The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1859-08-19
TIE OLD CARTMAN.
BY BLUEDERBuss.

ueSpiSe IL because OF the iIrSt, or the EDITORS OIL
the Era reject it for the reason of the last, then
! will eschew truth in the future, and devote
myself to the elaboration of lies into chapters
and the purest fctions into volumes of seven
teen hundred pages each.
With this understanding, proceed at once
TO remark that FIVE yeErs ago, or thereabo0ts,
John Aingley- or ':Pap Ainsley,'' as he was
famillarIy caled-was the owner of hand
cart, and earned living by conveying
miscellaneous parcels from one section Of the
city to another, receiving therefor the reasona-
bic remuneration of fifty cents per load. To
designate the occupation in the prosiest Ian
guage possible, he was a hand-cartman, and
when not employed, could always be found
during working hours at the corner Of
Montgomery aud California streets. His hair
and long beard were butte gray and his limbs
feeble and If he could not shove as heavy a
load through the deep sand or up the steep grade
above him as the sawart Teuton on the oPpo-
site corner, thereby losing many a JOB and
many a dollar, all the light loads IN the neighbor
hood fell to his lot, and kind hearted men not
unlrequentIy Travelled a square or two out Of
their way TO give an easy job to ''Pap Ainsley."
-Four years ago last September, L recollect
the month, for had note OF four thousand
dollars to pay, and was compelled to do some
pretty sharp inance-ng to meet it, having two
or three dozen volumes to transfer TO my
lodging, l gave Pap Anslpy the task of
transportation. Arriving at my room just as
he had deposited the last armiul on the table,
and observing that the old man looked fatigued
after climbing three flights OF stars five or SIX
times, invited him 10 take glass of brandy
bottle of which l usually kept in my room
for medical aad soporifc purposes. Although
grateful for the invitation, he politely declined.
I urged but be was innexibe. was astonished.
"Do you never drink ~ said 7.
every Seldom he replied, dropping into
a chair at my request, and wiping the Perspra-
ton from his forehead.
"WelI, if you drink at all" insisted, ''you
will not find as fair an excuse in the next
twelvemonth for indulging, for you appear
fatigued and scarcely able to stand"
e.To be frank said the old man, 'sI do not
drink now. have not tasted intoxicating
liquor for fifteen years since"
'sSInce when ~ I inquired thought!essly,
observing his hesitation.
The old man told ne. Sixteen years ago
he was weil-to-do farmer near Syracuse, New
York. He had one child, daughter. While
attending boarding school in that city then
girl of sixteen years of age, she formed an
attachment for young physician Acquaint-
ing her father Of the circumstances, he fatty
refused his consent to her union with man he
| had never seen and removing her from school,
dispatched note 10 The young gallant, with the
somewhat pointed information, that his presence
N the neighborhood Of The Ainsley farm would
not meet with favor. The reader of course
surmises the result. In less than month there
was an elopement. The father loaded his
| dou5le-barreled shotgun, and swore vengeance,
but falling 10 find the iugitives, he took TO the
bottle His good wife implored him not TO
give way to despair, but he drank the deeper,
1
and accused her Of encouraging the elopement.
| In three months the wife died, and at the ex-
! piration of year, when the young couple re-
| turned TO Syracuse from Connecticut where
they had remained with the parents OF the hus-
/ band. they learned that the old man had sold
his farm, squandered the proceeds, and was
almost destitute Learning Of their arrival,
| Ainslev drank himself into a frenzy, and pro-
ceeded to the hotel where they were stopping,
attacked the husband, wounding him in the arm
with pistol shot, and then attempting the life
of bis daughter, VINO happily escaped nniojured
through the incorporation of persons brought to
the spot by the report of the pistol. Ainsley
was arrested, tried aud acquitted on the plea of
insanity. The daughter and her husband
turned to Connecticut, since which time The
father had not heard from them. He was
sent 10 lunatic asylum, from which be was
dismissed after remaining six months. In 1851
he came TO California. He had followed mi
ming for two years, bot finding his strength
unequal to the pursuit, returned to the city,
purchased a hand-cart, and-the rest IS
known. ssSince them" concluded the Old man,
bowing his face in his hands in agony, al have
not tasted liquor, nor have | seen my poor
child"
4 Iregrrtted that had been 50 InqaisitIye, and