Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 October 1898 — Page 6

CHAPTER XIX. | *Lady Beatrice Selwyn will visit the: school.” Those words rang in the cars Of the sad, gentle lady, the mistress of the little girls who regarded Eady Bea- j trice with such awe. How was she to , meet her?—what wa* she to say?—was her disguise complete? She went up to her own room before she entered the school next morning and took a keen, critical survey of her pale face. She was woman enough to feel pleased that such fair, tranquil beauty still lingered there. One or two golden hairs had strayed from underneath the black front and the widow’s cap; she hastily cit them off. No; it was impossible, she thought, that anyone could recognize her. All that remained of the fair and lovely Lady V iolante was the pathetic beauty of the largej violet eyes; even those were disguised by the darkened brows. “If Dr. Hearne did not know me. I need not fear B<-atrice,” she thought; "he liked and she hated me-liking is quicker than hate!” She went into the school room then. Great patches of golden sunshine lay athwart the white floor; the long windows were open, and the perfumed air came in sweet ami odorous gusts. *1 he children were all assembled- fair-faced girls, with quick eyes and nimble fingers. A certain nameless restlessness went through them all; it was known that Lady Selwyn was coming to the school that day. Then there was a stir among the children, a murmur of excitement; and one girl older than the rest came up to her, dropping a courtesy. “If you please, ma’am,” she said, "here is my Lady Selwyn.” Then a tall, stately lady, clad in sweeping robes of silk and velvet, stood before her a lady whose proud, regal beauty dazzled those who gazed upon her. The haughty lips wore a pleased smile; the dark, lustrous eyes a calm, satisfied expression. She swept, with the carriage of a queen, through the garden into the bright, sunshiny room. "I hope I have not interrupted you.” said Lady Beatrice to .Mrs. Rivers. "I am an early visitor this morning. I have been driving to the railwjy station, and have called on my return.” There was no reply. Mrs. Rivers made a low bow. and Lady Beatrice continued: "I will just look round among the Children. Mrs. Rivers, and then, if you please, 1 will see you in the cottage,” Nay, not one word to have saved her whole life could she have uttered. She tried, but her parched lips seemed glued together. My lady was overcome, and she most devoutly believed that it was the effect of her own august presence, a conviction that made her unusually gracious ami affable.

My lady swept down the room, her costly silk and velvet trailing after her. Mrs. Rivers followed her, still with silent lips and tightly clinched hands. Through the garden, where the crimson leaves lay *n the broad path, to the little cottage, where the woodbines hung in full flower. She entered first, and the white-faced woman behind her gathered all her strength together. My lady seated herself on the little couch, the gray silk and rich velvet following around her. “Be seated, Mrs. Rivers." she said. “You do not look strong. I hope you are well, and like your new home. You are a widow. 1 believe?*’ said Lady Beatrice, looking at the close cap. "I have lost niy husband and my son," was the quiet reply; by this time the violet eyes were raised calmly ahd senrehingly to the lady's face. “Dear me." was the conventional reply; “how very sad. You are glad, perhaps, of a quiet life after a great sorrow?"said my lady, after a short pause. “My sorrow has been and is a very heavy one." replied the quiet voice. “Are yon a stranger in this part of the country?" asked Lady Beatrice. “1 have been living for some few years at Shepton." said Mrs. Rivers. "1 hope you will make yourself happy. I shall send you fruit and flowers from the Hall; I have been in the habit of doing so. Are you fond of reading?" “It is my only pleasure." said the governess: “I have no other.” v “Wo have so many books at the Hall," continued Ixtdy Beatrice; “yowenn have what you w'H from the library. I sent down a few. have you looked over them “I have not had time," said Mrs. Rivers, going to the little bookcase. “These are very nice and useful. I thank your ladyship very much for the kind thought.” The voice was gentle enough, the words were humble, yet Lady Beatrice thought to herself: “How stiff and unmoved she is." Suddenly Mrs. Rivers saw the volume of Wordsworth; in one instant she recognized it. She remembered the very afternoon when Lord Selwyn had given it to her. What did it here?. Ijtdy Beatrice i»w it in her hands. “Do you like Wordsworth?" she asked, condescendingly. But Mrs. Rivers did not appear to have heard the question. She had opened the book, and was looking at the title page. “To my dearest Violante; from her devoted husband, Vivian Selwyn.” Heaven be merciful that the sight of the handwriting and the words did not

■lay her. Lady Beatrice gianced at it. “No.” she replied, carelessly and un- i truthfully, “Lord Selwyu sent it with the : others.” Sirs. Rivers repressed the cry of an- i guish that rose to her lips. Did he lore 1 her memory so little that he gave to his dependents the gifts that had been her«? “Come for books when you want more," ■aid Lady Beatrice. “I have some notion of founding a library for the use of the villagers; if ao, Mrs. Rivers, I shall he pleased to put it under your care. Remember, at,, any time and in any difficulty, you must apply to me.” She rose and stood, so tall and stately, that the little room seemed too small for her. . .

A WOMAN'S ERROR

By Marion V. Hollis.

“I am very pleased to have seen you, Mrs. Rivers.” she said, graciously. “Master Rupert Selwyn will be riding past the school to-day. and he will bring you the rules I was speaking about. I wish you good-morning!” “Good-morning. Lady Selwyn,” murmured the white lips, and a cry from the bleeding heart went np to Heaven —better any anguish, any death, than thia! She was gone, the beautiful, stately lady: but the rich perfume of her garments still lingered in the room. With trembling hands Mrs. Rivers raised the "Wordsworth”—she opened it, and tore out rhe title pave that bore her name. "No one else shall see how little he cares for my memory,” she said. “He might have cared for my books.” I>espite her heroism and her self-sacri-fice. she was but a woman —that one little instance of his indifference hurt her more than his marriage had done. She laid her tired head down upon the table and wept, hot, bitter tears. •

and on her lips. “These are nice," he said. “To tell the plain truth. Mrs. Rivers, I do not get many grapes at home. Lady Beatrice thinks boys should lie brought up like young Spartans.” “Lady Beatrice?" she repeated. “Yes.” he continued; “my father’s wife. You know lady Selwyn is not my mother," he added eagerly. "Not yonr mother!" gasped the white lips. ' » "Oh. no.” he replied; “my own mother is dend. She was killed in a railway accident at Sedi. in Hair. My mother was as beautiful as an angel. Mrs. Rivers.” She mqrmured some reply; she never knew what, "Yes," he continued decisively; “she %k-as just as beautiful as nn augel. I remember her face quite well. 1 used to dream of it for years: I dream of it now. Such loving eyes, such sweet lips, and

she used to kiss me so. She,used to hold me in her arms, and kiss me as though her heart was breaking. 1 do miss nif mother.” The handsome face grew sad, and ths clear eyes filled with tears. “No one is quite like yoqr own mother,” he said; “and mine loved me. My father often tells me how she need to teach me. and fear for me; how she always longed to see me a good and great man. So I mean to be. My mother is among the angels; bnt she shall see how I loved her.” Rhe can bear no more; she is weeping wildly now, kneeling at the foot of the little couch, her whole figure shaken with deep-drawn -bitter sobs, and be is standing over her in deep’amaze. “What is the matter, Mrs. Rivera?—« what is wrong?’ By an effort so violent that it almost killed her, she Controlled herself and rose. “I am ashamed,” she said, “of giving way so; but I had a son once, and I lost him—you made me think of him.” “You have lost a son, and I a mother." he said. “Which is the greater trouble of the two?” “Mine,” she snid softly. “Shall you come to see me often. Master Rupert?” “Yes,” he said. “1 always liked coming to see Mrs. Browne, and I shall be just as pleased to see you. Whenever my father is away, and Lady Beatrice is in one of her ‘humors,’ as the servants call them, I like to ride over here. My lady used to think a sound box on the ears a remedy for every fault I had. My father, however, did not agree with her.” “I should say not,” she cried lyHe laughed again. “A woman’s hand could never hurt me,” he said proudly. “Good morning, Mrs. Rivers. I will come again often, if you will let me.” “Come when you will,” she said: and then their eyes met. The boy started. “Who on earth are you like, Mrs. Rivers?” he cried. “I have seen you before, I am sure; Or else some one like you.” She drew back in alarm. "Chance resemblances are common enough,” she said quietly. “I can only hope my face reminds you of some one very pleasant. "That it doos,” he replied. “Now I must go.” , » . ’ And the next minute he .was on horseback. waving his cap in a farewell salute to her. ' . . (To be continued.)

