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About Corvallis gazette. (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909 | View Entire Issue (July 19, 1907)
BUR AND BACHELOR. By TROY ALLISON. Copyright 1907, by B. C. Parcella. o o Jarvis selected a comfortable looking tock, lit his pipe and leaned against the chestnut tree. "This hv the loneliest spot in the neighborhood," he said, after a medita tive puff. "It's my favorite place to Come alone and think." The Toman raised her eyebrows quizzically. . "So sorry If I disturb you," tran quilly, "but an old bachelor never knows when he is favored by the gods. It's useless to cater to his pessimism. A woman mere or less doesn't In crease his misery to any great extent. - It was too far for me to come alone, you see." "Oh, I don't mind you! Don't take It to heart." He fitted his back more comfortably to the tree trunk and fixed his eyes upon the blue ridge of mountains that circled around the val ley beneath them. "I get on well enough with women if they leave me out of the pink tea business and don't expect raptures. I've passed the rap turous age." She had put some chestnut burs on the rock in front of her and was pounding them with a small stone. She left off long enough to look him over reflectively. "One might reasonably wonder If you ever had been young enough to rhapsodize it's hard to associate you with the idea." She put a plump chestnut between her teeth and crushed it with obvious pleasure. "It would really be worth one's while to Bpend some effort trying to make you rhapsodize. I'll admit that I also have partially outgrown that stage most women of thirty have but it would be rather amusing to my blase mind to see you struggling through a proposal." His month in the mountains had giv en him a good coat of tau, but she saw a swarthy flush rise to his face. "You are all alike," he grumbled, "Al ways wanting compliments and want ing a man to act the fool generally. BHB CATHliKED THE T.AST BUB WITHIN HEl; IiEACH. I've only known you a month and was fool enough to think I had found a wo man who didn't care for them." "There is no such woman in exist ence, dear man." She pounded open another bur energetically. "You need not ever let one fool you in that' way. Now, as for me, I have kept you thinking me sensible for a whole month. I let you talk about the isthmi an conditions and the trust problems I even flatter myself that I conversed Intelligently enough upon the subject to hold your attention but as for com pliments, I just love 'em!" Jarvis turned his gaze from the mountain back to her animated face. "I should have thought you would have grown tired of them long ago," he said In unconscious tribute. "That does very well, coining from a woman hating bachelor, but it might be improved upon. For Instance, the 'long ago' sounds a bit doubtful." There the woman speaks again," he grumbled. "She can't bear the idea of liny one's even approximating her age. Now, I know you have been a widow Beven years, yet you would probably be pleased if I refused to believe you were a day over eighteen." She gave a little irrepressible gurgle of amusement. "We don't marry quite so young in our part of the country; but, even so. It's better than reaching the forlorn state you have achieved." "It is rather an achievement," he Bald complacently, "when all one's relatives and friends seem afflicted Vrith- a mania for matchmaking." "Then you should not be so fascinat ing," she said, with impudent sarcasm. He sat erect, bracing both hands on the ground beside him. "So what?" Ue shouted In a mirth that set the rocks echoing. Ehe ! beat open another bur non chalantly. "Oh, well, you. are rather good look inar, you know. If your manners were e little better you might be er a tiny bit fascinating. I am not speaking about your achievements," hastily, "merely your potentialities." "Bay, are you trying the complimed racket on meT" he demanded aaa plclously. v "No, Indeed!"