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A LOVE LYRIC FROM THE CREEK. Tha Flrat Kiss. (After Strato.) VB the hour the long day ends, when our friends we bid good-night, Moerls kissed me, if, ah! me, it was she and not her sprite. For most clearly all the rest thrills my breast through and through. All she told me and besought, when I thought she kissed me, too. Itut when, golden link on link. I would think remembrance out, TCow I'm sure she kissed me then, now again I’m sore in doubt— ttince If into Paradise in such wise I e'er wds borne. How is this that here below still I go with steps forlorn? —Ldndon Spectator. The Interference of Miss Nancy. BY SARAH LINDSAY COLEMAN. .Copyright, 1901: by Dally Story Pub. Cos.) Miss Cairns sat in a big rocking chair on the broad porch. Her pretty brow was puckered thoughtfully. Her eyes followed the figure, a tall and angular one, that slowly climbed the hill. “I don’t care.” She dashed the an gry tears from her eyes, and laughed .a little at the ridiculousness of it all. "She said”—the dimples stole into her cheeks —“that I was getting old I am 28—and that I might never have another opportunity. I told her there was nothing but comradeship and friendship between us, but she believe a word.” Like a troop of ghosts, long dead and forgotten, those old lovers that Miss Nancy had brought so forcibly to her mind, presented themselves. Her very iirst, a handsome college youth—the rides they had had, the drives, the walks, and that last moon lit night when the strains of ‘‘Aunt Dinah’s Quilting Party” floated through the quiet village street. He had gone back to college, and there had been a good deal of pressure upon her before the gifts went back, but in the end she returned them —the poor little tokens. He had written only this: "X do not blame you that you did not keep the troth you plighted ere your heart you knew. Better the parting now than wake to weep w r hen time lias robbed Love's roses of their dew. Another face shall help you to forget, another love shall in your heart be shrined. But I—l shall go down ray darkened way alone, forever seeking what 1 ne'er can find.” Miss Cairns’ quiet laughter rang on the soft air. And she had suffered so. She didn’t know then that “men have died and worms have eaten them, but not for love.” The next she met him in the city, and the roses on the table, his gift, the satiny La Frances, turned up their pink noses in perfumed scorn when he declared his love and offered her for tune, position, everything that his kind, middle-aged heart could think of; everything that a woman's heart needed—save love. One by one the procession passed on. There were a good many of them, lovers of polish and culture, and lovers without, for Miss Cairns was the bon niest lass in the countryside. The last one filed from sight, and with a grow ing sense of irritation she thought of the neighbors in general, and of Miss Nancy in particular. What right had they to interfere? What right to be lieve that every man in the neighbor hood that was civil, had, to quote Miss Nancy, fallen a victim to her fading charms? It waa preposterous. She hoped the young fellow to whom Miss Nancy would marry her in spite of her self didn’t know how the neighbors talked. Two' years before he had come from his far-away home and thrown in his lot with theirs. He was a machinist, and her father found him invaluable to the mill. He boarded with them, uk J li3s Cairns, • • will you marry me?" * nc | People had got into the way of inviting them out, and associating : helr names together. Miss Cairns got up and walked into house. It was dark when the ° u ng Scotchman came in from the Milage. He went straight to Miss aims' father. They talked at length, ,i nd at some low-voiced request the J Mi man .answered heartily: “Aye, aye, lad.” The you n g Scotchman ate his supper a silence and smoked thoughtfully A-terward. Something has evidently d;)set Miss Cairns watched him She liked the determined M -of his chin. It indicated charac ter. aen the girl who moved about the °m and had taken out the tea things, e crossed to the other side of the iire r.oce where Miss Caines w.u busy with *°tne needle work. -Miss Cairns,” he stood before her, his back to the fire, “will you marry me?" "No," promptly. ‘‘Will you state your objections?” be asked, courteously. "Too young.” Miss Cairns spoke la conically. Like Lillian Bell, she pre ferred men at least thirty-five. W hat else?” he questioned. Too slim. Not tall enough.” _ do you admire in a man?” h earlessness and gentleness.” The answer came without hesitation. Won't you grant me these?” He stood over her with laughing eyes. Remember the calves I’ve weaned, and the sitting hens I’ve conquered.” Ihe idea of marrying you! Why, we have dug up the violet