cpm .Hf3? mMfrty. u.i 7ii For young people crepons and silt Mus lim trimmed with lace and set off with satin ceintnres in delicate tones are in great vogue ior ball dresses and for evening wear. In one instance I saw an exquisite toilet lor a young person, which, contrary to the usual dictum 'that flowers belong to the twenties, feathers to the thirties, and lace to the forties, was beautifully trimmed with a light, fluffy feather ruche encircling the bottom of the gown and running up the side UL'ir fr 1 ' rVV A. Pretty Ball Press. to the waist This ball toilet is partially pictured in the illustration. At the shoulder there was a bunch of the feather trimming, which was in cream white, while the gown itself was of a delicious pale green. The floral ornaments of ballgowns are geraninms, Persian lilac, heather, eglantine and hydrangea. Pearls are all the rage. If you can afford the real gems, so much the better for vou, but the imitations are good enough for some of us. Anyway, you can hardly use too many of them. They should be worked into the berthas and twists of thin material which are applied to the edges of corsages, and they may also be sen over the dress itself. A pearl necklace made up of three or four strands is very good in its way, but the modish thing is the dog collar, and it brings out the beauty of a fine skin in a most de lightful manner. I don't suppose I need wXJr. " nSMr'"" rm i - .ir Am W .A. lEOIfc-AJSrCIE OF THE OXFORD SUMMER MEETING. There were six of us. "We were Exten fioners. It was Oxford in the summer time. "We were all teachers, except Bet, whose real name was Bethany. Bet was an artist. Three of us taught in high schools. Kit, whose baptismal name, of course, was Kath arine; Christian, whom we all called Chris; and our handsome Hannah. Then there was Tiny, a tall young woman, who taught small boys in a grammar school; and I, Euphrosyne Inkle, a board school mistress. Euphrosyne is a mouthful, I admit, and my familiar lriends called me Syn. Bet and Chris were sisters, and Kit and Tiny were not only siBters, but twin sisters. This was our party. All kinds of people come up to Oxford in the long vacation to attend lectures, chiefly women, and women who teach. Then there is a fair sprinkling of intelligent worliing men, a few rarsons and city men, a lew en thusiasts, an odd lot of foreigners, who Come to study the movement, and a few ubiquitous and enterprising Americans, who want to know all about it that they may go home and copy. But the women predominate fearfully. "J he flippant undergraduate who sang of The throng Of sisters, cousins, aunts and nieces Who crowd the streets, and fill the schools With lovo or lectures still undated, ho are subject to nn kind ot rules, And can't be proctorlzed or gated, envied us our liberty in the citv of dons, deans doctors and proctors, while he mar veled at our appetite lor lectures. We fix had been up before several times, and Kit used to boast that she had never missed a summer meeting in Oxford. They say that the English take their pleasures sadly, and possibly frivolous females might consider a course of lectures and conter ferences a somewhat sad itaj of spending a holiday, but we liked it, and so did the other "sisters, cousins and aunts" who dis ported themselves at Oxford. "We were having a good time. Most of us went to five and six lectures in the day, and cot in a college visit or two, a conference, an afternoon tea, on organ recital and a con versazione into the bargain. We didn't waste our time in Oxford by any means. Our domestic arrangements suffered some times, but such trifles as eating and drink ing troubled us little. "Can we breakfast at a quarter to eight?" one of us would ask anxiously. "I want to get to the theological lecture early." "How shall we manage with lunch?" an other would demand. I'm at a lecture until half-past one." "And I go to a lecture at 2:30," another would exclaim. "I shall start with a botanical party at 2," would be the cry of another of us. Tea never seemed to fit in. We would arrange to have a tea at 5. "I am at a lecture from 4:40 to 0:40," would be the cry. "And I wast to go to lecture fiom G until 7." "I am in the Bodleian from 3 until 4." We could never tit in, so we took our meals how and when we could. At 8:30 P.M. we were always due at some conversazione, concert, or special lecture by some great specialist on art or literature, and our day's work finished at 10:30 P.M. Sometimes we suffered severely from mental indigestion, but we didn't "admit it, at least some of us didn't, but after a time Chris and I began to flag and sometimes roused a lecture. Hannab, and Tinv, too, fell away from the paths of virtue, and occasionally went to the swimming baths, or a tennis match, or took canoes up the dreamy Cberwell, Bet went off sketching after doing conscientiously three lectures, and turning up at garden parties, concerts and all the evening part of the programme; warn the brunettes against the use of pearls. They are the exclusive privilege of the children of the North, with whose bine eyes and golden hair they accord de liriously. FlOBETTE. Gowns, Garment and Gossip. The most prominent feature just