R., Feb. 9, 1897,
Bellefonte, P
THE DRAMA OF LIFE.
M. V. Tronas
Om the stage the acts are changing,
Scenes are shifting to and fro;
And the drama—never ending—
Makes strange faces come and go.
And the parts by each presentad,
Whether happin or woe—
Ne'er the same—are always changing
As the faces come and go.
Joy to-day and grief to-morrow
What will foliow, none r
Ever changing, joy and sorrow
r know,
As the faces come and go.
Smiling masks—the actors wear them
Though their hearts be burdened so
That their passions almost rend them
While calm fices come and go.
One by one, familiar ficures
Pass with halting step and slow,
Dropping ¢ it of life’s great drama !
As new faces come and go. :
i
TWO DOZEN SNAP SHOTS.
John Beech was developing a kodak film
in his dark-room, and whistling softly to
himself as he worked. He was happy—
that is, as happy as a man with a secret can
he when he knows that the revelation of
that secret to the prettiest girl in town, of
whom he has lately become such a firm
friend, will knock everything down to the
level of mere commonplace friendship. He
had been with her that morning, rowing
on the lake ; had taken twelve snap shots
at her with his camera. with gracious per-
mission to print one of each for himself,
and really had, in his expressive lan-
guage, ‘‘a "very smooth time ;’ but he |
hadn’t told her his sceret, and that wor- |
ried him as he whistled. {
Of course he wasn’t ashamed of his little |
financee at home, who was so proud of her
big collegian and looked forward so eagerly
to his graduation, when they were to have
such fine times, with her mother as chaper-
on, and his room for the scene of a tea,
and small musicale, and all that sort of
thing. He was really and fully proud of
Alys, and had taken the greatest pleasure
in showing her off ‘Prom.’ week, and
then, when she had gone and he had felt
lonely and miserable, he met Estelle
Compton.
Their friendship grew and matured with-
out his ever mentioning Alys, and yet,
somehow, he felt he ought to say some-
thing about her, as he began to suspect that
Estelle was growing unconsciously inter-
esting and interested. .
A part of their conversation on the lake
that morning had made deep 2 impression on
him, and he was thinking it over now as
he developed his negatives, whistling to
himself.
They had come to the upper part of the
lake, where it narrows into a small stream,
the overhanging bushes and trees on either
side being mirrored in the smooth water
with startling distinctiveness. She looked
very fair indeed as they paused for a mo-
ment to drink in the lovely scene.
“How beautiful,”” she whispered. ‘It
looks like heaven as I expect to find it, all
green and cool and placid.” And she
looked at him with reverent eyes. He had
the camera leveled at her, and as she look-
ed up snapped it. It broke the spell.
“You prosaic mortal !” she cried.
“Don’t you take in the beauty of this
place 2?
“Entirely,” he replied calmly, as he put
down the camera and took up the oars. “I
have her right in there, and if I’m not niis-
taken I intend to have eleven more of her
before I stop.”
“I know a man,”’ she began, medita-
tively, again turning her eyes to the
scenery, ‘‘who took twelve shots at a girl,
and then proposed to her. Said it would
not be proper for any man to have twelve
pictures of one girl unless she was his
tinancee.”’
“And did she accept him 2”? asked John
‘eagerly, leaning forward.
“She did” she replied, turning those
lovely eyes on him.
He shivered—positively shivered, and
with an effort tore his eves away from her
face.
‘How foolish !’* he remarked, and
looked at his watch, which had a picture
of Alys inside the cover. The sight re-
assured him.
“We won’t be such idiots,” he con-
tinued, cheerfully, ‘so here goes for some
more,”’ and with great deliberation he
aimed and snapped his kodak several times,
getting some very fetching pictures of Miss
Compton and the leafy background. Mean-
while he was keeping up a train of mental
complaints to himself, in which ‘idiot’
and ‘‘coward” figured conspicuously, try-
ing to get up enough ‘‘s
sand’’ to turn the
conversation back, and mention his engage-
ment. But it was no use. They talked of
base ball, the commencement game, the
hoat race, and a thousand other themes of
college life, and finally turned and got
home just in time for luncheon.
“Gad! that was a close call for me !”’
thought John, as he sat in the dim red
light washing his film. *‘I nearly lost my
head, and no mistake—but a man might
be pardoned, under the circumstances.
