Mansfield mirror. (Mansfield, Wright County, Mo.) 1908-1957, 1914-12-03

WHAT SPIRITS SAID
BY JOHN DARLING.

Jared .Schermerhorn was a strap
ping young farmer whose lands were
on the outskirts of the village Of Raw.
sonville. He had a house. cows,
horses, hogs and chickens.
Jared didn't graduate from an agri-
cultural college, but he was up and at
work before the lark had shaken the
dew of It's tail.
He, didn't know the names Of the
planets, and he wasn't so sure about
there being a South pole, but his
wheat was a humping yield, and the
way his cornstalks bore ears and his
potatoes rolled out of the ground in
the fall we're the envy Of all other
farmers for miles around.
Jared vas not a vain young man.
He had large ears, but he did not
seek to curb them. His nose grew
red and blistered in the sun, but he
did not seek the drug store for cold
cream. Nature had given him large
hands and feet, but he felt that he
needed them for farm work.
A young man fixed as this one was
need have no trouble in finding a wife,
Blu at the age Of twenty-four he was
still kinder looking around" That
is. he was attending writing school,
singing school and a lasses candy
pull or a h~usking-bee now and then
% wear Off his Natural b~ashfulness.
1t is idle to try to give the exact
number Of women that could have
been coaxed to bake Jared's bread and
make his soft soap and put up his
picked peaches If he had come court
ing. but why shouldn't there have
been halt. a dozen at least? He had
come to a certain decision before he
had thought much about marriage.
and 1t was an unwise decision. Under
no. circumstances would he marry a
widow. He didn't exactly know why,
but that was his decision. Had he
gone to Deacon Shadrack and asked
for advice he would have been told:
IF you can marry a wilder with
less than Ave children-a wilder wuth
at least $1,000 wilder who Is a
good housekeeper-a wilder who has
carried her children through the mea-
sles and the whooping cough, and is
as sound as a dollar herself, don't you
let the grass grow under your feet!"
But Jared didn't go to the Deacon,
and thus missed a good thing. What
he did do was to go right on saying
to himself that he'd never marry a
widow, and somehow his decision BE-
came known and three or four would
be contestants did not enter the race.
The farmer bachelor had had a bow.
ing acquaintance with Miss 1Iyacinth
Jones for a year or so. He had been
introduced to her at a Sunday school
picnic, but they had not wandered
under the green trees together.
Instead of referring to Miss Hya-
cinth as an old maid, which is always
an ungallant thing to do. she may be
spoken Of as a rather old girl. 1t was
her name, more than her looks, that
left her on Jared's list OF eligibles.
In case she became his wife 1t would
be a handy thing to call her High"
1t is generally supposed that when
an old girl turns her eyes on a man
with matrimony in view she pursues
with like a fox after a rabbit. There
are, however, exceptions to that rule,
II 1t Is a rule, and Miss Hyacinth was
an exception. She sighed, but she
didn't pursue. She limited that Jared
might call. but she didn't say that she
would be waiting at the front door
with beating heart. He began to talk
about q romance he had read, but she
switched the conversation to astron-
omy. When he said that he must be
going she didn't ask what his hurry
was. When he spoke of being a great
bread eater. and asserted that no
could eat apple pie at every meal the
rear round, she did not brag Of her
light loaves and flaky crusts.
The time came when Cupid should
have got to work, and when Miss Hya-
cinth was willing to help him, but
Jared was In an undecided state of
mind. There we're others. There were
no others named Hyacinth, but there
was one named Betsy, and he could
shorten the name to Bet" when in q
hurry.
1t was when his interest began to
flag that Jared went over to .Lorain
ON business. 1t wal there that he
found everybody excited over spirit.
ualism. A stranger had come to town
and delivered lectures that aroused
the people. He had done more than
that. He had sat with his hands on a
table and called up the spirits Of the
dead. He had questioned the spirits
OF the dead, and they had answered
him by raps on the table.
One rap stood for yes" Two raps
for mo-" Three raps for 81 can't
tell"
The medium" as the lecturer
called himself. would call up the spirit
Of some ones dead grandmother and
ask:
Are you in heaven?"
One rap-"Yes."