The Republican., 1897-10-21
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/ The Case of Cal Van Port. !
\ Compiled from the Diary of v
Country Doctor. y
copyright, 1871 W

Copyright, 1871

A 7 %, Cal Nanport, six feet tall,
II strong, swarthy and handsome,
was at once the most interesting and
the most unpopular character in all
North Pisa, \. Y. He dwelt with his
mother, Irish by birth, washerwoman
by trade, and relict of the only pure
blooded Hollander ever known in the
village, in Il whitewashed cottage front
ing little-used side street. Aside from
Deacon Orcott, of the Freewill Baptist
church, who was too old to work, and
besides had a little money laid by, and
old John TomIinson, who lived in the
big white house across from the post
Office and was rich, being worth $4,000
at least. and maybe more, Cal was the
only grown man in the place who
seemed to have no regular occupation.
Hence his unpopularity.
You see, doctor" Jabez Ruggles, the
wagon maker, explained to me one day,
soon after [ began practicing ip North
Pisa, Cal amt got no gumption. In
fact he's-wal, what you might call
shifless He don't never work none at
all, ceptin' when the beans is ripe.
Then he does go out into the field and
pull sometimes, though he didn't last
year. When he's a min to he kin do
more work n anybody know, for he's
the ablebodiest man anywhere round
here, but you never see him a-pitchin'
10 hay, nor a-workin in no harvest
field; not even when such men as Super
visor Bulger or Deacon Warboys is Of
ferin' two an a half a day to save their
crops.
NO, sir; he'd druther live on his poor
old mother than to work, an about all
he does is to go'n git the clo'es in a
basliit before she washes 'em, an kerry
'em home afterward. You kin see i'm
R-doin' that every mornin' an every
night reg'lar. What he does in the
middle of the day is a myst'ry to every
body. Some days he goes a-fishin', but
that's mostly on Sundays. Week days
he gen'ally shcts 'imself up in the house
Jest to loaf, l s'pose. l sh'd think
'twould make him 'shamed to hear the
sound Of the scrubbin' when his moth
er's to work over the waShboard an he's
layin' round, a dom nothin'.
Some day the boys II all git mad n
run him out, unless he braces up and
goes to work. When that happens North
Pisa II git notice in the county paper,
sure"
In spite of the wagon makers story, |
found it hard to dislike Cal Nanport
without knowing more concerning him,
and | invited talk about him from vari-
Gus village magnates. But the testi-
monv thus gathered was all of one sort
ii was clear that all the men Of North
Pisa both hated and despised him as an
utterly worthless vagabond. The feel
ing of antagonism between Cal and his
kind. however. was like a jug handle
all one one side" as / found when
came to know him personally. If ever
there was a man who bore nobody i'll it
was Cal Nanport, and before ! had met
either Cal or his mother face to face
perceived that some of the women OF
the place held the young man in better
esteem.
They may say all the mean things
they want about Cal Nanport,' SAID
Mrs. Miggs, the sturdy old blacksmith
wife, who had two grown sons of her
own, "and l won't deny that it does
look like small potatoes and few in the
hill fer him to live on his mothers
carnin's as he pears TO; but they'd bt
some happier mothers in North Pisa il
all the sons was like him. know some