Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1893 — GOSSIP. [ARTICLE]

GOSSIP.

New York News. “La. now! Do tell! You r’ally saw her, did you. Mis’ Tubbs?” “Saw her just- as plain as l see you now, with my two eyes, Mis’ Cummins. ’Tain’t the first time, nother. She’s been there afore, and the old man fetched her, too. 4 ’ • “You don't say so! Queer goin’s on, I.think! And we alius thought Judge • Brewster sich a good man. It was true that Judge Brewster, the owner of the finest mansion in town, Wealthy, and a handsome widower of fifty, had paid some rather marked attentions to Sovhro nia Cummins. The neighbors L-.d seen and talked about it, and i>’ 1 ttle .envy and matter*V*d been excited against Sophronia, She had not been a favorite before, for jshe possessed beauty and a gracefulness of mien that quite set her apart from other girls of her age and station in Greenville. " •

Twice, of late, Jud<;e Brewster had been seen returning from a drive to the large country town, which lay at a distance of ten miles, accompanied. by a youthful lady, who, on one occasion when she had arrived late, had spent the night beneath his roof, returning on the following* morning still under the Judge's escort. Poor Sophronia, the gossips urged with sneering compaseion, her hopes were at an, end- She would never be the Judge’s wife, for he was certainly about to marry another. Poor Sophronia! And yet, when she came tripping in just before tea was ready, with her light, graceful step, and her bright face and pleasant manners, she looked like one whom sorrow could not touch; and even Mrs. Tdbbs, who, ghoul-like, had made many a merry feast off the corpses of dead hopes, felt a little pang of regret as she looked upon her. Mrs. Cummins was too uneasy, too much excited, to keep silent long; and no sooner were the three women seated at the well-spread tea table, than she burst forth and rehearsed the story of the Judge’s shortcomings. To the surprise of bo*-h, Sofjhronia burst forth into a merry augh, which rang out the veriest chime of mirth.

“Why, it’s true, ’Phrony, every word on’t!” her mother exclaimed, half bewildered, while Mrs. Tubbs took up the burden, in doleful tones: “True! of course it is, for I seen ’em myself, That woman’s goin’ to marry the Judge, sure’s you live; or else Wai, I won’t say nothin’, for its allers best to be charitable. But, never mind, ’Phrony; those old widowers allers think they have a right to be kinder ’fectionate to young girls, and half the time they don’t mean nothing. ‘There’s as good fish in the sea as ever was caught,’ I dassey.” “ ‘Fish in the sea!’” burst in Mrs. Cummings, blazing with anger. “ ‘Fish!’ I guess there is! But I’d thank you not to 'sinuate that my 'Phrony ha* to go a-fishin’ to catch beaux!” “Oh, I dessay, I dessay,” was al) Mrs. Tubbs could utter, as she made hasty preparations for departure. “Good evenin’, Miss Cummins; good evenin’, ’Phrony;” and away she went, to carry her story, with additions, to a score of Greenville homes. Perhaps the good lady’s version of the story might have.slightly altered had she known that, not half an hour before the tea table scene, and while Sophronia was picking currants in the garden, Judge Brewster had come walking along the village street, had seen ner there, and stepping over the low wall, had 'joined her, and had stopped a long time in the shadow of the plum trees talking earnestly and explaining the mysterious circumstance that had started village gossip, and which he only regretted because they had kept him from her side of late more than he liked, and especially could she have heard a certain proposal and the answer thereto, Sophronia’s next meeting with the judge was far different from that sweet, stolen interview in the garden. Then he had appeared before her in the impassioned lover. Now he comes with the stern dignity of one who unites in his own person accuser and judge. It was currently reported, he told her, that she had rejected him with scorn and with ridicule. Before he left a perfect explanation had taken place, not only with h's fair betrothed, but with her parents, and he was ready to laugh with them over the absurdity of the charges made against himself, and the manifest and harmless malice of the disappointed Mrs. Tubbs. One morning early; some twe weeks afterward, the judge’s handsome barouche drove away from the cottage door. Sophronia, in a pretty traveling dress, sat there beside its owner, and they drove to the nearest station. And half an hour had not elapsed ere it was known in Greenville that they had been married and had gone upon their tour. Mrs. Tubbs was completely quenched.

Miss Sabra Carter, the eccentric spinster who made many queer gifts to the town of Wilmington, Mass., died on Saturday. About two years ago she presented the town with a number of shares of stock, the income, after her death, to be used in painting houses in Wilmington. The condition of those having their residences painted is that they should not have kept a dog for two years. Mrs. 8. G. Holden has introduced dental inspection into the publk schools of Detroit.