HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Gazette, 1893-09-28, Page 3NOT WISELY, BUT T00 WE
CHAPTER XXIV.—(CoNentmen.e
The is a long silence, He still leans
there, his head on his hand, his face turned
towards her as if to gaze his last on the
beauty-heloves and remembers with so ab-
sorbed and passionate a fidelity. Her eyes,
amidst those blinding tears, meet his own
longing gaze. She rises from her seat and
lslds out her hands, while her voice, broken
and full of unutterable sadness, cries out :
" Oh, Keith, what should. I say—what
should I do? May God have mercy on us
both."
" If you wish his mercy on you, don't
cry," says Keith hoarsely, " or yon will
make me so desperate that I shall forfeit
any little bit of kindness you may still feel!
Be cold, cruel scornful if you please, but
don't drive me mad with sight of year sor-
row. Mine I can bear—it is no new friend.
But yours—"
Lauraine dashes the tears from her eyes,
and makes a violent effort at self-control.
" i cannot ask you to forgive me," she " Francis, you---" she gasps.
says ; " it would be better if you could learn "You don't seem very pleased to see me,"
to hate me. I wonder you do not, when says her husband looking at hersuspicious-
ly. " What on earth have you beeu doing
with yourself ? You look as ill as possible,"
He takes her hand and kisses her careless-
aays, gloomily ; "I cannot. Do you sup- . ly on the cheek as he speaks.
pose that if, by any deed, any power of will, " I have not been well," she falters, try -
I could tear your memory from my heart, ing bravely for composure, " and Etwynde
and once again know peace, that I would asked me to come to her for a few weeks
not do it? God knows how gladly ! But I ! and I thought the change would do me
good. How is it you are in London? Did
you know I was here?"
" Yes. I got your Letter at the club and
came on. I only arrived last night."
He throws himself into a chair, and looks
at her curiously.
" What was the row
—you haven't told me."
Lanraine grows very white.
He is going abroad—av ay for years.
His engagement is all over. He came to
say good-bye,"
Sir Francis gives a long whistle,
" Nom de Dieu ? Is that so ? And have
you had a hand in breaking it off, my
lady ?"
" What do you mean ?" she asks, looking
at him with grave surprise.
" Mean ? uh, you and Keith were such
chums always. I thought he had done it
because you -objected. I know you never
liked the marriage."
"It had nothing to do with rue," says
Lauraine, coldly. "And the girl was very
fond of him. I am sorry for her."
"It strikes me that Jean wasn't so far
out, after all," says Sir Francis, with a
harsh laugh. "You and Keith do seem to
have a remarkably good understanding with
each other."
Lauraine- looks at him, her eyes dark
with anger.
"Since when have you taken to speakso
familiarly of Lady Jean Salomans?" she
asks ; and by what right does she discuss
my actions with you?"
"Come, that won't do," says her hus-
band, throwing himself back in his chair,
and looking at her defiantly. "It's rather
too like the proverb of the pot and the ket-
tle. You discuss me with Keith Athel-
stone, I have ns doubt, and` other things
too."
"Do you mean to insult me?" asks Lanr-
aine, rising from her seat, and looking
steadily at him.
He shrugs his shoulders.
" You are always so tragic. Insult you?
No. Only before you question my actions, is
might be as well to look at your own. Are
they quite—blameless ?"
atrength will be broken like a reed—that
he will never leave her again ; and in his
blindness and dizziness and agony of heart
he rushes away, flings the door wide open,
and finds himself face to face with --Sir
Francis Vavasour
Fate
tricks.
The present instance is no exception.
Lauraine has sunk back into her chair,faint
and spent with emotion ; scarcely conscious
indeed, of what is going on around her; and
in this state her husband's rough voice
breaks upon her.
56 What the devil's the matter? I met
Athelstone flying out like a bombshell, and
you look like a ghost. Have you been hav-
ing—a fraternal quarrel ?"
She starts to her feet and looks at him
with wild, wide eyes.
CHAPTER XXV.
"THY HEART'S DESIRE."
delights in playing mankind spiteful
you think of all the sorrow I have brought
into your life."
"I have tried my best to hate you," he
can not ; I must go on thinking of you, lov-
ing you— —"
He ceases abruptly, then goes on :
" And once you put your arms round my
neck and told me you would be mine ' for
ever.' There are times now when I seem to
feeithat soft touch and the thrill ofyour un-
asked kiss, and—then, Lorry, I remember
that ° for ever,' meant less than—four
years."
