Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1875-05-06
PRAYING IN TADF0D'S STORE,

anu iuo, Isl a White apron stood behind
the counter, the most obliging Young
1elluS in place as my old woman used
10 say, and, except the minister, the
most genteel.'
lie was quite a beau then, and good
many girls set theio caps for him, and
every one of 'em said they couldn't see
what he saw in Fanny Perkins, to
make him marry her. Even my old
woman said it, and when / suggested
1t might be her pretty face and nice
ways she said 'bother.'
Old Tadford was pleased too. be-
lieve he thought his daughter-in-law
was an angel.
he was kind-hearted cid body,
OId Iadfori WAS. He had risen from
nothing, step by step, slow and sure.
saving Il penny here and penny
there, and putting it in the bank and
never taking it out again, SO that he
ha't savings to the amount of ten thou
sand dollars, and that was to be young
Ta,iford's when the old man died-that
and the house and the store. | don't
suppose any man would have been
happier to have had his father live for
ever than Young Tad. would have
been. He wasn't waiting for dead
mems shoes, but still he knew he was
going to have it, you see, and it made
MIN feel safe about the future.
think Tor my part, the old man was
eettlnS Childish about those days.
However, good many people that
Were not did about the same as he did.
What say is, let we'll enough alone.
Ihere was his money safe and sound in
the bank, when what he should do but
go and take 1t out and bny coupon
bonds with ii, and let all the tag-rag
ana bob-tail in the place know that
he'd done it, and had them in the
house. After that there WAS no peace.
Now he hid 'em here, now he hid aem
there. He put 'em in Il hoX and he put
'e;t In bag. He had 'em up Chin
ney, down cellar, and he had worried
himself thin over them. Worst of all
| Was. he began to lose his memory, and
couldn't always remember where he
had put them, and at last, after bur-
glars had broken into the store he
made all 0il-skin bag and tied it on his
back, and walked about with his
coupon bounds about him. And cfi
course ii wasn't safe to let him go about
alone with such temptation to those
Who would murder man for such a
III.
he would do it.
never shall forget the day that lit
tie Jack Richards came tearing past our
house with face as white as sheet,
and called out as he passed.
Uncle Riggan! 1 say-I'm going for
the doctor. Somebody has been and
murdered old Mr.. Tadford.'
l daren't stop for my cat. didn't |
even stop to tell the old woman what /
had heard, and there, sure enough,
was poor old TadfOrd, with cut on his |
head, on the floor, and young Mrs.
TadfOrd with a baby, three weeks old, |
in her arms, shaking and sobbing be-
side him.
There WAS such grief and such excite
ment that it wasn't till after the funer-
al had taken place that anyone thought
of the coupon bonds. I hey knew that
the old man had worn them on his |
back, in his Oil-5kin bad that morning,
for he asked his daughter-in-law to sew
new string on, and Tom himself had
tied it around his neck, but no one had
seen it since. 1t was gone, and wheth-
er some one had robbed him of it be-
fore he died or after no one knew. The
customer who had called Mrs. Tadford
down stairs to tell her the awful news
that the old mans neck-cloth was off
and his shirt unbuttOned when he found
him; but the doctor swore that the
death was natural one, and the house
was full OF strangers that day.
1t was gone, and the ten thousand
collars with it, and that was the end
of it.
Alter that somehow things took bad
turn with young Tadford. A new man
started new store in the place, and
the people took to him because he had
a big window, and Il Chinese mandarin
nodding in it.
The girls liked him because he Was
single, and the old women because hei
was good talker. Toms customers
fell of, and think it was TO save HIM
self that he began to make regular !
drinking place of his store. The old
man had always kept ale and cider, I
and now he added whisky, brandy and
gin. Ali the loafers of the place began I,
10 drop in, and Tom found himselfablel :
to pay expenses; but he wasn't COM :
Portable yet. AT the heighth of his !,
trouble he had mOrtgaged the place, ,
and that was forever on him like an ,
incubus. There is nothing like mort :
gage to worry a man into his grave. ,
Tom changed great deal. He grew I
cross and hateful. Poor Fanny looked i
as if she had hard time of it. There a
Was more children now, and they I
dansled about the shop, and learnt /
bad words, and saw the drinking. De- G
cent people dropped the Tadfor0s; and G
they felt that, l expo ct; but what could v
be done? Decent women couldn't go f
visiting In a house that was nothing I
but a groggery, and where they'd find !
some tipSy fellow ready TO insult them, b
likely. Everybody pitied poor Fanny $
Tadiord; but it couldn't be helped. d
You've heard tell of the Praying :
Band, haven't you ?-those ladies that 5
go about praying down the rum-drink- h
ing. y
1t is just four weeks ago that they r
came down here. They tried the =
Widow Mullins first, but did nothing n
there. Oat she came with her broom e
aud drove them from the place. They e
say she tore one lady's bonnet off. 1 i,
make no doubt of il. To see a woman II
to be better than she is, is e
enough to drive any wOman to desper- +,
alton, and Maggy Mullin is pretty bad, I,
and those pure, fair, sweet-loOking la
dies must have been too dreadful fer
her to bear the sight of.
We men, now expect it. The nearer a
are to angels the better we like =
EN-; the farther off they seem from Z
earth and nearer to heaven, the gladder =
the worst men feel somehow. c,
And when those tidy, calm, sweet :,
'ouls.came down the street arm in arm y
toward Tadford's store, some did laugh, u
Dut it was soft just like you would at u
babies; and some just cried, and some T.
'aid, Lord bless 'em and help 'em ~ al
md good many went down to Tad u
ord's along with 'em, to see what -
would come of it. III
Tom Tadford stood in his store calm u
nj so,ar,n-Iil,a ond 60, -, -,@,,sr;,r. al