IN A SULPHUR MINE.

Terrible Hardships of the Bogs Employer! therein. “There are but few who admire the. collection of beautiful Sulphur crystals in the National Museum,” remarked the gentleman who collected them from the famed sulphur mines in Sicily to a Washington Star reporter, “who have anyAdea in relation to the same except their beauty. I don’t think,” he said, “there Is another spot on earth where such abominable treatment, such fiendish cruelty, is Inflicted the laborer as in the sulphur mines of Sicily. They are paid barely enough to provide themselves with a scant supply of the coarest, cheapest food, and a good portion of the time they are in a state of chronic starvation. When I was last there, many of the mines were closed, and a Sicilian paper stated that 30.000 people were starving at the mines. The work is of the hardest and most exhausting character. Very few of" The mines have hoisting apparatus, and the sulphur ore (sulphur and limestone combined) is brought up from the depths below on the backs of men and boys. Long, sloping, narrow tunnels lead from the surface down to the sulphur beds 200 to 000 feet or more lielow. Miners dig the stuff out, and it is carried up in stout sacks or flat baskets. Many of the laborers, especially the boys, work naked. On their backs they wear a piece of matting, or something of the sort, held by a string around the neck. This is to protect the flesh from being torn from their bodies by the jagged corners of the ore they carry. No one can imagine a more heartrending sight than to see the wretched creatures toiling up the long, steep slopes in the mine with their enormous loads. Every step, they take wrings a groan from their tortured frames. Most pitiful to me was the sight of the poor, bent, broken and emaciated old men, mere battered wrecks, and the young lads of 10 and 12 years, who have just begun this life of cruel toil. “Staggering along under loads full as heavy as a strong man ought to carry, the dreadful procession winds upward through the narrow drifts and tunnels to the surface, where the ore is piled up in rectangular heaps and paid for by the cubic meter. “An evidence of the awful severity of the labor is the fact that a very large percentage of these lads are so badly crippled by the time’they reach the age for military service that the conscript officers are forced to reject them. And I assure you that the Italian Government is not over-critical as to the physical condition of the men she sends by the ship load to Massowah to be butchered by the Abyssinians. When the miserable creatures leave the inferno underground and reach the surface they find themselves in a veritable corner of hades. The sulphur is extracted at the mine by roasting it in immense heaps slightly covered with earth, not unlike in form to a charcoal pit. The ajr Is so Ailed with sulphurous vapors and dust as to almost suffocate one. Not a green thing in sight, for the poisonous vapors kill all vegetation. The fierce sun beats down upon one in those vendureless valleys with great fury. On every side there are the hot rocks, acres of Impalpable stifling dust, and the vapors from the calcining air can only be compared to blasts from the infernal raffion.” Prof. Martin, the Swedish savant, has discovered in the Kremlin at Moscow a large portion of the Swedish War booty captured by Gustavus Adolphus. It appears that the majority of the sliver vessels and ornaments kept in the treasury at the Kremlin are present* made at different times by varioui kings of Sweden to the czars of Russia

