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-L_ ,-J I .1 a,h the semblance of ma n, the brother E had been living since our mar riage in a cosy little house up town a nd for one short, blissful year he blessed spirit of harmony pervaded our dainty dwelling 1 ut now the seemingly inevit- able shadow was creeping- slowly between us, a nd that shadow bore pale, emaciated of my wife's old friend and schoolmate I nev er liked B^lle Hastings partic ularly well there was something in her dark gray eyes that looked treacherous to me even in her girl hood, and now after a two year s' so journ in wicked New York I fancied, as jealous men sometimes will, that she was no fit compani on for my gen tle Amy. But my wi fe seemed radiantly happy when Belle a nd her brother took he house next door. I said nothing, but at that instant I felt a curious sensation burning in my heart, and knew, but would not admit, ev en to myself, he fact that I was jealous of Arthur Hasting's near ness to treasure For Arthur had loved her once in the days when they were boy and girl togethe r, but he was poor and siekly, while I was quite he opposite, a nd although I nev er really doubted Amy's love I sometimes found myself wondering if she had ev er cared for Arthur. I was not neglected in any manner. Amy was always there when I ar rived, and the hou se was always as bright and cheerful as could be. but all her plans for ourselves were so interwoven with plans for our neigh bors that the feeling that I was no longer foremost in her mind drove me nearly frantic with suppressed resent ment. And one morning he rage in my heart overcame my will entirel y. "You think altogether too much of Belle Hastings and her brother," I said, with a meaning accent, when Amy had hn'shed telling me some plan th at she had made for her neigh bors' entertainment. My wife looked surprised and pained at my sudden outbreak, a nd replied with a litt le show of tempe r: "Belle is my best friend," she said, hotly, "and Arthur, poor fellow, is my best friend's br ither." "And your lover once," I retorted fiercely. "You should have married him if you regar led im so highly." And then slamming the door, I left her for he first time in our married life without he usual kisses and ca resses. That night when I returned home I heard my wi fe a nd her friend talking softly together in the parlor. I was "YOU BOBBED ME OF MY HONOR!" hot overpleased to find Belle there, tor I had fully made wp my mind to apologize to my wife and try to es tablish the old affection, tout just as I reached the parlor door, without in *jae least attempting to listen, I heard my wife talking in the most plaintive tones, as if her very heart was broken. "Go to him, Belle, and tell him i/hat I love him! Tell him that it is all a mistakethat he alone is the idol of my heart, and no other could itake his place even for a minute." I tnrned abruptly upon my heel end entered the study door, where I could not hear their voices, amd then, with my brain in a perfect tumult of be wilderment, I sat down to reason out my wife's strange message. To whom was the message to be carriedto myself, her husband, or to Arthur Hastings? If to me, why should a bearer be necessary? and if to Arthur but I could not harbor such a vile suggestion. At first I felt angry at Amy for thus revealing our first disagreement, but Belle was her childhood's friend, and women the world over will 141 their woes to one another. I waited a little longer and then, hearing the parlor door open And close, concluded Belle had started to find me. I rose eagerly and opened the door, and in another instant, almost foolishly expectant, I was standing close beside her. "Good evening," she said sweetly, as Bhe finished buttoning her glove. "I have been calling on Amy and did not know that you were home." Then, tomv utter surprise and distress she Walked, abruptly to the door, and with a pleasant nod, opened it and Went out. to deliver, I suppose wife's endearing message. was satisfied now that my jealousy was not groundless. For fully five minutes I remained motionless in the hall, while the blood whirled madly through my veins and my heart pounded in my chest like the blows from a huge sledge hammer. My first thought was to leave her at once, but there came the hideous thirst for vengeance. So she had tricked me, this gentle, saint-like woman, aud the man who was the "idol of her heart" was that pale faced rogue, her next door neighbor. I saw and understood everything now, even to the minutest details of their clever plans and plottings. By dinner tune I was calm and com posed, but there was a distant haughtiness about my manner that repelled my wife in her treacherous advances. I knew her now, and act ing could not deceive me. She looked at me wistfully and with actual tears shining in her eyes, but I ignored her glance completely and busied myself with the evening paper. After nner I went out and left her alone without so much assaying I was going, but about 9 o'clock I crept guiltily back and placed my ear at the keyhole of my own wife's chamber. It was as I thought Belle was there, and this was what I caught of a hurried conversation. "He was thoroughly indifferent" Belle