Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 June 1901 — Page 6

WonOJ ■ !!■■■ • • By Roy Farrell Greene. • * • * Mirandy’s voice is gettin’ cracked, a little quaver floats • • • • From out her pretty mouth when she attempts the higher notes. • • • * An’, all in all, though still I love her iust as much, 1 know • £ • • She cannot warble like she did some thirty years ago. K‘<* • • But lots o’ times, when I’m at work around the barn, I hear • £ • • In some old song I’d half forgot, her voice a-ringin’ clear, • • • • A honeysuckle of a tune that round my ol’ heart clings— • • • • An’ fresh with youthful blossoms are the songs Mirandy sings. • £ • • It's “Hard Times Come Again No More," “John Anderson My • £ •• ~ Jo >” „• • • • Or where that feller talks to Tom ’bout “Twenty -Years Ago, • £ • • "Ben Bolt,” “Lorena,” “Home, Sweet Home,” er maybe that • £ • • ol’ tune • * • • That makes you walk with Bobby Burns the banks of “Bonny • a • • Doon.” • • • • I wouldn’t trade a one o’ them old melodies we knew • • • • For all these new ones writ about a Hannah girl er Lou, • £ • • Since we had sweet ol’ tunes them days an’ not these rag-time £ * • • things, £ a • • An’, somehow, love jes gushes out the songs Mirandy sings. a a • 2 The one that of some Maggie tells, “When You and I Were 2 2 • • , Young.” J 2 • • It ’pears t’ me’s the sweetest thing a mortal ever sung, a a • • An’ better yet than that, a glimpse of heaven I behold, A a • a When to my ears comes stealin’ “Silver Threads Among the Z Z • • Go| d 2 2 • Though modern songs an’ operays the younger folks may a a 0 please, • a I'd rather hear a cracked voice in the old-time melodies 0 Than Patti’s throat or Melba’s warble hifalutin’ things—- • 0 The songs of thirty years ago, the songs Mirandy sings. J J

Story of a Boy.

BY JULIA TRUITT BISHOP. Author “Deborrah of Lost Creek,” etc. (Copyright, 1901, by Dally Story Pub. Co.) She was listening to the uniformed graybeard at the window, bending toward him a little with an air of charmed interest that warmed the heart under the gold braid. Fluttering down to them the length of the drawing room came the hostess, that foolish little Mrs. Lessing, and they heard her saying to the gentleman beside her, while she was yet far off: “Oh, I’ve just found you in time, and it’s awfully awkward, but you know how people are always disappointing you at the last moment You were to have gone down to dinner with Clare Rigdon, and Mrs. Harding with Rayatond Blaine, and neither of them came - so sorry ’’ The girl at the window had not •hanged her position in the least. She •till leaned over the arm of her chair toward the uniform, but the General was suddenly conscious that the lovely young face had lost something of its hoior. "Oh, Mrs. Harding,” cried Mrs. Lessing, as the girl stood up and smiled graciously at her hostess; "so awk- > Ward for a husband and wife to go out to dinner together—people disappointed me— but would you let Mr. Harding take you out, just to oblige me?” I The hostess did not wait for a re»iy. but took General Blake’s arm and led him away. The two were left •lone, both standing in the shadow of the window curtains. She was twisting the silken fringe of the drapery between her fingers. She did not look a him, but she saw that the hand resting on the back of the chair from which she had risen was shaken. ’’Since we are within full view of a number of our dearest enemies,” she •aid with a scornful smile, still not looking at him, “It might be as well to play the farce out and 100k —well— •ay. decently Interested in one another. People will discuss us soon enough.” The hand on the chair was suddenly ■toady. "With all my heart,” said the gentleman lightly, as he placed a chair

She took General Blake's arm.

•ar her further back in the window embrasure, and took another, dose at hand. "We will disappoint them for once." She looked beyond him, at the throng that danced and promenaded and walked down the long succession of rooms. She looked anywhere but at him. . "While it is really awkward." she said with a bitter voice and a charming smile, “for a husband to be forced to take his wife out to dinner, still, one may live through it under certain circumstance One has but to remember that ft is the last time he will ever be afflicted with her presence, aad much mar bo boras, ftaalty 1 searoe-

ly expected to see you here tonight. Was I not led to suppose that you ware to start for Europe today?” “I start tomorrow instead,’’ ha replied, coldly. “'Fhe delay was fortunate. It gives me the opportunity to defer a nine days’ wonder for yet another day. Let us do it thoroughly, while we are doing it. .What shall we discuss that will bring a pleasant expression to our faces; that will -make us seem not merely tolerant of one another, but absolutely absorbed, devoted ” “Let us talk of Love,” she said, with a burst of scorn and despair that lent a crimson over her pale face. "Remembering our desolate home — my

