North Carolina Newspapers

v. THE - : y i VOL. 9 NO. 50. ASHEVILLE, N. CM SATURDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 29, 1902. PRICE 5 CENTS .tarni wagons T a.a.a..aa.a.a. a. a. . . A . . . . . rWMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA MISS MHODA'S ? "T ' T IS" ' ' A mm- -m- VIbAVlS i A Thanksgiving Story By JEANNETTE H, WALWORTH Copyright, 1899, by Jeannette H. Walworth I O THE CELEBRATED TENNESSEE WAGONS Steel or thimhle skeins high or low wheels, with special mountain gear brake; extra thick tire, specially ironed to order re! rough hauling. ' T. S. MORRISON, GENT....... f ASHEVILLE Also agent ior the Birdsell, Nissen, Piedmont and Chattanooga Wagons. , m STOVES! . m fete m m m 'm m m m m m THE O. K. QUEEN STOVE is the best baking-stove that is made. We have them in all sizes and our prices are low. Call and see them. We guarantee them in every particu lar. Prices low- We sell on time. m ROB.- A.ST0R BAILEY looked across the breakfast ta ble toward his pretty old wife with a wrinkle of dissatisfaction puckering his benevolent forehead. A glimmer of amusement m his clear blue eyes, however, had the effect of a contradiction. "Minerva. she is going to do it again." Mrs. Bailey suspended the silver strainer over his second cup of tea to ask: v "Who is going to do what acain. Mr. Bailey?" "Rhoda Crafts. What day of the month is, this?" i i "Oh, Rhoda Crafts, is it? This is the 14th. I knew, she would." "Well, now, there, my love, that just hows where your superior knowledge of your own sex comes in. Before get ting this" with one fat, white Anger he patt.ed a letter which lay open be side his plate "I should have said just as positively that I knew she would not. I trusted that the experience of last year would make her let up on her Quixotic nonsense." "There isn't much 'let up in Rhoda Crafts, and she wouldn't know what you meant by 'Quixotic nonsense.' She calls it her 'cup of cold water in his name' day." "She might let up a little on the name at least." The pastor laughed indulgently. "I am afraid our dear Rhoda is a trifle obstinate." "Frightfully. She comes of obstinate stock. She has started in for this an nual foolishness, and she is going to keep it up until something comes of it." ': The dissatisfaction iu the pastor's face entirely eclipsed the gleam of fun in his eyes as he asked: ."But what can possibly .come of it, my dear?" . "Ob. don't ask me, Mr. Bailey! Either peace of mind from giving so many cups of cold water in his liarne, which is her name for a first class Thanks-J giving day dinner, or John Graham' must come of it." "It" will not be John Graham.' There was a note of angry conviction in the pastor's mild voice. "Me is not a .man to be put on or cast off like an old shoe by any woman. Anil you will admit that Rhoda did act badly, my dear." "1 am not going to thrash that old straw over again." said Mrs. Bailey, with sex loyalty.' "but it is a pity." "It is hjilf a dozen pities. She is too young and too handsome to le living alone in affluence. She ought to. have some duties to occupy her mind and time." ' "Alone! Where does Margaret Kempe. come iuV" "Tretty much everywhere," the pas tor admitted, with an apologetic laugh. "Well. I have ten days to go om" "Which is time enough to sift Limes port from center to circumference in search of a vis a vis. That last one, the fellow that walked off with the sil ver she fed him with, ought to make her cautious. Does she allude to that?" The jtastor picked up the open letter by his plate. ' "Oh. yes. quite frankly I'll read you her note. She says: 1 "My Dear Mr. Bailey I am going to de pend upon you this year to select and in vito my Thanksgiving day guest. Since mjPexperienoe of last year I mistrust my own judgment. I hope you and dear Mrs. Bailey v.-on't side with my good Margaret In trying to stop what she calls myjion- YourHair sense." 