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50 Per Cent of the Cotton Brought to the Sum ter Market is Bought By the Levi E3ros. l Y? Because we are in touch with those who make advance con tracts. and who are able to put us in position to pay more for cotton than any other buyers in our city. But our cotton business is only an addition to our ;GEN ERAL MERCANTILE Business. We have by our dilli gence made ourselves leaders in trade, not by waiting for trade to come to us, but by our reaching out and coming in touch with the farners of the country, and selling them Goods as cheap as the lowest, and giving to them for their products, as much or more than the highest. These are facts that have been demonstrated by our con tinued increase of business. We want our friends to come to Sumter and look through our immense stock of Dry Goods-, Dressi'Goods, Fan-rx ogr Goodsc1- aiaid Notio1s, Cloth Vkig, shoes H a1a~- te r- ant he best~rrai Grceries ini the~ City. -To meet the demands of out trade everything is bought by us from first hands, and onhr patrons get the profit which other dealers mastiay middlemen. We can and will save raniy. both in what you buy of us, and what'we buy of . Come to see us. Next To Court House. SCROFULTT A DIESE . Scrofula manifests itself in many ways. Swelling of the glands of the neck and throat, Catarrh, weak eyes, white swelling, offensive sores and ab scesses, skin eruptions, loss of strength and weakness in muscles and joints. It is a miserable disease and traceable in almost every instance to some faiyblod taint. hon e,-. is--transmitted old a rea rail oe er boy from parent to child, we attedhe ode he ysigt ad the seeds are planted in int e hya ns wre cosledbt infancy and unless the ncendt. I towa the tate thei ~to. blood is purged and pu- tr s~s . That medicine at once made .riflied and every atom of a speedy ad ompet acur Shd isnw the taintremovedScrof- .. E aE yoiselaymEhsre e1 hBERELY, ula is sure to develop at LC South thStreet Sauna, Kan. someperiodmiyourlife. No remedy equals S.S. S. as a cure for Scrofula. Itcleanses and builds upthe blood, makes it rich and pure, and under the tonic effects of this great Blood remedy, the general health improves, the digestive organs are strengthened, and there is a gradual but sure return to health. The deposit of tubercular matter in the - joints and glands is carried off as soon as the blood is restoredio a normal condition, aind the sores, erup tions, and other symptoms of Scrofula disappear. S. S. S. is guaranteed purely vegetable and harmless; an ideal blood purifer and tonic that removes all blood taint and builds up weak constitu tions. Our~ physicians will advise without charge, all who write us about their case. Book mailed free. TiEt SWIFT SPECIFiC 00., ATL ANTA, GA. Look to Your Interest. Here we are, still in the lead, and why suffer with your eyes when you can be suited with a pair of Spectacles with so little trouble? We carry the Celebrated IHAWES Spectacles and Glasses, Which we are offering very cheap, from 25e to $2.50 and Gold Frames at $3 to $6. Call and be suited. W. N. BROCKIINTON. S. R. VENNING, Jeweer DEALER IN WATCHES, CLOCKS, JEWELRY, SPECTACLES, EYE CLASSES AND 4 ALL KINDS OF FANCY NOVELTIES. I make a specialty of wEDDING and HOLIDAY PRES. ENTS and always carry a handsome line of ___ Silverware, Hand..Painted China, Slassware and numrocus other articles suitable for Gifts of nll kind. - coME AND SEE THEM. All wa tch. Clok and Jewelry Repairing done promptly and .uaranteed. Lix BiouK, - 'MANNING. S. C. BRING YOUR TO THE TINES OFFICE. LAZA MARY HARTWEI (Sared Vpon tbe My.stery Dauphin. .ron of LeaiJ . Copyright. 1901. by the BC CHAPTER XXVII HE Padlocked Book.-In this book I am going to write you, 'T Louis, a letter which will never be delivered, because I shall burn it when it is finished. Yet that will not prevent my tantalizing you about it. To the padlocked book I can say what I want to say. To you I must say what is expedient. That is a foolish woman who does violence to love by inordinate loving. Yet first I will tell you that I sink to sleep saying, "He loves me!" and rise to the surface saying, "He loves me!" and sink again saying, "He loves me!" all night long. The days when I see you are real days, finished and perfect, and this is the bestof them all. God forew bless in paradise your mother for bear-a- you! If you never had come to the world I should not have waked to life myself. And why this is I cannot tell. The first time I ever saw your tawny head and tawny eyes, though you did not notice me, I said, "Whether he is the king or not would make no difference." Be cause I knew you were more than the king to me. Sire, you told me once you could not understand why people took kindly to you. There is in you a gentle dignity and manhood most royal. As you come into a room you cast your eyes about unfearing. Your head and shoulders are erect. You are like a lion in sup plenesa and tawny color, which influ ences me against my will. You inspire confidence. Even girls like Annabel, who feel merely at their finger ends and are as well satisfied with one hus band as another, know you-to be solid man, not the mere Image of a man. Besides these traits there is a power going out from you that takes hold of people invisibly. My father told me there was a man at the court of your father who could put others to sleep by a waving of his hands. I am not comparing you to this charlatan, yet when you touch my hand a strange current runs through me. When we were in Paris I used to dress myself every morning like a priestess going to serve in a temple. And what was it for? To worship one dear head for half an hour perhaps. You robbed me of the sight of you for two months. Sophie Saint-Michel told me to be ware of loving a man. Today he says: "I love you! I need you! I shall go to the devil without you!" Tomorrow he turns to his affairs. In six months he says, "I was a fool!" Next year he says: "Who was it that drove me wild for a time last year? What was her name?" Is love a game where men and wo men try to outwit each other, and man boasts, "She loves me"-not "I.- love her?" You are two persons. Lazarre be longs to me. He follows, he thinks about me. He used to slip past my windows at Lake George and cast his eyes up at the panes. But Louis Is my sovereign. He sees and thinks and acts without me. and bis lot is apart from mine. We are in a ship going to the side of the world where you are. Except that we are going toward you it is like be ing pushed off a cliff. All my faith In the appearances of things Is at an end. I have been juggled with. I have mis judged. I could have insisted that we hold Mont-Louis as tenants. The count is our friend. It Is not a strong man's fault that a weak man is weak and unfortunate. Yet, seeing Cousin Phi. lippe wince, I could not put the daily humiliation upon him. He is like my father come back. broken, helpless. And Paul and I, who are young, musi take care of him where he will be least humbled. I was -overpampered in Mont-Louis and Paris. I like easy living, car. riages, long tailed gowns, jewels trained servants, music and spectacles on the stage, a park and wide landt all my own, seclusion from people whc do not interest me. idleness in enjoy. met. I am the devil of vanity. Annabel has not half the points I have. When the men are around her I laugh to think I shall be fine and firm as a statue when she is a mass of wrinkles and a wisp of fuzz. When she -Is a mass of wrinkles and a wisp of fuzz she will be riper and tenderer inside. But will the men see that? No. They will be off after a fresher Annabel. Sc much for men. On the other hand, I had but a .few months of luxury, and may count on the hardness that comes of endurance, for I was an exile froms childhood. There Is strength In doing the right thing. If there were no God, if Christ had never died on the cross, I should have to do the right thing be. cause It Is right. Why should we lay up grievances against one another? They must dis appear, and they only burn our hearts. Sometimes I put my arms around Ernestne and rest her old head against me. She revolts. People Incline to doubt the superiority of a person who will associate with them. But the closer our poverty rubs us the more Ernestine Insists upon class differ ences. There should be a colossal mother going about the world to turn men over her lap and give them the slip per. They pine for It. Am I helping forward the general good, or am I only suffering nature's punIshment? A woman can fasten the bonds of habit on a man, giving him food from her table, hourly strengthening his care for her. By merely putting her self before him every day she makes him think of her. What chance has an exiled woman against the fearful odds of daily life? Yet sometimes I think I can wait a thousand years. In sun and snow, in wind and dust, a woman waits. If she stretched her hand and said "Come," who could despise her so much as she would despise herself? What Is so cruel as a man? Hlour after hour, day after day, year after year, he presses the iron spike of si lence in. Coward to let me suffer such an Is It because I kissed you? That was the highest act of my life! I groped down the black stairs of the Tuileries blinded by light. Why are the natural +mtn called ong nd the nnatural ,L CATHRWOOD Surrounding the Fate of the rvi. and Marie Antoinett) WEN-MEKKILL COMPANY is-ir-"ause i said I would come to you some time? This is what I meant that it should give me no jealous pang to think of another woman's head on your breast; that there is a wedlock which appearances cannot touch. No. I never would-I never would seek you, though sometimes the horror of doing without you turns Into re proach. What is he doing? He may need Lme, and I am letting his life slip away. Am I cheating us both of what could have harmed no one? It Is not that usage is broken off. Yet if you were to come I would punish you for coming! Fine, heroic days I tell myself we are marching to meet each other. If the I day has been particularly hard I say, "Perhaps I have carried his lead, too, and he marches lighter." You have faults, no doubt, but the only one I could not pardon would be your saying "I repent!" The instinct to conceal defeat and pain is so strong in me that I would have my heart cut out rather than own It ached. Yet many women carry all before them by a little judicious whin ing and rebellion. I never believe in your unfaith. If you brought a wife and showed her to .me I should be sorry for her and still not believe in your unfaith. Louis, I have been falling down flat and crawling the ground. Now I am up again. It didn't hurt. It is the old German fairy story. Every day gold must be spun out of straw. How big the pile of straw looks every morning, and how little the handful of gold every night! This prairie in the Indiana territory that I dreaded as a black gulf is a grassy valley. I love the garden and I love to hoe the Indian corn. It springs so clean from the sod and Is a miracle of growth. After the stalks are around my knees they are soon around my shoulders. The broad leaves have a fragrance and-the silk is sweet as vio lets. We wash our clothes in the river. Women who hoe corn, dig in a garden .and wash clothes earn the wholesome bread of life. Today Paul brought the first blue bells of spriug and put them in water for me. They were buds, and when they bloomed out he said. "God has blessed these flowers." We have to nurse the sick. The goodness of these pioneer women is unfailing. It Is like the great and kind friendship of the Dc Chaumonts. They .help me take care of Cousin Philippe. Paul meditated today: "I don't want to hurt the Father's feelings. I don't want to say he was greedy and made a better place for himself In heaven than he made for us down here. Is it nicer just because he is there?" His prayer: "God bless my father and mother and Ernesthry G'od keep my father and mother and Ernestine. And keep my mother with me day and night, dressed and undressed! God keep together all that love each other." When he is a man I am going to tell him, and say: "But I have built my house, not wrecked it. I have been yours, not love's." H~e tells me such stories as this: "Onc.e upon a time there was such a loving angel came down. And they ran a string through his stomach and hung him on the wall. He never whined a bit." The people in this country, which is called free, are nearly all bound. Those who lack money, as we do, cannot go where they please or live as' they would live. Is that freedom?. .On a cool autumn night, when the ire crackles, the ten children of the settlment. iight1in.r or a..reeing, come runing from~ th~eir houses like hens. We sit on the coor in front of the hearth, and I sa :i'r the on: .1 repeated martyrdom of the "Fire Ms"Ti tale, invented onice ais fast as I could talk, I have beecn doomed to repent un til I dread the sLhades of :veing. The children bune'i tiimir heads to gether; their lips par't as soon as I be gin to say: Do you see that gknving spot in the heart of the coais?