Pittston Gazette

              L1 he Wyoming Valley. PITTSTON, LUZERNE CO., PA., FUIDAyTjULY 4, 1890. -Jl A WeeKly 1 amiv Wt OUT.! j *1.50 FEB AM HI V idl' 1 In AdTMce Oldest NewsDauer in t driving or riding, to be attentive and courteous in every way; but, while he did thus "perceive a divided duty," what was Mrs. Loring's horror on discovering that pretty Pansy had fallen rapturously in love with "Jerry" Lattimore, as handsome, reckless and impecunious a young dragoon aa ever lived, and nothing but prompt measures prevented their marriage! Miss Fletcher was suddenly re-transported to the east, whither Jerry was too hard up to follow; and then, in bitterness of heart, Mrs. Loring blamed poor Fred for the whole transaction.. Why had he held aloof and allowed that —that scamp—that ne'er do weel—to cut in and win that innocent child's heart, as he certainly did do?" Against Lattimore the vials of her wrath were emptied coram publico, but against Lane she could not talk so openly. on; ana warden proceeded to rurtnei expound his views: watch Noel. That fellow is wiser in his generation than all the rest of us put together. It isn't six months since he got back from his staff detail, and see how constant ho is in his attentions to the old lady. Now. I'll bet you anything you like the next plum that tumbles into tlio regiment will go to his maw and nobody else's." (wnere it was understood tnat ne nau broken down only after riding night and day and all alone some 300 miles through tho wilderness with orders to a battalion of his regiment that was urgently needed at the front), and was able to talk very glibly of what had Occurred down in the Klamath Lake country. Then came his promotion to a first lieutenancy, and, as luck would have it, to a troop stationed at the Presidio. wculrl eiriect his old adjutant to come back to lliom at once and restore efficiency and disciplines to troop D, Mr. Lane replied with tho utmost readiness; but this was before Mabel Vincent came into his life and changed its whole current. How much and how devotedly he loved her Lane himself never realized until the day of his promotion reached him, and with it the iaws that his successor was already designated. He knew that within the week he might expect orders from the war department to join his troop at Fort Graham as soon as ho had turned over his funds and property to the officer designated to relieve him; he knew Noel so well as to feel assured that he would not wait for the arrival of formal orders, but, if the colonel would permit, would start the instant he received telegraphic notification from Washington that "Old Biggs'" nomination had been approved. "This is Wednesday," he mused; "and by a week from today I can count on his being here; and in ten days I must go." BILL NYE SPEAKS TP SOLDIERS. Ills voice so as to speak in the conventional official tono to tho sergeant in charge as the latter saluted him at the doorway and made the customary report of the presence of the detachment. Lane stepped into his little dressing room and quickly appeared in his neat fatigue uniform. There wasn't a gho3t of a chance of would be recruits wandering in that day; but he was a stickler for discipline. He required his men to be always in their appropriate uniform, and never neglected wearing liis own while in the office; yet in all the Queen City no one but his little party, the applicants for enlistment and the few citizens who came in on business, had ever seen him except in civilian dress. •ps. He gets it jn the neck, but h» never squeals. '•Now, you might have resigned years ago, taken hold of your father's old business, and made a fortune. There's been a perfect boom in railroad iron and other kind of iron since that panic of '73. Look at Terry; he is rolling in money—one of our most substantial men; and you know he was a mere drone at school. Why, Fred, if your father could have held on six months longer he'd have been the richest man in town today. It always seemed to me that he made such a mistake in not getting his- friends to help him tide things over." Oar forefathers settled on the island, and here they hunted the same fox that we hnnt now. He has grown np amongst us. He loves us. He comes and $atf ont of our hand and lets us hnnt him. He comes np nights and is a good roadster. We are attached to these lands, Here we can see the broad and heaving bosom of the ocean. It is open au night. HE OBJECTS SERIOUSLY TO" BEING ANNEXED TO NEW YOFtK (Japt. CHARLES ma. Staten Island and Brooklyn Should Bo (Copyrighted by J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, and published through special arrangement with the American Press Association ! I-eft Alone, and New Yorii Should "Riggs wouldn't have the face to give anything to Noel—in the way of detac hed duty, I mean. I heard him say .when 'Gordv" was coming back to the regiment that he wished he had the power to transfer subs from troop to troop; he'd put Noel with the most exacting captain he knew and see if he couldn't get a little square service out of the fellow." Beach Out Toward Albany—A Few CHAPTER I. For tlireo months he was the gayest ol the gay, the life of parties of every kind both in town and in garrison; he was in exuberant health and spirits; he danced night after night, and was the most popular partner ever welcomed in the parlors of hospitable San Ffoncisco. And then all of a sadden there came tidings of an outbreak among the Arizona Apaches of so formidable a character that the division commander decided to send his Presidio troopers re-enforce the one regiment that was trying to cover a whole territory. There was jwthetic parting, with no end of lamentation, when Mr. Noel was spirited away with bin" lynx eyed captain; but they need not have worried—those fair dames and damsels; not a hair of his handsome head was in danger, for the —th had grappled with and throttled their foes before the detachment from the Eleventh were f-arly in Mio territory, and the latter were soon ordered to return and to bring with tlieiii, ?.s prisoners to be conlined at Alcatraz, the Jeaders of the outbreak, who would be turned over to them by the —th. To hear Noel tell of these fierce captives afterward was somewhat confusing, as, from his account, it would appear that they had been taken in handto-hand conflict by himself and a small detachment of his own troop; but these wero stories told only to over credulous Current Pergonals. [Copyright by Edgar W. Nye.] Here we may gather berries in the summer time; also soft shell crabs and mirth provoking lobsters. Here we may take a straw ride down Jersey street ot catch a swift horse car and see the pla* ter mill and smell the Standard oil works. But in a few years, where now the new milch goat permeates the saline air with his pungent presence—or her presence rather, of course, in this case—and where the bobolink swings to and fro on the boneset bough, a metropolitan museum, open where it will do the least good, will be seen perhaps. Polite ticket choppers will brain the masses from New Dorp and tell them to step lively,  Gentle things will tell you plenty