The Butler Weekly Times Newspaper, December 23, 1909, Page 8

~ LISA By MARY PAXTON (Copyright, by Dally Story Pub. Co.) He sat in the big carved chair, stu- pidly waiting for the coroner. There was none of the usual horror of a sui- cide—no rivulets of blood ending in live pools, no contortions of the face. Lisa lay on the great white bear rug as he had often seen her lie there, her face partly concealed by her arm. She wore a white half-fitted robe, and in the dim light sometimes he could scarcely see her at all except where her dark hair shone out vividly. Near her on the floor was a letter which he knew must have been written to him, but he let it Ne there. As yet be was not curious. He bent over her and sobbed and held the letter to his lips. Then he tore it open and strained his dim eyes over the sprawling letters: “Dear old Pat,” she had written. “Call me a coward if you want, but I am tired and nothing can be worse than these last worked too hard. days. I have not My eyes have been miserable. Perhaps work would have saved me from this despair which has made me end it. Ford Harvey is the reason, Ford Harvey with his mock- ing laugh and his haunting eyes. 1 love him, my killing myself will tell you how much, but I want you to make him suffer as I have suffered. He lied and I know now that he never loved me. I must have amused him, for my love was so frank, I won't live to be a bitter old woman, and | won't live without him, Find a way to mad: den him as he has maddened me.” It was signed simply Lisa. “Poor little sister, poor little Lisa," he murmured, “and I thought she was 80 happy. No, I must not shoot him That it not what she means.” He stared at the portrait until the coroner was admitted. Then he looked up an address in the telephone direc tory and walked down the boulevard until he came to some stairs with a light at the entrance. He rang the bell and a man who was half dressed let “him in. They stirred up the fire and Pattou “are told him in a few words what had happened. When Per Teau read the note he turned to the other man and said almost joyously: “Thank God, I can serve her dead though I could not while she lived.’ Then he fell to weeping. When he was calmer they talked until morning. Then Perreau packed his bag and went out with his caller. Patton Ware went back to the studio and sat with his dead. When it was all over he wrapped the portrait and left it at a photograph gallery. A week later Ford Harvey lay back in his steamer chair on the Kaiser Wilhelm and watched the woman be- side him. Her eyes were half closed and she smiled at him through her sloping lashes. The hood of her cape could not quite conceal the elaborate coiffure, nor was it intended to do so. He was thinking how artistically she was gotten up, but she saw glimpses of the gowns that he should buy her fm Paris. A boy passed with some pa- Pers. Ford Harvey held out his hand indifferently. He gave a part of the paper to the woman and opened the rest out before him. From the front page this headline greeted him: RUMOR SAYS LISA WARE ENDED LIFE FOR NOTED LEADER OF N. Y. SOCIETY. Underneath was a poor half-tone taken from a photograph of her por- trait. Drops of perspiration stood out on his forehead. “My God, I didn't think she'd do it!” he said aloud. “Do what?” she asked, snatching the paper from him, She understood when she saw, but asked no questions. She went white about the lips, though not because she cared for the dead girl. “Would you kill yourself for me, 7" he asked. 'No, but perhaps I'll make you shoot your heart out for me,” she an- swered lightly. She would not trust him to his thoughts after that, and Avis Bradly could be diverting when she wished. At dinner he fingered idly with his napkin and found pasted in the corner a tiny picture of a woman. Avis felt his uneasiness. He looked at his watch nervously and the same eyes smiled at him from the cover. Annoyed, he ceased to listen to the pretty woman at his side. With the coffee, a minia- ture picture of a woman pasted on his Saucer under his cup made him hurry from the table red faced, the blonde woman following him alarmed. Rough- ly he ordered her to her stateroom and paced the deck with a deep scowl on his brow. When he went down she was asleep, and replacing her picture in a silver frame on the table was another photo- Sraph and the eyes smiled. On the deck again, he ran into a man that he knew slightly. It was Per- reau. Ford Harvey shook hands with the detective and offered him a cigar which he did not take. For a time they talked aimlessly. | sant to find out who does it so that | the thing can be stopped. It is out- rageous.” “Do you know the original of the picture?” Perreau asked seriously Harvey reddened. “But you must be j frank with me, Mr. Harvey, if you want my