The American. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1857, 1857-09-09
MISCELLANEOUS.
THE DYING MISER.

The following touching sketch was written
many years since, by George Lippard. Mr. Lip
pard died In Philadelphia, about three years ago,
in utter Abandonment. Would that he had always
written as powerfully and unexceptionably.l
They brought him dollar. g74.g gr's j b \
He took it and clutched it in his long, skinny
fingers, tried its sound against the bed-post, and
then gazed on it long and intently with his dull,
leaden eye. 1.4 t''3aA az1
That day, in the hurry of business, death had
struck him, even in the street. He was hurrYing
to collect the last months rent. and was on the
verge of the miserable court where his tenants
herded like beasts in their kennels; he was there
with the handbook in his hand, when death laid
his hand upon him. 81 la e.asi3a gyia
he was carried home to his splendid mansion
He was laid upon bed with a satin coverlet
The lawyer, the relations, and the preacher were
sent for. ALI day long he lay without speech,
moving only his right hand, as though in the act
Of counting money. - -H
At midnight he spoke. -
He asked for dollar, and they brought one to
him, and, lean and gaunt, he sat up in his bed,
and clutched it with grip of death.
A shaded lamp stood on the table near the
silken bed. Its light fell family around the
splendid room, where chairs, and carpets, and
mirrors, silken bed and lofty ceiling all said God
as plain as human lips can say it.
His hair and eyebrows were white, his cheeks
sunken, and his lips thin and surrounded by wrin-
kles that indicate the patron Of Avarice AS he sat
up in bed with his neck barred, and silken coyerlet
wrapped about his lean frame, his white hair and
eyebrows contrasted with his wasted and wrinked
face, he looked like ghost. And there life was
centered in the dollar which he eripped in his
clenched fist. G
His wife, a pleasant faced, matronly woman
was seated at the foot of the bed. His son,
young man of twenty-one, dressed in the last
touch Of fashion, sat by the lawyer The lawyer
sat by the table, pen in hand and gold spectacles
on his nose. There was huge parchment spread
"Do you think he will make will ?" asked the
son. If .u-.r a.. ..ns. l.... a.
Hardly conpos mesatis yet, was the whispered
reply. "Wait. He'll be iueid after while."
"My DEAR" said the wife, chad I not better
send for preacher" s .-.a. H 'H.a H:H. ....
She rose and took her dying husband by the
hand, but he did not mind. Hiseye was upon the
dollar. s.... g. =. ,..s ...
He was a rich man. He owned palaces in Wal
nut and Chestnut Streets and novels and courts in
the outskirts. He had iron mines in this state :;
copper mines on the lake somewhere; he had
golden interests in California. His name was
bright upon the records of twenty banks; he
owned stock of all kinds; he had half dozen pa
pers In his pay. 5fa .asst .1 ...t. ...0
he knew but one crime, to be in debt without
the power TO pay. r.r ......... #.. rl
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. ......-
turn few additional thousands by sharp specu-
lation I; these were the main achievements of his
life. . ...t. ..a. ... .t.ass 70. .r. gs.t
He was good man; his name was upon the
silver plate upon the pew door of a velvet-cush-
ioned church.
He was benevolent man; for every thousand
dollars which he wrung from the tenants of his
courts, or from the debtors who writhcd beneath
his heel, he gave ten dollars to some benevolent
institution.
He was just man; the gallows and the jail al.
ways found him faithful and answering advo-
cate. raa ..# .n. ..s.. .N Co..
h And now he is dying man; see as he sits
upon the bed of death, with the dollar in his
clcnched hand.
4. OF holy dollar, object of his lifelong pursuit,
what comfort hast thou for him now in his pain Of
death ae ..r .s#' ''..
At length the dying man revived and dictated
his will. 1t was strange to see the mother and
son and lawyer muttering, and sometime wrang-
ling, beside the bed of death. All the while the
testator clutched the dollar in his right hand
While the will was being made, the preacher
came; even, he who held the pastoral charge Of
the great church, whose pew doors bore sanity
names on silver plates, and whose seats on Sab
bath day groaned beneath the weight Of respecta-
bility, broadcloth, and satin .s ,as.
He came and said his prayers, decorously and
in measured words, but never once did the dying
man relax his hold Of the dollar
Can't you see I'm goingf ~ at length said the
rich man turning n friphtened look towards IN,
preacher. a..