Grand Rapids Herald-Review Newspaper, June 15, 1901, Page 6

vee Wenner — = i { | IN THE WEB OF v...... A SPIDER CHAPTRE XXXi—(Continued.) “If so, then I am mad, indeed. Would @hat it were my fancy! Ah, Mr, Lay- ton, you will soon learn the bitter foundation on which my so-called fancy fas been built—soon stand aghast at ¢his man's monstrous wickedness!” “{ wonder if I did right?’ he ques- tioned of himself, “not to tell Chester fast night what I had seen? I wonder ff love binds me to the duty that I owe my host? Yet I might further harm her, and that I cannot do. A few days @ooner or later can work no great mis- ehief, and until then I must keep my own counsel!—must watch and watt. Poor little girl! Ah, if she might ‘but rest on my heart, how gladly it would epen to receive her! But instead, there etretches before me a long, cheerless ath of duty, and cold and stately Edith Lorrimer’s step keeps pace with mine.” The day wore to its close, and the evening shadows ushered in Christmas "ve. The Christmas tree was lighted, with its innumerable candles, and tempting and beautiful gifts hung from every bough Mr. Grant had fulfilled his commis- @tons well. All of the little household fhad gathered in the drawing room. All were waiting their host's surprise. Rarely, indeed, had Randolph Chester een seen in so genial, so sparkling a mood. The guest particularly honored by his attention was Mr. Grant “He knew your fathe ears ago, Gear Beatric he said, “when he was But a lad. It seems strange, does it mot? But we welcome him doubly at Grey Oaks for Cousin Donald's sake.” | The girl listened with a dull weight at her heart. His words meant something? What? She strove to throw to Bertie a glance ef warning, but she could not catch his | eye As they gathered about the tree Ches- ter left the room; but almost before the | gest had missed him he was among them. “You promised us a surprise, Mr. | Chester,” said Miss Lorrimer. ‘When fs It to be?” “You shall not have great need of pa- @ience,” he replied, “but first I want to @ell you a little story. It concerns my Gousin Beatrice and myself. Suppose you make yourselves the judges be- tween us. On the night of her father's @eath a robbery was committed—a rob- ery which cost his life. It was no @ommon theft nor common thief. The man who robbed him was one whose hand he had honored by clasping it friendship, and who in return, Judas- ike, betrayed him. He dared, too, to espire to ‘the hand of my cousin's heir- @ss, she who was betrothed to me. “It is false!’ interrupted Be: “ow dare you utter so base a lie “She was betrothed to me,” he re- peated, quietly, and unheeding the de- mial; “but under the shock of the events of this night her brain gave way. Her former love for me became aversion—and to this man—! thief— this murderer—she gave her heart. He ‘was at once arrested and imprisoned, jut escaped. She, too, fled from my home and protection. Of her return you all know; know is that he foliowed her here—he dared penetrate in disguise ben ath the roof of the house he had desecrated. @he, poor child, in her madness, sent | him word to come to her. That word fell into my hands, and [ let it go to its @estination. I wished tu entrap the wary plotter in the meshes of his own plot. Nor have I failed to do so.,You all may have noticed an old man, with pent frame, white hair and beard, work- sing in the grounds.” At these words Beatrice breathed freer; at least he did not suspect the ‘eruth. “That old man is in reality young,” ontinued Chester—‘young and strong aad athietic. His senses are keen and ever on the alert to escape detection: but detection has overtaken him. We ; the white have penetrated beneath hairs, the bowed frame and the trem- | bling hands, and have learnesl them all to be as false as the wrinkles which @raw his brow. Beatrice, the mask has been snatched from Bertram Talbot's face. I have asked these friends to be gudges between us. @onsent to their verdict?” ‘A scornful smile wreathed her lips. “Rertram Talbot is not yet in your power,” she answered, nor could she re- press ‘he little thrill of exultation in ‘ther tone. “you think not?” he responded, mockingly, and, drawing slowly to the aide of Mr. Grant, laid his hand, as if, 4m friendship, on his arm. “What do you advise, Mr. Grant?” he said, some- what lowering his tone. “To wreak your worst!” replied Tal- bot, an inkling of the truth breaking upon him; but secure, even if so, in the trusty men he had about him. “{ have done so,” replied Chester, with a sneer. “I am nearly done. But one step remains to be taken. That step constitutes the surprise I have promised my guests. The ol made a hasty exit from the lodge, and, singularly enough, Grant, your two de- tectives from New York proved his ac- eomplices. They, likewise, have