Grand Rapids Herald-Review Newspaper, December 29, 1900, Page 2

: YAN #& § Re UNSEEN é HAND & § A Story of the Secret Society Known as + the“Ragged » « o Thirteen” + 22 @ By Edward Hughes. eeewaeas CHAPTER IIL. (Continued.) ‘As she was peaking the door opened and Maguire appeared. When I first caught sight of him his face was lit ap with pleasure, and he was coming in eagerly as though he were the bearer of good news; then, recognis- {ng thot he v interrupting a tete-a- tete, his pl ure gave way to aston- tshment: cnd s Nora, who had not seen or heard him, uttered the words, the Ragged Thirteen!” an awful expression of horror settled upon fis features. I had never seen face change so rapidly or distinctly as his did under those ing emotions of pleasure stonishment, and horror. I but, clite the handle of the door, thou: would have fallen, he steadicd himself. “Why, Jim,” I said, “what good wind This lady is he that has blown you back? Miss Courtney, a neighbor of ours.” He p ed himself together while T went through the form of introduction, for the few minutes that Nor ed he never opened his lips, but with di 2d eyes stood staring at fer, and I was glad when she bade him ; “Good-b and I had seen her to the gate. “Your friend is ill," she said. “Go back to him and see what ails him.” When I returned to the drawing- room Jam was pacing rapidly to and irl?” he asked. of an that dat n who live yot: to come and see when he called he: up, Whatever is the matter? “Who w gentlema xk!” he burst out does these cards mean? Who set them out there?” “T did,” I said. “M Courtney was telling me something about cribbage, and I picked out these cards and asked her to count them.” He reached me in two quick strides nd gripped my arm. “Tell me the truth,” fis voice was somewhat steadier— “ “tell your own sake Did you take me the truth, Jack, for more than f mine. them by chance, or—or did you pur- posely cho them?” He had fixed me with his ey. and this face v so close to mine that I could not avoid his gaze. “Tell me!” he said, shaking me as though he would shake the answer out of my reluctant lips. “Steady, Jim I said. “Steady, you're hurting m “For Heaven ke, Tremayne, tell me the truth!” and, looking into his answered him:— “J chose them on purpose. And now for a question on my side. What do you know of the Ragged Thirteen?” “What do I know of it? By Jove! He asks me—me—what I know of it! distorted face, I Me! who saw her dead face! He asks me like sume schoolboy, and the curse ef it hanging over him and me now! ‘Was it ry spirit that was here luring him on? Has she come back like she was the to mt me with her beauty, fought with the herror for years, and was getting peace? And is your life, my friend— my more th brother—to come under the ban of this curse °F cried, and be calm, what you know.” “Y can’t now, Jack, I can’t bring myself to it. Let me be by myself. Let me go to my room, and to-morrow morning I'll answer your question—I'll “steady your- and tell me tell you what I know. Let me go, Jack; let me go!” and, bursting away restraining hold, he rushed and locked himscif in his CHAPTER VI. Jim Maguire's Disappearance. This world is so ordered that sorrow ‘nd joy, tragedy and farce, pathos and bathos, jostle each other at every turn, and, even in the midst of my intense enxiety to hear what Maguire had to tell, I could not but notice the disgust that Mrs. Graves took but little pains te conceal when she heard that the dinner party had been indefinitely postponed. “But what will I do with the things, oir?" “What you like,” I snapped. “Do them up and send them to the Cottage Hospital. Let me have a chop and a glass of sherry.” And as she went out of my presence the sound of her grumbling could still be heard until ehe reached her own quarters. I made several attacks upon Ma- guire’s door, and I supplemented them by sending Graves with messages, but meither of us could get an answer from him, ond I went to bed in a miserable frame of mind. Excitement kept me awake until the small hours. What was I to hear? What had Maguire meant by his strange allusions to gome girl he had known? I «could fhear him at intervals pacing his room, but at last he was quiet, and sleep came to me. E was up betimes, and was all im- patience to get breakfast over, but although JI waited until half an hour after the usual time, Maguire did not put fn an appearance, so I sent up to say that I was waiting for him, and would he come down as soon as possi- bie? Graves came back with a curious look on face. 4 “I called Mr. Maguire, sir,” said he, “and he said that he'd be ready in five minutes if I'd come and show him where breakfast was laid. I told him ft was the morning-room as usual. and he said; ‘Oh! I daresay I'l! find *.” = concluded that he had got the bet- ter of his trouble, and that he was @repares to go through with what I Poco forforforfe had thought would be a trying ordeal in his usual light-hearted manner, and if he were going to act so there was nothing for me to do but follow, suit. So I brightened up, and looked as pleasant as possible when I heard. him coming. “Good-morning, sir,” said he, bow- ing to me. ‘You are, I suppose, the master of this house, and it was your servant who called me?” I looked at him to catch the twinkle in his eye, but he seemed to be in grim earnest, and as I said nothing, seeing that I was waiting for his freak to further Gevelop itself, he went on:— “I'm in a very awkward position, sir. and I hope you can help me out of it. I went to bed somewhere last night with surroundings that I suppose were fami to me, and I get up this morn- ing, and for the life of me I can’t tell where Iam. And that’s not the worst of it r, for, to make confusion worse confounded, I can’t remember my name, nor yet where I came from.” I thought he had gone quite far enough with what seemed to me a stupid joke. that will do, Jim!” T said, pet- “if you don’t want to go on with what we were talking about night, say so, and have done with this Sit down and haye some What shall I help you to ‘You re very kind, sir,” he id, “ar very hungry, but who is Jim, at do you mean by our talk last nt? So far as I know, I’ve néver 2s upon you before, nor you upon nd Sit down, man,” I said, and help- ing him to kidneys and bacon, I push- ed the plate towards him. ‘Coffee, or tea?” I asked, in no very good humour. “Coffee, thanks; must s ti “Oh, stop it, do, Jim, if you don't want to drive me mad! Here have I been awake the best part of the night, expecting to hear a‘ mystery cleared up, end now you come down and play the fool. You didn’t look like doing it yesterday. There, don’t say any i eae ish youor breakfast.” And now,” said I, when the ei ras ended, “are we to go on with this matter, or not?” but really, sir, I weren't we the Courtneys of Cot Castle, and weren’t we going back to live in the state, as the Royal blood should? And then he took to the whisky and called it Moselle, and I was glad enough to get him to bed. It’s break- ing my heart he is, and he that clever and bright when the evil spirit isn’t on him.” I tried to comfort her as well as 1 could, and this comforting led to some tender passages, and I walked home dreaming dreams that were so pleas- ant that I had forgotten all about Ma- guire and his curicus pranks until I met Graves at the gate. “May I speak to you, sir, for a few minutes?” said he. “Yes, Graves. What's the matter?” It’s about Mr. Maguire, sir,” he saia. “A letter came for him this afternoon. I could see from the envelope that it was from the publisher. Mr. Maguire he’s told the missis and me about his writing, and so I took it to him at once, ‘Here’s a letter for you, sir,’ I says. ‘For me?’ says he, ‘then I shall find out my name at last. Maguire, says he, reading the address, ‘James M, Maguire, Esq., the Dell, Enfield. Here, my good man, this isn’t for me;” and then he asked me to tell him ex- actly how he’d come here. Did he walk, or did they hring him in a car- riage? he wanted to\know. I looked at him close then, sir; and do you know,” and here his voice dropped to a whis- per, “I believe—I believe—” I knew what he was going to say. I felt a shudder run through me, and I stood there shivering, in the warm, soft air. “T believe he's’ mad, sir; with patients before!” The matter was clear to me now as the daylight. The terrible trouble through which he had passed had been too much for my friend’s reason, and now his mental balance was upset. He was, in fact, a lunatic, a victim of the accursed society, or whatever it might be—in even worse plight than the man I had seen lying stark in our house in London, a victim in more @ perate case than my friend Trav No actor, were he ever so cunning, could have simulated the agony that had eonvulsed him on the previous day. No man could have mourned for the possible consequences to his friend in such terms as he did had he not had a keen appreciation of that friend's dan- ser. What further blight was this dia- bolical conspiracy to bring upon my life? Would it separate me from Nora? Should I lose her? It was at dinner-time that Maguire was generally most brilliant, and I told Graves to see that nothing was want- ing in the way of dishes or table dec- orations to make the meal as enticing as possible. If my friend’s mind were unhinged, it might only be a tem- porary matter, and the impression pro- duced by familiar objects might at last banish his weakness, and in that I’ve been “Upon my life, sir, I haven’t the least notion what you're driving at. If you know who I am, and where I came from, I'd be glad if you'd, tell me, and send me home.” “Look here, Maguire,” I burst out, “I can’t stand much more of this!’ “Maguire? Who's Maguire?” I was too impatient to answer him, and I thought I would bring him to *the point at onee. “Don’t you remember,” I said, “the girl you saw here yesterday, and what you thought of her? She was some- one’s spirit, according to you. Man alive, was it only acting, and is there nothing after all in the Ragged Thir- If I had expected him to wince, or to show in any way that the arrow had gone home, I was utterly disappointed. He sat looking at me as placidly as though I had been discussing the price of pigs. “The Ragged Thirteen!” slowly. ‘Ah! there I'm with you. It's a pretty little hand; with your, six, seven, eight, and two aces, and if you can only manage to have an ace on the pack, and flush the other four, why, there seventeen for you, and away goes your Ragged Thirteen. I haven't played crib for many a day!” “Curse you!” I cried, “you'll drive me mad with your infernal jargon. If you've made up your mind not to tell me what you promised, say so like a man.” He looked at me as if he were dazed. *“May I walk in your garden for awhile?” he asked, “and maybe I'll come to my senses, for it's upside down I am; and if you'd lend me a pipe it might help me.” His own pipe and tobacco-jar were on the mantel-piece. He caught sight of them, or pretended to do so, as he he said, spoke. “Ah!” said he, taking off the lid of the jar. “Navy cut! Just the brand T like!’ and fingering the pipe, he added, “May 1?” “To the deuce with you!” I cried, flinging out of the room, and as T passed through the door I caught sight of him standing with the pipe in his hand, and staring at me with a blank look of astonishment. I had lit a cigar, and was smoking myself into somewhat of. a_ better humour, wken the impulse seized me to go back and see what Maguire was doing, and whether he was keeping up the farce now that he was by himself. With the idea of surprising him, I crept noiselessly to the breakfast-room door. But he had gone out, and was waiking up and down on the lawn, puffing away at his briar-root, and evidently in deep thought. And there he continued to pace until I grew tired of looking at him, and every now and then he drew his hand across his fore- head and stared at the house and its surroundings, just as a man who had never seen them before might have done. We went through lunch precisely as we had gene through breakfast, and with the same result: namely, that I lost my temper, and left him to his‘own devices. I strolled away to Wilkin- or’s Woods, and there I met Nora, and then the passion that had held me was speedily charmed away. I asked after her father, “Ah! didn’t I have a time of it with him,”’she said. “I told him, when he came in about seven o’clock, that there “was a message from you, and I made up some story or other, Well, nothing would do but I must help him with his dregsclothes, and he made me put on my dinner-gown, and we sailed in to some cold mutton with all the airs ana graces of a duke and duchess. Sure, ease I shculd need all the help I could get from the pleasantest possible sur- roundings to assist me in combating the shock and consequent depression that must ensue. Put when dinner came on there was no change in his symptoms, and long before the meal was over it was borne in upon me with irresistible force that he was, indeed, mad, and, as far as his identity was concerned, James Mur- tagh Maguire might as well have been in his grave. He was most_ cheerful and amusing, but his jests cut me to the heart. “I must have a name of some sort,” he said, ‘and you will have to adver- tise me in the papers. Something like tis will do: ‘Come astray, a middle- aged gentleman, answering to no name. Height, so-and-so. Strigingly hand- some, with a wart in the middle of his back, and a hunger and thirst that meat and drink can hardly satisfy. If not claimed in so many days, will be sold to defray expenses.’ That would make a startling advertisement, and you might show me, at so much per head, and by that means I might pay for lodgings.” “Well,” said I, by way of humoring him, “as neither of us know your name, and as we can’t go on calling you Mr. Nobody, hcw do you like the sound of Maguire? Suppose we say that you are Mr. James Maguire until you get over your extraordinary lapse of niemory? There’s a box of yours up stairs. We might go through it together to-mor- row, and perhaps we could come across something that would establish your identity. I ought to tell you that I have noticed the initials, J. M. M. on your collars and some handkerchiefs up stairs. Well, now, for the present, shall your name be Maguire?” “Anything you like,” said he. “And now, sir, I have a serious question to ask. Hezv did I come here?” “For the life of me, I can’t tell you,” I said; and then, inventing a story on the spur of the moment, I went on: “We have been expecting a friend of mine for some days. He is a most er- ratic fellow, however, and comes and goes when he pleases; and so, I sup- pose found the room occupied, and con- cluded you were he. How you got in is a complete mystery to me, and it is plain that something must have hap- pened to upset your mental balance temporarily; and the best way for you to come to yourself is to worry no more about the matter. You can take up your quarters here until things get straight, and if you feel inclined to be grateful, please signify the same by making yourself at home.” I could see the tears start to his eyes. “Will you tell me your name?” he asked. “Robert Tremayne,” I said. “Then may God in Heaven bless and keep Robert Tremayne for ever and ever! You have,shown me such disin- terested kindness, sir, that—’ “Oh, pray, don’t mention that! 1 dabble a little in art. Do you do any- thing that way?” “Yes, I did, and I believe I had an idea of getting a living that way, and I’m rather curious to handle a brush, though maybe I’ve forgotton how to do that.” It was all of no avail that I related to him some of the most. stirring scenes through which we had passed. His memory in regard to them was a perfect blank. His past was as though it had never been, and for him time had but two/divisions, the present and the future. And so it went on, bleed by day. James Maguire was dead : gone, but the body that his soul ee once tenanted stiii moved and had its being, and mocked me with its living | image | hearted ‘friend. I opened the lettach’ that came for him from the publishers, and answered them, seying that my friend was ill, and that he had empowered me to act for him, and the terms offered for the copyright of \his book were so favor- able that I agreed to them, and with the money thus obtained, I was able to set his mind at ease. I hid it in a small box belonging to him, and pro- ducing this one day, we went through its contents, and found nearly £250 in it, in notes and gold, and this I handed over to him; and, to make him feel quite comfortable, I agreed to let him stay with me, and paint, or do what he liked, at so much a month. I had told Nora of my trouble, with- out, however, giving her full particu- lars as to the cause of Maguire’s mental aberration, and she had shown her sympathy by readily agreeing to carry out an experiment I had planned. She called upon us in time for afternoon tea, and I took care that Maguire should be in her company as long as possible. He was as pleasant and po- lite as man could be, and it was evi- dent that he was laying himself out to be as brilliant as possible, but his only remark when Nora left us was that she was a sweet, pretty girl, and as charming as she was pretty. I had, as a matter of course, consult- ed the leading specialists in mental eases; but they could do nothing to help me, though the patient was so ex- tremely interesting that one of the doc- tors visited him periodically, and he and Maguire became fast friends. Winter was fairly upon us, when I had a letter from Hugh Travers, and he wrote to say that his uncle was much worse and would like to see me, and added that I must make no delay if I wished to see him alive. I had corresponded fairly regularly with the Travers’s, and had, indeed, been to see them once since I came back to Eng- land; but the interview was painful by reason of the patient’s inability to speak and the distregs I felt for his po- sition, that I had not yet repeated the visit. Now, however, I made ready to obey the summons at once, and telling Ma- guire to make himself at home until my return, and that, if necessa should write to him under the s and title that we had agreed upon, I left him to finish a great painting that he had been working at for some time. I found Mr. Travers very near his end, thevgh I knew by the light that leaped into his ey¢s when he saw my face that he recognized me, and that he understood perfectly wel! what I said to him, and it was plain to both Hugh and myself that there was something of which he wished to disburden his mind, had he not