The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

mu..." . ‘4‘. .1. (C L g . x, ,fmmxmm- .....,.........< flaws.....~....a-m...-...........«........ . .m- . ,. ‘. ~ ‘mnwmm ' fusions? 3'" Vmefofi4fip .D-‘n ., was": Wu F fish? «A 5:: assist“ .â€".gf:,v,3,;l :2 v‘ . .. ..,..;‘..»‘.4.-V-â€"... ‘99”!"P-UL , 720:“.â€" La. ' the bell-pull. I ly, “I’m ready ‘the table. $5¢5¢g¢g¢gQ‘%‘QQQ§QQQ§ V r ’2. ‘ , 03: Mr. Growler s g 030 ‘O. . .. .3. Awakcnmg 3;, 0 .§ A o e o e o o 'o e c . y... ‘0‘. ‘4.“O.¢~0.0‘O.c$o.o%e‘v%e‘t 439.0" One evening, just prior to tea, Joseph Growler, Esquire, sat poring over the financial columns of his evening paper. There was a smile of grim satisfaction on his thin, hard face. for only that morning he had dealt the deathâ€"blow to an industrial firm that had long been a source of . annoyance to the great syndicate of which he was virtual head. Besides, the doing of it had brought a 00m- fol'tab-le feeling of gratified personal revengeâ€"or rather the Squaring of ,a longâ€"standing accouut. These two things, and another, made Mr. Growler feel almost gay. ' Suddenly he cast the sheet from him with a, contemptuous gesture. "I‘ehaw! let ’em talk!” he sneered. “They’re all dying to call me ‘scoun‘ drel,’ I know they are: and all the while they’re pawn-big their very coats to buy Growler stock. I am on the boom, sirs; but what of that? I snap my fingers at ’em all. I’ve livedto bring Leesome and Co. to the wall, and I feel that the years so spent have not been wastedâ€"by no means; quite-the reverse, indeed- I’ve had enough of .finance now, thougli;_and I shall henceforth devote myself to the tenderer things of life. Aha! People Wonder why I, who am richer than even they dream of, am content to inhabit this couple of poor apartments. But then they don't know 'my ,dear little Miss. Dale -â€"iny darling Agatha!" LA. softer light came into‘his keen eyes. His hand strayed to his vest pocket, from which he produced a. small moroccoâ€"bound case. This be surveyed with a pleased chuckle, then be pressed a spring, and the flashing of many tinted fires made him wink. "Fifty pounds’ worth. Well, it cer- tainly is snowy; but I wonder now whether I ought to have made it a hundred? But it’s too late now.” He closed the case with a snap, replaced it in his pocket, and gave a. drag at Then he resumed his musing. "They dOn’t knowâ€"how can they? sâ€"that I’m going to marry her; and neither does she, the innocent little darling. I shall tell her so after tea, and”â€"â€"he chuckled audiblyâ€"“how she will stare, to be sure. He, he! But the deuce! What’s become of girl? This delay is monstrous!" He gave another and fiercer pull at the cord. The jingle of the bell came to his cars from the kitchen; then, after an aggravating pause, he heard the maid humming her cheerful way along the passage. “Did you ring, sir?" she inquired, innocently, as she opened the door. “Tea!” said Mr. Growler, coldly; “and when that’s set I'll have someâ€" thing to say to you.’ “Indeed,” said Mary Ann. “Now that’s real interesting. I’ve been setting your meals for more’n a year and it’s the first timeâ€"â€"”~ "'l‘ea!” thundered Mr. with a menacing flash. The girl blanched, and fled headâ€" long. But when she reappeared with the tea-things there was a flush on her faceand a combative look in her eyes, which told that her courage had returned. With. much deliberation she pro- ceeded to arrange the table, and When everything had been accomplish- ed to her satisfaction she looked at Mr. Growler with a saucy upturning of her nose. “Now,” she said, acid- to listen, and for heaven’s sake try to be perlite to a lad},.II Mr. ’lrowler's glance became a. glare, and his face slowly crimsoned. Such audacity was unheard of. “Girl, you're mad! stark, staring mad!” he gasped. Mary Ann dropped curtsy. “It’s very kind of you to mention it, I’m .sure; but that’s neither-u . here nor 'there. Anyhow," incaningly. "-,‘I ain’t - a cold-’earted wretchas goes about the world .. a- robbin’ the widow and horphan like some folks I know as onght to be ashamed of emselves.” Mr. Growler's glare became absoâ€" lutely ligerish, and he raised his teaâ€" cup as if about to launch it at the head of the daring maid. Ilut Mary 'Ann was not to be daunted. "Do it; oh, yes, do it,” she