Indianapolis Journal, Volume 50, Number 301, Indianapolis, Marion County, 28 October 1900 — Page 15

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PUBLISHED Y SPECIAL AltHAGEMENT.

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Dy E. LIVINGSTON PRESCOTT.

: Copyright, 1M0, by E. Livingston Prescott I. A small, grave perscnase of five, seated vJtr.Sn the le-sida of a porch, on a shabby c!J coat r.vatiy 'folded, surveyed the path-lei-wilderness of Belgrave square, London. All alo.t him the big houses were shuttered and voiceless. It was a chilly autumn r.iKht. an-.I he had been there for two mortal hours. In obedience to certain instructions, for he vras a soldier's son. But the fashionable desert crew to look dreadful In the gathering wintry darkness, with the tres tossing demon arms against a smoky red sky, and a wind that howled and swept drifts of sodden leaves In wild eddies about hin head. Ills lips quivered, hi3 tig gray eyes filled; In spite of sore effort to maintain a strict military demeanor of martial blankness, a whimper escaped him. It Is true that if a rare passer-by glanced his way he professed to whistle, and his small blue fingers played tremblingly with a few nuts placed in his lap by bid lite guardian; but a vast and unknown terror was really coming close upon him with the November night. When at last a big policeman, looking ten fxet high, with a helmet like the crest of Goliath of Gath. paused at the porch, he thought his last hour had come. .He resolved, however, to die like a man and a soldier, though he screwed up his mouth and shut his eyes tight, that he might not roe the process. But A2ü0's large hand on his liute shoulder was gentle as an angel's wir.g. He had left a blue-eyed youngster playing cn the rug In the firelight at home. Also, as he stooped his big head to peer Into the shadows, his salutation was a happy one "Hallo, Colonel!" he said. The small sentry pricked his ears, and, rising rather shakily on his cold little leg3, executed a precise regulation salute. "Well, that's pretty, anyway! Tell mc, fonny, what you're doing here, all alone. Last man on the beat saw you, too." "Fazer toP me!" tho sentry returned humbly. AXO, casting a furtive, nervous glance at the folded coat, started, "How long ago might that be?" "'Bout fwee hours, "fink." The policeman shook his head and muttered, remembering th5 last constable's mention cf the frenzied figure of a man foenr rushing, coatless and white-faced, riverwardg. He took the small chill fingers tenderly n his own, and said coaxingly: "Come along with me, kiddy. It's her Majesty's orders, that is. See? Have your tea and a warm, and" hte voice faltered a trine "we'll find father. Which," he added mentally, "Lord lorgi'e me, is a lie." But the promise was kept in a sense. The dismal wreck of "fazer" came duly ashore with other Jetsam somewhere down the Thames. Later, the tearful sentry, rjerserveringly questioned, could only say that his own name was Neville, that the dead man had been a soldier, and that he, too, was to bs a soldier when he grew up. He was Incapable, for two reasons Innata reserve and a limited vocabulary of relating a career distinguished by a streak of mad courage shining amid a hopeless array of vices, or of telling' of one soft spot of more than womanly tenderness to the child, neglected by a drunken slattern of a wife, dead two years before. The only possible Identification of the boy was a tiny silk bag, hung by an old metal