THE VALUii Ob' AsJKAGILE WIFE,

Manawatu Herald, 30 August 1881, Page 4

THE VALUii Ob' As JK AGILE WIFE,

There was a time when American woin^|prided themselves on their f ragiftflfa To hfejiealthyv strong, or plump-was fch6^|nt.%) be the height* of vulgarity, and refinement was held to be inseparable from leanness and consumption. These views still obtain, so it'is said, in Boston", and especially in Bostonian literary circles, but elseyliore the Amorican woman is gre.w&J£. plump and healthy, and ■is -actually proud of it. The lute Mrs Baker — for that iraa her latest name — was perhaps the on ! y fragile woman on record of whom it can be said that .Her. whole value consisted in ; hei fragility,' but as. negatory shows;' her fragility was the sole capital invest^ in her husband's business. In ,iJ6n nary, 1870, Mrs Baker, then womftn, as to whose maicfen name there is some uncertainty, was matried to Mr Wheelright — Jariies Gr. Wheelright, of Worccster/^Tass. Her has--bund married he^on account of her v/pII known fragility, but he treated her wifh fj»r6h kindness chat in tlie wiiota oojfrse of their manisd life he n^vov tfnee broke her, even by acci dciii. In February, 1850', the Wheo'rrghts removed to Utica, N.Y., and One clay Mr V/heehight to k his wife to tli3.-rnil\Vii.y statiuti. Wnd had bfrj •bienk her ley in a small hole in the platform, lie 1 at once, sued the company itir I0;000 doli.,i>eing the value set l.y himself on his wife's leg, and- ten day* accepted 5000 Hols as ■- 4_y|cfrn)|)^nse; The Wheelrichts Wt'Utfca iv June, 1870; and in the following August the duti: illl \iiaW|iyo?n'gb<-, whnn^w fiiilied liora*!^ 11-homaa, brake bet', .other, log in « hole . in the platform of .the railway station at Pittsburg. Again her husband siied the' railway com-pany-for 15.000 doK and compromised .lor GojJO dolsi, The leg was mended successfully, and in July, 1871, we find the Thomases now passing under, the name .of Mr and Mrs' Smiley, at Cincinnati, -where Mr Sniiley, after Jong searching, discovered a piece of ragged and.; uneven sidewalk, upofl which his wife made a point of falling aud: breaking her right avra./; Tliis time the city was sued forl&.OOOdolft, and Mr Smiley proved, that his wife was a school teacher by ''profession, and that the breaking of -her arm rendered it impossible" for her to teach, for the reason that she eonld not wield a rod or even a Slipper,. The city paid the lS.OOOOcJols.'and the Smileys, having by lionesb industry thus made 20,000 . dols, removed to Chicago, and entered their names on the hotel register as Mr ancl fftlrs M.'Ginnis, of Portland, Me. lyji, the second day after their ai;i-iva^at the hotel, Mr M'Ginnis Ifounclja^ eligiblo place on the piazza •for\\rfd M'Ginnis to break another log, which that excellent woman promptly did. ..The usual suit for 15,000d01s was brought, and the hoteUieep/er', fearing the notoriety of the snit.would' injure his hotel, was glad to com promise by paying 8000 dols. By this time, ie i^ uuderst'iod, Mvs M'Ciiunig was willing to retire from bustrieVs, Ivnt her husband had set his Heart on making- 50,000d015, 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 she did not in the least mind the monotony of lying in bed while the broken Jipnes knitted themsel ves together. There 'can, therefore, be no charge of cruelty brought against her hi^lv^d. Indeed, '" she herself entered with hearty goodwill into the^^tilieme of making a Hvinij*witU-lier' hones, and would gp^O'St to break a leg with as

&s if she were going to a theatre. Iv March, 1872, Mrs Wilkins — hitherto known as Mrs M'Ginnis— 'walked into , an open trench in a street in St. Louis and broke another leg. This time the suit brought by Mr Wilkins against tho city did not succeed, and the enquiries jwjiick^eipgint on foot as to the antecedents of the Wilkinsea fairly frightened them out the city. They turned up a morith later in I)etro.it, where the weather was still cold, and' mnch snow had recently fallen. There was stUl 16,000 dols to be made before the industrious pair would have the whole of their desired" 50,000d015, and ife was decided that Mrs Wilkins— w ha had changed her name to Mrs Baker — should fall on the icy pavement and break both arms. This, It was estimated, would be worth at ieast 8000dols, and it was hoped that the subsequent judicious b^eakage^ of $wo legs on- the premises of a Canadian railway would bring inJ3OOO dols more, after which the Bakers 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 bdth her 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 25,000d015, all of which he recovered.. He has thus irade 69,600d01s by the aid of his f. -agile wife, and demonstrated that as a sonvcA df steady income a woman Who breaks easily is almoßt priceless.

A witness being • interrogated v to whether -the defendant in the cue wu drunk, replied, ".WelJ, I can't say that exactly ; but I b&W 'him Bitting in the middle of the floor, making grabs in the air, and sayiDg he'd be whipped if he didn't catch, te^Lh- th« D*it time it ran rqqwlbW'