The Bronson Pilot from Bronson, Kansas • 2

MED ILL AND MUD. ST. VALENTINE'S DAY. THE BRONSON RECORD TWO BROTHERS SHOT. MEDIATION EEFUSED.

the popular observance has ever dedicated the day. John Lydgate, 1440, wrote: "Saynt Valentine, of custom yeere by yeere, Men have an nsaunce in this region, To loke and serene Cupide's kalendere. And chose theyr chosye by grete af- ectioun." In Hamlet, Ophelia is heard to sing' "To-morrow is St. Valentine's day. All in the morning betime, And a maid at your window.

To be your valentine." Some have accounted for the origin of the day's observances by saying that Eruptions On the Face I was troubled with eruptions on my face. I thought I would give Hood's Sar-aparillaa trial, and after taking a few bottles I was cured. I am now also free from rheumatism to which I hava been subject for some time." E. Baxky, 726 Milwaukee Street, Milwaukee, Wis. Hood's Sarsaparilla Is the best in fact the One True Blood Purtfler.

Hood's Pills cure all liver ills. 25 cents. After a man reaches fifty he tries to look guilty when accused of flirting with women. Fatal Tragedy at Mercer, Over a. Judgment Debt.

Mercer, Feb 7. Peter Kindred, a blacksmith, shot J. A. Alley and A. A.

Alley, two merchants, Saturday afternoon. The trouble arose over a judgment held by them against Kindred. Kindred had beeq drinking and entered the store in fighting mood. He made insulting remarks and was ordered out. He went and A.

A. Alley followed him Alley turned back at the door. Kindred, instead of going out, turned and shot J. A. Alley, who was in the back of the store.

Kindred then shot A. A. Alley in the back. Alley turned ana Kindred shot him again, hitting him in the neck, breaking it and killing him instantly. J.

A. Alley is in a critical condition and is not expected to live. Kindred was arrested by the sheriff and placed in jail in Princeton, to which he was followed by an angry mob Sentiment is strong against him and lynching is threatened. BRYAN'S MAIL, Newspapers With Marked Editorial Sold In Original Wrappers. Lincoln, Neb, Feb.

7. Every mail brings copies of newspapers from all over the country addressed to W. J. Bryan. Most of these papers contain complimentary notices of the silver champion, and the articles' are invariably marked with a blue pencil, sc that Mr.

Bryan will have no difficulty finding them. It will pain some of the publisher! of these newspapers to learn that th pt.per mail is not taken to Bryan'e house, but is dumped on the floor of a vacant room in the rear of his office downtown. When two or three bushels have accumulated they are sold to a dealer in old papers, the wrappers not being removed. BLACKLISTING IS UPHELD. A Jndse Decides a Knllroad May Mak Its Own Roles for Protection.

Chicago, Feb. 7. Judge Brown oi the circuit court to-day sustained a demurrer to the claim in the case of William A. McDonald, a switchman who sued the Illinois Central Railroad company and the Chicago North western for alleged blacklisting. Judge Brown held that the declaration did not show any illegal act and took the position that the railroad company could make rules for its own protection just as much as the men (nad the right to band together.

The case was appealed. SIX FIREMEN PERISH. ISarled by the Collapse of a Burning Factory 'lluilding. Boston, Feb. 7.

The bodies of sii firemen have been taken from the ruins of the Bent building, which took fire at 4 o'clock this morning. The dead are: John F. Egan, district chief; James Victory, captain; George J. Gotwald, lieutenant; Patrick 1L Disken, hoseman; John J. Mulhern, fireman; W.

J. Walsh, hoseman. Four other firemen were buried in the ruins, but they escaped with more or less serious injuries. FOR TRIPLE SILVER FUSION Populists and White Kletni Republican! Hold a Conference In Washington. Washington, Feb.

7. The Populists and Silver Republicans held conference last night which was generally attended by members ol these parties in both houses of Congress. Both organizations decided tc work with the Democrats in order that a solid combination of all organizations may be made against the Ke publicans. TO POSTPONE K. P.

SALE. The Government to As' for Another Delay in the Union Pacific Matter. Washington, Feb 7. Government has decided to pay off the first lien holders of the Kansas Pacific Railroad company and to ask for a postponement of the sale. No date has been fixed.