“Ned"

desolate life—wa can surely talk of that” "You are right," he said, leaning a little nearer. “We will talk of love.” She shrank away from him a little, but at the same moment she smiled and nodded at Mrs.' 1 Leasing, who passed near. "Love," he repeated. “What a difference It makes in people’s lives! You and I have agreed to say good-bye—-have already said it, in fact, and ,we can afford to discuss love impersonally. —I am afraid you are not bmllng enough. I notice two or three) people looking this way.” She smiled Immediately; suc|i a smile as comes to the lips after, the heart is broken. 1 [. “Don’t be afraid,” she said, "I Will play my part. lam deeply interaited. You may go on with the one subject in which you may be considered horoughly versed." “Thanks," he said, easily. '’SMfUI I tell you a story, In order to make It strictly Impersonal? I will taU you the story of a Boy." She moved a little, enough to* drop her cheek to her hand. “Of course there was a GirL" he went on; “but I will leave her Jut of the story as far as I can. I yr|ll tell you the story of a Boy, because I know his story—because I have seei into his wild, undisciplined, unformed boy heart, and have watched it make great mistakes, and repent of them without words, and slowly break.—Are you ■till smiling? I can’t see your face, but those people out yonder can, and we are playing the farce for them.” “I am smiling,” she said, without moving. “The Boy fell in love,” he said. “He was very young, and bad been raised without a mother. I am afraid he was a mere selfish brute, aad when he wanted anything he had to have it He saw the Girl, and loved bar, and would have waded through blood to win her—and won her. I think he was selfish, even in winning her, but he wa* beginning to be unselfish—he was beginning to be a nobler Boy—and there wa* great need of it You a*S bo loved her—he loved her too much. Ho wa* unreasonable. I have looked into hi* heart aad I know that bow.

He was half Boy and half savage, and thought hlrdself a man, whose judgment was always good, and who was always right He thought that he was always good, and who was always right. He thought that he was to be regarded always—he didn’t think of regarding her. “ And yet, he loved her —in some blind, unreasoning way, such as beys have. And because he loved her he kept hastening on to his doom, and dragging her with him. He couldn’t wake up to the fact that he was slowly killing love in her. It is one of the Saddest things, that people who love one another truly and tenderly can live to be alienated, isn’t it? But that is what happened to the Boy. He was young—they were both young—and he was undisciplined—and love was hurt with jar and fret! Over and over again they passed through storms which left them cast ashore in a desert land. They said bitter, heartbreakinc things to one another, and it was because the Boy lowed her that the bitter things hurt and rankled. And so at last he rose up and said, ‘This is enough—l will end it I will go away today and will never trouble you again.” He paused, and she stirred a little, but he could not see her face. “And so, he went down to the boat’’ he said, steadily; “but even when hie foot was upon the gangplank he turned back and stood leaning against something in his utter misery, because he had all at once grown to be a mtn, and was suffering all a man’s agofly. That is the end of the story of the Boy—except that the man looked up and saw that foolish little Mrs. Lessing .waving her hand at him from a carriage, and remembered that both of them—he and the Girl —were to have been her guests tonight And such a hungering came upon him to look upon her face again—that he cam —knowing that by tomorrow he mignt summon strength to go ’’ fNed?” , Bhe raised her face and looked at him. Her lips trembled like a hurt child’s, even while she was smiling at him. I’Ned,” she murmured, brokenly; “the Girl was very young and inexperienced. Don’t you think she ought to have a chance to try over again?— Aid you didn’t know that she was in the boat, —hidden away—and that she came very near being taken to Europe very near indeed when you turned back so suddenly ” • • • "Isn’t it beautiful to watch Mr. and Mrs. Harding?” asked the lady at Mrs. Lessing's right. "They are llke*cwo young lovers. Do they know they are at the table? Do they know there is such a thing as food in the world? They have done us all the honor to forget we are living!” But Mrs. Lessing did not reply aloud. She merely looked, and her eyes were sparkling and brimming. “I may be foolish, but I can manage some things,” she whispered into her fan.

Where the poetess Dines.

