The Frostburg spirit., October 09, 1913, Image 5

About The Frostburg spirit. (Frostburg, Md.) 1913-1915

Image provided by: University of Maryland, College Park, MD

                
XX~\ IKO® WY
( ( ) ( A STORY OF
( V FREEING OF A O j>
V ) %> Lawrence Perry f ''f* 'Jy) )) //)
Alrihe.r l>f'l>-ri f
SYNOPSIS.
Lieutenant Holton Is detached from his
command in the navy at the outset of the
Spanish-American war and assigned to
important secret service duty. While din
ing at a Washington hotel he detects a
waiter in the act of robbing a beautiful
young lady. She thanks him for his serv
ice and gives her name as Miss La Tossa.
a Cuban patriot. Later he meets her at
a ball. A secret service man warns Hol
ton that the girl is a spy. Senor La
Tossa chides his daughter for her failure
to secure important information from
Holton. She leaves for her home in
Cuba. Holton is ordered to follow her.
They meet on the Tampa train. Miss
La Tossa tells Holton she is a Cuban
spy and expresses doubt regarding the
sincerity of the United States. Holton is
ordered to remain in Tampa to guard the
troop transports.
CHAPTER V.—Continued.
The page fled, and Holton, with a
short laugh, strolled over to the
clerk’s desk.
“Who Is this man Rodriguez who
sends peremptory messages to guests,
of the hotel?” he inquired.
“A curious duffer,” was the reply.
“Rich as get out, and very exclusive.
He very seldom comes out of his room.
Did he send for you?”
“Yes, he did me the honor. By the
way, I wish you’d have my junk taken
from ray room and put abroad the
Gnat; will you?”
“Certainly, sir.” Having given the
order, Holton paid his bill, and was
about to go down to his boat when a
negro tapped him on the arm.
Holton turned suddenly, his nose al
most colliding with a note which the
man held out almost at arm’s length.
“This for me?” he asked.
“Ya-as, suh.”
Holton took it, broke open the enve
lope, and glanced hastily over the
contents. Then, with a frown, he
turned to a boy.
"Say, youngster,” he commanded,
“take me right up to Mr. Rodriguez’s
room, will you?”
On reaching the third floor, the boy
!ed the way down the hall, stopping
before a door at the end of the corri
dor.
“Here it is, sir.”
“All right.” Holton gave the lad a
coin and rattled his knuckles against
the panel.
The door was opened by an intelli
gent-appearing Cuban, who conducted
the caller into a luxuriously furnished
reception room and asked him to sit
down. Soon a door opened and a tali,
sallow man, handsome in a languid
Latin way, 'confronted him.
“Ah, Senor Holton. You honor me,"
he murmured.
“Then you are Mr. Rodrfguez?”
asked Holton abruptly.
“Yes, yes,” responded the man, who
&'* \Q
A Tapped Him on the Arm.
was clad in a well-made suit of crash
with a crimson sash about his waist.
“I repeat, I am flattered at your visit”
“I am glad of that,” Holton re
joined stiffly; “but I come in response
to a note stating that matters of in
terest to a Miss La Tossa were press
ing. Will you do me the kindness to
enlighten me as to the manner in
which my acquaintance with Miss La
Tossa interests you?”
The Spaniard bowed. “You are di
rect, like all Americans,” he said.
“Well, be it so.”
He took from a table a bottle of
very rare Abuelo Oloroso, and poured
RULING RACE MUCH WORRIED
>
Caste Question in India Threatens to
Make Trouble for the Britishers
In Control of Country.
The spirit of social justice has
reached India, and, as a consequence,
it is becoming difficu’t. to distinguish
genuine Vaisyas from %eir Sundra in
feriors. Many Vaisya'- castes, in their
turn, are claiming to lie Kshtris, and
are openly wearing the sacred thread
of the twice born. Among the latter,
the tendency to asrumo a higher
rank than one was bom with mani
fests itself in the enaeavor of the sub
uastes to break into the exclusive
ness that surrounds the highest. “If
this process continues.,’’ remarks the
Calcutta Englishman, “a time must
soon come when all the native in
habitants of India, excluding the Mo
hammedans, will pretend to Brahmin
blood.” It is difficult for a dweller in
the new world to be greatly disturbed
over this possibility, but one can un
derstand the hard position of a west
ern government which must be care
ful in conferring titles of office upon
a little in a glass. He pushed it
toward Holton.
