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About The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898 | View Entire Issue (April 28, 1893)
v : ... VENICE. ; &tUnM thoituntfttilit nf iiioru'veandnweatskr Btrlkn dnmo nml taiuiniln, tdmrp and otaut, JuiirUiiKSwotU IwliKim lliu NjiUcity'usar. BtrMiHoiwentNuf iniittk und mynl Imver nigh. 1'h frail xii(imt)(it bltmwmiii, .iiuirIiik fatah Abovv the dark ratu.1, iiruy Htmight d(1 iibMr. Drift on, a urlniwm (lenit llieu dlHappear. Blgb bwKKt wltb uu IttnMMl fruit the boat go by With uulumwl nitr to tins say market i-lw. Where purple, lilw.raj' gruM, for very mrvm Of awollen wwid)w, bum aod ipiil tlielr wliie; Where bronxed mttlotm he In shade aod vbtne, And the City' dullultc Imprew 6 low iu swart iptendnr from each dtwky feet. - Bemile Ury, A MODERN ELIJAH. . . Be waa small and black a child of an Inferior race. Then was nothing in his appearance to suggest the hero, and if yon had told him that be iu a hero be would scarcely have known what yon meant An unschooled, illiterate, ugly, bullet headed negro, be had neverthe lesa been baptised by the eame spirit which had caused the face of St Stephen to shine as the face of an angeL One winter day almost a year before the event which gave him a chance to how the Muff that was in him he eame into the hotel looking for a job. The office was brilliantly lighted and filled with a crowd of handsomely dressed men. There were politicans, dub men, men ahont town, reporters, many members of the sporting frater nity, the usual loungers and hangers on, an occasional hayseed all forming a very startling background for the rags and tilth of the poor, shivering, half starred little darkey. It was no easy matter for him to steer his course to the desk, and when be got there the splendor of the man behind it dazed him ao that his voice almost failed him. He had, however, even at his early age, reached the point where he had to work or starve. Bo bis necessities made him eloqneut His eloquence prevailed. He was on the next day placed on the pay toll or the great hotel. As a bell boy he was not a success. 1 fear 1 must confess that he was busy. People liked him 1 do not know why- and for some reason or other he was a favorite with his employers. If tie had not been they would have dismissed him before his first week was out' Instead of doing that, they concluded to dud more congenial work for him, so they put him in charge of one of the eleva tors. - Among the passengers who nsed to ride np and down with the boy was a little five-year-old girl, the daughter of a lamuy living in tue nocei. sue was as perfect a type of her race as be was of his. With her bit, white akin, golden hair, deep blue eyes and pretty womanly ways, the child was a general favorite. Every one knew ber; every one loved her. Between her and the boy a great friendship had sprung np. He was de votion itself, and his attentions to the little Caucasian were so grotesquely chivalrous as to be almost pathetic. She accepted them all with a diguityaod grace that were charming. Her family lived on the top floor of the house, and as ahe always rode in his elevator when she could manage to do so, the boy and girl aaw much of each other. Once she . was ill. The medicine that helped her most was a wretched little bouquet sent her by her dusky friend. it was winter again. The evening of which 1 write was very cold and clear. The stars were dinmondlike in their brilliancy. Everything was froien np- the wheels creaked on the snow. The hotel was crowded with guests. Nnt itvim than twin n rl,M fit tl,c h,, dreds of rooms were unoccupied. A be lated traveler, who had been on a weath er bound train, came in at 1 o'clock, urea ana eoia. ne oraerva a nre in nia room and then went to the bar for a Into the boy's elevator and was carried totbetopiloor. The great bouse was quiet Most of the lights in the office had been extin guished. Two night owls were talking in low tones on oue of the settees which lined the walls of the lobby. The bell boys were most of them asleep. The clerk was drowsing. Two o'clock! The night owls got np and walked out into the cold air. drunken man poked his nose in the door. ' The sleeping porter seemed to scent him, lor he bustled the poor fellow out The quiet deepeued till it became al most oppressive. The air was heavy withit Bnddenly, without a note of warning, the cry of "Fire!" rang through the bouse. There was life enough now, Scantily clad people - were scurrying wildly through the smoke filled oorri dors. They cuuie plunging down the stairs to the office, and ao out into the freezing night .Shrieks and curses and groans and prayers it was Babel broken loose. All the bells in the house were ringing. The smoke grew denser. It leaned tocoiue from every where above and below. Ureut black volumes rolled through the long halls. - Outside, the streets were jammed with people. The engines, with their clanging gongs, hur ried to the scene, loaders were raised. and the work of rescue began. It was time, fur there was a white fig- , nre at almost every one of the multitu dinous window. The awful wall loom ed np in the darkness, story on story. . dimly seen as to its upper half, for that part of it was wreathed in the blinding moke. The smoke turned to flams flame bnrsttng through scores of win dows. The terror stricken creatures be gan to jump. The people iu the street below were frantic. Back! back!" they shrieked. "Waitl well save you! don't jump!'' Which is the pleasanter, 1 1 be roasted alive or to be mashed out "f shape on the tone pavement!1 If to.