Electric-light signals, powerful enough to be seen in the daytime, are being adopted by several electric railroads in preference to semaphores, as they save the expense of motor-driven mechanism. Proud of His Ambitious Hen. John F. Williamson, of Dalton, Ga., has a hen he wouldn’t swap even for any hen in the State of Georgia, for she has established a record of which any hen might be proud. Not satisfied with hatching fifteen thoroughbred Rhode Island Reds out of fifteen eggs, this fowl, who is a Plymouth Rock, decided to try the merits of her own particular breed, and laid eight eggs, while hatching her brood. Mr. Williamson does not state whether the Plymouth Rock eggs hatched or not, but says the mystical number “twenty-three” may have prevented the hen from carrying out her purpose. Man Pays Uncle Sam Twenty Cents. The secretary of war has received from Chicago a letter inclosing twenty cents in stamps, with the statement that the sum is inclosed “for bacon and eggs.” Mr. Garrison could not recall the transaction, so he turned the letter over to the treasury department, where the twenty cents was added to the “conscience fund.” It is supposed that a retired soldier ate more than the law allowed, and that he now compensates the government for his meal. The conscience fund, which in reality has a separate existence only on paper, has been growing since President Madison’s administration, and the total now is nearly $500,000. Old King of ’Gators is Dead. The king alligator of Georgia has been killed at Hutchinson’s pond at Adel by M. L. Crowley, after the beast had eluded hunters, for twenty-two years. The alligator measured ten feet four inches and had thirty-seven notches on its tail, which shows that it was thirty-seven years old. Many have been the attempts to kill the sly old creature, but always, until now, it has escaped the bullets aimed at it and has scuttled safely back to its cave. It was the ’gator’s appetite for hogs that proved its undoing. Mr. Crowley, who for twenty-two years has been hunting this beast, tied the leg of a porker to a tree near Hutchinson’s pond, and hid himself. The wary old ’gator slid out of the water, through a clump of bushes, and was just reaching for the bait when Mr. Crowley fired. The bullet took the beast in a vital spot and killed it instantly. Dies from Woodtick Bite. Doctor M. S. McCrillis, a pioneer dentist, of Douglas, Wyo., is dead of spotted fever, caused by the bite of a woodtick. This is the seventh death from spotted fever, or woodtick fever, that has occurred in Wyoming this year. Owing to the cold, wet spring woodticks are more numerous and especially more poisonous than for many years. Hundreds of persons throughout the State have been or are now ill from the effects of woodtick bites. Robbers Hold Up Fifteen Hobos.