Saturday Evening Mail, Volume 9, Number 30, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 25 January 1879 — Page 6

«*r-,

THE MAI I

A PAPER FOR THE PEOPLE.

DEATH AND DESOLATION. [The following poem and sonnet were found among the papers belonging to the late Colonel Richard Realf, and were purchased iroia hia -widow by The Argonaut:]

DKAD—DEAD.

1 shall never die, 1 fear. O heart so sore betstead, O hunger never fed, O life uncomforted,

It is drear, very drear!

1 am cold.

The sunshine glorifying all the hills The children dancing 'mong the daffodils: The thrush-like melodies of maidens' ling, Brooding thanksgiving o'er dear fellowships The calm companions and benignities Of souk fast anchored in translucent seas The visible radiance of the Invisible. Far glimpses of the Perfect Beautiful, Haunting the Earth with Heaven—they warm not me The low-voiced winds breathe very soothingly.

Yet I am eold.

Years—years.

So long the dread companionship of pain. So long the slow compression of the brain, Ho long the bitter famine and the drouth, So long the ache for kisses on the mouth, So long the straining of hot tearless eyes In backward looking upon Paradise: So long tired feet dragged falterlngly aud slow, So long the solemn sanctity of woe.

Years—years.

Perhaps

There was avoid in Heaven, which only she Of all God's saintliest could fill perfectly Perhaps for too close clinging—too much sense Of Loving and of Love's Omnipotence, I was stripped bare of gladness, like a tree By the black thunder blasted. It may be I was not worthy—that some inner flaw. Which but the eye of the Omniscient saw, Ran darkling through me, making me unclean. 1 know not but I know that what hath been— The thrill, the rapture, the intense repose Which but the passion-sceptered spirit knows, The heart's great halo lighting up the days. The breath all incense and the lips all praise, ('.(in be no more forever: that what is— Drear suffocation in a drear abyss Lean hands outstretched toward the dark profound, Starved ears vain listening for a teuder sound The set lips choking back the desolate cry Wrung from the soul's forlornest agony, Will last until the props of Being fall, And the green grave's deep quiet cover? all. Perhaps the violets will blossom then O'er me as sweetly as o'er other men:

Perhaps.

It is most sad:

This crumbling into chaos and decay. My heart aches and I think I shall go mad Some day—some day.

SONNET.

love makes the solid grossness musical All melted in the marvel of its breaths, Life's level facts attain a lyric swell,

And liquid births leap up from rocky deaths, Witching the world with wonder. Thus, to-day Watching the crowding people in the street—

I thought the ebbing ana the flowing feet Moved to a delicate sense of rythmalway, Atad that I heard the yearning faces say **Soul, sing me this new song'." The autumn leaves Throbbed subtly to me an immortal tune And when the warm shower wet the roofs at noon.

Soft melodies slid down on me from the eave.«, Dying delicious In a mystic swoon.

From the Indianapolis Journal.

THE BOSS GIRL.

BY J. W. RILES".

In this glad metropolis,o ne week ago— and thin is Christmas day, to me the most memorablo, so sacred does it seem, so brimmed with some strauge element of sanctity. I cannot join the universal revel of rejoloiug that as I write tills all the morning air with melody of happy greetings, and with laughter tunea to that exultant pitch ot merriment that chords so riohly with the ringing of the bells.

I am tired—very tired and ray face is haggard, and my eyes inflamed. I have been restless throughout the night. I am rather "nervous," to confess the truth, and. at times, extremely so. To suffer in this way at any time is pitiful, but at night—the sky seems hardly, broad enough to cover all the misery one must endure. It i* simply awful. Companionship at such a time is simply unbearable, and to be alone—alone! alone, and yet surrounded by a thousand nnseeu terrors to be alone, and see the wavering shadows wrestling with each other round the walls to be alone, and bave the ticking of the clock drive tacks into your skull till every hair is doubly fastened in its place: to be alone, till even silence shrieks aloud, and

moonlight scorches where it falls, to be alone, and feel the groping hand of darkness fasteu in the fibers of your brain, and with a thumb and finger pluok your heart out by the roots, and lift it to a level with your eyes, and squeeze It like a sponge. Oh. my friend, to be thus afflicted, and to be alone is damnable. Yet this Is fancy you want tacts.

