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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 20, 1900)
Ir\ the Fowler’s By M. B. MAN WELL CHAPTER IX.—(Continued..) (coking on. thankful for his wife* temporary brightness, was (Jervis, too much encumbered by his robes of ld *les and snow to join the dancers, and holding his hand was little, misshapen Syb—she. too. perforce, being a spec tator and never an aetpr in the merry games of life. "It's a pretty sight, isn’t it. little t\vb?" heartily said Oervis, determined in his honest, manly fashion to be proud of the wife he had won. daddy, light as a sprite, was dart ing up and down in the old-fashioned . dance, and every eye was fixed upon tier dainty figure, in its dress of sil ■ver.v brocade. She, too, had blood-red berries fastened In the folds of her •wedding gown and a great bunch on her left shoulder. “If J>eila had on a dress of silver brocade, and diamonds on her neck, she would look a thousand times pret tier than that thin girl!’’ was Syb’s harsh reply, as she glowered at the phLntng little figure dancing up and down the middle. . Before the startled Gervis could col lect himself to reply a disagreeable, low laugh made both Syb and he turn quickly. ; Temple-Dene was liberty hall, and (he scientist had again shut himself «p !» his room all day, deep in some abstruse calculations, doubtless. But (he music and laughter had drawn the hermit from his cell, and he stood dose behind them, with a strange, mocking smile on his thin lips. “Little missy has distinct powers of discrimination, evidently," Paul Ans dcll said, fixing his black eyes full on the frowning face of the deformed child. At the Bame time he lifted his right hand, but, on second thought, dropped it at h1s side furtively. “You ought to have been among the merry dancers, Ansdell.” said Gervis, u little pur.zled by his new friend. “The merry dancers?” repeated the scientist quickly. “Why, do you know •what you are saying? The merry dancers are the famous northern lights, and we folk across the herring |M)nd have a superstition that they are never seen save before some ter w.ole calamity.” While Paul was speaking his gaze «rew more Intent, and his dark eyeB seemed to be drawing out the soul of the deformed child. The frown had faded from her uplifted face and In •its stead an expectant look leaped. It was as though she were saying dumb )r j “i am ready! ,What would you have /wihb.me. my master?” •’Vtoll,” retorted Gervis, whose e^es wandering back to the quaint md dance had lost the byplay, “If the mer ry dancers are to bring a calamity, jit must bo upon yourself, Alnsdell, see ing we have no Buch superstition •among us that I know of.” And he •moved off, with a train of clamoring children at his heels. The dance wns over, and laughing, chattering and fluttering, the dancers, old and young, gathered around Lady Jane, who, determined to have a va riety of entertainment at her Christ mas party, was urging a shrinking, shy boy to recite "The Mistletoe Bough.”. "Yd(f know,” Bobby, you can do it «o beautifully, and Mrs. Templeton would like to hear It so much!” Bobby Vane was the big brother from Eton of the small Usper In blue velvet who clung to Gladdy’s skirts •when he could. Bobby was a born reciter, but, un fortunately, shy—horribly ahy. However, at last, cajoled, hustled and goaded, the boy, with his ears pluk and his knees knocking together —for he had never faced so large an audience—rushed at his task. After the first line Bobby felt his feet. His voice was good, clear, sweet «ud round as a bell; It showed no hint of breaking as yet. The gay company, breathless and in tent. closed round the youthful reciter as the old legend in verse fell in clear, dropping syllables from his lips: The mistletoe hung in the castle hall, .and the Holly-branch shone on the old f oak wall, . Aud the barons retainers were biitne and gay. Keeping their Christmas holiday. • And as the poem went on all were forcibly Impressed by the curious simi larity of their present- surroundings to those detailed by the reciter. The old world ballroom, with its dark oak rafters*, Its rows of glittering armor-fcfor Temple-Dene was no.*d for its armor—the “goodly company" of gallants and fair dames, the merry children, the old paneled walls blush ing red with lavish wealth of scarlet holly berries; while here and there and everywhere, in the most unex pected places, large bunches of mistle toe hung to tempt and entrap the un wary And, above all, there was the chief feature, tho bride— The star of that goodly company. “f think we ought to carry i; out to the letter!’’ excitedly cried daddy, when the recitation was over, and the deafening applause cause shame-faced Bobby to flee for shelter behind a suit of shining armor. * “A dear, wild child, this new daugh ter of mine,” blandly said Lady Jane to her dowager cronies, as Gladdy sped through the hall to the distant stair case. If Gladdy had not been the great Anericgft heiress she was. her escap- ! ! ade would have been promptly frowned down, they knew very well. Upstairs. In the gallery that ran round the hall, Paul Ansdell was pac ing up and down, with folded arms and deeply frowning brow. Tonight meant for this man other things than it did for the merry makers below. The crucial moment had come when he was about to stake his all. Either he would be In a po sition to grasp a fortune, or he would find himself In a prison cell. That he knew. As he paced along the gallery a light footstep come behind him. So light was its patter that Paul did not hear It. "You?” As he turned he faced a little figure in gleaming silver robes with patches of crimson here and there—blood-red berries—and at her throat a dazzle of diamonds. It was Oladdy, on tiptoe. “I have come to hide—to hide!” Her voice abruptly died away, for Paul Ansdell's eyes held her. Her whole figure drooped, the Joyousness died out of her small face, and her eyes grew large and dilated as they gazed back, almost glued to those of the scientist. Motionless, immovable, she waited w’hlle he drew nearer to her. There was for her the fascination of the vic tim for the rattlesnake. And while the two—master and tool —came closer and closer, there came floating up from below the sounds of music and revelry and gay laughter. The dancing had begun again, and there was a flash of changing color as the couples whirled round. In the gallery a strange silence reigned. One little watcher, hidden close be hind a bank of ferns and festoons of holly berries,could hear her own heart beats. It was Syb, the deformed girl, who had stolen away from the throng of merrymakers an hour since. Something strange and uncanny had befallen Syb, some inscrutable Influ ence held her prisoner. Her will was chained up, she w as powerless to come and go as she would. But only so far was she dominated. Every other sense she had was alert. And she watched with wonderment the bride, whom she hated for standinlg in the place that should have been India's, droop visibly before the slowly waving hands of Paul Ansdell, the sci entist. The strain not to lose any thing in the strange scene being en acted before her was too much for Syb even to wonder why the long, lean hands went up and down, up and down, slowly and methodically. The gay music from below rose and fell, and between its bursts Syb's sharp, young ears caught the hissed out com mand as Paul Ansdell bent over the little crouching figure In silver bro cade: “Go! Do my will!” With a faint, almost Inarticulate cry Oladdy straightened herself, and, turning, went slowly along the gallery. Paul Ansdell's eyes followed her until she disappeared on the opposite side. The music below ceased with a crash of chords, the dance was over, and m the lull Syb heard a sharp click. So did Paul Ansdell, for he quickly lifted his head, and a gray pallor crept over his face. Then he hurried away in the direc tion of the bachelors’ wing, where he had been located on his arrival. "I hate him, too!” irritably said Syb. In truth, the poor, misshapen girl hated most people. As if some baleful thing had depart ed. she rose and shook herself. The holly had scratched her thin, bare arms, and there wpas a trickle of red that dropped on her white muslin frock. “Ugh! it’s all horrid!” she shud dered impatiently. “I wish Leila and I could run away from it all, and live in a cottage by ourselves,” she mur mured, as she went wandering round the horse-shoe gallery. For to this afflicted child all the music and brightness and Cnristmas joy in the hall below was gall and wormwood. CHAPTER X. Even the maddest, merriest of rev elers must grow weary. The Cnristmas merrymakers flagged, the gay music drugged a little slowly; here and there a tired child-guest yawned in a corner, then nodded, and finally was carried away in a deep sleep. Outside, under the stars, a long line of carriages waited, and the hostess, with tired eyes, wondered why people did not go. It had been a fatiguing day for Lady Jane and for Leila, who had not spared herself in helping. She and Lady Jane, side by side, ran the gant let of the Interminable good-byes from exhausted but delighted guests. The Christmas gathering had been the greatest success the county had known for years, and Lady Jane was excited by the flatteries and thanks of the departing guests. “Where's your wife, dear? She ought to have been here to see the guests ofT.” Lady Jane laid h«r hand on her son s arm. She was, in her tired state, ready to be cross even with the heiress. "Gladdy? I'm sure I don’t know, mother dear." Gervis yawned. He was pining to get off his Santa Claue trappings, and to have a quiet pipe by himself. A quarter of an hour later nearly every soul under the Temple-Dene roof was echf/ing I*ady Jane’s ques tion. Where was the bride? Not in her own room, not in the | hot, deserted ballroom; she was not j in the upper gallery, where the lights I were already being put out. [ All sense of fatigue was put to flight by a vague terror of some evil hang ing over the house of Temple-Dene l"nder the ancient roof only two persons did not share the terrified ex citement when it was discovered that Mrs. Gervis Templeton was nowhere to be found—its master and the Amer ican guest. Gervis himself was petrified. He had brought all his strength of will to bear on nobly doing his duty to the woman he had won for his wife. No one but he would ever know how hard the