$i.oo a Year, In Advance.
"FOR OOP, FOR COUNTRY, AND FOR TRUTH."
Single Copyy 3-Centsi.
VOL. XIII.
PLYMOUTH, N. C, FRIDAY, MAY 2, 1902.
no: 8,
THE MQCKINCBIRD.
List to that bird! Ufa song what poet
pens it?
m Brigand of birds, he's stoleu every note!
Prinze, though, ot thieves hark! how the
rascal spends it ! .. -
Tours the whole forest from one tiny
throat!
Ednah Proctor Hayes, In Home and
Flowers.
'Margery Danvers: Fireman,!
(
Bt Carboll Watson Easkik.
. v
Beyond a doubt the property , had
been a marvelous bargain. The land
alone was worth more than the price
asked for the house and lot together,
with carpets and fixtures thrown in.
The former owner had had greater
business interests in another part of
the world, and having found himself
unable to live in two places at once,
had wisely concluded to convert the
superfluous house' into cash. Mr. Dan
vers had bought-it for a ridiculously
small sum, and felt that he ought to be
congratulated.
But although good Mr. Danvers was
Jubilant over the purchase, Mrs. Dan
vers, on her first inspection of the
new house, sat down upon the thrown
In carpet and burst into tears.
The moment she beheld the parlor
wall paper she forgot all else and gave
herself up to grief.
It was really enough to make one
oblivious of other things. Mrs. Dan
woman, who loved pink-and-white
rooms. The late occupant of the house
had been a big red-and-yellow man,
who liked redand-yellow rooms, and
;his taste in wall paper was certainly
deplorable. There was onjy one thing
in the house worse than the paper, and
that was the carpet.
"What, don't you' like the paper!"
-exclaimed astonished Mr. Danvers,
who was not artistic. "Why, that's
splendid paper! It must have cost $3
a roll. Pattern's a trifle large, per
haps; but just think how it'll wear!
"it will last a lifetime!"
But, strange to say, this consoling
information only made Mrs. Danvers
weep the more. . . '
"There's great stuff in that carpet,
too," said Mr. Danvers, eyeing it ap
provingly. "It'll wear like iron, in spite
-of the children running over it. Those
big magenta roses stand out well,
-don't they?"
Mrs. Danvers shuddered. The car
pet was a calamity.
Reasonable as the price had been
-it had taken all Mr. Danvers could
was no money to be foolishly wasted
In replacing the perfectly good paper
.and carpet. Poor Mrs. Danvers, cover
ing as much of the ugliness as she
-could with her pictures and furniture,
wisely made the best of it, but all her
.day dreams for the next ten years cen
tered about the repapering of the dis
figured parlor.
Her 'daughter Margery understood
. and sympathized with her mother, and,
together they would deplore the dura
bility of the obnoxious paper and car
pet. ' x ; , ...
"It would be such a pretty room,"
Mrs. Danvers would mourn, "if only
i something would happen to that out
rageous carpetand that horrible pa
per!" . , '
"Wouldn't it be glorious," Margery
would say, "if our chimney should get1
struck by lightning as the Browns'
aid : i ne paper was torn on me tim
ing room wall, and soot from the chim
ney ruined the rugs.1 The Browns seem
;to have all the good luck."
The Browns selfishly retained their
monopoly of the lightning, and the
hated paper continued to bear a
charmed life. No warning voice was
ever raised when the little Danverses
. approached the parlor wall with sticky
fingers; and although Mrs. Danvers
. and Margery fairly courted disaster,
none ever came.
, At last, when Margery was 17, both
,paper and carpet showed unmistakable
-signs of wear.
"Do anything you like about it. It's
your house," said Mr. Danvers, gener-
the defects. "Yes, get' anything you
Ilka; all paper looks aliketo me. Hard-
. . n tr. T j p.. l . mm
wooa noors; le-es, i uou i miaa, bum
I am a little disappointed in that
-carpet. I thought it would last for
ever." "So did I," said Mrs, Danvers; but-
if she felt any disappointment it was
well concealed.
Then came deligthful weeks. The
house was all torn up and turned over
to the carpenters and paper-hangers.
Mrs. Danvers and Margery spent all
their days and part of their nights
studying samples of wall paper. Mr.
Danvers spent . all his in trying, to
dodge the pails of paste and varnish
that lurked in every corner. ,
At last, however, it was all finlshel,
to the complete satisfaction of Mrs
Danvers and Margery, who ceased to
covet the Browns' share of devastating
lightning. Indeed, the renovated par
lor became the object of Mrs. Danvers'
tenderest solicitude, and the little uan
verses began to see imaginary "Keep
off the grass" signs on every side. And
then, when it was no longer wanted,
the disaster came.