of room forward" when Brobdignaggian lie from the C To give a seat to a lady in a car bo the mark of a jay, as will gentle "thank you" in retun as the grand hailing sign of The proposition to include Brooklyn, Long Island City and Staten Island in the city of New York, thus constituting a town of 2,500,000 people, will no doubt, materialize at some time in the future, but there will be strong opposition to it, and especially by the suburban towns "You probably aro not aware," was the reply, "that lio went to friend aftei friend—so called—and that it was theii failure or refusal to help that broke him down. The most active man in pushing him to,the wall, I am told, was Terry's father, who had formerly been his chief clerk." "That's all right, Greene. That's what he said six months ago, before Noel was really back, and lDefore he had begun doing the devoted to her ladyship at headquarters. Riggs wouldn't say so now—much less do it. She wouldn't let him, comrade mine; and you know it." "These reports and returns all go in tomorrow, I believe?" said Lane to his sergeant.Mrs. Judson had beheld the sudden departure of Miss Pansy with an equanimity she could barely disguise. Indeed, there were not lacking good Christians in the garrison who pointed significantly to the fact that she had almost too hospitably opened her doors to Miss Fletcher and her lover during that brief but volcanic romance. Certain it is, however, that it was in her house and in a certain little nook off the sitting room that their long, delicious meetings occurred almost daily, the lady of the house being busy about the dining room, the kitchen, or the chambers overhead, and Emmy, who was a good girl, but densely uninteresting, strumming on the piano or yawning over a book at the front window. "They do, sir." "Well, will you take them in to the clerk again," said Lane, blushing vividly, "and tell him to alter that 'first lieutenant' to 'captain' wherever it occurs? The—official notification is just here," he added, almost apologetically. "Sure I'm glad to hear it, sir. All the men will be glad, sir, and I'm proud to think that I was the first man to salute the captai# today," was the sergeant's delighted answer. "I'll call Tain tor in at once." "Well," answered Warden, in some little confusion, for this and other matters in connection with the failure oi Samuel Lane & Co., Jrears before, were now suddenly recaIle!TCJo mind, ''that's probably true. Business is business, you know, and those were tough times in the money market. Still, you could have come back here when you left West Point, and built up that concern again, and been a big man today—had youi own establishment here, married some rich girl—you're not married, are you?" Lane shook his head. "Noel lias been doing first rate since he got back, Jim," said Capt. Greene, after a pause. There was a large party that night, and, fully a week before, he had asked that ho might have the honor of being Miss Vincent's escort. It was with great disappointment that he received her answer, which was spoken, however, in a tone of such sorrow that poor Lane felt that the barbs, at least, of the arrow had been removed. "Oh, Noel's no bad soldier in garrison —at drill or parade. It's field work and scouting that knocks him endwise; and if there's an Iildian within a hundred miles— Well, you know as much as I do on that subject." , Greene somewhat gloomily nodded assent, and his companion, being''wound up for the day, plunged ahead with his remarks: But Lane was blissfully thinking of the little note, now transferred to the breast pocket of his uniform blouse, and of how not his honest old sergeant but sweet Mabel Vincent was the first to hail him by his new title, and in thinking of the note and of her he failed to notice that, so far from coming at once, it was fully ten or fifteen minutes before Taintor, the clerk, put in an appearance, and when he did that his face was ashen gray and his hand shook as though with palsy. "I don't know how to tell you how 1 regret having to say 'No,' Mr. Lane," she said, and there was a tremor in her voice and a little quiver at the corners of her pretty mouth. "I have almost felt confident that you were going to ask me —is that a very bold thing to say?—for you have been so—so kind to me since our first meeting, and indeed I wanted in some way to let you know that there were other arrangements already made. But how could I say anything? Mr. Rossiter, the eldest son of father's former partner, comes to pay us a visit of four or five days before he goes abroad again. And he is a great friend of theChiltons, and, being our guest, he goes with me. Indeed, I'm very sorry, Mr. Lane, if you are disappointed." L Two missives had reached him. e rain was plashing dismally on the y window sill and over the awning e shops below. The street cars went ing by with a dripping load of oufcpassengers on both platforms: Wag,nd drays, cabs and closed carriages, rattled or rumbled along the ordiy bnsy thoroughfare, looked as gh they had been dipped in the river fore being turned loose on the street, 'and their Jehus, a bedraggled lot, must needs have something amphibious in their composition, else they could not have borne up against the deluge that had been soaking the city for two days past. The policeman, waddling aimlessly about at the opposite corner, enveloped in rubber cap and overcoat, cast occasional wistful glances into the barroom across the way, wherein the gas was burning in deference to the general gloom that overhung the neighborhood, and such pedestrians as had to be abroad hurried So the Staten Islander asks p to worship the Great Spirit m and wear flannel shirts eve o'clock, and he wants time to to the ways of the world a litl he is called npon to dwell in a or wear the straight brim Little Fifth avenue. "Now, Tin just putting this and that together, Greene, and f 11 make you a bet. Riggs has managed things ever sine a he has been colonel so that a lieutenant is ordered detached for recruiting service and never a captain. It won't be long before Lane gets his promotion; and 111 bet you even before he gets it Riggs will have his letter skimming to Washington begging his immediate recall and nominating a sub to take his place. I'll give you odds on that; and I'll bet you even that the sub he names will be Gordy Noel." "On the other hand, then, you've beer fooling away all this time in the army, and what have you got to show for it?" "What Mr. Lane needs is a gentle, modest, domestic little woman who will make his boms a restfnl, peaceful refuge always," said Mrs. Jndson; and, inferential!