Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 59, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 March 1907 — Page 3

LEGEND OF THE LILY.

when this grand old earth w*» ywtraff. An angel thought to bring From earth's fair fields a blossom sweet. To offer to his king. ■e wandered o’er the fertile fields, He gazed on blossoms bright; Too bright they seemed for his Too gay to please his sight. "Oh I for a pure white flower,” he sighed, “Fit for my King to wear.” Though long he sought, no flower of white Was blooming anywhere. —. flo,worn and weary, he sat down To weep that none were found; ■is crystal tears flowed o'er his robe And sank into the ground. At once a lily White sprang up. All pure, his gaze to meet: flinging, he gathered it and flew And laid it at God's feet. Pleased was his King. “This flower,” He said, “Because of this shall grow, Henceforth, a sign to sinful man. O’er all the earth below.” Thus came the Illy, pure and falr| Who looks may read this sign In its white cup. the angel's tears. The purity divine. —Annie Wall.

Priscilla’s Easter Bonnet

Miss Priscilla Peck was remodeling her test bonnet, and it was a serious undertaking to Miss Priscilla. The light from the kerosene lamp fell on a forlorn array of bits of silk, ribbon And faded artificial flowers on the little round table at her elbow, and a limp, dilapidated frame lay on the floor at her feet. She had been curling her plumes with the blade of the penknife, and her white apron was covered with the fibers that had broken off in the operation. She held the two rusty little tips up to the light and looked at them critically, and they did look funny, even to Mias Priscilla. The fibers that she had managed to curl were twisted down into little hard, frizzy knobs, and those that were still uncurled hung down in limp, dejected little strings, and Miss Priscilla laughed a little dolefully as she said to herself: “Well, there ain’t but precious little left of them, and that’s a fact; and I don’t know as I’ve improved ’em much, either, but they’ve just got to go back on that bunnit, if they hain’t bigger’n hen’s feathers,” then she laid them carefully aside and picked up a piece of the drab •ilk. “I s’pose I ought to have washed it In gasoline,” she said a little ruefully, “but I really didn’t feel as if I could afford it. And I don’t believe I can ever get it puckered up and put back on the frame ao’s it won’t show the faded streaks. I don’t s’pose I ought to have ripped it up, but I’ve wore it for six years and I just felt as if I couldn’t wear it to-mor-row without something was done to it. Everybody always comes Out on Easter with their pretty 7 new hats and bunnits—and mine was jest as pretty as any of ’em when it was new, but last Easter it looked so kind of faded and shabby beside all the new ones that somehow I felt as if I was slightin’ the day that everybody ought to celebrate by lookin’ and feelin’ as bright and joyful as they can. I’ve tried to keep my heart in harmony with Easter, but folks can’t see my heart and they can my bunnit,” and then Miss Priscilla laughed again and went patiently to work shirring and shaping and fitting the silk over the limp, old-fashioned frame. Miss Priscilla was a sociable little body, and always talked to herself when ■he had no one else to talk to. She had no family of her ewn and was A born nurse, and so everyone in the village felt perfectly free to call on her in case of sickness. She had comforted and cared for the aged whose feet were going •down into the valley of the shadow, and bad ministered td the middle-aged and the young, and everyone in the village loved Miss Priscilla and felt that they owed her a debt of gratitude. But love and gratitude, precious as they are to a lonely heart, are poor commodities wherewith to pay the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker, to say nothing of the extravagance of buying Easter bonnets, and as Miss Priscilla was no hand to parade her poverty before her friends and neighbors she dyed and turned and made .over, and withal managed to keep so bright and cheery that no one really suspected how poor ■he was. She worked on patiently for a while, too much absorbed to even talk to her•elf, but somehow the result was not very satisfactory. Long years of nursing the sick, however, much as it may soften

V I. Melting through the chill of winter, from the Southland where be strayed. Cornea the nun with rays resplendent—rays that hynotlxe the mala. In her heart a wlerd commotion Fixes an expensive notion, That eventually will benefit the millinery trade. 11. ▲ll the vagaries of hatdom find their being ’neath the beams -Of the springtime sun, that conjures up most tantalising dreams.

