The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1911-04-01

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the road. Looking about, his eyes
rested upon weather-beaten sign
board upon which had once been
painted the picture of black bear
resting upon its launches. For more
than hundred years this sign board
had been swinging to and fro as II
reckoning and inviting passersby to
enter the little inn that was standing
some Is or 20 feet back from the
road. 1t 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
blaze. Der black bear vas inn, und
l shust myself viii walk in NIT him"
Bracing up little and stroking his
chin he stepped with 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 a pleasant-faced woman
who smiled coquettishly.
He greeted her in his own tongue.
in which she replied, and the CONVEX
sation was now carried on briskly In
the German language 1t was a bux-
ON widow on the one hand and ras-
cally counterfeiter 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 come
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 conferred 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 inheri-
lance from his paternal grandfather.
The Inn was now somewhat out Of
date. but was still doing its part to-
wards furnishing the mother and son
living and little to lay up for a
rainy day. Johns father had taught
him to stand firmly for the right in
all things.
Mr.. Weisgarber's gray blue eyes
were shining brightly beneath his
overhanging brows as he stood ex-
planning to the widow Hartz regarding
himself. The word tramp, now so
aptly 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 a pleasure
tour and that he travelled on foot as
a matter Of choice. He was moving
leisurely along that he might better
enjoy the lovely scenery and pure
mountain air. His words were well
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 smooth tongue
The turnpike, winding its 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 Pennsyl-
vania and Pittsburg. The people
along this 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
himself. had for many years been dodg-
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-
cape arrest 1t was always ''Nicht-
verstehe" with him. HE shust didn't
know noting bout baper monies"
To the widow Hartz he appeared a
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-
NAMED SO. II did not take long to
prove that he was susceptible and
easily drawn into ways that we're dark
and forbidding. Step by step he was
led along and craftily initiated into
the mysterious doings of counterfeit
ers.