The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-01-04
GRANrPA'S PIPE.
The Touching Little Story of a
Wifes Devoted Love in
Youth and Age.

smoke. Throughout the many years of
her welded life she had tried hard to
learn to like the odor of it, but had fail
ed. Her husband, however, supposed
that she was fond OF it. Men are clumsy
about such things. They do not feel out
the truth as women do. They trust to
their senses and their reason, and there
fore women cheat them.
"It is the dear mans only fault"
Charlotte Hubbell had said to herself
when she was a young wife, sand he
shall never know that | dislike it."
For more than forty years she had
lovingly deceived him. After supper
she would bring his slippers and his
pipe; and lie, stupid lover, would puff
and toast his feet and say and feel:
Here is peace that passeth under
standing"
Then he would look up into the lightly
curling smoke and try to think how
miserable he should be if he had found
a wife whose tastes were not thus suited
to his own. And he would lay her head
| upon his shoulder and kiss her; and that
was all she wished. 1t told her he was
happy in her love.
Once, in the street, she passed a man
and family caught the odor of his freshly
lighted cigar. She rather liked it.
"If Alfred would smoke .cigarst' she
thought.
Slyly she laid away spare money until
she had enough, Then one day she called
the Judgment of a friend into service, and
t~hatyevening she brought the slippers and
a box of choice cigars.
Her husband took her in his arms and
blessed her for her thoughtfuIness.
always thinking of my pleasure" he
said. "But, sweetheart, you should have
purchased something for yourself in
stead. The pipe is good enough for me-"
Nothing but the best is good enough
for you," she said, honestly and proudly.
She had really forgotten that she had
bought the cigars for herself.
"You precious woman!" he replied,
still holding her in his arms, and there
in sweet, deep silence they drank the
joy that biesses only such immortal
souls as merge thus, two in one.
"But, my darling" he at length contin-
ued, 81 am not going to smoke these
cigars. They are too choice, too expen-
sive. ] cannot afford such luxuries. We
will keep them for special occasions,
when our friends come to see us. The
old pipe is good enough for me-"
He thought he had said it we'll. awk-
ward man. And she let him continue to
think SO, tactful woman. But she knew
he liked the pipe better.
Alfred Hubbell was not the kind of
mar to become wealthy. He had not
an -extrayagant habit, unless indulgence
of a generous nature be extravaganza.
He wa a furrier with a well established
trade, but he was honest and charitable,
and these two qualities are seldom
united with that other quality which
piles up fortunes. Yet he was content
and his wife was content, and after all
contentment is the only real wealth.
my pipe is the only luxury l wish"
he said.
His pipe is his only vice. said she.
When he had his smoke in the evening
he always laid his pipe upon the little
lampstand near his easy chair. The next
morning Mrs. Hubbell put it out OF sight.
6OJlCt1ittCS II lldNC ICA dAl1lO2b sim w
handle it, for, like all true lovers of the
pipe, he chung to one until it was so
saturated with tobacco oil its odor was
unspeakable.
The children of the neighborhood had
learnedto love her and call her 'gran'ma.' y
In the years long gone she had borne and
nursed two babes, but they had died
upon her breast. Let no man try to tell
what this must mean. The language of
imagination fails. Experience alone can
know the thrill of motherhood, the
purifying sorrow of its loss. She was
everybody's gran'ma now that she was
and ever must be nobody's.
When the financial panic swept like a
blight over the country the furriers were
among the first to feel its damning
breath. When economy becomes neces-
sary to men accustomed to the Iuxuries
they buy more wine, they go oftener to
the theatre, they set faster and c~ostlier
horses; these are the diverting influences
that keep their minds turned from their
troubles. But it is the women who sup
port the furriers, and women suffer losses
in another way-a harder and a drawer
way. Man run away from sorrow;
women faces it and bears it. He fees
and frightens it with laughter; she stays
and welcomes 1t with tears. He spends;
| she saves.
Mr.. Hubbell now passed his evenings
down town. The presence of the men
he met inspired him with the courage he
felt he soon should need, for men are
brave only in groups. Pride is the brav-
cry of man.
When The sheriff put his paddock on
the Hubbell store the proprietor felt
better, more at ease. The worst had
come. The agony Of expectation, at
least, was at an end. Then, too, he had
been providing against this situation,
and had engaged Professionally with q
wealthy eastern house to go to Hudson
Bay and spend the winter buying furs
for it. Gran'ma, too, had been prepared
for this. She had wept in secret over
the dread prospect, and braveiy smiled
when he was near. 1t was their first
parting.
ssAnd he SO ola and feeble and accus-