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parted, the coaling apparatus is detached from the forward ship without damage and can then be recovered by the collier. This is an important feature, as all liability to excessive strain on the masts of either ship is thus avoided. The diagram shows the method of operation. The sea anchor is necessary to steady the collier.

By means of these cableways, battleships can take coal at any time from any masted vessel.

This system has been adopted by the United States Government and is used on a number of the first-class battleships, including the Illinois and the Massachusetts.

Life Stories of Successful Men

Prince Hilkoff

The Wonderfully Romantic Career of the Russian Minister of Railways— Its Message of Encouragement and Hopefulness

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By HENRY M. HYDE
Editorial Writer on the Chicago Tribune

ORN on the vast estates of his princely father, with the prestige of four hundred years of nobility behind him, it might be supposed that the career of Prince Hilkoff, the Imperial Russian Minister of Railways and Transportation, would have little of inspiration about it for a poor boy born in a cabin and forced to climb upward by his own unaided efforts.

But when you know that Hilkoff came to the United States as a poor emigrant, and under the name of John Magill entered the Pennsylvania Railroad shops at Philadelphia at a wage of $1 a day; that he worked for several years as a railroad brakeman and engineer, and finally rose still as John Magill-to be super

intendent of a railroad in South America; that he went back to Russia-still under an assumed name-and by sheer merit, as an obscure railroad employee, forced his way upward until he attracted the attention of the Great White Czar, one of whose trusted ministers he has since been-then you begin to realize that what Michael Hilkoff has done in the world is fit to stir the pulse and rouse the ambition of even the most sluggish.

Let no man or woman lose heart or confidence so long as it is possible for a boy born in the Russian purple, and fallen from that dizzy height to the position of a common laborer, to climb again under another name, dignified by no other title than that of a master of his business, to

a place much greater and nearer to the throne than that he originally occupied. If such a thing can be done under the despotic government of Russia, what may not be accomplished in a freer and less caste-ridden country?

It was the emancipation of the serfs by the great Czar Alexander II, grandfather of the present Emperor, which ruined the father of Prince Michael Hilkoff (or, as it is spelled in Russian, Khilkov), and sent the son forth into exile as plain John Magill. It was the thorough knowledge of mechanical and locomotive engineering, acquired in the United States, which made it possible for John Magill to go back to Russia and rise again to a more than princely estate.

Prince Michael Hilkoff looks like a typical down-east Yankee of the old school. In the proper costume, he might easily pose as Uncle Sam himself, for his short white goatee, and his thin, erect figure, with its broad shoulders and long legs and arms, are all in character.

He has paid, in all, three visits to the United States. He came first in 1857. At that time he was a young Russian swell of twenty-one. While a student at the University of St. Petersburg, he had read, in a French translation, the Leatherstocking novels of Fenimore Cooper, and they had first aroused his interest in the wonderful country beyond the ocean. At sixteen he was an officer in the Empress's Guards and something of a favorite at court. Then he persuaded one of his old tutors to accompany him on a visit to the United States. He bore personal letters of introduction to the President of the United States and to other prominent people; and during his stay of several months he saw much of country and was fêted by society. Returning to Russia, he became an official of the Czar's

court.

A little later, in 1861, came the emancipation of the serfs, which almost impoverished his father, who demanded that the son leave the service of the Czar. A bitter quarrel followed between father and son, as a result of which Michael Hilkoff renounced his ancestral titles and estates, resigned his office at court, and sailed for America as a common emigrant. He landed at Philadelphia, and his poverty was so great that to secure

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"Magill, heh?" snapped back the busy foreman. "Well, what's your first name?"

"John," answered the Prince, deciding on the moment that that would do as well as anything. And so he was fitted with a new name which served him for a good many years.

After a year or two in the machine shops, during which the Prince was studying mechanical engineering, he found a place as brakeman on a freight train. Later he became a locomotive engineer, and he added to the practical knowledge acquired in that way a thorough technical and theoretical knowledge acquired by study after hours.

Presently he was promoted again. This time he became superintendent of a railroad down in South America. There, also, he served several years; when, finally, a longing for his old home in Rus

sia seized him, which he was not able to resist. He went back, still concealing his princely name and station, and secured a place on one of the Russian railroads. It was an obscure place in an obscure Russian village, but Michael Hilkoff, or John Magill, was not destined to remain in obscurity.

Presently an emergency arose, connected with the movement of trains at the junction point where he was stationed; and in that emergency the technical skill and practical training of Hilkoff showed itself in a way to attract the attention of his immediate superiors, and to win, in the end, even the notice of the Czar himself.

Under orders from headquarters

he was promoted as rapidly as he showed capacity for a higher place. Finally, under close questioning, he revealed his identity as a Russian Prince, and as a former officer in the Guard of the Russian Empress. Then followed the story of his romantic and inspiring career as an emigrant to America, and of his work there as a railroad man and student.

The Russian Emperor was delighted to find that the young man who had displayed such great capacity and skill was one of his own subjects. He restored to the master of railroading all the princely estates which he had voluntarily given up years before, and he added other and even more desirable marks of his personal favor. Presently Prince Michael Hilkoff was made Imperial Minister of Railways

and Transportation, and became a member of the Cabinet of the Czar.

Hilkoff's masterwork and the monument by which he will be longest remembered, is the great Trans-Siberian railroad, to the construction and equipment of which he, next to the Emperor, lent the greatest impetus.

