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MATTIE’S TROUBLES-
BY HELEN F. GRAVES.
And must l live here always?’ said
Mattie Fox, despairingly, as she
clasped her hands on the low ledge
the open window.
‘Here' was no earthly elysium, to
be sure. A lonely farm house, perch*
ed half way' up a desolate mountain ;
whip-poor-frill moaning on the edge
of the woods; owls hooting solemnly
by the lake ; mournful winds sighing
through the tree tops like the rush of
an unseen garment —all this was so j
different from the crowded city life to
which she had been hitherto- accus¬
tomed. And even 'as the tears of
vague homesickness rose to her eyes
’
the voices of the old farmer and his
wife, in the room below, rose audibly
up through the stovepipe hole which
had not yet been sealed for the sum¬
mer months.
‘ IFhut are you going to do with
her?’ said Mrs. Fox.
‘We must do the best we can,’ said
Elihu, her husbaud. ‘She’s my
brother’s orphan daughter, and she’s
got no where else to go.’
And why in the name of goodness,’
queruously demanded Mrs. Fox, could
she not stay where she was, instead
of rushing out here and taking us all
by surprise.'
‘Well,’ slowly answered the good
farmer, ‘I ain’t quite clear about that
myself, been djsapp’inted in love.
She was a shopgirl, Rhode, don’t you
know? And it seems there was a
genteel j/oung man used to come there
to buy neckties and ribbons, and
such fool-de-rols. And this girl she
s’posed he was dead in love with her,
and all of a sudden it come out as he
had another sweetheart as he was
going to be married to this very next
week.’
‘Bless and save us!’ said Mrs.
Fox.
While Mattie, sitting as silently by
the window as if she had been frozen
into stone, felt a peculiar sensation
of dull curiosity 7 to hear what would
come next, as if all this were spoken
about some other person, entirely
different to herself.
•And she is a proud girl, Mattie is
slowly went on Elihu. Tt runs in t e
Foxes to be i roud, and s. e -vou d fc
stay here tube jeered and made game
of by the other shop girls. So she
came here because she had no other
place to come to ; and that s all 1
know about it. I guess we’d
see as the doors and windys is all safe
and go to bed*, for its past ten, and
them haying hands will be here afore
daylight to see about cutting the
twelve acre medder.’
Mrs. Fox had a talk with her niece
the next day.
‘Mattie,’ said she ‘I’m going to
show you how to bake apple pies this
morning ; because, if you stay here
of course you'll want to make your¬
self useful.’
‘Of course,’ said Mattie, listlessly.
‘And, as it happens, I hain’t no
girl,’ went on Mrs. FoX; ‘aud there’s
the work people and my summer
boarders are coming next month.’
’Summer boarders?’ Mattie looked
quickly up, with a red flush over¬
spreading her cheeks. She had come
here for solitude, for rest, for utter
isolation; and now almost before she
had unpacked her little trunk, a
horde of city fashionables would be
upon her. ‘Oh, Aunt Fox, do you keep
summer boarders?’
‘Every summer of my life,’ said
Mrs. Fox, briskly. ‘They come in
July, and mostly goes away in Sep¬
tember, with the first frost. Their
ain't many wavs for us mountain
folks to earn a bit of spendin’ money
you know Mattie; and of course, if
you help me, I shall expect to divide
with you square and even. And
remember it’s sinful to spend your
time weeping and wailing and guash-
jng y 7 our teeth for a lost beau, piously
added the good woman. ‘There’s as
likely fish in the sea as come out of
it; and p’raps one of the hay hands
will take a shine to you—who knows?
And thus Aunt Fox dismissed the
question of her niece’s heart trials
After all, perhaps it wa» the best
treatment that her poor festering
wounds could receive. A sharp,
cauterizing—a merciful cruelty 1 And
Mattie set herself diligently, if
spiritlessly to work helping to
the huge, hungry farm bauds, to shine
the glittering rows of milk pans—even
milk horned beasts, of which
nra OCCOA NEWS
kw
By Edw SCHAEFER- \
was at first so nervously afraid. She
learned to bake white, sweet loaves
of bread, to chum butter, to raise
young chickens, she gathered wild
flowers’ and made a rude wicker cage
for a blue bird, which she found with
a, broken wing and treated success-
fully. And she began to smile now
and then, and Mrs. Fox remarked
complacently, ‘that Mattie was really
a decent looking girl now that her
color had come back a little.’
