Willmar tribune. [volume], May 10, 1905, Image 9

About Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931

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D'ri and I
By KVING BACHCLLEI
Author of Eben Holden." "Darral of
the Blessed Isles," Etc.
lOopjrlsht, 1*01, by Lotbiop rublUhing Company.)
CHAPTER VII.—CONTINUKD.
He knew a little about rough fighting
with a saber. He had seen my father
and me go at each other hammer and
tongs there in our dooryard every day
of good weather. Stormy days he had
always stood by in,the kitchen, roar
ing with laughter, as the good steel
rang and the house trembled. He had
been slow to come to it, but had had
his try with us. and had learned to
take an attack without flinching. I went
at him hard for a final lesson that day
the woods— a great folly, I was
soon to know. We got warm and
made more noise than I had any
thought of. My horso took alarm and
pulled away, running into a thicket. I
turned to catch him.
"Judas PriesU" said D'ri.
There, within 10 feet of us, I saw
what made me, ever after, a more pru
dent man. It was an English officer
leaning on his sword, a tall and hand
some fellow of some 40 years, in shiny
top-boots and scarlet blouse and
gauntlets of brown kid.
"You are quite clever," said he,
touching his gray mustache.
I made no answer, but stood pulling
mykelf together.
"You will learn," he added, smiling,
with a tone of encouragement. "Let
me show jou a trick."
He was most politp in his manner,
like a play-hero, and came toward me
as he spoke. Then I saw four other
Britishers coming out close in upon
us ftom behind tiees.
He came at me quickly, and I met
him. He seemed to think it would be
no trick to unhand my weapon. Like
a flash. vwth a whip of his saber, he
tried to wrench it away. D'ri had
begun to shoot, dodging between trees,
and a redcoat had tumbled over. 1
bore in upon ray man, but he came
buck at me with surpiising vigor. On
my word, he was the quickest swords
man I e\er had the honor of facing.
But he had a mean way of saying
"Ha!" as he turned my point. He
soon angered me, whereupon I lost a
bit of caution, with some blood, for he
was at me like a flash, and grazed me
on the hip before I could get my head
again. It was no parlor play, I can
tell you. We were fighting for life, and
both knew it. We fought up and down
through brakes and bushes and over
stones—a perilous footing. I could
feel his hand weakening. I put all
my speed to the steel then, knowing
well that, barring accident, I should
win. I could near somebody coming
up behind me.
"Keep away there," my adversary
shouted, with a fairness I admire when
I think of it. "I can handle him. Get
the other fellow."
I went at him to make an end of it.
Til make ou squint, you young
cub," he hissed, lunging at me.
He ripped my blouse at the shoul
der, and, gods of war! we made the
sparks fly. Then he went down, wrig
ghng I had caught him in the side,
poor fellow! Like a flash I was off
in a thicket. One of the enemy got
«ut of my way and sent a bullet after
me. I could feel it rip and sting in
the muscle as it rubbed my ribs. I
kept foot and made for my horse. He
had caught his reins, and I was on
him and off in the bush, between bul
lets that came ripping the leaves about
me, before they could give chase.
Drusos were beating the call to arms
somewhere. I struck the trail in a
mmutr, and, leaning low in the saddle,
went bounding over logs and rocks
down a steep hillside as if the devil
were after me. I looked back, and was
nearly raked off by a bough. I could
hear horses coming in the trail behind
with quick and heavy jumps. But I
was up to rough riding and had little
fear they would get a sight of me.
However, crossing a long stretch of
brrnt timber, they must have seen me.
I heard a crack of pistols far behind
a whiz of bullets over my head. I
shook out the reins and let the horse
go, urging with cluck and spur, never
slacking for rock or hill or swale. It
was a wilder ride than any I have
known since or shall again, I can
promise you, for, God knows, I have
been hurt too often. Fast riding over
a rew trail is leaping in the dark and
worse than treason to one's self. Add
to it a saddle wet with your own blood,
then you have something to give you
a turn of the stomach thinking of it.
When I was near tumbling with a
hind of rib-ache and could hear no pur
•ner, I pulled up. There was silence
about me, save the sound of a light
breeze in the tree-tops. I rolled off
my horse, and hooked my elbo* »n
the reins, and lay on my belly, grunt
ing with pain. I felt better, having
sot my breath, and a rod of beech to
bite upon—a good thing if one has been
badly stung and has a journey to make.
