The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1857-07-16
81 Bruutiful 5tul.
THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR.
By GEORGE LIPPARD.

The writer of the following sketch is in
his grave. lie died in utter abandon
ment, in the city of Philadelphia, some
three years ago. Those who knew
George Lippard, while they lament his
fate and drop tear to his memory, will
read this sketch with interest, and equal
ly with those who knew him not, may
derive from it something more, we trust,
than mere amusement.
They brought him dollar.
lie 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 bis dull leaden eyes.
That day in the bury of business,
death had struck him, even in the street.
He was hurrying to collect the last
month'ssrent, and was on the verge of
the miserable court where lis<tenants
herded Ike beasts in their kennels he
was there with the herdbook in his hand,
when death laid his hand upon him..
He was carried home to his splendid
mansion. He laid upon bed with a
satin coverlet. The lawyer, the preach
er and the relations were sent for. All
day long he lay without speech. moving
only his right hand, az though in the act
of counting money.
At midnight he spoke.
He asked for the dollar and they
brought one to him, and lean and gaunt,
he sat up in his bed, and clutched it with
the grip Of death.
A shade 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, Gold! as plainly as
human lips can say it.
His hair and eyebrows were white
His cheeks sunken, and his lips thin and
surrounded by wrinkles that indicate the
patron of avarice. As he sat up in his
bed with his neck barred, and the silken
coverlet wrapped about his lean frame,
his white hair and eyebrows contrasted
with his wasted and wrinkled face-he
looked like a ghost. And there his life
was centered in the dollar which he grip.
ped in his clenched fist.
His wife, 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, sal
by the lawyer. The lawyer sat by the
table, pen in hand, and gold spectaclcs or
his nose. There was a huge parchmen
lspread before him.
"Do you think he'll make will? ask
ed the son.
"lIardly compass mentus yet" was th,
whispered reply. "Wait. He'll be lucie
after while"
"My dear" said his wife, chad l no
better send for preacher?'
She rose and took her dying HUSBAND
by the hand, but he did not mind. Iii
eye was upon the dollar.
\ He was rich man he owned palace
in Walnut and Chestnut. streets, and hoy
els and courts in the outskirts. He ha'
iron mines in this state; copper mines o.
the lakes somewhere; he had gold ON in
tercst in California. His name was brigll
upon the record of twenty banks-h
owned stock Of all kinds; he had half a dc
zen papers in his pay. lie knew but on
crime-to be in debt without the power t
pay. lie knew but one virtue--to ge
money. That crime he had never foi
: gotten-this virtue he. had never forgot
e ten, IN the long way Of thirty FIVE year.
10 hunt down a debtor. to distress
tenant, totnrn few additional thousand