University of South Carolina Libraries
w y I SPRING IS HERE I ? ==================== ? 4? and you want to freshen up your SJ J- home in keeping with the season. ^ #1 See my new lines of .... . I ed Roam Sails, Felt Miiires ses, Hammocks, ? t Rugs and Mattings and Refrigerators. | Jj I keep constantly on hand a com. ? plete line of : : : : 1 COFFINS and CASKETS | 'J5 and am prepared to render my 2 services day and night. JJ jj Li. J. STACKLETI J5 THE FCRXITCRE MAX. ? KINGSTREE, - - S. C. j? fwSerfl^^l ? AND (| S,ore 8. ft i :?Lf J Ho,els , , 5 jn I J^5 ^ Public buildings 5 | Moderate Cost 5 8 Perfect jfet/ny. | Gasoline Engines for any purpose J> J c? c? Stiff man, Slorence, c?.Ci U |Tk Parlor Market| * SS - Jf ft * ==?= . ==BHS==BH?i= fc* ? Dressed Meats* Fish, Game, Poultry ? ? Oysters, Eggs and Full Line * " ? ? JFojz^G-y G-roceries ? ? hides wanted hiqhestTmarket ? ? )o? t PRICES PAID, ) ta( ? ? Tla.e IFa-rlor 2v?ar3sret? ? ? ? ? _ ' ? ? T. ti. J^rrowsmiziu Agent., ? ? KINGSTREE S. C. & Eft.' "BUZZARD HARDWARE CO. IS THE HOUSE. fj 11/E are headquarters for all w& | Lj I WW kinds of Hardware, Guns, H&jy ?1 j-Q-f" Cutlery, Pumps, Piping, Steam l'"*! """ I ~~~ W Fittings, Belting, Pittsburg Per??feet Pence, Baib Wire, Crock~ = = = =: " f- ery and -Glassware, Cooking v l _L Stoves, Builders Material of all kinds, X. C. Pine Shingles, Paroid Roofing, Sash, Doors, Blinds, Lime, Cement, Paint. Farming Implements, Stalk Cutters Cole Corn and Cotton Planters, Guano Distributors. : : : SEE US BEFORE PLACING YOUR ORDERS. Yours very truly, BLIZZARD HARDWARE CO. LAKE CITY, S C. "A dollar saved is a dollar made" C > There is no better way to save your dollars than b> dealing with - - J. L. Stuckey, the old reliable live-stock man. I have a splendid line of Biiii, lips ill Bibs, that in view of the hard times am offering at 10 per cenl above cost. A nice bunch of HORSES and MULES always on hand at prices to suit. J. L. StUCkey, LakeCity.S C. j - ^ CONQUEST | By BOOTH T I Author of "Cherry,'* "M 1 COPYRIGHT. 190 5, BY i J> CHAPTER I. A DRY snow had fallen steadily throughout the still night, so that when a cold, upper wind ? cleared the sky gloriously in the morning the incongruous Indiana town shone In a white harmony?roof, ledge and earth as evenly covered as by mcrtmlight There was no thaw. Only where the line of factories followed the big bend of the frozen river, their distant chimneys like exclamation points on a blank page, was there a first threat against the supreme whiteness. The wind passed quickly and on high, the shouting of the school children had ceased at 0 o'clock with pitiful suddenness, ho sleigh bells laughed out on the air, and the muffling of the thoroughfares wrought an unaccustomed peace like that of Sunday. This was the phenomenon which afforded the opening of the morning 5 *?a- -a au-. ! % tfMfl I r?_ I ueuaie vi iue sages iu mt n mv ? dows of the National House. Only sucb unfortunates ss have so far failed to visit Canaan do not know that the National House is on the Main street side of the Courthouse square and hps the advantage of being within two minnte8' walk of the railroad station, which Is In plain sight of the windows, an inestimable benefit to the conversation of the aged men who occupied these windows on this white morning even as they were wont in summer to hold against all comers the cane seated chairs on the pavement outside. Mail time had come to mean that bright hour when they all got their feet on the brass red which protected the sills of the two big windows, with the steam radiators sizzling like kettles against the side wall. Mr. Jonas Tabor, who had sold his hardware business magnificently (not magnificently for his nephew, the purchaser) some ten years be lore, was usually, In spite of the fact that ho remained a bachelor at seventy-nine, the last to settle down with the others, though often the first to reach the hotel, which he always entered by a side door, because he did not believe in the treating system. And It was Mr. Eskew Arp.only seventy-five, but already a thoroughly