The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-03-31

twenty-five wives," exclaimed Mrs.
BiIlup. Don't you try to fool me with
any nonsense about you ever having
twenty-five wives,
Yes, ma am" said Eliph' Hewitt.
Twenty-Five: no more, no less. that
being the custom of the country in
which I was, as you can see by looking
on page 745 of this work, which / am
selling. giving. among other things all
the old customs of the strange countries
of the world. together with the, fora
and fauna of all continents. as well as
the mysteries of the depths of the sea.
And a terrible time | had with them
twenty-five wives too. the women of
TimbuctoO being by nature easy to an
ger"
Was you ever in Timbuctoo?" said
Mrs. BillUp. L don't believe there is
such a place"
IRIS in Africa" explained Eliph'
Hewitt land this book on my knee
tells all about it, as we'll as useful in
formation on one thousand and one
other subjects. comprising all the wis
dom known to man. a most invalua BILE
volume. as You may know when I tell
you that the Bible and Jarby's Ency-
Clopedia of knowledge and Compen-
dunn Of Literature, Science and Art
were the only two books / took with
Ailt Nllti i NtiiA " bt tiOltoSpi VI hiil-
veTsal knowledge at the university at
TimbuctoO. This one book was all I
needed, for II contains all; what isn't
in il isn't worth knowing. But | made
my error when l began to teach them
poor benighted SaVageS religion. l be-
gan at the wrong season"
Il don't see what difference the sea-
son would make said Mrs Billup.
7 began along during Lent" said
I 1fr1 I hnd 4aLx hp.a I'd
and lodging with man that had TWEEN
/ ty-fiVe wives and I told the ladies they
/ had ought to give up something, but
/ they wasn't the kind that would give
uD anything they cared for. I argued
hard, but the only thing they would
/ give up was their husband. They
I thought less of him than of anything
they had, so they gave him up, and
| when twenty-five women unite TO give
VI. one man about all that man can do
is to desert that family and go and look
for another that hasn't got the giving
up habit; so he went.
My mistake was in telling them
about Easter. You see, had told them
about the way ladies all got new hats
at Easter and how the children had
fancy colOred eggs on that day, and
they sort of took to the idea, although
they didn't rightly understand it. They
was as simple as children, them wives
was and they would ask me if al
women where ] came from had new
hats at Easter and did their husbands
have to give them new hats; and | said
I guessed the ladies got hats if they
wanted them, and they always wanted
them. so they always got them. AND
at that that whole lot of dark brown
wives gave up their husbands ant
chung to US. They took to the Easter
hat idea and liked it and said they
would have Easter right there in Tim
bustOo, with hats and colOred eggs
That was all they was able TO under
stand of the religion that l was tryins
to teach them-new hats and coloreC
eggs at Easter. They wouldn't go any
further into it. They said they Liked
that mari SO well they would stick RICH
to that part and that l needn't mind th'
rest. They had a way of saying it tina
was part talk and part war club exer
cises that made me think they mean
il. So began TO make hats.
You didn't make the hats. did you?
said Mrs. Biliup-
..Yes.m.'' said Eiiph' Hewitt Il ha'
. 10 Nobody in Timbuctoo had eve
t seen a 1ady's hat, and them wive
. wasn't in the habit of working. so
had TO do it. ] had busy time
{ trimmed hats. every morning and hunt
: or oassowarv eggs every afternoon, tn
cassowary being the only bird in ther
. par.s that eggs could be got from f
to cat. and them wives insisted that a
! the children ] had inherited from thel
+ recent husband should have doze
eyvs aDiece That made two hundre
I land forty-one Dozen had to go on
: int the desert to get them eggs, an
: when had them eli gathered an
piled up it made a pile as big as tn