Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1850-10-17
S ELECT TALE.
From the Bostoa Eceliy Museum.
THE LATE MRS. BRIDGES,
The Wife Of Four Husbands.
BY PAUL CREYTON.


Mrs. Bridges Is dead y
There is always something in the idea of
death to arrest the attention of the most thought
less mind. This is more especially the case
when the deceased was an old acquaintance, or
an intimate friend, and the news of his or her
death comes to us suddenly or unexpectedly
Hence, it was natural that | should drop the
letter which held in my hand, when came
to the brief announcement
Mrs. Bridges is dead.'
For had known Mrs. Bridges during an in
definite term of years-from babyhood, sup
pose, when she visited at my mothers daily, to
the hour when she waved her hand at me, as
rode by her own house in the coach which bore
me on my way to the heart of an unknown
world. The memory of the good old lady's
kindness is still fresh within me of her pecu-
liar figure, plump and pleasing-of her good
natured countenance, always smiling, always
bright with the sunshine of cheerful soul-of
her benevolent eye-of her rich, gentle voice,
and of her respectable double chin, still pre-
SOiNO diO ihOhoil StCCh III my hCdit. SHC 10
alive to me still. Icannot picture her dead
Were to return to my childhood's home to-
morrow, something assures me that she would
meet me with her old accustomed kindness
Deadt No! 1t cannot be! Yet, there it is !.
that unmIstakeable line, traced with we'll
known hand
Mrs. Bridges is dead!'
But something besides my memory of the
good old lady's personal appearance and pecn-
liar character, occasions the train of thought
which follows in my brain. The life of Mrs.
Bridges was one of strange circumstances, of
singular fortunes. She had four husbands,
two of whom knew; and outliving even the
fourth, she has at last died widow. Can it
be, that the wife of four husbands has now gone
to meet them all What meeting, What
fourfold joy to her! What strange division
of joy to them!
There are times when striking thought
usurps our minds, and reflections, strange, un-
precedented, all-absorbing, run wild in our i'm
aginations. 1t is so with me now. picture
to myself the cheerful Mrs. Bridges, the. wife
of four husbands, and marvel at the vicissitudes
Of fortune. Four times blushing bride, she
gave herself to the arms of loving husband
four times heart-broken widow, she shed
tears over the grave Of late, lamented COM
panion. And after all, she has gone to meet
the four in another world To which will
she give the precedence. Which did she love
best on earth! Which will delight her most in
the spirit land.
My reflections become painful, perplexing.
take up the letter which contains the news Of
her death, and read
MRS. Bridges is dead! She went off in an
apopletic fit, most Unexpectedly. Quite a
gloom has been cast over the community by her
death, for we have all known her and loved her
many years. But she is dead.
| rerhsps you remember, my dear Paul, the
ie'.et goes on to say, that Mrs. Bridges had
In her lie tour several husbands; at all events
you ought to know it, and as suppose . br;e,
history Of her fortunes viii interest Won. n,o-
ceed to give you few facts which have coma
to my knowledge
The maiden name Of Mn Bridges was Ma.
ry Davis. At the early age of seventeen, che
attracted the attention of young lawyer, whs
offered her his hand and was accepted. Thus
while in her eighteenth year, she became Mrs
Wing; and before she was one and twenty sht