Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-10-05
A USURER AND A FIREMAN.

ssS' help me Colt, man, gan not
renew fish bill. Desc are bad times,
and [ mustn't have my mOneysh. IT you
viii not pay, den [ mustn't go to the
county COURT. ="
Thus said Nathan Greindhardt to Bill
Dolitile, of the Metropolitan Fire Bri-
gade, and it is to be feared that Dolttle
truly did little more on this occasion
than to curse in vulgar English, which
was custom of his when he felt dead
beat III argument He had once been a
sailor, and this may explain how he
came to have such an abundant vocabu-
larry of expletives to discharge at Ma
than's head; but the old Jew cared not.
He simply shook his gray ears like
toothless retriever getting rid of rain
drops, and he repeated in his inimitable
iargon of mixed German and English:
"Dese are cruel times, Mishter Do
little, and will be all put clean broke
tat is, if [ do not get my moneysh!'
The times may have been cruel to the
Jew money-lender. but they were GER
tainly still more SO to his debtor, the
fireman. Bill Doittle had not been hap
Ply ID his domestic relations. Soon after
entering the brigade at the age Of 80,
when he had served sixteen years boy
and man, in the royal navy, he had mar
ried young wife-very pretty, too pref
ty-who had not managed his household
on economical principles. She had lived
with him five years, gave him three chill
dren, and then one morning bolted, hav-
ing first removed from his lodgings all
things that were of any value and pawned
them. She had pawned his best uniform,
the medals that he had won for saving
life, and presentation gold watch which
he had received from a foreign govern
ment for rescuing some fishermen who
were drowning in foreign waters. When
he came home and recognized the extent
OF his loss, when he found his children
crying with hunger and shoeless (for
their shoes had been pawned also) Bill
Dolittle did not swear-the blow quite
paralyzed his tongue for this once-but
he went off to Nathan Grienhardt and
borrowed EGO to set his ruined house in
something like shipshape. He was just
then expecting an increase of pay, and
hoped that by reducing his expenditure,
giving up his grog, tobacco, and so forth,
he should be able to repay the loan III a
year. He explained all this to the Jew
IN blunt, beseeching way, and this ac-
commodating person kindly advanced
him go pounds on his giving bill for
EDO. But at the years end Bill found
himself obliged to renew the bill for
three months with a payment of 60 los
for interest, and during a whole year he
came back regularly every three months
with 80 shillings, instead Of the $50
pounds that would have Cancelled the bill
Misfortune had not done prosecuting
the poor fellow. A man cannot manage
household of small children as woman
can, nor DO his shopping on such ad-
vantageous terms. Bill was obliged to
employ charwoman to tidy his lodgings
and look after the children when he was
out on duty, and she robbed him. He
had ceased to spend single penny on
himself; he did not indulge himself with
so much as a haf-pint OF beer when his
tongue was parched from extingJishing
fires Che used on such occasions to put
the nozzle of hose to his lips and suck
water, and yet he could not make the
two ends meet. Then sickness stole into
his house and assailed the youngest and
fairest of his children-little Martha,
who was so much like her mother. Dur
luR UWCubJ WCCho ILL GLC Cu11U,
seeing her life slip away like the tide at
low water, but he would not let her be
removed to hospital, because then he
might not have been able to see her
every day. The doctors prescribed ex-
pensive medicines and port wine, and
Bill bought them all; till at length the
child died, one winter evening, with her
little arms twined around his neck; and
then Bill had to spend about e8 IN giving
her decent funeral and buying a small
white gravestone to set over the little
plot of earth where she rested. It was
after he had changed his last half
sovereign in accomplishing this duty that
the fireman went to the money lender,
as above mentioned, and prayed for an
other renewal of the bill that was to fall
due IN ten days. But Nathan Greind-
hardt would not listen to stories of doc
tors bills and children's funerals. He
heard of such things every day, and had
long ago been obliged to harden his soul
against them.
Let us not be 100 severe on the old
Jew. He was a German who had come
to London when little more than lad,