Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 98, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 April 1913 — JEALOUSY DEFINED [ARTICLE]

JEALOUSY DEFINED

Right or Wrong, Fact Existed That Stephen Knight Was ”r - Jealous of Wife. BY JOHN PHILIP ORTH. \ “Jealousy Is an emotion.” “Jealousy is incipient lunacy." "Jealousy arises from a state «£ morbidness.” N . '. '' “Jealousy is an aid prepared by mature to help a man make an ass of himself.” • There are the answers of four philosophers. Whether any one of them <was right, the fact existed that Stephen Knight was jealous of his young rwife. He was so jealous that It was patent to all, and it was bound to make a heap of trouble in time. His Jealousy began with the engagement. There had been two or three rivals 4n the field, and instead of taking that' aB a compliment to his promised rwife, and instead of walking around •with a victorious and complacent look on his face, the young man found it a cause for anxiety and "jealousy. The knot hadn’t been tied yet when It was the opinion of a large number of people that Stephen Knight was a tfool. Perhaps he realised in his lucid moments that he was, but he couldn't Ihelp it. There is neither fun nor glory in being jealous nor a fool. Miss Byrn Burt, his fiancee, had reasons to know that he was jealouß. When he forbade her ever to bow to one of his unsuccessful rivals she had living proofs that he was either jealous or on his way to an insane asylum. IHer father* who may have had an attack in his younger days, and felt -competent to give advice, opposed the marriage. Her mother predicted, and tier friends came to her with: "Why, Stephen is insanely Jealous of you, and you'll have to come back home in three months!” “Oh, no, I shan't,” was the confident reply. "But you don’t know what a terror a jealous husband is.” . "It’ll be fun to cure him.” “But a Jealous husband always leads to divorce. They say there is no cute for it. In the papers the other day was a case of a divorced man who shot his wife dead for marrying again. He was still jealous of her. Byrn, you are running a terrible a-isk!” “Oh, I can’t see It that way. After 1 have cured Stephen he‘will be one ■of the nicest husbands in the land, and we shall be a very happy couple.” Stephen’s best man at the wedding was deaf and dumb. The bridegroom wasn’t running any unnecessary risks.’’ The minister Intended to kiss the bride, but after a glance at Stephen he changed his mind. There was hand-shaking, but Stephen watched that no one squeezed too hard. On the bridal tour no one was permitted to assist the bride up or down steps or across the street, In London, when the guide at the Tower smiled at her, he came very near getting his head punched. On the voyage home Ithe captain of the ship offered his arm for a promenade, and was asked whether it was hiß business to run the ship or get up* flirtations with married women. The bride came home smiling and laughing. Her parents had rooms prepared for her, and her father had selected the lawyer to act in the case, hut there was no case forthcoming. “Stephen is silly, of course,” she replied to all, “but when I have had time to cure his malady you will see • different man.” The Knights went to housekeeping In a cottage. It was five blocks from a car line. Stephen had the doorbell removed. He hired the cook, and she was to have an extra dollar a week for making certain reports. The wife saw much and understood * much,, but no explanations were asked for. She didn’t intimate that Bhe had the least Idea her husband was jealous; There were days when'he came home at unexpected hours, and by the back door. There were times when he took his wife to the theater and insisted on going home after the first act because the man on the left picked up her fan or handkerchief. In six months’ time none of her friends dared to come near. In that period of time Stephen Knight had made a fool of himself about seven hundred times, and then he brought about a grand coup. They were sitting alone together one evening, and all had been very pleasant, when he took a memorandum book from his pocket and consulted it and “On April 7, three days after we moved in here, a man called ,and you talked with him for eight minutes by the clbck. Don’t deny it!” She didn’t A man called and asked If any flower or garden seeds would be wanted. “On the 16th of that month you put on your things and went out and were gone forty minutes by the clock, when I came home you said nothing to me about it Don’t deny it!” She didn’t On the date mentioned she had gone to the grocery after soap and to a dry goods store after dish-towels. “On the 4th of Hay a man to me unknown, but who likely thought I might be watching him, called at the home and passed a word or two with you, and then hurried, away. He looked around him in a furtive way as he went. Tou made no mention of the affair to me when I came home. Do not you claim that you did!’ The young wife made no claim. A , . » <* & ... * * • ** *•’ ’ ' . »

man had called on that date and asked her if she bad soen anything of his parrot, which had escaped from its cage. “On May 14th,” ran the record, “you dressed and went out and were gone very nearly an hour. You have never yet explained to me what you wpnt out for. Are you ready to do so nowfT' a':.;. She was ready enough, but she didn’t explain. She had ordered meat from the butcher; a head of cabbage frem the grocer; a spool of. black thread from a notion store, and a pair of shoestrings from a shoe store. The husband went on until he had read 27 different charges, and then he glared at her for a long minute, and put the fatal book away and resumed his newspaper. His wife hadn't replied to one single charge. There was no dispute—no quarreling. <He had shown up her deceit and duplicity, and her silence proved her guilt Just what to do the husband didn’t know. He must think it over.) He was doing that the next day at his place of business whdn an anonymous note waß placed In his hands that read: "Your wife is at the Three-Mile Road House with a man!” Stephen Knight did not faint away, He did not. curse and tear his hair. He did not totter to the door like an old man. He had been looking for this for months, and hack planned his course. He simply slipped a revolver Into his pocket and walked out to the curb and told a chauffeur where he wanted to go. He didn’t even add that he was In, a devil of a hurry, nor Inquire about the coroner and an undertaker, though he knew that both would be needed. ” He would shoot both parties dead! * Assembled at the Three-Mile Road House were forty persons that had driven out ahead of him. The list Included his wife’s grandfather, grandmother, two uncles, two aunts, four cousins, a brother, a sister, the minister that had married her and Stephen, and the Unsuccessful suitors for her hand. The others had been her girl friends. They were sitting and waiting. Stephen bounded into the room with plßtol in hand. All looked at him, but no one spoke for a long minute. Then the minister rose up and said: "My friends, we are gathered here on this solemn occasion to listen to the charges preferred against his wife by Stephen Knight. I will read them to you." And the good man, with all due emphasis and solemnity, read the first five charges. As each one was finished there were loud sighs and murmured “Oh, mys!” from the audience, and the guilty wife sat with her handkerchief to her eyes. The sixth charge was not read. Stephen Knight waa nu bonehead. He saw the situation and did the right thing. “Friends,” he said, “I’ve been all kinds of a'fool, and the biggest kind of a chump. Here’s where I get off. It’s never again for Stephen. Byrn, if you are not utterly disgusted with me, come and kiss the biggest-idiot at large in America.” And it Is said that even (he minister joined In singing that good old song: "For he’s a jolly good fellow. 7 (Copyright, 1913, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.)