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I Ten Minute Classics i I Famous i ales and Legends Told in Brief Form | Gogol’s Great Tale oi the Cossack Siege of Dubno By J . W. MULLER j Dubno, the city of Russian Po land now a vital point on the Russo- German battle line, is the scene of the most tragic chapter in Gogol's great novel, "Taras Bulba,” which tells of the invasion of Poland in the fifteenth century by the Cos sacks of the Dnieper. of all the mad fighters in the Cos sack horde that besieged the Polish stronghold of Dubno, none was so gal lant as were the two sons of Taras Bulba, the famous leader of the Ukraine. His great nostrils expanded with pride when they darted against the Polish cavalry, lashing their beau tiful horses like devils. They were garbed like birds of war. Their multifold trousers, wide as the Black sea and upheld with golden girdles, were thrust into boots of crim son leather with silver heels and spurs. Magnificently wrought Turkish pistols and knives were stuck in em broidered sashes that belted the flam ing red coats. . Long, gaudy thongs with tassels held the bags that con tained th<‘ir indispensable pipes and smoking materials. Their crooked swords were immense, and on their handsome heads they wore tall, black caps of lambs’ wool with ornaments of scarlet mid gold. Taras Bulba almost wept into his brandy as he boasted with tremendous oaths of their deeds. Hardly he knew which he loved the more—the fierce but wise Ostap or the headlong, thoughtless, wholly reckless Andreas. Dubno held out desperately, though lhe people were starving. Dawn came to it AAitL lhe silence of death, for there was not a rooster left to erhw in all the land. The only animals alive were the warhorses. Even Dubno’s rats and mice had been devoured to the last one. One night Andreas learned from a spy that the beautiful daughter of the governor of Dubno was perishing jiu her palace. He had met her once, and since that meeting her picturq had been bright in his wild heart. With out pausing to reflect, he gathered pro visions secretly and stole into the be leaguered city. When he found her he forgot the Ukraine. She was most beautiful, even in that land of beautiful Polish women. In her black eyes burned the flames of romance and intelligence. Over {i ravishing white neck and noble shoulders fell hair that a king would have begged to kiss. Her fiery soul sprang to meet the fiery soul of the Cossack. When she swayed toward him and sobbed of the sorrows of her people, her low; sweet voice shook the man’s passionate spirit ■as a wind shakes the reeds of a river. “What care I for father and father land?” he cried, holding out his strong arms. “I will have none, none, none except thee! Who says that the Ukraine is my country? Thou, thou art my country! For thee I toss away everything; for thee I will die I” A moment she stared at him, still, frozen, a wondrous marble image. Then she fell into his waiting arms and her scented hair enwrapped his head like a shining silken net. The next day old Taras Bulba’ lay in the grass and tore at it while he cried out on heaven and hell. A mes senger had come to him with this word from his son: . “My father no longer is my father, my brother no more my brother,' my comrades no more my comrades! Be tween them and me is war—war with them all, all!” ■ It was as if the accession of An dreas had brought fortune to ■ the Poles. A relief expedition broke through the Cossack ring and reprovi sioned the city. Thereafter ■ the strengthened defenders made furious sortie after sortie and Cossacks, and Poles did each other to death daily under the walls with cannon and long guns, swords and clubs, lassosand spears. Day after ray the indomitable Polish men and women, even the chil dren, cried defiance from their, walls and sped insults at their besiegers. Day after day the Cossacks dashed close and vaunted: “Our swords are not yet dull, our powder horns not yet empty, and our hearts not yet weary!” There came a day of sortie and battle most great and bitter. Taras Bulba, roaring and slashing in the thick of it, saw a gallant hand of Polish hussars break suddenly into the strife. Mounted on glorious red Per sian horses, they drove forward fear fully and hewed a road that was of of death. Bravest and most murder ous of all was their leader, a tall youngster, who wore a gorgeous scarf, plainly a woman's gift for battle. “Brood of the devil!” screamed Ta ras Bulba, recognizing his son An dreas. “Get me that one!” he com manded his men. “Lure him into yon der woods and cut him off for me!” The wily Cossacks detached their wiliest riders. They attacked, pre tended to give way and fled suddenly. Andreas followed desperately, dashed into a wood and found himself alone. A great voice ordered him to stop. He turned and saw his father. Copyright by J. W. Mailer At once the young Cossack’s battle frenzy ran from him like water. “Dis mount!” said the terrible old man; and Andreas slipped from his saddle, making no motion for defense. His lips, gone suddenly pale, whispered a single word. It was not the name of mother or father. It was the name of the most beautiful Polish woman. “I gave thee life!” said Taras Bulba. “I give thee death !” He lifted his long gun and fired. The glorious young head drooped. The lithe body toppled, sank together and fell without a sound into the red dening grass. “He tacked nothing to be a noble Cos sack !” murmured Taras Bulba, staring down at the beautiful youth. “Yet he has perished as a dog!” He mounted his horse. One moment he paused, thinking with a great woe in his heart that he would pause and bury his «son. Then, with an angry motion, he galloped off and joined the battle with new fury and exulting cries. But his strong, rough, great heart was broken. Nikolaus Gogol (1809-185?) often is called the founder of Rus sian realism, but in “Taras Bulba” he gave the world a historical novel burning with romance. It deals with the time when South Russia was swept continually by war, the Tartars and Moslems making forays into the Ukraine and the Cossacks carrying war by horse and ship as far as Trebizond. Often they fought Tartars in the South and Poles in the North simultaneously. The story is a most vivid and accurate picture of the times and of the people. Those American readers who complain that many Russian novels are somber and heavy will find no such faults in “Taras Bul ba.” It glitters; and it has the added richness of the same wild hu mor that distinguishes Gogol’s other great novel. “Dead Souls.” FLY HAS ITS OWN TROUBLES Naturalist Says Problems of Life Are Proportionately the Same in Every Stratum of Life. To the naturalist or to anyone ac customed to observe nature closely, the fact is apparent that the problems of existence are proportionately the same in every form or stratum of life. Even the common house fly, which seemingly has nothing else to do but to crawl lazily over whatever is left uncovered and then go happily on its way, doing its best to bring about an affiliation between the clean and the unclean, occasionally meets its nemesis in the form of a tiny crablike creature which attaches itself to the fly’s legs. These little creatures are known to the scientist as pseudo-scorpions, or chelifers. They may sometimes be found between the leaves of old books that have stood unused for a long time, and also beneath the bark of trees and in mosses. Although they are called false scor pions, they resemble the true scorpion closely in general structure except for their minute size. But they have no poison gland as the true scorpions have. They attach themselves to other insects also, but they seem to be the special pest of the house flies. Scien tists suppose tha they seine the fly’s leg and hold on until the fly dies, either worried or frightened to death by the undesirable presence. When .the fly is dead the little creature feeds on the body.—Popular Science Monthly. Garrick Died on His Bed. A gift of historical interest and im portance has recently been received at the Victoria and Albert museum. Da vid Garrick’s bed has been presented to the museum by H. E. Trevor, a di rect descendant of David Garrick’s brother George. The bedstead was made about 1775 for Garrick’s villa at Hampton, where it remained after Garrick’s death and during Mrs. Garrick’s lifetime, and subsequently until the sale of the villa in 1864. The bedstead consists of a wooden canopy with columns decorated with ornaments characteristic of the period, the original green and yellow paint be ing well preserved. The hangings of cotton, painted in colors with designs of “The Tree of Life” were made in a factory of the East Indian company at Mesulipatam, Madras, and were presented to Garrick by merchants of Calcutta. —London Times. Heard at the Club Yeast —That’s Fred Darling just coming in. You know his wife made i him. Crimsonbeak —You mean that fellow wearing corsets, with the waxed mus tache and manicured nails? “Yes.” “Well, I v-om m did fancy work, but T n*'vr” knew they did any thing as fancy :»o uiat.” GRANT COUNTY_ HERALD, LANCASTER, WISCONSIN, WEDNESDAY. JAN. 24. 1917 THEY TELL TI"E BY COWS. Meals In Clockless Towns Are Served Promptly. St. Louis, Mo.—Assessors in Fort Russell and Festerburg townships, Madison county. 111., have arrived in Edwardsville to deliver their annual assessment reports and to find out what time it is. Old Fort Russell and Fosterburg have no timepieces, ac cording to the officials’ reports. Time there is gauged by the length of the evening shadows, the return of the brindle cow to the barnyard for her evening meal or the crowing of the cock at dawn. There are no clocks by which wives can measure the tardiness of husbands, no clocks to ring out the evening hours and drive swains from the sides of their sweethearts, no clicks in Foster burg to quicken the pace or point to the approach of dinner hour. Meals in Fort Russell and Fosterburg are served at the demand of appetite. The resi dents continue the even tenor of their way without cuckoos to squawk them out of bed or alarms to startle the morning air. SEARCH OF YEARS REWARDED Veteran Finds Daughter Lost to Him Since Civil War. Decatur, 111. When Archibald G. Bottoms returned to Bowling Green . Mo., at the close of