In five minutes I was up and off at a
slow jog, for I knew I was near safety.
I thought much of poor D'ri and
how he might be faring. The last I
had seen of him, he was making good
use of pistol and legs, running from
tree to tree. He was a dead shot, little
given to wasting lead. The drums were
what worried me, for they indicated
a big camp, and unless he got to the
stirrups in short order, he must have
been taken by overwhelming odds.
It was near sundown when I came to
a brook and falls I could not remem
ber passing. I looked about me. Some
where I had gone off the old trail
everything was new to me. It widened,
as I rode on, up' a steep hill. Where
the tree-tops opened, the hill was cov
ered with mossy turf, and there were
fragrant ferns on each side of me.
The ground was clear of brush and
dead timber. Suddenly I heard a voice
singing—a sweet girl voice that thrilled
me, I do not know why, save that I
always longed for the touch of a wo
man If badly hurt. But then I have
felt that way having the pain of neither
lead nor steer. The voice rang in the
silent woods, but I could see no one
nor any sign of human habitation.
Shortly I came out upon a smooth
roadway carpeted with sawdust. It
led through a grove, and following it,
I came suddenly upon a big green man
•i(4i among the trees, with Doric pil
greai portion whera ham-
mocks hung with soft cushions
them, and easy-chairs of old mahog
any stood empty. I have said as little
as possible of my aching wound: I
have always thought it bad enough
for one to suffer his own pain. But I
must say I was never so tried
to keep my head above me as
when I came to that door. Two
figures in white came out to meet me.
At first I did not observe—I had enough
to do keeping my eyes open—that they
were the Miles, de Lambert.
"God save us!" I heard one of them
say. "He is hurt he is pale. See the
blood running off his bootleg."
Then, as one took the bit, the other
eased me down from my saddle, calling
loudly for help. She took her hand
kerchief—that had a perfume I have
not yet forgotten—as she supported
me, and wiped the sweat and dust from
my face. Then I saw they were the
splendid young ladies I had seen at
the count's table. The discovery put
new life in me it was like a dash of
water in the face. I lifted my hat
and bowed to them.
"Ladies, my thanks to you," I said
in as good French as I knew. "I have
been shot. May I ask you to send
for a doctor?"
A butler ran down the steps a gar
dener and a stable-boy hurried out of
the grove.
To the big room—the Louis
Quinze," said one of the girls, excited
ly, as the men came to my help.
The fat butler went puffing upstairs,
and they followed, on each side of
me.
"Go for a doctor, quick," said one of
them to the gardener, who was coming
behind—a Fienchman who prayed to a
saint as he saw my blood.
They led me across a great green rug
in a large hall above-stairs to a cham
ber oL which I sawr little then save its
GODS or W A W E MADE
SPARKS FLY.
THE
size and the wealth of its appoint
ments. The young ladies set me down,
bidding one to take off my boots, and
sending another for hot water. They
asked me where I was hurt. Then
they took off my blouse and waist
coat.
"Mon Dieu!" said one to the other.
"What can we do? Shall we cut the
shirt?"
"Certainly. Cut the shirt," said the
other. "We must help him. We can
not let him die."
"God forbid!" was the answer. "See
the blood. Poojr fellow! It is terri
ble!"
They spoke very tenderly as they
cut my shirt with scissors, and bared
my back, and washed my wound with
warm water. I never felt a touch so
caressing as that of their light fingers,
but, gods of war! it did hurt me. The
bathing done, they bound me big with
bandages and left the room until the
butler had helped me into bed. They
came soon with spirits and bathed my
face and hands. One leaned over me,
whispering, and asking what I would
like to eat. Directly a team of horses
came prancing to the door.
'The colonel!" one of them whis
pered, listening.
"The colonel, upon my soul!" said
the other, that sprightly Louison,' as
she tiptoed to the window. They used
to call her "Tiptoes" at the Hermitage.
The colonel! I remembered she was
none other than the Baroness de Fer
re and thinking of her and the grate
ful feeling of the sheets of soft linen,
I fell asleep. I
CHAPTER VIII.