WOMEN

WIFE'S DUTIES IN HOME-MAKING VIRTUES, like roses, have thorns that protrude and promote discomfort, piercing when and where you are unprepared. The virtue of home-making may be sadly marred in various ways, says the New York Ledger. Every woman knows in her inner consciousness to just what extent her home is a burden. If she carried it on her shoulders, as Atlas did the world, she Is then battling with one of the opposing forces which fate stations at every corner, ostensibly to thwart her designs. Home should be a haven of rest, a resort to which we may all repair to escape the conflict and strife of the outside world. It should be a place where everything is free and every one in it should be individualized, and the motto should be, “Unity In diversity.” The woman who works about in the peck measure of home all day, seeking only the diversion which one duty acting as a foil to another duty can furnish, is on the wrong track. She is growing a thorn on the roseate virtue of home devotion that will one day turn of Itself and prick her own fingers, and more than likely pierce her tender heart. She will feel a pang when her children tell her she is behind the times, for in the minds of the progressive young Iconoclasts of the family she has perhaps forgotten to graft the quality of unselfishness. It won’t do for the mother to be a monopolist in this matter of unselfishness. It is a demonstrable fact that the woman who is thoroughly absorlted in her home, living for a domestic system, chasing np specks of dust, plodding along like a plow horse in a groove, is not the woman who instills into her children the greatest love of home. Self-sacrifice as a maternal monopoly Is a very thrifty thorn on the virtue of home-making. The mental, moral, physical and financial slavery of mothers to children is another thorn. There Is a distinction to be made b?tween devotion and slavery. The mother, of all persons, has the least right to become self-centered. Concentration of thought and energy is to a certain degree necessary to the success of the home, but that the mind of the mother be in a receptive state to outer conditions and events is equally essential. The home must reach out and allow its sympathies to expand, for the world needs it. The circumscribed love which does not penetrate beyond the four walls of horn? is a negative force which militates against the scheme of home-making.—Boston Herald. T Woman Sculptor. Miss Theodora Cowan is the daughter of an old resident of Sydney, and the first woman sculptor that Australia has produced. Miss Cowan studied in Florence at the studio of the late Hiram Powers, whose statue of “The Greek Slave” is known throughout all lauds.

MISS THEODORA COWAN.

At a recent exhibition of Australian art at the Grafton Gallery. London. Miss Cowan exhibited two busts, one of her late father, the other, a speaking likeness, beautifully and sympathetically modeled, of the late Sir Henry Parkes, the premier of New South Wales. For Plain Women. A woman who probably speaks from experience gives this advice to her sisters who lack brilliance or beauty: “As the chief complaint of the plain woman is her lack of admirers, I suggest an unfailing remedy. Treat men with indifference—not the obnoxious kind which makes you appear disagreeable, but the.easy manner, which says very plainly that while you treat a man politely and entertainingly, you will treat his successor equally well. Not being used to such treatment, it piques him, and immediately he tries to interest you. And from that moment he Is lost if you are one of the clever women I meet every day.” <» . Our Friendships. “I see a woman has been saying that as she grows older she becomes more and more exclusively in the matter of her friends,” said the man. *T don’t know how it is with women, but I think it is always the case with men. When a man gets to be, say, 30, he looks at every man he meets with some suspicion, and he has to know him a long time and very well before he win call him a friend.” • The Girls Men Admire. They admire the girl who is her mother’s right hand in household matters, and who is not above taking am Interest in the most trivial matters in connection with house duties. They admire the girl who Is a bright, entertaining companion, and who has ever a kind word and pleasant smile for all with whom she comes in contact. They admire the girl who is always neatly gowned, no matter if in Inexpensive

materials, and who never dresses loudly or in questionable tasfe. They admire the girl who can adapt herself to any society, who never puts on affected airs, and who would scorn to do a mean action. They admire the girl who in an emergency can turn her hand to anything, from cooking the family dinner to retrimming an old hat They admire the girl who is unselfish enough to give up some pleasure of her own to benefit another, and does not consider herself aggrieved at having, to do so. They admire the girl who can talk of more important things than dress or the last new opera, and who can listen intelligently when deeper subjects are introduced. RiKhta of a Married Wtnaaa. A decision of the Supreme Court of Indiana in the case of William E. Heal against the Niagara Oil Company es- < tablishes the precedent that a married woman can lease her land for the purpose of prospecting for oil so as to give the lessee the exclusive right to drill wells for the purpose without her husband joining in the lease. The court says that a lease of this character, as far as it conveys such a right for a short time, grants only a temporary use of the land, but intimates that the oil company’s right to hold the land for the purpose of taking oil out of the wells it might drill would be doubtful.

