The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1879-01-23
IN Y. Times.l
A Sleighing Tragedy.

| "iSO OhC' iO AOWGN0F, WEAK 6uOuSL
, to imagine that he can keep his pretty
, daughter from all amusements excep
the weekly prayer meeting and the an
nual donation party. The amusementt
in which young girls delight, no matter
how innocent they may be in the eyes o
other men, Mr. Johnston summarily con
demns as vain and frivolous. OF course
this line of conduct cannot be commen
ded, but it is, nevertheless, true thai
Miss Johnston ought to obey the com
mands of her father while she is yet ir
her minority and under his roof 1t i;
painful to be compelled to mention thai
such is not the view of the matter taker
by the undutiful girl. While she does
not venture to openly defy the author o.
her existence she does not hesitate tC
deceive him. She snatches surreptitious
joys whenever the paternal back is turn
ed, and such is her versatility that she
has been known to entertain three dis
tinct and simultaneous young men--one
in the woodshed, another at the back
gate, and third Nnder the lilac bush in
the front yard, at the very time when
Mr.. Johnston fondly imagined that she
was in her room studying the Shorter
Catechism by lamplight. The neighbors,
from sympathy with youth and beauty
subjected to parental tyranny, assist her
in her undutiful conduct, and conceal
her indulgence in picnics and skating
parties from her unsuspecting father.
Among the young ladies warmest ad-
mirers is the young man who presides
over the local public school He is an
uncexceptionable person, except in point
of muscle. He is not strong and he is
not familiar with out door sports.
| Still, these faults do not affect his moral
character, and most certainly did not JUS
tify Mr.. Johnston in leading him out of
the house by his left ear on the solitary
occasion on which he had rashly ventur-
ed to call on the stern old gentleman s
daughter As was only natural, this
want of delicacy and hospitality exas-
perated the school teacher, and though,
as he afterward explained to
a friend who happened to be
| be passing the house at the moment
when the pedagogical ear was undergo
ing undue familiarity, he did not feel at
liberty to infict personal chastisement
upon Miss Johnston's father, he was,
nevertheless, determined to "get square"
with him, let the consequences be what
| they might.
A few weeks later the first heavy fall
of snow occurred in North Lyme, and
Mr.. Parker-for that was the school
Miss Johnston to accompony him on a
sleigh-ride. He knew that she would be
delighted to accept an invitation, and
that her father regarded sleigh-riding as
one of the worst vices in which his
daughter could possibly indulge. To
please himself and the young lady and
to triumph over her Objectionable parent,
presented itself to his mind as delicious
combination of pleasure and revenge,
and accordingly he wrote to Miss John
ston to meet him in a quiet lane short
distance from the village, and proceeded
to the livery stable to hire a sleigh.
Mr.. Parker was not, as the event prov
ed, a judge of sleighs Moreover, there
was just at that time an excessive de-
mand upon the resources of the livery
stable. and every sleigh but one was en-
gagged. This one was an aged Gutter
of decidedly rickety appearance But
Mr.. Parker found no fault with it, and,
after hiring horse warranted to be old
and gentle, he entered the sleigh and
drove cautiously to the rendezvous. Miss
Johnston with her cheeks and nose
glowing with frost and expectation, was
waiting for him, and his heart beat high
as he alighted and prepared to assist her
to the seat.
A surfeit of small boys and prolonged
course of boarding house beefsteak had
reduced Mr.. Parkers weight to 103
pounds,-as he afterward testified before
the Justice Of the Peace. Miss Johnston,
on the other hand, was a plump young |
person, who weighed 139 pounds without |
her back hair. The sleigh had borne the
school teacher though with much omi-
nous creaking but it was unequal to the
strain of 139 pounds of girl. AS Miss
Johnston stepped into the middle of the
Gutter" and paused to arrange her
skirts with view to sitting down,
sharp cracking sound was heard, and
the unhappy girl suddenly went through
the bottom, and was held fast by cruel
splinters, with her feet just touching the
snow.
Mr.. Parker rushed to the rescue with
the utmost promptness, and mounting
on the seat, strove to extricate his COM
panion from the wreck; but the inexora
BILE splinters would not yield. He tried
to break the entire bottom out of the
sleigh, but his strength was unequal to
the feat With rare inventive genius, he
next proposed to crawl under the sleigh
to extricate Miss Johnston by cutting
away the splinters with his knife, but
she declared with vigorous eloquence
that if he dared to. even bend his head
down she would never speak to him
again the longest day she lived. just at
this point the horse showed signs of rest
lessness, and the young lady insisted
that the animal should be instantly cast
loose from the sleigh, lest his movements
should further complicate her misfor-
tune Accordingly, the horse was sent
adrift, and the discouraged Mr.. Parker
was left alone with his weeping compan-
ion. who constantly upbraided him, and
and as constantly refused all his offers of
At the end of half an hour Miss John
ston began to suffer from the cold, and
as she firmly refused to allow blanket
to be wrapped around-that is to say, to
be placed in position beneath the sleigh,
the situation became alarming. Finally,
Mr. Parker hit upon the idea of gently
dragging the sleigh, while the imprisoned
fair one feebly initiated the movement of
walking. This gentle exercise prevented
her from freezing, but it was obviously
for her to enter the village in
such an unprecedented style, and she ac-
tually hailed with delight the sudden
appearance of her father, in connection
with load of wood. That gentleman
was naturally surprised at the spectacle
which he beheld, but he was wrong in |
characterizing it a wicked and willful |
attempt to play at circus.
Mr.. Johnston, with the help of his |
whip, convinced the school teacher that
he had better hasten home; and he then
extricated his daughter, by summarily |
knocking the sleigh to pieces. He has
since sued Mr.. Parker for damages in
ficted upon Miss Johnston by means of
splinters and exposure to the weather,
and though the case has not yet been de,
cided, it is generally thought that the
plaintiff will succeed. The story is a
very sad one, and is well adapted to ava
ken within US a variety of painful, though