FA T Bo
High In the spaces of sky
Reigns Inaccessible Fate; .
Yields she to prayer or to cry?
Answers she early or late?
Change and rebirth and decay.
Dawning and darkness and llght
Creatnres they are of a day,
Dost In a pitiless night.
Men are like children who play
Unknown by an unknown sea;
Centuries vanish away;
She alts—the eternal She.
Nay; but the Gods arc afraid
Of the hoary Mother's nod;
They are of things that are made,
She waits—rtie eternal She.
They have seen dynasties fall
In ruin of what has been;
Her no upheavals appall—
Silent, unmoved and serene.
Silent, unmoved and serene
Reigns In a world uncreate.
Eldest of God and their Queen.
Featureless, passionate Fate.
—W. D. C. in The Fortnightly Intervi
The Lady of the Valley.
BY JAMES W. KILBURN.
(Copyright, 1902. by Daily Story Pub. Co.) ;
It was yellowing fall weather when
I came upon the camp, flanked by a
cornfield, a woman, whom I had seen
upon the road, sat on a stump smok
ing. A red shawl was knotted under
her arms and earrings protruded from
her head handkerchief. She knocked
the ashes from her pipe, but her eyes
—set deep in a worn face—looked
only at the blue line of mountains be
hind me. I sat upon another stump,
and presently she said:
“Will the lady have her fortune
told?”
“The last one you told me did not
come true,” I replied, and was re
warded by seeing that pipe removed
with as much surprise as is compat
ible with one of her stamp. Her eyes
■were now dark wells, to be fathomed
by no light plummet.
“’Tis not always a poor gypsy's
fault," she said.
‘‘You told me I should cross the
water and marry a dark man, and I’ve
done neither.”
“There is water still there, lady,
and the dark men are not all dead!”
“'Twas at Tivoli Fair,” 1 proceeded,
‘‘the day the lion got loose and the
keeper was hurt.” I paused, remem
bering all that the day had Involved.
There bad been robbery and arrest,
and it was said that the gypsies were
implicated. The incident had been
forgotten, but not the personality of
the woman who had interested me.
Suddenly the name came to me, giv
en by the woman at Tivoli.
“Daylia Herne! Don’t you remem
ber me, Daylia? And the talk we
had?” There was a tense contraction
of the whole figure, as though some
wild, secret thing were roughly awak
ened from under the frozen coverlid
of winter.
“’Twas not I," she said impurturb
ably. “I never saw Tivoli Fair in al!
my mortal life. Some other gypsy,
lady! Uut I can tell the lady a better
fortune nor that!” Knowing that
directness is not the route by which
such creatures arrive I said: “Per
haps so, but I should like to find Day
lia Herne again. Have you ever
heard of her?”
She V.nocked the ashes from her |
pipe and through the veil of defen
siveness there seemed to leap a gleam
of longing, the longing of an alien to
touch once more the beloved soil.
“I’ve seen her, lady, Oh, yes! A
bad lot, she was!”
“I should like to know what became
of her,” I persisted.
“Hard to tell what becomes of the
likes of her!”
“Do you know where Daylia went
after Tivoli Fair?” I asked.
“Yes, yes, lady! I'm thinking it
was the time Daylia died. She took
a hard cold and died, Daylia did, and j
a good riddance she was! Many's
the time I've said to her, ‘Daylia,
"Will the lady have her fortune told?”
mend your ways!’ But, tchk! There's
no use talking to surh cattle! Tchk,
lady, you can’t tell ’em! She was a
bad lot!”
“Yet she was a good mother,” I
said.
‘‘Ay, lady, she had a boy, maybe
you mind him. Daylia’s boy?"
“Yes, he was a beautiful youth.
What became of him when she died?”
“He went far away, and was well
rid of her, I’m thinking!”
"Then you never saw him after
ward?” I persisted. Sh~ floundered
slightly.
“Oh, yes, lady, he come to be a
fine man, he did. The finest you ever
seen! And to think you mind the
boy!”
It was needless to look at her to
know the Intense, pent eagerness of
every line, as she leaned forward, I
with a hand upon the stump and her
eyes devouring my face.
