USA > New Jersey > Somerset County > Within a Jersey circle : tales of the past, grave and gay, as picked up from old Jerseyites > Part 9
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4 on Thursday, No. 3 on Friday, No. 2 on Saturday, resting at No. I on Sunday, commencing work again on Monday at No. I. Thus she went the same round week in, week out, with the regularity of the sun.
"The same nicety of cut-and-dried co-operative, eco- nomic and tactical discipline ruled in everything in the seven sisters' row, the complete details of which would fill a small volume. The enumeration of them was a common theme of conversation in the village and was said to strike a kind of superstitious awe to the breasts of men in general. But George Lilly's faith and inter- est were unshaken.
" 'Frankie,' he conned over to himself, after McCon- nel had told him these things and left him alone, 'Frankie! What a nice, sprightly kind of name! And so exactly appropriate to the very prettiest little thing I ever did see. Heigho! I only fear she'll never have me. However, it will not be my fault if she don't. I'll try, anyway; "faint heart never won fair lady!"'
"Then the young man, surveying his features in his six-by-eight-inch looking glass, ran his fingers through his fair hair, patted his quite promising side whiskers and slightly smiled a little encouragement to himself.
"The sisters came and went to the store, as had long been their wont; and beyond allowing Lilly in a distant way to feel that they appreciated his assiduous business efforts to please them, there was neither in word nor look any attempt at bridging over the gulf that, at all events in the elder sisters' minds, must forever yawn be- tween them and any tradesman. That there was an ex- ception in some manner, either in her eyes, speech or
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some mysterious way, in Frankie's case, might be inferred from the fact that as time wore on, her sincere admirer plainly gained in good spirits and hopefulness.
"When Christmas came this assumed practical shape, in the good old custom of Christmas boxes. And though he was a trifle green and awkward-looking, when Lilly did a thing of that kind he did it well. He sent all the sisters beautiful, seasonable presents. Young tow-head had to toil all the way to the row seven times with them, and the last box, which the donor took good care should not be the least, almost proved the proverbial last straw to Louis. It was addressed to Miss Frankie Jenkins, at house number 4, of the Seven Sisters' row.
"Thus did treason first insinuate its daring front within the battlemented ramparts of the immaculate row. Frankie, being courtmartialed about it, read her sisters a declaration of independence, and declared further that 'Mr. Poppy' should have an invitation to call at the New Year, even if she had to extend the request herself. With more sorrow than anger, Mary Eliza, to save the family escutcheon from utter disgrace, conceded the point, and Mr. Lilly called on New Year's Day at No. I and re- ceived the thanks of the seven sisters, then and there con- vened for that purpose. Once the awful trial of enter- taining a man was over, and after the room had had a thorough cleaning and the windows had been left open for two whole consecutive days, the ordeal was considered over and done with, and a struggle was made to forget it.
"Things were again passing along in the ordinary way in the row, when one day, perhaps a week after Mr.
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Lilly's visit at No. I, that martinet of spinsterhood, Mary Elisha, happened to run in at No. 4 with some fond and trival message for Frankie. As soon as she entered the hallway she sniffed around with an exceed- ingly wry face.
" 'Sister Frankie!' she cried, horrorstricken, 'there's been a man here!'
" 'Yes, Mary Eliza,' answered Frankie, 'it was only Mr. Pop-Mr. Lilly, I mean. He very kindly brought me my unbrella, which I had forgotten in his store. That was nothing to be alarmed at, was it?'
"The elder woman could only express her feelings by a shudder and a suppressed moan, as she dropped weakly into a chair.
" 'Yes, sister,' Frankie continued, 'and do you know, Mr. Lilly has asked me to go to church with him. I saw no harm in that either, so I said "Yes," and that I had no objection; and he's going to call for me next Sunday morning.'
"Mary Eliza got to her home by a great effort; ex- actly how, she never knew. No suddenly dethroned and disgraced monarch ever more completely collapsed than she did. Her rule was over; her prestige trampled in the dust; her scepter had passed from her into other hands -into a man's hands! and that man a plebeian, country grocer! It was too, too much! She immured herself in her north-wing redoubt and was ill and unapproach- able for several days.
