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STAINS. )
The three ghosts on the lonesome
road
Spake each to one another,
“Whence came that stain about your
mouth
No lifted hand may cover?”’
“From eating of forbidden fruit,
Brother, my brother.”
The three ghosts on the sunless road
Spake each to one another,
“When came that red burn on your
foot
‘No dust or ash may cover?”’
“l stamped a neighbor's hearth-flame
out,
Brother, my brother.”
The three ghosts on the windless road
Spake each to one another,
“Whence came that bloo‘('l upon your
hand
No other hand may cover?”’
“From breaking of a woman's heart,
Brother, my brotner.”
“Yet on the earth clean men We
walked,
Glutton and Thief and Lover;
White flesh and fair it hid our stains
That no man might discover.”
“Naked the soul goes up to God,
Brother, my brotaer.”
—Theodosia Garrison, in Scribner’s.
Crab Apple Blossoms.
“Madam—"
The lady waiting the car at the
crossing turned in surprise. Her es
cort, not understanding if she knew
the one wno addressed her, simply
looked at the man.
He might have been fifty years of
age, but there was a something in his
face that for the moment made him
look almost youthful; a flush along
the check, as of boy’s bl'oo"d, and an
eager look in the eye that almost made
it dance and glow. He was well enough
dressed-—but there was neither osten
tation nor scrupulous care. His hat
was in the right hand.
“I ask a thousand pardons, madam,
for thus addressing a total stranger.”
So he was not an acquaintance. The
escort understood exactly what to do
now, He had dealt with impertinence
before. '
“You insolant——" he began. ;
But the lady, a moment ago frigid,
seemed to wave him aside somehow
by her manner and to be disposed now
to hear the stranger.
“You addressad me, sir?” she said.
“I again ask your pardon,” he re
plied in a voice that quite reassured
her. “But I should esteem it a great
favor if you would tell me the Kkind
of perfume on your handkerchief.”
The escort started, astounded. The
lady answered courteously:
“There is one . drop of crabapple
blossom extract on my handkerchief.”
A thousand thanks!” he replied,
and was gone,
_.”Mad as a March hare!” exclaimed
her escort, bringing rimself together.
“Perhaps sO,” replied the lady, “and
yet__n
For many months she suffered in
secret for not having asked why he
wished to know. Ah, that curiosity
of women! Like to nothing else in
the world except the curiosity of
men!
“Ilt is shameful!” exclaimed the
drummer’'s wife— she wnd her hus
band ha¢g the front rooms in the
second story—discussing the elderly
gentleman occupying the large room,
originally the parlor, on the first floor.
The lodger in question paid prompt
ly, hence the landlady was rather
more discreet than usual in her opin
fon.
“Who'd a thought it?” shy replied,
really committing herself to nothing.
“A sot, a perfect rot, -and nothing
but a sot!” was the answer. “The
worst kind of one, too. He sits for
hours in the easy chair of his, sunk
im stupor. Formerly ¢ either read
or went out. It’s opium or whiskey
or some drug, you may be sure of
itl” :
“Yet he doesn’t seem to show any
traces of that sort of dissipation,” said
the landlady, thoughfully. “In fact, I
told him the other day he looked ten
years younger. His step is springy,
he holds his shoulder up and his eye
is bright.”
“Pshaw! The effect of the whisky
or drug, that's all!” said the drum
mer’s wife, who knew a tning or two,
having once read a page or S 0 in a
medical book while waiting for a con
sultation at a physician’s oflice.
“It’s a sad case, and at his age!”
“Oh, it’s never too late for a man, a
single man, to fall into bad habits!”
“But how——"" a question here sud
denly occurred to the landlady—*“did
you find out all this about the first
floor lodger? He generally has his
door closed.”
“Well, you know what a prying, cu
rious thing Julia, the nousegirl, is.
I've tried to break her of it a thou
sand times, but eveiy now and then
a keyhole is too much for her. And
Tom, the negro dining room waiter,
is every bit as bad as she is!”
For the next half hour they dis
cussed this strange failing of domes
tics. They then summoned Tom for
further details.
The rumor spread, and friends heard
of how the celibate was throwing
fhimself away. Ong, feeling a genuine
interest in him, came to see him at
his room, the first time in twenty
years. His knock was promptly an
swered, and his hand was pressed
warmly.
There was a delicate perfume in
the room, as of a woman’s presence,
and in the grate a fire burned brightly.
Next to the table was a comfortable
armchair, and on it a little vial, that,
without reason, caught the visitor’s
eye.
He voiced his surprise:
“Old man, I never saw you looking
better! Your face is fresh, and you
have a more contented air than
usual!”
They had been good friends since
boyhood. The visitor therefore knew
the little romance his friend had
borne locked in his bosom for twenty
-odd years—the explanation of his
bachelor hocd, his solitariness, ‘his
‘aloofness from many old associates.
- “Oh, I'm feeling very well, thank
you, old dellow,” the host answered,
stirring the fire vigorously.
} The right arm of the guest rested
Qn the table at his side. The fingers
idly tapping touched something. It
was the little glass vial. He glanced
at it curiously.
“Hello! Essences,” he said. “Didn’t
know you were fond of perfumes.”
The other laughed a little constrain
ied laugh and then replied, haif quiz
zically, halif seriously:
*IOO you call that a ihere vial of
perfume? My friend, you are ignorant
of the genius that dwells in that bot
\ tle—more potent than the one the fish
% erman saw rising from the cask in the
Eastern tale.”
“Is it so wonderful as all that?”
asked the guest, smiling,
“Even more! A little drop of that
en a handkerchief works miracles. It
revives old associations. It makes me
live again a certain season of my
youth when that particular perfumse,
unuoticed then, stamped itself on tha
‘memory vf my senses—it was the only
‘kind she used. To breathe it is to
loosen the first thread that unravels
the woof of an old romance—to be
young again, in a word, to dream an
old dream, too long past to have its
sting, yet still possessing strange
sweetness. Do you know I often sit
for hours under the influence of the
spell I thus cast upon myself? It is
more pleasant than the club—and it
dces no harm, for she’s probably =z
grandmother now. I am not torment
ed with any unappeasable desire of
possessing her, I assure you.”
“You were always a strange fellow!”
said his friend, sober with a vague
sense of pathos in the explanation
just given. “How long have you thus
played the magician?”
“Three or four weeks ago I passed
a lady u the street. The faint per
fume exhaled from her handkerchief
affected me powerfully. In an instant,
it brought back everything, as I have
told you. I followed her, asked her
what kind it was, and she told me.
Thereupon I purchased a vial at a per
fumer’s.” :
Then for a while they discussed
this faculty of the senses for treasur
ing up impressions, retalning them
while the mind has apparently lost all
trace of the circumstances with which
the sensual impression.is connected;
and the strange way in which the
memory of the sense, once awakened,
sets to vibrating the mind’s memory,
gshaking out the tangles of associa
tions and making past events arrange
themselves in the minde*with the cor
relations of a one-time reality.
And then they went over to the
club.—New Orleans Times-Democrat.
WASHERWOMAN’'S CONFESSIONS.
Position Much Preferable to That of
a Maid of All Work.
A writer in th> Independent upsets
the general notion that the lot of a
washerwoman, like that of the police
man in the “Pirates of Penzance,” is
“not a happy one.” ,
According to this writer, who does
not give her name on account of a
desire to keep the nature of her profit
able calling from her friends, the po
sition of washerwoman Is in every
way preferable to that of maid of all
work. After telling of her bitter ex
periences as a servant, and of her ac
ceptance of an offer to do washing
and ironing, she says:
“I am working stzadily now and
do not find it so very disagreeable. I
do not enjoy washing, but nearly all
of my work is ironing, and I take
considerable pleasure in it, now that
I have time to do it well. ~ * * In
bad weather we are sometimes forced
to work on Saturday, elther one oOr
both of us, but I have lost only two
days in this way. * * * My hands
are not as pretty as they used to be,
but I keep them in fair condition by
wearing gloves whenever I step out
of doors, and also at night.
In addition we learn ..at she gets
$1.50 a day and board, and that she
works only five days a week, enabling
her to board at a good boarding house
where she has the use cf a piano. And
the rest of the bdoarders think she
teaches school, for th> reason that
che does not werk Saturdays or Sun
days. This last the writer dwells
upon as if it were the finest recom
mendation of all—tha fact that the
knowledge that she iy a “washerwo
man”’ can be kept from her friends.
