Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1870-02-18
MISCELLANEOUS.
THE DEAD MANS BELL.


"MY child crying again" said Tom Nor
ley, five minutes after had been in his
house, parabolically referring to the sur
gerry bell. -
"Worse than any child" said l. "I.
never heard such a bell; it doesn't ring,
1t tolls" 1t might have been a lxnell, such
was its solemn, deep-toned clangor. "Why
on earth don't you change it for some.
thing more professionals It's enough to
trighten your patients into fits"
"Tll tell you when 1 come back" he
replied; and Tom Morley went to the
surgery to see what was wanted.
l had taken Cranlford on my way in a
journey to Exeter, because knew Tom
Morley, who had recently come into some
considerable property in that little town
where he was practising as a surgeon, and
because there was some queer circumstan-
ces connected with his settlement in
Cranktord, of which l wished to learn
the particulars; and he was such bad
correspondent, it was no good writing to
him. His house was very old fashioned
one. 1t stood askew in crooked street
OF crooked town, and every room seemed
arranged cornerwise, as to consist of
beams, and angles, and recesses.
"Well," said Tom Morley, returning to
the room after having seen his patients,
hOWi dDOub bllG utlt w ui NOu Clu03G
1t for more musical one? Because owe
nearly all have to that bell. Come and
look at it,"
| followed him up stairs, and along
winding dark passage on the first floor,
till we came to it, a large and heavy iron
bell covered with cobwebs, remarkable
for nothing, to my mind, but its size and
its hideOus noisiness. Tom set it a swing
ing till it produced deafening peal so that
my head ached.
There" said he, with evident relish
for the horrid noise, as long as l have
surgery hope that will always be my
surgery bell. 1t has been the unconscious
instrument of Furnishing crime, of aveng-
ing the dead, and Of causing justice to be
done the living"
We came down stairs again, and when
comfortably seated by the fireside, Tom
Morley told me the story.
You must know that this poky little
house, and that big gabled barn next to it
on the right hand side, which is sufficient
ly assuming to be dignifed with the title
of " editice,' once upon time formed one
house-one great crooked bit of insight
illness that might have been built during
an earthquake by Maux architect /; it
could not have been crookeder. The then
owner of the place used to live in the large
hOuSGi WullSJ HIS DuJlCI anu IU6 DuIlcr s
wife (the owners hOusekeeper) inhabited
the smaller one in which we are now sit
ting. AT that time the great house was
fine one in its way, we'll furnished, and
well kept up; but when (through circum-
stances which l need not mentiOn) the
property came into my fathers posses
sion, near twenty years ago he made two
houses of it, lived in the big one himself,
and let the little one.
My father, Mr. Isaac Morley, was called
bad landlord he seldom had tenant
stay in the smaller house long in fact, he
allowed it to go almost to wreck and ruin,
for want of the necessary external repairs !;
but then he suffered thelarge house, which
he inhabited himself, to fall into similar
state of decay. 1t was not that he was
poor man, but because he had a morbid
dislike to part with his money. Some
people called my father miser iffinding
money in his own house, and gloating
over 1t with some degree of satisfaction,
mako person miser, people were justi-
fled in calling him one. But he was not q
miser in the ordinary sense of the term.
His boarding at home had grown out of a
misfortune which nearly ruined him in
early life a local bank in which much of
his money was deposited had failed; and
from that time he said (foolishly, no
doubD he would never trust another. As
to his gloating over his money, that is little,
after all, because it is just as miserly to
gloat over balance in bankers book as
over heap. of gold and notes in cash
box, But my father differed from the mi.
ser genus more especially in this particu
lar he never pinched or stinted himself
for the sake of his cash box. do not say
this difference was much in his favor, but
he was my father, and, though he was q
strange man in many things [ should be
sorry to say the contrary.
He married late in life; my mother lived
only two years with him, and died in
giving me birth. My father took strange
and unreasonable dislike to me, as being
i'll some sense, the cause of my mothers
death. 1t worried him to think about hi
loss when he saw me, and as the sight o
me reminded him of that, | was sent away
to be brought up with my mothers sisters
children. The quarterly payments my
father remitted for ny board and educa
ton were substantial help to my aunt
had comfortable home, and, though
saw little OF my father, we were never oI
unfriendly terms In due time he con
suited my wishes about my future life, ap
prenticed me to a surgeon, and paid tn,
necessary expenses for my studies
Folks in Crankford were divided in opin
ION as 10 Wnelner isaac morley really wa
rich and miserly, or only poor and eco
nomical. He was so quiet and reserves
in his habits; whilst 1t was known h
had suffered losses in his time, that ther
was no getting at the actual truth
knew no more than they did, and my re
lations with my father prevented m,
ascertaining, so that whatever was sal
about the matter was for many years n
more than surmise AS to the deaf oil
housekeeper, who lived in the house, sh
was always Grossly discreet, and had sue
vicious temper besides, that it was use
less for any of the neighbors TO try an
confirm their suspicious from her.
Wen, alter my father HAD grizzle
nearly a twelve month over the littl
house being shut up, and began to fea
he must put 1t into repair before he coul
let it any more, a tenant suddenly turne
up in the person of Dr. John Gryan
He was suaVe, flabby man, nearly 40
short, and rather stout, with fat, colol
less, dough-like face. II was rumore
that he had very powerful, if not yer
creditable, reasons for relnquishing
practice somewhere in Essex. We nevC
knew If that was true--it was merel
gossip, and Crankford is great place f
tbat--but Dr. Gryant paid down half
-. years rent In advance, took the plaC
from AIiohRemas and wanted aothin
done Isaac Morley took his money an
asked no questions . -..
A great man for doctors was my Athe
Hs was scarcely ever really u, but as