Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 204, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1910 — Page 2

Discharged Without Notice

The slow, drizzling rain which had steadily fallen since the early part of the afternoon and which threatened to continue to fall during the rest of the evening, was not more dismal and dreary than the heart of the girl who shrank back in the corner seat of the elevated train, gazing through the clouded window panes with dull, unseeing eyes. She was dressed in a shabby black dress and jacket; her shoes were worn and her hat had the look of being made and remade from one dated many years before. Mollie Orth had left home that morning with but 15 cents in her purse, her hopes raised high, and a feeling in her heart that she would succeed this time. She smiled at the conductor as she handed him her fare, 6miled at th» little girl sitting in the seat across from her tenderly hugging a bedraggled doll In her arms; indeed, smiled at every one she saw, for Mollie was decidedly an optimist, and so surely as failure and worry and heartache laid her spirits low, just so surely would they rise again with the beginning of a new day. All morning she wandered down street after street, vainly seeking employment After awhile the smile left her lips and the song died out of her heart. Gradually, her limbs grew more and more tired, until at last her feet refused to carry her farther and, entering the waiting room of a large department store, she sank into a chair and wearily closed her eyes. The matron, a neatly-dressed woman with a kind, motherly face, glanced at the girl with understanding and sympathy in her eyes. The story was so evident and such an old one! “Wouldn’t you care to glance over this paper while you are resting?” asked the matron, handing her a newspaper with a smile that conveyed encouragement and sympathy to. the girl’s heart. Mollie grasped it eagerly, murmuring her thanks. As the woman expected, she turned at once to the “help wanted” page and hastily scanned its columns. There was but one ad. which she could answer, but even this was a ray of hope which she eagerly seized upon. It was raining when she reached the street, but although she had no umbrella she started all undaunted for the address given in the paper. It was ten long blocks from the store which she had left and she was thoroughly drenched by the time she reached her destination. Approaching the office boy she inquired for the manager, and was pointed out a large, heavily-built man seated behind a huge desk, his head bent over a heap of papers. “Well, what can I do for you?” he asked sharply as Mollie stood patiently awaiting his attention. The girl timidly stated her errand, answering his numerous questions with straightforward honesty. “Well,” he said, at length, “you don’t look overstrong, but guess you’ll do. W T e expect good work from our people, and If we can’t get it out of them we don’t keep 'em —that’s all. Where are your references?” “I haven’t any,”"began Mollie, tremuously. “I never thought to ask for any at the last place I worked in.” The man scowled as he waved her aside with a’fat, pudgy hand. "No go, no go. No reference, no job. Why didn’t you say so right away instead of wasting all my time?” “Oh, cried Molly, in dismay. “Only try me, sir! 1 will ''work hard, you will see how fast my fingers can fly. Please, please give me just a trial! I need the money so badly.” The man turned resolutely to his desk. “Can’t do It, I tell you. We don’t do business that way.” Mollie walked blindly out of the office and was once more on the street. Feeling faint she determined to spend half of her last dime for a cup of coffee. She entered a cozy little restaurant, following the usher to a table near the end of the room. Mollie paused long over her coffee, drinking in its sweet fragrance and feeling a delicious sense of comfort as the strong liquid sent a flush of warmth. through her body. She rose regretfully when her cup was empty, and made for the cashier’s desk, which was overcrowded, the people standing in line to pay for their checks and the cashier herself nervous and hur- , ried. Mollie laid her check, which called for five cents, upon the desk, together with her solitary dime, and was given five brand-new pennies in change. How bright they looked and how they shone, almost as If they were made of Bold, she thought, as she walked I slowly down the street Why, one was different from the rest! Surely It was not a common penny! Hastily turning it over in her hand, she saw that she was holding, not a penny, but a $lO gold piece! “Take it back! It isn’t yqprs, and It will be dishonest to keep it,” whispered a voice which seemed so real that she started and glanced apprehensively over her shoulder. What a struggle she had to put that voice in the background. This meant bread and meat to her, food for the little aisters at home and peace to the worried mother, whose hair was fast becoming streaked with gray. She could not give it up, she would not! A feeltag of fierce exultation possessed h