Just" a week after the departure of
the last workman Mrs. Danvers went
with her husband to a concert, leav
ing the house and sleeping children in
Margery's care, . fcV
Margery spent the first hour In tho
kitchen, making peanut taffy. When
at last she returned to the front of
the house she was greeted by an odd
pungent order.
"I wonder," said she, "if I could
have scorched my candy? No; the
smell seems to come from the front
hall. Perhaps something is burning
upstairs."
Sne stopped appalled when she had
reached the top step. Something cer
tainly was burning. The upper hall
was full of thick, gray smoke.
- a he children!" gasped Margery,
darting through the smoke and into
the nursery.
Here the smoke was dense, and
through, it, at the far end of the room,
wnere a closet door was standing open,
Margery could see a dull red glow.
"Quick! Quick!" she sobbed, drag
ging the heavy, half-stupefied children
out of their beds, out of the suffocating
room, through the hall and down the
stairs. "Oh, do hurry! The house is
all on fire!" ' ,
"There!" said she, snatching a vase
of flowers from a table in the lower
hall, and dashing flowers, water and
all into the faces of the poor, aston
ished children, thereby producing two
indignant howls.
"There, your lungs are all right if
you can cry like that! Now go sit on
the carriage block, and don't you dare
to come into this house again until
I call you, and don't you tell a soul
that this house is afire. s I'm going to
put it out myself.
"Oh,. I must I must do it!" cried
Margery, seizing the two he'vy pails
of water which Mrs. Danvers kept
ready in her little conversatory for the
purpose of watering her plants. "The
fire Is all in that one room. If I let
the firemen in they'll ruin the new
floors with their muddy boots, and
they'll flood the whole house with
water. Oh, I can't let them spoil that
lovely pale-green paper and those love
ly floors!"
. So, never thinking that her mother
would rather lose a thousand beauti
ful parlors than one little loving
daughter, Margery rushed into the
dense smoke and burled the contents
of her pails straight at the scarlet
glow. I
Tho smoke stung her throat and al
most blinded her, but she groped her
way from the room, felt her , way
across the hall, ran down the stairs,
and refilled her pails at the kitchen
sink... The bath room was nearer, but
Margery remembered that the faucets
there were small, and knew she would
pave time by going to the kitchen.
She drank a little cold water, filled
her lungs with fresh air at the open
door and tucked up her skirts. Then
up she went with"her heavy burden,
not spilling a drop on the precious
floors. After the third journey Mar
gery noticed that the scarlet spot had
diminished in size, although the smoke
was quite as dense.
"I must be careful not to put on a
scrap more water than I need," said
this model fireman, a3,she toiled up
ward with her heavy pails, "f mustn't
spoil the . dining room ceiling. I be
lieve the fire is in the pillows and bed
ding stored in that closet. I'll open
the window and throw them all out, if
I can." '
And she did, but it was not a pleas
ant task. The smoldering, quilts
burst into flames as she pulled them
apart, and the sparks burned her
wrists and hands. But with the win
dow open it was possible to breathe,
and when the reking pillows had been
added to the blazing heap on the lawn
below, the atmosphere was decidedly
improved, although still by no mean3
clear. ;
As they discovered afterwards, the
fire started from a few oiled rags used
in polishing the hardwood floors, and
tucked into the closet by a careless
maid. It had burned almost through
the base-board, and would in a few
moments have eaten its way into the
partitions,- where it -would have' been
beyond control.
Margery had undoubtedly saved the
day and a great many dollars although
she had, without realizing it, risked
something far more precious.
She had bathed her face and hands,
had opened all the windows to let out
the disagreeable odor of burned feath
ers, and was going down-stairs, well
satisfied with her evening's work,
when her father and mother appeared
at the front door. Perched on the
newel post in the front hall, she told
them all about the catastrophe.
"Where are the children?" was Mrs.
Danvers's first question.
"Goodness!" said Margery. "They
must be outdoors on the stepping
stone yet. I told them to stay there
until I called them, and I never gave
them a second thought!"
. And there Mrs. Danvers found them,
sound asleep in their little white night
dresses, but none the worse for their
unusual experience, for the night was
warm.
Mr. .Danvers opened his mouth and
closed it several times before he man
aged to find words to fit the occasion.'
When he finally succeeded all he said,
was:
Margery, you smell just like a little
dried herring."
, But there was something1 besides
smoke in his eyes, and Margery knew
she was being thanked. Youth3' Com
panion. ... .
America is Europe's Foe.
The European regards America a3 a
dangerous and relentless foe, and the
fact that Europe has forced on Amer
ica these measures as a means of self
defence signifies nothing, says Brooks
Adams in the Atlantic. The European
sees in America a competitor who,
while refusing to buy, throws her
wares on every market, and who, while
she drives the peasant from his land,
reduces the profits of industry which
supporc the wage earners of the town.
Most ominous of all, he marks a rap
idly growing power, which, while it
undersells his mines, closes to him
every region of the wide earth where
he might find minerals adapted to its
needs. Lying' like a colossus across
the western' continent, with her ports
on either ocean, with China opposite
and South America at her feet, i'e
United States bars European expan
sion. South America and China are
held to be the only accessible regions
which certainly contain the iron, coal
and copper which Europe seeks, and
the United States is determined that,
if she can prevent it, South America
and China shall not be used as bases
for hostile competition. Regarding
South America her declarations are
explicit, and during the last 12 months
her actions in Asia have spoken moref
emphatically than words.
He Got His Receipt.
It is not often that the carelessness
of an unbusinesslike man can be
brought home to him so cleverly as
was done by a bright young Irishman,
whose experience is described by the
Detroit News-Tribune:
He had run up a small bill at the
village store, and went in to pay it,
first asking for a receipt, The, pro
prietor grumbled and said it, was too
much trouble to give receipts for such
email amounts. It was just as well to
cross the account off,-and he drew a
diagonal pencil-line across the book. .
"Does that settle it?" asked the cus
tomer. '
"Certainly." ' '. ' ' .
"An ye'll never be asking for it
again?" ' '
"Certainly not."
"Faith, thin," said the Irishman,
coolly, "an I'll kape me money in me
pocket, for I haven't paid it yet."
"Well," was the retort, "I can rub
that out."
"I thought so," said the persistent
customer, dryly. "Maybe you'll give
Die a receipt now. Here's the money."
The practice of nicknaming a legis
lative body has many examples in early
English parliamentary history. The
list includes the "lack-learning" par
liament, the "long," which became the
"rump," and was followed by "bare
bone's" parliament among others.
MADAM AT THE BANK.
Family History Which Kh Con fide J to
the Iteoetvlncf Teller.
The business man who was in a hur
ry was standing in line at the savings
bank, waiting his turn to deposit.
There was only one person ahead of
him, and he was congratulating him
self upon this good luck. The person
ahead was a woman, and whsr. the
business man arrived she was just
opening negotiations with the receiv
ing teller.
"Now, I want to open accounts,"
she began, "for some little nieces and
nephews of mine. It's for a Christmas
present, you know" confidently "and
I'm only going to put $5 in each book.
Of course that isn't much, but "
Here the teller endeavored to get down
to the business details, but in vain. "If
they're real saving, as I want them to
be, they'll soon make it more. Lots of
rich men started with "
"Yes, yes, madam," interrupted the
teller, in desperation; 'of course tney
did. Now, what are these children's
names and ages?"'
"Why, there's Fannie, my namesake;
she's 9 no,' maybe it was S, her last
birthday what? Oh, her full name?
Frances Jane, of course; how stupid of
me! And then Johnnie ifo John Will
iam, named after an uncle that died
he's 6, and just as 'cute as he can be.
You wouldn't believe what that child
"Yes, T would, madam. But please be
as brief r as. possible, and omit every
thing but business. Are there any
more children?"
"Oh, yes; there's the baby, Mildred.
She's ten months old, and I thought
she seemed pretty young to have a
bank book all to herself, so I'd like to
take one for her and her mother to
gether her mother's only my broth
er's sister-in-law, but she's just like an
own sister to me. What, I can't do
that Well, that's funny. But you fix it
according to the rules of course."
The business man, who had at first
glared savagely at the loquacious de
positor, now shifted wearily from one
leg to the other, and began to show
signs of collapse. .
The teller succeeded in extracting
the necessary information as to the
birthplace of the children, and then in
quired in whose names the books were
to be held in trust for them.
"Will you have it in their mother's
name or their father's or whose?" he
asked shortly.
"Their father's! Mercy sakes!" ex
claimed the depositor, energetically.
"Why, he's a perfect good-for-nothing
scamp, if there ever was one . You
couldn't trust him "
"No, I suppose not," hastened the
teller, repenting that unfortunate sug
gestion. "The mother's then, I suppose.
Her name, age and birthplace, please.
Be as quick as you can, madam."
As he finished the entries he turned
with a sigh of relief and a look of pity
for the business man, who had been
waiting so long. But the latter had giv
en up. He was already half a block
away from the bank, walking dejected
ly and wiping his brow, like a man
who had done a hard day's work.
Chicago Tribune.
Kitchen Outfits of Sovereigns.
There is, figuratively speaking, a
great scouring of pots and pans in the
kitchen of the palace at St. Petersburg,
in preparation for the festivities inci
dental to the christening of the latest
addition to the family of the Czar.
