Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1895-08-19

I'm y \ Fh thrllls. Eve Il HI s
NNMM\&HNhA best friends never
MNNMNgSAl@g51t knew how to take
NN%M%MENN' him; The morning
N~NNNaaF>~ might find him rain
ing down on his neighbors cataclysmal
showers OF the milk and honey of
benevolence and human kindness heavy
with fragrance of Zion's shores, while
by night his temper would be so full
OF kinks and snails that tho most ex-
pert of travellers would labor in vain
to unite it, During tho intervening
hours the intermediate stage at which
he could be found was subject for
more daring speculation than the buy
ing of lottery ticket.
His views on all subjects were npt to
undergo equally Kaleidoscope changes.
If he were Republican to-day tho
chances were ten to one that he would
be Democrat tomorrow. If he
hoisted his hag for free silver one
week he would be pretty sure to haul
it in and stand out fair and square on
a gold platform the next. II he were
Baptist on Monday, Tuesday invari-
ably found him switching around to
some other denomination, and SO on.
There was only one opinion in which
he never wavered, and that was his
dislike for his sister inlaw, Julia Hol-
brook. She was the widow of his
younger brother, Horace. Auson had
never favored her. During the day of
Horace's courtship he had opposed the
prospective marriage SO bitterly and
so persistently that the young couple
put an end to his constantly striving
to separate them by repairing to lit
tie town beyond the State line and
there uniting themselves, with the as
sistance of the necessary attendants,
IN holy bonds of matrimcny so strongly
welded that all the angry brothers in
Christendom could not put them
asunder. That defiant setting aside of
his self-imposed authority over his
brother only served TO put a koenor
edge onto his aversion for the bride,
whom he denounced in terms that
would hardly have passed muster in Il
gallery of elegant expressions, as an
unscrupulous schemer of the first
water, who had entrapped Horace as
u necessary adjunct to the 5000
which WAS his portion of the Holbrooll
patrimony.
Horace carried out the very law and
spirit of the Biblical injunction bid
ding him leave all and cleave only to
his wife, and the brothers effected a
complete division of their property,
the pair of youthful culprits leaving
Winterset for the far West and Anson
settling down in the old homo and de-
voting all his misdirected energy to
the building up Of grocery and gen
eral merchandise trade from which he
had been unpieasantly diverted by the
disturbing romance.
There were some people who were
'unkind enough to say that the intense
bitterness manifested towards his
sister-in-law was engendcred by n re-
lection of an old-time embryo suit oil
his own, but those people were mostly
stanch friend, of hers, and as the only
thing they had ever heard to make
them harbor such an opinion was a
few chance remarks of hers in which
she scornfully alluded to "dogs in
hangers" and "sour grapes" the
story never gained much credence
among Anson's neighbors, who unani-
mously voted him too vacillating to
pay court to any lady long enough for
her to get a chance to reject him.
If Anson Holbrook caught hint oil
the unsavory rumors about him that
were trying to find foothold in the
neighborhood he never betrayed any
evidence of the knowledge, but went
on measuring out sugar aud coffee and
butter and kerosene with as much
equanimity as though criticism of his
conduct was possibility as far re-
mote us the fixed stars.
For ten years the estrangement con.
tinued without u word or sign of rec.
ognition having passed between tne
two branches of the family. Then one
Saturday afternoon the telegraph op.
erator's blue -coated, brass. buttoned
boy brought Anson n message. 1t was
sent from little town in Western Wy.
oming, and read;
"They tell me am dying. Come
at oEce. HORACE"
Whether or not Anson experienced
any revulsion of feeling towards his
s,sterin-law for the time being is
matter for conjecture, but certain it i.
that when the news of the imminent
dissolution nf hiq only near relative
reachG. .hm tine ties OF oonsras, ,.i,;st:5 ~
proved infinitely stronger than any
barriers that had arisen through years
of strife and dissension, and at the
end of few moments deliberation he
decided TO go. lie hurriedly made
preparations tas leaving the business