The Helena independent. [volume], September 06, 1891, Morning, Page 7, Image 7

About The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943

Image provided by: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT

                
F.S.Lan & Co., F.S.Lan &Co.,
MANUFATU RE RS SOLE AGENTS
-oF- --O1. I ]:lIE
Hydraulic Pipe. Celebrated Wm. Miller
Family and Hotel Ranges,
TIN AND IRON WORK Baxter Banner Stoves,
MADE TO ORDER, Prince Royal Furnaces,
*1. + F. S. LTXNO & CO., .,+ *"
Wholesale and Retail Dealers
--IN= .
" HflIUSE FURNISHING GOODS, +
Crockery,
Glassware,
Woodenware,
Tinware,
Gas Fixtures.
!,,.,, m. .-.
THE TURN IN THE TIDOE
A Colorado Miner Will Have the
Chance to Test the Old
Saying.
The Story of a Legacy Which the
Recipient Does not Fully
Appreciate.
The Male Manufacturer of Tailor-made
Gowns in New York Now Takes
in Dressmaking.
ISpecial Correspondence of TOE INDEPENDENT.1
EW YOKK, SEPT. 2-HALF AN
hour ago a man left the city whose
story is like a chapter of Bret Harte,
with an intermingling of Ragged
Dick.
He was born in New England and
promptly chased out of it by coosumption.
He went to Colorado, where the wife of his
youth died. Two young children he sent
back to his father's house, and dug and
dug and dug at the mountain side till the
unresponsive rock grew ashamed of its
flinty heart and opened to his view a vein
of rich ore, assaying $106 to the ton, or to
the ounce or something or other, I don't
just remember which. Then a company
was formed, capital being ready to assist in
the "find." Gold, silver, copper, even tin,
are in the neighborhood, but the greatest of
these is silver. And so he started east to
buy machinery.
On coming down out of the high alti
tudes he was promptly taken ill and was
carried from the cars to a railway hotel,
where he lay two weeks at the point of
death. He got up, finally, twin and canda
verons looking, but eager to oress on. The
last night of his stay a man walked into his
room and made away with all his money
except $1.30 in change. He borrowed a lit
tle money of the landlord, who had to bor
row it himself-but westerners have hearts
-left his luggage as security against his
host's protest, and came to Pittsburg,
where be had a friend. The friend was out
of town! Then he telegraphed to the presi
dent of his company for funds to be sent to
New York and came hither himself to find
them. But his mine was twenty miles from
railroad or telegraph. Without so much as
a change of olothing he stayed in New York
three days, sleeping in Bowery lodging
houses and living on air. Then, in despair
of delayed remittances, he appealed again
to a stranger and was Iromptly provided
for the journey to his father's home in the
country.
Misfortune did not cease. The stranger
who loaned the Colorado man money had
been obliged to make it up partly in silver,
being a little short himself. The minor
had had no beoakfaat, nor dinner, nor sup
per, and as he tried to board a moving
street car bound for the station, he stum
bled and fell in very weakness. The money
was clutched tight in his nervous hand, and
as he fell the dimes and quarters rolled In
every direction. He recouvered the bills
easily, but they were short of the required
amount, and no amount of searching would
reveal the coins.
There was nothing to do but to stay an
other night at a cheap lodging house. He
had no watch to pawn, the robber had re
lieved him of that. In the morning,
ashamed again to face the man from whom
he bad last borrowed money, lie seat him
a district aeessonuer with an abject note of
explanation. Five dollars wtas promptly
returned to him eud he scarcely breathed
again until he was on the train bound for
home.
This story is absolutely true in every do.
tail. Funny scrape for the part owner of a
rich silver mine, wasn't it?
The Story of a Clock.
Inspired by the laudable wish to do a
kindness to one of his blood, a venerable
citizen, giving his affairs a deathbed settle
ment, added to his last will and testament
this clause:
And to my beloved granddaughter, Laura,
my sitting room clock.
A little after he was gathered to his fath
ers and now sleeps the sleep of the just.
some days after the funeral, some mem
bers of the family sent the clock to Laura's
father at his office, not deeming any for
mality necessary about so small a matter.
The clock was an ordinary machine made
affair worth when new $3. It had been in
use about a dozen years.
Laula's father hired a boy to carry the
clock to his home in the suburbs, at the
total expense of about a dollar and a half,
including car fare. This was the beginning
of the trouble.
It seems there was something very irreg
ular in carrying off a legacy before the will
had been probated, and the beloved grand
daughter was cited to appear by a guardian
specially appointed for the occasion and to
assist at the proving. The summons came
just as the poor man was getting his busi
ness in shape to start for a week's trip to
the Catskills. Accompanying the paper was
some sort of an affidavit form which he was
expected to fill out, make oath to before a
notary and return. The day set for the pro
bate came just in the middle of the suffer
ing father's mountain week. Of course he
ought to have stayed at home, qualified as
his daughter's guardian, attended the pro
bate and accounted for his clock somehow
or other. But his wife was waiting for him
at the station. Catching up what he sup
posed was the aflidavit blank he beat a
asty exit. In a minute or two a boy came
running back with this hastily scribbled
note:
Find that d-d clock affidavit and send it
to me and call up the lawyer by 'phone and
fix things somehow.