One week ago to-dav, iu the little back office that adjoins the counting room oJ the liiiy .Journal, the writer sat in

enlal conversation with two friends. I not now recall the theme of our discussion, but the general trend of itsuggested doubtless by the busy scene upon the streets—I remember most distinctly, savored of the mellowing Influences of the comiug holidays, with perhaps an acrid tang of irony as we dwelt upon the great needs of the poor at such a time, and the chariness with which the hand of opulence was wont to dole out alms. But for all that

we were

dreams

everything, snd you can bet if I bad *5 that I wouldn't have to ask nobody for noihin,' and I ain't got no father nor mother, nor brother—nor—no sisters neither, but that dou't make no difference, cos I'll work—at anything—yes, sir!—when I can git anything to do— and I sleep jist any place—aua I ain't had no breakfast—aud, honest, gentle' mens, I'm a good boy—I don't aw6ar nor smoke nor chew—but that's all right— on'y if yoa'il jist make up forty five between you—and that's on'y fifteen cents apiece—I'll thank you, I will, and

I'll ji6t do anything—and it's comin1 Christmas, aud I'll roll in the niokels, don't you forgit—if I on'y git a boxcoal throw up a 'bad' shine!—and I oan git the box for fifty cents if you gentlemen's '11 on'y make up torty-five be tween you." And at the conclusion of this long and rambling appeal, the little fellow stood waiting with an eager face for a response.

A look of stocial deliberalion'jplayed about the features of the oldest member of the group, as with an sir of serious* ness, which, I think, even the boy reoog nized as affected, he asked "And you couldn't get a box like that for—say forty cents? Fifty oents looks like a lot of money to lay out in the purchase of a blacking box."

The boy smiled wisely as he answered "Yes, it might look bij? to a feller that ain'c up on prices, but I think it's cheap, cos it's a second-band box, and a new one would cost seventy-five cents anyhow—'thout no brushes nor nothin'."

In the meantime I had dropped Into the little fellow's palm the only coin I had in my possession, and we all laughed as he closed bis thanks with "Oh, come, Cap, go the other nickel or I won't git out o' here with half enough and at that he turned to the former speaker. "Well, really," said the gentleman, fumbling in bis pockets, "I don't believe I've got a dime with me." "A dime," said the little fellow, with a look ot feigned compassion. "Ain't got a dime? May be I'd loan you this oue!" And we all laughed again. "Tell you what do now," said the boy, taking advantage of the mament, and looking coaxingly into the smiling eyes of the gentleman still fumbliug vainly in his pockets. "Tell you what do you borry twenty cents of the man that stays behind the counterthere, and then we'll go the other fifteen, and that'll make it, and I'll skip out o' here a Utile the flyest boy you ever seen! What do you soy?" And the little fellow struck a Pat Rooney attitude that would have driven the original inventor mad with envy. "Give him a quarter," laughed the gentleman appealed to. "And here's the other dime," and as the little fellow clutched the money eagerly, he turned, and in a tone of curious gravity, he said: "Now, honest, gentlemen's, I ain't a giving you no game about the box—cos anew one costs seventy-five cents, and the one I've got—I mean the one I'm agoin' to git—is jist as good as a new one, on'y it's second hand, and I'm much obliged, gentlemen's—honest, I am—and if ever I give you a ebine you can jist bet it don't cost you nothin'!"

And with this characteristic expression of his gratitude, the little fellow vanished as mysteriously as he at first had appeared. "That boy hasn't a bad face," said the first speaker—"wide between the eyes— full forehead—good mouth—denoting firmness—altogether, a good, square face." "And a noble one," said I, perhaps inspired of that lofty assertion by the rehearsal of the good points noted by my more observant companion. "Yes, and an honest, straightforward way of talking, I would say," continued that gentleman. only noted one thing to shake mv faith in that particular, and that was'in his latest reference to the box. You'll remember his saying he had not been accused ot such a thing." "Oh, he meant a'oout the price, don't vou remember?" said I. "No," said the gentleman at the counter, "you're both wrong. He only threw in that remark because he thought I suspected him, for he recognized me ju9t the instant before that speech, and it confused him, and with some reason, as you will see. On my way to supper only last night I overtook that same little fellow

