UNKNOWN

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3159, 12 August 1881, Page 4

UNKNOWN

In' l:il(- 1 - ! rs ivikor — for (hut. was lior List name—\vii--« not m> fragile t-'mt she ooulrl ru.t he '■anilh-d ! iv a c:i!v!';i; man, but Mill a very oluw -wouM u?uhllv break lier. Hie was very of her fragility, and by its iiiil her husband rcii'mgeil to iiinass n con!ji'.i»'i'ublft foi-Mmo witiiin their inurrin.Ke. s 'ne is perliups the only fragile woman on rc'.-orcl of whom it can bo said that her who'e value consisteJ in her fragility ; bit, a- her story shows, her fragility was the sole capital invested in her husband's business. In January, 1870, Mrs Baker—Mien a single woman, as to whose maiden name there is some uncertainty—-was married to Mr Wheelwright—Jas. (1. Wheelwright,, of Worcester. Mass. Her husband married her on account of her well known fragility, but he treated her with such kindness that, in the whole course of their married life he never once broke her, even by accident. In February, 1870, the Wheelwrights removed to Utica, N.Y., and one day Mr Wheelwright took his wife to the railway station, and had her break her leg in a small hole in the platform, lie at once sued the railway company for 19,000 dollar.-, being the value set by himself on his wife's leg, and ten days afterwards accepted 5000 dollars as a compromise and withdrew the suit i he Wheelngiits left Utica in June, 1870, and in the following i\ugiis' the dutiful Mrs Wheelwright, who now called herself Mrs i liomas, broke her other leg in a hole in the platform of the vuil aay station :it Pitts burg. Again her husband sued the railway company for IS.COO dollars, and compromised for" 6500 dollars. '< he. leg was mended successfully, and ii. July, 1871, we find the '1 homuses, now parsing under the name of Mr and Mrs Smiley, at Cincinnati, where Mr Smiley, after long searching, discovered a piece of ragged and uneven sidewalk, upon which his wife made a point of falling and breaking her right arm. This time the city was sued for 15,000 dollars, and Mr .Smiley prove-.: (.hut his wife was a scholar tearher by j'lVJ'ession, and that the breaking of her arm rendered it impossible for her to reach, fur the reason that she could not wield a rod, or even a slipper. The city paid the 15,000 dollars, and th" Smileys having by honest industry thus made 26,000 dollars, removed to ( hieago, find entered their : iime on the hotel register as Mr and ''■'Ys M'Ginnes, of Portland, Me. On 'he second day after their arrival at the hotel, Mr M'Grinnes found an eligible place on the piazza for Mrs ■ 'Gritinee to break another leg, which that excellsnt woman promptly did. 'She usual suit for 15,000 dollars was brought, and the hotel keeper, feeling that the notoriety of the suit would injure his hotel, was glad to compromise by paying NOOO dollars. By this time, it is understood, Mrs M'Ginnes was willing to retire from business, but her husband had set his heart on making 25,000 dollars, and like a good wife, she consented to break some more bones. It should be said that there was very little pain attending a fracture of any one of the lady's bones, and that s!-e did no in the least mind the monotony of lying in bed while the broken bones knitted together. There can, therefore, be no charge of cruelly brought against the husband. Indeed, she herself entered with hearty good will into the scheme of making ri liviiii/ with her bones arid would go out to bred; a leg with as much cheerfulness as if she were going to a theatre. In March, 11<72, Mrs Wilkins—hitherto known as Vrs M'Ginues —walked into an open trench in the street in ist Louis, and broke :■ nor her leg. This time the suit brought <i\ Mr Wilkins against the city did not succeed, and the inquiries which were put on foot as to the antecedents of the Wilkinscs fairly frigh'ened them out of the city. 'I hey turned up a month later in Uelroit, where the weather was still cold, and much snow had recently fallen. There were -till 1<.... - ■'.» dollar- to be made before tl-e industrious pair would have the whole of t cir desiro'! y'l,ooo dollar?, and it was <!<■ UH-d that -rs Wilkins—who had changed iii. , ; , name to .Mrs linker—should fall on the pavement and break both her arms. This was estimated would be worth at least 8000 dollars, and it was hoped that that the subsequent judicious breakage of two legs on the premises of the Canadian railway would bring in 8000 dollars more, after which the P-akers intended to retire from business. Early one morning Mr Baker took his wife out and had her fall on a nice piece of ice where she broke both h<?r arms. Unfortunately, she fell more heavily than was necessary, and in addition broke her neck, and instantly expired. The grief of Mr Baker naturally knew no bounds, and he sued for 25,000 dollars, all of which he recovered, lie had thus made 59,000 dollars, by the aid of his fragile wife, and demonstrated that, a source of steady income, a woman who breaks easily is almost priceless. Still, nothing could console him for the loss of his beloved parner, and he is to-day a louelv and unhappy man.—New York Times.