Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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?j?* * * * ? ? S ? ? ? ? S ?4? S % SSS??! From It Copyright, 1899. by Doabtedaj Copyright, ISO. f??V .*<!?... e .... 9 e .. e e .... ?H ?H^HHM 'H'****'H'*?***'; Martin pursued her lumberingly, but ene was agile as a monkey and ran dodging up and down the counters and mocked him, singing, "Gran'mammy, ?Tipsy Toa'* At last she tired of the game and darted ont of the door, fling? ing back a hoarse laugh at him as she "went. He followed, but when he reach? ed the street she was a mere shadow flitting under the courthouse trees. He looked after* her forebodingly, then turned his eyes toward the Palace ho? tel on the cornet The editor of the Herald was seated under the wooden awning, with his chair tilted back against a post gazing dreamily at the murky reo?fterglow in the west "What's the.use of tryin' to bother him-with itr^ld Tom asked himself. "He'd only * laugh." He noted that young- William Todd, the drug, book and wall paper clerk, ?sat near the ed? itor, wMttling absently. Martin chuc? kled. "William's turn tonight," he murmured. "Weil, the boys 'll take care of him." He locked the doors of the Emporium, tried them and dropped the keys in his pocket As he crossed the square to the drug store, where his cronies awaited him, ne turned again to look at the figure of the masing journalist "He ought to go ont there," he said and shook his head sadi;r. **l don't reckon Plattville's any I too spry for that young man. Five years he's be'n here. Well, ifs a good thing for ns, bat I guess it ain't exact? ly high life for him." He kicked a stick oct of bis way impatiently. "Now, where'd that imp run to?' be grum? bled. The imp was lying nuder the court? house steps. When the sound of Mar? tin's footsteps had passed away she crept cautiously from her hiding place and stole through the ungroomed grass to the fence opposite the botet Here she stretched herself flat in the weeds and took from the tangled masses of ber hair, where lt was tied with a string, a rolled np, crumpled slip of greasy paper. With this in her fingers she lay peering under the fence, her fierce eyes fixed unwinkingly on the editor of the Herald. The street ran flat and gray in the slowly gathering dusk straight to the .> western horizon, where the sunset em hers were strewn, in long, glowing, dark ted streaks. The maple trees were . clean cut silhouettes against the pale rose and peart tints of the sky above, and a tenderness seemed to shimmer in, the air. The editor often vowed to him? self he would watch no more sunsets Itt Wattville. He thought they were making him ?morbid. Could he baye shared them ?it would have been dif? ferent His long, melancholy face grew lon? ger and more melancholy in the twi? light while William Todd patiently Whittled near by. PiattviUe hfd cft~n discussed tbe editor's habit of silence and possibly the reason .Mr. Kar:-.????> Was l??cli a quiet mau was? tha? ? * was nobody for him to talk to: bat bis hearers (i'd not ajrree. for tb** po*m.:i tion of Carlow county was a thlr:.: of pride, being greater than tliat of sev? eral bordering counties, A bent figure came slowly down the Street and William Todd hailed it Cheerfully. "Evening, Mr. Fisbee." "A good evening. Mr. Todd," an? swered the old man, pausing. "Ah, Mr. Harkless, I was looking for you." He had not seemed to be looking for any? thing beyond the boundaries of his own dreams, but he approached Harkless, tugging nervously at some papers in his pocket "1 have completed my notes for our Saturday edition. It was quite easy, sir. There *s much doing." Thank you. Mr. Fisbee." said Hark? less as he took the manuscript. "Have you finished your paper on the earlier Christian symbolism? I hope the Her? ald may have the honor of printing it." This was a form they used. "I shall be the recipient of honor. ? sir." returned Fisbee. "Your kind offer will speed my work; but I fear. Mr. Harkless. I very much fear, that your kindness alone prompts it, for. deeply as I desire it. I cannot truthfully say that my essay* appear to increase our circulation." He made an odd. trou? bled gesture as he went on: "They do not see^a to read them here, although Mr. Martin assures me that be care? fully reperuses my article on Chaldean decoration