Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Loup City northwestern. (Loup City, Neb.) 189?-1917 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 1902)
444444444444444 ♦ *444 44444444 4444 >4444 4444 4444 44444444 * : An American Nabob. A Remarkable Story of Love, Gold and Adventure. * By ST. GEORGE RATHBORNE 444444444444444444444444 44444444 44444444 44444 4444444 Copy rich L. by Sthhht A SMITH, Now York. 4 4444444444444444 CHAPTER VI.—(Continued.) McGregor made a proposition to the effect that his principal should be en titled to at least one shot in practice before the affair came on the carpet— as Livermore was familiar with the handling of the firearms, he certainly had an advantage, and it would be only fair to give Overton a chance to see how the weapon upon which he was about to stake his life did its work. To this the others readily agreed, and Jack glancing around for some mark, discovered a Bparrow upon a branch fully as distant as his antago nist would be when the word came to fire. “Ah!" he remarked, “I have found a mark almost half as large as a human heart." He fired almost instantly, and the mangled bird fell to the ground, while the McGregor whistled a bar or two from "The Campbells Are Coming," and Livermore's second looked very serious. Then the conditions of the duel were gone over. The two principals were to be sta tioned at the posts selected, within easy pistol shot, and their backs turn ed toward each other. At a given signal they were to wheel and advance directly toward each other, the privilege to fire being open from that instant. One advantage would come to the man who got in his shot first, provid ed he hit his mark, but if he missed, heaven help him, for the other had the privilege of walking up as close as he pleased and delivering a murder ous fire. When these arrangements had been made the principals walked to their stations and received their weapons, together with a last word of advice from their seconds. Then they were left alone, facing each other. Overton could feel his heart pound ing away like a miniature trip ham mer, and he held out his arm with some uneasiness, but smiled to find It as firm as a rock—not a tremor or quiver of the slightest description— really it looked bad for Livermore, who perhaps had met with the most astonishing perils during his adven turous life, and finally came home to find his Sedan. At McGregor's command the two duelists turned back to back, with the arm holding the pistol dropped down at their sides. “Men, are ye baith ready?” he de manded. as though about to open a sprinting race or some other innocent game of sport. “Ready!” came from the traveler, quickly. “Ready!" echoed Overton, between his teeth. “Then, gang awa', and the God o’ battles decide the day,” roared the ex dragoon. Both men whir'ed around, and the dueling pistols came up to a level. Neither fired at once, but began to advance, while the onlookers—includ ing an almost paralyzed rustic with a pitchfork over his shoulder, on the way to some field of labor—held their very breath in suspense. Two. three, four paces for each—the distance had been horribly narrowed, and as yet. not a shot. It looked like murder—as though both of them must fall when the final exchange of compliments took place. McGregor would have given all he owned for the privilege of bawling out to his man—he believed Jack was los ing his best chance—that he had the other at his mercy, and was a fool not to get in the first shot; but such an act on the part of a second would have been a gross breach of the etiquette governing such affairs, and he dis creetly remained silent. Then with stunning abruptness came the sharp report of a pistol, and the McGregor groaned as he saw the smoke oozing from the barrel of the leveled weapon clutched in the rigid hand of Livermore. CIIAI’TKR VII. How the Duel Ended. With his heart in his throat the Mc Orogor, after discovering that the shot proceeded from the pistol of the vet eran traveler, flashed his eyes toward Overton. Jack turned his face for a second toward his friend—it was color less from the intense nervous tension, but over it had shot a terrible grim smile, such as could only be born of complete triumph - he knew the life of his hated rival wns in his hands. Livermore, of course, had stood in his tracks after his llasco. His bronzed feature gave no sign of fear, though naturally enough he had set his teeth to meet the dread summons, as be came a man. He had had his chance and lost—the game was In Overton's hands, and there could be no appeal from the stern arbitrament of arms.. And Jack—-a whirlwind of fancies played riot in his mind and heart—the man he hated with such bitterness, who had stolen away the girl whom he had almost looked upon as his wife forever and aye—this favorite of for tune was now in his power, and a pres sure of the finger alone was needed to end his career. Fedora would th n be free and he— but, stop; suppose he killed