Pittston Gazette

              ✓ / ; Oldest Newsoaoer in the Wyoming Valley. PITTSTON, LUZERNE CO., PA., FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1800. \ Weetdy Local and Familv lounial. ! " V " The Tennis Girl. and the quick rustling of a 6inrt in tne passage as if some one had precipitately fled from her room. Yet no one had called to her—even he had said nothing. Whatever had happened they clearly had not cared for her to know. and some fallen plaster there's really no damage done. But I'm afraid they've caught it pretty badly at the Mission and at San Francisco in those tall, flashy, rattle trap buildings they're putting t I've just sent off one of the men for news." Hastening onward she found time, however, to wonder also why these common men—she now included even the young inventor in that category—were all so rude and uncivil to her. She had never before been treated in this way; she had always been rather embarrassed by the admiring attentions of young men—clerks and collegians in her Atlantic home, and of professional men, merchants and stock brokers in San Francisco. It was true they were not as continually devoted to her and to the nice art and etiquette of pleasing as Emile—they had other things to think discreet visitor, 1.5 not known, aj it was suddenly stopped by a bullet from the rosebud lips of t'10 ingenuous Adcle. The fairest of the fairies, she, The daintiest of doves, The prettiest of pictures. The loveliest of loves; Her face is like an angel's, Each hand is like a pearlllost beautiful of creatures is The pretty tennis girl. THE OTHEE SIDE OF IT. TOSSES THB STUAKTS SECOND EAID. It had hundreds of miles nf communication to guard, ap well as the Potomac crossings."Why, lie's very handsome when his face is clean, and liu hand3 are small and not at all hard. And he doesn't talk the least bit queer or common." A "ARMER TELLS BILL NYE ABOUT The return of the Confederate cavalry waa the most difficult part of the daring expedition. That short cut of twefity odd miles from Williamsport to Chamfjersburg could not be made again. Cox's Kanawha division was known to be in that vicinity, and there were thousands of Union troops within easy caiL Lee's instructions . had been that the crossing back be made near Leesburg, some distance below the territory occupied by McClellan's army, and between fifty and sixty miles in a direct line from Chambersburg. The start was made early on the morning of the 11th. Nearly every cavalryman had an extra horse led from his saddle, and being for the most part newly shod and fed, the whole cavalcade was in fine spirits. Along the streets and on the farm roads wagon loads of goods and produce were left standing without teams, the horses having been "impressed" for the Confederacy. One Virginian, who jvas expostulated-with by some weeping women because he took their horses, answered: "Crying won't do any good. Your folks took nine blooded horses from my father's stable." SUMMER BOARDERS. HIS PENNSYLVANIA EXPEDITION IN The jarring and rattling ceased as suddenly, but the house seemed silent and empty. She moved to the door, which now had swung open a few inches, but to her astonishment it was fixed in that position and she could not pass. As yet she had been free from any personal fear, and even now it was with a half smile at her imprisonment in the major's study that she rang the bell and turned to the window. A man whom she recognized as one of the ranch laborers was standing a hundred feet away in the garden looking curiously at the house. He saw her face as she tried to raise the saah, uttered an exclamation and ran forward. 1862. Her father was in San Francisco by that time, and she had never once thought of him. In her quick remorse she forgol all elso and rose to her feet. There was a dead silence. "And pray where did you see him, and what do you know about his hands," asked Mrs. Randolph in her most dcsiccated voice. "Or has the major already presented you to him? I shouldn't bo surprised." Th« Sad Talo of a New Milch Cow. Her voice Is like the Siren's song, Her words my heart entrance, Her laughing eyes are full of love, And charm with erery glance; Her dainty feet In shoss of tan My brain put in a whirl; I love har for her loveliness— The pretty tenuis girl. The gokUn tress n like a frame Surround har oharmlng face, And half eoBoeal and hsJf reveal The neck of wondrous grace; I bless tha lucky breese that plays About each truant curl. Some t»oys and Soino Other Things, How He Seized Chambersburg, Captured Horses and Startled the Whole Country Deacon Decker and tlis Thumb; Also Both North and South—Sharp Tactics "I must telegraph to my father at once." she said hurriedly; "he is there." Jay Gould on the Retreat—A Thrilling Tale. [Copyright by Edgar W. Nyo.J "You had better wait until tbe messenger returns and hear his news," said Emile. "If the shock was only a slight one in San Francisco your father might not understand you and would be alarmed.""No, but," hesitate! tho young girl, with a certain mouse like audacity, "when you sent mo to look after Miss Mallory I came up to him just after he had spoken to her, and lie stopped to ask me how we all were, and if Miss Mallory were really frightened by the earthquake, and he shook hands for good afternoon—that's all." "We kep' summer boarders the past season," said Orlando McCusick, of East Kortright, to me yesterday, as we sat in th« spring house and drank cold milk from a large yellow bowl with white stripes around it; "we kep' boarders from town all summer in the Catskills, and th*t is why I don't figger on doing of it next year. You fellers that writes the pi&ces and makes the pictures of us folks that keeps the boarders has got the laugh on us as a general thing, but 1 would like to be interviewed a little for the press, so's that I can be set right before the American people." ■Copyright by American Press Association.! Mr E B STUART'S ride around Mo- Clellan's army on the Peninsula in June, 1862, ac| complished very ( little of importance in a military sense, but it undoubtedly suggested to the dashin g cavalryman and to his chiefs that long rides could be made within the enemy's lines, resulting in the destruction of valuable stores, the severing of communications, and the gain of valuable information about the opposing force. The Peninsula raid was made by two regiments of about 1,200 men, and ended in a scare for the Union camps, the temporary obstruction of the railroad supplying the Union army, and the wanton wounding of some soldiers and passengers by a volley fired into a moving train. However, it made Stuart famous, and no doubt suggested to Gen. Lee the use that might be made of such expeditions in campaigns favorable for incursions across the lines. about, being in business and not beinjj gentlemen, but then they were greatly superior to these clowns, that took no notice of her and rode off without lingering or formal leave taking when their selfish affairs were concluded. And though she doesn't oars for me— I Iota the fflrl. —Q. P. Taggart in Newark CN. J.) Town Talk. She could see his face now; there wat no record of the past expression upon it, but he was watching her eagerly. Mrs. Randolph and Adele had moved away tc speak to the servants. Emile drew nearer. It must be the contact of the vulgai earth—this wretched, cracking, material and yet ungovernable and lawless eartt —that so depraved them. She felt she would like to say this to some one—not her father, for he wouldn't listen tc her; not to the major, who would laughingly argue with her, but to