Decatur Democrat, Volume 43, Number 52, Decatur, Adams County, 8 March 1900 — Page 7

m HIS STEPS. <‘What Would Jesus Do?” By CHARLES M. SHELDON. .. > nr.blisho !in Look form by <’"• «'f Chicago.] [CONTINUED.] CHAPTER IX Master. I "i :1 fol!ow thce '’iii’beraoerer thou E The Saturday matinee i:t the Audiin Chicago was just over, and tbe usual crowd was struggling to get , 0 its carnage before any one else. The luditorinm attendant was shouting out the number jf different carriages, and the carriage doors were slamming as the horses wers driven rapidly to the enrb held there impatient by the drivers who had shivered long in the ra w east wind, and then let go to ulnnge for a few minutes into the river of vekicles that tossed under the elevated railway and finally went whirling off up the avenue. “Now. then, 624!” shouted the Auditorium attendant. “Six hundred and twenty-four!” ho repeated as there dashed up to the curb a splendid span of black horses attached to a carriage having the monogram “C. R. S. ” in .-lit letters on the panel of the door. r Two girls stepped out of the crowd toward the carriage. The older one had entered and taken her seat, and the attendant was still holding the door open for the younger, who stood hesitating on tha curb. “Come, Felicia! What are you waiting for? I shall freeze to death!” called the voice from the carriage. The girl outside of the carriage hastily unpinned a bunch of English violets from her dress and handed them to a small boy who was standing shivering on the edge of the sidewalk, almost under the horses’ feet. He tock them with a look of astonishment and a “Thank ye. lady!” and instantly buried a very grimy face in the bunch of perfume. The girl stepped into the carriage, the door shut with the incisive bang peculiar to well made carriages of this sort, and in a few moments the coachman was speeding the horses rr.pidly up one of the boulevards. “You are always doing some queer thing or other. Felicia.” said the older girl as the carriage whirled on past the great residences already brilliantly lighted. “Am I ? What have I done that is queer now. Rose?” asked the other, looking up suddenly and turning her head toward her sister. “Oh. giving those violets to that boyl He looked as if he needed a good hot i supper more than a bunch of violets. It’s a wonder you didn’t invite him home with us. I shouldn’t have been i surprised if you had. Yon are always doing such queer things. Felicia. ” “Would it be queer to invite a boy I like that to come to the house and get a hot supper?” Felicia asked the question softly and almost as if she were alone. “Queer isn't just the word, of course." replied Rose indifferently. “It would bo what Mme. Blanc calls outre —decidedly Therefore you will please not invite him or others like him to hot suppers because I suggested it. Oh. [dear! I'm awfully tired. ” She yawned, and Felicia silently looked out of the window in the door. “The concert was stupid, and the violinist was simply a boro. I don’t see how you could sit so still through it all,” Rose exclaimed, a little impatiently. “Hiked the music. ’’ answered Felicia quietly. "You like anything. I never saw a girl with so little critical taste. ” Felicia colored slightly, but would not answer Rose yawned again and then hummed a fragment of a popular song. Then she exclaimed abruptly: “I in sick of almost everything. I hope the ‘Shadows of London’ will be exciting tonight. " “ ‘The Shadows of Chicago!' ” murmured Felicia. ‘The Shadows of Chicago!’ ‘The •.hadowsof London. ’ the play, the great drama with its wonderful scenery, the sensation of New Y’ork for two months. lon know we have a box with the Delanos tonight. ” Felicia turned her face toward her Sbter. Her great brown eyes were very expressive and not altogether free from a spark! > of luminous heat And yet we never weep over the LJ! on the actual stage of life, hat are the shadows of London on the i stage to the shadows of London or Chi- | l »go as they really exist? Why don’t "eget excited over the facts as they are? Because the actual people are dirty 1 \ < ’ lsa^reea kle and it’s too much ■, I . er ' I K 'tppose. ’' replied Rose carejA y "Felicia, you never can reform t that’s the use? We’re not '> lame for the poverty and misery ’ ave always been rich and poor, there always will be. We ought to thankful we’re rich. ” t! ,;A'A‘ lOse Christ had gone on that , Tl C ? Pe ' re PHed Felicia, with unpersistence. “Do you remember S 8 Beri:ion on that verse a few < n a ’ 0 ’ For know the grace h P . rd ’Lisns Christ, that, though cam/ 9 n<? h’ F et For our sakes he beiuiirhtPK? r ' that ye through his poverty “‘gnt become rich ?’ ” Ros? retneill ber it well enough. ’’ said didn’t WnM Petulance. “And v ... Bruce go on to say that there had attached t 0 P e °P le who the need, 7c f l hey are klnd and give the do v tke P°° r ‘ And lam sure settled n loß6l * is I jrett F comfortably jnst bee Ue never gives up his luxuries hunm n S, Bome People in the city go did 8 i , Ji aat good would it do if he w ays be * y ° n ’ Felicia, there will al- - poor and rich in spite of all we

can do. Ever since Rachel has written about the queer doings in Raymond yon have upset the whole family People can't live at that concert pitch all the time. You see if Rachel doesn’t give it up soon. It’s a great pity she doesn’t come to Chicago and sing in the Auditorium concerts. I heard today she had received an offer. I’m goir,<- to write and urge her to come. I’m just dying to h-.nr her sing. ” Fi licia locked out of the window and was silent The carriage rolled on past two blocks of magnificent private residences and turned into a wide driveway under a covered passage, and the sisters hurried into the house. It was an elegant mansion of graystone, furnished like a palace, every corner of it warm with the luxury of paintings, sculpture, art and refinement. The owner of it all. Mr Charles R. Sterling, stood before an open grate fire smoking a cigar. He had made his money in grain speculation and railroad ventures and was reputed to be worth something over two millions. His wife was a sister of Mrs. Winslow of Raymond. She had been an invalid for several years. The two girls, Rose and Felicia, were the only children. Rose was 21 years old, fair, vivacious, | educated in a fashionable college, just entering society and already somewhat cynical and indifferent, a very hard young lady to please, her father said sometimes playfully, sometimes sternly. Felicia was 19, with a tropical beauty somewhat like her cousin, Rachel Wins- I low, with warm, generous impulses | just waking into Christian feeling, capable of all sorts of expression, a puzzle i to her father, a source of irritation to her mother and with a great, unsurveyed territory of thought and action in herself of which she was more than dimly conscious. There was that in Felicia that would easily endure any condition in life if only the liberty to act fully on her conscientious convictions were granted her. “Here’s a letter for you. Felicia,” said Mr. Sterling, taking it out of his pocket. Felicia sat down and instantly opened the letter, saying as she did so. “It’s from Rachel. ” “Well, what’s the latest news from Raymond?” asked Mr. Sterling, taking his cigar out of his mouth and looking at Felicia, as he often did, with half shut eyes, as if he were studying her. “Rachel says Dr. Bruce has been studying in Raymond for two Sundays and has seemed very much interested in Mr. Maxwell’s pledge in the First church. ’' “What does Rachel say about herself?” asked Rose, who was lying on a couch almost buried under half a dozen elegant cushions. “She is still singing at the Rectangle. Since the tent meetings closed she sings in an old hall until the new buildings her friend Virginia Page is putting up are completed. ” “I must write Rachel to come to Chicago and visit us. She ought not to throw away her voice in that railroad town upon all those people who don’t appreciate her. ” Mr. Sterling lighted a new cigar, and Rose exclaimed: “Rachel is awfully queer, I think She might set