The Cedarville Herald, Volume 12, Numbers 27-52

M S A U N T 'S L E G A C Y . ft Serves aa a Stepping S tone to ■ Fortune and Matrimony. Charles Kamos stepped into the office 0( his friend Bowles, editor of ‘the CJeiivlllo i’ouranfc. ••llow are you, Eames?” asked the ' editor, *'l ought to feel lmppy, I suppose,” said the young man, a little ruefully, “for I’ve just received notice of a leg­ acy,” ' “Indeed! I congratulate you." “Wait till you hear vvhat it Is.” - / “Well, what is it?" ^ “;dy Aunt Martha has just died, leaving fifty thousand dollars.” .'“Toyou? 1 congratulate you heart­ ily.” “No; she leaves it to a public insti­ tution. fcilio leaves me only her silver watch, which she carried forty years.” “Howis that?” “She didn’t approve of my becoming • an artist. She wished me to bo a merchant' If I hod consulted her wishes I should, doubtless, have been her sole heir. This small legacy is meant more as an aggravation than anything else,” , . “Hut you can make your own way.” “I can earn a scanty living at pres­ ent. I hope to do better by and by. lint you know ray admiration for Mary Brooks. If I had been Aunt Martha’s sole heir I could have gained Mr. Brooks’ consent to our marriage. Now it is hopeless.” 1 “I am not so sure of that. This leg­ acy may help you. If you will agree for one calendar month not to mention or convey the least idea of the nature of your aunt's bequest I will manage the rest.” “1 don’t at all know what you mean, Bowles,” said the young artist; “but I am in your hands." - 1 “That is all I wish. Now, remember - to express surpvise at nothing; but let matters take their course.” “Very well.” In the next issue of the Courantthe young artist was surprised to read the following paragraph: “We are gratified to record a piece of good luck which has just befallen our esteemed fellow citizen, the promising young artist, Charles Eames. By the will of an aunt, recently deceased, he comes into possession of a piece of property which has been in the family for many years. Miss Eames is re­ ported to have left 850,000.” “Really,” thought the young man, “anybody would naturally suppose from this paragraph that I had inher­ ited my aunt’s entire property,” He pu t on his lmt and walked down the street, He met Ezekiel Brooks, presi­ dent of the Glenvillo national bank. Mr. Brooks beamed with cordiality. “My dear sir. permit me to congratu­ late you,” he said. “You have read the Courant?” said Eames, “Yes; anil lam delighted to hear of .your good fortune. Can I speak to you on business a moment?” “Certainly. Mr. Brooks.” “You’ll excuse my advice, but I know you are not a business man, while I . am. My young man, do you want to make some money?” “Certainly, I should be glad to do so.” “James Parker has five hundred shares of the Wimbledon railway. It stands a t fifty-six, a figure much below its real value. But Parker is nervous .and wants to sell onb I want you to buy out his entiro stock.” “But, Mr. Brooks—” “1 know what you would say. It may go down, bat it won't. I have ad­ vices that a speedy rise is almost cer­ tain, Buy him out, and you’ll make a handsome thing of it.” “JJnt how shall I find the money?” “Of course you haven’t received your legacy y e t I know there are delays. No trouble about th a t Give yonr note At ninety days and I’ll indorse i t You’ll -sell out before that time at a handsome advance.” “I will plaee myself in your hands, Mr. Brooks, but you must manage the business.” “Certainly} I shall only want your signature’ when the documents are made ou t By the bye, come round and dine with us, or hare you another en- ■gagemettt?” Another engagement! if Eames had fifty engagements he would have broken them all for the privilege of meeting Mary Brooks, This was the first time he had been invited to the banker’s table. The foot is, nntit this morning Mr. Brooks bad scarcely -vouchsafed him more than a cool nod on meeting. But circumstances had -changed, or appeared to, and his be­ havior altered with i t Such is the way of the world! It was a very pleas­ ant dinner. The young artist remained afterward. “I have an engagement, Mr. Eames,’’ said Mr, Brooks; “a meeting of the bank directors; but you musn’fc go .away. Maty will entertain you.” The young man did not go away* and ■apparently was satisfied by the enter­ tainment he received. He blessed his quint for her legacy. If only it had pro­ cured him this afternoon’s interview with the young lady he admired. But it gained him more. Every few days lie received a similar invitation, The young artist aottld not fall to see that Ezekiel Brooks looked with evident complacency on the good understand­ ing between his daughter and himself. "What Will he my," thought the young -men, "when he find* out what .