The ledger. [volume] (Gaffney City, S.C.) 1896-1907, December 30, 1897, Image 3
a
THE LEDGER: GAFFNEY, S. C., DECEMBER 3,0 1867.
A PROBLEM SOLVED.
children?” queried Rose gently.
He had jtiKt given her tho interesting
information that lie was a widower, al
though so young—as at the outside.
“One,” he admitted, and his dejected
tone seemed to imply that that one was
ft» unsatisfactory possession—not quite
tight in its head, perhaps, or disfigured
with a harelip. “Wo had only been
married a year, you know. She died
when it w'ns born. ”
“Ah-h!” breathed Rose, with soft in
tensity. She did not like to say more,
and tho womanly pity welling out to
him in his misfortune was sufficiently
expressed. Having consumed the after
dinner cigarette, indulged in at her ur
gent bidding, ho was at liberty to re
(pond to it. They exhaled their sighs
together. It was, in fact, a particularly
sympatheticniglit—mild, still, solitary,
with a hi autiful moon. They sat out in
it alone, tete-a-tete, on hammock chairs,
free to sit thus till bedtime.-while their
host and hostess, her uncle and aunt,
dozed over newspaper and knitting in
the drawing room behind them, the
world forgetting, by the world forgot.
“Son or daughter?” Miss Lasccllcs
asked after a pause, not willing to break
the thread of such an exquisite subject.
“A boy,” said Mr. Bell, still with
that uufatherly air of discontent. Some
times I wish it was a girl. She could
look after me by and by. I could have
her trained to be my housekeeper and
sew my buttons on—that sort of thing,
you know. ”
“You would have to wait a long
time,” said Rose. “Judging by—by
your looks, ” she turned admiring eyes
upon his very comely person, “it must
be a perfect infant at present.”
“Quito an infant—that is—let me see
—14 months and a little over. Yes, it
will bo 15 months on Thursday since he
was born, and lost his mother two days
after. ”
“Poor, poor littls thing!” ejaculated
Rose.
“Oh,” laughed tho young man in an
odd, mirthful way, “you needn’t waste
your pity on him, Miss Lascleles. He’s
all right—rolls in fat—never ailed a
thing in his life—might take the prize
in a baby show. So they tell me. I
haven’t seen him myself for a good
while.”
“You haven’t?” cried Rose, smiling
ly indignant. “Well, you aro a nice
sort of parent, I must say. Don’t you
have him with you at homo, thou?”
' “I haven’t got a home. I gave it up
wheu my pool* girl died. -What's the
use of a home to me? I should never be
there. My bnsiuess takes me all over
the country, and you can’t leave a house
and a young child to servants. Tho lit
tle time that I did try to carry on by
myself they played the douce with ev
erything, child and all. One woman
started feeding it with thick arrowroot.
She’d have killed it to a certainty.”
“Yes, indeed. Tho idea! But it’s in-
J credible wltat some fools of women will
do in tho way of mismanaging a baby.
I used to see a great deal of that when
I was a district visitor.”
“A mother of half a dozen, too,” said
Mr. Bell reflectively, lighting another
cigarette. “Then a girl who’d never
had any took to tho job like a duck to
water—knew just what to do and how
to do it. I will say that for her.”
“The instinct is in us all,” remarked
Miss Lascelles dreamily to the man in
the moon, who seemed to survey the
couple with his tongue in his cheek,
“or if not it ought to be. I’m sure I
could give many a mother points, as
you call it. ”
“I’ve no doubt you could. I beard
somebody say the other day that moth
ers are born, not made—very true too.
You see it in the little girls nursing
their dolls. I don’t think anything of u
she child that doesn’t want a doll as
soon as it can speak.”
“I always loved them,” declared
Rose.
He loaned forward to look at a spi
der’s web that tho silver light had just
touched, makiug it shine out from its
background of dark leaves and veranda
post, and there was danger of rupture
to tho delicate thread of the topic that
was weaving so charming a couversa-
tiofi, wherefore the young lady hasten
ed to inquire what had become of his
little son.
“I suppose,” she said, “he is with
his mother’s people?”
Slowly resuming his attitude of re- |
pose, Mr. Bell putfed awhile in silence; ;
then answered: “No-o, not exactly, j
With a friend of his mother's, not her
family. Unfortunately her family is* in j
England; so is mine. Neither of us had |
a soul here belouging to us. That was
just tho difficulty.”
“It must have been a great difficul-^
ty,” murmured Rose in a feeling tone.
“I believe you, ” assented Mr. Boll,
with emphasis. “In fact, it put me into
the most ridiculous hole, the most con
founded fix—one that I can’t for the
life of me see my w’ay out of, one that—
However, I mustn’t talk about it to
you. It’s not a thing that one ought to
talk about to anybody.”
And yet he yearned to talk about it
now and to this particularly sympa
thetic woman, who was not young and
giddy, but, like himself, far out of her
teens and experienced in tho troubles of
life such os weighed him down. There
was “something about her, ” ho thought,
that irresistibly appealed to him, and
he did not know what; but an author,
who knows everything, knows what it
was. It was the moonlight night.
A few words from her, backed by the
nameless influences of tho hour, un
loosed his tongue.
“You mustn't think me an nnnatnral
parent,” he said. “It’s not that at all.
I'm awfully fond of him. I’ve got his
photograph in my pocket I’ll show it
to you when we go in—the last one for
the time being. I get a new one about
suce a month—a regnlar llellin’s food
series, in all sorts of get up, clothea and
no clothes, but all as fat as butter and
^grinning from ear to ear with the joy of
life. You never saw such a fetching lit-
1
tie cuss. I’d give anything to get hold
of him—if I could.”
“But snvely—his own father”—
“No. It sounds absurd to yon, nat
urally, but that’s because you dou’t un
derstand the situation.”
“I can t conceive of any situation”—
“Of course not. It’s a preposterous
situatiou, and I just drifted into it, I
don’t know how—oh, 1 do know! It
Was for tho child’s own sake. So that
you really must not call me a heartless
parent any more, Miss Lascelles. No
body would do that who knew what I’d
suffered for him.” Mr. Bell took the
second cigarette from his mouth and
sighed deeply. “Even in tho beginning
it would have been difficult to get out
of it, having once got in,” he continued,
after a pause, “but it bas been going on
so long, getting worse and worse every
day and every hour, till now I'm tan
gled up and helpless, like that moth iu
that spider’s web”—pointing to a little
insect tragedy going on beside them.
Miss Lascelles leaned forward, rest
ing her arms on her knees and spread
ing her hands in the enchanting moon
light, which made them look white as
pearls and made her rather worn face
look as if finely carved in ivory. It was
a graceful, thoughtful, confidential
pose, and her eyes, uplifted, gleamed
just under his eyes, ineffably soft and
kind.
“I’m so sorry,” she murmured. “But
if I don’t know what the trouble is—
Oh, dou’t tell mo if you’d rather uot!
I can’t help you, can I? I do wish I
could.”
“So doI. But I’m afraid nobody can
help mo. And yet—perhaps a fresh eye
r-a woman’s clearer insight”— He
paused, irresolute, then succumbed to
temptation. “Look here, Miss Lascelles,
I’ll just tell you how it is if you’ll
promise not to speak of it again. You
aro no gossip, I know—you will uuder-
staud—and it will be such a blessed re
lief to tell somebody. And perhaps you
coujd advise me, after all”—
“Let me try,” she broke in encour
agingly. For an instant her pearly hand
touched his sleeve. “You may trust
mo,” she said.
“I’m sure of it. I’m sure of it,” he
responded warmly. He flung away the
remnant of the second cigarette, took a
moment to collect hiiusdt and plunged
headlong.
