Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1879-07-24
A COIoneI's Rebuke.

Miss HENRIETTA G. MOORE, Cor. Sec'y
COIOmel's Rebuke.
had been told that our young friend
Spooling and his wife did not live as hap.
PLY as they might, but could not credit
it.
They had been married not two years
yet and l had known them both from
childhood. l had known Spooling for q
smart, bright-faced, healthy boy who was
called the best scholar in school. He was
honorable to a fault and kind-or, at any
rate, he meant to be kind.
had known that he was very methodi-
cal in all he did and that he was rigid i'm
his observation of certain rules of life
| and speech. And it seems he had tried to
make LOttie as precise and particular as
he was himself. but it could not he done.
She was too hght-hearted, too gay and
frolicsOme, too prone to snap chord from
the first string that came to her hand.
And yet she was full of fpractical common
sense and as good at heart as women can be.
Some time after, at a supper party at
Parker's, 1 met Spooling and his wife, the
happiest and gayest of the happy ones.
At length Mrs. Spooling, urged thereto
by lady who sat at my side, began to
tell the story of how she had been thrown
from her carriage on one of the noun
tains in Switzerland and she must have
perished but for the accidental arrival of
another party.
'sFor," said she, ''I had left my hus-
band at little mountain inn and we were
a party of ladies on that trip altogether.
Why, where l fell was full twenty feet
below the road-bed and only the interven-
ing trees and bushes and tangled vines
saved me from being crushed to death. .
sFKeep within bounds, Lottie dear. You
do not mean twenty feet" corrected the
husband, with one of the very smoothest
and most patrOnizing of smiles.
81 mean just twenty feet, George, call
it just as it looked and appeared to me.
There was twenty feet of calamity at any
rate.''
'sBut, my dear, you know we measured
the ledge or cliff and found it to be twelve
feet and four inches. That is not quite
twenty is it?''
"Did you ever!" cried the wife, flush
ing, but still holding hard upon her good
nature. E'That husband of mine beats
Thomas at doubling. If he were to prove
st. Peters dome by his measuring tape
and find it half an inch below Michael
Angeles standard, do verify believe he
would announce the whole trick as a
fraud. Now, don't stick to that absurd
measure of yours. Let it go as [ told it,
twenty feet, for l know and shall declare
that fell twenty feet
EsThen," said Spooling, with a red spot
on either cheek, for everybody was laugh
ing at him, ''you will declare what is not
true.''
''George 20
81 say it, Lottie.' .
s'Say would tell an untruth ?''
IF you say you fell twenty feet on thai
occasion upon the Swiss mountains, yes.
George Spooling you are brute !Just
exactly a brute!''
HLottie-''
'sStop, sir! We are in company. DOM
tempt me further here. Iwarn you!"
And with gulp, and with bitter grace
he accepted the warning.
| After the supper was over a few of us
were standing in one ofthe deep bay-win-
dOws when George Spooling, Joined us.
81 am sorry, gentlemen he said, in
tones as sorrowful and oily as could bf
commanded, 'Ethat my wife so exposed
herself this evening. I beg you will be-
lieve that she possesses grand qualities
notwithstanding her unfortunate weak
| ness.n
Colonel Lynde was of our number-f
gray-haired veteran of a hundred pitched
battles on the contested field-a man
standing six feet in his stockings and bull
like Hercules man ordinarily as milo
and gentle as child, and towering in hi!
bursts of righteous indignation.
FsMr. Spooling,' said the Colonel, will
a look of contempt not to be mistaken, Sc
marked well the whole course of YOU
passage with your wife at the supper-ta-
BILE, and were l that wife's brother
should be strongly tempted to hOrse-whil
| you if you did not make to her the mos
complete and humble apology What wa
it to us whether the exact measurement o
a certain Swiss rock was twenty inches o
twenty miles? The lady simply in tn
freedom and fullness of her heart gave II
her impressions on the occasion. The onl,
salient fact in the whole affair was just a
she stated it. You, sir, snapped her III
with needless and idiotic correction, AM
then crushed her by giving her the lie
She told you the truth, sir; you acted tn
| brute outright tonight, and [ fear not t.
wager GlO0, to be given to the poor of on
town, that not man or woman of tn
present company will dispute me-"
Spooling cast his eyes around, and say
but too plainly that he had no sympath!
there.
OF course the remainder of the evening
was far from joyous to him but am abl
to say that the event proved a blessing t
him.
He did mediate upon the speech of tn
Colonel, and when he found that others
all, in fact, whose opinion was worth haI
ling, were equally emphatic in condemns
ton of his course-he concluded that
, would be for his interest to turn over
new leaf.
Since that evening of the supper part
he has not corrected his wife in public.
do not know what he has done at home
but if we might judge from the sunligt
, always upon LOttie's face, we should sa
! he had given up the evil habit altogethe
' A habit easy enough to fall into, but wit
: consequences hard to overcome.