St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1888-05-12

|
You dass'l hang nuthing,n adde
the children.
While | was eating ''smack" tn
woman stood before me. arms a-kimbc
and the children completed the circl
around the table.
From fur?" queried the woman
as a starter.
"From Bristol.''
Hear 'em say any thing about meP'
IL don't think 500
you orter, fer Pm known all owe
the State as the distressedest woman
in it.''
'And hain't we distressed, too?' in
dignantly demanded the children, il
| chorus.
"Of course, but 7 m the distressed
est, being wife and mother"
ANY particular causep" l asked.
"More'n ten millyon particular
causes, stranger! No human being will
ever know what lhave suffered in body
and mind" ... .=..
"And we We suffered, tool" chorused
the children.
Eyes, some, but nothing in COMPARE
son. I've had tooth-ache, ear-ache,
pleurisy, quinsy chills fever, iaun.
dice and bilious fever and through the
hull of it there has not been one hu.
man being to feel sorry for me-"
rs it possible!'
"And | haven't a relashun as will
speak to me, on account of my mar.
rying Ezekiel, and if I was dying to-.
morrow not one of 'em would come to
lay me out for my cotfin!"
THAT is indeed sad
Stranger, them is the first kind
words I've heard for twenty years,
and you must-must--r'
''And mann is bellering, toor'
shouted the children, as she held her
apron to her eyes.
Presently Ezekiel came cree ping in,
trying to look careless and Indifferent,
but he had scarcely entered the door
when the wife jumped up and said:
Didn't say you dassn't hang yer
self?''
"And hain't you threatened to pizen
yerself dozen times over?'
"And we want to die, tool" howled
the children.
Stranger, said the wife, as she
began to clear up the table, take a
good look at that thing over there as
calls hisself a man. You'll never set
eyes on such an on cry, shiftless, good.
for-nothing specimen of manhood.
he haint tit fur bears to chaw onr'
Give it back to her, pap!" shouted
the oldest girl.
Stranger, )" replied Ezekiel as he
spit out the bark he was chewing,
you hain't blind. You kin see as
we'll as me, and you kin now realize
why | am the down troddenest, mourn
fullest man in Tennessee. I've either
5ot,to hang myself or 60 on in this
way"
Don't you believe hint" appealed
he wife. Its all owing to him, and
kin prove it. If any body is down.
roddenest it's mer'
''They dasn't pull ha'r and claw"
observed the girl to me in strict con-
idence.
was about to try and effect a re-
when the teamster re-
urned, having hired a vehicle
ouple Of miles away, and as l left the
louse Ezekiel left with me.
No you dom IT, exclaimed the wife.
You want to take advantage of me,
nut you can't"
She put on her bonnet and walked
ut with us, and the six children
rought up the tail-end of the process
ion. AS got into the vehicle, Ezekiel
egan:
Stranger, I'm sorry we hadn't
unthin' better; but as I told YOU at
ne start Pm the mournfulest, down.
=
Don't you believe him, stranger
lterrupted the wife. IF any body
as suffered more'n another, it's
They dasn't fghtr' yelled the chill
rem.
And as we moved away over the
,cky road Ezekiel made another bolt
r the woods to hang himself
1d the children were clapping their
ands and shouting:
Come back here, pap, and be
anr-M Quad, I'M Detroit Free