i
$1.00 a Year, In Advance. 4. FOR OOP, FOR COUNTRY, ANJ FOR TRUTH." Single Copy, 5 Cent.
VOL. XV, PLYMOUTH, N. QM FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2. 1904. NO, 24
PURPLE
By MINNA
'A pretty maiden rose one day
Ere day began to glow,
!And in the amber brook washed out
Her lilac calico.
'All in the morning and the dew
A youth came riding by,
And saw her on a tall green bush
Hang up the dress to dry.
m:
F
VERT INCJIfln
ILxat
i.
KOW she ever came to join
OK 5 the society was as creat a
H
mystery to herself as to her
rv t'l inn rl nnni't-o o 1 rxr-
h0fc C1-s' Quarrel was at the bot
tom of it all., But even
then, for a young and attractive girl
of twenty-three to join the Spinsters'
Society, anil adopt the vows of eternal
celibacy like the rest of its members,
twhose ages gave them some excuse for
o doing, was an admittedly extraor
dinary proceeding:.
When Sibyl Cathcart found herself
fully installed into the sisterhood of the
Spinsters' Society, she began to rum
inate as to whether, after all, she had
acted wisely. True, he had been seen
leaving the theatre with another worn
an, and what made matters worse was
the fact that the other woman was
young ami pretty.- Rumor had it, too,
that he had been seen to publicly kiss
the other woman at the railway sta
tion. So Sibyl, with the usual im
petuosity of her sex, sat down immedi
ately and penned a short and formal
note giving him the conge. lie de
manded an explanation, first in person
and then by letter. She refused to
see hini when he called, and upon re
ceiving his letter, tore it up and then
cried over the fragments.
But once she had set her hand to the
plow she did not intend to go back. All
the other members, to the number of
seventeen, were at least a quarter of
a. century older than herself, despite
their allegations to the contrary, and
their business aptitudes were not bril
liant. The pretentious building in
which many of the members dwelt,
and which was recognized as the so
ciety's headquarters, required judicious
management, in view of the small
amount of money forthcoming for the
purpose. One day Sibyl found herself
in the presence of her chieftainess.
"My dear," began Miss Tabbs, as she
surveyed the girl from over her specta
cles, "do you think you could become
one of us altogether? I mean, could
you come and live on the premises, for
instance?"
"1-1 think so," Sibyl replied doubt
fully, well aware that her friends
would think her more eccentric than
ever.
"Now that is nice of you! Well, the
fact of the matter is that Miss Frank
lin has come to the conclusion that the
position of secretary to the society en
tails more work than she can under
take, and if you will, we want you to
take her place. You are young and en
ergetic, and with all due deference to
Miss Franklin, I might say that you
Avould be able to manage the society's
.small income more beneficially to our
selves. You must know, my dear, that
the greed for money of the opposite sex
is horrible, and unfortunate creatures
like ourselves are therefore robbed of
.what justly 'belongs to us. You will,
of course, have your board and lodg
ings for nothing and a grant of S per
annum. Will you accept. the post?"
"Certainly. With pleasure."
"That is good of you. But mind, you
must do your utmost to thwart the
machinations of the oprosite sex. Never
patronize a tradesman, or any business
conducted by a man, and if you ever
find that cither of the servants has a
follower, sack her, my dear, sack her
immediately!"
At this point a gray-haired lady, any
thing but prepossessing in appearance,
entered the room, and was greeted by
Miss Tabbs.
"Ah! here you are, Miss Franklin.
Mi.ss Cathcart has promised to act as
secretary from this day forward, and I
have just been giving her a few wrin
kles." "Thank you so .much, dearie," re
LILACS.
IRVING.
A look, a kiss, a word, away
They went by tower and town,
She followed him across the sea,
And so forgot her gown.
Look yonder by the garden gate,
Its flowery purple, see,
Is hanging where she left it yet,
Upon the lilac-tree.
Lippincott'a
sponded the ex-secretary kindly. "But
do you know what has happened? The
landlord has come himself for the rent.
What are we to do? We have no
money, and the rent is months over
due." "How fearful to be in the hands of
such a money -grabbing brute!" inter
posed Miss Tabbs.
"Men were always brutes!" volun
teered Miss Franklin.
Sibyl thought the same and remained
silent.
"But where is he now?" asked Miss
Tabbs.
"Oh, he's on the doorstep. I spoke to
him through the Tetter box. I could
not have the house polluted with his
presence inside. It's bad enough for
the neighbors, knowing our principles
as they do, to see him here at all. He
says he must have the rent at once, or
a bailiff will be put in. Think of it!