..:-A man of more ex- " perience In reading the femal expres sion would have detected too great a show of Innocence In her eyes. "I never referred to-, your looks at all In fact, I don't know that I should call you exactly good looking, just strong ' and muscular looking." This time the flush on his face had a tinge of gratification In it "That's all the looks a man has any business caring for," Tie agreed and felt a sneaking desire to tell her that he had been the star man on the foot ball team at college and that there was not a man at the club now who i could bruise him with a boxing glove. ' "You see, we are all more or less alike men and women." She contem plated him from the corner of her eye. . "Now, I have a special weakness for being told that my hair has a tinge of red in it, and ycu like to be called ; strong." She again gave a little gur gle of merriment "You ought to have been named De- i lilah," he said in disgust; "there was the very essence of treachery in the J way you rounded me up then." She climbed up the rocks to reach a i limb that hung heavy with huge burs. She broke them off gingerly, throwing i them one by one at his feet j "They remind me of old bachelors," she said, holding a large prickly one be tween her thumb and forefinger, "but ! with a little experience a woman of Intelligence can manage them fairly I well and avoid the prickles. I don't ; suppose, if I hadn't been a widow, with a certain amount of knowledge of the characteristics Of man, that I would ever have got you sufnciently tame to have been allowed to take these woodland strolls with you." There was a glimmer of admiration in his eyes as she stood on the gray, moss covered rock, her slim figure reaching up to the deep green of the chestnut bough. She gathered the last bur within her leach and threw it at him energetically. . , "That is for you to keep as a souve nir," she commenced, but her voice broke in a gasp of alarm as she lost her footing on the mossy rock and fell on the ledge 'below, Jarvia,- his1 face anxious and white, lifted' her gently; and her head fell on his shoulder. .. . He gazed helplessly until the stillness of the woods grew oppressive. "My dear; oh, my dear," he said anx iously, putting his cheek against hers, "if you would only open your eyes your beautiful eyes." The corners of her '. mouth betrayed her to an involuntary smile. She gave him one look, then put her head back on his shoulder. "I'm not hurt much." There was a mixture of emotions in the mirth of her voice. "But I do so love to hear you say that, and I told you that neither a bur nor a bachelor was hard to man age if one knew how." Coming -to His Title. Titles have rarely been conferred up on native Americans by European sov ereigns, but several have succeeded to titles by Inheritance. One of these was Sir John Davie, the first town clerk of Groton, Conn., who was grad uated at Harvard in 16S1. The story of his reception of the news of his succession to a baronetcy Is told In the pages of "In Old Connecticut." One day Davie was hoeing corn on the plains in company with John Pack er, a neighbor, both men in homespun and barefooted, with their sleeves roll ed up to their elbows and their trousers up to their knees, when a stranger clad in the latest London fashion ap peared and asked the official If he were John Davie. "Yes," was the reply. "Then I salute you, Sir John Davie of Creedy Park, Devon," said the vis itor. Tradition says that the new baronet finished his row he was hoeing on a wager with his fellow worker then he accompanied his visitor to the brown homestead, treated him to cake and wine and learned the whole story how his uncle, Sir John Davie, Bart., had died without male issue, leaving his nephew sole heir. In a short time the Poquonock farm er exchanged the brown farmhouse for an English estate. He never forgot his native land, however, and always retained his interest in Groton. He aided the settlers to build their new church and when it was finished pre sented it with a silver communion set. He also made gifts to his relatives and was one of the early benefactors of Yale college. Hunting In Bygone Days. What long apprenticeship the would be -huntsmen had to serve In bygone days! Gaston de Foix considered a be ginning should be made when the child had reached the age of seven, when It should be placed in the kennels. King Charles says that to become a perfect huntsman the young gentilhomme who is Intended for the post of veneur should be taken at the age of twelve. He must be healthy and well built: he must have good sense and especial ly a quick and prompt judgment. One of the principal things required Is that I he should be painstaking. Alas, 150 ' years later we have D'Yauville telling . us that a man needs two years' tuition ; to qualify as a huntsman! It was not only the paid gentleman of the hunt ing establishments, however, who be came real connoisseurs, for their royal masters took such persona! interest In everything connected with the c&ase I t.2t most of them knew all their Leungs by name and on the eve of a j day's hunting would name each hound ' t!?