The imperial kitchen is fitted up with
great sumptuousness. The walls and
ceiling are of black marble, richly
decorated. The state cooking utensils
are of solid gold. They date back to
the time of the Empress Catherine, and
are estimated to be worth $50,000. Sev
eral of the small saucepans are valued
at $300. No fewer than 2G7 cooks and
scullions are employed. - The chef's
salary is $40,000 a year; 10 other cooks
receive from $3000 to $6000 annually.
After the Czar's the most' luxurious
court in Europe is that of Spain. The
"battrie de cuisine," which is very
ancient, is valued at no less than
$60,000.
But all this sinks into insignificance
In comparison with the kitchen of .the
Shah of Persia, at Teheran. Therethe
very caldrons are of t gold, and 'the
dishes on which tne viands are borne
to the royal table are of gold, set with,
precious stones. The outfit of the
kitchen is said to be worth $4,000,000.
How it Happened.
GeofgeNext Sunday evening I pro
pose '
Clara They say delays are danger
ous, dear.- Chelsea (Mass.) Gazette.
WHEN A STY COMES.
Gentle Bathing; of the Uds With AntU
eptica a Eeinedy. .
The unsightly, appearance, not-less
gives it its bad repute. r;.'..
Two conditions, or perhaps more
properly two phases of the same con
dition; of the eyelid are referred to as
sty. The swelling due to an exudation
of serum into the lid is perhaps more
common than that In which the swell
ing progresses until pus is formed.
. Swelling due to exudation readily oc
curs in the eyelid, both because of its
loose, non-resistant texture and also
since its position is one much exposed,
to irritating atmospheric conditions.
Exposure to damp winds or cold not
Infrequently results in a swelling of
the eyelid. This kind of sty often dis
appears of itself after a few hours
of discomfort. Extract of witch hazel
is a household remedy well suited to
sty, especially at this stage. . Its effi
cacy is heightened by binding a com
press of linen, or better, of absorbent
cotton, wet with the liquid, over the
eye on going to bed and allowing it to
remain.
Prolonged use of the eyes, or for ex
ample, reading many hours consecu
tively, or a like time devoted to fine
needlework, may determine an attack
of sty. It is necessary in the light of
our present knowledge oftpus forma
tion to attribute its occurrence here,' as ,
elsewhere, to an infection of germs
from without. It is logical to suppose
that the necessary iniectioh may be
conveyed by rubbing the lids with the
fingers or with the doubled fist or
knuckles. The causes of sty which have
been mentioned, overuse, for example,
are apt to produce itching, while the
delicate skin : covering the lid is ill
fitted to receive rude handling. A slight
abrasion of the tender cuticle covering
fection of many cases of sty in which
an abscess is formed, although the pit
ted surface which dips inward to re
ceive the eyelashes likewise forms a
convenient point of entrance for the
pus-producing germs.
Gentle bathing of the lids once or
iwice a, aay wiin a mnaiy astringent
and antiseptic fluid, like witch hazel,
plain or diluted, is an excellent meas
ure for the prevention of sty in thoso
whose occupations demand long-continued
use of the eye, and who are prone"
to experience smarting, stinging and
irritation of the lids. In some, proper
ly fitted glasses constitute an effectual
preventive of sty.
When once the swelling has gone on
to pus formation, as evidenced 'by
pointing or a yellowed surface, warm
water compresses hasten the rupture
of the boil with consequent relief of
pain. More quickly effective is lancing
of the boil by the physician.
It is not to be forgotten that underly
ing systemic causes are frequently pre
disposing factors in the production of -sty.
Such require appropriate tonics
or the righting of sluggish conditions.
Youth's Companion.
Vnchaning; England.
There is another comparison, sug
gested by certain incidents of the war,
which a correspondent brings to our
notice. It is slightly more "odious," but
not, therefore, the less interesting. The
question was being discussed in a club
smoking room as to. whether the "un
mounted men preferred" dispatch had
ever been equalled in English historyit
fcr-well, for the peculiar qualities that
made it so famous. One of those pres
ent declared that it had not only been
equalled but surpassed, and by the Ad
miralty. In proof of it he stated that
during the war of 1S12 with America,
the admiralty sent out to Kingston, on
the northeastern side of Lake Ontario,
where our fleet 'was stationed, quanti
ties of water casks, in the belief that
Lake Ontario was a salt water lake.
Our correspondent, who has lookedthe
matter up, assures us that this is the
historical fact, and opines that "it
beats hollow" anything we have done
during the present war. But that is a.
very nice point. London Chronicle.
Careless Parents.
"Why don't you make a name for
yourself?" asked the serious person.
"I only, wish I had the chance," said
the pale young man. "But my- par
ents thought they knew it all, and
they made up one of their own, and
that's why I am compelled to struggle
against fate under the handicap of
Reginald Claud De Vera Smlthers. "
Washington Star.
Enough timber Is destroyed by fire
in this country every year to supply all
the pulp mills.