The Cracker Combine. Chicago, Feb. All the buscuh and cracker companies between Salt Lake City on the west, Portland, on the east, St. Paul on Ihs north and New Orleans on the south, are now under one management. The name oi the new corporation, which was incorporated j-esterday in the state of New Jersey, with a capital of of preferred and 30,030, 0H) of common stock, is the National Biscuit company.

Strengthens 7 rust. Chicago, Feb. 7. The glucose trust will be strengthened by the opinion bt the United States circuit court of appeals to-day sustaining its patents. The effect of the decision, if accepted In other districts, will be to give the glucose trust a monopoly of the manufacture of glucose syrup Catholic KuJe.

New Yokk, Feb. 3 The New York Journal says -Catholic laymen of the Unired States are about to present to Monsignor Martinelii, a petition urging hi in to issue a pronouncement i-eerulatiug the marriages of Catholics to Protestants. Held to Feb. s. Judge nag-uer in the equity court yesterday made a ruling of far-reaching importance, holding, in effect, that it is unconstitutional for Congress to appropriate money for sectarian institutions.

Big: Providence Failure. Providence, B. Feb. 7. The Rhode Island- Locomotive works filed its petition in insolvency yesterday in the appellate court.

The schedule of assets shows estimated total value of and liabilities amounting to $616,703. A Match Company's Profits. Chicago, Feb. 4. The Diamond Match company's annual statement shows a profit for 1897 of paid on dividends, 81, 100.000; balance to surplus, $174,917.

The company has declared a quarterly dividend of 2)4 per cent. Increase for Over S.OOO Iron Worker. Ishpeiiing, Feb. 4. The advance in wages the first of the month at the Carnegie-mines of Ironwood.

averaging 10 per cent, will be made throughout the Gogebic iron range. 3ie tw tea aod 4. G'jQ Mf. Tk Old War-Horse of JoarnalUm Dls-wtoi the Virtue of a New Medicinal Variety. There are only a few of them left.

Since Chas. A. Dana's death, "Joe" Me dXUL the old war.horse of the "Chicago Tribune, ia the chief surviving representative of the old school of virile, aggressive editorial giants. To have mud thrown at them was part of the profession at all times, bat to find health in mud is rather a modern innovation. That is what "Joe" Medill has been doing of late, and he feels that if his old friend Dana had found the same source of vitality in time he might be abiding with as stilL J4r.

Medill is an investigator and when the stories of the miraculous Magno-Mud at LndianaMineral Springs began to spread over the country, the great editor became interested and eventually decided to try this mysterious substance on his own rheumatic limbs, and weigh its value. He was accompanied by his private physician, Dr. Toros Sarkisian, a young Armenian scientist of high attainments. The great editor was mud-mummified daily for several weeks and gained visibly in and vitality. The chief evidence of his recuperation was a series of editorial sledgehammer blows, which made the opposition tremble.

The final result of the experiment was an unqualified success. "Joe" Medill went back to Chicago in September, and Wtfote an editorial about Magno-Mud with his own hand. Next, he sent his son-in-law, R. S. McCormick, down for a little of the mud-treatment.

In November he went down again, and since the new bath house is completed he expects to be a regular visitor four times a year. This mud-treatment in which Mr. Medill found so much virtue, is peculiar, yet logical. After all, every form of life springs from the earth, which is the great destroyer and assimilator of dead and effete matter. All life is fed at the breast of Mothei Earth.

At the Indiana Mineral Springs is a beautiful little natural slopes being grown with magnificent oaks. At the foot of the converging hills, a big Lithia spring gushes forth at the rate of 3,003 barrels a day and floods the soil, which consists of a rich, black porous loam, fed by the deciduous foliage of the oak trees, This peculiar soil saturated with mineral salts for ages, is as soluble as sugar, and being devoid of clay is not sticky in the least. It is not, therefore, in any sense related to the conventional mud of the road-way, of the Chicago street or to the variety which clings to your heels. The mud is applied to the patient on a cot, the subject being entirely encased in the substance, steamed to a proper temperature. It then acts as a poultice, stimulates the skin, superficial blood vessels and nerves, opens the pores and lithiates the blood, dissolving all uric acid deposits.

Nothing can be simpler or more rational. Mr. Medill at the time of his last visit shared the benefits of the Magno-Mud Cure with Beveral other shining lights from Chicago. His professional colleague, Wm. Penn Nixon, late of the Inter-Ocean, now Collector of the Port of Chicago is another mud-devotee.

So is Ex-Gov. John P. Alt-geld, which shows that mud is more powerful than politics, because it unites in a common purpose two men, who are, politically not exactly bed-fellows. Stanley can't sing and knews it. Billy Edwards can't 6ing but don't know it.

A boy ia' particularly fond of cuffs-except those intended for his ears. CANADA. What Is Now Going on In tb Dominion. A Cincinnati Klondike party passed through Winnipeg, Manitoba, a few days since, on their way to the gold fields. Two or three ladies accompanied them, and as they passed through the streets of that Western Canadian city, they were the objects of considerable attention, in their costumes of leather leggings and buckskin suits, the same as were worn by the gentlemen of the party.

A new route to the Klondike is said to have, been discovered by way. of Prince Albert, in the western territories of Canada. It 'will be a competitor to the Edmonton route. The demand for good train dogs is keeping up at Battleford, in Western Canada, Between the "police, the northwest government and Mr. P.

K. Lindsay of Victoria, B. every available dog of the requisite quality has found ready sale, and everywhere you can see some of the poor brutes getting the worst of it in the efforts of the owners to train them with the expectation of sale. Custom returns for the past six months, ending December 31, show an increase In the total trade of over $25,000,000. The City of Toronto asks from the street railway company 10 per cent of the gross revenue of the.

company for the past year. As the revenue was over $1,000,000, the city will receive a very fair rental. The Fairplay creamery, of Pilot Mound, has wound up Ats" season's operations by the shipment of 9,000 pounds of butter in December. J. A.

Kinsella, superintendent of government creameries, has sold to a Winnipeg and Vancouver produce company 100,000 pounds of northwest butter, the price being in the neighborhood of The butter will be distributed between the coast cities and the Kootenay. This firm made several large shipments to the Klondike last seaso'i. F. A. D.

Bourke of Battleford, recently sold a butcher there a fat cow that dressed 1,005 pounds. She beat the previous record of that district by 100 pounds. The Klondike fever will give a special impetus to horse breeding on the foothill ranches. Their present stock for sale will be all taken up at good figures for transport by the Edmonton route. Alex.

Wood, Souris, lately sold a five months' old calf which weighed, when dressed, 400 pounds. This shows what can be done in the way of fattening cattle when it Is given proper attention. The only herd of buffalo in Western Canada today are those in the neighborhood of Winnipeg, the property of Lord Strathcona and those in the neighborhood of Mount Royal. They are about to be removed to the National Park at Banff, in the Rocky Mountains. The removal of these huge animals a distance of over a thousand miles by rail is an immense undertaking, and as these animals are not altogether tame it will be attended with more or less danger.

The first time a boy puts on overshoes he drags bis feet to hear himself walk. Its easier to love your neighbor when he ia not a business rival and don't keep chickens. All the papers in Alaska have a irce pass, over the Chilcoot. Mr. Wear is a clothing merchant efc Pittsburg, Kansas.

Wfcfcn a tbuaderbalt strikes cloa by, foam apt to jump. SPAIN DECLINES UNCLE SAM'S THIRD OFFER. Refuses to Admit That She Has Reached the End of Her Rope or That She-Is Unable to Suppress the Insurrection American Help Not Needed. Washixgtok, Feb. 7.

Premier la-gasta has declined the third offer cf friendly mediation, on the part of tho United States. This information was conveyed in a cipher message received from Minister Woodford by President McKinley on Friday. The message was a most unusual one. Instead of being addressed to the Secretary of State, it was addressed to the President, a thing which has not happened since Consul General Lee's famous cablegrams to President Cleveland of nearly a year ago. This cablegram from Woodford was not lonp, but recited the fact that Premier Sag-as a refused to admit that Spain had reached the end of her rope in Cuba; that she was unable to suppress the insurrection; that autonomy was a failure; or that she needed the assistance of the United States in bringing the Cuban struggle to an end.