~ That is the 1:ouse of the Fire Pig. -Oui day tihe Fire Pig found he had no more corn, and heC was very hungry. So he jumped out of his house and ran down the road till he came to a farmer's field. "Good morning, MIr. Farmer," said the little pig. "Hlave you any corn for me today ?" "Why, who are you?" said the farmer. -"I'm a little Fire Pig." "No, I haven't any corn for a Fire Pig." The pig ran on till he came to an other farmer's field. "Good morning, 3Mr. Farmer. IHave you any corn for me today ?" "Who are you?" said the farmer. "Oh, I'm the little Fire Pig." "I don't know," said the farmer. "I would give you a great bagful if you could kill the snake which comes ev ery night and steals my cattle." The pig thought, "How can I kill that snake?" But he was so hungry Do you sec thazt glowng spot in thc hcart of the coalsi he knew he would starve without corn, o he said he wvould try. The farmer old him to go down in thd field, where the snake came gliding at night with Its head reared high in air. The pig went down in the mgadowmand the iirst creature ne saw was a sacep. "Baa!" said the sheep. That was its way of saying "How do you do? Who are you?" "'m the little Iir rig." "What are you doing here?" "I've come to kill the great snake that eits the farmer's cattle." "I'm very glad." said the sheep, "for it takes my lambs. IHow are you go ing to kill it?" "I don't know," said the pig. "Can't you help me?" "I'll give you some of my wool." The pig thanked the sheep and went a little farther and met a horse. "He ce-ee!" said the horse. That was his way of saying "How do you do? Who are you?" "I'm the little Fire Pig." "What are you doing here?" "I've come to kill the great snake that eats the farmer's cattle." "I'm glad of that," said the horse, "for it steals my colts. How are you going to do it?" "I don't know," said the pig. "Can't you help me?" "I'll give you some of the long hairs from my tall," said the horse. The pig took them and thanked the horse. And when he went a little far ther he met a cow. "Moo!" said the cow. That was her way of saying "How do you do? Who are you?' "I'm the little Fire Pig." "What are you doing here?" "I've come to kill the great snake that eats the farmer's cattle." "I am glad of that, for it steals my calves. How are you going to do it?" "I don't know. Can't you help me?" "i'll give you one of my sharp horns," said the cow. So the pig took it and thanked her, Then he spun and he twisted, and he spun and he twisted, and made a strong woolen cord of the sheep's wool. And he -wove and he braided, and he wove and he braided, and made a cun ning snare of the horse's tail. And he whetted and sharpened, and he whet ted and sharpened, and made-a keen dart of the cow's horn. Now, when the little pig has all his materials ready and sees the great snake come gliding, glIding-I turn the situation over to the children. What did he do with the rope, the snare and the horn? They work it out each in his own way. There Is a mighty wrangling all around the hearth. One day is never really like another, though it seems so. Perhaps being used to the sight of the Iroquois at Lake George makes it impossible for me to imagine what the settlers dread, and that Is an attack. We are shut around by forests. In primitive life so much time and strength go to the getting of food that we can think of little else. It is as bad to slave at work as to slave at pleasure. But God may for give what people cannot help. There is a very old woman among the settlers whom they call Granny, We often sit together. She cannot get a gourd edge betwixt her nose and chi when she drinks, and has forgot ten she ever had teeth. She does not expect much, but there is one right she contends for, and that is the right of ironing her cap by stretching it over her knee. When I have lived in this settlement long enough my nose and chin may come together and I shall forget my teeth. But this much I will exact of fate-my cap shall be ironed. I will not-I will not iron it by stretch ing it over my knee. Count de Chaumont would be angry if he saw me learning to weave, for in stance. You would not be angry. That makes a difference between you as men which I feel, but cannot explain. We speak English with our neigh bors. Paul, who Is to be an American, must learn his language well. I have taught him to read and write. I have taught him the history of his family and of his father's country. His head is as high as my breast. When will my head be as high as his breast? Skenedonk loves you as a young su perior brother. I have often wondered what he thought about when he went quietly around at your heels. You told me lie had killed and scalped, and in spite of education was as ready to kill and scalp again as any white man Is for war. I dread him like a toad, and wish him to keep on his side~ cf the walk. He is alwyvs v:ih you. and no doubt silently Aia I .:: 3l::'n? :.rc we moving farter ::a ::r:.