Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1870-12-22
FATHER AND SON;
HOW JOHN MASSETT BECAME
A HAPPY FARMER.
BY HAROLD HENCE.

Yer a burned fool" said Stephe
Massett to John as they rode home
from the Ten Acres. & married
money an land; l didn't sneak
round arter the darter of an old beg
gar, like Bret Hines Wal, anyhwo
what's mines mine, an I'll take
care on it." Take care of it,"
said John, composedly; I've done
without it till now. Maybe I'll do
without it to the end.''
A strange pair were these. The
Shank williams tell a story about the
old man to this effect The Rev.
Samuel Gleason, who wes Minister
in Shankville about the time that
Siephe was at his worst. preached,
one Sunday. a very impressive SER
mon, in which he contrasted the
darker phases of life, ending an elo
quent picture of each with the ques-
ton, Then, bre thren, what is our
hardest lot? He had it in his
mind, of course, to make out that
his was the hardest lot who sinred
and repented not; but, as he paused
after the third inquiry, Ben Proudie
an old peasant, whose son Stephe
had prosecuted for trespass, got up
from his scar, and bawled out =
stephen Massett; ef he amt the
hardest lot in Shankyille, I'm
burned -
Aud so be was the hardest lot"
and had been from his youth. He
stood six feet four; his undulous,
bullock like chest, and swelling
calves, were sights to see. His was
the antique type of mana pyramid
reversed. His little gray eyes, in
their pits of forid flesh, glittered
with ferocity ana cunning and the
straight, thin lips of her big mouth
were lclamped with an iron resolu-
ton.
He had been the same man all
through. No fits of remorse for
him, no abortive breakings away
from the bad life, no dim glimpses
of a better. His youth, manhood,
and prime, would have killed doz
en- ordinary men-would have beg
CARED ninety-nine out of a hundred
with the same patrimony; but he
was a miracle of health and vigor
at sixty, and his store had increas
ed thousand foid. Let his physical
and mental vision be never SO OBJ
scured by liquor, he kept the main
chance steadily in view Men say
to this day that ''bourbons sour
only whetted his natural cunning,
and that, if you wished to strike an
advantageous bargain with old
Stephe, your best chance was to try
him sober. While adding vice to
vice, he had added dollar to dollar
and acre to acre, until he became
the autocrat of ShaHkville.
John was very like him in build
and feature, but utterly unlike il
character. Reserved and suilen. he
had never made a friend fair in hi;
dealings, and never guilty of the
brutal harshness and malignancy ot
his father. he had made no enemies
Though he was the son of an en-.
ormously wealthy man. he haC
worked on that mans farm as a hir
ed hand, and at the wages of one
from his tenth until his twentieth
year-the time of his introduction
to the reader. John would hav,
been accounted good looking fel-
low, had he possessed the usua
sivacity and desire to please for hi'
age. r
As it was, many an apple cheek
ed damsel of Shankrille and th,
neighborhood would think in the
cleaning of the young giant; ant
weave many II romance out of hi!
gloomy face, and sullen withdrawa
> from all the youthful sports arc
gatherings of the country But NJ
damsel, however apple-cheeked o
bright-eyed, had ever troubled him
: until Kate Hines. daughter of Bre
Hines, the landlord of the Shank
Vile Hotel, came from a boardin.
school. Then a deeper gloom fel
d upon his face, and he commenced tC
il work with such silent, savage en-
{ ergy, that even Stephe Massett won
:, derei thereat. The old man 500
l. guessed what took John to Shank
: vile every night. but he never guss
n ed what had warped his sons char
70 acter from childhood; he neve
IN knew that the shadow of his ow
!. i'll fame had fallen on his own SON
1 heart, and chilled its nutural aspirs
OF 9ions; that the shadow of his ev
!. reputation had cursed his child wit
self population and self-distrust.
Repardinp man and womanhoo