Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1880 — THE FORGER. [ARTICLE]

THE FORGER.

BY HATTIE E. S. CRESSY.

“ Don’t it beat all how Mrs. Ramsay goes on ? Everybody says her husband is awfully in debt, and will fail before long, for a certainty; but she is going to have her silks—two new ones—she told us, didn’t she ? And going to Newport, and all that. Dear me, I never saw the like of it!” “Yon speak my mind exactly, Miss Sterling. I, too, think it a shame for her to be spending so much money when they are, as you may say, living on other folks' money now. ” “ Well, I am glad I have not got any husband to ruin,” resumed the former. “ I have my own snug little income, and I just make out to live on it, and, as for spending more, I wouldn’t if I had to live on bread and water. This getting into debt and then sponging a living out of other people is something I coidd never endure.” “And it is a thing my husband neyer would do, nor allow me to,” proudly added Mrs. Bramston. “ But there are thousands of people just like Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay, who don’t care a cent where the money comes from so they can keei) up appearances themselves.” “ And at last pretend to fail and pay their creditors a few cents on a dollar.” “ That’s so, Miss Sterling ; and I am not sure but we do wrong by showing such ones the least respect. ” This conversation passed between two ladies who had just been to call on Mrs. Ramsay. Miss Sterling, particularly, was greatly exercised on the subject, and on her arrival home she still further relieved her mind by discussing the matter with her aunt, a vinegar-faced spinster of 76, who joined in with her completely in denouncing the conduct of Mrs. Ramsay. “ She belonged to the quality before she was married,” said the old lady ; “ was brought up to do nothin’ and to be good for nothin’, and alius had everything she wanted, for she was an only darter, and old Squire Prior was dreadful proud on her I s’pose she was pretty hansum, but what was the use of makin’ a fool on her for that ? ‘ Hansum is that hansum dooz,’ and if she had took hold and lemt to work, and to help get a livin’, for her father wan’t very rich, it would have been more to her credit than to. set idle and try to keep up so much fashion. Wal, Burt Ramsay married her, though the old Squire opposed it becos the young man wan’t rich enough to suit him, but Burt promised to support her in style, if he had to work his linger-iiails off, and 1 s’pose lie’s tried to dew it.” “ Well, auntie, they say he is inclined to be even more extravagant in his own expenditures than she is. His fast horses, club, billiard, cigar and champagne bills foot up pretty fast, but 1 ; lame her for not setting him a better example by being economical herself, • hen she must know he is so involved in debt.” “How can she, Melinda, when her mind is so sot on havin’ everything she sees, and she never was brought up to be savin’in anything?” “ Well, I suppose it would be a hard lesson for her to learn, but the time may come when she will have to.”

“I hope ’twill, Melinda, for there’s no use er flyin’ right in the face of Bible doctrine, sich as livin’ on the substance of others, and spendin’ all a body can git in riotous livin’. I hope they’ll be punished for’t, there !” •‘They surely will, aunt, in the world to come, if not here ; so the most we can do is to pray that they may be turned from the error of their ways before it is everlastingly too late.” “ Yes, you’re in the right on ’t, Melinda; it beats all what a good scripter-lovin’ girl you are, and, if I pray for them, I shall ask God to make them just like you, careful about many things. Ain’t that the way it reads ?” “Yes, aunt, the Savior said Martha was careful and troubled about many things, and I suppose it may well be saul that I am.” The old lady now ya.wned, and the conversation ceased. Three weeks from that day, however, it became more animated than ever, for Burt Ramsay had just been arrested for forgery. A Sheriff seized him just as he had seated himself in a railway car and was about to make his escape. In default of SIO,OOO bail he was lodged in jail. His forgeries amounted to over SIOO,OOO, and on this and other money lnr had borrowed he and his -wife had been living in a style to suit them. Over this disclosure the little town of Drayton was thrown into a state of excitement heretofore unequaled. Old Mrs. Collins declared she did not feel the least bit sorry for Mrs. Ramsay, and Miss Sterling, her niece, was posted off to her house to reprove her for the course she had taken. She found the lady in tears and apparently in the depths of humiliation, which was rather gratifying to her. And to further harrow up her feelings she said, “ Mrs. Ramsay, everybody is blaming you for your extravagance, and say that is the cause of your husband’s downfall.” This brought on a violent lit of weeping, which was what her persecutor wanted, but after a while the afflicted lady wiped her eyes and said : “Although I wish to share equal blame with my poor husband, I will say I knew no more about the state of his' finances than either of my little children. I supposed he was somewhat in debt, but thought his business so flourishing there was no danger of failure. He never mentioned any of his troubles to me. Never denied me money; in fact, seemed hardly content with the smallness of my expenditures. If he had only told me how his matters stood, I would have curtailed my 4 expenses to the narrowest extent. But, as he gave me no hint of his embarrassments, 1 foolishly went on in the way I did. And now he, my generous, indulgent husband, is in a prison. Oh, how I wish I had never lived to see this day. ” “ Well, the way of the transgressor is hard, and he must now suffer for his misdoings, but his punishment here is nothing compared with the tortures he must undergo in his life to come, unless he repents and seeks forgiveness from an offended God. Then let it be your business to exhort him daily to lament and bewail in penitence and prayer over the sinfulness of his former course. No matter what the world may think of him so God looks down in pity and forgiveness upon him. And may God grant that you, too, find comfort from the same course. Now, good morning, Mrs. Ramsay; I have striven to do my duty to you, by giving you this advice. ” The sorrowing woman made no reply, and, the moment she was alone, threw herself, face downward, upon the cushions of the sofa, near the chair in which she had bepn sitting, moaning and stfjy-

mg to give utterance to a prayer, a thong she had seldom, if ever, done; but, in a few moments, fell into a troubled slumber from which she was not awakened in the course of an hour, when the nurse brought her year-old child to her, saying, “Here, ma’am, I suppose I shall have to look up another place, now that I can expect no further pay, and the master already owing me SIOO. But I must have that, if I take the carpet from under your feet, ma’am.” “ Don’t, don’t distress me any more just now, Ellen, I will try to have you paid, and, if you leave me now, what will become of the child ? ” asked the helpless wyman. “ It is hard for the Jikes of ye to come to it, marrn ; but they do say you will, making no doubt,.have it to look arter yersel’, God bless its little sowl. Ah, many’s the night I have had to sit by and watch with the little craythur to keep a breath of life in its little body while the rest of ye were slaping in yer beds, thank God ! ” “Well, Ellen, if you leave it now, it will surely die, for I know nothing about taking care of children. Oh, stay, and I will sell some of my jewels to pay you, if there is no other way ! ” “I will stay the wake out, marm,” replied Ellen ; and no sooner had she gone to the nursery than the cook put in her appearance, bonneted and shawled for her departure. ‘ ‘ Good-by, mnrm ; ye have been a good mistress; but by the holy Saint Peter I cannot work any longer without pay ; ye’re owing me for the last six months’ wormk,” said Bridget; “and how I can get it is a thing I’m after going to see the praste about.” “ If you will stay with me a few days longer i will see that you are paid, for I do not see but we must starve if you go, as I know nothing about cooking ; so don’t leave me, Bridget. ” “ True for ye, then, I may come back for a few days, but I doubt if I’ll be let,” said the girl, emerging from the door. A few minutes later the chambermaid took her departure ; and, as the housekeeper was away on a visit, Mrs. Ramsay, with her three children and nurse only, were left in the great hushed house, which only the day previous was so full of life and merriment. Now the very house dog went around with an abashed look and quiet tread, as if even he had been committing some offense for which it were well to hang his head. The usual dinner hour arrived, but no preparations had been made for the meal; the mistress still lay on the sofa, seemingly more dead than alive, while the nurse fidgeted over the children in the nursery, and at last, declaring she would not be both nurse and cook, took the children to their mother, and immediately left the house. After a while their noise and need of care finally aroused the despairing mother, .and she went with them to the empty kitchen where she found a cold lunch for them all.

