22
THE ILLUSTRATED REE.
October 4, 1903.
South Omaha
Received 1,010,815 Cattle during the year 1902. Packers and Feedsrs
bo jght 961,324 Cattle. 96 per cent of all the Cattle received were sold here.
SOUTH OMAHA received 2,247,428 Hogs during the year 1902. Pacfors
bought 2,241,421 Hogs. 100 per cent of all Hogs received were sold here.
SOUTH OMAHA received 1,742,539 Sheep during the year 1902. Packers
and Feeders bought 1,607,986 Sheep. 92k per cent of all the sheep received
were sold here.
LIVE STOCK DEALERS SAVE MONEY BY
SHIPPING TO THEIR HOME MARKET.
For Market Letters and Full Information Concerning- Live Stock Matters, address
TOCK YARD
Company of Omaha
(LIMITED.)
UNION STOCK YARDS, SOUTH OMAHA, NEBRASKA.
UNIOIS
S
9
Sure that they have printed Judlca'a pic
ture, and every lady Ht court aH well as
every maid servant will have made her re
marka ahout my darling's face.
Mow many who look at that angelic
countenance will ay: "And he does It all
for that? For that? He could have had
that more easily."
I wonder what the Countess Thyra has
to any. Probably the same an the rest:
"Kor that!" What would she. say If she
knew that "for that" I am to renounce the
throne! To renounce a Royal throne for
the Make of a girl, for the sake of two blue
eyes! How alio would despise me. she with
her sovereign strength'. How she must de
spise me even now!
1 must make up my mind, must come to
decision. If I do not sign and renounce,
I sign my moral death sentence and re
nounce my happiness.
On the one side love, lowliness, happiness,
purity, inure, perns pa recovery and escape
from something horrible on the other side
constant secret expectation, secret hopes,
secret torture, secret sin, and the whole
chaos of the splendid nothingness of that
world that once aeeimd to me to be the
greatest happiness.
And since I would only he a misfortune
for the land, would It not be better, more
noble, more proud. If I were to do the
land this loving service with a few pen
strokes and make myself harmless? But
I would then give them my own declara
tion that 1 am unworthy of the throne.
And that Is not true! May I libel and
deny nijself?
1 may not renounce. I cannot for my
wn Hake. Hut It Is not for me. It Is
for the sake of the country.
Tonight 1 will climb tne rocky path
that I climbed with my father and that
bee tine bis path to death. Perhaps
heaven will give me a sign. I wish that
a hurricane would arise, that storma would
try to Ik at me, down In the abyss. I
would cling as my father did. And If my
arms should be strong enough to cling, to
hold iiw Ix'twlxt heaven and chasm, then
I would not sign, 1 would not renounce,
knowing that a lloyal crown hangs over
my head, that it must sink on my brows.
It wan a cloudless, starry night. There
was no breath of air.
I climbed higher and higher, till. the day
dawned. The peak of the White Kinperor
(lowed like a crown of red gold. A shim
mer of It reached my head.
I need no other splendor for my brow.
Above me the shining sky, dark mists be
low. 1 will walk In the light.
I commanded the Count to telegraph.
The Minister of State shall come.
I will sign, renounce. In me there Id
solemn peace.
CUAI'TKR XVIT.
Yesterday I was on the Alpine farm for
the first time to announce that everything
Is "In order." I dared not let them sus
pect that it had cost a battle, and what
a battle. I was a little afraid of the wise,
clear eyes of Miss Frits..
However, the visit passed better than I
had expected. I had not gone through
the course at Court entirely without profit.
Though I am not at all a good scholar, I
still am a master in the art of lying and
hypocrisy. In comparison with the good peo
ple on the farm.
The Count helped me well. Since the
great moment when I signed the secret
document even his Rxcellency the Min
ister of State seemed to be moved he dis
plays another manner toward me. He la
more unembarrassed, more free, as If Hit
era ted from an Invisible, heavy burden.
His tine eyes rest on me with an expres
sion of softness, almost tenderness.
No doubt his beautiful sister would view
me with other eyes with scornful ones!
I know It a well aa If she stood before
me In her majestical beauty and looked at
me.
Hut I wished to tell of the Alpine furm;
of Miss Frlti, who allowed herself to be
deceived; of Judlca, wtio does not Imagine
that any one could deceive her.
We found Judlca with her aunt In the
linen room. It was rilled with the scent of
dried herbs, rosemary and lavender, and
the treasures of the housewife, piled high
in antique closets, gleamed like snow.
The girl xecmed to have grown during
my absence. Certainly she had become
even more lovely. And how she held her
little head! From whom had she learned
that, and so soon? It was as if iny little
Judlca wore a crown. Well, yes! That
wreath of anemones still lay. Invisible,
upon her head. I would have liked to
show my bride to all tho monarch of
Kuropc, asking them if this was not a
. young vjueeu by Uod's (Srace.
