Evening journal., 1898-07-14
coFFINs IN HIS BARN.
one Man Who Found ont the Dis-
agreeable Features of Accepting
an URdertaker as Tenant.

large ones at that. Now there are no
carriages Of any kind in it. The posi-.
bilities of the barn as a source of in
come has occurred to the young WON
an of the house many times. Then she
concluded to rent it.
II told her TO do IL and keep tho
money for herself" her husband told
the jolly men who were playing whist
In the smoking car, "and she was nat
uraly anxious to get as much rent as.
possible for il. l never rented barn
before; neither had she. So we had no
idea how much 1t was worth. One night,
when l came home, my wife told rhe
she had rented the barn. She had no
idea to what use il was going to be
put, except that somebody wanted 10
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 mar
had offered her $35, and she had never
expected SO much. The man was TO
move in next day and would send a
check that night.
"After awhile the check came.
looked at the name and saw that it was
that of the undertaken down near the
railroad station. l wondered what he
wanted with the barn, but thought
nothing more about the matter. 1t was
only when l went downstairs the next
morning that appreciated the full sig
nificance of my wifes 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 faced a slowly
moving procession OF pine coffin. Ny
wife looked utterly crushed. Nothing
was said after we had first seen the cof-
fins. But we exchanged very eloquent
glances. A p3
ut 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 en- end in few
moments Then, you know, they will
never be seen again. '.fi
Il suggested that It scarcely seemed
likely the collins were to be locked up
in the barn forever, and L 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
1 did not continue the discussion of the
subject then. At dinner that night
everything had been agreeably settled
There was TO be no more collins carried
in, and it was not likely that they
would be called for very often.
The only thing that we have to do.
she said, is TO keep away from the barn
and just make up our minds not to thinl
about EN-
But it proved to be q little difficult
TO do that We went to bed at the usua
time, and had just begun to get Il
sleep when the bell rang furiously.
knew that the servant was not awake
SO went to the window and polSed my
head out. Two men were standing a
the door. I asked them what they
wanted.
"'There's a man been killed down OF
the railroad track one of them said.
What's that TO me?' asked. 'Wh,
have you como here at nearly midnigh
TO tell me that mans dead down on tn
railroad track2' a
"'We want a coffin, one of the mel
said, and we forgot 10 get a key thi
morning
MY wife, who was up now, heard tn
conversation. / threw down the key
determined the next morning to NOV
out those coffins II had TO do it myself
At breakfast I looked out Of the win
dow, and down the road from the barr
came a man bearing one Of the whit
collins on his shoulder.
q" One of ems passing by now; l cal
tell from the expression of your face
my wife cried, and ran out Of the room
II went down TO the undertaker's a
fast as my legs could carry me. 1 sal
that the collins must be removed i'm
mediately, and offered to give back th
money then, and made myself so EN-
phhtic that l certainly must have bee
btdNNNAOAahlNs ~ AAA N1NAlAn NAlt lhuNA
talSer-my wife's tenant-got as eS
cited as did, and refused to move ou
the collins until the end of the month
he said he was the coroner of the tow
and wanted to have those cotiins store
, in that neighborhood because ther
were so many accidents about ther,
I knew that he had the best of the al
gument, and when left we had com
to an agreement as TO the plan of can
paign. He promised il gave him a ke
to take none of the collins out of tn
barn except at night. was glad I
, have him defer that much, and nov
he comes or sends his men only late a
night. But IL is a little bit disconcer
, Ing to be awakened at night by a nois
: Ia the barn and know that there no
, been an accident somewhere and a Co
4 Tn Is being carried under the window.
, There's only one week more Of IT, anc
| as it doesn't happen more than twic
. week, ii IS not as bad as II Nigh
have been.-if the lease had been mad
for year, for instance, and there ha
( been an epidemic Of cholera. My viii