The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1857-08-20
The Dollar.
They brought him q dollar.
BY GEORGE LIPPARD.

lntently with his dull, leaden eyes.
That day, in the hurry of business, Death
had struck him, even in the streets. He was
hurying to collect the last month'srent, and
was on the verge of the miserable court
where his tenants herded like boasts in their
.kcnnels-he was there with the hand book
in his hand, when Death laid his hands upon
him. ,r r
He was carried home to his splendid man
sion. He was laid upon bed with a satin
.coverlet. The lawyer, the relations and the
preacher were sent for. All day he lay
without speech, moving only his right hand
as though counting money.
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 cIutched it with the gripe OF
death. =.
A shaded lamp stood on the table near the
silken bed. Its light fell family around the
splendid room, where chairs, carpets, and
mirrors, silken bed, and lofty ceiling, all said
Gold! as plain as human lips can say it.
His hair and eyes were white; his cheeks
sunken, and his lips thin and surrounded by
wrinkles that indicated the passion of Ava.
rice. AS he sat upon his bed with his neck
barred, and the silken eoverlet wrapped
about his lean frame, white hair and eye
trows contrasted with his wasted and wrink-
led face-he looked like ghost. And there
his life was centered in the dollar which he
griped in his clenched hand.
His wife, pleasant faced, matronly wo.
man, was seated at the foot of the bed. His
son, young man Of twenty one, dressed in
the last touch of fashion, sat beside the law
yer. The lawyer sat by the table, pen in
hand, gold spectacles on his nose. There
was huge parchment spread before him.
"Do you think he'll make will!" asked
the son.
"Hardly compes mentic yet, "was wbis-
pered reply. "Wait. He'll be lucid after q
whIe."
"My DEAR" said the wife, chad not bet.
ter send for the preacher"
He was rich man. He owned palaces
in Walnut and Chestnut streets, and hoveIa
and courts in the outskirts. He had iron
mines in this State; copper mines ON the
lake somewhere; he had golden interests III
California. His name, was bright upon the
records of twenty banks--he owned stocks
of all kinds, he had half.a-dozen papers in
his pay.
He knew but one crime-to be- in debt
without the power to pay.
lie knew but one yirtue-to get gold.
The crime he had never forgotten-the
virtue he had never forgotten, in the long
way of thirty.fve years.
To hunt down debtor, to distress ten.
ant, to turn few additional thousands by u
sharp speculation-these were the main
achievements of his life.
He was good man-his name was upon
the silver plate upon the pew door of vel
vel cushioned church.
He was q benevolent man-for every
thousand dollars which he wrung from the
tenants Of his courts, or from the debtor who
writhed beneath mis- heels, he gave ten dol
lars to some benevolent institution.
He was just man-the gallows and jai
nlways found him O faithful and unsWeryine
advocate; -.
And now he is a dying man--see!.: As hi
sits upon the bed of death, with the dollar il
his clenched hand.
Oh! holy dollar, object of his lifelong
pursuit, what comfort hast thou now. for hin
in his pains Of death!
At length the dying man revived and die
tated his will. 1t was strange to sec tht
mother and son and lawyer muttering, ant
sometimes wrangling beside the bed of death
All the while the testator clutched the dol
lar in his right hand.
While the wllwas being made, the preach
er came-even he who held the pastora
charge ofthe great church, whose pew-doors
bore sanity names on silver plates, ant
whose seats on Sabbath-day groaned beneatl
the weight of responsibility, broadcloth ant
satin. -. $
He came and said his prayers-decorously
and in measured words-but never once did
the dying man relax his hold on the dollar
"Can't you see I'm going!" at length
suid the rich man, turning to the preacher
The preacher, whose cravat was of the
.whitest, took book with golden clasp.
from table marble.
And he read:
"And say unto you, it is easier for cam.
el to go through the eye of q needle, than
for rich man to enter the kingdom OIL
God"
"Who said these words-who-who?"
fairly shrieked the dying man, shaking the
hand which clenched the dollar at the preach.
er's head. y
: The preacher hastily turned over the leaf,
and did not reply.
"Why did you never tell me of this before?
Why did you never preach from it as sat
in your church! Why--why!"
The preacher did not reply, but turned
over another leaf. But the dying man would
not be comforted.
"And it is easier for 9 camel to- go thro'
Z
the eye OF needle than for rich man to
enter into the kingdom of God, is it? Then
what's to become of me7 am rich! What