Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-01-11
JOHN AUSTIN'S CHRISTMAS.
The advertisement read as follow.

VTYANTBD-A SHIPPING CLERK, to receive
| w freight and load vessels; references required
Apply between 10 and IL at
The man who cut this from a news
paper on the morning of the oath OF
December, was an idiot at the age of
fifty to have said
There are no Brothers CHEEKY bles
now adays. The very last of these
good souls died when | was boy.
As to the Cheeryble fortune, what
was left of livery little in fact, for
the brothers were not thrifty--went to
distant relatives who are reported to
me to have been of singularly miser-
| ly and uncharitable disposition.
Wanted shipping clerk"
Here John Austin put the scrap OF
paper into lank wallet, and tried
quite decidedly to prevent it from
blooming and Towering there. Some
how or other every advertisement he
had put in his pooket--and they had
been innumerable-regularly passed
through some horticultural process
before they shriveled up and went in
to impalpable fragments.
'like air plants" the man added,
"drawing their nourishment from
nothing in particular, and blossoming
quite in vacuo."
Though John had decided ten
dency toward gushing, even allowing
that it was simply internal it never
theless was to be deprecated. A good
| deal of misery and trouble had hard
ened the man externally. Like water
in the rock, his fancies trickled feebly
inside of him, in decidedly useles
kind of way, but were fortunately so
unobtrusive as scarcely to be ever
visible. Very possibly had some util-
tartan hydraulic moralist bored into
John Austin, and laid on the pipes
and mans, with the most laudable de-
sire of benefiting a parched and thirsty
public, it would all have resulted in a
miserable failure.
ga shipping clerk p the man said,
as he took from off shelf piece of
bread. GA windy berth on the
wharves! and what under heavens
do | know about it :? What | do know
is that my crust here is old, hard, and
stale, and not in large quantity, and
that l 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 / don't earn dollar, this
room of mine will have to be vacated.
If snow would only fall, | might pick
up some trfe that way by shoveling
| it off the sidewalks. In fact, l may
be at this moment skirmishing with
that terrible wolf, starvation. His
lone howl may be supposed to be re-
verberating in my ears, and | ought
not to be eating this bit of bread with
singular Jest aud appetite, but should
shed tears over it, only at fifty the
lachrymal ducts. if not dried up, are
supposed to be frozen over. A ship
ping clerk! Probability of chances
against me, $4,000 to one. Nothing
in the least progressing about me
neither mirth, sprightliness, or good
looks. But yet" here John Austin
picked a crumb from off his sleeve,
there was a young man, it was in
Venice, who unloaded ship coming
from Crete or Gambia, and out of a
coarse package of cast off clothing
there tumbled a round white pearl,
which flashed dainty sphere of lus-
ferrous opalescence in the gutter. 1t
was within an ace of falling into the
canal. That evening when the gal
leon 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 belonging to the commander
of the Dardanelles, Moldovanga Bassa
by name, who, of course, under the
circumstances, was an accredited foe
of the Republic, and his goods and
chattles were therefore confiscable as
lawful prizes. | do not think the
Council of Ten or the Doge were par
ticnlarly informed about it. When the
package was opened riches untold
were discovered, untarnished gems
blazing among a mass of filthy rags.
'One half is yours said the master
L will have none of them save this
pearl replied the clerk and, oh
my master, would give it to the
most beautiful, the most chRste girl in
Venice, thy daughter Take them
both, cried the merchant. And
have seen, continued John Austin,
with astounding conviction as he fin
ished his crust, at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, on free days, when ii
is open, and when | 60 there to keep
warm, the very piece of old majolica
that that shipping CLERK had made to
present to his mistress as dedlcatory
offering expressive of his love. Yes
the absolute plate in which he put the
big pearl"
The mans breakfast was over, and
buttonlng on his threadbare overcoat
he hurried down the dirty stairs Of
his tenement-house, stopping just
moment to caress little girl who loi
tered on the landing.
'See," said the child showing a BIZ
of faded silk, and holding up needle
in her small blue fingers, for it wa:
bitterly cold and gusty in the passage
"mother has given me piece of ole
dress she was turning. If | only haG
some beads to trim it with an
going to make myself dolls dress
for Christmas. II only | had a doll t.
: dress |"
$40 doll? That's hard, little sister
And is tomorrow positively Christ
mas ~ inquired JohE Austin, as !
with some vague idea, for the child''
sake, at least, there was some posi-
bility of making Christmas a movable
holiday
Mother had saved some money t.
buy me doll, but father is worse anC
the medicine had to be sent for cougl
9 mixture
"You do not say so " The man
:: hand was in his pocket Had hi
! twenty-five cents by any chance beer