Litchfield enquirer., 1856-07-17
One Hour in a Pawnbroker's Shop.


 One Hour in Pawnbroker's Shop
 There is a pawnbrokcr in the good city of -, who has been fed and fattcned, in person and purse, by the necessities of the unfortunate for so many ycars, that he has become exceed ingly wealthy, and because of his riches, is now considered, by many, highly respectable We called upon this man once upon time, and dur ing the hour we remained in his little slop a new leaf in the great book of human life was opened to our vision. We had never before seen pawnbrOkers heart in fact never had our attention been directed to this class of be- ings as fit subjects of serious study but, on the occasion alluded to, we had been only few moments in the room when m incident occurred which excited our curiosity to witness further developments of the character of the man, and of the pernicious business in which he Was en- gagged.
 An old lady entered with feeble, fnlterng steps, a countcnancc and dress which plainly bespoke sorrow and want. Before the poor woman had time to utter n word, we were startled by the harsh voice of the pawubrokcr as he said, What do you want old woman What did you come here for! Go out"
 If youplease, sir, l am in great distress, and want a little assistancc-only very little, for myself and my poor sick child"
 "Go out. l tell you, don't want to hear anything about you or your sick child--don't you know any better than to come to q shay ing shop to beg Ask a pawnhroker for char hy Well that's good, that is, Ina, ha v
 In heavens name l ask you for some mon cy, only very little you have all my clothing that can possibly slmrc, and the ring given me on our marriage day and what l prize more than all, his mintature you have that too All, everything of value have on earth is in your hands. Now, do advance me little more, that l may buy some medicines for my dying child. l will thank you--I will bless "Go awny-dont trouble me. Didn't give you the money on all You brought If you can scrapc together any more old duls that are worth anything, bring them here, and l will let you have more money. If you can't then keep away from m". Clear out"
 With a deep hcart-groan, and low mur- mured prayer "God have mercy on us." the old woman turned from the wretch, and walked slowly away
 During this colloqny we were strongly nlu- cnced by different emotions indignation for the iciclcman, and sympathy for the unfortunate woman. Bnt few moments passed ere n per son of quite different character entered the shop young man, whose dress betokcncd an attempt to maintain gcntility of appearance, but whose face was strongly indicative of most reckless dissipation. Replaced upon the counter Il gold watch and chain, for which he asked an ad- vance of "only forty dollars"
 Forty dollars !" said the pawnbrokcr, in a tone of amazement, as he took the watch, and carefully examined it. "Why, sir, have bet ter watches than this offered me every day for twenty dollars
 But that is Q valuable watch" said the young man, lSk. gold, cost me eighty dollars, and the chain twenty {; was bought two years ago, been used carefully, and is now just as good as new l ought to have fifty dollars on it, but will take forty. Must have forty dollars this day-cant get along without it. Will pay it back to you in one mouth."
 Sorry l can't accommodate you, young man, but cannot advance more than twenty dollars"
 Let me have the watch then, and will go to some other place, for must have forty dollars today"
 He took the watch, held it in his hand hcsi. tatingly for a moment, then put it in his pock- ct and walked to the door, Just as he stepped out the pawnbroker called him back, saying s"Stop moment, let me see that again should like to help you if l can. We'll, I'll dc . little better-Ill say twenty five"
 The young man stood for some time in anx ious thought, and then said, Make it thirty --let sme have thirty dollars and will leav, the watch and chain with you"
 eff you'll surely return the money when the month is up, will do it, though it is too much too much P So saying, the pawnbroker pre- pared ticket. and slowly counted out thlrt! dollars, all the time muttering to himself, tot much--too much money to advance on olt watches-cant do such thing again-hope i will be returned without fail, for I've often los by advancing more on all sorts of old trash thai Il could get for them at auction"
 z The young man received the money withou evincing the slightest feeling of thankfulness or eyen of satisfaction but rather looked tn, disappointment which he felt and went out mur muring, Ten dollars more-I mast have ter more. and today; but Heaven only knows how am to raise it."