The Monroeville Breeze from Monroeville, Indiana • Page 3

The Swamp Secret CHAPTER I. The Brownsville of fifty years ago was very different place from the Brownsville of to-day. The name suggests a village. There is a kind of villagy sound about the "ville." But in the days of which I write, when villages were few and far between on the frontier, the sound suggestive of village was the only indication- of one which you could have found if you had hunted the township over in which Brownsville was located. There was a little store on one corner of the cross-roads, and a little way down the road from this general rendezvous for Brownsvillians of the sterner sex on rainy days, and at times when there "wasn't much to do," there was a school house, which was a church pro whenever a minister came along, which was not very often in that early period of Brownsville's existence.

These two houses, built of logs, formed the nucleus of Brownsville. The farms of the settlers were scattered about through the woods, and as the "oldest inhabitant" had only a residence of five or six years to fall back on in telling the stories which oldest inhabitants always have told and always will tell, the residents of the place had to admit that It was quite "new," as the saying goes in the West, regarding a recently settled locality. As the settlement extended several miles in each direction from the school house and store, and was all included when Brownsville was spoken of, "going to Brownsville" was regarded as a rather vague statement regarding a person's destination, by people living -outside the place, in those primitive days. Solomon Boone lived about a mile from the "rillage," as the store and school house were dubbed by general consent of all public-spirited citizens living the vicinity. He had the best farm in the settlement, and enjoyed the enviable nOtoriety of owning the best span of horses and the prettiest girl in Brownsville.

Nannie Boone was a very pretty girl, and she knew it quite as well as any one. Her face was full of healthy color, with-out being red, and her cheeks were fully as bright as the wild roses which grew along the path leading to the school house. Her eyes were as keen as black ever are, but they were brown, of that peculiar shade which can shift through the gamut of the color scale, sometimes seeming intensely dark, and then softening to the tenderness of blue. This trick of expression which nature had bestowed upon Miss Nannie had the power to make the hearts of the young men of Brownsville palpitate about twice as fast as usual when she turned her eyes upon them, and re-enforced her glances with a smile from her full, red lips, for a kiss from which almost any. of the young men would have given a good week's work.

From which you will readily infer that the young men of the Brownsville of fifty years ago were very much the same in their tastes as the young men of the Brownsville of to-day. Pretty lips, like Nannie Boone's, have always had a peculiar witchery and charm about them for young men, and sometimes old ones, since Adam stole his first kiss in Eden. Of course, Nannie had many admirers among the young men of the settlement, and plenty of enemies among the girls, who knew well enough that, had she chosen to do so, she could speedily have brought all the backward gallants to her feet, and kept them there, thus monopolizing that very necessary element to the peace and prosperity of such a place as Brownsville was at that time, where the girls were in the proportion of two to one with the young men. But that was before the dawn of monopolies, and Nannie was of too thrifty a disposition to keep beaux dawdling about her when they might much better be at home helping their fathers clear the farms they had staked out in the wilderness. She was something of a flirt, and liked to make the girls jealous and see the young men cast furious glances at one another on her account; but that, I take it, is natural for the average girl.

She can't help it. It is born in her. All of us exult in a sense of power, and why should pretty girls. like Nannie Boone not find a certain satisfaction in the knowledge that they have only to say the word give the look to have the young men fall down and do them homage? In doing this they are only allowing human nature to come to the surface, and human nature is about the same thing the world over. Taey mean no harm it, and it is only when a girl allows ambition to trample good under foot that any real harm is done.se But Nannie, while smiling upon most of the Brownsville boys, had one sweetest smile which she kept for Dick Brayton.

Dick was a good-looking young fellow, who had come from "down was anywhere forty or fifty miles from Brownsville, and had reference to no particular place or point of compassabout six months before the opening of my story. He was quite unlike the young men of Brownsville on his advent among them. His hands were white and soft, and his dress and general appearance indicated that he had not been used to hard work. When interrogated about it, he had answered that he had been work in a store, but, getting tired of being housed up, he had determined to strike out in search of a new field of labor, and behold him at Brownsville looking for a job. "Seems to me it's ruther odd fer a feller that's be'n ust to soft work to come up into this region lookin' tee suthin' to do," Deacon Snyder had remarked, when Brayton appeared upon the scene.

