Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1874-08-06
CHE Sturp Teller.
UNPRESENTABLE RELATIVES.

UNPREsENTABLE RELATIVES.
Halfpast nine of December evening, ano
Mr.. Elihu Hardenberg, merchant, sat alone
in the counting room Of his "wholesale ano
retail dry goods store," lights all out save the
one burner over his desk. MIR. Hardenbere
draws from his pocket memorandum book
The book opens where two photographs have
been placed between the leaves. One is the
picture of an old woman, with hollow cheeks
lips fallen in, black eyes sunken, and not a:
bright as they may have once been, hair deao
black, save for little space along the part
ing, where the dye has either worn off or was
never laid on artistically, hands stihly folded
poor, worn old hands! The second photo
graph is of an old man, very thin old man
with peaked chin, and nose coming fal
down to meet his chin, his thin, light hair fall
ing loosely around his ears, and lying in strag
gly ends upon his coat collar, his eyes faded
and watery, and 0, the lines upon his face!
Here is a letter directed in fine, tremu-
lous hand. The ink has been frozen. All
ink must freeze in New Hampshire, whence
this letter comes. Thus it reads:
Mn Dear Son Elisha: We have been looking
for letter from you thislong time, but suppose
cold Winter and hard for old folks. Your fathers
rheumatism is much worse. 1t is icy between the
house and the barn. and he Slipped down one day
last week and hurt himself badly. We have tried
to get q boy to do the chores, but can't find one
The murrain's got among the sheep, and your
father is dreadfully worried about the CATTLE and
thinks the hay won't last until Spring. don't
think it is right nor proper for us, old and broken
tell me what to do. Father and went down to
the village, last Thanksgiving, and had our pic
lures taken. Isend them to you.
Your affectonate mother,
ALMIRA HARDENBERG.
AS he reads, the two little perpendicular
lines between Mr.. Hardenberg's eyes deepen.
"Unquestionably, the place for them is in my
family" says he, and scowls. -,
The conclusion drew hard. What would
his wife, Cornelia, Mrs. Hardenberg, say to
his bringing home his father and mother
Mrs. Hardenberg was lady, who had sub
jected her soul to the refining process until she
had reduced it to very fine point indeed.
Mrs. Hardenberg wasn't an inhuman woman
had she been on the road to Jericho the after
noon that man fell among thieves, nothing
would have induced her to pass by on the
other side, unless, indeed, the wounds had
been offensive, and the groans distressing;
She simply wanted place for everything and
everything in its place. She wanted the
places in her own vicinity, vanished, polished.
gilded and ornamented, and she wanted the
objects that fitted into those places harmo-
NOUS, highly-wrought and recherche. AS a
matter of duty, she had been up to that cold,
dolorous place in New Hampshire, half
dozen times in the course of her married
life, and, though the air was pure, the water
clear, and the milk sweet, it was relief to get
home again for what are rivers of honey
and milk in land where the inhabitants eat
with steel forks and fatten their ous ?
But Mr.. Hardenberg didn't much care
what Mrs Hardenberg might say. Not that
Elihu was an inconsiderate husband, but Mrs.
H. had 80 pertinaciously insisted upon her
preferences in affairs where her dictates could
not be followed, as to have lost influence
where her word ought to have been weighty
For the opinions and feelings Of Miss Eloise
Hardenberg, la grande damsel, the light of his
eyes and the pride of his heart, Mr.. Harden
berg had greater regard. Eloise WAS proud
and punctiious. Eihu sometimes made mis-
takes, trifiing mistakes they seemed to him,
but they caused Eloise infinite annoyance.
How would she bear his mothers shrlll voice,
and strong idiomatic expressions, his fathers
futtered, old-fashioned ways?
He saw his mother with the immortal black
cape over her shoulders, marching into the
parlor when the Gershoms and the Mcln-
toshes were calling He saw his father arch
ing his hand around his ear and saying: "a
leetle louder, sir" to Augustus Apollonious,
only son and heir of Hon. Cresus Apollonious,
and Eloise's special admirer. Mr. Harden
berg was weak at point where many other
wise strong men were weak-he couldn't en-
dure ridcule. 1t was perplexing He took
up the photograph again. Then he remem-
bered a night of sickness, when those shriev-
eled hands had tenderly ministered to his
wants and those sunken eyes had watched his
troubled slumbers, many morning when
those shrunken lips had prayed "God spare
and bless our son!'
"a man must be less than man to fail
them now" he cried, and seizing paper and
pen he wrote:
lludear futhcr and mother:-I am sorry to hear
you are so poorly. think you must leave the
farm, and come and live With me. | will be up
meanwhile, if father has All op. ortunity to sell
anything at a reasonable rate, he had better take
advantage of it. Very truly yours, ELIHU.
He had pressed the blotting paper upon
his sheet, when, seizing the pen, he added this
postscrpt:
81 shall do everything in my power to make
your situation at my house agreeable to you,
and hope your declining years may be the
happiest your life
What people say is very unconsequentlal
compared with what they do therefore, we
pass by what Mrs. Hardenberg said, what
Eloise said. and bring up against time after
grandma and grandpa had arrived with all
their trunks and bandboxes, and Mrs. Har-
denberg had begun to recover from the severe
attack of neuralgia that came on about the
time of the arrival.
Miss Eloise Hardenberg had assumed an
unexpected attitude in regard to the affair
unexpected, yet, really, one has no stable
ground on which to rear hypothesis, touching
the conduct of proud young ladies Of nineteen.
Eloise's code Of etiquette VAS taken from the
French at first hand; violations of it were
capital offenses and the plea of ignorance no
extenuation. Eloise, however, prided herself
upon having spirit and resources, and strength
of mind to meet the inevitable without finch
ing. To appear with her grandparents pub
licly and often to seem deferential, and over
flowing with afectionate regard, she thought
would approach the moral sublime; and
Eloise, when at boardingschool had once
said, she "doted on the moral sublime" She,
L. 4 IL