But one day the mountain stage,
lumbering slowly over the rough roads
with its four horses And luggage
covered roof, stopped at Mrs. Fox's
porch; and down came the avalanche
of citj guests.
Mattie was straightening the mus¬
lin curtains of the windows, and
hurriedly filling the large blue
pitchers with water when the trunks
were brought in the house.
‘It's Mr. Basset and his bride, all
the way from Boston, said Aunt Fox^
complacently. ‘Is everything ready?
Because they are coming up stairs
directly. And I never did see any
one dressed as genteel as she is. A
regular beauty too!’
Mattie stood quite pale and silent,
with the homespun towels iu her
hand.
‘Basset!’ she repeated, ‘and from
Boston I Oh, why, of all places in
the world, did th^y come here?’
AndJ-he next moment the home-
spun towels lay like a drift of scat¬
tered snow at Mrs. Fox’s feet, and
Mattie was gone.
‘A/erev on us!’ said Mrs. Fox,
stooping to recover her lavender,
scented treasures, is the girl gone
erazy?
The soft, crimson glow of the
sunset was irradiating the lonely
glen, when Harrold Basset parted
the overhanging b ,u hs with one
hand, and plunged into the leafy
wilderness, where on one side, the
mossy rock rose almost perpendicu¬
larly, and on the other a brown
waved block ran, with clamorous
gurgle.
‘Mattie!’ he exclaimed, stopping
short, ‘Am 1 dreaming?’
Mattie Fox sprang aftgrily to her
feet.
Would they leave her no solitary
spot of refuge? Must she be thus
hunted down like a wounded deer?
For Harold Bassett was the man
she had allowed herself to love—the
soft-voiced, violet-eyed deceiver who
had fed her with soft glances and
whispered words, until—that dark
day when the qther shop-girls, with
%
sidelong look, and tittering whis¬
pers, had told the story of this
approaching marriage to Mis Belfort
the Boston heiress.
She made an involuntary movement
to escape, but he placed himself
directly across the narrow gateway ol
rock, which alone afforded an egress*
•No,’ said he, firmly, yet not without
the lurking shadow of a smile around ;
his lips—‘you shall not leave me j
until you have explained all the
mystery of your sudden departure
from Boston, leaving behind you
neither name nor address.’
T am not rseponsible to you !’ she
breathed.
‘\ou are nqt responsible to tne!’
he retorted. ‘I loved you, Mattie
Fox, and you knew it.’
‘This is simply folly,’ cried out
Mattie, ‘if not something worse! Go
back to your bride, Mr. Bassett. It
is to her ears only that you need
whisper love !’
The young man opened his violet !
blue eyes very wide. I
‘Mattie,’said he, ‘what on earth
are E ou talking about? My bride? i;
have no bride. I never shall have
any bride but you;
‘Who is the Mrs. Bassett who came
to my aunt’s house this morning?’
gasped Mattie, marveling at the !
hardihood which could thus deny an j
absolute and apparent fact. j
‘qW said Harold, is that' what!
Devoted to News> Politics. Agriculture and General progiess*
TOCCOA, GA., JUNE 10, 1882.
you mean? It is my brother’s w ife,
And she and her husband arc putting
up their hammocks and establishing
their rustic tables under the pine
trees back of the house, at this very
moment. Of course, I couldn’t
remain with them. Is not a third
person always de trop when a young
couple are on their wedding trip? So
I came here, and I think Heaven di-
rected my footsteps; for the very last
person in the world whom I could
have expected to see was you, dear
Mattie!’
‘And you are not married]’ repeated
Mattie, with a great, overwhelming
thrill of happiness at her heart,
‘No!’ he answered, with emphasis,
Lind it was your brother who was
really to be married, when 1 believed
it was you, and broke my heart over
what I considered your treachery and
deceit?’ she pursued.
‘Well, it certainly was not me!’
declared Harold Bassett; ‘for now
and here, at yotir feet, dearest, I
speak the first declaration of love I
ever spoke. I love you, Mattie! 1
have been wretched in your absence.
Let me take you back to Boston with
me as ray own treasured wife?’
So Mattie, shy and beautiful as
some drooping wild flower, was
brought back to the farm house, to be
presented to the city bride and her
husband as Harold's engaged wife.
Mrs. Hardy Bassett put up her
eye glasses and smiled condescend-
ingly.
‘Very lovely 7 ,’ said she, in an audi¬
ble sotto voice, and so sweetly
unsophisti ated ! I can always tell
these country 7 rosebuds at the first
glancci
‘But I’m not, country rosebud,’
said Mattie, crimsoning. 'I have
only been here at the. farm house a
few weeks. 7 am a shop girl, Mrs.
Bassett.’
The bride stared first, then sim¬
pered.
‘How very 7 romantic!’ said she
‘Exactly iike a novel.’
Mattie might almost have been
vexed, if she had not caught the
suppressed laughter iu Harold's
cy 7 es.
And Aunt Rhoda declared that the
Fox farm house had never been so
lonesome as it was after Mattie went
away to be a grand city lady.
‘But she has promised to come
back every summer,’ said Mrs. Fox.
‘She says the old farm will always be
the dearest place in the world to
her.
MRS. GARFIELD.
[‘Gath’ in Cincinnati Enquired.]
‘How is Mrs. Garfield?’
‘She j s j us t ag modest, qniet a little
woman as ever, though she is a rich
woman now. That is to say 7 she is
,
so much richer than she ever was
before that she is considered rich by 7
hergejf^ her friends and her r.eigh-
bors. I would like to take you around
to see her if you come to Cleveland.
She is a great pet in our town, though
she does not seem to know it.
Cleveland worships the name of
Garfield.’
‘ What is Mrs Garfield worth?’
‘Well, you can sum it up. She has
$300,000 in government bonds, the
result of the subscription. Then her
husband’s life was insured for
$50,000, which she promptly received,
j^e a } so was paid the salary of the
p r<?3 ident for the unoccupied first
year, amounting to about $20.00o.
That makes $400,000, does it not?
Very well. Then add to it about $30,-
0 00 , the total value of Garfield’s
estate. That was the total amount,
a fter all the abuse that was
that he was able to accumulate in a
life of fifty years. I suppose that the
income from this total of more than
$400^00 will be perhaps $16,000 a
year. She is also on the pension list
at $5,000 a year. So she is comfort
able, and can raise her children well;
but the loss of Garfield is a blow
that will leave its sear as long as she
lives. Just think of that little Woman,
almost dying at the IF kite House,
when lie took her to the seaside and
returned to meet his death wound ;
and she then rallying, watching t>ver
him for months, surviving him and
beiug well to day !’
‘What is going to be done about
the Garfield monument?’
‘My understanding is that there is
now $125,000 in the hands of the
treasurer, and no monument fund
has probably ever been put in more
careful hands. They desire to erect
something that shall typify the
wonderful hold that was obtained in
a few months upon the universal
heart in this country. His memory
is not only deeply beloved in North¬
ern Ohio and throughout all ot.r
state, where he lived so long ; but it
is the rallying cry for the moral and
independent forces in the country,
and you can hear his name shouted
in Pennsylvania to day stronger than
all the living forms of political power.
People felt what was the fact—that
lie was a loving man, with a warm,
boyish heart, and affectionate like a
Woman, and he took his instincts
from the people, like Lincoln.’
THE GUiTEAU HANGING.
Washington Taper.
The number to be present at
Guiteau’s execution is very limited,
according to th© law of the District.