Evidently the guardian and father of the
girl who got the clock, who is not usually
;rrofane, was getting excited and had lost
his affidavit. But it was nowhere to be found
on his desk until some hours later. Mean
while, the otllce boy had spent half an hour
at the telephone, which was working very
badly, trying to call up the dead man's sup.
posed lawyer, only to find out that he had
nothing to do with the case and didn't know
who had.
Now the suffering hero of this tale fully
expects to be arrested for contempt of court,
but he swears he won't go near the probate
court about that old clock; no, not if they
put him in prison. He is done with it.
Men Milliners.
Nobody would have supposed that the
men dressmakers of New York would stop
at the tailor-made gowns; and they haven't.
That was merely an auspicious beginning.
But from being a lady's tailor to becoming
a lady's dressmaker is not solvery long a
step. Plenty of men have taken it, and
there are now in this American Paris a
small hosts of would-be imitators of Worth
and Felix. A queer stight it is to see a great
chap bin enough to kill oxen holding up a
dainty film of lace and silk in his hand and
struggling hard to make it appear that the
French phrases he so liberally uses are in
his native tongue, despite his potato mouth.
The most famous of the ladies' tailors is
unquestionably the one who proudly boasts
that he Is honored by the patronage of
Queen Victoria, but he has plenty of rivals.
One of these men recently overheard some
one asking if one of his natrons had not or
dered her senmmer wardrobe from Paris.
This lady declares that the dressmaker is
now so proud of the implied compliment
that he s as imperious as the osar and puts
on the airs of a Napoleon.
It's a queer world. Women blacksmiths
and dentists and barbers and men mantua
makers would have astonished our great
grandmothers.
A Honeymoon Gaest.
John Burroughs, on those rare occasions
when he comes out of his shell end visits
his fellow mortals; is the most genial and
kindly of literati, It it were any one else
than he this story would be surprising.
A wedding .in which literary New York
takes a keen interest will take place in
about ten days, and will unite one of the
oleverest of women writers and editors to
a man equally clever, and the happy honey
moon will be spent at a cottage in the
mountains, with John Burroughs as a
guest.
A third party at a honeymoon! It is un
heard of! But even so. The lady in the
case has met Mr. Burroughs in the moun
tains and his kindly eyes and hair, gray
with the snows of sixty years, and his talk
of birds and fishes had made her wish to
see more of him, a wish which her expect
ant husband shares. And as literary peo
ple laugh conventionality to scorn, why
not? I think a honeymoon could be spent
very pleasantly hearing John Burroughs
talk about squirrels in his own beloved
mountains.
A Brooklyn Maeaenas.
Joseph F. Knapp, whose fatal illness in
Paris has been announced, has been 'known
for years as a self-made man, who was ex
coptional in retaining a keen interest in
those less fortunate or less persistent. Per
haps he held in peculiarly kindly regard ar
tists of all kinds. His own business was
lithograpy, the photographer painter,
Sarony, having been at one time his part
ner. His home in Brooklyn is, in spite of
its plain exterior, one of the most attract
ive in the country. Pictures of merit line
the walls and there is fine frescoing and de
tail work everywhere. The crowning glory
of the place is the music room, which was
built some dgzen years ago, during Mrs.
Knapp's absence in Europe, and awaited
here as a complete surprien upon her
return. The room is in the form of an oc
tagon, with high ceiling and columned fres
coed sides. A fine pipe organ, a grand
piano and all manner of smaller musical
Instruments are here gathered. Mrs.
Knapp is a composer of merit and has
taken the keenest delight in the room.
Here, too, have come, from time to time,
statesman and soldiers like Grant, Clove
land, Sheridan and Slocum, singers like
Emma Thursday, artists, sculptors,
musicians almost without number.
The shadow over this home darkens a
pretty wide area in Brooklyn and New
York.
Newspaper Bribes.
J. G. Holland, in one of his novels, drew
a caricature of a newspaper man who, after
interviewing a rich rascal, cooly pocketed
$20 as the price of writing him up favora
bly. As a caricature such a man might do
very well, but too many might be inclined
to take him for a type. There are such
newspaper men: fewer now than ten years
ago, but they are very scarce.
There is folly as well as knavery in offer
ing money to a reporter. Even supposing
him a scamp-which he Isn't-he hasn't the
power to alter the policy of the paper, He
hasn't even the power to suppress news
without running the risk of dismissal for
getting "beaten" by other papers.
Yet thbs folly is committed. A physician
of some repute once endeavored to slip a
crisp bill into the hand of a reporter whom
I knew.
"Give my paper a good show, cant't you?"
he whispered. It was at a medical conven
tion.
