The Florence daily times. [volume] (Florence, S.C.) 1894-1925, January 13, 1898, Image 2
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SUMMER IN WINTER.
Rammer time In winter—the bird* were on lllie* Beetned to nod
tb« wlnK. ' And «end *weet mewagee of lore to the Woe
The meadow dreamed of rloleU as aweet as realms of God !
And all the birds remembered the songs they And all the world was beautiful, and all the
luved to slue 1 world was bright;
Thesplendid day dreamed soft away to meet
Summer time In winter—the daisies decked the restful night
the sod. That rippled from clear start to earth Its
Late sprinkled with the silver frosts, and * loveliness and light!
—F. L. Stanton.
JBt.dk. Jk.Jk.JBk.jtk. A.jtk*Jtk. A.
An Early Bird.
r "m* •y 'v ri v ' i ysF' i y | y i y^B r i y
“Bother the fellow!” I muttered
savagely. “Just wheu I’d screwed up
nty nerves almost to the point of put
ting the question, and so settling my
late one way or the other, here he
must come and upset everything with
his confounded ‘Our dance, Miss Bei
jinger, I believe!’ Deuce take the
man and his dance, too!”
f My gaze followed the pair as they
passed between the double row of
palms toward the ballroom. For a
moment the music swelled higher,and
mingling with it iu my ears came the
silvery ripple of Joan’s laughter. Con
fusion seize the clown!—he seemed to
have the knack of amusing her, if
nothing else. Then the door of the
conservatory swung to behind them.
I rose from the settee,frow ned with-
eringly at a big hydrangea bloom and
thought things not to be found in the
category of polite proverbs. From
this genial mood I was roused by the
frou-frou of a woman’s dress and a
tripping footfall which caused me to
glance round quickly, half-expeetant-
ly. But it was merely my sister Ber
tha.
“What’s amiss, Tom?" asked she
merrily. “You don’t look extrava
gantly amiable tonight.”
“Don’t I, indeed? Well, I feel
even less cheerful than I look.”
“You couldn’t, Tom, dear,” Bertha
protested, flippantly. “Come, now,
what is it? Anxiety about Aunt Jane’s
health?”
“Oh, hang Auut Jane!”
“Tom -Tom!” and Bertha’s hands
■went up in simulated horror. “Your
own blood relation, too. How utterly
depraved of yon !’’
As a matter of confession I never
could bring myself to a due state of
honest sympathy where Aunt Jane’s
neurotic ailments were concerned.
True, they were the only only relax
ations the poor old soul allowed her
self, but then she ever and inexorably
worked them for all they were worth.
Among other instances, whenever she
felt, one of her “attacks” coming on,
li ilfldn fWrf
hand and foot, from morning till
night. It was precious hard lines on
Bertha, maybe; yet it is the penalty a
girl has to pay for beiug a gentler
nurse than sister.
“Not Aunt June!” Bertha went on,
after a panse. “Then it must be
Joan. That-was she I saw just now
with Captain Moston, wasn’t it ?
Have you and she been falling out or
what ?”
“Quite the contrary. We were
getting on famously together until
that conceited jackanapes thrust him
self forward uiql carried her off.”
“Why, what can you complain of in
that? I suppose he simply claimed
the waltz she had promised him.
What are parties and dances for?”
“The only rational use of them is to
keep people out of the way of those
who don’t want to dance. Otherwise,
they’re nothing but stupid circuses, in
my opinion. ”
“Tom, you’re a grumpy bear—a
downright morose,irritable,sqrly,rude
person!—and I’m sofry nnele ever in
vited you down here at all. You’ve
scarcely been ‘24 hours in the house
yet, and already yon show a temper
—that—that There, Joan must
be an angel to have tolerated you for
live minutes!”
I did not feel called upon to find
fault with the classification. My
quarrel was not with Miss Bellinger—
nor yet with Bertha.
“Well,” said I, quickly, “ this
swash-buckler fellow — this army
bounder—who is he, anyway?”
“Captain Moston is nothing more
than a gentleman,” retorted Bertha,
w ith w hat she considered an air of
delicate irony. “He isn’t one of your
sort at all, Tom.”
“Whoever he may be, ho needs a
lesson iu manners,” I rejoined hotly.
“The w ay in which he has been hang
ing round Miss Bellinger ever since
I’ve been here is absolutely insuffer
able. Of course you haven’t noticed
it; you’ve been upstairs with Auut
Jane all the time. But I have, and
by Jove! thero’l! be ructions soon if
Moston doesn’t?” Bertha put in, bur.
riedly.