That place and that girl are enough to
fuddle any man. If I didn’t know Estelle
was simply friendly in her feeling toward
me, I might begin to think—say, that was
an all-fired soft look she gave me—but I
know her too well to suspect anything of
that kind. She was simply impressed with
the place, not me. But supposing she is
growing fond of me ? By Jove, I'll have
to tell her—it’s the only course. = Alys will
be coming down to commencement—
wouldn’t miss seeing me graduate for any-.
thing—and I am sure Estelle expects me to
ask her to go, and I'll be in no end of a
mess. I must tell her, and very soon,
too.”’
Here the pictures began to appear, as he |
held them up to the red light, and his at-
tention was all on them fora moment, |
when suddenly he broke out : |
“Gad ! there’s that one with the look! !
Such a look! Why, that girl’s dead in |
love with me,”” and again he shivered. |
“This is awfpl, and there’s only one thing |
for me to do.” He hurriedly finished up |
the films, pinned them to a board to dry, |
and rushing out with his cap pulled over |
his eyes, tore off to Estelle’s.
“What a fool I am,” he suddenly re-
flected, as he neaved the house and saw
Estelle and a fellow on the porch together.
“They’ll think I'm daft if I tear in like
this,” and he was about to pass when Es- |
telle ran down the walk to the gate and |
called him back. Her eyes were radiant, |
her cheeks aflame, and her gown just the |
very prettiest one she owned. |
“John,” she called, ‘come here just a
moment.’
He turned and came back. The sun was
shining brightly, and oh, how that Con- |
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| or the Holy Land.
necticut sun can shine when once it gets
started. He thought she had never looked
prettier. His courage oozed out, and he
feverishly drew out his watch and mur-
mured something about an appointment.
Alys looked at him placidly from inside
the cover, and he straightened up a little.
“I want you to come in for a moment to
meet an old friend of mine who has un-
expectedly come up from New York for a
day or two. I know you’ll be good to him,
for he has heard a good deal about you and
likes you immensely. I know you’ll be
surprised when I tell you that he is the
man who took those twelve pictures, and I
am the girl, and—well, we’re to be married
before commencement, and so do come up
and meet him now, there’s a dear.”
How John Beech ever got through that
introduction and the subsequent conversa-
tion he never knew, but when he came to
himself he was at home printing pictures
with great vigor.— Washington Post.
Worthy a Crown.
As a rule the country preacher is not sup-
i posed to be the child of luxury, but it is
left for tiie Penfield ‘-Press’ to search out
the two sides of the ledger and show what
the pastor of a Clearfield county village
does to earn the salary paid him. For five
years Rev. S Ham has ministered to the
wants of the little flock that worship in
the Penfield Methodist church. In that
same period, the ‘Press’’ informs its read-
ers, Mr. Ham also preached at Hickory,
Winterburn, Mt. Pleasant, Mill Run, Tyl-
er, Webbs and Weedville. He married 24
couples, baptized 113 persons, attended 105
funerals, received into the church 186 pro-
bation members and 112 permanent ones.
He paid a debt of $750 on the church, paid
$800 on a new parsonage, raised $300 for
a new church at Hickory, and did it all for
a salary of from $600 to $650 a year. The
village paper says: ‘It is not wondered
that his parishioners hate to see him leave
a field where he has been of so great use-
fulness?’ .
Mr. Ham is one of a great army of self-
sacrificing men, who are devoting them-
selves to a work of bettering humanity,
and no doubt he feels within himself that
his reward is sufficient, or he would give
the world over to its idols and turn his ef-
forts to-something less laborious and more
profitable. But after reading these figures
and this detail of the tasks assumed, the
pastor of a typical village church, we can
see how uncalled for are the occasional
gratuitous insults offered the clergy in the
remark that they work for money just the
same as anybody else, and that they always
go where the biggest salary offers. Possi-
bly a clergyman does like to see his salary
when the quarterly pay days come around,
for he has never yet, with all of his anxiety
for his race, found a way whereby the
stomach of one of them, his own included,
could thrive on the love one bears his fel-
low men. Self sacrifice and a solicitude for
his congregation will never buy shoes for
the parson’s babies. Aslong as the soul of
‘a good man is housed in a material body,
from some source must come his bread and
a long black coat.
Mr. Ham has made no protest about his
modest income. He has done the tasks set
before him hy conference, and done them
so well his people are sorry to see him
leave. They have done for him what they
could, for they are a small community, and
not buried under the good things of the
world. Possibly some of his income has
been paid in farm produce, maple sugar, or
cordwood. Such things pass current in the
small communities.
