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.
