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Candles rtJSS CRESSY'S EASTER EGOS IjUjlr EMKKY l* KIMH/VtJL. M Kothini «1m kddi go much to the charm of the drawing room or boudoir u the softly radi­ ant light from CORDOVA Candies. Mdtbflur will contribute more to the artistic success of the luncheon, tea or dinner. The b<-«t decorative caodlos for the aimplext or the most elaborate function--for cot- ti|m or mansion. Made in all colon ana the most delicate tints bj STANDARD OIL CO. and sold unrvhira Winner of First Prize in Easter Story Contest fiLANKETS! • • • • • It is not our desire to carry over a stock of horse blan­ kets and to prevent this we Have put the prices down to the lowest possible #5o cents to $3.00- V) .. t X#. - ̂ „ • - ' ' ' ' ..V,. We have a good assortment •t all prices from 50cents to - is .00. Horse owners should take advantage of this op­ portunity at once. WM. MERZ, - McHenry. H. fl. Jensen FLORIST Cut Flowers in all Varieties. Funeral Designs on short notice and at reasonable prices. Potted Plants of all kinds constantly on hand. We would be greatly pleased to have the public give us a call McHENRY, ILLINOIS. It Touches the Spot 4 I MBB"SALVF Mm ^ For Cuts, Burns ' 1 T For Cuts, Burns I Bruises, Sores, Pimples, Chapped Hands and Lips, Etc. Etc. 25c end for sample. Large box, DOBBIN riFG. CO. Station S, Chicago, 111. --Don't wait lor the Casualty!-- Be Prepared! F. WATTLES (Successor to R. R. Howard) Proprietor of the West "l am very sure we can make a sreut success of It," said Miss Louisa C'ressy, us she sat in my mother's dining: poom about a week-and-a half before Easter. I can see Just how Miss Louisa looked as she said this, though it was over thirty years ago She was an active, kind little woman of more than forty years, famous for her good spirits, and for a certain originality of speech which was never meant to be uuktnd. She was fa­ mous, too, for her fcood works, and for liur lik­ ing for "getting up things." , - "It's been a long time since we've had,»rty- ttffng here in Blackford,," Miss Louisa went on to say."and this Egg Festival in the town hall Saturday night before Easter, will l>c a novel­ ty. I've an idee we can clear thirty or forty dollar^ out it, if we manage it ri^ht.' "for th6 Sunday School libiUry?" asked n.y mother. „ "Yes, Mrs. Eaton. Yoti see the eggs won't cost us anything at all. We shall expect to have them all contributed by the farmers around Blackford. The hens afe beginning to lay well now. The other things we'll have J contributed by the folks here in town, but we want to have it underst:x>d by all that it's an Eg& Festival. sO's to give out the Idea of Its being something uncommon." "There'll be some other things I suppose?" "Oh, of course, and I'll look to you for a lot of your nice cookies and a loaf of corn bread. But you know most folks are fond of eggs es­ pecially at Easter time. so we'll give 'email the eggs they want. We'll haver 'em fried, boiled, poached, roasted, baked and In omelets and custards, and colored and decorated all sorts of ways for the children. I think we can make a great success of it, and clear per­ haps a clean fifty dollars." Blackford was a little village in a central state. It was an odd, unprogressive little town and for some reason, perhaps by acci­ dent, it could boast of a railroad, although in spite of this it was dull and quiet and social events were of very rare occurrence. Miss Cressy called at our house on the Wed­ nesday before Easter. "My egg affair is going to be a great success, Mrs. Eaton!" she said with enthusiasm, "Everybody's in for it. It's made quite astir in town and there'll be a large crowd. Lots of folks are coming in from the country. I rode out among the farmers yesterday and at every place I called they agreed to give from two to six dozen eggs. Some of the farmer's wives said they'd make pie and cake for us too. We ought to make even more than fifty dollars if all goes well." "Oh, its going to be a grand success" she went on, "but what I want today is to see if Fred can take your horse and light wagon, and go 'round with me Saturday and gather up the things that have been given." I was Fred, and my father said at once that I might do as Miss Cressy wished. "All