Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 179, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 July 1919 — Page 3

The New Decoration

By IZOLA FORRESTER

(Copyright, 191#, by the McClure Newe- . paper Syndicate.) r The little gray frame house stood behind a row of maples on what people in Bethel called the “Old Wood road.” Laura Coles Itttd lived in It alone since her father’s death. In the summer passersby saw her out at the old well sweep, or bending over her flower garden. la. the winter she was a welcome aid at the village social centers, pretty, cheerful, tactful, a born organizer. When the first spring came after the war. Bethel, as usual, felt a treihor of anxiety because it had no soldiers’ resting places to decorate. Four miles away was Sanders Point, close to the shore, and here they held services in the little white meeting house, and trailed spring flowers down to the old burial lot to mingle .with flags above the mounds there of old G. A. R. former residents. “It always seems sort of pitiful,” Miss Atkins said, folding up her apron the Thursday before, at the close of the sewing circle’s session in her home, “sort of pitiful that Bethel has to trot over every year and celebrate at the Point. Where in tunket were x all our boys anyhow when the call come in ’6l? It always riles me when I see the date ahead of me, and know I’ve got to listen to them folks tell of their heroes, and we haven’t got so much as a tattered flag here.” Laura heard from the wall closet, where she was putting away half-fin-ished comforters. The apple trees were in blossom outside the open window and a riotous bluebird swayed perilously near to give her a friendly hall, but she scarcely heard it. How could they all think of sixty years ago and the little petty rivalries when the great world war was just arm’s length away and they were bringing Walt home that very day? She had passed Elsie driving to the station after him; little Elsie, barely fourteen, with the full burden of the motherless family on her shoulders and a shiftless father to depend upon. “Going after Walt, Miss Coles,” she had called joyously. .“He’s coming home for good now.” The. hot tears stung Laura’s eyes as she drove on. Walt, the one standby of the family! They had always been sweethearts, ever since the old days of playing post office and clap-in, clapout, at parties. It had been understood that, some golden day, when her father was willing to let her go, and Walt had persuaded his father to take hold and work to relieve him, they might be married. Then he had been with the first of

the boys to volunteer, and only his let- • ters from overseas had bridged the time between. She knew when he was wounded, and of the long months in the hospital after the close of the war, but no letter had come to her since he had gone into, the last action. Only when Elsie sent her his letters to read oler did she know what was happening, and she was too proud to ask why he did riot write to her now. Perhaps, she thought, it was another romance that had followed in France. She could hardly blame him. The time had been long. But now he would come, home, and there was no celebration for him, no committee of welcome at the barren little station, no flag wavings, nothing but Elsie driving down in the oftl ramshackle wagon behind Major, the. Barstow standby. “Think you can give a couple of cakes this year, Laura?” asked the minister’s wife and suddenly the words seemed to fire Laura’s tongue with courage. She turned around and faced the sewing circle, breathlessly she talked, urging, pleading, trying to open their eyes and make them see the new, splendid duty that lay at their door, until Anally, when she ceased, Miss Atkins wiped her eyes with a quick little pat and rose to propose they all join in and help decorate the living. Decoration day was clear and sunny. Walt came in from the barn with one of the twins riding his shoulder and kissed Elsie as she Slipped by him. His father sat by the kitchen window poring over a timetable. * It had been Walt’s idea, sending him out to Ohio ■ to visit his brother to get a new angle on life.” “Dad’s been tied here for thirty years," he had laughed. “I may have a game ICg, but, by jlmminy, I think I know how to make the farm pay. Tm going to send Elsie back to school. Where she belongs, and the twins can visit grandmother in the summer. We’ll put new spirit into things around here,” He had not told them what was hidden in his heart, the hope of putting them all on a safe footing, and then marrying. But when he dared even to think of all Laura had meant to him, the limp reminded him that he had litthe»right to hold her to her promise.. Sue, the liveliest twin, happened to glance from the window, and beheld a strange procession approaching from the road. There were flagS waving in the morning breeze, and children with flowers, dressed in white. Behind came, in little groups, neighbors, Miss Atkins and her brother, who drove the mail wagon; the minister’s wife and her two little girls dressed all up with pink sashes and wild crabapple branches over their shoulders; Tuck Fisher and his faother, who always went to the Point because her brother was buried, there; these, and more.

