i it H 1 I i 4 rv J - i v -- t -- - - T wstssafit wiww MANUELAS TRANSFORMATION poet to the contrary not withstanding there are occa sions when it might have been are joyful words Most men upon meeting again in after years their first loves realize this and offer up payers of thauksigiving It was so with Hurlburt In the early days of the Pacific coast Hurlburt was stationed at San Diego It was a picturesque little town Its streets were not much more than cow paths and its houses were mostly of the good old pattern adobes one story high and built around a patio In such a house as this lived Manuela Lopez and in one of the cow path streets Hurlburt first met her It was upon a Sunday Hurlburt had just come from inspection and was on his way to din ner with friends in town He still wore his regimentals and was a very gorgeous sight Indeed He was also tall and yellow haired and blue eyed quite the figure to strike the fancy of a pretty little Mexican girl who was coming home from mass She had read no books that could have told her that it was the accepted thing to do she had probably never given such subjects a moments thought but when the mind of a child becomes the mind of a woman it is at one bound not by slow degrees In spiration struck full upon Manuelas brain and she dropped her rosary From which it may be inferred that the love of the fathers and the wisdom of ages has taught woman nothing new in affairs of the heart The impulse of the intrigante and of the child of na ture are the same Hurlburt of course was close to Manuela when the rosary dropped He returned it to her If she had not been with a servant he might have spoken You can count upon any one but the typical Anglo Saxon You expect men of Latin and Slav races to make fools of themselves But the Anglo Saxon as such a thoroughly logical reason able clear headed person that the bot tom of your universe drops out when lie deviates from the path of common sense And when he does it is never a mere digression He goes a flaming comet whirling through space and carrying all your stellar system of plans and beliefs before him The last thing any one would have expected of a big quiet rational youth such as was Hurlburt was that he should wax romantic over a street meeting with an immature ruse to attract his atten tion Nevertheless that same day i ter luncheon he said to his host as they sat smoking under the ramada Who lives in the house on the next street where the two mocking bird j cages hang on the wall You must be more explicit his host said there are a number of houses on the next street and one and all have mocking birds Yes said Hurlburt but there is a hedge of red and white geranium in front of it I saw you meet her the civilian told him her name is Lopez Manu ela I think Hurlburt became very red When your phlegmatic man grows embar rassed he is badly embarrassed It was some time before he regained speech and came floundering out of the sea of silence When he did he changed the subject Not that he abandoned the cause Far frour it It took him two weeks but he got himself introduced to Senor Lopez and had then taken to call upon him The senor was a well educated man and the most hospitable of his hospitable race He made Hurlburt free of the house at once and showed him everything it contained save only Manuela You must come again often he said as they parted Hurlburt replied that he would and went again in three days Neither did he see his lady of the rosary upon this occasion He address ed himself to Senora Lopez who was handsome and well preserved You have a daughter have you not senora Senora Lopez understood only just so much English as she chose She did not choose to understand this She turned her soft eyes upon her husband and he answered for her We have a daughter he said but she is very young Hurlburt understood that he had of fended a semi oriental prejudice It having thus been made obvious to him that Manuela would not be pro duced by her parents he went to an early mass at the church met her and introduced himself It chanced that she was alone May I walk home with you senor ita he said I have the pleasure of knowing your father Yes sir said Manuela It was but a few hundred yards to her home but he made the most of his time Manuela answered him in mono syllables and raised her eyes but twice Hurlburts infatuation was complete Senor Lopez was angry He was very - civil to the officer but he sent the girl to her room at once I met the senorita at mass Hurl burt explained Are you then a Catholic inquired the Mexican No said Hurlburt and determined to pursue the policy that sages who know nothing of mankind tell us is in variably the best I went to the church on purpose to meet your daugh ter I saw her on the street the other day he refrained in a moment of di plomacy from speaking of the dropped beads and I admired her very much Tbat Is wiiy I came to call upon you I thought I would see her openly under her own roof As I did not I encoun tered her elsewhere Now said Hurl burt leaning back in an easy pose that did not meet with the punctilious Mexi cans approval I should like to ask you to be allowed to pay my court to your daughter Senor Lopez made no objection to the officers suit but he did object to his fashion of advancing it He in cased himself in perversity My daughter sir is too young He rose to his feet by way of sug gesting that Hurlburt would do well to take his leave Hurlburt rose too but not to go May I ask her age senor She is sixteen years old You have told me that you