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About The Nebraska advertiser. (Nemaha City, Neb.) 18??-1909 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 24, 1905)
.f....H--r-r-r-r-Hr-M The Doctor's 'Wife BY AISS A. CHAPTER I. If John Gilbert's nly child has pos roshciI tho cnimclly of n Newton or the aspirations of n Napoleon, tho Burgeon would nevertheless have shut hltn tip to compound tincture of rhubnrb nnd essence of peppermint. Luckily for the boy, he was only a commonplncc lad, with n good-looking, rosy face, clour gray eyes, which stared nt you frankly; nnd ft thick stubble of brown hair, part ed In the middle and waving from the roots. He was tail nnd muscular, a good runner, tolerably skillful with a pair of boxing gloves, and a decent shot. Ho was very good; and, above, all, he waB very good looking. No one had ever disputed this fnet; George Gilbert was eminently good looking. No one hnd over gone so far as to call hlni hand some; no ono had ever presumed, to des ignate him "plain." He had those home ly, healthy good looks which the prac tical mind Involuntarily associates with tenant farming in a small way. George Gilbert took his life as ho found it, nnd hud no wish to make it hotter. To him Graybrldge was all the world. Ho had been In the city, and had felt a provincial's sense of surprised delight in the thronged streots, the clamor and tho bustle; but ho had very soon discovered that thu great metropolis was a dirty and a disreputable place as compared with Graybrldge, where you might have taken your dinner comfort ably off any door step, so far as the matter of cleanliness Is concerned. The young man was more than satisfied with 'his life; ho was pleased with It. lie was pleased to think that ho was to be his father's partner, and was to live and marry, and have children, anil die at last in the familiar rooms In which he had been born. Ills nature was very adhesive, and ho loved tho things that he had long known, because they were old and fnmlllar to. him, rather than for any merit or beauty In the things . themselves. Tho 20th of July was a very great day for George Gilbert, and Indeed for the town of Graybrldge generally; for on that day an excursion train left Ware- ham for tho city, conveying such roving spirits as enred to pay a week's visit to tho grent metropolis upon very mod erate terms. George had a weckj h holi day, which ho was to spend with an old school fellow who had turned author. Tho surgeon left Graybrldge at 8 o'clock upon that bright summer morning, in company with Miss Burdock and her sis tor Sophronla, who were going on a visit to nn aristocratic aunt, nnd who had been confided to George's caro dur ing the journey. Wnreham Is only n hundred and twen ty miles from the city, nnd tho excursion train, after stopping at every station on the line, had arrived at tho ter minus at half past 2 o'clock. It was between 8 nnd -1 now, and tho sun was shining upon the river, and ttio tings wero hot under Mr. Gilbert's feet. He wns very warm himself, and almost worn out,, when he found nt last the name he wan looking for, painted very high up, In whlto letters, upon n black door post "Fourth Floor: Mr. Andrew Morgan and Mr. Slglsmund Smith." It was In the most obscure corner of tho dingiest court that George Gilbert found this name. He climbed a very dirty staircase, thumping the end of his portmanteau upon every stair as he went up, until he came to a landing, midway between the third and fourth stories; hero he was obliged to stop for sheer want of breath, for he bad been lugging tho portmanteau about with him throughout his wanderings, and a good many people had been startled by the as pect of n well dressed young man carry ing his own luggage, nnd staring at tho names of the different rows of houses. A pale-faced young mnn, with a smudgo of Ink upon tho end of his nose, nnd very dirty wrlBtbnnds, opened the do6r. "Saml" ''George!" cried tho two young men, simultaneously, nnd then began to shake bands with effusion. "My dear old George!" "My dear old Sam! But you call yourself Slglsmund now?" "Yes; Slglsmund Smith. It sounds well, doesn't It? If a man's evil destiny makes him u Smith, the least ho can do is to. take It out In Itls Christian name. No Smith with n grain of spirit would over consent to be a Samuel. But come, d;ar old boy, and put your portmanteau dwii; knock those papers off that chair '-there, by tho window. Don't be fright--Jied of mnklng 'om in a muddle; they can't be In n worse muddlo than they ure now. If you don't mind just amus Jug yourself for bnlf nn hour or so, while I unish this chapter of tho "Smug gler's Bride,' I shall bo able to strike work, and do whatever you like; but the printer s boy Is coming back in half nn hour for tho end of the chnpter." "I won't speak a word," Goorgo said, respectfully. Tho young mnn with tho smudgy noso was nn author, and Georgo Gilbert had nit awful sense of tho sol cmnlty of his friend's vocation, "Write away, my dear Sam; J won't Interrupt you." Ho drew bis chair closo to the open Window and looked down Into the court below,' whore , tho. paint was slowly, blls tcring In the July sun V -J "CHAPTER II. Tliere wan very little to look at in the court below the window, so Georgo Gil brt fell to watching his friend, whose tapld pen scratched aloug tho paper in E. BRADDOM f a broauiies way, which Indicated n dashing style of literature, rathor than polished composition. Slglsmund only drew breath once, and then he paused to make frantic gnshes at his shirt col lar with an inky bone paper knife that lay upon the table. "I'm only trying whether n mnn would cut his thront from right to left, or left to right," Mr. Smith said, In answer to his friend' look of terror; "It's ns well to be true to nature. A man would cut his throat from left to right: he couldn't do It tho other way without making per fect slices of himself." "There's a suicide, then, In your story?" George said, with n look of awe. "A suicide!" exclaimed Sigismund Smith, "a BUiclde in the 'Smuggler's Bride!' Why, It tceniB with suicides. There's the Duke of Port St. Mnrtin's, who walls himself up alive In his own cellar; and there's Lconl de Pasde basque, the ballet dancer, who throws herself out of Count Caesar Maraschet tl's private balloon, nnd there's Lilia, the dumb girl the public like dumb girls In fact, there's lots of them," said Mr. Smith, dipping his pen in his ink, and hurrying wildly along the paper. Tho boy came back before tho last page was finished, nnd Mr. Smith de tained him five or ten minutes, nt the end of Which time he rolled up the manu script, still damp, and dismissed the printer's emissary. "Now. George," he said, "I can talk to yqu." Tho young men went out upon the landing. Slglsmund locked the black door and put tho key in his pocket. They went downstairs. "You'd like to walk, I suppose, George?" Mr. Smith asked. "Oh, yes; we can talk better walking." They talked u great deal ns they walked along. They were very fond of one nuother, and had each of them n good deal to tell; but Georgo wasn't much of n talker as compared to his friend Sigismund. That young man pour ed forth a perpetual stream of eloquence, which knew no exhaustion. "And so you like thu people of Cam berwell?" George said. "Oil, yes, they're capital people, free and easy, you know, nnd no stupid, stuck-up gentility about them. Not but what Slcaford's a gentleman; he's a bar rister. 1 don't know exactly where his chambers are or in what court he prac tices when he's in town, but he Is n barrister. I suppose he goes on circuit sometimes, for he's often away from homo for a long time together. It doesn't do to ask a man those sort of questions, you see, George, so I hold my tongue. I don't think he's rich, (lint's to say not rich in a regular way. He's flush of money sometimes, nnd then you should sec the Sunday dinners Ralmon and cucumber, and ducks nnd green peas, ns if they were nothing." It was a long walk to Camberwell; but the two young men were walkers, and ns Sigismund Smith talked unceas ingly nil the way, there were no awk ward pauses In the conversation. Mr. Smith conducted his friend by mazy con volutions of narrow streets and lanes, where there was tho perpetual sound of clattering tin pails and the slopping of milk, blending pleasantly with tho cry of tho milkman. Stnuding before n little1 wooden door In the wall that surrounded Mr. Slca ford's garden, George Gilbert could only see that tho houso was a square brick building with sickly ivy straggling here nnd there nbout it, and long, narrow windows considerably obscured by dust and dirt. It wnB not a pleasant house to look at. Whatever could be broken In Mr. Slcaford's houso was broken; whatever could fall out of repair had so fallen. Tho bell was broken, and the handle rattled loosely in a kind of basin of tarnished brass, so it was no uso at tempting to ring; bilt Slglsmunu was used to tills. Ho stooped down, put his lips to a hole broken in the woodwork above tho lock In tho garden door, and gave a shrill whisfle. "They understand," ho said; "the lieH'8 been broken ever slnco I lived here, but they never have anything mend ed." "Why not?" "Because they're thinking of leaving. Sleaford talks about going to Australia some of theso days." Tho garden door was opened while Mr. Smith was tnlklngr, and tho two young men went in. CHAPTER III, Tho gnrdeu at the back of Mr. Slea ford's house was a largo square plot of ground, with fine old pear trees shelter lug n neglected lawn. A row of liaze bushes screened all the length of the wal upon one sldo of tho garden; and when ever you looked, thero wero roses and sweet brier, apples and tall straggling raspborry imsnes, all equally unfamiliu with the gardener's pruning knife. It was n dear old, untidy place, whero tho odor