pasteboard box his false teeth, his watch, his pocket-knife, and some
pieces of silver coin, he placed the box in the manger and lighted the
hay in the mow with a match. After making sure that the fire was in good
way, he jumped from a window in the barn and ran, without detection, to
his house and hid himself in the attic. Neighbors, missing Gramps, made
a diligent search for him which resulted only in finding the molten
remains of the pocket knife and other articles in the ash-heap where the
barn was burned. Amid much mourning loving hands gathered ashes from the
tragical spot and tenderly laid them in an expensive casket. The next
day at the funeral in the parlor of the Gramps home, a minister from St.
Louis delivered an empassioned eulogy, extolling the manifold
excellencies of the honored dead (?). Through an open stairway door
Gramps heard the eloquent words of the clergyman and the heart-rending
sobs of his own wife and children.

After seeing his funeral done up in proper style, Gramps went to
Colorado, where for a year, going under an assumed name, he conducted a
Sunday School and took active part in other religious enterprises.
Through the cooperation of his wife, who remained on the homestead at
Dobbinsville, he came into possession of $10,000 from an insurance
company in New York City. At the end of a year he planned for his wife
to join him in Colorado, where, according to his statement, they were to
begin life anew. But their plans were upset when the Deacon sent his
wife a check signed with his assumed name, which name consisted of the
first two words of his real name. Gramps and his wife are both in jail,
where they await the action of the court and where they have a splendid
opportunity to meditate upon the interesting happenings of the past
year. Whether or not Mrs. Gramps was an accomplice has not yet
developed.