A telegram has been received at the State department from Consul general Lee at Havana stating that the government there consents to the admission of supplies for the destituto and suffering Cubans into any Cuban port free of duty. This privilege ras formerly limited to goods entered at Havana. One Doctor Kills Another. Perry, Feb. 7.

Dr. William McCoy, a physician, from Lincoln, was shot and killed near Spaner postoffice, sixteen miles southeast of here, yesterday. McCoy and his tenant, John W. Crandall, were living in the same house. Crandall had been away from home much of the time lately and on returning his wife told him of the many acts of cruelty that Dr.

McCoy had heaped upon her. Dr. McCoy lived in the upper story of the same house that Crandall lives in and the first time that McCoy came from his room Crandall shot him dead. "Iron Brotherhood" I Extinct. Denver, Col.

Feb. 7. According to dispatches received here from Trinidad, Albuquerque, N. and various other points in Colorado and New Mexico, the American Patriotio league, otherwise known as the "Iron Brotherhood," concerning which a report was made to the department of Justice at Washington by W. B.

Chil-ders, United States attorney, for the Territory of New Mexico, is now practically extinct. In Raton and vicinity the organization was broken up by enforcing against the members the penalty for carrying firearms. Want Illythe Millions. San Fkancisco, Feb. 7.

It is reported from New York that a syndi-ite has been formed in that city for the purpose of attempting to wrest from Mrs. Florence Blythe-Hinckley a portion of her millionaire father's estate. The plan is said to be the reopening of the case of Alice Edith Dickinson, the alleged widow of Thomas Blythe. It is said that Robert G. Ingersoll has been engaged as one of the counsel by the syndicate.

Find Boyes in Montreal. New York, Feb. 7. The Journal says: "General" H. H.

Boyce, who is alleged by Legislator Otis of Ohio to have offered him $10,000 for his vote to retain Mark A. Hanna in the United States Senate, has been found in Montreal, Canada. He says his secrecy is "to protect not Hanna, but McKinley," and that when the proper time comes he will tell the whole story of the Senatorial election in Ohio. To Try to Impeach Mayor. Lincoln, Neb, Feb.

7. The invests gation of alleged corruption in municipal affairs reached a stage to-day when it was stated on authority that impeachment proceedings would be begun at the council meeting to-night against Mayor Graham and Exciseman Vail I. Many policemen and firemen testified that they had been compelled to pay sums ranging from 825 to 5150 to hold their positions. To Force Men to Marry. Columbus, Ohio, Feb 7.

Representative Parker of Cleveland, who has introduced the bill to require candidates for matrimony to submit to medical examination, will have it amended in committee so as to make it obligatory upon male persons of marriageable age and physically fit to marry to take unto themselves wives. Failure to do so is to be punished with a money fine. TJ. P. Shop Force Reduced.

Omaha, Feb. 7. An order reducing the shop forces between Omaha and Ogden 10 per was issued by the Union Pacific last night. Two hundred and seventy-five men are dismissed from the shops at Omaha, Grand Island, North Platte, Sidney. Cheyenne, Laramie and Ogden.

Gilt for a Public Library. Crawfobdsvii.le, Feb. 7. General Lew Wallace has announced that upon his demise his beautiful study will become the property of the city of Crawfordsville for a public library. The edifice has just been.

completed in his beech grove at a cost of and this spring will be surrounded by an artificial lake. Head Torn From I'odr. Wichita, Feb 1. Yesterday afternoon Dick Langdon. a 14-year-old boy, while trying to get off a Rock Island passenger train, was thrown between two coaches and his torn to pieces.

He fell on his face and was dragged over the tie3 till his head was torn from his body. Woman Inherits Millions. Gutheie, Feb. 7. Marian Hook, living near Perkins, Payne county, is one of the six heirs of the 525,000.000 estate left by Thomas Clark, the Parachute, CoL, miner who "recently died.

KdsIi to Klondike f'ontlnne. Vir-rruiiA It C. Kph 1 -The steamer Queen left yesterdey morning' I.l. err I i lii over auu iuiurn iur tue i uuuu. She will be followed by tb Danube ojar 2QQ rsorfe DAT of rites and festivities was the 15th of February In ancient Rome, where the Luperea-lia was celebrate! in honor of a deity designated by the various titles.

