Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1894 — A REAL CHRISTMAS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A REAL CHRISTMAS.

“And the Lordplagued the people, because they made the calf which Aaron made.” . So far as we have been able to keep track of the returns, six fatalities have resulted from over-indul-eence in the great American game Sf toot ball on-Thanksgiving Day. THE.game laws of Indiana permit bunting us follows: Deer, October 1 to January 1. Quail or pheasants, Nov. 10 to January 1. Wild turkeys, Nov. Ito Feb. 1. Woodcock, July 1 to January 1. Wild ducks, Sept. 1 to April 15. Squirrels, June 1 to Dec. Y*

Tammany is reported to be bank* rupt, financially as well as politically, A large reserve fund, variously estimated at from $50,000 to $200,>OO. has disappeared and can not be satisfactorily accounted for. The organization is also said to be heavily in debt. “When thieves fall out,” etc.

The “New South” is a-comin'. The shipment of 50,000 bushels of ,'orn from Alabama to Illinois and lowa this fall is an unprecedented •vent, and may be said to herald a new era in inter-State commerce. The experiment is hot likely to become a common practice as to the shipment of grain to the Northwest, out it surely indicates that the South is beginning to raise a surplus of cereals —something unheard of until 1894. . -•

Law is an abstruse science that few can master. One of the peculiarities is the totally unexpected way in which it grabs its victims. For instance, the proprietor of the notorious Brighton Beach resort at Indianapolis, the scene of numerous mprders and desperate crimes of various descriptions, was roundly fined for “profanity’’ in the city police court, the other day, while his offenses in other and far -more dangerous and reprehensible directions were, for a time, at least, overlooked ar condoned.

The Columbian souvenir half dollars, so long held at $1 per souvenir, have suffered a relapse, the market has slumped and the suggestive coin may now.be had for fifty cents. The Government a short time ago had 3,000,000 of the coins and officials decided to close them out at par. The Exposition officials bad. 300,000 and concluded to realize on the same basis. The natural result followed, &nd their value as a souvenir, for a time at least, has been seriously impaired. Authorities estimate that ►500,000 worth were sold at the rate of one dollar each.

The big British blowout which accompanied the formal opening of the Manchester ship canaMast summer, ippears to have been conducted on much the same style of such “doins” in this country. The officials having the matter in charge did not fail to lay their hands on all possible “perquisites” and favorite'dealers who “stood in wid de boss” were not neglected in a division of the Bpoils. All the little Princes in the Queen's suite were supposed to be dying of thirst and each was scheduled to drink chocolates to the extent of $9.25. They also smoked, or at least the bills so averred, S7O worth of cigarettes. All of which was cheerfully for from public funds.

The I‘ghost” of Alexander 11, who was killed by a Nihilistic bomb in March, 1881, is said to be “haunting" the cathedrals of Sts. Peter and Paul at St. Petersburg, and has also “appeared" at the Winter Palace. The story was cabled to the Associated PresS in detail Dec. 1, and the reality of the specter was uncommonly' well attested to by four witnesses whose characters for truthfulness and sobriety was vouched for. The Russian police believe it is a Nihilist trick and scientific experts scoff at the alleged apparition, but every investigation has served to strengthen the faith of those who saw the bloody figure. A policeman stationed to watch for the appearance testified that he saw the ghost which, as he advanced upon it, disappeared, walking backwards, so rapidly that he could not overtake it. Witch hazel wizards and other wise men can discover water veins by an alleged sensitive twig. Science has lately evolved an instrument to indicate the exact distance of any object in sight. Various devices of seemingly almost 'superhuman powers are known to the commercial world and are used in a

variety of ways. There is still a great field.for enterprise in this direction. We feel warranted in saying that all the achievements of this charactefin "the past are of comparatively little value to the phenomenal success that is waiting for the man who will invent and put on -the market a psychological indicator or “copometer,” so to speak, that will be sensitive enough to feel the polic em an in cif lien's” clothes when he is on a scent after a saloonkeeper who sells at illegal hours. In ventors, here is your chance. .

