The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1876-05-19


nate amid all the Gefmanpopulation Of
Philadelphia. He builds grand house,
furnishes it elegantly. stocks il Nith
servants according to old-country IDEAS
but the center around W hich every thing
is 10 revolve, the heart OF the house
mold, is the youngest of his three chill
dreH, his only daughter, Katherine.
Schauber has observed what money
can do in the home Of the free and the
land Of the brave, and has resolved that
his daughter shall be reared like prin-
cess Of Fatherland. His commands are
imperative that she shall never lift one
dainty finger in her own service. All
that Is richest and rarest ministers TO
her wants. Her opportunities for cul-
ture in all highest directions are unsur-
passable. As for Katherine Schauber,
herself, she is flower, a sweet waxen
lily, but unlike the majority of flower
like girls, she is not name She has
the brightness of dew-spangled flow
er, and underneath her lady like exteri-
or lie the daring and perseverance of
Frederick Schauber, hi mself.
While the pretty Widow Hillyer and
the sagacious young German have been
managing" the estate of the late
Thomas Hillyer, baker, the -four sons of
Rufus Swift, farmer, Of Middlefield,
Mass, formerly of Southampton, have
developed an adventurous spirit, re-
csived the prayers of the church, the
fearful adieux of neigh bors and friends,
and sought the far-distant and un-
known land of Pennsylvania. In
Pennsylvania, Rufus, the eldest,
tires of the slow and inglorious pursuit
of farming, and enters upon the wider
sphere of tin-peddler. His cart rattles
spiritedly around amid the precints of
Germantown and Philadelphia, and he
drives thrifty bargains with German
vrows and Yankee housewives. He is
prospering and is content, when sud-
denly there appears, direct from Massa-
chusetts. an enterprising young manu-
facturer, named Plunkett, who shows
him still better way. Plunkett has
been charged To ''look up Rufus" He
brings him many messages from his
anxious mother, Sally, also q pair of
blue wooden hose. Plunkett is DESTROYS
of introducing among benighted Phila-
delphians a new and most desirable
Yankee invention, ind of inside win
dow-blind, sort of forerunner of the
outside blind of our modern days. This
Is composed of thin, narrow strips OF
painted wood fastened together, and is
TO be suspended and drawn up as we
now employ shade. Plunkett figures
out for Rufus the exact profit In be
made upon this commodity. Rufus
promptly sells his tin route to younger
~ II
business. The introduction of the blind
is successful even beyond what the
sanguine Plunkett and Rufus have an
ticipated. Philadelphia throws back
her heavy wooden shutters, and takes |
the blinds, if not TO her heart, at least
to her windows. Rufus accepts the |
agency for all the towns around about, |
extending as far south even as Balt- |
more. He is not at the expense of an
Office, but has his headquarters with
one Froeling, whose business is house
furnishing. Froeling's son has married
a daughter of the late Thomas Hillyer,
baker, "a half sister of Katherine Schau-
Der.
passage-way leads over from the
Froelings' shop to the rear of the Froe-
lings' residence. The Froelings are
much in the habit Of running back and
forth. Katharine Schauber Is frequent
ly there. The Froelings possess that
new and aristocratic Instrument, the
piano. Katherine plays and sings. Ru-
fus, having received the advantages Of
the Middlefield singing-school, also
sings-with the spirit and the under
standing, ifnot melodiously. Rufus is
sometims invited to tea; Katharine \
sometimes drops in to tea.
A corresponding ratio may
about this time be observed between
katharine's growing fondness for her
half-sister and Rufus's appreciation Of
his friend, Froeling; as Katherine's err
rands up the front steps increase, 20 do
Rufus's errands through the back pas
sage-way. Now Rufus at this epoch no
more entertained the conscious purpose
of making love to Katharine Schauber 4
than of seeking TO beguile the star Al |
debaran from its course in the heavens. |
His business was window blinds. He /
made out bills for window blinds, and |
dispatched orders for window blinds, |
be canvassed for window blinds, and |
he made money.
One afternoon, he observes in the /
window of a bookstore an unusually /
elegant volume. He finds il to be a col |
lection of poems. Rufus has percep- |
tion Of the fitness of things. He pur-
chases the book quite regardless of cost,
and an early opportunity finds him tray
cling the passage-way between Froel- I
ing's shop and residence with apackage /
wrapped in tissue-paper under his arm. !
Katherine is delighted with the book.
She reads little to him, and Rufus adj |
mires where he understands and dis I
creetly keeps silent where he don't I'M
derstand. After tea she reads some
more; Rufus reads, too and though |