davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05
the sum mentioned by the Courier.

the sum mentioned by the Courier
Informant.
Further, the tax list is printed per-
fectly, correctly, and in proper form;
in exactly the same form it was
printed last year; in exactly the
same form that is used by the other
papers of the State; in exactly the
same form that the Courier-Infor-
mant drew pay for printing it every
year for about quarter of a century.
In fact, there is absolutely nothing
the matter with the tax list except
that it is printed in Lakeland paper
instead of in the Courier-Informant. 1t
would, perhaps, have been too much
to expect that the list could come to
Lakeland for the second time in thir-
ty years without raising fuss about
it. 1t is SUCH littleness and selfish
ness that has caused the hard feel
ings between Lakeland and Barlow
which have existed in the past-which
have been so much deplored by the
real people both of Barlow and Lake
land-and which the Lakeland News
and the Evening Telegram have done
more probably than any other agency
to allay and overcome.
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05
MEETING Of MERCHANTS
TO PROTEST AGAINST
FREIGHT RATE INCREASE

The Retail Merchants Bureau are
are being asked by the chairman to
meet tomorrow friday evening at
the Chamber of Commerce rooms at
1880 for the purpose of securing
some definite action with regard to
the protest which is being made all
over the State against the attempt of
the railroads to secure in the State
that which the Interstate Commerce
Commission has denied, namely, an
increase of fifteen per cent in freight
rates. This increase was denied by
the Interstate Commission for the
reason that the railroads were un-
able to show at that time any actual
need for this increase, in view of the
large increased earnings of the roads
during the past two or three years.
Denied this as an interstate measure,
the roads are now endeavoring to get
the increase through on an intra-
state plan, and a meeting is to be
held sometime this month, in this
part OF the State, to allow for hear
ing on the part of protestants. Nine
towns in Central Florida (neighbor-
ing territory sent delegations to Tai
lahassee to appear before the Inter
state Commission and these towns
are anxious to have other towns,
which did not join in the former
hearing, get in and help in the fight.
This increase in freight rates, if
allowed, will be a serious burden for
the merchants and consumers to bear
land all merchants are consumers)
and at the meeting of the merchants
on Friday night this matter will be
thoroughly discussed and plans made
for joining in the campaign with the
other towns in this territory.
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05
NOTICE TO PROPERTY OWNERS

The City Commissioners will sit as
the Board of Equalization of Taxes
Tor Ward beginning Friday. July
. at 500 a. M, and continuing
from day to day. Now is the time
10 appear before this board to have
your assessments adjusted. DO NOT
WAIT UNTIL YOU COME TO PAY
YOUR TAXES. THAT WILL RE
'-oo LATE. H. L. SWATTS.
City Clerk.
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05
THIRTY POUND TAR.
pom JUMPS IN LAP OF
ARCADIA WOMAN
Lower Peace River Is Now Full of
This Game Fish, and Will Likely
Soon Become a Great Resort
for Fishermen
(Arcadia News)

Yesterday morning as the Johnson
launch was proceeding leisurely
down Peace river a few miles below
Fort Ogden, tarpon, measuring -
inches in length and weighing thirty
pounds, jumped into the boat strik.
ing Mrs Andrew Carter, the wife of
the editor of the Arcadia ENTERPRISE.
on the shoulder, sliding down into
her lap, greatly frightening her and
to the great amusement of the other
members of the party, composed Of
editor Carter, and Mr.. o. L. Shobe
and wife.
Editor Carter in his characteristic
humorous vein, said that while he
knew his wife to be the best on earth
not only as house-keeper, wife and
loving mother, yet he had never be.
fore thought of her being especially
attractive as tarpon bait. -
The truthfulness of the story is
vouched for by the four persons
named above and the two young men
VINO were in charge of the boat We
would not think of accusing editor
carter and wife of fishing on Sun
DAY hence we accept the story as
true especially as the fish was
brought back to Arcadia as a trophy
Lower Peace river seems to
abound with tarpon this spring and
summer and seems that Arcadia il
likely soon to become a rival of Fort
Myers Clearwater and ST. Peters.
purg as a resort for sportmen who
IKE to get strike from this CANISTER.
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05

captain Ito his servants: Jones
nave noticed for some time that nv
shirts always come from the laundry
one week late. How is this?
!, Private Jones: Excuse he. sir. but
your shirts are always so clean that
think it a pity to send them to the
laundry, so wear them another
week."-Pearson's Weekly.
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05