Galena, 111., is fortunate in having given to the country some remarkable men. General Grant, Gen. Rawlins, and other distinguished, military men, were citizens of that mining town in the days of their obscurity. H. H. Kohlsaat, the Chicago millionaire, and former proprietor of the Inter-Ocean, is a native of Galena, and proposes to become a benefactor to his birth place. He has contracted with Thomas Nast-, the noted cartoonist, for a great historical painting which, he will pre-/ sent to the city of Galena. Ten life size figures will be shown —among them Gen. Grant, Gen. Rawlins and Col. Ely Parker, all former residents of Galena. The canvas will be fourteen feet long and ten feet high. The. price to be paid is SB,OOO. The painting is to be finished by next April and the presentation cerernon les will take pl ace on Gen., Grant's birthday, April 27. !

Persistence is an absolute essential to success in any undertaking in which important and enduring results are hoped for or expected. Great success never, or “hardly ever,” attends upon a faint hearted policy either in polities, business, war or love; In no department of human endeavor is this rule so clearly apparent as in advertising. To be effectual, and to insure satisfactory and lasting results, advertising must be applied judiciously, “line upon line,precept upon precept, here a little and there a little.” Spasmodic, advertising may serve the obscene! ends of quacks and impostors, but the reliable business man —whose reputation and ultimate indepen-i dence and prosperity is in a great measure dependent upon his ability to advertise—in-one form or another —must keep’himself before the public in some way with as great a'regu; larity and persistency as the swift; recurring days and months and; years. Like Columbus of old, h j must “sail on and on and on,” unti» he reaches" that final haven of tils hopes and desires, or until the rewards of a successful business life no longer lube him to its strife and cares.

A revolution is believed to be imminent in Germany, The Kaiser is regarded by many of the statesmen of the Bismarckian era as a monomaniac, but one degree removed from actual insanity. Like! Charles Stuart, so these old-time i statesmen aver, he imagines that het is the sole authorized guardian of thw nation’s welfare, and like him he, means to rule absolutely. He refuses to listen to adverse criticism from any source, and no German newspaper of standing dares to refer to the Emperor in any but the most complimentary terms. A eiti-i zen of Hamburg, a free city, has even been recently arrested for speaking in a derogatory manner of the Kaiser’s “Song to ,Egir.” Many of the imperial edicts of late have been characterized by a total lack of essential justice. In different parts of the empire serious outbreaks have recently occurred, and feudalism has already led to a bloody massacre of peasants in Bavaria. Such a thing as freedom of the press, as Americans understand it, is unknown. Dark days appear to be in store for the Germanic States unless their Kaiser “soaks his head” sufficiently long to be able to listen to uncomplimentary remarks on his poetical ability as well as to adverse criticism of his public acts and policy.

Mr: Alma-Tadema, who is uncommonly fastidious in his personal appearance, bad for his guest on one occasion Mr. Elihu Vedder, the well known American. On the morning after his arrival at the house Mrs. Alma-Tadema was awakened by a rude knocking at her chamber door; much alarmed, she aroused her husband, who demanded in fierce tones what was wanted. It was Mr. Vedder who was at the door, and he answered: “I say, Tadema, old chap, where do you keep the scissors that you trim your cults with?” There area great many hunters armed with magazine cameras instead, of guns out in the Mairie woods now, watching and working for a chance to get a snap shot at deer, moose or any other wild game. The photographers return with some wonderfully interesting results to show in pictures of wild animals in their natural surroundings. -And they claim there is as much glory in taking a deer’s picture.jas in taking its life. It required just as much skill to get within photographing distance as within shooting range, and often more.

How Miss Hopkins Enjoyed. Her First Merry Holiday. A. A. Hall, in Interior.