now ii the aesthetic not as realized by the "greenerv-yallery" costume andthetouzled head of Oscar "Wilde's palmiest days, but the culture of the beautiful in its best sense. The danger of the moment appears to bs the exaggeration of certain commendable fashions. There is no question but large sleeves make the waist look smaller, but sleeves the size of small barrels are ridicu lous. Again, the fashion of combining two or three colors must be carefully handled or most groteique results are sure to follow. The writer met a gown the other day which employed no less than four colors in its construction, and yet so admirably did these colors blend that the result was very good. The bodice was of tan-colorea cloth, and had a corselet of coflee-hued lace. The sleeves were of purple velvet with deep cuffs of lace, while the skirt was of pale-green cloth. The waist and neck were bound with black satin ribbon. It is certainly an econ omical fashion, as three or four old, useless gowns may be successfully put together to make one useful costume. Coats are coming to fit the figure closer. The loose-backed coat is quite out of date, and even those slightly loose are not now seen as often as the snug-fitting jackets. A very stylish model is shown in the cut. The coat is of black Vienna, severe and smart, with revers and sleeves of black vicuna, while the yoke, belt and side seams are of black and gold passementerie. The basque is gored, and sets in those full plaits so em inently advantageous to the waist. Plaids In History. There are in existence to-day about 100 clan plaids, of which about half are the Highland tartans. The other half are mod ern variations produced by Lowland fami lies lor their identification, as certain ambitious persons to-day buy up or think up a fine coat-of-arms. The plaid oftenest seen on the streets to day is the Gordon plaid. This is the blue and green and black plaid, with a single yellow bar. It must not be confounded with the blue and green and black with the white bar, which is the Lombard plaid; or the blue and green and black with the double yellow bar, which is the plaid of the Campbells of Breadalbane; or the same plaid, with the single red and donble white bar, which makes up the Colquhoun tar tan. AVhat a risky thing it was to be born at all in those days, when it might cost a man his life not to know the difference be tween two bars of white and one bar ot yel low in the tartan of any stranger he might meet on the wayside. The Gordon plaid has a famous history from back in the almost legendary days of Halcom IIL, when Bicbard of Gordon slew a monster in the Merse andgot a big grant of land and a title for it. Murmurs of the Modes. CnrcrAMOS 5s the favorite brown this year. It looks partlculaily well trimmed with fur or smartened up with a colored waistcoat. Make your velvet dress with a round waist, with seamless back and jacket front, with large reverse opening on a vest of gathered bine peau de sole. Have Bigot sleeves and a rather full skirt, gored In ironc and straight in the back. The laced shoe Is rapidly gaining follow ers, tboush how one could follow a shoe is rather funny. People who complain of the trouble of sewlnij on buttons will now have the pleasure of finding exactly how difficult it is to keep shoe laces in order and now cer tain they are to bieak when least expected and most undesirable. TnxBE is no reason this season why any woman should be unbecomingly dressed. but Kit never faltered, she went steadily on, sternly attending all the lectures, even when her head ached, and her eyes were dim and unseeing with the weight of a con stant btream of lectures poured steadily upon her. "I don't believe in lectures," I said one night as we sat over coffee and biscuits at 11 p. m. "You know the story of the cele brated doctor, who said he bad attended many hundreds ot lectures during his long life, and on his deathbed he retained only enough information to pet on the outside of an envelope." , Kit frowned on me. "Lectures in the morning, lectures at midday, lectures in the dewy eve, lectures at night, even lectures become monot onous," murmured Chris. Kit thought this was rank heresy, and she stalked indignantly off to bed, while we sat up and talked of "the people we met, espe cially the lecturers and Americans. "We knew several Americans. There was Dr. Hiram-Foote, the president of some in tellectual society in Philadelphia, and Dr. Jameson, of some university in Chicago, and a Mr. Lockwood, who had something to do with State education. Dr. Hiram-Foote was squat and short and pompous. Dr. Jameson was tall and dry and talkative; he always made remarks about your name, and asked a great many questiens in a loud, impressive Yankee drawl. Mr. Lockwood was lean and meek. He always'seemed sat upon, and when he ventured to make a re mark, or ask a question, he looked fright ened, as though he thought we were going to hit him. Then there was a terrible female, who wore terrible bonne ts,and had wonderful little curls gummed all around her massive brow; she bad an awe-inspiring ncse, an air of an injured and indignant Roman matron. She was a barrister-at-Iaw, she had even been nominated