right, Fred." said Miss Cressy, as She rose to go." You come 'round to my house at about nine o'clock." We started a little after the hour set. I was a boy of sixteen at tire time and like other foolish young fellows, was inclined to feel that the advice of my elders was super­ fluous. So I paid little heed when my father said, as I was starting from home: "Drive carefully, now, Fred, and keep a pretty tight reign on old Charley. Be sure you hitch him every time you leave the wagon and mind your brakes when you come down some of those steep hills." "You couldn't be hired to go faster than a walk, you old poke-easy! "I said to old Charley as 1 drove away, flapping the reins on liis back. "Get along old boy, or we wont get home until after Easter." Miss Cressy was in her merriest mood as we drove along in the sunshine of an unusually mild April morning. The roads were as smooth and dry as in midsummer and the buds were beginning to swell on the branches of the trees. Miss Louisa became musically inclined and sang softly random verses of hymus and old ballads, as we drove up and down the hills. We had in the wagon a number of boxes and one or two tubs filled with oats in which we intended to pack the eggs. The cakes and pies we proposed to put into two large bas­ kets. Over the hills we went meeting a cherry welcome everywhere. All the farmers and their wives and children seemed to be in par­ ticularly good humor. The pleasant weather and the promise of spring no doubt lay at the bottom of this general merry mood and the novelty of the errand and Miss Cressy's hearthy ways did the rest. "Beats all how all creation turns in to help Mut Market, AH kinds of Fresh and salt Meats always on hand Oysters in their season. Vegetables and Canned Goods. Come and give me a trial. F. WATTLES. West McHenry. This Bank receives deposits, buys and sells Foreign and Do­ mestic Exchange, and does a GENERAL BANKING BUSINESS. We endeavor to do all busi­ ness entrusted to our care in a manner and upon terms entire­ ly satisfactdry to our custom­ ers and respectfully solicit the public patronage Honey to Loan on real estate and' other first class se­ curity. Spec- ial attention given to collections, and promptly at- you when you get started* Louisie Cressy," said Farmer Jenson, sts we drove up to his house at the end of a long lane. Farmer Jenson was famous for taking an unfavorable view of everything, and I had predicted that it would he useless to drive too Ills house. "Why," he Wient on, "my hetos hadn't laid au algg--not one 'tarnal aigg--'till you got up this 'ere Easter arrangement. Then tlsiey took to lay in' right off, an' it's bin rainin* aiggs ever since." "You won't miss this dozen then. Etisha?" Miss 'em! Glad to get red of 'em! But I tell you what." he said, sis we drove away, "you got a mighty brettle cargo there. If ye don't sail pretty careful.ye'll have a shipwreck 'fore ye get home." „ "Well, some people must croak," said Miss Gressy to me laughing. ^ ' It was a little marked to me: . "Now, Fred, wp've only one more place to call, and that is at Farmer Carter's Just out­ side the village. 1 don't know what- we'd do, with our things if we hail any more, to collect. --everybody has Ihh>u so generous. We must have as many as sixty dozen eggs; 1tot.lv our' baskets are running over full, and 1 have to hold in my lap this big fruit cake Mrs. Peters made. We'll call at Mr. Carter's and try and make room for live dozen eggs and a roasted chicken, and then we'll hurry on home." Miss Cressy got briskly out of the wagon when we reached the Carter farm house and 1 sat holding the rain:;. J^st then Tom Carter, who was my particular friend came hurrying out of t he house. "Say, Fred," he said excitedly "we caught a fox. alive, in our hen house last night! Come an^see him. I tell you he's a buster!" In utter forgetfulness of my father's in­ junctions I dropped the reins, jumped from the wagon and ran towards t he hen house. I don't know now just how it was but the moment Torn unlocked the door outVame the fox and dashed away like the wind. Tom uttered, a yell of dismay and Mr. Carter's two large dogs set off in pursuit of the cunning creature, barking furiously. The fox and his pursuers ran exactly under old Charley's nose and before I could reach him the "old poke-easy" was away down the road, headed toward the village and going at a rate of speed of which I had never thought him capable. c Miss Cressy came out of the house just In time to witness the frightened steed'^ depart­ ure; "My soul and body!" she shrieked, throw­ ing up both hands. "Them eggs! That cake! Them pies' A nice condition they'll be In. Come, let's run after him. Run, everybody!" Miss Cressy was the first to start in pursuit down the road. Mr. Carter, Tom and I fol­ lowed her, all screaming: « "Whoa! whoa, Charley! whoa!" But Charley kept right on, and soon his path began to be marked with broken eggs, pie and doughnuts scattered by the wayside. A washtub lay in one place, a box in another and a basket in a third. The last glimpse we caught of the horse was just as he whirled around a corner and raced away down the village street, with the light wagon turned wrong side up. This showed me how vain was my hope that a few dozen of the eggs might yet. be unbroken. Then Miss Cressy sat down by the roadside and burst into a hysterical laugh. "A body might as well laugh as cry," she said. "It's just too perfectly ridiculous any­ how. Look at this road! Look at that box full of eggs, pie and cold boiled ham. all in one mass! Did anylnxly ever! Why didn't you hold that horse Fred? What do you s'pose your father will say? I do not care to relate Just what, my father did say or what he did. Many people can re­ call personal exreriences of their younger days about which they do not care to talk and among them must be some like mine on that day. I can see now that I doserve^^l the--well, all that came upon me when I ^reached home for there I found old Charley puffing and blowing In the barnyard, with twit wheels just behind him and two out in the road, while the wagon box was nowhere to be seen Miss Cressy was always ready for an emerg­ ency, and her Easter Egg Festival was a suc­ cess after all. She started out at once on an other egg collecting tour, and as she had a more trustworthy driver than she had the first time, she brought her second load safely Into towij. St. Peter at the Gate. (By Request.) St. Peter stood guard at the golden gate, With solemn meln and air sedate. When up to the top of the golden stairs, A man and a woman ascending there, Applied for admission. They came and stood Before St. Peter so great and good, In hopes the City of Peace to win, And asked St. Peter to let them in. The woman was tall and lank and thin, With a scraggy beardlet on her chin. The man was short, and thick and stout, His stomach was built so it rounded out. His face was pleasant, and all the while He wore a kind and gentle smile. The choirs ip the distance the echoes awoke, And the man kept still while the woman spoke "Oh, thou who guardest the gaW said, she. -- tended to INSURANCE in First Class Companies, at the Low­ est rates. Yours Respectfully PERRY & OWEN, ftoUry Public. Banker#. We come meekly hither, beseeching thee To let us enter the chosen land. To play our harps with the heavenly band. Of me, St. Peter, there is no doubt. There's nothing from heaven to bar me out. I've been to meeting three tim£S a week, And almost always I've risen to speak. I've told the sinners about the day When they'd repent of there evil way, I've told my neighbors, I've told them all About Adam and Eve and the primeval fail; I've shown them what they'd have to do If they'd pass in with the chosen few. I've marked their path of duty clear And told them the fate of their sinful career. "I've talked and talked to 'em loud and long, For my lungs are good and my voice is strong. So, good St. Peter, you'll clearly see * The gate of heaven is open to me. But my husband here. I regret to say, Hasn't walked in exactly the narrow way. He sjnokes and he swears, and grave faults ; he's got, And I don't know whether he'll pass or not. "He never would pray with an earnest vim, Or go to revival, or join in a hymn, Sol had to leave him in sorrow there. While I, with the chosen, united in prayer. "He ate what the pantry chose to afford, While I, in my purity, sang to the Lord. And if cucumber pickles were all he got, 'Tis a chance if he merited them or not. But