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The Exeter Advocate, 1892-9-8, Page 2Vomanes elind einizerior to That of Mau ? That Wellaaa'S Mind is more refined Than that of baser roan, I will admit 'tis better fit To do the things she can, But can you find an eqnal miud To Solomon the groW To Milton, Shakspeare, Byron, Or those of later data? Among those of the fairer sex', Among the gentler race, Can you find surpassing genius As history's page you tracel Who have been the leading ones In times now pastand gone— Monarchs of mind and intellect, Since history's early dawn? Did woman, write the finest poems, Or sketch the fairest soonest Did she build the towers of Europe, 'Cross the sea which intervened7 Did she build the mighty ships Which float the ocean o'er 't Or stretch gigantic cable wires, Connoting shore with. shore? Did she war against Napoleon, Whaled destruction's train? Or oheck that famous warrior In his mighty deeds of shame Bo,4 she built the iron bridge, Or forged the rails of steel! Or made the mighty iron horse, th cast the driving wheel 1 D'cl she invent eleotrio wires light our towns at night, Or 4retoh the telephone to speak 2o those far out of sight Profoundly I honor womanhood, The light and joy of home. All honor to a noble mother! I love her whereer I roam. But I cannot see that woman's mind At all surpasses man. It may be equal, but no more— ow prove it if you can. I would not slight a woman—NO! The light and joy of life If 1 ever marry, in tine to come, A woman shall bo my wife Wm. M. Youso. DORIS AND I, and personal estate widish had come to me by my unclees will. I found that the latter came to POMO $80,000, chiefly in- vested in Northern Pacific and other stock, and the former A large tract of prairie land,with house, farm buildings and appointment of 4 first-class property. There was a new railway creeping up, which would double its value in a few years' time ; and it was for TA0 to say, after I had seen the place, whether I should let it or wait, or sell it right out. I wrote the lawyer, saying for the present I would take it in hand till the corn wos safely har- vested. So one thing leaela cm to another, and we prepare our own destiny without knowing ib. But I had looked at thins in a prac- tical way and according to ray lights, and the notary commended me, and Doris sent a letter along suing " Yes, Jack ; but don't tarry the thrashing, too," which was only sweetheart -like. The weeks passed on, and I found plenty to weepy and interest me, AS was natural. One August trimming I rode to the Post - office for the usual weekly letter. 1 always rode over because the postboy who passed on his wan, to the :settlement waited for the second mail at noon. I met Mr. Henshaw at the door of the ofdoe, with two letters and a newspaper in his hands. " Mr. Sedley," said ho; "lot o' letters this mail ; let me hold the cob till you come out." That was the beginning of it—there was no letter. I rejoined Renshaw and walked down with him to his store, heavy with dis- appointment. Like to see the paper? " said he as I was leaving, after ordering some supplies of his man. 'Tain't often I get one, but my brother's hayricks 'a bin blazine an' he's sent the account of it. All new hay, too, an' on'y part insured. Ain't it a pity?" I said it was, and looked moodily through the columns for news that might interest me. I only learned that there had been a regatta at Eyeshot% and that our old doctor a b Ranston had aold his practice to a Dr. Robson—that was all. But as I rode home I kept muttering that doctor's name wondering where I had heard it before, till suddenly it came to me, bringing a lot of something else with it. Why had Doris never mentioned him be- yond the postscript in her first letter, weeks ago? I had clean forgotten she had a cousin Stephen, so little did I heed him, but he was still at Ranston ; still, perhaps an inmate of her home. Why — Here I dropped the reins and drew out her last letter to steady me. I read it through and the dear words brought kindliness back, and I kissed her natne at the end, saying some one was a fooL But the doubt had found entrance and grew, as cancers do, without her knowing it. For the days went on, and no letter came, no sign, till I grew half -wild at the cruelty of it. I wrote, reproaching her ; and another week went and another. At last the letter came. The postboy handed it to me as I stood at the gate. I dare say he wondered why I was always there—and I ripped it open, when my heart pumped fit to break itself. Then the paper dropped from my hands and. I held on to the gate with a singing in my ears and a sudden weakness in seeing which darkened the sun and all beneath it. * * Doris unfaithful—it wasn't natural. Our souls had grafted and we were one; we were twestreams that had met to turn the same millwheel together ; our hearts were bound with ligameuta of their own growing; there was no undoing what nature had so willed. Yet there was her handwriting, her own words in good black ink telling white it was a liar. Then, all at once, through the rush and swirl of it, came the thought of tbe new doctor, and a queer coldness went through me as if I had been turned to clay before my time. The light seemed to go out from me, and I could scarcely move my feet as, half -staggering, I went indoor and dropped into a chair. Again I read the note, though every cursed word was burning in my brain forever. "1 cannot marry you, dear—it is impossi- ble. I like you -1 am fond of you, as I told you in the orchard. that evening; but CHAPTER I. There was evil in front of 118, and much aching of hearts and suffering. But the throstle sang in the sycamore tree, and the swallows curved and twittered all about us, and in the rich amber light we could see that all was fair and good; then our eyes would meet, and we thought not of evil, Doris and L We spoke little, our hearts being very full and words mere idleness. Doris looked out again to the west, leaning her head against me, and taking my hand as it twined over her shoulder. We were in the orchard by the old green tree wicket, where a. month ego, before the blossoms had burst their bulbs, she had allowed me to tell her an old tale, and had said one word of her own to give it finish. And as the throstle sang his love song, and sanktohis bed behind the hills, I thought of tben and now, and my head lowered and I kissed her forehead gently. Then Doris sighed as if a spell was broken. For I had come to tell of my windfall; that I was no longer a poor man; that, instead of waiting for years, we might begin our married life on our return to Canada in three months or so; and the sud- den happiness of the thing had wrapt us round and silenced us both. Now that the fireff Lush of it was over, we remembered the i3,eeting minutes, and. fell to talking. What we said is of no account here; but so little did we dream of harm or accident of nature to cross our happiness, that not once did we mention him, though we knew he was coming next day, to stay, perhaps, for weeks, as sick people do. Then we said good-bye, and I opened the wicket to pass through; but, seeing the wet in her eyes, lingered a while longer till she was smiling again, when I let her go. But I looked back every dozen yards or so; and when I got across the second illedow and stood by the stile before vaulting into the high road, I could see the straight white figure among the green and the wav- ing handkerchief. So I asked God to keep the Western 'solitude, where I had dreamed my dreams awhile, tolerant of the eummer lonelineas as long as I could people it with fauoy and :see Doris and good. company beyond it. But to remain there with my dead hopes eel about me, grinning like marionettes which love had made caper, deluded by its own magic' ; to live on through the long monotonous heat with no opposite shore for the bridge of thought to touch, with no future but a fogbank where had been a fair country. No I could not. CHAPTER II. I need not dwell on that period ; it lies in my memory more like a hideous dreatn than Iso many weeks; and months of actual life, and, like a dream, there are only por- tions of it which stand out from the shad - owe — adventures, incidents, snaps of :scenery, seen in clearer moments. It is enough to say that I came round gradually, and began to see things as they should be seen. Bat the hate was all gone, and love alone was left. Yes, love was left, though badly nouriehed, having no hopes; to diet it; and I got accustomed to think of Doris as one who was dead and yet living, and very lovable wiehal, even as Beatrice WAS to Dante. So a year passed and left me minus :some thousands of dollars. I had found my way into Colorado and was a miner at one of the great joint -stook claims whit& have taken the place of the old-fashioned diggings. The rough work suited my humor, and there was life and go in the town and much distraction in the game of Pharoah, of which more in its place. For nine inonths 1 had not heard from Canada, and ceased to think of the place. My father had taken kindly to his new life, which was all I needed to know. I wished to be, and was, a solitary in the world, though I mixed much with men, finding more isola- tion in a crowd than in lonely places. But I was beginning to be restless again and to wish for another change, when something happened which I had not looked for but which makes me always thankful I played Pharoah that night at Midas'. It was nothing more than a quarrel and a whipping out of revolvers and then a sudden lane of rough figures looking on while the two fired from either end. I heard the low thud of the bullet as it struck Black Jake, and I caught him in my arms as he fell backward with suddenlimpness and whiten- ing face. I had only seen him once before, and he had. roused. a vague recollection which had made me look again at him, wondering what it was about him that was so familiar. He had been at one of the far tables, or perhaps his speech would have given me the cue. Now, as he opened his eyes and stared up into mine, he turned his lips from the flask and said : "God forgive us—it's Master Sedley !" "That's so. Take a pull at this, and tell me who you are," said I, surprised at my own name. The liquor was of little use, for his heart was slowing every moment, but it brought a flicker to his face and a word or two more to his lips. " Gie me yer ear— closer," he whispered. "Bob Hilton— Ranston postman—ay, yo' know now. They want me—want me for robbing the bags. Tell'ern death has got me, an' tell young chap.as I hopes to—He lamed me the Begirmin' he . Yore letters—Miss Doris's—I stopped 'em—His money. Hope no harm done, Sir—I—Christ save—His eyes glazed, a tremble went through him, and he slipped off without another word, leaving. me staring at the dyed whiskers and dissipated features with ringing ears and a thousand thoughts and feelings all set loose together, to the overwhenung of my wit% which seemed quite undone. Long after they had carried him away and the noise and confusion was spent, I stood leaning on the bar counter, staring vacantly through the smoke of the saloon, seeing and hearing nothing, but conscious of a growing fiend within me and a tighten- ing of my teeth as I reckoned things up and saw in all clearnees the perfidy that had come between us. The letter—was not thae, a part of it ? It was a forgery, a trick, and I had been a fool tabs: duped by it— nay, a villain in very truth; for I. had doubted Doyle, and given her pain and misery a thousand times worse than my OW/4 •• " 'Yet the letter was clear enough, said the ghost of Doubt; it was in her own claa,rac. teristic handwriting, said Memory; and there was no forging that, put in Doubt again. Then a resolution came to me, and I walked out into the open air and breathed it in with a long inhalation, as men do at sudden relief or when stirred with new purpose. There were evil things in my heart, but there was one little corner where hope stirred, as if after a long sleep. I could feel it as I looked up to the heavens where the stars were twinkling down at me as if they knew a thing or two, having seen Doris only a few hours none. Next morning I started for New York, and in four more days was on the Atlantic, gazing at tb.e last point of Sandy Hook as it sank lower and lower, till the horizon was an unbroken line and America no. where. But as we sped eastward through the long days and nights, as I drew nearer to Doris and him and the truth, the fiends grew busier with me and gave my little babe of Hope such a 'hustling that I well- nigh lost :sight of it in the tumult. , had been away eighteen months, and what might a man not do in that time with an impressionable young girl who had the best evidence that her lover was unfaithful? They were cousins, and had. been together in earlier years ; he was highly -educated and, contrasted with me, a brilliant, per- haps a fascinating man. He had secured his diploma, but the arduous study had broken him down and to recruit himself he had left his London home to pass some weeks among the breezy hills of Worcester- shire, the guest of his father's sister, the daily companion, no doubt, of Doris. He had seen her beauty, her young suscepti- bility to the influences about her, and he had wormed his way into her heart and cankered it as grubs do roses. So hatred tobted. it all up and made me feel as mur- derers do. God forgive me I It is all passed now, and it was love's doing with all three of us. Sort. Good-bye. See you again some day It WAS pad midnight when I arrived when I've found whet I want." I glanced after ten days at Worcester. The old city down at his furrowed face and saw kindness was ehunbering, and the great cathedral in it. was watching over it and telling out the "Lost surannt, gaffer ?" reed he, end I hours to its deaf ears as the fly rumbled could feel the search of his look. He was a noisily to the hotel, where I had perforce to shrewd man, twice my age, and may have stay till daylight enabled me to continue noticed many things since we had been to. me, journey by the early train. gether. I lay on the bed half drowsed, listening to "Ay, I've lost something," I answered, the quarters as they chimbed through the " but it's not that I'm after, Boss. No use silence one after the other, and each time hunting for broken bubbles, I take it." the familiar sounds crowed the current of "No 'taint," drawled Boss, "but what. my thoughts they swung me out of the ever you're after, it'll tek some findin', I morrow to other day% which their ringing guess, and you may scour the world up and brought back irresistibly, till by and by I down an' find it in yourself when all's done. allowed memory to have its way entirely, Have a good knock round, gaffer, an' when and I lived again in the halo on sunniness it's all bunt out °twee back again and mek of bygone pare. I closed my eyes to look friends things," at it ell, fend allowed it to float dreamlike I could see his outstretched heed, and and as it Would, till petches of grayness Mine went to it iteeoluntarily. came and a fading of