help. Where did you know her and under what circumstances?” Harvey stuttered. “She killed her- | self last week and warned me that she intended to do it. That is why these | pictures make me squirm.” | “I see,” said the detective. “It is | outrageous.” | Ford Harvey mopped his brow in | relief and a folded paper fell from | his handkerchief. The detective | smoothed it out. | “I presume this is the lady?” he! asked | “Yes,” said Ford Harvey very seri- | ously. | “Let me ask you some questions,” | said the detective. “Are you married | to Mrs. Harvey?” Harvey winked. “She is using my | name.” | “Had the woman of the portrait any | relatives?” | “T really don't think she ever spoke | of any,” said Harvey. | “That makes it more difficult are not a Spiritualist?” “I should say not,” denied Harvey | scornfully, | “From what you tell me, I can offer you two suggestions as to a possible solution, Either Mrs. Harvey is for some reason annoying you in this! way, or there is a psychical agent. | Accept either solution that you think | best.” Harvey looked wild. “Perhaps it is | as you say. 1 shall watch Avis; and you, too, keep an eye on her.” | The rest of the voyage was not agreeable for Ford Harvey or blond woman. As soon as she able to go on deck he neglected though always he watched her, this made her uneasy. You and | She did not | seem able to grasp the situation. She | laughed louder, did her hair more | elaborately, and put more rouge on! her face. One day he caught her. staring intently at one of the increas: | ing deluge of pictures. They had got- | ten on her nerves, too, besides ma- king her jealous of the dead girl. | There was a sharp quarrel, in which | the-woman-was-vio'ent and their ways | parted. For a_ time the pictures stopped and his eyes looked less like a hunted rabbit's. In Paris they began again. Every mail brought him postcards which were copies of her picture. He fled terrified, the pictures pursuing him all over Europe. In the heart of the Black Forest a woman suddenly | crossed the road. He thought her | strangely like Lisa. In the most ob- scure inns he stopped Lisa's face was | at the top of menu cards. In Rome he | met Perreau again. Together they | visited cathedrals. Beggars offered | to sell him Lisa's pictures. Cigarette | venders sold him boxes from which | she smiled. He was no longer his old | complacent self, and’ his hair was | quite white now. When she looked | down at him pityingly from a wayside | shrine one afternoon he was almost at bay. He sailed for America. On the boat home he kept to his cabin, and with ental mysticism. With a medium on board he arranged a seance, The cabin was darkened and the medium bound. Harvey lay like a dead man. The words came muttered and then the message rang out: “Your suffering is not 6reater than mine. Go to North mountain, October 21, and my last word shall be spoken.” The man drew a long breath and the medium left in a dazed condition. One beautiful afternoon in October some tourists on the road below watched a lonely traveler wind his dizzy way around the mountain pass far above them. They watched him appear agd disappear until they could see him no more. He rode to where the mountain wag bald and the scurb oaks were low. Boulders dislodged by a recent rain blocked the narrow way. Finally he passed to where it was no longer possible for the animal to advance. He dismounted, but be- fore his shaky hands could fasten the burro to the underbrush it was scram- bling down the mountain, His eyes followed it grimly till he could see it no more and he continued his painful way. Forced to rest often by the steepness of the incline, he looked al- ways to the top of the mountain. When he achieved the summit he felt exultant. He lay there and waited for what he had come this long tired way. The little clouds that were capering about him and below meant nothing to him. The serene blue of the sky was lost to him and he did not even look into the hazy peaks off beyond. While he was on the mountain top he prayed. “All powerful,” he said, “Ihave been wicked. I have laughed. But I laugh no more.” Then he buried his head in his arms and cried. When he looked up there was a faint glow over the farthest Peak where the sun had set. And the night was near. He sat and wearily waited for the darkness to come, but the terror of his last days had van- ished. He was unafraid. Then from out of the blackness, across the chasm flashed out in fire Lisa's piteous, pitiful face. The man’s white face was “Lisa, beautiful soul,” he cried and fell across the rocks. Perreau poured over volumes of ori- | A SUCCESSFUL PROTEST. A Glamorgan papa was about to «pply the strap “Father,” said Willie, who had jusi completed his second term at the Srammar school, “unless that instru- ment has been