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Home My WebLink AboutThe Wingham Times, 1899-12-22, Page 6eh \Wiklekwi HOW TOMMY CAUGHT SANTA CLAUS. UDR RY 7i l P-avet el E1 [-111 t0'I j OitTI '• Copyri$h - isee,by the euthos I S ONLY one Christmas dinner is possible in alio days, I suppose some latitude is permissi- bre?" C "Oh, but Nan, if the sum total frightens Us, we can score out the things wo are , ' not particularly addicted to la' "Precedent would go to show that we are only addicted to oatmeal, tough steals and moldy crackers. Here goes!" The lamp had beenlighted and placed ' itslight the little center table. +ont By lig bachelor girls' don was made visible—a ; small fiat, artisticallycluttered with every article of inconceivable utility. ' -'The most interesting furnishings of the • little flat were the two bright faces which came in close contact over the pad on which their Bonneoide feast was spread. The faces belonged respectively to Miss Ilan Heywood, stenographer and' type- i writer for a big Orin of lawyers, and Miss Dora Chase, who gave musio lessons for a living and wrote homesick letter$ for pastime. The pencil was in Miss -Hey- wood's hand. "Celery, of course. The eating of celery , ion Christmas day is compulsory. Tweet.- , ty-five cents." "Oh, Nan, won't that be a great quan- ttlty?,: "We' are to have two invited guests. 'Theircelerycapacity is represented by x— • unknown quantity." "But wo are not going to invite cormo- Tnts. The idea was that each one of us I was to invite some one more friendless and lonely than ourselves, so as to—as to„— "Exactly. Don't choke, please, Dodo. Whenever you give that asthmatic sputter 1 I know you are getting homesick. I have , ,already incited my guest—old Mrs. Stone; Raper wrapper and, envelope director for 1 those atlas makers. You should have seen 1 leer poor old bleared eyes when I invited ,her to come take Christmas dinner.” Dodo sighed enviously. "I .have not _ ..node my selection yet. I am batting be- tween a lame girl I buy my evening pa - tiers from and him." Nan held the pencil suspended. A heavy footfall sounded on the uncarpeted door over their heads. Some one was moving about in the flat over their heads 'with the ponderous slowness of an old unan. "But we don't know him; never even saw him I"' "Yes, but you know our Christmas dia- ller is hardly what you call a social func- tion. The jani- tor's wife always speaks of him as the 'lonely gentle - roan.' She says ho plays an organ somewhere. And then your old Mrs. Stone wouldmake it perfectly prop- er." .,' "It would tot ; do at all " said Nan stoutly. And ,`' he fell to work ': nergetioally on the bill of fate. • "I've got the cranberries down. "Merin note"— Mineo pie and"— "Nancy iloywood, you are orying all aver that menu. Give me the ponoll." "Manama used to make such lovely mieoemoat, and Iused to'help heti" Nan sobbed in. explanation. Dodo pointed the usurped pencil trag- ically at her. "And you aro breaking our oentreet." "Not to allude to home Christmases or *xte own people? I know lt•--I know it -- t".-.. , "Think About Mrs. Stone, Nan. It is nnsueh safer." 1 Dodo's own voice was not perfectly > beady, and on the pad, udder the word "cranberries," she absefltly sprawled "Ql hed grin eb °"Omura � menu ie getting badly eyed nee with sentiment. Lob Cifl'return. course." etnelinished, Dodo o puelted the d laid down the rattail. "Wall, iib will be the lame paper girl." ate hies. Dtnljo. Ths tt is elm - ins older than gad years. sel elide lett 1lil�• Tint � ''p,��Mr 1 +A�,py, `M +��•.�{syn qM" 't^I GHA TIMES, #."ECE 13' I Dodo. was vety pretty. She had a sweet, sensitive mouth, largo,:nnocent blue eyes and the bonniest brawn hair in the world. Her figura was ono of thosetrim, compact oneswhose symmetry not even a shirt waist could destroy. Nan looked at her reflectively. If Dodo was not eo exceedingly pretty, it might not be so unfeasible tq have that lonoly, heavy foot- _ ed organist acme down stairs to a; Christmas' dinner. Bat 'a man nover 'cub aged" his oonceit, and be might presume on it. Christmas came, and there was an unwonted creak- inz up and down on its ropes of the " !