Walt half shut his eyes, looking at them turn in at the gate, wondering what was up, until he caught sight of Laura’s face, last of all. "We thought we'd hold a new kind of decobation, Walt,” said Tuck joyfully, "seeing as how we had a survivor and a hero in our midst, we reckoned we’d come over and shake hands with you, and tell you we’re mighty proud of you, boy, mighty proud.” After it was all over, the singing and laughing and eating, Walt found himself out by the old well, helping Laura draw up a bucket for lembnade. And somehow their hands met on the rim of the old bucket, and he found it marvelopsly easy to tell her all he had not dared to write. “Because I’ll be lame all my life, they tell me, dear, and while I’m going ahead and win out as I never had the heart to before, it’s going to be awful if you aren’t with me, Laura.” "Coming with that water?” called Miss Atkins, as she balanced two lemons deftly. Then, happening to glance toward the well, she gave a hasty exclamation, dropped the lemons and sent Sue and Tommy hustling in an opposite direction. “Time something was happening sorter definite,” she said to herself. “Soon as they get through kissing and tell us, we’ll celebrate some more. Guess this time the Point is behind old Bethel.”

HOW THE SCANDAL STARTED

Mrs. Dee, Convinced She Had a “Hot Lead,” Was Not the One to Waste Any Time. Tweedie’s literary predilections always irked his practical sister, Mrs. Dee. So it followed that amity ceased to dwell between them when he married a wife whose incessant converse was x>f literary celebrities and whose ecstatic ambition was to meet them face to face. Now Tweedie and his sister, Mrs. Dee, both were friends of the Diffident Young Man, who pne day received an invitation to a little party in Greenwich Village, which read facetiously and In part: “The Tweedies will be there, but H. G. Wells will not If Mrs. Tweedie mentions him we propose an immediate and rebuking silence.” Because of that and other scintillating lilts In the note, the Diffident Young Man showed it to Mrs. Dee. She read it and her lips compressed and then she went to the phone. And if you happen now to be a recipient of the whispered confidences of the Tweedie-Dee neighborhood, you’d hear something like this: “Have you heard —I hate to believe it—they say Mrs. Tweedie —no, I don’t know who he is, except his name is Wells —H. G. Wells, I believe. Poor Tweedie!”

Pepper-Eating Beetles.

A rival in hardihdod has been found for the lead-boring beetles that the Companion recently described. The beetle in question is not such an energetic borer, but it lives and flourishes on me most fiery of spices—red pepper. In his Field Book of Insects Dr. Frank E. Lutz says that he had not been long at the American Museum of Natural History before a mystified lady brought in some red pepper that had been kept in a tight tin box, but that, nevertheless, had in it several reddish-brown beetles about a tenth of an inch long. A lens showed the characteristic form and bristling pubescene of the “drug-store” beetle. I assured her, says the entomologist, that even red pepper is not too strong a food for this strong-ftalated insect. At least forty-five different drugs, including aconite, belladonna, scjuill, orris root and ergot, are in its nienu. Printed books are not too dry for it, and it eats all sorts of seeds and dry groceries. This beetle is only one of several bookworms. Another of the same family is known to have penetrated twen-ty-seven large quarto volumes in so straight a line that a string could be passed through the opening and the whole series of volumes suspended.— Youth’s Companion.

Pleasures of Candle Light.

Candle light is a living thing. Children are entranced by the sight of a lighted Christmas tree. A room lighted by an extravagant number of candles has an atmosphere of activity such as cannot otherwise be produced. The points of light excite the sense of enjoyment. The aspect of the room suggests that the art of life has been brought by its Inhabitants to a high pitch. It suggests French society, society In France before the revolution, and the thought just adds that touch of frivolity which separates us from the workaday world and gives us a sense of stolen pleasure.-

The Tree of Honor.

“Not just because they are beautiful In themsfelves, therefore, nor yet because they beautify wherever they are put, are trees peculiarly appropriate as memorials to the patrflbt dead* but because they say for us—and to us —what no words can say, what no monument made by man can say.” The suggestion is made in the Woman’s Home Companion that they be erected as lasting monuments to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Discrimination.

“Why are. you opposed to trying the ex-kalser?” * _ “I’m not opposed to it," replied Cactus Joe. “I’m for law an’ order, every time. Only I kind o’ hate to see old Bill Bocha gettln’ moVe courteous formality than Crimson Gulch used to show to a high-class boss thief who was willin’ to gamble on his own life.**

TUB EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

ROMANTIC MONTJOIE

WHATEVER material advantages may accrue by-and-by to Belgium from the restitu- . tion of her old possessions In the Eifel, there can be no dispute that the most picturesque townlet in all those border regions of the former duchies of Limburg, Juliets, and Berg has passed at once into her hands in the ancient and little-known, because secluded, human habitation on the Roer which bears the picturesque name of Montjoie, writes Demetrius C. Boulger in the London Graphic. In the days of the Franks, before milestones came into vogue, it was the practice to mark the stages along the main routes by erecting a pile of stones, and sometimes it happened that the spot selected was on a field of battle. These heaps or piles were termed “Montjoie” from the Latin words Mons Jovis, and when the name Montjoie was incorporated in the bat-tle-cry of France it signified no more than Forward St. Denis. The Burgundian battle-cry, “Montjoie St. Andre,” of the same period, was only Forward St Andrew. Baedeker’s plausible suggestion that the Romans built a fortress here and gave it a high-sound-ing name may be relegated to the order of fairy tales.* Montjoie then was nothing more than a stage or resting point on the high road of the Franks across Austrasia to the Rhine. Situated in a gorge of the upper Roer, it gave the sasiest access from the south to the centers of Frank, not Teuton, culture In the A lx, Juliets and Stollberg region.

In Picturesque Setting. Unlike Malmedy, Montjoie aspires to no political role. It rests its claims to fame in the picturesqueness of its situation, and the charm of its medieval buildings bordering its narrow streets. The Boer, here only a shallow stream for three parts of the fear, rippling over a stony bottom, lows through the town, and in some places even under the houses! It is swollen in the early spring by the melting snows of the Eifel, but it has scooped out for itself so deep a channel that floods are rare, as it sweeps along with increased volume past Duren anjl Juliers to, join the Meuse In Holland. > Surrounded by the most beautiful forests of the Hertogenwald" or Hohe Venn, which completely screen the little town from view, the valley is so narrow that a cricket ball might be thrown from the height on which are the ruins of the old castle to the opposite cliff on which is the Haller or watch tower. This was placed where it is because it allowed of a better view up and down the valley in the days when the robber counts of Reichenstein levied toll on travelers even if they did not completely plunder them. The scenery is finest in the direction of Kalterherberg, where the Peribach may be traced like a silver thread as it flows through the wood to Join the Roer. This stream is called the Pearl brook because the dukes of Juliers used to derive from it the pearls for which their treasury was famous. It is true that mussels are still found, but no one has claimed for many a long day to have discovered a pearl. Quaint Buildings, Narrow Streets. The little town IS worthy of its setting. Against the rocky and precipitous sides of the mountains, through which the river has cut a way, aided, perhaps, by volcanic action, the inhabitants have run up lofty and many-storied buildings, * which seem to aspire to reach the summits that confine them in so small and cramped a space. Houses of five and six stories are quite common, and even loftier ones may be found. The consequence is that the main street, which at some places is not broad enough to allow of two carts passing each other, is at all times of the day in the shade, and that early in the evening It is buried in gloom. This is the more noticeable because up to a short time before the war only oil lamps were used in the public ways. Locomotion after dark was attended with no small inconvenience, and even peril, z for a false turn down one of the numerous passages undepthe houses might easily lead to a ducking in the river. The houses, mostly In the rococo

Bridge Over River in Montjoie.

style, are chiefly noticeable for the brass and ironwork of theib external decorations, in railings, door knockers, lanterns, and heraldic insignia. Shields, men In armour, gonfalons, and weapons figure in brass or copper to distinguish and J to give a name to separate mansions. It is said that the impetus given to metal work was due to French Protestant immigrants, who fled to Montjoie. At any rate, there is something quite French in the atmosphere of the place, and there will be no sharp wrench in the people casting aside the German dress they were compelled to wear against their will for a century.