WITH THE DRESSMAKER

Evening dresses are not cut quite so | low on the shoulder as before, and the ! sleeves are either very small or very : long and transparent, fitting the arm like a glove and falling over the hand. White lawn, very sheer and fine, is much used for blouse waists made with a yoke of alternate rows of lace and embroidered Insertion. They are pretty to wear hot days with linen or pique skirts. Skirts are finished in various ways at the bottom; many ding to the longused velveteen binding, because of its durability, and use it on all sorts of gowns, though for finer gowns good dressmakers use a wide braid of silk or worsted. Bindings with a cord finish are much used, and if the quality is good they wear well. Cotton gowns of all sorts are prettier than ever this season. Ginghams and chambrays are trimmed with ruffles of white braid and wide collars made of alternate stripes of white batiste or swiss muslin and insertion edged with lace; organdies have innumerable tucks, tiny ruches and frillings of satin ribbon. They say the fall gowns are to , l»e trimmed with fringe, but except a very narrow variety it has not appeared as yet. The Business Woman. The business woman has come to the front to such an extent that she is a topic of discussion quite frequently, says a writer in the Philadelphia North American. I am constantly impressed with the comparative amenability to discipline of men as compared with women. A woman who takes a business position is usually, I th.uk, anxious to perform her duties to the very best of her ability, and she is interested and enthusiastic, and will work hard to do as well as she can not only in her own way, but in the way her employer Wishes it done, but she has to be led gently. My expression, “amenability to discipline,” may not be a good one. Perhaps I should say that a man will take with meekness a sharp and, perhaps, uncalled for rebuke, which a woman would resent in an instant and give up her position rather than endure. Talk about women being hard on their own sex- First listen to what one man can say to another over whom he has a little authority for a time. He may be altogether the inferior of the two. but whatever the superior in po sition has to say the other receives with calmness, not to say meekness, and goes ahead and does exactly as he is told. Would a woman do that? No. Love and Devotion. It is such a happy thing to be assured of love and devotion. The half of us go through life believing that those who care for us can guess just how deep is our appreciativeness of them without our putting into so many words just what we think and feel. I believe that we miss much that is heart cheering just because of this. “If I had only known,” is the burden of more than one regretful refrain.*” However much or severe our philosophy, none of us are Indifferent to what is thought of us. Female Criminal*. Of the 7,559 convicts now in the prisons of Massachusetts, 1,007 are women. During the year just ended there was an increase of t»S in the number of women and a decrease of 155 men. Don’t put any man on a pedestal. Sooner or later he will fall down and the crash will scare you almost to •death. '

INTEMPERANCE IN HAVANA.

Cabana Trent am tflhe CBnoff BariacnSfUfe. - - “Havana is the <me place wtew ate chief occupation off the taJuddraam seems to consist of tippling.” said W®liam Ryan, the well-known Virginia journalist, at the Metrqptflimm. “It is The drinker's paradise, amil afiso the smoker’s, for in these own* iiaßttN* everybody indulges w ith at tfowodom I never saw elsewhere, fwjik rather early in the <Culucn enjihsfl » etajoy the cool morning air, amd stwrority take anything except a ettffor and wM before breakfasting zi 11 a. m. that period the regulation amount eff tipple for a Cuban gentleman iis six gia cocktails. Thus fortified Ibe -cam nnake out till the first meal etf the -dity.. ad ■ which It is the jtropttr mid euswmurty •act to drink a bottle sf .ttaret amfl Bbewise a bottle of champagne. TYh' tattler costs jnst as much. too. Hot 'it wa (escape your mind, as it dees iin the Umnefl States. “Now, having breakfasted, eturiftimril is getting ready for the serious taafi- , ness of the day—rhe ettnsumjititm <sff other spirituous drinks. Kis flimsy turns to brandy and soda aS tills stage, and eee the dinner hour arrives Ibe tnnntt have swallowed no less than six 9«. amd s’s.; at least he is sfiy rtf the treqtniHiite quota unless that many thaw ifißwoed the gin cocktails. There is m» Tmitl. though, st The haif-dooon station, lltnr it is regarded as a miuimnm. J*imwr comes on, and with it another flwcttle claret and ditto champagne, jjuffl as att breakfast. In The evtming there as m regular program. Inn miwed brinks are indulged in ad libitum. I will ssy_ tacidentally, Thai paymtuns for bll <drinks are on a cash iiasis. •This is no fancy descriptiaß. 9un iis just what the a verage indivi dual Crthirn will regale himseff vifli in nwuEy-fiair hours. With it all. it Is the rarest tiling in the world To see anyone imokiejotid. The only drunken man I saw fitwur there was an Amerh-an. As far as rtita" drinking goes nobody in Havana -considers that the eusroin rtf the t+tanfl in this respect is at all So fee critielsefl :ns excessive. The dtame -is surili than men can stand a vast amount of drilling without apparent injury Watrih. ington Post.

