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The Romance and Tragedy

W >> William Ingraham Russell >> The Romance and Tragedy




Then I told her of the feeling that overwhelmed me because I had
not informed her of the matter from the first. While I talked, her
little hand sought mine and from the frequent pressure I knew she
was listening with a heart full of loving sympathy.

When I had finished she raised her head, and after kissing me
fondly, said with a glorious smile:

"Why, my darling, is that all? I thought it was something terrible.
What do we care for the loss of a little money? We have each other
and our love. That is everything."

Then in the sunshine of that love my naturally good spirits returned
and my trouble was forgotten in the joy over this new insight into
the character of my wife.

With determination I resolved that I would devote myself closer than
ever to my business, and set for myself the task of accumulating
another five thousand dollars within a year.

During 1872 I had made about seven thousand dollars, but now nearly
five thousand dollars was represented by experience.

The other fellow had the money.

The holidays had come and gone. We enjoyed them in spite of our
recent reverse.

We did not spend very much money, though we had just as good a time
as if we had done so. I had entirely recovered my mental equilibrium
and had put out of my mind all thought of my financial loss.

Life was moving on in the same delightful channel. Love was our
bark, and we sailed smoothly, as on a summer sea.

My business during the early months of the year was good, but in
April signs were not wanting of a general falling off in the commerce
of the entire country.

My trade began to feel the effect of the approaching "hard times."
This did not disturb me at first, for I did not think it would last
long, and in any event thought I could safely count on at least as
good a business as in the year previous.

At this period it became evident to me that my father was breaking
down, and that while he might accomplish a little toward the support
of his family, it was not to be depended on, and the burden must
rest on me.

It came at a bad time, but I accepted it as a duty which it was my
pleasure to perform so far as I was able.

Under these conditions we decided to give up our apartment and take
up our residence with my parents. They, as also my sisters, were
very fond of my wife and she of them, while I was always, from
infancy, accused of being the pet of the family.

As the summer months progressed I realized that beyond a doubt
the hard times were upon us. My customers were buying nothing and
complaining there was not enough business doing to use up the stock
of material they had on hand.

My savings of the first quarter of the year began to dwindle, and
in those days I thought often with regret of my lost five thousand
dollars.

My wife, always the same bright, cheerful, loving woman, encouraged
me to keep up my spirits, and I did, for her sake as well as my
own.




CHAPTER VII

THE COMING OF THE STORK.



By the first of November I had exhausted all my savings, and from
then on knew that if my monthly earnings were insufficient to pay
my expenses, I should have to resort to borrowing money to tide me
over until better times.

A crisis was coming at home that demanded every effort of mine to
have matters there pleasant and comfortable. Under no circumstances
must my wife worry.

Thus I thought, but even yet I did not know the magnificent courage
of the woman.

Each evening when I returned home she greeted me with the brightest
of smiles, and as soon as dinner was over, in our own room, with
my arms around her, she insisted on knowing the history of the day
in detail.

She grasped the situation thoroughly, caressed and encouraged me,
always asserting that everything would come out right in the end.
She had no fear and did not worry.

On the nineteenth of November our child was born.

A boy physically perfect. That his lungs were all right I personally
could swear to, and what sweet music his crying was to my ears when
first I heard it.

A little later I was permitted to enter the room, and did so in
great agitation.

As I kissed my wife and held her hand a few minutes, on her face,
more lovely than ever in her motherhood, was the same sweet smile
and an expression of devotion and love eternal. I looked at the
boy, the new rivet in the chain of love that bound us together,
and then, after another kiss, went quietly from the room.

Heroes, ancient and modern, the world has developed. Heroines,
also have their place in history, but the heroism of a woman in
ordinary life, in trials physical and mental, is something to be
regarded with awe and reverence.

Our wives! Our mothers! Heroines, all.

The mother recovered quickly her normal state of health and the
boy thrived and grew rapidly.

In March, 1874, I was greatly encouraged by a slight improvement
in business. I had been through a terribly hard winter, and with
the burden of the household on my shoulders had only just succeeded,
by the utmost prudence, in making both ends meet. With absolutely
no surplus I could not but feel uneasy most of the time.

