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Show : ..Our Em and irls W I Ed'ted by Aunt Busy. I ' v This department is conducted solely in the inter- I 1 cfts of out girl and boy readers. Aunt Busy is glad to hear "any time from the I rices and nephews who read this page, and to give them all the advice and help in her power. :! AVrite on one side oi' the paper only. lo not have letters too lone. . original stories and verses will be gladly received ' and carefully edited. The manuscrips of contributions not accepted1 will V'f returned. 1 ! EM? fcS. Aunt -. 1 'i THE MOTHER'S STRIKE. I Such a diea.in I had! So dreadful - That I never heard the liko- For I dreamt that on a sudden The mammas agreed to strike. 1 "UVLtiV?dl" I.heurd l,1em lunnur; Tired of working night and Juv And not always hearing 'Thank vou" j Such Jong hours and such poor pay:" ; Ho they would not mend the jacket's , Nor the holes in stockings small-' No one ran to kiss the bruises When poor Tommy caught a fall. , No one bound up wounded fingers, No one glued the broken toys No one answered all the questions "f the eager little boys. No one tied the little bonnets. No one brushed the little curls, 1 No one basted dolly, dresses for the busy littie girls. No one heard their little troubles. No one held them on her lap. - No one sewed on truant buttons, Noone hunted Johnny's cap. And there were no bedtime stories, And no loving hands to tuck r.lankets soft "round little sleepers. For their mothers all had struck. Oh. so lonesome and so dreadful And so queer it all did seem! Aren't you glad, dear little children, It .was nothing but a dream? Elizabeth II. Thomas, in Youth's Companion. j LETTERS AND ANSWERS. Salt Lake City, March 10. . 1 )o?r Aunt Busy I thought I would write to tell , yni arc all well. My little brother died with 'liphiheria. He has been dead five weeks. Eleanore, my Mtor. wants to write you as soon as she can. Your loving nice. ALICE EXXIS. Aunt Busy deeply rcjrrcts to hear of the dear brother's death, Alice. lie was a good little boy, dear, so we know that he is very happy in heaveii; vliere he will pray for you and your good parents. Arite oon again, Alice. Salt Lake City. March 30. Dear Aunt Busy Uo you like rain and snow? 31y teacher said today that she liked bad weather x ; and did not like the sunny days. Now. what do . f you think of such a thing r I want your opinion .f her. please. Your fond nephew. THOMAS PIIELAX. Aunt Busy thinks there is something seriously ; wrong mentally with anyone t who prefers cloudy, Mormy weather to Gods sunshine. Perhaps your teacher did not mean what she said. !?he possibly likes the dark days because they make her appreciate appre-ciate the sunny days more. YOUNG CRUSADER'S PATRONAL HYMN ; (Heprinted annuaJly on St. Joseph's Day in Catholic , Standard for the benefit of new. members.) i Air: '0 Purest of Creatures, - Sweet -Mother, Smeet I Slaid." - 1 ; O, holy Saint Joseph, in thee we confide; lie thou our protector, our father, our guide: The flowers of our innocent childhood we twine In a fragrant white garland to lay at thy shrine, Saint Joseph, who guided the Child on His way, ' O guide us, and guard us, and bless us, we pray. ! Ii ig ago didst thou teach the Lord Jesus to speak. And thine arms were His strength when His foot- steps were weak; j So lend us thy help in the days of our j-outh, So teach us to walk in the pathway of truth. I Saint Joseph, Christ's early protector and stay, I Troted us, and save us from evil, we pray. ; ' Ciod saw thee so lowly, so constant, so mild, And He gave to thy keeping the Mother and Child, ; "With the poor little hut could no palace compare, I When Jesus and Mary and Joseph were there . j Thy glory the angels flew earthward to see, For the Lord of the heavens was subject to thee! When the years glowing o'er us shall smoulder I away. y Whn their ashes, down-drifting, shall crown us 1 with gray. ' Still loyal and true may we keep to our vow T honor our saint as. we honor him now, Saint Joseph, who guided the Child on His way, 1 O sruide us at last to His presence, we pray! HAY. : A WOMAN DIPLOMAT. Mrs. Ella Bawls Reader, described as beautiful j an'l winsome, has created an international sensa- j by the publicity recently given to her gigantic commercial and diplomatic transactions. k 4 Mr. Header, with her husband, Athole B. f Bcadcr. was engaged in negotiating a treaty for l Samo llomingo-when the federal authorities called f ;i liiilt in the transaction, which gave rise to much ii'-w.-p.npor con inien t. The following appeared in j 'l.- Si. Louis (Jlobe-Democrat of March 21: ' Mrs. Header is said to be 30 year? old. but looks y-'iiitger. Her complexion is a wonder, her figure is f iWMi. Shc. was born in Marion. Ala., of a family t ' ! !y acquainted with Senator Morgan and other j . '-men. Thirteen years ago she came to Xew 1 York to earn her living as a stenographer, and soon ' i'inguishod herself as an expert operator and be- ',.m,. identified with big concerns as confidential i '''-' lit ami manager of enterprises requiring a high f i';-ec of intelligence and tact. In I'.'Ol she mar- I Header. He was private secretary to Sir j 'l.;,rles Ewan Smith, the British minister to I M.