married the senora when she was but fifteen That was in the old times We do not do so any more But I will be willing to wait for a year if Senorita Manuela will love me Sir we will talk no more concern ing this My daughter is too young to be married and I do not wish to give her to an American which was not in the least true Up to then it had been his plan to do so but his obstinacy was roused The result was one that any one most of all a Mexican should have fore seen Hurlburt embarked upon an in trigue He sent notes to Manuela and got them from her in return The notes led to meetings by night The meet ings led to infatuation Warm South ern nights and a soft eyed soft voiced girl can work mischief within the mind of a man And a tall blonde officer saying the first words of love she has ever heard can turn the head of any woman The clandestine interviews continued for several months Then Hurlburt made one last attempt at frankness He went to Senor Lopez again and renew ed his request to be permitted to pay his daughter court The senor had con ceived an unreasonable and great dis like for him and refused Whereupon Hurlburt arranged anoth er meeting with Manuela He began to realize that they were both running ter rible risks Senor Lopez was quite equal to killing one of them if they should be discovered But he did not suggest that to Manuela Instead he asked Do you love me chiquita Yes yes Must I tell you so al ways Do you love me enough to leave your home for me I do not understand The gentle eyes looked into his perplexed Will you marry me I would but how can I she said My father will not consent to it Do you love me enough to run away from your father to disobey him and go over to Mexico across the border with me We can be married there and then come back Hurlburt was an impassive unemo tional man but his nerves were upon a fearful tension as he waited for the answer of an irresponsible child She appeared to consider and ended by agreeing Hurlburt was beside him self with happiness A week later they went across the line and were married They returned immediately and had an interview with Senor Lopez The Mexican was enraged Hurlburt having obtained what he wanted was not inclined to be conciliatory but Manuela and her mother patched up a peace Manuela behaved beautifully and Hurlburt was more enamored than ever He took her back to his home and for three days dreamed of a lifetime of bliss Then Manuela decided that she had had enough of living on honeycomb and that she had tired of scented time With no explanations and no reason save that she wanted to go she went Her father charmed with Hurlburts discomfiture refused to make her re turn to him and guarded her closely Hurlburt begged for one final inter view and it was granted He was a sorry sight pale and haggard and self abasing But Manuela was unmoved She stood meekly before him her fold ed hands holding a rose her father and mother on either side of her She was not in the least uuhappy and no grief had marred her prettiness Manuela said Hurlburt have you not changed your mind Will you not come home with me SS shook her head No she said Why not Was I not kind to you Did I not love you Yes you were very kind But I like better to be with my father It was useless to threaten implore or reason Manuela was gently stub born She would never go back to him she did not like Americans When Hurlburt finally went away he decided that his heart wras broken He thought of suicide He could never bear up under the disgrace and it was not so great as his wretchedness This frame of mind lasted for a year then he became resentful then he obtained a divorce then he was ordered East and it was ten years before he returned to the coast He had with him his wife a woman of his own people very charming very well suited to him in every way She knew the story of his first marriage and she knew that whatever he might say to the contrary he still regretted deep down in his heart the sweet soft Mexican wife of his youth of his season of dear beliefs and illusions The knowledge was the one grief of her life It threw a shadow of sadness over her eyes But she kept it to herself and for this unfemlnlne virtue the gods in due time rewarded her They went one day by ambulance from Wilmington where Hurlburt was stationed to Los Angeles One of their mules got lame and they had to spend the night at a roadside ranch A crowd of dirty Mexican children played around the adobe several yet dirtier men lounged about the door a fat bej shawled woman waddled across the yard a yet more untidy one welcomed them Her greasy face was still rather pret ty and young but she was thick and heavy and stupid When she looked full at Hurlburt she gave a little cry that was more of a grunt Come In I will tell my husband she said and shuffled away with her bare feet Hurlburt turned to his wife gravely I am sorry to have brought you here he said but it Is all we can do unless you prefer to sleep in the ambulance to night That woman was my wife So I suppose V she said She laid her delicate hand on his arm Dont let it trouble you dear I do not mind she smiled into his eyes and the shad ow was forever gone from her own San Francisco Argonaut INVENTOR OF LEAD PIPE The Interesting Life of Robert Seydell of Milton There was born in Milton Pa in 1809 a man of wonderful genius it is said His name was Robert Seydell and he died in 1847 Mr Seydell was a coppersmith and was almost continu ously working out some device connect ed with the machinery in his factory To him