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supper is served, the principal items in its bill of fare being oatmeal and a portion of bread saved from the dinner

allowance. On occasion a relish is added in the shape of celery, rhubarb, or gooseberries from the garden, or perhaps some preserves that the monks themselves have put up. From September 14 to Easter, however, this evening collation is omitted; but as during this period they retire to rest at seven o'clock, I think the added hour of sleep may somewhat alleviate the inner vacancy.

Manual labor begins at half-past five in the morning, when certain of the monks go to the barn to feed the stock and milk the cows. All the brotherhood are fond of open-air exercise, and the teachers and the father abbot, as well as the others, try to get out for a time each day, even if

for no more than a half-hour, digging stone from the land that is being reclaimed. For the field work their skirts are not wholly convenient, and they usually take a reef in them, and with pins or strings fasten them up nearly to their knees.

After the noonday meal the monks go to their cells to spend twenty or thirty minutes in praying, reading, or sleeping. In warmer climates this interval would be taken for a siesta as a matter of course, but few of these Irish monks care to sleep in the middle of the day. Their cells, each containing a narrow couch, are in an upper story along the sides of a long, high hall. They are simply little doorless sections separated by slight partitions. There is just standing-room in them—no chair or surplus furniture; and all are

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exactly alike, the father superior's being no better than those of the lesser members of the order.

For reading, the monks have a library of twenty-two thousand volumes to draw from. It is largely a religious library, for they buy none of the current secular books. They have, however, all the classics and standard histories, poetry, and novels. They even admit infidel books, that they may keep posted on the wiles of Satan, but such books are kept under lock and key and are read only by special permission.

The monks rarely go outside the boundaries of their own estate. Trading transactions in neighboring towns are intrusted to their kind help, and they

themselves travel only on ecclesiastical business and in obedience to orders. In short, the monks of Mount Melleray are a community of religious recluses who are as unworldly as they well can be. I doubt if they take any newspapers or know anything about the movements of life outside their walls. But the brother porter was an exception. His connection with the world was kept up through his intercourse with visitors, and he took a lively interest in the affairs of the nations.

Just how much the monastery helps its inmates toward godliness I am uncertain. It is retired, away from turmoil and many temptations; yet in what I saw of the monks it seemed to me they still had our common human nature.

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By Charles Moreau Harger

OMANCE in pioneering is fast disappearing from the West. "Settler" and "claim" in a few years will be marked obsolete-indeed, they are so already in a large portion of the country beyond the Missouri. As ranch succeeded range, so farm and field are taking the place of prairie. Even in the newest of the pioneer communities, the "Promised Land" of Oklahoma, such signs of permanent settlement are manifest as to disappoint the seeker after sensational newness. So substantial a development is shown as to make it seem impossible that eleven years ago not a white man's home existed on all the stretching plains of the Territory, while half of it is but seven years old in settlement. The picturesque features of settling up a new country, usually reaching over long and anxious years, were here crowded into a day, and then, in a sense, ended. This did not, however, make Oklahoma mature, and none realize this more fully than its own people.

Strikingly similar are all the prairie States in their physical aspect. In each is the steady upward slope toward the west, with its accompanying variation of rainfall; in each the large rivers flow eastward, by reason thereof, and settlement hugs the rich valleys, while herds and flocks graze on the uplands. In some respects Oklahoma offers an exception. While it, too, has its varying rainfall and altitude, its eastern portion pre

sents a more regular settlement than any portion of the West. Here as nowhere else in the world are whole counties with a family on every quarter-section1-and only one. Eastern Oklahoma is in the longitude of central Kansas and Nebraska, but because of its lower latitude it receives a somewhat larger and a far better distributed rainfall. Hence the settlers of this new land, all virgin soil, came into a favorable location, and events have proved how well they improved their opportunity.