-re is to be any saving done, it must be done quick ly. Many petiple were busy saving themselves. The sleeping clerk and porter and bell boys had gotten out But what of the little black fellow in the elevator? He, too, had been asleep. He had been awakened as the others had been by the first cry or fire. Dnlike them he bad that "two-o'clock-in-the morning courage" which Napoleon said was the rarest sort In an instant he de cided that it was his duty to stick to hi; post And t'.ick be did. Up and down he went, and every time hit oar touched the office floor it was loaded with people. The journey was a frightful one, but he did not shrink. How long he could continue to make the trip he oonld not tell Tbe elevator might drop any minute. Very well, let it drop. Some of the people in it might survive the shock. It was sure to catch Are sooner or later. Even then he would be on the way to safety with his pas sengers. And at any rate be knew that he could bring some people out of the Are burning above. He bad not been good at going up stairs, but he could run his elevator. Trip after trip he made, each worse than the butt The fireman at the bottom of tbe shaft to whom he turned over his living freight sought to stop him in his dangerous work. The whole well was full of smoke, and far np toward the roof the fire could be seen. SOU he kept on, and it did seem that very time he started skyward be was going to certain death. But he knew that the rooms and halls were swarming with people, and he would take any chance to save a life. The firemen were doing their best outside; death was busy within; and he finally made np his mind that it was no use to go back again, till all at once he remembered that ha bad en nothing of his little friend. Could he weather the storm and flame once more? He could try. He pulled the rope, and the journey began. It was alow, oh, how slow. The smoke was terrible worae even than the fire but he held his breath and fixed his mind upon the business in hand. The flame kindled the woodwork or the car. He fell on his hands and knees. but he kept his hold on the rope. At last he reached her floor. He found ber room, and found her. She was asleep and alone. Wrapping her in the blankets, and throwing about ber a rug which he snatched from the floor, he struggled through the flame and smoke back to the burning car. "Back from tbe jaws or hell" it was that he brought her, fighting the fire away from her every inch of the way down. He had just strength enough to stop the car. Tbe children were taken out and car ried to a drug store across the street the girl alive and well and the boy seem ingly dead. He was horribly burned. Among toe people who stood around were the pa rente of the little girL They had been out to an evening party, and returning after a long cold drive found their borne on fire. Every effort had been made, in response to the agonizing appeals of the father, to save the child and now here she was, safe and sound, laughing in her mother arms. And the hero? He opened his eyes. "Did I bring her froo all right?" "Yea, yes," said the father, "and bow Ban we ever thank yon for what you have done?" Nebber min' 'bout dat. boas. Ef she's safe dat'a 'nuff for me" and he closed us eyes. Dead? Tee, dead and gone to heaven la a chariot of fire. Richard Yorke: Ro- manoe. At a Wedding. The wedding iu question was, in many ways, the most brilliant event of the season. Nothing which could serve to heighten the grace and significance of the affair had been spared. The church fittingly decorated by a Boston artist, i filled with interested guests. The faint strains of Mendelssohn floated through the still air, and the beautiful bride stood before the altar with her chosen one. The pastor of thechurch,ritaal in hand, read the solemn service until he came to tbe critical moment when he said: 'Repeat after me, 'I, William, take thee, Frances.' " He did not proceed at once, for to every ones astonishment, before the bride groom could find bis voioe, the bride, in dear, firm tones, repeated: " 'I, William, take thee, Frances. " There was a dead silence, till the sec ond officiating clergyman, unable longei to control himself, laughed outright This was the signal for a contagious wave of merriment As soon as the pastor could compose his features and resume his dignified voice, be said: "Repeat after me, -'L William, take thee, France. This time the bridegroom spoke np bravely, and there was no more blunder ing. Youth e Companion, It la said that a number of fine hotels have been erected daring the past year that have