disap- peared. I concluded to-day to execute @y own commissions. The result is that the state may feast another pris- ener. Bertram Talbot, alias Mr. Grant, ean you guess who it may be?” As he spoke the last words, the door was flung open simultaneously with their utterance, and three men sprang into the room and to Talbot's side. One moment sufficed to overcome his desperate resistance. Then he stood, pale as marble, his burning eyes fixed upon the woman on whom his love had entailed yet further misery. He had been so safe, so secure in all his plans. Was Chester man or devil, that he had thus divined and frustrated chem? The latter, rather than the former he but what you do nov) Will you, likewise, | man has ; LILLIAN GILLIN. looked, as with arms folded across his breast, a smile of ineffable hatred and malice wreathed his thin lips, and his gaze alternately wandered from one to the other of his victims. “Look, my friends!” he said, at last. “You know who this man is who pene- trates into my very household, and, Judas-like, accepts my hospitality to play the traitor. Take him away!” he commanded the men, “and see to it that he does not again escape us!"" “Beatrice, courage!” Talbot cried, in ringing tones. “You are not helpless in the hands of this villain. Allen Lay- ton, I consign her to your care. Beat- rice, look at me! Speak to me but one word! Oh, God in Heaven—he has killed her For, even while he spoke to her, the stony gaze with which she stood star- ing into vacancy, seemingly uncon- scious of all that was going on about her, never relaxed, and, ere anyone could spring to catch her, she swaye® forward and fell heavily, face-down- ward, on the floor. CHAPTER XXi. But wretchedness rarely kills. When it falls, a crushing weight upon the un- prepared victim, it stuns at times; but they live on to suffer and to bear. So it was with Beatrice. Scarce had they led Talbot from the room than she opened wide her great gray eyes to fullest consciousness of all the sad and | bitter truth. Cora wag bending by her side, sob- | bing loudly. “I—I did it all!” she cried. “Beatrice, Beatrice, forgive me!” ! “Cora!” exclaimed Mrs. Layton, sternly, while Randolph Chester, stoop- | ing over her, whispered, “Cora!” But, for the first time his voice failed to influence her. The spell which had bound her was broken. “I—I promised to mail her letter to her lover. She intrusted it to me,” she cried, in bitter, self-reproach, springing to her feet and standing facing them all. “He—he asked me for it, and I gave it up to him; but, oh, I did not ‘ believe he could be so cruel or so wick- ed! Beatrice, will you ever, ever for- give me?” Unassisted, Beatrice had half-lifted herself, and was lifting her head against the cushioned seat of the chair from which, a few moments before, she had risen. Randolph Chester held out his hand to assist her further. She wearily re- jected it, but without scorn or spirit. It seemed to her that hope, indeed, was dead. Even Cora had betrayed her. On all sides she might be surrounded only | by enemies. Her glance wandered to- ward Allen Layton. He stood, pale and silent, and beside him his be- trothed, a smile of triumph on her face, which matched that of her host. In that instant Beatrice knew that her cousin Randolph was no more bit- ter a foe to her happiness than wasahis girl. “May T ask you all to leave me alone with Miss Markham?” askod Chester. “I have some words only her ears must hear.” One by one they obeyed his wish. ; Layton gered last. | “Shall we ieave you, Miss Markham?” he questioned, with gentle courtesy. “Yes—go. Nothing matters now!” “Beatrice,” said Chester, “perhaps | you understand now how useless it is ‘to plot against me. To-night your lov- ler sleeps in a cell. To-morrow he will | be carried back to the Tombs to await | his trial. Of his conviction there can be no doubt, as there is no doubt of his j; guilt. You are in my power—the power ' you have alike defied and trampled up- jon. I strove to show you mercy, but | you rejected it. Now, listen to me. i ‘give you three days for your decision. Within that time you will be my wife, jor the doors of a private madhouse shall open to receive you, and you shail never come forth from its retreat. I | am willing still to forget the past, pro- | vided that you will even yet be reason- able; but defy me yet, and I swear to you that I will make my threat no idle one. No; do not answer me to-night. To-morrow I will take your answer as my Christmas gift. Look to it that it it a fitting one! May I assist you to your room?” “Do not touch me!” she said, shud- | dering. “ And her bitter aversion helped her to drag herself to her feet and away from the hated presence to the shelter and the solitude of her own room. She could not think, In