for Presi dent, and she came to all the conferences aud debates and spoke at them all, in aloud strident voice, never minding whether she knew anything at all about the subject under discussion or not. She sometimes got hold of Chris and me; she awed us with the glitter of her eye, and asked us hun dreds of questions; we used to he so ashamed of our ignorance that at last we answered wildly and made random shots. We called her the Inquisitor. Then there was a fat woman who had no waist, and who wore a most awful hat She came to "lovely Oxford to hear the rousing lectures and to get soul," she told us. She had body enough in all conscience, so perhaps she needed souL There was also a man with lank, black hair, who was an Extension lecturer in Kew York; he spoke sometimes, but he was a failure. And lastly there was Ned among ourselves we always called him Ned. His name was Edward Slimfield; he told us that his mother called him Eddie, and his sisters called him Ned. We had never come across such a cool, audacious, light hearted, erratic, joyous and altogether de lightful young man in our lives before. He was a revelation to us, this merry hearted Yankee. Some of us had met him a year ago at the previous summer meeting, and he claimed us as old acquaintances when he came upon us in the schools, at the couversazoine, at the beginning of the meeting. It was im possible to be dignified, or even ordinarily conventional, with this irrepressible young man. He was tall and fair, 'with blue eyes full of roguish mischief. He was utterly unabashed; nothing disconcerted him. We thought he admired Hannah, for he made a point of sitting by her at lectures and find ing out where she was going, and Hannah was a bonnie lassie truly. We laughed at her sometimes, and Hannah would smile and laugh, too, for nobody-could help laugh ing when we talked of Ned. He had been a student at the Leipzig University for the past two years, and had just taken his degree as Doctor of Philosophy, he told me one day, as hi overtook me on my There are the -Empire and Directorie waists for slender figures; trim tailor-made cos tumes for stouter forms: prlnce models, which Impart a slender effect, and also the cornet skirt, and ttio. Ions Enzlish waist, which tend to make the figure appear symmetrical. LATE NEWS IN BRIEF. , Yellow fever has appeared at Batita, Brazil. The negro editors of Georgia have organ ized a State Press Association.. The Upper Michigan straits are frozen over the earlleBt for a number of years. The Russian famine is again killing off the peasants like flies, say recent reports. An alliance, offensive and defensive, be tween Chile and Brazil, was signed Decem ber IS. Mrs. Langtry's malady is perityphlitis. The name Is making her very ill, but there Is no ultimate danger. The Colombian Congress has passed a law sanctioning the Introduction of Chinese workmen for all classes of Industrial enter prise. The Treasury drafts for the second con signment of $C30,CO0 coins for Chicago and $30,000 for Now York and Philadelphia are missing. A Chicago philanthropist, who won't lot bis left hand know what his right hand Is up to, has given $250,000 to the University or his city. The project to establish a submarine cable between Cartagena, Colon and other Colombian ports, Is under discussion in the Colombian Senate. Lillie Power, a domestio at Birmingham, Ala., went to bed drunk and smoked a cigarette. The bed clothing caught lire and she was burned to death. Frederich Fietsch, New Orleans, who misappropriated (16,000 while he was local manager of the cotton firm of Gaasner & Co., or Liverpool, has been convicted of em bezzlement. The rear coach of a Southwestern train was discovered to be on fire near Guysvllle, 111. When the train reached Canaansville the burning coach was sidetracked and burned to ashes. It was unoccupied. The Kansas Board of Railroad Commis sioners has announced its deoislon In the Hutchinson salt case, holding that it is pow erless to protect the salt companies against the competition of the Michigan produce A billet of wood loaded with dynamite exploded in the kitchen stove of Andrew nickel, near Valparaiso, Ind. The stove was blown to atoms, the farmhouse wrecked, and Mrs. Bickel received a number of gashes. Frederick H. Marsh, formerly Chief In spector of Police at Chicago, who was sus pended by order of Mayor Washburne for alleged It regularities, has been reinstated, the charges against him not having been proven. S. B. Jones, under arrest at Kokoma, Ind., on a ohare of bigamy, is supposed to be a former resident of Marion county, Ore. Ho owned a large wheat farm and was con sidered n ealtliy. He had been swindled out of $5,000 by the tin box game. During a general fight at a negro dance Monday night in Dover, Ey., Buth Fields, who went to her lover's assistance, was shot and mortally wounded. When the Town Marshal attempted to arrest the whole party three negroes were seriously injured. Archbishop Coriigan says he knows notning about Dr. McGlynn's plans for the settlement of his case except what he has learned from the newspapers. He said, however, he was clad that Dr. McGIynn was back in the Church, and hoped he