THE COURIER.
common at that period for people to re- through the books. She makes miser
gard pthisia as romantic, and any mental able little pathetic testa of her sanity,
derangement aa disgraceful. Certainly and can find nothing wrong but that one
Mrs. S. took the latter view. She was thing that she feels that at aoy time
rejoiced to Hnd the child restored to her- she may lose her personality, that Janet
self, and she bound Miss X. to say may come back. She feels it a disgrace
nothing about tho incident to anybody, that she is not like other people; she
"iat nvinia ohnnM hrinrr if nn n train at lontrs for helD and svmDatbv. yet not for
V tWU.V HUVM. ....wte .. ... m . ,- - . - . , .
THE SHIRT WAIST MAN.
her afterwards." She considered that
Norah had been too much in theeun
and that had "made her Billy" for a time:
Considering that the disappearance of
the symptoms meict the disappearance
of the disease, she did not call in a doc
tor. It is probable, too, that she had a
feeling that eren now is not uncommon
among people of defective education,
that mind and morals do not concern the
physical.
Norah apparently completely regained
.her health. She did not become an in
fant prodigy. At the age of fourteen,
when Miss X. left her and she was
placed in the hands of foreign govern
esses, she seems to have been a fairly
normal girl; a little emotional, perhaps,
but with no tendencies to melancholy,
fond of sport, eager to see the world. -
Eieht years afterwards Miss X. took
worlds would she speak of her trouble
to a single soul.
She appears to have some means,
never indicated, of communicating with
this mysterious twin sister. She speaks
of telling her things, and of exacting a
promise from her that she will never
come back except 'when Norah is alono
at night. Then we hear no more of
these conversations, which are reported
in a most matter-of-fact way, and an
other horror springs up. Janet means
to ruin her. She will never speak, but
Norah knows.
After that there come3 a period of
about a year, during which there are no
notes at all. This period coincides with
her residence in London, and includes
the few months of her engagement. In
deed, it may be doubted if Norah ever
wrote in the book again, for the next
the poet of companion to Norah. Dur- entry, which is the laBt, is written in the
ing the interval she had once more be- looking-glass hand. I held it to a mir
come an orphan, and she had inherited ror and read:
Mr. S.'s fortune, which was not immense,
but was much greater than it had been
supposed he would leave behind him. It
gave Norah an income of about 1.700 a
year. She came to London, where she
had many -friends. Some of these
were'anxious to have her to live with
them, but she was fond of her independ
ence. She wrote to Mi6s X., with whom
she had kept up a desultory correspond
once, and an arrangement was eoou
made between them. They lived to
gether in a comfortable house in Hamp
stead. Here, also, Miss X. noticed
nothing that could be called abnormal
about Norah. She was bright and en
ergeticfond of pleasure, and fond of
getting new experiences.
Norah was at this time engaged to be
married to a distinguished Orientalist
and traveler, a man about ten years older
than herself, to whom she was devoted.
It was arranged that after the marriage
Mia X. was to act as her housekeeper.
Three days before the marriage was
to take place Norah committed suicide,
poisoning herself with oxalic acid. It is
not a goodsuicide'B poison, because the
antidote is to be found ready to hand
in most houses. But Norah was not
discovered; she took the poison in a di
luted form and died in her sleep.
No motive of any kind could be found
for the act, at the time, and the usual
verdict wes returned.
II.
By her will she left to Miss X. an
annuity and all her bookB and papers.
'I have come back for a little while,'
But tomorrow I shall come back to stay. -I
shall take him away from you, Bister
Norah. It is 1 that he shall marry. I
wonder what you thought. For a long"
time. . . ."
There the sentence breaks off abrupt
ly. It bears the date of the day on
which Norah committed suicide.
As a case of double personality it is
explicable, doubtless, on the theory of
absolute somnambulism, but it suggests
other questions less easy to answer. A
clever novelist might be able to make
Bomethiug of it, filling in the lacuna;.
0 course, he would be using a motive
that had been used
the motives have
Barry Pain, in Black and White.
before: but then all
Been "used '"before.
"What sort of a dog was it that bit
you?" asked Sprocketts of Bevelgear.
"A chainless."
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office. Do this this week.
"Tears of blood are not to
passed by all of ue," answered
man. Tlie Mirror.
Among the latter was a bundle of penny " one woui(j think
exercise books tied up with a string, and
marked "Not to be read until a year
after my death." Rightly or wrongly,
Miss X. made no mention of these at the
inquest. It is from them that the brief
second part of Norah's history is here
written. I have not, been nermitted to
rtkaA fhft whrklft rf tViAAA hvttra aa raf IU6
Much of what I have read I am not per
mitted to repeat here, and of verbatim
quotation I can give very little.
