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THE SUNNY SOUTH.
r
As the weeks rolled by, Nell, instead of
pining, began to be something of her old,
sweet self. The look of tender sympathy re
turned to her soft eyes though they were in
finitely sad; her reserve melted away and she
gladly welcomed all her old friends. Indeed,
her cheek rounded out and a pale rose
bloomed once more upon it.
So the girl who stood at the bar, charged
With the murder of her husband, was no
longer proud Mrs. Alleyne, but our own dear
winsome Nell, for whom every heart in that
Vast concourse beat warm and true.
How these faithful hearts sickened as link
after link was brought out and riveted until
it seemed that escape was impossible. No one
believed that Nell—our own Nell as we saw
her now—could have raised her hand against
any human creature; but that her mind had
been unbalanced by his cruelty, that in some
moment of real insanity, goaded to actual
madness by his wicked tortures, she should
have done the awful deed, began to be feared
and even whispered in secret.
The trial was a terrible strain upon her,
one could see that. I hope I may never know
again of such fiendish cruelty as the testi
mony of the servants revealed. They told of
his tickling her till she swooned from ex
haustion ; of his shutting her out of the house
whenever it took his fancy, regardless of the
weather; of his pinching her arms black and
blue, and daring her to move or cry out
while it was his pleasure thus to amuse him
self.
And now I understood the poor child’s
feeling about her baby. It seemed that even
during its short life he had made it the means
of inflicting new tortures upon tier, mental
agony infinitely worse than physical pain
could be.
A motive thus established for the crime,
circumstantial evidnce came in to prove the
fact. Alleyne had been unusually inventive
in his favorite amusement that day and one
of the servants had heard her pleading with
him. Heaven knows what demoniac arts
he practiced upon her in private if he did not
scruple tp thus abuse her in the presence of
his dependants.
At any rate, this servant testified that, for
the first time, she heard Mrs. Alleyne plead
ing for mercy and he laughed loud and
long as one who had attained some long-de
sired object.
Several servants testified a<* to the knife
being one frequently used by their mistress,
though it was very evident that one and all
oath to give any information
were
that
But the prosecuting attorney did his duty
well. They were compelled to
left the house about dusk, that
out scarcely a minute before the terrific bolt,
came that he left orders that his wife should
not be admitted that night; that she came in,
pale and frightened and wet to the skin just
after the awful crash, and that one of the
maids had secreted her till morning.
Nell listened to all this with great grief
but apparently no fear. No one who saw
her will ever forget her as she stood at the
bar to explain away this dark cloud of evi
dence.
With tears streaming unheeded down her
cheeks, but with a voice that neither faltered
nor choked, she admitted the truth of all the
testimony given.
“He was cruel,” she said, with a shudder
at the remembrance, “but oh,” clasping her
hands and turning beseeching eyes from face
to face, “I beg you to believe it was not my
Roland that did all those cruel things ! It
was a madman—a demon that entered into
and took possesion of my husband ! It was
morphine!” She paused for a moment and
covered her face. “He had contracted the
habit through a doctor’s carelessness during
a painful illness; but instead of having a
soothing effect on him, the drug drove him
insane and all of his love for me was turned
to bitterest hatred. He did love me—oh, he
did !” she cried as though pleading to her
own heart for credence, “and my affection
for him never faltered, for I knew my hus
band was not there when the demon possessed
him. He threatened to kill me and every
one belonging to me if I ever tried to leave
him, but had my child lived, I must have
done so. I thanked the good Father when the
baby was taken, for I feared the demon might
have entered its innocent breast!
“My only comfort was to visit the little
grave and know that my boy 'Jwas awaiting
me in Heaven, safe and secure from any harm
or sin. Now I am twice blest, for I know my
husband is there, too, clothed and in his
right mind. The kisses I pressed upon his
dead lips made him my own again; it had
been so long—so long since I had dared to
thus approach him! Oh, I loved him—I
loved him! Do you think I could have
taken his dear life?”
We all sat spell-bound through this terrible
recital and no eye was dry, while I am sure
every heart felt forever convinced of her in
nocence. Her principal counsel, who was
none other than the ex-prosecuMng attorney,
questioned her as to her whereabouts that
night and she explained that, worn out with
Alleyne’s unusual severity, she had fled
through the rain to the little grave which
had been made, without his knowledge, in
a remote corner of their extensive grounds.
That there she had wept away her grief till
that terrible bolt had overwhelmed her
already shaken nerves and she had rushed
into the house in an almost fainting state.
The cross-examination failed to shake the
least important of her statements.
After the noon adjournment, I felt too
shaken to return to the courthouse. Besides,
I knew the case would be given to the jury
early in that afternoon and I felt that the
suspense would be too much for me. So I
took my way to Mother Weston’s.
I found the old lady much improved and
eager to talk of her strange experience. The
lighning had played a queer freak, for aside
from burning her temples and nose where
her steel glasses had rested, it had left no
visible mark.
“Were your glasses melted?” I asked with
an interest assumed to gratify my old friend,
for my thoughts were that crowded court
room.
“Law, I never thought to ask!” Mother
Weston cried, pleased to have found a new
item on which to dilate: “I haven’t been
able to use my eyes at all since I was struck
and so hadn’t thought of my glasses. Where
are them, Sue, do you know?”
Her granddaughter brought the black mor-
rocco case and the old lady drew out the
spectacles with eager fingers.
“No, they ain’t touched,” she said, ad
justing them to her eyes, “but this right eye
seems queer, like it was dusty. I suppose it’s
my eye, though,” she continued, taking off
the glasses and handing them to me for in
spection.
As I held them up to the light, the right
lens did seem hazy, but as I lowered them,
the light from a window behind me fell full
upon it and I almost screamed. I don’t un
derstand yet, how I ever kept my self-posses
sion and acted as I did.
“I would like to take your glasses to show
to sister, Mrs. Weston,” I said as calmly as
I could, and when she assented proudly, I
made my adieus as quickly as possible, and
calling the first conveyance I saw, which
happened to be a delivery wagon, I was
driven to my sister’s house at a rattling*
pace. I had only to tell the boy driving that
I was in a hurry on business of the greatest
importance to “ Miss Nell” and he did not
spare his horse.
As I hoped and prayed, my brother-in-law,
who was a psofe^or of chemistry in our col
lege, was at horns, busy in his little private
state that sBfes,. laboratory. T^tfiade my way to this room
Alleyne went wllbetn ageing any of the family, for I felt
that an additional moment of suspense would
kill me.
When I entered, I could not speak for a
moment and brother Charles was out to go
for assistance, when I stopped him.
“No, no, I am not ill, but oh, Charles, I
am afraid to tell you, now, what has brought
me, for fear it will prove to be an illusion
suggested by my overcharged brain ; but look
at these glasses—for heaven’s sake don’t
touch the lenses—and say if you see aught
upon them !”
As I spoke I turned them again till the
light fell in a certain position upon the right
eye and there in the exteme corner I saw it
again but I waited for his verdict.
With an anxiety that was worse agony than
I ever endured, I watched him turn them this
way and that; and then, all suddenly, every
vestige of color left his face, only to come
surging back in a crimson tide.
He looked at me most strangely.
“Whose are these?” he said in a choked
voice.
“Mother Weston’s!” I cried, and I could
not keep the exultation out of my tones, for
was not her house next door to the Alleyne’s
and was not Roland found just in front of
her window?
He said nothing more but sprang to the
table and seized a powerful magnifying glass
with which he proceeded to examine the lens.
“Margaret,” he said solmenly, “thank
your God that you are to be the means of
vindicating Nell! These two figures etched
so clearly upon this tiny bit of glass are un
doubtedly Roland Alleyne and our poor sim
ple Sam. See ! by this strong glass one can
almost see the scar upon his cheek.!”
As I gazed through the glass at the little
sketch, scarce larger than my thumb-nail,
now magnified to the proportions of a good-
sized picture, my heart overflowed with grate
ful rejoicing. For there, clearly printed by
God’s own hand, was Nell’s vindication. A
poor half-witted lad in the village held aloft
a knife in the very act of plunging it into
Alleyne’s heart, who had started slightly
backwards, whether in realization of his dan
ger or through the shock of the terrible bolt
that had then descended, we would never
know. Both figures and faces were easily
recognizable. 1
Mother Weston'must have been sitting
with her back to th6 window and turned just
sufficiently for scenes outside to be reflected
in the right corner of her glasses. I have
Drs. Maybe and Mustbe.
You choose the old doctor before the young: one. Why?
Because you don’t want to entrust your life in inexperienced
hands. True, the young: doctor may be experienced. But
the old doctor must be. You take no chances with Dr. Maybe,
when Dr. Mustbe is in reach. Same with medicines as with
medicine makers — the long-tried remedy has your confidence.
You prefer experience to experiment—when you are concerned.
The new remedy may be good — but let somebody else prove
it. The old remedy must be good—judged on its record of
cures. Just one more reason for choosing AYER’S Sarsa
parilla in preference to any other. It has been the standard
household sarsaparilla for half a century. Its record inspires
confidence — 50 years of cures. If others may be good,
Ayer’s Sarsaparilla must be. You take no chances when you
take AYER’S Sarsaparilla.
thus viewed passersby and little window
landscapes many a time. And the bolt that
prostrated Mother Weston had printed there
the record of Sam’s dark deed.
The boy’s motive for the crime was patent
to all but who knew him. He had always
worshipped Nell in a dumb, dog-like fashion
apparent to every one, and in some way,
Roland’s cruelty to her had evidently been
brought to his knowledge. He was frail in
body as in mind, and that awful night he
had contracted a cold which, at the time of
Nell’s trial had brought him to death’s door
with quick consumption.
They had carefully kept from him all news
of the murder and Nell’s arrest on account of
his illness; but now, when the authorities
visited him, he acknowledged the crime hot
only freely but proudly.