“I drink,” he said, smilingly bril
liantly, “to Miss La Tossa, and may
she have a most comfortable trip on
the Gnat.”
Holton left his glass poised.
“What on earth are you talking
about!” he cried.
“Miss La Tossa, as you know,” the
Spaniard said, “is in Tampa.”
“Yes, I know that,” said Holton.
“She came down on my train.”
“It is not good for her to be here.”
“The climate?” queried Holton, dis
ingenuously.
“No, not the elimate,” was the re
ply, so sharp and so spirited, so much
in contrast to Rodriguez’s previous
manner of speech that the naval offi
cer started. “Not the climate. She
is engaged in activities here that your
government Regards as most perni
cious.”
“Yes, and your own government?”
came back Holton.
“My government,” Rodriguez smiled
genially, “happens, to be your govern
ment.”
So saying, he handed Holton a pa
per which, as the officer read It, con
vinced him beyorid question or cavil
that Senor Rodriguez was none other
than an attache of the United States
State Department, whose name was
anathema to every Spaniard or loyal
Cuban.
He was, in sooth, none other than
Ramon del Rey, a spy, with headquar
ters in Washington, who, although a
naturalized American, had done more
effective, if unobtrusive, work for
Cuba Libre than most other Cuban
patriots rolled into one.
Holton rose aad, with a smile of
genuine pleasure, thrust out his hand.
“I have heard of you,” he said; “and
I’m glad to know you.”
“Thank you. I, too, have heard, of
you. But to business. Miss La Tossa
must not stay here, and yet her re
moval must be brought about quietly,
for various reasons. It is best that
Miss La Tossa be transported at once
to Cuba on the Gnat, very quietly and
unostentatiously, where agents of mine
will meet her and conduct her to her
estate in the province of Santiago.
Once there, I promise you she’ll not
leave in a hurry. Your orders will
conn, to you from Washington within a
.veiy fo>*L_bour3. In ti> :l meuntim'e I
suggest you have everything ready.”
“I see—and Miss La Tossa?”
“Miss La Tossa will be escorted
aboard the Gnat at seven o’clock pre
cisely, and now I bid you good day
and thank you.”
’“‘Thank you,” and Holton left, won
dering if the man realized all he was
thanking him for.
He lost no time in making his way
to the Gnat, where he astonished
Conroy and Howard by summoning
them to the cabin.
“Is there any way,” he said, “in
which this room can be made more
comfortable for a young lady?”
Neither of the two men spoke, re
garding Holton with open-mouthed as
tonishment.
“It’s this way,” smiled Holton, “the
Gnat’s been ordered to take a young
Cuban woman over to Cuba, and- —and
I want her to be comfortable.”
The faces of the two men radiated
curiosity, but Hoiton said nothing fur
ther to enlighten them.
Promptly at seven o’clock that
evening a closed carriage drove rap
idly down the long wharf and stopped
abreast the gangway leading to the
Gnat. The door was flung open, and
del Rey and an American, their arms
linked through those of Miss La Tossa,
descended and without a jvord walked
down the plank and aboard the tor
pfe boat.
Holton met them by the conning
tower and lifted his cap.
“How do you do, Miss La Tossa?”
he said, smiling in greeting.
She flashed a vague look at him,.and
lowered her eyes without speaking.
Del Rey bowed in a courtly man
ner to the girl. “I trust you will have
a pleasant voyage, and I beg to apol
ogize for my seeming rudeness.”
The captive deigned no reply, and
turned her back as the two men re
traced their steps up the gangway.
A few minutes later the diminutive
warship was churning her way out
through the bay.
Holton turned to the girl, who stood
disconsolately, viewing the receding
shore.
“I am sorry, Miss La Tossa, but you
natives lest it upset agelong custom.
