Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 June 1901 — Page 3

JMsatfon of new Me Is everywhere. Awakened music trembles in the air, , Chanting of streams, soft melody of rain, And with a sweet faint gladness all astir, Subtle as scent of ambergris and myrrh, My heart, my heart is singing once again! Chia earliest hope ( this dawning of delight Forth flutters timidly, as in despite Of fears that silenced be its broken strain; Tremulous ever is the dearest joy, And babbling sweeter that its mood is eoy. My heart, my heasC is singing ones , Im

JACK SINCLAIR'S CREDO.

qr ACK SINCLAIR always looked I ait the bright side of things, /•I past, present and future. He was so cheerfully persistent <even in the thickest of his troubles) that there was “a good time coming,” that we, who were his friends and Comrades, used to declare that those tew words were the resume of his belief—his credo. And yet Jack’s path was about as tough as it could be. He came of a good old family; blit it was one of those families which, from pure fate «nd no other known cause, meets with misfortune at every turn and goes—financially—down in the world. To retrieve the losses of his ancestors, Jack’s father went in for business of which he understood nothing; also for speculation, of which he knew even less. As a necessary consequence he made * fiasco; and the worry and disappointment killed him, though the doctor’s certificate gave influenza as the pause of death. No one believed more firmly than Jack, that Alexander Sinclair would have pulled through the malady well enough if his hope and courage had Hot failed him. The wish and willingness to have done with life, is all on the side of the undertaker and gravedigger. So Jack Sinclair became a clerk in a merchant’s oiflce, instead of a country gentleman who sits at home at ease and acquires local influence by getting J. P. tacked on to his name. 'And in place of the old home, which tie sold, he had to take board residence with a family living in a commonplace London suburb—a “home «way from home” it was represented by advertisement, but singularly unlike any methods of existence with Which Jack had been previously acquainted. He did not seem so downhearted as might have bjen feared. He felt that What others bad borne and others had done, he also could bear and could do; and at two and twenty the best of life Stretched before him. So his credo—the “good time coming”—was his invariable reply to any condolence which Was offered him. Jack did not expect to arrive at a Competence by means of a clerkship. The pay he received from the office Was not so bad but that it might have been worse; still, it could only be a means of frugal daily existence—just to “faire marcher le pot-au-feu,” as the French say in such a case. But he had a talent. Some of us thought it amounted to genius, but that need not here be insisted on. Let us say that he had a fine tenor voice, and be hoped—when his reverses of fortune came—that he would succeed in making money by it Why not, when, as every one knows, the thing has Often been done and can be done again? As a smallish boy his singing in a Church choir had been compared, by Impressionable ladles, to that of an angel. Possibly what was “angelic” bad deepened into the tones of manhood, but Sinclair’s singing was not What one may hear any and every day. If he could have given up bis time to It and made it his profession, fame Would have been his, I believe. But so long as boots and bread and butter are stem and inevitable saries, there must be money to jury tor them; and Jack, having no relatives or friends able to back him up, must take to the office work to gain a living. However, if his days were thus filled, he was his own master after six p. m., and his evenings were given to music. One of the daughters of the family With whom be boarded considered herself a budding prima donna. Jack Winced under the metallic shrillness •f her tones, but he was grateful to her for the use of her piano, and also When she could play his accompaniments. After a good many disajlpointments, he got a hearing at a charity concert and made his mark. There was no tee; but Jack was none the less radiant, and certain, of course, that away In the distance there was a “good time coming.” He talked of little else than singing and singers—thrMurlos and Gardonls Who- were before his time, but whose first difficulties and subsequent harvests he had got the story of by heart; to say nothing of the stories of more modem vocalists. And in the thought •f a bright future, the toil and ths privation of his actual existence became endurable I suppose, for he never spoke of it , Bat Jack Bindair was the

AWAKENING.