The following day an inventory was taken of the criminal’s property, but, as it was all mortgaged, bis creditors, who had no security, were losers to the full amount of his indebtedness, and they were by no means few. Mrs. Ramsay was obliged to leave her splendid home and find quarters in a small tenement house, which she once would not have deigned to enter. (Some pitied her, others were glad to see her thus humbled—among the latter were Miss Sterling and her aunt—not that they owed her any malice or felt the least envy after all that she had suffered, but for her own good, and as an example for others, so they said, they were rejoiced to see her step down from the heights of such vanity as once possessed her soul. “She will, I trust, now seek for something higher than the groveling pleasures of this world,” said Miss Sterling, after hearing that Mrs. Ramsay had moved into the small house, “and -I will go over and help her a little, auntie, about getting settled.” “Ten to one you’ll have it all to do yourself, if you go, for ’tain’t likely she is good for nothin’ to work more’ll she ever was.”

“I am not obliged to stay longer than I choose to, so I guess I will go, auntie, if you will do up the dishes and brush the floor.” Once there, she began to think her aunt was more than half right. There did not seem to have' been a thing done since the goods were thrown pell-mell into the house the day before, and in the midst of them sat Mrs. Ramsay, crying and wringing her hands. “ I am glad to see you, Miss Sterling,” she said, as that lady made her appearance. “I believe you are about the only friend I have left; all my servants have deserted me; besides, my summer friends do not now seem to know I ever existed, and here I am alone, in poverty and disgrace. ” “ Wei!, I have come to assist you a little about getting settled; if you will only help me all you can, I think we can make quite a different-looking place here before noon.” “Yes, I will help you all I can if you will only tell me how, and what to do. You know I have only a slight knowledge of work,” said the unfortunate lady, drying up her tears and trying to appear more cheerful. So they took hold in earnest, and, as both were well and strong, a portion of the house was made to look home-like and comfortable before night. Miss Sterling also cooked a good supply of food in the course of the day, for which the children seemed grateful, as there appeared to be little or nothing prepared for them to eat. And, on being told by Mrs. Ramsay that she had not been to see her husband but tw ice in the fortnight lie had been imprisoned, as it had been impossible to get away from her children, she promised to stay with them an hour or two every other day, so the poor woman might have a chance to go to the prison. She would, too, she said, give her instructions in housework.

“ Miss Sterling, I have not words at my command which can express my gratitude to you for all your kindness, but if ever I have the means I will reward you. ” . “ If you had millions I would not want a cent for what I have done, Mrs. Ramsay. Whatever good deeds Ido I hope to be rewarded, for hereafter, not here. That command of our Savior, “Do unto others as ye would be done by,” is ever present on my mind. And I have the desire and hope of benefiting you spiritually as well as temporally, as I pray almost without ceasing that you may be led to forsake your sins and become a disciple of Jesus. For your erring husband, too, I straggle in prayer that he may repent. ” Miss Sterling, I once made light of your sanctimonious ways, and really believed that I and my worldly friends would stand so good a chance in the world to come as you ; now fortune lias turned against me, those friends no longer recognize me, while you are striving to do me good. There must be a reality in your religion, and, if my dear husband could embrace it, although he will not be forgiven by man he might be by God. Will you not go and talk to him, Miss Sterling ?” “ Yes, I will. Since this affair happened for which you and your husband are now suffering, I have felt a greater compassion for wrong-doers than heretofore. He was not naturally bad at heart. I remember when he was considered an upright, promising young man, and had his associates and surroundings been the reverse from what they were he might not have acquired those ruinous habits, and the taste for fast living which have been his undoing. ” Now, Miss Sterling, you are casting reflections on me, and, if never before, I can now see I deserve it. Had he, for instance, married a wise, sensible being

like you, he would not now be a criminal and a prisoner. If not the whole cause, I, perhaps, encouraged him in his dissipated habits, without the sense to know they would lead him to destruction. Oh, I can see how greatly I was to blame.” “ But you did not know he was living so greatly in advance of his means, I believe yon told me.” “No, I did not know but his income was sufficient to warrant our living in the style we did. Had I been less frivolous and thoughtless I might have surmised that it was not, but so long as I could get everything that was elegant and to my taste, without a murmur on his part, I did not stop to ask questions. And now those baubles that I so doated on then, must be sold to give daily sustenance to me and my children. My watch is gone, my diamonds and other jewels must go next, and, when the money for all them is used, what have I to look forward to but the almshouse ?” “ I do not believe you will be permitted to go there, ’’Miss Sterling said, feelingly; “at all events, I will try to think of some way for you to do to prevent it. You have a good sewing machine; I will learn you how to use it, and you may earn something in that way. You also have every article for household convenience, and could furnish a much-larger house than this after disposing of all you say you must to pay certain debts which duty compels you to ; then, after you learn a little more about housekeeping, you can take two or three boarders, and with the help of one servant get along very well.” “ It appears to me, Miss Sterling, the mere thought of such an extremity one year ago would have killed me outright, but I have now been taking daily lessons in misery until I am prepared for nearly anything. Your advice is good, and without it I believe I should sink into the depths of despair. ” “lam glad if my counsel is of any use to you, Mrs. Ramsay, for I know your condition is a pitiable one in some respects—the disgrace attending the conduct and imprisonment of your husband making it so—but your present style of living, compared to the former one, is, in my opinion, the more enviable of the two. God has brought you just where you are that you may see the folly of such extravagance, vanity, and attempts at earthly grandeur. It is well that He has the power to humble us in the dust, that we may see our dependence on Him, and that we have no right to squander our means or the means of others in dissipation. Long before the arrest of your husband I was pained at the course you both followed, and, from the reports of his failing fortune, concluded there Avould some day be a crash, though did not think it would come in the way it did. for, however fast your husband might have been, I did not think him downright dishonest. And I think now his forgeries were committed when lie was under the influence of liquor.” “I know they were, Miss Sterling,for he told me so the other day when I went to the prison to see him. But he said there would be no use saying so to any one but me, as no one else would believe anything he said now.”

“They might, Mrs. Ramsay; at any rate, I should tell people what he said, and, if it was admitted in court, the Judge might be more lenient with him. They say his conduct in jail could not be better than it is, and this makes him something of a favorite with the officers. ” ‘‘ Yes ; no matter in what situation he is placed, the same courteous, complying manner that always distinguished him is with him still; and it cannot be said that he is selfish, as his only anxiety is for me and the children. He does not care to give a thought to the matter of his own discomfiture. Now, when I go to see him again, I will be so happy to tell him that you have proposed a way by which I can see my way clear.” ‘ ‘ Even that may fail you, except you trust in God. You will encounter a great many discouragements in trying to become an economical housekeeper, and fitted for the mistress of a boardinghouse. Also in learning to operate your sewing machine in a way that you can do work nicely and expeditiously; you will find in it serious toil; and unless you learn to feel reliance in God’s promises to those who call on Him in all earnestness you will be apt to fall by the Avay, in view of the obstacles you must encounter. You will have critical customers, those who are unreasonable, and those who will fail to pay, but we will hope for the best, assured that God will make it all well for you in the end.” Great, round tears were rolling down the lovely cheek of the affrighted lady, who listened to the predicted annoyances and trials through which she would doubtless have to struggle in the great battle for a livelihood, which she felt so incapable of fighting; but she resolved to be guided by the advice of her friend, and to do the best she knew how. As soon, however, as Miss Sterling left her alone with her children again, who were hanging around her with their innumerable wants, and no one to attend to them but herself, she gave way to a violent fit of w r eeping, which elicited the greatest sympathy from the little ones, and, after a while, they coaxed her into a more cheerful frame of mind. According to her promise, Miss Sterling came next morning to stay with the children while Mrs. Ramsay went to the prison. She took a basket of provisions with her, and a bouquet of flow'ers, and, what was better to the prisoner, a cheerful face and hopeful word, for Miss Sterling’s presence had again inspired her with new courage. She found her husband troubled and worn in his anxiety for her and his little ones, and with liis usual disregard for liis own comfort.