A male bailiff here here!"
Miss Franklin was perilously near
fainting, and her tears were running
fast.
"Shall I go and try and reason with
him?" asked Sibyl, by way of putting
an end to a painful scene.
"Oh, if you would be so kind; but be
sure and treat him like an animal, or
at least as an inferior, because he's a
man, you know."
Sibyl ran down stairs and threw open
the door. She had intended asking his
business in a civil but firm manner.
Instead she drew back with a start.
"Sibyl!"
"Jack Mr. Allingham!"
"I heard of your escapade, and that
is why I came in person, though I
did not expect the pleasure of meeting
you."
He held out his hand, and she turned
away contemptuously.
"You are spying upon me," she cried,
her anger rising. "How dare you come
here like this?"
"You forget the house is my own."
"Oh er so it is. You want the
rent? I am afraid we cannot pay you
just yet. If you will give us time, a
few days, or "
"In a fewr days, nay, in a few hours
the bailiffs will be in unless the rent
is paid at once," he replied, firmly.
"But, Ja Mr. Allingham, you would
not be so cruel?"
"Cruel? Were you never cruel?
What was my fault, and how much
mercy did you show me? Now it is
my turn, and no mercy will I give.
Can your companions or whatever
they call themselves pay me now?"
"No, they cannot."
"Very well. Good morning."
' He turned away and she slammed
the door.
"What did he say?" asked Miss
Tabbs, anxiously, when she entered
the room.
"He is every inch a man!" replied
Sibyl, significantly.
II.
Before two more days had passed
the Spinsters' Society were acquainted
with the worst. The members were
not afraid of the opposite sex, antago
nistic though they might be, but they
had to acknowledge a terror of the
law. When one morning the house
maid answered a knock at the door,
the landlord promptly pushed himself
into the hall. He was accompanied
by a man, who held in one hand a
brown paper parcel and an official
document in the other.
"Good morning, Miss Cathcart," he
said, as she came out to meet him.
"You expected me, of course?"
"I don't understand you."
"Really? There is nothing much to
understand. I am, in fact, my own
bailiff, and only immediate payment of
the rent will prevent my being quar
tered upon you. This gentbman here
will prove the truth of my assertions,
as he represents the law. Just run
over this paper, please."
"You brute!" she ejaculated.
"Sorry to inconvenience you very.
A debt's a debt, you know. But I
don't think you'll find me a very trou
blesome tenant. I shall come at 9 in
the morning and leave at G in the even
ing, until the money is paid. That
parcel, Jenkins, please," he added to
the man, and discharged him.
The girl hid her face in her hands
and burst into tears.
"I always knew you were a coward!"
she sobbed. "And now you've proved
it."
"I hope not. If I come as my own
bailiff you should congratulate your
self upon having escaped so lightly,
for a commoner man might have made
his presence intolerable. And besides,
I have brought my own food, which no
ordinary bailiff would have done."
The bursting of this bomb in the
headquarters of the Spinsters' Society
did not tend to draw the members to
ward the male sex, and immediate
steps wrere taken to realize the money,
a matter of some difficulty.
"It's nothing short of a scandal,"
piped Miss Tabbs, between fits of hys-'
terical weeping, when the news was
conveyed to her. "It will be the talk
of the neighborhood. If it had been
a commoner man it would have been
different, but him! And to have to
cook his mutton chops ugh!"
"And he stands in the doorway for
ten minutes wiping his boots so that
the neighbors shall see him enter!"
gasped Miss Franklin, to the groans of
the other members.
But the Calamity fell more severely
upon the head of Sibyl, though no one
dared to imagine that she had once
nearly become the wife of the ob
noxious individual. Her one thought
now, as she satin the little study set
apart for her own use, was how to get
rid of him. Giving open battle only
ended in signal defeat, therefore, why
not try strategy? He had always been
swayed by her influence, so, perhaps,
might be still amenable to persuasion.
And she could continue to hate him
all the same. The experiment, at any
rate, was worth trying.
She rose to put her plans into exe
cution, when the two domestics entered
without knocking. They were dressed
in their outdoor things and appeared
anything but pleasantly disposed to
ward her.
"We're goin', miss," said the cook,
shortly.
"Going? Where?"
