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Show f FERN COTTAGE. Fern Cottage !i two leased for years to a widow ND lady, Mrs. Raynor. brought good letters from New York, and supports herself by coloring fashion plates for a magazine there." This was the last Site statement my lawrecital yer made upon the of the state of my affairs, when I returned from a seven-yeaabsence, to take up my abode In my own home. He had by my directions renovated and put Into good order the large, handlong-wind- ed rs some house that was my Inheritance from father, grandfather end greatgrandfather, passing in each generation through a course of modernizing that still left the stately, walls and extensive grounds intact. We Hiltons were very fond of Hilton place, and had ample means wherewith to maintain its beauty. But beside my own home, I also possessed several houses in the village of Crawford and one cottage just at the boundary line of my garden, a pretty place that my mother had christened Fern Cottage, from the number of rare ferns that nestled in the little garden under fanciful miniature grottos and piles of rock placed there. I confess to a feeling of decided annoyance when I heard that this little gem of a country home had been leased to a workingwoman. It had been a summer resort for some of our own intimate friends, who preferred an independent home to the hospitalities of others, and it annoyed me to think of any one living there who would not preserve its dainty furniture and pretty surroundings with cultured taste. But I kept my opinion to myself, and. Indeed, for many days, was so crowded with business calls that I quite forgot the matter. It was after twilight on a warm April evening that, passing the cottage, I saw through open windows my new tenant Bhe was bending over a small table, apparently drawing, while the circle of light from a student lamp fell full upon her. I had fancied a vulgar, commonplace woman. This was what I saw: A figure slender and graceful, with hands as white and perfect as if carved In marble. A face purely oval, colorless and fair, with regular features, and shaded' by hair of midnight black. Twice, while I looked, she lifted her eyes, large, lustrous and dark, full of suppressed pain. A face hat covered a heart full of bitter anguish, a brain sensitive and cultivated. I am a physician, though I have practiced little, preferring to write for the use of younger students; but I love my profession, and cannot quite keep its Instincts quiet, when I study a new face. And all these instincts warned me that here was a woman burning a candle already flickering at both ends. I had quite forgotten that mine was not a strictly honorable position, thus spying on a solitary woman's privacy, when an elderly woman, seemingly an upper servant of better days, came Into the room. "Will you never cease working?" she When the daylight Is said, fretfully. gone, and you cannot sort your colors, you take up that drawing that is ruining your eyes. Rest, child!" Then the voice I knew must belong to that face, full, rich, melodious, but freighted with sadness, answered her: Rest! You know I cannot rest! Play then! Do anything but strain your eyes any longer over that fine work. The widow rose then, sweeping her heavy, black draperies across the room to the piano, where she played. Surely If this was recreation. It was a pitiful mockery. Wailing, minor music full of sobbing pain. Heavy chords melting Into sad refrains. A master touch, a rare power in the long, slender lingers only called out strains of heartbreaking pathos. The old servant took out her knitting, seemingly satisfied to have driven her mistress from actual work, and the darkness fell around me, making still clearer the bright circle of light upon the table, and the soft, shadowy gloom of the corner where Mrs. Raynor, with her deep, sad eyes and breaking heart, poured out something of her pain in music. A soft rain drove me home, but I mused long and deeply over my tenant. I called several times, and received courteous welcome, was entertained by strictly conventional conversation, heard the piano in some fashionable, showy music, and found the surface society of Mrs. Raynor, a gentle. refined lady, attractive and agreeable no more. I might have accepted this for the teal woman, but I had a habit of linthe gering about my garden, and ascomof Fern room Cottage drawing manded no other view, my neighbor seldom closed the windows as the spring crept into summer. Paler, more shadowy, with added sadness in the 'great, dark eyes. Mrs. Raynor became almost ethereal as the warm weather stole something each day from her strength, and I was not surprised one morning to see old Susan coming hastily Into my hallway. ed i I i Oh, Doctor Wilton," she said, she sent last month, sad this morning he has fainted over those horrid pictures! went over to Crawford and got drunk. Will you come?" He was coming home again, when he I went at once, finding my patient stumbled, somehow, and fell under a prostrated at last, and gently submis- hay cart, lies badly hurt. I think sive to all my commands but one, the the wheels went over his breast. 