would get along, wherever he might go. Patrick Griffin, a stair builder and formerly a private in the Eighty-seventh Royal Irish fuslllors, died at the Newark, N. J., Hospital, from the effects of laudanum taken with suicidal intent. He left a letter stating that Mollio O'Brien, widow or James Oliver, with whom ho lived, had deserted him and refnsed marriage. ' Yesterday John and BUI Kimbro, brothers, after filling up on bad whisky, started out to take in the tonn at Vandalia, III. They finally came upon Township Col lector Ireland, who was getting Bhaved in a barber shop, and stabbed him to the liver. They were arrested shortly afterward Just outside of town, and narrowly escaped lynching. A Buffalo attorney lias beon retained to carry the case of Wong Sing Chun, a China man, recently arrested on the Niagara frontier at Lewiston, under the exclusion act, to the United States Supreme Court at Washington, by writ of habeas corpus. Wong was sentenced by United States Com way to the Sheldonian to see degrees con ferred. He came with me, and made fun of the whole ceremony in his own comical half-German, half-Yankee fashion. We saw a good deal of these Americans, and talked education to them. We had been for a water party one day, and Dr. Hiram Eoote and Mr. Lockwood had talked to Chris and me all the time. They wanted further to discuss educational systems with us, and the next day we received an invita tion to take tea with them and meet Mrs. Crowfoot, the lady with the awful bonnet and curls. We had another engagement, so we had to decline. Ned, who staid with Dr. Hiram-Eoote, and Mr. Lockwood re proached us for not coming. "I think we may ask the Americans here to tea," I said one day. "They want to talk education to us," murmured Chris. "I think Ned would like to come," said Hannah. So It was agreed to ask them to afternoon tea; but Kit frowned and said nothing. I was to ask the Doctor, but didn't hap pen to meet him; but it transpired in the evening that Hannah had written to Ned and asked him and his two friends. The next day we all made a point of be ing in for 5 o'clock tea. "We must be very dignified," said Chris. "American women are very free," said Bet "We must show that Englishwomen have reserve and demand respect" Hannah and Tiny smiled. Tiny had seen more of Ned than we had. Presently Kit, who wag seated in the window seat of our first floor drawingroom, was hailed from be low, and an audacious voice was asking: "Shall I come in this way? I can get up." It was Ned in a fall hat, a frock coat, a flower in his buttonhole, and spick-and-span gloves. "The door is round the corner," said Kit nedately; and presently Ned was ushered in. "I've come, you see," he said, seating himself at the table and beginning to ex amine our albums and books ot photo graphs; "and I say, liliss Hannah, the other fellows aren't coming. What made you ask them?" "We wanted to see them, of course," said Chris. "Really, though?" he inquired. "You aren't serious now. Whatever do you want to see them for? It is only your politeness, 1 know, and I didn't tell 'them you asked them." "Mr. Slimfield!" we saidindignantly. "Well, now, they couldn't have come, 1 guess," he said confidently. "Old Hiram Foote is lecturing on American colleges lrom 4:30 lo 5:30, and Lockwood is going for a walk, he told me so himself; besides, he didn't know his way np here, and I wasn't going to bring him," he added with unblushing effrontery. We had to laugh at his impudence, and he sat there smiling serenely and flung away the flower from his buttonhole, while he selected the prettiest rose from our bowl of flowers, fitted it into his buttonhole, and asked Hannah to pin it for him. We grew friendly withnim in a few min utes, aud laughed at him, while he sat smil ing at us. He told us that English women were stiff, and he couldn't stand it Then he began to abnse the "yellow women." They were the committee (ladies, and they wore a yellow ribbon. He had been to a reception for American visitors that after noon and a committee lady had tried to en tertain him by showing him Oxford photo graphs. Ned's wrath was roused and he asked us it the English women took the Americans for savages. Then we went down to tea, and Ned ate strawberries and made himself at home. After tea we played at rhymes, and so did Bet, but Ned's were very irregular. "Of course you are an admirer of Walt Whitman, Mr. Slimfield?" I said when his rhymes were read; "and your poetry is clever and peculiar like his, but it does not rhyme." Ned made an elaborate bow in acknowl edgement of the compliment We had a very jolly time, and laughed a great deal There was a conversazione that evening, and Ned took his leave to give us time to dress, assuring us that he had Bpeut a pleas ant time, and begged ns not to be polito and missioner Pound, of Lockport,to 80 days' Im prisonment and then to be returned to China. The Curlew, o?e of the alleged destruc tive lake gunboats which has so excited Washington correspondents, is at St. Johns, N. B. She is equal to a fifth-rate yacht in size, has a crew of but 17 men and but one six-pound smooth bore brass gnn. The other gunboats in the lakes are similar in every