The Portland daily press., 1871-11-14
Compromising with and onfounding His
Creditors.

A correspondent, &C." of the Providence
Journal, writing Of "Musings on North Main
Street" in that city, tells this story:
before the railroad was built to Boston, the
stages all came down this street. and stopped
at the Manufacturers Hotel. One summer
afternoon, delegation of Boston merchants
| arrived. and immediately wended their wav
| W Tue ufy goods store oil Mr.. George Free
man, which was situated on Cheapside. Let
| tihS hotes 20 10 protest is not a modern in
| Vention. PIltarchs Lives mention several
OF the most distinguished persopages in his
| tory-nSe julius Caesar, and others-who
were IN great pecuniary difficulties. The
| great Caesar was so hard up at one time. and
| his paper dragged so at home, that he went
into Gaul 10 raise money, and enforced his
| modest application for discount with a large
army. Had he returned home as poor as
| he went away, we should have heard little of
him in history, and himself might have es-
capped the dagger OF Brutus, and the diction
of Mark Antony.
Mr.. George Freeman was as hard up as
Julius Caesar. without any great military re-
sources, and all he could do whenever his
notes payable vanquished his notes receivable
or the battlefield of his dry-goods business,
was to send flag of truce to his creditors by
the hands of notary public, asking for a
cessation of hostilities, and time to bury the
dead.
Since he had been in the dry-goods line DE
had sent these white q lgs as many as five
times, and like Frederick the Great he had
got to he more dangerous to his enemies in
defeat than in victory. On that summer aft
ernoon he was sleeping sweetly on the coun-
ter OF his shop, with his head buried in
pile of calicoes, and his honest face covered
with red silk handkerchief, TO shut out the
world or to keep off the flies. To see man
enjoying the slulnbers of an infant, when you
have not been able to close your eyes from
thinking OF the debt is, hard to bear, even for
men nurtured under the superior light OF
Boston liberal Christianity, or educated under
the classic roof of Harvard University.
The Boston gentlemen, when they arrived
at Mr.. Freeman's store, dispensed with those
salutations customary among the refined and
cultivated, and rudely shook the sleeper, ask
| ing him in that lone of voice common to Bos-
| ton men whenever they feel that the dearest
| and most sacred feelings of the human heart
| have been torn and lacers ted, "Why did you
| not pay your notes, sr?' MIR. Freeman rub
| bed his eyes and asked the gentlemen to free
| their minds from all excitement and preju-
| dice, and ito take a dispassiouate view of a
written statement of his affairs. which il
would now become both his duty and pleas
ure TO show to them. The statement was, of
course, like all such statements, showing clear
y that il the assets would only increase in
volume and the liabilities diminish in bulk.
there would be a surplus left sufficient to pay
the assignee without making further assess
| ments on the creditors. In short, to go back
to our military simlle, it was regular Water
loo defeat If the bills receivable; not even the
canteen Of an old guard was lett on the bloody
| field.
Il see, sir'' said one of the creditors, "that
| you have taken $2500 out of your assets and
| given it to your wife," "What do YOU mean
by that, sir?" 81 mean by that," said Mr..
| Freeman, "that this buiness has not any
thing to do with that money. That money
was made years ago in the tack business, ov-
| or in Rehoboth, and almighty hard work it
| was, too, gentlemen" "But," said one of the
creditors, "did you not take this tack money
| out when you failed before? p" "TO be sure
did" said Mr. Freeman, warmly, 81 fought
| out the great principle of the sacred nature
oi this tack money at my first failure, five
| years ago, and if it were right then it must be
| right nova thing cannot be absolutely right
| five years ago and absolutely wrong now be-
| sides, have not spent this money in riotous
| living or foreign missions, but have given it
to my wife. the best woman IN the world"
This happy blending of the abstract prnci-
pies OF right an wrong, about which there can
be an endless dispute, with the affections oi
the heart, about which there can be no diff
| ference of opinion, made deep impression
| on the Boston merchants, and they took the
return stage home. They might cavil at
George freeman when they viewed him in
| the light of an unsuccessful haberdasher, but
| far, far above the haberdasher, stood the nus
| band, and in that character the picture OF his
unselish appropriation of his nard earnings at
Rehoboth to the only being he truly loved, is
an llustratian that even in the humble walks
| Of business virtues may blossom which shall
| fill after years with their fragrance. Our walk
has taken us as far as old St. Johns church.
IN Al II
to worldly pursuits have been moved from
their original positions. This ancient church
stands on its old foundation. What striking
| Illustration of the stability Of Christianity,
amid the caprces of commerce and the tran
STORY in human affairs. Happy for us, if, in
the spiritual life, we possess a guide that
knews nothing of the changes aud vaccilla-
tiOns of earth