The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-04-07
THE JEWELERS. WIFE.

/
There dwelt years and years ago, in a
| quaint old city on the banks of the Rhine,
a handsome young jeweler who loved his
gems so well that he thought them brighter
than any woman's eyes, and was impervi-
GUS to the smiles Of the loveliest girls who
| came to his shop to firt with the propri-
etor rather than for the sake of the broken
earrings and bracelets which made their
excuse for doing so.
Twas known everywhere at last that
| Max Rudolph did not intend to marry,
| that his heart was given to his art-for he
was rather an artist in gems and gold than
a mere workman-zud as he was not only
handsome but charming, and reputed
rich, this was very provoking fact in
deed to the young ladies who had cherished
hopes Of winning his favor.
However, the Turks are right when they
say that no man can escape his fate. One
| day, going into the country for the sake of
the fresh air, and to enjoy himself with
rural dainties at a little wayside tavern,
there happened TO be detailed to wait upon
him beautiful young country girl SO
sparklingly beautiful that he said to him
self: 'She has diamond eyes and ruby lips
and teeth of pearls. She is made of jewels. 4"
Then there came into his mind the
thought that she was jewel herself well
worth the winning and wearing. Still,
she was but a poor girl who earned her
bread as handmade at an inn. and he went
his way without doing more than to look
her. But he came again, and this time
threw her a kiss; and again, and this time
the kiss was on her lips; and the third
time he said to himself that at last he had
found the woman he desired, and he wooed
and married her, and took her home with
him dressed in splendid garments, with
silken shoes upon her feet that had so often
followed the kline in wooden sabOts.
For little while the jewelers. love ruled
his soul He forgot his most precious
jewels for his fair Mina's sake, and happier
pair of married lovers never wandered to-
gether in the moonlight or vowed eternal
constancy by the winter freside 1t was
not long, however. In a year the jeweler
had gone back TO his old habits. He spent
hours in his wcrkroom watching the pol
ishing of some rare stone. He would leave
his Nina for weeks together while be
sought some gem of which he had heard.
He would sit and gloat over great dia-
mond, turning it this way and that that the
light might the better fall upon it, while
she sat UNDECIDED
Nina never approached him with this
change; bat she grew sad. and often wept
when no one observed her.
The husband never noticed it; his love Of
Jewels had grown TO be a monomania with
him. He had not the usual desire of crafts
men for fame or for wealth. He had be-
come miSer, who boarded gems instead OF
gold He refused to sell one of them at
any price Men said that he was mad, and
that Satan in person had been seen stand
ing behind him whispering IN his ear.
Still. he seemed TO love his wife at times,
and TO show it would bring jewels and lay
them in her lap, and tell her how to know
their value.
The simple woman admired them, but
she could not comprehend the power they
had over her husbands heart. And once
or twice she also thought that she saw
figure, hldeous, though shadowy, at her
husbands side, and cried out in terror.
She was now about TO become mother,
and was full of strange faLcies, as women
are, and the dark figure may have been
merely born of her Imagination. But it
seemed TO her 10 have the shape OF Satan as
he is represented in the pictures that peas
ants see.
There was at this time talk OF great
Jewel, ruby of wonderful size and brill
iancy such as no one had seen before.
None but king could be its owner, men
said, and there was a great contest for 1t.
The handsome young jeweler with the
cleaning eyes and eager gestures who
gloated on its splendor-Max Rudolph
from Rhineland-was thought 10 be out OF
his mind when he declared il should be his
But his il actually became.
Where he got all the money no one could
guess, and there were those who said that
thew saw a strange black figure sitting
with him at his inn one night and heard
the chink of gold, and that Satan helped
him.
But the Jewel was his, and he returned
home to his Nina wild with JOY. She sat
upon a little balcony that overhung the
river watching for him, and he embraced
and kissed her and clssped her 10 MS heart
Now. hold your hand, said he. The
Jewel shall lie in It's palm See how lovely
it Is! And thou-thou art the loveliest
Jewel of 3 woman; there is none ike thee
anywhere
And Nina, happy in his praises, looked
up ut him rather than at the gem-looked
and saw over MS shoulder the hideous face
OF the fiend, aud forgetting all about the
ruby clasped her hands and shrieked aloud,
and as she did so the jewel dropped from
her palm, giitsered at her feet an instant's
space, and glanced from the floor Of the
balcony into the blue depths of the Rhine,
Rudolph had started to sesze it, but
when he saw he was too late be uttered
hideous imprecation and lifted his hand
threateningiy above his wife's head
Low born Peasant; kitchen drudgel
cow drivexi beer server.' ne shrieked-
Fool that I was 70 think that your clumsy
fingers could hold jewels fast Fool rhst
was 70 marry coarse creature Ike you,
born to eat black bread and walk bare
footf'