Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1882-05-18

,
dependent on the chances of life. He had
though he never spoke of it to any one save
Ada-been brought down from aff1uence to
poverty, and notwithstanding he was wan
derer now, and knew he was wanderer, and
very poor and helpless one at that, yet he
never thought of Ada as one who could, by any
possibility, share the humiliation of his re-
.duced condition. He had come down, step by
step, in the social scale, until he was at the
very bottom of the ladder yet he never felt
that Ada had made the descent with him. lie
looked up to her as one who had kept, and
would continue to keep, her first position in
life, whatever might become OF an old and
broken wanderer like himself. He thought she
was as worthy of celestial care as Elijah the
old Prophet, and somehow had it in his mind
that, when there were no more pupils to teach
and nothing in his scanty purse to buy new
pair of shoes or loaf of bread, the ravens or
the angels would be sent to supply those and
all other things to Ada.
Hishumility and self abnegation were touch
ing. He felt like guilty man in Ada's pres
ence when the world used him badly and his
poverty and ill-success made it impossible to
anticipate her wants and crafty her tastes.
He felt as guilty as though he had committed
murder or been guilty Of some great derellc-
tion of duty when Ada came to him for new
bonnet or to replace some shawl that had gone
out of fashion, and he had no money to graft
fy her wishes. Oh what self reproaches he
heaped upon himself for being poor man and
unable to supply the wants of his daughter
that he knew were all reasonable enough.
This trait in old Jacobs character was the Sc
cret of his want of success in life. Had he
been hard, selfish, grasping man, always
thinking of self and endeavoring to make all
the world, Ada included, subservient to his
ease and comfort, instead Of toiling for the
benefit of others, am very sure the poor old
man would have had a balance to his credit at
his bankers. even if he had not laid up one
shred of treasure "where there are no moths to
corrupt and no thieves to break through and
steal" Selfshness is the very salt of success.
don't say we should make it our staple food,
but the man who seasons all his actions with
it, is pretty sure to be clothed in fine linen,
and to fare more sumptuously every day than
did poor old Jacob, who had not enough of
that kind of condiment about him to keep his
fortunes from utterly spelling.
And am afraid that although Ada was so
sweet tempered and so devoted to her father,
she was sometimes unjust to him in her
thoughts, and respected him too little when
she contrasted him with the rich men who
rode in their carriages and lived SO magnlfi-
Gently "Bread is not to the wise, nor riches
to men of understanding" 1 am afraid that
Ada did not consider this sufficiently, and
that in her heart, she accused her poor, loving,
father of want of wisdom and
because of his poverty.
Old Jacob had once been quite rich. Years
ago the crash had come, and after his debts
were paid he found himself quite poor. When
his fortunes were at their worst, he was like
a carcass at which the dogs and vultures rush,
eager to make the most of every shred and
bone. They had it all their own way and
tugged and pulled until there was not even
the skeleton or fragment of his fortune
left. He was very poor indeed, and it never
occurred to him that the time would come, or
had actually come, when all this was to be re-
versed, and that Jacob now needed help. No
one ever thinks of pouring water into spring
that has supplied them when it's sources have
dried up but we stand on it's margin with
empty pitchers and doleful faces, wondering
if it will ever run again. or whether we shall
really have to look out elsewhere for some
other running fountain, or whether in sad
truth, we shall have to take up pick and spade
and dig us well. Let slime and weeds
cover the old spring it cannot supply us
again!
Old Jacob hardly realized that his fortunes
were like dried up fountain that would never
be able to help any body else-mind you, he
thought of others firSt-or himself again
For himself he found temporary resource in
music and in his ability to teach it success
fully. 1t was to be only for short time
until something better should turn up. But
things never do turn up, when it becomes OF
special Importance to us that they should turn
up, and that quickly. If they turn at all they
are sure to turn the wrong way. And it was so
with poor Jacob Bonneville Things kept turn
ing up, and turning up, but it was always the
wrong thing and turned the wrong way, until at
last Jacob and Ada were turned out of house
and home, and sent adrift upon the world.
He gave lessons in music upon the piano, flute,
and violin wherever pupils could be obtained.
He shrank from his work in the early days as
a humiliation, but one he must endure for the
sake of his daughter. Years had come and
gone, and he was still wanderer, and a gray,
wrinkled, broken and homeless one. Nothing
had turned up in all these years but poverty,
and the humilatiOns that belong to it. But
Ada had grown up as beautiful as dream.
She, at least, had never been suffered to feel
the pressure of their narrow circumstances.
The self sacrificing and accomplishing spirit
of old Jacob had even hidden from her the re-
voting features of the bitter poverty that
looked him in the face all the day long.
She had at times dim perception that her
fathers face had become careWOm and hag-
gard, and she feared that the world was not
as Just and kind to HIM as it should he, and
did not rate him at his proper worth but
Jacob, when in her presence, tried to wear a
contented and cheerful face. If the iron was
eating into his soul, what good, he asked him
self, would come of her seeing the wound and
knowing his pain? 1t was kind and brave of
him to button his coat over it and talk like
man on bed of roses, when the thorns that
pierced him were too many to be numbered ;
but in practicing this deceit-brave, masnan-
imous old father he was thrustmg away
from him the sympathy of his child, the sweet
est thing that can come to console and COM
fort a parent when the storms of the world
have broken and bowed him, and he feels sore
and heavy within him that brokenness Of heart