The Davenport gazette. [volume] (Davenport, Scott Co., Iowa) 1841-185?, 1852-01-01
THE DOLLAR.
by GEORGE LIPPARD.

Wrhten rs powerfully aud duHexceptlonablv
as in the following sketch:l
They brought him dollar.
He took it, cluiched il in his long skin.
ny fingers, tried it's sound against the bed
post, and then gazed at il long and intent
~ with his dull eaden eyes.
That day, in the hurry Of business
Death had struck him, even in The streets.
He was hurrying to collect the last months
rent, and was on the verge Of the mlsera.
ble court where his tenants herdcd like
beasts in their kennels-he was there With
blank-book 10 bis hand, when Death laid
his hands upon him.
lie was carried home to his splendid
mansion. He was laid upon bed with
a satin coverlet. The lawyer, the rela-
tions, and tho preacher were sent for. All
day long be lay without speech, moving
only his righ, hand, as though in the act Of
counting money.
Al midnight he spoke.
lie asked for dollar, and they brough,
one TO him, and lean and gaunt he sal up
in his deatb-bed, and clu,ched il with the
grip Of death.
A shaded lamp stood upon table near
the slken bed. Its igh, fell family around
the splendid room, where chairs and car
pets and mirrors, silken bed and lofty
ceiling, all said, Gold! as plainly as human
lips can say il.
Ills har and eyebrows were white. His
checks sunk, and his lips thin and sur
rounded by wrinkles that indicated the
pattern Of Ararice. As he sat up in bed
with his neck bare and the silken coverlet
wrapped about his lean frame, his white
hair and eyebrows contrasted with his
wasted and wrinkled face, he looked like q
ghost. Ard There was life in his leaden
eye--all that life was cen,ered on the Dol
lar which he gripped in bis clenched fist.
His wife, pleasn Mt faced ma,ronly wo-
His son, young man Of twenty-one, dress
ed ia the last touch Of fashion, sat by the
lawyer. The lawyer sat before the table.
pen in hand, aud gold spectacles on biz
nose. There was huge parchment
.prcad before him.
.Doyou think he'll make will?' asked
the son.
Hardly compos menfis YETI was the
whispered reply. sWait. He'll be lacid
after while
'My dear,' said the wife, shad | no, bet
ter send for a preacher
She rose and tooh her dying husband bs
the hand, but he did not mind. His eye
was upon the dollar.
He was rich man. lie owned plnces
10 Walnut aud Chestnut streets, and hovels
and courts on the outskirts. tie had iron
mines in this State, copper mines on the
Like some where; he had golden interests
in California. His name was bright upon
the records Of twenty banks; he owned
stock Of nll kinds; he had half.a-dozen pa.
pers in his pay.
lie knew but one crime--to be in debt
,cittout the porer to pay.
He knew but one virtue--to get money
That crime he had never forgiven-this
virtue he had never forgotten, in the long
way Of thirty five years.
To hunt down debtor, to distress ten
ant, 10 turn few additional thousands b,
a sharp speculation--these were the main
achievements Of bis life.
He was good man-his name was up
on silver plate upon the pew door Of a
velvet >hioned church.
He was a benevolent man for every
thousan nd dollars which he wrung from the
tenants Of his courts, or from the debtors
who writhed beneath his heels, he gave
ten dollars to ,me benevolent institute.
lie was just man--the Galiows and
Jail always found him a faithful and IN.
swerving advocate.
And now he IL dying man-see! As
he sits upon the bed Of death, with the dol
lar in his clenchcd hand.
Oh! holy dollar, object Of bis lifelong
what comfort has thou for him now
ia his pain of death!
Al length tho dying man revived and
dictated his will. il was strange 70 see
the mother and son nnd lawyer multering.
and sometime wrang'ing, beside the bed o
death. All the while the Tessator clutch
ed the dollar in his righ. hand.
While the will was being made, the
preacher came-even he who held the pas
toral charge Of The great church, whose
pew doors bore sanity names OF silver
plates, and whose seats on Sabbath-da,
groaned beneath the weight Of respectable
ity, broad. cloth aud satin.
He came and said his prayers-deco-
rousIy and in measured words-but never
once did the dying man relax bis holding Of
The dollar.
Cant YOU read me something, say
quick, don't you SEQ TIN goingr Ut length
suid the rich man, turning a frightened
look toward the preacher.
The preacher whose cravat was OF the
whi.cs,, took book with golden clasps
from marble table.
And he read:
sAnd | say unto you. il is easier Tor .
camel to 60 through the eye Of needle
than rich man TO enter into the Kingdom
oi Cod
.Who said these words--who--who-
who?' fairly shrieked tho diving man, sha
king the hand that clenched The dollar, a.
the preachers head.
The preacher hastily turned over the
leaf and did not reply. :,
.Whv did you never tell me this before
Why did you never preach from It as sal
in your church. Why-whyr
The preacher did not reply-but turning
-. .no,bor toac Rat tha dvinO man