Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-10-26

J answered the sray-bearded painter Il
am afraid these slow square-headed
| SaXons will get the better of us. 1t is
the old race of the hare and the tortoise
| over again.
| CHAPTER V.
| The Coming of the Square-Heads
| No, there had been no victory. That
| outburst OF patriotic fervor had wasted
itself upon an idle dream Paris awoke
| is a very savage humor on Sunday
morning; and then came laughter and
cynical jests. Everybody accused his
neighbor of having eagerly swallowed
the lie. Everybody declared that he
for his own part, had never believed
the news so greedily accepted by the
| mob
But IN those two new homes in the
Rue, Git lie Occur there was bliss
| whether the arms of France were vic
| torious or otherwise far away in those
unknown lands, which the Parisians
were picking out with pins upon gaily-
colored maps, sticking up tiny flags
! here and there on the map to show
| where the French troops We're. the very
| spot where great battles might be ex
pected momently, great victories
new Auerstadt, Il second Jena.
| What do little birds, in their nests
on st. Valentines Day care what bat
| ties the big eagles, the hawks. and the
vultures are fighting far away among
Scottish mountains, or Alpine SUBMITS {!
The birds have their nests, and each
| to each is the world in little
| Let the world slide, we shall never
be younger" said CASTOR, who knew
Shakespeare, in the translation of
Charles Hugo.
He and his young wife were utterly
| happy. If there were dark clouds i'm
pending they could not see them Is
not love blind-blind to all things ex-
cept the beloved? The faintest shadow
ON Gaston's brow troubled Kathleen.
but not those signs of tempest which
were gathering round France.
| The lew home was full of smiles
| Kathleen and CASTOR had smartened
the old furniture by some modest ad-
ditiOns bought before their marriage
Il Wrltlng-table, a cabinet, a bookcase
filled with Gaston's books, the accu-
mutation of the last ten years. a few
old mezzo-tints picked up from time to
time at the print-shOps on the quay
| Kathleen and Rose had toiled for
months to make both homes complete
and pretty. Curtains and chair-covers
were all the work of those two pairs of
industrious hands.
| Durand, who was richer than Morte-
mar, had taken the lower floor for his
own menage. In the Rue Git lie Occur
that second floor ranked as a rather
important suite Of rooms.
The apartment consisted of salon,
fifteen feet by twelve, with two case
ment windows commanding the shabby
little courtyard; 4 bedroom somewhat
| smaller; a little room which would
serve as a workshop for Durand, who
| did good deal Of artistic cabinet-Work
| on his own account after business
! hours; and a tiny kitchen. DurandS
skillful hands had made all the best
furniture in the dead watches Of the
| night, when other men were sleeping
or disSipating; so the home of Rose and
Philip was furnished in style worthy
of Il man who stood high in the syn
dictate Of cabinet-makers.
| But while life was so full of hap
piness for the newly married, the sky
was darkening outside. An army of
undeniable valor, but in number terri
| bly, inferior to the foe, and led by gen
! erals Of scandalous incapacity, was
| brought face to face with the whole
| Of Germany, in arms as one man. burn
| ing to avenge the agony and shame Of
| sixty years ago. On the 18th of August
came the defeat of General Douay.
| beaten and slain at WisSembourg; and
| on the 9th the still more deplorable re-
verses of MacMahon at Woerth at
EreischWiller, and at ReichshOffen. BY
the breach thus opened the enemy
poured into France like a torrent. They
came, the tetes carreeS! There was no
longer room for self-deception. This
was invasion.
F., And now far off, dimly as in dream,
Paris beheld the pale sceptre of siege
and famine. The Parisians knew hard
| ly anything of the truth, which came
to them only in garbled fragments.
/ They knew not that upon the heels of
these three or four hundred thousand
! men let loose upon France would fol-
| low hundreds of thousands more; yes,
nearly all the male population of the
! old German Empire.
| Dark rumOrs of evil without the walls
only drew those two households nearer
| to each other made home joys SWeeter,
| love closer But now Kathleen learned
| the meaning of fear. She was full Of
morbid terrors when her husband was
away from her. She pictured an adj
vance guard falling upon him in the
street; a shell from the enemy'S artil-
/ lery bursting ut his feet. And Castor
| went every day to the office of the
/ Drapeau Rouge. He had leaders to
write, tartines, letters, patriotic ar
| ticles breathing warlike fire, every full
stop seeming like a shell. France beat
! en-, france invaded? All, but there
was nothing in this world so unlikely,
| so near the impossible; and yet, while
! he wrote, French arms were flung
! down, French soldiers were flying
J Il wild rabble-frOm before the face Of
/ the foe; and the invaders foot was on
! the soil, tramping onward steadily, gil
| UaDtic inVincihlp like some mighty