‘‘He had curly hair and beautiful
eyes,” I said.
‘‘Ay, ’twas surely him," she breath- j
ed.
‘‘But I thought him disrespectful to !
“Where’s Daylia's son?” I asked sud
denly.
Daylia, and 1 feared that he would
break her heart some day. She was
so good to him.”
My companion glanced nervously
over her shoulder, and replaced the
pipe, with an assumption of bravado.
“No, no, lady, she died easy, Daylia
did. He was well rid of her, too. He
was a fine lad, 1 tell you!” *
I arose and said that I was sorry
not to learn more about Daylia.
“There was trouble at the Fair that
day,” I added, “and I feared her son
might have been in it.” She was on
her feet with a spring.
“Who dared tell the lady that lie?
It’s a lie. a black lie! The boy warn’t
there! You tell ’em who says it they
lies, lady! Daylia's boy warn’t there!"
Her voice raised, and suddenly the
tent flap lifted and a young man came
out. He showed the remains of
beauty, but his face was now sodden
with drunken sleep.
“Shut up,there!” he called, “tell the
lady’s fortune, can't you? Don’t mind
her, lady, she's a fool!”
“Ay, I'm just a fool, don't mind me,
lady! Let the gypsy tell the lady’s
fortune,” she repeated, her gaze fol
lowing him. “Maybe you haven’t a
coat now, lady? There’s them that’ll
want coats over bad this year.”
“No, the coat was for Daylia’s boy,*”
I said, as I left her.
I took the road skirted by a woods,
and presently there came a crackling
of underbrush, the red shawl of the
gypsy broke through the leaves, and
she stood panting beside me.
“Hold on. lady, stop a bit!” she
said, with a hand on her heart. “Lady,
if I tell you true where Daylia went
afore she—she died, mebby you can
get me a man’s coat, too. It'll be cold
after awhile, and there’s them that'll
need it bad!”
“Tell me all about Daylia Herne,”
I said. She lowered her voice and
came nearer.
“’Twas this way, lady, and you tell
it straight to them as said Daylia’s
boy was there when the robbing was
done at Tivoli. He hadn't a mortal
thing to do with it, Daylia done it
herself! But Daylia, she got caught
and locked up for five years for it, and
no more’n she ought to’ve got. That’s
why she didn’t come for the coat, she
was locked up in jail, lady, see?”
Perhaps there is a mystery in the
air of autumn. At any rate I felt it.
I could not then aver that this woman
was Daylta Herne, therefore I told
her 1 should have a coat ready for
her the next day if ahe w„uld come
after It.
But the next day ahe did not ap
pear. The young woman I had seen
in the camp came, however, and ask
ed if I were the lady who had prom
ised the old woman a coat.
'“Because she won’t die easy till she
gets it, lady.” said she.
I offered to accompany her back to
the camp and take the coat. We has
tened by way of the cornfield, and
when we reached the woods, an old
man came out of the tent, smoking.
“She's gone," he said, with a back
ward jerk of the thumb. The young
w’oman took her baby from the wagon
where it lay whimpering, and follow
ed me into the tent. A figure lay
upon a straw pallet, under a ragged
cover, and the face, now stripped of
years by death’s serenity, awakened
my memory unmistakably.
“Where is Daylia's son?” I asked,
suddenly. The young woman started
and stared at me. *
“La. lady, how’d you ever know
her?” she said. I explained to her,
and while walking the baby back and
forth, she said: “It can’t do her no
harm now, nor him neither. She was
so fierce about being known lest the
law'd get him. The law don’t want
to be bothered with Jack Herne no
more’n wo do, I guess. He was around
here yesterday getting all ho could
out of her; ’twas him made
her heart get so bad. She
wanted that coat for him.