Ine dining-room in Mrs. Ella Wheeler Wilcox’s home, on Long Island sound, is all windows, which face the water. Before the largest of them, a spacious bay window, stands the dining table. The room is filled with memories of people who have dined there. Their pictures gaze at one from every side. There are half a dozen portraits of the statuesque Julie Opp, there is the droll, mirthful fade of Marshall Wilder; the fair Ellen Terry, Mrs. Brown Potter, William Gillette’s inscrutable, countenance; that placid old lady, Mrs. Jefferson Davis; Isabel Irving, Kathryn Kidder, J. E. Dodson, and his pretty wife, Annie Irish. Some of Mrs. Wilcox’s guests have left autographs on the cream-painted walls. One comes from Edwin Markham. It is printed in fine, large characters, with splendid vermilllon initials. He told: “A place where passing souls can rest On the way, and be their best”

Canal Tells a Problem.

The question of toll* on the Isthmian canal is not so simple as it was in the ease of the Suez, writes a correspondent of the New York Post We have a much greater “marginal traffic” to consider—one which may be controlled by the rate of toll. The west coast of South America, in Its dealings with Europe, ought to furnish about one-third of the available traffic of the new canal, if opened in 1915. All that traffic practically could pay a toll of 11 a ton. Between the west coast of South America and the eastern ports of the United States the traffic could pay a still heavier toll, as the saving over the route “round the Horn” would be still greater. On the principle of charging whatever the traffic could bear, certain cargoes going through the canal could doubtless afford to pay $3 or |4 a ton.

Remarkable Statesman In Japan.

Mr. Hoehl Toni, minister of communications, is one of modern Japan’s remarkable men. Having studied law in England 25 years ago, and being called to the English bar, he started hl* life as an official in the judicial department Here his bellloose nature soon brought him intocolllslonwithuis les* enlightened and more conservative colleagues. The government then in power removed him to the Yokohama customs. Later ho took to politloa and identified himself with the liberals, who overran the country with stirring speeches, much to th* discomfort of th* government He was twice arrested and Imprisoned for polities! offenses. Now he la th* leader of the liberals, or Jlyuta. a* they ar* called in Japan.

BREWER'S MARRIAGE.

LIBERTY HALL, THOMPSONS POINT. VT, WHERE JUSTICE BREWER AND HIS BRIDE ARE PASSING THEIR HONEYMOUN.

Miss Emma Miner Mott, who was married to Justice David Brewer of the United States Supreme Court on Thursday, had for the last four years been principal of the Moj-se school in Wash ington, D. C. She had long been identified with educational work not only in the East, where she was a teacher at the Howard Mission, but afterwards at Fofid du Lac. While in Washington she attended the First Congregational church, and was a member Of Justice Brewer’s Bible class, and it was thus that she became a warm friend of the family. Miss Mott was born in Chateugay, N. Y., and is a daughter of Dr. William and Eunice

Holo a Fortune Disappeared.

The manner in which the entlue fortune of a New York millionaire, Samuel Wood, which was mostly given for the purpose of founding a college of music, has been dissipated, is a reflection on the legal profession. Of his bequest of a million dollars for this college not one dollar is now available. Of the sums left to heirs little has been received. In twentythree years this fortune has almost absolutely disappeared. The story of the shrinkage is as interesting as that of the Stewart millions. Wood’s will was admitted to probate in 1878. He left 1135,000 to relatives, the remainder of the estate, amounting to over 11,000,000, for the founding of the Samuel Wood College of Music. From the day the will was admitted to probate litigation has never ceased. The first contestant of the will was a nephew, who finally obtained about one-third of the. property. The remaining twothirds have gone. The executors refused to establish the college, claiming the will was invalid, and meanwhile were drawing sometimes as much as $150,000 as salary and fees in a year. They were also in continuous litigation with the nephew. When they came to a final settlement with him, and were about to sell the property, another lawyer put in an appearance as the attorney for some of the poor heirs, and stopped all proceedings. Then litigation began afresh. It came out in the Supreme court last week that $135, n OO now remains of the property in the custody of the court, obtained through a real estate deal. New suits are to be Instituted to determine to whom this belongs. More than one-half of it will go to the lawyers. It will be surprising if the heirs get a dollar of it in the end. Meanwhile the only reminder of the mlllion-dollar bequest is a little organ in a Long Island village church. Wood, It appears, was fond of music in his last days, and was moved to buy this organ and give it to the church. Its strains were so pleasant to him that he conceived the idea of a great college of music and made the liberal be-

London's Sandal Girl.

