Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1898-01-08
tom DEvINE, the eobbler, pushed

TOM DEVINE, the cobbler, pushed
up his spectacles and gave me q
whimsical glance.
It's GURUS" he remarked cts cu-
rus what difference it makes to n
mans family how he is put out of the
world! Hang him, and his folks feel
disgraced forever; cut off his head with
a guillotine, md"
The old man made a flourish with
his head, as though the matter were
one for serious congratulation.
"Leastways," he added, returning to
his mendipg again, that's the way
some folks think. Lopll how. set up
NJ. Lafitte was about it, to be sure, and
all on account of an ancestor of his who
happened to lose his head on the scaf.
fold with Louis XVI!
who was NJ. Lafitte? Well, he was
a Frenchman who once took lodgin's
on the upper floor of this house, an old
ramshackle affair now, but once a mani
sion, as you can see. and as fashionable
a street as there was in London"
$50 I have heard" assented.
"The Frenchman," he continued
''was n man somewhere about GO wears
of age, tall and stiff in his bearing; and
though his clothes We're worn and shah
by-lookin', his linen, 1 noticed, was neat
and tidy, and as white as snow"
bloomsbury said he, when I had
showed him the room-I'm the care
taker of the building, you see, sir-'ees
"a respectable quataire of the city,
ees it not so, Meester Concierge?'
More than respectable, mossoo.'
said I, a trifle taTtly. Tt was once a
fashionable part of London
'He sighed as he looked about the
room.
"'Eet will do, Meester Concierge
he would always call me that, sir,
though told him time and again it
wasn't my name-'eet will do for the
praisant,' with flourish of his white
hand, as though the next month would
find him in Park Lane; and so he en-
gagged the room, and paid for it in adj
vance.
"In few hours they moved in-him,
his sick wife, his daughter, Mile. JUS
tine, and Polly, as cunning parrot as
ever see.
"Purty? Well, don't know. For
foreigner ma'm'selle might hev been
called purity. She was slight little
thing, with great big eyes, and long
eyelashes throwing deep shadders into
'em like grasses into a brook"
He cleared his throat and spread his
hands, as though the matter of looks
was of no consequence.
But, Lord!" he exclaimed with sud
den animation, "how she could sing!
Gay songs, too. in French and Eye
Italian, with sometimes an English bal
lad or SO. Why. sir" giving the boot a
tremendous whacll, ''there was fortin'
in her voice, fortin' as big as PATHS;
and only for the fact of that precious
ancestor of hers a-losin' of his head on
the scatfold with Louis XVI. she'd a
made it, too, as easy as-that!" giving
the boot another whack.
Tut the mossoo! How stiff he Gid
draw himself up, to be sure, at the
very QeIticn Of it.
"UHdcrstand me-" the cobbler ex.
| plGii;pd, lit wasn't out of any oflicious
mcddlccomencss that / first suggested
| the thing to him. No; it wasn't till he
was belGindhand in dis rent, and his
poor cyes-he WAS n diamond cutter
| you see, sir. and sat oil day with his eye
| glued 10 T. G'ass-was giving out, that
l thought of some way in which ma m
scllc could help him better than by om
! broidering.
The day the diamond got lost, my
how they did go on! l thought the
house was a-fre; and when run up Il
see. there was the old lady moaning
and ma'm'sele and mossoo a-turnin
everything topsy-turvy in the room.
"'What diamond?' says 1, wonderin
If they all had gone crazy, and theI
between the old Lady and her husband
/ found that she had been more ailin4
than usual that day. and in one of hi
journeys from his bench to the bed
a-waitin' on her. he had lost the dia
mond he was cuttin', an eXtry large ant
fine one.
High and low we searched for it. il
every crack and corner. The bedding
the old rug, everything was shook out
""Twns no use, though, and finall,
we give 1t up; and what was worse, o
course the poor gentleman had to MAX
it up. 1t was tough, I can tell you, fo
at the best of times they only abou
made ends meet.
81 thought of ma'm'selle's voice, rar
enough TO bring guinea for ever
note, but thanks to that aristocra
whose head had tumbled on the sam
plank with Louis XYI.'s, ] daren't mer
ltion y.