beds, strung beans, shelled peas together. Good ness, man! I want some romance in my marriage. What put such a thought in your head?” She looked at him scrutinizingly. “I thought as much. *°u nie t Miss Nancy, and she told you that positively you were my last iAij ) > “I’ll never forgive you! • * never!” hope. She played on your sympathies, and bade you come to the rescue. I’m awfully much obliged, but—but I de cline with thanks.” She sprang to her feet and made him a low, mocking bow. “If you dislike me ” “I don’t! But you are not in love with me. She turned to him sudden ly: “Love comes —love comes ” she faltered, and the color mounted to her brow. "How?” he asked, eagerly. “With music,” she said, slowly, “and light, and perfume. Oh, you know how love comes.” “Ha3 it come like that to you?” “No,” she said, reflectively, “it hasn’t come at all.” “Love’s a tender little fellow; closed doors and icy manners frighten him away, Jeanie.” He took both her hands. “He comes to so few of us like that. It’s the daily association, the gradual dependence upon each other. It’s propinquity. You’ve said a dozen times you would not be an old maid. Prove it! You’ve said the villagers shouldn’t know a breath of your mar riage. Prove it! I’m going to Scot land tomorrow." He laughed at her speechless astonishment. “You said you would give them something to talk about some day. Now is your opportunity.” “I’ve no clothes,” said she, laughing ly. “No woman ever had; but the new gray, slik-lined tailor suit looks bridey enough. And there’s New York if you want more.” “Father,” she called to the man who came down the hall. “Why. father," she faltered, as he paused in the door way. “It’s what ye threatened, lass. Jim’s a good lad.” “You would be willing?” There was a tone of entreaty in her voice. “Aye, aye, lass.” He crossed the room, kissed her and went out. “You are so valuable to him,” the tears stood in her eyes, “that he is willing to lose me.” “Might he not gain a son?” MacDon ald’s manner became suddenly busi ness-like. Shall it be at 6in the morn ing? I will attend to everything, and have the license and the minister here.” She threw back her-head defiantly. “The train leaves at 8. Mary will help you with your trunk. And shall we leave our best wishes to the dear people who have simplified things for us, and to Miss Nancy an extra share?” “Oh, how I hate you!” She stamped her foot; her face was aflame, her dark eyes flashed, and then —her slight form swayed toward him. Mrs. James MacDonald’s husband re gretted that the hour prevented the villagers from attending the ceremony, but at the station the couple were literally showered with rice and old shoes. Mrs. MacDonald’s pretty, smiling face looked back from the frame of the car window. “I’ll never forgive you!” her best girl friend called, “never!” The morning mists were lifting from the familiar hills and the birds sang as If they would split their throats. “Miss Nancy,” the bride’s best friend went up to the middle-aged woman on the platform, “last night you circulat ed a report that spread like fire. I didn’t believe it, but It’s true! Even the trip abroad is true! Were you in the secret?” * A close observer would have noticed that Miss Nancy was absolutely dazed, but she smiled and kept her counsel —and so did the groom. Kailway Capital and Wacr*. The capitalization of the railways of the United States is $11,000,000,000. Those railways employ more than 875,- 000 men, and for the fiscal year end ing June 30, 1898, they paid to their | employes as compensation for services more than $195,000,000. THE WEEKLY NEWS. OARTERSVJLLE. GA. THE TINTS OF COIN. a Reasous for Variation* In the Gold oJ French Mintage. Some time ago a Frenchman placed together a number of gold coins of French mintage of the beginning, mid dle and end of the last century. He was much surprised to see that they differed in color. He set about finding out the reasons for this difference and the results of his investigations have been published in La Nature. There is a paleness about the yellow of tho 10 and 20 franc pieces, which bear th-i effigies of Napoleon I. and Louis XVIII. that is not observed in tho gold pieces of later mintage. One admire! of these coins speaks of their coloi as a “beautiful paleness” and ex presses regret that it is lacking in later coins. The explanation of it L very simple. The alloy that entered into the French gold coins of thos.3 days contained as much silver as cop per and it was the silver that gave th coins their interesting paleness. Th coins of the era of Napoleon 111. wer more golden in hue. The silver had been taken out of the alloy. The gold coins of today have a still warmer and deeper tinge of yellow. This is be cause the Paris mint, as well as that in London, melts the gold and copper alloy in hermetically sealed boxes, which prevents the copper from being somewhat bleached, as it always is when it is attacked by hot air, so the present coins have the full warmnes? of tint that a copper alloy can give. If the coins of today are not so handsome in the opinion of amateur collectors, as those issued by the first Napoleon, they are superior to those of either of the Napoleons in the fact that it costa less to make them. The double opera tion of the oxidation of the copper and cleaning it off the surface of the coin with acids is no longer employed, and the large elimination of copper from the surface of the coins, formerly prac ticed, made them less resistant under wear and tear than are the coins now fb circulation. Frightened by Sensitive Plants. In his “On the Frontier” Mr. Cam pion says that while he was cross ing the Isthmus of Panama some years ago the conductor obligingly stopped the train for him to gather some beau tiful crimson flowers on the roadside. “I refused offers of assistance and went alone to pluck the flowers. After gathering a handful I noticed a large bed of plants, knee high, and of deli cate form and of beautiful green shade. I walked to them, broke off a fine spray and placed it with the flowers. To my amazement I saw that I had gathered a withered, shriveled, brown ish weed. I threw it away, carefully selected a large, bright green plant and plucked it. Again I had in my hand a bunch of withered leaves. It flashed through my mind that a sud den attack of Panama fever, which was very prevalent and much talked of, had struck me delirious. I went ‘off my head’ from fright. In a panic I threw the flowers down, and was about to run to the train. I looked around; nothing seemed strange. I felt my pulse—all right. I was in a perspiration, but the heat would have made a lizard perspire. Then I no ticed that the plants where I stood seemed shrunken and wilted. Care fully I put my finger on the fresh branch. Instantly the leaves shrunk and began to change color. I had been frightened by sensitive plants.” School Bell King* by Electricity. Near Roanoke, 111., near the center of the state, there is a school teacher whose ingenuity might not please all of his pupils—that is, the indolent ones. E. N. Wheelwright teaches a district school, and in a district school, you know—or perhaps some city chil dren do not know—the teacher has to ring the bell and build the fire and sweep the floor, unless he pays some ambitious boy to do it for him. But this teacher does not have to hire a hoy to ring the bell, nor does he ring it himself, yet, no matter what he may he doing at 9 o’clock in the morning, the bell sets up a clatter that no boy or girl can escape. Mr. Wheelwright has arranged a clock which at the proper hour sets in motion an electric apparatus that puts the bell to ringing. ■ he boys of that district have no longer any hope that the teacher will bo so engrosed in some task that he will for get to call school. The bell rings also at 10:45 a. m., 1 p. m ., 2:30 p. m. and at 4 o'clock. Infant Fending. Avery important thing is the way the milk goes into the child’s stomach. The bottles are so constructed that the milk goes down too fast. Every child who sucks at the breast has to work for what It gets. One of the great troubles in artificial feeding is, the milk is cascaded into the stomach and 1 immediately cascaded back again. The i most of the sick babies are made so by , some prepared stuff being cascaded into their stomachs in enormous quan tities. Quantity is a great element in these disorders, and I have known too much food to make babies sick, even where the food was fresh milk. I gen erally tell the mothers to put a piece of pure, clean sponge into the nipple, so that the child must work with its gums and lips to draw the milk, thus obviate the too rapid flow. Star Discovered by Anderson. The sudden blazing into view of a star previously Invisible ranks among the very rarest of astronomical events. Only fourteen times since men first, began to write down records of the skies has such an occurrence been chronicle^; and but once before have astronomers founr a “temporary” star rivaling in splendor Anderson’s re cent discovery in the constellation Per- , sens. IS RICH IN TIMBER. VAST FORESTS HAVE YET SCARCELY BEEN TOUCHED. A ( orroipomlout’s Impressions of the South and South west—Land Values In These Keglons Are Rising—Northern Lumbermen In the Field, A correspondent of an eastern manu facturers’ journal who has spent a month of travel and observation in the south and southwest finds everywhere in that part of the country a feeling of prosperity with merchants and man ufacturers, railroad men and planters, farmers and men who work for days’ wages. The impression prevails that the good times now prevailing will not end until there has been a develop ment of the south’s resources approach ing the advance made in other parts of the country. In analyzing the situ ation the correspondent gives due cred it to 10-cent cotton, accompanied by a diversification of crops. Of the needs of the south the correspondent says: In railroad building the south and southwest now show a great degree of activity, but railroad building down here is by no means complete. There are several north and south trunk lines of great importance, and which prob ably will meet all requirements for many years to come, but large acreas are wholly devoid of transportation fa cilities. In many of those sections there are vast forests of the finest tim ber, minerals of great variety and com mercial value, and land which, when cleared, will make as good farms as lie outdoors. Already there are numer ous undertakings on foot in the way of building small branch lines to open up tracts of the etiaracter named, and it is evident that here will be a rich field for development work by both railroad constructors and real estate operators. Take Mississippi as an il lustration. Off the line of the rail roads there are thousands and thou sand?. of acres of timber, which will cut from 10,000 to 20,000 feet to the acre, and when cleared they will pro duce a minimum of a bale of cotton to the acre as well as other crops. These Europe Wants Our Coal The prospects, as seen by impartial observers after several months have elapsed, indicate that American coal, both anthracite and bituminous, is in a fair way to win a permanent demand. Our consuls in Europe report, that the London gas companies are pleased with their experiments with our gas coal. Fifty per cent more gas has been yielded per ton by some samples. Not withstanding a considerable margin in favor of British coal in the matter of prime cost, the demand for samples is growing, and our anthracite coal,which has been heretofore unknown in Eu rope, is found superior to any mined in Great Britain. There is, however, a disposition to insist on 70 to 80 per cent of carbon, as European coal of lower percentage than that is simply inexhaustible. France produces 32,000,000 tons and consumes 42,000,000 annually. Hereto fore she has imported from Great Britain, Belgium and Germany. Car diff coal does not break up into as small lumps as American coal does; but Pocahontas coal gives almost equal results for steaming purposes. In both A Great Lover of Children “Gov. Marmaduke was a single man,” said Uncle Jose Fuller, an old time resident of Jefferson City, who was telling the other day of some of the characteristics of Missouri’s gov ernors. “He was a graduate of West> Point, stood six feet three, and had a fine Confederate record a3 a soldier. Gov. Marmaduke didn’t mix none in society to speak of, and there were mighty few shindigs for grown-up folks at the mansion during his time, but it was lively around there just the same. The governor was simply crazy about children. He loved ’em all until they got into long dresses and trous ers, and the children had the run of the house while he was in office. On festival occasions like Jackson’s birth day, which is always celebrated in Miz zoura, the governor gave a children’s party, at which he was the only adult present. The children about ruined the billiard table and the carpets in MARY’S LAMB. Incident* Connected with the Writing of Well-Known Verse*. The poem entitled “Mary Had a Lit .le Lamb” is founded on facts. The in cidents which suggested the verses are as follows: When Mary E. Saw* yer, the heroine of the poem, was a little girl in Stirling, near Worcester, Mass., where she was born, she found a new-born lamb almost dead with cold. She nursed it to life, and it be came very much attached to her. It was her constant playmate, and one day her brother suggested taking it to school. Arriving before the opening, it was put under the seat, where it lay contentedly. Mary being called to a recitation, the lamb ran down the aisle after her, to the great surprise of the teacher. It was put out of doors, but waited until Mary cam® out of school, on her way home. A young lands may be bought for from $6 to 510 per acre. The soil is an alluvial deposit, and like the famous black lands of Texas, which now bring from 530 to 550 per acre, these lands can be worked for years without using any fertilizers. The idle timber lands of this section alone offer opportunities for almost illimitable profitable opera tions. The distance between the devel opment of any of these southwestern states and the conditions which pre vail in Massachusetts, for instance, re veals the reason why the south is to day pointed out as the section above all others where the young men seek ing a location will find more opportu nities than in any other part of the nation. There is so much to do down here and the rewards are so certain and so rich that there is a disposition to wonder why any ambitious young man will remain in the overcrowded east and north, where conditions are fixed and opportunities for original individ ual effort grow less every year, while in many parts of this country almost primitive conditions prevail, and a de velopment work remains to be done which it will take generations to ac complish. In timber lands an aston-' ishing change has occurred within the last five years. Five years ago timber lands were almost a drug in the real estate market and any amount of good lands could be bought for somewhere around $2 an acre. Now one has to hunt for ‘bargains’ at anything less than 55 an acre. Lumbermen from Michigan and Wisconsin have come in and bought up tracts by the tens of thousands of acres; good yellow pine lands are being but infrequently of fered and prices have jumped up to at least 100 per cent all round. Five years ago the red cypress men, who were then feeling blue over the dull condition of trade, agreed with a pro moter to sell out their holdings, plants and all, for 57,000,000. Today these same people, who compose about 80 per cent of those engaged in the red cypress industry and own at least that proportion of the available, merchant able red cypress timber standing, would hardly sell for 525,000,000, and red cypress timber lands which could be bought for 50 or less then are snapped up now at 512 per acre.” RECOGNIZED AS A SUPER IOR ARTICLE BY MANY Nations. Wales and France the labor demand is gradually raising the price of coal, so, even with occasional strikes in our coal regions, we are not obliged to in sert in a parenthesis “other things be ing equal,” in calculating on the for eign market for American coal. The great trouble is not in the quality of our coal or in the danger of strikes here, but in the ocean freight rates and the thoughtlessness of American coal men, who fail to study European cus toms as to size of coal and the metri cal system of measurement and analy sis. Even in Russia American coal equal to the best Welsh coal is selling for a slightly lower figure. Prices In Austria are excessively high, and Italy, too, is feeling the scarcity severely, having no native deposits. American coal is just invading Spain and Algiers, and in both the consumers find it equal in quality to what they have been using. Honesty and common sense in push-' ing the American product are certain to result in a great European market for both anthracite and soft ooal for gas and steam purposes. Was Gen, Marmaduke, {or Four Years Governor of Missouri, some of the rooms, and played hob with the furniture, but they were the governor’s friends, and that settled it. “I remember once meeting Gov. Mar maduke on his return from a trip to New York. He told me he had bought a magnificent picture to hang in the mansion; said the place needed a little artistic toning up. Then he showed me the picture, and what do you think it was? Gen. Washington? No. JubaJ Early? No. Col. Moeby? I reckon not by a jugful! It was a copy of that familiar painting of a couple of little children wearing paper soldier hats, one playing a trumpet and the other beating a drum. The governor thought it was one of the finest scene* ever de picted by an artist. It went right to his great big heart to see those chil dren playing at being soldiers, all in nocent of the horrors of battle, such aa he had witnessed during his stormy career in the civil war.” man named John Roulstone happened to visit the school that day; the inci dent set him to thinking, and he com posed the first three verses of the poem and gave them to Mary. A Mrs. Townsend added the others. The lamb became a sheep, and from the wool Mary’s mother knitted two pairs of stockings for her; these Mary kept until she was 80 years old. When the ladies of Boston undertook to raise money for the Old South Church sev eral years ago, Mary contributed a pair of these stockings, the yarn of which was unraveled and wound on cards in scribed with her autograph and sold. Mary E. Sawyer became the wife of Columbus Tyler, and died in Decem ber, 1889 —New York Weekly. Do not talk about the lantern that holds the lamp, but make haste, uncov er the light, and let it shine. SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. The Caspian sea is literally a great depression in the surface of the eafth. it is 84 feet below the regular aea level. Besides this its waters have very little salt in them, being almost fresh. Dr. Jarre of Paris has announced his discovery of a remedy for the foot and mouth disease to the Acadmie de Med ecine. It consists of a 33 percent solu tion of chemically pure