ST
By
SET
Chapman.)
PRE Ee
(Copyright, 1916, by W. G.
“You might have had Norman
once,” Mrs. Alice Wardell informed
her bosom friend, Mrs. Lois Russell.
“It doesn’t make me the least bit
jealous to tell you so.”
“He made a better choice, dear,”
chirped Lois gaily. “If I had missed
Rabert, turning out as he has, I think
I should have spent the rest of my
life in tears.”
“And Norman is a second prince!”
exclaimed Alice doughtily. “We're
lucky girls, that’s what we are. Well,
good-by, Lois, we have two social
functions for the evening and I must
get home to try on a new dress.”
Certainly Wardell and Russell were
model husbands, but Alice and Lois
were jewels of constancy and beauty.
They had known one another for five
years, the wedding was a double one
and was signalized by a pleasant cir-
cumstance. Russell and Wardell were
half cousins. Rich John Dayton was
their half uncle. When he sold out
his business, in which these distant
relatives were employed, he present-
ed “the boys” with twenty thousand
dollars each. A month later Uncle
Dayton died and the half cousins
knew that they had reached the limit
of their expectations.
“I've got my chance!” exulted Rus-
sell to Alice.
Within a week his “chance” devel-
oped into purchasing a membBership
on the grain exchange, leasing a fash-
ionable flat and plunging headlong
into .the social swim. }
The life delighted Alice and she
seemed really to be born for it. War-
dell was popular, she was bright,
gracious, full of vitality and they were
taken up by a really exclusive set as
undeniable acquisitions to their choice
circle.
“We'll make our dream come true,
won't we, little woman?” spoke Robert
Russell, and Lois smiled at his en-
“Hold On, Mr. Russell,” He Sang Out.
thusiastic words and felt that life in
earnest was to begin for them at last.
Lois was a practical body and, be-
sides, had supreme faith in the in-
variable correctness of the judgment
of the man she loved. Once Robert
Russell, out of work in a distant city,
moneyless and half ill, had gone
through a hard winter, barely earning
jerough to live on. He had shared the
trials of the poor. He had never for-
gotten it. The sufferings of the in-
digent from lack of fuel had struck
him forcibly. The lack of work for
honest sober men had impressed him,
‘and keen observation had suggested a
new field of enterprise few had ever
thought of utilizing.
Robert did a strange thing. He
leased an abandoned coal yard in a
tenement district of the big city. Four
miles away from it, where a belt line
ran, was a great barren prairie. Here
the various railroads sent their worn-
out and useless timber ties, cords and
cords and acres and acres of them.
Here periodically these great heaps
were set on fire and burned to ashes
to get rid of them.
Robert went to the persons having
the matter in charge and was given
free license to cart away all he want-
ed of the ties, which accumulated
daily. Then Robert set his project in
full operation. Winter was coming on,
the hard season for the poor. Robert
‘had purchased half a dozen teams.
There was a large stable in the coal
yard and an old house. He fixed these
up in good shape, moved into the
house, furnished it up comfortably
and used one of its rooms as an of-
fice.
Then Robert made it known in the
district that there was permanent or
temporary work for the worthy un-
employed in the vicinity. It required
a dozen men to drive and load the
wagons which transported the ties to
the yard, hostlers as well, and a large
number to saw and split the wood. |
|
Within a month the business was re-
duced to a system.
It proved a blessing to the poor, to
whom Robert sold the wood at a fair
low price. Coal was delivered by the
bushel or the ton. Credit was given |
where it was deserved. At the end of | ing to do it, {
the first season Robert “broke even”
and was content.
Only a few times did Wardell and
his wife visit their old-time friends.
They were so utterly out of their
circle that they practically dropped
the acquaintanceship.
The following summer Robert rent-
ed a vacant hall, fitted it up as a
neighborhood clubroom, put in a li-
brary and it became the social meet-
ing place of the district. In all this
work, aided by his wife, he did a
iil | great deal of helpful good to the striv-
{ing poor. The next season the busi-
|ness paid a libersl return.
fourth year general trade had extend-
By the
ed and the yard brought in a hand-
some revenue.
Those were blessed happy years for
man and wife. Many a struggling
man out of work they lifted out of a
hard place in his experience. Many a
poor girl they assisted to respectabil-
ity. There was one worthless drunk-
en idler, David Warfield, whom they
reformed and who became a steady
worker. They were duly gratified
when the man, who was naturally
smart and ambitious, became foreman
of a factory in Milton township, a re-
mote part of the county, and wrote to
them blessing them for the new start
in life they had given him.
The name of Robert Russell had be-
come a household word in the dis-
trict—indeed, through the whole city.
Within five years he had made a rec-
ord for practical philanthropy that
had become widespread.
“They wish me to become a candi-
date for county commissioner,” Rob-
ert told his we one day.
“You will accept?’ inquired Alice.
“I have done so already,” replied
Robert. “I am not particularly at-
tracted to political preferment, but the
position places the incumbent in close
touch with the charitable organiza-
tions of the city.”
Lois was very proud of what she con-
sidered a deserved distinction for her
husband. There was no doubt of his
popularity. When election day came
on, however, the returns from the
polls showed that the ticket he was
on was badly defeated. Robert, how-
ever, had run far ahead of the others,
and at midnight all the returns except
one remote country precinct left him
only twenty-two votes behind the low-
est candidate on the opposite ticket.
Robert was about to leave head-
quarters, conceding defeat in His
philosophical, good-natured way, when
the tally clerk, who had just opened a
belated telegram, waved his hand to
him excitedly.
“Hold on, Mr. Russell,” he sang
out, “here’s something that will inter-
est you—the final returns of Milton
township.”
“Does it change the results?” asked
Robert.
“Only this much—it elects you!”
“You mean it?”
“Read-—you have run four to one
against any other candidate in Milton
township, giving you the lead by over
six hundred votes.”
“Milton township?” repeated Alice,
when Robert necited the crowning in-
cident of the election. “Why, Robert!
isn't that where David Warfield
went?”
They knew that it was very soon,
for the next day Warfield, the man
they had set on his feet, appeared in
person to tell how his recital to the
men working under him of the good-
ness of Robert Russell had won
them over almost unanimously.
So, the bread cast upon the waters
came back tenfold to the worthy man
who had chosen the path ever il-
lumined by the kindly light of love
for his fellow man.
REAL “LAZY MAN'S LAND”
Where They Rise at Four in the Morn-
ing to Loaf Around All
Day.
You ask a Kentucky mountaineer a
question which he doesn’t quite grasp
and he says, “How?” A Tennesseean,
in like case, exclaims, “Which?” There
are other differences between the two.
The former, for example, may be lazy,
but he has at least the grace to try to
conceal his shame while the latter
openly “brags on” it.
“You-uns have come to lazy man’s
land,” drawled a soft voice that after-
noon in Black Water. The speaker was
unshaven and unshorn, and his black
eyes laughed out at us with impu-
dence and easy good humor from a
wilderness of curly black beard and
tangled elf locks beneath a tattered
hat. “Yes, you-uns have sure come to
lazy man’s land,” fluted the mellow
voice once more, and it was easy to
believe him that somneolent afternoon,
when all the little sun-flooded valley
lay drenched in golden dream, and
the air, drowsy in the dull drone of
bees, hung heavy with the heat.
Next morning, however, when we
awoke in our room in the hotel at
Sneedville, at 4:30, roused by the clan-
gor of the great bell that hung in the
hotel yard, we felt there must be a
mistake somewhere. “Surely this can’t
be ‘lazy man’s land’ where folks get
up at such an hour!”
We were still more impressed and |
confounded when we got down and |
found that breakfast was. almost over,
across the way or seated on chairs |
William A. Bradley writes in Harper's.
But when we had finished our own
breakfast and gone out in the street |
there was the entire male population |
sprawled about the courthouse steps |
along the sidewalk, while over every
|
i
the brim.
metallic roses and foliage about
THE MEYERSDALE COMMERCIAL, MEYERSDALE, PA.
Spectacles of the Russian Ballet
The ‘spectacles presented by the
Russian Ballet were revelations of gor-
geous color. Audiences were en-
thralled by them, responding to the
fascination of the most marvelous
management of color that has ever in-
spired them to enthusiasm. It is for
students of the times to determine
how great an influence these spec-
tacles have had on fashions. We see
this influence reflected now and know
that it will reappear in the spring, for
it has given women “the courage of
color,” as Rostand expresses it.
The legends of the ballets make a
limitiess playground for the imagina-
tions of those who must enjoy so rich
a field. In “Scheherazade,” the scene
is a sultan’s harem. It goes without
saying that here is chance for re-
producing and elaborating oriental
splendor. “Le Carnaval’ betrays by
its name how great the variety it in-
cludes, and “Cleopatra” revives the
wonders of old Egypt. —
In “Thamar” and “Sadko” imagina-
tive designing reaches the zenith of its
marvels,
either to guidé or to hamper the fancy
of the costume. The scene is laid at
the bottom of the sea in the realm of
the ruler of the ocean,” where the for-
tunes of - Sadko, a roving musician,
have landed him. The stage is peopled
In “Sadko” there is nothing |-
with groups representing swaying sea-
weed, corals, sea flowers, fishes and
other inhabitants of the deep, clear
waters.
The costuming is a revelation of re-
sourcefulness and of beauty that lures
the mind into unexplored paths. Why
not take the corfills or anything else
n land or sea as inspirations and
make life a continual round of ime
personations? In the accompanying
picture “The Bird” of the Russian Bal-
let leads us to ponder the prodigality
of nature in clothing the feathered
tribe. Color and more color is the be-
quest of the ballet.
Novelty in Handles.
Cherries are alwllys more or less
popular on umbrella handles, and one
of the new umbrellas fairly bristles
with them. Bright red cherries on
stems are carried along the full length
of the handle. It is the branch of a
cherr— tree and unusually well laden
wig ‘ruit.
v x Borders of Braid.
On some of the new suits for autumn |
there is little trimming, though broad
silk braid is occasionally employed as
a border for skirt and coat. Belts are
ubiquitous, though on many models
the belt appears back and front.
- The &orgeous Hat of Midwinter
Midwinter millinery is about to
make its exit from fashion’s stage. It
has made a splendid performance and
will be bowed out amid many plaudits
for its brilliant triumphs, for it has
grown more and more rich and beau-
tiful as the season advanced to its
climax. Already demi-seascn hats of
satin are making their appearance, in-
wended to tide over the time between
winter and spring. But we shall not
turn our backs on the gorgeous hats
of midwinter without casting “one
longing, lingering look behind.”
A look will be rewarded with such
inspiring headwear as is pictured in
the group of hats above, and any one
of them is fascinating enough to make
one bless the winter season. At the
center of the group a hat of heavy
blue silk lace is made over a wire
frame and lined with silver gauze. The
Nattier blue of the lace looks par-
ticularly well with moleskin, and the
hat has a top crown of this fur. There
are medallions in the pattern of the
lace, about the side crown, and every
other one is covered with a medallion
fence bobbed a feminine sunbonnet. | of fur.
Not in the whole town did we see a |
single person who seemed to have any- | with a delicate net and lace of gold.
thing to do, and yet there was not one Th lace extends beyond the ribbon in
who had not risen at four in the morn- !
At the left a hat of satin is covered
There are three clusters of
the
kb
crown, and this model would be quite
as much at home among palms and
flowers as it is against a background
of snow and ice.
The third hat is of black chantilly
lace and kolinsky fur. The brim-edge
is bound with fur and there is a nar-
row band of it about the crown. An
odd star-shaped ornament, covered
with jet beads, is applied to the top
crown and its points are extended into
ornaments that lie flat against the side
crown. Two jet balls rest on the
brim at the right side. The hat is a
reserved and quiet design made suffi-
ciently brilliant to hold its own in gay
company, by the jet ornaments.
Cluny Lace From China.
Cluny lace, the most widely service-
able, durable and practical of hand-
made edgings and insertions for gen-
eral use where something worth while
is desired, now cemes from China, It
is made there at lower rates than in
Europe. ' The Chinese lace is known
as Chee Foo, from the place from
which it comes.
KEYSTONE BRIEFS
The Rev. Robert O’Boyle, chaplain
of the First Cavalry, has resigned.
Pennsylvania is in the second farm.
bank district with headquarters at
Baltimore.
One hundred and seventy-four deer
and 15 bears were killed in Center
county this season.
Morris Wolf, a Salem farmer, was
fined $10 and costs for shooting an
eye out of a fox-hound.
Farm help of all kinds advanced in
price during the pasteyear and help of
all kinds is very scarce.
Female help has increased in price
and farmers are crippled on account
of lack of domestic help.
Representatives of the Association
of Pennsylvania Catholic Colleges
held a conference in Altoona.