" You—you
sine.
" Yes, you are right. So I did. I seem
to do nothing but make promises and break
them with you. Well, there is one comfcrt,
after to -day I shall have no chance of doing
either one or other. There can be no dis-
tanee too wide to set between our lives.
And—oh, God, to think of what might have
been !"
"Life is full of mistakes," says Lauraine,
weeping unrestrainedly now. " Oh, had
I but known—had I but known! Yet, Keith
something tells me that time will bring you
cenaolation—tirne and the consciousness
that you have done right."
" Your words are beyond my power of
acceptance," he answers, gloomily. " If I
am doing right now, it is from no good
motive, I assure you. If again you said to
nye ` Stay,' there would be no more parting
this side the grave, Lorry, for you and
me."
promised," falters Laur-
His voice is very low and unsteady, but
she hears every word, and all the wild love
sad longing, the weariness and emptiness
of her life, seem beating like waves against
the poor weak barriers of honour.
" I think I would give all the world to
be able to say it to -day," she cries, with
sudden passion. " But oh, Keith ! the 'to-
morrow,' that would follow ; the sin and
misery that would be with us both forever !
Is life or love worth one's eternal ruin? Is
our parting now to be compared to that
"other' parting that would have to follow
—the eternal parting that would be so
hopeless because of the guilt that lay upon
our souls ?"
"I do not think a great love can ever be
a sin," Keith answers, passionately. "And
mine would last you if ever human love did
Iast. So much I know of myself, bad as I
am."
" You are not bad," says Lauraine,
gently. " And I am sure ycu won't
threaten me with the worse misery of your
recklessness as once before yon aid. The
nobler and better your life, the less will
be my suffering. And you won't be cruel
enough to add to that, will you Keith ?"
The pleadiug voice, the tearful eyes, un-
man him. "W by don't you abuse me, con-
demn me, :all ins the selfish brute I am?"
he says; with that rapid contrition that so,
often marks his wildest moods. "No, Lorry,
I won't be 'bad' if I can help it. I wouldn't
wish to add to yoar safferings, though I am
so selfish. Let me go now, while I have
strength, while the good fit is on me. It
mayn't last, you know, and then----"
He is standing facing her, and white as
death she looks up and meets the mournful
gaze of the "bad bine eyes."
There is no badness in them now, only a
great anguish and a great despair.
_ One long, long look they give—a look
that seems to read her heart, and all its
love that she denies, and all its suffering
that he has given.
He takes her hands and draws her near,
nearer. She trembles like a leaf. Her
eyelids droap, her lips quiver. "May I-
kiss yon?" he whispers.
with Athelstone ?
She stands there, and all the colour fades
from her face ; her limbs tremble. " I will
not affect to misunderstand you," she says,
slowly. " But--"
He interrupted her roughly. " Don't
trouble to explain. Of course we all know
you are san repcoohe. Only don't turn the
cold shoulder tootberwomen, when you your-
self are no better than they—seem. Were I a
jealous husband 1 should have forbidden
Keith Athelstone your presence long ere
this."
" There would have been no need," she
says, proudly. " I am not a woman to for-
get honour and self-respect."
" Oh, fine words are easy," -scoffs her hus-
band. " To the untempted virtue is no
merit. And although anyone could see Keith
Athelstone was making himself a fool about
you, yet you never cared a straw for him.
If you has--"
"Well?" she asks, very low, as he pauses.
He laughs again. "You would have been
no better than —others, I suppose. What
you call self-respect is only another word
for cold-heartedness."
Lauraine thinks of the scene through
which she has just passed. Cold-hearted ?
Well, if she be, she thanks God for. the
fact.- That her husband should speak thus
to her fills her with an intense shame. After
all, would he have cared so very much, if
-- The evil thought coils round her like
Slie makes no answer in words, for speech a serpent, she feels sick and " stifled, and
is beyond her. She forgets everything full of pain and fear.
now, save that she loves, and that this is
an eternal farewell to her lover.
There - comes such a moment of forgetful-
ness to all women who love, otherwise-, in-
deed, there would be none to fall for love's
sake -only. Otherwise, how easy would be
the conflict that, of all others is the wild-
est, the ftercust, and hardest to wage.
