The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-11-03

A 18th Century Fairy Tale.
she was young and ambitious, and
never in the whole Of the twenty years
! Of her Ire had known what II was TO
be hard dp. Pretty? Well. passably. II
she was not strictly 50. she did Der best
70 ide it. and Went halfway y Ineee
Nature ana assist her-or AT seas. make
Up for her want Of fhish-by spendps
more than she could really afford 7n her
clothes
Her one pcwer ana greatest attribute
was fascination.
Not the passing kind. but that which
fingered after she had left and made one
want to improve and prolong the ac-
quaiutanceship and endeayor to learn
something more about her.
But as she tod herself over and over
again in the solitude OF her own room,
perhaps while looking at her reflection
ia her mirror. and signing thar her nose
had just n sse5 ben purely Grecian,
and her complexion might be-well, I'm
proved upon, after al it was generally
only women who succumbed to her
charms; Old ladies, or girls about her
own age who regarded her with q little
awe on account of her posing as being
rather clever"
Her history began by giving friend
the address Of her special dressmak er-
and the latter. disregardiug the recon-
mendation in the most irnproviGent man
ner and regardless Of future fav0rs yet
to come. greedily jumped ar what he
present offered and made the friends
dress IN time for the dance. leaving the
girl in the iurch. But this did not dis
concert her as much IS it would have
done the average p 4@an.
She simply sighed over the frailty Of
her pet filter, and, selecting the best OF
her rags" took such extra pains with
the other details of her toilet that after
al she arrived looking the better Of the
two-in spite Of the delinquencies Of her
dressmaker.
It was at this dance she came to the
crisis in her life and was introduced to
King CoDhetua She called it crisis
Other people who merely looked or,
watching her play her game Of chance
using Ambition and fascination as the
diee-simply called it an opportunity, and
wondered if she would take advantage
Of it.
But to her an opportunity meant an
epoch Of failure or success, according TO
whether she seized it or not. Long ago
she had hunted the word up in her die
tionary, and underlined it. and, ORA wing
49, R-A- LALAA@A4 tic CON 4MDAlAE accept d
definition (Which had been enough for
Johnson, she wrote opposite to it "cri-
Sis" And once having done so she did
not forget it.
King -Cophetua was like fairy prince
He was young handsome influential
the heir TO a title. and fell headIong ia
love with the maid despite the fact that
to all intent and purpose She was prac-
tealiy a beggar. although she had once
been known to write herself down rs
IAN Independent woman" but then She
explained the slip afterward. saving with
2 laugh, that "the adjective should have
been INDECENT; but she was proverbaIly
bad sDeller. and both words began
with the letter ]"
It ought to have been all plain sailing
for them, and. like the fairy tales, con
tinue until It ended correctly by mar
rying and living happily ever after
ward"
But modern men and maids cannot
overcome obstacles as easily as the
prince and princess; the shepherd lads
and geese maidens who lived hundreds
and hundreds Of years ago, and kings
jeven if circumstances DO cali them
Cophetua) have relations who sometimes
las in this case-obiect to a beggar
maiden being introduced into their high
" respectable and royal circle, especiaI-
" If she has no relations to hack her
up, and only a stern old dragon called
Mrs Grundy to watch her every move
ment and call out in horror at Uuchaper-
oned meetings and such goings on. All
this necessarily prolonged the crisis.
which was none the less sharp because
it was not as short as the fairy god
mother Good Fate had intended it should
be. Malignant I'll fate stepped in.
She was in cruelty excellent form She
made the royal relatives more stiff and
unbending than before. and even select
ed an extraordinarily unattractive lady
of high birth for them to Introduce 10
the king. She made Mrs. Grumpy 50
extremely ObjeciOna BILE that she harried
the maiden so that the latter complet sly
lost her usual calmness, and when tho
time came for her to have a throw VITA
the royal relatives pride injured her
principal tool. fascination, so that It fell
down a blank. while ambition turned up
at the full number and lay where It had
dropped-the observed Of all observers.
The crisis was over. The epoch Of fail
ure had now begun.
Even King Cophetua was disappointing
now. lie went enthusiastically to shoot
lions.
And the beggar maid, too, did a fool
ish thing for she gave Mrs Srundy the
cut direct and went and lived alone
meanwhile a most imprudent way for
so young maid to treat the good lady
who if she was rather trying at times,
still was eminently respected. and much
older and wiser than The girl.)
Two such foolish people deserved no
better fate than was offered to them
one to be killed by the beasts he went
forth 70 siav and the other 10 marry a
mere nobody. who had only one attrac-
ton in her eyes, viz, no royal relatives
to interfere.
But special providence watches over
lovers. and the king, coming under this
head escaped: while tie maid remem-
bered just ia time that 81 fascination
had fallen fat she still had ambition
which had turned 10 trum ns-even II 81
was st an inopportuue moment So she
hUgged ambition. and dismissed The
country swain (Which was quite as Il
should BE- for ia fairy tales Il would
never DO for people 81 the same position
ia life to marry each otherl
She was rewarded for It by her fairy
go5-mother. Tor one day she and the
king met in the most opDortune place
ia the whole w0rld-a church
There was parson there ard clerk,
so e would have been missing an opDor-
runity. which this tire was more than n
ordinary crisis. If they had net taken
advantage Of It.
This time the king did what he should
have done IN the first Place he took
her and introduced her 20 his r1ya rei-
a-ivas afresh This time as queen.
And what could they raise as an OBJ
jection n0w2 Nothing For s. n0t
queen next - a king ever h she has
been beggar maid n fcrmer 6svz2
Things Abeut china.
China was open 70 the world y 1851
CHINA IS the eldest ~ existing ra-