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Home My WebLink AboutThe Seaforth News, 1926-07-22, Page 7THE BIG BLACK MAN By MATTIE: E. RANDALL Teddy Marvin was a very miserable little boy, indeed! He sat upon the doorstep of his mother's house, while big'salt tears overflowed his eyes and roled down his plump cheeks, while indignant sobs choked him and'made him gasp for breath. - The sun shone warin and height, the sky was blue and, cloudless,"end all around his feet a cheerful little array of dandelions were opening round, yellow eyes d£ wonder at the forlorn face of the chubby child, who was usu- ally so delighted to see them, but who to -day shuffled his smallfeet viciously over their golden heads," and didnot seem to care whether -he hurt them or hot. Se the poor, 'pretty flowers nearest t him were hopelessly crushed, and e blossoms beyond his reach shrank back affrighted, and whispere.j to each other that "Teddy Marvin- must be 'Oery cross!" And:so he was, lot everything ryt ng had gone et sixes and serene-eince he first stepped out ef, his, little crib. " To begin with, he could not find nd his and when at last he did get them the buttons snapped, off on pur- pose to trouble hiin, .and then he tip- ped his mug of milk all over his clean Butt, and Betty, the girl, had boxed his ears, and said "he was enough to try the patience of a saint." - Then the wheel had come off from his new red and green cart, so that he could not play with it, and his baby sister had knocked down his tower of R' • blocks, and'when he pushed her away filet the least wee bit, She must go and fall over and bump her head; and, haat .0f all, to cap the climax of his woes, his mother had sent him out of the house because she said he was as mischievous as a monkey, and he was to stay there until he could behave himself. w "I don't care," he pouted, stamping hfs foot, angr'il'y. "I'm. glad I hurt Sophy when she smashed ns (beautiful tali tower, and I'ni glad Betty had to' scrub the floor where I spilled my intik, and I'm; sure -certain that Pin not like these ugly little .monkeys that go round with the hand -organ men, Mantilla may say what she likes, but I'm not. Betty told me .that the Big Slack Man' would carry me offwith him if I wasn't a good boy, but I don't believe what she says, and I'm not ,goink to stay another minutewith such cross folks. I'll run away, and -then they will be sorry and I'll be glad. I'll go and lute with Aunt Molly and grardmanuna, They know how to treat little boys right, and they'll give .the some bread and honey!" So saying, Master Teddy pulled -his little rem tightly over his head and marched down the path to the gate with a very brave heart. It was not far across the meadows to the farm-house,where his kind old grandinanuna and his pretty Aunt , Molly lived, and he felt very bold and manly as he trotted along through the • warm, spring sunshine—his shadow' bobbing on by his side, as if it, too,, was glad to be running away from a crying baby sister, a cross mother, and a Betty who was too ready to box little boys' ears. "I do not believe there is any such a thing as 'The Big Black Man;" he repeated over and over again; for, as he lost sight of hie own hone, he be- gan to feel just a little uneasy. "Betty Only says that to frighten me. And I'M toe big to be frightened by her. 'The Big Black Man,' indeed! " I'd ljecnock him down with .this if I saw hint!" And -he picked up a bit of crooked stick, waving it over his -head and feeling as brave as a lion and as if he would not mind flgkting'anybody. "'The Big Black Man,' indeed, Who's afraid?" he cried. But his heartbeat too fast and loud to be- very peasant, and he sprang asidewitha gasp of fright when a poor harmless little- .squirrel scudded across the grass before him so that, after all, he was not so much of a man as he fancied himself, , He trudged on more sedately after this, and began to realize that he was voesesee RE G'LAR. FEDI .ERS—By- Gene Bynles, very hungry, for he had been too angry to ask for a second' cup of milk after he had quarreled with Betty over the spilling of the nest. And he dis- covered, too, that the way to his. grandzuamma's house was longer than he had expected;` but, just as he gave• a tired sigh and almost wished he was back home again, a beautiful