The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-11-08
SAVANNAH GROCERY CO., DISTRIBUTORS.
STRAUSS, PRITZ AGO.
DISTILLERS
F0P SALE ATALL FIRST CLASS cAFES.

those dozen other mysterious rings
within rings, wheels within wheels,
which the complicated perfection of
capital social life offers for the con-
| fusion of folk
| "Unquestionably, the White House."
Peg went on, lis the citadel, the great
tower, ana we can always retreat to
| that. We will do well enough; but OH
here Peg laid her hand like a rose
leaf on my arm-'you do not under
stand, a man cannot understand, what
we shall go through"
Let US have stout hearts for all
that" said l. 1T behooveth us to be
bold, since no victory, even over weak
hess, was never constructed of timidi-
| ty. Besides, the foe may offer US it's
defeat by its own errors. / recall, how
| once upon a time, certain Creeks
whom the General was to attack, en-
trenched themselves, and all about
felled trees and sharpened the branches
| into points, the whole as defensive as
any bristle of bayonets. You, as
| thought these red engineers, would
have deemed the place impregnable, Tor
no one might force his way through
this chevaux de-frise. But the Cen
| erals military eye unlocked the situa-
| ton. The sun-dried leaves and twigs
were lying where they fell. An arrow,
with blazing tow tied to it's shaft ana
shot from a safe 200 yards away, solV-
| ed the problem. In a moment that
precious defense was on fire; and the
enemy, driven forth by the heat and
flame and smoke of it, were met in
the open and destroyed to man. We
may yet smoke these society savages
| into a surrender by setting an honest
torch to their surroundings. One thing
we can promise ourselves" l remark
ed this in conclusion. Whatever else
may fail, at the worst, you shall not
go wanting a revenge"
And that thought is sweet, TOO, SAID
| she in return.
Pegs leopard teeth were not without
Significance; that much l saw. After
all, her speech was to shaVe been ex-
pected; for who will go further aheld
for revenge than your flesh and plooo
| true woman, still of earths f1res ana
not ready for the skies?
Peg told me a portion of her story;
| partly because it was natural she
should think that 1, who had been
stranger to her, might justly want such
| knowledge; but mostly, l believe, for
that she had an instinct to defend her
self against what / might have pre-
conceived to her disaster. Dear child,
| she had small cause to fret herself
on that scorel l remember she gave
herself no little blame as the self-will-
| ed gardener of those thorny sorrows
among which she had walked and was
still sorrowfully to find her path. She
| would run on like this, as l recall:
1.-THE first fault belonged with this
tavern of an Indian Queen. l could
have been no older than eight when
| knew how folk who came here. con-
| gressmen and officers of state and their
ladies, looked upon us who kept the
place as but servants over servants,
and took care not to meet us on an
| Themselves
| father and mother were disrated as
mere tavern keepers who sold their en-
tertainment to any and to all; and l,
so soon as ] came to discretion and an
ability to apprehend, found myself IN
cluded in the ban thus set upon my
people. I've seen nurses skurry TO car
ry their charges off from childish games
with me and the contamination of my
baby contact. Later, in girlhood, I've
overheard mothers while they warned
their daughters to avoid me, and ex-
| perienced the tilt-nosed airs or those
same daughters who, with superior arts
of insolence stung me like wasps. More
often than once, I've crept away to
tears of shame because l was the
daughter of a tavern.
But in the end it hardened me.
had a perverse, retaliatory temper.
grew up beautiful, so folk told me;
| moreover, I knew 1t but too Well by
the merest glance in glass. With my
| beauty'-Peg spoke of it in mixed SIM
| plicity and sadness as though she re-
| counted deformity-"I was wont to
fashion my revenge. My father-not
a poor man, for while taverns may be
I vulgar they may be profitable-was
ever ready to spend money on me; and
l had only to hint at a comb or RID
bon or a ring, to find the gewgaw an
hour after on my table. Good poor
man! My father, calm and careless
| enough under his condition so far as
il rested on himself. felt for my hui
Mutations, which now and again he
could not fail to see, and sought with
trinketry and luxury of dress to re-
| nair the injury. Neither he nor my
mother spoke of what they both must
have felt, that is our no-social condi-
| ton. if one may so describe 1t; and
for myself l was too proud, ana TOO
tenderly in love with them for their
thousand kindnesses, to bring 1T upon
their notice.
method of my revenge. l owned taste
as we'll as looks, and my wits were as
| deep and as quick and as bright as
nv eyes, I've set many wrinkle on
many a fair brow by defeating 1t to
second place in that woman's rivalry
of looks.
tilts against loneliness, my allies were
! the men. Compliment for me was never
silent on their lips. I was the towns
| toast as 1 grew up. This put the
women to an opposite course. AS the
men spoke of my beauty, the women
shrugged their pure shoulders and told
of my holiness; and l must confess
! that in a native vivacity, together with
| that rebellion of the spirit born OF their
attitude towards me, / gave them end
less evidence to go upon. have lived
nv life without an immortality or the
shadow of one; have done no wrong
wherewith to shame myself! but, reck-
| less. careless, and with the frank ig-
norance of innooence-and then, to be
sure. because it made those others an
gry-I was greedy of mems praise,
withal too free of speech and eye, and
thereby offered tongues eager to as
sail me the argument required as ma
terial for their i'll work. They, the
women, wove for me as bad story as
they might, and then wrapped 1t about
me for a reputation. How l loathed
and hated them! those who worsted OF
my beauty would tear me with calum-
ny by way of reprisal!
Now 1 must tell you, 1t was l who
wearied first of that game where 1t
was beauty on the one side against Icy
stare arched brow. and covert innuen-
do on the other. No; my tongue would