Democratic Press, Volume 1, Number 13, Decatur, Adams County, 10 January 1895 — Page 8

A MYSTERIOUS TRUST. friend Or. Macpherson, the well-known brain-specialist, of Harley street, happened to call upon me on the very day that 1 opened Guy Denning’s mysterious sealed packet—a very fortunate circumstance, it seemed to me; for the discovery I had jast made caused me to entertain fears for Denning’s sanity, and I was glad to have the chance of getting such a valuable opinion as Macpherson’s on the subject. The doctor had dropped in to ask whether I could recommend anybody to act as his amanuensis. He was writing a medical work and wanted ■omebody to live in the house and write from his dictation, in the odd moments he had to devote to it. He was willing to pay a good salary, he said, but was anxious to obtain an assistant who was not only well educated, but a gentleman. It was the ideal post that I had been wishing I could find for Denning. To me it seemed a remarkable coincidence that Macpherson should offer it just at the moment when thoughts of the young fellow were filling my mind. “I have the exact man for you," I said, "a college friend of mine, called Guy Denning, who lost his whole fortune two years ago by the failure of a bank. There are only two possible drawbacks if you wish to engage him. One is that he may be dead, and the other is that it seems to me very much as though he is mad.” Macpherson laughed, although I was speaking very seriously. “In either case he would not be of much use for my purpose. What makes you think he may be mad?” “Weill the thought did not occur to me until this morning, 1 admit. I will tell you the whole affair, and see what you think about it. When Denning lost his money, as 1 told you, he would not let me help him in any way, although I believe he was absolutely penniless. He certainly was five weeks ago, when he turned up unexpectedly, after the lapse of almost a year, during which I had not seen or heard of him. He told me that he had been having a rough time, but would not let me lend him a penny. ‘What is the use of borrowing when 1 shall never have the chance of paying back?’ he s-.id, and I had never heard him speak in such a thoroughly hopeless tone. ■What 1 want you to do,’ he went on, ’is to mind this little sealed packet forme for a month, if you do not mind. Guard it as something very precious, for ths thought of it will be the only thing that will keep my courage up while I am away. You will keep it carefully, won’t you, and remember that it is the most precious thing I have in the world.’ I promised solemnly, since he seemed eager about it, and Denning went on: ’A month from to-day 1 shall come back for it I want you to promise that, whatever happens, or whatever you may think, you will let me have it back at the end of the month. If in five weeks' time I have not asked for it, you can do what you like with the parcel. W hat it contains I should like you to destroy.’” “How long ago was that?” asked Macpherson. “Five weeks yesterday.” “Then you have opened this mysterious parcel?" “Yes, an hour ago. I will bring it and let you have a look at it.” The doctor thanked me, and I ran upstairs to fetch what Guy Denning had called the most precious thing in the world. I had locked it up in a drawer of my desk exactly as I had found it, except of course, that the seals were broken. When I brought it down I handed it to my companion without a word. The physician took the small cubical packet, and unwrapped the paper coving. Beneath was an ordinary wooden box, about three inches square, which contained a smaller package covered with more paper. After these wrappings were removed, another very small box was revealed, which appeared to be full of tissue paper. I watched the physician’s face as he unwrapped them one by one, till in the very inmost paper he came to the article which had been packed so carefully—the single dried pip of an orange. “Well? what do you think of it?” I asked, when the doctor came to the end of his search. He was carefully examining the smaller of the two boxes. “I think that this box, and probably the seed which it contains, came from China,” he said. “Has your friend ever been there?” “Oh! yes. He traveled a good deal after leaving Cambridge. But the fact that the pip came from China does not make it any more valuable, does it?" “Possibly it makes it of more account to Mr. Donning.” “In what wav?” •T may be wrong, so I will not say until I have examined it I should like to take it home with me to look at, if you do not mind." “Os course not But if the owner of the pip turns up, and wants his property back—though it puzzles me to think how there can be any value in the thing—you will let me have it back at once?” “Certainly,” answered Macpherson. “I sincerely hope that your friend will turn up. He seems to be just the man I am wanting.” When Guy Denning had not appeared at the end of the month, I had given up all hopes of ever seeing him again. The earnestness with which he had spoken of the time when he would return for his precious packet made me feel, when five weeks passed without a sign of him, that the poor fellow must be dead; and my uneasiness was only increased by the discovery of the packet's contents, which —although Macpherson refused to give an off-hand opinion on the subject — suggested nothing but madness. However, on the very day that Macpherson took away tue pip, I was re-

