Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1909-02-12
Ctruggle to Throw
~ Off an Influence.
.right 1908 by American Press Assoc

copyright, 1908, by American Press Asso-
ciation.l
Elisha Hereford at twenty married
a girl of eighteen. Elisha was rather
a bright fellow, but without good judg-
ment His wife was exactly the oppo
site. She was not bright, but possess
ed an enormous amount of horse
sense" For twenty years she Kept her
husband on the track and when he
showed signs of breaking" would
speak to him in no uncertain tone,
pull strong on the curb and now and
then give him sharp cut with the
whip. The consequence was that Here
ford, being smart, by the time he was
forty had secured competency.
Now, the thing without which sue
cess is not to be attained is often I'M
recognizable, especially by the achiev-
er. Hereford attributed it in his case
to his talents, arguing that if he were
not pulled back by his wife he would
be a millionaire. His most intimate
| friends knew that his wife had put
those talents to their proper use and
| prevented his wasting them. Perhaps
| if any of them had told him this it
might have neutralized this story. Per
haps he would have received the in
formation as false. The latter suppo-
sition is the more probable.
One day Hereford disappeared. 1t
was found that he had taken $4,000
and left 100000 for his wife, with no
explanation whatever. This is the
most practical thing he had ever done
without her assistance. Almost any
one would pronounce the money pref
Ierable to the explanation. But the act
was just like Hereford. He was
mixture of the sublime and the ridicu-
lous.
(, He hadn't been gone long before his
wife received a letter from an Amerl-
can gentleman in Constantinople
named Tarbox stating that Hereford
had died there. He had left 1nstruc-
lions with Tarbox to send what money
he had left-some $1O,OO0-and his in
cinerated remains to his wife. Hel
friends said that SO long as he had sent
the money he needn't have troubled
himself about the ashes. Mrs. Here
ford deposited the former in bank and
went over the latter. When it came
to sentiment she had her weaknesses
the most pronounced Of which was {
sincere affection for Elisha Hereford
She was too sensible to keep her bus
bands dust in her own house, so sht
spent 500 on marble tomb, placed
it in a cemetery and locked the dus
In it. Not that the 500 represented
her love for her dead husband. TIL
tomb was plenty large to contain tn
ashes, and Mrs. Hereford's sentimen
never ran away with her instinct o
economy.
Before proceeding any further wit
this story l wish to say that there is
feature in it that won't be believed
You can invent lot of imaginary nor
sense, and it will be gulped down, bu
give people a real coincidence such a
happens every day and they will lang
at YOU. | am sure. however, that an
one who knows Elisha Hereford o
hearing what l refer to would say
"That's just like him for all the world.
AS | have said, Mrs. Hereford wa
prone to indulge a sentimental sorro'
so long as it was not expensive. Sh
went once a week to the cemetery, toe
> out the urn, busted it, probably becaus
she had been used to periodically du:
the marble clock on her mantel ;
home wept over it and put it bacl
One day just after having done tt
busting she turned the key and wit
le bowed head was mutely offering
prayer for the repose of her husband
soul when she was aroused by a cTas
It seemed she had heard some WOO
en- structure knocked into kindlir
wood Starting up, there in lot II
a hundred yards from her she saw
promiscuous mass of slender timbe
Dl iumbled with some light woven te
z ture. From beneath it man stru
: gled to free himself and after doing
4 stood upon his feet. The widow we
= toward the fragments, and when t
Z mans head appeared above the wrec
: age she caught at an iron rail inclC
ing a burial lot
Il She saw him whose ashes she h;
Z been weeping over.
: "Well." he exclaimed petulantly, ST
yeying the wreck, ITS all mp, and /
= glad of it,
81 Mrs Hereford, who saw mediu
! for wasted money, breathed hard.
- .Elisha." she said sternly, "Wh