Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1850-09-23
A MiSer.

4 In the upper part OF Boston, on what is
called ''the Neck" there lived some years
ago, a wealthy old man, who resorted to
curious methods to live without cost to him
self His house-one Of the handsomest
mansions in the South End in its day,
stood near the road over which the garden.
ers, times past, used to go TO- market with
their loads Of. vegetables, two days OF each
week. Old Gripes would be- up before
day and on the lookout for these wagons.
Halo! what have you got there?' says
the miser to the countryman. g~ -
sWell, daddy, little Of, all sorts; pota-
toes, parsnips, turneps, cabbage, and So on,
Won't you look at 'em?' ' -s@'- 81
At this the old miser would begin TO
tumble over the vegetables, pocket pota-
toe, an onion, turnep,7 or s,-.. .= ....
.Ah, yes, they are good enough, but we
poor creatures cant afford TO pay such pri-
ces as you ask, no, no, we must wait till
they come down. RI @-H - s5.'sd 5s9;.
The old miser would sneak into the
house with his stolen vegetables, and the
farmer would drive on. Then back would
come the miser and lay in ambush for an.
other load, and thus, in few hours, he
would raise enough vegetables give his
household dinner: ~ t~e a.5i l,'fu b.
Another dodge Of this artful dodger, was
to take all the coppers he had got (and of
course, poor creature like him handled
Ia great many,) and then go abroad among
the stores and trade them off for. sixpence,
get quarter Of dollar for them, and thus
in getting dollar, he made four percent.
by several hours of mean, disgusting Ia
Dor.
But one day the old man ran afoul a
snag.s A market man had watched him
for some time fpurloining his vegetables,
and on the first of the year sent in a bill
of several dollars for turneps, potatoes.
parsnips, &c. The miser Of course re.
fused to pay the bill. denying ever having
had the goods. But the countryman call
ed prOpria persona, refreshed his memo
ry, and added that if the bill was not foot
ed on sight that he should prosecute him
for stealing! This made the old miser
shake in his boots. He clustered for a
while, then reasoned the case, then plead
poverty, &c. But the purveyor in veget.
fables was not the man to be- cabbaged in
that way > and the old man called him into
his sitting room, and ordered his son, a wild
scamp, to 20 up stairs and see if he could
find FIVE dollars niany Of the drawers or
boxes up there. The young man finally
/ cried. OUT ~ a; -,sa zs# Ezsit
+ Dad! which bag shall I take it out Of
the gold OF, ,silyer?' ,., .,,.,.....-, s,. ..
+ odd zoundsp bawled the old man-the
boy wants to let out tha: I've got bags OF
gold and silver!' sT% ~ @s.a - Hss'5. ''
And so he had many thousand dollars in
good gold and silver. He hobbled up stairs,
/ got nine half dollars, and tried to get fifty
cents less than the countryman's bill; but
the countryndn' was as stubborn as mule,
and would not abate farthing, so the old
miser had to hobbie Up stairs again, though
the operation, was like squeezing bears
tgrease out Of a pigs TAIL, or jerking Out
4 eye teeth. t
4 r The miser never troubled the market.
men again, and not long after this he got
spurious dollar put on him in one of his
exchange operations, and that wound up
his penny shavings. za.;. 5se.. a.e ..a.a
d Time passed-death called upon the
t wretchsd man Of ingots and money bags
but while'power remained to forbid it the
; old miser refused to have physician
} w hem. to all appearances, his senses were
. gone, his friends drew the miser's panta
} looms from under his pillow, where he hae
always insisted on their remaining during
> his sleeping hours, and his last illness-bu
/. as one the attendants slowly removed tn,
> garments, the poor old man with .convul
7 sive effort, galvanic.like grab, threw ou
: his bony, cold hand, and seized his oil
9 pantaloens! a4.' f. 2..S ~
The miser clutched them with dyin
Q grasp-words struggled in his throat, h
- could mt uffar them he was deadi