The doctor came that night, and
took out of my back a piece of flattened
lead. It had gone under the flesh,
quite half round my body, next to
the ribs, without doing worse than to
rake the bone here and there and weak
en me with a loss of blood. I woke
awhile before he came. The baroness
nad the fat butler were sitting beside
me. She was a big, stout woman of
some 40 years, with dark hair and
gray eyes, and teeth of remarkable
symmetry. That evening, I remember,
she was in full dress.
"My poor boy!" said she, in English
and in a sympathetic tone, as she bent
over me.
Indeed, my own mother could not
have been kinder than that good wo
man. She was one that had a
heart and hand for the sick-room. 1
told her how I-had been hurt and of
my ride. She heard me through with
a glow in her eyes.
"What a story!" said she. "What a
dare-devil! I do not see how it has
been possible for you to live."
She spoke to me always in English
of quaint wording and quainter ac-'
cent. She seemed not to know that I
could speak French.
An impressive French tutor—a fine
old fellow, obsequious and bald-headed
—sat by we all night to give me med
icine. In the morning I telt as If I
had a new heart in me, and was plan
ning to mount my horse. I thought I
ought to go about my business, but I
fear I thought more of the young la
dies and the possibility of my seeing
them again. The baroness «ama in
after I had a bite to eat. I told her
I felt able to ride.
"You are not able, my child. Tou
csnnot ride the horse now," said she,
feeling my brow "maybe not for a
ver' long time. I have a large house,
plenty servant, plenty food. Parbleu!
bo content.' We *ball take good care
of you. If there to on* message ft* g»
I wrote a brief report of my ad
venture with the British, locating the
scene as carefully as might be, and she
sent it by mounted messenger to "the
Burg."
"The young ladies they^wish to see
you," said the baroness. "They are
kind-hearted they would like to do
what they can. But I tell them no
they will make you to be very tired."
"On the contrary, it will rest me.
Let them come," I said.
"But I warn you," said she, lifting
her finger as she left the room, "do not
fall in love. They are full of mischief.
They do not study. They do not care.
You know they make much fun all
day."
The young ladies came in presently.
They wore gray gowns admirably fit
ted to their tine figures. They brought
big bouquets and set them, with a
handsome courtesy, on the table be
side me. They took chairs and sat
solemn-faced, without a word, as if it
were a Quaker meeting they had como
to. I never saw better models of sym
pathetic propriety. I was about to
speak. One of them shook her head,
a finger on her lips.
"Do not say one word," she said sol
emnly in English. "It will make you
ver* sick."
It was the first effort of either of
them to address mo in English. As I
soon knew, the warning had exhausted
her vocabulary. The baroness went
below in a moment. Then the one
who had spoken came over and sat
near me, smiling.
"She does not know you can speak
French," said she, whispering and ad
dressing me in her native tongue, as
the other tiptoed to the door. "On
your life, do not let her know. She
will never permit us to see you. She
will keep us under lock and key. She
knows we cannot speak English, so
she thinks we cannot talk with you.
It is a great lark. Are you better?"
What was I to 'do under orders from
such authority? As they bade me, I
hope jou will say, tor that is what I
did. I had no easy conscience about it,
I must own. Day after day I took my
part in the little comedy. They came
in Quaker-faced if the baroness were
at hand, never speaking, except to her,
until she had gone. Then—well, such
animation, such wit, such bright eyes,
such brilliancy, I have never seen or
heard.
My wound was healing. War and
stern duty were as things of the far
past. The grand passion had hold of
me. I tried to fight it down, to shake
it off, but somehow it had the claws of
a tiger. There was an odd thing about
it all: I could not for the life of me
tell which of the two charming girls
I loved the better. It may seem in
credible I could not understand it my
self. They looked alike, and yet they
were quite different. Louison was a
ear older and of stouter build. She
had more animation also, and always
a quicker and perhaps a brighter an
swer. The other had a face more se
rious, albeit no less beautiful, and a
slower tongue. She had little to say,
but her silence had much in it to ad
mire, and, indeed, to remember. They
appealed to different men in me with
equal force, I did not then know why.
A perplexing problem it was, and I had
to think and suffer much before I saw
the end of it, and really came to know
what love is and what it is not.
Shortly I was near the end of this
delightful season of illness. I had been
out of bed a week. The baroness had
read to me every day, and- had been so
kind that I felt a great shame for
my part in our deception. Every af
ternoon she was off in a .boat or in
her caleche, and had promised to take
me with her as soon as I was able to
go.
