Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1884-09-18
AN ODD OLD COUPLE.
["Capt. Horsefy" in Indianapolis Grocer

["Capt Horsefy" in Indianapolis Grocerl
| often see an odd old couple trundling
over the throngeSt streets i'll saucy sort OF
barouche, much more up with the tunes than
themselves. The man is corpulent and red
nosed, though barbered and tailored equal to
the Marquis De Leuville. He always sits
leaning forward and looks as though he was
undergoing penance-the ride is something
he has to endure and he suffers in silence He
makes me think of Esneraldas father, in the
play "Esmeralda," though a vulgarer sort Of
person. The woman is the breathing, real
life image of Esmeraldas mother. She sits
bolt upright, arrayed in fashions finest
feathers. and says by attitude and express
ion: "This is happiness; this is what l
toiled sixteen hours day for thirty years
ago."
saw these funny figures 50 often that my
usually dormant curiosity was aroused, and
inquired till learned all about them. Their
story is good enough to have been the inven-
ton of Dickens. 1t has its painful side, too.
They are both common clay, poor souls, but
have been very useful earthen pitchers in
their day; and I think they still are, as fright
full examples of certain method of chasing
happiness. The woman began life by keep
ing doughnut stand at railroad station;
the man was hostler at the single tavern Of
the place. He courted her over the steaming
doughnuts, which she Iariskly dispensed at
two for cents. They were married and
they were industrious. Time and toll
opened up the way, and the hostler became
the inn-keeper. Both worked like slaves and
the little inn became big inn, and finally
they reigned in "hotel" in city Then
they left off scrubbing and dickering, and
wore good clothes, and tried to talk good
English.
In this, the greatest effort of their lives
they failed. Finding themselves getting along
in years, they concluded--at least the woman
concluded, and she led-that they would re-
tire from business and "enjoy themselves"
They have plenty of money, and the daily,
snowy rides, which are so painful to the old
man, are part of the process called "enjoy-
ment" The woman gets through easier 1t
is enjoyment to her, because it is the kind of
felicity she has dreamed of and worked for,
and now, that it is a reality, she enjoys it as
matter of triumph. A thousand times,
when she bakedher doughnuts, with sleeves
rolled up in the smoky little shanty at Gray's
Gulch, has she pictured herself arrayed in
silks and laces, and driving on Fifth avenue IN
New York. Now that the dream is a reality
she is in Heaven-as near to perfect happi-
ness as her worldly spirit can ever come.
But the old man-he pays the penalty of liv-
ing grub's life sixty years and then fiercely
setting out as butterfly. He is cut off from
his old chums and the new people he meets
are not like himself They make fun of him
o,,I ho &c 10 II
plain tastes and old-fashioned ideas of hap
piness.
Sometimes he has been known to break his
bonds and tell some sympathetic listener how
miserable he is. Once he said to me: Gap
tain, if l could go out to the gulch again, and
work all day with just shirt and pants on,
and then sit on the porch and spin
yarns with the boys in the even
ing, I'd be perfectly happy. But I
can't even do that Once sneaked
back without mother and thought I'd hev
good time like L use to. But everything
was changed. Even Jim jenkins and Tom
Holland, that used to be as thick as thieves
with, SHE'D off from me because was so well
dressed didn't seem nachural TO them. They
| wouldn't take easy like to me, as they had
when we were all poor devils together, and
none of us ever set up to be fine. They acted
like they was paralyzed when tried to bc
friendly with them, and so came away with
heartache. Somehow l feel out of my
spear. I've earned my money honest, and
I've right to spend it as please; but it
brings me no enjoyment this way. I've
had time to study over things lately,
and I've concluded that it isn't havin'
money and spendin' of'it, that makes .happi-
ness; its the earnin of it, The work we do
brings reward better than the money, after
ALL l aint 'fraid of dying, even, because be-
lieve that somehow after I've dropped this
body, that my soul can go back to the gulch
and be round among my old chums and be
happy, even ifthey don't seq me. It's mis-
take, captain, great mistake, for workin'
people with plain tastes to set up for fine
Now there's mother; she tries to make her.
self believe she's happy in that big carriage
and our fine house, but know she isn'ts It's
hard work for her. She <really works at
happiness; goes at sort o. energetically, like
she used to get up it meal. Sometimes I
wisht somethin' would happen to my money;
then I'd have to go to work, and by George,
I'd 60 back to the beginning thankfully, and
I'd see some pleasure yet"
ysp't this g ..::2yfstv or misnlaced anhitinna