anticipation she seemed only to hear mad laughter, and, closing her eyes, to see mad faces grinning at her from the darkness. Those were the sights and sounds ‘amid which all her future life must be spent. A madhouse! For, as to the other alternative—ah, a madhouse was less terrible than that! The morning broke and found her sleeping—sleeping the quiet, peaceful sleep of a little child. So criminals have been known to sleep on the eve of | execution. “Tt is indelicate to stay here another | day,” said Mrs. Layton to her son, as he entered the room, next morning, j where his mother and Miss Lorrimer were holding an eager discussion. “Badith agrees with me that we should ' go at once.” “Edith agrees with you?’ he said, sternly. “Then I do not. If Edith sees | fit to go, she must go; but this young | girl cannot be abandoned in her terri- | ble distress.” “Abandoned, Allen? What an fdea?” exclaimed his betrothed. “‘he is under the care of her cousin and guardian. I ;am sure his patience has been some- ; Whitewashed walls which the rejoinder. ‘Mother, there is something underlying all the events of the past few days. Unconsciously we have bean the witnesses to a tragedy. I am de- termined to sife the matter out. Ran- dolph Chester has been my friend—I am his guest and he my host—but ere I break bread again beneath his roof I shall say to him what I now say to you, that I distrust him, and that in what- ever way I can serve Miss Markham, I shall do so! I feel a conviction that some terrible wrong has been perpe- trated. The poor child must not brave the full force, alone and unaided, of this last cruel blow!” “A cruel blow, Allen?” sneered his betrothed. ‘Does the arrest of a thief warrant such a term? Beside, you for- get that he bars the way to the reward that you would claim. Allen, do you owe me nothing? Is my claim to be entirely disregarded? As your future wife, I ask you to leave this house to- day. The girl has bewitched you, and I am forgotten!” “Not.so, Edith. If you will work with me, I will gladly and gratefully accept your aid.” “Work with you?” she cried. “Work with you, when I overheard yesterday, in the library, all the plot which was frustrated last night! Work with you, when I learned from this girl and her lover's lips that they would make us all their tools and dupes?” The pallor in Allan Layton’s face deepened. “You overheard the plot, as you call it,” he said, in low, hoarse tones. “It was you, then, played first the spy and then the traitor? Answer me! How and when did you hear it?” Unconsciously she had betrayed her- self, but she could not now recede. “I heard it all—yes!” she replied. “I overheard, the night before, an ap- pointment to meet the next morning in the library. I concealed myself there before the hour. Why should I not have done so? Had I not already learned the influence for evil that she might wield? Well, I heard all, and word for word, I repeated it in Ran~ dolph Chester's ear. The result you know.” “The result—yes; but not yet Is It wholly ended. Edith, you must know that the tie which binds us must be broken. I ask you to snap the bonds— to give me back my freedom. The re- sult then will be accomplished.” “You ask and I refuse! Break your engagement, Allen Layton, if you will. Voluntarily I never will renounce you!” For a second after she had spoken her heart stood still with a mighty dread, but she had gauged him rightly. A deep groan only broke the answer- ing stillness, as, with head bowed on his chest, he went out from her pres- ence to seek his host. Him he might meet on more equal ground. CHAPTER XXXIII. But Randolp Chester's place that morning was vacant, as one by oen they gathered in the breakfast room. He had taken a hasty cup of coffee before the clock struck seven, then had walked down to the lodge, where he and Tyrrell had been closeted for fully an hour. At the end of that time he had or- dered his horse saddled, and had ridden over, with all speed, to the village, but this time he drew rein before the jail. He asked to see Bertram Talbot, and was at once conducted to the bare, iron- grated window converted into a cell. The door closed behind him. The jailer withdrew. The two men were alone. Talbot sprang up from the side of his cot, where he had been sitting in utter despondency. “She is dead!” he muttered, in a hoarse whisper. “It is fitting that at your hands I should receive this last fell blow.” Chester smiled. Then, folding his arms across his chest and bracing him- self for support against the wall, he fixed his mocking gaze on Bertram Tal- bot’s face. ‘No, she is not dead,” he answered. “It was only a swoon last night. She recovered soon after you left. But whether her fate may not be worse than death rests with you. We have played a desperate game, Mr. Bertram