We note in a newspaper published
in neighbOring town a glowing ac-
count of the editors attendance upon
the sessions of the State press asso-
citation. Then. in another column, an
unwarranted and untruthful statement
concerning legal publication car
ried by a brother publisher, which
not only seeks to dscredit fellow
craftsman, but has tendency to les
sen the compensation of every news
paper which may print that legal
matter in the future. If that is the
spirit of fraternity and cooperation
imbibed through the State press meet.
ings, the organization has sadly
changed in recent years.
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05

Wlnfrid Niau, a Montreal mer-
CHI mt, purchased Omar Khavvam
the Kentucky Derby winner. at auc-
ton in New York Saturday. obtain
ing the imported son of Mardo-i,is-
ma for $4,000. Mr.. Viau, who came
INTO the racing circles several years
ago is owner of Trial By Jury.
Achievement, Skeer Face and other
winners. The new owner promptly
made arrangements to start his new
purchase in the Withers. one of
Americas classics Saturday after
noon.
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05

According to information from ST
petersburg, efforts are being made nv
the Hibbs Fish Co. of that city TO
create market for tarpon steaks
and will ship fish that are caught by
Local anglers.
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05

From the Alphabetical Times we
learn that 1.-The gossips say that
Henry Hayes Lewis will camp on
Senator Fletcher's trail when the op.
perfume moment arrives" All right.
But it will take more than the efforts
Of disgrunted politician to offset
the impression upon the people of
Florida made by Senator Fletcher's
splendid record of service While a
few pie-hunters and political enemies
are laying their sore heads together,
Senator Fletchers friends are not
asleep-and don't you forget it!
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05

me bill authorizing .Bradentown
anu Palmetto to build and maintain
a bridge across the Manatee r;vor
between the two cities, is now a law
as 1t passed both houses of theLegis-
lature and was signed by Governor
Cats.
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05

The Mcmillan Mill Company has
offered the United States government
tree use of ten thousand acres of
land in the neighborhoods of Pine
Barren and McDavid for the location
of concentration camp.
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05

POSSIBLY the highest price ever OBJ
tanned for beef cattle in Hardin
county Kentucky, was that at which
Is. 5. Harmed, of Boston sold car
load to Monte Fox, of Boyle county
The bunch averaged 1.495 pounds
and were sold for s12 per hundred
or about s1S5 each.
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05

st. petersburg is to have within
me next year a well-equipped indus
trial school for negroes, which will
oe a branch of the noted Tuskeegee
institute, modelled along the same
nnes and with the moral support of
.ne institution founded by Booker T.
Washington.
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05

Two months of campaigning for
100000 gardens in the United
states are estimated to have turned
the attention of more than 100000
oc' persons to the task of producing
FOOD, according TO Chas L. Pack
president of the emergency garden
commission.
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05

From reading the part taken by the
women in the East st. Louis riots,
we are filled with thankfulness that
we didn't happen to marry an East
st. Louis woman.
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05

Methinks we detect pensive note
i'm Lambrights editorialettes since
July LIST. Even his humor impresses
us as sorter dry"
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05

A cottage prayer meeting will be
held at the home of Mrs. John O'Don-
aid tomorrow afternoon. All Metho.
dists near Mrs. O'Donald residence
at the corner of Oak Street and Ken.
lucky avenue, are invited to attend.
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05
NOTICE

Mr.. NJ. F. Mckay will be at the
fremont Hotel Friday July 9Th. He
would like to meet an energetic. hust-
ling man with some knowledge of au.
tomobiles. to take an agency for a
money making proposition. Appli.
cant must have small amount of cap.
ltal 6572
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05
Can't Spell Hotel

Can't Spell Hotel
Jerry-on-the-Job, State Hotel Com.
missioner, is alleged to spell hotel
h-o-t-e-l-l. What do you think of a
hotel commissioner who doesn't
know how to spell hotel? Hodges,
the fish commissioner, did know
how to spell fish, it is said.-Orlando
Reporter Star.
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05

Inc Banking, Savings and Trust
company OF Escambia. county, will
again send Canning Club girl to
tallahassee this fall to attend the
short course.
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05

