The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1873-09-25

formed bne tneme OF MS course, anu pe-
gan af follows -
You must know, then, mein Herr,
that in the year of '52 business began to
rather fall off with me q was cabinet
maker, you remember,) and from bad it
came to worse, until L thought some-
thing should really be done to put mat
ters to rights. Now Just about this
time all manners of stories were begin
ming to go about of the high wages paid
to foreign workmen in Russia, and the
heaps of money that sundry Germans
who had gone there from Breslau and
Konigsberg and elsewhere were making
in st. Petersburg and Moscow. And
so L pondered and pondered over all
these tales, and the plight was in, till
at last began to think of going and
trying my luck as well as the rest. My
wife and L talked it over, and settled
that it should be done and we were
just getting ready to. start, when one
night message came that my old uncle,
Ludwig Holzmann, of the friedrich
Strasse (who had taken offence at my
marriage, and never looked near me
since), was dying, and wanted to see
me Immediately. So away 1 went
my wife wanted to go, too, but 1
thought she had better not--and when
got there found the old man lying in
kind of dose, and nobody with him
but the doctor and the pastor, who
lived close by.
$50 I sat down to wait till he awoke ;
and sure enough, in about half an hour,
his eyes opened and fell full upon me.
He raised himself in bed-I think see
him now, with the lamp-Hght falling on
his old, withered face, making it look
just like one of the carvings on the old
bureau, which stood at the foot of the
bed-and said, in a hoarse whisper,
Heinrich, my lad, I've not forgotten
thee, although the black cat has been
between us bit lately. When I'm
dead thoul't have that bureau yonder ;
there's more in it than thou think st ;
and he sank back with q sort of choking
laugh that twisted his face horribly.
Those were his last words, for after that
he fell into kind of stupor and died
the same night.
"When his property came be di-
vided, every one was surprised, for they
had all thought him much richer.
got the bureau, just as he said and,
remembering his words about it. we
ransacked all the drawers from end to
end, but found nothing except two or
three old letters and roll of tobacco !;
so we made up our minds that he must
have either been wandering little, or
else that-God forgive him-he had
wanted to play us one more trick before
he died. In few weeks more all was
ready for our going, and away we went
to st. Petersburg.
"When we got there, we found it not
at all such land of promise as the
stories made it out but still there was
good wages for those who could work /;
and for the first year or two we
get on well enough. But after time
in came q lot of French fellows, with
new-fangled tricks of carving that
pleased the Russian gentry more IL an
our plain German fashions and trade
began to get slack and money to run
short. All ! mein Herr, may you never
feel what it is to find yourself sinking
lower and lower, work as hard as you
like, and one trouble coming on you
after another, till it seems as if God
had forgotten you"
The old hero's voice quivered with
emotion, and an unwonted tremor dis
turbed the placid countenance of his
wife, while even the sunny face of the
little Fraulein looked strangely sad.
"Well, mein Herr, we struggled on in
this way for two years longer, hoping
always that our luck would turn, and
putting the best face we could on it !;
though many time when the children
came to ask me why 1 never brought
them pretty things now, as I used to
do at home, could almost have sat
down and cried. At last the time came
when be could stand against it no long
er. There was money-lender close by
us, from which we had borrowed at
higher interest than we could afford,
who was harder upon us than any one,
(may it not be laid to his charge here
after y, and he, when he saw that we
were getting behind in our payments,
seized our furniture, and announced a
sale of it by auction. 1 remember the
night before the sale as if it was yester-
day. My boy Wilhelm was very i'll just
then, and no one knew whether he
would live or die; and when my wife
and sat by his bed that night, and
looked at each other and thought of
what was to come, really thought my
heart would have broken. All my
Lisbeth, we have indeed beenin trouble
together"
AS he uttered the last words the old
man clasped fervently the broad, brown
hand of his wife, who returned the
pressure with interest, and, after q
slight pause, he resumed thus:
son the morning of the sale a good
many people assembled, and among the
rest came the district inspector of po-
lice. He was kind man in his way,
and had given me several little jobs to
do when first came over; but he was
not very rich himself, and nobody could
blame him for not helping us when he
had his own family to think of. How
ever, I've no doubt he came to our sale
in perfect good faith, meaning to give
the best price for what he bought.
"Well, in he came, and the first thing
that caught his eye was the old bureau,
which stood in corner of the room.
1t seemed to take his fancy, and he went
across to have nearer view of it. He
began trying the grain of the wood
drawing his nail across one part, rap
ping another with his knuckles-till all
at once I saw him stop short, bend his
head down as if listening, and give an
other rap against the back of the bureau.
His face lighted up suddenly, as if had
just found out something he wanted to
know; and he beckoned me to him.
DO you know whether this bureau has
a secret spring anywhere about?' asked
he 'for the back seems to be hollow.