Lakeland Evening Telegram Newspaper, August 25, 1914, Page 2

PAGE TWO HOW LITTLE WE KNOW | By JOE H. RANSON. .‘ | ] (Copyright.) | 1 have often thought of what might | have happened if Sam Spencer had" not found me when he did. { Destiny tolled along that ! dimmed flat, stooped, wearied, dry-| mouthed, without doubt cursing the | thoughtless being who led her tbus‘ far afield. Destiny stood by, perhaps,i atop the burning plain, scornful, un- whimpering, faithful | Picture the dear lady, older than the | hills whose profile beckoned like the ghosts of departed joys from the hori- zon, dogging the steps of a thirst-mad man, through dust-choked miles, umfl‘ the weak beiug sprawled himself upon the sands to die The memory of that mad, heartless, withering eon of fire s to me of the haziness of the never-to-be-forgotten | nightmare, a smear of flame—endless, | hellish miles—a throbbing fountain of blood beneath my skull-—myself a mindless, writhing automaton. I flung the canteen from me with a thick curse in the afternoon of the first day It was so hot that it burned my hands. The liquid that it gave me, its ! last sip, was heated to the point m’i blood. I cursed the canteen and the mad gods that had led me into this pit | of burning. Then I became the automaton and | simply moved, without joy, pain, hate, fear, my head hung between my shoul- ders low to my breast, my arms hung listless at my sides, my legs moving forward each in its turn without my will, my back curved, a creeping, shiv- ering, grotesquely weeping thing, like unto a distorted spirit, moving with infinite labor endless through the fe- vered acres of the damned. ! It is all a smear, a horror hid in some recess of my brain, mercifully stripped of its nauseating details. The last concrete, tangible memory is of cursing the empty, senseless, scorch- ing canteen as I hurled it from me. A man held me in his arms, pour- ing water upon my face, into my baked lips. It was llke a fine, 1mprobable‘ dream. The dream passed, and I went once more into unconsciousness, my mad brain still fighting on through the fire. When I opened my eyes, with rea- son for the first time replacing the tangled phantasmagoria of horror, they rested upon the interior of a log hut, with skins clinging to the walls and a small, square window looking out upon the placid ranges. I was alone. [ noticed my hand upon the coverlet and tried to raise it. The thing was pale, bloodless, al- most transparent. [ could see each finger's bone. An old scar on the back of the hand looked seared and old and whitened, like an aberration on a long-bleached bone. The hand refused to obey me. It fluttered, rose an inch and dropped back feebly upon the sheet. Then a man came Iin. He had been sharpening a hatchet outside, and he had it in his hand when he sat down by the bedside. He told me that his name was Sam 8pencer, and that I had been his guest five weeks. He sald it was a hundred and fifty miles to a doctor. He had pulled me through alone. He had found me lying as dead on the sand and brought me to his hut and fought with the death that al-' ready claimed me. He told me of the fever that had burned me, of the fiend- ish visions that had tormented me. Strength came slowly at first, then, in the quick mountain air, with leaps and bounds. A fortnight saw me walk- ing about the cabin, doing light work. A month and I was stronger than I had been in my life Spencer was a miner. He had pros- pected ten years. He had had some success, enough to keep his own faith and that of the men who grub-staked him. But he never realized his ' dreams. He had lived the ten years mostly alone, in the hills, sometimes #ix months without sight of human visage When dust- | i | regained my 1_had _fully | monplaces for a half-hour. strength, Sam Spencer made me a proposition. My company for three months had spoiled him, he saild, for solitude. He had worked alone before, so that when the strike came it might be solely his. Now, he felt differently. He wanted a partner. We would share fortune. I agreed. Then one night he came in and laid a specimen on the table. particular atteantion at first. Then 1 | saw his face and picked up the speci- men. There was no doubt about it. What he had toiled for and hoped for and had never doubted had come at last. The vein passed all our hopes, dis- counted our fondest dreams. The experts who came threw up their hands in wonder. The discovery marked a new era. meant new fever in men's blood for the yellow coquette of the hills. It meant love, joy, hate, envy, mag- nanimity, charity, philanthropy, mur- der. To Sam Spencer it meant the re- ! alization of a dream, the proof of his optimism. Peyond the mere affording of possibility to do certain things, I think the extravagance of his sudden wealth utterly escaped him. In hig great-heartedness he insisted that we share and share alike. into his eyes. 1 agreed. My fortune was made, but I lingered fn the West. It was Spencer. I