“You see, wc had nobody belonging
to us iu this country. I came out to
make a living and a home for her—too
crowded up in England—and as soon ae
I’d got a bit of a steady income I sent
for her to join me. Of course we had to
be married from somewhere, and some
kind old people that I knew took her off
the ship and looked after her for a day
or two, and we drove to church from
their house. Their daughter acted at
bridesmaid, aud she and my wife got to
be great chums, tihe used to come aud
stay with us a good deal—it was lone
some for the poor girl in a strange laud,
aud mo so much away—aud we used to
put up with them when wo went to
town. In fact, they were what you
might call bosom friends. That wat
just the difficulty. ”
“You aro speaking,” queried Rose
gently, “of the person who has the
baby?”
“Exactly. Ah, I seo you begin to un
derstand. ”
“I think so,” said Rose, with a smile
broad enough to bo visible iu any kind
of moonlight “But what was tho difti-
culty?”
“Well, you know, being so really
fond of her and all that—wishing to
do it for the sake of her dead friend,
what could I say? Especially as those
women were killing the unfortunate
brat between them. She was not so very
young and was evidently clever at man
aging”—
“Yes, ” interposed Rose, smiling still.
“Aud peculiarly situated for under
taking the job—much as you are sit
uated here—living with two old folks
who doted on her aud were only toe
pleased to let her do whatever she liked,
fond of a baby, and in want of some ob
ject in life, and so on. Bnt chiefly it
was for Mabel’s sake. To seo poor Ma
bel’s child messed and mauled about by
a set of buugliug, ignorant creatures,
who had uo interest whatever iu it, was
more than she could stand, she said. Tc
tell the truth, I couldn’t stand it either,
and she begged me to let her have it to
look after, as there was no female friend
or relative nearer to it than she was.
What could I do? She lived iu a nice,
healthy spot, and there was the old
mother with-her experience, and I was
obliged to go away, aud—aud—well, J
just bad to say ‘yes’ aud be thankful tc
do'lt We got the—tho doctor found a
—wo engaged the sort of nurse that does
everything, yon know, a fine, strapping
young woman, in the pink of condition,
aud away they went to Melbourne to
gether. And at tho first blush tho worst
of the trouble seemed over instead of
just beginning. I gave up my house and
stored tho furniture aud went off after
my uecessary business, miserable
enough, us you may suppose, but at
least with an easy mind about the boy.
As fur as he was concerned, as fur us
poor, dear Mabel was concerned, I felt
that I had acted for the best. For the
mutter of that, looking at the business
from their point of view, it appears
even now that I did act for the best.
Indeed, I dou’t for the fife of me under
stand how any man couiu have acted
otherwise under the circumstances.”
The listener listening intently hero
pnt a quiet question, ‘ ‘ Did you pay her?’ ’
which caused the narrator to wince like
a galled horse.
“All, there yon hit the weak spot,
Miss Lascelles, right in the bullseyel’’
be declared, sighing furiously. “If I
could have paid her. of course tbere’d
have been no difficulty at all, but she
wouldn’t be paid. ”
“You ought to have insisted on it,”
said Rose severely.
“I did insist. I insisted all I knew,
bat she said it was a labor of love for
her friend aud a-emed so hart at the
idea of money being brought into the
question that I was ashamed to press
her beyond a certain point She let me
pay for the nurse’s board, and that’s
all. The baby didn’t eat anything, yon
see, and they were comfortably off,
with lots of spare room iu their house,
and I just looked ou it as a sort of tem
porary visit uutil wo should be able to
turn round a bit. But”—with another
sigh—“he’s there yet.”
Miss Lascelles nodded, with an air ci
utter wisdom.
“Of course you went often to see the
child?”
“ Whenever I was in town, and found
him always the same, so beautifully
cared for that, upon my soul, I never
saw a baby in my life so sweet aud
clean and wholesome looking, jolly as a
little sand boy all the time, too.”
“That means that he had a perfect con
stitution, inherited from you evidently.
And you were fortuuate in the nurse?”
“Very fortunate! Bnt it appeared
that beyond—beyond running the com
missariat department, so to speak, she
did next to nothing for him. Miss—the
lady I spoke of—did everything, made
herself a perfect slave to him.”
“Bought his clothes?”