A few representatives of the press, a
jury of twelve citizens, the attorneys
in the case, and the officials at the jail
will make up the audience. During
the visit to the jail yesterday, the
wooden door was open and Gui-
teau stuck his face out and called in
an imperious way to Rob. an attend-
ant. The visitors were thus enabled
to obtain a good look at him, as he
stared very hard at the audience and
appeared to be urging tue officials to
allow him to have a talk with the
visitors, but the doors were quickly
closed and the assassin was taken
back to his cell. His lace is very lat
and full. He has the look of a very
well fed and well kept animal. The
iail officials who have him. in charge
say 7 that lie has not indicated since
the trial the first evidence of insanity,
that he is as quiet and reasonable
and clear in all his methods of bus¬
iness as any' prisoner they have ever
had in their charge ; and as one of
the jail officials said yesterday in
some ways he is a very able man
He is one of the most cunning and
astute persons we have ever had m
charge, and excepting one or two of
his peculiarities, could not be Consid¬
ered in any sense of the word an
insane man.’ They prophesy from
now on, however, that he will con-
tinue to go down in his physical and
mental condition. The depression of
the last week Or ten days, even when
buoyed up with the hope that the
court may 7 give him a new trial, will
deepen and become abject despair
when he knows that he has no hope.
The struggle of the people at the jail
now will be to keep enough life in
him to gc to the scaffold on tke 30th
of June. They prophesy a complete
break and an abj«ct spectacle on
that day 7 .
GIRLS IN CHINA.
Moving Edwin, a Burmese, in a
late lecture in the city of Baltimore,
speaking of how women are treated,
and what a light value is placed on
them in the East he said: —‘Girls in
China are believed to have no souls
and to kill them is not murder, and
therefore not to be punished. Where
parents are too poor to support the
<rirl children, they are disposed of in
tbe following way: at regular inter-
vals an officer goes through a village
and collects from poor parents all the
75 <nrl children they can care for, when
i TERMS-$1 50 A YEAR,
NO. 48
they are about eight days old. He
has two large baskets attached to the
end of a bamboo pole, and slung over
his shoulder. Six infants in each
basket, and he carries them to a
neighboring village and exposes them
for sale. Mothers who desire to raise
wives for their eons buy such as they
may select. The other j ara taken to
the government asylums, of which
there are many, all through the
country, if there • is room enough
they are taken in ; if not, they are
drowned.’
Think of it at once, and study it
out, China has two hundred and fifty
millions inhabitants, the United
States but fifty millions
CONGRESSIONAL SUMMARY.
American Register.
With the approach of summer we
may hope that congressmen will be
warmed up to the business of the
session and the demands of the coun¬
try for the speedy 7 enactment of
necessary laws. The last week was
more fruitful of results and accom¬
plished more real legislation than
any other two weeks of the session.
The tariff commission bill has
become a law ; the bill to extend the
charters of the national banks has
passed the House of Representatives,
and it is thought will pass the Sen
ate with but slight amendment if any 7
,
Leading democratic members, in
their discussion of this question,
while admitting the advisability 7 of
the measure, are clearly of the opin-
ion that subsequent legislation
will be necessary to relieve the coun¬
try from the financial complications
which are impending. It seems to be
au admitted fact that a funding bill
of some kind will have to be matured
and passed in order to make a sub¬
stitute for the 4 per cents, which are
the only available securities which
can be used for banking purposes.
The general appropriation bills are
all awaiting action in both houses,
the largest of which is probably the
one appropriating $100,000,050 to
meet the demands of the Pension
Department. The Geneva award bill
pay the insurance companies for
the losses sustained by the Confeder¬
ate cruisers, etc., was passed by the
Senate on Monday, the 22d, which,
when it becomes a law, will, we hope,
be a finality of legislation in that
direction.
The Senate has on the calendar a
bill for the admission of Dakota into
the Union, which has been laid aside
several times and which dees not
seem to have vitality enough to assert
its rights to a hearing.
The South Carolina contested
election case has held the House and
all other legislation in suspense for
the past three days, and the princi¬
ples involved are considered by the
democrats sufficient reason for their
action in the premises.
The republicans wish to bring the
matter to an immediate vote upon
the record as it stands, with the
certainty of seating Mackey, but the
democrats claim that an investiga¬
tion must be had of the implied
fraud in the records before a vote can
be had upon the main question,, the
right to the seat. The democrats are
ready and willing 8 to go on with all
legitimate , . . leg,elation, i . , . but , , they can „„„
notconsent to let this case be tried
without a full investigation of the
forgery is had- The army retirement
bill is before the militarv committee
of tbe senate. As this bill affects the
most prominent „ officers, from r. t * ie
General down, it will require a very-
thoughtful consideration from
committee. The house committee on
naval affairs have determined t0
report adversely on ad bills looking
further searches in tbe Arctic regions.