“Oh, I’ve come across the type be
fore—the irresistible, self-complacent,
professed gallant, who never ”
Flushing scarlet, Bertha stamped
her foot angrily.
“I won’t listen to you. It’s dis
graceful! He is—he is At all
events, I know Joan likes him—is
very fond of him, in fact. Hhe told
me so herself. And if she had to
choose between you and him, I’m per
fectly certain which she would favor.”
Here Bertha broke out into another
high-pitched giggle. “Really, Tom,
I’m almost sorry for yon. If you wish
to oust Captain Moston, I can assure
you you’ll have to get np very early
in the morning.”
Tuis outburst was indeed a facer for
me; but I did not intend that my tor
ment of a sister should note its ef
fects.
“I wish you wouldn’t be so slangy,
Bertha,” I said, reprovingly. “It
shows shocking bad form iu girls.”
“Thanks for the benefit of the ex
ample,’’retorted she, airily. “Only I
didn’t mean it for slang, either. It’s
a piece of advice to be taken literally.
I’ll explain—though you don’t deserve
any such consideration from me, really.
Now listen to this. Every morning,
before breakfast, Joan wanders off by
herself through the park toward the
shrubbery, and soon afterward, by an
odd coincidence, Captain Moston also
strolls away, but invariably in the op
posite direction. Now, doesn’t that
strike you as being somewhat signi
ficant? While you are lazying in bed
—unless yon have amended your hab
its of late —no doubt he is improving
the golden opportunities. You recol
lect uncle's adage, that women are apt
to guage a man’s affection by his per
sistence, especially where But
the waltz is over, and here comes the
crowd. My poor Tour, truly I pity
you!”
And with a mock-solemn shake of
her head she was gone.
wliereTitTjseqJenTfy
“Oh, now I begin to understand,”
interposed my sister, amusedly.
“That’s how the wind blows, is it?
You’re jealous, Tom. Gracious me,
it’s clear you don’t know Captain Mos
ton since yon wonder at that. Just
wait until yon see him tlirting with
me. Yon forge 1 you haven’t had an
opportunity of witnessing that yet.”
“I don’t care twoi euce w hom lie
flirts w ith,so long as it isn’t Miss Bel-
linger ” replied I. “Besides, it isn’t
fair to* her. No has a right to
monopolize any girl iwhe does,unless
lie seriously thinks abont—means to
—to ”
“Ami how do you know Captain
y beate
by my 15-year-old cousin Harold in
“hundred np” game. His flukes were
phenomenal.
“Say, Tom,you’re a bit off color to
night, aren’t yon?” he exclaimed pat
ronizingly. “Never saw yon make
such a rotten show in my life. But
what d’you think of my play, eh? I’ve
come on a lot lately, haven’t I? Fact
is, CaptafU Moston’s been tipping me
a few- wrinkles the last day or two.
Jolly clever chap, the captain, you
know.”
I offered no comment—audibly.
The youngster entered into a glow
ing eulogy of the captain’s many splen
did accomplishments and good quali
ties, rattle to which I had neither the
desire nor the patience to hearken.
Incidentally, however, he happened to
mention that the bedroom of the gen
tleman in question opened out of the
same gallery as mine—was, indeed,
next but one to it. Later, when I
passed this particular room on my way
up to bed, I chanced to observe that
the key projected from thelock on the
outside of the door. Ere I fell
asleep I had settled upon a ruse de
gupre.
Waking soon after daybreak, I
dressed hastily arttf slipped out into
the corridor. Listening at the cap
tain’s door, I could hear his heavy,
regular breathing within; he was still
fast asdeep. My tingers sought the
protruding key, and softly, warily, I
turned it, the bolt sliding into its
socket without a sound. Now, I well
km^v that nil the apartments in my
uncle’s house were fitted with patent
fastenings, each one having its special
key, no one key opening any other
lock than its own. and I flattered my
self upon the tactical use to which I
had b?en enabled to put my knowl
edge. Of a certainty there would he
no Captain Moston at the rendezvous
that morning. Chuckling over the
success of my stratagem, I thrust the
key into my pocket and hurried down
stairs.
Half an hour afterward, from the
embrasure of the library window , I
stood and watched Joan issue from
the stone porch, cross the terrace
and wend down by the shrubberies—
exactly us I had been led to expect.
Myself unseen, I followed after, until
she entered the ornate wooden chalet
near the tennis court. In a few min
utes she reappeared with a bicycle,
which she trundled down to the level
gravelly path beyond. Here she
waited, tapping the ground vexedly
with the toe of her boot, glancing this
way and that at intervals, w ith growing
impatience. I thrust through the
hushes behind her.