respect to the Curlew and the War Department at Washington has photographs of all of the vessels. CROSSED THE SEA IN VAIN. A French Girl Comes All the Way to Okla homa to Wed a Faithless Trover. Kansas City, Dec.,27. Beine Duhaute, a pretty French girl, after having made a journey across the ocean and half across the American continent to marry her sweet heart, started on her return home this morn ing, the victim of her faithless lover. Mut ual friends started a correspondence be tween Mile. Duhaute and Felix Dunas, a Frenchman, who came to this country in 1890 aud bought a ranch in Oklahoma. The correspondence led to the -engagement of the two, although they had never seen each other. Finally a day was set for the wedding aud Mile. Duhaute, who was a governess at the time in an Englishman's faniilv in London, started for America to meet her intended husband. The meeting place was to have been at the office of French Consul Long. ' Mile. Dahaute arrived promptly on time, but M. Dunas failed to put in an appear ance. Consul Long wrote to the tardy lover and received a replv from Dunas that he had changed his mind, and that he did not now desire to marry Mile. Duhaute. This drove the little Frenchwoman dis tracted and she threatened to commit sui cide, having no friends in the country and no means to return home. Consul Long informed her mistress in London by cable, and the latter cabled funds for Mile. Du haute to return to London. She started on her homeward journey to-day. THE WIFE BKABS THE BRUNT Of n Cincinnati Lawyer's Financial En tanglements After His Flight Cincinnati, Dec. 27. Mrs. Bobert Kuehnert,wiie of the missing lawyer who is acensed of irregular transactions in borrow ing money and giving mortgages, has made an assignment to Louis B. Luebbert Her assets are stated to be$10,000,and liabilities 9,000, but so much of her property bought by her husband was in her name that credi tors of her husband will seek to have some of her property applied to payment of their claims. One suit for damages against Kuebnert is already filed by a building association, which claims bv his fraudulent action as their attorney they suffer a loss of ?6,000. Others may file similar suits. Fuw women can kill a steer, but they can get the essence or a steer's nutriment in Cudaby's Bex Brand Fluid Jleef, which In vallds crave. $BM - .hyE35e-.-:r'i HP 0wOXymi ipot- ijerny oi-rair y Iffightj toiiH. PP If win$ ift 5& ajyd (0N9 tt (Wcfoi? dignified when we met later in the shools. We saw a good deal of Ned after this; he was always dropping into our house and staying to tea, and amusing us with his com ical emarks and whimsical oddities. We all liked him. Ned used to toll .us of his tender nassions; how one day he fell in love with Kit, and the next day with me, and the day after with Chris: and we used to laugh at him and sympathize with him. It appears he had a number of sisters at home who worshiped him, so Mr. Ned soon got into the way of, treating us as sisters. We used to ask him if he wasn't abashed at meeting so many of us, and he used to laugh and call us the "great six." He put a comical sketch in my album a back view ot the "great six." We were standing in a row Hannah first, because she was tallest, 1 next, then Tiny, Bet, Chris and Kit, in decreasing order. The sketch was clever, and each of us had some individuality brought out. He wrote un derneath, from Walt Whitman: O you daughters of the Westl O ynu younir and elder daughters! In the ranks you move united Pioneers! O pioneers! There vai a debate one night at the Union on socialism. The woman question was dragged in. A charming aud enthusi astic girl named Primrose Meadowsweet spoke in favor of women. She was Half in fun and half in earnest, but she spoke de lightfully as she stood there, looking charm ing, and uttering audacious protests in sweetly modulated tones. Poor Ned lost bis heart entirely. He Baid nothing to us that night, hut he left us early, and we learned afterwards that he bad managed to Interview Hiss Primrose 'Meadowsweet after the debate. Next morning I went off alone to see the tapestry of Burnc Jones and William Mor ris iu Exeter Chapel, and to buy photo graphs and books. When I returned I lound Ned in our drawing room, talking to Chris, Bet and Kit. He had come to un burden his soul to us, and to tell how he had fallen in love with the charming and sweet voiced Primrose. We laughed at him at first, and asked him if he wasn't grateful lor having six sympathetic women souls to come and open his heart to. Later on, when the others went out, and Chris and I were left alone with the young fellow, we almost thought he was serious. He vowed he had never before seen a woman whom he loved as he loved this softly spoken Primrose. She was certainly a lovely girl, and any young man might be excused lor losing his heart when he saw and heard her. She was slim and graceful, clad in the soft folds ot a heliotrope frown, with a large hat shading her exquisitely colored face, a pair ot starry Blue eyes, and a bewitching smile. Ned seriously wanted our advice. It appears that he had managed to introduce himself to Miss Meadowsweet by representing himself as an