- "5 t- be taken out. They also r prided themselves - on . being able to , faire le bois .themselves that is, go j out -with their lymers In the morning j and quest for and harbor the staff. , FfJl Mall Gazette. TP LOTTERIES. Attitude -of South Carolina Towara ' ' Them In the Past. J It may be news to some of oui' St. Louis has lost three islands, readers, so we will tell in a few though the names are as well re words what the old time people oi membered now as when the islands Carolina thought about the conduct themselves were actually in exist of lotteries. , ence. One is Bloody island, just March 4, 1651, a stringent act opposite the city. The old timers was passed forbidding "private" lot-J used to go there to fight their duels, teries. Again, Sept. 13, 176, an-' and in those days the river channel other , act of a like nature was ran on the Illinois side of the is- ' adopted. " " ; land, and except in high water there But by act of March 25, 1784, the was only a slough between St. Louis city council of Charleston was per-. and the dueling ground. , The gov raitted to have a lottery. : There: eminent and railroad works put : were grave doubts as to the propri-; Bloody island on the Illinois side, ety of encouraging any species oi and now a good part of East St. . ;;smbling, but lotteries continued Lotris is built ove the sand bar that to be permitted. V - I was once a thicket of willows. I Dec. 19, 1813, under act; one oi Arsenal island, too, used to be on v more lotteries -were established, the, the St. Louis side of the river, and profits to be applied b the erection j boys rolled up their , trousers and of Masonic halls in Columbia and, waded across the narrow- slough Charleston for the grand lodge ol from a point a little south of the South Carolina, Ancient York Ma- workhouse. The boats went on the sons, and for building a lodge room other side of the island,' but -the in Georgetown for lodge No. 69, and I channel began cutting into the Illi- commissioners were appointed to conduct the same, Dec. 13, 1871, the trustees of Newberry academy were allowed to hold a lottery to raise a sum of money not exceeding $5,000. Under an act' adopted Dec. 20, 1820, $10,000 was the tax to be levied upon any person who should sell lottery tickets for any other lottery than those authorized by the state. Dec. 16, 1824, the vestry and members of St. Peter's Koman Catholic church of Columbia were empowered to establish a lottery to raise $10,000 for the 'nse, benefit and support of the church. Dec. 19, 1809, the president and trustees of the Second Presbyterian church of Charleston were author ized to run a lottery to raise an amount not exceeding $20,000. Dec. 12, 1795, a lottery was au thorized to raise funds to remove obstructions in Savannah river be tween Vienna and Cambellton and Augusta. From 1800 to 1837 numerous acts were " passed allowing towns, socie ties, churches, etc., to raise moneys by way of lotteries, and about 1877 we had the famous Academy of Mu sic lottery in Charleston, in which so many goody-goody people bought tickets with the hope that fortune would give them a slice of buttered bread, but the majority of whom re ceived only a backhanded slap in the jaw. Beaufort (S. C.) Gazette. Being Good at Church. A little east side girl went to church the other Sunday, having promised her mother that she would be good and not talk. She listened to the music and seemed very well satisfied with the sermon for some time. She then began to get rest less, but ,she did not say anything. The minister was preaching a ser mon to his congregation in which he was admonishing them to always be on the alert to be good. All at once he . emphasized the words "Sleep not!" The little girl no ticed it and at the same time saw a man asleep. She could restrain her self no longer and said to her moth er: "The preacher is scolding that fat man over there for sleeping. Ain't I better than he is?" Co lumbus Dispatch. Great Men and Their Cats. That the cat always falls' on her feet is a proverb, but not many per haps have heard that this enviable faculty is a miraculous privilege be stowed by Mohammed. Eichelieu, it seems, kept twenty cats. Tasso had the "fancy," and merely to mention Baudelaire, Chateaubriand, Victor Hugo, Beranger and Maupas sant one always regrets to learn that Petrarch, after so far departing from the spiritual tone of his son nets to Laura as to half cherish thoughts of suicide on her death, finally found consolation in the ca resses of a cat, whose skeleton may still be seen in the museum at Pa dua. London