■sort of a legacy 1 hava received from my aunt?” Occasionally, too, he felt nervous about his hasty assent to the proposition to buy five hundred shares of railroad stock at fifty-six when he hadn’t fifty dollars ahead. He reck, oned up one day what his purchase would amount to, and bin breath was nearly taken away when lie found it amounted to twenty-eight thousand dollars! (Still, it hud been in a- man­ ner forced upon him. He asked no questions, but every now and then the old gentleman said: “All going well. Stock advancing rapidly.” With tliut he was cuifcn t Indeed, he was so carried away by the love of Mary Brooks that lie gave little thought to any other subject One day Mr, Brooks came up, his face beaming witli joy. “Wish you joy, Eames,” ho saio. “Wimbjjedon 1ms gone up like a rockt t to par.-. Give me authority and I ’ll sell out for you." The artist did so, hardly realizing what it meant till three days after he received a little note to this effect: D e Ail E ames : Have sold out your IWa-huii- ilrod shares ot Wimbledon ut ioi. As you bought a t 58 this gives you a clear profit ot forty-five dollars per share, or twenty-two thousand five hundred dollars. Vou hud better tak e the tide and reinvest your surplus. Call a t my office ut once. Yours very truly, EZBlUKt, BROOKS, Charles Eames read this letter several times before he could realize its mean­ ing. Could it be that without investing a cent ho bail made over twenty thou­ sand dollars?: It must be a dream, he thought But wiien he called at the old gentleman’s office he found it was really true, “Mr. Eames, how about this money? Shall I reinvest it for you?” ' “Thank you, sir. 1 wish you would. I should like a Tittle in hand, how­ ever.” -“Certainly. Will that answer?” and the old gentleman wrote a check for five hundred dollars and placed it in the young man’s hand, - I t was more money than he had ever before pos­ sessed at one time. This was convinc­ ing proof of the reality of his good fortune. The next day he went to the city and ordered a handsome suit of' clothes at a fashionable tailor’s. The fact was his old coat waS getting threadbare and his overcoat decidedly seedy. While he was about it he bought a new ■ coat and boots, as well as other needed articles, and still returned with money enough iu his pocket to make him feel rich,' He changed his boarding-house, engaging a handsome room at a much nicer place. - ■ “ It seems to mo you are dashing out, Eames," said his friend the editor. “You know I’ve had a legacy;" said Eames, laughing. “I begin to think yon have,” said tho editor. , • When Eames appeared on the street in his new suit it was taken as a con­ firmation of the nows of his inherit­ ance.: His removal to » fashionable boarding-house was additional con­ firmation. I t was wonderful how he rose in tho estimation of people who hod before looked upon him os a shift­ less artist. . All at once it occurred to him: “Why shouldn’t I propose for Mary Brooks? With twenty thousand dol­ lars I could certainly support her com­ fortably*. There is a very pretty cot­ tage'and tasteful grounds for sulo at five thousand doltars; thiB would make a charming home.” One morning, with considerable trepidation, young Eames broached the subject to Mr. Brooks. “No one I should like better for a son-in-law, if Mary is willing,” was the prompt answer. Mary was willing, and, fis there seemed no good reason for waiting, tho marriage was cele­ brated within a few weeks, “Charles,” said the father-in-law after the young people returned from their wedding journey, «“it is time for me to give you an account of your money affairs. I have been lucky in my investments, and I have thirty-one thousand dollars to your credit, or, de­ ducting 'the amount paid for your house, twenty-Bix thousand dollars. By thoway, have yon received your aunt’s bequest?” . “I received itycsterday,’’aaidCharlie. “Indeed.” “Here it is,” said the young man, and he produced a battered silver watch. “Bo you mean to say that is all she left you?" asked his father-iu-law, stupefied. “Yes, air.” Ezekiel Brooks whistled in sheer amazement, and his countenance fell. For a moment he regretted his daugh­ ter’s marriage, but then came the thought that his son-in-law, through a lucky mistake, was really the possessor of quite a comfortable property, which. Under his management, might be in­ creased, so he submitted with good grace and is on the best of terms with Ills daughter's husband, who is now in Italy with his wife pursuing a course of artistic study. Charles Eames care­ fully treasures the old watch, which he regards as the foundation of his prosperity.—Jewelers’ Weekly. —To stay the hand of the irreverent photographer a bill was under consid­ eration in France which provides the death penalty for those who make drawings or photographs of dock­ yards, fortresses, men-of-war or any naval or military establishment. —Edward F. Searles, who inherited from his wife a vast fortune and a larger number of palaces probably than any other man in this country owns, was ten years ago. employed by a leading upholstery firm In Nsw York* PERSONAL AND IMPERSONAL. —Bor. Robert Barbour, a Scotch clergyman who died lately at Aix-les- Bains, left an estate valued at aver 8300,000. —A Georgia farmer is living with hU sixth wife. ■Each of Uis five other wives died on the Friday preceding the second Sunday of the month. —Miss Jennie Chamberlain, now Mrs. Naylor Leyland, lives iu ■ “a splendid palace at Albert gate, London, whose marble staircase und many priceless works of art” are sights. —The distinction of being the most beautiful woman la Paris is credited to ’ the Countess Amery de la Rochefou­ cauld, a Parisian belle. She is a blonde, with blue eyes and regular features, and is said to be in face and figure a living .reproduction of Maiie Antoinette. —Mrs. Senator Wolcott is achieving the reputation of being the best dressed of the senators’ wives' in Washington. Her dresses are selected-in Paris by her siBter, who lives abroad, and last season they were the despair and envy of other less favored society women of the cap­ ital. —Miss Ada Dyas has a pleasant coun­ try place near Stamford, Conn., where she spends at least a part of each sum­ mer, It was declared by both Richard Grant White and Prof. Whelpley that by no one on the stage is English spoken with the purity and beauty with which Miss Dyas enunciates i t —Curtain lectures are the nightly ex­ perience of a man in Winsted, Conn. He belongs to twenty-four secret so­ cieties, and' bis lodge meetings keep bim out late nearly every night ■Just before facing his spouse, he prepares himBclf for the expected: lecture by deadening bis sense of hearing with ear-plugs. —A woman created some excitement in the streets of Vincennes recently by persisting in crawling about the streets on all-fours, barking like a dog and en­ deavoring to bite every one who caine in her way. "She became very violent when the police tried to arrest her, and -the. united efforts of four men were necessary to convey her to the police station. The poor creature’s mind had been unhinged, suddenly by the death of a favorite pet dog.” —It is not an unheard of thing for a man to delegate to his wife the care of his wardrobe and .the task of keeping the run of his social engagements, but whoever heard of a mac who had to be sent to his meats? In Brunswick, Me., there is such a man. His wife was away and ho was,to take his'menls at a restaurant The first day of her absence he paid no attention to the ■upper hour, but kept right on working until it was..time to close his placo of business, when he went home and re­ tired, without getting any supper. The next morning he left the'house early, and going to the shop began his work, never thinking of his breakfast until nearly eleven o’clock. "A LITTLE NONSENSE." —“Been fishing?" “Yes.” “Catch anything?” “Oil, yes; I didn’t get le f t” “What did you catch?” “Th* three o’clock train for home.” —A Reasonable Supposition.