The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1909-02-04
Etru4ale 10 Throw
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NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Copyright. ~. by Araesacaa Prsss Asso-
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Elisha Hereford at twenty married
. sirl of eighteen. Rlisha was rather
. bright fellow. but without good judg
ment. His wife was exactly the oppo-
ute. She was not bright but possess
Cd 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 a sharp cut with the
whip. The consequence was that Here
ford, being smart, by the time he was
forty had secured a competency.
Now, the thing without which sue
cess is not to be attained is often I'M
recognizable, especially by the achiev-
o.. Hereford attributed It in his case
to his talents, arguing that II be were
not pulled back by his wife he would
b q millionaire. His most intimate
friends knew that his wife had put
those talents to their proper use and
prevented his wasting them. Perhaps
IL any Of them had told him this II
might have neutralized this story. Per
haps he would have received the III
formation as false. The latter suppl
sition II the more probable.
One day Hereford disappeared. 1t
was found that he had taken $4,000
and left $780, 900 for his wife, with no
explanation whatever. This 10 the
most practical thing he had ever done
without her assistance. Almost any
one would pronounce the money pref
cradle to the explanation. But the act
was just like Hereford. He was a
mixture Of the sublime and the ridicu.
louA
he hadn't been gone long before his
wife received letter from an Ameri
can gentleman in Constantinople
named Tarbox stating that Hereford
had died there. He had left instruc-
tons with Tarbox to send what money
he had left-some $1O,OOO-and his in
cinerated remains to his wife. Her
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
wept over the latter. When it came
to sentiment she had her weaknesses,
the most pronounced Of which was q
sincere affection for Elisha Hereford.
She was too sensible to keep her hus-
bands dust in her own house, SO she
spent 500 on a marble tomb, placed
1t in a cemetery and locked the dust
In It Not that the 500 represented
her love for her dead husband. The
tomb was plenty large to contain the
ashes, and Mrs. Hereford's sentiment
never ran away with her instinct of
economy.
Before proceeding any further with
this story wish to say that there is a
feature in it that won't be believed.
You can invent lot Of imaginary non
sense. and it will be gulped down, but
give people real coincidence such as
happens every day and they will laugh
at you. am sure, however, that any
one who knows Elisha Hereford on
hearing what I refer to would say,
THAT'S just like him for all the world"
As I have said, Mrs. Hereford was
prone to indulge q sentimental sorrow
20 long as it was not expensive. She
went once week to the cemetery, took
out the urn, busted 1t, probably because
she had been used to periodically dust
the marble clock on her mantel ut
home, wept over it and put It back.
One day just after having done the
busting she turned the key and with
bowed head was. mutely Offering a
prayer for the repose Of her husbands
soul when she was aroused by crash
It seemed she had heard some wood
en- structure knocked into kindling
wood. Starting up. there In lot net
Z hundred yards from her she saw a
promiscuous mass Of slender timbers
jumbled with some light woven tex
ture. From beneath it a man .strug-
gled to free himself and after doing 80
stood upon his feet The widow went
toward the fragments, and when the
mans head appeared above the wreck
age she caught at an iron rail inclos-
ing burial lot
She saw him whose ashes she had
been weeping over.
"Weli," he exclaimed petulantly, sur
veying the wreck, ITS all up, and I'm
dad Of it."
Mrs. Hereford. who saw Z medium
for wasted money, hreathed hard.
Elisha" she said stefnly, ''what
foolishnsss have you been guilty Of
this dmer'
II own up, my dear. 1t was this
way: I heard Of III these fellows try
Ing aerpplanes. and I had 4 plan that
I wanted to t1y myself. I knew you
would nsver consent e spending the
moosy to build II, 70 I concluded to
take tho Job into my own hands. nrst
eliminating you from the experiment.
Jim Tw1ukler was going abroad, and l
charged him to take care Of You from