The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1889-02-16
MRS. Trips CHINA.

ioiCChiCho ouiohS OhCh hOho I've
the small property left by the oil
people.
Such disagreements ar so shame
fully common now, that this ON
might not have excited any particula
interest had it not been for the some
what peculiar nature of the articl,
over which the cupidity of the vari
GUS heirs had asserted itself.
Few, indeed, were the possession
Mr.. and Mrs. Trip left behind them
They did not own even the humble
little brown house in which they hac
lived for the past ten years, and wher
their funeral expenses had been paid
there was not dollar left of the sun
found in an old pewter teapot on the
top shelf of the red cupboard in the
kitchen. Frugal as they had been
it was evident that this sum represen
ted the sum total of their savings o
many years.
But Mr.. and Mrs. Trip had not
always been so poor as they were at
the last, and there was one of Mrs
Trips possession which she had al.
ways exhibited with pride as a relic
OF her better days, and as undenlable
proof of the fact that there had been
time when she chad had a plenty"
Over this her relatives now disputed
What was it? Only a white china
tea-set, each piece of which had a
broad gold band around the rim.
"It's pure chany," Mrs. Trip would
often say, with a thrill of pride, as
she held a saucer or a plate before
the eyes of her visitors. "See how
thin it is; you kin look right through
it. Solomon give it to me on our
tenth wedding day. He was in the
grocery business then, an doin' well
an he'd gone to New York to buy
goods; an when he come home, he
brung this all packed SO carefully in
straw, that the want piece broke;
but one of the sass dishes was crack
ed a little, en- I never used it none,
80 it amt never broke, either. ] think
the world an all of my chany."
The dearly priced "chany" had for
years graced an old-fashioned "what-
not" in a corner of Mr.. Trips best
room. There was nothing else OH
the whatnot but two big "chany''
dogs, one a reddish brown, and the
other a dark blue, which looked as
though they felt themselves respon-
sible for the safety of the dishes, and
intended being faithful to their trust.
Mr.. and Mrs. Trip had no children,
but they had some relatives-cousins
and q second-cousins and more re-
mote connections. These relatives
were numerous, however. Just how
numerous they were was made mani
fest when it came to dividing the few
personal belongings of the old people.
The "heirs', met at the house on
their way home from the funeral.
Hardly were they assembled, when
Nancy Johnson, own cousin to Mrs.
Trip, said:
"Of course you all know that my
father and Betty Trips mother was
own brother and sister, and that
made me and Betty own cousins. So
it seems only fair that | should at
least have my choice of her things,
'speshly when l might claim 'em all;
but I amt one to act selfish, and I'm
willin' you should all haveyour sheer
of what's left after I've packed up
Betty's chany tea-set and"-
81 knowed that was what you was
goin' to say" interrupted Mrs. Cephas
King, "and can tell you that Solo
mon Trip was my own cousin, and
the tea things was as much his as
they was Betty's, and I've as much
right to 'em as you haye!"
A thin, sharp voice came from a
corner of the room.
BETTY Trip told me agin and
agin," it said, "that she wanted me
to have them dishes, when she was
done with en- She said"-
"She told me the same thing!' in
terposed Mrs. Cyrus Masterson, who
who was only third-cousin."
81 took more care of her endurin'
her last sickness that anybody elsew
interrupted second-cousin Beulah
Hovey, land one day we was talkin'
bout the chany, an Betty says, says
she, 'Beulah,' says she, 'bout that
ehany tea-set,' says she, I'D as leave
you had it as any one, an a little
leaver.'
''Them's the very words she said
to my wife!' put in Mr.. Ezra Sim
mons, little old man with iemi-
nine face and voice, "an' Betty was a
own cousin ofmine."
And of minev' said q tall woman
in rusty black near the whatnot on
which the coveted china stood.
So the strife continued, until there
was no possibility of an amicable ad-
justment of the claims of various
claimants. They finally left the
house and the china in the possession
of Miss Selma Sharpe, q lady OF
about fifty years, who, although an
own cousin of Mr.. Trip. had put for
ward no claim to the china, declar-
ing that she had no wish to possess
it.
"But there's one thing certain"
said Miss Sharpe, as she closed the
door behind the last of the "heirs,"
"there shan't one of 'em step their
foot into this house again to touch
the chany or anything else, until it's
settled by law who has q right to
EN-. I've rented the house myself of
it's owner, and / won't have my
doors darkened by any of them"
Miss Sharpe adhered to this resolu-
ton, politely but firmly refusing ad-
mittance to several of the claimants
who called during the following week,
Ito talk itaover" with her, and, pos
sibly. to carry the china home in tri.