What England does is to recognize
differences of this sort by giving or
withholding the style of “his high
ness,” according to the circumstances
of the case. Thus a ruling chief of
Charcoli, if there were one, would be
called “H. H. the Maharajah of Char
coli.” A mere prominent citizen
whom the government raised to pow
er, however, would have to be con
tent with some such designation as
“Maharajah Bishen Sing Rawat, of
Charcoli.” But somehow does
not suffice, especially when the prom
inent citizen takes pains to sign him
self “Maharajah of Charcoli,” and his
private secretary puts “H. H.” be
fore the signature.
Bar to Ants.
If one is housekeeping in the coun
try and bothered by an attack of ants
upon the bread box, take a common
piece of chalk, such as children use
for writing on a blackboard, and draw
a ring around the bread box with it.
The same kind of chalk ring will keep
them out of closets where dresses are
hanging or away from shelves.
will recognize, of course, that I am
doing nothing hut obeying orders,
which are to see that you are very
comfortable and agreeably enter
tained until you reach Cuba.”
She evidently had determined not
to talk to her captor, but changed her
mind with womanlike suddenness.
“I shall thank you if I am com
fortable, but I shall thank you still
more if you give over any idea of
entertaining me. You may be sure
that the less I see of you the better I
shall be pleased.”
“If you will follow me, Miss La
Tossa,” he said, with sudden stiffen
ing of manner, “I’ll show you your
cabin.”
The dark came rolling across the
sea. It was a wonderful night, a night
spangled with constellations and undu
lating black velvet waters, which
picked up the little torpedo craft, hold
ing her high and then sending her
gliding silently down long inclines, at
the bottom of which she seemed to
nestle a moment before her screw
kicked her up another quivering hill.
Some time later the lights of a craft
which had been following astern of the
Gnat began to creep closer and closer
aboard, and dark clouds of smoke, bil
lowing from three'squat funnels, blot
ted out the northeastern horizon.
Holton saw the vessel, too, and eas
ily recognized her as a torpedo boat
destroyer. His only doubt was as to
her nationality.
This was speedily settled, for sud
denly Ardois lights began to blink
from the bridge, interpreting which
Holton learned that the destroyer
Bainbridge wished to speak to the
Gnat.
In a few minuter the Bainbridge
swished up and the sharp voice of
Lieutenant-Commander Jameson sound
ed from the bridge.
“On board the Gnat!”
“Aye, Aye!” yelled Horton.
There followed a silence which last
ed until the destroyer slid her high,
sharp bow and conical forward deck
alongside the little torpedo boat.
Jameson jumped aboard and after re
turning Holton’s salute he said for
mally:
“I have orders to take a Miss La
Tossa from the Gnat and land her
at —well, never mind where.”
“Very good, sir. Any orders for
me?"
“Yes, here they are.” Jameson took
an envelope from his overcoat-pocket
and handed it to Holton. “Now, then,
I’ll take the girl.”
But the girl, in fact, did not wait
to be taken. She stepped forward
most gracefully, and addressing Jame
son, said:
“I am ready; I am quite happy at
my change of prisons and my shift of
jailers.”
“Ha, ha!” laughed the prosaic
Jameson, nudging Holton in the ribs,
and offering his arm to the girl who
walked up a small ladder to the deck
of the destroyer without so much as
a glance at Holton.
With a blast of her siren the Bain
bridge shot on her Way to Cuba, while
the Gnat made a long sweep and
turned upon her course.
While this maneuver was in prog
ress Holton, still flushing with vexa
tion, ripped open the envelope and
read the latest phase of what he had
come to regard as a game of battle
dore and shuttlecock.
Shorn of technical verbiage, the or
ders which were signed by the new
assistant secretary, Allen, instructed
Holton to lose himself and the Gnat
among the small isolated keys of the
coast until such time as the transports
were gathered at Port Tampa, when
he was then to guard them from night
attacks which might come nneaking
in under cover of the dsxknwss from
seaward.
CHAPTER VI.
Action Indeed.
Holton's orders were to keep himself
and the Gnat hidden, and this he did
so effectually that to all intents and
purposes he might just as well have
gone down with his little craft and
crew in Nicholas Channel.