cried, recklessly. “I know you're a brute, and worse than that if all were known, I do believe. Do it! I’d go cheerfully to hospital with a broken ’ead if I knew you’d be cooling your heels in prison over it." Mr. lrowler replaced the cup on “Woman,” he said, harshâ€" ly, “you are a disgrace to your sex. I shall insist that Miss Dale dismiss you from her Service at once. Mean- while, I deinnnd to know the mean- ing of this extraordinary outburst.” "Hextraordinai'y, you call it?” panted the maid, hotly. “I say it’s a wonder I don't take my ten fingers .to you. You’ve as good as turned me out of a situation; and inore’n that, you’ve gone like a decouring crocodile and stung the ’and of an angel in disguise, if ever there was oneâ€"I mean my poor missis, and no other. " " “Hold,” interrupted Mr. Growler, sternly. “If you will talk, do try to make yourself intelligible, and be as brief as possible.” “'As I was about to remark when you interrupted me so rudelyâ€"~but it’s gust what I expectedâ€"cI’m going Growler, a mocking L__ away to-morrow, and I'll speak my spoke only the truth.” Mr. Growler mind, which I’ve wanted to do this . grasped the arms of many a. long day, if you kill me for support. "new? that N it. Five ’undred pounds, every penny gone, and you’ve the downright im- perance to sit thete aâ€"toasting your toes at the fire you grudge to pay for, and her you’ve robbedâ€"yes. cruelly robbed!â€"crying her dear eyes out this whole blessed day." “Look here, my girl,” said Mr. Growler, coldly, when the irate maid paused faintest idea. what you’re talking about, and as my tea is growing cold you might have the goodness to retire.” . “It’ll have to freeze solid before it's as ‘cold as your ’eart, anyhow,” snorted Mary Ann. “Bringing the dear thing to the workus door, or at least making her a penniless hexilc across the stormy ocean to her broth- er in Australy. It's my humble opin- ion the poor soul's so frightened of you that she dussn't open her month about it. If the house were mine I’d show you. Out you’d go this blessed minit! There; I said I’d do it, and I have.’ And with a, whisk of her skirts and defiant scorn in her eyes Mary Ann sailed from the room. The. outbreak had a disturbing ef- fect on Mr. Growler's usually healthy appetite. As he toyed with his tea he felt himself becoming a, prey to vague alarms. An awful something had happened to somebody, but who? Ilis brain refused to steady itself. For the moment the angry maid’s torrent of eloquence had quite Sqampcd his reasoning powers. It was clear, though, that she had lost her place, and that she put the blame of .it on him. How absurd! He never interfered in the .managoment of the household. ‘But why had the girl lost her place? ,'Ah! she . menâ€" tioned five hundred pounds. Was it possible she meantthat Miss Dale had lost that sum? And someone was going to Australia. Could she have been referring to Miss Dale again? Ruined! Going abroad! Mr. Growler sprang impetuously to his feet. “I don’t believe it; and, what’s more, I sha’n't have it," he cried. “I shall tell her So at once.” But the next instant he dropped back limply into his chair. It had occurred to him that he was powerâ€" 1058, as yet, to prevent Miss Dale going anywhere she chose. She was her own mistress, while he was only there on sufferance, as it were. He! had trampled rough-Shed over hunâ€"l dreds of hapless mortals in his goldâ€" coining career, thinking naught of the ruin and misery that strewed his truck. He had been remorseless as a sledgeâ€"hammer in all his dealings, with his fellows, taking his due to the uttermost farthing, accepted adâ€" verse blows with stoical fortitude. ow he knew that love, not gold, was life, and he shook as with agne at the bare possibility of losing Miss Dale. But he wouldâ€"he mustâ€"soc her at once. Again he gave an in- sistent jerk to the bell-Cord. It seemed an age ere Mary Ann ap- peared, and when she beheld the conâ€" dition of the teaâ€"table she fivored Mr. Growler with,a pleased nod. “Well, sir,” she said, brightly. ’Mr. Growler repressed his agitation by a powerful effort. “Will you please give my compli- ments to your mistress, and ask her to grant me an interview, now?” he. said. ! “Missis is out and Won’t he home; for an hour,” replied the girl; “but