The Opelousas courier., 1897-03-06
"Snddenlv their happiness was


turned to sorrow Ivy q catastrophe from
which they have recovered, and
probably never will. Eight months
after his wedding Johns right eye was
destroyed by a steel splinter. This
accident in itself was terrible enough,
but it was nothing to the consequences
that followed. Notwithstanding the
care with which be was surrounded,
and everything that science coull do
for him, after months of terrible SUI
feripg, john became stone blind. The
operation necessitatel by the ab!asion
Of the injured eye induced complete
and incurabie paralysis of the optic
nerves.
John had been tho very soul Of
the business. Edward knew abso-
lately nothing about the manufacture
ing part Of it, and even had he pos
sessed sufficient initiative to assume d.
rection Of the factory, his ssser-iE-l:w
was too crushed and broken by her
despair to replace him in tho shop.
Moreover, the money they had sue
cecaed in saving had largely melted in
the hands of the surgeons, physicians
and druggists. Edward, being unable
to attend properly to the business, the
latter went from bad to worse, and
though he male s~uperhuman efforts to
avert it, the final crash came, and they
found themselves reduced to panury.
"Yet during sill the trouble, amid
all their sorrow and worry, while the
editice built up with SO much labor
was c%rumbling about their heaGs,
Madame Rizel and Edward never al
lowed the blind mun to know anything
about it. Both we're animated by the
same noble anxie:y-to make the sui
ferer believe that the business contin-
ued to prosper. Wnilo their credit
ors were knocking ut their door ana
they knew hat 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
business and the orders that were
pouring in.
"And when all was over, when they
had been forced to give up the hope
less struggle, and, the shop having
Leen sold, they came to live in yen
der house, after buying a horse ana
cart with which to peddle cutlery in
the suburbs, they kept up, and con-
tinue to keep up, the Illusions Of
the blind man, whom grief and suffer.
ing have confined to "a bed Of pain,
from which he will soon be released
by death. In order to DO this they
reserved the old factory bell, which
now hangs in the little garden in the
rear OF the house.
Eat noon and six o'clock in the
evening when the workmen used to
be rung ont, the wife or brother sets
the bell a-ringing, and Johns pale and
wrinkled face lights up with a feeble
smile as he exclaims:
"'Ah! there go the boys!"
"On New Years day, when the
workmen were accustomed to call in a
body and pay their respects to him
my husband and about q dozen OF the
neighbors troop up stairs to shake
hands with him and drink to the guy
ner's health. And he thanks them
and calls them his dear comrades, and
chinks glasses to the success Of the
firm.
"Ah: sir, it is sad enough to make
you cry your eyes out"
This was the story told me by my
clearinghouse keeper, and it has re-
NAMED craven on my mind as one OF
the most beautiful examples of de-
votedness and charity Of which I have
ever heard. From the French in
Twinkles.