“Oh,” groaned the wretched man,
“I suppose sol What did I know about
a baby’s clothes? Aud she wouldn’t
answer my questions—said he was all
right and didn’t want for anything, as
I could see with my owu eyes. I tried
makiug presents, used to send game aud
things, found out her birthday and gave
her a jewel, took every chance I could
get to work off the obligation, but it
was uo use. She gavo me a birthday
present after I’d given her one. ”
“Well, if moths will go into spiders’
webs,” remarked his companion, "they
must take the consequences.”
“Sometimes they get helped out,” he
replied. “Some beneficent, godlike be
ing puts out an omnipotent finger”—
He looked at her and she looked at
him. At this moment they seemed to
have known one another intimately for
years. The moon again.
“Tell me everything,” she said,
“and I’ll help you out.”
So theu he told her that he had been
giviug up the habit of frequently visit
ing his son. Cowardly aud weak, he
knew, but tho thing was too confound
edly awkward, too cwbanaHsing alto
gether.
“Ifeut she writes. She writes a full
report every weejr, tells me what he
Weighs and when he’s got a fresh tooth
and how fce crawls about the carpet aud
into hor bed of a morning and imitates
tho cat mewing, and drinks I don’t
know how many pints of new milk a
day, and all that sort of thing. I be
lieve the rascal has the appetite of a
young tiger, aud yet I can’t pay fot
what he eats. Tho nurse was long ago
dispensed with, so that I’ve not eveu
her board to send a check for. that they
might by chance make a trifle of profit
out of. It seems too late now to simply
take the child away, and there leave it.
I haven’t the unspeakable sbahbiness,
tho brazen impudence, the mean self
ishness to do such a thing, and beside*
he might come to auy sort of grief, poor
little chap, in that case. There’s no
doubt in the world that her taking ol
him and doing for him have been the
salvation of bis health and perhaps hi*
life. Aud I know, by what she tells me,
that be regularly dotes ou her—us so he
ought—aud would howl his very Jicad
off if wo took him from her. What
could I do with him if I did take him)
I’ve no home, aud nobody to look aftei
it if I bad, and hired servants are the
deuce with a Jov.o man at their mercy.
It would be worse now than it was at
first. And so”—with a heavy sigh—
“you see the situation. I’m just swal
lowed up, body aud boues, drowned fath
oms deep, in a sea of debt and obliga
tion that I can never by any possibility
struggle out of, except”—
He paused and blushed.
“Except,” continued Rose, with the
candid air of a kind aud sensible sister,
“except by marrying her, you mean?
Yes, I see the situation. I appreciate
your point of view. I should understand
it if it were not that she unquestionably
laid the trap for you deliberately, just
as that spider laid his for moths aud
flies, and marriage by capture has gone
out.”
“Oh, don’t say that!” tho man pro
tested in haste. “I wonld not for a mo
ment accuse her of that. She was Ma
bel’s friend. It was for her—it was of
pore womanly compassion for the
motherless child at any rate in the .be
ginning, and even now I have no right
whatever to suppose”—
“Bnt you kuow it all the same.
Every word you have said to mo tells
me that you know it You may as well
be frank.” *
He squirmed a little in bis chair, but
confessed as required.
“Well—but it’s a caddish thing to
say—I think she does expect it And
hasn’t she the right to expect it? How
ever, that’s neither here nor there. The
point is that in common honor aud hon
esty, in common manliness, I should re
pay her if I can, and there’s no other
way—at least I can’t see any other way.
It is my fault, aud not hers, that I
don’t take to the notion, for a better
woman never walked, nor one that
would make a better mother to the boy,
but somehow you do like to have your
free choice, don’t yon?”
“And ought to have it,” quoth Rose
with energy, “and most have it aud
shall. Now listen, Mr. Bell”—address
ing him iu such a lone of euuitdeuce umi
encouragement that he felt sure she was
going to out his bonds forthwith. “You
have asked me to help yon, and I can
help you. It will be perfectly easy, sit
uated as 1 am hem He will not miss
her after u ocuple of days, aud she has
really uo earthly right either to him or
to you, and it would give mo tho great
est pleasure you can imagine. This is
what you must do. ” She leaned for
ward in her chair aud gazed earnestly
into hia paling face. “You must just
baud that baby over tome. ”—Exchange.
