The Hatchet
- Publication: The Hatchet
- Date: March 1898
- Publication Place: Omaha, NE
- TEI XML: transmiss.per.hatchet.1898.xml
THE HATCHET.
PUBLISHED IN THE INTEREST OF A FUND FOR THE ERECTION AND MAINTENANCE OF THE GIRLS' AND BOYS' BUILDING OF THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI EXPOSITION.
OMAHA, NEBRASKA, MARCH, 1898.
Katharine Orchard Kuh, Omaha.
NAMES OF CHILDREN WHOSE PICTURES APPEAR ON COVER.
Central picture, John Hoagland Summers, Omaha,
1. Eleanor Mackay, Omaha.
2. Ethel Bernice Jackson, Lincoln.
3. Fred Spalding Hunter, Omaha.
4. Vivian Hawke Rector, Omaha.
5. Alvord Bruce Warfield, Omaha.
6. Winnifred May Wilcox, Omaha.
7. Sarah M. Martin, South Omaha.
8. Wm. Harrison Weimer, Philadelphia.
9. William Ellis Keysor, Omaha.
10. Katherine Kuhn Woodworth, Omaha.
11. Edward Murphy,
12. Helen Murphy, Twins, Omaha.
13. Ruth Brandeis, Omaha.
14. H. Helen Streight, Omaha.
15. Esther Eugenie Wilhelm, Omaha.
16. Beulah Imogene Buckley, Stromsburg
17. Katherine Price, Omaha.
18. Edwards Hall Berry, Omaha.
19. Freeman Bourdette Kirkendall, Omaha
20. Harold Doherty, Omaha.
A SLEEPY TIME EPISODE.
My small niece settled herself on my lap last night with that air of M proprietorship and authority native to childhood, and demanded a story.
"Suppose I tell you a little history."
"'Bout George Washington, is it?" and Beth cocked an eye at me suspiciously, then lowering her voice so her brother who was figuring on his slate might not hear, "Bob says he is perfec'ly sick of George Washington."
Bob goes to school and really has not, I think, much sympathy with the moral, teachers seek to inculcate with the story of George.
"No; it is about some one you know."
"Oh! Well, go on."
"Once upon a time there was a little girl"—a sigh of infinite satisfaction greeted this time-honored formula—" and she lived in a little western town on the banks of the Missouri, called Omaha"—
"Just the same name as this town?"
"Why, it was this town; only the lesser Omaha. There were not so very many houses and no big buildings, and you could look right down and see the river sparkling under the sun, and the ferry boats going backward and forward. The little girl lived in a brown frame house which stood right where the Young Men's Christian Association has its building now. Yes, the little girl went to Sunday school, but it was in a white frame church that had a spire on it. I think everybody went to church there, because it was the only one. One Sunday the little girl came home and told her papa that the teacher wanted her to bring some other little girl to Sunday school; but she didn't know what to do, because Annie, and Mary, and Lizzie, and all her playmates, already went to church. 'Well,' her papa said, 'the teacher wants you to bring some poor little girl who hasn't any clothes.' 'But how could she come if she didn't have any clothes?' 'Sure enough!' said papa. 'Well, I tell you ; if you find any little girl who stays at home on that account, you may tell her that you will give her a new dress if she will come to your Sunday school.' This so delighted the little girl that she insisted on starting out as a missionary the next day. So she trotted up into the north part of town, about Cuming street, and finally saw a cottage. It did not look so very poor, but it was the smallest one she saw, so she went in and rapped. The door was opened by a colored woman. ' Please, ma'am, have you any children?' 'Laws, honey! I'se got heeps oh dem.' ' Well, does your little girl go to Sunday school?' 'Fo de land sakes, no! I aint got no time to rig her out like you all,' with a glance at the little girl's ruffled apron. 'Oh! but I'll give her a nice new dress if you'll let her come. Oh, please let her come.' The little girl was getting very much worried for fear no one would have the new dress. 'Oh, sutinly she kin come if you fixes her up.' 'Very well ; I'll go right back and get the dress.' So the little girl almost ran down to her papa and told him she had found a poor little girl who wanted to come to Sunday school, but didn't have any clothes. So her papa went into Mr. Brown's store and bought a pink delaine dress, and the little missionary hurried back and gave the colored woman the dress. ' Now you will surely send her next Sunday, won't you?' 'Sutinly I will, honey; laws, but you is a nice chile!'"
"Oh! did she come the very next Sunday?" asked Bob, eagerly.
"No: she never came. The family had moved away when next time the little girl and her mamma went to look them up. You can't understand such things now, but you may some day,—how the little girl's faith in humanity, and interest in missions, received a severe wound thus early in life."
Babyhood.
JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY.
FRANZ JULIUS FESTNER, OMAHA.
"There were a great many Indians near Omaha about this time, and the people were very much afraid of then', for Indians are some-times exceedingly cruel. One day the little girl's papa came home—by the way, dear, he was your grandpapa, and I tell you this so you may know what a great man your grandpapa would have been had the times been ripe--and he told the little girl's mamma—your grandmamma—that the citizens were very much alarmed ; they had word the Indians were coming down to raid the country, and the town people were going to organize a militia company. What is that? Well, I hardly know how to explain it. It is a kind of ornamental army ; looks a good deal like the real thing, but it can't stand shooting ; so, after all, not much use unless it just scares people. But, nevertheless, the militia was formed, and the company got coats and swords, and Gen. Lowe gave them some nice horses and they waited for summons. One night the town bell rang out furiously then the militiamen put on their swords and mounted their horses and set off to scare the Indians. The little girl's mamma, and every other mamma in town, cried so hard, and yet felt proud of the brave soldiers who went so promptly to save the country.
"The next evening the army came back very tired, very sand-blown, and I guess very hungry. But everybody was so glad to see them and lighted all the lamps so it would be cheerful, and put the kettle on to make some good coffee —because the coffee they give you in the army is very bad. Your grandpapa was general of the militia and looked very nice in his coat with a sword at his side. After a while the little girl said, 'Papa, did you kill the Indians—every one of them?' And the general said, 'Mother, I think its time you put that child to bed.'"
After she grew older, the little girl used to think about it, and she finally concluded that her papa and the other men didn't really have a battle with anybody, but probably the Indians were hiding behind the bushes and saw how fierce and terrible the militia were, and never dared to come near Omaha again. Be that as it may, this Child of the Plains—the little struggling frontier town—was not massacred in its puling infancy. Outliving the terrors of child-hood, it grew, waxed strong and lusty ; flung aside its little brown houses and mantel of grass and reared its breast-works of granite and stone; arched the river and spread a veil of wires against the sky. All honor to you, pioneer militiamen! It is just as effective to scare a person to death as to kill him.
But I am forgetting myself, and Beth has gone to sleep. I shake her gently; a pair of sleep-drenched eyes open to me slowly.
"Did'nt you like auntie's story, dear?"
"I didn't think the last one very interestin'."
Shades of George Washington! Candor did not die with the "Father of our Country."
ELTA MATHESON.
GETTING ON IN THE WORLD.
THE story of Isa Randolph is worth telling, if only to show what a quick-witted, energetic woman can do to retrieve her fallen fortunes. She was daintily reared, and, when left a penniless orphan, hardly knew how to obtain a livelihood.
One day she found a cheap boarding place, sold a diamond ring, put an advertisement in the paper, and then sat down to await results. Within a week a million people read this advertisement:
Mademoiselle Isolena, purchaser of dress goods, gloves, hosiery and millinery. Persons at a distance desiring to purchase dry goods, etc., in New York, may address Mademoiselle Isolena. Every kind of underwear and small wares bought, goods and colors matched, and the best selections made at the lowest prices. Terms five per cent All orders must have the money enclosed. Goods sent by express or mail at the purchaser's expense.
Three days "Mademoiselle Isolena" waited in heart-sick impatience, and then there came three letters. One contained a dollar, another six, another ten, and each had a small order. The total profits were eighty-five cents—the first money she had ever earned. Putting on a pretty red hood she went out, with a smiling face, to do the shopping. She certainly had a genius for business, and made excellent bargains.
The next day seven more letters came, enclosing forty dollars in all. These orders employed her nearly all day, and at night she sent a letter with each, detailing the business transaction. The next day there came but one letter, and Isa was a trifle disappointed. Then came the Sabbath and on Monday there were twenty letters. The following day brought more letters and a loud complaint from her landlady concerning the trouble of bringing up so large a mail. Isolena at once turned all her available assets into money, and made one more bold push for her life. After much search she found a small back room in the third story of a store on a crowded business street, within easy reach of the best stores, and furnished it plainly. The room was chamber, parlor, kitchen, and office—all in one She advertised again, and went into her business with reckless energy.
Day by day that business increased until it kept her in the stores nearly all the time. Soon Mademoiselle Isolena removed to more convenient quarters, engaged a young woman as book-keeper and advertised again.
One year from the day on which she made her first purchase on commission, found her at the head of a flourishing business, supporting herself handsomely, with money in the bank. Energy and industry had made her a successful woman.
Iona Barnhart, Omaha.
An Elk Hunt in the Big Horn Mountains Near Dome Lake, Wyoming.
AWAY from civilization, high among mountain peaks where lie eternal snows from whose icy surface the sun's rays glance as from a mirror, and from whose deep bosom is fed a: thousand streams that find their way to the valley, is found that most delicate of blossoms, "the tender blue forget-me-not," breathing its faint perfume undisturbed amid the bitter blasts and rigors of a climate that even calls a halt to the dwarfed and gnarled pine which seeks in vain a foothold along these desolate highways.
Once on a time a hunter penetrated these wilds in search of big game. He left his camp by the lake, mounted on a small wiry pony. His progress was slow up the rocky steeps, fording streams full from melting snows, for it was September; over tree trunks long ago prostrated by fire, crossed and cris-crossed and now over-grown with pine, whose bushy tops menaced both horse and rider ; up, up, suddenly he was enveloped in fog—he hoped it might be a passing cloud. As he sat listening; far to the left he heard the low whistling of a band of elk, they too bewildered in the fog, moving, unfortunately, away from the hunter. Disappointed, he turned his not unwilling horse toward home.
A snow storm came on which lasted several• days. Meanwhile our hero, whom we will call Jack, made ready for a week's hunt, inviting his friend W., and taking a cook who could serve as guide. A string of extra ponies, each carrying his coil of rope for tether by night, and his share of the "outfit," rolls of bedding, a small tent, ax, skillet, few tin dishes, with a supply of bread and bacon. Jack, in leather trousers, leather coat with countless pockets, well-worn hat, a kerchief knotted about his neck, looked every inch the keen hunter that he was. "Badger," in size a little out of proportion to his rider, but full of pluck, stood shaking his head impatient to be off. A few last words, and the small cavalcade was soon out of sight. Sunset found them with tent pitched beside a trout brook. Jack hungrily watched the supper getting, while W., who had walked out to reconnoitre, came in reporting that he had shot a deer but would have to wait for daylight to find it.
A sound sleep, an early breakfast, and our two friends set out on foot separating at the base of a mountain, after arranging signals and an hour for meeting. Jack could now give full sway to his hunter instincts. Noiseless as a cat, for a mile he crept through thickets, over logs, sliding down rocks. A sound made him pause, a few cautious steps brought him to the crest of rising ground, and there beyond quietly feeding in a little meadow were three elk. The buck snuffing danger raised his head. Long range, thought Jack, but no chance to get nearer, taking hasty aim he fired three shots at the fleeing game. With a bound the antlered monarch of the waste " disappeared, the other two fell dead within a few rods of their feeding ground. Jack, astonished that he had apparently missed his first shot, looked hard at his rifle, when he heard a crashing of brush up the mountain. On turning he saw not twenty yards away, plunging towards him with head lowered and horns sweeping the ground, the enormous elk. Taking deliberate aim he sent a ball through the creature's brain, and he fell dead at his feet.
On examination Jack found that his first shot had taken effect, and that the elk had made a circuit of the hill, and had thus suddenly and almost fatally surprised him.
A signal now brought W. and the guide, who were loud in praise of Jack's skill and courage. The animals were skinned, the meat cut and packed in sacks ready for transportation. The head with its splendid horns was Jack'§ special charge. Old Dan," a pack horse, was persuaded to jump over all obstacles and take his share of the heavy load and follow the others down toward the camp. The picturesqueness of the scene as the little band wound down the mountains was very impressive. Jack bearing the horns lead in front, closely followed by his friend W., who enthusiastically declared that no such elk had been captured for years in the region; lastly the guide recounting to his eager listeners all he knew of the affair and much more, winding up with this solemn declaration: " That there young fellar had his nerve with him."
The great elk weighed more than a thousand pounds and his horns were armed with fourteen prongs.
The head, finely mounted, will always be an object of beauty and interest in Jack's old home.
M. R. K.
Osee Jewell, Dowagiac, Mich.
Girls' and Boys' Building.
GIRLS' AND BOYS' BUILDING.
THE educational features of the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition were assigned to the women. They are organized as a "Bureau of Education" and their work classified under two departments; school work under that of Exhibits, and congresses under that of Pro-motion. Required to pay for space as every other exhibitor, with no appropriation at their command, they have undertaken their work in the spirit of loyalty and patriotism.
With a system of competitions they hope to make an interesting display along many lines of educational work. They are planning by lectures, congresses and living exhibits of methods to show the progress of thought in the west.
One of the means to this end is the erection of the Girls' and Boys' Building. Contributions are asked of all girls and boys and the shares, five cents each, made so low that no child is excluded from having an interest in the building. The time has been short in which to collect this money, but many young people and older friends have given enthusiastically until the aggregate amount promised now assures the building. Several thousand dollars are needed before the contract for building can be let and still more money will be required to equip and furnish the building.
A fine location is secured. The building plans are architecturally beautiful. There will be rooms for the comfort of the girls and boys, furnished with books, pictures and exhibits in which children are especially interested; also rooms for illustrating various methods of teaching; a lecture hall and one room will be devoted to a collection of dolls from every part of the world. The second story will have a restaurant.
A wing will be devoted to sleeping rooms, a dining room and play grounds for babies. For a small fee parents may leave their young children here in charge of careful nurses while they see the Exposition.
The Exposition must have these accomodations, and the Bureau of Education, with the help of the girls and boys, wants to make this contribution toward the success of the Exposition.
There is yet a chance for every girl or boy to have a share in the best Exposition ever held.
Gifts from five cents up to one hundred dollars have been received. There is no law preventing the acceptance of larger gifts.
A beautiful colored certificate with a picture of the building is given for the contribution of twenty shares ($1.00) by individuals or schools. Schools contributing two hundred shares will have mention on the Roll of Honor which will be one of the decorations of the building.
The pictures and books used for decorations will be awarded to the schools according to the specifications in the building leaflet.
L. R. HARFORD.
'TWAS WEST POINT DAY IN OMAHA.
WRITTEN BY W. M. MAUPIN, OMAHA.
EUGENIE ANTOINETTE WHITMORE.
THIS little girl possesses unusual musical talent and both sings and plays in quite a remarkable way. When scarcely eight years old she surprised everyone by her execution of the well known Paderewski Minuet. She has had no instruction, excepting, perhaps, a few suggestions from her mother, who is herself a good musician. She has a faultless ear and such fine discrimination for one of her years that she can play even some of Bach's intricate compositions quite acceptably. Eugenie's acquaintance among musical celebreties is already quite extended. During a recent appearance of Nordica in Omaha the little girl stepped from a proscenium box and gave her a bunch of flowers and received a kiss and a hug from the great singer in front of the large audience.
Eugenie is of distinguished parentage, being the granddaughter of Prof. Trinchery, the first founder of a school for the blind in the United States. This college was founded in Boston in 1832. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. H. P. Whitmore, was born in Omaha, her present home, and is now in her tenth year.
The simple but artistic design which forms the oval frame, in black and white, upon the cover of THE HATCHET is the work of Mr. Clarke Powell, of the Art Institute, Chicago. Mr. Powell is the son of the late Archibald C. Pow-ell, of Omaha, and a young man of great promise in the profession of art designing now so popular with all first class publishers.
Eugenie Antoinette Whitmore
If you wish to send THE HATCHET to friends by mail, put on three rents postage.
GEORGE WASHINGTON.
Leon Martin,
Age fourteen.
Lincoln, Neb.
THE LOCUST BLOSSOM.
By ELIA W. PEATTIE.
(Written by request for THE HATCHET.)
CHARLOTTE BARTLETT'S eyes were grey, and the tears they held were very large for the tears of a little girl who was not even big enough to talk plain. These tears were not caused by a broken doll—no, no! They had, in fact, no foolish cause whatever. They were the tears of an American citizen who was baffled in her desire to express her patriotism.
And the story of it all, is this: General La Fayette was returning to this country as the nation's guest—the country for which he had proudly and gallantly fought in the days when he was a dashing young nobleman. The land was at peace; Monroe was president; trade was increasing and the young nation was beginning to feel sure of itself, and to look upon itself as being of importance in the world.
All the people loved LaFayette, and were touched at his return, in his old age, to the land where he had enjoyed one of the most splendid adventures of his heroic youth. He had been requested to lay the corner-stone of the Bunker Hill monument at Boston, and his entrance into the city was to be the occasion of the greatest celebration which Boston had seen up to that time.
LaFayette was to ride to the site of the monument at the head of a procession, and all the city, not to speak of many thousand pilgrims, were to be present to do him honor. Thirteen beautiful young women, representing the thirteen original colonies of the United States, were to strew flowers before the feet of the white horses which were to draw his carriage. The greatest men of the nation were to make speeches appropriate to the occasion, and to bid LaFayette, the friend of Washington, welcome to the land which remembered him with gratitude.
Now Charlotte Bartlett wept because she was not one of the thirteen beautiful women who were to cast roses and lillies before the horses of General LaFayette. To be sure, she was quite beautiful enough —oh, quite! Her grey eyes were large and dark, and they could shine almost like a cat's. Her curls were golden brown and tossed all over her dimpled shoulders, which showed white and soft above her little dimity gown. Her brows almost met above her straight little nose, and her lips were curved most bewitchingly.
Charlotte knew perfectly well that nothing but twelve miserable years stood in the way of her becoming one of the thirteen selected young women. If she had been eighteen instead of six, the honor would have been hers, surely, if she had explained how her heart was burning up to do honor to her country and to compliment General LaFayette. For the little girl felt that she had it in her power, as a Bartlett, to speak for her nation. Were not the Bartletts famous patriots? Was General LaFayette himself not entertained at the house of her uncle? Was her father not mighty in the affairs of Boston? But everyone knew the answer to these questions.
