Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1883-09-18
A YOUNG W1DOWER's STORY.

lost my wife just a bout year ago
now, and strange to say, l am not in
the least consoled. I am not anxious
10 attack any body of professional
men, but do think the doctors killed
her.
! was i'll myself for some time before,
and when / met her, poor girl, l had
been i'll with nervous prostration, malaria
and dyspepsia, the doctors said. The
heat was intense. just such heated
term as we have had this summer, and
the brokers' office of Ackerly, Mackle-
bury & Cords was not the coolest or
most salubrious environment. I had
the ticker in my hand, it had just
marked wabash Preferred" when I
heard the CHEEKY, musical voice of my
fellow clerk, Arthur Clark, say: ''Hullo
there goes HOratiO,' - and l was dimly
conscious that had tumbled into his
long arms, and up against q rather
warm waistcoat which covered the best
heart in all this wicked world. Arthur
had Il house in an uptown street, while
l only owned weekly interest in a
second-pair-ba in a boarding-h house;
and when l succumbed what did this
prince of good fellows do but have me
put in an ambulance, md brought to
his fathers house, where u bed was
madeup for me in the empty parlors.
His voice again was the next thing l
heard.
''You see, old fellow" said Arthur,
''my mother and sisters are out of town,
and only the boys and the governor are
at home; so as we didn't want to put
the governor out, we concluded to give
you the parlOrs, where he rarely comes
in summer. So you are to lie here and
get well; fine breeze through when the
library door is left open, straw mating
(rather the worse for weary, few old
pictures, of suspected authenticity, on
the wall, gas fixtures done up in brown
paper, mirrors covered with mosquito
net, Horatio Bronson stretched on a
hastily-improvised cot, ice on head,
taken down pretty bad, doctor recon-
mends quiet, Arthur Clark, Esq, master
of the situation. DOst like the picture?
Moths, cats and mosquitoes thrown in,
hand-Organs subsidized be still and get
well. No emotion, if you please
forbidden, my dear boy, by medical adj
vice"
Arthur ratified on and put me grad
ually into possession of the facts. From
his lively inVestiture of my. case, I pres
emily sank off into fever and lost all
sense of time, place and circumstance.
A doctor and woman nurse became a
part of my imperfect consciousness,
and the large, deserted parlors of city
house, with its numerous pictures, be-
came in dreamy way the horizon of
my confused and distressed vision.
There was a cattle piece in front of
me, and large dark red battle by
moonlight in Il heavy Venetian frame.
There was view of Venice, and a pref
ty little copy of Helen Froment,
Rubens' wife. There was, of course, a
Madonna della Seggiola, and Cenci.
Mr.. and Mrs. Clark had been to Europe
about twenty years ago, when no re-
spectacle American ever dared come
home without the two last-nalued cop
les.
Over these pictures, and little
group of the LAGOON in the corner, did
[ dream, and perhaps rave. Arthur,
dear old boy, used to come in and see
me every evening. His personality
stood out distinctly, and he has told me
since (bless his hearty that / ALWAYS
said: ''.You are doing your work and
mine, too, l know you are" and that
once or twice was weak enough 10
well-let that pass, we donot love each
other any the less.
/ got to listening to the sounds at
night, and wondering what they meant.
A loud, metallic thu1np on the pave
ment, as if some one had thrown a
crowbar, which occurred about once in
five minutes, amazed and puzzled me.
Why should any one throw down a
crowbar with marked periodicity?
There was little tinkling bell that
came at three o'clock, Just after the
clock at 29th street had struck, which
was singularly puerile and foolish,
thought Then there were queer peo-
pie who walked and stopped, and others
who walked and didn't stop Why
didn't they all stop, or else walk on? !
heard condolences of young lovers.
Many marital reprisal, not meant for
my ears, came through the closed
blinds Many a grou~ of young men
went by with song and Jest, and then
came the long weary time from two
O'Clock to four, with only the episode of
the crcwbar, and the bell, and the
clock, and now and then some other
entirely iGeXplicable sound.
. think we will leave his blinds open
fo-night to give him more air, said the