"You know," said she, "I am going
to make ycu stay her a full month. I
have the consent ot the general."
I had begun to move about a little
and enjoy the splendor of that forest
home. There were, indeed, many rare
and priceless things in it that came
out of her chateau in France. She had
some curious old clocks, tokens of
ancestral taste and friendship. There
was one her grandfather had got from
the land of Louis XIV.—le Grand Mon
arque, of whom my mother had begun
to tell me as soon as I could hear with
understanding. Another came from the
bedchamber of Philip
NII.
of Spain—a
grand high clock that tolled the hours
in that great hall beyond my door.
A little thing, in a case of carved
ivory, that ticked on a table near my
bed, Molierc had given to one of her
ancestors, and there were many others
of equal interest.
Her walls were adorned with art
treasures of the value of which I had
little appreciation those days. But I
remember there were canvasses of
Cofreggio and Rembrandt and Sir
Joshua Reynolds. She was, indeed, a
woman of fine taste, who had brought
her best to America for no one had a
doubt, in the time of which I am writ
ing, that the settlement of the Com
pagnie de New York would grow into
a great colony, with towns and cities
and fine roadways, and the full com
plement of high living. She had built
the Hermitage—that was the name of
the mansion—fine ..and splendid as it
was, for a mere temporary shelter
pending the arrival of those better
days.
She had a curious fad, this hermit
baroness of the big woods. She loved
nature and was a naturalist of no
poor attainments. Wasps and hornets
were the special study of this remark
able woman. There /were at least a
score of their nests on her front por
tico—big and little and some of them
oddly shaped. She hunted them in
wood and field. When she found a
nest she had it moved carefully after
nightfall, under a bit of netting, and
fastened somewhere about the gables.
Around the Hermitage were many
withered boughs and briers holding
cones of wrought fiber, each a citadel
of these uniformed soldiers of the air
and the poisoned arrow. They were
assembled in colonies of yellow, white,
blue, and black wasps, and white
faced hornets. She had no fear of
them, and, indeed, no one of the house
hold was ever stung to my knowledge.
I have seen her stand in front of her
door and feed them out of a saucer.
There were special favorites that
would light upon her palm, overrun
ning its pink hollow and gorging at
tha honey-drop.
rTo B4 Ceatlaued.]
IS HABIT OR SUSPICION.
Pill Buyers Have an Exasperating
Way of Counting Purchased
Pellets.
"Eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty
one said the man with the open pill
box in his hand, relates an exchange.
The drug clerk slammed down an
empty bottle with unnecessary force
"You people "vho take pellets and
tablets must be mighty suspicious
lot," he said "Half the time when I
make up a box ol them the customer
unwraps the package and counts them
right here beforo my face, and those
who don't count ihem here do it the
first thing when they got home. I
don't like it. It reflects upon my hon
esty. It looks as If people suspect that
I am not giving good measure. Of
course, that may not be the reason for
the counting. It may be just one of
those senseless habits—"
"It is," interrupted the customer
"At least, it is in my case. I didn't
mean anything by counting. I always
do it I have nj particular reason
for it"
"Then you'd better quit it," said the
clerk. "It makes vis fellows feel rather
uncomfortable and takes up a iot of
your time, besides."
RUSSIAN POLICE METHODS.
Exemplification of the System of Sup
pession in Force in the Czar's
Domain.
Behind the failure of The World's
Work to publish in its April number an
illustrated account of the St. Peters-
The victorious Japanese general wjio has brought the Russian army under
Gen Lmevitch to bay. and whose forces are pieparing to lay siege to Vladi
vostok.
DR. LEWELLYS FRANKLIN BARKER.
burg massacre is an interesting story of
the working of the Russian bureaucracy,
reports the New York Times. The edi
tors of the magazine cabled to Howard
Thompson, one of the best-known Amer
ican correspondents at the Russian
capital, to write the article, and he ac
cented. A week later he cabled: "Regret
pictures failed—All off."
In a letter to the editors Mr. Thomp
son explained. He said he got on the
trail of some photographs showing the
actual shooting of the populace. When
he got to the photographer's he found
that the police had been ahead of him
and had taken the photographs and
smashed the negatives. Mr. Thompson
went to Finland, leaving an associate to
get some additional pictures. When he
returned to St. Petersburg he found that
the photograhper's apartment had been
rifled by the police, and the man himself
was In the Peter and Paul fortress.
