Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1899-12-26

=
to his regiment that he was actually
engaged to "Witchie" Terriss. Hot on
the heels of the rumor came the we'd
ding cards-Lieut. Col. and Mrs. Terriss
requested the honor of your presence
at the marriage of their daughter Mar
garet to Lieut.. Francis Key Garrison,
til U. S. Cavalry, at the Post Chapel,
Fort Riley, Kansas, November -, 1894
all In Titfany's best style, as were
the cards which accompanied the invi-
tation. What a good thing for old
Bill Terriss,' said everybody who knew
that his impecuniosity was due to the
exactions and extravagancies of his
wife and "Witchie'-"And what a bad
thing for Frank Garrison!" was the
echo. His intimates knew that he had
put by" through economy and self
denial about $4,000, the extent Of his
fortune outside of his pay. She'll
make ducks and brakes of it in the six
weeks honeymoon" was the confident
prophecy, and she probably did, for,
despite the fact that he had so recently
rejoined the regiment, "Witchie' in
sisted on midwinter run to New Or
leans, Savannah and Washington, and
bore her lord, but not her master, over
the course in triumph. Toa student of hui
man nature-and frailty. that union of
faded and somewhat shopworn maid of
q to an ardent and vigorous young sol
der many moons the junior was easy to
account for. One after another Witchie
Terriss had had desperate affairs with
half dozen fellows, older or younger,
in the army and was known to have
been engaged to five different men at
different times, and believed to have
been engaged to two different men at
one time. Asked as to this by one of
her chums, she was reported to have
replied: DO you know, 1 believe it
true; l had totally forgotten about
Ned Colston before Mr.. Forman had
been at the post week. Of course the
only thing to do was to break with
both and let them start fresh" But
this Mr.. Colston, whose head had been
somewhat cleared by month of
breezy, healthful scouting, accepted
only in part-that part which included
the break. Forman had the fresh start
and the walk over and held the trophy
just two months, when it dawned upon
him that Margaret loved dancing far
more than she did him-a clumsy per-
former, and that she would dance
night after night, the lightest, dain-
test creature in the hop room, and
never have word or look for him
who leaned in gloomy admiration
against the wall and never took his
eyes off her. He became jealous,
moody, ugly-tempered and finally had
the good luck to get his congo as the
result of ap attempt to assert himself
and limit her dances. She was blithe
and radiant and fancy free when Frank
Garrison reached the post, wee bit
hipped, 1t was whispered, because of
the failure of somewhat half hearted
suit of his in the far east, and the Fairy
bounded into the darkness of his life
and fairly dazzled him. Somebody
had sald that Frank Garrison had
money.
There is no need to tell Of the disillu-
sion that gradually came. Frank found
his debts mounting up and his cares In
creasing. She was all sympathy and re-
greet when he mentioned it, but-there
were certain comforts, luNuries and
things she had always been accustomed
10, and couldn't live without. Surely he
would not have her apply to papa. No,
but-could she not manage with lit
tie lessP He was willing to give up his
cigars Qndeed, he had long since done
SOY and to make his uniforms last
year longer-he who was in his day the
most carefully dressed man at the
Point. Well-she thought perhaps he
ought to do that-besides-men's fash
ions changed but slowly, whereas wom-
EMS well, I'd rather be dead than
out of style, Frank"
And so it went.
But If she did not love her husband
there was one being in whom her
frivolous heart was really bound up
Nita-her "baby sister," as she called
her, and when Terriss, the colonel, went
the way of all flesh, preceded only few
months by the wife of his bosom, the
few thousands in life insurance he had
managed to maintain went to the two
daughters. Not one penny was ever
laid out in payment of the debts of
either the father or husband. Mia was
sent to an extravagant finishing school
In Gotham, and along in May of the
young girls graduating year, blithe lit
tie Mrs. Garrison arrived, fresh from
the far west, and after few weeks of
sightseeing and shopping the sisters
appeared at the Point, even half-mourn-
ing by this time discarded. Thirteen
years difference was there in the ages
of the Fairy Sisters, and not soul save
those who knew them in former DAYS on
the frontier would have suspected it..
Mrs. Frank in evening dress didn't look
over 20.
One lovely evening early in August,
just about the time that Cadet Capt.
Latrobe began to show well to the
front in the run for the prize, the two
sisters had gone to their room at the
hotel to dress for the hop. 1t was their
custom to disappear from public gaze
about six o'clock, and when they came
floating down the stairs in tilmy,
diaphanous clouds of white, the halls
were well filled with impatient cavaliers
In the natty cadet uniform, and the
women waiting to see. Then the sis
tiers would go into the dining-room and
have some light refreshments, with q
glass of iced tea-and no matter how
tor11d the heat or how flushed and
dragged other women might look, they
We're inviting pictures of all that was