—“1 wonder where that storm is that old „Capt Hedges has been prophesying for so long?” “It's probably been post­ poned on account of tho weather.”—N. Y. Snn. —Gave Them Away.—Ethel (fanci­ fully)—i“I wonder what he did with tho kisses he stole from me.” Maud— “I fancy he gave them to the .maid as he was going through the UalL"—N. Y. Herald. —Ho—"Do you think they have been married long?” She—“No—on their honeymoon, I guess. She is trying to appear economical and he is trying equally hard to appear generous.”—N. Y. Herald. —“Yes. Mr. Flagg,” said the father, warmly, “you are a man after my own hea rt” “Excuse. me, Mr. Joblots,” said the young man, with dignity, “but you are mistaken; I am after your' daughter’s.”—Baltimore American. —Jack was “Bead Slow.”—Emms— “I bear you and Jack havo had a falling ou t” Lulu—“Yes; a fellow who aims for a girl’s mouth and only succeeds in kissing the tip of her ear is entirely too tardy for my taste.”—Brooklyn Eagle. —Visitor—“I t is sad, sad to aee you here, my man. Was.it sudden temp­ tation or the-faultof your bringing up?” Prisoner—“The la s t sir." Visitor— "Who brought you up?” Prisoner— "The sheriff and two deputies.”—N. Y Herald. —Dudley—“Had thing, th a t toe drowning of Mrs, Forundred, don't ye know?” Knickerbocker—"Was there no help near?” Dudley—"Oh, ya-as, but she didn’t have time to look up their reference, don'tye know.”—Phila­ delphia Press. —Rather an Ambiguous Assurance.— "I hope my visits are not disagreeable to you,” he satA "Not at all,” she po­ litely answered. “I have sometimes thought that I wearied you.” "Oh, no. No matter how gloomy I feel when you call, I am always happy when yon go.*' —Harrisburg Telegraph. —Their house in the country was raised a few fee t from the ground, and Tommy, to escape a well-deserved whip­ ping, ran from his mother and crept under the house. Presently the father came home and hearing where the boy had taken refuge, crept under to bring him ou t As ho approached on his hands and knees, Tommy asked; "Papa, Is shs after you, too?” TEMPERANCE NOTES.. TO NATURE’S FLUID. O, fair is the vlrglu Lymph, fresh from tha fountain, Sleeping in crystal wells, , Lenplmr in siimly dells, ■Or Issuing clear from the womb ot the moan* tiitn, Sky-muted, related, earth’s holiest daughter! Not the hot kiss of wine Is half so divine As the sip of thy Up, Inspiring cold water ! As chaste us the snows ou the sky-plurclng Alpine top—• Now sparkling In dews, Now nearing the hues . , Ot the rainbow, born of tho ray and tho ratn- drop; . In health and In sickness, all soasona all weather. Men may quail thee, ondlaugh, and be happy together, O soe, how all nature claps hands and rejoices! What greenness and gladness, - For brownness and sadness! *. What music and mirth from infinite voices 1 Herds toning, cooks craning, ten thousand birds slngltag, Sweet murmuring rills, And splashing# of gillls, And foaming cusundes, gems and jewels up- • lllngluit; The winds, all the leaves from their sick slum, bers waking. With wblsperH and kisses, And breathings of blisses, From the blooms all perfumes on the buxom utr shuklng; Nowboauty returning to grass, tree and flowor, So soon as tho thirsty earth drinks in tho shower. The groat gift of God, and tho joy ot creation— As needful as air. Like it, everywhere, As essential, potential. Its blest operation— The lnnooent source ot health and hilarity: The friend of long life,. Tho foe of all strife, Tho pledge of good fellowship, friendship and charity Is water, pure water—it makes the heart . gladder r Thun wine, the fierce bather, The merciless mocker, . T hat bites liko’a serpent, and stings like the adder; For devil-born revel, and hollow brief laugh- ■ ter. Have gnashings ot teeth, and wallings here­ after. —Dr. Abraham Coles, in National Temperance Advocate. i THE ALCOHOL HABIT. Fatal D elu sio n * C o n c e rn in g I n to x ic a tin g B e v e ra g e s. How shall wo explnin the fact that the power-of public opinion.has proved so much more effective in the struggle against the spread of the gambling vice and the social evil than in the crusade against the curse of the alcohol habit? Tlie explanation can certainly not bo found in the lack of persistent effort, Without the tenth part of the energy and tlie moral enthusiasm devoted to the promotion of temperance,- gam­ bling, lotteries and the traffic, in ob­ scene literature have been reduced to a practical 'minimum. Gaming, in its worst forms, enjoyed for .generations the protection of civilized governments in Europe and America, ti^s interests of the gambler were protected tty the inveteracy ot the vice and the lavish 'expenditure of money bribes, and yet. we see that in-less tiian a quarter of a century tho public gambling bells of Christendom have been reduced to a den maintaining'a precarious .exist­ ence in a small principality ot the Ital­ ian peninsula. Tho sovereign of that principality derives by far the larger part of ills revenues from the direct and indirect tax on the privilege of the hazard tables, and is known as a man entirely unincumbered with moral prejudices, yet the ostracism of public opinion has forced him to become an exile, not only from his hereditary do­ minions, bat from the better social circles of his adopted land. Fifty years ago the roulette dens of the Rhenish watering places en­ riched the public revenues with ayoarly contribution aggregating ‘-!40,000,000 marks, of nearly 830,01)0,000; yet tlie constant increase of financial difficult^ , has failed to encourage even the modi­ fied reestablishment of-those profitable institutions. In spite of enormous bribes the managers of the Louisiana state lottery failed to hold their own against the rising tide of public indig­ nation. The obsceno literature evil has no chance of survival outside of the hope common to other forms of recog­ nized crime—-tho refuge.of obscurity. Imagine tho result of an attempt to override the veto of public opinion by an organized “league of American pub­ lishers of indecent periodicals,” or a “mutual aid society of faro dealers and three card monte men,” with or with- •bnt a subsidized press and a trained staff of lobby steerers! How shall we account for the fact that the alcohol liahit still contrives, to secure the advantage of legislative pro­ tection by means which would have no chance of success in behalf of other vices? The only logical explanation can be found in tho circumstanco that those vices have been generally recognized as unqualified evils, white a larger pro­ portion of our fellowmen still labor under the fatal delusion of the belief that, within certain limits, a taste for Intoxicating beverages can be indulged with impunity. They persist in calm­ ing their own misgivings with tho be­ lief in the harmlcssncss of moderate drinking, and of the “milder stimu­ lants,” and confess the evils of intem­ perance only in the sense of the admis­ sion that all excess is injurious “The fact that stimulants can be swallowed in health-endangering over-doses,” they argue, “'does not justify the plan to lessen- that danger by anti-liquor laws. We might as well prohibit the saie of meat and sugar, because a sur­ feit of meat pics and pastry may result in dyspepsia. Bo temperate in all things, and defend the palladium, ol personal liberty,” And too many of onr brethren en­ courage those delusions by still ascrib­ ing intemperance to the “temptations of unrestrained appetite,” and thp “passions of unregenerate nature.” The dread of chronic alcoholism may deter many young men from the per­ ilous first steps on the road to ruin, and the grim logic of experience may in­ duce a few half-confirmed drunkards to renounce their vice in time; but we can never hope to get a stroke at the root of the upas tree till we can en­ force the general recognition of the truth, Dipt the alcohol habit iu all its forms is a wholly abnormal passion, as distinct from a natural appetite as poison from wholesome food, that tha indulgence of that passion, even in the sli)fijtest degree, is/resisted by the veto of a sanitary instinct which can never be outraged with Impunity, and that the apparent exhilaration, following the gratification of a long perverted appetite, is invariably followed by that- depressing reaction which makes every poison vice a losing game, and