Mrs. Randolph, who would understand her- -and perhaps say it some day in her own sharp, sneering way to those very clowns. With these gentle sentiments irradiating her blue eyes and putting e pink flush upon her fair cheek Ros« reached the garden with the intention oi rushing sympathetically into Mrs Ran dolph's arms. "And who taught you to converse with common strangers and shake hands with them," continued Mrs. Randolph with narrowing lip3. Through Santa Clara Wheat But before she could understand what he said the sash began to rattle in her hand, the jarring recommenced, the floor shook beneath her feet, a hideous sound of grinding seemed to come from the walls, a thin seam of dust like smoke broke from the ceiling, and with the noise of falling plaster a dozen books followed each other from the shelves in what in the frantic hurry of that moment seemed a grimly deliberate succession; a picture hanging against the wall to her dazed wonder swurnr forward and appeared t"» stand at right angles from it; she felt herself reeling against the furniture, a deathly nausea overtook her, and as she glanced despairingly toward the window the outlying fields beyond the garden seemed to be undulating like a sea. J K A just as regular as Saturday night come round. "You surely will not desert us now,' he said in a low voice. "Please don't," she said vaguely i "I'm so worried." And pushing quickly past him she hurriedly rejoined the two women. "Nobody, mamma, but I thought if Miss Mallory, who is a young lady, could speak to him so could I, who am not out yet." Bj FRAN018 BEET HABTE "Well, if you will state the case fairly and honestly I will try to give you a chance." '' These boys picked on mine all summer because my boys was plain little fellers with no underwear, but good impulses and a general desire to lay low and eventually git there, understand. My boys is considerable bleached as regards hair, and freckled as to features, and they are not ready in conversation like a town boy, but they would no more drive a dumb animal through the woods till it waa all het up, or take a new milch cow and scare the daylights out of her and yell at her and pull out her tail and send her home with her pores all open, than they'd be sent to the legislature without a crime. [Copyright. All rights i—'»el] (COHTUa'MU.) "We won't discuss this anv further at present," said Mra. Randolph stiffly, as the major smiled grimly at Rose. "The earthquake seems to have shaken down in this houso more than the chimneys." They were superintending the erection of a long tent or marquee in the garden, hastily extemporized from the awnings of the veranda and other cloth. Mrs. Randolph explained that although all danger was over there was the possibility of the recurrence of lighter shocks daring the day and night, and that the; would all feel much more secure and comfortable to camp out for the next twenty-four hours in the open air. "In the first place," said Orlando, taking off his boot and removing his jackknife, which had worked its way through his pocket and down his leg, then squinting along the new "tap" with one eye to see how it was wearing before he put it on, "1 did not know how healthy it was here till I read in a railroad pamphlet, 1 guess it is you call it, where it says that the relation of temperature to oxygen in a certain quantity of air is of the highest importance. 'In a cubic foot,' it says, 'of air at 3,000 feet elevation, with a temperature of 32 degs., there is as much oxygen as in a like amount of air at sea level with a temperature of 65 degs. Another important fact that should not be lost sight of,' this able feller 6ays, 'by those affected by pulmonary diseases is that three or four times as much oxygen is consumed in activity as in repose.' (Hence the hornets' nests introduced by me this season.) 'Then in climates made stimulating by increased electric tension and cold, activity must bo followed by an increased endosmose of oxygen.'" CHAPTER HI. It had been a warm morning. An tinusual mist, which the son had not dissipated, had crept on from the great grain fields beyond, and hung around the house charged with a dry, dusty closeness that seemed to be quite independent of the sun's rays, and more like a heated exhalation or emanation of the soil itself. In its acrid irritation Rose thought Bhe could detect the breath of the wheat as on the day she had plunged into its pale green shadows. By the afternoon this mist had disappeared, apparently in the same mysterious manner, but not scattered by the usual trade wind which—another unusual circumstance—that day was not It cortainly had shaken all power of sleep from the eyes of Rose when the household at last dispereed to lie down in their clothes on the mattresses which had been arranged under the awnings. Sho was continually starting np from confused dreams of the ground shaking under her, or she seemed to be standing on the brink of somo dreadful abyss, like the great chasm on tho grain field, when it began to tremble and crumble beneath her feet. But it suddenly occurred to her that she would be obliged to state how she became aware of this misfortune, and with it came an instinctive aversion tc speak of her meeting with the inventor. She would wait until Mrs. Randolph told her. But although that lady was engaged in a low voiced discussion ii French with Emile and Adele which instantly ceased at her approach there was no allusion made to the new calamity.For the first time she raised her voice, not in fear, but in a pathetic little cry of apology for her awkwardness in tumbling about and not being able to grapp}e thin new experience, and then she found herself near the door, which had once more swung free. She grasped it eagerly and darted out of the study into the deserted passage. Here some instinct made her follow the line of the wall rather than the shaking balusters of the corridor and staircase; but before she reached the bottom she heard a shout, and the farm laborer she had seen coming toward her seized her by the arm, dragged her to the open doorway of the drawing room and halted beneath its arch in the wall. Another thrill—bnt lighter than before—passed through the building, then all was still again. "Only imagine you're picnicking, and youll enjoy it as much as most peofile usually enjoy those horrid al fresco en tertainmenti I don't believe there's the slightest real necessity for it, but," sh« added in a lower voice, "the Irish and Chinese servants are so demoralized now they wouldn't stay indoors with us. It's a common practice here, I believe, for a day or two after the shock, and it giveB time to put things to right again and clear up. The old one-storied Spanish houses, with walls three feet thick and built round a courtyard or patio were much safer. It's only when the Americans tried to improve upon the old ordei of things with their pinchbeck shams and stucco that Providence interferei like this to punish them." "A neighbor of mine that see these boys when they was scar-in' my cow to death said if they'd of been his'n he'd rather foller 'em to their grave than Dee 'em do that. That's putting of it rather strong, but I believe I would myself. A tempting situation was noted some months later, after the battle of Antietam. The armies of McClellan and Lee lay on opposite sides of the Potomac river, above Harper's Ferry. McClellan was refitting and recruiting the Army of the Potomac, and, with a depot of supplies at Hagerstown, was dependent for rapid communication with the north on the railroad running thence from Harrisburg, Pa., by way of Chambersburg. The latter was from thirty to forty miles inside of McClellan'g lines. On the 8th of October Gen. Lee instructed Stuart to take 1,200 or 1,500 mounted men and proceed to that point, destroy the railway bridge over the Conococheague and otherwise damage the Union transportation, making any legal captures within his power. Stuart selected 1,800 men and a battery of flying artillery. His subordinates were Wade Hampton, W. H. F. Lee and W. E. Jones. When the troop* were in line, ready to move off In a dense darkness, the following order was read to them: It was near morning when, unable to endure it any longer, she managed without disturbing the Bleeping Adele, who occupied the samo curtained reces3 with her, to clip out from the awning. Wrapped in a thick shawl she made her way through the encompassing trees and bushes of the garden that had seemed to imprison aul suffocate her to the edge of the grain fiel4, where she could breathe the freer ait beneath an open starlit sky. There was no moon and the darkness favored her; she had no fears that weighed against the horror of seclusion with her own fancies. Besides, they were camping out of the house, and if she chose to sit up or walk about no one could think it strange. IMPRESSING HORSES. For a feint Stuart moved rapidly toward Gettysburg, then turned south. At Emmettsburg the southern flag was greeted -- with cheers, and the men had an ovation. A Union courier was captured here with dispatches showing that the Union forces were in strength at Frederick, and thus warned, Stuart made another detour, avoiding that town. As he drew near the river and the line of McClellan's communications with Washington, the situation became critical. Before daylight this same day, Oct. 11, Gen. Pleasanton gathered his scattered command, and set it in motion on Stuart's route north, keeping scouts, however, well to the northeast. He soon learned of the retrograde movement, and faced his men about, aiming to reach the Monocacy ahead of Stuart, whom he suspected would go toward Poolesville. In avoiding Frederick by the east Stuart crossed the Monoracy above tbat town, while Pleasanton, concentrating at Frederick, crossed that stream just below, and pushed on toward the Poolesville road by way of Barnesville. Stuart was at this moment dodging still, and having heard that a Union force under Gen. Stoaeman was guarding Poolesville he decided to cross over to the Monocacy again. His advance was preceded by 150 men in Union uniform. Pleasan ton's adv met them on the Barnesvih changed friendly signals and alio. to draw near. Then the Conu leader, Irving, of Lee's brigade, orders squadron to charge. It was done bold*. and a cloud of sharpshooters sprang from their horses and advanced on the supports which stood behind the Union cavalry. In a twinkling Stuart's horse bat tery came to the spot and opened, driving Pleasanton's men back to tbe Monocac v. Rapidly now Stuart again changed his course to White's Ford, between Poolesville and the Monocacy. Here he ran upon 300 infantry posted on a ridge, facing the other way and covering the ford. A gun was placed in position, seventy riflemen were dismounted, and a swift dash across a ravine and up the slope surprised and scattered the picket, and the cavalcade rode on. Cannon were planted at the Ford to cover the crossing in case of attack, aud in single file the party moved across, preceded by another cannon, which was posted on the height beyond the river. Meanwhile the troops at Poolesville under Stoneman had been aroused, and were on the march up the river. They united with Pleasanton's cavalry only to see the Confederates across the river, and to be greeted with a saucy good-by salute from the gallant Pelham. who commanded Stuart's flying battery. The raid was over. Stuart had not lost a man, but brought back some wounded. He brought in 1,300 led horses, the pick of the rich farming country through which he had ridden. The consternation in the north was very great, and the authorities blamed one another for the humiliating result. President Lincoln is reported to have got off another grim joke to the effect that the affair reminded him of a game the boys played which turned on the saying, "Threetimes around, then out." Said he, "Stuart has been around McClellan twice, and if he does it anain McClellar will be out." "We had a nice old man that come out here to attend church, he said. He belonged to a big church in town, where it cost him so much that he could hardly look his maker in the face, he Baid. La8t winter, he said, they sold the pews at auction, and he had an affection for one, 'specially 'cause he and his wife had set in it all their lives, and now that she was dead he wanted it, as he wanted the roof that had been over them all their married fives. So he went down when they auctioned 'em off, as it seems they do in those big churches, and the bidding started moderate, but run up till they put a premium on his'n that froze him out, and he had to take a cheap one where he couldn't hear very well and it made him sort of bitter. Then in May, he says, the Palestine rash broke out among the preachers in New York, and most of 'em had to go to the Holy Land to get over it, because that is the only thing you can do with the Palestine rash when it gets a hold on a pastor. So he says to me, 'I come out here mostly to see if I could get any late information from the Throne of Grace.' forthcoming. There was a breathlessness in the air like the hush of listening expectancy which filled the young girl with a vague restlessness, and seemed to even affect a scattered company of crow* in toe field beyond the House wnicn rose suddenly with startled but aimless wingt and then dropped vacantly among the grain again. "You need not telegraph to yorn father," she said, as Rose approached. "He has already telegraphed to you foi news. As you were out, and the messenger was waiting an answer, we opened the dispatch, and sent one telling him that you were all right, and that he need not hurry here on your account. So you are satisfied, I hope." A few hours ago this would have been true, and Rose would have probably seen in the action of her hostess only a flattering motherly supervision. . There was, in fact, still a lingering trace of that trust in her mind, yet she was consciotu that she would have preferred to answer the dispatch herself and to have let hei father come. "So yon decided to Belect and furnish endosmose of oxygen to sufferers?" Maj. Randolph was inspecting a distant part of the ranch, Mrs. Randolph was presumably engaged in her boudoir, and Rose was sitting between Adele and Emile before the piano in the drawing room, listlessly turning over the leaves of some music. There had been an odd mingling of eagerness and abstraction in the usual attentions of the young man that morning, and a certain nervous affectation in his manner of twisting the ends of a small black mustache which reeembled his mother's eyebrows, that had affected Rose with a half amused, half uneasy consciousness, but which she had, however, referred to the restlessness produced by the weather. It occurred to her also that the vacuously amiable Adele had once or twice regarded her with the same precocious, childlike curiosity and infafltine cunning she had once before exhibited. "Yes. I went into it with no notions of making n pilo of money, but I argued that these folks would give anything for health. We folks are apt to argy that people from town are all well off and liberal, and that if they can come out and get all the buttermilk and