"Meantime the persistent 'Poppy,' now, however, no longer so dubbed, but given the full benefit of his own proper name, Mr. Lilly, duly appeared at No. 4 on the
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following Sunday, arrayed in what he had considered in England his unimpeachable Sunday-go-to-meeting best. It was only to meet another rebuff, even more stingingly humiliating than that at his first meeting with the dam- sel of his choice. For Miss Frankie had a decided will and mind of her own, and withal, certain definite ideas of the proprieties. The result of this was that the moment she set eyes upon her would-be cavalier, in his imported, tall, narrow and almost rimless stovepipe hat, flaring, checked trousers and a coat that seemed to have been made for his grandfather, she was completely shocked, and frankly told him she would never go to church or anywhere else with such a hat and coat as she then beheld. The poor young man blushed crimson and went home, utterly crestfallen -- and 'never to come back again!' some would probably say. But those who thought so did not know Mr. Lilly. He was irrepressible, indefatigible.
"Not in the least offended or discouraged, he turned up at No. 4 on the following Sunday, dressed from head to foot in brand-new New York clothes of the very latest cut and pattern. And Frankie accompanied him, as she had promised, to church.
"Furthermore, in due course of time, with several of her elder sisters as bridesmaids, she met him at the same old Dutch Reformed church that stands in the same place still, and became his wife. Then, as I have hinted, once the rosy-cheeked little Cupid got in some of his handi- work, he looked around for other victims. And in this quest Brother-in-law Lilly became his right-hand man and sworn ally among the sisters.
"In the first place, with good common sense and
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liberally broad, democratic views, and a very modest and persuasive way of expressing them, Mr. Lilly completely won over all of his six sisters-in-law to a more reasonable and kindly estimate and regard for their natural, best friends and helpmates, men. Not only this, but he held briefs, as it were, for other young fellows like himself- not rich and high-minded swells, as he said, who thought only of themselves and knew nothing but how to spend money-but honest-hearted young men who were ready to work and make money, and who made also, he de- clared, the best husbands in the world.
"Furthermore, quite accidentally, as it seemed, he brought just such young fellows to his house, and with- out any palaver or preparation, introduced them and his wife's sisters over cups of tea and cards, and in evening walks in the summertime, and lo, the result! Weddings became the rage in Seven Sisters' row until, to the joy of them all-yea, even of the dethroned queen of spinster- hood-of Mary Eliza herself-they were every one of them mated and made happy wives, one of the husbands being James McConnel, the very youth who had all un- wittingly but sadly misrepresented as good and true a lot of women as ever were misunderstood and underesti- mated by their neighbors."
Mr. T. added that Frankie was the only one of the seven sisters surviving when he was a small boy. He re- membered her perfectly, he said. She never had any chil- dren, and when he knew her she did not live in the some- what famous row. In fact, the seven houses, although still there, had long before his time passed into other hands.
A SHATTERED ROMANCE.
DRAMATIC TERMINATION OF A YOUNG PHYSICIAN'S LOVE- MAKING ON WHAT IS NOW CALLED JERSEY CITY HEIGHTS.
After the members of what has come to be known as the Reminiscence Club had exchanged greetings at their regular gathering, and had taken seats around the cheery fire at the old Hillsborough Homestead, Mrs. S. was called upon for a story of bygone days.
"Twenty years ago," she said, after a moment's thought, "I lived in a haunted house at 91 Storm avenue, on Jer- sey City Heights, which in my young days was still called Bergen. The house long ago disappeared and now a trol- ley line runs over the place where it stood. On the lawn were a few large, old cherry trees which bore very fine and delicious fruit. One day as I sat under the biggest of the trees enjoying its cool shade, an old, white-haired, well-dressed man, stopping at the garden gate, wished me a good morning and said he would very much like to taste the cherries that hung in ripe clusters on the tree over my head. He added that his wish was really only a senti- mental one. He had planted that and most of the other trees around there when he was a young fellow in his teens, he said. Having been down at that time in Vir- ginia he had brought back a lot of young trees of very choice kinds. Among them were several 'lady heart' cher- ries, all of which he planted ; but, he explained, the tree
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underneath which I sat was the only one of them that had lived."
