The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1881-09-14
FKlTzs FORTUNE

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FRITES FORTUNE.
1t was when the Mormons wer,
leaving Nauvoo, at the warning o.
the incensed Gentiles, that Frit.
Wetzel laid the foundation of hi:
fortune. He was a peasant Gentle
living near the Mormon Jerusalem
owning besides his farm only a COW
Word came to his prarie hut thai
the Saints were trading their houses
and lots in Nauvoo for anything
whatever that they could take away
and that had any value to man ol
beast.
For a two-horse team said the
informant, 81 have got as good a
brick house as there is in the city,
and Jimmy Roe he has bought snug
little three-room house for a pair oi
blankets"
"The COW the COW r said Mrs.
Fritz, when the news-bearer had
gone his way. Drive her to tho
city and get us a house"
$50 so = said Fritz.
When he came back chat night
Mrs. Fritz met him in the yard,
You bring not back the COW.
"We have no more any COW. But
we have whole acre Of ground
and one nice brick house Of FIVE
rooms.
Five rooms a brick house a
whole acre! five rooms what would
they in Germany say All! now we
have it good now we have It grand
But tonight We have no potatoes
for supper we have no milk; We
have no cow"
When Cadets Icarian Colony OF
Communists took possession of the
vacated Mormon houses, Wetzel's
place increased IN value. Before
the colony went to pieces, he traded
his city place for a neat farm, giving
his note for three hundred dollars.
1t is commonly said that the dreams
of youth are out Of all proportion
to the reality of mature years. But
surely the peasant boy Of TIE Hartz
Mountains, gathering faggots, pick
ing among rocks and scanty herbage
for the keep of the family goat,
could hardly have pictured himself
lord of one hundred and eighty
acres. level as floor and black as
charcoal.
1t was n fine farm, but to meet
the debt, Fritz and the frau had to
work hard, live poor, wake through
sleeping hours for many a long
year. Sometimes the crop failed
by reason of over-rain sometimes
by under-rain; and then there
would be hard work to pay even
the interest on the deferred pay
ment. One year Mrs. Fritz was
sick. and there was a doctor bill to
paw and the wages of u hired wo-
man, so the principal was reduced
bv only one dollar. Fritz and Mad
am went through the following win
ter on potatoes and black coffee.
The next spring, in the midst OF
planting, Fritz fell sick, Then, in
deed, there was dismay. 1t seemed
as if the world had stopped moving.
"Not so much as the interest
money we, dis year, don't pay" said
Mrs. Fritz to the American doctor.
at is interest, interest, interest effry
wear | dhink it viii get paid neier.
1t is worse as to fill the rat hole
frew de floor into ones cellar. You
pou', pou', pou', you dhink you fill
il nefer, meter, nefer. In Heafen !
shall be when de note Fritz he hat
paid. But / dhink he pay it nefer.
nefer."
But he did it. however, in spite
of all the back-sets. Yet Fritz and
Mrs. Fritz were far from being
heavenly happy. That hole into
which they had been pouring was
indeed filled, yet they seemed no
better off.
son we must 90 another year, liv,
ing poor" Mrs. Fritz said to hel
husband, in German, "till another
crop be made. And then, if the crop
should fail !"
"And if our tenant couldn't pay.
Fritz put in.
"Ah we have it yet bad, she
said. "bad rs before"
"We have a great land Fritz re
minded, -
But eat the land we cannot; weal
it we cannot cover with it this
winter we cannot"
$50. so, said Fritz.
This was the beginning of thu
plaint which they interchanged
through several years.
eve have all our money tied up,
said he.
"When we want some little dol
lars more, we can have it not, said
she. :,
$50, so, we are land poor" said
he.
"We want not so much land,
said she.
"Not able am to work SO much,
said he, and no children We have t.
leave it to-"
@To sell some would be better,
said she.
Sell eighty acres and we still have
hundred more than IL our peo
pie in the old country. They be
poor set over there