That la why there was no Illustrated
article.
Professor and head of the department of anatomy at the University ot
Chicago and the Rush Medical college, who has been appointed successor of
Dr. William Osier, who has gained such prominence by his advocacy of the
chloroforming of men over 60 years of age, and who has resigned from the
Johns Hopkins university to accept a professorship at Oxford university,
England.
SOME EXPENSIVE FLOWERS.
When Holland War Tulip-Mad and
Ownership of Bulbs Was Di
vided Into Shares.
The prices paid for a new variety of
rose recently in Paris, when single
buds sold for thousands of francs, re
call the high figures, says the New
York Herald, Ahich tulips once
fetched. In Holland in one year the
sales aggregated 10 000,000 florins. Hol
land went tulip mad. The bulbs were
quoted on the stock exchange. Own
ership in them was divided into shares.
Speculators sold them short At one
time more tulips were sold than ex
isted. At Lille a brewer sold his trade
and goodwill in exchange for a bulb,
which was thereafter known as the
brewery tulip, in Amsterdam a father
gave one by way of dower with his
child. Thereafter the variety was
known as the marriage-of-my-daugh
ter. At Rotterdam a hungry sailor
happening on a few mistook them for
onions and ate ihem up. The repast
became as famous as Cleopatra's pearls
and probably exceeded it in cost At
The Hague a poor fellow managed to
raise a black tulip The rumor of that
vegetable marvel spread Presently he
was visited by a deputation from a
syndicate. For .hat ewe lamb of his
the deputation offered 1.000 florins,
which he refused. He was offered 10
000 florins Still lie refused. Cascades
of gold were poured before his resist
ing eyes. Finally, tormented and
tempted, he succumbed. There and
then the deputation trampled that
tulip under their teet. Afterward if
appeared that the syndicate had al-
ready grown a gem precisely similar
and. unable to bear the idea that a
rival existed, had authorized the depu
tation if needful to offer ten times the
amount which it paid.
America's Growing Navy.
The United States in 1904 launched a
heavier tonnage in warships than any
other country in the world. Its launches^
aggregated 175,456 tons, distributed be
tween 14 vessels. England launched 31
vessels with a displacement of 125,700
tons. Our own heavy tonnage was due
to the fact that seven of our vessels were
battleships of over 15,000 tons and three
cruisers of 13,000 tons each. It is prog
ress of this sort in our navy which gives
the United States the commanding posi
tion which it possesses and on the ap
proach of peace in the east a position
which it is using In order to protect the
interests of the world, insure tranquilli
ty in the future and preserve China from
spoliation.—Philadelphia Press.
The Bad Boy and His Dad Call on Xing'
Edward and Almost Settled
the Irish Question.
BY HON. GEORGE W. PECK.
(Ex-Oovci nor of Wisconsin, l'ormeilj pub
lisher of "Peck's Sun," author of
"Peck's Bad Boy," etc.)
(Copjlight, 1904, 1)} Joseph B. Bowles.)
London, H'england.—Dear Uncle Ezra:
The worst is over, and dad and I have
both touched a king. Not the way you
think, touching a king for a hand-out, or
borrowing his loose change, the way you
used to touch dad when you bad to pay
for 3'our goods, but just taking hold of
his hand, and shaking it in good old
United States fashion.
The American minister arranged it for
us. He told somebody*that Peck's Bad
Boy and his dad were in town, and just
wanted to size up a king, and see how he
averaged up with United States politi*
cians, and the king set an hour tor us
to call.
Well, you'd a dide to see dad fix up.
Everybody said, when we showed our
card at the hotel, notifying us that we
were expected at Marlboro House at such
a time, that we would be expected to put
on plenty of dog. That is what an
American from Kalamazoo, who sells
breakfast food, said, and the hotel peo
ple said we would be obliged to wear
knee breeches, and dancing pumps, and
silk socks, and all that kind of rot, and
men's furnishers began to call upon us
to take our measure for clothes, buc
when they told us how much it would
cost, dad kicked. He* said he had a golf
suit he had made in Oshkosh at the time
ot the tournament, that everjone in
Oshkosh said was out ot sight, and was
good enough for any king-, and so he
rigged up in it, and I hired a suit at a
masquerade place, and dad hired a coat,
kind of red, to go with his golf pants, and
Eocks, and he wore canvas tennis shoes.
