Newspapers / Siler City Leader (Siler … / Feb. 12, 1887, edition 1 / Page 6
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THE LOT OF EARTH. We love the grave is deep ; We trust our faith's denied; Our storehouse with treasures heap They moulder at our side; So. while the years pass by We gather caught of worth, And can but answer wearily: "It is the lot of earth." "Ob, mournful voice," he said. Wherefore thy mournfulnessj Ours ever are the fainted dead, And near are they to bless.: Whose store in Heaven is laid - Shall never suffer dearth, And God ne'er yet a soul betrayed "This is "the lot of earth.' Clare Everest. HOW IT HAPPENED. BY LIZZIE I. FOLStttl. Creak, creak, went the rigging. Whirr-r-r, went the wind throush it Tearing and straining at the cording, and tossing the great steamer about as if it were a toy, the wind caught at the masts and made them groan and quiver, then, in sheer wantonness, gathered up a mighty wave and sent it tearing, a white sheet of foam, clear across the deck. And the passengers, mot-of them who were huddled together in the cabin, sniverea ana exchanged glances of com miseration, not devoid, in some cases, of very! humau fear. "Whirr-r-r went the wind ; and caught, on its. way, a jaunty,, red, knitted cap, twirled it aloft in derision, then left it bobbing desolately about at the mercy of the waters, and prepared to give atten tion to further dishevelmcnt of the wavy, dark head leaning over the bul warks. These was a dismayed cry, and two hands grasped wildly at the empty air, returning" to hold to the r small, shapely head, lest it should follow. ''That's a pity! It wa3 such a pretty nat. said a masculine voice "Yes, wasn't it?" in dolorous, wind tossed quaver. Then they looked at each other a mo ment in silence, and then laughed, soft lv. heartily, with youth's gladness. TTe. spoke first, quickly and positively : .'Forgive me for speaking to you, but it was such a chance. I've wanted to know you all along. My name is Neil Blake, and I live in Boston. May I talk to you? Po you mindi" : ' "My name is Eugenie Grant, and I live in Buffalo. I think. I do not mind." And they leaned together, clinging to iuu uuiwurKs, ana waicnea tne ooDDing red cap till it was lost to view; then she pulled her water-proof hood over her curls, and they sat down in the shelter of the wheelhousc. and talked together in youthful earnestness. -Four days out from Liverpool. For four days he had been a victim to the charms of th; young woman who then, sat composedly in dripping waterproof beside him. He had seen her as she came on bcaid, holding her gray skirts daintily abjut her, while her lace-edged petticoats peeped from' beneath." He thought he had never seen a prettier fig ure than that outlined by the gray suit, nor softer, lovelier eyes than the ones that glanced at him. and-looked away to glance again. He had wanted so much to know her, but she had seemed shy ; true, she had peeped at him from behind the floral tower in the centre of the table ; she had looked at him and laughed when, the first rough day, he supported his next neighbor in gasping misery from the table, but he had found no chance to speak to her. She had become prettier upon close inspection than he had at first thought, ami most distractingly so in the ill-fated red cap, from under which her eyes had shone like twin, laughing stars. So, you may be very sure that he made the most of the episode of the cap and, leaning on one elbow, talked to her most earnestly and confidingly; he ' should give her np chance to escape not, indeed, that she sh wed any incli nation to desert her damp rope coil for the gorgeous upholstery of the salon. She seemed very contented, crossing her small feet in their rubber boots, and set tling herself comfortably, y It did not take them long to grow con fidential, and before they went into din ner she had the r)Ieasin? assur ance that he was the only child of a father who dealt in railroads well, per haps not "dealt" but something as sweeping and enviable, Eugenie was aurc. And he found out that she was a Vassar girl, that she really was near sighted, though you would never believe it, and that "mamma" was always; des perately sick on the water. It is doubt ful if the last fact produced the regret it naturally should, and, as the days went by, it seemed to him a positive blessing that "mamma" 'ivas safelv stowed away in invisibility. Perhaps it was just as well, for other- wise, they might not have enjoyed tne lovely moonlight nigh that followed i 1 . . I the stormy day: thoie nights when to think of sleep was sacrilege; when the whole world seemed flooded with moon beams, soft,' yellow moonbeams when the stately ship glided on, leaving be hind a path of shining silver, of ripples that blinked and blinked in an ever widening road that led straight into heaven. Eugenie said, straight to the shining stars at the distant horizon. They sat together, night after night, in the dangerous moonbeams, and spoke to each other softly, and made of trivial things a low-voiced mystery, and her dark eyes drooped before the near, eager gaze of his brown ones. Oh ! it was tery well that mamma was quite an invalid ! They talked of the red cap that had led to their acquaintance, but he said she looked more lovely with that soft, white affair about her head, and she was very glad he thought her lovely, and foolish ly told him so. After that, perhaps, it was not strange that he talked to "Genie, " f and maybe, it was possible that once or twice h's hand happened to lie on hers and neither of them seemed to know. It had grown to be quite a serious thing for both by the time New York harbor was an immediate possibility; and the last night out, as they parted in their sheltered coiner, he held fast both her hands, and the two shadowed heads on the deck melted into one at any rate that is the way it looked, aiid Eugenie ran with hot, red cheeks to the cabin. She next morning all was hub-bub; the bustle of disembarking; the nervous flurry of righteous desire to evade the custom orhcers; the collecting Of mislaid luggage, all made the scene a lively one. Eugenie was in her state-room, frantical- iv iiijriij iu mane uuc oatVUut uu iuc nuin. of two. when a rap at her door was fol lowed by Neil's voice. r "Pleasa do a favor for me," he said, in his emphatic way. "Wear this ring off the boat for me. It's very valuable; a friend sent by me for it, but I don't know" with smiling eyes "that I shall let him have it now. You wear it, and I'll come to your hotel to-night for it if I must take it: but I hope you know what, 'Genie!" i you should try to deceive us." Neil He was gone, and Eugenie stood wth bowed gratefully. "And it is e"ually happy blushes on her fair face, clasping impossible that my daughter should do tight the small package containing the so. .There must be some mistake." ring. Her ring, it might be, if she said j "There is not," declared the beliger so, and was there any doubt 'what she ents in a breath. would say? She pressed it to her lips. j "There must be some mistake," re "Hurry, 'Genie." cried a querulous peated the mother, calmly. "Eugenie voice, "hurry, child!" I may have overlooked the ring in her She started, and tore open the pack-: huiry. , Of course you are sure you did age with eager haste, bringing forth on not, my dear. Butitjmay be." She pon- tne end 01 her ringer a ring, tier lace fell. What a wretched little thing! A cameo of cheapest variety, land consider ably too large for her slender .fingers. "Worse than ordinary . ' jsaid Eugenie. ; "What doe? he mean by asking me to wear such a paltry affair! ' Well, I don't j care." she decided, at last, "but he needn't have said it was very valuable," ' and it is greatly to be feared that Eu genie's door shut forciblyafter her. ' , The cuckoo on the clock iu the hotel parlor had just screached for 9 o'clock when Neil ran up the stairs and tapped on the door of the parlor allotted to "J. D. Grant, wife and daughter, Buffalo." Very handsome and eager he looked, and it is small wonder that Eugenio blushed brightly as he took her hands.. "What a swell you are! ' he said, ad miring the white billows of lace that fell about her, leaving bare the soft neck and rounded arms. MHow much time can you give me?" "Not much; it is time to go. But I will see you to-morrow won't I? Here is your ring; I've been afraid I should lose it, it is so large for me." She holds it out to him. He takes it, and with it both her hands. "Then youwill keep the otherj'Genie?'' in anx ious inquiry. genie. "Why, the diamond,' of course, what do you suppose?" "The diamond I" in amazement. "There was no diamond !" : lie stared a moment and then laughed. "Oh! come nowl That's a joke, and I'll laugh at it by-and-by, but just now I'm more interested in something else in you." "But there was no diamond, what do you mean by saying so?" in wonder ment. Neil's fece flushed, and his voice was more than unusually positive almost of- fensively so, Eugenie thought, a he said: "1 , T . "You know perfectly well what I mean and, forgive me, tbut it is in rather poor taste to continue that unwelcome joke.7' I "I don't know what you are talking about," she replied, with dignity. "I : ' a-. It lltn.n vera a wore your vaiuauio iiujj, u iutic no any diamond about it I failed to see it. I shall have to wish yod good evening, Mr. Blake." ! "Of cburse I did not ask you to wear Aij"in contemptuous designation of the cameo. '-It was simply in the package with the other, the diamond that you do not seem able to remember;" "How dare you !"ciped angry Eugenie. "You are telling a jfalsehood. Papa shall- " "Papa! Viii elevated, hysteric voice as the door opened; "he says I have stolen a ring I" and subsided into a crushed, tearful hear. Papa Grant was ion the sofa. portly, pompoms gentleman, with. a watch chain across white vest. ' i ' great deal of gold- Ibroad expanse of Very deliberate ana particular, he re quired that the matter should be fully explained twice by his weeping daugh ter, before expressing an opinion. : "You are an impudent young rascal," said Papa Grant. "Who gave you leave to address my daughter at all? 1 All I can say, sir," pjrsisted Neil, doggedly, "is that I gave to Miss Grant" --(not 'Genie any more. Alas!) a pack age containing a diamond ring, which ring she now declines to produce." , At this there vai'a fresh explosion of sob? from behind the handkerchief, and two high heels dug wildly into the car pet. Papa Grant swelled with offended dignity, ana lor a moment it looKea as if Neil's'chance for a safe exit were not flattering, but there jwas a new arrival upon the scene. 4 1 Fair and slight andi delicate, but with a self -possession and sVect calmness that reduced the white vest, calmedEugenie's sobs, and reassured .Nil, all at once the heretofore invisible mjamuia "You are sure thb ring was in the I package, Mr. Blake?!' after a third cx- ' planation had trauspired. It was," said Neil! firmly. "It was not," said Eugenie, as firmly. Then they glared at each other. "Oh, this will never do, :J said Mrs. ; Grant, in calm dismay. "Mr. Bteke, I know your father, heii a gentleman. I think hi3 son is one: it is impossible that dered a moment while Neil and Eugenie watched her breathlessly. "If we could," she said, at la3t, "if we could go on the boat, before our state room had been swept do you think it possible; Josephr Ile of the gold wa ch chain thus ap- pealed to, sniffed contemptuouslv. "Absurd! Out of the question! The whole affair is ridiculous, and comes from allowing your daughter to make indis criminate acquaintances, against which I particularly warned you I set the whole matter aside." j But the calm-voiced little woman was a power in the household, and, after a little, Neil was despatched for a carriage, and Eugenie to take olf her pretty party dress and bathe her tear-stained face. Neil was very wretched as he helped Mrs. Grant into a carriage, and when Eugenie flounced by him and stared stonily, with red, angry eyes at him, he felt that he had nothing to live for, and climbed up by the driver a very abject and miserable young man. Alter a great deal of driving about muddy streets, of talking, of urguing, and of loss of temper, the party found themselves at the debr of the state-room Eugenie had bid a fond good-by at noon; She darted forward, ahead of the rest, and her eyes sought cngerly about its limited area. She kicked away with the tip of her shoe the pjile -if papers in tho corner, and pounced down upon the pink jeweler's paper that had held the cameo. Her face j flushed, her eyes brightened, and littlfe dimples came and went as she drew forth from it a tiny box which, opened, sent but glittering, scin tillating rays from the gem within. The lost ring! Down under a pile of rubbishrwaiting to be swept out by care less hands, had lainj the little package that had caused so. much heart-ache and so many tears. "It's well I suggested coming," said Papa Grant. "I don't know how I hap pened to think of it. Take care of thit step, Agnes,! and Neil was left alone. Left alone; with