Upon the blotter of the modern police court the gentle man would appear as "Pan, alias Lu- percus, alias Faunus, alias lnuus, dealer in grain and crops, grape grower, proprietor of the woods and fields, the god of plenty." In ancient times so Important a personage as he who controlled the increase of the products of the earth must necessarily have been shown great consideration, and it was peculiarly fitting, when the grasp of winter was about to be loosened from the face of the earth and life was about to spring up in grass and flower and tree, that an entertainment should be given for this god of the aliases. From time immemorable, therefore, the 15th of February was given up to his worship. Youths of the best Roman families assembled then in the grotto of the Palatine hill. Cakes made by the vestal virgins from the first fruits of the preceding year were offered. Goats and young dogs were killed and, when two of the youths had been chosen and brought forward, their foreheads were smeared with the blood from the knives used in the sacrifice.

A feast followed, and then the young men, clad in the skins of goats and armed with thongs of the same material, ran around the city, striking with the thongs the thousands who put themselves in the way. To be struck thus was a symbol of purification, implying increase for the future. The thongs were "februa," purifiers, and so the month. But the most popular custom of this festal day was the assembling of youths and maidens. The names of the maidens were put into an urn and those of the youths likewise, and then each drew a slip from the proper vessel, having upon it the name of the one to whom it was his duty to be devoted during the remainder of the year.

The custom was almost universal in the city of Rome, and continued unabated for five hundred years of the Christian era. Then happened one of the most humorous incidents recorded in history. Pope Gelaslus was a sober minded man, shrewd and sanctimonious, having little tolerance for the revelries of pagan Rome. The festival of the Lupercal, with its attendant wordly customs, seemed to him out of place in a Christian age. He was sagacious enough, moreover, to know that a suppression so long standing popular observance was He therefore decreed this change in 496.

The date of the festival was put a day earlier in the month and the occasion was made one in honor to St. Valentine, a good and charitable bishop who had become a martyr two hundred years before. When the young people were assembled for the drawing of lots, Instead of writing their own names upon the slips, they were to inscribe there the name of saints. The saint whose name anyone might draw was to be his patron for the rest of the year, to be honored CLAD IN SKINS OF GOATS, and worshiped by him. It was Indeed a clever idea to accept the existing conditions, and to endeavor to turn them Into a channel which would make for the building up of the new faith.

But, shrewd as he Gelasius was not far sighted enough to see that there was something deeper than the worship of Pagan Pan behind this little custom of the Lupercalia. Human nature was there, at the heart of it, and the task of Hercules with the River Aulis was less difficult of successful achievement than the slight change which the pious pope had made, involving a matter of popular fancy. It is little wonder, then, that, though the name and date remained as changed, the old custom of drawing lots for partners, or reappeared. In Europe and England until recently young people came together on the day in question and observed the identical custom which the Romans celebrated of old on the day of the Lupercalia. Billets of paper bearing the names of the young women were drawn from a Jar by the young men, and afterwards the young women reciprocated.

Each one was thus "valentine" to two others, the one whom he had drawn and the one to whom he had fallen by lot. "But," observes Samuel Pepys In his diary, "a man doth pay much more attention to the one he had drawn than to the one to whom he hath fallen," or, in other words, the billets drawn by the men counted for more than those drawn by the women. The "valentine," thus paired, showed each other marked attention. Gifts of Jewelry, silks, jloves and sweetmeats were made. Nor was the custom confined to young people.

Married men and women and courtiers were partakers in it, and the gifts they made to each other were many times costly. In one of the English counties.Hertfordshire, it was the custom for the poor children, as gayly dressed as their scant means would permit, to march through the towns, arly in the morning, stopping beneath the windows here and there, and singing "Good Morrow, Valentine." A shower of pennies was the usual result. In Norwich, gifts were sent to fair ones anonymously. The number of poems written about the custom of the day is beyond counting. From Chaucer down, tat poets tunc of Ut tod of 1qy to "Vbon J.

L. RITTERj PUB'R. URONSON, KANS Let U8 add to lhy suggestion of Judge Novthrup of Syracuse, that convicts obliged to wear no distinctive garb, the provision that they shall appear only in dress suits in the evening. A daughter of Sorosis advises a3 a relief from mental strain the reading Df Mr. Howells, while another daughter suggests football.

Still another Jaughter shrieks "Seek equilibriums!" whatever that may be. Thus the effort of this heavenly body to relieve mental strain has brought about a Btate of chaos that Is more melancholy than the original trouble and promises large additions to the asylums. The shooting of Ruiz, peace commissioner from Blanco to Aranguren, at first glance looks like the assassination of a bearer of the white flag; but the commissioner who has Instructions to bribe Is meaner than any spy, and knows, as Ruiz said of himself, that he is going to his own death. There was great villainy In Weyler as governor-general; but his admiration of duplicity may oblige him to call his uccessor his lord and master. "Bad spelling," says a scientist, "Is a disease." It may be an inheritanc4 also.

It is not, however, necessarily evidence of Ignorance. There are people without an ear for music, and there are those who have no ear for spelling. They may be thoroughly educated In other respects, and never be able to learn to. spell correctly off-hand except as to words In constant use, and they may even have to relearn them every day. Let us remember that in many cases they are the victims not of ignorance but of an Infirmity.

A Boston lady says, giving advice to her sisters, "A shrin'c Ing selt-effacement can time be overcome by throwing out the cheat and carrying, the-head high in a rega attitude of self-confidence." Yet it is buncombe. It is fraud. A regal attitude of self-confidence is utterly impossible to a shrinking self-effacement. The trouble 13 that somebody always comes up to It and remarks "Boo!" la a rude manner, and immediately the regal attitude closes itself against the world like a sensitive plant. No, dear lady; you can't make marble out of cream.

The war reminiscences of the late Charles A. Dana, now In course of publication in one of the magazines, establish a fact that every person to whom profanity is an offense will be glad to hear. Mr. Dana saw much of General Grant during, the most perplexing period of the civil war, and he asserts that he never heard the great Union leader utter a profane word. Mr.

Dana himself was for many years a tireless worker In a field in which profanity is common. Every man who enjoyed the privilege of working near him will testify that in the midst, of the exciting requirements of his duties Mr. Dana was guiltless of the sin and vulgarity of profanity. The arguments for supporting the statement that we live in a great country include one based on the statistics of rainfalls A recent official document declares that rain probably falls every day In the year at one point or another In the United States. Some of the countries whose governments make a great etlr In the world might almost be wet down with a good-sized American thunder-shower.

We have territory large enough for several contemporaneous performances of this sort. Measured by rain or sunshine, the weather assets ol the United States at any given moment are alike munificent and Impressive. As a part of the cumulative evidence to the truth of this assertion, it may be said that there Is not a -waking moment, in all probability. In' which an umbrella Is not being borrowed within our borders, to keep off the rain or the sunshine. An illustration of Shakespeare's oft-quoted "good In everything" Is afforded by the disposition of the revenue derived by the French government from the tax on betting at horse-races.

The proceeds of the tax last year exceeded Beven and a half million francs, or more than a million and a half dollars. Among the good objects to which this money was appropriated were:" Paris charities, seventy-five thousand dollars; provincial hospitals, three hundred thousand dollars; Institutions making researches Into mothod3 of curing or preventing consumption, twenty-five thousand dollars; and sixteen thousand dollars for the erection of a hall for charity meetings In Constantinople. It is a pity that betting cannot be taxed out of existence; since that Is not possible, the next best thing Is to make the gamblers pay for good objects as far as the money that can bo squeezed out of them will go. Twelve thousand women stenographers and typewriters are at prrsent employed In Chicago, which force will be augmented before spring by at least a thousand graduates from commercial colleges and neighboring localities. The does not seem to beckon; yet while five dollars a week is a frequent salary, many positions of from sixty to seventy-five dollars a month go begging for want of competent women to fill them.

