THE NEBRASKA ADVERTISER
.!..
W. W. BANDKKS, PablWtier.
NEMAHA. NEBRASKA.
VV.VnV.Vn'.Vi'iVr'iV.ViYiYiViiiV.'fiVi'.iiriV.
vi-.i-jL.juiAvm ui- a;
XUCINDA BOWERS. I
3:
BY JOHH WALKER HARRinGTOIt. 5
Copyright, 18D7. 3
LUCINDA BOWEHS looked at the
little Invitiition curd, and rebellion
uroBc in lier henrt.
"I don't care," Hlie said, "I'm going."
All the Ohio village of Valley City
knew that afternoon that Luclnda
Bowers was buying a new dress. Mar
garet Elton had seen her purchasing
the organdie at Dorchester's that morn
ing. Hen Sturgls met itttth Ames, on
IiIm way home to dinner, and told her
jiiBt what kind of paper pattern he had
sold to Luclndn.
Mrs. Benson, who hnd issued cards
for a lawn party on the following
Thursday, could hardly have been ex
pected to know who composed "so
'clcty" in Valley City, and who was
beyond the pale though several well
disposed persons, when they heard that
old Sam Bowers' daughter had been
invited, would hnve put in a word in
the right direction had the list been
submitted to them.
"Mrs. Benson means well," remarked
Widow Simpklns, "but she judges
more by a pretty face and a lively
tongue than by 'family.' "
"I should be very grateful," said
Young Mrs. Benson to Luclnda, "if you
would help me with the ice cream mid
cake at the party next week."
Wherever Luclnda went, it was ex
pected that she should look after the
comestibles which Valley City called
"refreshments." She dispensed the
"layer" cuke at the strawberry and lee
cream sociable; she filled the candy
bags at Christmas time; and attended
to the commissary arrangements at the
annual Sunday school picnics. Indeed,
Luclnda Bowers had been a burden
bearer from her childhood. She paid
the rent and clothed her brothers and
piBters from the wages which she
earned as a school teacher. She led the
Christian Endeavor meetings when no
body else would do so. She fanned the
faint spark which still remained in the
"Women's Missionary society, and kept
the sewing circle from disintegration.
ll seemed as though Luclnda Bowers
had ulways been old. As a mutter of
fact, she wns hordly 25. She might
have been pretty if she had given more
time to Bleep and less to care and worry.
'While the whole town was busy dis
cussing the addition to Lucindo's ward
robe, the young woman was busy at
work upon her first new dress in two
yenrs. The organdie was slipped over
nn old skirt of blue silk which had be
longed to her grandmother. A few bits
of lace, a few lines of tucks, a girdle
of blue silk ribbon, and the dress was
done.
"I suppose," remarked Luclnda on
the evening of the party, as she looked
at herself critically in the cracked mir
ror of the old walnut bureau, "that it's
wicked for me to spend this money on
dress when Johnny may need a new
pair of shoes before long. I wish I
wasn't so rebellious, but I can't help
it."
The Benson lawn party is still fa
mous in the social history of Valley
City. The ambitious young matron who
gave the entertainment was not content
with the grass plot which surrounded
her own pink cottage. She took the
lawn belonging to her neighbor as well.
Showers of wild flowers hung from the
old cherry tree in the center of the
lawn, Chinese lanterns shone from the
fir tree, and a genuine "Bebepcn's Well"
gave forth the most wonderful lemon
ade lemonade fortified with the flavor
of pineapples and oranges.
"Yes," said Mrs. Benson In reply to
.the gentle Inquiry of Widow Simpklns,
"I got the receipt at my home In the
easi. ji is very popular mere."
She did not think it necessary to say
that this marvelous sherbet was com
pounded by Luclnda Bowers. Neither
did she consider it of any use to tell
her guests that the arrangement of
tables under the old cherry tree was
suggested by the young woman in the
blue orgnndic.
The fame of those "refreshments,"
which were served on the night on
which Mrs. James Jerome Benson
sprang into social prominence, still
lives The "angel food," a species of
sponge cake, was really the best which
hod ever been served in Valley City.
Even to the present day the matrons
of that town are wont to say: "I'd like
to entertain, top, if I could make such
'angel food' ns Mrs. Benson had at her
lawn party." Mrs. Benson 1ms never
explained that Luclnda made the am
brosial confection which wus served at
her tables oi that memorable night.
The divinity who brought order out
of the chaos of ice cream freezers and
cake stands, was arrayed in blue or
gandie. Luclnda Bowers, principally
because she was not awnre of the fact,
was positively pretty that night. Her
Hieekb were flushed, her eye (sparkling.
She directed the. band of white clad
young girls who 'carried about the ice
cream laden saucers and handed the
tiny coffee cups to the guests.
The attention of those who were
there on that evening was divided be
tween the "angel food" and a literary
lion from fcw York. He had not been
much of a Hon when he went away
from Valley City many years before.
Widow Simpklns remembered him
as n red-headed, bare-footed boy, who
trudged over the hills with his bucket
of blackberries to sell. Since those
days, however, William Dorrnnce had
traded bags of wool and sides of bacon
for a college education. Subsequently
he had wandered to strange lands, and
in one of his pilgrimages had unearthed
a long burled city.
It was not the city which was of so
much importance, but a pavement, in
a wonderful state of preservation,
which showed that civilization was at
least 2,000 years older thun any previ
ous ltistory revealed. So William Dor
rauce, returning from the dusty plains
of the remote east, had written a book
which caused all previous ehronologists
to hang their heads. Valley City cared
little for antiquity, but here was a man
wJio had not only written a book, but
was talked about-in the daily papers as
a great assyriologlst and explorer.
William Dorrance seemed to have no
very definite Idea why he had come
back to the little tillage. He had mnde
himself believe that he wished to
photograph some of the old plnces
which he had known in his boyhood,
lie had gone with his camera to the
old mill, to the little house where he
was born, nnd to the cabin on the out
skirts of the village which marks the
spot where the first white man made
his home In Bottle county. Yet Wil
linm Dorrance was not satisfied. It
seemed to him that he had missed
something which he had unconsciously
come to seek.
"Mrs. Benson," he asked, "who is
that young woman over there, in the
blue gown?"
"You seem to hove been exploring
among the 'lnyer' cukes," replied Mrs.
Benson. "That Is Miss Bowers', a young
lady who has kindly consented to as
sist me this evening. By the way, pro
fessor, have you met the Misses Fletch
er? They're charming girls."
"And the girls in. blue?" persisted the
explorer.
Nobody knew exactly what happened,
but n few minutes Inter another young
woman was dispensing "angel food"
nnd others directed the ice cream
lingadc.
"Well, I never!" ejaculated Widow
Simpklns.
"How little taste." remarked Mnr-
"AND THE GIRL IN BLUE?"
gnret Elton, "these men of science
have. Still, that blue organdie isn't so
bad considering the fact that it's
slipped over u blue skirt of about the
year one."
Lucinda Bowers went home that
night escorted by Prof. William Dor
rance. For the first time In her busy,
work-a-day life, she had what the vll
lake young people culled n "benu." The
woman and the man who walked nlong
the low hedge before 'the Mrs. Bowers'
yard did not talk of "angel food," nor
yet of burled cities. They spoke of a
place way over beyond Kinney's hill,
where the blackberries grew and the
papaw-a nourished. They talked, too,
of the days when the hand of the frost
king was laid upon the persimmon,
and a crystal sheen glistened upon corn
and pumpkin of the days when they
trudged over the field with sacks of un
hulled walnuts, speculating, as they
walked, upon the length of time which
would be required to rid their small
flngeis of the unsightly stains. t
"Do you remember," asked the girl,
"how you used to hunt arrow heads
along the creek?"
"Yes," he replied, "and I remember
that It was at your suggestion that I
started to explore an Indian mound. 1
wus just ten years old. I believe that
it was then that I acquired my taste
for archaeology."
"I think," replied the girl, "that we
found a sheep's skull und a mussel shell.
I am sure that you owe your career to
me."
"I have olten thought so," said the
man.
Valley City was busy talking the next
day. Then the young women began to
act. They liked each other none too
well, but all combined against a com
mon foe. Here was one, not even rec
ognized in the social register of the lV
tie town, who had presumed to attract
the attention of a distinguished ex
plorer. This coalition of social powers at once
began an active campaign. There were
drives to the Bock house, and Luclnda
was carefully excluded from the list of
guests. Prof. Dorrance, ns the drives
were arranged especially for his benefit,
could not very well refuse the invito
tions. There wns a dance nt Dr. Hyde's,
and the nnnie of Luclnda Bowers ap
peared on no dancing card. The pro
fessor was there, for Mrs. Benson, who
was a remote relative of his by mar
riage, insisted that he must attend.
"I rather think," said Margaret El
ton to her mother one morning, "that
the professor has forgotten all about
our young friend of her grandmother's
skirt."
But the young women of Valley City
who composed what was known as the
"set" received invitations that after
noon which caused them to open their
eyes in astonishment. Miss Luclnda
Bowers was to give an afternoon tea.
If the brass ball had suddenly fallen
from the cupola of the courthouse, Val
ley Cltj would not have been more as
tonished. "1 didn't suppose," said Widow
Simpkins' daughter, "that the girl had
three siher teaspoons in the house."
The young women of the "set"' took
counsel together over the inntter, and
decided to go $o the tea. Of course
none of them had ever invited Lucinda
to a tea; but feminine curiosity is
mighty, even In Valley City.
That Friday afternoon found 1ft
modishly dressed young women in the
little house in which dwelt Mrs. Bow
ers and her five children. There was
no silver tenpot, und the silver spoons
were worn yellow in places; but the
napkin on the little tea tnble was of
snowy whiteness, the tea gave forth a
grateful fragrance, and the "angel
food" wns of marvellous ilakiness.
"I'm so glad," said Luclndn, as she
toyed nervously with the edge of
hemstitched napkin, "that you have, all
come to-day. I have known you girls
since we were children. I have some
thing to tell which I wnntj'ou to know
first of all. I am to be married next
month to Prof. Dorrance."
The young women crowded about her
ASKED THE EXPLORER.
nnd congratulated her, loudness of tone
making up for lack of sincerity.
"1 suppose," said Lucinda to her
mother, after the guests had departed,
"that It wasn't Christian for me to ex
ult over them that way; but somehow
when things go so far 1 rebel, and lv
can't help It."
Alrciuly ltvtvnrdotl.
The last joke at the expense of the
French Society for the Protection of
Animals is to the following effect:
A countryman armed with an im
mense club, presented himself to the
president of the society and clnimed
the first prize. He was asked todescribe
the act of humanity on which he
founded his claim.
"1 have sated the life of u wolf," re
plied the countryman. "I might easily
have killed him with this bludgeon,"
nnd he swung his weapon in the nir, to
the intense discomfort of the president.
"But where wns the wolf?" inquired
the latter. "Vhut hud he done to you?"
"Be hud just devoured my wife," was
the reply.
The president reflected nn instant
nnd then suld:
"My friend, I am of the opinion thnt
you have been sutllclently rewarded."
Pittsburgh Dispnteh.
Un'COt Of It It ill Oil IllllllllllKN.
Builders sny that the walls built dur-
ing a rainy season are the strongest und
that, when mortar dries quickly, it be
comes crumbly and possesses littla
binding power.
LN OLD UAMELIN TOWN.
Intoroatlnff Littlo City Mado Fa
mous by a Logond.
Once It Wixh n Urcnt I'lncc, Ilut Km
Present Importance IlcNtn on
the DoIiikh of Itn
Pled IMper.
Special Berlin (Germany) Letter.
One of the chief charms of traveling
in Germany, I take It, is this coming
unawnres across all sorts of out-of-the-way,
quaint little towns and beauti
ful landscapes; places where one may
make discoveries and see hidden sights
hardly anybody seems to have had an
Idea of. Provided, alwnys, you do not
tie yourself to n cnst-lron route, but
meander out of the wny whenever the
humor seizes you. I distinctly reineni-
RAT CATCHER'S HOUSE AT UAME
LIN. ber with what horror a veteran trav
eler, a man who knew the length and
breadth of Teutonlnnd as he did the
Inside of his pocket, regarded me on
n smull Moselle steumer, ns in rummag
ing my knapsack I inadvertently let
drop one of those red-backed "guides."
He stared at me for a moment with an
odd mixture of disdain and apprehen
sion, and then he said: "Surely, I hope
you do not travel by one of those books
Baedeker or Murray do you? For
they're an invention of the devil, gotten
up to destroy what little pleasure and
benefit is left to-day in traveling. I
hastened to nssure him that I did not
"travel by" my book; hnd it only with
me as an aid to memory, in fact. He
gave a sigh of relief, but I noticed after
wards that he no longer implicitly
trusted me as an intelligent traveling
companion he half looked upon me ns
a victim to the scarlet-backed vade
mecum. Alas, the man Is right. These
traveling guides, even the best of them,
have knocked the poetry and romance
of traveling about 50 per cent, of
which is uncertainty into a cocked
hat.
Well, it wns by dint of one of those
fits of sudden resolve that I got out of
a fast train which was speeding be
tween Hlldesheim and Pnderborn on
its way to Cologne, nnd made a trip to
Hameln. Who knows it not by repute,
that legend-saturated, quaint old town
by the Weser! Every schoolboy in an
American school, forsooth, knows it by
rote, that queerly-snvored poem of
Browning's,"The Pied Piper of Hnmelln
Town," with its rodent rhythm and
sibilant rhymes. But how many hnve
ever seen the Hnmeln (for that is the
way the nnme of the town is spelled to
day) of 1897? For it lies off from the
tourist's broad highway, and nothing
almost but old associations mny bring
the wayfarer to Its gates now. It Is
PILLAR HOUSE AT HAMELN.
one of the many towns in northwestern
Germany which have sunk from their
once high estate, from their wealth and
civic independence, and deteriorated
into places of third-rate importance.
Yet to the lover of the quaint and ro
mantic und ancient there clings nn in
describable charm to this old town
even to-day, and from the mere point of
sight-seeing there is much there to in
terest. The broad Weser river rolls its swift,
greenish waters along. Steep, verdure-clad
hills rise along its shores, and
the darkling mountain into whose
clefts the vengeful "rat-catcher" is said
to have taken the little ones by the
Bound of his ravishing pipe, is still there
unchanged. A fine suspension bridge
spans the river, and on the other side
burghers hnve built their pretty cot
tages, all nestling in roses nnd honey
suckles. Freight bouts nnd smull pleas
ure steamers, in spnrse numbers, ply
the wuterB. nnd a few sputtering chim
lTOKt?
neys show the sites of ns many fac
tories. The town, then, is not dead. By ad
means. There, is electric light by night
In the streets and in the windows, and
its single hotel even bonsts an electric
plant of its own. But you go into tho
center of Hnmeln and you find your
self suddenly in the days of medieval
ism. What's more, the inhabitants hero
still swear by the old "rat-catcher"
legend. The lads und lasses hear of It in
school and they, too, firmly believe it.
The narrow, dark streets of tall,
crooked houses are redolent with it.
And here, right in the middle of it
all, n stone's throw from the ancient
market square, with its rough cobble
stones and its dingy, reeking nlleys of
approach, is the "Bat-Catcher's House"
the nattenfnengerhaus or, ns its
proper title is to-day, the "Hoehzeits
hnus." or Wedding house, the old cit'v
hall of Hameln, where, many centuries
ago, the Pled Piper Is said to have struck
a bargain with the grave nnd reverend
seigniors who then represented the
city's government, by which they
be und themselves to pny a goodly price
In exchange for his clearing the streets
and houses of that nibbling pest, the
rms, and which bargain they subse
quently repudiated so much the
worse for them. This edifice of his
toric, or legendary, interest is, besides,
one of the choicest and most perfect
specimens of German renaissance. Tho
building material is a soft sandstone,
and it lent itself admirably to those
pretty sculptured effects the Germans
of the middle nges were so fond of re
producing on the fronts of their build
ings. The outlines are a little worn,
now nnd become indistinct in spots,
but that rather heightens than de
tracts from the total effect, A big wine
dealer occupies the lower part of this
house now, and upstairs, in the large
wide hall nil the weddings nnd merry
mnkings of the town ure celebrated to
this day.
Even while 1 gazed there was the
sound of revelry by night not a spook,
mind you, though the silver light of the
moon lent it nil a fairy, airy air, but
real flutes and fiddles, played by flesh-and-blood
musicians and the sound of
dancing and of clapping of hands stole
through the open windows. So, you
C&ZT
HAMELN CATHEDRAL.
see, Hnmeln folks are happy once more,,
and lively, and they have minded the
concluding lines of Browning's poem:
"So, Willy, let you and mo be wipers
Of scores out with all men especially
pipers;
And, whether they pipe us free, from
rats or from mice,
If we've promised them aught, let u
keep our promise."
But beside this famous old house
there are a score or two of other very
beuutilul old houses and palaces la
the town, fronts still thick with carved
escutcheons of noble and mighty fam
ilies; extinct, lo! these 200 or 300 yeurs;
mottoes in atone tracing and heavily
gilt over running the length of a whole
Uoor; curious figures and faces lu
dingy wrought iron, and coats-of-arni3
blazon forth on worm-eaten oaken,
panelings. There's a wealth of motif
and designs for the painter and the
fcculptor und the artisan to be had here,
und the spirit of long ugo still stalks
about unmolested. One of the most
original and interesting of these old
houses is the Pillar house, so called be
cause of its stone pillars, the first ones
used for the support of the upper struc
ture of any house In this part of Ger
many, and I daresay the wonder of
many days in Hameln town 500 yeurs
ago.
Another very fine old structure Is the
Dom, or cathedral, one of the oldest,
if not the oldest there, for it is purely
Bomanesque in style and at least 750
years old. Jews, too, there are many in
this ancient place, theii names purely
old testamentary as are their shrewd
features, some of whom nre said to be
the offspring of men who were here be
fore the crusndes. And one of them, a
rich banker, lives nnd does business in
u large palace which looks as old as the
flood.
It impressed me strnngely to. see, in
the midst of all those evidences of a
moldy past the signs of the most modern
of modern civilization incandescent
and arc lights, and Prussian infantry
with the gun of newest type stalking
the streets. And when my hotel bill
was presented to me next morning at
breakfast, the last remaining doubts us
to the chnnces of Hnmeln Town to
adapt itself to our times vanished
that bill was thoroughly modern.
WOLF VON SCHIERBRAND.
Glass was early known. Glass bend
were found on the bodies of inumraie
over 3,000 years old.
I I fFrr3s ?
NJ I ' k
n
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