Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 58, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 March 1916 — Page 2

HORACE'S MOTHER

By FRANK FILSON.

“What is it, dear?” asked Horace Scott, looking up at his wife across the breakfast table. “A tragedy,” she answered, flinging down the letter she had been reading, with angry tears, “Your mother is ooming to pay us a visit tomorrow.” “Good Lord!” said Horace, picking up the letter and reading it. , "Tomorrow, of all times, when the Kerrs are coming to dinner, and a dozen other couples,” continued Mil* dred. “And Just when I had all my plans fixed! What will they think qf us with that awful old woman?” ™ "I don’t know that she’s so bad, dear,” said Horace musingly. “Old Kerr was brought up on <a farm and was a farmer's boy for two or three years.” “But, Horace, you know very well that people who are in society don't acknowledge things like that. It doesn't matter what one has been; it’s what one is. And after I have managed to get Dorothy into that exclusive boarding school, and had laid all my plans for bringing her out! We are fixed, Horace, fixed with the very set of people we want to get in with, and now your mother is coming up from the farm, with her ignorant speech and her bad table manners! “I’m not ashamed of her —God hless her!” said Horace fervently. “Ah, well, if you don’t care about your daughter’s future, at least you might care about our financial -position,” persisted his wife. “You know very well that your chance of securing that position as lawyer for the Kerr corporation depends on my ingratiating myself with Lucy Kerr. I have worked to that end for two years, knowing that old Williams wouldn't live long, and that they would be looking round for someone else to represent them. It needs a man who is in touch

Appeared at the Door a Figure in Black Silk.

with the best set. And it means twelve thousand a year! Now! Are you going to have that old woman at our party tomorrow night?” “I am,” said Horace. “If the Kerrs are such intolerable snobs that they . require my denying my own mother, let them go to —blazes! And if we have to weil take Dorothy out of that school and send her to a public one.” “Then I wash my hands of the whole affair,” said Mildred, rising angrily from the table. “And you can do what you choose.” He could not pacify his wife all day. He sent the telegraip that his mother had requested, and waited in something like consternation for her arJ rival. ■ 1 " ~ Horace Scott was genuinely fond of his mother. She had been devoted" to him, and when he left the farm, fifteen years before, to seek his fortune in the city, he had told her that some day she was to make her home with him. But he had married a worldly woman, and somehow that dream had never come to pass. He had seen very little of the poor old woman during the past few years. He realized that she - was, socially, “a handicap. But 'he had conscientiously determined that he would never fail in his duty toward her. Now it was to be put to the test. She came next day, with an immense carpetbag, from which she extracted a couple of jars of,, homemade preserves, an enormous cake ,and some homemade pickles. “There, my dear,” she said to her disgusted daughter-in-law. "Don’t tell me you ain’t pleased with them. I —ben reading all about these here adulterations of foods which Doctor Wiley’s trying to stop folks from being poisoned, and I thought I’d give you bpth a starter. ; My! Ain’t you elegantly fixed! Not but what I prefer to have the rooms up and down instead of all a long line of 'em. And these here flats ain’t what they’re cracked tip to be. Now show me flay room afid I'll put on my blacfc silk in case you expect them friends you spoke about.” "She’s impossible, Horace!” exclaimed his wife angrily, after the old lady bad retired. "We can’t let the Kerrs meet her —that’s all. W T e can’t. I'm going to see that she stays in

her room. Don’t you dare interfere me, Horace!" • Horace sighed. He knew that when his wife made up her mind there was little to be done. But his mother had a mind of her own, too. He braced himself for a domestic tempest. However. presently Mildred came back smiling. “It’s all tight, dear,” she said. “I’ve persuaded her that she’ll be too tired for company tonight. She’s going to bed —early. I’ve put her in that end room, so that she won’t hear anything. And she thinks it’s Just a men’s business meeting.” The dinner party was a huge success. The Kerrs were amiability ltself. Half a dozen people whom Mildred had never succeeded in getting into her home now appeared to have taken her to their hearts. They adjourned to the drawing room, and Mili dred had almost forgotten the old woman sleeping in the end room* when suddenly there appeared at the door a figure clad in black silk. Her heart went into her mouth. Then it was that Horace showed himself a man. He arose and took his mother by the arm and lad her forward. “Mrs. Kerr —my mother,” he said. "Mv, Horace!” exclaimed the old lady, “I guess your men friends brought their women folks with them after all.” "Delighted to meet your mother,” said Mrs. Kerr, making a place beside her for the old lady.* — Mildred looked on like a spectator at a' dreary drama The guests had all clustered about the old woman, making fun of her uncoUthness, and she, seeing nothing, was telling them all about the farm, the chickens, the crops add the neighbors. Her heart was bursting. She could not bear it. All the elaborately built plans that she had made were tumbling to the ground. It was too horrible, after all that she had done! Without an excuse, she rose and walked, into her room, and, flinging herself upon the bed, gave way to blinding tears. -- - ■ —— : —

At last she rose and dried her eyes. She would hold up her head, at any rate. It was Horace’s mother, not hers. She went back proudly toward the drawing room. A burst of laughter met her. So they were still having fun with the wretched old woman! Horace met her at the door. “Dearest!” he cried. “Where have you been? I was coming to look for you.” caustically. “Your mother has certainly been the sensation of the evening. It’s as good as a play.*” “It certainly is,” said Horace. “What do you think? Mr. Kerr knew mother years ago, when he was a boy in Stillwell, and they’re having the time of their lives. Mrs. Kerr is positively jealous. Frank Kerr rose from the sofa and clasped Horace’s hands enthusiastically. “My dear fellow, why didn’t you let me meet your mother before?” he demanded. “Say, Horace, that affair is fixed. You’re going to take Williams’ place. And Mrs. Kerr wants you and your wife to bring your mother to see us tomorrow and have dinner with us. I tell you, when a man of sixty meets his first sweetheart again something’s doing.” (Copyright, 1916. by W. G. Chapman.)

WHEN YOUR CHEST GURGLES

Sounds the Doctor Hears Through Stethoscope Tell Him If Lungs Are in Bad Condition. A doctor hears some curious noises when he places the stethoscope against your chest whether you are fit for the army or not. When the lungs are healthy, a pleasant breezy sound, soft in tpne, is heard as the breath is drawn in and expelled, the Toronto Mall and Empire states. If the stethoscope Conveys to his ear a gurgling or bubbling sound the doctor knows that you are in what is known as the moist stage of bronchitis. In the dry stage of the same complaint the sound is a whistling, wheezy one. One of the signs of pneumonia is the soft crackling note that comes through the stethoscope. It is not unlike the sound that can be heard when your finger and thumb have touched a sticky substance, and you first place them together and then part them, holding them cfosb to your ear. Doctors occasionally hear a dripping sound, and that tellß them that the air and water have got into some part nf the chest where they have no right.

Lisbon’s Time Signal.

Correct time is announced every hour In the port of Lisbon, Portugal, by means of two lanterns placed on Iron columns 100 feet high. The lanterns each have three faces, measuring 6.5 feet by 8 feet. At exactly five minutes before the hour, a horizontal line of light appears on each face, and on the tick of the hour, this light is extinguished. The signals may be seen even in the daytime at a distance of a mile and a half. At night the position of ; the lanterns is indicated by three red lights. The signals are worked electrically under the control of a clock in the Observatorio Astronomico de Lisboa.

A Sure Sign.

