Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, July 7, 1889, Page 11

HE OMAHA l.)AILY BEE: SUNDAYAQULY 1889~-SIXTEEN PAGES. RISTORIC SCENES IN SPAIN, Mrs. Bherwood Writes of Cordova, Granada and Seville. A DREAM OF PERFECT BEAUTY. Magnificent Moorish Temples and the Charms of the Famous Alhambra ~The Infant Monarch—An Inspiration tor Painters. Scenes of 1deal Loveliness, The Mosque of Cordova is the most beautiful temple which exists. one of the most admirable monumentsof man’s genius on the earth, says Mrs. M. E. W. Sherwood, writing from Seville to the New York World. We endeavored to take a drive around Cordova, but the ronds have not been paved since the Moor, =0 it was necessarily short. The once powerful city has dwindled to a dead and alive town of 50,000 people, who still, however, have that air of de- cayed gentility which all Spaniards keep, and their houses are Yrolty Moorish buildings among most lovely ardens. We went to see the old bridge, ating from the times of Augustus, re- constructed by the Arabs,and the ruined old walls, the debris of statues and bas- reliefs, the inscriptions in honor of the emperors, the gray old vestibules, the fuiry-like onlconies over which the handsome Andalusians lean with flow- ers in tneir benutiful hair, It wasall a drenm, and Tom Moore, with his foolish ballads of the Guadalquivir (the river flowing at our feet), came up, with the eternal rhyme and the twanging of the . Such are the confusions in one’s logy in Cordova We came on to Granada the next afternoon. It is appropriate that the mosque of Cordova and the miracle of the Alhambra, though twenty-four hours from everywhere else, should be within five hours of esch other. The sensuous dreum of luxury on earth, which the followers of the Prophet were to continue in heaven, could have no grander exploitation than the Alham- bra. ‘We had a delightful journey. The wild flowers and the orange groves kept us company, and the old Spanish towns grew more quaint and_old, tne stones graver, and the Siera Nevuda began to show us the snow; an outline not unlike Mount Blanc from Geneva rose on the rosy horizon. It became a vision of un- earthly grandour and beauty. When tho evening fell a moon, not yet quite full, helped to prolong the picture. As we entered Gronada the beggars and cabdrivers, the Spanish outcries and the groaus of* the donkeys nearly deafened us. Soon, however, we were driving by moonlight through the beau- wiful elm flurcpl planted by the Duke of Wellington in 1812, and the nightin- gules were bursting their throats to give us the most delicate poultice for our wounded ears. Dr. Holmes says: And silence like a poultice came, To heal the wounds of sound. 1t is profunation to compare the ex- quisite and heart-breaking note of the nightingale to a poultice, but it was in- finitely soothing. This forest was a surprise to me. Why did nobody ever tell me that we drove through a forest to the Alhambra? We alighted at this comfortable Louse, where we can breakfast on a balcony overlooking a garden, where from ons window we look into the for- est. and from another over a bank of yellow roses, toward the Sierra Nevada. We never wish to go away. The Al- hambra, aj Yronched through magni- ficent horseshoe arches, and opening 1ts wonderful fountains, gardens and fairy- like columns upon' one, is at first a dis- appointment, because it is being re- stored, and there isan air of newness about the Court of the Lions. GLORIES OF THE ALHAMBRA. But to go often, to go elone, to read, think, meditate there; to mount its towers, to dream in its courts, to read over ‘“Tales of the Alhambra” there; it grows and it grows, until it becomes the Palace of the Heart. The superb Hall of the Ambassadors, where Ferdinand and Isabella received Columbus, wus the first majesty which overwhelmed me; then the Court of the Lions; what a labyrinth of arches, sarved embroideries; what indefinable clogance, what inimitable delicacy, what & prodigious richness! und some- thing s0 airy, so undulating, like a cur- tain of lace, which a breath could blow away; which has stood 700 years, a de- lightful confusion, a graceful disorder, +‘the majesty of a royal palace and the gayety of a kiosk,” #m_extruvagance, a delight, a living grace, a folly, a fancy, the drenm of an angel, the rosy visions of first love, something too evanescent to describe—such is the effect of the Alhambra. The long Arabic inscriptions the walls are most graceu. had a book which pretended to trunslate them, and a col»y of the Koran, sold at Granada, but I could not muke them out, and feel as Artemus Ward did about Chaucer. ‘‘Mr.C.,” said he, **Mr. C. was a smart man, a man of talent, but he was the poorest speller Iever met.” Somebody was a poor speller—either