Dr. J. George Becht, secretary of
the State Board of Education, has
been making addresses at teachers’
institutes.
Commissioner Dixon was congratu-
lated on his re-election as president
of the Academy of Natural Sciences
in Philadelphia.
It is said by observers that the
finest display of aurora borealis ever
seen in Pennsylvania was visible
Christmas night.
The Methodist Episcopal Church of
Harrisville was almost Cestroyed by
fire, supposed to have been caused by
a defective heater.
Plans are now being made for the
observance of the twenty-fifth anni-
versary of the incorporation of EII-
wood City as a borough.
The transmission line supplying
electric current to Corry and Union
City, parted during a storm, leaving
those places without light or power.
The 600 employes of the Hamilton
Watch factory at Lancaster were
given Christmas week as a holiday
with full pay.
$20,000. :
The P. L. Kimberly Memorial
Nurses Home, in connection with -the
C. H. Buhl Hospital at Sharon, has
just been completed at a cost of about
$75,000.
February 1 is the date unofficially
announced that Schwab will take
over the large coke plant operated
by the Semet Solvay Company in
East Steelton.
Benjamin F. Garver, a new Cumber-
land business man and strong Repub-
lican supporter, has been appointed
mercantile appraiser of Cumberland
county for 1917.
S. L. Parkes, secretary of the Berks
County Conservatign Associdtion, is
leading in the movement to distribute
grain for the birds in the mountain
districts of his county.
While walking on the ice at Har-
vey’'s Lake, Professor J. I. Alexander
82, broke through. For more than 15
minutes he supported himself ty rest-
| Ing his chin on the ice.
Patients in the Lancaster Geraral
Hospital were endangered wher ire
destroyed the main building of Frank
Bowman's box factory adjoining the
institution, ‘causing a loss of $30,000.
Wood’s knitting mills in Hawley
were burned causing a loss of $50,000
and making 100 operatives idle. The
fire destroyed 50 machines made in
Garmany, which cannot now be re-
placed.
Representative John Morin intro-
duced in the House a bill appropriat-
ing $50,000 for improvements in the
Pittsburgh postoffice building. Sen-
ator Oliver’s bill for the same purpose
has passed the Senate.
Announcement was made that
Washington and Jefferson Collegz De-
bating Society, known as the James
David Moffat Debating Forum, has ar-
ranged two debates with other insti-
tutions and had several others pend-
ing.
Figures compiled by the National
and State Mining Bureaus show that
of 518,000,000 tons of coal mined in
the country last year Pennsylvania
produced 247,000,000, while of 767,
554 men employed 'in the nation’s
mines, there were 365,073 in Penn-
sylvania mines. °
Theodore Marburg, ex-minister to
Belgium from the United States, un-
der Taft, will address the Harrisburg
Chamber of Commerce. = Marburg is
prominent in the League to Enforce
Peace work and will discuss the
European peace preparations.
At Carlisle the collection of por-
traits of former jurists has been
practically completed by the presenta-
tion to the county by Mrs. Thomas B.
Kennedy of a picture of her grand-
father, James Riddle, the second com-
missioner judge of the county, who
was on the bench from 1794 to 1803.
Approximately $10,000,000 loss by
fire in Pennsylvania in 1915 is shown
in a compilation of fire statistics just
issued by the actuarial bureau of the
National Board of Fire Underwriters.
The statistics show that 17.4 per cent
of the loss was by fire through causes
It means a gift of about |
GIVE “SYRUP OF FIGS” ~
TO CONSTIPATED CHILD
Delicious “Fruit Laxative” can’t harm
tender little Stomach, liver
and bowels
Look at the tongue, mother! If
coated, your little one’s stomach, liver
and bowels need cleansing at once.
When peevish, cross, listless, doesn’t
sleep, eat or act naturally, or is fever-
ish, stomach sour, breath bad, has
sore throat, diarrhoea, full of cold, give
a teaspoonful of “California Syrup of
Figs,” and in a few hours all the foul,
constipated waste, undigested food
and sour bile gently moves out of its
little bowels without griping, and you
have a well, playful child again. Ask
your druggist for a 50-cent bottle of
“California Syrup of Figs,” which con-
tains full directions for babies, chil~
dren of all ages and for grown-ups.—
Ady,
Guessed Wrong.
Two sober citizens met on a street
in Babylon.
“You and I will live to see the day
when this dancing craze will end,” sai@
the first sober citizen.
“I don’t doubt it,” answered the sec-
ond sober citizen. “The world will soon
outgrow such madness.”
And that was 2716 years before the
Castles took New York by storm.
OF INTEREST TO MOTHERS
The cost of food today is a serious
matter to all of you. To cut down
your food bills and at the same time
improve the health of your family,
serve them Skinner's Macaroni and
Spaghetti two or three times per week.
Children love it and thrive on it. It
is the best possible food tor adults.
Write the Skinner Mfg. Co., Omaha,
Nebr., for beautiful cook book telling
how to serve it in a hundred ways.
It’s free to every mother.—Adv.
Popped Out at the Popping.
Aunt—I suppose, Edith, you said
“This is so sudden!” when Mr. Slow-
boy proposed. 2
Niece—No; I fully intended to, but
I was so excited I forgot and exclaimed
“At last!”—Boston Evening Tran-
script. '
10 CENT “CASCARETS”
IF BILIOUS OR COSTIVE
For Sick Headache, Sour Stomach,
Sluggish Liver and Bowels—They
work while you sleep.
Furred Tongue, Bad Taste, Indiges-
tion, Sallow Skin and Miserable Head-
aches come from a torpid liver and
clogged bowels, which cause your
stomach to become filled with undi-
gested food, which sours and ferments
like garbage in a swill barrel, That's
the first step to untold misery—indi-
gestion, foul gases, bad breath, yellow
skin, mental fears, everything that is
horrible and nauseating. A Cascaret
to-night will giver your constipated
bowels a thorough cleansing and
straighten you out by morning. They
work while you sleep—a 10-cent box
from your druggist will keep you. feel-
ing good for months.—Adv.
Wicked Goings On.
“I understand automobiles have
revolutionized the life farmers lead.”
“So they have, in one way.”
“How is that?”
“Farmers often return home in their
cars from making a night of it in the
city at the hour when they used to
get up and got to work.”
DANDRUFF AND ITCHING
Disappear With Use of Cuticura Soap
and Ointment—Trial Free.
The first thing in restoring dry, fall
Ing hair is to get rid of dandruff and
itching. Rub Cuticura Ointment into
scalp, next morning shampoo with
Cuticura Soap and hot water. Prevent
skin and scalp troubles by making Cuti-
cura your everyday toilet preparation.
Free sample each by mail with Book.
Address postcard, Cuticura, Dept. L,
Boston. Sold everywhere.—Ady.
Talented Person.
“As we grow older our ideas of
| amusement undergo a radical change,”
remarked the philosophic man.
“Unquestionably.”
“For instance, when I was a small
boy I was chiefly interested in the ex-
hibits that composed a ‘Congress of
Wonders,” but now the ‘amazing volu-
bility of the spieler fascinates me far
more than any feature of the show.’—
Birmingham Age-Herald.
SOUR, ACID STOMACHS,
: GASES OR INDIGESTION
Each “Pape’s Diapepsin” digests 3000
grains food, ending all stomach
misery in five minutes.
strictly preventable; 35.3 per cent . it) y 3
through causes partly preventable, 2 J Tn gre THe all §iom-
and 47 per cent through causes un- Ih ths re go. 9 indigestion,
known and probably largely prevent. | _c2rtburn, sourness or belching of
able.
The chambers of commerce of Shar-
on and Farrell have made objections
to the manner in which the industries
of those places have been handled in
the new industrial directory.
The State Treasury is getting a
good many checks for $5.80, the low-
est amount of State tax that is col-
lected, from corporations .which did
not pay before the close of the fiscal
year. The payments af made for
companies which are not active, but
the Commonwealth does not permit
any of them to go free and holds that
as long as a charter is worth anything |
a tax should be paid to the State.
gas, acid, or eructations of undigested
food, no dizziness, bloating, foul
breath or headache.
Pape’s Diapepsin is noted for its
speed in regulating upset stomachs.
| It is the surest, quickest stomach rem-
| edy in the whole world and besides it
is harmless. Put an end to stomach
trouble forever by getting a large
fifty-cent case of Pape’s Diapepsin
from any drug store. You-srealize in
five minutes how needless it is to suf-
fer from indigestion, dyspepsia or any
stomach disorder. It's the quickest,
surest and most harmless stomach
doctor in the world.—Adv.
. men who rob Peter to pay
> to stand Paul off.