The Abbeville press and banner. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, October 12, 1904, Image 6

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a Blues . s^romai By Miss Ank CHAPTER V. Continued. ' She stopped him by taking his hand. Bhe left it filled?filled with her own well-worn purse, containing such slender savings from the proceeds of the poultry yard and dairy as were legitimately hers to give. Daphne's husband must not go away from them in anger, nor feel hurt by her offering. It was a little loan that, if his cash tan short, might prove useful, and that he could return when things were looking brighter. She wished him all success; was confident he would meet with work if he sought for it in earnest, and?and, meantime, would he promise to write home faithfully, for Daphne's sake? Well, reader, for a moment, Barry Chester hesitated. To accept Aunt Sosie's money was an action that, even to his conscience, I suppose, bore an onpleasant resemblance to the robbery ~ A 4. oil Arrinf c ha h OQ? tpfl X>1 21 t'lillU* *11 aa cttuic, mv ?. Then?the good moment passed; he thrust the purse away into his pocket; muttered some incoherent words about pride, about ill fortune, about speedy repayment, and, without looking into Aunt Hosie's face, was gone. It was probably Jhe most foolish action of Henrietta Vansittart's life; yet tsvas it one of the follies that have a sweet taste in the memory. In the dark days to come this was the solitary moment, out of her whole intercourse with Barry Chester, to which Aunt Hosie could look bhck unpained. With her ready promptness qt distilling the soul of goodness out of things evil, she remembered, not that Chester accepted, but that he hesitated to accept her gift, and from this frail premise argued that self-respect, that honor, might have come to light still in that tost heart. "If life had been kinder to him!" This was an unfailing apology of Aunt Hosie's for ill-doers virtually past the nf nnoloEv. "We women, whose ? r portion lies in sheltered places, know so little of the fierce temptation that a man has to withstand. If life had been kinder to him!" Life pressed with piteous harshness upon Daphne from that day forward. No tidings of B?rry Chester reached Fief-de-3a-Reine for more than a fortnight; and long before the expiration cf that time the import of his abrupt departure had become matter of common talk even among the world of fisher-folk in Quernec Bay. He had flown, not from his wife alone, but from his debts, of honor and otherwise. "In short," so, tardily, he wrote to Daphne, "his return to the islands iwas impossible. She might write, If thGre could be any good?he failed to ?ee it?in such a correspondence. Letters sent to a certain address, London, would be forwarded to him. But must beg her not to look for conetant replies. If anything in the shape of Improved money prospects befell fcim he would let her know fast enough." And not one word of affection, of regret at leaving her, of inquietude about her state. The letter might as well have been written to Miss Theodora, to one of his creditors, to any indifferent man or woman on earth as to her whose love followed him night and day, whose thoughts Were one prayer for him, whose pros pects, for evil or for happiness, were bound up irrevocably with his until death should set them apart! Her heart was crushed; her faithfulness stood the shock bravely. Poor Barry was an idle correspondent, just c that. As soon as there was cheerier Hews to communicate his letters would grow longer, and?she, oh, she would cure herself perforce, of this foolish babit of fretting over their separation, and be content. As to the stories set afloat about him by wicked tongues, Daphne believed none of them. When liis prospects brightened his creditors iwould be paid, of course. A poor two or three hundred pounds! What was this to a man of Barry's talents, Barry's resources? Give him time to look about him for employment, time to set going the interest of his friends, and all would come right. Meanwhile Meanwhile, when the early clouds , of cherry and hawthorn lay white upon the hillsides, Paul opened his blue eyes upon the world. Daphne, as I have said, had stood up resolutely at first. Her heroism ended now. With physical weakness came reaction from the moral tension of all the past unhappy, sleepless weeks, and 'twas long before the doctors could pronounce, or Aunt Hosie believe her to be out of danger. She spoke of her husband in her delirium only, not asking for his presence; she looked "with dull, unwelcoming eyes upon the child. Alas! and worse was to come. When, at last, her pale lips did murmur Barry Chester's name, with what response must she be met? How could it be broken to her, faintly struggling back from stillness of the dark valley to the pain ar.d glare of living, that he had deserted her forever; that the tiny baby who lay upon her breast .was iwerse than fatherless? Twice only had Mr. Chester written flaring Daphne's illness, in the first letter acknowledging, without note or comment, the news of his son's birth, In the second coolly announcing his own departure for America. His attempts at finding work in England, the promises of friends. Interest that he thought could be relied upon?all tiad proved empty. At the present mo. tnent, after paying his passage money to New York (where he would most likely starve), he stood without a tenpound note in the world. Useless for Daphne to dream of further correspondence. The marriage had been a "sell"?this was how Mr. Chester expressed himself?a "sell" for both of them. Let it be forgotten! He hoped that she possessed sufficient Christian charity to forgive him any pain he might have, caused her, and that she would trouble herself no more about his existence. He was starting for i&meriea under a fictitious name: anv .TOCKING; 11 REALITY. [ie Edwards. efforts