Lincoln County advocate. (Canton, Dakota Territory, [S.D.]) 1876-1877, 1877-01-10
WANTED, A SHlPPING.CLB
The advertise nent read AZ follows:


VNANTED-A SHIPPING CLERK, TO RE
w cElvE tr light and luad vessels; references
required. Apply b, tive. 10 aid u at
The man who cut this from a news-
paper on the morning of the Gath Of
December, WAS an idiot at the age Of
nifty to have said:
"There are no Brothers Cheerybles
nowadays. The very last Of these
good souls died when I was hoy. As
to the Cheeryble fortune, what was
left of it-vvry little in fact, for the
brothers were not thrifty-went to die
tant relatives who are reported to me
to have been Of singularly misery
and uncharitable disposition. Wanted
q shipping clerk"
Here john Austin put the scrap Of
paper into a lank wallet, and tried
quite decidedly TO prevent it from
blooming and Towering there. Some
how or other every adv rtisement he
had put in his pocket-and they had
been innumerable-regularly passed
through some horticultural forcing
process before they shriveled up and
went into impalpable fragments.
"Like air plants" the man added,
drawing their nourishment fro moth
ing in particular, and blossoming quite
in vacuo."
Though John had a decided tend.
ency toward gushing, even allowing
that it was simply internal, it neverthe
less was to be deprecated. A good
deal of misery and trouble had hard
ened the man externally. Like water
in TIE rock, his fancies trickled feebly
inside Of him, in a decidedly useless
kind of way, but were fortunately so
unobtrusive as scarcely to be ever visi-
BILE. Very possibly had some utilitarian
hydraulic moralist bored into John
Austin, and laid on the pipes and
mains, with the most laudable desire of
benefting a parched and thirsty public,
it would all have resulted in a most mis-
cradle failure.
"a shipping clerk !" the man said as
he took from off shelf fragment of
bread. GA windy berth on the
wharves and what under the heavens
do know about it? What l do know
is that my crust here is old, hard, and
stale, and not in large quantity, and
that have precisely twenty-five cents
left, or three eight cent loaves Of
bread, just sufficient to carry me over
until Monday next; three whole days,
when if / do not earn a dollar, this
room of mine will have to be vacated.
If snow would only fall, l might pick
up some trihe that way by shoveiing
it off the sidewalks. In TACT, l may be
1T This moment just skirmishing
with that terrible wolf, starvation:
His lone howl may be supposed to be
reverberating in my ears, and I ought
not to be eating this bit of bread with
singular zest and appetite, but should
shed tears over it, only that at fifty the.
lachrymal ducts if not dried up are
supposed to be frozen over. A shipping
clerk Probability of chances against
me, $4,000 to one. Nothing in the least
prepossessing about neither
mir,h, sprightliness, nor good looks,
But yet" here John Austin picked a
crumb from off his sleeve, "there was
once a young man, ii WAS i'll Venice,
who unloaded ship coming from
Crete or Gambia, and out of coarse
package of cast off clothing there tum-
bled a round white pearl, which flashed
dainty sphere of lustrous opalescence
in the gutter. 1t was within an ace of
falling plump into the canal. That
evening when the galleon was unloaded
the young man carried the pearl to
his master, who, of course, embraced
his shipping clerk with joy. That old
bale of goods, it seemed by strange
luck, contained treasures which had
belonged to the commander of the OAR
danelles, Moldovangi Bassa, by name,
who, of course, under the circum-
stance, was an accredited foe of the
Republic, and his goods and chattels
were therefore coufscable as lawful
prizes. ! do not think the Council Of
Ten or the Doge were particularly in
formed about it. When the package
was opened, riches untold were dis
covered, untarnished gems blazing
amid mass of filthy rags. lone half
is yours" said the master. 81 will
have none of them save this pearl" re-
piled the clerk; land, oh my master,
| would give it to the most beautiful,
the chastest girl in Venice, thy daugh-
ter" Take them both," cried the
:" And I have seen," added
John Austin, with an astounding
amount of convection, as he finished
his crust, at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, on free days, when it is open,
and where I 60 there to keep warm,
the very piece of old majolica that
shipping clerk bad made to present to
bis mistress as a dedicatory offering ex.
pressive Of his love. Yes, the absolute
plate in which he put the big pearl"
The mans breakfast was over, and
,uttQning on his threadbare overcoat
lie hurried down the dirty stairs of his
enement-house, stopping just mo-
nent to caress little girl who loitered
N the landing.