14

A bereaved wife says:

"The flowers will bloom in summer

And in winter it will rain,

But the face of my darling husband
I will never see again.'

In memory of a young woman who died two years before appears:

"The giddy world with flattering tongue
Had charmed my soul astray,
And lured my heedless feet to death
Along the flowery way.
(By her mother.)"

Another reads:

"One year ago, dear Rosa,
I laid you in the tomb,
It doesn't seem so long to me since
I heard your sweet voice's tone."

It is hard to understand the feelings that prompted the foregoing, or the following: "Dear Birdie, I think of you some

In the dark hours of the night.
We know you are sleeping alone

In your grave which is far out of sight." but in matters of this kind, as in most every other, tastes differ-as the old woman said when she kissed the cow.

T

HE recent forest fires in the Alleghany Mountains brought about unexpected and very vivid recollections of war times to the residents of Harper's Ferry. The Scientific American in its issue of April 15th commented as follows:

"Forest fires are, under ordinary circumstances, sufficiently dangerous to any one so unlucky as to be caught within their circuit, but the following statement proves that there are certain localities where they may be attended with unsuspected peril. Some days ago, says an exchange, the woods in the mountains known as Loudon Heights, opposite Harper's Ferry, took fire and burned with great intensity. After burning for some time a series of explosions were heard which startled the inhabitants, and the concussion was so great that it broke windows in some houses in Harper's Ferry, across the Shenandoah. The explosions were caused by the bursting of shells which were thrown on the heights at the time when General Mills surrendered to Stonewall Jackson in 1862. These had failed to explode when they were fired, and had remained there for more than forty years.

Harper's Ferry was the first and most desirable point of vantage coveted by both

In

the Federal and Confederate armies. May, 1861, the four Federal advance columns concentrated at Parkersburg, W. Va., Wheeling, W. Va., Harper's Ferry, W. Va., and at Washington. To retain the advantage, the Federal government established block houses along the railroad from the Monocacy to the Ohio River, besides forts at Winchester, Harper's Ferry, Cumberland, Piedmont and New Creek (Keyser). The B. & O. was the base of operations for the Federal army for nearly four years and from which the Government could not take advance line earlier than November, 1864. The B. & O. was the means of communication between the West and the Army of the Potomac, and was consequently in a continual state of siege. Harper's Ferry,

the key to the Shenandoah Valley, first famed through the fanatical attempt of John Brown, in defying the laws and customs of his country, was captured or recaptured eight times in three years. The Government arsenal and armories, which were located there, were destroyed by the Government to prevent their capture. ONE

HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-NINE BATTLES OF GREATER OR LESS IMPORTANCE WERE FOUGHT

ON OR ADJACENT TO THE BALTIMORE & OHIO RAILROAD, not taking into consideration the innumerable skirmishes.

It is seldom one finds so much of practical value and so great a measure of entertainment within the covers of a single volume as is contained in "Stub Ends of Thought and Heart Verse," by Arthur G. Lewis, one of the South's most brilliant writers. It is a handsomely printed and beautifully bound volume, containing clearcut, terse thought and philosophic expression of ideas, yet with a gentle, sympathetic feeling for all humanity. Jerome K. Jerome, in speaking of the writer, once said: "He is a thorough student of human nature, possessing the brain of a giant and the heart of a child." Mr. Lewis has conducted his special page in the BOOK OF THE ROYAL BLUE for several years with apparently an endless store of philosophy.

A LONG MOMENT OF INDECISION.

NICK: I think I'll wait until I hear from Rojestvensky before I mail this.

Jack Chandlee is one of the youngest of the cartoonists and hails from Baltimore.

THE RISE AND SHINE SERIES OF BEST BOOKS FOR BOYS.

Roy L. McCardell of the New York "World" loves to write books for boys-boys past the first Osler period. Sometimes the "World" prints them and part of the world reads them. There are three or four chapters in the following story which should have been omitted, but McCardell has to be known to be fully appreciated.

CLAUDE, THE COMMUTER; OR, SIDETRACKED IN THE SUBURBS.

CHAPTER I.

The shades of night were falling fast, as through a Jersey village passed a youth who bore

One sugar-cured ham.

Two pounds of tenpenny nails.

A lawn mower.

A bottle of chill tonic.

A box of quinine pills.

A sprinkling can.

Six pounds of sugar.

Ten pounds of roast beef.

Three of the best-selling books of the week.

All the evening papers.

One bottle of antidote for hook worm.

Two pounds of tea.

One package of edible breakfast food.
Fifty feet of hose. Rubber!

One potted plant. Ditto!

16

the ozone zone is any man's own who owns his own home, and thus did the villainous real estate agent sell Richard Rich a lot of land on which he erected a mansion.

He became a noted man in East Malaria, for that was the name of this delightful suburban town, and at the Nose and Grindstone Club he was pointed out to strangers as "The Man Without a Mortgage.'

Richard Rich had been raised on a farm; later in life he became the head of the Cattle Trust, and what he did not know about watering stock was not worth knowing.

Richard Rich had always been a hustler. From the first day he began a business career he had been a hustler. He was always on time at the office, and from the beginning of the business day until its close he rushed up and down stairs in his shirt sleeves too busy to do any work. He was a hustler.

In seventeen years he never took a vacation. He knew better.

At the end of that time he was made manager of the Cattle Trust and was separated from the common herd by a private office with an ante

room.

Once in his private office he was too busy to see anybody that called. When, on one occasion, a kind old uncle who had befriended him as a boy called on him, Richard Rich kept his uncle waiting in the ante-room, just the same, relatively speaking.

The habits of a life-time still clung to him. He arose early and rushed for the train. Alighting from the train he rushed for the ferryboat. Landed in New York, he rushed for his office. If the elevator did not start at once he rushed up stairs and into his private office, where he would slam his desk open, put his feet upon it and sit there till noon, wondering what would be nice to have for luncheon.

CHAPTER III.

The Widow Carrickfergus was plump and pretty. Her husband had been an actor and all her wedded life she had supported him.

Upon the death of her husband she was surprised to learn that he had been a property man as well as an actor, for he had invested part of his earnings with his stock company in a stock farm near East Malaria.

Here she raised vegetables and live stock, including her boy Claude.

At the time we write Claude was twelve years of age, but was so small that he was known in the neighborhood as "The Widow's Mite."

He was an industrious lad, and some two years before, resolving to acquire polish, he had learned shoe blacking by mail, and shortly afterwards he established himself in that profession in New York, and thus set a shining example for others. He was deservingly successful from the start, although after completing his correspondence course he found that he must brush up by actual experience; but, as we have said, he was successful.

It was even whispered that he had his box at the opera and the horse show as well.

Richard Rich had passed the Widow Carrickfergus's cottage many times. He had always been interested in live stock, and many a time he had been heard to say: "I saw the pretty little widow climbing the fence of her pasture to-day. She may well be proud of the calves she raised."

Claude approached the house singing a quaint old suburban song, the burden of which was, "If I had a bundle of money, I'd carry on dreadful, you bet!"

With all the experience he had had in the way of toting things, it was no work for him to carry the tune. He was surprised to note that although it was rapidly getting dark no light gleamed from the window for him.

As he drew nearer the hum of low voices reached his ears. In the gloaming he could make out the forms of Richard Rich and his mother, close friends already, sitting on the top stair of the little porch. "Ha," thought the Child Commuter, "I've a step-father, I see!"

But constant riding in the smokers of accommodations and local expresses had him too well trained to interfere in others' games of hearts.

Two weeks later the widow married the rich Mr. Rich and they all moved to New York and lived happy ever after, and Claude only remembers as the shadow of a dim, drear dream the joyless journeys to Jersey, when he was SIDETRACKED IN THE SUBURBS!

[THE END.]

HE is a genius who can lead the way out from the shadows into light again, or turn with gentle grace the sigh of despair into the smile of faith, hope and effort.

SMALL minds bend beneath the cross of disappointment, but great ones merely use failure as a shield with which to renew their battle for success.

It is seldom more than a contemptuous jealousy that a woman feels for the love that a man has for himself.

THE envy and prejudice of little people find it difficult to gracefully admit the superiority and success of a course which their ignorance had stamped with failure.

IT is a dangerous practice for women to play with love, especially if they are half in earnest about it.

BEWARE of the man or woman who finds it necessary to constantly impress you with their sincerity.

THERE is no religion so near to God as that represented by our faith in those we love.

IF experience could be purchased, there are but few who would invest with confidence in the commodity.

THE non-platonic part of life's menu consists only of the tabasco that adds zest to the more substantial features of the bill.

TRUE Courage is regulated by the amount of fear we feel and don't yield to.

MAN's manliness is most clearly defined by his attitude and gentleness toward woman.

ANY man who will accept advice has always the advantage over the one that gives it.

MANY rules that antagonize nature are generally regarded by society as necessary social requirements.

How different all the world appears when viewed through the rose-colored glasses of love, hope and faith!

WHEN a great man dies the light of his knowledge and worth lives in the lives of others so long as the philosophy he taught remains unchallenged in the hearts of men.

Down in the heart of earnest love alone lives the pure, unselfish side of unselfishness.

THE average person adopts the easiest course in life, and then endeavors to reconcile his conscience into the belief that it is the best way.

IF a woman reigns as queen in a man's heart, she should also live as such in all parts of his life and before the entire world.

MORBID Confession too often creates a condition unexpected and unsatisfactory to both the confessor and the penitent.