She lifts her head. The anguish„ the
entreaty in her eyes frighten, and yet
gladden him. For in this moment he - feels
he is master of her fate, and she is uncon-
scious of the fact. Did he but hold her in
his arms—did the tide of passion, locked
back within his throbbing heart, find Vent
"I
ent
"I am going to my room," she says, hur-
riedly. "Will you excuse me? I—I ain
not very welt"
"Machere," Iaughs her husband, roughly,
"one doesn't stand on ceremony after a few
years of married life. "Don't stay here for
me. 'I'm off too, now. I have heaps of
things to do."
" Will you dine with us to -night?" asks
Lauraine.
" To -night? Well, yes. I suppose it
will look better, and I should like to see
what sort of fellow your aesthetic friend has
captured. Jove ! if men only knew what.
fools they are to marry !"
in -one word, one caress, he knows he But Lauraine has left- Sir Francis takes
could not answer for himself—for her ! • up.his hat. His face is dark and disturbed.
It is the critical -moment of Keith Athel- "Jean was right, There is something,"
- stone's life. Ail that is best and worst in he mutters. " Bat Lauraine is not like—
her. Should I be better pleased if she
were? Sometimes I think I would give the
world for freedom.; and yet---" -
The door opens. Lady Etwynde sweeps,
in, as radiant and fair a vision aseyes could
wish to behold.
"Sir Francis ! You here, and alone !
Why, where is Lauraine?"
"Gone to her room. Not well, or tired,
or something," he says, as he shakes hands.
"I am glad you have had her here ; she ,
his heart are at war ; all that is most hard
to resist wraps him in a flame of tempting
that bairns away all good resolves, and al-
most stifles the faint whispers of a con-
science that pleads for her.
For her—for her. To save her from her-
self as well as from his awn mad love,
To heave her unharmed, untainted by the
baseness of his selfish passion; to be worthy
of love, as love had been in those sweet,
glad, ehilfiiazi days
These thoughts flash like light:mg ' mopes herself to death down at -the Chase.
though his brain, even .as he meets her 1 I can't see what she is so fond of it for. I
mournful eyes and reads their nneonseious
betraank
"Oh, love, good-bye ! Let me g ► !" he
craw, wildly, and -throws her hand`; aside
with almost cruel force.. ; - " -
detest it inyse.lf-"
"There are associations, you see," says
Lady Etwynde, quietly. " Her child was
born there, and there died."
He feels somewhat ashamed. He thinks
Bois blind and dienywith pain. . A word l,'of his wife ---how young, how Sorrowful she
look from hey, &.ria :he know tat- kle looked; bow* the life and radiance seemed
crushed`nut`of leer heaat. `Bat then the old
weariness and impatience assert themselves.
Life with Lauraine has been so flat and
monotonous a thing.
"Weil, at all events it does not agree with
her," he says brusquely. "I was glad to
find her in town. I got her letter at the
club. I am only up for two or three days
myself."
"Will you dine with us tonight?" asks
Lady Etwynde. "We are quite alone, sb it
won't be very lively, and you have had s'
touch brilliant society lately.."
He looks" quickly at her. He is always
suspicious of women's words ; always given
to looking under them for some hidden
meaning, But Lady Etwynde's face is in-
nocence itself.
" Thanks. Yes. I told Lauraine I would
come," he says, not very cordially, for in-
deed an evening with these two women
looks a dreary penance to him.
"And you will stay here, will you not ?"
says Lady Etwynde. You won't go back
to an hotel while Lauraine is in town ?"
"Oh, I could not think of inflicting my-
self upon you," he says, hurriedly: "and
it is such a flying visit—thanks all the
same. And now. good-bye till to -,fight."
"Good bye," says Lady Etwynde, coldly.
She thinks his behaviour both strange and
callous, and very uncomplimentary to his
wife.
Then he leaves, and she goes to Lauraine,
and Ends her lying in a darkened room,
white, spent and exhausted.
"My dear, what is it?" she asks, in alarm.
"Has anything happened? Are you 111?"
For a moment Lauraine hesitates, Then
the sight of the sweet, compassionate face
melts the hardness that she fain would keep
about her heart, and in a few broken words
she relates the whole sad tale of that inter-
view and farewell,
"My only comfort is that at last he will
go—surely he will leave me," she says, in
conclusion. "Indeed, it is time. The strain
is ::tore than I can bear. Besides, Sir Fran-
cis hae noticed it—he said so; and his words
were scarce a greater insult than I deserved,
for if I have not sinned as the world counts
sin, yet I have not been guiltless—far froiu
it."
