The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1885-10-15
RICHlNG VS.. PROVIDENCE,
BY LOUISE CHANDLER MOULToN.

by LOUISE CHANDLER MOULTON.
Jacob Riching sat alone in his solid,
old-fashioned house in Washington
Square. Fashionable New York had
moved up town, but Jacob Riching had
no idea of following. He was stern,
hard man, not fond of change. His
father before him had lived and died in
Washington Square, and there had
Jacob Riching passed his whole life.
He was not man given to retrospect,
and it was an odd thing in his expert
encc that on this evening of December
81, 1888, memory should have taken
his unwilling hand and led him quietly
backward, all through the long and
lonesome years, to the old time when
he, even he, was a young fellow, and
sat, on such night as this, before the
fire, with his mother at one corner of
the hearthstone and his father on the
other, and he, between them, was
dreaming to the tune of their droning
talk his own dreams.
They were solid dreams, solid enough
even then. Poetry had never wooed
him, art enthralled him, or even ro-
nance touched him with her glamour.
He had passed the two years since he
left school, in his fathers business,
nd hat
far distant day he should be made q
partner, and the old sign of ''Riching's"
should be taken down and a new one
of "Riching l. Son. put up in its place.
People would not be long in learning
that the new 81 gn meant new fashions.
He would extend the business far and
wide, and they would find there was
new life in the old concern.
Aud that next year his business edu-
cation went forward so rapidly that
his father grew into almost habit of
looking up to him; and, as it happened
that on New Years day he would be
21, it was planned that on that day the
one go up, and @'Riching& Son. should
take their place among the business
houses of New York, on the LIST of
January, 1910. Advertisements in the
papers had heralded the coming event.
James Riching had made speech to
the men he employed, and told them
a N q
authority would be equal with his own.
Yet after all it never came to pass.
That very night of December 81, 1889,
as if death had grudge against we'll
laid human plans, sudden apoplexy
called James Riching out of this per-
picking world, and his son reigned in
his stead, and the sign was still
'Riching's."
Jacob Riching was a wonderful bright
fellow, from a business point of view,
but all the same he would have been
very much at loss in those days
but for the aid of his fathers head
book keeper, young man himself of
not more than %, but thoroughly fam
liar with every detail of the business.
People made plans for young Riching,
| as people always do make plans for
their nei ghbors. Of course, they said,
he would take Shines into the business.
Shines knowledge would be fair offset
to his own capital, and it would be a
good thing all round. But these wise
people did not know Jacob Riching or
~
Tom Shines salary and made it quite
| worth the book keepers while to stay
on. but he himself was the moving spir-
it of all and remained sole master.
In his secret thoughts he resolved
that the firm name should never be
changed until son of his own should
be ready to come into it, He had
much the same kind of pleasure, per-
haps, in the thought of handing down
his name and business, from generation
to generation that tho head of ducal
house might have in transmitting to
the direct heir of his body, his title and
| estate.
For dozen years after his fathers
death he did not get time to marry.
His mother sat at one corner of the
fire, and he sat in his fathers place at
the other, and every thing in the house
went on with such monotonous regu-
larity, and one year was so like anothers
that he hardly realized how they were
gliding by him until, after winter of
slow decline, death took away the
widow Riching and brought her son
face to face, rather abruptly. with the
final goal to which all life tends.
1t was not because Jacob Riching
was lonely that at 80 he married Emily
Ford; but with the thought of ''Riching
Il Son 81 in his mind. He came home
from his mothers funeral realizing that
he was 80, and that he would do we'll
to look to the prospects of the future
firm. Emily Ford was young and sweet
and pretty enough to justify any man
in marrying her; but Jacob Riching
was far too busy and too hard hearted
for such romance as falling in love.
He saw in bonny Emily girl quite
suitable in age, fortune and character
for his wife-a very proper person to
bring into the world the junior of tho
future firm of ''Riching 4 Son.
If pretty Emily had any hidden
romance Of her own in connection with
the marriage, she soon learned how out
of place it was, and put it away with
her wedding finery; but, oddly enough,
the substantial comfort of Washington
Square did not seem to agree with her.
She introduced to the light of day and
the inspection of her lord and master
one or two babes, who barely looked
around them long enough to come to a
hasty conclusion that they did not ikel
the world on which they had entered,
and so departed from it. Jacob was
honestly sorry; since these disaffected
fy-aways, who would not remain with
him. were sons. and might have in