Globe. As Father Saw It He gazed upon her in fond admi ration. - He loved her to distraction. Lovers had loved before, lovers might love again, but no lover might, could, would or should love ! as he loved TJora. And then Ferdi-1 nand exclaimed with startling sud- ; denness: ' ' " I "What in the world ever induced you, Dora, to care for a fellow like . & a meaning -tone. "I want the me?" j place, but I don't know that I an "1 really don't: know, but pa promise to keep it for the full four threatens to send me to a brain ; teen years." Dundee Advertiser. specialist." Stray Stories. A Fur Lining. He found his hair was leaving the top of his head and took his barber to task for it. "You sold me two bottles of stuff , had goneso far as to rehearse for to make the hair grow." " - j the wedding." " - "It is very strange it won't grow j "Yes, that was the trouble. They again," interrupted the barber. "I r had rehearsed five times, and Rich can't understand it " r ! lev said the nreDarations for matri- "Well, look here," said the man, I u don t mind drinking another bot- tie, but this must be the last." ! DetroiJ ITews. CITY'S LOST ISLANDS. Illinois Has-Three That Once Belonged ' to St, Louis. , - I.,:, nois farms at such a rate that the . government threw up a dike ' just across from the arsenal, turned the river to this side, the island was joined to the Illinois shore, was finally purchased by the state of Illinois from the city of St. Louis, and the former bed of the river i,p now covered bv farms. I Duncan's island was a -big sand bar that began near the foot of Lami street and extended north to Gey er avenue. It was purchased by the Iron Mountain Railroad com pany, which wanted to locate its yards in that neighborhood and fill ed up the site with earth from Pi cot's hill in Carondelet. The names - still live, for the people of East St. Louis make a difference be tween the "island" and the main land, just as the farmers in the bot tom still talk about Arsenal island and the switchmen in the yards south of Chouteau avenue tellone. another that a certain car is down 1 on .Duncan s island. fet. ijoins Globe-Democrat. An Exchange of Good. .Wishes. A successful schoolteacher who is' loved as well as admired by her pu pils says that during her first year of teaching she received a little les son which taught her what St. Paul probably meant By the "foolishness of preaching." , In the middle of a term one of her pupils was obliged to leave school, as the family was about to move out of town. When the teach er said goodby to the little girl, who had been an intelligent and well be haved pupil, she felt moved to add a few words of advice. "If I never see you again," she said, with much earnestness, "I hope you will never forget to do your best wherever you may be, and whatever tasks you are called to per form I hope you will always be an honest, upright woman, truthful and brave." "Thank you," said the little girl, her round, eager face upturned to her teacher, "and I hope you'll be the same." ' Nothing Like Praise. . Jack I'll tell you what's the matter, George. You don't praise your wife enough. Even if things don't go right there's no use growl ing. " Praise her efforts to please whether they are successful or not. Women like praise and lots of it. George All right. I'll remem ber it., . George (at dinner same day) My dear, this steak" pie is just love ly. It fs delicious ever so much better than, those my mother used to make. - She couldn't equal that pie if she tried for a month. George's Wife -You made fun of every pie I ever made, and now George But this is lovely, . George's Wife That came from the baker's. Strand Magazine. : Retort of the "Boy Wanted." A certain prosperous business man posted on his office window a notice which read, 'Boy wanted about fourteen years." A lad of that age, with little that was prepossessing in his appearance, came into the office and stated in a quiet matter of fact tone that he had read the advertisement. "Well, do you think you would like to have, the position, my boy ?" asked the business man. ; "Yes," came -Ahe prompt answeT So Fatiguing. ' ' . "So young Eichley Kadd isn't to marry Goldie Stiles after all?" ; ! "Xo ; he got "scared." Well, well! And I heard they mony were such hard work ne was j- afraia he couldn't stand the real thing at all," Catholic Standard : and Times. I Duncan, P. C. Ill "By rMLB CIRAKD. :j i: ;' '". : j Copyrijtted, 190T. oy" Homer Spragoo. j-j Marion looked up -hopefully as the card "was" . brourut Iicr Even t:;e an nouncement of Duncan s. ua:r.a was comforting. . E t t o i ttle o'jo g of carlboard bore, m aurtitioa. to the name, the initials. V. V. - Peraaps iz msal '"penitent , emnrit.'