These books are a revelation of the
tragedy of Norah's life. They are con
cerned, principally, with her second per
sonality, Janet, and are not consecutive,
long lapses occurring between the dates
of the different books:
There is no reference to the Lowestoft
incident in (hem. The first book is
dated when Norah was fifteen years old-
The tint line begins: "I was Janet in
sleep latt night. It is no good to pray
any more. One day she will come when
I am awake, and everybody will know,
and they will shut me up eomewhere.and
say that I am mad."
That note of horror is repeated all
Defect.
A wise man looked at the world and
laughed.
And an altruist offered him reproof,
saying: "There is occasion for tears,
Behold me,
Gutless and cool ;
I am the shirt waist man
And if I don't
Take the rag off the-fnish
I take the coat j
Off my back
And fling it
In the face of conventionality.
What do I care
If Fashion
Piles the perspiration
Up knee deep
On the backs
Of coated men?
It doesn't monkey with me ,
For I yank off my coat
And Fashion
Chases itself out of my
Neighborhood,
And leaves me
Cool
As a cucumber.
Of course ,
My shirt waist
Isn't cut according
To' the pattern ' "
Of the lady shirt waist
And it lacks
Fluff and puff "
And furbelow
And has a
Superfluity of narrative
Perhaps ,
But it gets there
Just the same,
And I am comfortable
While those,
Coated with conventionality ,
Sweat and swear
And kick holes
In the Weather Bureau
And lose their tempers
In an overflow of temperature .
The shirt waist nun
Isn't a recognized institution
Just yet,
But he's the coming man '
And the hot weather
Brings him out
As it does the tassels
On a field of corn,
And soon the streets
Will blossom with him ,
Not altogether
A thing of beauty ,
But verily a joy
During the heated term .
That's me,
The shirt waist man ,
And as long
As I keep cool
Conventionality
M ay go to thunder .
W.J. L.
The Sun.
To clubs of ten taking The Courier the
annual subscription price is seventy five
cents (75 cents). Regular subscription price
one dollar per year '
be com
the wise
The Rock Island playing cards are
slickest you ever handled. One
pack will be sent by mail on receipt of
15 cents in stamps. A money order or
draft for 50 cents or same in stamps will
secure 4 packs. They will be sent by
express, charges prepaid. Address,
John Sebastian, G. P. A.,
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific R'y,
Chicago.
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Tie COURIER
And any One Dollar
Woman's dub Magazine
51.511
The Wholesale Trade in College Degrees.
(From the Saturday Eenlng Post.)
Even in the good old days when a man
was knighted simply because the king
esteemed him a good fellow, and a wo
man became my lady in exchange for a
judiciously bestowed kiss, patents of no
bility were granted for better reasons
than are parchments of learning today
at least by some of the smaller colleges.
If honors were easy then, honorary de
grees are easier now. No one with more
than a million seams to be ineligible.
So long as we have college presidents
whose sense of humor and of the eternal
fitness of things are as small as their
greed of endowment and advertising is
large, this indiscriminate scattering of
honors will go on. Doctors are already
as plentiful as colonels in an ex-Confederate
stronghold. We have professors
of the beautiful science of shoe polish
ing. It ia but a step now to doctors of
the delicate art of shaving. As for the
men who are by attainment entitled to
an LL. D., thoy are already beginning
to fight shy of the honor.
It is sometimes a distinction to be
plain Mr. Smith.
OUT
SAW
of the Lincoln. Hard
vwor Co.'s entire stock of
BICYCLES IND BlfitfCLE SIJNIfS
AT
GUARANTEED
HAIsF THE
REGULAR
PRICES.
The wise and prudent buyer will
take advantage of this wondtrful
opportunity, as it will be by far the
most startling bargain Bale of Bi
cycles and Sundries ever announced
in America. It is a well know fact
that the Lincoln Hardware Com-
pany were among the largest west
ern wholesalers in the bicycle busi
ness, and carried a complete supply,
which was second only to our mam
moth stock, and owing to the rapidly
increasing business in otaer lines,
they decided to close out their en
tire bicycle busines to us at a great
sacrifice. We will positively not
mix one item of this stock with our
own, but will distribute the entire
Lincoln Hardware Company's stock
among the Lincoln people, guar
anteeing to cat their regular prices
on every item at least
50 PER CEflT
and in many cases a great deal more.
All good things arc bound to be
imitated, but
7
and in this instance we will positive
ly guarantee the lowest prices, sell
ing for less than any other dealer
can buy the same, goods for in
wholesale lots.
Jlfflmim
DISSUADED
UNOOLN 1NSEB.
1136 O St. Phone 1812.
The Bicycle and Phonograph Head
quarters oi tne entire west.
0 Cycle Photographs J
Athletic Photographs
m Photographs of Babies
0 Photographs of Groups
9 . Exterior Views
9 THE PHOTOGRAPHER
J 129 South Eleventh Street. 2
Tl WEIT CMt Mut
may be secured by
oar aid. Addreaa, J
THE PATENT RECMt,
fiuUcrlptlOBi to.Tbt Patent Secord ILOOperaanufiu
n
x
j
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i
K
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