had grown to love the man, for the bigness of him, for the wonderful something that lifted him out of and away from the material, Superficially he was not attractive, a silent, stern, wordless man of the hills. But I had lived in the sawme room with him two years. I had eat en his bread, hoped the same hope dreamed, though not so perfectly, the same dream. Spencer came into my room in the hotel one night, and I could see that he had something to say. An odd kind of embarrassment had come upon him and he hedged and countered and hemmed and hawed and talked of com- At last he told me. It was part of the dream It was, I think, the mother of the dream, Ten vears before, in a small town in one of the middle Western states, Sam Spencer had loved a girl. They had seen each other occasion ally, had walked together in the won- derful spring of youth, had met at church, at parties. There had been very little oppor- tunity for talk, had not the youth been 80 sorely tongue-tied in the presence of the little great god. That part of it was common enough. That was why 1 wondered about the woman, Sam Spencer had come to the seek- ing of the golden fleece wherewith ‘to line his nest. Ten years he had sought it with a shrine in his heart on which the fire had never died. Ten yvears he had labored and hoped and dreamed and worshiped the goddess of his sacrifice in secret. And now the fleece was found, the dream stood ready for fulfillment. It made my blood cold to think of what the years might have done. I was with him when he posted the letter which told of his winning a fortune. It was like participating in some holy rite. It meant so much to Spencer, it was 80 much a part of him, the urge, I am now quite sure, of all his endeavors. I remember the stun, the sudden, slckening sink that came over me when the telegram was thrust before my eyes, telling of the accident in the Oro pass. Spencer had gone for a quick trip to Boise, expecting to return in two days. We had parted with joyful an- ticipations, having in common that great secret which draws all men into a common kinship. He would return, and together we would read the reply of the woman. Foolish, bearded children. Ten years may do many things besides wrest a fortune from the unwilling hills. Ten years! Sam Spencer was dead. The Oro pass had taken 20 lives, of which his was one IN AN Strennons Games take the “ife” cat of you- Thirst-killing Chero-Cola puts it back. Cools--Refreshes-- Stimulates Energizes Body and Brain. ICED BOTTLES YWHERE —— 5¢ 100k FOR THE Chero-Cofay parp BOTTLED BY CHERO-COLA BOTTLING CO. LAKELAND, FLORIT}~ It meant new | towns, new people, a new empire. It 1 was | on the point of refusing when I looked ! ' EASY TO CLEAN PANAMA HAT I paid no | | an writes. | superscefption could be termed that, b4 angry that Destiny had indeed turned pessi- mist, who would lead a man to the | door of realization after ten years toil, and bolt it even as he touched the lintel. It seemed unspeakably ironi- cal, this last bit of fate's sarcasm I felt that upon me rested the duty of putting the last touch to the picture now turned tragic, into the secrets of whose building I had been initiated. I waited for a reply from the girl. The days crowded on. I took charge of | Spencer’s estate, following the simple instructions of his will. The weeks went by. I began to wonder if the girl— | Then came the first word I had had | & from Alice Dale. She wrote me of the sme" doings of her intimate life, the | little impersonal personalities a wom- | & beyond expectations. Then came this: Tell me how these Western men feel I recelved a letter the other day from |& one who has been away ten years, hur ing his fortune in gold-fields. He Just succeeded and wrote to me here I had forgotten him, my memory could remem cepting that he had red s and br eyes, The letter was written with a pencil, three sheets, the greater part of which was devoted to telling of his suc- Cess. Then in the coolest manner in the warld he offered to share it with me. Not one sentimental word, mind you, unless the I really at first, read the le g times, trying to decide whether I should answer it or not. I forgot to say that in a postseript he placed the characteristic dollar-mark of | ., the West upon the letter by say ing that | & if 1T would come, answer at once and he |." would send me ticket and expense money, Phone No. 340 | press with a moderately hot iron (\\'vr1 | 8ponge with alcohol and then brush ji | arabie, which gives a varnish finish as It seemed to me ! ing the gum arabic Then this: Now tell me, what feeling prompted the letter, Not love, because, as I remember, the affair was very ordinary, nothing he- vond walking home of afternoons, am not asking vour advice, understand. I am merely asking out of curlosity, | | | | aifterent view-point than peonte 5 wne | THINGS YOU NEVER SEE NOW lve near civilization. I wanted to laugh, wildly, grimly, bitterly. How little do men know! How wise