Lady Etwynde looks at her wistfully. In
her own great happiness she can feel ten-
fold the sorrowful fate of these sundered
lives,
" And he is going to break off his mar-
riage?'' she says,.anxiously,
" Yes," says Lauraine. " He says to go
through with it is beyond his power."
" Poor fellow !" exclaims Lady Etwynde
with involuntary compassion.
She is angry with him, and yet sorry for
him, for he has proved so faithful; and, after
all, is any love quite unselfish if it be worth
the name?
" My poor Lauraine !" she murmurs, in-
voluntarily. " i'onr marriage has indeed
been a fatal error ; but, as I have said be-
fore, there remains nothing but to make the
best of it. The only thing for you and Keith
is separation. Alt other feelings except that
one forbidden one are a poor pretence.
I feared that long ago. I am glad you have
been so brave, and he too. Believe me,
hard as duty is, the very effort of doing it
creates strength for further trials. The
consciousness of right is a satisfaction in
itself, even when one is misjudged."
Lauraine listens, and the tears stand on
her lashes, and roll slowly dawn her'eheeks.
"My life is very hard," she says, bitterly.
"Would it be less hard if you had ceased
to respect yourself, if you bad lost the
creeds and faiths which still make honor
your one anchor of safety? I think not."
"I can think of nothing now save him
and his unhappiness," cries Lauraine, al-
most wildly. "I have never loved him as I
love him to -day. Oh ! I know it is wrong,
shameful to say such a thing ; but it is the
truth, and I must speak it—this once. Why,
do you know that when he said good-bye
to me I could have flung myself at his feet
and said, 'Let the world go by, let sin or
misery be my portion for evermore—only do
not you leave me !' It teemed as if noth-
ing in life was worth anything beside one
hour of love ! And yet—well, how good an
actress I must be, Etwynde —he called me
cold-hearted."
"Thank God he did !" exclaims Lady
Etwynde. " Oh, Lauraine, yoargood angel
must have saved you today. I did not
think it had come to this ; and I cannot find
it in my heart to blame you, for—I love
too."
"And my husband taunted me with being
no better than othet women, simply because.
I had never been tempted," continues Laur-
aine, presently. "Well, perhaps in heart I
am not. He may have been right, and vir-
tue is, after all, only a. matter of—tempera-
ment."
"Oh, hash! I cannot bear to hear you
talk like that," cries Lady Etwynde.
"Does Le—does- Sir Francis suspect any-
thing?"
"He said he knew Keith loved me," an-
swers Lauraine, wearily. "Fancy hearing
one's husband speak of the love of another
man ! I_ felt treacherous -shamed ip his
sight and my own. He could not understand
—he would not believe in the long, long
struggle, the pain, the suffering of it all. I
feel as if conscience and honor had both
suffered in the conflict, as if with my child
I had lost all that was pure and of any worth
to me. And now the world may say what
it likes, rdon't care even to contradict it."
"That is not true," exclaims Lady Et-
wynde. "You have struggled nobly, you
have done your best, and the fruits of the
victory will be yours in time. At least
you hold_the hope of meeting your little
child, innocent and unshanied, despite fierce
tempting and all the weariness and sorrow
of your life."
Lauraine's tears fall: fsster and more fast.
"My child! Oh, why was he not left to
me.? The touch of his innocent kiss, the
sound of his voice, the clasp of his arms
were strong as all the chains of duty cannot.
be. And now there is no one—no one. And
I am so lonely, so desolate, and Iife looks ao
long, and death so far away !"
The tears rushedto Lady Etwynde's eyes.
" Oh, my darling ! What can I say to com-
fort you ! Do you know Lauraine, once—
in years that are gone—when I felt reck-
less and despairing as yourself, I left the
house, and went out full of some wild re-
solve t t -bla to ti It entered the church the first thing that met
to the great tanited roof, Iheard again the
beautifai voice, and it sang these words :
0 rest in the Lord.; wait patiently for
Him, and He shall give thee thy heart's
desire.' You know them, do you not, and
the music that weds them so exquisitely
from the ` Elijah 9' I knelt there with
my head bowed on my hands, and
the tears falling down my cheeks.
