$i.oo a Year, in Advance. "FOR OOP, FOR COUNTRY, AND FOR TRUTH." Single Copy, 5 Cent.
VOL. XV. PLYMOUTH, N, C,, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1904. NO, 29,
i.
THE SONGS OF LONG AGO.
i.
'I'm weary o the songs of strife,
The chant of woe, the dirge of death;
Come, let's go back to love and life,
The sweetness of the rose's breath!
Let Lira whose greed enslaves him bear
His heavy troubles as he may
.'And, shrinking from assassins, fare
Along his own mistaken Avay.
But nome one wafts a song to me
From where the sweet, soft breezes blow
"Of happy toilers in the tree
Who sing sweet songs of long ago.
it
ONSTERNATION was de
picted ou the fnces of the
family group assembled to
hear it, when I finished
c
tSGfc&8 reading the letter I had
just received from aunt.
The group consisted of myself
.Mary, eldest daughter of the house
and hearth brown, dark-eyed, tall and
eighteen; Ilelen, not quite as brown,
hai:el-eyed, almost as tall, and sixteen;
Will, browner, dark-eyed, a head short
er, and ten; and Carrol towering above
us all, blue-eyed, fair-haired, gold
mnstached and twenty -one.
Aunt was, in fact, our great aunt,
sister of our father's mother, but the
only aunt, groat or little, that we had
over known. We had met her but two
or three times during our lives, as she
lived in far-away Illinois, and was too
much occupied with grains and herds
to think of frequent visiting, and wf
wcll, we were too poorly provided with
gold and silver to take long 'and ex
pensive journeys. So what little visit
ing there had been, had been on aunt's
side, with one exception, and then 1
.was the visitor.
We children had always heard twice
a year from aunt once collectively at
Christmas, and once respectively on
our birthdays and each time the kind,
ly note which exhorted us to "be good,
industrious and self-reliant," enclosed
a check, larger or smaller, according to
aunt's gains on the preceding year.
These notes we had been taught to an
swer with many wishes for the old
lady's welfare and thanks for her kind
ness and hopes for a speedy meeting;
in short, in a manner befitting the
only nieces and nephews of the Car
mody family when replying to the
friendly epistles of their only aunt,
to say nothing of that aunt being the
wealthiest and most influential mem
ber of that family. . "
A few days before our father died
he called us together, and said:
"My children, it isn't at all likely to
occur, but if your aunt should ask a
favor of you, grant it, no matter at
what inconvenience. She has been my
best and dearest friend."
Poor father! I suspect aunt had
often helped him out of pecuniary dif
ficulties. He was an unpractical,
dreamy sort of man, fond of birds and
poetry and flowers, and didn't succeed
very well in life. But, in spite of his
dreaminess and- his want of worldly
tact, and his being so totally unlike
her in most ways, he was a great fa
vorite of aunt's, and. when we tele
graphed his serious illness to her she
left her vast possessions without a
captain at a moment's notice, and has
tened to his side, making her appear
ance in . a bonnet that immediately
suggested the prairies, it was so un
limited as to size and so bare of orna
ment, and which grotesquely obtruded
it?elf.into the remembrance of that
sad time forever after. "
Since father's death things hadn't
been very bright with us. In fact, they
hadn't been bright at all.
We found there was a good deal of
money owing, and what remained of
the two hundred dollars aunt gave us
on the day of the funeral she bade
us "good-by" the instant the ceremon
ies were over after our cheap mourn
ing was paid for, went to the butcher,
grocer and shoeniakej.
We were willing to do, and did, what
ever we could supporting the house
hold; but, dear! dear! talk about weeds;
I never saw anything grow like bills.
Carrol, who had an aristocratic turn
cf mind, struggled with it; and I, who
II.
I'm weary of the hate and spite,
The jealous carping and the threats;
Come, let us look across the height
To where the sun in splendor sets,
Remembering that it will rise
Again to-morrow to display
New glories unto hopeful eyes,
To light the faithful on their way!
Let's cease a while the songs of war,
The dirge of death, the chant of woe,
And thank the Lord's glad songsters for
Their happy songs of long ago.
S. E. Kiser.
if
had a dressmaking turn of mind,
struggled with that; and Ilelen strug
gled with her books, hoping to become
a teacher in time; and little Will strug
gled with somebody else's books, for he
went into a publishing house as errand
hoy poor fellow!
Besides the struggles, we had mother
on our minds. A few weeks after we
lost our father, we lost our baby sister.
A beautiful child she was, as bright
as a diamond and as fair as a pearl,
and the pride and darling of us all.