talbot. Do you, or do you not, ac- knowledge yourself defeated?” “Defeated? No!” answered the oth- er, throwing back his handsome head with a gesture of proud disdain. “You bring me new life in.the knowledge that she lives. So long as I have her to wirk for, her cause to redeem, do you think I will confess defeat? Ah, Ran- dolph Chester, you little know the man with whom you have to deal!” The smile, as he listened, never left Randolph Chester’s lips. “Perhaps,” he asserted, “I know you better than you know yourself. I did not come here this morning to thrust my Stee? against the strong portions of your armor, but to slip in between the links, where its shap point might pen- etrate the flesh. It is true, what I have told you, that Beatrice Markham lives. But listen to me, and weigh well my words. Unless, within three days, she gives her full and free consent to be- come my wife—a consent to be instant- ly ratified by the performance of the marriage ceremony—she shall at once become the inmate of a private mad- house, in which henceforth her life shall b ea living death. This retreat you stall never discover—this I swear to you. Or even discovery would be of no avail, since the law makes me her guardian and I can prove her mad.” White and trembling, like a child stricken with some sudden fear, Talbot tottered backward on his wretched couch. “You rob me of my strength,” he murmured, “or I would murder you. Devil, leave me!” ‘Not until I have finished, and you have heard all that I have to say. It rests with you, Bertram Talbot, to save her whom you profess to love, from & fate so terrible.” “With me? Ah, did!” “With you—a word from you, and Beatrice Markham would withdraw ner obstinate refusal to become my wife. Will you speak that word?" would to God it thing superhuman. Really, Allen, I | shall begin to fear that you are as mad as she is!” “T am—fully as mad!" was his grave “Are you mad, that you can put to me such a question?” “{ think when I have finished, any lingering doubt you may feel concern ing my sanity will have disappeared Listen to me! What is the alternative of your silence? Beatrice is forever lost to you, to me and to the world You, yourself will be, in the eyes of this same world, a convicted felon, You will spend your best years in the garb of a convict, and within a peniten- tiary’s walls. Supposing, at the expir- ation of your sentence, your prison doors open, what will your freedom be worth? Without money or reputation, what will your bare word avail, shoulda you wish to lift up your voice against me? Or, if there were those who heed- ed yaur cry, anddemanded to see the proof of Miss Markham’s madness, do you think they would not find her mad indeed? Nervous, delicately organized, I ask you could she bear years of con- finement among the mad, listening to mad sounds, seeing mad sights, without indeed b coming as they? “Demon! tiend incarnate!” cried Talbot, “silence, or I swear that I will kill you!” “Iam not unarmed,” answered Ches- ter, coolly, and, opening his hand, he showed a small revolver that he hela. “Men do not venture into a cage with wild beasts without precautions. Ad- vance but one step toward me, and a buhllet through your brain will send your soul into eternity! I should not be o’er sorry of a pretext—we waste no love upon each other—and in such a moment as this men drop the mask they wear. But there is another side to the picture I just have painted. You may turn it to the light if you will, and blot out the reverse of the canvas. A word from me will suffice to withdraw the charge against you. Nay, more—I will fully establish your innocence! You are poor. I will settle upon you a sum adequate for all your future needs. I will restore to you your social posi- tion among men. It is but a small mat- ter that I ask in return—only that you should go to Beatrice and tell her that it is your wish that she should marry me; that, indeed, it is the only way by which you may be saved imprison- ment for an act of which you are guilty. Are guilty, remember! You are to confess your guilt to her and ac- knowledge that you have prejudiced her against me most falsely! In the moment that you tell her this she will consent to anything—aye, even to be- coming my wife! You see, I do not un- derestimate her present hatred and aversion—nevertheless, I wish to marry her. She is homeless, nameless, por- tionless—I give her all three. This is my alternative. Do you accept Tt The veins on Talbot’s temples stooa out like knotted cords. His hands were so tightly clenched that the nails were buried in the flesh. Once let his fingers meet on Chester’s throat, and they would never relax until he had stran- gleed ‘him. It was no fear of the pistol that kept him at bay—no fear of Josing but of taking