The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1909-01-20

ferent occasions when he had stayed
a minute over his time his wife APP
peared at the door and beckoned him
out and took him by the ear and led
him home. The next day he got moth
ing TO eat as a punishment
AS IL this .bossing business was not
bed enough for a man who imagined
he was sturdy oak and capable of
supporting dozen clinging vines, the
wife was woman OF fads. She took
It into her head that he had liver com
plant, and for two straight years she
made him take four doses a day of a
compound she had prepared. There
was no escaping It. He had to walk
up to the rack and dose. Then she
took a notion that he had jaundice,
and she brewed another decoction for
that Then she decided that his short
ness of breath came from the asthma,
and she started In to cure 1t. Nothing
whatever allied Joel but too much boss
Ing. 1t was his grief and humiliation
over IT. Any man would have got
thin and peaked with his feelings to
carry around.
You all remember that we had q
circus visit this town two years ago.
Joel made up his mind to go and see
the elephant. His wife forbade him
to, and on that day he was set to hoe
ing corn. He ran away from his
work. ana she followed and took him
out Of the tent / think he had de-
termined on that day to break the
shackles at any cost, but, alas, 1t was
too late His wife brought the rolling
pin into play, and he was a licked
man. 1t was day or two after that
he came to me and wanted to know
II man could swallow enough plug
tobacco to kill himself. l could not
tell him, and the sigh he heaved when
he turned away rings in my years yet
He was thinking OF suicide at that
very time.
"Just what happened today to drive
Joel into the mill pond can't say, but
know that about three months ago
his wife made up her mind that he had
a tapeworm and began doctoring him
for 1t. She cooked up a compound Of
tar and lasses and vinegar and bur
dock, und the number of doses day
was eight. She said she'd lay out that
tapeworm or kill Joel, and she had
kept her word. OF course there, was
no tapewOrm. 1t was just remorse on
Joel's part to think he hadn't taken
our advice. The remedy was kept in
bottle on the clock shelf, and eight
times q day he had to walk up and
take 1t. II he lodged a dose he had
to take two next time.
Felt Sorry For Him.
"Three days ago as / was going
past the house l saw him out behind
the smokehouse wiping his weeping
eyes. l felt to pity him, but passed on.
knew that the time had passed when
he could stand up and assert his rights,
and II the wife had seen me talking to
him It would have only made matters
worse for the victim.
Gentlemen, we are to meet here at
S o'clock In the morning to drag the
mill pond. 1t is a sorrowful mission
we have. We shall find the mortal re-
mains Of Joel Taylor among the old
boots and shoes and rusty pans that
have found their way there for the last
ten years. He may have stuffed stones
In his pockets to make a surer Job of
1t, or he may have hung to n log after
he found himself ON the bottom. In
either case he will be found. When
we have got him ashore and turned on
his back we Will look into his face.
We shall there find a smile of peace.
No more bossing-no more dosing. He
is free at last. 1t will be our duty as
men and neighbors to follow his re-
mains to the graveyard and hear the
dirt fall upon his coffin, and that will
be the end for us-that Is, it will be
the end of Joel Taylor But we who
live on will still have another duty.
1t will be to warn mankind that there
are various kinds of widow women,
and he who marries one of the wrong
kind will find that she will sting like
n hornet and bite like an adder"
NJ. QUAD.