-ro.-.-o. in J,sf2. In 1S97 he became private secre- J :;.iy 10 Sir West Rageway, governor of Ceylon. Various circumstances caused him to become i 'miliar with affairs in Peru, and while he was still iii'Mv-ied he mel Miss Hawls in London and uiar- ! her. Together thev have worked since then ;Mid logether they now stand. They worked out a scheme of mining improvements in Peru and i!iiereied the western millionaire, James B. Hag- According to Mr. Header, he and his wife were lo'havc 10 per cent commission for promoting this I "'heme, and according to the same story the plans I -u through beautifully, except that the 10 per 1 ' 1,1 was not paid. I , "My suit for 10 jier cent against Mr. Ilaggin , J -till pending,' said Mr. Header today. i ' In regard to the San Domingo matter Mr. j Ic ii'Ier sail: I "In the fall of 1004 one of the secret agents of 1 Morales located in the crty of Xew York was a V'-'iing man named Perez, a native of Santo Do- t 'nin-o. This gentleman was a friend of ours; At lhi iini0 wo vorc engaged in exploiting mining I I'foperty which we owned in Peru. Mrs. Header at i 'bat lime had be-n invited by the president of Peru I 1" act as his ageiit in this country, and the papers i "I'Poiiitiiig her fiscal agent were being prepared l'.v Villiam Xelson Cromwell. ! "She was about to go to Peru with these papers. , l who,, si,c was rtupsted by Perez, as he claimed, fii wiih the consent of General Morales, to try and j have me interest mvself in the affairs of Santo j Domingo. He stated to mc'that he had heard of i .nmii. i n i the success of Mrs. Header in consiliating both sides of a revolutionary outbreak in Peru, and practically prac-tically establishing a government there without a civil war. We could not at that time take up the Santo (Doming.i suggestions, owing to our Peruvian Peru-vian engagements, but Perez and General Morales contiuing their invitations and stating that they desired us to represent them in this country as in-termedaries in-termedaries with the United States we finally consented con-sented to do so. - "Upon the suggestion of Mr. Perez, the papers for that purpose were prepared and at the invitation invita-tion of General Morales appeared to proceed with Mr. Perez to Santo Domingo to have the papers executed, acquaint myself with ;the conditions and receive his instructions. "The papers were submitted by us to Mr. Cromwell Crom-well for his approval, and it became necessary to explain the conditions to him under which we were led to consider these agreements. All the things which are set out in this statement were made known to Mr. Cromwell and talked over at length with him, and he advised us that he considered it. was a favorable enterprise, that these papers would place a great deal of power in our hands, and that he had no doubt that the concessions which were promised by the Dominican government in return for our services would be of great value and could be readily exploited with capital that could easily be produced in this country, and that our official status and our friends in this country would enable us to deal without any difficulty with the heads of Mho United States government. "Mr. Cromwell uUo promised that on my return with these papers properly executed he would take me to Washington and introduce me to !Mr. Hay; he explained to me especially with respect to the desire of the United States to procure the bay of Samana as a coaling station; what authorization and instructions should specially sec that I got from the Dominican government, so as to enable him with full and complete credentials to negotiate nego-tiate with the United States government for the sale of that bay to it." Header then told in detail of his negotiations with Morales that promised success, and how at the final moment Morales notified Header he had been warned from Washington to break off negotiations with Reader, as a commissioner was coming from Washington direct to negotiate a treaty. "CALLING GOD'S ATTENTION." One bright winter day, a long time more than fifty years ago. two sturdy little boys were trotting trot-ting along a muddy highway to school, with a few well-worn books under their arms and small dinner pails in their hands. Their sunburnt yellow heads were close together, and you could have told by the ! glint of their, blue eyes that they were up to some mischief. "It looks jes' for all the world like a live snake," John Hoover was saying. "Jacob, our man, gave it to me; he stuffed the skin himself, and put a wire all through, clean out to its tail." "Where is it?" asked Henry Blair, eagerly. "I hid it under the osage hedge, close to Joe Bell's gate. It's the very place; We can stoop j down close to the hedge, and when the little greenie gets jes' opposite, out'll dart the snake, right up ag'inst his legs." "Oh, my, won't he holler!" cried Henry, slapping his own legs so viciously that his "Mitchell's geography" geog-raphy" slipped from under his arm and fell face down in the road. All the rest of the way the two little chaps were in high gleb over their plans. They did not mean to be cruel, they were not thinking whether it was cruel or not, but because Joe Bell was a new boy, and smaller than themselves, and very timfid besides, be-sides, these two had been tormenting him every day for a week, and calling it "fun." But that very morning, 'directly after school prayers, a sharp-faced little girl held up her baud for permission to speak "Well, Mary," said the teacher, "what is it:" "Miss Lou," said the high, shrill voice, "I saw Joe Bell talking to himself in prayer-time." ''What were you doing with your eyes open in prayer-time, Mary ?" . The child's look fell, and the scholars giggled. The giggle was quickly checked, however. I "You can stay in at recess, Maryland say the eighth column of your multiplication table for looking around in prayer-time, and the ninth column col-umn for talc-bearing." Mary burst into tears, but let us hope she learned a more important lesson even than the two columns of the multiplication table. And you must not think Joe Bell was to escape. I "Why were you talking in prayer-time, Joseph :" ! asked the teacher. "I wasn't talkin'. I was I was" "Well, Joseph, what were you doing f "I was asking God not to let them two boys tease me so bad," blurted out the new scholar, and instantly in-stantly there were two boys with red, tell-tale faces in that school. "lie didn't say our names," whispered Henry, as the tide of children poured out of the little school-house. school-house. "Come 'long; let's run and hide under the hedge." ' But John hung back. His zest for the sport was gone. .. .. "Come 'long, I say," urged Henry; "nobody'll know where wc are goin'." "Maybe not," agreed John, reluctantly; "but you see he's done called God's attention to us !"' John is an old man now, but hi?; has never forgotten for-gotten how the feeling that God's attention had been called to him held him back, many times, from wrong-doing. Elizabeth Preston Allan in S. S. Times. r , . i .. . , MABEL'S DAISIES. Mabel had never been up so early in her life as she was that morning. It was only 6 o'clock when she joined Fanny and Maude, already at work picking pick-ing flowers in the daisy field. How beautiful the world was, with the soft light of early morning everywhere! The airhad never seemed so sweet, nor the song of the birds so joyous. "It's going to be a beautiful day," said Fanny, as she walked toward an inviting clump of blossoms, blos-soms, and began adding them one by one to those she already held in her hand. "I'm so glad!" Mabel answered. "I never wanted a day to be beautiful so much before. I hope it will be the prettiest wedding the church has ever had." "Wasn't it sweet of Miss Green to ask us to help to decorate the church?" remarked Maude. "I think it's almost nicer for her to let us pick the flowers," said Fanny. "Did you know she was going to choose a few flowers to wear in her hair from those her girl friends bring:" Mabel made no response, -but she heard the ro-mark ro-mark plainly. It brought a sudden purpose into her heart. She was a plump, round girl, with thoughtful, thought-ful, brown eyes, and a quiet manner which indicated, determination rather than shyness. . If Miss Green was going to wear any of the girl's flowers, Mabel had made up her mind that they should be hers. Xone of the girls could love Miss Green as she did, even if they all did pronounce pro-nounce her the dearest teacher they had ever had. Mabel loved Miss Green better than she had ever loved any one except her father and mother. And she just could not stand it to. have the bride waer any other girl's flowers. . - So while Fanny and Maude picked rapidly, and added bunch after bunch to the pile in the big basket, bas-ket, Mabel picked slowly, walking here and there over the field, with closely observant eyes, gathering only the largest and most perfect. blossoms. .She was very content with the choice little cluster she held, when the girls stopped picking. Xowhere, she felt sure, could more beautiful daisies be found than these she had sought out so carefully. "I'll bring mine up to tin.- church myself," Mabel said, as she parted from the girls at the roadway, "when I come up to help trim." "Is that all you picked, Mibel:" asked her mother moth-er in surprise, when Mabel had reached home. Mabel only nodded in response, smiling happily. She rearranged the blossoms carefully, and put them away until time to take thorn to the church. The girls were to be at the church at 10 o'clock. Mabel thought she started early, but when she entered en-tered the little white building she found that .-he-was the hist girl to arrive, and that the trimming was already quite advanced. .Miss Green, herself, was superintending it all. There she was, in the farther corner of the room, surrounded by a group of the girls. Mabel hurried forward and joined the circle in lime to see Miss Green open a box she held in her hand. "Aren't they lovelv, pirls!" Iis Green said, holding the box low, to show its contents. Mabel leaned forward. There, lying carefully in the folds of the protecting white tissue paper, lay a beautiful cluster of orchids. "P ingoing to wear them in my hair," Miss Green went on. "A very dear friend, who was my closest girl chum, sent them to me. She raised them herself. her-self. She heard 1 was going to carry orchids, and she wrote me to know if I were willing she should send the Ones 1 wore in ni- hair." Mabel's heart fell so suddenly that she scarcely noticed that it was Fanny who was standing next to her, nor heard her friend as she whispered: "How funny! I thought Miss Green said she'd wear the flowers her young girl friends sent, and that, of course, meant us. She must have meant somebody who was a friend of hers when she was a young girl herself, mustn't she i" Mabel nodded, not daring to trust her voice. And thru, almost before Mabel had had time to realize her disappointment, Miss-Green spoke to her. "Oh, Mabel!" she said sweetly, closing the box of orchids, "we've been waiting for you. You've no idea how many daisies it takes to trim this church. Fanny and Maude and the rest of the girls brought such a lot,. and yet we haven't enough. We've been waiting for yours. We need them for the end wall." Mabel had never felt so humiliated in her life as she did at that moment. There was nothing to do but present her meager cluster. She could not look at Miss Green as she handed the flowers to her, so instead she looked at the space on the end wall, and thought how very large it seemed larger than ' it had ever looked before. Miss Green took the daisies, but, try as she would, she could not entirely hide her surprise. "They're beautiful ones;7 she murmured kindly; but Mabel thought she would have been more pleased if Mi-s Green had said nothing at all. Mabel was too miserable to stay with the girls in the church very long. She crept away, unobserved, unob-served, into the grove of trees that stood back of the churchyard. There she gave way to tears, which lasted some time. She could not tell why, yor at whom, but she knew she felt bitterly angry. For a while the anger held possession of her thoughts, but at last the tears seemed to clear her reason. She suddenly sat up very straight. "Goosie!" she said, almost aloud, as if she were addressing some one beside herself. " know whom you are mad at. It's yourself, and you ought to be. It serves you just right. You picked those nicest flowers just so you could get ahead of the other girls, and make it seem as if Miss Green liked you best. Fanny and Maude never thought of being so mean. That is why you feel so humiliated. It hurts your pride. It never would have happened if it hadn't been for your selfishness." Pittsburg Observer. -r4 j IS WILHELM1NA AN'OLD WOMAN AT 247 (Chicago Sunday Tribune.) Why is it that Queen Wilhehnina, the -i-ycar-old queen of Holland, who a year ago was a picture of health and spirits, now looks and carries herself ' like a woman of 40 j What is the mystery that has suddenly stolen the bloom of youth away from her cheeks and eyes and changed the happy- hearted Dutch girl to the serious, apparently ' unhappy woman, wo-man, whose face indicates that some deep sorrow is eating out her heart and happiness: That is what the good people oi Holland are asking of each other. What is it lhat has brought' such a change over their queen: Surely there is something wrong, for young women do not change as AVilhelmina has done in the last year without, some 'serious cause. Is it true that her marriage with the handsome Prince Henry of Meeklenburg-Schwcriu, whom she apparently appar-ently loves with all her heart, is so unhappy as to wreck her whole life: Or is the secret something deeper and one of which nothing lias been made public: The people of Holland would give much for a satisfactory answer to these questions. . The unhappiness of their young queen is the great subject of thought and conversation in the Dutch capital. Try as Wilhehnina will she is unable un-able to hide the fact that her life is not all that a young life should be. Every time she appears in public, whether at the opera, at court affairs or when driving with her mother there are comments and conjectures galore upon her changed appearance. appear-ance. The last year has aged the queen more than do twenty years with the average woman, and the fact is not one to escape notice when a woman is a queen. "I saw Wilhehnina at the opera, the other evening even-ing in Amsterdam," writes an American woman from Holland, "and I had a good look at her. Indeed, In-deed, for three hours 1 sat so close to her that by standing up and