capable cynic, who almost invariably "opened the argument," and It was he who discovered the sinister intention behind the weather of this particular morning. The malevolence of his voice and manner when he shook his finger at the town beyond the windows and exclaimed, with a bitter langh, "Look at it!" was no surprise to his companions. "Jest look at it! I tell you the devil Is mighty smart! Ha. ha! Mighty smart!" Through custom It was the duty of Bquire Bnckalew (Justice of the peace in 1859) to be the first to take up Mr. Arp. The others looked to him for it Therefore he asked sharply: "What's the devil got to do with snow?" "Everything to do with it sir," Mr. Arp retorted. "It's plain as day to anybody with eyes and sense." "Then I wish you'd p'lnt It out" said Buckalew, "if you've got either." "By the Almighty, squire"?Mr. Arp turned In his chair with sudden heat? "If I'd lived as long as you"? "You have," interrupted the other, i stung. "Twelve years ago." "If I'd lived as long as you," Mr. Arp repeated unwinelngly in a loader voice, "and bad follered Satan's trail as long as you have and yet couldn't recognire it when I see it I'd git converted and vote Prohibitionist." "I don't see it," interjected Uncle i Joe Davey In his querulous voice. (He ; was the patriarch of them all.) "I can't , find, no cloven hoof prints In the ' snow." "All over it, sir!" cried the cynic. "All over it! Old Satan loves tricks like this. Here's a town that's Jest one squirmin' mass of lies and envy and vice and wickedness and corruption"? "Hold on!" exclaimed Colonel Flitcroft. "That's a slander upon our hearths and our government Why, when I was in the council"? "It wasn't a bit worse then," Mr. Arp returned unreasonably. "Jest you look how the devil fools us. He drops down this here virgin mantle on Canaan and makes it look as good as you pretend yon think it is?as good %a the Sunday school room of a country church, though that"?he went off on a r tangent venomously ? "is generally only another whited sepulcher, and the superintendent's mighty apt to have a bottle of whisky hid behind the organ [ and"? "Look here, Eskew," said Jonas Tabor, "that's got nothin' to do with"? "Why ain't it? Answer me: - cneu Mr. Arp, continuing without paifte: " Why ain't It? Can't you wait till I git through? You listen to me, and when I'm ready I'll listen to"? "See here," began the colonel, making himself heard over three others, "I want to ask you"? , "Xo, sir!" Mr. Arp pounded the ^ floor irascibly with his hickory stick. "Don't you ask me anything. How can | you tell that I'm not going to answer your question without your asking it tlli I've got through? You listen first. I say, here's a town of nearly 30.000 inhabitants, every last one of 'em? xiien, women and children?selfish and CANAAN I ARKINGTON, j lonsicur Bcaucaire." Etc. J HARPER ty BROTHERS | t 4 cowardly and sinful if you could see their innermost natures; a town of the ugliest and worst built houses in the world and governed by a lot of saloon keepers, though I hope it'll never git down to where the ministers cau run It Ant| the devil comes along and In one night?why, all you got to do is look at it! You'd think we needn't ever trouble to make it better. That's what the devil wants us to do?wants us to rest ea3y about it and paints it up to look like a heaven of peace and purity and sanctified spirits. Snowfall like this would of made Lot turn the angel out of doors and say that the old home was good enough for him. Gomorrah would of looked like a Puritan village, though I'll bet my last dollar that there was a lot, and a whole lot that's never been told about Puritan villages. A lot that"? "What never was?" interrupted Mr. Peter Bradbury, whose granddaughter had lately announced her discovery that the Bradburys were descended from Miles Standish. "What wasn't told about Puritan villages?" "Can't you wait?" Mr. Arp's accents were those of pain. "Haven't I got any right |o present my side of the ease? Ain't we restrained enough to allow of free speech here? How can we ever git anywhere in