lieved by the receipt of a letter from Denning himself, in which he informed me that he proposed to call on me that same evening, and earnestly hoped that I had not destroyed what he had left in my charge. It was seven o’clock in the evening when I got the note.-so I expected that the writer would follow it very quickly, if he really intended to come the same night. 1 sent round a message to Harley street, therefore, asking Macpherson to forward Deming’s packet at once, as my friend was expecting to find it at my house. The fact that in h's letter Guy had again spoken of his mysterious trust made me inclined to believe that the contents of the packet must have some peculiar value unknown to a person unacquainted with Its history or its character. I was relieved, therefore, when, in answer to my urgent message, Macpherson himself brought over the mysterious packet, with the pip apparently uninjured by his investigations, if he had made any. He had not time to say what he had done, for Guy Denning was already in the house. He had been shown into my study barely two minutes before, and I was anxious not to keep him waiting. I hurried up to him with the packet which the doctor had delivered to me in my hand, but forgot all about it in ! the consternation of seeing how greatly its owner had changed even since j giving it into my charge. He was ragged and famished-looking, and 1 paused in the doorway to call to my housekeeper, whose step I heard below, and ask her to have supper laid at once. “If that is for me,” said Denning, as I returned to the room, “you need not trouble yourself, old man. I cannot eat. All I want is the little box I left with you. Tell me that you have not destroyed it.” His tone was full of nervous eagerness, and when I handed the wrappedup box to him he seized it eagerly, and undid the many papers with trem- : bling fingers, uttering a little cry of relief as he came to the pip. Then, as 1 watched him, to my astonishment, he lifted it to his mouth and deliberately swallowed i£. 1 was so surprised by the action i that for a moment I could not speak. Guy Denning answered the question in my eyes. “It means that in a few minutes all ' my troubles will be at an end,” he said quietly, seating himself by my , desk. “I am sorry to have had to take ' my life, and more sorry to bother you ' with the affair, the only man who has shown me kindness: but I do not want to die all alone, and I cannot stand any i longer what I have had to go through during the last year. This pip I bought in China four years ago. although I did not expect 1 should ever have to use it. The poison it is saturated with is said to be painless and to leave no traces. 1 thought you would arrange so that everybody will think I have died naturally. ” I did not wait for any more. My mind had been slow to realize that the pip was poisoned, but as soon as I grasped the fact I was out of the room in a second, and flying downstairs, to fetch Macpherson. I was heartily thankful for my good luck in having a doctor in the house. My friend, the brain specialist, appeared to take the news very calmly. “I expected as much.” he said, quietly. “If you will get me a glass, I will give him an antidote, poor fellow.” We went up to the study together with it. and I was relieved to find Denning alive and conscious. He drank the mixture Macpherson had prepared for him, with a faint smile. “There is no antidote for the poison I have taken, doctor,” he said, and the physician answered briskly: “So they say in China, but, luckily for you, I have met with these poisoned orange-pips before.” And then he went on talking in the most ordinary tone about the amanuensis he wanted, offering the post to Denning in away that seemed to me perfectly heartless, considering that he was talking to a man who would most probably be a corpse before the night was over. “I wish you had made me this offer ten minutes ago,” said Denning. “It is just my luck to hear of it a few minutes too late. Heaven knows that I have held out as long as a man could.” “Vt ell! you need not speak so hopelessly,” said the doctor. ‘ You see that the poison has had no ill effect so far. Let your experience teach you that suicide is an ill-advised step. If supper is ready I think that would complete the cure.” It was not until the meal was over that poor Denning began to think the doctor was right, and that life was still before him. Then, when he had retired to have a bath, and get into a suit of my clothes, I seized, the opportunity to compliment Macpherson on his successful treatment of the case. “What did the antidote consist of?” I asked; and the brain specialist smiled dryly. “The drink I gave him was only diluted port. I did not want to make the poor fellow feel foolish after the awful mental strain he must have gone through.” “Then wasn't the pip poisoned?” “Yes, w ith a deadly poison for which there is no antidote. But I took the precaution, of course, before returning the packet of changing the pip.”— Pall Mall Budget Division of Labor. “When it comes to traveling,” exclaimed the head of the family, “a man has to do all the real work. My wife has only packed the trunks, dressed the children, spread cloths over the furniture, and a few things like that: while every bit of information that has been got from the time table I had to attend to myself.”—Detroit Tribune. —ln the time of Augustus a female dancer was worth two thousand dollars; a flute-player who could also dance, three thousand dollars; a doctor, seven hundred dollars; a copyist, nine hundred dollars.

