Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1883-04-27

$50 Hiram's folks has made money,
eh q said cid Mr.. Biggs.
Miss Paulina Prickett had invited
the Biggs family to tea, with hot Waf-
tles, ounce preserves, .Sally-lums, an
gel cake, aud the best quality of young
hyson, to celebrate the purchase of a
new tea-set- white French china with
a gold bank on the edge-in which
she had indulged. Inviting the Biggs
family, as Miss Paulina very well
knew, was better than ADVERT ing the
whole thing in the newspaper, for
there was a goodly number of them,
and they always talked to everybody
sabout everything The Biggses sell
dom invited company themselves, be-
cause like John Gilpin's wife, they
had frugal mind, but they always
came in iul force wherever they were
hidden. .r-
eyes" said Mrs. Horatio Biggs, ain
the book business, I'm told
al knowed a b0okmaker once" OBJ
served Miss Prickett, literally ladling
out the golden syrup of the ounces,
as only G t ninety cents a day and
found himself" l.
The Bipgs family had not been like
DIR. Watts proVerbial birds, which "in
their little nests agreed" Horatio
Biggs had oYerreached his two younger
brothers in business, and had set up a
general stQre" in Biggsville, out OF
the result OF his sharp practice, with a
Iali, angular wife, who despised Mrs.
= he because she flsssl fsfs... ss-,.ss i
Aactory, and scorned Mrs. Hiram he
cause she was teacher when her bus-
band first met her. Luke Bioo, was
a selfish, grinding, miserly sort of fell
low, and Mrs. Luke's chief end ana
aim in life was to secure enough cash
out OF her husband to Outdress the
other matrons and maids of the neigh
borhood. Miss Josepha Biggs, the un-
married daughter, made dresses for
the gentecicst families only and
old Mr. and Mrs. Biggs lived in a wing
of the old homes epd, and when they
were not quarreing between them
selves, made common cause against
Mrs. Horatio.
Under the circumstances it was not .
to bemarveled That Hiram Biggs. who
had contriyed to get an education from
his slender share ,f the family money .
Ga few thousand dollars left by dis |
tant relative, and gobbled up at once .
by the Biggst J, and the young wife .
that he had married, had found the al .
mosphere too full of disagreoa5le cleo
tricity, and removed TO New York.
"Take my word for it, said Mrs
Horatio BiggS, you are making a
mistake"
Don't you expect us to support
you when you come back here without
a cent" sad Mrs. Luke, ruefully sigh
ing.
'Iiram's marriage has been his
ruin, whispered Miss. Josepha. II
offered to pay his wife fifty cents
day to help trim dresses in busy times,
but she declined it.
Elizabeth always was too proud t.
put up with us plain people, said
Mrs. Biggs senior, with the quiet
malice that occasionally develops itself |
in a mother-in-law.
These family details may in some
measure account for the animus dis
played over the waffles and angel-cake
at Miss Prickett's tea party that after
noon.
"Well, shifts Miss Josepha, "ac-
cording to my idea of things, book
making amt no business at all. If it
was carpentering now, or the hard
ware line, or if Elizabeth had energy
enough to go into the millinery trade,
instead of paying four dollars in goo
hard money for spring hat, as she
did VIII n she was staying here in
April But I've no faith in their
calculations, and never had"
Mr.. and Mr.. Hiram Biggs, however,
had ambitions which the family never
dreamed of. IIiram's tastes had always
been Of a refined and literary nature,
and several simp'e stories of rural life
which he had ventured to send with
fear and tremblingto to popular month
ly magazine had been accepted and
literally paid for. And Elizabeth,
though she could not trim hats, and
abhorrel the dressmaking business,
had a delicate fancy with her pencil
in illustrating the ideal dreams of
others, and she too tried her luck, and
succeeded in the artistic world, much
to her own amazement. And as time
went On their good fortune became
more pronounced. Mr. Biggs wrote a
satirical novel which had a wide and
brilliant circulation Mrs. l}igg7 il
lustratel popular poem which was
brought out in an edition de luxe.
And the young couple became the
fashion.
The Biggses of Biggsyille, not beng
literary, were long time in. finding
out that their kinspeople were sue
ceeding in the world. At first they
declined to credit the thing at all, hay-
ing settled idea that the "book-mak-
ing business" as they persisted in call
ing it, was but a grade above the avo-
cation of ragpicker. But when at
last they realized matters they decided
that Hiram and Elizabeth ought to be
encouraged.
1--WE never been to New York,
said old Mr.. Bigg5. Folks tell me its
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