"Most young men now days want as lectle as possible to do." This with sarcastic emphasis and a severe look at his son Ezekiel, who had, on several occasions, expressed a desire to "go down below" and hire out in a store. Dick Brayton had seen Nannie first at a meeting in the log school house. He fell in love with her at first sight, and the next day applied to her father for on his farm. very. "What can you do?" asked Solomon Boone, as he proceeded to fill and light his corncob pipe.

"Yer han's don't look in fust-rate trim fer loggin', an' I sh'd jedge that yer muscle wa'n't jest what's needed in breakin' new land." "That's so, I suppose," said Dick in reply. "I haven't had much practice in hard work, but I can learn to do it. I'm stout and healthy, and it won't take long to toughen me to it. I've got grit to stick to a thing when I undertake it. You can pay me what you think I earn, at first, and if I improve, you increase' my wages.

I leave that to you." Only give me a trial. If I don't come up to requirements, you can turn me off. That's fair, isn't "Yes, that's fair enough," answered Mr. Boone. "I kinder like yer style, an' I'll try ye." So Dick Brayton became Mr.

Boone's "hired man," and came to live under the same roof with Nannie. "I'll bet that'll make a match," Mrs. Snyder said to her neighbor, Mrs. Jones, when Dick was installed as "hand" on Boone farm. "Nance, she's got some kinder high notions in her head, an' this feller'll make her b'leeve he's a leetle better'n the boys round here; an' whatever she says, that her folks'll say yes to, you can be sure on.

She jest twists 'em round her little finger easy's a string. It's all Nance says that, an' Nance says that, with both of 'em. They spile her. Yes, Mis' Jones, I'll bet anything you're mind to, Nance Boone'll have that young man. I noticed she acted kinder struck after him the fust time she see him.

Them whiskers round his mouth did it, I s'pose. I declare, Mis' Jones, I do abominate them things. Our 'Zekiel, he's tryin' to raise some. He's took to scrapin' his upper lip twicet a week, reg'lar, but they won't grow, to speak on. His father, he makes him hoppin' mad advisin' him to put cream on, an' let the cat lick it off." It seemed, as the summer wore on, that Mrs.

Snyder's prophecy was likely to come true. Dick and Nannie got along very well together. Up to the time in which this story opens, the "course, of true love" had run smoothly enough, but the old saying that it's a "long lane that has no turning" was to prove as true in this case as in many others. Nannie taught the school, which lasted six months in each year, in the little log house which I have spoken of as being one of the two buildings at the' crossroads. From this you may infer that she was what would be called an "educated young lady," at the present time.

She was nothing of the' kind. Before her father came to Brownsville she had had the advantages of the ordinary district school only, but these she had made the most of, and could write a fair hand, with heavy tops to her t's, and heavier tails to her y's and g's; she could spell pretty well, read as fast as the next one -and in those days the boy or the girl who could read the fastest was considered the best reader, as expression was of no account. She could "cipher" as far into the 'rithmetic as the rule of three, and parse all the sentences in the grammar with parrot-like precision, and repeat a good share of the geography. What use was there of a more comprehensive education in such a place as Brownsville, Nannie's mother wondered. "Twan't as ef she was out among folks more," she told the town board, when she applied for her daughter's appointment to the position of school mistress.

"If 'twas where folks knew more, 'twould be diffrunt, but Nannie knows enough to teach any o' the children in that part o' the kentry, an' I don't say it to brag up my own flesh and blood, neither." teachers from "down below" did not like to come into the woods to teach, the school officers decided that Nannie was properly qualified to fill the position of teacher, and in that way she became a schoolma'am. Dick used to keep pretty close watch of the road if he was at work anywhere near it when he thought it was about 4 o'clock. Curiously enough, it almost always happened that his horses needed rest when a little pink sunbonnet came in sight at the turn of the road. The sight of that sunbonnet always seemed to make Dick thirsty. I can't explain why, but so it was; so much so that he had to go to a fence corner near the turn in the road, where a cool spring bubbled out from under the roots of an old oak.

