The Fellow Clerks

A large and fashionable jewelry store had been invaded and pillaged by burglars. The discovery of the fact in the early morning was the signal, as is so usual in like cases, for a general gathering of neighbors, friends and fellow tradesmen to learn the nature and extent of the misfortune, and to proffer the expression of sympathy. In this instance there was another class of visitors drawn thither by quite a different motive. The merchant had before that “met with losses” of the character incident to traffic, and had creditors whose fears impelled them to the exercise of a close vigil upon his business circumstances. This misfortune summoned them with alacrity. 

The loss of a large portion of his most valuable goods, quickly impressed them with the apprehension that the misfortune great as it was to him, would ulti- [xxxxxx] them. The sympathy that under other circumstances might have been extended to the luckless merchant by his creditors was thereby tinctured with that sentiment of chagrin that springs from the realization of losses that uncharitable selfishness supposes might have been averted: 

The lust of creditors, added to the efforts of police espionage to which it gave animus and activity, was speedily busy in seeking to obtain some clue to the apparent mystery that surround the burglary. During all the progress of the investigation the suspicious eye of the creditors was directed to the unfortunate merchant, and all their opinions and suggestions were jaundiced, by the belief that the crime of theft was his act, and that the apparent fact of burglary was but the means that he had devised to wrong them. 

The investigation showed quite clearly that the burglary had been perpetrated by some person attached to the store.—There were certain evidences, perhaps slight and… Read More