Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1866-01-26
miscellany.
The Old cartrnan.
a TRUE STORY.

TRUE STORY.
ii have mind to tell little story. Tha
it is brief may be seen at glance, ant
that it is true | emphatically avow. If tn,
reader despises it because Of the first, Of
the editor rejects it for The reason of the
last, then will eschew truth in the future
and devote myself TO the elaboration o.
hes into chapters, and the purest fiction in.
to volumes Of seventeen hundred page:
each. ss q tie3 b y tdes
| With this understanding proceed al
once to remark that five years ago, on
thereabouts, John Ainsley - or "Pap
Ainsley," as he was familiarly called---was
the owner Of hand cart, and earned liy,
Il ing by conveying miscellaneous parcels
from one section to another, and receiving
the reasonable remuneration of fifty cents
per load. Az, sf,
To designate the occupation in the pro-
siest language possible, he was hand cart
man, and when not employed, could al
ways be found during working hours at
the corner of Montgomery and California
streets. ~
His hair and long beard were quite
gray and his limbs feeble; and if he could
not shove as heavy load throua h the deep
sand or up the steep grade above him as
the stalwart Teutcn on the opposite corner,
thereby losing many dollar, all the light
loads in the neighborhood fell to his lot,
and kind-hearted men not unfrequently
| travelled a square or two out Of their way
to give an easy job to g Pap Ainsley."
fonr years last September, q recollect
the month, for had note of four thou
sand dollars TO pay and was compelled 10
do some pretty sharp financiering to meet
iiD, having two or three dozen volumes of
books to transfer 10 my lodging, / gave
Pap Ainsley" the task of transportation.
Arriving at my room just as he deposit
ed the last armful on the table, observing
that the old man looked considerably fa-
tigued, after climbing three flights of stairs
| FIVE or six times, Invited him to take a
glass of brandy-a bottle of which / usu-
ally kept in my room for medicinal and So
porific purposes. Although grateful for the
invitation, he politely declined. j urged
but he was inhexible. / was greatly as
/ tonished. m
!" Do you never drink ?" said /.
Very seldom" he replied dropping in
to chair at my request, and wiping the
perspiration from off his forehead.
Well, if you drink al ail,' insisted,
"you will not find in the next six mon, his
so fair an excuse for indulging,for you seem
fatigued and scarcely able to stand.'
To be frank" said the old man, !. ! do
not drink any now. | have not tasted in
toxicating liquor for fifteen years-since-
since"
8 Since when?" ! asked, lhoughtlessly,
observing his hesitation. 38
The old man told me that sixteen years
ago he was a well-to-do farmer near Syra-
cuse, n. Y. He had but one child "a
daughter. While attending a boarding.
school in that city, the girl, then but sixteen
years of age, formed an attachment for a
young physician. Acquainting her father
with the circumstance he fatty refused
his consent to her union with man he had
never seen, and removing her from school,
dispatched note to the young gallant,
with the somewhat pointed information
that his presence in the neighborhood Of
the Ainsley farm would not meet with ia
vor.
The reader of course surmises the re-
| suit, for such proceeding could and can
have but one result.
In less than month there was an elope-
ment. The father loaded his double bar
rel shot gun, and swore vengeance but,
failing to find the fugitives, he took to the
bottle His good wife told him not to des-
pair, but he drank the deeper and accused
her Of encouraging the elopemen;.
In three months his wife died, and at the
expiration OF year the young couple re-
turned to Syracuse from Connecticut,
where they learned that the old man after
the death of his wife, of which they had
of course been apprsed, had sold his farm,
squandered the proceeds, and was almost
destitute. Learning of The arrival, Aims
ley drank himself into frenzy. and pro-
ceded TO the hotel where they were stop
ping, attacked the husband, wounding him
in the arm with a pistoi-shot, and then at.
tempted the life Of his daughter, who hap.
PLY escaped uninjured through the inter-
position of persons brought TO the spot by
the report of the pistol. Ainsley was ar
rested, tried, and acquitted on the plea of
insanity. The daughter and her husband
returned to Connecticut, since which time
the father had not heard from them. He
was sent to a lunaiic asylum. from which