A WOMAN WITH TWO HUSBANDS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1312, 30 April 1872, Page 2

A WOMAN WITH TWO HUSBANDS.

The general fueling of xmeasiness excited by the number of Ehoeh. Aniens* who have recently turned up will not be-lessened 1 by an* event which has just happened in Missouri* and is thivt related by the Cincinnati Enquirer. A one-armed horseman, lately travelling; through. Missouri, stopped at a blacksmith's shop in Cedar City to- haye his horse shod. The smith, noticed his; empty slee\e, and asked him if he had lost his arm- in. the war.. Pie replied; with a sigh that he had; and' added with much emotion, that on going bank to his home at the close of" the war he found that his w ife, who thought he was dead, had moved away, and he had. since been unable to obtain a trace of" her. "What is your name?" asked the blacksmith. "J. M. Waldrup," was the reply. The smith suddenly released the hoof of the horse over which he had been bending, and,, without looking at the ex-soldier, cried, " follow me into the house," and hurriedly led* the way. Waldrup mechanically obeyed theunexpected bidding, and was ushered into the presence of a comely matron,, about whose sewing chair three happy children were playing. She was the blacksmith's wife, the mother of his little ones, and rose to greet the strange? on his appearance with her husband a* - . the door. No sooner, however, did shecatch sight of his face, than she uttered a heart-rending shriek and fainted. Jiv Waldrup she recognised her husband.. lii the firm belief that he had been killed in the war, she had married the blacksmith of Cedar City, and was already the mother of three fine children. * After the agitation of the assembled group had subsided, Waldrupand the smith retired to the smithy to talk the matter over. Devotedly as the smith loved his wife, he fully admitted Waldrup's superior claims, and it was in the end decided that she herself should decide between them. They accordingly returned to the sitting-room, where, after a torrent of tears and selfreproaches, the wife came to the conclusion that she ought to return to her first husband. Suddenly dropping herhead, however, on the blacksmith'sshoulder, she declared with bitter lamentations that she could not leave her children. The smith "eyed her wistfully " for a moment, and then said in a husky voice, "You bhall take*

them, my dear." Some hours later, when the steamboat St. Luke stopped at the landing, Waldrup went on board with his " thickly veiled and still weeping wife," and the blacksmith followed leading the children. The boat's bell rang for the starting. The dread moment of separation was at hand. The captain, the crew, and passengers were affected to tears at the touching scene. "With great drops rolling down his tawny cheeks," the smith kissed his children one after the other, and bade the mother an eternal good bye. He then shook bunds long and earnestly with Waldrup, and walked quietly to the shore. He never turned his faec towards the boat, which soon passed out of sight, but strode on with head bowed down to the home where the voice of his wife and children would welcome him no more.