The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-06-08
|llDs Or some WOMEN.
S1hs Boston Kind Are Said to Be
Given to the Spirit
ualistic
How Ellen Terry Manages to Em-
ploy Her Moments Of
Leisure.
Modjsska Uses Cigarettes. Nilsson Has .
Hobby for Fsns, and Various
Whims OF Various Sorts,

w iii have our fads, our superstition
1oo. and mon, says tho ChioaR
Times. Fads are all right. A fad is a per
son,s recreation usually; and perhaps Prot
Munsterbrug, tho wonderful young German
vho il coming over to Harvard univsrsit;
next October TO sid in the chair Of ''psycho
logical exporimentation," will be able 4
tell 40 Why We each privately keep a pc
urpArstition. II was said tho other day tina
half tho literary women in Boston have
msnia for sp~irituslism. but won't confes
II.
A smart person sets up his w fad. Th'
crowd usually run together in common pur
anti Of The fad that is the fashion; it is
mink ten, or il ia coaching, or it IL living
Whist. or IL 10 sk~irt-dancing, or it 10 :
society circus performance, or it 10 sum-
ming.
One OF the busiest lawyers in Boston
spends his spare time with microscope and
/ drop OF dirty pond water. and says he
should havs been crazy long before but for
thiis tad. Charles Egbert Craddock IL de-
voted to fancy work. and 80 is Mrs. A. d.
Il. whitney. Louisa Alcott used to pride
herself on getting up stunning programmes
Tor evening entertainments, and consid-
sred tablesux her strong point. Mrs. Mar
Oaret Deland takes TO carving chimney
pieces ana Mrs. Celia Thaxter to poppy
gardening. @.
Miss Ellen Tsrry's hobby is one with u
practical aspect. At her charming homo
in South kensington she keeps a huge
work basket full of odds and ends OF things
for che poor. When her friends 90 to zee
her they must take their choice of knit
TING, crochsting or sewing and use their
needles like 80 many P%enelopss whom they
talk. :.
Mrs, Bernard Deere, "England's Tosca,"
ID abe is usually called. has a strange fancy
for mechanical toys, dancing dolls and
money boxes. A horseshoe which she
picked up once upon a time at Sandring-
Modjeska's is cigarette smoking, a habit
abe learned. inlhsr Rirlhood. She wanted to be
with her brothers, but the smoke of their
cigars made her cough, SO to get accua-
toned to it she herself learned to smoke.
She thinks the fact hat she smokes a
package or SO of cigarettes every week
should not be regarded as a heinous Of
tense.
Il 10 smoke. but / am not a smoker. NV
clothes never suggest the smell of tobacco,
my breath is not tainted, and there is not q
trace of nicotine on my fingers. I do not
shop or gossip; I am neither u csndy-eater,
q tea-drinker, nor a wine-drinker. l re-
quife something to quiet my nerves, and !
think ! have chosen the least injurious Of
I'LL stimnlants."
8H 49,. fL.:G.-. N:in.~n H.. LA-e- r.
collecting fans. Most OF her fans have
been given her by eminent people. The
finest one she has was presented to her by
the sahib OF Moroi; it is made Of gold, Rsms
and feathers. Another, which was given
TO her by a Russian prince. is an exact copy
Of the queeu of Dudes famous fan. 1t Is
made Of white silk. and sticks of ivory and
gold. the whole being covered with rubies. |
diamonds, pearls and emeralds. The En-
press Eugenie once gave Nilsson a fan
which formerly belonged to Nine. Dubarry,
and was painted by Boucher; another fan
in the fair sonRster's collection was pre-
by the city of Venice. 1t is Of silver
and point lace. Still another once
belonged to Marie Antoinette and was used
by her in prison. Altogether Missions
collection of fans is valued at $50, 900.
To-day one would better hesitate to call
a person 'superstitious" simply because he
is rather inclined to believe thore may be
something in thought transference. The
fact is that everybody one meets seems to
have an experience to relate bearing upon
the subject. The other evening at a family
dinner table anecdotes of the war went
One brother said: 1.-The funniest
thing l heard during the four years wal in
my first battle. l don't know when I have
of it before.
"A man near me was overcome by pure
and broke out into loud weep
ing. His brother stood by him mortified
and ashamed. stop that he said. shaking
him. You coward! anybody would think
you were a BABY
one in solemn earnest, 'and a girl
baby at thatn
The next morning ut breakfast the nar-
rator of this anecdote said: "Whom do
You think | saw last night? The man who
wanted to be u girl baby! l hadn't seen
OF heard of him since the war. lie lives in
the west and was here for the first time in
twenty years. Doesn't it seem az though
MS ylclnlty put that old story into my
mind?"
Most OF us are familiar with the psychioal
phenomenon of the arrival of a letter from
. person OF whom We have been suddenly
set thinking or of his ring at the door, thus
announced.
And what shall we call that strange and
'tnSAooA eApeTiehce OF the young English
girl some years ago, in which Charles Dick
sns bore q part? shall we lot the
feeling which took possession of her to be
superstition. A friend tells me the story.
During the period when Master Hum
phfeY's Clock" or, as it became aftsrward
known, "Old Curiosity Shop" was running
IN some current magazine, Il young girl in
precarious health became perfectly in
thrailed with the story, and SO absorbed
dld she grow in the development ard char
actsr of Little Nell that she felt persuaded
her own life would continue lust SO lono as
that little heroine's, and that both would
terminate together.
This she told her father one day, adding
that she knew Little Nell must die in the
course OF the story. And then began pite-
Gus letters from the afflicted father TO
Cnarles Dickens stating the case and his
daughter's lnfatuation n pleading an
only a parent who watches his child stand.
ing on the threshold of death can plead
maj the novelist might preserve alive Lit
tie Nell. Dickens WAS deeply touched. but
replied that he could not do it, that the
child in the story must die; only he would
Keep her alive through still another nu,n-
ber OF the magazine, Notwithstanding tho
story was already dragging, and that was
all he could do!
Finally oame the closing pages of that
sweet, sad tale of Little Neli's life. and
even as she fell asleep the Young English
girl who had bound her Pickering life to
NAT 80 go r- 49,