“He hit Miss Nell: Sam see him. Sam
had Miss Nell’s knife to make it sharp for
her. Sam kill him ! Miss Nell happy now!”
The last words were wistfully spoken as
though he would question us as to their
trhth. I assured him tha^ Miss Nell was hap
py k now, and he tuVned a Tittle from us ^ith
a smile and sank into a deep sleep from which
he wakened in a better world, where, with
Baby Burton, he waits the coming of the be
ing he loved best on earth.
BEULAH R. STEVENS.
SURPRISED HIS PHYSICIAN.
(From the Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.)
“Yes, my name is A. J. Nicholson, and my
address is the Bull Block, Louisville, Ky.,
and I am the man you have heard of as so
persistently and so enthusiastically proclaim
ing the merits of Dr. Williams’ Pink Pills
for Pale People.
“Up to the first of last March I can truth
fully say that for twenty yearsl had suffered
all the agonies of an Inferno, and death would
have at times been a welcome visitor. I had
muscular rheumatism in its most vicious
form, supplemented by what the doctors
called tuberculosis of the bones. I was almost
constantly under the treatment of a physician
and spent a considerable portion of my time
in the hospital. In 1893 I spent three months
in that institution, where I underwent severe
surgical operations for relief. Almost all
the money I could raise from whatever source
went for medicine in one way or another. I
would try any and every remedy that was
suggested, but I finally concluded that the
doctors were right in saying there was no
cure for such a case as mine. My right leg
became rigid and stiff, the joints refusing to
perform their functions in any degree. At
length the pains attacked my left leg also,
and it was fast becoming as bad as the other.
I also suffered in the shoulders and arms,
though not so badly as in the lower limbs.
“About the first of March last, I read an
article on Pink Pills, and while very dubious
as to the result, I concluded to give them a
trial. I used one box without deriving any
benefits as I could see, and was about to
abandon them when, at the urgent solicitation
of my wife, I concluded to try one more box
anyhow. Before the second box was used
up, I thought I would experience some slight
improvement in my condition. Like a
drowning man I speedily grasped at that one
straw of hope. I ordered other boxes and
continued the systematic use of the pills as
directed, my improvement-, from the begin
ning of the third box, being most marked
and rapid. The rigidity and stiffness soon
began to disappear from my leg, the excru
dating pains became gradually less, my
drooping spirits revived under the exhilarat
ing prospect of getting well, and before a
great whileT was able to go to work. I have
not yet discontinued the pills. I have just
ordered the sixth box, which I think will be
the last. I feel that I owe my life to this
extraordinary preparation, for I don’t see
how I could have lived under the almost in
cessant torture I was enduring. It is not
strange, under the circumstances, that I
should lose no opportunity to tell my friends
about this remedy and to urge upon all afflict
ed as I w’as, to give it a trial.”
(Signed) “A. J. NICHOLSON.” -
Subscribed and sworn to before me this
28th of May, 1896.
J. PETTUS, Notary Public.
The physician who attended Mr. Nichol
son is Dr. Jas. S. Chenowith, one of the
most distinguished in the city. His office
is at 205 West Broadway, where a reporter
found him and asked about Mr. Nicholson’s
condition while under his treatment. The
doctor remembered the case and corroborated,
what Mr. Nicholson said in regard to the
latter’s deplorable conditiorwind abw^^the
operation performed on him the-
The doctor seemed surprised to learn'^hat
his former patient was now almost entirely
well, since he did not believe when he last
saw him, that he would ever be well again.
Dr. Williams’ Pink Pills contain all the
elements necessary to give new life and rich
ness to the blood and restore shattered nerves.
They are sold in boxes (never in loose
form, by the dozen or hundrsd) at 50 cents
a box, or six boxes for $2.50, and may be had
of all druggists or directly by mail from Dr.
Williams’ Medicine Company, Schenectady,
N. Y.
Fifteen Kisses.
The monks of the Middle Ages divided the
kiss into distinct and separate orders.
1. The decorous or modest kiss.
2. The diplomatic or kiss of policy.
3. The spying kiss, to ascertain if a woman
has drunk wine.
4. The slave kiss.
The kiss infamous—a church penance.
The slipper kiss, practiced toward tyr-
5-
6.
ants.
7-
8.
9
10.
The judical kiss.
The feudal kiss.
The religious kiss (kissing the cross.)
The academical kiss (on joining a sol
emn brotherhood).
11. The hand kiss.
12. The Judas kiss.
13. The medical kiss—for the purpose of
healing some sickness.
14. The kiss of etiquette.
15. The kiss of love—the only real kiss.
“How do you manage, doctor, to make
yourself so popular with all your patients?”
“That’s very simple. I assure those who
only imagine they are ill, that they really
are ill; while those who are really ill I as
sure that they are quite well.—American
Agriculturist.
If your intercourse with your fellow men
is what it should be, your conduct contin
ually strengthens all good desires and re
solves and intentions within them.—David
Utter.
Mohammedan depositors in the post-office
saving banks are enriching the British Gov
ernment, as their religion forbids them to re
ceive interest. They insist on taking out
no more than they have put in.