Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1892-03-05
HOW MARo.rE DIED.
A Homsly story From the Daily Life
Of a Homsly People.

hundred miles out OF Chicago, headed
| for the CITY, and at little station an
old farmer came aboard says the
Chicago Nail. He was little weaz-
| ened. man, with sensitive
! mouth, half-concealed by an iron-gray
beard. His ill-fitting clothes were
! evidently his most uncomfortable best
and he moved awkwardly and stifiy
in them. There were no vacant seats.
and, after some hesitation, the old
man slid softly into one occupied by
grave stranger, intent upon his
paper The old man was i'll at ease.
and as he turned his care-worn, hag-
| gard face toward the brown. flying
landscape it showed marks Of some re-
cent trouble. The stranger laid aside
his paper after awhile and half-wist-
fully the old man glanced at him. He
spoke at last with strange huski-
ness:
Pm goin' to the city for the second
time in my life. he said, half-startlda
at his own voice.
'.Yes?' and in the information of the
others there was an invitation to 20
on.
THE second time" repeated the
old man; thirty years ago come
June, ] went there for a weddin' suit
and I'm a-goin' back there to-day for
a coffin and a shroud for-the little
woman that-married me. +"
His voice broke and. turning again
to tine window. he looked out upon the
. dull, cold landscape aad was silent
many minutes.
You don't know what it is mister;
you can't understand and he was
crying very softly and hopelessly.
{ You don't know what il is 10 live and
S work 'longside a woman for thirty
/ years, day in and day out to find her
I always patient and willin' and workin'
' aud then leave her layin' dead
and cold with her worn-out hands
2 crossed on her breast You don't have
, any idee what it is and the sleeve of
a the old man was drawn apologetically
across his eyes.
1--WE be, n thinkin' a good deal since
Y last night when Marg'ie died; it kind.
4 er puts a man to his thoughts. II was
e just little after the turn o the night
e and nobody but me was watchin',
5 when she kinder woke up, like as il
# she been asleep.
e :. David, says she its restful-so
o restful, and took hold of her hand;
A is that you a-singin David? says
d she. Go on but l hadn't sung word
h and couldn't a-done it, go on, David.
!. says she. and I'll be restin'. for I'm
il so tired. And so she went TO sleeI
Y again and walked up in eternity"
e And do you know, stranger them
il words O her'n have set me to think
d in. Poor tired soul! and I neyej
thought how much she needed rest
; / thought as | set there watchiE' he
"a breath a-goin out last night tina
q mebbe we'd made a mistake OF it all
o We never thought of it while we wa
!. a-workin' and a-skimpin' and a-savin
, --tryin' to make both ends meet ant
i TO lay up somethin' for the children
At But / thought about it all last nigh
,e when only me and her was waitin' TO
as the last She never had no pleasure
q She never took no holidays nor visite,
,s like other wimmin. She raised tn
IS children and stopped pigs and milkei
,e cows and churned and cooked for har
vest hands. l never knowed no
is thought how she done it all till | say
j. them poor crossed hands with littl
3 white posies in EN-. Some 'un O. tn
Or neighbors put EN- there and it kinde
or choled me when looked. I knowe
ID she'd never had no time for posie
when she might have smelled 'eu
a She didn't have time for nothin' bu
m the thorns mister. and-thats VIII;
To hurts me.
Aftera moment he looked up throug
X his tears.
se Some folks may low it won't 4
Of no good. mister. " and his voice gre
"a stronger. ''but I'm a-goin TO see tn,
4. she put away in somethin' rich W
~ WASN'T szimpin' and savin' thirty yeal
Ga for this, but I'm a-goin' TO have ii
To best moneyll buy. She's earned
ma God knows; and she's earned SOM
ia thin else-she's earned that viii
ke raiment that the good book says
washed in the blood of the lamb"
~. The old mans voice sunk into TIL
N reverent whisper so common to Il
be God-fearing of his class at the ute
mt ance of holy things and in the S
IS. AenC0 WHICH lo1AbMGu ne Sstilh AutO
DIS reverie. He was awakened from
no only by the stopping of the train
n Van Buren, street AT the door of Il
NJ car he shook hands with his cor
r.. panion. and moment later was sws
ar. lowed up in the crowd
.. Ii was pitiful-all OF it And y
n; there was a passenger on that ira
st. who is the better man for recalling
ay the better man for the recollection
rs. the old farmers look and gesture, al
lot for the thought that there are silv
he handles to the coffin that holds i
sacred dust lying out under a da
~ mound amidsthe barren brown of
il Illinois prairie.
me
Useful or Useless.
loV Earnnars ri, the Pacific coast are