been bereft of speech and the power of communicating to us by writing. He passed away in our arms, and so peacefully, withal that we hardly knew when time had ended and Eternity be- gun for him, and the last loving look he gave me before he closed his eyes forever on the things of this world lived in my memory to be one of the induetments that urged me on to ex- act atonement from his bitter enemies. We buried him up there in the quiet kirkyard, with the eternal hills looking down upon his resting place, and there may he sleep tw peace until God wills that he waken and testify against those who robbed him of that which was more precious to him than life. I stayed with Hugh a few days after the funeral, and during those few days I prevailed upon him to throw in his lot with me. He was fairly well off, for his uncle, as he always loved to call him, had left him a goodly inheritance, and in this connection I may mention that we nev- er heard anything of any member of the family to which Mr. Travers, or, as I cught to call him, Mr. Starleigh, belonged. And so, when the packing had been successfully accomplished, we sent off our luggage, and I wrote to Mrs. Graves, telling her that we should arrive on the evening of the day on which she would get my letter. I had been away from home nearly @ fortnight, and I felt quite pleased at the thought of seeing Maguire again, and I hored that his genial nature would bring Hugh out of the shell into which he was so fond of retiring at any and every opportunity. It was so late when we arrived that dinner had been already laid, but, to my surprise, there were only covers for two. “Where is Mr. Maguire?” I asked of Graves. “I thought he would have been here to welcome us.” “What—do—you—mean,_ sir?” he stammered. “You must know, sir, he went away quite a week ago.” “Went away?” I echoed. “Where did he go?” “He went according to your direc- tions, sir, and he left a letter for you. It’s on the mantle-piece, and there’s another with it, and the gentleman told me I was to be sure and let you have them at once.” “Come in here, Graves,” T said, and, closing the door of the dining room when he and Hugh had entered, I went on: ‘Now, before I read these letters, give me a plain account of all that has happened in regard to Mr. Maguire's going away.” “Well, sir, it was on Thursday that a carriage drove up with three people in it, and one of them, a tall gentle- may, wearing spectacles, and giving the name of Dr. Denton, asked to see Mr. Maguire. He said that he came from you, and he had an open letter in his hand. I showed them into the drawing room, and Mr. Maguire came down. I heard them talking for a long time, and then they rang for me, and when I went in Mr. Maguire was stand~ ing by the fire, looking very white. ‘Graves,’ he says, ‘will you go up and pack my things for me, and a trap will come for them from the station? I’m going away with these gentlemen, who have great hopes of restoring me to my family, and of finding out who I really am. I shall leave a letter for Mr. Tremayne, who knows all about this, and whose kind words have just reached me through Dr. Denton.’ And with that he shook hands with me and wished me ‘good-bye,’ as if I had been his equal, and gave me a sovereign, and when he was going away he would have the missis to see him, and the tears were in his eyes as he drove off. I sent the luggage tothe station, and that’s all I know about it, sir.” (To Be Continued.) | A Love can neither be bought nor sold.” GOOD EATING. Prawns Dried by the San in Mexico Highly Esteemed by Gourmets. In many delicatessen stores the bon vivant can now purchase sun-dried prawns, which form an admirable ac- cessory to the daily bill of fare, says the New York Evening Post. Steeped over night in warm water, they swell to twice and thrice their original di- mensions, and in the morning are ready to be made the basis of a score of toothsome dishes. Nearly all of these come from the Gulf of Mexico and their story is an interesting com- mentary upon the thrift and enter- prise of our Chinese citizens, “Some fifteen or twenty years ago, said a Chinese merchant to-day, “some Chi- nese sailors in New Orleans noticed that the gulf prawns were like those of south China, only larger and better flavored. They carried the news to their countrymen, who immediately conceived the project of drying them in the same way as in Kwang-Tung. They: organized several settlements along the gulf. There is one not far from Mobile, a second near Pensacola and a third in the Tampa district. The prawns are gathered at low tide, wash- ed, boiled, shelled, salted, and then dried in the sunlight. In