Semi=weekly graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1895-1902, 1896-08-05
JOHN INGERFIELD.
By JEROME K. JEROME.
fCopyriaht. 1896. L
CHAPTER L


/ go down the Commercial road past the
/ George, III front Of which stands-or
used to stand-a high flagstaff, at the
/, base Of which sits-or used to sit-an
elderly female purveyor Of pigs trotters
| at Ia pence apiece, until you come to
where railway arch crosses the road
obliquely, and there get down and turn
to the right up q narrow noisy street
| leading 10 the river and then TO the
right again up Il still narrower street,
which you may know by its having a
public house at one corner Gas is in the
nature of things and marine store
dealers at the other, outside which
strangely stiff and accommodating
| garments of gigantic size fiutter ghost
like in the wind, you will come to a
/ dingy rallied in churchyard, surrounded
ON all sides by cherries. many peopled
houses. Sad looking little old houses
they are, in spite Of the tumult Of life
about their ever open doors They and
the ancient church in their midst seem
weary Of the ceaseless iangle around
them. Perhaps, standing there so many
years, listening to the long silence Of
the dead, the fretful voices of the Iiy-
ing sound foolish in their ears.
Peering through the ratings ON the
side nearest the river, you will see be-
meath the shadow of the SCOT grimed
church's SCOT grimed porch--that is, If
the sun happen, by rare chance, to be
high enough and strong enough to cast
any shadow at all in that region Of gray
| light-a curiously high and narrow
headstone that once was white and
straight, not lettering aud bent with
age as it is now. There is upon this
stone a carving in bas relief, as you will
/ see for yourself If you make your way
to it through the gateway ON the oppo-
site side Of the square. It represents, SO
far as can be made out for it is much
worn by time and dirt, figure lying
on the ground with another figure bend
ing over il, while at little distance
stands third object. But this last is SO
indistinct that it might be almost any
| thing, from al angel to q horse.
Aud below the carving are the words
I (already half obliteratedl that I have
used for the title of this story.
Should you ever wander of a Sunday
morning within sound of the cracked
bell that calls few habit bound, old
fashioned folk to worship within those
damp stained walls, and drop into talk
with the old men who on such days sit,
each in his brass buttoned long brown
coat, upon the low stone coping under
meath those broken ratings, you might
hear this tale from them, as [ did, more
years ago than care to recollect.
But lest you do not choose to go to all
/ this trouble or lest the cid men who
could tell 1t you have grown tired of all
/ talk, and are not to be reused ever again
into the telling of tales, and you yet
wish for the story, viii here set it
down for you.
But | cannot recount Ii TO you as they
told it to me, for to me twas only a tale
that I heard and remembered, thinking
to tell it again for profit, while to them
it was Il thing that had been, and the
threads Of it We're interviewer with the
wool of their own life, AS they talked
faces that did not see passed By among
/ the crowd and turned and looked at
/ them, and voices that did not hear
] btJONt w kltti4t DI1QA TIC &4ttAAlDl VI N4AG
street, so that through their thin, pip
ing voices there quiyered the deep mu-
sic of life and death, and my tale must
be to theirs bat as a gossip's chatter to
the story of him whose breast has felt
the press Of battle.
John Ingerfeld, oil and tallow re-
I e
comes of a hard headed, hard listed
stock The first of the race that the eye
of record, piercing the deepening mists
upon the centuries behind her, is able
to discern with any clearness is a long
/ haired, sea bronzed parsonage, whom
men call variously Inge or Unger Out
of the wild North sea he has eoIae. Rec
ord observes him, one of small, fierce
group, standing on the sands of DESC
/ late Northumbria, staring landward, his
worldly wealth upon his back This
consists of two handed battleax value
perhaps some 10 stycas in the currency
of tho time A careful man, with bust
ness capabilities, may, however, manip-
ulate small capital to great advan-
tage In what would appear, to those
accustomed to cur slow modern meth
DDS, an incredibly short space of time,
Inges two handed battleax has Gevel-
oped into wide lands and many head of
cattle, which latter continue to multi
ply with a rapidity beyond the dreams
of present day breeders. Inge's descend
ants would seem to have inherited the
genius of their ancestor, for they pros
per and their worldly goods increase.
They are q money making race In all
times, ont Of all things. by all means,
they make money. They fight for mon
ey, marry for money. live for money,
are ready to die for money
In the days when the most saleable
and the highest priced article in the
markets of Europe was a strong arm
and cool head then each ngerfeld (as
Inge, long rooted in Yorkshire soil, had
grown to) was a soldier of fortune, and
offered his strong arm and his cool head
to the highest bidder They fought for
their price, and they took good care that
they obtained their price, but the price
settled, they fought well, for they were
stanch and true men, according to their
lights. though these lights may have
been placed somewhat low down, near
the earth.
Then followed the days when the
/ . Il.