St. Paul daily globe., 1895-10-27

"What would zee think now Of a rich
lady what would sell me the corpse of
her husband?"
''Impossibler 1 said
AYE, do zee think so? What will zee
think, then. of rich lady what would
give me her husband to save the trou-
| BILE o buryin' him?''
'ImpossibIev
NAY, twas done"
'.Now
AYE. She were one o. them foreign
ers. and l thought she was one O.
them French women, but her name
was Burns"
Perhaps, reader, you don't think I
was listening hard now.
"Burns?" l said. WAS that her
name?"
Aye; and smart woman she were,
TOO. She told me to come to her house.
and l went, and she says: ''Ere's my
husband, do zee know, and he amt
never been no good to me, and you
shall ave un, and ave un I did, and
IL FOR un L got, and no mistake L
thought to get more, but he was no
better fed than the rest, and the funny
thing he were drest in the work us
clothes"
MOP" I said.
AYE; he were.'
l queried further. Dates and all
agreed. 1t must have been my Mrs.
Burns-I was sure of it. Who then
was In the coffin? What crime had I
been conniving at?
| started the next day on a. quiet de-
tective search. 1 went to all the differ
ent unions in the vicinity, and examin-
ed the lists of deaths. Finally 1 found
the record 1 sought.
Samuel Burns, died -, aged
forty-one years."
L interrogated the master of the
Workhouse. There was a funny story
connected with the death of Burns, he
believed; tha matron would know all
about 1t. I saw the matron. Yes, in
deed, she remembered Samuel Burns
well. She told me all about it.
There was a lady, she said, who used
to come to the workhouse a good deal
and read to the old people and do good
and give them a few pennies and amuse
them In various ways. She.used to be
in the lnflrmary mostly, said the
matron, and one day, after she had
been coming to the house for two or
three weeks, she was slipping about
from bed to bed, talking to the old
paupers, until she came to the side of
Burns. He was dying, I told her."
said the matron, land nobody knows
any yLl.ing about him as he has only
today come to the house, with just
strength enough to tell his name"
What is his name?' the lady asked
me, unconcerned like" continued the
matron. " I think says, it's Samuel
Burns No sooner had I said his name
than she f1ops down by the side of the
bed and cries out, my God!' What is
the matter, madam says 1, and Burns
himself sort of pulled up to the cry and
opened his eyes. 'Ah, you know me,
. then, dear Sam says she and clasps
his hand and kisses it. The old folks
in the ward was looking on with eyes
as big as teacups, and / standing by,
dazed like. All of sudden Burns gave
gasp and died and the lady stood up
and turns to me and says, with great,
solemn eyes, 'Matron, he was my hus-
band. 1 have been searching for him
for two years
81 looked from her to him for times,
1 can tell you, and then I caught her
hand and led her down to my room.
She told me how happy they were at
first and how the drink had got him by
degrees and how she bore with him for
long time, and then came the separa-
ton, and he went from bad to worse,
and then she didn't. see no more Of
him for a long time. She had come
then into a bit of money, she said, and
she had heard Of her husband leading
a tramp's life and going from work.
house to workhouse, and she spent all
her time hoping to find him, and now
she says, 4 am too late, and can only
take the body
'And take the body she did that aft
ernoon to pretty house she had near
here She was going to take her hus-
band. to America, she said to bury
him in the family vault; and that's
what I believe she did do"
This was very pathetic, matron,"
said. 'You do not often see such
things, do you?"
The matron laughed scornfulIy, and
said: eve never had such a thing be-
fore nor since. Poor lady, she was