The comptroller of the
Mr. Knox, f» before tbe Senate
finance -wwmittee on Wednesday
and suggested several amendments
to the bank charter bill. ^
A resolution appropriating *I»V
000.000 to supply a deficiency in the
appropriations for army pensions for
the current fiscal year, was passed by
the Senate on Wednesday.
Ifc is stated on good authority that
the President will not nominate the
tariff com mission during the present
week, as he wishes to consult some
friends in New York before making,
the selections.
BOSTON’S BANCO STEEPER.
IIow Charles Frascts Adams was
Enticed into a Dln and M VUE a
Victim.
A special dispatch from Boston,
Mass., on the 25tb. says: “The
Superior Criminal Court room was
crowded to-day when James Fitz-
gerald, alias ‘The Kid,’alias Morri-
son. was brought to trial before Chief
Justice Bingham on a charge of
obtaining money from the Hou,
Charles Francis Adams at a game
called banco on March 28.’
The most interesting portion of the
trial was the recital of Fitzgerald’s
story or confession. 11 c went to the
office of the Hon. Richard Oluey,
counsel for Mr. Adams, on April 3,
in company with a private detective*,
under promise that he should not be
arrested there. Mr. Olney and Mr.
John Quincy Adams described the
interview. Fitzgerald was smiling
gaily, and seemed to be enjoying
himself, lie tipped his chair against
the wall and remarked :
‘This is disagreeable business, Mr.
Adams. I am a banco sleerer, and
don't suppose there is a man in the
United States who has done so much
©r knows the business as well as I.
When we go to a city we find out all
we can about our intended victim,
his character, acquaintances, habits
and resorts, and watch an opportuni¬
ty to get into conversation with him.
I knew Mr. Adams and watched for
him. When he came out I let him
get in advance, and then went up,
told him I was the son of an old
friend, and that it would be a great
favor to let me walk by such a gentle-
man as lie. Mr. Adams had the
reputation of being unsocial, bat I
did not find it difficult to get down
into him. When 1 once get into
conversation the rest is easy. I drew
him along to our rendezvous, and
then, pulling out this lottery' ticket,
told him there was $1,500 due on it,
and asked him to go in aud identify
me. There was no difficulty in per¬
suading him to go into hi3 office,
where the ticket was presented, and
nearly $1,500 in bills handed to me.
I objected it was not right, and the
man explained that they always
deducted a -percentage, but that we
might have for that soma tickets to
play on a board or table.’
Fitzgerald described the game with
great gusto, turning frequently to the
detective with the remark: ‘You
know, Heath ; you know how it is.’
He continued ;
Q permitted Mr. Adams to play
forme, lie drew $2,500, and it was
explained to him that he must give
a check to the bank for ten per cent.,
and he drew one for $250 and shortly
after another for $G50 by the same
method. Finally he got into the
dilemma ol drawing a blank, which
subjected him to a loss of $17,000.
We then charged him with gambling,
when the poor old man threw up his
hands and said that no such charge
was ever made against him before,
that lie had represented this country
in England and never did anything
to be ashamed of, and exclaimed;
‘Oh, what would my-boys say if they
should hear of such a tiling as this?
] pitied the old man, for I had a great
respect for him, but I acted as his
friend, told him / had lost the same
as be, and begged him to pay the
money an t save me from ruin. We
induced him «a to 4 sign tue check, and I
^ grieved ^ bitter]y and
bitn how J was that I
been the innocent means of his
trouble. I went home with him,
soothing him all the way. I have
roped in forty men as shrewd as Mr.
Adams. They ail paid tne checks,
yhis chccA will be paid. Xh e jr always
pay. They kick as you are kicking,
but they pay. The Adamses would
not let this story get into court for
C amount We always have
tbe re ^ere crular check of every bank in the
we are. It is part of our
bu3lness *
Mr. Adams testified that his fath-
er s mental condition was not very
cnabl^'to do any
^ as j nea g Q f i a te except to take mem-
brauda of orders from the house to
the grocery store,