AN EMSAhRASScO BURGLAR. The Sleeping Mau Was Suffering from Nightmare and Might Wake Somebody. “Ouee,” said the retired burglar to a writer for the New York Sun, “I looked from the upper hall of a house that I was in into a room that was so dark that you literally couldn't see into it at all. It seemed as if they must have had the windows closed, the blinds shut and the shades all down. It was blacker'n a cave. I turned my light in around on the floor to get the lay of things and fix ’em in my mind so as not to stumble over anything. Over by the bed I saW a ehair, and hanging down from it a pair of troupers legs. Then, of course, 1 knew there was a man in the bed, and that it was his clothes that were stacked up on the chair there. I shut off my light and started. I knew the way. and I went very quickly, but when I got about half-way across the room the man in the bed began to holler. How he could see me I couldn't understand. I couldn't see him at all, but I just halted and I waited. He didn't holler very loud, though he was trying to hard; but he was so scared that I was surprised to hear him holler at all; it sounded as I though it was all he could do to catch I his breath. I was afraid he would I scare himself to death right on the spot. I didn't dare back out of the room for fear I'd meet somebody coming in. I thought I could dodge ’em better after I they got in; so I just stood there in the middle of that dark room with the man ! hoUerin’ the best he could, and wishing I was somewhere else, and wondering what was going to turn up next. Well, sir, in about half a minute he stopped hollerin’ altogether and for a I minute or two he did not breathe. Then I was scared; but in about a minute more he begun to snore. You see? He ,■ wasn't scared at me; what he was ' scared at was a nightmare: he didn't I know I was there at all. But it j was a mighty uncomfortable position to be in ull the same, because, of course, he was just as likely to wake up somebody hollerin' in his sleep as he would ha’ been if he'd been wide awake; he might have waked himself up as far's that’s concerned. But he didn’t, nor anybody else, apparently, and when he'd got to snoring again and everything seemed quiet, why I just went ahead and collared his trousers.” DEPLORED HIS OWN WEAKNESS. Uncle Josiah'. Habit of Exaggeration Ton Deeply Rooted lor Eradication. There lived down in Cambridge, Ind., a well-known old gentleman by the name of Josiah Nixon who in early boyhood had acquired the habit of gross exaggeration, says the Indianapolis Sentinel. The habit had grown upon him so that he believed that everything he said was the truth, no matter how great the exaggeration. After he had reached the ripe old age of three score and ten some of the deacons in the church thought his peculiarity was too much like lying to pass unnoticed, and it was decided, after a great deal of consideration, that the old gentleman must lie churched. One evening, while he was seated in front of his door telling a small circle of neighbors about the way pioneers had to live, the gate opened and the delegation of deacons filed in. “Yes,” the old gentleman was saying, “we bad hard times flhen. I lived two years on grass and hickory bark on Sundays. We used to call Sundays ‘bark days' on that account, and that’s the only way we could tell when Sunday come. Bears! I see twelve hundred great big varmints Onc't around our camp, and I killed—” “Uncle Josiah," broke in one of the deacons, “we have come to see you about this habit of yours. You have the unpleasant habit of forgetting the truth when talking, and we have come to remonstrate with you.” “I know it, deacon,” replied the old man, as he looked around. “I know it, and I want to tell you that I have grieved over that failin' of mine five hundred thousand times a day for the past two hundred years." HAD TO WAIT FOR THREE WIVES. Nasr-ed-dln's Marriage Inconvenienced the Austrian Minister. The shah of Persia, who is now in his sixty-third year, and who is the happy parent of eighteen children, concluded recently that he would have another wedding at his magnificent mountai n residence at Elburz, which is some distance from Teheran, says the Paris Herald. His majesty, in order to spare himself the trouble of marrying again at some future day, decided to take to himself three wives at once. The matrimonial projects of the shah caused considerable inconvenience to the recently appointed Austrian minister, who desired to present his credentials to Persia’s ruler. He left for Elburz to do so, but to his great disgust had to wait over a week in a miserable caravansary, situated on the road to Tchera.il; The Persians are great sticklers for court etiquette, and the representatives i are prohibited from entering the capital until the usual formalities have l been observed. As Nasr-ed-din was oci copied with his marriage arrange- ; ments, the court officials were too busy I to look after the Austrian envoy, and ■ he was left out in the cold till the shah i was safely married. Maine's Floating Islands. In some of the lakes of northern Maine there are floating islands. Along the shore roots of trees push into the water, bushes grow among them, moss I fills the chinks and in time a kind of I platform of vegetation is thrown out along the surface of the water. The dense network of roots makes it safe to walk upon and deer paths are often found running across the surface. The surface is covered with deep moss, j cranberry vines, pitcher plants and the | like. When one jumps the bog shakes for rods around and water is always bubbling up around one's ankles. In a high wind pieces of the bog are torn off and they are the floating islands. They generally drift to shore and tie : up by the roots again.