}'. Emmy was the gentle and modest creature who was destined so tc bless him. The invitations to tea, the lures by which be was induced to become Emmy's escort to all the hops and dances, redoubled themselves after Miss Fletcher's departure; but it was all in vain. Without feeling any particular affinity for Mr. Lane, Emmy stood ready to eav "Yes" whensoever he should ask; but vrefks went «n, he never seemed to draw nearer the subject, and just as Mrs. Jndson had determined to resort tc heroic measures and point out that hi£ a'-tentionn to Emmy had excited the remark cf the entire garrison, and that the poor child herself was looking wan and strange, there was a siago robhery not twenty miles from t'.v* I. .ne, with fifteen trooper*, w.v. r ■ C:\ ;nrsuit of the flcsnarftdoes, or. "I AM NOW ABLE TO KEEP A COW." referred to. As a resident and taxpayer of Staten Island I know that I but voice the sentiments of many of my neighbors when I say that we do not wish to have New York annexed to us. "Nothing—to speak of," was the hall whimsical, half serious answer. "Well, there! Now don't you see' That's just what I'm driving at. You've thrown away your opportunities— 'All right, Strong; I'll be with you in a min ute,'" he called to a man who was sig Baling to him from thostairway. "Come in and see us, Fred. Como and dine with us, any day. We're always ready for friends who drop in. I want you tc meet Mrs. Warden and see my house. Now excuse me, will you? I have tc take a hand at whist." And bo away went Warden, leaving Lano to walfc homeward and think over the experi ences of the day. friends. It is true that New York outgrown her garments, and that she is oozing gradually through the pores of her Jersey, but why not extend back up the Hudson to Albany, where they are used to political corruption and mussed up virtue? Why cross the beautiful bay to — up our clover meads and bro lawns with the odor of sewer private and poorly plumbed Why enter the hallowed pre Vanderbilts, and the Van and the Van Wycks, and £ with the odor of a loud smel past and the fortissimo f with the promises of fa which will even turn the own Maduro Stenchero The Eleventh came eastward across the Rockies in time to participate in the great campaign against the Sioux in '76, and was on the Yellowstone when Custer and his favorite companies were being wiped out of existence on the Little Horrt The news of that tragedy made many a heart sick, and Mr. Noel was so much affected that when his comrades started to make a night ride to the front to join what was left of the Seventh, he was left behind, ostensibly to sleep off a violent headache. He promised to ride after and catch them next day, but, through some error, got aboard Gen. Terry's steamer, the Far West, and made himself so useful looking after the wounded that the surgeon in charge was grateful, and, knowing nothing of his antecedents, gave him a certificate on which he based an application for leave on account of sickness, and went to Bismarck with vthe wounded, and thence to ttre distant east, where he thrilled clubs and dinner tables with graphic accounts of the Custer battle and how we got up just in time to save the remnant of the Seventh. In the first place, most of us removed to Staten Island in order1 to get out o * the city of New York and it3 temptations, and wo do not desire to have the noisy town follow us to our lair with its civilization and its sawer gas. For instance, I am now able to keep a cow, and every night with a wild onion scented breath she winds slowly o'er the lea. If New York should be annexed to us an alderman would milk her probably on her way home, andso«n also her sweet breath would disappear. At first she .would seek to deceive me by eating cloves or catnip on the way home. Then gradually she would lay aside all reserve and come np at a late hour, getting into the corral with great difficulty, accompanied by a jag. "The sergeant will tell you what is to bo done with the papers, Taintor," said Lane, conscious that he was blushing again, and consequently striving to appear engrossed in the morning paper. The man picked them up one after another and without a word; he dropped one to the floor in his nervousneess, but made a quick dive for it. and then for the door, as though fearful of detention. He hurried through the room in which the sergeant and one or two men were seated, and, reaching his big desk at a rear window, where he was out of sight, dropped the papers on the floor and buried his face in his shaking hands. But, though he scouted the idea, Greene would not bet, for at that instant the club room was invaded by a rush of young Officers just returning from target practice, and the jolliest laugh, the most all pervading voice, the cheeriest personality of the lot were those of the gentleman whose name Capt. Jim Rawlins had just spoken. E i ! i t I I I Fred, of course, begged that she should give herself no uneasiness. There was no other girl whom he had thought of taking. Mr. Rossiter was very much to be envied, and he would like to call and pay his respects to that gentleman when he arrived. "By all means do," said Miss Vincent; and, if not asking t»3 much, would Mr. Lane get him a card at the club? Brother Rex was away, or she wouldn't trouble him. But Lane was delighted to be troubled. Anything she asked—any service he could render her— he flew with untold eagerness to accomplish; and, though properly jealous of the coming man—this Mr. Rossiter, of whom he had never before beard mention—he was eager to meet and entertain him. The gentleman was to arrive on Monday, and Lane spent a delightful evening at the Vincents', wondering why he hadn't come. Tuesday would surely bring him, or an explanation, said Miss Mabel; and on Tuesday Lane was prompt to call, and glad to spend another long evening at the hospitable old homestead, and stoutly did he hold his ground through three successive relays of visitors, encouraged to do so by a certain look in his lady's bright eyes that spoke volumes to his throbbing heart, and that very next morning at the club he found her dainty missive on his breakfast table. He had "made a name for himself that was well known froijj the Yellowstone to the Colorado. Thrice had that name been sent to the president with the recommendation of his department commander for brevets for conspicuous and gallant conduct in action against hostile Indians. The Pacific coast had made him welcome. Busy San Francisco had found time to read The Alta's and The Chronicle's correspondence from the scene oi hostilities, and cordially shook hand* with the young officer who had been sc prominent in more than one campaign. Santa Fe and San Antonio, Denver, Cheyenne and Miles City, were points where he could not go without meeting "troops of friends." It was only when he got back to his old home in the easl that the lieutenant found his name associated only with his father's failure, and that his years of honorable sen-ice conveyed no interest to the friends of his youth. "Money makes tho mare go," said Mr. Warden, in a subsequent conversation; and money, itseems, was what he meant in telling Lane he should have come home and "made a name for him self." along under their umbrellas as though they half expected to have to swim before they could reach their destination. The dense cloud of sooty smoke that had overhung the metropolis for weeks past, and that wind from any direction could never entirely dissipate, for the simpte reason that smokestacks by the score "What you going to have fellows?" he called. "Here, Billy, old man, put up that spelter; I steered the