The Forrest City times., 1911-03-10

YAxkEsAA VI Il stubby growth of blonde W@EzSY9 whiskers. He wore HK broad flat blue cloth cap
 @ "a and long brown linen duster a little out of sea
 son. A bundle tightly roll ed In black oilcloth was strapped 10 his back He stopped in the middle of the road. Looking about. his eyes rested upon a weather-beaten sign board upon which had once been painted the picture of a black bear resting upon its launches. For more than hundred years this sign board had been swinging to and fro as if beckoning and inviting passersby to enter the little inn that was standing some b or 20 feet back from the road. It took Mr Herman Weisgar- Der several minutes to decipher the inscription beneath the faded picture. When he had succeeded. as he thought, he muttered audibly, Dish ish de place. Der black bear vas inn, und l shust myself will walk in init him"
 Bracing up a little and stroking his chin he stepped with a heightened stride into the little front room that served as an office for the Black Bear Inn. Here he found himself in the presence of pleasant-faced woman who smiled eoquettishly.
 He greeted her in his own tongue, in which she replied, and the conver- satlon was now carried on briskly in the German language It was bux- om widow on the one hand and a ras- cally eounterfeiter on the other. He was longtime rogue, but she was honest and unsuspicious. With her the world was good, with him it was dog eat dog and the devil take the hindmost. The widow Hartz was al. together too unsophisticated to pene- trate the dark recesses of the hollow. hearted man that had by chance como suddenly into the affairs of her life. She judged him by her own heart and little dreamed of the misery so soon to follow her chance acquaint- ance with Herman Weisgarber.
 Her husband had died about two years before. At this time her heart was centered on her son, young man nearly twenty years of age John HartZ, thanks to the training of his father, was honest and industrious. The Black Bear Inn and the little farm adjoining was sacred inherl- tance from his paternal grandfather.
 The Inn was now somewhat out of date. but was still doing it's part to- wards furnishing the mother and son living and a little to lay up for a rainy day. Johns father had taught him 10 stand firmly for the right in all things
 MT. Weisgarber's gray blue eyes were shining brightly beneath his overhanging brows as he stood ex- blaming to the widow Hartz regarding himself, The word tramp, now so apuy applied to the tie-path tourist. had not been coined in that day and men of his like were little understood. He said he was just out on d pleasure tour and that he travelled on foot as matter of choice. He was moving letsurely along that he might better enjoy the lovely scenery and pure
 
 chosen and deeply impressive as he cautiously worked his way up to the point of offering to remain for a time and assist in the work about the Inn and farm He had a smooth tongue
 The turnpike, winding it's way | along up and down the sides over and across the Allegheny mountains was then the popular highway for drovers and wagoners upon their way to and fro between Eastern Pennsvl- vania and Pittsburg The people along thls route were principally Ger mans. Some of them could neither read nor speak English They lived mainly on what they produced and had little occasion to spend their money. Almost anything that looked like money would pass. In those days much of the paper money in circulation was of the wild cat kind. Between the counterfeit and genuine issue there was but lit tie choice. One passed from hand to hand almost as readily as the other.
 Herman Weisgarber, as he called Il4Al45tlI. IiSu IOI IldHS years been uOQS- ing about from place to place ma king a living by showing the queer Under pretence of his inability to un- derstand the English language he was able to deceive the officers and es. l cape arrest. It was always "Nieht- verstehe' with him. He shust didn't know netting bout paper monies" "
 To the widow Hartz he appeared q man of honor She measured his character by her own and could see no farther Six months had scarcely passed from the time she met him until he became her husband
 When John Hartz came in contact with his step-father he was honest, and had he followed in the footsteps of his own father he would have re maiued SO IL did not take long to prove that he was susceptible and easily drawn into ways that were dark and farbidding Step by step he was