the heart and refine the sensibilities, is not conducive to proficiency in fashioning artistic millinery, and Miss Priscilla began to feel somewhat discouraged. She fashioned the stiff ribbon into a bow and tacked it on one side of the bonnet; fastened the two sickly little plumes and the bunch of faded roses on top; pinned on the strings and, stepping over to the little mirror that was perched on top of the old-fashioned bureau, settled the result of her handiwork on her wavy brown hair. But what was the matter? Miss Prisclila looked at . the reflection in consternation. She saw a pair of tranquil brown eyes and a round, rosy face that reminded one of a winter apple, but the bonnet —the frame was all twisted out of shape and the silk was askew, and the bow, plumes and the roses all seemed to stand up and glare at each other in the most belligerent attitude. She gave one look and snatched it off her head and flung it on the table. “There now,” she said, “I hope I’ll be satisfied. I’ve ruined the only thing I had to my name to wear on my head, and now I can just stay at home from church to-morrow, and it’s Easter Sunday, too, and all on account of my foolish pride. Oh, why couldn’t I have been satisfied to let well enough alone?” And then Miss Priscilla did a strange thing for her—she dropped her bead down on the little table and cried softly, all alone by herself. . But not for long, for soon she was bustling around, tidying up the shabby little sitting room. She crammed the one-sided bonnet into its box and put it away out of sight in the closet, and taking her Bible she read one of the sweet old chapters, and somehow she felt strangely comforted. Light footsteps upon the walk and a tap at the door roused her from her reverie ; she opened the door and there stood Roxy Brown, Mrs. Bartlett’s little apprentice, with a bandbox, which she hurriedly thrust into Miss Priscilla’s hand, saying: “Here’s your new bonnet, Miss Priscilla. Mrs. Bartlett couldn’t possibly finish It sooner, and she told me to tell you she hoped you’d like it,” and before Miss Priscilla had recovered from her astonishment the girl and her companion were hastening off down the street, well out of reach of her voice. She carried the box over to the little table and removed the cover with trembling hands, and then lifted out a lovely little bonnet of black lace and jet, with two soft, silky black plumes and a big

SPRING MILLINERY FANTASY.

And the maid. In wondrous rapture. Contemplates a speedy capture. Though her nylon's badly muddled o'er the styles that pass In streams. 111. But this winsome show of beauty la ths rising of a ghost To the party In the background, who Is interested most. He has heard the elocution For the springtime contribution, ▲nd it hurts him In the pocket, 'cause, you know, old dad Is “cloxt” —Cincinnati I'osL

EASTER JOY.