1 most imperative. suppose, bad as he is, we'll have to I must work, she said, as long nurse him." as I can hold a brush." And bad as he was, tyrant, tormentBut you will die," I said, bluntly, or and traitor, the new patient thus if you do not take a few weeks of thrown upon my hands was nursed as entire rest" tenderly as if he had been both lovDie!" she said, quietly, not as if ing and beloved. Out of her heavy there was any terror in the thought despondency, throwing self aside, Mr a. but as if it was a new possibility in Raynor developed her charitable, forsome problem of life. No, I must not giving nature in the weeks of illness die yet!" that followed her husband's injuries, Then you must obey me, I answerfatal from the first. I believe she ed. I will send a carriage every af- would have kept him in life if by any ternoon with a careful driver and you it had been possible, but must go with Susan for a drive. You she could only make smoother the pasmust be outdoors as much as possible, sage to the grave. I had thought her own tenure ot life excepting during the heat of the day, and then, if possible, sleep." but frail, but in her devotion she grew Her dreary smile confirmed my opin-tv- u stronger. She gained sleep by actual that sleep was a rare visitor at physical exhaustion, and calmness by her pillow, but she did not say so. the consciousness of duty performed. self-sacrifi- ce Indeed, she made no complaint, evidently allowing my visits solely out of regard for Susan. And to Susan I turned at last for counsel. She had come to my house for some medicine I had brought from Paris an opiate not yet in use in this country. And I pointed to a Beat, saying; Susan, I am past sixty years old, crippled, as you see, seldom leaving my home except for foreign travel no gossip. If you think you can trust me with Mrs. Raynors secret trouble, may be able to cure her. The woman looked startled for a moment, and then,- bursting into tears, she Bald: Oh, sir. It's awful trouble, and we don't want it to be known about here!" Ill not betray you," I said, gently. You see, sir, she is not a widow, after thinking herself one for four years! He, Mr. Raynor, sir, for she's never hid her name, is a bad man, a man who nearly killed her with his drinking and gambling and bad comHe spent all the money her pany. father left her, he crippled her boy with a blow of his drunken fists, and then he left her poor and sick, and the boy all crushed. She worked day and night for the child, little Harold, and he grew to nine years old, but always crooked and puny. Then Mr. Raynor found us out, and he would lave taken the child, he would, the fiend, because she loved it. So we stole Harold away in the night and sent him to Germany with a friend. Im telling my story all wrong, sir. We heard Mr. Raynor was dead heard it from his own brother, too, who believed it, and Miss Edna Mrs. Raynor, I mean thought herself free, when she let Mr. Duchesne come to see her, and ah, well, doctor, he was a true man; gentle, kind and loving, and so - BURST INTO TEARS. good to Harold. She thought she was a widow, and her heart was sore, so sore you can never guess, for she was one to take trouble hard and what harm, if they loved each other? They would have been married If Mr. Raynor had not came back, pleased as Punch to find he could make a little more misery for his wife." But he is not living now?" Yes, he is, sir; the mores the pity! Mr. Duchesne is in Germany with Harold, and my poor dear is working her precious life away to pay for the hathB for the boy, and to keep She pays him so Mr. Raynor away. much a month to leave her in peace. And this delicate woman supports a husband and child? I said. "Yea, sir, and lives upon the meanest of everything for the sake of being alone! Its awful, doctor, to think of those two loving hearts, one in Germany, one fretting here, and a bad man between them. They won't even write to each other, but we hear from Harold how kind Mr. Duchesne is to him. It is like him to try to comfort her by being so good to her cripplec boy! It is a sad story," I said. And was too hasty in thinking I might help Mrs. Raynor if I knew it We have no medicines, Susan, for such misery as this. But yet I was glad to have heard the story. I sent books to the cottage, and I went over frequently, trying to win d woman away from the her own troubled thoughts, and amaze at her rare patience and courage, I had done but little in my efforts to restore her health, when Susan came hastily to summon me one heavy August day. Hes "Come, please, she urged. there, hurt! Who?" I asked. Mr. Raynor! He came cursing an swearing, because his money was not heavy-hearte- Susan, by my adviee, provided food that was nourishing in small quantities and as the injured man passed toward the portals of eternity, we kept his wife from throwing her own life away by our united efforts. I would like, for humanity's sake, to write that the reprobate reformed, or even showed common gratitude for the rare lavished upon him, but he died as be hqd lived, sinking into stupor for days before the end came, and never, Susan assured me, bestowing one word of thanks upon his gentle, tender nurse. It was a small funeral cortege that left Fere Cottage to take the remains of John Raynor to his New York home. I Insisted upon escorting the widow, and left her with an aunt, who was sympathising and kind, but evidently spoke from her heart when she said to me: Thank the Lord, he is dead this time! I scarcely expected Fern Cottage to he occupied soon again, but Mrs. Raynor returned in a few weeks, working again busily, for her boy, she told me, content to bear some further separation, as he was gaining greatly by the German treatment. But the desolate yearning was gone from the large, dark eyes, and health came tack slowly in the winter months, when my advice was followed, and Susan guarded my patient againBt overwork. The piano ceased to wail and sob. and the slender fingers found tasks in weaving gladder strains. A year passed, and one evening, just before tbe Christmas time, I opened the cottage door. Upon my startled ears fell the sounds of song. Never had I heard Mrs. Raynor's rich, melodious voice in song before, and I paused, astonished, as Susan whispered: Her boy is coming home for Christmas. Mr. Duchesne is bringing him, And and we expect them any day. Harold is perfectly cured. I did not go in. Such joy as that I felt should have no witness. They came, these eagerly