Ontario Community Newspapers

The Enterprise Of East Northumberland, 23 Apr 1903, p. 2

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In Peace and War Or, The End of It All CHAPTER VTJJ. "Theo! Theo! I am sorry to wake you!" "I am sorry to disturb you, Theo." she repeated. "Not at all," he said. "Why should you be? It is ten o'clock; I have been asleep two hours. What "I have kept some breakfast warm for you," she said, turning toward the table; "but I awakened you because of these. There are four telegrams and a number of letters for you. Hans Olsen brought them oft just n<sw. He got them yesterday from the Bergen boat. We are out of the Heimdalfjord now, and Kiel-sen has gone. I . . . only hope . . . It is not war, Theo!" He stood up and took the telegrams and letters from her hands. Then he crossed the saloon toward the table. "It looks rather like fV' he said coolly. He rr i ed the cover of the dish which ti-.e steward had just placed upon the table, and Brenda, taking the hint, poured out his coffee. She walked away from him a little and stood quite motionless, with her back turned toward him, while he tore open the thin, white telegraph envelopes. One . . . two . . . . three . . . four of them, spreading the paper out upon the tablecloth. Her quick ears caught each sound, and enabled her to picture every movement made by this indif- "Yes, Brenda, it , . . is . , „ war!" She turned slowly and approached the table. Bending over it. she attended to hi3 requirements in a deftly graceful way, grouping round him the toast, butter, and marmalade. He was studying a telegram spread out before him, but his fixed eyes 4id not appear to be taking In the purport of words written in uneven type. Furtively he looked toward her hands, and then slowly upward, terminating in one scrutinizing glance into her face. "Where?" she asked, sitting down rather hastily opposite to him. Servia and Montenegro have declared war against Turkey," he replied, busying himself with his plate. "And you must go?" He stirred his coffee very deliberately, and, raising the cup to bis lips, took a long, critical sip. "Yes, Brenda. I must go!" Furtively she raised her eyes, and at the same moment Trist looked across the table in a hurried, sfcifty way. Their eyes met for a brief, Presently he handed the open telegrams across the table to her. "You may as well read them," he said conversationally. "Th»y are very characteristic of the man who wrote them." She took the papers and read la a "Wa ' -- Servia, Turkey -- immi- vas longer:. irth are you? Montenegro is War. Number Look sharp. The third was more serious: "Two messages without reply. Are j-qu coming?" Then number four: "They are at it already. It will be a bad business. Come at once." She returned them without a word; and he, seeing the necessity of saying something, remarked pleasantly: "It is mv misfortune to be requir- ed i all.' She stood by the table and looked at the date of the latest telegram. The four messages had been despatched within two days. "Are you not," she asked Innocently, "too late? It may be all He glanced up at her in a curious, laughing way. "No--I am afraid not. War in these semi-barbaric countries is like an illness in a young person. It is only half healed beneath a deceptive surface, and breaks out in a fresh Again she took up the telegrams. It seemed as if there were a fascination in the flimsy papers which she could not resist. "You must not allow this . . . this calamity to make any difference. I quite understand the position you are in. Of course you are pledged to this man? ....** Trist nodded a brief acquiescence. "Then you must go. I can manage quite well alone. Mrs. Wylie is much better this morning, though she is still dull and horribly apathetic. We will go home as quickly There was something in her vuice, a slight catch, which he could not understand, and of course he misread it. The last few words were spoken in a peculiar monotone, with feverish haste. "I feel horribly selfish," fie said, "thinking of my own affairs at this time. No, Brenda. I cannot go and leave you in such a fix--alone." "I want you to go, Theo; I do really. It would never do for you t« miss this chance. You are pledged to this man (who sits comfortably at home), and I would never orgive myself if I thought that you stayed here on my account. Besides, you are a sort of public servant; it is your duty to go." "Yes," he said, catching at the phrase uneasily, "it is certainly my duty. It is my duty ... to go." Sl.e stood beside him quite still. Then she moved a step nearer to him and laid her hand upon his shoulder. "Theo," she pleaded, "you must go. To please me, pack up and go." He smiled suddenly, but did not look up into her face, which was very pale, while her lips remained red. There was a slight quiver of her chin whenever her mouth remained for a second unclenched. It