color and form, ited I "S'long, gaffer," Was all I heard as the I t dee horse leaped away With me down the rough But as I lay like any le& and the hours traria e went on, till. all in the city hue myself. "So long," said to the hot eilerice and l could hear the cathedra clock ring them her, and went my way with the rose she I cannot be your wife—I cannot, indeed. had given me. Walking home m the twi- Oh, I wish I bad told you earlier how light the heaviness at leaving her wore off things were ; it was cruel to me to let you as I looked into the future and saw what go on loving me without telling you, the was there, or rather what I pictured in it. truth. It was afraid to at last; hue now --- `-e----,..4..or when love is the warp and fortune the you are away it seems les" - difficult to we-Oraiirekwill not the shuttle of fancy do? say. Forgive me ; look elsewhere for Yeaterdei \thing's had been so different. a more fitting mate—some one who can Of all my airy bes there seerned bardly fully share your new life with you, and one left, and I hareeilt a good few. Before help yentas a wife should, with head, heart I knew Doris such iffigginings had never and - nand—some one who can love you troubled me, but when fehad met her at bettor than Donis." Winchcomb flower show leveehad touched me with its wand, and all of el:redden the An hour went by, maybe two, while the dead wall of my life like that in Chauoier's h_dditrd;ning went on, while the love died and the light and the joy of life " Romaunt"—for ',had read a thing or two ewe v dimmed and flickered out, leaving me in in the long winter nights before the old darkness with hate and revenge. Then I thing had been hammered into other heeds rose up and looked round at the difference ---seemed all Mille with pictures. Everything of things, for all seemed altered and not the was lit up ; the world seemed a new place same. I moved to my desk and, unlocking and lite had a sweeter meaning after I had a drawer, took out all her letters, and they, looked into Doris' eyes and she into mine. And when, after many months, I plucked too, had altered and were merely so many pieces of paper, not sacred things to be up courage to ask her heart how it was, and touohed with reverence, like bits of the she told me, the future widened out in such holy rood. Bub the breath of lavender from a fashion that the sight of it nearly made me light-headed. them got at some soft corner ha me, making Had I known how things were, I should my eyes hot and tightening my threat. For a second or two I paused, looking at the have held my tongue, through shame and vision that grew out of them, till anger hopelessness. But my father never gave a puffed. and blew it all away,leaving me with sign that ruin was near upon him ; that my only the bundle of papers. This I wrapped comfortable heritage, as I deemed it, was mortgaged to its last rood. The crash upe along . with a dead rose and a lock of y.ellow haw, and directed to Miss Hanlow, came, and then the sale, and then life in a little cottage with a brokeredown father dierds.ton-in-the-Vale, Worcestershire, Eng - and a changed look -out, which, perhaps, "%e" "Hero," said I, as Nita, my uncle's old made me over -moody. For sometimes I housekeeper, hobbled in to lay the cloth for despaired of ever possessing Doris, or if auppete tea ; "let one of the lads take this to the being able under many years to station before dark. No matter ; I'll take her in a way fitting to her up -bringing. it myself. Where's Boss ?" Everything would be broken off and it would all be a dead wall again. "Goin' away 2" said Boss Wilson as I It was in such humor that the notary's pulled up, half an hour later, at the gate letter found me that morning. I had he was mending—" just as the corn's yel- seldom heard of Uncle Ben and had never lowin' for the machines. Summat wrong? seen him. He had in early manhood deeply You look kinder hit—hope tain't serious." onged my father in aome way, and He wiped his face, looking hard at mine, ia name was rarely mentioned, 1 which I turned away, feeling it was a tal- tided the letter to father and he was tale. dumb like rnyself,his faceworking strangely " You won't be alone long," I went o0. between anger and something holler. Then "My father is on his way, and will take he put it down and ' said: "Conscience possession of the farm and see to things in money, lad, every penny on it, but it's my absence. I have asked him to keep you staved you from my folly, so tek it, an' on Bose and I think you'll find him a good thank God for Machin' Ben repentance an me forgiveness—no may leeson when a brother— 'Well, well, let it lie. Poor Ben I" No wonder,. then that I Paw Visions as I walked home in the light of the aftermath. It was neatly dusk when I arrived at the cottage ; and se I turned for a last look at the burnished hills a bat came between me and the light fluttered mockingly before me. But I kissed my rose and laughed at the flettermoute. I had lived some twenty-five years in the world without knowing much more of it than what our valley and its neighborhood had to show ; so that what ' stsW on My long journey to m37 uncle's Canadian farm made Me Wonder and ' marvel, as young people do when they go out for the first time beyond the mountains and :tee what is there. But there is no need to dwell upon that , ata inoreffeer, it doesa't Osman the 'drift of what I am telling you..Not nee1 hay much about the farm out, NW Pert of MY brain woke up, and "No." finding reason till a alnggaed, etarted I gae.ed at her nearly eboking- What had etrotghtwey so:beaming. It WAS a (Meer my suffering been to hers? medley for the most part, and no better " And oh ! I Was 00 wretched, jack," she than other fantaisies of the sorb ; but to went on in her naive way, "and when he this day I remember it more as a real thing came a third time, full of sympathy, and than A trick of the brain, if such it was. offering to relieve poor mother of ehe debts There in the darkness of the prairie was the which ead nearly brought the old home to deep red rose that Doris hadmven me, borne the brink of breaking, I—I said yes, feel - by an army of fireflies, in whose united ing that I lied no will—that it was a duty radiance the flower lay on a hammock of thrust upon Inc. Bub it is all past now, isn't golden threads and flitted before me mock- it?" ingly while I stumbled in ohase of it. Aye, Gladness made her sigh, and I oould it was the rose, and it blushed in the em- feel her sweet breath as she looked up at brace of Doris' own hair. I had seen it me. shine so at isundown when the light "Do you forgive him, then ?" said I, got in it end made it luminous with looking away, and thinking of 'this abject a gold not its own, as the grass blades figure as he writhed under my whip anhour seem shafts of emerald fire when the glow- ago. wortns are among them. The phantasm "Yes, yes, Jack! and you must too. rose and fell in the blackness, while the You have punished him enough, and he hes hundreds of little light points made a shift- promised to go away. Let us forget him— ing circle round. On, on they flitted, ever let us look upon it as a bad. dream. Oh, eluding me as I stumbled along, till there Jack, my heart nearly runs over with its was a sudden clash of bells, when the little gladness—surely yours has nought else in it vision Ilissolved into a kind of crimson and now golden atmosphere, in which I lave myse "God bless you I" said I. with heating hands, while it widened more "And you, Jack I" said she. and more, lighting all things round, till I And then we joined hands and turned to saw that I stood in a crowded churchyard the house,becoming one in love and charity, in all the soft sheen of a summer's morning. Doris anI.—Chambers' Journal. I rubbed my eyes as the peoplemoved about, LeBTING BY BVIGE. some toward the wooden porch, some taking places on the path, till there was an avenue of smiling faces and one Slim figure fol. Row Lovemaking and marriage is Begat - through all. The vows a would-be officer of the Sal - Ib A. was Doris, all white and beautiful in vation Army is required to sign before bridal vestments; but her golden head was loeing appointed to an office are sweeping her stop. in charaoter, pledging absolute aubmisaion bent and there was heaviness in As if she were entering some prison house, to the will of the commissioner in charge. never to know liberty again, she Paused at Among the questions to be answered are the porch and looked long and wistfully those book into the sunshine. And I could see Are you courting? the thin face and the pain deep down in her Do you underetand that you will not be allowed to marry until two years after your eyes, knowing all the meaning of her long look, but unable to move, as she passed In appointment as an officer, and that the and out of my sight. Then the clanging of lowest rank of an officer is lieutenant? the bells died away into a melody of old Note, a cadet is NOT an officer, time, which they quaintly chimed, while If you are not courting, do you pledge the people thronged into the church,lsaving yourself to abstain from anything of the me alone among the headstones. The agony kind for at least twelve months after your WAS too much. I wrenched free my voice appointment as an officer ? Do you pledge yourself not to carry on courtship with anyone at the station to which you are at the time appointed? Do you pledge yourself never to com- mence, or allow to commence, or break off anything of the sort, without first inform- ing the commissioner of your intention to do so? Do you pledge yourself never to marry anyone marriage with whom would take you out of the Army altogether? The fifth clause is heavily underlined in the printed regulations. This is part of the declaration to which the officer is required to suhscribe : "1 hereby declare that I will never, on any consideration, do anything calculated to injure the Salvation Army,ancl especially, that I will never, without first having ob- tained the consent of the Commissioner, take any part in opening any