Burdened it was in the dark season sped. Methought keen ecstasy forever fled, That quick’ning must be somewhat kin to pain; But now it wakes in qniv’ring monotone, It thrills, that in my bosom slept a stone, My - heart, my heart is singing once again! The lilies their white chalices uplift, And lute-like voices on the light wind drift, Breathing in cadence musical refrain; *Neath sunshine’s genial glamour scents far-flung Partakes of sacred odors censer-swung. My heart, my heart is singing once again! —Beatrice Clayton, in Philadelphia Ledger.

By M. C. Seymour.

stuff which makes the wealthy man; he was so fond of giving. When he began to sing in one or two drawing rooms—a song for a couple of guineas it was—he was certain to come across some one in desperate need of a few shillings, or to hear of a pitiable case of want which would have kept him awake all night if he had not done something to help. It, was onlj alierwltrds—after there was no dear Jack among us—that we, his comrades, knew how many a kindly deed he had managed to do at the cost of a sacrifice, and yet so gladly. After that charity concert and a few “at homes” given either by fashionable or would-be fashionable ladies, Sinclair’s voice began to be talked about. That is the first step of the ladder which leads to fan q. After being talked of, success in any profession is tolerably sure; for a time. Unfortunately, 'it cannot be lasting. On the principle that “every dog has his day,” so must—eventually—every singer, writer, artist, or public character give place to a new comer. However, in the first flush of gladness at getting on, Jack did not look far ahead. It was enough for him that he could pay his way without a constant worry over the sixpences; help others a little; and even begin to put by money. If things continued to work well, he meant to throw up his clerkship and be a singer only. That was his ambition. It need scarcely be said that Jack was generous in giving tickets to his friends for any concerts at which he was to be heard. I, for one, enjoyed many a pleasant evening which cost me nothing except the trouble of a little extra toilet, and the purchase of a few additional pairs of gloves. And when he had a clamorous “encore” (which happened almost invariably) I believe I was as pleased as he was—and decidedly prouder. For I could not imagine it possible for any one to sing better, whereas Jack always realized that he could go on from good to better, and to best. We used to leave together and walk homewards, talking of future successes. Such conversation! Such projects! And when we reached the door of Jack’s abode he would propose seeing me home, and when we got to my diggings I thought I might just as well turn back with him and it was with reluctance, and a great deal left unsaid, that we felt compelled at last to separate. The night—a night which always stands out in the foreground of all my memory-pictures of Jack Sinclair—on which he had sung in the Stabat Mater and received a veritable ovation, an eminent conductor offered him a provincial engagement which was far too advantageous to be refused. “I shall throw up the office now,” he said to me as we made our way along the familiar streets which led to our suburb. “I would rather have given longer notice—not because I think my services can be ill-spared, but because it would be more polite. However, if I explain just how things are, the governor won’t take it amiss that I resign my clerkship.” I am not given to forcible expressions but I did say something rude, and suggested that “the governor” had not been over generous to Sinclair and might be fairly left to look out for himself. And then we fell to talking of money matters, agreeing that though it is “no sin to be poor” it is uncommonly inconvenient and so, by degrees, Jack waxed confidential and told me a secret which he had hidden from me some time, though I was his closest friend. It was, of course, the old story which Is always coming into new life—the story of his love for a girl whom he felt absolutely sure, as are all other young fellows in like circumstances, had not her equal on earth. “We have made up our minds to be very prudent,” he said, laughingly. “We are ready to bear the test of waiting, if long waiting is necessary. But now, with so bright a prospect opening for me and so unexpectedly to-night I shall tell Amy that we must be married within a year. And T think she will be glad." I chaffed him a little about Florence Jackson—the musical young person who played his accompaniments and worried him into singing an occasional duet with her fpr the enchantment of “pa and ma,” as she called her parents. "My own Impression." I said, “is that the charming Florence has some idea of becoming Mrs. Sinclair.” Jack did not laugh, as I had Intended he should. He declared I was hard on

the •girl, who wasn’t a bad’ sort of girl, even if she was not refined and cultured. "You can’t <. :pect to find gentlewomen in this locality,” he said. “But living, of necessity, among these people of very middle-class tastes and habits, has taught me that there’s a deal in them. Now, we must step out; for it’s later than usual, and they will fancy something is amiss.” Wlth quickened pace we were making for King Edward’s Road, when Jack suddenly stopped and sniffed the air suspiciously. “Smells uncommonly like a fire, and coming from our way, too!” he said. "Let us push on, perhaps we may have the chance of being of some use to some one or other.” A fire it was indeed; the smoke came in clouds as we got nearer, and we could hear the screams of women's voices mingling with the hoarse shouting of the crowd which always turns up when there is anything to see. “If it isn’t our place,” said Jack, as we turned into the street, “it is next door. And there are little children there, and the father is a sailor and away at sea!” As he said it he had burst into the thick of the affair, asking hurried questions of any one who could answer him. I followed and, by dint of using my fists and el||>ws, managed to keep pretty close; for I knew that he would never think if there was any risk to run and I wanted to hold him back—especially now that he had told me of his love, and what was to come of it It was not the house where Jack had board and residence, though that was so far in jeopardy that all the family were removing some of their portable goods to a neighbor's, and were contributing not a little to the general excitement It was the house of the Bailor's wife that was in flames, and from which she and her three little children had just been rescued when we came up. She was crying bitterly, and imploring some one to get her the money she had in a small box within a drawer in a room on the top story—not much of a sum, as she explained, but all that she had to live on till her husband came back from Australia. “Will no one get it for me?” she wailed. “There’s still time, but there won’t be long! And what will become of me and the children if I’ve not a penny by me?” I felt that. Jack was going to do it even before he sprang forward, and I seized his arm and bade him roughly not to be “a fool,” but think of Amy. But he shook he off and dashed through the crowd and into the burning house, and somehow got to the top story. They did cheer him I can tell you when he showed himself at the upper window and threw down the box into the midst of us all, and the woman—crying for thankfulness now —said: “God bless him and reward him!” He would have been all right in another five minutes. Fate is a strange thing, and stranger still that the “blessing and reward” should be what it was in Sinclair’s case. He was on the staircase, when there came an awful crash—part of the house had fallen and he was frightfully injured when he was taken out from the mass of brick and wood-work. But he lived an hour; long enough to bld me tell the tidings gently to Amy Robertson, and find for her among his belongings some little thing to keep in his memory. “You’ll say I am optimist to the very end,” he said faintly, and with something of his own smile. “But Ido believe the happiness we miss in this world will be given up in the next, and ” “It’s always the same credo, dear old fellow!” z I exclaimed, as he paused, gasping for breath. “The good time coming!” But at that moment the change which passed over bls face, the ineffable peace and content of it, told me that for my friend. Jack Sinclair, the good time had come.—Waverley Magazine.

No Such Thing as a Perfect Figure.

“There is no such thing as a perfect woman," said a IValnut street tailor whose specialty ft handsome gowns. “Of course, I mean a perfect woman physically. Every woman Is lop-sided, more or less. A perfect figure ft unknown, and there is where we come to the aid of nature. “A woman may be perfectly proportioned in every other particular, \£nt when It comes to the Lifts there ft always a discrepancy in the measurements. I have never known this to fall. In every woman one hip ft at least an inch larger than the other. In some cases it is the right side, and in other cases the left. It is no uncommon thing for one side to be two inches larger than the other, and in some instances the difference Is as much as three inches. But you can take my word for it that every woman is lopsided at least an inch.”—Philadelphia Record.

High Lights.

A rolling stone gathers no microbes. The man who revolves around him self soon wears out his cogs. Even a red-headed man shudders at bls first gray hair. Music makes the contented discontented and the discontented contented. The best way to have a good time is to carry it around with yon.—Chicago Record-Herald. *•

Prehistoric Relics.

