davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1905-01-21
A Matter Of
HOHV A ChriStmas
Story.
BY 9. Blair Eofon
Copyright, lR2 BY 7, Blair Eaton

- - .
They sat before a blazing fire o.
the hearth. Thurlow, leaning forwar,
in his chair, toyed idly with a pair 0
brass tongS, and Miss Wentworth In
dustriouSly arranged chestnuts on tn
fire shovel. They were quite alone Ii
the room. One after another th,
other guests had sought the dinin,
room, where now Freddy Carver.
comfortable voice could be hear
stridently demanding candles to wa,
the floor with.
Il hope I'm not overselfish In keep
ing you here to toast the chestnuts' :
said Thurlow to the girl. "Perhaps
you prefer to dance"
'There'll be time enough for that"
she replied. Freddy Carver viii keep
them going until midnight"
They're off." said Thurlow as the
labored notes Of a violin, a clarinet
and piano fioated in to them.
A gust Of wind whistled sharply
outside, and the fire answered II by
The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1905-01-21
Thuriow was silent.

1 "oc
Perhaps she didn't want even on,
world" Miss Wentworth said gently.
ITS good policy to bring one work
at least" said he.
Good business policy" she mocked.
You see" he explained, "she had
wealth and position and every eligible
man in the county at her feet, and
And the memory OF Il Christmas
eve and bunch of mistletoe," she in.
terrupted.
Thurlow made vicious jabs with the
tongs at the burning logs. He succeed.
ed In upsetting the fire shovel ana spill
ing the chestnutS into the blaze The
girl had turned her head from him, but
he had a glimpse of one little ear
flushed red
Thurlow suddenly laughed harshly,
Goodness" he said. Just imagine
his coming back to her on Christmas
eve. with no worlds, no anything. save
his worthless self, Imagine that How
ridiculous 1t wodid seem to her, She
would taught"
She turned to him. Her eyes blazcd.
and something Suspiciously like tears
glistened on the lashes. Her hands
were clinched.
Shed be wicked girl II she did"
she said hotly.
Thurlow turned his eyes to the chan.
delier. In the alckerlng light OF the
fire he studied 1t carefully for several
moments. Then he turned TO the fire
again
THANK heaven, it's holly up there
on the chandelier, II 1t were mlstletoc
I'm afraid-G'm afraid he might come
back ck-tonight-without his world In
tow"
Miss Wentworth rose. She. too,
looked thoughtfully at the chandelier.
"Oh, you foolish boy" she said,
laughing softly. Did you ever see
holly with leaves like that and-and- /
white berries?"
She was standing directly beneath 1t, !
her eyes upturned, her face glowing |
red in the freight. Dear, its-it's"-
Thurlow sprang from the chair. I
Some minutes later Freddy Carver
pulled the p0rtieres apart.
Aren't you danclngT" he inquired.
Come on out. And for heavens sake
stop scenting up the whole house with
lurnt chestnuts.'
The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1905-01-21

|
UPTURNED.
leaping up defiantly. The girl llstene,
and smiled.
Doesn't that sound Christmasy ?
she said.
1T seems to me the peace on earth
spirit and all that sort of thing thrive.
best in a low temperature, the mar
suggested. Christmas without &
shiver or two isn't Christmas"
1T needs that and house party
here at the Oaks and Freddy Carver
to start the dancing she supplement
/ ed.
That we may have the fire and the
/ chestnuts all to ourselves" he hasten.
/ ed to add.
She laughed and flushed in the
shadow Of the ingle nook.
Selfish she chided
''Of your society," he explained.
The hand with which she held the
fire shovel over the log trembled lit
tie. One of the chestnuts dropped into
the flames and sputtered merrily. Thur
low settled back in his chair and for a
time gazed steadily at the fire, seem.
ingly lost In reverie.
'She was all in white" he declared
with sudden irrelevance.
who was all in whiter" Miss
Wentworth asked.
"EhT said Thurlow "A girl was
thinking about, nice girl one Christ
mas eve like this"
OH said Miss Wentworth.
"She was standing beneath the libra
ry chandelier" Thurlow went on.
There was a bunch Of mistlet0e Just
over her head"
Careless little girl" she commented.
Then he came along" said Thurlow,
"and saw her standing there"
did he see the mistletOeT Miss
Wentworth asked.
"Eh? Yes, he saw the mistletoe,"
said Thurlow.
There was silence between them for
a moment. Freddy Carver's voice was
proclaiming in tones Of resignation,
"Well, the Virginia reel, then, If you
insist"
HE was very young" Thurlow said |
at length, "and the combination made
him feel very strange"
"The combination? she inquired.
''Yes-the girl and the mistletOe, you |
know" said Thurlow. Made him de-
termlned to go out and lay the world
by the heels, and some tlme-some
Christmas eve under the mistletoe-to
bring 1t back to her and lay 1t at her
feet"
"AndT she said encouragingly.
And" repeated Thurlow, "he went,
but the world was thoughtless II re,
fused to be laid by the heels according
to his plans. But through 1t all-evei
when he had to save his cigars to
smoke before possible clients and CON
tent himself with a cob pipe at other
dmes-he conjured up the picture of
the girl and the mistletoe and went at
IT. He's at 1t yet, poor devilF'
The fire shovel lay on the log and the
chestnuts were scorching. Miss Went.
worth was looking straight at them,
but made no attempt TO rescue them.
"Was he sure one world would salts.
~ her demandsT she asked ironically.
Perhaps she wanted two or three"
The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1905-01-21

Some minutes later Freddy Carver
pulled the p0rtieres apart.
Aren't you danclngf" he inquired.
Come on out. Aud for heavens sake
stop scenting up the whole house with
burnt chestnuts"'
The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1905-01-21

when | took you into partnership"
said the indignant father, Il expected
you to be untlring in your devotion to
the interests Of the business"
The son took one foot down from the
lesk long enough to strike match to
light his cigarette.
II think have been" said he. You
never have noticed me tire myself yet,
have you, pal"
The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1905-01-21
Gnrden of the SnnI.

Each bud flowers but once, and each
aower has but its minute Of perfect
beauty so in the garden Of the soul
zach feeling has, as It were, its flower
Ing instant, its one and only moment Of
expansive grace and radiant kingship.
The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1905-01-21

did my diamonds call forth any
.omment| asked Mrs. Cumrox.
"Yes, indeed" answered Miss Cay
snne. 81 heard several people refer to
you as the human chandelier Wash
Ington Star.
The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1905-01-21
Dear Things,

Miss Shugger-What a self possessed
woman Miss Passay is! Miss Pepper
Yes, and don't imagine she'd ever get
chance to dispose Of the property
Cleveland Leader
The news & observer., 1905-07-09

man in all the State to take his place,
and that man Morton had no use for;
but when the fortunes of the Repub-
lican party We're in the balance, Nor
ton could make any sacrifice, and SO
he nominated Harrison. They called
him "Kidglove" Ben. and when cleo
ton returns came in blue jeans had
beaten ''kid-gloves" by some very few
thousands of votes. That night Nor
ton took the train for California, and
killed himself carrying the Pacific
slope for Hayes. Nevertheless, Tilden,
the consummate master of political
strategy that he was, would have got
other votes had he thought he needed
them.
Morton died the next year, and In
diana turned Democratic-that is, she
was Congressionally and Senatorial1y
and Internationally Democratic Voor-
hees succeeded Morton in the Senate,
and some time earlier Mcdonald had
succeeded Pratt. In 1880 Hendricks
was elected governor, though Garfield
carried the State. Voorhees, was to
have twenty years in the Senate, Nc
Donald six, and Turpie twelve. and
during that period-1S77-'97- Re-
publicanS were 10 have but six years
In the Senate; but those six years were
given to Ben. Harrison. He entered
the Senate the day Blaine retired
from it. 1t is not improbable, had
these two served a single session to-
gether in that body that Ben. Harri-
son would never have been President
of the United States. Blaine left Of
flee before Harrison made an impress
sion on the Senate. | have no doubt
that when Blaine became Secretary of
State in 1889 he confidently expected
to dominate the administration, and
had as little doubt of it as he had that
he would run the Garfield administra-
tion eight years before But Mr..
Blaine found out what Gov. Morton
ascertained thirty years earlier-that
The news & observer., 1905-07-09
BENJAMIN HARRISON.
By SAVOYARD.

This was not so great man as
Oliver p. Morton, not SO popular as
Thomas A. Hendricks, not SO eloquent
as George w. Julian, not so magnetic
tas Daniel w. Voorhees, not so lovable
as Walter q. Gresham-but he had a
finer intellect than any one of them,
and was better lawyer than the best
of them. They said he was proud, and
SO he was-prOud as Lucifer; but 1t
was the pride of conscious superiority
the pride that Alcibiades had. AS a
practitioner at the bar he was unsur-
passed by any lawyer of his time, and
when he came to be President of the
United States there was not depart
ment of the whole Federal establish
ment that he could not have adminis-
tered with more ability than any one
of his Cabinet brought to it. He was
master of the strongest and most syrsl-
metrical English, and he could, and
did, write better dispatches than
Blaine. He was an admirable offhand
Quence is unsurpassed by that of any
other public man of our history
He came to the Presidency at
critical time. There was an enormous
surplus in the Treasury and it was
imperative that some sort of legislation
be had to correct the evil of taking
from the people more by taxation
than the government required. But
that was a small difficulty-the sur
plus-compared with the coinage ques-
tion There was a majority in favor
of free coinage, at the ratio of 16 to !,
i'm both Houses of Congress- The Re-
publican leaders were resolved that
their party should not have the odium
of veto OF a free coinage bill. They
played some most skillful politics. and
the result was the Sherman silver law,
under the operation of which the.
money of the country was diluted
every month to the amount of 5,000,-
600 short dollars. so per cent. fiat.
AS result. gold left the Treasury,
and before Harrison's term expired he
prepared to issue bonds. 1t took
months of the Cleveland administra-
tion to repeal the Sherman law. 1t
took the remainder of that administra-
ton to preserve the public credit To
accomplish these two things the DEM
ocratic party was sacrificed. Had Ben
Harrison been reelected in 1892 1t is
very likely that his party would have
been as hopelessly disrupted as the
Democratic party was.
A Gen. Harrison-and I believe his
name was Benjamin-was i'm Crom-
wells army. He was a brave soldier
and fanatic. half crazy about politics
and totally crazy about religion. Walter
Scott draws true picture of him in
Woodstock" 1t is an evidence of
what great man Oliver Cromwell
was that he could use such man as
Harrison as an instrument to serve his
purposes. Harrison was one of the
judges of the King. a regicide. and no
doubt he was conscientious. for he did
not believe that a King had any right
to hold such religious beliefs as
Charles held, to say nothing OF
Charles's political opinions. which
were an abomination In the estimation
of Harrison. When the second Charles
came to the throne they apprehended
The news & observer., 1905-07-09

Harrison tried him for treason, found
him guilty, and executed him. The
biographer of President Ben. Harrison
tells US that the regicides family came
to America. From that biography
Mr.. Boyd is the author-we get the
impression that Ben. Harrison was q
descendant of the old Cromwellian
but he does not say SO in express
terms, and very likely it was not true
Ben Harrison was the grandson of a
President of the United States and a
great-grandson of a signer of the De-
claration of Independence. His family
was from Virginia and Carolina.
make no doubt that they would have
been in the royal army had they lived
at that time. Besides. New England
would have been a more inviting home
Tor regicide's family than Virginia.
Old Ben. Harrison's baronial estate,
not far from Richmond, bespoke the
cavalier, and young Ben. Harrison was
a born cavalier
Old Ben, the signer of the Declara-
ton of Independence; was as much of
an aristocrat as any, Randolph, or
Pendleton, or Lee, or any of the rest
or them. His SON, William Henry
Harrison, went to the Northwest Ter
ritory and was a brave soldier of the
war of 1912. He commanded at Tip
pecanoe and at the Thames. He was
q plain, blunt, honest, brave, sincere
patriotic, old soldier. not genius like
George Rogers Clark. but hard
fghter, Whom you had to kill to whip,
like Zachary Taylor. He was a citi-
zen of Ohio and served in both Houses
OF Congress. He was man of Roman
mold, loved the character of the an
cient sages, and saturated his memory
with their history. 1t is related that
he filled his inaugural address in 1S41
with illusions to Plutarch's heroes
and that Webster cut it all out but one
or two passages. We are all glad thar
the "godlike Daniel" spared the be-
ginning of the second paragraph: at
was the remark of a Roman consul IN
an early period of that celebrated re-
public that a most striking CONTRAST
vas ob"ervaoie in tn, conduct of cam
dldates for Offices OF power and trust
Desore and after obtaining them, they
seldom carrying out ir the latter ease
the Pledges and promises made in tha
former /. IS n vice that is not i'm
Frequently practiced in the American
republic OF the present day.
Benjamin Harrison, the twenty
third President of the United States.
was born at North Bend, Ohio, August
90, 1893 He was educated at Carys
Academy, now within the city limits
of Cincinnati. and at Miami Universi-
ty, whence he was graduated at the
age of nineteen. oliver p. Morton
was a student there during Harrison's
term. Young Harrison entered the
office of Judge Storer of Cincinnati,
Immediately after he left college, and
entered upon the study of law. Be-
fore he was twenty-one he was admit
ted to the bar. He had a mind that
would not be denied, and it was the
legal mind. He was natural born
lawyer, and in addition he had the
moral and physical energies that made
him one of the most formidable prac-
titioners who ever appeared at the
The news & observer., 1905-07-09

Washington was not big enough to
hold the man who could dominate that
little duck-legged man from Hoosier-
dom, and he found out another thing,
that that little man had a little more
sense than anybody else in this town.
Harrison could not have been nomi-
mated at Chicago in 1888 over the
protest of Blaine, and 1t is quite like
lY that that protest would have come
had Blaine known Harrison as well as
he knew Sherman. In the Senate Har-
rison soon approved himself a great
debater. He made the best speech
of any Republican on the resolution
Of Edmunds, which. in plain English
meant nothing else in the world than
that it had become unconstitutional
for Democrat to be President of the
United States That was when Ed
mundS was proposing to drag Grover
Cleveland up before the Judiciary
Committee of the Senate and force
him to tell his reasons for turning Re-
publicans out of office and putting
Democrats in. 1t was a great debate,
Pugh, Of Alabama, and Kenna, of
West Virginia, for Cleveland, and Ed
munds, Harrison and Ingalls, for the
Republican party. 1t was during that
controversy that Cleveland used the
expression ''innocuous desuetude,"
that sent everybody to the dictionary.
When Senator Ingalls, was asked to
define the phrase he said that was
Cleveland's way of telling the Senate
ito go To hell"
Harrison was succeeded in the Sem
ate by Turpie, and returned to the
practice of his profession i'm 1887. The
following year the Republican party
met in convention to nominate a cam
dfdate for President, and there were
many candidates. On the first ballot
John Sherman got 229 votes, Gresham
Ill, Depew 80, Alger "a, Allison 70,
blaine S5, ingalls, 2S, Rusk 25, Phelps
25, with some scattering votes for
The news & observer., 1905-07-09

others, and so votes for Ben Harrison.
1t was a curious fact that PennsylVa-
MIA was instructed for John Sherman;
but there was bolt there and the
Pennsylvania delegation cast "a votes
for the mayor of Philadelphia, and if
We can believe Sherman's book, Gov.
Alger made greater havoc among
Sherman's colored troops from the
South than the mayor made among
his Pennsylvania delegates. The con-
vention wanted to nominate Blaine,
and spent two days begging him to
consent but when it was realized that
Blaine would not have it, Tom Platt
and Chauncey Depew gave it to Ben.
Harrison. There is a story that Platt
heSitated between Allison and Harri-
son, and that the former would have
been chosen had not Iowa been so
savage against the railroads. There is
no doubt that Platt expected to be
Secretary of the Treasury No doubt
he was promised it, but not by Ben.
Harrison, for whom no man was au-
!horiZed to do any promising.
Harrison was eelcted, and it was the
unexpected that happened. His ad-
minstration was a success, but il
would have been a far greater success
had the first Tom Reed Congress done
nothing but pass the appropriations. If
the Fifty-ninth Congress were to re-
enact the legislation of that Fifty-first
Congress, Roosevelt would be in hot
water before he could turn around, a
panic would follow, gold would leave
the Treasury, bonds would be sold,
and the G.. o. p. would be undone. 1t
took Grover Cleveland four years to
undo what Tom Reed did in a single
session.
The news & observer., 1905-07-09

but the act destroyed his party. Nc
kinley came in 1897; the Spanish war
followed; the Philippines were acquir-
ed; the colonial policy was adopted
Only the future can approve or con-
denim the new departure. 1t is a blank
page before us, and there is no seer
to read what history shall write on it,
We only know 1T costs pile of
money. and Harrison was opposed to
1t. Like Reed and Schurz and Hoar,
he would have confined America to
the Western Hemisphere.
The news & observer., 1905-07-09

| bar of the great Mississippi Valley. He
| had moral, mental, and physical cour-
age in the greatest abundance, and
Ben. Harrison would have stood alone,
reSolute to death, before all the clamor
of all the mobs of all the world. When
very young he married, and opened
law office at Indianapolis. He loved
his profession, and the laborious life
he led was a pleasure and never a
hardship. His was a mind that took
keen delight in spending all the hours
of the night searching the mysteries
of a volumnouS legal record, and his
was a stern, even a grim, joy that an
ticipated the conflict of the courtroom
on the morrow. He was not only q
successful lawyer, not only an eminent
lawyer-he was a great lawyer. and
this despite the fact he was no orator.
That voice could never have been at
tuned to the persuasive tones of
Choate or a Carpenter. He ploWed
his way to the front as the mace OF
the Norman conqueror made passage
through the Saxon ranks at Hastings.
OF course. Ben. Harrison had po-
litical opinions, and he did not hide
them under a bushel. Bearing the
name he did, and being the man he
was, he Joined the Whig party before
he had fairly entered upon his teens,
and when he was yet a boy he was a
formidable political disputant Before
he was thirty he was considered a
match for Thomas A. Hendricks on
the stump, and Dan Voorhees,, afraid
of no other living man, could never
be brought to the scratch against Ben.
Harrison.
The news & observer., 1905-07-09

Harrison was renominated in 1892
and beaten because he signed the
Sherman silver law. That defeat was
fortunate for his party. 1t left the
Democrats TO grapple with the panic.
Cleveland preserved the public credit,
The news & observer., 1905-07-09
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~ 02

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- a. u. WLLIFORD, General Agent, :
New England Mutual Life Insurance Company,
Raleigh ~. c.
The news & observer., 1905-07-09

oliver p. Morton and George w. Ju-
liam were Democrats and hated each
other with exceeding cordiality. 1t is
possible that Morton remained
Democrat, even after the passage of
the fugitive slave law, because Julian
had Joined the Free Soil party some
years earlier, and it is possible that
Julian joined the Democratic party
about 1876 because Morton had taken
all the room there was in the Republi-
can party of Indiana. Morton was a
tremendous man "a moral giant, a man
after the order of Bismark. He was
the greatest of the war governors of
the North and his personality was
second to Lincoin's only among all the
Republican statesmen of that earlier
day. He was Napoleonic and, like
Wallenstein, "he was nothing where
he was not everything" Hence, he
drove the most brilliant man of In
diana into the Democratic party;
hence, he kept the ablest man in In
diana in private lfe-Juiian and Har-
rison.
In 1876 the Democrats were led by
the most capable politician our coun-
try has produced, and he organized
victory in Indiana. His were long
arms. and from New York he organ
ized Indiana even to the smallest de-
tails His eye was on every township.
He was familiar with the situation in
every school district. A month be-
fore the election, in October. he knew
exactly what the Democratic majority
would be in the election for govern
or. The Democrats nominated for that
office an old gentleman whose chief
claim to Immortality was that he wore
homespun. and whose chief exploit in
statecraft was that he had cut off the
lemonade of the Forty fonrth Com
gress-"Blue Jeans" Williams. The
Republicans nominated Godlove S.
Orth. but the Democrats told a nasty
story about some Venezuelan bonds.
and even Morton was scared and took
him off the ticket. There was but one