Already sinking beneath the blow of
her husband's death, when her little
daughter died, too, my mother's heart
was nearly broken. From being a sun.
shiny, energetic woman, she became
listless and apathetic, sitting in her
room day after day gazing upon the
pictures of the loved ones, or rocking
back and forth, her hands clasped be
fore her, looking with her eyes upon
vacancy.
"Oh, that she could be made to
weep! That she could be roused from
this dreadful speechless gloom into
which she had fallen!" was our con
tinual prayer, for the terrible thought
came to us often that we should lose
our mother in a much worse way than
we had our father and sister that her
brain would at last give way beneath
Its weight of heavy despairing
thoughts.
Well, the exchequer .was low enough,
and mother had had one of her very
bad spells, and a lady customer had
just been in and abused me yes,
abused; I can see no other word;
women do fly in such tempers at their
dressmakers about the fit of her dress,
declaring it to me "utterly ruined,"
when it only wanted taking up n little
on one shoulder and letting down an
inch or so in front; and Will's rigk
arm was almost disabled from a heavy
load of books he carried a long dis
tance the day before (how men can
have the heart to give a man's burden
to a child I can't see), when aunt's let
ter fell like a bomb-shell into our near
ly disheartened little camp:
"Dear Folks: A friend of mine an
Iuglishman" (aunt's language was cor
rect enough, but at times her spelling
was somewhat peculiar) "who came
here purposing to start in business,
took the fever, lingered a few months
and died, leaving. Heaven knows why,
his only child, a daughter who will
eventually be a not-to-bc-sniffed-at
heiress, to my care. Having been deli
cately reared in the midst of devotion
and -tenderness, this place, only suited
to bold, strong natures, is a little too
ruff for her. So she desires at least
I desire for her her home to be with
J'OU.
"My niece, Mary, who inherits the
disposition of her father to a great
degree and he would have gone out
of his way any day to give even a
dumb brute pleasure will, I am sure,
be kind to her. Carrol will love her
for her beauty, if for nothing else, and
she is most lovable. Her maid will
accompany her.
"At present her affairs are In a tan
gle, but I hope to unravel them in the
course of a 'few months, and then you
will be recompensed for whatever ex
tra expense she may cause you. I
would enclose a check at present writ
ing, but all my funds, are invested in
a speculation from which I expect to
reap much profit. Do the best you can
until you hear from me again, when I
will further unfold my plans in regard
to Miss Ashbell, who, by the by, starts
to-morrow. AUNT."
No wonder consternation and dis
may were depicted on every counte
nance when I ceased reading this let
ter. No wonder we looked gaspingly
at each other. What in the world
were we to do with this fine young
lady in our humble home?
What could aunt be thinking about?
True, she didn't know exactly how
poor we were, for we'd been too proud
to acknowledge our extreme poverty
in our few and far-between letters.
On the contrary, I am afraid we had
led her to believe that we were in quite
a flourishing condition. But for all
that, she ought to have known that we
were not flourishing enough to support
a delicate and beautiful girl, used to
luxury, tenderness and devotion, for
even a few months. Was ever any
thing so malapropos and vexatious?
Of course Miss Ashbell would look
with scorn on our seven-roomed dwell
ing, with a back garden twenly-flye
by twenty-five, and a court-yard ten
by ten. And suppose as aunt, with
a short-sightedness very unusual to
her, complacently remarked Carrol
should fall in love with her? The
proud English girl would no doubt re
gard him as a fortune-hunter, and in
vidiously compare his frank, impulsive,
rather brusque manners with the re
pose and "awful" dignity of the lan
guid swells of her own native land.
And somebody else might be attract
ed toward her men are so susceptible
of woman's beauty somebody who
now thought my face the sweetest in
the world! The very thought made
my heart stop beating.
And the maid? Even if we could
make arrangements to accommodate
her and it seemed utterly impossible
for us to do so Betty, our faithful ser
vant for the last fifteen vpnrs, would
look upon her as an interloper, and
treat her as such. Betty has been used
to being "monarch of all she surveyed."
Even in house-cleaning times those
that try men's souls and women's soles
she scorned the idea of an assist
ant. .
"No, ma'am, I'll have no stranger
pokin' roun' me. When I'm not able
to do the work of this house alone
I'll go." '
And mother dear, shrinking, grief
stricken mother how would she bear
the advent of this dainty Miss Ashbell?
But we could do nothing to avert the
impending misfortune. Even if we
had thought of disobeying our father's
last command, and refusing aunt the
favor she had not asked, but, in her
usual decisive way, taken for granted,
the young lady was oh her way, and
would be here in a day or two.
And then we began to prepare for
Miss Ashbell. Will's room was to be
given up to her, and Will (Carrol's
room was scarcely large enough for
himself and his art-traps, as he called
them) was stowed away in the loft a
proceeding which-he viewed with im
mense dissatisfaction.