needed an effort on her part to prevent his hearing the chattering of her teeth. Involuntarily he shrunk a little away from her light touch, and glanced furtively at the white fingers on his shoulder. Thus they remained for some moments while the yacht heaved gently onward. The lamps swayed a little, but beyond that there was no motion in the pretty cabin. At last Trist reached out his hand and took the envelope from which he had torn one of the telegrams. He bent it over and smoothed it very carefully, while she watched the movements of his fingers. "When is there a steamer to Eng. land?" she asked suddenly. "The day after to-morrow, from Bergen, at nine o'clock in the even, ing." His answer was laconic and precise as Bradsfoaw. Brenda knew then that he had expected war all along, and war was his element; she could not forget that, despite the wild incongruity of it?" s«he it. "How you manage asked simply and practically. It would appear that he had foreseen everything, provided for every possible contingency. While she moved away from him and sat down near a small table, he answered her without a moment's thought. "If we have the funeral to-morrow morning, I can start immediately afterward in a small boat, and row or sail to Gudvangen, reaching there early next morning. Drive to Vosse-vangen, and catch the afternoon train down to Bergen." "It sounds very simple, but it means thirty hours without sleep." "I can sleep all the way across the North Sea. Don't think of me, Brenda; I'm outside the question altogether." He stopped, with a worried look upon his face, but did not raise his eyes. Had he done so he would inevitably have noticed a heightened color in her cheeks, although she turned aside and gazed at nothing in particular. "What bothers me," ho continued, "is you and Mrs. Wylie and the Hermione. What will you do?" "I will take the Hermione home," she said, with gentle confidence. "You can safely leave Mrs. Wylie to to leave you to'Mrs. Wylie."* It is putting too much on your shoul- She shrugged the graceful members in question, and gave a little, short laugh. "They are strong," she answered carelessly. "Besides, there is no choice in the matter. I simply must be left in charge, because there fs no one else. It seems to me that the matter in question is . . ." she glanced toward the closed door of 'Prist's late state-room, where Admiral Wylie kept his silent watch -- "is whether Mrs. Wylie will consent to Fjaerholm or not." "Can I see her?" "No . . no, Theo. I think it is She is so strange and that I am afraid the i might have some seri-Even in her dreams she constantly recalling the sight of you . . . coming down the little path . . . with him in your arms. You remember -- just beside the big rock where it was too narrow for you both to carry him." "Yes," he replied, in a voice that might well have been rendered purposely careless. "Yes, I remember." "I have not dared," the girl continued, "to say anything about . . . . about Fjaerholm. I have never seen any one in grief like this bo-fore, Theo, and it frightens me a little." He had left the table, forsaking the farce of breakfast, and was now walking noiselessly backward and forward. At the sound of her voice, deprecating, when she last words, he stopped sight of yc effect. timid and spoke the Short before "Then I i: ■," he her before I go. I have seen a good deal of ... of grief, Brenda -- in other people, * ; take i But the Admiral rsclves, row, buried at taking it as and the voy-Bergen, even, Fjaerholm. She ii I thought she won: ago home, or back with him on board would mad. _When he is buried it will different; she will recover then, "Yes," replied the girl. "Yes, thought of it before." "If at any time," he n his gently suggestive matter is 'discussed -- v away, I mean -- you c; the whole responsibility She r urmured in way, "the in say that i not afraid of responsibility. I think ; She received th was made, simply, half-playfully, and quite without afterthought. At the upper end of the fjord of the same name lies the small village of Fjaerholm. A white, wooden church of conventional architecture the most prominent, and at the ne time the most unsightly, feat-j of the landscape. Around this edifice are clustered a few wooden houses, mostly painted white or yellow with a sparing brush, because paint is heavy freight, and can be bought only in Bergen or Chris-tiania. Houses and church alike are roofed with red tiles of a bright and cleanly hue, which will be preserved much longer than the memory of the tiler. There is no smoke in Fjaerholm, and a long, cold win-tor kills any moss-like growth, so everything looks clean and new. The arrival of the Hermione was a matter of no small wonder in this mountain fastness, but in a few minutes the story was known throughout the village, for the very good reason that every inhabitant possessing means of locomotion was on the small wooden pier to meet Trist and Captain Barrow when they landed. Norway is a taciturn country, and the matter was soon talked over in a mumbling, half-plaintive At mid-day there was a simple funeral. Four bareheaded sailors bore their late ehief from the pier to the scantily tenanted churchyard. The British ensign fluttered for the first time in the cold breeze that steals down from the glacier into the Fjaerholm Valley, and the old white haired minister, clad in his quaint Lutheran robes, read unintelligible phrases over the coffin. Then the stony earth fell heavily, for it was still 'damp, and Theo Trist turned in his philosophically calm way and. smothered a sigh of relief. There was something to be written in a book in the vestry of the church, a few homeopathic fees to be paid, an exchange of names and addresses to be affected with the preoccupied postmaster, and Admiral Wylie was left to his rest amidst the simple Northerners. The Hermione moved gracefully away while the postmaster stood, hat in hand, gravely saluting. She was the quickest craft in those ters, so Trist determined to stay on board as long as the breeze held good. Mrs. Wylie never appeared on deck, and Brenda reported no change. The cheerful little lady seemed to have lost heart altogether, but Brenda kept her fears to herself as only women can. At lunch she attempted a little cheerfulness, and Trist promptly assisted her, but cheerfulness a deux, when It is forced, cannot be long lived. The solemn steward moved round them with his grave faro set at zero, and the meal was soon despatched, was already known on board that the Hermione was bound for home, and that Mr. Trist was going on hy steamer -- called away most inopportunely to an Eastern war. Trist did not consider it necessary to tell her of his arrangements made for her future benefit. Such reference would naturally have led to the question of his approaching departure for the seat of war, and this question was distasteful to him just then. "And now, Brenda," he said about eleven o'clock that evening -- "and now, Brenda, go to bed. You have had a hard time of it since Wednesday. We cannot reach Gudvangen before two o'clopK tctmqr-row morning, aivd it i-s mer«Jfoliy for you to stay up any longer. Say . . . good-bye . . . and go to bed!" In the gray twilight her sweet face changed suddenly. Her cheeks lost all color, and a peculiar ashen-gray hue fell upon her motionless features, while into her eyes there came such a look of horror that Trist, seeing it, was struck dumb. In a peculiar mechanical way they continued to walk side by side. She seemed to experience some difficulty in breathing, for the muscles of her round white throat moved hurriedly at short intervals. He stared straight in front of him with a dull, vacant expression in his eyes, while his stern mouth was twisted slight- VAt last, just as they were turning amidships, she spoke without raising her eyes, and her articulation was slightly muffled. "I would rather stay on deck, but ... do you want me to do?" "No--stay." For a moment or two be stood behind her, and there seemed to be a dull tension in the very atmosphere. Then at last he spoke, in his soft, emotionless way. "The wind is dropping," he said; "and we cannot expect it to rise again before the sum comes up. Let us be practical and have some rest. Go to your state-room and try to sleep. I will lie down for a couple oFhours in the saloon." She did not answer at once. Then she turned and passed round the boat in the other direction, so that he did not see her face. Moving toward the companion, she answered him quietly: •Yes--it will be better." No other words passed between them. She went below, and presently Trist followed her. He lay down on the cabin sofa, but did not sleep. He took up a novel instead, and read assiduously. (To Be Continued). HE, ALSO, COULD BE FRUGAL. The stingiest man in the town of Bramville had seat for John Briggs to discuss a matter of importance. When Mr. Briggs entered the room it was lighted by one dim candle irlight night,' "It's a bright said his host, "and we don't need the candle to talk by;" whereupon he blew it out as soon as his guest had found a seat. The room was pitch-dark and the conversation was long. When it was over, the host lighted the candle again to show his visitor out. VWell, well, sir, this is a strange sight !" he blustered, for Mr. Briggs was minus coat, waistcoat, collar How to Keep Well and Strong TRIFLE ONE : AS THINGS ARE. With the potentialities of "little drops of water" and "little grains st of us have been fa-childhood upwards, and experience teaches that life itself is made up of trifles. It is not, however, sufficiently realized that premature death is often the cumulative result of trifles that tell on health, little habits that appear of slight consequence at the moment, but which, oft repeated, influence for the id Mr. Briggs might just as them as long put them on lighted the candle," s calmly. "I thought 1 as nobody could see.' The last census in the United States was taken with the aid of 311 tabulating machines, and 74 adding machines. and may wear out the hardiest of^ tissues, even as drops of water wear away a stone. It is not the one grand, heroic outbreak against the laws of hygiene that undermines health so much as the little sins of omission and commission against sane and sanitary living that are of daily, nay, hourly occurrence among .those who die simply because they Dr. Robertson Wallace. Among the commonest little habits that hinder health or engender positive ill health are those associated with such common every day occurrences as eating and drinking, sleeping, smoking, bathing, dressing, walking, and so forth. The field for the acquirement of ill-health is a wide one, and persons may (and do) eat, drink, sleep smoke, bathe, dress, or walk themselves into ill health with a devotion worthy of a better cause. I shall consider the little bad habits associated with each of these forms of human activity in detail, and show how they influence health, so that in future the reader will know exactly what he may do and what he may not do if his desire be to live to a green old age. TRIFLE TWO : DRINKING. Let us begin (as we too often do) with drinking. I only voice the views of my medical brethren when I say, as emphatically as I can, that people drink a great deal more alcoholic liquor than is good for them. A "small Scotch" seems a small matter, and so it may be; but in a multitude of "small Scotches" there is physiological disaster and final ruin. If men knew what they were really "going to have" later on, in the shape of gout, liver disease, Bright's disease, heart disease, cerebral troubles, and other deviations from health too numerous to mention, they would weigh their answers more carefully. It is the habit of tippling between meals on an empty stomach that is so injurious. Alcohol, it should never be forgotten, is a powerful drug With a special affinity for nerve cells, whose vitality it always depresses and whose activities it paralyzes. While on the subject of drinking I ought, perhaps, to mention that there is nq record of any o»ie having died from excessive indulgence in pure water. Want of this most necessary of foods--yes, water, strange as it may appear to the unphiloso-phical, is as much a food as beefsteaks or porridge--is a common cause of ill-health. It constitutes about 75 per cent of the bulk of the bodily tissues, acts as a solvent of the food assists in the elaboration of the digestive and other juices, and is necessary to the efficient "sewerage" of the body. So necessary is water to the performance of the vital functions that its total deprivation causes death. And yet men and women, when thirsty, willingly drink anything other than water, trying to put nature off with port, sherry, champagne, whiskey, cognac, or liquors. This may seem a small matter, but it is assuredly another of those trifles that in the long run injure health. The deviations from normal health and positive injury to it that arise from everyday errors in eating are hardly less than those attributable to bad habits in drinking. People eat wrongly--wrong food, wrongly cooked, at wrong hours. This is a comprehensive indictment, but it is the truth. When I say people eat wrongly, I mean that some people dine as if eating were a pastime ; others as if it were a penance. It is neither the one nor the other. Eating is really a solemn function, to be performed, however, without undue solemnity. Eating, in a word, is a duty to be done, but never o'erdone. The duo nourishment of the body is a process to be undertaken deliberately, without hurry. Food must be chewed slowly. If food be bolted, then good health is likely to be barred. "Lightning' lunches" are likely to be followed by "thundering" pains. Remember that what is worth chewing is worth chewing well, and what is swallowed in haste frequently fails to be digested at leisure. TRIFLE THREE : EATING. Many people regard the nature of the food they are eating as quite a trifling matter and pay more attention to the quantity than to the quality of their food. Thus the brain worker makes a hearty luncheon of, say, steak and kidney pie, with half a pint of stout, and some sweet to follow, then wonders why he feels so sleepy, and why brilliant flashes of wit and flights of imagination no longer emanate copiously from his brain. He forgets that when the animal organs are busiest the mental organ is most sluggish ; he fears that his brilliant mental powers are on the becomes fearful, irritable, organs of digestion, which in turn affect his cerebral organs. And so the vicious cycle goes on, until per-haos his health, either of body or mind, breaks down. This catastrophe might have been averted by a trifling alteration in the victim's luncheon menu, for he would have satisfied the demands of his stomach and the requirements of his brain by lunching on a cup of chpcolate with cream, roll, and butter, and a little of one of the much advertised cereal foods which are to be had everywhere. Many persons make the mistake of eating a trifle too much every day, and this would not matter much were it not that the organs of digestion, assimilation, and excretion are thereby a trifle overworked, and so, in the long run, worn out before their time. It is the last straw that breaks the camel's back, the last bit of roast pork that exhausts the stomach, the last driblet of sauce that goads the liver to rebellion, and the last drop of liquor brandy that fills the cup of an uncomplaining kidney. It is difficult for many to achieve the happy mean in eating, and for the man of 40 in particular to remember that he must eat only sufficient food to repair the waste of the body. An excess of food beyond the bodily needs, even though it be trifling in amount, must be stored away wherever space will permit, in the joint3, for example, the 1 abdoi rial vity, < hat may be described nexe--an addition to the body bluntly described by surgeons as a tumor, benign or malignant, as the case may be. Thus cancer is believed by some authorities to be predisposed to by overstimulation and over-nourishment of the tissues by an excess of food. On the other hand, many persons suffer ill-health by trifling with the hour sacred to food, making each meal a movable feast, and making meals entirely secondary to business appointments ; whereas the latter ought to be regulated by the former, since in order to keep any appointments at all one must be alive, To derive the fullest advantage from each meal it ought to be partaken of at a set hour each day, when the stomach and other organs that participate in the function of digestion will be prepared to receive and deal with it in the most efficient manner. What are often regarded as trifling irregularities in meal hours have in the long run a disastrous effect on the digestive organs, and so undermine the general health. TRIFLE FOUR : SMOKING. Now, with regard to smoking. A cigarette is a small matter, indeed, and the effect of smoking one is so trifling as to be almost beneath notice. And so one cigarette after another is smoked, until by the end of the day quite a considerable amount of tobacco and paper has been consumed by the indifferent and unthinking smoker. The smokers of pipes and cigars are generally aware of the quantity of tobacco they smoke in a week, but the consumer of cigarettes has hazy notions as to the number of packets he has smoked in a period of seven days. And thus an excess of that deleterious "weed" tobacco, is indulged in all unconsciously, and the victim, who is generally a weedy youth, develops all the symptoms of what used to be called nicotine poisoning, although, as he will tell the doctor, he only has "a cigarette now and again." Fortunately nicotine, which resembles prussic acid in its effects on the human body, is present in so minute a quantity in tobacco as to be negligible by the smoker. The lower the grade of tire tobacco the greater the percentage of nicotine it contains. A cigar weighing sixty grains contains about one grain of nicotine, of which less than half a grain is inhaled with the smoke, and of this only a minute portion remains in the body. Perhaps about one-sixtieth of a grain enters the system of the smoker. It cannot, therefore, be the nicotine that does the mischief in those who smoke to The volatile, oily substances, and those produced during the fermentation of the leaf by the agency of mi. cro-organisms, mixed with the inhaled air during the combustion of the cigar, are no doubt factors in producing the poisoning. Functional disturbances of the heart, smokers' sore throat, inflammation of the cornea, sleeplessness, and disturbances of digestion are among the results described as "an of a cigarette." of i occasional ; is often hiff time to reflect if it is to sacrifice health on altars of my Lady Nico- loking I the subject of si hout, I hope, being :onsidered an alarmist, that so ;rifling a matter as slight soreness >f the lip or tongue arising from ith the stem of a. clay pipe educed by smoking EXTRAORDINARY EDITING. Perils of Publishing a Paper in Foreign Countries. J ournalistic circles in Portugal were a few months ago thrown into a state of wild excitement over a wordy warfare between the editors of two well-known newspapers. Whea at length one of them published a statement to the effect that the other had printed an article attacking a certain nobleman because that gentleman refused to pay blackmail, the staff of the journal so accused were roused to a frenzy. Headed