omitted the number 18 in num bering the room. Many hotels long in op eration also have this peculiar omission, A SOLDIER HERMIT. PleaMmton't l.lfe of Dtter Seelv- lon la a Washington Hotel. "Alone in a great city; practically a hermit amid the throngs of the nation's capital; living a lifeof comfort and con tentment but a life of seclusion and ex clusive retirement." Such was the answer given in reply to an inquiry a tew days ago regarding the welfare and whereabouts of Major Gen eral Alfred Pleasontou, whose name and fame a few years ago were on the lips of nine-tenths of the American people, and tbe records of whose exploits as one of the greatest cavalry leaders of our late Far would fill volumes of graphic history. Apparently in the full possession or all his mental faculties, and with no serious physical ailment, this man of genius, a soldier of two great wars, and explorer .rly fifty years ago of the then un known domain of our great western ter ritoryan Indian fighter of great re nown, a traveler whose face and figure at one time well known in every court of all the great powers of the Old World, a scholar, bou vivant, wit and most companionable of all the agreeable public men of hfs day voluntarily be took himself to his private apartment m a snug little hotel in the very heart of Washington on May to, 18D0, and has not since been seen or talked with by, all told, more than a dozen of his fellow beings. And, with two or three excep tions, those who have seen or talked with him sine that date have been of those necessary to him in administering to his personal wants. There was a bill pending In congress to retire him as a brigadier general He felt that to much as that recognition his due at the hands of the country he had served so faithfully. He had been a major general in command of the cavalry corps of the Army of the Poto mac; he bad fought the first real cavalry fight of the war at Brandy Station, June IS, 1868, and then and there proved his superior abilities as a dashing and al most invincible commander; bad met and thwarted the advance of the enemy upon Gettysburg, holding Lee's armies in donbt and abeyance nntil Meade's in fantry came up to tight the decisive bat tle of the war, and bad never been found wanting when duty and patriotism re quired his presence cither in camp or in the field. Tbe canvasback, the terrapin and all the dishes he relished so highly in days of yore have been abandoned, but he has everything his appetite niay crave, and with good digestion waitiw upon it he eata to live and contentedly remarks that he no longer lives to eat In other matters his habits are regular, for, like clockwork, he gets all the daily papers. keeping well justed regarding the affairs of tbe world of which be is part and parcel, but which he holds away off at arm's length, and with which he asso ciates as little as possible. No one of the few who see him ever thinks of asking him s reason for this most marvelous change in bis manner of living, for they know it would be useless. In fact he has resented several inquiries of that kind in such a manner to show that they are extremely dis tasteful to hiin. General JioBecranB wrote to bim about a year and a half ago asking about his health and other questions that any old time friend wonld be apt to ask. but he did not answer the letter for months. Washington Star. Character In the Walk. To tbe attentive eye none of the ordi nary gestures or movements betrays pe culiarities of individual character more plainly than the gait the sailor's roll ing, the soldier's stiff, the countryman's jolting gait are immediately recognized. Slow steps, whether long or short, sng. gest a gentle or reflective state of mind, as tbe cane may be, while, on the con trary, quick steps seem to speak of agi tation and energy. Reflection is revealed in frequent pauses and walking to and fro, backward and forward. The direc tion of the steps, wavering and follow ing every changing impulse of the mind, inevitably betrays uncertainty, hesita tion and iudecision. . Tbe proud step is slow and measured; tbe toes are conspicuously turned out, the leg is straightened. In vanity the toes are rather more gracefully turned, the strides a little shorter, and there is very often an affectation of modesty. Tiptoe walking symbolizes surprise, curiosity, discretion or mystery. Pall Mali Gazette. Some curious pipes have been found in the vast guano deposits of Peru, the date of which is fixed by scientists, to whom they have been submitted as co equal with the famous Peruvian pot tery, the Eleventh or Twelfth century. If the sun gave forth sounds loud enough to reach the earth, such sounds, instead of reaching us in the space of about eight minutes, as light does, would only arrive after a period of nearly f our teen years. A New England college numbers among its student scholars from Kioto, Japan, Thessalouica, European Turkey and Iceland. : Henry of Navarre was saved from death at the massacre of St Bartholo mew by biding under bis wife's immense nrdingale, General George B. McClellan, who was a prime favorite with bis men, be came endeared to them as "Litue Mac" MOURNERS BV .THE SEA. . By the side or ibe sea three mourner pale gat idly watoiimu ao Idle sail. "Where tank your ship?" One turned tier heal "By Ibe tweet Spice Islands It Htm." she said. "And often I fancy on days like tbeee Their breath fioale to me e'er southern mm." . "Where sank yourshlpr" "By tempent lotted. On a shore of amber and pearls 'twat toU , "Ob, often 1 dream of iu beautiful bed , And tbe rainbow gleams that are round It bed!" 