Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-07-28
GOURLAY BROTHERS.
THE STORY OF TWO LOYAL HEART

HI STORY OF TN U LOYAL HEARTS,.
In quiet street off one of the quiet
squares there is a tall, gloomy house, with
narrow, dusty wiGdows, and a massive
double door that still bears brass plate
with the words "Gourlay Brothers F" en-
graved thereon.
The lower part of the house was used
as an office, but the blinds were rarely
drawn up; the door seldom swung back
TO the energetic push Of customers, the
dong passage echoed no hurried foot
steps; and E i Haggart, the clerk, was
to all appearances the idlest man in
London, till one came to know his mas
tiers.
The Gourlay brothers were never any
buster than their faithful old servant :
never hurried, Hurried, or worried; never
late and never early. Every morning at
ten o'clock they entered their office to-
gether, read their letters, glanced at the
paper, left instructions for possible
callers, and then went to the city. They
always took the same route; at eleven
they might be seen passing along the
sunny side of Cannon street; at 80 they
entered the same restaurant, and sat at
the same table for luncheon. Wet or dry,
shade Or shine, summer or winter every
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gone through the same routine, always
excepting the month Of September, when
they took their annual holiday.
They were elderly men-John, tall.
thin, melancholy looking, with light
gray eyes, scanty gray hair and whiskers,
and general expression of drabness per-
vading his whole face, and faultlessly
neal attire. Roger was shorter, rounder,
more cheerful and generally warmer in
color His pervading hue was brown,
keen reddish eyes that must have been
yanerry once, crisp auburn hair that time
had not yet quite transmitted to silver, a
clean shaved ruddy face, and brown
lands full of dents and dimples. John
was the elder; still he looked up to Roger
with grave respect, consulted him on
every subject, and never, either in or out
OF business, took any step without his
advice I'd approval. And Roger was no
less deferential; without any profession
of affectation or display of feeling, the
sGourlay brothers dwelt together in closest
friendship and love; their life was long
harmony, and during all the years of their
partnership no shadow had fallen between
them, and their public life was as har-
moniOus as their private intercourse In
business they were successful; every spec
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they touched turned to gold; and as their
whole lives were spent in getting, not
spending, they were believed, and with
reason, to be immensely wealthy. "Cold,
hard, stern, enterprising," men called
them; with an acuteness of vision and
steadiness of purpose only to be acquired
by long and close application to business
Reserved in manner, simple in their
tastes, economical in their habits, the
Gourlay brothers were the last men in the
world to be suspected of sentiment, their
lives the least likely to contain even the
germs of a romance. And yet they had
not always been mere business machines !;
the sole aim and end of their existence
had not always been money. In early
years they had brighter Dreams nobler
ambitions.
Al school John had distinguished him.
self and his brief university career gave
promise of a brilliant future. Roger had
been bright, ardent boy, with a taste for
music that was almost a passion, and a
talent little short of genius. With his
deep earnestness, intense steadiness of
purpose, and clear, vigorous intellect,
John could scarcely have failed to make
a distinguished lawyer. Roger was a
born artist with restless, lofty ambition.
Inv oCCH1Cu fCA I'll NJ III lIlC III Otuclo
there was nothing to prevent, and every
thing to assist each in following his in
clination. But in the very dawn of their
career their father died, and they were
suddenly reduced from affiuence to actu-
al poverty. Nothing remained from the
wreck of a magnificent fortune, but the
bitter experience that always accompanies
such reverses. Fine friends failed them,
f1atterers looked colby on their distress,
those who had most freely partaken of
their lavish hospitality passed by On the
other side. Not friend remained in
their adversely but one, and she had in
deed the will but not the power to help
them. The boys left the college, and
turned their thoughts to business. 1t was
hopeless to attempt to follow up their pro-
fession with an invalid mother and idol
lied only sister depending on them for
support. John secured situation as
clerk in q city warehouse. Roger &C
cepted desk in the Office of Bernard
Brussel, an old friend of his fathers.
They moved to cheap lodgings, and for
several years plodded on YEARLY, the
only CLEAN of sunshine in their altered
home being the occasional visits of Alice
Russell to their sister Maude Gourlay