The Ekalaka eagle. [volume], April 23, 1909, Image 6

About The Ekalaka eagle. [volume] (Ekalaka, Mont.) 1909-1920

Image provided by: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT

                
THE BROKEN
VASE
Hi MARCELLE ESDI CO IT.
<tvr->
* iJpjv.nccttt Co.)
had
Lrlla Matthews had no prosont
«Orth tnomionin.c ami very litt lo past.
SSIw? tivk an intelligent. conscientious
vi«"w of lifo and had a rescuing sense
of humor. When she loft Mt. Hope,
Arkansas, to tako tho plaoo of Latin
teacher in one of the unfashionable
Xcsr York schools every body had
thought her a lucky girl. She bore
♦he fatal reputation of being clever
and artistic—that is to say. she had
♦he ability to appreciate things that
in the natural course of events she
would never have tho opportunity to
enjoy. Wherever she went she cre
ated that sympathetic atmosphere en
couraging to the people's vanity, which
aided her even in crudely sociable Mt.
Hope.
She had always lived with her aunt
and cousins, and she sent the nasal
îcired old lady, whom she tenderly
âoved, a monthly remittance from her
gainings.
Ever since she could remember, with
the exception of a single year, she had
the deadening life of Mt. Hope.
When she was a flower of a girl, IS or
thereabouts, she spent a year in New ;
York and abroad as companion to an
old aristocrat, who realized the girl's
hiborn gentility, and loved her.
fier mother had been a Boston worn
i.B. her father a rich mine owner who I
t>sr his fortune at a single venture
u: d inconsiderately died before he had
.1 chance to retrieve it. The mother
did not survive long, and Leila, then i
s baby of five, was left destitute. A
;eor relative, her father's aunt, adopt
ed the orphan, and devoted herself to
he child.
When Leila returned from Europe
:-K' brought back with her a gold cross
-bat she always wore, a tender letter
or so. and the memory of a few bliss
Fa; hours when her hand had rested in
?;l5. There was even a rapture, albtit
broken-hearted, that the finely bred
New Yorker had cared for her in a
negligent, summer fashion, and in ûn
suarded moments had said impetuous
riin.ss.
She nad been thankful since her
stay in New \ork that she had never
chanced upon her former lover. She
was moderately happy in her work,
ïier sense of fulfilled duty, and her fa
viïe talent for absorbing what was
iiealthy in character and comforting in
esagnie and circumstance. She finished
-each day with the same thanksgiving
H ot the happiness of the past, and the
-£2me prayer for the man, alive or
One day, one dark afternoon, when
she was at the Lenox library taking
notes for her class, she saw him. He
was slightly older looking, the chin
sar*?r, the bearing more distinguished
than formerly, but the sensitive lips
«fire unchanged. He had the unmis
takable poise of a man secure alike of
ïns grandfather and his investments,
-wo unrivaled means of confidence.
Slie had not heard of the man since
his, marriage, when she sent his fiancee
a pooch, a crown of pearls, as a wed
Ymg gift. Heaven knows what months
•f>e had worked un articles for the
Ut. Hope Courier to pay the jeweler;
ïîi>r-n the faded neckties she had worn
îhe hats retrimmed three seasons
•smh the same dismal perpetual vio
ler.«! She had written a short note
acenmpanying her present:
Will Miss Van Dyck accept a sou
i-enir, a very small souvenir, from me?
î have the pleasure of knowing Mr.
.Markham and wish to offer some gift
show how pleasantly I recall his
î?oartesies, etc.,"—a thoroughly polite
tvuie expressed with impersonal for
ircility, as if pearl crowns were an
«very-day occurrence; as if she were
not writing with her heart's blood. 1
Tbc man was rather surprised, and !
.-rat iL to Helen Van Dyck, his fiancee, j
-•she wore it several times and later !
vn gave it to her French maid—Hen- 1
,rèîta did her hair so cleverly, and !
ïhe had a "faible" for pearls.
Markham strolled into the library as '
î-jïifci was leaving. She atempted to j
away unobserved, but his eyes '
5£>£tened on her questioningly, then '/
fieared with recognition.
Oh! he had recognized her, was com- I
toward her! His step, which she j
Viad not heard for 12 years, seemed to !
tread on her heart. She stopped, try- ;
».»S to assume a genial air—if possible, ;
Ec< make him forget that her hair was
■»tright, her skin colorless, her face
ihin. She thanked God for the dim
light in the hall.