. Duncan .. vra.i al ways doing o;'.d tain!. TUe maat.c let ters might be lus expression or rj?;:ec. ' But when he came brisidv into this room there was no penneuuai sorrow in his countenance only the s".me mer ry twinkle of the eyes, the old lii'tir.p; of the corners of the mouth. "They tell me that Tad is no bet ter," he said as ho took Marion's hand. v"As you will perceive from my card, 1 am a physician to children.'' Marion's face darkened. This, then, was the meaning of the card. He was worried about her brother. For a mo ment she was minded to renew the old quarrel, but she needed help and sym pathy, and so she laid her head on his shoulder and sobbed out her troubles. . Her father had been obliged to go to Europe on business arid had taken his wife with "him. Marion had been left In charge of her nine-year-old brother, and almost before the ship had passed Sandy Hook Tad had come down with typhoid. His robust constitution had ttlrown off the disease, but the battle had left him weak and .listless, and even the gray bearded physician was worried. "There is no actual danger," he ex plained to Marion, "but he riiust be roused from this lethargy or he will go into a decline." He had confided, the same fear to Henry Duncan when he met the latter on the street and the younger man had asked after his little chum. Then, de spite the misunderstanding between ,Marion and himself,..he could .hold out no longer, and his call -was the result. - "If he should die before mother conies back, what should Iuo?" wailed -Marlon... 1 "Send a cable," advised t Duncan promptly, "but there is not going to be any more worry now that the physi cian to -children has stepped in. May 1 see my patient?" Marion led him tD the boy's room. Tad's face lighted as he saw Duncan, TAD FED THE ELEPHANTS. and his fingers twined confidingly about the man's firm hand. Duncan was shocked at the thinness of the fingers, but he gave no sign. "What's the matter, old chap?" he demanded, with a voice now Wonder fully gentle. "They tell me' you don't find the world any. good any more." "I'm tired," said Tad plaintively. "I'll bet you'd not be; too tired to go to a circus," said Duncan. Tad shook his head.. ,-- '"Xnere am t any," ne said. I was asking Dr. Stanton. He says It's too early for them." "Circuses are no good, if they are picked before they are ripe," admitted Henry, "but if you don't want too big a circus I think I can get one for you." "I don't want a play circus," ex plained the boy. "I've got some play circuses. One's in a book, and the oth er's in the cupboard." "We got him a toy circus and a cir cus boot," whispered Marion. "He has somehow set his mind on a circus;- It will be a long time before one comes." "There are no more circuses," reit erated Tad sadly. "They've all gone away." , "Rats!" laughed Duncan. "That shows all you know about circuses. .Will a little circus do a real circus, only with one ring?" .. ' ' "Real horses, real, everything?" de manded the boy. : i -; "Everything except the tent and the led lemonade. You see, in -Winter they keep circuses in houses, so the elephant won't get his ears frostbitten. I bet if you had ears as big as an elephant's you wouldn't like to get your ears frostbitten.". The boy laughed in delight at the fancy and beat the counterpane with his fragile hand. "Then there's the giraffe," went on Duncan. "Why, when he starts- to cough it's a full minute before it wrig gles Tip his throat " So they keep cir cuses in hothouses, Just like plants." "And there really is circuses?" I "Tou get rested up and we're going to one tomorrow," assured Henry. .-. "Really and truly?" - "Man's word," declared Henry sis He j put oat bis hand. "Now, yon get bet ter quick, so Dr. Stanton . won't say that yon can't come. I'll bo here at JX?. ; " - .O ... ' With a pat on the curly head, he rose and left the room. . Marion fol lowed him down the hall. ' 1 "He will be awfully disappointed to-, morrow," she said, doubtfully. "Don't believe it," laughed Duncan,' "Tou leave it to me, and that boy will be champion scrapper of the block in another month. I have Stanton's per mission to assume the case. He od mits his inability to meet the situa'tioa. My fee is very large, though," he warn ed. "It is nothing less than a wife by the name of Marion." "I don't think yo will be kept wait ing for the'fee," she replied, blushing. "I'm sorry I was