Livermore. Would that act bridge the abyss be tween Fedora and himself On the contrary, would It not render it for ever impassable? His whole nature revolted at the thought of killing his rival In cold blood—this was not the kind of re venge for which his spirit yearned— and even at this dreadful moment of suspense, when angel and devil seem ed to struggle within for the mastery, somehow the gentle, earnest face of little Mazette, the portrait painter, flashed before his vision. Then suddenly, without^the least warning Overton raised hi® arm until the pistol covered the upper branches of a tree, and. discharging the weapon, tossed it to the feet of hia antagonist, whirled on his heel and walked away. The good angel had triumphed—he refused to accept the life the gods had given him. The McGregor, breathing out mutter ings of discontent, chased after his principal. To his rather brutal soldier mind Jack was a fool to stand the fire of a man who had wronged him, and then throw away the golden opportun ity for revenge which the fickle god dess of fortune had placed in his hands. McGregor could not comprehend the delicate nature of the affair—he be lieved that if the doughty captain, who had perhaps bewitched Jacks sweet heart in some mysterious manner, had only been disposed of. so that he might not appear upon the stage again, Over ton would have clear sailing in the matter. Alas! the situation was far more complicated. Overton knew a condition and not a theory confronted him—that Fedora had been dazzled by the evidences of wealth around her—that she loved dress and diamonds and luxurious ease more than she had ever loved him, even in that fool's Paradise when, like a couple of children, they had indulged in beautifully romantic dreams of the future—that evanescent Fata Morgana that appears to all sailors who venture upon the sea of love. But one faint hope remained—would Fedora listen to the still, small voice within and thrust the temptation aside? Strange how we cling desperately to the last straw when our boat sinks un der us. They entered the great city and final ly pulled up at a chop house, where, having dismissed the chuckling cabby, they had breakfast together. Overton still had little to say, though ho kept up a tremendous thinking, and when the meal was over the McGregor shook him solemnly by the hand, saying In parting: “As I taul ye before, laddie, if ye need a braw frien’ came to Donald Mc Gregor. I'm sore afraid ye did wrang to let the glllee off, but ye ltnaw best. Aweel, aweel, let it gang. Nae doot I’ll see ye later, mon. In peace or war, then call on the McGregor.” CHAPTER VIII. Mazette. Overton settled down into a rut, waiting and working by fits and starts upon his picture. During these weeks he lived from hand to mouth, selling an occasional ‘‘pot boiler” for a pit tance that just managed to keep the wolf from the door. Days glided into weeks. He worked spasmodically, wandered about Lon don. dreamed of mighty things that he could do if invested with the touch of Midas, and sometimes spent an even ing with Mazette and her aunt. These social events always had a salutary effect upon Overton, and many times he breathed blessings upon the little miniature painter for her sister ly affection, as he was pleased to con sider it. which soothed him in such a wonderful manner. , His painting was complete. As he stood in front of it he knew it was a masterpiece that must without a doubt bring him both fortune and glory. Oh! if she would but only wait un til the day when all London echoed with his name, and it would be an honor to know him. But the hero of many an African and Indian border foray was impatient in his wooing, since he had reached an age when a man must needs make haste if he expects to shake off the thralldom of bachelorhood and tak'j upon himself the vows and duties of a benedict, since the older he grows the more difficult it becomes to assume new obligations. When Overton read in the Times that the wedding was to occur on the next Thursday evening at a fashionable church he seemed turned into stone for a time. He became moody, almost sullen. He avoided those friends who had been of late such a comfort to him. Mazette chanced to meet him on the street—perhaps the use of that word can hardly be allowed, since she pur posely went cut of her w'ay to pass near his lodgings in the hope of seeing him, for the article concerning Fe dora's coming marriage had caught her eye, too, and she began to fear for Jack again. When she saw him so moody and ap parently at cross purposes with the whole world, she felt very bitter tc ward Fedora, and had it been in her power Just then to remedy JtatterB, even at the expense of pain to nerself, Aiuzette would have only too gladly done so, for Jack married to Fedora anl happy waa tar better than Jack I miserable, despondent and devoid of ambition. The fatal evening came. Jack had grimly made up hie mind he would by hook or crook witness she ceremony