13
4
"he ee' jne aazire f)a
The Last Boat M CotIm,a
IT
The Woman's
The Menace
Dickens Club
of Cape Eace
(
9
i
Three-thirty o'clock Monday llni
Gresher put in a tardy appearance at
Mrs. Lecey'a, where th member of the
recently organised Pickens club vera to
hold their Initial meeting.
"I'm afraid I'm rather late, but I hope
I haven't kept you waiting." Mra. Gresher
explained, apolee-etically, as 8 he entered
the room. I'm perfectly crazy about our
new club. I know H i going to be educa
tional and and Instructive, but my
laundress" '
"Better late than never. Mra. Greaher,"
Interposed Mra Lacy, graciously. , "I
think we'd better come to order at once.
It was Mrs. Porter's suggestion. I be
lieve, that we form this club (or the pur
pose of studying Dickens' life and worka
Mrs. Potter, you will recall, knows an
English woman whose niece employed the
same laundress who served the Dickens
family. In this way we have gathered
some Interesting personal data."
"I hope she waa a more dependable
laundress than mine." Mrs. Grejher said.
"Mine has been dissatisfied ever since
Christmas because I did not give her
the kind of present she wanted. 8o to
day she failed to come at all. I have
been hunting everywhere for another."
"I'm afraid we housekeepers are born
to these distressing experiences," Mrs.
IjLCey commented. sympathetically.
"Mrs. Porter, we are ready to hear your
paper on The Personal Side of Dickens.' "
. "Just a moment." interposed a plump
A little woman, "My laundress, Mrs.
I Greaher, Is perfectly splendid, and I
1 think I ran get her for you l( you want
her, though I make It a rule never to
recommend either my laundress or my
dressmaker.
"I hope, Mra. Jamison, I can prevail
upon you to break your rule by giving
me the name of your dressmaker." aaid
a sallow woman dressed In snuff brown.
"That's the sweetest gown you're wear
ing, though a darker shade with your
pale blue eyea and light complexion
wouldn't make you look quite so fagged
out, perhaps. John Is always wanting
me to wear that delicate shsde of blue."
"Husbands do show so little taste,
don't you think, Mrs. Borden?" Mrs.
Jameson asked sweetly.
"Mrs. Porter, kindly begin," Mrs.
Lacey interposed, firmly.
Mrs. Porter obeyed. She had read six
lines when the bosses' small son burst
uncermoniously Into the room.
"Mamma, can I have one of them
sandwiches on the kitchen table and can
Letty have an olive 7" he asked shrilly.
"Isn't he the dearest thing?" Mra
' Jameson murmured enthusiastically. "So
spontaneous! I love a perfectly natural
child."
Mra Lacey banished her offspring with
a whispered promise, Mra. Porter re
sumed her resdlng.
When she paused to turn a leaf Mrs.
Greaher lamented audibly: "I've simply
got to find a laundress."
"I know of a fine washing powder,
Mra Borden began, eagerly.
"Ladles, Mrs. Porter Is waiting," ad
monished Mrs. Lacey.
Mrs. Porter waa permitted to read to
the end of the short paper.' At the last
word Mrs. Gresher gave a sigh of re
lict. "It was splendid," she cried. "I
dote on Dickens. By ths way, has any
one read ths . fascinating English story
about the maternity or modernity of
somebody or other? Margaret Ludlow
told me about it. She belongs to a read
ing club where every member buys a
new book once a month and wben the
members meet every week they exchange
If this weren't a Dickens club we might
do the earns, but Imagine one of his every
week!"
"They're so long." Mrs. Jameson com
mented. "Don't forget that ws meet at
my home next Monday. One la nobody
these days it one Isn't familiar with
Dlcken's charactera I think Mr. Pick
wick was simply charmlng-always wait
ing for something to turn up. don't you
know."
"That was Mr. Mlcawber," Mrs. Lacey
observed.'
' "And dear, delightful Sam Welter
always making a note of things," Mra
Xresher addd. enthusiastically.
