Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1883-03-17
Mr., WALKERS LUGGAGE.
BY EDMUND DOWNEY.

BY EDMUND DOWNEY.
Mrs. O'Leary was buxom well
preserved widow of forty-tive wher
Hooker J. Walker, in the month o.
July, arrived at the Dublin Bay
Hotel, in Bray. She had married
the late Mr.. O'Leary for money
not that ne had been d remarkably
wealthy man, but he was reputed
comfortable" and he could Offer
a home and the management of q
thriving place of entertainment iol
man and beast to any one OF the
female persuasion who might find
favor in his eyes. At the time when
Mr.. O'Leary commenced to lay
siege to the heart of Miss Brady,
the maiden was in her thirty-ninth
wear. She confessed to twenty
eight. Her father kept a small
grocery store in Bray, the chief
town of the County Wicklow and
for several months in the year IA
vorite seaside resort for the good
people of Dublin and elsewhere.
1t was in the winter season, when
Bray is deserted and dull, that Mr..
O'Leary first evinced those tokens
of admiration which were soon to
blossom into full-blown first love,
for. although Mr.. O'Leary was in
his fifty-seVenth year, he had never,
so far at least as his best friends
could remember, given anybody
Just cause to believe he was in pos
session of heart. All his faculties
had been centered in the accumula-
ton of money. He was very young,
about twenty-five, when his father
died, leaving him sole proprietor OF
the Dublin Bay Tavern, small
public house in the main street. BY
careful attention TO business, and
judicious adulteratiOn of beer and
spirits, he had contrived, by the
time his forty-fifth birthday came
round, to amass sum of El5O0,
which sum lay TO his credit IN the
Bray branch of the National Bank.
Then a brilliant idea seized hold of
him. He would sell the tavern, and
purchase or build a hotel of reason
able dimensions on the Esplanade.
He would not attempt to rival the
hotels in existence, but would de-
vote himself to the conduct of a
place for the fleeing of second-class
tourists. Accordingly he purchased
a piece of ground from the Dublin,
Wicklow L Wexford Railway Co.,
and built a moderate-siZed hotel,
containing about a dozen bedrooms.
He sold the public house, and put
the proceeds into the new under
taking. The Dublin Bay Hotel, as
he christened it, fiourished under
the management of Mr.. O'Leary.
He was always civil, and his char
ges were not, for a hotel at the sea-
side, remarkably exOrbitant. Peo-
pie wondered he didn't marry. "a
good, sensible woman, if you'll ex-
cuse the liberty, William, would be
a power of service to you in the ho-
tel, remarked his only surviving
relative, a maiden aunt.
But William O'Leary remained
single until fifty-seyen, when sud
denly the fame of love was kIndled
within his breast. He had known
Miss Brady for several years, hav-
ing dealt with her respected father
for groceries, DC.
Miss Brady, as before stated, mar
ried for money. 1t had always
been her ambition to manage a
big house or business" and many a
covetous glance had she, from time
to time, directed towards the Bay
Hotel. To her credit, be it spoken,
she had never attempted to whee-
die or throw sleeps eyes at Mr..
William O'Leary. In the first
place, it had not occurred to her
that the gentleman would ever
think of matrimony, and in the sec
ond place, she did not think it prob
able that he or any one in his pre-
position would dream of
seeking an alliance with penniless
maiden of thirty-we beg pardon,
twenty-eight summers.
But man proposes, even at tifty-
seven, and Miss Brady accepted Mr..
O'Leary without a word of protest
or a hint at procrastinatiOn. The
union was happy one, and no one
followed the mortal remains of the
late Mr.. O'Leary to their last rest
ing place, six years after the we'd
ding, with more tokens of grief
than the widoW-nOt even the de-
parted hotel-keeper's aunt, who was
cut off with a paltry legacy of fifty
pounds.
Mr.. O'Leary by his will devised
all his real and personal estate, save
and except the legacy of fifty
pounds to the maiden aunt, to his
partner, and when the
proper time for deep material and
mourning had elapsed, the
widow began to look about her for
suitable husband. She de-
termined that, as she had done so
well by marrying for money in the
first instance, she would marry
for money again if possible, but
slight sOuDcOn of the real genuine
would not be amiss, pro-
vided it was supplemented by a bal
ance at the bankers.
During her six years of widow
hood, she had never come across
the right man. She could boast of
several proposals, but none Of the
proposers could guarantee a suffi-
cheney, in Mrs. O'Leary's eyes, of
love and money. Therefore, when
Hooker J. Walkers luggage was
deposited in the Dublin Bay
Hotel, the heart of the proprietress
was still an uncOnquered citadel.
Hooker J. Walker was evidently of
origin. He had that pc
culiar lank appearance which char
acterizes many of the sons OF the
States, and his nasal twang afford
a strong contrast to the plethora of
brogue which could be
within the walls of
the widows establishment.
"Begor. Yankee or no Yankee,
he's raal gintleman. He gev me