Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1898 — VISITING THE OLD HOME. [ARTICLE]

VISITING THE OLD HOME.

<< y y ELLO, Jim! Where have you L p-I been lately?” shouted a liro--A- Aker the other evenlug to a portly, finely dressed man in the corridor of the Fifth Avenue Hotel. The gentleman stopped, shook hands with his friend, and replied: “I’ve been home to see my old fat her and mother, for the first time in sixteen years, and I tell you, old man, I wouldn’t have missed one day of that visit for all my fortune—nor much more.” Bt “Kind o’ good to visit your boyhood home, eh?” E “Yes. Sit down. I was just thinking about the old folks, and feel talkative. If you have a few minutes to spare, sit down, light a cigar and listen to the story of a rich man who, In the chase fpr wealth, had almost forgotten his father and mother.” They sat down and the man told his ■tory; “How 1 came to visit my home happened in a curious way. Six weeks ago J went down to Fire Island fishing. 1 had had a lunch put up for me, and you can imagine my astonishment, when I opened the hamper, to find a package of crackers wrapped up in a ptece of the little country weekly published at my home in Wisconsin. I read every word of it, advertisements and all. There was George Kellogg who •was a schoolmate of mine, advertising hams and salt pork, and another boy waa postmaster. It made me home•ick, and I determined then and there to go home, and go home I did. L "In the fire place. I must tell you how I came to New York. I had quarreled with my father and left home. I linally turned up in New York with a dollar |in my pocket. I got a job running a freight elevator in the very house in - which lam now a partner. My haste i; to become rich drove the thought of i my parents from me, and when 1 f thought of them the hard words That I my father last spoke to me rankled in I my bosom. | “Well, I went home. I tell you, John, |my train seemed to creep. I was actually worse than a schoolboy going home r for vacation. At last we neared the town. Familiar sights met my eyes, ‘ and, upon my word, they filled with > tears. There was Bill Lyman’s red barn, just the same; but—Great Scott! ( what Were all the other houses? We ! rode nearly a mile before coming to t the station, passing many houses, of ! which only au occasional one was \ familiar. ‘The town had grown to ten times its : size when I knew it. The train stopped | afid I jumped off. Not a face in sight that I knew, and I started down the platform to go home. In the office door stood the station agent. I walked up Land said: “Howdy, Mr. Collins.’ He f; stared at men and replied: ‘You’ve got L the best b fine, sir. Who are you?’ “1 told him who I was and what I

had lx>en doing in New York. Said lie, ‘lt’s about time you came home. You ilk New York rich, and your father I scratching gravel to get a bare living!' ?? “I tell you, John, it made me feel bad. I thought my father had enough to live upon comfortably. Then a notion struck me. Before going home I telegraphed to Chicago to one of our correspondents there to send me one thousand dollars by first mall. Then I went Into Mr. Collins’ back office, got my trunk in there, and put on an old cheap suit that I use for fishlug and ; hunting. My plug hat I replaced by a •oft one, took my valise In my hand •nd went home. “Somehow the place didn’t look right. The currant bushes had been dug up from the front yard, and the fence was ' gone. All the old locust trees had been I cut down and young maple trees were | planted. The house looked smaller, ■ •omebow, too. But I went up to the front door and rang the bell. Mother Leame to the door and said, ‘We don’t x .wish to buy anything ’to-day, sir” K “It didn’t take me a minute to survey her from head to foot Neatly dressed, pohn, but a patch and a darn here and there, her hair streaked with gray, her face thin, drawn and wrinkled. Yet over her eyeglasses shone those good, honest, benevolent eyes. I stood starring, at her, and then she began to stare ,'Bt me. I saw the blood rush to her face, and, with a great sob, she threw herself upon me and nervously clasped . »e about the neck, hysterically crying; *Tt*s Jimmy, It’s Jimmy! My dear boy, Jimmy!’ ’ “Then! ried, too, John. I just broke 4own and cried like a baby. She got | *e Into the house, hugging and kissing Line, and then she went to the back |4|M>r and shouted, ’George!* called from the depths of the kitchen, ‘What do you want, Car’llneT i - “Then he came In. He knew me in a Unoinetit. He stuck out his hand and gtaMaped mine, and said, sternly, “Well, pgoung man, do you propose to behave?’ “He tried to put on a brave front, but |4bs broke down. There we three sat

