Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 158, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 July 1916 — Page 3

The R E D MIRAGE

By I A. R. WYLIE

TM, BJ Sf7S'*,o*S. •IVtSIHOJVATSU.

The red mirage blinds Farquhar's eyes when he sacrifices himself to protect hie father's memory, and to protect the girl he loves. Nameless In the Foreign Legion, going through worse than death at the hands of those who should have been hie friends, the mirage still blinds him, and when the mirage dissolves In the love and sympathy of a real woman, it seems too late. But you must read the story to know how completely a “perfectly good" woman may ruin the life of an impulsive, chivalrous man, and how a sympathetic, loving one may help him to life and hope again. CHAPTER I. Beginnings. “And so yon have really made up your mind, Richard?" "With your consent, mother.” Mrs. Parquhar sighed and tapped an impatient tattoo on the fender with her small, well-shod foot. “My share in the matter has not the slightest Importance. You might have spared me the farce." “It’s not a farce; as it happens, I want your consent. It’s true—l’ll marry without it—but it will make all the difference to my happiness.” He put his head a little to one side and looked at her whimsically. “Really, mother, you are the last person to blame me for falling in love. It was you who taught me to adore the sex.” She made no answer. But she glanced up at the tall Venetian mirror and her mouth relaxed. She undoubtedly possessed a charm which made it seem scarcely credible that the man beside her was her son. She was pmall but beautifully made. She possessed the nameless quality which excuses everything and has sent men in all ages from crime to great place and from great place to the gallows. Richlard Parquhar bore her no resemblance, though it was conceivable that without the wig and the coating of powder she might have revealed a certain similarity of coloring. His face and broadshouldered, narrow-hipped figure revealed race, also vigor and headstrong temperament, which a peculiar light In the eyes accentuated. At the moment his expression was gay, but it veiled excitement and something obstinately resolved.

“You are a vain old woman!" he said lightly. “I believe you expected me to be dancing at your apron strings in blind adoration all my life." “I did nothing of the sort I wanted you to marry—but not Sylvia Omney.” He looked at her in unconcealed surprise. Possibly her tone was new to him. It was sharp and irritable; it revealed her suddenly as an old woman. “I think I must be rather like my father," he said thoughtfully. “I don't remember him, and I have never seen anything of his save an old letter to you. Here it Is.” From his breast pocket he took out an old letter covered with yellow, faded writing and unfolded it "It gives me a queer feeling, tpo, when I read it” he went on slowly. "I might have written It myself—to the woman I loved. He must have loved you madly, mother. One feels in every line that you were a religion to him —that he would have sold himself, body and soul —” "Don't!” she Interrupted sharply, angrily. Then she gave a shrill, unsteady little laugh. "My poor Richard! Yes, you are like him —very like him. But If it’s the wrong woman—what then?” “Of course, It must not be the wrong Woman,” he said slowly. "But my father chose rightly, as I know I have chosen w I have chosen a woman after his own heart—Sylvia is like you, mother.” “Sylvia is like me?” She lifted her faded, still beahtlfal eyes to his face. "Yes, I suppose she Is—what men call a womanly woman. God help men from what they call womanly women. Well”—she turned away with a careless, almost contemptuous movement of the shoulders —“I can’t save you. Take my blessing, Richard. That’s what you want, Isn’t it?” "Thank you. I may bring Sylvia so aee your ■ _ - .

"Of course. Sylvia and I get on very well. Has anything been heard of the brother?" “I don’t think so. But I shall bear tonight" “Cut his throat probably." She glanced back at him with a curious little smile on her colorless face. “All the same, Sylvia is lucky. I am rather proud of you myself, Richard. You are the only man I know who dresses in perfect taste without looking a vulgar noodle. Good night” She kissed him hurriedly as he held the door open for her, and for an Instant she looked up into his face with a curious half-tender, half-whimsical grimace. Then she was gone. An hour later Richard Parquhar entered the Omneys’ drawing room. He found his host by the fireside, a somewhat lone figure with the white, thin face of a man never wholly at rest He greeted Parquhar eagerly and nervously. We—l expected you before —” “I have been kept at Aldershot,” Parquhar answered. “I came my first free evening. I can’t tell you how keen I have been to see you both again—and to hear your news.” The elder man seemed to shrink together. He glanced nervously over his shoulder, and his face was gray and sunken. “There is no news, Parquhar. We traced him to Marseilles, and then followed a wrong scent over to Oran and farther south. It all came to nothing—the wrong fellow all the time. It broke me up. I’ve lost hope—all hope, Parquhar.” “He will come back,” the other suggested. “No, no; he was reckless and obstinate and —a bit of a coward. He couldn’t face the disgrace—he left that to us —and he couldn’t face me. I dare say I was harsh—but I swear I didn’t deserve this. And now I have to lie and pretend and play this confounded comedy. People—the few who believe —will tell you that my son is sheep farming in Australia. Parquhar, what in heaven’s name possesses a man to want children? Mine have been a curse—”

“You have your daughter,” was the sharp interruption. The banker glanced at the man beside him. The thin, bronzed face was slightly flushed, and there Was a fire in the passionate eyes which seemed to cause the observer a new emotion. He turned away, his thin features twisted into a wry smile. «Yes—l have Sylvia—naturally she is a great comfort But she is young—you gjust always remember that, and one must Judge youth by other standards. We must not expect too much.” “One might expect everything of Sylvia," Parquhar responded gravely. Again the swift, anxious glance swept over his face. “Ah, yes, you are young yourself. Well, I suppose you want to see her; I won’t detain you. You will find her

"Sylvia,” He Bald Brokenly.

in the library, looking out some old prints for a well-intentioned futurist. We have become artistic, you know.” If there was a covert sneer in the last\words Farquhar was not in a position to notice It, for he had already begun to cross the room. One or-two people spoke to him, but he answered absently, and they did not detain him, A pair of heavy tapestry curtains separated the so-called library from the drawing room. He pushed them softly aside and entered. Sylvia Omney stood at the long table beneath the subdued cluster of electric light, her head bowed, her back toward him. She did not seem to hear' his entrance, for she did not move, and he did not seek to call her attention. She was not looking at the great folio which lay spread out before her, but staring sightlessly into the shadows, her cheeks bathed in color, her lips parted in breathless anticipation. A moment later she lifted her hands to her face, and he saw that she trembled. He knew then that she was conscious of his presence, and that that same awe and dread of their dawning happiness held her as it had held him in paralyzed waiting. "Sylvia." he said brokenly. She did not turn. She looked up, and In the glass their eyes met The color had fled, leaving her whiter than the dead purity of her dress; her Jaw had dropped. For an instant it seemed to him that a veil had been tom from her face, leaving It piteously distorted. “Sylvia!” ho repeated in a changed time. She turned then with a little stifled gasp. Her hand with the lace hand-

THE EVENING- REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

kerchief had flown to her lips tn an instinctive effort at concealment “Oh," she said under hdr breath. “You! Oh, Richard!” He strode across the room to her side. He seized her bands and kissed them in a stormy outbreak of passion which seemed terrify her. She shrank from him, vainly trying to free himself. “Oh, Richard —don’t—you must be more careful —we are not alone —there are people— ’’ He laughed up at her. His eyes were alight The subdued flicker of recklessness, never wholly absent, blazed up in defiance of her white timidity. “I know there are people—hundreds of them —somewhere down in that dull old world which we’ve left miles beneath. Yes, I dare say, I am a little pyid- I feel it—l’m glad of It It's good to be mad like this—" Suddenly her expression penetrated his intoxication. ' He stopped short. “Sylvia—you’re not ill?” he said roughly. * She shook her head, half smiling, half tearful.

“You may not care what people think but I do—all nice women do. We are not properly engaged. You forget that.” He nodded, his eyes fixed on her half-averted face. "Perhaps you are right—women are different In their love and in their religion they seek the outward, visible signs. I have brought the visible signs ■with me.” He put his hand to his pocket and drew out a small case, which he opened and placed on the table before her. “That is my first gift,” he said simply. As though drawn against her will, she turned. Her eyes rested on the ring in its cold, gray setting, and their pupils dilated with an amazed involuntary displea sure. It was a single, flawless emerald, square cat and set in a narrow band of sapphire. Farquhar took it from its case and held it out to her. “You don’t understand. It can’t be Just now. It’s as though we were rejoicing in the midst of a terrible grief. Surely you have heard?” “I know that your brother has not been found,” he answered earnestly. “I know that he was—is very dear to you. Why should that come between us now?” “Because —■” She made a little, feeble gesture of despair, and then went on breathlessly. “It’s not for myself, Richard. There is my father to be considered. Robert’s loss has broken his heart. He is Ill—you must have seen that —I can’t tell him that I am going to leave him —” “I don’t fask it of you. I shall be patient. I shall wait a year—two years, but you can’t keep me on the outside of your life while I wait. You belong to me—you gave yourself to me. I don’t claim more than you gave —I wouldn’t claim that much if I saw it was not for your happiness—and now I hold you above my life, my honor—”

“Oh, hush! hush!” She looked at him with terrified, beseeching eyes. “Please don’t say that—l don’t want to hear it, Richard. It sounds so—wild and mad, and your eyes frighten me. Be reasonable and gentle—dear.” The hard lines of violence smoothed themselves from his face as if by a miracle. With an almost feminine tenderness he'took her icy hand between his own and chafed It.” “Forgive me—l think I have a devil In me, Sylvia, a little black fiend that drives me—well, to the very devil, In fact.” He stopped, his eyes narrowing as though at some vision which he could not fully face. “If I lost you— Sylvia, what is the matter?” He looked at her more intently, and then, with a sudden flash of perception. “Something has happened—out there in Algiers. What?” She did not answer. She was not even looking at him. Following her glance, he tume’d slowly on his heel. A man who had stood hesitating on the threshold now came toward them, his hand extended. "Forgive me, Miss Omney. I Interrupted, but I understood that I should find you here, and I could not wait. You see, I am punctual to the hour and to the day.” He spoke in English, with a faint accent that was not displeasing. Rich* ard Farquhar drew back. The vehemence had vanished from his manner, leaving him curiously at ease. Sylvia Omney glanced at him, swiftly, with an almost childish appeal and fear. “Richard, this is Captain Arnaufl. We met out in Algiers. Captain Ajrnaud —this is Mr. Farquhar.” Both men bowed. The Frenchman smiled with cordial recognition. “I have heard your name often, Mr. Farquhar. You are what Is called an old playfellow, are you not—a privileged position?” For an instant Farquhar waited, his eyes fixed on the girl’s white face. She did not look at him or speak, “Indeed, most privileged.” He picked up the emerald ring and slipped It carelessly back into his pocket

It is a pity that some person* lack the tact to break unhappy news inoffensively. Perhaps It is thoughtlessness that Is responsible for a good deal of the sadness In the world—especially in the cases of spoiled women who play with the affections of men whose love is deep. How much sorrow might havs been saved If between Sylvia and Richard there had been really a mutual thoughtfulness and effort to spare heartbreak • and soul-mtssry—than which there Is no greater misery.

(TO BB CONTINUKXXJ

HITS FROM SHARP WITS

The easier it is to reform a man the less it amounts to. Just a little discontent is always needed to keep us moving.—Albany Journal. Speaking of trading relations, a great many people would be willing to do it A man will write out a hundred “don’ts” and not mention a single “do.” —Norfolk Ledger Dispatch. Statistics show that women live longer than men. Proving that they do have the last word. —Macon News. There are people who wouldn’t admit that they were happy if happiness were to break out all over them, like the measles. In the course of time the world gets tired of hearing one man or one woman telling it what it should do about this and that. Truth crushed to earth will rise again, but before it gets all the dust brushed off the lie has gained five miles. —Toledo Blade. If you don’t believe little things count, just reflect that a mite of a flea can convince a dog that life is real, life is earnest. —Toledo Blade. Watching a neighbor’s house to see who comes out thereof in the wee ama’ hours shows more curiosity than love.—Deseret Evening News. Add list of impossible happenings: “Once upon a time a woman passed by a mirror and didn’t look at herself.” “Once upon a time a woman went to the theater and didn’t powder her nose before leaving.”—Macon News.

LIFE

Try to be a precious stone set by the hand of an artist. People forgive us neither our talents, nor our friends, nor our marriage, nor our fortune; it is only our death which they forgive, and even then — Your heel of Achilles is much more readily detected by those beneath you than by those on your own level. There are parents who avenge themselves on their children for the bad education they have given them.

SAYINGS OF A SPINSTER

There are lots of happy men in the silly sanitariums. All men are brave until there’s a demand for bravery. If you would learn of a man’s goodness attend his funeral. Some men are like cigars—the more they are puffed the smaller they get. The more a man talks the less he can be depended on to deliver the goods. \ A woman prefers a husband taller than herself—so she can pretend to look up to him.

