Page:Popular Tales of the Germans (Volume 2).djvu/177

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173

‘you die like an honeſt man, in the other like a malefactor. Mere prejudice! exclaimed he: what harm can there be in ſtamping a mark upon a bit of metal? Ephraim the Jew[1] has ſtamped plenty with the ſame mark as ours: what is lawful for one man to do, can be no ſin in another.

In ſhort the man’s way was ſo perſuaſive, that I could not help accepting his propoſal. I ſoon became expert at the buſineſs, and, in obedience to my father’s injunctions, drove it on with ſpirit while I was at it. The making of money I found far more profitable than the making of purſes. But, while we were going on with all poſſible ſucceſs, the jealouſy of trade was awakened. Ephraim raiſed a violent perſecution

  1. The reader may gather from the text, that Ephraim had the coinage for ſome of the German ſtates or towns.—T.
I 3
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