'Where tank your tblo?" Oh, wan, white face. Does she know not, tbon, ber lost love's place? "My ship tank not" she said, and east A Uny shell on Ibe waters vaiL No balmy odort nor gems of prloe Ber dreamt to Ita retting place entloe. Her abip lies froien In arctic fee. J!iritian Regitter. The Actio of a Spinet. The spinet instrument was aaimprove ment upon what was known as the clavi chord, the tone of which, although weak, was capable, unlike that of the harpsi chord or spinet, of increase or decrease, reflecting the finest gradations of the touch of the player. In this power of expression it was without a rival until the piano was invented. The early his tory of the clavichord previous to the Fifteenth century rests in profound ob scurity, but it is said that there is one bearing the date 1520 having four oc taves without the D sharp and G sharp notes. The spinet waa the invention of tiie Venetian Spinetta. , The action is unique. The instrument la similar to a small harpsichord with one string to each note. The stringsare set in vibration by point of quills ele vated on wooden uprights known as jacks, and the depression of the keys causes the point to pass upward, pro ducing a tone similar to that of a. harp Springs are used to draw the quills back into position. The keyboard is arranged in a manner after the present.modern piano. Providence Journal. ' Similarity In the Names of Peer. Several peers have names nearly alike. There are Lord Amherst of Hackney. and Earl Amherst There are two peers with only the difference of a letter in the spelling of their names the Earl of Lindsay and the Earl of Lindsey, the former being a Scotch representative peer and the latter an English peer. There is only the difference of a letter also in the names of Viscount Mipletou and Lord Middleton, but there is a dif ference in rank which makes tbe dis tinction easy. There are several instances in which the territorial title is necessary to distin guish peers, the more notable being Lord Stanley of .Alderley and Lord Stanley of Preston, and Lord Howard de Waldeu and Howard of Glosaop. Formerly Lord Wulonghby de Broke and Lord Wil- lougbby de Eresby sat in the house, bnt tbe latter has been made an earl, and will henceforth be known as the Earl of Ancaster. Loudon Tit-Bits. . The Titles of Books. A book title, like a woman's face, ought to be pretty. And if a bewitch ing, diaphanous veil, in the shape of a slight curiosity rousing cloudiness of meaning can be thrown over it, so much the better. Readers delight to be half taken tn by books, jnst as men do by women, so long and this is a most im portant proviso so long as their vanity is not piqued. The object of a title should be to seem simple, artless, naive and quite naturally charming, bnt thin gs in the case of so many of its feminine analogues is often to be attained only by the most consummate art Black wood s Magazine. Two Greatest of Stamp Collectors, The two greatest stamp collectors in the world were M. Philippe Ferrari, eon of the late Duchesse de Galliera, and the czar, whose collection is said by experts to be worth 3,000,000 francs. He began to make it when he was czarowitz, and has been adding to it ever since. M. Ferrari, who cast away a fortune, or rather several fortunes which he con ceived to be ill gotten and said he had no right to inherit, hoards stamps as misers hoard money. He has quantities, which he says will be valuable to his heirs should he live to great age. London Truth. Tbe Valuo of a Rueilan Beard, The Russians had an old law by which any one who drew hair from another's beard should be fined four times as much as for cutting off a finger; and the im portance and value of tbe appendage is further illustrated by the fact that, although the loss of a leg was estimated at 12 shillings, the loss of the beard waa estimated at 20. English Illustrated Magazine. A Ctrl Colonel. Little Dot - You think girls isnt brave. The queen of .Holland is a little bit of a girl, and mamma read in the paper that she was a colonel o there! Little Dick Huh! The paper said she was only a colonel of infantry. Mas be a baby regiment Good News, ' Policemen's Lot Not Happy. The Portland police are not allowed to carry umbrellas. They have also been ordered to report daily the electric lights that do not burn. The result of this at tempt to make the policeman useful as well as ornamental will be carefully watched by other cities not lees anxious to experiment in the direction of reform. Biddeford (Me.) Journal, An Rmlneiit Politician.' How any one should ever desire to be