News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-01-31
THE BREAD WINNERS.
The Plot of "A Novel that has Created so
Much Sensation

Maud Matchin undoubtedly an orig
inal creation, is q handsome, brazen
girl, daughter of carpenter in Buffiand.
She despises her station in life. Her
education, a common school one, has
barely fitted her for an occupation she
desires to obtain, that of assistant in the
Butfiand public library. Her mind,
warped by bad reading, is inclined to-
ward romance, and conscious of her per-
sonal charms, she believes that she
ought to marry Prince. Arthur Farm
ham, the rich young man, the aristocrat
of Buffiand, who has been educated at
st. Cyr and been in the army, is the
person on whom Maud's sparkling eyes
rest. The carpenters daughter attends
Spiritualistic seances and hears lot of
wicked stuff through Bott, low rascal,
who entertains the peculiar theory that
woman ought to tell man her love.
Farnham, interested in Maud, has tried
to get her place in the city library.
She comes to him one day in his hot
house and unblushingly tells him of her
love for him. Near his handsome house
lawn, live the Belongs Alice Beld-
L
has liking for her, and this penchant
IS returned by Alice. When Maud tells
Farnham, G11rO1OOS de bOtteS, that she
loves him, carried away for the moment
by her charms, Farnham kisses her, but
tells her bluntly that che does not love
her," but Mrs. Bedding sees the two.
and, suffering intense agony from retain
ing a secret she can hardly impart, at
last tells q portion of it to her daughter
Alice. Alice, who is purity herself, is
Mortified, and declares she will hold no
further converse with Farnham. Sam
Sleeny, a joiner, who works for Maud's
father, is in love with Maud, and is ieal-
GUS of Farnham. He has been en-
ployed in repairing Farnham's hot-house,
and has seen Maud coming and going
into tx Farnham garden. Bott, the
Spiritualist, and one Offitt, criminal,
are both in love with Maud.
Maud declines Bolts advances, but
rather listens to Ofitt, as she entertains
some idea of vengeance, directed toward
Farnham, who has rejected her. Offitt
tells the girl some plausible stories, and
promises her the wealth of the Indies.
He will take her to Paris and make her
lady. He does his best to disgust her
with SIeeny, and intimates that he will
thrash Farnham. Labor riots break out
in Buffiand, and Bott, Sleeny, and Offitt
are the leaders of the "Bread Winners. !"
An attempt is made to pillage the Farm
ham house, but the assailants having
been driven off. they attack the Bedding
mansion, and Farnham, with a squad of
old army men, who have enrolled as
squad of police, protect the Belongs,
This act and some personal valor on the
part of Farnham make Alice reIent.
Then Ofitt, learning that Farnham is
in the habit of receiving his rents late
at night, determines to rob and murder
him. He takes Sam Sleenys hammer
and arranges it so that it shall appear
as if Sam were the assailant, while he
concocts an ingenious alibi for himself.
He goes at night, strikes Farnham two
blows on the head with Sleeny's ham,
mer, and leaves him for dead Offitt has
secured his plumber. He then hurries
to Maud, shows her the money, and pro-
poses immediate flight. The girl might
have run off with them had she been
able to get her fine clothes, but Maud
is afraid of him. She is sharp enough
to wheedle out of him the fact that Farm
ham had been punished. Sleeny is ar
rested, for Offitt has informed the police
that Sam is Farnham's murderer. Mrs.
Bedding, who is a rather inquisiUive per-
son, happens to be Watching with her
opera glass the Farnham house when
the assault took place and has seen the
man who entered. He was short and
dark, while Sam is tall and a blonde.
Sam, who is charged with the killing of
Farnham, escapes from prison, and, get
ting hold of Offitt, strangles him. Sans
innocence of numbering Farnham is
proved. But Farnham RECEIVERS and
marries Alice, and Sam takes Maud for
wife.
'Their lives were henceforth bound
together for good or evil. We may not
say how much of good or how much of
evil was expected from wedlock be-
tween two natures so i'll regulated and
unframed, where the woman brought
into partnership the wreck of ignoble
| aInbifioi,5 and the man the memory of
a crime"
The plot of "The Bread Winners"
has little novelty about it.