The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1875-08-19

90 your OF rutgers GILL nave bue
money whenever he likes to come for it"
Years passed. Godfrey grew pros
porous. Rutgers name was almost for
gotten. A new generation grew up, who
knew little and cared less for the history
of the eccentric owner of the old mill.
Eccentric he was. Ready ever to assist
the unfortunate with his purse, he never
ventured near a scene of distress. He
had been known to fly like one possessed
from the place where a laborer had been
struck by a falling brick, and received a
deep wound. One of his intimates
dying, expressed q wish to see him.
After repeated messages, Godfrey went.
When he was ushered into the sick-room
and saw the eyes of the dying man
turned ~anxiously toward him, with an
oath and a yell Godfrey burst from the
room, and raved like a mailman along
the road. He supported the family,
however, after all was over. 1t was re-
marked, to, that though Godfrey con-
tributed freely to religious objects, he
never entered a place of worship. Con
s~equently, the pious shook their heads
mysteriously, but said nothing, as the
miller had plenty of defenders, the re-
cipients of his benefits or the partakers
of his kindly offices.
Godfrey never married. No railer
against the fair sex was he. Reputed
well-to-do, and being of good appear
ance, he was by no means an object OF
disgust with the unmarried fair. Yet
none of them could boast of ever receiv-
ing a special visit from him, but one,
and she the daughter of an old farmer in
embarrassed circumstances, whom God
frey had befriended. The gossips had
declared it q match but the visits were
suddenly broken off and neither of the
principals would declare the reason.
"There were some men who dare not
marry, was all the answer could be got
from him, even by his most intimate
friends, when they advised him to take a
wife and settle down comfortably.
And yet the sight of an infant seemed
to transfgure his somewhat severe fea-
lures. He would take the chubby hand
in his loving palm, kiss it, pat the velvet
cheek, and looking into the dreamy
eyes, would, signing, mutter, Chow in
nocent We we're all so once" Some
said that on these occasions a tear would
gather in the miller's eye; but most
laughed at the idea. For Godfrey was
not of the tender mood. Thus when
any one ventured to say that the mill
was old, and the foundations crumbling,
the water undermining the walls, and
that it should be repaired, assuredly it
would be carried away by a freshet =
"Let it go to the devil with its owner !
1t will last my time"
And then would follow such remarks
that the astonished listener, looking on
Godfrey's countenance, would perceive
that his eyes were glaring like a wild
beasts, his nostrils distended with pas
sion, and his jaws quivering with sup
pressed emotion.
4 =
"The freshetl-the fresheti" is the
theme of conversation in the old mill as
each gossip brings tidings of devastation
worked by the storm along the borders
of the rivers of New England.
"Look toyour old walls and crumbling
foundations !" says an acquaintance tc
Godfrey, the miller. "See, the water is
rising and now, good heaven the frai
old building reels and shakes with the
wind. 1 would not stay here tonight
for all your money"
"Who asks you, coward2 I'll remain
here, though the river ran into the win.
dows, and it blew blasts from Tophet.
"But you will drowned to a certainty
if you stay much longer" urged hif
companion"
"Well, what is that to any one if I an
determined to brave the consequences 2
While they are speaking the building
shakes from cellar to garnet, and a rot
ten beam cracks with a noise like a pistol
report the woriJuen are struck will
panic, they seize their garments, and
with the visitors, rush out into the pelt
ing rain and no Wing blast. They reacl
a rising ground and turn round to look
The Connecticut RACES like Niagara's cat
aract. White-crested waves surge as i
it were part of the territory of ole
ocean. Borne down on the current, flow
ing with the swiftness of a spectral racer
are fragments of houses, factories, ma
chinery, boats. Now a cradle is sweep
past into the abyss of mist and foam
t now q human face glances for a momen
: from between the foamy pillows, and j
[ hidden forever. Beasts of the field lool
| piteously at the fast-receding shores, ant
dogs howl hopelessly as they are swep
to destruction.
t Ruin is written on everything on tn,
earth, and the dark and threatening
heavens appear as if eager to repeat til,
tragedy of the worlds early history.
"Come, haste, O. you will be to-
+ late |" they cry to the miller as the build
t ing totters to n side.
l "Away, towards" comes on the blast
81 will see it out !"
Now the mill is surrounded with tn
raging stream. 1t is evident the founda
! tions are sapped, for more prone thai
Pisa's tower leans the rotten fabric.
A blast that causes the most sturdy T.
fall, clinging to the underbrush /; a rusl
: of the river that makes the spectator
fear the dry land is about to be swal
: lowed up /; a yell, a crash, and then ez
cruciating silence /; and when, taking I'D
3 vantage of the momentary calm, tn
D watchers look up, the old millwheel j
all that remains.
They hasten from the spot overawe,
8 by the catastrophe. They relate the Wis
ion of horror. Crowds hasten towar,
the spot, but between them and the oil
e mill there is a great gulf of seething
< hungry pillows. What is mans boaste
r power in the presence of the omnipc
S tence of Naturea
r Days elapse. The flood abates, tn
foundations Of the old mill are revealed
t Men search for a pallid corpse, but i
vain. Instead, they find, jammed in be
i tween huge boulders, part of the mill
s foundations, a skeleton, and within th
n bony grasp of its clenched, heshless fiji
e gers, is a small tobacco-box. This the
open, and find apaper still decipherabls
Wondering, they read, after muc
trouble. 1t is the note given by Goo
e frey for the balance of the price of th
mill.
The skeleton is all that remains of til
long-missing Rutgers. Some of the oil
men recognized it by the peculiar col
9 formation of the jaw and teeth, and b
a scar on the skull. Murder had bee
done, but the murderer was beyond hi
i man justice.