. |
A few preachers are known who receive |
large incomes, and are allowed a vacation
insummer with a fat purse to go to Europe
They axe pointed out
as the type of a class that is pampered,
well fed, and asked to do little in return.
But they are not the type. The typical
parson is the man like Mr. Ham, who repre-
sents the work that the bulk of the clergy
are expected to do, and while his salary
may he a small one compared with the
average, the average is by no means large.
An old legend is the authority that every
good deed doncon earth means a star in
the wreath that shall cover the head of
the faithful in the world that is to come.
If such be the case the pastor of the village
church, whether in Penfield or in the multi-
tude of other small places that provide
him plenty of work and modest income,
should find a crown so spangled with stars
that its radiance will eclipse that of any
other benefactor of his race.
Up To Date Cities.
Nearly Everything Done by Electricity.
The most modern cities of the world are
Great Falls, Mon, and Spokane TIalls,
Wash. They are entitled to the distinc-
tion because nearly everything is done by
electricity. Not only are the street rail-
ways and all the manufacturing establish-
ment operated by the current, but even the
houses are lighted and the cooking done hy
the same agent. Elevators, sewing ma-
chines, house heaters, dumb waiters, church
organs, pianos, burglar alarms, door hells,
chafing dishes, water heaters, hair curlers,
sad-irons, washing machines, printing
presses, the telegraph, telephone, and in
fact, every piece of mechanism that requires
external force to propel it is dependent on
electricity for motive power.
All this looks as though the spirit of
progress had arbitrarily taken up her abode
in Great Falls and Spokane, bug this is not
strictly the case. The modern greatness of
the two cities has in a measure been thrust
upon them. They could not employ any
other motive power if they wanted to.
They were so situated that all other sources
are unavailable. Coal, for instance, is
hardly to be had at any price. The waters
of Great Falls and Spokane Falls have been
pressed into service and made to operate
turbines, which in turn operate electric
generators. From these, sufficient elec-
tricity is obtained to run every piece of
mechanism 2nd light every light in the two
cities.
Hit Him With a Shovel.
Foreman Chides « Workman and Gets a Frac-
tured Shull.
Joseph Bopp is in the Memorial hospital
at Johnstown with a fractured skull, and
his assailaiit, Casper Stephania is in the
city prison. Friday evening, while the men
were at work in the Cambria yards, Bopp,
who is employed as foreman, chided Steph-
ania for not doing his work properly. The
latter hit the foreman over the head with a
shovel, fracturing the skull so badly that
the physicians were compelled to remove a |
large portion.
recover.
Boop is is not expected to
Facts in the Case,
“It is said we shall all pass away as a
tale that is told.”
“That sounds all right
ever being told over again.’’
but tales that |
are told don’t pass away—they are for- |
The Appendicitis Scare.
Why Grapes Now Rot on the Vines Explained by a
Horticulturist.
Mr. Cyrus T. Fox, of Reading, chairman
of the general fruit committee of the State
Horticultural Association, made an aston-
ishing and no doubt true statement before
the recent meeting of that association in
this city. Mr. Fox is an authority on fruit
culture and his words, therefore, have the
weight which always attaches to the utter-
ances of an expert. It is, therefore, with
amazement that we learn that while the |
grape crop last year was abundant the con-
sumption was greatly decreased on ac-
Cameron on Silver.
Great Financial Disaster Willi Ensue if Silver Re-
mains Demonetized.
The following is a letter written by Sen-
ator J. Donald Cameron, of this state, to
Andrew B. Humphrey, of Denver, secreta-
ry of the National Republican league. The
letter is a strong portrayal of the evils that
will attend a continuance of monometal-
lism and an exposure of the forces that
caused the demonitization of silver :
UNITED STATES SENATE, |
WASHINGTON, D. C. June 13, 1894. §
My DEAR SIR: * * ® The
gold standard seems to us to be working
count of the ‘‘appendicitis scare.” Can
such things be! In truth they must he
else Mr. Fox would not say so, and he says |
Truly in!
so because he knows it is so.
knowledge there is sorrow and in wisdom
misery. In vain does the purple of the
grape appeal to the eye, and stimulate the
appetite. No more will artists depict in
wonderous colors fair and lovely maidens
plucking the rich clusters of grapes from
among their leafy bowers. It used to be
so in the -days of old, but this isa won-
derous age, and change is the order of the
day,
still gladdens the eye and its dark purple
glints in its bed of green, but the merry |
maiden—where is. she? Does she with
tapering fingers press the luscious meat
within her rose-tinted lips? Nit! She re- !
clines on the grassy banks and reads a
‘Treatise on Appendicitis,” while the
grape falls a prey to the worm and the
frost.
