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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (May 27, 1897)
BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON., INTERNATIONAL PRESS ASSOCIATION'. ■ T' UHAtThU 1U-(UONTIHXT1D. ) •Truly,” replied the Doctor with a «ahrug, “you have your Anger on the 3iltch. He will be strikingly antipa thetic to my beautiful Anastasie. She Will never understand him; he will ►never understand her. You married the -Animal side of my nature, dear; and it 'll on the spiritual side that I And my affinity in Jean-Marie. So much so, "<hat, to be perfectly frank, I stand in ’'■some awe of him myself. You will Oaally perceive that I am announcing •A calamity for you. Do not,” he broke -eut in tones of real solicitude—“do not ’give way to tears after Vmeal, Anas "taste. You wfll certainly give yourself a false digestion." Anastasie .controlled herself. “You tknow how willing I am to humor you,” '•she said, "in all reasonable matters. But on this point—” “My dear love," interrupted the Doc •4or, eager to prevent a refusal, "who wished to leave Paris? who made me •give up cards, and the opera, and the boulevard, and my social relations, and *•11 that was my life before I knew you? Have I been faithful? Have I been Obedient? Have I not borne my doom with cheerfulness? In all honesty, -Anastasie, have I not a right to a stipu lation on my side? I have, and you sknow it. I stipulate my son.” Anastasie was*aware of defeat! she -Struck her colors instantly. “You will •break my heart,” she sighed. “Not in the least,” said he. "You will feel a trifling inconvenience for a •month just as I did when I was flrst I and she would bare allowed her nuB band to keep a menagerie in the back garden, let alone adopting a stable* boy, rather than permit the question of return to be discussed. CHAPTER IV, BOUT four of the afternoon, the mountebank ren dered up his ghost; he had never been conscious since his seizure. Doctor Desprez was pres ent at his last pas sage, and declared the farce over. Then he took Jean Marie by the shoulder and led him out into the inn garden where there was a convenient bench beside the river. Here he sat him down and made the boy place himself on his left. "Jean-Marie,” he said, very gravely, "this world is exceedingly vast; and even France, which is only a small corner of it, is a great place for a little lad like you. Unfortunately it is full of eager, shouldering people mov ing on; and there are very few bakers’ shops for so many eaters. Your master is dead; you are not fit to gain a living by yourself; you do not wish to Bte.al? No. Your situation then Is undesir able; it is, for the moment, critical. On the other hand, you behold in me a man not old, though elderly, still en joying the youth of the heart and the intelligence; a man of instruction; easily situated in this world’s affairs; beside Grets. I should He under a water-lily and listen to the bells, which must sound most delicately down be low. That would be a llle—do yon not think so, too?” “Yes,” said Jean-Marie. “Thank God, you have Imagination!” cried the Doctor, embracing the boy with his usual effusive warmth, though it was a proceeding that seemed to dis concert the sufferer almost as much as if he had been an English schoolboy of the same age. “And now,” he added, “I will take you to my wife.” The Doctor went through a solemn form of Introduction, adding, for the benefit of both parties. “You must try to like each other for my sake.” “He Is very pretty,” said Anastaaie. "Will you kiss mo, my pretty little fellow?” The Doctor was furious, and dragged her into the passage. “Are you a fool, Anastaaie?" he said. “What is all this I hear about the tact of women? Heaven knows, I have not met with It in my experience. You address my little philosopher as If he were an In fant. He must be spoken to with niore respect, I tell you; he must not be kissed and Georgy-porgy’d like an or dinary child.” “I only did it to please you, I am sure,” replied Anastaaie; “but I will try to do better." The Doctor apologized for his warmth. “But I do wish him,” he con tinued, “to feel at home among us. And really your conduct was so Idiotic, my cherished one, and so utterly and distantly out of place, that a saint might have been pardoned a little ve hemence in disapproval. Do, do try—If it is possible for a woman to under stand young people—but of course it is not, and I waste my breath, Hold your tongue as much as possible at least, and observe my conduct nar rowly; It will serve you for a model.” Anastasie did as she was bidden, and considered the Doctor’s behavior. She observed that *he embraced the boy three times in the course of the even ing, and managed generally to con found and abash the little fellow out of' speech and appetite. But she had the TOOK HIM IN HER ARMS. it brought to this vile hamlet; then your -Admirable sense and temper will pre vail, and I see you already as content -os ever, and making your husband the happiest of men." "You know I can refuse you nothing,” she said, with * last flicker of resist? ance. "I think not,” replied the Doctor. “But do not suppose me so unwary as to adopt him out of hand. I am, 1 -flatter myself, a finished man of the world; I have had all possibilities in view; my plan Is contrived to meet them all. I take the lad as stable boy. If he pilfer, grumble, if he desire to change, I shall see I was mistaken: I -shall recognize him for no son of mine, and send him tramping.” "You will never do so when the time comes,” said his wife; “I know your .good heart.” She reached out her hand to him, with a sigh; the Doctor smiled as he took it and carried it to his lips; he fltad gained his point with greater ease than he had dared to hope; for per haps the twentieth time he had proved the efficacy of his trusty argument, his Excalibur, the hint of a return to Paris. Six months in the capital, for a ■nan of the doctor’s antecedents and relations, implied no less a calamity than total ruin. Anastasie had saved the remainder of his fortune by keeping ■him strictly in the country. Too very -name of Paris put her in a blue fear; keeping a good table—a man, neither as friend nor host, to be despised. I offer you your food and clothes, and to teach you lessons in the evening, which will be Infinitely more to the purpose for a lad of your stamp than those of all the priests in Europe. I propose no wages, but if ever you take a thought to leave me, the door shall be open, and I will give you a hundred francs to start the world upon. In return, I have an old horse and chaise, which you would very speedily learn to clean and keep in order. Do not hurry yourself to answer, and take it or leave it as you judge aright. Only remember this, that I am no sentimentalist or char itable person, but a man who lives rigorously to himself, and that if I make the proposal, it is for my own ends—it is because I perceive clearly an advantage to myself. And now, re flect.” “I shall be very glad. I do not see what else I can do. I thank you, sir, most kindly, and I will try to be use ful,” said the boy.1 ' "Thank you," said the Doctor warm ly, rising at the same time and wiping his brow, for he had suffered agonies while the thing hung in the wind. A refusal, after the scene at noon, would have placed him in a ridiculous light before Anastasie. "How hot and heavy is the evening, to be sure! I have al ways had a fancy to be a fish in sum mer, Jean-Marie, hero in the Doing true womanly heroism in little affairs. Not only did she refrain from the cheap revenge of exposing the Doctor’s errors to himself, but she did her best to remove their 111-effect on Jean-Ma rie. When Desprez went out for his last breath of air before retiring for the night, Bhe came over to the boy’s side and took his hand. He held up his face, and she took him in her arms and then began to cry. The woman had spoken in com plaisance; but she had warmed to her own words, and. tenderness followed. The Doctor, entering, found them en laced; he concluded that his wife was in fault; and he was Just beginning, in an awful voice, “Anastasie-,” when she looked up at him, smiling, with an upraised Anger; and he held his peace, wondering, while she led the boy to his attic. (TO B1 COST!VOID. I Coleridge, the poet, was an awkwaru horseman. Once riding along the turn pike road in the county of Durham he was accosted by a man who had been watching the rider. "I say, young man, did you meet a tailor on the road?" “Yes,” replied the poet, whost middle name was Taylor; “I did; and he told me if I went a little farther 1 should meet a goose.” The Austrians were originally the Oester-Reichcrs or inhabitants of the Eastern Empire. PROSPERITY COM]KG, CANNOT GET HERE UNTIL THE TARIFF BILL IS PASSED. Borne Replies to lix-l’rwldtiit Cleveland’s Recent Attack l7(Mtn tlie Republican Folic;—Some Uooil I.ogtc f com On * Republican Exchange*. : *•;> (Special Washington Correspondent.) Two great fsc'.s have been made very clear by this week’s discussion of the great questions before the country. One of these Is that while the Re publicans are pressing hard for an early passage of the tariff bill the Dem ocrats are holding It back In order to create die content with the delay of business activity. It is apparent to anybody who stops to think of It that business cannot revive In the manufac turing world or that business world dependent Upon manufacturing. In spite of this fact, however, some mem bers of Congress are receiving intima tions from their districts and states that this seed which the Democrats are sowing among a certain class of peo ple is producing some dissatisfaction and criticism. “Of course it Is absurd that such complaint should be made and that people should think It worth listening to,” said Chairman Dtngley, talking of these criticisms. “It Is certainly un reasonable to