life! It was the awful im- pulse of murder, which brought the great beads of agony’s sweat upon his brow, and sent the blood from cheek and lips back in a flood of ice upon his heart. |'Go—wreak your worst!” he said, at last, the words breaking, in a dull mon- otone from between his clenched teeth. “oh, God! that anything so foul as your love should. have stained the young life you so ruthlessly consign to a living death. But better that—better any torture, than the torture of your caress! Go! You hear me? Go, or one of us will bes a murderer!” “You refuse, then?” “Ave, I refuse!” Clear and ringing now rang the de- nial. The two men confronted each other, each standing now, with his arms fold- ed across his breast, each with his gaze concentrated upon the other. But, victor and triumphant. armed and secure, Randolph Chester's eyes fell first. But still the cruel smile wreathed his lips. a Within three days Beatrice Mark- ham shall be my wife,” he said. “I have asked for your co-operation. You have refused it. I will succeed without it, but your fate shall be none the prighter. eFlon! convict! it will make the long years of your servitude none the shorter for the knowledge that I,at last, have won and wear the jewel you coveted. Good morning, Mr. Talbot! I will see that the news of my marriage penetrates your prison cell!” . He went out. Talbot was alone—alone with the bur- den of his tortured thoughts. He had been so strong. So secure, and now, like some trapped lion, he could but roar in terrible impotence. “Oh God!” he cried, his eyes dry and burning with the hopeless fire of mis- ery, “take my miserable life! Let me sueffr as you will, but save this child form such a fate!” €To Be Continwed.) ——_——_———-_ Stronger Then Usual. “One day back in Detroit,” remarked a Douglas street man, “I accidentally left some aqua fortis im a glass, and soon afterward was horrified to find the glass empty. I inquired as to what had become of it, and some of the boys in the store said that Bill Webster—a tough old sot who dropped in upon us occasionally—had drank it, supposing ft to be liqwor. Ina short time he came in, and I said: “ «pill, did you drink that stuff in the glass on the table?’ “He said he did, and then I told him that he had drank rank poison, and that he would be a dead man in five minutes. “‘Oh, I reckon not,’ said Bill, ‘but I knowed it was something a leetle stronger than I’ve been a-havin’, for every time I blowed my nose I burned a hole in my handkerchief.’ "—Omaha Mercury. Only a Vision. Hallucinations must be exceedingly unpleasant things, but it almost seems that one may get used tc them in time. Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, the fam- ous author of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” said that her father, from his early youth, was greatly subject to hallucin- ations, and thought but little of them. One day she entered the room and sat down by a writing table in the window. Presently Prof. Stowe came in, looked about him with a preoccupied air, but did not speak to her, She thought his behavior strange, and amused herself by watching him, until as last the sit- uation .»became so extraordinary that she began to laugh. “why!” he exclaimed, “4s that you? I thought it was one of my visions! "s« | Schleswig. There is no more peaceful, In Far Northland T14-Bits of News fer Seandine- viams. DANES IN SCHLESWIG, Helene Reimer’s Case Defines Thei«e Position. It now develops that the Prussian gendearmerie and other officials, who have been so industrious in banishing Danes from Schleswig, acted wholly without authority, and that all the ex- iles are at liberty. to return whenever. they choase. The police and magis- trates are almost paralyzed with con- sternation, for, in the light of the decis- ion by the high court at Kiel, their actions are revealed as tyrannical im the highest degree. A lone woman has thus brought re~ lief to her friends and triumphed over the brutal police. Little did they know what a hornet’s nest they stirred up when they drove Miss Heleme Reimers: across the border into: Denmark from Sandeborg last December. She returned’ a few days later, and was arrested and servtenced to imprisonment by the local: court. The district court sustaimed the sentence, but Miss Reimers appealed! to’ the higher court, where the order was reversed. By the treaty of Vienna, the inhabi- tants of North Schleswig were allowed! to declare themselves as Danish citi- zens, ond many did so, Some went to: Denmark, but thousands: remained. The right of option expired on Nov. 16; 1870. Among those who declared for Danish citizenship, was Miss Reimers’ father; but he remained in Sandeborg. The police corstrued the law that heand all others who had taken the same course’ could, with their