whenever he rearranges his exhibition windows." He plodded on a few paces, then turned irresolutely. -What is it Fisbee r asked Harkless. Fisbee stood for a moment as though about to speak: then he smiled faintly, shook his head and went his way. Harkless waved his hand to him in farewell and. drawing a pencil and a pad from his pocket, proceeded to in? jure his eye? in the waning: twilight by the editorial perusal of the items his Staff had just left in his hands. He glanced over, them meditatively, mak? ing alterations here and there. The last one Fisbee had written as follows: Miss Sherwood of Rouen, whom Miss Briscoe knew at the Misses Jennings' fin? ishing- school in New York, is a guest of Judge Briscoe's household. Fisbee's items were written in ink. There was a blank space beneath the last At the bottom of the page some? thing had been scribbled in pencil. Harkless vainly tried to decipher it; but the twilight had fallen too deep, and the writing was too faint so he struck a match and held it close to the paper. The action betokened only a I fr fr .j, fr fr ^ frfr * ? ? 'I* 'I' fr *' fr * 'I' 'I frfr fr fr ?fr fr frfr fr fr fr fr fr fr fr fr fr frfr frfrfrItl$ rifleman fl mtana g OOTH TA*RKIffGTOJ* Y?? r McClure Co. Xj^ 5, Mc Chire. Th {?I ip j tSL Ca. [. fr fr fr fr fr fr fr fr fr fr ,|, fr .t. fr fr fr fr fr fr fr fr fr frf i! I t. fr fr ?!? fr fr fr fr fr fr fr ? fr fr fr j, fr fr fr ? fr fr ? fr fr ?| languid interest But when he caught sight of the first of the four subscrib? ed lines he sat up straight in his chair, with a sharp ejaculation. At the bot? tom of Fisbee's ?age was written in a dainty feminine hand of a type he had not seen for years: "The tim?, has come," the walrus said, "To talk of many things Of shoes andj?bips and sealing wax And cabbages and kings." He put the paper in his pocket and set off rapidly, down the village street At his departure William Todd looked up quickly. Then he got upon his feet with a yawn, and quietly followed the editor. In the dusk a tattered little figure rose up from the weeds across the way and stole noiselessly after William. He was in his shirt sleeves, his waistcoat unbuttoned and loose. On the nearest corner Mr. Todd encounter? ed a fellow townsman who had been pacing up and down in front of a cot? tage crooning to a protestive baby held in his arms. He had paused in his vigil to stare after Harkless. "Where's he bound fer, William?" inquired the man with the baby. "Briscoes'," answered William, pur? suing his way. "I reckoned he would be," observed the other, turning to his wife, who sat on the doorstep. "I reckoned so when I see that lady at the lecture last night" The woman rose to her feet "Hi, Bill Todd.** she said. "What ye got on to the back of yer vest?" William paused, put his hand behind him and encountered a paper pinned to the dan? gling strap of his waistcoat The wom? an ran to him and unpinned the paper, lt bore a writing. They took it to where (be yellow lamplight shone out through the open door and read: der sir-Folder liar kia al* yo pies an caKd bim yoR best vertagen* ia closteR harkis not Got 3 das to live we come in ?rite. "What ye think, William?" asked the man with the baby anxiously. But the woman gave the youth a sharp push with her hand. "They never dast to do it!" she cried; "never in the world! You hurry. Bill Todd. Don't leave him ont of your sight one sec? ond." CHAPTER III. ?r?*|HE street upon which thePal J[ J ace hotel fronted formed the south side of the square and ran west to the edge of the town, where it turned to the^south for a quarter of a mile or more, then bent to the west again. Sot ie distance from this second turn there stood, fronting dose on the road, a large brick house, the most pretentious man? sion In Carlow county. And yet it was a homelike place, with its red brick walls embowered in masses of cool Virginia creeper and a comfortable veranda crossing the broad front while half a hundred stalwart sentinels of elm and beech and poplar stood guard around it The front walk was bor? dered by geraniums and hollyhocks, and honeysuckle climbed the pillars of the porch. Behind the house there wai a shady little orchard, and back of the orchard an old fashioned, very fragrant rose garden, divided by a long grap? arbor, extended to the shallow waters of a wandering