I looked like a picture out of a fourteenth
century book, but dad looked like a
clown in a circus. One of dad's calves
made him look as though he had a milk
leg, cause the padding would not stay
around where the calf ought to be, but
worked around towards his shin. We
went to Marlboro House in a hansom cab,
and all the way there the driver kept
looking down from the hurricane deck,
through the scuttle hole, to see if w«
were there yet. and he must have talked
READY TO SEE KING EDWARD.
with otfier cab drivers in sign langua
nbout us. for every driver kept along
with us, looked at us and laughed, as
though we eie a wild west show.
On the way to the king's residence it
was all I could do to keep dad braced up
to go through the ordeal. He was brave
enough before we got the invitation,
and told what he was going to say to the
king, and you would think he wasn't
afraid of anybody, but when we got near
er to the house, and dad thought of go
ing up to the throne, and seeing a king
in all his glory, surrounded by his hun
dreds of lords and dukes and things, a
crown on his head, and an ermine cloaii
trimmed with red velvet, and a six-quart
milk pan full of diamonds, some of them
as big as a chunk of alum, dad eakened.
and wanted to give, the whole thing uj
and go to a matinee, but I wouldn't have
it. and told him if he didn't get into
the king row now that I would shake
him right there in London and start i:y
business as a Claude Duval highway
man and hold up stage coaches, and be
hung on Tyburn Tree, as I used to read
about in my history of Sixteen-String
Jack and other English highwaymen.
Dad didn't want to see the family dis
graced, so he let the cab man drive on.
but he said if we got out* of this visit to
royalty alive, it was the last tommv rot
he would indulge me in.
Well, old man, it is like having an op
eration for appendicitis, you feel better
when ou come out from under the influ
ence of the chloroform, and the doctor
shows you what they took out of you,
and you feel that you are going to live,
unless you grow another vermiform
appendix. We were driven into a sort
of Central park, and up to a building
that was big as a lot of exposition build
ings, and the servants took us in charge
and walked us through long rooms cov
ered with pictures as big as side show
pictures at a circus, but instead of snake
charmers and snakes, and wild men of
Borneo, and sword swallow ers, the
king's pictures were about war, and
women without much clothes on from
the belt up. Gosh, but some of those pic
tures made you think you could hear the
roar of battle and smell gun powder, and
dad acted as though he wanted to git
right down on the marble floor and dig
a rifle pit big enough to git into.
They walked us around like they do
when you are being initiated into a se
cret society, only they didn't sing, "Here
comes the Lobster," and hit you with
a dried bladder. The servants that were
conducting us laffed. I'had never seen
an Englishman laff before, and it was
the most interesting thing I saw In Lon
don Most Englishmen look sorry
about something, as though some dear
friend died every day, and their faces
aeem to have grown that way. So when
they laff it seems as though the wrinkles
would stay there, unless they treated
their faces with massage. They were
laughing at dad's dislocated calf, and
his snared appearance, as though he
was going to receive the thirty-second
degree, and didn't know whether they
were going to throw htm over a precipice
or pull him up to the roof by the hind
legs. We passed a big hall clock, and
struck Just when we were near it, and
of all the "hark from the tombs" sounds
I ever heard, that clock took the cake.
Dad thought it sounded like a death
knell, and he would have welcomed the
turning in of afire alarm as a sound that*
meant life everlasting, beside that dole
ful sound.
After we had marched about three
mile heats, and passed the chairs of the
noble grand and the senior warden, and
the exalted ruler, we came to a bronze
Joor as big as the gate to a cemetery,
and the grand conductor gave us
a few instructions about how to
back out fifteen feet from the pres
ence of the king, when we were
dismissed, and then he turned us over
to a little man who was a grand cham
bermaid, I understood the fellow to say.
THE KING AND DAD HA.VJ5 A N AF
FECTING TIME
The door opened, and we went in, ana
dad's misplaced calt was wobbling as
though he had locomotor attacks-}
Well there were a dozen or so fellows
standing around, and they all had on
some kind of uniforms, with gold badges
on their breasts, and in the midst of
them was a little, sawed-off fat fellow,
not taller than five feet six, but a perfecr
picture of the cigar advertisements of
America fer a cigar named after the
king. I expected to see a king as big
as Long John Wentworth. of Chicago,
a great bfg fellow that could take a small
man by the collar and throw him over a
house, and I felt hurt at the small size
of the king of Great Britain, but, gosh, he
is just like a Yankee, when you get the
formality shook off.