bad weather they often use ovens, but the flavor of a prawn treated this way is not as good as when dried in the open air. The drying must be very thorough and usually takes a week or a fortnight, according to the amount of humidity in the air. When thoroughly desic- cated the soft meat is almost as hard as wood, and in that condition will keep in a warm climate for many months, and in a cold climate for several years. They are boxed and barreled and skipped all over the United States. Formerly the dried shrimps and prawns of this market were brought from China and Japan, but the import trade has been well- nigh ruined by these establishments upon the gulf.” JANUARY BRIDE. Going-Away Gown That Would Hardly Be Serviceabie. A wedding outfit for a bride who is to be married in January was shown at one of the costumers recently. The wedding dress, one of the bridesmaids’ dresses and some of the bride’s other frocks are already completed. The tone of the wedding party will be more springlike than wintry, but the cos- tumer says that the bride is very young and her maids will be almost schoolgirls, only one of them having made her debut, so that simplicity and pale hues were considered more ap- propriate than furs and cloths would be. Bridesmaids will wear white chif- fon gowns with a pink rose to fasten the folded fichus in the bodice, and touches of pale blue ribbon at waist and elbow sleeves, says the New York Commercial Advertiser. Their bou- quets of pink roses are to be tied up with blue ribbons. The bride’s going- away gown is light and youthful enough in all conscience. It is of white cloth with an applique trimming of diamond-shaped, medalions of the cloth ‘edged with gold to border the plaited skirt. The loose bolero bodice has a waistband of gold and there are touches of white lace and a cravat of light blue. With this traveling dress— ‘tis to be hoped the wearer will not go on a smoky railway journey—tho bride will wear 4 long coat of beige cloth with a yoke and deep cuffs of pastel-blue velvet. The loose over- sleeves are to be trimmed with rows of fancy braid and edged with sable and a sable muff and a toque of blue and sable will compiete this picturesque costume. IRKUTSK PRISON. Account of a Visit to Russia's Famous Place of Detention. Of course, I visited the great prison of Irkutsk, and was most courteously allowed to spend several hours there, and to examine it closely and con- verse freely, through my own interpre- ter, with any of the prisoners, says Henry Norman in Scribner’s. It is a straggling mass of buildings, many of wood, and all old and in need of re- pair. These are surrounded by a pali- sade of great posts twenty feet high, with pointed ends. I went into every part of the prison that I could see, including the hospital, the workshops, the laundry and the kitchens, and visit- ed every one of the large rooms and almost every cell. In all these I saw but two things to find fault with—the practice of herding together criminals of all ages, tried and untried, and the long time—in some cases amounting to two years—which many of the pris- oners spend there before their cases are finally judged. This latter evil is caused partly by the great difficulty of collecting evidence from many parts of Siberia, but chiefly because the central authorities do not provide magistrates enough to cope with the numbers of those arrested. Nevada Lost in Population. Nevada lost in population during the last decade, as it lost in the previous decade, but aside from Nevada, no ‘states in the union have approached so nearly to a stationary condition as Ne- draska and Kansas. Kansas gained 431,000 people between 1880 and 1890, or 43 per cent, but its gain in the past ten years was only 42,400, or a trifle less than 3 per cent. Nebraska makes even a worse exhibit. Its gain duripg the previous decade had been Ganae or 134 per cent; during the past ten years it added only 9,991 people to its census,representing a gain of less than 1 per cent. After making due allow- ance for fraud and padding in the cen- sus of 1899, it is evident that popula- tion growth there, as well as in Kan- sas, has been at a very low rate—lower than is shown by either Vermont or Maine, te sas _ Needed. “I recommend to future generations,” said Uncle Nathaniel, as he put away nis bandana handkerchief, “that they encourage the growth of two noses— one to take cold in, the other for gen- eral use.”—Harper’s Bazar. Fire a Shot 20 Miles. The- United States will fire a shot twenty miles, which will be a record- breaker for the distance. The sun from which it is to be fired will be a marvel of American’ ingenuity and workmanship. Another marvel of American ingenuity is Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters. For fifty years it has cured constipation, indigestion, dys- pepsia and biliousness. Indeed He Did. “Work!” scornfully echoed the wo- man at the kitchen door, to whom he had been relating the hardships of his checkered existence. “Work! You do not know what work is!” “You bet I do, ma’am,” said Tuffold Knutt. “That’s why I giner’ly avoid it.’—Chicago Tribune. Best for the Bowels. No matter what ails you, headache, to a cancer, you will never get well until your bowels are put right CASCARETS help nature, cure you without a gripe or pain, produce easy natural movemerts, cost you just 10 cents to start getting your health back. CASCARETS Candy Cathartic, the genuine, put up in metal boxes, every tablet has C, C. C, stamped on it. Be- ware of imitations. That Was Different. George asked me how old I y.” Of course, “Yes; would be on my next birthda, “The impudent fellow! aid nineteen?” I said twenty- y, girl! You aren't but twenty- but George is going to give: me a cluster ri with a diamond in it for every y« Cleveland Plain Deal- er. FOUR DOCTORS FAILED. & Michigan Lady's Battle with Disease and How lt Was Won Flushing, Mich., Dec. 22.—(Spe e worke the cause of Temp Reform in Michigan is Mrs. P. Passmore of this place. She is a prominent and very enthusiastic W. Cc. T. U. woman, and one who never loses an opportunity to strike a blow against the demon of Intemperance. Mrs. Passmore has suffered much bodily pain during the last three years through Kidney and Bladder Trouble. At times the pain was al- most unbearable, and the good lady was very much distressed. She tried physician after physician, and each in turn failed to relieve her, let aione effect a cure. Home remedies sug- gested by anxious friends were ap- plied, but all to no purpose. At last some one spoke of Dodd’s Kidney Pills as a great remedy for all Kidney and Bladder Diseases, and Mrs. Pass- more decided to try them. She’ did, and is now. a well woman. She has given the following statement for pub- lication: At different times in the past three years, 1 have suffered severely with Kidney and Bladder Trouble, and af- ter trying four of the best physicians I could hear of, two of them living in the state of New York, I found my- self no better. I took any amount of home remedies suggested by kind friends, with little or no relief from anything. I decided to try Dodd’s Kidney Pills. Less than one box has done me more good than all the other treatments combined. I am still using them, and can say from experience that they are an excellent remedy for Kidney and Bladder Troubie. I wouid heartily recommend them to all those suffering from these ills in like man- ner. MRS, P. A. PASSMORE, Flushing, Mich. When physicians and all other methods of treatment have failed try Dodd’s Kidney Pills. What they did for Mrs. Passmore, they will do for any one similarly afflicted. 50c. a box. All dealers. Balloon Clothesline. The Parisian laundries have discov- ered a novel use for the balloon, and one to be recommended. Instead of hanging clothes out to dry in the open, on the ordinary clothesline, and thus offending the eyesight of the fastidious, bamboo frames are attached to a cap- tive balloon and the linen to be dried is attaehed to them. The balloon is then allowed to ascend to a height of 100 feet, and the clothes are very soon thoroughly dried and aired. Jol-O, the New Dessert, plenses all the family. Four flavors:— Lemon, Orange, Raspberry and Straw- berry. At your grocers. 10 cts. Try ittoday. °* It Was Strictly Modern. “She has received a strictly up- to- date education, you say?” “Well, rather. She hasn’t a bit of practical knowledge about household affairs, but she has more theories than you could get in a book, and she can talk about parliamentary law in a way that will make her shine in any wo- man’s club you can pick out.”—Ex- change. Piso's Cure for Consumption is an infallible medicine for coughs and colds.—N. W. Samuai, Ocean Grove, N. J., Feb. 17, 1900. A Distinction. “And you had the nerve to say that you first saw the light of day in 1867? You know you were born in 1860.” “Yes; but I lived the first seven years in Chicago.’’"—Indianapolis Press, An old bachelor says a rich and pret- ty widow never comes a-miss. a: :. H. Crabtree. Des Moines. Lowa, will on request, explain all about the Gladiator Gold-Mining eome pany; extremely interesting: write me. All foods are products of constructive activity of protoplasm in the presence of BERDOE HY: oxygen. Even in ‘the ‘fatherland” they iny tiably speak the eo tongue.’