ADE IN LINCOLN I LINCOLN MONEY EFT IN LINCOLN Your Cigars Should Bear This Labs! Th.2 Passionate Snake 'E BY FRIENDS i S7- Osara. I a) L'-r r BY ELLA HIGGINSON Union-mafia CSsara. tCopyrisht. by Shortstory Pub. Co.) No better flcur sold on the Lincoln market. Every sack warranted. We want the trade of Union men and women, and we aim to deserve it. If your grocer does not handle Liberty Flour, 'phone us and we will attend to it. Ask your neighbor how she likes Liberty Flour. We rely on the recommendation of those who use it. ' H. 0. BARBER & SON cc50kjso50j:'0o o ? o ioKr-io:5 Igrebn GABLES I 1 The Dr. Benj. F. Baily Sanatorium Lincoln, Nebraska S For non-contagious chronic diseases. Largest, 1 I 2 Wst equipped, most beautifully furnished. J A Suit or Overcoat Madojto Ordor for 1 ID) NO MORE NO LESS From Shecps Back to Your Back ISSUED BY AUTHORITY OF RS61STESED 7 Oath Crcctcst Td!cre sin sum ;0 ije e..L 13th Strest LINCOLN NEBRASKA If any man supposes that snaites do not understand the speech of human tongues. I being a snake will. In this short story, convince him that he is mistaken. I may convince bim of some other truths also. We are the accursed of the earth. We have only to be seen to be straightway killed. Every man's hand Is against us. not because of his own hate, for men are not cowards, but because of the tale of his women. We have learned, therefore, through ages of cruel treachery, to make our blows swift and sure; yet I say to men. with scorn, that we are more honorable and more merciiul than .they; we give warning before we strike. We give each man one chance. at least, for his life. More, we strike only when our lives are threatened, or our privacy invaded. I, being a female thing, iave known love. Ay, most beautiful and graceful have I been from my birth. My form is slender and supple: my movements are sinuous and alluring. The grasses ,sway in languid undulations, caress ing me, as I slide through them. My markings are of rich and unusual beauty and brilliancy. It is said that my eyes take on the color of my moods and passions. When I lie bask ing in the sunlight, they have the pale blue content of the skies. When I lift myself erect, suspecting danger or treachery, they are like two glit tering, green emeralds. When I am jealous what female thing has not been? they are a pale amber-yellow. Once it was said to me that they were but that must wait. I was born in a pile of stones on a hill in the lovely Grand" Ronde val ley, in Oregon. From my father, a rattlesnake. I inherited my strong will and fierce passions; from my mother. Advanced Vaudeville Week of Monday, March IS Billie Burke Presents DICK CROLIUS A CO. One Best Act "Shorty" THE JOSSELIN TRIO Sensational Aerial Artists. JNO. P. ROGERS, BEN N. DEELY Harmony, Melody and Fun PAUL LA CROIX Eccentric Hat Juggler THE ALPHA TROUPE America's Greatest Entertainers EARL FLYNN In "The Boy in Green Billy Morris and Sherwood Sistsrs Southern Pastimes and Melodies Mat. Daily Except Monday 15 and 25c Every Night Prices 15, 25, 35 and 50c There Was a Flash. a blue-racer, who had been lured away from her kin down in the green valley, my beauty and grace. Before I was three months old I had tasted fame. All the male snakes ,on the hill came to watch me as I coiled and uncoiled my magnificent length over the stones of my home. And, oh, I used to wish that the mated ones would not come, for their mates said such evil things of me! But they would come. One day in spring, when I was a 'year old, the king of all the rattle snakes himself came to see my beauty, and he desired me greatly, although I was so young and he so old. My father was proud and flattered. But I Well, there was a young and bold blue-racer who used to climb the iill .from the valley; and on soft, moonless evenings, when my father slept and my mother pretended that she did not hear, I slid down and met him among the deep grasses that grew half way np the