chain about his neck, holding a silver locket cf common Indian work, under whosa cracked glass frowned vaguely the faded photograph of a young male face with an indescribable ink monogram below. AwQ contrived to Interest a philanthropist fce kntv; in the "cass,' and tho waif was rent to a big orphanage. He grew up a rrave, stolid boy, with secret dark grey eyes and a close-shut mouth, whose golden Idol was duty. This unusual standpoint of childhood caused him to be regarded as a "lusua naturae;" as it were a sort of local Infidel. Ho falsified every sacred tradition of boy life by liking work and thinking play dull. Once, Indeed, pressed at a fore pinch as "sub" into the school football team, he charged the enemy as if he were leading a forlorn hope, with a lofty and glowing countenance; but when his tide won uttered only a remote inner chuckle of satisfaction and shrank from all attempts at good fellowship. His turn coming to go out into the big world beyond, he had, as of old, but one aspiration, which lit up his serious dark features to be a foldier. He went, accordingly, with a flawless repute of the smartest boy at drill and the best-behaved at lessons. But nobody missed him; there was a lack of humanress about him. It was the same when he Joined his regiment. He took. In regimental festivities, the silent part of a lay figure; his face only shone dumbly when there was a rumor of war. and his comrades were un e:sy m the presence of a cynic whose dispassionate eya seemed coldly to measure ftnd despise their humble joys. It was the sane, too. In India; where he prowled, solitary, and not always in the safest places. He was not religious, neither was he vicious only a sort of wooden man. But far away as it were, a world asunder a new thing was preparing to enter hi lifo. In a certain S. W. suburb, which Hill preserved some traces of having once Ivo; & country village, stood an old gray cottage. whqe windows were veiled by h'e curtains artistically caught aside to fchow a gTeat green palm, and whose modest front door bore on a neat brass plate, brilliant as gold, the legend, "Mademoiselle lllecore, Hobes et Mode3." Mademoiselle Eleonore, whose name was Nf Knit, stood in an attitude pleading, yi t, withal, obstinate, before a young man, presumably not a customer. Madame riecnore plainly, Mrs. Erne played projrltty. with yards of silk spread before 1 t-r, scissors in her hand and her heart in her mouth, behind the folding doors. "Don't go. mother!" Nell, seeing her Intention, and besought her in a voice of aprony a minute since. But Mrs. Erne was determined, as she had told herself, to give poor young Croker a charce; and his agony was greater than Nell's. Besides, had she not vowed tu her own spoilt boy her innocent, r l.-rhievous, effectionate Leonard to let his chum have "a bit of a show?" Therefore, the chum, in a new suit of clothes, with a beautiful shiny hat of the 1 -tt West End shape or so he was inf rmod by Slight and Shoddy, of High fctreet whlh. however, did not suit him ha if so well as the Jersey In which he PMyed the impassioned football of nineteen oa , the local common on Wednesdays, vas enjoying that show. In his earnestruss and hU youth, his glorious garments and his desire to be thoroughly up to v. hat he Imagined to be Mademoiselle rieonore'ä ideal, he made, alas, a poor business of It. He had conned books of etiquette and cheap novels till he had swamped his own natural method, of ex pressen. Ia long involved tenttness-