my book or the Koran, or the sculptor. I cannot read Avabic yet, more's the pity. But why rezrot anything but the shortness of life and the flight of time when looking at_these floating ribbons, the flowery niches, arabesques, stars, the delicate infinity of the ever-recur- ring polygonal checkered kaleidoscope patterns, the staluctitles and pendulous gvuces of the ceilings, the dewdrops in ady to fall, the stucco lace, em- d with a thousand flowers? The fairy-like columns advance and disap- pear. Looking upward one sees the re- lica of the court below in a palace high in the air., Hal from behind those yated windows the dark-eyed houris ooked and sighed perhaps for freedom. We mounted a high tower to the Aressing room of the Sultana. From this immense height the unhappy mother of Boabdi) let down her little boy in a scarf, l{lng all her shawls to- other, to save him from the revenge- ul hate of her rival. The room still is rich with a subtle perfume. Further on we see o gloollly perspective. It is where o mad woman wus incarcerated, They say if you whisper in the ear of one of the lions one can hear what you say from the mouth of another ! Quite an oral love letter might thus be spoken. An old gray lion, yet not less A lion! in his fecbleness Oue thing is left him still to guard. He guards it well by day or night, With these great paws of granite gray; In the strong shelter of his breast. No wan shull serve him yeot with scorn Though au old lion thus forlorn, For what he guaras is Beauly's rest. After the Salle of the Abencerrages wo went to see the baths. These beau- tiful rooms were restored with taste during Charles V.’s reign and still bear their sumptuous testimony to the wise luxury and cleanliness of the Moor, a virtué in which he has not been fol- lowed by the Spaniard, We cane out in the lovely court of myrtles, and looked in the tranquil eistern full of gold fishes. We went in to write our names in the visitors’ book. THE YREASUKES OF SEVILLE, The custode showed us first Washiug- ton Irving and then General Gruot and on family, then General Sherman and Colonel Fred Grant, then the names of Albert Edward and his faithful friend and tutor, General Bruce. Then later on the_evil-freighted autograph of the recently murdered Prince Rudolph of Austria; we saw that of the Countess of Pierrefond (the Empress Eugenie), of the late king of Spain_and of his royal sisters, and of many of lesser degree. 1 suppose I am not the first chronicler to say that Seville is a most charming city. It beams on one who comes from the rural districts of Spain, as Paris beams gn the early Americap before he was satisfied with” foreign travel. Al- though 1t has nothing to compare with the Alhambra, or the Mosque of Ca, dova. Seville, still has its antiquitics- Roman remains and Moorish palaces, its grandest of cathedrals, the beautiful lern palace of the Duc de Montpen- sier (now a gray-haired old veteran, and a thorough spaniard) and the beau- tiful Giralda Tower, enough to come to Spain 1o see; the Aleazar, now the only home and Spanish palace of Queen Isa~ bella, and full of the family portraits, and which is, with its fountains, gar- dens and restored Meorish rooms, no bad copy of the Alhambra, still a copy, not the original, ‘We started off well for modern ideas by hearing our countrywoman, Emma Nevada, sing “El Barbero de Sevilla,” at the opera house. The protty little woman, with her flute-like voice, is & tremendous favorite here. They re- called her sixteen times, and poured out flowers upon her until ehe could not walk ncross the stage. . She has been singing two months at Madrid, where she algo is an essential “‘furor;” had an audience with the queen, and is a great friend of Count Murphy, who has given her an open seasame to wll the places here not usually shown to visitors. I owe much to her friendship in opening more palaces to me. But it was a great pleasure to see the “‘Barber” on his native soil. Around me sat the flower of Andalusian beauty and grace, the nobility of Seville. Every woman’s hair was dressed with flowers and the famous greatcarna- tions, as large as a double poppy, were in every hand. This superb flower will not grow as large anywhere as here. A “Caballero” sent me a bouquet in which I counted sixteen varieties. We have very amusingincidents with these Sevillians. I brought several letters, and a haughty Don will arrive to make a call. We can none of us spenk Spanish, and they speak no French, so the courier has to be invoked, and the high and mighty compliments which follow on both sides are exchanged. The don offers us his house, his opera box, all that is bis. We accept nothing but a “permission to call” and perhaps he **wonld open some doors.” AN IDEAL SPANISH TOWN, Iowe