We bowed and dad made a courtesy
like an old woman, and the king came
forward with a smile that ought to be
Imitated by every Englishman. They
all imitate his clothes and his hats and
his shoes, but he seems to be the only
Englishman that smiles. May be it is
patented, and nobody has a right to smile
without paj ing a royalty, but the good
natured smile of King Edward is worth
more than stomach bitters, and the Eng
lish ought to be allowed to copy it.
There is no more solemn thing than a
party of Englishmen together in Ameri
ca, unless it is a party of speculators
that are short on wheat, or a gathering
of defeated politicians when the elec
tion returns come in. But the king is as
jolly as though he had not a note com
ing due at the bank, and you would think
he was a good, common citizen, after
working hours, at a round beer tabl*.
with two schooner loads in the hold, and
another schooner on the way,
Nfrothing
over the top of the stein. That is the feel
ing I had for the king when he came up
to us and greeted dad as the father of the
bad boy. and patted me on the shoulder
and said: "And so ou are the boy that
has made more trouble than any boy
in the world, and had more fun than any
body, and made them all stand around
and wonder what was coming nexf.
You're a wonder. Strange the Ameri
can people never thought of killing you."
I said essir. and tried to look innocent,
and then the king told dad to sit down,
and for me to come and stand by his
knee, and by ginger, when he patted me
on the cheek, and his soft hand squeezed
my hand, and he looked into my eyes
with the most winning expessicc, I did
not wonder that all the women were in
love with him. and that all Englishmen
would die for him.
He asked dad all about America, its
institutions, the president, and every
thing. and dad just was so flustered that
he couldn't say much, until the king
said something about the war between
the States, in which the southern states
achieved a victory. I don't know
whether the king said that just to wake
dad up, cause dad had a grand army but
ton on his coat, but dad choked up a lit
tle, and then began to explode, a little at
a time, like a bunch of firecrackers, and
DAD WEN OVER BACKWARDS AN
STRUCK ON HIS GOLF PANTS.
finally he went off all in a bunch. Dad
said: "Look a here, Mr. King, some
one has got you all balled up about that
war. I know, because I was in it, and
now the north and the south are United,
and can whip any country that wants to
fight a champion, and will go out and
get a reputation, by gosh!"
The king laughed at touching dad off.
and asked dad what was the matter of
America and Great Britain getting to
gether and- making all nations know
when they had better keep their places,
and quit talking about fighting. Dad
said he never would consent to America
andGreatBrttaingettingtogetherto fight
any country until Ireland got justice and
was ready to come into camp on an
equality, and the king said he would an
swer for the Irishmen of Ireland if dad
would pledge the trlshmea of America,
cause we had about as many Irishmen
In America as he had in Ireland, anddad
said if the king would rive Ireland what
she asked for, he would see that th«
Irishmen in America would sing God
Save the King. I guess dad and the
king would have settled the Irish ques
tio in about fifteen minutes, and signed
a treaty, only a servant brought in
two-quart bottle of champagne, and
dad and the king hadn't drank a quart
apiece before dad started to sing "My
Country 'Tis of Thee, Sweet Land of Lib
ertee," and the king sang "God Save tho
King," and, by thunder, it was tbe same
tune, and tears came into dad's eyes, and)
the king took out his handkerchief and
wiped his nose, and I bellered right out,
and the king rose and offered a toast to
America and everjbody in it, and they
swallered it, and dad said there was
enough juice left in the bottle for one
more round, and he proposed a toast to
all the people ot Great Britain, including
the Irish, and the king who loved them,
and dow she went, and they were stand
ing up. And I told dad it was time to go.
Say, it was great, Uncle Ezra, and I
wish j'ou could have been there, and
there had been another bottle. The only
thing that happened to mar the reunion
of dad and the king, was when we were
going out backwards, bowing. There
was a little hassock back of me, and I
kicked it back of dad. and when dad'a
heels"struck it, he went over backwards
and struck on his golf pants, and dad
said: "El, 'Ennery, Fave broken my
bloomink back, but who cares," and
when the servants picked dad up and
took him out in the hall, and marched us
to the entrance, dad got in the cab, gave
the grand hailing sign of distress,
started to sing God save something or
other and went to sleep in the cab. and I
took him to the hotel. Yours,
HENNERY.
CORN BREAD IN AMERICA.
Not So Common an Article of Food
Nowadays as It Was Fifty
Yeais Ago.
Our exports of corn to European
countries have risen from 24,000,000
bushels in 1888 to about 300,000,000
bushels at the present time, and to-day
Belgium at least is using more Incian
corn per capita as food than the United
States, in which it is a great name
cereal, says the Birmingham Age
Herald. In Belgium the bakeries put
about 25 per cent, of corn flour in the
bread they make, and such bread is read
ily sold lower than wheat or rye loaves.
It is considered more nutritious ana
more easily digestible. In Germany the
favorite loaf consists of one-third corn
and two-thirds rje, and a five-pound
loaf thus made is sold at a saving ot
about 25 per cent.
The change in the European bread
supply was started by C. J. Murphy, who
was sent abroad as a commissioner by
the department of agriculture. He be
gan the propaganda 1888, and he
maintained it until the use of corn as
food was well started and even estab
lished, and to-day Europeans are more
familiar with corn bread than Amer
icans themselves. Mr. Murphy asserts
that both in Belgium and Ireland the
per capita consumption of corn as hu
man food is higher than it is in the
United States. The value of the In
dian corn as food is not appreciated in
this country. Years ago children
thrived and grew strong through the
consumption of johnny cake, ash cake,
hominv and pudding, but in recent
years cornmeal has fallen into com
parative disuse, although it is cheaper,
more wholesome and more digestible
than wheat flour. The preparation of
corn for the'table can be more varied'
tian that of wheat, and yet for some
reason Indian corn is not freely used.
Mr. Murphy says the consumption of
American corn in crowded Belgium is
higher than it is in this country. It is
difficult to account for the dislike of this
country for corn in its various forms.
We grow it, and we should not look
with an unfavorable eye on our own
excellent and abundant product
The subject deserves careful attenti on,
with a view to a reinstatement of Amer
ican corn to the place it held on the
tables of our ancestors. Corn was not
a rejected article of food a century ago,
and it was freely used as late as 50
years ago. We may have progressed
backward in this matter. Mr. Murphy
thinks we have.
Belies for Sale.
In strong contrast to the ceremonies
lately taking place in Belgrade is the
pilgrimage to London and Paris of»the
ill-fated Queen Draga's nephew, a
young Servian officer. George Petro
vich, who is endeavoring to dispose of
the Alencon lace wedding gown an*
much of the jewelry that belonged to
his aunt. He was on the black "list
list" on that fateful June 11, and owed
his life to the fact that the soldiers genu
to arrest him mistook his address,
Novel Use of Bays.
A novel application of the Roentgen
rays to tbe testing of submarine cables
has recently been made in Europe, and
has been found useful in determining
defects and imperfections which might
cause a break-down of the cable and
involve considerable expense for re
pairs. Foreign substances, air bubbles
or bad joints in the rubber or gutta
percha insulation are readily detected
and may be remedied at the works.—
Science.
The Present Duty.
Let us do our ,dut in our shop or our
kitchen, the market, the street, the of
fice the school, the home, just as faith
fully as if we stqod in )he front rank
of some great battle, and we knew that
victory for mankind depended on OUT
bravery, strength and skill. When we
do that, the humblest of us will be serv
ing in that great army which achieves
the welfare of the world.—Theodore
Parker.
It Didn't Burn There.
N
"You're always talking about the
'poetis fire,' she said. "I wish you'd
put a bushel of genius into that empty
grate there, and see if the children will
be able to get any warmth out of it!"
And then he went out into the cold
streets of the city and wrote a rhymed
advertisement for a basket of coal.—
Atlanta Constitution.
Some Easy Ones.
The Alhambra Music hall, London,
placed at its door a box with a slot in
it for the receipt of suggestions from
patrons for the name of a new exhibi
tion to be given. When the box was
Anally opened a number of coins worn
found In it, contributed by people whe
thought it had been placed at the door
for some charitable purpoa*,^ ..-f
"-1
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