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rn ooo v.hlch Nell, who had had an education far above her sphere, secretly criticised la spite of herself with lapses into the latest music-hall slang, which revolted her naturally pure taste, the whole broken by intervals of dismal stuttering, he had laid his heart and salary, also a 500 legacy received from a maiden aunt, at her feet. But Nell put out htr little white hand, slightly pricked on the small fore finger, as if to keep him off. The red, red rose in her cheek was not the signal of love, but of aversion. "Oh, I couldn't!" she said, faintly. "Indeed I couldn't couldn't couldn't!" "And why not?" asked Croker-he almost said "H'why not?" with a remembrance of a Wicked Earl at a drama at which he had assisted. "Sure, if the rose " He was proceeding to lose himself In horticultural and other analogies when Nell stopped him abruptly with a fine, crushing masterpiece of feminine logic She turned round with an effort, as if to gaze upon some ' peculiarly aggravated specimen of a spider or black-beetle. The wave of her small hand was now no longer deprecation, but a command. "Because," she said convincingly a long pause, in which the suitor looked darkly upon her "because I couldn't." The crystalline simplicity of thl3 argument seemed .to strike Croker with convictionor, possibly, disgust. This was all the effect his glowing eloquence, his legacy, his silk hat, his promised devotion of a lifetime had produced this commonplace, senseless reply, such as a mere say ploughman might elicit by his boorish' wooing from a rejecting Sarah Jane. "Oh, I see!" said he, bitterly. "I see I see" he unconsciously imitated Nell's iteration. Ilia tone even became vulgar, as ho added lamely: "That's it, is it?" Nell immediately recovered her self-possession: grew, Indeed, quite majestic. She might have been a duchess not a stage or fictional one by the manner in which she held up her head and froze him by no more than a look. But she was really sorry, too, for him, when she detected tear3 in his eyes, as, with a boyish "It's beastly hard," he belied out of the room. Then Mademoiselle Eleönore was mildly scolded. "Why do you do.lt, Nell?" said the mother, half proud; half vexed at her girl's fastidousness. "Do what, mother?" said the little puss, as meek as might be, now. "Refuse all your brother's friends. It vexes him. And I'm sure our boy never takes up with anybody low, if he is a trifle wild, as they all will be." "I've only refused three, mother, darling. And and they're not low, of course but " "Well, child?" "Well, 'mammy," said Nell shyly, struggling to express her meaning, "if they wouldn't pretend to be more than they are, and would speak straight and stern, as a man should speak, I think " Then she flung herself upon her mother, and stopped her meuth with kisses and pretty assurances that she would be an old maid, ani never, never leave her own darling mammy, and so was let alone. Her brother, however, took her to task with youthful severity. "What's the matter with them?" he inquired. He had Nell on his knee, and, holding her firmly with one arm. put up his hand, and turned her face toward him: such a pretty face, delicate as a spring flower, yet with a touch of pride about the small, curved mouth and long-fringed, drooping eyelids. "What's amiss with my friends? Aren't they good enough?" "Perhaps they're too good," cried Nell, with airy feminine evasion and an experimental attempt to free herself. "Oh, I know!" he returned sarcastically. "Yes, you can kiss me on my cheek " he turned it patronizingly to her "but you don't stop my mouth. I'm not the mater to be bamboozled so." "You're afraid I shall rub lt-off," said Nell, offensively, tracing the outline of an Imaginary mustache on her own upper lip. "Poor boy! You may well be. Why, Rosle Martin has ever so much more." Now Miss Itosie Martin had turned up her elementary nose and pouted a pair of somewhat overfull crimson lips In a scorn at the youthful advances of Master Erne; hence this small piece of retaliation on Nell's part. "Of course." said he, dispassionately, "all niggers have." "Don't! She's my acquaintance," said Nell, with an artificial pout. "I should like to know who your frlend3 are, or will ever be, Miss Nun," he grumbled. ' ' ' "Mother and you, darling; and I don't want any better," Nell murmured, with her arm around his neck; "If you'd only give up that dreadful Idea of being a soldier." But he laughed and put her down and began to swagger to and fro, whistling like a lark, "Go where glory waits thee." It was Erne's carrying out this intention that brought the new thing aforesaid into Neville's life with the coming of the last batch of recruits. The next bed to the premature cynic, Neville, was assigned to a blue-eyed, flaxen-haired boy, who, though conventionally a man, was a child in nature: a slight, weedy lad. with harmless laughter. and tears alike close at hand. Petted at home, every man, dog and horse was a comrade to . young Erne; every authority a patron and friend, for he had never In his life been snubbed. Even Neville could not resist him, and his reserve was a little pierced. One-night, returning by an unfrequented road at his usual sober pace to barracks, he saw one or two human birds of prey hovering over an object that lay in' the shadow of a trio of palms. . t his approach they took wing, and there lay little Erne, senseless, with a strong odor of poisonous native spirits about his pink lips, a nasty cut among his fair curls, no money in his pockets and a signet ring he proudly paraded gone. His slim body was limp and helpless and his eyes fast closed. Neville, with a grunt, picked him up and carried him two long miles to hospital. He was at some pains to call there next day he was passing, he said and to inquire casually if Erne was likely to die. Reassured, he sauntered away without remark. Little Erne, however, sent him several urgent messages and straggling pencil notes of thanks. So at last he went to the hospital, to be received, literally, with open armi, for the boy danced in his bed, wlrh both hands stretched out, and flooded tho stoic with phrases of exaggerated gratitude. He had learned his peril from the doctor, who had dragged the facts from Neville, and he would not rest till he had wrung from his comrade a vow to ccme again. Neville came, for he never broke his word. One day he found the boy beaming tearfully over av letter from home. He thrust It Into Nevilla's unresponsive hand, who Eaid cru2y; "It'a not meant for jay yea.

