The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1874-03-13
A VICTIM OF MRS. JENNINGS
PAYNE.
By MARY

MIS-. smith l. dead.
In commenting On her case | shall us
the utmost tenderness, remembering |
speak of one who i now no more. But |
cannot help bringing her peculiarly and
her strange fate before you. For she had
a peculiarly. She was unlike all other
women. You will admit this when you
read nay statement.
Other wOmen's minds are thrown upon
the lens of domestic life and split up into
diversities Of ideas. But Mrs. smith had
only one glaring undivided thought. That
thought was imitation of Mrs. Jennings
Payne
We all have our fixed stars 10 which we
turn our eye through the tossings OF this
tempesiuons life. The man Of literature
has belief in his own talents. the China
man his JOSH" the little hoy his infalli-
BILE pa and Mrs Smith had Mrs. Jennings
Payne. Whether markets went up or
down. whether the world was burned or
eaten with plague. whether John Smith
howled or ~smiled-she must do a. Mrs.
Jennings Payne did.
Now. imagine not that Mrs. Smith cop
led Mrs Jennings Payne from love of her.
Sosuch thing. Mrs. Smith feared her and
stood afar off trembling at the cloud and
mountain OF her magnificence.
Mrs. Jennings Payne was a leader OF So
ciety. John Smiths wife was in the hori-
Zon Of society. She felt that she and her
family had a right TO il. Perceiving that
Mrs. Jennings Payne wa set up in the
midst thereof. when harp. psalfery. dull
elmer, sackbut. and the whole orchestra
of society sounded. she fell down and wor-
SHIPPED.
Thenceforward liberty was but a name
TO John Smiths wife. She had been a
Jolly lfrfIa vrifsa haH hnrna him ann. anI
daugL sers, and had helped him TO accumu-
late in the small grocery line. But now
existence became a dreadful game Of
Simon says Mrs. Jennings Payne was
Simon.
Mrs. Jennings Payne had grown out OF
ease, and the soft manners and garments
OF Babylon hung around her by right.
She new not how TO dispose Of her time
except by p~raeticing new attitudes Of raj
ment
When Simon's little thumb wiggled in
impotence at there being nothing new to
wear. Mrs Smiths wiggled in like impa-
thence. When the thumb indicated short
drapery-long drapery-hair high-hair
low-iat heels-French heels-promse ex-
pense-Quick change. Mr.. smith followed
a. humbly and earnestly as If il We're not
Simon'S sole aim 10 confuse and throw her
of the track.
children all beruffled.- said Simon.
Mrs. smith bound her spine round the
wheel of a sewing machine. but responded
promptly with n martyrs ecstafic triumph
- Children berufied.''
IL Mrs. Jennings Payne had a new satin
cut Pompadour. one trimmed with point
Duchesse and pumpkin blossoms set with
silver tacks, John Smiths wife straight
way seized John Smith and squeezed a
similar costume out Of him. III she failed
of the satin, like the good woman of yore.
she did what she could in materials. That
style had TO be copied AT any rate, If the
copy was In hair-cloth.
Her little son. while mamma was too
busy over his clothes 10 attend TO hi body.
one day wandered into "A cistern and was
fished up 50 cold he could not be warmed
by the pretty little suit though il was pre-
ciscly like young Payne's.
However, this circumstance gave Mrs.
smith an opportunity of coming out in a
stunning style of mourning such a. Mrs.
Jennings Payne had recommended to one
of her own friends. Coza,ae IL fasr. | do
assure You. with sixteen iounces on the
lower skirt, the dolman caught up grace
fully over one a and a double bias box
pieaiing depending from the elbows.
John smith went seedy and sad TO his
<A'tti. rAoIf- lie NaILFl MS iItle son.
Tears fell on his sugar-barrcIs and tea
chests. and IL didn't comfort his heart at
all that Master Smiths funeral was con-
Quoted like Mrs. Jennings Payne's cousins
little boys funeral.
>edy and sad grew John Smith, but
thinner aud thinner grew his wife. Like
devotee she tasted and made her family fast
~ the service of Mrs. Jennings PAYNE.
There was dearth in the smith kitchen that
there might BE- s-umptuousness IN the smith
parlor. Jhe young Misses Smith took fam
lily lessons IN putting the best foot for
ward and in putting that foot amer the
Misses Payne.
Thus might this amiable family have
continued TO enjoy the freedom and
independence guaranteed them under the
wings Of the American eagle. had not Mrs..
smith grown so thin under her nervous
strain that she one day broke in two
over her sewing -machine wheel.
Was Il not fnghtfulg But she had kept
her eye on the Thumb till her last mo-
ments, and probably a. she passed away
suffered agonies in doing 20 before 81
mon said Thumbs down.
They laid the pieces Of this devoted wo-