And, strangely enough, it almost always happened that the walk from the school house had made Nannie thirsty, too, and she was glad to sit down under the shade of the old tree's spreading branches and drink the sweet, refreshing draught which Dick tendered her in a cup fashioned from a great basswood leaf. What they talked about at such times I am not supposed to know. The weather and the crops, perhaps. I know this, however, the got a good long resting spell on these occasions, and Nannie reached home considerably later than she might have done if she had not played truant. Her mother used to say, quite often: "There is one thing about Nannie's teachin' that the folks can't complain of, an' that is that she allus keeps full.

hours, an' more, too, fer half the time she don't get home till five or half-past five, and it don't take more'n fifteen minutes to walk from the school house The worthy woman made this remark at the table more than once, and Dick, at such times, would give sly look at Nannie, and she would blush like a newly blossomed rose or be seized with such a severe fit of coughing that she had to leave the table, when her mother would wonder if she had "swallered her vittels the wrong way." On the afternoon of the day on which this story begins, Dick was plowing near the road. When he saw Nannie coming, he hitched his horses to a hickory tree, where they would get the benefit of its shade, and went to the road. Leaning over the fence, he' waited for her, watching her trim-built figure with admiring eyes, as she came up the hill. When she came near, he knew by her face that something, had happened. cried Nannie, as she came up to the fence, "guess what's going to be! You can't, I know; but 'A camp meeting," ventured Dick.

Camp meetings were considered to be the climax of all desirable events among the Brownsvillians. "Oh, better'n that!" cried Nannie, with. sparkling eyes. "Ever so much better! It's a singing school!" 'A singing Dick caught some of Nannie's enthusiasm at once. "Well, that will be nice, won't it? I have attended two terms, and we always had lots of fun, if we didn't get much musical benefit.

But who's going to teach it? Deacon Snyder?" "Deacon Snyder!" exclaimed Nannie, with a scornful look of her pretty nose. "Of course not! It's a young man from down below. He's going to have a meeting at the school house to-night, to see about organizing the school, and he wants everybody to turn out. I hope they'll have one. Wouldn't it be nice? I never went to one, you know." "Of course, it will be nice," said Dick, who was thinking more of prospective summer night walks with Nannie than he was of the singing school.

"It needs something like that to make the neighborhood lively. The folks don't see half enough of each other. It'll take their mind off their work and rest them up a little." "Yes, that's a fact," responded Nannie, looking, however, as if she hardly comprehended what Dick had been saying, on account of being busy with other thoughts. "Oh, Dick, he's just the handsomest man I ever saw! He is, Dick, for a fact!" "It isn't always the handsomest ones that turn out to be the best ones," said Dick, hardly relishing Nannie's admiration for the singing teacher. "He's some fellow, most likely, who's too lazy to work for a living, so he goes round teaching singing school." "Well," demanded Nannie, rather sharply, "if he teaches singing school, I'd like to know if he isn't working and earning his money just as much as you are by working on the farm? I don't see any difference.

If he can earn a living without working on a farm for it, I don't see's he's to blame for it." "No, nor answered Dick. "I don't blame any man for getting his living in possible way, if he does it honorablest What I meant was that, perhaps, he might be one of those shiftless, good-for-nothing fellows who go around sponging their living, as the folks say here, and swindling people out of their money by getting it under pretense of giving its value, when really what they give amounts to nothing. I've seen a great many such men. But this fellow may be all right. I can't say he isn't, of course, but it strikes me as rather strange that a singing teacher, especially a young and handsome one, should come to such an out-of-the-way place as this is to start a school.

It certainly can't be expected that he'll get a school large enough to pay well, and because he can't, it looks to me as if very likely he don't amount much." "Well, I don't know anything about answered Nannie, rather stiffly. "I do know, though, that he's a real gentleman in looks and appearance. "Oh, you've seen enough of him to find that out, have you?" queried Dick. "You must be pretty well acquainted, then. Where's he going to board?" "I didn't ask him, though I had plenty of chance added Nannie mischievously, watching the effect of her words on Dick, who, she knew, was eager to know how and where she had made the stranger's acquaintance, "he was at the school house and stayed nearly the whole afternoon." Dick made no reply, but he did not look particularly pleased- over the information.

"And he gave out notice in school," went on Nannie, "that there'd be a meeting to-night. The children will tell everybody, and the whole neighborhoodanyway, all the young folks-will be sure to be there. I declare it's getting real late, by the looks of the sun, and I must hurry home and help mother about the supper, for most likely she'll want to go, too." Then Nannie picked up her little splint dinner basket and trudged off up the hill, singing, rather "Barbara struck Allen." on the fellow, seems to me," thought Dick, as he went back to his plowing. "A handsome face and good clothes go a long ways in a girl's estimation of a man. They're strange things, these girls.

