The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965, August 13, 1903, Image 3

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    || THAT GIRL of JOHNSON'sf
ay JEAJi K.A.TE LX/aJLVA*.
Author of "At m Girl's Mercy." Etc.
Entered According to Act of Congress in the Year 19<J0 by Street A Smith.
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. D. C.
CHAPTER X.
, The Rescue.
The arms of the men were brawny
and strong; Green was light In weight
and lithe as a tiger; the rope ran out
sloly and steadily, slid out and down
over the sharp edge of the chasm
where the grasses were long and hid
the sharp cut into emptiness, making
a treacherous foothold. Suddenly the
rope stopped running, grew slack, and
Green’s voice came up in a shout.
Thus silence reigned again save for
the rain and wind.
Moments passed; to the girl stand
ing back motionless the moments
seemed like hours. Her eyes did not
move from the edge where the rope
ran over. Green called again, and
they began to pull the rope.
Dolores’ eyes widened as she
watched them; her lips were apart, a
flush on her cheeks. The mist grew
more thick and dense, stealing up and
up until it reached the edge of the
chasm. It stole about the men at
work at the rope and enveloped them
silently; through its gray folds they
looked like specters at work for all
eternity, with set faces, pulling the
rope in and in.
The rope camd up steadily and slow
and sure, then Green spoke from just
below the surface.
“Stop; some of you give me a hand
here. Careful. He is insensible.”
They obeyed him without a word. A
terror was on Dolores’ face; she did
not move; her fingers were twisted
tightly together; her lips were com
pressed in a straight red line.
The men were slow and careful; it
was no light thing to lean over the
edge of the chasm; the treacherous
edge hidden in sedge might give way
at any moment, but the hands of the
men were slow and steady; they
obeyed Green’s commands as though
they were powerless of self-thought.
They had Johnson up on firm ground
and Green after him; they laid the
insensible man on the ground with
goats for pillows; they forced some
cider between his teeth and chafed
his brawny hands tenderly as a wo
man would. Two of them cut down a
couple of saplings and lopped off the
branches, making the body smooth;
these they bound together with two
cross pieces; they crossed the rope
in a network back and forth. No
words were uttered; they worked in
silence with a grimness that was al
most terrible to the watching girl.
The rain was falling steadily now,
and dripped through the branches,
falling on Johnson s face. His hands
moved gropingly a moment; he
opened his eyes and looked vacantly
about him; they were hollow eyes and
hungry; he recognized no one. Dolo
res came up shyly, offering no word
of sympathy, and with a moan John
son closed his eyes again.
“We must get him home as soon as
\ li b\ •i'K.r
Laid him on the Ground,
possible,” Green said, gravely, his
eyes on the face of the girl standing
silently beside her father. “He has
been without food since the day be
fore yesterday. He lost his way, and
fell in the night when he was trying
to find his way back after hunting the
cow. He has been lying there on that
ledge ever since too weak to make
any efTort to save himself, thereby
doubtless saving his life, for the ledge
would stand little motion.”
He did not add that Johnson had
broken both of his legs in the fall,
and doubtless received internal in
juries that must prove serious if not
fatal. Dolores’ eyes were on his, and
■he could not tell the whole of what
might come.
When they had placed Johnson on
the litter as comfortably as possible,
Lodle offered his coat to Dolores in
a short word or two and no change of
face, but the girl shook her head,
without speaking, though she gave
him one of her rare smiles, and
walked steadily down the path tangled
in the treacherous bushes, half hidden
in mist and rain, with Green at her
side buried in thought, though his
hand was ready to reach out for her
assistance whenever it was needed
and his face was almost sweet with a
mew touch upon it.
* * * * * ■* * .*
Dolores stood listlessly at one of
the kitchen windows; she was looking
out at the storm, but she did not see
Jt; her ears were straine^ to catch the
£Ound of voices in her father’s room.
«
Earnest voices they were and full of
a meaning she could not catch.