to be sure I’ll tell her. I thought as how you’d come to see what a monâ€" ster you’ve been. But I wonder at your check. If I’d done what you have I’d go straight down to the river and walk in. It ’ud do you good, and the world wouldn’t be a. penny the worse!” * I‘ t} * i9 5 Mr. Growler stood with the handle of Miss Dale’s sitting-room door in his hand. his hard face. screwed into an apologetic smile. Now that he was face to face with his heart’s desire his courage was quickly oozing away under the scrutiny of a pair of blue eyesâ€"beautiful, timid eyes usually, now glowing with a, light be had never seen there before. His own glance wavered and strayed, and he strove to get rid of a lump that would‘f’dse in his throat. And ‘yet Miss 'xDale did not’flook formidable. A_ slight, pale-faced, small and plain' lady of no particular style of beauty,‘ whose ‘, dark hair- was plentifully streaked with grey.g- j , “You wish ‘to speak with me, :Mr. Growler. Pray sit down.” "Erâ€"not at allâ€"I mean-yes, cer- tainly. Ily the way, the weather is rather warm for the season. Don’t you think so?” he said. 7A slight smile flitth across the lady’s face. “I don’t find it particu- larly so," she said. 'A pause. Mr. Growler cleared his throat. "As I think I said, Miss Dale, a few words in privateâ€"â€"â€"” “I am at your service, sir; no one can hear us here,” said Miss Dale, in a, tone that bespoke mingled imâ€" patience and curiosity. lll'r. Growler gulpcd. "Your maidâ€"- a clever girl that, Miss Dale, but just a litt1eâ€"cI'â€"â€"impetuousâ€"â€"mentionâ€" ed toâ€"night that you are parting with her. Is it true? It isn’t more idle curiosity that prompts the ques- tion.” A shadow of pain appeared in Miss Dale's face. “It is,” she said. “Huniph! She also mentioned anâ€" other thing that filled me with amazement and increduli‘ty, namely, that you are seriously contemplating going abroad. I told herâ€"did I, though? I’m not quite sureâ€"that she was talking a lot of confound-ed nonsense; no doubt about itâ€"con-‘ founded humbug! The idea is too ridiculous." “On the contrary, Mr. Growler, she his chair for for breath, “I haven’t teemUOSy “Andâ€"and said, faintly. . Miss Dale was beginning to labor under an agitation that was pain- fully apparent in the nervous clasp- ing and unclasping of her hands and the quick flushing and paling of her cheeks. “Oh, why do you ask? You know only too well," she burst forth, may I ask Why?” he “Upon my word, I don’t,” said Mr. Growler. “But,” eagerly, "sureâ€" ly you are open to reconsider your resolve. My’dear Miss Dale, I am about to ask a very great fewer of you; the greatest, indeed, that is in your power to confer. I’m not good at talking sentimental rubbish,” he proceeded, “butâ€"I say, Miss Dale, will you marry me?” The lady gasped, covered her face with her hands, and shrank hack trembling. Mr. Growler felt his lips go suddenly dry. "Perhaps I’ve been hasty, Miss Dale,” he said; “but I assure you I didn’t mean to hurt you Iâ€"I love you so, my clear, that I can’t find words to express the feelâ€" ing; andâ€"â€"” “Please stop. I Can’t bear it!" in- terrupted Miss Dale, in deep distress. Then she burst forth passiOnately: “Why do you insult me like that? Until to-day I thought you an hon- orable man, but what am I to think now?" "What, indeed?" echoed the beâ€" wildered suitor, feebly. “My own poor savings I care nothâ€" ing for, although they were a, ward between me and poverty. But to have you so far forget yourself as to ask inc-towed youâ€"Fyou! who have this day brought poor 'Arthur Lee- some, his wife, and children to bogâ€" garyâ€"oh, it is too much! Please go away." But Mr. Growler sat as if suddenly petrified, his face blanched. and drawn. The grim irony of the busiâ€" ness had blighted his faculties for the moment as effectually as if lightning had struck him. Slowly the naked horror of it stirred him into action, and he rose unsteadily to his feet. He took one step to- wards the d00r, paused, and turned. "As Heaven is my judge I didn't know you were interested in Lee~ some,” he said, hoarsely. “And knowing, would you have cared? It is doubtful," said Miss Dale, bitterly. “You wrong me; indeed you do," cried Growler. “If I’d known I’d have cut my right hand off rather than have done what I have. But every penny of it will be returned at once. See, 'I shall give you my cheque for it now." He drew out his chequeâ€"book as he spoke, but she stopped him imperiously. "I sha’n't take it, sir,” she said. "My little fortUne is gone, and there’s angend to it. I suppose I shall manage to live without it. But my heart is sore for my friends, the Leesomes, fallen from comfort (to penury at one dire stroke! Go!" Mr. Growler staggered. rather than walked from the room, looking ten years older in one short minute; then Miss Dale collapsed into a chair and Wept. If she was sorry for the Lee- somes, she was, strangely enough, almost more sorry for Growler. No sooner had be gone than her gentle heart began upbraiding her for her harshness. Perhaps he had never thought of the harm he was doing. Besides, he loved her, and no woman is insensible to a compliment of that sort. s n s s n * Mr. Growler’s love for his gentle landlady, if deep, had hitherto been a sort of easyâ€"going feeling that she was there for the taking the moment it occurred to him to claim her. Now that'she was irreVocably lost to him through what a, grotesquely ble causeâ€"she more desirable than ever. shaken, humbled to the dust, and after half an hour's torturing thought he realized how impossible it was that he could live longer unâ€" der that roof. He sat down and wrote a, letter to Arthur Lecsome, in which he expressed his regret that their respective. firms-had ever become out-- broiled through him, how he had disâ€"" covered he was in the wrong, " and He was short ‘would Mr; Lee-some makman estimate . :‘of his losses, jotting the,‘amount on the enclosed blank cheque? « Would he care to undertake the manage- ment of Growler's on his,'0wn terms, .as. he- (Growler) had finally resolved to have done with it, and knew no one more capable, etc.? Then he wrote to Miss Dale, and after that letter was finished he laid it prominently on the table, took the other in his pocket, and slipped out noiselessly. He had a vague idea. of going to some hotel for the night, leaving his goods behind until the morrow, but, indeed, these details were of little account in his then frame of mind. He made for the pillar-box at the crossing, and with a great sigh of relief he dropped his message. of contritiou in, and stepped back directly into the path of an approaching hansom. There was a shout, a crash; and Mr. Growler fell right in front of the plunging horse. ' ~X~ * -X- * * -X- In the morning Miss llale sat weep- ing softly, with Mr. Growler's fare- well note on her "He never knew the harm he was doing,” she murmured. “Oh, I thinkâ€"I'm sure he is truly repentant, andâ€"and he loves me.. I ought not to have sent him away.” Just then the door opened and Mary Ann ushered in a fine, alertâ€" looking man. He was Arthur Leeâ€" some. Miss Dale forgot her grief in a, rush of amazement. Last night she had seen him crushed to the earth; now he was buoyant with cheerful ex- pectaucy. “Where is Mr. Growler?" he asked, terriâ€" , . , appeared in a low veice addressed Faulkner, excitedly. "Where is he, 'Agatha? I am like. to go mad with joy. By Heaven! he has done me a. noble turn.” Miss Dale hurriedly mopped her eyes. "He has gone, 'Arthlur,” she said. faintly.. “But whatâ€"” ' ‘G one? Hmvâ€"whyâ€"where?’ ’ Miss Dale explained in a few halt- ing sentences, and Leesome’s eyes grew wide as he listened; but ere she finished the maid burst impetuouSIy in upon them. “Oh, miss, a. telegram for you! I’m sure it’s from him.” Miss Dale’s lingers trembled as she opened the enVelope and spread out the enclosure; then she screamed loudly and fell back in a dead faint. * * i' 'll' * * A ghastly object looked Mr. Grow- ler as he reclined on a. bed in the ward of the hospital to which he had been conveyed after his accident, His head was bandaged, one arm was in splints, his face pinched with pain. Miss Dale knelt beside the bed hold- ing his hand; and Arthur Leesome stood by locking on the pair Of them with a curious lump in his throat. Hate of the man had gone; sorrow and compassiOn were in his heart now. "The doctors say I went live, and I think it’s as well,” said the injur- ed man, slole. ‘ “No, no,” sobbcd Miss Dale. “Yes, it's better so. My life has been utterly selfish and despicable, as I