ABOUT HUSBANDS AND WIVES

One Who Should Know Has a Few Words to Say on Inter- — esting Subject. In a series of stories written by Jean Pierre Perard, designated the most married man in the world, because he has 23 times led blushing brides to the altar, are many things illuminating to men and women. Two of his stories discuss men and women who make the best husbands and wives. In his own words: Consideration for his wife’s feelings is the good husband’s middle name. He doesn’t bawl her out in public. In fact he doesn’t bawl her out at all, but if something goes wrong or he thinks he isn’t getting a square deal somewhere, he has it out with her and gets it off his chest. He doesn’t go about with a grouch bottled up. He doesn’t keep a strangle hold on the purse strings or dole out the shekels as if he were sitting in a continuous game of penny ante, but neither does he throw the clutch and hit on all twelve cylinders. When you come to face the facts in the case at hand the “good” husband is the one who heeds the advice of the Good Book and doesn’t let his right hand know what the other does —or words to that effect. The women who make the best wives are the ones who see to a man’s comfort without making any fuss about IL They’re the ones who take an interest in their husband’s comings and goings without, keeping tab on him till he feels as if home were a jail and she’s the keeper. They are strdng-mlnded enough to keep husband in the straight and narrow path, but they refrain from pushing him too far or too fast. To sum it up the women who make the best wives are the ones who regard marriage as an occupation or a profession.—New York Mail.

A child of nine in Standard IH of a Sheffield school wrote the following essay on “Hens,” says the London Telegraph: “Hens are treble (terrible) things in a garden. They do not chew their food ; they swallow it holl. Hens eat bits of pot and then the egg shells are made from these. They lay a lot of eggs if you are ducky. Some people put pot eggs in the hens nest to tys (’tlce) them to lay. When hens start eating the eggs, the people put mustard in an eggs shell. Hens have cloven feet and scarly (scaly) legs. One kind of hens are called cockerils.”

Few birds have so many scandals connected with their names as the yellow hammer has in England, where the old wives used to tell that the scratches and hieroglyphics on its eggs were the handwriting of old Nick himself. They do say, too, that this bird “drinks a drap o’ the deevil’s blood every Monday morning,” certainly a bad way to begin the week. So far as I can learn the yellow hammer is really a harmless chap. Fve always loved the name given by the Italians to the young of this species which is “rigoletto,” the name of the court fool in a well-known opera.—Exchange.

“Our landlady seems to have no soul for romance.” "Eh?” “Displays no interest in those two young people who are in love.” “Well, it’s this way. It’s a romance to us, but to her it simply means the loss of two boarders.”—Louisville Courier-Journal.

Essay About Hens.

Praise for Yellow Hammer.

Boarding House Romance.

ALL DRESS FOR THE WARM DAYS

The barbaric glitter of /tinsel ap-? pears In many of this summer’s evening gowhs. One of these is made of checked silver cloth with squares in dull lead color contrasting with alternate ones that are In tones of bright burnished silver. So elaborate is this material in itself, observes a leading fashion correspondent, that it? needs little trimming. Almost no bodice appears in this gown. There is a bit of front drapery and - slender shoulder straps are hung with silver paillettes. In the back it is decollete to the belt. Sinuously slender, the skirt dips to one of the pointed and 1 abbreviated trains that are so frequently seen this season. Sliver cloth shimmering through jade green tulle also makes an effective evening dress. Young girls are wearing evening frocks of white, unrelieved by any color. Not the fluffy, frilly type of white dress such as the girl graduate chooses are these, but made of silk im the severest way possible, they depend entirely on their classic lines for great distinction. Wraps That Gleam Like Rainbow. Callot makes evening coats of silver and gold tissues and collars them with costly furs. Vying with these are evening wraps of silk resembling the rainbow in the brilliancy of their colorings and embroidered with gold and silver threads. The linings are even more brilliant. Large fur collars appear on all the summer evening wraps. Lace,which will be much used for midsummer dinner dresses, is a welcome departure from the metallic cloths and wintry fabrics that we are using. To dine at a roof garden or other public place on a hot summer night nothing could be more suitable or comfortable than.a frock of sheer black lace topped by a picturesque hat. These dresses should be plain and distinctive in their design, instead of the fussy, filmy creations that fashion has given us in past seasons. Wired Frocks Seem Like Cages. “ Lace lends itself well to the new flaring silhouette. I saw a frock of white georgette crepe that had a full black lace tunic gathered at the bottom to a whitl* crepe foundation skirt

Midsummer Evening Gown of White Satin With > Sheen and Daintiness Which Cannot Help but Attract—Set Off by Rich Pearls and Streamer of Crimson Roses. -

and wired so as ta appear like a cage. Sleeves of lace dresses (nay be short and tight, or three-quarter length and flowing. Necks, whether cut high or low in the back, are always open at the throat. With these dresses are worn Iprge black hats of malines, horsehair or lace trimmed with jet, the jet being used to outline the pattern of the lace rather than as a decided trimming feature. Gloves may be worn with these short-sleeved gowns, but Paris says ft is smarter, to be gloveless. Evening slippers are of satin or silver cloth, either plain or brocaded; gold cloth slippers are seen no more. Gowns of metal brocade usually have slippers made to match. Many of the new slippers have the large rhinestone buckles which are so becoming, to slender feet. Tiny bronze buckles are smart on black slippers. These bronze buckles are worn, too, on street pumps of dull black leather. French Adopt Our Colonial Idea*. The Colonial lines are featured extensively in the new slippers, even in those worn by Parislennes. It seems strange that the French should adopt Colonial ideas in their new footwear, but this is just what they are doing. Even satin slippy are made after this

fashion. Some of the new French slippers have straps across the ankles, but this style does not appeal to us. Three years ago Callot made much of the smock as a blouse, but it was not at that time taken up by American buyers. Now the casaque blouse Is seen everywhere. It is worn even in sport things, and the old-time blouse that we tucked inside our skirts is disappearing over the horizon of fashion. These overblouses, .sashed loosely either with their own material or with narrow moire ribbons in colors that

This Creation of Beauty for Summer Wear la a Flambeau Smock of Exquisite Lavender Crepe Meteor, With Lavender Flowers Shading Into the Deeper Tones.

give an opportunity to introduce charming color effects into our costumery, are especially desirable for the uncorseted but somewhat mature figure, because they conceal the waistline, which, if defined, invariably makes women look older. There are different ways of belting these blouses. In some instances the belt or sash runs under the front of the blouse and comes out of the side seams to tie at the back, and at other times this method is reversed with the girdle tying in the front, and sometimes the girdle just encircles the outside of the blouse. To Be Made at Home. A frock of unusual charm, and one that might easily be made at home, is of white chiffon flowered with pink roses. This is made like a front and back apron falling full length over an overskirt of plain white chiffon. These panels are bound with rose ribbons of a tone to blend with the flowers in the fabric and are tied together at intervals down the skirt by bows of the ribbon. Around the very low-cut neckline falls a bit of fine white lace shadowing a rose ribbon which ties under the lace at the front in a bow. The same treatment is carried out on the very short sleeves. The lace makes turnback cuffs under which goes the ribbon. The idea is very simple but clever. It is jugt the sort of little dress that, seen or described, makes you feel that you want to set to work and make one, because in every feminine heart is the creative clothes Instinct, which, if fostered to any degree, is bound to find expression.

Lingerie Dresses Sent by Paris. Of the latest lingerie dresses that Paris has sent us the one-piece coral and white checked frock is fashioned of French muslin, a material closely resembling a fine voile. A deep fold, hand hemstitched at both top and bottom, makes the skirt appear as though it had an overskirt. The sleeves, patch pockets and blouse, too r are trimmed with hand hemstitching done in coralcolored thread. A particularly interesting feature of this dress is the new long-shouldered effect. Plain coralcolored material of the same shade forms the belt, cuffs and a collar which starts in the front and ties in a bow at the back of the neck.

LINGERIE FROCK IS REVIVED

Garments Made of Nets, Organdie% Georgettes, Chiffons, Crepes and Batistes for Summer. The revival of the lingerie frock to an assured feature of summer. • These frocks, made of sheer tissues such as nets, organdies, georgettes.; chiffons, crepes and batistes, are most engaging, almost invariably combined with laces or embroideries and sometimes both. Some show beautiful hand embroideries or real laces, others ma-, chine-made laces or embroideries —the choice rests with the purse of the purchaser. Many all-lace afternoon frocks are being shown. Some are white and others are in colored laces and nets, the colors being the season’s favorites—salmon, flesh, orchid, pitron, straw and jade. Ribbon sashes are worn with most of these frocks. Parasols in chiffon* or laces, together with lace or georgette hats, help to complete these beautiful frocks.

A Novel Parasol.

Black velvet has a novel use as a parasol in the flat Japanese shape. Other parasols of silk are trimmud with narrow black velvet ribbon.