GH! I wish it was all over for another year!” whispered Miss Priscilla Hop- . kins to a sparrow on the telephone wire. Just why she should wish the merry Christmas day passed, Miss Hop-

kins herself could hardly have told. The big New York boarding house was almost deserted. All of the thirty boarders had scattered for the holidays, except the invalid on the parlor floor, the crusty German professor, old Mr. and Mrs. Brown, and the pretty, poverty-pinched young widow on the fourth floor. Even the little music te'acher was off for a holiday trip, and Miss Hopkins could hear the chambermaid calling blithely to the grocer boy that she’d “be ready —oh, by 7 o’clock, sure!” Miss Hopkins pressed her wrinkled cheek against the window pane and looked down into the dull, city street, .with its patches of dirty snow. A hard, bitter feeling crept into her heart. There were so many good times and she “not in ’em.” The lodger on the fourth floor back •was leaning against the window pane, too, but her cheek was pink and smooth, the room verv tiny and cold, and the view from the window limited to a row of back yards. Perhaps her heart was quite as heavy, for a tear splashed suddenly on the window sill.

“I don’t see apy other way,” said Mrs. Clark, looking at it meditatively. “1 dread asking her -she is so stiff and silent, and we’ve hardly exchanged a dozen words. But my babies shan’t be disappointed if I can help it. so cheer up, my dear —we’ll have a merry Christmas yet,” and she nodded brightly at the tearstained face in the mirror. Then, running down the long flight of stairs, she knocked at Miss Hopkins’ door.

“Come in," called Miss Priscilla, turning with a surprised air, as the door opened, “I came —I thought—that is, I want to ask a great favdr. Miss Hopkins.” stammered her visitor. “I have promised my little girls that they shall spend Christmas with me, and that Santa Claus will visit them here, but there is only room for baby in my single bed; it is too cold for Marjory to sleep on the floor and so —” Mrs. Clark faltered, but the elder woman gave her no help and she finished abruptly, with a little tremble in her voice. Miss Hopkins watched her in a puzzed wav, till her near-sighted

teyes caught the glimmer of a teardrop; then she pushed forward a chair, saying, not unkindly: “There, tell me about it. I didn’t know you had any children.” She heard a simple story of the brave little mother’s struggle to make a nest for her birds; and Law. at last, finding a position in *be city, she had placed them in a boarding school where they would be well cared for, and where she I could visit them every Sunday. I “We try to make that do for all the week,” the little woman added, with a smile, “and when a holiday comes we spend the whole of it together. And I thought, Miss Hopkins, perhaps you would let Marjory sleep with you to-night.” Five minutes later Miss Priscilla was standing alone before the fire, wrinkling her forehead anxiously; for, somewhat to her own surprise, she had consented to care for a six-year-old child ail night. She! who had never held one in her arms, who looked upon children as bewildering mysteries! “What shall Ido if it cries?” she murmured, “or has the croup, or falls out of bed. or wants a doll, or—you’re a fool, Priscilla Hopkins!” But when Mrs. Clark appeared at the door that evening with a little, curly headed, white robed figure half hidden in a great shawl, and gazing with big, sleepy, black eyes at herself/.*- Miss Priscilla half forgave her folly. And when she had awkwardly taken the warm, little body in her arms, and a rosy cheek, soft as satin, just brushed her own, why, Miss Priscilla thought she was almost wise! But when the little girl was tucked in bed. and Mrs. Clark had left the room, timidly, in her quavering old voice, Miss Priscilla sang a lullaby, till the long lashes drooped and the pink lips parted—and then the rich, lonely old maid was certain that she had never done so wise a thing in her life! “Shi” she said softly, as Marjory’s mother entered the room, then flushed over such weakness anp straightened into her usual rigid attitude.

“May we borrow your fire place, too. Miss Hopkins?” asked Mrs. Clark, with growing courage. “Tomorrow would hardly be Christmas if Santa Claus couldn’t come down the chimney, you know, and there is only a register in my room. I will try and keep the children from being very noisy in the morning, if you’ll let me hang the little stockings here tonight.”