“I am going to keep a boardinghouse, and want you, dear, to come and board with me ; Miss Sterling is going to learn me to cook, and then I will try to keep my house very tidy, in hopes I can make a pleasant home for a class of very good, religious kind of people, for Miss Sterling is learning me to feel a great interest in religion, and I believe, dear, if we both put our trust in God, we will come out all right in the end.” “Is it my wife who is speaking to me ?” asked the man behind the grate. “Is the vain, thoughtless little Irma, whom I have and still love so dearly, speaking to me of the interests of the soul, as the Methodists say? Ah, Irma, since I have beon shut up in these walls I, too, have, for the first time, though in a feeble way, called on God to protect you and our children. I have not supposed He would forgive or bless me, and lujve not asked it. ” “ Oh, then, my dear Burt, you have done wrong. Only ask and it shall be given you, Miss Sterling says, and I know it is one of our Savior’s promises. But I must go home now. I cannot expect her to stay all the forenoon with the children. She will come to see you to-morrow and bring you a Bible. ” “ The greatest villains have a way of becoming very pious after getting in here,” said one of the keepers, who had listened to a portion of the conversation between Ramsay and his wife; “but I guess Ramsay was about as good as twothirds of the Christians before he came. Say what they will, he is a boss fellow. ” “That’s so ; he is a trump,” said the one addressed. When, one day later, Miss Sterling went to visit the prisoner, she found him very willing to listen to all she had to say on the subject that most interested her, still he was loth to believe there was any hope for forgiveness in his case. - “ I beg that you will not feel in this way,” she said, “for “ While the lamp holds out to burn The vilest sinner may return. “ Study your Bible ; pray for the Holy Spirit to descend upon you, and you will fee brought to believe in all God’s prom-

isea. Meantime, yon most repent of all your evil deeds, resolving to live a pure and holy life hereafter; and, whether ’mid prison walls or in the bosom of the family you love so well, you will enjoy a peace of mind the world cannot take away.” “ Is it really Burt Ramsay I have been talking to,” asked Miss Sterling of herself, after leaving him; “ once the gay, the fast, the fashionable, the respected man of influence and means, whom I dared hardly approach, now humbly listening with approval to my discourse, through the iron gates of his prison cell ? God grant that during his stay there his heart may be wholly renewed and, when he again mingles with the world, he may become known for his good works.” Two months later he had his trial, and was sentenced to State prison for ten years at hard labor. This was a fearful sentence, but no one could say it was unjust, and from the prisoner it elicited not a murmur. “I deserve it,” he said, “and will submit as patiently as I can to my fate. ” He had learned before this to trust in a higher Power, and felt that God had forgiven the crime for which he was so long to suffer. After ho was taken off to the State prison and his wife could not see him except at long intervals, she would, only for the cheerful sympathy of her friend, Miss Sterling, and the trust she was also learning to put in God, have become entirely disheartened. But she went to work with a will, before long finding herself capable of attending to the wants of three or four boarders that she was fortunate enough to procure, and at the end of six months found that her income considerably exceeded her expenses. Nor had her toil been severe, as a capable girl had performed the greater part of the drudgery. These cheering facts were communicated to her husband, making his burden of life a little easier to endure. At the end of three years, tlirougli the intercession of his wife and other friends, the prisoner was set free, the Governor of the State having so ordered, and, when he came home to the little cot-tage his wife had bought and partly paid for by her industry and economy, and saw what a thrifty housekeeper she was, he resolved to profit by her example, and at once began the task of earning an honest living as a mechanic, by working at the trade he served an apprenticeship at in prison.. He and his wife also became prominent workers in the field Miss Sterling had so longed for them to enter. In those walks their old associates were not found, but they became respected even by them, beloved by the poor and friendless, and, as we may believe, smiled upon by God, for their lives were now pure, whereas they once trod the downward course, which, had it not been arrested, would have led them to endless ruin. Pittsfield, Mass.