The Henry County weekly. (McDonough, GA.) 18??-1934, September 27, 1907, Image 6
HENRY COUNTY WEEKLY. j. A. FOUCHE, Publisher. R. L. JOHNSON, Editor. Entered at the postofflce at McDoa jugh as second class mail matter. Advertising Rates: SI.OO per lne* per month. Reduction on standini contracts by special agreement. The Daughters of American Presi dential Possibilities are considering an organization, reports the Atlanta Jour nal. One of the pleasantest vocations lead ing away from the strenuous life and back to the soil, declares Forrest Crissey in the .Saturday Evening Post, is that of bee-keeping and it is espe cially attractive from the fact that it is as open to women as to men. The Rochester Democrat and Chron icle says: “From the point of view of the traveling public the published fig ures regarding rail breakages are not conducive to peace of mind. It is to be hoped that the questions involved will be speedily thrashed out and con clusions reached that will increase the safety factor in railway travel.” Wealth brings much, no doubt of it; but does it not also take away? There are people, protests the New York American, who have money and noth ing else. Unequal bestowal of the earnings of the race thus works de privation not only on those from whom they are taken, but on those to whom they are given. Those who have not want and those who have long for the privilege of winning. It is only now and after a feministe campaign lasting 13 years or more that a wife in France can dispose of her own earnings or with them acquire property independent of her husband. A special cable despatch to the New York Herald from Paris tells of the promulgation of this law and also of another, under which a woman who obtains a divorce may within a few months contract a new marriage. The feministes are making progress. Active exertions are being made to alarm the American people on the sub ject of consumption, and sooner or la ter the unfortunates affected by it will be classed with lepers, smallpox sub jects and yellow fever patients, and treated accordingly, says the New Or leans Picayune. Already an edict has gone forth in Louisiana requiring con sumptive patients to be reported and registered. The movement against them has become progressive, and will grow rapidly and actively so. Just what will be the status of wom en's rights at the end of the 20th cen tury no one is wise enough to predict, observes the Christian Register. But it is safe to say and to act upon the supposition that the changes so rapid ly made in the last half century will be succeeded by other changes which will result in permanent readjust ments. Men and women are being tested in common employments on a large scale and in many ways. Gradu ally the things that women can do as well or better than men will come in to view, and the things that men can do better than women will also ap pear. What the country needs is a federal board of inspection, of long, if not of permanent, tenure, consisting of men of such wide knowledge and of such undoubted integrity that their conclu sions will be accepted without ques <* tion, and their recommendations adopted by the railroads as a matter of course. The reports of such a board, contends the Atlantic, would be of in calculable value in our present per plexity. We should have the facts, gathered by unprejudiced and compe tent investigators, and no longer be obliged to rely for information upon the scraps from the table of the rail road official. We should really know whether inexperienced men are being placed in responsible positions, wheth er employes are being persistently overworked, whether every precaution is being taken to emorce discipline. We should be able to dispel the mys tery of the “personal equation.’’ »t By WALTER BESANT U CHAPTER XIII. 13. Continued. It was past eight when Katharine woke up. Mile, de Samarie was stand ing before her. “I—l—l beg your pardon,” said Katharine, “I have been asleep.” “You’ve slept for three hours and more. Miss. Fretty tired you must Lave been to sleep in all this racket.” “I’ve been walking about all night because I bad no money.” “Have you, now? All night? Just think! And a lady. I should say—well, now', miss, if you’d like to brush your hair and wash your face and make yourself tidy upstairs, you can.” Was there ever a better Samaritan? Katharine followed her. She would have cried again, but that she was stronger, being no longer hungry. But she kissed that woman of Samaria when she came away, and when For tune smiled upon her once more, she sought her out, and shed tears when she found that the good creature was gone, and that no one knew where she was to be found. Then, refreshed and strengthened. r.nd with renewed hope, and with six pence out of the policeman’s shilling in her hand, Katharine went forth again for the third day’s tramp. She thought that perhaps if she went back to St. James’ Park she might find Lily waiting there for her, or per haps Dittmer Bock. Katharine walked slowiy up and dow r n the whole length of the walk. Dittmer Bock, she now remembered, must be in the city at his office. If she only knew where that office wasl There was no sign of Lily anywhere. She left the walk and went into the park. There she sat down, and tried to think what was to be done next. She thought that she would go to Doughty street and see her old friend Mrs. Emptage again. Perhaps there might be some help even from thaf poverty stricken household. She walked all the way from St. James’ Park to Doughty street. It is a good step. You go along Long Acre and Great Queen street and Lincoln’s Inn Fields and through Gray's Inn. For a girl who has been walking about all night it is a longisb walk. For tunately she had eaten a good break fast. but it was at five in the morning. When Katharine arrived in Doughty street she found that the Emptage family had gone away, and they had left no address. It was about eleven o’clock. Kath arine turned away wearily. By this lime she had fallen into that strange state of mind when nothing seenH to matter. The Emptages were gone, and they had left n O address. This intelligence affected her very slightly. She saw that there was a gate on the left hand side of Gray’s Inn open, and that it led into n warHoii where there were trees and grass and seats. She turned in, took the first bench, and sank down upon it. At the other end of the bench sat a young lady dressed in deep mourning. “You look tired,” said the young lady, presently; “you look ill—are you ill? Can I be of any service to you?” Katharine turned upon her in reply eyes so haggard, a face so worn, so full of despair and misery, that this young lady started and shuddered. “Tell me,” she said, “what it means. Tell me what is the matter with you.” Katharine tried to speak, hut she was past speaking. Her head dropped, and she would have fallen forward upon the ground but the young lady caught her in her arms. CHAPTER XIV. The Nubian Desert. There Avas an encampment at the go ing down of the sun in the desert. The great Nubian Desert is a ter rible desert indeed. It covers a weary waste of country which, if you will examine the map, you will find lying between the Nile—that part of it where the Second and Third cataracts are marked—and the Red Sea. It is re ported by those who have been across this desert—the number, for certain reasons, is noAV much greater than of old—that there are mountains in it, all arid and bare, level plains covered with sand, rocky passes, and low hills surrounding small plains of sand. The sand is everywhere. It is a hot and thirsty country; those who live in it are a thin, parched, and dried-up peo ple, who are said to regard their abom inable country with affection. When the sun sets over the great Nubian Desert he paints the moun tains and rocks all manner of colors, but especially those which have to do with purple, crimson, and yellow; he places the same colors, only paler, in the sky, and he condescends to light up the level sands with the most beau- Kful and wonderful mirages. This evening, for example, those of the peo ple who cared to look for it might have seen in the southwest, and apparently within easy access, a most inviting oasis of verdure and beauty incom parable in any climate. Saw one ever such green grass, such blue lakes, such waving palms, such a suggestion of bubbling springs, green shade, frag rance of flowers, balmy rest, and uni versal delight? Yet there were two In this encampment who gazed upon the scene without joy and without ad miration. “There it is again, Tom,” said one of them; “a very creditable image. You would swear that it was real, wouldn't' you?” “Ay. This is the Land of Tantalus. We are always thirsty, and there are always dangled before us the water and the fruits which we may not drink.” It Avas not a luxurious camp; the water the people had to drink was warm and brackish; the only protec tion they had against the night dew's was the cotton sheets which by day the *sen wore as mantles or wrapped round their bodies; the food they had to eat consisted chiefly of dates. The men were armed, for the most part, with spears and shields, though there were old guns among them. One would certainly not think the tribe or the en campment worthy of the notice of his tory save for the fact that right in the middle of the camp there were sitting, without any protection of white cotton tent, the two English men whose remarks on the mirage you have just heard. They were prisoners of war, whose lives were spared when the Egyptians wer - all speared. Why they were not massacred with the rest has never been found out. Per haps it will remain a secret forever. They were pretty ragged by this time, having been prisoners and on the tramp for six months. Their coats hung upon their shoulders in long strips, which they would have torn off but for the protection afforded against the sun; the legs of their trous ers had been mostly torn off in strips in order to provide bindings for their feet, from which the boots had either dropped or had been taken off. To walk barefooted in the African sands is for English feet very nearly the same thing as to walk upon ten mil lions of sharp pointed needles all red hot. Even the eleven thousand British virgins of Aachen had only one pin for the whole lot to dance upon. But suppose they had been ordered to dance upon ten millions of pins apiece! Their flannel shirts were in strips; as for watches, revolvers, glasses, water bottles, belts, and everything else, these had long since been taken from them. Of all their kit they preserved only their helmets, which, as bound in common gratitude, had in return preserved their owners’ lives against sunstroke. Their hair had grown long and matted, like the black ringlets of their captors; their faces were cov eted with thick beards, and six months’ wanderings in the desert on a diet principally composed cf dates and brackish water had taken the super fluous fat from their fingers, sharpened their features, given their eyes a peculiar brightness and eagerness un known in countries of civilization, where the human eye is apt to swell with fatness, and doubtless added ten years to their lives should they ever get home. The scene before them, apart from the mirage, was a landscape of loav hills and rolling ground; everywhere was gray sand, AA'itb, for vegetation, tufts of dead desert grass. The two Englishmen sat side by side in silence, There Avas nothing to say. When a man lias been made a tramp, without aim or object, for six long months, during which he has had no news of the outer Avorld, and has been all tha time hungry and thirsty, he is not inclined to talk. To-night the two men were so tired AA'itb the day’s march that they sat without speaking a word, until one of their captors brought them supper, consisting of some bread and dates AA'itb a draught of Avater. “Tom.” said one of them, “is the finest beverage at the club compar able with a good pull of warmish water in such a place as this and after such a day’s march?” Tom was at the A'ery moment tak ing that pull. When they had eaten their supper they began to talk. “Tom,” said the first resuming the conversation of the preceding night, “my opinion remains the same. We have come back somewhere near the place where we started.” “You see.” said Tom. “that if you should happen to be wrong, our goose is cooked Avithout the least doubt, and AA-e shall either starve in this infernal desert or be captured again, when we shall most certainly be stuck.” “Yes,—but I am sure that I am not mistaken. I remember the outline of those hills the very first day we were brought in, when we expected to be killed every instant.” “It may happen any minnte as it is. These fellows are not in a hurry, be cause we are always in their hands As for me, I very well remember the funk I was in, but I forgot the hills.” “Tom, it is the same place,” the other man repeated, earnestly. “I am sure it is. We are within a few hours of the Egyptian fort. I believe they have come back here in the hopes of meeting other tribes and getting up another massacre, if the Egyptians can be lured outside their Avails. Tom"— lie lowered his voice to a whisper, though not one could understand what they were saying—“within half a day’s march*is freedom, if you want to Avin it. Do you understand that?” “It is not a dark saying, old man. As for my wanting to win it.” lie replied— “you’re a soldier. Take the command, and tell me Avbat to do. I will obej if it leads to death, McLauehlin, on the bare chance of getting out of this.” “We will wait until they are all asleep. They have left off setting a Avatch. Then AA'e will quietly slfp away and make for the coast. I am sure we are near it. I can smell the sea; though it is only the Red Sea. If Av T e are lucky we shall sight the fort and the ships.” “And suppose Ave take the wrong turn, and go north, instead of south?” “In that case, Tom, AA'e shall travel round the AA'liole Avorld, tAventy-five thousand miles, or thereabouts, before we get to the fort At twenty miles a day it is only tAveh-e hundred days, or four years, alloAving us to rest on Sundays.” “I should give lip trying for the fort and strike off nortliAA'est, -where Lon don is—and Katherine,” said Tom, Avitb a curious catch in his A'oice. “I’ve got a Katherine, too,” said the man called McLauehlin. “I’d go uortli- AA'est with you, old man. Oh! Tom”— he laid his hand on the other’s shoulder —“to be free again! To go home and tell them Ave are not dead after all! Do you sometimes think of them cry ing over us?” “Have I thought of anything else during the whole of the time? And my girl, you see, has got no one, and now she must be friendless. All day long for six months I have heard hpr sobs. If we do get away from this prison—if ever there is a real chance of freedom again, I will tell you about her. I couldn’t here ” Tom said no more. The sun AA’ent down at last with an undignified bob, as one who is long in making up his mind to go, and only goes at last because he is obliged. Immediately aftei'Avards the color went out of the sky and out of the hills, and then, because there is not much twilight in the great Nubian Desert, the night fell, and the children of the desert ceasing to chatter and to scream and to quarrel, lay doAA'n upon the sand, still hot with the day’s sun, and Avere all asleep in a few minutes. Presently Captain McLauehlin touched Tom’s shoulder, and they arose and looked around them. Only half a days’ march to freedom! But sup» pose McLauehlin had made a mistake? Suppose he had been deceived by the outlines of the hills? Then, as Tom truly prophesied, they would either starve sloAvly—it is a lingering com plaint, including the torture of the burning heat of the sun and a mad dening thirst —or they would be re captured, and then they would be cer tainly speared for good. Freedom, hoAyever, is