With two such pleading eyes shining at her over an armful of packages, Miss Priscilla felt she could hardly refuse. “H’m, yes. I don’t knovy that it would do any harm. All foolishness, I think.” “Do you?” said Mrs. Clark, brightly. “But it’s such a pleasure to watch them when they find the stockings in the morning. Let me see, here’s Noah’s ark, that goes in Tot’s stockings and the little elephant in Marjory’s. Then here is a toy watch for each of them and a stick of candy, a poo corn ball and a big orange to cap the climax. Why, it just reaches the top! How fortunate there isn’t anything more!*’ laughed Mrs. Clark. But, som'ehow, Miss Priscilla’s spectacles grew quite misty, and she took them off and wiped them once or twice. The little packages were so very small, and the little mother’s

way of laughing at her poverty was so brave and cheery! “Have the children any dolls?” asked Miss Priscilla, pinning the stockings with her own fingers to %&r cherished plushdamßrequin. “Yes, two forlorn, little ’relics. Tot's has lost its head, I believe, and Angelina’s arms are gone, but the children love them and I couldn’t afford new ones this year. 1 must run back to Tot now. lam so grateful to you, Miss Hopkins; I hope Marjory won’t disturb you. Good night.” “Good night,” answered Miss Priscilla, and then she went back to the fire and stared hard at the little crimson stockings, glowing in the firelight. “ I'll do i t—so!” she said at last, decidedly. Softly leaving the room she called down the speaking tube for the chamber maid. Good natured Katie readily prpmised to“mind the child a bit,” and, while giving numerous cautions, Miss Priscella arrayed herself in bonnet and cloak and started out into the night. The stores were dazzling with gas light and the air was sweet with the odor of pine branches, but the gay festoons cf bunting were not in half so happy a flutter as Miss Priscilla’s foolish old heart. How hard it was to decide between blue eyes and brown, wax and bisque, and blue or gold tea sets! And should she get nuts or raisins, or candy, or purple and white grapes? Miss Priscilla couldn’t tell, so she ended by getting them all and trotting home as fast as possible, with her arms full of delightful-looking bundles. “Ar rah I” cried Katie, when she reached the kitchen. “Whatever has come over the ould lady? Bless me stars, es she didn’t hev a tay-set, a little stove an’ a wagin an’ two illigan’t dolls! An’ she were a tip-toe-ing round like Saint Nick himself.” In the gray dawn of the early morning, Marjory, cuddled close within the protecting circle of her new friend’s arm, reached up a little, timid hand and touched her on the cheek. “Say!” she whispered, shyly, ‘‘do you think he's come yet?”

“Who?” asked her bewildered bedfellow. “Why. Santa Claus. I don’t think I can wait much longer to see —I don’t think I can.” “Try and wait till mamma comes with Tot. Lie down, and I’ll tell you a story,” coaxed Miss Priscilla. Luckily for the success of the story, Mrs. Clark tapped at the door just then, and with a bound Marjory was standing upright in bed, her eyes fixed on the fireplace. “Oh!” the child cried softly, “Oh!” The next morning the little voice burst out into the happiest ripple of a song, without words or tune, but it seemed as if any one would know it was a Christmas carol. “I declare!” said Miss Priscilla, wiping hef’eyes on the pillowcase, “I declare, it makes me think of that hymn, ‘Break Forth into Joy!’ ” The chubby fingers were already diving into their stockings, and untying puzzling knots, and each new discovery was greeted by a little jubilee from the children and a grateful glance from their mother at Miss Priscilla, who, somehow, seemed always to be looking out of the window. But Marjory found something that puzzled her—a long, black stocking hanging over, the back of a chair. “Why, it’s big like yours, mamma how funny! And there' isn’t anything in, it!” “Yetlf, there ithl" lisped Tot. “Tumpin round and hard. O-o-h. look, mamma!” And the first ray of sunlight that struggled into the room gleamed on a gold piece in Tot’s hand. Miss Priscilla bad disappeared into a deep closet and was fumbling

round for something, which for some reason could not be found, perhaps because her nightcap had bobbed down over her eyes. But the next minute Awe -arms were wound around her and she heard a tearful voice whisper: “You have been so good, so good to me, dear friend! I wish I could thank you4’ “There, there, child. Don’t say another word. I’ve been a rich, selfish old creature, but I’m going to reform. And we’ve all made such a good beginning this morning (hat I really think this is going to be the first merry Christmas I ever had! There, don’t say another word.”