The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1881-10-08
a USURER AND A FIREMAN.

''S' help me Colt, man, | gan not
renew tish bill. Desc are bad times,
and [ mustn't have my moneysh. If yod
viii not pay, den L mustn't go to the
county COURT"
Thus said Nathan Greindhardt to Bill
Dohttle, of the Metropolitan Fire Bri-
gade, and it is to be feared that Dolittle
truly did little more ON this occasion
than to curse IN vulgar English, which
was custom of his when he felt dead
beat IN argument. He had once been a
sailor, and this may explain how he
came to have such ali 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 inimita BILE
Jargon of mixed German and English
"Dese are cruel times, Mishter Do
little, and viii be all put clean broke
tat Is, If do not get my mOneyshI
The times may have been cruel to the
Jew money-lender, but they were GER
talnly still more SO to his debtor, the
fireman. Bill Dolittle had not been hap
Ply IN 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
RED 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 hadpawned his best uniform,
the medals that he had won for saving
life, and presentation gold watch which
he had received from 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 oncc-but
he went off to Nathan Grienhardt and
borrowed G20 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 i,
he should be able to repay the loan in q
year. He explained all this to the Jew
in a blunt, beseeching way, and this ac-
commodating person kindly advanced
him ego pounds on his giving a bill for
ESQ. But at the years end Bill found
himself obliged to renew the bill for
three months with payment Of e2 los
for interest, and during a whole year he
came back regularly every three months
with so shillings, instead of the ESQ
pounds that would have Cancelled the bill.
Misfortune had not done prosecuting
the poor fellow. A man cannot manage
a household of small children as q woman
can, nor do his shopping on such ad-
vantagesus terms. Bill was obliged to
employ a 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 half-pint of beer when his
: tongue was parched from extinguishing
, 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
ing twenty weeks Bill tended the child,
seeing her life slip away like the tide at
low water, but he would not let her be
removed to n hospital, because then he
might not have been able to see her
every day. The doctors prescribed ex-
penslve 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 eS in giving
her decent funeral and buying small
white gravestone to set over the little
plot of earth where she rested. 1t was
after he had changed his last hall
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 doe
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 too severe on the old
Jew. He was a German who had come
to London when little more than a lad.
e and had to slave hard, aud to pinch and
: deny himself all comforts before he
E could amass enough to set up in q
I humble business for himself. He had
first kept a small rag shop, but his
house having been demolished fol-
metropolitan improvements, he had re
moved to ST. Giles, where he now kept
an all-sorts shop, and carried on clan.
, destine traffic as pawnbroker and money
{ lender. A filthy, sinking place was ole
!. Greindhardt's warehouse. Old clothes,
;. rusty firearms, grimy pictures and dogs
: cared looks were displayed outside it
and inside it was incumbered with every
species of shabby property, the tiotsaR
and Jetsam of wrecked homes. Nobody
: ever passed Greindhardt's threshold ex
cept under pressure of direst need; anG
il it might have been said metaphorically
that every bill he held was wet with
!: tears, and that every article paw1e6
with him could have told tale o.
: hideous distress and sorrow. But i
Greindhardt had taken to conduct the
!. business on sentimental principles, if he