Mrq. O’Toole—Sure,, the baby will do th’ same kind of work that you do whin he grows up. - Mike —PhWat makes you think thot? Mrs. O’Toole —Why, ivery toime he gets hold of a deck of cards he pick* out tb’ spades. 0

TIIE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

SOME BALKAN HISTORY

REAL BEGINNING OF THE KINGDOM OF MONTENEGRO. Country's Records Date From the the Ninth Century—Origin of the Name "Berb” —Order of Nobility Not Recognized. Montenegro does not date from the battle of Kossovo, in 1389, but from some year in the ninth century, for already in 1077 the first Serbian king was crowned in Montenegro, and he was the grandson of an independent Serbian ruler in Montenegro. The only new thing which Montenegro received after the battle of Kossovo was its name, and even that was not given It immediately after the battle, but fully one century later. Before this time Montenegro was known as Zeta; the first king reigned in Cattaro; his son and heir, crowned Serbian king, lived in Scutari. The nobles of the old Serbian empire did not flee to the “Black mountain,” but those who survived that battle remained with the son of King Lazar and with his nephew, George Despot, until 1469, or 70 years after the battle of Kossovo. After that date the Serbian nobility ceased to exist, and it is just as extinct today as it was at that early date. Today Serbia has no nobility, and anyone today who poses as a Serbian or Montenegrin noble is simply taking advantage of the credulity of the American people. The difference between the people of Montenegro and the people of Serbia is as pronounced as the difference between the inhabitants of New York and Maine; they belong to two separate states, which are as much a product of historical events as these two American states.

In the whole history of Serbia no such term as. “Serves” can be found. The name "Serb” as a name and naT tionality was known to the old Roman historian Plinius (23-7,9 A. D.) and to the old Alexandrian historian Ptolomius (160 A. D.). That this name has nothing to do with the Latin term “servus” is evident from the fact that there 1b another Slav nationality with the same name —Serbs of Luzica living under German rule for centuries. In the old Serbian empire there existed a term designating a social class. It was "Sebar." Even this is not connected with the "word “Serb,” for the old Serbian kings called themselves “Serbs." As late as 1459 Montenegro was a part of the Serbian empire. But later, as the last remnants of the Serbian empire were wrested from the people, one Serbian nobleman attempted to rule independently in Montene-" gro. His son had submitted to the Turks and he himself, changing his faith from Christian to Moslem, fled to Constantinople and died as the-sub-ject of the sultan. From that date till 1713 Montenegro was considered a Turkish province, but being situated asido from the main highway enjoyed a kind of semi-independence; as was the case of several Turkish dependencies in the Balkans. In 1713 one of the Petrovichs —Bishop Danilo—drove the Turks from Montenegro and thereby laid the cornerstone of Montenegro of today. But there is one thing which must be borne in mind; that is, not only are there no noblemen in Montenegro today, but even the Petrovichs are descendants of a peasant family. Both Serbia and Montenegro are the products of the struggle of the Serbian peasants against Turkish noblemen, against the beys and the spahis. And it is thi- fact which constitutes one of the most sacred traditions of the Serbs of today. Therefore the claim to nobility of unscrupulous persons who represent themselves as noblemen Is considered an unpardonable offense against the people of Serbia and Montenegro.—New York Times.'

Indoor Constitutional.

Augustus O. Stanley, Kentucky’s new governor, who has mounted the water Wagon, announced recently that during his four-year term not a drop of intoxicating drink will be allowed In the state house. "The campaign that I propose to wage against alcohol,” said Governor Stanley, “is to be a thorough and honest campaign. There is too much hypocrisy among drinkers. Here is a typical instance: —“I sat one evening on a trolley car beside two women who were returning together from an shopping tour. “ ‘My husband goes out every evening for a little constitutional,’ one of the women said. Then she inquired: ‘Does yours?’ ~ “‘No,’ replied the other. ‘No; my husband always keeps —it in the house.'’’—Washington Star.

His Idea of It.

