Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1879 — The Contented Man. [ARTICLE]

The Contented Man.

Among the inhabitants of efie of the houses near the river is a man who for the hast seven or eight years has been in the habit of walking regularly every afternoon on the quay, from one o’clock until six, in all weathers, and without ever having missed a day. Some one informed Heraujt, now Lieutenant of Poflce, of this singularity;* \vhereupon he sent for the individual in question, saying that he Wished to speak with him; to which the man replied that he begged to be excused, having nothing whatever to do with the police. M. Herault, determined to penetrate the mystery, went to the house described to him, and found the object of his search in a room on the fourth floor, surrounded by his books and engaged in rending. On being asked why he had not complied with the summons, he answered that he had neither the bailor of being known to the Lieutenant ner. Heaven be thanked, committed any crime. “My motive in coming,”’ said M. Herault, “ was not to accuse you of illdoing, but to knew why you walk on the quay every day at the same hour.” “ Because my health requires it J’ replied the other. ? Thu will’understand me better, monsieur,” he added, “ when I tell you that I am of gentle birth, and formerly enjoyed -an annual income of twenty-five thousand livres; circumstances have reduced this sum to five hundred livres,. and I am obliged tolive according toiny means. My books afford me an agreeable occupation; the neighborhood of the river suits me, And on that | have hired this room. I rise early, pass my mornings in reading, and dine at twelve on bceuf a la mode, which is -excellent in this part of the town; 1 then take my exercise on the quay, converse with two or three friends I am accustomed to meet there, and am perfectly contented with my lot” M. Herault, admiring the good sense of this discourse, related what he had heard to the Cardinal (FlfUry), who was equally impressed by ifc "But,” said the latter, “if this nmn,Mjreo fall ill, his income would hot be sufficient for his wants; tell him from me that he may count in the future on a pension of three hundred livres from the King.” The Lieutenant, enchanted at being the bearer of such a message, at once communicated tbe offer to the impoverished gentleman, but could not induce him to accept it. F|ve hundred livres, he maintained, were all he needed! and, having them already, he wished for nothing mon.-—Memoirs of Mlle. Aitae. j ’ i —A | entleman at Madison, Wis.» voted a < ue bill instead of a ticket. The Election Judges declined to let him vote again, but found the document when making the count and returned —Russia contains a Jewish population of 3,000,000 souls, which da < larger number than is to be found in rest of Europe*