children and grand+ children, be banished from the country, and for many years past they have been’ busy with their harsh work. Miss: Ret- mers was born after the optiom period expired, and, having lived all her life in Schleswig, contended that she had as much right there as anyone. In this contention she was sustained by the court at Kiel. The court went even further and declared that those who-had availed themselves of the option did not cease to be Prussian subjects until they left the country and acquired a resi- dence in a foreign country. Conse- quently, thcse who had continued to re- side in Schleswig were free to go: any~ where in Germany as subjects: of Em- peror William. All honor to brave Helene Reimers! North Schleswigers can smile again, thanks to her courage and steadfast purpose. With the fear of exile and Icss of property and station always hanging over them like a threatening cloud, their daily life was one of sor- sow and apprehension. For a people:to hum the songs that cheered them in their youth, to speak a kind word for Denmark or the Danes, was equivalent to banishment if the police ever heard of it. They generally did, for spies were everywhere. Not an arm was ev- er raised against the servants or instiy tutions of Prussia; no thought of a rev> olution was ever dreamed of in North thrifty and industrious people in the whole German empire; but, like des- perate felons and red-handed rebels, they were hounded from the country. The outrages attracted little or no at- tention, as the police were wily and banished but a few at a time, one or two, possibly, whose places were im- mediately filled by Germans, while the higher officials and press of the empire looked complacently on, or were; possi- bly, ignorant of the work. A Golden Cradle. According to the always-veracious Wew York World, diligent search is be- ing made in Tjorn, a little island of Sweden, for a golden cradle. In 1720'a vessel, laden with costly jewels, rare furniture and other articles of great value, was wrecked near the island. The inhabitants murdered the crew and took possession of the cargo, which com- prised, among other things, a beautiful golden cradle. the gift of a German prince to the Swedish queen, Ulrica El- anora. The booty was distributed: The king sent a troop of soldiers. to: the island, with instructions to bring back all the treasure from the ship. The islanders, however, concealed the treas- ure so skilfully that the soldiers were: obliged to return home empty-handed: More than once since that time royal’ emissaries from the capital have looked and dug in al-conceivable places. Now, |’ every inch of ground on the island’ will, if necessary, be excavated. Subscriptions in- Sweden, In Sweden a person may go into the- smallest postoffice, and if he wants: te. subscribe for any publication in any of* the countries of the postal union; or at least of that part of it which has: been united in this business, says the New: York Post, all he has to do is to fill out a blank and pay:the price. A quarterly government publication, much like @ telephone book in appearance, gives the: sum to be charged’ for each newspaper and magazine for the various periods; a. vear, six months, three months, etc. The postmaster remits the reeeipts from this source with his other business re- turns, and his general bond’ covers the transactions The department assumes no responsibility for the continuance of the paper during the period for which subscrirtion is paid, but does assume responsibility for the pcstmasters' re- ceipts. Tbsen Is Improving. Henrik Thsen is reported as being much improved in health, and able to take long rides. which he enjoys very keenly. His malady is not a recent stroke, as be has been suffering several months Pilgrimage to Denmark. Harmonien Singing soeiety is arrang- ing for an excursion to Denmark during the summer of 1903. The plan ts to charter a stamship and to enlist 600 people in the trip. They are to contrib- ute small amounts monthly to the com- mittee on arrangements, which will keep a bank account in the State Bank of Chicaga Members of Harmonien have already turned in over $300. The expense will be less than the cost of the present third-class rate, but the accom- modattons will be equal to second-clasa or batter, b President Kruger’s Single Drink. . Mr. Kruger, as every one knows, is @ constant smoker; it is not, perhaps, so well understood that he has only once tasted alcohol in his life. That was at Bloemfontein, after signing the alliance with the Free State. Kruger is sald to have taken off a bumper of cham- pagne and put down the glass with »- face of disgust.