place for religious services, or in carrying on services, in any place within three miles of any then existing station of the Army, under penalty of forfeiting $250 to the Commissioner for the benefit of the Army, if I should in any way prove unfaithful to this dolemn pledge.' and shrieked her mime—and awoke, still hearing the chiming, but realizing gradually that it came from the cathedral tower, which I could see in the morning sun over the housetops, and its clock pointed to three minutes past nine. Now, 1 never believe in dreams; but I sat down to breakfast uneasy and without appetite, looking in at that desparing white face with a growingsense of ite ominous. nem, and chafing mightily at the fact that there was no train to take me on for another two Imre. " Paper, sir ?" I heard the waiter say as I trifled with the toast. I dropped my eyes meohauioally on to the folded, sheet, but only looked vacantly at it, or rather a head- line which standing out from the rest, took my eyes, being definite as the fire is in the darkness, or a candle flame, which we gaze at without noting. There was the name of my own village staring me in the face, and for a full minute I never saw it—Ranston- in-the-Vale. It was all a flash, as was my eagerness as I snatched up the paper and read the local items; " Bellringers' Dinner —Fire at the Hall—The Approaching Mar- riage of Dr. Robson." I remember the sense of paralysis, the rush of darkness to the eyes, and then the sudden return of light as I jumped to my feet and stood for a moment irresolute, with my watch in my hand. Quarter past ten— the ceremony was at 11—three parts of an hour to do fifteen miles. A wave of help. lessness swept over me and then of hot strength—nothing less than the strength of despair, and, thank God, it carried me through. I never shall forget that ride. The horse was fresh—the pick of the best posting stables in Worcester—and I had much to do to keep it in, while we breasted Red- hill to the level of the London Road. Then I gave it its head and a tip from the heels and, awa.y..we shot 'like two mad things. 'Seeing nothing but the yellow road before me, I counted every spring of the animal as he skimmed along, scarcely seeming to touch the ground with his light hoofs, and flying faster and faster as he warmed to it and heard my cries of encouragement. For half an hour I let him go, till we came to a stiff hill not three miles from Ranston. Hero I pulled him up. and made him walk before the final rush in. He was impatient to get on, so woe I, for from the top of the hill I knew I could see the church, maybe some of the gathering people '• but I held him in and took out my watch. My heart sank—it was 10.58. I eased the reins with a shout, and in three bounds we were at the hilltop and away again. I could see the church now acmes the valley, and the flag at its tower, ancl ths. pigmy forms moving about the yard. But there was still hope, stills chance to snatch Doris back from her peril—for such was my purpose, and my dream had made me desperate. I set my teeth and let the good horse go. It was all over in ten minutes, and it was Doris's doing as much as mine. She could not help it, maybe, and it was rather sudden to jilt a man just as the vicar was asking whether she would have him or not. But so it was, and I had no sooner shown myself at the vestry door by which I had entered than she saw me, and with a Jack, Jack 1" stumbled toward me and fell limp in my arms, and lay there me, a cut lily and as speechless. I had carried her into the vestry, and was bathing her tem- ples with the parson's drinking water before the wedding party could realize what had come to them. He was the first to rush in as was natural perhaps. Now I would not have harmed him just then, for all his wordy spleen, if he had not laid rough hands on me as he tried to force me from my place. But when the shock of his touch went through me, I sprang to my feet, and catching him hy the collar and the small of the back, pitched him out of the open door with such good -will that he fell on the gram a dozen yards away and lay there, a huddled heap of blaoknees on the green. When I turned round, Doris was opening her eyes and looking up at her mother asking where she was. I knell; and looked down at hen; she stared while you might count three • and then her arms were around my neck, and I raised her in mine. He deolared his love here at this wicket, as you had, dear, before him." " But the letter ?" I said. " Oh how could you believe it, Jack? The letter was my second refusal, sent a week after he had taken to his practice. He must have forwarded it to you in the cover of one of mine. How cruel and wicked of him And you "--- She looked up, and that) was such reproach in her eyes that I turned mine away, not daring to meet theta. "Jealousy made a fool of me, Doris. How can I tell it you? You see, the letter wars so worded that, coming eller your silence and on top of my knowledge that he wasatill at Batiste's, 1"— "Who told you he was still hero? I avoided the subject for your :Sake." " Ill news travels fast • but don't let us speak of ib. He allowed the parcel to reach you—whee did you think When you opened ib?" When I Was able, I wrote you, asking what it meant,' she :said simply, "And 1 never answered? Auovw sow rointere Witten Conduce to Meta's Lonstort. There are people who think time juet he - cause they fancy a certain shaped shoe they can wear it, Never was there a greater mistake. People's feet ere just as charac- teristic as their figures and muet be dressed with as much discretion if the beet effect la to be produced. A quarter•inch in the length of the vamp will make all the difference between comfort and discomfort, right And wrong proportion. A foot, for instance, with a low instep must have the vamp ar- ranged eo as to give the appearance of height, mut have the sole se curved and arched as to make v. spring and Mild have a higher heel to attain the same end. Long feet need one style of tip, short ones another. The salient or characteristic points of the foot must be followed in the lines of the shoe if harmony is to be attained, and the very best thing a would-be buyer can do is to select a shoemaker with a good reputation and leave the matter entirely in his hands. It stands to reason that a man who make the study of feet his daily business must know more about them than you do. If can eee at a glance what they need and why the last shoes have beenuneatisfactory. Let him diagnose the case just as you would the doctor; follow out his advice for once and the chances are you will be more com- fortably and :satisfactorily shod than if you. had elooted a pair of shoo because they pleased you in the show window, says the New York Prem.—Chicago News. Brave Hero. "You may be on the right side, God knows; but our duty is the duty of soldiers, and we will fight you whenever you press we You may crush this force like an egg shell, if yen can, and you may also then bury us in one ditch." These were the brave words of Keller Anderson, in command of the men guarding that' convict stockade in the mountains of Tennessee. They were his answer to the demand for surrender made by that desper- ate band of miners who threatened to anni- hilate everything before them. To a later demand, when resistance seemed hopeless, his reply was "Never I" Finally, when he had been seized by the maddened force and a gun was levelled at his head with the threat of death unless he ordered the surrender of the guard, the brave old hero said, Tell my daughter I died like a soldier," and then added," Now, damn you, shoot." Such sublime bravery and loyalty to duty stamp Keller Anderson as a hero of the highest type.—New York Herald. "Sit" and "set." Some one who believes in teaching by ex- ample has concocted a lesson in the use of two little words which have been a source of mortification and trouble to many well- meaning persons. A man, or woman either, can set a hen, although they cannoe sit her • neither can they set on her, although the hen might sit on them by the hour' if they would allow it. A man cannot set on the wash -bench, but he could set the basin on it, and neither the basin nor the grammarians would object. He could sit on the dog's tail if the dog were willing, or he might set his foot on it. • But if he should rot on the aforesaid tail, or sit his foot there, the grammarians as well as the dog would howl, metaphorically at least. And yet the men might set the tail aside and then sit down, and be assailed neither by the dog norbythe grainmarians.—Yough's Companion. A Hint to Strikers. A farmer hired a man to help work the farm. One smnmer day, when laborers were very scarce, the two were mowing in the field, when several larks flew ap. " Look at those big cranee," said the hired wan. " Those are not cranes; they are onl larks," replied the farmer, somewhat sur- prised. "11 you don't say they are cranes, I'll knock off work right now," said the hired man. As the farmer could get nobody to take the hired man's place, he was obliged to yied to the whim of the menial "Yes," said the farmer, "1 see that they are cranes, but they are not big crazies they are only half-grown cranes.' The hired man was satisfieciwith this con- cession. Some months afterward, the hired man still being in the employ of the farmer, the latter said at dinner time one day, as he poured out a glass of water: "Here is some very fine beer." "That's not beer ; that's only water,' replied the hired man. " If you don't say it's beer you can tender your resignation, for I don't want any offen- stye partisan about the place. Just taste that again, and if you think it is not been you can just quit at once." The hired man knew very well that could not get another situation at that Um of the year, so he tasted the water an cheerfully endorsed the administration saying: Of course it's beer, but it has not much body to it." Moral: Strikers should be carefu select the proper season at which to at —Texas Siftings. Onions as Medicine. The sweet Italian, or the