—————— BITS = Bellefonte, Pa., March 22, 1912. _-_ oo - —— “JUST YOU.” You say that the world’s misused you, That everything goes dead wrong: That right is not triumphant, That the weak bow to the strong. Look up. oh, despairing brother! Why take such a morbid view ? Don’t blame the world for your troubles, It isn't the world—it's you ! You say the world oppresses, That it will never treat you square; That evil and vice are rampant, That the misery is everywhere. You argue you have no chances Of working your passage through: Did you ever stop to consider? It isn"t the world—it’s you! You hold that all days are dreary, That life is a burden here; ‘That sunshine is never present, That the world is forlorn and drear. You say that it is cold and cheerless. And a world that is never true: But sizing things up correctly, It isn’t the world—it's you ! You tell me the world is fickle, And wicked and harsh and stern, That everything's set against you, No matter which way you turn, But’ why be so pessimistic ? Get wise to may timely cue; Don’t growl at the world, my brother, It isn't the world—it’s you! —Ex. SUDBURY’S WEDDING JOURNEY. I was standing in the La Salle station, waiting for a friend to arrive on a train from the West, when one from the East ed in. The cars began disgorging their occupants, and, as is my wont as a student of human nature, I stood by the gates and observed the var- ied of humanity. Suddenly I saw Ame Sudbury. I hadn't seen him for eight years—not since he bade me a sad farewell and started forth as a journey- man printer to emulate Horace Greeley. (Please put the accent on “journeyman.” Eight years ago the tramp printer had not been entirely crowded out by linotype machines.) Ame Sudbury had harkened to the call of the open road, and he also had succumbed to wanderiust. When you figure the thing out, it really is pleasant to stroll from town to town and make a living by lordingit over the force of a little country newspaper office. But the Ame I saw was not the - Ame of old. “The Ame of old was not careful as to his apparel, he always had a half-handful of fine-cut ensconced in his cheek, and he only combed his hair on national holi- da A he wore a wrinkled irock suit, upon his feet were patent-leather shoes whose iridescence was something won- derful; a silk hat and a white tie added to his disguise. The fact that he also wore a collar was startling. But 1 knew him. He was for passing me without stopping. I knew he did not see me. In his eyes was the hunted look of a wind- blown deer. Evidently he was in a hurry to go somewhere. He had the air of a man who fears pursuit. So I caught him by the arm and said, “Hello, Ame!” He jumped sidewise, nearly upsetting a fat lady with five or six packages in her arms, dropped his grip, and was ready to run. But when he saw me he sighed a sigh that started away down in his patent- leather shoes, and went limp with relief. “Take me somewhere, and take me quick!” he said, clutching my hand with the despair of a drowning man. “Come this way,” I said, leading him out through the carriage entrance, down Van Buren Street, into a quiet place. I did not ask any questions. I knew per- fectly well that when a man looked as he did, that man wanted to be taken somewhere away from the public eye. I put him across a table from me, in the corner of a little side room, and asked. at are you doing here, dressed like “I'm on my wedding trip, he explained, shakily. ” re is the ha bride?” “She's—she's—I hope she’s not coming on the next train.” he answered, desper ately. “Fe me your troubles,” I suggested, | “Are you sure no one will find us here? Sure she can't trace us?” “Women don’t come here.” “She would if she knew I was here. You don’t know her.” leaned across resemble in West Aurelia at ten o'clock this morn- i ” "it is now 5.20 p. m., I observed. “1 left West Aurelia surreptiti at 12.01 this said and same p. m., replied, "and a simple, though mental computation will show you that I have been moving ever since.” “Is your bride back at West Aurelia?” hope so. I only so. Listen. I strolled into West Ny hope =. year ago, content with my lot as I had outlined it for myself. Up to that time I had only visi towns that were connected by good roads, and had done my traveling when the walking wes geod. Well 1 got a sit in West Aurelia. West Aurelia need of a capable, 2 az g ify sf2fasia0e g§ = | haye been a day. Do you know what four farms in the vicinity of West Aurelia, Ohio, are worth? They are worth over one hundred dollars per acre—and 1 have inside and = | confidential information that there is oil man, I would Rockefeller if—but wait. Mrs. Hobbs—Lucretia—Mrs. Sudbury, that is, at this moment—is about thirty- nine years old. I say ‘about.’ She is fat, and nobody knows the age of a fat wom- an after she is thirty-five. Mrs. H has a crayon picture of herself at the age of twenty, hanging over the piano in the parlor. She thinks she still looks like the picture. Maybe that will help you to figure her age. What do you think? I told Sudbury her age was not import- tant at the moment, and he continued: “Why did she take in boarders? She did't need to, with four farms being work - ed on the shares. She took in boarders in order to have some one to talk with of evenings. I, being a stranger from the great out-side world, was doubly welcome. Travellers do not usually linger in West Aurelia. As a general thing they go right on through. “Pearl Hobbs—say, you ought to see her! Just nineteen, plus a few weeks, when 1 arrived. Plump, pretty, and pleas- ant. Possibly that plumpness may be a onition of a personality resembling that of her mother twenty years from now—but twenty years is a long while and we needn't worry about what may happen in that length of time. When the editor of the West Aurelia Clarion sent me to Mrs. Hobbs’ to board he me I would like the'place. The first per- son I saw was Pearl—and I knew 1 would like the place. Pearl was swinging in the hammock on the lawn as I came into the yard. 1 will say for Pearl that she is one of the few girls I ever knew who could get out of a hammock easily and gracefully. Usually they either fall out or tell you to look the other way. Pearl was reading a book when I arrived. It was one of Charles Major's historical novels. I have read all of them, and he always has a heroine who could win a beauty prize without the aid of cosmetics, but for a genuine, white-teethed, dimple- cheeked, ruby-lipped, azure-eyed, golden: haired dream, Pearl smothered anything that ever was in print. As I was saying, when I came up the walk from the gate, Pear] got out of the hammock. * “You are Mr. Sudbury?” she asked me. “Call me any names you like,’ I Seg ed. ‘Everybody else has to call me Sud- Bec, but there is no restriction whatever upon you.' “Oh, in my rambling hither and yon I flatter myself I have picked up quite a lot of sang-froid, to say nothing of savior- faire. But Pearl would make a cigar-store Indian talk like Monsieur Beaucaire! She laughed prettily when I told her she could call me things ad lib. “« Mr. Melvin of the Clarion telephoned that you would be here,’ she said. ‘Mam- ma is expecting you.’ “Then I met mamma. As I have said, mamma—Lucretia—-Mrs. Hobbs-Sudbury —is fat. Not side-showly fat, but heavy. She carries herself well. In fact, any one possessing her flesh and carrying it at all is entitled to honorable mention. She was glad to see me, too. In all my career I never have been received so enthusias ically anywhere. Iwas given the front room, up-stairs, over the porch. Clem- atis vine and woodbine clambering about the window. Elegant view of one of the four farms just beyond the town. I gathered that while Mrs. Hobbs had been running a boarding-house' for some under three of them. Why, a minister, who came to fill the pulpit of one of the churches temporarily, and a young-lady school-teacher, who married the local druggist. You see, not many strangers come to West Aurelia. “I had my wardrobe ‘in a gripsack— this one here at my feet. I have a deal better wardrobe now—but it is at home.” He choked on the word “home.” “Well, I had one rather nifty suit in my gripsack, and I shaved and fixed up and Pearl and Lucretia—I mean Mrs. Hobbs. Or, rather, Mrs. Sudbury, as she is now. Mrs. Hobbs made me sit at the head of the table and serve the fried chicken. Also, there were mashed toes, cream gravy, hot biscuits, string- beans, a ie, along with jelly, and jam, es, and other things numerous to mention. We along swimmingly for a ‘while. Mrs. * ‘Doesn't it seem nice to have some the table, Pearl?’ said it E for poor mamma, and said: 1 that you and I may be able ® Boe ands > “I at once declared my willingness to make a life-work of ein up her Sel z. By and by, Mis. Ebb Gime 30 n apologized for Sigpley grief, and we went on through sup- per to the pie without further inf tion, save for the merry badinage i ged in between Pearl and myself. CEE g5E | 2 J : 58 3858 : G West Aurelia. " ‘Good chance for a single man to marry well there,’ Melvin remarked, with a knowing smile, knocking the ashes out of his pipe into the hell-box. “The rest of that day I was painting mental pictures of Pearl and myself on fried chicken and biscuits cheering up poor ! I wasn’t the only one who had such an idea, either, for that e one of the village Romeos named Philp Sith son of proprietor of the 3 repository and on the con mapping out a campaign that was going — i to time, she hadn't had any boarders except | pota- | too| ‘Allofit? leave young Smith in the same posi- tion as Napoleon after Waterloo. Mrs. | Hobbs excused herself along about ten | o'clock, after asking me whether I pre- ferred batter cakes or ham and eggs for breakfast. We decided on both, and then . 1 went out to the porch and met young {| Mr. Smith. Pearl said she was glad I : had joined them, and introduced him to | me as joyfully as though she expected him to fall on my neck with joy. He obbs | didn't. He became filled with deep, dark jealousy immediately, and consequently I had a chance to banter merry quips and jests with Pearl, talk about shows I had seen and books I had read, tell about sassing the editor of the Cincinnati En- quiver, and being fired from the compos- ing-room of the Columbus State Journal for setting up an editorial so that it favored the election of Bryan. You know how Othello won Desdemona by brag- ging of his exploits? I used the same method. Youth Smith had never done anything more daring than to put a tick- tack on the dressmaker's window one Hallowe'en, so I had him licked from the start. He bade us a stiff good-night about half an hour after I met him. Pearl got up to walk to the gate with him, and 1 walked along. I insisted on shaking his hand in fare-well, and I took Pearl's arm “as we strolled back to the porch. It was moonlight and he could see us. I made some funny remark to Pearl just when | we were in the brightest patch of moon- | light, and she squeezed my arm and her | silvery jaugine? rippled to the ears of young Smith, while she looked up into my face. Huh! 1 began to wonder whether or not we should live at home | with mother. “So it went along: I decided to settle | down in West Aurelia, Ohio, for the rest | of my natural life. I acquired the habit | of having my hair trimmed once in a while, and I ceased to regard one shirt a | week as the liberal laundry policy. You | understand, do you not? Been there | yourself? Talk about civilizing influences, | such as commerce, literature, and art! | One pretty gitl, with a cooing voice and | a bewildering smile, can spread more civilization in a community than a Car- | negie library, an art museum and a wing | of the steel trust. I quit the fine-cut— | actually stopped using tobacco. Pearl | | was saving the bands on ten-cent cigars. “And Mrs. Hobbs encouraged us. She was always insisting on my taking Pearl to the church socials and things like that. | Said she wanted her to see that I met the young people of West Aurelia, and | entered into the social life of the com- | munity. Young Philip Smith was also | keen for the social life of the community, | and as he knew all the other young folks, | | he wanted Pear] for his companion. But ‘Igot a ntage of three best out of | | four right along. Pearl confided to me ! that while Philip was a nice young man, | of good family and had a good heart and | all that, he was lacking in some respects | intellectually. She said she had always | heard that it took a smart man to be a printer. I told her it did, but that if he was only a little smarter at the start he would not be one. Whenever 1 would | say anything like that to Pearl she would | laugh merrily. Say, her laugh was like— like silver bells ringing in a room full of roses! { I reminded Sudbury that while all this | was interesting it did not explain either | his wedding finery or his sudden appear- | ance in Chicago. “It does not explain it, partly,” he said, | sighing deeply. “I was coming to that stage of it, but I had to tell you about | Pearl to make you understand the rest of it. It happened one evening about six months ago that Pearl and I were stroll | ing down a shady street, and I was pat- | ting her little hand which lay confidingly | on my arm, and telling her what an in- {terest I took in her and how much I | wanted to see her and her mother happy. | She was sort of half-way cuddling up to my side and listening intently. You know ! how they do. | "<But there is no reason why you should not be happy,’ I said to her. ‘You will pardon me for saying it, but not begins life as well fixed as jo8 four large farms.’ | no definite information Ei to how those farms were willed. Pear sighed and clung to my arm and sa bo ‘ But wasn't it odd of poor, dear papa | to leave all his prope to mamma? almost gasped. “ “Every bit of it,’ she declared. ‘His will was jar, some of us thought, but wyers said it was per- fectly Siem. there are times in a man's life when, just at the moment when all that §2EgE =fg 23 33 1 i | + 8 g § FE H 232 i is icf 5s + i | i 3 § g i £ =B 1 iE : £3 i : : § g g g i 3 : z £5 i : i ] : i E | Es i 88 il : : £8 g ® sf gE 8 i Fez i od 3 fh : z £ 5 g sft : fe it H 8 = g = 3% aE5i: Bis i gs i 3 : 1 West Aurelia vou know what it means: when a widow begins going out socially | with a man. | presume half the popula- | beloved daughter Pearl. His dear wife tion: saw us either going or coming or at | having now remarried, it becomes my the moving-picture show, and before | duty as his attorney and executor to state morning the other half knew of it. Melvin | these facts and to perform the necessary kidded me about it, and added injury to | legal duties incident to the transfer of insult by saying that it was just as well 1 i he property.’ should set my cap for some one nearer “Bill, something inside of me dropped my age. | right through me, from the crown of my "Well, you know that courting widows | head to the ends of my toes. It may have and courting girls is different. A girl | been my hopes, but I think it was my pretends not to suspect your intentions, heart. | know I chilled all over and | just seems to think vou are only being trembled like an aspen leaf. Lucretia! nice and friendly and that you enjoy buy- | bravely squeezed my hand, but 1 had not ing her soda-water and candy, and walk- strength to sqneeze back. She looked at ing around with her and talking to her, i me reproachfully, and I managed to but a widow, having been through all | squeeze her fingers weakly. that, knows what you are about. She; "Mr. Webster took another folded paper doesn't demand so much evidence. In| from bis pocket. unfolded it, took out a fact, she has the verdict framed before you state your case. “I shall skip lightly over the events of | the past five or six months, but before I approach the climax let the young man bring another of those high glasses with | the ice and fixings in them.” I signalled to the young man, and he brought the restorative. “Well,” Sudbury resumed. squinting at the ice in the bottom of the glass, "at last, one evening | proposed to Lucretia— | to Mrs. Hobbs. Say, why does a man al- | ways propose in the evening? I never understood it. Anyhow, 1 proposed to | her. Now, there's a difference between |! proposing to a single girl and *o a widow, | just the same as there is in courting | them. A girl believes you when vou tell her that you love her. She believes that you have deceived yourself into thinking she is the most beautiful and wonderful girl in all the world. The reason she thinks you have deceived yoursglf is that | she is too modest to believe all you say to her about herself. But a widow wants you to go on record. Mrs. Hobbs, after her again entering the state of matri- mony all his property was to revert to his | i fountain pen, fixed it for action, and handed, it to Lucretia, saying. * ‘Mrs.—er—Mrs. Sudbury, please sign | on the first line. "Lucretia took the pen in fingers that were as steady as though they were carv- ed from granite. and wrote ‘Lucretia Sud- | bury’ in plain, simple, easily read char- me, and 1 signed on the second line. Man, it was awful. Even Robespierre did not make his victims sign their own death warrants. Webster then blotted the signatures, folded up the paper and hand- ed it to Pearl. “Now everything belongs to Pearl, Lucretia gurgled. " ‘Everything!’ 1 stammered. _" ‘Everything but me, dearest,’ she | simpered, trying to lay her head on my | breast, while Pear] and the lawyer went out. "Ten minutes later [was leaving the house by the side door, unobserved. 