bunch of purple pansies and lovely lace ties. “Oh, oh,” she breathed, “that dear Mis’ Bartlett, may the good Lord bless her. And to think I was mean enough to call her near. I really don’t deserve this beautiful bonnet.” Then a tear splashed down upon the shining jet lace, and she laughed softly. “I really didn’t know how much I wanted a new bonnet till I got it,” she said comically. A happier hearted little woman than Miss Priscilla Peck, with the little lace and jet bonnet perched on her wavy brown hair, did not enter the little, flower decked church on that beautiful Easter morning. Mrs. Bartlett came in late, and nearly all the congregation were in their places. She settled herself in her pew and then, as was her wont, began surreptitiously scanning the headgear of the feminine portion of the congregation, taking note of the hats and bonnets that wore her own handiwork and those that had come from the rival shop across the way. “More than two-thirds of them came from my store,” she was thinking, exultingly, when suddenly she gave a start and turned hot and cold all in an instant. There, sitting well up in front, where she could enjoy the flowers, with the light from the stained glass window falling like an aureole around her, was Miss Priscilla Peck, with a little black lace and jet bonnet perched airily upon her head. Mrs. Presley’s bonnet 1 The very one she had finished late last evening and sent home to her wealthy customer by Roxy Brown. Then, regardless of what people might think, she turned deliberately around and looked at the Presley pew. Yes, there sat Mrs. Presley, stiff and stately as ever, with her winter bonnet on her head, and a look of cold displeasure in her eyes as they met her own. Then for five minutes she sat perfectly still and thought, and the whole thing became plain to her. “It is all the fault of that careless, trifling Roxy Brown,” she thought angrily ; “she was standing before the glass trying on her own hat when I asked her to take home Mrs. Presley’s bonnet, and she promised as glib as you please, without at all understanding whom the bonnet belonged to, and she’s gone and given Mrs. Presley’s bonnet to Miss Priscilla. But I should desire to know what Priscilla Peck means by going and keeping a bonnet that she knows doesn’t belong, to her. An eight-dollar bonnet, too. and the handsomest one I have made this season, but I’ll settle the matter in short order after church is out,” and then, with a heart that was not at all in harmony with the day. she turned her attention to the beautiful Easter service, that had so far passed unheeded. But what was this anthem the children were singing? All at once she forgot Mrs. Presley and Miss Priscilla, and a little flowerlike face rose before her mental vision, and she heard a shrill, childish little voice practicing an anthem—an Easter anthem that she had never lived 'W' Bing. - ■ She remembered, too, how many, many times during her long illness little Ellen Mary had begged Miss Priscilla to sing that very anthem, so that she might not forget it, hoping and expecting to sing with the other children on Easter Sunday. Then she thought bow Miss Priscilla had watched over and nursed her little daughter during her long sickness, and what a comfort she had been to her on that sorrowful day when little Ellen Mary was laid away to rest. The tears welled up and rolled down her cheeks, she glanced across at Miss Priscilla, and she, too, was wiping her eyes. "I shall always love her for what she did for little Ellen Mary," she thought, with a new feeling of tenderness growing in her heart; “she never, never would set any price on her work, and I gave her that drab Silk bonnet. And I remember I told her that I should always see that she had a nice bonnet.” Here Mrs. Bartlett began to feel uncomfortable “I s’pose she thinks I’ve forgotten my promise and all her kindness; but I haven’t, and never shall." During the next few moments conscience and the Easter anthem did their perfect work in Mrs. Bartlett’s worldly heart. When next she glanced across the

church Miss Priscilla had turned her heal and was looking straight into her fact, with a look of love and gratitude that was a revelation to Mrs. Bartlett. “She actually thinks that I sent her that bonnet ; well, I never,” she gasped, and then the benediction was pronounced, and Mrs. Bartlett turned to leave the church with the rest of the worshipers, with an uncomfortable feeling that the beautiful Easter service had been almost wholly lost to her. As she was passing down the aisle Miss Priscilla came up to her. “I can’t thank you here for your beautiful Easter gift,” she whispered beamingly. “But I’m coming over directly after dinner to have it out with you,” and then she went on down toward the door, bowing and smiling, with a quaint little air of feeling, for once in her life, that she looked quite as well as her neighbors. Then Mrs. Presley came sailing by with her head held very high. Mrs. Bartlett turned as though to speak, and then resolutely closed her lips. “I don’t care,” she said to herself; “I just don’t care; I'm glad of it,” which, considering the fact that she knew she had lost one of her wealthiest customers, was a good deal for Mrs. Bartlett to say. And when later In the day Miss Priscilla, In her new bonnet, came up the walk, Mrs. Bartlett met her at the door. ’“Now, don’t say a single, solitary word," she said, leading the way into the parlor; “it’s the becemingest thing you ever had on your head, and if anybody ever deserved a nice bonnet you do. I ain’t a-going to let you thank me, for I’m just exactly as tickled about it as you be.” “No, you ain’t. You can’t be,” said Mis Priscilla. “Why, I was so tickled I couldn’t believe you really meant it for me. I thought Roxy must have made some mistake.” But Miss Priscilla never knew how near she came to telling the truth. —The Ladies’ World.

Easter Customs.