"CapC Cuttle was the character who
Iwaya said, "When found make a note
of It," Mrs. Lacey commented.
"Of course," Mra Gresher agreed,
amicably. "Mr. Gresher told me he Is
a Dlcken's lover, too that Sam Weller
waa always advising people to bewars
of widowa My sdvlca Is to beware of
your laundress. If I only knew"
"The coffee's ready." announced Master
Lacey from the three hold.
The members of the Dickens club arose
and passed Into the dining room.
"We've had a real Intellectual feast,"
Mrs. Jameson observed, as her ayes
rested appreelaUngly upon (he table lades
with dainties.
"Very." Mra Gresher declared heart
ily. "I'm so glad I Joined the club. After
we've finished Dickens I move that we
take up Shakespeare or one of the popu
lar authors or some one.
Try It.
It li said the Ijuean of Shaba tested
Solomon's wisdom by bringing before him
a equal number of boys and glrla
dressed exactly alike, and asking him to
decide which was which.
"The father of wisdom called for wash
baatna and told the group to wash Its
bands.
The glrla daintily rolled up their cuffs,
'but the boys splashed away without re
gard to neatnesa
And there yon are.
There was no match trust in that early
day. If there had been ny the great
kmc could has enjoyed a simpler test.
Jr'or the London ChronicJa oeciarea mat
nea woman strikes a match she Invari
ably scraces It upward and away from
herself, while a man scrapes It la and
toward himself.
Fin tout scaueh sot and try take
Cleveland Plain Dealer.
rtowwj rev sail Stria.
This is to be a flower year la the realm
of small folks. Nothing can be more ap-
mnnate to adora the frocks of llttla
girls than garb&xrla of
af
Pee- BC 1
est warm atxs ill ac
til souses! !aas Osj ear new
att Jsc-a. fhssr wsTmesss -aSl cassrrsr
sexx ra ska ear. reel at wf Dam esueTtr
trtjsslt4ultiM.
i wen. "v ak ws tm-Mximt x u ,
Part Played by Chance in Man's Destiny;
is Evil Star Sometimes to Be Blamed
By DOROTHY DI-V
The question of how far we are Indi
vidually responsible for our destinies, for
our successes or failures, our happiness
or mlssery. la one that neither science nor
experience has ever answered.
The for tunate
swsll oat their
chests and boldly
proclaim: "I am
the captain of my
soul." They point
to their achieve
ments aa the result
of their own energy.
tbe reward of their
superior judgment
and acumen. They
scoff at chance and
say that a man Is
his own luck, and
he stands or falls
according to his
ow will.
The unfortunate.
the unsuccessful
-the derelicts of Ufe ory out on the
other hand, that they are not to blame
for their failures, that they were born
under an evil star, and some malign
power rules their days and brings their
every effort to naught. Their labor Is
barren of resulta Their struggles fruit
less. Their sacrifices in vain. Opportunity
never knocks at their doors. Happiness
passes them by. They seem to have the
curious property of attracting evil ta
themselves, as others draw good about
them.
And who shall Judgs which of these
two contentions Is right? Who shall say
whether we are the puipets of fate or Its
master? Does not life itself begin In the
greatest gamble on earth? Is not luck
mothered In the cradle?
Two children are bora the selfsame
moment, of the same parents, as nearly
alike aa humanly possible. No eye can
discern any material difference between
them, but in the' little hairless skull of
the one Is a brain that will make hlra
a great writer, a great general, a great
statesman, a great financier, while the
other little head contains only a feebls
intellect that win never be able even to
think dearly or to do anything more
than to grasp a few elemental facta
The wall of two new born babes heralds
their oomlng Into the world. To the phy
sician, to the nurse, to even the moth-
err, they sound exactly alike, but one of
them comes from the throat of a Caruso
and the other from ths throat of one who
will sever he able to carry a tune
Chance settled before they were born
who were to be the sTJpUngs. the Glad
stones, the Napoleons, the Rockefellers,
the Caruaoa. It waa luck, and not peeav
llar fitness that put tbe crown on tbe
head of tbe king of England and the
caax of Russia and made Frans Joseph
emperor of Austria and Flmmaasal ktng
of Italy.
