The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1877-03-17
The Story of Blue Beard.
By THE FAT CONTRIBUTOR.

III LIE RAJ
A long time ago before the invention of
hair dye. when man had to wear bis beard
the color that nature made it whether he
would or not, there was q man who had
made himself immensely rich as whiskey
inspector or something Of that sort. don't
know precisely where he lived, nut think
he lived mostly in the imagila,ic,
He ran great castle on the Ii .opean
plan had horses and ran them; and, in fact,
ran about every thing in his neigbborhood,
including running for office, and with the
girls, for at the time of which l write he
was gay widower. He had great guam
titles OF greenbacks, corner lots, oil stocks,
bonds and and things, but he was hideously
ugly, and withal had an enormously blue
beard, frightful to contemplate, which gave
to him the cOgnomen of Blue Beard, by
which he was known to the country round
about, as well as to the country that had
laid off it's roundabout, and was conse-
quently in its shirt-sleeves.
Blue Beard grew weary of living in SOL
itary magDi6cence in his lordly castle, and,
finding tnat he was getting bluer and bluer,
every day, determined to marry. Having
been married half dozen times, he was
naturally quite miserable when deprived of
the gentle influence Of the sex for any length
of time.
One of his neighbors was widow lady,
who had two very beautiful and highly ac-
complshed daughters They could play
the piano, harp, seven up, embroider and
planchette elegantly.
To this widow lady Blue Beard applied
for the hand and general anatomy of one
OF her daughters, leaving him to decide
which one she would give him. Although
his "stamps' had pleaded loudly in his ia
vor, as they do yet, and although this was
great many years ago, yet that dreadful
beard was against him, and neither of the
young women desired to have it against
her. Blue was not fashionable for boards;
if 1t had been, 1t might have been different.
One of them wept bitterly because it would
be several hundred years yet before hair
dye would be discovered, 80 that he could
have his whiskers colored.
Another circumstance rendered them shy
of him. He was having a wedding every
once in while at the castle, "but no tu-
neras!" Wedding cake had been ordered
from confeclioners several times, but no
undertaken had had job there yet. No
matter how many times man lie left wild
over, If he correspondiDgly patronize some
respectable hearse; but repeated wedlock
without funerals is certainly suspicious
circumstance.
Blue Beard cunningly invited the family
and their friends to the castle, where they
passed a week so delightfully."- that the
youngest daughter began to think that blue
was pretty good color for whiskers after
all, particularly when their possessor could
keep up such an establishment as that,
where they had three meals a day, besides
lunch every morning from 10 o'clock I'M
I'll III o'clock. She looked with contempt
upon ared-whiskered beau of hers, she used
to think perfectly Splendid" and actually
asked him why he didn't Stub indigo into
en-" The upshot of the business was that
she consented to become Mrs. Blue Beard.
and the vedding.was celebrated with great
ecLat
At the expiration of the honeymoon Blue
Beard pretended to his wife that business
called him away to q distant city. He would
be absent several weeks, and In the mean.
time she could invite company and enjoy
herself as much as possible. He gave her
bunch of keys, enabling her at any time
TO open his safe, and feast her eyes upon
the diamonds Che loaned money on "collat-
erals" sometimes,) greenbacks, seven-thir-
ties, revenue stamps, and receipted gas bills
deposited there, aleo giving access to the
wine cellar, store-room, picture gallery,
billiard room, ten-pin alley, courthouse,
etc. But one little key opened room door
in the basement that she must not approach