1 made my way through alleys to the rail- way station and lingered behind the | freight-house until the train pulled in. I five months of ardent wooing on my part climbed aboard on the side away from the —and it was up-hill work at the first— station and staved in the smoker until we suddenly became coy and undecided. | got to Chicago.” Man it was enough to throw you into a “What are you going to do now, Ame?” fever! Here I had been thinking all the I asked. time that all I needed to do was to say, "lam going to stay right here,” he ‘Will you marry me?’ and she would say, | answered, “and drink these things until “Yes,' without a moment's hesitation. But | it is good and dark, and then I am going | she was different. She said that while | to take a train for the wilds of British she honored and trusted me and had real- | Columbia, where an earnest, honest,sober, ly given me her affections, still she could | industrious printer can find an occupa- not be altogether sure that I was sincere. ! tion, and where there are no fat widows ! Of course, right then I lifted my right | with pretty daughters.” hand and vowed by the sun, moon, and | “And—what about Pearl?” I asked, as stars that I meant what I said. | I prepared to shake his hand in farewell. * ‘But,’ she sighed, ‘how do I know you | “Pearl?” he echoed, sadly. “Pearl? are not a mercenary man? How do | Oh, she and young Smith are to be mar- know you are not dazzled more by my ried this evening at eight o'clock.”—By little wealth than anything else? The! Wilbur D. Nesbit, in Harper's Weekly. four farms—' re . “I didn't let her get any farther. Feel- | FOR AND ABOUT WOMEN DAILY THOUGHT. ing sure that the title deeds to the four! farms were as good as tucked away in | my inside pocket, I slip; my arm as far around her waist as I could and mur. The Moving Finger writes ; and having writ, mured fondly in her ear that it was her I | Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit, wanted to make me happy, that if I was | Shall lure it back to cancel half aline, offered the whole earth, and could not | Nor all your tears wash out one word of it.” have her, life would be as dreary and | barren as the middle of the Desert of | Sahara on Sunday. *“Then you love me for myself alone?’ she asked me. table put a pile of buttons. It is wise to’ “1 do! I vowed. “ cull out all those with very small eyes or | * “Then, Amos darling, I am yours!’ she | “shanks,” and also cloth buttons. This cried, and tried to fall in my arms. It, part of the fun is an individual contest, was only the mercy of heaven that saved the players being assigned to the various | us from falling through the window on to | tables by means of similar buttons. Pass the porch. : , | around a little dish or tray on which are Let us give the glad news to Pearl!’ | four plain white buttons, four black, four she smiled,and she called Pearl in and in- | smoked pearl, four shoe buttons, etc. formed her that I was to be her new | and at each table have a card on which paja. is sewed a fifth button of one of these e fell silent, and moodily looked at | varieti The f layers havi i the bottom of his glass. I gently signalled Yahghes. oo Py Dg white 1 buttons, will find places at the table to the waiter, who came softly with an- | where the card bears the white button, | other restorative. Ame swallowed it, } ¢ and so on. | pulled himself together, and went on: On the tables place four needles (about | * “I have hinted to you that Mrs. Hobbs | No. 7) threaded with double white cotton. | is fat. My dear friend, if by any word of | Do not make the thread more than 18 mine I have created the impression that | inches long, as it is apt to tangle. Wax- she is very fat, let that impression re ing the thread is also a good idea. At | main. And promise me, don't ever ' ; : the tap of a bell the pla n to any 8 widow with pretty daughter! | thread butts, using agg wg you: Bl To nite was again given Naturally, if both Raids ere allowed, | "So—we were married. This mornin, geveral buttons con pie 3D threaded easily; but with one a vas ncn to Jack ou, Dt | A the. {a of the bel the threading t ta the thought of the four big farms would | ceases, 5 th and the one who has come to my mind and I would bolster up | in maki 1 "tri my waning determination. The wedding in ng the longest string is declared winner. occurred at the house—at the home of 1 this may be pla OC ride. 1 shall not describe it to you. | sively, the buttons being LL I noticed among the guests Mr. Timothy | jeft on the tables each time, and Webster, the leading and only lawyer of cards. In West Aurelia, Ohio. After minister had slipped my ten dollar bill into Mevest Do you want to have a lively party? | #104 this: Have tables to accommodate four at each, and in the centre of each i g g : i ; 2 k 2 7 acters. Webster then handed the pen to! , freely. often two and sometimes | profuse and the | desired, provide plenty of potash; i i i g § 8 . 