" 'Ome; anywheres out of this 'ere
'ouse. We b'ain't agoin' to run all over
the place for a man like that, an'
knowin' there's no wages for us. You
be all as poor as church mice, an' the
funniest set o females as we've a-seen,
barrin' yourself, miss. Our chaps is
waitin' for us outside, so wiv our best
respects to you, miss, we'll git out."
"Are my chops ready?" came a voice
from the dining room.
" 'Ark at 'im," said the cook. Then
putting her head outside the door she
shouted: "Yes, your chops be ready
an' waitin', an' gettin' cold, an' may
go bad afore we brings 'em to you, you
great lanky bounder!"
"Silence!" commanded Sibyl. "You
may go at once, and your wages will
be sent to you. We do not keep money
in the house."
"So that bloke seems to think. Well,
good-day to you, miss. An' mind you
don't fall in love with that bewitchin'
youns man."
With this parting shaft the servants
withdrew, and Sibyl, having seen them
off the premises, entered the dining
room.
"(Jood morning, Jack," she said
pleasantly.
"Jack, eh? Why, yesterday it was
nothing but Mr. Allingham, with plenty
of emphasis on the 'Mr.' Want to ask
a favor, I suppose."
"Now, Jack, why will you be so hor
rid?' "It must be a legacy I got from you.
The same term might be very well ap
plied to your treatment of me, mightn't
it?"
"Oh, I don't know. You see I had
a reason."
"A reason? What reason?"
"Don't stand there and pretend you
don't know," she retorted. "You never
went to the theatre with another
woman, I suppose, and you never
kissed her at the railroad station, did
you? And a pretty woman, too a
pretty woman, I repeat, and I am not
pretty."
"But, pardon me, you are very pretty,
especially when you're angry. Yes,
I have been to th theatre with another
woman, and kissed her at the railway
station my sister-in-law i"
"What do you mean?"
"George's wife. You've heard me
speak of my brother George, who's in
Australia. He was home some months
ago with his young bride. We all
three went to the theatre, and oh! I
see it, now. You ha! ha! thought it
was some one else!"
He dropped into a chair in a fit of
laughing. "You thought I was flirting
with another woman?' he said, at
length.
"Of course. Any one would have
thought so," she replied, crestfallen at
the absurdity of her blunder.
"But, you silly thing, why didn't you
find out before you became so unreas
onable? And are you still cross with
me?"
"No not very."
"Then atone for it all by leaving
these stupid companions of yours, and
prove that you do not agree with their
views by marrying me me, the bail
iff!" He bent down and kissed her as she
did not reply.
"Miss Cathcart!" came a shrill voice.
"Here comes the old hens," he said.
"No. you shan't get away, so don't
ttruggle."
Miss Tabbs peered through the open
door and dropped into one of the hall
chairs preparatory to fainting.. Her
shriek of "Murder!" brought all the
other occupants to the spot in an in
stant, prepared for the worst.
"Now, then, my good ladies," said
Allingham, coming forward. "Don't
get hysterical. I have a right to claim
anything in the house for the debt
owing, so have decided to claim Sibyl
and write 'paid' across the account.
She's going to be my wife."
"Wife! The vixen, the sly little rat,
the "
"Yes, we quarrelled some time ago,
but now she's forgiven me and I've for
giver, her, though I don't know why I
should," he added, jocosely.
"Because," she answered, with eyes
full "of joyful tears, "because, you old
dear, you're every inch a man." The
Penny Pictorial Magazine.
Rosea in Open London.
It would be interesting to know the
nearest spot to Fleet street where
roses still blow in the open. That spot
is very near, indeed, writes a corre
spondent, for it is in the Temple Gar
dens, but a few yards from the old
Rose Tavern, that eighteenth century
hostelry which took its name from its
rose gardens. The Temple Gardens
lie open to the sun, a broad sweep of
green turf, edged with flowery bor
ders, in which the roses are now shyly
putting forth their leafy shoots. A
passing fancy suggests that some of
those roses may be the direct descend
ants of the very trees from which
Richard Plantagenct and his compan
ions took their emblems of the strife
which was to "send a thousand souls
to death and deadly night."
Nor are these the only roses within
sound of Fleet street's whirr and hum;
Lincoln's Inn still keeps its gardens,
sorely tried though they are by smoke
and grime, and it is but a few years
since the little garden square of
Clifford's Inn could have shown a few
modest blooms. Now, alas, Cliffords
Inn seems likely to vanish forever; the
garden is all but gone, the few remain
ing trees have already begun to feel
the remorseless axe, and in front of
the towering masonry of the Record
Office a dismal black notice board as
serts the rights of the crown to a share
of the scanty light and air which still
penetrate the threatened space. Lon
don Chronicle.