straw rides they want, and a little flush of color and a wood tick on the back of their neck, they don't reck a pesky reck what it costs. That is only occasionally so. Ask any doctor you know of if the average man won't give anything to save his life, and then when it's saved put his propity into his womern's name. That's hnman. You know the good book says a pure man from New York is the noblest work of God." "It's over, I reckon; that's rfl iust now," said the man coolly. • lite safe to cut and run for the garden :iow through this window." He half led, half lifted her through the French window to the veranda and the ground, and locking her arm in his ran quickly forward a hundred feet from th? house, stopping at last beneath a large poet oak where there was a rustic seat, into which she sank. "You're safe now, I reckon," he said grimly. It was the fact, however, that Rose waa more impressed by what seemed tc her tho absolute indifference of Providence in the matter, and the cool resumption by nature of her ordinary conditions. The sky above their heads waf as rigidly blue as ever and as smilingly monotonous; the distant prospect, with its clear, well known silhouettes, had not changed; the crows swung on heavy, deliberate wings over the grain as before and the trade wind was blowing in its quiet persistency. Sho wished her father were here, that she might have some of her own kin to talk to, yet sho knew not what to say to him if he were here. She wanted somebody to sympathize with her feelings— or rather, perhaps, somo one to combat and even ridicule the uneasiness that had lately come over her. She knew what her father would say: "Do you want to go or do you want to stay here? Do you like these people or do you not?" She remembered the one or two glowing and enthusiastic accounts she had written him of her visit hero, and felt herself blushing again. What would he think of Mrs. Randolph's opening and answering the telegram? Wouldn't ho find out from the major if she had garbled the sense of his dispatch? Soldi fthi You are aboat to engage In an enterprise which, to Insure success. Imperatively demands at your hands coolness, decision and bravery, Implicit obedience to orders without question or cavil, and the strictest order and sobriety on the march and in bivouac. The destination and extent of this expedition had better be kept to myself than known to you. Suffice it to say with the hearty co-operation of officers and men I have not a doubt of its success—a success which will reflect credit in the highest degree upon your arms. The orders which are herewith published for your government are absolutely necessary and must be rigidly enforced. To a girl brought up with a belief in the right of individual independence oi thought and action there was something in Mrs. Randolph's practical ignoring oi that right which startled her in spite oi her new conservatism; while as the daughter of a business man her instinct* revolted against Mrs. Randolph's unbusinesslike action with the telegram, however vulgar and unrefined she may have begun to consider a life of business and its connections. The result was a certain constraint and embarrassment in her manner which, however, had the laudable effect of limiting Emile's attentions to significant glances, and was no doubt variously interpreted by the others. But she satisfied her conscience by determining to make a confidence of her sympathy to the major on the first opportunity. She looked toward the house. The sun was shining brightly. A cool breeze seemed to have sprung up as they ran. She could see a quantity of rubbish lying on the roof, from which a dozen yards of zinc gutter were perilously hanging, tne broken snorts or tne runner cluster of chimneys, a pile of bricks scattered upon tho ground and among tio battered down beams of the end of the veranda; but that was all. She lifted her now whitened face to the man, and with the apologetic smile still lingering on her lips asked: And yet she knew that something had happened that would never again make her enjoyment of the prospect the same; that nothing would ever be as it was yesterday. I think at first she referred only to the material and larger phenomena, and did not confound this revelation oi the insecurity of the universe with hei experience or man. Yet the fact also remained tVvt to the conservative, correct and, as she believed, secure condition tc which she had been approximating, all her relations were rudely shaken and mlt really seemed to this simple W young woman that the revolutionary disturbance of settled conditions might be something in the style of a "divine right" also. J. EL B. Stcart. ex- The cavalcade moved silently to McCoy'# Ford, on the Potomac, between Williamsport and Hancock, seized the picket post without alarm, and after pressing on some distance a Union signal station with all its detail was surprised and captured. At this point Stuart learned of the presence of Gen. J. D. Cox's Kanawha division, which was marching toward West Virginia, and had gone JDut an hour's march from the road fx* ""was pursuing. The raiders then made a detour and pushed on to Mercersburg, Pa., ten miles from the point of crossing and half way to Chambersburg. The latter was reached after dark, and Stuart Immediately took possession of the place, appointing Wade Hampton military governor. No officials could be found who would treat with the invaders, and Stuart sent his men to perform the work assigned."Well, when did this desire to endosmose your fellow man first break out on youF' "He was a rattlin' fine old feller, and told me a good deal about one thing and another. He said he'd seen it stated in the paper that salvation was free, but in New York he said it was pretty well protected for an old established industry. "About a year and a half ago it begun to rankle in my mind. I read up everything I could get hold of regarding the longevity and such things to be had here. In the winter I sent in a fair, honest advertisement regarding my place and Judas H. Priest! Before 1 could Bkj 'scat' in the spring hero come letters by the dozen, mostly from school teachers at first, that had a good command of language, but did not come. _ I afterward learned that these letters was frequently wrote by folks that was not able to go into the country, so wrote these letters for mental improvement, hoping also that somo one in the country might want them for the refinement they would engender in the family. All this did not, however, abate her admiration for both—perhaps particularly for this picturesquely gentlemanly young fellow, with his gentle audacities of compliment, his caressing attentions and his unfailing and equal addr—■ And when, discovering that she had mislaid her fan for the fifth time that morning, he Btarted up with equal and Away to the right, in the midst of the distant and invisible wheat field, there was the same intermittent star, which like a living,breathing thing seemed to dilate in glowing respiration,and which she had seen the first night of Bcr visit—Mr. Bent's forge. It must be nearly daylight now. The poor fellow had been np all night, or else was stealing this early march on the day. She recalled Adele's sudden eulogium of him. The first natural smile that had come to her lips since the earthquake broke up her nervous restraint and sent her back more like her old self to her couch. "He knew Deacon Decker pretty well. Deacon Decker was an old playmate of JayGould'8, but didn't do so well as Jay did. He went once to New York after he got along in years, and Gould knew him, but he couldn't seem to place Gould. 'Why, Decker,' says Gould, 'don't you know me? Decker says, 'That's all right. You bet I know ye. You're one of these fellers that knows everybody. There's another feller around the corner that helps you to remember folks. I know ye. I read the papers. Git out. Scat. Torment ye. I ain't in here today buyin' green goods, nor yet to lift a freight bill for ye. So avaunt before I sick the police on ye.' "What does it all mean? What happened?" The man stared at her. to say ye don't knowf "How could I? They most have all left the house as soon as it began. I wai talking to—to M. L'Hommadieu, and hi suddenly left." "D'ye mean undiminished fire to go again and fetch it, the look of grateful pleasure and pleading perplexity in her pretty eyes might have turned a less conceited brain than his. This eho presently found when the others were preoccupied, the major greeting her with a somewhat careworn face, but a voice whose habitual kindness was unchanged. When he had condoled with her on the terrifying phenomenon that had marred her visit to the rancho—and she could not help impatiently noticing that he, too, seemed to have accepted his wife's theory that she had been half deliriously frightened— he regretted that her father had not concluded to come down to the rancho, aa his practical advice would have been invaluable in this emergency. She waa about to eagerly explain why, when it occurred to her that Mrs. Randolph had only given him a suppressed version of the telegram, and that she would be betraying her or again taking sides in this partisan divided home. With some hesitation she at last alluded to the accident to the artesian welL CHAPTER IV. In her desire to he alone and to evade the now significant attentions of Emile she took advantage of the bustle that followed the hurried transfer of furniture and articles from the house to escape through the garden to the outlying fields. Striking into one of the dusty lanes that she remembered, she wandered ou for half an hour until hei progress and meditation were suddenly arrested. She had come upon a long chasm or crack in the soil, fully twenty feet wide and as many in depth, crossing her path at right angles. She did not remember having seen it before; the track of wheels lyent up to its precipitous edge, she could see the track repeated on the other side, but the hiatus remained, unbridged and uncovered. It was not there yesterday. She glanced right and left; the fissure seemed to extend like a moat or ditch from the distant road to the upland between her and the great wheat valley below, from which she was shut off. The man brought his face angrily down within an inch of her own! "D'ye mean to say that them d—d French halfbreeds stampeded and left yer then alone?" It was raining steadily, a cold, dreary, autumn storm, and as far as possible consistent with orders the troops sought to get some comfort out of the situation. Strict orders had been given against private plundering, but the men threw themselves upon the mercy of the people for creature comforts. Before entering the town an inspection of canteens had been made, and all liquors fonnd therein hid been emptied. Citizens were warned against treating the men with liquor, as a spark of anger among Intoxicated men might lead to terrible results. The people were a long time finding out who the strangers were. Their hands were open, they said, to supply the wants of soldiers, but while they were passing out tneir good things they often Inquired who was In command. The men In bravado would "But you don't know where it isT "I shall find it by instinct." "You are spoiling me—you two." The parenthesis was a hesitating addition, but she continued with fresh sincerity. "I shall be quite helplees when I leave here—if I am ever able to go by myself." "Don't ever go, then." "But just now I want my fan—it is so cloee everywhere today." But she had not proceeded far toward the tent when she heard the sound of low voices approaching her. It was the major and his wife, who, like herself, had evidently been unable to sleep and were up betimes. A new instinct of secretiveness, which she felt was partly the effect of her artificial surroundings, checked her first natural instinct to call to them, and she drew back deeper in the shadow to let them pass. But to her great discomfiture the major in a conversational emphasis stopped directly in front of her. "I took one young womern from town once, and allowed her 25 per cent, off for her refining influence. Her name was Etiquette McCracken. She knew very little in the first place, and had added to it a good deal by storing up in her mind a lot of membranous theories and damaged facts that ought to ben looked over and disinfected. She was the most hopeless case I ever have saw, Mr. Nye. She was a meetropolitan ass. You know that a town creenhorn is the greenest greenhorn in the world, because he can't be showed anything. He knows it all. Well, Etiquette McCracken very nigh paralyzed what few manners my children had. She pointed at things at table and said she wanted some o' that, and she had sort of a starved way of eating and a short breath and seemed all the time apprehensive. She probably et off the top of a flour barrel at home. She came and stayed all summer at our house, with a wardrobe which was in a shawl strap wrapped up in a programme of one of them big theatres on Bow- She was still too much stupefied by the reaction to fully comprehend hii meaning, and repeated feebly, with hei smile still faintly lingering, "But yor don't tell me what it was?" "Finally Jay identified himself, and shook dice with the deacon to see which should buy the lunch at the dairy kitchen. "An earthquake," said the man rough ly; "and if it had lasted ten secondi longer it would have shook down the whole shanty and left you under it. Yei kin tell that to them if they don't know it, but from the way they made trackt to the fields I reckon they did. They're coming now." "Deacon Decker once in church discovered a loose knot in his pew seat, and while considering the plan of redemption thoughtlessly pushed with considerable force on this knot with his thumb. At first it resisted the pressure, bnt finally it slipped out and was succeeded by the deacon's thumb. No one saw it, so the deacon, slightly flushed, gave it a stealthy wrench, but the knot hole had a sharp conical bottom, and the edge soon caught and secured the rapidly swelling thumb of Deacon Decker. "I fly, He started to the door. She called after him, "Let me help your instinct, then. I had it last in the major's study." "That was where I was going." He disappeared. Rose got up and moved uneasily toward the window. "How queer and quiet it looks outside. It's really too bad that he should be sent after that fan again. Hell never find it" She resumed her place at the piano, ▲dele following her wi& round expectant eyes. After a pause she started up again. "HI go and fetch it myself," she said, with a half embarrassed laugh, and ran to the door. Without another word he turned away half surlily, half defiantly, passing scarce fifty yards away Mrs. Randolph and hei daughter, who were hastening toward their guest. The major did not ask her how she had heard of it; it was a bad business, he thought, but it might not be a total loss. The water may have been only diverted by the shock, and might be found again at a lower level or in some lateral fissure. He had sent hurriedly for Tom Bent—that clever young engineer at the wheat ranch who was always studying up these things with his inventions—and that was his opinion. No, Tom was not a well digger, but it was generally known that he had "located" one or two, and had long ago advised the tapping of that flow by a 6econd boring in case of just such an emergency. He was coming again to-morrow. By the way, he had asked how the young lady visitor was, and hoped she had not been alarmed by the earthquake. "You are wrong, I tell you, a thousand times wrong. The girl is simply upset by this earthquake. It's a great pity her father didn't come instead of telegraphing. And, by Jove, rather than hear any more of this Til send for him myself," said the major, in an energetic but suppressed voice. "Oh, here you are," said Mrs. Ban dolph.with the nearest approach to effusion that Rose had yet seen in her manner. "We were wondering where yon had run to and were getting quite concerned. Emile was looking for yov everywhere." An odd sense of being in some way a prisoner confronted her. She drew back with an impatient start, and perhaps hei first real sense of indignation. A voice behind her, which she at once recognized, scarcely restored her calmness. "During the closing prayer he worked at it with great diligence and all the saliva he could spare, but it resisted. It was a sad sight. Finally he gave it up, and said to himself the struggle was useless. He tried to be resigned and wait till all had gone. He shook his head when tlie plate was paeseu iu mm, auu only bowed when the brethren passed him on the way out. Some thought that may be he was cursed with doubts, but reckoned that they would pass away. The truth was McClellan had no cavalry. The government had not woke up to the need for that arm. Stoneman, with a few regiments, had thirty miles of river to guard from the Virginia side, and Stuart had more cavalry on this raid than his opponents could concentrate at any one point In forty-eight hours. There was not much KD oppose Stuart, but yet it was a daring ride. * Geo. L. Kilmer. "And the girl won't thank you, and you'll be a fool for your pains," returned Mrs. Randolph with dry persistency. Scarcely understanding her own nervousness, but finding relief in rapid movement. Rose flew lightly up the staircase. The major's study, where she had been writing letters during his absence that morning, was at the further end of a long passage and near her own bedroom, the door of which as she passed she noticed half abstractedly was The recollection of his blank and ab ject face, his vague outcry and blind flight, came back to Rose with a shoe) that sent a flush of sympathetic shame to her face. The ingenious Adele noticed it and dutifully pinched hei mother's arm. "You can't get across there, miss." "But according to your own ideas of propriety Mallory ought to bo the first one to be consulted—and by me too." She turned. It was the young inventor from the wheat ranch on horseback and with a clean face. He had just ridden out of the grain on the same side of the chasm as herself. "Not in this case. Of course, before any actual engagement is on you can speak of Emile's attentions." Color and Form In Dress. "But you seem to have got over," she said bluntly. "But suppose Mallory has other views? Suppose he declines the honor? The man is no fool." "Finally he was missed outside. He was generally so chipper and so cheery. So his wife was asked about him. 'Why, father's inside. Til go and get him. I never knew him to miss shaking hands with all the folks.' The popular idea of absolute color needs reforming. From the fashion colutnn of a leading newspaper I clip two paragraphsone descanting on "some very handsome tints of heliotrope" which have just appeared, and the other saying that in consequence of the Princess of Wales having worn a gown "of a beautiful shade of golden olive" this "favorite color" is likely to become "yet more popular." Nothe fact that a clever writer on fasliio topics can gravely talk about "handsome'* and "beautiful" and "favori||" and "popular" colors is in itself a startling commentary on the need of an Educated public taste. How can any color have an aesthetic character of its own? "Emile," echoed Rose faintly, "looking for me?" "Yes, but it wa3 further up the field; I reckoned that the split might be deeper but not so broad in the rock outcrop over there than in the adobe here. I found it so and jumped it." open, but she continued on and hurriedly entered the study. At the same moment Emile, with a smile on his face, turned toward her with the fan in his hand. * . Rose felt herself again blushing—and what was more singular, with an unexpected and, it seemed to her, ridiculous pleasure; although outwardly she appeared to ignore the civility completely. And she had no intention of being so easily placated. If this young man thought by mere perfunctory civilities to her host to make up for his clownishness to her he was mistaken. She would let him see it when he called to-morrow. She quickly turned the subject by assuring the major of her sympathy and her intention of sending for her father. For the rest of the afternoon and during their al fresco dinner she solved the difficulty of her strained relations with Mrs. Randolph and Emile by conversing chiefly with the major, tacitly avoiding, however, any allusion to this Mr. Bent. But Mrs. Randolph was less careful. Mother and daughter exchanged glances. "Thank you! But for that very reason he must. Listen to me, major; if he doesn't care to please his daughter for her own sake he will have to do so for the sake of decency. Yes, I tell you, she has thoroughly compromised herself —quite enough, if it is ever known, to spoil any other engagement her father may make. Why, Adelet The day of the earthquake she .absolutely had the "Yes," said Mrs. Randolph cheerfully, "he says he started to run with you, but you got ahead and dipped out of th« garden door—or something of that kind,' she added, with the air of mitring light of Rose's girlish fears. "You know one scarcely knows what one does at such times, and it must have been all frightfully strange to you—and he's been quite distracted—lest you should have wandered away. Adele, run and tell him Miss Mallory has been here under thi oak all the time." SURPRISING THE SIGNAL STATION, answer, "Stonewall" Jackson, "Bobby" Lee or "Jeb" Stuart, when handu would go np in horror, and often loaded dishes of food would be dashed to the floor. Good feeling prevailed generally, however. Stuart's officers entered the homes of the wealthy and cultured and bore themselves like gentlemen, putting everybody at ease. "Oh, you've found it," she said with nervous eagerness. "I waa so afraid you'd have all your trouble foT nothing." With a half breathless smile she extended her hand for -the fan, but he caught her outstretched little palm is his own and held it. He looked as if he might—alert, intelligent and self contained. Yet she said nothing. He lingered a moment. "So she went in and found Deacon Decker trying to interest himself in a lesson leaf with one hand, while his other was concealed under his hat. He could fool the neighbors, but he could not fool his wife, and so she hustled around find told one or two, who told their wives, and they all came back to see the deacon and make suggestions to him. 'Tm afraid you must have been badly shaken and a little frightened up there before the chimneys came down." "No," she was glad to say, briefly and she believed truthfully; "I wasn't frightened. I didn't even know it was an earthquake." "SQUINTING ALONG THE NEW TAP." ery street. I guess she led a gay life in the city. She said she did. She said if her 6et was at our house they would make it ring with laughter. 