yellow butterfly fluttered by, shining like a floating piece of golden satin. -Teddy thought what. •a fine thing it would be if he could only catch it, so he snatched his cap from his head and ran afterit as fast as his feet could carry him. But the butterfly was too quick for him, and the last Teddy saw it was skimming along through the air as light and graceful ,as, a feather. Then the child, who, five Minutes be- fore, had believed himself to be almost a man, sank down in a disconsolate little heap of misery, and burst into tears, for he was warm and tired and thirsty, and, what was worse than all besides, he found eut that he had strayed away from the well-known meadows, and was on the edge of a big dark wood, where the trees stood up like ,giant -sentinels against the sky; and when he paused he could hear the ripple of a brook flowing, like a stream of liquid music, over its bed of mosey -green Atones, while, . a little further away, the sound of a woodman's axe came ringing out like "the strokes of a slowly -ticking clock. Here was help ,.>whouht Teddy, He would go and ask the man which way his ch once ranma's house was, and whaves got there, wouldn't he good big slice of bread and honey and perhaps his Aunt Molly would give him some gingerbread. So he picked himself up, and, wiping away his tears, went boldly on. It Was very hard work, for the ground—although it looked so soft and even—was-uncertain, and every min- ute or two his feet would oink into little pools of water. At last,however, ! he reached and open space, where the sunshine poured down in a golden shower of bright-, nese, and -the pretty little wild -flowers lifted their modest blue eyes to the' welcome warmth, Volcanoes have been active in recent years in various parts of the world. This one is in. New Zealand, Mount Nagamruhoe by ,nate. In its violent activity it flung ashes and other material 5,000 feet into the air, The: cone ie typically Perfect. tenderness of the voice, "Why, bress my heart, if de chile hasn't been and twisted' his pore little foot! What under de sun did you come from, and who's with you?" "Nobody!" sobbed Teddy. "I ran away; but I'll never do it again! 'Oh,' please let me go!" "Couldn't do dat noways!" said the woodman, shaking his woolly head de- cidedly. ."Why, you couldn't walk a step; but I'll tote you up to de house, and dey'il know what to do." "What house?" asked Teddy, still trembling with 'fear. "Don't lock me up in a :prison. Oh, do-o-n't!" "Ole Missis Marvin, she'll know what to do about dis yer," repeated the man. "You jes'. keep quiet, little mas'r, and I'll tote you up dar." "Why, that's my very own grand - mamma!" cried Teddy. "Oh, 'Big Black Man,' if you'll only take me to her, I'll never run away again 1" So Teddy was carried safely and carefully to his grandmother's house, and on the way he made great friends with the .old colored man, who told him that"de ole missis" had hired him. to chop wood for her, and how, that very morning, he had found a little squirrel's nest in one of the trees, and he promised Teddy that he should see A plain and homely virtue but one Neighbors. Since none of us who liven normally dwells in a hermit's occlusion and keeps the world at a distance, one of the first and moat important lessons id life la to get along with other pec. pie in the habitual daily contacts, .And yet it may not be easy to be amiable with those whom we see familiarly and constantly. "A man's foes shall be those of his own household.' Constant prpximity, unless there is the spirit of give-and-take and of generous for- bearance, may lead to friction' and acrimony. Men on exploring expedi- tions, penned in a small hut or a boat for menthe at a'time, get to know one another too well and fall to quarreling. One of the obligatiions of a friendship ie to preserve the possibility of mete tery-and surprise; in a happy marriage each partner strives to bring Into the fellowship new and various enlivening experience and incident. We need friends and neighbors' to keep us from becoming self-centered and from having too many ingrowing interests. For the normal business as- sociations lift us out of ourselves and transport us from a daily round we know too well into a fresh region of thinking and feeling. it when•he was well enough to