Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1896-12-30
Ben'S Love. Affair.

1t was agreed on all hands that Ben
Whitley was very practical fellow.
BY some this may have been said Of
him disparagingly, though others I'M
doubtedly applied the words in a COM
plimentary sense. Practically has it's
eulogists, but it has, also, its censors
There are some people who will find
fault with prose because it isn't poetry;
the same sort of people consistently
denounce practicality because of it's
inetticiency in speculativeness. For it
is n common form of criticism to con-
denim thing not so much for being
what it is as for not being something
else.
Ben Whiteley's mind ran clear and
pure as a brook. He was n broker in
the city. At one time in his life he
had been shOckingly poor and had to
work very hard. His industry at last
had met it's due reward. Arrived at
nearly middle age, he was in very COM
Portable circumstances, and he saw no
reason to doubt that mis- prosperity
would continue. When he announced
to his friends that he thought of TAX
ing to himself wife it was generally
felt that the step he meditated was a
prudent and proper one, and only
what might. under all the circum-
stances of the case, be reasonably eX-
pected. And when he further stated
that he had made an offer of his hand
to one Miss Edna Latrobe, the daugh-
ter of very wealthy dry goods mer-
chant, and that his offer had been ac-
cepted by that lady, his friends, among
whom numbered myself. hastened to
tender him hearty congratulations on
the happy occasion.
Ben spoke of the matter in his own
simple, sober way:
well, you know, I'm getting on," he
said, land if I'm ever to marry it's
about time l should be setting about
It, A few years hence it will he too
late. l shall be settled dow then in Il
bachelor kind of life, shall have adopt
ed bavhelor views and habits and bach
elOr ways of looking at things, which l
shouldn't be able to alter or get out of
ut any price. A few years ago l could
not have afforded it, To put the matter
question. But l always looked for
ward to getting married when l COULD
afford 1t, and now Im going to carry
out the notion. You're very kind, and
think shall be happy-in fact, I've
NO doubt about it-as happy as any
fellow has any right to expect TO be-
One ought not to expect too much, of
course. But I'm very fond, in my
way, of Miss Edna Latrobe. and l
think that she, in her way, is fond OF
me. She is not too young nor too ola,
not too good-looking nor too plain.
She's sensible enough and accom-
plished enough, and do not see why
she should not make me a very good
kind of a wife, and, similarly, | don't
see why / should not make her a very
good kind Of a husband. What more
Is there to be said? Perhaps I'm not
very fond of old Latrobe, and perhaps
old Latrobe is not very fond of me.
But, still, l don't see that that need
matter very much. i dareSay we shall
understand each other by and by;
meantime, we must rub on, Just as
well as we can. and 1 must try to make
the best of the old gentleman's hu-
mors, and not run counter to him any
more than 1 can avoid. We need not
be meeting so very often, you know.
And 1t seems to me the old fellow
would not be any fonder of anybody
else who might want to marry his
daughter than he is of me. And IL
Rdna 1ikes pe (and she says she does)
and Hks Edna (and say / do), that
oeenB 20 me the chief part of the bust