Jl large number of bones and portion! of wooden coffins, containing relic* of apparently great antiquity, hare been discovered at Hastings, England. It is believed that the bones and cdtßns belonged to ancient Britons c. t» savages who existed in pre-historic days. The bones are unusually large and th* skulls abnormally thick-

THE TEXAS OIL BOOM

No political convention, not even a world’s fair, ever produced the condition that today exist in Beaumont, the head center seat of the oil industry in Texas, so far as food and lodging are concerned. There are no hotel runners here, says a correspondent, writing from the scene of quick money making. If the newcomer, with tenderfoot Innocence, forces his way through the crowds that eddy around the two hotels, and asks for a room, the overworked clerks will laugh at him, and advise him to hustle for the outskirts of the town if he expects to stop in Beaumont over night. There are no rooms to be had. A cot in the hallway of the hotel will bring its |5 per day, and would bring $lO if the hotel pro-

"May" Does Mean "Must"

The ambiguous wording of statutes is the delight and profit of lawyers. If every legislative act meant just what it appeared to say and said Just what it obviously meant the lawyers would have very little, to fight over and big fees would be as scarce as white blackbirds. Somebody did the lawyers of Ohio a friendly turn in framing a law which declared that auditors “may ” examine the officials of corporations if not satisfied with the returns of their property for purposes cf taxation. Mayor Tom L. Johnson of Cleveland set up the contention that certain railroads were valued for taxation purposes at but 10 to 15 per cent of their value in money. He had the city law officials secure a mandamus ordering the auditors to stop proceedings until they had called railroad officials as witnesses. This was "nuts’’ for the lawyers, and they proceeded to crack them in the usual spectacular way with much display of legal learning and philological

LAUNCHING OF THE NEW MAINE

Beside perpetuating a name which must ever have a prominent place in the history of the world as written in these later days, the launching in Philadelphia of the new battleship Maine ft to American hearts a sad reminder of one of the most terrible tragedies of modern times. It is now three years and more since the enactment of that horror in Havana harbor, and since then the survivors have been scattered to all quarters of the globe. Capt Charles D. Slgsbee, who commanded the Maine at the time of her destruction, has applied for the command of the new Maine, and it ft more than likely that the request will be granted, and that she will fly hft peasant when commissioned for service. Of the 25 officers who were attached to the Maine at the time of her destruc-

tion, four are dead, Lieut. F. W. Jenkins and Engineer Darwin R. Merritt losing their lives in that tragedy, Lieut. John J. Blandln dying shortly afterward in hft Baltimore h o.m e, and more recently Chief Engineer Charite P. Howell died in this city. BUI Anthony, who was the first to no-

tity CapL Slgsbee of the explosion on that fatal night in Havana harbor, sui> elded In New York last year. Ca.pt Slgsbee, who was given oommand of the St Paul when the war broke out and who did some excellent service while commanding that vessel. Is now ohfef of the naval intelligence office In Washington. His most efficient tnst lieutenant of the Maine, Lieuten-ant-Commander Richard Wainwright, he who commanded the Gloucester In that bloody reprisal off Santiago, la now ■ superintendent of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, with the rank of commander, having been advanced

prletors asked it Nearly all the houses in the town have been turned into boarding houses, and they all are overflowing. The new arrival's only hope is in some one of the tents which are springing up in every vacant lot, and whire he may, If he is fortunate, negotiate a cot or a blanket spread on the ground. Every night crowded special trains leave Beaumont for Sabino Paas, Port Arthur, and Houston, carrying the overflow population that cannot find even these accommodations. Houston ft a three-hour run from Beaumont, but one can find a bed at the end of it, and hundreds make the trip twice a day. Not, only is a bed a treasure of great price in Beaumont, it Is equally dlf-

profundity. It all turned on the question of whether the word “may" In a statute is mandatory or discretionary. To the man who has no legal mind it seems perfectly clear that there ft nothing mandatory or compulsory about the word “may.” But the lawyers for Mayor Johnson and the city quoted all the authorities from Blackstone down to Justice Dooley to prove that the word “may” means “must" The court, however, was unmoved by the eloquence of the attorneys and decided that the word merely implies power or permission rather than obligation. The first woman to hold office of regent of the Wisconsin State University has just been appointed by Gov. La Follette. She is Dr. Alma J. Frls-i ble a? Milwaukee and a graduate of the university in the class of ’7B. It is expected that eight million boxes of citrus fruit will be shipped from California this season.