assume that business activity In manufacturing lines could revive pending action upon tariff rates.” “Is it not a fact. Mr. Dlngley, that the knowledge that a tariff change is In Immediate prospect proves more de pressing to the manufacturer than any other condition ?” “Momentarily, yes. I do not know that the word depressing is just the one, but certainly It does have the ef fect of making It Impossible for him to i.:ake contracts even where he can get them and of making it difficult to cuuiruciB ai an. ueaicrs are un* 'Willing to make contracts for future delivery of goods during tlie pendency of the tariff bill because they do not know what the rateB of duty on Im ported goods of the same class will be. Manufacturers are unwilling to make contracts during the pendency of the tariff bill because they do not know what they will have to compote with . In foreign goods nor do they know what they will have to pay for the raw material which they bring in from, abroad for use in manufacturing.” "So the present period, is probably the most difficult one for the manufac-. turer to do business, to say nothing of the impossibility cf increasing business or adding to the number of employes?" “Yes. Then it ought to be remem bered, too, that Importers are rushing goods into the country at the greatest possible speed and that nearly a year’s supply of foreign goods will be in the warehouses of the country by the time 1 the hew law goes into effect’in spite of everything we can do to prevent It. This means that tho manufacturers will not be able to resume activity to any great extent for several months yet. The people ought to understand this. I have no doubt that the new law, when it gets at work, will bring Increased activity in manufacturing and thus produce prosperity in every branch of industry.” , Cleveland’s Attack on B 'publicans. S ’; the other thing made clear by this week's discussion is that the Repub licans are not at all disturbed over ex-Presldent Cleveland's recent criti cism of the fact that they are promptly carrying out their promises as to a protective tariff and international bi metallism. One feature of the gossip resulting from this attack has been a revival of the recollection of Mr. Cleve land's own record .in this particular. “It was more than seven months,'' said one of the old observers of na tional politics here, “from the date of Mr. Cleveland’s own Inauguration In 1893 before his Congress met to con sider any of the propositions to which his party was pledged and within a few days of eighteen months beforo icamug yiuimao ui ns ijiaiionii was fulfilled in the enactment of a new tariff law. The business uncertainties, the long months of suspense, in which manufacturers and dealers of all classes were unable to proceed intelli gently with business undertakings, and the stoppage of business and los3 of employment consequent thereto, make the eighteen months of masterly inac tivity in which President Cleveland and his party neglected to fulfill with “hot haste" their promises of legisla tion, the most disastrous In the busi ness history of the country. A brief review of these eighteen months of delay in legislation by his party may indicate whether the Republicans of to-day ought to be deterred by his complaint of their “hot haste" in carry ing out their promises. The number of failures of commercial and business concerns in the United States the first year of President Cleveland's adminis tration (1893) were 15,242,with total lia bilities amounting to $346,749,889. This covers only about one-half of the pe riod between the inauguration of Pres ident Cleveland and the enactment of the legislation which his party prom isee. The record of 1893, however, is the most disastrous the country haB ever experienced, the number of fail ures being fifty per cent greater than in the panic of 1873, and the losses also fifty per cent greater. In addition to these failures no less than 613 banks failed during that year. This great number of failures threw out of em ployment such large numbers of per sons and reduced wages in so many cases as to cause an unusual number of strikes and lockouts, resulting in great losses of wages of workingmen and losses to employers. Over 250, 000 employes were involved in the f .■ v' !' ■ i VVt ' strikes occurring between March 4. 