creek, and on the bank a rustic seat was placed beneath thc sycamores. From the first bend of the road, where it left the town and became \ woman's voice singing Scliubcrt * "Herenade" came to him. after some indecision) a country high? way, called the pike, rather than a proud city boulevard, a pathway led r!:rcugb the fields to end at some pas? ture bars opposite the brick house. John Harkless was leaning on the pasture bars. The stars were wan and the full moon shone over the fields. Meadows and woodlands lay quiet and motionless under the old. sweet mar? vel of a June night. In the wide monotony of the flat lands there some? times comes a feeling that the whole earth is stretched out before one. To? night it seemed to lie so. in the pathos of silent beauty, passive and still, yet breathing an antique message, sad. mysterious, reassuring. But there had come a divine melody adrift on the air. Through the open windows it floated. Indoors some one struck a peal of sil? ver chords, like a^harp touched by a lover, and a woman's voice was liften John Harkless leaned on the pastur bars and listened with upraised bea and parted lips. "To thy chamber window roving, lov hath led my feet." The Lord sent manna to the childre of Israel in the wilderness. Harkles had been five years in Plattville. and woman's voice singing Schubert's "Sei enade" came to him at last as he stoo by the pasture bars,,of Jones' field an listened and rested his dazzled eye on the big white face of the moon. How long had it been since he ha< heard a song or any discourse of musi other than that furnished by the Platl ville band? Not that he had no tast for a brass band. But music that h loved always gave him an ache or de light and the twinge of reminiscence of old gay days gone forever. Tonigh his memory leaped to the last day o a June gone seven years to a morn ing when the little estuary wave twinkled in the bright sun about th< boat in which he sat, the trim launel that brought a cheery party ashor< from their schooner to the casino land ing at Winter Harbor, far np on th< Maine coast Tonight "he saw the picture as plainly as if it were yesterday. No reminis cences had risen so keenly before hi! eyes for years. Pretty Mrs. Van Skuy sitting beside him-pretty Mrs. Vai Skuyt and her roses -what had be come of her? He saw the crowd ol friends waiting on the pier for their ar rival, the dozen or so emblazoned class mates (it was in the time of brillian' flannels) who sent up a volley of col lege cheers in his honor. How plalnlj the dear old, young faces rose up befon bim tonight, the men from whose lives he had slipped! Dearest and jolliest ol the faces was that of Tom Meredith clubmate, classmate, -his closest friend the thin, redheaded third baseman. He could see Tom's mouth opened at leasl a yard, it seemed, such was his frantic vociferousness. Again and again the cheers rang out, "Harkless! Hark? less!" on the end of them. In those days everybody, particularly his class? mates, thought he would be ministei to England in a few years, and the or chestra on the casino porch was play? ing "The Conquering Hero Comes" in his honor and at the behest of Tom Meredith, he knew. There were other pretty ladies bft ides Mrs. Van Skuyt in the launch oad from the yacht but as they touch ed the pier, pretty girls or pretty wom? en or jovial gentlemen, all were over? looked in the wild scramble the college men made for their hero. They haled him forth, set him on high, bore him on their shoulders, shouting "Skal to the Viking.*" and carried him up the wood? ed bluff to the casino. He heard Mrs. Van Skuyt say: "Oh, we're used to it. We've put in at several other places where he had friends!" He remember? ed the wild progress they made for him np the slope that morning at Win? ter Harbor-bow the people looked on and laughed and clapped their hands. But at the veranda edge he had no? ticed a little form disappearing around a corner of the building, a young giri running away as fast as she could. "See there." he said as the tribe set him down; 'you have frightened the populace." And Tom Meredith had stopped shouting long enough to an swer: "Ifs my little cousin, overcome with emotion. She's been counting the hours till you came-been hearing about you for a good while. She hasn't been able to talk or think of