Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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JEAN iCorrniGiiT, Uobezt B. ? I UUAl'TttK AY (Continued.) The halls of tragedy are so o*J( n Lv.il: cn the pillars of farce. And the wheels in thosir;grinding mills are fashioned from such spider films of fineness. And they walked up l!:e promenade?that strange group ? as though nothing had happened to mav the sunshine iu any of their lives, uttering careless words in the thousand and one items of small-talk, no mighty earthquake, no fearful fire from heaven to change the face of nature, bocause two souls were struggling between pride and love. Beatrice was waiting for nor sister. She was standing on the piazza talking with Gregory Bonsonhursr, and mere was me om siern expression upon her face as when first Alecia made known to her the failure of her pleading with Falmer Earle's counsel. A strangely hard look to be upon the face of a girl, scorn and pride and indignation burning within. She was not smiling as Beatrice usually d:d emile for the man beside her. Iler eyes were lifted to his. and she was speaking very slowly and with evident eTort, as though the topic of their conversation were some cruel thing, hard to comprehend. She recognized instantly her sister's companions, but gave no sign, standing perfectly srJU and proud and calm, with her immovable face turned to Gregory Bensonhurst. and her slender figure erect and graceful. "Beatrice." said Alecla, pausing beside her, while the others passed oij to the dining-room, "are you ready, dear?" "Yes." said Beatrice, quietly. "But let me warn you. Alecla, that you will meet in there the man whom i nope you hate as earnestly as I. Palmer Earle came over In the Banjo with Mr. Priestly this afternoon. He camo to see his beloved counsel, on some business, of course, and took the opportunity of an outing. I sincerely regret that the Banjo, with her usual Intelligence, did not sink, knowing that he was sailing in her." "Well," said Alecia, indifferently, "I shall not let Mr. Earle or his counsel affect my happiness. Bee, nor my appetite. Let us go in." "But there is more that I have learned," said Beatrice, intensely, her eyes upon her sister's calm face. *1 think that you know it already Alecia. <Mr. Bcnsonhurst told me. They shall learn it, too, presently." "What do yoyi mean. Bee?" There was an earnest gravity in Alecia's voice that betrayed her fear. "Never mind," said Beatrice, slowly and very distinctly. "I shall have the pleasure of speaking the truth for once, Mrs. Graham, as I ha^ so long hoped. Did I not tell you If ever the time came I would tell Johu TYinthrop the truth? You shall net prevent me In this, Aleela. Mr. Bensonhurst Is a man as well as this grand mogul counsel, and he does not tell me I am unjust." "I think," Gregory Bensonhurst said, gravely, "that it may do John Winthrop good to'hear the truth from Miss Beatrice's point of view, Mrs. Graham. He is a thoroughly honorable man, but he overstrains his code of justice sometimes, fearing that his heart shall make him weak. I have learned to know him pretty well during these past two years, and that is tlin onlv fliiiv th.af- T flisonvfr in him. Ho is a very noble man save for that." "A man's nobility is proved in small filings as in great, Mr. Bensonburst!" czyed Beatrice swiftly, with waking auger in her great dark eyes and around her quivering mouth. "There can be not true nobility where there is no heart!"' "Then you shall prove him. Bee," said Alecia, quietly, slipping one hand softly within her sister's arm. "They will believe that we fear to face them unless we go in at once." "They shall shortly learn that I do not," said Beatrice, as she turned with her sister and friend and entered the room. And that evening, with her usual impetuosity, Beatrice Field, alert for an opportunity to face Palmer Earle and his counsel with her truth, came upon them in apparent unconsciousness as they loitered on the pier with meir cjgurs ueiore joining me muies on the piazza. Beatrice had been promenading -with Gregory Bensonhurst, but giving him no chance of uttering the words so near his heart, too much excited by the truth made known to her that evening, and as she saw that the two men were about returning to the hotel she slipped her hand from her companion's arm and walked deliberately down the plank to meet them. No one observed them save young Bensonhurst, for most of the guests were on the piazza facing the pavilion or on the sands or along the promenade. This one girl came upon them 3 Nocd. by. KATE LUDLUM... } N.N EE'S SC-Uf, 1S9?. J nl:::cst a Strang.r. I.at uticriy dl.