At length, when he had begun to
think he was immured for life in this
blazing little byway, came the welcome
orders to proceed to Port Tampa,
there to carry out instructions already
: in his possession, namely, the protec
tion of transports from attack by wa
ter. With light hearts the three men
ADVOCATES TAX ON BABIES
Frenchwoman Would Penalize Par
ents of “Little Stranger,” but
Her Idea Is Not New.
1 A tax on babies!
That is the remedy proposed by
Mme. du Morier of Versailles, France.
Mme. du Morier declares that if par
ents had to pay a tax on babies peo
ple would think more carefully be
' fore bringing “little strangers” Into
1 the world, and that it would be one
' step forward to “better babies.”
This would not be the first tax on
1 babies, however, for in 1695 there
' was an actual tax on babies in Eng
land. A tax of two shillings had to
be paid at the birth of each baby.
This fell very heavily upon the par
ents, for at that time a shilling
; meant much more than it does today.
The nobility, too, felt the burden of
i the taxes, for each baby was taxed
according to rank, and the birth of a
child of a duke added thirty pounds
i to the revenue.
i > Beards were once the subject of
taxation. In the time of Peter the
THE FROSTBURG SPIRIT, FROSTBURG, MD.
got their craft under way, ran up the
bay, and in good time drew in under
the counter of a steamship, lying near
the end of the long slip.
It was as though a magician’s wand
had been waved over the port. Along
the slip lay transport after transport,
nearly a score of them, the black
smoke of others draping the horizon
in long, grimy clouds. Freight trains
were rumbling u{i and down the tracks,
and officers of various departments of
the army, their shirts open at the
throat, dusty, sweaty, hot, hurried
everywhere.
“It surely looks like business,” chuc
kled Holton as he slipped on his uni
form coat over a marine’s shirt
and prepared to visit the hotel.
Life at the hotel was made more
brilliant by the arrival of Shafter and
his staff, but Holton, who had had all
the brilliancy and inactivity he want
ed, found himself praying fervently for
orders that would send him out as
officer on one of the vessels of Ad
miral Sampson’s North Atlantic
Squadron. But po such orders came,
and Holton had just about attuned his
mind to a weary grind to last at least
several months longer, when some
thing occurred to change very materi
ally the attitude of the government in
regard to the movement of the troops
as Tampa.
In short, Admiral Sampson cabled
that after a mysterious voyage across
the Atlantic ocean and Caribbean sea,
Admiral Cervera and his squadron
of battleships and cruisers were bot
tled up in Santiago. He could not at
tack them because of the forts and
mines, and he requested that troops
be sent at once to co-operate with the
navy from the land side.
It was then that the Secretary of
War wired General Shafter to proceed
forthwith to Cuba.
Flat-cars laden with General Ran
dolph’s artillery, rumbled down the
slip, and the guns were hoisted into
yawning ports in the sides of the trans
ports; provisions, supplies of all sorts
bore them company, and no one doubt
ed any longer that at last the army
had received Its bid to the field of bat
tle.
A new strain was put upon Holton,
for now, if at any time, attempts at the j
destruction of the transports would be j
i made,-tbera being no r secrecy what
ever as to the intentions of the United
States government. Then arrived the
day when the boys in blue came in
from Lakeland, and, with cheers and
shouts, marched aboard the long line
“I Am Quite Happy at My Change of
Prisons.”
of transports, from whose funnels
clouds of smoke were belching.
Holton’s crew had been augmented
by four extra seamen, sent to him from
Key West, and each night they stood
guard with him on various parts of the
deck, rifles in their hands and navy
Colts strapped aSout their waists.
Toward midnight most of the noise,
the shouting of orders, the rattling of
tackle, the tramp of feet, died away.
Holton gave Conroy. the wheel, and
walked along the deck, speaking to
each of the men as he passed.
“Keep .a sharp lookout. Challenge
anything that looks suspicious, and
shoot without hesitation if there’s no
reply.”
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
I Great each man was taxed one hun
dred rubles if he wore a beard.
Queen Elizabeth put a tax upon
beards, too, and each man was taxed
three farthings for a beard of a fort
night’s growth.
Literary Life Embraces 82 Years.
