The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-20

Sale avenue and Ohio street, where her
gold wedding ring was first worn, Mrs
Luetgert had toiled with her husband and
had planned with him. Luetgert was a pros
porous saloon keeper when they were
welded, and Louise Bicknese was a pretty
German domestic, who knew scarcely a
word OF English.
Luetgert's saloon business was highly
profitable He and his wife were thrifty.
anxious to get rich. and Mrs. Luetgert
scrubbed, and was content to live in small
rooms over the saloon while the profits
pied up. me saloon was located in Web
ster avenue. This was in 1880. At last lsuet-
CERT and his wife had saved enough money
to buy out meat route. and Luetgert gave
up his saloon The family went to live over
the market and this prospered better than
the saloon had done.
Luetgert began by peddling meat at the
back doors of his friends homes. He saw
possibilities in sausage-making, and gradu
ally he went into the business of making
summer sauSagos. At first this was carried
on in a back room of the market. After q
While 1T outstrfpped the regular meat bust
ness, and Luetgert saw business and profits
come in almost faster than he could take
care Of them. The factory was located then
In Sheffield avenue, near DiVersey. Six
years ago Luetgert and his Wife by hard
work and scant living had saved $50 600.
The sausage business was still growing,
and both had visions of a business that
would rival the ArmOurS.
Luetgert and his wife had widely different
notions as to how a large sausage plant
ought to be built Luetgert had visions of
running to it and loaded cars at the doors.
Mrs. Luetgert wished her husband to invest
$4,000 in the new plant and the balance of
their savings in some other investment.
Luetgert had his own way Five years ago
the land at Diversey avenue and the North
western railroad tracks was secured by
Luetgert, and the largest sausage works in
the country erected. The huge six-story
building at that time doomed up on the
prairie Tor several miles around ana became
the center of cluster of small frame
houses. Luetgert's sausage-makdng was
transferred to the new plant and he
bounded into an immense business at the
start. His competitors Through the coun-
king $50 denomination MN INC SAUSAGE
CERT cleared $4,000 from his sausage bust
ness. At that time he was reputed to be
worth about 100000. Mrs Luetgert it is
said, never ceased to chide her husband
for putting all his savings in the plant,
even when profits piled up with dazzling
swiftness- When Luetgert bounded into his
great business he also bounded into popu-
lar1ty in the neighbOrhood He was pointed
out as the most prosperous German in the
northwestern part of the city. who had
made all his money in ntIeen years, and
as he relaxed from his frugal habits he
found plenty of friends willing to help him
relax still more. His popularity was not
confined to his own sex.
Mrs. Luetgert with the most comfortable
house for a mile arour d, not envied
however. When she saw the change in her
husbands habits she fretted and chided,
till Luetgert finally went to live among
his dogs in the factory. He fitted up sleep
ing room in his Office, and his bulky frame
never was seen in the house except at meal
times.
Luetgert had invested practically every
penny he and his wife saved in his sausage
plant. He borrowed almost as much more
to complete it, and as most of his business
was done on credit, when the hard times
came he had no capital with which to go
on. When he was obliged to borrow right
and left, Mrs. Luetgert lost no chance to
remind him that if he had followed her adj
vice he would have been all right. Last
February Luetgert's factory closed down.
When profits ceased to pile up Mrs. Luet-
gert's Seedlings and the, family jars in
creased. Mary Siemering had, in the mean
time, come TO live with the LuetgertS, and
Luetgert's fondness for her, it is said in
creased the bitterness between him and his
wife.
Luetgert's employees at the factory were
in the main ignorant Poles and Germans,
most of them unable to speak English. The
grocery and retail market which were run
in connection with the sausage factory,
however, gave employment to a number of
intelligent men, among them Fred Miller,
Mrs. Luetgerts nephew.
Financial ruin stared Luetgert in the face
by the middle of April. The sausage maker
and his wife saw that the factory was al
most certain to pass into the hands of the
sheriff, for notes were falling due, there
was no income to pay them FROM and
butchers and market men who were in
Luetgert's debt We're unable to help him
out of difficulty in the hard times. Mrs.
Luetgert, who had seen her advice thrown
to the winds, and Ter dire predictions all
como true. lost no opportunity to scold her
husband for his folly. The reports of the
Luetgert family disturbances increased
throughout the neighborhood and We're the
object of many conferences among Mrs.
Luetgert'S relatives.
Luergert's social habits, in which, it was
said his wife was not included. were be-
lieved to be at the bottom Of all the diff
Guilty. His friendship for Christine Feldt,
Mary Siemering and Mrs. Agatha Tosch,
it is said, had changed his wife into a per-
petual ScOld.