like whipped school children, all whlmt pering. At last supper-time came, and mother went out to prepare it I want Into the kitchen. “ *Where do you live, Jimmy? ehd asked. “ Tn New York,’ 1 replied. “ What are you working at now, Jimmy?’ “ ‘l’m working in a dry goods store,* “ Then I suppose you don’t live very high, for I hear of city clerks who don’t get enough money to keep body and soul together. So I’ll just tell you, Jimmy, we’ve nothing but roast spareribs for supper. We haven’t any money now r , Jimmy. We’re really poorer than Job’s turkey.’ “I told her I would be delighted with the spareribs; and to tell the truth, John, I haven't eaten a meal in New York that tasted as good as those crisproasted spareribs did. I spent the evening playing checkers with father, whits mother sat by telling me all about their misfortunes, from old whit* Mooley getting drowned in the pond to father’s signing a note for a friend and having to mortgage the place to pay it. “The mortgage was due inside .of a week, and not a cent to meet it with—just eight nundred dollars. She supposed they would be turned out of house and home; but in my mind I supposed they wonldn't. At last nine o’clock came and father sale!: ‘Jim, go out to the barn and see if Kit is all right. Bring in an armful of old shingles that are just inside the door, and fill up the waterpail. Then we’ll go off to bed and get up early and go a-flsh-ing.’ “I didn’t say a word, but I went out to the barn, bedded down the horse, broke up an armful of shingles, pumped up a pail of water, filled the woodbox, and then we all went to bed. Father called me at 4:30 in the morning, and while he was getting a cup of coffee I skipped over to the depot cross lots and got my best bass rod. Father took nothing but a trolling line and a spoon hook. He rowed the boat wdth the trolling line in his mouth, while I stood in the stern with a silver shiner rigged on. Now, John, I never saw a man catch fish as he did. “At noon we went ashore and father went home, while I went to the postoffice. I got a letfer from Chicago with a check for one thousand dollars in it With some trouble I got ft cashed, getting paid in five and ten dollar bills, making quite a roll. I then got a roast joint of beef and a lot of delicacies, and had them sent home. After that I went visiting among my schoolmates for two hours, then went home. The joint was in the oven. Mother had put on her only silk dress, and father had donned his Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes—none to good, either. “This is where I played a joke on the old folks. Mother was in the kitchen watching the roast Father was out to the barn, and I had a clear coast. I dumped the sugar out of the old blue bowl, put the thousand dollars in it, and placed the cover on again. At last supper was ready. Father asked a blessing over it, and he actually trembled when he stuck his knife in the roast. “ ‘We haven't had a piece of meat like this in five years, Jim,' he said, and mother put in with, ’And we haven’t had any coffee in a year, excepting the times when we went a-vlsitin’.’ Then she poured out the coffee and lifted the cover of the sugar-bowl, asking, ‘How many spoonfuls. Jimmy?’ “Then she struck something that wasn’t sugar. She picked up the bowl and peered into it. ‘Aha, Master Jimmy, playin’ your old tricks on your mammy, eh? Well, boys will be boys.’ “Then she gasped for breath. She saw it was money. She looked at me, then at father, and then with trembling fingers -drow the great roll of bills out. “Ha! ha! ha! I can see father now as he stood there, then, on tiptoe, with his knife in one hand, fork in the other and his eyes fairly bulging out of his head. But it was too much for mother. She raised her eyes to heaven and said slowly; Tut your trust In the Lord, for He will provide.’ "Then she fainted away. Well, John, there's not much more to tell. We threw water in her face and brought her to, and then We demolished that dinner, mother all the time saying, ‘My boy. Jimmy! My boy, Jimmy!’ “I stayed home a month. I fixed up the place, paid off all the debts, had a good time, and came back again to New York. “I am going to send fifty dollars home every week. I tell you, John, it’s mighty nice to have a home.” John was looking steadily at the head of his cane. When he spoke he took Jim by the hand and said, “Jim, old friend, what you have told me has affected me greatly. I haven’t heard from my home way iip in Maine for ten years. I’m going home to-morrow, Jim.”—St. Paul Ploneer-Predk