charge of an old man

who was in a deplorable state of drunkenness, and you know how slippery the streets were. I think if that old man fell a single time ha fell a dozen, and once so violently that Iran to his assistance and helped him to bis feet. I thought him badly hurt at first, for he gashed bis forehead as he fell, and I helped the little fellow take him in a drug store, where the wound upon examination proved to be nothing more serious than to require a strip of plaster. I got a good look at the boy, there, however, and questioned him a little, and he said the man was his father, and be was taking him home, and I gathered further from his talk that the man was a confirmed inebriate. Now you'll remember the boy told us bere a while ago he had no father, and when be recognized me a moment since and found himself caught in a 'yarn,' at least, be very naturally supposed I would think his entire "story a fabrication, hence the suspicious nature of his last remarks, and the sudden transition of his manner from that of real delight to gravity, which change in my opin ion, rather denotes lying to be anew thing t» him. I can't be mistaken in

the boy, for I noticed a« he turned to go

merrv. and as from time to time our a bald place on the back of his head, the clances fell upon the ever shifting scene left side, a 'trade mark, first discovered outside, our hearts grew warmer, aud last evening, as ho bent desparingly within the eyes the old

gltm-| over the prostrate form of his father.

mered Into fuller dawn. It was during "I noticed a thin spot in bis bair, a lull of conversation ot this character,! said I, "and wondered at the time what and while the phllantrophie mind, per- caused it." chance* was wanderiug amid the outer "And don you know» throng, and doubtlees quoting to Itself I shook my head. "Whene'er I take ray walks abroad,'' Coal bins and entry floors—that lit— that our privacy was abruptly broken the fellow hasn slept within a bed for into bv the grimy apparition or a boy of, year?, perhaps. ten: a ragged little fellow—not thestereo-| "But he told you, as you say, last typed edition of the street waif in ap- 1 night, he was taking the old man pearance, but across between the boot-' borne?" black and the infantine Italian with the "\es, home!

violin. Where he had entered, and boy's home. There are hundreds like how, would have puzzled us to answer it In the city here—a cellar or a shed a bnt there he stood before us. as It were,1 box car, or a loft in some old shop, with in a majesty of insignificance. I

have

gazed in attentive silence on the little couldn grind it out of there with a fellow, as with uncovered frowsy head, thousand cranks. be stepped boldly forward, yet with an The retnai0rTof air of deference as unlooked for as be-' me somehow, I don know or nomlntr where it passed. I suppose it just drop"I don't want to bother vou gentle* ped into a comatose condition, and so mens." he began in a frank, but hesl- slipped away "unknelled, urcoffined tntina tone, that rippled hurriedly along end unknown. as marked a general nod of indul* But one clear memory survives an Snce for the

USraSlon.

doa'fe

1 04,1

exp?rienc«so

want to bother nobody, bnt if lean ailnd that I now recall Its raise fifty cents—and I've got a nickel— Entering the Union Iepot that ®*«ning and if lean raise the rest—and it ain't to meet the trahl that was to carry me much you know—on'y forty-five—»»C *way at 6 clock,, muffled closely in if can raise the rest—T tell you gentle- t»y overcoat, yet more closely waffled mens" be broke off abruptly—and injuay gloomy thoughts, I was rather speaking with italicised sincerity—"I abruptly stopped by a small toy with

S if a a a 7 a a SKckln' box for that,

and brash and

iHf'

a father to chase hira from it In hfs sober

never bad the features of a boy impress interludes, and to hold him from it in me a* did his, and as I stole a covert unconscious shame

glance at my companion I was pleased drnnk. Home, Sweet Home. That to find the evidence of more than ordi- boy has heard it upon the hand organ nary interest In their faces as they perhaps, but never

^i9 ,he®r|ry°"

ed? Shine 'em for ten eents! Shine 'em for a nickel—n'ny you mustn't give me away on that," be added, dropplug on bis knees near the entrance, and motioning me to set my toot on the box.