Years ago nobody knew that man
possessed such an inconvenient appendage
as an appendix vermiform and therefore
nobody suffered from appendicitis. But as
society became more fashionable-the good
old-fashioned stomach-ache was no longer
permissible within the social circle of the
Four Hundred. Where there is a demand
there is always a supply and from out of
the innermost convolutions of a man’s
anatomy the surgeon’s knife revealed the
new and fashionable disease—appendicitis
—and the healthful and refreshing grape
no longer lingers lovingly in the palate of
man, except in the form of the juice when
it is red, which may produce hair on the
teeth, but never appendicitis. The grape
has produced many a jag, but it should
not have other sins saddled upon it Lor
which it is not responsible. A pain in the
neighborhood of the stomach after eating
about a basket of grapes is not always a
sign that a man has this fashionable dis-
ease—appendicitis.— Allentown
A Family Doctor Says.
That the hot pastry and iced drinks of
this country have much to do with the
thinness of its people.
That disordered digestion in adults is
often the outeome of being compelled or al-
lowed to eat rich food in childhood.
That the time to pay strict attention to
bodily health is during the vigorous por-
tion of life.
That up to middle life most people are
careless regarding their physical condition,
and thus people who ought to live long
lives have their days curtailed.
That it is a great mistake to follow the
common practice of dosing infants with
teas, oils and sweetened waters when any
real or imaginary ill is upon them.
That for those who hurry to and from
their meals soup is recommended as a pre-
paratory agent for the reception of solid
food. For a man to rush hurriedly to his
meals and gulp down meat, vegetables and
pie without a short interval of rest for the
stomach is nearly akin to suicide.
That toasting bread destroys the yeast
germs and converts the starch into a soluble
substance which is incapable of fermenta-
tion ; that dry toast is more healthful, will
not sour the stomach, nor produce any dis-
comfort, and is, therefore, more agreeable
to a weak digestion than any other bread.
That toothache caused by a cold in the
facial nerves may often be relieved by
wringing a soft cloth out of cold water and
sprinkling it with strong vinegar. This
should be laid on the face like a poultice,
and will often he followed by refreshing
sleep.
——Do not keep the alabaster hoxes of
your love and tenderness, scaled up until
your friends are dead, but fill their lives
with sweetness now, speak approving and
cheering words while their ears can hear
them, and while their hearts can be thrilled
and made happier by them, The kind
things you will say after they are gone,
say before they go. The flowers you mean
to send for their coffins, bestow now, and
so brighten and sweeten their earthly
homes hefore they leave them.
If our friends have alabaster boxes laid
away, full of fragrant perfumes of sympa-
thy and affection, which they intend to
break over our dead hody, we would rather
they would bring them now, in our weary
and troubled hours, and open them that
we may be refreshed and cheered while we
need them and can positively enjoy them.
We would rather have a plain coffin with-
out a flower and a funeral without an
culogy, than a life- without the sweetness
of love and sympathy. Let us learn to
annoint our friends beforehand for their
burial—flowers upon the coffin shed no fra-
grance backward over the weary way by which
the loved ones have traveled.—Ex.
Got Drunk on Wood Alcohol.
Terrible Death of a Colored Man While Celebrating
“the Birth of His Child.
On Saturday morning Charles Stevens,
colored of Central Valley, near Milford,
died of delirium tremens. Ie married a
white woman two years ago, and at the
birth of a child ten days ago he celebrated
the event by drinking wood alcohol and
benzine, and would have swallowed a
quantity of varnish if his wife had not pre-
vented it.
He expired in agony, with
“I'm going to hell.”
the words,
How Sheriffs Can “Proclamate.’”
HARRISBURG. Jan. 25. -— Deputy at-
torney general [lkin has advised the sec-
retary of the commonwealth that the
sheriff’s election proclamation need not be
a fac simile of the official election ballot,
but may be printed in the form agreed
upon by the county officers, providing all
the nominations are given.
Distress Among Miners,
PITrsBuRG, Jan. 31.—-Great distress pre-
vails among the river niiners, almost all of
the 10,000 diggers in the Monongahela
| Valley being out of employment, hecause
| of the dull condition of the coal business
(and because of the freezing up of the,
|
river.
He Hasn't Beem Answered Yet.
Tommy —Oh, paw !
Mr. Fige—Well ?
‘How can a solid fact leak out.”
SER
"Tis true that the blush of the grape |
Chronicle. |
ruin with violence that nothing can stand.
If its influence is to continue for the future
at the rate of its action during the twenty |
years since the gold standard took posse
ion of the world, some generation not very
{remote will see in the broad continent
America only a half dozen overgrown cities,
keeping guard over a mass of capital. and
lending it ont to a population of depend-
ant laborers on the mortgage of their grow-
ing crops and unfinished handiwork. Such
sights have been common enough in the
world’s history : but against it we all rebel.
Rich and poor alike.; Republicans, Deino-
!crats, Populists ; labor gnd capital ; rail-
ways, churches and colleges—all alike, and
I all in solid good faith, shrink {from such a
The important men in the trade foresee that
sooner than do this the smoker of cigars
will try what are called ‘seed and Ha-
vana’' cigars, these being now covered with
the somewhat bitter tasting Sumatra wrap-
per, and it is feared that if smokers once
get accustomed to the taste of the Sumatra
they will never return to what the rest of
the world regards as the hightest artistic
type of cigars—the clear Havana—and that,
the clear Havana industry will be stamped
out. oO
Several of the leading retailers are al-
ready leading their elear Havana custom-
ers gently by offering Sumatra wrapped
goods when any complaint is made as to
the fancied.deterioration of the clear Ha-
vana. Some of the less scrupulous manu-
facturers of all Havana cigars, on running
out of the leaf, have begun to use tobacco
grown from imported Havana seed in
T*lorida; and this tobacco, which a year or
two agd was thought to have reached a
maximum price at $1 per pound for select-
ed wrapper stock, is now selling at $5 and
upward a pound. Several houses are using
clear Mexican, and it remains to be seen
whether these goods will meet the approval
of the clear Havana smoker or not. One
thing issure, they are totally dissimilar ex-
cept in appearance, and in that they are a
little too good, being too glossy, and with-
out the modest appearance of the fine Ha-
{ future as that.
This agreement is the best part of the sit-
{ uation. At least we can be sure that no one |
{ is deliberately conspiring against our safety. |
Even on the burning ground of silver and
gold we agree in principle. No party “and
no party leader has ever approved of the
single gold standard. Not one American
in a hundred believes in it. We are more
unanimous in hostility to it than we are on :
any question in politics. A vast majority
in all parties agree that the single gold
standard has been, is, and will be national
disaster of the worst kind. What is still
more strange, almost the whole world sym-
vana tobacco. The prices at which they
lare offered are about 25 per cent. lower
than those of the old high grade, clear Ha-
vanas, and this is the magnet which in-
duces the leader to try them on the con-
sumer, who, of course, is asked to pay the
old price for the single cigar.
With the seed and Havana manufactur-
ers everything is not too rosy, as the Reme-
dios tobacco they useis scarce, owing to
the activity of Gen. Gomez. But little has
been planted, and the price is becoming
mountainous. This is a tobacco which
years ago had very little wrapper, but of
late has been improved ; some of the wrap-
pathizes with us. .Nine-tenths of man-
kind are hostile in the single gold standard. |
Our 70,000,000 people are unanimous |
against it. Most of the great European
nations and their government dislike it.
South America rejects it. The whole Asia
knows only silver, and India, which con- |
| tains five sixths of all the subjects of the |
| British crown, is as hostile to it as our-
selves. Yet the bankers of London have!
said that we must submit, and we have
submitted.
So strange a spectacle has never been
[in our history. Argument, and even the
compulsive proof brought by world-wide |
{ ruin seems to be helpless against this as- |
tonishing power. What is the use of argu- |
{ ment when we all are convinced, and when
at least nine-tenths of the civilized and un-
| civilized world agree? England holds us to
| per stock will undoubtedly he used as a
substitute for Vuelta in some all-Havana
cigars.
Owing to the scarcity and’ increase in
price the seed and Iavana cigar manu-
facturers are beginning to look closely after
their profits, especially those who have
made a cheap grade of cigar and had not
too much capital to swing their business.
In a number of cases the filler of Havana
has been replaced to some extent with
Mexican or Pennsylvania, and this will
cause a slight change in the taste which the-
consunier will remark and the dealer will
volubly explain. Here again the price to
the dealer will be reduced, but the con-
sumer will he asked to go on paying his ten
cents, or whatever it may be, for a more
cheaply made cigar and will sec no remedy
in sight for him. Of the Sumatia wrapper
| the single gold standard by the force of
| her capital = alone more despotically |
| than she could hold us to her empire in |
11776. The mere threat of her displeasure |
paralyzes mankind. |
The most instructive point of all is that |
our great majority consists of the interests |
in the world which have heen from time |
immemorial reckoned as the safest and
most conservative.
