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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1907)
V TIIE OMAHA SUNDAY BEE: ArRIL 21, 1907. J If Aarriage Really r y,f:: I lite" jus MAARTEN EW YOBK. April U). "Marriage." said Muurtvu Mourtens In the middle of an Interview witch ranged 1 1 om philology to peace, "hampers a woman, but what la N ahe suing to do about It?" The Dutch novelist, who agonises, rather than rejoices, In private Ufa In the cim no men of Joont Mttrhw VVUletn Van der Poor tan BchwartJ, ai seated In tha corridor of the Hotel Belmont. He is far removed In appearance from what la popularly consid ered the Dutch tyi, being; tall, blond and with classic feature. He has too keen a sense of humor to suggest tha Englishman and woj too lmmaculatoljr attired, wearing frock coat and Bilk hat at 10 a. m., to sug gest the American. The remark quoted above waa brought out by a question about the dedication of hi latest book, "The Woman's Victory, and Other Stories." The dedication la "To those women, my Unknown friends In two hemi spheres, whom my stories, have moved to address to me strange evidence cf life's consummate sweetness and lus consummate pain." "The strange evidence I refer to?" Maarten Maartens was rilent a moment while he stroked a blondo moustache. Then- "That contained In the hundreds of letters that come to me from every quarter of the globe, that have made me humanly ac quainted with your people before I visited them. These letter have been written to tne by women who have found In my books, In 'Dorothea' perhaps, Bomo Women t Have Known,' 'An Old Maid's Lxrve,' 'God' Fool,' 'Her Memory' or In others some note of understanding and sympathy. ."In these stories I have tried to -depict the feminine heart. I have tried to show tha unhapplnesa and tragadles that coma about by the inevitable.' laws that rule the relations of man and Woman.. "Borne of these many letters merely cor roborate the truth contained In these stories. Others, on the contrary, go fur ther, and, having expressed their belief in my intuition and observation, relate their own experiences and ask my advice or sympathy. "Others, again, seem to look on me In an Across World's Greatest Desert (Continued from Page Three.)' the men were buying wool and others sugar and tea. The average store waa not much bigger than a good-slxed dog kennel and the customers stood In the street aa they bargained. Here we left our horses In charge of the Midlers; and, at tha suggestion of Mr. Pasoalet, visited one of the principal cltl ens, a merchant of wealth. lie was prob ably worth M0. We met our host In the square I have Just referred to, and went with him to his bouse. We Were told to wait a short time In the street outside that he might go In and tell his women to go to their own quarters as strange men were coming. A moment later the door waa opened, We flrst entered a courtyard roofed by the sky and surrounded by stables. In one stall there was a loom at which a woman had been weaving a blanket and In an other a boy was cutting up palm roots for firewood. This court was surrounded by mud build ings about forty feet high. They were of two stories with a gallery running around tha second floor. These buildings contained hi la ; IT Uroo into local dealer and ask to see 9 S MRS JANE r HOPKINS' BOY PROOFSUIT Note the strength of fabric.the excel' lent tailoring, the swagger stvlins and what's more important, t h e y very low prices asked for these y' truly wonder v ful boys' clothes. If your dealer hasnt these Clothe in etock, we'll gladly direct you to one who haa- KSHN. "WERTHEIMEIR a .SMITH CD pMakerj. New York MAARTENS. filler r J- ' mm X BEARDING A LION the living rooms of the family, all of -which faced on the gallery. Such rooms are used chiefly for sitting or loafing, the sleeping places' being on the roof. . Except when the weather la bad all Figulg sleep with only the sky for a cover, and the whole popu lation thus practice the open air cure. Crossing the yard, we were taken up to tha second floor Into what I suppose was the beat room of the house. It was about twenty feet square, with a celling at least twenty-five feet In height. The walls were whitewashed and the celling waa decorated with palm leaves dyed red and greeif. The room seemed well lighted, although it had only ' one little window high up In the wait This had no glaas and It waa barred with iron. With the single exception of a rug about as big aa a bed quilt there was no furniture. There was not even a divan built out from the wall as In some Moorish bouses. The room was perfectly bare. Tea a la Flgnlg. Nevertheless our host seemed to think his house very fine, and I doubt i.ot that the rug waa better than those of many other homes in the town. He motioned us to sit down upon it, and then fearing that wa might not be comfortable with our legs under us he had several soap your m 'i . r tr i TsV . & - c l Hampers Impersonal way, as a c-rifcssinal. whra. If no penance Is exacted. t least a- mo mentary surcease of sorrow Is grsntcl through the opening of the secret doors to the sun and light of underBtnndlng. "Do I answer these letters? If they re quire It. Mot cf them are. however, anonymous. It Is that Impersonal appeal which can only be answered by the pub lished work, which mains them doub'y In teresting to me." "Why do you pnint woman as an un happy being? Is the vnluppy?" "I certainly do net think that all women are unhappy, but I think It Is only the unhappy ones who are Interesting." "Why are women the unhappy sex?" "Why? Becaufo In her retail i:i with man woman mint Inevitably suffer cn ac count of her more tender sensibilities, hor greater range of emotions, her more lofty Uenlg. "Cashing forever with the cruder forces of Ms nature, at war continually with hit more primitive, leas complex perceptions, more highly strung than he, more alive to presentiments, lees philosophical. Is It any wonder that she sounds greater aybsscs of despair than the man ever dre&ins exist? "Marriage does not help her, but It can hamper her. Tet so far we have dlscoy ered no other s-lutlun of the question. Marriage ns It exists today seems to be the only sensible answer to the problem, the only ono that accords with the knowl edge we have gained with the tremendous force of tradition and with the needs and possibilities of the human soul. "It hampers, because once a woman has taken the step, and perhaps In fact very IN HIS DEN. boxes brought in and asked us to sit upon them. We preferred the rug. fter wa had taken our seats about a half doxen dark-faced, bearded men, relatives and friends of our host, came in and were in troduced to us.. They were all Arabs, and we sat together croas-legged upon the rug. After a short time a slave appeared with a musk melon and a bowl of ripe dates, fresh from the trees. We ate them with our Angers as we watched the man of the house make the tea. He did this In an odd way. He first put a handful of green tea In the pot and then a bunch of green mint leaves on top. He now filled the pot with lumps of sugar, which he broke with a tack hammer, from a round sugar loaf aa hard as rack candy. He then poured on boiling water from a kettle brought In by a slave and left the liquor to steep. As the sugar melted Tie added more from the loaf, and now and then put In more mint, tasting the tea from time to time until he had it Just right. He then poured It carefully out Into little wine glasses, .seeing that each guest's glaas was filled to Just the same height. When all were even ., ho handed them around. We drank the tea slowly, chatting as we did so. Our host then made a seoond pot and a third, and ws each took three glasses, as etiquette pre scribes. The mint gave the tea a de licious flavor. It was not a mint Julep, but a sort of mint syrup, and on the whole It was about as good aa any tea I ' have tasted. FRANK Q. CARPENTER. New Table Linens Pattern tablecloths are now considered handsomer than any piece good-i. They come In the double damask, from the eight quarter size to eight yards long. Many are hemstitched, with a border to rest on the table and another lower down. One of these cloths, two by four yards, with a doxen seven-elshth navk.ns to match and of excellent quality, costs 116. The yard slxo of napkin rivals the above men tioned ones, leaving the five-eighth for breakfast use and ths smaller fringed or hemstitched ones for tea. The damask most highly valued by housekeepers Is the flee Irish linen Mctched to tpitUm white. It may be found in such patterns as bunches of lilacs, snowdrops, dots, shaded d sks, clover and shamrock leaves, ferns, oak, maple and Ivy leaves, the arum lily, chrysanthemums, arabesques, the Grek scroll. Periilin designs, renaissance eecta and conventional patterns that modify a simple blossom Into a cross between a scroll and a stately stalk. The s-venty-two-lnch width table linen w.U f t a equare or oval table. The length for a re illy handsome cloth should be four yards, the table which It covers seating ten parsons comfortably. Round tablecloths are considered a nov elty as t Thy come In sizes from !0."x90 Inches for a large table down to forty Inches in diameter for an afternoon tea tabla. There are rfoths to nfetch In the oak leaf, French scroll, fern, anemone and ivy de signs. If the puiely useful Is sought after nothing will weur like the unbleached Ger man linen. Cloths may tie had In the bleached, half bleached or cream and un bleached sbadea. The latter In German or Irian goods. The average napkins are the five-eighths and six-eighths sixes, twenty-one and twenty-seven Inches. Woman pmrmMy made mistake, there la no re di era.' Ma ran der Piauten flflisiarH t"iM-1 a morrrat to bow courteously to a tlnild snJf gostlon and to murmur with a arall of un derstsndlng as he corrected himself. "Perdon. I forgot for a moment that I was In America, where, of course, a woman cm correct a mistake of that kind. "Generally speaking, however, ehe has Ilnltel rhol-o In the ImrTtant question of slct!rgr her life's mate nml no freedom nfler the cho'cs Is made to live her own life. Phe cannot go Into a shop nd choose the goods she wants, as man mi. "And so there cotne the disappointment, te sn'ul hunrrers. the depressions that are the result of Idenls destroyed, of needs unknown and unanswered. They are nil Interesting- to the student, and from them result the stories of the human heart." The. trial marriage was suggested as a remedy, but received scant attention. "It might do If, Instead of taking people who were madly In love with each other, the experiment were mado only by people who were Indifferent and wanted to see how Ihey would get along. But for people who are In love It would never do; at least one would suffer. The soul has recesses that must be taken Into account In any reckoning of that kind. "But think of the enormous possibilities In the Idea for the novelist and the drama, tist. There are millions of stories that could be written from that viewpoint, mil lions of plays. In the Interests of art and literature I believe we should Insist upon the trial marriage, whatever our human nature may say to It" It was quite evident that Mr. Maartens did nut consider the trial marriage a serious subject of conversation, and so the topic of woman suffrage was broached. "I waa interviewed concerning my ideas On that subject by two very earnest women Just before I left Amsterdam, and I can only repeat what I said to them. "I think the Idea Is a fine one If It could only be followed out aa I think It ought to bo that Is, the women should be al lowed to vote Instead of the men. Why not? "We are all quite well aware of the hor rible mess men have made of the matter, but we don't know whether women would make a worse one, or better conditions would result by their use of the ballot. But why drag men Into the matter? Women have been allowed to watch men's mistakes, why not accord us the like privi lege? "And on the other hand why not give women. If they desire It, the privilege to show their Influence openly. We all know that they exert It In every matter. It Is no less strenuous because It does not seem to nave been published always." Gliding from the subject of woman In general, Maarten Maartens told of a beauti ful young American woman who said to him after his arrival here: "You doubtless find our city very ugly. It Is ugly. But we get used to It, while to a foreigner It must strike him with sur prise that with our possibilities we have achieved so little In tha way of municipal art." The novelist repeated his assertion to her that no masculine visitor could ever look upon New York as a city at first; he Is eo busy looking at the human beings, that tha city seems only a frame, a background for Its beautiful women. "Personally I have never got beyond that point," he went on. "I may later on and then I can Joll you whether It Is ugly or not He referred to the English artist who came last winter, find having been coached beforehand said as soon as he waa Inter viewed at the gangplank to the group of waiting reporters: "Gentlemen, I can only say that your women are the most beautiful I have ever seen." And, In oon- Ghosts Again Active (Continued from Page Three.) fatal InqulalUveneaa a grim Bluebeardlsh tale is told. Bha tried to see the G I am Is mystery which was supposed to be secreted In a portion of the castle to which only the earl and his heir had access. Yet a more dread ful fate that that Bluebeard prepared for prying Fatlma, befell this poor old lady, who suddenly disappeared. - Her husband announced her death, but the gossips said he had had her tongue cut out, her hands cut off and placed her in exile in a remote town In the Italian mountains. This, of course, waa to prevent any reve lation as to the nature pf Qlamls' awful secret and when at last the ' wretched woman really did die ehe was smuggled into a tomb in Westminster Abbey. As this tragedy took place at least 1U0 years ago. It sounds like a fairy tale to modern ears; nevertheless. Dean Stanley did un earth the remains of a countess uf Strath more, a pathetlo skeleton without any hands. About twelve months ago another rumor relating to Qlamls percolated through Eng land and stirred up discussion about the mystery. This time a laborer, coming homo In the dead of night, saw a group In the churchyard near the castle burying somebody or something by The struggling moonbeam's misty light And lanterns dimly burning. Of course, the laborer promptly made a record for 'cross-country sprinting, being a plain man with no taste for psychical re search and confessing to a most unscien tific belief In ghosts In general and the Ciamls ghost In particular. However, word of these midnight doinga got about and it is now said that not only Is the mystery removed from the gloomy castle, but (.hat its occupants and owners are far more genial and apparently at ease than ever before. Still, with the mystery tucked away at last in the churchyard, G'amls hss other ghosts to fall back upon. Last winter, fir Instance, while a large dinner party was taking place at the caatle and while the guests were gathering In the great hall, a nine of diamonds, a card of singular Ul-omen for the Strathmorea, fluttered down from the oak-beamed celling to the carpeted floor. The present lord of G lam Is hastily put his foot on the card In an attempt to conceal it. Eventually ho was seen to toss it Into the Are before leading the way to tabla. The guests who had witnessed the Incident discreetly bided their time to add this as substantiating proof of tho fact that Qlamls In still haunted. To refer to phantoms or myter!e is decidedly bad form when under the ancient roof of the Btrathmores; yet so oppressive is the influence the house exerts on som persons that one pretty, wholesome and very admired American woman, who was a member of a house party, left after one n If lit spent in the ancient stronghold. She was not nervous by nature, she Insisted, but the atmosphere of Glaml and the odd noises she heard during her one night there convinced her of the wisdom of a prompt return to her prosalo hotel In Lon don. She did not mind an Intermittent ghoat. she conf "ssed. and she had enjoyed her stay in Arundel castle, one of the homes of the duke of Norfolk, where the family ghost dutifully turns up at Intervals to apprise the household of an approaching bereavement. Among the duke's tenants fw can be found who do not cherlan a What is fiilim ...... -ir- mi I i ' 11 " I ill i I 'i fc.,rgsiTMJ1 av??v, -;.-. . . ..ol - r ;" v v'-v , ':-0 . OVey ' tmatai"7'' 1 1 1 ' 11 1 1 --'u r- A WELCOME OUE8T FOR sequence of his tactful Introduction, re ceived columns of free advertising. "I didn't even have to get my feet on the gangplank," laughed Maarten Maartens, "for I have met many American women In Parle, on the Riviera; where I spfid much of my time, motoring over Europe; everywhere one goes. They are aa ubiqui tous as they are Interesting." "This Is your first visit, Is It not?" "It's my flrstest, my very flrstest," the novelist said, coining a word. "And you remain a long time?" "Not a long time, for I imagine If one did that, one would never want to go back. "New York la not entirely a surprise to me. I have been prepared for It by my reading and talking and the enthusiastic descriptions of my friends. "One Impression I gained long ago and which has always haunted me, as a dream haunts one. Is the view of the wonderful ' l-'7-d!V5i' .,'"V "HOW CAN ONR LOOK childlike confidence In the Aundel ghost, who is a gentle old man. He comes and asks to see the duke or duchess and pleads for assistance and alma By the time the person to whom he has spoken returns with food or money the old man has invariably disappeared. This sad ghost never walls and waika or otherwise makes distressing noises, but the Interest ing fact remains that the household to which he presents himself never dreams of doubting the prophecy his appearance im plies. For the last 800 years he has been paying Arundel these brief visits, and there are hundreds of houses in England that boast ghostly guests equally Infallible In their dismal prediction The ghost that worries the Percy family at Alnwick castle assumes the guise of a saddled and bridled but rider less gray horse. He Is seen graslng in the park and then disappears. Even In this most enlightened day there are standing in civilised England many homes that, ruined by their ghosts, are now rotting slowly down for .want of human tenanta In Kent, not far from Canterbury, a famous mansion of Tudor times haa re cently been turned out to grass, so to speak. It bad always possessed an evil reputation for ghosts and finally was thrown Into the market. It changed hands frequently, for the ghost in the oak room demoralised the hardiest. For a space of sixteen years It stood untenanted, when at last a rich south African bought It He devoted 'a large aum of money to Its restoration and lived In It one year. The worst trouble he had with the ghost was In a sort of wrangle over a portrait. It waa a precloua Van Dyke, that portrait, and a likeness of one of the ancient swash buckling owners of the estate. Having paid a goodly sum for this paint ing when be bought the house, the million aire owner bung up his Van Dyke in the haunted oak room. Again and again ths picture fell from the walls, again and again Its owner, who Jeered at ghost, replaced It, determined not to be downed by a mere spook. At last. In a rage, the resident of the an cient manor had the painting built Into the wall. Promptly It began to crock and rot so badly he was forced to remove It, and a short while after he waa found dead in bis chair in the notorious oak room. The physicians ssld heart diase. but the family said ghosts and moved. All the carved wood work, mantelpiece, etc, have been torn out of the house, and now It stands a prey to weeds and weather; only the ghosts are In possession. I'p In one of the northern shires of Eng land recently a ghost has been dragged Into court. A pretty house oceupled by the poet Stephen Phillips hsd to be given up because of the annoyance caused by an Inexplicable agency. Some years ago a murder was done In the grounds of the building, and since then It has been seriously troubled. Tly 9 haunting Influence became so vexatious that the poet, a peace loving man, con cluded that he had a good excuse for break ing his lease and trying for quieter quarters. Instantly the owner began a suit for libel. He called In counsel to defend the house s reputation, and the legal brains of a British court took the ghost Into grsve considera tion, but so far nothing satisfactory to the complainant has been decided. Mr. Phillips haa settled down In a new ghostproof home, and the popular English mind seems to agree that in spite of science and the twentieth century it la Just as wall 1 'iff sr. . y$ She Going to Do? J. FATHER KNICKERBOCKER. Jagged skyline that my friend, the Ameri can artist, Mr. Pennell, has etched so often. My first curious glance was di rected toward that skyline, and It did not disappoint. It Is less ldeallied perhaps than I had seen It In Mr. Pennell'a draw ings, but Is rough, strong, massive and Interesting. "Then the approach to the clfyl That to me Is the most wonderful of all, that gradual closing In of the land while It seems as If you were entering a funnel, the embrace of the shores to the voyager. "The push-up of things took hold of me at once. It seemed a If there was so much to do with and so small a spi-e to do It that an Impatient hand had token It and squeexed the mass Into shapes of strange Import. Everywhere there Is the uplift. Your eye does not follow the ground, but Is always tempted aloft, to the spires, the skyscrapers, the towers of Babsl. "The rush and roar are amaxlng and I 1) nyf-- uJm ... ' I AT THE BUILD 'VO?7" not to set up your household goods In a mansion which la rumored to be a favorite resort of unlicensed spirits. Tales of a Photographer Portrait taking is not so monotonous) and uninteresting a calling as one would sup pose. In the course of a day a photographer meets with unusual adventures and learns remarkable stories about pet pie,' Recently a we41 known photographer in a large city was visited by a woman who asked him to photograph more than KK) let ters. They were addressed to the woman by a man and were of a very ardent nature. After she had secured pictures she pur chased the plates and smashed them. It Is presumed the woman waa offered a sum for the return of the letters, but wished to re lain her hold on the man besides getting tho money. On another occasion a photographer waa summoned by a prominent society man. Where urn Little People to Sew For The Singer Sewing Machine means all the dif ference between needle-and-thread drudgery and the most fascinating employment any home-loving woman can engage in. Between the peerless Singer and the best of the department-store machines there is no more real resemblance than between fine linen and burlap. Moreover the Singer Sewing Machine agency is always as easy to get at as the Post Office. At Singer stores you can now get SINGER and WHEELER O. WILSON Sewing Machines and Parts The Wheeler & Wilson machine, for over 50 years the standard of the rotary-shutde movement for making the lock stitch, is now sold exclusively at Singer stores. MAY KNOW AND WILL PINO SINOU STOft&S KVUYWHUtt Sold only by Singer 1BU Doug-lag Ht. and 444 N. 24tU HU, So. Omaha. I am told that Chicago thinks you are slow. I am a little afraid of Chicago naturally on hearing that, for hnw can one stand more of an activity than Is manifested here? "However, I hnve discovered that the question of municipal energy Is entirely a matter of comparison. The Londoners think we people of Holland slow, you think the Londoners slow, Chicago thinks the same of you. Is there uny city that makes that accusation aguinst Chicago? 1 sAippotie there must be, or will be some time.'' Maarten Maartens speaks of his own attainments very modestly. He came here On the Invitation of Mr. CumeKle to attend the meetings of the preliminary peace conference and to be present nt the open ing of the Carnegie institute at l'lttsburg. Fence Did the Business A rail fence was the odd ally of Cupid when Ed Grief kidnaped Miss Ella FrWcIs from the custody ft her two brothers and curried ber away to the preacher. Miss Francis was willing to be kldmtpcd, of course, and the rail fence lent Itself cheer fully to the plot. Miss Francis lived near Dresden, Tenn., and her family objected to Grief. They practically kept her a prisoner. For six months they never let her go anywhere alone. She threatened to run away and marry Grief the first chance, she got, and they made It the one business of their Uvea to see that she did not get the chance. One day Mr. Grief heard that she waa going with her two younger brothers to visit her uncle In Hyndsver. He hurried tJ Dresden and procured a marrluge license and then went back and waylaid the road until he saw tho farm wagon In which his sweetheart and her brothers were driving. He came out of the bushes and called upon them to halt Instead of halting, the young Francis whipped up his mules and dashed around the bend of the rond, only to find that a six rati, stake and rldered fence had been built squarely .across the public high way. Miss Francis started to climb out Of the wagnn. Her brothers caught her feet and her lover caught her arms. There waa a tug of war, but Cupid won, and the lovers struck across the fields to the preacher's bouse, while the boys drove sadly back home and carried the news. Mr. Frnncle forgave them. It was all that he could do. . who directed him to take a picture of a man; whom he described, as he was leav ing a house. The photographer concealed himself near the door and snapped the man,. He later saw the picture In a newspaper aa that of a man who figured In a famous divorce suit. Sometimes phctographers are called upon to take the pictures of two friends meeting after a long absence. Many can tell of taking pictures of dead pets for broken hearted housewomen. A rhotcgrapher re cently took a picture of a dog laid out In a shroud in a little coffin. In London a photographer was called to the house of a wealthy man. whom he found dressed In the costume of King Lear, -He posed and .ordered several pictures to be sent to friends. Later the photog rapher learned the man had committed suicide. Chicago Chronicle. A married man never fully realizes what he is up against until after he has met every one of his wife's relations. There Are Sewing Machine Co, 823 ft. 1.1th St., Omaha. 815 Wet Broadway, Co. Bluff a. I IIP