"Do you subscribe to the theory that honesty is the best policy?" asked the casual conversationalist. "Why, sure," answered ' his fellow passenger on a trolley car. “Why do you ask?" __ ~ 7 ‘1 hoticed that you gave the conductor a plugged nickel and he handed it back to you.” ” »; r -'/r ■• - “Ahem! Well, I try to subjugate my finer feelings when dealing with a soulless corporation.”

No Steed of a “Front.”

“That shabby looking old fellow is worth several millions." "You surprise me. Why doesn’t he wear better clothes?” "Oh, he doesn’t have to borrow any money. Pjsople come to him to bos row it”

WAR HAS BANKRUPTED ISLAND

Small British Possession Hard Hit by the Struggle Now in Progress in Europe. The Isle of Man is the hardest hit by the war of any portion of the British empire. It is on the verge of bankruptcy because the imperial treasury, insists on the wiping out of the deficit of $120,000 before it will sanction the relief of distress Where the money is to come from is a problem, as the proposed remedy of higher duties and taxes will fall short of requirements. The island might swallow its pride and annex itself to the neighboring county of Lancaster, but tradition and sentiment revolt at the idea. Although Man is only 33x12 miles, its political constitution is said to be the oldest in Europe, its language is a Gaelic dialect and peculiar to the island and home rule has been the privilege of the Manxman through the ages. When the war came the heavy tourist holiday trade was cut off. The swift packet boats were taken over by the admiralty, and the submarine menace made travel unpopular. Man then became a concentration camp of alien enemies, who now number 20,000, or less than three times its total native population. These camps helped to save the situation for the island farmers, although a poor substitute for the flood of tourists who used to come. It is now proposed that the government use the hotels and lodging houses, whose owners are in great distress, as hospitals for convalescent soldiers. One of the relief measures proposed by the Manx parliament which the imperial treasury refuses to indorse is a grant of $250,000 to distressed boarding-house keepers.

Rocks Campanile With Hand.

Elmer E. Hall, associate professor nia, stood at the foot of the 300 foot Campanile on the campus and with one hand shook the giant structure, says a Berkeley dispatch to the San Francisco Chronicle. Hall has seismograph records, photographs and a lot of data to prove that he moved the huge granite needle and Is prepared to lecture to his students as to how the trick Is done. He says; “I placed a delicate seismograph like those used to record earthquakes on the top of the tower. Then I went down to the ground and about once In a second I pushed my hand against the granite shaft. By applying this pressure in time with the natural period of the vibration of the Campanile I set the whole masß in motion, so that Its vibrations were clearly recorded by the seismograph.” .. The Campanile, .is regarded as a master-piece of earthquake resistive construction. Instead of being a rigid structure, it is built with cross bracing eliminated at alterhate stories. The result is that its vibration is like that of a steel rod stuck In the ground by one end. In an earthquake, It Is claimed, the Campanile will vibrate like a tree instead of breaking.

Boys Caught in Bread Box.

The game o £ “hide and seek” claimed two victims recently in Carl Heiberg, ten years old, and John Pendish, eight years old, both of whom are in a critical condition at the Overbrook hospital here. The two youngsters, with four or five playmates, started a game of “hide and seek” on the way home from school. Heiberg and Pendish jumped into an old bread box in front of a grocery store on Bank street. When the cover dropped the clasp fell over a staple. Their efforts to raise the lid proved futile. During the early part of the evening, four hours later, John Romaine, fourteen years old, passed the box on his way to the store. A faint cry caused him to investigate. Pendish and Heiberg were unconscious from suffocation and exposure to the cold. —Summit (N. J.) Dispatch Philadelphia Inquirer.

Ingenious Ration Warmer.

An ingenious and inexpensive device, which might merit the attention of the British war office, has been invented in Italy for warming 'the soldiers’ rations. This scaldaraneio, or “ration warmer,” as it is called, is composed of old newspapers. These are rolled together as tightly as possible, and the edges gummed, so that they form a compact stick of paper. This is then steeped in paraffin and cut up into segments, one of which is sufficient to heat a soldier’s rations. All over Italy old newspapers are being collected for the scaldaraneio. Thus (caustically remarks a Rome correspondent) the Press, even in these days of the censorship, may be of use —London Mail.

