The ledger. [volume] (Gaffney City, S.C.) 1896-1907, March 17, 1898, Image 2
THE LEDGER: GAFFNEY, S. C., MARCH 17, 18V8.
AT THE CHURCH GATE.
Although I enter not,
Yet lound uliout the tspot
Ofttimee I hover,
And near th»‘ sacred (rate
With longing eyt-s I wait ''Ss
_ Expectant of her. * *
The minster bell tells out
Above the city’s rout
. And noise and humming.
They’ve hushed the minster belL
The organ ’gins to swell.
She's coming! She’s coming!
lly lady comes at Inst,
Timid and stepping fast
And hastening hither,
With modest eyes downcast.
She comes! She's here! She's past!
May heaven go with her!
Kneel xindisturlx-d, fair saint!
Pour out your praise or plaint
Meekly and duly.
I will not enter there
To sully your pure prayer
With thoughts unruly.
Ent suffer me to pace
Round the forbidden place,
if Lingering a minute,
. Like outcast spirits who wait
And see through heaven’s gate
Angels within it.
—Thackeray.
GOSPEL OF TRUTH.
Percy Lennox was sufficiently piqued
ly tho calmness with which pretty iliss
Graham had accepted his attentions to
■wish to rouse her, even to hurt her.
This unworthy desire be did not ac
knowledger to himsolf. Ke merely acted
in furtherance of its indulgence. After
ward he told himself that he had erred
dimply because he had beeu carried
away by the girl’s own high sounding
theories. “The woman tempted me,”
be apologetically whispered.
The Macdonald Castle was nearing
England. Four and twenty hours more
and she would be rid of her passengers.
What time of residence remained to
them upon her was occupied in the set
tling up of affairs. Bits of needlework
were receiving finishing touches, books
were being hastily perused to a close,
gambling debts satisfied and flirtations
carried to various climaxes.
Lennox and Miss Graham came to tho
end of an important conversation, which
had been confessional so far as the man
was concerned, somewhat lamely.
“You said the. other day that yon
would always have the truth at what
ever price,” he remarked. “I have
given it to yon. Are you glad?”
“I am glad, ” she answered firmly,
though she did not, as was her custom,
look upiuto his eyes as she spoke.
“Is there anything more to be said?”
he asked.
She was still calm—far too calm to
please him. He was vexed that in pro
portion to her imperturbability his own
emotions became roused.
“Nothing—so far as you are con
cerned. But for myself”—
“For yourself?” he repeated eagerly,
altering his position involuntarily in
response to a movement on her part
“For myself; but that need not mat
ter,” was her reply as she rose. She
gathered her needlework together and
moved off. “I have a lot of packing to
do,” she explained as she left him.
“Mother insists. ”
During the journey from Spnthamp-
ton to Waterloo the next day he occu
pied bis imagination and thinking pow
ers, such as they were, with visions of
*ud ruminations concerning the girl he
had returned from the Cape to marry.
Daisy Thornton filled the vacuum left
by Mary Graham, and filled it with
eunsbinc and gayety. Lennox tossed his
head backward and laughed with con
tent when one of his visions was real
ised, and on the arrival platform he
•aw his fiancee) proud in the conscious
ness of smartness of form, feature and
toilet, waiting his appearance.
“There you are, darliug!” he cried as
he sprang from the train almost before
it waa stopped and grasped her arm.
“A sight for sore eyes!”
“Percy!” ahe femoustrated, though
her own uptarped face bad begged the
resounding kim he presently gave her.
the first of many the received be-
then and their jufrital at her fa-
heuse at Gypsy Hill, whither she
conducted him, for in the train be ca
ressed her fervently, asking her to tell
him instantly upon what day he might
call her In very truth his own precious
little wiffc.
“Let’s have our holiday first,” she
pleaded with some lack of compliment.
“The wedding’s to be a week before
you and I go back together to Cape
Town. I shall be seasick all the way. I
know 1 shall.”