In l>««p Water.
Jones—Miss Verbose baa juat em
barked on one of her oonversatioual voy
ages.
Hrnithfra—Yes, and her escort is over
bored already.—Detroit Free Bress.
IF THEY BUT COULD.
How often we hear discontented ones talk
Of grand opportunities lost
And how, by tho waves of condcmnablo lack,
They’ve ever been ruthlessly tossed.
They’ll tell In n sort of disconsolate way
Of laboring always in vnin
And how they would handle the contract if
thoy
Could live their lives over ng&in.
The man who h<iw failed in his business af
fairs,
The prisoner t in his cell,
Tho wedded ones bait bug with family cares,
All have tho sumo story to tell.
Wherever wo go that disconsolate cry
We hoar in a pitiful strain,
“You’d see matters different with mo If I
Could live my life over again!’’ ’
Wo should never weep over milk that is
spilled,
But hustle around for some more.
Wo cannot recall opportunities killed
Nor chances blown eff from our shore.
This word of advice is the best wc can give:
Don’t over the past sit and brood,
But tackle the future, determine d to livo
The balance of life as you should.
—Denver Post.
AMATEUR BOOKBINDING.
How Paper Covered Books May Ke
Treated at Home.
If you wish to biud for yourself a pa
per covered book, carefully strip back
ward tho paper cover, trim tho frayed
edges and lay the cover aside. With a
sharp awl bore fresh holes through the
book, as close to the back as may bo
without danger of breaking. Hew the
loaves together lengthwise through
these holes with a fine cord or coarse
darning cotton, knotting it securely.
Take a strip of cotton or linen cloth
and sew singly over the back, following
the line aud stitches already taken, fas
tening well.
This strip must be made wide enough
to allow an inch on each side to be past
ed upon the boards which are to form
the cover. Cut the two pasteboards with
care, allowiug a bit to extend beyond
the leaves in length and depth, referring
to any well bound volume as a model of
proportion, the depth of the cover pro
tecting the leaves.
Having good flour paste, scalded but
not boiled, brush tho lap of tho musliu
loose at each side of the back and place
the side hoard upon this strip, fitting it
exactly, WnkiuK S’jre that this adher- j
and being careful to wipe av.ay the I
paste oozing out. Then paste over all
tbo back, bringing down over tho paste
boards an inch or more a generous back
ing of stout silesia of any color. This
should be doubled in at the top aud bot
tom to strengthen tho silesia in its fu
ture wear.
Next, having cat from stout wrapping
paper two pieces sufficiently large to
bring over top, bottom and front edges
of the boards, brush tho paper over its
entire surface with paste aud apply it
dexterously to the boards, having its
truest edge neatly applied to the silesia.
Then folding over top, bottom and
front, cut the coruers aslant, as tho
sides are brought over upou tho iusido
of what now may be called tho cover.
Lastly apply upou this tough paper the
original front cover of the volume. If it
has been soiled iu the least, wash its
face delicately with a cloth dipped in
soapy water aud dry it carefully.
If the back of the original is present
able and has character worth preserv
ing, paste that upon the back of the
new cover. Last of all paste within the
fresh fly leaf. Then for each cover o*
half of the oover prepare a double sheet
of pretty paper, iiossibly colored, one-
half of which shall be pasted perfectly
to line the insides of tbo cover, the other
left loose as an ornamental leaf. Before
the silesia is quite dry with tho bow oi
the scissors run along heavily the ridge
of the board where it meets the back of
the book. Repeat this while the work is
drying to insure a fixed depression, a
gutter, which gives a finished style and
admits easy play in opening and shut
ting the new bound book.
Makiug sure that no splash of paste
is overlooked, now place clean paper
around the volume and lay it where it
will rest evenly under a heavy weight.
