THE COURIER
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TEDIUM VITAE.
Percy G. Chamberlain shot and killed himself in Chicago on last
Saturday. He was a retired captain in the British army. His
friends say he was comfortably supported from the income of an
estate in England. He was 45 years old, unmarried and of a cheer
ful disposition. They found the following letter in his room address-e-J
"To the coroner or whomsoever it may concern:'
"An inquisitive world will be seeking and prying for a motive for
my assisting nature and hurrying my departure from this earth. J
assure you I have no motive other than a most complete tiredness.
No, there is no woman in the case, no excess of dissipation, no gam
bling losses, nothing but a Hrm and rooted conviction that I have
lived too long and am very, very tired, and choose to take my own
path, now alone in the 'full enjoyment of all my faculties, in tho
silent land, where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary
are at rest. And I doubt not that after life's fitful fever that I
shall sleep well. I want no fancy funeral; no crowd of people riding
after mo who cared not a straw in life for me; no gaudy flowers.
The pauper's coffin and the poor-house hearso 'to rattlo my bones
over the stones,' will suffice for me. And the 'Potter's field" will
make a downy couch to rest my bones in. Lot me be buried with
the burial of an ass, a stranger in a strange land, unhonored and
unsung. Mrs. Allen will take full char0 of my affairs, which are
few and simple, and of my personal property I leave here. And I
firmly and fully desire that none of my relatives be ever told of my
departing or the method of it, as they have peculiarities and would
think me 'disgracing tho family' if they knew. I do not think I have
anything further to add except to apologize for the worry and
trouble I shall cause and to humbly take my leave."
"Perot G. Chamberlain."
The letter reads like the truth. And it probably is. All who
have enough to eat and to wear, shelter, nothing to do and no heart
attachments to speak of will understand his "most complete tired
ness.' He was a dihtante. His room contained pieces of statuary
and pictures which in parting from them he left to his fellow board
ers and to his landlady with an apology for the trouble his death
would cause. Here was thoughtfulness, kindness and generosity.
He was forty-five years old with age just ahead of him and the doors
of youth shut and locked. He was lonesome and tired. He had
been lonesome aud bored before, he would be again. His was not
an important piece in the procession, the spectacle would not be
changed by his disappearance from it. So he dropped out of it.
With the brown arms of the earth about him the wicked will not
trouole. He saw himself clasped in her eternal embrace. The idea
once occurred to him, he put it aside, it reccurred daily until Satur
day he took a walk. He saw the faces of the passers-by seamed
with lines of care, no one seemed happy. In tho stores people
jostled him and scowled. Why should he stay? I am sorry for this
"stranger in a strange land." If I were a Catholic I should have
masses said that he might be soon in paradise.
ADDITIONAL SOCIETY.
Dr. Ladd is home from his trip to Whitehall, HI.
Frederick D. H. Cobb and wife of New York city were in Lincoln
Tuesday,
Miss Stella Payne of Hastings is visiting with the Misses Lau.
The Ravola club gave a domino party at Lansing hall last even
that was highly enjoyed by all who were present. The following
are some of the dancers: Misses Daisy Cochrane, Dora Harley,
AdaHaton, Marie Marshall, Lucy Griffith, Mae Moore, Sadie Gra
ham, Grace Huntsinger, Helen Hoover, Grace Ashton, Florence
Farwell, Maudo Shaw, Ena Ricketts, Nellie Lau, Stella Curtice,
Jessie Leland, Florence Winger, Miss Hoddy, Miss Payne of Hast
ings; Harry Grupe, Wilson Winger, Arthur Walsh, Frank Hadley,
George Johnston, Harry Frank, Ralph Winger, Clare Hebbard,
Duff, Andrews, Sedgwick, Clare Young, Foster Beach, Harry Har
ley, Albert Fussy, Oliver Clough, Frank Kitchen, Elmer Merrill,
Ora Ward and Ernest Folsom.