By Henry Crider Evans

Her feet fairly flew up the steps leading to the elevated station, the bit of gold clutched tightly In hew hand. The cashier at the turnstile glanced up in surprise as Mollie’s trembling fingers dropped the piece of money before her. “Have you no smaller change than this?” she asked, then as Mollie nodded her head, she carefully count. ed out the change. How many times MOilie’s resolution weakened and faltered that night! As she met her mother’s eager, questioning glance as she entered the door; as she saw the look of blank despair in her eyes as she faltered out her failure, her heart misgave her, and she longed to pour the money into her mother’s thin hands, telling her that there was enough for food and clothes, warmth and comfort until she could secure a position. Again, at the supper table, as she helped herself to a dried piece of bread and one small, mealy potato, the temptation to keep the money grew almost too strong to resist. The next morning found her once more entering the little restaurant. She noticed a new girl in the cashier’s place, and her heart sank in shame. She Inquired for the manager, and was shown into a little side room to a man bending over a table figuring up accounts. He was about thirty, tall, broad-shouldered, with the , kindest brown eyes in the world, she thought. Timidly she handed him the change she had received from the gold piece and told her story. Then all at once she found herself crying softly, as she poured out the whole story of the struggle and temptation she had endured. ‘There, there; don’t cry any more. It’s all over now and you have won a victory to be proud of. Now listen to my proposition. Miss Johnson, our former cashier, has been suffering from extreme nervousness for a long time and was only waiting for the end of the season t.o give up work entirely until her health was once more restored. The final straw came last night, when she discovered the shortage in her accounts, and she insisted upon making up the loss to us, although we protested strongly against her doing so. Then she left, and we had to place one of our waitresses temporarily in her place. It will give me much pleasure to return this money to her, and also to offer you her position. We will give you $lO a week to start. Will you take it?” Mollie mutely nodded her head, her eyes shining with happiness. Ten dollars a week! That was more than she had ever earned before. Eager to prove her gratitude, she bent all her energy to her work, schooling herself to become more rapid and accurate each day. Often, looking up from her work, she would find Mr. Asher, the manager and owner of the restaurant, watching her with a look in his brown eyes which she could hot understand. She could always feel his presence, knew when he entered the room and when he left, a feeling for which she could not account. On evening, after the last customer had departed, and the doors were closed for the day, as she was making out her report, he came oyer and stood beside her desk. “Miss Orth, you have been with us two years now, haven’t you?” he asked. Mollie replied in the affirmative. “You are receiving a salary of sls a week now, are you not?” he asked again, and again Mollie nodded. “Well, Miss Orth,” he began hesitatingly, “we feel that you are worth more than we are paying you, although we cannot afford to raise your salary any higher, therefore I am going to ask you to resign your position.” Mollie gasped and stared. at him with eyes filled with surprise and dismay. Asked to resign her position! What could she have done to deserve it? Her accounts always balanced evenly; she had supposed her work was giving complete satisfaction, and now, without warning, she was to be discharged. “Don’t feel so badly over it. Miss Orth. I am going to offer you another position, one which I trust you will not refuse. It Is that of housekeeper to a lonely, solitary bachelor. Mlsb Orth, will you be my wife?” Mollie gazed at him and then, just as she had done two years before, when he had offered her the position, she laid her head down upon her arms and burst into tears. “Mollie! Little girl, don’t you care? If you only knew how' I have hoped and prayed that you did. Would you rather keep your position here, and have me give up my ‘castle in Spain,’ and go away. For go away I must, if you refuse me. 1 could not bear to stay here, to be near you day after day, and know that my hopes could never be realized! Tell me, Mollie, which shall it be? Don’t cry any more, little girl, look up and tell me.” Mollie did look up, and the tears in her eyes only made them look brighter with joy and happiness shining through them as the sun behind a cloud. -1 “Oh, you ask me if I will marry you!” she cried. “It you only knew, If you only knew!” The words, few as they were, were sufficient, for her eyes told the rest.