of distant pig sties mingled faintly with tho pcrtuniu of the roses and it wns In this neglected garden that Isabel Sleaford spent tho best part of her Idle, useless me. Sho was sitting In a basket chair un dor ono of the pear trees wheii Slcia mund Smith and his friend went into tho garden to look for her. She was lolling in a low basket chair, with a book on her lap, and her chin resting on tho trnlm of her band, so absorbed by the Interest of tho page before her that sho did uat oven lift her eyes when the two young men went closo up to her. Sho woro a muslin drefls a good dal tronbled and not too clean, nnd a strip of black velvet wns tied around her ld,g throat. Her hair wan black nnd win rolled up In a great loose knot, from wiilch n. long, untidy curl fell straggling on h'V whlto throat -her throat was very n!to with the dead, yellowish whltcnesi a! Ivory. "I wish that was 'Colonel Montefi asco,' " said Mr. Smith, pointing to the book which the young lady, was reading. "I should like to see a lady so interest ed In one of my books that she wouldn't so much as look up when u gentleman was waiting to he Introduced to her." Miss Sleaford shut her book nnd roso from her low chair, abashed by this re proach; but she kept her thumb between the pages, and evidently meant to go on with the volume at the first convenient opportunity. She did not wait for any ceremonious Introduction to George, but iclil out her hand to hlni. and smiled at 1 1 in frankly. xou arc Mr. Gilbert, I know," sho said. "Slglsmund has been talking of you Incessantly for tho last week. Mam ma has got your room ready; and I sup pose wo shall have tea soon. There are to be somo chops on purposo for your friend, Sigismund, mamma told me to tell you." She glanced downwnrd at the book, as much as to say that she had finished peaking nnd wanted to get back to It. "What Is it, izzle?" Slglsmund asked, nterpretlng her look. "'Alberman Mountfort."' "I thought pd. Always his books." A faint blush trembled over Miss Sleaford'f pale face. "They nre so beautiful!" she said. "Dangerously, I'm nfrald, Isabel," tho young man said, gravely; oeauiuui sweetmeats, with opium inside the sugar. These books don't make you happy, do they, Izzle?" "No. they make me unhappy; but" Hhe hesitated a little, and then blushed as she said "I Hko that sort oMmhap plnes. It's better than eating and drinking nnd sleeping, nnd being hnppy that way." George could only stare at tho young lady's kindling fnce, which lighted up all in a moment and wns suddenly beau tiful like some transparency which seems a dingy- picture until you put a lamp behind It. The young surgeon could only stare wondcringly at Mr. Sleaford's daughter, for he hadn't the faintest Idea what she and his friend wero talking about. She shut her book altogether at Sight- mund's request, and went with the two young men to show George the garden; but sho carried the dingy-looking volume ovlngly under her arm, and she re lapsed into a dreamy silence every now and then, ns If she had been rending tho hidden pages by some strange faculty of clairvoyance. ftor tea the two young men walked up and down the weedy pathways In the garden, while Isabel sat under her fa vorite pear tree reading the volume she lad been so loath to close. Slglsmund talked of what they called old times; but those old times wero only four or five years ago, though the youug men talked like grnybenrds who look bnck bnlf n century or so, and wondered at the folly of their youth. Isabel went on with her book; the light was dying little by little, drooping down behind the pear trees nt the west ern s'dn of the garden, and the pale evening star glimmered nt the end of ono of the pathways. She read on more eagerly, almost breathlessly, as tho light grew less; for her stepmother would call her In by and by, and there would be a torn jacket to mend, perhaps, or n heap of worsted socks to be darned for tho boys; nnd there would be no chnuce of rending another line of that sweet sen timental story, that heavenly prose, which fell Into ft cadence like poetry, that tender melancholy music which haunted the reader for long after the book was shut and laid aside, and made the dull course of common life so dis mally unendurable. Georgo and Sigismund talked of Miss Sleaford when they grew tired of dis coursing upon the memories of their school boy life. ' 'You didn't tell me that Mr. Sleaford had a daughter," George said. "Didn't I?" "No. She Miss Sleaford Is very pretty." "She's gorgeous," answered Sigismund, with enthusiasm: 'she's lovely. I do her for all my dark heroines the good hero ines, not the wicked ones. Have you no ticed Isabel's eyes? People call them black; but they aro a bright orange color, If you look at them in the sun shine. There is a story called 'The Girl with the Golden Eyes.' I never knew what golden eyes were till I saw IsaSel Sleaford." They went across the grass to the pear tree, under which Isabel was still seated. It was growing dark, and her .nale face and black eyes had a myste Hons look In tho dusky twilight. Georgo Gilbert thought she wus fitted to be tho heroine of a romance, nnd felt himself miserably awkward and commonplace. Thu young surgeon enjoyed his first night at Camberwell to his heart's con tent. It was when tho little party was gayest that a shrill whistle from the goto sounded. "It's your pa, Izzle," Mrs. Sleaford said. "He'll want a light; you'd better tako it to him. I don't suppose he'll care about coming here," Isabel, went out Into tho hall to greet her father. She left tho door ajar, and Goorgo could hear her talking to Mr. Sleaford, but tho barrister answered his daughter with a vvjry ill grace, and tho speech which George heard plainest gavo him no very favorablo Impression of his host. (To ba continued.) "Worst Fonturo or It. SUllcuH ItMs positively Blnful for r girl to encourage a fellow when sho has no Intention or marrying him. Cynlcus Yes; sho might change hr mlud. PliiladaJpbia Ilecosd, ' Every year tho English mint issues over 8,000,000 copper colmv There nre 8,840,7S9 negroes In the. United States, but only 2,577 of Af rican birth, San Frnnclsco'H demand for brick 16 so great It bus created a brick f am ino In California. The total number of men In Cfie United States liable to military ser vice is 11,120,750. There is no meat trust In Austra lia. There mutton roniotlmos sells for ns little as two cents a pound. In the copper belt ot Shasta Coun ty, Cab, ore hns been found 250 feet deeper than it has been found hith erto. The French War Department is ex perimenting -with a machine gun which is to fire 300 bullets in less than a second. When showing the violet shade, the thickness of the illm of a soap bubble Is about tho one-million two hundred and forty thousandth part of an inch. Surinam, In Dutch Guinea, has the smallest range of temperature of any place In the world. In summer -the nverage is 78 and in winter 77 de grees. Tho highest paid ofilclal In the gov ernment service, with the exception of the Viceroy of Indln, Is the Iord Lieu tenant of Ireland, who receives $100,- 000 per annum. The exports of ollvo oil from Al ga rla during 1004 were 2,150 tons ns ugalnst 030 tons in 1003. The olive crop for 11)03-04 wns good, greatly In excess of previous seasons. Paper car wheels made by pressure from rye-straw paper are usually good enough to take a second set of steel tires after the llrst set has been worn out by a- run of 300,000 miles. Fraudulent naturalization Is under Investigation by the San Francisco United States Grand Jury. A sailor has confessed that he received citizen ship papers on payment of $15. Tho usual number of tourists have been killed In the Alps this season hunting edelweiss, although any one could "raise edelweiss In his back yard," as a horticulturist remarked the other day. A log raft 735 feet long. 55 feet wlds nnd 28 feet deep, and containing 10,- 000,000 feet of lumber was towed Into San Francisco Bay recently. It was five and one-half days from the Co lumbia Riven. Statistics just compiled at the Mis souri State University show that 'fully 50 per cent of all Its btudents are de pendent on their own resources, and that nearly 25 per cent work dally for their own expenses. The first telegraphic longitude sta tion in Labrador hns been established at Chateau Bay by Dr. Otto Klotz, Dominion astronomer, In conjunction with Sir William MacGregor, Gover nor of Newfoundland. Great Britain's government has de cided to secure and protect for the na tion the ancient ramparts erected by Edward I. around the town of Bcr-wick-on-Tweed. These ruins are of great antiquarian ami historical value. Real destitution Is rarely seen In Japan. Though some of Its Inhab itants are very poor, yet all seem to be fairly well fed, clothed and housed and are Invariably cheerful. Nearly all Japanese are of cleanly habits and rarely untidy. Having reached the conclusion that houscllies aro distributors of typhoid fever germs, tho Seattle board of health has resorted to very stringent methods for their exclusion from hos pital wards and houses In which there are typliold cases. Alfred Towns, of Sllverton, Ore., re turned the other day from a trip into the hills and told his brother Robert that he had shot two deer. Robert Is a gnme warden and at once arrested Alfred for shooting without a license, and Alfred served live days in jail. A firm of Baltimore architects has drawn plans for a building without any wood In its construction. It will be six stories in height, the entire structure to bo of re-enforced concrete nnd steel. Even the doors, window sashes and door jambs will be of metal. Tho man who discovered the dia mond mines nt Pretoria has come to this country, looking for some more. His llrst venture Is to be among tho mint beds down In Kentucky, and If ho docs