properly sterilized I de- | sire to protest.” This made the old man pause. “Moreover,” continued Willie, “the germs that might be released by the violent impact of leather upon a por- ous textile fabric but lately exposed to the dust of the streets would be apt to affect you deleteriously.” As the strap fell from a nerveless hand, Willie sloped to imbibe more science. UNPLEASANT ASSOCIATIONS, Tinkle—This is a beautiful coun- try we are passing through. Winkle—Not for me. I got stuck ‘in a horse trade here once. Straight Goods. Zeppelin ts a sharpshooter Of the air; why he Drove his machine eight hundred miles And hit a@ tree, Too Much for Them, “So you rode that toothpick sales- man out of town on a rail?” inter- rogated the tourist in the mining town, “By George, yes!” thundered the mayor in the cowhide boots and red shirt. “When he tried to sell us tooth- picks with our names on them he al- most started a fight, but when he asked us if we wanted them flavored with old rose or tutti-frutti, that was more than we could stand, so the boys just pitched into him, The old bowie-knife is the only kind of tooth- pick we need. in these diggings.” The Way It Looked to Him, “Are you guilty or not guilty?” asked the judge of the defendant in a case of assault and battery. “I think I must be guilty, your hon- or,” answered the defendant. “You think so?” gaid the judge, “Don't you know?” “Well, your honor,” answered the prisoner, “it’s like this: The plain- | tiff and I were the only ones in the | room, and the first thing I knew was | that I was standing up, and he was doubled up under the table. So I Guess you'd better call it guilty.” A Slight Jolt. Diggs (reading)—Here’s an account in this paper of a man who paid $10,- 000 for a dog. Now, what do you think of that? Mrs. Diggs—Oh, that's all right, I suppose. Diggs—But you don't seem to realize the magnitude of the sum, my dear. Just think—$10,000 for a pet. Why, that is more than I am worth! Mrs. Diggs—Yes, but, of course, some pets are worth more than oth- ers. A Return Short. “If you want to be up to date, Mrs. Hasher, you'll have to get a side- board,” remarked young Slopay. “And if you don’t come up to date with your payments soon, Mr. Slopay,” rejoined the landlady, “you'll have to get outside board.” THEY MERELY TALK, Chawles—During your long night watches before the mast don’t the waves seem to talk to you? Old Salt—Yep. But they don’t az foolish questions. His Experience. Peckem, who had loved and won, Once let this sentence fall: “"Tis better to have loved and Than never to have lost at all.” Rubbing It In. Sapleigh—Yaas, sevewal years ago I fell in love with a girl, but she we- jected me, doncher know—made a wegular fool of me. Miss Knox—Now, that what I call & measly shame. I've often wondered how it happened. | The Youthful Man of 50. | From the London Daily Mail. The activity and good health of the j}man over 40 is one of the features of | the present day. “Undoubtedly,’’ observed a mem- ber of the Royal Statistical Society, “elderly people appear to maintain what one may call a greater efficiency thaa they did years ago. I think this is largely due to the great growth in} medical skill and also to the fact that | people—particularly those in respon-; sible positions—study their physical | fitness far more than used to be the| case. The man of 45 or 50 appears) to-day, by careful dieting, golf and’ healthy exercise generally, to keep, himself far more alert and youthful | looking than his father or grandfather | at a similar age. i “My view,” said the middle aged | head of a prominent city firm, “is that men in the city preserve their | efficiency nowadays far longer than | they used to do. I know old men, as! you call them, who still bear upon their shoulders the responsibilities of | some big concern. Years ago they would have been sitting at home in their slippers at such an age.”” “Elderly men study their appear- ances for more than they used to do,” said the manager of a city bank. “They wear collars and ties and styles in dress which made them look smart and youthful. From my ex- perience it certainly seems that the elderly man is very loath to leave the scene of his activities nowadays. I put it down to ours being an abstemi- | ous age. Directly a man has a small! ailment he goes straight to his phy- sician, What the medical man tells him todo he does exactly. His one desire is to keep fit, and he manages | to do so."” i I will sell at public sale on my) place, one mile south and one mile west of Virginia, 4 miles due east of Amoret on the following property: in foal by Jack; 1 yearling mare. 40 Head of Cattle: 34 two year} old steers, extra good and in good | flesh, about 900 pounds, 4 head extra | good milk cows, 2 yearling heifers. | Farming Implements: Lot of ex-| tra good farming implements of all, description, also buggies, wagons, harness, etc. 20 tons of timothy hay in stack. About 1,100 bushels of extra good white corn in cribs. Terms: All sums of $10 and under cash. On sums over $10 a credit of 10 months will be given. Notes to bear 6 per cent interest from date, ap- proved security, 2 per cent discount for cash. No property to be remov- ed until terms of sale are complied with. Sale to begin at 10 o’clock sharp. JENNIE L. DARR, Administratrix. Clyde Robbins, Auctioneer. Wesley Denton, Clerk. Ladies of Christian Church at Vir- ginia will serve lunch. 