One rule holds for all places and all professions; to do fairly well is to struggle with the crowd, but for her who excels there is always room. The decision of a Pennsylvania Judge that a woman need not swear to her age In open court Is a concession to gallantry rather than a contribution to Jvistlce; though, to be sure, women never did understand arithmetic in any of those cases. The Chinese have now arrived at a point where they "offer no opposition." They have no longer any chips to push to the center of the table and still contlnu to romark 'That's good!" port from fores tatelt any. "ft is the time of year when the birds are mating and, with the feathered world, "The young man's fancy Lightly turns to thoughts of love." In some parts, of England, it was the custom, on St. Valentine's eve, to walk the woods with a bird-net, in the hope of catching an owl.

Success in love was the result of bringing home a live owl from the hunt, for, as the wisest of birds, it was supposed to have the secret of success which it would impart on this night. It was believed that the first person of the opposite sex one met on St. Valentine's morning was to be that one's "valentine," and records remain of young ladies who conscientiously locked themselves in their rooms, with eyes tightly closed when leaving it, until the right young man was announced. To-day, the spirit of independence which has come over the world, has A LIBELOUS VALENTINE. done away with the drawing of lots.

Young people are not satisfied with leaving the matter to fortune, as were their ancestors, but fix it themselves. The universal means used to celebrate the day is a combination of lace paper, pictured hearts, cupids and verses, thousands of which now harfg in the stationers' window. From one to a dozen of these are selected, at a cost of from one cent to several dollars, and entrusted, properly addressed, to the postman's care. Invariably, the missive is sent anonymously. Often, too, the sender steals, missive in hand, up to the door of the one who is to receive it, after dusk of St.

Valentine's day. The bell is pulled, the valentine dropped, and away runs the young one in high glee. The most delightful joy, however, is experienced when the "irrepressible" steals thus up the steps, chalks a white square the size of an envelope upon the porch, rings the bell, and scampers away. Of course, in the darkness, the square resembles a valentine, and the fair one, her heart beating a little faster than ordinarily, stoops to pick up nothing. A spirit of irreverence for the sentiment of St.

Valentine's observances has sprung up within the memory of living man. Instead of the regulation lace and verses, the latter of which are of the "molasses drip" sort, contracted for by the hundred pounds, there is now a most grotesque sort of caricature, with a libelous accompaniment of lines. Great swollen heads, emaciated chests, "and misshapen feet, printed upon cheap paper, are dedicated to a tradesman or a man of professional calling. Some of the caricatures have their foundations based on peculiarities of custom or eccentricities of habit. One of these eccentricities is taken apart from any other trait, dressed In an outrageous body and glaring clothes, and becomes the missile of the small boy with which to attack the foibles and foolish conventions of society.

There will long remain, notwithstanding the practical, hardening tendency of the age, something of the sentiment peculiar to St. Valentine's day, which led the Roman lads, to choose and honor their lady loves. Though the New York postmen may cease to carry 200,000 extra letters on that day, Cupid will continue to be honored, and the confectioner and the florist may notice an increased sale of their wares, for the spring still comes and the birds still mate, and human nature is much as it used to be in the olden days at Rome. E. L.

SANDERSON. Would Require Nerve. i Mr. Shivvers The days of ICnight Errantry are past, but what desperately courageous deed can I do to win my Valentine? Miss Boomerang You might ask papa. "Love never dieth." learn this as a promise.

We get, after such suffering as imvolves as It were a new birth and other faculties, to know It as experience. George S. Merriam. When a woman tells you she will be ready ia a miaul sbt dOMa't wfeioh ttifttttt, Women seldom mean the pleasant things they say to other women or th unpleasant things they say to men. No man who is very fat can convince any one of the sincerity of a long cherished grief.

When you are not supposed to see a thing you can make friends by looking the other way. The easiest way to make a bitter en e-fcny of a man is to tell him a good story and then get it off at a dinner before he has a chance to. One of the first signs that a roan ia getting old is when he begins to reckon his age by his last birthday instead of his next. Very few old bachelors ever get so hardened that when they buy two Feats in a parlor car they don't wonder how they would feel if it was for their wedding trip. When girls stand with their arms around each other when young men are present they don't mean it.

The times are so suspicious that if a man takes as much as five dollars with him when he leaves town, the story is itarted that he has skipped out. Don't Tobacco Spit and Smoke Your Ufa wt. To quit tobacco easily and forever, be magnetic, full of life, nerve and vigor, take No-To-Bac, tbe wonder-worker, that makes weak men itronjf. All druggists, 50c. or Cl.