was saying, "and not only showed me that he resented my inter ference, but that he was disgusted at what he terms your 'fickleness,' and did not care particularly for any further demonstration. I am sorry for vou, dear," she added, "but all men are not alike, I assure you, and my brother but here I lost the rest. So it seemed that my worst suspi cions had been verified. The message hid been for Arthur Hastings, and Ji ie contemptible, pale-faced man, had declined her offer of affection. In an instant the whole tide of my anger was turned toward himthe man who could scorn a woman's honor. I forgot that she had wrongel me and disgraced her self, for my brain was burn ing at this man's audacious treat ment. There was just a moment in which to act for I could hear Belle coming across the floor, and turning the key quietly in the lock, I left her fumbling at the door and rushed al most headlong out to call upon my rival. I burst into Arthur Hasting's pres ence in a state of almost furious an ger, and without a word of explana tion, I seized him by one feeble shoul der and nearly shook the breath out of his body. "Soyou are the black-hearted scoun drel who has ruined my home and then declined my wife's affections9' 4 I whispered hoarsely. "You are the meek-faced, skulking hypocrite who has pretended friendship for me even while you robbed me of my honor!" I stopped then, suddenly, as I be gan, for the man had turned almost ghastly in the face and fallen heavily before me on the carpet. What had I done? Had I really killed him in my fury? And then shame, for the horrible advantage I had t^ken, Overpowered me complete ly, and flushed, my face with a coward's drirason I stood above him now in horrible consternation, when suddenly the door flew open and my wife and Belle stood breathless before me "Oh, Charlie! Charlie! What have yon done?" my wife shrieked excited ly, but Belle Hastings, apparently understanding all rushed over and knelt beside her brother. "It is I who have killed him," she said in a voice of agony. "It is I who am to blame for this horrible error. I did not deliver your message, Amy, and your husband has heard and misconstrued it." Paralyzed in every limb Amy and I stood silently and watched the wretched woman as she moaned over the prostrate form and caressed the ghastly features. Then while I, his murderer, remained mute with horror she raised her haggard eyes to my face again, while her dry lips could hardly express their language. He laved you, oh, so dearly, Amy, but he was honorable to the end. my brother, and would never wrong you or your husband. But I," here she shuddered in mortal pain, "I loved him so dearly that I was false to you. I would have parted you if I could" but her ealmness could endure no longer. While Belle wept and wailed above her dead I turned one wild, appealing glance toward Amy, and in utter hopelessness my glance was answered. Shivering with horror she took my hand and led me close beside my vic tim, then taking Belle's also in her own she foreed her to look up while she whispered the words of oar con demnation. "We are all to blame," she said, nobly, "but'Ood alone can read our hearts. He was innoc nt, poor, dear Arthur, but weeping will not bring him back, and now there is nothing left but to separate and keep his awful fate a secret" Then rerer eaatly we knelt and kissed the dead, and when we had arisen, she, the purest of us all, was able through her innocence to dream that I might be forgiven The Second- Ifand Dealer. As the dealer in second-hand books will buy anything, provided it be cheap enough, so the junk dealer after a while is mastered by an in satiable thirst for buying. It is not unusual to find at a junk dealer's pieces of machinery, bits of apparatus, or instruments of which he .knows neither the names nor the uses. They come to him as scrap metal, and* he hopes to sell them to some one wn^ may recognize their ralue. A DUEL ON THE BAIL. iT^^y^^Wg- *v i /ffii! LD SOLDIERS' EYES WILL GLIS TEN RECALLLING PAST DAYS. fun For the Ronarh RlderaYeara Afterward One of the Union Men Saved One of Hi* ANtmlluut* Front Bankruptcy. "What a narrow world this Is after all," said a rnirddle-aged gentleman, as he contemplatively puffed at his ci gar, in a party of half a dozen old Grand Army men who had been swap ping army stories at a post camp five not long ago. "I was a captain in a New England regiment," continued the Broker, "at the capture of Roanoke Island, and almost the first man I saw among the Confederate prisoners was a lithe, slender, liery little fellow, who, four or five years before had been a classmate of mine in a New York college. He didn't see me till I clap ped him on the shoulder and asked him if he could shoot better than when he tried to shoot me one night in a se cret society meeting. His eyes filled as he grasped my handwe had been good friends after the trouble alluded General JoJe" Slielbv. toand he replied 'Ah! Mac, I was a fool in those days, and I'm afraid I'm not much better now.' I've never seen him since. "Yes," said the old major, with a gray mustache, "there are strangely impro bable meetings between people who have met before, in both war and peace. I