The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-02-08
Law Versus Love

0rpneus seeking Eurydice through the
shades Of Hades or Henelaus thirsting
ror revenge and marching to Troy to
seek MS lost wife, had not in my opinion
nan SO much trouble TO gain their wives
as had TO gain mine" And Mr. Lap:
lain. as he spoke. squared his shoulders
ana raised his head .as much as to say
Yes, and would do II again. By Joye!
Mrs Laplain smiled lndulgently at her
iord, and said to a young man who was
iounging in a chair by her side:
That is one of Mr.. Laplain's old sto-
ries,,'
TEL US about IT, said the young man.
languidly.
Mr.. Laplain looked at his wife as II
10 gain her permission, smiled, and be-
gan:
1T was in the year 1s- that we were
married. Tie date was originally set for
the last day OF June. But man proposes
and God disposes. and instead Of being
married on Wednesday, we did not be-
come man and wife until Friday of the
same week, after trials and tribulations
enough to turn an ordinary mans head
gray.
'The reason thereof was this. was
engaged at that time in the silk bust
ness in New York About two months
prior to my wedding several petty ROD
berries had been committed in our ware
house, but we were unable to detest the
thief AT last after a great deal OF trou-
BILE, we succeeded in tracing the stolen
articles to the home of one of the work.
men. He was at once arrested, taken
to prison to await trial, and the matter
ended there as far as 1 was concerned
well, the Saturday I was ia start for
bennington dawned bright and clear. !
awoke at about o'clock in the morning,
and at once drew up my blind to see
what kind OF day It was going to be.
e seemed hours to me before the break
fast bell of the boarding house rang. I
had packed my grip the night before.
/ When It did ring / nearly gave myself in
/ digestion for life by the reckless way in
! which I swallowed that meal in order that
| there might be no possibility of missing
/! my train, which was scheduled for II
1 o'clock
"The firm had kindly given me the
whole day. the senior member giving as
| his excuse for such an action that an
event of that sort ought to take place
only once In mans lifetime: so, In
stead of leaving on Saturday on the :
| O'Clock express, as first intended, and by
which train Marion expected me. ! should
| pleasure OF walking in and surprising the
| dear girl.
Never did the wheel OF fortune turn
| for me so smoothly as 1t did that morn
| ing. I seemed to catch train, ferry boat
and street cars with almost incredible
| ease. really thought I was favored OF
the gods. and grew coneeited over what
called my executive ability. Ny pride
took tumble a little later. as you viii
| see.
81 had just taken up comic paper and
/ was chuckling over one of the jokes, wher
felt hand on my shoulder and turned
around to see who the disturber of my
peace was. He was indeed disturber o,
the peace. for it was nobody more or less
than policeman, and he told me in nj
| kindly tones that was wanted at the po.
lice court I stared at the man in amaze.
ment, thinking it either joke on the par
Of some Of my friends to give me scare
| or else a mistake on the part of the po-
liceman. But 1t was neither joke nor q
mistake, as I soon discovered. for was
| called as a witness at the trial Of Merder
| versus Smith. In other words, the EN-
ploye who stole the silk from our firm
| was to be tried that day.
coaxed, threatened, and swore at tbs
minion of the law. ! called him anything
but gentleman, and then changed m,
tactics and said he was my best friend
| and would he not like a drink2 To al
my remarks he vouchsafed no reply, bu
| simply grinned. As by the time hat
exhausted both my breath and vocabular,
crowd had gathered, and did not wisl
| to make my affairs matter Of publ,
| interest, sullenly told the man TO NOV,
on, and followed him, the most unhapp,
| young man this side of the Atlantic.
THAT the arm of the law is long II
true but that it is also slow is quit,
as correct. Our case did not come VI
before the presiding magistrate until
| o'clock, and by that time I was a ravins
| lunatic. The firm was sorry, indeed. a
my dilemma, and had done all In thei
power to have the case brought up a.
soon as possible; but they were told tner,
were cases On the calendar which mus
come first, so they resigned themselve
to the inevitable and advised me to DO tn
same. Jobs comforters. truly.
GAS I told you before, the case was trie,
at 4. The prisoner was found guilty an,
sentenced to six months hard labor
which I thought was too little for hin
considering the discomfort was undergo
ing on his account. BY quarter to )
was out of the court room and tearin'
like mad TO the station. arriving Their
only to be told that the train had jus
left, and II I had been there-I didn'
stay to hear the rest OF their chatter.
when returned to my boarding
house I sat down on chair and use,
beautiful language. soft and sweet un
til the air was blue. Do you blame me
Burt?"
The young man shook his head and sal
he would have done worse than that
even.
"The next day being Sunday contin
ued Mr.. Laplain, 1.-The trains did no. rul
so frequently as on week days, and as N
betrothed lived several miles away fron
a railroad 1 knew should have on
siderable difficulty in reaching there, an
to telegraph would be impossible
Never did morning drag as that did
knew 1t was useless to go down TO tn
station three hours before the trail
started was afraid to go to church 70
fear the building would collapse or some
t hineglse happen to prevent my bein
on hand. or even to go for spin on m
wheel lest I should get Knocked down o
run over so all could do was to remai
in strict seclusion in my bedroom unit
| the hour for starting. and even then
/ crept down by ways and up highways, .
there might be no chance OF again gettin
caught"
sAt last. at o'clock or Sunday evening
Il the train steamed in at the station O
| Lawrence and. 10 my surprise, when
| alighted Marion was waiting for me wi:
her little dog cart to drive me to Lem
| tngton- After exchanging greetings sh
explained that she had felt positive
would miss tie train. being such harur
! scarum fellow (where was my executiy
ability? thought 20 myself ssdly.l an
so was not bit surprised when I did 70
materialize at the time expected
However, offs well that ends well
and we are now married and happy.
had hard time TO win her. but thin
my wife was worth t." And there was
look IN the speakers eyes that made on