Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1876 — A Pair of Wedded Misers. [ARTICLE]

A Pair of Wedded Misers.

Three miles from Newark, N. J., have lived for many years an aged couple, who were miserly and penurious in their habits to the last degree. Two months ago the husband, who had been a sufferer from dropsy, began to fear that he was likely to die, and, his love of life proving stronger than his love of money, desired to send for a physician. His wife, not being moved by the same fear, saw in it only a wasteful expenditure, and refused to consent. After suffering in a very weak condition for some time, however, he managed to communicate with a who sent for a physician. The latter gave him no hope of recovery, but made a simple prescription for hi 9 relief and directions as to his diet. The wife did not deem it wise to spend money on a man who was already practically dead, and re-, fused resolutely to purchase either medicine or proper food. The neighbors, however, procured both, and furnished them to the dying man at his bedside for several weeks. A few days ago the miser died, and his wife refused to send for an undertaker, or allow the friendly neighbors to do so, and the body remained uncared for during the terrible hot weather, and until decomposition had set in. Finally, a number of women who were acquainted with the wife insisted that the body should be buried, and sending for an undertaker they proceeded to lay it out. Selecting good underclothing for this purpose they had the corpse partially dressed, when the wife interfered and pulled the garments from the body, declaring them entirely too good to be put under the ground, and subsisting old and worn ones in their places.