9td A BEGINNER. “Yes,” salesman, “we listen to ‘em now.” The Female instinct. We wi sh you alla Me rry Christmas an da Happy New Year. Hill’s Cash Store sas Are Reduced. Topeka, Kan., Dec.—A general re-| duction in Pullman berth rates for, Kansas was secured by the state; board of railroad commissioners in a conference with Charles Bloodsmith, local attorney for the Pullman compa- ny, and P, H. Clements, of Chicago, general ticket agent for the company. One hundred and seventy-five rates were reduced from $2 to $1.50, twen- ty-six from $2.50 to $2, twenty-four from $8 to $2.50, eight from $3.50 to from $4 to $3.50. One thousand two Gen, Wood to Head Army. Washington, Dec.—Major-General Leonard Wood, United States Army now in command of the Department of the East, has been selected by as chief of staff of the army next April, succeeding Major-General J. Franklin Bell. General Wood was colonel of the Rough Riders during the Spanish war. At the outbreak of the war, General Wood was serving as captain and assistant surgeon in the medical cal corps of the army. He and Theodore Roosevelt organized the Rough Riders. Bronaugh to Run Again. Jefferson City, Dec.—Capt. W. C. Bronaugh, who has been a standing candidate for railroad and warehouse commissioner for a number of years, was here and announced that he will make the race for the Democratic nomination for that office next year. Another avowed candidate for the nomination is J. C. A. Hiller, labor commissioner, a Folk appointee. Capt. Thos. M. Bradbury, who put out a feeler recently to the effect that he might run, has decided to stay out of the race and hang on to the secre- taryship of the board. to tell you OPEN DAY Until 10 o’c re We Haven't the Time ee Christmas Stock in an “ad,” but just call in and we'll SHOW YoO-U morning, December 25, 09. 175 Pullman Berth Rates in Kan- Peary Acclaimed as Discoverer of North Pole. Washington, Dec.—The National Geographic Society acclaimed Lieut. Robert E. Peary, the discoverer of the North Pole, and in recognition thereof presented him a gold medal. | Prof. W. L. Moore, president of the | society, phrased his presentation sen- tences to refer to Peary as the ‘“‘man’’ |who had won the prize. | There was no reference to Dr. Frederick A. Cook. Prof. Moore, when presenting the medal, said the WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1909, | $3, three from $3.50 to $2.50, two | public never for a moment had ques- tioned the veracity of Peary’s state- 19 Head of Horses and Mules: Con-; hundred and four seat rates are| ment and declared the data of Peary’s sisting of 16 mules from two to six|Shown in the tariff, of which $20 expedition had required no editing years old, all extra good, all broke, Teduced. The Pullman representa-| before it was presented to the Nation- and all mare mules except two, 1 pair tives claim this is as big a reduction al Geographical Society. six year old gray mares, extra good | 28 was recently granted Oklahoma. | Iron Vein is 38 Feet Thick. Bismark, Mo., Dec. 19.—The new |developments at Iron Mountain are | surpassing the expectations of those connected with the extensive pros- | Secretary of War Dickinson for detail | pecting and developing in progress there now. Ungerground diamond drills have located deposits of pure iron ore thirty-eight feet thick in four differ- ent places. Extensive modern ma- chinery is being tistalled. Ten cars of high-grade ore is now shipped daily and by March, they expect to ship two trainloads: daily. The old activity of Iron Mountain will soon be resumed with renewed vigor, as ex- perts declare these new finds are more extensive and of finer quality than the iron formerly mined there. Missouri Girl Weds on Dare. Carthage, Mo., Dec. 19.—All be- cause of a dare by friends, William Perry, of Los Angelis, Cal., and Miss Beulah Aspinal, a pretty girl of Car- thage, were married at the residence of Probate Judge Hubbard late’ last night. The bride and Mr. Perry met six days ago, and were joked about their apparent fondness for each other. Then came the dare and the subse- quent marriage. LLLLLLL LP PPPOE PP PPP PPS? of our choice AND NIGHT lock Saturday SS G. W. Ellis Jewelry Co