fight had been. And now it was all in vain, for Gladdy had gone—where, no one knew . Since the Journey on the Canadian Pacific railway, over the snow-covered prairies, Gladdy had been a bewilder ing puzzle to her husband. Her vagar ies had made him secretly wonder at times if he had married a lunatic. Then again a great fear would loom up that his wife had inherited some terrible wasting disease, and was about to slip through his fingers and out of life itself. But this catastrophe on Christmas night eclipsed all that he had even dreaded. Gladdy gone! She who had been the merriest, gladdest, happiest of all the "goodly companie!” It was inscrut able, horrible, maddening! Out into the freezing night went parties of searchers. Not a man un der Temple-Dene’s roof, gentle or simple, save two—its master and the American guest, Paul Ansdell—but Joined the anxious hunt. All was in vain! "Nothing more can be done until the daylight comes," hoarsely said Gervis, as he strode into the still gayly lighted hall, and stamped the hard iced snow off his boots. His face was gray, and a strange look of age had crept oved it, which made it startlingly like that of his mother. Lady Jane, worn out and spent, crouched down beside the great yule log, that crackled and roared, the only cheery thing around. She and Gervis gazed blankly at each other. What had they done, the two were asking one another silently, that this disgrace should have come to shame them? "Can anybody tell me who saw or spoke with my wife last?” There was a catch in the young husband's voice as he put the question to the circle of anxious-eyed searchers round him. “She said she was going to hide. Don’t you remember?” Bobby Vane, who had recited, craned his neck for ward to say. Then everybody did remember what they had forgotten—Gladdy’s wild pro posal to enact the bride in the “Mistle toe Bough,” and a gasp of relief came. "Why, she’s in the house somewhere, safe and sound, laughing in her sleeve at us all; and we’ve been for the last hour tearing our clothes and the skin off our hands in that thicket of holly bushes round the pond!” "Let's go all over the house again,” suggested somebody else. "Perhaps she's crept inside one of the suits of armor,” suggested Bobby, with protruding eyes. What a tale it was going to be to carry back to school! Another hour was spent in search, but all fruitlessly. (To be Continued.) TOO EXTRAVAGANT. A Defaulting Cashier Ate 11am Boiled la Champagne. The manner In which one defaulting cashier was detected was rather pecul iar, says the Louisville Times. It was all due to the curiosity of the women of his neighborhood. He went to no expense in the way of dressing, they never beard of his gambling or drink ing to any extent, he was a model hus band, but he loved a good table. There was nothing unusual in this, but one day when the ladies of the vicinity were discussing the best methods of cooxlng meats the wife of the cashier declared very innocently that her hus band doted t*i ham, but he would not eat it unless it had been boiled in champagne. “Boiled in champagne!” exclaimed tne listeners. “Heavens, how expensive; we couldn’t afford to have ham on our table often if we cooked it that way.” It was soon noised all around the neighborhood that Cashier Blank was a high liver, indeed, and the men began telling of his uplifted ideas of cookery. This soon reached the ears of the directors of the bank, and they concluded it might be wise to investigate the ac counts of such an epicure. Plain wa ter was all they could afford for their hams, so the champagne lover was called up and subsequently relegated to the pen, where he had to forego his pet dish for many, many weary days. Battle In an Apiary. A singular battle was witnessed re cently in an English apiary. A hive of bees was besieged by a large swarm of wasps. The bees made valiant sor ties to try to drive away their besieg ers and the wasps made furious as saults to drive out the bees. The bat tle raged for two days, at the end of which time the bees evacuated the hive and the wasp took possession. I ...RS tDe World Reooloes*.. TOu Ting Fang on "Religion. The address on religion which Wu Ting Fang, the Chinese minister to Washington, delivered in New York the other night, will serve to illustrate the very great difficulty of proselyting in the Flowery Kingdom. For exam ple this learned man of the tor east quotes from the scriptures the injunc tion that if a man smite you on one cheek you should turn him the other and that Imperative command, “Love your enemies,” and makes an applica tion of them that is too pertinent to be pleasant. There is no likelihood, he declares, that men will live up to such a standard, and then he adds: “At this very moment Christian mission aries are calling for bloodshed and vengeance, and Christian armies are devastating the land, sparing neither age nor sex. There is indeed a vast gulf between doctrine and perform MINISTER WIT. ance.” Again recurring to the same idea he says of Confucianism: “It enjoins that kindness be requited with kindness and an injury with jus tice. It does not sanction retaliation in a vindictive spirit, such as, I regret to say, is shown by some persons pro fessing to be governed by the tenets of Christianity.” It does not follow, of course, from the sting of such criticism that the Chinese are what they believe them- j selves to be. The most intelligent of them are, in fact, the slaves of the grossest superstition and many of their practices are repellant to hu manity and to common sense. But they are not savages, and in spite of the dark spots in their minds they have an intellectual keenness and stub bornness combined with that national j self-righteousness which makes the ! problem of converting the 400,000,000 a I tremendous one indeed. i Trial of Voting Machines. In the light of the successful experi ments with automatic registering de vices in recent elections in many towns, particularly in Massachusetts and New York, there is little room for doubt that the voting machine will ul timately supplant the paper ballot as a means of recording the popular will in national, state, county, and muni cipal contests. This belief is strength ened by the results of many tests of the voting machine in the recent elec tion, all of which were successful and highly satisfactory to the electorate. The people of Buffalo are particularly elated over the results of Jtwo trials of voting machines in that city. So satisfactory have been these tests that The Buffalo Enquirer declares the peo ple will never voluntarily dispense with the machines. JVeto Enxfoy from "Persia. General Isaac Khan, the newly ap pointed Persian minister from Persia to the United States, was presented to the president last week. The general has been for many years one of Per sia’s leading diplo mats. He repre sented that coun try for ten years at the court of St. ^Petersburg, passed [three years ' in 'Egypt and one in Belgium. He en joys the confidence of the shah in the highest degree and accompanied Mo zaffer-ed-din o n his recent visit to uen. Isaac ts.nan. the capitals of Eu rope. This is the first time that the general has visited the United States, and he is the first representative sent by Persia to Washington in ten years. He is a man of imposing presence, tall, athletic and of rather handsome features. General Isaac Khan said that he would establish a Persian legation in Washington without delay and that next year he hoped to entertain exten sively. He is fond of outdoor sports and polo is his favorite pastime. “Postal "Receipts. If the intelligence of a nation may be judged by the amount of money it spends for postage the annual report of the postmaster general makes a show ing which is flattering to the people of the United States. During the twelve months ending with June 30, 1900, the total receipts of the postoffice depart ment were upwards of $100,000,000. while the annual deficit of the depart ment has been reduced in the same time to $5,385,000. Three years ago the annual deficit was $9,000,000, so that the present showing is a good one, par ticularly when the large expenditures for new and costly features in the pos tal service are considered. In Memory of Mr. Hobart. The committee having the matter in charge ha* chosen a design for the monument to be erected in memory of Garret A. Ho bart, late vice president of the United States. The design selected Is that submitted by Philip Martiny, and shows Mr. Ho bart standing on a pedestal in a 11s t e n i n g attitude, 'v with a gavel in his hand. It is to be of bronze and will cost $15,000, that / sum having been aisea oy a com- Accepted Design, mittee. The figure of Mr. Hobart will be nine feet high. The kind of pedestal on which the statue will stand has not yet been se lected. It is also announced that a few slight changes in the design will be recommended to the sculptor by the committee. Mr. Martiny, the success ful competitor, is on the art committee of the Pan-American exposition. All the models examined were submitted to a committee consisting of J. Q. A. Ward, Charles Lamb, Daniel C. French and Herbert Adams of the Art society and Mhyor John Hinchliffe of Paterson and Edward T. Rell of the memorial committee. The statue will be set up in Paterson, N. J., which was Mr. Ho bart’s home. Victim of College *Ko tv dies. The death of Oscar Booze, the West | Point cadet, as the result of a hazing he received at the military academy, has created a widespread sensation and much Indignation is expressed that the war department should toler ate practices so brutal in their charac ter as those to which this young man was subjected. It is said that the young man’s throat was terribly in flamed by the poison he was forced to swallow, and he was unable to take any nourishment whatever. His stom ach was so much inflamed likewise that it refused to assimilate the food injected into it, and this had to be OSCAR BOOZ. abandoned, so that he actually starved to death. President McKinley has or dered an investigation. From a Great flctvspaper. Winamac, Ind.. special tc ttie Chi cago Tribune: People here are sur prised that the story of the Pittsburg hens that are fed on asbestos siftings and lay fireproof eggs was considered worth telegraphing to the daily papers. Winfield Scott Purcell, a farmer, liv ing near the Pink Marsh, returned in 1887 from a visit to the Hawaiian Is lands, bringing with him a pair of fowls that had been hatched in a cleft in the center of the volcano Mauna Loa. This farm is now overrun with chickens that refuse to roost anywhere except on a redhot stove, and will eat nothing but brimstone. The chickens are valueless for food, but are regarded by strangers as great curiosities. Mr. Purcell says they are never troubled by insect pests of any kind. JVetv Form of Automobile. An American inventor, named Max ham, has recently patented an auto mobile horse which is designed to be hitched on in front of any vehicle in place of the usual __ animal. The auto mobile horse is so arranged that it is driven in exactly the ordinary way. Reins are provided for steering and stopping the ma chine. A pull on either rein turns the apparatus in the corresponding direction, and a The Aulomobiie steady pull with Horse, both reins together slow down the motor and applies the brake. A secondary pair of reins are provided, a pull on which brings the automobile to a stop at once. In France a somewhat similar invention has been put on the market, with the difference that the French machine is constructed in the shape of a horse. The American inventor thinks that his machine will be popular with people who already have vehicles which they do not feel like throwing away entire ly. By hitching on one of his mechani cal horses they may still use their old carriages or wagons and at the same time do away with the expense and other disadvantages of keeping horses. The Hidden Force Intervened. William Kiehardson. General Wheel er's successor in congress, w-as once sentenced to be hanged as a Confed erate spy. He had been taken a pris oner of war, escaped, and was retaken in company of a notorious spy. He was sentenced to be hanged witfi the spy. but an unexpected attack by Gen eral Forest resulted in his rescue. ! ! I A “Barred Actress. Minnie Ashley, actress and singer of the Daly company in New York, has caused a stir among the fashionable residents of Great Neck, L. I., by en deavoring to purchase a home in that aristocratic community. They are up in arms against what they choose to regard as an intrusion upon their ex clusiveness, and a committee of citi zens has undertaken to frustrate her purchase. When the committee called upon her to seek to dissuade her she burst into tears and exclaimed: “Why, I'm going to retire from the stage next year. I’m going to marry William As tor Chandler.” She is reported to have revealed the secret only after her pride had been stung to the quick by the action of a committee of the prop erty owners who waited on G. Smith Stanton, a real estate agent with whom Miss Ashley was negotiating for the purchase of the Northam estate on the MINNIE ASHLEY. Shore road. Great Neck. Friends of William Astor Chandler, millionaire, explorer and politician, received the news of Miss Ashley’s declaration with expressions of surprise. It was not known that Mr. Chandler contemplat ed becoming a benedict. He had busied himself with politics and was credited with a rather unromantic turn of mind, and he had been quoted as advising young men not to marry, although this he denied. Minor Parties. The delegates to the national con vention of the American Federation of Labor have put themselves on rec ord as opposed to the policy of al lowing the organization to be drawn into politics as an adjunct to the So cial Labor party. When one of the radical members of the convention in troduced resolutions pledging the fed erations to go into the next national campaign as a body, with a platform 1 demanding only that the initiative and ^ referendum be made part of the policy of the national government, he waa met with a storm of protests and his resolution was defeated. Ambassador to Italy. The name of George Von L. Meyer of Massachusetts, to be ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the United States to Italy was sent to the senate last week by President McKinley. Mr. Meyer is eminently fitted for his new post. He is quito wealthy, a gradu ate of Harvard with the class of ’79; a traveler and cultured gent le man. and an adeDt in two or three Geo. V. L. Meyer, modern languages. He has been a member of the legislature, speaker of the Massachusetts house of represen tatives and Republican committeeman for his state. His wealth consists of large interest in industrial enterprises and real estate. At 42 he possesses gravity and experience denied to many public men who are older than he. Senator Lodge of Massachusetts was Mr. Meyer’s backer. Marks’ /Ninetieth "Birthday. The venerable Professor W. D. , Marks has just celebrated his nineti eth birthday. He is the senior minis ter of the West London synagogue of British Hebrews, usually known as the Reform synagogue. From its founda tion in 1841 in Burton street Professor Marks has been minister of the con gregation. and he is the oldest He brew minister in the United Kingdom. Up to a few years ago he was Gold schmid professor of Hebrew literature in University college. General Mercier. A celebrated military expert and leading French statesman, who creat ed a sensation in the French chamber of deputies by demanding that France prepare for a war of invasion against England,