RICH IN FOSSILS. The Bad I*nd» a Bonanza to the Daring Geological Student. “The Bad Lands,” said Horatio Garrett, one of the most earnest rock delvers of the party from Princeton college that recently visited the Bad Lands of North Dakota and Montana to collect fossils, to a northwest magazine representative, “are a strange combination of desolation, horror and incomprehensible freaks of the primeval world. Then? l are lofty peaks. l>are and brown—baked into spires of burning rock by the hot suns of millions of years. The valleys between are white deserts, covered with bitter, dusty and blinding alkali that has made all that country a desert worse than Sahara ever was said to be. “The rivers run wide or turbid with this alkaline concretion in winter, and are dry and dusty channels in the summer. The peaks, the valleys, and every featute of the whole region, in fact, seems to be thrown down upon the earth in nature’s angriest mood —a hideous conglomeration, in which even the geological strata are displaced and entangled. This strange region was once the salt-washed bottom of a sea. and the traces of the receding waves are visible on every hand. The fossils, which were now our main pursuit, are mostly aquatic animals. Few birds, and those mostly of the semi-reptilian character, are found among them, while innumerable bones of gigantic saurians dot the shale and sandstone of the valleys. Mingled with them are remains of bear, antelope and buffalo, and relics of an intermediate age, the bones of the mastodons and elephants —not mammoths—and of a three-toed equine, one 01 the ancestors of the present horse. “Some of the saurian® of the eocene and miocene periods were indescribably hideous. Looking upon the remnants of these monsters and gazing on the awful scenery of the country, a bit of hades upturned to view, one might say—is it any wonder that the Indians shunned the Bad Lands and said they were the haunts of ghosts and the home of evil demons.” H. F. COSTELLO. PHYSICIAN and SURGEON

Office on west side of Second Street, over Teveres Hardware Store. Residence on west Third Street, between Monroe and Jackson. Calls promptly attended to day and night. A. P. BEATTY «L MAMN MANN & BEATTY. ATTORNEYS AT LAW And Notaries Public. Pension claims prosecuted. Odd Fellows building. I /Georgs Ji. ATTORNEY-AT-LAW. AND NOTARY PUBLIC. Pensions and Collections a specialty. Office in the John C. Hale Building GENEVA. - - - - INDIANA. 8080 COFFEE, ATTORNEYS-AT-LAW. Rooms over P. O. :-: Decatur. Ind J. T. FRANCE. J. T. MERRYMAN, N. P. FRANCE & MERRYMAN. ATTORNEYS AT LAW, DECATUR, IND. Office—Nos. 1. 2 and 3 over Adams Co. Bank. We refer, by permission, to Adams Co. Bank. Money to Loan. I have money to loan onthe Loan Association plan. No fees to be paid by borrowers Can furnish money on a few days notice. Buy a home and stop paying rent. Low rate of interest. Office over Donovan & Bremer camp. Central Grocery, Decatur, Ind. PAUL HOOPER BARBER : AND : HAIR : DRESSER Good workmen always employed. Drop u for a good, smooth, easy shave. MONROE STREET. J. D. HALE DEALER IN