anything else. She's only fifteen, and the crucial moment is too much for her. The great Harkless has arrived, and she has fled." B%t the present hour grew on bim as he leaned on the pasture bars. It bad been a reminiscent day with him. but suddenly his memories sped, and the voiee that .was singing Schubert's "Serenade" across the way touched him with the urgent personal appeal that a present beauty had always held for him. It was a soprano and without tremolo, yet came to his ear with u certain tremulous sweetness. It was soft and slender, but the listener knew it could be lifted with fullness and power if the singer would, lt spoke only of the song, yet the listener thought of the singer. Under the moon thoughts ron into dreams, and he dreamed that the owner of the voice, she who quoted "The Walrus and the Carpenter" on Fisbee's notes, was one to laugh with you and weep with you, yet her laughter would be tempered with sorrow and her tears with laughter. When the song was ended he struck the rail he leaned upon a sharp blow with his open hand. There swept over him a feeling that he had stood precise? ly where he stood now on such a night a thousand years ago: had heard that voice and that song and been moved by the voice and the song and the night just as he was moved now. He had long known himself for a sentimental? ist. He had almost given up trying to cure himself. And he knew" himself for a born lover. He had always been in love with some one. In his earlier youth his affections had been so con? stantly inconstant that he finally came to settle with his self respect by rec? ognizing in himself a fine constancy that worshiped one woman always. It was only the shifting image of her that changed. Somewhere (he dreamed, whimsically indulgent of the fancy, yet mocking himself for it) there was a girl whom he had never seen who wait? ed till he should come. She was every? thing. Until he found her he could not help adoring others who possessed lit? tle pieces and suggestions of her-her brillianc}', her courage, her short upper Hp, *iike a curled rose leaf," or her dear voice or her pure profile. He had no recollection of any lady who had quite her eyes. Ile had never passed a lovely stranger on the street in the old days without a thrill of delight and warmth. If he never saw her again and the vision had only lasted for the time it takes a lady td cross the side? walk from a shop door to a carriage he was always a little in love with her because she bore about her somewhere, as did every pretty girl he ever saw, J.K.* i su,... >>.wi; o? ?*J?- ra rsi cray clivini?.i Ono does no; pass lovely strangers in I the streets of Platt ville. Miss Briscoe j was pretty, but not at all in the way j that Harkless dreamed. For five years ; the lover in him that had loved so of- j ten had been starved of all but dreams, j Only at twilight and dusk in the sum mer. when strolling he caught sight of | a woman's skirt far up the village j street, half outlined in the darkness ! under the cathedral arch of meeting branches, this romancer of petticoats could sigh a true lover's sigh and. if he kept enough distance between, fly a yearning fancy that his lady wandered there. Ever since his university days the image of her had been growing more and more distinct. He had completely settled his mind as to her appearance and her voice. She was tall, almost too tall, he was .sure of that; and out of his consciousness there had grown a sweet and vivacious young face that he knew was hers. Her hair was light brown, with gold lusters (he reveled in the gold lusters on the proper theory that when your fancy is painting a picture you may as well go in for the whole thing and make it sumptuous), and her eyes were gray. They were very earnest, and yet they sparkled and laughed to him companionably, and sometimes he smiled back upon her. The Undine danced before him through tile lonely years, on fair nights in his walks and came to sit by his fire on winter evenings when he stared alone at the embers. And tonight, here in Plattville, he heard a voice he had waited for long, one that his fickle memory told him he I had never heard before. But, listening, he knew .better-he had heard it long ago, though when and how he did not know, as rich and true and ineffably tender as now. He threw a sop to his common