Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1915-03-19
The HackStaff
Case
Story Showing How JUS
tice May Err.
By LOUISE B. CUMMINGS


In the village of Atherton lived a
widow forty ears old who had q hear
for business. She would buy an old
house cheap for cash. put 1t in com
Sometimes she would have several
houses under process of repair at the
same time. The widow attended to
the finances and contracts, but rele-
gated the superintendent Of the re-
pairs to a young man not quite thirty
years old, named Jack Hackstaff.
One day it was announced that the
widow had married her employee. The
women exchanged glances, as much as
to say: What a fool she is to tie up
with a man ten years younger than
herself. She'll rue the day she did it."
The men agreed that n young fellow
of thirty who married a woman of
forty for her money paid a high price
for tying himself up with an old wo-
man.
However, the Hackstaff couple seem
ed to get on very well, at least till Mrs.
Hackstaff got tired of repairing houses
and found a better field of operation.
But even then there was no cause TO
suspect that they were not getting on
together. Nevertheless such suspicion
was entertained by persons who noticed
that Hackstaff, having been deprived
of active occupation, showed some dis
| content.
"She had better have kept him busy"
said the women. HE owes his living
to a woman said the men. Hell
either try to get the funds into his
own hands or, if he has a proper pride,
will dig u and shift for himself"
When Mrs. Hackstaff stopped turn
ing old houses into new ones it was
observed that she had not sunk into
idleness. Had she explained what new
method of making money she had tax
en- ON it might have saved a great deal
OF trouble.
1t was noticed that the Hackstaffs
were absent from home a great deal,
but that they never went together.
When Mrs. Hackstaff was away her
husband was at home, and vice versa.
1t leaked out through banks with
which Mrs. Hackstaff's accounts were
REPEATER her marriage she continued
to do business and keep accounts in
her own name-that she was steadily
accommodating funds and was not only
using her capital, but all the credit
she could control.
During the autumn the Hackstaffs
were observed to be away a great deal.
When winter came they remained at
home together and appeared to have
very little to do. In the spring one
sometimes ~both-started out very ear
ly and remained away till summer
came. Once when Mrs. Hackstaff
bought her ticket a neighbor stood be-
side her and noticed that she purchas-
ed a long string of tickets on a round
trip through the southern states. This
the observer reported, and it added
largely to the interest of the people
of Anterior In the Hackstaff affairs.
The Hackstaff place was on the out
skirts of the village and surrounded by
woods. One day Mrs. Hackstaff. walk
ing in these woods, encountered a
| skunk and received the contents of
it's odor bag ON her dress. Returning
to the house, she took off the dress,
put on another and, giving the first
to her husband, asked him to take it
to the woods and bury it for the pur-
pose of deodorizing it. This he did.
A few days later the wife conceived
a business scheme of Importance, and
both she and Hackstaff forgot all
about the buried dress. For several
days she was busy arranging her
financial affairs, making arrangements
tor the honoring of numerous drafts
she proposed to make on her bankers.
Having arranged for a prolonged abb
sence, she and her husband talked over
matters of domestic nature. SufIic ient
means We're locked in a safe in their
house for his use until her return, and
to provide for any contingency she
signed checks in blank that he might
fill in to any amount he chose. These
minor affairs having been arranged,
Mr. Hackstaff took up a New York
newspaper that he had bought that
day for the purpose of learning the
sailing dates of outgoing steamers
and learned that a steamer would sail
via the Mediterranean and the Suez
canal for China the next afternoon.
An examination of a railroad time ia
BILE indicated that the only train by
which Mrs. Hackstaff could catch that
steamer passed through and stopped at
Anterior at l o'clock in the morning
1t was decided that she should take
this train. Her luggage was sent to
the station. and Mr.. Hackstaff pur-
chased a ticket to New York and
checked the trunk early in the even
ing. When the train passed Mr.. and
Mrs. Hackstaf said goodby to each
other OF the station platform. and Mrs.
Hackstaff entered the train without
any citizen Of .Athcrton having wit
Messed her departure. She was driven