'This Is indeed fortunate," said his
gvr-hte voice, with well-bred interest.
"Won't you tell me the pleasant things
you have been doing since we last saw
«ach other?"
She wished to evince a quiet pleas
ure at seeing him again, and she was
•resolved not to be plaintive or voluble.
•Faithful to your old acquaintances, as
ciaual," she said, glancing towards the
£>ocks of the library.
"My old friends, you should say,"
■fte respc-nded, with polite meaning. If
—-l.cre had oniy been in his tone one
shade of real reminiscence, the pity
over a sweet trifle dead! In her
despair she wanted to save herself by
the role of gentle calm, but her voice
faltered.
"I am spending the winter in New
York for a change—in fact—I—I— am
teaching school, it's great fun." She
hurried sensitively on: "I enjoy it im
mensely. May I inquire for Mrs. Mark
ham?"
"Thank you, she is extremely well,
and Phil is a fine lad."
"What! is there a Phil?"
"There is." he said, laughing boyish
ly. "Junior is five years old."
"Mercy!" she exclaimed, in astonish
ment. Something cut her to the quick
as tho child's image rose before her.
"I am distressed," she said, with
mock seriousness; "it is a rainy day,
and one lias a more than ever old
maidish look in a rainy-day gown."
She laughed, trying to make it sound
the old, frank note. Markham, being
dulled by the happiness in his own life,
scarcely heeded her sorry little play.
She was an old flirtation, a good girl—
well, she had faded, as they always
do. The pathetic dowdiness, the un
disguised "getting old" that was so evi
dent to herself did not pain or annoy
him, because to him it was of such
small moment. In her mind his idea
of her had been everything. She had
sacrificed herself stoically to it. She
had had the feeling that their ac
quaintance was like an unbroken idyl,
covered by dust and cobwebs, per
chance, but. brush them off, and the
idyl, like a fragile vase, would be there
HI II L
« f
K?
J
M .cj
■5/
"I Am Distressed," She Said, with
Much Seriousness.
—beautiful as ever. He had known
her young, full of blithe grace. He
must remember her so. This ideal
was broken now irretrievably.
"May I have your address?" he
asked, cordially. "We shall doubtless
not meet again by accident."
I know where you live," she an
swered, with a brightness not intensi
fied, as of old, by her cheeks and eyes,
"but my address is so far away, and
long distances are such discouragers of
good intentions," she answered, eva
sively. "Au revoir" —she nodded
gracefully and kept her eyes on his
face until she had whirled her awk
ward skirt out of the door. Then
she took a cross-town car in an
alarmed hurry, lest he might follow
her and find out where she lived.
Markham, however, had scarcely re
marked the girl. He strolled to the
club and dined later at home. His
wife, in a pale velvet dinner-gown that
became her languid grace, greeted him
in the salon. Standing in the chas
tening light of Venetian lamps, she
was very gratifying to any man's
pride. Philip Markham bowed to her
gallantly.
"How appropriate you are, Helen.
You are not a day over 20, my dear.
None of us keep spring that way. How
do you do it ?"
She leaned playfully towards him.
"You do it; you make me happy, and
1 look so—viola tout! What have you
done to-day?"
"Nothing much; lounged about the
Knickerbocker, bought some horses,
and, oh, yes, I dropped into the library
—the Lenox. By the way, I ran across
a girl I used to know, a teacher; that
is, she wasn't a teacher when I know
her; we said 'Hello' to each other."
At this instant Junior ran into the
loom. ISless the boy! Come to
papa, Phil,' cried Markham. "Jove,
what a lad! He'll soon be sailing the
yacht for papa—I say, he's a trim chap
—a kiss—there, run back to M. G nil- '
launie. Tho infant can hardly speak
an English word decently. You know, j
Helen, I'm in favor of sending him to
Oxford."
He never remembered afterwards
that he had asked Leila to send him
her address and that she had not done
it. That evening the Markhams on
gaged a table at Sherry's, where they
drove after the opera. Plancon was
singing in the "Huguenots."