LETTERS OF GREAT

Relics of Queen Mary and Catherine de Medici to Be Sold. Notable Original Paper* Written by Royal Hands or Bearing on Hlatoric Matters Will Be Put Up at Public Auction. London.—Royal letters and state documents, as well as holograph and Rutograph letters of various celebrities, ranging in date from 1417 to 1904, will be sold by public auction at Sotheby’s soon. - — — . The collection Includes letters from Mary Queen of Scots, as well as from her cousin and rival, Queen Elizabeth, and an important treaty, deciding the future destiny of Mary Queen of Scots, ! means of which Mary of Guise, her mother, Cardinal Beaton and Lord Lennox rendered void • the English treaty, as also the contract for Mary’s projected marriage with the future Edw;frd VI. Twenty-seven years later Mary was in prison at Chatsworth and from there addressed an appeal to her brother-in-law', Charles IX. of France, imploring him to intercede With Elizabeth. This letter is accompanied by Elizabeth’s original order for the payment of “the blood money,” £IOO, to Sir John Popham, the cfowd prosecutor, who conducted the fatal trial at Fotheringay. There is also the only letter remaining In private possession written by Mary I. of England; it is dated 1554 end is a recommendation of Symon Raynard, Charles V.’s ambassador, and the principal negotiator of the Spanish match. Documents relating to the Field of the Cloth of Gold have their place in this collection, including a mandate signed “Francois” and dated September 8, 1520, being “an order to the treasurer and receiver general to pay certain sums for the reimbursement of expenses incurred in the month of June last past during the journey we made to the town of Andres and its neighborhood in the matter of the ■visit, meeting, and parliament between us and our very dear and good brother and ally, the king of England, and for the feasts, banquets and other similar expenses that we there incurred/* The catalogue comprises some rare holograph letters from Catherine de Medici written to her daughter Elizabeth, queen of Spain, between 1560 and 1570. One of them contains the following: “And so my daughter, my dear, commend yourself to God, for you have seen me as happy as yourself, never expecting to have any other sorrow, except that of not being sufficiently loved by the king, your father (Henry II.), who honored me more than I deserved; but I loved him so much that I was always afraid, as you know, that he did not love me enough. And God has taken him from me, and not content with that has left me with three little children, and in a strange kingdom, not having a soul

FEAR OF NIGHT IS DISEASE

English Magistrate Fines Nurse for leaving Children Alone in Dark Unprotected. London.—Great public interest has been aroused by the case of Kate Bell, a Hampstead nursemaid, who was fined 40 shillings at Marylebone police court for leaving three young children alone in the house while her -master and mistress went out for the evening. Her mistress, Mrs. Hearne, returning home unexpectedly at 8:30 p. m., discovered that the nurse and both servants had gone out, leaving the three children, age thirteen months, three years and four years, respectively, entirely unprotected. In fining her the magistrate, Paul -Taylor, told the nurse that “her conduct showed a very inadequate consciousness of her duty. She had been guilty of a serious moral delinquency.” The house surgeon of a largo children’s hospital in South London, considered “moral delinquency” much too mild a term. “The callous way in which young children are left alone nowadays,” he said, "amounts to positive crime—it occurr most frequently among the very poor. “The criminality of the proceeding lies in this; that, in nine cases out of ten, leaving children alone means frightening them into submission with all manner of absurd tgles. "A very frequent instance of what I mean occurs when a married couple go out for an evening at six o’clock, say, and tell the infant upstairs that a tiger will come from under the bed and eat it if it cries or gets up while they are out. “What that poor mite suffers in its loneliness passes all description. “As often as not, too, its nerves become permanently affected, and it suffers in youth from a nervous disease which is now classified as pavor nocturnus—dread of the night “And when the child grows up pavor nocturnus will turn to St. Vitus’ dance, or ‘habit spasms.’ or one or other of the serious nervous affections with which the next generation promises to be rife. “Pavor nocturnus—the symptoms of which are constant tears and intense nervousness—is an illness we dread here, because it is next to impossible to - do anything for a child’s other complaints until, by long hours, or even days, of patient coaxing, its nerves are restored. “But if ’ pavor nocturnes gets too