He kissed her again and told her not
to talk about the voyage. His shrug of
the shoulders sought to dispel the vision
cf Mary Graham rather than that of
Daisy’s fear. He passed to renewed and
fervent admiration of his chosen one
with such devotion that her conscience
pricked her, and she registered a half
vow that, though she had determined
not to make mountains out of molehills,
hut to hide from him a certain lapse
that had occurred during his absence in
her loyalty to him, she would tell him
•ill at a convenieut season and set forth
on her new life unburdened by any se
cret. This she would find a difficulty in
doing, apart from the natural unpleas
antness of confessing such a thing, ow
ing to her relative position and Percy’s,
which for many months before their en
gagement bad been that of cat and
mouse, or, as Daisy herself expressed it,
“she would aud she wouldn’t.” Daisy,
her father’s only daughter, had at first
considerably looked down upon young
Lennox, bis overseer at the boot fac
tory in Houndsditch. His persistence
and her parent’s high opinion of his
business abilities had, however, pre
vailed, but not to cause the girl to aban
don a conviction of her own immeasur-
hble superiority in every particular.
It is almost always a mistake for a
person on a pinnacle to descend volun
tarily from that point of vantage. Daisy
Thornton, weary in mind and physical
ly ill, retired to her own room, after
making confession to her lover, to real
ise this truth. A fortnight of the three
•reeks that were to elapse before their
iage had aped by, and Lennox was
on the next lay going up to Manchester
to see a married sister who lived them,
when Daisy poured forth her tale. It
was a very simple one, a very innocent
one, and Lennox, had his own mind
been absolutely free of reproach, would
have laughed the tale to merry scorn
aud kissed away the tears that glistened
on the eyelashes of his whilom queen.
Nevertheless, tho very innocence of tho
recital annoyed him now, for growing
up in his mind was a realization of the
internal workings of matters that had
before appeared to him stupidly simple.
Business success seemed no longer the
fulfilment of every aim. He was haunt
ed by Mary Graham’s foolish notions,
particularly by the ons that claimed
troth to he worth the world aud its
wealth and was unreasonably chagrined
that Daisy, who knew nothing of such
ideas, should be carrying one out. Daisy
Thoruton therefore went to bed in a
passion of tears, and Lennox left her
more really cross, “put out” his fiancee
would have expressed it, than he hud
ever been—not with her, but even with
any oue. What was deserting him was
the saving characteristic of his class—
the knack of letting things slide. He
was becoming critical. All the opposite
sides were revealing themselves to him
aud with this annoying clamor for truth,
which he did uot understand, ringing
in his ears the eyes of his mind were
confused and knew uot what they saw.
In such a mood ho went to Manches
ter and there accidentally met Mary
Graham. He met her with a mind in
which the humility that had last domi
nated it on koard the Macdonald Castle
was revived. He found that she was
teaching in a high school. Her position
was that of a lady, of course, so far as
her own circle was concerned, though
the salary she earned was small aud the
rooms sBe cud her mother occupied
were poor; but, in the estimatiou of
Percy Lennox, it was beneath the oue
ho occupied.
This pleased him. In the old days
when he had first of all aspired to Daisy
Thornton he had recognized her supe
riority to himself without a pang, for
then he had judged every standard by
its monetary worth. Now it galled him
very much to know that his future fa
ther-in-law and Daisy herself held
him less high than themselves. He had
even tormented himself with occasional
convictions that Miss Graham had been
looking down upon him on tho Macdon
ald Castle, though at the time of their
acquaintance this thought had never
afflicted him. Travel had dimmed the
old conventional faiths, but they had
revived with unwelcome insistence
upon bis arrival in England again.
He met Mary Graham therefore with
a humble mind, aud oue most comforta
bly bumble because it was cheerfully
couscious of superiority in social value
at least. Bhe was looking a shade paler
than when they had parted, but other
wise prettier than ever, for her com
plexion was still more duzzlingly fair
aud clear than it had beeu then, and
into her eyes, until she bade them be
come expressionless, a look of glad sur
prise beamed which lit them up into
surpassing beauty.
