Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1897-09-01
AMiTaCulouSESCape.
By A. L. DUANE.


Among all contemplate things I have
always particularly despised liar.
There never seemed any excuse for any
body but a scoundrel and coward tell
ing lies, but l seriously doubt if any
man ever lives who told the whole truth,
especially if he happened to be a hus-
band. There seems to be some morbid
quality in woman that makes her
search out the things she knows will
.break her heart, and when she finds
them, if they disappoint her, she pinches
and twists and distorts them until they
can make very unpleasant showing.
Long experience as a married man
teaches one to hide those little things
very deftly, only sometimes he finds
that the hole he has dug is big enough |
to swallow. himself up. But my inten
lions We're perfectly fair and honest last
summer when l proposed taking sea
voyage. l had been working myself al
most to death getting a new plant OF
machinery adjusted in the factory, and
the reaction had come in the shape of
acute insomnia.
l tried everything for remedy, from
moral magazine tales to late suppers OF
onions and beer think perhaps the
| last might have done some good, except
| that Julia objected She said she had
known men older than l to find drunk
ards graves from beginning with doc
tors prescription.
I met Senseney on the street one day,
and he advised q sea voyage; said he
had taken one the year before, and it
had worked like charm. He had gone
Oh the Ella from Baltimore to Bremen
and had day or two in Paris and re-
turned on the same ship 1t only cost
about $3.50, all told, and he had been
sleeping like top ever since. went
home and told Julia and asked her to go
along, but she refused unless | would
take Johnny and the baby, and as had
conviction that absence from Johnny
and the baby was strong ingredient OF
the prescription | declined.
went over to Baltimore one Monday
morning, meaning to lay i'll a supply OF
cigars and literature and an old friend
if possible, to keep me up during the
, long voyage found the first two very
5 readily, bat the last was about to give
up in despair when / met Jim Blair.
If ever there lived the prince of good
r fellows, who is always, according to
: his friends, about to step into his
kingdom by royal right and accla-
nation, it was (is) Jim Blair. Hospi-
tality and welcome beam from his sunny
: brown eyes. The world has gone easy
= with him from his cradle up Into that
infant nest a dying uncle poured So,
600, 900, and Jim has made plaything
of them ever since 1t is one of the re
: grets of my life that / see so little O.
. him. Until married he was my othe-
!. self, but matrimony means create,
= severing from old ties than any MAJ
:, imagines until he tries it. And then ther'
4 was another thing that under any othe
Il circumstances l should hardly like t.
. mention Jim has sister. She is for
e woman Just what he is for man, hand
i. some, gay, cordial and clever. In IN.
If young days, before 1 knew Julia, l wa
d desperately head over ears i'll love will
}, Madge Blair, and she refused me. Thu
Lord only knows what possessed M
d ever to confess that affair to Julia. |
'r must have been done in the early day
IS of our courtship, when my brain, mem
OF ory and everything was liquefied ant
tn poured out before her. I've repented i
le often enough. The consequence has beel
S. that she insists that Madge Blair re
re pented her refusal (does the woman liv
d who does not think that every othe
woman would have been glad to hav
'" married her husband?) and has kept sin
!, gle ON my account. ''Oh, you needn'
III oh a1x w
;r monstrate with her upon her monstrou
to foolishness. THAT woman is dead Il
re love with you this minute, and
wouldn't be cold in my grave before sh
would marry you. A nice stepmothe
she would make for the poor children
A woman who has lived about i'll hotel
n with that fast man about town, JiI
's BlairP'
eS There was no use in saying one WORD
= = 1 had to take refuge in silence about tn
"a a. Blairs and let our friendship die dow
a55 out of sight 1t only was out OF sight
iii The root was there deep and strong
b;s ready to send up it's old time shoots an
aw blossoms at the least encouragement
he And when I felt the cheerful grasp {
a his hand in the Altamont Office fe
NO that if 1 could only persuade Jim
he take that sea voyage with me there we
re- nothing more to be desired.
ers didn't have time to breach the sui
OF ject at once, as my old friend carrie
,er me off up stairs to see Madge. l hadn
lc- seen her for five years, and her rip
Try rich beauty burst upon me as If ha
ed never seen it before. She seemed as gla
ay to see me as Jim had been and insiste
ng at once upon my dining with them.
81 Harry is just the man we wanted
g. w see, Ell, Madge?" Jim said joviall.
o. "Got holiday this summer, old fe
oss low?'' he asked me in his rich voice.
F. "Yes,'' said, II am just off for
in now" And then told my plans al
err my hope that he would go with me.
of BLESS my heartl Just the thing
Tile Jim cried enthusiastically. only
IAN have a plan worth ten of yours Mads
ms and have taken a lodge in the wilde
ness for the next two months Maxwe
has gone to Scotland and has let us ha'
of his shooting box in the top of the Yves
ern Virginia mountains. There is no ell
of game, from buck to turkeys, and Il
inc air is just like good sherry. A ms
1T without any eyelids would sleep like
and top up there Come along with Madi