hill. . Ah, those hours of first love! Poor human beings, who pass your nights within the four walls of a room, I pity you! We were only snakes. But we had the night and all its sweets woven forever through our love. Soft winds, scented with the pines on the crest of the Blue mountains, rippled the grasses above us, as we tasted the bliss of loving companionship. The nighthawk sank to blow his shrill bugle-like note beside us; the stars glowed redly through the breathing dusk; from the canyons far np In the hills come the mournful cry of a coy ote. Down under the velvet grasses it was dark and sweet, and we were alone, and we loved. ' When at length I stole home and coiled myself on the smooth stones I could not sleep. I lay motionless until the pale greens and yellows came marching up the east, and the trees on the mountain's crest turned, one by one. to gold, and the meadow larks sang. oh. so sweetly, in the val ley where I knew he lay as motionless as I. dreaming of Joys that had been and longing for those that were to be. There was a month full of such bliss. But a day came when my father mew; and that night the king of rat iesnakes went down the hill in my tead, and lay in wait for his rival. When I was convinced that they had i'lled him. I stole away In the night ant made my way to the other side of the valley, and dwelt aloce on an other hill and mourned. There were no snakes and there were -o human things. And, oh, the days vere long, and. oh. the nights were lonely. Deen and passionate was my grief through all the spring, and summer, and falL When winter drew on, how glad was I to curl myself in a dark, warm place for my long sleep. I re call that my last thought was of how dreary and heart-breaking my awak ening would be in the spring. Tet when the awakening came well, I am a female thing, and that must be suffi cient explanation. It was on a warm and lovely day in April that I languidly uncoiled and slid out to lie upon the stones. Never shall I forget how'the beauty of that day thrilled me! I was glad. I exulted, only to live once more. My memories of love and sorrow seemed vague. Had I ever wished to die? Well.- now I longed to live. The valley stretched before my eyes, green and shining like a great emerald. There were splashes of yel low where the buttercups grew, and there were shooting stars, and all the sweet winds of spring. I remember my first glimpse of my self in a still pool that spring. You may have observed a woman, reft of her love, in your own life, you human things. You may have seen her tears, her anguish, her garb of woe. Then when a few months have gone by, yon must have one day had your eyes daz zled by her sudden blossoming out into a new and wonderful beauty. Yon must have marveled at the color in her cheeks, the brilliancy of her eyes, the warmth of her mouth, .the subtle grace of her movements. So It was with me. Life throbbed once more through all my being. The loneliness grew unbearable. One day as I lay curled, half -asleep. I heard a step. A moment later a man came close to my heap of stones. I sprang erect, hissing and swelling, for I had not time to escape. He paused and looked at me. "Beautiful thing!" he sa'd. In a tone of sadness. "Strike, if you wilL I shall not harm you." He threw himself on the ground near me. He was unarmed. Ashamed, but incredulous. I dropped back into a coil, and lay watching him, motion less, save for the slow sliding of my head from side to side. He looked at me steadily. "That a snake could be so beauti ful!" he said, in the same sad tone. He reached out his hand with a ca ressing motion. "Come.T he said, "we are alone. Let us be friends." His eyes drew me with an irresisti ble fascination. A new, strange feel ing stirred me. I uncoiled, and slid to him with graceful undulations. He laid his hand upon me, and both of us were without fear. Days passed. I learned gradually that he had come there to forget a woman. He pitched a tent near the stones and dwelt there. I followed him everywhere. I never permitted him to get out of my sight. One night when the moon hung large and yellow on the violet breast of the sky. he threw himself upon his blankets, and held his hands out to me. "I am sorrowful to-night. Lilith.' he said he called me that. "Come close, closer, my beautiful. Make me forget other nights." In that hour, as I slid into the warmth of his breast, I knew that sometime, somewhere, I had been a woman. What had been my sin, then. when I was a woman, that I should have been recreated in this form? Beautiful, oh, beautiful! Yes; but un fitted for any save the lower loves. and this love was of the highest; the love of woman for man. I shrank, quivering, from the mem ory of that other love. So must a woman shrink, loathing and shudder ing, from the memory of such a love when, through some great, exalting passion, a new and noble soul has been born in her. Having no arms and no lips. I curled close, close, into his breast, and around his splendid throat I drew my throbbing coils. Then it was that he said: "Lilitta, what eyes you have! They are like two' little lamps of crim son fire, glowing in the dusk." All that night and many, many oth ers, I slept there. It is insurance against sweat shop and tenement goods, and against disease. ... In the gorgeous pomp of an August dawn the man awoke, with the snake twined about him. The woman he had been trying to forget stood beside him. He flung the snake from him and stretched out trembling arms to the woman. "Dearest!" she cried. "Did yon think I could bear it? I knew better. I have followed you, and I shall never leave you again!" She sank to him, sobbing, and laid her mouth upon his. He put his arms around her and held her there silently. Suddenly she screamed and sprang erect. "A snake! Kill it! Kill it!" It was coiled, hissing, to spring at her. Already his hand was on his revolver. There was a flash. The woman screamed again. The snake was dead. In a moment the man had flung it outside the tent, and caught her, sobbing and" trembling, to his breast. "O. my dearest." he cried, "if the reptile had struck you, I should have turned the revolver on myself. O, my beloved, this accursed time without you! Give me your arms, your lips. Let us make up for this awful time apart!" CSOSOSOOSOSOSGSOSCC$050SOS First Trust Savings Bank Owned by Stockholders of the First National Bank g THE 'BANK FOR THE WAGE-EARNER INTEREST PAID AT FOUR PER CEXT Lincoln, Nebraska 9 Tenth and O Streets o ALIO "PHONE 254j BELL PHOXE 2549 O. cA. FULK GENTS' FURNISHINGS, HATS 1325 O Sheet 0OSOOSO0OSOOSO000000 6 Hade in Lincoln i Not Just as Good but a Little Better Try A Sack 0OSOSOSCK)SOQSOSOSOSOSOSSOOSOSTCOS-OSi 0S0SOSO3O&O4 OeO?200OOOSOOC5CC50CCSO SO S O OI02OC I JOHN BAUER 1 WHOLESALE LIQUOR DEALER g Distributor of Dick & Bros., Qnincy Brewing Ctfs. Cetetrate. 1 Lager Beer. f Office and Warehouse 827-29-31-33-35 South 8th St. v Auto Phone 181? Lincoln, Neb. Bell 81? &OSO00000030SC&00C30SC r"7 II HARDWARE, STOVES, SPC2T- Id nil KG GOODS, RAZORS, RAZOR L J U CIUII STROPS AMD CUTLEBY At Low Prices Hoppe's Hardware, 103 GsrB ICIZj OSO00OSOCOSOSOSOSCKX)-SOQOC3090SOSOSO00 f j WORKERS UNION t I I UN'0N STAMP help your oton Labor Proposition. Child Labor. Bg Insisting Upon Pur- chasing p Union Stamp Shoes & You help better shoemafcing x" You get better I ennd'fcinns- shoe.? for th monctu Yjim You abolish DO NOT BE MISLED By Ketailers tcho say: This shoe does not bear the stamp, but it is made under Union Conditions." THIS IS FALSE. No shoe is union mads unless it bears the Union Stamp. - BOOT AND SHOE WORKERS' UNION 246 Sumner St, Boston, Mass: John F.-Tobin, Pres. Chas. L. Baine, Sec-Treas. o NEBRASKA'S SELECT HARD-WHEAT FLCUR Wilbur and DeWiTt Mills THE CELEARATEO LITTLE HATCHET FLOUD Telephone us Boll ficme zoo, cAuto l45g RYE FLOUD A SPECIALTY 145 SOUTH 9TH, LINCOLN, NEB.