Curegnaran-seed. Booklet and sample free. Address Sterling Remedy Chicago or New Yor- A man is always looking for letters, 5ut he never answers them. AN OPEN LETTER TO MOTHERS. We are asserting in the courts our right to the exclusive use of the word "CASTORIA." and "PITCHER'S CASTOR1A." as our Trade Mark.

Dr. Samuel Pitcher, of Hyannis, Massachusetts, was the originator of "PITCHER'S CAS-TORIA," the same that has borne and does now bear the fac-simile signature of CHAS. H. FLETCHER on every wrapper. This Is the original "PITCHER'S CASTORIA" which has been used in the homes of the mothers of America for over thirty years.

Look carefully at the wrapper and see that it is "the kind you have always bought," and has the signature ot CHAS. IL FLETCHER on the Wrapper. No one has authority from me to use my name1 except The Centaur Company of which Chas. H. Fletcher is President-March 8.

1897. SAMUEL PITCHER, M. Dt The doctors have a peculiar idea of what the word "success" means. Whenever a difficult operation is performed, it is announced that it was a "complete success," but that unfortunately the patient failed to and "died of exhaustion." FOR 14 CENTS We wish to gain 150,000 new cos- i tomers. and crnceoner 1 Pkr.

iSDaT 10c 1 Pkg. Frl hprin a Turnip, ICo 1 1 Earlietrt. Red Bwt. lOo 1 Bismarck CnrnmlMT, Ke I 1 tjneen Victoria Lett ace, 15o 1 Klondike Melon, 1-0 I Jumbo Gint Onion, lie 8 Brilliant flower Seeds. 1m Worth 91.00, fori ecnta.

Abora 10 nkrs. worth 1-00. we will mail yna free, together with ocr C-rat Plant and Seed Catalorro upon receipt of this notice and 14c 2 postage. We inrita yonr trad and know when yon one try ttalxer's eedarou win never gftnonf wnn- out ttiem. I'olalorKaiirmi a.

Bb I. Catalog atone JOH5 A. 8FID LA CEOSSB, WM. 8v For maps, pamphlets, railway ratei and full information concerning this country, enjoy to exceptionally pleasant climate and continuous pood crops, apply to J. S.

CRAWFORD, Can. Cev'l Agent, 408 Board of Trade Building, Kansas City, Ma. SI00 Tojny Man. WILL PAY $100 FOR ANY CASE Of Weakness la Hen They Treat sad Fall to Care. An Omaha Company places for tho first time before tbe public a Magical Treatment for the cure of Lost end Sexual Weakness, and Restoration oC Life Force in old and young men.

No worn-out French remedy; contains do Phosphorus or other 'aaraif ul drugs. It ia a WosDiHroL Tkeatmext magical in its effects positive in its cure. All who are suffering from a weakness that, blights their life, raueir.g that mental and; physical suffering peculiar to Lost write to the STATE MEDICAL COMPANY, Omaha. and they will send you absolutely FREE, a valuable paper on these diseases, and positive proof of their truly Magjcal Treatment. Thou-, ands of men, who bave lost ail hope of a cure, are being: restored by them to a perfect condition.

This Maoical Tksatvbxt may be taken at home under their directions, or they will pay railroad fare and hotel bills to all who prefer to go to there for treatment, if they, fail to cure. They are perfectly reliable; have no Free Prescription, Free Cure. Free Sample, or C. O. D.

fake. Tbey bava capital, and guarantee to cure every case they treat or refund every dollar; or their charges may be deposited in. a bank to be paid to them when a cure is effected. Write them todav. CURE YOURSELF! Cm Biz for unnatural inflammation, irritations or ulceration of taucoas membranes.

IFrmaia caatacica, fainleas, and Bet astrla italrm Comical Co. ro' poUonoa. LPH8XIUTI.0 Kml kylrcfata. or nt la alsia wrapper, rT expreas. prepaid.

I or 3 bottlea. 2.75. tot Circular sent oa raqoesL Icm Whifif! I Deal Cv-va rSjrcp. aetesGood. Vm 222 Huttei ft.

i 1 1.