can tell you a queer story il lustrating that same narrowness. "In 1864, I was in Arkansas, where the war was carried on in about as rough and ready a way as war could be. Scarcely a day passed for some weeks that I was not shot at by some scamp skulking in a hiding place, and I suspected most of them would have shot about as promptly if I had worn the gray, and been obliged to go about as I did. They were Ishmaelitish to the last degree, many of these fellows. "One day I started with another of ficer and a large sum of government money, to go from Little Rock to De val's Bluff, on White River, between which points there was a cragy rail way, the sole line of communication and supplv for Gen. Steele's' frontier division. The train was one of 'emp- ties,' going for supplies. My compan Ion and I stacked up our personal be longings and the money, the latter in one of those ridiculous little iron boxes used by government disbursing ofli cera in a box car, and took possession It was frightfully hot, and after we had passedl out from the cypress swamp on to the open prairie we climb ed out on to the top of the car for air. "Presently as we approached a guarded station, we discovered there was fighting going on there, and soon realized that General 'Joe' Shelby and a large force of his rough riders had broken in on the line of communica tion captured a 'post,' and were tear ing up the road. We had unwittingly nearly run into their clutches. The train was stopped, we transferred the money to the cab of the engine, put it in charge of our clerks, and in structing them if they saw capture inevitable to open the boxes and throw the half million into the furnacetheir testimony to the facts before a con gressional committee being probably good, and ours certainly not worth a centwe climbed back into our car, and the train began the ticklish opera tionon such a trackof backing out ot danger. **A couple of miles or more behind as was a'spur,' or switch track, with only one end connected with the line, and General 'Joe,' had already sent a considerable detachment of his caval ry galoping across the prairie toward that. If they reached it first and open ed the switch we were" last. A few of the swiftest riders rode straight for that end, while the others-a hundred or moreveeied toward the train and opened fire. We didn't dare to run very fast, and they had no difficulty in keeping even with us for a mile and a half or more, though strung out and soon beginning to lose. "It was a closf* and thrilling race, though. Some of the horsemen reach- ^y'^ry* ed the spur before the train, but for some reason they could not throw the switch, and sometime afterward we clattered over it, to our immense re lief, and got away to a neighboring post whence we soon brought a re lieving force, but after the mischief was done. "Throughout the race there was a running fight between the train guard and the horsemen galloping along wiih in twenty yards of us, but thore was too much motion for aim and very few wore hurt. My companion and I stood in the side door of the car returning the tire of the horsemen. In the midst of the fulisade ho turned back into the car to reload, and at once ejaculated: 'Good Lord! Malor, look at that!' I turned, and on the other side of our pile of traps was a little fat-bullet headed, hook-nosed cotton trader, curl ed up on the floor, with the traps be tween him and the flying-bullety. My companion a strapping six-footer, sud denly seized Hie frightened fellow, shouting: 'Get up here, and keep the bullets off me!' With this he passed a stalwart arm around his body, and, holding the skulker up before him, stood in the car door, firing his revol ver with the other hand The scared cotton stealer kicked and clawed the air wildly, and yelled like a lunatic, but his captor held on while the rebel horsemen laughed till they nearly fell off their horses, till, as the last one dropped behind, the fellow's captor flung him on the floor with an oath of disgust, and he scuttled, snarling and shivering behind the baggage again, though the bullets had ceased flying. It was a ludicrous performance throughout, and we had many a laugh tehng the story afterward. "Ten years later I was bank cashier in a western town. A man came there and went into busmess. He was a good, honest but caieless, fellow, and soon fell behind in his business. He came to me for aid, and though I rath er strained authority to do so, I was moved by an unaccountable impulse to help him, though taking consider able risk. I often asked myself why I did for this particular depositor what I would not have done for any other, but was never able to evolvve any sat isfactory answer out of my 'inner con sciousness' or anywhere else. "One day he came in to see me. 1 was talking to another gentleman to whom, for some reason I can't recall, I had just begun to tell the incident I have just told you. I nodded to the newcomer, and asked him to wait. He sat down indifferently, but soon be gan to manifest lively interest in my story. He laid down his hat and be gan to draw closer. His eyes sparkled his color came and went swiftly, and perspiration started out all over his face. As the story ended with a laugh from my other auditor at its ludicrous features, this man grasped my snoulder with tense, nervous fingers, and said, almost under his breath: "Why Major was that you there, that day?' 