Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-27

for the past two weeks he had been get
ting grand total of one egg day from
more than fifty hens. The next morning
Smith told n narrowing tale of having been
disturbed the night before by noises in
his hen house. and having gone out to
investigate had found the chickens crowded
up in the corners almost frightened to death.
He wondered what had happened. Several
of the passengers suggested different
causes that might have frightened the
chickens, and then Brown piped up.
Smith. he said there wasn't any weasel
after your chickens. One of your hens
laid egg and it frightened all the rest
of them 10 death. That's all And accord
ing to my positive knowledge the copl-
muter continued. Smith and Brown aren t
any too cordial to each other nowadays
< * * X y
1t is wearisome enough job at best that
those senators have who are members of the
Senate interstate commerce committee,
which Is now investigating the railroad rate
problem. That is. it is bag enough when
the witnesses called before the committee
stick to their text and do not digress. but
when one comes along and wanders hum
dred miles afield the subject becomes abso-
lutely distressing. Only the other day a
scientific gentleman appeared before the
commission. He started out all right, but
before long he was talking about things
about as relevant to the railroad rate prob
lem in the United States as the price of
dried fish in Tokyo.
When l meet one of those fellows re-
marked Senator Clapp of Minnesota. after
the hearing was over, cit always reminds
me of a young minister who came to our
town to preach when I was a boy. He was
a scientific divine, was this man, and he
never let himself be hampered or restricted
in his sermons. That was his reputation
and well remember the first time he gave
out his text. 'Brethern,' he said, 1 will
take for my text today the Universe and
God. 1 will admit the existence of God.
but will now proceed to discuss the ques-
ton of the Universe
THAT preacher was mighty like some of
the witnesses we have heard" concluded
Senator Clapp with a regretful shake of his
head
There Is a twelve-year-old boy living in
lexington who Is cut out for a lOng-dis-
lance Splinter and If he keeps up his
training will some day be heard from in
athletic circles. He gave an exhibition of
long-dstance running the other evening
that rather surprised those who witnessed
1t. AS the south-bound car rounded the
circle at North Capitol and Q streets he
darted from the curb and swung on to the
| rear step on the inside of the tracks.
| There was quite crowd the platform
| and some of the men standing there feared
that the boy would get hurt. One of them
told him So But the boy persisted in
hanging on to the hand rail. Finally, one
Of the men caught him by the wrist and
attempted to loosen his hold. For a mo-
ment the boy held his grip, but eventually
the greater strength of the man prevailed
and the boy let go. He sprang to the
ground and ran to the curb, where he
picked up a stone and hurled 1t with all
his force at the man who had caught his
hand. The stone hit the car step a re-
sounding whack and would have done some
injury had 1t hit the mark at which the
boy aimed it. Angered at his failure TO
hit the man. that boy began chase after
the car That stern chase is long
chase was never more wildly Illustrated.
| The car stopped on an average of about
every two blocks but between stops was
| running fully up to the speed limit for
street cars. Yet that boy never slackened
his speed. but kept on after the car block
after block, gaining when the car stopped
and almost catching 1t and then falling
back when 1t set down to its full speed
gait A dozen times he was within few
feet of his object, the taunts Of the man
urging him on 10 still greater bursts of
speed Then the car would draw away and
he would be left a block behind. He ran
until the car was rounding the circle at
Massachusetts avenue and LIST street, at
which point another burst of speed was
taken on by the machine and no stop was
made until 9TH street was reached This
final achievement on the part OF the car
was too much for the boy and no more
was seen of him But. as one of the pas
sengers who watched the chase said II that
boy keeps up that spirit of determination
throughout life he will make a success OF
whatever he undertakes, for not everything
| can escape him as did the street car.