The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1897-10-13
} THE RIVAL y y y
! y > UNDERTAKES.
BY AGNES CRARY.

WHEY were having clearance sale
across the street lat Isaac & Abraham
sons, and Coffin Smith, sitting in front
of his shop, watched enviously the
crowd jostling and elbowing for the
sake of two cents less on gingham and
silk given away" He wished his busi-
ness, too, would admit of spring open
ings-a sale of shopworn caskets, for
instance = but he laid the idea aside
with regret. Bragton was not yet ready
for such innovations and he felt fate
had been unkind in confning him to
the upper valley; for since his trip to
the southern part of the state, the am
bition of progressive undertaken
burned within him. Had he lived in
Los Angeles, he felt he, too, might have
adorned one of those large and pros
porous parlors that crowd Spring street
or Broadway. Were they not curtained
with lace, bedraped with light silks,
gay with cut flowers, and in the evening
brilliantly lighted, SO that traveller in
that one-lunged country might drop in
to look over the latest styles or choose
his coffin while he was waiting for the
next street car?
So on his return he had decorated his
somber rooms; the lace curtains were
there and the light rugs in subdued
tones, as for an infants funeral. A
bunch of wax tuberoses that might
come in handy when fresh flowers were
scarce adorned the marble slab of the
center table, and discarded cockade
of white Grape, perked on chair back,
lent the finishing touch to the room.
The first night he had pulled up the
shades and lit all three burners in the
chandelier, he had had callers enough,
but the occasion had passed into un-
savory tradition as Smiths fake funer-
al" and the town had resented it as an
indelicate bid for custom. Further
more the county board, in one of it's
periodic spasms of economy together
with desire to remove too great
temptation from the spirits of the pros
porous, had taken account of that un-
lucky opening and given the contract
for pauper burial to Morey. So this
morning as Smith sat summing himself,
the SKINNED milk of his meditations
had soured and given an acid quality to
the smile he wore in the business.
All at once a stir up the Vicino road
reused him. A cloud of dust, then a
hatless man riding furiously; on he
dashed, children and dogs scattering
before him as he gained the street.
Horton is dying" he cried, as he
slipped from his horse. "Horton's dy-
ing out on the Vicino road. Brown
Racer threw him and stamped on him.
o, my God, why don't some of you get
the doctorl" And he fell on the side
walk exhausted.
A crowd gathered instantly and in
moment men were off to Horizons aid
and up toward the hills to intercept the
doctor Coffin Smith too slipped away
to his stable, and fast as fingers could
fly began harnessing his team to the
dead wagon. Horton was dead prob
ably-too bad, but Horton was well to
do, and had no near kin, so whoever
got there first was likely to get the
burying. And in moment more with
a crack Of the whip he went rattling off.
AS he passed the saloon whittier
Morey had led the messenger for spir-
ituous consolation, one of the men
about the door called in:
Smiths ahead this time, sure
enough. He'll make the first heat be-
fore you get started"
NNot if know myself" the Irish
man responded, as he set down his
glass. sand not if know me bays!"
And so a few minutes later second
black wagon went down the street, to
the cries of: "A race, race!" "Three
to five on the baysi"
Shops, offices and saloons were de-
sserted, for to a crowd Of Missourians
there is only one thing can keep down
Hove of race-only one thing that
would keep old Horton himself from
rising to time the men, and that one
thing was racing, too, even faster than
the good doctor, whose horses by this
time were turned once more against
their shadowy antagonist.
Mr.. Larramore was sprinkling the
sidewalk in front of his grocery as the
crowd came up, eager for the last sight
of the men.
"Just set out chairs for the gentle
men," he called Hospitality to his clerk.
--tYe can see further up the vicino from
here than ye kin down the street
piece"
II was cool there under the awning,
ard the men tilted back their chairs
~comfortably. in preparation for the
Hong waiting, while interest was fairly
divided between Horizons fate and the
@aes.
.Ft .,8 ~ 4