The whole agricultural class ; the whole
class or classes, of small proprietors, the
farmers that make the bulk and sinew of
our race ; the artisan whose interests are
bound up in the success of our manufac-
tures ; all those join hands with what is
left of their old enemies, the landed aristoc-
racy of Europe, to protest against a revolu-
tion made for the benefit of money lenders
alone.
On the other hand, that revolution is
even more radical than any which has
been accomplished by professed revolution-
ists. Had all the despotic governments
that have existed in a thousand years
united their intelligence to set class
against class, to breed corruption, to
stimulate violence, and to shatter the
foundations of society, they could have in-
vented no device more effective than this
decree which at one stroke doubled the val-
ue of capital, destroyed the value of indus-
try, and swept the small proprietor every-
where into bankruptey.
The whole conservative force of the
world protests against so violent and des-
i potic a change. We protest against it the
more because we know enough of polities
to fear the reaction against such extrava-
gance. We see the risks to which the gold
mania is exposing us. We have reason to
know the popular feeling and we do not
believe that the single gold standard can be
long maintained. We want real money
—coin—carrying intrinsic value; yet if
Cngland succeeds in her obstinate effort to
destroy the value of silver from coinage,
nothing can save us from paper. England
may well succeed : she seems already to
be on the point of success greater than her
government wanted ; and in that case, ir-
redeemable paper—flat money—stares us
square in the face.
w i
* * 3 3%
The task before us is to restore normal
activity to our industry—to break down
the barriers of sectionalism—to check the
increasing tension between rich and poor—
to relieve agriculture, and to save the
small farmer and manufacturer—in a word,
to smooth away the threatening dangers of
social discontent. Very truly yours,
J. D. CAMERON.
Smokers Face a Crisis. i
Weyler's Tobacco Edict Beginning to Pinch Them.—
Mexican Tobacco Coming in Many Devices fo De-
ceive the Smoker Regarding the Quality of His
Cigar.
According to trustworthy reports, now is
the crucial time with the smokers of cigars.
The thin edged wedge of Governor-General
Weyler’s edict, prohibiting the export of
tobacco from Havana, is now to be driven
home. The stocks of fine Vuelta Abajo
tobacco are about exhausted and several
conscientious firms of manufacturers have
so informed their customers, and gone out
of business, and the receipts of large quan-
tities of Mexican tobacco for well-known
leaf tohacco importers of this city tell their
own story, just as do the large importa-
tions of what is known .as Remedios tobac-
co hitherto used only in seed and Havana
cigars, by some of the largest manufactur-
ers of all Havana cigars in this country.
It is estimated that the total importation
of clear Havana cigars amounted to about
37,000,006 a year. In this country there
were made of imported ITavana tobocco
about 200,000,000 more ; this valuable in-
dustry appears to be thieatened with ex-
tinction unless there is some change in
Weyler’s policy. The heavy duty of $3.50
per pound and 25 per cent, advalorem im-
posed on imported cigars causes the Cuban
made cigar to cost nearly double in the
stores of this country, and it is hardly like-
ly that the average sinoker of clear Havana
cigars will want to pay the difference be-
| tween what he paid for his old brand and
| the imported goods, which he may not like
so well, for it requires considerable experi-
ence and knowledge to buy a good import-
ed cigar in this country, and all cigars com-
I ing from Cuba are not good by a long shot. |
tobacco there is no scarcity, but it is in-
creasing in price, and the astute Amster-
dam dealers who control the world’s sup-
ply, know that Unele Sam must have it and
keep raising prices on one pretext or anoth-
cr. Their machinations, while not import-
ant when there was plenty of medium pric-
ed Havana tobacco for fillers, are a very
serious matter now that Havana is almost
unobtainable.
Such is the situation. The result has
been that many brands of cigars have
changed of late, practically deteriorating in
quality, not from any “fault or wish of the
manufacturer, but simply beeause Havana
cigars are a product, artistically blended,
of varying delicate sub-types of a tobacco
grown in one particular section ; owing to
the scarcity these blends have had to be
changed, and the best has been done with
the material at hand. The change has un-
settled the sinoker and turned him in the
direction of cheaper goods. The leading ve-
tailers state that while they did a big
Christmas trade the average demand was
for much cheaper goods, and if further evi-
dence was needed, never before were there
so many stogies, sold. A few years ago
stogies were sold almost exclusively to
rich men in the dry goods trade—a phe-
nomenon.which was never satisfactorily ex-
plained—and to see them displayed in a
store was the exception. To-day they are
to be obtained in almost all stores, and the
red and yellow boxes of the popular brands
are common sights.