“How late yon are!” shecried, tam
ing round at the noise; then, seeing
me, she stammered confusedly: “Oh,
\
Mr. Varcoe, I I expected—I thought
it was some one else!”
“That’s a little disappointing for
both of ns,” I answered, biting my
lip. “It was some other person you
hoped to see—eh?”
“I said—expected.”
“Don’t you think it amounts to
abont the same thing,” I hazarded
suavely, “under the circumstances?”
“Not at all—why need it? Still, I
must confess I wish you hail not come
just now. I didn’t want to see you,
nor you to see me.”
I swung round as if to leave her.
“A girl never looks her best when
learning to cycle,”she went on. “One
always feels so helpless, so awkward,
so very ridiculous an object at first.
That’s why I practise out here before
the other folks are astir. And now
you’ve found it out and have come to
laugh at me.”
“I declare not,” said I, returning
to her side. **l hadn’t even the
faintest idea that you were qualifying
for a feminine Ixion—:—”
“There! Isn’t that poking fun at
me? Really, it's too bad! Why,Ber
tha told me that yon yourself were an
enthusiastic cyclist - almost as expert
a rider as Captain Moston. You ought
not to chaff or discourage a beginner
—for I do so want to learn.”
Again she peered round in search
of him who, to my certain knowledge,
would never put in an appearance that
morning.
“How annoying!” she ejaculated,
parsing up her lips. “What can be
keeping him? I wouldn’t have given
him those three dances last night if I
had thought he would have failed me
now. That wasThe condition.”
“A pleasnrable one, surely,” I
murmured, trying vainly to recollect
more than one of the three dances
mention d. “To be of service to you
in any way, to be with yon, alone, and
in ”
“Oh, must it not be delightful?”
cried Joan, in ecstasy. “I can imag-
breathless and spent with the haste !
he had made.
“Awfully sorry I’m so late, Miss
Bellinger,” gasped he. •‘Borne silly
idiot fastened me into my bedroom
this morning, and it took me a beast y
long time to screw off the lock with
my penknife. I’ve half a n<i r ion it
was one of Captain Moston’s jokes. ”
“Captain Moston?” said I, my hand
goings instinctively iato my pocket,
where lay the incriminating key.
“Yes; our rooms are close together,
yon know—his two rooms to the ilfeht
of yours, jnst as mine is two doors to
the left, But I’ll find some dodge to
him out for this lark before
SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS.
pay
I’m a day older, yon bet. And now,
Miss Bellinger, if it isn’t too late to
begin ”
“I rather fancy it is,Harold,” I has
tened to put in.
“For me, you mean?” exclaimed he,
grinning. “Well, I guexsed some
thing of the sort when I saw you here.
I’d better clear out, eh? So I’ll ta-ta
now and leave you. Go ahead, old
chap! I never like to spoil sport.”
—Chambers’ Journal.
WHEN THE STARS FELL
ine nothing more glorious!”
The exclamation struck me as being
somewhat incredible. Looking up in
surprise, I found that she had not
been paving heed to my words at all;
her lips parted, she stood gazing with
sparkling eyes across the greensward
to where the carriage driva wound
down beneath the elm trees toward
the park gates. Along this stretch of
road a tandem bicycle was being rid
den at a hot pace.
“Great Ctesar!” I cried, on catching
sight of the distant scorchers; “that’s
Bertha, isn’t it? And the other—no,
it can’t be ”
“Is Captain Moston,” interposed
Joan, eageiix,. “Everyjnorning they
bai
The sense of freedom, of buoyancy, of
swift joy,of life and power, of—of
Oh, hoxv I envy them!”
“Every morning?” I repeated, con
fusedly. “Bertha and Captain Mos
ton? T don’t think I quite under
stand.”
“Hasn’t Bertha told you? She and
Captain Moston have been greaifriends
ever so long, ami they have become
But, there, now, I’m betraying
strict confidences. I ought not to
have said a word about it, but I made
sure she would have told her own
brother/’
“That’s her way of informing me
of the fact,” replied I,pointing toward
the Hying figures. “And, all things
considered, she might have chosen a
worse method. Bertha possesses
more tact than l ever gave her credit
for. I only hope I may hit npon an
equally pleasant and original plan for
Acquainting her with uiy engage
ment ”
“Yonr engagement!” murmured
Joan, with a manifest effort to control
herself that set my heart thumping
with joy. “Yon—engaged?”
“To teach you cycling.”
“Oh! I thought you meant—some
thing else.”
