FATHERS WITH FULL QUIVERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5370, 1 February 1879, Page 7

FATHERS WITH FULL QUIVERS.

In speaking of children the Psalmist says, 41 happv is the man who hath his quiver full of them," and so do doubt it is. Bat a man does not want to maintain his quiver ia a constant state of repletion for ever ; aad io the matter of daughters it is evident that their continued residence in the paternal quiver can only be to the detriment; of a quiver b« longing to some ooe el-e. This fact hnd become abundantly auparent to a gentleman named Bailey, who lives in Michigan. In his quiver were six daughters varying in age fr »m seventeen to twentysir, whose appearance a presumably veracious chronicler describes as ** homely." As the eldest had passed the mid-boundary between 20 and 30 without an opportunity of leaving the quiver, it senmed very likely that the youngest would follow the example, by which time the eldrst would b- thirtyfive ; aud, ill short, Mr Bailey, not at all a selfinh mau, was extremely anxous to bestow a daughter and a blessing upnu anybody who cared to accept those treasures. The young ladies seem also to have done their best to perform the operation kaox-n as "get'ing off;' but though they went about, aud received much company at home, and were ia all respects far from exclusive, not even one husband could be found to r*duce the number. Suddenly, however, a brilliant idea struck him. His daughters could not be made more accessible—or, as the rfcounter of t"e story rudely say*, "more on the market"—should they be uiade lea* so? 41 Const-quently," we are told, (f he looked them up, and gave out that the young men in the place must kee.» away from his house if they did not wiah to be hurt. He iutimated that he s ? ept by day aud sat up all bight at home with a club and revolver. The scheme work-d beautifully. At the end of two weeks of this guarding pretence, one o£ the girls lowered h«-rselt from her chamber window, ran off, and got married. Iu another week a second disappeared in the same way. A third recently returned after a sudden flight a* Mrs. , aud a fourth is engaged. The two remaining daughters are in imminent matrimonial peril " Mr. Bailey is delighted, and is said to be meditating on the expediency of taking out a patent for the relief of fathers whose quivers have Iven too full.