But'Erne Insisted.' "See how fond they are of-me. ' bless them!" ' It was a pretty letter, in a pretty hand, with a subtle tender perfume of home about it; foolish little Jokes, small Insinuated preachments, fond dashes, and "a hundred kisses, from your loving sister, Nell." v . - It pricked Neville In some hitherto unrecognized region. Yet it was like something he had always wanted, without knowing It, and he had a stiff, half-lowering look of pain as he returned it. "What do you think of it?" cried Erne, eagerly. "Don't know." "Don't know! I tell you my sister Nell's the greatest darling " Neville cut him short with a black frown. "Needn't tell these fools, need you?" for the neighboring invalids were sniggering. "But don't you call it a Jolly letter?" the boy urged. Neville supposed it was all right for some people. Then he suddenly began to read his comrade a cutting lecture on drink and other diversions. "Hallo! Are you pious?" "Never mind. You ought to be." He In

dicated the letter sternly with his thumb, and the boy, being still weak and the ward darkish, began to whimper penltentlally. Erne had letters by every mall, and one arrived when Neville was there. The recipient chucked it carelessly on the . coverlet till he should have finished an exciting game of draughts with a neighbor. .Neville kicked the bed leg pointedly once or twice, then by accident upset the board.Ills treachery succeeded. The letter was opened and a photograph fell out on to the floor. Neville picked it up with a kind of reverence, and handed it, face downwards,' to the owner, who, after a careless glance, handed it back, remarking, "Just like Nell." While he read extracts from the letter aloud, Neville continued to stare dreamily at the photograph. Perhaps' he was discovering what that hitherto uncomprehended, unspoken want was; for at last, the sudden Indian twilight having fallen, he said, under his breath, as if in spite of himself: "I never had a home." "What's that?" said Erne, who was wrestling with a woefully garbled feminine version of a football match of his former team. Neville replied gloomily that it was nothing. He easily, however. Induced the boy to read all future letters to him; even sometimes borrowed one on some pretext, and brooded long over it. II. When Erne came out of hospital, he found himself severely taken in hand. He was made an abstainer from alcohol, conducted to Bible classes, which Neville had never attended on hl3 own account, and, falling in with the idea, wrote flourishing narratives home of his progress and Its author. He had no false shame, and delighted to talk of his people; talk to which his comrade listened with a strange craving. "Of course." Erne said one day. "we're not rich. Mother's a widow, and they've got a little dressmaking business, you see. But she and Nell keep everything pretty nice, don't you know. My mother was maid to a lady; married from the house, and when she lost father and her mistress was ill, she went back to nurse her, They took an awful fancy to Nell, and paid for her education, and would have adopted her, but we two couldn't bear to part with her. Besides, she's as shy as a bird with strangers, though the dearest little woman at home." Neville hazarded a moody hint that this paragon had probably many suitors. "Turns up her nose at all my friends!" the boy declared emphatically. "I brought lots of Johnnies capital chaps home, but my lady wouldn't look at one of them." Neville asked why. "Oh! Nell's a romantic little puss. They're not up to her mark." Neville looked still more gloomy and asked no more questions just then. In due time a letter came from Erne's mother, to thank and praise him x for his kindness to the home darling. He flushed darkly as he read It, for though It was ostensibly from Mrs. Erne, he knew tho handwriting. Erne, quite unaware that several effusions had been written and torn up, lest they should shock Nell's fastidious taste, worried him to reply. But though Neville would only send a stiff message, he did many foolish things secretly; as studying the boy's profile and tracing In its glorified likeness a visionary NelL By and by, Neville being promoted, the two saw less of each other a cause of morbid self-reproach to Neville when, later, a tragic cloud blotted the sunshine. One day llttls Erne went out, gay and loud, slapping his studious mentor on the back as an old slow coach. Neville long remembered the sunny blue eyes and ringing laugh as his flaxen head disappeared through the doorway. When next he saw those eyes tney were fast glazing. The close fair curls the mother's hand would never touch again were damp with heavy dews of death. The lad had gone, with other lads, on a scramble up the hills, de vourlng recklessly any wild fruits they came across. . He managed faintly to make the doctor understand that he had eaten "something like a cucumber." Ills comrades had to carry him back, moaning, writhing In burning agony. . -An hour or so, and night had fallen on the noonday of his life. He was not he said between the paroxysms tremendouslythe long word halted on his Hps afraid; he could see a languid smile touching 'his white drawn mouth Light And mother and Nell were praying always. A fragment of a child's hymn, "There Is a Happy Land," was on his tongue as he passed away. He looked no more than ten years old as they wrapped what stood for a coffin there about him. When all was done Neville, who had never loved anything before, drifted about like a lost dog, doubly weighted by the dire thought that it was he who must write heme and tell the news he, who found words so hard always, especially the language of a tenderness he had never known. Searching wildly for consolations, a happy, idea struck him at the sight of a staff sergeant with a photographic camera. He would ask him to "take", the mound of Indian earth, which was all that remained to tho mother and sister of their boy. When first he saw the result Neville was vexed, for a brooding figure which he recognized stood by the grave. "I never meant you to take me, sergeant!" But the sergeant, a knowledgeable person, replied, "Don't be a fool, man! It's Just the thing to comfort a woman to see somebody there looking sorry." Neville felt there was reason in this; the loneliness of the far-off; grave had oppressed his own spirit. He sent the little picture, with a brief note, whose brevity failed to conceal a personal and passionate sense of loss. When 'the answer came he rushed away with it to the wilds. Many sheets long and blotted with tears. It opened a new world, temporal and fpiritual, to him; and he, who had never shed a tear since his infancy, was completely broken down. No wonder, xrhrn. na found that Erna Csath had civea

