The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1909-03-26
The Man Without Grave

kSVpyti8uNy ASW, ny American tTee9 ASS0-
ciation.l
The question was. What had become
Of the bodyf That Dick Sturfevant
wes dead was not the QUESTION or 4
question At all. He had been visiting
the electrical works Of Peter Robin
son & Co., was shown through by ths
cleo rical engineer. had grasped, 4 live
rod, receiving some 10000 volts Of elec-
triclty. and passed from life to death
SO quickly that he hadn't the slightest
consciousness Of tho transition. New
ertheiess al effort was made to resus.
citate him. but after half an hours
constant application Of. all sorts Of
s~tinulants without the slightest sign of
improvement the work ceased.
All this happened about 10 O'Clock in
the morning. The undertaken did not
appear till I in the afternoon. when
the key to the room In which the body
lay was handed him, and he went up
stairs. He returned to the Office. say.
Ing that there was nobody, dead OF
alivs. In the room and there must b
some mistake. Several men declared
that they had put 6turtevant's corpse
In that very room and there was no
mistake about II, but they had never
been In that part Of the building be-
fore and didn't know there were sew
erai vacant rooms there. Anyway.
there seemed to be some doubt Is to
which OF thu rooms had been used.
This doubt grew till the matter 1was
lost In confusion. The only plausible
theory Of the disappearance was that
the body had been stolen by medical
students for dissection. Since there
was a surgeons college in the neigh
borhood, this finally came to be the
accepted explanation,
IT be- hieartrending part OF It all vas
that S%turtevant was engaged to be
married. Every one sympathized with
the girl he had left behind him. espe-
cially that she should be prevented
from paying due respect to bis re-
mains. No one else was especially In
terested since the deceased hid been
an only child and both his father and
mother we're dead. The wedding was
to. have come OF In q few days. and
the cards were out. The bride to be
put on mourning. shut herself up and
would see no M
A year passed. and Miss Minton--
that was the girls nams-threw Of her
mourning. and 1t was reported that
she was again engaged to wed. Then
everybody said that she had been
sha mining about her grief for 6turte-
want, had had another lover most OF
the time since his death and had only
waited the conventional year allotted
to widows to marry another man
These reports were repeated to the
lady, and they made her very angry.
1t was supposed to be on this &C.
count that she did not give the name
Of her new lover-that IL, II she had
u which must be since she did not
deny the reports Of her engagement,
Besides, 1t was known that she was
having certain articles Of her trous-
e of 4 year before altered to meet
changes In fashion, doubtless to be
used as an OUTFIT in her marriage with
the man who had taken the first low
er's place. This set everybody talk
ing. "Its shameful" said Mrs. Cloudy.
"the way that girl has treated poor
Sturtevant-going to wear the same
things she was to have worn on her
honeymoon with him. Why. she hasn't
even given him q headstone." . r
"Where would she put 1T" inquired
Miss Reasoner. ,
"0h, yes: / didn't think Of that. At
all events, it's shocking about the
trousseau. And think how soon she
has been consoledl The courtship must
have begun ~ soon as 6turtevant died.
II not before"
Kind friends-there are always kind
friends to tell " disagreeabIe news
kept Miss Minton posted as to all this
talk. and In the meanwhile there
sprang up a universal desire to know
who 1t was that was to replace the I'M
fortunate sturtevant. But the more
the criticism the further every one
seemed 10 be from getting at the facts,
Mist Minton gave out through q friend
that she had been SO outraged at all
that had been said that "What's-his-
ma me or Where's-his-home" SHOULD
| never be known till she and he stood
up to be married.
This announcement started the talk
ing social world upon such a clattes a
had never been heard before about any
wedding. OF course there could be no
advance cards since the name OF the
groom would not be given. Doubtless
the marriage would take place ct home
| before q few Of the brides family.
| What was the surprise. to say nothing
| Of the shock, when II was announced
that the same wedding Arrangements
had been made rs the year before.
Tint was to have been ct q church,
with a large invitation list for the -
ceptione at the house.
II was now conceded that Miss MIN.
ton was resentfully Tying In the ncs
Of GOOD taste and society. Many Of heF
acduaintances vowed openly that they
would not attend the nuptials. though
Q reilly they were dying to DO %,
But when the cards came out with the
5000 o., tha ~room'a name left blank
iii society was struck dumb with
am sement