an argument like this unless we let one man talk at a time? How"? "Go on with your statement" said Uncle Joe Davey impatiently. Mr. Arp's grievance was increased. "Now, listen to you! How many more interruptions are comin'? I'll listen to the other 6ide, but I've got to state mine first, haven't I? If I don't make my point clear, what's the use of the argument? Argumentation is only the comparison of two sides of a question, and you have to see what the first side is before you can compare It with the other one, don't you? Are you all agreed to that?' v "Yes, yes," said the colonel. "Go ahea<f. We won't interrupt until you're through." The "argument" grew heated. Half a dozen tidy quarrels arose. All the sages went at It fiercely except Roger Tabor, who stole quietly away. The aged men were enjoying themselves thoroughly, especially those who quarreled. Naturally the frail bark of the topic which had been launched was whirled about by too many side currents to remain long in sight and soon became derelict, while the Intellectual dolphins dove and tumbled In the depths. At the end of twenty minutes Mr. Arp emerged upon the surface, and in his mouth was this: "Tell toe, why ain't the church?why ain't the church and the rest of the belie vers In a future life looldn' for I Immortality at the other end of life too? If we're immortal we always ; have been. Then why don't they ever speculate on wnai we were ueium we were born? It's because they're too blame selfish: don't care a flapdoodle | about what was. All they want Is to go i on Uvln' forever." Mr. Arp's voice had risen to an acrid trlumphancy, when It suddenly faltered, relapsed to n murmur and then to a stricken silence as a tall, fat man of overpowering aspect threw open the outer door near by and crossed the lobby to the clerk's desk. An awe fell, upon the sages with this advent They were hushed and after a movement in their chairs, with a strange effect of huddling, sat disconcerted and atten | tire, like schoolboys at the entrance or I the master. The personage had a big, fat, pink face and a heavily undershot Jaw, what whitish beard he wore following his double chin somewhat after the ; manner displayed In the portraits of Henry VIII. His eyes, very bright under puffed*upper lids, were intolerant and Insultingly penetrating despite their small size. Their irritability held a kind of hotness, and yet the personage exuded frost, not of the weather, ; all about him. You could not Imagine , man or angel daring to greet this be! ing genially?sooner throw a kiss to Mount Pilatus! "Mr. Brown," he said, with ponderous hostility, in a bull bass to the j clerk?the kind of voice which would i have made an express train leave the ! track and go round the other way? "do yon hear me?" "Oh, yes, judge!" the clerk replied swiftly in tones as unlike those which I he used for strange transients as a ! collector's voice In his ladylove's ear i Is unlike that which he propels at dei llnquents. "Do you see that snow?" asked the ; personage threateningly. "Yes, Judge." Mr. Brown essayed a placating smile. "Yes, Indeed, Judge 1 Pike." "Has your employer, the manager of this hotel, seen that snow?" pursued the personage, with a gesture of unspeakable solemn menace, j "Yes, sir. I think so. Yes, sir." "Do you think he fully understands i that I am the proprietor of this buildj ing?" "Certain. Jndge, cer"? "You will Inform him that I do not intend to be discommoded by his negligence as I pass to my offices. Tell him from me that unless he keeps the sidewalks In front of this hotel clear \ of snow I will cancel his lease. Their present condition Is outrageous. Do you understand me? Outrageous! Do you hear?" "Yes. judge, I do so," answered the 1 c?erk, hoarse with respect. "I'll see to j it this minute, Judge Pike." "You had better." The personage ! turned himself about and began a grim J progress toward the door by which he j had entered, his eyes fixing themselves angrily upon the conclave at the windows. He nodded to the only man of substance among them. Jonas Tabor, and shut the door