The Cleveland leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1865-1865, 1865-06-10
DAILY LEADER.
..lEET WET DEE.

OADo lo9o EopuihANoj Acb AOu6 ASSERT uQGl
they have read it to the ending.
Among the wild but significant legends
Of Scandinavia there ia q tradition of 8
witch who kept al around her in ruin and
desolAtiOn By sitting in s certain liked poe
ture. Irecal this legend Whenever think
oil old Mrs AinsWorth. MrA AinSworth,
like thst witch of the north, blighted the
whole neighborhood Of which she was the
chief proprietor, by the posture in which
she choose to sit-I mean with her hand
tightly clutched over her pocket. 80
The best part Of her estates were In 6
manufacturing town, and their tenants
willing 70 charge themselves with all ne
cesssry repairs, so thst sh~ort-sighted IS her
frugslty may be deemed, it made her s1-
tremely rich.
A word or two on the circumstances
under which Darwin Hall, where she "a.
sided, together with the other property, had
e g. come Into her possession. 90
Her husband, William Ainsworth, had
been the younger of two brothers. Chris.
tOpher, the elder, had inherited q snail
estate in Lancashire. William had been
l,fs entirely peDniless; but Chris sopher had
insisted on z wing him tie half of what hSd
fallen to himself. Both the brothers en-
barked in the cotton trade. Christopher
was unlucky and lost his all but William,
thanks to the discovery of coal on the prop
erty bis brother had resigned TO him, grew,
in no long time, to be e wealthy, very
wealthy, manufacturer and proprietor. BE
was not over mindful of his ruined brother.
But when that brother lay dying, while
still q young man, with 81 only child TO
leave behind him, William wasrealy sorry
hat he should have received SO much and
returned SO little, and he told his brother
Whose wife had preceded him to the gravel
TO have no fear for the future of the boy.
aOf course" he said, Orchards welfare
would be his chief concern as long as he
lived, and st his death he should leave him
heir to the whole of his fortune"
All which ne intended fully to do; but
William AinsWorth WAS one whose inten.
tions of to-day were but sorry guides to his
performances of the morrow. Richard,
when thus left by bis father, was Just thir-
teen years of age, n his uncle was q bach
elor little over forty. At the age of fifty
Mr.. William Ainsworth rewarded his
kOusekeeper for her long years of service
by giving ber-bis hand.
1 do not think the marriage very much
increased his happiness. She kept him il
q bondage, which grew in rigor as he grew
feebler and feebler In health. But the crown
ing folly and wrong of William Ainsworth
was the very last act of his life. By his
will he bequesthed his large property to
Mrs. AiusWOrth herself. It is, however,
due to him TO say that all the wealth he
now left for her, should, by herself be left
to Richard st her own decesse. "If you
only lesve it to me for life" she said,
she'll spend it before he has got it You
know"
But it is due also to her 10 say, that
within q week after her husbands funeral,
she had made and executed q will in strict
accordance with his instructions. So poor
William Ainsworth had gone to his grave,
trying to fancy that he had grstihed the
wife he so greatly feared, st the cost Of no
/ Injustice TO the nephew, whose claims upon
him were so strong. His nephew, you may
be sure, took no such view of the affair
Richard wss about completing the really
excellent education his uncle had given
him, and just when he needed money to
start him IN the world he found himself
virtually disinheIited almost. Whether
be would at any time touch 3 sixpence of
the wealth he had been trained to expect,
depended upon the good faith of the mean
and sordid woman whom his uncle had 60
unrighteously favored before him. Grant
ing that she might be trusted to observe
her solemn engagement, who could tell
into what hands she might fall, should her
faculties diminish as years increased upon
herr At the very best, she was but six
sDd-ffty years old, and twenty, or aver
Elg-av 1ogra unfnhf aI9naa hnE Aaaeh
msde room for her heir.
That he could expect nothing from her
as long ss she remained alive, Mrs. Aims
worth took an early opportunity of limiting,
in the most decisive name she could
When, in spite of this rude intimstioD, he
ventured TO tell her that his uncle would
surely have aided him, now that he was
beginning TO read for the bar, he got q re-
ply from his uncle's widow, warning him
that though she had kept and desired, still
if not satisfied with his excellent prospects
he persisted in making demands for the
present, she should feel it her duty to con-
slider whether his uncle would really have
wished his money to go TO a person sovery
likely so squander it away. Poor Richard
never sgain hazsrded his future in so hope
less an enterprise as an appeal to the pity
or Justice of his aunt.
Only Just before his marriage for in
spite Of his poverty he married St six-an6
twenty-five wrote informing her of the
step contemplated by him, but with no
satisfactory result.
Had he set himself resoIutely to battle
against misfortune, and, since wealth for
the present had eiuded his grasp, to show
that he could do without II, he might even
have come TO exult in the cruel o~isspoint-
ment of his youth, and it might never
have fallen to my lot to write the dark
story Of his sctusl life. But he WAS hardly
of 8 stomach to face and defy the obstacles
to 3 DOOR mans advancement. And every
present was the knowledge that any day
might put to his lips the golden drsught
which for the present eluded him like
water the thirsty Tsntalus. Any morning
might bring him the news shst Mrs. Aims
worth was dead, and himself translated, as
from a waste wilderness, into 8 land over
flowing with milk and honey.
But no such day came, and Richard
Ainsworth dragged on q weary life, kept
from absolute ruin by a small income
which came with his wife, and by one or
two little legscies which dropped in from
his relations on the side of his mother.
His uncle Tsckawsy, an ex captain in the
merchant service left him 8 few hundred
pounds, and 3 lew r~sriLies collected by
him from different regions that be had
visited in his sailors career. Most Of them
went 20 ornament the psrlor of Richards
house in the new Kent Rosd-for to that
transporting locality did his Strengthened
circumstances confne him. But Captain
Tsckswsy's cabinet had held one curiosity
which, SIS he once told Richard while alive,
he would only have bequesthed to 8 thor
oughly honest man. 1t wa q colorless
gum. prepared from the juice of some
South American shrub, and well known to
the Indian tribes of a certain region,
Whether on the tips of their darts and
arrows, or dissolved in drink, it was alike
u-ndiscoversble in its traces, and fatal in
its effect. The few Europeans who we're
acquainted with it were very backward,
considering the wicked uses which might
be made of it in extending that knowledge
to sny one besides. -l -rzI
Richard locked the perilous treasure
carefully swsy, and it slumbered, harmless
enough, for know not how long 3 period,
dare say many whom nothing would
tempt to commit n crime might feel 6 vague
sense of triumph at having so fearful q
" Ek.s- ha-l-H A. o,oh 10