Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 January 1919 — Page 2

“Acting Up”

By LINCOLN ROTHBLUM

7* Syndic***.) Mirandy Jenkins folded her checked gingham apron triangle fashion. «bd. tucking the corner in at the belt.'rested her arms on the fence railing. It was summer time in the outlying farm districts of the town of t’arrollton and the air was redolent with the green odor of alfalfa. Mirandy distended her nostrils to get the diffusing fragrance. On the crest of the hill, topping the road which led past the house, appeared a none mo st rung horse. It dragged with lagging-feet rig of doubtful origin. It would have -been difficult to tels the occupation of the driver who sat beneath the ragged and sagging-'top if not for the sack which lay at his feet labeled in letters of warning size. “U. S. Malt." As the outfit started down grade the man raised his crushed hat and made an effort to brush the upstanding hairs Into place. A“ribbon" tie was next adjusted and to its already numerous stains were added a few more from the dusty hands. When these offices had been performed, he shifted the reins from his right to left hand and waved in recognition of Mirandy’s fluttering handkerchief*- ■ “Mornin’, Mandy," was his greeting, as he drew up before the gate. “Mornin’, Seth. Any mail for meT “Nothin’, ’cept the county newspaper. How’s y’r grandpatv?” “Poorly, poorly. Seth. The floc t | 1 <rAr ** _ “Then we’ll get married. Mandy, and no puttin’ it off again. Eh?” , Mirandy binshed as if this were the flrat time' the subject had _been broached to her.“La, Seth, .how you do talk,” was the flirtatious response; “but it just seems like we'll never get there. First it was grandmaw who kept us from getting married, what with being so sick and cantankerous, and then you lost y’r. job —and of course we couldn’t get married til you was appointed this route, and now it be my grandpaw sick and ailin’ ami eatin’ up the revenue." Seth spat out a generous quid of tee hacco and after -rephtcing it with a fresh supply, shook his head resignedly. “Well, I’ll be ‘found tomorrow, ■ t ~ n long.** • “So long Seth. I’ll be expectin’ you.” And Mirandy’s workworn figure drooped as her eyes followed the, departing buggy. Sentenced to the hard, manual drudgery of a badly managed farm before securing even such elemental education as- the village offered; saddled with aged grandparents who fought off every innovation which might have lightened her labors, and forced by eternally present financial straits to forego any pleasure which involved the expenditure of money, Mirandy’s youth had slipped away almost without her knowledge, until she found herself well on the road to forty with a vapid complexion and toil-hardened hands as her only assets. But in this sacrificing and unheralded martyrdom, to which she had given herself with neither complaint nor hope for reward, there were two pinnacles of joy. One was Seth, to whose everlasting credit must be said that none of the obstacles which had - delayed Ins wedding to Mirandy bad lessened his fidelity. Mirandy crept into bed. where despite the straw tick she soon fell asleep, She arose unrested. The morning sim, scarcely awake, suggested another round of toilsome ' takks, Perlmps every morriiug it-was the thought of Seth which hastened the plw.ays rapid dressing and the chores were well completed as she retreated to her bedroom to “fuss up” before waiting at the fence. . • ; y Bat this morning Seth was destined to wait himself into impatience, for no aproned figure leaned against the gate as he drew up. ' So he walked to meet her. “Mornin’, Mandy." “Momin', Seth. Any mail for me?" “Nothin’- ’cept jhe county newspaper. But I got a letter, an' seein’ as yon might as well get used to openin’ iny mail now, I brought it to you.” Mirandy smiled at the subtle compliment in a style Seth dubbed “pritty.” . ■ “Why, It’s from the government,” Mirandy exclaimed as she took the Envelope with Its franking privilege stamp. Anything official frightened her, but perhaps it was woman’s intuitive premonition which foretold the bad news her face so patently reflected. “It says, Seth,” she muttered, “IL says you got to get—you got to get an auto if you wgnt to keep>y’r job.” -And so to rteet the government's changes for efficiency went Seth’s entire savings. And though the nev system augmented his salary, he soon found that the price of gasoline ran higher than that of oats. It was again summer in Carrolton. Mirandy was very happy this morning, for bed not the wedding date” been set just six months off? Six months is a very abort time when one has been waiting nigh on twenty years. “Mornin’, Mandy.” ’ A "Momin’, Seth. Any mail for me T “Nothin' ’cept the county newspaper," and then with a mock air of surprise “I declare, why here’s a Letter for you,” just as if he had not nearly yielded to the temptation to it rto since Lt had been pffcfed in his ■ »

mail sack at six o c<bck that morning, v «a IcttOr for meeclmed M+rfthdy, But Mirandy’s astonishment at - getting a letter did h*;t equal her amaze-. nu*nt as she rend its contents. on the letterhead cf an'a Horney. it ran: “Yoqr unjple. Ezekiel Ban'Ctt, died inteslate. ■ AA "wde surviving In 1 !I, >mt urr t*ntlth'-iT To the li<f left «bn- u-lH vitit Vtill shortly to secure the necessary signaL ture. * ■ > i h«*tt Mtmruly tiid a thttr-r unheard, of.? She kissed Seth. “Me cAn get married right off now." she gurgled, “get mnrrirrt. Seth.' don’t you bear?” Fof Seth was already'chug<-hugging' down .the road. Mirandy stared at the letter. ' The next niorning the customary exchange of greetings was omitted as Mirandy abruptly asked, "Now we got the money, won’t you want to be gettin’ married?” ' ’ Seth looked up as he rolled a stone -with tlie toe of his boot. His answer came hesitatingly. “Can’t you see, Mandy, if 1 was to marry you now, without a cent o£ my own. folks’ll be sayin' I was marryin’ you for y’r money.” “Have you got a mind?" Mirandy asked sarcastically. Seth stood aghast. This was their final quarrel. Then one morning Seth did not find Mirandy at the gate. Sire was sick. The doctor had ordered an alarming array of pills and-medicines and although Seth faithfully sat at her-bed-side every evening, Miranfly refused to get well. Seth went about like a shadow of his former self. Never before had he realized Just how very much Miraudy meant in his life. And then came the relapse! Mirandy was dying. The doctor confessed he eould uo nothing. Seth sat by the bed and held the worn hands in his own warty, calloused ones. What could he do? Oh. if he eould save her I “Mandy,” he called suddenly, "let s get married.” Mirandy stirred. “I. heard the doc tellin’ you.” came in a weak, faraway volee.- "that I be dyln’.” Tears unchecked traced grimy routes down Seth’s tanned cheeks. Mirandy went on. "Folks'll think if you married me now you'll be wantin to inherit my money.” “Oh, Mandy,” Seth choked,* “what do we care ’bout folks ’round here? I want to ’tend you like a husband while y're here." Mirandy turned over at the unusual sentimentality of Settys speech. “All right. Seth. then we’lf.get married,” she answered with a smile. And Mirandy seemed to improve at once. Perhaps it was Seth’s husbandTy’Tkre. or jtdfhffps ft 'tws■‘•■just something else,' but Mirandy got well with surprising rapidity. r , "jt was. after the wedding. MTrandy, seated on the arm of Seth’s chair, nervously straightened the edge of the lace doily pinned on the coarse, horsehair upholstering. "I got a confession to make,” she said. Seth looked up and took the clay pipe from his mouth. He thought in twenty years he had learned everything in Mirandy’s life. “I wasn’t dyin’ that time, Seth.” she smiled, “the doc helped to make y’ see you needed me. I was just actin up, Seth.” - . Anti then Seth did a thing unheard of. He kissed Mirandy.

Bagpipes Are English.

It was actually a Scotsman, and no less n man thrfn the lord advocate of the time, who publicly declared 50 years ago that “the bagpipe is an English instrument, essentially English'; the English -were the original piptrs." He pointed out that, while Shakespeare often speaks of bagpipes, he never does so in “Macbeth.” and that It is in Lincolnshire -and Yorknshire that he localizes the pipes.— To Chaucer and Spenser also they are English. James TV and other Scottish kings paid for “Inglis pyparis” at theif court, while Edward 111. Henry IV and Hbnty‘Vlll seem, to have had native pipers. The Highlanders never pipes in war before the,fifteenth century;’ the harp was Scof?«hd’S instrument.

Oldest Chinese Holiday.

What is probably the oldest "living” anniversary still is celebrated in Chimi. It is that of the birth of Confucius, a'nd falls on the day known to occidentals as October 1. The Canton Times of' that date says: “Canton streets aredn their holiday attire today in honor of the anniverOry’of btrth of Confucius. Shops of Dahtung street. Cham Mook lane and Sup Sam Hong present the best appearances. The Chinese will have a holiday, holding tho ceremony of worship in thsg morning and feasts in the evening. Wang Ying college in Honam. under Principal Chau Chung Kai, will have a whole day of celebration, beginning early in the moving, when they will march in the Confucian temple

Floyd Gibbons' Story.

Floyd Gibbons, the famous correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, who lost an eye at the front, tells a good story of an American:. “I met a Kansas boy,” said Mr. GIV bons, “among troOps fighting in the Villers Cotteret forest, July 19. He was interviewing German prisohers. To one who appeared to be a rather superior type he addressed the question in German t~. “What outfit do you belong to?" TheiJanswer came proudly—-and in good English ; “I am of the atorm troops.” Tbe Kansan in khaki laughed and said? “Storm troops, hell. We come from Kansas. We’re cyclones.”

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN. RENSSELAER. INIK

Must Clothe to Keep Body Warm

“New York.-—The zerohour may have ended for the army, but Lt senda a shiver of memory, and. prospect through us. HeatlesH houses, icy streetKland t4»t& clothes served- to reduce our vifallty'lso seriously last winter that there are many medical -perts to rise up and say that the devastation of influenza was due to these causes. We were frozen by nature, fed bn substitutes, made miserable by lack of artificial heat, and our nervous resistance, which was called into intense activity to withstand these three plagues, has permitted us to Iqll easy victims to the fourth and the worst plague that leaped upon us from the ocean last autumn. The war ds over, but the cold approaehes. ’ Thb soldiers need not fear the zero hour, but the American wornen must Tear it, warns a prominent fashion correspondent. It may be that we will get up cold and go to bed cold. We may eat half-warm meals in front of half-hearted fires, and have our being in one small room, with a total disregard of the pleasanter amenities of life that civilization has led us to believe are permanent/* This is not pessimism. It is a retrospect of actualities. None of us escaped suffering last year. The rich and the poor went down alike under the presence of intense cold and lack of coal, just as clean and flirty, wealthy and pauper went down under the Influenza germ. None were spared the presence of danger last year. The multimillionaire lived in one room and triedLlft heat it with whatever sticks and stones she could buy or borrow, in the same comf ortless way as her sister of the submerged tenth. Warmth Is the Fashioh. Let us say that it Is the fashion to wear warm clothes, and the individual will follow the fashion as the customs of a country follow its flag. We move in herds, and all the civilization in the world has not been able to eradicate this primordial instinct. So when you go out to buy your winter outfit, say to yourself that warmth is the fashion; that protection to the body by proper apparel is smart; that peltry, velours, quilted linings, high shoes, big neckpieces, muffs for the hands, and even foot warmers for the feet, are the very height of style. To dress in transparbrh: clothes is to show oire’s self behind the times. To wear negligible costumery that half covers the body at three o’clock, during" one’s self unobservant of the rules of the game. And not only must we wear warm clothes on the street, but they may be necessary for the house. In fact, it is very probable that they will be. There is small doubt about it under the new fuel request, which is that every room shall have a thermometer, and that not a single thermometer in America

Service, coat of nutria, with Sam Brown belt and buttons of brown leather. It Is modeled after the regulation British coat, and is worn by women not in uniform as well as those in uniform.

shall go above 68 degrees. Now, you’re ■not used to 68 degrees in the house. Many of us are used to 80, and the majority of us will shiver for the first few weeks under the new regulation. We may take as our only comfort that fact that this temperature Is supposed to be healthful; but, mind you. it is only healthy when the body is warm. No medical expert, however great, will try to convince you otherwise. Therefore, the clothes that are Tto be chosen for the house, as well as those for the street, must be protective. And because of this new ruling, which comes through the federal regulations, there is an entire output of new types of house gowns that we once thought impossibly old fashioned for American women. Warm Medieval Blouse. It is an old story to talk about France the medieval cuirass blouse, but it is a rather new story in America. Those who preached this; doctrine of dress last year were not regarded as sincere prophets, and we did not go into the exploitation of the thick cuirass blouse until this autumn, after France hadbad eight months of * steady usage of the idea. Now w f e are quite enamored of the whole scheme of dress. The necessity for being warm has brought about the

necessity for wearing sbrnething tt> the house and in the street that is more protection .than a wash shirtwaist. Georgette crepe, Chinese silk, handkerchieflineflk are not aids to heat inthe and even though we may wear coats with our shirts indoors as well as tn the open, we like the pnttection of these new padded blouses, that are made of chamois, matelasse, quilted satin or brocade, interlined with flannel. It is only under the fur

British "warm” worn by officers over there, and now adopted by Ameri- = can women for street use. Lt is made of bright yeHow leather and lined with rough, undyed sheepskin. It has capacious pockets and is fastened With big leather buttons.