I remembered nothing ; neither place nor
presence. It only seemed as if an angel's
voice was breathing comfort to my passion -
wrecked soul, as if that beautiful promise
fell over my spirit and brought peace, and
healing, and rest. ` Thy heart's desire !' Oh,
Laurine, think of that ! Twelve long years
ago that message came to me, and I was
comforted and soothed! Twelve years, and
now God has fulfilled His promise. My
heart's desire is mine."
Laurine has listened, stilled and awed.
" Thy heart's desire." The words sink
into her very sou), and awaken a thousand
varied emotions.
" But my `heart's desire' is all wrong—
all sin—whichever way I look at it," she
says, half despairing.
"God can make it right," whispers Lady
Etwynde drawing the white, sad face down
upon her bosom, and softly kissing the
weary lids. "If you can take those
words home to your heart as I did, my
darling, your burden will grow easier to
bear ; the strength you ask for will be giv-
en. Oh, life is hard, terribly hard, I know!
There is so much sorrow, so little joy ; and
then the errors, the sins which beset, the
weakness that shackles us !—but still, still,
we are not tried beyond our strength, and
we tray be able at last to look back and see
it was all for the best !"
" What would I not give to recall these
last four years !" cries Lauraine, bitterly.
"How different my life might have been !"
" There's no turning back," says Lady
Etwnde, solemnly. " Errors, once commit-
ted, are irrevocable ; for them we must
suffer ; by them we must abide. Ah, my
dear ! who would not live their time again
if they might, and by the light of the pres-
ent alter all the mistakes of the past ? But
it cannot be done. All the remorse and all
the regret are so futile. Tears of blood
cannot wash away one memory, take out
the sting of one mistake. We must just
bear life as it is, till Death seals all; its woes
into forgetfulness."
" You are so good," cries Lauraine sadiy.
" I am not like you. I am wicked and re•
bellious, and I cannot accept my fate with
patience, even though I know my own past
weakness is to blame for all my present
misery."
" I am not good. Do not praise me," says
Lady Etwynde, humbly. " And I know 1
do not deserve my present happiness. It
makes me fearful of my great joy. For I
was so wicked and rebellious once, and I
wonder often that God did not take my life
instead of sparing. it, and blessing it as he
has done. Now, darling, you look worn
out, and must needs rest. I will leave you
for awhile, If your husband suspects any-
thing you must try to banish such suspicions,
or your married life will grow yet more
unhappy. The great wrench is over, the
worst is past. Time, and the consciousness
of having done what is right, will give
you peace and comfort at last. Youth
and trength are yours still, and many
good gifts of life and if you throw
yourself. into eeeliers' sufferings, and
widen your sympathy with the inter-
ests and trials of those around you, believe
me it will do much to making your own
troubles less. I speak from an experience
as bitter as, if less hopeless, than your
own."
And once more kissing the closed lids
which seemed too weary for tears, she lays
Lauraine back on the pillows, and softly
leaves the room.
"' Thy heart's desire !' " Lauraine cries
to herself. "Oh, God ----not that—not that
should be my prayer. Teach my heart to
say, ` Thy will, not mine !' "
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
A Stran a Tribe in India.
The Bombay Times says: Scattered over
the breezy downs of the Nilgherries, in lit-
tle villages of wicker houses that look at a
little distance like nothing in the world' so
much as a colony of beehives, lives a com-
munity of 600 or 700 people, who are vari-
ously believed to be the descendants of one
of the lost tribes of Israel, the aborigines of
Southern India and a community of Mani -
chasers. They believe in a strange trinity
and a hell, a dismal stream full of leeches,
and this they must cross by means of a
single thread. The soul burdened with sin
is too heavy for this slender support and-
-the sinner falls into the stream, but the
threadsustains easily the souls of the good
The funeral of a Toda, for that"is the name
of the singular tribe, is as odd in its way as
its religious belief. His body is wrapped in
a new cloth and his toes tied together with
red thread; grain, sugar, tobacco and money
ale wrapped in the funeral toga to provide
him for his journey- across the Styx and the
dark plain beyond. Two buffaloes are slain
beside the corpse and the dead man's hands
are placed upon their horns; a piece of his
skull, his hair and his finger nails are re-
moved to be used later on at the great cele-
bration of the death of all those who,during
the twelve months, have "taken the leap
ever the great precipice into the bottomless
abyss." W hen these tokens are removed,
clarified butter is smeared on the fragrant
wood of the funeral pyre and the body is
burned to ashes and the ashes scattered to
the four winds.