'It certainly was.' I replied. But how do you happen to know anything about it?" 'Great Jerusalem!' he answered, with something between a gasp a*nd a laugh, 'I shot at you more'n twenty times that day, I reckon just because -you had on such blamed good clothes. 'You were one of Shelby's men, then.' "Yes I was one of Joe's boys. I did my best to kill you, till that big fellow held up that little one, and then I laughed so I couldn't have hit the side of a barn with a shot gun. And just think,' he said, with a curious half musing air, while his hand clutched my shoulder closer and his eyes filled with unshed tears, 'if I'd 'a done what I tried blammed hard to do that day, I'd been teetotally bankn.pt this day! O, Lord forgive me, Major, I'll never shoot at another man I don't know, war or no war.' "And with this queer remark he turn ed and walked out of the bank with an unsteady tread, postponing his busi ness to another day." Formic Aeld for Fonl Brood. Gleanings in Bee Culture recom mends the use of formic acid as an an tiseptic in the beehive. This acid is an excellent antiseptic. Thanks to it, honey preserves itself for along time. There has been found Dresden hon ey under the eaves of a house that Is supposed to date back to the fifteenth century. This age is only guess-work, and is undoubtedly a mistake. Mice or other vermin would estroy honey long before that time. The slungv word "Rats!" appears to apply to such a statement. But form acid diluted with water and placed in the hives*is used in Europe to prevent the growth of foul brood. This formic acid is not taken from fruits or flowers, but is a natural product generated In the bee. It is also found still more plentifully in ants, and the word derives its name from them. It Is the odor of formic acid which is given off when either bees or ants are crushed. It is said to make bees cross to crush any of their number, which is natural enough, without supposing that the odor of formic acid has anything to do with it. There are said to have beeen Ave suicide* In five yean in Divinity hall, Cambridge. ^l HUMOBOUS DRIFT. HUMAN FOIBLES MADE FUN OF BY JOKER S. Some of tlie Que er Things the Hn m/nrlMt Hear** and SseSome En tertaining Reading for Both Young- and Old. "You have a beautiful place isere," he said to the proprietor of the Alsa tian Hotel. "Nicest winter resort house I ever struck." "Glad it pleases you," said the pro prietor. "Yes," said the new guest, leaning up aginst one of the onyz pillars and letting his hands fall easily into his trousers pockets "I have been around a good deal, but I never saw such ser vice. Meals daintily cooked, sir, wait ers attentive, hall-boy in your room quicker than you can jerk a lamb's tailin fact, everything up to date "We aim to have our patrons attend ed to in first class stylo," observed the proprietor. "You succeed most admirably," said the guest. "Then the rooms! Rooms with closets in 'emsunnywell venti lated. Makes me feel at home, sir Speaking of home, that's what I like about the place. It has a home atmos phere, you know cheerful grate fires in lobby rugs on floor library at hand. Have a house in town myself called home, but this beats it Makes me glad I'm living glad to be here glad I can congratulate you, sii, on such a magnificent place." "Such praise is always such a pleas ure, to hear," murmured the proprie tor. "I hope, sir, now that you likp it so well, you will make up your mind to linger with us for some time "That depends," said the guest, re flectively, as he mechanically turned over the leaves of the register. "I am going back to town to-day, but," he added, as he looked up at the proprie tor, while the glad illumination of a smile full of serene hope gradually spread over his expressive face, "if I can succeed in mortgaging my house for enough money, I shall come back and stay another week."Harper's Ba zar A Sensitive Plaat. MargaretBlanche is such an im pressionable, sensitive creature, isn't she? DorothyOh, tremendously so she is vexed with me now because I didn't shake hands with her the other day. But 1 passed her on an electric car, and she was on the corner so really 1 couldn't you know. A Quick Retort. Max O'Rell was telling stories. "In Sydney^JN. S W William Redmond, the celebrated commoner and home rule advocate, was at Centenary hall There was the wildest kind of enthusiasm when he had finished addressing the great mass meeting. The chairman of the meeting was a very meek, mild man, do you understand? Very meek and very mild Very well. The chair man rose when quiet had been restored and said: 'Gentlemen, I am requested by Mr. Redmond to say that if any one pres ent wishes to ask him a question he will be glad to answer it.' "A man arose from the body of the meeting and ascended the platform. 