expected travelers, just before the Christmas bells rang out their Joyful peals. The slender, handsome boy had his mother's face, and was evidently cured and on the way to a noble manhood. And of his companion I can only say that I have no truer or more valued friend than Frank Duchesne, who comes every summer with his beautiful wife and pretty children to spend the hot months at Fern Cottage. N. Y. Ledger. Deep Holm in the Ocean. The deepest spots so far sounded in the ocean, were found a year or two ago by the surveying ship Penguin, while returning from the Tonga group In three places a to New Zealand. five thousand fathoms depth exceeding was found. Till these soundings were made, the deepest water found was to the northeast of Japan, where. In 1874, the United States Bteamer Tuscarora obtained a cast of 4,655 fathoms. The Penguin's soundings are 5,022, 5,147 and 5,155 fathoms. The increase is therefore 500 fathoms', or 3,000 feet These soundings are separated from one another by water much less deep, and the holes may not be connected. The distance from the two extreme soundings is 450 miles. Specimens of the bottom were recovered from the two deeper soundings, and prove to be the usual red clay found in all the deepest parts of the ocean. These soundings . afford additional evidence of the observed fact that the deepest holes are not in the centers oi the oceans, but are near land, as two of them are within one hundred miles of islands of the Kcrmandec group, and the other not far from a shoal. Doubtless deeper depressions In the bed of the sea are yet to be found, but the fact, that this sounding of 30,930 feet shows that the ocean contains depressions below the surface greater than the elevation of the highest known mountains is perhaps worthy oi record. Very KttnnL row between Whats the you and Miss Nipper? Ob, she accused me of rutting her In the street, and I explained, too, that si I had only met her at evening enter talnments I didn't recognize her frith her clothes on. IS NOT YET TOO LATE. most of Governments. Is il The most Republican Governments have adopted Is It a risk? It la proven to be most Everything pleads for It yea, demands it We are alone of alt civilized nations behind In this, as we were on slavery. And shall we bug this great abuse to our bosoms as vo did that until the very stars cried out in mutiny? Our long platforms amount to nothing. They even divert us from tho main point. Many of them are devised by the enemy to amuse us. Even if we succeed at elections they will outwit us in the scramble over so many questions, and long years will pass and civil war will finally come out of the despair of the masses. Something must be done. Make the building of these great roads by the government, as proposed herein, the one grand and) immediate object The combine will! say as did Hannibal under a like desperate circnmstanre, Now, Indeed, do I feel the fate of Carthage." CLARKE IRVINE. tati-noci- sl n? it BUT THE RAILROADS ARE TIGHTENING THEIR GRASP. Let tbe OerernBieut Take rbarge of d Operate tbe I'nloa Pevlfle end the Monopoly of ferry top frill lie rat rayed. sue-reasf- I want to call special attention to this statement that if ever the United States buy in and operate the U. P., the whole monopoly of carrying will step by step be destroyed. But under present control of our government this can never be done. If ever done it will show that the combines have given up thetr hold of power. Whoever talks of such a thing, as at all probable now, knows nothing of the condition of our affairs. Were tbe government to go at it and build one great railway, to be operated by tbe government entirely Independent of all outside control. It would compel all the other roads to compete with it They would soon be using all their Influence SILVER AND WHEAT. either to have the government buy or Off In Thlf sell. But it is altogether probable (luld MououirtallUt Ae lierkouliiffAe that they would manage to buy the Because sliver has been falling government roads. There is not one value of late and wheat rising! person in a thousand who understands the enormous power of the railway gold monometallists ail jubilant and think that they have an uuescapable. combine. All the other trusts and comsf! bines owe their origin and standing to answer to the bimetallist contention a the between general' correspondence this one. Our Is now a government railway empire. Congress and every State Legislature and Supreme Court are controlled by it. For this reason I deem every attempt at reform as useless as that of the Prohibitionists un- til this despotism has been destroyed. The people must grow poorer under its rule, because it gathers up, as net profits, all the surplus made by labor and never redistributes a dollar in the regions where the wealth is created. Moreover, it takes advantage of any rise of price in Europe of our agricultural products, by keeping us In ignorance through its control of the telegraph and thus secures to Itself all the advantage. This was seen during the late rise in wheat owing to the Indian famine. Thf whole exportable crop of the Dakotas and other regions was secured by the railroad manipulators before the news of the famine was let out The real profits of the roads themselves are hidden from the world by various devices, such as the express, fast freights, Pullman sleepers, patents of various kinds, supply companies all devices to absorb the profits of the roads and throw them into receivers hands. While the road is in a receivers hands the express, fast freight, Pullman sleeper, patentee and supply business all are paying big profits to the combine. Enormous fees are divided between receivers and the combine. The very rails and cars are supplied by one hand while the other smites and destroys, and taxes the public