It was while this was the condition of my finances that my most
intimate friend, the son of a man of some means, approached me on
the subject of getting his brother, then in Europe, but soon to
return, into business.

I knew his brother, but not intimately. I thought he might make
a good business man, and it occurred to me that if he was a hard
worker and his father was willing to buy him an interest in my
business, I might get efficient aid to my efforts and at the same
time get a cash surplus to relieve my mind of financial worry, which
I knew to be very desirable; for a man who has to worry about the
small expenses of living can never do himself full justice in his
business efforts.

Another point that induced me to consider the matter was the desire
of my wife and myself to go to housekeeping.

The relations with my parents and sisters were most pleasant, but
now that we had our boy we felt anxious to set up a modest little
establishment of our own, and indeed my mother advised it, though
she was sorry to have us leave her.

After several interviews with Mr. Allis we came to an agreement
that as soon as his son Thomas arrived from Europe I was to take
him into partnership on equal terms and he was to pay me a bonus
of three thousand dollars.

A couple of weeks later my sign again came down and a new one went
up, reading W. E. Stowe & Co.

With three thousand dollars in the bank my mind was again at ease
and we immediately looked for our new home.

We were offered a very prettily furnished, nicely located house,
a few blocks from my mother's, for the summer at a very low rent.
We decided to take it and not look up a permanent home until fall.

Our housekeeping that summer was a delightful experience and we
knew we should never again be satisfied to board. We were fortunate
in getting a good maid, the boy kept well, we had a cool summer,
business was fairly good and we had soon forgotten the hard times
of the previous winter.

Of course, we were prudent in our expenditures, but we lived well
and did a little entertaining.

In October we rented and furnished tastefully but inexpensively
a three-story and basement house, one of a new row in a pleasant
street, not far from the residence of Mr. Sherman.

While we did not own the house, the fact that the contents belonged
to us gave us a sense of proprietorship that we had not felt in
the house we had recently vacated.

We had enjoyed greatly our shopping for the furnishings and felt
very happy in our new home amidst our household gods.

Our efficient maid was devoted to our boy and to her mistress. The
housekeeping ran smoothly, and although we already began to talk
of the day when we should own our home and of what that home should
be, we were entirely contented and happy.

As the winter approached I began to suffer, slightly at first, with
muscular rheumatism. Not since the days of childhood, when I had
gone through the usual category of children's diseases, had I been
really ill. I always had suffered to some extent with neuralgic
headaches, inherited no doubt from my mother, who was a great
sufferer, and with the advent of the rheumatism these headaches
became more frequent and severe.

I did not regard the trouble seriously and I so enjoyed the
fond nursing and petting of my wife that the pain brought its own
recompense. It soon became evident, however, that I required medical
attention.

First one and then another physician was called upon without
getting relief, the attack recurring at shorter intervals and each
time seemingly more severe. I stood it through the winter, though
suffering greatly, and with the warmer weather my health improved.




CHAPTER VIII

THE NEW PARTNER.



Tom Allis, my new partner, was one of the most peculiar men I have
ever met. In social life he was affable and self-possessed, but
in his business intercourse exhibited confusion and a shyness that
was simply amazing.

Actually and in appearance he was about my age, while in his manner
he was a bashful boy of seventeen. It was impossible for him to
talk without blushing and appearing extremely embarrassed.

As I had only met him socially, this phase was a revelation to me.
I tried to get him out amongst the trade, thinking that after he
had become well acquainted his embarrassment would be overcome, or
at least partially so. My efforts in this direction failed and he
settled down to a routine office-man, and while he looked after
that end of the business satisfactorily, I could easily have found
a clerk at fifteen dollars per week to do as well.

This was disappointing, but I hoped that as he gained experience
his services would be of greater value to the firm. Meanwhile, I
let him relieve me entirely of the office work.

Tom had been with me only a few months when he came to me for advice
in a matter in which he felt he had become involved.