'Mr Chairman,' he said, but he never got any further. He was recog nized at once as a notorious Orange man, and quick as a flash a great, big specimen of an Irishman sprang at him and struck him in the templelike that so The man fell like a log and it was thought he was killed by the blow. They had to send for doctors and had to carry the man out on a stretcher. Imagine the excitement all this time, continuing for a quarter of an hour. Finally the chairmandon't forget how meek and mild he wastapped gently on the edge of his desk, advanced to the front of the platform with his eye glasses wised on the end of his fingers soand1 It became at once as quiet as you could Imagine. Then, very de liberately, the chairman said: 'Gentlemen, is there any one else who would like to ask Mr Redmond a question?' "Buffalo Express. The Place Was Filled. "Madame," he said, as she held the door open a little way and asked him what he wanted, "perhaps it so hap pened years ago that you had a son wander away from the family fire- fide?" "Yes, it did," she replied, as she opened the door a little further. "He went out into the cold world and became a wanderer o'er the face of the earth?" "Yes, he did." "Days and weeks and months ran into years, and you heard no word of him? You knew not whether he lived r died?" "As you say, I knew noting," replied the woman, as she stood in the door and looked fixedly at the tramp. "Well, ma'am," he continued, "I don't want to raise any false hopes, but but"- "You are just i little too late," she finished, as he s-wallowed the lump in his throat and tried to wipe away a tear. "My wandering son returned about two hours ago and is now taking a soak In the bathtub. Had you called early this morning, you know" "Then the situation is filled?" "It is." "Just my luck, ma'am but of conffM you are not to blame, for it. I con gratulate you and your wandering son, and will bid you good day and try the family next door."Detroit Free Press. HUM the Qualification* of ariiint. Put Pat01 tell yez phwat, Mickey yez ought t' train fer a proize-foighter. MickeyDo yez think so? Do yez think Oi'm built fer it? PatBuilt fer it? Oi should shmoile. Whoy, dere ain't anny av thim phwat's got as big a mout' as yures.Judge. A Violent Man. "I don't like to say anything against my neighbors," said Miss Philenda Fortysmith, cautiously, to Mrs Long necker, who had come up from South Squann to spend the day but it 'pears to me that Deacon Tnlligan is a leetle mite too hasty and violent for a pro fessor of religion and a pillar of the church." "Mercy on us'" returned the visitor, hungrily. What has the deacon been a-doin'?" "It ain't what he's done, but what he's said, that struck me as bem' kind er unwarranted. You see last Fiidiy, jest as he was startin' off to market with a load of produce, the colts he was drivin' got frightened at some thing and began to cut up terribly. They overturned the wagon on top of the deacon and then ran in through our gate, which happened to be opened and tore around through the lot, crash in' through the grape-arbor and break in' up the hot-bed, and then tora out again and out of sight up the roid, leavin, the wreck of the wagon piled up against the gate post, with the deacon all tangled up in it. I 'spose likely he felt pretty badly aggravated when he crawled out but it seems to me he ought to have at l&ist stop ped and counted one hundred before he spoke." 'Good land! What did he say?" "Whv he threw up both hands and, said 'Gosh!' loud enough to be heard clear across the lot!"Puck. The Mote and the Beam. In the corridor outside a hotel din ing-room the following conversation was overheard the speikers a woman and man. proven bride and groom by a hundred outward and "visible signs. She han^ins back at the doorway and hteper ntr)Don't look so happy. I shan't go in with you while you wear that rapturous expression. Ev erybody there will know at a glance that we are bride and groom He (whimpering also)My dear, take the beirn out of your own eyeHar per's Bazar. Drive Them Away. She shrank away coyly at his ap proach. "Are we alone?" she faltered, in ap prehension. "I don't know," he answered "You might sing a few selections and make sure He rose and would have led her to the pi mo but for the cold stare she gave him. The tsnal Way. "How will you lecoup yourself for your losses?" "Oh, I propose to marry a rich wom an "Must you not then deceive her?* "Oh, no, indeed.I shall frankly tell her she may make me good by becom ing my wTife, and she will marry me with the purpose of reforming me." Thanks. Yes, the dark cigars wer preferable according to his taste. A Juat CriticUm. PatientBut, doctor, didn't, you strictly order me to avoid all excite ment? DoctorCertainly. In your state the least excitement is most injurious and may lead to the worst consequences. PatientThen why on earth did yon send in that long bill of yours yea. terday?Once a Week. A Good Reaaon. TommyMay I hare some bread and sugar mamma? MammaWhy do you always want bread and sugar, and never bread and butter? TommyBecause, mamma, sugar's only worth five cents a pound ani but ter's about forty.Harper's Baza?*. Conld Not See It. DaisySibyl is simply furious She went to help Mrs. Davenport receive her young men callers on New Year's day and put a sprig of mistletoe in her hair. MarieAnd didn't anybody kiss her? DaisyNo. She forgot to take off her hat. ZxiMiiL,,? &iX j*^*Ah{.?^jp^iA&Jk3LPk jsSHil