Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1918-09-14
FAMILY CURSE
FOR GENERATION
ALWAYS SOME MEMBER WITH A
DRAGGING FOOT
Sign Of the faint, Invoked by i
WronOed Grit, Even on Bstray.
ers Monument.

eTS monument.
Boston. Mass.-This is the story Of
tan lily curse. curse that even time
ant death have not served to erase.
ant which put It's evil mark on every
generation Tor century and half,
IL the little cemetery at Bucksport.
Maine, stands a granite monument to
col jonathan Buck. founder OF the
Town back in 1862 On one side OK the
stone, quite apparent, is the marx OF
d dragging foot. the curse which FOL
lowed the Bucks until the last meu,-
Der OF the family died some years
ago
An old time resident OF the town, 4
man who had lived there many. many
years. told the story OF the curse.
Now you've seen it, he began,
"the leg and the foot that drags.
helped set W that monument years
and years ago Then the granite
was smooth and gray and unmarked,
save for the inscription. Old John
Buck, the grandson Of the man whose
grave il marked. was there.
He had hobbled slowly up the hill;
slowly because Of his foot that drag
aed that was the mark OF the curse
every masculine member OF the
Buck family had a withered leg and
!. foot that dragged. Queer, wasn't
II? But not the queerest part OF the
story The dragging foot might be
laid to a faint in the blood, but how
about the mark on the stone?
But let's get back to the beginning
of the story, nearly us years ago.
Then Jonathan Buck was a young
Fellow in Haverhill, good looking and
rich and not any too good. There was
a girl the story doesn't tell her
name. She also was young and she
was beautiful, but she wasn't rich and
she didn't stay good.
mo use telling the details-the girl
was wronged. Buck soon tired OF he's
and wanted her out OF his sight. AS
/ have said, he had plenty Of money
and the town officials could be ap-
preached. A judge and q doctor were
mixed up in the affair, they said she
was insane and were sending her on
10 the asylum.
They had her in carriage and
the road led past the Buck home
There on the veranda sat Jonathan
Buck. all dressed up freshly barber
&c; young rich and arrogant. Just as
the carriage passed the place the girl
broke from her guards and ran to the
gate.
May curse be upon you" she
screamed as the guards tried TO
wrench her hands from the plckets.
May it follow you and your sons for
ever and ever. May your feet drag,
may your
"She hadn't time for the rest of the
curse; a guard slapped a hand over
her mouth and she was borne strug-
Cling back to the carriage.
"The very next day young Buck fell
and broke his hip, and his foot drag
6e1 until he died. Later he was mar
RED and had sons and each had a
foot that dragged.
but that's not the Queerest part OF
the story. AS | was telling you, we
set up this mOnument--nOt because
we liked his memory, but because the
Bucks paid for it. The stone was
GEAR and unblemished; beautiful
product OF the granite cutters art
And then this thing came on the
side nearest the street, open to the
view OF all who passed. First it was
bur an uniformed and faint outline,
but il grew palmer and palmer, day
by day, and soon we could see what
it vast was the dragging foot Of
the Bucks; the mark of the curse that
wa upon them.
"Old John Buck came up and saw
it, and then he sent for the man who
had cut the stone. Get that thing off,
was the instruction he gave, and the
cutter set to work with his mallet
and his chisel. Soon the monument
was smooth and unblemshed again.
But not for long, the sign came back.
Four times the cutter effacted it, and
four times it came back. Then old
John. the last of he Bucks, was dead
anu nobody cared whether the mark
sta. Cd