It would be hard to parallel the
achievements of M. Francois Fertiault,
the latest chevalier of the Legion of
Honor, who published his first vol
ume in 1830, when he was seventeen,
and his latest in 1912. There appear
to be only two other instances of a
centenarian writer, and neither of
these could show a literary life extend
ing over eighty-two years. Michel
Chevreul, who died in 1889 at the age
of one hundred and three, issued his
earliest publication at the age of thir
ty-seven and his latest sixty years af
terward. Miss Caroline White, whose
death occurred last September in her
101st year, came nearer than this to
the record of M. Fertiault. She began
writing for the monthly magazines
when she was twenty-two, and con
tinued her literary labors until within
a few months of her death.
■
Ray Caldwell is developing into a
regular slabman.
* * #
Manager Chance believes he"has a
real find in Pitcher McHale.
* * *
The Pirates have played only one
double bill at home this season.
* *
Fred Falkenberg will manage bowl
ing alleys in Cleveland this winter.
* * *
Chance says he feels that the
dark days for the Highlanders are
over.
* *
Houston is a repeater in the Texas
league, having won both the 1912 and
1913 pennants.
* *
Jimmy Isaminger of Philadelphia
says that Ping Bodie is Connie
Mack's Nemesis.
* * *
Jake Stahl cannot play baseball
because the arch of his foot has
broken down.
* * *
Burns, the Montreal catcher with
the Phillies, is a little fellow, but
looks like a find.
* • •
Both Lefty Leifleld and Orvie Over
all are doing fine work for the San
Francisco Seals.
* * •
Chief Meyers of< the Giants has
made more errors than any other
backstop in the league.
* * *
The reports from Boston that Mc-
Aleer and Mcßoy will have to sell
their holdings refuse to down.
* * *
Miller Huggins, the leader of the
lowly Cards, has hopes of having a
great pitching staff next season.
* *
The Detroit club is said to be
angling for the services of George
Stovall to replace Del Gainer on first.
* * *
The Boston Red Sox believe that
T erry Turner of the Naps Is the best
third baseman in the Business today.
* * •
The chances are that there will be
no changes in the managerial roster
of the National league for next year.
• * *
Many baseball scribes believe that
Jack Barry is the most important cog
that the Connie Mack machine owns.
* *
The Toronto club of the Internation
al league will train with the New
York Giants next spring, at Marlin,
Tex.
* * *
In a recent game against the Yan
| kees at Washington, WaltAr Johnson
! retired the side on four pitched
balls.
* * *
Manager Chance of the Yankees has
practically made up his mind to train
his squad at Houston, Tex., next
spring.
* * *
A St. Louis scribe says the Browns
are going to rise next year. So are
the Cardinals. Next year is like to
morrow.
•
Manager Carlton Molesworth of the
Birmingham club of the Southern
league has signed to manage the team
in 1914.
* *
Barney Dreyfuss, Pirate owner, will
not permit any of his players to ac
company the Giants and Sox on their
world's tour.
* • •
Billy Grayson, who started In a
short time ago to rip some of the
magnates up the back, has quit all
of a sudden.
• * *
Even with a weak team behind him,
Pitcher Ray Caldwell of the High
landers has done remarkable hurling
this season.
* * •
Manager Mack is still purchasing
young talent He has bought Pitch
er Waring of the Saratoga team of
Troy, N. Y.
• • •
McGraw believes that Jack Murray,
his right-fielder, has as good a throw
ing arm as any gardener in the Na
tional league.
* * *
Larry Lajoie has been a “bean ball
target’’ this season. Larry has had
the misfortune to get in the way of
12 pitched balls while standing at
bat.
• • *
The Mackmen, in Struck and Danny
and Eddie Murphy, have the only .300
outfield in the country. Mclnnis,
Collins and Baker make one shy of
a .300 infield.
• *
George Davis, at one time one of
the best inflelders in the big leagues,
considers Walter Johnson about the
smoothest piece of baseball machinery
he has ever seen.
* * •
Ned Egan is making quite a repu
tation as a minor league manager.
Three successive times has Egan and
his Ottumwa team copped the pen
nant in the Central association.
* * *
George Davis, at one time one of
the best infielders in the big leagues,
considers Walter Johnson about the
smoothest piece of baseball machin
ery he has ever seen.
* * *
There are a number of players,
mostly pitchers, who are named the
same as automobiles. Here is a list
of them: Baker, Thomas, Wood, Benz,
White, Ford, Mitchell, Cole, Chalmers,
Smith, Pierce, Packard and Jack
son.
* • •
When Eddie Plank was asked the
other day if he had enemies he im
mediately replied: “Yes, I have an
enemy. Age is my only enemy." Ed
die admits that Father Time is creep
ing up on him.
OWNER OF THE WHITE SOX
Charles Albert Comiskey, president
and owner of the Chicago White Sox,
was born in Chicago, Aug. 15, 1858.
The “Old Roman,” as Comiskey is af
fectionately known, began his base
ball career in 1878 with the Dubuque,
la., team. In 1882 he joined the St.
Louis Browns, then in the American
association, and in 1883 he was made
manager of the team. In 1885-1886
the Browns, under his management,
defeated the Chicago White Stockings
for the world's championship. Comis
key remained with St. Louis until
1890, when he took charge of the
Players’ league club in Chicago. He
returned to St. Louis in 1891, and in
1892 went to Cincinnati, where he
managed the Reds until 1895. That
year he placed a Western league
team in St. Paul, transferring it to
Chicago in 1900 and joining the Amer
ican league. Under Comiskey’s own
ership the Chicago White Sox have
won three American league cham
pionships and one world’s champion
ship. As a first baseman Comiskey
had no superior, and as a big league
magnate he is hailed everywhere as
the prince of club owners.
Tris Speaker is the best outfielder
in the American league, says Joe
Jackson. “He can do anything," adds
the Cleveland demon.
* * •
Connie Mack has claimed the Amer
ican league pennant for next year by
saying he expects to have the best
team of his career next year.
* * *
First Baseman Duggan, in a game
between Decatur and Quincy at
Quincy on August 28, had but one put
out in the nine innings of play.
*
Clyde Engle of the Red Sox will go
to Cuba this winter to manage a team
at Matanzas. He may take several
players from the states with him.
SPORTING
WORLD
There are 59,499 stallions regis
tered.
* * *
Berkeley (Cal.) society women
have organized a polo team.
* * •
Boston and Washington, D. C., are
to have new athletic clubs called the
Irish-American A. C.
• • •
Honus Wagner’s Carnegie basket
ball team will hold a franchise in the
West Penn league of Pittsburgh.
• • •
Duluth public schools will compete
in sectional football leagues, the two
winners battling for the champion
ship.
• •
“Tol” Pendleton, the ex-Princeton
star athlete, will coach the University
of North Carolina football eleven this
season.
• • •
Yale will construct a 200-foot long
artificial hockey rink on the college
grounds.
* • *
The sixth annual Middle West
Bowling association tournament will
open in St. Louis next Thanksgiving
day.
* • •
W. H. Walker has refused an offer
of $150,000 for the stallion. White
Eagle, who Is standing at the Tully
stud in Ireland.
• * •
Ray Lamke, star football and basket
ball player at Northwestern university
for the last three years, has ac
cepted a position as assistant foot
ball coach at Allegheny college, Mead
ville. Pa.
* •
We learn that Harry Vardon is some
driver, but weak on the putting game
Which reminds you that Rube Mar
quard broke into the big league with
a fast ball and no control.
• * •
University .of Wisconsin physical
training department summer school
has 200 students taking up courses in
which they intend to teach. Football
and soccer are very popular.
* * •
Intercollegiate rules for 1913 show
few changes from the code used in
the 1912 season. The majority of the
changes are purely technical and will
have little effect on the game.
• * •
Australasia is teaching boys the
strokes of lawn tennis playing, so that
the commonwealth may put in the
field each year a stronger and better
prepared team to go after the Davis
cup.
- * *
W. R. Applegarth, the English
sprinter, has erased Donald Lippin
cott’s Scottish record of 221-5 sec
onds for 220 yards around a turn,
which the University of Pennsylvania
star established last year. Apple
garth covered the distance in 22 sec
onds flat at Glasgow recently.
* * *
Bombadier Wells, heavyweight box
ing champion of England, retrieved
his previous defeat at the hands of
“Gunner” Jim Moir, the ex-champion,
by knocking him out in the fifth round
of a fight at London.