Big Addition to “Conscience Fund."

The treasury conscience fund at Washington was enriched recently by two contributions, one of $4,876.50 from a New York lawyer on behalf of a client. The other wac two ten-cent pieces from an unknown person in Michigan who suggested they be used to support a minister of the Gospel. The New York contribution is one of the largest ever received. It was in the form of a certificate of deposit on the United States subtreasury in New York.

One Exception.

"Do you advocate the policy of turning the other cheek?” “No.” answered the apostle of preparedness. "Except in a barber** chair, 1 think it’s a darned poor policy.”

The GRAND SENUSSI and HIS CITY

FROM time to time there have appeared in the newspapers reports that the Senussi were about to begin a holy war on the allies, having been persuaded to take this action by the machinations of Teutonic emissaries. Indeed, once or twice there have been stories of actual hostilities on the part of these dwellers in the desert of Sahara. Curiosity concerning this great body of Mohammedan people has naturally been aroused, but information about them is not plentiful. The following account of the Senussi and Djaraboub, their capital, is part of an article by George Remond published in L’lllustration of Paris some two yeans ago, incorporating the experiences of a member of Enver Bey’s mission to the Senussi in 1912: Djaraboub is built on one of the hillocks which cover this part of the country. Sidi Mohammed el Senussi, passing through it in 1858, “by order of God” founded a little zaouia. This was the beginning of Djaraboub. This holy man was an Algerian, pious and learned, who had done the pilgrimage to Mecca several timeb. He received hospitality from the tribes to whom he commented on the Koran, gaining thereby a great reputation for wisdom and knowledge. Seeing in what state of barbarism and ignorance the inhabitants of Cyrenaica lived, he decided to teach them the word of God, and built in the Green mountain the first zaouia, which got the name of zaouia el Beida (the white), taught his disciples, and founded a religious order, the authority of which extended throughout the country, and has spread today in the greater part of the Moslem world. H 6 died at Djaraboub and was buried there, and his son, Sidi el Mahdl, set up a magnificent tomb in his memory. There are now 140 Senussi zaouias in Africa, eleven or thirteen of which are in Egypt, five or six in the Tripoli itania, the remainder in Cyrenaica and the Sudan. The zaouia of Djaraboub is surrounded by an Inclosure to which five doors give access. The houses, built of stone, are two-storied: each has its own bath. The population is of 350 inhabitants ; there are neither merchants nor shopkeepers nor cases, which are to be found in all places where Arabs

congregate. It is a large convent or sanctuary; the population consists chiefly of pious peoplewho ask the Senussi’s permission to settle down. there with their, families. They thus form part of a religious order, are not allowed to leave the town without the sheik’s permission, and spend their life in prayer. The tribes send a certain number of their children to be taught the Koran in a school adjoining the mosque. They must supply their own food and requirements; that is to say, when they first arrive they bring with them a few bags of barley, which they set against the wall of their little room, a blanket and a mat. There are also 80 black slaves who tend the mosque, the tomb and the gardens—for there are gardens.

Great Mosque of Djaraboub. One large mosque, an extraordinary erection in this desert, consists of a rectangular court, 35 meters long and 30 meters wide, and bordered by arcades. These give access by doors of sculptured wood, brought from India, of fine workmanship, into a nave of columns seven meters high, covered by a rounded ceiling, then into a chapel with cupola (the “Turbe”), where is the coffin of the founder of the sect. This wooden coffin is covered with stuffs, and rests on a large marble slab, and is surrounded by a wrbught-copper railing into the inside of which one gets through a door adorned with silver plaques. An inscription shows the genealogy of Senussi from the prophet Mohammed, his ancestor. A passage -behind -the chapel contains the tombs of women. Near one of the doors, under the arcades, is the tomb of the maternal grandfather of the present Senussi. At one of the angles of the court a minaret rises, and on one of the sides aJ>ove the arcades are the private apartments of the Senussi and an open gallery with three columna, where he spends the day, prays and giveß audiences. On another side are the bath, the school and the cells of the pupils. While the second Senussi, Sidi el Mahdi, lived at Djaraboub, the population reached to more than three