—London Daily News. Try Gratn-O! Try Grain-O! Ask your Grocer to-day to show you a kage of GRAIN-O, the new food drink t takes the place of coffee. The children may drink it without injury as well as the adult. All who try it, like it. GRAIN-O hap that rich seal brown of Mocha or Java, but it is made from pure grains, and the most delivate stomach receives it without dis- tress. 1¢ the price of coffee. 15c and 25 cta per package. Sold by all grocers. FAITH ALL THAT WAS NEEDED. How an Ital Tenor War Enabled to Reach High C. “There was an Italian tenor at Con- vent Garden by the name of Tasca, who, I am sorry to say, sang his own praiges better than the score; says Mr. William Parry, the stage director at the Metropolitan Opera house. “For this and other reasons he was strongly disliked by all the workmen. One day he came to me and said, with: @ great show of mystery: “ “Tell me the exact spot.’ “D could not, for the life of me, un- derstand what he wanted. “You know well enough what Ii mean,’ he persisted. ‘Show me the spot where Tamberlik sang the high Cc. There is always one spot on the scale that is better than all the others« to: stand on when you sing. Where is: it?’ “Tl show you later,’ I replied. ‘But remember, never a word; it would cost me my place if it should leak out.’ “Then I drove a brass tack into one of the stage boards, and he was over- joyed' when I pointed out ‘the exact spot.’ And so were the workmen at the prospect of a joke at his expense. That night he carefully 00d on the tack and sang the high C. Rushing into the wings; he exclaimed: ‘Beautiful! Won- derful!’ Ever afterward, no matter what part of the stage demanded his presence, he would rush to the tack when the time for the high C came, and there deliver it.”—Saturday Evening Post: Couldm’t Wear Shoes. Sumpter, Ill., June 10th.—Mrs. J. B. Flanigan, of this place, has suffered with dropsy for fifteen years. She was so very bad' that for the last three years’she has not been able to wear her shoes. She had doctored all the time, but was gradualty getting worse. Last wiuter Mr, Flanigan, who was very much discouraged, called for some medicine at Mr. J. J. Dale’s drug store in Carmi, Mr. Dale persuaded him to have his wife try Dodd’s Kidney Pills, and he bought six boxes. His wife used five out of the six, before she was entirely cured. She is now as sound and’ well as. she ever was, completely restored to health, and free from any symptom whatever of dropsy. To say that Mrs. Flanigan is pleased at her wonderful deliverance does not half’ express Ker feelings, and.she and Mr: Flanigan: are loud in their praises of Dodd’s Kidney Pills, and of Mr. Dale for recommending this wonderful remedy to them. The fact that Dodd’s Kidney Pills cured Mrs. Flanigan of such a severe case of dropsy, after the doctors had given her up, has made them the most talked-of remedy ever known in White county. The Automobile. “Will the automobile become a per- manent fad?” “Doubtful. See how men, outside of scorchers, even, were bent on riding the bicycle at first: and look at it now.”— Philadelphia Times. A: GLORTOUS SIGHT. Flelds of Wheat im Which the Shocks Were So Thick It Was Almost Im- possible: te Drive Between Them. To. the Hiitor: A gentleman from Duluth made a trip through a portion of Western. Canada last summer and writing of what he saw, says: “Wheat, for instance, will average twenty-five or thirty bushels to the acre. I saw shocks so thick in the field. that it would be almost impossi- ble- to, drive: between them. Winters, it is. saidi are longer than near Du- luth, but the Japan current, warm ‘chinook winds and dry atmosphere. make: the winters comparatively mild.” Thousands. of such testimonials are- to be had from settlers who have taken: advantage: of the low-priced lands of: Westerm Canada. During the present year new districts will be opened up in, the Saskatchewan valley and ad+ vantage sisould be taken of this at once: Information can be had from any agemt of the government, whose advertisenrent appears elsewhere. in your columns. Yours truly, OLD READER. Dignity consists not in possessing, honors but the consciousness that we deserve them. PATENTS. List ef Patents Issued to. Northwos. Northwestern Inventors. Henry Clemons, Morristown, Minn., cloth-holding pin, Charles. D, Higgins, Aberdeen, S. D., building biock; Ole A. Mickelson, Winger, Minn, pneumatia stacker; Fred E. Parsons, Marshall,, Minn., journal oiler; Peterson Pierce, Hydson, S. D., vehicle loader; Weslew St. Clair, St. Paul, Minn,, cigar and to-~ bacco moistener; Walter Thexton, Mine nearolis, Mina., copyimg press, Lothrop & Joanson, patent attorneys, 911 & $12 Pioneer Press Bldg., St. Paul, Minn. Nature's Pricelees Remedy ,- Rheumatism, Neurale DR. 0. PHELPS BROWN’S, | men Enoki Speclaeccsis of7ou>. ol Senta are sedi pita big ye tale ll Seoaleone Soins FI LI PISO'S CURE FOR pears Wee ALL ELSE FAL CONSUMPTION Ww _ ae