Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1866-09-27
q Seleeteo Storp.
HARD TIMES.

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"What makes you look so dull this morn
ing, Ellen ?" inquired Mr.. Chester, young
merchant in a small way, to his wife.
They had been married about year,
and thus far not an ill.natured word had
been spoken by them. At his marriage,
Chester had taken small, but neat and
convenient house, in the upper part of the
city. He lad been able to furnish it in q
plain manner, but since his marriage his
business had added many luxuries to his
small establishment.
The "times" had began to tighten up,
however, and business was dull. The notes
were due, and he had to bestir himself to
make his payments
Fortunately for him, however, as the
stringency in the money market began to
weigh most heavily, his fathers administra-
tor placed him in possession of $4,000,
which had been reserved to await the con.
tingeucies of law suit, and which had now
been satisfactorily adjusted.
With this sum be had been able to pay
off his more pressing demands, and to lay
by surplus of $500 to meet note which
would fall due some two months hence.
The receipt of this sum had also induced
him to increase the luxuries of his Eouse
The parlor had been newly furnished, and
the old parlor furniture placed in the sit
ting room. They had everything that was
necessary for comfort and for creditable ap-
pearance.
"You look very dull" continued the hus-
band, as be rose from the breakfast table.
Ellen looked up at him with languid
smile, and made no reply.
"What ails you?"
81 was thinking how lonesome I would
be here all day."
"Lonesome Why don't you 60 out
then, and take the air. Walk down Wash
ington street, and round the common-it
will revive your spirits"
"How absurd you talk Walk round the
common in the month of December! Why,
I should freeze to death"
"Not so bad as that" replied the young
husband, chuckliug his wife under the chin.
"Go to the Atheneum and see the pic
lures"
81 couldn't do that every day, and you
don't know how lonesome am"
"Can't you read?"
~ don't want to read all the time"
"Read part of the time, then"
"But, Fred, I have been thinking of
something," and smile played upon the
pretty lips of the young wife.
"What, Ellen ?'
81 miss something in our house."
"Do you?"
go, very much, indeed"
"Well, Ellen, what is it ?"
GA piano it would be so nice to practice
these long dreary days. should be as
happy as aprincess if only had piano"
Mrs. Chester's father was in afauent cir.
cumstances, and before she was married, she
had been accustomed to many luxuries,
which her husbands limited means would
not permit him to provide.
"But, Ellen, l can't afford piano. The
times have not been so hard in ten years"
"You have $500 in the bank"
"But have reserved it to pay all notes" +"
s'Don't you expect to make enough to
pay it?"
"It is very doubtful my business hardly
pays expenses"
"You will be able to pay that, 1 know"
continued the eloquent petitioner.
"Well, my dear, you shall have piano"
nYou are a dear husband You'll get
me one of Chickering's" {"
"Any kind you please, my dear"
And before dinner time the instrument
came home, and Mrs. Chester was as happy
as a piano could make her, albeit she bad
little idea of the significance of "three per
cent. month, and protested notes"
Men said the times would be better, but
the prophecy was vain. Merchants failed,
brokers failed, the bank and insurance COM
pauies failed. Business was duller than it
had been for the last twenty years. Poor
men lounged at the corners of the streets,
vainly waiting fol- job, while their wives
and children shivered with the cold, and
hungered even for crust of bread. Ruin
and disease were the order of the day, and
men wondered where would be the end of
it ALL
Fred. Chester's business did not pay his
shop expenses, to say nothing of his house
hold, and when that dreadful note fell due,
he had not dollar towards redeeming it.
Ruin stared him in the face, and it was now
his turn to look sad
Five hundred dollars was a small sum,
vet he could not raise it. Even three pei