Queer Little Church.
One of the queerest and most iso
lated churches in England is a little
gray edifice in the valley of Westclale
Ilead, Cumberland. It was over four
hundred years old, and has only two
windows and eight pews. The pulpit
is lighted by a slit of glass in the
roof. A little bell hangs loosely in the
open belfry and on stormy nights
drearily mingles its tones with the
wind and thunder.
Shipwreck Victims.
During the last forty-nine years as
many as 31,271 persons perished from
shipwreck on or near the coasts of the
United Kingdom. During the same
period the number of lives 'saved by
the Royal National Lifeboat institution
totaled 33,900.
To 15e Sure.
There are only two kinds of children
your own perfect little cherubs and
the ill-behaved brats wncd by other
people. Town Topics.
A CAMPAIGN PROGRAMME.
My Uncle Jim's a candidate;
They chose him from the lot,
He says they will elect him
To the office, like as not.
It ain't his wondrous learnin
Nor :Js talent that commands.
He hasn't got much mone;-,
But he's great at s..akin' hands.
1 here's i omethin' awe insirin'
In the way he clears his throat
And stands with one hand stuck insid
lite new Prince Albert coat,
it's finer than the music o
A dozen big brass bands
When he says "How-dy-do" an' goes
To work a-shakin' hands.
He ain't a-makin' lengthy talks,
Like he made in the past;
I honestly believe he's got
The right idea at last.
He smiles with patronizing pride,
His bosom broad expands,
An' he don't say another word,
But keeps a-shakin' hands.
Washington Star.
The American is never more ener
getic than when he tries to be idle.
Life. ,
"Is; he opposed to capital?" "He is,
when any one else has it." Chicago;
Evening Tost.
"Is Brainard well fixed?" "You bet!
He's, stuck on a girl worth a million."
Town Topics. ,
"Foiled!" muttered the yeast cake . as
it was being wrapped in its glittering
cover. Yale Record.
He paid her compliments, before,
But now he pays her bills.
Is't just to say that marriage
A man's devotion chills?
Puck.
He "I suppose you think smoking is
hurtful?" She "Not always. It is
quite an improvement to pork prod
ucts." Boston Transcript.
Willie Peebles "The horse was goin'
" Teacher "Don't forget your g,
Willie." Willie Peebles "Gee, the
horse was goin' "Puck.
In stealing kisses if you're caught
Red handed with the smack.
You should in restitution
Pay double measure back.
Hebrew Standard.
Tessie "I wonder if I'm getting to
look passe?" Bessie "Why?" Tessie
"I've been asked twice within a
week to be a bridesmaid." Chicago
Daily News.
Mr. Flip "There seems to be a
problem in this play." Mrs. Flip
"The problem is how to get your
money's worth out of it." Chicago
Daily News.
"His wife is an ardent temperance
worker isn't she?" "Yes; she won't
travel in the West because she heard
that the climate is stimulating."
Cleveland Leader.
"What do you think of this idea of
having dogs for caddies?" asked the
old golfer. "It's a good idea," replied
the beginner; "the dogs can't laugh at
you." Yonkers Statesman.
The hurdy-gurdy man is not always
mercenary. In Germany he does not
grind for pennies but, like our long
haired brethren in college, he grinds
for marks. Harvard Lampoon.
Farmer Medders "But I thought
Widder Jones wa'n't goin' ter take no
more summer boarders." Farmer
Whitfietree "Wall, she took one of
'em fer better or wuss last year an'
now she's ter take more ter support
him." ruck.
"What did the preacher say about
your essay?" asked Mrs. Gudley. "He
said it was very tautological," an
swered the girl graduate. "Gracious!
me! To think of your doin' anything
like that, almost the first time tryin'!"
Washington Star. 1
Old Lady (who has given tramp
threepence) "Don't think I am giving
this for charity's sake. It's only be
cause it pleases me to do so." Tramp
"Make it three shillings instead of
threepence, and enjoy yourself, mem!'
Glasgow Evening Times.
Has Long Family Tree,
Joseph Bowne. a well known far
mer of Bedford township, Calhoun
County, Mich., has a remarkable fam
ily record. It is an unbroken genea
logical record reaching back for 300
years to his ancestry in England.
From that time to this every member
of the Bowne family has been a
Quaker. Every family Las had a son
named Samuel.