to such a visit from a distin- gushed scholar permission to see the library of Christopher Columbus, now closed. One thing they do not do, they do not usk you to dinner. No one gets much inside their houses. Sir Clare Ford, at Madrid, says he asks them to dinner, but they never usk him. They send you a currvinge, they are polite, but inside their houses, no! 1 trust at Madrid we may have the entree to some Spanish interiors so jealously guarded. The hotel at Se- ville, Hotel de Paris, is excel- lent. The weather is just now very hot. but we eusily fall into their habits of a siesta at 1o'clock. We rise early andsee the sights, return home and have breakfast and dine late. ‘We are uever tired of these pretty houses built round a_garden, at which we get peeps through the iron lattice- work. The shops are dark, cool cav- erns, filled with most tempting laces, fans and Spanish wools. There is also a beautiful pottery here. The windows are shutterless, protected by iron grat- ings and un awning. We are here at the best of seasons, the spring, and we enjoy a full moon, by which we dine late, hearing the madolin and guitar. A mooulit night in Seville is a love song all by itself. These open square ‘courtyards, called patios, are surround- ed by corridors, supported by marble pillars, with & fountain playing in the middle, covered in midday by an awn- ing called toldo, and it is the drawing room of the family., I know of uothing retty. o go back hence to antiquity, Abie Josep Yukub was the greatest builder of his age, and in 1171 he threw a bridge of boats across the Guadelquivir. he repaired the Roman agueduct an rmsed the great mosque (now the cathedral, and undergoing repairs). To him we owe the beautiful Giralda tower, very suggestiveof the Campanile at Florenbe. This is the great tower where in Moorish times the muezzin called the faithful to prayers. Now cer- tain famous bells perform his office. They are so powerful that even the devil is afraid of them, and Murillo was fond of painting the scene where the devil and his winds were dispersed by the bells, Would that wehadan agency so powerful to dizpel a blizzard or a cyclone. It would be a week’s work to describe this grandest cathedral, 1ts wealth of beauty, its superb size, its endless arches. It is the largest thing in the world, apparently. I did not see itto advantage, therefore have not so pleas- ing a remembrance of it as of its rivals at Barcelona or Tarragona, much less than of the Mosque of Cordova, but it has two beautiful Murillos in it which I do praise, **The Guardian Angel” and the ‘‘St, Anthony of Padua.” This saint has been to New York, it will be re- membered. He was cut out by one of his own priests, sent to Mr. Schaus,who detected whence and where he belonged and sent him back. The restoration is skillfully done, and it is an unrivaled specimen of the master. I preferred to go and rest in the lovely cinque cento gardens of the Al- cazar, where the beautiful Maria de Pa- dilla bathed nnd soothed the savage temper of Pedro the Cruel, until she was accused of magic. In this palace of the Alcazar, Charles V. was married, and at his order arose these labyrinths of box in the style of the Italian renais- sance, these orange groves, this thicket of roses where MURILLO AND VALASQUEZ LIVE. I have often asked myself how [ should feel if I were to be in the home of Murillo and Velasquez, Here I am on the very spot, and I see whence they drew their inspiration. Murillo has but to look around him to obehold the splendid black-eyed babies and the beautiful Aundalusian Muadonnas. Neither look as if they knew anything. For of beggar boys the supply is limit- less. The beggars and the donkeys in Spain! I am inclined to write a book and eall it “The Donkey in Spain.” Nothin but the feur that some wit would as! me if it were intended for an auto- biography has deterred me. But that tient little beast does all the work. He 15 buried under two paniers, and he is laden down with everytling., No re- fuge has he but his putient ey and his discordant note. The voice of protest in all the world hus been discordant. It finishes off with the donkcy. In this miserably poor, enormously rich coun- try he seews to be the clnb?um of what has ruined Spain—oppression and taxa- tion. The countay. Where every prospect pleasea And only man is vile. 1 enjoyed very much the Palace of St | IV. and of Olivarez; Telmo, the beautiful house of the Duc de Montpensier. Here I saw two of the best of Velasquez—portraits of Philip also some poor Murillos and the original of Ary Shef- fer’s St. Monica and St. Augustine, splendid examples of Luibaran and other Spanish painters: also a curious series of pictures from “Don Quixote,” embroiderad in silk by a man, very original, humorous aud quaint. The duke must be a stu- dent of Cervantes, for he has statuettes of the Don and of Sancho Panza every- where. Sancho was a famous name wmong the old kinge, so 7‘%“‘0 Panza isas 1f we should &ay “Washington Briggs.” The house is full of records of the Orleans family, including a very fine, full length of I*hilip Egalite, the duke’s infamous grandfather. The Queen Tsabella II., his sister-in-law, is also portrayed, but we saw no likeness of his dear little daughter Meredes, queen of Spain, whose death, they say, broke his heart. Across the Pasar de Cristina we came to the old Moorish tower of the Tome del Oro. No one knows whother this was a lighthouse or a treasure house, Rcrlmm both, as its octagon shape and igh lantern would make it useful as both. Pedro the Cruel, the Henry VIIT of Spain, used 1t for a prison in Which he punished his false wives. "This is the home of the bull-fights, but, alas for us! there will be none until we reach Madrid. So our cruel instincts must wait veek. For us the Plaza de Toros of Seville is alost delight. Its capacity to seat 12,000 spectators, its view of the Geraldi, all is lost for us— the effect is said to be very grand, as the last bull dies! (I do not know that T am inconsolable; one must miss sume- thing in any country! I rather hope there will e no bull-fight in Madrid, if it isn’t treason to say so.) PURE SPANISH TYPES. To one who comes here to welcome poeti impressions and day dreams, Seville is the most satisfactory town in Spuill. It is still the city of the most picturesque blackguards in Spain, who sleep on the steps, wear their shawls and cloaks with a grace which is prover- bial, pictures of the bliss of idleness; & great argument in favor of being en- tirely worthless. They have no vulgar prejudices as to duty and honesty, but are very good guitar players. No grave, solemn, sad Spanish type is this, but a mixture of the gypsy, the bull-fighter and the contrabandist. None of your jenlons, haughty, suspicious and digni- ed cavaliers nmong even these beg- ara. It is the city of pleasure. The “'Barber” is its true expletive. Ros- sini’s music exactly expressesit. The upper classes, however, ure very dis- tinguished looking and very handsome, The men, especially, a high type of Spaniard, well dressed, riding well groomed horses; the turnouts at the fashionable drive are worthy of Rotten Row. The women wear the benutiful mantiila in many cases. It is becoming and local. But is not to the upper class (as much at home in Paris as in Seville) that one looks for the true Spanish type. At the tobacco factory in the streets, we have seen some fine specimens of Andalusian beauty: the dcep, large, full black eye, the raven hair in such magnificent profusion, that indiscriba- bie charm and naturalness, grace, livli- ness and repurtee, which painters, poets and opera writers have sought to reproduce, are to be seen on every cor- ner. Byron made Cadiz rhyme to la- dies. He and Tom Moore found some enchantment here, no doubt. No wonder the Moslem loved to lin- ger by the Guadalquiver, to dream away his life amid the enchantments of refined taste, with all of nature’s pro- fuse and prodigal gifts of climate and production. He lavished his gold and genius to adorn his city. He gave freely of his blood to defend it. Fair is proud Seville! Let her country boast Her strength, her wealth, her site of ancient days, Later on Seville became the Court of Spanish Kings—uud is linked with their romantic and most cruel records. ‘The discovery of America by making it the emporium of the world, revived its former prosperity. From its port of Palos smled Columbus, Pizarro and Cortez. In the fifteenth century it was the home of the merchant princes. It was the New York of Spain. It became the prey of the French in 1803, Mar- shal Soult carried off the Murillos, 1n fact, tore one in pieces. The English antered i* in 1813 amid universal acclar mations. 118 YOUTHFUL MAJESTY. “The Spanish proverb says: ‘“‘He who has seen Seville has s2en wonders; but he who has not seen Granada has seen nothing.” Tt is difficalt now to know why they so adored Granada. Beautiful as is the the Alhambra, splendid as is the view of the Sierra Nevada, it 18 not as at- tractive us is this flower-hinged, cheer- ful eity. The lightness, the elegance, the vivacity, the show, the thousand things to see here make it the prottiest and most peaceful picture we have yet soen. To-duy is the queen’s birthday and the houses are decked with her picture. She is the Madonna of the day, the ever-present, ever-worshipped Murillo, the immortal type of the most perfect Jove. A mother and her baby rule Spain; . and the baby hand holds the sceptre’ with an invincible strength. One of the editors of the Figaro