LITERARY LITTLE BITS

It is now said that The iimnwrrbc* of “The Heavenly Twins." ~t£hjps Tima Pass in the Night,’ - and “®dberi Elsmere.” were all declined .<<ne New York publisher. Ethel Voynich, aq’hor eff “The Gadfly,” is 33 years old. and 3s Irish 3w birth and English in anoeffiny. being the daughter of the logician. Rielle. Her husband is a Pole of qube tmeses who has long lived in Ixinthm. Jules Verne, who is in his tmnx. Is living at Amiens. Fmw. in nihufn health and -spirits. He lias wrirwn seventy-six books. and is +rtifi uxi writ. His hardest work, he says. im* been to read up the -stories Of travtflers ia order to write hi* own -sturbw fur be himself has Traveled very limße_ The family of Alma Tadeinu. the Royal Aeademican, -seems tie !i»e remarkably gifted. His wife is a skillful painter. His daughter. Wm Aim. won a medal at the last Paris .exhibition, and the -second daughter. Miss Laurence Alma-Tadema, is The aintlmr of the novel, “The Wings ttf 3 earns." Le Revue de Paris prints a Usttwr written by Balzac, hi witidh !he describes a visit to George *t iher country chateau. “1 found the eamarade,” he said, "in her dressing gowm. smoking a cigar, wearing red trousers I and yellow slippers, Sh»- had a doffifie chin, like a monk." He also -states tfhnt George Sand went to l*ed at Ci an. tow* at midday, and smoked to ssness. Sht* tressed her daughter as a lew. Give me a nobk and a Iwxik. And let the proud world spin rooud.; Let h scramble by honk ot 5b- erm it For wealth or a name with a sound. You are welcome I<> amble your ways. Aspirers to place or to glory; May big belie jangle yoiir pmiw. And golden pens blazon your st my 3 For me, let me dwell in my Here by a curve this iirmik That croons to the tune off nry lunik. Whose melody wafts me forever On the wares of an unseen fiver. - Farm and Fireside. Mr. Zangwill tell* me < writes .a <cnrrespondent of the Westminster Gazerwo that many years ago be sent a -short poem to one of the best known -ttf The American monthly magazines. The poem came back by the first mall. Rat Mr. Zangwill kept it by him, xafl quite recently he sent it -on again in the -same magazine. This time, immediarblly iui its receipt, he received a cable from the proprietors of the magazine.offering to buy the “world rights," and Almost immediately they issued a lunge pisaer intimating that their next issue wtnfld contain a poem by L ZuugvilL The. poem was the same, word for word, but in the interim Mr. Zangwill had achieved fame, and his signature was worth money.

Careful Wife.

“Now. Henry, don't sagger: Thebund round your hat means thm y«m tniwff - ' order that medicine *t The the string round your finger 3s Ser tte theater tickets; the bow .en your arm iis to remind you to post my Sather tomnflber, and knot in your handheTubbtf ds for that paper off needles. mS aMt bean In your shoe wffl remind yon <sff the corn plaster. GnodAgre, <dear, n* be careful of yourselfT’—Ex. If a woman has mofiteslff- iinsttmeffis. she admires a Ibqy ncSm ' A--