The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1876-11-09
he passed a hand across his sightless

he passed hand across his sightless
eyes
'tYes, signor, he is dead these many
years past, and perhaps it is as well.
But, ali me the way of it, the way of
THERE is my grief. Gould it have
been that I had been by, and have
known that there was ever SO little re-
pentance in his heart, there would have
been some little comfort for me, per-
haps but, as it was, it is too probable
that he went unshriven, uarepentant,
suddenly to his account. p
ssTell me, tell me-, I said quickly,
"the way of his death - But the pad
rome was not to be hurried. He seemed
to like to linger on the pain his slowly
uttered words brought with them, little
guessing how they were paining ne
also.
He went on: Sever prodigal from
his youth upward, my boy grew worse
and worse as he reached manhood. [
had looked that he should inherit my
business and good name, for they were
both worth inheriting at one time. [
kept 8 hotel at Bergamo, end for awhile
he was my chief waiter, but his vicious
course brought ruin on us both. He
contracted debts which I had to pay
ran away in evil company, and I heard
nothing from him for years.
When [ did, it WAS, IS usual, with q
demand for money. He was then in
Switzerland, as a waiter, believe, st
the hotel of Les Trois Sages-the signor
knows ii, of course; all the English know
it; and there, [ afterward heard, it was
that he, iii the act probably of attempt
ing some desperate crime, fell enc night
into the Rhine, and was picked up dead,
as appeared. Only by miracle could
it have been that Lis body was not car
ried straight away down over the falls at
Schaffhausen; but it seems that he got
entangIed with the chain of the ferry
which crosses tho Rhine, as you know, a
little below the hotel. Here again, by a
miracle, it CHANGED that he was seen by
some women who were early working at
some timber RATS, and was by them car
ried ashore, as L have said, for dead -
''But was heY" l inquired, with an
anxiety [ could i'll disguise, as the old
man paused.
emo, signor it was not his destiny
to be drowned-would that it had been,
for then he would have been saved from
the commission of his greatest crime.
No; he was restored, to return to me
and pie upon me further anguish.
He came back to Bergamo year or
two after to smaller inn, which 1 was
keeping, and, in a drunken brawl with
some of his loose companions, ne used
his knife with fatal result upon an nn-
married man, whose friend, on the in
slant, stabbed my son to the heart.
That is all, signor; but the remem-
brance of his career has been far worse
for me than the darkness"
''And the watch, suggested, with a
sense of relief quite inexpresslble, twas
found IN his possession"
Eyes, signor; but doubt if he had
come by it honestly, for they tell me
there are a device and letters Oh the
back in no way belonging to him. But
still / treasure it for his sake, Or rather
for his mothers, for he was all that re-
manned to me of her, and she idoliZed
him for the five years that she was
spared after his birth and" added the
old man, in O somewhat more CHEEKY
tone, as if the recital of his troubles had
relieved him, ''a good English watch is
useful to blind man."
Most assuredly the last thing in my
thoughts was TO deprive him of his
treasure. was only too well repaid for
my loss by what had just heard-only
too grateful for being able after all to
look back with complacency upon what
I nevertheless still call my Murder. !"