You see, Daylia was sort of
cousin to pap, and she come and nurs
ed us all through fever last year. Oh,
she was the good sort! But a fool
about that there son of hers. My man
drove him off last night and told him
if he ever shows his face here again
well give him up for the robbing at
Tivoli Fair that time. Did you mind
that time, lady? ’Twas the time he
loosed the lions and got up a robbery,
all himself. Oh, he was a whelp! And
Daylia Herne, she got him away and
let herself be caught, vowing she'd
done it, and got herself locked up for
five years for it. Daylia Herne lock
ed up five mortal years for stealing,
and pap, he’s knowm her to keep a
whole camp straight in her time by
being so straight herself. Why. she
hated stealing like sin, and wouldn't
eat stole food, Daylia wouldn’t. Since
she come out of jail she’s hid away,
feared lest she’d disgrace him—Day
lia Herne disgrace the likes of him!”
Afterwards I went my way marvel
ing over the mysteries that are held
from our solving—especially the di
vine and tragic mystery of mother
hood.
HER IDEA OF CHAMOIS.
Servant Used Dinner Material with
Which to Wash Windows.
There is a prominent doctor in
Germantown who is busy telling a lit
tle joke on himself, says the Phila
delphia Telegraph. It appears that
he employed an rrish servant, who
had just arrived from the “ould sod.”
Starting out one morning, he noticed
his office windows were rather dirty,
and calling Bridget he instructed her
to clean them before he returned. At
the same time he told her that he
would stop and purchase a new
chamois skin and send it home, and
with this she was to clean the win
dows. After he had gone his rounds
he returned to his office. Glancing at
the windows he found them thickly
streaked with grease. He called
Bridget, and the following coloquy
took place:
“Bridget, didn't I tell you to clean
the windows?”
"Yes, sor.”
“And didn't I tell you to use the
new chamois?'’
“Yes. sor.”
“Well, did you use it?”
“Sure, I did, sor.”
“Let me see the chamois,” said
the doctor, and Bridget promptly
brought it. Then for the first time he
learned that his wife had left the
house a half hour before he did in
the morning and had sent home some
tripe. The doctor declines to say
what happened to the chamois skin.
Died on Devil's Island.
Only the other day there died on
Devil’s Island, the French convict set
tlement off Cayenne, the man who in
vented and patented the telegraphic
system now universally adopted in
France, and known as the multiple
transmission system. Victor Nimault,
twenty years ago, was an electrical
employe of the French telegraphic
service. In 1871 he discovered and le
gally protected a system of multiple
transmission, on which he had been
busied for years. Almost coincident
ally a M. Baudot (not an official) in
vented a somewhat similar apparatus.
This M. Baudot, being a personal
friend of M. Raynaud, the director of
the telegraphic department, found
favor with that gentleman, and the
Baudot system was finally accepted
and universally adopted as the better
of the two. Victor Nimault brought
action against M. Baudot and M. Ray
naud, and, after losing lawsuit after
lawsuit, fired at and mortally wounded
M. Raynaud. The unhappy inventor
was tried, sentenced to imprisonment
for life, and in due course was sent out
to Cayenne. Twenty years having
elapsed, he was recently pardoned by
President I,oubet. A subscription made
by his friends in France left by the
same boat which took out his pardon.
But it arrived too late, for Victor Ni
mault, who had been ill for some time,
died the day before port was made.
1 The irony of it all is that poor Ni
mault’s system has been in um in
France for many years now; for, after
he was sentenced, it was found to ba
preferable to the one adopted and ap
proved by Raynaud, the then director
of the telegraphic department
THE CUNNING MOSQUITO
Writer Insist* the Insect Is Showing Remarkable
Educational Progress
"The man wno believes that liie mos
quito cannot be educated up to the
point where he is capable of dodging
some of the artifices of human kind is
simply a fool,” said a man who has
been paying some attention to anaph
oles and culex, and whose devotion
has been returned with quadrupled
amorousness, "and I know what I am
talking about, for I have had occasion
to observe a few things within the
week, in substantiation of which I
make proffer of various red splotches
on my face, neck and hands. Just
outside of my door there is a cistern,
one of these uncovered cisterns about
which so much has been said and
written. It is a great mosquito breeder
and at night these humming despera
does make a fierce charge into my
room. The door, window and transom
are not screened, but I have arouud
my bed what is supposed to be ample
protection in a good mosquito bar.