The people of Jacksonville seem
to think better of Bowling, Duvals
ex-Sheriff, than Cats did. Bowling
has landed $4,000 a year job as City
Commissioner of Jax.
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05

Mamma (sternly): Don't you
know what the great King Solomon
said: Spare the rod and spoil the
child?'"
Bobby: Yes, but he didn't saw
that until he was growed up."-Pear-
sons Weekly.
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05

And now, on top of heavily in
creased millage we are threatened
with big raise in assessments.
Looks like the man with a few hun
jdred dollars worth of property will
have to devote his entire income to
paying taxes.
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05

The War Department has recon-
nended to Congress the improvement
OF Key West harbor by removing the
middle ground at an estimated cost
Of s2S2,OO0.
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05
THE LAKELAND NEWS

\ weekly Newspaper giving . resume
Si local matters, crop conditions,
ssunty affairs, etc. Sent anywhere
tor $3.50 per year.
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05

WANTED-Prescription bottles. We
will pay you to bring us clean
bottles HENLEY'S DRUG STORE.
The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-05

NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. bottles. We
will pay you to bring us clean
bottles. HENLEY'S DRUG STORE.
The Benson signal., 1917-05-05

men and bridge. The workmen al
least had no suspicious or premonitions
of disaster.
Wilchings, the chief erecting fore
man, knew about the Gambler. It had
not bothered him. AS he approached
the two exchanged greetings.
"You're out early, Mr.. Abbott" said
Wilchings.
eyes, I've been down to examine
C-1O-R."
Wilchings laughed.
''That little spring is nothing" He
looked over the track and through the
maze of bracing at the member. IF
we had a pier somewhere we could
hold up the earth with that strut. You
didn't find out anything, did you?"
'Not a thing except some hair-line
cracks in the paint around the rivets. y
"You'll often find those where there's
heavy load to take up. This bridge
will stand long after you and and
every man on it has quit work for
good"
4NOW w was a LIdA VI CAPCAA
ence and ability, and if Abbott had
needed any confirmation Of his opinion
this careless expression would have
served. He did send him across the
river to examine the half-completed
cantilever on the other bank, upon
which work had been suspended, await
ing shipments of steel. Wilchings later
reported that it was all right, which
was what he expected, of course, and
this also added to Abbott's confidence.
The day was an unusually hard one.
A great quantity of structural steel
that had been delayed and which had
threatened to hold up the work, arrived
that day and the chief of construction
was buster than he had ever been. He
was driving the men with furious
energy. Even under the best conditions
it would be well-nigh impossible to
complete the bridge on time. Abbott
had pride in carrying out the contract
and the financial question was a con-
siderable one. Had it not been for
that, perhaps, he would have paid more
attention to Meade's appeal. So he
hurried on the work at top speed.
Late in the afternoon, without say
ing anything to Wilchings, who had re-
sumed his regular work, or to anybody
in fact, Abbott went down to look at
the member again. He climbed down
hundred feet or more to make an
other examination at the expense of
The Benson signal., 1917-05-05

much valuable time, for he had not
passed so busy a day as that one since
the bridge began. Everything was ex-
actly as it had been. Those hair-line
cracks had troubled him little despite
Wilching's remark. He studied them
second time. They were just as they
had been, so far as he could tell, no
larger, no more numerous. The lacings
rang exactly the same under his ham
mer.
He climbed back to the floor of the
bridge and spent the next half hour in
specting the progress of the work. The
suspended span had already been
pushed out far beyond the end of the
cantilever. The work on the other
side of the river had been stopped. AS
soon as they got the suspended span
halfway over they would transfer the
workmen and finish the opposite canti-
lever. Abbott calculated that perhaps
in another week they could get it out
If he drove the men. He looked at his
watch, grudgingly observing that 1t
was almost five o'clock. The men were
The Benson signal., 1917-05-05

