Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume], December 28, 1899, Image 3

About Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925

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TO THE NEW YEAR.
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TO THE NEW YEAR.
The dead leaves hit across the wold,
And swiftly spins the weather-vane:
The old year’s golden grains are told.
And new year time is born again.
Then toss the logs upon the hearth,
And let the brimming kettle boil;
l Of earnest cares let there be dearth;
L Grant good-cheer as the wage 01
' toil.
In garnered heaps rich treasures lie,
Gleaned artfully from many a field;
The hungry crow lies 'math the sky.
Or calls from out the gloomy weald.
put the pot upon the board,
And gather round each face so dear,
Fill up the cup, fill up the gourd
And bumpers drink to the new year.
—G. A. B.
One New Year’s> 4 Eve.
By Manda L. Crocker.
The swish of a blue dress, a faint
breath of violets, as in passing, and
he felt rather than saw Marie Sum
merfield go by.
Standing a little apart from (he
knots of merry young people throng
ing the pleasant rooms, he was con
scious of a thread of pain running
through the last night of the old year,
touching only Miss Summerfield and
himself.
By he, I mean Leigh Reyburn, the
owner of the old-fashioned, low
roomed grange beneath whose roof
the young people of Gladbrook had
gathered to keep a merry watch-night.
With music and laughter and gay rep
artee they meant to dance a welcome
to the joyous New Year without much
thought for the staid old twelve-month
which had served them so faithfully.
But Leigh moved uneasily, sending
imploring glances after the blue gown,
all to no purpose. Marie was ab
sorbed with the fascinating company
of Maurice Davenport, and was smiling
her sweetest —and Marie could smile
divinely—and entertaining him ad
mirably.
Reyburn was thinking hard, and. it
must be confessed, uncharitably. He
had worshiped and petted and lived
for Miss Summerfield these two bltss
ed sunlit years, to have hope and hap
piness go into the grave of the frail
old year leaving nothing but mem
ories.
What was that Marie was singing to
the sweet-toned guitar she held* so
daintily, strapped in place with a
blue riband?
’Ring out the old. ring in the new;
The year is dying, let it go;
Ring in the new; ring in the new.”
Her voice seemed to falter a little
on the repeat as it fell to a soft ca
dence. Was it possible she was think
ing of the old so tenderly—the old love,
for instance? Ah! well, did not
know.
*•*•**
The yule log had burned out a week
ago. but he had not the heart to take
up the silvery ashes from the cold,
red brick nearth as yet. Ever since
that other night he had kep his vow
'and closed the doors to all merriment
for two long years. But somehow the
lads and lassies of Gladbrook had lain
their sympathies on his door-stone
and worked themselves into his good
graces om*e more, and before he real
ized what he was doing he had given
up the silent rooms again to a Christ
mas party. But no more New Year
frolics under his roof, he said; not un
til —well, maybe— He stopped short
in his musings; still the remnant of
the mistletoe hung in the bracket work
of the old chandelier and he remem
bered uow, as he looked at it, how pure
and fair Alicia Merrill looked When
Herman Montrose kissed her beneath
its potent spell a weeek ago. She put
him in mind, O, so much, of her. Cov
ering his eyes for a moment with
trembling hand, he went to the win
dow and looked out. White and glist
ening as an angel's wing lay the snow
on the intervening fields. Over there
was her house, but she had been away
now for a long time studying music,
and he had heard, for she did not
write to him, that her voice was simply
divine, and as a musician she was won
derful.
Nevertheless, it was a night l'.k
this, nodding toward the Hooding
moonlight outside, that they —he and
she—had their misunderstanding. A
spasm of pain crossed his fine face and
he caught his breath a little. He could
not tell just how it came about, never
clearly understanding, but that night
so much like this, and New Year’s Eve,
too, marked the beginning of their and
- paths which came togethe.
again after awhile!
Tomorrow was the glad New Ye r
again. Would its happy greetings ie
only mockery to him?
Suddenly a thought, wlvch h-d
smouldered in his mind for days,
flashed up like a gleam of heavenly
light, radiating his whole being.
She was coming home tonight rn the
late train; and he was so hungry to s’P
her: only God knew how famished o'
heart he was!
He would tai-e the down tra'n, get
off at Rockland when she charged cars
for Gladbrook. No one could praveni
him from riding home in the same
coach with her; and even tint would
be a blessed comfort. Then, maybe,
something would come of it. Who
knew?
In 15 minutes he was inside his
great coat and locking the hall door,
with a nervous, glad excitement steal
ing over him, like the coming of anew
day. A ten-minutes’ walk brought him
to the station.