oh, St. Peter. I love him so, < To the pleasures of heaven please let him go, I've doue enough, a saint I've been, . Won't that atone? Oh, pray let him in. By my grim gospel teachings I know Tint the unrepentant must fry below. But is there not some way you can see. That he may enter who is dear to me? "It's a narrow gospel by which I pray, But the chosen expect to find some way Of coaxing or cajoling or bribing you To let their relatives ambie through. And say, St. Peter, it seems to me The gate isn't kept as it ought to be. You should stand right by the opening there, And never sit down in that easy chair. "Aud say, St. Peter, my sight is dimmed, But I don't like the way your whiskers are trimmed. They're cut too wide an outward toss, They'd look better narrow and cut straight Well, we must be going, our crown to win. So open, St. Peter and we'll pass in. St. Peter sat and stroked his stjaff, But, in spite of his office, he had to laugh, Then said, with a flry gleam in his eye, "Who's tending this gate, woman, you or 1?" And then he arose in his stature tall, And pressed a button upon the wall, And said to the imp who answered the bell, "Escort thi% lady around to hell." The man stood still as a piece of stone, Stood sadly, gloomily there alone. A life-long settled ideii he had. That his wife was good, and he was bad, That ho would certainly have to go, That if she went to the region dim, There wasn't a ghost of a show for him. Slowly he turned, by habit bent. To follow wherever the woman went. St. Peter, standing on duty there, Observed that the top of his head was bare. He called the gentlemen back and said, "My frieud, how long have you been wed?" "Thirty years," he saickwith a weary sigh. And"then he thoughtfully added, "Why?" St. Peter was silent, with head bent down, His brow was puckered into a frown, Then seeming a different mood to take, Slowly and half to himself he spaUe; "Thirty long years with that woman there, No wonder that mau Is minus his hair-r Swearing is wicked, smoking not good, He smoked and swore.I should think he would Thirty years with toogue so nimble and sharp Ifo! Angel Gabriel, give him a liarpf Good sir. pass in where the angels sing, \ jeweled harp with a golden string; ^ Gabriel, give hint a seat alone, „ . One with a cushion, up near the throne, * Cull up some angols to play their b^st, Let him enjoy tit j music and rest. < See that on finest ambrosia he feed4, ' . % He's bad altout all the he) I he needs. > It isn't hardiy the thing to do, _ To roast, him on earth and future, They gave'hiui a harp with golden strings/ A glittering robe and a pair of wings, And he said, as lie entered the realm of da§r, "Well, this beats cucumbers, anyway." And so the Script ures had. come to pass, : f hat "the last siudl be first and the first shall be last." OUT FOR BIG THINGS. Story of a. Cherub, a Shovel m4 Two TrmtluK Matrons. He will "V a mighty monopolist, a confidence man or something else. At present he Is a trifle shorter than a yardstick and lias a face like a cherub. This little rascal stood at the front door of a Second avenue residence, a snow shovel In one hand and a broom In the other. "Walk cleaned, mum?", he asked briskly. "Clean it fur a dime." "This is a very narrow lot, bubby, I never pay but a nickel." "That's what the lady hext door said, that you'd beat me down to a nickel. She said you was closer'n the cover on a baseball." "She did, hey? I'll show her. She's so stingy that she works her potato parings into hash. Close, am If How much did she pay you ?" "Fifteen cents, mum.'* "I'll pay you a quarter.,. When you're through, come in and have a warm piece of mince pie. Poor little fellow!" > The programme was carried out to the letter, and the little boy with big blue eyes, fair face and golden hair went whistling down the street. When the two woynk^b faced each other, over the line fence, they glared. "Told a mere baby that I was mean and would rob him, did you?" began the woman who had furnished the pie. "I told him nothing. What did you mean by advising him to make a bar­ gain with me first or I'd only pay him- 2 cents and to look out that I didn't give him a plugged coin?" "Why, I never did. He went to your house first. Did you ever see or hear of such an angelic looking little vil­ lain?" and they talked the whole mat­ ter over. Two maternal strong right hands are itching for that cherub to show up again.