It was on a tram car that the rencontre
took place. The one vacant scat there
was that into which Lennox subsided
by Mary’s side. Mary sought to mitigate
the forbidding repulsion of the glance
she had endeavored to flash at him
after tho first soft one of welcome by
politely bowing aud hoping he was
well. Lennox saw his opportunity aud
with characteristic eagerness took it.
The girls rare beauty aud exquisite re
finement intoxicated him, and with sud
den clarity of conviction be understood
that truth was indeed worth the world
and tho world’s wealth and put his
conviction to practical utility.
“No,” said ho iu response to a fur
ther question from Mary, “I am uot
married. ” He led her to suppose he was
not going to bo by a movement of his
mouth aud the sudden turning aside of
his head, not a premeditated deceit, but
one of which be took advantage when
the passing of the conductor made con
versation once more possible, and a visi
ble relaxation in bis companion’s man
ner assured him that she believed him
a free man.
“I have been thinking a—much of
what we used to talk about on board
tho Macdonald Castler” be proceeded
gently. It was on his lips to say “a
lot,” but the expression was refused.
Unconsciously be cleaned bis mind of
slang in her presence. He was his better
self outwardly when she was by.
“Have you?” she asked lamely.
“Yes. And what you said about truth
is my belief now. People would save
themselves a great amount of trouble if
truth were their watchword, Miss Gra
ham.”
Mary Graham began to feel uneasy.
Though she was the woman of the Mac
donald Castle this bourgeois at her side
was not the man. Something had low
ered him. She felt it was so. Even her
innate goodness and generosity forbade
the denial of this fact. She began to
look forward eagerly, as if to make sure
that her destination was uot passed.
Lennox noticed the movement and rec
ognized what it meant, and upon his
part registered a vow to treat her mer
cilessly, to follow her if need he wher
ever she went, to pester her with adora
tion, to wring from her a consent to
marry him. The indifference of the
early days on board the Macdonald Cas
tle when ho was wont to flirt patron
izingly and for him quite pedantically
with the little girl, as he called her to
himself, hud turned on him and was
rending him with the fiercest pangs of
love. With a bitter hate he thought of
Daisy Thoruton. She had enjoyed a
brief interlude of amusement with a
man oue summer at Margate. The
wretch bad once even trieu to hold her
hand in his. What was she to keep him
to a promise? She would find many a
fellow willing to take her hand and
her money, while he—Percy Lennox—
would be champion of the cause of
truth. It was Mary Graham be loved,
uot Daisy Thoruton.
Thought* such m these were foreign
to his nature. They tripped one nuotber
up iu his mind, leaving him like a man
bewildered and a little frightened, full
of fretfulm-sH aud impatience. Mary
Graham held out her baud before she
alighted from the car.
“I may walk with you just u little
way, may I uot?” he pleaded.
She shook her head in negation. “I
am close to home,” she said.
“I will come,” he muttered and fol
lowed her.
There was a public park just oppo
site. Mary Graham led the way into it.
“Now,” she said, turning to Lennox,
“tell mo what you want.”
“Will you marry me?” he asked.
“Will you answer me oue question
with absolute truth?” she asked, “be
fore I answer?”
He consented, little thinking what it
would be.
“Is your engagement really broken
off?” she demanded, aud thougli the
words were searching her eyes once
more began to shine with the wonder
ful love light she could uot quite deny
them.
He reddened and was speechless.
Theu Mary Graham faced him. “You
are uot free, ” she said iu cutting ac
cents, “and yet for the second time you
offer yourself to me. I have thought
sometimes that plead as I might for you
with myself you were worthless aud
cruel at heart, and now I urn convinced.
I am going to leave you immediately,
and I shall never willingly see you
agaiu. If I should see you, I shall not
acknowledge you. Do not attempt to
come farther. If you do, I will appeal
to a friend of miue whom I see sitting
on that seat to protect me from you.”
“Say goodby to me,” he, urged, his
lips trembling aud his face white with
hidden sorrow.
She turned impetuously and stretched
forth both her hands. “Goodby,” she
said, “goodby. God bless you and make
you a good husbuud, Mr. Leuuox.’’
Then she agaiu left him, every limb vi
brating to the painful heating of her
heart.
Tho next day at noon Lennox was
back at Gypsy Hill. He had found a tel
egram awaiting him that evening at his
sister’s announcing the serious Bluets
of Daisy Thoruton, w’ho bad beeu at
tacked with severe cold the day after
his departure, and when he arrived at
his prospective father-in-law’s house it
was to learn that she was suffering
from pneumonia.
Strangely enough, this unexpected
turn of events did not distress Daisy
nor fill Lennox with remorse. Daisy
was too ill to know how ill she was and
lay iu a kind of martyrlike stupor, half
glad to suffer for that little Margate
sin’s sake, with the comforting convic
tion that Lennox would accept the peu-
ance aud forgive fully aud freely, while
Lennox whs existing, after the passion
of what had passed, with a mind para
lyzed into acquiescence for what was
in store for him. The interlude indeed
was welcome to the pair. Neither for a
moment doubted its brevity nor ex
pected any ending to it but that cf their
weddiug.
But it came to pass that the serious
side of the affair had at lust to be brokeu
to Lenuox. With almost a tenderness
the old Houndsditch boot aud shoo
maker told him one evening that there
would be not the remotest chance of the
wedding taking place before Lenuox
had to leave E igland. He added that
though it seemed a cruel shame to say
so his advice to Percy was to proceed to
South Africa, whither he, her father,
would bring Daisy when she was recov
ered from her illness and was able to
travel so far.
Again Lennox accepted the inevitable
with the sullen, unfeeling doggeduess
that bad marked his hearing of Daisy’s
illness. So he departed, with no bitter
ness in bis farewell to Daisy, iu accord
ance with the doctor’s orders, but with
the air and manner of a brokeu hearted
man. At the end Daisy's father hesi
tated much as to whether he should give
or withhold a letter he had written to
him concerning the real opinion of med
ical men upon Daisy’s case. Utterly
crushed and desolated himself, old Mr.
Thornton was yet man enough to fuel
the deathlike blow that such a commu
nication would deal to one so shortly to
have become a bridegroom. Yet he gave
the letter to Leuuox when he said good
by and told him to read it some time on
beard ship. “It was of no great conse
quence,” be declared, soothing his own
uncertainty as to whether ho ought or
ought not to have delivered it; “only a
little matter.' ’
Lennox changed the clothes be bad
worn on embarking to others when he
got on board ship and left the letter in
a pocket of the ones he discarded. It
happened, therefore, that he never
thought of Mr. Thornton's parting
charge until he had been five days out
at sea, aud theu it was only with a very
lukewarm desire to read the epistle that
he fetched it aud took it up with him
on deck.
It was a warm, weird evening. The
sun had set behind bars of light cloud,
which now were angrily red, while the
sky itself was luridly, curiously c<*’or-
ed. Lennox was oblivious to atmospheric
influences. Had he been habitually
proue to observations of nature he might
have noticed an analogy between what
he saw and his attitude of miud, for
just as the sullen, brooding sky was so
was he—snlleu,. brooding—aud us the
snlleuness of that brooding was bound
to end in rapture so was his.
The letter lay read beside him pres
ently, aud soon a puff of wind took it
aud carried it overboard. Lennox made
no effort to recover it, but sat absolute
ly motionless, apparently unconscious
of thought, but with a miud which
quickly seethed with tumult, realiza
tion, regrets, maledictions, tumbling
over oue another iu u veritable mael
strom of disorder. Ho bad learned from
the letter that there was uot a shadow
of hope that Daisy would recover. As
his thoughts crystallized into recogniza
ble conclusions be became aware that
all his soul revolted with sickuuing dis
gust against the edict. It was not Daisy
be regretted. She lay there, pushed aside
into a corner of his mind, a poor corpse
covered with her winding sheet, cut off
from forcher consideration. Fronted
him Mary Grubsun, her eyes serene
with judgment, her face calmly con
clusive. No spoken words proceeded
from those firm, red lips, yet Lonnox
knew his sentence. “Even if I went
back,” bis miserable conviction ran,
“she would not have me. ” That was
the truth, and be was aware of it r.nd
was aware that no shuffling, no jug
gling, no miracle, would compass alter-
atiou. “Curse the truth,” be muttered
constantly, “curse it, curse it, curse it.
And chance—curse that too. If I’d never
met her in Manchester and lied to her
and misled her and played the fool
with her, I might have worked it. To
think I should have beeu as near her
theu as I was only to lose her!”
He began to move about the detfit,
walkiug with curious twitched step, ns
if some impish gnome tripped him up
as he went. His lips moved constantly,
and now abd then he spat words out.
He blamed fate, he blamed himself. IJe
looked back aud could have died with
the vebemeuce of his loathing for him
self as he was now compared with
himself as be had been, basiuesslikt^
selfishly careless, scheming, debonair,
on hoard the Macdonald Castle, when
he first met Mary Graham. Honor and
be hud made acquaintance when Mary
had come into his life, aud though he
had batteued the thing down, had turn
ed a deaf ear to its teaching, bud smofli-
ered its rare fair face aud trampled on
its cleanly hands it lived to his undo
ing. “She wouldn’t have me now," he
groaned.
He knew she wouldn’t. Mary wq«
as dead and buried for him as Daisy
was. Tho lurid sky, the steely sea,
. heaved to meet aud demolish oue an-
' other. The heavens seemed to Lennox
; to be pressing around him. He put up
bis bauds to his head, afraid. Then nn
impuiso took him to where a heap of
rope lay coiled upon tho deck, fie
mounted it aud stood gazing over at the
water, his head nodding us if in motion
with bis body, but really in rhythm
with the execrations that were tumbling
and turning in his poor miserable
brain.
It was getting dark and cold. Down
below aud even on tho deck the dinner
bell clanged, now loud, now low. Len
nox did uot heed it, hut still stood iu
foolish, unmeaning contemplation.
“A nasty looking night, sir,” re
marked a sailor whose acquaintance ho
had made.
Lennox moved off a Lit, but preseut-
ly resumed his place.
“The bell’s gone some time, sir,” the
man observed, passing him again.
“Oh, let it go,” responded Lenuox.
The mere speaking of the words recalled
him. He laughed a little aud quickly
turned. “I’m uot going to jump over if
that’s what you mean,” said he, shuf
fling off with some of bis accustomed
swagger. He turned his head over his
shoulder and flung a parting jest at the
man. “You make your boats too jolly
difficult for suicides,” be said.
Dowu in the saloon bis mood changed.
He became expansive. A man with
whom he had struck up a traveling
comradeship received from him a half
whimpering, qaite pathetic history of
bis sad case—the case, that is to say,
as affecting Daisy. He never mentioned
Mary. A great deal of sympathy was
expressed for him iu the rough, odd
way of men of his class. The two drauk
a lot together, and the companion en
couraged Lenuox in his disposition to
gulp down much more than he usually
did. He thought he hud done a good
night's work for Leuuox when ho as
sisted him to bis berth, amass of maud
lin grief and tears.
“We’ll make a day of it, him and
me, when we land tomorrow at Fun
chal, ” the kind creature determined.
They did make a day of it for other
reasons than sorrow, for on tho Mac
donald Castle coming up to Madeira a
telegram was handed up directed to
Lennox. This his friend took to him,
where he lay, very wretched, in his
berth.
“Read it,” be commanded.
The man tore it open, and the mes
sage spoke:
“Daisy much better. We come by
next boat.”
“It’s as well,” Lennox was under
stood to remark. But his friend did not
see his face till he emerged on deck for
the day’s outing. Lenuox had hidden
it, and many more vehement curses, in
bis pillow.—Black and White.
On* Light That Never rails.
Every one must recognize the beauty
and many advantages possessed by the
electric light, but perhaps few have
thought of the discomforts to which a
large part of the population would be
put if this most modern aud perfect il-
luminant were to supersede all the old
er forma in use.
An excellent example of this is to be
found in the large workroom of the re
porters iu The Bun offica In this room
are scores of incandescent electric lamps,
aud no one lacks for light, hut at an odd
corner there is always burning oue lit
tle gas jet, whose light is insignificant,
but dearer to the men who work about
it than all the electric lights iu the
room.
Day aud night, year iu and year
out, this gas jet turus with a flame uot
more than half an inch high and a quar
ter of uu inch broad, aud day and mght
it 4s the Mecca of every man who re
sorts to tobacco smoking to soothe his
nerves or kill idle momenta Everybody
knows where to find u light for cigar,
pipe or cigarette. But this was uot true
years ago when the electric lights took
the place of the old gas jets which lit
the room. With these open lights iu
profusion no oue hud ever found it nec
essary to keep a stock of matches at
baud for starting a smoke. For niouy a
day and night after the electric lights
were established there were great hunts
through the office for matches, and then
finally it became the fixed custom to
keep a gaslight going at a corner near
the sporting desk to accommodate the
—■New York Son.
ASYLUM TOCOLLEGE.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY'S LEGACIES
FROM BLOOMINGDALE.
A Cat and an A|<-d 8«rvitor Who P<*1
! Thvmsviws at Home Among tho Stu
dents — Old Tom's Kcfloctions on tli*
Change Prom Old to New '‘Inmates.**
Many years ago, when the present
Columbia university site was simon
| pure country and was known far aud
! near as Bloomingdale, there came to
gladden the hearts of tho rather irro
sponsible inmates a frisky little kitten
which through the period of its early
; infancy was just like any ordinary kit
ten, but as time went on gave promise
of becoming a beautiful and imposing
tomcat. As the years rolled around the
said Tom, realizing that much was ex-
• pected of him, gave up his kitteuLk
( autics, probably feeling that in a com-
; petition with tho other inmates tho
I margin of profit in the nature of fame
was altogether too small to permit him
to enter the lists. As a result of much
( pondering there settled down upon him
a dignity far in excess of his station.
He took up his fixed residence at Bloom-
ingdule, and for several years acted in
| the capacity of janitor and night watch
man, inspecting carefully all those who
went iu as well as those who came oat,
the latter being a far easier task. What
a motley company was that! And what
an opportunity for the psychological
study of humans presented itself to Tom!
But times aud circumstansces do oc
casionally take a tumble, and in the
shuffle things sometimes get mixed aud
settle dowu to a queer level. One line
summer day the placid Tom, sunning
himself with content, saw a strange
caravan pass out through tho gates,
and, what was stranger still, it never
came hack. Surely such a freak had
never happened before. Here was food
for thought. In the middle of hisspecu
latinos, before his point of view was
properly adjusted—for tbiukiug is a
more laborious process for cats than for
folks—a new aud wholly untried race
of people appeared before Tom and ap
propriated everything in sight. Wise
and intelligent as Tom was iu many
ways, not a hiut of the gossip had
reached him about the sudden change
of fortune that had turned out all his
old friends, to whom, queer and crazy
as they were, he had grown accustomed;
had sent them fur away to a new home,
and had left in their place a small army,
just us motley and appareutly just as
queer, who had taken complete posses
sion and begun to tear dowu aud destroy
everything. Confusion worse confound
ed reigned for several years. There was
a babel of tongues. Weird structures
suddenly sprung up from nowhere aud,
picking up things the size of an ordi
nary house, swung them through the
air an it they were tossing rubber balls.
Surely, thought Tom, the old ones never
played any prauks half so queer. Still,
Tom had been brought up iu a uuique
school. Far be it from him to be sur
prised at what he saw. He learned,
therefore, to watch events and to deter
mine upon a course afterward.
So all daring the years that Colum
bia’s new buildings were iu progress
Tom transferred his living quarters to a
stable on On-a Hundred and Sixteenth
street, spending his days prowling
around tho excavations, wandering
through all the subterranean passages
and, as the buildings progressed,
through the different rooms and even to
the roofs. But Tom kept a-thiukiug and
a-lookiug. His whole future was at
stake, and the matter required cautiou.
Evidently be decided that the new
place, though vastly changed from all
resemblance to the old, might still
prove a pretty good place after all.
For a time, it is true, he was on the
fence, not being quite able to decide a
question so momentous in the life of a
tomcat. But oue day he went a-strolliug
and witnessed the sophomore cane rush.
Then he felt himself at home. No more
uncertainty for this cat! It looked as if
all bis old friends had come back again,
or, if not,then these new inmates couldn't
be so awfully different from the others.
That cane rush clinched matters for
Tom, and be is now one of the most re
spected members of tho university facul
ty. His special abiding place is the
library, where be stretches his majestic
proportions and suns himself by the
hour. He has grown sleek and hand
some and wanders around unmolested
with stately tread aud a high intellec
tual tilt to his head. There seems to be
a silent understanding on the part of
the officials aud the students that lue
cat is a privileged animal, a sort of
mascot, whose liberties are not to be
infringed upon. No one thinks of in
sulting his dignity by an occasional
caress or even a gentle stroking. He
goes his own way, simply taking no
tice, but rendering no account to any
one. Tho task of providing Tom with
three meals a day has been assigned to
a special janitor, and the hiut has beeu
dropp' d, at least so gossip runs, that if
Tom’s appetite is found to he capricious
aud to indicate a highly refined palate
a few expensive tidbits may be pur
chased aud the same charged to the ad
ministration.
Another legacy besides the cat which
Columbia received from Bloomingdale
is an aged servitor whoso early years
were devoted to a faithful performauce
of duty for those unable to care for
themselves. He, like Tom, was unwill
ing to migrate when the asylum was
moved to White Plains. Tho superin
tendent, appreciating the faithfulness
of tho old man, bus retained his serv
ices, and he now does work around the
grounds. Lately tho boys disfigured the
trees and parts of the buildings by tack
ing up huge posters advertisitig concerts
and other college showa. When the su
perintendent charged the old mau with
dereliction of duty aud told him he
should not have done this work for the
boys, he looked somewhat quizzically
for a moment and then replied:
“Ocb, sure I aiu’tdoue nothing about
it. The inmates did it”—New York
BORO BOEDOR.
Sun.
A Great HnddliUt Kuln Iu Jarm That HI*
vaU Uu- f*yrauii<U.
i Miss E. R. Scidmore has wtyten for
The C’< ntury an account of a visit to
i the Buddhist ruins in Java, under the
title of “Prisoners of State at Boro
j Boedor.’’ Miss Bcidmore says of the
fr<*at temple;
A gray ruin showed indistinctly cn
» hilltop, and, after a run through a
b ng, arched avenue, we came out sud-
. douly at the haw- of the hill temple. In-
j Kt ' U( * a mad, triumphant sweep
around the great pyramid, tho ponies
balked, ruitid themselves past any lash
ing or ‘Gr-r-ree-ing, ” and we got out
I and walked under the noonday sun,
around the hoary high altar of Buddha,
down an avenue of tall kanari trees,
! lin'd with statues, gargoyles and other
such rccha, or remains of ancient art,
to the passagran or government rest-
house.
j The deep portico of the passagran
commands an angle and two sides of
the square temple, and from the mass
of blackened and bleached stones the
eye finally arranges and follows out tho
brokeu lines of the terraced pyramid,
covered with such a wealth of orna
ment as no other one structure in tho
world presents. The first near view is
almost disappointing. In tho blur of
details it is difficult to realize the vast
J. proportions of this 12 century old struc
ture—a pyramid the base platform of
which is 600 feet square, the first ter-
' race walls are 1100 feet square, and the
final dome rises to a height of 100 feet.
Stripped of every kindly relief of vino
; and moss, every gap and ruined angle
| visible, there was something garish,
; raw and almost disordered at the first
plauce, almost ns jarring as newness,
; aud the hard black and white effect of
! the dark lichens on the gray trachyte
j made it look like a had photograph of
the pile.
The temple stands on a broad plat
form aud rises first in five square ter
races, inclosing galleries or processional
paths between their walls, which are
covered on each side with bas-relief
sculptures. If placed iu single line,
these bas-reli* fs would extend for three
miles. The terrace walls hold 480
niches or alcove chapels, where life size
Buddhas sit serene upon lotus cushions.
Staircases ascend iu straight lines from
each of tho four sides, passing under
stepped or pointed arches the keystones
of which are elaborately carved masks,
and rows of sockets in the jambs show
where wood or metal doors once swung.
Above the square terraces are three
; circular terraces, where 72 latticed da-
gobus (reliquaries iu the shape of the
calyx or bud of the lotus) inclose each
1 a seated image, 22 more Buddhas sit-
i ting in these inner, upper circles of
Nirvana, facing a great dagoba, or final
j cupola, the exact function or purpose
j of which us key to the whole structure
is still the puzzle of archaeologists.
This final shrine is 60 feet iu diameter
and either covered a relic of Buddha or
a central well where the ashes of priests
and princes were deposited, or is artsfrm
surviving from the tree temples of (tho
earliest primitive east when nature wor
ship prevailed. The English engineers
made an opening in the solid exterior
aud found an unfinished statue of Bud
dha on a platform over a deep well hole,
and its head, half buried iu debris, still
smiles upon one from tho deep cavern.
A staircase has beeu construct.*! to tho
summit of this dagoba, and from it one
looks dowu upon the whole structure as
on a ground plan drawing and out over
finely cultivated fields and thick palm
I groves to the matchless peaks and tho
nearer hills that inclose this fertile val
ley of the Boro Boeder—“the very finest
( view I ever saw,” wrote Marianne
North.
Three-fourths of the terrace chapels
and the upper dagobas have crumbled;
hundreds of statues are headless, arm
less, overturned, missing; tees, or fin-
ials, are gone from the bell roofs; ter
race walls bulge, lean outward aud
have fallen in long stretches, and the
j circ ular platforms aud the processional
paths undulate as if earthquake waves
were at the moment rocking tho mass.
No cement was used to hold the fitted
stones together, and other Hindoo pecul
iarities of construction are the entire
' abse nce of a column, a pillar or an arch.
; Vegetation wrought great ruin during
its buried centuries, but earthquakes
and tropical rains are working now a
slow but surer ruin that will leave lit
tle of Boro Boedor for the next centu
ry's wonder seekers, unless the walla
arc soon straightened and strongly
bracc*l.
Japanese Gardening.
The Japanese have the art of dwarf
ing trees to mere shrubs and of cultiva
ting plants iu a similar way. Tho peo
ple taku great delight in their uiiuia-
ture gardens, which require a special
gardener to keep them dowu to desired
limits. The author of “On Short Leave
to Japan” writes: “A Japanese gaaden
is generally about ten yards square, and
in this small space is found a park aiid
demesne, with lake, summer house,
temples, trees, all complete, and all iu
keeping with tho dimensions available.
The lake is four feet long and full of
small goldfish. On the border stands a
pine tree*, exactly 18 inches high and 60
years old. Beneath its shade is a tem
ple carved out of oue piece of stone tho
size of a brick. On a lofty crag of some
2 Uj feet stands a fine maple tree, per
fect in form and shape, 15 years old
and 12 inches high. We bought three
of these miniature trees later—a maple,
a pine and a bamboo clump—each about
15 years old and 18 inches to 2 feet
I high, growing in shallow dishes. We
! were told of a complete garden contaiu-
! id iu a shallow two dozen wine case.
Everything was complete, down to tho
fish in the lake, a sheet of water only a
few inches square aud the footbridges
over the watercourses. Teahouses there
were, and numerous trees of various
kinds, each about ft inches high. Old
as the hills theae, but full of vitality,
and yet never growing bigger.
■ *9* ' t*-.
tHjMl