to repair and renew. I say, not one man in ten thousand has the slightest idea of the power and cunning of this railway empire under which we groan. All the ojher evil we complain of are either consequences of this one or as a drop in the bucket Imagine now that we gained free silver, the referendum and every other good thing, yet hare left this one monster to stand untouched what better off are we, the people? In thin, amid such vast confusion, I feel like one standing alone. Mark the prediction: to this one thing we shall come at last, and come by force, unless we are wise in time. By combining all together and demanding that Government shall build two great roads. East and West, North and South, issuing small shares and legal tender treasury certificates, the whole can be done without debt Government roads to be operated as the postofilce is. This done, all else will follow. The very keystone to the railroad empire will be broken. Every dollar Issued will be returned in payment for services long before the roads are finished, and all this trouble about labor and money will cease In six months from the start In this way the English country people built railroads costing several billion dollars, and never used a cent of money. Surely this people can do the same, under the plan here proposed, and not use half the effort. You are not aroused by this proposition. It does not cause you to feel the least excitement. You think it might do for one plank In the next platform of our party if there are enough of us to care about 1L But just try it once. Let it be made the one plank with a support formidable enough to cause the real rulers of these States the least fear of its uitimato success, and then you shall witness such a stirring among the dry bones as never was. Then indeed shall the enemy show you that you have planted a fatal blow at their power. Every argument and device will be resorted to. Your dangerous leaders will be bought off or destroyed In some way, as were the leaders in the war against the Standard OI Company. Folson or the dagger may be used finally, if the multitude of crimes against the United States do not afford opportunity enough for putting them hors de combat But all the argument will he In our favor. Is it socialistic? Behold, it has been employed by the trans-continent- al fall of wheat and silver prices during the past twenty years, as indicated by the index numbers ot Soetbeer and; other ecenoraists. The truth is in a nutshell. One of the chief reasons for the decline in market value of American vheat has been the competition of sliver-usin- g countries like India and Argentina. While the wheat production of both for years has been advancing with rapid strides, and the exchag? value ofi silver in London has bee; dropping continually, the silver vali,e of agricultural labor and products in those countries has been stationary. In India and Argentina an ourue of silver would buy a bushel of wl;eat in 1895, when an ounce of silver was worth, say, 50 cents, exactly as it would be inj 1885, when it was worth a dollar In gold. Here is where the British commercial shrewdness came In to crush the American agricultural Interest and make It the toiling, payless slave of As sjon as Great English markets. Britain succeeded in destroying the parity of American silver with gold London began to buy oyr depreciated bullion and exchange it for East Indian and South Amirlcan wheat. Every cent that American silver fell per ounce was a rent saved on the But the purchasing price of wheat. demand for our silver fo; this purpose of exchange served to keep it at a higher value compared with the price of wheat at Liverpool as Jong as that demand lasted. Natural!, when the crop failures occurred 11 India, and the comparative shortagj of recent time In Argentina, the demind fell off and silver became further depressed; while necessary resort to the wheat production of the United States to make good tbe shortages snj failures of wheat elsewhere in the vorlfl, enhanced the price of that commodity compared with silver bullion. It is to the advantage of the American farmer that cosmic crop conditions are likely to preserve, perhaps to Increase, that disparity for another year It Is not to come. At the same-timwell that he, or the rest of us, should allow himself to be confused or deluded by specious arguments of the gold Interest. When, In the course of nature's providence, normal conditions return, and the competitive power of countries is at other work again, we shall see the same old state of things. England will hear our silver and buy it to exchange for the wheat of silver countries, and so recommence the former operation of destroying our farmers. The illustration presented in the current and doubtless temporary rise of wheat and fall of silver is one of the strongest arguments for remonetization that well could be conceived. National Democrat s wheat-produci- ng Not Overpopulation. Do you consider the United States overcrowded? No. The entire population of the United States could be put into the state of Texas with over two acres of land to each man, woman and child. We have far more unused land than used land, taking the country as a whole; and it would be hard to find any city which Is more than half occupied by buildings, any state in which farming land is used to half advantage, or any region In which the mlneti are half worked. This country, if opened to use, could support the population of the civilized world in greater comfort than the members of the strongest trade union now enjoy. Cleveland Recorder. In the FnllnoM of Tlnu The members of the sugar trust, beet trust, lumber trust, et si., are not going to the Alaskan gold fields, for in the fulness of time they will get all the gold that comes from there. Farm, Stock and Home. |