inquiring Yankee who was thirsting lor information on the labor ques tion, lie had discovered that the young lady was mightily interested in the labor movement, and had six workingmen at pres ent in Oxford under her special care. The result was that Miss Primrose had gracious ly invited him to afternoon tea with herself and her mother, to meet the six working men, whom he affirmed were miners. "The difficulty is," mused poor Ned, Vtbat I don't know or care a rap about the labor question. I don't want to meet the miners, I only want to see her, and to ask her, if I dare, for the bit of yellow ribbon that she wears." Miss Primrose Meadow sweet was a committee lady. We laughed and vowed we would warn the lady against him. "How?" he asked. "We'll tell her that you are a fraud, and and that you don't care'about miners." "That I don't," he said. "Will thev come with pickaxes over their shoulders?" he asked comically. We couldn't say how the miners would appear at afternoon tea, but I surmised they would come in their best clothes, without their pickaxes. "What am I to say about the labor question?" Ned asked with comical be wilderment 1 WHEN EATING becomes troublesome, di gestion defective, sleep ing an impossibility, ap petite ceases, take Johann HoflTs Malt Extract, it acts like a charm and tastes splendid. Be sure to get the "genuine," which must have the signature of "Johann Hoff" on the neck of every bottle, and take no substitute. Use Johann HoflTs Malt Bonbons for Sore Throat, Coughs, Colds. de4 "Thanks evermore.'" Shakespeare. OUR THANKS ! Our sincerest thanks to our many patrons Yor far and away the biggest holiday trade in our business history. The holidays are over, but we have not fallen asleep. We are as wideawake as ever awake to your wants and your interests. FOR NEW YEAR GIFTS We have hundreds of novelties just opened. Came in too late for the Christmas trade are ready for New Year. Some thing that the Christmas shop pers have not seen. If you have to get a New Year's gift, get it here. N THE COMING YEAR Will find us just as attentive, our goods just as reliable, our assortment even larger, our prices eyen more reasonable than last year. What more can we say? Wishing you and yours A H VPPY NEW YEAR, JEWELERS, 529 Smithfield Street de2S-27 m . i s m m "v "Only look interested and intelligent, and ask questions," advised Bet. Ned seemed to find solace in talking to us, for he stayed all the morning, and accepted our invitation to lunch. I hunted up some pamphlets on the labor union and the Bed Van, and told him all I knew about the eight hour bill, and Bet gave him much informa tion on the land question. Bet and I w ere the progressive pair in the party of the "great six," and Ned listened to us meekly, took occasional notes, and finally vowed that he knew enough to stand for a labor candidate. But to complete his education we thrust some Fabian tracts nn him, and advised him to go home and read them before he presented himself at the fair Primrose's tea table. I had to return 'to my home that evening lor my school duties next day, for my holiday was over. I wished him success with Miss Primrose,and hoped to meet him in Oxford at a future meeting, and I promised to send him pam phlet literature on labor questions. Chris and the others wrote to me on most days, and told me what was happening. "The fair Primrose seems to smile on our light-hearted Ned," she wrote. "He got on capitally with her and her mother and the miners. He offered to take the miners over the Sheldonian and the Divinity Schools, and his offer was gladly accepted. Then he rushed up to our house in consternation to ask us what on earth he was to tell them. He declares he knows nothing except that Cromwell stabled his horses and kept piga in the schools, and the undergraduates play jokes on the doctors and read Latin poems in the Sheldonian. We got our little guide books and instrncted him. He seemed duly grateful and he sends many remembrances to you. He says he is 'sweating' over labor problems and likes them." "We had a debate at Keble," Bet wrote, "on the question of opening libraries on Sunday. Ned sat behind Miss Primrose Meadowsweet, and he never took his eyes off her all the time. When the ladies were invited to speak Primrose got up as charm ing as ever and smiled and said her little say. Everybody was enchanted with her, aud as for'our poor Ned, he looked trans figured, or translated. That boy is a per fect fool over her. She is charming and enthusiastic, with heaps of interest in life. I don't think, she gives him a second thought. He says he wears a bit of yellow ribbon next his heart which belonged to her. Miss Meadowsu eet sees a great deal of the Americans. Dr. Hiram-Foo:e visits there often. By the way, that horrid, squat little man is a very distinguished personage indeed. Fancy! and he is snch an objec tionable little man. Tiny savs he wauts washing, Kit wishes he would have his hair cut, and I seriously think of advising him to have lessous in dancing and de portment." " But before the second part of the meeting terminated, matters grew tragic. Dr. Hiram-Foote proposed to Miss Prim rose Meadowsweet, and was accepted. This news I received in a letter from Chris one Friday evening. "We can't think how our poor Ned will take it," she wrote. "We haye just heard it. All Ox ford is talking about it all Extension Ox lord, I mean. Can't yon manage to come up to us on Saturday and have another Sunday in Oxford? You might try. It would be jolly to bs all together one other Sunday; we 'shall all be far enough away this time next week." I was interested in the news, and T wanted to see the girls again, so I went I got into Oxford at midday on Saturday, and was soon hearing ail the Exteusiou news from the others. Nothing had been seen of Ned since the engagement had been announced, and we were all wondering greatly how he had taken it. "I believe he was only joking half his time," said Kit, the skeptical; "he would'nt have talked to us like that it he had really cared for her." "But he is so much on the surface, and so accustomed to have a houseful ot home folk to go and tell his affairs to," said Chris. "I think he was in earnest aud that he will take it badly," said our handsome Hannah, and she flushed as she spoke. Hanuah knew more of him than we did and never, joked with him freely nor scolded HARDY HAYES. HARD! & HAYES, (OR BOOK SURPRISES. Our new Book Department sold more books during the past two weeks than all Pittsburg book stores combined, and now, although Christmas is over, it isn't going to sleep,either. We're in the book business to stay not like some department stores, only temporarily while the holi day trade lasts. To-day we place on sale 2,000 COPES OP WALLACE'S n BEN" l7Dp The regular $1.50 edition, for only 75 c; also 2,000 COPIES OP E. P. Roe's ft t70e Novels No library complete without these books. They are pub lished at $1.50 per volume, and held strictly at high American copyright. You'll never buy them as cheaply again. KAUFMANNS' de2&35 STOP THAT SMOKE. Parties really wishing to see the city free trom smoke go and see wbat is being done In the boiler room of the Fidelity Title & Trust Co.'s' building. Fourth Ave. Take no man's word for it, but see it yourselves. Or you can get all the information neces sary of WALKER SMOKELESS FURNACE CO., Boom 317, Lewis Slock, Pittsburg. del5-106-jtwi PURE BUTTER, - SOLD BV GEO. K. &TEVEXSON & CO., Fine Groceries and Table Delicacies, 13 and Sixth Avenue. Je20-uwr him, as we had fallen into the habit of do ing. Presently a ring at our bell startled ns and Ned was ushered in. He was Dale aud his fair hair was tum bled; his "blue eyes were full of pain. He sat down quietly, so unlike his old laughter-loving, rackety self. "You have heard," he began, and we waited and made no remark. "I vowed I would ask the first woman to marry me," went on Ned. "And I met Mrs. Crowfoot down in the meadows." "But hasn't she a husband?" interjected Hannah. "She is a widow. She is 20 years older than I am. She accepted me. I'm en-, gaged to her. Congratulate me," and Ned put his hat down on the table and glared around at us all. We didn't know what to say, but Kit broke the silence by saying severely: "You ought to know better." "I wish I'd met you instead," said Ned recklessly; and Kit stalked olF in indigna tion. Kit was always very proper. "Now, she is offended," said Ned. "I didn't mean to offend any of you. You've been awfully good to me. I've come to say good-by to you. Will you lend me a pair of scissors?" This request was to Hannab. "What do you want them for?" she asked, producing them from her work-bag. "Onlv to leave you each a lock of my hair," he said, cutting off a heap of curls from his brow and dividinz them into six little heaps. "I'm going to leave one for the one you call Kit; if she won't have it send it on to Primrose Meadowsweet." And he took some narrow yellow ribbons from his pocket and began to tear up the shorn curls into six little bundles. Then he placed them in a row. "You can each take which you like," he said. "They are fairly divided. Now I guess I'll go. Good-by.". "Are you leaving Oxford?" I asked. "So you've come back," he said recogniz ing that I was present. "I'm glad to see vou aeain. Yes, I'm leaving Oxford to night" "Are you going to America?" asked Chris. "It depends," said Ned. "Good-by, children," And he vanished. 'How very odd he seemed," said Bet. "It was silly ot Kit to be offend ed," re marked Hannah. "Poor fellow!" "I'm terribly sorry for him," murmured Chris. , Then we each took up a lock of his hair tied with the yeliirw ribbon. Chris put hers into herpure; Hannah slipped hers into her writing-case, and I pressed mine between the leaves of Walt Whitman's poems. Kit came in presently, sayi ng: "1 think that young man is mad." But she accepted the lock ot hair and put it into her botany case among the specimens. We saw nothing of Ned the next day, and we concluded he had left Oxford. We said nothing about him; but we felt vaguely uncomfortable concerning his movements. The Doctor was at the cathedral with Miss Meadowsweet, who looked charming in a trailing pink gown with pufled sleeves. Mis. Hiram-Foote was also present with the American lady who wanted souL She looked more majestic and more like a Reman matron than ever. Her bonnet was more formidable