Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1881 — A Romantic Mechanic. [ARTICLE]

A Romantic Mechanic.

Forty years ago there lived in Providence within a stone’s throw from wherq Grace church now stands, a young man of great intelligence and wonderfill mechanical ability, who spent a little fortune, in the vain attempt at making a perfect representation of Russia iron, and after as many failures as attempts in this undertaking he became utterly rained, financially. His ambition for the secret increased as his fortune grew smaller, and when absolute want stared him in the face pe became possessed with 1 he determination to accept of the only means of obtaining one or the greatest secrete in mechanical art, and to gain thl ß h e must suffer penal servitude in thte dungeons of Russia. The rulers of Russia are the only possessors of the art of making what is known as glazed Russia iron, used extensively for all kinds of stoves and stove-pipe work, and which has for nearly a century beep m&dc within the w&lls of Russia n

undeiground orison. None but life convicts are allowed to be initiated into the secrete of the manufacture of the principal means of income to the Russian government, and when once withte in its walls m one need ever hope for pardon for none have ever been granted, while but one has ever been Known to escape, and when the door is once abut to the outside world it Is never known what has been the fate of the unfortunate. Thia, then, was the Providence man's last resort for gaining possession of the secret which had become his only ambition. He left his home for Europe and the simple rumor of the attempted it—sination of the Czar by an American, and supposed to be insane, was all that was ever known to the friends of what became of the xmbitious mechanic, and as nearly half a century has rattled on since he set out upon his perilous undertaking hardly a person living will remember the circumstance which is here recorded. There is one person, however, in Providence who remembers well the day the hero of our sketch hade her a tearful farewell, promisingUhat before she reached her twentieth birthday he would return to her and fillfill his promise. All through these long years she has never forgotten her promise to wait for her lover, nor ceased to believe that he would come to her. She now lives within a moment’s walk of the chimes of Grace Church, • and is still well preserved, and her grace and beauty make her far more attractive than many whose years are the same as hers, when her lover separated from her so long ago. Last week she received the glad tidings from far away over the waters that he who had so long kept her patiently waiting was on his way to fulfill his promise of forty years ago, and let us hope he may bring the secret he paid so dearly, and that he may live to see some reward for his great sacrifice.