� dingy dumb wait - a er that did. duty • for the a fir n a r c,j building. Nan had gone out early af- "WE Asti rou To s'rAY." ter breakfast and come back with a green wreath that had a red star in its cantor. Almost every window in sight had its green wroath with a red star for a heart. Dodo was the churchgoer of the twain. As she pierced her Sunday bat with a long pin she settled - the dinner hour with Nan. While they were talking the man over- head was walking to and fro with scarce- ly' muffled restlessness, which Dodo de- clared got into her nerves. Then they heard a door open and the same footfall pass down the steps. "I suppose the poor fellow has gone off • to•play peace on earth and good will to- ward man to a church full of rich people who don't Dare a Dopper .whether he has a crust of bread today or not." Nan looked at her severely. "Upon my word, Dodo, I wouldn't let my imagina- tion run entirely away with me ejust be. cause a man over our heads is given to pacing all day in creaking shoes andthe janitor's wife called him the 'lonely gen- tleman,' " - When Dodogotback from church, Nan put her in charge of affairs while she made one of these mysterious ezpedielons of. which Christmas day is always prolific:. When she camp back, Dodo was standing by a table in the kitchen •staring tragical- ly .into an open paper bag. "Come look ,at .this, Nan," she said gravely. Nan walked toward her with apprehen- sive gniokness. Of course something had gone wrong with the dinner. "A tin pan with baked beans and pork in it? Why, we never ordered any beans!" "Of course we didn't. That is his Christmas dinner: Oh, Nan!" "Whose?" "That poor old man's overhead." "Well, but how do you know it is?" "It just must be. Somebody whistled np out tube, and I wont to the dumb waiter, and there were just two bags on 1t. I grabbed the one nearest to me, for l'd left the sauce for the plum pudding sim- mering on the stove, and the waiter went on up. He is the only one higher up than we, so we've got his Christman dinner" -- "And he'd got our plum pudding!" "Oh, well, let it gol A miserable little canned pudding --I hope he will relish it l" "But perhaps he prefers beans and work." Dodo' put out her Lands tragically. "Don't speak of thein. I came home in such asublimated frame of mind! Such music as I liatoheatd today, Nan --I mean the organ Belot It came over mo like the swelling anthem of solemn ocean waves. I always cry at the sound of the sea. If I could find out who played that solo, I 'would pay him ail I make in a year to teach mo the organ. It lifted me clean out of the realm of worryand care,and--- u then—to come back to pork and beans!" "And Mrs. Stone," Nan added as the twitter of the doorbell sounded through the little apartment, Ib was in a state of complete readlness for the festive occasion. Nan's evergreen wreath, with its crimson star, decorated their onofront window; a beautiful branch of holly that Dodo had secured n week be- fore was suspended by her best neck rib- bort front the single gas jet iti the center of the room. Tato mysterious parcels on the' table under it showed where the rood - est gifts which were to brighten the day for ? 1rs. Stone and the lame' girl:were do• posited. Det10 at x d, abecntly tWletitig the nook cf tho bag about the pan of beans. If there was only some way of sending his dinner back to him and making him keep their plum pudding for dessert. 'Then she started violently. . Nan was talking to somebody, and some- bedy was answering in a rick baritone valet CIO aeruninly did not bedews ifr old Mrs € Is'5 e. WW1 'lases said weal • kat Pat diksic7effetil. t a" ti�a]tetlsi r i+�ala k 7 p erng Jketag,3" scare wonder sitreteled M fiau's next words. "We would be so glad to bar* yon come in and take dinner with ua-••- thtit is, unless: you have fries/ads with yell up stairs." The rich baritene.safd sadly, "`"No; there le ne one waiting for me to come keel.." Then meld Nan,ewith grave ss tness; "We ask yogi, to stay. filar own Ohristttias will bo the gladder for knowing that you aro not all alone," And, with a grateful glance beyond her into the little holly decorated room,he said, "If I might"--- "It just oouldatot beavoidcd," saiUNan self defensively. 'that night whoa Abe and Dodo, flushed with the triumphant Ono- oess of their dinner, sat disoussing the day. "When I saw him standing there, a pale ;Faced bey, meekly bolding out our Ovule pudding and asking for bis. beaus, I could no more have handed. hila that pan and lot him go book up stairs to munch them alone than I could have flown," "Cf course you °veld not," said Dodp demurely, "And 'N. 6 then Old Mrs. 