The road was deserted; the men
had straggled up to Johnson's house
when first he was brought home, but
as soon as the messenger sent by
Green brought the doctors from the
town they ordered perfect quiet, and
the men were sent away without be
ing allowed to enter. They turned
away in silence and went down the
road to the tavern with its welcome
fire, its cider, and comrades.
The women were forced to remain
at home; they gossiped with their
daughters or their kinsfolk around the
great hearth fires. Their needles were
busy, their spinning wheels hummed;
their lives were narrow, but there
was work to be done as well as food
for gossip. Only Dolores was idle.
She stood at window staring with un
seeing eyes at the storm outside,
straining her ears in vain to catch the
hum of voices in her father’s room.
Young Green was there, and two doc
tors, and a woman they said was a
nurse. What need was there of a
nurse she asked herself. She could |
nurse her father.
And what were the doctors doing
there? If her father was only ex
hausted from exposure and lack of
food why should he need two doctors?
Men had been lost on the mountain
before; they never needed nurses
when they were brought home; their
own women cared for them; she could
care for her father.
When he was well enough they
would send for him at the town; they
were only waiting for him to prove
their suspicions. The case had been
adjourned; it was a pretty clear case
of malice, folks said, but they were
waiting for her father to prove it.
The door of the bedroom opened,
and the nurse came out. She was an
elderly woman with a grave face. She
brought' several parcels from the
town. Young Green sent her a note
by the man who went to fetch the doc
tors, and she knew what to bring. One
or two of these she opened and pre
pared beef and broth. She spoke
quietly and pleasantly to Dolores, but
she found her own way about the
house and seemed to fit into every
thing.
A> sudden fear took possession of
Dolores. It was sharp and appalling,
and she straightened up under it as
though she had received a blow. It
was no exhaustion from want of food
and shelter that ailed her father; some
thing more than that brought this
woman and the doctors, caused this
hush of voice and footsteps, shut her
from her father’s presence. She spoke,
and her voice was low. The woman
turned quietly toward the girl.
“You spoke, Miss Johnson?”
“What ails my father?”
“He will be better by and by. We
could not expect him to recover at
once. Do not be alarmed.”
Dolores repeated her question in the
same low yet perfectly distinct voice;
her eyes looked steadily at the wom
an.
‘What ails my father?”
The nurse was annoyed. She did
not like to be questioned so pointed
ly; she had studied to keep her own
counsel and use few words.
“Your father had a heavy fall, Miss
Johnson; only the ledge saved him.
His right leg was broken above the
knee; the doctors have set that now;
it will be better soon.”
Like young Green, she would not
tell the full truth. How could she
tell the girl the extent of the injuries
and the possible end? That one of his
legs would have to be amputated;
that his whole system was so shat
tered it would be a miracle if he lived,
and though he should live he would
be a cripple always? She dared not
say this; she dared not look at the
girl at first.
Presently Dolores spoke again, and
her voice was perfectly even and
slow.
“How long before he will be well?”
“Impossible to tell,” the woman re
plied gravely. "Such cases are uncer
tain.”
“But he will get well?”
“Why not? We will take good care
of him.”
“Do you think,” Dolores’ eyes grew
dark as night, “do you think they will
send for him before he can go? They
are waiting for him to go to the town
—for him to go to prove-”
“I know,” the woman said, quietly,
with perfect control over the muscles
of her face. “I have heard. No, they
will not send for him until he can go.
You must not worry, Miss Johnson.”
Dolores turned back to the window
with no further remark, and silence
fell over the room save for the wom
an’s soft movements, and a hushed
sound from the bedroom now and
then.
CHAPTER XI.
The Nurse’s Story.
The doctors remained in that
hushed room the whole of the long
night through; the nurse said that they
would go presently, but they did not.
As darkness settled down heavily one
of them came out and spoke to the
nurse. Then the nurse went into the
bedroom with the doctors, and the
door was shut.
Once or twice young Green came
out to Bpeaik a pleasant word to her of
encouragement, or a message as to
her father’s condition; he was more
quiet now, the doctors had given him
a narcotic. I^ater he was sleeping
quietly; sleep was what he needed.