When it came to ordering the cars and equipment for the Trans-Siberian passenger trains, Hilkoff knew where to turn for ideas. He came back to the United States, and spent some weeks in inspecting the "brag" trains of the great Eastern roads. This was his third visit to this country, and it would be hard indeed to imagine three visits made by the same person under more strongly contrasting circumstances. The first visit was made by a rich and luxurious young Prince, accompanied by a tutor and a servant or two; the second visitor was a poor immigrant, glad to find work at a dollar a day; the third time came again a Prince, but now also one of the most trusted ministers of the Czar, traveling in private cars as the guest of railroad presidents over some of the track where he once rode as an humble employee in the cab of a freight engine.

It is much easier to climb up from a place of comparative obscurity than it is to fall to the bottom from a high round on the ladder, and then to remount it again to the top. That is what Hilkoff has done. He has set an example which should encourage hundreds of men now struggling in discouragement.

Education and Success

AN UNEDUCATED CHILD has one chance in 150,000 of attaining distinction as a factor in the progress of the age.

A common school education increases his chance nearly four times.

A high school education increases the chance of the common school child

twenty-three times, giving him eightyseven times the chance of the uneducated. A college education increases the chance of the high school boy nine times, giving him 219 times the chance of the common school boy and more than 800 times the chance of the untrained.-The World's Work.

Extermination of Fruit-Tree Pests

The Most Effective Methods of Fighting the Destructive Scale which has Given Much Trouble in the West and South

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By D. A. WILLEY

ROBABLY the greatest enemy with which the fruit growers of the West and South have to contend, is the insect known as the "scale." There are several varieties of this pest, and unless means are taken for its destruction, it causes much damage to orchards of citrus fruits, frequent instances being known where it has destroyed thousands of trees in one locality.

The damage occasioned by scale insects is of two kinds. The principal injury is the extraction of the juices of the plant. The scale is really a minute pumping machine, continually absorbing the sap from the tree. It consists of a mere sack with a sucking attachment, the latter consisting of a long, slender proboscis or beak, which is thrust deeply into whatever portion of the tree the insect may be resting upon-bark or leaf. While the amount of sap extracted by a single scale insect is very small, when multiplied by millions it greatly depletes the juices of the plant. Very often the amount taken up by the scale is greatly in excess of its own needs, and is excreted in the form of the so-called "honeydew," which accumulates in drops, and which spreads out over the bark or leaf in the form of a sticky liquid. This liquid attracts ants in great numbers, which leads to the impression that the ants are doing the injury instead of being attracted by the honeydew, which they are actively collecting.

The second form of injury caused by scale insects results largely from this honeydew excretion, which not only spreads over the leaves and fruit and prevents the normal respiration of the leaves and the development of the tree, but develops a black fungus in the sweetish liquid that ultimately covers thickly the leaves, twigs, and fruit, thus reducing the marketable value of the products.

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ing the summer months, and especially from May to August, though they continue with very little check until October or November. In the winter season or rainy season, they are more dormant and, while breeding continues to a greater or less extent, it is at a very much lessened rate.

Several methods of fighting these pests have been devised, which are of unusual interest owing to their novelty. One of the most successful plans which has been adopted in California, is known as "gassing." The trees are literally fumigated with a gas composed of cyanide of potassium and sulphuric acid combined with a certain percentage of water. The strength of the gas used varies according

to the size and age of the tree, the fumes for the young trees being the weaker. In applying the gas, the trees are enclosed in tents of suitable sizes. Some of the larger tents are of such dimensions that a tree 35 feet in height can be completely enclosed by means of the apparatus used. Tents of the size shown in the photograph have a diameter of no less than 76 feet. In making them, a center piece of army duck is cut out, 50 feet square, to which are attached four flaps, also of

meated in a few moments, and the operator must act quickly to prevent being overcome by the gas, which is extremely dangerous. The effect of the gas is apparently to smother the young insects and to destroy the eggs which may be exposed. Some varieties of the pest, however, are covered with what naturalists term "armor," and require two or three applications of the gas before they are destroyed.

It is necessary to expose the tree to the

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duck. Then around the sheet is sewed a strip of 6-ounce duck a yard in width, to reinforce the material.

For raising and drawing the tent about the tree, a piece of manila rope is sewed around the border of the central piece forming the tent, to which are attached rings. Through these run ropes connected with pulleys that are fastened to the timbers supporting the tent. Usually two stout poles are sufficient to hold the tent erect, one being placed on either side of the tree to be treated. Then, by means of the ropes, the cover is pulled over the top, and encircles the tree until it is completely covered. The gas is placed in an earthen vessel, and set on the ground beneath. The fumes rise so rapidly that the space enclosed is per

fumes for only a few minutes, when the tent can be removed and the operation repeated elsewhere. Thus, with an equipment of twelve or fifteen tents, a group of fifty of the largest-sized peach or orange trees can be easily treated in one night by four or five men. Small trees and nursery stock can be gassed very rapidly. In California as many as 300 have been treated in some instances in twelve hours, with an equipment of forty tents.

Another method of getting rid of the scale is by the use of steam engines operating force pumps. The engine is mounted upon a truck built specially for the purpose; and the pump which it operates is connected with a reservoir containing a solution used to attack the scale. Such is the power of the pump that it will

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