The reporter held up his hand with the
bill upon it in the eight of all, then slowly
tilted it till the bill slid off to the floor,
when he remarked with a Chesterfleldian
air, "Sir, my profession has a code of
ethics, if yours has not."
Ihave known a man, onught In some nasty
scrape, who tried to buy off the managing
editor of a big daily to refrain from publish
ing the affair by the munificent offer of $2.
I have known a deacon who always offered
$5 to everybody who came to report his
minister's sermons.
Newspaper men expect to have some queer
experiences.
Why Not New York?
It is said by politicians that both parties
will make a strenuous effort to get the
national conventions of 1802 called in New
York.
This city has in the past always been Ihan
dteapped by its lack of any hall uflllicently
big to hold the noise of ai political conven
tion. The lack has been filled. Madison
Bquare Garden is one of the most beauttiful
amusement buildings in the world, and the
main hall is a noble building where 10,000
delegates and spectators can roar to their
hearts' content when the "favorite sons"
are named.
The New York boom will be aided by two
or three powerful circumstances. Chicago
has had more than her share of big political
codventions lately, and, having the World's
fair, will more gracefully resign her claims
to the conventions. Besides, talk as they
will of democratic gains in the west and
republican gains in the south, shrewd ob
serverar still look unoon New York as a piv
otal state. So it's not unlikely the spell
binders and wind jammers will swarm in
New York next year. And really, though
its location isn't exactly central, it is other
wise convenient enough.
A Buffer for Kickers.
I met a man in a life insurance company
who looked tired. He told me he had great
difficulty about sleeping at night and was
pretty nearly broken up. Wonder ceased
when he went on:
l'You know what a host of members we
have. Of course a fair proportion of them
kick occasionally about something. Every
kick comes to me to be straightened out. I
dictate sixty letters a day to kickers. I must
thoroughly understand every oase in order
to consider it intelligently. There is no
Iusiness in the world quite so complicated
as the life insurance business. The mental
strain of such a task is something enor
moilus."
"Why do you stay there?" I asked.
"My dear boy," the life insurance man
replied, "I was never so near to a lot of
millions before in my life, and I'm going to
stay right where I am. Who knows what
might happen. There's a big chance of
promotion in such an office."
An August Disguise.
Upon the elevated platform I saw a lady
rather plainly clad in a brown sateen dress,
her features thickly veiled. The vail is un
usual, worn co as to partly conceal the feat
ures, and I glanced at her perhaps more
curiously than I. ought. Some peculiarity
of gesture, person or movement presently
betrayed in her a lady whose house on Fifth
avenue is as elegant as it is costly, whose
receptions rise to the dignity of a salon and
whose costumes are tree adorable in the
language of Worth.
Now why should such a woman as that
be ashamed of beingin town in August? Is
it a crime? OWEN LANUDON.
Copyright.
Lunch front 12 to 2 p. sn. at the Helena
Cafe.
Important
*.. TO *
GAS
CONSUMERS!
AN ASSORTMENT OF THE BEST
GAS COOKING STOVES AND
RANGES CAN BE FOUND AT UAS
COMPANY'S OFFICE.
Housekeepers can best apprecinto
the value oft using Gas fuel by
practical demonstration.
To cook by Gas reduces the labor
and discomfort of preparing food
to a minimum, and also makesr
cookery a positive delight, as well
as a pleasant means of practicing
economy.
TRY A GAS COOK STOVE this
warm weather, and be convinced
of our assertions.
For rates and further information
apply at GAS CO.'S OFFICE.
THE COOK AMALiAMAt UJ(.
THE COOK AMALGAMATOR may take the plaoe of the ordinary mil
tables and operate close up to the batteries, or it works with splendid reaults
the tailings from other amalgamatiag devices. It is
CHEAP. DESIRABLE AND EFFICIENT.
and will save ninety-nine per cent. of all the metals which will amalgamate, .a
matter how fine, and the loured quick in the tailings from other amalgamating
apparatus. There are very many places io Montana where the Cook Amalgamatom
will pay for itself every month.
I Will Guarantee Satisfaction Where I Advise the Purchase.
SEND FOR CIRCULAR.
G. C. Swallow, Helena, Sole Agent for Montana,
Having declined the plrae of State Mine Inspector, I am now prepred t.
examine and report on mines, and aid in buying and selling the same. I have har
forty-five years' experienoo in mining. G. C. SwArLow.
See Amalgamator at my Office from 9 to 12 A. L
•CLARKE, CONRAD CURTIN;*
JARDWA RE - STOVES.
We now have upon our floor
ReNi irators, the Finest and Most Complete Lawn Srnle
Ice BOXeS, Lines of all kinds of R
Ice Cream HOUSE Garenu Hose,
Frcezer3, FRNISHING GOODS, Hose Rels,
H8OS NOZZies, and at prices to suit everybody. Lawn Iowrs,
*IRON AND STEEL MINING SUPPLIES.*
E,'. . PZ.. N' NO. GO. i. 3d...IX ISýTL