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VOL. XXII.
WELDON, N. C., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1S91.
M) 3.9
WWOW DUAKE'S BEAU.
Wi:y Ho Looks Forward Impa
tiently to Now Year's Day.
f,lJ ',1
ELL!" said tho
hired girl, as
11
she tooK a
clothespin from
her mouth and
carefully fast
ened a pair of
trousers of an
cient cut nnd
ample propor
tions to the
clothesline,
"when it comes
to widows, I
own 'cm to be
beyond my un
do rs t an d i n'.
W hat Mrs.
-'
AT-P.
Drake can
sr.:,! hi' v.
see- in that there furrin
aerner 1 can't see. Hut
theiv's no question
din's to come off
hut what the wed
sometime Koon, an'
her tellin' me to fetch these here clo'so
that lelonged to number one out an'
air 'em is to my mind a sure sipu she's
goiu' t dispose of 'em an' pot 'em
out the way before number two comes
along.
"Her first's been under the sod these
ten year an' she's mourned him long
enough, the land knows. I ain't in no
way against widows marryin' an' try in'
it araiii if they like; but I do say It 'ml
be more seemly to choose, a man o' her
own Yankee i-tock than one o' frog
ea'in' French descent."
And the hired girl pave the rest which
she was shaking a jerk whkh sent
uue of the buttons half-way across the
yard.
It certainly did look as though thero
was to be a wedding at Widow
Drake's before long, and the neighbors
whispered that there was a little ro
mance connected with it. Ai:d so there
was, but they never could h;.ve guessed
what it was about, neither could you if
yon were to try for a month so I am
foing to tell you all about it.
The Willow Drake was plump, well
preserved 1:1 1 1 o body, with fresh rosy
cheeks ar.d bright blue eyes and the
smoothest of brown hair without a
thread of silver in it. She was not
young, but nobody would hare guessed
that she was forty, anil as n woman is
only a.-, old ts she looks, she kept her
own ro'insol and let people speak of her
as being i hirty-'hv.
Ker husband bad left her a neat little
home and enough money to keep her
comfortably without any care beyond a
few litUe economies now and then, in
the shape of a dyed gowh ' "vjn
strucled bonnet.
Ver life w; s calm and vnevciuYuV.
to neveutful, by ball, she thought, as
she sat in the twilight stroking, the
ff'X Maltese cat which was her com
panion and confidant.
I'rUcilln, the maid of all work, wus a
woman of too mature un ape to be
called a pirl in any ther sense than a
"hired girl," und she chose that title of
her own free will. She had lived with
Mrs. Drake during her brief married
life, ar.d the widow had kept her ever
since bee:' use she dreaded being alone
i: the 1:ou.m. lint l'riscilla was neither
sympathetic nor responsive, and Tom,
the Maltese eat, was much more apt to
ttoivc with the widow's opinions, so it
TOM I'l-KREu niS API'HOVAI..
to him that she whispered, upon
thia en-ning iu Juns, that she had half
ttmd to go west uad take up a claim.
Tom purred his approval and tho
' went on and poured into his car
h ,ii. which had been working in
ter miad for aereral daya, .
i r
J I
ii coui'i.e every one s.r.a t.:at ...io must
be crazy. Odd, over-thrifty and ven
turesome were the mildest of the ad
jectives which were applied to this
harmless little woman, who was simply
tired of the dull life which sho was liv
ing and who knew of no other way of
making a change which would benefit
her health and mind and her purse as
well.
And that is how it happened that this
woman, who seemed far too dainty for
such a life, was living away out on a
Dakota claim, hi a snug little shanty of
pine boards, banked with sods, and in
tho midst of the crudest of surround- i
.ngs.
It was tho first of July when she fded
I jjci cuLiui uuu it , as luijuiiuu uiat Lucre
should be a sis months residence upon
it. Everybody said that she never
would stay half the time; but she smiled
and stroked old Tom.
It wasn't so bad, after all, she
thought. There were plenty of neigh
borsnot very near, to be sure but
half a mile seems so much nearer in
that clear atmosphere which transmits
light and sound so marvelously.
Each morning she heard the shrill
vocal salute of the two schoolma'ams
who lived on the claim next hers; and
from her own door she would call back
a hearty "halloo-o," which always
brought a smile to the faces of those
ancient dames.
And then, out there everybody was
60 kind to everybody else, and some
body was always offering to bring one's
mail or one's groceries from tho queer
low hut which served as general store,
post ofllee, machine shop and dwelling
jn one.