behind him with majestic insult He was Canaan's millionaire. Naturally Jonas Tabor was the first to speak. "Judge Pike's lookin' mighty well." he said admiringly. "Yes, he is," ventured Squire Buekalew, with deference; "mighty well." "There's a party at the judge's tonight" said Mr. Bradbury?"kind of a ball Mamie Pike's glvin* for the young folks. Quite a doin's, I hear." "That's another thing that's ruining Canaan." Mr. Arp declared morosely? "these entertainments they have nowadays. Spend all the money out of town?baud from Indianapolis, chicken salad and darky waiters from Chicago!" A decrepit hack or two, a couple of old fashioned surreys and a few "cutunders" drove Dy from the 10:45 train, bearing the newly arrived and their ika hntol nnwiihnfl dennsitine f aiiocoi iuv uv?v? w~ K ?0 several commercial travelers at the door. A solitary figure came from the station on foot, and when it appeared within fair range of the window, Uncle Joe Davey, who had but hovered on the flanks of the combat, first removed his spectacles and wiped them, as though distrusting the vision they offered him, then, replacing them, scanned anew the approaching figure and uttered a smothered cry. "My Lord A'mighty," he gasped, "what's this? Look therer' They looked. A truce came involuntarily, and they sat in paralytic silence as the figure made Its stately and sensational progress along Main street. It was that of a tall gentleman, cheerfully, though somewhat with ennui, enduring his nineteenth winter. His long and slender face he wore smiling, beneath an accurately cut plaster of dark hair cornicing his forehead, a fashion followed by many youths of that year. This perfect bang was shown under a round black hat whose rim was so small as almost not to t>e there at all, and the bead was supported by a waxy white seawall of collar, rising three inches above the blue billows of a puffed cravat upon which floated a large, hollow pearl. His ulster, sporting a big cape at the shoulders and a tasseled hood over the cape, was of a rough Scotch cloth, patterned In faint gray and white squares the size of baggage checks, and it was so long that the skirts trailed In the snow. His legs were lost in the accurately creased, voluminous garments that were the tailors' canny reaction from the tight trousers with which the 80'b bad begun?they were In color a palish russet, broadly striped with gray and in size surpassed the milder spirit of fashion so far as they permitted a liberal ktee action to take place almost without superficial effort On bis feet glistened long shoes, shaped, Sim 4-Ka ^aa1? lllra oKerri Motnff SflYC 1VI U1C un?i lias nuai|> msiug shells. These were partially protected bj tan colored low gaiters, with flat shiny, brown buttons. In one band the youth swung a bone bandied walking stick perhaps an inch and a half In diameter; the other carried a yellow leather banjo case, upon the outside of which glittered the-embossed silver Initials "E. B." He was smoking, but walked with his head up, making use. however, of a gait at that time new to Canaan, a seeming superbly irresponsible lounge, engendering much motion fen 1 "My Lord A'mighty,' he gasped, "what's thist" of the shoulders, producing an effect of carelessness combined with Independence, an effect which the Innocent have been known to ball as an unconscious one. ' With everything In sight he deigned to be amused, especially with the old fooea in tho National House windows. To these he waved his stick with airy graciousness. "My soul," said Mr. Davey, "it seems to know some of us!" "Yes," agreed Mr. Arp, his voice recovered. "and I know it. It's Fanny Loudeu's boy Gene, come home for his Christmas holidays." "By George, you're right!" cried Flitcroft. "I recognize him now." "But what's the matter with him?" asked Mr. Bradbury eagerly. "Has he Joined some patent medicine troupe?" ? * - *r *v _ - - - --1 "Not a bit," replied Eskew. "He rent east to college last fall" "Do they make the boys wear them V clothes?' persisted Bradbury. "Is It ** some kind of uniform?" ^ "I don't care what