and her nose more awe inspiring. "Poor Nedl" murmured Chris, as she looked at her. I came home by the Sunday evening ex press, and went to school as usual next day. The rest of the tragedy I only learned from the other five and from the papers. On Mondav morning the dead body of our laughter-loying Ned was found entangled in the river weeds some miles up the Cher well. It appears he had taken a canoe late on Saturday night and gone off in it, and that was the last that was ever seen of him alive. "Fatal Accident to an American Eiten sioner," the papers said; and all kinds of theories were set afoot as to how it bad hap pened. We sighed, and mourned, and held our peace, but we wondered uneasily how much of it was accident Poor, light-hearted Ntdl We six mourned mBiltariiiil NEW ADVERTISEMENTS. 1 Wednesday, December 28. JAROS 0SHYG. Thrs cold makes tnose .who have bought and worn this best of all Hygienic underwear ap VEA preciate its ex cellence over any they have ever tried. 'Those who have not worn it are invited to see it and buy it and try it and to learn by gratifying experience what it is to have Underwear perfectly adapted to all sorts of weather. Sudden changes in the weather don't mean discomfort and bad colds to wearers of Jaros Hygienic Underwear. The Jaros Hygienic Under wear is scientifically made; it is the only underwear made that preserves to the body in all sorts of weather a natural and normal temperature and pre vents chilling in passing from a warm to a co!d atmosphere. Jaros Hiiei linear. Will not shrink; Will not irritate; Wears the longest; Is most economical. If you don't wear it you ought to. We are Sole Agents for Pitts burg for the J0S.HGRNE&C0. 609-621 PENN AVENUE, de2S-U him as truly as any. We hope to go to America some summer to the Intellectual ChautauQua meetings, and we mean to call ' and see Ned's mother and sisters, and tell them a little about their boy's last days. We each keep 'the lock of fair, curly hair, but J hope to give mine to Ned's mother some day. All Iht Tear Bound. SOUTH AMERICAN EEBELLI0HS. Bio Grande do Sol Still Bothering Brazil, and Argentlnla Is In Trouble. Montevideo, Dec 27. News has reached here confirming jhe statement that the Castilhistas of Bio Grande do Sul have invaded Uruguayan territory three times and the Uruguayan authorities have the question of retaliation under consideration. The Federalists, it is said, intend to begin open hostilities within a week or ten days. They are now awaiting the receipt of ex pected arms. It is feared that revolutions are immi nent in the provinces of Sauta Fe aud Ea tre Bios. News comes that the Argentine province of Corrientes is in a state of re volt and 5,000 revolutionists are in control of the province. Ten thousand troops have been mobilized to suppress the revolt A CIIY SUED FOE LIBEL, The Action Slay Cause Unpleasantness Be tween Canada and Undo Sato. Mokteeal, Que., Dec. 27. A libel suit has begun here which threatens to cause straitened relations between this country and the United States. About two months ago, Colonel Nicholas Smith, American Consul at Three Blvers, sent to Washing ton a report strongly condemning the sani tary condition of Three Bivers and pointing out the danger tnat cholera might obtain a foothold there. The Council of the city promptly passed resolutions absolutely contradicting the Consul's report and demanding his recall. Colonel Smith has now instructed his counsel to enter an action for $10,000 libel against the city. Idaho's Apportionment Doesn't Hold. Boise, Idaho, Dec. 27. The Supreme Court to-day declared unconstitutional the apportionmeut act passed by the last Legis lature. FOB ABUSE Oi ALCOHOL Use Horsford's Acid Phosphate. Dr. W. E. Crane, Mitchell, Dak., gays: "It has proven almost a specific, for this dis order: it checks the vomiting, restores the appetite, and, at the same time., allays the fear of impending dissolution, that Is so 'common to heavy drinkers." AT 87 SO EACH. Onr 815 Ulsters, Overcoats and Salts for Men at S7 SO Egch If. C. C. C Corner Grant and Diamond Streets. Bead this, then come and buy one. You don't often have such a cbanoe. 500 men's long-cut nlsters, Shetland or black friezo or chinchilla, lined with a warm all-wool casslraerelinlne.blu collars; their true value Is $13andSlS; our price now $7 SO 500 men's blue, black and brown kersey overcoats, single ordonble-breasted, elegantly made, worth $15 and $18, lor. 7 50 500 men's cutaway and sack suits, dark plain patterns or mixtures, and an$ elegant llneof all-wool cutaways, lormerly $15, now go for t! 60 See the above goods to-day and you surely will buy. P. a C. C Corner Grant and Diamond streets. Clearance Sale at Elchbanra'. Tho remainder of all holiday goods at creat reduction for tnis week only. Bric-a-brac, porcelains, bronzes, eta, ail remaining stock included in this sale. Jos. Eichbauu 4 Co., t3 Fifth avenue. Ko Christmas and Kew Year's table should be without a bottle of Angostura Bitten, the world renowned appetizer of exqulsit. flavor. Beware of counterfeits; HyPuicUifirffiar. r Vr. wM jsf- Hgg X JI 1 fill I i i t ltmW.v 'mwm? ' y 7
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers