Oklahoma Democrat. (El Reno, Okla. Terr.), Vol. 2, No. 46, Ed. 1 Friday, December 23, 1892 Page: 2 of 7
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W«TS"T".
fR
ic)« 8eth IxKiui
dir.]
UOOI) old fmoli
ione«i CTirU'nuB,
with the IOK*
upon the hearth,
The table tilled with fowler*, an" the rooui
i r>iir 'Itli mirth.
With the Mtookln'H aiminunl to bu'tilu'
madder* piled '1th snow
Kgow 1 olA-fathiontd ( brin'mas liken
long ago I
Now thafi tho thing I'd like to *eo ug In afore I
(lie,
But Chrln'tnas in the city here it'« different,
oh my!
an' the
• had so
With the crowded hustle-bustle of th * slushy,
noisy street.
Au' the scowl upon th«' faces of the stranger*
that you meet.
Oh, there's buytn', plenty of :t, of a lot o gor-
geous toys;
An' It takes a mint o' money to please modem
girlH uud boy*.
Why, 1 mind the time a jack-knife uu' a toffy-
lump for mt
Made my little heart au' stockin' Jus' chock full
of Chris mas glee
An' there's fenstlu'. Think o* feedln* with these
■luck-up city folk:
Why. ye have to speak in whispers, u' ye dar's
n't t rack a Joke
Then remember how the tables looked all
crowded' with your klu 4
When you couldn't hear a whlatle blow across
the merry din'
You see I'm so old-faahJoned-like 1 don't care
much for style,
Au' to eat your Chris'mat banquets here l
wouldn't g< i> mil**:
I'd rather have, like Solomon, u good yarb din
nor set
With real old friends tliau lurkle soup with all
the nob* you'd get.
There's my next-door n« iirhl'or Ourlej fancy
how his brows 'u'd lift
If I'd holler ' Merry Ohrls'man! Caught, old
fellow. C'hrln'inus gift!''
Lardy-Lord. I'd like to try It' Guess he'd
nearly have a fit.
(iang this city stiffness, anyways, 1 can't get
used to it
Then your heart It kept a-sweU>o' till It nearly
bu'st your side,
An' by night your Jaws were achln' with your
smile four luohes wide,
An' your enemy, the wo'st one, you'd Just grab
his hand, an' say:
"Mebbe, both of us was wrong, John Come,
let's shake It's Chrls'mas day!"
Mighty little Chris'mas spirit seems to dwell
'tween city walls.
Where each snowflake brings a soot flake for a
brother as It falls:
Mighty little Cbrls'mas spirit! An' I'm plain",
don't you know,
For a good old fashioned Chris'mas like wo had
so long ago
—Alice Williams lirotherton, in the Century.
boarded at the Grand Occidental hotel,
his position being that of mine superin-
tendent for the company working the
property ho had discovered, add this
gave him an excellent opportunity to
see much of the child, and to direct her
sttidies in his spare hours.
These relations between Frank Ho-
bart and Ella continued for two years,
she proving herself to l c a bright and
grateful pupil, uud he manfully hiding
from her and the world the new and
powerful feeling that such association
j liad developed in his big, trenerous
I heart. By the time she was seventeen,
j Ella Lauston had become the toast of
every milling cutup for fifty miles
I ubout, and more than one rich gallant
1 had laid his heart and his fortune at
, her feet
Mrs. Lauston, mho had l een a wife
since her sixteenth year, would have
insisted on her daughter's marriage at
this time, had not Frank Hobart in-
duced the pureuts to send her for two
years to the best young ladies' semi-
nary at Denver.
"Frank Hobart inout n-married that
gal. if he'«l jest bid th4 checfe tO toll
her that he loved her, as he most sar-
tlnly doe.s; but, like a blamed eejet, he
gets the Cap'n and Mrs. Luuston ter
beside llowurd Ford, and shaking hands
again, while he said:
"Miss Kiln, tne and the rest of yer
friends has been a-noticin' that you
and Frank Hobart's kinder geeiu' off
from aich other, and that you ain't
danced together to-ui(fhL Now the
supper'll l e ready in half an hour, and
l>eforo that time, if you'd go up and ax
Frank to be yer pard for one round,
it'd please us very much."
Howard Ford looked allocked at this
proposition, and an expression of
doubt, then of pleasure, came into the
fine gray eyes of' the "sage brush
belle '' Howing, by way of apology, | mantel told that Christina
to the young man who had monopolized J gone and Christmas day liad
lie" thut evening, she took Sam Brit-
ton's strong arm, and lie led her to
where Frank stood.
"Mr. Hobart." she said, and her love-
ly face Hushed and her cvea were
downcast, "if you will not ask tne to
dance with you. our friends think I
should ask you to dunce with tne."
"So we do," said Sam Britton, before
Frank could recover his confusion.