The customs, traditions and superstitions associated with the observance of Easte- are almost without number. How they originated is often shrouded in mystery, because in many instances the original was known in the Pagan observance of the festival, rather than to the Christion. Others, indeed, are evidently Christion in origin, as is doubtless the following: The early Christians used to greet each other on Easter morning with the salutation: “Christ is risen.” “Christ has risen, indeed, and hath appeared to Simon,” was the reply. It is said that many members of the Greek church still hail each other on Easter day according to this ancient formula. The giving of Easter eggs is the custom more than any other associated with this season, for it is the most widely known, as well as the oldest of Easter customs. In early Pagan days, when the spring festival was observed generally, the egg was symbolical of the universe, and the breaking of eggs at the spring festival typified the breaking of the bands of winter and the release of Nature and fruit and grain life from cold and darkness. When the Christian church began Its observance of Easter this practice was carried over. The eggs, however, were usually sent to the priests to be blessed and sprinkled with holy water. Later on the eggs were colored and decorated and exchanged as gifts. During the last few years artificial eggs of china, pasteboard, candy and satin have been employed as gifts, and many dainty surprises have taken the place of the genuine hen fruit

AN EASTER SURPRISE.

The Rooster —Let’s name him Tennyson.

Easter Quips.

An Easter egg is seldom as fresh as It Is painted. Uneasy lies the head that wears no new Easter bonnet. The shower that ruins a woman's new bonnet is a rain of terror. There is no peace on earth when the heirs try to break the good will. A new spring gown naturally causes a woman to walk with an elastic step. One touch of the milliner's fingers makes the whole feminine world akin. Fine clothes may not make the woman, but they sometimes break her husband. Probably Lot’s wife passed some other woman and looked back to see what she had on. Every woman who wears a new bonnet to church to-day will wonder why the sermon is so short. Man laughs at woman because she follows the fashions, and woman laughs at man because he follows her. At the present writing a woman's crowning glory Ipoks suspiciously like an expensive creation of. the milliner's art.

Indiana State News

FRATERNITY WAR CLIMAX. Bloomington lll«h School Staff of ~ Teachers Resigns. ' A Sensation was caused in Bloomington by the unexpected resignation of ten of the eleven high school teachers. The resignations were received by the board at 10:30 a. hi., to take effect at the close of school. The reason assigned Is that the-board has refused, to stand- by- Principal Howard Clark in his investigation of high school fraternities, and that, therefore, he cannot maintain discipline. As a result the principal consulted With the other ten teachers in the high school and they followed him in tendering their resignations, resolving to stand or fall together. The trouble has been brewing for some time, but a climax was reached two weeks ago when the teachers published a private report, prepared for the board, on school fraternities. Mr. Clark desired the trustees to authorize him to make a public statement, but the board refused to agitate the matter further, on the ground that it was a personal affair with Clark and the newspapers, and for the further reason that the Legislature had forbidden fraternities by law, and therefore no good could come from continued public-discussion of a matter thati, had been determined by law. GIRL BOBBED, PUT IN A SAFE. Cashier in Evansville Store Badly Wounded by Burglars. Miss Josie Gray, cashier at the store of the largest furniture company in Evansville, was found in the safe at the store early Sunday morning, unconscious from blows she had received while defending her employers’ money from robbers. Several thousand dollars is missing, and the police have no clew to the thieves. When the other employes left the store Saturday night Miss Gray was still going over her books and remarked to one of the salesmen that she would possibly remain for an hour. She failed to reach home at midnight, and her parents notified the police. The store was visited and the doors were found to be unlocked. When the police entered Nliss Gray could not be found. Manager Gumberts was called, and when he opened the safe there lay the body of the cashier, showing that she had been struck over the head several times with some heavy instrument. Her skull was not fractured, and, though her injuries are severe, it is believed they are not fatal.