gang in here, and it's my treat. Drru't go, Forbes; come back, red A few minutes later the sergeant, coming into th» little cubby hole of a room in which Taintor had preferred to do his work, found him with his arms on the desk and his face hidden in them, and the soldier clerk was quivering and twitching from head to foot. Oh, spare us then, Mr. Editor us a chance to learn something politan government before we i npon to grapple with it. At p are ashamed almost to let fc town come and see how awb corruption has been «Ione hi Little as I know about such tl see all the points in these - boodlers are only apprentio I would be mortified to d city folks drop in suddenly C the amateur way our stealii Society here is at its full Everything is quite gay. 1 South Fifth avenue, a slee; cial, who has the night run 1 York and Hornellsville, a visiting Mr. and Mrs. Wet of the County Seat. The were worth $2,000 before after the emancipation proC couldn't give them away. them, after a s'.urp fight, r iofv tales up the river and near tlio littl • i ■" :try cantonment at tho Indian 1 . - v.: : )h; and thither the lieutenant v.\a ca: ietl with a bullet through his thi. 'i. By the time he was well enough t D ..we, the regiment was again in the field on Indian campaign, and for six months he never saw Fort Cnrtis again. When he did, Emmy had gone home, and Mrs. Judson's politeness was something awful. car/ old fellow, and join us. Captain, what sh;:!l it be? Say, you all know Dick CassiJjrof the Seventh. I heard such & good rig on him this morning. I got a letter from Tommy Craig, who's on duty at the war department, and ho told mo that Dick was there trying to get one of these blasted college details. What d'ye suppose a cavalryman wants to leave his regiment for, to take a thing like that?" This cow I am especially proud of, and I may truthfully say that she has led a comparatively blameless life thus far. That is, it would ba so regarded in a large city, I meafi. She is as simple a.i a buttercup. She has almost constantly communed with nature and has never smelled a gas leak in her life. What she would do if wo were to become an eighty-seventh ward of New York city 1 do not know. shot np in the outskirts on every side, now seemed to be hurled upon the roofs and walls, the windows and the pavement, in a black, pasty, carboniferous deposit, and every object out of doors that one could touch would leave its inky "What's the matter with you, Taintor?" growled the old soldier. "Didn't you promise me you'd quit drinking?" The Eleventh fought all through the campaign of '76 and the chase after Chief Joseph in '77; but Noel was again on temporary duty at the war department, and there he stayed until '78, by which time various officials had become acquainted with some of the facts in the case.' The Eleventh "cold shouldered" him for a while after he got back; but they happened to be now in a region where there were no "hostiles." and where hops, germans, theatricals, tableaux and entertainments of all kinds were the rage. No otber man could be half so useful to the ladies as Gordon Noel. He had just come from Washington and knew everything; and when they took him up and made much of him 'twas no use for the men to stand aloof; they had to take him up too. The face that looked up into his was ghastly. response upon the hand. A more depressing "spell of weather" had not .been known for a year, and every living being in sight seemed saturated with the general gloom-revery living being except one. Capt. Fred Lane, of the Eleventh cavalry, was sitting at the dingy window of his office in the recruiting rendezvous on Sycamore street and actu- Lane was out with the Eleventh again in three more sharp and severe campaigns, received an ugly bullet wound through the left shoulder in the memorable chase after Chief Joseph, was quartermaster of his regiment a year after that episode, then adjutant, and finally was given the recruiting detail as he neared the top of the list of first lieutenants, and, for the first time in fifteen years, found himself once more among the friends of his youth—and still a bachelor. "It isn't drink, sergeant," moaned the man. "At least, I haven't exceeded for a month. I've got a chill—an ague of some kind. Just let me run down to the drug store and get some quinine—with perhaps a little brandy. Then I can do this work. Do, sergeant. I won't abuse your kindness." "Perhapshis health is impaired, Noel," said Wharton, with a humorous twinkle in his handsome eyes. "Even cavalrymen have been known to have to'quit their beloved profession on that account and get something soft in the east for a year or so." Many of my friends also keep goats. M. Tucson Kelly, a neighbor of mine on Airyetty street, says that ho has a new milch goat that was born on Staten Island, and has never yet seen an elevated train. He says he would hate to see the noise and cussedness of a great city creep in and usurp the place for our bon homme and dirt roads. ally whistling softly to himself in su- The color mounted to Noel's cheeks, but he gave no other sign of understanding the shaft as aimed at him. Promptly and loudly as ever he spoke out: "Well, go, then," was the reluctant answer; "but get back quick. And only one drink, mind you." preme contentment. Two missives had reached him that ghastly morning that had served to make him impervious to wind or weather. One—large, formal, impressive and bearing the stamp of the war department in heavy type across its upper corner—had borne to him the notification of his promotion to the rank of captain (Troop D; Eleventh cavalry, vice Curran, retired. The other—a tiny billet—had given him even greater happiness. It might be hard to say how many times he had read and reread it since he fonnd it on the snowy cloth of his particular breakfast table in his particular corner of the snug refectory of ♦"The Queen City," on the books of which most respectable if somewhat venerable club his name had been borne among the list of army or navy members ever since his "graduation leave,'' fifteen years before. All his boyhood, up to the time of hi "Possibly," adds M. Tucson Kelly, of Airyetty street, Tomcatsville, "I may do the better classes of New York city a great injustice, for folks tells me that it is not the best classes that comes over here on Sunday to play ball and escort a large oxydized jag home at night; but from what we see we form an idea that our relations with South and East New York might become strained at most any time if we should become Ward 87 of the city." Taintor seized his cap and fairly tottered through the adjoining room to the stairway, down which he plunged madly, and, heedless of the pelting rain, darted across the street to the gas lighted bar room. Lane had been on duty a year in the city when a rumor began to circulate tc the effect that investments of his in mining stocks had brought him large returns, and men the club and matronlj women at the few psrties he attended began asking significant questions which now it pleased him to parry rather than answer directly. His twelve months' ex ptjriences in society had developed in him "Oh, of course, if he's used up in service and has to go in to recuperate, all well and good; but I always supposed Cassidy was a stalwart in point of health and constitution. Who's going to the doctor's to-night? you, Jack?" Securing pleasant quarters in the ad- Joining street, Mr. Lane speedily made himself known at the club to which he had been paying his moderate annual dues without having seen anything of it but its bills for years past, yet never knowing just when he might want to drop in. Then he proceeded, after office hours, to hunt up old chums, and in the course of the first week after his arrival he had found almost all of them. Bailey, who sat next to him in school, was now a prominent and prosperous lawyer. Terry, who sat just behind him and occasionally inserted crooked pins in a convenient crack in his chair, was thriving in the iron business. How early she must have risen to*write it!—and to have seen the announcement of his promotion in the Washington dispatches! True, he remembered that it was frequently her pleasure to be up betimes to give her father his coffee; for Vincent pere was a business man of the old school, who liked to begin early in the day. Of course he had seen the name in the Washington news and had read the paragraph to her; that was the way to account for it. But her note was a joy to him in its sweet, half shy, half confidential wording. She merely wrote to say that Mr. Rossiter had wired that he would be detained in New York until the end of the week; and now, if Capt. Lane had really made no engagement, she would be glad indeed if he cared to renew the invitation which with such regret she was compelled a week ago to decline. Lane totally forgot his breakfast in his haste to rush to the writing room and send her a reply. A "There's something worse than either whisky or ague back of this," muttered the veteran sergeant, "and I could swear to it" Jack—otherwise Lieut. John Tracyshook his head as he whiffed at the cigarette he had just lighted and then gtretched forth his hand for the foaming glass of beer which the attendant brought him, but vouchsafed no verbal reply. Lee and Martin edged over to where the two captains were playing their inevitable game of seven up. Two of the juniore—young second lieutenants —despite the extreme cordiality of Noel's invitation, begged to be excused, as they did not care to drink anything—even a lemonade; and no sooner had the party finished their modest potation than there was a general move. Wallace and Hearn went into the billiard room; Wharton and Lee started in the direction of their quarters; and presently Mr. Noel was the only man in the clubroom without an occupation of some kind or a comrade to talk to. Lane was adjutant of the regiment at this time; and he, having seen every report and letter with reference to Mr. Noel that had been filed in the office, would hardly speak to him at all except when on duty, and this feeling was intensified when, a year or so later, they were suddenly hurried to Arizona on account of a wild dash of the Chiricahuas, and as the different companies took the field and hastened in the pursuit Mr. Noel was afflicted with a rheumatic fever of such alarming character that the yontliful "contract" surgeon who had accompanied his troop held him back at the railway and speedily sent him east on a three months' sick leave, which family influence soon made six. And this was about the record and reputation that Mr. Noel had succeeded in making when Capt. Rawlins was ready to bet Capt. Greene that, despite it all, the regimental Adonis would get the recruiting detail, vice Lane, for everybody knew Fred Lane so well as to prophesy that he would apply to be relieved and ordered to rejoin his regiment, and everybody was eager to see him take hold of poor old Curran's troop, for if anybody could "straighten it out" Lane could. (to be costihcsd ) Mr. Robert Craig, of Rossville, a dealer in fresh laid cucumber pickles and embryo hens, says that he hopes we shall not b» compelled to restore the depleted treasury of New York city and help pay for elevated sidewalks on Manhattan island while we hare got over eighty square miles of green country, fresh from the hand of the Creator, where the soprano song of the thrush mingles richly with the rumbling bass of the lusty mosquito. "Why should the three story high stoop brown stone front creep stealthily into my truck patch?" he succinctly asks, and no one yet has successfully replied. & somewhat sardonic vein of humor and made him, if anything, more reticent than before. And then—then all of a endden there came over the spirit of his dream a marked and wondrous change. He no longer declined invitations to balls, parties or dinners when he krfew that certain persons were to be present. Mabel Vincent had just returned from a year's tour abroad, and Lieut. Fred Lane had fallen in love at first sight. An (Jnkind Joke. —A man who will wear s Warden had made a fortune "on 'change," and was one of the leading brokers and commission merchants of the metropolis. He had always liked Warden; they lived cloie together, and used to walk to and from school with each other almost every day. Mr. Lane had started on his quest with a feeling akin to enthusiasm. Calm and reticent and retiring as he generally was, he felt a glow of delight at the prospect of once more meeting "the old crowd;" but that evening he returned to his rooms with a distinct sense of disappointment. Bailey had jumped up and shaken hands with much effusion of manner, and had "mydear-fellow"-ed him for a minute or two, and then, "Now, where are you stopping: 111 be round to look you up the very first evening I can get away, and—of course we'll have you at the house;" but Lane clearly saw he was eager to get back to his desk, «'sid so took his leave. Terry winning his cadetshipat been spent in the city v sixteen months he had ■elf fortunate on being cruiting service. Daring of his term at the acadeir ; D - by the receipt of & mother, telling him br, ther, long one of the bf the business men of t compelled to make an waa worse he had _ under the strain, and never be himself again, and honorable, Mr. paying to the utmost means. Even the old and the broken heartec his faithful wife to a 1 suburbs. There, a f 9 i « .