Belletonte, Pa., March 17, 1916.
A Letter From the Sky.
[By Sarah Baxter.]
Mme. Benkard, the wife of Major |
Benkard of the —th regiment of the
llne of the French army, was in the
habit of appropriating any good look- |
ing second lieutenant whom she could |
induce to be attentive to her.
One day a young lieutenant, Louis
Detaille, reported at the garrison for
duty, and the moment Mme. Benkard
saw him she determined to appropriate
him. He was a rosy cheeked boy
scarcely out of his teens and before |
his departure to join his regiment had
Proposed to and been accepted by his
cousin, Delphine Dumont. Mme. Ben-
kard was double his age and had lost
whatever beauty she had possessed.
The lieutenant desired to give all his
spare time to writing love letters to his
sweetheart and had no inclination to
devote himself to the major's wife.
Unfortunately for him, he was too
young, too unsophisticated to know
the danger of refusing advances from
such a woman and frankly told the
lady that he was engaged to a girl he
dearly loved and had neither time nor
inclination to devote himself to her.
Mme. Benkard’s eye flashed, but De-
taille’s eyes were modestly cast down
at the time, and when he ventured to
raise them he saw a sympathetic smile.
“You dear boy!” she exclaimed. ‘Tell
me all about her. Is she dark? Is she
fair? Is she very young and does she
love you as you love her?”
Disarmed, Detaille became garrulous
about the girl he loved, and before the
end of the interview madame had got
her name and address.
Detaille had not been in garrison a
month before Germany declared war
upon France and French troops were
rushed northward into Belgium. Be-
fore his departure, while there was yet
peace, Mlle. Dumont received an anon-
ymous letter warning her against her
lover, who was devoting himself to
the wife of one of the officers.
Mme. Benkard, after listening to De-
taille’s rhapsodies concerning his fian-
cee, did not relinquish her grip upon
him, and so marked were her attentions
to him that he fancied her husband
was becoming jealous of her. Besides.
he had become suspicious of her. As
soon as he came to a halt on his way !
to Belgium he wrote her a letter which
was designed to set himself right in
the matter, putting in writing what he
had told her—that he had a sweetheart
to whom he was devotedly attached
and had no interest whatever in any
one else. This lettter he copied and
inclosed the duplicate in a letter to
his sweetheart, explaining why he sent
it to her.
The epistle to Mme. Benkard he sent
first, and it reached her in due time.
By the time he dispatched the one to
Mile. Dumont the Germans were push-
ing the French back upon Paris. The
courier who carried the mail was cap-
tured by the Germans and was sent to
the headquarters of the German army.
Meanwhile the anonymous letter
which was written. by Mme. Benkard
to Mlle. Dumont had reached the lat-
ter and nearly broke her heart. She
was too young and innocent to, know
the difference between the work of a
friend and a fiend and supposed the
warning had come from one who did
not wish to see hertinjured. She kept
her secret locked in her breast, where
it burned and burned until it seemed
to her that she ‘could endure it no lon-
ger, but she did not write to her lover
reproaching him for having so soon
forgotten her. At first Detaille thought
nothing of this, for every day there
was a battle, and as for mails, if one
came through from Paris it was not
likely to be distributed.
For a time after the war opened Par-
is -vas attacked by dirigibles, which
sailing over the city, dropped bombs
upon it. One day when considerable
damage had been done by one of these
air craft, a street gamin who was gap-
ing at it with more curiosity than fear,
saw slowly circling down toward him
through the air a bit of paper. It fell
near him, and he picked it up. It was
a letter. The gamin, not being able
to read the superscription, showed it to
a gendarme, who read, “Mlle. Delphine
Dumont, No. — Rue —, Paris.” and
handed #¥ back to the gamin.
Now, the boy was not bright enough
to make a guess as to where the letter
came from; but, thinking to make a
few sous, he took it to its address.
‘When Mlle. Dumont heard that a
boy wished to see her with a letter
she went to him and on seeing it and
reading the superscription asked him
where he got it.
“From the sky, mademoiselle,” was
the reply.
The girl had never seen the writing
before. Tearing open the envelope.
she found a letter addressed to her in
German and bearing the signature of
a lieutenant in the German aviation
corps and an inclosure addressed to
her in her lover's handwriting. The
latter she opened feverishly. It was
the duplicate of the one Detaille had
sent to Mme. Benkard and which had
been captured by the Germans. The
letter inclosing it read as follows:
Dear Mademoiselle—I send bombs down
on your city in the line of my duty. It
gives me pleasure to send also to you per-
sonally a letter the nonreceipt of which
may have been troubling you.
Delphine ran upstairs to a glove box
where she kept her pin money and, se-
lecting a gold piece, gave it to the boy,
who looked at it in wonder.
A few days later Delphine received
word that her lover had been brought
to Paris wounded, and she nursed him
back to health.
VARIETIES OF APPLAUSE.
| But There Is No Mistaking the Genu-
| ine, Spontaneous Offering.
! With nearly every successful address
. applause plays a leading part. There
are several varieties of applause. The
{ common variety is the perfunctory
! handclap—a poor, weak contribution
: which makes a butterfly lovk long liv-
| ed in comparison. A second variety is
| the charity offering of an audience to
the oratorical beggar.
The speaker ends a profound declara-
tion with a pause which is next door
{ to an open declaration of war if the
audience doesn’t come across, or he
works himself up in a series of mental
paroxysms which impel the auditors
to rush to his rescue before it is too
late. All spellbinders pocket this va-
riety of applause as real coin. Of
; course it is nothing of the kind.
The genuine issue in laudation is a
spontaneous and volcanic eruption of
approval and delight. It blows out vio-
lently from the subterranean fires of
folk, and when it has reached its cli-
max there comes suddenly and gor-
geously from the midst of it a second
and more terrific explosion, and as this
is reaching its highest point a third
and seismic spasm rockets up through
bedlam and overwhelms everything
and everybody. This is the real thing.
It cannot be made to order, and it can-
not ‘be counterfeited. The prearranged
outbursts at national political conven:
tions following the nominations are
pitiable attempts to manufacture it.
Claques and coteries of devotees try
occasionally to produce it mechanical-
ly. They never do successfully.
All veteran speakers know it, and
having experienced it, live on in the
bright expectancy of the golfer who
has accidentally driven 275 yards and,
believes that any minute it is liable to
be done again. There are many com-
munities which have never witnessed
such a scene. They never will. For
there are some communities that are
strangers to all manner of response.—
Victor Murdock in Collier's Weekly.
EMOTIONAL ACTRESSES.
Temperament on the Stage and the
. Task of Managing It.
You hear a lot about the artistic tem-
perament in and out of the theatrical
trenches. There's only one way to
manage a temperamental woman on
the stage, said a well known leading
man the other day, and that is to be
in love with her. I was never so fortu-
nate myself, but I have seen it work
| out with others again and again. They
hate the man who won’t admire them.
and they laugh at the man who does.
Their nerves are .always thumping
them into action till their hearts are
bursting and their brains are in a
whirl.
One of our emotional actresses in her
prime was the most febrile, fearless,
radiant witch of a woman the stage
ever had. She was always on fire, in-
telectually and every other way. Dur-
ing one engagement in New York she
wasn’t on speaking terms with any
one in the front of the house, except
one man, and he was always telling
her how wonderful she was. No one
| else dared g0 near her for fear she'd
kill them with the first thing handy.
They're just like angry leopards, some
of them. They must be humored, con-
quered with patience, firmness and
kindness.
A well known English star, who has
always been famous for being difficult
to manage, used to hate the sight of a
manager. She could wither any man
who was not her mental equal till he
literally crumpled to pieces, and she
loved nothing better. There were so
many who were not her equal too. She
knew most men were afraid of her.
and she kept them in that delicious
state of dread: They called it “‘tem-
perament.” She called it something
more fitting—brains.—Theater Maga-
zine.
i
One of London’s Seven Curses.
poor folks whose principal meals come
from the fried fish shop which, because
of its evil smell, has been described
as “one of the seven curses of Lon-
don.” Yet to a hungry man the smell
of fried fish is a most enticing odor.
George Gissing has described how mad-
dening it was to him in his darkest
days ‘to smell the fish he had no mon-
ey to purchase,” and how, when af-
fluent to the extent of a few coppers.
he “eagerly bought and devoured the
crisp golden colored slices of fresh
cooked fish—surely the food of the
gods.”—London Chronicle.
Her Pride Hurt, ¥
be threatened with palpitation cf the
heart.”
“Yes; she just received a dreadful
shock.”
“And what happened to fortune's fa-
vorite?”
“She was sitting in an employment
office waiting for a chance to look at
a cook when a haughty dame swept
up and offered her a jobh.”—ILouisville
Courier-Journal. :
An Extremist. .
“What in the world does old Klose-
man want with more money? He
hasn’t any near relatives, and he
doesn’t begin to spend his income
now.”
“That’s just the point. He wants to
economize on a larger scale.”—Boston
Transcript.
He Had Painted Teco.
“My dear fellow,” said the artist,
“you can’t imagine how much work
there was in painting that picture.”
“Ob, yes, I. can,” said the young
country lad; “my father made me paint
the barn one summer.” — St. T.ouis
Post-Dispatch.
There are in London thousands of.
“Your fashionable friend seems to.
MILITANCY IN NEW GUISE
Mrs. Pankhurst Now Aiding Govern
ment She Fought.
Reading of Mrs. Pankhurst’s stand-
ing with Lloyd George to review the
great procession of 50,000 women
which her society had organized—a
procession to show the women’s en-
thusiastic willingness to make muni-
tions, or to render war service in any
way in their power — bring to
mind irresistibly the pictures which
show a group of the most incongru-
ous animals driven to stand together
on the highest point of a rock by a
rising flood. It is the rising flood of
patriotic feeling that has brought
about this strange conjunction. For
years Mrs. Pankhurst and the Brit-
ish government have been at swords’
points. Now she is one of the gov-
ernment’s most powerful allies, and
is in constant demand to speak on
the same platforms with the highest
dignitaries, civil and military. Her
present attitude is a disappointment
to some of her friends, a ‘joy to
others, and a surprise to many. It
is natural enough, however. Mrs.
Pankhurst is inherently a fighter.
She thinks it imperative ror the wel-
fare of the world that her country
should win in this war, and she has
thrown herself into the struggle,
heart and soul.
COTTON STALKS HAVE VALUE |
Hitherto Regarded as Waste, They
Are to Be Turned Into a Market-
able Commodity.
Considering the fact that in the
neighborhood of 75,000,000 tons of
cotton stalks have been destroyed an-
nually as worthless and only in the
way, the possibilities of a plant capa-
ble of converting them into paper and
artificial silk are readily comprehend-
ed. ‘A plant is now being erected at
Greenwood, Miss., which will be de-
voted to the preparation of pulp from
cotton stalks, and it is said that owing
to the stronger fibers of the cotton
stalk pulp, paper manufactured from
it is considerably stronger in propor-
tion to its thickness and weight than
that produced from the usua. wood
pulp. It has been the custom to cut
and burn the stalks, after the cotton-
picking season has ended, at a cost of
about a dollar a ton. The use of cot-
ton pulp is not limited to the making
of paper. The stalk fibers have been
found capable of withstanding the ni-
trating process involved in the mak-
ing of gun-cotton. The fibers also
produce an artificial silk, motion-pic-
ture films, and such chemicals as py-
roxilene, alcchol and acetone.
—~——Are you a subscriber to the I. O.
O. F. souvenir program? If not, why not?
| Bush House Block, - -
FINE GROCERIES
Fruits and Confectionery.
We have a few items that you may find worth
looking after.
A small lot of those 1914 crop Mixed Nuts at 10c. per lb.
Fair sized Oranges at 15¢c and 25¢ per dozen—fine fruit.
California pillow Figs at 15c per pound.
Fancy Wisconsin Cheese at 22c per pound—now worth at
present market rate 25c.
New crop California Walnuts and New Nuts at 2oc per 1b.
Fine Nut Meats—Pecans, Walnuts and Almonds—all full
pieces, none broken—Try them.
California Naval Seedless Oranges—all sizes— fancy fruit.
Fancy Cranberries, 15 cents per quart—dry measure.
SECHLER & COMPANY,
B71. ais
The First National Bank.
wn cosas emnm mm
Bellefonte, Pa.
BANK A
Are necessary these days.
methods demand them. Put your
money in a
checks against it when necessary.
We think our bank is a good one.
The First National Bank
59-1-1y
CCOUNTS
Modern
good bank and draw
BELLEFONTE, PA.
Young Man, Don’t
Scatter Your Dollars!
YOUTH IS PRODIGAL. Frequently the young man DOESN'T
KNOW THE VALUE OF A DOLLAR.
YOUTH IS NOT EVERLASTING. The big men of the country laid
the foundation for their suceess by opening a bank account when they
were young.
If You Hope to Amount to Anything Don’t
Delay Starting a Bank Account.
Start It Today.
THE CENTRE COUNTY BANK,
56-6
BELLEFONTE PA.
ANE ~
Hats and Caps.
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