"‘It is too bad it is so stormy," he
said, and there was an indescribable
kindness in his voice as he stood be
side her at the window while the dark
ness was enveloping the world. “1
would so like to see the stars from
your windows. Dolores. Can you see
Venus above the mountains when it
is clear, and the moon set in the
young moon's arms?”
She lifted her true eyes to his face,
and a flush was coming into the pure,
pale face.
“There are few 1 can place in the
heavens,” she said, slowly, “but those
I know are like friends to me; I have
no friends, you know. And my mother
is near me when the stars are in the
sky. My mother is dead. You knew
my mother is dead?”
• "Yes,” he made answer, smiling
into the lifted face so near his own.
"I would so like you to see my moth
er. Dolores. You could not fail to
love her.”
The girl shook her head. There was
no deepening of the soft coloring of
her face, no tremor of the proudly
Ill—r-iii,
She lifted her eyes to his face.
curved red lips, no drooping of the
silken lashes over the dark eyes.
“I know nothing about love,” she
said, quietly. "I have only my father
and my mother’s books.”
His eyes darkened suddenly, a
strange tenderness came over the fair,
kindly face.
“After all. there is a sadness about
love; perhaps it is as well, Dolores."
He turned swiftly from her, and
crossing the room lighted only by the
flickering Are, his figure defined in
grotesque shapes upon the walls, he
entered the room beyond, leaving her
motionless at the darkened window,
her eyes following him.
Presently she left the window also
and, crossing to a shelf at the other
end, took down the last book he had
brought her and opened it to her
favorite reading of the fables of the
stars. Her eyes bent over the pages
were aluminous, her cheeks flushed
softly. She was out of her narrowed
life with the infinite range of the
heavens spread before her; the mill
ions and millions of miles of space
carried her mind with the thoughts
l'ar, far above the shut-in life of her
mountain home and the stolid settle
ment that had no life but the tavern
and the gossip.
As young Green entered the bed
room the nurse was setting things to
rights for the night; she smiled at
him as he entered; the two doctors
were talking together in an under
tone.
“Take good care of her, Mrs. Allen,”
he said, earnestly; “and see that she
sleeps. She is completely worn out
with this strain. 1 leave it with you
to see that she is interested in things
outside of this room. I will stop at
the tavern to-night and be up early in
the morning. Everything all right,
Harry?”
(To be continued.)K
READY WITH HiS ANSWER.
How Sir Harry Keppel Staggered the
Governor of Algiers.
There are not many men in the
British navy who were promoted more
quickly than Sir Harry Keppel. T!e
was a commodore at twenty-four, and
at this early age was sent to the gov
ernor of Algiers to demand an apol
ogy from that monarch for an inBult
to the British flag.
Naturally the gold braid of the
commodore fired the youth to deeds
of daring, and, perhaps, a little bit
of “side,” and the high tone which
he arrogated to himself upset his
majesty of Algiers to such an extent
that that dusky potentate cried out
against the insolence of the British
queen for sending a “beardless boy”
with such a message to him.
But young Keppel was prepared.
“Were my queen,” he replied, “wont
to take length of beard for a test ot
wisdom, she would have sent your
highness a he-goat.”
Sentiment vs. Fact.
That the advance preparation ot
speeches will not always conform tc
circumstances was made evident dur
ing a recent flag raising at an uptown
public school. The young orator had
been speaking for several minutes,
when he advanced to the front of the
platform, raised his hand with a dra
matic gesture to the flag on the stafl
above him and shouted:
“See yon flag throwing its protect
mg folds to the breeze of freedom!”
It was a pretty sentiment, but the
"breeze” didn’t bear out the picture.
The flag,to which all eyes were turned
immediately turned, hung as limp as
if it had been dipped in water.—Phila
delphia Press.
HALF CENTURY AGO.
CONVINCING ARGUMENTS IN SUP
PORT OF PROTECTION.
