The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1872-03-29

twenty tuOusdhu ooluts, WuiSu hc sSt'
tied on Kate; SO that in case of any ac-
cident to himself she would be provided
for.
The voyage passed pleasantly enough,
and, ms they had determined to try
their fortunes in the West, their stay in
| New York was short. Arrived in Chi
cago, family council was held, the re-
suit OF which led to their settlement in
that city. Johann Immediately set at
work at his old trade. Having invested
their Joint funds in shop, he resumed
his old line Of hard work, and was soon
doing prosperous business. Their
lives for the next few years partook o.
nothing of the romantic. They-at
leas Johann-lived as happily as the
average of frail p,ortals are supposed to
be capable of living. Johann, it is true,
did not entirely fail to discover faults
in the character of his wife; yet such
was his love for her that he overlooked
them all, and continued the same fond
and foolish lover that he was on their
wedding day.
But at length there came to him .
crisis sudden aud overwhelming. His
shop, or rather factory now, took fire.
Johann's house was on retired street,
some distance of, and had been selected
on account of its resemblance to the
dear little cottage on the KONG strasse.
Together with Kate and the old lady,
he was enjoying a late supper after q
hard days labor. Johann had fallen to
talking of the old times at home with
him a well-worn subject), and was com.
pairing his present location to Golgau,
with reference to business, much to the
discredit of the latter place. just ash
was descanting, for the fifteenth time,
on the beauties of some new machinery
which he had been purchasing, the alarm
of fire broke in upon the conversation.
Johann, counting the strokes, knew that
it was somewhere near his factory; but,
not wishing to disturb his wife, laugh
ingly said that he would take q walk
down to the fre-aAaing that he would
be back in half an hour. As he neared
the scene of action, his fears we're con.
frmed; for the flames, which had con-
sumed the building adjoining, were al.
ready making swift destruction of his
property. There was evidently no posi-.
BILE salvation for the factory. For a mo-
ment Johann was stupefied. What was
to be done? In his office on the second
floor were valuable papers, which, if
saved, would secure to him at least
portion of his property. With the
courage, or rather madness of despera-
ton, he rushed forward and entered the
building. The crowd shouted to him to
return, but he leaped blindly on until
he reached the staircase leading to his
Office. 1t was only on reaching this
point that he perceived the uselessness
of his attempt, for the smoke rolled
down in heavy volumes, rendering an
ascent utterly impossible. Returning
to the door, he found his passage i'm.
peded by falling timbers. He ran to
the back Of the building, and, crawling
out of an aperture through which some
pipes had formerly been laid, reached
the open air. His exit had not been
observed, and as he mingled in the
crowd he heard the people crying out
that there was a man in the building.
He stood for some minutes, watching |
the flames remorsely eat up the factory.
All the money that he had originally in.
vested and all he had since sccumu-
lated, was lost-gone, almost in a mo-
ment. How many weary years OF toll
had it taken to earn this property,
whose ashes were now scattered TO the
winds? How he had scraped and
pinched and calculated with his father
to save penny here and groshen
there during his early years? And now,
what had il all amounted to? The fac.
tory was destroyed, ard he was utterly
penniless. If only he had insured it /!
If he had only been as careful in insur-
ing his property as insuring his life!
All! that was it. His life was insured
for twenty thousand dollars, which
would revert to Kate in case of his
death, and support her in comfort all
her days. He was supposed 10 have
perished in the flames. Why not creep
away unnoticed, and let his beloved
wife have the benefit of the insurance
She, at least, would be preserved from
the modification of poverty. But could
he thus rudely separate himself from
her, and sacrifice all his happiness for
her sake? My dear Mr.. Honeycomb
what do you think you would have done
in this case
"Whatv' you exclaim. "The man
surely would not think of cheating the |
insurance companies y
Sir. let me inform you that such an
issue as that never once presented itself
to our unfortunate Johann. The ques-
ton with him was Shall sacrifice my
happiness for Katrina's comfort? A
tumult of thoughts seemed TO throng
his brain all at once then with power
Iul effort, he made his decision, and /
SUNK away out of the crowd into the
longer the prosperous
Johann Bierslinger, but a strange and
unknown being, homeless and name.
ess. Early in the morning dark train
bore out of the city, in its darkest