"'My father built this house,' went on the stranger as he sat down and began to eat some cherries; 'it must be a hundred years old. My father was John Mandeville. He's been dead these many years. I'm his son James.'
"Now, thought I," here is the very man to ask about the things I have heard in this house. I had been thor- oughly frightened at night several times by the most inex- plicable sounds, and without loss of time I asked my vis- itor about them.
" 'Well,' Mr. Mandeville answered, 'I cannot say that I ever had direct proof of anything unusual about the house. But I'm not going to deny that such things have often been told about it by very credible and level-headed people. For my part, I was born here and I spent my childhood and boyhood here, but I cannot say that I ever saw or heard anything out of the common. But that does not gainsay others' experiences. There have been great changes here, and everywhere else, since I was a boy. That's a long time ago. I'm eighty-one now; and many, and some of them peculiar, people have lived here since those days. By the way, do you happen to know crazy Gussie ?'
"'Well,' he continued, when I replied in the affirma- tive, 'poor old Gussie was born in this house. That fact of itself hasn't much to do with the subject, but there were some pathetic incidents in her life, poor thing.' "
"Being urged to proceed, he told us that his father had sold the house and lot we then occupied, together with much more land, to a well-to-do man, named Everett.
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When they went there, the Everett family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Everett, one son and five daughters. In the first year of their tenancy one more child was added to the family. It was, according to my visitor, the tiniest, sweetest little doll of a girl baby that ever was seen. The little thing was perfectly formed, but so small that she could lie at full length on her father's slipper. Her ad- vent created quite a sensation and people went miles to see her. Perhaps no baby ever born before or since in Hudson County had so many callers and admirers. Her big brother and sisters became very fond and proud of her, and as she began toddling about, she was beloved and petted by all.
" 'She was an apt pupil at school,' continued the old man, 'and there as elsewhere everybody admired and gave way to her, as if she were a little fairy queen. She had refined parents and a happy home, and by the time she reached her sixteenth year, she was a lovable and pretty little thing, but in appearance she was like a child of twelve. As she approached her seventeenth year, Au- gusta, or as she was affectionately called, little Gussie, looked out upon the world through the eyes of a woman and fell in love.
"'A young doctor having appeared upon the scene to begin practise, there was a flutter of excitement among all the marriageable daughters and their mothers in the growing village. There was much speculation as to which girls said he thought her nothing but a mere child, and at once look out for a wife. Gussie's parents were not, however, among those given to speculations of that kind. They were the old-fashioned, prudish kind of people, with
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a horror for 'bringing their daughters out,' or having them in any way invite the notice of men. Their diminutive and pretty daughter, however, had her own ideas of these things, but kept her own counsel, and though none of her own people suspected it, she was 'just dying' to meet the doctor, whom she had already seen several times.
"'At last Gussie's dearly wished for opportunity came. One of her girl friends had a birthday party, to which she was invited, and at it she met the doctor. To her su- preme delight he paid her marked attention. The other girl said he thought her nothing but a mere child, and they were, perhaps, not far astray. When men find themselves cornered in a tight place and clearly in for it, among many fair ones, all over-anxious to please, they will sometimes make a "dead set" in the most frivolous and unmeaning way in some perfectly safe quarter. What- ever may have been the doctor's ideas that evening, and however childish-looking the object of his particular no- tice was, his blandishments entirely transfigured the quite womanly and all too susceptible heart of little Gussie Ev- erett, and the result was that she went home "head and ears in love" with the young physician.
"'Her time being quite her own-for her tiny, deli- cate hands had never been soiled by work of any kind --- she soon learned the doctor's office hours and made up little fictions of errands, so as to meet him in the street. And in time, seeing plainly the complete conquest he had made, the budding physician, like many another young fellow, encouraged the girl and really fostered the flame he had kindled. He thought it an excellent joke.