BRILLIANTS

The three W’s is my maxim; plenty ot work, plenty of wittles and plenty of wages.—Thackeray. The reason why men succeed who mind their own business is because there is so little competition.—F. Marion Crawford. Money is a real tragedy! Give, it and you make paupers; lend it <4pd you create enemies; hoard it and you imperil your soul. —Peter Pry Shevlin. A tip is a small sum of money you give to somebody because you’re afraid he won’t like not being paid for something you haven’t asked him to do. — The Bailie, Glasgow.

FLASH-LIGHTS

Nothing circulates so fast as secrets. An egotist is a man who enjoys talking to himself. An old bachelor says a marriage certificate is a noose-paper. A pretty girl always looks like the picture on a magazine cover doesn’t. When some men think they are thinking they are merely killing time.

STAR BEAMS

The job of the obituary poet is a dead cinch. The chronic kicker is apt °to get his on the rebound. Death may love shining marks because they are so scarce. There’s no fool like an old fool who attempts to come back with the aid oi a wig aT> d a handful of false teeth.

STARTS IN MENTAL STATE

•uocsss Begin* in Large Measure 111 Making Yourself Believe It First. To attain success you must saturate your mind with the thought of success. You must feel sucess. You must act as much like a success as possible. Affirm that the spirit is going to lead you to work that you can do and do satisfactorily. Did you ever hear the head of a sales department lecture his men? That is the essence of his talk. Make yourself believe It first and then the other fellow. One sales manager, getting discouraged reports from one of hla men on the road, sent another man to vitalize him anew with enthusiasm. He found the discouraged one “in the dumps.” He took him to a good show, bought him a good dinner, shot a game of pool with him, Joshed and jollied him, told him he was all right, got his clothes pressed, gave him a slap on the back and after a day or two started him off on his trip again and he began to send in orders. The fellow had simply lost his punch for the time. Instead of firing him the sales manager took the better course of restoring his punch and thereby saved one of hi* best men. There is a lot in the way you feel. If you go out with assurance people stand aside for you. It’i in your own mental attitude, William E. Towne in the Nautilus Magazine tells of a teacher of will power development in Paris who was consulted by a young woman who complained that she was always being Jostled in crowds and treated rudely by, the clerks in the shops. The instructor explained to her that she had surrounded herself with an aura of “self-depreciation and morbid sensitiveness,” which fairly "invited” people to Impose upon her. Her mental atmosphere was so negative that it attracted more positive natures to push her aside. She was instructed how to keep and maintain a positive attitude of self-assertion and self-re-spect. For a time she was even to cultivate an aggravating form of selfassertion in order to more quickly offset her negative habits of thought concerning herself and her relation to other people. The result was that within a very short time she was treated with the greatest respect and consideration wherever she went and even in crowds she was shown far more than the ordinary degree of courtesy.

Told of Pastor's Hardships.

In an address at the West Side Young Men’s Christian association, Manhattan, recently, Rev. Dr. 8. Parkes Cadman said that the clerical profession was criticized frequently, but it had more brains and less pay than any other profession, and few ministers were able to save any money, no matter how large their salaries, which he knew from his own experience. - “Every bunco steerer,” said Doctor Cadman, “has a clergy list in his possession, and the preacher is the first man to whom he goes if he has a mine anywhere to sell, or a ‘cream factory* to dispose of. And many a preacher often lacking in keen business sense, nibbles and then bites, and is regarded as the proper person on whom to unload. I speak from experience. If a preacher is regarded as too shrewd in business, he must be brought to task. I believe in poverty in youth, but not in age, and I believe that no deserving person more than sixty-five years old In any civilized nation on earth should be allowed to suffer, and I am quite sure that the time is coming when all such deserving ones will be placed beyond the fear of want.”— Brooklyn Eagle. ,

. Care for Your Own Health.

Doctor Krusen, who is in charge of the public health department of Philadelphia, recently warned his public that medicines play a really minor part In the treatment of diseases, and added: "Tradition, custom, and the ‘medicine man’ have been largely responsible for the extensive use of drugs. There are many people who still believe that Illness requires the immediate use of medicines and that there are some mysterious or miraculous qualities in them which drive away the evil spirits of fever. "Indiscretion in diet, overdrinking, careless habits and improper living cannot be corrected by taking the contents of the corked medicine bottle. As a matter of fact, *he number of drugs which are considered as.specifics for definite diseases may be counted on the fingers of one hand. These are sober words from a scientific authority, a man trained in the use of drugs in the treatment of diseases.

Motor Buses as War Wagons.

The defense of Verdun was planned and executed on the supposition that no railroads were available. Every move was by motor. The artillery, big guns and little, which used to be drawn slowly into action behind weary horses, now dash up to their positions mounted bodily on rapid motor trucks. It is quite a common sight' to see several batteries of 75's, caissons and guns, loaded upon high horse-powered trucks, sailing down the road like a streak. “I have Just made the trip by army motor from Bar-le-Duc to the citadel," writes a war correspondent. “We passed hundreds upon hundreds of other motor-driven vehicles, ranging in size from the, smallest motorcycle or cycle car to the trucks of which wheel is a driving yrbeel, and which can haul a house.”

WORSE THAN BEES

SCORPION IS A PEST OF TH* TROPICAL REGIONS. Its Sting Much Dreaded, Though Seldom Fatal—Creature Has Long Boon Known in the History of the World. The scorpion is a post of the tropical regions. It never lives in our latitude. Its resemblance to the spiders and the crustaceans is quite apparent. While naturalists place the scorpions ' in the class Arachnids, the class to which the spiders belong, their super-, flclal appearance reminds one of the class Crustacea, the class to which the crabs and lobsters belong. The big pincers, especially, by which they seize and hold their prey, give to the scorpions the aspect of the crabs and lobsters. The poison sting of the scorpion is located at the tip of the abdomen and he appears to be fully conscious of his powerful Weapon, R. N. Davis, curator of the Everhart museum, writes in Scranton Republican. When running along the ground he holds the sting aloft as if to prevent injury to it by striking it against the ground. When it seizes its prey with its pincers it searches with the tip of its abdomen for a soft spot in the body of its prey and there inserts the poison stinger. If the animal is of considerable size it may sting it more than once. Much of its food, such as the eggs of Insects and spiders, is obtained without any use of the stinger. The stinger is also used by him as a weapon of defense against larger animals. In tropical regions the sting of the scorpion is dreaded as much as we dread the bite of the rattler. Although the scorpion’s sting is not so severe as the bite of a rattlesnake, it is much worse than the sting of the bee. Fatal stings by the scorpion are exceedingly rare. I Am reminded of the scorpions at this time on account of receiving recently at the museum one of the large black scorpions from Africa. In Africa and India are found the largest of all the scorpions. This African scorpion is preserved in alcohol and was presented to the museum by Mrs. EL J. Lewis, she having received it from Mrs. John Job of Newark, N. J. There are several other scorpions in the museum, but none of them approach this specimen in size. Scorpions appeared quite early in the history of the earth, for well-pre-served remains of them have been found in the upper Silurian in both Europe and America. They are found, too, in the carboniferous and these ancient forms are very similar to the living species. This is unusual in land animals. Most land animals show great changes from one geological age to the next. Marine animals, especially those of the deeper waters, change very slowly, but land animals change with comparative rapidity. In the deeper waters the temperature is almost constant and the animal is always wet On the land the temperature; varies much in different places and in any place the temperature changes with the day and season. The amount of moisture from time to time varies greatly. This environment of the land animals tends to produce rapid changes and species die out and new species develop. The scorpions, however, seem to be somewhat exceptional, for the living species do Hot differ much from those! living away back in paleozoic time.' Possibly the nocturnal habits of these animals have had something to do with the slight changes the group has undergone.

Immense Billboards.

Future civic commissions in Argentina will have a heavy task before them should they attempt to remove the gigantic billboards with which an American advertising firm is now decorating their landscape. Arrangements have been made for the erection of the largest advertising billboard in the world. It will be a mile in length and covered with huge designs of the articles advertised. No single display will be less than 50 yards square and some of them will be over 100 yards square. Because of its great size the billboard is being built upon a heavy steel framework which is set in firm concrete foundations. In addition tc this immense display, near Buenos Aires, many miles of smaller b«h boards are said to have been contracted for, chiefly by American firms who take this means of acquaint the South Americans with their products

Sirup to Remain Sweet.

Sirup that will neither ferment nor crystallize is the product of two years of experimentation by the department of agriculture, says the Atlantic Constitution. The importance of this discovery to the- cane growers of South Georgia and of the other southern states where the production of cane sirup is an important industry can hardly be overestimated. It removes the greatest bugbear in the business. Sirup made by the new process .should bring double and treble the prices formerly received by the producer. It will place on the market a nutritive, delicious food product, in more dependable form than ever before.

Quite a Mistake.

"Pa, is your business an unrefined one?" . “Of course, not, aaugjger. what makes you ask that?” "Because I heard you telling- uncls about your gross receipts.” •