The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-07-04
YAKOB.

1t was saying in the family that
:" Sue was the poet, Joe the fnancier.
and Oharley-had discovered Yakob."
It needs very little wit to give saw
ing long life in lonely farm house, and
Yakob was as remarkable a novelty
among us as a poem or good deal OF
money would have been.
He was a very short, very stumpv.
very white-headed Dutch boy of IL.
whom Charley found on the Battery one
winters day. Charley went to New
York every winter to buy groceries for
the plantation, and clothes for the
slaves, and he had found Yakob on his
last visit, in 1859, just before the war
began.
Yakob had landed from an Antwerp
schooner, and had fallen among thieves.
who left him in rags and penniless, when
Charley came, like the good Samaritan.
to his rescue.
But what can you do with him ?''
my father demanded, when the queer
looking creature stood before him. his
big eyes staring straight at him.
"Oh, there will be some place open
for him on the plantation. sir" said
Charley. "He'll be of use somewhere. :"
"You could make more use of a sea-
horse, said Sue pertly, and my mother
nodded. Mother said she had an in.
stinctive dislike to Yakob. But what
ever Charley did was right in our good
mothers eyes, and beside, she would
have been gentle and polite to Yakob
even If he had been a sea-horse,
So Charley, taking me by the hand,
1ed Yakob around to the tobacco-house.
and set him to work there. He stared
'dismayed for a minute at the black
faces (for he had seen but two negroes.
and had never been brought in contact
with a black MANY, and then went to
work intelligently enough, and never
raised his eyes TO them again.
Charley and went back to the horse
/ was a boy of 8 then, and the torment
and pet of my big brothers. We found
my father on the portico, reading the
Richmond Examiner.
+" l have brought you frst-rate ma
chine, sir" Charley said, Gas steady
and sure, and dumb as if it was made of
wood and steel"
tits your property" said father, with
shrug.
Now nobody but Charley understood
German, and Yakob could not speak a
word of English. 1t followed, therefore,
that Charley had to take entire charge
of his property He gave him lit
tie wooden shanty, which had been a
tool-nouse, on the edge of the woods, In
which to sleep.
The German whitewashed and re-
paired his dwelling, and in the spring
planted vines and flowers about it. In
stead of being longer an eye-sore it be-
came the most picturesque spot in the
plantation. But "the creature him
self, Sue declared, "was an animal. !"
Such mountains of pork and rivers of
beer disappeared down his throat
He showedn no sign of interest in any
diving thing excepting Charley, whom
he. followed about like dog whenever
he could, never speaking. however. m
less forced to do so.
The war came, of which 1 wish to saw
little. Our family, like many others on
the border, was divided. Joe went into
one army, Charley into the other. NV
father held to the old flag. My mother
and Sue presented banners and arms to
Southern companies.
The negroes caught the excitement.
some of the hou.e servants following
their young masters. Yakob alone was
unmoved as a stone. Either Joe or