It was then too dark for me to clearly see his faoe, but I bad reoognieed the voice the instant be had spoken, and had paused and looked around. "Oh, you'll have plenty of time," he urged, guessing at the cause of my apparent hesitation. ''None o' the trains on time to-night—ou'y the Panhandle, and she's jist a backin' in—won't start for thirty minutes and be again beckoned me, and rattled a seduotive tattoo on the side of his box. "Well," said I, with a compromising air. Voome inside, then, out of the cold." "'Glnst the rules—oops won't have it. They jist fired me out o' there not ten minutes ago. Oh, come, Cap step out here it won't take two minutes," and the little fellow spat professionally upon his brush, with a covert glance of pleasure as he noted the apparent success of the maneuver. "You don't live here I'll bet," said the boy, knocking the first foot from the box, and pausing to blow his hands. "How do you know that? Did you never S9e me here before?" "No, I never see you here before, but that ain't no reason. I can tell you don't live bere by them shoes—cos they've been put up in some little pennyroyal shop, that's how. Hand up the other'n. When you want a *fiy' shoe you want to git her put up somers where they kuow somepin' aoout style. There's good enough metal in that shoe, on'y she's about two vears off in style." "You're posted, then, in shoes," said I with a laugh. "I ort to be," he went on pantingly, a brush in either hand gyratino with a velocity that jostled his hat over his eyes, having most plainly exposed to investigating eye the "trademark" before alluded to: "I ort to be posted in shoes, cos I ain't done nothin' but black 'em for five years." "You're an old hand, then, at the business," said I. "I didn't know but maybe you were just starting out. What's an outfit like that worth "Thinkin* o' startin' up?" he asked facetiously. "Ob, no," said I good humoredly,. "I just asked out of idle curiosity. That's anew box, ain't it?" "Now?" he repeated with a laugh. "Put up that other hoof. New W'y if that box had ever had eyes like a human it would a-been a-wearing specs by this time that's a old, bald-headed box, with one foot in the grave." "And what did the old fellow cost you?" I asked, highly amused at the quaint expressions of the boy. "Cost Cost nothin'—on'y about an hour's work. I made that box myself, about four years ago." "Ah!" said I. "Yes," he went on, "they don't cost anything the boys makes 'em out o' other boxes, you know. Some of 'em gits'm made, but they ain't no good —ain't no better'n this kind." "So that didn't cost you anything said I, "though I suspect you wnjlda't like to part with it for less than—well, I don't know how much money to say-seventy-five cents, m»ybe—would anything less than seventy-five cents buy It I craftly interrogated. "Seventy-five cents! W'y, what's the matter with you, man? I could get a car-load of 'em for seventy-five cents. I'll take your measure for one like it for fifteen, too quick and the little fellow leaned back from his work and laughed up in my face with absolute derision.

I pulled my hat more closely down for fear of recognition, but was reassured a moment later as he went on: "Wisbt you lived here you'd be old fruit for us fellows. I can see you now a-takin' wind—and we'd give it to you mighty slick now, don't you forget?" and, as the boy renewed his work, I think his little ragged body shook less with industry than mirth. "Wisbt I'd struck you 'bout 10 o'clock this morning!" and, as he spoke, he paused again and looked up in my face with real regret. "Oh, you'd a been the loveliest sucker of 'em all! W'y you'd a went the whole pot yourself!" "Howdo you mean?" said I, dropping the cigar I held. "How do I mean? Oh, you don't want to smoke this thing again after its a falling round bere in the dirt!" "Why, you don't smoke," said I, still reaching for the cigar he held behind hiui. "Me? Oh, what you givin' me "Come, let me have it," I said sharply, drawing a case from my pocket and, taking out another. "Oh, you want a light," he said, handing mo the stub and watching me wistfully, "Couldn't give us a fresh cigar, could you, Cap

Oh, I don't know," said I, as though deliberating on the matter. "What was that you were going to tell me just now? You started to tell me what a 'lovely sucker' I'd have been bad you met me this morning. How did you mean "Give me a cigar and I'll tell you. Oh, come, now, Cap give me a smoker and I'll give you the whole game. I will, now, honest!"

I held out the open case. .••••• "Nothin' mean about you, is they?" he said, eagerly taking a fresh cigar In one hand and the stub Tn the other. "A ten-center, too—oh, I guess not but, to my surprise, he took the stub between his ftps, and begau opening his ooat. "(Juess I'll jist fat this down and save'er up for Christmas. No, I won't either," "he broke* in suddenly, with a bright keen flash of second thought. Tell you what I'll do," holding up the cigar and gazing at it admiringly, "she's a tencenter, ain't she?'', 1