Bermuda onions, are the ones to be eaten au nature, the flavor being much more delicate than the common varieties. But onions are really sweeteners of the breath after the local effects have passed away, as they correct stomach disorders and carry off the accumulated poison of the system. They provide a blood purifier that all may freely use, and do perfect work in constipation troubles. As a vermifuge the onion cannot be surpassed, and, eaten raw, will often check a violent cold in the head, One small onion eaten every night before re- tiring is a well known doctor's prescription for numerous affections of the head, and is highly recommended for sleeplessness; it acts on the nerves in a soothing way, with- out the injurious effects of the drugs so often applied. The heart of an onion, heated and placed in the ear, will often re- lieve the agony of earache, while the syrup procured from sprinkling a sliced onion with sugar anti baking in the oven, will work wonders in a " croupy " child. Adam and Eve Were Tank M. Henrion, the French savant, in his remarkable work, "The Degeneration of the Human Race," published in 1718, gravely informs his readers that Adam was 123 feet 9 inches in height, while his dis- obedient consort was but a paltry 118 feet from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head. She—Ie ehe your summer resort girl? He (languidly)—No, she is my last resort The new Wall Paper Trust will atick girl. $20,000,000 can reek° it. ' Lottie Blair, the author of "White An Iowa publisher acknowledges Roses," is writing a comedy for Daniel receipt of an egg which "was laid on t Frohma,nes Lyceum company. table by the Rev. Mr. Smith." Mr. Sea The differenee between a looking.glase Bmna to be a layman as well " 0 mini" talki , She—Yon ; I'll do anything you Wish. He—if I kiss you again will you sorer and 0. chide in that one reflect% but can't Bettie Green's idillions. Mrs. Hetty Green, whom an attempt has been made to swindle at Chicago, is jie wealthiest woman in the United States, r fortune being placed at 32,000,000. Sis is about 55 years of age and is the daughter of a New Bedford Whaler, who left he $9,000,000, says the Boston Journal. Not long after this an aunt died and bequeathed. her $4,000,000, and with this combined sum she is said to have made 22,000,000. Mrs. Green has proved herself a match for the shrewdest merlin Wall street, as many of know to their sorrow. By her determina- tion in withdrawing a deposit of $475,000 which she had with Moo Bros., she was said to have caused that firm's failure. Although being assured that the removal of so largo O sum would cause the firm's embarrass- ment, she still insisted uponib. She is very economical, her one desire being to make her son the richest man in the United States. She owns as little real estate as possible in order to escape taxation, and always lives in hotels. She is a large women, weighing about 180 pounds, and attends early and late to business. Interesting. It was decided that Mr. Wright numb administer a stern lecture to his dyear-old. daughter Florence. The little girl, had been naughty, but she did not seem to appreciate the fact, and Mr. Wright re- luctantly undertook "scolding." He bated to make the tender liege heart ache and to see the dear little child cry, but he forced himself to speak judiciously and severely. He recounted her misdeeds and explained the whys and wherefores of his stern rebuke. Mrs. Wright sat by, looking duly impressed. Finally Mr. Wright paused for breath, and also to hear the small culprit acknow- ledge her error. Florence turned a face beaming with admiration, to her mother, and said, innocently: ea*, "Isn't papa interesting 2" — Yoder& Convpanion; Housekeepers' Notes. Keep flowers fresh by putting a pinch o soda in the water. Boil the clothesline, and it will not "kink," ae a new rope is apt to do. Soda is the best thing for cleaning tin- ware; apply with a damp cloth and, rub well, then wipe dry. Prick potatoes before baking, so that the air can escape; this will prevent them bursting in the oven. For sore throat, beat the white of an egg stiff with all the sugar it will hold and the juice of one lemon. Grease spots that have burned and 130 - come hard on the stove, may be removed by O few drops of kerosene oil on the cloth fore rubbing them. A Wasted Mauer. The eating of an international dinner some little time ago in tho St. Clair tunnel, which was to unite the commerce of the United States and Canada, seems to have been a premature repast, in view of the present retaliatory :status. — New York World. Encore—Aune (to little girl, Who has just returned from hearing her mother sing for the filet time ha public)—Well, dealing, how did mamma sing this afternoon ?" Little girl (dejectedly)—Not very well, they made her como back and do it all over again, "Did you," he inquired, in an intensely sentimental tone, "never sigh for death "Whose ?" she inquired, with an interes and promptnees that brought him back t earth so fast that he nearly lost hi a breath