extending my hand I could have touched her. I was inclined to do this in a whimsical whim-sical mood, as I gazed at her, for I wanted to see if she was real. "Wilhehnina is 24. as I found on consulting the court register on my return home that evening. But for three hours I could have sworn that she was 44. Such a change in such a young girl, in four years 1 have never socn. "When I met Wilhehnina the first time, it was four years ago. She was of medium height with a plump, sweet face. You would nearly have called her pretty. She had a little fat nose of good shape. Her short upper lip curled back from a set of white teeth, and her chin was small but perfect in shape. She had a sweet face. "Wilhelmina now is a different woman. She is nervous! she never keeps still, and she has changed woefully in looks. "Wilhehnina now has a hard look around the mouth. Her lips are always tightly set together, even when she smiles, and there is a pinched look to the once proud and pretty nose. Wilhelmina is sad in the face and there is a deep look of unsettled melancholy in her eyes. "During the evening Prince Henry appeared in the back of the box. He drew the curtains and stood in the shadow an instant. In a minute Wil-helmina's Wil-helmina's whole aspect changed. She became vivacious, vivac-ious, she smiled, she beckoned to him, she even tried to flirt with him, poor Wilhehnina, for she tapped him with her fan leaning far back to do so, and she motioned him to come and take a seat. 'Prince Henry of Mecklenburg-Sehwerin stands six feet and more in his stockings. He is broad in proportion, and. since he has begun- to take on flesh, he must weigh 200 pounds. If he keeps on getting fat he will be one of the biggest men in Holland. ' There are few taller than he and few who are of more stalwart build, with' broader shoulders, or of. a more robust frame. . - . - "Yrilhelmina first saw him in his uniform, and it is said that the then and there fell in love with him. bhe has ten soldiers just as handsome in the Queen's Own guard, but she prefers Henry, and thinks him much the best looking. "The Queen's Own guard attended her at the. opera that evening. "The guard is an institution peculiar to Holland. Hol-land. Ten young men pledge themselves to look after the queen. They are knighted, and they are stationed in the palace. They accompany her wherever she goes, and never is she out of their hearing. At least one member of the guard must where Wilhelmina can call. At night the guards sleep in the palace and two are always uu watch during the sleeping hours. "On a certain evening, some two years back, there was a little t rouble in the roval apartments j in the bridal suite, still occupied by the queen and j her prince. The guard hearing the altercation J ! pricked up his- ears and listened. Then came a I shriek from Wilhehnina, and instantly the guard rushed into her presence without taking the pre- j caution to knock at the door. "Just what he saw has never been learned to a j certainty. But the guard was kicked out of the room by the prince, and, as the other guards came to his rescue, they were treated in the same manner j by the prince. Xone dared strike him nor defend j themselves, for they are not allowed to do r-o. "Forming a line, so the story goes, they rescued the little queen and bore her off to another part of the palace, and then returned to their companion, compan-ion, who has been seriously injured by the spurs of the prince who had just returned from a ridieg trip and still wore his riding boots. The guard was ill for many months and Wilhehnina was devoted to him. "But that she loves Prince Henry is apparent, if she does not love him she is a perfect little actress,' whispered one of the aristocratic dames of Amsterdam to her companions. "Does the prince notice that she is getting older rapidly: Does he notice that the little Wilhehnina of today is not the Wilhelmina of four years i.go': And docs he notice that she is losing her girlish-ness girlish-ness and perhaps her good looks ? Does he see that Wilhelmina at L'4 looks older than she ouuht to j look "At the opera she applauded vigorously. .-And at one point she split her gloves so that she was obliged to remove one of them. At thii she only ! laughed, and, as her lady in waiting peeled it off looking rueful, the queen positively laughed out- j right. 'It is the first time she has laughed I'll wager in months,' said a lady in the audience. ! "Prince Henry appeared again when tin: opera l was over and Wilhehnina took his arm and passed j out. She turned and smiled at him. But not a j word was spoken. j Wilhehnina. looked 40 that night. What is the reason: Is she getting old before her time: What makes a little queen of i'4. who should be in the height of her bloom, look like an old passe queen otUt ' "That is -a question the Hollanders would like answered." , j Think twice before you speak or act once, and J you will speak or act tho more wisely for it. j i |