Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1898-03-31
A DEAD CARNATlON.
leonard Contemplate the Contents OF
Desk Drawer.

,dor of faded flowers.
"Let us plunge into the atmosphere
# sweet memories said Leonard.
Wife absent, Leonard, addressing
Bayard, his most intimate friend, indi-
lated withered blossoms. Faded and
grown musty in the lapse of years, they
.eposed at the bottom Of the desk
drawer.
"This lily" said Leonard, signing,
was the flower given me by Blanche,
my first love, when 1 took from her
lips timid kiss. She was as white as
it's impeccable petals, fragrant as its /
pure corolla, graceful as its dropping |
stem, and who knows what might have
had she not died in the bloom
of youth?''
"And the rose?" asked Bayard.
"Ah, that was later!'' said Leonard,
with burst of laughter. "Rosette gave
me that when she first brushed my lips
with her own. The petals were once
rosy as her warm being, and the flowers
beauty was radiant and amorous as her
Young womanhood. If she had not been
tickle. she might now be my wife,
"And the orchid?" queried Bayard.
"Hippolyta presented me with that. y
said Leonard, thoughtfully, "when she
saw me trembling in alteration at her
feet. Time was when it had the mystic
charm of her own perverse personality,
and If a Russian nobleman had not
eloped with her should still be her de-
voted slave. F"
Bayard discovered a bunch of faced
violets
Sand these?" he Intercepted.
s'They were the flowers, :" murmured
Leonard sadly, (which Etienette sens
me when l had treated her brutally, be-
lieving that she had deceived me. She
was demure and tender as the blooms,
and, after the storm Of my passions, she
came like a peaceful sprite to pour
beauty and love into my life. Had she
forgiven me, it might have been"-
At this point Leonard interrupted
himself, Selling angrily dead carna
ton.
"Why is this flower here?' he cried.
eft has no place among the precious
memories. Away with it at once!'
In moment the unresisting carna
ton was reduced to dust under his pitt.
less foot.
"Why do you destroy it?' questioned
Bayard.
because it is the carnation Emilia
gave me when che said she would be
my wife, - said Leonard, eynically
"and I married her. "-Philadelphia
Bulletin.
Hard to Beat Boy.
A cigar dealer in the west end saiG
to reporter for the Cincinnati Com
mercial Tribune: 1t takes mighty
sharp man to get ahead Of boy, for a
fact. One of them came in here not
long ago, and he was old enough to buy
cigarettes and wanted package. l sold
them and got the money. In minute
a neighbor came in and wanted to know
what the boy bought. told him.
"'Well, said he, that beats the
devil! Do you know what that boy did?
He was in my store about five minutes
ago and asked me to buy pamphlet
that is issued by the Anticigarette
league, whatever that is. He told me
that the boys in the public schools were
trying to sell them everywhere to do
away with the bad habit Of cigarette
smoking among the sohoolboys.
thought it was a good thing, and
bought CHG from him. He sold some
others in the same neighborhood. Now
that little rascal comes in here and
spends my money for cigarettes, and
TIL bet dollar that you'll find him
around here somewhere near smoking
for all that's out Pm going to look
him up
"The next day I asked him if he had
caught the kid, and he said:
"'I did lie and some chums were
cd time of it, and, more
Of them were in the same
ley thought it was a good
oppose it Was-on me-but
around my store again
ooted out
aid the cigar dealer, "they
p to get caught. They only
an at time, and none Of
& pes back again. They keep
s. expect an examination will
ley have been to every store
:1ole neighborhood. Where
Pamphlets ] do not know
tut imagine some Of the good people,
of the league had them printed for gra-
tuitous circulation, and the boys con-
cluded to sell them. They're pretty
Slick