The record-union., 1896-12-20

word, often digesting far more in their
untutored minds than is at all good
for them. In this way 1 learned the
facts of this particular case, and was
Mortified later ON upon learning of the
boldness of a certain clique of we'll
grown girls who belonged in the same
Sunday-school that l did myself. Oh,
yes; they were Sunday-school girls, ev-
cry one of them, though you may doubt
it after you read this. They were about
as uncomfortable as young colts and
not much more tame, if the truth were
known, and a holy terror to that self
same Sunday-school to which they all
belonged. Timidity was not among
their virtues-for it can be just that
scmetimes-and one and all they deter
mined to see the execution of Morti-
mer. One declared she had never seen
a man hung, and she was just thirst
iEg for the experience. CTheir ages
varied from IA to 16 years.) council
of war was held and a decision taken.
The next day no, it didn't rain; it
would have been better for them if it
had-but at the hour fixed for the hang
ing these enfants terrible assembled
themselves together at the Mansion
House ON Seventh street, where one of
the number lived, and proceeded to the
roof which overlooked the courtyard,
where the gall0ws had been erected
They bore up wonderfully till the time
had fairly arrived, but just at the
crucial moment one of the number
tainted and all the rest confessed to
feeling queer" One of them in relat-
q for I'd
None of us could eat anything to
speak of for days afterward 1 never
want to see man hung again, can
tell you. Ugh! I'll never forget the
horror of it as long as I live
Time has worked his changes among
these girls as everywhere. One is dead
-snatched from life herself in a cruel
ly abrupt manner-drowned while
bathing with friends in the Sacramento
River; another is still unmarried,
though now well on in years, and has
in her time had her fling at coquetry,
which is not unlikely the cause of her
present state of single -blessedness, and
third, one of the widest, though not
by any means the worst of them, is
married comfortably and is the mother
II.
more selfish, is, though married, unen-
numbered by the clinging arms of any
little ones of her own; nay they would
only be a sore hindrance to her manner
of life, for do not the frail, weak fingers
of baby hands by their fragile touch
cften hold back the pleasure loving
mother from more trivial enjoyments
of life, chaining her down to the mora
sacred ties of home? This woman lives
for herself alone. A modish gown, an
afternoon reception. a dress ball
these are the things that fill her small
soul with the sort of enjoyment it
Graves. When I meet any of these
women-one time thoughtless girls
thirsting for adventure and uncanny
experiences-the past invariably comes
up before me, and 1 wonder if, among
the changes time has wrought among
them, they, too, remember.
Before another week rolls round
Christmas will have come and gone
Christmas, the season of Peace ON
earth and good win to men," 1t hardly
seems as if it could be SO close at hand
so swiftly do the sands of time run out
as We grow older. AS little children we
cannot even see them fall so eager are
we to have them go. In after years,
when griefs, sorrows and perplexities
have come to us, and time has laid his
heavy hand upon our heads, leaving the
imprint of his fingers in silver threads
amongst the once dark, glossy locks
fain would we then turn the fateful
glass and let the sands run back; but,
no, the glass of Time is cast for the
span of a lifetime, and when the last
grain of sand shall have run out, then
indeed, is the beginning of all eternity,
whose time shall know no end
Before the week is spent and the op-
portunity gone, please accept one and
all heartfelt greeting and Merry
Christmas from
POLLY OLIVER