-ivgardful of the fact iu her desire for I ? * 45 j.c% 4- * r\*\ /-v^ *v?/\ir*rvl*** J U^UUV *11 .I'll VI o Uit alVi %? . lioth lifted their liars as she paused before tlieiii. "Mr. Earle," she said, in her low, steady, distinct voice, her eyes black with her angry spirit, "and you. also, Mr. YVinthrop, I have waited very-patiently for this moment. I may be to you scarcely upon speaking acquaintance, but the cause justifies the means. That Mr. Winthrop will be able to corroborate, I think. I have not much to say to you, and you will pardon me if I detain you for a moment. "Three years ago," she said, her eyes meeting levelly now the cold eyes of Palmer Earle, now the answering flashing eyes of his counsel, "my sister, Mrs. Graham, went to you to plead for leniency toward her husband. You, Mr. Earle, with your conscience touched by her words, sug gested that some concession be made. But your counsel,"' how her eyes scorned the tall, commanding man, with his haughty face never flinching from her gaze, ' deemed it but a foolish prompting of heart weakness! He would press to the utmost the man touched by misfortune, never by diehonor!" Very low and steady her voice, but how it cut the soft airs floating in from the quiet sea? With one slim hand she scorned to push aside any detaining thought, and continued her denunciation. "Mr. Wiuthrop judged?so he saidfront his standpoint of justice and honor! Wait! Was it honorable?was it manlike?I (lo not ask if it were kind, for the heart is to have nothing to do "with this?but was it simplest justice that the man holding the claim of money against this other man should turn a deaf ear to the yielding of even an inch in his arrogance and pride? Does that man who was so immovable that day?I speak to you. Mr. Earle!?never think of how he wanted in justice to the mail who placed his own life in the balance to save yours? Oh, you start, do yo". apd wonder how I. a*woman, can set myself in Judgment against you! I have waited very patiently for thJs moment to come, when I might taje you both with the truth of your action that day! The world justified your course, and claimed that you de manded but your lights! What would that same world say should It discover, as I have discovered, the nobility of the man you pushed down to his death?'' ' Pardon me," said Palmer Earle, coldly, "but you do not look at this matter In its true light, Miss Field! One could scarcely expect that you would, however, as you are Mrs. Graham's sister!" "What could a woman like yourself know of business claims?" added John Winthrop. "Oh, ye?!" cried Beatrice, in her bitterly distinct undertone, that swift gesture of the sweeping hand. "That is what you say, in your own ignorance! Listen to me but for one moment and then judge, not from a ivnnmn's stnnrlnnint. but as men? both of yon! I>o you not know, Mr. Earle, in this great justice of yours, that but for my sister's husbaml and his great nobility of soul you would not stand here facing me to-night? Do you not know?or were you too occupied with your weighing of business balances?to discover who it was saved you from the water that night when your yacht went to pieces out there?" Her passionate hand touched for one instant the direction of the point where the struggle occurred. "You offered a reward for the man who acted so nobly that night, but could discover nothing definite enough to satisfy you in placing the reward, and so you let slip the bravery that still places you among men to sit in judgment on tliem! Only a man as noble and proud as Harold Graham would have withheld the knowledge that might have given him claim upon your leniency! But would he accept It from the hand that would so carelessly and arrogantly push him down? No!" She laughed shortly and scornfully and flashed her great black eyes upon them standing motionless before her, struck speechless by the truth at last. "Harold Graham was the man who saved your life that night, Mr. Earle? the man who died six months later, through your hardness ? yours and that of your counsel! And what reward did you grant tp him?" John Winthrop roused himself from the stupor that seemed to have touched him at the full knowledge of his hard justice. He also made a movement as though pushing down some obstacle to his pride. You are mistaken. Miss Field." he said, coldly. "If it were Mr. Graham, as you say, there were those present who would not have kept silent, especially at such a time." "Would they not?" she cried. "But there are those who ave governed by friendship at times, Mr. Winthrop, even in your world. If you have the daring to doubt my word, ask any of the men who were present tljat night. I have this from the lips of one of them myself. You liud it somewhat too bitter to accept, do you not? Indeed, I wonder that the truth does not strike you dead. I wonder that you can face me and Dot biush for cruelty to a woman as true and pure as you are hard and unjust and cruel iu your arrogance and pride. Were it I, 1 think, like Judas, I could not endure conscience." 1 >. ? 1 I'ovIA ef Annn/1 Imi* n C cVlA .L UJlIlVi Millie OlVj^VU uti was turning proudly away. Even his cold heart was stirred by her revelation. Ilad not Harold Graham been classed his friend until the day of his misfortune? Should he not have been governed by that and the knowledge of his perfect uprightness?never a stain upon the proud nemo equal with his own? Would he not have placed himself in a better light with the world, so doing? There was no man dared breathe a word against him, but might they not feel that he had been unnecessarily harsh? "Miss Field!" he said. He would not speak until he could command his voice before this slip of a girl, with her scornful eyes and voice, but he must exonerate himself from blame. She paused, turning her flashing eyes upon him in the darkening purple falling upon the world of night, lighted only by the amber stars in the tauded heaven. "If this be true, as you say?and I do not doubt it?I must not stand in such a light with you and Mrs. Graham as now I fear is the case. Had your sister or her husband made known this truth to me that day, I wouiu nave jmiu ire uem 1 oncu nuc old Graham by free gift of his debt, and Mr. Winthrop would have given me his perfect acquiescence. It placed me in a hard light most unjustly." The girl flung out her hands,. as though she would set them from her as far as the world would admit, were it in her power, and a quiver struck her own face. "Is it possible, after hearing the truth, that Mr. Earle can speak of injustice to himself?" she asked. "Was I it not from the height of Lonor that i Harold Graham scorned to win your 1 justice by the acknowledgement of your infiuitely greater deut to him? You wrong my sister's husband even in that, Mr. Earle?you and your counsel." John Winthrop's voice struck like ice upon her passionate words. "Iou are a woman,' ne saiu, coiui^-, "Miss Field. It is your heart that speaks ngw, not your judgment." "Though you grant a woman no judgment," cried the girl, passionately, with her beautiful face flushed in the darkening shadows, "yet sometimes the truth strikes from a woman's hands to cut even your pride, you men, Mr. Winthrop, to defeat you!" She turned swiftly from them and went back along the plank walk to her waiting friend, a sob struggling with her pride, her hands trembling with excitement and anger. CHAPTER^ XVII. A PROUD WOMAN'S ANSWER. "Mrs. Graham." Alccla was alone in the pavilion on the following morning, watching the early lights upon the ocean ere the breakfast-bell summoned the guests from their rooms. She was an early riser, and enjoyed the freshness of the morning ere she was called to assume her quiet pride for her friends. The voici uttering her name startled her, although she instantly recognized it. In the first moment of surprise she turned her exquisite eyes upon the speaker, with a flush deepening in her cheeks. Then a slow smile of perfect indifference parted her lips. ' .Mr. Winthrop ventures out early," she said. The old spirit of rebellion, mingled with that subtle power that held him apart from hatred of this woman, bifcught this strange quiver to his face like the flash and fading of some far-off lightning gleam. His eyes smouldered lire into her cool, steady eyes lifted to his. But he would not be daunted by tins one woman when be bad lived bis life apart from the power of a woman's face and voice. He did not oiler to be seated, but stood beside her very still and proud, but with a stern determination upon his,face that forced from her a feeling of respect for his magnificent self-command, even set apart from him as she was in her memory of his harshness. "Ferhaps Mrs. Graham will find It difficult to hear or believe what I have to say," he said, after a moment of utter silence, save for the seething of the surf upon the sands and the sharp screaming of a gull swooping just over the surface of the water. "As I told you that day, I try always to be just. I advised my client as I believed from my heart was right. I might have ur^ed..upon him the easij? I er course of yielding to your wish,' for it was my desire to do so, but I deemed it unfair to the man whom I was serving. It is always easier to grant happiness to