FAMOUS PAINTING REPORTED STOLEN

PARIS. —The government officials still are silent concerning the reported theft from the Louvre of the most famous portrait in the world, Leonard da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa.” The story that the picture has been stolen and that a copy of it was put in its place receives general credence, in view of similar thefts that have been committed in the Louvre. The painting is said to be now in New York in possession of a wealthy American.. In the art world this painting, which sometimes is called “La Gioconda,’ is considered priceless. Tfie most striking feature of the portrait is the mysterious smile that lurks in the eyes and lips of the subject. It took Da Vinci five years to bring out this peculiar expression, and at the end of that time he declared the work unfinished. The task of painting “Mona Lisa” was difficult and painstaking in the extreme. Da Vinci found that his model, a woman, assumed a peculiar expression only when ai ease in a certain posture, and when listening to a certain strain of music

there whom I can trust who has not some special ax to grind.” Other letters from Catherine mention the hostility of the Guises after the death of her eldest son, Francis 11., husband of Mary Qyeen of Scots, and the intrigues of Admiral Coligny, and the attempts of the Due de Nemours to carry off the Due d.'Orleans (afterward Henry III.) and set him up against his brother, Charles IX. There Is likewise a mass of Huguenot correspondence. Charles 1., Charles 11. and James 11. of England are well represented in this collection, and among the- state documents there is the grant to Canterbury of a mint and assay office made by Edward VI., and signed by

firm a hold any cure we can effect is temporary at best, for the child’s nervous system has been ruined for life.”

STEALS $3, RETURNS $300

College Girl, Urged by Remorse, Makes Penance After Years to Friend She Robbed. Chicago. Whether the ancient Greeks intentionally meant to throw a slight upon the fairer sex by depicting their cynical offspring, Mr. Diogones, as searching for an honest man, is unknown. ~ Should a similar search be Instituted at the present time, Miss Rien Tedesch, a former coed of Cincinnati university, now visiting her sister, Mrs. Paul H. Philipson, of this city, could give valuable assistance. “Long ago,” asserts Miss Tedesch, “I suffered the loss of a purse containing three dollars and some change. Years passed and blotted its loss from my mind. Yesterday I received 9 letter from home saying I was the recipient of S3OO from an unknown source. “Another letter followed, from which I learn that a farmer college friend was the person who had taken the money years ago. She says that her parents and ancestors were honest Puritans and that remorse has worked havoc with her. She hopes that now, by discharging a penance, she will find relief from the purgatories of an evil regretted.”

110-YEAR-OLD CATALPA DIES

Historic Tree in Pennsylvania Town Falls With Crash After Reaching Ripe Old Age. Bristol, Pa—Bristol’s venerable one-hundred-and-ten-year-old catalpa tree, on the Edward Bruden premises, died of old age and fell the other day, while the family were at dinner. The old ivy which clung fast to the ancient tree was gathered in fragments by hundreds as relics. A peculiar remnant of this old catalpa tree, a gigantic stump, was over twen-ty-five feet high, and when viewed from one Standpoint looked like an elephant standing on Its hind legs. The “old elephant tree," as they call it, has a history that runs back before the Bruden advent, to the days when the descendants of Samuel Launders, an English tory flourished ih its shade. It measured just above the ground 21% feet In circumference and near the top of the stump 16 feet.

him, as well as by Cranmer and Thomas Lord Seymour. There are also two of Cromwell’s black letter proclamations, prohibiting horse racing for six and eight months respectively. Owing to their being pasted up these proclamations were soon destroyed and the two present specimens are consequently almost unique. There are twelve letters written by Mme. de Maintenon and an inventory—the original manuscript—-of the effects left by Mme. de Pompadour at her death. There is likewise a manuscript dated 1721 embodying the “Remembrances for Order and Decency to be kept in the Upper House of Parliament by the Lords, when his Majesty is not there.”

BUTTERFLY FARM AT BEXLEY

Britlaher Raises All Kinds of Moths, Which He Sells to Naturalist* and Museums, - ' •' London. An article which appeared recently describing L. W. Newman’s butterfly farm at Bexley, Kent, has aroused a great deal of interest among people who do not know what is the purpose of such a farm. Letters have been received from many sources asking for information on this point. The advent of the butterfly farm Is due directly to the great Increase in popularity of nature study during recent years. Field clubs, local nature history societies, school and other nature museums and private collecors of butterflies and moths are growing in nfcnber with such rapidity that an establishment like the one at Bexley, owned by Mr. Newman, Inaugurated with the idea of. supplying colletors of butterflies and moths with those insects in all their stages, has proved a busy and paying venture. Mr. Newman farms British Insects only; but he supplies museums of all grades of importance, and private collectors, also, on both sides of the Atlantic. His private customers range from a millionaire naturalist to schoolboys. The latter consult him by thousands, often sending him curious letters and ending with their “best love.*