't, � Stone made every- thing: perfectly proper; she isso dreadfully old." ""And as deaf as e stonewall. Do- do"—Nan's plain fees was all u-' pucker with aux- xe tety—"if you do, I'll never forgive myself." "If Ido what, you incom rohen- sibie old goose?" "Let that poor boy fall in lover e'''s with you. Ho fair- TIIit alIsenteat WAS DONE, ly devoured your faoewbiie hetet opposite you at table," "Plus celery, cranberries and olives. It did me good to see him eat. But I don't see any point in calling him a boy just be, cause we inade tho absurd mistake of thinking he was an old man' before we saw him. He is very Hauch of a gentleman." educated roan. It must lee his shoes that .mislead us so. They aro so '+heap and clumsy that I suspeot he walk- ed slowly to spare our nerves." "Kindly, but futile. Ile is a handsome boy." ,,Mrs. Stone says ho is tho new organist at St. Catherine's.".• "St. Catherine's?" Dodo fairly screamed "Mercy, Dodo, you are so excitable, What of it?" "Why, Nan, that. 10 whereI heard that diving voluntary that brought my heart right up into my throat." "Oh, it was!",said Nan dryly. "Well then, the mischief is already done." Yes, the mischief was already done. Nan, gazing reflectively after the organ- ist of St. Catherine's and Dodo as they walked away from her under the trees be Central park one blessed Sone Sunday, said Inournfullee to herself: "I have known it. Both young, both> so beautiful, both its loving hearted as birds in mating timet Then, wheel. music welded them toetother—I guess Dodo will have something to tell me to- night." Which Dodo did. ^ "He belongs to as 'good a family as dine, Nan, dear, but his father married again, and things weren't pleasant for him at home. Ho has been on trial with the St. Catherine people, but now they' aro going to pay him a lovely salary, and ho won't have to wear such deceiving shoes. We have concluded that wo would. like to get married just one year to a day from The etea'Uly titereasing demand ter these Christunts greens bas given birch to' a new inclwsfary of no insignificant proportions. Some idea of the quantity oamistletoe that ismade ztseofmeta lhrist- niesutay be judged by the geek that a greatoity like London or Now York im• porta over 10Q tons oaeh Yuletide. .Balt the mystic Mistletoe Which we hang on - our awn chandeliers and under wbioh we • essay the most audaoious labial exorcises js roally °beaten to the >M'oropooan spoobes and is known to the botanist and florist as Phoradondron 041100oo1M It is smaller, both in berry and leaf, than the English plant, but one can kiss just as inany girls under ib es env van under the genuine Eu• ropean ertielo. A.naorioan mistletoe is. found in great quanntitios ill Wow Jersey and southward through the Carolinas, in New Mexico: and in the Iltdiau Territory. Here it is gash' erod, packed In crates or barrels and ship- ped to the distributing agencies in • the '• larger cities, The l'inglish anistletoo, bow - ever, on account of its pearly white ber' ries and its larger leaves, Is more sought after, and' great quantities aro shipped in orates each winter from Liverpool. The price itbrings in American markets by the pound is usually from 25 to 30 cents, Most of the holly used in America at Christmas domes from,, Maryland, Virginia and the neighboring southern states, A certain amouuto1 Itngllsli holly is import. ' ed, but the shipments of this glossy leafed • .plant across the Herring pond are annual- ' iy .dooreasing. The Amerioiin holly will. sometimes grown to a height of 40 feet. Asench year holly enters more and more into decorative designs for Christmas both in tide church and the household, the im- mense quantity that is, shipped north each winter from tate temperate southern- states has given birth to a new and important industry. The increased demand for mis- tletoo also has led to the artificial propa- gation of that stinky seeded parasite. Cul- tivators of the plant make a Y shaped in- '•eisioi)in the bark of ordinary 'fruit trees or in that of maple, poplar or basswood and insert tho seeds in the cavity. As the mistletoe is a true parasite, living on the. sap of other trees, in a few weeks the plant begins its growth. Its berries are about the size of currants, white and` translucent and filled with a viscid lutea which serves tbo purpose of; attaching the send to the branches or bark of trees during the prop, 41e of germination. JOSS. LS CLAIB TWO CHRISTMAS GIFTS. 7. A lair of Convi,•t' ,a,o,•n.ftal it MVO • Tttrkr3. . Mlle fallowing is the last article which lir: tilted wrote for i ub1icntio .] During the entire , period of my Con- nection with The Chicago News it was the benevolent custom. -o : the • Psop>!ie- tors 'of that, paper, to .give a turkey to ^all their married employees at Christ- mous tithe. ' 'When thc RClliistmus sat- een came ouc year, I .fouud thnttter- "ht 1:°ys"11tid• pill.d.