It appeared he had been calling regularly on a young lady, a pretty
little French girl. I had met her but once and then was impressed
with the idea that she had a temper which it would be unpleasant
to arouse, though I may have done her an injustice.

At all events, Tom said he thought the girl was in love with him;
that probably he had given her reason to believe his attentions
were serious, and he saw no honorable way out except to ask her to
be his wife.

I saw that the boy, so he seemed to me, was really very much
disturbed. I told him before I could offer any advice I must know
every detail, and after learning that not one word of love had ever
passed between them, that their intercourse was really nothing more
than that of intimate friends, and he assuring me that he had not
a particle of love for the girl, I advised him strongly to give up
any idea of offering her marriage and to gently but firmly break
off the intimacy.

He accepted the advice gratefully and acted on it.

A few years later he married the girl, and I presume that he told
her of my share in this matter. She probably held me responsible
and no doubt influenced him to some extent in a course of action,
referred to farther on in this narrative, that I have always regarded
with regret.

It is a thankless task to advise one in such matters, even though
the one be your friend.

Business continued to improve slowly, but at the end of the year
my partner had drawn as his share of the profits, for the eight
months he had been with me, twenty-two hundred dollars.

He was more than satisfied, and well he might be.

During the winter of 1874 and '75 I had another and more trying
siege of rheumatism. As in the previous spring, with the advent of
warmer weather I found relief, but I knew the disease had become
chronic and it worried me.

This worry, however, I soon dismissed from my mind to make room
for one more formidable and pressing.

Hard times were coming again and there were two now to divide the
profits.

The furnishing of our home had absorbed a good portion of the three
thousand dollars I had received from my partner, and my living
expenses together with what it was necessary for me to do toward
the support of my parents and sisters exhausted my income.

My always-cheerful and devoted wife, and my boy, just arriving
at an interesting age, made home so attractive that I was able to
forget business when away from the office.

Each morning with the parting caress came words of loving encouragement
that did much to support me through the day, and at night on my
return home, my greeting from wife and boy always dispelled the
clouds hanging over me.

I was happy, infinitely so, despite the business worry.

My physicians had advised my leaving Brooklyn for a dryer atmosphere.

We had a lease of our house until the spring of 1876, but had
decided that then we would try country life.

Many hours were passed pleasantly in discussing the plan and its
probable results. My wife's fertile brain would paint to me in
pleasing colors what the country home should be--the cottage and
its coziness, the garden, the lawn and flowers, my health restored,
the benefit of country life to the boy, and the relief to my mind
through largely reduced living expenses.

We were eager for the time to come to make the change.

On the twelfth of December our second child was born. My first boy
had a brother, and again my wife, noble woman, gave testimony of
her great love.

No trials that came to her prevented the outpouring of that love
to me.

She knew how I needed her fond encouragement, particularly at that
period, and she gave it to me daily, always with the same sweet
smile and tender caress.

That winter will never be forgotten by me for the torture which I
suffered from the almost nightly attacks of that awful rheumatism.
Medicine did not seem of any use.

Night after night until long past midnight my devoted wife, with
ceaseless energy, would apply every few moments hot applications
to relieve the cruel pains, until finally I would fall asleep for
a few hours' rest.

I lost flesh rapidly, and when spring came was hardly more than a
semblance of my former self.

It was indeed time that I should shake the dust of Brooklyn from
my feet.

Before the winter was over we had commenced to scan the advertising
columns of the daily papers for "country places to rent." We wanted
if possible to get a place in the mountainous section of New Jersey.
I wanted to get away from air off the salt water and this section
of the country seemed the best.

It must be healthy and at a low rent. For the rest we must take
what we could get at the price we could pay.

Our search ended in our taking a place of about six acres, five
minutes' walk from a station on the Morris & Essex Railroad, between
Summit and Morristown.

On the property was a farm-house more than one hundred years old,
and this the owner repaired and improved by building an extra room
and a piazza across the front of the house.

The rent was two hundred dollars a year. We moved there early in
April. The last night in the Brooklyn house I had one of my worst
attacks of rheumatism. _I have never had the slightest twinge of
it since._

Blessed be New Jersey!




CHAPTER IX

SUBURBAN LIFE.



We had been in our new home but a very few days before we were
quite in accord with the sentiment that "God made the country and
man made the town."

The house in its exterior was the ordinary, old-fashioned,
one-and-a-half story farmhouse, improved by a piazza; but the
interior, under the deft hands and good taste of my wife, had an
appearance both home-like and cozy that was very attractive.

We had to get accustomed to the low ceilings, only seven feet
high; but this did not distress us, though in our parlor, a room
twenty-eight feet long, the effect was always peculiar.

The grounds around the house were not laid out. It was simply a
case of a house set on a little elevation, in the center of a rather
rough lawn, and without a path or a flower-bed, no shrubs and but
few trees.

I hired a man with plow and horse for a day or two and we made
a path from the piazza to the road, set out an arbor-vitae hedge,
made two or three small flower-beds, and had the kitchen-garden
ploughed.

The man planted the potatoes and corn in a field next the garden,
but the kitchen garden was my hobby, and with all the enthusiasm
of a child with a new toy I took personal possession of it.

About an acre in extent, fenced and almost entirely free from even
small stones, the soil was rich and productive. I met with wonderful
success, and the crops that I raised, in their earliness and size,
astonished the natives.

Every pleasant morning I was up at five o'clock, and after a bowl
of crackers and milk, worked for two or three hours. Then a bath,
followed by breakfast, and after a day in town, which, owing to
dull business, I made very short, I was back in the afternoon at
work again.

How I did enjoy those days.

In the early stages my wife used to laugh at me for digging up
the seed to see if it had sprouted, so impatient was I to see the
growing plants.

We had an ice-house, filled for us by the owner without charge, and
in melon season I picked the melons in the morning and left them
in the ice-house all day.

My mouth waters at the thought of those delicious melons.

The fact that I raised everything myself, practically by my own
labor, added greatly to our enjoyment in the eating.

The walk between house and station was for most of the distance
through a private lane which was in part shaded by large trees.

The quaint old village, one of the oldest in the State, was interesting;
but not so the people, at least to us. It was a farming community,
and of social life there was none.

Still, we felt that no privation. We had found what we sought--a
pleasant, comfortable home, my return to good health, and economical
living.

During the first year of our residence in the country our entire
expenditure was but thirteen hundred dollars, which was fully three
thousand dollars less than the year previous.

A few of our most intimate friends were invited occasionally for
visits of a few days, and these little visits we always enjoyed;
but to each other my wife and I were all-sufficient, and in the
dear little home there was never a feeling of loneliness.

It was truly "love in a cottage."

During the summer, about once a week, I would hire from a farmer
a horse and rockaway, and with wife and babies take a drive, our
favorite ride having as an objective point a visit to the old Ford
mansion, Washington's headquarters at Morristown.

There is certainly no section of country in the vicinity of New
York city that can compare in natural beauty with Morris County,
New Jersey, and we commanded the best of this, in rather antiquated
style of equipage to be sure, but at the small cost of half a dollar
for "all the afternoon."

Thinking of that old carriage recalls to mind an incident of later
years which so impressed me I shall never forget it:

With my wife I was spending a few days at Old Point Comfort, and
while we were there John Jacob Astor and his bride arrived, on
their wedding tour.

The hack service at the Point at that time was about the
worst imaginable. The hotel had none, and a few old negroes with
disreputable "foh de wah" vehicles and horses that could only get
over the poor roads by constant urging, picked up a few dollars by
driving guests of the hotel to the Hampton School.

One afternoon when there were just two of these hacks standing in
front of the hotel, I engaged the better one.

As a matter of fact, the only difference I could see was that the
one I selected had been washed probably at least once that season,
whereas the other appeared to be plastered with the dried mud of
ages.

We drove to the school and on our return met the other hack on its
way there.