Chicago wild with her voice if she sang in the Auditorium, and there she goes on. throwing her voice away on people who don’t know what they are hearing. ’’ “Rachel won't come here unless she can do it and keep her pledge at the same time. " said Felicia after a pause “What pledge?” Mr. Sterling asked the question and then added hastily “Oh. I know I Yes; a very peculiar thing that. Powers used to be a friend of mine. We learned telegraphy in the same office; made a great sensation when he resigned and handed over that evidence to the interstate commerce commission, and he’s back at his telegraphy again. There have been queer doings in Raymond during the past year. I wonder what Dr. Bruce thinks of it. on the whole. I must have a talk with him about it. ” “He preaches tomorrow. ” said Felicia. “Perhaps he will tell us something about it. ” There was silency for a minute. Then Felicia said abruptly, as if she had gone on with a spoken thought to some invisible hearer, “And what if he should propose the same pledge to the Nazareth Avenue church?” “ Who ? What are you talking about ?’' asked her father, a little sharply. “About Dr. Bruce. I say what if he : should propose to our church what MiMaxwell proposed to his and ask for volunteers who would pledge themselves to do everything after asking the ques- ! tion. ‘What would Jesus do?’ “There's no danger of it, ” said Rose. I rising suddenly from the couch as the , tea bell rang. “It’s a very impracticable movement I to my mind. ’’ said Mr. Sterling sharply “I understand from Rachel s letter that the church in Raymond is going | to make an attempt to extend the idea of the pledge to the other churches. If they succeed, they will certainly make . great changes in the churches and in people’s lives." said Felicia. “Oh. well, let’s have some tea first, said Rose, walking into the dining room. Her father and Felicia followed, and the meal proceeded in silence. Mrs. Sterling had her meals served in her room. Mr. Sterling was preoccupied. He ate very little and excused himself early, and. although it was Saturday night, he remarked as he went out that he would be down town late on some special business. “Don’t you think father looks very much disturbed lately ? asked Felicia a little while after he had gone out. “Oh. I don’t know! I hadn't noticed anything unusual, replied Rose. After a silence she said; “Are you going to the play tonight. Felicia? Mrs. Delano will be here at half past 7. I think you ought to go. She will feel hurt i you refus©-' “I’ll go. I don’t care about it I can see shadows enough without going to the play. ”

COFFEE I Used in Millions of Homes! Coffee f° r Money! » Accept no substitute ! Hwill Try L,ON COFFEE and y° u will never use Insist on LION COFFEE, ini lb. pkgs. WYLO “"cXand SXnX These articles mailed FREE in Mil Fancy Gold Ring. I Genu^ l " , X® ettina Sj exchange for lion heads cut from ipfe . JO IW E| non 18 l ” ,r ji For 25 non hJ front of i lb. TION COFFEE pkgs. Ifd R! he , ad5 n a t nd IKI WI 2-cent 2-cent z 7p j) >Z. — M .... —...,, —- r t- B KJ I stamp. stamp. L* I r^J: I \ Silk Umbrella (either Lady’s or Gents). LN These rings are genuine rolled-gold plate, having the exact fpi appearance and qualities of solid gold, and guaranteed by r—u \ Kt j F iIfXJWI the makers to last two years with ordinary usage New Sent by express f, < J AJj* jr | patterns and very popular (charges pre li I I ‘! | T.».„ ral . l u. su . i X Cut a strip of thick paper so that the ends will A very fine umbrella, made of union silk-taffeta; nc.? a 2/49* exactly meet when drawn around second 26-lnch frame with seven ribs: steel rod and silver B \TkF MSaTli PIImkTV H. VfIMK lointof the linger Lay one end on this diagram XCongohandle. Would cost fAOO at the store. | gl CH 13 IB; TWllia 8 I MEW rLAVUn | “ nd order the number the otber CDd ( Dress-Pin Set. “Knickerbocker” Watch. | Pair of Lace Handkerchiefs. | Art Picture, “Easter na i! ed J ree ! or *, S Given for 175 lion I Twoextraflne A t Greeting” y-awagU Hon heads and a2- heads and a 