29-' 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER, 



( h'tober 



"box. His wife was alone in the loge op- 

 posite. What she saw or thought I don't 

 know, biit when he returned to her she 

 complained of feeling very tired, and he 

 suggested that they should go home. 

 She fainted on the staircase and was 

 carried into their brougham. That same 

 night she died. It was very sudden and 

 rather mysterious." 



"Good gracious ! Did any one suspect 

 the baron of having poisoned his wife?" 



"Not that I know of. But they did 

 say that his neglect had broken her 

 heart. But to come to the point of my 

 story. The first baroness Kurz — Rosine 

 — was a fair, blue eyed woman, with a 

 passion for primulas. In Paris, where 

 she had no acquaintances and was only 

 known by sight, and by many people 

 ■was not supposed to be Kurz's wife, she 

 always went by the name of 'the lady 

 with the primulas. ' That is why I was 

 startled and upset by what you told me. 

 That was why I was distressed that the 

 flower should have been mentioned in 

 Kurz's hearing — for hear I am sure he 

 did." 



It was my turn to feel distressed — 

 distressed, but at the same time vividly 

 interested. I was just going to ask Lord 

 Saintsbury whetlier he had ever known 

 Rosine personally, when Mr. Venning 

 reappeared, and at the same moment I 

 noticed that while we had been discuss- 

 ing the first Baroness Kurz her successor 

 had disappeared from the opposite box 

 — had left the house probably, I thought, 

 bored by the dullness of act 1. 



"Such an awful thing has happened !" 

 Mr. Venning 's face was pale, and his 

 voice sounded low and hoarse. "Kurz 

 has fallen down dead, just outside the 

 omnibus box. " 



"Good gTiicious, how dreadful! But 

 very likely he has ouly fainted. " 



Mr. Venning shook his head. "Cleve- 

 land met him looking gha.stly — you 

 know he does sometimes. And he asked 

 him, 'Are you ill, Kurz?' Aud the oth- 

 er just stared at him and muttered: 

 'True, true ! She has come for me,' and 

 fell back (le;i,u. ' ' 



I started to my feet. "Mrs. Waldo, I 

 must go hv!me. Please let me. Don't 

 you come, but" — 



"My dear child," aud her voice 

 sounded a f nadc harder and louder than 

 usual, "don"t make a scene, please." 

 Our visitors had vanished at the bare 



mention of such a possibility, ever 

 dreaded and held in abhorrence by the 

 sterner sex. 



"But I cannot stay. Didn't you hear? 

 He is dead. ' 



Mrs. Waldo stared at me with a look 

 of derision ,n her handsome stony face. 

 "But you did not know him. It is not 

 customary for young ladies to make 

 scenes over the death of a man they 

 never knew. Such things are not done." 



' ' Ah, but you don 't understand. I saw 

 her. ' ' 



"Her? Whom?" 



"The lady with the primulas — his 

 first wife. She came to fetch him. He 

 said so — yoii heard." 



"My dear child, what nonsense! You 

 were dreaming, of course. Hush ! We 

 must not talk any more now. We must 

 listen." 



And the curtain rose upon act 2.— 

 S«. James Budget. 



Farmer Jones' Whisky Spring. 



The discovery of an alleged spring of 

 pure rye whisky on the farm of Silas Jones, 

 near Smithtou, Westmoreland county, has 

 created intense excitement among the peo- 

 ple of that place. Several days ago Farmer 

 Jones, while digging a ditch, came upon 

 an old well, lie struck a ledge of soft sand- 

 stone, and from a crevice in its side came 

 drops of whisky. To make sure of it the 

 farmer tasteil the liquid and pronounced it 

 a fair quality of barleycorn. After arrang- 

 ing to run the drippings into a cask he 

 closed up the well in order to keep the 

 discovery secret. Many think the whisky 

 comes from a storage vault of an old dis- 

 tillery that probably stood where Jones 

 began digging. The oldest inhabitant does 

 not remember such a distillery. Barrels of 

 Whisky were probably buried in the hill- 

 side and forgotten. Now that the casks 

 are decaying, the contents are oozing out 

 through ths hill. — Philadelphia Ledger. 

 Edison's Definition of Electricity. 



Congressman O. M. Hall of this state 

 tells this story of Edison : The latter 

 appeared before the committee on pat- 

 ents to make an argument on some pro- 

 posed bill. Mr. Hall, prefacing his ques- 

 tion with an apology for the ignorance 

 iif the committee concerning electricity, 

 isked Edison if he could tell the com- 

 .nittee what electricity was. "Oh, yes," 

 iaid the wizard. "It is a mysterious 

 'iuid about which nothing is known." 

 The argument then proceeded. — St. 

 Paul Globe. 