by the editor, it is alleged they made their way to the office of the rival paper, which they endeavored to set on fire. The staff thus attacked, however, made a determined resistance, the fire brigade was call-and presently the flames were any damage having been done. The editor and the whole staff, it is reported, were arrested on a charge of incendiarism, and several of them were afterwards sentenced to terms of imprisonment. Excitements of a somewhat similar kind would appear to be the pleasure as well as the privilege of some Hungarian journalists. One Hungarian daily, well known for its strong language, recently managed to embroil its staff in serious difficulties. This daily had printed a criticism of an officer in the army, who in his turn had challenged the whole editorial staff to duels. The staff accepted the challenge and the officer fought them one by one: All the editors were wounded so severely that they were unable to bring the paper out for several weeks. "Our consolation, however, is," exult ingiy asserted an editorial, when at length the paper re-appeared, "that we have rendered our opponent permanently unfit for military duties. So serve we all who oppose The Porte, it may be noted, _ now makes it a criminal offence to publish any new book without the permission of the Minister of the Interior. Things got to such a pass recently on account of this regulation that there was a crisis in the Turkish publishing houses. The Sultan, however, solved the difficulty by offering the publishers, their literary staffs and laboring employes, posts in the Political Secret Service, so that numbers of Constantinople publishers are now detectives. For Russian editors things are scarcely better. An Englishman whose business takes him much abroad says that a few months ago he was at an evening party of the local Press censor in a South Russian town. About midnight he was playing a game of cards weith his host, when the hostess approached her husband. "I wish, my dear," she said, "you would step behind. There are three poor things there who have been waiting for a couple of hours. I did not like to disturb you sooner." "They must wait a little longer," replied the censor; "I must finish Twenty 1UTCS Englishman, the self for a quarter of i ing his wife the mxt ton asked her who v. poor things" referred later, says tha absented him-m hour. Meet-; 'day, the Bri-rere th% "three The editors of the three local journals," she replied. . They had waited two and a half hours in the censor's back kitchen with their MSS. and proof-sheets for that morning's issue, without which' they could not go to press! A TRUE WOMAN. kind things about ody TRIFLE FIVE The little inch, ( inches, of open wii room at night i FRESH AIR. . Thus, i spring, neglect- of which the mptio of the : are sacrificed annually than to foul water or And yet fresh air is to e had literally for the asking, 'eople who ought to know better go m day after day, and night after .ight breathing air that has already >een breathed either by themselves r by others. Why, the bare thought of it is for . of i 11 not believe inland tell her her failings and mistakes in a spirit of love, rather than talk about them and find fault behind her back. A true woman will always look for the good points in a person's character and will dilate on these, if she has anything to say about her. There are always enough wo- characters. A true woman is gracious to everyone. The shabbily clad and those low in social scale receive as much ateention from her ps their more fortunate sisters. A true woman is entirley unselfish. .She rejoices with others in their joys, and weeps with them in their sorrows. She does not envy those more forunate than herself, and is the first to offer congratulations on s broad-minded and stens patiently to and seeks to find , they propose. tolerant. She the arguments c the good in wh She recognizes two sides to ev seeks the truth i FEATHER BEDS. The feather bed, after its 1 about half a ci ved back into fa .tries. Hygiene c it, on account t •e and the difficu iring and purifyii ^ during condemned heating natu thoroughly e nevertheless, commended inches of open window at makes all the difference betwec premature, miserable death an green old age. ight during the winter ous, neuralgic wc and particularly for elderly pe and those who are troubled wit A DOG-PROOF TABERNACLE. The Eskimos possessed the most remarkable place of worship in the world. It was a sealskin church.1 Forty sealskins were stretched over a light framework, and in this tent, 18 feet by 12 feet, services were held every Sunday. But the church came to an untimely end. One hard winter the Eskimos' dogs, beir-g half famished, dined on the sealsftlns, ami only the frame, was left. The Es« kimos have now erected a dog-proof tabernacle.

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