“Since it’s clear your regular in
structor will not be available today,
may I ask you to consider my proposal,
Joan?”
“It’s good of you to offer, Tom.
I’m afraid you’ll find me a terribly
backward pupil, and I know I shall
never be able to get on by myself.”
“Then allow me to help you. First,
you place your right foot on the pedal
—so; now I lift you to the saddle and
keep you there firmly, securely ”
“Oh, but I didn’t mean that, you
stupid boy! And need yon hold me
quite so tightly? My other teacher
did not.” •
Meteoric Shower Followed by a Seanon
of lleliglntia Activity.
The recent eclipse was discussed iu
a crowd of old-timers the other day,
and it was unanimously admitted that
whenever anything unusual occurred
in the heavens it impressed the be
holder more than any other phenome
non. From the subject of eclipse the
conversation turned to comets and
meteors, and the big shower of falling
stars iu November, 1833, was referred
to by one of the talkers.
“I rememlier it,” said Colonel
George W. Adair. “At that time I
was only a small boy, but the spec
tacle was one not to be forgotten in a
hurry, and the agitation and alarm of
the older people around me impressed
it upon my mind.
“It was the night of November 13,
1833, when the stars fell. I was then
living out iu the country, in Henry
county, and was fast asleep when the
shower came.
“My father had gone that night to
a corn-shucking, and knew nothing
abont the trouble until he started
home. He was with a friend, named
Jones, a man of religions turn of mini),
and wheu the stars commenced cutting
up their capers my father was anxious
to reach home as soon as possible.
But Jones was frightened out of his
wits, and got down on his knees by
the side of the road to pray. It was
no uee reasoning with him. Every
hundred yards or so be collapsed and
Hjejl on his knees. He had a pow-
shouts nfaae the woods ring and added
to the horrors of the night.
On an average, man’s physical
strength begins to decay at the age of
thirty-six.
Botanists have found no fewer than
120 different kinds of flowers on
Spitzbergen, most of them being un
known on the European continent
Padlocks are being manufactured
with an auxiliary chamber which car
ries an explosive to be fired by a ham
mer inside the lock and give an alarm
when the lock is tampered with.
A fossil extinct mammal, somewhat
larger than a rhinoceros and of a spe
cies hithertounknown, has been found
complete 500 feet below the surface in
a coal mine at Kymi, in the island of
Euboea, Greece.
The recent Congres Olympiqe at
Havre, France, passed resolutions
favoring the introduction of hygiene,
physical training and athletic sports in
all schools aud colleges, with quar
terly reports to parents on the physi
cal development of their children.
The great ea-thqnake of June 12 is
found by the Indian geographical sur
vey to have affected a greater area than
the historical Lisbon earthquake. Th«
cylinder seismometer at Shillong re
corded an osciilaiion of 7.4 inches at
the rate of 50 times a minute, and
masonry was simply shattered to pieces
rather than overthrown.
The depth to which the sun’s rays
penetrate water has been recently de
termined by the aid of photography.
It has been found that at a depth of
533 feet the darkness was, to ail in
tents and purposes, ttie same as that
on a clear but moonless night. Sensi
tive plates exposed at this depth for a
considerable length of time gave no
evidence of light action.
There are 110 mountains in Colorado
whose peaks are over 12,000 feet above
the ocean level. Forty of these are
higher than 14,000 feet, and more than
half that number are so remote and
rugged that no one has dared to at
tempt to climb them. Some of them
are massed with snow, others have
glaciers over their approaches, and
others are merely masses of jagged
rocks.
“By George, I should hope not, in
deed! He couldn't put his whole
heart and soul into the matter as I can
—that is, if I am to consider myself
definitely engaged.”
“Well,not definitely, Tom; say tem
porarily, until I see how you suit.”
“With auy prospect of a permanen
cy, Joan?” asked I, unsteadily. “I’m
serious now; you cannot have misun
derstood ”
“Oh/Tom—hold me! I’m go—go—
going! There, yon nearly let me
tumble over that time! Why, I don’t
believe you’re a bit abler instructor
than the other- one, after all. You
may be stronger and have better the
ories as to Why, here’s Harold
himself! Now, isn’t that tiresome?
“Finally my father got home, and
he lost no time in waking my mother
and myself, I shall never forget the
scene spread out before me when I
went out into the yard. It was inde
scribably grand and awful, and the
heavens«eemed to be filled with mil
lions of skyrockets. Streams of fire
rolled in every direction, and the stars,
or meteors, fell like flakes of snow.