walk of the'qualitiee most likely to endear to the woods once more; and the child tie to our own kind, is that of mere discovered that it was not such a very' neighborliness. The good neighbor is dreadful thing, after all, to be carried the one who is not merely touched by the plight a fellow mortal but moved to relievb it, A woman may have neither surpass- ing beauty nor extraordinary clever- ness leverness nor a brilliant and scintillating wit nor a great deal of•moneyto spend, and yet she is beloved beyond many who have these things because she has a sheer genius for oousel and compas- sion. Her insight goes• to the heart of another's dilemma, She (levities In a crisis what is the best thing to dor She makes her life count for its full value in fellowship and citizenship, and all who know her count themselves for- tunate in being thus befriended. Air Route for Furs. The Russians. at Moscow are now planning to bring furs by means of pieties from the most inaccessible part' bf Siberia. The coat will be re- paid, for the trade with America off by The Big BIack Man ; but he kept his word, and; never, never ran away again! I There, e, close beside hini, was the woodman,.. dealing quick, sharp strokes with a shiningaxe, and Teddy laugh. ed to see the bits of wood fly about in all directions as the keen blade cut, its way into the white heart of three tree. But his smiles died away, and his face grew pale with terror, when the Fran changed his position to get a better aim, for then the poor, horri fled child saw that the woodman was as black as—well, not quite as black I as a:,coal, but as black as the very blackest man ever seen. "It's 'Tho Big Black Man I'—it's 'The Big Black Mani"' gasped Teddy, dropping the stick with which he had boasted he could defend himself, and turning to escape. There la a ld CC „ n o proverb that says, "The more haste the legs speed," and so poor Teddy found to his cost, for, in hie flight, he caught his foot in the gnarled roots of an old -stump, and, twisting his ankle under him, he fell flat upon the mossy -green ground. He lay quite still, hoping that he? had not been seen by the object of his dread; but his heart almost stopped beatiegas the strokes of the axe ceas- ed suddenly, and then he could hear heavy'. footsteps draw nearer and nearer. He struggled to his feet, but the pain of his sprained ankle was so in- tense that he fell down once more, and hiding his face; .closed his eyes in a perfect panic of fear. "Don't carry me off, 'Big Black Man!' " he gasped, as , he felt himself :being lifted by a pair of strong arms: "I':1 be a good boy! I'll never disobey mamma, or worry Betty, or hurt Sophy again. Oh, pease, please, `Big Black 1\dan,' forgive me this once!" "What's do' natter, little mas'r?" asked the man; ,and even the child— frightened as he was—felt the. pitying Something In 011. Art Dept. •Salesman—"Madam, can't I` show you'soniething done in oil suit- able for'your dining room?" Mrs. Newr'ich-"Oh, is this where you keep the sardines?" • When, the Queen Laughed. I met a worried Scotsman the other day. "Why is it," he asked are, "that all the best jokes are against my coun- trymen? Even the Queen has suc- cumbed to the temptation to laugh at us." And he told mo that the only joke which she heard at the recent Royal variety' performance and still laughs at is one about a Scotsman who went to stay with some English friend' on holiday, bringing with him a one. pound note and a clean shirt. But he ` hasn't changed •either of them yet! To Clean Black Satin. Boil three pounds of white potatoes in one quart of water. Boil them to a pulp, strain through a sieve and brush the satin with it on a board or table. Do, not wring out the satin'. Fold it in a cloth for three hours and Iran on the wrong side. Da You WAtIY'A PEPPERMINT? HOW ABOUT LICORICE; G14oE LACES OR CINNAMON BALLS? e aloha is worth $5,000,000 a year. At present, during nine months, of ,thz year when .the northern river', aro ice - rocked, dogs and reindeer must be the carriers, Three new air routes are therefore to be opened between Arch- angel and Siberian points and the dis- tant frontiers bordering the Arctic Ocean. The airplanes, furthermore, will serve to carry the supplies re- quired . by the traders and trappers, and it is planned to use them to link the lonely peninsula of Kamchatka with the nearest railway points of the mainland. Already in Russian Central Asia the plane makes it possible to travel from Bobhara to Ifhiva in a few hours, instead of the'fo'tnightbr more required by toiling caravans, A Poor Suit, Ardent Wooer—"Do you think your father will object to ray suit?" Modern Maid—"I don't see why ho should; he wears ono almost as bad." ---,a Always "nix starch with soapy water. This will prevent the iron sticking, and will give the linen a Fetter gross. ',Wee Y'U'b - LIKE A CIlOCOLATE MOUSE OR A MARCREAMSHMALAPLOPW, LE BANANA? -INOSE 7 " PIN DROPS ARE -" s • NICE! �-�.-; • • Z!a1�4��f��, -ALA 1_11100 `•\ NOPE !i/ NOPE NOPE! MATILD'S ROSES By Cola L. Fountain, Once' upon a eine, in 'tee- fast -dim- band's presence only as a "peaky nuke ming long ago, a woman, called llIatild'. Waters, lived "by the side of the road" in a low ramshackle house. She had poverty to deal with, and drunkenneas and shams to endure from her hue- band and 'his people, who came and earoueed frequently within her lowly door. Matild' had children and they did not all "torn out well." The example of their father and the legacy of hie unstable character told on them and they were not strong enough to eon• quer their lnh,eritamce:. Matild' 11,104 to know the bitterness of the: hand of the law against her sons and to sae her daughters, sicken in poverty and die for lack of medical aid. Matild' was a woman with a soul starved for beauty. No matter how hard her burdens pressed upon her, she would stand in the cottage door for a brief moment just to contemplate the spring green stealing aver the mountains, to catch the flicker .of a blaebird'a wing or to glimpse the flames of the western sun refieoted an the lofty jeep of rock behind the house. Ther was no material beauty inside her home. Matild' had braided a rug one winter from odds and edde of woolen cloth, with red flannel worked in here and there. She had made it in the hang midnight hours while wait- ing for the mem of the house to come home. When flnlahed shehad piaci-ed- it on the floor in the "other room" and used to go in now and then just to feast her eyes upon it. One day it disappeared and she 'never found it. The saloonkeeper's wife over at Hook- er. Mountain had one just like it short- ly after but Matild' never knew. A stranger driving by thecottage one afternoon, with his carriage full of rosebush sips and plants which he was delivering far up In the run - tains, stopped for n drink of water. Moved by the heart -hungry look in the eyes of Mettld'' he handed her a little bush and drove away. She planted' the slip behind the house but when people were about paid. no attentitin to it. It grew and throve. She mentioned it in her hus- once," so he left it alone. Years pessed. The house beocame more tumbledown, the family were re - dived. The roses alone flourished. Mr. Gabriel Parsons ontertaine a To -day Matild' and her husband sleep few friend's to dinner, anil on the, ladles in the sandy little cemetery in the retiring to, the drawln rooxii it is ro• shadow of the mountain. Their child- p ren are scattered and gone, some dead, posed that their health be drunk. some far away. The lious•e has fallen '"Ah!" said Mr, Gabail Parsons "I into decay. The ra house h lie barn remember a strange wee a younger feel, with what a strange compound of feel• , burned years ago. An you walk along legs I used to drink that toast, and the road fn June a fragrance.aweat and how I used to•think that every Woman lowly envelops, you 'nil bhe wind was an• angel:" . wafts away. You tarn the bend of the ` °Woe that before you -revere mar read and a marvel 01 pink and glowing road?" mildly Inquired Mr, 'Dottie. beaty meets your eye. The yard of "Oh, certainly!" replied Mr, Parsons, bhe old cottage is Pull of rases. They ,q have never thought so since. But, bare stpibled over the broken fence, you know, I married Fanny under the th• 5dclost and most ridiculous circum- stances possible. I spent my wedding night in a back kitchen chimney: A Secret Marriage. HIS WEDDING NIGHTA Little Gem from the Pages of, the Greatest of: British Novelfeto. 