made with a view to tracing him must therefore be labor in vain. The past was past and done with. The best thing for both of them was to embark on a new life that should blot out the errors of the old one. In fewer words, he had abandoned her and her child forever. Daphne bore the blow with a quiet ess that, for a girl of her age and temperament, boded no quick recovery. Amid the tumult of thoughts that thronged her brain, the one, perhaps, which stood forth the clearest? the impossibility of her, Daphne Chester, having done with happiness. Nineteen years old and the sun shining into the hearts of spring's first roses, the birds chanting up and down the lanes?there was, literally, as yet "no place in the existing fabric of her thoughts" for the realization of her own despair. It rifeeded time?time, whom the superficial name Healer! the slow engraver and perpetuator of grief in human hearts?to teach her to be wretched. The initiation over, the A, B, C of suffering mastered, she was no inapt or laggard scholar for the future. In marrying Barry Chester she had invested her all?or she believed so; and are not our beliefs the sternest facts we know? In losing him, her docket was struck. She was bankrupt Annt Hosie, with love-born keenness of insight, saw that the poor child's wound was likely to fare best if left to Nature's curing, and when they were dlone togetner?Dy alone 1 mean, or course, with little Paul?the name of Barry Chester dropped gradually into disuse. But Miss Theodora, with surface sympathies?sympathies for the crying outward disgrace, not for the stifled inward groan?was far from approving or practicing such reticence. Theodora was all for heroic treatment In the moral ailments of others, the blacksmith's hand of iron rather than the surgeon's hand of steel. Theodora, during Daphne's illness, had exercised her conscience by writing a kind of circular letter to such of Mr. Chester's relations as she had knowledge of (including, I rather believe, the Warwickshire Stamers), and had accumulated facts that she considered it a sacred duty to lay before the girl in her hour of darkness. "Facts that will at least show you, child, what kind of a man you waste your regrets upon." "Barry Chester comes of a doomed stock." So, in. an upright feminine band, wrote one of Miss Theodora's unknown correspondents, a Chester herself by marriage, smarting, possibly, under wrongs that infused gall into her ink. "His father was worthless, his grandfather worthless. The boy was born, as every Chester must be, to a hopeless inheritance of evil. Although I do not know Mrs. Barry Chester," the writer ended, "I tell her honestly that I congratulate her on her good fortune in having seen her husband for the last time. From father to son the Chesters have brought shame and desolation to the heart of every woman who has loved them. It will be so to the end." Facta with a vengeance, these. Facts, each of whose written syllables seems to Dapiine's soul to loot up at her with cruel human eyes, and whose influence sank, like the stain of some dark poison flower, through all the yet unopened pages of her young life. "Born to a hopeless inheritance of evil," even as the babe, just beginning to smile up in her face, must be! She felt herself, and, what was dearer than herself, the child, to be in the grasp of inexorable law, marked-out victims of necessity. If she had graduated in the very newest school of scientific Calvinism, had listened to the last "high teaching" of Bile, Phosphorus ana Despair, her morbid sense of slavery to circumstance could scarce have been profounder. And the other worldly utterances of pious friends?powerless, like all seemly phrases signifying nothing, against the shock of any great crisis?the .Toblike consolations of the elder Miss Vansittarts, everything save the influence of Aunt Hosie's healthy, upward-looking spirit, tended to sink her more helplessly in the slough of fatalism; the most dreary creed, however learned, however formulated, that ever served to render human life unsweet. The roses opened, fell from their stalks; then rang harvest songs as heart whole,- then shone harvest moons as silver, as of old. And then the woods faded from red to dun, the chill November rains began to sweep up from the Atlantic; and Daphne, wandering alone under the gray skies by the stormy shore, realized that her winter had set in. In the blossom of ner youth she stood in an empty world, the plaything of a blind destiny through the very affections which were as the fibres and life blood of her being. Had Chester lived, her unhappiness, however acute, must, with the progress of time, have become checkered. Barry Chester, living, must infallibly have wanted money, infallibly have fallen back upon the Miss Vansittarts for help; and Daphne, thirsting to forgive on any terms, would, you may be sure, have relented over the very first letter that implied reconciliation and asked for sovereigns. But no such opportunity came to her. "Within a year of their separation Mr. Chester died, miserably as he had lived, In London?the little project of starving In America proved a fiction with which he had staved off the distasteful necessity of working for bread in England. A few personal trifles of no value were sent to the ladies of Fief-de-!a-Reine by the keeper of the lodging; house in which he died, also a doctor's and other billsall of which, the poor gentleman assured her, his relations would make it" point of honor to pay. Not one message of contrition or of love?not a re raembrance of the woman whose hajv piness he had wrecked, or of his child! One likes, at least In fable, to think ^ of the most purposeless of human lives as rounded off into something of harmony by the approach of death. The . Inheritance of evil rested on Barry Chester to the end. Without a thought j " beyond the groveling satisfaction of j ^ the hour he had lived out his term of j ' human animation, and dying breathed J not a word to release one heart that ! loved him from its legacy of desola- i a tion. I r * '* ? j This was why her face, amid its I 1 pure lines and coloring, wore the un- : expectant look of age. This is how !l her account with the world came to , be closed at two-and-twenty. ? "" ! J CHAPTER VI. ( Blue-Stockings a la Mode. J l That civilized man, with all his re- i sources, cannot attain to a new sensa- | 1 tion was a truth guessed at by think- \ ers some time before exhausted young f gentlemen of the nineteenth century ' had reduced it to a maxim. 1 Still, without making pretence to t such an anachronism as absolute newness, the relative position of Sir John d Severne and Mrs. Chester must, I v think, be admitted to contain some un- t wonted elements of originality. 1 For a young and beautiful woman, i m/v/ioct no bVip is beautiful, to sink at | i XUVU^OW UM . your feet and in the first hour of ac- j t quaintance cover your hands with t kisses is an experience that. I make t bold to say, falls not to the lot of one ] man out of a million, and as regards t that millionth?well, unless he be a i very hardened cynic indeed, let him t look to it narrowly that he become f not on the instant a slave! Sir John Severne is five-and-twenty, j j less of a cynic than some lads who , ( have not left off their Eton jackets, I ?, and with a heart, up to the present ? time, untouched by passion?yes, al- j ( though he signs himself the most de- j c voted of Clementina Hardcastle, and , f for three years past has worn Clem- j i entina's portrait against his waistcoat, j So, when on the day succeeding 1 (* Paul's fishing expedition the young fel- j j low finds himself again approaching I t Mrs, Chester's presence, sees her, afar j off, quit the band of workers in the j ( Iiay IltJIU, UUU >vuiix uimuaoutu iw??^ him, her hand outstretched, the frankest smile of welcome on her lips? ? when this moment comes, young Severne, to his surprise, discovers the , meaning of the word "shyness" for the (, first time in his life, and colors. "I was beginning to think the lanes ' were playing you false again, or?or . that you had gone away to England without remembering us." Thus she . greets him, her round, soft face, with ' its halo of pale gold, its full-looking hazel eyes, seeming as the face of one of Raphael's virgins, in Severn's sight. "And I wanted so much to thank you :,eriously for your great goodness. 1 0 could not sleep last night for thinking t how cold, how poor my words must j. have sounded; but indeed," her voice sinking in a way that threatens tears, ( "I was too wild with terror to know fj exactly what I said or did." Happily for Sir John, who can feel quickly enough?too quickly, perhaps? ^ in situations where 'twere wisest to feel nothing, yet possesses the true British incapacity for uttering graceful ^ * ? ?1 ?virtr?Anf "Don 1 seiuimems ui mc umug ui^uicui, *. uu< j just now runs up beside his mother; Paul with his clothing reduced to a 1 minimum, his tattered straw hat a . few degrees more tattered than yes- j 3 terday, his sunburnt Murillo face v aglow with excitement. "Hullo, Mussieu l'Ang'laz," he cries, * al! the neatly framed thanksgiving 1 speech that Daphne has laboriously t taught him forgotten. "Alions done!" c Holding out his hand, patronizingly, to * Sir John. "Alions jouer a 'pousse me c j'quarai' avec les*babouIns!" | * ' And in five minutes' time Severne j 11 finds himself among a crowd of girls J 11 and children, now pulled this way. now I that, through the mazes of catch-methat-catch-can, while Paul, sturdily grasping his hand, shrieks aloud w4th ^ triumph over every fresh instance in | . which Mussieu rAng'laz shows his ig- 1 norance of the game. All throughout the neighborhood of Flef-de-la-Reine the farming is strictly | 1 co-operative, the ideas as to paid labor j c held by these peasant lords of the soil being pretty much on a level with ; those of small English farmers of a ^ hundred years ago. To be Continued. ' Finds Visiting Oppressive. "No," a well-known society woman 1 war, heard to remark the other after- I 1 noon at a tea, "I do not go out of town { frequently on visits to friends. You I see, I do not like change," "Not like change of scene, how ( queer!" responded the woman to whom ; ' she was talking. I < "Oh, I like change of environment 1 well enough," replied the first, "hut I j < do not like adapting my whole life to ' others, as the visitor is certainly ex- : ' pected to do if she desires to be a wel- ' come guest. < "As the ideal guest you change your hours for rising, for retiring, for eating your meals, change your politics to pleas? your host, change your religion ' to meet the views of your hostess, change your point of view concerning art, music and what constitutes diver- 1 sion to suit the family in general, and 1 are lucky if you don't change your doc- 1 tor, for all this following after strange ' and uncongenial gods is sure to make 1 you ill unless yon escape the wrath to come by going home."?Baltimore Sun. | - J Educational. ] It was Johnnie's first day at school. He did not know the letter A from a sawhorse, but this deficiency was more < than balanced by his assurance. The j teacher called him up alone. The old i method of teaching reading was then < in vogue. j "Can you read?" said the teacher. 1 "Yes, ma'am," replied Jonnnie. 4 "Well, now we shall see," said the teacher. "You read over after me. Be sure to read just what I do." So she began slowly, running her , finger along under the words: "Did you ever see a donkey?" And Johnnie, in the same deliberate, sing-song voice, running his finger along the page, replied: "No, ma'am, I never did." 1 1 In 1870 the German people barely er- 1 ceeded 40,000,000; in 1SS5 they had ris- ' en to nearly 47,000,000, and in 1900 ' the census cave 50.345,014. THE THOUSAND DOLLAR BILL loir Big BIUr Often Eutlce a Man Into Buying Property. The ordinary citizen, even thougn ie be a man of more than ordinary neans, seldom ever sees a .