coat or the short jacket made of leather and sheepskin that we can stand the thinness of the conventional wash waist, which has given us the best service for nearly two decades. The cuirass Mouse puts many a separate skirt into first fashion, and that is a bit of economy that every woman likes to- endorse; but more than that, it gives a snug security against the wind and the snow, as well as the chill of a sixty-eight-degree sitting room. It is an ornate substitute for the sweater. Service Coats for Women. Those who design clothes are not averse to a new output to meet new fuel laws. They are quite happy to supply women with a variant on the accepted style of winter costumery. They have rung so many changes on chiffon and satin, on crepe and serge, that they are willing to go in for velours and angora, for skirts of heavy velveteen. They quite endorse the idea of Immense pieces of peltry, worn in the house as well as on the street, and they exploit new types of jackets that protect the body. It means a brisk trade to them; it changes the dullness of autumn into the optimism of winter. Chief among the new outdoor wraps tlrat have-Appeared—since—tliA cold - weather made its first approach is a service coat designed by one of the leading furriers of France and America. It has caught the fancy of every w^marf^who Tikes something that suggests the military. It is a genuine service coat, copied from those worn by the soldiers, which were first fashioned in Great Britain, who has led all |the world in smartness and comfort in uniforms. It is of nutriq, which is a poor cousin of beaver; it Is heavily lined, and yet it is not awkward in its lines through bulkiness. There is a Sam Brown belt; also a broad waist belt of leather, and the four immense pockets, which hold all the packages one needs to carry, are fastened "with big leather buttons to match those down the front. There is a high rolling collar of leather and nutria combined, which is made to stand up when required and fasten under the Chin with a big leather button. Smart women who are out in these coats carry one of the new, short, fashionable umbrellas, that are made to look like officers’ sticks. The British “Warm.” The American artillery officer who, after the first months of winter in France, laid dll he desired was a German helmet and a British “warm, has been echoed, as far as the latter part of the wish goes, by the American women, who have discovered that the British “warm” is about the most delightful bit of covering that has been Invented for an unpleasant spell of weather. — A woman- bronght the first one to this country, as far as sartorial history tells it, and she solfl It to a man, who was so excited over it -that he tried to get dozens over for other men. Now the women can buy them over here and wear them with content. They are made of leather and lined with Sheepskin in its rough undyed state. The buttons are leather, the pockets are capacious, and the high collar is cut on good lines. (Copyright, ISIS, by McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) -

Turbans of Feathers.

Feather turbans make delightful hats for this time of,year and th^ variety in shape and coloring Is an offset to their undue popularity. The pheasant feather toques are' 1 smart and an extreme* model is of orange-hued feathers with a touch of Wack. - ■ ... -* ; ■ .... , .

STATISTICAL NOTES

England’s prison population before the war was 18,000; now 9,500. United StatesSt eel corporation pays some skilled workers a day. American Library association has sent 1,000,000 books to s-cMigrsT In France. ,• New York committee will in January undertake to raise $30,000,000 for Ariqenian and Syrian relief. Russian economists figure on paying their country’s debts from the pro* ceeds of 1,125,000,000 acres of timber tn Russia. Brooklyn. N. Y., must in the next five years pay $5,655,962 more for ash and garbage removal than in the previous frve-yearperiod. Life Insurance carried In the United States at the end of 1917 exceeded $60,000.000,000. The largest payment ou a single life is 1917 was $843,000, in the case of Frederick R. Hazard of Syracuse, N. Y. - . —— ? *• To keep American soldiers in “smokes” the American Y. M, C. A. canteens in France required 200,000,000 cigarettes and 4,500,000 cigars monthly. In a single order the Y. M. C. A. recently shipped 1,337 tons of tobacco overseas.

IN OTHER CITIES

New York Is eating whale meat. ' - New York city assures winter tofamilies’ of soldiers. Washington has a shortage of rooms for transient visitors. Philadelphia evening schools give special citizenship courses. Chicago has unveiled in Grant park a statue of Alexander Hamilton. HackensWck (N. J.) school- . boys tore German songs out of their schoolbooks.

SQUIBS

The bond battle is, over but it will begin again soon. The moon brings us daylight by four o’clock in the morning. Waterloo was on the battle line picked out by the Huns. A considerable portion of government costs more than it is w’orth. It is poor policy to talk too much, and so quit when you have nothing to say. • The chief aim of life is to consume more of this world’s goods than one produces. When you propose to enforce the liquor law be careful how you spell his name. ‘ .

WORTH-WHILE SAYINGS

Jealousy is the homage that inferiority pays to merit. Truth wears nothing but. concealment. —G uizot.. To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die. —Thomas Campbell. The fate of the child is always the work of his mother. —Napoleon. Could we see when and where we are to meet again we would be more tender when we bid our friends goodby.—Ouida.

ARKANSAS THOMAS “SCATS”

It takes a small boy who is just old enough to ask questions to take the conceit out of the man who thinks he knows it all. Try to live so that your friends will not have to cross their fingers when they are telling what a good citizen you were when you die. Of course, it is none of our business. But we have noticed that a girl who is well built has too much sense to wear a corset when she is wearing a tight sweater.

FROM THE PENCIL’S POINT

The closer money is the harder it is to get hold of it. • • *... Love and a canal boat are both-In-ternal transports. ' ,_r - Our mistakes contribute much to the wisdom of others. Age makes some people wise 9 and oply stubborn. You can tell a turkey’s age by the teeth —your teeth, not the turkey’s. “if a man lacks enthusiasm It takes Wfm twice as long to accomplish a task. ... ■ A man keeps hiS wife in hot water when she is forced to take in washing for him. ~

Home Town Helps

ALL SHOULD HAVE GARDENS Cultivated Plots Mean Comparative Independence as Weil as Adding to Town’s Attractiveness. 7 .. A friend of ours who mixes the music of dreams with the rattle and bang and noise and clamor of life, so that the one will soften and tlfcs make more endurable the other, has a favorite theory of combining smokestack* with gardens, says a writer Ln Los Angeles Times. . - '•*' ■' - His idea is for the wage earner. It is an idea through which the man who depends on a salary dr a day’s pay * may place himself in a position of indepcndenee. And lt. geemq to, us that ~ there can be no bigger or more important idea than this in all the philosophy of life. What could be more sensible and practicable than a scheme whereby the wage earner raises on a piece of land near the city all, or nearly all, that his family needs in the way of food, especially in this climate. That’* his greatest item of expense—food. Why not raise his own food in his own garden? By doing this his wages or his salary from his job soon becomes.an income—something that he can lay away, put in the savings bank, .buy Liberty bondswith, and all that. . Of course, this means that he will .have a little extra work to do outside of his job, but, with a system, and his children to help, the work isn’t great, and it can really be made' a pleasure.

GARDEN WITHIN HOME WALLS

Attractive Window Filling Adds Greatly to Appearance of House, Both Inside and Out. When winter compels us to bring in our goldfish and water lilies from our water garden and to tuck our roses in under warm overcoats and to mulch the beds in the regular garden, we donot cease to garden. For indoors we have our window or winter garden. It is part of the life of the home—an essential part, we hold. It might weH. be named “Everywoman’s Conservatory,” because there is nothing in it but what can be grown by every woman, and yet it is satisfying and beautiful always. Every country or suburban home can have one as good or better, at small cost and in return for a little care. Our winter or window garden i» part pf our living room, which faeessopth. The room is lighted by a double window, sash dimensions of theusual household size. There is a slight division between the two sections of the double window. A teachable carpenter did the work readily from our rough ideas. The little bit of summer that we keep with, us through the winter is contained in a tiny conservatory, -which is supported by strong wooden brackets and so* set against the house that it inclosesthe opening made by taking out thesash of our double window.—Estelle* M. Gilbert, in House Beautiful.

LOOK AFTER HOME GROUNDS

Farmhouse Is Attractive or the Re--1— verse According to the State of Its Surroundings. . Farmers just now have plenty of troubles: they are short of help, and much of the little help they are able to obtain is poor and unreliable. The women of the faintly are working like beavers; in fact the women on many of the farms along the roadside were helping the men in addition to doing their housework.' The plucky spirit of the women is unconquerable. Where there is a successful farm generally, if the real truth can be arrived at, very much of the credit will be due to the spirit of a woman, who in times of discouragement' insists on another and greater effort and who sees fliat the men are up and doing daily. If women knew how cheaply and with; what little labor the home grounds could be Improved they would see that the men. made the necessary effort, or more likely would themselves do the work. A house in the country, standing out prominently, surrounded only by broad fields, swept by the blasts of winter winds and consumed by the fire of the summer sun, with the barns and outbuildings as the only piece of landscape, is surely, a lonesome place, .to be avoided. There is no comfort there. —Exchange. ‘ t

Protect Fruit Trees From Rodents.

Thousands of young fruit trees are annually injured and many are killed by ml<te and rabbits that gnaw the trees just above the ground. Frequently young trees are completely girdled. This trouble can be largely avoided by protecting the lower part of the tree trunk by banking it with earth late in the fall or by wrapping the trunk with building paper or even old newspaperWood veneer and wire mesh tree guards may "be purchased in the market. One or more of these precautions ought by all means to be taken as a nfeans of protecting the young tree. A $5 ot. $lO tree can be protected and saved by the use of bnly a .little labor and the expenditure of only a? few - cents for material.