2-cent gmA cambric hand- Z'Vk I ° X I cent stamp. Three stamp. Neat appear- Vta/ kerchiefs with // W Given for 8 BF tins in the set (larger i n g and an excellent beautiful im- // W Jion heads cut than shown), com- time-keeper. Solid ported lace me- // \ \ from Lion Cos- jl ■' Cwr posed of fine rolled- nickel-silver case, with dallion inser- / / \ \ Jee wrappers A gold, with handsome ornamental back. lions in the cor- A —\ X. and a 2-cent V. tin™ y e °Aimbll “ToX Sickel nem Hall inch stal *P- ' .OTJ tings. Suitable for escapement fully hem machine k a hiohiv KT fczi wa&t-pms, cuß-pins. jewelM The famous riSftf niofnrA I •'■®K I 6 ® 5 childnV' aS a v^ iCkerb ° Cker " ctllla 3 watch able. A pair of V Y/7 V the finest draw- VM . . "I — these handker- ing room. The <SaSh-Belt and Buckle. I adies’ Watch Chain. chiefs given for 18 non heads cut from background of W .w j Lduics vvaiuii vna Lion coffee wrappers and a 2c. stamp. royal dark-blue A double strand of best silk cord, united furnishes an "./ f | lujhk at intervals with colored tieads. neat and appropriate Jv-x tr ML substantial. For 15 lion heads and a i contrast to the £ / z q Men ion your stamn. Children’s Picture Book. little girl and 7 1 «i»A , waist-mea.-,ure JflN ——■ 1 ■ her white East- J . '1 ; f W I WK? “"“"V’ Oent ’ s O Watch ' ““’“/Rs STS?"?: 1.a’77 IjM raftiijr.flailed free for 90 1 ' A ,Ji Iftige pages of Mo- will send it tinned ready for hanging. Cuf »on heads and a a * Me ‘ - B —V 2-cent stamp. The t and wIP Mailed free for 15 Hon heads cut from // N 111 1 celebrated •• Inger- y Flower Picture. Lion Coffee wrappersand a 2-cent stamp. n//v\ I 2\vtk soil” watch; stem- v ® .._ .. Latest style of imported black Swiss gros if . n -L- t * g \O wound and stem- lIIAI II A ’ grain ribbon belting; stylish imitation Illi ß set:durable nickel- I a'x oxidized silver buckle; neat, strong and Vk 4/Jy plated case; each sonmeut. '■ ffashionable. watch accompan- iy r ■■■■■■■ied by guarantee J) Silver Napkin-Ring. t r , „ , « For IS lion heads and a I”"”*”— Century Cook-Book. . I 2-cent stamp Neat and kfcjLSri [ Pnct-pf-Rnnk -t W7 substantial. Made of dur- L3CICS f-OCKLI-DOOK. j > f-jj* •v able metal, heavily silver- Lanre size and 368 pages of valu- S For 8 lion heads and a 2c. stamp . ) plated. Two different latest shape. Black al !' e «» k > n ß J e ‘ £ UoalcookbookP American Beauty Roses and Li hes-of-wUh ® B " Sht T £ Coin-Purse c ,'„ “, ’ Ln taffi visiting room, and remedies i “ The Dancing Lesson.” v®’ ‘-lOSt iSA For 15 lion heads and flap to hold MMtui g for the more com- 8 BgJf LB MR f 2-cent stamp, color. cards secure. Ms. mondiseaos Sfl 111 'B —rj, T \'IA I P -uJi S I' ±SSSi # W 11/ZcaA f -3L £ —r. I F r ""'"' Table Cover. —■■hi —mTim-mifiMii j | Lad,es ’ Pen ' Knife - A Boys’Pocket-Knife. For 15 lion heads cut from 4 .J’"* » r *" , J r - y- 2 *' Xx Lion Coffee wrappers and a 2c. 9 * -'-i£ "•>«& • ®SR • i-3 colored The' Easv- . j stamp. Large size, good ma- | !^ at . en ?u Opener” ; I*7J tetter- handles nicely decorated ffe'v - 1 t stn.ng. slmrp Ty 1 and assorted colors. T"1 washing blade: The green grass and trees, the little 3> inches red-wood brown kitten and the girl's snow-white - jrii 'lu'j Viui"-uiji i ■ square, handle dress form a pleasing combination of colI- including fancy fringed border Mailed For 12 lion heads and a 2c. 2 1 ?; Size, 15 x2l inches. Hailed free for I free for 25 lion heads and a 2c. stamp. ® lion heads and a 2-cent stamp. iy P* t V** THE ABOVE AiIE ONLV A FEW 0F THE L!ON COFFEE PREMIUMS. Another list will MVgP&ftTANT NOTfCEo shortly appear in this paper 1 Don’t miss It 1 The grandest list of premiums ever offered I When writing for premiums send your letter in the same envelope or ( g# ■■■ i - ■ ■— package with the lion heads. If more than 15 lion heads are sent, you can J|J Vou alway s know LION COFFEE by the wrapper. It is . sealed pack- fKustSSS* y °“ r W* age, with the lion’s head In front. It is absolutely pure if the package illustrated premium list. Address all letters to the ig i:nbroken LION COFFEE is roasted the day it leaves the factory. | WOOLSOH SPICE CO., Toledo. Ohio. M