The day came. It was cloudless. The wind was warm but delicious; the sky tenderly blue. Everyone was attired in what was gayest. Bright streamers floated from the buildings. The American flag—the fairest of gay young flags—announced from every prominent place that the republic rejoiced in the presence of its venerable guest.
When the flower-bedecked wagon containing the chosen ladies, bore Mistress Bartlett, Charlotte's big sister, away from the family mansion, and the little girl had seen the last of that glorious vision of flushed young creatures with their posey-burdened arms, she flung herself upon the polished floor of the wide hall and wept with anger and disappointment.
"I like Deneral LaFayette better than any of dem! " she cried to her nurse Abigail. "I'm dus as purty as any of dem! I ought to have been 'lowed to go in dat wagon."
"But you are too little, Miss Charlotte," said the nurse for the hundredth time. If you had been as old as your sister—"
"I touldn't help dat, I should fink!" pro-tested Charlotte angrily, wiping her hot face with her wet handkerchief, one corner of which remained carefully pinned to her belt. " I feel allright inside, but I can't help my outside. It's not my fault it's so little!"
"No," said Abigail. "Now we will go up stairs, and you must take your nap."
The child paid no attention. She sat still looking at her image in the dark, shining floor.
"Come, come," cried the nurse impatiently. She was vexed herself this afternoon. It was not pleasant to be obliged to stay away from the gaieties and care for a naughty child, when all the rest of the world was off for enjoyment.
"Abidail!" cried Charlotte. "Let's you and me go to see Deneral LaFayette."
"Eh?" gasped Abigail.
"You do pick flowers! Pick a great big bunch of purty, purty flowers, red and yellow and blue, and tie dem all up togedder! Den we will take dem to Deneral LaFayette."
Abigail laughed somewhat scornfully at this scheme, but she was really only a child herself, and her feet danced to be off down the street with the rest. So she ran to obey her little mistress. Charlotte ran after her with the garden scissors, and snipped fiercely at the old-fashioned garden flowers. In a few minutes a bouquet as large as Charlotte could carry in her two little dimpled hands was made up, and tied with a magenta ribbon which Abigail had been keeping for some notable occasion. A clean frock was put on the child, her little bonnet tied under her chin, and the two ran with swift feet to the place where the crowd gathered thickest.
By and by the music of a band announced that the General with his escort was approaching.
Louise I. and Robert J. Dinning, Omaha.
"I can't see anyfing!" cried Charlotte in dismay. "I'll nebber be able to see Deneral La Fayette!"
Abigail lifted the girl in her arms, but she was not equal to the task of holding her and was obliged to put her down again. They stood under a huge locust tree which hung its graceful branches far over the road, and with a motion like a squirrel, Charlotte mounted to the top of the fence and swung herself into the tree. Abigail stared after her a moment in doubt and then followed her, and the two crept to a safe place and looked down upon the crowd.
A moment later the guards and the band passed beneath. Then came the immediate escort of General La Fayette—famous gentlemen all—and the beautiful Frenchman himself, his face beaming with smiles, his white head uncovered, bowing with sweetness and sincerity to the people whose greeting disturbed the quiet day.
The crowd gathered so closely about him as his horses came under Charlotte's tree that the driver was obliged to bring them to a stop.
"Now!" cried Abigail, "Now is the time, Miss Charlotte! Throw!"
It was a dramatic moment. Charlotte leaned forward and threw the great bouquet of flaunting flowers straight into the General's lap. It was a missile perfectly hurled! The crowd cheered again. Whatever happened that day, the crowd cheered.
The Frenchman looked up to see from what source this fragrant projectile had come, and looking, beheld above him a face which was afterward famous for its beauty, and which at that time was as exquisite as a June wild rose with the dew still in its tender petals. She looked down at him from among the beautiful long green leaves of the locust and smiled be-witchingly. These two important personages gazed at each other's eyes and were well pleased.
"Behold!" cried the General, rising in his seat. " I have the flowers! But I want the Flower!"
So Abigail reached out Charlotte as well as she could—and she had strength for the occasion as one has for great moments—and General La Fayette received her and took her in his arms before all the people, and kissed her first on one cheek and then the other.
"This is the most charming occurrence of the many which the day has brought," said the General as to a princess.
Charlotte was equal. to the language of the courts.
"I am happy, Deneral LaFayette," said she with an accent of perfect contentment. The compliment was sincere. The two smiled at each other in appreciation, and the carriage moved on as the crowd gave way before it.
That was how it came about that Charlotte Bartlett knew General LaFayette much better than any of the young ladies who, grown up though they were, and dressed in all the colors of the Republic—scattered flowers before his horses' feet.
Which story Charlotte Bartlett told to the day of her death, which came in God's good time, when she was past her eightieth year, in a town now far distant from the place where this incident finds its publication.
A NINETEENTH CENTURY SPARTAN.
A NEBRASKA boy came from home to school at a forbidden hour and was sent to his scat for twenty minutes as a punishment. He sat perfectly quiet and serene for the appointed time. . When called up for dismissal, he said to the teacher, " I have been doing some of the hardest work of my life," and opening his coat, two large white mice were disclosed, frantically struggling to be free. Neither he nor the mice had anticipated' the twenty minutes. The teacher has long known a boy to be an unfathomable mystery, but she still is bewildered to know how the Spartan kept so still.
ON KINDNESS TO ANIMALS.
ANY intelligent boy or girl can form a "Band of Mercy," the object being to interest persons in the practice of kindness to the lower creatures. The American Humane Education Society of 19 Milk Street, Boston, Mass., will send, without expense, the following publications to every person who writes that he has formed a "Band of Mercy," giving the name chosen for it, and the name and postoffice address of its president.
1. Our Dumb Animals, full of interesting stories and pictures, for one year.
2. Mr. Angell's Address to the High, Latin, Normal and Grammar Schools of Boston.
3. Copy of Band of Mercy Songs.
4. Twelve Lessons on Kindness to Animals, containing many anecdotes.
5. Eight Humane Leaflets, containing pictures and one hundred selected stories and poems.
6. For the President, an imitation gold badge.
"Black Beauty," the "Uncle Tom's Cabin," of the horse, can be obtained for ten cents, and "Beautiful Joe," a story of a dog, for thirty cents.
To become a member of a "Band of Mercy" it is necessary to sign or authorize to be signed the following pledge:
"I will try to be kind to all living creatures, and try to protect them from cruel usage."
The following is a good order of exercises for Band of Mercy meetings:
1. Sing Band of Mercy song or hymn, and repeat the pledge together. (See Melodies.)
2. Remarks by president.
3. Anecdotes of good and noble sayings and deeds done to both human and dumb creatures.
4. Sing band of Mercy song or hymn.
5. Members may tell what they have done to make human and dumb creatures happier and better.
6. Enrollment of new members.
7. Sing Band of Mercy song or hymn.
The Hatchet.
MANAGING EDITOR.
MRS. CHARLES H. MARPLE.
ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITORS.
CLARENCE A. LUCAS, Fremont.
MARGARET HITCHCOCK, Omaha.
AMANDA A. WOLFE, Kearney.
RUTH SHINROCK, Omaha.
EDNA M. DELL, Nebraska City.
PERRIE WHEELER, South Omaha.
WILLIE WEST, Omaha.
WALTER GENTZKE, West Point.
RUTH MURDOCK, Nehawka.
M. F. ITTNER, Omaha.
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE.
LILLIAN R. HARFORD,
JENNIE E. KEYSOR,
FRANCES M. FORD.
BUSINESS MANAGER.
IDA V. TILDEN.
ASSISTANT BUSINESS MANAGERS.
LOTTIE TOWLE, So. Omaha.
NELLIE RICE, "
ANNA LANDON, Omaha.
ALFRED POWELL, SO. Omaha.
CHAS. B. PRICHARD, Omaha.
WILLIAM LAMPE, Omaha.
EUGENE MEYER, Omaha.
GEORGE ENGLER, "
EDWARD JOHNSON, So. Omaha.
HENRY ALTSCHULER, Omaha.
CIRCULATION.
MRS. DRAPER SMITH.
ADVERTISING.
MRS. ROBERT HUNTER.
IN sending forth THE HATCHET our aim has been to represent the youth of the State of Nebraska upon its pages in essay, poem, or story, contributed for a two-fold purpose of aiding financially the Children's Building and also of bringing into competition the rising literary lights of the state. The issue, which should have appeared as its name (THE HATCHET) indicates upon the anniversary day of the birth of the first great president whose little passage with that useful tool is thoroughly understood, has been delayed by the many obstacles and annoyances that beset the amateur when he climbs up into the world of half-tones and long primer. When the idea of a girls' and boys' journal was conceived by that enterprising community "The Bureau of Education," it was decided that the ten children contributing the most meritorious work toward THE HATCHET should become honorary editors of the paper; also, that the children selling the greatest number of copies in the state should justly become managers of the business office. This proud record of merit appears at the top of the editorial page, and it is with regret that we acknowledge the lists were no longer, for so vigorous public spirit has been shown in nearly every town solicited that our gratitude would well-nigh overflow its bounds, to reward all by an honorary position who have made THE HATCHET presentable.
We are also under deep obligation to the children of older growth who have contributed so willingly to its literary features and to its business end — the advertising department. With profuse apologies for delay in publication, and hoping that THE HATCHET may secure its share of the fund for the building of that happy portal the Children's Building, we make our bow to the public.
POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS.
POSTAL Savings Banks, as the name implies, are banks operated by the Federal Government on the same basis as the present Postal system, for the convenience of the people. The system is especially planned for the receiving of small deposits from children, laboring people, and all other persons who are not able to save a very great amount during the course of a year.
The American is a money maker and a money spender. He hesitates to deposit his money in a savings bank because it is not secured by the Federal government and he has learned by experience that the National Banks are as liable to be wrecked as a savings bank. So, in order that he may be sure of deriving the good from his money, he spends it. The Postal Savings Bank is intended to supply him a place where he can deposit his earnings and at the same time be sure of their safety, and where they will earn a reasonable rate of interest. The Postal savings system is strictly a savings system and does no check or clearing business. It is not likely that the Postal banks will conflict in any way with the ordinary savings bank, but rather increase their business by increasing the number of persons who have something to put aside for a rainy day.
At the present time there are six million Postal Bank depositors in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and the annual deposits amount to about $150,000,000. The amount now due to English depositors is $400,000,000. These figures are exclusive of the regular savings bank deposit, and there are as many savings banks in England as there are in America. The banks are now in operation in most of the British colonies. Between the years of 1870 and 1886 the following countries have successfully introduced the plan: Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Sweden, Russia, Finland, Japan and the Hawaiian Islands.
The history of the movement in the United States began back in 1871, when John A. Creswell was Postmaster General in Grant's cabinet. He advocated a system which was almost the same as the one which is now being considered by the present Congress. He proposed to call them " Postal Saving Depositories," to distinguish them from the regular savings banks. P. M. G. Wanamaker also was a strong advocate of the Postal Banks. In a speech in their favor he said that they would lessen the danger of "runs" on the banks, because it is the small depositor who makes the trouble. James A. Geary, the present P. M. G., has made a strong recommendation of the plan to Congress.
The advantages of the system lay: First—In its security. Second—Develops a habit of thrift. Third—Convenience for making deposits. Fourth—Places a large amount of money in the hands of the Federal government and thus pre-vents borrowing money from other nations. Lewins in his history of savings banks says: " Next to the repeal of the corn laws this is the greatest boon ever conferred on the working people of the country, and next to the scheme of cheap postage itself the scheme of the Postal Savings Banks is the greatest and most important work ever undertaken by the government for the benefit of the nation. The success of the plan has been complete." May the day be not far off when the system shall be established in the United States.
PERRLE WHEELER, South Omaha.
TO PRESERVE A MEMORY.
THE Mount Vernon Ladies' Association was founded in 1853 through the efforts of Miss Cunningham of South Carolina, its object being the purchase and preservation of Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, and of all relics in any way connected with it.
Since 1860 the association has almost succeeded in restoring the Mansion House and grounds to their former beauty. The rooms have been refurnished — Washington's bed-chamber with the bed on which he died; the room in which Mrs. Washington passed her last days, and several others containing relics price-less, because they have felt "the touch of the vanished hand" of George Washington, the glorious and the undying.
The principal officers are the regent, and a vice regent from each state, elected as the interest increases. Thirty states are now rep-resented, and to each of fifteen vice regents is assigned the care of one room at Mount Vernon, their other duties being to procure subscriptions for the constant repairs needed, and to interest outsiders in their work.
The vice regent for Nebraska is Mrs. R. H. Clarkson, so well known through her charities. Originally from Maryland, Mrs. Clarkson was proposed for the vice regency by Mrs. George Goldsborough, who ably fills the same position in that state. A granddaughter of Eliza Parke Custis, she has given into the care of the association many most interesting relics, and has been a moving spirit in the oft-times wearisome work. Mrs. Clarkson's task is still more difficult, for Nebraska is so far away that many of its people have never even visited Mount Vernon, and few know of the association or its work. To awaken enthusiasm or even mild interest under such conditions is well-nigh impossible, and this is the reason the work of Nebraska towards preserving the grand old place counts for so little. Why cannot the women and girls of the West enliven fading patriotism and come to the support of Mrs. Clarkson to show the Eastern states that Nebraska, too, holds dear the memory of the great Washington?
LOUISE MCPHERSON.
THE GIRL SOLDIER.
MILITARY drill for girls is rapidly gaining favor among educators. The idea that it would lower the standard of womanly dignity, graceful bearing and desirable qualities in the refined and cultured maiden has been forced to yield to the indisputable evidence of results presented by the girl cadets wherever such training has been conducted.
The obedience and submissiveness taught in military discipline, with promptness of action to every form of request or command, tends to clear the mind of rudeness, carelessness, and disobedience which is so often found in girls through a lack of proper home-government.
Military drill does not tend toward boldness and coarseness of deportment in the girl. Its tendency is directly the opposite—perfect obedience and perfect attention is an absolute requirement and necessity.
The physical culture feature is probably the strongest argument in support of the drill for girls. The graceful carriage of the body, the easy confident movement cultivated in the step, trans-form ugliness to grace. It is often an interesting study to watch the carriage of young girls who have had no training in this direction. No two can be found who can walk together on the street without exhibiting the most painful discord in their movements. Deformities in person and clumsy awkwardness in walk are cultivated or acquired in an effort to imitate some companion or from a total disregard of how they should appear in the eyes of others.
The physical benefits obtained by military drill help to strengthen the mental powers of the girl for better service in the education of the mind. The instilling of more military spirit into the women of America can result in no evil influence to the coming generations.
CLARA M. HERVEY, O. H. S.
ADVANTAGE OF MILITARY TRAINING IN SCHOOLS.
THAT there is great benefit derived in adding the military drill to the education of boys can hardly be denied by any reasonable person. As a matter of fact there are three distinct points wherein the military school is greatly superior to the common school which does not have a place for such training in its course.
The first and perhaps the most important of the three points is the physical improvement that is the result from daily drill and exercise in the military school, to which is added the advantages of regular routine life with regular hours and suitable discipline. The erect carriage, the quick step, the clear eye, and the general air of healthfulness, both mental and physical, mark the military cadet wherever he is seen. Such a combination is rarely seen in the ordinary school boy, who does not take sufficient exercise either because he is too intent on his studies or because he is one of those unfortunate individuals who was born tired and who requires severe measures to keep him from becoming a downright sluggard.
The second point is the discipline; and we can easily see how far ahead of the common schools is the military school. Frequent inspection of equipment and person insure the cultivation of habits of neatness and order, which will be found invaluable in after-life. The cadet also learns the great lesson of subordination and respect to his superiors. He is also out of the reach of the numerous temptations which surround the young man who is under little or no restraint and he generally graduates from his school better qualified for college or business life than his friend who has not had any of these much-needed exercises, but who has spent his time more closely at his work.
The third, and by no means the least, import-ant point is the patriotism which the military school instills into every young man who is not already possessed of that most valuable quality. The dear old flag acquires a new interest in his youthful eyes and his knowledge of his country develops wonderfully during his stay in a military school.
O. H. S. '98.
THE OMAHA HIGH SCHOOL PAGE.
OMAHA DURING THE FIFTIES.
THERE are men and women still living who well remember the founding of Omaha, and can call to mind the hardships and privations endured by the pioneers at that early date. It is little more than forty years since the town was first laid out and the first building erected. In the summer of 1854 but one single cabin could be seen.
The first settlers of Omaha were from Council Bluffs, which in early days had been a Mormon town. In 1849, when the search for gold in California was at its height, William D. Brown, one of the gold-seekers on his way to California, reached Council Bluffs. Here he became employed in the ferry business across the Missouri river, which was to accomodate the California travelers. During the years from 1850 to 1854 Mr. Brown was impressed with the belief that Omaha, with its beautiful plateau and its numerous hills, would be an excellent location for a great city. He communicated his belief to his friends and expressed the idea of founding a town.
Accordingly, a company called "The Council Bluffs and Nebraska Steam Ferry Company" was formed July 23d, 1853. But having considered the circumstances under which the town must be founded, it decided to postpone the enterprise until Nebraska was admitted as a territory, which took place May 23d, 1854. Among the members of the company besides Mr. Brown were Dr. Enos Lowe, Jesse Lowe, Jesse Williams, and Joseph H. D. Street. A. D. Jones was appointed surveyor, and the city was finally laid out in 322 blocks. The survey completed, the ferry company began to erect its buildings and decided to call the town Omaha, from the nearest tribe of Indians in the vicinity.
The first house built was a small, rough log structure constructed for the ferry company. It was located on Twelth and Jackson streets, and was occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Snowden, who kept it as a boarding house for the employees of the company during the summer and fall of 1854. It was given the name of the St. Nicholas Hotel. Here the first religious services in Omaha were conducted Sunday, August 13th, 1854, by Rev. Peter Cooper, of Council Bluffs.
The second house was built by Mr. Gaylord. The first brick structure was built on Ninth street, between Farnam and Douglas. The third house was located between Thirteenth and Fourteenth. Mr. Snowden built the fourth house, his private residence, situated on south Tenth street. The event was celebrated by a house warming," and the first dance in Omaha was given on this occasion.
It was not long before a few cabins were to be seen scattered here and there, and these were eagerly taken by those who were fortunate enough to 'secure them. They seldom contained more than one room.
One of the first settlers occupied a log cabin that stood on a hill west of what is now Saunders street. It consisted of two stories and cellar—the second story being just high enough for one to stand erect, provided he was not very tall. The stairs were simply a ladder in one corner of the room supported by a trunk. It was some time before the occupants succeeded in going up and down gracefully. The mistress of this cabin happened to be upstairs when her first callers arrived, and in her attempt to get down quietly, caught her foot in one of the rungs of the ladder and landed on the trunk so suddenly as to bring every one in the room to the scene. This of course destroyed all the formality of the introduction.
Among the institutions which aided greatly in giving importance to the city in early years was the "Omaha Arrow," the first newspaper published. The first number appeared July 28, 1854, after the survey was completed. It was a four- page sheet of six columns, and was "a family newspaper devoted to arts, sciences, general literature, agriculture, and politics." It was printed in Council Bluffs and was edited by J. E. Johnson and J. W. Pattison.
Mr. A. D. Jones was the first postmaster and was accustomed to carry the mail in his hat. He was liable to be stopped at any moment on the street by those who inquired for mail. He would then remove his hat and examine the letters therein. The office was afterwards removed to a building called the Douglas House, which had been erected for a hotel. An axe box was pro-cured and divided into four pigeon holes. It was then nailed on the west side of the front room and became the first regular postoffice in Omaha.
The first territorial legislature met at Omaha on the 16th of January, 1855, in the state house, which had been built by the ferry company for this purpose. The location of the territorial capitol was the principal and most important question before the legislature. The body was in session from the 16th day of January to the 17th day of March, 1855. The question was finally settled and the capitol was located at Omaha.
Thus the city, after years of toil and struggle, succeeded in winning the capital prize, and retained it until 1867.
O. H. S. '98.
Omaha High School.
MRS. SOCRATES.
THE proverb concerning this noted woman runs thus: "Whom history hath painted black, all time cannot whiten;" but Xanthippe should not be so greatly blamed because she has become a by-word and a synonym for a scold. She certainly had many difficulties to contend with and, no doubt, some modern wives would sympathize with her.
Although not much is known of Xanthippe's origin, yet there is some probability that she was of gentle blood. She is supposed to have been descended from Xanthippus, father of Pericles, and it is not improbable that she was connected with this great family.
She was probably much younger than Socrates. At the time of his death he was 70 years old, while his eldest son was not more than 20 years, and the other two were still children. But Xanthippe's age at the time of her marriage cannot be ascertained, although she could not have been very old.
It has been hinted that Xanthippe married Socrates because no one else would have her. His face and figure, not mentioning his many strange ways, must have been a great burden to her, although it cannot be proven that she her-self was at all beautiful. Socrates certainly was as ugly as it was possible for a man to be, with his "bald pate with its fringe of bristly hair, lobster eyes, bridgeless nose and thickly padded mouth." His figure in no way redeemed the ugliness of his face, and these were rendered more repulsive by his attire, He was always poorly dressed, and insisted upon going bare-foot, much to the surprise of his friends.
Socrates abandoned his work and expected his family to care as little for the comforts of life as he did. He once said that when he was thirsty he could drink water, when he was hungry he could eat barley, and when he was tired he could sleep on the ground. This way of living certainly could not have satisfied Xanthippe, and it is very likely that she had to sup-port the family. Another grievance which Xanthippe had to bear was that Socrates often dined out at the houses of his friends, while she was left at home to eat whatever may have been there and spend the time envying Socrates his good dinner. These friends of Socrates were not at all pleasing to his wife, and she especially disliked Alcibiades and Connus, the latter being engaged by Socrates to teach him music and dancing. To return the favors shown by his friends he sometimes invited them to go home and dine with him. This certainly must have been a great trial to Xanthippe, since she was of an aristocratic family and wished to keep up appearances, and probably on the days that Socrates asked his friends home with him there was nothing in the house to eat.
One great fault of Xanthippe was her jealousy, and what seems strange, she was not jealous of her own sex. She hated Alcibiades more than anyone. The cause of her jealousy lay not in the difference of their ages, not in the neglect, laziness and poverty of Socrates, but in the fact that their natural tempers were so much alike. But where Xanthippe had a passionate, unfettered nature, Socrates had selfcontrol, and this must have chafed Xanthippe even worse than an occasional outbreak.
He once said that every married man should teach his wife whatever he wished her to know. A friend asked him why he did not train Xanthippe instead of having the most ill-tempered of wives. He replied : " I have noticed that those who wish to he skilled horse breakers try their hands not upon gentle beasts, but upon the most mettlesome steeds, thinking that if they can master them they will easily train all others. On the same principle I have chosen this wife, confident that if I shall be able to endure her I shall get on comfortably with all other people."
In spite of the many burdens which Xanthippe had to bear she was a good mother, and probably thought a great deal of Socrates, notwithstanding his peculiar ways. Something of her affection is shown after Socrates' arrest, when she went to visit him in the prison. I hope now that there are some who agree with me that Xanthippe has certainly had many trials, and cannot be entirely blamed for her temper.
M. F. ITTNER, O. H. S.
SOMETHING ABOUT UNIVERSITY EXTENSION.
THE University Extension correspondence study is especially designated to aid teachers whose education has been limited; those who have had no college education; scholars who have been in residence at the University and wish to continue their studies, and those who intend to go to the University; ministers and any who desire to become better acquainted with the scriptures, and those who desire assistance in the advanced study of a certain subject.
The instruction is of two kinds, formal and informal. In the formal work the student receives a printed instruction sheet, in which certain tasks are assigned him, with instructions and suggestions. Every week the student mails, to the instructors, a recitation paper, on which he has written the task which was assigned him, the answers to questions asked and any difficul-
ties which beset him in studying. The pa-per, corrected and with such suggestions as the instructor considers necessary, is returned. The informal instruction is intended for a special class of students, who are pursuing studies of an advanced nature. Here the lesson sheets are not used, but the student and instructor prepare the course which is necessary in the
The University of Chicago will grant no honorary degrees and no degrees for work done wholly in absence. In order to obtain the degree A. M. one year's residence at least is required for that of Ph. D.; and D. B. at least two years' residence; and for the degrees A. B., S. B., and Ph. B. ordinarily two years' residence is required. A student who has received instructions by correspondence can only offer one-third of the whole work required to obtain the degrees of Ph. D. and D. B., the other two-thirds must he work done in residence.
The courses are divided into Major and Minor. A Major consists of forty, and a Minor of twenty written recitations, but these numbers may be raised to adapt the work to the needs of the department. Each Major and Minor taken by correspondence is equivalent to Major and Minor of the same study taken in residence.
The tuition fee for each Major is sixteen dollars, and for each Minor is eight dollars.
Postage must be paid for the return of the corrected recitation papers. All correspondence students are required to be-come members of the University, the fee for which is five dollars. This fee is general for the whole University and admits to any of its divisions without further charge.
The student is expected to complete any course taken, within a year of the time of beginning it, and for any part of the course, which is uncompleted after the lapse of a year, he will be charged one-fourth of the usual fee.
CAMILLA L. GSANTNER.
AMICABLY SETTLED.
ELLEN, with her father, Representative Gainer, lived alone at the capital during the legislative session, because she had no
At the time of this story Ellen was a girl of fourteen, with a tall, slender form, long, golden curls, and the face of a goddess. She was her father's bosom companion, and a good one she made him, for she was well informed on politics, being able to talk intelligently with him on any subject relating to his business. He told her all that happened in the House and explained it to her, so she understood everything. Altogether she was well qualified to be his secretary.
One day in the heat of debate, Gainer's character was attacked by an opponent, Charles Baxter. The latter had insulted him and had refused to apologize. There was but one course for a gentleman to pursue. Cards were ex-changed, seconds were chosen and the time of meeting was set for seven o'clock the following morning.
When her father came home that evening Ellen saw that there was something on his mind which, contrary to his usual self, he did not choose to tell her. She was puzzled. If she were puzzled before, she was alarmed a few hours later when the second chosen by Mr. -Gainer called to help him arrange his affairs in the event of his being unfortunate on the morrow, for the second also bore a grave look, and unusual preparations were being made.
At the usual hour Ellen went to bed with a heavy heart. She could not sleep. Shortly after she left the room the two men finished their work and sat down to talk. Their voices were loud enough to be distinctly heard by the sleepless child in the next room, and from the conversation she learned all that had happened during the day and what was in store for the next.
Ellen's heart beat violently when she heard the second say as he rose to go : " Keep up your courage, old man, and I will be with you at six in the morning."
"That I will," answered Gainer, " and God protect Ellen if I be killed!"
ETHEL AND ALICE DOVEY.
At the words Ellen almost cried out, but she suppressed her tears like the brave little soul she was. She knew that anything like that would weaken her father, and it would never do for him to break down. She resolved to keep calm and to bear up bravely, and after passing many long hours she fell asleep.
Next morning her father came to her room and woke her. His looks told that he had passed a sleepless night. He told her in a husky voice that he was about to go on a dangerous errand, but hoped to be back soon. He told her to amuse herself until his return, and kissing her fondly, he joined his second, who was waiting for him in the outer room.
As he closed the door Ellen called out in a firm, sweet voice, "Good bye, father; good luck to you."
Her seeming ignorance of the grave business on hand did much to buoy up the spirits ' of the two men. They walked briskly, and in half an hour arrived at the appointed spot. Baxter, his second, the referee and the doctors were already there, and as Gainer and his companion came up the party was complete. The pistols, for they were the weapons chosen, were examined, and everything being ready the men took their places, pistol in hand.
The referee began to count.: "One, two—"
What is that streak of white which flashes into their midst? It is Ellen, clad only in a white wrapper, with curls flying, flushed face, and her whole frame trembling with excitement! She pauses a moment, then turning toward her father's opponent and looking imploringly into his face she says, in piteous tones : "Would you kill my father and make me friendless in this world? He is all I have."
Baxter's countenance, hitherto hard-set in or-der to endure the strain, breaks into smiles. He drops his pistol and, springing forward,
Mr. Gainer took the proffered hand, and while shaking it warmly turned to the others present and said : "Gentlemen, this affair has been amicably settled."
CHAS. B. PRICHARID, O. H. S.
Two Distinguished Children.
NEBRASKA is proud to number among her children Ethel and Alice Dovey whose home is at Plattsmouth. Ethel is fifteen years old, while Alice is two years younger, and they are now studying in London under Madame Cellini, a well-known teacher of that city. In three years they will make their debut. Both children seem gifted to a remarkable degree with fine voices and histrionic ability so that much is expected of their future in their chosen art.
They recently gave a concert in Stein-way Hall under the patronage of Mrs. Hay, wife of the American Ambassador, and received high praise for their symathetic and cultured voices. Their rendering of Blumenthal's "Venetian Boat Song" on this occasion called forth words of high commendation.
From time to time these children have sung before musical critics of marked discernment who have unhesitatingly predicted a notable future for them.
In addition to their pronounced natural ability they have had most careful training. From 1891 up to their going abroad last summer they were under the musical direction of Miss Terry who is so favorably known in Nebraska.
The younger, Alice, will sing "Rejoice Greatly" from the "Messiah" on Easter Sun-day next in Dr. Parker's church in London. The event is anticipated with interest by the friends
If you wish to send THE HATCHET to friends. by mail, put on three cents postage.
THE RABBIT'S REVENGE.
ONE fine autumn day, Count De Dau and a company of his friends went on a hunting expedition.
After winding their way through thickets and under-brush awhile, they descried some rabbits in the distance. They all leveled their rifles at them, and "bang! bang!" sounded the report, while the bullets whistled throught the air and ended the life of many of those harmless and unsuspecting creatures. The Count was just in the act of putting his last rabbit into his hunting-bag, when it seemed to him the rabbit whispered: "I'll be revenged!"
Now Count De Dau was a superstitious man and on the way back to the village he told his companions his "rabbit story." His friends could not help laughing, and said to him with friendly warmth, which no friend of jolly Count De Dau could forbear, "Oh, you superstitious De Dau! That's all a 'fish story' as well as a ' rabbit story'."
A few days after his hunt, Count De Dau celebrated his birthday. The parlor of his house was filled with guests. The Count was in the midst of them and continually entreating them to take only "one glass more" or "just another cigar." Count De Dau then related some of his adventures, many of which were very absurd and created much amusement. Then they all went to dine and fell to with a relish. Deer, calf, chicken, and rabbit meat ; pickles, cakes, wines, and all kinds of delicacies formed the feast.
The Count was eating away at his favorite dish of rabbit stew, while relating one of his adventures. He was just ending his tale, when he arose from his chair and gasped for breath. His gasps grew fainter and fainter until he fell as if dead.
His terror-stricken companions rushed to his assistance. A doctor was quickly called, and after examining the Count he took an instrument from his pocket and drew a bullet out of his throat which he had swallowed along with a piece of rabbit meat and which had stuck there.
When Count De Dau regained consciousness he solemnly said, "I told you so. The rabbit has had his revenge."
His friends, who knew it would be useless to fight against his ideas, asked him to 'take some more rabbit stew and resume his dinner. "Not for the world," replied the Count, and he never again touched rabbit meat, and never shot an-other rabbit.
The rabbit had his revenge, thereby saving the lives of a large number of rabbits which the Count never again hunted.
WALTER GENTZKE,
Age fourteen years.
West Point.
THE WHEELBARROW RIDE.
ONCE there lived two dear little children. Their names were Helen and Carl Jones They liked nothing better than to ride in a wheelbarrow. One beautiful summer evening, little three-year-old Carl ran to his grandpa, and whispered in his ear, "Grandpa, will you pease take Helen and me a wide?" His grand-father smiled and said : "Yes, darling, I will as soon as I have finished reading." The little boy ran to his mamma, and asked her to please put on his hat and coat. When he was ready, he went again into the room where his grandpa was, and soon went out with him to take the ride. Helen had gone out to see a little girl who lived across the street from the Jones family, but it was now time for her to come home, and so Carl ran across the street and brought her. While Carl was gone his grandfather had been getting the wheelbarrow out of the barn. And when the two children came back, their grandfather was ready and they stepped right into the wheel-barrow and he began to push them along. They went very nicely. Carl's little dog, Jip, always liked to jump up to the wheelbarrow and bark when they were riding, but that evening he was a little sleepy, because he had been running about all day. Little Carl asked his grandpa if he would wheel him around where little Jip was sleeping, and let him try to wake the dog up. Grandpa did so, and when they came to the place they saw the little pet lying on the ground fast asleep. Little Carl got out of the wheelbarrow and pinched the dog's tail. Jip waked up with a sharp yelp, but as soon as he saw the wheel-barrow and Helen in it, he leaped for joy. Carl stepped into the wheelbarrow again and on they went once more, while Jip barked and gamboled about them gaily. All of a sudden the wheel-barrow tipped over and Helen and Carl both fell out. It did not hurt them much though. Grand-pa was sorry it happened, but he very soon picked the children up and was pleased to see they were not hurt. They were going to have another ride, but their mamma called them to come in and go to bed. Little Carl did not want to go to bed, but he always minded his mamma, and so he went in. Helen went first to her grandpa and thanked him for the nice ride. Then after a little while Helen and Carl were fast asleep.
EDITH Emily Buss,
Age eleven years.
Fremont.
THE EVERGREEN TREE.
HOW lonesome it was in that great forest. All my companions were large evergreen trees. Of what use was I? I seldom got a ray of sunlight. The rain that moistened me dropped off the larger trees. But one day a man came up to me and said : "Oh, what a pretty tree! We must take this one too." I was very frightened. I wondered what would become of me. I was soon cut down and laid to one side.
The next day I and my companions were put in a sleigh and taken to the station and piled in a box car. After a ride of five days we came to a large city. Then we were taken out of the car and to a store and placed in a window. I was very glad for I thought I would get a glimpse of the world.
One day a man and a pretty little girl came into the store. After buying several of my companions, the little girl said : "Papa, do buy this one and we will send it to poor widow Grey's family."
I was bought and sent to a residence on Tenth Avenue. The servants came and planted me in the center of a large box, which was filled with packages of groceries, potatoes, and large red apples. On my branches were hung little bags filled with candy and nuts. On one of my branches hung a dress and nice warm shawl for widow Grey, and on the other ones hung a jacket and gloves for Nellie, shoes, stockings and caps for the two smaller boys, and a nice suit of clothes with cap and mittens for Johnny. Under the leaves was hung a doll for Annie. Strings of popcorn were hung all over me, and at my top was placed a Santa Claus. How beautiful I was. I was left all alone but I was not lonesome. I had so much to see in that large room.
Soon Violet came with her papa, and said: "Oh, papa, just look at my beautiful tree! Won't Mrs. Grey be happy? See, papa, here is everything to make her comfortable all winter."
"You dear little girl!" said her papa, "who would have thought of all this but you? Now I must add a Christmas present. Here is fifteen dollars to buy her coal. We will fasten this on Santa Claus."
I was placed in a sleigh late that evening by two servants. We went some distance and stopped before a plain little cottage. Carefully I was taken out and carried to the door. I wanted to scream—I, so pretty, to be in that house! Carefully they unlocked the door and placed me in the center of the kitchen; then quietly they went out. I was left alone in that cold and dismal, dark room. How I wished to be back in the forest again. How I wished for the daylight, so I could see myself. I had not long to wait, for soon I saw through the little window the morning star that I had seen so often in the forest. Yes, pretty star, I will try and be contented here if I can only make some one happy. I heard a noise, the door opened, a poor, old, care-worn woman walked in. She raised her hand to heaven and tried to speak ; she came a little nearer, looked close, then dropped into a chair. She covers her face a moment, then falls on her knees close by me and says : " Oh, God, I thank Thee, for this has come from Thee." She knelt there a long time talking and crying. At last she said, "I must make a fire and call the children; poor little dears."
The fire is popping and burning brightly, the old stove is doing its best. She leaves the room. Soon five little children rush in. They look at me a moment, then run around me and laugh and cry. "Mamma, shall we always keep this tree?" said Nellie. "Yes, Nellie," said Mrs. Grey.
That day Mrs. Grey and her children had the happiest Christmas they ever knew.
HATTIE CODINGTON,
Fifth grade.
Auburn, Neb.
A LEAF FROM A TREE'S DIARY.
AS I stood trembling in the breeze, then a small tree in California, I looked down upon a beautiful valley.
I was a young tree then. It was February 22nd, 185o, and the State of California had not seen many refined or cultured people, only the Spaniards, who had searched in vain for gold so many, many years before this discovery.
Many were the Indians who had camped near me; many were the war dances that had taken place in my sight; many were the scalps I saw dangling from the warriors' belts, the scalps of ambitious miners who sought wealth in California.
I did not think then of ever becoming one of the boards that would be placed in the girls' and boys' building of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition. I had heard of the vast desert east of me, the great American Desert, as the miners called it, and I thought it must be as vast as the broad ocean to the west of me known as the peaceful Pacific.
One day a woodman came, cut me down with a terrible ax and sent me to a mill. I trembled when I found I had to go through the mill, but I have found since we must all go through a mill in life, and when I came out a nice smooth plank, I had lost all my limbs and all my bark, and I thought it equal to being scalped. I was piled up with a great deal of other lumber. After many years had passed and the railroads had been built across the desert, I was shipped with a lot other lumber to a small town called Omaha. I was laid in a huge pile and the strain was terrible on me. I lay piled up in that Omaha man's lumber yard, as long as Rip Van Winkle slept on the side of the Catskill Mountains. When I awakened to my senses, I think I witnessed as great a change as Rip himself. Instead of seeing a lot of old lumber, a dirty side street, as if by magic arose before me a White City, beautiful buildings, lakes, small bridges, a grand court fit for a king. It was the Trans-Mississippi Exposition they told me. The most interesting of all the beautiful buildings was the Girls' and Boys', and I creaked with delight when I was told I was to be placed in its floor.
Again a wonderful change, a great transformation. It is summer; hundreds of children are treading over me. Many are the exclamations of delight uttered from childish throats. I heard a young lad tell of the wonderful restaurant in the building, and of the nice luncheon he had just eaten. I heard another tell of the medal he had won for his school work.
Then came a crying baby by me putting me in mind of the war whoop of the warrior I had heard so many years ago when I was a young and green tree. Again I hear a lad telling of so many papers he had sold for the benefit of the building in which he was standing and how he was made Assistant Business Manager of the HATCHET and that he had come on a pass that day to the Exposition because he had sold hundred papers. How he enjoyed the day!
How proud the children are of their building, and their laughter to me is like the ripple of the little mountain brook that flowed down the side of the ridge to the valley below me when I was young.
MAY BLACHLEY,
Walton, Neb.
MILDRED JOHNSON'S REFORM.
MILDRED JOHNSON took several cookies from the kitchen where her mother was baking and went into the library. Seating her-self in a large arm chair, she took an algebra out of her school bag and began to work examples.
Oh, dear! why are examples made so hard? I can't possibly get any of them," she exclaimed.
Perhaps you wonder why she did not help her mother. If you had asked her, she would have probably said: "I have to get my lesson."
She was a very loving girl, but like other girls, very thoughtless. She thought "mother never gets tired."
After vainly trying to work the examples for a short time, she picked up her favorite hook Uncle Tom's Cabin, and went to the land where algebra is forgotten.
But some way the book proved dry reading, and in spite of herself her eyes would close.
Bye and bye she heard some one say: "Yes, Mrs. Johnson is dead."
Mildred felt her heart almost stop beating. With gasping breath she listened.
"Dead! Oh how dreadful! Worked too hard, I suppose. Worked too hard, while her daughter is fitting herself to be some one grand. I think it would have been better if she had helped her mother. But it is too late now; too late."
"Too late;" "too late," rang in Mildred's ears, and she remembered her mother's tired look that day.
She hurried to her mother's room. There she lay with her hands crossed over her breast.
Poor Mildred! It seemed more than she could bear when she saw her mother's coffin being lowered into the grave.
She could see the people, who seemed to say: "Why did you not lift the burden from her tired shoulders?"
"Oh mamma! mamma!" sobbed Mildred—one step closer to the grave. She felt herself falling. The cold air rushed past her. With a shriek she awoke and found herself at home in the library.
"Thank God it was a dream," she cried fervently.
She put the book in place, and hurried down to the kitchen. "Now, mamma, go and lie down. I'll get supper. A girl fourteen years old ought to be able to get supper," said Mildred as her mother objected.
Mildred insisted, and soon Mrs. Johnson was prevailed upon to go and rest.
Mildred never forgot that dreadful dream. It seemed so real. But it made her a more thoughtful girl.
RUTH MURDOCH,
Age, fourteen years.
Nehawka, Neb.
ALLEGORY OF A SNOWFLAKE.
IT was on a very windy day that a certain little snowflake fell upon that rich and now famed region called Klondyke.
It had been driven from the sky, and would have remained a raindrop had its destination been other than it was. But, falling where the "golden spars of the frozen north" gleam in all their beauty, our little friend became a star-like creature of rare loveliness.
The tiny snowflake had hopes and fears as it came floating down, and its thoughts were the following: "Now I'm going to the place where gold is so plentiful. That will be nice, though to be sure I can't see how it can benefit me! My last visit to earth was so interesting. I was a raindrop and I fell at Lincoln, somewhere in Nebraska, but I couldn't exactly locate myself on account of falling so rapidly. It was on a morningglory vine by the window of a little red house that I alighted. I heard lots of talk, it was: Klondyke, gold; Klondyke, gold, etc. One day I heard a child's voice ask, "Tell me, grandma, about Klondyke and Alaska."
That was exactly the question I should have asked, so I pricked up my little ears and listened. The grandma explained: " It is a land way, way off, where people can find enough gold in a month to furnish them with money to buy pretty things all the rest of their lives. Your uncle and aunt are going. It is frightfully cold and there may not be enough for the hungry people to eat. So, even if your uncle bring back bag after bag of gold, it will have cost us much anxiety.
This was a revelation to me! Afterward, I heard more and more of the Klondyke, until I became so much interested that I felt ever so sorry when the sun drew me back to himself.
Well, here I am upon the scene of which I have heard so much! I shall keep my eyes and ears open. At last! I have alighted on the top of a tent. Wonder what they call this place? Perhaps if I listen I shall be able to hear, for some people are talking in the tent under me. There, it is Dawson City. But what a nice place this is. The lady is saying: "Well, we shall not disappoint your papa and mamma in Lincoln. We have already gathered enough gold to last us during long years!
The sweetest little laugh broke out and I was very, very much interested in the lovely lady. I managed to take a little peep at her, and imagine it, I recognized her from a picture I used to see on the wall of the little red house in Lincoln! But the man was saying: "Yes, we shall soon start for home. How happy we shall be in that lovely warm Nebraska." At that last adjective before Nebraska I laughed so heartily that I unconsciously shook, and came tumbling down into the tent! I was frightened, but felt re-assured when I landed on the fur jacket of the lovely lady. I was delighted! I should hear ever so much and I hoped to remain long in the cozy tent. But then an Indian girl came up and I was brushed off onto her hand! I was dread-fully sorry and disappointed because the sun had me on my way to the clouds almost immediately. I wonder what will happen to me next? I hope I may fall near the little red house in Lincoln, in lovely, warm Nebraska, so that I may hear more of my Klondyke friends!
JOSEPHINE VIFQUAIN,
Lincoln, Neb.
THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH.
SONG years ago in a city lived an honest blacksmith and a little way from his home he had his shop under a large, spreading chest-nut tree.
His hair was long and black and curly. You could hear his sledge all day long. He earned what he could.
He was a true Christian and went to church every Sunday with his only daughter and sons. He lived in a lovely house of his own.
He had two nice horses and a lovely carriage in which he and his children rode to church.
During a great thunder storm this large chest-nut tree was struck by lightning, and then the children had this tree made into a large arm chair and gave it to H. W. Longfellow, a great poet, on his seventy-second birthday. Then he wrote a poem, "From My Arm Chair."
NETTIE GRIDISHAW,
Omaha.
WHAT BECAME OF THE CRUMBS.
LAST summer, in June, Helen Mason went with her mother to visit Uncle Fred, who lives on a farm in eastern Ohio.
Helen was six years old.
It was one o'clock when they reached the station, and Uncle Fred was there to meet them with his nice old-fashioned carriage. His home was about six miles from this station.
Little Helen was happy when she spied the large white house among the trees and Aunt Bessie out on the porch to meet them.
Helen was soon rested, and ran to find some of her old friends, for she had visited here once before. Old Duffy, the cat, she found in the wood shed busy taking care of four baby kittens, which Helen declared "were the sweetest kit-tens she ever saw." Barrye, the watchdog, was so friendly that she was sure he remembered her. That evening they ate their supper out in the yard under a large oak tree, for the evening was warm.
When Auntie shook the crumbs from the table cloth she said "I can't see what becomes of these crumbs, for in the morning not one is to be found."
Early the next morning Helen's mamma was awakened by hearing a bird call Bob, Bob White, close by her window; in a second the call was answered by one some distance away calling Bob White, Bob White.
In a moment there was such a fluttering of wings that Mrs. Mason rushed to the window to see what it all meant. There was a father and mother quail and a large brood of baby quails eating the crumbs as fast as possible.
Mamma awakened Helen so she could see them. They tried to count them but the little ones ran around in so lively a fashion they could not do so. The mother quail talked to her babies while they were eating as a hen does to her chicks. When the last crumb was found they flew away so quickly that Helen hardly knew when they left. Aunt Bessie does not wonder any longer what becomes of the crumbs.
MARY T. LANNING,
Age nine years.
Hastings, Neb.
Thomas B. Munro, South Omaha.
AEsop and Solomon's Wisdom Compared.
IF Solomon was the wisest man, AEsop must be next, though by birth a wide difference appears. AEsop was of very humble birth which event took place in Greece 620 B. C.
Solomon's gift was given him in answer to prayer, but AEsop gained his knowledge by a careful study of human nature. AEsop was a slave in his earlier days, while Solomon was the son of a king.
It is said that great minds run in the same channel. This was true of these two men. In AEsop's fable about "The Lion, Bear and Fox," the lion and bear fight over a piece of meat until they become so exhausted neither can walk, then when a fox takes the meat they both say, " It is just what we deserve." From this fable we draw the teaching " Be not too hasty to quarrel."
Solomon, dwelling upon the same thought, puts it into the proverb, "Go not forth hastily to strive, least thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when thy neighbor hath put thee to shame."
AEsop was greatly prejudiced against dishonesty ; several fables are written by him upon the subject. In one, the subject of which is, "The Vain jackdaw," he tells how the jackdaw by the use of stolen plumage tried to make him-self attractive enough to catch Jupiter's eye who was going to choose a king of birds. The jackdaw was found out and made the laughing stock of the birds.
Solomon puts his thought into the proverb "As snow in summer and rain in harvest so honor is not seemingly for a fool." From the fable about "The Fowler and the Ringdove," where the fowler is killed as he plots death for the bird, we draw the teaching, "don't dig pits for others for you may fall into them yourself."
Solomon says, "His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins." AEsop was executed as a public criminal by the Delphians because he would not give them some money sent them by him. When they demanded it he would not give it to them because they showed such covetousness. As AEsop was being carried to the precipice he besought his captors by many wise fables to spare him, but they would not, and so he perished. Solomon's death was not so honorable as his birth and life. By obtaining so much wisdom and wealth the great man became careless and sinned against God.
WILLIE WEST,
Walnut Hill School.
Omaha.
Some Curious Common Plants.
(FUNGI.)
PERHAPS the word fungus, to a majority of those who have never given special attention to the subject, will bring to mind a mush-room or toad-stool. Some others will probably think first of the rusts or smuts and those forms which have forced themselves upon our attention by their depredations on our crops. It is doubtful whether many realize what a vast and varied collection of plants is included under the term fungi in its broad and general application. The name does not apply to a natural group of plants but includes plants of widely different relationship, all agreeing, however, in that they are parasitic, i. e., growing on other living plants or sometimes animals; or saprophytic, i. e., growing on dead plant or animal matter. In this habit of growth on living or dead organisms we have the explanation of another characteristic of the fungi, that is the lack of chlorophyll or green coloring matter, such as is found in the leaves of our flowering plants and in all plants which are able to elaborate into plant food the inorganic substances of the earth and air which constitute their food. The fungus has learned that it is much easier to live on food already manufactured than to prepare it for itself. It requires much less energy on the part of the plant to use food already prepared than it would to prepare it for itself. This habit of getting food has had a great influence upon the form and development of these plants and has limited their possibilities of development in certain directions.
Many of the fungi are so minute and grow in such out of the way places that unless we have had some experience in finding them they escape our notice and we have little idea how great the number of these plants really is and how important they are in the economy of nature. Large numbers of the saprophytic forms act as nature's scavengers, breaking down and transforming into utilizable condition the constantly accumulating refuse and worn-out material of nature's great workshop. Imagine, for instance, what would be the condition of a forest if the. trees after having reached old age and died should not be changed into earth mould and soil again by the decay or rot which is caused by fungi. Soon farther growth of the forest would he prevented by the great masses of leaves, brush and timber which would accumulate and cover the ground so as to prevent entirely the growth of young trees and the reproduction of the forest. Of course when we find these same plants causing the decay of the timbers of our bridges, houses and all other wooden structures, we sometimes ask thoughtlessly why such things were ever created. But then, there are many things with which we find fault that are only blessings in disguise. We are so prone to think that everything is or should have been created to minister to our happiness, as we conceive of happiness. About forty-three thousand different kinds of fungi have already been described from various parts of the world and others are being found nearly every day, so that when these plants have been more carefully searched for and studied this number will be largely increased. To one who has an eye for the beauties and mysteries of nature the fungi present an inexhaustible field. To enjoy their marvelous structure and beauty most fully one should be provided with a compound microscope, though an ordinary magnifier will reveal much which escapes the unaided eye. Where shall we look for these curious plants? I hear some one say. Do you know we are all more or less troubled with far-sightedness, not perhaps in the optician's sense and still less in the philosopher's sense; but in the sense of looking far away when we are in search of anything wonderful, mysterious, good or beautiful. Turn over that board or timber that has been lying in a damp or shady place for a year or so undisturbed, and ten to one you will find several quite conspicuous forms spread out over the surface of the board; one, perhaps, forming a white layer several square inches in extent and covered with shallow cavities resembling somewhat a honeycomb, or the layer may be brown with a similar surface, or it may be entirely smooth.
University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Now if you could examine these surfaces in section under the compound microscope you would probably find the whole surface covered with closely packed club-shaped cells, bearing at their apex on slender stalks four minute some-what egg-shaped cells called spores, which per-form much the same function for the fungus as the seeds do for the flowering plant. Botanists for along time were puzzled to know just how these plants reproduce. Some said they originated spontaneously from the substance on which they were found and others had more absurd theories still. With our present improved methods of study and excellent microscopes we have been able to correct many of the errors of the past, but there are still many things to be learned in regard to the life histories of these curious plants.
On this same board you may also find more minute forms, which may be observed more advantageously with a pocket magnifier. Green, blue, yellow or brown mould-like forms some-times appearing to be composed of a loose mass of fine thread on which the spores are borne.
Any old brush pile, pile of old leaves or weeds
Here at the university where facilities are provided in the way of microscopes and other apparatus studies can be made of the different forms and relations of these interesting plants. Studies of the edible and poisonous species make it possible to utilize a large amount of highly nutritious food which is usually allowed to go to waste, because we are afraid it may be poison. Studies of the forms like blights, mildews, rusts and smuts give information which can be used in combatting these dread diseases of cultivated plant. But our aim should not be solely practical and utilitarian if we are to get the greatest ultimate good for ourselves and others. Truth and beauty for their own sake first should be our motto. Truth and beauty once discovered will find their niches of usefulness with comparatively little difficulty. The omniscient mind is continually working out His thoughts in the material and spiritual universe and is it not sublime to be able, as Kepler said, to think God's thoughts after him?
C. L. SHEAR,
Dept. of Botany, University of Nebraska.
Nebraska Ferns AND Fern Allies.
THE student of ferns finds that Nebraska does not offer a very wide or a very fertile field for his researches. Although our flora as a whole is rich and varied, it is greatly lacking in these interesting and beautiful plants. This fact is easily understood when we re-member that ferns love the shady ravines of the wooded parts of the east-ern states or the dense and nocturnal thickets of the tropical jungle. Here on the great plains the sunlight is too powerful and the air is too dry to present favorable conditions for these delicate plants.
There are, though, a few ferns which have become so modified that they are found in dry soil or on almost hare rocks in the bright sunlight. And there are a few localities in Nebraska where the conditions approach those necessary for fern growth. In the bluffs along the Missouri, there is now and then a delightful ravine, shaded by overhanging trees, carpeted with mosses and liverworts and kept always moist by a small stream flowing down its midst from the small springs above. In this soft, velvety moss-carpet is found an abundance of ferns. In the hills in the northwestern part of the state, moist canons are numerous and here ferns abound. Franklin and Kearney counties seem to possess a number of favorable localities for fern growth. These facts have made it possible for a few ferns and fern allies to become a part of the flora of the state. Out of the about 4,000 known ferns and fern allies, only twenty-six have been reported for Nebraska. Five of these occur generally throughout the state. Crystopteris fragilis, the bladder fern, with its tuft of leaves, four to eight inches long, bearing on their backs roundish fruit dots, is probably the most abundant. Botrychium virginianum, a large moon wort, makes an interesting specimen. This is one of the more primitive ferns and has its spores borne in a grapelike cluster of sporecases at the end of the stem. There is but one foliage leaf, which is broad, delicate and much divided. Three scouring rushes or horsetails are found over the state, Equisetum arvense, E. robustum and E. laevigatum, the latter being more abundant in the western part. There are but twenty species left in the world of this peculiar genus which in past ages dominated the earth.
The remainder of our ferns are more local in their distribution. In the Missouri bluffs we find Adiantum pedatum, the maidenhair, with its delicate spreading leaves bearing Innate fruit dots just under their reflexed edges. Pellaea clings closely in the crevices in the sandstone cliffs and is only to be obtained after a careful search and a hard climb. This fern has fruits similar to Adiantum, but they are in continuous lines and the leaves are much coarser in texture. On top of the hills at Weeping Water grows a small fern, the back of whose leaves is covered
with a starch-like powder. This is Notholaena dealbata.
Three more ferns and fern allies are reported from Franklin county. Botrychium ternatum, another moon-wort, Equisetum variegatum, a scouring rush and Osmunda regalis, the so-called "flowering fern," are here found. The last has been incorrectly named the "flowering fern" because of the peculiar manner in which 1 the leaves are reflexed to protect the spore cases. on Franklin, Nebraska, is the only locality west of the Mississippi river from which this fern has been reported.
Over half of our twenty-six ferns are found in the northwestern part of the state. Onoclea sensibilis, the sensitive fern, and O. struthiopteris, the ostrich fern, creep across the Dakota line. Aspidium spinulosum, A. thelypteris and A. cristatum, three shield ferns, are found here. Cheilanthes lanuginosa protects its spores from the winds and weather by covering them with a layer of fine brown hairs. Woodsia oregana and W. obtusa, two delicate little ferns, are found in the canons in the foot-hills. Asplenium filix-foemina, the so-called "female fern" of the ancients, shows its large and graceful leaves in the same localities. Equisetum limosum is found in the northern part of the state.
Marsilia vestita, a small aquatic fern ally, is also found in these parts. It grows in the water and the foliage leaves project above the surface. Each leaf is divided into four leaflets and presents the appearance of a "four-leaved clover." The spores are borne on the inside, of pods formed by modified leaves.
Probably the most interesting of all the fern allies which we have in the state has been reported but once. Isoetes melanopoda has been collected near Exeter. As this genus, Isoetes, is probably the fern which comes nearest to the flowering plants of all existing genera, a great deal of interest is attached to it. The plant grows in the edge of shallow water. It is very like grass in appearance and is therefore hard to find. It may be distinguished from a clump of grass by the swollen bases of the leaves and the spore cases in the leaf bases filled with many small spores. To discover this form elsewhere should be the aim of every collector of ferns and their allies.
There are probably a few other ferns than those mentioned here which grow as yet undiscovered within our borders. The above mentioned ones have been collected and specimens have been deposited in the Herbarium of the Botanical Survey of Nebraska, at the University of Nebraska.
R. KENT BEATTIE.
University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
Reprinted by permission from the "Ram's Horn," of Dec. 25, 1897.
Nellie's Christmas Victory.
BY EDNA M. DELL, NEBRASKA CITY, NEB.
THE crowd hurried down the street, jostling against one another: every one seemed for himself, and cared nothing for his neighbor.
The gusts of wind blew the light snow in little drifts, and forced the dead, dry leaves farther into the corners. The men turned their over-coat collars a little higher as they hurried along, and the ragged bootblacks thrust their hands deeper into their pockets.
A girl about sixteen hurried along with the crowd, and from her dress it was apparent she belonged to the better class, though not to the wealthy. Her cheeks were red from the sharp wind, but her eyes sparkled as with some expected pleasure, and her gaze was ever turned to the brightly-lighted store windows. Now and then she darted into a store to add another pack-age to her already numerous ones.
She now left the crowded streets for a quieter one. Walking a short distance, she entered a house and going to the sitting room, threw her packages in a chair and exclaimed:
"Well, I am glad they are all bought, and none too soon, for tomorrow is Christmas."
As the last sentence was said, the door was pushed open, and a small boy ran in, threw his cap in the air, and shouted:
"Tomorrow will be Christmas. Ain't you glad, Nell? Do go and see the turkey. He is a stunner, I tell you."
"Nellie, Nellie," came a voice from the kitchen, and Nellie quickly went in the direction of the sound.
"I've bought all my presents at last, and I am glad," was her first remark, "and Bennie says we have such a wonderful turkey. Do let me get a peek at him."
"In the pantry on the second shelf. Be careful not to disturb the pies on the shelf below, and then hurry and take off your coat and set the table, or father will be here before supper is half ready."
"Yes, in just a minute; but isn't the turkey fine?" And the dishes rattled as she put them on the table.
Just then Bright Eyes came into the room. "Bennie says he won't hang up his stocking," she said.
"Well," said Bennie, "every year you have us hang up our stockings, and then we always have a tree, so I won't hang mine up this year."
"You look and see if you can find one," replied mamma.
And Bennie looked all through the house, of course. But he didn't look in the shed back of the house, for hadn't he looked there that very morning, and Bennie was none too brave.
Then they heard the front door open and Bennie and Bright Eyes ran to meet their father, who came into the room with Bright Eyes on his arm and Bennie by the hand.
The children prattled during the evening meal about where was the best place to hang their stockings, and what Santa Claus was going to bring them. Before they went to bed, Bennie, after much deliberation, hung his stocking for fear they would not have a tree, and declared he was going to stay awake and hear Santa Claus' bells, but he was soon as fast asleep as Bright Eyes.
Yes, they had a tree this year the same way as they had had one every year before, and it was changed from a bare green tree to a gayly-decorated one, bearing on its branches gifts to delight both young and old. Nellie uttered many exclamations of delight.
"Mamma," she said, "I met little Freddie James on the street, and he had no shoes on. I am afraid there will not be much Christmas there. I wish we could do something."
"I thought of them," replied mamma, "and will fix a basket and you can take it in the morning. So, now run off to bed, so that Chritmas morning will not find you napping."
Every one said it was a perfect Christmas day. It was the rule that the parlor door would not be opened until after breakfast—a trying period for the children—who ran from room to room asking every other minute if breakfast was not most ready, and when it was ready they were too excited to eat. When the meal was finished, they stood breathless before the parlor doors awaiting for papa to open them.
What a sight greeted their eyes as they were slowly opened. Bright Eyes clasped her hands and uttered a prolonged "oh," and Bennie gave his loudest yell of "Merry Christmas."
Such a wonderful tree it was. Everything they wanted most — from Bennie's drum to Bright Eyes' curly lamb. "Nellie," said papa, "I have a present for you which is not on the tree. It is this. You may have your choice between a watch and the money it cost. Don't answer till noon, as I want you to have plenty of time to think it over."
"How funny papa is," thought Nellie. "Of course, I will take the watch. I guess papa did not know how bad I have wanted one." At ten o'clock, Nellie was on her way to the James home. She was greeted with a chorus of "Merry Christmas," as Mrs. James opened the door.
"Oh, Miss Nellie, come and see our presents," cried little Freddie, "and we are going to have the finest dinner." The presents, on investigation, proved to be a gingerbread man and six peppermint drops apiece, which were spread out on the table.
Nellie looked about her in amazement, for she had never been to this home before, and ex-claimed:
"Why, Mrs. James, is that all they received? Bennie and Bright Eyes would think they had nothing."
"They are perfectly contented," said the mother, as a tear dropped from her eye, "but they deserved so much more but then, poor folks must not complain. Your mother is one good woman, and this basket will furnish them a rare treat."
During this conversation, Carrie, who was Nellie's own age, had stood shyly back of the table. Nellie now spoke to her.
"I suppose you will he at the church to-night."
Carrie shook her head and said nothing.
"No, she can't go," said her mother. "She has nothing to wear around her but the old shawl, and her shoes are all holes. I wanted her to go, so much, for she has few pleasures."
"I wish I could do something," said Nellie, "but I spent my last cent yesterday."
"Oh, don't worry, replied Mrs. James. "If folks were all as good as you, we would not be where we are now."
Nellie walked slowly home, and once stopped, and, stamping her foot on the ground, said:
"Of course, I will take the watch. Why should I take the money and buy Carrie James a new coat and shoes."
But the question did not seem to be settled when she reached her own pleasant home.
As she entered, she found dinner in the midst of preparation, and she was soon busy helping mamma, and stopped every now and then to ad-mire some of Bennie's and Bright Eyes' presents."
There never was such a Christmas dinner. The turkey was just the right brown, and cranberries never tasted so good.
"Well, Nellie," said papa, "have you decided which you will take of the two presents?"
"I think I will take the money," she replied, slowly.
"What has become of the little girl who, two hours ago, was sure she wanted a watch?"
"She has changed her mind," was the smiling reply, though the tears were ready to fall.
When papa put a crisp ten-dollar bill into her hand how her heart did beat, for she had never had so much money all at once, before.
As they rose from the table, the door bell was heard, and Mr. Martin went to answer it.
It was Mr. Winters. "Could Nellie go and help decorate the church?"
Of course, she could, and she was soon on her way to the church.
Nellie had always enjoyed going to the church on Christmas afternoons, to help decorate. All her best friends were there all ready to discuss their presents. She had told them all of her hopes for a watch, so it was with not quite so happy a face as usual, that she walked by the side of Mr. Winters, the Sunday School superintendent.
"What's the matter, little one?" he asked. "Hasn't Christmas brought you everything you wanted?"
"Oh, yes, she replied," but—"
"How many buts there are," he responded. "Don't worry. Here we are at the church, and the girls will soon take that frown from your brow."
As she entered the church, Mary Saunders called out:
"Here comes Nellie Martin and her new watch."
"Oh, let's see it!" cried Lela Murry.
So, by the time Nellie had reached the front of the large church, the tears were ready to fall.
"I haven't any watch. Papa gave me my choice between the watch and the money it cost, and I took the money," she stammered out.
"Why, Nellie Martin," said Mary in astonishment. "I thought you wanted a watch more than anything else. What will you do with the money?"
"Oh, she will buy Sam Wilbur a new hat, and Carrie James a new coat," said Lela mockingly.
Poor Nellie. It was hard to choke back the tears, and although nothing more was said, she spent a miserable afternoon, and went home early.
What a walk it was. Every step was a struggle with the tempter, but as she came to the little cottage where the James' lived, she came out victorious, and fairly ran the rest of the way home and into the house to her mother in whose sympathetic ear she poured all the story.
"And, mamma," she said, "Clark's store is open from five to six. Can't I go now and buy the coat?"
"Of course, dear, if you choose. The money is yours to do as you please, and mamma is glad to see her little girl so unselfish."
It was with a happy heart Nellie entered the large store and purchased a pretty, warm coat and a pair of shoes, and she was still happier when she once more left the little home with Carrie and Mrs. James' thanks following her.
That evening as she sat in the large church filled with people, and saw Carrie James happy with the new coat on, and heard the choir sing that beautiful anthem, "Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men," her heart was filled with the peace the world cannot give.
LINNIE HAGUEWOOD.
IOWA'S DEAF, DUMB AND BLIND GIRL.—A BRIEF SKETCH OF HER BEAUTIFUL BUT UNFORTUNATE LIFE.—LEARNING TO SPEAK AFTER SEVENTEEN YEARS OF SILENCE.
WRITTEN BY HER TEACHER.
IN the Iowa College for the Blind, at Vinton, Iowa, there is a bright-faced girl whose peculiar circumstances make her life a subject of interest to all with whom she comes in contact. Bereft of sight and hearing at the age of eighteen months, she lived in absolute isolation for twelve years. The first communication that realizled her from other minds was the knowledge that objects might he represented by finger movements, This bit of wisdom was eagerly applied to everything within reach, and with the performance of a few household duties constituted the mental activity of her thirteenth and fourteenth years. At this time she was admitted to the College for the Blind, but no provision was made for her education.
Two years of quiet uneventful life followed, during which she was an interloper—an object of pity, yet an object of interest to everyone. In the various departments where she was sent for entertainment her work was shown as the best, and only praise was spoken in her behalf, yet there was neither place nor time for Linnie. It was left to Bernard Murphy to act. That wholesouled genial editor, whose kindly face is so well known, gave his time, his paper, and his influence in Linnie's behalf and stirred Iowa's heart to the core. In three months' time fifteen hundred dollars had been placed at his disposal for Linnie. The following winter an appropriation of five hundred dollars was secured from the State Legislature. These sums combined were sufficient to employ a special teacher for four years. Then, and not until then, did Linnie's school life begin.
It was an undertaking beset with difficulties, but Linnie's sweet face and winning smile, her slender sensitive fingers, and loving, trusting heart banished every doubt. How joyously every new subject was taken up, how intently the mind listened to explanations, how eagerly the questions were put, who carefully the great tangle of words was sorted and fitted out to proper places and things.
The following is an outline of her school-life since she has been with a special teacher:
It has been the aim to give her a free use of the English language by using it in every way possible. Name-words, verbs, adjectives, pro-nouns, anything needed was given. She enjoyed letter-writing and her best language work came through that exercise.
Linnie very readily learned to use the New York Point and Raised Print. From the time she was able to pick out single letters, books have been her constant companions. During the last year she has learned the American Braille and the English Braille. The different systems do not trouble her in the least. She first learned to write the New York Point. She now writes a neat legible hand in script and uses the typewriter with ease and dexterity. Her type-writer is a Smith-Premier, given her by the teachers and pupils of the public schools in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The members of the School for the Deaf in the same city presented her a handsome desk.
She does the work of the regular fourth year class in arithmetic and geography. She is never tired of her maps and the life they represent. She is especially fond of numbers and passed rapidly from objective work to mental drill and written work. This is accomplished by means of a number slate.
Sewing, by hand and on the ma-chine, is ever a source of delight. Gymnastics enter into her daily program. Housework, knitting, crocheting and outdoor exercise occupy her time when not in regular class work. Many a dainty little piece of fancy work is prized by her numerous friends as a token of Linnie's generosity.
Linnie's friends have been more than pleased with her development, vet there has been a question lurking in each heart: "Can she ever talk?" Articulate speech and lip-reading are the only barriers that preclude free communication between her and the general public. Her work in this line began with the year 1897. By personal examination of her teacher's face and throat she was able to imitate sounds and soon learned to pronounce simple words. Patience and perseverance have brought about the required results. Speech is now a part of her daily life. Though thick and uncertain at times, it is speech. The last difficulty has been surmounted. All the avenues are now open to that once darkened mind. What a transformation! The child, who was little more than flesh and blood, wearing the tedious hours away with idle, folded hands, or making her life miserable by fruit-less attempts to make her wants known, now voices the deepest emotions of the human heart in correct English speech.
Linnie is able to do these things because she has a bright, active mind, a patience that laughs at all discouragement, a will power whose only master is her better judgment, and a continuity of purpose that holds her steadfast in the line of duty. She is no marvel, no won-der. She is simply a pure, unspoiled girl, making the most of the powers God has given her, earnestly endeavoring "to be good every day and to let the goodness show in her face."
DORA DONALD.
College for the Blind, Clinton, Iowa.
"The chief products of Nebraska are wheat, corn, and the reform school!" was an assertion recently made by a Fourth Grade boy who ought to know.
THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI HOME-MAKER.
THE Department of Household Economics of the Omaha Woman's Club is preparing and will have ready as one of the books of a standard library for reference in matters pertaining to domestic science, for women coming to the Exposition, a book called the Trans-Mississippi Home-Maker. Every member of the department—nearly one hundred—will have a share in the compiling and preparing of this book. It will not be a cook hook alone, although it will have the very choicest, tried recipes and directions for cooking in possession of this body of one hundred woman. It will give hints and directions in every line of work to the home-maker. When such a body of women put their brains to work they ought to evolve something very good. The book will be is-sued probably sometime in April, and any information about it can be obtained from the leader of the department, Mrs. Mary M. Pugh. It will also be one of the books forming the library of the Model Kitchen of the Exposition, and can always be seen there.
A former Omaha teacher who is now teaching in the "dago district" of another city, says of her pupils: "Poor little children! they don't know truth from falsehood yet, and they steal most of the time. But not long since when they were to use 'steel' and 'steal' in sentences, one of the big fellows wrote, 'I don't steal this year!' and was really quite flushed with triumph."
How They Captured a Live Bald Eagle.
A TRUE STORY.
BY M. R. KIMBALL.
TWO enterprising western lads who were attending school in Boston resolved to take their summer outing in Northern Wisconsin.
June of 1896 found them en-camped on the border of one of the St. Croix lakes, well equipped for their favorite sports—hunting and fishing—and ready for any ad-venture their trusty Indian guide would sanction.
After some days of successful sport, they sat one morning discussing what should be their next move, when the elder boy—pointing to a dark spot in the top of a white pine standing near the edge of the lake, with its top overhanging the water —exclaimed, "That's an eagle's nest, and I'd like an eagle's egg to take back with us, if there are any up there; we've often seen the birds hovering about that spot while we were fishing. There they are now.
The younger boy looked at the tree ; it was indeed a giant of its kind. The trunk, bare of a single branch for the first forty feet, he thought the undertaking too hazardous and hardly worth the risk. Still, feats of daring delighted his heart, and he knew by experience how difficult it was to change his companion's mind when fairly made up. The guide made no objection, thinking the pale faces would soon sicken of their job, and so sat doggedly watching their preparations.
They at once set about cutting two forty-foot saplings which they lashed together and leaned against the tree, to serve in some sort as a ladder
A few stout and long lines were put into the pocket of the youth, who, hastily drawing off shoes and stockings, coat, waistcoat and hat, and tightening his belt, containing pistol, catridges and knife, stood ready for business. It was arranged that the younger boy should, with his rifle, protect the climber from the assaults of the huge birds, who, beginning to scent danger from the unusual stir and noise amid their hitherto unbroken solitudes, were whirling about the nest in ever widening circles.
The weary task has now begun ; the barefooted lad has reached the lowest branches and what precarious footing does the gnarled surface present to him! Masses of loosened bark give way to his slightest touch, sharp prongs catch him and dead boughs crumble under his weight, but, nothing daunted, he advances slowly, cheered and encouraged by the constant shouting of his faithful watcher below, and the "pinge" of the Winchester bullets cutting the air, as the now exasperated birds savagely swoop toward him. Up, up, with a zeal worthy a nobler cause, pausing only to take breath and an occasional shot at the enemy. He at length found himself close under the nest —a platform covering a space as broad as his own bed at home, and built of sticks of wood the size of his leg.
Swaying to and fro over the water, panting and almost breathless from excitement, he realized that he could not cut through the nest ; what was he to do? The thought of giving up the enterprise never entered his mind. Crawling cautiously out on one of the strongest limbs and grasping those above, he drew himself to the edge of the nest, and what a sight met his eye! Instead of eggs, two great eaglets, which had thrown themselves back with claws extended and beaks wide open hissed and screeched at him. To use his own words he never wanted to see his mother as at that moment. He quickly crept back to shelter and then determined to take home one of those nestlings alive. With this in view he made a noose at the end of a line and reaching far out he threw it into the nest; after unnumbered failures he was rewarded by one of the dainty darlings flopping down past his nose, caught around neck and wing. He carefully lowered his prize to the foot of the tree, and supposing the bird had reached the ground, he dropped the line, when his friend shouted, "The bird is dead! killed by falling the last few feet." Chagrinned by this mishap and enraged by the renewed attacks of the old birds whose wings were cut through many places by the bullets, he again found his way to the nest and climbing over its side he grasped the remaining biped, scrambled out and down the tree ; how, he never could exactly tell, he was so intent on saving his booty. The brothers, for such they were, congratulated each other, one on his unerring eye for rifle practice and his glorious voice, the other on his courage and endurance in carrying his point. The Indian, grunting approval, grinned from ear to ear.
What became of the eaglets? Oh! The dead one was sent to a taxidermist. The other was placed in a box where he soon became gentle and fed from the hand of his captor.
The saddest part of the story came the next day when the boys visited the place and, exploring with a glass the fields of upper air descried the eagles far above their now deserted tree, soaring in rest-less flight—a wretched pair. Saddened by the sight they turned away and remorse has ever accompanied the memory of the adventure.
The elder boy in recounting the story to his admiring aunt said, " I never did a meaner thing in my life." She answered " My dear, I think you never did."
"E Pluribus Unum," for so was their prisoner dubbed, was care-fully reared ; all the advantages that a first-class city could offer an American eagle were at his command, except his birth-right-freedom, and at the end of his second year, true to the time-honored custom of his race, his head became as white as snow, and the impression he made on beholders while taking his daily exercise, was well described by a dot of a girl who after quietly gazing at him for some time said, "He don't walk nice, does he?"
His many exploits, escapes and cruel deeds would fill a volume. He died at the age of six years unregretted by those who knew him best.
JUDITH HEFFERNAN, SOUTH OMAHA.
GEORGE WASHINGTON.
HELEN'S BABIES.
Helen's beloved Jemimah has in some way incurred her little mother's displeasure and she proceeds to administer correction.
—A. E. ST. JOHN
Council Bluffs.
TO THE WAVE.
—CLEARANCE A. LUCAS,
Fremont, Neb.
A little new-comer in one of the first grades volunteers the statement that the Omaha school which she attends is better than that in the city from which she has recently come because she learns more "tings" and does not have such a "sassy teacher!"
THE Trans-Mississippi Home-Maker is the title of the book which is to be given to women by the Department of Household Economics of the Omaha Woman's Club. Every woman in the department will contribute to it.
BRIGHT SAYINGS OF REAL CHILDREN.
Mrs. K. to Mary (aged three): "Why did you get angry with your dear grandma? I know a little girl who has no grandma to teach her."
Mary: "She may have mine, mamma."
In climbing a rough path near Dome Lake, in company with little four-year-old Laura, who was puffing and blowing, her mamma said: "Your breath is too short, isn't it?"
"Oh, no," said Laura; "but my legs are."
When asked what she did for playmates at the farm, a little girl replied: "I have to put up with mamma and the pups."
"Papa," said Catherine, "there are just two people I should like to see—God and 'Central'."
Teacher: "Tell what you know about the 'Pine Tree Shilling.'"
Apt pupil: "The 'Pine Tree Shilling' was made out of pine wood, cut rough around the edge."
When N—was two years old he constantly surprised the family by original and quaint sayings. Looking at the new moon he seemed much agitated, and cried out: "The moon is boken, who will mend it?" After a pause, he said: "Dod will mend it." One day while a little boy was watching the partial eclipse of the moon, he remarked: "My! mamma, the lady in the moon is getting it in the neck."
There was a little boy who had a bad habit of running away from home. Once when his grandma called him back, he said: "This ain't me; its another boy."
Before Dick could talk plain a carpenter named Dodd came to work at the house. Dick watched him narrowly as he opened his tool chest; then in an awe-struck whisper asked: "Is 'at the Dod 'at mates everytin?"
The mother of three hopefuls reproved the 'eldest for always choosing the leading part in all their plays and was much pleased one day to see the two younger boys earnestly playing and the older sitting apart watching. She asked what was the play. The older one answered: "Why, Dick was Adam and Ethel was Eve." "And what part did you have?" "I was God."
Mother frying doughnuts. Enter small Charles. Takes doughnut, eating as he goes toward door, which opens suddenly. Enter elder brother spouting in tragic tones, "et to Brute." Charles, very angrily: " I hain't eaten but one."
He was a philosopher at the age of four. A dear friend was expected at his mother's house. All the family were anxiously watching when he fairly astonished everyone by saying: "Don't ever expect anything, then if it comes you'll be just as glad; and if it don't, you won't be sorry.
One winter night, just to make the little fellow talk, some one said " I'll go out and stretch my wings and fly away." He answered with a sneer: " You'd be a frozen angel in the morning; your pin feathers haven't begun to grow. Something must happen before you can fly. I shan't tell you, but it is right to happen if you don't make it happen."
He was delighted at a fine sun-set sky and called everyone to look. "See! See! It's God's own paint; men can't make it!"
A little fellow finding the old jaw-bone of a cow on a hill while taking a walk said, "Oh, papa! some-ping has lost its mouf."
It was during the Easter talk and display of bright Easter eggs, that one little lad whose black eyes showed much thinking, clutched his teacher's skirt and seriously burst out—"and did the wabbits weally lay 'em?" Little six years old Robert is very fond of Bible stories and makes practical application of their precepts— as the following will illustrate.
One day he said to his mother: " Mamma, you ar'nt bringing me up right. You ar'nt teaching me right and I guess I'll have to get another mamma." After going to bed he was troubled fearing he had hurt his mother's feelings—so calling her to his bed he said: " Mamma, you think you are doing all right, you are doing as well as you know how and I'll do just as you say, I'll do thy will and not mine."
At another time he was visiting his grandparents and it had been impressed upon him that no matter what they did or said he was to be respectful and not dispute with them. One day there was some misunderstanding over a vine that had been broken, the grandmother claiming that Robert had done it and he stoutly protesting that he had'nt. But grandma insisted that he was guilty, and the little fellow faithful to his instructions went off muttering — " Oh! Lord forgive her, she don't know what she says."
Aunt Minnie and little Willard were out walking one day when they were overtaken by the superintendent of public schools, who being unacquainted with the child said to him as he took him in his arms, " well you are a bright little fellow! " On returning home Aunt Minnie said—" Willard, tell mamma what Mr. Doren said. He quickly answered: Oh! he said I was a shiny little boy."
Little Paul had vainly endeavored to make a penny adhere to a magnet, looking up suddenly, he stopped and said: "Auntie, can't you put rheumatism in a penny?"
"Name seven major keys," was a question in the recent music examination, and was answered by a little girl just from the country in this wise: " Door keys, barn keys, chicken-house keys, pig-house keys, watch keys, pencil-box keys and school-house keys."
Visitor—"How beautifully your little son's hair curls, Mrs. B." Mrs. B.—" Oh, yes, curls are very little trouble where the hair curls naturally." Little son—"But mine don't, you know, mamma curls it every day on a red hot poker, and Oh, gee, how I howl!"
Teacher—" Why must you be excused at three o'clock every day, Tommy?"
Tommy—" Have to sell papers, ma'am."
Teacher—"How much do you get for your papers."
Tommy — " Five cents apiece, ma'am."
Teacher—" How much do you pay for them?"
Tommy—" Five cents apiece, ma'am, another boy sells 'em to me."
Teacher—" Why Tommy Jones, what do you do such a foolish thing as that for?"
Tommy —", To git to holler, ma'am."
Little, restless, three-year-old George had been very trying on grandma's nerves all day. Guests came in the evening and George put on his best clothes and manners.
The next day grandma said, "George, you had your best foot forward last night."
George said, "Yes, grandma, I puts my best foot forward and holds the other one up behind."
Harold, finding a hole in his stocking, said: "Oh, mamma! my baby toe is peeking."
Little Johnny H. of South Omaha was paying a visit one day to a neighbor's boy when twilight came and the boy's mother said" Johnnie, will you not be afraid to go home when it is dark?"
"No," he said soberly, "God will take care of me. He takes care of the horses and cows and everything, and he does'nt try to get out of it either."
A Little Revolutionary Maid.
Patty Shaw was darning stockings in an up-stairs window of the little home in which she lived with her father and brother.
Judge Shaw had bought the little house that stood on the outskirts of Concord, two years after he left his old home in England.
The family had lived in America some eight years, and Patty could not well remember the old home across the water, while to ten-year-old Paul it was all a blank.
Patty was seventeen years old, and was very quaintly dressed; but it did not seem odd then, for the time I write of was about the time of the breaking out of the revolutionary war. She wore a white cap on her brown hair, which was gracefully coiled about her head, and a dainty white dress, low-necked and short-sleeved, the skirt of which hung to her ankles.
Patty was quite alone in the house for her father was in Richmond on important matters, her brother Paul had gone out with some other boys, and the maid, Annie, was in Concord doing some shopping.
THE BOY COLUMBUS AT GENOA. An Italian scene, representing the boy Columbus seated on a terrace overlooking the Mediterranean, dreaming of the far off and still unknown lands to be discovered and explored. The generously portrayed boyish figure of Columbus should teach a beautiful lesson of perserverance under difficulty and trial. It should add strength to dreams of youth and give faith of a power to do great things for a noble object. One cannot be everything, but all, like Columbus, may have an ambition, and work to accomplish it, for only to the boy Columbus did the sails that filled the harbor of quaint old Genoa, whisper of winds that came from far off hidden lands, and only to the boy Columbus did the blue waters of the Mediterranean sing of waiting distant shores. This painting, which is 8x4 feet, was a gift to the Kenwood school, Chicago, Illinois, May 28th, 1897, and purchased of the Art Furnishing Company, of Elgin, Illinois.
At last the great pile of stockings was darned, and the little sewer put them aside with a sigh of relief, and putting up the window, stepped out on the balcony.
It was four o'clock when a cloud of dust arose at the end of the lane and two riders dashed into view. They were very near the house before Patty saw them, and when she did she went down stairs to the front door to greet them with a pretty old-fashioned courtesy.
"Good day, Miss Patty," said one flinging himself off his horse as he spoke, "we have just come from your father."
"What?" exclaimed Patty, "have you seen him? Is he in Concord?"
"Aye, Miss Patty; but he was unfortunately detained so he cannot come till tomorrow morning."
"Did he send no message? What errand have you with me?"
"This, Miss Patty: but first give me your word that you are not a king-lover, nor a Tory."
"Never!" cried Patty, her cheeks glowing; "No, I am a stanch rebel! I would rather die than betray my country—for I see you have some secret to entrust to my keeping."
"You are right, Miss Shaw," said the other gentleman. "William, tell her all."
"Here is a message which your father bade us bring here, for he said you could keep it safe. It is for Colonel Henshaw who will come here in about an hour, or an hour and a half."
But," said Patty, "why don't you wait here and deliver it yourself?"
"My dear," the gentleman replied, "I will come to that immediately. Colonel Henshaw is coming in an opposite direction from that which we came. About an hour's ride ahead of him are half a dozen British scouts, and of course we could not pass them."
"Oh, I see; I understand now," cried the girl. "You want me to conceal the message until the scouts have passed, and when Colonel Henshaw comes along to give it to him?"
"Exactly! There is the letter ; and, Miss Patty, guard it at every cost. Now we must be gone, for the British may arrive at any moment, and then they would surely search the house. You assure me you will keep it safe?"
"I will!" answered Patty loyally, and watched as the two gentlemen mounted and rode off.
Scarcely had they left the gate, however, when the red coats she dreaded so appeared at the other turn of the lane. Patty turned pale, and a flood of thoughts rushed over her. They must have seen the rebels. They would surely search her and the house for the message. Suddenly she thought of the words Mr. Jackson had said to her : " Guard it at every cost." This the brave little maid determined to do. She turned and hurried into the house, carefully locking all the doors and windows, and locked the letter in an old jewel case, and placed the key in her pocket.
Then she sat down and waited. Very soon a knocking was heard at the door, and a voice cried: "Open, open in the King's name!"
Patty answered firmly, "No, that I will not. My father left me in charge of the house and I will admit no one till he returns." Then she heard a little whispering, and then the hammering louder than ever. "Girl, if you do not open, we will batter down the door!"
"Knock it down then! I will not disobey orders," replied the resolute maiden. She heard angry voices, then a sharp command, and the next moment the soldiers beat the door down with their muskets. In streamed the angry men who seized her with rough hands and thouroughly searched her. Then the man who was evidently in charge of the little squad stepped forward. "Look here, Miss," he said, "give up what ever it is you are concealing from us, and we will go away; if not, I will order my men to search the house.
Patty's only answer was a contemptuous glance; she refused to open her lips.
"Very well, then. Cover these premises, men!"
When the men had scattered about in the search, Patty retreated to the little bed room, and unlocking the jewel box, took out the mess-age and hid it in her long coils of hair. "There!" she said to herself, half frightened and half triumphant, " they will not find it now!"
The search was kept up for about half an hour, when the lieutenant was obliged to give the unwilling command, "Retreat!".
Patty accompanied them to the gate, watched them out of sight, and at last turned back to the house with a sigh of relief, when she was arrested by the sound of a horse's hoofs. Turning quickly she saw a man in martial costume galloping to-wards her. Was it? Yes, it must be! Patty flung herself in front of the advancing steed, and called, "Colonel Henshaw!" The Colonel reined up quickly, and sprang from his horse just in time to catch the fainting girl, whom he carried into the house and laid on a bed.
Patty's first reviving thought was her hair, and putting up her hand she disentangled from her locks a piece of paper which she gave to the gentleman saying, "Read."
By the time he had finished reading it Patty was quite herself, and eager to give a modest ac-count of the happenings of that eventful afternoon.
How she was praised and petted for the next few days is needless to relate. The colonel said, "Patty, you're a heroine."
MARGARET HITCHCOCK,
Age, 13 years.
Omaha.
HERBERT AND ROSS.
THE boys whose pictures are given live on the west coast of Africa, one hundred miles south of Freetown at a mission station, Shengay. The larger one is about eleven years old. He had never seen a white woman until he was brought to the mission to Mrs. Howard. He seemed afraid of her; and her white face was at first great curiosity to him. African children are told that if they are naughty the white man will catch them.
Herbert is very fond of music; has a sweet voice and is an unusually bright, merry-hearted child.
The smaller one was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. King and named Ross Funk, for a good man who has charge of a large publishing house in this country.
These and other children like them are sent to the missions to "learn book sense."
The clothing of these boys would not suit American boys, yet they are well pleased. The slips seen in the picture are loose with flowing sleeves, very comfortable for their warm climate.
These boys never ate at a table or went to a meeting where they were expected to be quiet until they came to the mission, yet they have very good manners.
At church, if they get sleepy or tired, they slip off their seats quietly and stand a moment until they are rested, then sit down again and no one is disturbed.
These boys may, when older, come to this country as others have done, finish their education at a college or university and return to teach or preach among their people.
It is rather too late to send them an invitation to come to our exposition, but we may have Mr. and Mrs. King, who have just returned to this country, tell us more about the boys and show us many curious things from their country, next summer at our building.
L. R. HARFORD.
The Exposition Guide Book.
Baedeker himself could not have compiled a better guide book than that to the City of Omaha and the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition just issued by the Megeath Stationery Company. The book is the only authorized and official guide, and is finely illustrated showing all the architectural delights of the Exposition and many of the large business houses and fine residences of Omaha and South Omaha. A complete map of the city is attached showing Ex-position site and the avenues and thoroughfares leading thereto. It contains a short history of the origin and development of the Ex-position idea and an early history of the city and of Nebraska. Clubs, societies, places of amusement, newspapers, churches, colleges, schools, hospitals, hotels, parks, and a hundred and one places to be visited by the traveler are all placed and acurately [sic.] described. The book is a well of information in its first edition. The second edition, to appear June 1, will be augmented by about fifty pages descriptive of the Exposition grounds and also a chart showing buildings, exhibits and concessions.
All lovers of art must not fail to visit the Art Furnishing Company's exhibit of Elgin, Illinois, at the Transmississippi Exposition in the Liberal Arts building. This is distinctively a woman's company. Mrs. Ford, superintendent of this building, will direct, upon application, to this exhibit.
The rooms of the Young Women's Christian Association, third floor, Paxton Block, 16th & Farnam Sts. (Farnam st. entrance), will be a convenient resting and meeting place for ladies during the Exposition. The rooms are open from 9 A. M. to 9 P. M. , and lunch is served from 11:30 A. M. to 2 P. M. Plans are under way for serving regular meals during the exposition. Class and gymnasium work will close in May. The 4 o'clock gospel meeting Sunday afternoons will be continued probably during the summer,
How Metropolitan Daily Papers Are Published.
ONE bitter cold day, while on my way down town, going south on a Sixteenth street motor car, my attention was attracted by a one-horse delivery wagon coining rapidly down the street and the driver frantically trying to control the excited beast. When he neared the corner of Sixteenth and Douglas the horse plunged forward, overturning the wagon, throwing the driver and the contents into the street, the horse striking the forward end of the car, the shock of which threw him several feet into the street, where he lay help-less. The passengers and myself hurriedly left the car. Quite a crowd had gathered around the unfortunate man and were helping him to his feet. Gazing around me I noticed there had been quite a fall in groceries, as tea, coffee, sugar and soap had been scattered in every direction. A package of pancake flour was being saturated from a jug of vinegar, while maple syrup and washing powder mingled together on the pavement. About this time I noticed a tall, gentlemanly-looking young man, with note book and pencil in hand, picking his way through the crowd; and here was the very thing I wanted most to see—a real, genuine, live reporter. I had often read about them, but this was the first time I had ever met one.
My curiosity had often been aroused as to how things got into the paper, and I determined to make the most of this opportunity for satisfying my curiosity. So I ventured to ask a few questions and the reporter told me to follow him, which I did. We got out of the crowd as best we could and took our way to Farnam street.
Having arrived at the newspaper office, I was ushered into the re-porters' room, where my friend hastily prepared his article for publication.
Here I found reporters from all over the city bringing news from the streets, hotels, police court, depot and exposition grounds, who had been over their territory and and were making their daily re-ports. I heard some remarks about things being "boiled down" that at that time I did not quite under-stand. We then went to the telegraph operators' room, where the news was being telegraphed from all over the world; messages from China, Cuba and London came flying over the wires and were speedily type-written.
Things were getting exceedingly interesting, and at this point I was introduced to the city editor, who kindly answered all my questions and explained many things I had not before understood.
