NEWPORT DAILY INDEPENDENT
cz1:::■■■■ 1 ■ I1, ■■ , ■,-T— „ ■11 ,rt
PERCY H. VAN DYKE, Publisher ind Eiltor.
NEWPORT. - - ARKANHAa
cr.r . .1__i___
THE LAMENT OF THE MOTHERS.
The night they brought the dead men home
We had no place for dirge or sigh;
We would not weep at what had come,
For wer must be, and braves must die.
“Ho ken ha yoh!" All things must pass!
These were our sons who went away.
And yet we do not know, alas!
On what strange hunting-grounds they
stray.
If It be dark, If It be cold,
If all the warmth and light be sped,
And if the tribal feuds still bold
Within the tepees of the dead.
We do not know. “Ho ken ha yoh!"
Our sons, our sons are gone away!
Weep now, because we do not know
On what strange hunting-ground they
stray!
—Helen Hicks, in Woman's Home Com
panion. _
- HMD ATUE'S BEQUEST
ItV 11) V SHKl’LFR.
In the basement of the building
in which bis oilicc was located, lie
found it, tumbling out of a box with
other papers placed there an age ago,
it seemed from their yellow, mil
dewed appearance. Dr. Allen brew
’dl-ould scarcely have noticed it bad it
not been for the quaint look of the
square envelope, one of the kind
*vwi cl n lw Kiiciyhicc vhpyi f AT OW11 1
special use. long before envelopes
were designed and put in circulation.
Carrying it up to the light, he not
ed the name, faint and run together,
“Gottlieb Irvin.” Tearing it apart to
/ wipe off a bottle, other marks inside
the envelope came in view—four
small marks looking something like
a maltese cross, and then: ‘Front
door, south ten paces; east four;sec
ond chestnut, three.”
“Now, what old codger thought
of makinga memorandum inside of an
envelope? The very place one would
be sure to lose it,” he said aloud.
“Looks as if some one might have
been hiding a treasure. Let me see,
a certain distance away from the
front door, then so far from a eer
fain tree in a row of trees. Wonder
if that front door belonged to a
miser?” And with this comment
the young doctor thing it info the
waste basket. An hour after, the
wind from an open window went
frisking down in that basket, and,
catching up the old envelope, threw
it at his feet, those marks now upper
yyesfriWijhjjooftVpf tfltie? of w-eti
der at them, this time he flung it out
of the window. Going out to dinner,
there came that old fragment blow
ing about his feet, now the name up
permost.
“Well, Gottlieb,” he said, with a
laugh, “it seems that you are bound
to get acquainted with me.” Then lie
asked of the janitor who was passing
into the building: “Who is or was
Gottlieb Irvin?”
1 “He isn't much of anything, now.
I reckon,” was the answer. “He was
a rich eld fellow thot lived over at
Freeeman 50 years ago and more
now. His folks lawcd over his will
and lawcd all his money away. This
building was the courthouse then. I
e'pose they had all his letters and pa
» pers in court, and that's how that old
envelope got stuck away with other
court Icavin's.”
Why he did it he could not tell,
but Dr. Frew doubled the paper and
stuck it into his pocket, finding it
there, rather to his surprise, the
next call he made upon the young
lady he was to marry some day when
his practice was assured, and his in
come sufficient to keep two.
“A queer old envelope with some
queer old marks on.’ he said, turn
ing to throw it in the grate. The
girl caught his hand, a grave expres
sion clouding her face.
“Gottlieb Irvin,” she read. Then
went on in explanation: “Did you
know this man was my great-uncle?
Gottlieb Irvin was my grandmother’s
brother. He left her all of his prop
erty except a box of precious old
coins and some jewels that lie1 had
pic ked up in trade. These were to go
'br my mother, then a little girl.
“He had a strange mania for hid
ing away money in odd places. He
feared burglars and was tortured
more than once by them and forced
to disclose the hiding place of val
uables; but more than burglars he
feared the hanks. He had a queer
habit of putting four crosses to the
end of his name, and on all business
papers. Hut my mother often in
those days, before she died, told me
that he was not insane, and had it
not been for his brothers going re
peatedly to law to prove that he was,
my grandmother would have inher
ited that which he wished her to
have, and through her my mother
and myself would have also inherited
much money. It was a shameful
thing for my great-uncles to do.
They were hard, exacting men, and
hated their brother Gottlieb in his
lifetime^ refusing to give him shelter
in his young days when ho needed it.
11 is sister at, that time proved his
only friend.”
“And the box of coins and jewels?”
queried Allen.
“It was never found. The ground
was thoroughly dug over and the
house razed to find buried treasure
by these brothers. Between these
and burglars it must have disap
peared.”
Somehow it came about that a pa
tient, brought back as she believed
from death to life by the untiring ex
ertions and skill of Dr. Frew, sang
his praises so unceasingly to her rel
atives over in Freeman that they
were, constrained to send for him in
critical emergencies of the kind. Be
fore many months had rolled
around, Allen, so little known in the
big city, found himself mounting the
crest of a high wave of prosperity in
Freeman.
“I don’t like the idea of going so
far from you. Mazy.” he said, to his
a Ilia need, “but it is the best for me to
lake up a permanent residence there.
It will not be long at this rate until 1
will have a home for you as well as
myself.”
To his surprise, on questioning an
old resident, one who had little to do
by reason of old age but con over old
time scenes for those who stopped to
i • i 1 p .i:_.
11MI ll, lit iUlllIU IlIB uuttnun^
was built on grounds once belonging
to the cottage in which Gottlieb
Irvin had spent the last years of his
life.
“Yes,” explained the old resident,
to Allen's look of inquiry, “these
grounds all belonged to Gottlieb's
house in them days. There it stood
frontin’ on what was a village street
then, but now is the alley way. That
cottage that's built there for rent
covers part of the ground where a
row of chestnut trees growed. Gott
lieb was always a-plnntin’ trees and
potterin’ around in his garden to the
last. Them trees, and like as not
some of them shrubs between your
boardin’ house and the cottage, are
of his plantin’.”
As the old man mused on about
Gottlieb, pointing out where olden
objects had once stood, and declaring
that if ever man was sane, and truly
that it. had been Gottlieb, Al
len paced off the distance given in
that old envelope. The last three
step'- led under the corner of the cot
tage. If buried treasure lay there,
the cottage stood well over it, he
thought.
One night his landlady saw him
gazing in a musing way out of a win
dow in his room, overlooking the
rather gloomy grounds at the back
of the boarding house.
“Do vou know,” she said, in a tone
slightly confiding, “one of my board
ers—such a nervous thing, anyway;
why. she gives me the trembles just
to look at her—made me change her
room (she was occupying this one),
because she imagined when she
looked out of the winder you're at
there, that she could see white things
movin' under them trees. Did you
ever hear tell of such foolishness?"
Allen merely smiled and muttered
something about nerves being ae
eountnble for many strange ideas and
feelings, but a young waiting maid,
passing the door, heard and heeded
in a way that the landlady might
have deplored had the outcome
turned against the financial welfare
of her house as it did the one
beyond the trees and shrubbery;
for this girl, being sent out on
the grounds that night on an
errand, came screaming back de
claring that she saw a little old man
digging under one of the bushes. “It
is the old miser that once lived here
digging for the gold he buried," she
said. Amidst laughter and joking,
the servants sallied out to look.
There was nothing in -ight but a big.
strange dog.
“lie was a-digging' for a bone be
had buried there. That dog's your
ghost," said the cook. But the girl
was not convinced.
Stories breed more stories. It was
not long until the cottage opposite
became the breeding ground for
habits, as Allen's landlady called
them. All manner of uncanny
sights and sounds were heard. “All
imagination, rats, and the pranks of
boys,” declared its owner.
But this declaration did not stay
the sudden departure of renters
until the house stood at last barred
against the world, for no renter
would enter it. and no one would buy
it. And then, one stormy night, a
tramp must have forced an entrance
somehow, and on leaving it dropped
a coal from his pipe. An hour after
nothing remained of it but a mass of
red debris.
V
It was some time before Allen
thought of the designated spot, now
free lor the digging into. In fact, it
was Mazy whojjrought it to his mind.
And then, one evening late, uder
pre.tense of digging for fishing bait
lie went farther than bait usually
crawls, striking a substance which
proved to be a moldt ring cedar box.
“Rather light for treasure,” he
thought, as under his coat he carried
it up to his room. And it proved but
a light find—a few diver pieces not
exceeding $50 in all.
“And that was all?” a-ked Mazy,
gravely, when he brought the box to
her. Mazy was not of a serious na
ture. except at the mention of Uncle
Gottlieb's name. Now I do not be
lieve this is all. Uncle Gottlieb, so
mother used to say, did all things
with a reason for doing them, except,
perhaps the making of those four
crosses. He did not bury th i
small amount of silver simply
to hide it from burglars. He
buried it to hide something great
er. It may be that below this is
the greater treasure. He might have
argued: ‘I f burglars force me to tell.