Before it is quite dry iron it well with
a moderrjely heated iron, which should
bo moved discreetly over all tho pasted
parts, neither scorching nor ruffling the
papers. In rebinding several books, if
they have varied only a little in size,
they may be bronght to a uniform ap
pearance by judicious suiting of the
covers.
Much of the contriving for bookbind
ing may be done before the paste work
begins If the measuring aud cutting
of the boards aud the outer paper and
inner and outer muslins be done at one
time, the work is well begun and may
be left for the day. When at the real
work of binding, one must move rapid
ly on, not doiug half upon one book and
as much upou the other, theu going
back to the first, bat the first book must
be entirely finished and put under press
before the pasting upon the other be
gins.
When once tha brush is dipped in the
paste cup, it is better not to be inter
rupted, as imperfect drying discolors or
blisters the paper aud warps tho boards.
Attention aud accuracy secure good re
sults.—New York Tribune.
Tho British Army’s Retired List.
According to a table in The Broad
Arrow, we have on the active list 8 field
marshals, 20 generals, 30 lieutenant
gemnuin, 116 uiujui gonurals and 20 lo
cal major generals and brigadiers, or in
all as many as 212. Un retired pay we
have 05 generals, 05 lieutenant generals,
184 major generals, or in all 314. On
the unemployed Indian list we have 178
generals, 03 lieutenant generals and 442
major generals and some of other, often
nominal, sorts of generals. In all there
are 8 field marshals, 204 generals, 188
lieutenant generals, 1,254 major gener
als, 29 local major generals and briga-
diera, thus giving a grand total of 1,788
general officers. With 1,520 generals
who have uo work to do it is uo wonder
that tho uoueffective vote is so heavy or
that India, which carries nearly half of
them on her shoulders, is crushtnl under
tho burden of taxation iu tho raising of
which she has no voice. —Loudon Cbron-
icla.
Dwarfing From Har*h Environment.
In Limousin there is a barren range
of low hills which lies along the divid
ing lino between tho departments of
Dordogne, Correze and Haute-Vienne,
about half way between Perigueux aud
Limoges. The water courses show the
location of these uplands. They extend
over an area about 75 miles long and
half as wide, wherein average human
misery is most profound. Dense igno
rance prevails. There is more illiteracy
than iu any other part of Franco. Tho
contrast iu stature, even with tho low
average of all tho surrounding region,
is clearly marked by the dark tint.
There are sporadic bits of equal diminu-
tiveuess elsewhere to the south aud
west, but none ie so extended or io ex
treme.
Two-thirds of tho men are below 5
feet 3 inches in height in some of tho
communes, and the women aro 3 or
more inches shorter eveu than this. One
man iu ten is below 4 feet 11 inches iu
stature. This is uot duo to race, for sev
eral racial types aro equally stunted iu
this way within the same area. It is
primarily due to generations of subjec
tion to a harsh climate, to a soil which
is worthless for agriculture, to a steady
diet of boiled chestnuts and stagnant
water, and to unsanitary dwellings iu
tho deep, narrow and damp valleys.
Still further proof may bo found to show
that those people are uot stunted by any
hereditary influence, for it has been
shown that children born here, but who
migrate aud grow up elsewhere, are
normal in height, while those born else
where, but who aro subject to this eu-
vironmeut during the growing period
of youth, are proportionately dwarfed. —
Popular Scieuce Monthly.
Slept Through On© Act.
It happened one night at the Alvin
theater when tho boards were held by a
play that kept every one else awake.
He was a man large in girth, bnt not
very tall, aud ho had a pretty smooth
bald head, nothing remaining of his
hair but a friugo that might be taken
for an extension of his coat collar. The
portly man with this head had seen a
lot of friends before he went into the
theater, and he was wcqrr. His coupon
called ror a seat right next to a pillar
in the lower part of tho house, and
when the usher took him to it a smile
of ecstasy swept over his great face.
Pretty soon the ballet appeared, and the
man was amused for a time. The jokes
of the leading comedian, the songs of
the prima donna and the whirl of the
danseuse were lost to him, though, for
be fell asleep. Against tho convenient
pillar the man pillowed his large, fin
ing head, and thus ho rested until the
climax of the first act and throughout
tbo music during tho wait. A man who
had to go out climbed over him without
his making tho least sign. It was a
peaceful sleep, accompanied by only
the gentlest of snoring, and unconscious
ly tbo man furnished much amusement
to the other people who came to see the
show. While he had withstood tho
thunders of the bass fiddle, the tremolo
of the leading violin, which always ac
companies some act of villainy on the
stage, awoke him. He started, glared at
the stage, could not understand and left
the theater in the midst of all the ex
citing scene. “Le* me out,” ho said to
the usher in tho foyer. “I guess I’m in
the wrong house somehow. ”—Pittsburg
Post.
Rebuked by the Court.
When Judge James B. Gantt of the
Missouri supremo court was a circuit
judge down in Henry county, he bad a
good many railroad cases to try, relates
East Window iu tho Columbia Herald.
Nearly every farmer aloug the liuo of j
the Missouri, Kansas aud Texas railway ;
sued tho company. In a number of these
cases a young lawyer just arrived from
Tennessee represented tho plaintiff. For
the defendant corporation appeared Sam
Priest, a shrewd, able, aggressive law
yer. Priest took advantage of every
point and fought the cases from the
start. Tho young lawyer, who may bo
called Brown, was forced several times
to amend his petition and try a now
tack. Finally Judge Gantt was compel
led, under tho law, to throw some of
Brown’s cases out of the court, because
they were improperly brought. Brown
was mad all over. Swelling with indig
nation, he arose and said:
“Your honor, will you please tell me
how it is possible in this court to get
justice against a railroad company?”
Judge Gautt quietly ignored tho con
tempt of court shown by tho lawyer and
asked:
“Do you wish an answer to that ques
tion, Mr. Brown?”
“Yes, sir,” defiantly replied the in
dignant lawyer; “yes, sir, and I want
to know bow a farmer can get his ease
into this court so that it will be heard. ”
Judge Gantt smiled aud said:
“Well, first, Mr. Brown, I’d advise
the farmer to hire a lawyer.”
Brown wilted.
A Use For It.
A gentleman with long hair and a
shiny coat laboriously climbed the
stairs to the editorial sanctum.
“I have here,” he remarked, “a few
lines of verse which I offer at regular
rates for publication in your valuable
paper.”
The xnanagiug editor took the man
uscript, and after gazing on it for a few
moments remarked:
“We cannot use these lines as poetry,
but if you will leave them we will try
to dispose of them. I believe they can
be used for golf hose. ”
“Pray tell mo,” said the astonished
poet, “why you deem my lints avail
able for use as golf hose?”
"They have uo feet.”
Whereupon the poet took a bot foot
down the editorial stairs. — Omaha
World-Herald.
The Difference,
Mike—What is the difference be
tween you and the load of dirt you are
carting?
Pat—I don’t know. What is it?
Mike—You’re a son of toil and it’s a
ton of soil.—Harlem Life.
REAL WALL STREET.
IT CONSISTS OF SECURITIES IN A LOT
OF LEATHER BOXES.
Theft© Are Carried to Market Every Moru
las—How They Are Guarded by Night
and by Day—What Would Happen if
They Were All Lost or Stolen.
According to tho map of the city of
New York, Wall street is a ' borough-
fare leading from Broadway to East
river. In business parlance it is a dis
trict extending a quarter of a mile ou
either side of that thoroughfare, with
spurs and branches on lower Broadway.
But neither ot thesodelinitions is cor
rect. The real Wall street is contained
in a lot of leather boxes about three
feet long by a foot and a half deep.
From 9 :S0 to 10 o’clock every weekday
morning the real Wall street comes out
from subterranean vaults and spreads
itself over the district. About 4 o’clock
iu the afternoon it goes back again to
its lair, to repose for tho night iu the
dungeons of steel and solid masonry
that defy both fire aud burglars, guard
ed by watchmen who all night long pa
trol the dimly lighted corridors of tho
stronghold. •
This real Wall street consists of se
curities to the value of about $500,000,*
000. Tho buying and selling of these
securities is the business of the brokers,
aud a man engaged in such buying aud
selling is “iu the street.” These $500,-
000,000 worth of securities are sent to
market every merniug by their owners
to bo sold for the highest price they
will bring, just as a farmer sends a pig
to market, aud the broker corresponds
to the hired man who takes the pig to
market aud is paid for doing so.
