The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-02-05
ANNABEL BROWN.

ANNABEL BkONN.
When I consider the difficulty with
which I manage to support rigid and
penurious household on an income
which, although small, accrues regularly
and is paid to the day, am all the
more astounded at the way some people
contrive to live. There's my friend
William Brown, now. He is married
man, has half dozen children, lives in
q nice little house, always has some.
thing hot for supper, and glass OF
rgrog for himself and friend afterwards,
and yet, as far as I know, he has nc
income whatever He's an old school
fellow of mine, which gives him kind
of claim upon me; and ever since !
have renewed my early acquaintance
with him-he called upon me some
years ago, when I first entered the Civil
Service as junior clerk, to request my
interest with the authorities to procure
him an appointment of some kind-ever
since then he has been out of employ
ment and on the lookout for an open
ing. Tn afraid that, in the self-im-
portance of youth, L gave William too
exalted idea of my influence with the
authorities s''-whoever they may be
that I patronized him a little, and held
out some hopes, however vague, that ]
might possibly come across something
that might provide him with the
wished. for opening. Indeed I may say
that was as good as my word, and did
put him in the way of obtaining pub
lie situation of some emolument, hav.
ing succeeded in placing his name on a
list of candidates for an open compe-
tition for situation in the Excise, for
which the poor fellow was uncommonly
grateful. 1t turned out, by the way,
that the limit of age for these situations
was from eighteen to twenty, and Will
liam was getting on to thirty-fve. But
this obstacle, which would have proved
seem to daunt William at all. He was
thirty-fve, it was true; but he had had
a brother once who was dead, poor fell
low, who, if he had lived, would have
been Just the right age, and it was evi.
dent he was wronging nobody by
making use of the baptismal certificate
and other papers that would have been
poor Bob's if he had been alive.
He showed indeed, such energy and
address in overcoming the many diff
culties that presented themselves in
making this arrangement, that thought
it argued very we'll for the fellows real
qualities, and that such industry and
such perseverance would, if they once
found an opening. be sure of success.
But unfortunately, as he told me after
wards, the time and energy he had de.
voted to overcoming these preliminary
difficulties had prevented his giving
himself to the necessary preparation for
passing the Termination itself. He
was plucked in the Rule of Three-a
rule, he informed me, that isn't of the
slightest use in mercantile affairs, and
is indeed considered quite obsolete by
men of business. But still, as told
him, William. you ought to have got
it up" Obsolete and stupid as' might
have been the system of examination,
he ought to have accommodated him
self to circumstances-he ought to have
gone in for the Rule of Three ; for it is
a very simple thing. You put your
figures in a row with dots between
them, and if the answer comes out
wrong-and it does sometimes, tre-
mendously-you may be sure you've
put the wrong figures in the middle,
and you must alter 'em. But I've found
that mercantile men, as a rule, are pig
headed. William was a mercantile
man he had been clerk in draper's
counting house William was pig
headed. He wouldn't go in for the
Rule of Three, and, "Then William"
I said, "you must abandon all thoughts
of entering the public service of your
your country" He did so with the
greatest philosophy, not appearing
much cast down by his ill-success.
The next time I met William, he told
me he was in the building-trade. /
couldn't learn that he had done any
thing in the way of building himself,
but he was on commission, he told me.
At all events, he had succeeded in OBJ
tanning a very nice little house, the one
he at present inhabits, and on such ad-
vantageous terms that he had three
each one of whom forbade
him to pay any rent to the other. 1t
was true that they had occasionally
varied their proceedings by putting in
an execution, as they called it, upon
William, who, however, with his usual
resource, had hit upon an ingenious
way of defeating their maneuvels by
a bill of sale, the operation of which he
but I can't exactly recol-
lect the particulars.
William came to me one day in
state of iubilant excitement. The open
ing had come at last. William was on
the high road to fortune. When ex-
planned, the opening was found to con-
sist of an operation, and in the building
trade. 1t consisted in buying houses
and selling them again at an immense
profit. Really on paper it looked most
promising; but then one must make
allowance for the sanguine nature OF
projectors. There was one little requi-
site, William added, very trifing
obstscle-capital.