alAEDON me." Ml Huam Snodgrass did not look up fiom his desk. It was Saturday and iieailv noon and the automobile was pdiitiug outside to take him out to the countiy club wheie he had a golf game on with his son m law 'Paidon me" The piesident of the Ajax Manufacturing Com- pany only dipped his pen again in the violet ink and scribbled the faster. A half hundred letters still re- mained to be signed and Mr. Snodgrass figured that even with the simplest of luncheons he would be an hour late upon the green. And this afternoon he purposed having his revenge, for the Saturday before the husband of his offspring had stung Mm to the tune of eight up. "Pardon me," Mr. Snodgrass swung in hia chair. "Well, what is it?" The inquiry came explosively and with a fierce, sudden beat like the momentary opening of a furnace door. It was Mr. Snodgrass' way — a manner to which none in the office ever paid the slightest heed. "You are Mr. Snodgrass?" "Yes, I am," snapped that individual. "What of it?" The stranger, a man with mild blue eyes and vague, rambling whiskers, seated himself. "Did you ever," he began, "take first the blue and then the white of a common, ordinary Seidlitz powder?" Mr, Snodgrass threw his head back aghast at the query. "No, I have not," he bellowed. The stranger was unperturbed. "Well, then try it," and drawing from hia pocket one of the powders p^^^^^^aaa^^— in -question walked coolly over to the water filter and filling the glass drop- ped in the blue powder which he stirred with a long, index finger. "The result win surprise you.'* "I'll do nothing of the dashed kind," roared Mi;. Snodgrass. "And say," he demanded, as he caught the stenographer tittering behind her note book, "who the devil are you and how did you get in For answer the strang- er laid upon the president's desk a JASON Q. FOSDICK Inventor 'Mr, Snodgrass' features experienced a sudden transformation: the belligerent expression faded away and a smile of genuine pleasure suffuaeO all of the countenance visible above and in front of the mutton-chop whiskers. "My dear Mr. Fosdick, I am delighted to ineet you I" he ejaculated. "I suppose you dropped ja .tfi gge how the nut-crackers are getting along. The device waa an utter failure as a curling iron — but as a nut-cracker it has been an unqualified success. It is going to make you a rich man, Mr. Posdick. Your royalties are now amounting to over a hundred dollars a week." Mr. Foadiek shook his head. "No, I am. not here on that account. I have a new invention that ^ want to interest you in." "And the nature of it is what?" inquired Mr* Snodgrass. "An automobile run by these," and the inventoi^ held up a Seidlitz powder. "There is a wonderful lot of power in a Seidlitz powder, Mr. Snodgrass, Just take first the blue and then the white," he said, oiferjng the glass and at the same time unfolding the white paper containing the other half of the powder. Mr. Snodgrass drew back in some alarm. "No, I'll take your word for it." "Please take it," insisted Mr. Fosdick. "It's ^ beautiful experiment. It gives a pressure of teil atmospheres — one hundred and fifty pounds." "Damn it, man, I'm not built for a hundred and fifty pounds. I couldn't stand it— I'd blow up — I haven't any safety valve." The inventor shook his head solemnly. "In that, Mr. Snodgrass, you are mistaken. The human diaphragm will stand one hundred and sixty pounds. You see, there is a margin of safety of ten pounds-— the experiment is perfectly safe." "I tell you I won't," cried Mr. Snodgrass, over- come by a sudden fear that he might be persuaded into such a rash adventure. "I won't, I teil you." "Then I will," said Mr. Fosdick, calmly lifting the glass. "Just watch." ^^^^^^^^S^^^M "Here, stop that!" cried the horrified Mr. Snod- grass. "Don't do that in here. Go down into the engine room where we have boiler insurance." Eut the inventor was not to be thwarted. With cool deliberation he quaf- fed off first the one powder and then the other. "Right here," he said, after a minute's wait, "there is power enough to run my Seidlitzmobile eleven and '■ two-tenthsmiles,if mycal- ■ iniWlli mil Mil I li l i li ii iiHIHWillHH II culations are not wrong," ~~" and he placed his hand upon tha pit of his stomach. "Just feel the pres- sure." Mr, Snodgrass extended his arm and gingerly - prodded the compelling stranger under the ribs. "Not. hard," said the inventor warningly. "Ee-t member, the margin of safety is only ten pounds." Mr. Snodgrass withdrew hia hand with. lightning- like rapidity and the perspiration broke out upon" his forehead. "Couldn't 'you go outside and sit around for awhile?" he inquired with some trepida- tion. "Our building is not very strong and an acci- dent would doubtlessly maim many of our clerks." "I usually don't stir," replied Mr. Posdick solemn- ly. "If I should walk about and stumble — or if I should even cough or sneeze, why then — ^-" 'THE artist, Elihii Veddcr, in Idling some incidents of his younger life, describes feeding a lillle negro boy with Seidlitz powders, separately administered, with a cor- responding alarming result. In this excrucialimjly funny story, Mr. Fosdick — we lesilale to call him a herd— gives himself the expanding dose and thus succeeds in bis tfe- sire to interest a capilalisi friend in an aiilomobile to be driven by the gas from Seidlits powder. Try to imagine for yourself, what happened wheit a heavy charge of sodium carbonate and s^dphuric acid xverc substituted for the comparatively mild Seidlitz powder. But read the story through, and you will agree that Baron Mimchkaw- scn, in the zoildcsf flights of his imagination, lakes a sec- ond place to this presentation of Mr. Fosdiek's invention. See how humor can be evolved even from, what so Tnany people call, the "dryness of chemistry." A capital story, which yon won't forget soon.