$100 bill, rbile $1000 bills are almost an un:nown article. Yet, according to (lie laying teller of one of tbe largest innks in the city, these same $100 nd even .$1000 bills are rather eomtion. This teller estimates that lie landles from .$10,000 to $15,000 a day n large bills on an average. By large (ills, he explained, he meant those of denomination of $50 or up. But if these bills abound in quanity, the use to which they are put has . very narrow field, and is confined o only a few definite purposes in Jmana. tmei amonp xuese spcuim mrposes is the !arge real estate (leal. It is a trick of the real estate man to nake a man an offer for a piece of iroperty and then follow it up by lourisbing the price in $100 or $1000 >ills. It is said that several of Omala's best-known real estate men use his very plan. An agent will come to the bank and [raw his check for the amount he vants. "Give it to me in hundreds," he vill say, or. if the deal is a large one, le calls for thousands. "When he has nade his trade, the seller is. of course, 10 better off than if he had been given i certified check, but there is somehing about the sight of real money hat oftentimes consummates a trade. Perhaps the charm falls to work and lie agent brings the money back to the jank and deposits it until he wants to Iraw a "flash roll" on some other un.uspecting victim. "Another use for these large bill's s to pay duties. The duties at the )malia Custom House sometimes run is high as $5000 a day," said the teller. The Government doesn't take any hances. you can put that down. When me does business with Uncle Sam he inds that the old geritleraan is from iVisconsin and wants it in his hand, rhe real hard cash, actual legal tenter, must be deposited. 'Not only that, >ut in big bills. It's big denominaions the Government wants. The rea;on for this large bill demand by the government is that the money has o be transferred, and it is Just as ,,A'I r?if {tt 1 n i'opa KUlr of" r\r\no > C*1I IU lllimf It iil ?* w vr ;o it can be shipped readily. "The real large bills, such as the 15000 and $10,000. are very scarce. I toubt if there are my in Omaha. Certainly I don't know of any. They re used only in the East, where money s handled in much larger bulk than t is out this way. There they come 11 handy and are useful in transfers rom bank to ^ub-Treasury and the fke."?Omaha News. Modern Jupaneae War Charm. The custom of the Sen Xin Hiki is ne that lias arisen in Japan during he present war. Ever since the war egan, at all times of the day, and ven night, small groups of women can te seen gathering In the streets; one r more of the women will have a piece if cotton cloth with 1000 marks or lots stamped, upon it. "Sen" is the apanese word for 1000. "Nin" is the vord for human being?either man or I'oraan. "Riki" is, in the Japanese anguage. strength. In combination he words mean "the strength of 1000 teople." Eaclv one of these 1000 dots or marks n the cloth is to indicate the place vhere a stitch or knot is to be made >y a woman, who, while making this ;not. gives her best thought, wish or ?rayer ror tuo sarety ana protection 01 he soldier who will wear this piece of otton cloth as an "obi" or belt while ighting for his country. The prayers ?f 1000 women for one man are beieved to protect him from all dangers ind to give him strength to overcome ind conquer the enemies of his beoved Japan.?Frank Leslie's Weekly. Caring For Baby in Zani Land. The Zunl child spends his early days n a cradle. But a cradle in Zuni iand toes not mean down pillows, silkeu overlets and fluffy laces; it is only a lat board, just the length of the baby, vith a hood like a doll's buggy top >ver the head. Upon this hard bed the baby is bound ike a mummy, and the coverings are vound round and round him until the ittle fellow cannot move except to >pen his mouth and eyes. Sometimes le is unrolled and looks out into the iare whitewashed room, blinks at the ire burning 011 the hearth and fixes lis eyes earnestly on the wolf and 'ougar skins that serve as chairs and jeds and carpets in the Zuni home. By the time he is two or thr<& years )ld he has grown into a plump little jronze creature with the straightest ol . oarse black hair and the biggest and oundest of black eyes. He is now out )f the cradle and trots about the house ind the village. "When the weather is jad he wears a small, coarse shirt, and ilways a necklace of beads or turluoises.?St. Nicholas. On the Sen Wall. "Ah, Miss Smith, sitting alone beside the sea, eh?" "Vac " "Sitting watching the play of tlif nooniight on the waves, the hug? ivhite combers rushing shoreward, th< twinkling lights of distant vessels go ing no one knows whither across Tb< rasty, unfathomable, pathless deepseparating loved ones, mayhap; may iap bringing loved ones together. Ah Mamie?I may call you Mamie, may 1 lot?" "Of course." "I feel that you and I are kindred souls; the same feeling of oxultatior Hid exaltation thrills us; the sam< beauties of nature remind us of th( same or similar things. Won't you tel. me what the night and the moon and the restless, tossing sea make yot think of?" "Sure, they " "Yes " "Make me think of a plate of crat ;umbo an' some corn bread an' pork 'at I had last time I was in Galveston.' -Houston Post. The Jap's Knapsack. , Russian soldiers have frequent op' lortunity to admire the cleanliness and the completeness of the contents of tin cnapsacks of fallen Japanese soldiers, [{( sides food nnd arumunitiou thes? contain a tooth brush, a comb, a towo! nid a map of southern Manchuria on \ large scale. --'. '.A . * . i.V. . THE GREAT DESTROYER! SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT j THE VICE OF INTEMPERANCE. Che Subject of Saloon Compensation-* i What the United Stated Supreme ! Court If as Declared?Tlie Opinion of a Distinguished Jurist of Ohio. In some States where the destruction of ' the saloon is sought by legislation, defend, ers of the saloon advocate compensating sai loonkeepers for the loss of their business. . But those friends seem to have overlooked j the fact that the saloonkeeper has engaged in a business which lie knew, or might ! have known, was liable to be outlawed at | , any time. The United States Supreme j Court declared: "By the general concurrence of opinion ! ! of every civilized and Christian commu- J r _c : I 1 ! nicy Ulere tire lew sourcea <>i tnuic nuu { misery to society equal to the dramshop I where intoxicating liquors in small quanti| ties to be drunk at the time are sold in| discriminate!