Hanged Himself While Tolling a
In a church belonging to the Franciscan
Order of Priests in Austria, an attendant
the other day committed suicide under pe-
culiar circumstances. His office was to ring
the .ball, and as he suffered from lung
disease he was accommodated with a chair.
On this particular occasion, while tolling
the bell for a funeral, and between the
pauses of the mournful strokes, he hit upon
a means of death. Mounting the chair, he
drew the rope up and made a slip -knot.
Placing his head in the noose, he kicked
away the chair and swung midway in the
cathedraL When the Franciscan fathers
Kaall
oa •err. men on: was a
Sunda I remember 11 Th their gaze was the poor bellringer hanging
nu y evening, remem ,r we e
bells were sounding everywhere, and I walk- to the bell rope. He was quite dead.
ed on through the quietstreets with mad-
ness in my heart, Suddenly, as I passed The United States has 12.35 lighthouses
the open door of a church, I heard a voice and beacons, thirty-two light -ships, 107 fog
singing. Involuntarily I stopped, listened, signals worked by steam, 187 by clockwork,
eat -erect. It was a large church, and full of 17 61 river lights and 4286 buoys of various
people. Someone gave me a chair, and I kinds.
sank down wearily enough. ' Then, peeling We ca notalways oblige; but we can al-
ways the chords of the organ, floating up ' ways speak obligingly.
COINS AN D COINAGt
The Carthagenians had leather coins.
Tin coins were cast by Dionysius of Syra-
cuse about 405 B.0 .
The first New Jesey coins were copper
cents, struck in 1786.
The Chinese " cash" is said to have had
its origin about B. C. 1120.
The gold talent is variously computed at
from 61256.21 to $1216.62.
The first Roman coinage of silver was,
according to Pliny, B. C. 269,
The Turkish piaster is a money of ac-
count, there being no piaster coin.
The best workmanship on Roman coins
was done during the reign of Nero.
Julius Caesar was the first Roman to hat$
his face represented on a coin.
Solon was the first to establish an exact
amount of gold in the coinage.
Some of the Maccabinan coins have the
words, " Jerusalem the Hely."
The coins of Alexander the Great were
the first to bear the name of a king.
The Mint of -Philadelphia has a ,ollec-
tion of over 8000 coins of different nations.
The first Canadian coinage was struck
for the French by command of Louis XIV.
Stone coins are frequently found in the
funeral mounds of the American Indians
The first attempt at a face on a coin was
made by Archelaus of Macedon, B. C. 403
The earliest coins were irregular, oblong
masses of metalstamped only on one side.
The first American counterfeiter, so far
as known, was one William Buel, of Ver-
mont,
The first coinage of money after the re-
volution bore in many cases the image of
Washington.
The tao, or knife coins, of China, made
current B.C. 2453, were of iron, in the
shape of daggers.
Thebronze coins of Austria and most other
nations have 95 per cent. copper and 5 per
cent, tin.
The "Virginia halfpennies" were issued
about 1773, but whether for Virginia or not
is tmknown.
The Aztecs filled quills with geld dust
sealed them and passed them from hand to
hand as coin.
The Roman sestirtius was like our "bit,'
a money of account, having no coin to re-
present its value.
The earliest coins of New Hampshire were
of copper pence; 108 to the Spanish dollar,
issued in 1776.
The first woman's face represented on a
coin was that of Pulcheria, the Empress of
the Eastern Empire.
Amost every Roman city in Italy or the
colonies had and exercised the right of coin-
ing money of its own.
In 1645 the Council and Grand Assembly
of Virginia passed an act to issue "quoines,"
but none were struck.
In China cold and silver are merely com-
modities, whose price is regulated by the
laws of supply and demand.
The rei of Brazil is an imaginary coin, no
piece of that denomination being coined.
Ten thousand reis equal $5,45.
'The most valual le Roan coin was the
aureus, of course of gold, about the size of a
$5 gold piece, and worth 65.03.
The Chinese stamp bars or ingots of gold
or silver with their weight and fineness and
pass them from hand to hand as coin,
The Troyes pound, or, as now called, the
pound Troy weight, was introduced into
England as a gold measure in 1517.
The first gold coins made by the United
States Mint were finished .July 31, 1795,
and consisted of 744 ten -dollar pieces.
The Roman inscribed on bronze coins
only the legend, monata sacred, money, be-
cause bronze was a sacred metal
The earliest Roman coins were stamped
with the figure of an ox, hence the English
word pecuniary, from peens, cattle.
Leaden coins, or tokens, were in use by
many ancient nations, and, up to a short
time ago, were employed in Burmah.
The coins issued Ji the Byzantine Em-
pire form, daring 1000 years, the connecting
link between ancient and modern coinage.
The "Reversible Fails " in the St. John
River.
But the most picturesque, as well as the
most striking, manifestation of the tidal
rise and fall is at the mouth of the St, John
River, at St. John, New Brunswick. Here
may be witnessed on every tide a change of
conditions as sudden and as complete as a
quick change of scene in a drama ; the
beauty of the landscape, enhanced by the
handiwork of man, adding greatly to the
impressiveness of the phenomenon. This is
locally known as the "reversible falls," al-
though "reversible rapids" would be more
appropriate. In a reap of St. John and its
environs, drawn in 1784 by an officer of the
St. John's Loyalists, the matter is referred
to in a marginal note :
"The falls in this river are justly ranked
among the curiosities of the world ; they
are at the month of the river, about one
mile from the entrance, and are navigable
four times in twenty-four hours, which
commands great attention, as only a few
minutes are required to pass in safety.
"The tide rising from twenty to twenty-
four feet, at high water is six feet higher
than the river, which occasions a fall in
the river as well as out, the whole water of
the country having to pass between two .
rocks sixty yards distant-"
The scene of these rapids is a beautiful
gorge through which, in remote ages, the
river appears to have its way. For twenty
minutes on each ebb and flood the river
here is as placid as a mountain lake on • a
tranquil day. Suddenly a sterak of white
spreads across the gorge, and in a few min-
utes the calm is sueceeded by the turmoil
of rushing, whirling waters. The reflections
of she rocky shores and of the graceful
outlines of the suspension and cantilever
bridges which span the mouth of tha gorge
are obliterated as if a mirror had Suddenly
been ruthlessly shattered.
If all seconds were as averse to duels as
their principals, very little blood would be
shed in that way.
The repeal of the British navigation laws
in 1849 allowed foreign built . ships to"be
registered
rigsh
l'abjeet s, and allowed any- ship gas
tion to'bring any merchandise to
per
MIN
TheButte
T):e hr: se
retied alter
canoe-, w-:, ti
it anh3 )1;
there
arf:i H,1dsoo
w. e
al:o:ncr
fahoiy r0::; i '
erher.',T:
was �1:.1f1e
were sc t'aic
strange; . e.
the lux -
Cit tere'l
ux-cattere'i
course. lett:
1:, - .5
stars, F v:
thr-
;
Eat ttir,
mien
and v(,: _F s,..
others, tha.
C(0nviet.OL
(JA Zack
rou r._at 51)
Icoked ;; tr
kn.ie
He entre i
o,'i., ,rt Wrw`,
wr.:sk,v ,.
10 haus fire
r^I1cf: of t.,
t tos ,ut.
his own
infirmity,
wife ani
hew:: out o
her <;`. eatt.
oily,: a mark
1n or_1er U:
tt.erre
Strange:
bro t.
1.0 the v.ciri
great fir
Pre=eot
Itnaca,; v
arilonct of
t'-ien corr.
fore, wa- t
gets and
locality.
iifc to the
the: posy i -,i
produce,
a:t , h,r. _.
hope f•ee:r,
r, \V nv,
claimed : h
ed a tea:
lap a liv
made ove
own hare
that the
poor, be
market..
rte
7e.
reeler,<ed
earth G) y
"Come
the wav,
cellar Lia
iy pride.
wt : ei
weary c
Sure encu
there, ti.
Lound:ng
sweeter a
merited
Hew pr,
of her lab
not 10 e
in the= r_
The p -
cheered t
the table
it woe;
amenii:e
for ll:nn
of ehie gu
goads an
late wild
a etau e
apprecia
Ii u t do
we Iou::
them we
next yea
asermo:
by a reit
ise that
five mi
held a m
Cem' to
warty
spare
wean suc
hard to
Forty
fee for e
and thr
emp:fed
for our
home, a
in nee,
pyasa
ton to
The
shore.
their WI
lifted a
skirts,
sioned
Isawt
she said
1h
but hav
.Every t
and aga
papers,
turned
asked.
"aa.d 1
lather
newthe
a gree
Iw
and by