One Of "the Jiners."

She was about forty-five yeara old, welldresscd ; had black hair, rathrr tliin and tinged with gray, and eyea in which gleamed tlie fire.s of a dotermination not oasily balkt'd. Sho waltod int a lawyei's oLo8 in the wost, and requMtod a private interview; and haviiiR obtained it, and twtisfiud lu'isulf' that tlic law student.s wero not listening at the key hole, .said, lluwly, solemnly, and imjuessively. " I want a divortc." " Vliatl'ni? I supposcd you liad onc of i lio beat orhusbands, aid tlie lawyer. "1 lpose that's what evorybody thinks ; but il'they knew wlyit I'vo sulTured in ten yearü, thoy'd wonder I liadn't scaldod liini long a;o. 1 ought to ; but i'or the sako of the yoflng ènm l'vc borne it and said nothiiiK- I'vu told him, tliough, what hc might depend ou, and oow the tiuio'a come. I wou't stand it. youug ones or no young (mes. I'll have a divOroe. and if the noighbors waut to blab thonisolvos hoarae about it, they can, for 1 wou't stand it anothcr day." " Hut what is the matter? Don't your husband próvido for you? Don't ho treat you kindly f" .said the lawyer. " Well, il' you must know, he's one of thütn plaguey jiners." V what?" " A jiner ; one of them pesky fools that'n always jining something. There can't nothing come along that's dark and sly and bidden, but he'lljine it. If anybody should get up a. society to burn bis house down, hu'd jino it as soon as he could get in ; and if he had to pay for it he'd go all the suddener. We hadn't been married more'n two months before he jined the Know Nothin's. We lived on a farm then ; and every Satarday night he'd come tearin' in before suppcr, grab a fistfull of nut cakes, and go on gnawin' 'em, and that's the last I'd sec of him till morning. And every other night he'd roll and tumble in his bed, and holler in his sleep, ' Put none but Americans on guard - George Washington. ' And rainy days he would go out in the cornbarn and jab at a picture of the l'ope with an old bagnet that was there. I ought to put niy foot down then ; but ho fooled me so with his lies about the Pope's coming to make all the Yankee girls marry Irishmen, and to eat up all tbc babes that wan't born with .1 cross on thcir foreheads, that I let hun go on and encouraged him in it. "Then hc jineJ the Masons. P'raps you know what thein be ; but I don't, cept thoy think they are the same kind of critters that built iáolomon's temple and took oaro of his concubines. And of all the darned noncsense and gab about worship1 ui masters and squares and compasses and sicu like, that we had in the house lor the next six inonths, you never see tho beat. And he never outgrew it, nuther. What do you iliink of a man, squirc, tbat'll dresg hissolf in a white apron, 'bout big enough tbr a nionkey bib, and go uiarching up and dowD, and making oiotions, and talking the roolishest lingo at a picture of George Washington in a green jacket and a truss on his stomach ? Aiu't he a loonytick ? Well, that's uiy Sam, and I've stood it as long as I'in going to. "The next lange the fooi iuade wxs into the Odd Fellows. I uiade it warm f'or him whe he carne lióme and told me he'd jined theui, but he kinder pacified me by telling me thoy had a sort of branch show that took in women, and he'd get me in as soon as he found out how to do it. Well, ont night he come home and said l'd boen proposed, and somebody had black-balled me. Did it his.self, of' course. Didn't want me around knowing of his goings on. Of course ho didn't, and I told him so. "Then he jiued the Sons of Malter. Didn't say nothiu' to me about it, but sueaked off one night, pretendin' he'd got to set up with a sick Odd Feller, and l'd nevur found it out, only he come home lookin' liku a man that had been through a thrashing-inachine, and I wouldn't do a thing f'or him till he owned up. And so its gonc from bad to wus, from wus to wusser, jinin' this and that and t'othcr, till ho's Worship Minister of the Masons, and Uoddess oi'Hope oi' the Odd Fellows, and Sword Swallower of the Finnegans, and Virgin Cerrus of' the Grange, and Grand Mogul of' the Sons of Indolence, and Twoedged Tomahawk of the United Order of Black Men, and Talcbearer of the Merciful Manikins.and Skipper of the Guild Cartine Oolumbus, and Big Wizard of the Arabian Knights, and Bigl'ledgcpasser of tho Reform Club, and Chief Bulger of the Irish Mauhinists, and Purse-keeper of the Order of the Canadian Conscience, and Doublé barreled Director of the Knights of Rrass (Jireles, and Standard-bearer of the Roya] Archangels, and Sublimo' Porte of Union ' league, and Chambermaid of the Cherubs, and Puissant Potenate, of the Petrified Pig-strikers, and the Lord only knows what else. l've borne it and borne it hopin' he'd get 'cm all jined after a whilc, but 'tain't no use ; and when he'd got into a newone, and be made Grand Guide of the Knights of Horror, I told him I'd quit and I wil]." Here the lawyer interrupted, saying : "Well, your husband is pretty well initiated, that's a fact ; but tlie court will liardly cali that good cause for a divorce. The most of the societies you mention are composed of honorable uien, and have excellent reputationa. Many of them, though called odges, are jelief associations and mutual insurance couipanies, which, if he should die, would take care of you, and would not seo you suffer f you were sick." " See me suffer when I'm sick ! Tako care of me when he's dead! Well, I guess not! I can take care of myself when he's dead; and if I can't I can get another. There's plenty of 'em. And theyneedn't bother themselves when I'm sick, either. If I want to be sick and suffer, it'snone of their business ! especially after all the sufferin' l've had when I ain't sick, because of their carryin's on. And you necdn't try and uiake me believe it's all right either. I know what it is to live with a man that jines so many lodgus that lic don't never lodge at home, and signs his name yours truely, Sam Smith, M. M., I. O. O. F., K. O. B., K. of P., P. of II., R. A. II., I. I. P.j K. of X.. N. 0., L E. T., II. EL R., R. I. A, X. N. Z., etc." "Oh, that is harmless amusement." She looked him square in the eye: " I believe you aru a jiueryourself." He admitted thÜ hc was to a certain cxtent, and shc arose aud said : " I woulda't have thought it. A man like you, chairnian of a sabliatli 6uhool,und Muperintendcnt of the republicans. ft'.s cnouph to uiake a woman takc pisen. But I don't want anything of' you. [ want a lawyur tliat don t bolong to nobody or nothin'." And she bolted out of the office for anothcr adviser.