so mean." "So am I," he agreed absently. "That is," quickly, "I mean I am sorry I waa mean. . I'll be around in the morning." She watched him stride up the street with his springy step and turned back into the house greatly comforted. Somehow Henry Duncan always brought comfort where he came. She had been so foolish to allow a petty misunderstanding to come between them! Tad was sitting up, ready dressed, when Henry drove up to the door the next morning. Already the queer med icine had commenced to act, for he was far more like his old self, and a slight flush of excitement tinged tho cheek tha had threatened to fade into the waxen pallor of death. Duncan wrapped the boy up warmly, and, with a flourish of the whip, they were off. Away out past the town they went into the country, not yet freed from the thraldom of Jack Frost, though there was a promise of sprlagf in the soft air. , . It was to a place very unlike a circus that Duncan - drove, a collection of' long, low barns and one large, square building, but when they entered the' latter, behold, there was a real clus ring, with a band in one corner, labori ously going over unfamiliar music. . A stout man nodded to Henry and stooped to greet Tad. "You're going to have a circus all to yourself," he promised. "Want to feed the elephant?" "I haven't any peanuts." Tad's lip began to quiver, but Henry drew a baa; from his pocket. s Xla led the way to one of jthe barns, where Tad fed the elephants and was permitted to .go much closer to the lion's cage than he could at the biir circus. A man standing by even plucked a hair from the lion's tail and present ed it to Tad with due ceremony. Then they went back to the big building aud sat through a long, delightful dress re hearsal of the Boston Brothers' TJn narallSled Railroad Circus and Menasr- erie. He was even permitted to see the cars shining in their new paint and was permitted personally to talk with the "clown while Duncan talked with Manager Boston of the chances of an early season in the south. "Good luck to you, Henry said as they shook hands in parting. You've saved one youngster's life, and the sea son is not yet open." "He'll be a mascot," said Boston aa he waved a farewell. "Glad you brought him out." It was past supper time when Duncan turned a very sleepy little boy over to his sister. Tad looked up drowsily as Marion put him to bed. "There is circuses," he announced, "rvmll-ir nnrl trnlir nnpet Tilrf T-Tenrv ssnifl. And I got a lion's tail," he added as. his sleep heavy eyelids closed. , ' Marion came into the parlor, where Duncan paced the floor. "Are you a magician?" she asked smilingly. Duncan shook his head. "I knew Boston was going to take his show south early this year and got permission to bring Tad to the dress rehearsal. Have I earned my fee?" "How can you earn what was al ready yours?" demanded Marion as he drew her to mm. Saved From Disgrace. " ' In one of the old families of Charles ton, S. C, writes Mrs. Ravenel, there was an important personage, Jack, the butler. Jack disputed with another old man, Harry, the butler of Mrs. Henry Izard, the reputation of being the best and most thoroughly trained servant in town. From the judging of the wines to the arrangement of a saitspoon there was nothing which these withered brown potentates did not decide and maintain. Nothing would have aston ished either more than that master or mistress should dissent from his ver dict, i Jack was intolerant of anything which he considered a breach of the etiquette of the table. Nothing could have induced him to serve a gentle man before a lady, or a younger before an elder brother. To place fruit and wine on a tablecloth instead, of on the. mahogany was to him a falling from grace. Cn one occasion he was much annoyed when a senator from the up country twice asked for rice with his fish. To the first request he simply remained deaf; at the second he bent down and whispered into the senatorial ear. The genial gentleman nodded and suppressed a laugh; but when the servants had left the room he burst into a roar and cried: "Judge, you have a treasure! Jack has saved me from disgrace, from exposing my ignorance. He whispered, 'That wouldn't, do, sir; we never eats rice with fish.'" . A Scriptural Bull. Even the Bible is not free from bulls. In chapter thirty-seven of the. book of Isaiah appears the following confusion of ideas: "Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and four score and five thousand; and when they arose early in the iporning, be huld, they were all dead corpses."