I nodded. "And worth every cent of it too, ain't she "Every cent of it," I repeated, mechanically. "Then give me a nickel, and she's yours—oos If you can afford to give it to me for nothin,' looks like I ort to let you have it for half price." and as I laughingly dropped the nickel in his hand he concluaed, "and there's nothin' menu about me, neither," "Now, go on with your story," said I. "How aDout that 'game' you were 'giving,' this morning?" "Well, I'll tell you, Cap, we fellers has got to lav for every nickel, oos none of us is bond-holders and there's days and days together when we don't make enough to even starve on. What I mean is, we on'y make enough to pay for agervatin' oar appetites with Jist about enough chuck to Keep us starvfn hungry. So, you see, when a feller ain't got nothin' else to do, and his appetite won't stay in the same bunk with him, he's bound to git after somenin' crooked, and

§ome

vividly imprinted on mv

cigar, don't you want them boots black

it up all sorts o' dodges to git along,

other, slick 'orphans.' and 'fits,' and 'cripples,' and 'drunk fathers,' and 'mothers that eats morphine,' and 'white swellln," and •consumption,' and all that sort o'music. Got to git 'er down finer than that, but I been 9 gittin* in my work all the same, don't vou forgit! Yon won't ever blow, now?4' "»«.

E I I 5 0 A 1 S A A E E N S I A I

017*t

r?^3 vr*^ "•*v

%?:,?,l\I

"How could I 'blow,' and what if I did I don't live here," I replied. "Well, you better never blow anyhow cos if ever us duffers would git onto it you be a spiled oyster." "Go on," said I, with an assuring tone. "The lay I'm en jist now," be continued, dropping bis voice and looking cautiously around, "is a-hldin' my box and u-rushin' in, sudden-like, where there's a crowd o' nobs a-talkin' politics or somepin', and a jist startin', and 'fore they know what's a-comln' I'm a flashin' up a nickel or a dime, and a-teliin' 'em if I on'y bad enough more to make fifty oents I could git a blackin'-box, and wouldn't have to ask no boot o' my grandmother and two minutes chinnin' aoes it, don't you see, cos they don't know nothin' about blackin'-boxes thev're jist as soft as you are. They got an "idee, maybe, that blackin'-boxes comes all the way from Chiny, with cokey nut whiskers packed around 'em and I make it solid by a-sayin' I'm on'y goin' to git a second-hand box—see? But that ain't the pint—It's the Mr. Nickel I already got. Oh! it'll paralyze 'em every time. Sometimes fellers'll make up seventy-five cents or a dollar, and tell me to git anew box. and 'go into the business right.' That's a thing that always rattles me. Now if they on'y growl a little and look like they was Jist a puttin' up cos the first one did, I can stand it but when they go to pattin' me on the head, and a tellin' me •that's right,' and'not to be afeard o' work,' and 'I'll come out all right,' and a-tellin' me to "git a good substantial box while I'm a-gittin', and a-ponyin' up handsome, there's where I weaken, I do, honest!'

And never so plainly as at that moment did I see within his face, and in his eyes the light of true nobility. "You see," he went on, in a tone of voice half courage, half apology, "I've got a family on my hands, and I jist got to git along somehow. I could git along on the square deal as long as mother was alive—cos she'd work—but ever sence she died—and that was winter 'fore last—I've kindo had to double on the old thing all sorts o' ways. But Sis don't know it. Sis thinks I'm the squarest muldoon in the business," and even side by side with the homely utterance a great sigh faltered from his lips. "And who is Sis?" I new interest.

Sin la is

"Can't work?" I queried. "Won't work," said the boy, bitterly. "He won't work—he won't do nothin' —on'y 'budge!' And I have to steer him in every night, cos the cops won't pull him no more—they won't let him in the station house more'11 they would a parlor, cos La's a gouer—liable to 'croak' anv minute." "Liable to wbat?" said I. "Liable to jist keel over—wink out, you know—cos he has fits. Kind o'jimjams, I gues3. Had a fearful old matinee with him last night. You see he comes all sorts o' games ou me, and I have to put up for him—cos he's got to have whisky, and if we can on'y keep him about so full he's a regular lamb, but he don't stand no monkeyin' when he wants whisky, now you can bet! Sis can handle him better'n me, but she's been a losln' her grip on him lately— you see Sis ain't stout any more, and has been kind o' sick-like so long she humors him, you know, more'n she should. And be couldn't get on his pins at all yisterday morning, and Sis sent for me, and I took him down a pint, and that set him a a-running so that when I left he made Sis give up a quarter he saw me slip her, and it jist ha ran onto him that evening an in, or he'd a froze to deat! must a kind o' 'had 'em' last