come an eminent politician pusses one's comprehension. . It is amazing. He is everybody's sluve. He is the slave of his party, he is the slave of the wire pullers, he is the slave of the press, he is the slave of the great British public. Let him refuse obedience to any one of his owners, and before he can say Jack Rob inson he is out of the running, smashed, done for. We are told from the house tops that the great Mr. Blank 1b going to make a declaration of his policy his policy, mind. I doubt if the great Mr. blank; nas very much to do with the declaration or the policy either. It is the party which want the policy; it is tbe wire pullers who inform him that the mo ment is opportune for its declaration; it is the press which has warned him of the direction in which the wind is blowing; it is the great British public from which he receives the doctrine, hot pressed, cut and dried, which he is to preach. One may venture to donbt if he ever had a policy which he could legitimately can his own. , He would scarcely be the " great Mr. Blank if he had. It is the rank and hie of the party who have policies, ideas, theories of their own. The great Mr. Blanks are like Bponges. They are sodden with moisture which they receive from every side. It is rained on them from a thou sand waterspouts. This mixture of all the rains of all the heavens, when squeezed Out by their several proprie tors, drop by drop, is called their policy. Surely an eminent, a truly eminent, politician is the most wonderful work of man. All the Year Round. .' The Hatter of Car Pares. Speaking of embarrassment in the matter of car fares when a male friend going the same way as yourself is en-' countered en route to bridge or ferry, a woman says: "1 really wish there was an inviolate rule, as there is among Eng lishmen. I remember soon after my ar rival in England happening to meet as I was boarding an omnibus an English friend, to whose house I was bound at the moment by appointment with his wife. He was a reserved and distant man, though scrupulously courteous, and I wondered whether I ought or ought not offer to pay my fare through the three changes of transportation we must make to reach our destination, ' ' 'All doubt, however, was quickly re moved by the cause himself, who leaned over, after finding his own coin, with the inquiry, "Got your tuppence ready? I found over there that even when a man was taking yon about by invitation car fares, etc., were to be individually looked af ter. 1 wish the matter were so absolutely fixed here." It would seem as it the question is readily settled in a doubtful case by leaving it to the man. Part of the mat ter is disposed of absolutely. No man in America would think of asking to es cort a woman on a trip about the city without assuring all its expenses. In the matter of a chance encounter there can be no harm in making the effort to pay one's fare, which, if the man pre fers to do, may be permitted without protest Her Point of View in New York Times. .."' The Heart of England. . y In tbe midst of the old city of London, where the heart of human life beau fastest, stands the cbnrch of St. Swith in's, an old edifice rebuilt by Wren upon its ancient foundations, bnt recently re duced by modern taste to a most com monplace air of comfort and newness. If the curious traveler will step out of tbe passing throng and edge his way tbrougb tbe hucksters of flowers and stale fruit squatted around the church, he will find imbedded in tbe bluish slabs of its foundation a large oblong stone as gray as the beard of Time bimself. This is London stone, erected by the Romans half a century before the birth of the Saviour as the central milestone or point of their positions in Britain. From it all roads, divisions of property and distances throughout the province were measured. It has been recognized as the heart of England, from which all its articles flowed, "by every historian, dramatist or antiquary known to English litera ture." - A feeling has always existed among Englishmen about this stone which was not altogether superstition, that, as all distances were reckoned from it, so it was in a certain way the base of the stability of England. Youth's Compan ion. Oldett Houue In Wathlugtoa. Down at the foot of Seventeenth street, away from the usual route of the guide book sightseers, stands the oldest house in Washington. The moss had grown thick around its humble roof long before quarreling congresses wrangled and dis puted over the location of the future Federal Uty," and when at last the dispute was ended and a definite site se lected it was found that the unpreten tious home and paternal acres of asturdy old Scotchman, David Burns by name. situation. Tbe bomeBtead itself was lo cated almost upon the immediate bank of the Potomac, here a mile or more in width, and only a little distance away from the beautiful hill upon which the observatory now stands the hill upon which, it is related, Braddock's forces camped on their first night oat from Alexandria, in that ill starred march Into the wilderness. New England Mag azine.