The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-12-28
JOE'S NEw-YEARS DINNER.


To have seen Joe Sterling stubbing
shout the store of Messrs. Sampson &
Sturges no one would have suspected
him of being q hero-a little, short,
6eardless fellow, with peaked face, and
shoulders that stood out sharply--wear-
ING never plume, nor scarf, nor slashed
velvet doublet, like the hero of romance
and chivalry, neither epaulets and gold
lace like the military hero, neither
broadcloth and beaver like the gentle
SAan hero of the moral drama, but at
tired with severe simplicity in a we'll
worn "pepper-and-salt" suit, that
pinched about the shoulders, and was
600 short in the sleeves, his sallow COM
plexion effectively set off bya sky-blue
r1eck-tie--a tie which Filkins, spruce
feilow-clerk, who supported dictionary,
had stigmatized as perennial"
0uff-buttons not mates. Oh, but, Joe,
blessed be the world on its New-Year's
days, If it had more like you
Who Joe was, where he came from in
the morning, where he went at night,
INTERESTED neither Sampson nor Sturges
nor Filkins. The latter had, one even
ing, invited him out to witness the pre-
sentation of that glory of the drama,
E'The Black Sheep" to be followed by
sc the side-splitting farce of The One
legged Shoemaker ;" but Joe had po-
iitely declined, murmuring. something
about duties that detained him at home.
Thereupon, Filklns had lifted his eye
brows, and made no more advances. He
had never found young men with I" du-
sies" congenial companions.
by 1870, New-Year's morning, Joe
had completed his marketing among
the shops and stalls on Bread -and-Bu
ter square, and, with his basket swung
on his arm, had begun trudging home
ward He kept a sharp watch, as was
his wont, to left and to right, to see if
body. When one is on the lookout for
something of that nature, something
generally turns up, and it was hard on
to IL when Joe turned into that sloppy,
dec aged old street, which he had turned
into regularly every night since he had
been in Sturges' employ.
He was growing dreadfully tired of
chat street. 1t wasn't busy street
Nothing ever seemed to stir in it, except
tired men and women going out and
coming in from labor. Nothing ever
went up on it nothing ever came down.
The old wooden buildings just gathered
a few more hchens, and sank little
from twelvemonth to twelvemonth. 1t
wasn't cheerful street. 1t sometimes
seemed to Joe as if all the tired, and
discouraged, and sick, and cross, in the
city-all the people despairing enough
to be wretched, and yet not despairing
enough to give up kind of automatic
effort, had gathered themselves together
there. Joe began whistling as soon as
he entered its precincts, and whistled
Justify, Just as boys do who have their
courage to keep up, until he came along
side the decrepit wooden building that
held his "home."
Up two flights, and turning to the left
he entered a small room, the atmosphere
of which was charged in about equal
proportions with the odor of moldy
wallpaper and of some kind of pungent
Eminent. A middle-aged, unhappy
looking man, with his feet and legs
stretched out on two chairs, reclined be-
fore the window. His gay dressing
gown was wrapped tightly around his
body, and a gray shawl was swathed
about his limbs and feet.
This was Joe's Uncle William.
Uncle William had been in his day q
,dsshing young man, but he had dashed
just little too far, and all at once, as
sometimes happens i'll parallel cases,
found himself used up, body and soul
Then, since nothing else remained to be
done, he had repeated, and found, to his
establishment, that the laws of nature
wouldn't work backward, even for re-
pentant prodigals. The almshouse i'm
pended. Just then Joe, the size of
whose heart was out of all proportion
with his pecuniary resources, had inter-
posed. He had left pleasant boarding
place for detestable tenement, saddled
himself with q burden which he was
likely to carry for life, and gone to house.
keeping.
Uncle William, when securely estab-
lished in his three chairs at Joes ex-
pense, had given himself .unreservedly
to brooding over his troubles and Ia
menting his hard fate. His melancholy
gaze was, this morning, fixed out of the
window, and he failed to withdraw it
when Joe entered.
Morning again, Uncle William"
said Joe, briskly. cts been bit dull
here for New-Year's morning has it,
ch ?"
Uncle William, slowly turning from
she window, delivered himself of a sound
that might have been either grunt or
eroan.
"And you haven't found anything in
feresting in the papers ?" continued Joe,
booking down at the pile of periodicals..
90 i Laid in literally for all the pictori-
ais, hoping you would be entertained by
4hem."
Uncle William shook his head slowly
and trifie scornfully.
"I couldn't be entertained by pict-
ures, joe I've been rejecting"
"Then L wouldn't reflect any more.