The Cuban cigar manufactures at Hava-
na probably will see that the expected in-
crease of imported cigars is not taking
place for the United States, and they will
get tired of paying the large sum of $73,000
yearly to keep the embargo up, and will be
willing to let the government export it and
obtain its export reventie in the “exdinary
way, before the self evident evolution in
the United States takes all value away from
their tobacco in this market and all desire
on the part of our manufactures to use it.
If the embargo is kept up another two
years this loss of market will be the inev-
itable result, say the leading manufactures
in the business, many of whom in the seed
and Havana ranks would heartily welcome
such a state of things, coupled with heavy
prohibitary duties on Sumatra tobacco, and
a return of the smoker to the clear seed ci-
gar of thirty years ago. The manufacturers
say it is only a question of education, and
that there would be heaps more money in
it for the artistic, expert American manu-
facturer, who would then have a chance to
adjust his prices once more to a better pay-
ing basis. They say that any one can roll
up a Sumatra or Havana cigar, but that it
takes experience and skill to blend the var-
ious growths of domestic leaf and make the
sweet cigar of the forefathers.
Frozen to Death.
A Woman Dies of the Cold and Privation in Al-
toona. re )
A woman by the name” of Mrs. Margaret
Brightbill was discovered dead in her hum-
ble cottage at Altoona from cold and pri-
vation. She lived alone and eked out a
meagre existence by washing. Coroner Me-
Cartney was advised that the deceased was
the wife of a resident of Danville, Pa.,
named McLeod Miller, She disappeared
from her home nineteen years ago, carry-
ing with her her youngest daughter, Sarah,
then 2 months old. Her maiden name,
Brightbill, she assumed on going to Al-
toona.
The Anti-Spitting Crusade.
The crusade against the offensive habit
of expectorating in public places, especially
in street cars, has extended, and society
women of St Louis, Mo., are talking of
forming an organization to put down tlie |
= =
habit. It intends to enlist every woman
of prominence in St. Louis in the work.
Each member is to be constituted a com- |
mittee to look for offenders. When she
catches a culprit she is to remind him, in
an inoffensive way, of the great improprie-
ty of his conduct, and, if he will remain
long enough to listen, present Lim with a
pamphlet setting forth
habit is so objectionable.
——For nine days William Harman, a
Philadelphia tramp, has sulsisted on a
crust of bread in & barn in Dingman’s
township, Pike county.
[afew minutes, and to change
reasons why his |
FOR AND ABOUT WOMEN:
A child should literally be intelligently
let alone. It should not he handled, or
rocked, or amused, nor should its attention
be attracted in any way. For the first five
or six months it should lie quietly in its
bed or basket, be regularly fed, and as reg-
ularly encouraged to sleep. It will of
ourse get tired, Therefore it needs ocea-
sional turning, with change of position
and a gentle rubbing of the limbs or back.
A good rule is to stroke the little body for
! its position
every time the baby necds to be made dry.
The natural rapid growth of infancy makes
the flesh tingle and the limbs ache, and
frequent rubbing with the palm of the
hand promotes future health as well ag
present comfort.
In order to preserve for a Young habe the
proper conditions of light, warmth and air
and yet to lift and carry it as little as pos-
sible, it is necessary to have for its first
nest a movable bed. Any basket with the
sides and bottom carefully protected and
padded will serve, but the most convenient
is the regular dog-hasket, with a hood on
one side. This when properly draped,
serves to exclude draughts, while the drap-
cry may easily be readjusted’ to vary the
degree of light. Ifa child cecupies a sta-
tionary crib, it must he moved from its
hed whenever its room is aired or cleaned
or is needed for other purposes. But when
such a basket is used, the child and hed to-
gether may be changed from one room to
another, or from one part of the room to a
darker or lighter corner, or to a cooler or
warmer one, as convenience or comfort may
suggest. Most important of all, a mother
without confining hereslf to the nursery,
can keep the infant under her own eye
while engaged in her ordinary daily occu-
pations. Even though she does not per-
sonally feed and care for her baby, she can
thus superintend and criticise the nurse’s
efforts.—From Harper's Bazar®
Mrs. McKee, daughter of ex-Presideng
Harrison vouches for the perfection of a
recipe for making pecan cake. Beat to-
gether a cup of butter and two of sugar, ad-
ding a little beaten white of e xz ; then put
in a cup of flour, half a cup of sweet milk,
then another cup of flour. The last flour
must contain two teaspoonfuls of baking
powder. Add the whites of eight eggs (al-
lowing for that which has been taken from
them to mix With the butter and sugar).