“Going away for the New Year?”
queried the agent, pleasantly, handing
Reyburn the required pasteboard.
“0, a little way,” he replied, absent
ly, pulling on his gloves.
Scarcely had he settled himself in
the outward-bound train than Joe An
trim thumped him on the shoulder and
sang out: "Hullo! going away on a
blow-out, I suppose? Well, so am I.
Some are going away, and some are
coming home."
In the awkward silence which fol
lowed Joe’s volume introduction, he
seemed to read Reyburn’s thoughts,
for. without looking further for reply,
he began again: “Miss Summerfield is
coming tonig..t, they say: and they
say. too, that she is bringing her best
fellow with her. Gladbrook looks for
a wedding at the Summerfield home to
morrow. But, of course. I don’t know;
it is only gossip, maybe.”
Having thus delivered himself, Joe
Antrim, without waiting for reply, be
took himself to the smoker, leaving
Reyburn in just the state of mind he
intended, half-way between insanity
and desperate intent.
But by and by Reyburn's mind
cleared to Joe's last sentence. Only
gossip. Of course that was all; but
Joe was mean to hash it over, to him
of all persons, and in such an insinu
ating manner, too. Well, he would go
on to Rockland now if he met her
complete bridal party; he would see
for himself, and if it was all true, why,
he would not go home that night, and
perhaps Gladbrook would never see
him again.
At Rockland he had only a few min
utes to wait between trains, and al-*
ready the home-bound one was wait
ing on a side-track. Purchasing hi.*
ticket, he ensconced himself where he
could plainly see the passengers leave
the cross-train.
“Now for the bridal party, at least
the bride and groom,” he said, trying
to be jocular with himself, although
his face was very white and his mouth
twitched nervously.
At the cry “train, train,” everybody
began to bustle about. Friends, bag
gage and good-bys were mixed up in
discriminately. but Leigh was very
still. He could hear his anxious heart
beat out its suspense in great suffocat
ing leaps, as the fateful train thun
dered in.
Sure enough, there was Miss Sum
merfield; and the fine-looking young
man who helped her alight a* tool
charge of her baggage.
Heaven have merev! Were gossip
and Joe Antrim right, after all? But
pshaw! any ch'vlrous fellow traveler
would have done as much.
Notwithstanding this plausible
thought., Leigh slipped into the home
bound coach like a thief, taking the
corner seat in the rear end of the cat.
When Miss Summerfield came in, the
terrible groom-to-be, to whom the
bridal party had dwindled, even he,
was not in attendance. Marie carried
her own ‘ grip.”
The man felt a tremor of hope quiver
all over him, something like an electric
current. She took the third seat from
the door and leaned her head on her
hand wearily, A strange air for a
bride, thought the man in the corner.
He could not see her face, but some
way he felt that this New Year's Eve
was not what she wished. O. was she
in trouble, too? He had half amino
to go to her; the seat directly behind
her was providentially empty; he
could whisper “Marie” over the back
of her seat when his courage warranted
It.
She looked up, surprised and start
led. After the confusion had left her
lovely face, she gave him her hand
gingerly and asked in strained tones:
“How came you here, Mr. Reyburn?”
“I could not help it,” he confessed,
flushing, but looking straight at her.
“I wanted to be near you once more.
You don’t know how miserable I am
without you.”
There was a world of emotion in the
undertone, but he kept bravely on;
"I came down to Rockland for noth
ing else than that I might get a
glimpse of you. I felt it would comfort
me to ride home in the same coach —
tonight of all nights.”
He stopped and and looked at her in
such a pitiful, hungry-hearted way.
It was all out now. this confession of
his. He meant to make it. at the risk
of everything before his heart failed
him —and he had done so.
Of course she could do what she
pleased with ft. and him, too; he had
staked and would win. or lose. all.
Putting his elbow on the barrier ami
leaning a little toward her, he waited
for her to speak. And her face was
a study. Presently she gasped out:
“Then you aren’t to be married to
night?”
The interrogation snapped the lasi
thread holding Leigh Reyburn’s great
love in reserve.
“Marie, darling? Could you—do you
think —0, Heaven! as if I could love
anyone but you! O. Marie!”
The whiteness of his face was terri
ble to see: but it all dawned upon her
at once.
“I —I—O. Ijeigh!”—she put out both
her hands, and two great tears stoic
down her cheeks to finish the sentence
more eloquently than words.
When the train stopped at Glad
brook, a very happy couple alighted
And out across the moonlit snow, from
the belfry bars of the gray stone
church came the merry chime of bells:
“Ring out the old. ring in the new;
The year is dying: let it go.”
“Ring in the new,” said Leigh,
drawing her arm through his. “The
years of misunderstanding are dead:
let them go. dearest.”
“We will,” she answered, softly and
happily.
And Joe Antrim laughed in h s
sleeve, and said to the bright New Year
morning: “T am glad I set those two
simpletons right by a bit of strategy
A little prevarication, ahem! Rut all
is fair in love and war.”
WATCHING THE OLD YEAR OITT.
The Custom Once Common in New
England Hus Nearly Passed Away.
An old fashioned “watch night” in
New England or the middle states
was until recently one of the institu
tions of this country. The keen,
frosty air of the eariy evening bore
upon its crystalline and twinkling
depths the sound of numerous strings
of sleighbells converging at the
church. The well loaded cutters and
the crowded sleighs hissed through
the creaking snow, that stamped off
with loud emphasis at the porch door,
announced the arrival of each load.
The interior of the church, heated to
almost a point of discomfort by big
stoves, still retains the decorations put
up when the Christmas tree did Jser
vice before its removal. The usual
chatter and gossip soon subsided. A
solemn hush falls over the assembly,
and when the first hymn is given out
it is sung with more hearty uplift of
tone than usual, and the anthem that
follows it is more like a dirge. The
young elder, who is present, preaches
an address, the tones of which fall on
the hearts with a sadness that be
gets repentance. No such theme as
this finds expression at any other
portion of the year, “We all do fade
as a leaf,” and then he closes with
Longfellow's mournful words:
Howl, howl, and from the forest
Strip the red leaves away.
Would the sins that thou abhorest
O soul, could thus decay
And be swept away!
Kyrie eieison! Christie eleison!
More singing, more prayers, all in
stinct with earnestness, and then a
shrill voiced girl recites Prentice’s
Dying Year.
'Tis midnight's holy hour, etc.
Another Tennyson's Old Year, then
conies a breathless waiting, and the
bell strikes, when a joyous “Amen!”
is followed by a burst of song that
every one joins in.
CUSTOMS AND SUPERSTITIONS,
In Athens anew statue, either to a
god or a hero, was erected and conse
crated on the first day of every year.
On Jan. 1, 1315, Lduis XII. of France
died. On the same day died Helvetius,
in 1772; Selvio Pellico, 1854.
In Silesia a peculiar kind of wine
made from grapes and seasoned with
honey and spices is used on new year's
day.
In the south of Prance it is custom
ary for families of means to give their
servants new suits on now year's day.
Tiie celebrated march of General
Monk to I-ondon for the purpose of
seating Charles 11. on the throne of
England began Jan. 1, 1660.
In Norway there is a "Superstition
that the kind of fish caught on new
year’s day indicates the character of
the fishing during the year.
The custom of watching out the old
year and waiting for the new to be
gin prevails in many countries, if not
in most of the civilized world.
Suetonius and Tacitus allude to the
custom common in their time among
the Romans of sending and receiving
presents on new year's day.
A special feature of new year’s day
in ancient Babylon was the proces
sion in honor of Baal. The king him
self marched in this procession.
The first day of January was made
the beginning of the new year in Hol
land, the Protestant districts of Ger
many and Russia, in the year 1700.
In Coventry, England, God cakes
are made for new year's day. They
are triangular in shape, made of paste,
inclosing a portion of mince meat. —
Exchange.
CHENEYS IDENTIFY CORBETT.
Racine Miojster and Wife Say He Did
the Shooting.
Racine, Wi.. Dec. 21. —Henry F.
Corbett, who was arrested on suspicion
of having shot Rev, David B. Cheney
and his wife two weeks ago, was taken
before the Cheneys Wednesday after
noon and positively identified as the
guiity man. Corbett was taken before
Mr. and Mrs. Cheney separately. Both
identified him immediately as the man
who called at the house and did the
shooting.
MAJUBA HILL.
“Remember Majuba!” is an English
cry often heard in the present war. It
is a counterpart of the American cry
“Remember the Maine!” Leading
Englishmen, however, repel the idea
that the south African conliict is one
of revenge.
In this connection the story of the
famous fight at Majuba hill, from
which the slogan just quoted arose,
may be recalled. Majuba hill is in ex
treme northern Natal, near Laings
Nek, where, about a month before the
Majuba battle, the boers inflicted an
other defeat on the British.
