Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1883-09-19
TWO OLD LOVERS.

of two patterns; either the front door
was on the right side. in the corner of
little piazza extending n third of the
length of the house, with the main ROO
iutting over it, or the piazza stretched
across the front and the door was in the
center.
The cottages were uniformly painted
white, and had blinds of bright spring
green color. There was little Hover
garden in front of each; the beds were
laid out artistcally in triangles, hearts
and rounds, and edged with box; boys
love, sweet williams and pinks were the
fashionable and prevailing flowers.
There was II general air of cheerful
though humble prosperity about the
place, which it owed, and indeed its
very existence. also, to the three old
weather-beaten boot and shoe factories
which arose staunchly and Importantly
in the very midst of the natty little white
cottages.
Years before, when one Hiram Strong
put up his three factories for the manu-
facturc of the rough shoe which the
working-man of America wears, he
hardly thought he was also gaining for
himself the honor of founding Leyden.
He chose the site for his buildings mainly
because they would be easily accessible
TO the railway which stretched to the
city, sixty miles distant. At first the
workmen came on the cars from the
neighboring towns, but after a while
they became tired OF that, and one after
another built for himself cottage and
established his family and his household
belongings near the scene of his daily
labors. SO gradually Leyden grew. A
built his cottage like G, and Ii built his
Ike ID. They painted them white and
hung the green blinds, and laid out their
flower beds in front and their vegetable
beds at the back. By-and-by came a
church and Il store and post Office to
pass, and Leyden was full-ilcdged town.
That was a long time ago. The shoe
factories had long passed out of the hands
of Hiram Strong's heirs; he himself was
only memory on the earth. The business
was not quite rs wide-awake and vigor-
Gus as when in his first youth; it droned
little now; there was not quite so much
hustle and hurry rs formerly. The fac
tories were never lighted up of an even
ing on account of overwork, and the
w0rkmen found plenty of time for pleas
ant and salutary gossip over their cutting
and pegging. But this did not detract
in the least from the general cheerful
ness and prosperity of Leyden. The in
habitants still had all the work they
needed to supply the means necessary
for their small comforts, and they were
contented. They too had begun to drone
little like the factories. ''As slow as
Leyden," was the saying amongst the
faster-going towns adjoining theirs.
Every morning ut seven the old men,,
young men and boys in their calico shirt
sleeves, their faces a little pale--perhaps
from their indoor life--filed unquestion-
ingly out of the back doors of the white
cottages, treading still deeper the we'll
worn foot paths stretching around the
sides of the houses, and entered the fac
tories. They were great ugly wooden
buildings, with wings which they had
grown in their youth jutting clumsily
from their numbering shoulders. Their
streaked and splashed and patched with
red paint in every variety of shade, ac-
cordingly as the original hue was tenn
pered with smoke or the beatings of the
storms of many years.
The men worked peacefully and evenly
in the shoe shops all day; and the women
staid at home and kept the little white
cottages tidy, cooked the meals and
washed the clothes, and did the sewing.
For recreation the men sat on the piazza
in front OF Bankers store of an evening,
and gossiped or discussed politics; and
the women talked over their neighbors'
fences, or took their sewing into their
neighbors' of an afternoon.
People died in Leyden as elsewhere;
and here and there was little white
cottage whose narrow foot-path leading
round TO its back door its master would
never tread again.
In one of these lived Widow Martha
Brewster and her daughter Maria. Their
cottage was one of those which had its
piazza across the front. Every summer
they trained morning glories overit, and
planted their little garden with the
lower seeds popular in Leyden. There
was not cottage in the whole place
whose surroundings were neater and
gayer than theirs, for all that they were
only two women, and two old women at
that; for Widow Martha Brewster was
in the neighoorhood Of eighty, and her
daughter, Maria Brewster, near sixty.
The two had lived alone since Jacob
Brewster died and stopped going to the
factory, some fifteen years ago. He had
left them this particular white cottage
and snug little sum in the savings
bank besides, for the whole Brewster
family had worked and economical all
their long lives. The women had corded
boots at home, while the man had
worked in the shop, and never spent a
cent without thinking of IL overnight
Leydcn folks all thought that David
Emmons would marry Maria Brewster
when her father died. david can rent
his house, and go to live with Maria aud
her mother" said they, with an alice
tomato readiness to arrange matters for
them. But he did not. Every Sunday
uight at eight o'clock punctually the