Of course the bill of fare was apt to
be a little monotonous. There was a
great deal of salt pork and bacon and
dried fish, but there were lots of tinned
vegetables and canned fruit from home
to help out; and, really, it wasn't at all
what one would fancy from the doleful
tales one heurs of the suffering in new
countries.
Then thero were papers and maga
zines and letters from dear ones. Only
there was one trouble. The widow had
no dear ones. She was so alone. And
a little jealous feeling would come in
spite of her when tho two old maids
T1IK SHY MAN'S OKFKKIHO.
would stop with their hands full of let
ters from sisters and nephews and
nieces, to hand her a letter from Pria
cilta. Sometimes a tear would drop on
Tom's sleek coat, but that was not
often: only when she was silly, she told
herself.
Now thens was, about three-quarters
of a mile to tho right of the widow's
shanty a modest little shock, half cov
ered with luxuriant vines; over tho
front door was a roughly-made lattice,
uuu thh., tio, tras covered with the
vines, and tho whole cottage war. a
picturesque Utile affair and the envy of
the seh.o -lma'ams, who loved flowers,
but whose vines always died and whose
ornamental gardening was confined to
a bed of sickly-looking four o'clooks
which grew by their door.
The owner of the vine-draped shanty
wp.s a bachelor of middle age who
spoke with r. queer foreign accent. Ho
was an extremely bashful man and ho
scarcely dared look at the ladies as
they passed him, with the good-natured
"Howdy" that was the customary
greeting of the country.
The widow had watched him often
from tho window as ho plowed upon
his claim, and she admired his lino
manly bearing, and she did wi:h in
her heart that he'd be a bit neighborly,
and she U 'i'i ;a so; bv.t Tom only
pu.Ted and stretched himself in the
sun.
Kow, as I saidj the sohoolxa'ums
lull I I ' V;?.. Aft
were passionately ionci ol nowers ana ;
were discouraged and chagrined that ;
nothing would grow in their door yard. ;
So one day when they saw the owner
of Vine cottage, as they called it, set- :
ting out for town, they equipped them- j
selves with a basket and trowel and, '
stopping for the widow, they went on a j
tour of pillage.
They all entered into the fun of the :
thing nnd in an hour or more a droop-
ing, dejected-looking vine was clinging
to a string beside the door of each cot
tage. And the odd thing was, that while
the vine of the schoolma'ams faded
and died, that of the widow grew
und throve marveloiiHly. So wonderful
was its growth that soon it began to
spread over the walls and roof until her
f.hanty rivaled the vine cottage in the
Vv'ay of verdure. And the two old
maids joked the widow and caused her
to blush furiously r.t the undignified
prank she had played in getting the
vine.
In time, the shy man grew a little
neighborly and sometimes a brace of
prairie chickens would be hu::g, with
out a word, on the widow's door. Or
again it would be a lot of rare pebbles,
quartz and agate, or a trout or pickerel
from the lake near by. And at each
offering the widow would nod her pret
ty head wisely ar.d imilc to herself.
Nature was kind to the pioneers that
year. There had been no severe storms,
no terrible heat or drought, and in No
vember it was still mild and warm,
without a sign of frost. Everyone said
that it was a remarkable season, just
as though tho remark were quite new
and original.
The widow was saying to herself one
afternoon that after all it had been very
pleasant to be a pioneer woman. Thero
had boon no great discomforts and de
privations, and now that there were but
two months moro to stay, she was half
sorry.
She had been putting away some of
her summer clothes, and a white Mother
Hubbard wrapper, a favorite garment
of tho widow's, hunff upon a clothesline
'oeside the house. It was a dainty
thing, white cambric, with lace-edgod
ruffles and with a pink ribbon bow with
long ends at the neck. Indeed, to have
seen the widow In it would have recon
ciled the most prejudiced person to the
much-maligned Mother Hubbard.
There had been little fitful gusts of
wind all day and late in the afternoon it
became quite a gale. The tumble weeds
hurried from spot to spot as the wind
veered about, and the dainty Mother
Hubbard flapped furiously in tho breeze,
but the widow was reading a very in
teresting book and never looked up until
crash came a flyingr board against the
side of the house and the shanty began
to sway and rock like a cradle.
It was a short-lived storm and thero
was no damage done, and in half an
hour the sky was again clear; but
when Mrs. Drake went out to look for
her gown it was gone. Of course tho
wind had torn it to tatters. Thero was
no use to look for it; it was pone for
ever, and with a sigh the littlo woman
went into the house.