sense. "Miss Sherwood is a little thing" (the image was so surely tall), "with a bumpy forehead and spec? tacles," he said to himself, "or else a provincial young lady with big eyes to pose at you." Then he felt the ridicu? lousness of looking after his common sense on a moonlight night in June; also, he knew that he lied. The song had ceased, but the musician ingered, and the keys were touched to plaintive harmonies new to him. He iad come to Plattville before "Caval leria Rusticana" won the prize at Rome, and now, entranced, he heard the "In? termezzo" for the first time. Listening to this, he feared to move lest he should wake from a summer night's dream. A ragged little shadow flitted down the path behind him, and from a soli? tary apple tree standing like a lone? ly ghost in the middle of the field came the "Wool** of a screech owl twice. It was answered-twice-from a clump of elder bushes that grew in a fence corner fifty yards west of the pasture bars. Then the barrel of a squirrel rifle issued, lifted out of the white elder blos? soms, and lay along the fence. The music in the house across the way ceas? ed, and Harkless saw two white dresses come out through the long parlor win- j dows on to the veranda. "It will be cooler out here," came the voice of the singer clearly through the quiet. "What a night!" John vaulted the bars and started to I cross the road. They saw him from the veranda, and Miss Briscoe" called j to him in welcome. As his tall figure j stood out plainly in the bright light against the white dust a streak of fire leaped from the elder blossoms, and there rang out the sharp report of a rifle. There were two screams from the veranda. One white figure ran into theAouse. The other, a little one with a gauzy wrap streaming behind, came flying out into the moonlight straight to Harkless. There was a second re? port The rifle sljot was answered by a ?revolver. William Todd had risen up. apparently from nowhere, and. kneeling by the pasture bars, fired at the flash of the rifle. "Jump fer the shadder, Mr. Hark? less!" he shouted. "He's in them el? ders. Fer God's sake, come back!" Empty handed as he was, the editor dashed for the treacherous elder bush as fast as his long legs could carry him, but before he had taken six strides a hand clutched his sleeve and a girl's voice quavered from close be? hind him: "Don't run like that Mr. Harkless! I can't keep up." He wheeled about and confronted a vision, a dainty little figure about five feet high, a flushed and lovely face, hair and draperies disarranged and flying. He stamped his foot with rage. tTGet back in the house!" he cried. "You musing go!" she panted. "It's the only way to stop you." "Go back to the house!" he shouted savagely. "Will you come?" "Fer God's sake," cried William Todd, "come back! Keep out of the road!" He was emptying his revolver at the clump of bushes, the uproar of his firing blasting the night Someone screamed from the house: "Helen, Helen!" John seized the girl's wrists. Her gray eyes flashed into his defiantly. "Will you go?" he roared. "No!" He dropped her wrists, caught her up in his arms as if she had been a kit? ten and leaped into the shadow of the trees that leaned over the road from the yard. The ri?e rang out again, and the little ball whistled venomous? ly overhead. Harkless ran along the fence and turned in at the gate. A loose strand of the girl's hair blew across his cheek, and in the moon her head shone with gold. She had light brov?n hair and gray eyes and a short upper lip like a curled rose leaf. He set her down on the veranda steps. Both of them laughed wildly. "But you carno with me." she gasped triumphantly. "I always thought you were tall." he answered, and there was afterward a time when he had to agree that this was a somewhat vague reply. [TO BE CONTINUED.] i The people o? St. George's have i raised $2,000 to assist in Dorchester county, in building a causeway I across Four Roles Swamp. It will ccst : ?0,000. CASTOR IA For Infants and Children. The Kind You Have Always Bought Signatare of ORINO laxative Fruit Syrup Pleasant to take The new laxative. Does not gripe or nauseate. Cures stomach and liver troubles and chronic con? stipation by restoring the natural action of the stom? ach, liver and bowels. Refusa substitutes. Price 5 Go. DURANT'S