sir. I my from my pocket "That is a ni with an unusual

got him

I guess he night, cos

must a kind 'had em last ntgnt, cos

an' Oia SOWS Wim ICttVUCi UU8VCI MfttlOj the durndest programme yob ever beard of. And be got so bad onst he was goin* to belt Sin, and did try it, and—and I bad to ohug him one or he'd a done it. And then ne cried, and Sis cried, and I cr I—God-dern him! You can bet yoar life I didn't cry!'*

And as the boy spoke his lips quivered into stern compression, bis hands grip "iia

the

"That's a boss shine on them shoes,

r,"i

the two dimes, as I thought they were, are only two three cent pieces, so I have only eleven cents in change after fell." 'Spect they'd change a bill for you 'orobs there at the lunch counter," he suggested with a charming artlessness. "Won't have time—there's my train just coupling—but take this—I'll see you again some time, perhaps." "How big a bill is it you want to have changed?" asked the little fellow, with a most acquisitive expression, and a swift glance at our then lonely surroundings. "I have only one bill with me," said I nervously, "and that's a five." "Well here then," said the boy hurriedly, with another and more scrutinizing glance about him—"guess I can accommodate you."

As I turned in wonderment, he drew from some mysterious recess in the lining of his coat quite a roll of bills, from which he hastily detached four in number, returned the roll, and before I bad recovered from my surprise, had whisked the note from my fingers and left in my hand instead the proper change. "This is on the dead, now, Cap. Don't you ever chbep about me a havin' any wealth, you know cos it ain't minethat is, it's mine, but I'm a—there goes your train. Ta-ta!" "The day before Christmas," said I, snatching his band, and speaking hurriedly, "the day beforo Christmas I'm coming back, and if you'll be here when the 5:30 train rolls In you'll find a man that wants his boots blacked—maybe to

§ot

married in, or something—anyway e'll want a shine like this, and he'll pay the bighesl market price—do you understand?" "You jist tell that feller for me," said the boy, eclipsing the twinkle of one eye, and dropping bis voice to an inflection of strictest confidence, "you jist tell that feller for me that I'm his oyster." "And you'll meet him then, sure?" said I. "I will," said the boy. And he kept his word.

My ride home was an incoherent fluttering of the wings of time, in which travail one fretful hour was born, to gasp its first few minutes helplessly then moan, roll over and kick out its legs, and sprawl about, then crawl a little—stagger to its feet and totter on

inquired with then tumble down a time or two and knock its empty head against the floor

"Sis?" he repeated, knocking my foot and howl then loom up awkwardly ©n from the box, and leaning baclc, still In gangling legs, t^ much in their own the old position, his hat lying on the way to comprehend that thev were in ground beside him, and his frowsy hair the way of everybody else then limp a tossed backward from the full, broad little as it worried on—drop down exbrow—"Who's

O, that boy down there upon his knees!—there in the cinders and the dirt—so far, far down beneath us that we trample on his breast and grind our heels into bis very heart O, that boy there, with hi* lifted eyes, and God'e own glory shining in his face has taught me, with an eloquence beyond the trick of mellow sounding words and metaphor that love may find a purer home beneath the rags of poverty aud vice, than is found in all the great warm heart of charity.

I hardly knew what impulse prompted me, but as the boy stood up and held out his baud for the compensation for his work, I caught the dingy hand close within my own, and wrung it as I would have wrung the hand of some great conqueror.

Tho little fellow stared at me in wonderment, and although his lips were silent, I cannot but believe that they had parted with the utterance within his heart that my feelings had received no higher recogniti than the contemptuous phrase: "Oh, what you givin' me?" "And so vou've got a family on your bands?" I inquired, recovering an air of simple curiosity, and tying in my pocket with some bits of change. "How much of a famih?" "On'y three ot us now." "Only three of you, eh? Yourself, sis, and—and—" "The old man," said the boy uneasily and after a pause, in which he seemed to swallow an utterance more bitter, "and he ain't no good to anybody on

Sis?" he repeated with hausted—moan &jzain—toss upitsbands

an upward smile that almost dazzled —shriek out, and tnen die in violent

w'v Sis is

th6 CODVUiSlODS.

