Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1871-07-06
STORY OF A DUCAL MAN.
SION.

One fine autumn day in the year 1850,
as his Majesty George the Second, sur
rounded by his escort, was entering Hyde
Park on horseback, his eye was attracted
by h figure of an old soldier resting Oh
a bench at the foot of the Cromwell Oak,
that still stands in vigorous age close by
the Achilles Statue. The King, whose
memory of faces were remarkable, recog-
niZed him as q veteran who had fought
bravely at his side in the continental
battles; and kindly ~accosting him, the
old man, who was lame, hobbled toward
him.
"Well my friend said the monarch,
sit is now some years since W. heard
the bullets whistle at the battle of Det-
-tingen; tell me what has befallen you
since.n
81 was wounded in the leg. please your
Majesty, and received my discharge. My
wife and L are living on the pension l
receive, and trying to bring up our only
son.
care you comfortable? Is there any
thing You particularly wish for?"
"Please your Majesty, if 1 might make
bold to speak, there is one thing that
would make my wife, poor woman, as
happy as q queen, if she could only get
it. George, our son-we named him af-
ter your Majesty-is a bright boy, and as
we are anxious to give him a good edu-
cation, we try every means to earn an
honest penny; so my wife keeps an APP
ple-staH outside the Park gate. But it is
very hard-the sun and dust spoil the
fruit, the rain keeps her home, the Park
guards sometimes drive her away, and
the Ranger says we have no right to be
here. Now, please your Majesty, if you
would have goodness to give her the
waste bit of ground outside the Park
gate, we could build a shed for her fruit
stall, andi it would be, Imay say, an estate
to u.s."
The good-naturd King smiled, and
said, "You shall have it, my triend," and
rode on.
OF course, the King had no more con-
stitutional power to bestow a rood of
Hyde Park upon peer or peasant, at that
day, than the Queen mas now. But the
Second George was arbitrary. Pelham,
his Prince Minister, was a tool of the
crown. Parliament seldom failed to do
the bidding of the King; and the people,
though jealous of their liberties, forgaVe
and forgot usurpations in the splendid
successes which crowned the. British
arms by sea and land during the thirty
three years reign of George IL. What
ever ~scruples, therefore, may have been
suggested to the monarch's parting with
any portion of the public domain, did
not stand long in the way. The Kings
word had been given to the old soldier.
1t was the Minister'S duty to see it kept.
In a few days u formal conveyance of the
bit of ground to James Allen, his wife,
and their heirs forever was forwarded to
their humble dwelling.
One morning of the summer of 1900
nineteen years after good King George
had made the old soldiers young wife
F'happy as a q~ueen''by his gfft-Aunt
Betsey, arriving from market, as usual,
at her place of merchandise, was startled
to perceive the space around her fruit
stall and cottage filled with workmen
made in the ground; blocks of under
pinning stone were being unladen 4;
bricks and material for mortar almost
hindered her approach; and carpenters,
with axes and saws, were ready to de-
molish the apple-stan and cottage.
"Come, old woman said the foreman,
"move your things out of thisi Look.
sharpi We can't wait all day for you'll
The men can do nothing till the shed is
down." -.
HMy house and stall, that good King
George gave me nigh twenty years ago!
Tear down my cottage-and shed! No,
no; there's no law in the land can do
thatl Who sent you here to destroy my
property ?'
"Well, well, my good woman" said
the first speaker" you nus settle that
with the Lord Chancellor. IF you're
wronged hell see you righted. Earl
Bathurst is no tyrant But your house
must come down; so move your things
out fast as you can. There is a palace to
be built here somewhat grander than
you apple-sIall."
The poor woman's tears and lamenta-
tions were in vain; her asseverations OF
ownership were treated with ridicule.
The little house and shed were leveled to
the ground, and Aunt Betsey returned
home heart-sick and Responding.
Misfortunes, it is said, never come sim
gly. That evening George Allen entered
his mothers dwelling wearing a coun-
tenance almost as detected as her own.
He threw himself on a chair, and, with
out noticing her gloom, said
go mother, 1 fear we are rnined. MI.
Elliott has failed for an immense sum /;
there is an execution on his house and
goods, and all the clerks are turned
adrift. Besides. he has all the money
YOU have laid up, and L fear can never
repay. a shilling of it.. Nor is that the
worst; for how is a fellow to get a new
place when the city is full of unemployed
clerks! 1 shall have to go into the
apple-stall, mother, and give UP all hope
OF marrying sweet Lucy Grayn
"George,o replied his mother, ''what
you tell me is bad enough; but, my poor
boy, I nave still worse news for you.
Our living is gone. The apple-stall, out
of tue earnings of which we raised you
when ar infant, before your father saw
the King; the cottage which the King
gave us liberty to build, and the ground
which he made our own owe bis own.
nam and seal, are all gone. The Lord
Chancellor is building a palace; the
cottage stood in the way, and the work
men nave torn it down to-day. There
is nothing left to us. my bow, but God
and the wide world"
"Bring me the deed, MOTHER" replied
the son. "The highest in England has
no power to Cypress the very lowest.
Let his lordship build on; he can not
seize that which is yours by the Great
Seal of England. We're he ten times
Lord Chancellor 1 will see him to-mor-
row. E
He did see him and was heard patient