The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-08-14

decanter had vanished that, with UNI
certain step, he left the dining room,
his wife, all fearful, following.
Our little wine-glasses spent a dis
NAL night, and were not surprised
when, in the morning, Frank appeared
with heavy eyes, and answered his
wife's greetings sullenly, in a manner
quite unlike his CHEEKY one.
Days passed. Oftener Frank tasted
the wine on the side-board, and now
there was less gladness in his young
wife's eyes when he lauded the rare
old wine. Often he came home, show
ing plainly by his bearing that other
wine glasses than those in his own
home had touched his lips.
And now the sad wife began herself
to refuse to taste the lovely poison so
surely changing her beloved Frank,
and making him now wildly gay, now
low-spirited and dull.
Another night came when guests
again assembled in the luxurious little;
paflors. And when, in the course Of
the evening, Frank (who had been
drinking heavily with some friends at
his club) called for the wine, Ruth, his
wife, replied in low tones: mo, Frank,
let us have no wine tonight. l have,
delicious coffee, fruits and ice; truly
the wine is not needed"
Little goose" he replied, laughing
loudly; "who ever heard of fellows
sending his friends away with no wine,"
whereupon he himself ordered it.
There were no witty speeches on the
little wife's tongue that night, and all
the merriment was gone FROM her face.
no do orlo L.
drank, though all the while he grew
more and more gay in his retorts, more
| brilliant and entertaining. When her
guests had left, poor Ruth, sick at
h~art, looked at her husband and
thought how unlike the Frank of old
he seemed.
whats the matter with you?" he
asked, gruffly.
"Oh, Frank! Frank! you are running
your own life! Why will you drink
like this?"
Anybody's business but mineP" he
asked. ''Whats the reason | can't
have friendly glass when 1 want it?
/ can stop when please"
"Then wish you had stopped six
months ago."
Ruth, be silent, you annoy me-"
annoy YOU" she replied, starting
YEARLY up the stairs. annoy youI
And you, you are breaking my heart.
There seems a demon in your soul. At
times | hardly know you l look into
| our future and see only misery for us
| both if you keep this up. You are kill
ing your better nature; you are making
a brute of yourself"
Frank, who had staggered up to the
stair-landing, felt all the unreasonirg
! anger of drunken man. "a brute,
| am 1? A brute! And it's my fine
young lady wife who says this. A
brute!' he screamed, his eyes cleaning
wildly, and taking a quick step for
ward he pushed her angrily against
the stair-railing. Startled, she sprang
backward, missed her footing, and fell
down the long flight of stairs, striking
the lower landing heavily, where she
| lay motionless and white.
Frank looked down at her and
| laughed like maniac. ''See what a
brute can don' he shouted Cant
you call me pet names again?"
But by that time, the servants, hear
ing the noise, had rushed to the spot.
and, seeing poor Ruth lying white and
cold, screamed: Dead! She's deadr'
The sharp cry seemed to pierce
Franks clouded brain, and to leave
that dreadful word stamped there.
dead! Dead! Dead" he moaned, in
a half dazed way, rubbing his hot head,
and then, sooner than can be told,
was kneeling at his wife's side. Bring
water!'' he called. ooh, she can't be
dead. Help me, help me! Call a ply
sician. o, Ruth, my darling, open
your eyes. Look at me for one mo-
ment. God what have / done?"
He sobbed like child, rubbed her
white hands and dashed cold water in
her pallid face, while the sympathetic
servants, crying silently, did what they
could to restore her to consciousness.
Before the doctor arrived she had
opened her eyes in a dazed way, but
without seeming to know any one.
All that night there was alarm and
confusion in the house. The grave old
we're nervous shock, not apt to prove
fatal, but from which it would take
time to rally, and vas glad to discover
that no more serious injuries had re-
suited from her terrible fall.
| FRANK ulu HOu leave ner BEDSIDE.
Through all her rawlings, before con-
seriousness returned, he was her devoted
and patient nurse, though his heart
ached with remorse as he heard her re-
peatedly going over the story of his
shame and her own sorrow.
On the first morning that the invalid
could be carried downstairs, there
was a queer sort of ceremony gone
through with in the dining room.
Frank with manly tears confessed his
sins before his little wife-confessor,
told her that he meant aeUer, so long
as he lived, to touch another drop of
liquor or to keep it in his home. And
when tears and kisses had been lavish
ly expended, twelve little wine-glasses
and two pretty decanters were brought
forth and smashed into atoms, amid
crying and laughing, and funeral
speech from Frank.
And late that night if you'd been
near an old dump-pile, way out on
the common, you might have heard
those atoms of glass congratulating
themselves on the change, for, as one
little ragged-edged piece remarked: