Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1897-12-18
The Sturu Telter.
RINGING OF THE BELL.
A DECEIT OF DEVOTION.

my native village, and as necessarily
received a very meagre allowance
from my parents, I boarded at mod
est "pension" in quiet little street on
the outskirts of Paris, at Montrouge.
The meal hours were at noon and six
o'clock, and I soon remarked that
when those hours came around a big
bell, like a bell that announces the
suspension of work in factory, was
set to ringing. This puzzled me great
ly, for there was not factory, or even
workshop of any Importance, in the
neighborhood. At length discovered
that the ringing came from a miserable
little dwelling house opposite, whence
I had occasionally seen an itinerant
cntler issue and start on his rounds,
leading a sedate old horse that was
harnessed TO small peddler's cart,
very much the worse for wear. My
curiosity was aroused, and one morn
ing at luncheon, when the bell rang,
l questioned the clearinghouse keeper
about it. She gazed at me with indul.
gent pity, and said, "Why, it announ-
ces the dinner hour of Rizel's work
men, of course"
Rizel was the name printed on the
cart of the itinerant cutler. l con-
cluded that she was poking fun at me.
"Rizel's workmen!" l re-echoed,
with deprecating incredulity.
~ am not joking" she went on, Sc
riously. "I said that it announces the
dinner hour of Rizel's workmen, and
so it does. Hasn't anybody told you
about it?"
"Of course not" I demonstrated,
"otherwise 1 should not have ques-
toned you"
"Well, 1 will enlighten you," she
said. "About twenty years ago the
Rizels were master cutters. Besides a
shop in the centre of Paris they had q
factory, and carried on good whole,
sale trade. When their parents died,
Edward, the younger, managed the
shop, and John, who was far cleverer,
managed the factory. He was very
skilful workman, and used TO toll at
the trade as hard as any of his men,
with whom he lived Oh terms of the
most cordial camaraderie.
"The brothers were devotedly at
tached to each other. There was
never the slightest cloud between
them. What John decided upon Ed
ward ratified without question. They
would have died for each other. One
day when the question of marriage
was brought up by John, Edward OBJ
served:
"'If we both marry, our wives may
quarrel and cause trouble between us
whereas, if only one takes to himself
wife there can be neither Jealousy
nor dispute, and nothing can come be-
tween us. You are my senior; mar
ry if you wish to; ! shall remain q
bachelor
John would not at first entertain
such an argument, and asserted that
he would remain bachelor. But he
counted without Cupid. Shortly after
the above conversation he fell madly
in love with daughter of one Of hi:
customers, and married her, after vain
ly endeavoring to persuade his brother
to follow his example.
ut would, however, be impossible te
imagine a more united family. john:
wife was a good, atfectionate little
woman, who adored her husband, anc
Edward loved her like a sister.
"Suddenly their happiness was turn
ed To sorrow by catastrophe from
which they have never recovered, and
probably never will. Eight months
after his wedding Johns right eye was
destroyed by a steel splinter. This ac'
cident in itself was terrible, but it was
nothing to the consequences that fol-
lowed. Notwithstanding the care with
which he was surrounded, and every.
thing that science could do for him
after months of terrible suffering, Jonn
became stone blind. The operation ne
cessitaled by the ablation of the injur'
ed eye induced complete and incurable
paralysis of the optic nerves.
"John had been the very soul OF the
business. Edward knew absolutely
nothing about the manufacturing part
of it, and even had he possessed sufii.
cient initiative to assume direction OF
the factory, his sister-in-law was too
crushed and broken by her despair to
replace him in the shop. Moreover,
the money they had succeeded in say
ing had largely melted in the hands OF
the surgeons, physicians, and drug.
gists. Edward, being unable to attend
properly to the business, the latter
went from bad to worse, and though
he made superhuman efforts to avert
it, the final crash came, and they found
themselves reduced to penury.
"Yet during all the trouble, amid all
their sorrow and worry, while the
edfce built up with so much labor
was crumbling about their heads,
Madam Rizel and Edward never al
lowed the blind man to know anything
about it. Both were animated by the
same noble anxiety-to make the SUI
ferer believe that the business cOntln-
ued to prosper. While their creditors
were knocking ct their door and they
knew that failure was inevitable, and
that poverty stared them in the face,
they choked back their sobs, and with
tears of anguish in their eyes talked
cheerfully about the activity of busl-
ness and the orders that were pour
ing in.
"And when all was over, when they
had been forced to give up the hope