No need had he to tell me more than conversation with us as we gaily em this. I knew who "Sis" was by the barked upon seme pleasant trip, perlight of pride in the uplifted eyes I

taP8

knew who "Sis" was by the exultation song, or lightly twit us with some dear in the broken voice, and the half-deflant ones name, or even go so faraslaughat tossing of the frowsy head I knew who us, and mock us for some real or fancied "Sis" was by the little naked hands dereliction of car etiquette ®hall thrown upward openly I knew who ever have good reason to remember •Sis" was* by the "tear" that dared to trickle through the dirt upon her ragged brother's honest face. And don't you forget it.

As this senseless phrase was repeated and reiterated In its growing harshness and unchanging intonation, the relentless pertinacity ot the query grew simply agonizing, and when at times the car door opened to admit a brakeman, or the train-boy, wbo had everything to sell but what I wanted, the emphas zed refrain would lift me from my seat and drag me np and down the aisle In unutterable despair. And when the phrase did eventually writhe round into form and shade more tangible, my relief was such that I sat down, and iu my fancy framed a grim, unlovely tune that suited it, and hummed with it, in an undertone of dismal satisfaction: "How fur—how fur,

5P£

haf them rattle off in scrap* o'

how once upon a time a boy of fourteen, though greatly undersize, told "theconductor" be was only ten, and although the unsuspecting official accepted the statement as a truth, with the proper reduction in the fare, the car wheels called that boy a "liar" lor twenty miles—and twenty miles as long and tedious as be has ever compassed in his journey through this vale of tears.

The car-wheels on this bitter winter evening were not at all communicative. They were sullen and morose. They didn'J feel like singing, and they would not laugh. They had no jokes, and if there was one peculiar quality of tone they possessed in any marked degree, it was that of sneering. They bad a harsh, discordant snarl as it seemed, and were spiteful and insinuating.

The topic they bad chosen for that night's consideration was evidently of a very complex and mysterious nature, and they gnawed and mumbled at it with such fierceness, and, withal, such selfishness, 1 could only catch a flying fragment of it now and then, and that I noticed was of the coarsest fibre of intelligence, and of slangy flavor. Listening with the most painful interest, I at last made out the fact that the inflection seemed to be in the interrogative, and with anxiety the most intense. Slowly I came to comprehend that they were desirous of ascertaining the exact distance between two given points, but the proposition seemed determined net to round into fuller significance than to query mockingly, "How fur is it? How fur is it? How fur, how fur is it?" and so on to a most indefinite and exasperating limit.

Is it from here— From here to Happluess?

That same refrain came b*ck into the city with me. When all the gay metropolis was robing for the banquet and the ball: when all the windows of the crowdea thoroughfare were kindling into splendor and when along the streets roiled lordlv carriages so weighted down with oostly silks, and furs, and twinkling gems, and unknown treasures in unnumbered packages, that one lone ounce of needed charity would have snapped their axles, and a feather's weight of pure benevolence would have splintered every spoke.

And so the old refrain rode through it all with me—as stoical, relentless and unchangeable as fate—and in the same

8ianRy

S 7 S 2 S 5 *nd old sows with feather duster tails. s§°8 .. How fur—how fur.

was mechanically turning over in "S^riesd. "tfhere did you drop hand three small coins I had drawn

nlm lob!" said I sarins

niceiOD! wifl

A»

3.R]

,h.'w»k™S*i Zo g2v™S"i

with real e(,ret, "tbat I tw?_dta6B

and a nickle here, and I was just thinking that as these were Christmas times 1 would just give you a quarter for your work." "Honest, Cap?" "Honest!" I repeated, "but the fact Is

BROWNS Expectorant

The only reliable remedy for all Throit aud Lung Diseases, is a scientific preparation, compounded from the formula of one of the moat8ucco«rul practitioners In the Western country. It has stood the test for the last twenty years, and will effecta cure after all other cough remedies have failed.

Head the Following:

HALLOF REPRESENT vrxvKS. INDIANAPOLIS, IND., REB 15.1871.