- nmrt instead of app::,a .:.a .:e Oh. Louis. I aim ;s:I :v yen' that key. It v's ;;ivea tho:::p:tisy wi:enl I was in a Iun:i' cl joy. But if you have kept it. it spe':sks io you ever'y daiy. Sophi' Suit-Michel told me man soetimeos piles all his tokens in a re trospetive heap and says, "Who the deuce gave me this or that?" Sophie's father used to be so en raged at his wife and daughter be cause he could not restore their lost comforts. But this is really a better disposition than a mean subservience to misfortune. The children love to have me dance gaots for them. Some of their moth ers consider it levity. Still they feel the need of a little levity themselves. We had a great festival when the wild roses were fully in bloom. The prairie is called a mile square, and wherever a plow has not struck, acres of wild roses grow. They hedge us from the woods like a parapet edging a court. These volunteers are very thorny, bearing tender claws to pro tet themselves with. But I am nim ble with my scissors. We took the Jordan oxen, a meek pair that have broken sod for the col ony, and twined them with garlands of wild roses. Around and around their horns and around and around their bodies the long ropes were wound, their master standing by with his goad. That we wound also, and covered his hat with roses. The huge oxen swayed aside, looking ashamed of themselves. And when their tails were ornamented with a bunch at the tip they switched these pathetically. Still even an ox loves festivity, wheth or he owns to it or not. We made a procession, child behind child, each bearing on his head all the roses he could carry, the two oxen walking tan dem, led by their master in front. Everybody came out and laughed. It was a beautiful sight, and cheered us, though we gave it no name except the procession of roses.. Often when I open my eyes at dawn I hear music far off that makes my heart swell. It is the waking dream of a king marching with drums and ugles. While I am dressing I hum, "Oh, Richard; oh, my kingi". Louis! Louis! Louis! I cannot-I cannot keep It down! How can I hold still that righteous ness may be done through me, when I lolove-loo-lev-when I clinch my ists and walk on my knees I am a wicked woman! What is all this sweet pretense of duty! It covers the hypocrite that loves-that starves +?h+ mrle-: "My king! My king!" Strike me! Drive-me wimm D -ou-s4 This long repression-years, years of waiting-for what? For more wait ing! It is driving me mad! You have the key. I have nothing! CILAPTER XXVIIL . Y God? What had she seen in me to love? I sat UP and held the book against my bosom. Its cry out of her past filled the world from horizon to horizon. I could not see her again until I had command of myself. So I dressed and went silently down stairs. The Pawnees were stirring In the kitchen. I got some bread and meat from them and also some grain for the horse, then mounted and rode to the river. The ferryman lived near the old stockade-. Some time always passed after he saw the signals before the de liberate Frenchman responded. I led my horse upon the unwieldy craft pro pelled by two huge oars which the ferryman managed, running from one to another according to the swing of the current. It was broad day when we reached the other shore, one of I those days; gray overhead, when moisture breaks upward through the ground instead of descending. Many light clouds flitted under the grayness. The grass showed with a kind of green blush through its old brown fleece. The trail along the Fox river led over rolling land, dipping into coves and rising over hills. The prospect was so large, with a ridge running along in the distance and open country spread ing away on the other side, that I often turned in my saddle and looked back over the half wooded trail. I thought I saw a figure walking a long way be hind me and, being alone, tried to dis cerr what it was. But under that gray Fky nothing was sharply defined. I rode on thinking of the book in the breast of my coat. It was certain I was not to marry. And being without breakfast and un stimulated by the sky, I began to think also what unstable material I had taken in hand when I undertook to work with Indians. Instinctively I knew then what a young southern statesman named Jefferson Davis, whom I first met as a commandant of the fort at Green Bay, afterward told me in Washington, "No commonwealth in a republic will stand with interests apart from the federated whole." White men who have exclaimed from the beginning against the injustice done the red man, and who keep on pitying and