1 have regrslerej a vow to sit at table on every Thanksgiving day with one who is poor and friendless and home less. I am foolish enough to hope that the bread I thus throw upon the waters may be. somehow, somewhere, returned to him. The ordeal seems more trying each time. But it Is a lining penance for my arrogance and injustice. I am going to leave the selection of my vis-a-vis to you this year." "Well she may mistrust her own judgment." Mrs. Bailey commented. "If she was older and ugly instead of being only twenty-five and the. hand somest woman in Limesport. I would not fret so over her nonsense." "There is always Margaret Kempe," said the pastor, with the effect, of of fering comfort. "Yes. There is always. Margaret, and she's worth a whole battalion of ordi nary meu. Well, my dear. I wish you joy of your task. You've got ten days to find your man in." Considering himself dismissed, the pastor gathered up his mail matter and retreated to his study-not to begin at once oh his Thanksgiving day sermon, ns conscience dictated, but to ponder Rhoda Crafts' strange request. He would rather, if she were bent upon keeping her strange vow. that she should leave the selection of a vis-a-vis to hhn. He had performed the marriage ceremony "for Rhoda's father and moth er; he had baptized her. and to whom should she turn in any emergency if not to him? Also he had hoped to unit6 her to John Graham John Gra ham, whom he knew and loved: John Graham, whom all Limesport knew and loved for a high spirited, clean souled man. with the "makings of much" in him. as Margaret Kempe had herself quaintly put it when upbraid jng her mistress for not knowing her own mind. But John was gone, and Rhoda was here, an ever present problem with the old pastor and his wife. The matter of this vis a-vls weighed heavily on both of them. ' And there the matter stopped. uutil the day and i the hour arrived when Margaret Keknpe, tall, muscular, po tential, stood 'before her' mistress and announced acridly: "Well, he's come." Miss Rhoda was standing before her looking glass putting the last finishing touches to her dinner toilet. On Thanks giving day, the last five of them at least, 'she always arrayed herself in black silk, with lavender ribbons. To Margaret, Who objected on the score of monotony, she explained: "It looks staid and dignified, Mar get'It is well to ipjress my strange vis-a-vis with an idea, of age. This costume "is subdued." "Half way mourning, I call It," Mar garet had scornfully commented on other days. ;But she had finally accept ed the stiff black garb as a factor in the "foollshest day of all the year." The annual ordeal was imminent Miss Crafts and her potential maid had been to church, there to leave their thank offerings. Miss Rhoda had almost hoped the Rev. Mr. Bailey would re- ready." "Where did you leave! get?" "In the back parlor. I itook the lib-, erty of turning the key o4 the outside too. He never heard me, though." "How do you know he jdid not? would be cruel to put any him, Marget." , "I ain't likely to put any on him- that he'll" remember after his first slice, of turkey. I left him standing stock s'till hlmv Mar- It indignity on the one tooken before your, picture. when yon was fresh from school. I know he can't walk off with that. It's nailed to the wall." "How exceedingly impertinent J" said Miss Rhoda, growing pink in her re sentment. J Margaret Kempe thumped her way down the carpeted steps lb the rebel lious frame of mind which common to her Her left foot, which by ancient ankle sprain seemed to act quite independently of the right, beat an angry accompaniment to her per turbed reflections. 'This was the fifth time me had been called upon lo minister to the comfort had become Thanksgiving days. reason of an of a "picked up" guest. She supposed Miss Rhoda had Scriptur warrant for t going out into the highways and by- Ways for the eaters of hot feast, but it was not her (Margaret's! notions of a Thanksgiving gathering, fit was a "first cold water le do iu face Redness? ions took on looked, with pucd high over ad and her' orld like the I'd diamonds ly but an uu a- is. Very t. was -the ' whom she to await the m 43-45 PATTON AVENUE. V NOTICE We do a great deal of work for people outside the city of Asheville; some of them outside the State of . North Carolina. Mafe up a bundle of your soiled linen and express to us. and we will return it promptly, laundred to suit the most : fastidious. . J. A. NICHOLS, Proprietor. ' "Two years ago my hair was falling out badly. I purchased a bottle of Ayer's Hair-Vigor, and soon my hair stopped coming out." . Miss Minnie Hoover, Paris, 111. Perhaps your mother had thin hair, but that is no reason why you must go through life with half starved hair. If you want long, thick hair, feed it I with Ayer's Hair Vigor, ana mane n n-", umv, and heavy. $1.00 i bottle. All druggists. class mortification" to hr to be pass lug di.shes to a cut) of tramp, but what could s of Miss Rboda's. hard he; Then Margaret's reflec a softer tinge. How pretty "the child' her wavy brown hair her smooth, white forel: eyes shining for ail the stars that somebody caljl ill the sky, and with uo'.k known tramp for a vis" l I nek j". ' lUtiiifiLt Margin gone to seeu geiitlema had looked in downstairs emancipation of dinner hour. Upstairs Miss Rhoda was going through a little formula of her own. There was a picture of J ohn Graham tucked away behind the lid of her writing desk. She always appealed to him before going to ineej: her unseen vis-a-vis to bear In mind that what she was doing was done If or his sake, almost at his command. It was. a laughing, hapdsome face that confronted her in tlnf .hour of her tearful appeal but as she had last seen it it was stormy with indignation over what he had called her unwomanly in justice. She had been unjust; she had been passionate and silly, andjhe.had not been patient. It require all her de termination to hold fast by the obliga tion which in her remorse she fanciful ly declared he' had laid upon her. It was on a Thanksgiving day, one which they had expected o spend joy ously together, that their j quarrel had come about, stormingly, furiously, sud- Siic was sur? he was out or neartn; also that he ha 3 seen better days. Evi dently he had seen much of the world. She should like to know what had brought him to Limesport. Margaret Kempe also found her mind running speculatively beyond the re gion of the viands. A man who knew enough to use his' fork instead of his knife and who han dled his napkin as if.it were a familiar necessity rather than a .luxurious nov elty seemed out of place at a charity dinner. He had' primarily won her good graces by using the front doormat and hanging his shabby hat on the hall rack. v . j "I She stamped to and from the jpantry with a growing sense of the unusual besetting her. He seemed to find more to talk about than the other vis-a-vis had, and Miss Rhoda seemed quite will ing that he should do his share of the entertaining. '.'' Margaret Kempe coughed. Whenever Margaret coughed it meant either that Miss Rhoda had forgotten something or that the traditions of the day were being trifled with. Always it was a call to attention, j On this occasion it meant that' the prescribed routine was not being ob served. By rights Miss Rhoda should have risen from the table at the pre cise moment of the vis-a-vis swallowing his last drop of coffee, and in her state liest manner her 'stand off manner," Margaret called it she' should have handed her Thanksgiving guest the envelope containinfisher "small contri bution to his comfort," the giving of an envelope containing a ten dollar bill. The giving of the envelope was usually accompanied by a, murmured bit or two of advice which Margaret (again) call ed the doxology. But today Miss Rhoda tarried strange ly. The gaunt man had even folded up his napkin. Miss Rhoda dallied with her teaspoon. The doxology and the envelope lagged. Margaret Kempe coughed, so violently this time that it was useless to assume ignorance. Miss Rhoda lifted her soft eyes pleadingly to the stern ones which from the vantage ground of the gaunt man'a back were inflexibly fixed upon her in a stare of stony surprise. "Oh, Marget, this gentleman knows my our friend. Mr. John Graham. Met him in Siberia. I was just going to"- ' Evidently Margaret Kempe consid ered that the long deferred moment for her- to "sail in" had arrived. No such confidence game as that should be played out under her very nose. "Siberia, did I understand you, ma'am, the place which I have always heard was inhabited by nothing but snow and convicts? Is it likely that good maid distrusts "my statement. Will you be so kind" lie glanced at Margaret. She extend ed her. tray at arms' length. Such so cial interchanges were .a violent in fraction of the cold courtesies of the preceding cup of cold water days. The package dropped upon the tray with a metallic click. "Kindly pass that to Miss Crafts: It will vouch' for the fact that Mr. John Graham and I have met. lie was very ill before I left Siberia. It was my good fortune to be . with him at the time. When he was at his worst, ; he made me take from this chain a small ' loc'.:et and destroy , it. He said he wanted no one staring at the picture it contained after he was gone. The chain he begged me to keep as a small souvenir of friendship." j Margaret stood close behind her mis tress' chair. Her strong, faithful hand" lay. along its back. She could see the gray pallor spread over the sweet, pa tient faee as, loosening the silk wrap pings, she brought to view a little chain of gold and onyx links. She could feel the tremor that ran along Rhoda's frame. S i "Did it belong to him, ma'am our Mr. John?" "Yes," said Rbeda scarcely above a whisper. Then with a sudden revul sion to the haughty manner which be longed to the day's traditions she stood up and cast about her for the envelope. It was not in her pocket. She turned toward Margaret with an a4r of com mand which seemed a reversal of atti tudes:.. . " i "You will be late getting to your sis ter's, Marget, with your thank offer ings. You can go at. once. I know where it is now. I left it. in the back parlor when I went to summon my guest . You will step this way, please." This to the gaunt man, vFho had risen , when she did. The chain Margaret had passed back to its owner without comment from Miss Crafts. She was glad to per ceive that Miss Rhoda was reverting to an attitude of safe aloofness. Her own snub had silenced the loquacious vis-a-vis. No harm could come now of her looking after things in the pantry ! While the envelope and the doxology were in progress. She was free to fill her basket with the fragments of the feast and transport them to the edge of town, where they would find eager consumers in a regiment of "brats" who called her aunt. Quite half an hour had expired when, bonneted and. basketed, she passed through the front hall on her way sis terward. She gave a start of surprise at sight of the shabby hat still hang ing on the hall rack. Then a shudder of horror ran down her substantial spine. ' Her' refractory our Mr. John Graham would go to a .T 1. n 4- , . Q 1. e ... : 1 1 1 - ui iuoi k, i u, u u u u m jcft oot C0Esentea4o act with her right lit UatfU lJ Uf SOIL:? ITUUILC fcULMJUl w uu he went with." This with a glance of j disapprobation cast at the gaunt man which made Mis Rhoda blush for the manners of her dragon. The vis-a-vis adjusted his steel bowed spectacles with a nervous hand. An" inarticulate in carrying her with incredible rapidity toward the back parlor. Surely the giving of the envelope' and its supple mental advice could not take that long. Voices subdued', but amicable, jcas sured her. Men did not murder their i, ! .I.--- ' . a rich man. He, has oeen engages civil engineer in the laying out of a railroad through Siberia. The pay Is' good, but the work hard and the cli mate trying. ' I doubt whether any of his friends would recognize him, he las changed so since I first saw him." Then Miss Rhoda said (Margaret ground her teeth in rage), "He could, never change so that some of his friends : would not recognize him." ' The idea of her mistress allowing herself to entertain a tramp in that purely social manner! No visiting of sisters for her that "day, j Margaret' stumied back to the pantry and depos ited her basket. This thing! had gone is far as it must go. No one knew bettor than she did what mi aching heart Rhoda. Crafts carried about with her, but that was no excuse for allowing herself to be imposed up Dn by . that "hairy Esau In sheep's clothing" even if Parson Bailey was responsible for his "pick up." Without preface or parley she stump ed back through the dining room and parted the portieres with both resolute hands. "Miss Rhoda, ma'am" . . Then with a startled cry she fell back against the dining room table. The curtains dropped from her nerve less grasp. She had seen it with her own eyes. There was no use any one trying to deny. it. The gaunt man'was kneeling on the floor before - Miss Rhoda, who was crying softly into her pocket handkerchief. Doubtless he had been 'working on her feelings again about Mr. John. After a moment of indecision she "sailed in." Miss Rhoda's sweet voice, thrilfed through and through with happiness, ; greeted her: "Oh, Marget, it is John John him self!" ; - "And you're that easily put upon, ma'am?" : '.,-' She advanced a step or two and looked tempestuously at the gaunt man. Miss Rhoda entered rapidly up on the defense of her lover. "He lias been ill, Marget oh, so ill and he was' coming home to see if I had repented of my foolishness,-and Mr. Bailey was the first friend he went to see, and he put the idea of playing this practical joke upon me into John's head, and I think it is shockingly strange, Marget, that neither you nor I recognized him. We ought to be bo very niuch ashamed of ourselves.' "I doubt if his own mother would 'a' known him, and I'd like to have Parson Bailey's indorsement before I give in now, ma'am." That Inarticulate sound which had so puzzled Margaret in the dining room escaped more freely from the visa-vis' Hps. It was John Graham's weir remembered laugh. Margaret's austere face relaxed, "Well, I guess I'd know that laugh in a thousand. I am glad' to see you back, Mr. John, if for no other reason but because now there won't be any more cup of cold water tramps to spoil my Thanksgiving dayf. I guess I can look after sister's young ones now." And John Graham, with an air of au- MlHh- ' ! "";'' .hi StXil She Could Feel the Tremor That Ran Along Rhoda's Frame. nni-t n fn Hiiro In his Bpflrch for a VlS-a t-., im irtatden T. She had told him she never V1H, UUt UnilCJ nujiom " -" " If your drag-gist cannot supply you, e,wi i one dollar and we will express you a bottle. Be sure and give the name of vour nearest express ofhee. Address, 3 J. CAY. Kit CO. , Lowell, Ma ss. ll - IF WE HAVE IT, IT'S THE BEST.' Will You Take Advantage OF COST SALE OF REVOLVERS To buy -a reliable revolver ? Every home sh mid be provided with one. Remember the j .rices : , ,., . , , Iver Johnson',-3'2 and calibre, double action, :U inch barrel, niekled, former price, $..0Qu Cost sale, $3.25. Smith & Wesson, 32 dalibre. mcklec L inch barrel; former., price, 811.00.- Cost sale, $10.00. . ' - Other calibres, with longer barrels, pro- rnrtimmte reduction. Wp hnvp. ft lame stock of Shot Gnns . Rifles' at very reasonable prices. and Ashevi Ois THE SQUARE He Have You Bought a Stove You can save'lots of wood and be more comfortable, too, by using a stovenstead of open fire. With a COLE HEATER V You can make it red hot in three minutes certainly an advantage cold mornings. ardware Co. ASHEVILLE, N. C. aisle to whisper in her ear: "Mr. Bailey-says he hopes you will find him Inoffensive in every particu- Llar. my dear." And Miss Uhoda, walking homeward under the bright November skies, meeting family groups all hurrying to-, ward some common center of clan ral lying, nodding to this one and that, who all knew her for a solitary, swal lowed a great lump in her throat and reminded herself that it was In his name that she was about to receive this unseen guest into her dainty home. And when, a little later on, Margaret stood in her presence with that curt announcement she had to acknowledge to herself that her 6elf inflicted pen ance was getting upon her nerves. She faced toward Margaret invisible trep idation. ' . j ; . "What does he look like, Marget?' . I've seen worse looking men. If te was to shave off a foot or two of beard and have his hair shingled and look at you through his own eyes Instead of blue glass goggles, it might be asier to say what he does look like. I don't like his color much." Miss Rhoda recoiled. "You don't mean "Oh, he's white, or he was original ly. Looks more like a very old tallow candle than anything I can think of just now." ' , "Is he a foreigner?" "I can't say. You can trust mm to understand English enough to know what you mean when you top . your cup of cold water foolishness with that envelope holding a ten dollar bill." "Is he does he look neat, Marget?". "Well, for a charity guest I should say yes. He's clean, which the last one warn't." "Oh, don't speak of the last one! The wretch! The Ingrate!" "And he don't smell of tobacco, like the one before that did." Miss Rhoda exhaled a soft sigh of thankfulness and delicately cologned the handkerchief she had just taken from her bureau drawer. "And he does look like he used a comb and brush once in awhile, which was more tnan tne one nerore iue other one did." "Oh, I hope he will eat with his fork!" Margaret Kemp fairly snorted with acorn. "WelL then, I just hope 'he won't. I hope this one will do something so out rageously bad that you will never have another cup of cold water idiot sitting opposite you at your own table and me washing up dishes after him as long as you and