"I'll smother up there in hot weath
er,'' he said, with a weary face. "Oh,
I wish there wasn't any Miss Ashbell!
Why don't she go to a hotel?"
Why don't she?" echoed I.
I said we began to prepare for her.
but for lack of the afore-mentioned sil
ver and gold, our preparations were
of the simplest kind. Carrol made and
put up two pretty brackets, and hung
with a sigh for he hated to part with
them the few pictures he possessed
on the walls. I looped back the white
curtains (freshly washed and ironed,
with much grumbling, by Betty) with
new blue ribbons, and I covered the
trunk ottoman with bright chints, and
with Helen's help made a new mat
to place before the bureau, and 'we
turned an old tablecloth into napkins,
and bought a new napkin ring and two
or three cut-glass goblets, and a lovely
china cup and saucer, and. when all
was done, waited with anxious hearts
for our unwelcome visitor.
Mother had shut herself up In her
room early in the morning of the day
we expected her, and had remained
there; and the rest of us were all as
uncomfortable as poor, proud, shy, sen
sitive people could be at the thought
of h perfect stranger's ingress into
the very heart of their home, and wish
ing audibly and inaudibly that Miss
Ashbell's father had never brought
her from England, when, as the sun
sank in the west, and a cool, summer
breeze, fragrant with the breath of the
roses, lifted the curtains of our ccsy
bay-window, a carriage stopped at the
door.
"She's come, and I'm gene," said
Will, flinging down his book and then
rushing out into the garden.
Carrol rose from his chair, ran his
fingeis through his gclden hair, and
glanced In the mirror at his new blue
silk necktie. Helen sank ca the leunge
with a sort of groan; and I opened the
parlor door as Betty went muttering
through the entry in answer to the
bell.
"Is it Mrs. Carmody's?" asked a
pleasant voice, with yes, it was a
slight brogue.
"Yes," answered Jtetty, shortly. And
In another moment a round-cheeked,
unmistakably red-haired, good-natured
looking young girl in a plain Traveling
dress stood before me.
"Good gracious! Is this the beauty?"
thought I; and Carrol fell back a step
or two.
"Are you Miss Carmody?" she asked.
"I am," I replied, holding out my
hand; "and let me welcome you:"
when, turning from me, she gently
pulled forward into the room the love
liest little child I had ever beheld in
my life, with large, soul-lit brown eyes
and sunny hair, the exact color of our
lost darling's.
"This is Miss Ashbell," said the
maid; "and I am to stay cr go back,
as you see fit."
I looked at Carrol.' He indulged in
a long, under-the-breath whistle.
Helen buried her face in the sofa
cushions and laughed hysterically.
The child came forward, and holding
oij her little hands, said, with a pretty
drawl:
"I am to love you, and you are to
love me. Aunt said so."
I went on my knees on one side of
her, and Helen went down on her
knees on the other, and we kissed her
till her dimpled cheeks glowed again
(you see the house had been so lonly
without our little sister), while Carol
looked on with astonishment, admira
tion and tenderness blended in his
handsome face, and Will stole in with
the only bud from my precious tea
rose, the stem carefully stripped of its
thorns, and put it in her hand.
"Thank you, boy," she said. "I will
have you for a brother; and you, too,"
looking with a bright smile into Car
rol's face. "There's an angel at home,
in a big picture, with hair and eyes
like yours."
Carrol caught her up in his arms,
and away with her to mother's room.
And there she had no sooner said "my
papa and mamma are both in heaven,"
than mother burst out in a blessed fit
of weeping that left a rainbow behind
it. And from that moment the weight
began to be lifted from her brain, and
soon I had to resign my position as
housekeeper, for we had our mother
back again as she used to be of old
a little quieter in her ways, perhaps,
but just as sweet, as kind, as unsel
fish as ever.
And Carrol's picture of "Miss Ash
bell" gained him a place on the walls
of the academy that autumn; and Will,
who entered college last week, never
ran away from her again, but. has ever
since been giving her roses freed from
thorns, as he did the first night she
came among us, bringing light and hap
pinessGod bless her! to our sorrow
clouded house.
And I often think, looking at the
two heads (there is only four years'
difference in their ages) bending over
the same book, that some day Will will
tell her the old, .old story, and she will
listen to him with a'smile.
"I shouldn't wonder if you were
right, Brownie," said my husband
how I laugh when I think of .my jeal
ous fears about him ofice on a time
"you almost always are."
And aunt's speculation turned out
splendidly (she is still living, a hale
old woman of seventy-five), and she
insisted upon our accepting what she
called father's share, and that share
was no inconsiderable one.