GEM FIELDS PROVE WEALTHY

Germans Discover They Have Bonanza in Southwest Africa—Government Gets Half. Berlin.—Since the resignation of Colonial Secretary Demburg, one line of his policy has been justified by remarkable statistics published concerning the diamond fields of Luderitz Bay In German Southwest Africa, in the current year diamonds worth $5,000,000 have been turned out, and half of that, according to the contract framed by Herr Demburg, goes to the government of the colony. All told, these German diamohd fields are' proving far more valuable than was expected. At first the entire value of the fields was set down at $50,000,000, but now one claim alone has been proved to be worth more than that.

French Officers Use Opium.

Paris.—Six persona were convicted at Brest of being connected with opium dens which officers, their wives and naval cadets frequented. Forty per cent, of the officers of the garrison, said, were addicted to the drug.

STORIES OF CAMP AND WAR

THRILLING MEMORIES OF WAR General Longstreet Talks Interesting- * ly of Great Conflict—His Greatest Battle. It was in the early spring of 1883 that I bad the pleasure of calling for the first time upon Gen. James Longstreet, who, as one authority puts it, “enjoyed the distinction of being one of the greatest fighters of the Confederacy, and possessed the unbounded confidence and affection of his soldiers.” it was at his home in Atlanta, hnd the fragrance of early flowers and the glory that shone in the blossoming peach trees lent an especial attraction to the approach to his home, says E. J. Edwards, in Boston Globe. The picture I had in my mind’s eye of the great leader who had so often discomfited noted Union commanders was based on war-time prints, all displaying him with a long and flowing beard. But I found him without beard, except a tuft in front of each ear. His complexion was ruddy, his eyes were bright, and yet he seemed somewhat infirm. The really noticeable thing about his features was the scar that they bore, mute evidence of the frightful wound that he had received at the Wilderness (it a most critical moment in that battjp. “General,” I said, after a timfc, “I have heard that many military critics believe that had you not been wounded just when and where you were, you probably would have driven Grant back across the Rapidan.” “Perhaps,” was the reply; “no one can ever tell what the result of a battle will be until It is over.” For several moments he was thoughtfully silent. “That battle,” he said, “is one of my thrilling war recollections, of course; the twinges that the wound gives me, now in my cheek and now in my shoulder, will not let me forget it, I fear, until the day of my death. But I think that the most thrilling recollections, certainly the most pleasing, that I have of the late struggle are those which tell of the personal relations between the commanders upon one side with those of the other after battle, when prisoners were captured, and especially immediately after the war. They tell me”—questioningly—“that “Gen. Joe Johnston, who has just retired from congress, and General Sherman frequently sat side by side like two intimate friends in the house of representatives'at Washington?” “Yes, that is true,” I answered. “I have often seen them together there.

General Johnston’s seat was nepr the door. General Sherman had tfm privileges of the floor, and frequently he come In quietly, edged his way to a vacant seat beside Johnston, and there* they sat side by side like old cronies sometimes for two or three hours.” "Ah,” exclaimed General Longstreet, “that illustrates the real spirit which the men who were true soldiers —not political generals—on either side felt for their opponents when the fighting was all over, when duty to their cause was done. Why, that spirit began with that very kindly act that Grant did after Buckner had surrendered to him. You know the story—how Grant received Buckner as a personal friend and offered to share his purse with him. That spirit was characteristic of the personal relations of the opposing generals throughout the war and for a long time after, and I wish it could also have been characteristic of some of the politicians on either side. Then there would have been many irritations, many resentments, many difficulties of both war and peace eliminated. Oh, I sometimes wish that the reconstruction period could have been left to the direction of those who Were in important command at the time of the war. I am certain that they would have continued to show the utmost delicacy of consideration for each other. “Yes, the tenderest, the most permanent and in many respects the most thrilling recollections that I have* of the war are associated with the noble courage and dignity and true kindliness which were characteristic of the personal relations of opposing commanders. They are memories that will not fade—that not even thought L of otirring battle can displace," **• *