1895. 



THE AMEllfCAN BEE-KEEPER. 



25<) 



her hr.p.ds (;,l'1' iitri' Lxisoai, mat SNVyllix. .1.- 

 if to bu.'.st. luu' bouicis gripped hold of il;c 

 earth floor with her toes and bounded 

 high, likiA a young panther, getting liei 

 teeth and breathing hard — then down 

 again, tvristing swiftly, smiting the play- 

 ers whn hrr skirt —dancing — dancing — 

 dancing as if flro nm in her veins. 



It was a sli-aupeand thrilling thing to 

 see and Sl^itcr feit the contagion of move- 

 ment as never before. He wondered how 

 the othoi's could refrain from all bursting 

 also into ac.ion. 



With siich Italian as he knew, he pres- 

 ently askctl what this might be. 



An old woman answered after a mo- 

 ment. 



"It was in the fields this morning, sign- 

 er, that N;;- -una there was at work, and 

 the lazy cri'.iture lay down by a heap oi 

 corn to take a nap while we were busy. 

 Then prescully she gives a scream and 

 jumps up, running to us. We, of course, 

 killed it at once, the nasty thing — but 

 there ! It had bitten her, and right in the 

 breast too. So we did what we could to 

 save her — took her here at once and set 

 her oflf dancing. By the saints, she has a 

 good night's work before her now and 

 Carlo has kept her up to it well. My own 

 son had to dance for three days and nights 

 once, signor. just like this; hasn't been 

 the same since, though it saved him, of 

 course. It is as bad a bite as I've ever seen, 

 this time, -ilas, indeed" — and so on. 



They staid there for half an hour and 

 watched the grim sport, noticing at times 

 a red, angry pustule as the bodice sunk 

 lower toward the waist and showed more 

 of the panting breast. Several people took 

 a turn of dancing with her. Then they re- 

 turned to the vessels and Slater collected 

 his bets. 



Next day the mails were shipped and 

 the gangways drawn in. And in the in- 

 terval of siiciice Slater thought he still 

 heard a faiiit piping far away. 



Was it f;;.ticy, or was it that Nannina 

 was still in that scjualid cellar with her 

 lover, dancii'.g — dancing — dancing for her 

 life? — London Graphic. 



BOGTTS WILDCAT BILL 



"RATTLESNAKE OF BENDER'S FLAT" 

 FOR REVENUE ONLY. 



Oh, that you could turn your eyes towti : 

 the napes of your necks and make but a 

 interior survey of your good selves' 

 Shakespeare. 



First School In Chicago. 



Mr. and Mrs. Forbes are said to have 

 taught the first school in Chicago, in a log 

 house, in I80I. Location unknown. John 

 S. Wright built tlu' first schoolhouse in 

 1835, and a Miss Cbappel was the teache:-. 

 This was the licginningof the public school 

 system in Cliicugu. 



Ho-w He Made Money Iiaying For Pet« 

 Smith of Fatchin's Ranch — A Game That 

 AVorked Well and Paid Until a Black 

 Ebony Cane Appeared on the Scene. 



"There was, a few years ago," said Ma- 

 jor Hotclikiss, "a man at Badger Rock, 

 Mon., who joyed in calling himself Wild- 

 cat Bill, the Rattlesnake of Bender's Flat. 

 Not that that was his name, of course, or 

 that his name was Bill, or even William, 

 or that, so far as I know, he had ever seen 

 a wildcat or would have known a rattle- 

 jiake if he had met one, and I am certain 

 there was no such place as Bender's Flat, 

 but this is what he was pleased to call 

 himself. In point of fact, his name was 

 Earnest Willierforce, or something of that 

 sort, and he came originally from Bald- 

 winsville, Conn., or some such mild, wild- 

 catless and nonrattlesnake neighborhood. 



"If the fellow had stuck to Baldwins- 

 ville, I fancy he'd have carried on a coun- 

 try store, and if his tastes had happened 

 to run in that particular direction have 

 perhaps become a collector of postage 

 stamps. He determined to take up the 

 vocation of desperado in a purely commer- 

 cial way. It is unneces.sary to say that he 

 had never shot a man, or shot at a man, 

 or shot in the direction of where any man 

 or other member of the hitman race was, 

 or had been, or expected to be. Indeed 

 you couldn't prove it by me that he had 

 ever shot off a gun or knew a trigger 

 from a trajectory. 



"Badger Rock was at that time a small 

 town engaged chiefly in the business of 

 transferring ijcople from the railroad sta- 

 tion to the stages which ran to certain gold 

 and silver mines. A great many ea.stern 

 people, capitalists and so forth, passed 

 through it, but few staid in the place more 

 than a few hours. 



"One day, a lialf hour before the train 

 from the east was due, the clerk of the 

 hotel was astonished to see this man en- 

 ter, clad in most striking cowboy costtime, 

 wearing a belt with two revolvers and a 

 knife in it and (tarrying a heavy double 

 barreled shotaim with the barrels sawed 

 off so that they w(!re not more titan a foot 

 long, making a weapon such as is some- 

 times affected by desperate characters, 

 treasttre coacli guards, deptity sheriffs or 

 other individu:!ls engaged in turning their 

 hands against 1 heir fellow men. 



"To tiie surprised inquiries of the hotel 