As for the school teacher, she ex
etised her silence at dinner under ptea
of a headache. Indeed, her cheeks
were flushed. "If they had but been
pink when I met him," she thought, bit
terly. "If I had worn my mackintosh
—that is stylish, at least—and my best
gloves that are darned only on the in
side, and, oh, if I had only curled my
hair!" She felt childishly disappoint
ed; he had not once mentioned the
pearl brooch. It would have been easy
for him to have made some allusion to
it—at least, he could not have been
ashamed of her taste.
Some one knocked at her door.
"Yes," she answered, in her worn, gen
tle voice.
"To-morrow you will rise a little
earlier, Miss Matthews, to take the
children walking as far as the park."
"Certainly, madam," assented Leila.
The principal lumbered down the
hall, and the sound of her retreating
footsteps irritated Leila absurdly. She
whispered the word bitterly to her
self, "to-morrow."
The nocturnal clatter was hushed on
the streets when she finally slipped off
to bod and into a nervous, troubled
sleep.
BRAVE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE,
Experiences of the Crew of Wrecked
Whaling Vessel.
The story of the crew of a whaling
vessel wrecked off Cape Parry in a'
drifting fog is given in Mr. A. H. Har-1
rison's book, "In Search of a Polar j
Continent." The Alexander at the
inie was steaming at full speed, and \
when first it struck, the crew, not
seeing anything in fro^it of them,
thought they had collided with a
piece of drifting ice; but on striking
again, the vessel immediately filled :
with water, so they hardly had time to
rush to the boats, which they had great
difficulty in lowering.
It was then that Capt. Tilt on nearly
lost his life. He was the last man
to leave the ship, and just as the boats
were being pushed off, he jumped from j
the vessel, but missed the stern of
the boat, and fell into the sea. Luck
ily. however, he managed to catch a
iope that was thrown to him, but it
was not without difficulty that he was i
pulled into the boat when he had
been dragged alongside.
The mist was so dense that they
had no idea of their locality, but on
reaching the shore they saw the rocky
headland of Cape Parry looming over
them, and then they knew that they ,
l ad at least 400 miles to travel before
regaining Herschel island, this, too,
along a barren and deserted coast
line in open boats, and probably in
a iaging sea.
This wreck occurred on August 16,
yet on August 2G they arrived at Her
schel island, every one of tlieni strong
and well, and no whit the worse for
his adventure. They made the whole
journey through rough seas and
through gales of wind. Every stitch
on their backs was constantly
drenched.
Of supplies they carried only that
scanty portion which a whale boat al
ways has on hand for an emergency;
nor are the emergencies contemplated
of such duration.
Every now and then they had to put
ashore to find fresh water and to
snatch a few winks of sleep, and I
can answer for it that putting ashore
here is no easy matter, for there are
many miles of coast line along which
it is almost impossible to find a place
for landing in a strong wind.
These men doggedly held on their
course, crossing two large bays, Frank
lin bay and Liverpool bay, until at last
they reached the Mackenzie delta, and ,
keeping well to seaward of this, they
arrived in a storm which prevented
ships from putting to sea.
They had made a fine, heroic effort.
U had been a case of do or die with
eveiy one of them, and they had car
lied on a desperate and unceasing
struggle, and had accomplished an
average daily journey of 40 miles in
an open boat.
Portugal in Hard Straits.
It is just a year ago that the double
fatality in the royal house of Portugal
occurred, when the king and prince
w' re assassinated. The anarchical fac
tions in Lisbon have been "celebrat
ing" the event. For the royal house,
the anniversary is particularly sad un
(!er the circumstances, for the palace
has never known a moment's real
peace since the day of the tragedy. The
. fforts which havo been made by King
Alfonso to promote a union with
Spain may he said to be the brightest
sign in the polit ical sky of Portugal
ju.-:t now, though it is not certain that
the Spanish monarch will be able to
win over the corrupt office-seekers of
Lisbon, whose greatest achievement of
late years has been to grab all the
spoils offering and deplete the national
tieasury of everything not actually de
manded bv the supporters of the près
tnt regime for the expenses of tho
king's household.
Words to Read and Heed.
Let every dawn of morning be to
you as the beginning of life, and every
setting sun to be to you as its close;
then iet. everyone of these short lives •
have its sure record of some kindly
t" n done for others, some goodly ;
s'.rength er knowledge gained for j
: cu: elves.— Kuskin.
NEW BELLE OF WHITE HOUSE,
Helen Herron Taft Will Be Popular In
Washington.
Helen Herron Taft has followed in
her father's footsteps In choosing her
most intimate friends in Washington
from the "army set." What Gen. Bell
and Gen. Clarence Edwards are to
the new president, young ladles like
Miss Ayleshire and Misa Webster are
to his only daughter.
At the same time she has formed
many close friendships at school, and
these ties are bringing Miss Taft an
ever-increasing number of invitations
to devote her vacations to house par
ties, and will result in the presence
of many youthful residents of many
different cities when the time comes
for Miss Taft to make her debut in the
White House—something for which
Mrs. Taft has as yet planned but ten
tatively.
The newly chosen first lady of the
land expects her only daughter to
become a White House debutante, of
course, but she has also expressed the
hope that this social inaugural can be
deferred for a year or two, principally
because the new president, who Is
vastly proud of his brilliant and stu
dious daughter, will be disappointed If
she does not fulfill the promise made
at her entry, when, as mentioned, she
won the prize for highest honors in the
entrance examinations.
She was confirmed by the late Bish
•ip Satterlee in a class that also in
cluded Miss Ethel Roosevelt and the
Misses Julia and Alice von Meyer,
daughters of the present postmaster
general. At Murray Bay, Miss Taft at
tended the Union church—represent
ing fusing of all the denominations in
the little Canadian church, and now
she and her mother will become oc
cupants of the presidential pew, va
cated by Mrs. Roosevelt and Miss
Ethel in St. John's, the quaint .old
fashioned and exclusive "court church"
which rears its red tower directly
across the park from the White House.
HISTORIC TREES ARE PASSING.
Little Care Taken to Preserve Nation«
al Mementoes at Washington.
Old Inhabitants of Washington were
saddened the other day when the high
wind overturned the famous silver
spruce which stood guard near the
north gate of the White House ever
since Old Hickory planted it in the
latter days of his administration. The
tree has been slowly dying for years
and in the hollow trunk gray squirrels
had made a perfect tenement. At
least six families were evicted by the
fall of the silver spruce, but they
have found homes in some boxes
which Mrs. Roosevelt had fastened to
some near-by trees. It is doubtful
whether this tree could have been
saved, though Jackson enthusiasts
now express great indignation that it
was permitted t"> languish.
It seems strange that with the mil
lions of dollars which the government
spends on trees and forestry problems
so little success i3 discernible in
saving the historic trees of the capital.
Some of the most beautiful as well as
historic trees have died within the
past five years right under the nose,
so to speak, of Gifford Pinchot, tree
specialist. Other countries save their
historic trees, as witness the vener
able cypress under which Tasso medi
tated during his exile to Rome. It
has been tenderly nurtured and guard
ed by the Italian government and iron
props and all manner of stays are be
tween it and the fury of the winds
on the Janiculum hill. It is now
so hoary and so visibly old that it is
really one of the most touching sights
in Rome. In Washington trees plant
ed by Jefferson, by Alexander Hamil
ton, by John Marshall and Daniel
Webster have been uprooted or have
fallen the prey to plant enemy. For
theories the government is probably
In the lead of all other governments
on forestry questions, but as judged
from results seen in saving historic
trees of Washington, that is auother
story.
The Capital and Its Memories.
Musty memories hang thick about
Washington. Every other house has
been dignified by close contact with
famous men and women. One built on
a magnificent scale for Zack Chandler
is now used as a boarding house or
hotel. On the walls of its lofty par
lors hang four great tapestries as soft
in tone as some of the famous Gobe
lins. The mistress of the house has
seen every inauguration since Lin
coln's. The tapestries, worked by her
sister, were exhibited at the World's
Columbian exposition. One depicts an
Illinois soldier who for 12 years board
ed in the house. The eyes of the lady
of the house brighten into youthful
ness as she tells how this wonderful
tapestry portrait worked by her dead
sister's hand from the living model,
was taken to the rotunda of the
capitol in which the veterans of the
Grand Army of the Republic con
vened. The wife of the man stood as
the tapestry was slowly unrolled be
fore the eyes of the grizzled men who
patiently wondered what it meant un
til suddenly with one acclaim they
cried: "Black Jack! Black Jack on
Lorseback!"
HARDSHIPS OP ARMV LIFE,
Left Thousands of Veterans with Kid
ney Trouble.
The experience of David W. Martin,
a retired merchant of Bolivar, Mo., is
Just like thou
sands of others.
Mr. Martin says:
"I think I have
had kidney dis
ease ever since the
war. During an en
gagement my
horse fell on me,
straining my back
and injuring the
been told I had a
I had Intense pain
in the back, headaches and dizzy
spells, and the action of the bladder
very irregular. About three years ago
I tried Doan's Kidney Pills and inside
of a comparatively short time was en
tirely rid of kidney trouble."
Sold by all dealers. 50 cents a box.
Foster-Milburn Co., Buffalo, N. Y.
Great Water Power at Charlotte.
Charlotte is the center of the great
est electrical power development In
the South, or in the United States,
except at Niagara Falls. The South
ern Power company lias a capital of
$10,000,000, with general offices in
Charlotte.
kidneys. I have
floating kidney.
Ua« Allen's Foot-Ease.
It Is the only cure for Swollen, Smart
/ng, Tired, Aching, Hot, Sweating Feel,
Corns and Bunions. Ask for Allen's Foot
Kase, a powder to be shaken Into the
shoes. Cures while you walk. At all Drug
gists and Shoe Stores, 25o. Don't accept
uny substitute. Sample sent FRKE. Ad
dress, Allen S. Olmsted, LeRoy, N. Y.
Extremes.
"What did Gladys do when George
insisted on a positive answer?"
"Sl?e sent him a decided negative."
Pettit's Eye Salve for 25c
relieves tired, overworked eyes, stops eye
aches, congested, inthitied or sore eyes. All
druggists or Howard Bros., Buffalo, N. Y.
Giving a hungry man advice is
about as charitable as feeding ice
cream to a wax doll.
Happy smiles! White teeth! What
a delicious perfume! WRIGLEY'S
SPEARMINT!
A Business Letter.
It is supposed that business let
ters are deficient in humor. Still,
there have been exceptions, and the
latest, sent by a member of the well
known wholesale soap making firm of
(let us si.y) Cake & Son, is one of
tho most brilliant. A retail dealer
in a small way had sent for a con
signment of their goods: •'Gentlemen"
(he writes), "wherefor have you not
sent me Hie sope? Is It bekawse you
think my mont y is not. so good as
nobody elses? Dam you, Cake &
Son; wherfor have you not sent the
sopo? Please send sope at once, and
oblige, your respectfully, Richard
Jon's. P. S.—Since writing tho
above my wife has found the sope
under the counter."
A Winter's Tale.
Mme. De Navarro praised at a
luncheon in New York American wit.
"It was horribly cold the other aft
ernoon," she said. "A bitter wind
whirled the dry snow through the air.
The policemen had red, swollen faces,
and all the teamsters, as they drove,
liept slapping their poor frostbitten
hands against their breasts.
"Getting into my hansom I said to
the driver:
'"This is real winter weather isn't
It?'
The driver nodded and smiled grim
ly.
" 'I give you my word, ma'am,' said
lie. 'I ain't seen a butterfly all day.' "
SICK DOCTOR
Proper Food Put Him Right.
The food experience of a physician
fn his own case when worn and wealç
from sickness and when needing nour«
ishment the worst way is valuable:
"An attack of grip, so severe it came
near making an end of me, left my
stomach In such condition I could not
retain any ordinary food. I knew of
course that I must have food nourish
ment or I could never recover.
"I began to take four tablespoonfula
of Grape-Nuts and cream three times a
day and for 2 weeks this was almost
my only food; it tasted so delicious
that I enjoyed it immensely and my
stomach handled it perfectly from tho
first mouthful. It was so nourishing I
was quickly built back to normal
health and strength.
"Grape-Nuts is of great value aa
food to sustain life during serious at.
tacks in which the stomach is so de
ranged it cannot digest and assimilate
other foods.
"I am convinced that were Grape
Nuts more widely used by physicians,
it would save many lives that are oth
erwise lost from lack of nourishment."
Absolutely the most perfect food in
the world. Trial of Grape-Nuts 10 days
proves. "There's a Reason."
Look in pkg. for the little book, "The
Road to Wellville."
Ever rend the above letterf A ne««
one appears from time to time. Tlie*
ore Kenutne, true, and (all of human
Interest.