Litchfield enquirer., 1873-04-10
From the Springfield Republican. MRS. JUNKETTss HUSBAND.
An Historical crieyance.

It was the deaJn pea picture that O1d It. sBlarney & Go. ordered it the very week after the assassination. Our Martyred President, it was called, and designed to appeal to the popular heart. Alas, we never dreamed-at least didn't-to what Fsextent the popular heart would be appeal ted to. To be sure, there was great deal of bedstead in it. Kitty copied it, I re- member, from the one in our guest-cham- Der, black-walnut with an imposing head board.
 'sThe public said MT: Blarney, senior of the ''Co., ''the public require detail I may say they revel in detail" And in mortuary scenes, he might have added.
 Kitty. 'I remember my first boarding for the struggle with taffy and peanuts, Graveyards o, it's solemn world, this g , And so the president came to be mar tyred. artistically speaking, on our best bedstead. Alack, would that nothing else had suffered there!
 Kitty is my wife-that is, she used to be;-not that we have been divorced, but since that post -obit painting the dear pub lie have another way of putting it. I am ssMrs. Junketts husband"
 The first time ever saw Kitty she was in a hole in the wall that she called her ssstudio." It was at the tip-top sky-light && Jones's block. Everybody knows that block, you remember they said Jones .would have built it higher, only he didn't own any higher" l believe that as dragged up those everlasting stairs the 18O lbs. of mortal coil which was then my own and is now the property of Mrs. Junkett
 s'Miss Pell, began as soon as I could get my breath. was long winded but not as long as those confounded stairs of Joness ''Miss Pell, our friend Mrs. Rhea has encouraged me to hope that you might be induced to favor me with a bit of artistic work
 was proud of myself when I'd made that speech, I've been proud ever since wiener I've thought of it. Seeing that the poor thing had lived on faith and crackers with very little of either for two months back, seeing she had come clear up to these dizzy nights because rent cheapens as you near heaven-neighbor- hood, suppose-seeing that her rent for this last fiat next the celestial was over- due, and seeing she was so deathly white, and had such blue rings round her eyes, that looked every minute when she'd step out the dormer-window up into the next story and never come down again considering all this I thought achieved quite success for brusque fellow.
 "I shall be very happy to execute any order within my range. It's not wide ;'' and saying this as proud as any queen she arched her little neck, and drew in her small chin, She looked naughty enough, but her voioe-ah. Perhaps you never heardsthe voice of woman tender and young, Q slave, and staryeling. all in one. ,-...-.
 I'm sure you would succeed in any thing" have gotten downon my knees, then and there, and sworn to it,-"and I
 I'm told you make speciality of ami malls. It's portrait I'm wanting for a rGsaaent for my grandmother's birthday. , i ss horse, possibly ?"
 ''No madam A cat"
 said it solemnly, and then burst out laughing, and so did Kitty. Her laugh was sadder than crying, I thought. I don't remember much more, only some how the comb tumbled out of her hair and 1t all fell down about her knees-such hair ' And her hands when she tried to put it up, they were like babys only 8 baby whose mothers milk has turned to chalk and water
 We'll, the picture was painted in our east room. Miss Pel came, q went to fetch her,) while grandmamma was cut on her usual moring drive. Itook in puss and staid to assist at the posing. We thought of painting him rampant, with a rats retreating tail in the distance. But as Tom never saw rat in his life, wouldn' t have known what it was if he had, and would have turned tail any how, we de- cided to represent him couchant. He was an Angora and resembled nothing created so much as yellow door-mat. If there was anything in which that cat ex- celled 1t was staying where you put him. He was like Raleigh in that 'sHe rest ed nightly Kitty painted him with Q spirited expression about the whiskers and fierceness in the eyes which was a triumph of art when you consider that I had to pull lem open for her to see what shade of green they were. We relied on whiskers and eyes for expression. The fur being five inches long, the portrait was bit obscure as to therest. Tail and legs and body were mixed indiscriminate- ly. An, 1t was not Toms belongings merely that got mixed. By the time we were through, Kitty and had confused the naeua and teuna hopelessly, and whether belonged to Kitty, or Kitty to me, or both of us to the cat, has never been settled from that day to this.
 We were married. The course of our love ran pretty smooth. The only snags in the channel were the eleven females whose hope and joy was, and who naturally enough entered protest against increas- ing to full dozen. They had an er-parte council. My two grandmothers, my moth CT, and my eight sisters sat on Kitty and me all one night, and at last, when the sun shone through the red curtains of the drawing room and they saw 1t was to-day and not tomorrow, they gave up, and graeiously consented to receive Kitty into the family of Junkett.r ..-..
 'It's condescension, doubtless, and we know Max might have looked higher. y My maternal grandmother thus spoke. And my mother: CT hope Katherine Pell will appreciate what prize she has drawn in the conjugal lottery. That's all have to say about it. .'' -.
 It wasn't, but never mind.
 We began housekeeping in X street. There was luminous door-plate engrav- ed "Junkett. There were two door, bells, and plate under the second pro- claimed that Max Junkett, M. D., kept certain office hours. For a year we lived like people who meant to have a good time. The blue rings about Kitty's eyes grew red, and slid down into little
 mottlss on her cheeks. Also dimples came in her hands and wrists, and one in her chin. By and by something happen ed at our house. Eleven women flew up and down and all about, like eleven cats in eleven fits, and Kitty-well, she lay still, and looked amazingly set-up. It was about that time that we waxed ambi- tious and bought a carriage. The loco- 1 motive power was the nurse.
 It was that year, at Christmas, that Kit delighted her blessed little heart by giving me gorgeous wrapper-wadded, and quilted. and corded, frogged, and tas- seled to kill.
 | The thermometer had gone into de- cline just then, and as there was an erup- l tien of measles and scarlet fever in town, was round out of bed every hour of the night, every night of my life.
 ssT tho,lpht nf if first Max tlet nirhf