« West Point, had lere for the past considered himstationed on reC:he second year y he was startled -sad letter from his -»efly that his fabest known among the city, had been .assignment. What ntterly broken down would probably Proud, sensitive Lane had insisted on farthing of his homestead went, man retired with nmble roof in the aw months after- It waa a note from her that made even that dingy old office, on this most dismal of days, fairly glow and shine with a radiance of hope, with a halo of joy and gladness such as his lonely life had never known before. The very first time he ever saw himself addressed as Capt. Fred Lane, Eleventh cavalry, was in her dainty hand. He turned his chair to the window to read once again the precious words; but there entered, dripping, a Western Union messenger with a telegram.I GAY DOINGS AT SOUTH BEACH. They still brag on how the war reduced them in circumstances. New potatoes are again to be seen on our streets. Anent the social whirl, it may be said that a successful dance was -given last week at South Beach, and also barbecue and clam bake, and willing feet gayly tripped the light agriostic toe until the wca srua' houra anent the twa. J£r. Chauncey Depew arrived in our plcco last week and is registered at the Nautilus hotel. ETe does not know whether to spend his rammer in Switzerland. cr Forth Ax&ay. \ niovrncntij ca fcot, backed by far- All "The Queen City" had been quick to see or hear of his "sudden smite" and consequent devotion to Mabel Vincent, and great was the speculation as to the probable result. Mr. Craig says that the first man who attempts to build a ten story brick block on his premises, have to do so over his dead body. He says that'it may be all right for Brooklyn to join New York, because the fa? 1 for stock is poor there anyway, but when Wall street gets to running to his well to water its stock it is time to call a halt. Now, Why should this have been the case? Noel's whole manner was overflowing with jollity ftnd kindliness; his eyes beamed and sparkled as ho looked from one man to the other; he hailed each in turn by his Christian name and in tones of most cordial friendship; he chatted and laughed and had comical anecdotes to tell the party; he was a tall, stylish, fine looking fellow, with expressive dark eyes and wavy dark brown hair; his mustache was the secret envy of more than half of his associates; his figure was really elegant in its grace and suppleness; his uniforms fitted him like a glove, and were invariably of Hatfield's choicest liandiwork. Appearances were jvith him in every sense of the word; and yet there was some reason why his society was politely but positively shunned by several of his brother officers and "cultivated" by none. "How can she encourage him as she does? What can she see in that solemn prig?" indignantly demanded Miss Fanny Holton, who had shown a marked interest in Mr. Lane during his first six months in society and had danced with him all through the season. "He is one of the forlornest, stupidest men I ever knew—utterly unlike what I supposed a cavalry officer to be." " Dooeey—. half inch ventilator in tbe top of his hat ought to be taught differently. It is urged that we would have a larger police force on Statin Island if we were a part of New York city, and that has done a great deal to build up the opposition to annexation, I tDink. That is one good thing now about Staten Island. She is almost free from the encroachments of that bane of civilization—the police. Three policemen ou week days and four on Sundays siv.vjand Richmond county with the clutch of a giant, and any outbreak or disorder outside of the hospital is a thing almost unknown, or, if finally known of, it is so late that the matter has already blown over. Tearing it open, Lane read these words: "All join in congratulations on your promotion and in wonderment at the colonel's selection of your successor. Noel is named." Tho news that Noel was named by the colonel caused a sensation at regimental headquarters which the Eleventh will probably not soon forget. "Old Riggs" had become the commander of the regiment after it seemed that the Indian wars were over and done with, and, thanks to our peculiar system of promotion, was now at the head of an organization with which he had never served as subaltern, captain or junior field officer. Discipline forbade saying anything to his face—for which the colonel was devoutly thankful—but everybody said to everybody else that it was all Mrs. Riggs' doing, a fact which the colonel very well knew. ward, .  during Fred's graduating year, she fol lowed him. - When the boy entered on his career in the army he was practically alone the world. Out of the wreck of he breathed his last, and there, Lane gave a long whistle of amazement. "Of all men in the regiment!" he exclaimed. "Who would have thought of Gordon Noel?" \ "And yet, Fanny dear, you were very much taken up with him the first winter —last year, I mean," was the reply of her most devoted and intimate friend. eign capitalists, to endow an asparagus bed at Brastina. A policeman was seen on our streets last week. His name could not be learned. Some think that his mysterious disappearance is a sign that he feared some kind of a disturbance in the near future, and went away fearing that he might be called as a witness. South Beach is overrun with pleasure seekers, mostly wealthy New Yorkers who are unable to go to Europe on account of great depression and hollow horn in stocks. did not know him at all until he began to laugh, and then he blandly inquired what he'd been doing with himself all these years. But tho man who rasped him from top to toe was Warden. Business hours were over, and tbw~ meeting occurred at the club. Two if~iutes after they had shaken hands, Warden was standing with his back to the log fire, his thumbs in the arm holes of his waistcoat, tilting on his toes, his head well back, and most affably and distinctly patronizing him. j in the world. Out or me «,M „ his father's fortune there came to him i little sum that started him in the service free from debt and that served as a nest egg to attract future accumulations. This he had promptly banked until some good and safe investment should present itself, and, once with his regiment on the P ' "'M frontier, Mr. Lane had found his pay ample for all his needs. It is unnecessary to recount the history of hia fifteen years' service as a subaltern. Suffice it to say that, steering clear of most of the temptations to which young officers were subjected, he had won a reputation as a capital "duty officer," that was accented here and there by some brilliant and dashing exploits in the numerous Indian campaigns through which the Eleventh had passed with no small credit Lane was never one of the jovial souls of the regiment. His mood was rather taciturn and conj templative. He read a good deal, and spent many days in the saddle exploring the country in the neighborhood of his poet and in hunting and fishing. A * 11 _ * . . • « - - CHAPTER EL "What an outrageous fib! I wasn't, and, if I was, it was because I wanted to draw him out—do something to enliven him. Of course I danced with him a great deal. There isn't a better dancer in town, and you know it, Mand; you've said so yourself time and again." It was only a few years after tho great war when Gtydon Noel joined the Eleventh from civil life. Ho caino of an old and influential family, and was welcomed in the regiment as an acquisition. He made friends rapidly, and was for two or tlireo years as popular a youngster as there was in the service. Then the troop to which he was attached was ordered to the plains, via Leavenworth. It was. a long journey by boat, and by the time they reached the old frontier city orders and telegrams were awaiting them, one of which, apparently to Mr. Noel's great surprise, detached him from his company and directed him to