DESERT CITY OF DJARABOUB

rounded their life. These people, natives and rulers of the middle desert, are the allies of no one, but wage a furtive guerrilla warfare with all who invade the inhospitable Sahara sands of their domain. They are the buccaneers of the trackless sand, forever at war with all civilization and its restraints. Masked Tuaregs are Berber nomads, a white desert people, whose country is probably the most inaccessible on earth. Even before Egyptian civilization began to leave coherent records Of its history the Tuaregs, or Berbers, were long established along northern Africa. The great Arab invasion of the eleventh century displaced them from their possessions upon the seacoast and drove them into the savage area of the interior desert, where, with their hands raised against all who come into their pathless country, they have maintained themselves through the intervening centuries, despite lack of water, sandstorms and lack of farming land, requisitioning by force of arms from the Arabs and Egyptians, to the north and east, and from the blacks of the Sudan, in the south, Buch necessities and luxuries as their cheerless portion of mother earth cannot supply them. There are five main tribes in the Tuareg confederation, and they inhabit the desert from Tuat to Timbuktu and from Fezzan to Zinder. Their homes are reared in the heart of arid wastes, where vast solitudes, unnatural heats and unmarked distances shroud everything in uncanny mystery. They are masters of an area half that of the United States in extent. Of this 1,600,000 square miles of territory scarcely 3,000 acres, or less than the area of New York city, is cultivated land. This scanty farm land Is* only maintained by an enduring struggle with the drifting sands. forcbd the great desolation to * yield them a support, number 300*000 or more, according to estimate, and they .have made themselves feared by the natives from the Mediterranean to the jungles pf central Africa. ,

thousand inhabitants. ,He had four artesian wells made, one of which, near the mosque, is 136 meters in depth, and supplies the whole town; the three others are in the gardens. Sidi el Mahdi had an active mind and was curious of novelties. He had twenty gardens planted outside the town, and had them surrounded by walls; and 20 rose gardens around the mosque. Dates, pomegranates, olives and various kinds of vegetables were planted in these gardens. Water is abundantly supplied by the wells. Outside the walls of Djaraboub can also be seen five mills, also erected by his orders, but they are no longer in use, and are falling to pieces. Sidi Mohammed el Mahdl is still the most venerated and popular figure of Cyrenaica and the Soudan. He is always being quoted or asked for help. About 1896 he left Djaraboub, uneasy on account of the proximity of the British, not liking that of the Turks, and took refuge at Kufra. In 1902 he was either killed or wounded in an encounter with the French somewhere about the Kanem frontier; the faithful say he ascended to heaven, from whence he will return some day to make the prophet’s standard, united to that of the Senussi, triumphant throughout the world. The greater part of the Djaraboub population followed him to Kufra, but Djaraboub has kept its character as the sanctuary of Senussism to such an extent that any member of the sect who ha» made a pilgrimage to Mecca without having made one to Djaraboub cannot have the title of hadj (L e., pilgrim). A sheik is appointed by the Grand Senussi to represent him in the holy city, over whose inhabitants he exercises all authority. He receives pilgrims and caravans on the march and gives them hospitality for three days. The Masked Tuaregs. Another interesting people of the African desert—the masked Tuaregs—are thus described in a bulletin of the National Geographic society: Back of the troubled areas of northern Africa, where war and agitation for war have been engendered anew by the contagion of the world struggle, there lies a truceless country, inhabited by a people—the masked Tuaregs—fascinating for the mystery and exclusiveness with which they have sur-