1 can tell them of this, and, thinking
there is nothing further in this place,
they would leave it.’ Now you dig
farther down. I don't care who that
land belongs to, all the money hid
den in it is mine by right of will as
well as inheritance, for I am the last
one of the family.”
It was some time before Allen
could bo induced to make further se
cret investigation of that spot, but
when he did, below where the other
box had been, he found a metal box,
heavy and corroded with age. Its con
tents clearly proved it to be the box
intended for Mazy’s mother.
“Poor old uncle,” sighed Mazy, “he
meant well by us, but those days were
not like these, and 1 suppose people
thought they must hide money if
they kept it safe. 1 have no doubt
that had he not died without a mo
ment's warning, he would have left
directions for the finding of his bur
ied treasure. But as it is. it is not so
bad for us. This old stuff is valuable,
and with it we will buy the grounds it
was found upon and there build our
home.”
“Isn't it strange?” said the land
lady to Allen Frew’s wife, one day.
“Senee you built your new house and
fixed up these grounds, the ha'nts all
seems to hev disappeared. Must have
been imagination.” — Orange Judd
Farmer.
ONE HORSE-POWER.
Now Used in Manufacturing Estab
lishments to Every Seven People.
It would be difficult, says the Bos
ton Herald, to obtain better proof of
the great industrial advancement of
the United States than is furnished
by the fact that there is employed
in the United States one horse-power
in manufacturing establishments for
each seven of the population, and
that ten years ago the figure was one
to ten, and 20 years ago one to 14. It
is estimated that the horse-power
now available in this country for
manufacturing purposes foots up to
im* 1‘uunuuu^ iuuu ui ij.oWjUw.
This is almost double t he figures of
ten years previous, which were less
than 6,000,000, while 20 years ago
the total was less than 3,500,000.
Not only has the power that can be
utilized in our manufactures in
creased with our population, but it
has actually advanced in greater ra
tio than have the number of workers.
These figures, be it understood, in
clude only power used for manufac
turing. and they make no account of
the locomotives on railways or of the
power in electric light plants or other
similar establishments. Of this total
engine power, fully three-fourths is
obtained from steam. Water power
provides for perhaps 13 per cent.,
and the rest is divided among miscel
laneous sources of mechanical power.
While electricity is now credited
with only a small percent., the growth
in the use of this power is remarkable,
and it bids fair at no fardistant time
to rank second only to steam. Ac
cording to the figures of the last cen
-U-. there were employed in manufac
turing and mechanical pursuits in
the i'nited States about 7,113,000
persons, and on this showing there
would be over 1| horse-power avail
able for the use of every person em
ployed in the manufacturing indus
tries of our country.
Resistance of Snow.
A .Martini rifle bullet fired at a dis
tance of 50 yards will not pass
through a wall of scow four feet
thick.
Elephant as a Carrier.
A full-grown elephant can carrj
three tons on his back..
v
»
MRS. GARETT A. HORART.
Washington society has discussed for some weeks the possibility of the mar
riage of Senator Frye, of Maine, president pro tempore of the United States sen
ate, and Mrs. Garrett A. Hobart, widow of the late Vice President Hobart. Sen
ator Frye's friendship for the lady has been noticeable at many social functions
this winter. Mrs. Hobart has about $2.0(0,000 in her own right and is one of
the most hospitable hostesses the capital has ever had. The senator and Mrs.
Hobart will be the guests of Gen. Alger on a trip to the Pacific coast, which will
take up the entire month of May.
NEW FEDERAL, BUILDING AT CHICAGO.
The massive size of the new post office building in Chicago, which is now near
ing completion, is more and more forcibly impressed upon the spectator every
time it is seen. Each one of the four wings of the new structure is larger
than the average downtown office building. Everything in connection with the
new structure is on a scale so vast that the casual observer does not realize the
immensity of the entire building. Moreover, the perfect symmetry of detail cre
ates an illusion which dwarfs the structure to the untrained eye. The building
is to be completed within two years.
J. FIERFONT MORGAN, JR.
The heir of the great financier is better known in England than in this coun
try. He is 34 years of age, born and bred in the atmosphere of finance. Educated
in the best preparatory schools and at Harvard university, his father's counting
room was his post-graduate school. He was sent abroad some years ago to be
come the head of the Morgan banking house in London. He took with him his
wife, who was a Miss Grew, of Boston, and has four children. They live in a
small house at South street and Park lane, the most fashionable and exclusive street
of the great British metropolis.
. .-.x^ - x. >: ^ - t S
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■•■•'> ' “ •»<*> ::i .. .... %■<»»:•■•."• • '"'-vm*. 'yfa.... •'■ • •• •
A WATE 11 1*1.1)01.FK IX MEXICO.
The water vender is one of the moat curious sights in our sister republic. The
jars on his low handcart are jet black pottery, with curious designs scratched
all over them. The jars are borne all about the town, and water is sold to
those who have no servants to carry it from the fountain. The water is scicl
for a trifling sum, something like two or three centavos per jug. The average
peon lives on a mucli smaller amount of food than our workmen, who would
starve on what he considers ample fare. The chief article of diet of the poorer
classes consists of beans. Our picture Is from the Detroit Fress Frees. •
7
\ ■ •" m mBM
1111 i
A MARVELO ,J
Officer Who Hud
Bullets Aimt II V
“Being shot at c ||
quite enough for th o .age man,”
said the old soldier to a New Orleans
Times-Democrat reporter, “but be
ing shot at 20,000 times would seem
to test human endurance and strain
it to the breaking point. Yet this is
what happened to the late George
Moorman, adjutant general of the
United Confederate Veterans, and
this distinguished soldier and civil
ian probably quit the war with the
honors, so far as making of himself
a target is concerned. While run
ning through the pages of an old
scrap book the other day I ran across
a thrilling story written by ■
Blackmore, with Fort Donelson as
the scene, the late Gen. Moorman the
hero. From this story, which was
published in 1897, I take the follow
ing description of Gen. Moorman’s
daring and miraculous escape at Fort
Donelson, and I am sure few more
thrilling incidents of the war have
been related: ‘We watched him as
he cleared the woods at the first few
bounds, never expecting to see him
ilive again. As he stepped out from
the shelter of the trees into the open
space, thousands of sympathetic eyes
watched the intrepid young soldier,
apparently moving on to certain
death. It was a war picture; this
handsome soldier, not yet of age, of
splendid physique, six feet tall,
standing out ill Ills new uniform in
full view of those splendid marks- ^~
men as a target for thousands of the
enemy’s guns, willing to sacrifice
himself to sharpshooters from far and
near made him the target of their
aim, and thousands of bullets and
cannon balls were plowing up the
mow and ice at every step he took.
As he reached the frozen branch in
the valley he fell. Every heart sank,
thinking he was pierced by hundreds
of balls, but in a moment he was on
his feet (his sword had tripped him),
started up the hill and moved diag
onally across the open space and
reached the timber unharmed and
untouched (except many bullet holes
through his clothes) where Quarles’
regiment was awaiting orders. A
short time after the federal com
mander was wounded and the enemy
fell back to gather strength for an
other attack. Many thousands of
gallant soldiers have stood in the face
of terrible dangers, mounted para
pets, and performed heroic feats, but
it is doubtful if any soldier in our
war, on either side, had an experi
ence .bo marvelous and miraculous.
Less heroism has made many a soldier
immortal. The enemy, not less than
7,000 or 8,000 strong, must have
loaded and fired at least three or four
times, besides the sharpshooters, and
the artillery kept up an incessant
fire at him, so that it is highly prob
able that more than 20,000 shots
must have been concentrated in that
-pace during the time he was passing
over it; and it is probable that more
shots were fired at him, under these
peculiar circumstances, than at any
one single human soldier during the
war. It can never be known by any
human agency how he ever escaped
death, and will always remain to me
one of the most wonderful incidents
I witnessed during the war.”
LOST AND FOUND.
The Story of a Cross of Leopold’I
Order of Knighthood.
At the last court ball at Buda-Pesth ^
some gentleman had the misfortune
to lose the cross of the Leopold’s or
der. The emperor himself happened
to observe the decoration as it lay on
the floor; he picked it up and handed
it to one of his attendants, remark
ing with a good-natured smile that
his gifts seemed not always to be so *
highly valued by the recipients as he
could have wished. Next morning'
the usual list of articles lost and
found at the ball duly appeared in
the principal papers of Buda-Pesth,
and there among fans, gloves, hand
kerchiefs and trinkets figured the
cross of Leopold’s order of knight
hood, the owners of the mislaid arti
cles being instructed to apply with
proofs of ownership at the business
office of the royal court. The order
is still unclaimed and, since the em
peror’s words have been repeated ev
erywhere, is. likely to remain without
an owner.
Acts as a Conductor.
The reason why ships are not
struck by lightning is attributed to
the general use which is now made of
wire rope for rigging purposes, as
well as the fact that the hulls cf
ships are usually constructed of iron
or steel. Thus t he whole ship forms
an excellent and continuous conduc
tor, by means of which the electricity
is led away into the ocean before it
has time to do any serious damage.