"Now liuul him out to the head of the
kortillion. and everyone'll allow you
two's the handsomest klpple at the
ami covered his poor blistered fsoe
with a moistened cloth, she asked:
"Is there hope?"
"I think he will pull through," said
< ne of the doctors, "but I fear he can
never use these agaiu;" aud he pomtsd
to his eyes.
,40 Frank!" she cried, as she kissed
the baudnged hands. "You brought me
light when 1 was in ti ark ues.-. and gave
me love when my heart huugered: and
now. if it 1>« (jod's will, my eyes shall
be vour eves, ami my hands jour
hands, and my life your life!"
Aud the striking of a l* ll on the
ve had
arMmwn
ball."
Like one in
s dream. Frank Hobart
rfm
\ X 8 T (> N
W&b- <L'
W.. *•!>.; A ■>
L'\ V,
\.) a\
w
Exactly one year afterward there
were again grand preparations for u
fete at Lanston's Olen. Frank Hobart
and the girl who had married liitn
when his future seemed so black were
1 returning from the east. Tli * v had been
there for ten months, where the fore-
most oculists had charge of the case,
i News came that Frank's sight was
restored, and that, except for the cruel
| sears, that enhanced his beauty to his
I wife, he was, as Sam tiritton put it:
"Better than new."
There never had been such a ball and
banquet iu those mountains, aud never
j will l e again. Frank and his beautiful
cess Is talking to them both and smil-
ing her blandest."
"Oh! the poor old princess!" giggled
j the gentlemau. "Was there ever such
an overthrow? They say that he gave her
her choice the other night uflcr he hod
, sent us all adrift like a pack of school
^Tr A.uiANct I children and treated poor Philibert so
' awfully. Either she had to pull down
her flag and fold it discreetly away,
just us she's doing now, < r leave the
country inside of twenty-four hours."
"But is it true," asked the lady, "that
this American girl was once betrothed
to M. Lispenard?"
"You know what happened there on
the palace grounds." was tli • reply.
"He saw her and ran c.ff in an agony of
embarrassment, followed by his friend."
"Perhaps tliey had been married and
then divorced," said the lady. "I have
it on the best of authority that people
in America marry there in one province
:.lct us say Venezuela; this year and are
divorced with perfect ease the next
year in some other province (let us say
wife led the dance, and when midnight
came tho miners and their wives and
daughters placed them in the center of
a joyous, whirling circle, and shouted
from the heart's depths:
"A 'Merry Christmas.' aud a Happy
New Year'to the 'sage-brush belle' and j
Frank, and to all who love brave, lion
est folk!"—Alfred 11. < alhoun. in liem-
orest's Magazine.
THE DEAREST OF ALL HOLIDAYS.
Is III* True -pii-lt «
CHAPTER XI -f'oSTiwran
But if anything happens, Lonz, I
pledge you mv word that will happen!
l'he king has done fur more audacious
things already than marry an American
girl. As for a morganatic marriage-
"Curse u morganatic marriage!" cried
Alonzo. "If he tried that, and she con-
sented, I'd put a bullet through his
brain, though they hiiug mo ten minutes
afterward."
"They don't hang here; they guillo-
tine," said Eric, calmly. "It's much
neater, in a way. But you needn't covet
any such poetic fate. Clurimond loathes
morganatic unions, has more than once
told ine. Lonz, Lonz! you know him
too weM by this time for such kind of ■ ' alifomia)."
talk! Here you are, rich, through his! "Really? I'm not surprise'
generosity, and you talk of him as if he ' «'*ns are such curious ereat
were some common cad." | s'u* s wonderfully handsome.
"I'll resign my position!'' quavered I ')on * 3'ou think so?"
Alonzo, with both hunds clenched at his
side. "I'll go to starvation, if you
please—"
"Don't. Go to the ball first."
"I'll send him my resignation this
very day!"
"Wait until the ball is over."
"Curse the ball!"
"You're cursing everything, it strikes he now? Do you km
j me, in the most promiscuous manner." ! "Talking t
I. Ameri-
ires. But
that girl.
•Oh!
"Forgive me,Eric, but I can't help it.
granted the lady,
saying no more, and saying even this
much as though it were forced from her.
"But I don't like tho affected simplii itj'
with which she has gowned herself.
Do you?"
"I hadn't thought a bit about her at-
tire," said the gentleman. "Where is
'?"
r so of our 'nest
• fate
MARK Kr.Al>Y TO LOWKR MK DOWN !
uious name, fur
a far western
mining camp
is in the Wah-
aatch moun-
tains about thirty miles, as the crow
flies, or is supposed to fly. from Salt i at
Lake City, the famous capital of the would
Mormons.
Six years ago the resideuts of Lan-
ston's (ilen were, without exception,
"Gentiles," as the non-tnetubers of the
••Church of Latter-Day Saints' are
called, and they retain their skepticism
as to things Mormon up to the present
day. "The (ilen," as the residents call
it among themselves, is a small mining
town on the edge of a canyon, far be-
eatli the depths of which a rich silver
send Ella off ter school at the other
aide of the world. When she comes
back in two year, she won't know
Frank or no one else in the (ilen, and
the chances is a thousand ter one that
she'll be engaged to some dandy dude
or eastern tenderfoot."
This is what Sam Britton, the min-
ing boss, said to his friends after Ella
had gone with her father and Frank to
Denver, aud that is what all the min-
ers believed.
Time flies fast with the aged and the
busy. It was Christmas eve, 188(1, and
Lanston's Glen was in a state of great
excitement. The "sagebrush belle"
was coming over on the stage that
evening from Salt Lake City, and one
and all agreed to have a ball at the
Grand Occidental hotel in honor of her
arrival.
■ >«kring Ella's absence WVnt k
had/visited Denver once, but the camp
gosMps were quite sure that he and the
young lady corresponded. "But I'll
bet," Sam Britton would say, "that
[ Frank ain't never had the spunk to set
GLEN an uu 1 down in black and white the four
usually eupho-j vrords: 'Ella, I love you.'" And Sam
was quite right.
Capt. Lauston went to Denver to
bring his daughter home, and it was
understood before he left that Howard
Ford, the son of the president of the
mine, who lived in Colorado City and
hose home Ella had been a visitor,
back with them. Frank
Hobart brought, at his own expense, a
baud from Salt Lake, to play at the
ball; an l the day before Christinas
he drove into the mountains with his
Chinese servant and cut evergreens to
decorate the dining and ball rooms.
When the stage drove up with Ella,
her father and young Howard Ford, it
was greeted with a grand salute from
every gun ami pistol in the glen. All
lender tapped Id. bow on I0""?* io whlch °ae clnss expected to a tumult with him. ' madnew. a U.r-
n slffnnl to the musician, 'l™'' reverse proport,on to what .1 ture. Llut he'll 8Uy for the ball. Ile ll
felt the thrilling touch of Ella's hand
on his arm, and, quite sure that he was
about to disgrace himself in her eyes,
he took his place beside her at the head
of the set, while other couples came
laughing to the floor.
The band
his violin as a signal
and the dancers. The salute was given,
and the quick first bars of "Haste to
the Wedding" swelled out; but sudden-
ly the music ceased, and the dancers
stood spellbound, with ashy faces.
"Tho mine's on fire!" came the hoarse
shout of men.
"There are eleven men still downl"
shrieked a woman.
There was no indecision about Frank
Hobart now. Without a word he
sprang from Ella's side, shouting as he
flew to the door: "Follow me to the
mine, OOVSS"
ul tliM Day llrotlirr-
ootl, Sell-Abnegation and Charity—
einR i.out sight orr
'hose who are anxious about the
f Christmas, whether it i* uot be- ;
coming too worldly and too expensive i
a holiday to be indulged in except by
the very poor, mark with pleasure any '
indications that the true spirit of the .
day- brotherhood and self-abnegation !
and charity is infusing itself into
modern society. The sentimental j
Christmas of thirty years ago could uot
last; iu time the manufactured jollity |
got to be more tedious und a greater
strain on the feelings than any misfor-
tune huppeniug to one's neighbor.
Evcu for a day it was very diflicult to
buzz about in the cheery manner pre-
scribed, and the reaction put human
nature in a bad light. Nor was it
much better when gradually the day j
became one of great expectations, and ;
the s woe I spirit of it was quenched in : him her(, for this, ,t,s Ulo devilishly
worry or soured <n disappointment. It | ba(1, ,n a way he was happy enough
till he'd seen her again, and now It's all
men," returned the lady, a little harsh
ly, "over yonder near the door that
leads to the picture galleries. Take me
in that direction, will you? I want to
have a better look at her. I may be
wrong, but it struck me there was a
erookedness in one of her eyebrows "
.v Meanwhile, as the princess of Briu-
also one that brimmed with a beautiful, | subdued into humility that she had
never before dreamed of as possible to
her proud spirit, was saying suave if
"You can't help it, dear boy," said
Erie, "because your heart is almost
breaking in your breast!" lie got up
from his chair, and went straight to his
friend, putting his arms about his neck
and kissing him on the forehead. It was
a very sweet and simple act, and it
spontaneous fraternity.
Alonzo threw back his heud, stared
forlornly at his companion, and then
flung his head on Eric's broad,'virile
shoulder. A great, passionate turmoil
of tears followed—tho tears that men
shed, and so tellingly seldom, and that
are wrung, when shed at all. from deep-
cavcrned wells of their spirits.
Eric held him in his arms, not speak-
ing a word, only throbbing with the
most humane sympathy. But mean-
while his brain worked, and he thought,
with the bitterness and irony that cer-
tain stern freaks of life will too often
wrench from us, whether we arc op-
timists, pessimists, or only a part of
that huger throng which neither think
nor feel too keenly. "And I brought
began to take on the aspect of u great
put in, and another class knew that
it would only reap as it had sowed.
The day, blessed in its origin, ami
meaningless, if there is a grain of j
selfishness in it, was thus likely to be-
come a sort of clearing house of all ob-
ligations, and assume a commercial as-
pect that took tho heart out of it—like j
the enormous receptions for paying i
social debts which take the place of
the old-fashioned hospitality. Every-
body knew, meantime, that the spirit
of good-will, the grace of universal
| sympathy, .was really growing in the
stay, just to see her again. And then?
God knows with what reckless force
he'll fly straight in the face of his pres-
ent prosperity."
CHAPTER XH.
Eric was right. On the evening of
the ball he and Alonzo sought the pal-
ace together. They entered the great
room a little before ten o'clock.
Here the entire assembled court were
waiting, and presently to a golden clash
rather void things to Alonzo, the king
slipped his arm within that of Eric
Tliuxter and murmured to him:
"Come with ine, my friend, into the
conservatory. I have something I must
say to you at once."
Clarimond and his companion were
presently in the sweet-smelling dusk
of a spacious glass pavilion, where you
heard the sounds of falling water and
caught its flashes, now and then,
through coverts of shadowing leaves
and blooms They found the place
quite vacant; as yet, no flushed and fa-
tigued dancers had sought it. Their
feet struck with little hollow clangs on
the marble pavements of the odorous
avenges, and thus accentuated, as it
were, the exceeding stillness. It was a
stillness that Eric waited for his master
to break, and at length he did so, in
these words:
"I suppose that Lispenard told you
just what passed between him and my-
self."
"Yes, monsieur, he told me."
"Well," said the king, musingly,
"then you, Eric, who knew me so well,
must have seen that I—betrayed my-
self."
"Betrayed yourself, monsieur. How?"
"Oh that I showea him I love the
woman he loves. Did lie not tell you
that? No, do not reply. I will not pcr-
, ..orw, and ih<t it was only din* aw«
Like a mountain lion he leaped wartlnesH thAU bv striviug to cram it
ahead and dashed down the winding j for Jear in;o lm,uty.four hours.
of music from the orchestra on an up- j mit you to tell me, even if so inclined,
lmlcopv Mipfllf d i** «■**• *•« i'v«nir j would be unfair, almost dishonora-
llowers, the king entered with the
princess of Brindisi on his arm. 11 was
a sight of extreme splendor. The enor-
steps cut in tlu ^s made it seem a little farcical. And J mousroom, tapestried in gold and white,
canyon, at the bottom or wnien was everybody Unows that when goodnef
opening of the mine shaft, from j 1h;(.0111,,, fas|,i„m,ble. gondiies* is likely
to suffer 11 little. A virtue overdone
falls on t'other side. And a holiday
which a fountain of smoke was shoot-
ing up.
that takes on such proportions that the
express companies and the post ofllce
over till it was known cannot handle it is in danger of a col-
lapse. In consideration of these things.
Men followed with lanterns and
torches. The festivities for that Christ-
mas eve wt
that the men in the mine were safe.
The women, Ella at their head, ran mjj because, as has been pointed out
down to the canyon, their faces look- yeur aftor year Christmas is becoming
ing aged and white in the light-of the j a burden, the load of which is looked
torches.
"Make ready to lower me down!"
shouted Frank Hobart as he leaped into
! the bucket, "and stand by to haul up
yid answer signals!"
"I'll go with you!" cried Sam Britton.
lode was discovered in 1NS1 by a young
miuing eugineer named Frank Hobart,
who had been educated at the I Di-
versity of Pennsylvania, in his native
city of Philadelphia, ami who
west Jto seek his fortune
the miners were dressed iu their best.
though this did not prevent a prepon-
derance of red shirts; and, following
Sam Brltton's lead, they gave three
cheers and a tiger for the ' 'sagebrush
aine i belle!"
Ella had grown taller and more come-
forward to with apprehension and
back on with nervous prostration-
fear has been expressed that the dear-
est of all holidays in Christian lands
would have to go again under a sort of
Puritan protest, or into a retreat f<
Lanstou's Olen was by no means an ly, if that were possible. Two years
inviting place. Iluts of stone and of carcful culture und intellectual
adube, iu comparison with which the
irregularly set and ragged army tents
were palatial, constituted the principal
abode* of the inhabitants. "The Grand
"No; let some man come who has no 1 rPKt antj purification.—Charles Dudley
wife or mother or loved one dependent Warner, in Harper's Magazine,
on him."
A tall young man in a very red shirt j sei.f-sachiricixti.
sprang to Frank's side. The engine
was started, and the bucket sank into
tho shaft, now vomiting forth hot I
smoke like a volcano.
"Let me take you home, Miss Ella: j
This is no place for you," said Howard j
Ford.
Shaking his hand from her arm with I
an impatient gesture, she answered: j
"Near him is my place, in life or in j
death!"
Minutes of awful anxiety, then the]
Occidental hotel," owned and "run" by
Capt. Lauston, was the most preten-
tious building in the place. That it had
grown, rather than been built from
any original design, was evident in the
iation had destroyed the somewhat
hoydenish expression of her face, and I
so rather repelled her old admirers. I
with whom heartiness ami a bolster- signal: "Haulaway. le e iaiii cw,
ouarecognition went hand in hand. ! ,'h*
"I wouldn't give shucks for Frank through the shaft, and six ,non. all the •
Hobart as a lover," growled San, Brit- bucket could hold - s x burned and
ton, after Krank had lifted Klla (ron. blackened men, but si,11 l.ving, thank
the stage. "Why, he didn't even kiss Ood.—were lifted out.
many little additions and wings of , her. after these years and all lie's "Lower awav quick: gasped on* of j
' done; and now she comes back this I the rescued.
blessed Christmas eve with a dude. Down through the
' rattled again. A f
stone atfcl adobe, and even of canvas,
that had been added to it from time to
time.
A plain covered with da/./.ling ex-
panses of snow-white alkali, inter-
spersed here and there with patches of
acrid creosote, and brittle, olive-col
lest as 1 said she would, two year ago.
As compared with the rough miners
in and about the hotel at the glen Mr.
Howard Ford was a fashionable exqui-
site. Although under medium height,
ored sage-brush, stretched away for | and five years Frank Hobart's junior,
six miles on either hand to the mighty j he was not bad lookiug, and, being the
mountain wall thut appeared to shut j mine president's son. he was at this
the siguul came up:
the strauge place iu from the outer
world.
Although Frank Hobart, who was a
tail, handsome, modest fellow, had dis-
covered the mine that gave the place
an excuse for being, vet he declined to
have it named after him, preferring
the name which was finally adopted
because Capt. Lanston's wife was the
first white woman who had ever set
foot there; though, encouraged by her
boldness, many of the miners subse-
quently brought their wives from the
states.
Ella Lanston was fifteen when she
accompanied her father and mother to
the (Hen, and from the very first her
fresh beauty aud graceful ways, not to
mention a voice of phenomenal sweet-
ness, won to her side even the rough-
est of the mioers, and all the China-
men, who had been brought in as serv-
ants.
Capt. Lauston had been a soldier,
and though, no doubt, a good one, he
was a rough, hardy man, more suited
to shine in the camp than in the par-
lor, and his otherwise excellent wife
was much the same sort of a character.
Frank Hobart was ten years older
than Ella; not a great disparity, to be
sure, but sufficient, iu his modest opin-
ion, to preclude his thinking of the
"sage-brush belle,'" or "sage-brush
nightingale," as some of her more ro-
mantic admirers called her, iu any
other way than as a charming child, iu
the formation of whose character he
might have au influence for good, lie
seemed like
aud ouce i
'Haul away!"
lip, up; six men, blacker and more
burned, were lifted out
haft the bucket
k- minutes, that } Mamie Let's play it's Christmas,
awful anxiety, j and I'll be Santa Claus.
M innie —All right. Then you'll come
and give me a whole lot of beautiful
presents.
Mamie Will 1? Oh, no. Minn.e; I'll
"Where is Frank Hobart?" shouted | let you be Santa Claus, as you are my
moment the most uui>ortant mau at
Lanston's Glen.
There were tall, wholesome, bright-
eyed girls by the score from the Glen
and the surrounding mountain settle-
ments at the Grand Occidental hotel
this Christmas eve, and although the
ball and banquet in Ella's honor might
be lacking in some of the refinements
essential in the fashionable world, they
were distinguished for a heartiness and
a freshness of enjoyment that put ev-
eryone at ease.
"Why don't you go up and dance
with Ella?" said Sara Britton to the
young superintendent, after the dance
had been going on for some time
"That little dude has kept her all to
hisself ever since the frolic began."
"I haven't danced since I was a boy,"
said Frank, who, from his position at
the farther end of the room, had beeu
following with his brave brown eyes
every movement of Ella.
"Waal, I think yer as good a dpneer
as most of the boys bar, and ef you
don't ax Ella blamed ef I don't git her
to ax you." And before Frank could
think of protesting Sam Britton had
darted off.
Tho mining boss had plenty of nssur-
snoe, and he firmly believed that if
the young superintendent had more of
this quality his character would be
simply perfect Already Sain Britton
had welcomed Ella and bade her "a
merry Christmas" eight hours in ad-
vance of the day; but this did not deter
him from going over to where Uc sat
Ella.
* The ear would only hold six. He -
lie made us get in," suid the mau who
had gone down \\ ith the young super-
intendent
A groan of horror rang through the
crowd and Ella tottered towards the
bucket as if to get in.
"God helping me. I'll briug him up!
Lower away, boys!" Sam Britton, with
his wife's shawl about his head aud
face and her cry ringing in his ears,
leaped into the bucket and it vanished
into the furnace as if by force of
gravity.
More minutes, that seemed like
hours, and the signal, a faint one this
time, for the lire was gaining, was
given: "Haul away!"
When the basket came up Sam Brit-
ton tottered out and with parched lips
whispered:
"Keer for Frank."
They lifted the blackened form out
amid the shrieks of the women and the
groans of the men. The eyes appeared
to be gone, and the smoking rags
dropped from his limbs as they laid
him on a stretcher and hurried him up
to his room in the hotel.
Fortunately, there were two doctors
present from neighboring mining
towns, and they at once set about ex
amining the injuries aud easing the
awful pain of the young man, who was
now quite conscious, though he could
only speak iu whispers.
From the instant of his rescue Ello
had not left his side; and now, when
the doctors had bathed him in lotions
and hung with mirrors of huge size that
reduplicated the chandeliers in endless
glittering vistas, had been profusely
adorned with roses, lilies and orchids
from the royal hot-houses. The Snl-
travian nobles all wore their uniforms,
and between the many beautiful ladies
who were their wives a sumptuous
kind of rivalry was to-niglit manifest,
each one wishing, as it would seem, to
eclipse tlit other in the glory of her
jewels. r.ut there were two ladies
present who outshone them all, and
these were tie princess herself and her
cherished wird, Bianca d'Este. The
mother of Oarimond was literally
mailed in gefcs. ller stomacher and
corselet of mingled rubies and diamonds
blazed, as the lijrht caught them, with
vivid and luxuries fires. Her hair was
oversprinkled wiMi brilliants and her
neck and arms we*.- aflame with them.
Possessing so muUi natural presence (
and carriage, she Jooked more than
merely regal. Her wWstfoes (and there
were two or three o\ these who nov.
gazed at her with the -post amiable de-
meanors) must have Wanted that she
was altogether magnificent.
With llianea d'Este it was quite an
opposite affair. She, t<\ was mag-
nificent, but in a way thav became her
maidenhood and her youV A collar
of pearls five rows deep yngirt her
throat, and these, with a elkter at her
breast of sapphires, diamondsfend other
stones, in imitation of a sprawjf flow-
ers, were the only jewels that Ae wore.
But the pearls had belonged to\er an-
cestress, Mary of Modena, qiVn of
England, and hence were not or^- su-
perb but historic besides. As f<* the
matchless bouquet, it was owned bVher
mother, was famous throughout Eukpe
I and worth a handsome fortune in it:-^f.
| The princess having begged Bianc^s
mother by letter to permit the girl %
wear it on this special occasion, it ha*
1 been sent from Italy under the guai
dianship of five trusted men, who now
: waited in one of the halls of the palace
and would receive the glorious bauble
from the hands of its wearer the instant
that she quitted the ball-room.
Shortly after the entrance of Clari-
mond and his mother the royal quad-
rille was danced, and to some eonserva-
! tivc watchers, when they beheld the
king lead forth Kathleen as his part-
guest- Golden Days.
Hints ior ChrUtuiM.
Don't ask your child what he wants
unless you intend giviug it to him.
Though money makes the mare go,
it makes Santa Claus come.
Don't buy your best girl a present on
the installment plan, as she might jilt
you before you had made all the pay-
lUib the pricc mark off tho present ; uer, the sight was one of absolute hor-
unless it is an expensive one. >",.r. Everybody else in the quadrille
If von wish to surorise your girl ! was of the blood royal except this up-
never ask her what she would like for , start young American. Beautiful?
Christnvi* Yes, amazingly so. Uer beauty, In its
At Christmas time it is well enough perfect plainness of apparel, dimmed
to apo the English as far as the plum | the tire of all those necklaces, bracelets
u enneerned. "d tiaras- With such eyes, with such
pudding is concerned.
Some persons never wish you a
merry Christinas unless they think
they will get something for doing so.
The bachelor who puts his thumb
into the boarding-house Christmas pie
is apt to pull out a collar button.—
J udge.
ller Present.
"I know what I'm going to gire pa
this Christmas," said Arabella
"What, my dear?" asked her mother.
"A nice woolen comforter. It will
be lovely to wear when Ned comes to
take me tobogganing."
The Modern Coitom.
Jones—Did you hang up your stock-
ing this Christinas?
ltrown (who has many friends, etc..
to provide for)—No; I hung up my
watch.—Yale Record.
a heavenly look about the brows, with
such a slope of the arm and shoulder,
und with that imperial kind of dainti-
ness in her motion, she made every other
woman look artificial, got up for the
occasion, endimancfue. But what (que
diableI) had thut to do with the king's
behavior? Whether she were hagor
houri, why should he make her an ex-
cuse for smashing etiquette and then
dancing on its debris? The thing was
too idiotic. Did he mean to marry her? j virgin heart!"
Was this to be his latest
unconventionr.lism
"Look at him now,
of highest rank to a gentleman equally i this man aud
for me to insist on any Mtelt
closure.'*
"An injustice from you, monsieur,
would be as impossible as darkness from
the sun."
The king suddenly paused. His face
was touched with a vague yet revealing
light and Eric perceivAl on it a pallor,
a seriousness, which he had before
noted but which now seemed intensi-
fied.
"If I wanted a counselor!" he broke
forth, and then he laid a hand on
Eric's shoulder. "But in this ease I
ought not to want one. I should be suf-
ficient unto myself. Only, my friend,
you would be the wisest and best of
counselors; that is all I mean," end he
withdrew his hand, giving a long and
deep "sigh.
"From what I know of you,monsieur,"
said Eric, "you have always been .suf-
ficient unto yourself."
"Not always, not always—but you
are very kind."
"1 am simply sincere, monsieur. You
were born to be a great ruler of men. I
have felt it for months past. The more
that I see of you, the more strongly
you appeal to me as a power for good.
The world would have had no need for
republics if all kings had beeu as per-
fect as yourself."
"Thanks, my Eric—thanks."
To the surprise of his hearer these
words were very brokenly uttered.
Clarimond remained inmovable, so that
the revealing light still clothed his
face. And now Eric saw that his vivid
eyes were shining as though with half-
repressed tears. Only a slight silence
elapsed before he spoke again: "Then
if I am indeed worthy to be a great
ruler, as you say, I should know, Eric,
how to rule myself."
"PanIon me, monsieur, but I do not
understand."
The king's glance turned from right
to left as though in the dimness he sus-
pected cither some newcomer or some
ambushed listener. With great abrupt-
ness he soon caught Eric's hands in
H^ithcr of his own and held them strain-
w ^ngly while his moist-beaming eyes
Uunged their look into the obscured
V-e of his watcher.
I have never loved living wom-
ntil now, and I could have her for
mferife if I choosel"
*V>r your — queen," faltered Eric,
scarry knowing why ho spoke the
wori|
"Qu^nl queen!" Clarimond flung
back, tapatiently. "Dame! you are
like eveybody else. How otherwise
could I have her for my wife, man?
Have I n\ told yob that those morgan-
atic mariWes are loathsome to me?
But there js! Instantly that 'royalty'
idea oceurtyo you! Well, you are not
to blame. % occurs to everybody, no
doubt, the Wnent my marriage is
thought of. \ occurred to her. She
accepted me. you smiling because
she accepted if Are you saying to
yourself that snperciy did what thou-
sands of women*ould in like circum-
stances do? But pu ure wrong if you
reason so, for she «pS sublimely frank.
She made it cleaiV) me that she still
loved Lispenard, an'^f she brought me
a virgin body she cAj not bring me a
\Erie,
nrbntil
"Your duty, monsieur?"
The king's eyes darted fin* for a sec
ond, there in the dusk where he and
Eric stood. "1 can unite them if I
choose, almost by lifting my hand. If
I do not choose. I can wed Kathleen.
Which course is my duty? She will
marry me, half from ambition; half
because of her mother—that vicious,
mannish, insatiable mother! Which
course, I say, is my duty? People talk
of Quixotism! Bah! As if I did not
know! There was never a meaner word
created than that 'Quixotism!' It ha#
been the cloak for countless acts of
cowardice, and Cervantes, were he alive
to-day, would regret that his genius
ever aided in its coining.*'
Eric drooped his heart, and felt his
eyes fill with tears, lie knew just
what great throbs of a uoble nature
underlay this splendid bluster, this in-
comparable vehemence.
"Monsieur," he replied, when able to
school his voice so that he could speak
with self-governance, "you have been
very right in saying that you require
no counselor. Iam Alonzo Lispenard's
friend; I know how he has suffered—
how he suffers yet! I ain your devoted
servitor, and I realize the noble renun-
ciation It Is in your power to make.
You yourself have hinted thut you are
capable of this fine sclf .-ffaivment
Hut I did not need your own admission
to that effect. I have already known
you too long not to grasp the height
and breadth of your generosity."
Clarimond turned on bis heel like a
flash, threw both hunds behind liira,
joining them there, and then moved
slowly away.
"I've horribly deceived you," he shot
over his shoulder. "I brought you
here in the hope thut. although an Amer-
ican, you would prove yourself a good
courtier, and show me ample cause that
I should plight troth with the woman I
love."
"Monsieur," replied Eric, following
him, "I am far too good a courtier for
that! Sincerely as I c-tcein your char-
acter in its entirety, there i> one ele-
ment of it to which I must always pay
primal obeisance."
"You mean?" questioned tho king, as
Eric now reached his side again, in tho
fragrant twilight of their transient re-
treat.
"Your peerless conscience, your un-
paralleled sense of right?"
As the festivity progressed, this even-
ing, nearly everyone conceded that
there had been nothing at all resem-
bling it in brilliance and buoyancy for
many and many a month. Indeed,
some of the native guests roundly ad-
mitted that Clarimond's reign had yet
seen no grand assemblage so delight-
ful; for this season more foreigners
than usual had gathered at the hotels,
and among these, where position and
antecedents made it possible, the royal
invitations had been somewhat lavish-
ly spread. As a pleasant result the en-
tertainment sparkled with novelty. At
midnight the doors of the banqueting-
hall were opened, and wine and viands
furnished in profuse largeuess wrought
just the needed result of quickened
gayety and enlivened social zest The
haughtiest Saltravian inaids and
matrons unbent and became affable to
fellow-mortals of different grades or
often of different countries from their
own. Admiration for Kathleen's beau-
ty waxed with the progress of the
entertainment, and after awhile many
ladies > >ught to know Iter. Mrs. Ken-
naird, who had managed to get herself
approached and talked to by some of the
most prominent men present, was in
an ecstacy of self-gratulation. She had
once come face to face with Alonzo, and
had managed to make it appear as if
she had not intentionally cut him. It
was so hard to treat anyone unamiably
to-night!
Some little time after midnight Eric
touched Alonzo on the arm. The latter
gave a kind of relieved st. rt, and at
once said:
"I'm so glad to find you. I mean to
slip away, though of course you will not
go yet."
"You are t' -ed so soon?"
"Yes—of seeing her, ringed round
with her new idolaters. It's getting
intolerable. I shouldn't have come at
all!"
"But, my dear Lonz, the king wishes
to speak with you. He has just sent
me to ask yon if you will not join him."
Alonzo stood for a brief while irreso-
lute. Then he tossed his head, bit his
lip, and said in a voice almost irritable:
"Of course—of course! How absurd
of me! I'm almost forgetting that I'm
a slave."
"A slave, Lonz! You! As if I'd let
you be! Come, now, take that horrible
sentiment back! You're as free as air
and you know it!"
Alonzo slipped his hand into Eric's.
"I'm very distressed," he answered,
"and I'm a fool. Forgive me!"
"It isn't for me to forgive you."
"Oh, then I'll apologize to him."
"You needn't. lle'll never know.
Come with mo, dear boy. '
They quitted the ball-room and passed
through several dim corridors. "Where
on earth are you taking me?" Alonzo
murmured more than once, but Eric, as
if the question needed no reply, kept
pushing on. Presently, when it was
for the third time repeated, he replied,
while pushing open a vague door over
which was a lamp shaped like a droop*
ing lotus flower:
"You ought to know. It's that little
chapel. You told me. when I brought
you here, one day, an age ago, that it
was very good. You congratulated mo
on it, though you pronounced it a
plagiarism from the Salnto Chapelle in
Paris. It isn't for the simple reason
that it's a copy."
[to be continued. |
not in
ng how
atest daring deed of j "She said this, monsV,.""
? . "In substance, yes,V-i', if i
w," whispered a lady j actual phrase. Anil l\nowlnjj
of highest rank to a gentleman equally this man and woman lo^| no another
lofty, after a pause had followed the j how the cruel worldlim\t)* u single,
| first general dance. "He has those two j lined-grained being has kejVlnn apart
Americans at his side, Eric Thaxter and | -I, whom you have calledf-va\. pause,
1 M. Lispenard. What a revolution he i positively pause, before tlb HilVllment
has wrought in Ids mother! The prin-1 of my duty!"
'•The Cave of Spiders."
The "ice caves," the "blue grottoes"
and other natural freaks of that ilk are
completely laid in the shade by the
Colorado "Cave of Spiders." It is situ-
ated near Buena Vista, in the state
named, and is said to literally swarm
with spiders of a curious species and of
immense size. The "Cave of Spiders"
was discovered iu 1871). The webs
woven by the odd subterranean species
of aranca arc said to be as strong as
ordinary "button hole twist" and of t*
bright, shining yellow color.
A Sevan Coincidence.
Mr. Simeon Duck, of Victoria, B. C.
is a seventh son of a seventh son. In
1867 he left London on the seventh day
of the seventh month and arrived in
this country on the seventh cViy of tho
following month at seven o'clock in tho
morning. When he put up his uarao
for member of tho British Colum-
I bia parliament he was elected by a ina-
I jority of exactly seven votes. At the
I eloction following ho was defeated by
1 tlv, same mythical number.
f
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Oklahoma Democrat. (El Reno, Okla. Terr.), Vol. 2, No. 46, Ed. 1 Friday, December 23, 1892, newspaper, December 23, 1892; El Reno, Oklahoma Territory. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc159939/m1/2/: accessed April 15, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.