The Fort Worth Record and Register (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 10, No. 217, Ed. 1 Sunday, May 20, 1906 Page: 18 of 34
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I The Mysterious Bird of
my life," she continued.
"Why did you
leave your seat?
If you had not taken
s
Mont Pelee So
By MARNON E. CROSSKILL
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"The woman looked at me in silence
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FOR THE EXCLUSIVE BENEFIT OF OUR YOUNG
THE DISHONEST BUTLER.
THS ALATE'S STORY.
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TORIES ABOUT
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SINGING MICE
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Once we’had At cornered.
that’s all.
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and it ran thia way and that, singing
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Mah In a For Grasshoppers,
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A HARVEST MOUSE FAMILY.
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it attempt to rep
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SINGING ITS MORNING BONG.
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■■sat
mouse that was ever
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AN INVALIDS AMUBEMFN’T.
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his thefts were not discovered,
are the four arrangements:
placed my eye to the window,
time I could see more clearly,
form was that of the negress.
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could hardly make out what, and.
stretehed full length upon it, waa a
naked form. ,
I drew back for a moment in terror;
then, regaining courage, I once more
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"Nothing, unless i again risk my life.
“But I will not disobey you again,"iI
aald earnestly. , 2
“It willnotidependon omsthis time,"
she returned.
“I will pay you whatever you ask;
only savelhim.’ Ilfound myaelt trust-
ing Impliciily thia womf whim I had
not before believed to.
The negress gave me a strnge look
and sNld. “Go home and wait."
I would have urged her further, but
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“I RAISED THE MUZZLE AND TOOK
AIM AT THE BIRD."
AVewadlen.
If I were in a punt. and you were out
of it, what would the punt beoomet A
pint.
Why to • door alwaya in the aubjune-
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Binging miee though very rare, are
n i ail ■■■Rp to be found and always in-
musical familes where there are either
cayary birds in cages or people who
play on m awical instruments and i ing.
In the country house where the young
lady spent the night fliers were three
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"And the teacher sald that day
We should both be put away
Till Johnny understood his duty plain.
And that he now has done.
For 1 hear hisQaugh of fun;
The cloud has passed, and here we are
again!"
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“Now, of course, I needn't my
Thal such deeds will never pay—
A fact which Johnny realizes now-
For the picture that he drew.
With a sunny smile or two.
Was rubbed out with a frown upon his
brow.
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New Seholarm. /
“Who are those five boys (here?"
"They are the new boys—Smythe,
Smyth, Schmidt, Smithe and Smith."
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tive mood?
“One day, as ths vessel lay in a sea so
calm that it resembled a great mirror,
suddenly, from nowhere apparently,
there appeared directly over the main-
meat of the' vessel a huge black bird.
It was not like any bird I had ever seen
in the tropics, nor anywhere else, in
fact. its large bend resembled that nt
an owl, and the body was almost like
an eagie, except that it was black as a
"fwas not the only one who saw the
bird, and in an instant a sailor came
A
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23
in summer the Japanese children “go
Ahing" day after day for semi, or
gvasshoppers, which they catch with a
red and birdlim. They carry home
these grasshoppers to small bamboo
cages, content to hang them up and lis-
ten to them chirping "mi-ml-mi” all
day long.
FOLKS'
O begin, the incidents I am go-
ing to tell you about are sore
enough true stories, odd as
they may seem.
Not long ago a lady living in the city
spent a few days with a friend in a big
country house. The room in which her
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. I rememben ‘ up. and w’
aapreezee"partinique before
mE.., ' .husun-, eragpseozoc- eg.rnamhuk
The Strange Story of a Sorcerer and a Tardy S,
Bbe Risk One Takes In Employing th^ •
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it seemed as if their owner were look-
ing out at you from another world. Bo
clear cut were her features and so
straight, strong and well poised her fig-
ure that I could thipk of nothing which
she might be as fitly compared to as a
statue of black marble. This effect was
heightened by her dress. She wore a
queer one piere garment of some coarse
black material, and a colored handker-
chief was twisted about her head.
I had not recovered from my surprise
at her appearance when she spoke, and
her voice startled me as much as her
"TOUR DISOBEDIENCE NEARLY
COST ME MY LIFE“
Said the penei to the alate:
"We've been stransers, air. of late.
And 'tis many wills, I fancy, since we
met.
There was surely something wrong
To have parted us so long. dS
But if I’ve hoard the reason, I forgad
#
Then the state looked blank and sai-Z
With a voice of pain and dread :
"Ah. yes; for days we’ve both be<W
disgrace! "4
For Master Johnny Scott
Shunned the lesson he had got
And used us both to draw a funny face.
ently from the clouds. Could it pomsi-
hiy have been the wind, which was
blowing hard now? No; I felt positive
it was not.
It had suddenly grown darker Stormy
looking piles of clouds loomed up on
fall. I made up my mind to leave the
which the tubes are attached by bands
at intervals. The cable and attached ‛
tube pass through axial tubes in the
lower balloons, the air opening be- ~
ing at the highest point. A circulation
of pure Sir is maintained by exhausting |
the air from the rooms. , ’
and I heartily wished myself safe
out of the place. Her clothes seamed
to be tossed about, as though she had
been out in the wind, but, save for a
drop or two of rain, she was not wet,
so it was impossible that she could have
come far. Again the sight of her naked
form, stretched only a few feet frem
where I sat, rose up before me, and I
felt the ereeps go up my spine.
"You disobeyed me," she said, coming
A Silver Balk
Save all the stiver paper that comes
off chocolate, packages of tobacco or
tea, or any other gooda, and make a
■Sver ball out ot it Begin by making
the first piece into a tiny round ball
•and. If you add every fresh piece you
get, the Mil will soon grow. Go on col-
lecting silver paper and adding it, and
in two or three years you will be sur-
prised to find what a large and pretty
ball you have.
Here Is an Interesting Tittle exercise
for spare moments. Try to make as
many different words or names as pos-
sible from the six letters which spell
violet.
The fery mount r‛ I eehoed.
"Tee; danger awaits him. It is near,
very near. If you do not hear from him
within the month you will know enatie
to deadu
... . "Can nothiag be done to save hinar I
the horizon, and the rain had begun to mist*
turned and went out of the cabin and,
setting my face toward the town, walk-
ed as fast as wind and rain would per-
mit. A driving rain wet ine almost to
the akin, but so glad was I to turn my
back on the strange woman that I sped
along the rough path without slacken-
ing my pace until I came upon the
highroad, where I again felt safe.
Thia eventful visit to the seeress was
made on May 4, and nearly a month
had passed when I received a letter
frog Tom.
He had had many adventures, he
wrote, and had passed through many
perils, concerning which I should hear
on hie return. The tetter was followed
in a few weeks by Tom himseif, alive
and well and looking as brown and rug-
ged aa a sailor should, and I listened
with excited interest while he recount-
ed all that had befallen him since sail-
ing from New Orleans
"On leaving the Bahamas.” he said,
"we proceeded to Rio Janeiro and dis-
charged our cargo. We intended to
touch at Trinidad on the return voyage.
We, however, encountered storms, and
our vessel was wrecked within sight of
the island. All on board were saved.
I had the good hack to fall in with a
vessel bound for Santo Domingo. From
there I was in hopes of finding a berth
on some northward bound vessel.
T was to have more adventures, how-
ever. During the voyage we were driv-
en by adverse winds far out of our
course and lay for a long time becalmed
in the Caribbean sea, not far from the
island of Martinique.
might tell me concerning Tom, after
having come so far and waited so long,
made me turn back into the cabin, close
the door moftly and slip into my seat
again.
la a minute the door opened, aad the
negressentered. Henpiercing biackeyes
looked m wild that my fright returned.
"It isn’t a bird at all," sald one; “It’s a
singing mouse ”
“Why. I never heard of such a thing!"
exclaimed the visitor. "Is it sure enough
a mouse?"
"Dead sure," was the answer. “It
keeps around the attic and the top
floor. Time and again we have tried to
catch it and cage it, but we never could.
We have all seen it and heard it. but
- Care Fer Comsumptives.
A patent has been taken out in Aus-
tralia for an improved method of pre-
venting and curing consumption and
other kindred diseases. The patients
are placed in rooms connected by alu-
minium tabes leading to captive bal-
loons at altitudes of 6,000 feet.to 8,000
feet. The balloons are constructed of
sheet aluminium and are strung on
—
at one another and smiled.
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f she waved her hand.
r ; "Go now, I am worn,” she sald wea-
rily, and, passing her hand over her
forehead, she sank down on a rough
। seat beside the table with the air of one
I who had been through a great -tm—H
| I took from my pocket the purse
I which I had brought with me, and, lay-
I ing it on the table beside the woman. I
I sald softly:
I “I am sorry I disobeyed you. I will
I know better another time." Then I
y-
5 Na time to *
20
mgaXww
pianos and a mandolin, while people
were singing or trying to sing all about
there. It to the wonderful imitative
faculty ot the tiny rodent that makes
hut and go home as quickly as posalble for a moment and then said:
but anxiety to hear what the woman
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made the ialan~al
daybreak. W0
“The second night
At about the middle w
ened by a sound as of douggm -a., . egan
about the cabin. At firs" “L the
to call out, but before I hhk, -"Ia
open my mouth a strange ligh M
to glow around me, and sudde--
side of the ship seemed to open, and" 1 i
than any canary nons nhe had even
board She could not see the singer,
but its voice Imprensed her no much
that when she went down to breakfast
she told the family of the music she
had heard, and asked where the bird
was that made it. The family looked
*
ka
A gentleman arranged thirty-two
bottles of wine in his cellar so that they
counted nine on each side, and, to be
sure that they were all right, he count-
ed them every day. His batter, on one
occasion, stole four of them and then
arranged them so as to deceive his
master. Pleased with his success, he
stole four more, and then four more.
Each time he arranged the bottles so
that they counted nine each way, and
black body was stretched rigid. motion-
leas, upon the floor. She did not stir
or move a muscle. For a moment I
ganed at her with a strange terror
creeping over me and then again with-
drew my eye from the window. As I
did so a muffled shriek, a cry of terror,
reached my ear from somewhere out of
sight. I went hastily to the door and.
opening it, looked out. There was no
saw Mont Pelee a seething mass of
flame, which shot upward to the skies.
As I gazed at the sight the same rus-
tling noise which I had first heard
again fell on my ears, and the strange
black bird that had appeared above the
■hip two days before swooped dow«
spreading its huge body and wings be-
tween me and the scene. It was neater
now, and Its head, I could have sworn,
was the head of a human being, with a
look of unmistakable warning in its
.eyes. As I raised my hand, with a cry
of alarm. It disappeared, and I found
myself sitting up in -my berth, staring
wildly at the wall at my cabin, where a
moment ago Pelee had shot forth flame
and smoke.
“Only a dream? Yes, of course. But
the strangest part of it has to come.
The next day there wasa consultation
as to whether we should remain in har-
bor another day or sail at once. The
vision of the previous night rose up be-
fore me, and I felt rrelieved when it was
decided to set sail right away. Some
delays occurred, however, and finally
we sailed out of St. Pierre a few min-
utes before 8 o’clock on the Sth of May.
I shall never forget that day as long as
I live. We were just barely out of the
harbor when a terrible thing happened.
The most terrific noise I ever heard in
my life sounded from Mont Pelee. I
could think of nothing but the crack of
doom. It seemed as if it must be heard
around the world. Every eye was turn-
ed toward the volcano. which for some
time had been sending out ashes and
cinders. As I looked toward it a great
volume of black vapor rose from the
crater. This was filled with sparks,
like electricity. Then a sheet of flame
like a huge blast furnace rose heaven-
ward. I think the whole mountain
must have blown up. Again my vision
of the naming mount and the great
black bird rose in my mind. But now
neither body nor wings of bird, beast or
spirit hovered between my eyes and the
terrible sight. This time it was no
dream, but a fearful reality.
"In another minute the air about us
was filled .with choking vapors. Ashes
and dust rained upon the deck of the
vessel, which rocked in a tidal wave.
“When we reached Bantu Domingo
we heard that St. Pierre was totally
blotted oat, and I shuddered at the doom
from which we had escaped."
71
but the five months lengthened them-
selves out into seven, and still tie tid-
ings of the vessel had been received
■Ince she had left Rio on her return
trip, and as the days passed the anxie-
ty began to wear on me in spite of my
efforts to keep my courage up.
Ever since my childhood I had heard
of an old negro sorcerenss who lived in
a lonely spot some distance outside of
the city and who was said to possess
wonderful powers of divination and
prophecy.
I found myself listening to black Sa-
rah's account of how this old woman
told them where little Bam Lathrop
was after he ha1 bee kidnaped, and
they found him exactly as shemuid.
“An' lots o’ folks I know she's told
things to, an' day cum true. Dere wux
ole Miss Mandy. She tell dat she
gw ine die jes* sich day. an*, suah ’nuff.
she done did die dat very day.”
Driven now by anxiety and fear to
seek out any possibie source of com-
fort or advice, I at last decided to go to
the old woman.
I found some dimeulty in following
the rough, ill defined path which had,
been indicated by old Sarah, bat after •
much trouble I at last succeeded in
reaching the little hut. half hidden in a
clump of magnolia trees. As I ap-
proached it the door opened, and a wo- I
man stood in the doorway. 1
I started 4n surprise. I had expected
to see a little wrinkled form, bent with
age. for the negress must be old, very
your eye from that window just when
you did I should have been killed.”
"I am so sorry,” I began, but she eon-
tinued, without appearing to hear me:
T had to go a long distance to find
him.....a long diatance-and I am tired,
for dangers beset me. But I found your
lover. He to safe and well on board a
vessel becalmed in the Caribbean sea."
"His vessel, the Kitty Kellyr" I cried.
“No; not his vessel. That was wreck-
ed off the eeast of Trinidad. You will
see him soon if he escapes the fiery
•aa.
pamm-mge
quickly toward me. Her look, voice and
manner betrayed great agitation.
“Your disobedience nearly cost me
looks. It was not the voice nor the
speech at the negro. The tones were
deep and resenant, without a touch at
the soft arrmt at the race. There waa
Instead something foreign ta their
sound.
"For what have you come?” she asked,
narrowing her eyes and looking at me
intently.
I explained my errand as I followed
her into the hut. She pushed a ehair
for me, while she stood at a little dis-
tance. regarding me intently
I confess her gaze did not tend to
make me feel comfortable. The strange
eyes seemed to be examining every
nerve and brain cell In my makeup, and
one about. The voice had come appar- mount."
N the fall of 1801 Tom
McLaren sailed from
New Orleans on board
a vessel bound for Rio
Janeiro. He shipped
as mecond mate, with
every prospect in the
World of promotion.
We were to be married son his return,
and the last words he said to me before
he jumped on board tbs Kitty Kelly
the morning he sailed wer. "The next
time I go away, Lacy. Fit be tearing my
wife behind instead of my n wee then rt.”
The Kitty Kelly was expected to re-
turn to New Orlen ns in five months.
i....
d-
-
(wood) or ahouid be.