Few more beautiful pictures can be seen on the plains than an eastern Oklahoma landscape. The gently rolling, rich, loamy soil, or even the reddish tinge of clay, with myriads of hay or straw stacks, the green of the growing wheat, the thrifty farm-houses, and the promising orchards, unite to tell of agricultural success. One could stand on a windmill tower in northern Oklahoma last fall and count a hundred wheat-stacks; later the smoke of a dozen threshing-engines blotted the horizon, and fourscore teams were turning brown furrows for the new crop. It was a glorious gift of wheat that the farmers received-some twenty-five million bushels from a million acres. To it they added a bountiful corn product and were satisfied.

Farther south comes the cotton country. Alongside the wheat and corn fields are other fields with the low, bushy cotton plants which later become spotted with A quarter-section is 160 acres.

snowy bolls. Here and there are gins, and on Saturday afternoons the streets of the towns are filled with wagons in which the farmers have brought the cotton to market. A fertile soil that can produce the staples of both North and South ought to be sufficient for the most exacting.

To the west rainfall diminishes and the stock interests become more prominent until the semi-arid region is reached. Here only the best valleys are occupied, and there is yet plenty of land for entry. The herder and the ranch-house are encountered, and the cattleman is king. One reaches the Cimarron after long toiling through sand and bluffs, only to find a wide, shallow, lazy, brackish stream. Off on the prairie are sudden upliftings of rock and clay that tower a hundred feet or more with sheer sides, like stray monuments from the Garden of the Gods. Beyond that, toward the sunset, is desolation-the coyote-infested plains that stretch on and on into No Man's Land and the Panhandle, and so to the cactus ranges of New Mexico.

It is said that the people of the West emigrate along lines of longitude. Were this so, Oklahoma ought to present an imitation of the States to the north-but it does not. Side by side are the Kansan and the Kentuckian; the Texan touches shoulders with the Nebraskan and the New Yorker. It is a very cosmopolitan population, for all portions of the Nation were represented in the throng that lined up on the border and at the crack of a rifle rushed pell-mell after homes. But it is a country of workers. Those who succeeded in the rush were the pick of the lot, and they have never ceased to strive. Why should they?-the prize is tempting enough. It is bewildering to the visitor.

"There's a fine farm," you remark to the driver, as neat barns, a cozy cottage, and liberal granaries meet your eye.

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It is the same story all along the road. Most of the people came here poor-they came because they were poor-and the farms and improvements represent their profits. Nearly everywhere may be seen the first cabin of the farmer moved back for a granary, while a new house has been built for his family. The trees tell the story of recent settlement; they are small yet. Occasionally there is an element of romance in the story of the incoming. The widow has perhaps made the run for the sake of her children, and has won them a home and a competence. A schoolmistress has ventured to gain a gift from Uncle Sam and held down a claim, reaping a reward in a property that will keep her for life.

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To all these the Government gave a fine recognition when last winter it passed the free homes" bill, absolving thousands of settlers from paying the two dollars and fifty cents an acre called for by their terms of settlement. The savings that had been laid away to make the payment were suddenly a surplus, and the effect has been seen in additions to the houses, new buggies, and trips to the old Eastern home. It has given the first good, hearty breathing-spell enjoyed by thousands of families since the opening. That they appreciated it was shown when they voted for Representative in Novemberthe man who had worked hard for the measure was re-elected by a majority that came but little short of unanimity.

Many of the farmers along the border of the Indian Territory or of the reservations that jut into the Oklahoma border rent lands of the tribes and reap large profits. Wheat and pasture are the common uses, and out of both fortunes have been made. Men who make wheat-raising a business use Indian land extensivelyfor each quarter-section of the white man's land is occupied and cannot be rented. Sometimes there is seen a tent beside a well-built house. It is the redskin and his family living in their flimsy but familiar home, while the white tenant resides in comfort within strong walls. The Indian would not change places-he is satisfied. The Indians are not all that way; many of them are as skilled in the use of the advantages of civilization as their white

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