me live." "Oh, Marget, you know it is part of my penance!" , "I know it! Part of your fudge! But for all his gentleman gone to seed looks he may this very minute be filling his pockets with something that he likes better than cold water. I'll go down. You. can ring for dinner when you're wanted to look upon his face again. He had asked her twicej-nay, three, times slowly, almost solemnly, if she had meant it Three times, without a quaver in her voice, but with the cold ness of death clasping iher sinking heart, she had said she did. And then he had turned away f ronx her with the words that she had laughed to scorn then, but had writhed under afterward and never forgotten. "There will be a vacant chair at your table today and, I beiievei, an aching spot in your heart. Ab you'liave driven me into exile, I go. When this day rolls round again, perhaps jthe ache in your heart may be eased by filling the chair I was to fill with some one who, like myself, shall be a Btranger, home less and poor. I shall never sue to you for pardon until my conscience joins you in accusing me." I And then he had gone away from her, out of her home, out of the town, otrt of her ken, leaving her half dazed over the suddenness of it all. This was how it came about that Miss Rhoda came to ask old Professor f'.immons to dine with her ton the next Thanksgiving day. He was a "stran ger and poor "and homeless." And when the professor left Limesport be cause there was no one! there who wanted to be coached in Greek and He brew she cast about for some one else to do penance with. Always she sol emnized the feast with the quaint greeting: j "In Christ's name, friend, I make you welcome. If I can add :one ray of brightness to your day, I shall, have that much more to return- thanks for." . Margaret Kempe was always close behind the portieres thatjdiyided the back parlor from Miss Rhoda's pretty dining room, on hand, as she expressed it, "to sail in if needs be." j But up to the coming oC the gone to Beeu1 man there had been; no call for her to "sail In." The strangely prof fered feast- was accepted with shame faced gratitude. As their colloquial efforts were generally confined to kind ly impertinences on Miss Rhoda's part, who sowed much good seed of an ad visory sort while feeding her vis-a-vis, conversation did not thrive. Margaret Kempe's military tramp, as the dinner progressed from oysters to toffee, was the most conspicuous sound apparent. The end of the meal was a release for all concerned. But an ele ment of the unusual seemed to have sound" disturbed' liis heavily Dearaea lips. It might have been a dislocated laugh or an angry protest. lie felt for something in his apparently empty pockets .and produced a small package wrapped in a bit of old silk. "It ia well to have so vigilant a truard ian. dear lady. Evidently your and rings, which she always neggea Miss Rhoda to send to bank, and then stop to converse with their victims. At least she had a right to hear what confidence game he was putting up on her mistress this time. .It was, his L voice. 4 "You see. Graham ought to come back thority, told her he guessed sTle couia. Happiness and the loving ministra tions of ,a devoted wife soon restored John Graham's youth and good looks. But he has inflicted one great disap pointment upon Margaret Kempe. He (Continued on fourth ' page.) crept into Miss Rhoda's cup of cold water day this year. Even while she was murmuring her silent! grace, "As I do unto this man, O Lord, jdo thou unto my beloved exile," she had decided this was no ordinary eater of charity feasts. The man was thin to gauntness, and a beard that -Aaron or Moses might have worn gracefully cohered his sal low face. Glasses hid his eyes, so that, even if Miss Crafts ever experienced any feminine curiosity touching the looks of her vis-a-vis, , widen she did not, it would have remained unsatis fied this time. i and shoes must be sturdy to stand the racket the romp ing play incident to the trips to and from school. Rice & Hutchins' School Shoes are made to withstand the hardest knocks. Strong and staunch, full of wear and yet not clumsy. Goodness they have more than others, but the price is . no higher. See them before you fit the H. REDWOOD & CO., boy out. 7 & 9 PATTON AVE. - i ii n V; it v ":; -'. i I! it - s 7 if i.'i 111 'S'r Mai Hi! - in i ' 'i. lis 5 ' if, m !".!;