--Detroit Free Press. A Skyscraper. -New York Herald. Inrevilar. "I don't like the way those people fight," said the young man who reads fiction. "The Boers?" "Yes. They don't go at it the right way. Instead of shouting 'Stand, the ground's your own, my - braves,' or 'Once more to the breach, kind friends, once more,' the general simply packs a bunch of tobacco into his pipe, takes a few puffs and then blazes away with his rifle. It may be practical, but It doesn't seem regular."--Washington Star. _______________ Rail Away From It. Mrs. ^Hauskeep--Ain't you. got any home? Tatterdon Tome--Yes, lady; my ole home's way up in Maine. Mrs. Hauskeep--Don't you ever wish you was back there? Tatterdon Torne--No, lady; it makes me shiver to t'lnk of it. My home's tn Bath.--Philadelphia Press. A Horrible Outbreak. ' 'Of large sores on my little daughter's head developed into a case of scald head" writes: C. D. Isbill of Morgaft- completely cured her. It's a guaran­ teed cure for Eczema, Tetter, Salt Rheum, Pimples, Sores, Ulcers and Piles. Only 25c at Julia A. Story's. CASTOR IA For Infants and Children. The Kind You Have Always Bought Bears the J1 Signature of The Kind You Have Always Boughtt and which has beat tn use for over 30 years, has borne the sighatnre of. * , " and has been made under his pew"";,,J sonal supervision since its infancy* ,; I Allow no one to deceive you in this* All Counterfeits, Imitations and "Just-as-good" are bai: v Experiments that trifle with and endaqger the health of \ Infants and Children--Experience against Experiment# ' What is CASTORIA " v ' Castoria is a harmless substitute for Castor Ofl9 Pare* ..jsroric, Drops and Soothing1 Syrups. It is Pleasant. if5!: contains neither Opium, Morphine nor other Narcoti# substance. Its age is its guarantee. It destroys Wornii| and allays Feverislmess. It cures Diarrhoea and Wind,. Colic. It relieves Teething Troubles, cures Constipatioif and Flatulency. It assimilates the Food, regulates th^V; Stomach and Bowels, giving healthy and natural sleep* V The Children's Panacea--The Mother's Friend* GENUINE CASTORIA Bears the Signature of Ji The Kind You Have Always BongM In Use For Over 30 Years. THC CENTAUR COMPANV, TT MURRAY STREET, NtWVOKK CITY. ttlall Paper Our line of wall paper is complete and weeati probably show a nicer line of samples than any other store in town. Call and see them. Shoes We can sell very dressy shoes for ladies, in black or tan, at $1.50. Do not fail to see our line of $2.00 shoes--an elegant shoe for the money. Our line of shoes for men and boys is very complete. Shoes that will wear. Dress Goods and Silks Do not buy the material for your spring gown until you look over our stock. Never before have the ladies of this vicinity been offered such an assortment of dress goods and silks to pick from. Would be pleased to have you call and examine them. Prices are right. Prints and Percales Prints, Percales and Ginghams can always lie found here in hundreds of styles, but this spring finds us with a larger stock than ever. Many styles at consistent prices. Shirts and Cies The gentlemen of McHenry have discovered / that this store is slways up to date in its line of Shirts, Neckties and everything in gent's furnishings. A new'lot of shirts and ties has just been received, and they are beauties. Spring Clotbind Ready-made clothing is usually hard to buy in the country-, with satisfactory results, but by giving us a call we will convince you that we can please in style, quality and ̂ rice.. . . Flour We handle Pillsbury's and Sleepy Eye Flour, the two best brands on the market. Special p r i c e s i n l £ r g e l o t s / . . V . * : . . . . AN kinds of seeds in sowing season. SIHON STOFFEL, W. McHenry READ THIS And be assured that others will notice that well displaye&~~5 advertisement of voitr's ^ • 1 Aug. Buchholz, Tailor. West McHenry, 111. Don't be flistaken If you want a stylish fitting Suit or pair of pants go to Buchholz, That is the Place He makes no humbug fit and workmanship is the btist. • Made np ri.crht or no sale. --111 >•§»•••» l i