Tho next two months flew very
swiftlv. The bachelor had grown
holder and had come to call, but tho
lively widow did the most of tho talk
ing and ho replied in broken monosyl
lables. Tho weather was still bright and
pleasant, and there hod been no bliz
zards, no snow. That was "remark
able" too, for it was nearly holiday
time.
Then came Xmas, such a queer, quiet
day with not even a letter from Trlscil
la. Hut even then there was genuine
regret in her heart when Mrs. Drake
began to pack her belongings prepara
tory to going back to the states. Sho
was in better health and spirits than
ever before, and she had a quarter sec
tion of land of her own and she had
made some pleasant friends. On tho
whole it had paid well.
It was New Year's eve and she was
to leave the next morning. She put on
an extra lump of coal and set the
lighted lamp in tho window. She
thought it might cheer some one. you
know, and it did; it shone way out on
tho path and lit the way for the bach
elor as ho came hurrying across the
fields.
As he came into the littlo room, baro
of all tho pretty little articles which
had made it so cheerful and homelike,
his bnrt t'avo a thump to think that it
would so si.on be empty and deserted,
and he resolved to say what was on his
mind at once.
Hut the words would not come; he
could only open tho parcel which he
had brought ntul take out-puess what!
The tattered remnants of a cambric
Mother Hubbard.
As tho widow pare a little squeal of
nnmriso. ho said, with a stately bow:
"T V!.r brincr ze 7.o chemise of
madauie, which .e wind brings to me
so long ago." And with an impetuous
motion he tore open his coat and thero
over his heart lay tho folded pink rib
bon which had been at the throat of the
gown.
Somehow after that ho didn't need
words, for the widow's dark head rested
on the libbon and both his arms were
about he.
Now there is sometli'':g irresistibly
fminv imout the courtship of r.iddlc-
wfjd'lovjrs. Younj lovers .are interest
ing enough, and old lovers arc pathet
ically grotesque, but when two common-place
people in middle life fall in
love with each other I defy them to
behave so that they are above ridicule.
So we will draw the curtain here,
when 1 tell you that after her lover had
gone the widow whispered to Tom: "So
romantic, isn't it? lint how absurd to
call it a chemise." The widow returned
to her old home and to l'riscilla; and it
has leaked out that she is wearing a
ring with "Happy New Year" engraved
inside, so the neighbors believe, that the,
wedding is to come off on an anniver
sary of that day.
Hut 1 have told all that I am going to,
now, and if you really want to know if
they ::ro married, just look among uiu
marriage notices on New Year's day.
Mauih Murtr: Marsh.
GOOD RESOLUTIONS.
The
Iihiil to Which tho Prurient
Man
Will Confine Himself.
HOSE who
in-
tend to try
once more the
oft-tried experi
ment of making
New Year's res
olutions have
not much time
to lose. Such
resolutions, if
they are by any
possibility to bo
kept, require a
good dead of
b t u d y lie fore
hand. It must
be the right
kind of study,
too. As a rule the more thought that is
bestowed upon the subject the more
elaborate and length-the set of resolu
tions become. That is going in the wrong
direction. A more useful kind of study
is that which discriminates, prunes and
discards the superfluities. Don't resolve
too much. If you do you will fail to
keep your resolutions and that will
tend to weaken your faith in yourself.
If you are particularly fond of an after-
dinner cigar and resolv to dispense
with it, that is one of the resolutions
that a discriminating resolver would
prune out, because there is next to no
possibility of its being kept more than
three days nt tho utmost. Thero are
some resolutions that aro easier to
keep, and to these the prudent man will
confine himself. Resolve that if you sit
down suddenly on tho icy sidewalk, or
pound your tuumb with a hammer, you
will make a few cursory remarks; be
cause it is a resolution that you will
surely keep. Itesolve that in any case
you will read this paper; that is an
other thut you can't help keeping. Res
olutions that are kept aro a source of
satisfaction, says the Hoston Globe, and
the kind that aro made every New
Year's day and never kept are a foun
tain of more or less poignant regret.
THE NEW YEAR COMETH.
And With It Coma Uuuil Itcolntlo and
Other llotliersooie Things.
