The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1889-03-13
FOR A ZWANZIG.
THE Poor Blind Minstrel's Deed of
Violence.

Sixty years ago, says The Servian,
silver piece of money known in Ser
via as zWanzig was worth fully six
ruldens two dollars and a half) of our
present currency, for then we had
neither railways, nor steamboats,, nor
hotels with German landlords, nor
theaters, nor gas. Indeed, we hardly
knew what roads were. On the mill
tary frontiers, where the soil is not at
all fertile, money was so rare that it
might have passed for chimera of
the Imagination, as in the opera of
Robert lie Diable. Even in our time. all
along the banks OF the Save, we trade
more by exchanging articles than in
any other way. A peasant woman, for
example, who wants to buy silk
handkerchief or any thing of that kind,
mover thinks of giving money for it.
She will pay the merchant with q
basket OF fruit or eggs. or some other
article OF country produce.
Now sixty years ago even a small
piece OF money was a great treasure.
And it was for the sake of q zwanzig
that the old blind minstrel Mirko be-
came an assassin and was hung.
Nevertheless the poor old man was
not bad or cruel at heart; he had al
ready endured several cold winters
with no covering but a ragged cloak;
but alas! the rags fell at last quite to
shreds. and it was absolutely neces-
sary to procure another cloak for the
coming winter if he wished to avoid
dying Of cold.
twas at this time that the old min
strel first dreamed-and an insensible
dream it was-of possessing for once
in his life azwanzig, in order that with
1.-THE might buy himself cloak.
Whenever he earned q few kreutzers
be usually spent them in having his
opaulse (shoes) mended, or else his
hat, which was terribly battered by
wind and rain. 1t was only rarely
that he had the pleasure of jingllng
some copper kreutzers in his pocket,
for the peasants usually paid him for
bis music by a handful or two of corn
Or wheat or some bread, and a few of
the more generous by giving him some
lard. Now even in Servia sixty years
ago lard could be sold for money.
The poor old man suddenly re-
fected that if he put all his
lard aside and saved it he might, if he
had enough, go some day to the town
and sell his lard for a zwanzig. "Of
what use is it," said he to himself, "to
comfort my stomach with lard if in
The winter | must die of the cold?"
When the autumn came Mirko tied
his provision of lard in the pocket of
his torba, and hired a little girl to lead
him by the hand to the nearest town.
The old minstrel was as happy as a
child at the thought of returning with
azWanzig clasped in his hand. The
pretty silver piece assumed in his i'm
aslnation the really grandiosc proper
IONS OF q golden ducat. The zwanzig
was Tor him the alpha and omega of
wealth; he wished for nothing beyond;
and though in his songs he frequently
chanted the glories of heroes who re-
posed upon golden couches and threw
aucats about like water, his own
creams were limited to the new
.ualmotique which he hoped to buy.
no felt in imagination the comfort of
'he thick folds over his back and
shoulders, and he laughed in his heart
at the thought of rain or snow.
Are we very far from the town?'
he asked the little girl every moment.
They were within sight of the church
splre when they met Il young man, who
asked where they were going at such a
pace.
II am going to sell the provision OF
lard that | have here said the blind
man, showing his torba, the pocket OF
which was stuffed to bursting and tied
with Irvine.
The little girl carried also some
pieces of lard in q basket.
How much do you want for your
p"ros said the young man.
"A zwanzig!" replied the old man in
q voice which trembled with emotion.
lit is large sum. Show mo tho
lard" WY
The blind man united it.
you will never sell it for that il
the market" said the young man, a,
he weighed the basket the little cir
had carried.
"Ah, you think sou faltered tn,
bind man, trembling with a sudden
lear "Bnt l have twenty pounds o
lard; it is not DEAR"
certainly not, If the lard wer,
@odi but yours has been picked u |
sse and there. Still, if you were no
400 great hurry for your money
wanted to buy cloak"
IN that case you can wait two
s loains longer; by that time the plums
'iu have been distilled, the slivovitzo
WI oe sold, and can pay you"
:. lou will give me zwanzigp" cried
sIe Cd man his faaa