But doubtless the writer who des
cants so glowingly on jer success in
this line of work has not attained to
such heights as she imagines. Her
false pride, in permitting her friends
to go on thinking she i a teacher
instead of a washerwoman, will al
ways stand in her way. &No person
has ever achieved a real success in
work of which he or she is ashamed
—and no person can be a rcally first
class washerwom@n when she does
not glory in doing her work well. If
such a foolish and weaix minded per
son can make a partial success of
washday work, evidently the field of
fers even more for those who enter
it whole heartedly and with all their
enthusiasm. If all looked at the en
nobling side of toil there would be no
“problems” in housekeeping or any
other field of labor, and there would
be no more such foolish ‘“confessions”
as thos2 publizhed by the anonymous
writer whose case has heen review
ed.—Denver Republican.
The public health committee, of
Camberwell, London, proposes tu fit
up the public baths in the borough
for cricket practice during the winter
months. Apparently the Camberyel
lians do not bathe in winter.
A catalogue of autograph -letters,
published by a London dealer, has sur
prised a good many people by showing
the fact that Charles Dickens’ full
name was Charles John Huffinar
Dickens.
ywhat It Costs to Butt In. ;
The preliminary estimates of the
Japanese budget for the new year put
war expenses at $385,000,000, and the
ordinary expenses of th emw
$60,000,000. That gives a pretty £Lood
idea of-what it costs just in money
for a nation to break the peace in
these enlightened days.—From the
Boston Transcript. ;
Expensive.
“Maria,” said Mr. Stubb, “what do
you think of my new automobile? I‘a
bought it for a mere song.”
“H’'m,” mused Mrs. Stubb. “What
did it cost?”
“Two thousand dollars.”
“Then you must be alluding to a
Patti song.”
FITS permanently eured. No fits or nervous
ness after first day’s use of Dr, Kline’'s Great
Nervellestorer,s2trial hottleand treatise free
Dr.R. H. Krixg, Ltd., 981 Arch St., Phila., Pa.
Excavations in Egypt have revealed a
bond dated A. D. 100.
" A Guaranteed Cure For Piles.
Itching, Blind, Bleeding or Protruding
Piles. Druggists will refund money if Pazo
Qintment fails to cure in 6 to 14 days. 50c.
The English waiter has. been virtually
ousted from English hotels. *
Piso’s Cure for Consumption is an infallible
medicine for coughs and colds.—N. W.
SamMUEL, Ocean Grove, N.J., Feb. 17, 1900..
The Swiss military authorities are about
to adopt khaki uniforms.
Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup for children
teething, soften the gums, reducecsinflamma
tion, allays pain, eures wind colic, 25¢.a bottle
The average coffee tree in Honduras pro
duces half a pound of beans.
To Cure a Cold in One Day
Take Faxative Bromo Quinine Tablets. All
druggists refund money if it fails to cure.
E. W. Grove’s signature is on box. 25ec.
In Japan, meat once a day is a luxury,
even among the well to do.
(Atl-05) :
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By A UMy i B
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To be a successful wife, to |
retain the love and admiration
of her husband should be a
woman’s coastant study. If
she would be all that she may,
she must guard well against the
signs of ill health. Mrs. Brown
tells hier story for the benefit of
all wives and mothers.
“DEAR Mgs. PINkHAM : — Lydia B,
Finkham’s Vegetable Compound
will make every mother well, strong,
healthy and happy. I dragged througgh
nine years of miserable existence, worn
out with pain and weariness. I then
noticed a statement of a woman
troubled as I was; and the wonderful
results she had had from gour Vege
table Compound, and decided to try
what it would do for me, and used it for
three months. At the end of that
time, I was a different woman, the
neighbors remarked it, and my hus
band fell in love with me all over
agein. It seemed like a new existence.
I had been suffering with inflamma
tion and falling of the womb, but your
medicine cured that, and built up my
entire system, till I was indeed like a
new woman. — Sincerely yours, Mgs.
CrAs. F. BROWN, 21 Cedar Terrace, Hot
Springs, Ark., Vice President Mothers
Club. — 85000 forfeit if originat of adove lstter
Proving genuingness cannot be produced,