▲ craze tor wearing sandals has invaded London’s most exclusive circles and our artist in that considerable village ha* done hl* duty by portraying a real pretty girl as she actually appeared on the street Not every girl

Miner jdott She graduated at the head of her class at the Oswego (N. Y.) Normal school and chose teaching as a profession. Several years ago Justice Brewer built lor himself a summer home at Thompson's Point, on the shore of Lake Champlain, fifteen miles south of Burlington, Vt He called his home Liberty Hall, and here, surrounded by his children, all of whom have grown to manhood and womanhood, he spends his simmers. Miss Mott for several years last has spent a part of her vacation at Liberty Hall as the guest of Justice Brewer’s family. The honeymoon is being passed at Liberty Hall.

quest jlready mentioned. Every dollar of that million went into lawyers’ pocketi.

Gen. Gordon Their Idol.

General John B. Gordon has been reelected commander of the Confederate Veterans without opposition and the scene that followed the announcement that for one year longer he would preside ovir the work of the organization was touching. The old soldiers sprang to the|r feet and cheered the general with frantic energy. Delegates climbed upon their chairs, made the building ring with their shouts and filled the air with their waving hats as they

GEN. JOHN B. GORDON.

applauded him again and again. It was a minute or two before the general could master his emotion sufficiently to express his thanks for the honor awarded to him and to express his gratitude for the expression of good will with which his re-election had been received.

The Churches and Politics.

That Is a formidable list of causes operating against the spiritual development and progress of the Christian church in Chicago, which was submitted to the Chicago Presbytery the other day. It is not strange that some

In London han taken to sandals yet, but enough of them have bowed to the fashion to make it pleasant for any male being that has the time to watch for them, says a writer in the New York Daily Press.

ASS CIATE JUSTICE DAVID

MRS. BREWER.

of the ministers will be a little discouraged at times when they contemplate the long list of causes, nearly fifty in all, which work against spiritual progress. A few of these causes are of modern origin. Most of them are quite venerable. They troubled Paul in Corinth as they do preachers in Chicago. Covetousness, drunkenness, and th* love of dress were sore evils in New * Testament days, even as they are In these days. Though the church has warred against them for centuries it has no more succeeded in rooting them out than it has uncharitableness, gossip, false teachings, debt and poverty. The list of causes furnished to the Presbytery contains some which are of comparatively recent origin. Ono of them is “the low moral tone of poetics.” Another is “political corruption.” If these are causes which operate against the spiritual progress an* development of the church, then it apparently is the duty of the church to do all it can to do away with these causes. The puzzling question is howto do this without at the same time mixing in politics. There is a general feeling that the church should keep out of politics. It is due perhaps to a fear that politics may pull it down instead of its lifting politics up, or perhaps to a disinclination on the part of laymen to be lectured by ministers about what they look on as secular and not religious matters. In view of this feeling, which is too strong to be ignored, how is the church to fight its new enemy—“the low moral tone of politics"? How is it to preach against “political corruption” and escape th* reproach of “meddling with politics"? or is the church as much of a failure as a Christian Institution as is ths political party a failure as the harbinger of better conditions socially and economically?

Republic in Manchuria.

In Manchuria, within the territories of the emperor of China, is an independent republic. This unique republic has been in existence for upward of half a century M a regularly constituted form of government; though its existence appears to have been unknown to any of the European powers, or to the majority of European travelers in the far east The Manchurian republic Is situated in the basin of the upper reaches of the River Sungari and south of Girin. It is known by the name of Tcha-Pi-Gou, and numbered originally, 10,000 citizens; while its population is now about 100,000. In the beginning the miniature republic was governed by a triumvirate, and subsequently by a president, Chan -YulPao, who took all the executive powers into his own hands and organized tribunals, trade guilds, taxes, etc., and regulated native industries and gold mining. A email republican army was created and has been permanently maintained. In the battle fought by the Russians in the valley of the Sungari, some months ago, the republican force offered a far more determined opposition than did the Chinese imperial troops.

The New Artillery Corps.

Although the war department han not yet finally decided upon the insignia for the artillery corps, recommendations of a definite nature have been made by the quartermaster’s department. ■ It is proposed to have the enlisted men of the corps wear in the front of their forage caps crossed siege cannon of the most modern type. Enlisted men of the light artillery will wear on their caps the number of their company in silver figures, and the men of the heavy companies will wear the number of their company in gold figures. For the officers of the artillery corps it is recommended that a mounted field piece in gold be worn on the collar of the blouse. • —— One of the prerogatives of a Danish member of Parliament is free service at any Turkish bath establishment throughout the country.