1893, and August 28, 1894, the date of the enactment of the Wilson law. The loss In wages to the persons thrown out of employment by the strikes and lockouts in those eighteen months, as shown by the report cf the United States commissioner of labor is over 243,000,000, while the business loss to employers aggregated about half that sum. Reports of the interstate com merce covering this period also afford Interesting comment upon the effect of the business troubles which existed during the pendency of the promised legislation during the year 1893. Many of the most Important railroads of the country were placed in the hands of receivers. The mileage of thirty rail roads so treated in the first half of the period between President Cleveland's inauguration and the completion of the legislation promised in his platform was 25,375 miles, or nearly one-sev enth of all the railroad lines of the United States. Their Indebtedness was $1,212,217,033. The above record of prominent events during the eighteen montha in which President Cleveland and his party held the country In suspense prior to the enactment of the legisla tion promised by them will Indicate to some extent whether he was Justified in complaining of the “hot haste” with which the Republican party is carrying out its own pledges on this occasion.” O. H. WILLIAMS. The Canadian Bogle Tariff. r ‘ Chicago Tlmes-Herald: The British exultation over the new Canadian tariff will not fool any of the protec tionists in the Fifty-fifth Congress, al though it may provide some explosive material for the popocrats in the sen ate who are impressed with the neces sity of making some kind of an assault on the Dingley bill. In estimating the possible effect of the new Canadian tariff on our trade with Canada Jt must not be forgotten that geographical conditions cannot be entirely Obliterated hv the Unmlnlnn government, even though the desire to promote the commercial and Indus* trial Interests of the great empire may be dominant among the Canadian peo ple. The United States provides such an accessible and attractive market that Canadians cannot be entirely di verted from it by the pro-British tariff policy just inaugurated. Our market is so much more valuable to the Cana-> dlans than the Canadian market is to us that the members of Congress will be guilty of grave disloyalty to do mestic Interests if they allow this Do minion menace to deter them from put ting a good tariff on lumber,^ coal and the cereals. The new Canadian tariff bill disc rim-' inates In favor of British goods by schedules intended to apply to imports from Great Britain alone. The prefer ence amounts to 12V4 per cent, as against the Imports from other coun tries, and will continue in force until ■"Tilly, im, Iftef "wmch tmrpreterrew will be increased to one-fourth. The motive behind this double sched ule is very obvious. It is projected at thlB time sb a threat to the tariff makers in the Fifty-fifth Congress. Unless Canadian goods are admitted to our markets under the conditions which prevail under the Wilson-Gor-' man law the Canadians propose to buy all the goods which they do not make themselves in Great Britain. 1 * But the instinct of commercial ag grandizement Is stronger with the Canadians than loyalty to the Crown.' The Canadians are willing to be gov erned by Great Britain. It Is one of the best governments on earth. But the Canadians arc certain to seek the market where they can buy to the best advantage, and that market Is In the’ Manufacture Uur Own Sugar. The Interest In the beet sugar Indus try grows apace. Secretary Wilson, who reversed the policy of his Demo cratic predecessors and set about en couraging the production of the sugar beet, finds the demand for sugar beet buku uuu ueet sugar miormauon some* thing enormous and coming from every part of the country. He believes that this nation will, within two years, be manufacturing all its own sugar and putting into the handB of its farmers the hundred million dollars which it now sends annually abroad for sugar. Cleveland’s Complaint. Ex-President Cleveland is a good one to talk about "protecting the fair fame of our nation against shame and scan dal.” This is the expression of the opening sentence of his New York' speech at a meeting last Saturday night at which he and a handful of his fol lowers made an attack upon the Re publican party for carrying out thq principles laid down in its platform. If Mr. Cleveland had recounted the scandals of his own administration, the sugar trust scandal, the bond scandal, the Chicago lake front scandal, the for eign policy scandal, and numbers of others which might be mentioned, his speech would have been a good, deal longer and much more interesting. As it was, he devoted it to abusing tho Republican party because it is giving its first attention to carying out the pledges of its platform, a protective tariff, an effort for international bi metallism, and the full maintenance of the present safe standard of our cur rency. He attacked not only the Republican party, but that large and growing class of Democrats who believe in protection, another large class of Democrats who voted for Mr. Bryan, and another class of voters who support the measures of the Populist party. If Mr. Cleveland keeps on attacking those 'vho believe in some of the things which he believes he will soon find himself standing ab | solutely alone Nobody ever before suspected itr. ■ Cleveland of being a humorist Upon no other theory, however, it is possible - to explain his assertion made in hi* New York speech the other night that his party “defends the humble toller against oppressive exactions in his home and invites him to the utmost 5 enjoyment of the fruits of industry, economy end thrift" The experience a of the “humble toiler” since Mr. Clove land cine to office four years ago will ; hardly enable him to agree with that gentleman in this statement.