The Weekly Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, O. [Ohio]) 1861-1???, 1866-01-12
.rlttttd Alisfrllany.
THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR.
ny THE LATE GEORGE hLrrARI
They brought him a dollar.

He took. it, clutched it in his long, skinny
fingers, tried its sound against the bed,post
and then gazed at it long and intenty with
his duh leaden eyes.
That day, in the hurry Of business, Death
had struck him. even in the street. lie
was hurrying to collect his hast months
rent, and was on the verge of tho miserable
court where his tenants, herded like beasts
in their llennels--.he was thure with HE
handbook in his hand, when Death laid his
hand upon him.
He was carried home to his splendid
mansion, He was hid upon bed with a
satin ooverlet. Tho lawyer, the relations
and The preacher were sent for. All day
long he lay without speech, moving only
his right hand, as though IN the act of
counting money t.'",. '"'e0 '"
AT midnight he spoke. p" 7''.'
81 He asked for dollar and they brought
one to him, and lean and gaunt he sat up in
his deatl-bed and clutched it with the grip
of death. it a.as }aa a,5-ta..ilt.
A shaded lamp stood on the table near
the slken bed. lt'sliglh fell family around
the splendid room, where chairs, and car
pet, and mirrors, silken bed and lofty cell
| ing, 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 sur
rounded hy wrinkles that indicated the
passion of Avarice. AS lie sat up in the
bed with his neck barred, and The sillen
coverlet wrapped about his lean frame, his
white hair and eyebrows contrasted with
| h 8 wasted and wrinkled face, he looked
/ Ike ghost. And there was life in his
lcaden eye--all that life was eentered on the
! al oh ha la1 in 10 Cla nod
| fist.
/ His wife, hpleasant faced, inatfonly won.
an, was seated at the foot Of the bed. Hi
son, young man Of twenty.one, dressed in
the last touch of fashion, sat by the lawyer.
the lawyer sat before the liable, his pen IL
Land and gold spectacles on his nose
there was huge parchment spread before
him l
"Do you think ha will make a willH"
asked the son, ,.lee - ~. .rs,
|, l." Hardly o0aapos me'dis yet was the
whispered reply. "Wait, he'll be lucid af-
terra while I" ,r'eiH 'ia" 'Hf
my dear sqidbis wife, had not bet,
ter send for a preacher %, trt ~ .... =.
She arose aud took her dying husband by
the hand, but he did not mind. His eyes
were upon the Dollar a''ii q" ping
lie was rich man. lie owned palaces
on Walnut and Chestnut streets, and novels
and court in the outskirts. lie bad iron
mines in this State; copper mines on the
lakes somewhere ;nhe had gold interests in
California. His name was bright on the
records Of tWeuiy banks lie owns stocks
Of al kinGs;- he bad half q dozel papers in
pay. .S aantf rea. .1
lie knew but one crime---to be in debt
without the power TO pay.
He knew but one virtue--to get money.
That crime he had never fprgiyeu- this
virtue he had never forgotten, in the long
way Of thirty tive years.
To hunt down o debtor, to distress ten
ant, to turn few additional thou ands by
sharp specplalion--these were the main
achievemehts of his life. sug
He was "A good mau-7his name was upon
y silver plate upon the pew-door of . velvet
CUSHIONED church, sni'''. ' H.h8.
lie was a Benevolent man--for every
thonsand dollars that he wruRg from the
debtors who wrthed beneath his heel, he
gave ten dollars to some benevolent insii
tuition, .'
He was Just the gallows aud the
Jail always found in him faithful and I'M
swerving advocate. tpaa |
And now he lis adying nan---seeI AS he
sits upon the bed Of death, with The Dollar
III his clenched hand,
" o. holy Dollar, object Of his life long pur
suit, what comfort hast thou for him now il,
his pain Of deathY Itli H iae ~ dait.l
At length the dead manirevivea and die
tated his viii, It was strange to. see the
mother and son and lawyer ihnitering and
Sometimes wtanghng beside the bed Of
death. All the While the Festetor .clatclted
the Dollar ia his right hand. t,' Nlh
While the will was being made, the
preacher came-even lie who held The pas
toral charge OF the church, whose pow
doors bore sanity names on silver plates,
and whose seals on SabpalN uay grosned