Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1891-04-18

as an accountant ana Hueilty aSawork-
man, and Joefs book-keeper wishing
to enter business for himself, the
stranger had been employed. He had
rooms furnished over the store and
took his meals at u public house near
by, and as he dressed quietly and in
good taste. and only droppedlhrrc and
there q gcntlemanly word, he had ere
long an cnvlable reputation for sobriety
and business application. He seem
ingly gave himself no recreation, though
occasionally in the evening he would
be met walking by the river. and on
Sabbath-days among the woodland
paths. just what the nature of the
bitterness was that possessed him, if
indeed it were that or some secret dis
ease, or but his natural temperament,
could not be gathered from the surface
of his life. That he had spasms
of agony, however, that left him
we'll nigh exhausted was appar-
ent, and Joel demonstrated with
him at times upon his overlap
plication, but he had only replied
that he was better when at work, and
continued steadily at his task. In the
main his life was very still, much as if it
were held with kind of batcd breath,
and only once had any one heard him
revert to his previous history, and then
in response to a query of Joe!s he had
said he had never been married.
John Earling did not in any sense
feel moved toward this silent person,
and their acquaintance seemed to re-
main forever q partial one. Indeed.
John Earring seemed quite as intensely
occupied as he; reading, noting, COM
posing, studying, working, till every
f,,ll of ir1oo
had come to seem a thing of gold to
his unmoneyed youth. Life burned
very evenly within him, but with n
strong and melting heat that forbade
all ldlrncss. Yet what could he look
forw ard to but long hard struggle,
and perhaps eventual defeat? But that
mattercd not. his life was before him,
and he went forward with earnest cheer
fulness to meet whatever it might con-
tain. This inclination and capacity of
ours for continuous effort. be the
achievement early or late in its arrival,
might seem in some sort an Inheritance
springinG from long necessity. For We
and prior generations who have made
and ruled this lusty western realm,
have found our tasks in waiting for
us bv the cradles side, and the desire
| to labor and achieve already in the
blood, carried forward by and intensi
fed through father and son from an
original condition of poverty perhaps
upon the old worlds shores. CHANGING
at the warm countries where life is
easy of fultillment, we see idlcness con-
| tinued as an eternal legacy, but here
was Il mountain to be built. and in the
building of it lay our fortunes and our
bread. How we'll and eagerly we have
| wrought. the unrivalcd structure stands
| n stupcndous and rather noisy wit
| ness. AS it nears completion, too, or
| rather seeming complctiOn-for how
much shall need rebuilding remains
unSrttlrd--we find million gold-heaps
have siftrd from the material and have
fallen to the ownership of those who
wrought. In the shadow of these gilt
tcring piles the offspring of many
| whose ewes went out Watching the po-
tent siftingS rise amain. have begun to
make themselves an artificial sunshine
| scarcely less productive of lazinesS
| than those regions whore summer is
perpetual. Happily, however, this num-
Der is not perpendicular, and the great
| mass of lahorers still swarm from base
| to apex of the structure; widening the
foundation here, raising an abutment
there, carrying the tower upward, fill
ing in the assures, polishing this stone
and that, littering it with history,
| painting fair pictures upon it, filling it
with song and music and invention,
until what it shall become falls scarce
| ly within the marvellous compass of o
dream.