THIS ARDEN REGAINS LIFE. Hoosier Who Disappeared Reform to Spouse Who Im Now Widow. The return of Richard Harrison from the Klondike to South Bend has developed a tale almost the parallel of that of Enoch Arden. The story came out with the departure of Mrs. Etta Harrison for a Michigan town, wherh Richard Harrison, her former husband, is wealthy and the owner of a big fruit farm. Harrison left South Bend fifteen years ago for the gold fields, but after leaving Seattle nothing more was heard from him, and his wife mourned him as dead. One year ago she was married to Arthur Parry, who died four months ago. A telegram from a Michigan city reached Mrs. Parry, telling her that her first husband was alive and well and that she should join him. Overjoyed she took the first train to the destination.

TELLS THIEF WHERE CASH IS. Woman Unintentionally Gives Secret Away and He Gets SB. Mrs. A. E. McCauce of Marion when she returned to her home unintentionally told a burglar where he could find her money and the burglar got it before a policeman arrived. The burglar was in a bedroom and Mrs. McCauce coming into the home and seeing that a thief had been there exclaimed: “I wonder if he found my money in the pantry.” Then she went to call a policeman. When she returned the pantry, which on her first visit was orderly, was in a topsy-turvy condition. The thief, who had overheard her remark, got SB. ACCLSED OF STARVING WIFE. Sick Woman Says Husband Refused Io Bring Her Food. Frank Fanning is in jail and his wife is in a hospital as the result of an investigation made by the Marion police into the allegations that Mrs. Fanning was being starved by her husband. Mrs. Fanning had been sick for ten weeks. During the last few days of her illness, she said, she was unable to get her own meals and her husband refused to bring her food. Fanning is said to have kept his wife locked in the house during the first part of her illness.

Minor State Items. Charles Bauer died suddenly while sitting on the grave of a relative in a cemetery at Poseyville. Death is supposed to have been .paused from grief. Grant Hardesty, a retired farmer, committed suicide by taking poison. Hardesty was ’ discovered dying on the Grand Trunk tracks east of Valparaiso by the engineer of a freight train. Though the old court house in Peru has been torn down and a new one is under construction, yet the other day all contracts were declared illegal by a decision rendered in the appellate court. The Indiana department, G. A. R., changed the dates of the State encampment at Fort Wayne to accommodate the visit of National Commander Brown. The encampment will be held May 22, 23 and 24. Charles Padgett of Sullivan county, a well-known southern Indiana hotel man and politician, has sued Newton Vaughn, recorder of Green county, for 115,000 for alleged alienation of Mrs. Padgett's affections. The acts of which Padgett complains are said to have been committed three days after the marriage of the couple.

COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL

CHICAGO. Along with the advent of spring bus!* ness generally is seen to have acquired further momentum. No corresponding period in previous years was entered upon with production, distribution and transportation more largely engaged, and it is a remarkable index of industrial strength that demands and costs exhibit no reaction. Labor problems attract attention? bus she difficurtles obfain prompt treatment, thereby avoiding the danger from a spread of strikes; A gratifying feature is the improvement in railroad facilities, less complaint of car shortaga now being current. Distributive trade has responded promptly to the stimulus of seasonable weather. The wholesale markets are yet attended by many outside buyers, heavy purchases of spring and summer merchandise make a healthy reduction of warehouse stocks, and there is little diminution in the pressure upon shipping rooms, country merchants insisting upon prompt forwardings. Despite high rates for money the commercial demand is well kept up, western collections make a good showing and failures are comparatively low in both number and liabilities. Bank clearings, $243,145,727, exceed those of corresponding week in 1906 by 20.8 per cent. Failures reported in the Chicago district numbered 20, against 25 last week and 30 a year ago.—Dun’s Review. - NEW YORK. Spring trade is at its height, and the turnover bids fair to exceed even last year’s, the stimuli being furnished by more favorable weather, the approach of Easter and the visits of country merchants to the larger centers. lin pro vement is reflected all around, even in the Northwest, which now. appears to be getting back to normal conditions. In fact, doubt as to the future is nowhere in evidence in the great producing sections of the country. In some ix>jnts in the West sales of dry goods on spring account are fully 10 per cent above those of last year, ' while fall business thus far placed is also in excess of that booked at this time in 1906. While the car situation in the West has improved, conditions in the East are worse, but nevertheless a greater movement of cereals to market may now be expected. Business failures in the United States for the week ending March 21 number 157, against 186 last week and 170 in the like week of 1906. Canadian failures for the week number'32, against 23 last week and 29 in this week a year ago.—Bradstreet’s Report.