MACLAREN IN THE SLUMS.

Extracting Hack-Kent* add Giving to Foreign Mlsclon*. The author of “The Bonnie BrierBush" tells a slum story In the Century. It is called “Jasmine Court and a ‘High Ranger.* ’’ Jasmine Court, Chestnut Street, belonged to an excellent maiden lady who supported mission work among the women of India with, all of her spare means, and did not know whence her Income was gathered, and would have been very much horrified if any one had told her that her own tenants needed her help very much more than the women in the zenanas. Her estate, with others of the same kind, was managed by an agent, who was not any worse by nature than other men, but who considered it to be his duty to spend as little as possible upon the property, and to get as ratten otrt of It as ho was able, by unrelenting energy in securing the rent, and imperturbable callousness to the misery of the tenant. Very likely he was a deacon in a chapel somewhere, and not only paid his own bills with regularity, but also gave liberally to the hospital collection, and was very much beloved in his own family; for half our sins are done vicariously or ignorantly, and we may be as cruel as Herod the Great, and all the time consider ourselves to bo kind-hearted, open-handed Christian people. The agent would have been very much ashamed if any one had accused him of sentiment, and his policy might well justify him from such a charge; but even this austere man had his lapses into poetry, although ho endeavored to make the muses serve the purposes of business. So long as the street, to which his property clung like a child to the skirts of a very unsympathetic mother, was called Back Hooley Lane, he was quite content that his court should be known aa No. 11, and, Indeed, except for police sheets and coroners’ inquests, It did not really require any name. Chestnut Street quickened the imagination of the agent, and as occasionally ho had been told that his property was a moral disgrace to the city—this from the philanthropic visitors, —and also that it was a sanguinary pigsty—thia (slightly translated) from the inhabtants —he felt that something must bo done; and instead of cleaning and repairing it, he covered all its faults aa with a garment by painting up in black letters on a white ground—the only whiteness in the place: "Jasmine Court"

A PRESIDENTIAL KISS.

Head of French Republic Kleeea Hla Mother Before Thousand*. Baron Perre de Coubertin writes in the Century of Emile Loubet, president of the French Republic, recording incidentally one of the little .occurrences that have made the chief executive a popular man: What was it that Emile Loubet did to cause him to be so highly thought of by those who gave him their votes? If you should ask the general public or interrogate current opinion or the press you would be answered with the commonplace which one hears so often in similar cases. “Oh,” they would say to you, "he didn’t do anything.” At the famous Parisian tavern, the “Black Cat," where all the men of the day are off in popular ballads, the answer was somewhat different The refrain of a political song that met with great success a year ago was thisi “Loubet ... oh, how much ho loved bls mother!” And from etenee to stanza we find the good people of Montelimar, and even the entire French people, represented as overcome by the affection which Emile Loubet showed for hie mother, that moot respectable peasant woman, who lives in Montelimar. The explanation of this song is an episode in the life of the president which redounds completely to his honor. On the day that he entered his native town for the first time as president of the republic ho saw his mother seated on one of the tribunes, watching the procession pass. At once he caused his carriage to bo stopped, and, without the slightest regard for the pomp and officialdom with which he was surrounded, ho got out of the carriage and rah over to kiss the old lady, being unwilling to wait to the end of the ceremonies. Such a spontanlety of feeling as his, and such simplicity of manners, far from shocking, were sure to gain for him the hearts of Frenchmen. But by putting this little episode in relief the balladmaker wished to impress his hearers with the idea that there was nothing in the political career of Emile Loubet which was more interesting to note than this family scene.

Examinations of German Recrults.

An inquiry made among recruits for the German army showed the existence of great ignorance lq the majority of those examined regarding public personages and events. Out of 78 recruits from various parts of Prussia 21 wore unable to give any answer when questioned as to who was the Emperor of Germany. Twenty-two designated the emperor as a groat general, nine called him a renowned field marshal, six thought him to bo the minister of war, while fourteen of the replies were approximately oorreot Several thought the late Prince Bismarck was emperor, a great poet aad a translator of the Bible. --■ ■

The Coke Oven Industry.

The coke oven industry, unknown la IMS, turned out a product in ths United States last year valued at H4,488,418, an Increase since 1889 of 110 per seat The by-products added nearly 21,000,000 more. a. Some men have penny wisdom aad dollar foolishness. <