And the seven-roomed house has
grown to a twelve-roomed one Betty,
by the by, lias allowed her daughter
to assist her in the housework and
the twenty -five by twenty-five garden
to a hundred by a hundred, my corner
just filled with rose bushes.
And everything has prospered with
us, ard no lengthening shadows have
fallen upoii or.r path since that rosy
June afternoon we so unwillingly
opened the door to let in the darling
who loved us. as we loved her at first
sight sweet, brown-eyed, golden
haired Miss Ashbell. Waverley Magazine.
The British Income Tax.
The income tax was introduced Into
England by William Pitt in 1700 under
the stress of the French war. It ceased
i:i 1S1G, but was revived by Sir Robert
Peel ii 1S42, and extended by Glad
stone in 1S53. From being a temporary
war tar it has now become a perma
nent part of the British financial sys
tem, and is resorted to by every Chan
cellor who finds himself in difficulties.
DEADLY "MILK SICK WEED.
Tennessee Cattle Eat It, and Those Wlt
Drink Their Milk Iie.
From time to time in the past five
decades Tennesseeans have been stirred
to a profound sense of interest in the
State's mysterious malady, "milk sick
ness," as its deadly reappearance in
certain sections of the State has been
followed by fatal results to human be
ings r.nd to stock, says the Louisville
Courier-Journal. No one has ever dis
covered the cause of the malady from
which death relieves the victim after
such physical agony as almost deprives
the human species of the power of
spech, and dumb crutes express their
sufferings by frenzied search for water
to cool the thirst which consumes
them. Once by a stream, they plunge
or fall into it and quickly drink them
selves to death.
The fatal sickness is known to a
limited extent in several sections of the
State, butexists principally near Sparta,
in White County. It is contracted
through drinking the milk of cows
that have eaten a certain weed known
as the "milksick weed." which looks
somewhat like clover and grows thick
ly on the infested land. But what con
stitutes the poison in the weed is no
mere determined to-day than it was
when first located by the keen-witted,
nature-wise mountaineers, who have
been its chief victims. It has been as
cribed at various times to minerals
whose poison is absorbed in the roots
of the "milksick" plant; to a vapor,
from some fungus 'growth, and to the
action of the dew producing, in con
nection with the life of the plant, a cer
tain poisonous acid. But all of these
by practical science. On the largest
theories have failed under tests applied
by practical science. On the largest in
fected section known to exist in the
limits of the State, "Milksick Moun
tain," in White County, no mineral
whatever exists; cattle which ate the
"milksick weed" after the dew had
dried died in agony just as those who
ate it when the dew was fresh and
sparkling, and the strictest search
failed to find any fungus growth whatever.
Eat Apples and Be Healthy.
Hail to the apple. It is the latest
entry in the life-preserver class offered
by the scientists who are ev?r seeking
means to prolong life and relieve the
! ills that flesh is heir to. In a well
known sanitarium for nervous diseases
there are numerous placards on the
walls of the gymnasium, the dressing
rooms and the halls, which read: "Eat
apples!" Apples are served in every
form raw, baked and stewed. When
they are served raw the patients are ,
ejepected to pare them and to save
the stomach from the hard work of
digesting the skin.
The apple has in it the elements
which go to the making of good red
blood; it has a goodly quantity of iron
inside its red, yellow or green cover
ing. The apple has in it both a tonic
acid and a fattening sugar; it is a
real food. There 'are two large divi
sions into which apples may be put
the acutely acid and the subacid. Not
every one can eat greenings, with their
wholesome sourness; those who can
not can try the bellflower or the russet,
which are less acid, but equally nour
ishing. Not every one can eat apples un
cooked without suffering from indi
gestion; those who cannot should eat
them baked. Baking is better than
stewing, for the fruit juices are kept
inside the skin and changed gradually.
So wliy not eat apples and see what
they will do for your blood, for your
nerves and for your pleasure? Salt
Lake Telegram.
The Sultan's Jewels.
A correspondent, writing from Con
stantinople to a Paris journal, claims,
as the result of personal inspection,
to give details of the amazing collec
tion of jewels in the Sultan's treasury.
The turbans of all the Sultans since
Mahomet II. are there, all glittering
with rare and large gems of the purest
water. There are also the royal throne
of Persia, carried off by the Turks in
1314, and covered with more than
20.0CO rubies, emeralds and fine pearls,
and also the throne of Sulieman I.,
from the dome of which there hangs
over the head of the Caliph an emerald
six inches long and four deep. These
two thrones are the chief object3 ia
the collection. London Globe.
Jap Ajb of itetirement.
A Japanese officer who has not
reached the rank of major at the age
of forty-eight is compulsorily retired
as unworthy of further service.