For a while the bar was good enough.
Hut it did not take any great length of
time for the mosquitoes to learn a few
things. One night—just a few nights
ago—I was awakened by a humming
sound and had noticed that my sleep
had not been as even as usual. At
first I thought the sound was made by
a street car some distance from my
room on the line which traverses the
street on which I live. The truth grad
ually dawned on me that it was the
drone of mosquitoes which had been in
the habit of slipping out of the cistern
and into my room at night. They were
making a fierce attack on the bar. and
I concluded that I would get up and
make a little investigation—an after
midnight study, as It were—of this
winged assassin. I did so.
“I never saw so many mosquitoes
before. They were mad, too. The fact
that they had encountered the bar
seems to have made them furious.
They were buzzing like a nest of dis
turbed hornets. But what surprised
me more tnan any other thing was the
fact that several dozen had managed
to get through and were actually on
the inside, and had really begun to
chew me. On the outside of the bar
I found a perfect swarm. Some of
them were fastened in the threads of
the bar. They were trying to squeeze
through the little holes of the bar, just
as the others had done. Their long
legs, or their wings, or some part of
the body, nad become tangled and they
were hopelessly tied. Nowr how did
they know how to get through these
little places hy the squeezing process?
How did they know this was the only
possible way to reach the food they
wanted? I tell you the mosquito is
capable of learning a few things,
and he is being educated up to some
of the artifices of human kind, and
that's all there is to it.”—New Orleans
Times-Democrat.
>**•<
THE OLDEST STOVE
Richmond, Vd„ Cltvims One Which Seemingly
Should R&nk With the Best
According to a Philadelphia news
paper the oldest stove in this country
is at present on exhibition in Minneap
olis, Minn.
From the description this old stove
is something alter the fashion of the
one which we have here in our state
capitol. It stands upon legs or end
supports, similar to those of a sewing
machine, only that they are about half
as high and of much heavier casting.
The total weight of the stove is 500
pounds. It is three feet long, thirty
two inches high and one foot wide,
with a hearth extending in front.
There is no grate in the bottom, the
fire being built directly on the bottom
of the stove, the heat passing from
below the oven, back of it and over
the top of the pipe. »The outside has
scrolls and designs and crowns in re
lief. much after the fashion of the
stoves of to-day, and on both sides
cast with the metal are the words,
“Hereford Furnace, Thomas Maybury,
Mfr., 1767.” We are assured that the
6tove is well preserved, in spite of its
age. The surface has a finish which
Traveling and
Wandering
Jones was in peculiarly expansive
humor the other evening. He was
packed up for the summer, and was
starting off in the morning on a cheap
racket walking trip. To traverse the
country districts of New England was
his program, and an unfailing friend
liness his method of getting about
cheaply and well.
“I have no use for traveling," he be
gan.
"That, of course, is why you are
starting off on the morrow?" I asked.
“That, dear friend, is not traveling.
It is wandering, and I recommend the
world in general to get back to it, as
the ideal manner of getting about.
Traveling is a distinctly modern In
vention. It aims at two things—
speed and the attainment of a definite
locality. It is done for a purpose,
and the means are always sacrificed
to the end. The scenery through
which the victims of the system may
steam, is blurred. Cards and papers
are found necessary to slay the time,
and when the travelers dismount from
is techincally known as “pebbled.”
The famous Virginia stove also
stands upon legs, is about seven feet
high and is handsomely ornamented.
It is ‘‘three stories" high and of pyra
midal shape, and was made in 1770 for
the house of burgesses at Williams
burg, whence it was removed to Rich
mond when the seat of government
was removed hither. The founder,
one Buzaglo, whose place of business
was in England, wrote of the “warm
ing machine” that “the elegance of
workmanship does honor to Great
Britain. It exceeds in grandeur any
thing ever seen of the kind and is a
masterpiece not to be equaled in all
Europe. It has met with general ap
plause and could not be sufficiently
admired.”