PHARMACY. THE FIRST DOLLAR SAVED IS .THE BEST. The Sumter Banking and Mercan tile Company, of Sumter, S. C.. wiD open a saving department and receive deposits of one dollar and over on which 5 per cent, per annum will be allowed, payable^uarterly. The way to have a bank account is to start, and you will find it eas? enough to keep it growing. -?ave youi pennies and mckies and you will soon nave dollars. Call and get particulars as to in erest, deposits, etc. Deposits, subject to check solicited. SUMTER BANKING AND MERCAN TILE COMPANY, Sumter, S. C. Mar 21-tf Colds It should be borne in mind that every cold weakens the lungs, low era the vitality and prepares the system for the more serious dis? eases, among which are the two greatest destroyers of human life, pneumonia and consumption. Chamberlain's Cough Remedy has won its great popularity by its prompt cures ot this most common ailment. It aids expectoration, re? lieves the lungs and opens the secretions, effecting a speedy and permanent cure. It counteracts any tendency toward pneumonia. Price 25c, Large Size 50c stops tia? oovypi and baals lungs t t I Geo. S. Hacker & Son -MANUFACTURERS OF DOORS, SASH, BLINDS, Moulding & Building Material. office and Warerooms. Kine, pposite C> non Street, CHARLESTON, S. C. Pruebas*1 oar make, which wegaarant superior to aoy sold South, and therebr nave money Window and Fancy Glass a Specialty October 16 -o THE "BOSS" COTTON PRESS ! SIMPLEST. STR0N6EST. BEST THE MURRAY-GINNING SYSTEM Gins, Feeders. Condensers, Etc. GIBBES MACHINERY CO. Columbia, S. C. DeLORflE'S PHARMACY, 23 South Main St. Open from 7 a. m. to 10 p. m. ; Sunday, 9 a. m to 1 p. m. Having consolidated my two stores, I will be pleased to see all my customers at the above stand, where I am better pre? pared than ever to serve them. Your prescriptions will be called for and delivered. Phone 45. Full line of Drugs, Garden Seed and Cigars. Your patronage solicited. Call bell for night work. MONEY PICKED UP ! ! BY Writing Life Insurance In The Penn Mutual Insurance Go. I IBER AL contracts to live agents in unoccupied territory. ADDRESS PERRY MOSES, JR, General Agent, Sumter, S. 0. $100,000.00 Capital. THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK of Sumter, S. C. THE Comptroller of the Currency hav? ing approved the increase of the Capital of this Bank to $100,000.00, ? depositors now have as security for their deposits : Capital, - - $100,000 00 Stockholders' Individual Lia? bility, - - - *00,000 00 Surplus and Undivided Prof? its, ... 25,000 00 Total Security for Depositors, $225,000 00 ONLY NATIONLA BANK !h CITY OF SU M Tefl. Largest Capital of any Bank in this section of South Carolina. Strongest Bank in Eastern part of this State. Interest allowed on deposits to a limited amount. BOARD OF DIRECTORS. A. J. CHINA, President NEILL O'DONNELL, Vice President H. D. BARNETT, R. D. LEE, G. A. LEMMON, JOHN REID, * E. P. RICEER. R. L. Er MUNDS, Cashier. R. D. LEE, Solicitor. BOOKKEEPERS. J. L. Mccallum, D. J. Winn, Jr. _Oliver L. Yates. _ THE BANK OF SUMTER, SUMTER, S. C. City and County Depository. Capital stock paid in, $75,000 00 Undivided surplus, 16,000 00 Individual liability of stockhold? ers in excess of their stock, 75,000 00 Transacts a general banking business; also has a Saving Bank Department De? posits of $1 and upward received. Inter? est allowed at the rate of 4 per cent, per annum, payable semi-annually. W. F. B. HAYNSWORTH, President R. I. MANNING, W. F. RHAME, V ice-President. Cashier. Jan. 31._ THE-SUMTER S?VIN8S BINK. HORACE HARBY, President. I. C. STRAUSS. Vice-president. GEO. L. RJCF.ER, Cashier. Capital Stock, S25.000 Liabilitv of Stockholders, 25,000 [?5;?!???iS?!Piai?[iI il Every Facility For the transaction of business is afford 3d those who deposit their money with The Sumter Savings Bank, Important papers can be drawn up and ?gned in a private room set aside for use Df our clients and any information de? sired will be cheerfully furnished by the management. Savings deposited here draw interest at :he rate of 4 per cent per annum. $1.00 will open an account and secure a bank Dook. J^^^^r^ptlyobteh^r^^^n^^reign ll I?SJ3-LM-^3 (Send model, sketch or photo of invention for< free report on patentability, lor free book, ' J?rTRADE-MARKS 'S*' CA-5N0W? Opposite U. S. Patent Office ^WASHINGTON D.C.