Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-03-03
WHOLE NO. 11O7.

~~~s~~nJ yS~Ao ot3Ot eSAAtA tA4O 0A uN4Oo O0AN4
were lot of carpenters tools; they be-,
longed to O merchant who had received
them for debt, and the purchaser was q
young man who, in great poverty, was
just commencing the occupation of q
carpenter. The merchant pitied him
and gave him his patronage, but still
his struggles against poverty were un-
ceasing. To-day that merchant Is an
old man, and under my hammer every
vestige of his property has passed out Of
his possession, and the children of that
poor carpenter are owners of many
houses and men Of business influence.
The smallest sale that remember to
have made was of a breastpin, which
had been left with q pawnbroker by .
poor widow, when she parted with it to
obtain the means wherewith to keep her
children from starvation. It was fam
lily relic which had come through three
generations, but the widow died and the
relic was not redeemed and had to be
sold. The gold in that bit Of jewelry
was intrinsically worth twenty times
more than it brought, but the braid Of
hair which it contained had been e.
teemed by the broken-hearted woman
as without price.
The largest estate I ever sold was in
herited by man who never performed
a single days honest labor in all his life.
He Jared sumptuously every day on the
FAT of the land, kept the best OF horses,
looked patronizingly down on all those
who could not match his escutcheon,
and for a term of years fourished as II
he had nothing to do but enjoy the
pleasures of life. But q change came
over the spirit of that man g dream, and
to-day he would no: scruple to 20 upon
an errand for his next-door neiehbor
and to receive the fee of q shilling for
his service. The lands and the great
houses which were once his property,
and much of which sold under the ham
mer, are now owned by the hard-fsted
man who once held the plow or gathered
in the harvestS on his estate. ~
OF the many sacrifices of property
which I have witnessed in my day, per-
haps the most striking instance was that
of manufacturing establishment, which
cost 5000, 900, and under q foreclosure
brought only $4,000. In that case
there was no special sympathy extended
to the victim, for he had been mean
and selfish man, as well as q drunkard
and otherwise depraved. -f.' .ai> :!
When was boy, wanted certain
clerkship in the town where lived, and
to secure it I applied to q man whose
influence was unbounded. He was one
who had received millions In the way Of
business, and he lived in princely style.
having both a town and country resi-
dence. I obtained the position, and
while struggling fDr stinted support nv
patron died, and the papors vera filed
with eulogies Of the departed, al Of
which he well deserved. For several
years his widow lived in solemn
splendor, when she died, and among
those who followed her to the grave
there was not one who was of kindred
blood. In the meantime, had become
established in my profession, and was
called upon to sell, under the hammer,
not only the elegant country seat of my
old friend, but hundreds OF rich and
beautiful things, as well as superb
library, which had been q source Of
comfort for one Of the most noted and
purest men of his time. JAft" fed
Can it be wondered at that with such
incidents as the foregoing constantly
happening in my experience, I should
sometimes feel sick and tired Of NV
professionp And in comparing myself
to the graye-digger, as I have done, I
utter more pathos than bathos. When
the grave-digger has performed his
task. the person for whom he has cut
away the sod is entirely at peace; but
not so with the victims Of my hammer,
for its sound is too often--alasi how
oftenP-the very knen of blasted hopes
and Of the deepest physical and mental
suffering! It can not but be that the
cries of poor unfortunate humanity, as
they ascend from under the heel Of the
rich men Of the world, are heard BY the
An-merciful! aas - f.sfs gt,5r