Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1873-04-04
BECAIRE, NEE BAKER, IN PARIS
A FISH STORY

BECAIRE is an American; so am /; else
should not put him into printers ink.
That is to say, hei an American, if a
mans nationality depends on his birth
place.
Becaire was born On the border of Cas-
CO Bay, where the Atlantic swashes with
it's everlasting stomach, casting It's waits
upon the granite shores of Maine; where
they grow republicanism which ought to
wash and iron we'll in any climate, some
of which he would have inherited. per-
haps, had not nature profusely stinted
him as to intellect.
You see, he was born all right, but he
aspired to be thought Partisan.
Becaire's grandfather was born in the
same neighborhood-his name was John
Baker.
How Becaire's grandfather could have
been plain John Baker you don't quite
see, perhaps, but you will soon.
John Baker was a fisherman-and
monger; he decoyed the cod, allured the
mackerel, and seined the pogie, all of
which he sold at the highest market
rates for cash.
He started in the fish business with one
dory, acquired other dorys, smacks and
nets; then died full of years and fish
bones, and affiuent for his times.
He left one son, Charles Baker-Be-
caire's father.
Charles Baker got better send-of in
life than was vouchsafed to John; in
stead of starting with one dory, he
started with the smacks and bank &C
count John Baker was unable to take
with him to the happy fishing grounds;
instead of drawing lobster pots he drew
bank checks, and the Bakers came to
be of the very first families of Casco Bay.
Charles Baker was scooped up by the
death angel at the age of fifty, leaving
much affluence, widow and Becaire.
Becaire had none of the scaly inclina-
tions of his ancestors, and the daisies had
hardly fluttered single season over the
grave of the deceased Charles before his
hopeful progeny quilted his ancestral
halls and pogie pots for Paris.
Once in Paris, he began to look with
scorn on the fish traffic, and on every one
connected with that or any other traffic;
and he sought the society of the aristo-
cratic and noble, which he had no partic'
ular difficulty in finding, because he was
willing to pay for it.
Baker! Bakerm said marquis whom
poverty had marked for its Own-did it
ever occur to you that this is good sea-
son for poor marquises?-andw who kindly
consented to take most of his meals with
our pet-"Baker, do you know you have
very common way of spelling your
name? CALI Becaire."
He saw the raise
s'Fwedahwickl Fwedahwick!" said
another diluted nobleman from over the
channel.
"lt's an awful boah to say Fwedah-
wick, why don't you say Fwed?"
He saw that raise, and since then has
been known to the fashionable world of
Paris as Fwed Becaire.
Now you see how John Baker came to
be the grandfather of Fwed Becaire.
The original Baker, when he was not
out in his dory fishing, breakfasted at
four all the year round, dined at twelve,
supped at five, and went to bed at eight;
he had no regular hour for meals when in
his dory; fish, you know, are so uncer'
tain.
Fwed breakfasts at two, and dimes at
nine. and his hour of retirement depends
entirely on the bottle capacity of his
noble friends.
The original Baker had one suit of
homespun each year, and one suit OF
store clothes at the taking OF each
census.
Fwed has two suits for each day of the
week.
The original Bakers visual organs
were powerful, it used to be said Of him
John Baker can see school of pogieS
further nor any man on the beach,"
Fwed is weak in his left eye, over
which he wears piece Of glass.
Is 1t not singular how, when one gets
to be aristocratic and noble, he FREQUENT
ly loses the sight of one eye?
What commercial panic it would
create if our American nobility Should
60 blind in both eyesi
And to illustrate how the eyesight O.
some families will vary in three genera
tions, | state it as fact that Fwed, with
ont his eye-glass, ''could not tell pogi
from twout."
The original Baker never kept horse
sxofRsng tRst ggoa Gl as an I and than m b. - an
a1ther nskpg need te toaale to oapFo
g fooi'