What to Mu —ill...... between a tun-
■el and ian ear trumpet? One to hol-
lowed out anathe other holloned in.
’ Why to a tear article like a Mgt Be-
cane. it to (mipeed) mist.
What to thatiwhich to breagfit tota-
bie, always cut. but never eaten? A
g. 4
running with a gun in his hand. But
the others begged him not to shoot.
" 'It will bring bad luck to the ship,’
they cried. ‘Put up the gun.’
“I was not superstitious, however, and,
seizing the rifle from the sailor, who
stood Irresolute, I raised the muzzle and
took aim at the bird.
“But now a strange thing happened.
Just as I was about to pull-the trigger
the bird disappeared. Nor did it fly
away, but, poised in midair over the
ship. it vanished as it had come—on the
instant.
“I lowered the gun, blinked my eyes
and looked about me.
"'Did you see that?’ I asked, turning
to the sailor who had brought the gun.
"'Blow me!" he said. ‘Where did it
go to?*
"Then I looked around at the others,
all of whom had seen the thing
" T told you so,' repeated first one,
then another. ’It to tacky you did not
shoot. No good would come to the
ship.'
' "e. -
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scene with his glasses and carefally
scanning the sky, but no bird could be
seen. It had all happened in a minute,
and I can hardly believe to this day
that it was net a dream.”
“What date vwas that, Tomr‛ I asked
eagerly.
:.2
2
all the harder, tost It jumped away from
us and escaped. R to a little gray mouse
with a long tall. Its notes soar away
highup aa clear and loudias any ca-
nary's that mr*M"
The singing neo (mm had been ta the
tamily for some time end agpmrui to
‘ enjoy ito ent rawing musie as much as
its hearers did. It was the best fun in
the world to hide away omewhere and
Hosea to Ma notes. When singing. It
’ usuaily mt ups a its hind feet, with its
body onset. Ths family thought it ths
old. Nobody remembered the time
when she hud not been called "the old
woman over the hill."
Instead of being small and bent with
age I found myself gazing with a feel-
ing almost of awe at a large, erect and
MeU -proportioned figure with a fear-
toss, somewhat commanding air. Her
•kin wus a smooth ebony blaek. Her
features Were peculiar. Instead of the
thick lips one always associates with
the race hers were thin. Her nose was
straight and well shaped the nostrils
spreading very slightly. Her eyes were
large and prominent, showing a great
deal of the white, which gave them a
strange, wild look. She had a fashion
of narrowing them sometmes, Aike a
nearsighted person, and at these times
to my imagination they took on an un-
canny look.
After a minute she said:
"You want to know about—yes, yea,
but I may have to go a long distance to
find him, and you must sit where you
are and not stir.”
She turned to leave the room. On
reaching the door she stopped, and,
looking me through and through once
morey she said:
"Remember, no matter how long I am
gone you must not leave your seat or I
can’t tell what will happen.”
I waited a long time, so long that I
began to fear dark would overtake me
before I could get home, and there was
a storm coming.
As a sat looking about me my eye
rested on a mile window, consistins of
two small panes of glass, high up in the
wall at the farther end at the room.
This window evidently gave light to
some other room But. no; there was
no door except the one by which I had
entered, and the woman’s bed stood in
a corner. The window must be one
innktag outdoors, though it did not seem
to admit any light. I mt looking at it
for some time, and as I looked it struck
me as odd that there should be a cur-
tain on the outside at the window. This
curtain consisted evidently of a piece
of calico or some material about that
thickness.
I remembered her injunction not to
leave my seat, but curiosity at last
gained the mastery. After I had mt a
little* while longer, wondering and sp«e
ulating about this curious little win-
dow, I arose and .tiptoed across the
room toward it
I tried to peer through the curtain,
but it was too thick. I could see noth-
ing. I examined the sides. They were
elose and admitted no glimpse of what
was beyond. The top was above an or-
dinary person’s reach, but. being tail
and supple. I could, by clinging to a peg
on the wall and raising myself on tip-
toe, bring my eyes to a level with the
top of the window, where the curtain
sagged slightly, leaving a narrow cracta.
Peering through - this crack, I found
myself looking into another room, a
small room, so di inly lighted that at
first I could scarcely make It out Aft-
er a mtnute, however, as my eyes grew
aceustomed to the darkness, I saw a
long, narrow apartment, evidently a
strip partitioned of the end of the cab-
in and running all the way across it.
This room was finished little better
than the one in which I stood, but it
was furnished differently. The rough
walls were pretty well covered with
strips of odd looking oriental stuff. A
small skylight partly hidden by the
same stuff was the only window in the
room, with the exception of the one
through which I was peering. At a
piece in the opposite wall the drapery
was drawn aside, revealing a rough
batten door. The floor waa covered
with some sort of carpeting or rug, I
tains sad verything in sight to make
the hours go more quickly.
One day she saw a tiny mouse play-
ing hide and seek with a sunbeam upon
the floor. It had so much, fun with the
sun ray that Mme. Schloesser began to
have fun. too, just watching its an-
tics. Next day and the days following
she waited for it to come again and
scattered some breadcrumbs for it to
eat. It quickly found them and saw
where they came from too. A mouse to
easily tamed, and in a few days the
small creature would stand upon its
hind legs, with its forepaws held out,
and beg for food like a dog. When
Mme. Schloesser was well enough to stt
up. the mouse at length ran up her
skirt and stood upon her lap and ate
from her hand. At length this mouse’s
father and mother and brothers and
sisters and aunts — the whole mouse
tamily — became so tame that they
scampered about Mme. Schloesser’s
arms and shoulders and played like
kittens over her without any fear.
Many and many an hour at entertain-
ment they gave the poor lady while
she was ill.
When she got well, she felt so inter-
ested in the mouse tribe that she be-
gan collecting various species of the
family from different part* of, the
world. She now has 181 different kinds
of mice. There are white mice, striped
Barbary mice, bobtailed ones from the
traptea, jumping mice with enormously
long Mad togs, the dainty, pretty little
harvest mouse that bullds its nest like
a bird la weeds and grain stalks and
many other varieties.
But, at all these, hardly any can sing
except the gray brown house mouse
that we all know. Mme. Se hi oesser’a
choir contains nine common mice and
one striped Barbary mouse. She train*
them to slag by potting in the same
room with them a number of canary
birds in cages The mice imitate the
birds ant ■tut fra leamto aing even
better than they.
You young people could probably
train a mouse to stag by catching a
young one ta a trap, caging it and
keeping It in a room with a canary bird
or where it frequently heard piano or
violin playing or persons singing- The
experiment would be a moat interesting
one.
friend placed the lady to sleep was up-
on the top floor. In the morning, about
daylight, the stranger was awek
tbs softest, sweetest bir manto. It'
sounded like the wet se at a eanary, tost
vg««=e=g=ssesi
12502
, -.1997
$, .2 39
ds,.
. 3 ■ 4
hears. A woman who had a tamed
I that it rtred to
singing mouse
run up an oetave with its vote* anM at
the end of the octave take trins ter all
the world like a soprano prime donna
Bbe could aaa ita utile throat throbbing
and vibrating with the trilla
Bat tar abend of any mouse soptano
sotaf ■ to the trained mouse choir be-
longing to Mme. Minna Sehloesser of
Liege, Belgium. Mme. Schloesser a
number of years ago was very ill, and
it tok her a long time to get well. Ly-
ing upon her couch, unable to rise from
it, time passed very slow and tedious
for Mme. Schloesser. She studied the
floor and the walls and the window cur-
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The Fort Worth Record and Register (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 10, No. 217, Ed. 1 Sunday, May 20, 1906, newspaper, May 20, 1906; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1441746/m1/18/: accessed August 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .