Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1889-10-04

to go crooked with him in the most
unprecedented way. In the first
place, the pantaloons themselves
were so ill-mended that not to have
thrown them away was waste q
money. Then, having oversight
himself, he cut his chin in shaving
and, being unused 10 such treatment
could find no sticking plaster; his
watch had stopped; and he felt Il de
cided twinge in one OF his toes.
He was not an iIl-tempered man;
but he felt that for Cnce, he had
good cause for complaint aga inst
the universe; and so his daughter
Bertha being the onl y representative
of the universe present at that early
hour, she had to pay for the sins OF
the watch and the razor, as well as
the sun, moon and stars. Fortunate
ly she was as gentle as she was pref
ty; and she was the prettiest girl in
Eulenburg
SO gentle was she, ands so bright be-
sides, that, helped by his coffee, she
was making him forgot even the
twinge, when he suddenly turned
pale; and, after II rapid search of all
his pockets, exclaimed:
ct only wanted that | wouldn' t
have lost that-no, not for a thous-
andl Ring up everybody, BERTHA
never mind what they are doing
that must be found, il it takes all
day!"
Bertha turned pale too. "Whatis
it. father? What has happend?"
"It's-it's a gulden-"
"A gulden?" she asked, in sudden
alarm, not at the loss of gulden,
but at the thought that her father
had gone crazed after a way not I'M
common with millionaires.
eyes; n gulden," he cried, turning
out his pockets. 1.-The first gulden |
ever earned, when l was poorer than
Job; the gulden that | was prouder
and gladder OF than all I've ever
made since; the gulden got on the
day | first saw your poor mother;
the gulden that brought me all the
rest; the gulden that's never been
out of my pocket for thirty years;
the gulden-no wonder watches stop
and razors cut; and toes twinge, if
that's gone; and Bertha-I'm not
myself without that gulden. I'm not
n superstitious man; Pm not q fool;
but I'd give the thousand guldens to
have that one back again"
Nor was Bertha Superstitious: but
she set to work and led the search to
satisfy her fathers whim, as diligent-
~ us if the trumpery little coin were
II missing diamond. Brains and
memories We're cudgeled; the most I'M
likely papers were ransacked; every
pocket was turned inside out ofevery |
garment Herr Lewis had ever worn.
A good many long lost things came
to light, but not the gulden; and |
Herr Lewis at last had to set off to
his office without it, arriving there
later than had ever happened since
his wife was buried. 1t is wonderful
what a trlfe will sometimes throwan
otherwise sensible man out; how
much more than big thing with
which habit has nothing to do.
"Where's Herr Mark" he asked,
when he missed from the
usual desk his principal cashier
1--WE thought that he must have
been with you, sir, as you were both
late, said one of the clerks "He
has not yet come"
That was unlucky, too. But when
dinner time came without Herr Marx
but with "A pressing demand supposed
to have been long ago settled, from
an important firm, there seemed to
be something beyond ill-luck about
the absence of the most punctual of
cashiers. With as much trepidation
rs he had turned out his pockets,
Herr Lewis explored the books; and
there was no doubt ofit-a horrible
chaos of fraudulent entries made one
thing clear, that Herr Marx had alb
seconded with all the assets and left
he bankers nothing but the liabili-
ties; and the worst of it was that
Herr Marx had got off Just in time
hat the search for the gulden had
made all the difference between being
n time to be saved, and only in time
% be ruined. Cans Mohr, the tailor,
t was who had pulled down the
treat bank which was the prop and
glory of Eulenburg.
Naturally, nowhere in the whole
ity was the crash Of the house of
Ievis more earnestly discussed than
n the workshop ofthe ex-milionaire's
ailor. 1t is true that the bill he
,wed there was but trifle, but that
vas held to he chief cause of his
downfall. People who run up large
bills with their tailors, and never
Jay them. invariably flourish, as all
he world knows, even though no.
body knows why.
1t seemed a wonderful thing to
ians, as he sat cross-legged and lis
ened to the gossip of his fellow
vorkmen, that the last garment of
Herr Lewis had passed through his
lands. Of course there was nothing
'eally odd about it, seeing that it
must have passed through some
Iody's, but it seemed odd to him,
md he would have contributed the
to the gossip, us an in
eresting item, had not n certain
natter in connection Herewith
Weighed upon his mind-unaccount-
IDLY misunderstanding that it was so
cry small And what was still
worse, he had got no good by it.
Whatever he had spent it in, it had
eft him and Gretchen just as poor
IS ever. and with something uncom-
ortable besides which made poverty
/ little. a very little, harder to bear.
Gossip was in full food when an