-*—Ex* . change. . Usd for Sllvsrltm. Had the developments of the slit months following last November’s elec tion occurred in the six months prior to that event, the cause of silver would : ' have received far less attention or sup port. Japan, Russia and Peru have la those few months gone to the gold standard, while several other nations have taken steps in that direction. China haB indicated a desire to havo her customs duties at the treaty ports placed on a gold basis, as they sub stantially were when the treaties wero made Chile, Uruguay and Brasil havo made gold unlimited legal tender silver a legal tender in but limited - sums, while Honduras, San Salvador, : Costa Rica, Colombia and Santo Do mingo have, within a comparatively ' short time, established the gold stand ard, though a depreciated paper cur rency at present prevents the circula tion of gold. Tartfl in the South. There is considerable significance is 'the movement of the younger members i) of the Congressional delegations from the far south to secure a duty of 2V4 cents a pound upon imported cotton. This indicates a new order of things, and a breaking away from the free trade traditions of the old Democracy of that section. It is noticed that the old veterans are not engaged in the^ new departures, but only the younger generation, like McLauren of South Carolina and Brantley of Georgia. The UI IU«J , ment in the south has been gradual. but firm and permanent, and thia is the firat time that the southern Democrats have thrown aside their old policy and fallen into line with the protectionists of the north.—Lexington Leader. Mir. Bryan Rita Back, The gold Democrats and the silver Democrats are throwing stones at each other again. Mr. Bryan has come to the front with a sarcastic reply to Mr. Cleveland’s Reform club speech, in which he says that Cleveland and his wing of the democracy are “long on platitudes and short on performances/’ and that they reach their “maximum at a banquet and their minimum at tho polls.” Every day increases the Im probability of the two wings of the democracy ever flapping together again. :-™u' , ■ . A Firm Torelsn Policy. Ji; .1.,: President McKinley’s foreign policy is evidently going to differ very ma terially from that of his predecessor. The first few weeks of his administra tion resulted in'the release from ths Cuban prisons of practically every Am erican citizen confined therein and this has been followed by the quiet depar ture for Hawaiian waters of one of our war vessels, evidently intended to pro tect American interests there and to prevent control there by the Japanese or other powers. .''; Kv. Importers expect to have a year's supply of goods on hand from foreign countries before the new Dingley tariff bill becoihes a law. Yet that bill is likely to get on the statute books in less than one-fourth the time occupied in the consideration of the Wilson bill. . Vice President Hobart is winning high commendation as a presiding offi cer of the senate. One of the oldest officials of that body says he is devel oping greater capacity and ability as a presiding officer than any vice presi dent whom he has ever known. The beet sugar industries at Ger many made an average profit last year of $32,240 each, in the list at 113 from which returns have been received. This 3 Is encouraging to those who desire to '?•. see the beet sugar Industry established In the United States. The thousands of old soldiers who were dismissed from office by the Dem- 3 ocratlc administration are being re stored to their positions as rapidly as possible by the Republican party, now in control of the government. Democrats are scolding because the prosperity of 1892 has not been restored at once. The answer is that the protec tive tariff of 1892 has not yet been re stored to the statute books., Very Ancient* A humorous Oxford graduate in clas- ' steal honors recently stated that the bicycle must be an extremely ancient Invention, since Juvenal speaks of la- 1 dies “tenui quae cyclade sudent,” which means, he said, “who perspire along the slender cycle.” It was fittingly re served for a solemn writer in the last Scottish review to correct the blunder and to inform the Oxford honor man that “tenui cyclade" refers to the thin | garment*, of the women.—New York i Evening Post. First Passenger—“Would you—ah— lend me your spectacles a moment, please?” Second Passenger—'“Certain- i ly, sor.” First Passenger—“Ah—thank you; now, as you can not see to read yf your paper, would you mind letting me have it, too, please?”—New York ^ world. , „ . Mt' A Small Request.