inex­ orably defeats the attempts to attain • surplus of happiness by the influence of unnatural stimulants. In other words, we must deprive the rnmseller of a factitious moral support, by open­ ing the eyes of his victims to the fact that the alcohol nice is an unqualified evil. We must convince the dupes ot the stimulant habit that our protest is not directed against an enjoyment, in­ jurious only in case of excess, but against an unnatural vice, incompat­ ible with the interests of health and happiness, and moreover constantly tending to assume the ruinous form of a progressive and at lost irresistible passion. We must’ try to make “moderate” tippling as odious as “moderate” theft, and “moderate” polygamy. 'We can­ not afford to. waste our time in com­ bating the superficial errors of the al­ cohol dupes while wc ignore the radical mistake at the bottom of their delu­ sion. We must learn, to direct our ef- forts against the hidden germs of a poi­ son plant which has for ages resisted ’ our attacks upon its exuberant branches.—F. L. Oswald, M. D„ in Union Signal. ‘ BITS~~AND brevities . A r o y a l commission has been ordered to investigate the effects of tlie liquor- traffic in Canada. T he labo r unions formed of workers in glass impose.licavy fines on all mem- > bers who carry liquor into the manu­ factories, while the penalty fo r d runk­ enness is dismission, lx connection with the British Wom­ en’s Temperance association there are four homes for inebriate women, through which upward of 355 patients have passed, many of whom are thor­ oughly reclaimed and most grateful for tho help received while resident therein. T ub society for the abolition o! strong drink in Holland certifies that in a population of f,500,000 there ore 85.,- 000 licenses for tho sale of liquor an­ nually granted. Computing two-fliinls of the population to be women and children, there is a saloon to every thirty-three men. T he liquor habit must be regarded, first of all, os a vice, and not a disease, and treated accordingly. Home arc led into tho drinking habit, no doubt, largely through the Influence of an io» herited appetite, but, in tho vast ma­ jority of cases, men form the liquor habit just ns they form any other bad habit—just as they learn to swear, to gamble and to steal, because their evil’ tendencies lead them that way. In other words, most men get druqk be­ cause they want to get drunk. An at­ tempt to cure intemperance in general by the use of medicines would be very much like trying to cure profanity in the same way.—Christian at Work. “I was recently employed at a Kan­ sas drug store,” says- a young man. “Most drug Btorcs in that state are virtually saloons. The counter is con­ veniently arranged for trade, The initiated, the man who is known, may walk behind and got a regulation drink, while the one who is not known must sign an application, assigning some cause of illness. It is the quality of the whisky, however, that counts, The proprietor of the store in which I was employed bought some whisky at one dollar and ten cents per gallon. Think of this, with ninety cents per gallon tax to the government. This he added to by compounds and poisons, makings big gain on a barrel. And this is what yon drink in a prohibition country,” t'eace Destroyer. If there is an evil that threatens the essential life of the home, that tempts and ruins fathers and mothers ana sons and daughters, that turns away hearts from the kingdom of God, and so destroys the conserving influence that communities and the nation need for their highest vigor and noblest life, every man and woman who cares for home, who believes it to be of God’s appointment, and essential to human progress and peace, must declare de­ termined, hostility, and give the evil no quarter, bringing every material and spiritual energy to its destruction. Such an evil is the dram-shop system; such peril is imminent from the manufacture and sale and use of intoxicating liquors. The distillery, the brewery, the dram­ shop, are continually threatening every home. If they flourish then the home must languish; then its industries are paralyzed, its comforts diminish, its affections die, Its peace is lost,— Christian a t Work,