him a home and a mother and sister. He put rjis flnger on that last word, with something between a laugh and a sob, as he lay on the Indian hillside and watched the big, bright stars come solemnly out. "No, 'sister not that!" .he said, then asked himself harshly, .what right had he? Nevertheless, from that hour he pursued the dream ardently and wrought it into his life. Little tokens of the new tie came to him, provoking that fame laughter born of tears in his heart. Nobody had ever given him a present before. There were cambric handkerchiefs worked with his initials, a pretty prayer book and a piece of silk exquisitely embroidered, which, he was, Informed, was a mysterious object called a "chair back." Now chairs do not obtain ba a barrack room, and even if they did, this sacred fabric could not be thus degraded. After much painful cogitation, he eventually had It put in an elaborate frame, and curtly informed the room that whoever laid a desecrating flnger upon it must reckon with him. His arm, if spare, was powerful, and his sword always his bond. Besides, the men of his company had known tho dead, and most soldiers in such, matters are o'ddly loyal. Tho little story of the friendship was common property a few, perhaps, guessing something more and all showed a rude tenderness for the incongruous ornament. Even that awful personage, the colonel, noticed and admired it. Neville wrote a brief letter of thanks, and by legrees others, longer. Graduallyi Nell ceased to sign herself his "affectionate sister." At last there came a day most of us have known one such in our Uvea when the arid world burst into blossom and song; and, of that new world, the lonely Neville was king and Nell queen-elect. Ills own life-story, told badly according, to his stern notion" of honor in his first epistle, had pleaded his cause better than all the flateries of poor Erne's "Johnnies,." The regiment left India, and when he came "home" there was a wonderful meeting indeed. For each, the dream fell far sort of the reality. "Oh, mother, isn't he beautiful 1" Nell whispered that night, with her face hidden on her mother's shoulder. Neville had no one to make a similar remark to, but on the next morning, when he stood by Nell in church and saw her dovo eyes bent on her prayer book; and caught the murmur of her soft voice blended with his own, his heart sang a louder Te Deum than the whole choir and organ put together. That Sunday afternoon, as the three sat cozlly round the fire, a strange thing happened. Neville brought out before them it was a bit of his stubborn honesty the locket which the big policeman had found on his neck at the station, twenty years before. The orphanage authorities had handed it to him with his numerous certificates of merit when he Joined the army. Nell had it in her hand, and was studying it with tender interest, Neville leaning over her shoulder to say, with a tinge of bitterness, "My whole family Inheritance" when the mother began to stare and tremble, then snatched it from her daughter, ran to the window and held it full in the red sunset light. She came back, and, very pale, made Neville, surprised and a trifle defiant, tell his tale over again. Then in her turn she related how her mistress's young brother had run away from home after a boyish escapade and was heard of no more save once, when an unsigned letter came from India, with Just such a locket and just such a photograph In it. "That was him," Mrs. Erne sobbed, "and this is him. "And now I know why, when I first saw you, you didn't look like a stranger to me.. And your name why, that was poor Master Harold's second one, to be sure." A minute more and her clever fingers, used to delicate manipulation of silks and laces, found, pasted at the back of the picture, a tiny paper. This detached, a name, regiment and date stood fully revealed "Harold Neville Arabln, th Dragoons, Sept., 1S5 ." Neville, half-stunned, grew stiff and stern. Nell began to tremble and shrink wistfully. They talked the thing over late into the night, but though Mrs. Erne was all excitement, Nell had become very quiet and silent, and made excuses to be little in Neville's company. When Neville returned from seeing the solemn old-fashioned firm of solicitors In Lincoln's Inn Fields who transacted the business of the Arabln family, he was still like a frozen man, and more grave and reticent than before. But every now and then a sudden flood of radiance transfigured his eyes, and a dreamy smile fluttered, as it were half timorously, across his set mouth. Nell perceived the coldness, but not the eager passion, part Joy, part fear, it veiled. She was, in fact, though she loved him, scarcely as yet acquainted with her lover. She told herself that now, as he realized the truth, his pride was up in arms, and that it struggled with his honor. "For he is honorable," she told herself with a burst of tears, as she sat alone in her little room, looking forlornly at her pretty face in the glass. "So, though he knows that is all I have to give him, he won't, as our dear boy would have said, 'back, out But I can be as proud as him, if I am the daughter of his aunt's servant," and at the bitter thought she began to cry very softly, lest the sound should reach and grieve her mother. Mrs. Erne, on her side, was full of bewildered happiness at her Nell's good fortune. Though she was much more impressed than either Nell or Neville with the advantages of wealth and ancestry, her idea of her own child's charm and sweetness was naturally so great that the crisis of events caused her no alarm. "And then, my dear lady always wanted my Nell for her own' she reflected. To Neville, still dazed at this sudden turn of the cards, and doubtful of his ability to fill this new and strange position, it never occurred that Nell also might have doubts and tremors, or that she could possibly imagine herself unworthy and despised. But he had to run hither and thither, to have complicated documents explained to him by the lawyer, to procure and assume the outward array of a gentleman, and knew even less than most of his sex of a woman's heart . Matters came to a climax at last when tke three gathered in the little parlor. The brass plate. In spite 6t a request from Lady Wroughtoni still remained on the door, and Mademoiselle Eleonore pursued her business with gentle obstinacy. She could not however, always find excuses to evade her lover, especially when her mother, avoiding the timid reproach of her glance, declared openly that every stitch of work in the house was finished. "And . what's more." she said, 'Nell sha'n't set needle in another yard of silkexcept for herself. If she likes with my consent; eh, Mr. Neville?" "Certainly not." said Neville Arabln, with a frown. Then Mrs. Erne, leaning back In her "chair, pursued thoughtfully "And so it's all true. My poor lady, that was all alone, she'll be as happy as a queen. Those stupid lawyers have been long enough seeking a clew, 'but I'll own they've been quick since they got this start Ah, well If she's lost a brother she's found a nephew, and you a coed Cunt, llr.