THE MARKETS

Chicago—Cattle, common to prime, $4.00 to $6.05; hogs, prime heavy, $4.00 to $6.45; sheep, fair to choice, $3.00 to $5.75; wheat. No. 2,72 cto 74c; corn, No. 2,42 cto 44c; oats, standard, 39c to 42c; rye. No. 2,67 cto 70c; hay, timothy, $13.00 to $18.00; prairie, $9.00 to $14.00; butter, choice creamery, 27c to 30c; eggs, fresh, 14c to 18c; potatoes, 35c to 43c. Indianapolis—Cattle, shipping, $3.00 to $6.50; hogs, choice heavy, $4.00 to $6.70; sheep, common to prime, $2.50 to $5.00; wheat, No. 2,73 cto 75c; corn. No. 2 white, 45c to 47c; oats, No. 2 white, 41c to 43c. St. Louis —Cattle, $4.30 to $6.75; hogs, $4.00 to $6.50; sheep, $3.00 to $5.35; wheat. No. 2,77 cto 78c; corn. No. 2,43 cto 45c; oats, No. 2,40 cto 41c; rye, No. 2,64 cto 65c. Cincinnati —Cattle, $4.00 to $5.65; hogs, $4.00 to $7.00; sheep, $3.00 to $5.50; wheat, No. 2,78 cto 79c; corn, No. 2 mixed, 46c to 47c; oats, No. 2 mixed, 43c to 45c; rye. No. 2,73 cto 74c. Detroit—Cattle, $4.00 to $5.25; hogs, $4.00 to $6.65; sheep, $2.50 to $5.50; wheat. No. 2,75 cto 76c; corn. No. 3 yellow, 46c to 47c; oats. No. 3 white, 43c to 45c; rye. No. 2,70 cto 72c. Milwaukee —Wheat, No. 2 northern, 78c to 81c; corn. No. 3,41 c to 42c; oats, standard, 41c to 42c; rye. No, 1, 69c to 70c; barley, standard, 70c to 72c; pork, mess,’sls.6-5 Buffalo—Cattle, choice shipping steers, $4.00 to $6.00: hogs, fair to choice, $4.00 to $7.15; sheep, common to good mixed, $4.00 to $5.40: lambs, fair to choice, $5.00 to $8.50. New York—Cattle. $4.00 to $6.20; hogs, $4.00 to $7.30; sheep. $3.00 to $5.50; wheat, No. 2 red, 80c to 82c; corn. No. 2,54 cto 55c; oats, natural white. 49c to 50c; butter, creamery, 29c to 30c; eggs, western, 15c to 18c. Toledo—Wheat. No. 2 mixed, 75c to 76c; corn. No. 2 mixed, 45c to 46c; oats. No. 2 mixed, 42c to 44c; rye. No. 2 68c to 69c: clover need, $8.63.

Peace Congress at New York.

The first national arbitration and peace congress ever held in this country is to be convened in Carnegie hull and Cooper I'nion, Now York City, April 14 to 17. Andrew Carnegie is to preside and more than 200 delegates, including many men of prominence, will discuss new projects for submission to The Hague conference in June. Among the speakers announced are William T. Stead. Archbishop Farley, Bishop Potter. Rabbi Hirsch. Elihu Root, James Bryce, Woodrow Wilson and W. J. Bryan. ’

Northwest Passage Valueless.

Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer who some months ago succeeded in making the northwest passage in his little 47ton l>oat. the Gjoa, has been delivering a series of lectures in Paris. While he snys that the observations made by him in* tbe*vicinity of th* magnetic pole will prove of considerable scientific value, he thinks that the northwest passage cannot l>e made practicable for purposes of navigation. thus dispelling the hope which has attracted the attention of scientific men, as well as dreamers, for centuries.