gave me a letter to a high official, so that in Madrid I should see the queen. Yes,” said he, ‘‘but I know you, being a woman, want to see the baby.” I acknowledged that the majesty of “two years and a half”’ was to me more interesting than any other, and that I was willing to }mt my neck uncer his darling foot. That sovereignity fresh from heaven, the great rule of King Baby, who does not kiss his chubby hand? He rules the court, the politi- cian and the liveral. “1 cannot war against a woman and a baby,” suid Castelar. ork Mercury. Such witching eyes! Such dainty feet] (I admit she loves to show 'em), With winning ways and accents sweet, She secms & very poem. Poesy’s incarnation she; re's no one fairer, neater, Should she but deign to look toward me I'm not alv to meter, ——— In 1876 Carter Anderson, of Hausley, Tex.. married Miss Rebecca Meyers, and untila few months ago nothing ever marred their happiness. The tempter came in Henry, a brother of Mr. Anderson. At last Henry told Car- ter that he loved his wife, und his wife wus nsked if she loved Henry. She snid: “Carter, I have tried to bea good wife to you and you have been a good husband, I love my children, too, but 1 give all up for Henry. I love him more.”’ The heartbroken husband could only say: ‘‘Becca, if it is your determination to leave me go, and God bless you in this wild decision.” He gave her money, with the request that she keep it for burial. The following Sunday he hitched up his best team an saw his wife and eldest child and Henry sented in the wagon, and hired a man to drive them to this city, wh took a train for parts unknown. steicken busbund remained at home to beur his sorrew ia silence, OPENED THE RIVER OF DEATH How a Swiss Valldy Was Devas- tated By s¥ood. THEIR HEROISM ' WAS IN VAIN. The Sturdy Strokes . of the Brave Mountaineers Lured the Unsus- pecting Villagers Into the Very Pathway of the Disaster, A Fearful Alpine Flood. The mountain range lying between Martigny and the vast wooded ridge of the Tete Noir, in Southern Switzer- land, still bears, fearful traces of the most devastating flood recorded in Jocal history, concerning which I heard many a grim legend from the herdsmen and woodcutters of the district while exploring the scene of the famous tragedy, writes David Ker in the New York Times. Strangely enough, this great catastrophe was in all its chief details un almost literal prophecy of the Conemaugh disaster, with the addi- tional interest of having been caused by the bursting of a natural dam, the formation of which was well-nigh as destructive as its collapse. Early in that fatal summer the river Dranse (which runs down into the Rhone through that steep, narrow, rocky valley at vhe lower end of which stands the town of Martigny) suddenly dried up so completely that not a drop of water was left'in the deep, zig-zag channel which had echoed with the roar of leaping torrents only a few days be- fore. The whole valley was in dismay, and many of the peasants fled from their homes, remembering that a simi- lar phenomenon had immediately pre- ceded the three most terrific landslips ever known in Switzerland. A few of the bolder spirits, however, volunteered to ascend the gorge and find out the ceuse of this wierd prodigy, and they discovered it only too soon. A mighty mass of ice, upon which a good-sized village might have stood with ease, had broken away from the great glacier overhead and slipped right down into the bed of the Dranse, which it blocked fo completely that not a drop could pass. Behind this natural dam the checked waters of the river were forming a kind of vast reservoir, rising ever higher and higher, and en- gulfing one by one the tiny upland hamlets that clung to the slopeson either side. Thus, by a hideous gro- tesqueness of horror, men were being drowned on a mountain top while their comrades in in the valley below were TORTURED WITIH THIRST. Few men could have faced unmoved the sight of this tremendous mass of pent-up waters (sufficient to drown the whole valley at one rush) hanging right over their heads and threatening to burst upon them at any moment. But the dreadful crisis, which would have utterly unstrung any weaker spirit, only nerved these bold hearts to re- Qoubled energy. It was at once de- cided to cut a tunnel through the ice, in order to let off the water ere it could overflow. Allthe men who could be collected were brought together in a wonderfully short space of time, and to worl they went, hewing their way through the ice barrier as manfully us the brave fellows whoure now toiling amid the ruins of Johnstown. Seldom has a more deperate task been attempted; never has it been more he- roically carried out. The cutting of the tunnel—begun from both ends at once in order