The filling and icing is made as follows -
Two cups of nuts should soak awhile in a
grated pineapple, after chopping them fine.
Now mix them into the whites (beaten.
stiff) of six eggs and powdered sugar. Put
whole pecan kernels over the top of the
cake while the icing is still soft.
Frances E. Brant left her school in Ohio
twelve years ago and invested the money
she had carned as a teacher ina Kansas
farm. To-day she owns 2300 acres of good
land. For six years she has heen a preach-
er, and for two years the pastor of the Uni-
versalist church at Hutchinson, Kan.
Skirts have to be fitted row more care
fully than ever, and stand out at the hack
well, although they are not nearly so full
at sides and front. There ave many cun-
ning devices in order to effect this much
desired result. Very flexible steels find a
place at the hem of the skirt, and some-
times about a quarter of .a yard below the
waist. Indeed, wire and steel have many
unaccustomed uses now. Not only are
most of the upstanding collars wired, and a
great deal of the lace and most of the bows
but not a few of the silk bolero jackets are
thus treated. Cording has come back to
us once again, and a great many of the
newest skirts have three cordings on the
hips, which makes them set very flat be
low the waist, and stand out gracefully he-
yond.
A tailor-made, or, at any rate, a cloth
dress of some kind, is an absolute necessity
to every woman, and this season’s styles
present such lovely things to choose from.
The up-to-date tailor costume does not
necessarily consist of bodice and skirt of
like material, but is shown with skirt and
coat of contrasting stuffs, and this in splen-
did effect. Donnavon’s gowns are always
superb, but some of his latest tailor rigs
are absolutely ravishing, and make one
wish to wear nothing else. An especially
striking ‘one shows a narrow, clinging
skirt of a pale tan broadcloth, almost yel-
low in tone, and of a velvety softness.
It is entirely plain, with not even a hem
in sight, though it is richly interlined with
a beautifully rich shade of tobacco brown
taffeta. The tiny little’ coat is a perfect
wonder of chic, built as it is of tobacco
as the skirt. It fits like a glove, curving
sharply at the waist, and full of flares and
ripples over the hips.
It opens broadly across the bust with a
coat collar and elongated revers decorated
with tiny buttons of gold and false button-
holes, and shows a softly folded scarf of
plaid silk, crossed and fastened with a jew-
eled scarfpin. With this is worn a linen
collar and tiny black satin tie.
Small sleeves of the broadcloth, finished
with a full puff at the shoulder, complete
the coat, which, like the skirt, is lined
with tobacco brown taffeta.
With this dashing model is worn a close
hat in sailor shape, of white kid, the crown
handed broadly with black taffeta ribbon,
while at the sides are huge choux of green
gauze from which spring tall ospreys of
black. ”
Patent leather shoes require to look well
They should be wiped with a damp sponge
and afterward with a soft, dry cloth, and
occasionally with a cloth dampened with a
little sweet oil. Blacken and polish the
edges of the soles in the usual way, but do
not cover the patent leather with the black-
ing. A cloth moistened in a little milk
may be used on patent leather with good
effect.
Tucks abound on heavy materials quite as
much as ever, and are very effective, even
rin nets or heavy broadcloths. They
abound in black toilettes especially, some-
times forming the only trimming used. A
fetching gown of biscuit colored drape d’ete
is combined happily with clusters of green
velvet. The tan cloth skirt has no decora~
tion whatever, depending upon its heauty
of cut for its smartness. The bodice is
| made of the green velvet, laid in broad,
flat tucks, crosswise of the figure, over
which is worn a tiny bolero of tan cloth,
oval in shape, braided along the edge with
heavy green silk cord. The coat sleeves
have a dash of braid at the pointed wrists,
and pleatings of the velvet to hang down
over the hand.
| The stock of tan cloth is finished in the
| same way with pleatings of velvet, and
frills of lace in ruche effect upon the face.
| With this most fetching gown is worn a
| pointed crowned hat of hunter’s green vel-
| vet also laid in folds and trimmed witha
| scarf of creamy lace and tall black plumes.
browrrbroadcloth, bearing the same finish