Free-Trade Newspaper of To-Day Waa
at That Time 8trongly In Favor of
Legislating for the Best Interests of
Our Own People.
Curious relics of the past, when sane
and sound Americanism characterized
the columns of a newspaper which in
recent years has turned much of Its
talents and energies In a contrary di
rection, are found in the files of the
Springfield Republican of nearly fifty
years ago. In the edition of that pa
per of the date of Jan. 12, 1855, ap
pears an editorial on ' The Tariff,”
which shows the then editor, Samuel
Bowles, senior, as one of the ablest
and clearest sighted protectionists of
that period. No one has ever pre
sented more effective argument in fa
vor of the policy which looks after our
own country and our own people and
leaves foreigners to look after them
selves than is contained in this urgent
appeal to congress to lose no time in
enacting a strictly protective tariff.
Business conditions in 1865 were simi
lar to those which prevailed forty
years later under a Democratic-free
trade tariff. Franklin Pierce, a New
England free-trader, was president of
the United States. Free-trade was the
order of the day, and the customary
free-trade conditions prevailed. With
a tariff for revenue only in full force,
revenue was falling off at. the rate of
$2,000,000 a month. Said the Spring
field Republican of that period:
“Away with merely revenue tariffs!
They are destroying American Inde
pendence. They are transplanting our
workshops to Europe. They are carry
ing off our gold as fast as it can be
dug in California. They are obliging
us to wear German and French broad
cloths by forbidding the manufacture
of American. They are shutting up
factories, reducing the rates of labor,
Impoverishing the country. Away with
them!”
That is exactly what a Democratic
tariff was doing in 1895, forty years la
ter. In the winter of 1855, as the Re
publican narrates, the unemployed la
borers of New York to the number of
60,000 men, 50,000 women and 10,000
UNWISE POLICY.
Republican* Should Not Side With
Democrats.
There is no substantial reason to bo
advanced why Republicans of either
state should attempt to play into the
hands of their political enemies by
changing front on the tariff question.
The tariff law as it stands Is admit
tedly a good measure. If the whole
question were reopened It is more than
doubtful whether any better law could
be framed; and to reopen the tariff
question in part is to reopen it in
whole. If imperfections exist In the
law as it stands there has been a dis
tinct lack of any specific pointing out
of those defects. When it is positively
shown that somo Injury Is worked
through them it will be time enough
to proceed to remedy those defects:
either by raising duties If they have
proved too low or lowering them if
they have proved too high.
In the meantime and until some de
fects do appear and are specifically
pointed out, it is decidedly advisable,
both from the standpoint of politics
and from regard for the Interests of
the country, to let the tariff alone,
and to refrain from aiding the Demo
cratic campaign for revision.
The Republican party does not have
to apologize for the Dlngley law, its
workings or its results. Considering
the present condition of business in
the United States, the development of
industry, the growth of our domestic
and our foreign trade and the splen
did financial condition of the treasury,
all due in great measure at least to
the present tariff law, it is difficult to
see why any Republican should favor
tampering with that law In the direc
tion which the Democrats desire to see
it amended. As a matter of fact there
are very few Republicans who do want
to see It tampered with, even in Iowa,
as the Republican convention there
has Just shown.—Seattle Post-Intelli
gencer.
Protection Wins by 300 Per Cent.
The product of pig iron In this coun
try the present year will exceed twen
ty million tons. That of Great Britain
and Germany combined will be consid
erably below this; and the pre-emin
ence of the United States In iron and
steel Is growing more pronounced year
by year, under the Influence of the be
nign policy of protection, which the
TRVING TO RAISE A DEAD ISSUE.
children, were holding' mass meetings
and petitioning the city government
for work on city improvements, and
were threatening anarchy unless their
wants should be in some way provided
for. In Boston the souphouse system
was in full blast, excepting on Sun
days, when the unemployed had to go
hungry. Regular Democratic tariff
times! Tho Springfield Republican
demanded a return to protection as a
means of allaying distress and restor
ing prosperity, just as the Republican
newspapers were doing in 189G, after
three years of free-trade domination.
The Springfield paper appealed for:
“Preference for American labor, for
American goods, for American men,
over the labor, the goods and the men
of other countries.”
Precisely what the protectionists of
to-day are insisting upon. Forty-eight
years ago the Springfield Republican
was saying:
“Free-trade is correct in theory and
correct in practice, if we are legisla
ting for the benefit of the whole world.
But If we are to legislate for America,
let us legislate for Americans by pro
tecting their interests and their labor
against the interests of the uneduca
ted and impoverished labor of Europe."
To-day the Springfield Republican is
diametrically opposed to the doctrine
which it so ably advocated in 1855.
Either it was wrong then or it is
wrong now. It could not have been
wrong in 1855, Judging from the terri
ble conditions of want and ruin which
then existed as the direct result of
legislating for the benefit of foreign
ers. Is there any more reason now
than there was then why we should
legislate against our own people and
in favor of foreigners? Is there any
reason to suppose that the conditions
of 1855 and 1895 would not return if
we should abandon protection and in
vite the competition of th(j under paid
labor in Europe? They certainly would
and must return in such an event, the
only difference being that the damage
and loss would now be ten times
greater because the aggregate of la
bor and production is now ten times
greater. Having climbed so high, we
should fall so much further. It would
seem that all that was needed to re
convert the Springfield Republican to
protectionism would be a perusal of
Its own. files of forty-eight years ago.
/VVVWVWOVWVA/VWVWWSfWVW
Republican party has conferred upon
the country. Our present rate of pro
duction is a remarkable contrast to
the production in this country nine
years ago, the “boss" Cleveland year,
when the pig Iron produced in the Uni
ted States was but 6,757,248 tons, or
about one-third of the present rate.
In that year Great Britain’s production
considerably exceeded ours, while Ger
many's didn't lag far behind. The
showing is a remarkable object lesson
in the comparative advantages to the
country of free-trade vs. protection,
and protection wins by three hundred
per cent.—Salt Lake Tribune.
Iowa's Free-Trade Radicals.
The tariff plank of the Iowa Demo
crats is sufficiently radical to please
the Cleveland contingent, for it not
only calls for a removal of the tariff
from all trust-made goods, but it de
dares that ail tariff schedules should
be adjusted with a view to tarlff-for
revenue-only. This proposition, it is
to be hoped, will be as squarely met
by the national Democratic conven
tion, Blnce it raises the issue between
the British free-trade policy, which
Colonial Britain is giving evidence oi
being tired of, and the American
economic programme, which has been
embodied in the most successful in
dustrial experience ever snared by any
nation in human history.—Boston Jour
nal.
No Assault on the Tariff.
The convention of 1904 will make no
demand for any tariff revision. It will
suit the Republicans to make a fight
on the tariff if the Democrats can )<•
Inveigled into assailing the protective
policy next year. The chances are,
however, that Gorman and the rest of
the shrewd leaders of the Democracy
will prevent their party from making
any assault on the tariff that can
arouse Republican opposition. — St
I.ouis Globe-Democrat.
A Sure Cure.
Says the Chicago Record-Herald:
“The only cure for the surplus is a re
vision of the tariff.'' Very true indeed
Tariff revision downward has never
failed to cure a surplus either in -the
national treasury or in the pockets of
the people. As a surplus cnrer tariff
revision belongs in the category of
“death on rats.”
Cow Poa* and Soy Beans.
Many farmers in Illinois, especially
in the central and northern sections
of the state are not familiar with the
cow pea and soy bean. In some parts
of southern Illinois cow peas are
grown extensively, and where the
value of this crop Is known it consti
tutes one of the chief forage crops.
Soy beans are of more recent intro
duction, and this crop is not so well
known as cow peas. In some cases
farmers have given one or both of
these crops a trial, but through the
UBe of varieties not adapted to their
climate, unsatisfactory results have
been obtained, and consequently they
have pronounced these plants un
sulted to Illinois conditions. Others
have been more successful in their
growth, and find them worthy of a
prominent place in the rotation. As a
matter of fact, both crops have been
grown In this state long enough and
to such an extent that they have
passed beyond the purely experiment
al stage, and in places they are al
ready considered as important factors
in Illinois agriculture.
The cow pea is a native of south
eastern China, and the soy bean of
Japan. Being semltroplcal in origin,
both plants are naturally best suited
to a warm climate, and the introduc
tion and cultivation of the cow pea
in America has been largely limited
to the South, although in recent years
certain varieties have become so ac
climated as to mature In the latitude
of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minne
sota. The soy bean has been grown
farther north since its introduction,
consequently there is no question as
to the adaptability of both crops to
the soil and climate of Illinois. How
ever, there are varieties grown in the
south which are not suitable for this
state, and will not mature if planted
here. One of the first essentials in
the successful culture of these crops,
therefore, is the selection of varieties
adapted to the conditions of climate
and soil.—Circular 69, Illinois Agri
cultural College.
, Hog Pasture.
It la not safe or even desirable to
rely upon a single crop to furnish pas
ture for our hogs throughout the en
tire season. It Is better to arrange for
a succession of pastures from the be
glnlng of the season until the hogs
are ready for market, making the feed
richer and more concentrated toward
the close of the season, and as we ap
proach the finishing of fattening pe
riod. For this purpose the following
crops are recommended: Red clover
or alfalfa, rape, cowpeas, soy beans.
On lands adapted to alfalfa It will
undoubtedly prove to be better for
hogs than red clover. Inasmuch as it
will produce a larger quantity of feed
of a somewhat higher value. Inas
much as we have not yet learned W>
grow alfalfa successfully on the ma
jority of our upland clay soils, we
shall be forced to rely chiefly upon
clover. It starts earlier In the spring
than any hog pasture we have except
ing alfalfa, and would therefore be
used first., and should be used as long
as It Is succulent and palatable. Usu
ally not later than the middle of June
the crop will have become so mature
that the hogs will relish a change for
the time being, and the surplus clover
should be cut ahd removed, so as to
allow the second or fall crop to start
promptly.—Report Missouri State
Board of Agriculture.
Condition of Foreign Crop*.
According to reports received by the
Department of Agriculture relative to
the condition of European crops July
1st, In Russia the cereal crop prospects
have considerably Improved even In
regions where conditions at the be
ginning of spring were unfavorable. In
Germany there has been great Im
provement In all the winter cereals,
partlclarly rye. In Austria only a
good medium harvest of spring sown
.crops is to bb expected. Hungary's
output will fall considerably below
that of 1902, the deficiency in the case
pt wheat being 16% per cent Most
of the Bulgarian crops are In good con
dition. Storms and floods have serious
ly damaged crops and vineyards In
Italy. In France the winter wheat
area is estimated to be 681,724 acres
less than In 1902. Wheat and other
crops made marked Improvement dur
ing June and now look well. Reports
from Denmark are generally favorable.
Great Britain’s wheat crop Is late and
will hardly equal the average yield.
The total wheat crop which India har
vested this spring has been estimated
at 290,261,104 bushels against 226,370,
890 In 1902.
Grooming the Herd.
After the cattle have had their hay
In the morning they are cleaned up for
the day. We use good stiff root brushes
for the purpose and the curry comb is
brought Into requisition when neces
sary. The cows enjoy this brushing
and stand perfectly still, frequently
stopping their eating during the opera
tion. Some authorities claim that brush
ing stimulates the circulation, thereby
increasing the milk flow. Whether or
not this is so, I do not know. That a
clean row of cows is more attractive
and pleasing to the eye, there Is no
doubt. Besides this, can you tell me
of anything more repulsive than milk
ing vile smelling, filthy cows? If the
custom of cleaning cows was more gen
eral among farmers, the butter mak
ers and creamery men throughout the
country would have much less trouble
in producing a first class article.—D.
\V. Howie