exterminating liim, made a federated whole with interests apart from kis. Again when I looked back I saw the figure, but it was afoot and I soon lost it in a core. My house had been left undisturbed by hunters and Indians tirough the winter. I tied the horse to a gallery post and unfastened the door. A pile of refuse timbers offered wood for a fire, and I carried in several loads of it and lighted the virgin chimney. - "I thought I saw a fiqtwrc walkinj a long wa~zy behind. Then I brought water from the spring and ate breakfast, sitting before the fire and thinking a little wearily and bitterly of my prospect in life. Having fed my horse, I covered the fire, leaving a good store of fuel by the hearth, and rode away toward the Menominee and Winnebago lands. The day was a hard one, and when I came back toward nightfall I was glad to stop with .the officers of the stockade and share their mess. "You look fagged," said one of them. "The horse paths are heavy," I an swered, "and I have been as far as the Indian lands." I had been as far as that remote time when Eagle was not a cloud mother. To cross the river and see her smiling in meaningless happiness seemed more than I could do. Yet she might notice my absence. We had been housed together ever since she had discovered me. Our walks and rides, our fireside talks and evening diversions were never sepa rate. At Pierre Grignon's the family flocked in companies. When the pad locked book sent me out of the house I forgot that she was used to my pres ene and might be disturbed by an absence no one could explain. "The first sailIng vessel is in from the straits." said the lieutenant "Yes, I saw her come to anchor as I rode out this morning." "She brought a passenger." "Anybody of Importance?" "At first blush, no. At second blush, yes." "Why 'no' at first blush?" "Because he is only a priest" "Only a priest, haughty officer! Are civilians and churchmen dirt under army feet?" The lieutenant grinned. "When you see a missionary priest landing to confess a lot of Canadians he doesn't seem quite so important as a prelate from Ghent, for instance." "Is this passenger a prelate from Ghent?" "That is where the second blush comes In. He is." "Iow do you know?" "I saw him and talked with him." "What is he doing In Green Bay?" "Looking at the country. He was inquiring for you." "For me!" "Yes." "What could a prelate from Ghent want with me?" "Says he wants to make inquiries about the native tribes." "Oh! Did you recommend me as an expert in native tribes?" "Naturally. But not until be asked me if you were here." "He mentioned my name?" "Yes. He wanted to see you. You'll not have to step out of your way to gratify him." "From that I infer there Is a new face at Pierre Grignon's." "Your inference Is correct. The Gri gnons always lodge the priests, and a zreat. man Jike. this one will be cer .mrmTn-E ON NEXT PAG.) About spending money economically. No bet ter place to have them demonstrated that at THE MINOR STORE, 8 Where the purchasing power of YOUR DOLLAR is always vastly increased, and in many iustances doublied We mention a few of the many items that you can find here, there's some-many more. Dress Goods and Trimmings, Laces and Embroideries, Hosiery and Underwear, Shoes for Men,. Women and Children. Hats for Men and Women, Corsets and Gloves, Notions and Toilet Articles, Stationery and Purses. Linens and Drapers, Rugs and Mattings, Men's and Boys' Furnishing Goods, Ready Made Shirts, Jadkets'and Shirt Waists. All of these are priced in keeping with our way of doing business. Not marked as.high as they would sell but foras little as we can self them for and live. SWhen you are in Sumter, we'll make it interest-.1 ing for you. Phone or write for samples. Wilo 8oke SThelretFriueSoe ing Carndo WillowiRces, CaneeRocrss, C dobecs. / (cWood Tockes. Dining Chirse SiiChair s, .- BedRouger, Baby CCrrcages Bed~m Suis, CrdlesCribs MatresesSprins, PillwsComorts Blnkes Pitres,Pitr FrameEaelsScrens, inow Shabdes Lace urtais, Prtier blCr ckver , Clockskerc, S.iL.s Kofrslnkets, tre Piture DicksoloHarswaet C-)nai Would have you bear in mind that their stock of Guns and Ammunition is still complete. loats, Vests, Leggins and Boots. Everything to meet your wants for the holidays. Eou should see our line of Vandyke Ware, Porcelain Lined, Milk, Cake and Pudding Pans, Coffee Pots and Saucepans. A. beautiful assortment of Carving Knives and Forks, Pocket Knives, Razors and Scissors. When you need that Stove come to see us. ICKSON HARDWARE COMPANY,