Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1873-03-14
.~7~s DoDGEv1ILE WISCONSIN, FRIDAY, MARCH H. 1873.

ness or misfortune we might fall back on
Rube's money, otherwise I'd rather it re.
mained in the bank"
| "a thousand dollars, sir continued
the little old lady, sufficiently humble be
| fore this man of means-"a thousand
dollars that's been saved bit by bit and
| laid up in fve-dollar bills for perticke-
| Ter object, seems different from a thousand
| dollars that's just one of many going up
and down and trucking around in busi
ness, sir.''
The light.eyed Swinton played with
| his watch chain nervously An unsoph-
isticated old woman, this-being solic-
| itor for her patr0ndge-was not agreea-
IL, but in "business" very disagreeable
| things have sometimes to be done.
"This den"sit tl'on was made for the
| benefit q -. 80, A.-t.ben. His death
was great loss to you; loss to the com
munity. Rube was full of life and enter
prise. He would have made public
spirited man. / wish he were alive now
Artford Sw inton's small, light eyes
could detect human weakness; Artford
Swinton's quick apprehension and tact
enabled him to work up those weaknesses
for his own interests. When, a half hour
ldtCl, UC DdSSCu CuG DCGWCCu lAC l11dC
clumps, he carried on his paper Uncle
'Liphalet's subscription, and in his pocket
Uncle 'Liphalet's bank book.
"My hand trembles so, | hain't made
all the letters very good" Uncle 'Liphalet
critically surveyed his labored signature.
"We must trust you to take care of it
for us, sir; father and don't know any
II; oh - n0lIu hoA Il
said, as she relnquished the precious lit
tie blue book.
"Certainlv, rely on mel do assure you
Any favor that it is in my power to con-
fer" Mr.. Swinton had said glibly.
Aunt Dolly stepped to the window
with her knitting, and watched the man
as he struck a light for his cigar On her
gate-post.
Il wish we hadn't done it, 'Liphalet," i"
said she.
ooh! don't say so, Dolly, don't"
81 don't like his eye, and for all he
talks so open and honest he seems to me
like close man, q man who keeps some
thing back"
"You mustn't be prejudiced agin him,
Dolly, because he appears a leetle vain
and fashy. Men ant now what they
were in our days. He comes of an honest,
obleeging kind of family, and they call
him very smart young man, Dolly"
Time with its incidents and accidents
went on, and Aunt Dolly grew used to
thinking of Rube's money as in Swinton's
hands This certificate of stock in the
''Native Village manufacturing company
was carefully laid away, and she no longer
o1n irrh+ cirhod
when the matter was mentioned.
The mill went up and the operatives
came; real estate rose again, and the
Native Village flourished. Uncle 'Lipha-
let peddled out early potatoes, sweet corn,
and mutton by the quarter; and Artford
Swinton, though he had President and
Directors, and clerks, and heaven only
knows what else around him, was "The
Company" and smoked cigars-best
brand or none-gave the company's note,
and forever stroked the foxy -colored
mOustache. While he carried on the
cotton manufacture he did a still more
flourishing business in the manufacture
of facts. He heaped facts upon facts on
the head of the President until he
smothered that gentleman in facts; he
piled bales of facts before the directors
until they couldn't see over the pile; he
threw facts into the eyes Of the stock
holders until they were stone blind; he
gave banks and creditors security of
facts, and his friends quaffed nepenthe of
facts in the social glass. Days when
crOqueting was dull the books were
"fiXed." Bookkeeping, once science,
designed to show the pecuniary standing
of individuals and companies, now became
an easy and economical method of Fix
ing" things. Now and then dividend was
declared, and the stream that turned the
mill glittered in the sun like the river
Pactolus. Uncle 'Liphalet put green
backs into the contribution box and
thanked the Lord daily that He was Civ
ing him increase of substance.
Then there began to be a haze in the
air through which had glittered the
river Pactolus Swinton said it was smoke
from the Boston fire. 1t grew denser and
denser.
"Smoke from that - Boston fire;
wind blows it this way, yet" said Swim
ton, between the puffs of his cigar.
But smoke has an unpleasant effect on
mems eyes, and meeting after meeting
was held to devise measures to get rid OF
it. Uncle 'Liphalet, at these meetings,
sat silent and trembling, listened to talk
that he could no more understand than
the chattering of Choctaws, and was
shown statements that he could no more
comprehend than the Inscriptions on
Pompey's pillar. The Man of Facts
lounged in an attitude of such elegance
as men are wont to assume when by them
selves, and agreed with everybody, assur-
ed every body, was for putting this thing
through" and offered his facts for this
latter purpose with astounding liberality.
Alack the Swinton cigar smoke, though
it rose gracefully, and curled around the
heads of the stockholders, naturally min
gled with the smoke of the Boston fire,
and mems visions became more and more
obscured.
All at once Swinton was off to Europe
for purposes of self neutrality-suspicious. the
man needed it, Then were his layers of
facts, his dividends in paper and his
dividends in money pushed aside. 0, ye
gods, what sight met the gaze of men,
then! Now the smoke rolled up in vol
umes from all quarters; darkness that
might be felt set in, and men CROPPED for
each others hands. No more did the
Pactolus glisten and glitter and simmer
before their eyes, but in their ears roared
a swollen, turbid stream, foaming, tossing
great cakes of ice up and down, and
threatening to bear them all away, grind
them up, and carry them out to open
ocean.
Some of the men there could talk, and,
though one have fetters on his feet, fet-
ters on his hands, and bricks on his head,
if he can talk, his condition is not unbear-
able. But Uncle 'Liphalet couldn't talk;
so he picked his way down the icy steps,
eroped his way home through the snow
storm, and ratified the bsck door as sig
nal to Aunt Dolly to let him in. :,
care you frozen, 'Liphalet?" asked
Aunt Dolly, in terror, as the candle-lght
struck tho vyh;to fooo