The Daughters of Veterans gave a surprise party for the Sons of
Veterans on Wednesday evening at G. A. R. hall. The evening was
npent in dancing in which the Empire Autoharp club furnished
music Light refreshments were served during the evening. The
members of the club are: Tom Brown, Willie Brown, Roy Paul,
Scott Garoutte, Abe Yanow, John Dixon, James Sharp, Harry
Linder, Sam Gordon.
The Olympic whist club was entertained last Friday by Mr. Hom
er Honeywell. The following were present: Misses Martha Burks,
Maude Risser, Sadie Graham, Dora Harley, Helen Hoover. Grace
Ashton. Ena Ricketts, Florence Winger, Stella Curtico, Hoddy,
HuntBinger, Florenr.o Farwell, Daisy Cochrane; Messrs. Arthur
Walsh, Harry Grupe, Harry Harley, Ralph Winger, George Walsh,
Ernest Folsom, Wilson Winger, Clare Young, Frank Hadley, Homer
Honeywell. George Johnson, Artie Chapman and Frank Kitchen.
"SHEEPSKIN JOHNSON." V
Out in Clay county where the German Menonite farmer drives
broad backed horses and lives fat with plenty to eat and wine in
his cellar, and whore the poor Swede emigrant of a dozen years ago
has become a thrifty farmer with a farm and a home of his own, in
a snug farm house garnished with orchard trees and shapely ever
greens, lives Charley Johnson. Years ago when he was new from
the old country and was poor, he wore a sheepskin apron in front to
protect his clothes while at work, as is the custom with farmers in
Sweden. Partly because of the sheepskin apron and partly to dis
tinguish him from a large number of other Swede Johnson's he was
called "Sheepskin" Johnson. He was an "odd sort of a chicken,"
the neighbors used to say, but was honest and worked hard early
and late. At first he bought only an eighty acre tract on long time,
paying cash down only a small payment of perhaps 325. Ho dug a
hole in the side of a hill, covered it with cottonwood pales and
prairie sod, hung a horse blanket over the opening for a door, and
this was his new home in the new world. His several little white
headed children busied themselves in gathering vegatable fuel
in gunnysacks from tho prairies, and when they were not busy at
this or some other useful work they played about the dugout and
were happy and contented. Charley was a thrifty fellow, as all
Nebraska swede farmers are, and each two or three years he added
a new eighty acres to his farm. He graduated out of the dugout
into a comfortable sod house with shingle roof and in time this gave
place to a commodious frame house on higher ground with roomy
barns and granaries apd a large wind mill whirled gracefully round
and round day and night furnishing a stream of living water for
man and beast. "A tink dees country been all right," said Charley
to a friend a few days ago. "Some faler he all time kick, but a tink
Nebrasky been purty good to me. Sometime ha beenleetle dry, but
most time ve git plenty rain. Ven a come hare from Sveden da been
plenty faler all time kick 'bout rain, but a not kick, a poost verk me
all time, an' now a get me fivo eighty. A make me lee tie moony all
same an' my gall she ha got organ in dem house and my boy ha got
yoost 6o good buggy some anyboody. Dem faler in dem eastern
paper, he write plenty lie about dees Nebrasky country. He say ve
not get rain. Veil, von yare ve not git raia, but nine yare ve git
plenty rain, an dem farmer he make plenty moony. Some faler he
all time kick, some faler he all time wait for rain an' some faler he
all time vcrk. Dem kickin faler ha been all time poor, dem wait
for rain faler he all time git no yob, but dem verkin faler, ha all time
git plenty moony. Dem kickin' faler ha vant to pull out, an' dem
no-rain faler ha go to Texas, but Sheepskin Johnson, ha stick to
Clay county.
Elderly people remember their spring bitters with a shudder. The
present generation has much to be thankful for, not the least of
their blessings being such a pleasant and thoroughly effective spring
medicine as Ayer's Sarsaparilla. It is a health restorer and health-maintainer.
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