" 'Unquestionably there are great numbers of both
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genders of the human race who, though they may be per- fectly alert and circumspect, in all other ways, are utterly irrational and apparently blind as soon as the heart is in- volved. Pretty little Gussie was clearly one of the num- ber. For nothwithstanding. her practical common-sense bringing up, all the usual shrewdness and judgment for which she had been remarkable on all other matters were seemingly cast to the winds at the very first show of the young doctor's preference for her. On any other subject she would have confided in and advised with her fond parents or sisters, or at least with her girl friends. But the moment the heart's great realm was invaded she was deaf, dumb and blind to all else but a headlong pursuit according to its yearnings and dictates. The doctor un- scrupulously continued to humor her, giving her flowers and bonbons-just as he would do with any other pretty and interesting child, he told himself-yet knowing quite as well as she did that in doing so he was really toying dangerously with a woman's heart.
"After a lapse of a year, and when the young man had established a fairly promising practise, he announced his intention of going to his former home on a visit. It was the balmy beginning of June and the evening before his departure. He was strolling along a favorite walk of his out toward Claremont. The robins were in full song, the air delicious, with that delightful modulation of light and heat, so refreshing at the close of day. His ter- rier gave a short bark, then, wagging its tail, the animal ran to some one it knew, and the doctor saw, only a short distance off the path, Gussie Everett, seated under a leafy canopy, making a nosegay of flowers she had gathered.
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" 'A little fairy in her bower!' he exclaimed, and seat- ing himself on the log beside her, he said many other fond and pretty things which Gussie, many a year after- ward, used to recount. They exchanged little keepsake flowers, and the young man declared he would treasure and preserve the delicate exotic forget-me-nots which she unpinned from her dress and gave to him. The two parted, poor little Gussie's head swimming and her eyes dimmed in the blissful conviction which she rightly or wrongly entertained that the doctor was her own true lover and that he was coming back from his vacation to make her his wife.
"The weary month of his absence, though appearing an age to Gussie, was but a prolongation of painful bliss to her. Every carol of the robin, every tuneful anthem of the thrush, every delicious roundelay of the oriole seemed Nature's accompaniment to the all-absorbing love- song of her soul. The weeks had dragged heavily past until one more only remained. Then came an invitation to all the leading families from the absent man's landlady to a little reception which the good lady was getting up as a surprise for the doctor on his return.
"The little ripple of interest, as to this home-coming, among her girl friends rather offended Gussie at first. She wondered why any one but herself should aspire to welcome the doctor back again. Soon, however, she was made happy by the usual make-believe policy so success- fully practised on children and for the remaining few days of waiting she composed herself into a serene assur- ance of her pre-eminent position among those who were to surprise the home-coming doctor with a welcome.
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"At last, at 8 o'clock in the evening, when the doctor was expected, a goodly company of heads of families and young people sat around the large parlor of his boarding- house, waiting to greet him. As usual, the village pet and favorite of every one, little Gussie, who this night, all agreed, looked radiantly beautiful, was the centre of attraction among them all, and she was given the seat of honor, among a bevy of pretty girls in the middle of the wide circle facing the door.
"Soon a carriage was heard to stop. The door knocker rapped out a brisk summons and then footsteps were heard in the hall. The company rose to greet the re- turning traveler. The landlady threw open the door and the doctor, accompanied by a lady, stepping over the threshold, stopped and glanced in astonishment around the circle.
" 'Why, bless my soul !' he exclaimed. 'Oh, now I see ! Well, truly, my friends, this is beautifully kind of you. It gives me the greater delight to receive such a very agreeable and genuine surprise as this, because I have now somebody here to help me in the appreciation of it.
"'My dear friends,' he added, motioning to his now blushing companion, 'let me introduce to you my wife !'
The last words had but left his lips when a low moan of pain was heard and a girlish figure dropped senseless to the floor within a yard of the doctor's feet. It was Gussie."
" 'The heat was too much for her,' said the doctor as he raised the slight figure in his arms. 'Please open the door and bring me some water!'
"Then he carried her out to the little lawn. Gussie
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soon recovered consciousness. She, however, greatly as- tonished her anxious friends by a somewhat dramatic procedure. The doctor, still kneeling by her side, was sprinkling her face, chafing her hands, etc., to restore animation, when the little patient, suddenly rousing her- self, fixed dilating eyes upon his face, wrenched her hand from his and, in a high key, dared him ever to lay a finger on her again. He looked seriously at the girl's father and mother and, rising to his feet, he told them in an undertone that Gussie had better be taken home and put to bed. The carriage in which he and his wife had but a few minutes before arrived at the house was still at the gate, he said, and he urged that it be used for taking the patient home.
