The merchant'was a strict church member,
and when he married his wife he was a Sun- a
day School Superintendent, and he took his
ewe lamb from among his scholars. But in b
that pious household was an apple of dis- b
cord, for Mr. B. loved the sound of Moody
and Sankey hymns, and his wife went it ,
heavy on Olivette and the Mascot. While he h
was invoking a blessing on thd meat they
were about to eat, she was humming the f
overture to LaBelle Helene, or the Little a
Duke. This, of course, was not exceedingly
gratifying to the merchant, who looked t,
upon opera music as an invention of the u
devil, and the theatre as the entrance to
Gehenna. The breach grew wider and t,
wider; the more the merchant prayed for a
his wife's salvation the more she didn't
want to be salvated ; she heard that Lotta sa
played upon the banjo, so she bought a tl
banjo and forthwith went into practice; she c+
saw the Nevada phenonenon, and straight
way tried her hand or her heels in a clog tl
dance. It was growing lively in the Brook- b
lyn household, for whilp the merchant was ti
attending to busines4 in New York, his
friend, the Major, was bttending strictly to a
business at the mercha t's house in Brook- k
lyn. He had a private pass key, so that he tl
could go in without knicking at the door,
or ringing at the bet The Major loved w
opera music and had n4 objection to clog w
dances. No wonder then that the young a'
wife felt the strong bond of sympathy be
tween them. The Major swore that her n
husband was a brute to deny her the si
rational amusements that a wife like her tc
had a right to expect. The young wife lent I,
a willing ear to the voice of the tempter,
and to bring matters 4a focus on Monday P
last she fled from Bro(klyn bag and bag- a.
