Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1907-03-28
Colo Elsie

By e. MAPLlTT


with poplars, and several picturesque
villages completed the background
and enliyened it. In the foreground
lay castle Lindhof, surrounded by
parks kept in the most superb fash
Ion. Below the windows of the cas-
tie stretched a broad, closely shorn
meadow, upon which small, queeriy-
formed beds Of blazing tulips were
scattered. Elizabeths glance wan
dered beyond them, resting refreshed
upon the suggestive shade of an alice
OF superb lindens, with yaulted
crowns far above their mighty trunks
at whose feet a small clear lake nest
led For the moment it looked rather
melancholy, in its fower-clad brim,
for a cloudy heaven was mirrOred H.
It's surface
Having moved the spy-glass rest
Iessly from one object to another,
Elizabeth now sought a resting,
place for it, having made discovery
which chained her attention. Be
meath the asst tree in the alice stood
couch, and upon it there lay a
young lady. She had leaned her
charming head back so that part of
her heavy, chestnut curls fell over
the. pillows. Below the hem of a
! long white dress, which draped her
whole figure, two small feet, clad in
giIt-morocco slippers, peeped out
She held between her slender, almost
frr.1 Tirc rJ1 Of
| SONS which she twirIed unthinkingly
backward and forward On her
| thin lips there was a trace of red 9,
otherwise her face was lily white,
and one might have been tempted to
doubt it's possessing the warmth of
life, if the blue eyes had not glowed
With wonderous expression.
These eyes and this expression
were directed toward a man who,
sitting opposite seemed to be reading
aloud to her Elizabeth could not
see MS face, for his back was turned
toward her. He was young, tall,
and slenuer and had luxuritant
| blond hair
rs that charming lady down there
Baroness Lessen?' asked Elizabeth,
eXcitedIy.
The forester looked at the spy
glass. NO" he replied, cit is
Fraulein Won Waldo, the sister of the
proprietor of Lindhof You call her
charming, and her head is so; but
her body is crippled. She walks up
on crutches."
At that moment Frau Ferber joined
them. She too, looked through the
! glass, and thought the young Iady's
face wonderfully lovely. She en-
phasized especially the expression Of
| kindness of heart which illumined
the features
Yes said the forester; kind ana
benevolent she is, they. say. When
she first came to whole region re-
sounded with her praises; but in thar
respect, too, a new leaf has been
turned over since Baroness Lessen
has been in command. No aims
reach the rOor which have not first
been weighed in the scales of hypoc-
risy. Woe to the poor petitioner! He
gets not a pfennig, and sharp words
into the bargain, if it turns out that
he prefers hearing the pastor IN
Lindhof to the barnoess' family-tuUor
at the castle chapel where fire and
birthstone are discharged upon the
heads of the goddess every Sunday"
Such obligatory measures are a
very poor means of awakening a
Christian disposition among the peo-
pie" said Frau Ferber.
They kill it entirely, and cult
waite hypocrisy, say" shouted the
forester, for the very reason that
they give the example. These people
read in the Bible about Christian hui
manity, and grow more supercilious
and arrogant every day. They pre-
tend their high-born bodies are made
of altogether different clay from
that of their lowlier brothers III
Christ. When thou givest aims let
not thy left hand know what thy
right hand doeth;' so it is written,
but no hen clucks louder over a new
philanthropy. There are collections
lotteries for the benefit of the poor,
and all that sort of thing, when the
whole neighborhood is subjected to
constant extortions. But when it is
proposed to take where there's most
to take from-their own pucses-the
joke ceases, as the peasants say.
know people who have been twenty
years saving the gifts of others to
found an alm-house with, and have
an annual income of about size thou
sand thalers themselves. To demand
that they should cut off a trifle OF
this beggarly pittance for their own
Praisworthy project would not do at
AL. They get the halo of Christian
sacrifice and devotion much more
cheaply. Heavens, how indignant
it does make me, when people carry
their piety around on a tray il that
fashion. Down in the castle the bell
rings so many times a day. Then
the people in the neighborhood say
for the bell is heard far and wide,
How the jewellers at the castle are
praying The small room in which,
according to Gods command, they
ought to pray to him, is too little Tor
their taste. But it is not only this
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