that was to darken hlB life and take from him the girl he had so long looked upon as his Inspiration. Knowing that a fashionable audi ence would fill the church, and that admission without a card would be difficult, he made friends with the or ganist and managed to get an invita tion to occupy a seat in the loft. Mazette insisted on accompanying him—at first he had been appalled by the thought of another witnessing his mute suffering, but she was so per sistent. and her sweet presence al ways served to arouse his better na ture. so finally he gave a reluctant con sent. When the organ pealed out the wed ding march from “Lohengrin," Over ton shut his teeth hard and waited the coming of the white procession that started down the aisle, flower girls strewing the way with rare blossoms. Fedora looked like a dream—her ap pearance would haunt him to his dying day. And Livermore was very handsome in his dress suit—he appeared very proud, and had eyes for no one but the beautiful woman who knelt before the chancel rail beside him and vowed to “love, honor and obey." When Overton heard this he seemed to feel a change come over him—he knew it was false, for, loving him, how could she truthfully promise to give to her husband the affection it im plied?—his faith in womankind was dead, he believed, forever, and from that hour he could never believe in the sex again. Toward the close of the ceremony Fedora raised her hitherto downcast eyes, as if drawn by the subtle power of Jack's stern gaze, and looked Into his face. As if an arrow had pierced her heart she turned pale and shuddered, nor did she dare raise her eyes again. Perhaps she even dreaded lest the man whom she had so cruelly jilted, whose devoted heart she had cast away after it was of no further use to her, as one might a worn-out glove, might in his righteous anger do some thing desperate—such things have been known ere now in high life. Altogether those last few minutes of the ceremony that should have been the proudest and happiest in her whole life were the most miserable, and she endured a small portion of the same suffering her act had brought upon Overton. All was over! The wedding procession was passing down the aisle to renewed strains of joyous music. Perhaps those who were near enough to notice wondered why the happy and envied bride should turn her head and look in a half eager, half frightened way toward the altar—they could not know that remorse was already beginning to goad her heart, and that the memory of that white, set, agonized face in the organ loft would come before her with reproaches every day of her life, while the bitter accusations of a murdered conscience must many times drive her to tears when surrounded by all the beautiful things that generally go to make the sum total of a fashionabld woman’s happiness, and to possess which she had betrayed her own heart. When Jack went out of the church, after the butterfly audience had rolled away In their swell turnouts, he was taciturn; but his step had an elasticity Mazette had not noticed for many a day. He accompanied Mazette to her home, but declined entering the humble abode. (To be continued.) EVILS OF THE LONDON FOG. Experiments Which Tenil to Show That It la lloat Destructive. Some unofficial experiments carried out at Chelsea during the recent fog, according to Sir William Thiselton Dyer, the director of Kew Gardens, showed that in a week six tons of solid matter were deposited on a square mile. They included not only soot but a variety of tarry hydro-carbons, high ly Injurious to animal and vegetable life. Adopting the postofflce telephone area of GOO square miles, this means that the metropolis labored under a weight of 3,600 tons of this dreadful compound before the wind wa3 strong enough to carry it to another part of the country. The other part of the country might be the Berkshire downs, where Sir William Richmond has sometimes seen a solid bank of fog creeping up from the east. There they call it London dirt. Another Instance of the destroying power of the London fog was supplied at the meeting of the Coal Smoke Abatement Society recently by Pro fessor Church, who exhibited an evil looking object, two inches thick, which had recently been chipped off the molding of the gallery outside the great dome of St. Paul’s. This deposit covers most of the building where water penetrates, and it only contains 1 per cent of soot, the remainder com prising chemical products which are most pernicious to Portland stone. Professor Church also has a griev ance against the fog as the enemy of oil paintings. So great indeed is the injury which soot and smoke do to art as well as nature that it is rather sur prising a society has not been formed for the promotion of fog.—London Chronicle. Germany's Modern Schools. Germany is now the best-educated nation of Europe, yet only hundred of years ago German t cachets in many parts of the country were so poorly paid that they used io sing in front of houses in order to add to their income by odd pence. NEEDS OF THE SOUTH SIGNS OF AN ECONOMIC WAKENING PLAINLY VISIBLE. Democratic Newspaper* Arc Beginning to Conilder the Value or the Principle of Protection at Applied to Southern Industry and Agriculture, A number of newspapers published in southern cities are engaged in a dis cussion which is certain to be product ive of good results. It is a healthful sign when Democratic newspapers in that part of the country fall to discuss ing tariff matters as related to the in terests and welfare of their own peo ple. That Is what is now going on. It should be kept up. Southern people are, as a rule, averse to taking their political cues from Republican newspa pers, but they are willing to receive argument when advanced by journals of their own political faith. In this way they are ready to absorb some new ideas on the tariff question—Ideas new to them, but very old and very strongly in favor in other parts of the country. A considerable portion of the Demo cratic press of the South seems to have awakened to the fact that the Repub lican doctrine of protection to domes tic labor and industry is worth while considering, in spite of the fact that it is Republican doctrine. These newspa pers have begun to suspect that the protective tariff is not a sectional affair —not, as Calhoun used to preach, after he turned free trader, a device for the enrichment of the North at the expense of the south, but a policy which builds up and benetlts all parts of the coun try. We find evidences of this gratify ing discovery in a recent issue of the Charleston News and Courier, a rock ribbed Democratic paper, as follows: “The Louisiana delegation, it need not be said, is wholly consistent with itself in supporting the application of the Dingley tariff to the products of the foreign Philippines, and it is right besides. There is no justice in the ag ricultural sugar interests of the South and West being butchered to make a reciprocity holiday for the manufactur ing interests of the East. And the del egations from Western beet states will doubtless be forced to be of the same mind. Let well enough alone; or, if the holy tariff must be scaled, let It be scaled even.” Commenting on this expression the New Orleans Item says: “This is in line with Senator McLau rin's views and indicates that since South Carolina has become the fore most cotton manufacturing state of the South, her views are getting back to those entertained by John C. Calhoun before the days of slavery agitation. And yet, notwithstanding the necessity for a protective duty to defend and build up our cotton mills, we find ev ery Democrat In the house except three Louisianians voting to break down the tariff wall and let the products of a hundred fertile islands and ten mil lions of cheap laborers into the United States in competition with our sugar and cotton." The “Item” then proceeds to remind the Democrats of the Southern states that they are badly and wrongly repre sented on the tariff question in con gress. It points out that the cotton grower is as much interested in a pro tective tariff as the sugar grower. Even with the present 40 per cent duty on cotton goods there is an import from foreign mills of fifty million dol lars’ worth of cotton goods annually. If this tariff were removed every cot ton mill of the South would go to ruin and the labor which has been collected by them in comfortable and prosperous villages would be scattered to the wind. As soon as our market is left open to the free competition of Great Britain and Germany the mills of Eu rope would fix the price of cotton, and our friends would then see the cotton planter not nearly, but entirely, in the hands of the sheriff. How much cotton the Philippines can grow is not yet known, but it is certain that it can be grown in those islands with native and Chinese labor, as easily as it is now grown in China. In the olden days we used Nankin, or nankeen, as it was called, in this country, for clothing, and with the tariff wall removed we may again find it cheaper to get cot ton goods from Nankin and Manila. The New Zealander, casting his nets from the ruins of London bridge, was looked upon as an amusing absurdity of Macauley’s, but it is not beyond the bounds of credulity to Imagine the slant-eyed Munilans selling sugar and cotton. Quite in the same vein the New Or leans “Picayune,” a stanch Demo cratic newspaper, resents the action of Southern Democrats in Congress in re fusing to act with Louisiana's repre sentatives in defending Southern agri cultural and industrial Interests against the unfair competition of cheaper labor in the Philippines, in Cuba, or any where else. Says the “Picayune”: “If raw sugar were allowed to come in from abroad free of duty, the sugar producers of Louisiana and the West, not being able to compete with the sugar of Europe and the tropics, made with pauper labor, would be driven out of business; but since the raw sugar, as it is imported, has to be refined in order to fit it for use, it would get to the Sugar Trust two cents cheaper; but there is no evidence that it would reach the consumers any cheaper than at present. It is not to be supposed that the Sugar Trust is operating only in order to give the people sugar at reduced prices. Nobody ha3 any grounds for the belief that any manu facturing trust Is a philanthropic in stitution, and it is difficult to believe that anybody in Louisiana outside of the trcst want* to put money into thi coffers of that powerful and greedy concern at the expense of the home sugar producers." This is the right sort of talk, anc there is going to be more of it. It is an edifying spectacle to see Southern Democrats arguing with each other on the tariff question. In such agitation and diversity of opinion lies the South’s best hope of reaching a sound common-sense, level headed conclusion in favor of protection and prosperity. PAYING OURSELVES. American* Now Kecel»« Va»t Ham* of Money Which Oormorly Went Abroad. Disbursements of dividends nml in terest amounting to about 1500,000,000 are taking place during this first week in January, 1902. It is very much the largest sum ever distributed in this form in the United States, and accord ingly it may properly be considered as representing by far the highest point i in material prosperity ever reached in the United States. No country on earth can show anything like it. The grand total of $500,000,000 Is more than dou ble what the dlstributnon of dividends and interest payments amounted to in the first week in January, five years ; ago. Then we were staggering under j the effects of four years of tariff re- j form and free trade. Now we have not quite completed four and a half years of restored protection to Ameri can industry and labor. What a con trast between then and now! Five hundred millions of dollars Is a big sum to be scattered broadcast through this land of ours, a mighty sum to be paid out here and to stay here. For, mark you, it does stay here and It does not go abroad any \ more, not above 1 per cent of it, to I enrich creditors in foreign countries. ; Reason why: We don't owe anything now to foreigners. Why? Because in \ four and a half years of "McKinley | and protection" our trade balances have amounted to over $2,000,000,000, and in settling these Immense balances Europe has been compelled to send back our securities,so that we now owe Europe very little, if anything, and only an infinitesimal portion of the $500,000,000 disbursed this week goes to any but our own people. Not long ago, say four or five years, our great j railroad corporations were sending vast amounts of money to London and the continent to pay dividends on stocks and interest on bonds owned abroad. This year the checks are made payable to American citizens and not to foreigners. All because the Republican policy of protection en ables us to produce so large a pro portion of what we use and to require payment in cash or the return of our securities held abroad for the enor mous surplus of our exports over our imports. There is a tremendous object lesson in the disbursement of $500,000,000 among the people of the United States during this first week in January, 1902. SPARE THAT TREE 1 Woodman, spare that tree; Touch not a single bough. In youth it sheltered me. And I’ll Protect it now. Tbs Sad I.ouUlana Purchase, Added to the $15,000,000 paid France for Louisiana, there were over $12,000, 000 in interest and allowed claims. Then reckoning the cost of the Indian wars, because of that purchase, at merely $500,000,000, and we have a grand total of $527,000,000. What & consummate blockhead anti-Philip pine purchasers must rate Thomas Jef ferson. How can these antis even con sent to reside longer in the land of the great original annexationist? But, worst of all, Thomas J. governed the purchased territory without the con sent of the governed. What an out rage ! Don't Stop tlio Wheel*. if Congress, governed by the spirit of evil, should take up ihe Tariff ques tion there would be lobbying for high er duties here and lower duties there, and manufacturers and importers would have to stand and mark time till they knew what the outcome of the turmoil and the strife was to be. To attempt to revise the Tariff is to put the brake on the wheels of the chariot of prosperity.—Tionesta (Pa.) Repub lican. Babcock's Recruits. Instead of Babcock having fifty or sixty Republican members, as pre dicted by Democratic papers, who are willing to follow his lead in an en deavor to open up the Tariff question by amendments to the Dlngley law, we venture the assertion that he cannot muster as many as twenty-five.—Har risburg (Va.) "Spirit of the Valley.’’ MORAY’S NOBLE LINE. PATHETIC ROMANCE IN LIFE OF A SCOTTISH PEER. *T, the Kart of Moray,’* the Haughty Declaration Customary at a MoaMsg of Deers of the Ancient Kingdom ot .Hot land. Lying dead In his least important seat of Doune lodge, near Stirling, i9 Edmund Archibald Stuart, fifteenth Earl of Moray, Lx>rd Doune, St. Colme, and Abernethy, and Lord Stuart ol Castle Stuart. The words quoted in the title of this article refer to a claim the deceased earl used to make at every meeting of the Scotch peers, when “I, the Earl of Moray," used to declare "that the Rt. Hon. Walter John Francis, Earl of Mar and Kellie, cannot be called or ad mitted to vote in this election of peers next in order to the Earl of Caithness and prior in order to me, the Earl of Moray.” Tills declaration. “I, the Earl of Mo ray,” has been heard in Holyrood house again and again for many years. The origin of the claim is to be found in the fact that the original Eari, the great Regent Moray, was created Eart of Moray by Queen Mary two years be fore the creation of the title Earl of Mar. The claim, however, has always been disputed, and the Earl of Mar till retains his prior position on the roll of the peers of Scotland. There is no title of nobility, either in England or Scotland, around which a greater web of romance has been woven than that of the earldom of Mo ray. The mere fact that they are Stuarts with the royal but irregular blood of the great Scottish house in their veins would alone invest the scions of this great house with historic interest—an Interest which they share with other Stuarts, or Stewarts, now represented by the Marquis of Bute, the Earl of Galloway, the Earl of Cas tle Stuart, and other noble lines. But the earldom of Moray Is peculiar in ihe manner of its descent. The first earl, the regent, was murdered by Hamilton of Bothwellhuugh, and tha caridom descended not to any direct issue of his, but to his son-in-law, known as the Bonnie Earl of Moray, who was murdered in his turn. The i ini u t'ari netuoa me leuu uy umirjiug (he daughter of his father’s murderer. And when we come to the singular fact that a second son, and afterward two brothers, succeeded as fifth, sixth and seventh earls, from which point the succession continues in the direct line to Francis, the ninth earl. From this point the earldom de scended to George Philip, fourteenth earl, and then, all the intervening members of the family who could have succeeded to the title having died, it reverted back to the nobleman now deceased, who had descended from the ninth earl, and who was the eldest son of a country parson holding a liv ing at £158 a year. Unhappily, fortune did not come to the Earl of Moray with both hands full. At the time when he succeeded to the title and estates he was suffer ing from an incurable disease. There is something Infinitely pathetic in the fact that the inheritor of the glories of the Scotch monarchy, of historic asso ciations with Mary Stuart and Darn ley, and of titles which go back to the time of David I„ and Robert Bruce, should be fated to end his life in a con dition of pitiable splendor. “I, the Earl of Moray,” has been the proud title of more than twenty per sons since the old Celtic lordship was instituted, but there are very few of them whose lives need be envied by even the humblest in the land.—Lon don Mail. Napoleon and Blimardr* When Lord Rosebery told his audi ence at Chesterfield recently that the Boer war might be settled by a casual meeting of two travelers in a neutral inn he was probably thinking of the meeting of Napoleon III. and Bismarck in the cottage of a Belgian weaver aft er the battle of Sedan. Just before this conference Bismarck, unwashed and dirty, hastened on horseback toward Sedan. On the road he met the emper or, sitting with three officers in a two horse carriage, three other officers on horseback riding beside him. As the chancellor approached unattended in the presence of the emperor and six officers he glanced instinctively at the revolver buckled round his waist. Thinking of the incident afterward, Bismarck confessed that he might have involuntarily seized hold of the weap on. Napoleon turned an ashen gray and it seemed as if in the first moment of his captivity he feared that the ma ker of a nation could commit murder in cold blood. • Possibly,” said Bis marck afterward, “he thought that his tory might repeat itself. I think it was a prince of Conde who was murdered while a prisoner after a battle.” The Mont Poetic Sovereign. The most poetic sovereign in the world is probably the emperor of Ja pan. His love of poetry, it is asserted, increases with years. The Japan Mall says that “scarcely an evening passes that his majesty does not compose from twenty-seven to thirty of the 31 syllable couplets called Waka.’ These are handed to Baron Takasaki for ex amination. Baron Takasaki has hold his present position since 1892, and he declares that the number of couplets composed by his majesty from that time up to the end of last March was 37,000. The empress also is very fond of writing verses, but her majes ty’s pen is not so prolific as that of the emperor. She composes abiut two couplets twice a week.”