Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-11-29

pressibIe Wet, and what followed the
Discovery.
A few days since we called attention
to the fact that great excitement existed n
GAINESVILLE with regard to the disappear
ance of Mr.. Curtis, who, it was said, had
divulged the secret of the Sons of Malta and
had been spirited away by the members of the
order, to the great distress of his family and
the astonishment of the public at large, who
scarcely knew what to think Of the boldness
Of the proceeding. 1t turns out now that
the expose which gives such offense to the
ORDER was not written by Curtis, but by his
wife, who comes out with an avowal of the
fact and gives it as her opinion that the
Sons are not to blame for his disappear
ance. She is plain-spoken woman, and
tells her story with such candor and nUUi-
etc, that we make no apology for quoting
literally from her card. She says: "My
husband came home one night late, and, of
course, he laid abed next morning later than
did; and when got up and was righting
up the room | picked up that part of his
clothes which has waist band to it. and
they were Just as wet as if he had been sit.
ting in some pond of water this, Of course,
alarmed me- for l was afraid he had got into
bad habits, though before that 1 never
thought or dreamed Of his being drinking
man. 1t bothered me good deal, and so
when he got out of bed, l asked him, with
out mentioning about the wet clothes, where
he had been so late? Now, never scold
my husband, because scolding don't do a
man one bit Of good, as ever l could see So
when l asked him that question, he first
smiled, and then said he had been to the
Sons of Malta, and then he laughed with
all his might, and asked me if was salts.
fed"
The writer next goes on to state how she
questioned Curtis with regard to the condi-
tiOn of his unmentionables, and that the only
satisfaction she received was a burst of
laughter from her husband, with the re-
mark that he was in "good condition" and
that whatever might be her idea on the sub
ject, she might rest assured that he had
never departed. This put her crazy, so she
called to her neighbor, Mrs. Smith, and told
her the whole story. We let her tell the
rest in her own language. She continues:
And Mrs. Smith says to me: "Why, how
in the world did he wet himself Sony
husband belongs to the Masons, Oddfellows
and Sons Of Temperance, but he never came
home in that condition; he must have
slipped and fallen down, somehow "I
thought about that" says l. but then there
hasn't been any rain for a month almost"
"Thats true" said Mrs. Smith, "but he
may have fallen down at Prints pump
that's where most all the men stop to drink
in warm weather, and its pretty rough and
rocky about that pump. l nearly fell there
the night the Sons of Malta paraded, when
went round the pump to get through the
crowd"
My husband had behaved himself after
morning as well as usual, until the next
Friday morning (the Sons meet on Thurs
day) when he was laughing again; but as
his clothes were not wet just let him
laugh, and he went away in the morning
to his work. As soon as he was gone Mrs
Smith came 10 see me, and told me that her
man came home last night as wet as mine
was, and wet in just the same place. And
when she told me that, l said maybe he
fell down at Prints pump-that rocky
place where you most fell down the time of
the parade" "NoW al asked him if he
fell down there, he said No he hadn't
but he'd been over rougher road than
that, and fell q good many times he said,
and didn't say any thing more, because
you know my husband is a kind of shut-up
body, and when he stops talking its no use
to ask questions" "Well its mighty Gu
rious," says /, "the way the men are car
rying on, and I'm going to see into it. I'm
not afraid of their societies. l belong To
the Daughters of Temperance and know il
there was any sense in usirg water we would
use it there, because we go in for water,
in moderation. Though didn't like to have
water used on my husband before he came
home that night last week" Mrs. Smith
and talked heap more about the Sons of
Malta and the MasOns, and so on, before she
went home, that day.
The upshot of the conversation was that
the pair agreed to have themselves proposed
as members, and got Mrs. Smiths cousin to
attend to the matter. "Well," she goes on
TO say, "we were proposed and elected, and
Joe came down into the store where we
were and told us, so we hurried through
with the dressing, and went up to the ante
chamber and sat down all in a row. We
dldn't sit there long before two men came
out 10 us, from the inside room, all mufled
up in gowns, and having a kind of tin hats
on their heads which covered their faces.
They asked us for $5 each and Joe handed
over the money for us and himself as we
had nearly given him our amounts, and
promised him the rest soon.h Then there
came two more men like the other two, who
formed us into line they call it single
hle, and told us to walk right along. They
had swords, and one Of them walked before
Joe, who was in front, while the other
walked behind me. II was dark, or nearly