^to all parties applying. The statistics of ^very State show a greater amount of crime attributable to this than from any other source. The sale of liquor in this way has therefore been at all times considered the proper subject of legislative regulation. For that matter, the sale by the glass may be absolutely.prohibited. It is a question of public expediency and public morality and not of Federal laws. Tnere is no inherent right of a citizen to sell intoxicating liquors by retail. It is not a privilege of a citizen of the State or of a citizen of the United States." ? Justice Field. For United States Supreme Court, November, 1890, in Christiansen Case. According to this decision a saloonkeeper has no vested right of selling liquor, and when he starts in the business he takes all | the risks. In discussing this matter a distinguished I jurist of Ohio has aptly said: I "There is no valid reason why compensa} tion should be made. God never gave the devil any compensation for curtailing him in the exercise of any of his assumed privileges, because the devil never had any right to take- the privileges in the first place. The law of God nowhere recognizes j the principle that a man committing, or : about to commit, an injury to the public health, public peace or public morals, must be compensated if he is prevented from committing the injury; and if no such principle is acknowledged in the moral law why should it be recognized in human l i > < ? vrtn laws; xj\j juirpa.y mc unci iui naau jvw. i deprive him of when you drive him from I your house and thus thwart his criminal j purposes? Have you not a right to pre- j vent an injury without compensation to j the one intending to do the injury? Must I men be compensated for the surrender of j i anv evil practice?" j Why not require the saloonkeeper to j compensate the members of these men's j families for all the woe, poverty and dis- i grace he has caused by his death-dealing ' j business??The National Advocate. Alcoholism and Heredity. In a well-known but slightly sensational | medical journal, The London Lancet, a . rather surprising opinion is advanced by G. Archdall Reid. He is satisfied that a predisposition to drinking is not inherited from intemperate parents. He ar-ues in this fashion: If offspring are affected, then, in time, the race grows degenerata i and finally becomes extinct. On the other | hand, if they are not, then the power of | resistance becomcs developed and strength* ?ned, and later generations crave liquor ! less than did their ancestors. The latter rule explains to Mr. Reid the present existence of old races like the Jews, Greeks and the nations of Southern Europe, who for ages have had alcoholic beverages. Younger stock, like that of Northern Europe, naving had less time in which to acquire resisting powers, might, on the other hand, show a greater susceptibility. In | other words, he holds that alcohol, as well j as disease, is the cause of an innate immu; nity against itself. To this doctrine much dissent has been I expressed. A resident of Buffalo. Law, rence Irwell, declares that if a distinct j craving for drink is not transmitted to i children, there is at least an inherent susi ceptibility. A writer in The Medical Rec1 > !_ O it.* -p.,. | ora aemes innc me peo^ic oi tjuuuiuu nu- I j rope are to-day abstemious. He then re- i j marks: "Mr. Reid cannot prove that the | children of habitual, drunkards are norj mally developed both mentally and physiI cally. When drink is indulged in to excesg through successive generations it results j in insanity, paralysis, idiocy or cerebral | defect of some kind. The theory that in a drinking nation the unfit are weeded out I and that among the survivors a consider| able degree of immunity to alcohol is es| tablished is plausible and probable. The j craving for drink may not be directly : : transmitted, but the children of drunken | ! parents or one drunken parent will in all | j likelihood inherit some physical or mental | defect or both, which may of a certainty be put down to the drinking habits of their progenitors." Pay-Day and Drinking. The Massachusetts Bureau of Labor staj tistics has published a report on the loss of j time due to drunkenness in which there is shown a great decrease in the proportion of absences of work immediately following pay day. The special agents visited 413 establishments and found absent on Monday I \ but 511 of 39,761 males over sixteen years of age employed on the previous Saturday. | The per cent, is 1.29. The employers who I have changed the pay day from Saturday j to the middle of the week reports.a gref.t J | I improvement in this respect. The man j who knows that his position depends on his reporting for work on the rooming immediately following pay day appears far I more likely to keep sober than when a full I day or a day and a half intervene. San Francisco's Saloons. T??4MA>'a/iA lion +1io fomlOn fn/if facc that there are over 3000 saloons within her city limits?one saloon to every 125 of her population?and, what is the worst feature, many of the saloons have grocery I stores in front, and children who go for j , ! home supplies are only separated from the ! I evils of the saloon by a swinging door, and I learn all manner of wickedness from iheir earliest youth. Recently the commissioners of the city liave decided there shall be . no further increase in the saloons, and also that if any saloon goes out of existence no other can resume business on that site. ' Through these laws San Francisco hopes to have less than 30.000 arrests yearly, over half of which are directly accountable "> the liquor traffic. ' Alcoholism in Mnpsia. j The consumption of alcohol is increasing j nt an enormous rate in .the Province of j Moscow, the revenue having increased [ < nearly 200 per cent, during the year. Th? < province contains a population of 2,500,000, j | and the consumption of vodka during the | year amounted to 9,926.000 gallons. The Crusade In Krlef, In the State of Virginia during the last few months the Anti-Saloon League has j closed no less than 900 saloons. In Maine, Kansas and North Dakota J they have prohibition by State law; in t thirty-eight other States they have it by f local opiion. 'J It is recognized that the hope of the nation lies in nerventincr the formation of drinking habits through education of the rising generaVon. The action of alcohol on the nervous ays- t tem is one of most important and most f unfortunate characteristics. It is this ac- t tion which leads to the "craving" for drink, c The United States drinks enough liquor each year to float all her battleships. There are 650 towns and cities in the State of Illinois in which nrohibition has ^ been enacted into law. All the State of j Iowa but twenty-five cities is still prohibi- y tion. p It is strange that professedly religious V bodies of men can see no wrong in manu- h faeturin? liquors which have been proved jj to be the greatest enemies to humanity? p morally, socially, physically and spirit- fj ually. tl The amount the liquor business draws it from legitimate trade, if spent i.f dry li goods, grocery, hardware and furniture r; stores, would require ?400,QOO,(JOO more of Cj raw material for manufacturing, and trivo ti tniulovment to l,2j0,000 inea. 1 . Tho Only Vole?. His once dark locks bleached snowy whitCj j In the shadowy valley'a rime, Where hangs the river's veil of mist Between, eternity and time. Stands he who was at lifi's bright morn Mysteriously given breath, Now in the chill evening gloaming Facing the mystery of death. All they who cried: "Lo here, lo there," Ere yet the light of day grew dim, Are silent as the shadows are And have no hand of help from him. Philosopher, and sage and seer, Who counseled him how best to come To that dread place, now he is near The bar of destiny, are dumb. As if the dead had never lived. As if the living were unknown, < There by the bridgeless river's beetling j brink' The old man stands alone. And hears. 0 joy ineffable! 0 peace outliving mortal strife!? "Who spake as never man: "I am The JResorrectioi and the Life." ?L. D. Perkins, in New York Observer. Kind Word*. Cultivate kindness of heart; think well of your fellow men; look with charity upon the shortcomings in their lives; do a good turn for them as opportunity,offers, and finally, don't forget the kind word at the right time. How much such a word of kindness, encouragement or appreciation means to others sometimes, and now little it costs us to give it! "We do not need to wait for some special occasion. When calamity overtakes a friend words of sympathy and encouragement are offered sincerely enough, yet, in certain respects, as a matter of course. Such an occasion calls I for expression on our part, and we naturally respond, says the Luther League Review. But why wait for an occasion? Why not speak that kind word when there is no special occasion? In the course of our lives there must be many times when thoughtless words are spoken by us which 1 wound- the hearts of others. -And there are also many little occasions when the word of cheer is needed from us, and we are silent. There are lives of Avearisome i ' monotony which a word of kindness can j relieve. There is suffering which words of I sympathy can make more endurable. And ! often, in the midst of wealth and luxury, there are those who listen and Ions in 1 vain for some expression of disinterested j : kindness. Speak to those while they "can hear and be helped by you, for the day < mav come when all our. expressions of love and appreciation may be unheard. Iroag- < ine yourself standing beside their last rest: ing place. Think or the things you could i have said of them and to them while they 1 were yet living. Then go and tell them | now. "Why Do We Wait. ? 1 A story is "told which couples the names i of Princess Mathilde and the great paint- j er, Gerome. The princess and the painter i had both been invited to a dinner party, i The princess arrived punctually; the paint- j er tarried until long after the dinner hour i was past. The guests concealed their impatience as best they could, until at last 1 the princess suddenly said: j "Why, I nearly forgot. Only this mon> j ing I received a telegram from Gerome, | who is in Spain. He is unable to come to- 1 night." i i l J..H v_r i x>uu wny uiu you not ten us i?eiorc, princess?" cried all the guests togetter, "Because I was not yet hungry. ' It is often so ill regard to spiritual things. Why do we wait to tell our loved ones and friends the good news of having found a Saviour? Is it not because we are not yet hungry for their salvation? If every child of God would, in a measure. _ experience something of the hunger aria thirst whiqh Christ Jesus had fof the lost, we would begin at once to tell of the things we know about Christ. Let each one of us begin to-day to tell of the power of Christ to redeem our lives from destruction, and there will be many whose real joy in life will be enhanced. And again and again