AA'orth some risk; for the sake of freedom men have run the chance of many deaths, and those even more cruel than hunger and thirst* in the desert. A fortnight later the same two men lay in two beds m the hospital of the friendly fort, now garisoned by Eng lish as well as by Egyptian troops. The half day’s march bad in fact turned out to be a march of tAVO or three days, AA’itb no food and no water, because, you see, they did take that Avrong turning. When the fugitives were picked up by accident and a good way from the fort, they Avere very ter rible to look at. black and gaunt and fierce-eyed Avith thirst and hunger and the beat of the desert under the fierce sun and the glare of the water, be cause they were upon the shore of the Red Sea. Already they seemed to hear the flopping of the vulture’s Avings anil the bark of the jackal, when they AA'ere rescued by a party of English officers come out to shoot. At first nobody knew' them. They were brought in and put to bed, and for a week or so they could not et'en tell their story. When that story was fully heard those that listened mar veled and were sore astonished, be cause their escape and return to their friends was like a resurrection from tlie tomb. Long since, it was sup posed, their bones bad been bleaching upon the sands AA'itb the bones of the poor Egyptian soldiers who could not run fast enough to get away. Mc- Lauclilin had been gazetted as killed. Tom Addison, war correspondent, was reported killed. By this time their friends would even be going out of mourning. “Six months, Tom.” said McLauehlin this afternoon, the room being quiet and shaded, and the pain AA'pll-nigh gone out of their feet, which had SAvelled up and behaved in a most abominable manner, and inflicted dis gusting torture upon them ‘ six months. Tom, may go a long AA'ay to make a felloAv forgotten even by his girl. They’ve got the telegrams now, and by next AA'eek or thereabouts they w'ill have the letters. I Avonder ” “So do I,” said Tom. “ Whether Katharine will have forgotten?” “Just what I was going to say,” said Tom. “There’s been a good many odtl things happening in the last six months or so, old man. When they brought us in, and my head felt like one in flamed balloon, and my chest like another, you began to talk of your Katharine, and I began to think we got mixed up somehow. You’ve got a Katharine and so have I. They can’t, I suppose, be the same girl, by any accident?” “Mine is named Katharine Regina.” Tom fell back on bis pillow' with a groan. “So is mine,” he said. “We have got mixed up.” “Katharine Regina Willoughby^ mine is.” “Katharine Regina Capel is minei” said Tom. “There’s a chance for us yet. But isn’t it odd that there should be two girls christened Katharine Regina?” “Perhaps they are cousins. There is always a Katharine Regina is the Willoughby family. Who are your girl’s people?” (To be Continued.) THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. INTERNATIONAL LESSON COM MENTS FOR SEPT. 29 BY THE REV. I. W. HENDERSON. RerieAV of the Lessons From July 7 to September 22, Inclusive- Golden Text, Ps. 103:8 An. Epitome Helpful to Students. July 7. 1. The charm of Israel’s history; lies in its humanness. 2. Israel sighing for slavery. 3. The wonderful providence of God. 4. Israel in the wilderness only an example. 5. Israel’s experience has pro found spiritual significance. 6. We are all human like Israel. July 14. 1. The ten commandments eter nal. 2. The first commandment. 3. The second commandment* 4. The third commandment. 5. The fourth commandment. July 21. 1. The fifth commandment. 2. The sixth commandment. 3. The seventh commandment. 4. The eighth commandment. 5. The ninth commandment. 6. The "tenth commandment. July 28. 1. Moses on the mount pleading for Israel. 2. The golden calf a lesson and ft. warning to America. 3. God’s providence has mado America possible. 4. Some would seem to lay it to men. 5. America has a golden calk 6. It is not a dream calf. 7. America needs to recognize God. August 4. 1. The tabernacle. 2. The place of meeting. 3. The tabernacle holy. 4. A clean priesthood. 5. God’s presence. 6. Men as tabernacles. August 11. 1. The drunkenness of Nadab and Abihu. 2. Liquor a snare. 3. To be let alone. 4. Nothing gained by its use. 5. The liquor traffic should be abolished. August 18. 1. The fact of sin. 2. Confession of sin. 3. Forgiveness of sin. 4. Forgetting of sin. August 25. 1. The preparation. 2. Israel prepared. 3. Hobab invited. 4. The invitation of the church. September 1. 1. Israel’s attempt to enter Canaan a failure. 2. God allows the spies to be sent. 3. The spies report. 4. The land was what God de clared it to be. 6. Two men saw success. t. We should be like Joshua and Caleb. September 8. 1. Doubting Israel is confounded. 2. The brazen serpent is sugges tive. 3. Results of sin bring Israel to her senses. 4. Salvation was simply effective. 6. So is Christ’s salvation to-day. 6. Israel and we make a mistake to progress without God. I September 15. 1. Moses’ address a masterpiece. 2. Book of Deuteronomy majestic 3. Love for God. 4. Teaching children. 5. God’s gifts, j September 22. 1. Moses’ death pathetic. 2. Death sad but joyous. 3. God’s promise fulfilled. 4. Moses work finished. f>. Joshua called. 6. Moses’ exemplary manhood.