The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1889-10-02
THE KISS or DEATH.


uEE0 IN ~ ~ sA-s - L
novelist can't lead n story mp to IT," said
Prof. Boycscn OF Columbia college as he
sat In q group Of friends at the Authors
club.
I've found that the best schemes for odd
fiction are prostrated by the necessary
death OF the principals without disclosing
the material for q climax"
Editor al An Glide. what Of s Ssa c %san;' s sass
a<iae, ''and I wonder why some
of you gentlemen don't extend
"a romance beyond dcatl-say by means
Of n spiritualistic communication from
the actors. Now You, Prof. Smith, you're
u scientist, why don't you do it?"
The gentleman thus addressed, says q
New York letter to the Cincinnati En-
quirer' was Prof. Brainard Garner Smith
Of Cornell university.
sand have the start Of Il in mind
now," Prof. Smith replied. 'Once, when
I was in journalism. 1 had occasion to go
! over a pile of old Liverpool newspapers,
and thus came upon a remarkable p1ra-,
graph i'm the ship news. Transtateds'o,t
Of the language OF commerce. IT was to
arrived from Austraiia, reported that
while rounding the Cape OF Good Hope:
she had been driven southward far out OF
the Southern Atlantic had sighted a yes-
sci drifting aimlcssly about: The first
that the dercIict was the ship Aibatross.
That she had been abandoned was plain,
for all the boats were gone, and so were
the deck close by the companion
hatch, lay two bodies. or rather Skeletons,
clad in wcather~rotted garments that
showed them to- have been man and wo-
man. These bodies were hcadless, but
tie beads wsTs aowh TS. to @a be found ON
ing on it's pages. A pen hay on the table
. had evidently long since dried. The book
was evidently. a journal or diary, so the
m meani EsP1 to earr nHa !, n nSd n.as ' the ne E%% pSs
but whom he was getting down into his
small boat the hook dropped into the
badly waterloeged and he Thoughts could
not have fioated much longer. To thisr re
saying = that the readers would all doubt:
Z less remember that the Albatross had
sailed from Liverpool several years
thought to have gone down with all on
hoard, as no news of her has since been
received. That was the substance of the
remarkable paragraph. What was almost
as remarkable to me, a newspaper man,
} that the Liverpool had evidently
made no effort to learn the owners name
Of the Albatross, the name Of her captain
and crew, or whether or not she carried
iiIes to see Il there was any further refer
ence to the case. There was nOne. After
the manner of his kind the editor of the
paper had, SO il seemed, taken ii Tor
granted that his intelligent readers would
remember all the particulars that they
ga few weeks after that 1 went into
northern Vermont to report the Benton
/. murder trial, which was ATTRACTING mnct
an old classmate Of mine, hut not pleased
mentioned the hcadless bodies to him
and, as a joke, asked him to %conjure the
INV, %y,s sp.r,'S Wen W Il Se we sri. DO ,o aa 20 S'''e '"'
"And failed, Of COURSE" i~ntcrposed Ed
.:--p -x-~.:c,, .na svxD TDrDf
Smiths face and he said:
"Oh, no; we got the whole story through
thur Hartley and Helen Rankins,' and IN
sr"Sictioa. "it was Hartley whose com
medium, and this il what he said:
Helen and We're passengers aboar
me a fortune. He was coniident that a
explosive of his invention would wor
such ond i'm Australian. mines tina
land rich beyond the dreams of avarics
One day Uncle John got into a hot discus
ticacy Of the wonderful explosive con
pound. The captain seemed doubt
Uncle John was for the instant angry, +,
'"Trn show you. them he said, and b
rushed into the cabin where his boxt
were stored and came out shortly with tw
tin cans, each holding something les
than a pint. He unsrrewed the top {
one, disclosing powder. TAX
care!' said the captain, WHO seemed nee
rtl
"'Why. I thought you said IT. was use
Tess,' said Uncle John, with a laugh 'an
yet you are afraid of it,. Look here I
lighted a match and held il close to II
powder. A dark smoke arose that 4
stantly e~xtin2uished the little flame ar
coated oil, leaving n queer smell benin
That was all.
".Pe rfectly harmless, captain cont
ued uncle, who had now recovered h
usual good nature. Perfectly harmless
unless you wet It. Then look out ~
"Ehe cook made a sort OF dumping Z
dinner and n great lot of IL RENAME
Uncle John took a mass OF this dough. I
it was little else, squeezed until il w
< quite dry. and moulded il into N ba
\ Zone with me,' he said, and, Arth,
bring a plate OF that dough vi
you.' He took the cans and '
followed him to the deck. There
carefully covered the ball of dough wi
the powder and going to the rail threw
as far as he could ont over the placid 81
As the ball struck the water there was
loud explosion and the spray was throw
high into the air. The crew. who Ia
been hanging over the rail forward. turn
and rushed over to see what was up. L
Gle John made another ball and threw
with like result.
"Oh, houly torpctcrs!" growled one
the men, and they turned back to tin
places. Uncle John now evidently aI
ious to give us thorough proof of
value of his compound was for throwi
more balls. when the boatswain, roili