"I found a good mother first." said Neville, steadfastly. It was not however, Mrs. Erne's hand which he tried to take, and, stooping, kissed. But Nell fehrank back with downcast eyes. "No, Mr. Neville Arabln," she informed him, "you forget My mother was your people's servant You're a gentleman now." "I should be a gentleman, shouldn't I, if this made any difference?" said he with fire. "Why. child." Mr3. Erne faltered, "you'd have been a lady now but for my folly, and and my love" and she began to cry Neville overbore them both, though Nell was very shy when reintroduced as a future niece to the patroness of her childhood, and a trifle proud and coy with her lover, who, on his side, was inclined to be stiff and haughty to his new relative. "I sometimes wish we had let the whole thing alone." he grumbled. But he became even a more ardent wooer than before, and, though Nell trembled afresh at every item In her new prospect, love was, nevertheless, in the end lord of all.

HUMOR OF THE DAY, Time. Life. "They say she Is a great deal older than he." "Never mind. He will catch up." : j An Odious Comparison. Judge. Madge Isn't Miss Autumn aging rapidly? Marjorie Yes, indeed. She will soon have as many wrinkles as her French bulldog. An Easy Part. Detroit Free Press. Youth Oh, I don't want to take that character. I'll make a fool of myself, sure. Maiden Well, you said you wanted easy part On the Way Home. Life. She Oh. I'm so tired! He Poor little woman! "You know Professor Buxley took me In to dinner; and he's so intelligent." The Ravages) of Time. Life. , Mrs. "Walle I'm sure the constant anxiety must have been terribly wearing. Mrs. Luers Wearing? Why, in the last three years I've grown to look at least six months older! Hardly the Thins to Do. V Chicago Record. "If I was Louise I'd be ashamed." "Why?" "She's a member of the Audubon club, and yet she has her bedroom fitted out in birdseye maple." Not Amused. Puck. Uncle Jabez Oh, no! everybody ain't laughln at Reuben for buyin the green goods. He wishes everybody was. Uncle Hiram How's that? . "Uncle Jabez Well, his wife ain't His Come-Dovrn. Chicago Times-Heraldr "I can trace my descent for eight generations," he jroudly declared. "My! My! My!" she exclaimed. "Now, I had always supposed you must have descended much more rapidly than that." Not for His Line of Goods. Judge. Baggageman This frosty snap ought to give trade a boost. Drummer Not much! Couldn't be worse. Baggageman How's that? Drummer I'm selling Gullem's hay fever remedy. Perfect System. Judge. Northern Visitor But Isn't there some danger that you might occasionally lynch the wrong man? Georgian Not fije least, sah. We have a written list of elfgibles and everything is in alphabetical ordah, sah. Its Color. Detroit Free Press. She Did you tell Mr. Luggs my hair was red? He I did not She He says you did. He I did nothing of the kind. He asked me, and I told him it was the color of a popular novel. " i Distance 3IIsht Enchant. Baltimore American. "My eyes are no longer like stars to you, I supposer she exclaimed during a heated conversation with her presumed lord and master. . . "Well, suppose you go away abouttt hundred million miles, and I'll take a look at them and decide," suggested the cruel, unfeeling man. Probably a Matter of Form. Chicago Tribune. "What a large and elegant crowd you had at your wedding, dear!" "Didn't I? They were our very best people, too." "By tha way, who was that tall, finelooking man with the blond mustache?" "O, he was the detective papa hired to see that nobody carried away any of tho costly presents." OUT OF THE ORDINARY. Hailstones begin .their fall as drops of rain. These get frozen Into Ice crossing a cold current of air on their way down. Common laborers Tn Spain get from 30 to 40 cents per day in the larger towns and from 20 to 30 cents in the rural districts. During the present century 400 ' human lives," 1125,000,000 and 200 ships have been lost in fruitless efforts to find the north pole. There Is room for 54,000 persons In St Peter's Church. Rome; for 37,000 In Milan Cathedral, and for 25,000 in St. Paul's, London. On the big steamer Oceanic there is no seat at table marked No. 13. nor any cabin bearing that number. This Is a concession to superstition. In spite of their unsanitary habits the Chinese often escape disease because their houses are well ventilated and the children receive a dally sun bath. . In the United States there are 134 cities which have a population exceeding 30,000. They have a total population of 18,S72,4S2. The average population is 140,833. Canada's mineral resources, her vast forests, her immense waterways, the great wheat lands of Manitoba and the West are the best to be found anywhere in the world. In the archaic vaseroomjat the British Museum any one can gaze upon babies feeding bottles of sun-baked clay which were antique when Joseph wenflnto Egypt So poor is the spelling in some of the Chicago schools that a return to the spelling methods of the country schools of two decades ago is earnestly advocated in that city. Rural mail delivery is progressing In a way to satisfy both the people and the department In Carroll county, Maryland, every farm house now has a daily free mall delivery. Chicago now contains a greater population than all the cities of the United States contained In 1840. and New York now has a greater population than all the cities together had In 1S50. One of the greatest difficulties encountered by medical missionaries In China is that patients, after receiving gratis a bottle of medicine, are apt to sell it to some one else for a trifle. "Eucalne" Is a newly discovered anesthetic by injection of which pain is deadened to a degree that greatly promotes tho work of surgeons. Its successful use in Philadelphia hospitals is reported. The wheat crop of Pawnee county, Kansas, is said to be greater this year than the entire crop of Indiana. Hundreds of machines are thrashing, but the job is not likely to be finished before the middle of December. The annual drink bill of Britain Is 30,000.000 more than the total sum in the Postoffica Savings Bank. Roughly speaking, one-fourth of the amount of the national debt is spent every year by the people in buying lntoxicatlns. liquors. The number of discontented Turks must be enormous. Forty-eight thousand have been exiled during the last eleven years. To thera niust be added thess Trfco have fied cad tlicra rrfca ere ralcted to th esllta.

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Not a bit of use in being" out of style when you can come here, where you may see all there is of style, and where you may buy a handsome Winter Wrap, Tailored Suit, Silk or Flannel Waist or Furs for such moderate prices. New things every day. They don't get twentyfour hours old in New York before we show

them here. Nice to know this,

Makes you feel comfortable to know that you arc wearing" latest, doesn't it?

Cloak r Our present showing is a most complete one, as it comprises everything from the little Kersey Jacket up to the most gorgeous Ulster; but it is the intermediate lengths that we are especially strong on those stylish three-quarter coats in tan, castor and black.

VaIva rnflTC n most desirable shapes, some are plain and elegant, TWlTWl VUdlo others are elaborately trimmed hi jet, braid, etc Cjo final Wfl icfe About one-hundred dozen came Saturday. Fresh and "" Cllolo nobby styles, some fancy, others plain, made of the best Botany Flannels. inPORTANT All our styles are confined to us and cannot be found elsewhere.

WE MAKE TEETH THAT PLEASE YOU Best in Looks Best In Quality Cheapest In Trice. A good set of teeth means so much in comfort. Teeth that you car. eat with and that look natural. Every department of our complete establishment is provided with all modern dontnl appliances. All fillings inserted by ELECTRICITY ABSOLUTELY PAINLESS. Our laboratories are completely equipt-ed, and we use the BEST materials money can buy. Our standing in the business community makes our guarantee of value to you. It makes you absolutely safe and us responsible.

GO LT) CROWNS. 22k I$3.00 rORCELAIX CROWNS 4.00 BRIIX3K WORK JSC OO

Open Evonlngs Until 9 o'doctc- Sunday, IO to 4. LADY' ATTENDANT. GERMAN SPOKEN. ... uivioiv rAi3j:ryEss dentists .. Ground Floor. Corner Market aud Circle. East of Monument. Old Phone 3205.