voice, Of course, yet there was a
strange note in it which somehow gave
him a sense Of uneasiness. He went
into the room at once and stopped
aghast.
"Good God, Mr.. Meade!" he ex-
claimed.
Ordinarily he was the quietest and
most undemonstrative of men. There
was something soft and subtle about
his movements. An exclamation Of
that kind had hardly escaped him in
the thirty years of their association.
He checked himself instantly, but
Meade, ST., understood. The day be-
fore Shurtliff had left him a hale,
hearty, vigorous somewhat ruddy man.
| Now he found him DID, white, trem-
bling, stricken. Meade looked at Shurt-
lift with lack-luster eye and with a
face that was dead while it was yet
alive.
"Mr. Meade" began the secretary a
second time, "what is the matter?"
''The International bridge" an
swered the other, and the secretary no
ticed the strangeness Of his voice more
and more. "It's about to collapse. Per.
haps it has failed already"
Meade passed his hand over his
brow and then brought it down heavily
on the desk.
GAS we sit here, maybe, it is falling"
he added somberly in sort of dull,
impersonal way.
Into the mind of the secretary came
foolish old line: London bridge is
falling down, falling DOWN. He must
be mad or Meade must be mad.
II can't believe it, sir. Why?"
"There's a DETECTION in one Of the
lower chord members Of one and three
quarters inches. It's bound to col
lapse. The boy was right, Shurtliff,"
explained Meade. II was wrong. ]
am ruined"
"Don't say that, sir. You have never
failed in anything. There must be
some means"
"Shurtliff, you ought to know there
is no power on earth could save that
member. It's only a question Of time
when it will fail"
The secretary leaned back against
the doorjamb, put his hand over his
face, and shook like leaf. The old
man eyed him.
"Don't take it so hard" he said. ''It's
not your fault, you know"
''Mr. Meade" burst out the other
man SvO11 don't know what If means
to me. A failure myself, have glo.
ried in you. I-you have been every.
thing to me. sir. can't stand it."
81 know" said Meade kindly. He
rose and walked over to the man, laid
his hand on his shoulder, took his
other hand in his own. "It hurts more,
perhaps, to lose your confidence in me
than it would to lose the confidence OF
the world"
The Benson signal., 1917-05-05

lapsed on the low shore, like house Of
carus upon which has been laid the
weight of a massive hand. The river
section, carrying the greater load at
the top and torn from it's base, plunged,
like an avalanche of steel, 200 feet
down into the river, throwing far
ahead of 1t, as from a giant catapult,
the traveller on the outward end Of the
suspended span and a locomotive on
the floor beneath.
WilchingS, and the few men safe on
the shore, stood trembling, looking at
the bare pier head, at the awful tan
gled mass Of wreckage on the shore
between the pier and the bank; floor
beam and stringer, girder and strut,
bent, twisted, broken in ragged and
horrible ruin, while the water, deeper
than the chasm it had cut, rolled it's
waves smoothly over the agitations Of
the great plunge beyond the pier. They
stared sick and faint at the tangled,
interviewer mass Of steel, ribboning in
every directiOn-fOr in the main the
rivetS held so it was not any defect
Of joints, but structural weakness in
the body of the members that had
brought it down-and inclOsing as in
net many bodies that few seconds
before had been living men.
They had seen body after body hurled
through the air from the outward end
and, as they gazed fearfully in horror
here and there dark figures doated to
the surface of the water. They caught
glimpses Of white, dead faces as the
mighty current rolled them under and
swept them on. And no sound came
from the hundred and fifty who had
gone down with the bridge. The 200
foot fall would have killed them with
out the smashing and battering and
crashing of the great girders that had
fallen upon them or driven them from
the floor and hurled them, crushed and
broken, into the river.
Meade had been right. Abbott had
one swift flash of acknowledgment one
swift moment packed with such re-
grets as might fill lifetime-an eter-
nifty in a hell of remorse-befOre he,
like the rest, had gone down with the
bridge!
The Benson signal., 1917-05-05

Meade. The father had told him just
what he intended to do with it.
Shurtliff might have been a great
man If left to himself or forced to act
for himself. But pursuing a great pas
sion so long as he had, he had merged
himself in the more aggressive person
ality Of his employer and friend. He
had received good engineering edu-
cation, but had got into trouble over
failure, a rather bad mistake in his
early career, too big to be rectified, to
be forgiven, or condOned. The older
Meade had taken him up, had been
kind to him, had offered to try to put
him on his feet again, but his big fall
ure had increased his natural timidity,
so he stayed on. He had become q
part Of the old mans life.
Young Meade had never been able
to get very far into the personality Of
Shurtliff, but he liked him and respect,
ed him. He realized the mans devo-
ton to his father, and he understood
and admired him. Aside from that
jealousy the old man could not but like
the young one. He was too like his
father for Shurtliff to dislike him. The
secretary wished him well; he wanted
to see him great engineer. Of course
he could never be the engineer that
his father was. That would not be in
the power of man. But still, even if
he never attained that height, he could
yet rise very high. Shurtliff would not
admit that there was anything on earth
to equal Meade, Sr.
The secretary was greatly surprised
as he stopped beside his own desk to
hear his name called from the inner
Office. He recognized his employerA
The Benson signal., 1917-05-05
CHAPTER VII.
For the Son.

| OF ING 0OHs
The message was received in ghast-
ly silence. No one spoke for moment,
None moved. Colonel Illingworth's
face was fiery red. Bertram Meade
was whittier than any other man in the
room. He was thinking of his father.
The girl moved first. Her father
and the young engineer were the two
most deeply touched. They were both
| in agony, both in need Of her. Unhesi-
tatingly she stepped to the side of the
younger. And the father saw and un-
derstood even in the midst Of his suf-
fering. She had chosen.
"We are ruined" gasped the colo
mel, tugging at his collar. "We could
stand the financial loss, but our reputa-
ton! Well never get another con-
tract. might as well close the works.
And it is your fathers fault. It's up to
him. The blood of those men is upon
his head. Well, sir, I'll let the whole
world know how grossly incompetent
he is, how"
"Sir," said young Meade, standing
very erect and whittier than ever, 'the
fault is mine. made the calculations.
checked and rechecked them. No
body could know with absolute certain
ty the ability Of the lower chord mem
bers to resist compression. But what
ever the fault, it is mine. My father
had absolutely nothing to do with it.
He is"
"He's got to bear the responsibility"
cried the colonel passionately. ut has
his name"
"No, I tell you," thundered the
younger man. "For I'll proclaim my
own responsibility. The fault is all
mine and I'll publish the fact from one
end of the world to the other"
"It's load I wouldn't want to have
on my conscience" said Colonel Hing
worth.
"The ruin Of a great establishment
like the Martlet," added Doctor Sew
erence.
'The dishonor to American engineer
ing" said Curtiss.
"And the awful loss Of life," con-
| tlnueQ the cOlOnol.
''I assume them ALL" protested the
young man, forcing his lips to speak.
although the cumulative burdens set
forth so clearly and so mercilessly bade
fair to crush him.
"It was only a mistake" protested
Helen Illingworth, drawing closer to
her lovers side, and with difficulty re-
sisting a temptation to clasp him in
her arms.
"a mistaken. exclaimed her father
bitterly.
"You said yourself" urged the wom-
an, turning to the chief engineer, "that
you didn't know whether the designs
would work out, that nobody could
know, but you were convinced that
they would"
"Wait," interrupted the father
MEADE, there is one consequence you
have got to bear that you haven't
thought Of"
"What do you meanY
"Do you think I'd let my daughter
marry a man who had ruined me, an
incompetent engineer by his own con-
fession, "a"
"It is just" said Meade. 81 have
nothing further to do here, gentlemen.
I must go to my father"
"Just or not" cried Helen Hing
worth, "I can't allow you to dispose of
me in that way, father. If he is as
blamable as he says he is, and as you
say he is, now is the time above all
others for the woman who loves him to
stand by him."
"Miss Illingworth, you don't know
what you are saying" said Meade,
forcing himself into cold formality
he did not feel. "I am disgraced,
shamed. There is nothing in life for
me. My chosen professionally repu-
tation-everEthing is gone"
The Benson signal., 1917-05-05

THE FAMOUS ENGINEER LEARNS THAT HE MADE THE BIG
MISTAKE OF HIS LIFE AND MANY LIVES MUST
PAY THE PENALTY.
q
Meade engineer
engineer the bridge Helen
nngwort
company bridge
laughed HIS doubts
fed suddenly colapse with Of fe
The Benson signal., 1917-05-05

How the gods conspire to
make complete the wreckage of
regulations and how young
Meade is cast into outer dark
ness is told in the next install.
ment.
The Benson signal., 1917-05-05

CTo BE CONTINUEDl