the civil war ho found his wife had died and the baby daughter he had left behind in 1861 absent, he knew not where. Fifty-one years after the war ended Mrs. M. H. Roberts of Decatur got track of her father through the pension bureau in Washington and has just re turned ro Decatur after visiting him. He is ninety-one years old. “I was placed with a family after my mother died, and they soon moved from Bowling Green to Illinois.” said Mrs. Roberts. “They never told me of my parentage until many years after ward, and I never did know in what town I was born. Not long ago I asked J. C. Walsh, a Decatur man, to write to Washington, and thus I found out where my father lived.” Bottoms spent years searching few his child after the war. GIRL INSISTS ON A SHAVE. Failing to Get One From Barber, She Raises a Row. Chicago.—Helen Wade entered the barber shop of Charles Collins on West Chicago avenue and, seating herself in a barber chair, demanded a shave. For fifteen minutes the owner argued with her and finally ordered her to leave. She refused to go, and Collins called Policeman John J. Hourigan. “I’ll, not leave here until 1 get a shave, and the sooner the better,” the woman insisted. Hourigan took a razor and began to imitate a barber’s motion Over her face. Finally he announced that she had been shaved and asked her to leave the shop. “You can’t kid me,” the woman said when the policeman tdld her she had been shaved. “That razor never touch ed my face, and I won’t leave here.” Then she was arrested. WILD DOGS ATTACK GARDENER Pack In Woods Near Greenwood Lake Again Terrorize Residents. Greenwood Lake, N. J.—The great pack of wild dogs, part of which was exterminated in the woods between here and Lake Mombasha last winter by New Jersey game wardens, has again made its appearance throughout this section, creating a reign of terror in certain sections. The dogs forage on domesticated poultry and even attack persons who cross their path. Game Warden William C. Klein re ports that the pack descended on the Hewitt estate in Ringwood and at tacked a gardener. Farmers who have seen the raiders say there are about twenty-five or thirty of them. Game Warden Klein will start on another extermination expedition as soon as all the leaves have fallen. VALUE OF BABY’S EYES. Award of $25,000 Is Set Aside by Cali fornia Superior Court. San Francisco.—The nominal value of a baby’s eye was fixed at $25,000 here by Judge Frank J. Murasky in the superior court, who gave judgment for that amount to the parents of Mary, Rubio, one year old, against Mrs.’ Ama lia Razzuoli, midwife. It was alleged that the woman failed to care for the baby’s eyes properly at birth, and now the child is blind. “A pair of baby’s eyes are priceless,” said Judge Murasky. “No amount of money that this or any court could give, no matter how large the amount, would compensate for their loss.” Twelve Dollars For Snakes. Oxnard, Cal. —James Benton’s latest rattlesnake catch is worth $432. Ben ton, who lives in Santa Barbara, catches rattlesnakes for a living and recently sold thirty-six of the reptiles for sl2 each to Oxnard Chinese, who value them for medicinal purposes, drugs being compounded from the venom. Benton has been bitten a num ber of times, in one instance almost losing his life. He catches the reptiles with a pronged stick. With Polyglot Crew Captain Is Lonely, New York.—With a mixed crew’ of Lascars, Icelanders, Greenlanders, deck hands of Siamese extraction, men from Madagascar and some Malays the Ca nard liner Pannonia docked here. She carried a cargo, but no passengers, and her captain reports the most lonesome ▼oyage he ever sailed. The W. C. T. U. met at - the home of j Mrs. Charles Burrows last Thursday afternoon and elected the following of ficers for the ensuing year: President—Mrs. Elizabeth Jordon. First vice president—Mrs. George Barrows. NOW BE CAREFUL, GEORGE, AND DON’T GO NEAR THAT MEXICAN PLACE. J / wsk I SfjJk lUu \ • W . •< f J®r b \L&I — *— yBzM HA *> A w Jt S/ T 1 WRk Z|j\ /T il 1 IZ% ‘^T*w '“‘‘fl g V'/J irf 't'B b Jx —Donahey in Cleveland plain Dealer. MORE ORANGES Our Orange Sale Will Continue for One Week Longer Oranges at 4 per dozen| £v Oranges at 4 per dozen | JU Oranges at 4 "J- per dozen| / v Oranges at per dozen| y(j Oranges at A 4 Oranges at OQn per dozenZuu “Sunkist” Navel, Best Quality Headquarters for nnDCCiIkPC Lancaster, Oranges UVJDDIJIN D 1 UKL Wisconsin This is the last week you can buy ■ ■ Sheet Music at 5c per copy Sewing Machines at $lO to sls less than regular price Banjos, Guitars, Ukuleles, Mandolins Violins, etc. at 20° 0 Discount HURRY! Groenier & Stitzer Second vice president Mrs. H. C. King. Third vice president—Mrs. A. Ward. Recording secretary Mrs. Mary Thompson. Cor. secretary—Mrs. H. E. Baxter. Treasurer—Mrs. Charles Burrows. Oranges at OEn per dozen Z>vv Oranges at Q A- per dozen o iv Oranges at 71 On per dozen Trwv Oranges at QE per box Oranges at C 1 CE per i box | »Uw Lemons at | per dozen | QV Feminine Genius. “Women seem successful in busi ness.” •’They have advantages A woman can keep a set of books and a card index in her head.” Kansas City Journal.