Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1918 — Page 3

Tongue of Fame

By Elizabeth Cherry Waltz

(Copyright, ISIT, Western Newspaper Union.) After sapper was over, young Gideon Sennett changed his rough clothing for a little bettersuit, then set to walk up the road towards the Alstet ter homestead. He had worked hard, In the hayfield all day. Hisbaek ached, his arms were sore but this was Wednesday night On the white wooden steps jof the church a mile away, Flavllla Lingerel would wait for him. They could sit there Quietly until he was rested. Flavllla was there. He saw her from afar, her pink calico gown making a bright spot against the whiteness of the steps. It was just after sunset when he .started, there were rosy clouds still In the west. Flavllla Was not a pretty girl, but she had a smile that meant volumes. It was worth a very long walk to see. These two devoted young people were shy and awkward In the expression of deep feeling between them. Their very loneliness while boy and girl at school had drawn them to each other. He was an orphan and her father had long since married a woman who resented her existence. Neither Gideon or Flavllla had any but a grudged life up to the time each was able to Work. Then came days of toll with little to enUven them or breed aspiration. Stranger things have happened than that both should be absurdly ambitious. In Gideon’s family, two generations back, there had been a preacher. He was a devout man, well educated for his time, and not without power In oratory. His son, Gideon’s father, had been not only stupid, but a ne’er-do-well. In Ms grandson, Gideon revived the devotion, the ambition, the gift of speech, the sturdy Industry. Flavllla wanted a home different from what her home had been. She dreamed of peaceful days, of thrifty management, of love, of being kind to those about her. She entered enthusiastically into Gideon’s ideas, she stimulated him from his boyhood to daring dreams of success. For seven years they worked, toiled, dreamed. Tonight, as they sat on the steps of the church where the grandfather had lifted up his voice, they seemed little nearer to the fulfillment of their hopes than before. Physically weary, Gideon’s spirits wavered. Flavllla was a year the older. That counts a great deal at 19 and 20. Besides, in her burned a more enthusiastic and steady fire. “I don’t see how it can be done this fall, Flavie. I’ve got the money for the college course, but how am I going to live?” “Twouldn’t take much to keep us." "Us! O, Flavie!" “You’re never going without me, Gideon, Pte got some money, you know.” “It might be. When hayin’s over.' Hl go up and see.” This is the reason why a‘meeting of the faculty of a certain college and theological seminary, was interrupted one day by a stalwart country lad. He came asking Impetuously for entrance into college, with little money and no church influence to back him. Then Gideon talked. The spirit of his grandfather seemed in Mm. He tpld’ of his dreams for years, hls toil and Flavllla’s Interest and encouragement How well he expressed himself at that time he never knew, but as the old president walked from Recitation Hall to the library afterwards with the professor of Greek, he said gently.' “It is a long time since I felt that a lad had such a clear call. I had been wondering if there was to be no more Inspiration.” They promised Gideon shelter In a part of a house on the campus. He went back to Flavllla triumphant Now was Gideon the very sword of the Lord. * In the quiet country neighborhood his return, the projected wedding, such ■projects for a lad of no property caused the wildest excitement. Flavilla, from scarce more than a drudge, at once became the most envied girl in the township. Her setting-out was discussed far and near. She had many presents from women who thought that by helping her, they gave directly to the Lord. Meetings were held to help her sew and it was from these grew that idea that afterwards caused such a sensation at the college. The neighborhood religion had been for years a dead letter. The small country church with its pulpit reached by a winding stair, Its benches black with age, had not been opened for many years. Now a sentiment grew to open it one Sunday during the summer and Gideon was asked to conduct a service by a committee of grave men. - “I am but entering college,” he cried, this lad who had plowed from sunrise, “I know nothing yet of what I expect to learn. Men, It will be seven years before I am fit to teach the word of the Lord-" -“The Lord win tell you what to ■ay,” said a very old man who remembered Ms grandfather, "and we,have no other to speak to us, GldeodT

He promised to give them an answer on the morrow and went -to see Flavllla. There was no happier woman than she those days. She was sitting at her sewing when Gideon came in, humming a quaint country ditty. He thought her a changed woman. Surely, she had never seemed so handsome In the olden days of toll and anxiety. He told her what the people asked. Its full meaning dawned upon her. . ’ "You must do this thing, Gideon,” she said, after a silence, “it will help both you and the people." “But a sermon?” Flavllla struggled with the thought. To her mind a sermon meant deep knowledge, research, feeling, conviction. Had not she talked these things over with Gideon since they were boy and girl together? The very fact of long; continued thought upon these subjects served well now. “There will be nothing expected of you that you are not ready for,” she told Mm after a time, “and since you cannot talk of great things, would it not be as well to speak of those at hand? Don’t preach. You ain’t fit You’re just a common man now. Talk man to man. "And, Gideon, dear," she went on, “don’t forget to talk a little to us women. We heed lots o’ .God. It’s a God for every day we want” He only Bald. after a silence, “Flavllla, I guess I’ll go on, home." She understood Mm. They walked down to the gate together. There was a dark evergreen tree there and he kissed her solemnly. “Flavllla, you must wear your bride dress. And sit all alone on the front bench.” He still had hls misgivings as to the propriety of Ms proceeding. The next morning he wrote a misspelled letter to the college president asking him for advice. Sunday came and no reply had reached Mm. The interest in the meeting was widespread. It was a Sunday in late August and the little church was filled, the overflow standing about the doors and windows. Flavllla had chosen some of her old school mates to practice hymns With her. Their musical knowledge was limited but it would help. They sat on the second bench in their clean summer array. On the first bench, alone, sat Flavllla: She wore the wMte dress she was to be married in, and a simple hat. When the house was full, Gideon walked in. He wore his new black suit, but looked like a true son of toil, a lad from the very midst of the people. Flavllla started a hymn, all sang who could, then Gideon read, not any too well, a portion of the Scriptures. Afterwards he stepped down from the pulpit and stood almost among them. Gideon wifi never preach such a sermon again. He has gone from field and wood and pasture to more conventional Never again will he walk between an actual living, human Christ and an actual, breathing community as on that day of Ms boyhood. He talked. God-life In common life in common ways, was made real. In the morning, at noon, Tn the tired hours of the evening, at toll, in dealing, in life and death Christ-life was depicted. Then Gideon spoke a few sentences of his own future hopes and asked all to keep Mm in prayerful remembrance. The silent and stolid people were more moved than they cared to show. Old men wrung his hand, women looked at Mm with misty eyes. Flavllla’s tears ran down her cheeks as she bravely started the last hymn. But, while the people reluctantly filed out, there strode into the church a map of presence, of speech. He put hls arm about Gideon’s shoulders, and looked at him with proud eyes. ‘The Lord was with you," said the college president. The strange letter had brought Mm Mther. Gideon is now a great preacher. Hls own and Flavllla’s dreams were nothing in comparison to the reality. They still tell at the college Of Ms hard study, Flavllla’s aid and comradesMp and of the wagon load of provisions that came to them every few months from their old neighborhood. They still teU of Gideon’s gift of speech, his honors, what a credit he is to the college. If you ask the secret of Ms mission, he looks at Flavllla and says, “I try to tell of an every day God and as man to man.”

War Strategy and Chess.

The affinity between strategy and chess, recqgMzed by Napoleon, is not very surprising, notes the London Chronicle. The game seems to have chrystalllzed out of some old —perhaps preMstoric—military systeqj akin to that overthrown by Alexander at the Hydaspes. Of that battle Arrian has left us a most spirited picture. In which we can now recognize a singular touch of modernity—the long line of Indian elephants wading, tanklike, into the Macedonian Phalanx Probably at its birth chess was a branch of military education rather than a form of amusement; and the various early changes in the game, of which we have record, were doubtless attempts to keep the Instruction up to date and abreast with current alterations In armament and tactics.

U. S. Marines Dig Potatoes.

Consul John B. Terres, in a report frOTn Port an Prince, Haiti, states that the cultivation of white potatoes was carried on extensively in the mountain regions of- the island by members of the United States marine corps, and ♦hat it is probable they will be able to export the product of their labor to the United States. They have large tracts of land on which they raised all kinds of vegetables.—Commerce Be*

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER. INp.

ORIENTAL TREND SEEN IN CLOTHES

New York. —Find* out where the bulge is and you find where the fashion is. This was the opinion of an artist who studied movement and color and knew nothing of the practical side of apparel. “Throughout the centuries of dress,” he continued, “the student 1 who deals only with the Mstory of . fashions will find that the entire difference rests in the bulge, its presence, Its absence and Its placement.” One could write chapters dealing with the bulge that has gone through centuries of fashion. A skirt goes out at the Mps and in at the ankle, out at the ankle and in at the hips; sleeves flare at the elbow, the shoulder or the wrist; collars rise outward from the neck, flare over the shoulders, roll downward to the collarbone. The bulge is so all-important that a woman is hopelessly out of fas Mon unless she follows its movements. She may wear the wrong color, compromise on a fabric that is slightly out of fas Mon or combine materials that were not Intended for each other at their sources, but she will not put a bulge where a- bulge should not be. She will work overnight, be extravagant and lose her temper merely to avoid wearing a skirt that goes out In the wrong place, a sleeve that flares where it should not, a hipline that Is con-, cave when it ought to be convex. What in common garden English we call “the bulge,” the French more elegantly term “the movement.” It is interesting and puzzling to those who go to Paris the first time and hear the discussion of dress in the ateliers of those who design and sell clothes, to hear the two words —“the movement” —punctuate every sentence. If the movement of a gown is right, or if a celebrated designer, through the hands and the fabric, brings a new movement Into an accomplished result, the whole fashion of the season Is changed. The Bias Movement The different curves wMch clothes have taken during the last two years are too familiar to women’s minds to recount them. And these women, who watch the development of line in clothes more than the introduction of new colors or fabrics, are now Interested in that oriental movement wMch is trailing over the horizon and wMch we frequently call bias. The world has always accredited the Orient with the lines that go across and around the figure. The primitive peoples are supposed to have wrapped their clothes about them for centuries,

This slim one-piece frock is of blue gaberdine trimmed with black silk braid. High collar of lace.

and the sensuousness of the East Is supposed to be the origin of tMs Mas movement of fabric on the female figure. The straight line conceals; the bias line partly reveals. The American Indian Is probably the only great primitive who kept to the straight line In costumery, as if It were done in accordance with the Indian physical framework. Recently, the designers have blended the American Indian silhouette with that of old Egypt, the Egypt of Thais, with straight, translucent draperies and plaited skirts that sweep the feet. Gypsy Sash in Favor. Everyone knows that the so-called gypsy wash which has been taken from the Roumanian vagabonds is apt to Increase the size appearance of the Mps, and yerUt has come into fas Mon as quickly as a thunder-shower comes up in August. There is a strong belief among the designers that this Roumanian hip girdle, wMch is as old as Nineveh and

Tyre, will not prove popular, but all the designers believe that the bias movement, wMch is creeping Into all the fas Mons and wMch expresses itself In long, oblique lines, will soon take the place of the straight, Indian and Alexandrian silhouette. The dressmakers, who are trying to achieve something new in evening

Again the apron. The blouse Is of gray chiffon, the apron of silver lace. Black satin skirt and sash of the chiffon. Hat of gray Jersey faced with black satin and embroidered in black and silver.

gowns, in order to keep women inter* ested' ln this form of apparel, have used this oblique movement to accomplish something quite out of the commonplace. On a black velvet frock, this new silhouette was given by using a broad piece of cloth of jet studded with rows of rhinestones, which wrapped the upper part of the figure in long lines that dropped from shoulder to hips, and crossing in front to tie in back, ended in a narrow train wMch gave dignity to a slim skirt. It is a long jump from an evening gown of velvet and cloth of jet to a sweater, but among the artistic set, this oblique movement has been worked out in a knitted scarf which is a substitute for a sweater. It is word' as the Canadian soldiers wear it, crossing over the front and back in oblique lines, with the long ends tucked through the part that forms the belt in front and dropping down with their fringe ten Inches below the waist The Importance of Sashes. Whenever the girdling of the hips becomes a first fashion, sashes leap up on a high pinnacle and proclaim their presence- with trumpeting authority. Throughout the ages, sashes come and go, much to the amusement and interest of women, especially those women who see in accessories the most diverting part of fashionable apparel. Some minds work along the line of adjuncts in clothes, rather than fundamentals. In every little group of women there is one, or probably more, who will burn the midnight oil to create or attach new and fashionable accessories to an old gown.Nln the addition of a sash, the placement of a rose, the application of a bit of jet, new cuffs or a gold cord, they find their chief pleasure in clothes. These women wilt have ttndr heart’s delight this season,/tor the fundamentals are few and theibeteessories many. Camouflage is the word that has spread over the planet, and it Is a word that no longer refers to war, but rs forever incorporated in the language of a people. A new sash is camouflage on an old gown, and as such it plays an important part in the development of this season’s clothes. These sashes have the bias move ment; they girdle the hips in obliqut lines, they tie at'the side, they form an apology for a bustle in the back they are how in front, in the primitive fas Mon, they are fringed, embroidered stenciled or made of Batik. They are the connecting link be tween a blouse of one kind and n skirt of another, and they soften and make harmonious the joining of these "two opposing garments. Sometimes they have bibs and aprons attached to the front and then they become sashes de luxe. Usually, these peasant accessories are made of old silver lace, which has come into Mgh fashion tMs winter, in keeping with the fact that necessities are difficult to obtain, but luxuries easy. You may not be able to buy a woolen undergarment, but you can a silver lace apron. TMs apron, with its bib, collar and sash that ties in the back, is built into a complete accessory and sold to go over any gown which needs to be enlivened and camouflaged. (Copyright, 1917. by the McClure N«w«pe per Syndicate.)

Predict Taffeta for Spring.

The return of taffeta touts forme first place in the fashion world Is Or of the predictions for spring. A nuber of navy blue taffeta frocks toed part of each exMbition of go* held recently.

Marvelous Highlands of Guatemala

FAR upon the horizon towered the twin volcanoes of Atltlan, their dark flanks wreathed in white masses of cloudlike sparkling fields of snow. The cones, thousands of feet above, stood out sharply against the deep blue vault of the tropic skies. For five days we had been riding to them through the enchanted highlands of Guatemala, a marvelous land of fragrant pine forests, flowers, singing birds, broad winding roads, and fertile fields of wheat and corn cultivated by hundreds of thousands of industrious Indians, writes Hamilton M. Wright in the Bulletin of the Pan-American Union. And many pueblos we had passed, lying on the rolling bosom of the cool table-lands with their schools and temples to Minerva, goddess of wisdom, and their white mission buildings and churches from whose thick-walled towers the pealing bells summoned the devout Indians to prayer. Almost without sensing a change of scene we had plunged into the quiet depths of a giant forest, dark after the brilliance of the tropical sun, where mighty trees rose as the stately pillars of a cathedral, to find upon emerging that a turn of the road Drought in view a panorama of 200 miles of magnificent mountain country, forests, plains, the silver glint of lakes and streams, and volcanic cones two miles high enshrouded in turbans of fog. Such is Guatemala, land of majestic contrasts, of unwonted, almost appalling surprises. Here is one of the splendid show places of the world. Far from the beaten path of most tourists its wonders are becoming better known. Below lay cities with their public squares and white churches, fields of yellow grain like golden patches of light in the crystal-clear atmosphere of the highlands, huge dark masses of forest, and beyond, extending their thousands of spurs and flanks, rose the prodigious Cordilleras. To the left the peaks of Atltlan towered to the heavens, majestic, symmetrical, recalling in their perfect contour the famed Fujiyama of Japan. Lake Atltlan and Volcanoes. It was more than a half day's ride from this point before we came to Godines crest and beheld, 3,000 feet below us, the deep blue waters of Lake Atltlan, and on its opposite shores, rising sheer a mile to a mile and onehalf above the surface of the lake, seven great volcanoes, of which the two known as Atltlan are the most wonderful. . - * Lake Atltlan, itself a vast crater lake 27 mile/ ip greatest length and 12 miles wide, is a remarkable body of water. Rev. Father Garcia of Naguala, a graduate of the University of Rome, and one who has given enthusiastic study to the meteorology of the region, Informed me that official soundings of this lake give an extreme depth of more than 1,000 feet. Its surface is 5,000 feet above the level of the sea. Its waters teem with trout with which it has been stocked and, while walking upon its sandy beach near Panajachel, we saw great schools of smaller fish and not a few of the larger. Into its shores plunge the volcanic hills, often in precipitous, forested hogbacks, often in steeply sloping wheat fields, or again ending in mile-high cliffs of bright red sandstone or perpendicular walls marked by the slate grays and purplish hues of volcanic ash. Such ire the walls of Lake Atltlan, often called Lake Panajachel, painted by nature in her most glorious, riotous colors, and rivaling even the famed hues of the Grand Canyon of Arizona. Fine Mountain Highways. Some splendid roads h&ve been built tn the neighborhood of the lake. One of them, broad and sweeping, leads from Panajachel on the southeast shores of Atltlan to the picturesque pueblo of Solala, which is perched op mountain bluffs thousands of feet above. The road is blasted from rocky cliffs and its sides and walls are, literally, of granite. It is a remarkable piece of construction accomplished by one of the generals of President Cabrera’s army. So steep is the road that cascades fall at its very edge and their waters are borne beneath It by culverts;- As it skirts the gigantic bluffs, the traveler obtains entrancing visions of the lake and of the many villages upon its shores. All the highland country is densely,, populated; at least all that portion which Iles between Guatemala City and Quetzaltenango, the second city, of the republic. . The mountains are intensively cultivated up to a height of almst 10,000 feet Fine schools have been built la the pueblos and

View of Lake Atltian.

under direction of President Estrada Cabrera. The president who is a patron of all the arts, has vigorously pushed the manual training and technical schools. They are to be found throughout the settled portions of the republic. ■ Education is compulsory. Electric lights and pure water piping are installed in all communities of any size. The telegraph system is admirable; I sent ten words 180 miles for 7 cents (American currency), a much lower rate than prevails In the United States or most other countries. The telegraph, educational, postal and mining laws were personally formulated by President Cabrera, who is a jurist of extraordinary attainments. The police system is excellent. I have never seen an intoxicated person in the republic. One can travel in any portion of it unarmed. Concrete has worked wonders. JSyery community has its public concrete washing place where the women may wash their clothes and to which water is often piped a great distance. Descendants of the Mayas. The pdople of the highlands, except in the larger towns, are mostly Indians, who are believed to be descended partly or wholly from the ancient Mayas. I had read that the faces upon the existing obelisks and monuments often bore a striking resemblance to the countenances of the Indians of today. The statement I found verified in the monuments at Quirigua. Of all the prehistoric races of the American • hemisphere the Mayas were among ths most advanced. They had progressed so far in mechanics that they were able to move rocks weighing 20 tons or more over great distances. They possessed a considerable amount of written lore, and represented sounds in their hieroglyphics. Their carvings of human beings or animals had been developed beyond the profile stage of the Egyptians. We found that many of the Indians we met upon the road had but a limited knowledge of Spanish. Father Garcia of Naguala is authority for ths statement that there are now 27 different dialects spoken among these people. Rev. Father Rossbach of Totonlclpan has 40,000 Indians in his parish. He did not know, he said, of a more devout or moral race. They are, too, a picturesque people. The men, with their loose, open-sleeved jackets, plaid skirts, sturdy bare legs and flat straw hats of home weave, strangely resemble the natives of northern Japan. The women lend a touch of vivid color to every country side. They wear richly hued guipils, home-woven waists of purple cloth, embellished with red and gold patterns and with sashes extending from the waist to below the knees, wound somewhat tightly yet permitting freedom of the limbs. Two Attractive Cities. Totonicipan, In the northwest part of the republic, which we reached from the Peten region, lies at an altitude of 8,300 feet above sea level. Around iton all sides but the west rise the walls of great hills. It Is a well-paved city of 18,000 population with attractive shops and fine churches and public buildings. All about are vegetable gardens, grain fields and numerous orchards. Were it not for the lofty mountains nearby, the North American here might fancy himself In the central part of New York state. From Totonicipan a fine road leads west for 15 miles to Quetzaltenango, the second largest city in Guatemala, distinguished by its imposing public edifices, beautiful plaza and fine business structures. There are six good hotels in Quetzaltenango and, although the city Is 35 miles from the railroad at San Felipe, they enjoy a brisk patronage. The stage road to San Felipe is ona of the scenic highways of the world. In 35 miles it drops more than one mile and skirts the flanks of Mount Santa Maria, one of the most picturesque of the Central American volcanoes. More than this: In a few brief hours it plunge/ from the pine-dad temperate zone into tropical jungles of* a luxuriance that baffles description. Here is a foreworld. Prodigious hardwoods with branches rising from clear boles 80 to 100 feet above the earth ano hung with giant creepers like enormous serpents. Clusters of orchids ding to the branches or crevices of trees or hang suspended from trailing vines. Skeins of gray moss beard the trees. Tree ferns, giant palms and otic flowers are features of a juggle which, at times, one can only penetrate with a machete. In a few hours by the auto stage the traveler baa plunged into a different world.