Wall street is often spoken of as u
place where people buy and sell what
they do uot possess. That, however, is
a delusion. Wall street is securities,
and tho business of “tho str ot” tho
buying and selling of them. There are,
to bo sure, “bucket shops,” wbero
things are carried on in some such fash
ion, but these bucket shops aro uot of
“tho street.”
Each of the above mentioned leather
boxes is carried by two clerks sent from
the broker’s office to which it is bound,
and behind walks a member of the firm
or some trusted employee, such as tho
cashier. There aro leather handles on
either end of the box, by which the
clerks carry it, aud the carriers walk
with a brisk step. Tho representative
of tho firm who walks behind keeps ou
a line half way between tho carriers aud
has one eye ou the box and one ou the
people about him. Some of the small
firms instead of having a box for their
securities have a leather bag, which is
carried by one man and watched by an
other.
All up and down tho sidewalks these
moving bags and boxes can be seen dur
ing the half hour which is devoted to
their transportation. There is little cash
iu these bags aud boxes—sometimes a
few thousand dollars which the broker
has received after banking hours the
day before and put iu the safe deposit
vault over night, but no great amount.
It is securities, stocks aud bonds, rep
resenting the ownership of $500,000,000
worth of actual property, that is in
them. It is, of course, impossible to es
timate the value exactly, but the above
figure is a fair approximation.
If it is a day of “bear market,” tho
value represented is (on the principle
that a thing is worth what it will fetch)
somewhat less; if it is a day of ’ ‘ bull
market,” more.
It is an iutoresitng object lesson in
the affairs of men to see tho stream of
leather boxes spread itself over Wall
street district in the morning and to
watch it recede aud seek its caves at
night. Some of those boxes which start
ed out gay and buoyant in the morning
seek the seclusion of their steel dun
geons at night sadly dejected, aud some
that wont forth timorously come buck
with au opuleut swagger.
While this transfer is being made
about a dozou well dressed men, who
seem to take only a languid interest in
life, may be seen loungiug or strolling
about at tbo place where Wall street
divides Broad from Nassau, or in that
immediate vioinage. They are Wall
street doteotives, who, appearing to see
nothing, see everything. Aud under
their care this half a billion of property
is carried throngh tho streets iu perfect
safety.
Yet even if one could inveut some
kind of fish weir which would catch all
these peripatetic boxes aud could theu
get away with them it would do him
no good. There would, of course, bo uo
Wall street fur awhile—until stocks
aud bonds to replace the stolen ones
could be made out—but tbo stolen se
curities would promptly be declared
void, and as soon as the uew ones took
their places “Wall street’’ would reap
pear.—Detroit Free Press.
Funner Falls of Need.
Up at 4, writing memoirs about the
year 1544 till noon; thou walked with
Dutch cousin (Benjamin Milner of
Amsterdam) to Woodhose Hill, where,
iu Cousin Fenton’s best chamber, I
gathered some of the corn that was
rained down the chimney upou tho
Lord’s day seven night, when it like
wise rained plentifully of the like upon
Heading ley Moor, as was confidently
reported; but those I gathered with mj
own hands from the white hearth,
which was stained with drops of blue
where it had fallen, for it is of a pule
red or a kind of sky color, is pretty, aud
tastes like common wheat, of which I
have 100 oorus. What it may signify,
and whether it doth proceed from nat
ural causes (of which some may be pre
scribed), or preternatural, such an igno
rant creature a I am cannot aver.—
“Diary of Thorosby,” 1081.
Crnal Disappointment.
Debtor—1 want to pay that little bill
of yours.
Creditor (delighted)—All right, my
dear boy.
Debtor—But I can't—Excbaugt. j