is Destiny after all! Roller Towel, Mackerel Kit, Hog Jowls and Greased Boots. Suet and soapmaking! Also ash hoppers! Alas and alack, that vener able institution is no more. The mod- ern prospectus for rural habitations and accessories provides no place in the landscape for that once in- dispensable adjunct to farm life and its blessedness. | Venomous Cinder Beetle. The cinder beetle, hitherto consid- ered as a tranquil little parasite that devoted fitself exclusively to rails, spikes and other railroad property, has developed gome new and alarm- ing symptoms, according to a letter to the Coolidge Enterprise from| Dy'e mind the ash hopper in the Judge Adna P. Gristlebone. The|back of the house, just around the | cinder beetle has lately become | Paling fence? An inverted pyramid | it was, into which the debris from the great fireplace was poured, with buck. ets of water thrown on the latter or else left to the sweet ralns from | heaven. Then the lye caught in the| old fron kettle with the plece broken out of one stde—it was once used for making apple butter. After that, the soap bolling—then the soap. Fine stuft, that soap—took the dirt out, all right; removed the hide, too, if you weren't | careful. But the ash hopper has gone, along with the roller towel, the mackerel kit, | hog jowls, red apples and winter (ur-! | nips. The open fire place, too, has | passed, before which you used to fry ! on one side, while icicles formed on | { the other. Nor {s there any attic room under the shingles where the boys ' slept, with pap's old cavalry saddle in | {one corner and a sickly geranium | roosting precarfously on the window | (8ill. Nor do we see the old-time boots, | | slicked up with a mixture of mutton i ' tallow and beeswax, which, however, A panama hat is a deligh o8- | y g 5 o pto e \\'urdmz: g ltruxln:sc:se ‘ d;d;lt Pr:lvent a need for the services cleaned or bleached repeatedly. A tea- . fwur fl’uc‘kmhhs n}]d & pluxxlbq 19 spoonful of oxalic acid to a pint of | :(:ltle:;m O\ g ?}:ghif ?\hen e bootmck‘ lukewarm water will safely clean “fi\'henlvo‘uncmn: wm;;‘j{::‘kk Ojf‘sfilf:azi panar g ilan an o lig - / irrlu:\'ml‘x.;\ll(sw{z:;‘v;'l‘;'\ 1{-(“” t‘;“:“‘1:’:::“"\.i]t‘]“~“; partment hullun.{) has got more real soft brush or sponge. Clean only alsemhnsnt pidanden l.u-w;(.'(*n Ll small portion at a time, and then brnb ‘ :}m’erg B0 o:u}. ne foundiin plingl off as much moisture as possible with Bhidisrs Thl.lm ORCaRLROSEE) gver a clean white cloth, as in this way | dreamed of in his vistons of Blessed thete Will be feas tendenoy. of the fip| Damozels and that sort of thing. O, | losing its shape. Go u\‘q*.r the entire you modern hnusv\\‘l\'esY—\\'ushmgwu hat carefully, and when partly dry | Bost, " vicious, and worse than that—{ts bite has been followed by a poisonous in- fection. Last Wednesday, so the judge writes, a fast train tore through Coolidge, without stopping. Suddenly it came to & halt half a mile down the track, and the engineer was seen to climb down, examine the cyMnders and the piston rod, and then throw up his hands in despair. A cinder beetle had jumped from the track to the cow catcher, and with one bite of its venomous fangs had killed the engine. After a delay of a few hours, a relief engine wearing a flynet ar- rived and pulled the train on its way. -—Kansas City Star, No Need to Pay High Price to Have the Work Done by a Profes. sional Renovator. i a muslin cloth. Lemon juice may be ! used instead of the oxalic acid with | good results. | To renew a black straw hat, | @ % | L 4 i & over with a thin solution of gum well as a slight stiffness. If the straw is very dingy, use a good black ink or = a liquid shoe dressing before apply- ANK YOU We appreciate the way the Lakeland people by advantage of our Special Sale. Our “Alway” slogan is: Everything in Harcware Rl B,d,m/me Gost of Liviig is Gn ———— DTG 6 i S 050y ! Our business bas heep, “We want your bygjp, - C. E. TODD, y QUOTOROFRB P CHI0 SRR R BRB L0050 Unless You Know Where o/ IF YOU KNO The selection will be the bes: The variety unmatched The quality unsurpassed The price the lowest A‘ll these you find at our stn Just trade with us This settles the question ¢f i Best Butter, per pound. .. Cottolene, 10 pound Palll. .o vueeeiopeneeneeeeriiinn Cottolene, 5 pound pails.......... 4 pounds Snowdrift LArd. ... o vevennnnmg oeeenon Snowdrift, 10 pound patls. ......00vee vues 8 cans family size Cream....... 6 cans baby eize Cream. B R R I 1-2 barrel best Flour, S I I I I LI IR I 12 pounds best Flour..,.. D I S Octogon Soap, 6 for Ground Coffee, per pound. ... .....00.n ou.... b zallons Kerosene. . . Lower Prices on Ford Cas celive August 1st, 1914 to A : mteed against any 1e. All cars fully Rty ( Runabout. o Touring Car Town Car, .. Buyers to Share in Profits A vers of new Ford | to August 1st, "ohts of the compa ... $410 ...690 Ford cars during \SK us for particulars FORD MOTOR COMPANY J Lakeland Auto and Supply €° COUNTY AGEN