The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-11-03
AN HEIRESS OF RED DOG.
BY BRET HARTE.
from Belgrayia.1

centricity of the testator was, think, in
the spring of 1854. He was at that time
in possession of a considerable property,
heavily mortgaged to one friend, and a
wife of some attraction, on whose affec-
tions another friend held an cucumber
ing lien. One day it vasfound that he had
secretly dug, or caused to be dug, a deep
trap before the front door of his dwelling,
into which few friends. in the course
of the evening casually and famil-
iarly dropped. This circumstance,
slight in itself, seemed to point
to the existence of certain hum or
IN the man, which might eventually get
into literature, although his wife's lover
"a man of quick discernment, whose leg
had been broken by the fall-took other
views. 1t was some weeks later, that,
while dining with certain other friends
of his wife, he excused himself from the
table to quietly reappear at the front
window with a three-quarter-inch hy-
draulic pipe, and stream of water pro-
jected at the assembled company. An
attempt was made to take public cogniz-
ance Of this; but majority of the citi-
xens of Red Dog, who were not at the
dinner, decided that a man had a right to
choose his own methods of diverting his
company. Nevertheless, there were some
hints of his insanity; his wife recalled
other acts cleary attributable to sdemen-
tia the crippled lover argued from his
own experience that the integrity of her
limbs could only be secured by leaving
her husbands house; and the mortgage,
fearing further damage to his property,
foreclosed. But here the cause Of all
this anxiety took matters into his own
hands, and disappeared.
When we next heard from him, he
had, in some mysterious way, been re-
Geved alike of his wife and property, and
was living alone at Rockville, Fifty miles
away, and editing newspaper. But
that originality he had displayed when
dealing with the problems Of his own
private life, when applied to politics in
the columns Of the Rockville Vanguard,
was singularly unsuccessful. An ANUS
exaggeration, purporting to be an exact
account of the manner in which the op-
osing candidate had murdered his Chi
nese laundryman, was, / regret to say,
answered only by an assault and battery.
A gratuitous and purely imaginative de-
scription Of great religious revival in
Calamas, in which the sheriff of the
eounty-a notorious1y profane sceptic---
was alleged to have been the chief ex-
horter, resulted only in the withdrawal
of the county advertising from the paper.
In the midst of this practical confusion
he suddenly died. 1t was then discov-
cred, as crowning proof Of his absurd
ity, that he had left a will, bequeathing
his entire effects to a freckle-f faced maid
servant at the Rockville Hotel. But
that absurdity became serious when it
was also discovered that among these ef-
fects were a thousand shares in ''The
Rising Sun Mining Co.," which a day Or
two after his demise, and while people
were still laughing at his grotesqne ben
efaction, suddenly sprang into opulence
and celebrity. Three millions of dollars
was roughly estimated as the value of the
estate thus wantonly sacrificed! For it
is only fair to state, as just tribute to
the enterprise and energy of that young
and thriving settlement, that there was
not probably "a single citizen who did
not feel himself better able to control the
deceased humorist's property. Some
had expressed a doubt Of their ability To
support family; Others had felt per
haps too keenly the responsibility rest.
ing upon them when chosen from the
panel as jurors, and had evaded their
public duties; few had declined office
and low salary; but no one shrank from
the possibility of having been called upor
to assume the functions of Peggy Moffa1
the heiress
The will was contested. First by the
widow, who it now appeared had never
been divorced from the deceased; next
by four of his cousins, who aweke, only
too late, to a consciousness of his mora
and pecuniary worth. But the humble
hgatee-a singularly plain, unpretend
ing, uneducated Western girl-exhibitec
a dogged pertinancity in claiming hel
rights. She rejected all compromises
A rough sense of justice in the commun
ity, while doubling her ability to TAXI
care of the whole fortune, suggested thai
she ought to be content with three hue
dred thousand dollars. 'She's bound tx
throw even that away ON some dernet
skunk of man, natoorally, but thre'
millions is too much to give a chap fo'
maxim her unhappy. 1t eferin' 1
temptation to cussedness." The only op
posing voice to this counsel came from
the sardonic lips of Mr.. Jack Hamlin
Suppose" suggested that gentleman
turning abruptly to the speaker; "sup
pose, when you won twenty THOUSAND
dollars from me last Friday night-sup
pose that instead of handing you over tn,
money as | did-suppose I'd got up OF
my hind legs and said, Look yer, Bill
Weathersbee, you're damned fool. If
give ye that twenty thousand you'll
throw it away on the first skin-game il
Frisco and hand it over to the first slfor
card-sharp you'll meet. There's thou
sand-enough for you to fling away