And which of as, looking hack upon oar
own Uvea, does not marvel at the part
tint lack fats kismet call It what yoa
rtll the occult sower that
seems to rase ear almost effort, has had
opoa aw destiny. Tow sassier
vIV
5,r-, 'J ;
the right and it Is ths path that leads:
you straight to fortune, or an squally
meaningless turning to the left takes you
right to destruction. Tou seek In vain
for a publisher for your book, or a
manager to produce your play, or a cap
italist to hack your scheme or exploit
your Invention, and by chance you bump
Into a Strang man on the street car, or
sit next to him at dinner, or smoke a
cigar with him on the train, and you find
In him the good angel that opens the door
to success to you. .
We can not depend on luck alone for
success. We must also work and strive,
but beyond Industry, beyond Intelligence,
beyond Judgment, there is also the ele
ment of chanoe and fata, the something
In human life that Ues on the knees of
the gods and is given to us, or withheld.
In accordance with the whim or tbe
pleas use of the power that rules our
destiny. And against this decree our
tears and our prayers avail not. y
The Idea of this omnipotent power of
fate that holds us In tbe hollow of Its
Its hand has been most beautifully and
graphically portrayed In the picture at
ths top of this page. Look at It Study
it. Observe the great muscular band
rising out of ths void of darkness the
unknown that surrounds life. See the
diverging lines of fate that meet In the
great Ufa line. Take heed of the tiny
He's a Pauper Today
I mT ft n I
lriitfuw oarv.arc-
vrnt,. rtvUAjKTTSMCS TT
tAMPTHw. JC4TLW. i"Mj VE-fW IT
TWMPtrrj INTO VWA.I
GMiyt-iXA-me vmjktrh GoJirp
"A JtArTH ATfMF --
TrEH 0Avjlr-OEUA OvSU TO
IFTH6 Jvfe re TtS rwtT
TWT-U M AOH A MOCC IM 7MB
t4SHs-W i H 00 TMT
X(Jreft- IN-7WX- QchTT
HEV TA WAT LW
OFF HSHT TO SE THE
a : tm in soft
k A tAVOUr AKTrt-iT
e)M A
eV OCT OH TUB
tfOiV AT K
I turm
UJMCM' AFIte
WWQa - 1
v I nuaiU DVUlK'i neu cjMi-a wvwrsii, t jjv
human beings, the man and woman.
blindfolded, who, starting from dlffsrsnt
directions, perhaps having different ends
In view, stumble along until their paths
meet
So are marriages made. So la the rare
perpetuated. So do men and women
come Into the heaven of happy marriages
or the purgatory of unhappy ones. They
follow the line of fat.
If you ask a man why he married the
particular woman ha did, he will prob
ably tell you that he loved her, or at
least ha thought hs did when he asked
her to be hla wife. If you ask him why
be loved her. or imagined he did, he
cannot tell you. Nine times out of ten
she Isn't at all the type of woman he
had always Intended to marry. Generally
he had no notion at all of marrying when
he did. She had no particular beauty, no
special charm to attract him more than
ether women, but auddenly the Una of
fate brought them together, and for weal
or woe the die was cast.
We who believe In love and romance
believe that every eoul has Its counter
part, every heart Its true affinity, every
man and woman their real mates. Some
times these two, starting from ths ends
of the earth, maybe, corns together,
though they must cross seas and con
tinents and break down all tbe barrier
of casta and wealth on the way. That
Is when the gods are kind. Then fa ths
perfect marriage.
But the pity of It la that the right two
do not always meet The line of fste la
not always In matrimony any mora than
the road that leada to happiness, and
perhaps no better excuse can be offered
for the domeatio failures than that they
were helpless In the grasp of destiny,
through which they stumbled blind-
A rARMCTcAMT OO A OKOrseTO Tswrstr
viS vev stive HiA TkM sTuRTM
0vsOv rtWAi?
m JTOMACM wAI TMOMWfielt-f
JtiOpr.Uf- TrhSy p.per, A
PAUICLW MtTV OUT Jf 06 7)
e?JiHTv wey mpct
" Aj THcrrofts 6Ep nc
s'fou rourto A VkHSjTlCf.
INvavlk cWsrvAstO v.ovf-0
VOW CAU. tt A HSMg fix.
TDMrwy Pont tt-
VOUlt ffArtO I Tt
XM0AA.oe fTr-HfTR..
out a Govet-
a fcm. eteeA.
c-. tvweys . Taree.
Ow7CoU. S-Cou
CC SYNPICATtf A
7COC eoi.Ti TME.f eET
(TWA Fee HeAOmwi
VVMrf A PC. saAfS
DeS f-AOPrtEWi. DO Aft
CHAwjtv JO 91 . rAl
Amo Two Z. cols
tAVOtm rHCA) tTEF
so-!-. jtvf at- (, rr
?J N TO rV T MrS
0 AT 7 rn. .jute
fBSarawCMgirotTMe
avW AH AT'- ri
&
'A Sweetheart's Wit
Ily BEATRICE
On the morning of April L Ida Kaiser,
living in St. Louis, and 1 years old, ran
gaily down the steps ta meet the post-
He handed her an etrvolope addrassed
In the writing thst was dsarert to her.
It was from the man she waa to hurry
next month.
Shs ran back to her room, or, rather,
ehe flew, for love gives wings o those
who carry what she earned In her band
and who want to he alone while they
read.
Reaching her room, she broke the seal,
and, with heart beating high with ex
pectation, read the opening sentence:
"I have married another."
Then shs went down ths steps, hut not
aa shs had come up. Crossing the street
to a drug store she bought a quantity
of mercury tablets, returned to her r m,
swallowed them, and was soon beyond
human aid.
"It was aa April fool Joke." a y-ung
man sobbed to her mother a few hours
later. "I did It aa a Joke- I ner-r
thought of marrying any one but Ida. I
(ust wanted to tease her."
folded, ss the man and the woman In
the picture, not knowing whither they
went nor whom they were to meet, nor
the purpose of the high gods In deciding
then- lots. It waa kismet
By Tad
rnreiJH ftsm no ffwa too
M&WMwcjLAfe im jam-i
GtLteO CAtC PrBy Vffrn.
RAVE Ao TJftroTrrej? OH A
CAnAna JKa frfi Wn MAX.m
rrVntCNw 3VIt-M rxay
G-ACrH fuMD HIS MAf
TrrBOOtM Tf tOKTItteS
AAO Mktr0 rtDAAJtW.
IT A VATXrl l A CLOOC AMD A
tOft IS A M0UH9 IS A
vtetttHPOfy a cuam MOUf0 ?
VES Sit IF THAT fAAn C AJttTO
TO W!AfT MtrvxOJ-D HAtVtT
been vtotm a vmU-vo'-
rwo
5
TOMdltMja')
OteJ
A
n i.icswll
I fitW
i v r
4
J
FAIRFAX.
All hla lamentations
and reproaches
can't bring her back. He la Ilka the ms.i
who rocks the boat and who is left n
the boat alone, hla only msmir tint of
an agonised face.
The girl who was the victim of this
little April fool "Joke" wsa foolleh, t s
true. Only a foolish girl will decM- thst
any one man's love Is all there is to life.
Had she been cider, wiser and known
men at their right values, her first
thought would have bean gratitude that
she found out hla faithlessness before It
waa loo late.
Discovering later that be wasn't mar
ried, but was torturing ber because he
thought It funny, she would have been
glad to know the manner of a man he
was before shs gevs him the right to
torture her sll through Ufa
She gave up ber life, a needless and
awful sacrifice, but I claim that any
woman la better off dead fan mimed
to the asinine sort of a man who thinks
humor Ilea In torture.
The kind of men who think a laugh
must be based on pain; that a cry of
anguish without real causa la the moat
delldous inspiration for mirth; who
worry and fret and frighten, thet they
may laugh, are the kind of men for all
the world to avoid.
They should be penned up together H al
Ihey may play practical jokes on each
other, and decrease their number by
tormenting, worrying and scaring each
other to death.
They should be given limitless cipor
tunltles for rocking the boat for pointing
st each other with revolvers that are
not leaded, for a scheme of extermina
tion that will result In the wlplavg from
the fac of the earth every man whose
Idea of wit Is so degraded.
A man demaada that the girl he loves
have faith In him. This girl had It "I
says she must trust In him. This gin's
trust was Implicit
If any one else had told her he was
false, she would hare flown to his de
fense with tigerish rage that ha had beea
so maligned.
But ha said It himself. He said he was
to marry another, and, having the trust
and confidence la hla word which no bad
fernanded. she believed him. Her -start
waa broken and aha acted harahly, and
without thinking.
There la a lesson In ths tragedy, ani
the In mi la for glrla to learn. A man
who Playa Jokes Uke thla 1st beyond rs
demptkm-
The glrla must saarn. and know, 'he
manner of men to whom tbey give their
heart. Finding there has been a ssts
rake. they must not think, aa thla girl
thonght that there Is nothing else left
m IU.
Tbey moat know that there la e-r ?
Ihhsg srR. that there ta snore to tve for
than before, tar asw than la the kaowl-
111 1 sea the) arts es rerent prodno
ckss aT L-Arer)ea xn Tarts the ewar-youth-
i rasa sheas ualtuiia as
adga of a ferismaas esxsusa.
Tha ImosrsedKa that a lover Is tot
worth sstrrac Is a asuashal ana. bat smt of
tt grass- ssrlisu. a tauajsi riaw of Ufa,
szsl a asiuiliaas that has a mora stasia
ftmnsavtkss.
r
sswaassCketflS XssDslJaW
llj OKU1U.K HARDING.
(Extracts from an article In Ilarper'i
April magatlne made doubly Interesting
by the disaster to the Titanic)
Every great trade route of the world
has In season some peculiar danger to
navigation which brings disaster to ves-';
seis plvlng Its lanes. In the North Atlan
tic for ships bound oast and west over tha '
busy southern route, tha particular mea-
ace Is Caps Race. In tula neighborhood
there la an extraordinary conjunction ot .
n.nt c treberes. submerged rocks, '
northeasterly galea, a sheer shore and a,
singularly treacherous current create er
large possibility of catastrophe, i-ape , .
Rsce Is a bluff, Jagged hit of coast,.,
scarcely provided with strand, and a mul-
titiuia af submerced rocks are scatieren
from the breaking water at the foot of .'
the ellffa as far out to sea as the Virgin :
Rocks, which outlle ninety mllea The .
Polar current, which "runs use a mer -nast
tha amy cane. Is so variable In the .
direction of Ma flow that It may race
amithweat at one time and northeast at .
another. In the spring and early aummer-
and often aa late as the fail of the year
-Icebergs come down With the current .
and He sluggishly off the coast, hidden
from the sharpeet eyea of ship's lookouts
In the dense accumulations ot log.
ti la the f oa almost continuously
raised by the contract of the Polar eur- j
rent with the warm waters of the Gulf .
Stream-whteh for centurlea has made a '
menace of this cape of evil nsma.
The route of the transatlantic lines
from American porta runs past, a
hundred miles to sea: but tha slow- ,
going tramp, to save a day's steaming.
follows the shorter route and seeas to
nua within flaa-slanallng distance ot
the cspe. Added to the- great fleet ot
tramps whlth must venture near are tne .
Canadian liners, which use Ins Cape
Race route during tha tea season In tha :
Strait ot Belle Isle, and many coastwise ,
ermft. aehoonsra and full-rlixed ' fish- ,
carriers. Altogether, thousands ot ves
sels must pass within sight ot the cap
every year; and It la vessels such aa .
iiieaa. astray In the fog. eft the beaten
track, which come to grief and give tha '
coast Its gruesome name, in a single
Mnth an Ailantla liner, crowded with
paasengere, and four tramp steamers
totally wrecked within twenty,
miles of one another. And ones ashore
a craft has small chance; the stupendous -'
ellffa with deep water to their Jagged
edges and exposed to the swells ot th '
a. have allowed but Oris vessel
of the seventy that have been wrecked '
there la the last twenty years to be re
The pratt an the rocks la
furiously pounded to pieces by the first,.
heavy saa: tha Delta, a tramp steam
.hin niiral disaooeared from eight'-
three hours after going ashore; and tha '
Rea-ulua, a tramp of sear 1000 tons, ut
...iv .aniahad with tha whole ship's i
company between dark and dawn, leav
ing her propeller fixed In the ellffa
twenty feet above sea level, where It re- :
main to this day.
ne wracks aa tha cana a record la -
kept In a mora or leas accurals fashion;
hut i the narrow escapes from wreck .
ao account is taken. There must be an
enormous number of these. It la nee-
v for a bewildered captain, unable .
to take noonday observations, and run.
nlng on a dead reckoning, to locate tha
Cape Rac fog-whistle. There Is. no
other way to determine his position, and"',
he la In haste-In desperate haste, when.,
h- thinks of hie owners to set alonsv--
Consequently, he takes a chanoe and goes
eloas In In murky weather. Steamers'
have come so close to tha cllrrs in tna ,
f iiuiaed. that tha fisherman an the t.
heads, unable even to discern an outline
of the blind craft have clearly heard tne '.
ik. when the centals '
yww wm . -
reversed the engine room signals and In'tf
the same breath ordered the ntenoats
manned. After that they have listened ',
to the churning of the screw, to tha
orders from the bridge, and. ta tha -gradual
departure of tha vessel from her ''
dangerous position. ' '
Dm at a Dolnt beyond range or tna
fog whistle, a fisherman heard from tha -,
fog not only the orders to reverse tna
engines and man tha Ufebosta, but
loud commend to one of the officers to
guard tha liquor. Vessels often slip past.'
In the mist themselves unseen, tneir
preeenca, peril and escape from disaster
told only by voices coming muffled from
the obscurity at sea. Sometimes skippers ,
send boats ashore to Inquire tha way,
but often they go by In care-free lg-'
..o without tha faintest notion that
tbey have escapade eatatrophe by the"
miracle of a hair's breadth.
"I heard a feller go by today," said ,
a fisherman ot Chance Cove. "I allowed
he'd fetch up on Fish Reef by tha sound
of his course and waited to see, but be
skipped ber, and a cloae skim, too.."
A GOOD LITTLE SPORT
By WIXAJM F. KIRK.
"Tou see soma queer sights In a city,"
Bald Colonel Kraamua atcPhee,
"Though few of such sights stir up pity
In the heart of a rounder like me.
I've gambled from Ceylon ta Nome, boy.
And I think I can tall a man's worth:
Well, thla morning, while walklntv up
noma, boy.
I met tbe best snort an thla earth.
"Ha waa tiny and ragged and quivering, ,
In his arms waa a poor Bttla pup;
I stopped when I saw tbe two shivering ..
And said. WaU, young fellow, what's , '
Bpr
Tha tut Be waa only a baby
Came out of the hsif-beatrd shed; .U
1 thought I could stay In here, maybe,
I was getting my doc warm, ha said.
c
Thafa all ha was getting his dog ,4
Tears are things that a gambler re- .
slats.
But I gaeaa that aoxor) dross beat the-
When I loosed at hjw
I srasasl asm Mil isotntaa; was lachmg.
And arast ass aksog. for. yoa sec.
A good lust apcrt Is worth barlingf
Said fl sail I JUmMum hVPhar.
1.