to save time—went on day and night for more than two weeks, the gangs relieving each other every few hours. During the whole of this time the gallant men worked with death star- ing them in the tace, for at any instant the imprisoned waters that gurgled and growled beneath their feet might break loose and sweep them heudlong to de- struction. But not a man wavered. The ghostly darkness, the deadly chill of the icy walls that shut them in, the hollow roar, the unseen waters beneath, the crashing and splintering of the huge blocks of ice that kept falling around them on every side, the trembling and groaning of the whole mass us the flood pressed upon it harder and harder, the ever- present and hourly-deepening shadow of asuiden and horrible death might well have appalled the stoutest heart. But, even when the pickaxes actually dropped from their benumbed fingers, the little band of heroes NEVER FLINCHED FOR A MOMENT. And now the work was well nigh done, and the daring miners who had been pent so long in this living grave were looking joyfully forward to the speedy end of their dreadful task, when, almost at the last moment, it was sud- denly discovered that by some fatal error the two cuttings which were ap- proaching each other from opposite sides of the ice dam were proceeding on different levels, and could never meet unless a slanting passage were cut [rom one lo the other. This fresh labor oc- cupied two whole days, during which the devoted men fairly gave themselves up for lost, deeming it impossible to complete the additional work before the flood rose to the mouth of the tunnel and drowned them all where they stood. But at length the lust stroke was given, the workmen retired, the water began to pour freely through the tunnel, and the hiss and splash of its first leap into the dry channel below was apswered by a deep and heartfelt ‘‘thank God!” from every man in that heroic band. Then there came, in the very moment of triumph, the blabkest horror of the whole tragedy. Already the mass of water above the dam wns visibly re- duced,and the gallant miners—rejoicing in the thought that their valor and per- severance had redeémed from death the lives of allic that breathed in the valley—were, just starving to return to their homes, when, unexpected as lightuing from a cloud- less sky, the long ‘delayed destruction came. The constapt hammering of the escaping - waters, as . they fell in one gr cataract right upon the base of the ice dum, inflictedjupon the latter a shock which, weakened as it already was by the tremendous pressure from above, it was quite unable to sustain. With a crash more terrific thun the loudest thunder, the whole of the mighty mass gave way, and a volume of water o which Niagara itself would have seemed gmall, fell like a thunder- bolt right upon the doomed valley. What followed even those who saw it could never tell, and in truth the strongest words would be too weak to convey the full horror of a catastrophe which compressed the havoc of years intoa few terrible moments. 5o tre- mendous was the rush of the great wave from that vast height down the row delile that it seemed to leap with one bound from the higher end of the val- ley to the lower. In the forcible words of an eye witness, ‘it came hike a mountain” fired from a ecannon.” And as if to heighten this dreadful drama to the utmost, the inhabitants of the val- ley. seeing the bed of the river fillin again, concluded that the tunneling mff T0_ OFFICE BEEKERS ¢ Place Ofce Bl ing of Omaha THE BEE BUILDING. A Superb Court, Perfect Ventilation, Thoroughly Fire Proof. 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Its coming was so swift and sudden that flight was impossible, and indeed no lace of refuge could be accounted safe rom the sweep of that great harvest of death. A solid stone bridge that spunned the gorgefully sixty feet above the highest point ever known to have been reached by the river was cut away as if by the slash of a knife, and not a man of the ill-fated travelers who were crossing it at the time were ever seen again. The town of Martigny it- self, far away at the northern end of the valley, was literally swept from the earth, and only the massive gray turrets of an ancient tower on the hill high above it rose like a rocky islet amid that roaring sea of destruction. ‘When the surveyors of the fearful day ventured back, after the flood had spent its fury, to the spot where their homes had once stood. the keenest eye among them failed to recognize ONE FAMILIAR LANDMARK amid the ghastly, formless chaos of drifted mud and gravel, shattered rocks, uptorn trees and masses of broken tim- ber standing gauntly up from vast yols of miry water, beneath which lay buried fathoms deep the once bright and beautiful valley of the Dranse. 