not find any diamonds there ho Is going up In tho South Carolina mountains rtfter a few. A blunder resulted In a sweeping victory at tho battle of Mlndon, Au gust 1, lttft Ten battalions of Brit ish troops, mistaking tho order "at siund of drum" for "by sound of dium," suddenly charged and over threw three divisions of French caval ry foAr unparalleled In all warfare. Tho work of constructing a railway from Vnldcs over the const mountain range to tap the Copper lllvcr mining dlRtrlct and give an all-Amcrlcnn rout to Tanana and the Yukon River ha been begun. Among the scenic attrac tions of the road will bo a 700-foot waterfall, in the Copper River canyon. -CIGARS AND PIPE8 IN NOVELS. Villains 8mokc Former, Heroes Latter Cigarettes for Ultrn-Uiul. As ft general rule, only bad men in novels smoke cigars, and ultra-bad men cigarettes; the blameless prefer a pipe, says Pearson's Weekly,. Blan dols, the amazing villain of "Littlo Dorrltt," is perpetually rolling clgnit: cttes from which we infer that, withT a sense of economy not usual In vil lains, he mnde his own. It Is one of the bad points of Montague Tigg, on his llrst Introduction to the reader of "Martin Chuzzlewlt," that he smells of cigars; and we are carefully told that Bentley Donmarle, in "Great Ex pectations," comes out of the hotel to have his quarrel with Pip with a ci gar In his mouth. On tho other hand, Dickens' good characters, such as Capt. Cuttle and Gabriel Varden, smoke pipes good, comfortable "yards of clay" and if there Is a Florence Dombey'or a Dol ly Varden iiandy to 1111 and light them, much Is made of the pretty Incident. Smokers in real life, I am afraid, pre fer to 1111 their pipes themselves, but to a Dickens character all things aro possible. George Warrington, ono of the few perfectly blameless characters that Thackeray ever drew, is represented as pufilng furiously at a big black pipe, while the young scapc-aco Pen dennls runs up enormous bills for ci gars with the Oxbridge tobacconist. This theory of cigars for the 'sinner and pipes for tho pure Is carried out by Miss Mario Corelll, notably in "The Mighty Atom." We are to!d that Mr. Valllscourt, the very bad man of that extraordinary book, "retired to the smoking room with his cigar case and ono of the dullest of tho evening pa pers." Contrariwise, the blameless rustic, Rouben Dale, after his frugal midday meal, "filled and smoked a pipe.' Robert Hichens is careful to inform us that the decadent heroes of his "Green Carnation" smoke nothing but gold-tipped cigarettes. On the stage, of course, tho cigar ette Is the hallmark of the villnrn. William Gillette is addicted to cigars on the stage, one smoke playing an Important part in the dramatized ver sion of "Sherlock Holmes." Again, In "Secret Service," Mr. Gillette played almost an entire act wlthou removing from his Hps the cigar which he lights a row moments arter ino rising or uio curtain. Comedy characters are gefliJr orally allotted pipes witness the In imitable pipe-filling scene of Old Ec c!es In "Caste" but, as an exception to this rule, Beerbohm Tree smoked a meerschaum on his first entrance as the duke of Gulsebery In "Tho Danc ing Girl." Bertie Cecil, the much-wronged hero of "Under Two Flags," smokes cigarettes in the days, of his glory; but when ho joins the foreign legion as a private soldier he assumes a short black pipe, as befits his altered fortunes. Naughty little Lady Dolly Vanderdecken in "Moths" Is a con firmed cigarette fiend and possesses a jeweled cigarette case of her very own. Curiosity Saves Two Lives., The habit of a postollice ofilclal of entertaining himself by reading tho postcards that pass through his hands led to tho saving of two lives In Hut tledorf, a suburb of Vienna, recently. The postman in this case read' a card which stated that the two writers were about to commit suicide In a neighboring wood. It was apparent ly addressed to the parents of one of them. The postman informed the police, who went to the spot named and found a youug man and a girl lying uncon scious with severe bullet wounds In their heads. A revolver lay besldo them. j They were at once taken to a hos-, pltal, and are expected to recover. Dis appointed love was the reason of their resolution to die together. Novor Anything Else. "Havana is quite a clean city now." "Yes, I observe that fact every time I happen to go into a cigar store." "What do you mean?" "I never hear It mentioned except as 'pure Havana.' " Philadelphia Press. About Vacations. Unless some people came back with tanned handst and a sunburned nose most of us, would never know they had been away on a vacation. Detroll Free Press. Tommy 1b Ealiglituncd, Tommy Flggjam Paw, what is o mlllyunalr? Paw Flggjam A man who, undei protest, pays tax on $50,000." Balti more American. Many a man who is too tender hearted to kill a chicken doesn't hesi tate a mlnuto when It comes to beat ing his wife.