The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1906-11-27
EVANSVILLE, CALHOUN COUNTY, w. VA.

until the next Sabbath to digest his
thoughts. or lay them on their souls
until they created moral dyspepsia
One week ago today we saw our
neighbor as he passed our window, with
n plane and rule under his arm as he
went home to dinner. The wind blew
;Hid howled; snow fell as though emp
tied by the basketful. instead of tnS
sleepy. lazy way it usually comes
down.
The children were all at home There
was no pleasant converse at the table,
for these days the father was surly
and i'll natured. Those little serpents
he drank into his stomach had ascend
cd TO the brain and their writing
made him irritable. Today, as he
arose from the table, some strange ten
derness stole into his breast, for as he
passed the chair OF his youngest child
he stopped and kissed her. This un-
usual tenderness on his part embold-
ened her to say:
Father, | want a geography"
The strong coffee was having a
counteracting effect; he was SOLDERING.
The son said, as he mufied himself to
so out in the raging elements:
Where are you working today?"
IL have to go away up in the upper
part of town, to lcok after some men
l have on a job up there"
Mrs. Hatch. so pleased to see him
once more himself, brought his big
fur mittens, then the scarf the girls
had made for his New Years gift. She
wrapped this with tender hands around
his neck, and said:
Please remember tea and sugar
when you come home tonight"
yes, tea, sugar and a geography"
At one o'clock he went from home
leaving the inmates with a glad new
hope in their hearts.
At three o'clock we looked from our
window and saw a crowd of men bear
ing heavy burden slowly and sol
emily along. They stopped at our
neighbours door. Clang went the door
bell. We could plainly see our neigh
boris wife at side window busily en-
gagged running her sewing machine.
Again the door bell is pulled vigorous
ly. This time she hears. steps to the
her house-apron, and hastens to the
door. She steps back when she sees
the crowd-steps farther back and
grasps the doorknob, when they push
forward with their burden. AS length
she gasps:
Gentlemen, you have made a mis-
take. This is the wrong house"
Doesn't William Hatch live here?"
Eyes. Who is it? What is it?"
They slowly raised the cover that
concealed the form, and there was her
hnsband-deadl
Did she faint? No. she grew strange
ly white from lip to brow; not tear
or sob. Passing her hand across her
eyes, she asked
Where am 1? Who killed him?"
Has the romance of life faded out at
fifty? No; here was the man she had
loved and welded when a young mai+
den, loved through all these bitter
years of trial, dead!-he who had left
her only few hours before in seeming
good health. She remembered even
then the little commonplace errandI
he was to do for the household. Could
he never attend to those things again?
They laid him down. The children
came in from school, and were wild
in their fright and grief. Then amid
this great sorrow the mothers love
asserted itself. She tried to comfort
her children.
How did it happen? Some little chill
dren, sliding their way down from
school. discovered near the abutment
of the old canal bridge, the dead body
of man almost covered with snow.
The alarm was given People seem To
spring from the very ground at such
times, and i'm a few moments a wonI
dcring gaping crowd was looking on.
At last some one identified him. He
had walked off the old bridge, going
head foremost down upon the ice. From
appearances, he had struggled away
from the place where he first fell, and
then exhausted, had laid down and
died. Did the fall kill him? He died
from an occasional glass, and relying
upon self to overcome the temptation,
and, at last, withCut leaving a home
for his loved ones, and no prospects of
a home for himself in the hereafter, he
has gone hence-one more victim OF
drink and self-reiance.
How we shall miss our neighborl
AT the accustomed hours we shall of
ten fancy we hear that slow, shutting
step. see the scanned and weather.
beaten face But, alas, he has stepped
out, gone away suddenly.
Verify, we know not what an hout
or a day may bring forth--New York
Weekly