chromic acid applied as a caustic. The cure is rapid and there is no inflammation. Pa; ta, Peril, about five degrees south of the equator, has the reputation of being the driest spot on the globe. On on average a shower of rain occurs at Payta only once in two years. But the intervals between showers is often much longer. Yet in that arid climate seven species of animal plants manage to exist, and the natives earn a liveli hood by growing a species of cotton, whose long roots find moisture in the bed of a dried-up river. This cotton is readily marketed. Some birds and animals put on ex tra foot coverings for winter use in walking on snow and ice and boring into it for food. Among these are the ruffed grouse, the ptarmigan and western rabbit. The latter is some times known as the “snowshoe rabbit,” because of the long and stiff hair which appears on its feet in cold weather. The ptarmigan has broad, stiff feathers on its feet, and the ruffed grouse a sharp-pointed fringe. These drop off in the spring of the year. Protective coloration is one of the well-known provisions of nature for the safety of animal life, but it is usually seen in the natural habitat of the afii mal. Here is a case, however, in which the animal deliberately abandoned its l>ld habitat and adopted anew one be cause its safety would thereby be bet ter assured. The gardens in Hamburg have, within the last ten years, been planted with white-leaf maples, and the white butterfly has chosen them for its settling places. When concealed among the white leaves the butterfly is safe from its enemies. According to Professor Bigelow, meteorologist of the national weather bureau, the highest of all clouds were discovered to be those delicate, white, fibrous detached masses of frozen va por seen high against the blue sky. Sometimes they arrange themselves in belts across the heavens. Often they appear to the groups of motionless Islands far up in ihe blue, atmospheric sea. The topmost point of the highest of these measured was ten miles above ,the earth. These highest clouds — named cirrus—were found to confine themselves to an atmospheric stratum or belt, extending from the ten-mile height to within three and a half miles of our heads. Captain J. C. Bernier's plan of at tempting to each the North Pole by drifting with the ice, as was tried by the Jeanette expedition, has not yet ben decided upon. He has submitted also to the Quehec Geographical socie ty a second plan, namely, to start from Franz Josef Land wth a large number of dogs and reindeer, and travel dur ing the summer to the Pole by sleighs, taking with him concentrated provi sions, and killing his reindeers day by day for food. Traveling at an average rate of six miles per day he should reach his destination in 150 days. He will, however, allow himself 180 days. Elaborate calculations have been made as to the number of dogs and reindeer required for the purpose. A Muinmoth Peach Tree. A giant peach tree in Kent Cos., Md., says the American Agriculturist, is about the size of an ordinary kerosene barrel, measuring 78 inches at the base, or nearly 26 inches through. One foot from the ground it is 58 inches, and at two feet is 56 inches. The The crotch is 56 inches, while the four primary limbs are 32 inches, 29 inches. 28 inches, and 25 inches, respectively. There is also one secondary limb as large as a 10-year-old tree. The tree is a Crawford type and 28 years old. It has never missed a crop, and fre quently overbears, breaking badly, as the wood is very brittle. It is on the farm of Allen A. Harris, on Eastern Neck island, Kent Cos., Md., at the mouth of the Chester river, along the Chesapeake hay. The big tree is one of the survivors of a large orchard planted at the same time, some trees of which are four or five feet in cir cumference. This is claimed to be the largest peach tree In the Unite® States, if not in the world. rh*li>(rtph> on Mil. Frenchmen have been making great strides in color photography toward artistic directions and devoting them selves to the invention of new' pro cesses. The latest idea is a process of taking colored photographs upon silk. No one can deny their exquisite beau ty, the soft mellow tones obtained, and wherever laces or transparent fab rics come into the picture the effect is delicately fine. Beside portraits old and modern paintings are reproduced upon silken stuffs for sofa cushions, screens and for every purpose relative to interior decorations, while copies of engravings, etchings and photogra vures are equally well rendered. A full length portrait in large cabinet size may be ordered for SBO, while smaller portraits call for a proper diminution of price. Grasp!!’* Plan. “Graspit hopes to become a million aire.” “How?” “By wedding a millionairess.”— Ohio State Journal.