Gee, there, Dandy, g'lang!" CHAPTER II. Dick and Nannie walked down to the school house together, after supper, when the "chores" had all been disposed of. The road led through pleasant woods, for the greater part of the way, and there is always something to be said by a young man to the woman he loves in such a walk as theirs was, that makes truants and loiterers of those who can go fast enough on ordinary occasions. The school House was quite full when they reached it. They entered the building to a smoth- ered chorus of giggles and tee from the boys and girls.

Why is it that one young person invariably makes sport of another young person who is, or is supposed to be, in love? I never could sat- isty myself why it was so, but that it is so is a fact. Your, boon companion, your bosom friend, will laugh at you mercilessly, it he suspects that you are a victim of the tender passion. The singing teacher was there, seated in the chair Nannie occupied during school hours. He was quite a good-looking fellow, Dick had to admit, with a good deal of "down below" style about him. As Deacon Snyder told the neighbor on his right: "It's plain to be seen he's come from out among folks, but it don't foller from that that he knows all there is about singin', by no means." The young man's face was cast in a mold which gave him regular features, and to these were added the attractive accessories of a pair of bright, keen eyes and a fine beard which was carefully kept.

He had an attractive smile, which showed faultless and the clothes he wore had a style about them very different from that which characterized the Brownsville garment. You can't average get much "style" into a pair of "overalls" and a "wa'mus," and these two articles of apparel, with the addition of a coarse cotton or homespun flannel shirt, constituted the garb of the young men as well as the old ones in those days on the frontier. But as Dick looked at the man's face keenly, he noticed ceryoung tain lines about the mouth and eyes that he did not like the looks of. He did not pretend to be a physiognomist, however, and he might be mistaken. It was not always wise to judge a man by his face, and most men's faces told more about their owner than this one's did.

To Dick it seemed as if he wore a mask, but through it he could catch, now and then, a glimpse of that which it was worn to conceal. (To be continued.) Copyright. THE GIRL OF She Is No Longer Relegated to the Shelf After Thirty. One of the most remarkable social developments of these latter days is the evolution of the mature heroine of romance. Formerly this post was allotted to the young girl or the young married woman.

In those times, moreover, the adjective of youth would not have been applied to the maiden who had passed her twenty-fifth year, and only in the spirit of the grossest flattery to the matron who had seen her three decades. It is typical of the age that this explanatory note should be necessary. Now the expression "young" is purely relative. The period of middle age has been entirely abolished. Where almost everybody is younger than somebody else, it is only the few who are proud of their extreme antiquity who can be regarded with any degree of certainty as old.

At 30 the girl of to-day no longer retires on the shelf as a failure, to pass the rest of her life in the humiliating position of the maiden aunt who devotes herself to the children or revenges herself on the poor. She is merely preparing to start on a new phase of life with a more definite plan and a clearer vision. Very often she marries and begins afresh at 40. Sometimes she has been known to be so greatly daring as to enter on matrimony for the first time when she has passed her fiftieth year. For the matron the range is even more extended.

At 30 she is quite a young thing- gay, frivolous, skittish, to whom society and flirtation are the chief objects in life. Ten years more bring her to her prime. It is the period of fascination, of adventure, of impulse. The woman of 40 is capable of anything. She is the object of the wildest plans, the center of the most daring romance.

At 50 she is probably marrying for the second time. Three-score will find her approaching the altar for her third wedding, and if she lives long enough, she may even reappear at a later date to bring her record up to four. -Lon- Vegetarian Shoes. Vegetarians who are so strict that they do not care to wear an article of clothing into which any animal properties are introduced are catered for in the boot line by a London bootmaker, who is the inventor of a vegetarian shoe. For some years he has been experimenting and as a result he has produced a boot in the construction of which there is absolutely no paper or leather of any description.

Not only' this, but, according to his assertion, these wear one fourth longer than leather shoes and the upper material is always soft and never cracks. Differences in Eyes. Besides varying in size, shape and color eyes differ in visual force and in power of accommodation and also that same faults affect only one of them. It is an established fact that fre all use one eye- the right or left--in preference when looking through a glass or taking aim with a gun. We are right or left eyed as we are right or left handed or footed.

The ignorance of most people on this subject is Illus-. trated by their buying glasses at the opticians without taking account of any difference between the eyes. John, Swift, the Rapid Reader. John Swift, the rapid reader, sat him down to read: Sermon, essay, poem, leader an awful speed! Such omnivorous absorption no good end attains; Joha Swift, the rapid reader, ignorant remains. A Jeanie Peet.

