Year: 1879

y


yer, who was excited over novel ex


perienee. He had received note en-


closing S25, and summoning him al
once to call upon Mrs. Blank, a rich


widow in Myrtle avenue. He pocketed
the money and responded. The widow


was in great distress. Her only daugh.
ter, a young widow, whose husband
had lived only a year after their mar.
riage, had gone husband crazy, and
Mrs. Blank said that her daughter was
so intent on marrying some man, and
she didn't seem particular about the
man, that for lack of a better offer she
was TO join in wedlock with an impecu.
NOUS actor who had been visiting her
for some time, and was in fact the only
manageable person in the young wo.
mans horizon. Now Mrs. Blanks OBJ
ject was to prevent this alliance with
the actor, and to do it by substituting
another man for a husband for her
daughter, for she knew that her daugh


ter could never be induced to give up
the one prospective husband for an
other. Mrs. Blank had found husbands
surprisingly scarce, and so she was fore,
ed to bring into play the handsome for.
tune which her husband, "a green grocer,
long since dead, had by stinting and
starving amassed. Forty thousand dol


lars she would give to the man who
married her daughter Who bids?
The lawyer would have been glad Of the
forty thousand dollars, but one look at
the daughter made him think that to a
man Of his mind she would be dear at
that price. True, her silks where good
and her iewelry was snowy, but the
scent of the green grocer clung to her
still. Mrs. Blank recounted her virtues,
and as the lawyer hesitated, she drew
him to the window, and pointed out a
row of tenements, with tenants hand
IN every window, and told him some
day all these should be his if he would
only call in parson.


There was temptation for one of lin
tied practice, but still the lawyer did
not yield. Then Mrs. Blank pointed
out another row of houses, the property
of her dead husbands sister, who was
caildless herself, and was 80 interested
in having the girl in question not mar
rying the actor that she was willing to
prepare will, and have it duly exc
cuted, leaving to her neioe all this
property. The price was now getting
almost up to the lawyers figure, and
he began to grow uneasy. The tend
rils of his heart were already about one
Of Brooklyn's fairest girls, but there
was no such fortune in question with
her but the memory of what gold
mine she in herself was, broke the
spell of temptation, and he tlatly refused
tobe purchased spouse, and asked what
further business Mrs. Blank had with
him. Mrs. Blank wanted him to find a
husban for her love-lorn daughter.
She would give thousands for man
who was not an actor. The lawyer said
that he did not run matrimonial
agency. Mrs. Blank said that she
would give him 81 900 to get her hus-
band. Then the lawyer said that for
the nonce he might be matrimonial
agent. He had just advanced money
to handsome young butcher, whose
rosy cheeks and fine complexion had
won his favor, and the young knight
of the cleaver had just begun business
on his own account. He told the widow
Blank that this young man might, by
frequent visits to the house, WIN her
daughters love, and lose his own heart
at the same time, and that they might
thus find comparatively inexpensive
path out Of the difficulty. 1t was ne
cessary that she should discharge her
own butcher, and give the young man
a snow, which she was glad to do. Then
the lawyer persuaded the young butch
er to spruce up whenever he visited the
house of Mrs. Blank, and the little
game is now in operation, while sever
al interested persons are anxiously
awaiting the result.-Bd!timore Amer,-