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Show TICKLED WIVES TO DEATH Queer Story of How a Texas Postoffice Came by Its Name-Third Wife's Story. Many j ears ago I hetrd of Tlcklefoot I a. small pnstofllce situate! In Ihe east corner of Grimes county Having some Umber land to look nfter out near there I v lilted the place None of the rel-dent rel-dent farmers near the postoffice could give me nns Information until I met a vetetan some SI seals of age who had In early days lived around that lclnlt, and he related to me the following storj Many ears ago there lived In the vl-Mnlty vl-Mnlty of Tlcklefoot 1 mm of middle age, who came thete a stranger from vvhenc.1 no ono knew He was 0, vers noncommunlcative about his early his-tors. his-tors. Helng pleasant nnd agreeable In manner and speech he soon won the confidence of his neighbors There were nt tho time he settled there, several good-looking widows, who wero In good circumstances Tho newcomer bought a small piece of land nnd prepnied to farm During the time lie wnt fixing up his place he commenced to pa marked attention to ono of the widows, and after a short courtship thes were married Tor more than a enr their married life appeared to be n, hupps one ns far as the neigh-bois neigh-bois cuuld see Hhortls after this f erlol thc wlfo was foun 1 deid In bed There wan no sign of viol, nee, and thc neighbors neigh-bors und friends w ho 1 ame to the funeral fu-neral feupposed that the wlfo hid died of heart disease. After she was burled her husband odmlnlitcred on her separate sep-arate estate and a. quired the property thnt she owned before her marriage to him In the course of eighteen months he married aguln. His second wife wns also a Ivldovv with considerable property proper-ty After about sixteen months of married life the second wlfo was found dead In bed without any ssinptonis of violence. The phsslelan who ptattlced near by was cilled to make an examination exami-nation of the corpse, and after viewing the remains, gnve It ns his opinion that Iho woman died of heart failure Both the friends of the man and the dead woman, after the burial of the second wife, became suspicious and nvnlded his I lace. Nono of his neighbors called upon him for n long time, and when the time for mourning had passed and the twice widower In three eirs nttempted to pas court to another widow his attentions at-tentions were received coldly. He was nlso shunned by the soung ladles In the settlement. Shortly nfter these experiences in attempting at-tempting to get a third wife he dlsap penred from the scttlcmentnnd returned In about three months with a big, buxom woman, whom he claimed iih his wife. They did not live so happily together as ho and his previous wives had done, nnd stories were frequently circulated In tho settlement that they had serious quarrels One nUht about 12 o'clock the (bird wife of the man awoke her nearest neighbor, who lived about a mile distant, nnd when admitted to tho house, her hair wns disheveled and garments gar-ments torn, and she had a wild, scared look on her fn.ee After being quieted down and asked to cxpintn her unnatural unnat-ural appearance and looks, sho stnted that her husband had of late frequently attempted to tickle her to death, and Inst night had nlmost succeeded. She further said that she believed that his two previous wives had been tickled to death. When nsked to explain sho told tho following' Her husbnnd was very devoted nnd kind for a yc-nr after their marriage, but after that began to grow cross nnd would find fault with evervthlng she ill I around the house, and within the list two weeks aftet tetiring he would commence to tickle her He continued this nenrls every night until she became be-came so nervous that she would laugh If he would point his linger nt her, and thnt night she went to bed before him, tired out nnd wns soon nsleep About 11 ocIock she awoke ind found herself tied down In bed nnd her hus-land hus-land sitting nt the foot of the bed tl.kllne the L ttoms of her feet She ntPmpted to rise nnd could not, and Imploted him to leave her but he continued con-tinued his hellish work till she could stand It no longer. With nlmost superhuman super-human etTort she broke the bonds with which she wns tied and rushed out of the house The next morning tho whole settlement settle-ment was aroused nnd went to the house to find it deserted The man had 1 lied Although teirch parties weie sent out In ever) direction he was never c n ngnln From this story arose the nnme Tlcklefoot pnstoillcc - Letter In lullas News |