it is," said Jonas-' Tabor, "if I was Henry Louden I wouldn't let him wear 'em around here." "Oh, you wouldn't, wouldn't you, Jonas?" Mr. Arp employed the accemta of sarcasm. "I'd like to see Helf^ Louden try to interfere with Gene Bantry. Fanny'd lock the old fool up in the cellar." The lofty vision lurched out of view. "I reckon," said the colonel, leaning forward to see the last of it?"I reckon It was that oj a tall gentleman enduring his nineteenth winter. ' Henry Louden's about the saddest case of abused stepfather I ever saw." "It's his own fault" said Mr. Aip? "twice not havln' sense enough not to marry. Him with a son of his ^wn too!" ifes," assented the colonel, "marryln' a widow with a son of her own, and that widow Fanny!" "Wasn't It just the same with her first husband, Bantry?" Mr. Davey asked, not for Information, as he im-' : mediately answered himself. "You M bet it was! Didn't she always rule the roost? Yes. she did. She made a god of Gene from the day he was born. Bantry'g house was run for him. like Louden's is now." * "And look," exclaimed Mr. Arp, with j ? satisfaction, "at the way he's turned Jl out!" ' \i "He ain't turned out at all yet He's ' too young," said Buckalew. "Besides, 7 . clothes don't make the man." "Wasn't he smokln' a clgareet!" cried * Eskew triumphantly. This was final "It's a pity Henry Louden can't do something for his own son," said Mr. Bradbury. "^Thy don't be send him away to college?' "Fanny won't let blm," chuckled Mr. Arp malevolently. "Takes all their spare change to keep Gene there style. I don't blame her. Gene certainly acts the fool, but that Joe Louden is the orneriest boy I ever saw in an ornery world full." "He always was kind of miscfceevous," admitted Buckalew. "I <!lon't think he's mean, though, and it does seem kind of not just right that Joe's father's money?Bantry didn't leave anything to speak of?has to go to keepin' Gene on the fat of the land, with Joe glttln' up at half past 4 to carry papers, and him goln' cm nineteen years old." "It's all he's fit for?' exclaimed Eskew. "He's low down, I tell ye. Ain't it only last week Judge Pike caught him shootln' craps with Pike's nigger driver and some otner nigger nirea men in the alley back of Pike's barn." "You ever hear that boy Joe talk polities?" asked Uncle Joe Davey. crossing a cough with a chuckle. "His head's so full of schemes fer running this town, and state, too, It's a wonder it don't bust. Henry Louden told me he's see Joe set around and study by the hour how to save $3,000,000 for the state In two years." "And the best be can do for himself," added Eskew, "is dellverln' the Dally Tocsin on a second hand Star bicycle ' and gamblln' with niggers and riffraff! None of the nice young folks invite him to their doln's any more." "That's because he's got so shabby he's quit goin' with 'em," said Buckalew. "No, It ain't," snapped Mr. Arp. "It's because he's so low down. lie's no more 'n a town outcast There ain't ary one of the girls 'il have a thing to do with him, except tha!t rlp-rarln' tomboy next door to Louden's, and the othnra Hnn't harp m nr?h fn Ha rrlth han neither, I can tell ye. That Arle Tabor"? Colonel Flitcroft caught hlra surreptitiously by the arm. "Sh. Eskew!" he whispered. "Look out what you're sayln'." "You needn't mind me," Jonas Tabor spoke up crisply. "I washed my hands of all responsibility for Roger's branch of the family long ago. Never was one of 'em had the energy or brains to make a decent Hvln', beginning with Roger?not one worth his salt. I set ttogers son up in Dusinesa, ana ail me return he ever made me .was to go into bankruptcy and take to drink, till he died a sot, like his wife dtff of shame. I done all I cottld when I handed him over my store, and I never * expect to lift a finger for 'em again. Ariel Tabor's my grandnlece, but she * didn't act like it, and you can say anything you like about her for what I care. The last time I spoke to her was jfl a year and a half ago. and I don't reckon I'll ever trouble to again." ' "IIow was that. Jonas?" quickly in-'^Hjj ~ i