Planning to meet a note is mature deliberation. INDIANA INCIDENTS. RECORD OF EVENTS OF THE PAST WEEK. Smallpox Quarantine Enforced with a Whip- Novel Punishment of a Young Incendiary -Unhappy Marriage sulte Fatally--New Church Burns. Two women living at Lyons caught smallpox and were promptly placed in quarantine.

They imagined they had the chickenpox and were angry because they were not allowed to go and come as they pleased. One of them said she would get even with the town authorities by spreading the disease all over the place. They started out in male attire. The health authorities had a man on guard and he attempted to stop them. They attacked him and he was forced to beat a hasty retreat.

The next night he armed himself with a blacksnake whip and when they attempted to leave the house he gave them each a whipping and. drove them back. Gets a Spanking in Court. Willie Goldver, aged 9 years, who confessed that he had set several buildings on fire just to see the department make 8 run and the firemen fight the flames, was given a whipping in- police court at Evansville upon order of Judge J. G.

Winfrey. Thomas Goldver, the father, was present and told the court he war willing to whip the lad. The boy was led into the detention room and given dozen or more lashes. The whipping WAS done with an old bicycle tire which had been cut into long strips and which has the same effect as a cat-o'-nine tails. Biggest Indiana Woman Dead.

Mrs. Lida Greycraft, the largest wom an in Indiana, died suddenly at her home in Russiaville, aged 32 years. She was sitting at a table with her husband, Jo seph Greycraft, playing dominoes, she fell from her chair dead. Her weight was about 550 pounds. A coffin had tc be constructed especially for her, the largest casket obtainable being too small for the body.

She was a daughter of George Unger of Middle Fork, a family noted for large physical proportions. Kills His Wife and Himself, Alfred Gregory, aged 36, a farmer liring near Winslow, fatally shot his wife and ended his life by shooting himself through the heart. The husband and wife have not lived happily for the last year. Gregory left a note in which he said his life was one of torment and he wanted to die. Six children survive the parents.

Gregory owned one of the largest farms in Pike County and belonged to several secret societies. Church at Lafayette Burned. The newly erected St. Paul's Church at Lafayette was completely gutted by fire. The fire started from an explosion in the room, due to escaping gas.

The faritore had just left the building when the explosion occurred. The building was mortgaged for $16,000. The loss will be about $35,000, with $20,000 insurance. Nothing was saved. Farmers Heirs to $4,000,000.

Zachariah and Frederick Sheneman, farmers of Liberty township, have been informed by their attorney that they are heirs to 8 $4,000,000 estate at Berlin, Germany. Within Our Borders. Muncie labor union members are preparing to erect a temple of labor, to cost about $50,000. Marvin H. Cook, aged 31 years, died at New Albany of lockjaw, caused by a slight bruise on a finger.

The Hon. C. E. Shively of Richmond will deliver the commencement day address at Hanover College, of which he is a graduate. Lee Miller and Charles Hill of Sullivan went hunting and Miller was accidentally shot by his companion, who carried a Flobert rifle.

Robert Mansfield, formerly of the Marion Morning News and now consul at Zanzibar, has secured a leave of absence and is on his way home. John Hare and Alvah Warner, Wabash County farmers, were badly by the bursting of a circular saw which they were operating on Hare's farm. The Sheedy Oil Company been organized at Montpelier, with $10,000 capital. J. F.

Brotherton is president; R. H. Alexander, vice-president; Frank Sheedy, secretary, and A. H. Bonham, treasurer.

The new Methodist Church at Chester has been completed ready for dedication, which will take place soon. The building is modern and cost about $3,000. What will be known as the Eighteenth Separate Company, I. N. was organized at Greencastle with fifty-nine members.

Maj. Muller of Indianapolis was mustering officer. The Howard County Agricultural and Driving Association, after lying dormant for two seasons, has been reorganized and will hold a fair the coming summer. There will be a race meeting July 23, 24 and 25. The fourth section of a Panhandle freight train bumped into the third section at Marion water tank.

John Suberty, fireman of the third section, was thrown from the tender by the shock and painfully injured. Several cars were wrecked. Miss Myrtle Daugherty of Chicago brought suit in the Kosciusko County Uircuit. Court against. Neal Pinkerton, a farmer, charging breach of promise, demanding $10,000 damages.

A judgment was given against Pinkerton for $1,475. Pinkerton now seeks to escape paying the judgment by filing proceedings in bankruptcy. The judgment for breach of promise is the only debt set forth, and Pinkerton declares his assets to be only $20, which is exempt..