Both these fights occurred in 1881
while the boers were waging the war
which resulted in their securing inde
pendence in internal affairs. Howard
C. Hillegas, in his book, Dorn Paul’s
People, thus describes the Majuba
battle:
"During the night of February 26,
1881, Gen. Sir George Colley, the Brit
ish commander, made a move which
was responsible for one of the greatest
displays of bravery the world has ever
seen. The light at Majuba hill was
won by the boers against greater odds
than have been encountered by any
other volunteer force In modern times,j
and is an example of the courage, brav
ery and absolute confidence of the
boers when they believe they are di
vinely guided.
"Between the camps of General Col
ley and Commandant-General Joubert
lay Majuba hill, a plateau with precip
itous sides and a perfectly level top
about 2,500 feet above the camps. In
point of resemblance the hill was a
huge inverted tub, whose summit could
only be reached by a narrow path.
General Colley and 600 men. almost all
of whom were trained soldiers fresh
from England, ascended the narrow
path by moonlight, and when the sun
‘ rose in the morning were able to look
from the summit of the hill and seethe
boer camp in the valley.
“The plan of campaign was that the
regiments which had been left behind
in camp should attempt to force the
pass through Laings Nek and that the
troops on Majtiba hill should make a
new attack on (tie boers and in that
manner crush them. So positive were
the soldiers of the success that awaited
their plans that they speculated on the
number of boers who would live to tell
the story of the battle.
"It was Sunday morning, and had
the distance between the two armies
been less the soldiers on the hill might
have heard the sound of many voices
singing hymns of praise and the pray
ers that were being offered by the boers
kneeling in the valley. The English
held their enemies in the palm of their
hand, it seemed, and with a few heavy
guns they could have killed them by
the scores.
"The sides of the hill were so steep
that it did not enter the minds of*the
English that the loers would attempt
to ascend except by the same path
which they had traversed, and that was
impossible, because the path leading
from the base was occupied by English
forces. The idea that the boers would
climb from terrace to terrace, from one
bush to another, and gain the summit
in that manner, occurred to no one.
"Before there was any stir in the
boers’ camp the English soldiers stood
on the edge of the summit, and, shak
ing their fists in exultation, challenged
the enemy; ‘Come up here, you beg
gars! *
“The boers soon discovered the pres
ence of the English on the hill and the
camp presented such an animated
scene that the English soldiers were
led to imagine that consternation had
seized the boers and that they were
preparing for a retreat. •
“A short time afterward, when the
boors marched toward the base of the
hill, the illusion was dispelled; and
still later, when 150 volunteers from
the boor army commenced to ascend
the sides of the hill the former spirit
of braggadocio which characterized
the British soldiers resolved itself Into
a feeling of nervousness. During the
forenoon the British fired at such of
the climbing boers as they could see.
but the boers succeeded in dodging
from one stone to another, so that
only one of their number was killed in
tlie ascent.
“When the 150 boers reached the
summit of the hill, after an arduous
climb of more than five hours, they
lay behind rocks at the edge and com
menced a hot fire at the English sold
iers, who had retreated into the center
of the plateau, 30 yards distant. The
English soldiers had been ordered to
fix their bayonets and were prepared
to charge, but the order was never
given. A fresh party of boers had
reached the summit and threatened to
flank the English, who, having lost
many of their officers and scores of
men, became wildly panic-stricken.
"Several minutes after General Col
ley was killed the British soldiers who
had escaped from the 3torm of bullets
broke for the edge of the summit and
allowed themselves to drop and roll
down the sides " the hill. When the
list of casualties was completed It was
found that the boers had killed 92,
wounded 134 and taken prisoners 59
of the 600 soldiers who ascended the
hill. The loss on the boer side was one
killed and five wounded.’’
Sir Evelyn Wood succeeded Gen
eral Colley and arranged an armistice
with the boers. Then the Gladstone
government concluded a treaty of peace
w-ith them.
A NEW YEAR DECLARATION.
Alas, no resolutions fair
Shall on the scroll appear;
I’ll but endeavor to repair
The ones I broke last year.
—Washington Star.
DEADLY ENE.MIBS OF SNAKES.
Toads and Bats Make War on Flies,
Roaches and Mosquitoes.
Asa result ot experiments with
toads and bats it has been
demonstrated that a house, or
even a community, can be rid
of very troublesome insects, in
cluding i.ies and mosquitoes. These
experiments were made by Rrof. Clin
ton F. Hodge of Clark university, Wor
cester, Mass. Prof. Hodge's first ex
periment was with the toad. “I con
structed a small pen in my garden •
he said, “and in it, in a pan of wate-,
installed a male and female toad. To
obtain food for them I placed within
the inclosure bits of meat and bom
The results were as satisfactory as
they were unexpected. The toads
spent most of the time sitting within
reaching distance of the bait and kill
ing the Hies attracted by it. 1 watcht-c
one toad snap up eighty-six house files
in less than ten minutes.
“One day I gathered a quantity of
rose bugs in a tin box and began to
feed the bugs to a toad. At first I did
not count, but finding his appetite
good I started to count. When 1 had
counted over eighty bugs and the ton 1
showed no signs of wishing to con
clude his meal, 1 picked him up. Prr
vious to my beginning to count he had
taken anywhere from ten to twenty
bugs. I found the toad equally greedy
for rose beetles, canker worms, ants,
caterpillars, moths, June bugs, weevils.,
snails, and many other insects. So.
too, in a house, a room may be cleared
of cockroaches by leaving a toad in t
over night.
“A single toad may destroy over
2,000 worms during the months c<f
May. June, and July, and one of these
harmless creatures may well do a
gardener service to the amount of
$13.58 each season, and yet he can rais*
$20,000 worth of toads at an expense < r
not more than 20 cents.
“Farmers in England buy them,
paying as high as $24 a thousand, h r
use in their flower beds and gardens.
For household purposes a small num
ber of toads could be given homes in
an aquarium. At night the toads could
be let loose to kill bugs, while in the
day they could kill flies. I have built
a sort of cage or wire screen a foot
wide and two feet long, the top c!
which is kept open. It is only neces
sary to put in two or three toads, pro
vide them with shelter, with a dls
of water in one corner, and then keep
them supplied with bits of raw meat
and any other refuse matter calculate'
to attract files.”
In speaking of the bat Prof. Hodg*
said: “We have no animal more in
teresting and probably none more va'-
uable and certainly none less under
stood and more abused, than the bat.
They are easily tamed, absolute!)
harmless when gently handled, ami
make pets as funny as tiny monkeys
As destroyers of many of our most pes
tiferous night-flying insects, like mos,
quitoes, the bat is almost our sole de
pendence, and as he is known to hunt
insects afoot as well ns on the wing
he is also of some value for larva
that do not fly.
“My attention was turned to the bat
through the codlin moth, the Insect t :
blame for most worm-eaten apples. In
an orchard near my home I found nim
of the grubs of this insect iti ii mlnut<
Chancing to go to another orchart.
hardly a mile away, I found only four
of the grubs in an hour’s Heard
There is an old barn near by in which
live a colony of between seventy-flv"
and one hundred bats. The owner in
formed me that his apples wer • always
free from worms.” Bangor mdustrird
Record.
A MAN’S ADVANTAGE IN DRESS.
"To assert *that men dress better
than women is probably to meat persons
a very unorthodox claim,” writes Mary
Wager-Fisher in Woman's Home Com
panion. "Their dress is more rational,
more in harmony with the otiilines of
the body, and more in abeyance to its
importance and needs. It is tree from
Ibe bows and loops, the flounces and
ruffles. ami the countless trivial fur
belows and impertinences that g!ve to
women's attire a ‘spotty,* confuserfyip
pearniice. breaking up and spoiling th<*
effect of unity. When a map is dressed
we never lose sight of the fact that hi?
Indy Is more than his dress, while tht
woman dresses ns if she held her body
to be a form upon which to display
dry-goods and the milliner’s art, and
her head a roost for murdered bird*,
and stores of curios purleir and from al!
the kingdoms of the earth. When wo
men look best in the street they have'
gone to man for their clothes his
plain felt hat, his coat and vest, his
haberdashery and often his foot-wear
the boy's walking-shoe, with its low '
broad heel, broad, projecting sole and
general look of snugness and comfort.*
Men’s feet are always better dressed
than women's, because for one thing
they are more in evidence, and they
are far less distorted in shape because
their shoes more nearly conform to thej
natural shape of the foot. The tailor.
It Is true, often builds up his man, but
It is In the direction of symmetry, o(
good proportion, while the dressmaker"!
as a rule, hasn't an eyelash for any*
thing more than fashion, which, to
her mind, is 'style,' and nothing is toe
hideous, too inartistic, to be worn ftit
"ply be ‘fashionable.’”
THEN THEY BOTH CASHED IN.
Coldeck—What was the difference
'9!*. old bay, between you and me at
11:30 last night?
'99—Give 'tup.
Coldeck — Well, you were drawing to
a dose and I was drawing to flush
—Chicago Chronicle.