1855 United States Tycoon

The crisis is indeed a rare opportunity for carnivores such as Scrooge and Morgan, but for the average fanatic, it is just an out-and-out disaster.

Neuer lost all his savings in the oil wave. In addition, the railroad is currently sluggish. As a railroad worker, Neuer’s income has plummeted. When last year was still booming, Neuer worked in a textile factory. His wife’s income can barely make her family eat half full, but now, um, his wife has been fired, and his salary has dropped a lot. Although the prices of various things on the market have been reduced, Own wages have fallen even faster. As a result, now Neuer and his wife can only live by mixing wood chips in the bread flour.

But in general, among his colleagues, Neuer's situation is not bad. First of all, he was relatively honest and did not borrow money to buy oil during the oil wave. He just lost his previous savings. Secondly, he and his wife have just gotten married and have no children yet, which can save him a lot of money. In this case, if there is an extra child, it is simply... Neuer can't imagine it anymore. In the end, although his wife was fired recently, at least she is in good health, unlike some women who have worked in textile factories. Not only did they lose their jobs, they also suffered from exhaustion in the factory. For example, Sanna, who lives in the shabby shack not far from their home, was once a worker of his wife, but later contracted pneumoconiosis and left the factory earlier than his wife. Her husband, a miner, died in an accident a year ago, leaving Emily with only two children who had not grown up. For a year, Sanna dragged the sick body, relied on making some needles and threads for others, and the help of the neighbours, barely alive. Both children were raised black and thin, like two small bean sprouts. Everyone is sighing that these two children may not be raised.

Neuer is on the night shift today and had dinner-a small piece of brown bread full of sawdust. Due to too many additives, the taste of this brown bread is exactly the same as shit. Moreover, compared to the tall Neuer, this piece of bread is really too small, and after eating it, he feels even more hungry.

"Neuer, or I will give you a little more." Emma said, tearing off another half from the little piece of own bread and handing it to Neuer.

"No, I'm very full." Neuer said, the wife's piece of bread was originally much smaller than own, so if you give yourself another piece, how can she hold it?

"Okay, I'm going to work." Neuer stopped giving his wife the opportunity to say more, so he stood up and went out.

After Neuer left, Emma also took advantage of the fact that it was still dark, and began to do some needlework. Now it is no better than before, and you can't afford to light up any lights at night.

Neuer had been away for a long time, and Emma knew that Neuer would not be back until dawn tomorrow. So she closed the door and lay down on the bed, motionless like this, she would get hungry more slowly, so that a long night would pass more easily. Slowly, tiredness reduced to hunger, and Emma finally fell asleep.

In the middle of the night, Emma woke up from her dream. It was a sweet dream, in which she saw a lot of delicious things, white bread, biscuits, and even a box of Spam luncheon meat. A year ago, when the economy was in good shape, this food was still a common food, and I could eat one meal every week, but now, those good days seem to be remembered, and it’s like a century has passed since I was saved. Same.

There was a strong wind outside, and there was faint electric light flashing in the distant sky.

"It's going to be raining too. I don't know what happened to Neuer." Emma thought, and somehow suddenly thought of Sanna. "Sanna’s hut is leaking and it’s a mess. It’s about to rain heavily now. She is in a bad shape and has two children. How can this be good? Or, call them to us to hide here. Bar."

Emma got up, lit a kerosene lamp and went out. Sanna's house was next to Emma's house. After only a few steps, Emma came to the door of Sanna's house. She knocked on the door, turned her ears to her ears, and no one agreed.

"The widow's life is really difficult!" Emma thought, standing at the door, "Although there are not many children-there are only two, but she is all alone, but she is a patient again!"

Emma knocked on the door again and again, but no one agreed.

"Hey, Sanna!" Emma yelled again, with an ominous premonition spontaneously. She thought, could something be wrong? She pushed hard, the door was not locked, and it opened all at once.

The room was humid and cold. Emma raised the kerosene lamp to see where Sanna was. The first thing she saw was a bed lying opposite the door, with her female neighbor lying on her back. She was motionless, only dead people looked like this. Sanna raised the lantern closer, yes, it was Sanna. She tilted her head back, her icy blue face showed dead silence, and a pale stiff hand dropped from the straw mat as if to grasp something. Right next to the dead mother, there were two sleeping children, both with curly hair, round faces, old clothes covered in old clothes, curled up, and two small heads with pale yellow hair close together. Obviously, when the mother was dying, she covered them with her own clothes and covered their little feet with an old headscarf. The child's breathing is even and calm, and they sleep soundly and sweetly.

Emma wrapped the sleeping children in her own coat and carried them home. Her heart was beating so hard, she didn't know why she did it, but she felt that she had to do it. She returned home, put the two sleeping children on her own bed, pulled up the mosquito net, and sat on the edge of the bed in a daze.

"What will Neuer say when he comes back? The family is already starving, and I have brought back these two little guys, one just can talk, and the other just crawling-it's all a burden that can't help much. Will Neuer get furious, and then order himself to send the two children back, or else he will beat himself up badly... then let him beat him." Emma thought, "Even if you get caught I won’t be able to send these two children back to death.”

Emma just sat on the edge of the bed, thinking about her own thoughts, unknowingly, the heavy rain started, unknowingly, the heavy rain passed, unknowingly, the outside lightened up.

Neuer pushed open the door tiredly. His duty was to guard the road at night. The heavy rain last night made him even hungry. But now I'm home, I can have a good rest. However, he found that his wife was sitting on the bedside blankly, as if she was stupid.

"Emma! What's wrong with you? What happened?" Neuer asked.

"Ah." Emma was taken aback, only to realize that her husband had returned.

"What's wrong?" Neuer asked.

Although she was ready to be beaten by her husband, Emma was still a little flustered when she really faced her husband's inquiry. But she still worked hard to calm herself down.

"Our neighbor Sanna is dead." Emma said.

"When? How did you know?" Neuer asked.

"When it rained almost last night, I remembered that Sanna and their house was leaking so that they couldn’t live. She was sick again. I wanted her and the child to hide in our house for one night, so I went to find She." Emma said, "Oh! What a terrible death! The two children are beside her and are asleep. They are so small... one just can talk, the other just crawls..." Emma was silent NS.

Neuer frowned and his face became serious and worried. "Well, it's a problem!" He scratched the back of his head and said, "Well, what do you think? You have to hug them over and stay with the dead! Oh, we, we always have a way to get through! Go! Don't wait for them to wake up."

But Emma sat motionless.

"What's the matter with you? Don't you want to? What's the matter with you, Emma? We can't help but die!" Neuer increased his tone.

"Look, they are here." Emma opened the account.

Hillman sent away his son, and now he is sitting on the high bank by the dock, looking out at the sparkling Delaware River. This is a busy river, with countless ships coming and going here every day. Once upon a time, his fleet also brought him wealth and status on this river. For a while, at this pier, he could see his fleet loading and unloading cargo every day, and when he walked by, people would smile at him and greet him proactively...

But all this has become a passing moment. After the failure of speculative oil, his fleet, his house, and everything he has belonged to others, and he even owed a large amount of debt. He gave the last 5,000 dollars to his son and asked him to quietly board a boat to the south in the middle of the night, and then he returned here, looking at the boat that had brought him wealth and glory and sat blankly. , Is a whole day. He watched the sun rise, and the rays of the sun reflected the river red; he also watched the sun rise high in the sky, the sunlight jumping on the waves; now, he saw the setting sun setting, the river surface was as red as blood. He knows that the sun will go down and it will rise again tomorrow, but once the career of people, especially those who are already aging like him, has collapsed, there will be no chance to get up again.

"It's time." Hillman stood up laboriously, then bent down, picked up the stone tied to his feet, looked around again, and finally shook it, and fell straight. In the river.

"Hey, Bill, you lost. I said that guy came to jump in the river, right? These days, all the people who turn around by the river, sit still, nine out of ten are killed. Yes. In the past few days, at least a hundred people have died on this section of the river, and I have seen no fewer than twenty." One person said.

"Then, you just watched people commit suicide? Don't try to persuade?"

"Persuasion? Now anyone who has a little way to go, who would take this path? Besides, why persuade others to live and suffer, die earlier and suffer less." The man shook his head and said, "If one day, I Also stood by the river, you must not pull me."

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