Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1863-11-12
CALEB GRAfIARSH.

Old Caleb Graymarsh dweIt in the New
England village of M, hard by his own
stone walled black chimneyed factory, which
belched forth fire and smoke all day, and
shone like some ogre's palace half the night
with the fires and lights which glimmered
through the windows, and shed crimson
CLEAN over the waste and barren land about
the building. For it was stirring place, this
factory, and the work people were there
among the whirling machinery night and day
strong, stalwart fellows, with begrimed
hands and faces-od men who could just tot
ter up the stairs-women, tidy and trim, and
some of them very pretty, and the little chill
drcn who, had they been born OF wealthy pa
rents, would only have been permitted to
leave the nursery under the guardianship of
a maid
There was occupation for all NJ at the
great factory, and in the eyes Of employees,
Caleb Graymarsh was man of mighty wealth
and power. Fabulous tales were told of his
possessions in real estate, and the women
folks had a legend among them that the tea
service, which some Of them had seen gilt
tering on the factory table, was made of solid
dollars, melted down for the express purpose,
and the house throughout was covered with
silk velvet. 1t was a pity, they said, that
poor Mrs. Graymarsh could not have lived to
see all this, but had died when Caleb was a
young man, struggling for the fortune which
was now his. A few years before there had
been simple white slab in the grave yard,
bearing the words kitty Graymarsh, aged
20" But of late a splendid marble monu-
ment had arisen there, with a flowcry in
scripton on its face, and the figure of an an
gel bending over it. A snowy thing, with
nothing artistic about it; yet though the
dead girl, who would have been an elderly
woman by this time had she lived, slept no
more peacefully under the costly structure
than she had beneath the simple slab, there
was something in the sight when one thought
that by its erection the old man had sought
to make his lost wife participate in the only
possible way in the wealth which he so val
ued.
1t is hard to think of most old business men
as young Ioycrs-strange TO believe that
smiles or frowns from the women were once
of greater moment to them than the rise and
fall of stocks has now become. And the grim
old factor, whose brow was puckered into a
continual frown, and whose mouth had be
come a straight, stern line, with grooves like
wrinkles on either side Of it, scarce looked
''the hero of a love tale" Yet Caleb Gray
marsh had been young once, and had loved
his little Kitty with strong, manly earnest
only woman who had ever made his heart
beat. When he won her, simple country
girl though she was, no monarch was tOnder
of his queen, although all but his wife be-
Heved him cold hearted, and wondered what
charm young blue-eyed Kitty had found in
his stern face. Only Caleb Graymarsh HIM
self knew how well he loved his wife, and
when the sod was piled above her breast, he
knelt above it fearless and speeches., and
prayed silently thai God would let him die
also.
We talk of wishing for death very often,
but only those who have drained the cup of
suffering to the very dregs ever pray for it
so earnestly that they would not shrink and
tremble if their sinful prayers were answered
and the bolt from heaven were seen descend
ing. One of those rare and terrible moments
came to Caleb GravmarSh as he knelt above
his young wite's grave, but none who knew
him ever guessed it. They saw, few mo-
ments afterwards, a plain, homely, working
man, with a Grape about his hat, rise to his
feet, and plod slow V hOmeward, and, seeing
no tears in his eyes and hearing no complaint
from his lips, thought he did not feel much,
and so left him. But Caleb Graymarsh, having
no living Kindred, and not being at that time
rich enough to have made friends, took the
waling baby from the woman who had cared
for it, while he had followed its mother to
the grave, and nursed it all night, feeling
strange comfort it the soft cheek he held
against his own; and in the unconscious
triflng of those tiny fingers about his face.
He had thought very little of the baby
while his wife lived, save pet and play
thing it was well enough for him to have; but
now he experienced a new feeling towards it.
1t would grow perhaps to have her form and
features He wished it were girl instead of
a bow and vet even now he felt he was not
quite desolate since God had left him thus.
And so when the morning dawned, and the
golden sunbeams crept through the bedroom
window, they fell on Caleb Graymarsh fast
asleep, with his baby on his bosom.
He put the child to nurse the next day and
went about his work as usual. Whatever
were his feelings he never spoke OF them to
any one, and young, as he was, he had grim
unsocal way with him which encouraged
none to seek his confidence. On Sundays,
instead of going with most of the other men
to drink and frolic, or joining the few more
sober minded at church, Caleb Graymarsh
went to the country place where his baby was
at nurse, and kept it with him under the
green trees all the day long. And the child,
unconscious as it really must have been, was
so strangely happy and contented that one
might easily have imagined that Its little eyes
could see and read the tender secret OF that
rough working mans soul.
Year and year passed by. and plodding care
and industry helped Calel fraymarsh to climb
the ladder of fortune. At first, some dett
handiwork brought him higher wages; then
ne became foreman, and at last partner in
the very establishment which he had first en-
tered a friendless boy, ordered and catfed
about by any one who chose to take the
trouble. The steps were short and easy after
this, and twenty years from the day on which
he had knelt beside his young wifes grave,
the black chimneys of his own factory arose
above the roofs of the trim New England
town, and people spoke of Caleb Graymarsh
as person of wealth and influence.
In his life this man had married two strong
passions-the love for his dead wife and the
greed of wealth not miser's love of hoard
ing but the pride of possession. Caleb Gray
marsh liked to see envious eyes turned upon
him, and was fond of Boosting and display.
Very little sympathy had he, either, for
poor man. What he had done be believed
that others might do Also Those who worked
for him Epau thic and aynaoted no kindness