�l npt}ll.tuiti tla)Cl I Lh°ue I would rather have u pair of pants. 1 therefore , seat ,:': ' polite little uottee to �• it ' li'L if saying, t t ,� � lle 4 '' 1 ` � U ' Ch Cf t ' �C.-tUr'ti7r , was all the same to hint 1 would cake a pair ctf pants, instead of a:turkey for tt .Clirisluias gift, as viy soul felt no longing for.turkey, but eighed for pants. 'Now, Editor .Stone. as.,i. bit of at jok- er in his way, arid, liking the'modest tone of my petition, he obtzi•ned from :fhe Warden of the peuitentilu;y at'ori- et' a pair of striped pants such as are worn by the convicts in that •institution«' •that lovely little dinner to which you in- vited him. I never.00uld have had the face to do it." "Dodo," said Nan reproachfully.; then, after a solemn pause: "I will never trust a man in creaking shoes again, He just creaked himself into your sympathies." "I've already asked Charley what made him walk so like nsorrowful old man over our heads, and he says ho supposes it was.. because he felt a thousand years old and as friendless,as the Wandering dew before you invited him to that dinner on Christ- mas day." • ' CHRISTMAS GREENS.. flow Holly and Mlatietoe Came Into Use. • A Christmas'without its greens would be like a winter without snow or a wed- ding without bells. The popular custom of decorating our homes with evergreens and holly each Christmastide' has Dome down through the long centuries out of the twilight shadows of -early .Roman mythology hallowed with poetio assooia, tions. At the annual approach of the saturnalia, the Roman feast and revel in honor of Saturn, it was the habit of the people of Rome to dress their tempfos and dwellings with green boughs. To .the Romans these greens were merely the em- blem of the returning life and foliage of the spring, to which the children of sun clad Italy looked forward with a certain southern restfulness. The same practice, though partaking of amore religious char• acter, existed, among the Celtic Druids, the holly and the mistletoe being regarded as possessing certain sacred and magical. virtues. It was also an old Druidic'tradi- tion that the oross had been made of the wood of the mistletoe, which originally was a forest tree. After the ornoifixion, they said, it was blasted and condemned to exist only, as a stunted parasite. The present Anglo-Saxon regard for the this- tletoe undoubtedly is a vestigial remnant of that old pagan superstition. " It is one of the, little ironies of history, however, that the Viscum album of the staid Old Druids should evolve into our modern mistletoe and be looked upon as the atethorizod encourager of the undig- On Christina! CV's •the.pticleat.iio contain- ing , them was', scut' to .me with. the best Chfstmas tiviehes of tate' concern, just as the turkey had alwafs been. Editor Stony tend the entire witifing turd bust- nese ustnese genre,. whom ate had. taken in -to his coutideilce, thotight they had *played a splendid •pk tet1Qal joke. r turned the laugh on thein, however, by donning the pants the next looming : and wearing them 'constretly ever~ day for a week, expressing my gratitude for them, and tell]ng everybody about the office that I never had a pair of pante, liked so well and that. thenceforward -;I would wear no other land. ' • When tate next Ohtiatnias came , I again addressed a polite little note to Editor Stone, stating that • 1 diel slot rare for the mere corpse of a turkey, but preferred to hare' . one animated. by a soul, or in; other words a live one, in order that I might -keep • it in Huy yitrd . for a, pet. • On Christmas eve - was s:tting at my desk- widen suddenly I teard what • the eke sits call "a strong noise" above my :he:u'i,. sand down came, -a bouncing big turkey .,over the parti- tion dividing the' editetrSal'' oonis. ThQ bind gave itbtindant 'evidence that he • was . strongly endowed With life, and there could lie. no question that my de- sires had been gratified °and that. I'vas at last' the proud .poseeesor of a lire turkey. Tdid not want him in my room just . then, so with great presened ob mind I leaped upon sty desk acid "shoo- ed" the bird out of any' tootle. He Went. !hipping, jumping, gobbling ell through ' the editorial ' and reportorial • rooms, knocking down; ink -bottler, seatterieg and destroying copy, overturning and breaking the shades opt the drop lights, and doing many dollen' worth of dam- age. At length, after a long and ex- citing chase, the entire editorial and re- portorial force, with the single excep- tion of myself, eneeeeded fn capturing the Hied. Thus I once *more secttred the laugh On my associates, and after that no further 'attention was paid to my petitions at Chrletmas trine. BIM II TnT,' TLSTog. tdd'tYawsilatary amt, a for holly, dna the and, Pliny to •• ho'sv the I?leaena:Ts 1 e9eti'�....t• it wi P1 An 'my .ICs d ' fWilt 1591.tiS i'". MABEL'S CIGAR. CRRIOT:4AS TATE BY =Ear 'ARROW, (Copyright, 1805, by the Author.? 8Y PETER MgARTIIUR• O M RA.n•r4RTY' was killed Santiago, Tbobefore bul- let whioh ouded Tem's earthly pit- grimago also shattered a 0 met cigar and. perforated a tintype of his little daughter Mebel. The :Agar was the lest token of affeetiou given by Idabel to her father be- fore he marched away to•war. Many a night, when aching for a smoke, had Tom taken the poor cigar outal talo pookot- book which bo always carried over his heart and by tbo magic of its fragrance had.conjurod up the torr wet face of his little girl as she had 'deem), it betweenhis lips, and after looking at tho cigar • and surreptitiously kissing it he had always carefully wrapped it op in its covering of tin foil again and restored it to his.pooket. itis comrades in Company le .011 knew the story of the cigar, and when his body. was found in the chaparral and fila shat- tored cigar in his poohotbook it was hon - died with fonler, roveroutoirc, as asacred thing, to be returned to Tont'$ wife in the tall east side tenement in New York city. , There was mourning in the house of Tom Rafferty's widow for many days after the tidings of his death, together with the pocketbook, teethed New York. The merciful forgetfulness of childhood saved Mabel from. the brooding sorrow which consumed her mother. But why her fa- ther had notsmoked the cigar she could not understand, Neither could she ap- preciate why he had not taken it to heaven, The .idea of her father being happy in any plaoe where he could not snnoke was ridiolnlous to her childish fanoy, for she could not remember her father , in his hours of naso withouta cigar in his mouth, But the cigar, with the hole made bytho :Mausorrifle .ball through the middle, was pieced, with the other little mementosof the dead man, in the bottom drawer of the bureau, where it was hidden from Mabel's sight for many months. Her mother, However, saw ib very often. When weary of tho terrible fight with poverty,. in the evening when .Mabel was asleep, Mrs, Rafferty often took the cigar out of its hiding place and caressed it with lin- gering tenderness because it brought back sweet memories of her '" brave lad," as she 'ryas fond of calling her dead husband. It was.June when Tom was killed, and now that `her pay was stopped poverty pinched' the little family sorely. E spo- Ufally was this true when the inter tho months Dame and expense offuel was added to the general outlay from .Mrs. Rafferty s.slendier earnings, and whet.Do- °ember came she told . Mabel Santa Claus would probably not- pay them his usual: visit because ho heel gone away to a far oountry and could not get bank again in time. , "And won't papa have any Christmas present either?" asked Mabel anxiously; • "No, my dear," replied Mrs. Rafferty,, with ,quivering lip. :"He is in heaven. Santa Claws never' goes there. But never mind, Mabel, we won't worry about. it." But all the time Mabel was thinking how 'wretched her papa would . be in' heaven without His Christmas slippers, and especially his cigars, . And ,with the. thought of the cigarsthere flashed across her mind a plan so bold, .so audacious; that it nearly took her breath away,• tunately for the carrying out of her scheme, she fell asleep befozeo sho had'timo to impart it to her mother. It was a Sorrowful •Christmas'eve for Mrs. Rafferty.. She was now living on.. memories.' She recalled the happiness of the previous Christmas time 'Winne Tom was with her. Miredby ran'-iinco>)trol- lable impulse, sho took, outlet , the bureau all of the mementos of the departed—the. tear stained package of lettershe had sent her from Cuba, the pioturo bf Mabel with the bullet hole through the breast and, last,tho eigar. Overcome by hor grief, robe threw herself uponthe bed, forgetting in her anguish to replace the keepsakes in their customary hiding place; Christivas,day broke 'bright' and clear over the city. In her. preparations for breakfaht in the kitchen Mrs. Rafferty for- got that shehad left her preoious.memen;, tos exposed upon the bureau. • Just ale She closed the door softly behind: hpr on her way to the grocery Mabel awoke. While' putting on her clothing she saw the cigar upon the bureau. She peered into the kitchen and saw that her mother was gone. With her heart beating a lively tattoo against her ribs she sanded the cigar and ran down the stairs. , Pedestrians paused as they saw 0 little girl fait by with eager face and disappear in the crowd. How she got there was al- ways a mystery, but within an hour after leaving .home she -stood be'pre,a dellenret window in the New York poatoftlee. The. top of hor golden • head just reached the window lodge. The clerk looked down. into a pair of wistful blue. oyes. "Please, sir," said Mabel, "I ^want ,to send a Christmas present to any papa," "Where is your papa, you little cherub?" said the clerk. . "In heaven," replied Mabel simply. "In heaven!" echoed the clerk aghast, ""fres, and stamina says Santa Claus never goe4 there, so I want •to send him a present all by myself, Aiaiilina 'dot* know anything about it, gild •nobotiy doti?t know but ing. Want to send it all W- oolf," And she laid upon the window . ledge a' fiddle toll' of. brown paper, The clerk opened it and displayed a most alis - reputable cigar, Ho bit his alp. He had ' a little daughter of his own at Itome, Seeing his hesitation, the tears filled Ala- bel's eyes as she exolainod; "Oh, sjr, pl6a'n _do soad it! Don't the oars run today' " My papa can't get no cigars in heaven, Amuse mamma says they don't sell 'em. Do, please, sir, send Ibi It's mine. I bought it foul papa before he went to wart What time does the oar go? I'm afraid my present,will be too bate l" By this time the clerk had recovered his ee1f possession, He plekod' up a timetable of the Hudson River railroad and appar- ently rad from it: °'11ret mall train loaves for Paradise today at 10:80 o'cbool:. Little girl, your' papa will get ,`four itroeent before supper tonight." "Oh, I'na se' glad!" exclaimed *bal, her fees irradiated with seniles as apple kloseerms light up an, wohard What the polish },� A Christ:nes nail,. "What—" There was as startled cry front the . husband :and wife. "is that?" ' 'rhe admen quiet of the Christinas eve was broken in upon by a grating ' noise as if Of a falling body, • "---is that's" The cal& robee of a stranger ' who then heard upon the air, ".—thought---" The Anrttt beepangied beard and feed of Santa Claus protruded front the opening above the fireplace. "—I'd drop in on yen!" Ifo saying, Santa emerged front the orifice, end, im retut'n for their brushing the soot from his eerhn,tly person, he dropped specially gorgeous ,pbftit in the pendant -hosiery of 'their o not *Oise dant he unmade wvh ire 1 tvasra't in it with that made levies titerttillq• It chanced within the Peterhov , When darkness left the skies, , About the hour when for his milk The bottle baby orlee, The czar in shirk of fluted steel Was dreaming dreams of " peace-- Of eace=Of days when he will own the earth And cruel war will cease. Great Ivan Aker- chooski rose, That chef of high, ilenown, Whoseprivilege it is to do The royal pan- cakes brown. Iw But when, he reaohed the kitchen range To light the morning fire Be saw a sight that made has skin An icy ,sweat perspire. For, lo, upon tho hearthstone lay A box of Mist the size Of those=which our ,tyrants soar To mansions in the skies! Fie raised a cone sonantai yell Of horror and 01 fear Thattore the lin. ing from his lungs And split' the welkin's ear. The sentinels and warders . came- • r Oh where was avis then? The Beene was one that Should b shown 13y his immortal pen. 'They raced add chased in bal- - lad style (See I'ereey, I{ip- ling, Scott). They banged the tebsin on the , tower. The Culverin they shot, Now Tolstoi great '• and Turgenetff And Nathan - Haskell Dole!.• Qh, may thesaittt90, have pity on Bach nihilistic ,soul! Eftsoons 8 h e r+ lockskiHolm°. sokoff Unearthed an awful clew -- The mothers of St. Petersburg. Will long that morning rue. -n, Q qVL A HO found within the palace walls • A nihilistic plot; Ten ' men with high eicplosive names Were on the in - Stant shot. They then brought forth aconvict' who To ..death was doomed next day, And promised him a parden if He'd talcs the thing away. • Ile severed all the knotted cords With which the thing was • bound - And with a store of caramels This little card he found: - "With seasonable compliments Doth Santa Clauski give tar Is.s forth He thought of all his little ones, He sorrowed, for his wife: A frozen tear or' two he shed, Then bade fare- well to life: 'With trembling hands he car' ried it Beyond and the,out- er gate, There oft a dreary %v4ste of snow Be further tempted fate. • lvsr they fell— UV ,LR audiot gel i.e. -