DR. J. H. BROWN:—w'e have used your "Brown's Expectorant," and take pleasure in saying that we found ttthe best medicine ever used tor Coughs, Cold*, and Hoarseness, and cheerfully recommend it to all who may be troubled with Throat and Lung affections

Wm Mack, Speaker House Rep, Zenor, Rep Harrison county, Cauthorn, Rep Knox county,

Montgomery, JRep Johnson county, Tarfton, Rep Juhnson and Morgan counties, FHchell, Doorkeeper House Rep, N Warum, Rep Hancoc* county, CUP Abbott, Rep Bartholomew county & Calkin*, Rep Fulton county, Jno WCopner, Rep Montgomery county W Neff, Hep Putnam county.

It Acts Like Magic.

OFFICE M. and X. R. R. CO.,

JEFFERSONV1I.LE XSTD., APRIL 6,1871. DR. J. H. BROWN :-Having suffered with

Previdenc?, K.I.

tone in which it seem-

Is It from here— From here to Happinew?

The train that for five minutes had been lessening in speed toiled painfully along, and as I arose impatiently and reached behind me for my overcoat, a cheery voice cried: "Hello, Cap! Want a lift? I'll help

CARTERS

grtmy

MidL M-mnoh

delighted

tbi„ old hearse

or 90 bacit

a mile

yonder," said the little fellow

fsszing .. «tandins on the seat behind me

?.howw anri^ioldimr no the coat. "Been a doln' out there iad my eye

H1FR

899

YOU

bet I

on you, all the same, though." "Yon had, eh?" I exclaimod, gladly, although I instinctively surmised his highest Interest In me was centered in [Owttm'fd on Seventh Page.]

severe cough for some time past, I was induced to try one bott'e of your "Brown's Expectoraut." I unhesitatingly say I found it pleasant to the taste, and to act like magic. A few doses done the work for the cough, and I am well.

DLLLARD RICKETT8,

PRESIDENT J.M. and i. R. R.

Bead What Gen. Kimball Says.

INDIANAPOLIS, IND., Dec. 30,1869.

Db. J.H. BROWN A.fter having used your "Expectorant Syrup" long enough to know and appreciate Its good qualities, I can cheerfully bear testimony to its uniform success in curing the i,ost obstinate cases of Coughs, Colds, etc. I have frequently administered the '-Expectorant" to my children, and always found it the very best, as well a* most pleasant remedy of its kind.

NaTHAN KIMBALL, Treasurer of State.

What a Case of Consumption Says.

David A. Sands, of Darlington. Montgomery county, says: "My wifenas been afflicted with consumption for a number of years, and during that time has tried most all the medicines recommended for that disease without affording any re'ief. I was Induced by the rec mmendations of Dr. Kirk, drug-

narl)n»tnn fA frf RmWn '(I P.TWPtA.

fldent it will entirely restore her health by its continued use."

It Cures Bronchitis.

EDINBURGH, IND., August 2S, 1871.

This is to certify that I have used 'Brown's Expectaranfin my family since itsflrstmtroduction. It lias never failed to give satisfaction. My wife if subject to Bronchitis, and I have round no remedy equal to "Brown's Expectorant." I recommend it as a safe and reliable iredlclne.

J. T. BHEXTOy.M.D.

Browns Expectorant

Is For Sale by All Druggists.

A. KIEFER,

INDIANAPOLIS.

OH! MY

Pains in the Back, Side or Loins ore cured bv HIT JIT'S REMEDY, the Great Kidney and liv«rMed-

A I#

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IllilJIm having been used Bm by all classes for 30 vears, and saved from lingering disease and death, hundreds who have b^en given up by Physicians. HIJKT'S REMEDY curesal) Diseases of Liver, Kidneys, Bladder, and Urlnarv Organs, Dropsy, Gravel, Diabetes, and Incontinence ana Retention or Urine. REMEDY cures Bright's Diseane of the Kidneys, General Debilitv, Female Weakness, Nervousi Dls

eases.Intemperanceaud

Excesses. HlTlfT S

REMEDY cures Bilious headadlie, Sour Stomach, Costlvsness, Dyspepsia, Strengthens the Howelsand Stomach and makes the Blood perfectly pure. HUNT'S REMEDY In prepared EXPRESSLY for «ta«se disease •.and has never been known to fall. One trial will convlce y©«. HUN I'd REMEDY Is Durely vegetable, Is ustd by Family Physicians, and the utmost reliance may be placed In It.

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FEBRIFUGE

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