Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-03-27

gale-pOsG. ......-...
& wish we hadn't done it, 'Liphalet,
said she.
"Oh! 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, a man who keeps some
| thing back"
"You mustn't be prejudiced agin him,
Dolly, because he appears leetle vain
and flashy. Men am now what they
were in our days. He comes of an honest,
obleeging kind of family, and they call
him a very smart young man. Dolly"
Time with it's incidents and accidents
went on, and Aunt Dolly grew used to
thinking of Rube's money as in SwintoI' s
hands This certificate of stock ia the
"Native Village manufacturing company
was carefully laid away, and she no longer
spent sleepless nights over it, nor sighed
when the matter was mentioned.
The mill went up and the operatives
came; real estate rose again, and the
Native Village fourisned. 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 color ed
moustache. While he carried on the
cotton manufacture he did a still more
fiourishiEg 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 a science,
designed to show the pecuniary standing
OF individuals and companies, now became
an easy and economical method of elk
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 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 puts 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
1t. Uncle 'Liphalet, at these meetings,
sat silent and trembling, listened to talk
q hn No Iarct nd tha,,
the chattering of Choctaws, and was
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 everybody, 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 culture-perhaps 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 letters on his feet, fet
tiers on his hands, and bricks onhi 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,
CROPPED his way home through the snow
storm, and ratified the back door as a sig
nal to Aunt Dolly to let him in.
care you frozen, Liphalet?" asked
Aunt Dolly, in terror, as the candle-light
struck the white face.
Uncle 'Liphalet staggered in, and sink
ing on the lounge, covered his face with
his wrinkled hands.
go, Dollyi'
"You needn't tell me, 'Liphalet; /
know what it's. I've felt twas coming.
But, O, Liphalet, we've helped each
other through hard INES these fifty
years, and we've got each other yet"
Maybe the farm'll last us through;
we're Almost worn out, and it won't be
long that We'll be waiting. With the
farm and each other"
90, Dolly, Dolly, you don't know the
worst, and can't tell you. l never can
tell you, Dolly, never"
Uncle 'Liph staggered part way across
the room, then turned suddenly.
They're going to take it all, Dolly
everything-strip us clean, clean as we
were when we began fifty years ago
house and farm and cows-everything
There's been great carelessness as well as
great wrong; wrong and carelessness and
wrong from the very beginning, and now
they're coming The law IL let 'em, and
it's got to go-the back pastur', and the
wood lot, and the young orchard, and
everything-even Rube's grave, Dolly.
0, God! haven't served Thee these fifty
years; why shouldst Thou cast me of
now"
The gray, scraggy face, with the gray,
straggly hair around it, was turned to-
ward the ceiling. Aunt Dolly went out
into the night.
1t was stormy, and cold, and bitter.