droop'ng head and very real ache at his heart. And so this was the end of it all; of the moonlight nights; cf the whispered words; of the clasped hands. And he must prepare to forget it all. The curving rosy mouth, the shining eyes. Forget them ! it would be very hard to do. There came a soft touch on his arm and a jaunt v hat rested against his shoul- der. "Oh, Neil! How could I know the wretched ring was there? Can you for give me? Lo forgive me, and then I can forgive you. We'll not thinkabout it any more, will we? I came back to tell you so dear." Then he put both arms about her, and kissed her softly before they went out into the n'ght. All this was a year ago. The cliamond is on r.ugcnie's finger - now, and daily letters fly back and forth, letters long and tender,"but which, with May's rst flowers, will erase, for then it is theirwedding-day will come. Chicayo Currn. Persian Superstition. There are many and curious supersti tions in Persia. "Without nuauing to exhaust the subject I will give you some of the more peculiar ones. The "b.iade khadem"' which is approximately ren dered in English by the term of evil eye, -though literally it would bs translated "evil step,' plays Ihe largest part in tbia line. The evil eye is believed m by every body in Persia, the highest as well aa the lowest. A baby is healthy and pretty. A friend of the mother ad m res the little one in glowing terms. That would be "baidc khadenr or evil omen and would be taken as a diabolical design to injure the child if the phrase "Eenshal lah" (may it please God) were not added to every eulogium. An old woman looks at the child from the right-hind side evil eye again. The child stumbles early in the morning evil eye. The father, by accident, speaks first to the baby at sunrise evil eye. A girl, pretty, well mannered, healthy, with a good dowry, is wedded to a man. Tho first business undertaking of the young benedict turns out disastrously evil eye! Nothing could induce that man to keep his young wife. She is "baade khadem" to- him, and she's got to go, willy nilly. As the divorce law is such that it virtually lies with the husband alone to keep or send away uis wife, and as the ceremony it self is very simple, and requires neither time nor money, he soon gets rid of her. Nobody blames him. "She was 'baade khadem' to him," everybody says in ex planation, and that s enough. The Shah has appointed a very able and deserving man to an imortvnt posi tion, for which hi3 previous experience and his capacity eminently qualify him. On the same day the Shah happens to overfee4 himself with lamb and raw cu cumbers, and has an attack of colic. The new appointee is blamed. He is "baado khadenT," and incontinently gets tho sack. Every thing is judged in this way. If a man has made a fool ot himself and run to too great expense in entertaining a guest, for instance. th5 blame is put on one of tho ladies of his andaroun, on his head servant, or somebody else, and that one is made to suffer. Astrology (moon adshim), the horoscope (taleh), the rosay (tesbin) used as an oracle, and the Koran, the pcets, especially Saadi and Ilanz, used in the same way play a!so a most im portant role in the life of the modern Persian. In all doubtful cases, called technically "istekharet," recourse is had to one or the other or to all of them. A nan is in doubt whether to purchase a norsc he desires. Dealer and customer resort to the nearest house of a mollah and the Koran is opened at raudom. If the eye happens to alight on such a pas sage as "Happy art thou, oh fon of the faith, for Allah will ble.stbes," the pur chase i3 effected. If not. not. A Dialogue. Brown: Dear boy, I'm engaged. White: So am I. Brown: My fiancee yours will outvie. White: Excuse me. but that I deny No fairer did e'er you descry. Brown: Her eyes are a beautiful l ine. White: And hers the same beautiful hue. Brown: No fairer man ever di 1 wco. And to her I'll always ba true. White: Your words are a credit to you. Brown: Manila's her came. White: Mine's Mamie too. Brown: What's that? White: It is just as 1 say. Brown : My boy, I'm o vercome with dismay I pray you my fears to allay Don't tell me her last name is Both: (Jay. Rambler.
Siler City Leader (Siler City, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Feb. 12, 1887, edition 1
6
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