Waterbury Democrat., 1901-06-05
FIRST WIPES CRAVE
Marked by Tombstone Bought by her
 Successor.

Successor.
 Greater love for the dead was never shown by any person than that of a Chicago woman, who slaved for two years to buy headstone to mark the grave where lies the remains of her husbands first wife. A modest little stone that cost nearly s20o was raised lately over the mound in Oakwoods cemetery, and the woman who paid Tor it by self-denial and hard labor doesn't think she has done anything extraordinary, says the Inter Ocean.
 Five or six years ago the woman who is dead and the one who afterward took her place in the little home as second wife were rivals for the affec- tions of rather good-1ooking man of 30, or whereabouts, who belonged to that army which is classed in the city directory as laborers. He worked in one of the railroad freighthouses, and, by practicing strict economy, he man. aged to put away $500 to get married on.
 His name was not John Thompson, but for convenience sake he will be called that. Thompson, like most men of his station in life who are matri- monially inclined, had several young women employed as servant maids lon the string" as the saying goes. Any one of them would have made him good wife, but there were only two that he cared anything for, and both of them worked at the same house in Prairie avenue. r3.e E o g ed ttt
 Thomps in a aquandary as what to do. He had been saving up for three years-S100 a year-and he was ready to marry either one of the young wom- en, but as he could not wed both he was greatly disturbed in mind. To make matters worse both the women knew from his own lips that he loved one as much as the other, and the deli cate matter of choosing between them was source of great worry to John Thompson.
 One of the servant maids, with lit tle more cunning than the other, or. perhaps a little less conscience, met Thompson downtown one day, and it only required a suggestion for him to secure the marriage license. They HSAb bO 1 JuSlANG O4 aL4C peace and were made one.
 The girl who had been stcut out" did not weep and wall, as some tilted girls would have done, but took the matter philosophieally, knowing that John Thompson loved her as much as the one who had slared him. And when the first baby came to brighten the home of John and his wife the girl who still remained single was there every night after her own work was done to cook little delicacies for the mother and tidy up the house.
 Three children were born to John in as many years. A few weeks after the birth of the last child his wife died. was left in a bad predicament, and no one will blame him for taking second wife. Of course he married the girl who had loved him before and even after his marriage.
 Almost every Sunday in summer John and his second wife used to visit .he grave in Oakwoods where rested the remains of his first wife, and put flowers on the grassy mound. Every grave around there had some kind of stone but the one in which Johns wife was buried. His second wife thought John wasn't showing proper respect to the dead, and she told him so in as gentle manner as possible. John acknowledged she was right, but he couldn't bear the expense of head stone, he said, until he had bought things for the house, which were more urgent. The second wife then resolved to buy the stone herself, and she went put working at washing or scrubbing wherever she could get it. In little less than two years she earned $185, every penny of which was laid aside for the headstone.
 After the stone was set in place last week she said to her husband:
 'sI have done just what think Mary would have done if she had been in my place.