it is related by some of the oldest citizens of this place belongs the discovery of the process of making lead pipe and like many other inven tors the Idea of making the same was stolen from him and further developed to its present form of manufacture It was in the latter part of the thir ties that the idea suggested itself to him and the following is the way he wrought it out He first took a slug or casting of lead placing it on a man del or rod of steel about sixteen feet long and one inch in diameter the mandel was highly polished and upon this he drew or rolled out the lead to the full strength of the rod thus giv ing him an inch bore and the material was rolled it is said to a one fourth inch making a total diameter of one and one half inches for the pipe After completing several sections of the length o fthe mandel he soldered them together making the pipe of whatever length he desired He put it to practical use by fasten ing it to pump heads and also running it from springs to connect watering troughs and spring houses in the coun try round about here Being greatly pleased with his discovery and receiv ing the most flattering of comments from his friends and neighbors in this section he concluded to make his in vention more widely known and hence made a visit to Philadelphia taking his device with him At the Franklin Institute in that city he gave his first exhibition to quite a number of inventors artisans and me chanics As it is now related all who witnessed it were more than de lighted and so expressed themselves in his immediate presence It was not long that he was allowed to remain in a condition of supreme happiness over his invention for a short time after he made a disclosure of his discovery and while yet in Phila delphia he found out that by the very persons to whom he had given an ex hibition of the process of making lead pipe his Idea had been used and im proved upon Philadelpha Press A Convenient Custom In Holland bills are often paid through the medium of the post office It enables a man living say in Rotter dam to get a small bill collected in any provincial town without the often ex pensive and tedious interference of a bnnker or agent For that purpose he hands his bill to the nearest postoffice It is sent to the place where the money is to be collected After the collection a draft is forwarded to the payeu by the office where he deposited the bill duly receipted on payment of a small commission which is payable in ad vance London Evening News The Ajre of Monuments Promoter What shall we give the next benefit for Assistant Lets announce it for a contingent fund to secure the erection of a monument to the next citizen whom the public think merits monu mental distinction Philadelphia North American Anticipating Mudkins What would you say sir if I should tell you that I love your daughter Mr Cashburn Not a word sir not a word Your audacity would simply hold me spellbound Philadelphia North American There are three times as many mus cles in the tail of the cat as there are In the human hands and wrists Wheelmen toil anl they also spin yarns - A FUNNY OLD TOWN Some of the Many Amusing Features of Key West Key West is one of the oldest and funniest towns in the United States It is made up of innumerable little wooden houses without chimneys but crowded in irregular groups Many of the houses have wooden shutters in place of glass windows On most of the streets there are no sidewalks but people stumble over the jagged edges of coral rock The natives who wear shoes ride in carriages There are a great number of public vehicles and one can be hailed at any corner and en gaged for 10 cents Some of these car riages are quite respectable in appear ance They are generally double-seated affairs which have been discarded in the North The horses are wrecks and they show by thir appearance that fodder is dear and that they are not half fed One of the sounds of Key West is the whacking of the horses which draw the carriages and the mules which move the street cars from place to place The street cars look as if they had been dug up from the neigh borhood of the pyramids Ropes are used for reins and the only substantial tiling about the whole outfit is the great rawhide whip with which the street car driver labors Incessantly The peo ple as a rule are opposed to excessive exertion but they make an exception in the case of labor with a whip The town has one struggling newspa per which is worthy of a better sup port The climate of which much has been written Is too good to be wasted and there are traditions against exces sive mental effort by either the makers or the readers of newspapers Hun dreds of dogs cats roosters goats and razorbacks run at large through the streets and the three former combine to make the night hideous In the ear ly evening the sound of negro meetings and jubilations predominates Then the cats begin where the shouters leave FRENCH POLITENESS Use of Old Time Courtesy Brought Pro motion for a Frenchman In France at the present day the great majority of the people are ardent republicans in opinion but they are also great admirers of the sort of cour tesy which is associated with the an cieii regimethe old time gentility There lately died in that country a certain Monsieur Daunassans who was a fine representative in his man ners and opinions of the old school His elaborate courtesy was of the ele gant palavering antique sort ana It kept his head above water in times when other old school fellow went to the bottom - sr f r - iJatoaakBritftwwfllitiJIg1 immwhiWiiiw It was not many years ago tbatJIon sieur Daunassans was prefect of a de partment and stationed at an impor tant provincial town Just at that time a very radical ministry came Into pow eran ultra republican government which announced its intention to turn all conservative and reactionist func tionaries out of office The Minister of the Interior was a particularly violent radical with no bowels of compassion for any who were suspected of mon archical opinions One of the first functionaries selected for sacrifice was Monsieur Daunas sans It happened however that his conservative opinions were not so strenuously held as to incline him against holding office under a radical administration When he was sum moned to Paris for dismissal he went to the cabinet of the minister with his hat in his hand and his most complais ant expression on his face You are represented to me sir said the minister as hostile to our repub lican institutions Monsieur Daunassans bowed very low in the most graceful style of the ancient gentility I think monsieur le ministre he began that I may possibly prove my self worthy of your excellencys con fidence If I may be permitted to en ter into certain details it will be I fancy within my power to demon strate to your excellency It was the first time that the new minister had ever been called your excellency He was a man who had sprung from the common people and the phrase coming from a man who seemed to know how to use it was very pleasant to his ears His manner softened perceptibly Daunassans went on with a long and flattering speech in which he had very little to say about his own politics but In which the words your excellency occurred a great many times After about three quarters of an houi he came out of the ministers cabinet KEY WEST FLORIDA off Later the dogs sneaking and SUle UJrUU itliU U1U1B UUIUKIUUS LllUll any other species take up the refrain There is a strange mixture of races at Key West but the negroes are the most patriotic class They alone celebrate Fourth of July and other national holi days While the town has its enlight ened and respectable people it also has its shoddy class whose ignorance of the rest of the world carries them to grotesque extremes in their efforts to proclaim their greatness Even in its schools Key West is peculiar The schoolhouses are built like cigar fac tories and each has mounted upon the roof the bell of an old locomotive When the school bells are ringing it is easy to close your eyes and imagine yourself in one of the great railroad de pots of the North The classes are large the teachers have a constant struggle with the climate so the schol ars have time to make pea shooters and other instruments of torture for the unsuspecting visitor who falls into their ambush If the teachers have a hard time the clergy have a worse one The churches are much abused institutions with a large patronage and a meagre support The theaters are seldom open and are even more grudgingly supported than the churches The decorations have been likened to a cockney on a holiday and the galleries amuse themselves be tween the acts by shouting fire to startle strangers who do not know the joke Men that smoke presume that cigars are manufactured in Key West but there is another source of income of scarcely less importance Any unfor tunate ship that ventures into port is considered legitimate prey and it is a bold man that dares to protest against the confiscation of his property When a ship is seen approaching the reefs the greatest excitement prevails and orue people even fall on their knees to petition for her speedy destruction If a vessel strikes she is immediately surrounded by a crowd of wreckers who cling to her like flies to a molasses barrel After there has been a wreck storekeepers have money in their pock ets and do not care whether you buy of them or not The proprietor of a shop will stretch himself yawn and finally saunter over toward his customer to find what is wanted He had been indeed removed from his prefecture but lie had been promoted to a better onel The ministers radical friends were furious They went to htm and said What You have- promoted this man Why he is the most abominable of reactionists V W well answered the minister as if recalled to himself perhaps hes a reactionist but I tell you hes a mighty well bred man All of which goes to show what the French have already found out to theii sorrow that it is hard to make a re public without republicans Youtha Companion Turkish Girls Turkish girls of the better class in th cities after they are too old to attend the primary schools are largely edu cated at home by governesses many ol whom come from England and France but unfortunately do not always rep resent the highest culture of these na tions so that the real love of study is not as a rule developed under theii Influence Turkish women have a great aptitude for foreign languages and those met on the steamers of the Bos phorus often speak French and it is not unusual for them to speak German and English also It is a well known fact that many Turkish women are engaged in trade some even carrying on an extensive business involving frequent journeys to Egypt and othrr places which pre supposes the ability to read and write as well as some knowledge of arith metic Moreover conversation with the Mussulman woman in the capital reveals some progress at the present time in independence of thought and while social conditions have unavoida bly arrested the development