St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-06-25
COFFINS In HIS BARN.
One Nam who Found Out the Die.
agreeable Features Of Accepting
AN Undertaken m . Tenant.

One MAN who Found Out the Die.
agreeable Features Of Accepting
an Undertaken IN . Tenant.
The barn stands about 40 feet back
of the house, and was built in the days
when the family had carriages, and
large ones at that. Now there are no
carriages of any kind in it. The possi-
bilities of the barn as a source of in
come has occurred to the young wom-
an Of the house many times. Then she
concluded to rent it.
Il told her to do it and keep the
money for herself" her husband told
the jolly men who were playing whist
in the smoking car, "and she was nat
urally anxious TO get as much rent as
possible for it. l never rented barn
before; neither had she. So we had no
idea how much it was worth. One night,
when | came home, my wife told me
she had rented the barn. She had no
idea TO what use it was going to be
put, except that somebody wanted to
use it to store things in. She knew the
man who rented it from having seen
him nearly every day, and she was Ger
tain that it was all right. All these
things she told me, but they were not
important from her point of view. The
climax of her story was that the man
| had offered her $35, and she had never
expected so much. The man was to
move in next day and would send \
check that night.
after awhile the check came. /
that of the undertaken dcwn near the
railroad station. / wondered what he
| wanted with the harm, but thought
nothing more about the matter. 1t was
only when / went downstairs the next
morning that appreciated the full sig
nificance of my wife's bargain.
Stretched across the lawn were about
20 pine collins. The men were unload
ing them from the wagon and then
carrying them across the lawn to the
barn. You know how the road leads by
our dining-room there. When all
through breakfast l faced a slowly
moving procession of pine coffin. My
wife looked utterly crushed. Nothing
was said after we had first seen the cof-
fins. But we exchanged very eloquent
glances.
at can't be like this very much
longer she said, after awhile. They
are moving them in, you know, and that
will have to come to an end in few
moments. Then, you know, they will
never be seen again.
II suggested that it scarcely seemed
likely the coffins were to be locked up
in the barn forever, and suggested
that it was probable that we would see
them carried in and out every morning.
| But as she was on the verge of tears,
subject then. AT dinner that night
everything had been agreeably settled.
There was to be no more coffinscarried
in, and it was not likely that they
would be called for very often.
1.-The only thing that we have to do
she said, lis to keep away from the barn.
and just make up our minds not to think
about EN-
but it proved to be little difficult
to do that. We went to bed at the usual
time, and 1 had just begun to get to
sleep when the bell rang furiously. !
knew that the servant was not awake,
so went to the window and poked my
head out. Two men were standing at
the door. / asked them what they
wanted.
"'There's a man been killed down ON
the railroad track one of them said.
"'What's that to me?' Iasked. why
have you come here at nearly midnight
to tell me that mans dead down on the
railroad track?'
1--WE want a coffin,' one of the men
said, 'and we forgot to get key this
morning.
"My wife, who was up now, heard the
conversation. / threw down the key.
determined the next morning to move
out those coffins if had to do ii myself.
At breakfast looked out of the win
dow, and down the road from the barn
came man bearing one of the white
coffins on his shoulder.
"'One of ems passing by now; can
tell from the expression of your face,
my wife cried, and ran out of the room.
Il went down to the undertaker's as
fast as my legs could carry me. / said
that the coffins must be removed inn
mediately, and offered to give back the
money then, and made myself SO en-
phatie that l certainly must have been
Objectionable. At all events the eunder-
taker-my wife's tenant-got as ex-
| cited as did, and refused to move out
the collins until the end of the month.
He said he was the coroner of the town
and wanted to have those cofiins stored
in that neighborhood because there
were SO many accidents about there.
/ knew that he had the best of the ar
| gument, and when left we had come
to an agreement as to the plan Of cam
paign. He promised if gave him key
to take none of the coffins out of the
barn except at night. I was glad to
have him defer that much, and now
he comes or sends his men only late at
hight. But it is little bit disconcert-
ing to be awakened at night by noise
in the barn and know that there has
been an accident somewhere and cof-
fin is being carried under the windows.
There's only one week more of it, and,
! as it doesn't happen more than twice
a week, il is not as bad as it might
have been-if the lease had been made
for a year, for instance, and there had
been an epidemic of cholera. My wife
saws that the next time she rents the
barn she will ask more questions. N.
Y. Sun.
Foreign Engllsh.
| Some interesting specimens OF for