"This advice was followed, and soon Gussie, under the influence of a composing draft, dropped quietly to sleep in her own room in the so-called haunted house. The Everett family, though seriously concerned about Gussie that evening, thought the worst was past, and about the usual hour all retired. But they were doomed to a rude disappointment. About 2 o'clock in the morning Mrs. Everett, who had been somewhat wakeful, at last awoke her husband, and, trembling in every limb, told him she was sure some one was walking on the roof of the ver- anda, which was very flat and went completely around two sides of the house. Mr. Everett pooh-poohed what he called his wife's imagination, and said it was only the result of her disturbed nerves. But as they thus whis- pered, their very hearts stood still on hearing a girl's scream, and then footsteps running swiftly along the ver-
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Mr. Everett dashed to the window, flung up the sash and got out, just as Gussie, in her night robe, took a flying leap from the roof to the ground.
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anda roof. This was followed by a wild call for help and a girl screaming that a man was going to kill her.
"Mr. Everett dashed to the window, flung up the sash and got out, just as Gussie in her night robe took a flying leap from the roof to the ground. Without searching for any man, the father rushed back through his window and down to the lawn, where he found his daughter, moan- ing and shivering, in a perfect frenzy of fear, but, mar- velously, with no broken bones. At first she only shrieked and shrunk away from her father. But when he took her up in his arms and put his face against hers soothingly, kissing her forehead and disheveled hair, all wet with cold beads of terror, she suddenly knew him and became calmer. Then she was carried back and quietly laid in her bed like a tired child and soon she fell asleep.
"Awaking in the morning Gussie gazed for some time in a dazed way from one to another of those she loved. Then burying her face in the pillow she wept and sob- bed as if her heart would break. For over a week she continued in bed, spending most of her waking hours either in tears or in fits of uncontrollable laughter.
"When in the course of some weeks she was again able to be about, she showed unmistakable signs that her mind was unbalanced. So pronounced was this that her girl friends began to shun her, and the doctor finding his name publicly associated in a more or less compromising way with her mental state, soon gave it out that because of his failing health he was going to leave the neighborhood. It wasn't long before he departed, and when he had gone most of the villagers said : 'Good riddance.'
"In the course of years the harmless vagaries of the 11
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erstwhile pride and pet of the village were so persistent as to gain for her the title of 'Crazy Gussie.' As she grew older she seemed particularly fond of children. Almost every fine day when school was dismissed she was to be seen awaiting the little ones coming at her front gate. Her head barely reached above the palings and her hands were at such times always full of decayed fruit, faded flow- ers or trimmings from vines or shrubbery. These she would hand in a kind of surreptitious and cautious way to the little ones.
At other times she would invite the children inside the gate, and having arranged them in a row on the bottom step of the front stoop, with many warnings to be very quite lest her sisters should come out and be upon them, she would tip-toe around as if in the garden of Blue- beard, and come back chuckling and whispering over the prizes she brought. These would be only some worth- less flowers, shriveled berries or the like. The children were amused and pleased, for child-like they knew by instinct that Gussie meant well and dearly loved them.
"At Christmas or on some child's birthday Gussie would manage in some way to make her little favorites presents of one kind or another. Once a lady was sorely grieved over the loss of her canary. Gussie, who was very sorry for her, purchased a young chicken and brought it to the bereaved lady to put into the empty cage. As the years went by and when Gussie's hair had silver threads, the village girls of fourteen or fifteen used to find great amusement in teasing her about her beaux. At times they would have her in their homes and while they played the piano she would sing and dance for them.
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Then while they would put up her thinning locks in curl papers she would chat gaily about her approaching marriage, generally giving broad hints that the unmarried doctor of the village was to be the happy man. Again, when her professional choice married some one else, as her first love had done many a long year ago, she would fume about it terribly and threaten dire vengeance.
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