we will #3ar the question: "Why did you not tell it before?" How* many of Christ's followers would then be bound to confess, to some unsaved friend, "I kept silent because I was not yet hungry for your soul!" . We have kept silent long enough. Let us speak. We are messengers of salvation, "Let the redeemed of the Lord *ay so?" The Poor Pessimist. H. P. Danks, the composer, died recently in Philadelphia at the age of sixty-nine, lie was best known, perhaps, through tho song, "Silver Threads Among the Gold," that he wrote in his youth. Mr. Danks lived quite alone. He had a pathetically odd way of passing the time when not at work before his organ. He | would, for several hours each afternoon, sit in the huge railway station at Twelfth ! and Market streets, watching the people j quietly. Sometimes he would make cursory ac quaintances at the station. Sometimes he j would narrate to his friends odd remarks j that he had heard in chance encounters. } Thus, one morning, lie told of an English- j man who, the day before, had sat down i beside him and began to grumble about ! American newspapers. Mr. Danks changed the subject to music, j but the other crumbled njrain. Finally, c pointing to the flood of suniight that } Eoured in through the great window, Mr, 1 lanks said: m ? .* 6 "A glorious day, isn't it?" " 8 The other frowned and muttered: "Yes, locally. It's probably raining * Bomewhere, though." f Called to High Service. t We must not forget that our calling is ! x high one. How often we hear ic said in our prayer meetings that we are to ? serve the Lord in little things! It is true, o md it is a great comfort that it is true, j ? that the giving of a glass of water can I J please Cod, and the sweeping of a room j . can glorify Him. But woe be to us if we j ire content with small service! Too much thought of little things belit- J. ties. We should "attempt great things j] tor God." Caleb said: "Give me this ? mountain." Mary broke the alabaster box that was "exceedingly precious." The dis- .j: :ip]e<3 "left all" to follow .Tesus. and count -y ;a it joy to suffer for His sake. Let v.a lot be easily content.?Pittsburg Chris:ian Advocate. Those Who Are Blessed* Blessed are those ears which lisfen not t ifter the voice which is sounding without, c, jut for the truth teaching inwardly. B 31essed, indeed, is the soul which heareth ;he Lord speaking within it, and receiveth j; rom His mouth the word of consolation.-* a, L'homas a Kempis. a The Weak Things. The Lord ioves to use "the weal; things" l> .nd "tilings that are despised." He loves Cl ;o put the treasure of His grace into the ^ eeble, that the world mav be vompelled ;o ask, "Whencc hath this Man thii pow x2"?Jcwett. ii Honeymoon in a Box car. A honeymoon spent in a box car is to y e the unusual experience of a Milburn (N. t .) bride. She v/as Miss Hannah Harrison p Thittingham. Recently she married in h 'ueblo, Col.^ Arthur Fepper, formerly of 0 Wyoming, J*, who for eight months (_ as been connected with the Denver and e, lio Grande llailroad Company in the ca- t, acity of civil engineer. Frequent changes rom place to place are made necessary by he completion of one job and the comlencement of another, and the couple will .. ve in the box car, as under any other ar- I1. ingement they would be separated be- j;1 luse of the lack ^f public accommoda- . ions. _ . ' ? THE SUNDAY SCHOOL INTERNATIONAL LESSON COMMENTS FOR OCTOBER 16. Subject: Eliihs r?n<l the RhoBunltt, lk KIdcb, It., 25-37?Golden Text, Bom. vl? 23?Memory Verses, 32.35?Commentary on the Day's Lesson. T. Kindness rewarded (vs. 8-17). Elisha in his work as a prophet and religious leader of the people traveled from place to place, on foot, with Gehazi, his attendant. There seems to have been public religious services on the Sabbath and first days of the month (v. 23). Elisha frequently passed by the village of $hunem, and was invited to the house of one of the leading families for refreshment and foodv The lady of the house seems to have been much more intelligent and religious than her husband, who was wise enough to . know it arid to trust her, while she allowed due deference to him. This woman was childless, which was a great sorrow in her life, and as a reward for her kindness Elisha promised that within a year she should ''embrace a son." II. Death in the home (vb. 18-24). In due time a son was born into the house. He grew up to be four or five years old. He could not have been much older if this. part of the story took place during Jehoram's reign. But the story may have begun then, but run on to a later period. One morning the boy went out into the fields where his father was gathering in the harvest. In this valley which is to-day one of the richest wheat lands on the wide globe, he was taken suddenly-sick. Considering the symptoms. and the season of the year there is little doubt that a sunstroke was followed by inflammation of the brain. The bov was sent home to hi* mother. yrlio held him till noon, when he * died. She took him up to the little chamber by the roof and laid him ou the pro- 4 phet's bed. It was a strange affliction that God should take away the child He had given as a reward for her kindness to the prophet, while her kindness had been continued and increasing year by year. III. Meeting the prophet (vs. 25-28). 25. "She went." The mother immediately hastened across the plain to Mount Carmel, sixteen or seventeen miles distant, in , search of Elisha. "Man of God." That i?, God's representative.* So called, 1. Because of the integrity of his character. 