in range. And suddenly it was as if some strange frenzy had seized them all. Slapping, fighting blindly, men women seemed almost with one accord to take up this strange wild form of calisthenics, till they appeared like a band of lunatics afflicted with a gesticulating mania. One hand, often both, were busy, endeavoring to fend off some enemy of the air attacking their faces.

A whimsical idea occurred to Holden that he must be in the midst of a secret society whose members were practicing the grand hailing sign of distress.

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"IT WAS AS IF SOME STRANGE FRENZY HAD SEIZED THEM ALL."

Following his usual habit, he studied the faces of his fellow passengers. It was a representative New York car-full made up of men and women from nearly every station in life. From the heavy face of the stalwart purveyor of bricks and mortar in the farthest corner, to the disdainful one of the velvet-coated cloak model, close at hand; from the choleric countenance of a pompous old gentleman to the shining face and plastered

Glances of indignation, then ugly, suspicious looks were thrown about the car. Several muttered imprecations of undeniable profanity, and ejaculations, whose bitterness was deep, began to fill the air. And, through it all, John stood immune, a mark for suspicion through his very immunity.

Astonished at their behavior, yet realizing that he was in a strange position, John turned and gazed out of the door

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