Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1876-02-18

IhE TRAGIC AND COMIC N TIE RECENT LTN-
DONyILLE AFFAIR-soNE REFLECTIONS rRoN
The WEST
The tragic and the comic are not inire-
! quently combined in cases Of crime. One
Of the instances Of this rule is the low com
edy and terrible tragedy of Tuesday, at
East Lyndon, Vt. Because Mrs. Sllas
Wilder made pair of overalls too short,
! Sllas stabbed her, knocked down his father,
seventy-three years old. with an axe, cut
| his venerable mother to pieces with the
same weapon, then, returning to his father.
who had meantime crawled feebly into the
kitchen. fastened his gray hairs to the floor
by single skull-crushing blow, and ended
his undermining career by cutting his
own throat and hanging himself. And all
this because his oyeralls were too short. 1t
is fortunate that no greater evil vexed his
soul. If he hat scratched his finger, he
might have slaughtered all East Lyndon.
II be had tumbled down on his knee-pan.
Vermont might be an uninhabited wilder
ness to-day. And if fallen brick had
cracked his crazy bone, there is no knowing
but that be would have massacred all New
England. If short overalls affect the rural
mind in this manner in Vermont, the Leg
islsture of the State should by all means
make the production of pair of abbrevi-
ated breeches sufficient cause for dissolv-
ing the marriage tie. Most women would
prefer being divorced to being murdered
Perhaps in his early youth Silas Wilder
was obliged by economical parents to wear
Far nj mis- foo
NAV have hailed him, boy fashion. with |
shouts of" Ho legs !" g See his shanks :"
and similar playful ontcries. He may have |
translated togd girihs into long panta
looms" and rejoiced at entering mans |
estate principally because 1t enabled him |
to cast off his semi-Highland garb and |
drape his shins and ankles in flowing |
breeches This anticipation was very like
ly doomed to disappointment. The country
tailor is apt to economic IN cloth by cut
ting off his pantaloons as near the knee as
possible. Is it not a sign OF the Granger
that his pants flap around the tops of his
unblacked boots? Even when they show
the creases OF the shop-shelyes, they gen.
orally display foot or SO of bootleg. And
so Silss Wilder may have even yearned in
vain for long pantaloons. When his very
wife finally disappointed him and presented
him with pair of overalls about the length
of the breeches which Washington wore. on
state occasions, and which are still preserv-
ed in the Patent Office. Is it strange that
Wilder became wild and slaughtered the
parents responsible for his uncovered legs
in infancy. and the wife who made the over
alls of maturity too short? He said, ac-
cording to the dispatches. that he really
must lend the trouble now. But in
stead of doing so with needle and thread
and lengthening the legs of his overalls,
he took an axe and shortened the lives of
his family Then, by dint OF razor and
rope, he did end his own trouble. His
wife may it is said, recover. If she does so
and marries q second husband, it is safe to
say that the overalls she makes for him could
be relied upon to fit Goliath, the Colossus
of Rhodes. or Long John Wentworth. -
Chicago Tribune.