Grain, Seed, Wool, Salt, Oil, Coal, Lime, Fertilizers. Elevators on the Chicano A Erie and Clover Leaf railroads. Office and retail store south- ] east corner of Second and Jefferson Streets. Your patronage solicited. I P. W. Smith. Pres J. B. Holthouse. V-Pres I C. A. Pugan, Cash, F,X Ettinger, Asst Cash , i Decatur National Bank Decatur, Ind. CAPITAL STOCK SIOO,OOO I Directors—P. W. Smith. William A. Kuebler I i J. D. Hale. D. G. M. Trout. J. H. Hobroch C I A. Dugan and John B. Holthouse. This bank does a general banking business, loans money ! upon approved security, discounts paper I makes collections, sends money to any noint buys county and city orders. Interest given on money deposited on time certificates. Capita! $120,000. Established 1871 THE OLD ADAMS COUNTY BANK Decatur, Indiana. Does a general banking business, makes col- i lections In all parts of the country Buys I town township and county orders. Foreign and domestic exchange bought and sold. Interest paid on time deposits. j Offlcere-W H. Niblick. President; D. Studebaker, Yice President: R. K. Allison CRshkX ■ and C. S. Niblick. Assistant Cashier ' | Sample copies of the Indlanapo- i lis weekly Sentinel at this office.

Central: Grocery. ’ Lemon Cling Peaches 25c ran. Peninsulars 15c per pound. Citron 25c per pound. Boiled Cider 40c per gallon. Seedless Raisins. Kippert Herring, 20c. per box. Sardines, 5,10, 15c. per box. Salmon, 15. 18, 22c. per box. Boneless Herring. 15c. per box. [ Potted Ham, 15c. per ran. Horn Harbor Oysters, 15c. can l( Spanish Olives, 2oc. per hot. Shredded Pine Apple, 50c. per p quart jar. Sliced Pine Apple, 50c. peri quart jar. Silver Leaf Maple Syrup. Buckwheat Flour. mu it mm. For Notions, Small Hardware, Tinware and Holiday Goods, call on the Bargain Store next door to Postoffice. Crushed Oyster Shells for Poultry. Will make your hens lay in winter. Ensures a healthy and profitable poultry yard. For sale by J. D. Hale. P. W. Smith has purchased all the timber on land in Adams county owned by Joseph D. Nuttman, consisting of about 500 acres, and hereby warn all persons to keep off of said land and not to cut or remove any timber from said land. P. W. SMITH. Are You Insured? Dear Sir:—The undersigned j having secured the agency- of J the strongest insurance corporations in existence, respectfully solicits your patronage and guarantees in return prompt attention on his part to the wants of his customers. You can not afford to be without insurance. Come and have your property insured. E. F. COFFEE, Agt. Comfortably Settled. We have moved our stock, and are now comfortably settled in our new quarters, i where we are better fitted to wait on the wants of our patrons than ever before. We j have plenty of light, and it is no trouble to show goods. I In connection with our large I line of Drugs, we have a complete line of Holiday Goods, also School Books and School Supplies at the lowest possi- | ble cash prices. Don’t fail to i call and see us. Second st., opposite old stand, Decatur, Indiana. W. H. NACHTRIEB. / V'Vv 'Wo to w ■ ■ SIX SPASMS A DAY. Br. MU-o SWieal Co., Elkhart. Ind. HAS nKS I storatlve Ker f* I D r ? MilesTu- "■ b ’.tie, if VW H LU vine We tried be w.s pr.,,,,,. _ could eee that IMTHOUSANDS REMEDY, ™ lB •ONDERPuI 8. C. Heacox, Dr. Miles* Nervine, ■'FT CXBTAIX (THE TCI HEADACHE, NEURALGIA, NEIVOU3 PROS LLNES3, BLUES, azd OPIUM HABIT •OLD ON A PosiTlVt GUAR* NT£r r RYDR. MILES’ PILLS, 50 DOSES 25 CIS