I was then conducted to the type-setting room, where I was introduced to the foreman of that department, who kindly helped me in my search for knowledge by explaining the mysteries of type-setting by machinery. I found here many large machines called linotypes, an operator in front of each machine, setting type from a keyboard similar to a typewriting machine. The matter to be printed was brought to the composing room, and the operator pressed the typewriting letters upon his keyboard and the type fell down through a groove into the proper place, a bell rang at the end of each line and a long fork carried the line to the top of the machine, there forming a paragraph or section. Each section was numbered and printed on small slips of paper and then carried to to the composing room for correction if any mistakes occurred. After correction each section was then placed with others, forming a larger section, which composes one side to a newspaper.
It was then carried to the sterotyping room, where a copy is made of each issue of a paper. The type was here placed on a table and damp pasteboard was laid over it and pressed into the type, after that it was pressed with a hot iron to prevent shrinking. Here a lead impression was made of the type-set matter in the form of a half cylinder. From here these cylinders are taken to the first floor where it is to be printed. In the press room are two immense machines. Huge rolls of paper, four feet long, and weighing from seven hundred to eight hundred pounds apiece, are placed on a revolving shaft. The type is securely fastened on rollers and inked. The paper is then passed over the inked type, which prints it. When the paper comes out of the machine it is printed, folded and ready for distribution, and it is said that this machine can print, fold and count from 15,000 to 25,000 copies of a paper in an hour.
From here they are distributed to the different carriers, newsboys, and some are sent to trains to carry the news to all parts of the United States.
Concluding I had seen all there was to be seen, I hurried home just in time to see "Jimmy" come smiling up the street with his papers under his arm, and as he handed me my paper I searched eagerly for the account of my accident. I then realized what " boiling down " meant, for this is what I found:
"Delivery wagon collided with motor car this morning; nobody hurt."
RUTH SHINROCK,
Kellom School, Omaha.
A BOYS' HISTORY CLASS.
THE boys' history class, of Plattsmouth, Neb., was organized in April, 1894, with twelve members. The club drew up its own constitution providing that among its members there should be no smoking, swearing, nor fighting, except in self-defense. Kindness to dumb animals is insisted upon, and during the vacation
CHARLES KENNEDY, Sec'y.
THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI ODE FOR GIRLS AND BOYS.
MUSIC FOR THE CHILDREN'S ODE.
Adapted from Joseph Barnaby's "WE MARCH TO VICTORY"
Dedicated to the Boys and Girls of Nebraska by
THOMAS J. KELLY.
This ode should be learned by every school intending to visit the Exposition in a body. It is to be sung in the hall of the children's building before the school is disbanded to view the sights of the Exposition.
A LITTLE GIRL'S LETTER.
OMAHA, Washington's Birthday, 1898.
Editor THE HATCHET:
I live where I can see daily the pretty white exposition buildings and I can hardly wait for the opening day to come. I hope THE HATCHET will hew the way for a fine children's exhibit. I was at the World's Fair and saw many pretty things.
There were so many pretty dolls to be seen and then the fish and flowers were very, very pretty indeed. I touched the liberty bell and saw the four-horse coach in which President Washington rode when he went to the White House. It looked like a big dry-goods box painted black and on wheels.
If George Washington should visit the Omaha exposition wouldn't he be surprised?
For in Whashington's [sic.] boyhood days instead of traveling in palace cars drawn by swift flying steam engines people were hauled across the country by ox teams. Dreading the danger and fearing that possibly they might never return alive in making a journey of a hundred miles people made their wills and bade their friends farewell.
When our great great grandparents wanted to write a letter the first thing they did was to go to the barnyard and pick a feather out of a goose's tail and make a quill pen because steel pens were not yet invented.
The writing was done on only one side of the paper after which it was folded so as to hide the mes-
Sometimes the postman did not reach certain places more than once in six months.
I think it must have been in those days that the old saying—" Early to bed and early to rise makes little folk healthy, wealthy and wise"—was invented because there were no electric nor gas lights to keep away the darkness. And our great great grandparents wanted to economize in the use of the tallow dip by sending the children to bed at sun-down.
Instead of being supplied with all kinds of books the little folk were taught from spelling books. The bad boys in those days received lasting impressions from rods wielded by the teacher who boarded around with the scholars. Perhaps there were not many bad boys then because there were no cigarrettes nor fire-crackers nor skates. Girls did not have to spend an hour a day practicing at the piano. They were kept busy spinning flax.
VERI IONE HEMMING,
Aged 10 years.
Omaha.
Now is just the time to sub-scribe for the Woman's Weekly; $1.00 a year.
MARY FAIRBROTHER,
Editor and Proprietor,
Omaha.
KNIGHTS OF AK-SAR-BEN.
Who They Are and What They Do for Omaha.
EVERY autumn sees a festival week in Omaha.
It is under the management of a secret association known as the Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben.
Up and down the broad streets the mystic colors of Ak-Sar-Ben, red, green, and yellow, flutter in the breeze. There are flags, banners and streamers, windows draped in the colors, entire parts of buildings hidden in the colors : Red, green and yellow.
RED, that 's for beef—the red, juicy beef that comes in off Nebraska's broad plains and finds a market at South Omaha, the third largest packing center of the world.
GREEN, that's for the succulent alfalfa that carpets the state, on which feed vast herds of cattle, sheep and hogs; and green is for wheat, now coming to the front in Nebraska. Crop, 40,000,000 bushels.
YELLOW, that's the golden corn, Nebraska's staple crop; 350,000,000 bushels last year; seconded by the auxiliaries, the sugar beet and the chicory plant. And yellow is the golden rod, the state flower.
These colors are repeated in long strings of incandescent lights that hang for blocks and blocks along
Platforms along the route of the parades hold crowds of people in gay attire, and in front of the court house where the county builds sloping seats that at the same time accommodate the crowds and protect the beautiful grass terraces, is a mass of humanity wonderful to behold assembled to see the Mayor and Council surrender the keys of the city to King Ak-Sar-Ben.
Why do they gather? What means this festival?
It is State Fair week in Omaha, and these brilliant entertainments are devised by the business men of Omaha for the entertainment of their guests.
And who is Ak-Sar-Ben?
It is now over 350 years since the first visit of the Ancient Order of the Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben to Quivera, now known as Nebraska. It was during the reign of the mighty king, Tatarrax, in the year 1540, that the Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben set out from Mexico in quest of the Seven Cities of Cibola, in the kingdom of Quivera. They entered the land for which they were in search, where now are the southern boundaries of the counties called Gage and Furnas, State of Nebraska, and found it full of interest and containing fabulous wealth. This was eighty years before the landing of the pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, sixty-eight years before the discovery of the Hudson, sixty-six years before John Smith sailed up the river which now bears the name of James I, of England, twenty-three years before the birth of Shakespeare; Queen Elizabeth was yet a little girl, and the thrones of Spain and Germany were occupied by Charles V.
But to come down to more mod-ern times, four years ago when the State Agricultural Society settled the State Fair at Omaha for the following five years, the city's more enterprising merchants devised a scheme to keep the crowds in town over night that had been accustomed to run in to Omaha and out the same day.
A Business Men's Association was organized, and this evolved into the secret organization known as the Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben, with regular ritual and an initiation de-signed to rake the moss off the hacks of the most confirmed croakers.
In 1895, a committee went to New Orleans and purchased the floats used in the Rex parade there during the Mardi-Gras. They were enlarged, rebuilt, and used in the fall in the "Feast of Mondamin." It was a great success. In 1896, the society designed and built its own floats for the "Feast of Olympia." They were at once pronounced superior to those that came from the South, that home of carnivals. The parade was well advertised and drew thousand of people to Omaha and the fair. Encouraged by their success, the Knight of Ak-Sar-Ben last year fairly eclipsed both former efforts by the " Feast of Quivera," in which twenty floats, designed and built in Omaha, at a cost of $20,000.00, covered with living figures in superb costumes, escorted by mounted Knights and ten bands, passed through three miles of streets illuminated by strings of incandescent lights, making the most beautiful fall festival in the United States. The festivities ex-tended through the week of the Nebraska State Fair and included two evening pageants in addition ; a military and civic parade and a parade of ingenious mechanical floats showing dazzling electrical effects. The week closed with the Coronation Ball at the castle of Ak-Sar-Ben where three thousand spectators watched twelve hundred Knights and their ladies dance to alternating music of three orchestras.
The floats are built at the "Den" under the direction of Mr. G. A. Renze, a genius in papier-mache work, and under his immediate supervision the floats grow from their running gear up, at first a meaningless skeleton of boards and laths, then a fleshing of muslin, then paint and papier-mache effects, and finally the dash of tinsel and diamond dust that makes all complete.
Here also occur the initiations of the Knights—mysterious and awful to the outsider. Initiations begin as early as March (none too early to suit the eager participants), and continue throughout the summer at weekly intervals. This brings together in time nearly a thousand of the business men of Omaha, from bank presidents to the keepers of penny shops, and has bred a feeling of good fellow-ship and mutual support that has been specially advantageous during years of doubt and dullness. The ceremonies, opening with an iron-clad oath and great solemnity, al-ways wind up with a perfect whirl-wind of mirth. Many delegations from out in the state are entertained and all receive a warm welcome.
Each year welcomes a new king and queen. These parts have been taken as follows: 1895, king, Mr. E. M. Bartlett; queen, Miss Meliora Woolworth; 1896, king, Mr. Casper E. Yost; queen, Miss May Dundy; 1897, king, Mr. Edward P. Peck; queen, Miss Gertrude Kountze.
The entire management of these enterprises devolves upon twelve gentlemen, styled the Board of Governors, whose work is heavy and constant, involving weekly meetings the year through. The various branches of the work are taken up by those best fitted to perform them, and all moves like a well-kept piece of machinery. The board for the present year contains the following well-known gentle-men, some of whom have been members since the start : R. S. Wilcox, president; Thomas A. Fry, vice president; A. H. Noyes, secretary; H. J. Penfold, treasurer; William M. Glass, E. P. Peck, Fred Metz, Jr., W. R. Bennett, O. D. Kiplinger, E. M. Bartlett, Walter Jardine, Elmer E. Bryson.
It is expected that the beautiful displays of the last three autumns will be fairly eclipsed this year during the Transmississippi Ex-position, when visitors will be here from all parts of the United States.
CLEMENT CHASE.
YANOSHKA AND MARISHKA.
A FAIRY TALE FOR LITTLE FOLK.
(Adapted by Edna St. John from Jeremiah Curtin's Translation of Maygar Folk Lore Stories.)
FAR away in the Russian country there was at one time a deep forest, dark as night, and in this forest lived a hedgehog. People were sometimes lost among the trees, but the hedgehog was a kind little fellow, so he always led the poor lost ones out and set them on their way.
Once a merchant, traveling to a distant city, lost his way and wandered five days and nights without food. At last he cried out that he would reward with his prettiest daughter and with three sacks of coin the one who would lead him to the edge of the forest. The hedgehog came and took him back to the road ; then each went his way. A few days later a king became separated from his courtiers while out hunting, and, poor man, he had the same fate as the merchant; he made a like promise, only this time it was coaches of gold in-stead of sacks, and he was led out by the same hedgehog.
By and by the little animal thought that it would be nice to have his reward, so he went patter, pat-ter, out of the wood to a farmer and bought a crow for a steed. Mounted on his crow, he rode to the merchant's door.
"Who is there?" cried the merchant.
It is I, the hedgehog, come to claim my reward."
The merchant was a true man, so what could he do but keep his promise. He brought out his three pretty daughters and the hedgehog chose the middle one and took her away in her father's coach, while he rode his crow alongside. Poor girl She cried and cried, and called her little escort an ugly, horrid thing, for taking her. "What did he think she could be to want a hedge-hog for a husband?" She complained so much that the generous creature could bear it no longer, and took her back to her father. Then he set out for the king's palace and found there the most beautiful princess in many worlds, ready to go with him. So he took her away in her father's coach, and she sat and smiled until her face was as gentle and beautiful as the moon on summer nights.
"Why are you smiling so, my princess?" asked the hedgehog.
"Because you are a good hedgehog, and I am thinking that I might have a much worse husband."
"Then you will not wish to go back to your father?"
"No, indeed! why should I if I can be happy with you?"
These words were like magic to the hedgehog. Quicker than a thought he turned about and changed into the handsomest prince alive, all dressed in cloth of gold. Then he stroked his crow and it became a firey, prancing charger, with mane and tail and hoofs of gold. Imagine the joy of the princess when he took her away to his palace in the wood, no longer dark and dangerous, but lit up by this spacious dwelling that shone like the sun with gold and jewels, and was hung with the richest velvets. There they lived happily for a long time.
But the merchant's daughter was jealous of the princess and determined to injure her. To do this she dressed herself up as an old nurse-woman and went to serve the princess, One day, when the angels brought two beautiful children to the good prince and his wife, this wretched creature took the poor little dears out into the wood and left them there to die. How angry would she have been had she known that the Water Maiden, who was a good, kind spirit, was walking in this very wood and that, finding the poor little ones, she took them to her home and cared for them.
The children grew larger and prettier,—Yanoshka, the boy, tall and strong like his father, and Marishka, the girl, like her mother, sunny-haired and rosy. One day they were playing together when a golden bird flew down to them. How they ran and tried to catch it! But every time they thought they had it, off it flew. At last, tired and warm, they sat down to rest. Then the golden messenger came and told them wonderful news. They were the children of a good, wise prince and princes! He also told them just how to make them-selves known to their dear parents. They were not to do it all in a rush, for, you know, that might be fatal ; but just how it was accomplished we shall read, for they immediately set out as the golden-winged one had bidden them.
Soon they came to a party of men throwing dice, and what should Yanoshka do but start playing and win all their money with a magical wand besides, that had the power of doing anything its possessor wished if he should strike it three times upon the ground. Of course Yanoshka struck it immediately upon the ground and wished for a grand palace, and of course the grand palace appeared. You can-not even imagine one-tenth of its beauty—it was all one mass of gold and silver from top to bottom inside and out, and it was so bright that it dazzled the eye by day and shone like a small sun at night.
The fame of this splendid castle spread through all the provinces and everyone came to see it. The father of Yanoshka and Marishka wished also to visit it, but that old hag, the merchant's daughter, put poison in his coffee and made him so ill that he could not go. Then she said: "I will go and see this palace and come back and tell you if it is as fine as people say." She had learned that the children were alive and she still wished to harm them.
She found the palace surprisingly beautiful, but it did not suit her purpose to say so. Instead, she thus addressed the children: "Your house is very good, but it lacks the golden world-beautiful tree that bears the apples of delight."
"Where can we find that, old mother?" asked both children in a breath.
"It is in such and such a province."
Yanoshka was all desire to go and get the tree, so he bade Marishka take good care of the palace, and started. He traveled over seven provinces, and at last came to the end of things where stood a huge fortress, guarded by a big, lame, hairy devil with a club like a great cable. Poor Yanoshka felt very little and he had great fear of the devil's big teeth and the club, but he called out: "Here, devil, I I have come after the world-beautiful tree."
Who are you?" asked the devil in a voice like a rumbling thunder-clap.
"I?"
"Yes, you; aren't you Yanoshka, the brother of Marishka?"
"Yes. Do you know where the tree is?"
"No, old man; but my elder brother lives at the next fortress toward the east. He knows a great deal and may be he can tell you where the tree is."
Off Yanoshka ran, not stopping until he reached the next fortress, where there was a devil the very image of the first. This one did not know where the tree was, but he said : "My oldest brother is keeping the fortress a long way yonder. He knows everything and he can tell you."
Again Yanoshka went off. The oldest devil knew. "Yes," he said, "the tree is in this very stronghold, but you must do exactly as I tell you or you cannot get it. Enter, turn not to right or left until you reach the innermost court. There you will find the tree. Run round it three times, then get out again and never stop until you have reached home. The tree will be there ahead of you."
Yanoshka did as he was bidden. While he was going through the courts voices called to him from every side ; beautiful girls held out their long golden hair for him to admire, and pressed him to take cool refreshing drinks from jeweled goblets, but he did not heed them. At last he reached the place where the tree stood gloriously shining. Quick as lightning he shot around it and then ran out. And he was none too soon for the heavy brass doors closed on him and took off the heel of his shoe. But what mattered such a small thing? He took his shoes off, ran home with-out them, and found the tree standing in the palace court.
The report of this new wonder soon spread through forty-nine provinces and all the world came to see it. The good prince again wished to go but the old woman played the same trick on him again so that she could go herself.
This time she found that the pal-ace lacked the world-golden sea with silver fish, and what did Yanoshka do but set out to get it, for he wanted his palace to be quite perfect. He had many trials and met many big devils much fiercer and larger than the first ones, but he came back safely and the sea was found in the palace garden.
Again the old woman came and said that they lacked the world-sweetly-singing bird and Yanoshka went to get it. But this time he was not successful, and the old hag rejoiced that he had gotten himself imprisoned, until dear little Marishka came to the rescue and brought her brother and the bird to the palace.
Now the prince had begun to see that his old nurse-woman was dosing him, so he set out with his wife to see this new splendor without even taking his morning coffee. The two journeyed in their gilded coach, and at last came to the wonderful palace.
Everything there pleased them beyond measure. Their own home did not compare with this in the bright colors of the flowers, the richness of the hangings, nor the great splendor of the whole building.
"What beautiful children these are!" exclaimed the princess. "How the boy favors you?"
"That was just my thought," replied her husband, "and the girl is your very image."
Just then the prince spied a cur-
tainof velvet hanging over some-thing on the wall. "May I see what is under that curtain?" he asked.
Marishka ran and pulled the curtain back, and there on the wall was the prince's coat-of-arms, that none but his family might use and that the golden bird had given them.
"My son!" cried the princess.
"My daughter!" echoed the prince.
And they fell to kissing one another and were very happy to be together again. But the ugly, bad old woman was whipped out of the town and drowned in a great river because she had been so cruel.
Mrs. Ford's Answers to Questions.
THE Secretary of the Bureau of Education gratefully accepts the opportunity offered by the editor of Tin HATCHET to reply in its colums to some of the questions that have been asked her regarding the individual competitions of the Educational Department.
MRS. M. A. B., Crete.—Yes, a pupil may enter a piece of school work individually whether his school exhibits or not. The subjects open to him are: composition, history, penmanship, manual training, drawing, and nature study, and all conditions for exhibiting are specified in the premium list of the Bureau of Education of the Exposition.
FANNY B., Plattsmouth.—An en-try fee of twenty-five cents is charged. This is paid to the Secretary at any time before the competitions close. Upon receipt of it she will immediately forward a certificate, which the exhibitor must return with his work, and which will identify it during the Exposition.
EMMA R., Council Bluffs.—The awards are medals of gold, silver, and bronze. It will require four hundred of them to meet the demands of the premium lists.
J. A. R.—Send in your answers in the Trans - Mississippi History Puzzle, as soon as you please. Number your answers to correspond to the blanks in the puzzle.
MRS. MANLY.—Only the exhibits winning prizes will be placed in the Exposition. Others may be added, if desired, to the collective exhibit of the school where the exhibitor is enrolled.
MISS C. R.—The judges are not yet secured. They are to be experts in each subject.
RURAL SCHOOLS.—The nature study competition is extended to May 15th, in order to give opportunity to use the spring vegetation for the collections required. Let the children mount the leaves, blossoms, and grasses they see about them every day.
M., Omaha.—High school pupils may compete in composition by submitting essays, letters, book reviews, and character sketches. In history the topics are: Correspondence between Gladstone and Bismarck—Russia as a power in the world's politics—Diary of a Cuban Patriot—Conversation between an American and a Cretan of the nineteenth century—Comparison of the French Chamber of Deputies with the House of Representatives of the United States—Comparison between the power, etc., of the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.—Comparison between the power of the President of the United States and the Emperor of Germany.
WOMEN AND THE EXPOSITION.
THE women of the west are largely responsible for the quantity and quality of result obtained from the Trans-Mississippi Exposition.
Through the diligent and tactful effort of officers and committees, masterpieces from every known and reachable craft will be brought into the state. Foreign nations, with their curious customs and traffics will be the guests of Nebraska.
These are wonderful things to do, and are worth the doing. But the fairest and most prolific fruitage will never be realized unless women give to the enterprise their thought, effort and influence. Especially women in the home and school.
There is nothing like entering into the spirit of an undertaking. It is equally beneficial to the under-taking and to, the individual.
The only way to catch the spirit of the exposition—to put one's self in touch with it, is to study and talk about it. Three months of earnest talking, reading and planning in the homes and schools will manifold many times the good results of the affair.
Pin on your walls illustrations of the grounds and buildings. The colored views given in the different Nebraska journals are worthy a hanging place in any room, and, if looked at often enough and through the right sort of eyes, will enable one to feel quite at home while at the exposition, especially while taking a leisure stroll through the the grand court.
Through the illustrations in the daily papers one can become familiar with the architecture of many of the buildings, some of which is unusually unique, interesting and history-telling.
The management is making special arrangements for the entertainment and instruction of youth and children. Competition and exhibition have always had a tonic effect upon genius.
The mother can so trend the mind of her boy and girl that, when passing through machinery hall, the wonderful engines will mean to them not simply iron and steel and noise; but, beyond all that they will realize a something almost akin to human, which gives to the machine a personality second only to that of its inventor.
There is going to be a deal of education in the exposition, if one only knows how to get it out and appropriate it to one's self.
Special, previous, mind culture is the thing that will get it best and quickest.
I know a little company of women who are turning dish cupboards inside out, in their study of cups, pitchers and pottery generally, preparatory to a better understanding and appreciation of the fine display of pottery promised by the exposition.
And, there are others who are culturing the minds of children regarding pictures. One beautiful lesson is, that a picture is not to be valued because of its expensive frame, or the number of feet of wall-space it covers, but for the life-story it tells.
Hovenden made "Breaking Home Ties," and then gave his life that a little child might live. But his little soulful picture will keep telling the sweet story so long as there is parenthood.
Hovenden sleeps. But there are other pictures with like spirit and story. Let us make ourselves and families more appreciable of their worth and mission.
There are Edisons and Hosmers, needle-women, bookmakers, song-smiths, etc., in embryo, to be sure, who need, and who have a right to, the inspiriting and uplifting effect of an aggregation of master-thoughts and master-work.
The art of seeing a thing when one looks at it, and appreciating what one sees, can be heightened and broadened and lengthened by the missionating of woman.
MRS. A. HARDY,
Beatrice, Neb.
ON BEING DOMESTIC.
THERE is a growing feeling that women should know more about how to rear healthy human beings; but the way to set about to learn is the important question. Everything is taught to girls and boys except how to per-form the most serious duties of life, the making of a home and the rearing of the human beings that come into that home. Girls take upon themselves the duties of wives and mothers with almost no preparation and blindly experiment upon the little human beings that come to them.
An effort is being made in Nebraska to form a state organization of Household Economic Departments, and every body of women that wishes to make a study of this great thing should ally itself with the state organization. A course of instruction from some competent teacher could then be arranged in such a way that she could go from one place to another without delay between, and spend an entire winter among the clubs of the state, making the charge to each one comparatively small, and giving each such instruction as would enable it to do effective work.
A department could form classes in cookery, in the study of sanitation, in the care of invalids, in the care of children, and this teacher could give them lectures on these various topics, and instruct them how to carry on the course begun. The organization could form a class of young girls to study the first principles of cookery; for instance, from among the school girls of a certain age; Mrs. Lincoln's School Kitchen Text Book could be used as a guide, a set of simple house-hold utensils could be obtained, and a course of instruction given in the simple elements of cookery and cleaning, that would be a de-light to the girls and would teach them some fundamental principles that are too sadly neglected by mothers. Add to the practical teaching of how to cook the food, and how to clean up after it is cooked, a few general principles of proper food combinations, and a work is begun the value of which will grow every day. Girls all like to experiment with material things. Give them some cereals, some fruits, sugar, flour, milk and eggs and show them how many different nutritious and good dishes may be made out of them without very much work, and you will have the most delighted class you ever saw. While you are combining foods teach them why you use any two of them together, teach them which kinds build the body and which kinds give it heat and energy, then teach them how much they need for heat and energy and how much for the building of the body.
The knowledge of the proper kinds of foods will be as much a part of their education when the women undertake this as are the A-B-C's now, and when the rank and file of girls and boys learn these things we shall not have to con-front the appalling fact that one-third of all the children born die before they are three years old, and one-half before they reach maturity.
If the women study this thing thoroughly and begin its teaching, the importance of it will gradually (lawn upon the whole community, and before long public opinion will demand that it be taught in the schools, not as one more fad tacked to the present curriculum, but in place of some of the studies by which we are now educating a race of business people—not boys alone, but girls and boys. What is taught to a race that they will do, and if we teach the foundation principles of proper eating and proper preparing of foods, we shall have what is now the great trial of women turned into a blessing, the domestic problem will disappear, and what has been considered menial service will be raised to a high art and science.
Organize clubs for the study of domestic science, then form these clubs into a state organization, and take up the study of it in dead earnest. Send for the women who have made this a study and have put that study into practical use. Make them your teachers, and learn to combat disease by studying the causes and stopping them.
Enoble your work by making it a science and an art.
HARRIET S. MACMURPHY.
FRENCH CANDIES.
French candies, so called, are ex-pensive, and yet most of the material used in them is not more expensive than for the ordinary candies. The expense consists largely in the fact that they must be hand-made, requiring much more time than other kinds.
The foundation of all French candies is called fondant, or cream, and may be made as follows: To two cups of granulated sugar add one cup of water, and a scant eighth of a teaspoon of cream of tartar. Boil this very quickly, until it will form a ball on the finger that will retain its shape, being careful not to stir it while boiling; remove gently from the fire and let stand until lukewarm, then stir with a wooden spoon until it becomes white and begins to harden. Take it up in the hand and mould it as you would bread; after a few minutes, moulding it will become creamy. It can then be put in a bowl and kept for several days be-fore using, if covered with a damp cloth; in fact, it is better to stand "a day or two. To test when it is done, take a bit up on a wooden skewer and as it cools roll between the fingers gently, forming it in a (ball on the end of the finger; if it retains its shape it is right. Professionals test it by dipping the fingers in cold water, then quickly in the boiling syrup and back again in the water; this looks dangerous but is really very easy. The syrup will adhere to the fingers and can be tested more quickly than by the other way. If the sugar is boiled too much it will granulate when stirred, or grow so hard that it can-not be moulded. In that case add about a tablespoonful of water, put back upon the stove, stir until dissolved, and then boil again, testing as before, but always being very careful not to stir it a bit after it begins to boil. This can be made into chocolate creams, cream wafers, walnut creams, fruit rolls, and any of the numberless ways that that are sold at the stores.
CHOCOLATE CREAMS.—Take a portion of the fondant, flavor to taste, and roll bits of it into any shape wished, placing them on waxed paper, to harden a little. Break up a square of baker's chocolate, in a basin, add to it an equal quantity of fondant, melt them over steam if possible, being very careful not to allow it to get too hot, merely enough to be of the right consistency to dip the creams, stirring it all the time; keep it just at this degree of heat, and taking two wooden toothpicks if candy tongs are not at hand, pick up a ball, roll it quickly in the mixture and drop back on the paper. If the pure chocolate is desired, melt it in the same way, adding a bit of paraffine as large as a hazel nut, and a bit of butter about the same size, and roll the balls in it.
CREAM WAFERS.—Take a portion of the fondant, place in a basin and melt over steam; add wintergreen, peppermint, cinnamon, or any desired flavoring, and color it if de-sired. Stir constantly while melting, and as soon as entirely melted drop from a small spoon on to waxed paper, giving the spoon a circular motion that will make the wafers the desired shape. Do not allow the mixture to approach the boiling point, as that will cause it to granulate. The fondant should be made as soft as possible for wafers.
POTATO SALAD.
Cut six or eight well-boiled, perfectly cold potatoes in small cubes. Add two small white onions minced fine and one stalk of celery snipped fine with scizzors. Dressing : one cup vinegar, one tablespoon of but-ter, one tablespoon of sugar ; heat together in sauce pan until almost boiling. Beat yolks of six eggs thoroughly, with salt-spoon of salt and one teaspoon full of prepared mustard. Pour heated vinegar over the eggs—pouring slowly and beating all the time to prevent lumping. Pour all together in sauce pan and place over the fire, still stirring until it thickens. Beat until cool, when sweet cream can be added if ready for use.
EMILY SHUMAN.
OLD VIRGINIA COOKIES.
Two cups sugar, three-fourths cup butter, two eggs, three cups of flour, one level teaspoon of soda sifted in flour, one cup cold water, one teaspoon lemon extract.
MRS. M. L. ALLEE.
CHOCOLATE FUDGES.
Two cups sugar, one cup milk. Boil until it strings, then add five tablespoons of grated chocolate and one teaspoon vanilla; stir rapidly until it begins to grain, then pour in buttered tins and cut in squares.
VELVET CREAM.
Dissolve half an ounce of isinglass in a quarter of a pint of water. Add a large wineglass full of sherry, a tablespoon full of lemon juice and six ounces of lump sugar which have been well rubbed upon the rind of a large, fresh lemon. Stir the mixture over the fire until the sugar is entirely dissolved. Let the preparation get cold, and before it begins to stiffen mix with it a pint of cream. Pour it into a mould which has been soaked in cold water. Let it stand all night in a cool place, then turn it out in a glass dish. Sufficient for a pint and a half of cream.
CICELY FENTON,
Wymore, Neb.
HOREHOUND CANDY.
Steep one teaspoon of horehound herb in one pint water, five minutes. Strain over one pint brown sugar, add one teaspoon vinegar, one tea-spoon butter, let boil without stirring until it does not stick to teeth. Pour out into flat, well-greased tins, and mark into small squares with a knife.
ALICE D. PRITCHARD.
EXPOSITION BRIEFS.
HOWEVER familiar one may have become through print and poster with the form and position of the exposition buildings, he will find when he visits the grounds, that he has had very little idea of their beauty. Everybody testifies to surprise and delight at the sight of them, and to those who are sensitive to the expression of an ideal, they bring that quick thrill of exultation and that slower and deeper sense of pride and patriotism, that was so common an experience to World's Fair visitors.
Standing at the Sherman avenue entrance where one gets perhaps the best ensemble effect, one is conscious of the repose of the architectural scheme. No building catches the eye by its aggressive prominence, yet none could have been spared. Each has an individuality and yet it is evidently but a part of a composition into which it fits without a jar.
Exhibits in Government Building represent eleven departments: state, treasury, war, navy, postoffice, interior, justice, agriculture, Smith- sonion Institution, National Museum, and U. S. Fish Commission. The exhibit under the state department will consist of historical documents of great value, and there will be portrait of all the secretaries of state from Thomas Jefferson to John Sherman. The department c justice will also show portraits of the eminent men who have occupied the position of attorney general of the United States, as well a of those of the justice (Hon. David H. Brewer), the circuit judges and the district judges of the Eighth Judicial District, which includes the states directly tributary to the exposition.
The noble building at the west end of the lagoon is a fitting consummation and climax of the architectural scheme of the Grand Court. This is the building which represents the government of the United States, and it is a massive structure over five hundred feet long. It is surmounted by a dome a hundred and seventy feet high, upon which stands a statue of Lib- erty enlightening the world. She does it by what is poetically called a torch, but which one is more interested to know is a search light.
The Hon. Frank Strong, manager of the department of justice, of the government exhibit, refers to an interesting branch of his exhibition, as follows: "We also expect to offer an exhibition of photographs of views connected with United States prisoners and prisons, showing the principal institutions where federal prisoners are confined, the modes of employment and discipline, together with souvenirs illustrative of the ingenuity of men when in confinement and compelled to rely upon their wits and native ability for amusement and such relief from the terrible monotony of prison life as can be gained by carving trinkets in wood and marble; keys, whittled from a broom handle, and which have actually been used by the maker to effect his release; dinner knives made into saws sufficiently effective to cut through iron bars; canes, curiously made from small pieces of polished wood and horn; some the creations of Indian convicts: these, and such like articles will, it is believed, prove interesting exhibits to everybody.
As the post-office is the department of public service most closely identified with the people, the exhibit in this department will be of special interest. There will be a division where series of U. S. postage stamps, as well as those from foreign countries, will be shown, and in another division the methods of mail service will be presented by models. Here we may see the Indian mail carriers with toboggan and dogs, typical of the mail service as it exists in the snow-clad regions between Sault Ste Marie and Mackinaw, Michigan ; and beside this crude expression of the effort to supply the public need will stand the U. S. mail car completely equipped for use.
The Treasury Department will exhibit a collection of all the coins Uncle Sam has ever made, and a series of models from the mint will show how gold and silver is coined. The Department of the Interior will make a pictorial exhibit illustrating the progress of education, and it is promised that the Alaskan exhibit under this head shall be larger than any heretofore presented. The Indian Bureau will show work in the Indian schools especially in the direction of handicraft. The U. S. geological survey will illustrate its work and the Patent Office will show its associations with the industries of the United States.
Pupils who are preparing to enter exhibits in competition for medals offered by the Educational Department, should remember that no work can be received in composition, history, penmanship, manual training, and drawing after April 15th or in nature study after May 15th.
It is interesting to have in prospect for the Navy Department what was exhibited at Nashville, viz : a propeller blade of the U. S. steam-ship Maine, and a section of the crank shaft of
The Agricultural Department will exhibit fibres and materials most used in commerce. It will also show the operations of the Weather Bureau, and under the division of animal industry it will display, by models and specimens in alcohol, the action of certain infectious diseases. It will also show the culture of bacteria, toxins, antitoxins, etc.
The Woman's Department has just concluded an arrangement with Mrs. E. A. Horton, of Boston, by which her collection of dolls will be placed in the Girls' and Boys' Building. This exhibit has an interesting history. "It has grown," says Mrs. Horton, "out of a queer little Chinese doll ingeniously made from peanuts, which was given me four years ago when weary with a long illness. It brought so much amusement into my sick-room, that I determined when well to take it to some sick child, or in some way to give to another the pleasure it had been to me." The next epoch shows the addition of Indian dolls, and especially clay ones, and the exhibition of them in aid of a home for crippled children. Then Jordan Marsh & Co., of Boston, appeared on the scene and furnished a Massachusetts doll. The people of the state named it, by vote, Priscilla Alden, giving five cents apiece for votes and continuing the con-test for a month, still to the profit of the Home for Cripples. By this time such an interest had been aroused that Mrs. Horton determined to add to the collection and devote it to the aid of Children's Charities.
She has spared no expense nor trouble to obtain representative dolls from all parts of the world. Some of them have traveled thousands of miles. They come from Japan and the Aleutian Islands, from Alaska, Labrador and South America ; from people of all religions and from royalty to the fisherman's little daughter on a far-off island of the sea, who gave her worn-out and beloved doll "because she knew that it would he the most beautiful of them all." The collection numbers three hundred.
The Fine Art Building shown on the opposite page is quite different in style from the other buildings, consisting as it does of twin structures connected by a colonnade. The building will contain only paintings in oil and water color pastels, sculpture, and large photographs of famous old masterpieces. There will probably be about a thousand pictures.
The Trans-Mississippi history puzzle is the only competition which is open to all, whether enrolled pupils or not, and quite a number of gray- haired persons are engaged upon it. A little acquaintance with Bancroft's history, Julian Ralph's "Great West," and the "Great South" by King, will en-able one to fill the 186 blanks with out difficulty.
The issue of postage stamps which the government is about to make in commemoration of the Exposition, will consist of nine denominations.
The designs adopted are: one cent, the discovery of the Mississippi by Marquette; two cent, bridge at St. Louis; four cent, a buffalo hunting scene; five cent, Fremont raising the flag on the summit of the Rockies; eight cent, a train of emigrants crossing the plains; ten cent, a mowing scene; fifty cent, a cowboy and cattle; dollar, a harvesting scene; two dollar, the Union Pacific bridge between Omaha and Council Bluffs.
The Afro-American section of the "Midway " will consist of an old southern plantation of a time just "befo the wah." Dinah and Tom and the picaninnies will be there in their cabins, and everyday life will go on as if it had stepped out of the past. The purpose of this section is to show the evolution of the colored race in the matter of entertainment, and to this end there will be a minstrel hall where shows of a primitive type may be seen, and a concert hall where Afro-American artists of high rank will give performances.
Exhibits are already coming in from pupils as individual competitions, though the limit for receiving them is six weeks distant. Drawing seems to be the most popular topic and then come composition and history; under "industrial work," sewing. One little girl proposes to send a doll's wardrobe, and another will place her samples of hand work in an album.
FRANCES M. FORD.
Miss Luella M. Harford, 3016 Pacific street, Omaha. Free-hand Crayon Artist. Correspondence solicited.
Fine Arts Building.
Agriculture Building.
Machinery and Electric Building
Horticulture Building.