1 said if they did I'd wring their cussed necks with laughter. 'Why,' she says, 'don't you like merriment?* 'Yes,' I says, 'I like merriment well enough, but the cackle of a vacant mind rattling around in a big farm house makes me a fiend and unmans me, and I gnaw up two or three people a day till I get over it,' I says." r Among the homes where the raiders were entertained that of Col. A. K. McClure, the Philadelphia editor, then a lawyer of that town. McClure had been on McClellan's staff at Antietam. and was an officer of the Home Guard. Stuart had put him on a list of officials to be captured and retained as hostages, but by accident a party of Confederates stumbled upon his residence early in the evening and were hospitably entertained. Of course no straggling patrol or search would trouble a house where Confederate officers were en- Joying themselves, and the recipients of hospitality would not betray their enter tainers, and the night passed in feasting and in discussion of the situation. The raiders had cut the telegraph, and there was no opportunity to send word abroad for mllitaj-y relief. Col. McClure accepted (he inevitable calmly, talked frankly about public sentiment and finally asked a favor of the raiders In the return to his stable of a favorite pony belonging to a young lady of his household which had been seized as legal capture. It was of course returned. The next morning, Oct. 11, large quantities of military stores, machine shops, railroad buildings and loaded trains were destroyed. The railway bridge and trestle was of iron and could not bo burned. After accomplishing this Stuart set outs on the return—the moat difficult part of the raid; for while he had dashed boldly a day's ride into Union territory with but little opposition, it was not to be supposed that with military lines all around his course his passage would escape notice or fail to arouse an army to cut off his retreat."Ah, but you are not going to leave us, are you?" audacity to send him out of the room up stairs into your study for her fan, and then follow him up there alone! The servants knew it. I knew it, for I was in her room at tlio timo with Father Antonio. The earUiq aake made it plain In a flash of consciousness she understood him, and, as it seemed to her, her "This little incident is true, and while it does not contain any special moral, it goes to show that an honest man gathers no moss, and also explains a large circular hole and the tin patch over it which may still be seen in the pew where Deacon Decker used to sit." As regards its value, all color is relative. The green that might adorn a man's necktie would not do for his nose. The red that becomes black eyed Jean makes fair haired Nellie look like a fright. The yellow which adds a new charm to Cornelia's rich beauty robs Lillian of all her loveliness. Or take two reds, both of them colors which my friend the fashion writer would call handsome, and put them together inagown; a dentist himself couldn't keep his teeth from grating. Or, again, suppose a blue which is most effective in silk velvet drapery, hanging in folds, were transferred to a piece o I cotton sheeting stretched on a screen—would the effect bo the same? Any one who reads these lines can call up in his own mind a dozen such comparisons. How ridiculous then to have a "favorite" color, or to call one "beautiful" without specifying its surroundings! —Kate Field's Washington. and all and every- "Ah," he reflected, "that was because yon are a stranger. It's odd—they're all like that. I suppose it's because nobody really expects or believes in the nnlooked for thing, and yet that's the thing that always happens. And then of course that other affair, which really is serious, startled you the more." thing. And with it came a swift appro ciation of all it meant to her and he; fnture. To be always with him, and like him, a part of this refined and rest ful seclusion—akin to all that had sC attracted her in this boose; not to bC obliged to edncate herself np to it, but to be in it on equal term: at once; to know that it was no wild foolish, youthful fancy, but a wise thoughtful and prudent resolve thai her father would understand anc her friends respect—these were thC thoughts that crowded quickly upon he] —more like an explanation of her ffeel ings than a revelation—in the brief seo' ond that he held her hand. It was not perhaps love as she had dreamed it, and even believed it before; she was not ashamed or embarrassed, she even felt with a slight pride that she was not blushing. She raised her eyes frankly. What she would have said she did not know, for the door which he had closed behind her began to shake violently. It was not the fear of some angry intrusion or interference surely that made him drop her hand instantly. It was not —her sefcond thought—the idea that some one had fallen in a fit against it that blanchcd his face with abject and unreasoning terror It must have been something eLj that caused him to utter an inarticulate cry and dash out of the room and down the stairs like a madman! What had h leuel.' Rose started, and then fell hopelesslj back in her seat. Perhaps it was true' Perhaps he had not rushed off with thai awful face and without a word. Per haps she herself had been hid* frightened out of her reason. In the Bimple weak kindness of her nature it seemed lest dreadful to believe that the fault wai partly her own. to everybody. Decline it—nol Mr. Mallory will thin!: twice about it before he does that. What's that? — who's there?" In a future letter I propose giving some historical points regarding Delaware county and the Catskill region'at the head of the Delaware river. It will be graphic, interesting and instructive. Newsdealers will do well to provide against a disgraceful crush at their places, and see that order is preserved during the morning hour. There was a sudden rustle in the bushes like the passage of some frightened animal—and then all was still again. She felt herself ridiculously and angrily blushing. "I don't know what you mean," she said icily. "What other affair?""You don't really mean to say, major," she began in her dryest, grittiest manner, "that instead of sending to San Francisco for some skilled master mechanic you are going to listen to the vagaries of a conceited, half educated farm laborer and employ him? You might as well call in some of those wizards or water witches at once." But the major, like many other well managed husbands who are good humoredly content to suffer in the sunshine qf prosperity, had no idea of doing so in adversity, and at the prospect of being obliged to go back to youthful struggle had recalled some of the independence of that period. He looked up quietly and said: "Well, what became of Miss Mc- Cracken?" "And you went back into the house to look for us when all was over," said Mrs. Randolph, fixing her black, beady, magnetic eyes on Rose, "and that stupid yokel 'Zeke brought yon out again. He needn't have clutched your arm so closely, my dear—I must speak to the majoi about his excessive familiarity—but 1 suppose I shall be told that that is Ameri can freedom. I call it 'a liberty.' " TO BE CONTINUED "Oh, she went up to her room in September, dressed herself in a long linen "Why, the well." "The well?" she repeated vacantly. "Yes, the artesian well has stopped. Didn't the major tell yon?" "No," said the girl. "He was away. I haven't seen him yet." Easily Explained. duster, did some laundry work and the next day, with her little shawl