report for temporary duty at the war department in the city of Washington. He was there eighteen months, during which time his regiment had some sharp battles with the Cheyennes and Kiowas in Kansas and the Indian Territory. Then a new secretary of war gave ear to the oft repeated appeals of the colonel of tho Eleventh to have Mr. Nool and one or two other detached gentlemen returned to duty with their respective companies, and just as they were moving to the Pacific coast the absentees reported for duty and went along. At Vancouver and Walla Walla Noel seemed to regain by his joviality and good fellowship what ho had lost in the year and a half of his absence, though there were out and out soldiers in the Eleventh who said that the man who would stay on "fancy duty" in Washington or anywhere elso while his comrades were in the midst of a stirring campaign against hostile Indians couldn't be of the right sort. I claim that corruption ought to come on a town gradually. It ought not to bo let loose like a Conemaugh flood without notice. Staten Island has a fair jtart in this line, and as she grows her political corruption will no doubt keep pace with her growt'i; but it is tough to turn loose the veteran cussedness of an old and famous metropolis on the fresh and dew laden districts, where the gentle jay will at once fall a victim to the lust and rapacity of the versatile and accomplished metropolitan felon. What would a horny handed agriculturist like George William Curtis or Erastus Wiman or Willie Winter do if, while he happened to be bugging his potatoes or salivating his squash vines, the legislature should suddenly turn loose upon the Island a horde of accomplished he-sirens with staccato voice3 to woo the pure patriot from his disagreeable and poorly paved path of rectitude? ri * "Well, you didn't draw him out—nor on. But the moment he sees Mabel Vincent he falls heels over head in love with her. Why, I never saw a man whose every look and word so utterly 'gave him away,'v was Miss Maud's characteristic and slangy reply. "And it's my belief she'll take him, too. She likea him well, and she says he knows more than any other man she has ever met. Station Porter (on train's arrival)—Fire! —Judge. So did Noel, though he rushed into the club room apparently overwhelmed with amazement and delight: The Fine Was Remitted. "Well, Fred, you're still in the army, are you?" he asked. "I supposed of course it would be Follansbec. I never dreamed he would give it to me. Come np, crowd! come up everybody! It's champagne today," he jovially shouted; and there were men who could not bear to snub him openly. Nothing liad leully ever been proved against hiin; why should they judge him.' But there were several who declined, alleging one excuse or another, and even those who drank with him did so while applauding Wharton's toast: CoL Ingersoll's legal protege was Judge Puterbaugh, then a judge of the circuit, court at Peoria, Ills. Upon one occasion, while the judge was engaged in fining a spectator for contempt of court, Ingersoll offered some gratuitous advice which was resented with some show of indignation. Ingersoll retaliated by hinting that when the court was fishing in a political way after the ermine lie had not been so chary about accepting advice. This warmed the old man up in earnest, and he at once imposed upon the presumptuous advocate a fine of ten dollars and costs. Ingersoll fumbled in his pockets for a moment, then walked up to the bar with outstretched * hand and said: "Puterbaugh, lend me ten dollars!" The stern expression of the court never relaxed for an instant. Turning to the clerk he said: "Mr. Clerk, let the record show that Mr. Ingersoll's fine is remitted. Peoria county can better afford to lose ten dollars than I can."—Argonaut A man who had a letter of introduction to Rev. Joseph Cook went through Erastina yesterday on his way to Roseville. "Still in the army, Warden." "Well, what on earth do you find tc do with yourself out there? How dc you manage to kill time?" A well known dealer in small wares, -r"-r ate., iad who has ritr— business for a great many years on Sroaaway, between St. Paul's and Church street, on the west side, talks some of opening a branch at Court House station on the Rapid Transit road. He says he would have been running there Already, but lost six of his collar buttons from the ferryboat in crossing over here to establish himself. "Time never hung heavily on my hands. It often happened that there wasn't half enongh for all we had to do.': "He has money, too, and can resign and live here if she wants him to," went on Miss Maud after n pause which, oddly enough, her friend bad not taken advantage of. "You don't tell me! Why, I supposed that about all you did was to drink and play poker." "You don't know anything about what Mabel Vincent will or won't do, Maud. I've known her years longer than you have, and, though I'm awfully fond of her, and wouldn't have this repeated for the world—and yon must swear never to repeat it to anybody—I know her so well "Not an unusual idea, I find. Warden, but a very unjust one." "Well, Noel, here's to you! It ought to have been Follansbee; but I wish you the joy of it." The Society for the Prevention of Gooc will hold a clam fritter festival and hooraw at South Beach on Wednesday afternoon. Invited guests will not be admitted without an invitation. Please bring a few more victuals than yon will need yourself. Copious addresses Will be made by speakers from abroad who do not feel offended if they are not listened to. uot it thoroughly tiw ladies, h two who nevt giving the lieate. effective clawinf came up for dir conclaves occasionali Sunt. Sometimes, ity served, he some sharp or s*. not always easy to Judaon, wile of wm jeputed to be the men had no difficu. eating the time when her —t took place. "—--The truth of thftnVn to simplt of economy, Lam balance in tb*- the regiment - than it rca'.ly was the furnishing ana ters, the neit tMcg, assayed t, uD van' rife. TLuethe • taneous!; with bar as a fr'st lieutcnan. the dista.it east Mrs. Bister "Emmy" and Hn._ niece Pansy Fletcher. Lane A* cell an Kith ta take ' "Oh, yes, I know, of course, you have some Indian fighting to do once in a while; but that probably amounts tc very little. I mean when you're in permanent camp or garrison. I should think a man of your temperament would just stagnate in such a life. I wondei you hadn't resigned years ago and come here and made a name for yourself." the colonel down, there was n the Eleventh who did not "Come up. crowd! come vp everybody! It's champagne today." CHAPTER HI. What would I do? wt and like him. Among jver, there was one or lost an opportunity of The colonel of the Eleventh cavalry was a gentleman who had some peculiarities of temperament and disposition. This fact is not cited as a thing at all unusual, Jor the unbiased testimony of the subalterns and even the troop commanders of every cavalry regiment in service would go far towards establishing the fact that all colonels of cavalry are similarly afflicted. Onetf the salient peculiarities of the commanding