“That's a doleful remark for a girl 19 years old to make.” replied Rose, “but then you’re queer in your ideas anyhow. Felicia. If you’re going up to see mother, tell her I’ll run in after the play if she is still awake.' Felicia went up to see her mother and remain with her until the Delano carriage came. Mrs. Sterling was wor-‘ ried about her husband. She talked incessantly and was irritated by every remark Felicia made. She would not listen to Felicia’s attempts to read even a part of Rachel’s letter, and when Felicia offered to stay with her for the evening she refused the offer with a good deal of positive sharj ness So Felicia s’tarted off to the play not very happy, but she was familiar with that feeling, only sometimes she was more unhappy than at other times Her feeling expressed itself tonight by a withdrawal into herself. When the company was seated in the box and the curtain was up. Felicia was back of the others and remained forth • evening by herself. Mrs. Delano as chaperon for a half dozen young ladies understood Felicia well enough to know that she was “queer. ” as Rose so often said, and she made no attempt to draw her out of the corner, and so Felicia really experienced that night by herself one of the feelings that added to the momentum that was increasing the c.miia, on of her great crisis. The play was an English melodrama full of startling situations, realistic scenery and unexpected climaxes. There was one scene in the third act that impressed even Rose Sterling It was midnight on Blackfriars bridge. The Thames flowed dark and forbidding below St Paul’s rose through the dim light, imposing, its dome seeming to float above the build ings surrounding it. The figure of a child came upon the bridge and stood there for a moment, peering about as if looking for some one. Several persons were crossing the bridge, but in one of the recesses about midway of the river a woman stood, leaning out over the parapet with a strained agony of face and figure that told plainly of her in- | tentiona Just as she was stealthily .

mounting the parapet to throw herself into the river the child caught sight of her. ran t'orv. ard. with a shrill cry more animal than human, and. seizing the woman s dress, dragged back upon it with all her little strength Then there came suddenly upon the scene two other characters who had already figured in the play, a tall, handsome, athletic gentleman dressed in the fashion, attended bv a slim figured lad. who was as refined in dress and appearance as tire little girl clinging to her mother was mournfully hideous in her rags and repulsive poverty These two. the gentleman and the lad. prevented the attempted suicide, and after a tableau on the bridge where the audience learned that the man and woman were brother and sister the scene was transferred to the interior of one of the slum tenements in the east side of London Here the scene painter and carpenter had done their utmost to produce an exact copy of a famous court and alley well known to the poor creatures who make up a part of the outcast London humanity The rags, the crowding, the vileness, the broken furniture, the horrible animal existence forced upon creatures made in God's image, were so skillfully shown in this scene that more than one elegant woman in the theater, seated, like Rose Sterling, in a sumptuous box. surrounded with silk hangings and velvet covered railing, caught herself shrinking back a little, as if contamination were [Kissible from the nearness of this piece of painted canvas It was almost too realistic, and yet it had a horrible fascination for Felicia as she sat there alone, buried back in a cushioned seat absorbed in thoughts that went far beyond the dialogue on the stage. From the tenement scene the play shifted to the interior of a nobleman's palace, ifnd almost a sigh of relief went up all over the house at the sight of the accustomed luxury of the upper classes I The contrast was startling It was brought about by a clever piece of stag- ; ing that allowed only a few minutes to elapse between the slum and the palace scenes. The dialogue continued, the actors came and went in their various

roles, but upon Felicia the play made but one distinct impression In reality the scenes on the bridge and in the slum were only incidents in the story of the play, but Felicia found herself living those scenes over and over Bhe had never philosophized about the causes of human misery She was not old enough She had not the temperament that philosophizes But she felt intensely, and this was not the first time she had felt the contrast thrust into her feeling between the upper and the lower conditions of human life It had been growing upon her until it had made her what Rose called “queer ” and the other people in her circle of wealthy acquaintances called “very unusual. It was simply the human problem in its extremes of riches and poverty, its refinement and its vileness, which was in spite of her unconscious attempts to struggle against the facts, burning into her life the impression that would in the end transform her into either a woman of rare love and self sacrifice for the world or a miserable enigma to herself and ail who knew her “Come. Felicia! Aren t you going! home?' said Rose. The play was over, i the curtain down, and people were going noisily out. laughing and gossiping. ! as if “The Shadows of London' was simply good diversion, as it was put on the stage so effectively Felicia rose and went out with the , rest quietly and with the absorbed feel ing that had actually left her in her seat oblivious of the play 's ending She ■ v?as never absentminded, but often I thought herself into a condition that left her alone in the midst of a crowd. “Well, what did you think of it?’ , asked Rose when the sisters had reached home and were in the drawing room I Rose really had considerable respect for Felicia's judgment of a play “I thought it was a pretty picture of real life “I mean the acting. ” said Rose, an noyed. “The bridge scene was well acted, 5 especially the woman’s part. I thought the man overdid the sentiment a little.' i “Did you? I enjoyed that. And 1 wasn’t the scene between the two cons-

ins funny when they first learned that they were related ? But the slum scene was horrible 1 think they ought not to show such things in a play They are too painful '•They must be painful in real life, too, replied Felicia. ■‘Yes. but we don’t have to look at the real thing It’s bad enough at the theater, where we pay for it Rose went into the drawing room and began to eat from a plate of fruit and cakes on the sideboard. “Are you going up to see mother?” asked Felicia after awhile. She had remained in front of the drawing room fire. “No, ” replied Rose from the other room: "I won’t trouble her tonight. If you go in. tell her I am too tired to be agreeable. ” So Felicia turned into her mother’s room. As she went up the great staircase and down the upper hall the light was burning there, and the servant who always waited on Mrs. Sterling was beckoning Felicia to come in. “Tell Clara to go out,” esclaimed Mrs. Sterling as Felicia came up to the bed and kneeled by it. Felicia was surprised, but she did as her mother bade her and then inquired how she was feeling. “Felicia,” said T. ■ f mother, “can you pray?’ The question was so unlike any her mother had ever asked before that Felicia was startled, but she answered: “Why. yes. mother. What makes vou ask such a question'?” “Felicia. I am frightened. Your father —I have had such strange fears about him all day. Something is wrong with him. I want you to pray. ” “Now? Here, mother?” “Yes. Pray. Felicia. ” ! m BF CONTINUED.] ''Kt',

IDrlennersGCLDEN RELIEFg « C A TRUE SPECIFIC IM ALL ■= * K INFLAMMATION j? *•£ Sorethroat. Headache (5 minutes'. Tooth- — o ache (1 minute). Cold Sores. Felons. etc.etc. » c 00 “Colds, Forming Fevers, GRIP, : "" CURES ANY PAIN INSIDE OR OUT "" in one to thirty minutes. By Dealers. The SOc.sise ty man OOe. KrwkxUaJv*■,