strap, sho lit out for the city, where she was engaged to marry a very wealthy old man whose mind had been crowded out by an intellectual tumors but who had a kind heart and had pes&red her to death for years to marry inherit his wealth. I afterward learned that in this mattfr she had lied." /x - "Mr. Phorex," said the young man, with much feeling, "you must pefmit me to express my gratitude as well as my surpriso that you have permitted Miss Daisy to look with favor upon my suit. In the bitterness that exists between the two cities I cotiM not have complained if you had told me that you did not relish the idea just at this time of having a St. Paul man, and a poor man at that, for a son-in-law." "Well, the flow of water has ceased completely. That's what I'm here for. The major sent for me, and I've been to examine it." Small F »flts for Pawnbrokers. The Monta t-J Pieta at Rome, which has existed ever sinje the year 13S5, is certainly the most lem*it pawnbroker's shop in the world, and in its kind one of t he noblest charities. Any person who brings a pawn may borrow from $12 to 520 without paying any interest, but all that is len. above that is paid for at the rate of 2 per cent, per annum. At the end of the year the borrower may renew, which is done without any expense: but,, at the end of two years, if the pledge be not redeemed nor interest of the money paid, the pledge is sold, and the overplus of the debt is laid by for the owner, who haa it in hi.-D power to demaud it Within 100 years.—Chatter. 'Tm going to take an electric car down town." A Hercules. It struck Rose that she had not even thanked the man in the same thai she remembered something dreadful that he had said. She covered her face with her hands and tried to recall herself. "And is that stoppage so very important?" she said dubiously. "You are? Then you must be much stronger than I thought you were. They weigh a ton or two."—Boston Times. It was his turn to look at her wonderingly. "If it's lost eMirely it means ruin for the rancho," he said seriously. He wheeled his horse, nodded gravely and trotted off. "If his conclusions are as clear and satisfactory to-morrow as they were today I shall certainly try to secure his services." "Did you meet any other pleasant people last season?" Mrs. Randolph gently tapped hei shoulder with a mixture of maternal philosophy and discipline, and continued; "Of course it's an upset, and you're confused still. That's nothing. They say, dear, it's perfectly well known that nc two people's recollection of these thing* ever is the same. It's really ridiculoui the contradictory stories one hears. Isn't it, Emile?" "It is all right, Philip," said the great flour merchant kindly. "Make your mind easy on that score. When I found that Daisy was determined to have you I went to a census enumerator and had you enrolled as a resident of Minneapolis."—Chicago Tribune. "Yes, I met some blooded children from Several Hundred and Fifth street. They come here so's they could get a breath of country air and wear out their old cloze. Their mother said the poor tliiuijs wanted to get out of the mawletrara of meetropolitan life. She said it was awful where they lived. Just one round of jrsi-ety ail the while. They come dowu and fdted my hens, and then took ar. 1 turned in a:. i ch.v-M a new milch cow eight 1 'II with two of 'cm holdin' of her by the ' *:1 anl an either on top of The Appreciative Sucker. "Well," said tho 6ucker as he was landed in the middle of a half dozen speckled beauties by the lone fisherman, "you have got me into a pretty mess, haven't vou?'—New York Sun. "Then I can onlv sav I would prefer the water witch. He at least would not represent a class of neighbors who have made themselves systematically uncivil and disagreeable to uj«." Maj. Randolph's figure of the "life blood of the rancho" flashed across her suddenly. She knew nothing of irrigation or the costly appliances by which the Californian agriculturist opposed the long summer droughts. She only vaguely guessed that the dreadful earthquake had struck at the prosperity of those people whom only a few hours ago she had been proud to call her friends. The underlying goodness of her nature was touched. Should she let • momentary fault—If it were nakreally, after all, only a misunderstand x—rise between her and them at sue a moment? She turned and hurried v!  toward the houaa,  The first alarm sent out from the Union cautionary lines was given by the signal corps near the point of Stuart's crossing on the morning of the 10th. The news was sent at onoe to the district commanders, to iDrmy headquarters, and to the cavalry. Great uncertainty prevailed as to the direction taken by Stuart, his strength, etc. The il • :s passed in scouting and conjecture. trClellan's cavalry was comwinded by Ofcn. Alfred Pleasanton, sad was posted on the flanks and rear of hi* army. It had not been recruited since (he Peninsula campaign, and for that reason was in very inferior condition, suitable tat scouting and oiokad duty only, fietidaa, "I am afraid, Josephine, we have not tried to inako ourselves particularly agreeable to them," the major. Meeting Trouble ll*If Wmj Egotistical Altruism. "Here is a case of true generosity. A man stabbed by a ruffian has saved the would be murderer from the gallows." "Blet:. ine! How?" "He recovered."—Puck. Daughter—Father, 1 believe I wae born to marry a nobleman. Father—Yet* but, daughter, try to look on the bright aide of life—perhaps youH die—Smith, Gray & Co.'a Monthly. An Egg Preserver. Rose felt that the young joined them and was looking at her. In the fear that she should still see soma trace of the startled selfish animal in his face she did not dare to raise her eyea to his, but looked at his mother. Mrs. Randolph was standing then, oollected bat impatient. "If that can only be done by admitting their equality I prefer they should remain uncivil. Only let it be underatood, major, that if yoa choose to take this Tom, the plowboy, to mend your well you will at least keep him there while he is on the property." Here is a suggestion from a ludj* who claims that eggs can be preserved for a year or more if the pores of the shell are oloeed. Owing to the porosity of the shell a fluid Is constantly passing out, and this evaporation is greater in warm weather Hum in cold. To stop this the eggs need not be smeared with rmy fresh grease. Wipe off any *'•' 'oil, i V"Dn set. them on the small etui t- . er-- and keep them in a cool but not, fi-cezlag piutte. w-Kew Tor* Journal. In her own Bolf possession she knew that all this was passing rapidly, that it was not the door now that was still shaking, for it had swung almost shut again, bat it was the windows, the book Shelves, the floor beneath her feet that wen all shaking. She heard a harried «e*WBbling, the tafflBUag of feet below hC-r th n ]vi Hill spurs and A Wonderftal Fast. i f.tUo faci \ olunteer fire A. Question of Choice. Chicago Girl—I threw my shoe afte; Che carriage as the wedding party drove •way. New York Girl—What I Without ar.;- Yankff c* ipany, o eld lv kicked be- k. * 1 it was '•»». 1 r! r.ll never marry any man." V-/1 CuuicCi he replied as he took hi* single glr.fts from his eye, "but what'i the matter v.ita you marrying me?"— Phil.uielphia Times. With what retort the major would have kept np this conjugal discussion, beginning to ha awkward &tht u - — of a note it she couldu'i liuvt- milk when she come into tho wilderness to live and paid her little old $3 ji week .C■ we run sin "If s all over now," said Smile in Ida vhaI Toloft, "mm* ""Til thn nhlmatm