Yager Bros. j kJF" y Best Smeker; Ask For It Pure Drugs, Toilet Articles, Stationery, Books and Patent ' Medicines. SEE M M BOLIDiT STOCE. Have you ever tried Dr. Sawyers Little Wide Awake Pills? They are the thing! Their Sunrise Cough Balsam and Family Cure are alsc Leaders in sales and will also do what they advertise. Try them. For sale by I TW-tp, ■ 1 a g er The G. R. & I. (Effect Sept. 28. 1W4.) TRAIN’S NORTH. •No. 3. ♦No. 5. *No. 1. Richmond 11:00 a m 11:25 p m 3:30 p m Parry 11:10 “ 3:40 ” Votaw 3:48 “ Harley 3:51 “ Fountain City. 11:25 “ 3:57 “ Johnson 11:35 ** 4:10 “ Lynn . ....... 11:40 “ 12:02am 4:15 Snow Hiil 11:46 “ 4:2t “ Woods 11:49 “ 4:24 “ Winchester.... 12:‘J0 “ 12:20am 4. 34 " Stone 12:10 pm 4:44 “ Ridgeville 12:19 “ 12:36 am 4:53 “ Collet 12:® “ 5:05 “ Portland 12:42 “ 12:54 am 5:17 “ Jay 12:52 “ 5:26 “ Briant 12:50 “ 5:32 ’* Geneva 1:07 “ 1:14 am 5:41 " Ceylon 5:43 “ Berne 1:18 “ 5:51 “ Monroe 1:36 “ 6:01 “ DECATUR 1:47 “ 1:44 am 6:12 ’ Monmouth 6:l# “ Williams 2:01 “ 6:26 “ Hoagland. 2:06 “ 6:31 “ Adams 6:43 " Fort Wayne.... 2:35 “ 2:2oam 6:55 '* •Daily, except Sunday. ♦Daily to Grand Rapids: TRAINS SOUTH. •No, 2. *No. 6. 4No. 4. Fort Wayne.... I:lspm 11:45pm 5:45am Adams 5:58 ” Hoagland 1:® “ 12:15 am 6:13 " Williams 1:45 “ 12:21 “ 6:18 " Monmouth 6:24 ‘ DECATUR ... 1:59 “ 12;37 “ 6:30 Monroe 2:13 “ 12:50 “ 6:44 " Berne 2:25 “ 1:02 “ 6:56 “ Ceylon 7:04 " Geneva 2:35 " 1:14 “ 7:06 " Briant 2:44 “ 1:24 “ 7:15 “ Jay 1:31 “ 7:21 “ Portland 3:00 “ 1:41 “ 7:9) ” Collett 1:51 “ 7:41 ‘‘ Ridgeville... . 3:24 “ 2:(K1 *’ 7:50 “ Stone 2-14 “ 7:50 ” Winchester.... 3:44 “ 2:25 “ 8:09 “ Woods 2:34 ” 8:22 “ Snow Hill 2:36 “ 8:25 “ Lynn 4:05 M 2:42 “ 8:32 " Johnson 2:47 “ 8:38 ” Fountain City. 4:21 44 2:57 44 8:49 " Haley 8:55 ” Votaw 8:59 “ Parry 9:08 - Richmond 44 3:20 44 9:15 44 ♦Daily Grand Rapids, tlhiily ex. Sunday. Jeff Bbysgn, Agent. < L. Lockwood, Gen. Pas. Agent. The Erie bines. (Schedule in effect June 17,1894.) ! Trains leave a L>ecatur as follows; i WEST. I No. 5. vestibule limited, daily 2:13 p. m. | No. 4. Pacific express, daily. 1:34 a. ni. I Ao. 1 express, daily 10:45 a. m. Ao. 31, local, daily ex. Sunday 10:45 a. m i EAST. No. 8. vestibule limited, daily 8:06 p. m. | No. 2, express, daily 1:55 p. m. >o. 12. express, daily 1:39 a. m. I Ao. 30, local, daily ex. Sunday 10:45 a. m. * ♦ carries through sleeping cars | to C olumbus. Circleville, Chillicothe, Waverly, i ortsmouth. Ironton, and Kenova, via Hocking Valley & Toledo, and j Norfolk & Western lines. | J. W. DeLong. Agent L, W, McEdwards. T . A.. Iluntingt on The Clover Leaf. (Toledo, St. Louis & Kans; s City Ry.) EAST. Express 12:15 p. mJhil. 5:28 a.m. Local 2:35 p.®WEST. Express 8:48 p.m. ' aII - m. Local 10:35 a.m. E. A. W’hinret. Agent.