of Turk ish women as a class forces are slowly but surely working among them thar will result in their final emancipation Artificial Silk Artificial silk is now an article ol trade and as it is advisable for buyers to be acquainted with the means of de tecting It the following from the Dec orator and Furnisher is worthy of note The most effective tesc is combus tion While natural silk burns slowly and turns up like horn at The same time omitting a characteristic odor artificial silk burns rapidly when once ignited and swells like burned cotton Some times the two kinds of silk are mixed in the same article Mention is made in an Austrian paper of a fabric al leged to be of English make the warp of which consisted of natural silk weft of artificial The origin of the latter could not be detected by the eye even by the most expert connoisseur Upin the combustion test being applied how ever the material burned with extreme alacrity When people listen attentively to a story of a mans wrongs it indicates that they are wondering what the oth er side of the story sounds like The king can do no wrong if the oth er fellow holds all tae ace ycrl JtiSSrsicgrm ABOtfT THE PRINCE OP WALES Personalities Culled from the Nevr Book of His Iife He is five feet six inches high and weighs 180 pounds He has light gray eyes a gray bearr a brown complexion and a bald head His nands and feet are small and neat He is fifty seven years old and has four grandchildren His favorite wine is champagne of 1889 and his favorite liquor a cognac forty years old He is fond of all kinds of people es pecially if they have money He is a first class judge of horses and dogs and he thinks he knows some thing about actresses He Is said to be one of the best shots in England He sets the fashions in clothes for the whole world He loves to labor for the working man He is a D C L of Oxford an LL T of Cambridge and a barrister He has thirteen university degrees He has laid seventy three large and important foundation stones He opened part of the Suez Canal He has made more speeches than any other man in the world but mostly short ones He owns the deepest mine in Eng land He was the first Christian to dine with the Sultan of Turkey He never allows a typewriter in his house He spends 5000 a year for tele grams He only allows two knives and forks to each guest at his table He is a colonel eight times over He has one private secretary two as sistant secretaries and a staff of clerks to assist them He receives 200 letters a day and an swers most of them Every minute of his timer in London is spent according to schedule He has every order of knEghthood in Europe His uniforms are worth 73y0OO He is a field marshal and an admiral He is the chief horse owner dog owner and yachtsman in England He goes to church every Sunday morning He never goes to the races Sun day He started life with an income of 550000 a year He says he has no debts He loves to travel incognito in Paris He buys hundreds of theater- tickets without using them His favorite vehicle In London Is a hansom cab yet his stables cost T5 000 a year He thinks his nephew the- Gfennan emperor is too sensational He has friends in every natiom and speaks German French Italian- and Russian His life was never attempted by an assassin He was obliged once to pawn his watch- New York Journal He Very M Lucky at cards unlucky at love I dont believe it Ive been refused three tfcaea Yonkera Statesman X Xo 3Iap oi the United States The school children of the Bermu das know nothing of American his tory says a New York woman who has just returned from Hamilton One day I stopped and talked with a bright little colored boy on the street The Bermuda negro you know fe su perior In intelligence to the Southern negro of this country He has- neither the thick lips nor the flat nose- of our American negro His superiority Is ac counted for by the fact that he- has in his veins the blood of the Indians cap tured in King Philips war and taken as slaves to the Bermudas Do you go to school I asked the boy Yesm Who owns these islands England Who rules England Queen Victoria Where are the United States South of Canada And do you know who is president of the United States Yesm George Washington - s When I had visited one of the little f schools at Hamilton I dixl not wonder that Washington was- the only Ameri can president the boy YkvI heard of On the walls were maps of every import ant country in the world bat our own and I found that the- teachers said as little of the United States as they could New York Sun Men Havent AH the Privileges She There is a great deal of unfair ness in this world Women are barred out of society for things that men may do with impunity He That may be true but on the other hand men would be barred out of society if they did some things that women do with impunity every day She Id like to have you name just one of them He Well kissing other peoples wives and daughters and sweethearts for instance- Vagaries of a Bullet A sepoy of the thirty sixth Sikhs r when retiring from the Saran Sr pass jaid he felt something iit his rifle but peeing no mark when he camo to cleani his rifle he found a bullet hajO actually entered the muzzle and penetrated about nine inches down tie barrel a seemingly impossible thin but f o aH thai true It was kicky says a cor respondent of the Times of India that he had no occasion to use bis rifle again on his way home or it would of course have burstc Glasgaw Weekte Mail Lncky in Both She Youre lucky at cards ik r V VI A A