The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-07-04
PETER BURRILL's COURTsHIp.
At 10 He Married Lass o1 III and she II
Now Rich Widow

@'"~ " Nieu WIuOWs AgiFS5
CHICAGO, July 3.-Tho will of an old.ttme
New Yorker has just been admitted 10 BRO.
bate IN Cook county. Peter Burrill. The
man who left tho will. wss an odd charao-
tor. Ono OF the oddest things ne over ala
In his life was to marry young slip Of
girl when be WAS vorging on to 70 years.
Perhaps thors nevor was a qneerar court.
ship than that Of Peter Burrill. After he
left tho old Ninth ward, Of New York, and
until he married little ls-yaur-oId Beckie
Mcbride. Peter lived in Elein, III. He hnd
farm Just out OF town, but drove in ey0rv
day to get his mail and gossip with ths
farmers who came In with their produce
and milk. There was not much happeninu
in and around Elgin that Peter did not
know all about. One day Elgin's usually
placid calm was disturbed bv the publica-
tion in the weekly paper that Peters wife
was dead. Peters wife had been bedFidden
go long that nearly everyone had forgotten
that be had a wife at all. 1t was more the
he had lost her that caused the shock.
Peter Was rich, and when he began 10
spruce up after the funeral all the widows
and spinstsrs in and cbout the town began
to spruce up also. Peter was regarded ~
great catch.
Among lot Of other property that Petar
owned in the heart of the town was an old
two-story cobbIestone building whore Col
onel John $. Wilcox ran the city postofios.
This building must have stood during revo-
lutionary times, and IL Washington had
ever gotten out 80 far west, tho good people
Of Elgin would be telling to-day how tho
general slept there over night and hAd his
horse pistols loaded there the next morn
ing. ...0 0. sa
II was while Peter was wearing Grape ON
his hat and getting younger heart in his
bosom every day that shy little Beckie Nc.
Bride came 30 c]erk'' In the postofIics.
Beckie was just fresh from, the districs
school and not at all the sort Of woman one
would expect to sec delivering mail through
a postofice window. Elgin Is not at all
backward in tho matter OF "hy" young men.
selves and call for them just for tho sake
of seeing little Rebeoca blush. When busi-
ness was slack in the postotfice Heckie,
in her black dress that was scarcely darker
than her hair. would sit perched on high
chair. orooheting something or other and
which Peter Burrill used TO ses when hs
drove up to get his mail. He wore rcd
scarf around his neck and broad black
band encircled his new sixteenth century
stovepipe hat. At the start there seemed to
pealed to honest old Peters yearninR heart.
After awhile it got to be noticed that
Peter began to regard his obligations an 4
landlord in more serious light. While he
was honest Peter was also 2tinRy, and his
tenants had always counted on at least six
months Of naRging at him before they could
get any repairing done. But all ct oncs
Peter developed Z marvellous interest in the
condition Of the old post office rooksry. He
went all over the place, but seemed to focus
most OF his observations within the in
closure where demure little Beckie sat max
ing the tatting and chewing spruce gum.
Between noon and one o'clock Bsckie WAS
free from her governmental duties, and the
astute Peter was no. long in finding thts
out.
For years the old man had been getting
his midday dinner at the City hotel. bus
now he brought his dinner to the postoftice,
and sitting on mail-pouch rack, feast0d
alternately on roast mutton and Beckie's
appetizing bushes. Peters talk was never
too interesting, being mostly about crops
gossip going on; but it seemed to suit Becky
we'll enough, and, for that matter, they
spent most of their time together in looking
for the next person who should come in
after his mail.
Finally they got married and Peter took
the notion they should have a long honey
moon. They travelled sll over the states,
Peter intending that no one should miss
seeing his youthful bride. Then in Cali
fornia Peter died. And shy little Beckis
Mcbride, the little postotfice clerk, returned
to Elgin. heiress to half q million dollars.
There are widows and spinsters in and con-
will fritter her fortune away, but Beckie
only smiles 6adiy when she hears of shs
gossip and says nothing.
The executors Of the estate will visit New
York in a few days to look after the sale Of
some real estate.