The Washington herald., 1913-07-20

Frederick w. Steckman. weii-khoWn
Washington correspondent. used to work
| on little paper in his native town.
down in Missouri. While there II was
Steckman's good fortune to solve mys-
terry that had the town agog for weeks
and weeks.
II was not a murder mystery, and
there was no hint OF crime in connection
with IT, but II. nevertheless, was real
mystery; and Steckman became the hero
Of the little place when he published his
solution
The mystery was about nothing more
or less than the funny way the electric
lights carried on at night. They would
go out all OF a sudden. without warning.
then on again. in a second on again.
and all such strange carrying on as that.
Electric lights were still a novelty in
the little place. and everything they did
caused talk. The futtering of the light
annoyed any one who happened to be
reading but the light itself caused much
less distraction than wondering what
made the light do II. Citizens appealed
to the manager OF the light company,
and he In turn went to the plant with
experts and tried to ascertain what allied
the dynamos or the rest OF the outfit.
They could find nothing wrong. The
nice. new machinery seemed to be work
ing right up to specifications. Yet every
night occurred the funny goings on and
on Of the lights. Not only the lights in
the homes and stores. but on the street
corners. were in on the mystery. After
a time 1t was about all the people talked
about. Not that 1t natIered SO much.
you understand; they simply struggled
against the idea OF nurtufing a mystery
adv cd q
theory that II was due to local meteoro-
logical conditions, and others thought
the whole town was improperly wired or
something like that, and that some day
every dwelling house in town would be
set on fire. So the theories and hypo-
theses grew and multiplied. but the
mystery remained. The lights fiuttered
usually around dinner time or, rather.
supper time. as II was still known in
those parts-and again about 10 o'clock.
Frederick Steckman had given a great
deal OF thought to the problem. but with
no hope Of making headway until one
night. He was standing in the lobby of
the little postoffice discussing the mystery
with other citizens when he noticed a
young woman. the daughter of a leading
butcher, walk by and chuckle to her
self Something in the talk about the
light mystery had made her chuckle. ap-
parently. and Steckman wondered why,
He made inquiries and learned that she
was a young woman who kept company"
with the engineer at the light plant.
Wi that tip to act on Steckman made
short work of the mystery. Just how he
traced il out is of less interest than his
conclusions. He found that the fitting
on and off of the lights comprised love
signals. Just that. The engineer at the
light plant did not have enough to oc-
Gu. his time. and when the machinery
was all running nicely, he let his mind
dwell on the beautiful young woman on
whom he had centered his affections. At
the twilight hour he flashed a signal that
meant: I'm thinking Of you. True, 1t
reached not her alone: yet it did, too.
for she was the only one who understood.
The engineer was sorry about the annoy
ance his signals caused other citizens.
and If there had been any wy to have
a private circuit to the young woman's
home he would gladly have confined him.
self to that Late in the evening when
he was obliged to stay at the light sta
ton instead of calling at her home, he
never failed to send a flash that, by
their secret code. meant: Wish I were
near you. And so on.
The engineer would have been less per-
sistent at his signalling II she had given
him more encouragement in his suit for
her hand. As it was he felt that he
must do something to prove his love. She
had twitted him when the signals became
the town talk. and said that he would
probably get scared OUT and cease to flash
the messages So he dared no: stop. In
fact, he fell into the habit then. when
he felt completely carried away by his
love of footing a sharp blast or two on
the whistle. II was this whistlmg that