officer of the Eleventh was a conviction that nothing went smoothly in the regiment unless the captains were all on duty with their companies; for, while at any time Col. Riega would approve an application for a lieutenant's leave of absence, it was worse than pulling teeth to get him to do likewise for a gentleman with the double bars on his shoulder. "Confound the man!" growled Capt. Greene, "here I've been seven years with my troop, saving up for a six months' leave, and the old rip disapproves it! What on earth can a fellow say?" that I can say she doesn't know her own mind now and would change it in less than six months if she did. She is as fickle in love as in her friendships; and you can't have forgotten how inseparable yon and she were for three months at Mme. Hoffman's, and then how she fastened on Katherine Ward. I don't care a snap of my finger whom Mr. Lane chooses to fall in love with, bat if it's Mabel Vincent he'd better insist on a short engagement and stand guard over her with his sword in the meantime. It's 'out of sight out of mind' with her, and has been ever since she was 4 years old." I am almost sure that I would fall. 1 would fall with an ear piercing plunk. Almost every time I go over to New York now I do something or other which, in the light of cooler reasoning and far away from temptation, I can see was autre and almost dishabille. _ _ whenever his name dtacunion in the feminine a feline and not in- "Tlio life has been rather more brisk than yon imagine," he answered, with a quiet smile, "and I have grown very fond of my profession. Bnt yon speak of making a name for myself. Now, in what wonld that have consisted?" ly held in the regi- Other news may be given next week up to the moment of going to press. too, when opportunwas made the victim of sarcaetic speech that was bear in silence. Mrs. ♦he captain of B troop, "What's the matter?" asked a department clerk to Gus De Jay. "You look as if something had occurred to make you unhappy." She Thought She Could Stand It. No. we are not vet rice. Mr. Editor. ior city me. We would run right flown if you Bhould take us off grass and feed us on ground feed and rich victuals. Linoleumville, Rossville and Perth Amboy feel just as I do about it. If the legislature makes us a part of New York city we will have to stand it, I presume, and help pay for school houses, county line roads and gopher scalps on Manhattan Island from that on; but I know I voice the sentiments of a man here who writes a good deal for the papers over the nom de plume of "Taxpayer," and several other well known writers both at home and abroad, when I say that the Groat Spirit gave us these lands, and we shall opposo t'.ie paleface who comes to us with smooth promises and trie# to be the godfather to our little children. "Oh, well, of course, if you really like the army and living in a desert and thai sort of thing, I've nothing to say," said Warden; "but it always struck me as sucha—such a—well, Fred, such a wasted life, all very well for fellows who hadn't brains or energy enough to achieve success in the real battle of life" (and here Warden waa "swelling visibly"), "bul not fit all the thin;? for a man of youi "down on Lane," and Uy whatever in lo change of heart "What is the trouble?" "Ya-as; wathah." Tompkinsville, S. I. "I was holding Miss Kenworth's hand, and I avysked her if she'd object to my impwinting a kiss upon it." "And did she?" the matter was that, habits and to his sense Up in Oregon the Modoc troubles soon began, and several troops were sent southward from their stations, scouting. There were several little skirmishes between the various detachments and the agile Indians, with no great loss on either side; but when "Capt. - Jack" retired to the natural fastness of' the lava beds, serious work began, and here Mr. Noel was found to be too ill to take part in the campaign, and was sent in to San Francisco to recuperate. The short but bloody war was brought to a close Vithout his having taken part in any of its actions, but he rojoined after a delightful convalescence in San Francisco A fisherman quietly fishes away amid a crowd of interested spectators. At The Best of German Make. And so in the smoking room at the club and in the feminine cliques and coteries in society the probability of Mabel Vincent's accepting Lieut. Lane was a matter of frequent discussion. But of all this chit-chat and speculation Capt. Lane stood in profound ignorance M he entered his dark ollso that drenching Wednesday mjiuins with her precious "No; she said that it had been stung by a bee and bit by a mosquito, and she f leased it could stand it."—Washington oet had quite a snug little bank, and the ladiee of sved it to Ik? bigger and« having approved fitting up of his quarof conrso, tlrnt tliey last they grow impatient. "Look hore," says one of them to tha angler, "why don't yon hurry up and catch something? Do yon think we're got nothing to do with our timq. Bui watch yon?"—Fliegeade Blatter."' Weall o,: l?i at school that jon were licuJ u:D 1 ..";.Dr.lClers above the rrst of us. \7c wers talking of it som« y'dliai h~o here in thi.i vory room; there'd "A'j An rnfortuiiute Remark. " I don't know how to tell you how 1 regret having to say 'No,' Mr. Lane." Nurse—It is a boy. .o provide him with a louble bejc-an. £: . Iao arrival of hi ; tin t ihere came f. '.u Jndson's youiijer "You didn't go about it right, Greeney," was the calm rejoinder of a comrade who had been similarly "cut" the year previous. "You should have laid siege to him through madame a month or so. What she says as to who goes on leave and who doesn't is law at headonarters. and I know it. Now. vou Father—And the mother? 1 n : 1 ing about you in the paperi —coui" ".-al or other had mentioned yo.i ' • sport. Let's see: didn't you get worm (led, or something, chasing some Indians?" Lane replied that he believed that "something like that had hauuened." but begged his friend to go Never before had Fred Lane known the sensation of being reluctant to rejoin his regiment When the colonel wrote a personal letter to him some eight or ten vreeks previous, telling him that Curran w ould almost surely get the next vacancy on the retired list and that he note in his waistcoat pocket. He neither N.—Is doing well down in a moment, see the child? The doctor will be Would you like to An Implied Compliment. ' Forester out with a city gentleman hunting. The latter shoots and rniasea a deer. "*"3 . ; •' »Ah, your excellency, if you aimed at thftf tree it was certainly a master •hot." —Fliegende Blattery knew nor oared what old Vincent was worth; all he Granted was Mabel's own sweet self, for he loved her with his whole heart and soul, with all the strength and devotion of his deep and loyal nature. He mill viH1t uaafaal F.—Oh, all babies are alike; they look like monkeys. We do not understand the ways of the paleface from. New York. Loring's pretty was prompt tha vounsr ladies Yet we will accept onr destiny, whatever it may be, if it cannot be avoided. The Staten Islander suffers, but ha nave* N.—Yes, sir; he is your very image.— Boston Courier. I