DELIGHTOFARTISTS
Etretat Scenery Has Charm and
Great Variety.
Quaint “Hostelry” in Purest Style of
Norman Architecture Possesses
Much for Those Who Can
Appreciate Beauty.
Paris. —Etretat, owing to the charm
and variety of its scenery, has long
been the delight of artists. Their ap
preciation will be heightened by the
latest addition to its attractions, a
building in the purest style of Nor
man architecture. It is a' quaint "hos
telry” that seems like a relic of the
feudal age, as it has been rebuilt
from materials collected with taste
and infinite pains from ancient edi
fices that have been demolished dur
ing recent years in different parts of
the province.
The result is a beautiful and au
thentic specimen of rustic Norman
art that all lovers of the picturesque
will admire and all connoisseurs will
value. Its resuscitation is the realiza
tion of an idea of Mr. de La Blanche
tais, director of the Golf hotels, who
some time ago determined to build,
with materials of well established au
thenticity, a genuine old Norman
house. The work has just been fin
ished and the “hostelry" opened In
connection with Mr. de La Blanchetais’
hotels. Nothing but praise can be
said of the way in which the idea has
been carried out by the architects
and builders, Messrs. Mauge and
Hamel.
To start with, they had nothing but
the land on which to build the house,
and the Idea of copying one of the
oldest houses in Lisieux, which, some
years ago, was pulled down and the
materials taken to England. From
the photographs of this house the
architect made his plans, improving
on it by adding parts modeled on
other existing houses, notably sur
roundings of Valmont. The material
with which this reconstructed house
has been built is all ancient and ob
tained from different sources. Much
of the oak that forms the outside
construction and the floors came
from the old postofflee of Lisieux,
demolished last year and replaced by
a building more suitable to modern
requirements.
The principal entrance and stair
case were a notable find. They came
from an old farm house In FauvlUe
and are known to date back to the
seventeenth century. They are of
massive black oak, the balustrade
and supports being handsomely
carved, and the door still retains its
Norman Hostelry at Etretat.
old forged locks. Considerable diffi
culty was met when it came to find
ing sufficient old bricks with which
to build the walls, but they were ulti
mately discovered in Bolbec and pur
chased at the same time as the
splendid old fireplaces which now
decorate the largo hall and the sit
ting room.
The house has been built with a
charming courtyard, the front of
which was removed bodily from an
old Inn near Etretat,. The outslda
walls, as well as the Interior of the
great hall, are embellished with hand
some carvings In old oak, reproduc
tions of some of those at the famous
Manolr de la Sanamandre, which
was last year taken over by tho
French government as a house of
historical Interest.
In fact, except the iron which sup
ports the building, not one bit of it Is
modern, and no one would ever
imagine it to be other than an old
manor house standing whore it is for
centuries. The large hall and the
courtyard are now being used as a
confectionery and tea room, managed
as a branch of tho Marquise de Se
vigne house, of chocolate fame, of
Paris, under the direction of the Ho
tel de la Plage, which adjoins It.
Though only opened a few days ago,
it is besieged daily by visitors from
ail parts, and Is already the center
of fashionable life in Etrotat. The
Interior furnishing and decoration
are, naturally, In keeping with the
house, and for this M. de La Blan
chetais for years past has been pick
ing up, when occasion offered, fine
specimens of ancient furniture and
brass work, all of which add greatly
to the artistic success of the idea
which has been so thoroughly well
carried out.
For pleasure seekers who ask no
more than fields for tennis, downs
for links, good roads for automo
biles and the soft breezes that blow
from the channel, Etretat will be
come endeared to their hearts in
one season.
Tells of Loss by Pigeon Post.
Philadelphia.—Discovering that she
had left valuable jewelry in a bag
at the Bellevue hotel here, Mrs.
Daniel H. Ferguson, on board the
steamer Glenesk, outside tho Dela
ware Cape 3, released a carrier pigeon
which returned to the home cote on
the Ferguson farm at Mendenhall,
Pa., with a message telling of the loss.
The hotel was notified and the jewelry
put in the office safe.