Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1877-10-25
NO. 253.
POINrE D'ALENCOy-A STORY

Mrs. Rutherford was looking over her
laces. There were many choice pieces
of ponte purchased in Europe Mechlin
and Brussels pointe, Limerick pointe, with
other Irish laces. Honiton. delicate d'Alen-
con, and one precious piece of antique
pointe de Venise, for Mrs. Rutherford
was connoisseur in laces and threw away
her money in recklessly extrayagant
way whenever a fine piece was concern
ed. asP
Hope Rutherford, l wish you would
tell me how yod happened to take the
lace mania" | said, as l lifted from the
handsome Japanese casket an odd piece,
a mixture of lace and embroidery, which
fancied she had picked up in an out-of-
the-way corner of Switzerland. sd
Il believe | was ten years old,n she
replied, when began my study of lac
es. The strip you hold in your hand was
my first acquisition. 1t was rather Gu
rious history. Would you like 10 hear
Iitp
And then Hope Rutherford told me the
following story. which proved to be not
of quantity customed peasants in some
Swiss Valais or OF some princely lady of
the court OF Francis L., but of her own
stormy childhood and first love.
| The daughter of pioneer Judge,
Hopes early life had been spent on a
farm in the West, five miles from the little
town of Conflict. The nearest neighbors
were the Antoines. A shrinking little
woman with light hair and washed d-out
eyes was Mrs. Antoine, but she had a fur
tive way of glancing from them that
seemed to tell that she might have had
ideas of her own before they were crushed
out by the Colonel, who had never been
in the army and held his title only as a
mark of respect. OF French descent,
and of fiery Gallic temperament, he
united to many hereditary vices others for
whose distinctive originality he. might
have taken out patent. Life with him
could not have been pleasant under any
circumstances. baf
The two dwellings stood within few
rods of each other, but long detour was
necessary to pass between them, for, di-
viding the wooded knoll on which Col.
Antoine had reared his strange structure
from the broad acres of corn field, scarce
ly overtopped by Squire Mays stockade
OF logs and mud, ran a deep ravine, the
bed of a fierce little stream called the
Wild Cat. . satiiada.
Another gulf separated them, for though
their position in new Kansas offered many
points OF resemblance in the trials and
hardships which both met so bravely, yet
the heads OF the families when they met
as they did on their way to and from Con-
dict never recognized each other. Mrs.
Antoine would have explained this in her
mellow accents, "'Tain't to be helped, /
s'pose, since you uns are from the Nawth
and we uns from the Saouth." osst
The very houses with their surroundings
spoke the difference between them. Squire
Mays farm had been as lhickly wooded
as the Colonel's estate, but with his own
right arm he had chopped down the trees,
| built his home of two rooms and q loft
above them, pried up the siumps,
ploughed and sown his eornfeld.
Alter three years of labor as farmer
he was beginning TO reap results. The
deserted law books stood upon rough
shelves against the logs walls OF the ''front
room" good library OF miscellaneous
literature kept them company. Above
the books hung the Squire's carbine, only
used against the prairie chickens, for he
was man ofpeace. Arag carpet of Mrs.
Mays workmanship covered the floor.
Everything bore marks of thrift and in
dustry.
Colonel Antoine had pre-empted his
claim the year previous to the coming of
the Mays. The Wild Cat Joined the Mis-
souri, river near the site he had chosen for
his residence, and the reason of his choice
had been the presence at its mouth of
sunken steamboat, its upper cabin just
emerging from the muddy water A band
of the Coloners companions. sympathz-
ing in the noble cause which had led him
to leave his plantation in Missouri, that of
helping to drive all "free State men" from
Kansas, had come over to help establish
him in his new home. They brought a
gang of negroes with them, and had
raising" in which deal of whisky was
| consumed, and the cabin of the sunken
steamer was raised and dragged to the
top of the knoll. Its side faced the road,
presenting the peculiar spectacle Of a
house with twenty front doors. After
this it needed not great deal of work on
the Colonel's part to render it habitable,
and it was not long before he removed to
it his family and chattels. The former
consisted of his gentle little wife and four
boys, and the latter Of one mule, one COW,
and one "niggah, - faithful Aunt Polyan-
thus. The Colonel made no attempt to
improve the place, but proceeded daily to
Conflict, mounted on his mule, and armed
| in the most ferocious manner, his business
being politics and gambling.
And yet, in spite OF this chasm between
them. human nature asserted its claim,
and the "women folks" of these two
homes became earnest friends. Though
Mrs. May disapproved of the shiftlessness
of Mrs. Antoine's housekeeping, Of the
dirty ruffled pillow cases, OF the painted
plaster paris parrot on the clock.self. of
the number of the Coloners empty whisky
bottles and old boots that strewed the
ground opposite the front entrance, and of
the calmness with which Mrs. Antoine re-
garded the confusion of her kitchen. and
the ragged condition of her sons clothing,
while she worked endless bands of very
fine embroidery, yet she loved the little
woman with all her heart, and had done so
ever since the night that she locked the
drunken Colonel up in one of the state
rooms, and battled death with her until
at dawn fifth little Antoine lay In his
mothers arms Don't talk to me- she