Ever since a lonff time ago. New
Year's day, the 1st of January, has been
the clay upon winch I swear off. Jot
swear of-ten, but swear that henceforth
I will off with some pernicious habit
which is slowly but surely weaving its
its its its its unseen network of
of of of of vice about me. Vice
given its own way too long will soon
hold a person like a vice. (Xott: This
is a play upon words which I just
thought of. Tho former vice referring
to sin in its unadulterated state, and the
latter meaning an instrument in which
carpenters torture two-by-fours and the
like and lather them previous to doing
a job of plane shaving. The phrase is
doublo action. the terms may do
transposed and they get there just tho
Kmr 1
Last year I resolved that I would re
trench in household expenses, and so i
agreed to give my wife a certain amount
of monev ererv week and let her pro
vide for the table. That is. tho amount
was certain the first week, but my wifo
savs that after that it was frequently
decidedly uncertain. She hadn't had
much experience but she did nooiy.
She said one dav that she wished I
would give her tho name of some great
wholesale grocer, a namo that would
be n Ki nonvm for the cho:"vr t c er
thing, so thut when dealers psked her
ttir nuTcnr.n ntov t have that braud.
what brand of an article she wanted,
she wouldn't be at a loss and disnlav
ft M'Ph
her Ignorance.'
I told her to always ask for II. K.
Cooper's goods. (That isn't the name I
pave her at all, but that name will do.
I don't propose to give advertising
worth 814 per agate line for nothing.)
The plan worked delightfully. Vhen
she would inquire for some good olives,
and the clerk would ask her supercil
iously what brand she preferred, sho
would remark, as pert as you please:
"H. K. Cooper's, if you have tln m."
Nine cases out of ten they didn't have
anything so good, but the salesman
would treat her with the greatest con
sideration because she appeared to bo
up in the business pretty well herself,
and not try to work oil any old shop
worn pickles or last year's yeast cakes
on her.
Hut, alas! one day she went into a
meat market and in her most imperious
voice said: "I would like sorao liver."
"What sort, madam?"
"Why, I supposed that liver was all
alike."
"Oh, no. Vi'e sell several varieties."
"Well," answered Marie in desper -tion,
"you may give me II. K. Cooper': . '
And this is a true story and wort. ,,
of all people to be believed.
As near as I can find out, Adam
the first man to turn over a new le:- .
I have a suspicion, though, that 1
turned over a good many beforo be
his winter's supply of clothing all mm'
up. Adam must have reversed his eul .
on Wednesday, and that was, of pours'. .
a turning of leavus. As a man one
said to me, facetiously, when he discov
ered me trying to reverse my cuii
without attracting attention, behind
EXAMINING ONE YEAR'S 11KC0HD.
the cabinet organ at a donation party,
having forgotten to do it in tho haste of
my toilet preparations: "One good turn
deserves another."
I like to turn over a new leaf once, in
awhile. I get so tired of the old one.
It is so stained, and blotted, and discol
ored. It is torn in so many places and
it is written so full of mistakes and
failures.
There ore the 2C5 little "X" raark3
which indicate tho days during the
past year upon which I was needlessly
cross nnd irritable. There aro a half
dozen near the top of the page marked
"XX." That was while wo were mov
ing into the new house and getting set
tled. Then there's tho entry January
2, where, I began smoking again, and
579,473 little dots, like fly specks almost,
which mark the number of times I
have "kicked" about things during the
past year.
It's a poor, dirty, miserable, badly
kept, altogether too faithful record. It
is interlined and criss-crossed, but it
isn't illegible. Every entry stands out
bold and clear, and I can't erase a sin
gle one of them. I can only turn the
sorry-looking chronicle out of sight and
begin with a clean, fresh, new page
on the other leaf.
Ciiari.es Nrwtox noon.
N OTHER chap
ter h a s been
written in the
history o f t h o
world, a chapter
more i
dcrfui
gel
is a ft.
sec iv.
(;.
sang to
create!
than any in tho won-
e, and the recording un
I and turns tho page. It
. it is granted to nono to
ion, and few indeed aro
' rend its past. Its be
, when tho morning star
t her over tho order that was
it of chaos, and tho plot, with
its thn aui of light and shade, sublimo
courage and pitiful cowardice, bats and
love, joy and fear, no man can coinpre
hend and no man can alter. He may
delay the consummation of the Divine
plan, but there is all eternity for its
completion.
The year of our Lord 1S91 has wit
nessed marvels in tea. arts and sciences.
