The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1902-02-04
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MAJOR By Martha
McCulloch
BORUM Williams
AND THE THIEF

Copyright, 1901,
BY Martha McCullc Oh Williams

Old man Buckley, one of Marshall
towns three inveterate topers, was
trying to sober up against his daugh-
ter's wedding. When he had his COM
plement of drinks, he was to outward
seeming as sober as judge. Lack of
them set him Keeling upon his horse
and guiding the sagacious beast in let
ter SIS all over the road.
! Look Major Borum said to Molly,
his niece and adopted heiress. "That's
what I'm trying to save you from-the
thing which biteth like serpent and
stingeth like an adder"
You needn't try to make out poor
Jink is a SNAKE" Molly said spiritedly
I'm sure he wouldn't crawl, not even
to get me-"
''Oh, ho! You think 1t was his indie
pendence that kept him from signing
the pledge when demanded 1t Of
him. the major said, with fine, lofty
scorn. Again Molly tossed her head.
Il would have said no to him If he
had signed it, she said. "Why, Jink
was never drunk but once in his life
and that was in the way of business.
If he had not drunk to match that
Long Hollow crowd, his pa would have
lost all their trade, and it's worth a
thousand dollars clear profit every
year."
The major groaned. He was a
round, pursy man, rosy faced, with lit
tie eyes twinkling through smothering
fat. He had come back to his native
town the year before breathing out a
vague aroma of riches and ready to
give advice offhand to anything from
divine Providence to the town coun-
Gil. Marshalltown folk said he was
cram full of crank notions, which he
had had no chance to spend properly IN
governing wife or bringing up chill
dren of his own.
He struck Marshalltown a teetotaler
of the first water, the second water
and also the third. Water was indeed
his creed and rallying cry for the time
being. His mind and heart We're set
upon organizing temperance knight
hood after ideas peculiarly his own.
Marshalltown would have more of
the knighthood. 1t was SO temperate.
letting the single saloon languish ex-
cept at Christmas time and the Fourth
Of July, that it resented organized tenn
perance much as 1t might have resent
ed the organization of an antisteaIin 9
brotherhood. To It's mind a man ought
to drink when he felt like it and had
good liquor handy, but should never be
tempted into swallowing stuff he did
not really care for by giving it the tang
of forbidden fruit. So it heartily APP
plauded Jink Travis refusal to become
the first fruits of the majors enthusi-
asm. 1t was fine thing, everybody
admitted, seeing how matters stood
Jink as good as engaged to Molly and
Molly's heiress-ship contingent on her
marrying to suit the major
Jink and Molly had been lovers time
out Of mind. 1t was all settled that
en- into the firm. But the major came
down upon them three months before
the sign, 'Travis & Son, Groceries,
Hardware, Provisions, Liquors, Whole
sale and Retail" went up upon the big
block at the head of the main street
Molly had eight younger brothers and
sisters. Her father could not hope to
do more than feed and clothe them. So
the major and his fortune had to be
taken into account, especially when he
asked to have Molly the same as his
own child.
That was where the pinch came. For
herself and link, Molly could have bid
den the fortune go hang But the chill
dren! She could not shut out her moth
er's anxious eyes, her fathers patient
troubled face. AS long as she did moi
rebel openly she was free to help with
both hands. So she contented herself
with vowing she would die an old maid
unless she might marry Jink and smil
ing her sweetest at link himself when
ever she got the chance.
Jink could not we'll be so patient
He wanted wife. home of his own
and Molly for that wife. He was ready
to do anything reasonable to get her
He might have gone in for that knight
hood foolishness If he had not known
she would be the first to despise him
for it. He might even have done il
and tried to square himself later will
his sweetheart If he had been sure the
major was honest In his crankery
Somehow the majors enthusiasm rang
false to him Under and behind the
flow of words he saw something in the
unctuous lips, the beady, twinkling
eyes, which made him suspect that the
major, like other self deiuded mortals
was more anxious to pose as great
moral force than to rule strictly his
own appetites.
Indeed. as Dan Brown put it, 'tthe
cut of the majors jib gave him away
for a blamed old hypocrite." Dan
Brown was Jink's ehum, the head mar
at the new electric light plant, which
Travis & Son had done so much to gel
! installed. OF course, their own store
was the very first to be wired and
} lighted All the first week afterward
Jink himself did nothing much but
march around with swarming rural
customers and flash lights into every
!, dark hole and corner from the third
story to the cellar. In the flashing be
incidentally made them sure there was
no danger of getting stroke of light
, ming. Otherwise trade might have suf
fered.
81 say this yere projick, it jest
knocks the socks off'n anything ever
saw" Squire Crane said as Jink
made the cellar dark or light by tha
mere turning Of button. Afterward
he explained that the cellar would be
always light. Then everybody smiled.
That meant something to Travis GUS
toners. Ever since the store opened
there had been a barrel of the best
whisky conveniently remote from gen
eral view, but free to whoever chose
to go and take a drink. 1t was, OF
course, a point of honor not to drink
unless you were pretty good Gus
toner Major Borum was pretty
good customer, in spite of social COM
plications, but nobody ever suspected
him of even knowing where the bar
rel stood.
1t lay bung up, with the thief hang
ing upon q handy nail in the wall a
foot away. The thief, understand, was
only an innocent tin tube, open at both
ends and slender enough to slip easily
through the bunghole. In use it was
thrust down into the liquor, open end
ed Then finger held close over the
upper end made it fetch out enough
liquor for a drink, stiff or mild accord
ing to the depth of the plunge. By
way of keeping the thief in place a lit
tie ring had been soldered on to the up
per end, long wire twisted In the
ring and likewise made fast to the nail
in the wall Careless drinkers might
otherwise have dropped the invaluable