10 numbers for hft gallant work in destroying the Spanish destroyers. Between the new Maine and the old are few points of resemblance. The first was rated as a second-class battleship, with a displacement of only 6,682 tons. Her namesake ft nearly twice as large, displacing 12,300 tons at normal draught

The principal dimensions of the new battleship are: Length, between perpendiculars, 888 feet; length over all, 393 feet 10V4 Inches; extreme breadth, 72 feet; mean draught, 28 feet 8 inches; displacement at normal draught, 12,300 tons; estimated displacement at full load draught. 18,600 tons. As to type, the new vessel is to be an improved Alabama, two knots faster than that fine battleship, equipped with a more powerful armament and hedged about with a greater area of armor protection. In the contract it is stipulated that she must on her official trial maintain

flcult to obtald anything to eat The practical-minded. do not even dream of such a luxury 'as a square meal. A newcomer who can secure an option on a seat at the fifth table of a thirdrate boarding house la the envy of his fellows, and is credited with possessing a pull. There are a number of restaurants in the town, but guards are stationed at the doors of each one to see that only those who can give the countersign shall pass inside. The places t>n which the tenderfoot must rely for food are those where sandwiches and cups of coffee are handed from the remind of a covered wagon. But when oil Is In the nostrils and fortunes In the air, the lack of food and shelter is not felt so seriously aa It' might be under other conditions. The demand for hotel and restauranta is being supplied very rapidly, especially since the fact ts evident that the oil boom is no temporary affair—that it Is merely the beginning, of never ending prosperity for the regions affected.

Shall Suicide be Promoted.

In a recent discussion before the Physico-Medical Association of Indiana Dr. J. M. Thurston of Richmond took the ground that “when a person who was sane had become diseased and degenerated, both physically and mentally, beyond the possibility* of a cure, if he desired to commit suicide he should not be prevented,” and that "if a man had committed premeditated murder from which there was no possibility of escaping the death penalty he did a good act by committing suicide in relieving the community of a criminal and the state of an expense. A philosophical system which proposes to encourage suicide under any circumstances whatever cannot fall to encourage suicide under all conceivable circumstances. Dr. Thurston’s proposition is therefore impracticable and unsound. The cases of self-de-struction which he would approve of will be numerous enough in any case. There is no need of a promoter in that melancholy field.

a speed of 18 knots for four consecutive hours. Krupp armor—the kind which has recently given such striking proofs of its resisting qualities—is to be used tlp-oughouL The armor belt, which is to be 11 inches thick at the top, tapering to 7Mi inches at the bottom, extends to within 60 feet of the stern, shielding the sides 3% feet above the water line and four feet below IL The casemate armor Is to be six Inches Sick; .the barbette armor 12 Inches la mt topering to eight Inches in the ar. The protective deck will be 2% inches thick, while aft, where there is no belt armor protection, it is thlckened, being four inches on the slope and three on the fiat

The forward conning tower will have 10-inch armor, and the signal tower 8-lnch armor. Leading from the conning tower to, the protective deck is a steel tube intended to proteat the voice tubes and telegraphs extending from the commanding officer's station to the stations below. This

tube 1* 12 inches In diameter and is protected by a steel covering seven inches thick. The engines are of the twin screw, triple expansion Inverted vertical type. The 24 Nlclanase boilers, which are already well advanced, and which will be nearly completed when the ship strikes the water, are expected to give 18,000 horse-power. The vessel will have a bunkertcapaclty of 2,000 tons. Thia, at an eight knot speed, will give her a •teaming radius of 8,860 knots—almost •nfflcleAt for two round trips from New York th Queenstown, Ireland, er a trip half axoundi Cape Horn.

DOES A BABY PAY?

< Wsthar** View of the Entries Made •> the Family Ledger. Does a two-year-old baby pay for Itself up to the time It reaches that interesting age? Sometimes I think not. I thought so yesterday when my own baby slipped into my study and "scrubbed” the carpet and his best white dress with my bottle of ink. He was playing in the coal hod ten minutes after a clean dress was put on him, and later in the day he pasted fifty cents’ worth of postage stamps on the parlor wall and poured a dollar's worth of the choicest white rose perfumery out of the window “to see it wain." Then he dug out the centre of a nicely baked loaf of cake and was found In the middle of the dining room table with the sugar bowl between his legs and most of the contents In his Stomach. He has already cost SIOO In doctor’s bills, and I feel that I am right in attributing my few gray hairs to the mtaery I endured walking the floor with him at night during the first {year of his life. What has he ever done to pay mo for that? Ahl I hear bls little feet pattering along out in the halL I hear bls little ripple of laughter because he has escaped from his mother and has found his way up to my study at a forbidden hour. But the door is dosed. The {worthless little vagabond can’t get In, and I won't open It for him. No, I won’t I can’t be disturbed when I’m Writing. He can just cry if he wants to. I won’t be bothered for "Battat tat," go his dimpled knuckles on the door. I sit in silence. “Rat, tat, tat" I sit perfectly still. "Papa." No reply. “Peeze, papa." Grim silence. "Baby turn In—peeze, papa.” He shall not come in. “My papa.’’ I write on. “Papa," says the little voice; “I lub my papa. Peeze let baby in." I am not quite a brute, and I throw open the door. In he comes with outstretched little arms, with shining eyes, with laughing face. I catch him up into my arms, and his warm, soft little arms go around my neck, the not very clean little cheek Is laid close to mine, the baby voice says sweetly; “I lub my papa." Does he pdy? Well, I guess be does! He has cost me many anxious days and nights. He has cost me time and money and care and self sacrifice. He may cost me pain and sorrow. , He has cost much. But he has paid for it all again and again in whispering those three little words into my ears, "I lub papa.” Our children pay when their very first feeble little cries fill our hearts with the mother love and the father love that ought never to fall among all earthly passions. Do our children pay?—J. H. In Detroit Free Press. .

California Oranges.

Everybody who eats them has prouably noticed that New York’s supply of Callfornla oranges has never before been so plentiful and cheap and good as now. You can get big, sweet, juicy navel oranges as low as two for a nickel. .... Florida oranges have practically been out of the market since the big freeze in the fall of 1897. They will find things somewhat changed when they get back. A few years ago the superiority of the Florida orange, particularly the Indian Bi ver product, was unquestioned. The California orangs was coarse-grained, less juicy than the Floridas, deficient in flavor and full of a stringy pulp that was both disagreeable to the eater and hard upon the digestion. But a wonderful improvement has been made within a comparatively short time. The California orange today la still coarse-grained and atill lacks some of the delicate flavor of the Florida or the Messina fruit, but its flavor has been vastly improved; it is brimming with juice and the tough fibre In the best grade of oranges has almost entirely disappeared. It is not generally known that thia horticultural device for doing away with the seeds in the ripened fruit was introduced in this country by an observant American woman who called attention of the Department of Agriculture to it This woman while trav- > eling In the Province of Bahia, Brazil, in 1868, observed that the oranges of that province were much superior to those raised in the United States, and seedless as welL She communicated with the Commissioner of Agriculture, and as a result twelve young plants were sent from Brazil to Washington. —New York Sun.

She Meant to Have the Bonne.

▲ certain Manchester flrm are at present giving away, as a bonus, a half-pound packet of their celebrated tea on a purchase of ten shillings. On Saturday evening one of their assistants was suddenly taken ill, and was removed borne in a cab. On inquiring the- reason of this sudden collapse it was stated that a lady walked into the store and and asked for ten shillings* worth of stamps. It took all there were In the store, but the assistant wished to please the lady. She took the stamps, handed over the ten shillings, thanked the assistant, and waited.

Comparisons.

The man who Is earnest, keeps a clear head and studies bls business la the man who has a competence when he Is fifty. The good fellow at fifty is a "has-been." and works for the other man as shipping clerk at *4O a month. —Advertising. Chicago.