1' ey have Grossed the road and are Marching . down the ravine like an army with banners. Though the wo- man who planted the first little bush has long been duet and; few who live In that section even remember her face, yet these flowers ars known everywhere by the name of 'ZVIatild'e Roses," They are gathered by the whole neighborhood for weddings and for funerals; children carry them we the dusty country road for the "last day" at school; lovers wear them in their buttonholes; tourists passing through ' thiii as yet uncharted' road on their way to a better highway atop to gather and bear away Matild's roses to far - distant points. To some it is given to live long enough. to receive the applause of the throng for their; deeds done on earth. Others suffer depths of shame and humiliation and never know' the ex- tent of their influence or the joy of work successfully' accomplished. How many of us can leave Behind such real beauty and sweetness that ever grow - ing rowing will blot out the remembrance of our aumering and failure, fill the hands of strangers with fragranoe and loveliness and teach once more the old, old lesson that however narrow and shadowed our pathway may be, however small may seem our oppor tunity to brighten it, Ifwe but do our best withwhat we have, there is no end nor limit to ita influence and power and so, verily, our "works do follow us," and orange, and the aerial veils of rose and amethyst which drop upon THE POSITION OF the hills from the 'skies of morning g NAPLES and evenin ." , , Outside the magic world of panto- ; mime there is nothing to equal these. Naples Is the paradise of excursions It is set in the heart of incomparable loveliness. Over its sapphire sea one sails away—to the Fortunate Isles, or some others equally alluring, Its heights and adjacent mountain' offer views one might well cross the ocean to enjoy.. . . Even in midwinter the days are sun- ny.. , . Tho grass Is as green as in June. . . . The Bay of Napier is en- closed ba two semi -circular arms that extend far out to sea, the southern reaching nearly to Capri, while near the termination of the northern, "Fair Ischia smiles O'er liquid Miles." Far out at sea the sun shines daz- zlingly on the blue Mediterranean, . The region surrounding Naples is abrupt—picturesque with. . . Irre- gular outlines of hills, . . . Orange and lemon' groves prevail as far as eye can see, , - Olive orchids abound.' ' Castles and ruins gleam white in the sunshine, on the ledge of rooky precipicee. The curved shores shine likes broken lines of silver. . . the city stretches along the coast on both sides her semicircular bar,. . , the terraced hills beyond and every peak and valley . . . thickly sown with" . . . habitations. "What words can analyze," says :George S. Hilliard, "the ,details of this matchless panorama or unravel the , inagio web of beauty into which pal- aces, villas, forests, gardens, vine- yards, the mountains and the sea .are woven? What pen can paint the soft curves,. . . the flowing outlines, the craggy steeps and the tar -seen heights . so full of grace and . ex - premien? . No canvtis can repro- duce the light and color which Play around this enchanting region. No skill can catch the changing hues of distant mountains, the star -points al' Playing waves, the films of purple acrd green which' spread themselves over the calm waters, the sunsets of gold 7. KNOW WilAT '(OU <r," vdAwr! A NGE"ALL DAM �f eK Re effects of b1 ue and silver.. . . The Mille above areblushing like the heart of some tea -rose, . The deep sol- emn green of stone -pines forms eano- -pies under the sapphire skies and through their trunks one gazes on the sapphire sen. , , Lillian Whiting, in "Italy:, the Magic Land." The Wise Tailor. Any of our readers who have studied rhetoric under- competent teacher will have been told that there le a subtle force in "understatement" that no amount of exaggeration and bom- bast can equal. Here is a homely il- lustration of that truth from the Ar- gonaut: Three tailors conducted their bus!