THE CURFEW HEROINE, The story that is the basis of the well. known poem, “Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight,” told in prose is as follows: It lacked quite half an hour of curfew toll. The old bell-ringer from under the wattled roof of his cottage stoop and stood with uncovered head in the clear sweet-scented air, He had grown blind snd deaf in the service, but his arm was as muscular as ever, and he who listened this day marked no faltering in the heavy metalie throbs of the cathedral bell, Old Jasper bad lived through manv changes, He had tolled out the notes of mourning for good Queen Bess, and with tears scarce ly dry he had rung the glad tidings of the had been erowned, reigned, a came coronation of James. Charles 1. and e xpiat od his weekness bofore all Bogland in Jasper's time, and nov he who under wealth In army held all the common the hollow of bis hand, ruled as more than monarch, and still the old man with the babitof a long life rang ais matin and sorrow. Jasper stood alone now, dimmed eyes up to the softly dappled sky. upon him lifting his The wall of his memory seem s0 writ ten over—so crossed and recrosesd by | the annals of the years that had gone | before, that there seem little room for anything in the present, Little recked he that Cromwell's spearsmen camped on the mjoor beyond the village —that Cromwell himself rode with his guardsmen a leagues away; he only were Vere, whom he loved, She had knelt at Cromwell's feet and pleaded for his life. She wearied heaven with her pray- ers, but all without avail, Slowly now the great sun went down, Slowly the last rim was hid beneath the greenwood. Thirty scconds more and his soul would be with God, The color did not forsake Lis cheeks, The dark rings of hair lay upon a warm brow. it was his purpose to die as martyrs and brave men die. What was life that he should cling to it? Ile almost felt the air pulsate with the first heavy roll of the death knell, But no sound came. Still facing the soldiers with his clear gray eyes upon them he waited. "The erimson banners in the west were paling to pink, their lowing, and had been gathered in. The kine had ceased to the rick yards, All nature had sounded but old Jesper was silent! The bell-ringer, with his gray head had traversed half the dis tance between his cottage and the ivy: her curfew, vet bared, covered tower mhen a form wentflitting past him, with pale, shadowy robes hair that the low western lights touched and tinted ns with a halo, “Ab, Huldah!"” the “how swift she flies? floating around it, and old man mutterde; I will My work is almost done.” Huldah was the good wife who had come soon dear. gone from him in her early womanhood and for whom he had mourned sll his long life, But the fleeting form was not Huldash's. It was Lily De Vere, hurried by a sudden and desperate pur pose toward the cathedral, knew that the bell had teen rung in the tower when William the conqueror’ | made curfew a law, had been spared by Paritan and Roundhead, ara for sixty years had nevar failed him at even-tide. He was moved with a slow step to ward the gate, when a woman came hurriedly in from the styeet and stood beside him; a lovely woman, but with a face so blanched that it seemed carv- ed in the whitest of marble, with all its roundness and dimples. Her solemn eyes were raised to the aged face in pitiful appeal, and the lips were foaming words that he could not under. stand. “Speak up, lass, [ am deal and can not hear your chatter.” “For heaven fake, Jasper, ring the curfew bells to-night.” “What! na ring curfew? you must be daft lassie.” “Jasper, for sweet heaven's sake—for my sake—for one night in all your long life forget jto ring the bell! Fail this once and my lover shall live, whom Cromwell says shall die at curfew toll Do you hear? my lover, Richard Tem. ple. See, Jasper, here is my money to make your old age happy. I sold my jewelry that the Lady Maud gaveme, and the gold shall be yours for one cur. few,” “Would you bribe me Lily De Vere? Ye're a changeling. Ye're na the blood of the Plantagenets in ye're veins as ye'- re moter had. What, corrupt the bell ringer under her majesty, good Queen Bess? not for all the gold that Lady Maud could bring me! Babes have born and strong men have died before now at the ringing of my bell. Awa’! Aad out on the village green with the solemi shadows of the lichens lengthening over it, a strong man awaited the curfew toll for his death. great do not Awa’! and that his | goons come this way. “So help me God, curfew shall not ring tonight ?Cromwell and his dra’ Once more | will kneel at his feet and plead.” She wrenched from its fastening the carved She entered the ruined arch, and wormeaten door that barred the way to the tower. She ascended with flying and frenzied feet the steps; her heart lifted up to God Richard's deliver ance form peril. The bats flew out and shook the dust of centuries from the black carving, As she went up she caught glimpses of the interior of the great building, with its groined roof, its chevrons and clustered columns; its pictured saint and carved image of the virgin, which the pilleges of ages had bien spared to be dealt with by time, the most relentless vandasll of all. Up—still——up— beyond the rainbow tints thrown by the stained glass across her death-white brow ; up—still —up— past open arch, with griffin snd gargoy- les staring at her from under bracket and cornice. Her breath was coming short and gasping. She saw through aa open space old Jawper cross the road at the foot of the tower. Oh, how far! The seconds were treasures which Crom, well, with all his blood-bought common: wealth, could not purchase from her. Up—ah—there, juct above her with its great brazen mouth and wicked tongue, the bell hung. A worm eaten block for a step, and one small white hand had clasped itself above the clapper—the other prepared, at the tremble, to rise snd clesp its mate, and the feet to swim off sand thus sbe waited, Jasper was old and slow, but he was sure and it came at last. A faint quiver, and the young feet swung from their rest, and the tender hands clasped for more than their precious life the writhing thizsg. There wits groaning and creaking of the ru le pulleys above, and then the strokes He stood handsome, and brave, and tall taller by an inch than the tallest | pikeman who guarded him. What had he done that he shou!d die? | Little it mattered in those days, when the sword that the great Cromwell | wielded was so prone to fall, what be or others bad done. He had been scribe to the late lord up at the castle, and Lady Maud, forgetting that man must | woo and woman must weit, had given her to him without the asking, while the gentle Lily De Vere, distant kins woman and poor companion of her, had’ without seeking, found the treasure of his true love snd held them fast, Then he had joined the army and made one of the pious soldiers whose evil pas, sions were never stirred but by sign or symbol of poetry. But a scorned woman's hatred had reached him even there. Enemies and deep plots had compeased him about and conquered him. To night he was to die. The beautiful world lay as a vivid picture before him. The dark green wood above the rocky hill where Robin Hood and his merry men had dwels ; the frowning eastle with its deawbridge and square towers, the long stretolt of moor with the purple shadows upon it, the green, straight walks of the village, the birds overhead, even the daisies at his But ab | more vividly than | the great red sun with its hagy veil lingering above the trees as though it pitied him with more thap human pity. He was » God fearing fearing and a God sery- ing man, Hs bad long made kis pence with heaven. Nothing Hood boon bien im hv came heavy and strong. Jasper's band { had not forgot its cunning, nor his arm | its strength, The swung acd dashed tender soft form was to and fro. Bui {she clung to and caressed the cold, cruel thing. Let one stroke come and a might follow work would be done, She thousand for its fatal wreathed her { white arms about it, so that with overy pull of the great rope it crushed into the flesh. It tore her, and wounded and bruised ; but twi light the brave woman swung snd fought with the curfew, and God gave her vie tory. The old bell ringer said to himself “Aye, Huldab, my work is done. The pulleys are getting too heavy for my old arms; my ears, toohave failed me, I din. na hear one stroke of the curfew, Dear old bell | it is my ears that have gone false and not thou, Farewell old friend, And just beyond the worn pavement a shadowy form sgain went flitting past him. There were drops of blood upon the white garments, and the face wm like the face of one who walked in her sleep, and her hands hung wounded and powerless at ker side. Cromwell paused with his horsemen under the dismant led May-pole before the village green. He saw the man who was {0 die at sun, there in the solemn lot her pass. Sho threw io br pe hn in eral mon Une ie of het ove lips she told him why Richard still lived ——why the curfeew had not sounded. Lady Maud looked out of her latticed window at the castle protector dismount, lift the fainting form in his arms and bear her to her lover, She saw the guards release the prisoner, and the heard the shouts of joy at his deliver- ance ; then she welcomed the night that shut the scene out from herenvious eye and sculptured her in its gloom, At the next matin bell old Jasper died, and at curfew toll he was laid beside the wife who had died in his youth, but the memory of whom had been with him al: ways, A —— A Spencerian Ass, After I had accumulated a hand editor of the OMe competence as city morning Serine! at Laramie City, and had married and gone to housekeeping with a gas stove and other luxuries, my taken by a newspaper man named Hopkins who place on the Sentinel was had just graduated fro a business col- sack 'and a diploma with him that had neyer been used, Hopkins wrote a fine Spencerian hand black wherever he went, The boys were wil and wore a and tan dog | ling to overlook the copperplate but they drew the line at the dog. He not only wrote in beautiful styls but he copied his manuscript, so that when it went into the printer it was as preity as a wedding invitation. Hopkins ran the city page nine days and then he oame into the city hall where | was trying a simple drunk and bade me adieu, I just say this to shew how difficult | it is for a fine penman to get ahead as » journalist. Of course good writers like Knox and John Hancock may become great, but they be men of sterling ability to start with. I have some of the most blood ling horrors preserved for the purpose of showing Hopkins’ vivid style. I will throw them in. “A little son of our esteemed fellow. townsman, J. H. Kayford, suffered greatly last evening with virulent colic, but this a. ., as we go to press, is sleep ing easily.” Think of shaking the social founda tions of » mountain mining and stock town with such grim, nervous prostra. tors as that! The next day he startled Southern Wyoming and Northern Col, orado and Utah, with the maddening statement that * our genial friend Leo pold Gutsenhoven's fine yellow dog, Florence Nightengale, had been serious. ly threatened with inxomnis."’ That was the style of mental cals thenics he gave us io a town where death by opium and ropium was liable to occur, and where five men with thier Mexican spurs on climed one telegraph pole in one night and ssuntered into the remote indefioitely. Hopkins told me that he bad tried to do what wa right, but that he bad not succeeded very well. He wrung my hand and said: “I have tried hard to make the Sew tinel fill a long want felt, but I have noy is a barsh man, He used to come in aod intimate in a frowning and erect tone of voice thatif I did not produce that copy p. d.q., or some other abbre viation, that he would burst my crust, or words of like import, “Now that's no way to talk to a man | of a nervous temperament who i» en and shading the capitals as | was, In and there pothing to jar a man like that, “Of course I would like to stay on tne Sentinel aud draw the princely salary, | Everything was quiet, was but there are two hundred reasons why I cannot do it. So far as the physical effort is concerned, | could draw the salary with one hand tied behind me, but there is too much turmoil and mad haste in daily journalism to suit me, and another thing the proprietor of the Sentinel, this morning stole up be hind me, and struck me over the head with a wrought iron side stick weighing ten pounds. If I had not con cealed a collspring in my plag hat, the blow would bave been deliterous to me “Then he threw me out of the door against a total stranger, and flung pie: oes of coal at me and called me a.cop- parplate sss, and said that if | ever came into the office again he would as sassinate me. “This is the principal reason why | haved served my connection with the re " kd he this Mry took Pj af i f, J In n wrung my Ad iy the polka nh IEE § of sin ruin w [From the ho FY old { lege and who brought a nice glazed grip | reliable | have to | curd. | wonderful and | been fortunate. The foreman over there | gaged in copying a list of hotel arrivals, | the business college it was not that way, | per from her husband who is in the diamond fields of South Africa. When nearing home Mrs, McShavas—who is not uble to read writing-—econcluded to go on to the residence of a friend who ing and debating in her question of going on at once to have her friend read the letter, Mrs, McShane almost mechanically opened the news- able to spell out print, the paper she thought she observed, as she says, “some bits o’ dthirtor gravels’ fall out of it, though she paid but little attention, thinkitg at the time it was some “schtuff that had worked into the paper on the road,” read the | busdand | i letter it was found that her Hirusting to luck,’ as he said had gent in the newspaper as speci mens no less than fifteen diamonds in | the rough, ranging in value from $20 to | £120 each, 1 | a stone remain Here was a go, as not | ec d in the paper. However, she remem bered that when she opened the paper she was in a walk—where the | off the Task oppon te | denc e of a neighbor, and accompanied | by her frie | Not adiamond was to be found, but SNOW Was ground the resi snd she retnrned to the pls Mrs, {| McShane's friend hod observed a lot of | | dent they had fdund and swallowed the | glitte ring little stones, chickens about the spot, and was confi qt uite a erowd of men and women ha i] | collect ed about the spot- | told about the loss having been and, as the place | was a regular cruising ground for the chickens in search of gravel while the | ground was covered with snow in most | places, it wes the general opinion that | the fowls had swallowed the gems. The chickens belonged to the neigh { bor in front of whose place the newsps. | per was opened, and this neighbor { could not be expected to sacrifice his | whole flock—numbering 30 fowls—for As no one could tell which chicken might | nothing. | particular have a dis mond in its crop, and which not, it | would be necessary to sacrifice the whole jot. The owner disliked to lose his chickens, but finally said he would let them go, under the circurnstances, at 75 eents each, cash down. Mrs. McShane do. However, there was no time to lose, and miner of a “sporting” turn, who happened to be present, agreed to pay forall the chickens provided Mrs. Mc Shane would give him any stone he might pick out from among those re Mrs. McShane accepted the | offer, with the proviso that she was to have all the chickens that were killed. The fowls mere enticed into their house and the heads cut off the whole lot. The contents of their crop being covered, refully washed and examined, 12 of the gems were found, Generally they w.re worth from £30 to $50, but there 3 worth $100, One of these, a stone worth $120, fell to the share of the Mrs. McShane was by dressing and wery peguiative miner, h-lped sling the chickens at from 7 $8! each, A curious part of the story remains to {bh told, lesides the uncut d.amonds craws of the fywls, there was taken from one a hand some emerald that was perfectly cut. Mrs. MoShane, of course, thought this been sent by her hus though it was not ous on her side 5 cents to however " found in the stone had alo band, mentioned in his letter, | discusse i, While this matter was being a lady living in the vicinity | onme op and at once claimed the em She said she lost it out of her before. No this, as those present did erald. | ring, the day one knew | what to say to { not wish to dispute the point. Seeing | how matters stood, the lady ran off | home, and presently she rturoed with | her ring, into the setting of which the | emerald fitted perfe sotly, On sewing this all agreed that the stone was the property of the lady. —— WB A— A Cunning Advocate. At the nseize town in the West of Eng land, some time since, an action was brought by two graziers against the land lady of an inn, to recover the sum of £200 under the following circumstances called on the defendant, and deposited with her the sum of £100 each, upon conditions that she was not to deliver it to either of them unless all three wre Jogatbes. It #0 Mapp ned that, eter lnnt in great baste, and requested her to let him have the money, as it was wanted immediately to pay for cat one of the party, and not suspecting Haviog gained possession the money. pounds he started for Amer of the £200 tion. The in these w | mon of the J ory ci (the Riafen: dant) “okodeiidges ving received the bad ve ET ES PT i street, received a lotier generally reads for her the letters that | come from her husband, While stand. | mind the | paper to have a glance at it, she being | As she opened | When her friend | The twa plamtiffs and another gazer | after one of them repaired to the | tle. The landlady, knowing him to be | that fraud was intended, handed over | ion, and the plantiffs brought their ao. | seemed inclined towards | In a short time | | ‘ —AT THE— Job Office And Have YourJob | bad no money, and knew not what ta | CHEAPLY, NEATLY AND WITH DISPATEH. Now is the Time to Subscribe FOR THE “CENTRE DEMOCRAT,” The LARG and CHEAPEST Paper in llefonte. { ONLY $1.50 SPER YEAR, IN ADVANCE. OFFICE: COR. ALLEGHANY & BISHOP STS. BELLEFONTE, PA.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers