The Florence daily tribune., 1898-03-29

ciess ana catchum saddle and fiask and
lnnch"-that was enough. "Mellium
say lide an cntehum Missee Mellium,'
and Hop Ling wasn't fool enough to in
terfere.
But IL DIR. Leavitt had lost one pa
ticnt, Fate had provided him with an
other. He was needed at once nj Graf
tons. and, tarrying only long enoug
{" report to Buxton the escape of Lieu
Merriam, he hastened to the bedside
Mrs. Melnne. now in sore need of med
ical attention.
Harriet Grafton has been heard to sny
that that afternoon and the night that
followed made her ten years Older. but
her looks do not warrant the statement.
Unquestionab,y she had hard time,
and might have had much harder but
for the opportune arrival at the post.
just before sundown. of the lately
blockaded lawyer, Mr.. Edward Parry,
OF Chicago.
Meantime, utterly broken down and
cut off now, for the first time since her
marriage, from tile soothing and com
fort of the perilous drug to the use of
which she had become welded almost
frcm the hour that she met McLune.
poor self-absorbed Fanny was pouring
out her story and her secret in almost
incoheren' rawlings to her hostess. DR..
Leavitt, who had suspected the cause of
her vagaries before, was confident of il
when he was called in to prescribe, and
quickly found the dainty little case that
Grafton had discovered the day before.
Il was hous before she could be even
measurably quieted, and meantime
what tale of shame and woe had she
not poured into Harriet's astonished
ears
Strained from its rawlings and inco-
hercncies aud straightcned out in
chronological order, the. story resolved
itself into this: John Harold McLane
was southern sympathizer as young
man, and went to California during the
war, provided with liberal allowance
and an opportunity of embarking in
business. AT Sacramento he fell into
the clutches of notorious household.
"Old man Perkins" had three handsome
daughters and a scheming wife. The
mothers aim was to marry those girls
to wealthy men, and she had succeeded
as to two of them, and McImne fell n
victim to the plot and was married to
the third. A son, John H., Jr., was born
to them in June, '67, and trouble of
every kind followed. The sisters had
quurreled with their respective lords,
enc Of whom had abandoned his wife
and gone to Japan, while the other.
even more desperate, had gone, self-di
.ected, to his grave. McLane's home
people refused to recognize any of the
Perkins stock and cut off the young
fellows allowance. Old man Perkins
therefore. had three married daughters
and one son-in-law on his hands and
pandemeniiIm reigned within his gates
He had TO order the eldest daughter oui
of the house, and she revenged hersel
by clipping with man who deserted wifi
and children to run away with this
magniicently handsome creature, a
thing he mourned in saekcloth and
ashes until, his money vanishing, she
ran off with another victim and left
him poor indeed, yet vastly better oil
than when he had her.
McLane's wife was the best of the
three in disposition, but that was say
ing little, and when all his money was
gone they fairly kicked him out o.
doors, and he, in desperation, drifted
to Nevada and the mines, just in the
days when colossal fortunes were be
ing made by men who were welding
pick and shovel. At the very time old
Perkins people were trying to get a
divorce, alleging desertion and failure
to support, McLane loomed up at Vir-
ginia City as part owner of lode that
paid like the Comstock, and his Sacra-
mento wife, who was believed to be
deeply in love. with steamboat en-
gineer, proved that she wasn't by jour
neying to Virginia City with her little
boy and reclniming her now prosperous
husband. There they lived i'll style, and
the Perkins household came to visit
them and remained indefinitely, until
the pickering drove McLane mad and
he Skipped to Frisco" where every
deal he made in the stock market went
his way, and he became millionaire
before he was 30. Again his pretty
but low-bred wife followed, and again
he honestly tried to make the best of
his bargain; but her mad extravaganza
and the ceaseless incursions of mother
and sister-in-law were too much for
him. One day there came crash and
much of his fortune was swept away.
He had to break up his San Francisco
home and go back to Virginia City, and
furious quarrel followed, in which he
ordered the Perkinses never to darken
his doors again, and 10. his wife sided
with her sister and elected to go with
them. McLane would gladly have part-
ed with them all, but he had grown to
love his boy. When once more, a year
later, fortune smiled on him, and, with
a new bank account. he came down to
san Francisco, the Perkinses had dis
appeared. Two of the sisters were liy-
ing the lives of fadventuresses. Old Per-
lsins was dead and buried, and no one
knew where the rest had gone-a host
of Sacramento tradesmen wished they