So. notwithstanding its advantages
of a few years in age, the Minneapolis
stove must pale its ineffectual fire*
when compared with our big, highly
ornamental and aristocratically con
nected (historically speaking) old
warming machine. — Richmond Dis
patch.
the deck or platform they breathe out
a thankful ‘Here at last,’ as if that
were the point. The ancients got
about in a different spirit. They wan
dered where ‘sweet, adventure called
them.' They merely roamed, setting
themselves no goal. They were not
whirled in hot compartments from
point to point. Under the wide and
starry say they tented; these fine old
tramps, Arabs, gypsies and all no
mads of the Ulysses type. The peri
patetic hoboes should organize a great
league to prove that scenery is better
than speed, and that every foot of the
open road is as good as the place
named on the guide post, toward
which the wanderer's face is set.
“And no epitaph is more appropriate
for the mundane wanderer than this:
“ ‘Under the wide and open sky.
Where he loved to live, there let him
lie;
Home is the sailor, home from the
sea,
And the hunter Is home from the hill.'
HIS JOKE COST HIM DEAR.
An Interesting Little Story About Han
nibal Hamlin.
“Why don’t you comb down that
cowlick , said Senator Mallory, laugh
ingly, to one of the pages, whose hair
was standing straight. "Some of these
days your wife will take hold of it
and pull your hair.'
The boy glanced up at the senator's
very bald pate. “Senator,” he asked,
is that the way you lost your hair?”
There are quite a number of sena
tors with bald heads. Senator Stew
art is among the number. And Mr.
Stewart says that it does not pay to
make fun of a man who hasn't any
hair on the top of his head, in the
place where the hair ought to grow,
as the old song says. In proof of
which he tells an interesting story
on how Hannibal Hamlin was defeat
ed for the senate.
“Up in Maine,” said Mr. Stewart,
“there was a man who was very bald.
One day Mr. Hamlin came along auu
tapped the man’s smooth skull. ‘I
just want to teh you,' he said, ‘that
one of your two hairs is crossed with
the other.’
“The remark was made only in fun,
hut the bald-headed man never forgot
it. Long afterward he was a member
of the upper branch of the Maine
legislature and Hamlin was a eandi
date for the United States senate.
Hamlin was defeated by one vote, and
that one vote was cast by the man
who was bald ”—Washington Post.
February* Without Full Moon.
A correspondent corrects some er
roneous statements about a month
with no full moon, which appeared
recently In a paragraph quoted from
a Missouri paper. “As a matter of
fact,” he says, "the month of Febru
ary, 188(i, hail a full moon, which fell
on the 18th, as reference to the al
manae for that year will show. The
month of February, 1893, however,
had no full moon, nor did that of 18G6
and this is no infrequent occurrence,
but happens every twenty or thirty
years. The month of February hav
ing, except in leap year, only twenty
eight days, and the moon's phases be
ing separated by an average period
of twenty-nine days, it of necessity
follows that in February frequently
only three such phases occur. Th«
phenomena is therefore neither rar«
nor of any interest, and the only woa
der is who could first have started sc
foolish a story as that no month
without a full moon had occurred
since the creation of the world, noi
would recur again for two and a hail
million years.”—New York Tribune.
tissued under Authority of tbs railroad*
ot Nebraska 1
ASSESSMEIU Of RAILROAD PROPERTY
How it i» Arrived at by the State
Board of Equalization.
The Method Prescribed by I-aw for IU»
Apportionment h the Several
Counties and Municlpalltiss.
It has been charged that the State
Board of Equalization has for years
pursued a haphazard method in fixing
the assessed valuation of railroad
property for state and county taxa
tion, and that such property lms been
virtually exempted from municipal
taxation. An investigation of the
matter will readily show that this
charge has no foundation in fact.
In pursuance of the requirements of
law, the railroad companies have each
year submitted for the consideration
of the board, sworn statements or
schedules of tlieir tangible property,
setting forth in detail the mileage of
•main and aide tracks in each county,
the number of depots, station houses,
tool houses, stock yards, etc., and
complete lists of the rolling stock
and moveable property on the right
of way and depot grounds. They have
hlso made to the state auditor state
ments under oath of the revenues of
the companies, gross and net, their
capitalization and the irterest paid on
their bonded Indebtedness.
The valuations reported in the prop
erty schedules have been recently
criticised, but the variations in such
valuations are easily explained by the
fact that some companies report what
they believe to be the proper assess
able value of the various items, in
conformity with the assessment of
other property in the state, while oth
er companies approximate tbo actual
value of the items, depending upon the
board to fix tlm scale of uniformity.
The board has never relied upon
tho valuations reported In the railroad
schedules as a guide in fixing its as
sessments, but has always diligently
souglit the most accurate sources of
information within hs reach. It has
In some cases had before it the data
showing actual cost of construction
of the properties, and in others, the
carefully prepared estimates of expert
engineers. For several years jiast the
respective boards have had access to
and have considered the testimony In
the maximum rate cases, where tho
roads were not likely to show dimin
utive valuations.
In the case of the Union Pacific,
the record shows that the present as
sessed valuation of its main line rep
resents more than 25 per cent of the
cost of reproduction as given in the
testimony in the Nebraska “rate case,”
and as 10 per cent has been shown
in recent controversies to be amply
sufficient for the equalized valuation
of the tangible property, the addition
al 15 per cent, or thereabouts, Is either
excess assessment, or it may be said
this three-fifths additional assessment
may cover all possibilities of intangi
ble values that may pertain to the
property as a “going concern," its
earning capacity, good will, etc.
So in the same estimates or testi
mony relating to the Union Pacific
line from Kearney to the Wyoming
state line, which comprises over one
half of the mileage across the state,
the testimony shows that the assessed
valuation of $9,800 per mile through
those counties represents about 40
per cent of all tangible property of
the railroad on that section of the
line. It is, however. Incorrect and
misleading to stato that any single
portion of the road, either In Douglas
county or In Cheyenne or in Kimball
county, is assessed at $9,800 per mile.
Tnis rate per mile, as entered on
the tax lists, represents merely tho
distributive share accruing to the
county or municipality, of the entire
valuation of the whole road, which
distributive share is explicitly desig
nated by the laws of the state as a
ratable mileage proportion of the val
uation of the entire line. In this way
the terminals in Omaha (except head
quarters, shops and vacant terminal
lauds, which are assessed locally) are
distributed and taxed In every city,
vil’-ge and school district along the
whc*o line from the eastern to the
western boundary of the state.
This method of apportionment Is up
held by the supreme court In a recent
decision, relating to the Rulo bridge,
in the following language:
What was the purpose of the leg
islature in requiring the right of way]
roadbed and superstructure of a rail
way to be assessed as a unit? The
common sense view of the subject
would seem to be that such purpose
was to enable the proper authorities
to distribute the avails of taxation
equlatbly among all the municipal
subdivisions through which a road
may pass, in the ratio which the num
ber of miles within such subdivision
bears to the total number of miles of
road within the state, treating each
mile as equal in value to every other
mile, and regardless of whence came
the power under which any particular
portion of the road is constructed. A
railroad might have vast terminals
at one point, worth as much as the
remainder of the line, though it ex
tended through a dozen counties. The
subdivision in which these terminals
are located is not. under this law, per
mitted to reap an advantage over
other localities by reason of the mere
accident of location, but must share
its advantages with these others pro
rata. That, evidently, is the reason
behind and under this legislation.”
It has been alleged that the outside
counties have been "buncoed” by this
method of distribution. A careful
study and analysis of the foregoing
statement of facts and figures must
convince the people of those counties
that this form of buncoing leaves lit
tle to be desired except more of the
same kind.
Cotton Mill Run by Negroes.
There is in operation at Concord, N.
C., a cotton mill manned entirely by
colored people. The secretary and
treasurer. W. C. Coleman, writes to
the New York Age that this mill is
crowded with work, that its product
meets with no complaint among cus
tomers, that the employes display
great interest in the work, and that
if tow mills were being operated in
stead of one they could not fill the or
ders offered. It is an interesting ex
periment, and in a fair way of dispos
ing of the claim that the negro has no
independent industrial capacity.