She seemed never to have ceased sailing
since the day I saw her last. We held each
other almost the moment we met. I ktsssxi
her and she permitted it without em
barrassment and returned my kiss in the
same sweetly innocent way.
Miss Frits, however, made a solemn face,
but Cebhardt came to the reacue aud led
and
two
her away, talking industtiousry to her. I
had begged him to give her no chance for
questions, but to tell her at once that
everything had been settled, if not In the
quickest, yet In the best manner; that the
King had given his permission for the
marriage and was most friendly toward us,
as Judica should learn very soon.
I was thankful to my friend that he took
on himself the labor of making thea ex
planations. My masterly hyproclsy might
have gone for naught after all before the
clear eyes of the mistress ot the Alpine
farm. And of this I was certaindid she
learn of my grim battle with myself, had
I betrayed to her what they had demanded
of me and that I had renounced my
chance to the throne for Judica's sake, she
would have refused to let me have the
child.
Happily she remained unconscious
while Oebhurdt did me service we
stood cosily among the snowy linens. I
reported to my little bride that she wjuIJ
be the Countess of Barns. At first she
looked at me with great eyes, half fr'ght
ened. That was on account rf the Countess.
But when I laughed at her because she
was afraid of the great lady she began at
last to laugh herself.
But I am sorry to say that despite this
she seemed to remain under the Influence
of the noble lady all the time that we were
together. I caught her several times
whispering the name to herself, as If she
had to learn It by heart. She did It with
a face as If she could not remember it and
feared to be scolded for her stupidity
Kven Miss Fritls. to whom I had to Intro
duce the Countess of Sirni liter, showed
resentment against the person, so'that the
noble female made a decided fiasco on the
Alpine farm.
Then the table was decked by the child.
I like best to call Judica by that most
beautiful of all names, most beautiful )
cau.v It di'Fcribes the most Innocent, most
pure, most lovely thut humanity possesses.
The child w.. wonderfully busy. She
slipped In and out lik- a bird, fetched and
carri.d, talked, laughed, and was so alto
gether sweet to look at that I whispered
to Oebhardt:
"Is that not worth a Kingdom?"
He replied:
"She is worth the liest man, worthy to
be carried on his hands tier whole life
long and to be cherished as a precious object-He
said It w'lh to somber an expression
of s.iienwiU v tod ivelar.i holy that I felt
hurt. He spoke as If I, who hoe" paid the
highfst price for lite pi ecioua object, did
not appreciate its full worth.
"Aftor the meal, when the coffee stood
before us, we four sat down to talk over
what? If anyone had told me a year ago
that I would talk over my marriage Jike a
simple human man and without the aid of
a Court Marshal! There we sat. In an
ordinary farm house room, at an ordinary
farmer's table, and considered when and
how the wedding should be.
I was lit never-ending Joy, never-ending
surprise. Miss Frits insisted on arrang
ing the wedding, of course, on the farm,
"even though her diar child was a
veritable Countess and her husband a
real Royal Highness!" Inspite of both
noble personages It should le a true peas
ant wedding. And It suited me.
My bride was to have a trousseau from
Miss Frlti like a "real Princess." That
made us all luugh, as If it was the most
wonderful witticism ever uttered.
At last I. too, began to boast, becoming
Jealous of the treasures of the bride. I
told of our summer and winter palace
and begged to inquire where my Madam
Wife would like to reside. But my two
palaces did tint impress them at all. They
were laughed at until I became indignant
and declared that, after all, perhaps it
might be best to let the I.ord Marshal ar
range the whole ceremony.
Then they becurae still, like bail children
whom the nurse threatens with the "black
man." Then I bad my triumph.
Soon thereafter we were driven ai by
the strict Miss Trita, who said that it waa
growing late and that we had a long way
to go. She had seen through my attempt
to linger until it would be too late to go.
9 nothing helped us and we had to de
part. Miss Frits and Judica gave us their
company for a part of th way ami the
household cheer d behind us.
Today I will write down what It was
that Gcbluirdt said to me when I tolj him
that I Intended to many Judica. 1 have
the courage tu do it today. The Count
said to my face:
"Vour Ho. al Highness is about to commit
a wrong that will avenge itself. i.t on
Vour Hoyal Highness, but on the pure,
sweet girl "
Turning my hack on the. S.yiker I had to
think: "A sacrifice: A sacrifice!"
Oebhardt had said the tame thing, only
in oilier words.
CM A IT EM -Will
On the Sea-Alp.
Today we celehtated our engagement of
ficially on my ra-AI'.
All the fishermen and bontmeti, all the
woodaies, aud forester, all th mountain