During the last five years more than 1.000,000 ($4,SSS,000) has been spent by the Sultan in trying to persuade the fugitives to return. There is a street In Chicago named Fake street, whose residents have petitioned the city government for a change of name. It was named before the word acquired Its popular significance probably in the Scottish meaning of a stratum of stone. In China the silver tael is the monetary unit, but its value varies In the different cities. For instance, at Chee-Foo, on July 1, 1900, it was worth 67.8 cents, while at Ilai-Kwan It was worth 72.L The HaiKwan tael Is that used In the official statistics. As seen from the moon the earth would appear four times greater than the diameter and thirteen times wider in surfaco than the moon does to us. The Illumination of the earth is fourteen times greater on the moon than that of the moon on the earth. The town of Palma, near Mount Vesuvius, Italy, has Just witnessed the trial of 840 criminals belonging, to an association for theft and assassination. As 1,400 witnesses had to be called the court adjourned for the sake of room to the municipal theater. Rubber stamps were used by the Moors a thousand years before Christ; and about the time Rome was founded the same Ingenious race Invented the self-registering turnstile, such as Is used to-day to check the admissions to places of public entertainment. It may be of Information to a good many that Indian "relics" are now being turned out in regular factories, one of which Is located In a county In Wisconsin. The relic-makers have a secret process by which an ancient appearance is imparted to bones, pots, arrow heads, etc Chafles Allen colored, has brought suit in Columbus against the members of a Jury In a Justice's court for $3,000 damages. He claims that the Jury returned a verdict against him In a case in which he recently appeared as plaintiff solely because he is a colored man and was suing a white man. South Carolina negroes have started a new Industry by the hand-plcj of phosphate rock. During the sun?' hcy anchor boats on the Coosaw 1. -Iwhlch is from seventeen to twenty-frrJ C?et deep, and dive for the fertilizing rock, sometimes bringing up a fragment weighing 100 pounds. The phosphate from the river bed is the most valuable known. Home Folk. Horn Folks! Well, that-air name, to me. Sounds jis the eame as joe try That Is, er poetry i Ji As sweet as I've hearn ttll It is! Home Folks they're Jls the ?amc as kin All brung up same as we have bin. Without no overpower! n sense Of their oncommon consequence! Home Folks has crops to plant and plow, Er lives in town and keeps a cow: Hut whether country-Jakes r town. They know when eggs Is up er down. Oh. home folks, you're the bet of all At ranpes this terestchul ball But north or south er east er west. It's home is where you're at your best. Home Folks nt home I know o' one Old feller cow 'at halnt rot none Invite him '--J may hold back some But you Invite him, and he'll come. James Whltccmb FJky. Insure with German Fire Insurance of Indiana. General offices 29 South Delaware street. Fire, tornado and explosion. All styles end sixes. Prices trom $5 to 50 .A-t-zzrizl FTrtl Prlrs Paria ExpcsilicnlCCO OVnr ALL THE WORLD. C TTOEIIRrNO A URO., ST1 Virginia aire. NATIONAL. FUItNlTUItK CO., tZi VVwt I Wrthlrrtcn ftrrtt.

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ladies, isn't it? the very Our stupendous assortment of Tailor Suits makes it possible for us to please everyone. Then there is a style and character to all that is not found in "general stores," See the marvelous values at flö.75, 23.00, fJS.75 and $33.00. FULL SET OF TEETH EXTRACTING ... EXAMINATION'. :FREB re rami PURE PAINT is the only kind that wears. PURE PAINT aud no other wilt retain its new and brilliant appearance. PURE PAINT will not chip. PURE PAINT covers more surface. PURE PAINT for these reasons is the most economical to buy. CAPITAL CITY PAINT IS PURE PAINT. Manufactured and Warrantel by Indianapolis Paint & Color Company, 240 to 248 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE Drunkenness. THE CURSE OF MANY HOMES. The man who tas allowed the demon of Intern Eerance'tö dominate Us actions ia so f.rndf ound by the che.lns of habit that tears an 1 arguments are of little avail. It is useless to attcmpt to reform a drunkard by apjalj to h! conscience or his morality. Ills appetite Is the source of his trouble, and should be the point cf attack. It is because cf the recognition of this rrlr.ellle that the Keeley Institute-, located at l'Um tield. Ind.. has had such gr-at success Ir the cure of chronic alcoholism. The drunkard Las ta stop whether he wants to or not. Th treatmr.t not only cures th craving', but IxjIMs up th wasted tissues until the one-tlrr.e slave Is Tnan cipated. Write for information to FlalnfML Ind., or ICS Commercial Club building, ln2;au aroli. Ind. Telephone 2427. I'lalnfleid Is fourteen ir.lle west of Indianapolis on the VandalU IUllway. "-' -Ii Nature Cure Sanitarium, 1C7 French II road Avenue. Aalteville, X. C Un.OlO J ca aTTa a lcjft: Are the object of Interval Just now to the wh5 country. To th who have the ir r-t at borne in f:rowine ehildrrn. tlulr .'-aitb houlJ lc of more inWrol than v n electif-n returns. There ran he no fsocul health where the j.iTmbln?; is old and defective, or where the home 1 lmproierly heau-d drirIn? cold weather. Hitve your piuinhln? nnd furiiHo lnokrd after before election, hy C. ANESHAENSEL & CO. 29-33 Eat Oh'o Street. ..Armstrong Laundry.. TIILErnONFS -o. CALL ANY PAKT CITY. A Trial Means Your Future Trcu's 224-223 WEST nARVLATO STuHT.

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