2 | t 7 : : i zit ie : E 5 i ERE i ke i g ] i 58 : 2 § L i : -3 Es i; ass or Woman's Home Companion. Silks will be even more popular than heretofore during the coming spring sea- g g £85 : 4 2 : : 2 i g fai g a FARM NOTES. ~—Soils destitute of humus and nitro- gen are impotent to produce clover. —Stop the churn as soon as the butter granulates if you want to work out all the butter milk. . —What has become of the old-fash- ioned farmer who used to keep a savage dog to catch his hogs? —The Nebraska station, in studies of the water requirements of plants by a new method perfected by the station, has found in two dry years that there was a distinct economy of water with narrow- leaved corn as compared with broad. leaved. The strains with a high-leaf area vielded 43.6 bushels per acre, while those with a low-leaf area produced 52.1 bushels. —A su iy» for scratches is to wash the affected part with soft water and castile soap and dry thoroughly. Then mix equal parts of hog's lard and gun- powder and apply. Ina few days the horse will be weil. For sore shrulders, bathe the sore and dry. Then take the charred coal that remains of any old burnt leather, powder fine and apply This will cure it. —An important consideration in deter- mining the feeding value of corn silage as compared with that of corn stover, fodder corn or bundle-corn, is that in en- silage the whole of the plant, including the stems, is converted into succulent and nourishing food. When fed in any of the other forms the stems are rejected, and are of value only as they gradually add to the humus of the soil. —Unslaked lime is recommended to absorb excess of moisture in the cellar in which fruits and vegetables are stored. It will absorb a limited amount, but a good cellar drain, together with good ventilation, will take care of ground water. It is a good thing toair the cellar on mild days in winter, closing the open- ings at night. The ventilators may safe- ly be left open for several hours when the outside temperature is several de- | grees below freezing. —The Southdown is one of our popular mutton breeds of sheep, and is quite ex- tensively bred. The breed is hornless; the face and legs are of a gray-brown color. The best rams, when fat, often weigh from 175 to 200 pounds, the ewes from 125 to 150. The body is rather blocky. This breed furnishes a fleece of good quality, weighing from six to seven pounds. The wool is rather short, but of medium fine texture. The mutton is of excellent quality. The Southdown ewes produce more than one lamb at birth, three. They are a very valuable breed for early lambs, as the lambs grow rapidly. The South- down is an English breed, taking its name from the Southdowns, the broken and "hilly lands of Sussex, and neighboring | counties of England. —Here are fertilizer facts well worth remembering: Nitrogen or (ammonia) encourages strong leaf, vine and bush | growth; potash makes firm tuber, bulb | and fibre; phosphoric acid makes blooms “set,” and seed and seed pods form abun- dantly; if the wild growth on the farm is tomatoes and melon ' vines run to leaf, the soil is rich in nitro- gen; if trees do not thrive, onions seen . soggy and tomato vines lack sturdiness of stalk, the soil needs potash; if your | tomatoes, melons, grain and cotton fail to "set" plenty of and fruit, phosphoric acid is called for; if one expects to take from the land a crop rich in leaf, as let- tuce, increase the proportion of nitrogen in the fertilizer; if potatoes or onions are i abundant corn, wheat, cotton balls, melons, peaches, strawberries or toma- toes are wanted, see to the phosphoric acid. —One of the prime objects in mating farm animals is to increase the hardiness. No matter what other merits the sire or dam may have, if they are not constituted they will not impart that ay successful or which is so necessary for growth. Strictly thoroughbreds are not always in the pink of condition; they are very apt to have a weakness that if im- parted to the offspring will result in fail- ure. So that when it comes to mating animals one of the most intricate
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers