Mercedes Tribune (Mercedes, Tex.), Vol. 8, No. 4, Ed. 1 Friday, March 11, 1921 Page: 3 of 16
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MERCEDES TRIBUNE
FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 1921
Grecian effect s"he "so much desired.
Father March was an army chap-
lain in the Civil war, and in his ab-
sence Jo declared herself to be the
man of the family. To add to their
slender income, she went every day to
read to Aunt March, a peppery old
lady; and Meg, too, earned a small
salary as daily nursery governess to
a neighbor’s children.
In the big house next door to the
Marches lived a rich old gentleman,
Mr. Laurence, and his grandson, a
jolly Chummy boy called Laurie.
Though awe-inspiring at first, Mr.
Laurence proved both kindly and gen-
erous, and even timid ?eth mustered
up courage to go over to the “Palace
Beautiful” at twilight' and play 'softly
oh the grand piano There. But, as she
confessed to her mother, when she be-
gan she. was so frightened her feet
chattered on the floor.
The night Laurie took the two older
girls to the theater, Amy, though’ not
invited, insisted on going, \ too. Jo
crossly declared she wouldn’t go if
Amy did, and furiously scolding her
little sister, she slammed the door and
went off, as Amy called out: “You’ll
be sorry for this, -Jo March! See if
you ain’t!” The child made good her
threat by burning up the manuscript
of a precious book which Jo had writ-
ten and on which she had spent three
There was a ter-
Th§BusineSS
-Partnership
MaD and W| fp
MEMBER
FEDERAL RESERVE
SYSTEM^
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1 assistance you can obtain from allying yourself
with a strong well managed bank. Open an ac-
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acquaintance which will stand you in good stead
during years to come. We are always ready to
advise with you concerning investments and to
assist you in every way in our power. Our
motto is service and small accounts as well a9
large are welcome.
The First National Bank
years of hard work,
rible fracas, and, though at her moth- M2
er’s bidding Amy made contrite apol- njy
ogy, Jo refused to be pacified. It was &]]
only when poor little Amy was nearly j 'Jjjj
drowned by falling through the ice
that conscience-stricken Jo forgave her
sister and learned a much-needed les-
son of self-control.
Meg, too, learned a salutary lesson,
when she went to visit some fash-
ionable friends and had her first taste
of “Vanity Fair.” Her sisters gladly
lent her all their bes$ things, and, as
she said to Jo: “You’re a dear to
lend me your gloves! I feel so rich
and elegant with two 'new pairs and
the old ones cleaned up for common!”
Yet she soon saw that her wmrdrobe
was sadly inadequate to the environ-
ment in which she found herself.
Whereupon the rich friends lent her
some of their own finery; and, after
laughingly applying paint and powder,
they laced her into a sky-blue silk
dress, so low that modest Meg blushed
at herself in the mirror, and Laurie,
who was at the party, openly express-
ed his surprised disapproval. Chagrin
and remorse followed, and it was not
until after full confession to Marmee,
that Meg realized the trumpery value
of fashionable rivalry and the real
worth of simplicity and contentment.
All four of the girls had leanings to-
ward a life of luxury and ease, and
when Mrs. March smilingly proposed
that they try a whole week of “all play
and no work,” they agreed eagerly.
But the experiment was a. miserable
failure; and after mortifying scenes
at a company luncheon, a canary bird
dead from neglect, several slight ill-
nesses and lost tempers, the girls de-
cided that lounging and larking didn’t
pay.
' Now John Brooke, the tutor of Lau-
rie, was a secret admirer of pretty
Meg. Discovering this, the mischiev-
ous boy wrote Meg a passionate love
| letter, purporting to be from Brooke,
j'This prank caused a terrible upset in
j both houses, but later on Brooke put
I the momentous question, and Meg
| meekly whispered, “Yes, John,” and
! hid her face on his waistcoat. Jo,
WHEN YOUR
VALUABLES
ana «ucu bwc rccuvcreu sue nau to
new fields of work; then she traveled
as attendant to an invalid, and with
her visited Europe.
After several attempts at literature
Miss Alcott wrote “Little Women,”
which was an immediate success, reach-
ing a sale of 87,000 copies in three
years. She wrote from the heart, and
wove into the story incidents from the
lives of herself and her three sisters
at Concord. She afterward wrote “An
Old Fashioned Girl,” “Little Men,”
“Aunt Jo’s Scrap Bag,” “The Eight
Cousins” and “Rose in Bloom,” besides
other stories and sketches.
Miss Alcott had ambition and ability
for a high grade of literary work; she
made her success as a writer of chil-
dren’s stories. While her receipts from
some later work were large for those
times, she declared that she was more
proud of the first $32 she received than
of the larger amounts later.
One generation after another of
young readers finds pleasure in Miss Al-
eott’s cheery, healthful stories, and
their vitality is indicated by their ap-
pearance on the movie screen.
are in your house, or^you_carry them about with you,
the feeling that they may be stolen or lost makes
yoii nervous and uncomfortable day and night.
CONDENSED
CLASSICS
You will have peace of mind only when your
valuables arejin one of our Safety Deposit box. You
can have one at our bank. >
LITTLE WOMEN
Come in and ask about them
By LOUISA M. ALCOTT
Condensation by A
Miss Carolyn Wells £
I Louisa May Al-
™ !“ i
Ifeg;.- 1832 and died in
1888. She was the
daughter of A.
Bronson Alcott,
\ the “Sage of Con-
A cord.” Her early
i surroundings were
J of a highly intel-
lectual and lit-
erary character
'' \ and she naturally
^ \ took to writing
-JlCCi while still very
Wr* 5«»ng.
her sketch,
1 “T p Jl 11 scendental
i Oats,” she de-
"iCAA ■* scribes ‘in an
sunusing way the
Sr 0- C\C experience of a
* year at Fruitlands,
f v ~ where an attempt
was made to es-
tablish an ideal community. Miss Alcott
was obliged to be a wage earner to
belp out the family income, and so
taught school, served as a governess
and at times worked as a seamstress.
Wearying of this, she wrote for the
papers stories of a sensational nature,
whjyh were remunerative financially
l^Hunsatisfactory to her as a literary
pursait, and she abandoned this style
of writing.
TN their old-fashioned New England
i home the little women lived with
Mrs. March, their brisk and cheery
mother, who always had a “can-I-help
you” look about her, and fvhom her
four girls lovingly called “Marmee.”
Pretty Meg, the oldest, was sixteen,
and already showed domestic tastes
and talents, though she detested the
drudgery of household work; and, a
little vain of her white, hands, longed
at heart to be a fine lady. Jo, fifteen,
was tall, thin and coltish, and gloried
in an unconcealed scorn of polite con-
ventions. Beth, thirteen, was a lov-
able little thing, shy, fond of her dolls
and devoted to music, which she tried j,
hopefully to produce from the old,
jingling tinpan of a, piano. Amy,
twelve, considered herself the flower
of the family. An adorable blonde,
she admitted that the trial of her life
was her nose. For, when she was a
baby, Jo had accidentally dropped her
into the coal-hod and permanently
in a Washington hospital she served j flattened that feature, and though poor
9 a nu™eJZl ? **me; l,r .the, Amy slept with a patent clothespin
ninohing i.t. ..she couldn’t attain the
_______ IJUML-M h—M——S—Ift SKflMHMH—■•**b**»«MMBi**«WW«**>*®t"*^™**Eir^*~- “
GUARANTY FUND BANK
Ave. at Third Street, Mercedes, Texas
? % WHO'S M0 J1
^ “WHO'S WHO”—In--‘The Laud
0’ Paradise’? See Double Page Puz-
zle in the Mercedes Tribune issue
Friday, March 18, 1921. By Will E„.
Dew.—Big Prize Awards.
home from' the war, aifcl great cele-
bration was made. The neighbors
from the Laurence house were invited,
and. there never was such a Christmas
dinner as they had. that day!
Later came the first break in their
restored home circle. The Dovecote
was the name of the little brown
house that John Brooke had prepared
for his bride, and it was a tiny affair
with a lawn in front about as big as
a handkerchief! The wedding, be-
neath the June roses was a simple
homey one, arid the bridal journey
was only the walk from the March
home to the dear little new house,
“I’m too happy to care what anyone
says—I’m going to have my wedding
just as I want it!” Meg had declared;
and so, leaning on her husband’s arm,
her hands full of flowers, she went
away, saying, “Thank you all for my
happy wedding day. Good-by, good-
by
Jo developed into a writer of sen-
sational stories. This, however, was
because she found a profitable market
for such work and she wanted the
money for herself and the others. For
little Beth was ailing, and a summer
stay at the seashore might, they all
hoped, bring back the roses to her
cheeks. But it didn’t, and after a
time the dark days came when gentle
Beth, like a tired but trustful child,
clung to the hands that had led her
all through life, as - her father and
mother guided her tenderly through
the valley of the shadow and gave her
up to God.
Then came, a day when Laurie was
invited to the Dovecote to see Meg’s
new baby. Jo appeared, a proud aunt,
bearing a bundle on a pillow. “Shut
your eyes and hold out your arms,’
which became a great success. Jc
lived a very happy life, and as the
years went on, two little lads of hei
own came to increase her happiness
Amy, too, had a dear child named
Beth, but she was a frail little crea-
ture and the dread'of losing her was
the shadow over Amy’s sunshine.
But the little women and all theii
dear ones formed a happy, united fam-
ily, of whom Jo truly wrote:
Lives whose brave music long shall
ring
Like a spirit-stirring strain.
Copyright, 1919, by Post Publishing Co
(The Boston Post).
Copyright, ,1919s.JBT. JPP.st. .Publishing. Co
Sore Throat
You can stop sore throat quickly
if you will gargle with Fidelity Sore
Throat Medicine. Always keep it mm
the house for emergency use. v. hS
it’s Fidelity Quality you’re sure it*
pure. Sold and recommended by sfl
druggists and in Mercedes by Mg
cedes Dry Co. ft*
When yon want a bottle of milk that has
QUALITY call Capisallo Grocery or R. G. & T.
Ranch.
Delivered every morning.
THE UN I VERS A?* CAR
F. H. WALTERS
The Garden farmer will find the Ford Model T One Ton Truck an especially
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Our Stock of Parts is the most complete A MS P—V->
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CLEARING CONTRACTOR
Prompt and Efficient Work
MERCEDES, TEXAS
MERCEDES HOTEL
was'the only woman in the world who
could fill Jo’s place- and make him j
happy.*"And the two were very happy;
, -i • __a in
* We have 26 head of (fbod Work Mules, ‘ Will sell
at a bargain. Also have plenty of Choice Milk Cow'-
If you are in the market, it will pay you to kee our
stock and get prices before you buy.
together, Amy taking great pride in
her handsome husband. “Don’t laugh,”
she said, to him, “but your hose is
such a comfort to me!” and she ca-
ressed the well-cut feature witffi artis-
tic satisfaction.
Jo found her fate in an elderly pro-
fessor, Wise and kind, but too poor tc
think of v marriage. For a year the
pair worked and waited and hoped and
loWd, and then.. Aunt March died, and
CHRISTIAN & JONES
MERCEDES, TEXAS.
t
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Hoyt, L. T. Mercedes Tribune (Mercedes, Tex.), Vol. 8, No. 4, Ed. 1 Friday, March 11, 1921, newspaper, March 11, 1921; Mercedes, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth637613/m1/3/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dr. Hector P. Garcia Memorial Library.