Collection: Directories and Documents > Yearbooks

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Title: Nevada City High School - The Quill (371.QUI.1910)(1910) Collection Type: Directories and Documents Collection Name: Yearbooks Catalog #: 371.QUI.1910 Author: Nevada City High School Published: 1910 # of Pages: 76 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Printed or handwritten: All printed text Date Scanned: 2024-11-24 16:05:05 Scanned By: Dakota Stroh Scanning Equipment: CZUR Book Scanner OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: JPGs First Created: 2025-03-17 05:55:32 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 05:55:32

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

Page: of 76  

—=— THE QVILL 2I The Fortune of Petroff. In the Ural mountains, which divide Siberia from Russia, are located the largest sheet-iron works in the world. The management of these works is entirely under the control of the government, and because of the superiority of the sheet-iron, the process of manufacture is zealously guarded by the authorities. No one who enters the service ever again sees the outside world; not a word can be gotten from any government official. A person might live ten years after entering the works or might die the next day and his family or friends would be none the wiser unless the non-appearance of the monthly stipend cre ated a suspicion in their minds. Workers who endeavor to escape are usually caught and as a warning to others, sentenced to death for their treachery. It was October and vegetation of every kind had turned reddish-brown, except the mosses which seemed to cling closer to the rocks and boulders in their endeavor to shield themselves from the stiff blast of wind that came from the snow-covered Urals. The sun had well set when Petroff Nowitshi cown the little street in the village Obvinsk, miles from the great iron works. wended situated about Upon entering his cottage his way seventy he was greeted by his wife, Katrina, and h’s two little children, a girl about seven and a boy about five. Petroff, weary and footsore, seated him self in a corner while his wife placed their meager supper of bread and potatoes upon a little fir table, on Which flickered and flared a piece of candle placed in the neck of a bottle which served for a candlestick. “Wel, Petroff, what luck today?” his wife inquired, looking up with eyes red as though from weeping. “None, Katrina, none,’ answered her husband, sinking wearily into his chair. “I have walked all day,” he continued, looking straight at the fast diminishing candle, “but could find no work. I went to see old man Ivanovitch, but he cou'd give no work, nor lend me a copeck. With a scant al!owance, we shall htyve bread and potatoes for a week, and then— My God! will you and the children have to share the fate of Nikolas’ wife and children? Poor Nikolas! he did all he could to seep them alive, but hunger’s pang and winter’s icy breath took them away. No, Katrina—no, one potatg is j as much as I can eat. hungry. I could not take another morsel if I were to try.” Iam not Poor fellow—he was nearly starved, but he knew there were but few potatoes left and he reasoned it would be better to leave them for Katrina and the children.” “T am tired, though, Katrina, and will go to bed. tle wife,” he said, taking her tenderly in his arms. Cheer up, lit ‘The sunshine may soon burst through the clouds and flood our house with light and h: Uppiness. It is true the crops have failed and I can get no work, but God can see us through this winter.” Kissing his wife aud children good-night, he sought the rest be.