The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1893-12-23
A TRUTHFUL MAN.
He Would Not Romance Even In Telling
His Life'a SORROWS.

Ho Would Not Romance Even In Telling
His Ltfe'a e0rrOws.
| He wasn't tramp, exactly, but he
| was nearly one. He had struck the
| merchant for one dollar and the mer.
chant was ra Their interested in him.
II don't see," he said s'yvhy you go
| about asking for money or help. You
| are an intelligent man and I should
| think you could get something better
| to do
Il don't know about that" was the
| Respondent rejoinder. 1.-THE Lord
| knows I tried hard enough to get
along before I lost my heart entirely"
''What do you do?''
''Well. little of everything. had
some money and thought I'd go to rails
ing rice in South Carolina and show
those people down there how to do it
right. knew it all. of course, and
one day man came along selling a
new brand of rice. He was a nice
looking man from New York and I
liked his style. He liked my style, too
he said, and would sell me the exclu-
sive right to handle his stuff in South
Carolina. 1t was something new-a
seed that could not be exposed to the
light, but that would yield three times
as much as the old varieties. That was
what was looking for and very quietly
l took it in, paying two hundred dol
lars for the right and four sealed cans
of seed. did all the work at night,
and when 1t was finished sat down to
wait and to chuckle over my enterprise.
But waited and waited and nothing
came, and one day ! looked into the old
cans and found had been stuck with
some mean little wheat grains, and you
might as well try to raise icicles in the
bad place as to raise wheat in South
Carolina rice swamp
THAT was bad luck, and the sympa-
thizing merchant.
and went to raising cattle in western
Kansas. Hadn't more than got my
herd set out before a cyclone came
along and blew every horn of it clear
over into the next county and when I
went after my stock pious cowboy
who had gathered them wi tn his own
Informed me that they had been sent
to him by Providence and he'd like to
see any son of gun try to take them
away. AS he had a Winchester and a
lot of friends with him didn't see my
way clear to interfering with the ways
of Providence and left the country
~'It's pretty hard when Providence
goes against a man. ventured the 1ner-
chant, kindly.
Eyes, but that isn't all,' said the
disconsolate one. with what little I
had left I went to Pennsylvania and
bought a water-power grist mill in the
mining regions. I fixed it up with new
machinery and for awhile it looked as
if my luck had changed and 1 was go
ing to come out on top at last. But
one night a big mine lying under the
stream that gave me my mill-power
caved in or sunk down just enough to
change the lay of the land and, by
gum! the water began to run the 9TH
er way, and when 1 got to the mill in
the morning the water gates were
open and my mill machinery had been
backwards until every blamed
wheel was busted and the whole She
bang was wreck
The man wiped a tear from his eye
''Then it was,' he went on, that my
heart broke and 1 lay right down and
quit. Now. do you blame me for what
I am doing?'
The merchant gave him two dollars
and the man was in police court the
next ,norning.-Detroit Free Press