know now; but I’m not without hope that you will say that you for- give me for what I’veâ€"â€"â€"" “0h, Mr. Growler, indeed, indeed I do!” "Thank you, Agathaâ€"you will alâ€" low me to call you that this onceâ€"'- andnow I’m content. I’ve seen my lawyer, and you will find when I’mâ€"â€" gone that I've done all.I could ’to make reparation. But, oh, Heaven! if only Iliad lived, and you had loved me!” . "011, Mr. Growler, I doâ€"love you,” She whispered, burying her face in the cove: let. . It was the merest whisper, but he light came (loâ€"you do! heard, and a wonderful into his face. “You Say it again, my dear.” She looked up and tried to speak, but he read her answer in her eyes. Then he gave a pitiful, forced laugh. “Then I shall'make a. fight of it,” he said, grimly, “and by "Heaven’s help will live." ' . A stubborn fight'it proved, but he won in the end.â€"~London Titâ€"Bits. HIS FATE FOUND HIM. A Cannon-ball Blew the Pilot to Atoms. Capt. Robert Faulkner, a com- mander in the British navy in 1794, Was a, man of unusual courage. Dur- ing an encounter close under the walls of Fort Royal he noticed that the pilot did not seem to be him- self. The man, he thought, seemed to hesitate when he gave his orders. In “Famous Fighters of the Fleet,” Mr. Fraser gives the story: . Captain Faulkner turned aside to one of his officers. “I think Mr. Dash seems confused, as if he doesn't know what he is about. Has he been in action be- fore?’ "Many times, sir,” was the reply. "He has been twenty-four years in the service.” But Faulkner was not satisfied. He. eyed the pilot closely, and then step‘ ping up to him, asked him a trifling question. The pilot’s agitation was such as to render him incapable of a reply. Recovering himself to some extent a moment later the wretched man. keeping his eyes on the deck, who was bending over him, with this startling admission: ~ - “I see your honor knows me. I am unfit to guide her. I don’t know what is come over me. I dreamt last night I should be killed, and I am so afraid I don’t know what I am about. I never in all my life felt afraid before.” Without for an instant losingr his presence ofvumind, Captain Faulkner replied to the man in a still lower ttonc: - , “The-fate of this expedition de- pends on the mount the helm. Give in' whatever you fancy the safest part of the ship. I-lut‘wniind, fears are catching. If I hear you tell yours to one of your messmates, your life shall answer for it to-morrow.” The poor fellow, panicâ€"stricken, went away, and overcome with shame sat down upon the arm-chest, while Captain Faulkner seized the helm and with his own hand laid the Zebra close to the walls 0f the fort; but before he could land at the head of his gallant followers, a cannon- ball struck the arm-chest and blew the pilot to atoms. He was the only man killed of all the Zebra’s that day. ______+_____. FRENCH WOODEN SHOES. Wooden shoes in France are proâ€" (luced to the-nextent of about 4,000,- 000 pairs yearly. They are made in Alsace and Furriers by machinery and in Lozere by hand. In the last named province 1,700 persons are [engaged in this manufacture, and the yearly product is more than half a million pairs. The best are made In the provinces, nearly possesses a pair of the finer sabots, for wearing out in damp weather. These have mono- grams and other designs carved on the Vamps, and they are kept on the ornamented leather pieces The manufacture of CI'C‘lV of maple. every lady 'foot by lover the instep. [these pieces business in. France. h- r... ' . ,. . dc“. t. it to me, an'd‘go and hide'fiyour fl -_ Wit-5‘ flIâ€"‘M‘fl MARGONI, Till? MAGICIAN ROMANTIC LIFE STORY OF THE- GREAT INVEN TOR. Yet Thirty Years Old and. Famous the World Over. Not To become famous in five continâ€" cuts at tWenty-four, and to crown this rare feat by winning for his Wife the charming daughter of a peer, is Such good fortune as falls to the lot of few men in a generation. And Yet this is but part of the wonderful achievement of Guglielmo Marconi, who recently led one of Lord Inchi- quin’s fair sisters to the altar. 5335 London Titâ€"Bits. If ever a man was justified in counting himself the favored child of- fol'tune, surely it is this young Ita- lian, who leaped in four short years, from obscurity to a. fame wider than even Pitt enjoyed, and who, while still in the twenties, has made his name a, “household word” all the world over. And, perhaps an equally remarkable thing, he remains as un- spoilt as when he was an obscure student at Bologna and spent his spare hours DABBLING IN CHEMISTRY in the laboratory in his father’s house at Grif‘i‘ore. In those daysâ€" and they are only ten years removed from nowâ€"he was deeply interested in electricity, but only as a hobby. "I had fitted up a rude laboratory. or workshop,” he says, “in my fath- er's house near Bologna, where I had begun to worlcwith primary batter- ies and thermopiles, grappling with the problem of transforming heat directly into electricity. I had also experimented with the utilization of steam in engines, and had likewise been deeplyinterested in chemistry." But he had then no more idea of fame or of the direction in which it would come to him than the man in the moon. It was the reading, in 1894, in an Italian journal of the work of Pro- fessor Hertz that first suggested the idea of sending messages through space by means of etheric waves; but, as he says, “the idea seemed so sim- ple and evident to me that at first! I had no thought of attempting prac- UCC‘J experiments to demonstrate its possibility, because I knew there \vere many clever men in the World experimenting with ethel‘lc waves, and I thOUght some one would quick- 1y, work out the problem.” It is characteristic of the unselfish- ncss and moclesty of the man that he actually waited nearly a year TO GIVE OTHERS 'A CHANCE of taking the palm which he knew he had but to stretch out his hand to make his own; and it was only when there was no sign of its being appropriated tliat'he began to make his experiments, and quickly succeed- ed in. sending aerial messages a couple of miles across his father’s (Etate. What has happened since those ’prenticc daysâ€"how he has sincc'sent winged messages across the wide Atlantic, has made it pos- sible for “ships to hold converse a. thousand miles apart, and how, in fact, he has, with almost a. Wizard’s magic, annihilated spaceâ€"the world knows. And what kind of a. man is this magician who has still to see his thirtieth birthday? This is how he is described by one who knows him well: “A slight young man of me- dium'height, but who scarcely looks it, with brown hair, cut short and parted at the side, alight brown moustache, deepâ€"set blue eyes, and a. look of boyishnoss which he never seems to outgrow. Just the kind of neat, wellâ€"groomed young men you see by the thousands in the streets of London.” In fact, few men of fame ever “looked the part” less than this wonderful young Italian. His modes- ty, too, amounts almost to diffiâ€" dence; he will talk charmingly on any subject but himself, and is ready to take to his heels at the more menâ€" tion of~ THE :WORD ' 'INTERVIEWER. ’ ’ And yet‘ he is sufficiently human to- Canc-ss that “it is nice to 'be fam- ous,” and to enjoy the fruits of his genius and industry.‘ Perhaps the most remarkablething about :him is his voice, which is soft and low and musicalâ€"the voice, in fact, of his na- tive Italy; and the contrast between his slow, deliberate method of talk- ing and his restless, tireless energy When at work is as marked as that between his modesty and his achieveâ€" ment. life has none of the eccent‘icities which seem to be the usual accom- paniment of genius. When he was once asked whether, like Edison, he was ever so absorbed in his work that he forgot to eat, he answered, “I think never. You see, my stom- ach always cries out at the proper moment, and I always hasten to obey its call”; and to the .question, "You wouldn’t have starved for wire- leSs telegraphy?” he replied, with a, smile, “No, indeed; I have too good a digestion.” .__:__+_._. 'A farmer recently paid a visit to a neighbor, and as he passed along by the side of the. fields he made a. mental note of the fact that no scarecrows were visible. Meeting his neighbor almost immediately, he opened conversation as follows:â€" “Good morning, Mr. Oates. I see you have no scarecrows in your fields. How do you manage to do without them?” "Oh, well enough” was the innocent reply. “You see, I of leather is a regular don’t need ’em. for I’m in the fields all day myself. ” o “LAxkA