The hackman had disappeared, and in his place, driving positively
the worst-looking turnout I ever saw, was John Jacob Astor with
his bride sitting beside him.

The spectacle of that man, with his social position and his enormous
wealth, driving under such conditions, struck me first as ludicrous
and then as a living example of the great leveling power that in
the end makes all men equal regardless of wealth or position.

My boys were thriving in the country air, living out of doors
most of the day. With only one maid, my wife had no difficulty in
keeping busy while I was in town, and the summer passed quickly
and pleasantly.




CHAPTER X

MY PARTNER RETIRES



Matters at the office had been going badly for many months and any
improvement in prospect was too far distant to be discerned.

My partner was absolutely useless to me except as a clerk, and indeed
a good clerk would have been better, for I could have commanded
him to do things that I could only request of my partner, and I
had long since learned that these requests carried no weight unless
they were in the line of duty that was agreeable to him.

On first taking up my residence in the country I felt it necessary,
in consequence of poor health, to remain at home a day or two each
week, but I soon had to abandon this custom, for on such days there
was nothing accomplished.

Orders by mail and wire which should have had immediate attention
were held over until the following day, and this of course could
not be permitted, without jeopardizing the business.

When I would ask Tom why he had not been out in the trade instead
of remaining at his desk all day, the only satisfaction I could
get was his statement that the trade treated him as boy and he did
not like it.

I knew but too well that the trade sized him up about right.

He meant well enough, but it simply wasn't in him to assert himself.

He had been with me a little over two years and during that time
his share of the profits had returned him the three thousand dollars
he had invested and in addition paid him what would have been a
good salary for the services rendered.

As he was unmarried and lived with his parents, paying no board,
a very small business would give him an income sufficient for his
requirements, and apparently he was contented to let matters go on
as they were.

What might be considered easy times for him with no responsibilities,
was for me, with a wife and two children, parents and two sisters,
to provide for, an impossible proposition.

Something had to be done to change the status.

I waited until the first of September in hopes of some sign of
better times, but business looked worse rather than better, and I
decided to make him an offer for his interest. I thought best to
put this in writing, and while doing so went fully into our affairs
and endeavored to show him how impossible it was for me to go on
any longer under existing conditions. Incidentally I emphasized
the fact that after more than two years' experience he was still
unable to accomplish anything that could not be done by a clerk.

Then I made him an offer of two thousand dollars to be paid in
monthly instalments of fifty dollars each, without interest, the
first payment to be made in January. For these payments I offered
him my notes.

I had written this on Saturday morning, and having finished while
he was at luncheon, laid it on his desk and took my usual train
home, which gave him an opportunity to think the matter over until
Monday.

When we met on Monday morning I was not surprised to find him in
a bad temper.

He said at once that he declined my offer, and having paid his
money to come into the concern he proposed to stay.

I told him I was sorry I could not see my way clear to make any
better offer and it was that or nothing. If he would not accept
it, then the only alternative was for me to step out and leave him
the business.

This suggestion startled him. He knew he could not carry on the
business without me.

After going to his father's office for consultation he returned
and said he had decided to accept my offer. "As to those notes,"
he said, "you may give them to me if you like, but I don't suppose
you will ever pay them."

We terminated our partnership that day, but I continued the business
under the same style, W. E. Stowe & Co., complying with the legal
requirements governing such action.

While Allis was my partner, on more than one occasion, when we were
discussing the wretched state of business, he would call himself
a "Jonah," and in the light of later developments it really looked
as if such was the fact.

When we separated, unquestionably the outlook was most gloomy.
I could not see a ray of light ahead, and without the constant
encouragement of my wife, who always insisted that brighter days
were in store for us, I might have given up the ship.

Before I had been alone a month an improvement was perceptible, in
another month it was more decided, and by the end of the year there
was no longer any doubt that an era of good times was approaching.

Those notes for two thousand dollars given Allis, and which he
thought I would never pay, carried no interest. There was no reason
I should anticipate the payments if I did not wish to. Probably he
would have been glad to have me discount them. I had forty months
in which to pay them. I paid them all in full within six months.

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