“Nothing like it had ever been seen
by the people then living, and they
were badly scared. The colored people
set up the most unearthly yells and
hcwls, and from every cabin might be
heard snatches of prayer aud religious
sougs. Many of the spectators be
lieved that the world was coming to
an end, and they were in a frenzy of
terror and excitement.
“The next day everybody felt re
lieved, but there was* very little work
done. Naturally everybody got into
a religions frame of mind, and for
weeks after the preacher had large
congregations, and a crowd of old sin
ners joined the church.
“It was a wonderful sight, and I
never expect to see anything like it
again.”—Atlanta Journal.
With an apparatus called the myo-
phone, M. d’ Arsonval has proven that
the nerves may, contrary to the old
belief, live many hours after the death
of the body. This cannot long be
made perceptible through the excita
bility of the muscles, but the sound
in the jnstruihent shows that a nerve
may act on a muscle, in a state of elec
tric excitability, without producing
more than simple molecular vibration.
A new life preserver, recently tested
buoyancy beiug given by four bladder
floats of rubber. The belt is strapped,
under the arms, aud the bladders are
inflated through tubes provided with
self-closing valves. The advantage
claimed is that the wearer is always
supported in the water in an upi ight
position, with his face safely out of
water, while if a passenger by sea ia
timid he may wear the belt constantly
under his other clothes. The wearer
is not prevented from swimming.
Theories as to Why Birds* Kgs* Are
Colored.
Just w hen we were managing so nice
ly, too!”
As Joan sjioke, my uncle’s yonng
hopeful came loping along the path,
Remarkable Kar of Corn.
An ear of corn which Patrick Cullen
believesrto be worth a small fortune is
being carefully preserved by that indi
vidual, w ho recently found his prize
on Farmer Upright’s place at Merion
square, Montgomery county. To the
ordinary city man there is really noth
ing remarkable about the ear of corn.
Its kernels are not of solid g<Tkl, nor
are there auy diamonds consented
about the cob. Its value lies in the
fact that somewhere at some time or
other some agricultural society offered
a reward of $1000 to any one who
would find a perfect ear of corn with
the kernels growing in an uneven
number of rows. It has always been
found that the rows are even, say ten,
twelve, or fourteen to a cob. This ear
which Patrick Cullen found, however,
shows thirteen rows around the butt
and eleven around the middle of the
cob. Many farmers to whom Cullen
showed his prize assured him that the
ear was as perfect as it could be, and
that it was really a curiosity. Cullen
is now looking for the agricultural so
ciety which offered the $1000 reward.
—Philadelphia Record.
The why and wherefore of the colors
of birds’ eggs has been a favorite
theme for speculation, from the quaint
sunnisings of Sir Thomas Browne to
the solemn gness work of Shufeldt, iu
his ten “biological laws explanatory
of the variation in color of the sheila
of the eggs in class Aves. ” Hewitson
piously concludes that the beauty of
these elegant and often exquisitely
attractive objects is intended for the
delight of human eyes, hence, as he
says, eggs simply white are put out of
sight iu holes! He also sees in the
larger number of eggs laid by game
birds a provision by a benevolent
Providence for the joy of the sports
man and the delectation of the epicure.
Next comes a man who assures us that
the colors of eggs are due to the in
fluence of their respective surround
ings on the imagination of the heu
birds—the old story of Jacob’s little
trick on Laban in the matter of young
cattle. This school instances as an
example the red blotches prevalent on
the eggs of falcons, regarded by it as
a record of the bloody experience^
of the parents; but it does not explain
why the equally rapacious fowls pro
duce pure white eggs, or the blood
thirsty skuas and shrikes lay greenish
ones. —Ernest lugersoll, in Harper’s
Magazine.
Klomlikp Ctilinnr.v Note.
Proprietor (of Dawson City restau
rant)—What’s the matter with that
chap down there at the other end of
the table?
Waiter—He’s kickin’ because there’s
more nuggets than noodles in his
80'*o!—Chicago Tribune.
Cidiitefi for Bcgganh
It is an interesting proof of the im
portance the begging letter profes
sion has attained that its practitioners
are now provided with specially com
piled directories containing the names
and addresses of people likely to suc
cumb to their pedatory devices. Some
time ago a Mr. H. Grant published
in England a volume entitled “The
Charitable Ten Thousand,” at the
price of one. guinea—a mere trifle to
a begging-letter writer of average
skill and industry. This was so suc
cessful that Grant now announces
that he is bringing out an appendix,
to be called “The Guide to Givers,”
and to contain the names and ad
dresses of “several thousand addition
al anfl living benefactors, collected
with the arreatest care.”
'ymm
HIP