If IJfc
ill
mm
'VI $
The deptha of tho earth' and the heights
of tho clouds have been called upon to
yield their secrets, and the wholo realm
of space is now virtually the kingdom
of the mind. In a year the world has
made giant strides toward the perfec
tion of civilization, nnd every one of the
last fifty years has witnessed discoveries
and inventions that have put to shame
those of as many centuries, until, paus
ing in amazement, on the threshold of
the future, we aro forced to exclaim:
"What wilt thou bring forth, oh, inex
plicable void! The crowning of man's
dreams or tho end of m:iterial great
ness? Tho summit fif perfection or tho
return of formless ehao;.'.'"
(ireut ai; has been the progress of the
world, the high water mark has only
been reached in certain favored spaces,
and vast continents are still reserved
for the maturing of God's purposes.
To our nation It has been a year
whoso bounteousness nnd peace have
been unparalleled in the history of any
country. . The seasons have poured
from their laps their garnered treas
ures, and north, south, cast and west
rejoice in abundance. The faces of na
ture and tho elements have been pro
pitious, ami tho smile of Provi
dence seems to rest in benediction upon
the land. Iu the social world too, tho
fruitage has been abundant. Never be
fore in the history of our country has
so much good been done by earnest in
dividuals and society for the reclama
tion of evil, the reform of abuses, and
tho amelioration of the condition of the
deserving poor. The harvest of good
deeds in that has been great in spite of
tho fact there are still fallow fields, and
that much has been left unattetnpted.
There arc those, of course, who take
gloomy views of the times, who see the
evil, but fail to recognise the good, and
declare that morally the world is grow
ing weaker anil more degenerate with
each year. Hut truth, the mighty leaven,
is germinating, dropped in the dark soil
of ignorance and error; and hidden
away from sight, folded in the bursting
sheath, is tho sprout which shall one
day become the giant oak, 'neath which
onr nation shall be sheltered from
storms and noontide heats.
Not in tho spirit of the Pharisee, but
in that of reverent humility, should wo
view our blessing'! of the pi'styear, and
have a fraternal sympathy for tho fam
ishing peasants whose cry goes up from
the banks of tho Volga, and from the
slopes of the Ural mountains; for tho
exiled race, whoso wandering through
the wilderness of prejudice and injus
tice is as cruel as their forty years' pro
bation in the desert; for tho poverty-oppressed
masses of our kindred nation,
whoso mother tongue is ours, and with
whom we claim a common ancestry,and
for those nations who sit in darknesf
or girt about with misty and uncertail
light, but longing for perfect day.
The year 1893, upon who30 threshold
we now stand, is surely destined to be
a momentous one in the world's history,
and to America is granted the honor of
erecting a milestone in the universal
progress. In tho year that is before
us the people of the old world will be
summoned to witness the inauguration
of a monument worthy of the genius
and courage of Columbus, a monument
which puts to shame tho proudest
structure ever raised to commemorate
the great deeds of prince or conqueror,
and that monument is an enlightened
and prosperous people, whoso self rev
erence, self knowledge and self control
have raised them, in but little more
than a century, to be the object of tho
wonder and admiration of tho world.
Not Columbus, the Genoese, nor Colum
bus, the navigator, do we thus honor,
but tho courage which was repre
sented in him, which dared to fling
away old traditions and obey tiie in
ward voice urging onward to great
achievement.
The year lies before us, a mystery as
as Cue my-.icry or ail mysteries
death. We meet it with high resolve,
but every day iu our life in reality
marks a similar anniversary, and every
night witnesses the end of a year, a
step taken irrevocably from time to
ward eternity, for there, and thero
onl3 can we meet face to faco that
shrouded shape, the Future, which for
ever flees as we approach. If we would
truly livo well, the years, whether
speut in work or meditation, in pleas
ure or pain, should yield us something
moro than material good,' which is as
evanescent as tho morning mists. The
outlines of our lives uro drawn for us
by circumstances, training, heredity
and other influences above our control,
but day by day wo nro filling in tho
light and shade, the coloring in tho pic
ture, and it is the coloring that will,
make or mar the beauty of that crea
tion that shall hang in tho gallery of
God. Lou V. CnAi'iN.
. . , in
Lusiia.-.-'V 1 ..r.-t
rci-o iir.eja,! to Miss I :
night, i.itl v:m see the. oi.i .
last
.tl-.v"
CI Jo.-- S'o. .nt.-.. '
H4.3- 1 .1.-'.: '.' saw xtie out lir.';.. -Hirv.
'"..toin t.i f we.a, off drinking x. S '
aOioking this New .'e-n's?" "Of coujs'J
I hare always don i It and I'm not gojr
in;; to quit now. I'm a firm believer ii
keeping up old ci: atoms." Philadclphi
Times.
. L'