others, unbelieving as Mrs. Graham may be of this from me; but I felt that I must not yield to you. You know the result. There is no need of going o*-er that old difficult ground, that contains only sadness for us both." "For you?" queried Alecia, smiling coldly. "Is it possible that sadness also sometimes touches Mr. Winthrop?" "I cannot expect kind words from you," said Joliu Winthrop, pationtij*, though his hands wore clenched. "You believe me beyond the pale of feeling, Mrs. Graham. I will not attempt to argu* that point with you; It wcwld only be painful to both of us " "Not to me," interrupted Alecia again, in her steady, cold voice, her eyes upon the glimmering sails along the ocean before them. "Mr. Winthrop can cause me no more pain than he gave mo three years ago. He no longer has influence in my life, I assure him.' Still very quiet and proud the tall figure stood beside her, with the clenched hands and stern face and burning eyes. He was looking do*n upon her; she was watching the distant ships, and her slim hands were lightly lying, clasped, in her lap. (To be contirued.) more :s more iaise uuir worn in me ! United States than in all the rest of the world put together. Presbyterian Reunion Held. Baltimore, Special.?The Presbyterian reunion, including leading representatives of the northern and southern branches of that church in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, assembled Thursday at Pen Mar on the Western Maryland railroad Several hundred persons, Including tlergy and laity attended from this city. The proceedings Included an address on 'The Presbyterian Church," by the Rev. Charles Wood, D. D., of Philadelphia, and address on "Present Day Problems of Presbyterianism," by the Rev. Thornton C. Whaling To Organize. Knoxville, Tenn., Special.?A movement is on foot tot organize a co-operative association of th|e hatters, men's furnishers and haberdashers or the soutn. ine assooiaucn includes stores in all the leading cities of the entire South and its organization is to be ratified at a meeting cn July 25th, at the Imperial Hotel, New York. Members will co-operate in employing buyers who will be able to secure lower prices because of the large amount of goods purchased. M. M. Anderson, of Nashville, is at the head of the movement. Live Items of News. Nine thousand freight handlers in Chicago began a strike. P-esident Roosevelt enjoyed tennis, target-shooting and fireworks at his home, Oyster Bay, L. I. The National Educational Council U in session at Minneapolis. Frederick W. Vanderbilt has made a $500,000 gift to the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale College. Five telephone linemen were killed by a single bolt of lightning near Offerman, Ga. In a negro funeral in Charleston the crowd rushed to get a lock at the coffin and 20 persons were injured. The Lena Lumber Co. of Slllcla, Ark., has been incorporated, with a capital stock of $25,000. The Incorporators are B. Falsst, C. Faisst, G. Faisst, K. Wurz, I. Finkheiner and C. W. Lewis. The Camden Drug Co. of Camden, S. C., has been Incorporated, with a capital stock of $2,000. The Incorporators are W. A. Dunn, A. W. Burnett and R. T. Goodale, all of Camden. The steamship Marianne cleared last week from Savannah for Barcelona and Trieste with 2,817 tons of high-grade Florida phosphate rock for the former and 1,291 tons for the latter port The Johnson Lumber Co. of Little Rock, Ark., has been chartered, with a capital of $50,000, one-half paid up. The incorporators are John Dermitt, W. F. Farrar, George W. Cleveland and William H. Johnson. It is stated that the Virginia-Carolina Chemical Co has closed a deal with Hon. E. H. Dial of Meridian, Miss., for the purchase of 320 acres of land just outV<de the western limits of that city. The Virginia-Carolina Chemical Co. will at once begin the construction of a fertilizer factory on the site purchased with a 40,000-ton capacity, and q ftoo oil nrUL Two deckhands, Herman Kolch and John Lenkeirus. were drowned off the steamer Tashmoo at Detroit, Mich., while scrubbing paddle wheel boxes. Many of the employes of the Canadian Northern Railway in Manitoba struck for higher wages. Engineers, firemen, conductors and brakemen are still at work. A Copenhagen dispatch says: "P. A. P. Widener and Clement A. Griscom are investigating Northern Europe in connection with the plans of the Morgan shipping combine. They seem much interested in the Baltic ports. Emperor William has decorated them with the order of the Red Eagle." - ' '.'"3 AN AWFUL DISASTER Johnstown Suffers Another Fearful t Visitation. ; SWIFT DEATH IN MINE EXPLOSION . D^ad Bodies of riany Victims Taken Out With Difficulty? Sorrow Prevails Over the City. Johnstown, Pa., Special.?This city suffered another awful visitation rivaling the calamity of 18S9. The disaster came in the form of an explosion in the Rolling Mill Mine of the Carolina Steel Company last Thursday. A Friday dispatch given the following particulars: "This has been a day of heroic rescues at the Rolling Mill Mine of the Cambria Steel Company. Thrilling experiences attended the efforts of the 40 brave and daring fellows who went down Into the bowels of the earth with % very faint hope to spur them that still they might be in time to restore to life some of those who are entombed. Death lurked everywhere around them, but undaunted they surged forward, stayed with th., noblest* of human purposes. The reward of their efforts was the saving of the lives of 14 of their fellowmen and bringing them again into the sunlight back to loving families. Dead and maimed bodies were located but no effort was made to bring tViem out of the vast theatre of death until every human energy was put forward towards seeing that no living soul might escape their aid. That done, the dead were attended to and put in tram cars, brought up and exposed to the morbid gaze while being transferred to wagons in which to be taken to Che morgue. Eighty-seven dead bodies ttere recovered from the mine between daylight and nightfuall. Still a party of officers and miners battled on, three miles inside the mine. Occasionally word would come to the surface by some mysterious means that another group of remains had been exposed to the vision of the searchers. There are dangerous headings in the Klondike section of the mine yet to be explored. No one knows how many more dead may be found there. The mine officials refrain from guess work on the subject A feeling prevails that 150 Is a low estimate of the casualty list. Johnstown spent the day, horror-stricken. From dawn to dusk flying ambulances soursed the streets bearing gruesome burdens from mine to morgue, from morgue to homes. At midnight President Powell Stackhouse was seen at the piouth of the mine and gave out the following state UiCUl. "The disaster is an awful one and came on us entirely unexpected. The mine had been inspected only three days ago and was pronounced In satisfactory conditions. In the 30 years that the mine has been in the operation no serious accident has occurred. The cause is yet indefinite, but I believe it was caused by gas escaping from the fifth heading which was closed and was not being worked because it contained gas, into the sixth heading. "The number of casualties is now placed at 125. .No list of the names of the dead miners can be given, for the majority of them were foreigners and were known only by check and not by name. The only way their names will ever De Known 11 me Douiea aic uui recovered in time for identification, will be by their families sending their names to us." The mine in which the dreadful thing occurred is one of the largest coal mines in the United States, according to the statement of officials tonight. From the entrance in the hill across the river from the point to the one at Mill Creek is a distance of o% miles. The Klondike section in which the ex plosion occurred is about two miles from the Mill Creek entrance. The mine is divided into a large number of headings, levels and sections. The sections run off to the left and right of the headings and are known as right and lefts by the miners. The men who escaped this afternoon have spent years working in it Otherwise they could never have reached the surface. Lights were out and there was no way for them to find their way to the top had_they not known the mine perfectly. The few survivors who have escaped from the depths of the mines describe the conditions as frightful. Outside of the "Klondike" the mines are safe and uninjured. Osborne in nore Trouble. Norfolk, Va., Special.?With the hope of obtaining a confession from Charles Frederick Osborne, held for the murder of his wife in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and suspected of murdering anothei here, several weeks ago. the police are thinking of subjecting nim to the famous "third degree." Osborne is indifferent and does not show the griefstricken countenance that he did at his last trial. He pretends to remember nothing, not even his wife out West, and those who once thought him innocent now pronounce him the worst villian unhung. Commonwealth Attorney Tiltcn will give a definite decision as to whether he will hold Osborne here for murder or allow the Oklahoma authorities to take hira. t * * f ' .