- Hess in the same block, and they were keen rivals for patronage. In an at- tempt to draw more trade one put; up a signboard reading "Thames Jones, Best Tailor in This City." The second decided to go .him one better, and• ex- hibited xhibited a sign with the motto, "Robert Brown, Best Tailor in. This State." The third tailor quietly read the inscrip- tions and then posted a board reading, "Richard. Habra, Best Tailor in This Block." How Could. She Say That? Ste --"He's a hard case.' He --"'Thought he was soft on you?" Jimmy's. No Sucker. You MUST THINK 5'M j CMZ'Y !: To BUY AN A1.1. DAY SUCKER AT lir PAS,' THE AFTERNOON. "The fact 1e that Fanny's father and mouser liked' me well enough as an individual, but had a decided objection to my beooming a husbands You see, I hadn't any money In those days and they had; and so they wanted Fanny to pick up somebody else. However, we managed to discover the state of each other's affections somehow, "At last, as our love was raised to such a pitch and as my salary had been raised,too, we determined on a secret marriage. "Married we were the next morning, and we agreed to postpone our confes- sion for four -and -twenty hours. I spent my wedding day in strolling around Hampstead Heath and damning my father-in-law. "Of course I went to comfort my dear little wife at night as muoh as I could, with the .assurance that our troubles would soon be over. I open- ed the garden gate, of which I had a key, and was shown by the servant to our old place of meeting --a back kit - Oben: Caged in the Chimney. "I stopped there till about eleven o'clock, and just as I•was taking my leave for the fourteenth time the ser- vant girl 'camerunning downstairs in a great fright to tell us' that the old vi1- lain ---God forgive me for culling him so, for he le dead - and gone now-- prompted, ow—prompted, I suppose, by the Prince of Darkness, -was coming down to draw hie own beer for supper—.a . thing he had not done before, for the cask stood in that very back kitchen. There was only one thing to be done. "Tire chimney. I scrambled in like a squirrel, and as Fanny and the girl replaced the chimney -board I could see the light of the candle which my unconscious father-in-law carried in his hand. I heard him draw the beer, and I never heardbeer run so slowly. He was just leaving the kitchen when down camp the infernal chimney- boardl "He •coolly observed that the fire- place was never used,and sending the frightened servant into the next kit- chen far a hammer and nails, actually nailed up the board! Waiting for Morning. "And there," added Mr, Parsons as he passed the bottle, "there I remained till half -past seven the next morning, when the housemaid's sweetheart, a carpenter, unshelled me." "And what did Mrs, Parsons' father say when he found yon were married?" inquiredWatkins Tattle. "Why, the affair of the chimney so tickled his fancy that he pardoned as oft -hand. I spent the next night in his second floor front much more comfort- ably than I had spent the preceding one, for as you will probably guess -" "Please; sir, missis has made tea," said a ervarit, bobbing into the room. (The foregoing is an extract from Dickens' Asst book, "Sketches BYBoz." All Bermuda <Islands of Coral Formation. To many persons Bermuda's Min - died odd islands. are a dot on the map. In reality Bermuda, has about 700 miles. southwest of New York and about 600 miles directly east of Charleston, S.C. The extreme length of the archipelago is abowt twenty-six miles, varying in width from three-quarters of a mile to three miles. The principal islands are five in number—the mainland,' St. Georges, St, David's, Somerset and Yreland, Just when' Bermuda was created we do not. know. Upon the top of a hid-' den sea mountain—said to be 15,000 feet high—millions upon mullions of tiny sea creatures erected a mass of coral through long aeons past. Up tlu'origh the waves they bulli this group of large and small islands, lying close together—so close in some cases that man has built causeways to con- , nett them -and on up until the coral formation rises several liundres feet above sea level, Just who putliermuda on the map is not known. An old Spanish asap of 1510 shows them and a Spanish his tartan. gives an account of them in a' chronicle of the voyage 01 Juan do Bermudez in 151.8. It meths, likely that Bermudez had some previous know- ledge of their existence and named them for himself. Journeys Beautiful, Low Sweeper Operating Cost. The cost of electrlelty to operate an electric sweeper averages but one and. a half cents an hour (even hese than an electric curling iron!), which amounts to far leso than a -au now pay for bromine,