2. Because he instructed the people in divine *L-? f ? < : lftMi*. initigs. xcn Limca hi bmo called by this title. "Saw her." From the B hilltop looking down into the valley. BB 26. "Run now." This was a mark of H courtesy, showing his great esteem. "If it H well?" "Is it peace?" "It is well." In H the Hebrew only the word "peace" ia H used. She gives this answer, to Gehazi's Hj question that she may avoid more words; Hj she 'has no thought of deception. |M 27. "Caught him by the feet." The atti- MB tude of humblest supplication. She hum- |H bly reasoned with him concerning her pres- IH ent affliction; she threw herself at Jus feet as one troubled and in grief, which she never showed until she name to Elislia, the one whom she believed could ho]p her. I "Thrust her awav." In bis officious zeal,, angry at the slight toward him, or deeming her touch defilement, or her importti- Hn nity excessive, or such liberties beneath his master's dignity. "Let her alone." A noble mind does not pass sentence before EH hearing the case. Elisha'.? gentleness was an tvidence of his greatness. "So.nl ia Hjj vexed." Sympathy is penetrative. Cultirate earnestly the Christ-like talent of dis.:erning the sorrows of others. "Lord hath hid." In reference to this point he bad not the discernment ot spirits. ipia uuu bh the gift of prophecy were influences God rave and suspended as in His infinite wis- HG iom and love He was good. 28. "Did I desire a son?" She reminded BE bim that she had not asked for the child, but that ho had come to her as a free gift from God. Why should God, she argued, give her the child of His own will, only to H| take him awny? Had .she not besought thg Hi Drophet not to mock her with a false hope? Hius did she reason. MB IV. The sei-vant's failure (vs. 29-31). 29. 'Gird up "thy loins.'' By tightening the j^H jirdle and tucking the mantle under eo as H] to leave the legs fre e. ''Staff." The badge if the prophetical (rift which he had re:eived from God. of might and strength. 'Salute him not." Ip the East salutations B9 ire full of form and consume much time. Hie command showed the urgency of the nission and the necessity for the exercise |Hjg )f faith and prayer. 30. "Will not leave flH :hee." After the heartless attempt of Gelazi to thrust her away she has no conC lence in his ministrv, even though he HB :arry the staff of Eiisfoa. Sacred vest- [gfl nents and a holy commission will not comnand the confidence of earnest souls un- I ess they be associated wicn a true uuu. kuler heart. H| 31. "Neither voice, nor hearing." Why ;vas Elisha's mission fruitless? Everything1 Km joes to show that at first Elisha did not Bflj ntend to go to Shunem, but when he saw ;he persistency of the mother he changed I lis purpose. It was probably in conse- HK juence of this change of plan that 110 reiponse was made to the first claim of faith )y means of the staff. That appeal was in BBS art superseded the moment he resolved to ;o in person, the Lord thus reserving for [ra ;he personal intercession of His prophet he honor of this marvelous deed. H V. A great miracle (vs. 32-37). 32. HsE 'Child was dead." This statement cleary forbids the supposition that the child KB iad merely fainted or fallen into a trance.' HSR rle was really, not apparently, dead. 33. 'Shut the door." He prayed in secret and Hm lis Father rewarded him openly. "Prayed." KS rhc only remedy in s;ich a case as this. HI The best things in life come through )raver. -''4. "Lay upon the child." He |BH ised what means were in his power, though H he means alone could never have brought Hw he child to jife. So .James tells the eldts to pray with the sick and to anoint hem with oil (James 14, 15.) "Put his nouth," etc. Elisha followed the example HH if Elijah a* nearly as possible (1 Kings 17: BWi 8-24). "Waxed warm." Returning life s slowlv given, but the first signs of re- HS *.1 1 u:_ ???? toration must nave sireiifctucucu ma ;nd given fervor to his prayers. flpM 35. "Returned.'' Left the bed. "Walked HH o and fro." His own animal heat might tave become much reduced by absorption HH nto the cold body of ihe child. Possibly, Hj oo, there was a struggle of faith in the HB nind of the prophet. "Sneezed seven HI imes." When the nervous influence be;an to on the muscular system sneez-^^B ng: would be :i natural consequence, as^^H b6tructions must have taken place in the^HH icad, the cause of the disorder of which^HH he child died. 36. "Take up thy sod."H^H oyfully the child was returned alive toBB lis mother. See the power of prayer; aaHEfl t has the key of the clouds, so it has theHH cy of death. See the power of faith. That^^H ??d law of nature, death, shall be dis-^MH ^enfcpd jpith rather than this believing^BM hunamlte be disappointed. 37. "Fell atHH lis feet." In overwhelming gratitude. Vhen God has done great things tor us, wclM nouId bow humbly and say, Lord, I imHH ?t worthy.*' See Oen. 32: 10. fflH Tho "Cnke-TValk" Tabooed. HBB At Berlin, where tlicy have twen holding congress of Turveydrops to discuss and^HB onsider the great subject of the progress nd decadence of the terpsichorean art, il^BH as been decided, says the Ladies' Pictor-HHs il, that the "cake-walk" must be tabooedH^S s a vulgar, ungraceful and unseemly dancc.^^m it the same time it was acknowledged by^^H iltatory experts that there were possibiii-H^H ies in the "cake-walk" which had neverHO^ nnn >lpvo!nnpd hnf cvpn at its beat. ourse, it could never have the elegance, ie atvle, the charm of older fancy dancer Hjak Precocious Business Boy. The Los Angeles land boomer starts buy^^KB ig and selling real estate early in life occar^HQ ionally. Russell Clark is youngest of th^Hm| )t at present. Mr. Clark is just eleven^Hng ears old. For three years he has been ii^HB he chicken and egg business, from th^^^R rofits of which he has bought a lot. Thi^^^H e has advertised for sale, his sign bem^HH f regulation size and design. Youn^HM 'lark's father has been an operator in rea^H^B state for years and has large property in^BHj Married Seventy Tears. King Edward has sent his congratula-^BHi ons to Mr. and Mrs. R. W. Crocker, o^H^H 'ount Nebo, Taunton, who recently cele-^BflSj ated the seventieth anniversary of their^GBB edding day. ? w - Hfl