'The whole mouatain side had been torn away as if with a huge rake, and the charming little villages that had clung to it were gone asif they had never been. The very shape of the valley was utterly changed, and the population of the entire district well nigh extermi- nated at one blow; and long before the news of the disaster could reach the western lowlands, the bruised and mangled corpses, which the rushing Rhone whirled down by hundreds into the calm, bright waters of the Lake of Geneva, told to the shuddering villagers along its shores the fate of distant Martigny. B A funny story of a unique but unsatis- factory trade for a husbund comes from the picturesque town of Eastford, among the hills of Windham county, Connecti- cut. Mrs. Adah Ann Sharp, a lady of weulth, about eighty-five years old, de- cided about five veavs ago to marry. Her eye fell upon Timothy J, Backus, a successful farmer, aged seventy-five. It i§ said that she made fourteen proposals of marriage to him, to all of which he turned his deaf ear. At length. Dr, Backus, according to the published ac- eounts, was summoned before the widow, where he found himself confronted by Justice of the Peace Keith, The widow then made Mr. Backus the offer of a salary of $125 per vear, with horse and carriage thrown in, if he would marry her. Timothy did not hesitate long. He concluded that the fifteenth offer was worth taking, and went to the town clerk and got a marriage license. ‘When he gov back he found that his blushing bride had changed her and that the justice of the peac slowly driving out of the yard. He had not gone far before the would-be and wouldn’t-be bride reversed her decision and hustled Timothy after the justice. The dignified justice returned, Mrs, Sharp thereupon reversed judgment again and doclined to stand” up with Timothy. Then Timothy grabbed his hat in despair and prepared to leave, Mrs. Sharp at this again reversed her decision, and the marriage ceremony was performed. Marriage with them seems to have been a failure. For the past five years Timothy says he hus handled $27,000 worth of her property faithfully, and never got a cent for it. His wife put she became impre with the idea that he had s d her out of $100. He then persuaded her to sign a docu- ment hiring him to leave her for &1. Timothy is now on his own farm and his wife has posted him, forbidding all ons to trust him on her account. Three _Dolars - = l no sugar in bisdried apple pios, Finally o CALIFORNIA LA Sprinkler JAS. MORTON & SON 1511 Dodge Street, COMPAGHIE GENERAL ETRANSATLANTIQUE 18 now open. Parties desiring guod accommodati on on the oW Inrke express steamers of the Famo us FRENCH MAIL LINE, Vhich are noted for their regulnrity, equul 1o rail- rond trains, in waking te trip o JLavre-F'arls in one weak, ire ndvised Lo Make Early Application for Berths, Thia I3 also necossary on t of the beavy travel during Lie spring aud suo; ©F mOntls. McCAGUE BROS, outh 15th St., HARRY E. MOORES, 1502 Murnam St., H. L. HALL, 1223 Facnam St., J. H. GREEN, 1501 Furnam St., Agents, Omuha, Neb, MAURICE W. KOZMINSS KIDNEY:rdait ust ATy troubles easily, quick. Iy and sufely cured byDOCTURA Ca sules. Beveral casos curod 1 seven duya, Sold utBL30 per box, all, driggists, or by mall from Doctua 3% Co, 112 Whilte ™ N. Y. Full direo- ™ TOHINGS, ENGRAVINGS, FRAMES, 1fi13 Dunglas L R ‘obuse o Health is Weallh!d 1 % 3 ' guaranteed spectfl Convuisions, Fits, Nervous Neural Nervouk Prostration caused by use of alcohol or tobacco, Waukefuln M * Depression, Softening of the Bra.n, resulting 1 leading to misery, deciy anddeath. 1d Age. Barrennoks, Loss of Power y Losses and At ertion of thebrainselt. L overindulgence. ¥ach bo; ains: ane month's treatment, §1.00 a box, or six boxes. for £. 00,sent by mall prepaid on recolptof priceq: WE GUARANTEE SIX BOXES With each order received for six boxes, accompanied with $5.00, we send the pur. urantee Lo 1o, tund the y tment does not effe acure. Gu ces fxsucd only by Goodma: Drug ¢ gadsts, Sole Agents, 1110 Farna ot, Graha, Neb. sl HATURAL To SELECT i TO A THaT Yot 18 pu “FEI f:l n. otk To curs any case. '[’;:-Migln BY THE-&~ ~o‘ ‘THROUCHOUT THE o~ s T e L Gage) EMERSON, HALLET & DAVIS, ARTIST SUPPLLES, P EKIMBALL, MOULDINGS, PIANOS AND ORGANS SHEET MUSIO. - - (Omaha Nebraska £ S | Repair Works 808-810 NORTH SIXTEENTH STREET, ROBT. UHLIG, Prop. Kepalis for oves and flanges made. paym rd and we will DEWEY & STONE | \maha Stove Furniture C. M. EAYON, Mauager, Firillisnt Gasoline Stoves. . Gasoline Buruers made to order and thorou; Telephone 960 Stoves taken In e i R Al and estinate work of any kb "ol Compan & ure maker’s art at reasonable prices. l A mognificent display of everything useful and ornwmentl in the