Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 April 1892 — A Monument to Spite. [ARTICLE]

A Monument to Spite.

There is one very funny relic of bygone ages on a house in old Berlin. In the time of Frederick the Great's fathei there were two rival blacksmiths living across the road from each other. Each kept tally of the number and condition of tho other’s patrons. It chanced one day that Frederick William 1., who was very fond of going about the country disguised to feel the pulse of tho people, rode up to one of tho blacksmiths to have his horse’s shoe tightened. The daughter of the blacksmith opposite, seeing the exceedingly plain little personage on horseback, considered him beneath her envy, and, to show her contempt for him, made a horrible faco, thrusting her tonguo out as far as she could. I nfortunately, for what was to be shown to future generations, the damsel was no longer in the springtime of youth. That day the king called together the woodcarvers of Berlin and offerod a premium for the most hideous fury's head and bust, giving a few necessary points suggestive of the farrier lass. A few days Infer tho blacksmith's daughter thought they had eternally and totally eclipsed their neighbor, for the king's state chariot drovo up and stopped at her father's door; but what was bei horror when sho beheld the same plain little person who bad stopped at the rival’s but a few days before, and behind him a man bearing a fury’s head, showing pitilessly the ravages of time ; the face horribly distorted and the tongue, long and sharp, thrust out so far that it seemed to be only another one ol the many serpents that writhed aboul the head. The'woman stood petrified u’ith consternation; but tho petrifaction was soon changed to activo fits when she heard the little man, in whom by that time she had recognized the king, give orders that the fury should bo nailed ovei the door, to remain there as long as wind and weather should spare the wood. And tbeie it remains to this day, a lesson to rivals and a warning to petty spite.