The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1891-02-12
A TRAGEDY.

One That Was Brought About by Mis-
/ sent Message of Love.
am morally certain that there never
tines day in the Cubero section house
| before. There was no reason why
there should be. Away out on the At
lantic & Pacific railroad, seventy miles
from Albuquerque, with nothing in
sight but the igneous mesas, the scant
valley dotted with few Indi an farms,
and the tapering ladder of rails
| that seemed to come from nowhere and
go to nothing-it was the last place in
| the world for the little and brittle god
to waste any time on SO busy day.
There were no neighbors to send val
entines; nor jewellers in the ugly brown
house to send them to, save the senior
| Mulcaheys and their five scions (the
eldest aged six) and four very frowsy
! Mexican laborers. AS for Petra, the
| Indian dish-contester, she slept at home
| in Casa Blanca, and was not counted as
one of the house at ala
! But when No. went snuffling west
ward that morning, and the worn
|
snow valentine had certainly arrived
in Cubero. 1t was the only mail-a
letter for Mrs. Kate Mulcahey, Cubero
Section-house, N. NJ" and it ran thus:
ALBUQUERQUE N. NJ, Feb. 10, 1SSs.-Ey Dear
| rot hdte: This is tho day Of hearts and arrows
i but shall send you no other valentine except
| this little message. We need wait no longer
| to be happy I have money enough saved up
| now. Let US fly from this dreary land and
| make our nest in some more congenial cline
, Never mind the children-let some one else
! look out for the little heathens, l can not bear
| to have you wasting your time with them
Come to me, sweetheart. Yours devotedly,
! ROBERT.
To say that Mrs. Mulcahey was
dumfounded outraged, paralyzed,
by this unexpected valentine, would
be an inadequacy SO utter us to be
! criminal or wilful fiction. Language
would fail to Craze the cuticle of her
sensations When articulate speech
came back, two window -panes yielded
to the exuberance of her:
"Dinnis! DINNIs! An is it hittin' the
bed yees are, phwile the faceliss
divils insoolts the mother av yer child
her? Bang! "a chair hits the bedroom
door,. Come out, we lowafer! Here's
a blaggar-rd writes me his dearest
Ea-ate,' an wull Oh floi wild i'm! An
niver moind the CHILDBIRTH some wan
ilse tind the haythen brats! Hip!
| Mur-r-dherr'
| But let us draw vail. There are
some scenes too painful to be contem-
plated.
The same morning Miss Kate Mullen,
mission teacher of a school of ragged
Mexican children at San Rafael, trudged
to the post-ofice before sch Dol.
81 know Robert will se1rl me a nice
valentine" she was saying to herself
"He wrote me not long ago that he
hoped soon to be able to Lea I'VE Spicer &
Sanders-he hates book-s eeping and
set up for himself. And then" and
she blushed softly and walked the faster.
One letter for Miss Mullen-ycs, from
Robert. She walked down the road a
bit and tore it open shyly. And then
she gave little scream, flung the letter
to the ground, and ran into the house,
sobbing: 1.-The horrid brute! l neoer
will marry him!''
Out in the road the misch ievous bit of
paper lay till chaliced along and picked
it up. 1t was only this:
| SPICER & SANDERS, G2OCERS.
| ALBUQUERQUE. N. NJ. 2, 13.
| DEAR MADAM:
We are obliged to decline fl.rther dealings
! with you until your account is settled. We
have to pay cash, and so will you.
Yours truly, SPICER & SANDERS.
I myself think Robert must have
dropped stitch somewhere.-C. f.
Lummis, in Time.