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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:36:01 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:36:01 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/11117-0.txt b/11117-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3404d39 --- /dev/null +++ b/11117-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8462 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11117 *** + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. VII.--FEBRUARY, 1861.--NO. XL. + + + + + + + +OUR ARTISTS IN ITALY. + +WILLIAM PAGE. + + +Among artists, William Page is a painter. + +This proposition may seem, to the great public which has so long and so +well known him and his works, somewhat unnecessary. There are few +who are not familiar with his paintings. Whether these seem great or +otherwise, whether the Venus be pure or gross, we may not here discuss; +the public has, and will have, many estimates; yet on one point there +is no difference of opinion, apparently. The world willingly calls him +whose hand wrought these pictures a painter. It has done so as a matter +of course; and we accept the title. + +But perhaps the title comes to us from this man's studio, charged with a +significance elevating it above the simply self-evident, and rendering +it worthy of the place we have given it as a germ proposition. + +Not every one who uses pigments can say, "I also am a painter." To him +who would make visible the ideal, there are presented the marble, the +pencil, and the colors; and should he employ either of these, just in +proportion to his obedience to the laws of each will he be a sculptor, +a designer, or a painter; and the revelations in stone, in light and +shade, or on canvas, shall be his witnesses forevermore,--witnesses of +him not only as an artist, in view of his relation to the ideal world, +but as possessing a right to the especial title conferred by the means +which he has chosen to be his interpreter. + +The world has too much neglected these means of interpretation. It has +condemned the science which would perfect the art, as if the false could +ever become the medium of the true. The art of painting has suffered +especially from the influence of mistaken views. + +Nor could it be otherwise. Color-manifestation, of all art-utterance, +is the least simple. It requires the fulfilment of a greater number +of conditions than are involved in any other art. He who has selected +colors as his medium cannot with impunity neglect form; light and +shade must be to him as important as they are to the designer in +_chiaro-scuro;_ while above all are the mystery and power of color. + +There is perplexity in this. The science of form seems to be vast enough +for any man's genius. No more than he accomplishes is demanded of the +genuine sculptor. His life has been grand with noble fulfilments. We, +and all generations, hold his name in the sacred simplicity which has +ever been the sign of the consummate. Men say, Phidias, Praxiteles, and +know that they did greatly and sufficiently. + +Yet with the science which these men had we combine elements equally +great, and still truth demands the consummate. Hence success in painting +has been the rarest success which the world has known. If we search +its history page by page, the great canvas-leaves written over with +innumerable names yield us less than a score of those who have overcome +the difficulties of its science, through that, achieving art, and +becoming painters. + +Yes, many men have painted, many great artists have painted, without +earning the title which excellence gives. Overbeck, the apostle artist, +whose rooms are sacred with the presence of the divine, never earned +that name. Nor did thousands who before him wrought patiently and +earnestly. + +We think that we have among us a man who _has_ earned it. + +What does this involve? Somewhat more than the ability critically to +distinguish colors and to use them skilfully. + +Although practice may discipline and develop this power, there must +exist an underlying physiological fitness, or all study and experience +will be unavailing. In many persons, the organization of the eye is such +that there can be no correct perception of the value, relation, and +harmony of hues. There exists often an utter inability to perceive +differences between even the primary colors. + +The late sculptor Bartholomew declared himself unable to decide which +of two pieces of drapery, the one crimson and the other green, was the +crimson. Nor was this the result of inexperience. He had been for years +familiar not only with Nature's coloring, but with the works of the best +schools of art, and had been in continual contact with the first living +artists. + +The instances of this peculiar blindness are exceptional, yet not +more so than is the perfection of vision which enables the eye to +discriminate accurately the innumerable tints derived from the three +primitives. + +Nothing can be finer than the sense of identity and harmony resulting +from this exquisite organization. We have been told that there is a +workman at the Gobelin manufactory who can select twenty-two thousand +tints of the material employed in the construction of its famous +tapestries. This capability is, of course, almost wholly dependent upon +rare physical qualifications; yet it is the basis, the very foundation +of a painter's power. + +Still, it is _but_ the foundation. An "eye for color" never yet made any +man a colorist. + +Perhaps there can be no severer test of this faculty of perception than +the copying of excellent pictures. And among the few successful copies +which have been produced, Page's stand unsurpassed. + +The ability to perceive Nature, when translated into art, is, however, a +possession which this painter shares with many. Nor is he alone in the +skill which enables him to realize upon his own canvas the effects which +some master has rendered. + +It is in the presence of Nature itself that a power is demanded with +which mechanical superiority and physical qualifications have little to +do. Here the man stands alone,--the only medium between the ideal and +the outward world, wherefrom he must choose the signs which alone are +permitted to become the language of his expression. None can help him, +as before he was helped by the man whose success was the parent of his +own. Here is no longer copying. + +In the first place, is to be found the limit of the palette. Confining +ourselves to the external, what, of all the infinitude of phenomena to +which the vision is related, so corresponds to the power of the palette +that it may become adequately representative thereof? + +Passing over many minor points in which there seems to be an imperfect +relation between Nature's effects and those of pigments, we will briefly +refer to the great discrepancy occasioned by the luminosity of light. In +all the lower effects of light, in the illumination of Nature and the +revelation of colored surfaces, in the exquisite play and power of +reflected light and color, and in the depth and richness of these when +transmitted, we find a noble and complete response on the palette. But +somewhere in the ascending scale a departure from this happy relation +begins to be apparent. The _color_-properties of light are no longer +the first. Another element--an element the essential nature of which +is absorbed in the production of the phenomena of color--now asserts +itself. Hitherto the painter has dealt with light indirectly, through +the mediatorship of substances. The rays have been given to him, broken +tenderly for his needs;--ocean and sky, mountain and valley, draperies +and human faces, all things, from stars to violets, have diligently +prepared for him, as his demands have arisen, the precious light. And +while he has restrained himself to the representation of Nature subdued +to the limit of his materials, he has been victorious. + +Turner, in whose career can be found almost all that the student needs +for example and for warning, is perhaps the best illustration of wise +temperance in the choice of Nature to be rendered into art. Nothing can +be finer than some of those early works wrought out in quiet pearly +grays,--the tone of Nature in her soberest and tenderest moods. In +these, too, may be observed those touches of brilliant color,--bits of +gleaming drapery, perhaps,--prophetic flecks along the gray dawn. Such +pictures are like pearls; but art demands amber, also. + +When necessity has borne the artist out of this zone, the peaceful +domain of the imitator, he finds himself impelled to produce effects +which are no longer the simple phases of color, but such as the means at +his disposal fail to accomplish. In the simpler stages of coloring, when +he desired to represent an object as blue or red, it was but necessary +to use blue or red material. Now he has advanced to a point where this +principle is no longer applicable. The illuminative power of light +compels new methods of manipulation. + +As examples of a thorough comprehension of the need of such a change in +the employment of means, of the character of that change, of the skill +necessary to embody its principles, and of utter success in the result, +we have but to suggest the name and works of Titian. + +But the laws which Titian discovered have been unheeded for centuries; +and they might have remained so, had not the mind of William Page +felt the necessity of their revival and use. To him there could be no +chance-work. Art must have laws as definite and immutable as those of +science; indeed, the body in which the spirit of art is developed, and +through which it acts, must be science itself. He saw, that, if exact +imitation of Nature be taken as the law in painting, there must +inevitably occur the difficulty to which we have before referred,--that, +above a certain point, paint no longer undergoes transfiguration, +thereby losing its character as mere coloring material,--that, if the +ordinary tone of Nature be held as the legitimate key-note, the scope of +the palette would be exhausted before success could be achieved. + +Any one of Turner's latest pictures may serve to illustrate the nature +of this difficulty. Although in his early practice he was remarkable for +his judicious restraint, it is evident that the splendors of the higher +phenomena of light had for him unlimited fascination; and he may be +traced advancing cautiously through that period of his career which was +marked by the influence of Claude, toward what he hoped would prove, and +perhaps believed to be, a realization of such splendors. + +It must have been observed by those who have studied his later pictures, +that, while the low passages of the composition are wonderfully fine +and representative, all the higher parts, those supposed or intended to +stand for the radiance of dazzling light, fail utterly in representative +capacity. There is an abundance of the most brilliant pigment, but it is +still paint,--unmitigated ochre and white lead. The spectator is obliged +to recede from the picture until distance enables the eye to transmute +the offending material and reconcile the conflicting passages. + +To accomplish the result of rendering the quality and effect of high +light was one of the problems to which Mr. Page years ago turned his +attention; and he found its solution in the transposition of the scale. +The pitch of Nature could not be adopted as the immutable in art. That +were impossible, unless art presumed to cope with Nature. + +More than he, no man could respect the properties and qualities of the +visible world. His ideas of the truthful rendering of that which became +the subject of his pencil might seem preposterous to those who knew not +the wonderful significancy which he attached to individual forms and +tints. Yet, in imitation, where is the limit? What is possible? Must +there be any sacrifice? + +Evidently there must be; and of course it follows that the less +important must be sacrificed. Nature herself has taught the artist that +the most variable of all her phenomena is that of _tone_. Other truths +of Nature have a character of permanency which the artist cannot modify +without violating the first principles of art. He is required to render +the essential; and to render the essential of that which art cannot +sacrifice, if it would, and continue art, he foregoes the non-essential +and evanescent. + +Not only is this permitted,--it is demanded. It is a law through which +alone success is attainable. In obedience to it, Mr. Page adopts a key +somewhat lower than that of Nature as a point of departure, using his +degrees of color frugally, especially in the ascending scale. With this +economy, when he approaches the luminous effects of Nature, he finds, +just where any other palette would be exhausted, upon his own a reserve +of high color. With this, seeking only a corresponding effect of light +in that lower tone which assumes no rivalry with the infinite glory of +Nature, he attains to a representation fully successful. + +We would not have it understood that a mere transposition of the scale +is all that is required to accomplish such a result; only this,--that in +no other way can such a result be secured. To color well, to color so +that forms upon the canvas give back tints like those of the objects +which have served as models, is only half the work. Quality, as well as +color, must be attained. Local, reflected, and transmitted color can be +imitated; but as in the attempt to represent light its luminousness is +the element which defeats the artist, so, throughout Nature, quality, +texture, are the elements which most severely test his power. + +Could any indispensable truth be considered secondary, it might be +assumed that rendering truthfully the qualities of Nature is the first +and highest of art. The forms and colors of objects vary infinitely. +It might be said that the law of all existence is, in these two +particulars, that of change. From the time a human being is born until +it disappears in the grave, from the day when the first leaves break the +mould to that which sees the old tree fall, the form of each has been +modified hourly. + +But that which differentiates objects more completely than any other +property is quality. The sky over us, and the waters of the earth, are +subject to infinite variations. Yet, whether in the tiny drop that +trembles at the point of a leaf or in the vast ocean-globe of our +planet, in the torpor of forest-ponds or in the wrath of cataracts, +water never loses its quality of wetness,--the open sky never that of +dryness. These two characteristics are of course entirely the reverse +of each other,--as unlike as are the properties of transparency and +opacity,--which they involve. + +So, throughout Nature, one truth, that of texture, is the +distinguishing; and this distinctive element is that which cannot be +sacrificed; for through it are Nature's finest laws manifested. And the +painter finds in his obedience to her demands his highest power over +the material which serves him in his efforts to embody the true and the +beautiful. + +It is, then, this which compels us to estimate Mr. Page a painter,--a +man especially organized for his profession,--chosen by its +demands,--set apart, by his wonderful adaptation to its requirements, +from all the world. In virtue of this specialty, the necessity arose +early in his life to seek excellence in his department of art,--to +search the depths of its philosophy and discover its vital +principles,--to analyze its methods and expose its errors. It led him to +investigate the relation between the phenomena of Nature and the +effects of painting; it guided him to a clear perception of the laws +of art-translation; above all, it compelled him to practise what he +believed to be the true. + +Thus much of the painter;--now what of the artist? + +It does not necessarily follow, that, because a man is a great painter, +he is also a great artist. Yet we may safely infer, that, if he has been +true in one department of the several which constitute art, he cannot +have been false in others. Should there be a shortcoming, it must be +that of a man whose mission does not include that wherein he fails. +Fidelity to himself is all we should demand. We say this for those who +are disposed to depreciate what an artist actually accomplishes, because +in some one point Turner or Overbeck surpasses him. Nor do we say it +apologetically. The man, who, basing his action upon the evident purpose +of the organization which God has given him, fulfils his destiny, +requires no apology. + +We have seen something of the faithfulness which has marked Mr. Page's +pursuit of excellence in the external of his art. He has wrought that +which proves his claim to a broader title than that of painter. Were +it not for the vagueness which involves the appellation of historical +painter, it might be that. Even were we obliged to confine our interest +and study to the portraiture which he has executed, we might, in view of +its remarkable character, designate it as historical. + +Than a really great portrait, no work of art can be more truly +historical. We feel the subjectiveness of compositions intended to +transmit facts to posterity,--and unless we know the artist, we are at a +loss as to the degree of trust which we may place in his impressions. +A true portrait is objective. The individuality of the one whom it +represents was the ruling force in the hour of its production; and to +the spirit of a household, a community, a kingdom, or an age, that +individuality is the key. There is, too, in a genuine portrait an +internal evidence of its authenticity. No artist ever was great enough +to invent the combination of lines, curves, and planes which composes +the face of a man. There is the accumulated significance of a +lifetime,--subtile traces of failures or of victories wrought years ago. +How these will manifest themselves, no experience can point out, no +intuition can foresee or imagine. The modifications are infinite, and +each is completely removed from the region of the accidental. + +But, although details and their combinations in the human face and form +cannot be wrought from the imagination, the truthfulness or falsity of +their representation is instantly evident. It is because of this, that +the unity of a portrait carries conviction of its truth and of the +unimpeachability of its evidence, that this phase of art becomes +so valuable as history. Compared with the worth of Titian's Philip +II.,--the Madrid picture, of which Mr. Wild has an admirable +study,--what value can be attached to any historical composition of its +period? + +It has not been the lot of Mr. Page to paint a mighty man, so inlocked +with the rugged forces of his age. His sitters have come from more +peaceful, nobler walks of life,--and their portraits are beloved even +more than they are admired. Not yet are they the pride of pompous +galleries, but the glory and saintliness of homes. + +Could we enter these homes, and discuss freely the character of their +treasures, we would gladly linger in the presence of the more precious. +But so inseparably associated are they with their originals, so much +more nearly related to them than to the artist, that no fitting analysis +can be made of the representation without involving that of the +individual represented. + +Three portraits have, however, such wonderful excellence, and through +this excellence have become so well known, that we may be forgiven for +alluding to them. In a former paper, the writer spoke of the portrait of +a man in his divinest development. The first of these three works is the +representation of a woman, and is truly "somewhat miraculous." It is a +face rendered impressive by the grandest repose,--a repose that pervades +the room and the soul,--a repose not to be mistaken for serenity, but +which is power in equilibrium. No brilliancy of color, no elaboration of +accessories, no intricacy of composition attracts the attention of +the observer. There is no need of these. But he who is worthy of the +privilege stands suddenly conscious of a presence such as the world has +rarely known. He feels that the embodiment before him is the record of +a great Past, as well as the reflection of a proud Present,--a Past +in which the soul has ever borne on through and above all obstacles of +discouragement and temptation to a success which was its inheritance. +He sees, too, the possibilities of the near Future; how from that fine +equipoise the soul might pass out into rare manifestations, appearing +in the sweetness and simplicity of a little child, in the fearful +tumultuousness of a Lady Macbeth, in the passionate tenderness of a +Romeo, or in the Gothic grandeur of a Scotch sorceress,--in the love of +kindred, in the fervor of friendship, and in the nobleness of the truest +womanhood. + +Another portrait--can it have been painted in this century?--presents a +widely different character. We have seen the rendering of a nature made +too solemn by the possession of genius to admit of splendor of coloring. +This picture is that of ripe womanhood, manifesting itself in the +fulness of summer's goldenest light. Color, in all its richness as +color, in all its strength as a representative agent, in all its glory +as the minister of light, in all its significance as the sign and +expression of plenitude of life,--life at one with Nature;--thus we +remember it, as it hung upon the wall of that noble room in the Roman +home of Crawford. + +A later portrait, and one artistically the finest of Mr. Page's +productions, although executed in Rome, has found a home in Cambridge. +Here no grave subdual of color was called for, nor was there any need of +its fullest power,--but, instead thereof, we have color in the purity +of its pearl expression. A mild lustre, inexpressibly clear, seems to +pervade the picture, and beam forth the revelation of a white soul. +Shadows there are none,--only still softer light, to carry back the +receding forms. But interest in technicalities is lost in the nobler +sense of sweet influences. We are at peace in the presence of a peace +which passeth all understanding. We are holy in the ineffable light +of immortal holiness. We are blessed in the consciousness of complete +harmony. + +Surely, none but a great painter could have achieved such success; +surely, no mere painter could thus have appealed to us. + +These works we have chosen to represent the artist's power in the +direction of portraiture,--not only because of their wonderful merit as +embodiments of individualism, but to illustrate a law which has not yet +had its due influence in art, but which must be the very life of its +next revival, when painting shall be borne up until it marks the +century. + +We refer to the expressional power of color,--not the conventional +significance whereby certain colors have been associated arbitrarily +with mental conditions. This last has often violated all the principles +of natural relation; yet no fact is more generally accepted than +this,--that colors, from the intensity of the primitives to the last +faint tints derived therefrom, bear fixed and demonstrable relations to +the infinite moods and phases of human life. As among themselves the +hues of the palette exist in immutable conditions of positive affinity +or repulsion, so are they all related to the soul as definitely in +harmony or in discord. There has been imperfect recognition of this at +various times in the history of painting since the age of Giotto,--the +most notable examples having occurred in the Venetian school. + +But even in that golden age of art, this property of color was but +rarely perceived and called into use under the guidance of principles. +Still, the sense of the value and the harmonies of colors was so keen +among the Venetian artists, that, intuitively, subjects were chosen +which required an expression admitting of the most lavish use and +magnificent display of color. + +Paul Veronese, the splendor of whose conceptions seemed ever to select +the pomp and wealth of banquets and ceremonies,--Giorgione, for whom the +world revolved in an atmosphere of golden glory,--each had a fixed ideal +of noble coloring; and it is questionable whether either ever modified +that ideal for the sake of any expressional purpose. + +Titian, from whom no property or capability of color was concealed, +could not forego the power which he secured through obedience to the law +of its relation to the human soul. Were we asked which among pictures is +most completely illustrative of this obedience, we should answer, "The +Entombment," in the Louvre. Each breadth of color mourns,--sky and earth +and all the conscious air are laden with sorrow. + +In portraiture, however, the great master was inclined to give the full +perfection of the highest type of coloring. That rich glow which is +bestowed by the Venetian sun did, indeed, seem typical of the life +beneath it; and Titian may have been justified in bringing thither +those who were the recipients of his favors. One only did he not +invite,--Philip II.; him he placed, dark and ominous, against a sky +barred with blood. + +Is it in virtue of conformity to law, and under the government of the +principles of correspondence, that Mr. Page has wrought with mind and +hand? + +Otherwise it cannot be; for, in the three portraits to which allusion +has been made, such subtile distinctions of character find expression in +equally subtile differences of tint, that no touch could have been given +from vague apprehensions of truth. No ambiguity perplexes the spectator; +he beholds the inevitable. + +Other works than those of portraiture have won for Mr. Page the +attention of the world. This attention has elicited from individuals +praise and dispraise, dealt out promptly, and with little qualification. +But we have looked in vain for some truly appreciative notice of the +so-called historical pictures executed by this artist. We do not object +to the prompt out-speaking of the public. So much is disposed of, when +the mass has given or withheld its approval. We know whether or not the +work appeals to the hearts of human beings. Often, too, it is the most +nearly just of any which may be rendered. Usually, the conclusions +of the great world are correct, while its reasonings are absurd. Its +decisions are immediate and clear; its arguments, subsequent and vague. + +This measure, however, cannot be meted to all artists. A painter may +appeal to some wide, yet superficial sympathy, and attain to no other +excellence. + +That Mr. Page might have found success in this direction will not be +denied by any one who has seen the engraving of a girl and lamb, from +one of his early works. It is as sweet and tenderly simple as a face by +Francia. But not only did he refuse to confine himself to this style +of art, as, when that engraving is before us, we wish he had done,--he +passed out of and away from it. And those phases which followed +have been such as are the least fitted to stand the trial of public +exhibition. His pictures do not command the eye by extraordinary +combinations of assertive colors,--nor do they, through great pathos, +deep tenderness, or any overcharged emotional quality, fascinate and +absorb the spectator. + +Much of the middle portion of this artist's professional life is marked +by changes. It was a period of growth,--of continual development and of +obvious transition. Not infrequently, the transition seemed to be from +the excellent to the crude. Nevertheless, we doubt not, that, through +all vicissitudes, there has been a steady and genuine growth of Mr. +Page's best artistic power, and that he has been true to his specialty. + +We should like to believe that the Venetian visit of 1853 was the +closing of one period of transition, and the beginning of a new era in +Mr. Page's artistic career. It is pleasant to think of the painter's +pilgrimage to that studio of Titian, Venice,--for it was all his,--not +in nebulous prophetic youth,--not before his demands had been revealed +to his consciousness,--not before those twenty long years of solitary, +hard, earnest work,--but in the full ripeness of manhood, when prophecy +had dawned into confident fulfilment, when the principles of his +science had been found, and when of this science his art had become the +demonstration. It was fine to come then, and be for a while the guest of +Titian. + +There is evidence that he began after this visit to do what for years he +had been learning to do,--yet, of course, as is ever the case with the +earnest man, doing as a student, as one who feels all truth to be of the +infinite. + +The result has been a series of remarkable pictures. There are among +these the specimens of portraiture, a few landscapes, and a number of +ideal, or, as they have been called, historical works. Of these last +named there is somewhat to be said; and those to which we shall refer +are selected for the purpose of illustrating principles, rather than for +that of description. These are all associated with history. There are +three representations of Venus, and several renderings of Scriptural +subjects. + +If these pictures are valuable, they are so in virtue of elements which +can be appreciated. To present these elements to the world, to appeal to +those who can recognize them, is, it is fair to assume, the object of +exposition. Not merely praise, but the more wholesome meed of justice, +is the desire of a true artist; and as we deal with such a one, we do +not hesitate to speak of his works as they impress us. + +First of all, in view of the artist's skill as a painter, it is well +to regard the external of his work. Here, in both Scriptural and +mythological subjects, there is little to condemn. The motives have been +bravely and successfully wrought out; the work is nobly, frankly done. +The superiority of methods which render the texture and quality of +objects becomes apparent. There is no attempt at illusion; yet the +representation of substances and spaces is faultless,--as, for instance, +the sky of the "Venus leading forth the Trojans." Nor have we seen that +chaste, pearly lustre of the most beautiful human skin so well rendered +as in the bosom of the figure which gleams against the blue. + +But there is a pretension to more than technical excellence in the +mythological works; there is a declaration of physical beauty in the +very idea; in both these and the Scriptural there is an assumption of +historical value. + +While we believe that the problem of physical beauty can be solved and +demonstrated, and the representations of Venus can be proved to possess +or to lack the beautiful, we choose to leave now, as we should be +compelled to do after discussion, the decision of the question to +those who raise it. It is of little avail to prove a work of art +beautiful,--of less, to prove it ugly. Spectators and generations cannot +be taken one by one and convinced. But where the operation of judgment +is from the reasoning rather than from the intuitive nature, facts, +opinions, and impressions may exert healthful influences. + +The Venus of Page we cannot accept,--not because it may be unbeautiful, +for that might be but a shortcoming,--not because of any technical +failure, for, with the exception of weakness in the character of waves, +nothing can be finer,--not because it lacks elevated sentiment, for this +Venus was not the celestial,--but because it has nothing to do with +the present, neither is it of the past, nor related in any wise to any +imaginable future. + +The present has no ideal of which the Venus of the ancients is a +manifestation. Other creations of that marvellous Greek mind might be +fitly used to symbolize phases of the present. Hercules might labor now; +there are other stables than the Augean; and not yet are all Hydras +slain. Armor is needed; and a Vulcan spirit is making the anvil ring +beneath the earth-crust of humanity. But Venus, the voluptuous, the +wanton,--no sensuousness pervading any religion of this era finds in her +its fitting type and sign. She, her companions, and her paramours, with +the magnificent religion which evolved them, were entombed centuries +ago; and no angel has rolled the stone from the door of their sepulchre. +They are dead; the necessity which called the Deistic ideal into +existence is dead; the ideal itself is dead, since Paul preached in +Athens its funeral sermon. + +As history of past conditions, no value can be attached to +representations produced in subsequent ages. In this respect all these +pictures must be false. The best can only approximate truth. Yet his +two pictures of Scriptural subjects--one from the remoteness of Hebrew +antiquity, the other from the early days of Christianity--are most +valuable even as history: not the history of the flight from Egypt, nor +that of the flight into Egypt, but the history of what these mighty +events have become after the lapse of many centuries. + +Herein lies the difference between Mythology and Christianity: the one +arose, culminated, and perished, soul and body, when the shadow of the +Cross fell athwart Olympus; the other is immortal,--immortal as is +Christ, immortal as are human souls, of which it is the life. No century +has been when it has not found, and no century can be when it will not +find, audible and visible utterance. The music of the "Messiah" reveals +the relation of its age to the great central idea of Christianity. Frà +Angelico, Leonardo, Bach, Milton, Overbeck, were the revelators of human +elevation, as sustained by the philosophy of which Christ was the great +interpreter. + +Therefore, to record that elevation, to be the historian of the present +in its deepest significance, the noblest occupation. Dwelling, as an +artist must dwell, in the deep life of his theme, his work must go forth +utterly new, alive, and startling. + +Thus did we find the "Flight into Egypt" a picture full of the spirit of +that marvellous age, hallowed by the sweet mystery which all these years +have given. Who of those who were so fortunate as to see this work of +Mr. Page will ever forget the solemn, yet radiant tone pervading the +landscape of sad Egypt, along which went the fugitives? Nothing ever +swallowed by the insatiable sea, save its human victims, is more worthy +of lament than this lost treasure. + +Thus, too, is the grandest work of Mr. Page's life, the Moses with hands +upheld above the battle. Were we on the first page instead of the last, +we could not refrain from describing it. Yet in its presence the impulse +is toward silence. We feel, that, viewed even in its mere external, it +is as simple and majestic as the Hebrew language. The far sky, with its +pallid moon,--the deep, shadowy valley, with its ghostly warriors,--the +group on the near mountain, with its superb youth, its venerable age, +and its manhood too strong and vital for the destructive years;--in the +presence of such a creation there is time for a great silence. + + + + +KNITTING SALE-SOCKS. + + +"He's took 'ith all the sym't'ms,--thet 's one thing sure! Dretful pain +in hez back an' l'ins, legs feel 's ef they hed telegraph-wires inside +'em workin' fur dear life, head aches, face fevered, pulse at 2.40, +awful stetch in the side, an' pressed fur breath. You guess it's +neuralogy, Lurindy? I do'no' nothin' abeout yer high-flyin' names fur +rheumatiz. _I_ don't guess so!" + +"But, Aunt Mimy, what _do_ you guess?" asked mother. + +"I don' guess nothin' at all,--I nigh abeout know!" + +"Well,--you don't think it's"---- + +"I on'y wish it mebbe the veryaloud,--I on'y wish it mebbe. But that's +tew good luck ter happen ter one o' the name. No, Miss Ruggles, +I--think--it's--the raal article at first hand." + +"Goodness, Aunt Mimy! what"---- + +"Yes, I du; an' you'll all hev it stret through the femily, every one; +you needn't expect ter go scot-free, Emerline, 'ith all your rosy +cheeks; an' you'll all hev ter stay in canteen a month ter the least; +an' ef you're none o' yer pertected by vaticination, I reckon I"---- + +"Well, Aunt Mimy, if that's your opinion, I'll harness the filly and +drive over for Dr. Sprague." + +"Lor'! yer no need ter du _thet_, Miss Ruggles,--I kin kerry yer all +through jest uz well uz Dr. Sprague, an' a sight better, ef the truth +wuz knowed. I tuk Miss Deacon Smiler an' her hull femily through the +measles an' hoopin'-cough, like a parcel o' pigs, this fall. They _du_ +say Jane's in a poor way an' Nathan'l's kind o' declinin'; but, uz I +know they say it jest ter spite me, I don' so much mind. You _a'n't_ +gwine now, be ye?" + +"There's safety in a multitude of counsellors, you know, Aunt Mimy, and +I think on the whole I had best." + +"Wal! ef that's yer delib'rate ch'ice betwixt Dr. Sprague an' me, ye +kin du ez ye like. I never force my advice on no one, 'xcept this,--I'd +advise Emerline there ter throw them socks inter the fire; there'll +never none o' them be fit ter sell, 'nless she wants ter spread the +disease. Wal, I'm sorry yer 've concluded ter hev thet old quack +Sprague; never hed no more diplomy 'n I; don' b'lieve he knows cow-pox +from kine, when he sees it. The poor young man's hed his last well day, +I'm afeard. Good-day ter ye; say good-bye fur me ter Stephen. I'll call +ag'in, ef ye happen ter want any one ter lay him eout." + +And, staying to light her little black pipe, she jerked together the +strings of her great scarlet hood, wrapped her cloak round her like a +sentinel at muster, and went puffing down the hill like a steamboat. + +Aunt Mimy Ruggles wasn't any relation to us, I wouldn't have you think, +though our name was Ruggles, too. Aunt Mimy used to sell herbs, and she +rose from that to taking care of the sick, and so on, till once Dr. +Sprague having proved that death came through her ignorance, she had to +abandon some branches of her art; and she was generally roaming round +the neighborhood, seeking whom she could devour in the others. And so +she came into our house just at dinner-time, and mother asked her to sit +by, and then mentioned Cousin Stephen, and she went up to see him, and +so it was. + +Now it can't be pleasant for any family to have such a thing turn up, +especially if there's a pretty girl in it; and I suppose I was as pretty +as the general run, at that time,--perhaps Cousin Stephen thought a +trifle prettier; pink cheeks, blue eyes, and hair the color and shine of +a chestnut when it bursts the burr, can't be had without one 's rather +pleasant-looking; and then I'm very good-natured and quick-tempered, and +I've got a voice for singing, and I sing in the choir, and a'n't afraid +to open my mouth. I don't look much like Lurindy, to be sure; but +then Lurindy's an old maid,--as much as twenty-five,--and don't go to +singing-school.--At least, these thoughts ran through my head as I +watched Aunt Mimy down the hill.--Lurindy a'n't so very pretty, +I continued to think,--but she's so very good, it makes up. At +sewing-circle and quilting and frolics, I'm as good as any; but somehow +I'm never any 'count at home; that's because Lurindy is by, at home. +Well, Lurindy has a little box in her drawer, and there's a letter in +it, and an old geranium-leaf, and a piece of black silk ribbon that +looks too broad for anything but a sailor's necktie, and a shell. I +don't know what she wants to keep such old stuff for, I'm sure. + +We're none so rich,--I suppose I may as well tell the truth, that we're +nearly as poor as poor can be. We've got the farm, but it's such a small +one that mother and I can carry it on ourselves, with now and then a +day's help or a bee,--but a bee's about as broad as it is long,--and +we raise just enough to help the year out, but don't sell. We've got +a cow and the filly and some sheep; and mother shears and cards, and +Lurindy spins,--I can't spin, it makes my head swim,--and I knit, +knit socks and sell them. Sometimes I have needles almost as big as a +pipe-stem, and choose the coarse, uneven yarn of the thrums, and +then the work goes off like machinery. Why, I can knit two pair, and +sometimes three, a day, and get just as much for them as I do for the +nice ones,--they're warm. But when I want to knit well, as I did the day +Aunt Mimy was in, I take my best blue needles and my fine white yarn +from the long wool, and it takes me from daybreak till sundown to knit +one pair. I don't know why Aunt Jemimy should have said what she did +about my socks; I'm sure Stephen hadn't been any nearer them than he had +to the cabbage-bag Lurindy was netting, and there wasn't such a nice +knitter in town as I, everybody will tell you. She always did seem to +take particular pleasure in hectoring and badgering me to death. + +Well, I wasn't going to be put down by Aunt Mimy, so I made the needles +fly while mother was gone for the doctor. By-and-by I heard a knock up +in Stephen's room,--I suppose he wanted something,--but Lurindy didn't +hear it, and I didn't so much want to go, so I sat still and began to +count out loud the stitches to my narrowings. By-and-by he knocked +again. + +"Lurindy," says I, "a'n't that Steve a-knocking?" + +"Yes," says she,--"why don't you go?"--for I had been tending him a good +deal that day. + +"Well," says I, "there's a number of reasons; one is, I'm just binding +off my heel." + +Lurindy looked at me a minute, then all at once she smiled. + +"Well, Emmy," says she, "if you like a smooth skin more than a smooth +conscience, you're welcome,"--and went up-stairs herself. + +I suppose I had ought to 'a' gone, and I suppose I'd ought to wanted to +have gone, but somehow it wasn't so much fear as that I didn't want to +see Stephen himself now. So Lurindy stayed up chamber, and was there +when mother and the doctor come. And the doctor said he feared Aunt Mimy +was right, and nobody but mother and Lurindy must go near Stephen, (you +see, he found Lurindy there,) and they must have as little communication +with me as possible. And his boots creaked down the back-stairs, and +then he went. + +Mother came down a little while after, for some water to put on +Stephen's head, which was a good deal worse, she said; and about the +middle of the evening I heard her crying for me to come and help them +hold him,--he was raving. I didn't go very quick; I said, "Yes,--just +as soon as I've narrowed off my toe"; and when at last I pushed back my +chair to go, mother called in a disapproving voice and said that they'd +got along without me and I'd better go to bed. + +Well, after I was in bed I began to remember all that had happened +lately. Somehow my thoughts went back to the first time Cousin Stephen +came to our place, when I was a real little girl, and mother'd sent me +to the well and I had dropped the bucket in, and he ran straight down +the green slippery stones and brought it up, laughing. Then I remembered +how we'd birds-nested together, and nutted, and come home on the +hay-carts, and how we'd been in every kind of fun and danger together; +and how, when my new Portsmouth lawn took fire, at Martha Smith's +apple-paring, he caught me right in his arms and squeezed out the fire +with his own hands; and how, when he saw once I had a notion of going +with Elder Hooper's son James, he stepped aside till I saw what a nincom +Jim Hooper was, and then he appeared as if nothing had happened, and +was just as good as ever; and how, when the ice broke on Deacon Smith's +pond, and I fell in, and the other boys were all afraid, Steve came and +saved my life again at risk of his own; and how he always seemed to +think the earth wasn't good enough for me to walk on; and how I'd +wished, time and again, I might have some way to pay him back; and here +it was, and I'd failed him. Then I remembered how I'd been to his place +in Berkshire,--a rich old farm, with an orchard that smelled like the +Spice Islands in the geography, with apples and pears and quinces +and peaches and cherries and plums,--and how Stephen's mother, Aunt +Emeline, had been as kind to me as one's own mother could be. But now +Aunt Emeline and Uncle 'Siah were dead, and Stephen came a good deal +oftener over the border than he'd any right to. Today, he brought some +of those new red-streaks, and wanted mother to try them; next time, +they'd made a lot more maple-sugar on his place than he wanted; and next +time, he thought mother's corn might need hoeing, or it was fine weather +to get the grass in: I don't know what we should have done without him. +Then I thought how Stephen looked, the day he was pall-bearer to Charles +Payson, who was killed sudden by a fall,--so solemn and pale, nowise +craven, but just up to the occasion, so that, when the other girls burst +out crying at sight of the coffin and at thought of Charlie, I cried, +too,--but it was only because Stephen looked so beautiful. Then I +remembered how he looked the other day when he came, his cheeks were +so red with the wind, and his hair, those bright curls, was all blown +about, and he laughed with the great hazel eyes he has, and showed his +white teeth;--and now his beauty would be spoiled, and he'd never care +for me again, seeing I hadn't cared for him. And the wind began to +come up; and it was so lonesome and desolate in that little bed-room +down-stairs, I felt as if we were all buried alive; and I couldn't get +to sleep; and when the sleet and snow began to rattle on the pane, I +thought there wasn't any one to see me and I'd better cry to keep it +company; and so I sobbed off to dreaming at last, and woke at sunrise +and found it still snowing. + +Next morning, I heard mother stepping across the kitchen, and when I +came out, she said Lurindy'd just gone to sleep; they'd had a shocking +night. So I went out and watered the creatures and milked Brindle, and +got mother a nice little breakfast, and made Stephen some gruel. And +then I was going to ask mother if I'd done so very wrong in letting +Lurindy nurse Stephen, instead of me; and then I saw she wasn't thinking +about that; and besides, there didn't really seem to be any reason why +she shouldn't;--she was a great deal older than I, and so it was more +proper; and then Stephen hadn't ever _said_ anything to me that should +give me a peculiar right to nurse him more than other folks. So I just +cleared away the things, made everything shine like a pin, and took +my knitting. I'd no sooner got the seam set than I was called to send +something up on a contrivance mother'd rigged in the back-entry over a +pulley. And then I had to make a red flag, and find a stick, and hang it +out of the window by which there were the most passers. Well, I did it; +but I didn't hurry,--I didn't get the flag out till afternoon; somehow I +hated to, it always seemed such a low-lived disease, and I was mortified +to acknowledge it, and I knew nobody'd come near us for so long,--though +goodness knows I didn't want to see anybody. Well, when that was done, +Lurindy came down, and I had to get her something to eat, and then she +went up-stairs, and mother took _her_ turn for some sleep; and there +were the creatures to feed again, and what with putting on, and taking +off, and tending fires, and doing errands, and the night's milking, and +clearing the paths, I didn't knit another stitch that day, and was glad +enough, when night came, to go to bed myself. + +Well, so we went on for two or three days. I'd got my second sock pretty +well along in that time,--just think! half a week knitting half a +sock!--and was setting the heel, when in came Aunt Mimy. + +"I a'n't afeard on it," says she; "don't you be skeert. I jest stepped +in ter see ef the young man wuz approachin' his eend." + +"No," said I, "he isn't, any more than you are, Aunt Mimy." + +"Any more 'n I be?" she answered. "Don't you lose yer temper, Emerline. +We're all approachin' it, but some gits a leetle ahead; it a'n't no +disgrace, ez I knows on. What yer doin' of? Knittin' sale-socks yet? +and, my gracious! still ter work on the same pair! You'll make yer +fortin', Emerline!" + +I didn't say anything, I was so provoked. + +"I don' b'lieve you know heow ter take the turns w'en yer mother a'n't +by to help," she continued. "Can't ye take up the heel? Widden ev'ry +fourth. Here, let me! You won't? Wal, I alluz knowed you wuz mighty +techy, Emerline Ruggles, but ye no need ter fling away in thet style. +Neow I'll advise ye ter let socks alone; they're tew intricate fur +sech ez you. Mitt'ns is jest abeout 'ithin the compass uv your +mind,--mitt'ns, men's single mitt'ns, put up on needles larger 'n them +o' yourn be, an' by this rule. Seventeen reounds in the wrist,--tew an' +one's the best seam"---- + +"Now, Miss Jemimy, just as if I didn't know how to knit mittens!" + +"Wal, it seems you don't," said she, "though I don' deny but you may +know heow ter give 'em; an' ez I alluz like ter du w'at good I kin, I'm +gwine ter show ye." + +"Show away," says I; "but I'll be bound, I've knit and sold and eaten up +more mittens than ever you put your hands in!" + +"Du tell! I'm glad to ha' heern you've got sech a good digestion," says +she, hunting up a piece of paper to light her pipe. "Wal, ez I +wuz sayin'," says she, "tew an' one's the best seam, handiest an' +'lastickest; twenty stetches to a needle, cast up so loose thet the fust +one's ter one eend uv the needle an' the last ter t'other eend,--thet +gives a good pull." + +"I guess your smoke will hurt Stephen's head," said I, thinking to +change her ideas. + +"Oh, don't you bother abeout Stephen's head; ef it can't stan' thet,'t +a'n't good fur much. Wal, an' then you set yer thumb an' knit plain, +'xcept a seam-stetch each side uv yer thumb; an' you widden tew +stetches, one each side,--s'pose ye know heow ter widden? an' +narry?--ev'ry third reound, tell yer 've got nineteen stetches acrost +yer thumb; then ye knit, 'ithout widdenin', a matter uv seven or eight +reounds more,----you listenin', Emerline?" + +"Lor', Miss Jemimy, don't you know better than to ask questions when I'm +counting? Now I've got to go and begin all over again." + +"Highty-tighty, Miss! You're a weak sister, ef ye can't ceount an' chat, +tew. Wal, ter make a long matter short, then ye drop yer thumb onter +some thread an' cast up seven stetches an' knit reound fur yer hand, an' +every other time you narry them seven stetches away ter one, fur the +gore." + +"Dear me, Aunt Mimy! do be quiet a minute! I believe mother's +a-calling." + +"I'll see," said Aunt Mimy,--and she stepped to the door and listened. + +"No," says she, coming back on tiptoe,--"an' you didn't think you heern +any one neither. It's ruther small work fur ter be foolin' an old woman. +Hows'ever, I don' cherish grudges; so, ez I wuz gwine ter say, ye knit +thirty-six reounds above wheer ye dropped yer thumb, an' then ye toe off +in ev'ry fifth stetch, an' du it reg'Iar, Emerline; an' then take up yer +thumb on tew needles, an' on t'other you pick up the stetches I told yer +ter cast up, an' knit twelve reounds, an' thumb off 'ith narryin' ev'ry +third"---- + +"Well, Miss Jemimy, I guess I shall know how to knit mittens, now!" + +"Ef ye don't, 't a'n't my fault. When you've fastened off the eends, you +roll 'em up in a damp towel, an' press 'em 'ith a middlin' warm iron on +the wrong side. There!" + +After this, Miss Mimy smoked awhile in silence, satisfied and gratified. +At last she knocked the ashes out of her pipe. + +"Wal," says she, "I must be onter my feet. I'd liked ter seen yer ma, +but I won't disturb her, an' you can du ez well. Yer ma promised me a +mess o' tea, an' I guess I may ez well take it neow ez any day." + +"Why, Miss Mimy," said I, "there a'n't above four or five messes left, +and we can't get any more till I sell my socks." + +"Wal, never mind, then, you can le' me take one, an' mebbe I kin make up +the rest at Miss Smilers's." + +So I went into the pantry to get it, and Aunt Mimy followed me, of +course. + +"Them's nice-lookin' apples," said she. "Come from Stephen's place? Poor +young man, he won't never want 'em! S'pose he won't hev no objection +ter my tryin' a dozen,"--and she dropped that number into her great +pocket. + +"Nice-lookin' butter, tew," said she. "Own churnin'? Wal, you _kin_ +du sunthin', Emerline. W'en I wuz a heousekeeper, I used ter keep the +femily in butter an' sell enough to Miss Smith--she thet wuz Mary +Breown--ter buy our shoes, all off uv one ceow. S'pose I take this pat?" + +I was kind of dumfoundered at first; I forgot Aunt Mimy was the biggest +beggar in Rockingham County. + +"No," says I, as soon as I got my breath, "I sha'n't suppose any such +thing. You're as well able to make your butter as I am to make it for +you." + +"Wal, Emerline Ruggles! I alluz knowed you wuz close ez the bark uv a +tree; it's jest yer father's narrer-contracted sperrit; you don' favor +yer ma a speck. She's ez free ez water." + +"If mother's a mind to give away her eye-teeth, it don't follow that I +should," said I; "and I won't give you another atom; and you just clear +out!" + +"Wal, you kin keep yer butter, sence you're so sot on it, an' I'll take +a leetle dust o' pork instead." + +"Let's see you take it!" said I. + +"I guess I'll speak 'ith yer ma. I shall git a consider'ble bigger +piece, though I don't like ter add t' 'er steps." + +"Now look here, Miss Mimy," says I,--"if you'll promise not to ask for +another thing, and to go right away, I'll get you a piece of pork." + +So I went down cellar, and fished round in the pork-barrel and found +quite a respectable piece. Coming up, just as my head got level with the +floor, what should I see but Miss Jemimy pour all the sugar into her +bag and whip the bowl back on the shelf, and turn round and face me as +innocent as Moses in the bulrushes. After she had taken the pork, she +looked round a minute and said,-- + +"Wal, arter all, I nigh upon forgot my arrant. Here's a letter they giv' +me fur Lurindy, at the post-office; ev'rybody else's afeard ter come up +here";--and by-and-by she brought it up from under all she'd stowed away +there. "Thet jest leaves room," says she. + +"For what?" says I. + +"Fur tew or three uv them eggs." + +I put them into her bag and said, + +"Now you remember your promise, Aunt Mimy!" + +"Lor' sakes!" says she, "you're in a mighty berry ter git me off. Neow +you've got all you kin out uv me, the letter, 'n' the mitt'ns, I may go, +may I? I niver see a young gal so furrard 'ith her elders in all my born +days! I think Stephen Lee's well quit uv ye, fur my part, ef he hed to +die ter du it. I don't 'xpect ye ter thank me fur w'at instruction I +gi'n ye;--there's some folks I niver du 'xpect nothin' from; you can't +make a silk pus out uv a sow's ear. W'at ye got thet red flag out +the keepin'-room winder fur? 'Cause Lurindy's nussin' Stephen? Wal, +good-day!" + +And so Aunt Mimy disappeared, and the pat of butter with her. + +I called Lurindy and gave her the letter, and after a little while I +heard my name, and Lurindy was sitting on the top of the stairs with her +head on her knees, and mother was leaning over the banisters. Pretty +soon Lurindy lifted up her head, and I saw she had been crying, and +between the two I made out that Lurindy'd been engaged a good while to +John Talbot, who sailed out of Salem on long voyages to India and China; +and that now he'd come home, sick with a fever, and was lying at the +house of his aunt, who wasn't well herself; and as he'd given all his +money to help a shipmate in trouble, she couldn't hire him a nurse, and +there he was; and, finally, she'd consider it a great favor, if Lurindy +would come down and help her. + +Now Lurindy'd have gone at once, only she'd been about Stephen, so that +she'd certainly carry the contagion, and might be taken sick herself, as +soon as she arrived; and mother couldn't go and take care of John, for +the same reason; and there was nobody but me. Lurindy had a half-eagle +that John had given her once to keep; and I got a little bundle together +and took all the precautions Dr. Sprague advised; and he drove me off +in his sleigh, and said, as he was going about sixteen miles to see +a patient, he'd put me on the cars at the nearest station. Well, he +stopped a minute at the post-office, and when he came out he had another +letter for Lurindy. I took it, and, after a moment, concluded I'd better +read it. + +"What are you about?" says the Doctor; "your name isn't Lurindy, is it?" + +"I wish it was," says I, "and then I shouldn't be here." + +"Oh! you're sorry to leave Stephen?" says he. "Well, you can comfort +yourself with reflecting that Lurindy's a great deal the best nurse." + +As if that was any comfort! If Lurindy was the best nurse, she'd ought +to have had the privilege of taking care of her own lover, and not of +other folks's. Besides, for all I knew, Stephen would be dead before +ever I came back, and here I was going away and leaving him! Well, I +didn't feel so very bright; so I read the letter. The Doctor asked me +what ailed John Talbot. I thought, if I told him that Miss Jane Talbot +wrote now so that Lurindy shouldn't come, and that he was sick just as +Stephen was, he wouldn't let me go. So I said I supposed he'd burnt his +mouth, like the man in the South, eating cold pudding and porridge; men +always cried out at a scratch. And he said, "Oh, do they?" and laughed. + +After about two hours' driving, there came a scream as if all the +panthers in Coos County were let loose to yell, and directly we stopped +at a little place where a red flag was hung out. I asked the Doctor if +they'd got the small-pox here, too; but before he could answer, the +thunder running along the ground deafened me, and in a minute he had put +me inside the cars and was off. + +I was determined I wouldn't appear green before so many folks, though +I'd never seen the cars before; so I took my seat, and paid my fare to +Old Salem, and looked about me. Pretty soon a woman came bustling in +from somewhere, and took the seat beside me. There she fidgeted round so +that I thought I should have flown. + +"Miss," says she, at length, "will you close your window? I never travel +with a window open; my health's delicate." + +I tried to shut it, but it wouldn't go up or down, till a gentleman put +out his cane and touched it, and down it slid, like Signor Blitz. It did +seem as if everything about the cars went by miracle. I thanked him, but +I found afterward it would have been more polite not to have spoken. +After that woman had done everything she could think of to plague and +annoy the whole neighborhood, she got out at Ipswich, and somebody +met her that looked just like our sheriff; and I shouldn't be a bit +surprised to hear that she'd gone to jail. When she got out, somebody +else got in, and took the same seat. + +"Miss," says she, "will you have the goodness to open your window? this +air is stifling." + +And she did everything that the other woman didn't do. When she found +I wouldn't talk, she turned to the young gentleman and lady that sat +opposite, and that looked as if there was a great deal too much company +in the cars, and found they wouldn't talk either, and at last she caught +the conductor and made him talk. + +AH this while we were swooping over the country in the most terrific +manner. I thought how frightened mother and Lurindy'd be, if they should +see me. It was no use trying to count the cattle or watch the fences, +and the birch-trees danced rigadoons enough to make one dizzy, and +we dashed through everybody's back-yard, and ran so close up to the +kitchens that we could have seen what they had for dinner, if we had +stayed long enough; and finally I made up my mind that the engine had +run away with the driver, and John Talbot would never have me to tend +him; and I began to wonder, as I saw the sparks and cinders and great +clouds of steam and smoke, if those tornadoes that smash round so out +West in the newspapers weren't just passenger-trains, like us, off the +track,--when all at once it grew as dark as midnight. + +"Now," says I to myself, "it's certain. They've run the thing into the +ground. However, we can't go long now." + +And just as I was thinking about Korah and his troop, I remembered what +the Doctor had told me about Salem Tunnel, and it began to grow lighter, +and we began to go slower, and I picked up my wits and looked about +me again. I had only time to notice that the young gentleman and lady +looked very much relieved, and to shake my shawl from the clutch of the +woman beside me, when we stopped at Salem, safe and sound. + +I had a good deal of trouble to find Miss Talbot's house, but find it I +did; and the first thing she gave me was a scolding for coming, thinking +I was Lurindy, and her tongue wasn't much cooler when she found I +wasn't; and then finally she said, as long as I was there, I might stay; +and I went right up to see John, and a sight he was! + +It was about three months I stayed and took the greater part of the care +of him. Sometimes in the midnight, when he was quite beside himself, and +dreaming out loud, it was about as good as a story-book to hear him. He +told me of some great Indian cities where there were men in white, with +skins swarthier than old red Guinea gold, and with great shawls all +wrought in palm-leaves of gold and crimson bound on their heads, who +could sink a ship with their lacs of rupees; and of islands where the +shores came down to the water's edge and unrolled like a green ribbon, +and brooks came sparkling down behind them, and great trees hung above +like banners, and beautiful women came off on rafts and skiffs loaded +with fruit,--the islands set like jewels on the back of the sea, and the +sky covered them with light and hung above them bluer than the hangings +of the Tabernacle, and they sent long rivers of spice out on the air to +entice the sailor back,--islands where night never came. Sometimes, when +he talked on so, I remembered that I'd felt rather touched up when I +found that Lurindy'd had a sweetheart all this time, and mother knew it, +and they'd never told me, and I wondered how it happened. Now it came +across me, that, quite a number of years before, Lurindy had gone to +Salem and worked in the mills. She didn't stay long, because it didn't +agree with her,--the neighbors said, because she was lazy. Lurindy lazy, +indeed! There a'n't one of us knows how to spell the first syllable +of that word. But that's where she must have got acquainted with +John Talbot. He'd been up at our place, too; but I was over to Aunt +Emeline's, it seems. But one night, about this time, I thought he was +dying, he'd got so very low; and I thought how dreadful it was for +Lurindy never to see him again, and how it was all my selfish fault, and +how maybe he wouldn't 'a' died, if he'd had her to have taken care of +him; and I suppose no convicted felon ever endured more remorse than I +did, sitting and watching that dying man all that long and lonely night. +But with the morning he was better,--they always are a great deal worse +when they are getting well from it; he laughed when the doctor came, and +said he guessed he'd weathered that gale; and by-and-by he got well. + +He meant to have gone up and seen Lurindy, after all, but his ship was +ready for sea just as he was; and I thought it was about as well, for +he wasn't looking his prettiest. And so he declared I was the neatest +little trimmer that ever trod water, and he believed he should know a +Ruggles by the cut of her jib, (I wonder if he'd have known Aunt Mimy,) +and if ever he went master, he'd name his ship for me, and call it the +Sister of Charity. And he kissed me on both cheeks, and looked serious +enough when he sent his love to Lurindy, and went away; and no sooner +was he gone than Miss Talbot said I'd better have the doctor myself; and +I didn't sit up again for about three weeks. + +All this time I hadn't heard a word from home, and, for all I knew, +Stephen might be dead and buried. I didn't feel so very light-hearted, +you may be sure, when one day Miss Talbot brought me a letter. It was +from mother, and it seemed Stephen'd only had a bad fever, and had been +up and gone home for more than a week. So I wrote back, as soon as I +could, all about John, and how he'd gone to sea again, and how Miss +Talbot, who set sights by John, was rather lonely, and I thought I'd +keep her company a little longer, and try a spell in the mills, seeing +that our neighbors didn't think a girl had been properly accomplished +till she'd had a term or two in the factory. The fact was, I didn't want +to go home just then; I thought, maybe, if I waited a bit, my face would +get back to looking as it used to. So I worked in the piece-room, light +work and good pay, sent mother and Lurindy part of my wages, and paid my +board to Miss Talbot. She'd become quite attached to me, and I to her, +for all she was such an old-maidish thing; but I'd got to thinking an +old maid wasn't such a very bad thing, after all. Fourth of July came at +last, and the mills were closed, and I went with some of the other girls +on an excursion down the harbor; and when I got home, Miss Talbot told +me my Cousin Stephen had been down to see me, and had been obliged to go +home in the last train. I wondered why Stephen didn't stay, and then it +flashed upon me that she'd told him all about it, and he didn't want to +see me afterwards. I knew mother and Lurindy suspected why I didn't come +home, and now, thinks I, they _know_; but I asked no questions. + +When September came, I saw it wasn't any use delaying, and I might as +well go back to knitting sale-socks then as any time. However, I didn't +go till October. You needn't think I'd stayed away from the farm all +that time, while the tender things were opening, the tiny top-heavy +beans pushing up, the garden-sarse greening, the little grass-blades +two and two,--while all the young creatures were coming forward, the +chickens breaking the shell, and the gosling-storm brewing and dealing +destruction,--while the strawberries were growing ripe and red up in the +high field, and the hay and clover were getting in,--you needn't think +I'd stayed away from all that had been pleasant in my life, without many +a good heart-ache; and when at last I saw the dear old gray house again, +all weather-beaten and homely, standing there with its well-sweep among +the elms, I fairly cried. Mother and Lurindy ran out to meet me, when +they saw the stage stop, and after we got into the house it seemed if +they would never get done kissing me. And mother stirred round and made +hot cream-biscuits for tea, and got the best china, and we sat up till +nigh midnight, talking, and I had to tell everything John did and said +and thought and looked, over and over again. + +By-and-by I unpacked my trunk, and there was a little parcel in the +bottom of it, and I pulled it up. + +"There, Lurindy," says I, "John told me to tell you to have your +wedding-dress ready against he came home,--he's gone mate,--and here it +is." And I unrolled the neatest brown silk you ever saw, just fit for +Lurindy, she's so pale and genteel, and threw it into her lap. I'd +stayed the other month to get enough to buy it. + +The first thing Lurindy did, by way of thanks, was to burst into tears +and declare she never could take it, that she never should marry now; +and the more I urged her, the more she cried. But at last she said she'd +accept it conditionally,--and the condition was, I should be married +when she was. + +"Well," says I, "agreed, if you'll provide the necessary article; +because I can't very well marry my shadow, and I don't know any one else +that would be fool enough to have such a little fright." + +At that Lurindy felt all the worse, and it took all the spirits I had to +build up hers and mother's. I suppose I was sorry to see they felt +so bad, (and they hadn't meant that I should,) because it gave the +finishing stroke to my conviction; and after I was in bed, I grew +sorrier still; and if I cried, 't wasn't on account of myself, but I saw +how Lurindy 'd always feel self-accused, though she hadn't ought to, +whenever she looked at me, and how all her life she'd feel my scarred +face like a weight on her happiness, and think I owed it to John, and +how intolerable such an obligation, though it was only a fancied one, +would be; and I saw, too, that it all came from my not going up-stairs +that first time when Stephen knocked,--because if I had gone, I should +have been there when the doctor came, and Lurindy 'd have gone to have +taken care of John herself, and it would have been her face that was +ruined instead of mine; and though it was a great deal better that +it should be mine, still she'd have been easier in her mind;--and so +thinking and worrying, I fell asleep. + +Next day was baking-day, and Stephen was coming in the afternoon, and it +was almost five o'clock when we got cleared up, and I went up-stairs to +change my dress. I thought 't wasn't any use to trim myself out in bows +and ruffles now, so I just put on my brown gingham and a white linen +collar; but Lurindy came and tied a pink ribbon at my throat, and fixed +my hair herself, and looked down and said,-- + +"Well, I don't see but you're about as pretty as ever you was." + +That almost finished me; but I contrived to laugh, and got down-stairs. +Mother 'd run over to the village to get some yarn to knit up, for she +'d used all our own wool. It was getting dark, and I had just brought in +another log, and hung the kettle on the crane. The log hadn't taken fire +yet, and there was only a light glimmer, from the coals, on the ceiling. +I heard the back-door-latch click, and thought it was mother, and +commenced humming in the middle of a tune, as if I'd been humming the +rest and had just reached that part; but the figure standing there was a +sight too tall for mother. + +"Oh, Stephen," says I,--and my heart jumped in my throat, but I just +swallowed it down, and thanked Heaven that the evening was so dark,--"is +that you?" + +"Yes," says he, stepping forward, and putting out his hands, and making +as if he would kiss me. Just for a minute I hung back, then I went and +gave him my hand in a careless way. + +"Yes," says he; "and I can't say that you seem so very glad to see me." + +"Oh, yes," I answered, "I am glad. Did you drive over?" + +"Well," says he, "maybe you are; but I should call it a mighty cool +reception, after almost a year's absence. However, I suppose it's the +best manners not to show any cordiality; you've had a chance to learn +more politeness down at Salem than we have up here in the country." + +I was a little struck up by Stephen's running on so,--he was generally +so quiet, and said so little, and then in such short sentences. But in a +minute I reckoned he thought I was nervous, and was trying to put me at +my ease,--and he knew of old that the best way to do that was to rouse +my temper. + +"I ha'n't seen anybody at Salem better-mannered 'n mother and Lurindy," +said I. + +"Come home for Thanksgiving?" asked Stephen, hanging up his coat. + +I kept still a minute, for I couldn't for the life of me see what I had +to give thanks for. Then it came over me what a cheery, comfortable home +this was, and how Stephen would always be my kind, warm-hearted friend, +and how thankful I ought to be that my life had been spared, and that I +was useful, that I'd made such good friends as I had down to Salem, and +that I wasn't soured against all mankind on account of my misfortune. + +"Yes, Stephen," says I, "I've come home for Thanksgiving; and I have a +great deal to give thanks for." + +"So have I," said he. + +"Stephen," says I, "I don't exactly know, but I shouldn't wonder if I'd +had a change of heart." + +"Don't know of anybody that needed it less," says Stephen, warming his +hands. "However, if it makes you any more comfortable, I sha'n't object; +except the part of it that belongs to me,--I sha'n't have that changed." + +The fire'd begun to brighten now, and the room was red and +pleasant-looking; still I knew he couldn't see me plainly, and I waited +a minute, and lingered round, pretending I was doing something, which +I wasn't; I hated to break the old way of things; and then I took the +tongs and blew a coal and lighted the dip and held it up, as if I was +looking for something. Pretty soon I found it; it was a skein of linen +thread I was going to wind for Lurindy. Then I got the swifts and came +and sat down in front of the candle. + +"There," says I, "the swifts is broken. What shall I do?" + +"I'll hold the thread, if that's your trouble," says Stephen, and came +and sat opposite to me while I wound. + +I wondered whether he was looking at me, but I didn't durst look +up,--and then I couldn't, if my life had depended upon it. At last we +came to the end; then I managed to get a glance edgeways. He hadn't been +looking at all, I don't believe, till that very moment, when he raised +his eyes. + +"Are folks always so sober, when they've had a change of heart?" he +asked, with his pleasant smile. + +"They are, when they've had a change of face," I was going to say; but +just then mother came in with her bundle of yarn, and Lurindy came down, +and there was such a deal of welcoming and talking, that I slipped round +and laid the table and had the tea made before they thought of it. I'd +about made up my mind now that Stephen would act as if nothing had +happened, and pretend to like me just the same, because he was so +tender-hearted and couldn't bear to hurt my feelings nor anybody's; and +I'd made up my mind, too, that, as soon as he gave me a chance, I'd tell +him I was set against marriage: leastwise, I wouldn't have him, because +I wouldn't have any man marry me out of pity; and the more I cared for +him, the more I couldn't hamper an ugly face on him forever. So, you +see, I had quite resolved, that, cost me what it would, I'd say 'No,' if +Stephen asked me. Well, it's a very good thing to make resolutions; but +it's a great deal better to break them, sometimes. + +Having come to my conclusions, I grew as merry as any of them; and when +mother put two spoons into Stephen's cup, I told him he was going to +have a present. And he said he guessed he knew what it was; and I said +it must be a mitten, I'd heard that Martha Smith had taken to knitting +lately; and he confounded Martha Smith. Mother and Lurindy were very +busy talking about the yarn, and how Mr. Fisher wanted the next socks +knit; and Stephen asked me what that dish was beside me. I said, it was +lemon-pie, and the top-crust was made of kisses, and would he have +some? And he said, he didn't care for anybody's kisses but mine, and he +believed he wouldn't. And I told him the receipt of this came from the +Queen's own kitchen. And he said, he didn't know that the Queen of +England was any better than the Queen of Hearts. Then I said, I supposed +he remembered how the latter lady was served by the Knave of Hearts +in 'Mother Goose'? And he replied, that he wasn't going to be +Jack-at-a-pinch for anybody. And so on, till mother finished tea. + +After tea, I sat up to the table and ended some barley-trimming that I'd +just learned how to make; and as the little kernels came tumbling out +from under my fingers, Stephen sat beside and watched them as if it +was a field of barley, growing, reaped, and threshed under his eyes. +By-and-by I finished it; and then, rummaging round in the table-drawer, +I found the sock that I was knitting, waiting at the very stitch where I +left it, 'most a year ago. + +"Well, if that isn't lucky!" said I. And I sat down on a stool by the +fireside, determined to finish that sock that night; and no sooner had +I set the needles to dancing, like those in the fairy-story, than open +came the kitchen-door again, and in, out of the dark, stepped Aunt Mimy. + +"Good-evenin', Miss Ruggles!" says she. "Heow d' ye du, Emerline? hope +yer gwine ter stay ter hum a spell. Why, Stephen, 's this you? Quite a +femily-party, I declare fur't! Wai, Miss Ruggles, I got kind o' tired +settin' in the dark, an', ez I looked out an' see the dips blazin' in +yer winder, thinks I, I'll jest run up an' see w'at's ter pay." + +"Why, there's only one dip," says Lurindy. + +"Wal, thet's better 'n none," answered Miss Mimy. + +I had enough of the old Adam left in me to be riled at her way of +begging as much as ever I was; but I saw that Stephen was amused; he +hadn't ever happened to be round, when Aunt Mimy was at her tricks. + +"No, Miss Ruggles," continued she, "I thank the Lord I ha'n't got a +complainin' sperrit, an' hed jest ez lieves see by my neighbor's dip ez +my own, an', mebbe ye 'll say, a sight lieveser." + +And then Miss Mimy pulled out a stocking without beginning or end, and +began to knit as fast as she could rattle, after she 'd fixed one needle +in a chicken-bone, and pinned the chicken-bone to her side. + +"Wal, Emerline," says she, "I s'pose ye've got so grand down ter the +mills, thet, w'at 'ith yer looms an' machines an' tic-doloreux, ye won't +hev nothin' ter say ter the old way uv knittin' socks." + +"Does this look like it, Aunt Mimy?" says I, shaking my needles by way +of answer. "I'm going to finish this pair to-night." + +"Oh," says she, "you be, be you? Wal, ef I don't e'en a'most vum it's +the same one! ef ye ha'n't been nigh abeout a hull year a-knittin' one +pair uv socks!" + +"How do you know they're the same pair?" asked I. + +"By a mark I see you sot in 'em ter the top, ef ye want ter know, afore +I thought it would be hangin' by the eyelids the rest uv yer days. Wal, +I never 'xpected ye'd be much help ter yer mother; ye're tew fond uv +hikin' reound the village." + +"Indeed, Miss Mimy," said Lurindy, kind of indignant, "she's always been +the greatest help to mother." + +"I don't know how I should have made both ends meet this year, if it +hadn't been for her wages," said mother. + +Stephen was whittling Miss Mimy's portrait on the end of a stick, and +laughing. I was provoked with mother and Lurindy for answering the +thing, and was just going to speak up, when I caught Stephen's eye, and +thought better of it. Pretty soon Aunt Mimy produced a bundle of herbs +from her pocket, and laid them on the table. + +"Oh, thank you, Aunt Jemimy," says mother. "Pennyroyal and catnip's +always acceptable." + +"Yes," said Aunt Mimy. "An' I'll take my pay in some uv yer dried +apples. Heow much does Fisher give fur socks, Miss Ruggles?" she asked, +directly. + +"Fifty cents and I find,--fifteen and he finds." + +"An' ye take yer pay out uv the store? Varry reasonable. I wuz thinkin' +uv tryin' my han' myself;--business's ruther dull, folks onkimmon well +this fall. Heow many strings yer gwine ter give me fur the yarbs?" + +Then mother went up garret to get the apples and spread the herbs to +dry, and Lurindy wanted some different needles, and went after her. +Stephen'd just heaped the fire, and the great blaze was tumbling up +the chimney, and Miss Mimy lowered her head and looked over her great +horn-bowed spectacles at me. + +"Wal, Emerline Ruggles," says she, after a while, going back to her +work, "you've lost all _your_ pink cheeks!" + +I suppose it took me rather sudden, for all at once a tear sprung and +fell right down my work. I saw it glistening on the bright needles a +minute, and then my eyes filmed so that I felt there was more coming, +and I bent down to the fire and made believe count my narrowings. After +all, Aunt Mimy was kind of privileged by everybody to say what she +pleased. But Stephen didn't do as every one did, always. + +"Emmie's beauty wasn't all in her pink cheeks, Miss Mimy," I heard him +say, as I went into the back-entry to ask mother to bring down the mate +of my sock. + +"Wal, wherever it was, there's precious little of it left!" said she, +angry at being took up, which maybe she never was before in her life. + +"You don't agree with her friends," said he, cutting in the stick the +great mole on the side of her nose; "_they_ all think she's got more +than ever she had." + +Mother tossed me down the mate, and I went back. + +"Young folks," said Aunt Mimy, after two or three minutes' silence, "did +ye ever hear tell o' 'Miah Kemp?" + +"Any connection of old Parson Kemp in the other parish?" asked Stephen. + +"Yes," said Aunt Mimy,--"his brother. Wal, w'en I wuz a young gal, +livin' ter hum,--my father wuz ez wealthy ez any farmer thereabeouts, ye +know,--I used ter keep company 'ith 'Miah Kemp. 'Miah wuz a stun-mason, +the best there wuz in the deestrik, an' the harnsomest boy there +tew,--though I say it thet shouldn't say it,--he hed close-curlin' black +hair, an' an arm it done ye good ter lean on. Wal, one spring-night,--I +mind it well,--we wuz walkin' deown the lane together, an' the wind +wuz blowin', the laylocks wuz in bloom, an' all overhead the lane wuz +rustlin' 'ith the great purple plumes in the moonlight, an' the air wuz +sweeter 'ith their breath than any air I've ever taken sence, an' ez we +wuz walkin', 'Miah wuz askin' me fur ter fix eour weddin'-day. Wal, w'en +he left me at the bars, I agreed we'd be merried the fifteenth day uv +July comin', an' I walked hum; an' I mind heow I wondered ef Eve wuz +so happy in Paradise, or ef Paradise wuz half so beautiful ez thet +scented lane. The nex' mornin', ez I wuz milkin', the ceow tuk fright +an' begun ter cut up, an' she cut up so thet I run an' she arter me,--an' +the long an' the short uv it wuz thet she tossed me, an' w'en they got +me up they foun' I hedn't but one eye. Wal, uv course, my looks wuz +sp'iled,--fur I'd been ez pretty'z Emerline wuz,--you wuz pretty once, +Emerline,--an' I sent 'Miah Kemp word I'd hev no more ter du 'ith him +nor any one else neow. 'Miah, he come ter see me; but I wuz detarmined, +an' I stuck ter my word. He did an' said everything thet mortal man +could,--thet he loved me better'n ever, an' thet 't would be the death +uv him, an' tuk on drefful. But w'en he'd got through, I giv' him the +same answer, though betwixt ourselves it a'most broke my heart ter say +it. I kep' a stiff upper-lip, an' he grew desp'rate, an' tuk all sorts +uv dangerous jobs, blastin' rocks an' haulin' stuns. One night,--'t wuz +jest a year from the night I'd walked 'ith him in thet lane,--I wuz +stan'in' by the door, an' all ter once I heerd a noise an' crash ez ef +all the thunderbolts in the Almighty's hand hed fallen together, an' I +run deown the lane an' met the men bringin' up sunthin' on an old door. +They hed been blastin' Elder Payson's rock, half-way deown the new well, +an' the mine hedn't worked, an' 'Miah'd gone deown ter see w'at wuz in +it; an' jest ez he got up ag'in, off it went, an' here he wuz 'ith a +great splinter in his chist,--ef the rest uv it wuz him. They couldn't +kerry him no furder, an' sot him deown; an' there wuz all the trees +a-wavin' overhead ag'in, an' all the sweet scents a-beatin' abeout the +air, jest uz it wuz a year ago w'en he parted from me so strong an' +whole an' harnsome; all the fleowers wuz a-blossomin', all the winds wuz +blowin' an' this lump uv torn flesh an' broken bones wuz 'Miah. I laid +deown on the grass beside him, an' put my lips close to hisn, an' I +could feel the breath jest stirrin' between; an' the doctor came an' +said 't warn't no use; an' they threw a blanket over us, an' there I +laid tell the sun rose an' sparkled in the dew an' the green leaves an' +the purple bunches, an' the air came frolickin' fresh an' sweet abeout +us; an' though I'd knowed it long, layin' there in the dark, neow I see +fur sartain thet there warn't no breath on them stiff lips, an' the +forehead was cold uz the stuns beneath us, an' the eyes wuz fixed an' +glazed in thet las' look uv love an' tortur' an' reproach thet he giv' +me. They say I went distracted; an' I _du_ b'lieve I've be'n cracked +ever sence." + +Here Aunt Mimy, who had told her whole story without moving a muscle, +commenced rocking violently back and forth. + +"I don't often remember all this," says she, after a little, "but las' +spring it all flushed over me; an' w'en I heerd heow Emerline'd +be'n sick,--I hear a gre't many things ye do' no' nothin' abeout, +children,--I thought I'd tell her, fust time I see her." + +"What made you think of it last spring?" asked Stephen. + +"The laylocks wuz in bloom," said Miss Mirny,--"the laylocks wuz in +bloom." + +Just then mother came down with the apples, and some dip-candles, and +a basket of broken victuals; and Miss Mimy tied her cloak and said she +believed she must be going. And Stephen went and got his hat and coat, +and said,-- + +"Miss Mimy, wouldn't you like a little company to help you carry your +bundles? Come, Emmie, get your shawl." + +So I ran and put on my things, and Stephen and I went home with Aunt +Mimy. + +"Emmie," says Stephen, as we were coming back, and he'd got hold of my +hand in his, where I'd taken his arm, "what do you think of Aunt Mimy +now?" + +"Oh," says I, "I'm sorry I've ever been sharp with her." + +"I don't know," said Stephen. "'Ta'n't in human nature not to pity her; +but then she brought her own trouble on herself, you see." + +"Yes," said I. + +"I don't know how to blast rocks," says Stephen, when we'd walked a +little while without saying anything,--"but I suppose there is something +as desperate that I can do." + +"Oh, you needn't go to threatening me!" thinks I; and, true enough, he +hadn't any need to. + +"Emmie," says he, "if you say 'No,' when I ask you to have me, I sha'n't +ask you again." + +"Well?" says I, after a step or two, seeing he didn't speak. + +"Well?" says he. + +"I can't say 'Yes' or 'No' either, till you ask me," said I. + +He stopped under the starlight and looked in my eyes. + +"Emmie," says he, "did you ever doubt that I loved you?" + +"Once I thought you did," said I; "but it's different now." + +"I _do_ love you," said he, "and you know it." + +"Me, Stephen?" said I,--"with my face like a speckled sparrow's egg?" + +"Yes, you," said he; and he bent down and kissed me, and then we walked +on. + +By-and-by Stephen said, When would I come and be the life of his house +and the light of his eyes? That was rather a speech for Stephen; and +I said, I would go whenever he wanted me. And then we went home very +comfortably, and Stephen told mother it was all right, and mother and +Lurindy did what they'd got very much into the habit of doing,--cried; +and I said, I should think I was going to be buried, instead of married; +and Stephen took my knitting-work away, and said, as I had knit all our +trouble and all our joy into that thing, he meant to keep it just as it +was; and that was the end of my knitting sale-socks. + +I suppose, now I've told you so far, you'd maybe like to know the rest. +Well, Lurindy and John were married Thanksgiving morning; and just as +they moved aside, Stephen and I stepped up and took John and Aunt Mimy +rather by surprise by being married too. + +"Wal," says Aunt Mimy, "ef ever you hang eout another red flag, 't won't +be because Lurindy's nussin' Stephen!" + +I don't suppose there's a happier little woman in the State than me. I +should like to see her, if there is. I go over home pretty often; and +Aunt Mimy makes just as much of my baby--I've named him John--as mother +does; and that's enough to ruin any child that wasn't a cherub born. And +Miss Mimy always has a bottle of some new nostrum of her own stilling +every time she sees any of us; we've got enough to swim a ship, on the +top shelf of the pantry to-day, if it was all put together. As for +Stephen, there he comes now through the huckleberry-pasture, with the +baby on his arm; he seems to think there never was a baby before; and +sometimes--Stephen's such a homebody--I'm tempted to think that maybe +I've married my own shadow, after all. However, I wouldn't have it other +than it is. Lurindy, she lives at home the most of the time; and once in +a while, when Stephen and mother and I and she are all together, and as +gay as larks, and the baby is creeping round, swallowing pins and hooks +and eyes as if they were blueberries, and the fire is burning, and the +kettle singing, and the hearth swept clean, it seems as if heaven had +actually come down, or we'd all gone up without waiting for our robes; +it seems as if it was altogether too much happiness for one family. And +I've made Stephen take a paper on purpose to watch the ship-news; for +John sails captain of a fruiter to the Mediterranean, and, sure enough, +its little gilt figure-head that goes dipping in the foam is nothing +else than the Sister of Charity. + + + + +SCUPPAUG. + + +The crowd was decidedly a heterogeneous one on the edge of which I stood +at eight o'clock, A.M., one scorching July morning, under an awning at +the end of a rickety pier, waiting for the excursion-steamer which was +to convey us to the distant sand-banks over which the clear waters lap, +away down below the green-sloped highlands of Neversink,--sea-shoal +banks, from which silvery fishes were warning us off with their waving +fins. + +Now the crowd, being a heterogeneous one, as I have said, had the vulgar +element pervading it to a dominant extent. It consisted mainly of such +"common people," indeed, that no person of exquisite refinement would +have thought of feeling his way through it, unless his hands were +protected by what Aminadab Sleek calls "little goat-gloves." And +yet there is another style of mitten, a large, unshapely, bloated +knuckle-fender, stuffed with curled hair, that might be far more +appropriate to the operation of shouldering in among such "muscular +Christians" as the majority around, on the occasion to which I refer. + +In the resorts to which habitual tipplers have recourse for consolation +of the spirituous kind, a cheap variety is usually on hand to meet +exigencies,--the exigency of a commercial crisis, for instance, when the +last lonely dime of the drinker is painfully extracted from the pocket, +to be replaced by seven inconsiderable cents. This abomination is termed +"all sorts" by the publican and his indispensable sinner. It is the +accumulation of the drainage of innumerable gone drinks,--fancy and +otherwise. The exquisite in the "little goat-gloves" would not hob-nob +with me in that execrable beverage; no more would I with him; and yet +one of its components may be the aristocratic Champagne. In the social +elements of a water-excursion-party may be found the "all sorts" of a +particular kind of city-life,--the good of it and the bad of it, with +a dash of something that is very low. But I am going to talk about the +thing as I found it,--the rough side of the social mill-stone; and, +seeing that I have suffered nothing by contact with it, I suppose no +harm will come to such as listen to the little I have got to say on the +subject. + +A benevolent desire to launch far and wide the already well-spread +reputation of the New York rowdy impels the present writer to declare +his conviction, that, should Physiology offer a premium for the +production of a perfect and unmitigated specimen of _polisson_, +Experience would seek for it among the choice representatives of the +class in question,--ay, and find it, too. Nor would the ardor of search +be chilled by the suggestion of scarcity conveyed in the practical +sarcasm of the sly old cynic, when he scorched human nature with a horn +lantern by instituting a search with it on the sun-bright highways for +an unauthenticated type of man. And yet the rowdy, like many another +ugly and repulsive thing, may have his use. In the East Indies, it is +customary to keep a live turtle in the wayside water-tanks which are so +precious in that thirsty land, the movements of the animal, as well as +the industry with which it devours all noxious particles which chance +may have conveyed into the waters, serving to keep them in a condition +of purity and health. The rowdy is the turtle in the tank,--so far, +at least, as being an ugly beast to look at and a great promoter of +commotion,--by which latter service he keeps the community alive to +the presence of impure particles in the social element, if he does not +assist in getting rid of them. An alligator in an aquarium might furnish +a better comparison for him in other respects. + +Of this class there are many branches; but the one with which I have to +deal at present is to be studied to most advantage by visiting some pier +of the great river-frontage of New York, to which excursion-boats rush +emulously at appointed hours, crossing and jostling each other with +proper respect for their individual rights as free commoners of +the well-tilled waters. Here, as, with audacious disregard of the +chance-medley of smashed guards and obliterated paddle-boxes, the great +water-wagons graze wheels upon the ripple-paved turnpike of the river, +the steamboat-runner, squalidly red from the effects of last night's +carouse, and reeking sensibly of the alcoholic "morning call," may be +recognized by the native manner in which he makes the pier peculiarly +his own,--by the inflammatory character--which unremitting dissipation +has imparted to the inhaling apparatus of his unclassical features,--by +the filthy splendor of his linen, which a low-buttoning waistcoat, +gorgeous and dirty likewise, unbosoms disadvantageously to the gaze of +the beholder,--by the invariable "diamond" pin, of gift-book style, with +which the juncture of the first-mentioned integument is effected, if +not adorned,--and, above all, by the massive guards and guy-chains with +which his watch is hitched on to the belaying arrangements of Chatham +Street garments, the original texture and tint of which have long been +superseded by predominant grease. Hand and elbow with the professional +city-rowdy the steamboat-runner is ever to be found: at the cribs, where +the second-rate men of the "fancy" hold their secret meetings; clinging +about the doors of the Court of Sessions, where, as eavesdroppers,--for +they are known to the door-keeper, and rejected from the friendship of +that stern officer,--they strive, with ear at keyhole, to catch a word +or two which may give them a clue to the probable fate of "Jim," who +is in the dock there, on his trial for homicide or some such light +peccadillo; loitering round the dog-pit institutions, where +the quadrupeds look so amazingly like men and the men like +quadrupeds,--especially in that one where the eye of taste may be +gratified by the supernatural symmetry of the stuffed bull-terriers in +glass cases, the enormity of which specimens is accounted for by the +gentlemanly proprietor, who tells us that "the man as stuffed 'em never +stuffed anythink else afore, only howls." + +I suppose it must have been the tacit acknowledgment of some superiority +by me inappreciable, that accorded to one individual of the small +assemblage of roughs under notice a decidedly influential position among +the congenial spirits hovering around. The superior blanchness of this +person's linen would seem to indicate that his association with mere +runners was but occasional and for commercial ends. Also might that +conclusion have been deduced from the immaculacy of his cream-white +Panama hat. That was a jaunty article, with upturned brim, the pride +of which was discernible in the very simplicity with which it sat, +unadulterated by band or trimmings, upon the closely cropped, +mole-colored head of the wearer. Thirty dollars, at least, must have +been its marketable value. Instead of being fitted with chain-tackle, +the watch of this superior person maintained its connection with the +open air by means of a broad watered ribbon plummeted straight down his +leg with a seal hardly inferior in size to a deep-sea lead. This daring +recurrence to first principles is much to be observed, of late, among +the choice spirits of the so-called "sporting" fraternity of New York. + +This man, as I supposed, and as I subsequently heard from my friend +Locus, of the police, who came upon the pier, was not a runner now, but +had risen from that respectable rank by large exercise of the virtues so +intimately associated with it. In attributing an exalted position to him +I was right. He was the keeper of a house of entertainment for emigrants +in one of the down-town tributaries to Broadway, where tickets could +also be had for California and most other parts of the world, at an +advance of not more than one-third on the rates charged at the regular +steamboat-offices. Considering the respectability of this person's +occupation, I was surprised when Locus referred to him, familiarly, as +"Flashy Joe," adding that he was widely known, if not respected, and +that he would, probably, be entitled some day to have his portrait +placed in a gallery of which he, Locus, knew, but into which my +aesthetic researches have not hitherto led me. + +There was another noticeable character in the rough part of the +heterogeneous crowd. This man, while on a footing of the greatest +intimacy with the runners, was far inferior to them in the matter +of dress. Locus, in reply to my queries, informed me that he was a +professional oyster-opener; but, judging from his appearance in general, +I should have guessed that he was a professional oyster-catcher also,--a +human dredge, employed chiefly at the bottom of the sea. A perfect +Hercules in build, "Lobster Bob," as Locus called him, made his +appearance on the wharf with two enormous creels of oysters, one +balanced on each hip, with the careless ease of unconscious strength, +His costume consisted solely of a ragged blue cotton shirt and trousers, +immense knobby cowskin boots white with age, and a mouldy drab felt hat. +The button-less blue shirt flapped widely open from his brawny chest; +and his shirt-sleeves, rolled up to the shoulder, gave full display to a +pair of arms of a mould not usually to be found outside the prize-ring, +and but seldom within the sanctuary of that magic circle. As if in +compensation for the merely nominal allowance of costume tolerated by +this crustacean professor, his chest and arms were entirely covered with +a wild arabesque of tattoo-work, in blue and red. Many and original +artists must have been employed in the embellishment of Robert's tawny +hide. The one to whose sense of the fitness of things was intrusted +the illustration of his right arm had seized boldly upon the oval +protuberance of the biceps, a few skilfully disposed dots and dashes +upon which had converted it into a face which was no bad reproduction of +Bob's own. On the broad flexors of his sun-bronzed fore-arm there blazed +a grand device which might have puzzled a whole college of heralds to +interpret,--a combination of eagles and banners and shields, coruscating +with stars and radiant with stripes. But more suggestive than any of +these shams was the stern reality of a purple scar which ran round the +back of his neck, from ear to ear. More than one man must have been +hurt, when that scar was made. + +Notwithstanding the bull-dog projection of this formidable giant's lower +jaw, there sometimes beamed on his face that good-natured expression +often observable in men whose unusual muscular development places them +on a footing of physical superiority to those with whom they shoulder +along the road of life. When the runners "chaffed" him, nevertheless, +it was in a mild way, and with manifest respect for his muscle,--a +sentiment in no way diminished when he suddenly clutched one of the +least cautious among them by the nape of the neck, and held him out at +arm's-length, for some seconds, over the drowny water that kept lazily +licking at the green moss on the old stakes of the rickety pier. + +Even unto the Prince of Darkness, saith proverbial philosophy, let us +concede his due. If, then, a single ray of good illuminates at some +happy moment the dark spirit of these roughs, let it be recorded with +that bare, unfledged truth which is so much better a bird than uncandor +with the finest of feathers upon him. + +Feeling his way into the circle with a stick, there came a poor blind +man, of diminutive stature, squeezing beneath his left arm a suffocating +accordion, which, every now and then, as he stumbled against the uneven +planks of the wharf, gave a querulous squeak, doleful in its cadence as +the feeble quavers evoked by Mr. William Davidge, comedian, from +the asthmatic clarionet of Jem Bags, in the farce of the "Wandering +Minstrel." + +"Come, b'hoys!" cried Lobster Bob, "let's have a squeeze of music from +Billy, afore the boat comes up"; and, plumping down one of his creels in +the middle of the crowd, he lifted up the musician, and seated him upon +the rough, cold oysters,--a throne fitter, certainly, for a follower of +Neptune than a votary of Apollo. One of the roughs danced an ungraceful +measure to the music of the accordion, mimicking, as he did so, the +queer contortions into which the musician twisted his features in +perfect harmony with his woful strains. All of them were gentle to the +blind man, though, as if his darkness had brought to them a ray of +light; and presently one of them takes off the musician's cap, drops +into it a silver dime, and goes the rounds of the throng with many +jocose appeals in favor of the owner, to whom he presently returns it +in a condition of silver lining analogous to, but more substantial than +that of the poet's cloud. + +But now the poor music of the accordion was quite extinguished by the +bellowing of the brazen horns of the "cotillon band" on the deck of our +expected steamer, as she rounded to from the upper piers at which she +had been taking in excursionists. This caused a stir in the crowd under +the awning, many of whom were fathers of families taking their wives and +children out for a rare holiday. The smallest babies had not been left +at home, but were there in all their primary scarletude, set off by the +whitest of lace-frilled caps trimmed with the bluest of ribbons. And now +came the time for these small choristers to take up the "wondrous tale"; +for the big horns had ceased to wrangle, and the crushing and rushing of +the crowd woke up infancy to a sense of its wrongs and a consciousness +of the necessity for action. + +There were some nice-looking girls around, neatly dressed, too, though +by no means in their Sunday-best; for _la petite New-Yorkaise_ is aware +of the mishaps to be encountered by those who venture far out to sea in +ships. They had sweethearts with them, for the most part, or brothers, +or cousins, mayhap: but they were sadly neglected by these protectors, +as we stood under the awning on the pier; for the male mind was full of +fishing, and the male hands were employed in making up tackle with a +most unscientific kind of skill. + +And now the final rush came, as the steamer made fast alongside the +outermost of the boats already lying at the pier, across the decks of +which our heterogeneous crowd began to make its way with as little +scrambling as possible, on account of the petticoat-hoops, which +are capital monitors in a turmoil. Women swayed their babies like +balancing-poles, as they tottered along the gangway-plank. Men tried to +secure themselves from being brushed into eternity by the powerful sweep +of skirts. My own personal reminiscence of this transit from the wharf +to the gallant bark of our choice is melancholy and vague, being marked +chiefly to memory by the complicated curse bestowed upon me by a hideous +old Irish-woman, whose oranges I accidentally upset in the crowd, and by +whom I was subsequently derided with buffo song and scurrilous dance as +long as the steamer remained within hearing and sight. + +Away we are steaming down the bay, at last, a motley party of men, +women, and children of all sizes and sorts: husbands, wives, milliners +and their lovers; young men who have brought no young women with them, +because they have come for fishing and fishing only; and advanced +fathers, who, making a virtue of having brought out wife and child for +a holiday, now leave them a good deal to take care of themselves, and +devote all their energies to being pleasant as remotely from them as +circumstances will allow. Roughs, to the number of a dozen or so, mostly +steamboat-runners and their congeners, are of the party, headed by +Flashy Joe. Lobster Bob has set up his oyster-plank in a central +situation. Venders of unfresh-looking refreshments have established +themselves on board; and the bar-keeper, near the forecastle, is +preparing himself for the worst. + +By-and-by I noticed a good-looking specimen of Young New York on board, +and was introduced to him by a cigar. He was a handsome boy, with dark, +oval face, and Arabian eyes. The silky black line that just marked the +curve of his upper lip gave promise of a splendid moustache; his closely +crisped black hair was but just visible below the rim of his jaunty +straw hat, the band of which was a tasselled cord of crimson silk; while +his lithe figure was suggested rather than displayed by the waving lines +of his loose brown jacket with tapering _gigot_ sleeves. His low-cut +shirt-collar and narrow silken neck-tie were in the style called +"English," as quite decidedly, also, were his cross-barred trousers of +balloony build; nor, although thus flinging himself for diversion into +the vortex of the lower crowd, had he foregone the luxury of tan-colored +kid gloves and patent-leather shoes. He was a bright boy, and precocious +as a lady-killer; for, already, before we had left far behind us the +pleasant slopes of Bay Ridge, with its peeping villa-parapets of +brown and white, and its umbrageous masses of chromatic green, he +had evidently engaged the affections of an _espiègle_ little +straw-bonnet-maker, who did her hair something like his own, in a +close-curled crop, and had her pretty little person safely shut up in a +high-necked dress. + +That young lady had a suitor with her, who was clearly not a sweetheart, +however, by a good deal, but merely a follower tolerated for the day, +and on the score of convenience only. He was a tall, gaunt, pale young +man, with long hands and feet, slouching shoulders and narrow chest, +and a strange, indescribable nullity of expression dwelling upon his +features. He did not appear to be encouraged much by little Straw-Goods, +whose mind was probably occupied with prospective possibilities of being +led out to the festive dance by Young New York. Altogether, he was an +unsatisfactory-looking young man, his unfinished look reminding one of +raw material, though it would have been hard to say for what. + +But the band had now ceased mellowing out the favorite medley which +begins with "Casta Diva" and runs over into the lovely cadences of +"Gentle Annie"; and the abrupt transition from that mournful strain to a +light cotillon air warned four hundred holiday-people that the festive +dance was about to begin on the wide floor between the engine-room and +the saloon. Cotillons are a leading pastime among the people; and as the +water was pretty smooth down the bay, and a splendid breeze rushed aft +between-decks, many laughing girls and well-dressed matronly women now +made their appearance on the floor. Dancing without noise is a luxury as +yet uncalled for. Dancers must have music, we know,--and what is +music, but wild noise caught and trained? But these cotillons were +unnecessarily boisterous, on account of the roughs, who, looked upon as +outsiders by the better-behaved portion of the throng, got up a wild +war-step of their own on the skirts of the legitimate dance, dishonestly +appropriating to their coarse movements the music intended for it +alone, as they stamped and shouted, and wheeled round with a ludicrous +affectation of grace, in the space between the dancers and the bulkheads +of the deck. One of these roughs, a drunken, young fellow of wiry build, +whose hair, face, eyes, nose, ears, and hands were all of the color of +tomato-catchup, might have made an excellent low comedian, had destiny +led him upon the "boards." He had just been complaining to his +companions that his hand had been refused for the dance by a girl at +whom he pointed the red finger of wrath,--a pale, but very interesting +seamstress, who was whirling about with a much decenter young man than +the red one is ever likely to be. And then he nobly took his revenge +by the clever, but unprincipled way in which he caricatured the rather +remarkable dancing of the young man who was the object of his hate, and +whose style of movement it would not be consistent with this writer's +duty to deny was amenable to severity, and must, in any society, have +subjected him who indulged in it to the scorn of the flouter and the +contempt of all high-minded men. + +All through the dance, it was a thing to be remembered, how superior in +deportment the women were to the men. Probably it was from a natural +instinct for grace, and abhorrence of the ludicrous, that they merely +skimmed through the figures, without any of the demonstrations displayed +by their beaux. It was pleasant to look at the nice little straw-goods +damsel with the boyish hair, and to mark the contrast between her kitten +glidings and the premeditated atrocities of Raw Material, as he wove and +unwove his ungainly legs before her, in a manner appalling to witness. +She had only a common palm-leaf fan, I remarked,--worth, probably, about +two cents. But Young New York, as he waited patiently for the deadly +ocean-malady to fall upon Raw Material, who was unquestionably a subject +for it, and was drinking, besides, drew tightly up his tan-colored +gloves, and, twirling with finger and thumb the air just about where +it must some day be displaced by the future tendrils of the coming +moustache, affirmed upon oath his intention of presenting her with a fan +more worthy of her well-kept little hand, ere kind Fortune could have +time to drop another excursion-ticket into her work-basket. + +Should the solemn question arise as to how I knew that one of these +young women was in the straw-bonnet line, another a milliner, a third +a dress-maker, and so forth, I will answer it by stating that the left +forefinger of the seamstress, long since vulcanized into a little +file, furnishes the infallible sign which indicates the class. To the +practised eye, the varieties are known by many a token: by the smart +little close-grained cereal bonnet which little Straw-Goods put away +before she came into the dance; by the spicy creation of silk and +ribbons which roosts demurely, like a cedar-bird, on the back hair of +the pale girl, who is a milliner; by the superior manner in which the +hoops are disguised in the structure surrounding that blonde young wife +with the pink baby, who is a dressmaker. Let the lofty read studiously +the signs that in the heavens are portentous of storm or of shine; I, +who am of commoner clay, must content myself with deciphering those that +are of earth. + +But a "sea-change" was upon us. Last night there was a tornado of +rain and thunder and wind, and the effects of the latter were now +perceptible, as we began to rock through the ground-swell off Sandy +Hook, and down past the twin light-houses on the high, sunny ridges +of Neversink. The music ceased, the dancers deserted the 'tween-decks +floor, and, as the rocking of the boat increased, there arose in the +direction of the ladies' cabin audible suggestions of woe. + +And now the twin beacon-towers of Neversink were far, far behind, having +taken a position with regard to us which may be described, in military +phrase, as an _échelon_ movement upon our flank, and we went surging +through a fleet of little green fishing-boats, manned each by a single +fisherman in a red shirt, whose two horny hands appeared to be a couple +too few for the hauling in of the violet and silver _porgies_, with +which the well of his little green craft was alive and flapping. In the +middle of this fleet we rounded to, the anchor was let go, and we were +hard and fast upon the Fishing-Banks. + +The first thing done, on these excursions, by those who come to +fish,--which includes nearly all the men,--is to establish a claim +somewhere along the railing of the steamer, by attaching to it a strong +whip-cord fishing-line, with a leaden sinker and hook of moderate +size,--the latter lashed on, in most instances, with a disregard for art +which must be intensely disgusting to any man whose piscatorial memories +are associated with the wily salmon and the epicurean trout. Triangular +tin boxes are brought along by the fishermen to hold their bait, which +consists of soft clams, liberally sprinkled with salt to keep them in a +wholesome condition for the afternoon take. Attaching a line to any +part of the rail or combings, or to any projecting point of the boat, +establishes the _droit de pêche_ at that particular spot,--a right +respected with such rigorous etiquette, that the owner may then go his +way with confidence, to inspect the resources of the bar, or join the +gay throng of dancers between-decks. + +There must be something singularly fascinating in this curious pastime +of fishing with a hand-line from the jumping-off places of a steamboat +or pier. Doubtless it is from a defective sympathetic organization +that the writer of these pages does not himself "seem to see it." +Nevertheless, I look upon the illusion with a respect almost bordering +upon fear, although not quite in that spirit of veneration which moves +illogical savages to fall down and worship the stranger lunatic whom +chance has led to their odorous residences. Dwelling one summer on the +New Jersey shore, I used to loiter, day after day, upon a deserted +wharf, at the end of which was ever to be seen a broad-beamed fisherman, +sitting upon an uncomfortably wooden chair, from which he dabbled +perpetually with his whip-cord line in the shallow water that washed the +slimy face-timbers of the wharf. There he sat, day after day, and +all day, and, for aught I know, all through the summer-night, a +big-timbered, sea-worthy man, reading contentedly a daily paper of local +growth, and pulling up never a better bit of sea-luck than the puny, +mean-spirited fishling called by unscientific persons the _burgall_. +I would at any time have freely given ten cents for the privilege of +overhauling old broad-beam's carpet-bag, which he always placed before +him on the string-piece, with a view, I suppose, of frustrating anything +like a guerrilla plunder-movement upon his widely extended rear. Ay, +there must be something strangely entrancing in dragging the shoal +waters with a hand-line, for unsuspicious, easily duped members of the +acanthopterygian tribe of fishes,--under which alarming denomination +come, I believe, nearly all the finny fellows to be met with on these +sand-banks, from the bluefish to the burgall. Only think how stuck up +they would be above the lowly mollusks of the same waters, if they +knew themselves as Acanthopterygii, and were aware that their +great-grandfather was an Acanthopteryx before them, and so away back in +the age of waters that once were over all! "Very ancient and fish-like" +is their genealogy, to be sure! + +In the far-away days, when Neversink _was_, but the twin beacon-towers +that now watch upon its heights were _not_,--when Sandy Hook was a hook +only, and not a telegraph-station, from which the first glimpse of an +inward-bound argosy is winked by lightning right in at the window of the +down-town office where Mercator sits jingling the coins in his trousers' +pockets,--in those days, the only excursion-boats that rocked upon the +ground-swell over the pale, sandy reaches of the Fishing-Banks were the +tiny barklets that shot out on calm days from the sweeping coves, with +their tawny tarred-and-feathered crews: for of such grotesque result of +the decorative art of Lynch doth ever remind me the noble Indian warrior +in his plumes and paint. Unfitted, by the circumscribed character of +their sea-craft, their tackle, and their skill, for pushing their +enterprise out into the deeper water, where the shark might haply say to +the horse-mackerel,--"Come, old horse, let you and me hook ourselves on, +and take these foolish tawny fellows and their brown cockle-shell down +into the under-tow,"--they supplied their primitive wants by enticing +from the shallows the beautiful, sunny-scaled shoal-fish, well named by +ichthyologists _Argyrops_, the "silver-eyed." But the poor Indian, +who knew no Greek,--poor old savage, lament for him with a scholarly +_eheu!_--called this shiner of the sea, in his own barbarous lingo, +_Scuppaug_. Can any master of Indian dialects tell us whether that word, +too, means "him of the silver eye"? If it does, revoke, O student, your +shrill _eheu_ for the Greekless and untrousered savage of the canoe, +suppress your feelings, and go steadily into rhabdomancy with several +divining-rods, in search of the Pierian spring which must surely exist +somewhere among the guttural districts of the Ojibbeway tongue. + +And here there is diversion for philologist as well as fisherman; for +while the latter is catching the fish, the former may seize on the fact, +that in this word, _Scuppaug_, is to be found the origin of the two +separate names by which Argyrops, the silver-eyed, is miscalled in local +vernacular. True to the national proclivity for clipping names, the +fishermen of Rhode Island appeal to him by the first syllable only of +his Indian one,--for in the waters thereabout he is talked of by the +familiar abbreviation, _Scup._ But to the excursionists and fishermen of +New York he is known only as _Porgy,_ or _Paugie_, a form as obviously +derived from the last syllable of his Indian name as the emphatic +"siree" of our greatest orators is from the modest monosyllable "sir." +_Porgy_ seems to be the accepted form of the word; but letters of the +old, unphonetic kind are poor guides to pronunciation. And a beautiful, +clean-scaled fish is Porgy,--whose _g_, by-the-by, as I learned from a +funny man in the heterogeneous crowd, is pronounced "hard, as in 'git +eowt.'" A lovely fish is he, as he comes dripping up the side of the +vessel from his briny pastures. Silver is the pervading gleam of his +oval form; but while he is yet wet and fresh, the silver is flushed with +a chromatic radiance of gold, and violet, and pale metallic green, all +blending and harmonizing like the mother-o'-pearl lustre in some rare +sea-shell. The true value of this fish is not of a commercial kind, +for he cannot be deemed particularly exquisite in a gastronomic sense; +neither is he staple as a provision of food. His virtue lies in the +inducement offered to him by the citizen of moderate means, who, for +a trifling outlay, can secure for himself and family the invigorating +influence of the salt sea-breezes, by having a run down outside the Hook +any fine day in summer, with an object. The average weight of the porgy +of these banks may be set down at about a pound. + +Five minutes after we came to anchor, there must have been at least two +hundred and fifty whip-cord lines stretching out into the three-fathom +water from every available rail and fender of the old boat. Most of the +men had brought their tackle with them, and their tin canisters of bait. +To those who had not, the articles were ready at hand; for speculators +had mingled in the crowd, one of whom affixed his "shingle" to a post +between-decks, setting forth,--"Fishing-Lines and Hooks, with Sinkers +and Bait,"--the latter consisting of clams in the shell, contained in +a barrel big enough for the supply of the whole flotilla of green boats +and red shirts, which still hung around us like swallows in the wake of +an osprey. Two or three of our excursionists--men, perhaps, whose +minds indulged in dear memories of a brook that babbles by a mill--had +fishing-rods with them, and made great ado with scientific lunges and +casts, producing much discord, indeed, by flicking away wildly outside +their proper sea-limits. Most industrious among the hand-fishers I +remarked a small, spare man, who, under the careful supervision of a +buxom young wife in a "loud" tartan silk, baited no hook nor broke water +with his lead until he had first folded and put carefully away between +the handle and lid of the family prog-basket his tight little black +frock-coat, and passed his small legs through the tough creases of a +pair of stout blue "Denim" overalls. These, pulled up to his neck, and +hitched on there with shoulder-straps, served for waistcoat and trousers +and all, imparting to him the cool atmospheric effect so much admired in +that curious picture of Gainsborough's, known to connoisseurs as "The +Blue Boy." Then he fished the waters with a will; and it was but a +scurvy remark of Flashy Joe, who said that "it was about an even chance +whether he took porgy or porgy took _him_." But it seems to me that this +unskilled labor of fishing from a steamboat must be epidemic, if not +contagious; for even Young New York, who in the early forenoon doubted +visibly his discretion at having got himself into such an ugly scrape as +an "excursion-spree," put off his delicate gloves, and set to hauling, +hand over hand, as if for a bet. + +But I believe I have committed a breach of etiquette in giving +precedence to Scuppaug over the skipper, a very large and thoroughly +pickled old man, who now bustled deliberately about the decks, with as +few clothes on his broad back and stern-post legs as were consistent +with decorum and with the requirements of those by-laws of society which +extend even to Sandy Hook and the rest of the Jerseys, as well as to the +fishing-banks that shoal out from the same. Strictly speaking, this old +man of our part of the sea was not the captain of the boat, but the +pilot, who takes command of her when she abandons her proper line on +the rivers, and ventures to that "far Cathay" of city-navigators +indefinitely spoken of as "outside the Hook." The smooth-water captain +of the steamer, who was nobody to talk of now, was a slim, pale young +man, in a black dresscoat, tall, silky hat, and shoes of a material +which has long years ago been patented, on account of its matchless +ability to shine. This commander remained permanently within the +"office," where he was probably very poorly by himself during all this +"high old time." The stout old pilot was the real skipper; and now that +the vessel had come to anchor, he turned from his lighter duties to the +grave pastime of the day, and fished earnestly through a large hole in +the paddlebox,--the porgies that came to his allurements arriving at +their destination by a series of flapping manoeuvres from blade to blade +of the wheel. For so burly a man, and one with such a chest for the +stowage of sea-breezes and monsoons, the skipper was provided with a +wonderfully small voice, suggesting, as he lectured upon sea-fishing to +the novices who were getting into "snarls" with their tackle hard by +where he sat, the circumstance of a tree-toad discoursing from the +hollow of a brave old oak. + +"If you want to ketch good fish," said he, sententiously, to Young New +York, whose hook persisted in baiting itself with his thumb,--"if you +want to ketch reel snorters, you must have a heavy line, heavy lead, and +gimp tackle. Then take your own time, haul in, hand over hand, and no +matter what the heft, you'll be sure to fetch him." + +Young New York produced from his breast-pocket the blue enamelled case +in which reposed his ivory tablets, and, seating himself upon the +chain-box, wrote down with golden pencil the dictum of the sage. + +Notwithstanding the storm of yesterday, from which the discontented +foreboded a stampede of the fish to deeper waters, porgies to an +extraordinary amount were soon heaped on the decks, at the feet of each +fisherman, the more careful of whom put them into baskets or barrels. +But in general they were thrown carelessly on the deck, with a string +passed through their gills to keep them from straying out of their +proper lots. When these bright fishes are lying the deck, it is curious +to watch them flushing and gasping there, with that singular, dubious +expression of mouth peculiar to fishes out of water, as if more struck +by the absence of that element than by their novel position among the +accessories of dry life. Now and then a blackfish was hauled in,--an +event greeted with a loud cheer from all parts of the boat. When a very +large one was announced, people came rushing from all quarters to see +it; but the greatest tribute to largeness in a fish that I remember +anywhere to have seen was the altered expression on the face of a baby +some six months old, whose features settled permanently down into the +collapse of imbecility, from the moment of the arrival on the upper deck +of a blackfish two feet long. + +By this time the scene on the forecastle was quite a picture of the +Dutch school. Grouped everywhere among the fish and fishers were +matronly women and unbonneted damsels, most of them with handkerchiefs +tied upon their heads; for they had got over their sea-sickness, now, +and were coming by twos and threes from the saloon, to breathe a little +fresh air and look on at the sport. One pretty, Jewish-looking girl, +wrapped in a red and white shawl, was sitting on the big anchor near +the bows, and three or four others looked quite picturesque, as they +reclined on the heavy coils of the great cable. More central to the +picture than was at all advantageous to it sat our friend Raw Material, +with his head jammed recklessly into the capstan, abandoning himself +to his misery. For the inevitable malady had fallen upon him among the +first; and as he sat there, helpless and without hope, upon one of +those life-preserving stools that remind one, by their shape, of the +"properties" of Saturn in the mythology of old, he looked like Languor +on an hour-glass, timing the duration of Woe. All along the bulwarks +on both sides of the boat, men and boys were crowding upon each other, +casting out and hauling in their lines with unflagging spirit. Slim +city-children, blistered wholesomely as to their legs, from knee to +ankle, by the sun and the salt air, harnessed themselves to little heaps +of fish, and were driven about the upper deck in various fashionable +styles, including four-in-hand and tandem, by other slim city-children, +whose lower extremities had been treated in the same beneficial manner +by the same eminent physicians. The musicians had laid away their +cornopeans and other cunningly twisted horns upon the broad disk of the +big drum, in a dark alcove between-decks, and were fishing savagely in +German and broken English, according to the nationality with which their +affairs happened to get entangled. Even the colored _chef de cuisine_, +a muscular mulatto, with a beard of a rash disposition, coming out on +wrong parts of his face in little eruptive pustules of black wool, +sported his lines out of the galley-airholes, and his porgies were +simmering in the pan while their memories were yet green in the +submarine parishes from which they came. Have these finny creatures +their full revenge upon fishermankind, when a smack sinks foundered into +the swallowing deep? Do the midnight revellers in the sea-caverns +call out in broad Scuppaug to the attendant mermaid for a "half-dozen +large-sized jolterheads on the half monkey-jacket?" To these queries I +hope that Poetical Justice, if still living, will forward a reply at +her earliest convenience. Porgy now began to pervade the air with an +astringent perfume of the sea: none of your Fulton Market smells of +stagnating fish, but a clean, wholesome, coralline odor, such as we +may imagine supplied to the Peris "beneath the dark sea" by the scaly +fellows in the toilet line down there, who are likely to keep it for +sale in conch-shells,--quarts and pints. Porgy prevailed to that extent, +in fact, that it came to be talked of, by-and-by, as a circulating +medium; and a hard-fisted mechanic averred his intention of compensating +his landlady for his board with porgy, for the week that was passing +away. + +For some time, luck appeared to favor the starboard side of the boat, +at which the take was much greater than at the other. Hence, discontent +began to crawl in at the port-gangways, and the fishermen on that +side were gradually edging over to the other, to look for a chance of +stealing in their lines clandestinely between the ranks. This led to +an interchange of bad compliments, as well as to a very perceptible +slanting of the deck, and the captain piped out to the hands to shift +the chain-box. And by this action was resolved for me a riddle with +regard to the properties and uses of a prematurely stout man of fabulous +girth, who had been dimly revealed to me, once or twice in the course +of the voyage, through some long vista of the 'tween-decks, but seemed +always to melt into air,--or, more probably, oil,--upon any advance +being made to a closer inspection. Now, as a couple of the deck-hands +hauled and howled unsuccessfully at the unwieldy chain-box, this +mysterious person suddenly appeared, as if spirited up, and, throwing +himself stomach on to the loaded vehicle, shot across with it to the +other side of the deck with wonderful velocity, retiring, then, with a +gliding movement, so as to preserve the rectitude of the deck, which +now seemed inclined to slope rather too much the other way. I will not +undertake to say, for certain, that the stout man was paid for doing +this; but, as his hands were small and remarkably white, indications +that he toiled not with _them_, and as he made his appearance on deck +only when movable ballast was wanted, I am bound to suppose that he +secured a living by sitting heavily and throwing himself on for weight, +in circumstances under which such actions command a standard value. + +Three hours having gone by since we came to anchor, the healthful toil +of fishing in the salt sea produced its natural result,--a ravenous +appetite for food and drink; and a common consent to partake of +refreshments now began to develop itself. The wives had much to do with +this, as they detailed themselves along the railings, influencing +their husbands with hints about the hamper and flask. For most of the +family-people had brought their provisions with them; and, in many +cases, the basket was flanked by a stone jar which looked as if it might +contain lager-beer,--as, in several instances, it did. Where there were +many small children in a party, however, I noticed that the beverage +obtained from the jar was milk,--real Orange County cow-produce, let us +hope, and none of that sickly town-abomination, the vending of which +ought to be made by our legislators a felony, at least. Ham-sandwiches, +greatly enhanced in flavor by the circumstance of their outer surfaces +being impressed with a reverse of yesterday's news, from the contact of +the pieces of newspaper in which they were wrapped up, formed the staple +of the feast. Large bowls of the various, seasonable berries were also +in request; and all the shady places of the ship were soon occupied by +families, who distributed themselves in independent groups, as people +do in the sylvan localities dedicated to picnics. All were hungry and +happy, all better in mind and body,--illustrating the wise providence of +the instinct that whispers to the over-wrought artisan and bids him go +sometimes forth on a summer's day to the woods and waters,--a move which +the marine character of the subject impels me to speak of nautically, +but reverently, as taking himself and family into the graving-dock of +Nature, for the necessary repairs. + +Some of the girls now stole slyly about among the lines, and popped the +baits timidly into the blue water. The pale seamstress, who has quite +a rose-flush on her cheek now, has hooked a good-sized porgy, and her +screams in this terrible predicament have brought several smart young +men to her rescue. Another girl, pretty and well-dressed,--in the +glove-making line, as I guess from the family she is with, all of +whom, from paterfamilias to baby, are begloved in a manner entirely +irrespective of expense,--is kneeling pensively on the stern-benches +of the upper deck, paying out the line with confidence in herself, but +evidently hoping for masculine assistance in the process of hauling it +in. + +And where were our dear friends, the roughs, all this time? and how came +it that they were so quiet? They have been asleep,--snoring off the +effects of last night's diversions, and fortifying their constitutions +against the influences to come. Ever since the music ceased playing, +these fellows have been rolled away, singly or in heaps, in crooked +corners, into which they seem to fit naturally. But now they began to +rally, waking up and stretching themselves and yawning,--the last two +actions appearing to be the leading operations of a rowdy's toilet; and, +gathering round Lobster Bob, who has been steadily employed in opening +oysters for all who have a midsummer faith in those mollusks, they +commenced rapidly swallowing great quantities of the various kinds, +which they seasoned to an alarming extent with coarse black pepper +and brownish salt. The fierce thirst, which, with these men, is not a +consequence, because it is a thing that was and is and ever will be, was +brought vividly to their minds by this unnecessary adstimulation; and +now the bar-keeper, whose lager-beer was wellnigh exhausted, from its +connection with ham-sandwiches, had enough to do to furnish them with +whiskey, of which stimulant there was but too large a supply on hand. +The consequence of this was soon apparent in the ugly hilarity with +which the rowdies entered upon the enjoyment of the afternoon. First, in +spite of the remonstrances of the Teuton whose proper chattel it was, +they seized upon the large drum, with which they made an astounding din +in the public promenades of the vessel, abetted, I am sorry to say, by +some who ought to have known better,--and did, probably, before the +whiskey had curdled their wits. In this proceeding, as in all their +movements, they were marshalled by Flashy Joe, whose comparatively +spruce appearance, when he came on board in the morning, had been a good +deal deteriorated by broken slumbers in places not remote from coals, +and by the subsequent course of drinks. Quiet people were beginning to +express some dissatisfaction with the noise made by these fellows, who, +however, kept pretty much by themselves, as yet, and had got only to the +musical stage of the proceedings, chorusing with unearthly yells a song +contributed to the harmony of the afternoon by the first ruffian, the +burden of which ran,-- + + "When this old hat was ny-oo, my boys, + When this old hat was ny-oo-ooo!" + +No voice in this chorus dwelt more decidedly by itself than the shrill +one belonging to the small, spare man already spoken of as having a +buxom young wife and blue cotton overalls. During his wife's adjournment +to the ladies' cabin, this person, I am obliged to record, had become +boisterously drunk,--a condition in which the contradictory elements +that make up the characters of most men are generally developed to an +instructive extent. In his first paroxysm, the fighting man within him +was all aroused, as is generally the case with diminutive men, when +under the influence of drink. Already he had tucked his sleeves up to +fight a large German musician, who could have put him into the bell of +his brass-horn and played him out, without much trouble. But the song +pacified him; and, with a misty sense of his importance in a convivial +point of view, on account of the manner in which he had acquitted +himself in the chorus, he now essayed a higher flight, and treated the +party to a new version of "The Pope," oddly condensed into one verse, as +follows:-- + + "The Pope, he leads a happy life, + He fears no married care nor strife, + His wives are many as be will: + I would the Sultan's place, then, fill!" + +At this moment the buxom young wife descended suddenly from the upper +deck by the forecastle-ladder, like Nemesis from a thunder-cloud, and, +seizing upon the small warbler, to whom she administered a preliminary +shake which must have sadly changed the current of his ideas, drove him +ignominiously before her toward the stern of the vessel, rapping him +occasionally about the ears with the hard end of her fan, to keep him on +a straight course. Persons who traced the matter farther said that he +was driven all the way to the upper deck, pushed with gentle violence +into a state-room, the door locked upon him, and the key pocketed by the +lady, who said triumphantly, as she walked away,--"That's the Sultan's +place for _him_, I guess!" The moral to this little episode is but +a horn-book one, and without any pretension to didactic force: That +respectable citizens, like the small, spare man, would do well, on +excursion-trips or elsewhere, to avoid whiskey and black-guards; and +that wives might be saved a deal of trouble by keeping their eyes +permanently on their husbands, when the latter are of uncertain ways. + +This little domestic drama had hardly been played out, when a more +serious one--almost a tragedy--was enacted on the forecastle. It +originated in the misconduct of the red man, who, seized with a desire +to catch porgies, went a short way to work for tackle, by snatching away +the line of a peaceable, but stout Frenchman, who was paralyzed for a +moment by the novelty of the thing, but, immediately recovering himself, +expressed his dissent by smashing an earthen-ware dish, containing a +great mess of raw clams for bait, upon the head of the red man, as he +stooped over the railing to fish. This led to a general fight, in which +blood flowed freely, and the roughs were getting rather the upper-hand. +Knives were drawn by some of the Germans and others in self-defence, +and great consternation reigned in the afterpart of the boat and +the neighborhood of the ladies' cabin. Then the slim captain of the +boat--the one in the black dress-coat--hurriedly whispered something to +Lobster Bob, who rushed away aft, where the fight was now agglomerating, +headed by the red man and Flashy Joe, both covered with blood, and +looking like demons, as they wrestled and bit through the Crowd. Just +as they hustled past a large chest intended for the stowage of +life-preservers, Lobster Bob kicked the lid of it open with a bang, and, +seizing up the red man, neck and crop, with his huge, tattooed hands, +dropped him into it and shut down the lid, which was promptly sat upon +by the large, stout, smiling man already favorably spoken of in these +pages, who suddenly made his appearance from nowhere in particular. The +picture of contentment, he sat there like one who knew how, caressing +slowly his large knees with his short, plump hands, until the cries from +the chest began to wax feeble, when he slowly arose, vanished, and I +never saw him again. The red rowdy was then dragged, half-suffocated, +from his imprisonment, and as much life as he ought ever to be intrusted +with restored to him by the stout old skipper, who was at hand with a +couple of buckets full of cold salt-water, with which he drenched him +liberally, as he slunk away. A diversion thus effected, the disturbance +was quelled. All was quiet in a short time, and the word was passed to +heave the anchor and 'bout ship for home. + +On the way back, we took a pleasant course inside the Hook, which +brought the charming scenery of the Jersey shore and of Staten Island +before us, as a pleasant drop-curtain on the melodrama just closed. The +music again struck up, and dancing was resumed with fresh vigor,--the +waltzing of all other couples being quite eclipsed by that of Young New +York and little Straw-Goods, who had effectually got rid of her tipsy +persecutor ever since the ground-swell, and was keeping rather in the +background of late, with a sober-minded lady whom she called "aunty." +With the exception of the few who took to whiskey and bad company, all +appeared contented, and the better for their sea-holiday. The very +musicians played with greater spirit than they did before, owing, +perhaps, to their remarkable success in the porgy-fishery. One of the +horn-players, far too knowing to let his fish out of sight, has propped +his music-book up against a pyramid of them, as upon a desk. The +good-looking man who plays upon the double-bass is equally prudent with +regard to his trophies, which he has hung up around the post on which +is pinned the score to which he looks for directions when it becomes +necessary to bind together with string-music the pensive interchanges of +the sax-horn and bassoon. + +And now, as our vessel neared the wharf from which we had started while +the sun was yet in the east, I looked forward to see what signs of +the times were astir on the forecastle. All had deserted it, and +were tending aft, with their tackle, their fish, and their +prog-baskets,--all, at least, except Raw Material, of whom we enjoyed +now an uninterrupted view, as he sat in his old position, with his head +jammed obstinately into the capstan. But how was this?--he was round at +the opposite side of it now; and I puzzled myself for a moment, thinking +whether this change of bearings could be accounted for by the fact of +the boat being headed the other way. + +But Young New York, who is far more nautical than I am, and has a big +brother in one of the yacht-clubs, derided the idea, and said he must +have gone round with the handspikes, when the anchor was hove. + +And there he remained, as we went our way,--a modern Spartan slave in a +kind of marine pillory,--conveying to the red-legged children of Gotham, +as they toddled ashore, a useful lesson on the doubtful relations +existing between whiskey and pleasure. + + + + +COBBLER KEEZAR'S VISION. + + + The beaver cut his timber + With patient teeth that day, + The minks were fish-wards, and the cows + Surveyors of highway,-- + + When Keezar sat on the hillside + Upon his cobbler's form, + With a pan of coals on either hand + To keep his waxed-ends warm. + + And there, in the golden weather, + He stitched and hammered and sung; + In the brook he moistened his leather, + In the pewter mug his tongue. + + Well knew the tough old Teuton + Who brewed the stoutest ale, + And he paid the good-wife's reckoning + In the coin of song and tale. + + The songs they still are singing + Who dress the hills of vine, + The tales that haunt the Brocken + And whisper down the Rhine. + + Woodsy and wild and lonesome, + The swift stream wound away, + Through birches and scarlet maples + Flashing in foam and spray,-- + + Down on the sharp-horned ledges + Plunging in steep cascade, + Tossing its white-maned waters + Against the hemlock's shade. + + Woodsy and wild and lonesome, + East and west and north and south; + Only the village of fishers + Down at the river's mouth; + + Only here and there a clearing + With its farm-house rude and new, + And tree-stumps, swart as Indians, + Where the scanty harvest grew. + + No shout of home-bound reapers, + No vintage-song he heard, + And on the green no dancing feet + The merry violin stirred. + + "Why should folk be glum," said Keezar, + "When Nature herself is glad, + And the painted woods are laughing + At the faces so sour and sad?" + + Small heed had the careless cobbler + What sorrow of heart was theirs + Who travailed in pain with the births of God, + And planted a state with prayers,-- + + Hunting of witches and warlocks, + Smiting the heathen horde,-- + One hand on the mason's trowel, + And one on the soldier's sword! + + But give him his ale and cider, + Give him his pipe and song, + Little he cared for church or state, + Or the balance of right and wrong. + + "'Tis work, work, work," he muttered,-- + "And for rest a snuffle of psalms!" + He smote on his leathern apron + With his brown and waxen palms. + + "Oh for the purple harvests + Of the days when I was young! + For the merry grape-stained maidens, + And the pleasant songs they sung! + + "Oh for the breath of vineyards, + Of apples and nuts and wine! + For an oar to row and a breeze to blow + Down the grand old river Rhine!" + + A tear in his blue eye glistened + And dropped on his beard so gray. + "Old, old am I," said Keezar, + "And the Rhine flows far away!" + + But a cunning man was the cobbler; + He could call the birds from the trees, + Charm the black snake out of the ledges, + And bring back the swarming bees. + + All the virtues of herbs and metals, + All the lore of the woods he knew, + And the arts of the Old World mingled + With the marvels of the New. + + Well he knew the tricks of magic, + And the lapstone on his knee + Had the gift of the Mormon's goggles + Or the stone of Doctor Dee. + + For the mighty master Agrippa + Wrought it with spell and rhyme + From a fragment of mystic moonstone + In the tower of Nettesheim. + + To a cobbler Minnesinger + The marvellous stone gave he,-- + And he gave it, in turn, to Keezar, + Who brought it over the sea. + + He held up that mystic lapstone, + He held it up like a lens, + And he counted the long years coming + By twenties and by tens. + + "One hundred years," quoth Keezar, + "And fifty have I told: + Now open the new before me, + And shut me out the old!" + + Like a cloud of mist, the blackness + Rolled from the magic stone, + And a marvellous picture mingled + The unknown and the known. + + Still ran the stream to the river, + And river and ocean joined; + And there were the bluffs and the blue sea-line, + And cold north hills behind. + + But the mighty forest was broken + By many a steepled town, + By many a white-walled farm-house + And many a garner brown. + + Turning a score of mill-wheels, + The stream no more ran free; + White sails on the winding river, + White sails on the far-off sea. + + Below in the noisy village + The flags were floating gay, + And shone on a thousand faces + The light of a holiday. + + Swiftly the rival ploughmen + Turned the brown earth from their shares; + Here were the farmer's treasures, + There were the craftsman's wares. + + Golden the good-wife's butter, + Ruby her currant-wine; + Grand were the strutting turkeys, + Fat were the beeves and swine. + + Yellow and red were the apples, + And the ripe pears russet-brown, + And the peaches had stolen blushes + From the girls who shook them down. + + And with blooms of hill and wild-wood, + That shame the toil of art, + Mingled the gorgeous blossoms + Of the garden's tropic heart. + + "What is it I see?" said Keezar: + "Am I here, or am I there? + Is it a fête at Bingen? + Do I look on Frankfort fair? + + "But where are the clowns and puppets, + And imps with horns and tail? + And where are the Rhenish flagons? + And where is the foaming ale? + + "Strange things, I know, will happen,-- + Strange things the Lord permits; + But that droughty folk should be jolly + Puzzles my poor old wits. + + "Here are smiling manly faces, + And the maiden's step is gay; + Nor sad by thinking, nor mad by drinking, + Nor mopes, nor fools are they. + + "Hero's pleasure without regretting, + And good without abuse, + The holiday and the bridal + Of beauty and of use. + + "Here's a priest and there is a Quaker,-- + Do the cat and the dog agree? + Have they burned the stocks for oven-wood? + Have they cut down the gallows-tree? + + "Would the old folk know their children? + Would they own the graceless town, + With never a ranter to worry + And never a witch to drown?" + + Loud laughed the cobbler Keezar, + Laughed like a school-boy gay; + Tossing his arms above him, + The lapstone rolled away. + + It rolled down the rugged hill-side, + It spun like a wheel bewitched, + It plunged through the leaning willows, + And into the river pitched. + + There, in the deep, dark water, + The magic stone lies still, + Under the leaning willows + In the shadow of the hill. + + But oft the idle fisher + Sits on the shadowy bank, + And his dreams make marvellous pictures + Where the wizard's moonstone sank. + + And still, in the summer twilights, + When the river seems to run + Out from the inner glory, + Warm with the melted sun, + + The weary mill-girl lingers + Beside the charmed stream, + And the sky and the golden water + Shape and color her dream. + + Fair wave the sunset gardens, + The rosy signals fly; + Her homestead beckons from the cloud, + And love goes sailing by! + + + + +THE FIRST ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH. + + +"In the name of the Prophet:--Figs!" + +"Eh, bien, Sare! wiz you Field and ze uzzers! Zey is ver' good men, sans +doute, an' zey know how make ze money; mais--gros matérialistes, I tell +you, Sare! Vat zen? I sall sink I know, I! Oui, Monsieur, I, César +Prévost, who has ze honneur to stand before you,--I am ze original +inventeur of ze Télégraphique Communication wiz Europe!" + +It was about the period when, with the fast world of cities, De Sauty +was beginning to become type of an "ism"; already the attention of +excitement-hunters had travelled far from Trinity Bay, and Cyrus Field +had yielded his harvest. Nevertheless, to me, who had just come to +town from a quiet country seclusion into which news made its entry +teredo-fashion only, the performances of the Agamemnon and Niagara were +matters of fresh and vivid interest. So I purchased Mr. Briggs's book, +and went to Guy's, to cut the leaves over a steak and a bottle of +Edinburgh ale. It was while I was thus engaged that the little Frenchman +had accosted me, calling my attention to his wares with such perfect +courtesy, such airy grace, that I was forced to look at his baskets. +And looking, I was induced to lay down my book and examine them more +closely; for they were really pretty,--made of extremely white and +delicate wood, showing an exquisite taste in their design, and being +neatly and carefully finished. Then it was, that, having apparently +noticed the title of my book, M. César Prévost had used the language +above quoted, and with such _empressement_ of manner, that my attention +was diverted from his wares to himself. I looked at him with some +curiosity. + +He was a little old Frenchman, lean as a haunch of dried venison, and +scarcely less dark in complexion,--though his color was nearer that of +rappee snuff, and had not the rich blood-lined purple of venison. His +face was wofully meagre, and seemed scored and overlaid with care-marks. +Nevertheless, there was an energetic, nervous, almost humorsome mobility +about his mouth; while his little beady black eyes, quick, warm, +scintillant, had ten times the life one would have expected to find +keeping company with his fifty years. In dress, he was very threadbare, +and, sooth to say, not over-clean; yet he was jaunty, and moved with the +air of a man much better clad. I was impressed with his appearance, and +especially with his voice, which was vibrant, firm, and excellently +intoned. It is my foible, perhaps, but I am always charmed with +_bonhommie_, I class originality among the cardinal virtues, and I am +as eager in the chase after eccentricity as a veteran fox-hunter is in +pursuit of Reynard. M. César promised a compensative proportion of all +three qualities, could I only "draw him out"; and besides, he was not +like Mr. Canning's "Knife-Grinder,"--for, evidently, he _had_ a story to +tell. + +Observing my scrutiny, he smiled; a singular, ironical smile it was, yet +without a particle of bitterness or of cynicism. + +"Eh, bien!" said he; "you stare, Monsieur! you sink me an excentrique. +Vraiment! I am use to zat,--I am use to have persons smile +reeseeblement, to tap zere fronts, an' spek of ze strait-jackets. Never +fear,--I am toujours harmless! Mais, Monsieur, it is true, vat I tell +you: I am ze origi_nal_ inventeur of ze Atlantic Telegraph! You mus' +not comprehend me, Sare, to intend somesing vat persons call ze +Telegraph,--such like ze Electric Telegraph of Monsieur Morse,--a +vulgaire sing of ze vire and ze acid. Mon Dieu, non! far more +perfect,--far more grrand,--far more _original!_ Ze acid may burn ze +finger,--ze vire vill become rrusty,--ze isolation subject always to ze +atmosphere. Ah, bah! Vat make you in zat event? As ze pure lustre of ze +diamant of Golconde to ze distorted rays of a morsel of bottle-glass, so +my grrand invention to ze modes of ze telegraph in vogue at present!" + +"Monsieur, you shall tell me about it," said I, pointing to a seat on +the other side of the table; "sit down there, and tell me about your +invention, and in your native language,--that is, if you can spare the +time to do so, and to drink a glass of Bordeaux with me." + +He accepted my invitation as a gentleman would, sipped his wine like a +connoisseur, passed me a few compliments, such as any French gentleman +might toss to you, if you had asked him to join you in a glass of wine +in one of his city's _cafés_, and then proceeded with his story. My +translation gives but a faint echo of the impression made upon me by +his life, vigor, and originality; but still I have striven to do him as +little injustice as possible. + +"Monsieur, it is ten years since I accomplished, put in practice, and +evoked practical results from this international communication, which +your two peoples have failed to establish, in spite of all their money, +their great ships, and the united wisdom of their _savans_. I am a +Frenchman, Monsieur,--and, you know, France is the congenial soil of +Science. In that country, where they laugh ever and _se jouent de tout_, +Science is sacred;--the Academy has even _pas_ of the army; honors there +are higher prized than the very wreaths of glory. Among the votaries +of Science in France, César Prévost was the humblest,--_serviteur, +Monsieur._ Nevertheless, though my place was only in the outermost porch +of the temple, I was a faithful, devoted, self-sacrificing worshipper of +the goddess; and therefore, because earnest fidelity has ever its crown +of reward, it happened to me to make a grand discovery,--a discovery +more momentous, it may be, than that of gunpowder or the telescope,--ten +million hundred times more worth than the vaunted great achievement of +M. le Professeur Morse. Not that its whole import came to me at once. +No, Monsieur, it is full twenty years now since the first light of it +glimmered upon César Prévost's mind, and he gave ten years of his life +to it--ten faithful years--before it was perfect to his satisfaction. +Ah, Monsieur, and 'tis more than one year now that I have been what you +see me, in consequence of it. _Eh, bien!_ I shall die so,--rightly,--but +my discovery shall live forever. + +"But pardon, Monsieur,--I see that you are impatient. You shall +immediately hear all I have to say,--after I have, in a few words, given +you a brief insight into the nature of my invention. Come, then!--Has it +ever occurred to Monsieur to reflect upon that something which we call +_Sympathy?_ The philosophers, you know, and the physiologists, the +followers of that _coquin_, Mesmer, and the _bêtes_ Spiritualists, as +they now dub themselves,--these have written, talked, and speculated +much about it. I doubt not these fellows have aided Monsieur +in perplexing his brain respecting the diverse, the world-wide +ramifications of this physiological problem. The limits, indeed, +of Sympathy have not been, cannot be, rightly set or defined; and +there are those who embrace under such a capitulation half the +dark mysteries that bother our heads when we think of Life's +under-current,--instinct,--clairvoyance,--trance,--ecstasy,--all the +dim and inner sensations of the Spirit, where it touches the Flesh as +perceptibly, but as unseen and unanalyzed, as the kiss of the breeze at +evening. _Sans doute,_ Monsieur, 'tis very wonderful, all this,--and +then, also, 'tis very convenient. Our ships must have a steersman, you +know. And, _par exemple,_ unless we call it sympathetic, that strange +susceptibility which we see in many persons, detect in ourselves +sometimes, what name have we to give it at all? Unless we call it +sympathy, how shall we define those mysterious premonitions, shadowy +warnings, solemn foretokens, that fall upon us now and then as the dew +falls upon the grass-leaf, that make our blood to shiver and our flesh +to quake, and will not by any means permit themselves to be passed by +or nullified? 'T is a fact that is irrepressible; and, in persons with +imagination of morbid tendency, this spontaneous sympathy takes a +hold so strong as to present visibly the image about which there is +concern,--and, behold! your veritable spectre is begotten! So, again, of +your 'love at first sight,' _comme on dit_,--that inevitable attraction +which one person exerts towards another, in spite, it may be, both of +reason and judgment. If this be not child of sympathy, what parentage +shall we assign it? And antipathy, Monsieur, the medal's reverse,--your +_bête noire_, for instance,--expound me that! Why do you so shudder at +sight of this or that innocent object? You cannot reason it away,--'t is +always there; you cannot explain it, nor diagnose its symptoms,--'t is +a part of you, governed by the same laws that govern your 'elective +affinities' throughout. But note, Monsieur! You and I and man in general +are not alone in this: the whole organic world--nay, some say the entire +universe, inorganic as well as organic--is subject to these impalpable +sympathetic forces. Is the hypothesis altogether fanciful of chemical +election and rejection,--of the kiss and the kick of the magnet? Your +Sensitive-Plant, your Dionea, your Rose of Jericho, your Orinoco-blossom +that sets itself afloat in superb faith that the ever-moving waters +will bring it to meet its mate and lover,--are not these instances of +sympathy? And tell me by what means your eye conquers the furious dog +that would bite you,--tell me how that dog is able to follow your +traces, and to find the quail or the fox for you,--tell me how the cat +chills the bird it would spring upon,--how the serpent fascinates its +victim with a flash of its glittering eye. Our 'dumb beasts' yet have a +language of their own, unguessed of us, yet perfectly intelligible +to them,--how? We call this, Instinct. _Eh, bien, Monsieur!_ what is +Instinct, but Sympathy? + +"Bah! it amounts to nothing, all this, if we only look at it in such +relations. For centuries have _stupides_ bothered their brains about +such matters, seeking to account for them. As well devote one's time to +puzzling over 'Aelia Laelia'! Mysteries were not meant to be put in +the spelling-books, Monsieur. Ah, bah! a far different path did +César Prévost pursue! He studied these phenomena, not to _explain_ +them,--being too wise to dream of living _par amours_ with such barren +virgins as are Whence and Why (your Bacon was very shrewd, Monsieur). +What cared I about _causes_? Let Descartes, and Polignac, and Reid, and +Cudworth, _et id omne genus_, famish themselves in this desert; but ask +it not of César Prévost! He is always considerate to the impossible. He +says this, always:--Here we have certain interesting phenomena; their +causes are involved in mystery impenetrable; their esoteric nature is +beyond the reach of any microscope;--what then? My Heaven! let us do +what we _can_ with them. Let us seek out their _relations_; let us +investigate the laws regulating their interdependence,--if there be such +laws; and _aprés_, let us inquire if there be any _practical results_ +obtainable from such relations and laws. + +"You follow me, Monsieur? _Eh, bien!_ This was the system, and César +Prévost came speedily to _one_ law,--a law so important, that, like +Aaron's serpent, it put all the rest out of sight forever, engrossing +thereafter his whole attention. This law, which pervades the entire +animal economy, and is of course important in proportion to its +universality, is as follows:--_The sympathetic harmony between animals, +other things being equal, is _IN INVERSE PROPORTION _to their rank +in that scale of comparison in which man is taken as the maximum of +perfection._ Consequently, man is most deficient in this instinctive +something, which, for lack of a better term, I have ventured to style +'sympathetic harmony,' while the simplest organization has it most +developed. This last, you perceive, Monsieur, is only inductively +true;--when we get below a certain stage in the scale, we find the +difficulties of observation increase in a larger ratio than the +augmented sympathy, and so we are not compensated; 't is, for instance, +like the telescope, where, after you have reached a certain power, the +deficiency of light overbalances the degree of multiplication. Knowing +this, my first aim was to find out what animal would suit best,--what +one that could be easily observed was most susceptible, most +sympathetic. 'T was a long labor, Monsieur; I shall not tire you with +the details. Enough that I found in the _snail_ the instrument I +needed,--and in the snail of the Rocky Mountains the most perfect of his +kind. You smile, Monsieur. _Eh, bien!_ 't is not philosophic to laugh at +the means by which one achieves something. Smile how you will, 't is a +fact that in the snail which is so common and grows to such an enormous +size in the valleys and on the slopes of your great Cordilleras I found +an animal combining a maximum of sympathetic harmony with the greatest +facility of being observed, the best health and habits, and the utmost +simplicity of _prononcée_ manifestation. But, you ask, what seek I, +then? My Heaven, Monsieur! there was the grand Idea,--the Idea upon +which I build my pride,--the Idea that is _mine!_ When it came to me, +Monsieur, this Idea, a great calm filled all my soul, and I felt then +the spirit of Kepler, when he said he could wait during centuries to +be recognized, since the laws he had demonstrated were eternal and +immutable as the Great God Himself! Yes, Monsieur! For in that crude, +undeveloped Idea were already germinating the wonders of an achievement +grander than any of Schwartz, or Guttenberg, or Galileo. Oh, this +beautiful, grand simplicity of Science, which was able, from the snail +itself, the very type and symbol and byword of torpidity and inaction, +to evolve what was to conquer time and space,--to outrun the wildest +imaginings of Puck himself!" + +----What a coltish fire of enthusiasm pranced in the worthy little +Frenchman's veins, to be sure! + +"_Eh, bien!_ Now, distance made no matter; it was forever subdued. +I could as soon send messages to the Sun itself as to my next-door +neighbor! Smile on, Monsieur! César Prévost shall not be piqued at your +incredulity. He also was amazed, prostrated, when all the stupendous +consequences of his discovery first flashed upon his mind; and it was +very long before he could rid his mind of the notion that he was become +victim to the phantasms of a ridiculous dream. _Eh, bien!_ 't was very +simple, once analyzed. Know one fact, and you have all. And this one +fact, so simple, yet so grand, was just this:--_That a male and female +snail, having been once, by contact, put in communication with one +another, so as to become what magnetizers call en rapport the one with +the other, continue ever after to sympathize, no matter what space may +divide them._ 'T is in a nutshell, you perceive,--and giving me the +entire principle of an unlimited telegraphic communication. All that was +to do was to systematize it. Tedious work, you may conceive, Monsieur; +yet I did not shrink from it, nor find it irksome, for my assured +result was ever leading me onward. Ah, bah! what did I not dream +then?--_Passons!_ + +"I was not rich, and so, to save the trouble and expense of importing +my snails to Paris,--vast trouble and expense, of course, since my +experiments were so numerous,--I came across the Atlantic, and fixed +myself at a point near St. Louis, where I could study in peace and have +the subjects of my experiments close at hand. I used to pay the trappers +liberally to get my snails for me, instructing them how to gather and +how to transport them; and to divert all suspicion from my real +objects, I pretended to be a _gourmet_, who used the snails solely for +gastronomic purposes,--whereby, Monsieur," said César Prévost, with +a humorous smile, "I was unfortunate enough to inspire the hearty +_garçons_ with a supreme contempt for me, and they used to say I 'vas +not bettaire zan one blarsted Digger Injun!' _Mon Dieu!_ what martyrs +the votaries of Science have been, always! + +"_Eh, bien!_ I shall not bother you with my experiments. In brief, let +me give you only results, so as to be just comprehensible. Given my law, +I had to find, _first,_ the manner exactly in which snails manifest +their sympathy, the one for the other,--_c'est à dire,_ how Snail A +tells you that something is happening to his comrade, Snail B. There was +a constant law for this, hard to find, but I achieved it. _Second,_ +to make my telegraph perfect, and pat my system beyond the touch of +accident, I had to discover how to _destroy_ the _rapport_ between +Snails A and B. Unless I could do this, I could never be sure my +instruments were perfectly isolated, so to speak. 'Twas a difficult +task, Monsieur; for the snail is the most constant in its attachments of +all the animal kingdom, and I have known them to die, time and again, +because their mates had died,-- + + "'Pining away in a green and yaller melancholie,' + +"as your grand poet has it, Monsieur. Still, I succeeded, and I am very +proud to announce it;--'twas a great feat, indeed--no less than to +_subvert an instinct!_ _Third_, I found out the way to keep them +perfectly isolated, so as to prevent any subvention of a higher +influence from weakening or destroying the previous _rapport_. +_Fourth,_ what sort of influence brought to bear upon Snail B would be +sympathetically indicated most palpably in Snail A. So, Monsieur, you +may fancy I had my hands full. + +"But I succeeded, after long labor. Then I spent much time in seeking to +perfect an Alphabetical System, and also a Recording Apparatus, capable +of exactly setting forth the _quality_ of the sympathy manifested, as +well as the _number_ of the manifestations. When these things were +all perfected, I should have a complete system of Telegraph, which no +circumstances of time, distance, or atmosphere could impair, which would +put on record its every step, and permit no opportunity for error or for +accident. + +"_Eh, bien!_ Man proposes,--God disposes. Monsieur, when I began my +experiments, when I devoted myself, my energies, and my life itself +to developing and utilizing my discovery, my motives were purely, +exclusively scientific. My sole aim was to win the position of an +eminent _savant,_ who, by conferring a signal benefit upon the race, +should merit the common applause of mankind. But, as time wore on, as +my labors began to be successful, as the grand possibilities of my +achievement arrayed themselves before me, other dreams usurped my +brain. I, the inventor of this thing, so glorious in its aspect, so +incomputable in its results,--was I to permit myself to go without +reward? Fame? Ah, bah! what bread would Fame butter? 'Twas a bubble, a +name, an empty, profitless sound, this _coquin_ of Fame! _'Proximus +sum egomet mihi,'_ says Terence,--or, as your English proverb has +it, 'Charity begins at home.' I bethought me of the usual fate of +discoverers and inventors,--neglected, scoffed at, ill-used, left to +starve. The blesser of the world with infinite riches must nibble his +crust _au sixième._ Why, then? Because, in their sublime eagerness to +serve others, they forget to care for themselves. _Eh, bien!_ One must +still keep his powder dry, said your great Protector. This discovery was +to double the effectiveness of men's hands,--therefore, was grandly to +enrich them. But could it not be also made a notable instrument for +wealth in _one_ man's hands? Ah! brave thought! How, if, none the less +resolved to give man eventually the benefit of my Idea, I should yet +keep it in abeyance, till I had made my own sufficient profit out of it? +It could be done;--surely, to use it well were less difficult than to +have invented it. So dreams of wealth and luxury began to fill my brain. +I would enrich myself till I had become a _power_, emphatically,--till +all purchasable things were within my reach. Then I should likewise +become a benefactor of the race; for my intentions were liberal, and +intelligence sustained adequately can effect miracles. Then, when I had +made myself veritably the Apostle of Riches, I would put the capstone +to man's debt to me, by endowing him with knowledge in the uses of this +great instrument whereby I had made myself so great. Ah, Monsieur, you +see, Haroun Alraschid had set me on his throne for an hour by way of +jest, and I imagined myself Caliph in Bagdad forever! + +"Full of such purposes, and of the fiery impatience of yearning begotten +of them, I hastened to bring my work to efficiency for use. I had worked +in silence, alone, secretly; for I dreaded to have my discovery guessed, +my aims anticipated and foreclosed upon. But, hasten how I would, +the processes were too slow for my means,--and just when, like the +alchemist, my crucible promised the grand projection, came the dreaded +explosion. My money exhausted itself! I found myself, a stranger in a +strange land, without a dollar. _Eh, bien, Monsieur!_ 't is not in César +Prévost to despair. Ah, in those days, especially, had I a heart big +with the strength of hope! To accomplish my ends, a partner was needed +at best, money or no money; so now it was only necessary for me to find +one who to the essential qualities of heart and brain conjoined a purse +of sufficient size. Before long, I came across the very man. Monsieur, +when I recall the past, I behold many instances where I erred and was +foolish; but the single bitter reflection I have is, that my own ruin +involved the ruin of John Meavy, my partner and good comrade. I remember +what he was when I found him,--happy, prosperous, large-hearted,--in +every sense a noble man. I ruined him! Ah, could I but--_Eh, bien!_ 't +is too late, now; he is dead; _requiescat!_ I have the bliss to know he +found no fault with the end.--_Passons!_ + +"When I first knew John Meavy, he was a merchant, living with the quiet +ease of a well-to-do bachelor. Though he had been brought up to trade, +the stain of money was not upon him. Generous, charitable, liberal of +thought, he was the gentlest enthusiast in other men's behalf that ever +the sun shone on. It was the fact that he possessed fifty thousand +dollars and was trustworthy that first drew rue towards him; but I +had not known him long ere I gave him my ardent love, and thereafter +thoughts of wealth were pleasant to me as much for his sake as for my +own. John was a student, and a lover of Science, as well as a man of +trade; and, in the first moments of our intercourse, I took care to let +drop words that I knew would attract his curiosity and interest. Like +all you Americans, John Meavy was a man of perfect faith in all that +regarded 'Progress,' and especially did he believe in the infinite +perfectibility of Science in the hands of an energetic people. This +was the chord upon which I played, and the responsive note was easily +evoked. He sought me out, came to me eagerly, and, by degrees, I +divulged to him all my plans. He was ambitious to work for mankind, and +I convinced him that I could give him the means to do so. My faith, +Monsieur! that John Meavy had not one least morsel of selfishness in all +his character! How far was he from dreaming of wealth for its own sake, +and for the voluptuous surroundings with which my fancy enlarged upon +it! No, indeed,--my invention to John Meavy was nothing; but, as a means +to profit you and me and the rest of us, 't was a thing of the grandest +import. So, at first, he would not have had us keep our secret for a +day; but I--by a sophistry that is only sophistic when we add to the +consideration man's impotent and easily perverted will--brought him into +my plans, showing him what an instrument for good vast riches would be +in his hands. And he was the more easily persuaded because of the very +grand purity of his nature. _Sans doute_, he felt it to be altogether +true, what I told him, that, in _his_ hands, a hundred million dollars +would be worth more to mankind at large than the whole French kingdom. +_Mais, Monsieur_, you cannot own a hundred millions and be good. As +well expect to find the same virtue in London that prevails in a quiet +country-town. You cannot filter oceans, Monsieur, and the dead fish in +them _will_ cause a stink. But I did not know this till afterwards. + +"So, having inoculated John, I bestowed upon him my confidence without +reserve; for I knew he was one to appreciate such treatment, and would +repay me in kind. 'Here it all is, _mon ami_,' said I; 'this is my +invention; these the means for reducing it to practice; money is all I +need. If you will join me, and provide the funds required, we will enter +into a partnership for ten years, enrich ourselves, and then give it to +all the world.' + +"'Ten years! must the world wait so long?' + +"'The world has waited six thousand years for this century, _camarade_. +We shall require so long to enrich ourselves. And then, remember,--the +longer they are kept out of it, the more perfect will our invention +be, and, consequently, the greater their profit from it. Science has +suffered too much already by its seven-months' children, my good friend. +_Eh, bien!_ What say you? Will you be my partner?' + +"'Yes, César. 'T is a noble scheme, such as only a noble man could +originate. But, Prévost, do not speak to me of an equal partnership. I +must not pattern after my country's way of overlooking the inventor. Let +us go into business upon this basis:--Prévost one share, John Meavy one +share, Invention one share.' + +"'Bah! John Meavy!' I cried. 'If I have discovered something, so also +have you, namely: a pocket deep enough, a heart honest enough, and a +faith strong enough to make that something available;--I expected sooner +to find the philosopher's-stone than all these, good friend. No, John +Meavy,--if you share with me, you share equally. Then I shall be sure +that you are equally interested with myself; so we shall succeed.' + +"_Eh, bien!_ We arranged it; and that very day, after I had pointed out +to John the state of my experiments, my noble comrade took me with him +to his place of business, put all his books open before me, explained +exactly the condition of his affairs, and concluded by giving me a check +for five thousand dollars. 'There,' said he, 'take that, pay your +debts, provide for yourself, and go on and reduce your invention to the +practical working you speak about. Meantime, I will wind up my business +in readiness to join you. Six months from now, the firm of Prévost and +Meavy, established to-day, will begin business together.' + +"_Mon pauvre_ John Meavy! + +"_Eh bien, Monsieur!_" resumed the little Frenchman, after a short +pause,--"one cannot help one's self, after it is too late. _Allons, +donc!_--I had lately, thinking over the matter in the light of my +intense desire to begin a career, and under the pressure of urgent +poverty, given up the notion of bringing my invention to absolute +perfection as a system of telegraphing. Instead of elaborating a +complete alphabet, I proposed to carry into effect a substitute already +perfected, one simple almost beyond belief, needing few preparations, +involving trifling cost, and capable of being made immediately +operative. Further experience has taught me that the very same means, +aided by a little deeper generalization, and an arbitrary set of +signals, would have given me an entire alphabet. But just now I had no +time to extend my experiments, needing all my time to make sure and +acquire skill in what was already achieved. I must insure against the +chance of mistake; for when we were applying our invention to the +acquisition of money, any error would necessarily be fatal. + +"The six months went rapidly by, and before they were over I was all +ready. But John said, 'Wait!' He saw no need of hurry; and his affairs +were not quite settled. _Eh, bien!_ I tranquillized my eager, impatient +soul by gaining an insight into the art of book-keeping and the theory +and practice of trade. At last the probationary period expired, and, +prompt to the hour, my comrade announced his readiness to begin our +business. The friends of John Meavy were reluctant to have him leave St. +Louis. They did not know what enterprise he was about to join in; but +they heard that I had some share in it, and they did not scruple to hint +that I might be an adventurer, who would 'diddle' him out of his money. +However, John only smiled, and told me all they said, in his frank way, +as if it were some good joke. So, finally, we took leave of St. Louis, +and came to New York, to organize the great house of Meavy & Prévost: +John bearing his share in the concern, forty odd thousand dollars, with +many letters to persons of eminence and influence; and I carefully +seeing to _my_ share,--a few scientific works, some valuable chemical +apparatus, and two dozen jars full of Rocky Mountain snails! _Eh, bien, +Monsieur!_ my stock in trade was _magnifique_, in comparison with that +with which my compatriot Girard commenced business. + +"By John's advice, we began our operations in a plain, quiet way, as +exporters of breadstuffs. This we did, first, that the firm might make +itself well enough known, and gain the confidence of the Bourse, so that +the doors might be open to our subsequent operations; that I, secondly, +might learn the business, and secure the proper recognition as John's +partner. Meantime, John was making himself familiar with the way to +practise my invention; and both of us, gaining daily assurance of our +power by reason of the discovery, were also daily increasing in love and +confidence for each other. Happy days, those, Monsieur! _Eh, bien!_ had +the invention only proved a fiction then! + +"In another six months we had matured our plans, and, as our present +business seemed lamentably slow in the light of my gigantic projects, I +was eager enough to begin work in earnest. I had proved our telegraph +thoroughly, and, ere I set out for London, to establish there a branch +of the house of John Meavy & Co., I advised my good comrade to venture +largely, so as to turn our capital over as often as possible, for there +was no room for doubt or fear. But John did not guess how high I dreamed +of rising in fortune; _he_ had no ambition to rival the Rothschilds. + +"Monsieur, let me explain to you now the system of work we had agreed +upon, and each slightest detail of which was perfectly familiar to +us from constant manipulation, so that mistake or mishap, from any +conceivable cause, was utterly impossible. + +"Our business, nominally the buying of breadstuffs for exportation, was +really one of speculation upon the New York market _as affected_ by the +European markets,--a species of brokerage, which, ostensibly and in +the eyes of the world attended by great risk, was really a thing of +specifically safe and certain profits, thanks to the telegraphic system, +the secret of which we alone possessed. In our tentative efforts, we +fixed upon _flour_ as the best-adapted subject for our experiments, +being a commodity simple to deal with, and requiring fewer complications +in our arrangements than anything else. But, in my own private mind, I +had resolved, that, as soon as our capital had grown large enough, +and our credit was become sufficiently extensive, we would change our +business to that of buying and selling cotton, as a better speculative; +or, perhaps, would enter upon that grand arena of sudden fortune and +sudden ruin, the stock-market. For the present, however, flour suited +us well enough. It is well known, that, at that time, much more than at +present, the price of breadstuffs in New York was regulated by the price +in Liverpool. But Monsieur is not a merchant, I think? _Eh, bien_!--then +I must take care to make myself intelligible. You know, Monsieur, that, +in the stock-market especially, and more or less in every other kind of +speculation, the greater part of the transactions are _fictitious_, to +a certain extent. _Par exemple:_ you buy or you sell so many barrels of +flour, at such a price, _on time_, as it is called,--that is, you engage +to receive, or to deliver, so many barrels, at the prices and in the +times agreed upon, in the hope, that, before the period of your contract +comes round, prices will have so varied as to enable you to buy, or +sell, the quantity bargained for, upon terms that will give you a +profit. In a word, you simply agree to _run the risk_ of a change +of prices such as to give you a profitable return. The operation is +identical with that of betting that such a card will be turned, or +that such a horse will win in a race, or such a candidate be elected +President. On 'Change we are charitable enough to suppose each +speculator possessed of _data_ such as to make his venture seem +reasonable to himself. This is the system, and, though very like +gambling, it has the advantage of presenting to men of small means the +chance of large profits, provided they are willing to run the risk; +since, while with a capital of ten thousand dollars I could make an +_actual_ purchase of only two thousand barrels of flour at five dollars +a barrel, the profit on which, at an advance of twenty-five cents per +barrel, would be very small,--by risking _all_ my money upon a single +venture, and leaving myself a 'margin' of fifty cents to cover the +greatest probable decline in price per barrel, I may purchase 'on time' +all of twenty thousand barrels, the profit upon which, at the same rate, +would be equal to fifty per cent of my entire capital. This is the +legitimate system by which such rapid fortunes are made and lost upon +'Change. Now suppose, that, operating in this way, you are in possession +of a secret means of intelligence, instantaneous, to be relied on, +peculiar to yourself,--does not Monsieur perceive that it insures one +a fortune incalculable, and to be made within the shortest time? If I +to-day learn that to-morrow's steamer will bring news that cotton has +advanced one cent a pound, of course I am justified in buying cotton to +the utmost extent that my capital and credit will afford me means, being +sure of selling it to-morrow at a higher price; and if I am continually +in the receipt of similar information, I can turn my capital over fifty +times in a year, and double it every time. There is actually _no limit_ +to the possible fortune of a man who is so favored, provided he conjoins +prudence and boldness to his manner of transacting business. The +supplying of such secret and unshared information to the firm of John +Meavy & Co. was the end of my invention, Monsieur. I was to go to +Liverpool, and act as signaller, while he was to stay in New York, +receive the information, and buy or sell in accordance with it. + +"Our apparatus was very simple. At each terminus of our line, so to +speak, we had a room, inaccessible save to ourselves. These rooms, +darkened, and carefully kept at a fixed temperature, contained nothing, +save, in one corner of each, a chronometer regulated with precision, +and, in opposite corners, a set of boxes, containing each a snail. At +the signalling end, at a fixed hour, which the chronometer gives with +the greatest accuracy, and when I know that my partner, by agreement, +will be present at the other end to receive intelligence, I go into my +room, informed as to the condition of the Liverpool market, and prepared +to transmit particulars of the same to him. Here are two boxes, divided +into three compartments each, and a _male_ snail in each compartment. +If flour is down, offering a chance for profit in New York upon 'time' +sales, I approach the box marked _minus_, the three snails of which are +called _x_, _y_, and _z_. I take up a little tube,--such a one as is +used by chemists to drop infinitesimal portions of any liquid; I dip +this into a vial marked _No_. 1, containing a solution of salt in +water,--there is a row of these vials, the solution in each being of a +different strength,--and then, with the moistened tube, I touch snail +_x_, or snail _y_, or snail _z_, or any two of them, or all three, once, +twice, three times, or repeatedly, according to the news I wish to +signal,--noting the effect of the poison, and recording the particulars +in a book kept for the purpose,--recording them with a nicety of +intelligent discrimination such as can be obtained only by long and +practised observation. I send an abstract of this record by every mail +to my partner, so as to verify our results and to detect immediately any +derangement. At _his_ end of our line the brave John Meavy waits before +two similar boxes, in each compartment of which is a _female_ snail. He +is a skilled observer, and his quick eve beholds snails _a_, _b_, _c_ +exactly (through sympathy) _repeating_ the effects I am producing in +_x_, _y_, _z_,--though the distance between them is over three thousand +miles! He knows the meaning of these slight effects, and, going upon +'Change, buys or sells with a perfect assurance of profit. + +"Such was my telegraph, in its rudest outline; but I had systematized it +to a degree of far greater nicety. I provided entirely against man's +imperfect and defective powers of observation. These movements and +squirmings, which in snails _x_, _y_, _z_, were the effect of a physical +cause, (salt-water.) were, in snails _a_, _b_, _c_, the result of +sympathy for _x_, _y_, _z_, as I have said,--a result constant, +determinate, and always to be depended upon. That is the _law_ of +their _rapport_,--not a _theory_, but a _law_, established by long, +exhaustive, and conclusive experimentation. The reason for it I +cannot assign,--did not pretend to investigate; but the _fact_ I had +ascertained: _x_, _y_, _z_, so touched, squirm, contract, and expand +their articulations, and exude from their pores a certain slimy sweat, +of agony it may be,--anyhow, a slimy exudation comes from them, +--and, _simultaneously_, and _just as much_ in kind, degree, quality, +everything, snails _a_, _b_, _c_ repeat the process. Such is the law, +constant as gravitation. Consequently, all that the _operator_ has to +concern himself about is, to understand that so many touches, with fluid +of such intensity, to so many snails, and repeated so often, produce +such and such an effect upon them, as, collectively considered, to +convey, through _a_, _b_, _c_, a certain piece of information. Knowing +this, skill in manipulation and accurate memory are all the qualities +he requires to conjoin to such knowledge. But the _observer_ has a much +more delicate office to perform, and, until I invented my recording +apparatus, the functions of this post could be discharged only roughly +and imperfectly, so evanescent and complex the manifestations. But I +discovered a _chemical_ observer, employing tests that nothing could +escape, nor anything deceive. The clock that indicates the hour for +receipt of news puts in motion the filaments of certain delicate +machinery connected with the boxes wherein are _a_, _b_, _c_. These +snails are placed upon a gauze-like substance, which, though firm enough +to support them undisturbed, permits both their natural excretions, and +their exudations under excitement, to filter through readily. As soon +as the hour comes, the machinery moves, and there begins to pass the +_recording paper_, so to speak, which I invented,--a paper not meant +to receive any vulgar mechanical impression, but one which, to the +instructed eye, and by the aid of the microscope, sets forth in _plain +language_ the nature of the functional disturbance in each snail, its +quality, its intensity, and its duration. I do not exaggerate, Monsieur. +This paper, in a word, is chemically prepared, saturated in a substance +that renders it perfectly sympathetic to whatever fluid exudes from the +snail, and thus, and by means of its motion, it records the quantity and +quality of the impression with unvarying accuracy. The observing hour +over, the clock-work stops, the paper is examined, and the result +recorded carefully. _Par exemple:_ I touch snail _x_, once, twice, three +times, with the weak solution, No. 1; John Meavy, receiving this fact, +through the sympathetic report of snail _a_, the chemical paper, and the +microscope, reads, as plainly as if it had been printed in pica type: +'_Flour declined threepence_.' If the fluid used is stronger, the +touches more numerous, and bestowed upon _y_ and _z_ also,--then the +decline or advance is proportionately great. Is it not a grandly simple +thing, this telegraph of mine, Monsieur?" + +----I was dazzled, perplexed,--so entirely new, strange, incredible was +all this to me; but I expressed to the little Frenchman, in what terms I +could command, my profound sense of his genius and originality. + +"_Eh, bien!_ I went to Europe," resumed he, "and John Meavy, my brave +comrade, stayed in New York, buying and selling flour, and turning over +his capital with a rapidity of success that surprised everybody; while +his modest demeanor, his chivalry of manner, and his noble generosity +won the admission of all, that Prosperity chose well, when she elected +John for her favorite. + +"At the end of a year we were worth nearly half a million of dollars, +and our credit was perfect. Then, however, John wrote for me to come +home. He was engaged to be married, he said, wanted me to be present at +the ceremony, and wished my aid in effecting some changes in our mode of +business. I was not unwilling, for I also had some suggestions to make. +I was tired of my place as operator; I yearned to quit my post of simple +spectator, and to plunge head-foremost into the strife of money-getting. +Apart from my irksome position, I felt myself more fit for John's +post than he was. As the capital we worked with increased, John waxed +cautious, and, most illogically, announced himself afraid to venture, +--as if his risk were not as great with ten thousand as with a million! +This did not suit me. I felt myself capable of using money as mere +counters, I divested it of all the terrors of magnitude, and thus I knew +I could do as much in proportion with five million dollars as with +five dollars. And the result, I was perfectly aware, would be to those +achieved by John as the elephant in his normal strength compares with +the elephant whose strength is to his size as the flea's strength to +_his_ size. John could take the flea's leap with five dollars, but was +satisfied with the elephant's leap with five million dollars. + +"So I took the next steamer, reached New York safely, and was most +cordially welcomed by my noble John Meavy, who seemed exuberant with the +happiness in store for him. Before he would say a word about business, +he insisted upon taking me to his betrothed's, and introduced me to his +lovely Cornelia. He had chosen well, Monsieur: his bride was worthy a +throne; she was worthy John Meavy himself,--a woman refined, charming, +entirely perfect. At John's solicitation, I was his groomsman; I +accompanied him upon his wedding-tour; and mine was the last hand he +clasped, as he stood on the steamer's deck, on his way to Europe to take +my place at the head of the Liverpool house. How many kind words he +lavished upon me! how many a good and kindly piece of advice he murmured +in my ear at that farewell moment! Ah! I do not think John wished to go +thither; he was ever a home-body; and I am sure his wife disliked it +much. But they saw it was my desire, they seemed to regard me as the +builder-up of their fortunes, and they yielded without a murmur. _Bête_ +that I was! Yet I was not selfish, Monsieur. Building up in dreams my +fortune Babel-high, I built up also ever the fortune of John Meavy and +his peerless wife to a point just as near the clouds. _Eh, bien!_ it +amounted to nothing in the end, all this; but--I was not selfish! + +"Our business was nominally the old one; but, in fact, in accordance +with the new arrangements John and I had agreed upon, I was to begin +cotton-speculation, and John was to keep me informed regarding the +fluctuations of the Liverpool market in that staple. My first efforts, +though successful of necessity, were small, I wished John to gain +confidence in my mode of conducting the business, before I ventured upon +more extensive operations. + +"Meantime, John's letters put me in continual fine spirits. He kept his +telegraphic apparatus at home, and so was much with Cornelia. He and his +wife, he said, were very happy; people could not love one another more +than they did. He blessed me a thousand times, because my invention had +taken him to New York, and so had enabled him to meet Cornelia. But--ah, +these 'buts,' Monsieur!--if you will search long enough the brightest, +the clearest blue sky, you will always find some little speck, some +faint film of cloud,--'t is your 'but,' Monsieur!--John fancied his +wife was not altogether so happy as it was possible for her to be. She +did not like the cold, colorless Liverpool, nor the foggy people there. +She pined a little, perhaps, for old home-associations, wrote John. +Could I not think of some means to increase her content? I knew the +human heart so well; I was such a genius, moreover. Ah, bah! Monsieur, +'t is the old song: I felt myself capable of sweeping the little cloud +from the sky also, as I had done everything else,--I, this sublime +genius! Monsieur, a moment look upon him, this genius, this triple blind +fool! _Eh, bien!_ I considered:--Cornelia, like all tender, susceptible +people, owes much to _little things_. She will not have to remain there +long; meantime, can I not revive in her mind the associations to which +she is used, and so both make her happy and bless my good comrade, John +Meavy? How, then? Once, during John's wedding-trip, we had stopped one +evening in a little country-town, and while we were there, talking +pleasantly by the open window, a mocking-bird, caged before a house +across the way, had struck up a perfect symphony of his rich and +multitudinous song. Cornelia was delighted beyond measure, and seemed to +yearn for the bird. John tried to buy it; but it was a pet; its owners +were well-to-do, and would not sell: so Cornelia had to go away without +it, and I fancied she was greatly chagrined, though, of course, she said +nothing, and seemed soon to forget it. So now the notion came to me:--I +will send Cornelia a mocking-bird. Its music will charm her,--its notes +will recall a thousand sounds of home,--it will give her occupation, +something to think about and to care for, until more important cares +intervene,--and so it will help to banish this _triste_ mood of _ennui. +Eh, bien!_ I soon had a very fine bird. Ah, Monsieur, I cannot tell +you what a fine bird was that fellow,--_Don Juan_ his name,--such an +arch-rascal! such a merry eye he had! such a proud, Pompadour throat! +such volumes of song! such splendid powers of mimicry! I kept him +with me a week to test his gifts, and I began to envy Cornelia her +treasure,--he was so tame, so bold, so intelligent. In that week, by +whistling to him in my leisure hours, I taught him to perform almost +perfectly that lively _aria_ of Meyerbeer's, _'Folle è quei che l'oro +aduna,'_ and also to mimic beautifully the chirping of a cricket. Well, +I sent _Don Juan_ out, and received due information of his safe arrival. +The medicine acted like a charm. Cornelia wrote me a grateful letter, +full of enthusiastic praises of 'her pet, her darling, the dearest, +sweetest, cutest little bird that ever anybody owned.' And I was more +than rewarded by the heartfelt thanks of my noble John Meavy. _Diantre!_ +had I only wrung the thing's neck! + +"_Eh, bien!_ The period upon which I calculated for my grand speculative +_coup_ had nearly arrived. Owing to a variety of circumstances, the +cotton-market had for some months been in a very perturbed condition; +and I, who had closely scrutinized its aspects, felt sure that before +long there would be some decided movement that would make itself felt +to all the financial centres. This movement I resolved to profit by, in +order to achieve riches at a single stroke. I had recommended John to +increase his observations, and keep me carefully preadvised of every +change. But I did not tell him how extensively I meant to operate, for +I knew 't would make him anxious, and, moreover, I wished to dazzle him +with a sudden magnificent achievement. Well, things slowly drew towards +the point I desired. There was a certain war in embryo, I thought, the +inevitable result of which would be to beat down the price of cotton to +a minimum. Would the war come off? A steamer arrived with such news as +made it certain that another fortnight would settle the question. How +anxiously, how tremulously I watched my telegraph then,--noting down all +the fluctuations so faithfully reported to me by John Meavy,--all my +brain on fire with visions of unwonted, magnificent achievement! For +two days the prices wavered and rippled to and fro, like the uncertain +rippling of the waters at turning of the tide. Then, on the morning of +the third day, the long-expected change was announced, and in a way that +startled me, prepared though I was,--so violent was the decline. Down, +down, down, down to the very lowest! reported my faithful snails. I did +not need to consult the sympathetic paper, for the agonized writhings of +the poor animals spoke plainly enough to the naked eye. I seized my hat, +rushed to my office, and began my grand _coup. Eh, bien!_ I shall not go +into details. Suffice it to say, for three days I was in communication +with cotton men all over the country; and, without becoming known abroad +as the party at work, I sold 'on time' such a quantity of 'the staple' +that my operations had the effect to put down the prices everywhere; and +if John Meavy's report were correct, our profits during those three days +would exceed three millions of dollars! Having now done all I could, and +feeling completely worn out, I went home, for the first time since +the news, flung myself upon a bed, and slept an unbroken sleep during +twenty-four hours. After that, refreshed and gay, I went once more to +the operating-room to see what further reports had arrived since I had +received the decisive intelligence. Decisive, indeed! Monsieur, when I +looked through the glass lids into the boxes, there lay my snails, stiff +and dead! Not only my faithful ones, _a, b, c,_ but likewise the _plus_ +ones, _d, e, f!_ Yes, there they lay, _plus_ and _minus,_ each in his +compartment, convulsed and distorted, as if their last agonies had been +terrible to endure! Stiff and dead! _Mon Dieu, Monsieur!_ and I had +pledged the name and credit of the house of John Meavy and Co. to an +extent from which there _could_ be no recovery, if aught untoward had +happened! _Eh, bien. Monsieur!_ César Prévost is fortunate in a very +elastic temperament. Yet I did not dare think of John Meavy. However, if +the thing was done, it was too late for remedy now. _Eh, bien!_ I +would wait. Meantime, I carefully examined to see if any cause was +discoverable to have produced these deaths. None. 'T was irresistible, +then, that the cause was at John's end. What? An accident,--perhaps, +nervous, he had dosed them too heavily; but--I dared not think about +it,--I would only--wait! + +"_Eh, bien, Monsieur!_ It would be seven days yet before I could get +news. I waited,--waited calmly and composedly. _Mon Dieu!_ they talk of +heroism in leading a forlorn hope,--César Prévost was a hero for those +eight days. I do not think about them even now. + +"On the third day came a steamer with news of uncertain import, but on +the whole favorable. By the same advice a letter reached me from my old +comrade, John Meavy: his affairs were prosperous, he and his wife very +happy, and _Don Juan_ more charming than ever. + +"Monsieur, the fourth day came,--the fifth,--the sixth,--the +seventh,--finding me still waiting. No one, to see me, could have +guessed I had not slept for a week. _Eh, bien!_ I will not dwell upon +it! + +"The morning of the eighth day came. I breakfasted, read my paper, +smoked my cigar, and walked leisurely to my counting-room. I answered +the letters. I sauntered round to bank, paid a note that had fallen due, +got a check cashed, and, having counted the money and secured it in my +pocket-book, I walked out and stood upon the bank-steps, talking with a +business-friend, who inquired after John Meavy. 'T was a pleasant theme +to converse about, this,--for _me!_ + +"A news-boy came running down Wall Street, with papers under his arm. +'Here you are!' he cried. 'Extray! Steamer just in! Latest news from +Europe! All 'bout the new alliance! Consols firm,--cotton riz! Extray, +Sir?' + +"I bought one, and the boy ran off as I paid him and snatched the paper +from his hand. + +"'You gave that rascal a gold dollar for a half-dime,' said my friend. + +"'Did I?' + +"A gold dollar! I wondered very quaintly what he would say, when, in a +few days, he heard of the failure of John Meavy & Co. for three millions +of dollars. A gold dollar! + +"_Eh, bien, Monsieur!_ I shall not dwell upon it. Enough,--we were +ruined. I had played my grand _coup,_ and lost. For myself, nothing. +But--John Meavy! Oh, Monsieur, I could not think! I went to my office, +and sat there all day, stupid, only twirling my watch-key, and repeating +to myself,--'A gold dollar! a gold dollar!' The afternoon had nearly +gone when one of my clerks roused me:--'A letter for you, Mr. Prévost; +it came by the steamer to-day.' + +"Monsieur," said the little Frenchman, producing a well-worn +pocket-book, and taking out from it a tattered, yellow sheet, which he +unfolded before me,--"Monsieur, you shall read that letter." + +It was this:-- + +"MY DEAR CESAR:-- + +"You must blame me and poor _Don Juan_ for the suspension of your +Telegraph. I write, myself, to tell you how careless I have been; for +poor John is in such a state of agitation, and seems to fear such +calamities, that I will not let him write;--though what evil can come +of it, beyond the inconvenience, I cannot see, nor will he tell me. You +must answer this immediately, so as to prove to John that nothing has +gone wrong; and so give me a chance to scold this good husband of mine +for his vain and womanish apprehensions. But let me tell you how it +happened to the poor snails,--_Don Juan_ is so tame, that I do not +pretend to keep him shut up in his cage, but let him fly about our +sitting-room, just as he pleases. The next room to this, you know, is +the one where we kept the snails. I have been helping John with these +for some time, and it is my custom, when he goes on 'Change, to look +after the ugly creatures, and especially to open the boxes and give them +air. Well, this morning,--you must not scold me, César, for I have wept +enough for my carelessness, and as I write am trembling all over like +a leaf,--this morning, I went into the snail-room as usual, opened the +boxes, noted how well all six looked, and then, going to the window, +stood there for some minutes, looking out at the people across the way +preparing for the illumination to-night, (for we are going to have peace +at last, and every one is so rejoiced!) and forgetting entirely that I +had left open both the door of this room and that of the sitting-room +also, until I heard the flutter of _Don Juan's_ wings behind me. I +turned, and was horror-stricken to find him perched on the boxes, +and pecking away at the poor snails, as if they were strawberries! I +screamed, and ran to drive him off, but I was too late,--for, just as I +caught him, the greedy fellow picked up and swallowed the last one of +the entire six! I felt almost like killing _him,_ then; but I could +not,--nor could _you_ have done it, César, had you but seen the arch +defiance of his eye, as he fluttered out of my hands, flew back to his +cage, and began to pour forth a whole world of melody! + +"My dear César, I know my carelessness was most culpable, but it +_cannot_ be so bad as John fears. Oh, if anything should happen now, by +my fault, when we are so prosperous and happy, I could never forgive +myself! Do write to me as soon as possible, and relieve the anxiety of + +"Affectionately yours, CORNELIA." + +The little Frenchman looked at me with a glance half sad, half comical, +as I returned the letter to him. + +"_Eh, bien, Monsieur!_" said he, shrugging his shoulders,--"you've heard +my story. 'Twas fate,--what could one do?" + +"But that is not all,--John Meavy,"--said I. + +The little Frenchman looked very grave and sad. + +"Monsieur, my brave _camarade,_ John Meavy, had been brought up in a +stern school. His ideas of credit and of mercantile honor were pitched +very high indeed. He imagined himself disgraced forever, and--he did not +survive it." + +"You do not mean"---- + +"I mean, Monsieur, that I lost the bravest and truest and most generous +friend that ever man had, when John Meavy died. And that dose of Prussic +Acid should properly have gone to me, whose fault it all was, instead +of to him, so innocent. _Eh, bien, Monsieur!_ his lot was the happiest, +after all." + +"But Cornelia?" said I, after a pause. + +The little Frenchman rose, with a quiet and graceful air, full of +sadness, yet of courtesy; and I knew then that he was no longer my guest +and entertainer, but once more the chapman with his wares. + +"Monsieur, Cornelia is under my protection. You will comprehend +_that_--after that--she has not escaped with impunity. Some little +strings snapped in the harp. She is _touchée_, here," said he, resting +one finger lightly upon his forehead,--"but 'tis all for the best, _sans +doute._ She is quiet, peaceable,--and she does not remember. She sits in +my house, working, and the bird sings to her ever. 'Tis a gallant bird, +Monsieur. And though I am poor, I can yet make some provision for her +comfort. She has good taste, and is very industrious. These baskets are +all of her make; when I have no other employ, I sell them about, and +use the money for her. _Eh, bien!_ 'tis a small price,--fifty cents; if +Monsieur will purchase one, he will possess a basket really handsome, +and will have contributed something to the comfort of one of the +Good God's _protégées. Mille remerciements, Monsieur,_--for this +purchase,--for your entertainment,--for your courtesy! + +"_Bon jour, Monsieur!_" + + * * * * * + +About half an hour after this, I had occasion to traverse one of the +corridors of Barnan's Hotel, when I saw a group of gentlemen, most of +whom sported "Atlantic Cable Charms" on their watchchains, gathered +about a person who had secured their rapt attention to some story he was +narrating. + +"_Eh, bien, Messieurs!_" I heard him say, in a peculiar naïve broken +English, "it would be yet seven days before I could get ze news,--and--I +wait. Oui! calm_lie_, composed_lie_, with insouciance beyond guess, I +wait"-- + +"I wonder," said I to myself, as I passed on, "I wonder if M. César +Prévost's account of his remarkable invention of the First Atlantic +Telegraph have not some subtile connection with his desire to find as +speedy and remunerative a sale as possible for his pretty baskets!" + + + + +LADY BYRON. + + +It is seldom that a woman becomes the world's talk but by some great +merit or fault of her own, or some rare qualification so bestowed by +Nature as to be incapable of being hidden. Great genius, rare beauty, a +fitness for noble enterprise, the venturous madness of passion, account +for ninety-nine cases in the hundred of a woman becoming the subject of +general conversation and interest. Lady Byron's was the hundredth case. +There was a time when it is probable that she was spoken of every day in +every house in England where the family could read; and for years the +general anxiety to hear anything that could be told of her was almost as +striking in Continental society and in the United States as in her own +country. Yet she had neither genius, nor conspicuous beauty, nor "a +mission," nor any quality of egotism which could induce her to brave the +observation of the world for any personal aim. She had good abilities, +well cultivated for the time when she was young; she was rather pretty, +and her countenance was engaging from its expression of mingled +thoughtfulness and brightness; she was as lady-like as became her birth +and training; and her strength of character was so tempered with modesty +and good taste that she was about the last woman that could have been +supposed likely to become celebrated in any way, or, yet more, to be +passionately disputed about and censured, in regard to her temper and +manners: yet such was her lot. No breath of suspicion ever dimmed her +good repute, in the ordinary sense of the expression: but to this day +she is misapprehended, wherever her husband's genius is adored; and she +is charged with precisely the faults which it was most impossible for +her to commit. For the original notoriety she was not answerable; but +for the protracted misapprehension of her character she was. She early +decided that it was not necessary or desirable to call the world into +council on her domestic affairs; her husband's doing it was no reason +why she should; and for nearly forty years she preserved a silence, +neither haughty nor sullen, but merely natural, on matters in which +women usually consider silence appropriate. She never inquired what +effect this silence had on public opinion in regard to her, nor +countenanced the idea that public opinion bore any relation whatever to +her private affairs and domestic conduct. Such independence and such +reticence naturally quicken the interest and curiosity of survivors; +and they also stimulate those who knew her as she was to explain her +characteristics to as many as wish to understand them, after disputing +about them for the lifetime of a whole generation. + +Anne Isabella Noel Milbanke (that was her maiden name) was an only +child. Her father, Sir Ralph Milbanke, was the sixth baronet of that +name. Her mother was a Noel, daughter of Viscount and Baron Wentworth, +and remotely descended from royalty,--that is, from the youngest son of +Edward I. After the death of Lady Milbanke's father and brother, the +Barony of Wentworth was in abeyance between the daughter of Lady +Milbanke and the son of her sister till 1856, when, by the death of that +cousin, Lord Scarsdale, Lady Byron became possessed of the inheritance +and title. During her childhood and youth, however, her parents were not +wealthy; and it was understood that Miss Milbanke would have no fortune +till the death of her parents, though her expectations were great. +Though this want of immediate fortune did not prove true, the report of +it was probably advantageous to the young girl, who was sought for other +things than her fortune. When Lord Byron thought of proposing, the +friend who had brought him to the point of submitting to marriage +objected to Miss Milbanke on two grounds,--that she had no fortune, and +that she was a learned lady. The gentleman was as wrong in his facts +as mischievous in his advice to the poet to many. Miss Milbanke had +fortune, and she was not a learned lady. Such men as the two who held +a consultation on the points, whether a man entangled in intrigues and +overwhelmed with debts should release himself by involving a trusting +girl in his difficulties, and whether the girl should be Miss Milbanke +or another, were not likely to distinguish between the cultivated +ability of a sensible girl and the pedantry of a blue-stocking; and +hence, because Miss Milbanke was neither ignorant nor silly, she was +called a learned lady by Lord Byron's associates. He bore testimony, in +due time, to her agreeable qualities as a companion,--her brightness, +her genial nature, her quiet good sense; and we heard no more of her +"learning" and "mathematics," till it suited her enemies to get up a +theory of incompatibility of temper between her and her husband. The +fact was, she was well-educated, as education was then, and had the +acquirements which are common in every house among the educated classes +of English society. + +She was born in 1792, and passed her early years chiefly on her father's +estates of Halnaby, near Darlington, Yorkshire, and Seaham, in Durham. +She retained a happy recollection of her childhood and youth, if one may +judge by her attachment to the old homes, when she had lost the power of +attaching herself, in later life, to any permanent home. When an offer +of service was made to her, some years since, by a person residing on +the Northumberland coast, the service she asked was that a pebble might +be sent her from the beach at Seaham, to be made into a brooch, and worn +for love of the old place. + +Her father, as a Yorkshire baronet, spent his money freely. A good deal +of it went in election-expenses, and the hospitality of the house was +great. It was too orderly and sober and old-fashioned for Lord Byron's +taste, and he quizzed it accordingly; but he admitted the kindliness of +it, and the amiability which made guests glad to go there and sorry to +come away. His special records of Miss Milbanke's good-humor, spirit, +and pleasantness indicate the source of subsequent misrepresentations of +her. Till he saw it, he could not conceive that order and dutifulness +could coexist with liveliness and great charms of mind and manners; and +when the fact was out of sight, he went back to his old notion, that +affectionate parents and dutiful daughters must be dull, prudish, and +tiresome. + +"Bell" was beloved as only daughters are, but so unspoiled as to be +sought in marriage as eagerly as if she had been a merry member of a +merry tribe. Lord Byron himself offered early, and was refused, like +many other suitors. Her feelings were not the same, however, to him as +to others. It is no wonder that a girl not out of her teens should be +captivated by the young poet whom the world was beginning to worship for +his genius as very few men are worshipped in their prime, and who could +captivate young and old, man, woman, and child, when he chose to try. +As yet, his habits of life and mind had not told upon his manners, +conversation, and countenance as they did afterwards. The beauty of his +face, the reserved and hesitating grace of his manner, and the pith and +strength of such conversation as he was tempted into might well win +the heart of a girl who was certainly far more fond of poetry than of +mathematics. Yet she refused him. Perhaps she did not know him enough. +Perhaps she did not know her own feelings at the moment. She afterwards +found that she had always loved him. His renewed offers at the close +of two years made her very happy. She was drawing near the end of her +portion of life's happiness; and she seems to have had no suspicion of +the baselessness of her natural and innocent bliss. It is probable that +nobody about her knew, any more than herself, how and why Lord Byron +offered to her a second time, till Moore published the facts in his +"Life" of the poet. The thrill of disgust which ran through every good +heart, on reading the story, made all sympathizers ask how she +could bear to learn how she had been treated in the confidences of +profligates. Perhaps she had known it long before, as her husband had +repeatedly tried his powers of terrifying and depressing her; but, at +all events, she could bear anything,--not only with courage and in +silence, but with calmness and inexhaustible mercy. According to Moore's +account, a friend of Byron's urged him to marry, as a remedy for the +melancholy restlessness and disorder of his life; "and, after much +discussion, he consented." The next proceedings were in character with +this "consent." Byron named Miss Milbanke: the friend objected, on the +grounds of her possession of learning and supposed want of fortune; and +Byron actually commissioned his adviser to propose for him to the lady +he did not prefer. She refused him; and then future proceedings were +determined by his friend's admiration of the letter he had got ready for +Miss Milbanke. It was such a pretty letter, it would be a pity not to +send it. So it was sent. + +If she could have known, as she hung over that letter, what eyes had +read lines that should have been her own secret property, and as what +kind of alternative the letter had been prepared, what a different life +might hers have been! But she could not dream of being laid hold of as a +speculation in that style, and she was happy,--as women are for once in +their lives, and as she deserved to be. There was another alternative, +besides that of two ladies to be weighed in the balance. Byron was +longing to go abroad again, and he would have preferred that to +marrying; but the importunity of his friends decided him for marriage. +In a short time, and for a short time, Miss Milbanke's influence was too +strong for his wayward nature and his pernicious friends to resist. His +heart was touched, his mind was soothed, and he thought better of women, +and perhaps of the whole human race, than he had ever done before. He +wrote to Moore, who owned he had "never liked her," and who boded evil +things from the marriage, that she was so good that he wished he was +better,--that he had been quite mistaken in supposing her of "a very +cold disposition." These gentlemen had heard of her being regarded as "a +pattern lady in the North"; and they had made up an image of a prude and +a blue in their own minds, which Byron presently set himself to work to +pull down. He wrote against Moore's notion of her as "strait-laced," in +a spirit of justice awakened by his new satisfactions and hopes: but +there are in the narrative no signs of love on his part,--nothing more +than an amiable complacency in the discovery of her attachment to him. + +The engagement took place in September, 1814, and the marriage in the +next January. Moore saw him in the interval, and had no remaining hope, +from that time, that Byron could ever make or find happiness in +married life. He was satisfied that love was, in Byron's case, only an +imagination; and he pointed to a declaration of Byron's, that, when in +the society of the woman he loved, even at the happiest period of his +attachment, he found himself secretly longing to be alone. Secretly +during the courtship, but not secretly after marriage. + +"Tell me, Byron," said his wife, one day, not long after they were +married, and he was moodily staring into the fire,--"am I in your way?" + +"Damnably," was the answer. + +It will be remembered by all readers that the reason he assigned for the +good terms on which he remained with his half-sister, Mrs. Leigh, was +that they seldom or never saw each other. + +When Moore saw him in London, he was in a troubled state of mind about +his affairs. His embarrassments were so pressing that he meditated +breaking off the match; but it was within a month of the wedding-day, +and he said he had gone too far to retract.--How it was that Sir Ralph +Milbanke did not make it his business to ascertain all the conditions +of a union with a man of Byron's reputation it is difficult to imagine. +Every movement of the idolized poet was watched, anecdotes of his life +and ways were in all mouths; and a prudent father, if encouraging his +addresses at all, should naturally have ascertained the chances of his +daughter having an honorable and happy home. Sir Ralph probably thought +so, when there were ten executions in the house in the first few months +after the marriage. Those difficulties, however, did not affect the +happiness of the marriage unfavorably. The wife was not the less of the +heroic temperament for being "a pattern young lady." She was one whose +spirit was sure to rise under pressure, and who was always most cheerful +when trouble called forth her energies on behalf of others. Liberal with +her own property, making light of privation, full of clear and practical +resource in emergency, she won her husband's admiration in the midst of +the difficulties into which he had plunged her. For a time he was not +ashamed of that admiration; and his avowals of it are happily on record. + +They were married on the second of January. The wedding-day was +miserable. Byron awoke in one of his melancholy moods, and wandered +alone in the grounds till called to be married. His wayward mind was +full of all the associations that were least congenial with the day. +His thoughts were full of Mary Chaworth, and of old scenes in his life, +which he fancied he loved because he was now leaving them behind. +He declared that his poem of "The Dream" was a true picture of his +wedding-morning; and there are circumstances, not told in his "Life," +which render this probable. After the ceremony and breakfast, the young +couple left Seaham for Sir Ralph's seat at Halnaby. Towards dusk of that +winter-day, the carriage drove up to the door, where the old butler +stood ready to receive his young lady and her bridegroom. The moment the +carriage-door was opened, the bridegroom jumped out and walked away. +When his bride alighted, the old servant was aghast. She came up +the steps with the listless gait of despair. Her face and movements +expressed such utter horror and desolation, that the old butler longed +to offer his arm to the lonely young creature, as an assurance of +sympathy and protection. Various stories got abroad as to the cause of +this horror, one probably as false as another; and, for his own part, +Byron met them by a false story of Miss Milbanke's lady's-maid having +been stuck in, bodkin-wise, between them. As Lady Byron certainly soon +got over the shock, the probability is that she satisfied herself that +he had been suffering under one of the dark moods to which he was +subject, both constitutionally and as the poet of moods. + +It is scarcely possible at our time of day to make sufficient allowance +for such a woman having entered upon such a marriage, in spite of the +notoriety of the risks. Byron was then the idol of much more than the +literary world. His poetry was known by heart by multitudes of men and +women who read very little else; and one meets, at this day, elderly +men, who live quite outside of the regions of literature, who believe +that there never could have been such a poet before, and would say, if +they dared, that there will never be such another again. He appeared at +the moment when society was restless and miserable, and discontented +with the Fates and the universe and all that it contained. The general +sensibility had not for long found any expression in poetry. Literature +seemed something quite apart from experience, and with which none but +a particular class had any concern. At such a time, when Europe +lay desolate under the ravage and incessant menace of the French +Empire,--when England had an insane King, a profligate Regent, an +atrocious Ministry, and a corrupt Parliament,--when the war drained the +kingdom of its youth, and every class of its resources,--when there was +chronic discontent in the manufacturing districts, and hunger among the +rural population, with a perpetual extension of pauperism, swallowing +up the working and even the middle classes,--when everybody was full of +anxiety, dread, or a reactionary recklessness,--there suddenly appeared +a new strain of poetry which seemed to express every man's mood. Every +man took up the song. Byron's musical woe resounded through the land. +People who had not known exactly what was the matter with them now found +that life was what Byron said it was, and that they were sick of it. I +can well remember the enthusiasm,--the better, perhaps, for never having +shared it. At first I was too young, and afterwards I found too much of +moods and too little of matter to create any lasting attachment to +his poetry. But the music of it rang in all ears, and the rush of its +popularity could not be resisted by any but downright churlish persons. +I remember how ladies, in morning calls, recited passages of Byron to +each other,--and how gentlemen, in water-parties, whispered his short +poems to their next neighbor. If a man was seen walking with his head +down and his lips moving, he was revolving Byron's last romance; and +children who began, to keep albums wrote, in double lines on the first +page, some stanza which caught them by its sound, if they were not up to +its sense. On some pane in every inn-window there was a scrap of Byron; +and in young ladies' portfolios there were portraits of the poet, +recognizable, through all bad drawing and distortion, by the cast of the +beautiful features and the Corsair style. Where a popularity like this +sprang up, there must be sufficient reason for it to cause it to involve +more or less all orders of minds; and the wisest and most experienced +men, and the most thoroughly trained scholars, fell into the general +admiration, and keenly enjoyed so melodious an expression of a general +state of feeling, without asking too pertinaciously for higher views and +deeper meanings. Old Quakers were troubled at detecting hidden copies +and secret studies of Byron among young men and maidens who were to be +preserved from all stimulants to the passions; and they were yet more +troubled, when, looking to see what the charm was which so wrought upon +the youth of their sect, they found themselves carried away by it, +beyond all power to forget what they had read. The idolatry of the poet, +which marked that time, was an inevitable consequence of the singular +aptness of his utterance. His dress, manners, and likings were adopted, +so far as they could be ascertained, by hundreds of thousands of youths +who were at once sated with life and ambitious of fame, or at least of a +reputation for fastidious discontent; young ladies declared that Byron +was everything that was great and good; and even our best literature of +criticism shows how respectful and admiring the hardest reviewers grew, +after the poet had become the pet and the idol of all England. At such a +time, how should "Bell" Milbanke resist the intoxication,--even before +the poet addressed himself particularly to her? A great reader in the +quietness of her home, where all her tastes were indulged,--a lover of +poetry, and so genial and sympathizing as to be always sure to be filled +with the spirit of her time,--how could she fail to idolize Byron as +others did? And what must have been her exaltation, when he told her +that the welfare of his whole life depended upon her! Between her +exaltation, her love, her sympathy, and her admiration, she might well +make allowance for his eccentricities first, and for worse afterwards. +Thus, probably, it was that she got over the shock of that +wedding-drive, and was again the bright, affectionate, trusting and +winning woman whom he had described before and was to describe again to +his skeptical friend Moore. + +Before six weeks were over, he wrote to Moore (after some previous +hankerings) that he should go abroad soon, "and alone, too." He did not +go then. In April the death of Lord Wentworth occurred, causing Sir +Ralph and Lady Milbanke to take the name of Noel, according to Lord +Wentworth's will, and assuring the prospect of ultimate accession of +wealth. Meantime, the new expenses of his married life, entered upon +without any extrication from old debts, caused such embarrassment, that, +after many other humiliations had been undergone, he offered his +books for sale. As Lady Byron maintained a lifelong silence about the +sufferings of her married life, little is known of that miserable year +beyond what all the world saw: executions in the house; increasing gloom +and recklessness in the husband; a bright patience and resoluteness in +the wife; and an immense pity felt by the poet's adorers for his trials +by a persecuting Fate. During the summer and autumn, his mention of his +wife to his correspondents became less frequent and more formal. His +tone about his approaching "papaship" tells nothing. He was not likely +to show to such men any good or natural feelings on the occasion. In +December, his daughter, Augusta Ada, was born; and early in January, he +wrote to Moore so melancholy a "Heigho!" on occasion of his having been +married a year, as to incite that critical observer to write him an +inquiry about the state of his domestic spirits. The end was near, and +the world was about to see its idol and his wife tested in moral action +of a very stringent kind. + +By means of the only publication ever made or authorized by Lady Byron +on the subject of her domestic life, her vindication of her parents, +contained in the Appendix of Moore's "Life" of the poet, we know, that, +during her confinement, Lord Byron's nearest relatives were alarmed by +tokens of eccentricity so marked, that they informed her, as soon as she +was recovered, that they believed him insane. His confidential servant +bore the same testimony; and she naturally believed it, when she resumed +her place in the household, and saw how he was going on. On the sixth of +January, the day after he wrote the "Heigho!" to Moore, he desired his +wife, in writing, to go to her parents on the first day that it was +possible for her to travel. Her physicians would not let her go earlier +than the fifteenth; and on that day she went. She never saw her husband +again. + +She had, in agreement with his family, consulted Dr. Baillie on her +husband's behalf; and he, supposing the insanity to be real, advised, +before seeing Lord Byron, that she should obey his wish about absenting +herself, as an experiment,--and that, in the interval, she should +converse only on light and cheerful topics. She observed these +directions, and, in the spirit of them, wrote two letters, on the +journey, which bore no marks of the trouble which existed between them. +These letters were afterwards used, even circulated, to create a belief +that Lady Byron had been suddenly persuaded to desert her husband, +though he at least was well aware that the fact was not so. It soon +appeared that he was not insane. Such was the decision of physicians, +relatives, and presently of Lady Byron herself. While there was any +room for supposing disease to be the cause of his conduct, she and +her parents were anxious to use all tenderness with him, and devote +themselves to his welfare; but when it became necessary to consider him +sane, his wife declared that she could not return to him. + +It is not necessary to dwell on the imputations Lord Byron spread abroad +at the time, and his biographer afterwards, against the parents of his +wife, and everybody belonging to them who could be supposed to have +the slightest influence over Lady Byron's views or feelings. Those +allegations were publicly shown by her to be false, nearly thirty years +ago. I refer to them now solely because they were the occasion of the +only public disclosure Lady Byron ever voluntarily made on any part of +the subject of her married life. It is needless to exhibit how different +in this respect was the conduct of her husband and his friends. + +It became known by that statement, after some years, that, when Lady +Noel went to London, to see what could and ought to be done, she +obtained good legal opinions on the case, so far as she knew it. Those +opinions declared Lady Byron fully justified in refusing to rejoin her +husband. The parents, however, never knew the whole; and it was on yet +more substantial grounds that Lady Byron formed her resolution. The +facts were submitted, as the world has since known, as an A.B. case, to +Dr. Lushington and Sir Samuel Romilly; and those able lawyers and good +men peremptorily decided, that the wife, whoever she might be, must +never see her husband again. When they learned whose case it was, they +not only gave their full sanction to her refusal to return, but +declared that they would never countenance in any way a change in that +resolution. Dr. Lushington's statement to this effect appears in the +Appendix to Moore's "Life," as a part of Lady Byron's vindication of her +parents. + +It was very hard on her to be compelled to speak at all. For six years +she had kept silence utterly, bearing all imputations without reply. But +when it was brought to her notice that her parents were charged with the +gravest offences by her husband's biographer, after the death of both, +and when no other near relative was in existence, she had no choice. She +must exonerate them. The testimony was, as she said, "extorted" from +her. The respect which had been felt for her during the first years of +silence was not impaired by this disclosure; but it was by one which +occurred a few years later. A statement on her domestic affairs was +published, in her name, in a magazine of large circulation.[A] It +did not really explain anything, while it seemed to break through a +dignified reserve which had won a high degree of general esteem. It +was believed that feminine weakness had prevailed at last; and her +reputation suffered accordingly with many who had till then regarded her +with favor and even reverence. + +[Footnote A: _New Monthly Magazine_, 1836.] + +This was the climax of the hardship of her case. She had no concern +whatever with this act of publication. It was one of poor Campbell's +disastrous pranks. He could not conceive how he could have done such a +thing, and was desperately sorry; but there was little good in that. The +mischief was done which could never be thoroughly repaired. She once +more suffered in silence; for she was not weak enough to complain of +irremediable evils. Nine years afterwards she wrote to a friend, who had +been no less unjustifiably betrayed,--"I am grieved for you, as regards +the actual position; but it will come right. I was myself made to +_appear_ responsible for a publication by Campbell, most unfairly, some +years ago; so that, if I had not imagination enough to enter into your +case, experience would have taught me to do so." + +Those who are old enough to remember the year 1816 will easily recall +the fluctuations of opinion which took place as to the merits of the +husband and the wife, whose separation was as interesting to ten +thousand households as any family event of their own. Then, and for a +few years after, was Lady Byron the world's talk,--innocently, most +reluctantly, and unavoidably. + +At first, while her influence left its impression on his mind, Lord +Byron did her some sort of justice,--fitful and partial, but very +precious to her then, no doubt,--and almost as precious now to the +friends who understood her. It was not till he was convinced that she +would never return, not till he began to quail under the world's ill +opinion, and especially, not till he felt secure that he might rely on +his wife's fidelity and mercy, her silence and magnanimity, that he +changed his tone to one of aspersion and contempt, and his mode of +attack to that of charming, amusing, or inflaming the public with verses +against her and her friends. We have his own testimony to her domestic +merits in the interval between the parting and his lapse into a state of +malignant feeling. In March, 1816, within two months after her leaving +him, Byron wrote thus to Moore:-- + +"I must set you right in one point, however. The fault was _not_--no, +nor even the misfortune--in my 'choice' (unless in choosing at all); +for I do not believe--and I must say it, in the very dregs of all this +bitter business--that there ever was a better, or even a brighter, a +kinder, or a more amiable and agreeable being than Lady B. I never had, +nor can have, any reproach to make her, while with me. Where there is +blame, it belongs to myself; and, if I cannot redeem, I must bear it." + +To us, this is enough; and nothing that he wrote afterwards, in angry +and spiteful moods, can have the slightest effect on our impression of +her: but the case was otherwise at the time. Lord Byron's praise of her +to Moore was not known till the "Life" appeared; whereas pieces like +"The Chanty Ball," coming out from time to time, made the world suppose +that Lady Byron was one of those people, satirized in all literatures, +who violate domestic duty, and make up for it by philanthropic effort +and display. It is the prevalence of this impression to this day which +makes it necessary to present the reality of the case after the lapse of +many years. During Lady Byron's life, no one had a right to speak, if +she chose to be silent; but the more modest and shrinking she was +in regard to her own vindication, the stronger is the appeal to the +fidelity of her friends to see that her reputation does not suffer +through her magnanimity. We have guidance here in her own course in the +case of her parents. Abhorrent as all publicity was to her, she felt and +avowed the obligation to publish those facts of her life in which their +reputation was concerned. The duty is far more easy, but not less +imperative, to practise the same fidelity in regard to her, now that the +truth can be told of her without shocking her modesty. We may hear some +commonplaces about the feelings of the dead and the sensibilities of +survivors, as always happens in such cases: but the sensibilities of +survivors ought to relate, in the first place, to the fair fame of the +dead; and the feelings of the dead, having been duly respected during +life, merge after death into the general beauty of the self-sacrificing +character which would not utter the word by which the adverse judgment +of the world might have been reversed in a moment. While, at this day, +she is regarded as the cause of her husband's sins, by her coldness, +formality, and what not,--fidelity and love to her memory absolutely +require, not fresh disclosures of a private character, but a new +presentment of the evidence long ago given to the world by herself and +by her husband's very partial biographer. This is what I have done, +after thirty years more of life have proved the quality of her mind and +heart. + +As she loved early, she loved steadily and forever. It was through that +love that her magnanimity was so transcendent. When Lord Byron was +dying, he said to his confidential servant, Fletcher, "Go to Lady +Byron,--you will see her, and say"----and here his voice faltered, and +for nearly twenty minutes he muttered words which it was impossible to +catch. The man was obliged to tell him that he had not understood a +syllable. Byron's distress was great; but, as he said, it was too late. +Fletcher, on his return to England, did "go to Lady Byron," and did +see her: but she could only pace the room in uncontrollable agitation, +striving to obtain voice to ask the questions which were surging in her +heart. She could not speak, and he was obliged to leave her. To those +with whom she conversed freely, and to whom she wrote familiarly, it +was strangely interesting to hear, or to read, lines and phrases from +Byron's poems dropped, like native speech, from her tongue or her pen. +Those well-remembered lines or phrases seemed new, and were wonderfully +moving, when coming from her to whom they must have been so much more +than to any one else. How she surmounted such acts as the publication of +"Fare thee well!" and certain others of his safe appeals to the public, +no one could exactly understand. That she forgave them, and loved him to +the end, is enough for us to know; for our interest is in the greatness +of her heart, and not in the littleness of his. + +Her life thenceforth was one of unremitting bounty to society, +administered with as much skill and prudence as benevolence. As we +have seen, her parents died a few years after her return to them for +protection. She lived in retirement, changing her abode frequently, +partly for the benefit of her child's education and the promotion of her +benevolent schemes, and partly from a restlessness which was one of the +few signs of injury received from the spoiling of associations with +_home._ She felt a satisfaction which her friends rejoiced in, when her +daughter married Lord King, at present the Earl of Lovelace, in 1835; +and when grief upon grief followed in the appearance of mortal disease +in her only child, her quiet patience stood her in good stead, as +before. She even found strength to appropriate the blessings of the +occasion, and took comfort, as did her dying daughter, in the intimate +friendship which grew closer as the time of parting drew nigh. Lady +Lovelace died in 1852; and for her few remaining years, Lady Byron +was devoted to her grandchildren. But nearer calls never lessened her +interest in remoter objects. Her mind was of the large and clear quality +which could comprehend remote interests in their true proportions, and +achieve each aim as perfectly as if it were the only one. Her agents +used to say that it was impossible to mistake her directions; and thus +her business was usually well done. There was no room, in her case, for +the ordinary doubts, censures, and sneers about the misapplication of +bounty. Her taste did not lie in the "Charity Ball" direction; her funds +were not lavished in encouraging hypocrisy and improvidence among the +idle and worthless; and the quality of her charity was, in fact, +as admirable as its quantity. Her chief aim was the extension and +improvement of popular education; but there was no kind of misery that +she heard of that she did not palliate to the utmost, and no kind of +solace that her quick imagination and sympathy could devise that she did +not administer. In her methods, she united consideration and frankness +with singular success. For one instance among a thousand:--A lady with +whom she had had friendly relations some time before, and who became +impoverished in a quiet way by hopeless sickness, preferred poverty, +with an easy conscience, to a competency attended by some uncertainty +about the perfect rectitude of the resource. Lady Byron wrote to an +intermediate person exactly what she thought of the case. Whether the +judgment of the sufferer was right or mistaken was nobody's business but +her own: this was the first point. Next, a voluntary poverty could never +be pitied by anybody: that was the second. But it was painful to others +to think of the mortification to benevolent feelings which attends +poverty; and there could be no objection to arresting that pain. +Therefore she, Lady Byron, had lodged in a neighboring bank the sum of +one hundred pounds, to be used for benevolent purposes; and in order to +preclude all outside speculation, she had made the money payable to the +order of the intermediate person, so that the sufferer's name need not +appear at all. Five-and-thirty years of unremitting secret bounty like +this must make up a great amount of human happiness: but this was only +one of a wide variety of methods of doing good. It was the unconcealable +magnitude of her beneficence, and its wise quality, which made her a +second time the theme of English conversation in all honest households +within the four seas. Years ago, it was said far and wide, that Lady +Byron was doing more good than anybody else in England; and it was +difficult to imagine how anybody could do more. Lord Byron spent every +shilling that the law allowed him out of her property, while he lived, +and left away from her every shilling that he could deprive her of by +his will; yet she had eventually a large income at her command. In the +management of it she showed the same wise consideration that marked all +her practical decisions. She resolved to spend her whole income, seeing +how much the world needed help at the moment. Her care was for the +existing generation, rather than for a future one, which would have +its own friends. She usually declined trammelling herself with annual +subscriptions to charities, preferring to keep her freedom from year to +year, and to achieve definite objects by liberal bounty, rather than to +extend partial help over a large surface which she could not herself +superintend. + +It was her first industrial school that awakened the admiration of the +public, which had never ceased to take an interest in her, while sorely +misjudging her character. We hear much now--and everybody hears it with +pleasure--of the spread of education in "common things." But, long +before Miss Coutts inherited her wealth, long before a name was found +for such a method of training, Lady Byron had instituted the thing, and +put it in the way of making its own name. She was living at Ealing, in +Middlesex, in 1834; and there she opened one of the first industrial +schools in England, if not the very first. She sent out a master to +Switzerland, to be instructed in De Fellenburg's method. She took on +lease five acres of land, and spent several hundred pounds in rendering +the buildings upon it fit for the purposes of the school. A liberal +education was afforded to the children of artisans and laborers, during +the half of the day when they were not employed in the field or garden. +The allotments were rented by the boys, who raised and sold produce +which afforded them a considerable yearly profit, if they were good +workmen. Those who worked in the field earned wages,--their labor being +paid by the hour, according to the capability of the young laborer. +They kept their accounts of expenditure and receipts, and acquired good +habits of business, while learning the occupation of their lives. Some +mechanical trades were taught, as well as the arts of agriculture. Part +of the wisdom of the management lay in making the pupils pay. Of one +hundred pupils, half were boarders. They paid little more than half the +expense of their maintenance; and the day-scholars paid three-pence per +week. Of course, a large part of the expense was borne by Lady Byron, +besides the payments she made for children who could not otherwise have +entered the school. The establishment flourished steadily till 1852, +when the owner of the land required it back for building-purposes. +During the eighteen years that the Ealing schools were in action, they +did a world of good in the way of incitement and example. The Poor-Law +Commissioners pointed out their merits. Land-owners and other wealthy +persons visited them, and went home and set up similar establishments. +During those years, too, Lady Byron had herself been at work in various +directions, to the same purpose. + +A more extensive industrial scheme was instituted on her Leicestershire +property; and not far off, she opened a girls' school, and an infant +school; and when a season of distress came, as such seasons are apt to +befall the poor Leicestershire stocking-weavers, Lady Byron fed the +children for months together, till they could resume their payments. +These schools were opened in 1840. The next year, she built a +school-house on her Warwickshire property; and five years later, she set +up an iron school-house on another Leicestershire estate. By this time, +her educational efforts were costing her several hundred pounds a year +in the mere maintenance of existing establishments; but this is the +smallest consideration in the case. She has sent out tribes of boys and +girls into life fit to do their part there with skill and credit and +comfort. Perhaps it is a still more important consideration, that scores +of teachers and trainers have been led into their vocation, and duly +prepared for it, by what they saw and learned in her schools. As for the +best and the worst of the Ealing boys,--the best have, in a few cases, +been received into the Battersea Training School, whence they could +enter on their career as teachers to the greatest advantage; and the +worst found their school a true reformatory, before reformatory schools +were heard of. At Bristol she bought a house for a reformatory +for girls; and there her friend, Miss Carpenter, faithfully and +energetically carries out her own and Lady Byron's aims, which were one +and the same. + +There would be no end, if I were to catalogue the schemes of which these +are a specimen. It is of more consequence to observe that her mind was +never narrowed by her own acts, as the minds of benevolent people are so +apt to be. To the last, her interest in great political movements, at +home and abroad, was as vivid as ever. She watched every step won in +philosophy, every discovery in science, every token of social change and +progress, in every shape. Her mind was as liberal as her heart and hand, +No diversity of opinion troubled her; she was respectful to every sort +of individuality, and indulgent to all constitutional peculiarities. +It must have puzzled those who kept up the notion of her being +"strait-laced," to see how indulgent she was even to epicurean +tendencies,--the remotest of all from her own. + +But I must stop; for I do not wish my honest memorial to degenerate into +panegyric.--Among her latest known acts were her gifts to the Sicilian +cause, and her manifestations on behalf of the antislavery cause in the +United States. Her kindness to William and Ellen Craft must be well +known there; and it is also related in the newspapers that she +bequeathed a legacy to a young American, to assist him under any +disadvantages he might suffer as an abolitionist. + +All these deeds were done under a heavy burden of ill-health. Before +she had passed middle life, her lungs were believed to be irreparably +injured by partial ossification. She was subject to attacks so serious, +that each one for many years was expected to be the last. She arranged +her affairs in correspondence with her liabilities; so that the same +order would have been found, whether she died suddenly or after long +warning. + +She was to receive one more accession of outward greatness before she +departed. She became Baroness Wentworth in November, 1856. This is one +of the facts of her history; but it is the least interesting to us, as +probably to her. We care more to know that her last days were bright in +honor, and cheered by the attachment of old friends, worthy to pay the +duty she deserved. Above all, it is consoling to know that she who so +long outlived her only child was blessed with the unremitting and tender +care of her granddaughter. She died on the sixteenth of May, 1860. + +The portrait of Lady Byron, as she was at the time of her marriage, is +probably remembered by some of my readers. It is very engaging. +Her countenance afterwards became much worn; but its expression of +thoughtfulness and composure was very interesting. Her handwriting +accorded well with the character of her mind. It was clear, elegant, +and womanly. Her manners differed with circumstances. Her shrinking +sensitiveness might embarrass one visitor, while another would be +charmed with her easy, significant, and vivacious conversation. It +depended much on whom she talked with. The abiding certainty was, that +she had strength for the hardest of human trials, and the composure +which belongs to strength. For the rest, it is enough to point to her +deeds, and to the mourning of her friends round the chasm which her +departure has made in their life, and in the society in which it is +spent. All that could be done in the way of personal love and honor was +done while she lived; it only remains now to see that her name and fame +are permitted to shine forth at last in their proper light. + + + + +GETTING HOME AGAIN. + + +It is a good thing, said an aged Chinese Travelling Philosopher, for +every man, sooner or later, to get back again to his own tea-cup. +And Ling Ching Ki Hi Fum (for that was the name of the profound old +gentleman who said it) was right. Travel may be "the conversion of +money into mind,"--and happy the man who has turned much coin into that +precious commodity,--but it is a good thing, after being tossed about +the world from the Battery to Africa,--that dry nurse of lions, as +Horace calls her,--to anchor once more beside the old familiar tea-urn +on the old familiar tea-table. This is the only "steamy column" worth +hailing with a glad welcome after long absence from home, and fully +entitled to be heartily applauded for its "bubbling and loud-hissing" +propensities. + +We are not a Marco Polo or a William de Rubruquis, and we have no +wonders to tell of the Great Mogul or the Great Cham. We did not sail +for Messrs. Pride, Pomp, Circumstance, and Company; consequently, we +have no great exploits to recount. We have been wrecked at sea only once +in our many voyages, and, so far as we know our own tastes, do not care +to solicit aid again to be thrown into the same awkward situation. But +for a time we have been + + "Placed far amid the melancholy main," + +and now we are among our own tea-cups. This is happiness enough for a +cold winter's night. Mid-ocean, and mid tea-cups! Stupendous change, +let us tell you, worthy friend, who never yet set sail where sharks and +other strange sea-cattle bob their noses above the brine,--who never +lived forty days in the bowels of a ship, unable to hold your head up to +the captain's bluff "good morning" or the steward's cheery "good night." +Sir Philip Sidney discourses of a riding-master he encountered in +Vienna, who spoke so eloquently of the noble animal he had to deal with, +that he almost persuaded Sir Philip to wish himself a horse. We have +known ancient mariners expatiate so lovingly on the frantic enjoyments +of the deep sea, that very youthful listeners have for the time resolved +to know no other existence. If the author of the "Arcadia" had been +permitted to become a prancing steed, he might, after the first +exhilarating canter, have lamented his equine state. How many a first +voyage, begun in hilarious impatience, has caused a bitter repentance! +The sea is an overrated element, and we have nothing to say in its +favor. Because we are out of its uneasy lap to-night, we almost resemble +in felicity Richter's _Walt_, who felt himself so happy, that he was +transported to the third heaven, and held the other two in his hand, +that he might give them away. To-morrow morning we shall not hear that +swashing, scaring sound directly overhead on the wet deck, which has so +often murdered our slumbers. Delectable the sensation that we don't care +a rope's-end "how many knots" we are going, and that our ears are so far +away from that eternal "Ay, ay, Sir!" "The whales," says old Chapman, +speaking of Neptune, "exulted under him, and knew their mighty king." +Let them exult, say we, and be blowed, and all due honor to their salt +sovereign! but of their personal acquaintance we are not ambitious. We +have met them now and then in the sixty thousand miles of their watery +playing-places we have passed over, and they are not pretty to look at. +Roll on, et cetera, et cetera,--and so will we, for the present, at +least, as far out of _your_ reach as possible. + +Yes, wise denizen of the Celestial Empire, it is a good, nay, a great +thing, to return even to so small a home-object as an old tea-cup. As +we lift the bright brim to our so long absent lips, we repeat it. As we +pour out our second, our third, and our fourth, we say it again. Ling +Ching, you were right! + +And now, as the rest of the household have all gone up bed-ward, and +left us with their good-night tones, + + "Like flowers' voices, if they could but speak," + +we dip our pen into the cocked hat of the brave little bronze warrior +who has fed us many a year with ink from the place where his brains +ought to be. Pausing before we proceed to paper, we look around on our +household gods. The coal bursts into crackling fits of merriment, as we +thrust the poker between the iron ribs of the grate. It seems to say, +in the jolliest possible manner of which it is capable, "Oh, go no more +a-roaming, a-roaming, across the windy sea!" How odd it seems to be +sitting here again, listening to the old clock out there in the entry! +Often we seemed to hear it during the months that have flown away, when +we knew that "our ancient" was standing sentinel for Time in another +hemisphere. One night, dark and stormy on the Mediterranean, as we lay +wakeful and watchful in the little steamer that was bearing us painfully +through the noisy tempest towards Saint Peter's and the Colosseum, +suddenly, above the tumult of the voyage, our household monitor began +audibly and regularly, we thought, to mark the seconds. Then it must +have been only fancy. Now it is something more, and we know that our +mahogany friend is really wagging his brassy beard just outside the +door. We remember now, as we lay listening that rough night at sea, how +Milton's magic sounding line came to us beating a sad melody with the +old clock's imagined tramp,-- + + "The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint." + +Let the waves bark to-night far out on "the desolate, rainy seas,"--the +old clock is all right in the entry! + +Landed, and all safe at last! our much-abused, lock-broken, unhinged +portmanteau unpacked and laid ignobly to rest under the household eaves! +Stay a moment,--let us pitch our inky passport into the fire. How it +writhes and grows black in the face! And now it will trouble its owner +no more forever. It was a foolish, extravagant companion, and we are +glad to be rid of it. One little blazing fragment lifts itself out +of the flame, and we can trace on the smouldering relic the stamp of +Austria. Go back again into the grate, and perish with the rest, dark +blot! + +"We look round our quiet apartment, and wonder if it be all true, this +getting home again. We stir the fire once more to assure ourself that we +are not somewhere else,--that the street outside our window is not +known as Jermyn Street in the Haymarket,--or the Via Babuino near the +Pincio,--or Princes Street, near the Monument. How do we determine that +we are not dreaming, and that we shall not wake up to-morrow morning and +find ourself on the Arno? Perhaps we are _not_ really back again where +there are no + + "Eremites and friars, + White, black, and gray, with all their trumpery." + +Perhaps we are a flamingo, a banyan-tree, or a mandarin. But there +stands the tea-cup, and our identity is sure! + +Here at last, then, for a live certainty! But how strange it all seems, +resting safely in our easy slippers, to recall some of the far-off +scenes so lately present to us! Yesterday was it, or a few weeks ago, +that this "excellent canopy," our modest roof, dwelt three thousand +miles away to the westward of us? At this moment stowed away in a +snuggery called our own; and then--how brief a period it seems! what a +small parenthesis in time--putting another man's latch-key into another +man's door, night after night, in a London fog, and feeling for the +unfamiliar aperture with all the sensation of an innocent housebreaker! +Muffled here in the oldest of dressing-gowns, that never lifted its +blessed arms ten rods from the spot where it was born; and only a few +weeks ago lolling out of C.R.'s college-window at Oxford, counting the +deer, as they nibbled the grass, and grouped themselves into beautiful +pictures on the sward of ancient Magdalen! + +As we look into the red fire in the grate, we think of the scarlet +coats we saw not long ago in Stratford,--when E.F., kindest of men and +merriest of hosts, took us to the "meet." We gaze round the field again, +and enjoy the enlivening scene. White-haired and tall, our kind-hearted +friend walks his glossy mare up and down the turf. His stalwart sons, +with sport imbrowned, proud of their sire, call our attention to the +sparkle in the old man's eye. We are mounted on a fiery little animal, +and are half-frightened at the thought of what she may do with us when +the chase is high. Confident that a roll is inevitable, and that, with a +dislocated neck, enjoyment would be out of the question, we pull bridle, +and carefully dismount, hoping not to attract attention. Whereat all our +jolly English cousins beg to inquire, "What's the row?" We whisper to +the red-coated brave prancing near us, that "we have changed our mind, +and will not follow the hunt to-day,--another time we shall be most +happy,--just now we are not quite up to the mark,--next week we shall be +all right again," etc., etc. One of the lithe hounds, who seems to have +steel springs in his hind legs, looks contemptuously at the American +stranger, and turns up his long nose like a moral insinuation. Off they +fly! we watch the beautiful cavalcade bound over the brook and sweep +away into the woodland passes. Then we saunter down by the Avon, and +dream away the daylight in endless visions of long ago, when sweet Will +and his merry comrades moved about these pleasant haunts. Returning to +the hall, we find we have walked ten miles over the breezy country, +and knew it not,--so pleasant is the fragrant turf that has been often +pressed by the feet of Nature's best-beloved high-priest! Round the +mahogany tree that night we hear the hunters tell the glories of their +sport,--how their horses, like Homer's steeds, + + "Devoured up the plain"; + +and we can hear now, in imagination, the voices of the deep-mouthed +hounds rising and swelling among the Warwick glens. + +Neither can we forget, as we sit here musing, whose green English +carpet, down in Kent, we so lately rested on under the trees,--nor how +we wandered off with the lord of that hospitable manor to an old castle +hard by his grounds, and climbed with him to the turret-tops,--nor how +we heard him repeople in fancy the aged ruin, as we leaned over the +wall and looked into the desolate court-yard below. The world has given +audience to this man, thought we, for many a year; but one who has never +heard the sound of his laughing voice knows not half his wondrous power. +When he reads his "Christmas Carol," go far to hear him, judicious +friend, if you happen to be in England, and let us all hope together +that we shall have that keen gratification next year in America. To know +him is to love and esteem him tenfold more than if you only read of him. + +Let us bear in mind, too, how happily the hours went by with us so +recently in the vine-embowered cottage of dear L.H., the beautiful old +man with silver hair,-- + + "As hoary frost with spangles doth attire + The mossy branches of an oak." + +The sound of the poet's voice was like the musical fall of water in our +ears, and every sentence he uttered then is still a melody. As we sit +dreamily here, he speaks to us again of "life's morning march, when his +bosom was young," and of his later years, when his struggles were many +and keen, and only his pen was the lever which rolled poverty away from +his door. We can hear him, as we pause over this leaf, as we heard the +old clock that night at sea. He tells us of his cherished companions, +now all gone,--of Shelley, and Keats, and Charles Lamb, whom he +loved,--of Byron, and Coleridge, and the rest. As we sit at his little +table, he hands us a manuscript, and says it is the "Endymion," John +Keats's gift to himself. He reads to us from it some of his favorite +lines, and the tones of his voice are very tender over his dead friend's +poem. As we pass out of his door that evening, the moon falls on his +white locks, his thin hand rests for a moment on our shoulder, and we +hear him say very kindly, "God bless you!" + +In London, not long after this, we meet again the bard of "Rimini," and +his discourse is still sweet as any dulcimer. Another old man is with +him, a poet also, whose songs are among the bravest in England's +Helicon. We observe how these two friends love each other, and as they +stand apart in the anteroom, the eldest with his arm around his brother +bard, we think it is a very pleasant sight, and not to be forgotten +ever. And when, a few months later, we are among the Alpine hills, and +word comes to us that L.H. is laid to rest in Kensal Green Churchyard, +we are grateful to have looked upon his cheerful countenance, and to +have heard him say, "God bless you!" + +We cry your mercy, gayest of cities, with your bright Bois de Boulogne, +and your splendid _café's!_ We do not much affect your shows, but we +cannot dismiss forever the cheerful little room, cloud-environed almost, +up to which we have so often toiled, after days of hard walking among +the gaudy streets of the French capital. One pleasant scene, at least, +rises unbidden, as we recall the past. It is a brisk, healthy morning, +and we walk in the direction of the Tuileries. Bending our steps toward +the Palace, (it is yet early, and few loiterers are abroad in the leafy +avenues,) we observe a group of three persons, not at all distinguished +in their appearance, having a roystering good time in the Imperial +Garden. One of them is a little boy, with a chubby, laughing face, who +shouts loudly to his father, a grave, thoughtful gentleman, who runs +backwards, endeavoring to out-race his child. The mother, a fair-haired +woman, with her bonnet half loose in the wind, strives to attract the +boy's attention and win him to her side. They all run and leap in the +merry morning-air, and, as we watch them more nearly, we know them to +be the royal family out larking before Paris is astir. Play on, great +Emperor, sweet lady, and careless boy-prince! You have hung up a picture +in our gallery of memory, very pleasant to look at, this cold night in +America. May you always be as happy as when you romped together in the +garden! + +The days that are fled still knock at the door and enter. We are walking +on the banks of the Esk, toward a friendly dwelling in Lasswade,--_Mavis +Bush_ they call the pretty place at the foot of the hill. A slight +figure, clad in black, waits for us at the garden-gate, and bids us +welcome in accents so kindly, that we, too, feel the magic influence of +his low, sweet voice,--an effect which Wordsworth described to us years +before as eloquence set to music. The face of our host is very pale, +and, when he puts his thin arm within ours, we feel how frail a body may +contain a spirit of fire. We go into his modest abode and listen to his +wonderful talk, wishing all the while that the hours were months, that +we might linger there, spellbound, day and night, before the master of +our English tongue. He proposes a ramble across the meadows to Roslin +Chapel, and on the way he discourses of the fascinating drug so +painfully associated with his name in literature,--of Christopher +North, in whose companionship he delighted among the Lakes,--of Elia, +whom he recalled as the most lovable man among his friends, and whom he +has well described elsewhere as a Diogenes with the heart of a Saint +John. In the dark evening he insists upon setting out with us on our +return to Edinburgh. When it grows late, and the mists are heavy on the +mountains, we stand together, clasping hands of farewell in the dim +road, the cold Scotch hills looming up all about us. As the small figure +of the English Opium-Eater glides away into the midnight distance, our +eyes strain after him to catch one more glimpse. The Esk roars, and we +hear his footsteps no longer. + +The scene changes, as the clock strikes in the entry. We are lingering +in the piazza of the Winged Lion, and the bronze giants in their turret +overlooking the square raise their hammers and beat the solemn march of +Time. As we float away through the watery streets, old Shylock +shuffles across the bridge,--black barges glide by us in the silent +canals,--groups of unfamiliar faces lean from the balconies,--and we +hear the plashing waters lap the crumbling walls of Venice, with its +dead Doges and decaying palaces. + +Again we stir the fire, and feel it is home all about us. But we like +to sit here and think of that rosy evening, last summer, when we came +walking into Interlachen, and beheld the ghost-like figure of the +Jungfrau issuing out of her cloudy palace to welcome the stars,--of a +cool, bright, autumnal morning on the western battlements overlooking +Genoa, the blue Mediterranean below mirroring the silent fleet that lay +so motionless on its bosom,--of a midnight visit to the Colosseum with +a band of German students, who bore torches in and out of the time-worn +arches, and sang their echoing songs to the full moon,--of days, how +many and how magical! when we awoke every morning to say, "We are in +Rome!" + +But it grows late, and it is time now to give over these reflections. So +we wind up our watch, and put out the candle. + + * * * * * + + +A DRY-GOODS JOBBER IN 1861. + + +What is a dry-goods jobber? No wonder you ask. You have been hunting, +perhaps, for our peripatetic postoffice, and have stumbled upon Milk +Street and Devonshire Street and Franklin Street. You are almost ready +to believe in the lamp of Aladdin, that could build palaces in a night. +Looking up to the stately and costly structures which have usurped the +place of once familiar dwellings, and learning that they are, for the +most part, tenanted by dry-goods jobbers, you feel that for such huge +results there must needs be an adequate cause, and so you ask, What is a +dry-goods jobber? + +It is more than a curious question. For parents desirous of finding +their true sphere for promising and for unpromising sons, it is +eminently a practical question. It is a question comprehensive of +dollars and cents,--also of bones and sinews, of muscles, nerves, and +brains, of headache, heartache, and the cyclopaedia of being, doing, +and enduring. An adequate answer to such a question must needs ask your +indulgence, for it cannot be condensed into a very few words. + +A dry-goods jobber is a wholesale buyer and seller, for cash or for +approved credit, of all manner of goods, wares, and materials, large +and small, coarse and fine, foreign and domestic, which pertain to the +clothing, convenience, and garnishing, by night and by day, of men, +women, and children: from a button to a blanket; from a calico to a +carpet; from stockings to a head-dress; from an inside handkerchief to a +waterproof; from a piece of tape to a thousand bales of shirtings; not +forgetting linen, silk, or woollen fabrics, for drapery or upholstery, +for bed or table, including hundreds of items which time would fail me +to recite. All these the dry-goods jobber provides for his customer, the +retailer, who in his turn will dispense them to the consumer. + +A really competent and successful dry-goods jobber, in the year of +grace, one thousand, eight hundred and sixty-one, is a new creation. He +is begotten of the times. Of him, as truly as of the poet, and with yet +more emphasis, it must be said, He is born, not made. He is a poet, a +philosopher, an artist, an engineer, a military commander, an advocate, +an attorney, a financier, a steam-engine, a telegraph-operator, a +servant-of-all-work, a Job, a Hercules, and a Bonaparte, rolled into +one. + +"Exaggeration!" do you say? Not at all.--You asked for information? You +shall have it, to your heart's content. + +To a youth, for a time interrupted in his preparation for college, I +said,-- + +Never mind; this falls in exactly with my well-considered plan. You +shall go into a dry-goods store till your eyes recover strength; it will +be the best year's schooling of your life. + +"How so?" was the dubious answer; "what can I learn there?" + +Learn? Everything,--common sense included, which is generally excluded +from the University curriculum: for example, time, place, quantity, and +the worth of each. You shall learn length, breadth, and thickness; hard +and soft; pieces and yards; dozens and the fractions thereof; order and +confusion, cleanliness and dirt,--to love the one and hate the other; +materials, colors, and shades of color; patience, manners, decency +in general; system and method, and the relation these sustain to +independence; in short, that there is a vast deal more out of books than +in books; and, finally, that the man who knows only what is in books is +generally a lump of conceit, and of about as much weight in the scales +of actual life as the ashes of the Alexandrian library, or the worms in +any parchments that may have survived that conflagration. + +"Whew!" was his ejaculation; "I didn't know there was so much." + +I dare say not. Most of your limited days have passed under the training +of men who are in the like predicament,--whose notion of the chief end +of man is, to convert lively boys into thick dictionaries,--and who +honestly believe that the chief want of the age is your walking +dictionary. Any other type of humanity, they tell us, "won't pay." +Much they know of what will and what won't pay! This comes of partial +education,--of one-sided, of warped, and biased education. It puts one +out of patience, this arrogance of the University, this presuming +upon the ignorance of the million, this assertion of an indispensable +necessity to make the boy of the nineteenth century a mere expert in +some subdivision of one of the sciences. The obstinacy of an hereditary +absolutism, which the world has outgrown, still lingers in our schools +of learning. Let us admit the divine right of Science, admit the fitness +of a limited number of our youth to become high-priests in her temple, +but no divine right of fossil interpreters of Science to compel the +entire generation to disembowel their sons and make of these living +temples mere receptacles of Roman, Grecian, or Egyptian relics. We +don't believe that "mummy is medicinal," the Arabian doctor Haly to the +contrary notwithstanding. If it ever was, its day has gone by. Therefore +let all sensible people pray for a Cromwell,--not to pull down +University Science, but to set up the Commonwealth of Common Sense, to +subordinate the former to the latter, and to proclaim an education for +our own age and for its exigencies. Your dry-goods jobber stands in +violent contrast to your University man in the matter of practical +adaptation. His knowledge is no affair of dried specimens, but every +particle of it a living knowledge, ready, at a moment's warning, for all +or any of the demands of life. + +You are perhaps thinking,--"Yes, that is supposable, because the lessons +learned by the jobber are limited to the common affairs of daily life, +are not prospective; because, belonging only to the passing day, they +are easily surveyed on all sides, and their full use realized at once; +in short, a mere matter of buying and selling goods: a very inferior +thing, as compared with the dignified and scholarly labors of the +student." + +How mistaken this estimate is will appear, as we advance to something +like a comprehensive survey of the dry-goods jobber's sphere. + +First, then, he is a buyer of all manner of goods, wares, and materials +proper to his department in commerce. He is minutely informed in the +history of raw materials. He knows the countries from which they +come,--the adaptation of soils and climates to their raising,--the skill +of the cultivators,--the shipping usages,--the effect of transportation +by land and sea on raw materials, and on manufactured articles,--with +all the mysteries of insurance allowances and usages, the debentures +on exportation, and the duties on importation, in his own and in other +lands. His forecast is taxed to the utmost, as to what may be the +condition of his own market, six, twelve, or eighteen months from the +time of ordering goods, both as to the quantity which may be in market, +and as to the fashion, which is always changing,--and also as to the +condition of his customers to pay for goods, which will often depend +upon the fertility of the season. As respects home-purchases, he is +compelled to learn, or to suffer for the want of knowing, that the +difference between being a skilful, pleasant buyer and the opposite is a +profit or loss of from five to seven and a half or ten per cent.,--or, +in other words, the difference, oftentimes, between success and ruin, +between comfort and discomfort, between being a welcome and a hated +visitor, between being honored as an able merchant and contemned as a +mean man or an unmitigated bore. + +Is your curiosity piqued to know wherein buyers thus contrasted may +differ? They differ endlessly, like the faces you meet on the street. +Thus, one man is born to an open, frank, friendly, and courteous manner; +another is cold, reserved, and suspicious. One is prompt, hilarious, +and provocative of every good feeling, whenever you chance to meet; the +other is slow, morose, and fit to waken every dormant antipathy in your +soul. An able buyer is, or becomes, observing to the last degree. He +knows the slightest differences in quality and in style, and possesses +an almost unerring taste,--knows the condition of the market,--knows +every holder of the article he wants, and the lowest price of each. He +knows the peculiarities of the seller,--his strong points and his weak +points, his wisdom and his foibles, his very temperament, and how it is +acted upon by his dinner or the want of it. He knows the estimate put +upon his own note by that seller. He knows what his note will sell for +in the street. He knows to a feather's weight the influence of each of +these items upon the mind of the seller of whom he wishes to make a +purchase. Talk about diplomacy!--there's not a man in any court in +Europe who knows his position, his fulcrum, and his lever, and the use +he can make of them, as this man knows. He can unravel any combination, +penetrate any disguise, surmount any obstacle. Beyond all other men, he +knows when to talk, and when to refrain from talking,--how to throw the +burden of negotiation on the seller,--how to get the goods he wants +at his own price, not at _his_ asking, but on _the suggestion of the +seller_, prompted by his own politely obvious unwillingness to have the +seller part with his merchandise at any price not entirely acceptable to +himself. + +The incompetent man, on the other hand, is presuming, exacting, and +unfeeling. He not only desires, but asserts the desire, in the +very teeth of the seller, to have something which that seller has +predetermined that he shall not have. He fights a losing game from the +start. He will probably begin by depreciating the goods which he knows, +or should know, that the seller has reason to hold in high esteem. He +will be likely enough to compare them to some other goods which he knows +to be inferior. He will thus arouse a feeling of dislike, if not of +anger, where his interest should teach him to conciliate and soothe; and +if he sometimes carry his point, his very victory is in effect a defeat, +since it procures him an increased antipathy. This the judicious +buyer never does. He repudiates, as a mere half-truth, and a relic of +barbarism, the maxim, "There is no friendship in trade." + +"But," you are asking, "do only those succeed who are born to these +extraordinary endowments? And those who do succeed, are they, in +fact, each and all of them, such wonderfully capable men as you have +described?" + +If by success you mean mere money-making, it is not to be denied that +some men do that by an instinct, little, if at all, superior to that of +the dog who smells out a bone. There are exceptions to all rules; and +there are chances in all games, even in games of skill. Lord Timothy +Dexter, as he is facetiously called, shipped warming-pans to the West +Indies, in defiance of all geographical objections to the venture, and +made money by the shipment,--not because warming-pans were wanted there, +but because the natives mistook and used them for molasses-ladles. It +must be owned that a portion of the successful ones are _lucky_,--that +a portion of them use the blunt weapon of an indomitable will, as an +efficient substitute for the finer edge of that nice tact and good +manners which they lack. Their very rudeness seems to commend them to +the rude natures which confound refinement with trickery and assume that +brutality must needs be honest. + +But there are other things to be said of buying. The dry-goods jobber +frequents the auction-room. If you have never seen a large sale of +dry-goods at auction, you have missed one of the remarkable incidents +of our day. You are not yet aware of how much an auctioneer and two or +three hundred jobbers can do and endure in the short space of three +hours. You must know that fifty or a hundred thousand dollars' worth of +goods may easily change owners in that time. You are not to dream of the +leisurely way of disposing of somebody's household-furniture or library, +which characterizes the doings of one or two of our fellow-citizens who +manage such matters within speaking distance of King's Chapel: but are +rather to picture to yourself a congregation of three hundred of the +promptest men in our Atlantic cities, with a sprinkling of Westerners +quite as wide awake for bargains, each of them having marked his +catalogue; an auctioneer who considers the sale of a hundred lots an +hour his proper _rôle_, and who is able to see the lip, eye, or finger +of the man whose note he covets, in spite of all sounds, signs, or +opaque bodies. The man of unquiet nerves or of exacting lungs would +do well to leave that arena to the hard-heads and cool-bloods who can +pursue their aim and secure their interests: undisturbed either by +the fractional rat-a-tat-tat of the auctioneer's "Twenty-seven +af--naf--naf--naf,--who'll give me thirty?" or by the banter and +comicalities which a humor-loving auctioneer will interject between +these bird-notes, without changing his key, or arresting his sale a +moment. If you would see the evidence of comprehensive and minute +knowledge, of good taste, quick wit, sound judgment, and electrical +decision, attend an auction-sale in New York some morning. There will be +no lack of fun to season the solemnity of business, nor of the mixture +of courtesy and selfishness usual in every gathering, whether for +philanthropic, scientific, or commercial purposes. Many dry-goods +jobbers will attend the sale with no intention of buying, but simply to +note the prices obtained, and, having traced the goods to their owners, +to get the same in better order and on better terms; the commission paid +to the auctioneer being divided, or wholly conceded by the seller to the +buyer, according to his estimate of the note. + +A dry-goods buyer will sometimes spend a month in New York, the first +third or half of which he will devote to ascertaining what goods are in +the market, and what are to arrive; also to learning the mood of the +English, French, and Germans who hold the largest stocks. Sometimes +these gentlemen will make an early trial of their goods at auction. +Unsatisfactory results will rouse their phlegm or fire, and they declare +they will not send another piece of goods to auction, come what may. For +local or temporary reasons, buyers sometimes persist in holding back +till the season is so far advanced that the foreign gentlemen become +alarmed. Their credits in London, Paris, and Amsterdam are running out; +they are anxious to make remittances; and then ensues one of those +dry-goods panics so characteristic of New York and its mixed multitude; +an avalanche of goods descends upon the auction-rooms, and prices +drop ten, twenty, forty per cent., it may be, and the unlucky or +short-sighted men who made early purchases are in desperate haste to run +off their stocks before the market is irreparably broken down. Whether, +therefore, to buy early or late, in large or in small quantities, at +home or abroad,--are questions beset with difficulty. He who imports +largely may land his goods in a bare market and reap a golden harvest, +or in a market so glutted with goods that the large sums he counts out +to pay the duties may be but a fraction of the loss he knows to be +inevitable. + +In addition to the problems belonging to time and place of purchasing, +to quantities and prices, there is a host of other problems begotten of +styles, of colors, of assortments, of texture and finish, of adaptation +to one market or another. The profit on a case of goods is often +sacrificed by the introduction or omission of one color or figure, +the presence or absence of which makes the merchandise desirable or +undesirable. Little less than omniscience will suffice to guard against +the sometimes sudden, and often most unaccountable, freaks of fashion, +whose fiat may doom a thing, in every respect admirably adapted to its +intended use, to irretrievable condemnation and loss of value. And when +you remember that the purchases of dry-goods must be made in very large +quantities, from a month to six or even twelve months before the buyer +can sell them, and that his sales are many times larger than his +capital, and most of them on long credit, you have before you a +combination of exigencies hardly to be paralleled elsewhere. + +The crisis of 1857 brought a general collapse. Scores and scores of +jobbers failed; very few dared to buy goods. Mills were compelled to run +on short time, or to cease altogether. The country became bare of +the common necessaries of life. In process of time trade rallied. +Manufacturing recommenced; orders for goods poured in; and for a +twelve-month and more the manufacturer has had it all his own way. His +goods are all sold ahead, months ahead of his ability to manufacture. +He makes his own price, and chooses his customer. This operates not +unkindly on the jobbers who are wealthy and independent; but for those +who have but lately begun to mount the hill of difficulty, it offers one +more impediment. For, to men who have a great many goods to sell, it +is a matter of moment to secure the customers who can buy in large +quantities, and whose notes will bring the money of banks or private +capitalists as soon as offered. Against such buyers, men of limited +means and of only average business-ability have but a poor chance. +There will always be some articles of merchandise in the buying or +selling of which they cannot compete. + +When a financial crisis overtakes the community, we hear much and sharp +censure of all _speculation_. Speculators, one and all, are forthwith +consigned to an abyss of obloquy. The virtuous public outside of trade +washes its hands of all participation in the iniquity. This same +virtuous public knows very little of what it is talking about. What is +speculation? Shall we say, in brief and in general, that it consists in +running risks, in taking extra-hazardous risks, on the chance of making +unusually large profits? Is it that men have abandoned the careful ways +of the fathers, and do not confine themselves to small stores, small +stocks, and cash transactions? And do you know who it is that has +compelled this change? That same public who denounce speculation in one +breath, and in the next clamor for goods at low prices, and force +the jobber into large stores and large sales at small profits as the +indispensable condition of his very existence. + +Those who thus rail at speculation are generally quite unaware that +their own inexorable demand for goods at low prices is one of the +principal efficient causes of that of which they complain. They do not +know that the capacious maw of the insatiable public is yearly filled +with millions on millions of shirtings and sheetings, and other articles +of prime necessity, without one farthing of profit to the jobber. The +outside world reason from the assumption, that the jobber might, but +will not, avoid taking considerable risks. They do not consider, +for they do not know, how entirely all is changed from the days and +circumstances in which a very small business would suffice to maintain +the merchant. They do not consider, that, an immense amount of goods +being of compulsion sold without profit, a yet other huge amount must +be so sold as to compensate for this. Nor do they consider that the +possibility of doing this is often contingent upon the buyer's carefully +calculated probability of a rise in the article he is purchasing. Many a +time is the jobber enabled and inclined to purchase largely only by the +assurance that from the time of his purchase the price will be advanced. + +The _selling_ of dry-goods is another department in high art about which +the ignorance of outsiders is ineffable. I was once asked, in the way +of courtesy and good neighborhood, to call on a clergyman in our +vicinity,--which I did. Desirous of doing his part in the matter of good +fellowship and smooth conversation, he began thus:-- + +"Well, now, Mr. Smith, you know all about business: I suppose, if I were +to go into a store to buy goods, nineteen men out of twenty would cheat +me, if they could; wouldn't they?" + +"No, Sir!" I answered, with a swelling of indignation at the injustice, +a mingling of pity for the ignorance, and a foreboding of small benefit +from the preaching of a minister of the gospel who knew so little of the +world he lived in. "No, Sir; nineteen men in twenty would not cheat you, +if they could; for the best of all reasons,--it would be dead against +their own interest." + +Not a day passes but the question is asked by our youths who are being +initiated in the routine of selling goods,--"Is this honest? Is that +honest? Is it honest to mark your goods as costing more than they do +cost? Is it honest to ask one man more than you ask another? Ought not +the same price to be named to every buyer? Isn't it cheating to get +twenty-five per cent. profit? Can a man sell goods without lying? Are +men compelled to lie and cheat a little in order to earn an honest +living?" What is the reason that these questions will keep coming up? +That they can no more be laid than Banquo's ghost? Here are some of the +reasons. First, and foremost, multitudes of young men, whose parents +followed the plough, the loom, or the anvil, have taken it into their +heads, that they will neither dig, hammer, nor ply the shuttle. To soil +their hands with manual labor they cannot abide. The sphere of commerce +looks to their longing eyes a better thing than lying down in green +pastures, or than a peaceful life beside still waters, procured by +laborious farming, or by any mechanical pursuit. Clean linen and stylish +apparel are inseparably associated in their minds with an easy and +elegant life, and so they pour into our cities, and the ranks of the +merchants are filled, and over-filled, many times. Once, the merchant +had only to procure an inviting stock, and his goods sold themselves. +He did not go after customers; they came to him; and it was a matter of +favor to them to supply their wants. Now, all that is changed. There are +many more merchants than are needed; buyers are in request; and buyers +whose credit is the best, to a very great extent, dictate the prices at +which they will buy. The question is no longer, How large a profit can +I get? but, How small a profit shall I accept? The competition for +customers is so fierce that the seller hardly dares ask any profit, for +fear his more anxious neighbor will undersell him. In order to attract +customers, one thing after another has been made "a leading article," +a bait to be offered at cost or even less than cost,--that being +oftentimes the condition on which alone the purchaser will make a +beginning of buying. + +"Jenkins," cried an anxious seller, "you don't buy anything of me, and I +can sell you as cheap as any. Here's a bale of sheetings now, at eight +cents, will do you good." + +"How many have you got?" + +"Oh, plenty." + +"Well, how many?" + +"Fifteen bales." + +"Well, I'll take them." + +"Come in and buy something more." + +"No, nothing more to-day." + +There was a loss of seventy-five dollars, and he did not dare buy more. + +It will be obvious that the selling a part of one's goods at less than +cost enhances the necessity of getting a profit on the rest. But how +to do this, under the sharp scrutiny of a buyer who knows that his own +success, not to say his very existence, depends upon his paying no +profit possible to be avoided,--no profit, at all events, not certainly +paid by some sharp neighbor who is competing with him for the same +trade? + +"But is there anything in all this," you are asking, "to preclude the +jobber's telling the truth?" Nothing. "Anything to preclude strict +honesty?" Nothing. "Why, then, do the questions you have quoted +continually recur?" + +I answer: In order to get his share of the best custom in his line, the +dry-goods jobber has taken a store in the best position in town, at a +rent of from three to fifty thousand dollars a year; has hired men and +boys at all prices, from fifty dollars to five thousand,--and enough of +these to result in an aggregate of from five to fifty thousand dollars +a year for help, without which his business cannot be done. Add to +this the usual average for store-expenses of every name, and for +the family-expenses of two, five, or seven partners, and you find a +dry-goods firm under the necessity of getting out of their year's sales +somewhere from fifteen to a hundred and fifty thousand dollars profit, +before they shall have saved one cent to meet the losses of an +unfavorable season. + +Now, though there is nothing even in all these urgencies to justify a +single lie or fraud, there is much to sharpen a man's wits to secure the +sale of his goods,--much to educate him in all manner of expedients to +baffle the inquiries of customers who would be offended, if they could +discover that he ever charged them the profit without which he could +never meet his expenses. And the jobber's problem is complicated by the +folly, universally prevalent among buyers, of expecting some partiality +or peculiarity of favor over their neighbors who are just as good as +themselves. Every dry-goods jobber knows that his customer's foolish +hope and expectation often demand three absurdities of him: first, the +assurance that he has the advantage over all other jobbers in a better +stock of goods, better bought; secondly, that he has a peculiar +friendship for himself; and thirdly, that, though of other men he must +needs get a profit, in his special instance he shall ask little or +none; and that, such is his regard for him, it is a matter of no moment +whether he live in Lowell or Louisiana, in New Bedford or Nebraska, or +whether he pay New England bank-notes within thirty days, or wild-cat +money and wild lands, which may be converted into cash, with more or +less expense and loss, somewhere between nine months and nine-and-twenty +years. + +And yet the uninitiated "can't understand how an honest merchant can +have two prices for the same goods." An honest man has but one price +for the same goods, and that is the cash price. All outside of that is +barter,--goods for notes. His first inquiry is, What is the market-value +of the note offered? True, he knows that many of the notes he takes +cannot be sold at all; but he also knows that the notes he is willing to +take will in the aggregate be guarantied by a reservation of one, two, +or three per cent., and that the note of the particular applicant for +credit will tend to swell or to diminish the rate; and he cannot afford +to exchange his goods for any note, except at a profit which will +guaranty its payment when due,--which, in other words, will make the +note equal in value to cash. + +Now it is just because all business-contingencies cannot be worked into +an unvarying form, as regular as the multiplication-table, and as plain +to the apprehension of all men, that a vast amount of lying and of +dishonesty is imputed, where it does not exist. Merchants are much like +other men,--wise and unwise, far-sighted and short-sighted, selfish +and unselfish, honest and dishonest. But that they are as a class more +dishonest than other men is so far from being true, that I much doubt if +we should overstrain the matter, if we should affirm that they are +the most honest class of men in the community. There is much in their +training which contributes directly, and most efficiently, to this +result. Their very first lessons are in feet and inches, in pounds and +ounces, in exact calculations, in accounts and balances. Carelessness, +mistakes, inaccuracies, they are made to understand, are unpardonable +sins. The boy who goes into a store learns, for the first time, that +half a cent, a quarter of a cent, an eighth of a cent, may be a matter +of the gravest import. He finds a thorough book-keeper absolutely +refusing himself rest till he has detected an error of ten cents in a +business of six months. And every day's experience enforces the lesson. +It is giving what is due, and claiming what is due, from year's end to +year's end. Among merchants it is matter of common notoriety, that the +prompt and exact adherence to orders insisted on by merchants, and +prompt advice of receipt of business and of progress, cannot be expected +from our worthy brethren at the bar. (The few honorable exceptions are +respectfully informed that they are not referred to.) We do not expect +them to weigh or measure the needless annoyance to which they often +subject us, because they have never been, like ourselves, trained to +the use of weights and measures; and therefore we are not willing to +stigmatize them as dishonest, though they do, in fact, often steal +our time and strength and patience, by withholding an answer to a +business-letter. + +None but those who are in the business know the assiduous attention with +which the dry-goods jobber follows up his customers. None but they know +the urgent necessity of doing this. The jobber may have travelled a +thousand miles to make his customer's acquaintance, and to prevail upon +him to come to Boston to make his purchases; and some neighbor, who +boards at the hotel he happens to make his resting-place, lights upon +him, shows him attention, tempts him with bargains not to be refused, +prevails upon him to make the bulk of his purchases of him, before +his first acquaintance even hears of his arrival. To guard against +disappointments such as this, the jobber sends his salesmen to live at +hotels, haunts the hotels himself, studies the hotel-register far more +assiduously than he can study his own comfort, or the comfort of his +wife and children. Of one such jobber it was said, facetiously,--"He +goes the round of all the hotels every morning with a lantern, to wake +up his customers." I had an errand one day at noon to such a devotee. +Inquiring for him in the counting-room, I was told by his book-keeper +to follow the stairs to the top of the store, and I should find him. I +mounted flight after flight to the attic, and there I found, not only +the man, but also one or two of his customers, surrounding a huge +packing-case, upon which they had extemporized a dinner, cold turkey +and tongue, and other edibles, taken standing, with plenty of fun for a +dessert. The next time we happened to meet, I said,--"So you take not +only time, but also customers, by the forelock!" + +"Yes, to be sure," was his answer; "let 'em go to their hotel to dinner +in the middle of a bill, and somebody lights upon 'em, and carries 'em +off to buy elsewhere; or they begin to remember that it is a long way +home, feel homesick, slip off to New York as being so far on the way, +and that's the last you see of 'em. No, we're bound to see 'em through, +and no let-up till they've bought all they've got on their memorandum." + +We have not yet touched the question of credit. To whom shall the jobber +sell his goods? It is the question of questions. Many a man who has +bought well, who in other respects has sold well, who possessed all +the characteristics which recommend a man to the confidence and to the +good-will of his fellows, has made shipwreck of his fortunes because of +his inability to meet this question. He sold his goods to men who never +paid him. To say that in this the most successful jobbers are governed +by an instinct, by an intuitive conviction which is superior to all +rules of judgment, would be to allege what it would be difficult to +prove. It would be less difficult to maintain that every competent +merchant, however unconscious of the fact, has a standard of judgment by +which he tries each applicant for credit. There are characteristics of +men who can safely be credited, entirely familiar to his thoughts. He +looks upon the man and instantly feels that he is or is not the man +for him. He thinks his decision an instinct, or an intuition, because, +through much practice, these mental operations have become so rapid as +to defy analysis. Not being infallible, he sometimes mistakes; and when +he so mistakes, he will be sure to say,--I made that loss because I +relied too much upon this characteristic, or because I did not allow +its proper weight to the absence of some other,--because I thought his +shrewdness or his honesty, his enterprise or his economy, would save +him: implying that he had observed some non-conformity to his standard, +but had relied upon some excellency in excess to make up for it. + +What are the perplexities which beset the question, To whom shall the +jobber sell his goods? They are manifold; and some of them are peculiar +to our country. Our territory is very extensive; our population very +heterogeneous; the economy and close calculation which recommend a man +in Massachusetts may discredit him in Louisiana. The very countenance is +often a sure indication of character and of capacity, when it is one of +a class and a region whose peculiarities we thoroughly understand; +but coming to us from other classes and regions, we are often at +fault,--more especially in these latter days, when all strong-mindedness +is presumed to be foreshadowed in a stiff beard. Time was when something +could be inferred from a lip, a mouth, a chin,--when character could be +found in the contour and color of a cheek; but that time has passed. +The time was, when, among a homogeneous people, a few time-honored +characteristics were both relied on and insisted on: for example, good +parentage, good moral character, a thorough training, and superior +capacity, joined to industry, economy, sound judgment, and good manners. +But Young America has learned to make light of some of these, and to +dispense altogether with others of them. + +Once the buyer was required to prove himself an honest, worthy, and +capable man. If he wanted credit, he must humbly sue for it, and prove +himself deserving of it; and no man thought of applying for it who was +not prepared to furnish irrefragable evidence. Once, a reference to some +respectable acquaintance would serve the purpose; and neighbors held +themselves bound to tell all they knew. The increase of merchants, and +fierce competition for customers, have changed this. Men now +regard their knowledge of other men as a part of their capital or +stock-in-trade. Their knowledge has been acquired at much cost of labor +and money; and they hold themselves absolved from all obligation to +give away what they have thus expensively acquired. Moreover, their +confidence has sometimes been betrayed, and their free communications +have been remorselessly used to their disadvantage. Alas, it cannot +be denied that even dry-goods jobbers, with all their extraordinary +endowments, are not quite perfect! for some of them will "state the +thing that is not," and others "convey" their neighbor's property into +their own coffers: men who prefer gain to godliness, and mistake much +money for respectability. + +There are very few men, in certain sections of the country, who will +absolutely refuse to give a letter of introduction to a neighbor on the +simple ground of ill-desert. Men dread the ill-will of their neighbor, +and particularly the ill-will of an unscrupulous neighbor; so, when such +a neighbor asks a letter, they give it. I remember such a one bringing a +dozen or more letters, some of which contained the highest commendation. +The writer of one of these letters sent a private note, through the +mail, warning one of the persons addressed against the bearer of his own +commendatory letter. Those who had no warning sold, and lost. It would +be difficult to find a man, however unworthy, who could not, from some +quarter, obtain a very respectable letter of introduction. One of the +greatest rogues that ever came to Boston brought letters from two of +the foremost houses in New York to two firms second to none in Boston. +Neither of these gentlemen was in fault in the matter; the train had +been laid by some obliging cousin in a banking-house in London. + +In making up our account of the difficulties with which a dry-goods +jobber has to deal, in conducting a successful business, it must be +distinctly stated, that on no man can he count for information which +will, however remotely or slightly, compromise the interest of the one +inquired of. Never, perhaps, was it so true as now, that "the seller has +need of a hundred eyes." The competent jobber uses his eyes first of all +upon the person of the man who desires to buy of him. He questions him +about himself, with such directness or indirectness as instinct and +experience dictate. He learns to discriminate between the sensitiveness +of the high-toned honest man and the sensitiveness of the rogue. Many +men of each class are inclined to resent and resist the catechism. +Strange as it may seem, the very men who would inexorably refuse a +credit to those who should decline to answer their inquiries are the men +most inclined to resent any inquiry about themselves. While they demand +the fullest and most particular information from their customers, +they wonder that others will not take them on their own estimate of +themselves. + +The jobber next directs his attention to the buyer's knowledge of goods: +of their quality, their style, their worth in market, and their fitness +for his own market; all of which will come to light, as he offers to +his notice the various articles he has for sale. He will improve the +opportunity to draw him out in general conversation, so guiding it as to +touch many points of importance, and yet not so as to betray a want of +confidence. He sounds him as to his knowledge of other merchants at home +and in the city; takes the names of his references,--of several, if he +can get them; puts himself in communication with men who know him, both +at his home and in the city. If he can harmonize the information derived +from all these sources into a consistent and satisfactory whole, he will +then do his utmost to secure his customer, both by selling him his goods +at a profit so small that he need have little fear of any neighbor's +underselling him, and also by granting every possible accommodation as +to the time and manner of payment. + +A moderately thoughtful man will by this time begin to think the +elements of toil and of perplexity already suggested sufficient for the +time and strength of any man, and more than he would wish to undertake. +But experience alone could teach him in how many ways indulged customers +can and do manage to make the profit they pay so small, and the toil +and vexation they occasion so great, that the jobber is often put upon +weighing the question, Should I not be richer without them? Thus, for +example, some of them will affect to doubt that the jobber wishes to +sell to them, and propose, as a test, that he shall let them have +some choice article at the cost, or at less than the cost, now on one +pretext, and now on another,--intimating an indisposition to buy, if +they cannot be indulged in that one thing. If they carry their point, +that exceptional price is thenceforth claimed as the rule. Another day +the concession will be asked on something else; and by extending this +game so as to include a number of jobbers, these shrewd buyers will +manage to lay in an assorted stock on which there will have been little +or no profit to the sellers. To cap the climax of vexation, these +persons will very probably come in, after not many days, and propose +to cash their notes at double interest off. Only an official of +the Inquisition could turn the thumb-screw so many times, and so +remorselessly. + +But we have yet to consider the collection of debts. The jobber who has +not capital so ample as to buy only for cash is expected invariably to +settle his purchases by giving his note, payable at bank on a fixed day. +He pays it when due, or fails. Not so with his customers: multitudes +of them shrink from giving a note payable at bank, and some altogether +refuse to do so. They wish to buy on open account; or to give a note to +be paid at maturity, if convenient,--otherwise not. The number of really +prompt and punctual men, as compared with those who are otherwise, is +very small. The number of those who never fail is smaller still. The +collection-laws are completely alike, probably, in no two States. Some +of them appear to have been constructed for the accommodation, not of +honest creditors, but of dishonest debtors. In others, they are such as +to put each jobber in fear of every other,--a first attachment taking +all the property, if the debt be large enough, leaving little or +nothing, usually, for those who have been willing to give the debtor +such indulgence as might enable him to pay in full, were it granted by +all his creditors. + +No jobber can open his letters in the morning in the certainty of +finding no tidings of a failure. No jobber, leaving his breakfast-table, +can assure his wife and children, sick or well, that he will dine or sup +with them; any one of a dozen railroad-trains may, for aught he knows, +be sweeping him away to some remote point, to battle with the mischances +of trade, the misfortunes of honest men, or the knavery of rogues and +the meshes of the law. Once in the cars, he casts his eye around in +uneasy expectation of finding some one or more of his neighbors bound on +the same errand. While yet peering over the seats in front of him, he is +unpleasantly startled by a slap on the shoulder, and, "Ah, John! +bound East? What's in the wind? Any ducks in these days?" +"Why,--yes,--no,--that is, I'm going down along,--little uncertain how +far,--depends on circumstances." "So, so,--I see,--mum's the word." +Well, neither is quite ready to trust the other,--neither quite ready to +know the worst; so long as a blow is suspended, it may not fall; and so, +with desperate exertions, they change the subject, converse on things +indifferent,--or subside into more or less moody meditations upon their +respective chances and prospects. + +Any jobber who has seen service will tell you stories without number of +these vexatious experiences, sometimes dashed with the comical in no +common measure. He will tell you of how they arrived at the last town +on the railroad, some six or seven of them; of how not a word had been +lisped of their destination; of the stampede from the railroad-station +to the tavern; of the spirited bids for horses and wagons; of the +chop-fallen disappointment of the man for whom no vehicle remained; of +his steeple-chase a-bareback; and of their various successes with writs +and officers, in their rush for the store of the delinquent debtor. Of +three such Jehus, the story goes, that, two of them having bought the +monopoly of the inside of the only vehicle, and, in so doing, as they +thought, having utterly precluded any chance for the third, their +dauntless competitor instantly mounted with the driver, commenced +negotiations for the horse, which speedily resulted in a purchase, and +thereupon detached the horse from the vehicle, drove on, and effected a +first attachment, which secured his debt. + +The occurrence of "a bad year" compels many a jobber to abandon his +store and home for one, two, or three months together, and visit his +customers scattered all over the land, to make collections. Then it is +that the power of persuasion, if possessed, is brought into efficient +use; discrimination, too, is demanded; good judgment, and power of +combination. For a debt that cannot be paid in money may possibly be +paid partly in money, or in merchandise of some sort, and in part +secured; and, among the securities offered, to choose those which will +involve the least delay is generally no easy matter. + +To those who, without experience, are commencing a jobbing-business, +a capital of thirty, forty, or fifty thousand dollars seems an +inexhaustible fund. Experience teaches that an incautious and unskilful +man may easily bury even the largest of these sums in a single season. +If not actually lost, it has in effect ceased to be capital, because it +cannot be collected, and the notes he has taken are such as will not be +discounted. + +Success in the jobbing-business makes such demand on talent and capacity +as outsiders seldom dream of. Half-a-dozen Secretaries of State, with a +Governor and a President thrown in, would not suffice to constitute a +first-class jobbing-firm. The general or special incompetency of these +distinguished functionaries in their several spheres may probably be +covered by the capacity of their subordinates. The President of these +United States--of late years, at all events--is not supposed to be in +a position to know whether the will is or is not "a self-determining +power." But no jobbing-firm can thus cloak its deficiencies, or shirk +its responsibilities. Goods must be bought, and sold, and paid for; and +a master-spirit in each department, capable of penetrating to every +particular, and of controlling every subordinate, cannot be dispensed +with. He must know that every man to whom he delegates any portion of +his work is competent and trustworthy. He must be able to feel that the +thing which he deputes to each will be as surely and as faithfully done +as though done by his own hand. No criticism is more common or more +depreciatory than that "Such a one will not succeed, because he has +surrounded himself with incompetent men." + +It is much to be regretted that it cannot be said, that no man can +succeed in the jobbing-business who is not a model of courtesy. +Unhappily, our community has not yet reached that elevation. But this +may with truth be affirmed,--that many a man fails for the want of +courtesy, and for the want of that good-will to his fellows from which +all real courtesy springs. There is small chance for any man to succeed +who does not command his own spirit. There is no chance whatever for +an indolent man; and, in the long run, little or no chance for the +dishonest man. The same must be said for the timid and for the rash man. +Nor can we offer any encouragement to the intermittent man. From year's +end to year's end, the dry-goods jobber finds himself necessitated to be +studying his stock and his ledger. He knows, that, while men sleep, the +enemy will be sowing tares. In his case, the flying moments are the +enemy, and bad stock and bad debts are the tares. To weed out each of +these is his unceasing care. And as both the one and the other are +forever choking the streams of income which should supply the means of +paying his own notes, his no less constant care is to provide such other +conduits as shall insure him always a full basin at the bank. Nobody but +a jobber can know the vexation of a jobber who cannot find money to cash +his notes when they are beginning to be thrown into the market at a +price a shade lower than his neighbor's notes are sold at. + +In conclusion, a few material facts should be stated. + +As a general proposition, it is not to be denied, that those who are +in haste to get rich will find in the dry-goods jobbing-business many +temptations and snares into which one may easily fall. A young man who +is not fortified by a faithful home-training, and by sound religious +principle, will be likely enough to degenerate into a heartless +money-maker. + +While the young man who has been well trained at home, who appreciates +good manners, good morals, and good books, will derive immense advantage +in acquiring that quick discernment, that intuitive apprehension of +the rights and of the pleasure of others, and that nice tact, which +characterize the highest style of merchants,--he who has not been thus +prepared will be more than likely to mistake _brusquerie_ for manliness, +and brutality for the sublime of independence. As in a great house there +are vessels unto honor and also unto dishonor, so in the purlieus of +the dry-goods trade there are gentlemen who would honor and adorn any +society, and also men whose manners would shame Hottentots,--whose +language, innocent of all preference for Worcester or Webster, a terror +to all decent ideas, like scarecrows in corn-fields, is dressed in the +cast-off garments of the refuse of all classes. + +Success in retailing does not necessarily qualify a man to succeed in +the dry-goods jobbing-business. The game is played on a much larger +scale; it includes other chances, and demands other qualifications, +natural and acquired. Instances are not wanting of men who, in the +smaller towns, had made to themselves a name and acquired an honorable +independence, sinking both capital and courage in their endeavors to +manage the business of a city-jobber. + +It should be well remembered, that, while it is not indispensable to +success in the jobbing-business that each partner should be an expert +in every department of the business, in buying, selling, collecting, +paying, and book-keeping, it is absolutely necessary that each should +be such in his own department,--and that the firm, as a unit, should +include a completely competent man for each and every one of these +departments. The lack of the qualities which are indispensable to any +one of these may, and probably will, prove an abyss deep enough to +ingulf the largest commercial ship afloat. + +Finally, to avoid disappointment, the man who would embark in the +dry-goods trade should make up his mind to meet every variety of +experience known to mortals, and to be daunted by nothing. He will +assuredly find fair winds and head winds, clear skies and cloudy skies, +head seas and cross seas as well as stern seas. A wind that justifies +studding-sails may change, without premonition, to a gale that will make +ribbons of top-sails and of storm-sails. The best crew afloat cannot +preclude all casualties, or exclude sleepless nights and cold sweats now +and then; but a quick eye, a cool head, a prompt hand, and indomitable +perseverance will overcome almost all things. + + + + +THE OLD HOMESTEAD. + + + The wet trees hang above the walks + Purple with damps and earthish stains, + And strewn by moody, absent rains + With rose-leaves from the wild-grown stalks. + + Unmown, in heavy, tangled swaths, + The ripe June-grass is wanton blown; + Snails slime the untrodden threshold-stone, + Along the sills hang drowsy moths. + + Down the blank visage of the wall, + Where many a wavering trace appears + Like a forgotten trace of tears, + From swollen caves the slow drops crawl. + + Where everything was wide before, + The curious wind, that comes and goes, + Finds all the latticed windows close, + Secret and close the bolted door. + + And with the shrewd and curious wind, + That in the arched doorway cries, + And at the bolted portal tries, + And harks and listens at the blind,-- + + Forever lurks my thought about, + And in the ghostly middle-night + Finds all the hidden windows bright, + And sees the guests go in and out,-- + + And lingers till the pallid dawn, + And feels the mystery deeper there + In silent, gust-swept chambers, bare, + With all the midnight revel gone; + + But wanders through the lonesome rooms, + Where harsh the astonished cricket calls, + And, from the hollows of the walls + Vanishing, stare unshapen glooms; + + And lingers yet, and cannot come + Out of the drear and desolate place, + So full of ruin's solemn grace, + And haunted with the ghost of home. + + + + +THE PROFESSOR'S STORY. + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +THE NEWS REACHES THE DUDLEY MANSION. + + +Early the next morning Abel Stebbins made his appearance at Dudley +Venner's, and requested to see the maän o' the haouse abaout somethin' +o' consequence. Mr. Venner sent word that the messenger should wait +below, and presently appeared in the study, where Abel was making +himself at home, as is the wont of the republican citizen, when he hides +the purple of empire beneath the apron of domestic service. + +"Good mornin', Squire!" said Abel, as Mr. Venner entered. "My name's +Stebbins, 'n' I'm stoppin' f'r a spell 'ith ol' Doctor Kittredge." + +"Well, Stebbins," said Mr. Dudley Venner, "have you brought any special +message from the Doctor?" + +"Y' ha'n't heerd nothin' abaout it, Squire, d' ye mean t' say?" said +Abel,--beginning to suspect that he was the first to bring the news of +last evening's events. + +"About--what?" asked Mr. Venner, with some interest. + +"Dew tell, naow! Waal, that beats all! Why, that 'ere Portagee relation +o' yourn 'z been tryin' t' ketch a fellah 'n a slippernoose, 'n' got +ketched himself,--that's all. Y' ha'n't heerd noth'n' abaout it?" + +"Sit down," said Mr. Dudley Venner, calmly, "and tell me all you have to +say." + +So Abel sat down and gave him an account of the events of the last +evening. It was a strange and terrible surprise to Dudley Venner to find +that his nephew, who had been an inmate of his house and the companion +of his daughter, was to all intents and purposes guilty of the gravest +of crimes. But the first shock was no sooner over than he began to think +what effect the news would have on Elsie. He imagined that there was a +kind of friendly feeling between them, and he feared some crisis would +be provoked in his daughter's mental condition by the discovery. He +would wait, however, until she came from her chamber, before disturbing +her with the evil tidings. + +Abel did not forget his message with reference to the equipments of the +dead mustang. + +"The' was some things on the hoss, Squire, that the man he ketched +said he didn' care no gre't abaout; but perhaps you'd like to have 'em +fetched to the mansion-haouse. Ef y' _didn'_ care abaout 'em, though, +I shouldn' min' keepin' on 'em; they might come handy some time or +'nother: they say, holt on t' anything for ten year 'n' there'll be some +kin' o' use for't." + +"Keep everything," said Dudley Venner. "I don't want to see anything +belonging to that young man." + +So Abel nodded to Mr. Venner, and left the study to find some of the men +about the stable to tell and talk over with them the events of the +last evening. He presently came upon Elbridge, chief of the equine +department, and driver of the family-coach. + +"Good mornin', Abe," said Elbridge. "What's fetched y' daown here so +all-fired airly?" + +"You're a darned pooty lot daown here, you be!" Abel answered. "Better +keep your Portagees t' home nex' time, ketchin' folks 'ith slippernooses +raoun' their necks, 'n' kerryin' knives 'n their boots!" + +"What 'r' you jawin' abaout?" Elbridge said, looking up to see if he was +in earnest, and what he meant. + +"Jawin' abaout? You'll find aout 'z soon 'z y' go into that 'ere stable +o' yourn! Y' won't curry that 'ere long-tailed black hoss no more; 'n' +y' won't set y'r eyes on the fellah that rid him, ag'in, in a hurry!" + +Elbridge walked straight to the stable, without saying a word, found the +door unlocked, and went in. + +"Th' critter's gone, sure enough!" he said. "Glad on't! The darndest, +kickin'est, bitin'est beast th't ever I see, 'r ever wan' t' see ag'in! +Good reddance! Don' wan' no snappin'-turkles in my stable! Whar's the +man gone th't brought the critter?" + +"Whar he's gone? Guess y' better go 'n aäsk my ol' man; he kerried him +off laäs' night; 'n' when he comes back, mebbe he'll tell ye whar he's +gone tew!" + +By this time Elbridge had found out that Abel was in earnest, and had +something to tell. He looked at the litter in the mustang's stall, then +at the crib. + +"Ha'n't ëat b't haälf his feed. Ha'n't been daown on his straw. Must ha' +been took aout somewhere abaout ten 'r 'leven o'clock. I know that 'ere +critter's ways. The fellah's had him aout nights afore; b't I never +thought nothin' o' no mischief. He's a kin' o' haälf Injin. What is 't +the chap's been a-doin' on? Tell 's all abaout it." + +Abel sat down on a meal-chest, picked up a straw and put it into his +mouth. Elbridge sat down at the other end, pulled out his jackknife, +opened the penknife-blade, and began sticking it into the lid of the +meal-chest. The Doctor's man had a story to tell, and he meant to +get all the enjoyment out of it. So he told it with every luxury of +circumstance. Mr. Venner's man heard it all with open mouth. No listener +in the gardens of Stamboul could have found more rapture in a tale heard +amidst the perfume of roses and the voices of birds and tinkling of +fountains than Elbridge in following Abel's narrative, as they sat there +in the aromatic ammoniacal atmosphere of the stable, the grinding of the +horses' jaws keeping evenly on through it all, with now and then the +interruption of a stamping hoof, and at intervals a ringing crow from +the barnyard. + +Elbridge stopped a minute to think, after Abel had finished. + +"Who's took care o' them things that was on the hoss?" he said, gravely. + +"Waäl, Langden, he seemed to kin' o' think I'd ought to have 'em,--'n' +the Squire, he didn' seem to have no 'bjection; 'n' so,--waäl, I +cal'late I sh'll jes' holt on to 'em myself; they a'n't good f'r much, +but they're cur'ous t' keep t' look at." + +Mr. Venner's man did not appear much gratified by this arrangement, +especially as he had a shrewd suspicion that some of the ornaments of +the bridle were of precious metal, having made occasional examinations +of them with the edge of a file. But he did not see exactly what to do +about it, except to get them from Abel in the way of bargain. + +"Waäl, no,--they _a'n't_ good for much 'xcep' to look at. 'F y' ever rid +on that seddle once, y' wouldn' try it ag'in, very spry,--not 'f y' +c'd haälp y'rsaälf. I tried it,--darned 'f I sot daown f'r th' nex' +week,--ëat all my victuals stan'in'. I sh'd like t' hev them things wal +enough to heng up 'n the stable; 'f y' want t' trade some day, fetch 'em +along daown." + +Abel rather expected that Elbridge would have laid claim to the saddle +and bridle on the strength of some promise or other presumptive title, +and thought himself lucky to get off with only promising that he would +think abaout tradin'. + +When Elbridge returned to the house, he found the family in a state of +great excitement. Mr. Venner had told Old Sophy, and she had informed +the other servants. Everybody knew what had happened, excepting Elsie. +Her father had charged them all to say nothing about it to her; he would +tell her, when she came down. + +He heard her step at last,--a light, gliding step,--so light that her +coming was often unheard, except by those who perceived the faint rustle +that went with it. She was paler than common this morning, as she came +into her father's study. + +After a few words of salutation, he said, quietly,-- + +"Elsie, my dear, your cousin Richard has left us." + +She grew still paler, as she asked,-- + +"_Is he dead?_" + +Dudley Venner started to see the expression with which Elsie put this +question. + +"He is living,--but dead to us from this day forward," said her father. + +He proceeded to tell her, in a general way, the story he had just heard +from Abel. There could be no doubting it;--he remembered him as the +Doctor's man; and as Abel had seen all with his own eyes,--as Dick's +chamber, when unlocked with a spare key, was found empty, and his bed +had not been slept in, he accepted the whole account as true. + +When he told of Dick's attempt on the young schoolmaster, ("You know +Mr. Langdon very well, Elsie,--a perfectly inoffensive young man, as I +understand,") Elsie turned her face away and slid along by the wall to +the window which looked out on the little grass-plot with the white +stone standing in it. Her father could not see her face, but he knew by +her movements that her dangerous mood was on her. When she heard the +sequel of the story, the discomfiture and capture of Dick, she turned +round for an instant, with a look of contempt and of something like +triumph upon her face. Her father saw that her cousin had become odious +to her. He knew well, by every change of her countenance, by her +movements, by every varying curve of her graceful figure, the +transitions from passion to repose, from fierce excitement to the dull +languor which often succeeded her threatening paroxysms. + +She remained looking out at the window. A group of white fan-tailed +pigeons had lighted on the green plot before it and clustered about one +of their companions who lay on his back, fluttering in a strange way, +with outspread wings and twitching feet. Elsie uttered a faint cry; +these were her special favorites, and often fed from her hand. She threw +open the long window, sprang out, caught up the white fan-tail, and held +it to her bosom. The bird stretched himself out, and then lay still, +with open eyes, lifeless. She looked at him a moment, and, sliding in +through the open window and through the study, sought her own apartment, +where she locked herself in, and began to sob and moan like those that +weep. But the gracious solace of tears seemed to be denied her, and her +grief, like her anger, was a dull ache, longing, like that, to finish +itself with a fierce paroxysm, but wanting its natural outlet. + +This seemingly trifling incident of the death of her favorite appeared +to change all the current of her thought. Whether it were the sight +of the dying bird, or the thought that her own agency might have been +concerned in it, or some deeper grief, which took this occasion to +declare itself,--some dark remorse or hopeless longing,--whatever it +might be, there was an unwonted tumult in her soul. To whom should +she go in her vague misery? Only to Him who knows all His creatures' +sorrows, and listens to the faintest human cry. She knelt, as she had +been taught to kneel from her childhood, and tried to pray. But her +thoughts refused to flow in the language of supplication. She could not +plead for herself as other women plead in their hours of anguish. She +rose like one who should stoop to drink, and find dust in the place of +water. Partly from restlessness, partly from an attraction she hardly +avowed to herself, she followed her usual habit and strolled listlessly +along to the school. + + * * * * * + +Of course everybody at the Institute was full of the terrible adventure +of the preceding evening. Mr. Bernard felt poorly enough; but he had +made it a point to show himself the next morning, as if nothing had +happened. Helen Darley knew nothing of it all until she had risen, when +the gossipy matron of the establishment made her acquainted with all its +details, embellished with such additional ornamental appendages as it +had caught up in transmission from lip to lip. She did not love to +betray her sensibilities, but she was pale and tremulous and very nearly +tearful when Mr. Bernard entered the sitting-room, showing on his +features traces of the violent shock he had received and the heavy +slumber from which he had risen with throbbing brows. What the poor +girl's impulse was, on seeing him, we need not inquire too curiously. If +he had been her own brother, she would have kissed him and cried on +his neck; but something held her back. There is no galvanism in +kiss-your-brother; it is copper against copper: but alien bloods develop +strange currents, when they flow close to each other, with only the +films that cover lip and cheek between them. Mr. Bernard, as some of us +may remember, violated the proprieties and laid himself open to reproach +by his enterprise with a bouncing village-girl, to whose rosy cheek an +honest smack was not probably an absolute novelty. He made it all up by +his discretion and good behavior now. He saw by Helen's moist eye and +trembling lip that her woman's heart was off its guard, and he knew, +by the infallible instinct of sex, that he should be forgiven, if +he thanked her for her sisterly sympathies in the most natural +way,--expressive, and at the same time economical of breath and +utterance. He would not give a false look to their friendship by any +such demonstration. Helen was a little older than he was, but the +aureole of young womanhood had not yet begun to fade from around her. +She was surrounded by that enchanted atmosphere into which the girl +walks with dreamy eyes, and out of which the woman passes with a +story written on her forehead. Some people think very little of these +refinements; they have not studied magnetism, and the law of the square +of the distance. + +So Mr. Bernard thanked Helen for her interest without the aid of the +twenty-seventh letter of the alphabet,--the love labial,--the limping +consonant which it takes two to speak plain. Indeed, he scarcely let her +say a word, at first; for he saw that it was hard for her to conceal her +emotion. No wonder; he had come within a hair's-breadth of losing his +life, and he had been a very kind friend and a very dear companion to +her. + +There were some curious spiritual experiences connected with his last +evening's adventure, which were working very strongly in his mind. It +was borne in upon him irresistibly that he had been _dead_ since he had +seen Helen,--as dead as the son of the Widow of Nain before the bier was +touched and he sat up and began to speak. There was an interval +between two conscious moments which appeared to him like a temporary +annihilation, and the thoughts it suggested were worrying him with +strange perplexities. + +He remembered seeing the dark figure on horseback rise in the saddle and +something leap from its hand. He remembered the thrill he felt as the +coil settled on his shoulders, and the sudden impulse which led him to +fire as he did. With the report of the pistol all became blank, until +he found himself in a strange, bewildered state, groping about for the +weapon, which he had a vague consciousness of having dropped. But, +according to Abel's account, there must have been an interval of some +minutes between these recollections, and he could not help asking, Where +was the mind, the soul, the thinking principle, all this time? + +A man is stunned by a blow with a stick on the head. He becomes +unconscious. Another man gets a harder blow on the head from a bigger +stick, and it kills him. Does he become unconscious, too? If so, _when +does he come to his consciousness_? The man who has had a slight or +moderate blow comes to himself when the immediate shock passes off and +the organs begin to work again, or when a bit of the skull is pried up, +if that happens to be broken. Suppose the blow is hard enough to spoil +the brain and stop the play of the organs, what happens then? + +A British captain was struck by a cannon-ball on the head, just as +he was giving an order, at the Battle of the Nile. Fifteen months +afterwards he was trephined at Greenwich Hospital, having been +insensible all that time. Immediately after the operation his +consciousness returned, and he at once began carrying out the order +he was giving when the shot struck him. Suppose he had never been +trephined, when would his intelligence have returned? When his breath +ceased and his heart stopped beating? + +When Mr. Bernard said to Helen, "I have been dead since I saw you," it +startled her not a little; for his expression was that of perfect good +faith, and she feared that his mind was disordered. When he explained, +not as has been done just now, at length, but in a hurried, imperfect +way, the meaning of his strange assertion, and the fearful Sadduceeisms +which it had suggested to his mind, she looked troubled at first, and +then thoughtful. She did not feel able to answer all the difficulties he +raised, but she met them with that faith which is the strength as well +as the weakness of women,--which makes them weak in the hands of man, +but strong in the presence of the Unseen. + +"It is a strange experience," she said; "but I once had something like +it. I fainted, and lost some five or ten minutes out of my life, as much +as if I had been dead. But when I came to myself, I was the same person +every way, in my recollections and character. So I suppose that loss of +consciousness is not death. And if I was born out of unconsciousness +into infancy with many _family_-traits of mind and body, I can believe, +from my own reason, even without help from Revelation, that I shall be +born again out of the unconsciousness of death with my _individual_ +traits of mind and body. If death is, as it should seem to be, a loss of +consciousness, that does not shake my faith; for I have been put into a +body once already to fit me for living here, and I hope to be in some +way fitted after this life to enjoy a better one. But it is all trust in +God and in his Word. These are enough for me; I hope they are for you." + +Helen was a minister's daughter, and familiar from her childhood with +this class of questions, especially with all the doubts and perplexities +which are sure to assail every thinking child bred in any inorganic +or not thoroughly vitalized faith,--as is too often the case with the +children of professional theologians. The kind of discipline they are +subjected to is like that of the Flat-Head Indian pappooses. At five or +ten or fifteen years old they put their hands up to their foreheads and +ask, What are they strapping down my brains in this way for? So they +tear off the sacred bandages of the great Flat-Head tribe, and there +follows a mighty rush of blood to the long-compressed region. This +accounts, in the most lucid manner, for those sudden freaks with which +certain children of this class astonish their worthy parents at the +period of life when they are growing fast, and, the frontal pressure +beginning to be felt as something intolerable, they tear off the holy +compresses. + +The hour for school came, and they went to the great hall for study. +It would not have occurred to Mr. Silas Peckham to ask his assistant +whether he felt well enough to attend to his duties; and Mr. Bernard +chose to be at his post. A little headache and confusion were all that +remained of his symptoms. + +Later, in the course of the forenoon, Elsie Venner came and took her +place. The girls all stared at her,--naturally enough; for it was hardly +to have been expected that she would show herself, after such an event +in the household to which she belonged. Her expression was somewhat +peculiar, and, of course, was attributed to the shock her feelings had +undergone on hearing of the crime attempted by her cousin and daily +companion. When she was looking on her book, or on any indifferent +object, her countenance betrayed some inward disturbance, which knitted +her dark brows, and seemed to throw a deeper shadow over her features. +But, from time to time, she would lift her eyes toward Mr. Bernard, and +let them rest upon him, without a thought, seemingly, that she herself +was the subject of observation or remark. Then they seemed to lose their +cold glitter, and soften into a strange, dreamy tenderness. The deep +instincts of womanhood were striving to grope their way to the surface +of her being through all the alien influences which overlaid them. +She could be secret and cunning in working out any of her dangerous +impulses, but she did not know how to mask the unwonted feeling which +fixed her eyes and her thoughts upon the only person who had ever +reached the spring of her hidden sympathies. + +The girls all looked at Elsie, whenever they could steal a glance +unperceived, and many of them were struck with this singular expression +her features wore. They had long whispered it around among each other +that she had a liking for the master; but there were too many of them of +whom something like this could be said, to make it very remarkable. Now, +however, when so many little hearts were fluttering at the thought +of the peril through which the handsome young master had so recently +passed, they were more alive than ever to the supposed relation between +him and the dark school-girl. Some had supposed there was a mutual +attachment between them; there was a story that they were secretly +betrothed, in accordance with the rumor which had been current in the +village. At any rate, some conflict was going on in that still, remote, +clouded soul, and all the girls who looked upon her face were impressed +and awed as they had never been before by the shadows that passed over +it. + +One of these girls was more strongly arrested by Elsie's look than the +others. This was a delicate, pallid creature, with a high forehead, and +wide-open pupils, which looked as if they could take in all the shapes +that flit in what, to common eyes, is darkness,--a girl said to be +_clairvoyant_ under certain influences. In the _recess_, as it was +called, or interval of suspended studies in the middle of the forenoon, +this girl carried her autograph-book,--for she had one of those +indispensable appendages of the boarding-school miss of every +degree,--and asked Elsie to write her name in it. She had an +irresistible feeling, that, sooner or later, and perhaps very soon, +there would attach an unusual interest to this autograph. Elsie took the +pen and wrote, in her sharp Italian hand, + + _Elsie Venner, Infelix._ + +It was a remembrance, doubtless, of the forlorn queen of the "Aeneid"; +but its coming to her thought in this way confirmed the sensitive +school-girl in her fears for Elsie, and she let fall a tear upon the +page before she closed it. + +Of course, the keen and practised observation of Helen Darley could not +fail to notice the change of Elsie's manner and expression. She had long +seen that she was attracted to the young master, and had thought, as +the old Doctor did, that any impression which acted upon her affections +might be the means of awakening a new life in her singularly isolated +nature. Now, however, the concentration of the poor girl's thoughts upon +the one object which had had power to reach her deeper sensibilities was +so painfully revealed in her features, that Helen began to fear once +more, lest Mr. Bernard, in escaping the treacherous violence of an +assassin, had been left to the equally dangerous consequences of a +violent, engrossing passion in the breast of a young creature whose love +it would be ruin to admit and might be deadly to reject. She knew her +own heart too well to fear that any jealousy might mingle with her new +apprehensions. It was understood between Bernard and Helen that they +were too good friends to tamper with the silences and edging proximities +of love-making. She knew, too, the simply human, not masculine, interest +which Mr. Bernard took in Elsie; he had been frank with Helen, and more +than satisfied her that with all the pity and sympathy which overflowed +his soul, when he thought of the stricken girl, there mingled not one +drop of such love as a youth may feel for a maiden. + +It may help the reader to gain some understanding of the anomalous +nature of Elsie Venner, if we look with Helen into Mr. Bernard's +opinions and feelings with reference to her, as they had shaped +themselves in his consciousness at the period of which we are speaking. + +At first he had been impressed by her wild beauty, and the contrast of +all her looks and ways with those of the girls around her. Presently a +sense of some ill-defined personal element, which half attracted and +half repelled those who looked upon her, and especially those on whom +she looked, began to make itself obvious to him, as he soon found it was +painfully sensible to his more susceptible companion, the lady-teacher. +It was not merely in the cold light of her diamond eyes, but in all her +movements, in her graceful postures as she sat, in her costume, and, he +sometimes thought, even in her speech, that this obscure and exceptional +character betrayed itself. When Helen had said, that, if they were +living in times when human beings were subject to possession, she should +have thought there was something not human about Elsie, it struck an +unsuspected vein of thought in his own mind, which he hated to put in +words, but which was continually trying to articulate itself among the +dumb thoughts which lie under the perpetual stream of mental whispers. + +Mr. Bernard's professional training had made him slow to accept +marvellous stories and many forms of superstition. Yet, as a man of +science, he well knew that just on the verge of the demonstrable facts +of physics and physiology there is a nebulous border-land which what +is called "common sense" perhaps does wisely not to enter, but which +uncommon sense, or the fine apprehension of privileged intelligences, +may cautiously explore, and in so doing find itself behind the scenes +which make up for the gazing world the show which is called Nature. + +It was with something of this finer perception, perhaps with some degree +of imaginative exaltation, that he set himself to solving the problem +of Elsie's influence to attract and repel those around her. His letter +already submitted to the reader hints in what direction his thoughts +were disposed to turn. Here was a magnificent organization, superb +in vigorous womanhood, with a beauty such as never comes but after +generations of culture; yet through all this rich nature there ran some +alien current of influence, sinuous and dark, as when a clouded streak +seams the white marble of a perfect statue. + +It would be needless to repeat the particular suggestions which had come +into his mind, as they must probably have come into those of the reader +who has noted the singularities of Elsie's tastes and personal traits. +The images which certain poets had dreamed of seemed to have become a +reality before his own eyes. Then came that unexplained adventure of The +Mountain,--almost like a dream in recollection, yet assuredly real in +some of its main incidents,--with all that it revealed or hinted. This +girl did not fear to visit the dreaded region, where danger lurked in +every nook and beneath every tuft of leaves. Did the tenants of the +fatal ledge recognize some mysterious affinity which made them tributary +to the cold glitter of her diamond eyes? Was she from her birth one of +those frightful children, such as he had read about, and the Professor +had told him of, who form unnatural friendships with cold, writhing +ophidians? There was no need of so unwelcome a thought as this; she had +drawn him away from the dark opening in the rock at the moment when he +seemed to be threatened by one of its malignant denizens; that was all +he could be sure of; the counter-fascination might have been a dream, a +fancy, a coincidence. All wonderful things soon grow doubtful in our own +minds, as do even common events, if great interests prove suddenly to +attach to their truth or falsehood. + +--I, who am telling of these occurrences, saw a friend in the great +city, on the morning of a most memorable disaster, hours after the time +when the train which carried its victims to their doom had left. I +talked with him, and was for some minutes, at least, in his company. +When I reached home, I found that the story had gone before that he was +among the lost, and I alone could contradict it to his weeping friends +and relatives. I did contradict it; but, alas! I began soon to doubt +myself, penetrated by the contagion of their solicitude; my recollection +began to question itself; the order of events became dislocated; and +when I heard that he had reached home in safety, the relief was almost +as great to me as to those who had expected to see their own brother's +face no more. + +Mr. Bernard was disposed, then, not to accept the thought of any odious +personal relationship of the kind which had suggested itself to him when +he wrote the letter referred to. That the girl had something of the +feral nature, her wild, lawless rambles in forbidden and blasted regions +of The Mountain at all hours, her familiarity with the lonely haunts +where any other human foot was so rarely seen, proved clearly enough. +But the more he thought of all her strange instincts and modes of being, +the more he became convinced that whatever alien impulse swayed her will +and modulated or diverted or displaced her affections came from some +impression that reached far back into the past, before the days when the +faithful Old Sophy had rocked her in the cradle. He believed that she +had brought her ruling tendency, whatever it was, into the world with +her. + +When the school was over and the girls had all gone, Helen lingered in +the school-room to speak with Mr. Bernard. + +"Did you remark Elsie's ways this forenoon?" she said. + +"No, not particularly; I have not noticed anything as sharply as I +commonly do; my head has been a little queer, and I have been thinking +over what we were talking about, and how near I came to solving the +great problem which every day makes clear to such multitudes of people. +What about Elsie?" + +"Bernard, her liking for you is growing into a passion. I have studied +girls for a long while, and I know the difference between their passing +fancies and their real emotions. I told you, you remember, that Rosa +would have to leave us; we barely missed a scene, I think, if not a +whole tragedy, by her going at the right moment. But Elsie is infinitely +more dangerous to herself and others. Women's love is fierce enough, if +it once gets the mastery of them, always; but this poor girl does not +know what to do with a passion." + +Mr. Bernard had never told Helen the story of the flower in his Virgil, +or that other adventure which he would have felt awkwardly to refer to; +but it had been perfectly understood between them that Elsie showed in +her own singular way a well-marked partiality for the young master. + +"Why don't they take her away from the school, if she is in such a +strange, excitable state?" said Mr. Bernard. + +"I believe they are afraid of her," Helen answered. "It is just one of +those cases that are ten thousand thousand times worse than insanity. I +don't think, from what I hear, that her father has ever given up hoping +that she will outgrow her peculiarities. Oh, these peculiar children for +whom parents go on hoping every morning and despairing every night! If I +could tell you half that mothers have told me, you would feel that the +worst of all diseases of the moral sense and the will are those which +all the Bedlams turn away from their doors as not being the subjects of +insanity!" + +"Do you think her father has treated her judiciously?" said Mr. Bernard. + +"I think," said Helen, with a little hesitation, which Mr. Bernard did +not happen to notice,--"I think he has been very kind and indulgent, and +I do not know that he could have treated her otherwise with a better +chance of success." + +"He must of course be fond of her," Mr. Bernard said; "there is nothing +else in the world for him to love." + +Helen dropped a book she held in her hand, and, stooping to pick it up, +the blood rushed into her cheeks. + +"It is getting late," she said; "you must not stay any longer in +this close school-room. Pray, go and get a little fresh air before +dinner-time." + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +A SOUL IN DISTRESS. + + +The events told in the last two chapters had taken place toward the +close of the week. On Saturday evening the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather +received a note which was left at his door by an unknown person who +departed without saying a word. Its words were these:-- + +"One who is in distress of mind requests the prayers of this +congregation that God would be pleased to look in mercy upon the soul +that he has afflicted." + +There was nothing to show from whom the note came, or the sex or age or +special source of spiritual discomfort or anxiety of the writer. The +handwriting was delicate and might well be a woman's. The clergyman was +not aware of any particular affliction among his parishioners which was +likely to be made the subject of a request of this kind. Surely neither +of the Venners would advertise the attempted crime of their relative in +this way. But who else was there? The more he thought about it, the more +it puzzled him; and as he did not like to pray in the dark, without +knowing for whom he was praying, he could think of nothing better than +to step into old Doctor Kittredge's and see what he had to say about it. + +The old Doctor was sitting alone in his study when the Reverend Mr. +Fairweather was ushered in. He received his visitor very pleasantly, +expecting, as a matter of course, that he would begin with some new +grievance, dyspeptic, neuralgic, bronchitic, or other. The minister, +however, began with questioning the old Doctor about the sequel of the +other night's adventure; for he was already getting a little Jesuitical, +and kept back the object of his visit until it should come up as if +accidentally in the course of conversation. + +"It was a pretty bold thing to go off alone with that reprobate, as you +did," said the minister. + +"I don't know what there was bold about it," the Doctor answered. "All +he wanted was to get away. He was not quite a reprobate, you see; he +didn't like the thought of disgracing his family or facing his uncle. I +think he was ashamed to see his cousin, too, after what he had done." + +"Did he talk with you on the way?" + +"Not much. For half an hour or so he didn't speak a word. Then he asked +where I was driving him. I told him, and he seemed to be surprised into +a sort of grateful feeling. Bad enough, no doubt,--but might be worse. +Has some humanity left in him yet. Let him go. God can judge him,--I +can't." + +"You are too charitable, Doctor," the minister said. "I condemn him just +as if he had carried out his project, which, they say, was to make it +appear as if the schoolmaster had committed suicide. That's what people +think the rope found by him was for. He has saved his neck,--but his +soul is a lost one, I am afraid, beyond question." + +"I can't judge men's souls," the Doctor said. "I can judge their acts, +and hold them responsible for those,--but I don't know much about their +souls. If you or I had found our soul in a half-breed body, and been +turned loose to run among the Indians, we might have been playing +just such tricks as this fellow has been trying. What if you or I had +inherited all the tendencies that were born with his cousin Elsie?" + +"Oh, that reminds me,"--the minister said, in a sudden way,--"I have +received a note, which I am requested to read from the pulpit to-morrow. +I wish you would just have the kindness to look at it and see where you +think it came from." + +The Doctor examined it carefully. It was a woman's or girl's note, he +thought. Might come from one of the school-girls who was anxious about +her spiritual condition. Handwriting was disguised; looked a little like +Elsie Venner's, but not characteristic enough to make it certain. It +would be a new thing, if she had asked public prayers for herself, and a +very favorable indication of a change in her singular moral nature. It +was just possible Elsie might have sent that note. Nobody could foretell +her actions. It would be well to see the girl and find out whether +any unusual impression had been produced on her mind by the recent +occurrence or by any other cause. + +The Reverend Mr. Fairweather folded the note and put it into his pocket. + +"I have been a good deal exercised in mind lately, myself," he said. + +The old Doctor looked at him through his spectacles, and said, in his +usual professional tone,-- + +"Put out your tongue." + +The minister obeyed him in that feeble way common with persons of weak +character,--for people differ as much in their mode of performing this +trifling act as Gideon's soldiers in their way of drinking at the brook. +The Doctor took his hand and placed a finger mechanically on his wrist. + +"It is more spiritual, I think, than bodily," said the Reverend Mr. +Fairweather. + +"Is your appetite as good as usual?" the Doctor asked. + +"Pretty good," the minister answered; "but my sleep, my sleep, +Doctor,--I am greatly troubled at night with lying awake and thinking of +my future,--I am not at ease in mind." + +He looked round at all the doors, to be sure they were shut, and moved +his chair up close to the Doctor's. + +"You do not know the mental trials I have been going through for the +last few months." + +"I think I do," the old Doctor said. "You want to get out of the new +church into the old one, don't you?" + +The minister blushed deeply; he thought he had been going on in a very +quiet way, and that nobody suspected his secret. As the old Doctor was +his counsellor in sickness, and almost everybody's confidant in trouble, +he had intended to impart cautiously to him some hints of the change of +sentiments through which he had been passing. He was too late with his +information, it appeared; and there was nothing to be done but to throw +himself on the Doctor's good sense and kindness, which everybody knew, +and get what hints he could from him as to the practical course he +should pursue. He began, after an awkward pause,-- + +"You would not have me stay in a communion which I feel to be alien to +the true church, would you?" + +"Have you stay, my friend?" said the Doctor, with a pleasant, friendly +look,--"have you stay? Not a month, nor a week, nor a day, if I could +help it. You have got into the wrong pulpit, and I have known it from +the first. The sooner you go where you belong, the better. And I'm very +glad you don't mean to stop half-way. Don't you know you've always come +to me when you've been dyspeptic or sick anyhow, and wanted to put +yourself wholly into my hands, so that I might order you like a child +just what to do and what to take? That's exactly what you want in +religion. I don't blame you for it. You never liked to take the +responsibility of your own body; I don't see why you should want to have +the charge of your own soul. But I'm glad you're going to the Old Mother +of all. You wouldn't have been contented short of that." + +The Reverend Mr. Fairweather breathed with more freedom. The Doctor saw +into his soul through those awful spectacles of his,--into it and +beyond it, as one sees through a thin fog. But it was with a real human +kindness, after all. He felt like a child before a strong man; but the +strong man looked on him with a father's indulgence. Many and many a +time, when he had come desponding and bemoaning himself on account of +some contemptible bodily infirmity, the old Doctor had looked at him +through his spectacles, listened patiently while he told his ailments, +and then, in his large parental way, given him a few words of wholesome +advice, and cheered him up so that he went off with a light heart, +thinking that the heaven he was so much afraid of was not so very near, +after all. It was the same thing now. He felt, as feeble natures always +do in the presence of strong ones, overmastered, circumscribed, shut in, +humbled; but yet it seemed as if the old Doctor did not despise him any +more for what he considered weakness of mind than he used to despise him +when he complained of his nerves or his digestion. + +Men who see _into_ their neighbors are very apt to be contemptuous; but +men who see _through_ them find something lying behind every human soul +which it is not for them to sit in judgment on, or to attempt to sneer +out of the order of God's manifold universe. + +Little as the Doctor had said out of which comfort could be extracted, +his genial manner had something grateful in it. A film of gratitude +came over the poor man's cloudy, uncertain eye, and a look of tremulous +relief and satisfaction played about his weak mouth. He was gravitating +to the majority, where he hoped to find "rest"; but he was dreadfully +sensitive to the opinions of the minority he was on the point of +leaving. + +The old Doctor saw plainly enough what was going on in his mind. + +"I sha'n't quarrel with you," he said,--"you know that very well; but +you mustn't quarrel with me, if I talk honestly with you; it isn't +everybody that will take the trouble. You flatter yourself that you will +make a good many enemies by leaving your old communion. Not so many as +you think. This is the way the common sort of people will talk:--'You +have got your ticket to the feast of life, as much as any other man that +ever lived. Protestantism says,--'Help yourself; here's a clean plate, +and a knife and fork of your own, and plenty of fresh dishes to choose +from.' The Old Mother says,--'Give me your ticket, my dear, and I'll +feed you with my gold spoon off these beautiful old wooden trenchers. +Such nice bits as those good old gentlemen have left for you!' There is +no quarrelling with a man who prefers broken victuals.' That's what the +rougher sort will say; and then, where one scolds, ten will laugh. But, +mind you, I don't either scold or laugh. I don't feel sure that you +could very well have helped doing what you will soon do. You know you +were never easy without some medicine to take when you felt ill in body. +I'm afraid I've given you trashy stuff sometimes, just to keep you +quiet. Now, let me tell you, there is just the same difference in +spiritual patients that there is in bodily ones. One set believes +in wholesome ways of living, and another must have a great list of +specifics for all the soul's complaints. You belong with the last, and +got accidentally shuffled in with the others." + +The minister smiled faintly, but did not reply. Of course, he considered +that way of talking as the result of the Doctor's professional training. +It would not have been worth while to take offence at his plain speech, +if he had been so disposed; for he might wish to consult him the next +day as to "what he should take" for his dyspepsia or his neuralgia. + +He left the Doctor with a hollow feeling at the bottom of his soul, as +if a good piece of his manhood had been scooped out of him. His hollow +aching did not explain itself in words, but it grumbled and worried down +among the unshaped thoughts which lie beneath them. He knew that he had +been trying to reason himself out of his birthright of reason. He knew +that the inspiration which gave him understanding was losing its throne +in his intelligence, and the almighty Majority-Vote was proclaiming +itself in its stead. He knew that the great primal truths, which each +successive revelation only confirmed, were fast becoming hidden beneath +the mechanical forms of thought, which, as with all new converts, +engrossed so large a share of his attention. The "peace," the "rest," +which he had purchased, were dearly bought to one who had been trained +to the arms of thought, and whose noble privilege it might have been +to live in perpetual warfare for the advancing truth which the next +generation will claim as the legacy of the present. + +The Reverend Mr. Fairweather was getting careless about his sermons. He +must wait the fitting moment to declare himself; and in the mean time +he was preaching to heretics. It did not matter much what he preached, +under such circumstances. He pulled out two old yellow sermons from a +heap of such, and began looking over that for the forenoon. Naturally +enough, he fell asleep over it, and, sleeping, he began to dream. + +He dreamed that he was under the high arches of an old cathedral amidst +a throng of worshippers. The light streamed in through vast windows, +dark with the purple robes of royal saints, or blazing with yellow +glories around the heads of earthly martyrs and heavenly messengers. The +billows of the great organ roared among the clustered columns, as the +sea breaks amidst the basaltic pillars which crowd the great cavern of +the Hebrides. The voice of the alternate choirs of singing boys swung +back and forward, as the silver censer swung in the hands of the +white-robed children. The sweet cloud of incense rose in soft, fleecy +mists, full of penetrating suggestions of the East and its perfumed +altars. The knees of twenty generations had worn the pavement; their +feet had hollowed the steps; their shoulders had smoothed the columns. +Dead bishops and abbots lay under the marble of the floor in their +crumbled vestments; dead warriors, in their rusted armor, were stretched +beneath their sculptured effigies. And all at once all the buried +multitudes who had ever worshipped there came thronging in through the +aisles. They choked every space, they swarmed into all the chapels, they +hung in clusters over the parapets of the galleries, they clung to +the images in every niche, and still the vast throng kept flowing and +flowing in, until the living were lost in the rush of the returning dead +who had reclaimed their own. Then, as his dream became more fantastic, +the huge cathedral itself seemed to change into the wreck of some mighty +antediluvian vertebrate; its flying-buttresses arched round like ribs, +its piers shaped themselves into limbs, and the sound of the organ-blast +changed to the wind whistling through its thousand-jointed skeleton. + +And presently the sound lulled, and softened and softened, until it was +as the murmur of a distant swarm of bees. A procession of monks wound +along through an old street, chanting, as they walked, In his dream he +glided in among them and bore his part in the burden of their song. +He entered with the long train under a low arch, and presently he was +kneeling in a narrow cell before an image of the Blessed Maiden holding +the Divine Child in her arms, and his lips seemed to whisper,-- + +_Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis!_ + +He turned to the crucifix, and, prostrating himself before the spare, +agonizing shape of the Holy Sufferer, fell into a long passion of tears +and broken prayers. He rose and flung himself, worn-out, upon his hard +pallet, and, seeming to slumber, dreamed again within his dream. Once +more in the vast cathedral, with throngs of the living choking its +aisles, amidst jubilant peals from the cavernous depths of the great +organ, and choral melodies ringing from the fluty throats of the singing +boys. A day of great rejoicings,--for a prelate was to be consecrated, +and the bones of the mighty skeleton-minster were shaking with anthems, +as if there were life of its own within its buttressed ribs. He looked +down at his feet; the folds of the sacred robe were flowing about them: +he put his hand to his head; it was crowned with the holy mitre. A long +sigh, as of perfect content in the consummation of all his earthly +hopes, breathed through the dreamer's lips, and shaped itself, as it +escaped, into the blissful murmur-- + +_Ego sum Episcopus!_ + +One grinning gargoyle looked in from beneath the roof through an opening +in a stained window. It was the face of a mocking fiend, such as the old +builders loved to place under the eaves to spout the rain through their +open mouths. It looked at him, as he sat in his mitred chair, with its +hideous grin growing broader and broader, until it laughed out aloud,-- +such a hard, stony, mocking laugh, that he awoke out of his second dream +through his first into his common consciousness, and shivered, as he +turned to the two yellow sermons which he was to pick over and weed of +the little thought they might contain, for the next day's service. + +The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather was too much taken up with his own +bodily and spiritual condition to be deeply mindful of others. He +carried the note requesting the prayers of the congregation in his +pocket all day; and the soul in distress, which a single tender petition +might have soothed, and perhaps have saved from despair or fatal error, +found no voice in the temple to plead for it before the Throne of Mercy! + + * * * * * + + +THE GREAT LAKES. + + +If, as is believed by many statisticians, the census of 1860 should +show that the centre of population and power in these United States is +steadily advancing westward, and that by the year 1880 it will be +at some point on the Great Lakes, then, certainly, the history and +resources of those inland seas cannot fail to be interesting to the +general reader. + +It happens that the Indian traditions of this region possess more of the +coherence of history than those of other parts of the country; and, as +preserved by Schoolcraft and embalmed in the poetry of Longfellow, they +show well enough by the side of the early traditions of other primitive +peoples. The conquest of the Lake-shore region by San-ge-man and his +Ojibwas may be as trustworthy a tale as the exploits of Romulus and +Remus; and when we emerge into the light of European record, we find the +Jesuit missionaries preaching the gospel at St. Ignace and the Sault St. +Mary almost as early as the so-called Cavaliers were planting tobacco at +Jamestown, or the Pilgrims smiting the heathen at Plymouth. + +The first white persons who penetrated into the Upper Lake region were +two young fur-traders who left Montreal for that purpose in 1654, and +remained two years among the Indian tribes on those shores. We are +not informed of the details of this journey; but it appears that they +returned with information relative to Lake Superior, and perhaps Lake +Michigan and Green Bay; for in 1659 the fur-traders are known to have +extended their traffic to that bay. The first settlement of Wisconsin +may be dated in 1665, when Claude Allouez established a mission at La +Pointe on Lake Superior. This was before Philadelphia was founded by +William Penn. + +The first account we have of a voyage on Lake Michigan was by Nicholas +Perrot, who, accompanied by some Pottawattomies, passed from Green Bay +to Chicago, in 1670. Two years afterwards the same voyage was undertaken +by Allouez and Dablon. They stopped at the mouth of the Milwaukie River, +then occupied by Kickapoo Indians. In 1673, Fathers Marquette and Joliet +went from Green Bay to the Neenah or Fox River, and, descending the +Wisconsin, discovered the Mississippi on the 17th of June. + +In 1679, La Salle made his voyage up the Lakes in the Griffin, the first +vessel built above the Falls of Niagara. This vessel, the pioneer of the +great fleet which now whitens those waters, was about sixty tons burden, +and carried five guns and thirty-four men. La Salle loaded her at Green +Bay with a cargo of furs and skins, and she sailed on the 18th of +September for Niagara, where she never arrived, nor was any news of her +ever received. The Griffin, with her cargo, was valued at sixty thousand +livres. Thus the want of harbors on Lake Michigan began to be felt +nearly two hundred years ago; and the fate of the Griffin was only a +precursor of many similar calamities since. + +About 1760 was the end of what may be called the religious epoch in +the history of the Northwest, when the dominion passed from French to +English hands, and the military period commenced. This lasted about +fifty years, during which time the combatants were French, English, +Indians, and Americans. Much blood was shed in desultory warfare. +Detroit, Mackinac, and other posts were taken and retaken; in fact, +there never was peace in that land till after the naval victory of Perry +in 1813, when the command of the Lakes passed to the Americans. + +Our military and naval expeditions in the Northwest were, however, +remarkably unfortunate in that war. For want of a naval force on the +Lakes,--a necessity which had been pointed out to the Government by +William Hull, then Governor of the Northwest Territory, before the +declaration of war,--the posts of Chicago, Mackinac, and Detroit were +taken by the British and their Indian allies in 1812, and kept by them +till the next year, when the energy and perseverance of Perry and his +Rhode-Islanders created a fleet upon Lake Erie, and swept the British +vessels from that quarter. + +In 1814, an American squadron of six brigs and schooners sailed from +Lake Erie to retake the post of Mackinac. Colonel Croghan commanded the +troops, which were landed under cover of the guns of the squadron. They +were attacked in the woods on the back of the island by the British and +Indians. Major Holmes, who led the Americans, was killed, and his men +retreated in confusion to the ships, which took them on board and sailed +away. The attack having failed, Captain Sinclair, who commanded the +squadron, returned to Lake Erie with the brigs Niagara and Saint +Lawrence and the schooners Caledonia and Ariel, leaving the Scorpion and +Tigress to operate against the enemy on Lake Huron. The British schooner +Nancy, being at Nattawasaga, under the protection of a block-house +mounting two twenty-four pounders, the American schooners proceeded to +attack her, and, after a short action, destroyed the vessel and the +block-house, the British escaping in their boats. Soon, after, the +American schooners returned to the neighborhood of St. Joseph, where +they were seen by some Indians, who reported at Mackinac that they were +about five leagues apart. An expedition was directly fitted out to +capture them; and Major Dickson, commander of the post, and Lieutenant +Worsley, who had retreated from the block-house above-mentioned, started +with one hundred men in four boats. + +On the third of September, at six o'clock, P.M., they found the Tigress +at anchor, and came within one hundred yards unobserved, when a smart +fire of grape and musketry was opened upon them. They advanced, and, two +boats hoarding her on each side, she was carried, after a short contest, +in which the British lost seven men, killed and wounded, and the +Americans, out of a crew of twenty-eight, had three killed and two +wounded. The prisoners having been sent to Mackinac, the Tigress was got +under way the next day, still keeping the American colors flying, and +proceeded in search of the Scorpion. On the fifth, they came in sight +of her, and, as those on board knew nothing of what had happened to the +Tigress, were suffered to approach within two miles. At daylight the +next morning, the Tigress was again got under way, and running alongside +her late consort, the British carried her by boarding, after a short +scuffle, in which four of the Scorpion's crew were killed and wounded, +and one of the British wounded. The schooners were fine new vessels, of +one hundred tons burden each, and had on board large quantities of arms +and ammunition. + +This account of the earliest naval action on the Upper Lakes is taken +from a British source; for, as may well be imagined, it has never found +its way into any American Naval History or Fourth of July Oration. + +It appears as if the American Government, during the War of 1812, either +from ignorance of the value of the Northwest, or, as some think, from +a fear lest it might, if conquered, become free territory, were very +inefficient in their efforts in that direction. As, however, the same +imbecility was displayed in other quarters, for example, at Washington, +where they allowed the capital to be taken by a handful of British +troops, and as the Yankee who was in the fight said, "They didn't seem +to take no interest," we must acquit the administration of Mr. Madison +of anything worse than going to war without adequate preparation. + +After the War of 1812 was over, the Northwestern Territory was held by +our Government by a kind of military occupation for some twenty years, +when, the Indian title having been extinguished, white settlers began +to occupy Northern Illinois and Wisconsin. The Sacs and Foxes, having +repented of their surrender of this fair country, reentered it in 1832, +but after a short contest were expelled and driven westward, and the +working period commenced. Large cities have sprung up on the Lake +shores, and the broad expanse of Lake Michigan is now whitened by a +thousand sails; and even the rocky cliffs of Superior echo the whistle +of the propeller, instead of the scream of the bald eagle. + +Perhaps the ship-owners of the Atlantic cities are hardly aware of the +growth of this Lake commerce within the last twenty years, and that it +is now nearly equal in amount to the whole foreign trade of the country. +Before entering on the statistics of this trade, however, we will give a +brief description of the Lakes themselves.[A] + +[Footnote A: We are indebted for our facts and details to Lapham's +_Wisconsin_, Foster and Whitney's _Report_, Agassiz's _Lake Superior_, +and works of similar character.] + +Lake Superior, the largest expanse of fresh water on the globe, is 355 +miles in length, 160 in breadth, with a depth of 900 feet. It contains +32,000 square miles of surface, which is elevated 627 feet above the +surface of the ocean, while portions of its bed are several hundred +feet below it. Its coast is 1500 miles in extent, with irregular, rocky +shores, bold headlands, and deep bays. It contains numerous islands, one +of which, Isle Royale, has an area of 230 square miles. The shores +of this lake are rock-bound, sometimes rising into lofty cliffs and +pinnacles, twelve or thirteen hundred feet high. Where the igneous rocks +prevail, the coast is finely indented; where the sandstones abound, it +is gently curved. Lake Superior occupies an immense depression, for +the most part excavated out of the soft and yielding sandstone. Its +configuration on the east and north has been determined by an irregular +belt of granite, which forms a rim, effectually resisting the further +action of its waters. The temperature of the water in summer is about +40°. + +Lake Huron connects with Superior by the St. Mary's River, and is 260 +miles long and 160 broad; its circumference is 1100 miles, its area +20,400. Georgian Bay, 170 miles long and 70 broad, forms the northeast +portion, and lies within British jurisdiction. Saginaw, a deep and +wide-mouthed bay, is the principal indentation on the western coast. The +rim of this lake is composed mostly of detrital rocks, which are rarely +exposed. In the northern portion of the lake, the trap-rocks on the +Canada side intersect the coast. The waters are as deep as those of +Superior, and possess great transparency. They rarely attain a higher +temperature than 50°, and, like those of Superior, have the deep-blue +tint of the ocean. The northern coast of Lake Huron abounds in clusters +of islands; Captain Bayfield is said to have landed on 10,000 of them, +and to have estimated their number at 30,000. + +Lake Michigan, called by the early voyagers Lac des Illinois, is next in +size to Superior, being 320 miles in length and 100 in breadth, with a +circumference, including Green Bay, of 1300 miles. It contains 22,000 +miles of surface, with a depth of 900 feet in the deeper parts, though +near the shore it grows gradually shoal. The rocks which compose its rim +are of a sedimentary nature, and afford few indentations for harbors. +The shores are low, and lined in many places with immense sand-banks. +Green Bay, or Bale des Puans of the Jesuits, on the west coast, is 100 +miles long and 20 broad. Great and Little Traverse Bays occur on the +eastern coast, and Great and Little Bays des Noquets on the northern. +One cluster of islands is found at the outlet of the main lake, and +another at that of Green Bay. Lake Michigan is the only one of the Great +Lakes which lies wholly within American jurisdiction. + +Lake Erie is 240 miles in length, 60 in breadth, and contains an area +of 9,600 square miles. It lies 565 feet above the sea-level, and is +the shallowest of all the Lakes, being only 84 feet in mean depth. Its +waters, in consequence, have the green color of the sea in shallow bays +and harbors. It is connected with Lake Huron by the St. Clair River and +Lake, a shallow expanse of water, twenty miles wide, and by Detroit +River. + +Lake Ontario is 180 miles in length and 55 in breadth, containing 6,300 +square miles. It is connected with Lake Erie by the Niagara River, and +also by the Welland Canal, which admits the passage of vessels of large +burden. This lake lies at a lower level than the others, being only 230 +feet above the sea. It is, however, about 500 feet in depth. + +The whole area of these lakes is over 90,000 miles, and the area of land +drained by them, 335,515 miles. + +The presence of this great body of water modifies the range of the +thermometer, lessening the intensity of the cold in winter and of the +heat in summer, and gives a temperature more uniform on the Lake coasts +than is found in a corresponding latitude on the Mississippi. + +The difference between the temperature of the air and that of the +Lakes gives rise to a variety of optical illusions, known as _mirage._ +Mountains are seen with inverted cones; headlands project from the shore +where none exist; islands clothed with verdure, or girt with cliffs, +rise up from the bosom of the lake, remain awhile, and disappear. +Hardly a day passes, during the summer, without a more or less striking +exhibition of this kind. The same phenomena of rapidly varying +refraction may often be witnessed at sunset, when the sun, sinking into +the lake, undergoes a most striking series of changes. At one moment it +is drawn out into a pear-like shape; the next it takes an elliptical +form; and just as it disappears, the upper part of its disk becomes +elongated into a ribbon of light, which seems to float for a moment upon +the surface of the water. + +Thunder-storms of great violence are not unusual, and sudden gusts of +wind spring up on the Lakes, and those who navigate them pass sometimes +instantaneously from a current of air blowing briskly in one direction +into one blowing with equal force from the opposite quarter. The lower +sails of a vessel are sometimes becalmed, while a smart breeze fills the +upper. + +The storms which agitate the Lakes, though less violent than the +typhoons of the Indian Ocean or the hurricanes of the Atlantic, are +still very dangerous to mariners; and, owing to the want of sea-room, +and the scarcity of good harbors, shipwrecks are but too common, and +frequently attended with much loss of life. A short, ugly sea gets up +very quickly after the wind begins to blow hard, and subsides with equal +celerity when the wind goes down. + +The fluctuations in the level of the waters of these lakes have +attracted much attention among scientific observers; and as early as +1670, Father Dablon, in his "Relations," says,--"As to the tides, it is +difficult to lay down any correct rule. At one time we have found the +motion of the waters to be regular, and at others extremely fluctuating. +We have noticed, however, that at full moon and new moon the tides +change once a day for eight or ten days, while during the remainder of +the time there is hardly any change perceptible.... Three things +are remarkable: 1st. That the currents set almost constantly in one +direction, namely, towards the Lake of the Illinois, [Michigan,] which +does not prevent their ordinary rise and fall; 2d. That they almost +invariably set _against_ the wind,--sometimes with as much force as the +tides at Quebec,--and we have seen ice moving against the wind as +fast as boats under full sail; 3d. That among these currents we have +discovered the emission of a quantity of water which seems to spring up +from the bottom." + +Father Dablon is of opinion that the waters of Lake Superior enter +into the Straits by a subterranean passage. This theory, he says, is +necessary to explain two things, namely: 1st. Without such a passage, it +is impossible to say what becomes of the waters of Lake Superior. This +vast lake has but one visible outlet, namely, the River of St. Mary; +while it receives the waters of a large number of rivers, some of which +are of greater dimensions than the St. Mary. What, then, becomes of the +surplus water? 2d. The difficulty of explaining whence come the waters +of Huron and Michigan. Very few rivers flow into these lakes, and +their volume of water is such as to fortify the belief that it must be +supplied through the subterranean river entering the Straits. + +A large number of facts have been collected by Messrs. Foster and +Whitney on the subject of these oscillations of the Lake level; and, +in fact, these phenomena have been for a long time familiar to the +residents on the Lake shores. They are generally attributed by +scientific men to atmospheric disturbances, which, by increasing or +diminishing the atmospheric pressure, produce a corresponding rise +or fall in the water-level. These are the sudden and irregular +fluctuations. + +The gradual fluctuations are probably caused by the variable amount of +rain which falls in the vast area of country drained by the Lakes. Thus, +at Fort Brady, where the mean of five years' observations is 29.68 +inches, the extremes are 36.92 and 22.44. + +An idea has been long prevalent among the old residents, derived from +the Indians, that there is a variation of the Lake surface which extends +over a period of fourteen years,--that is, the Lakes rise for seven +years, and fall for seven years. The records kept by accurate observers +at various points on the Lakes for the last ten years do not seem to +confirm this theory; but it has been well established by the recent +observations of Colonel Graham, at both ends of Lake Michigan, that +there is a semi-diurnal lunar tide on that lake of at least one third of +a foot. + +The evaporation from this great water-surface must be immense. It has +been estimated at 11,800,000,000,000 cubic feet per annum; and in this +way alone can we account for the difference between the volume of water +which enters the Lakes and that which leaves them at the Falls of +Niagara. Immense as is the quantity of water which pours over the Falls, +it is small in comparison with the floods which combine to make up the +Upper Lakes. + +In the year 1832, about the close of the Black Hawk War, the tonnage of +the Lakes was only 7,000 tons. In 1845 it had increased to 132,000 tons, +and in 1858 it was 404,301 tons. Or, if we take Chicago, the chief city +of the Lakes, we find that her imports and exports were,-- + + Imports. Exports. + In 1836, $ 325,203 $ 1,000 + " 1851, 24,410,400 5,395,471 + " 1859, estimated 60,000,000 24,280,890 + +In the year 1858, there were on the Lakes,-- + + American vessels, 1,194. Tonnage, 399,443 + Canadian " 321. " 59,580 + + Value of American tonnage on the + Lakes, $16,000,000 + + Value of Lake commerce, import + and exports, $600,000,000 + + Number of seamen employed, 13,000 + +Taking the island of Mackinac as the geographical centre of this +navigation, we find the distances as follows:-- + + Miles. + From Mackinac to head of Lake Superior 550 + " " " Chicago 350 + " " " East end of Georgian + Bay 300 + " " " Buffalo 700 + " " " Gulf of St. Lawrence 1,600 + +Or ninety thousand miles of lakes and rivers, extending half across the +continent. + +The following table shows the amount of tonnage belonging to different +cities in 1857:-- + + Tons. Tons. + New York, 1,377,424 Charleston, 56,430 + Boston, 447,966 Detroit, 57,707 + Bath, 189,932 New Bedford, 152,799 + Baltimore, 191,618 New Orleans, 173,167 + Providence, 15,152 Cleveland, 63,361 + Philadelphia, 211,380 Chicago, 67,316 + Buffalo, 100,226 Milwaukie, 22,339 + +This shows that Chicago had in 1857, being then twenty-five years old, a +larger tonnage than Charleston, the capital of the Palmetto Kingdom; and +Milwaukie, still younger than Chicago, owned a larger amount of tonnage +than the old and wealthy city of Providence. + +In 1857, the export of grain from the Lake ports was sixty-five million +bushels; in 1860, it was estimated at one hundred millions. + +The coal-trade of Cleveland, in 1858, was 129,000 tons. A large amount +was also shipped from Erie. + +In 1858, the salt-trade of the Lakes amounted to more than six hundred +thousand barrels, most of which was shipped from the port of Oswego on +Lake Ontario. + +The lumber received at Chicago in 1858 amounted to: Boards, 273,000,000 +feet; shingles, 254,000,000; lath, 45,000,000: worth $2,442,500. + +The present navigable outlets to this great commerce are three in +number. First, the Erie Canal, from Buffalo to Albany, which, in its +enlarged form, takes probably two-thirds of the productions of the Lake +regions. Second, the River St. Lawrence, which, by means of the Welland +Canal, secures a good share of the trade. Third, the Illinois and +Michigan Canal, which conveys large quantities of lumber, salt, and +other heavy goods to the Illinois River and the Mississippi. Of course, +more or less produce is taken to the seaboard by the railroads; but, +even if they could compete in price with water-carriage, it is evident +that they are incapable of moving the surplus grain of the Northwest, +as it now is. Another great navigable outlet to the Lakes is needed, so +that vessels of the largest class may sail from the elevators of Chicago +to the Liverpool docks without breaking bulk; and in reference to this, +a survey has recently been made by Thomas C. Clarke, under the direction +of the Canadian Government, for a ship-navigation between Montreal and +Lake Huron, by way of the Ottawa River, Lake Nipissing, and French +River. The Report shows that the cost of the work for vessels of one +thousand tons burden would be twelve million dollars,--and that it would +cut off a distance nearly equal to the whole length of Lakes Erie and +Ontario, thus saving from three hundred and fifty to four hundred miles +of navigation. In view of the fact that the navigation of St. Clair and +Erie is the most troublesome and dangerous part of the voyage, this plan +certainly deserves attention. + +It is easy to see what a prolific nursery of seamen this Lake commerce +must be, and how valuable a resource in a war with any great naval +power. It is a resource which was wholly wanting to us in the War of +1812, when Commodore Perry had to bring his sailors from the seaboard +with great difficulty and expense. In any future war with England, +supposing such an unhappy event to take place, our great numerical +superiority upon the Lakes in both vessels and sailors would not only +insure our supremacy there, but also afford a large surplus of men for +our ocean marine. + +But it may be said that these men are only fresh-water sailors, after +all, and are not to be relied upon for ocean-navigation. We know there +used to be a notion prevailing, that neither Lake vessels nor Lake men +would do for salt water; but in 1856, the schooner Dean Richmond took a +cargo of wheat from Chicago to Liverpool, beating a large fleet of ocean +craft from Quebec across the Atlantic, and otherwise behaving so well +as to cause the sale of the vessel in England. This voyage encouraged +others to try the experiment, and in 1859 from thirty to forty Lake +vessels loaded for ocean ports. + +That this trade will be very much increased there is no doubt, since +it affords occupation for the Lake marine in the winter, when the Lake +ports are closed by ice. + +On the western shore of Lake Michigan there are large settlements of +Norwegians and Swedes, many of whom follow the Lakes as fishermen and +sailors. Descendants of the old Northern sea-kings, they are as hardy +and adventurous here as in their Scandinavian homes, and run their +vessels earlier and later in the season than other men are willing to +do. + +Science might have anticipated, however, that vessels built for +fresh-water navigation, and loaded at Lake ports, would have an +advantage on the ocean over those loaded on salt water. As is the +density of the water of any sea, so is the displacement, or the sinking +of the vessel therein. Therefore a vessel can carry a larger cargo in +salt water than she can in fresh; and so, a Lake craft, loading at +Chicago as deep as she can swim, will find herself, when she reaches +the ocean, much more buoyant and lively. So, also, as, the more sail a +vessel carries, the deeper she penetrates the water, it follows, that, +the more dense the water, the more sail she can carry. + +In proof of these statements, the "Merchants' Magazine" tells us, that +English vessels bound up the Black Sea take smaller cargoes than those +going to the Mediterranean, because, the former being much less salt +than the latter, vessels are less buoyant thereon, and can carry less. +This difference in buoyancy will probably be enough to offset the higher +seas and rougher weather of the Atlantic. + +Thus it appears that this great basin extends through so many degrees of +latitude that its lakes and streams connect with the mineral regions and +pine forests of the North, the wheat- and corn-lands and cattle-ranges +of the Middle States, and the cotton-and sugar-plantations of the +South. + +The pine forests of Maine, it is well known, have been for some time +failing, under the great demand upon them; and the only resource will +soon be in those of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan, from which many +cargoes have been already sent to the Atlantic ports. The amount of +lumber made in these pineries in 1860 is estimated at twelve hundred +million feet, worth between eight and nine millions of dollars. Most of +this goes to the country west of the Lakes,--to Chicago, to St. Louis, +and even down the river to New Orleans. Since railroads have penetrated +the great prairies and made them habitable, the demand for pine lumber +has greatly increased both for building and fencing; and it has been +estimated, that, if every quarter-section of land in Iowa and Illinois +were surrounded with a "three-board" fence, it would consume every foot +of pine-timber in Michigan. + +As to the copper and iron mines of Lake Superior, many dabblers in fancy +stocks are but too well acquainted with them, and many burned fingers +testify against those investments of capital. Still, the amount of +mineral is immense, and the quality of the purest; and these mines will +no doubt pay well, if worked with skill and capital. + +Since 1845, one hundred and sixteen copper-mining companies have been +organized in Michigan, under the general law of the State; and the +amount of capital invested in them is estimated at six millions of +dollars. Most of this is lost. On the other hand, the "Cliff" and +"Minnesota" mines have returned over two millions of dollars in +dividends. The latter is said to have paid, in 1858, a dividend of +$300,000 on a paid-up capital of $66,000. Mining is a lottery, and this +brilliant prize cannot conceal the fact that blanks fall to the lot of +by far the more numerous part of the ticket-holders. + +The opening of the Sault Canal has very much aided in developing the +resources of the Upper Peninsula. In 1845, the Lake Superior fleet +consisted of three schooners. In 1860, one hundred vessels passed +through the canal, loaded with supplies for the mining country, and +returned with cargoes of copper and iron ore and fish. The copper is +smelted in Detroit, Cleveland, and Boston. In 1859, 3,000 tons were +landed in Detroit, producing from 60 to 70 per cent of ingot copper, +being among the purest ores in the world. + +The iron ore of this region is also of extraordinary purity; and for +all purposes where great strength and tenacity are required, it is +unrivalled, as the following table, showing the relative strength, per +square inch, as compared with other kinds of iron, will prove:-- + + Best Swedish ...... 58.184 + English cable...... 59.105 + Essex Co., N.Y..... 59.962 + Lancaster, Pa...... 58.661 + Common English .... 30.000 + Best Russia ....... 76.069 + Lake Superior ..... 89.582 + +With such iron to be had of American manufacture, why should we use +a rotten English article for car-wheels and boiler-plates, and so +sacrifice the lives of thousands every year? Because, by an unwise +legislation, the foreign article is made a little cheaper to the +American consumer. + +There are ten large forges in operation in Michigan, with a capital of +over two millions of dollars; and the shipments of ore from Marquette +in 1859 were over 75,000 tons. The country back of Marquette is full +of mountains of iron ore, yielding 60 or 70 per cent, of pure metal, +sufficient to supply the world for ages. + +Traces have been found, through the whole of this copper-region, of a +rude species of mining practised here long before it became known to the +whites. The existing races of Indians had not even a tradition by whom +it was done; and the excavations were unknown to them, until pointed out +by the white man. Messrs. Foster and Whitney, in their survey of the +copper-lands, found a pine-stump ten feet in circumference, which must +have grown, flourished, and died since the mound of earth upon which it +stood was thrown out. Mr. Knapp discovered, in 1848, a deserted mine or +excavation, in which, under eighteen feet of rubbish, he found a mass +of native copper weighing over six tons, resting on billets of oak +supported by sleepers of the same material. The ancient miners had +evidently raised the mass about five feet, and then abandoned it. Around +it, among the accumulation of rubbish, were found a large number of +stone hammers, and some copper chisels, but no utensils of iron. In some +instances, explorers have been led to select valuable mining-sites by +the abundance of these stone hammers found about the ground. Traces +of tumuli have also been found in these regions, which would seem +to indicate some connection between these ancient miners and the +mound-builders of the Mississippi Valley,--especially as in those +western mounds copper rings have frequently been found. + +The economical value of the Lake fisheries is considerable. The total +catch of white-fish, trout, and pickerel, the only kinds which are +packed, to any extent, was estimated for 1859 at 110,000 barrels, +worth about $880,000. These find a market through the States of Ohio, +Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois; besides a large quantity which are +consumed in a fresh state, in the Lake cities and towns. + +The White-Fish, (_Coregonus Albus,_) which is the most valuable of all, +somewhat resembles the shad in appearance and taste. It is taken in +seines and other nets,--never with the hook. The white-fish of Lake +Superior are larger, fatter, and of finer flavor than any others. In +this lake they have sometimes been taken weighing fifteen pounds. At the +Sault they are taken in the rapids with dip-nets, by the Chippewas who +live in that vicinity, and are of very fine flavor; those of Detroit +River and the Straits of Mackinac are also very good; but when you go +south, into Lake Erie or Michigan, the quality of the fish deteriorates. +Few travellers ever taste a white-fish in perfection. As eaten upon +hotel-tables at Buffalo or Chicago, it is a poor and tasteless fish. +But, as found at the old French boarding-houses at Mackinac or the +Sault, or, better still, cooked fresh from the icy waters on the +rocky shores of Superior, it is, to our thinking, the best fish that +swims,--better than the true salmon or brook-trout. The famous fish once +so plenty in Otsego Lake, but now nearly extinct, was a _Coregonus_, and +first cousin to this one of the Great Lakes. + +So Sebago Lake, near Portland, some fifty years ago, boasted of a +delicious red-fleshed trout, of large size, which has in these latter +times, from netting or some other improper fishing, nearly or quite +disappeared from those waters, leaving upon the palates of old anglers +the remembrance of a flavor higher and richer than anything now +remaining. + +The Lake Trout, or Mackinac Salmon, is the largest of the family of +_Salmonidoe_, growing, it is said, sometimes to the weight of one +hundred pounds. From twenty to thirty pounds is not uncommon, which is +much larger than the average of _Salmo Salar_, the true salmon. Truth +compels us to add, however, that our salmon of the Lakes is inferior to +his kinsman of the salt water; though, as in the case of the +white-fish, he has been slandered by ignorant people, such as newspaper +letter-writers, and the like. When taken from the clear, cold waters of +Lake Huron or the Straits, and boiled as nearly alive as humanity will +permit, _Salmo Namaycush_ is nearly equal to the true salmon; but after +two or three days in ice, "how stale, flat, and unprofitable!" + +The Muskelunge (_Esox Estor_) is peculiar to this basin, and is the +largest of the pickerels, weighing from ten to eighty pounds. It is a +very handsome and game fish, and is the king, or tyrant, of the water, +devouring without mercy everything smaller than itself; though its +favorite food is the white-fish, which, perhaps, accounts for the +superior flavor of this huge pike, which is one of the very best of +fresh-water fishes. + +Another excellent fish for the table is the Pike-Perch, (_Lucio-Perca_) +or Glass-Eyed Pike, from his large, brilliant eyes. In Ohio, it is +called the salmon, and by the Canadians the pickerel, while, with +singular perversity, they persist in calling our pickerel a pike. It is +a very firm, well-flavored fish, weighing from two to ten pounds, and is +found in all the Great Lakes. + +Professor Agassiz was the first to describe a large and valuable species +of pike, which he found in Lake Superior,--the Northern Pike (_Esox +Boreus_). This is the most common species of pike in the St. Lawrence +basin, though usually confounded with the common pickerel (_Esox +Reticulatus_). It grows to the size of fifteen or twenty pounds, and is +a better table-fish than _Esox Reticulatus_. It may be distinguished by +the rows of spots sides, of a lighter color than the ground upon which +they are arranged. It differs from the Muskelunge in having the lower +jaw full of teeth; whereas in the Muskelunge the anterior half of the +lower jaw is toothless. + +All the streams which empty into Lake Superior, those of the north shore +of Lake Huron, the west shore of Lake Michigan as far as Lake Winnebago, +and all the streams of Lake Ontario, contain the Speckled Trout (_Salmo +Fontinalis_); while they are not found in the streams on the southern +coasts of Lake Michigan, or (so far as we know) in the streams of Lake +Erie. What can determine this limitation of the range of the species? It +cannot be latitude, since trout are found in Pennsylvania and Virginia. +It is not longitude, since they occur in the head-waters of the Iowa +rivers. So Professor Agassiz found that Lake Superior contained species +which were not to be found in the other lakes, and that the other lakes, +again, contained species which did not occur in Lake Superior. He says, +in his work on Lake Superior, + +"It is the great question of the unity or plurality of creations; it is +not less the question of the origin of animals from single pairs or in +large numbers; and, strange to say, a thorough examination of the fishes +of Lake Superior, compared with those of the adjacent waters, is likely +to throw more light upon such questions, than all traditions, however +ancient, however near in point of time to the epoch of Creation itself." + +In Lake Superior is likewise found that remarkable salmon, the +Siscowet,--which is so fat and luscious as to be uneatable in a fresh +state, and requires to be salted to render it fit for food. It commands +a much higher price by the barrel than the lake-trout or white-fish, and +is rarely to be met with out of the Lake cities. + +In this basin is also found the Gar-Pike, (_Lepidosteus,_) a singular +animal, which is the only living representative of the fishes that +existed in the early ages of the earth's history,--and which, by its +formidable array of teeth, its impenetrable armor, and its swiftness and +voracity, gives us some idea of the terrible creatures which peopled the +waters of that period. + +We have thus hastily sketched the character and indicated the resources +of that great Northwest, which, little more than fifty years ago a +wilderness, is now a cluster of republics holding more than the balance +of power in the Union. Idle speculatists, terrified by the violence of +South Carolina, and believing that on her withdrawal the sky is to fall, +are already predicting the dismemberment of East and West. But we think +the chance of it is growing less, year by year. The two are now bound +indissolubly together by lines of railroad, which, during a part of the +year, are the most convenient outlet of the West toward the sea. Those +States, just as they are arriving at a controlling influence in the +affairs of a great and powerful nation, are hardly likely to seclude +themselves from the rest of the world in what would, from its position, +be at best an insignificant republic. + + * * * * * + + +E PLURIBUS UNUM. + + +We do not believe that any government--no, not the Rump Parliament on +its last legs--ever showed such pitiful inadequacy as our own during the +past two months. Helpless beyond measure in all the duties of practical +statesmanship, its members or their dependants have given proof of +remarkable energy in the single department of peculation; and there, not +content with the slow methods of the old-fashioned defaulter, who helped +himself only to what there was, they have contrived to steal what there +was going to be, and have peculated in advance by a kind of official +post-obit. So thoroughly has the credit of the most solvent nation in +the world been shaken, that an administration which still talks of +paying a hundred millions for Cuba is unable to raise a loan of five +millions for the current expenses of Government. Nor is this the worst; +the moral bankruptcy at Washington is more complete and disastrous than +the financial, and for the first time in our history the Executive is +suspected of complicity in a treasonable plot against the very life of +the nation. + +Our material prosperity for nearly half a century has been so +unparalleled, that the minds of men have become gradually more and more +absorbed in matters of personal concern; and our institutions have +practically worked so well and so easily, that we have learned to trust +in our luck, and to take the permanence of our government for granted. +The country has been divided on questions of temporary policy, and the +people have been drilled to a wonderful discipline in the manoeuvres +of party-tactics; but no crisis has arisen to force upon them a +consideration of the fundamental principles of our system, or to arouse +in them a sense of national unity, and make them feel that patriotism +was anything more than a pleasing sentiment,--half Fourth of July and +half Eighth of January,--a feeble reminiscence, rather than a living +fact with a direct bearing on the national well-being. We have had long +experience of that unmemorable felicity which consists in having no +history, so far as history is made up of battles, revolutions, and +changes of dynasty; but the present generation has never been called +upon to learn that deepest lesson of politics which is taught by a +common danger, throwing the people back on their national instincts, and +superseding party-leaders, the peddlers of chicane, with men adequate to +great occasions and dealers in destiny. Such a crisis is now upon us; +and if the virtue of the people make up for the imbecility of the +Executive, as we have little doubt that it will, if the public spirit of +the whole country be awakened in time by the common peril, the present +trial will leave the nation stronger than ever, and more alive to its +privileges and the duties they imply. We shall have learned what is +meant by a government of laws, and that allegiance to the sober will +of the majority, concentrated in established forms and distributed by +legitimate channels, is all that renders democracy possible, is its only +conservative principle, the only thing that has made and can keep us a +powerful nation instead of a brawling mob. + +The theory, that the best government is that which governs least, seems +to have been accepted literally by Mr. Buchanan, without considering the +qualifications to which all general propositions are subject. His course +of conduct has shown up its absurdity, in cases where prompt action is +required, as effectually as Buckingham turned into ridicule the famous +verse,-- + + "My wound is great, because it is so small," + by instantly adding,-- + + "Then it were greater, were it none at all." + +Mr. Buchanan seems to have thought, that, if to govern little was to +govern well, then to do nothing was the perfection of policy. But there +is a vast difference between letting well alone and allowing bad to +become worse by a want of firmness at the outset. If Mr. Buchanan, +instead of admitting the right of secession, had declared it to be, as +it plainly is, rebellion, he would not only have received the unanimous +support of the Free States, but would have given confidence to the +loyal, reclaimed the wavering, and disconcerted the plotters of treason +in the South. + +Either we have no government at all, or else the very word implies the +right, and therefore the duty, in the governing power, of protecting +itself from destruction and its property from pillage. But for Mr. +Buchanan's acquiescence, the doctrine of the right of secession would +never for a moment have bewildered the popular mind. It is simply +mob-law under a plausible name. Such a claim might have been fairly +enough urged under the old Confederation; though even then it would +have been summarily dealt with, in the case of a Tory colony, if +the necessity had arisen. But the very fact that we have a National +Constitution, and legal methods for testing, preventing, or punishing +any infringement of its provisions, demonstrates the absurdity of any +such assumption of right now. When the States surrendered their power to +make war, did they make the single exception of the United States, and +reserve the privilege of declaring war against them at any moment? If we +are a congeries of mediaeval Italian republics, why should the General +Government have expended immense sums in fortifying points whose +strategic position is of continental rather than local consequence? +Florida, after having cost us nobody knows how many millions of dollars +and thousands of lives to render the holding of slaves possible to her, +coolly proposes to withdraw herself from the Union and take with her one +of the keys of the Mexican Gulf, on the plea that her slave-property is +rendered insecure by the Union. Louisiana, which we bought and paid for +to secure the mouth of the Mississippi, claims the right to make her +soil French or Spanish, and to cork up the river again, whenever the +whim may take her. The United States are not a German Confederation, but +a unitary and indivisible nation, with a national life to protect, a +national power to maintain, and national rights to defend against any +and every assailant, at all hazards. Our national existence is all that +gives value to American citizenship. Without the respect which nothing +but our consolidated character could inspire, we might as well be +citizens of the toy-republic of San Marino, for all the protection +it would afford us. If our claim to a national existence was worth a +seven-years' war to establish, it is worth maintaining at any cost; and +it is daily becoming more apparent, that the people, so soon as they +find that secession means anything serious, will not allow themselves to +be juggled out of their rights, as members of one of the great powers of +the earth, by a mere quibble of Constitutional interpretation. + +We have been so much accustomed to the Buncombe style of oratory, to +hearing men offer the pledge of their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor +on the most trivial occasions, that we are apt to allow a great latitude +in such matters, and only smile to think how small an advance any +intelligent pawn-broker would be likely to make on securities of this +description. The sporadic eloquence that breaks out over the country on +the eve of election, and becomes a chronic disease in the two houses of +Congress, has so accustomed us to dissociate words and things, and to +look upon strong language as an evidence of weak purpose, that we attach +no meaning whatever to declamation. Our Southern brethren have been +especially given to these orgies of loquacity, and have so often +solemnly assured us of their own courage, and of the warlike +propensities, power, wealth, and general superiority of that part of the +universe which is so happy as to be represented by them, that, whatever +other useful impression they have made, they insure our never forgetting +the proverb about the woman who talks of her virtue. South Carolina, +in particular, if she has hitherto failed in the application of her +enterprise to manufacturing purposes of a more practical kind, has +always been able to match every yard of printed cotton from the North +with a yard of printed fustian, the product of her own domestic +industry. We have thought no harm of this, so long as no Act of Congress +required the reading of the "Congressional Globe." We submitted to the +general dispensation of long-windedness and short-meaningness as to any +other providential visitation, endeavoring only to hold fast our faith +in the divine government of the world in the midst of so much that was +past understanding. But we lost sight of the metaphysical truth, +that, though men may fail to convince others by a never so incessant +repetition of sonorous nonsense, they nevertheless gradually persuade +themselves, and impregnate their own minds and characters with a belief +in fallacies that have been uncontradicted only because not worth +contradiction. Thus our Southern politicians, by dint of continued +reiteration, have persuaded themselves to accept their own flimsy +assumptions for valid statistics, and at last actually believe +themselves to be the enlightened gentlemen, and the people of the Free +States the peddlers and sneaks they have so long been in the habit of +fancying. They have argued themselves into a kind of vague faith that +the wealth and power of the Republic are south of Mason and Dixon's +line; and the Northern people have been slow in arriving at the +conclusion that treasonable talk would lead to treasonable action, +because they could not conceive that anybody should be so foolish as to +think of rearing an independent frame of government on so visionary +a basis. Moreover, the so often recurring necessity, incident to our +system, of obtaining a favorable verdict from the people, has fostered +in our public men the talents and habits of jury-lawyers at the expense +of statesmanlike qualities; and the people have been so long wonted to +look upon the utterances of popular leaders as intended for immediate +effect and having no reference to principles, that there is scarcely a +prominent man in the country so independent in position and so clear of +any suspicion of personal or party motives, that they can put entire +faith in what he says, and accept him either as the leader or the +exponent of their thoughts and wishes. They have hardly been able to +judge with certainty from the debates in Congress whether secession were +a real danger, or only one of those political feints of which they have +had such frequent experience. + +Events have been gradually convincing them that the peril was actual and +near. They begin to see how unwise, if nothing worse, has been the weak +policy of the Executive in allowing men to play at Revolution till they +learn to think the coarse reality as easy and pretty as the vaudeville +they have been acting. They are fast coming to the conclusion that the +list of grievances put forward by the secessionists is a sham and +a pretence, the veil of a long-matured plot against republican +institutions. And it is time the traitors of the South should know that +the Free States are becoming every day more united in sentiment and more +earnest in resolve, and that, so soon as they are thoroughly satisfied +that secession is something more than empty bluster, a public spirit +will be aroused that will be content with no half-measures, and which no +Executive, however unwilling, can resist. + +The country is weary of being cheated with plays upon words. The United +States are a nation, and not a mass-meeting; theirs is a government, +and not a caucus,--a government that was meant to be capable, and is +capable, of something more than the helpless _please don't_ of a village +constable; they have executive and administrative officers that are not +mere puppet-figures to go through the motions of an objectless activity, +but arms and hands that become supple to do the will of the people so +soon as that will becomes conscious and defines its purpose. It is time +that we turned up our definitions in some more trustworthy dictionary +than that of avowed disunionists and their more dangerous because more +timid and cunning accomplices. Rebellion smells no sweeter because it +is called Secession, nor does Order lose its divine precedence in human +affairs because a knave may nickname it Coercion. Secession means chaos, +and Coercion the exercise of legitimate authority. You cannot dignify +the one nor degrade the other by any verbal charlatanism. The best +testimony to the virtue of coercion is the fact that no wrongdoer ever +thought well of it. The thief in jail, the mob-leader in the hands of +the police, and the murderer on the drop will be unanimous in favor of +this new heresy of the unconstitutionality of Constitutions, with its +Newgate Calendar of confessors, martyrs, and saints. Falstaff's famous +regiment would have volunteered to a man for its propagation or its +defence. Henceforth let every unsuccessful litigant have the right to +pronounce the verdict of a jury sectional, and to quash all proceedings +and retain the property in controversy by seceding from the court-room. +Let the planting of hemp be made penal, because it squints toward +coercion. Why, the first great Secessionist would doubtless have +preferred to divide Heaven peaceably, would have been willing to send +Commissioners, must have thought Michael's proceedings injudicious, and +could probably even now demonstrate the illegality of hell-fire to any +five-year-old imp of average education and intelligence. What a fine +world we should have, if we could only come quietly together in +convention, and declare by unanimous resolution, or even by a +two-thirds' vote, that edge-tools should hereafter cut everybody's +fingers but his that played with them,--that, when two men ride on one +horse, the hindmost shall always sit in front,--and that, when a man +tries to thrust his partner out of bed and gets kicked out himself, he +shall be deemed to have established his title to an equitable division, +and the bed shall be thenceforth his as of right, without detriment to +the other's privilege in the floor! + +If secession be a right, then the moment of its exercise is wholly +optional with those possessing it. Suppose, on the eve of a war with +England, Michigan should vote herself out of the Union and declare +herself annexed to Canada, what kind of a reception would her +Commissioners be likely to meet in Washington, and what scruples should +we feel about coercion? Or, to take a case precisely parallel to that of +South Carolina,--suppose that Utah, after getting herself admitted to +the Union, should resume her sovereignty, as it is pleasantly called, +and block our path to the Pacific, under the pretence that she did not +consider her institutions safe while the other States entertained such +unscriptural prejudices against her special weakness in the patriarchal +line. Is the only result of our admitting a Territory on Monday to be +the giving it a right to steal itself and go out again on Tuesday? Or +do only the original thirteen States possess this precious privilege of +suicide? We shall need something like a Fugitive Slave Law for runaway +republics, and must get a provision inserted in our treaties with +foreign powers, that they shall help us catch any delinquent who may +take refuge with them, as South Carolina has been trying to do with +England and France. It does not matter to the argument, except so far as +the good taste of the proceeding is concerned, at what particular time +a State may make her territory foreign, thus opening one gate of our +national defences and offering a bridge to invasion. The danger of the +thing is in her making her territory foreign under any circumstances; +and it is a danger which the Government must prevent, if only +for self-preservation. Within the limits of the Constitution two +sovereignties cannot coexist; and yet what practical odds does it +make, if a State becomes sovereign by simply declaring herself so? +The legitimate consequence of secession is, not that a State becomes +sovereign, but that, so far as the General Government is concerned, she +has outlawed herself, nullified her own existence as a State, and become +an aggregate of riotous men who resist the execution of the laws. + +We are told that coercion will be civil war; and so is a mob civil war, +till it is put down. In the present case, the only coercion called for +is the protection of the public property and the collection of the +federal revenues. If it be necessary to send troops to do this, they +will not be sectional, as it is the fashion nowadays to call people who +insist on their own rights and the maintenance of the laws, but federal +troops, representing the will and power of the whole Confederacy. A +danger is always great so long as we are afraid of it; and mischief like +that now gathering head in South Carolina may soon become a danger, if +not swiftly dealt with. Mr. Buchanan seems altogether too wholesale a +disciple of the _laissez-faire_ doctrine, and has allowed activity in +mischief the same immunity from interference which is true policy only +in regard to enterprise wisely and profitably directed. He has been +naturally reluctant to employ force, but has overlooked the difference +between indecision and moderation, forgetting the lesson of all +experience, that firmness in the beginning saves the need of force in +the end, and that forcible measures applied too late may be made to seem +violent ones, and thus excite a mistaken sympathy with the sufferers by +their own misdoing. The feeling of the country has been unmistakably +expressed in regard to Major Anderson, and that not merely because he +showed prudence and courage, but because he was the first man holding +a position of trust who did his duty to the nation. Public sentiment +unmistakably demands, that, in the case of Anarchy vs. America, the +cause of the defendant shall not be suffered to go by default. The +proceedings in South Carolina, parodying the sublime initiative of +our own Revolution with a Declaration of Independence that hangs the +franchise of human nature on the kink of a hair, and substitutes for +the visionary right of all men to the pursuit of happiness the more +practical privilege of some men to pursue their own negro,--these +proceedings would be merely ludicrous, were it not for the danger that +the men engaged in them may so far commit themselves as to find the +inconsistency of a return to prudence too galling, and to prefer the +safety of their pride to that of their country. + +It cannot be too distinctly stated or too often repeated, that the +discontent of South Carolina is not one to be allayed by any concessions +which the Free States can make with dignity or even safety. It is +something more radical and of longer standing than distrust of the +motives or probable policy of the Republican Party. It is neither more +nor less than a disbelief in the very principles on which our government +is founded. So long as they practically retained the government of the +country, and could use its power and patronage to their own advantage, +the plotters were willing to wait; but the moment they lost that +control, by the breaking up of the Democratic Party, and saw that their +chance of ever regaining it was hopeless, they declared openly the +principles on which they have all along been secretly acting. Denying +the constitutionality of special protection to any other species of +property or branch of industry, and in 1832 threatening to break up +the Union unless their theory of the Constitution in this respect were +admitted, they went into the late Presidential contest with a claim for +extraordinary protection to a certain kind of property already the +only one endowed with special privileges and immunities. Defeated +overwhelmingly before the people, they now question the right of the +majority to govern, except on their terms, and threaten violence in the +hope of extorting from the fears of the Free; States what they failed +to obtain from their conscience and settled convictions of duty. Their +quarrel is not with the Republican Party, but with the theory of +Democracy. + +The South Carolina politicians have hitherto shown themselves adroit +managers, shrewd in detecting and profiting by the weaknesses of men; +but their experience has not been of a kind to give them practical +wisdom in that vastly more important part of government which depends +for success on common sense and business-habits. The members of the +South Carolina Convention have probably less knowledge of political +economy than any single average Northern merchant whose success depends +on an intimate knowledge of the laws of trade and the world-wide +contingencies of profit and loss. Such a man would tell them, as the +result of invariable experience, that the prosperity of no community was +so precarious as that of one whose very existence was dependent on +a single agricultural product. What divinity hedges cotton, that +competition may not touch it,--that some disease, like that of the +potato and the vine, may not bring it to beggary in a single year, and +cure the overweening conceit of prosperity with the sharp medicine of +Ireland and Madeira? But these South Carolina economists are better at +vaporing than at calculation. They will find to their cost that the +figure's of statistics have little mercy for the figures of speech, +which are so powerful in raising enthusiasm and so helpless in raising +money. The eating of one's own words, as they must do, sooner or later, +is neither agreeable nor nutritious; but it is better to do it before +there is nothing else left to eat. The secessionists are strong in +declamation, but they are weak in the multiplication-table and the +ledger. They have no notion of any sort of logical connection between +treason and taxes. It is all very fine signing Declarations of +Independence, and one may thus become a kind of panic-price hero for a +week or two, even rising to the effigial martyrdom of the illustrated +press; but these gentlemen seem to have forgotten, that, if their +precious document should lead to anything serious, they have been +signing promises to pay for the State of South Carolina to an enormous +amount. It is probably far short of the truth to say that the taxes of +an autonomous palmetto republic would be three times what they are now. +To speak of nothing else, there must be a military force kept constantly +on foot; and the ministers of King Cotton will find that the charge made +by a standing army on the finances of the new empire is likely to be +far more serious and damaging than can be compensated by the glory of a +great many such "spirited charges" as that by which Colonel Pettigrew +and his gallant rifles took Fort Pinckney, with its garrison of one +engineer officer and its armament of no guns. Soldiers are the most +costly of all toys or tools. The outgo for the army of the Pope, never +amounting to ten thousand effective men, in the cheapest country in the +world, has been half a million of dollars a month. Under the present +system, it needs no argument to show that the Non-slaveholding States, +with a free population considerably more than double that of the +Slave-holding States, and with much more generally distributed wealth +and opportunities of spending, pay far more than the proportion +predicable on mere preponderance in numbers of the expenses of a +government supported mainly by a tariff on importations. And it is not +the burden of this difference merely that the new Cotton Republic must +assume. They will need as large, probably a larger, army and navy than +that of the present Union; as numerous a diplomatic establishment; a +postal system whose large yearly deficit they must bear themselves; and +they must assume the main charges of the Indian Bureau. If they adopt +free trade, they will alienate the Border Slave-States, and even +Louisiana; if a system of customs, they have cut themselves off from +the chief consumers of foreign goods. One of the calculations of the +Southern conspirators is to render the Free States tributary to their +new republic, by adopting free trade and smuggling their imported goods +across the border. But this is all moonshine; for, even if smuggling +could not be prevented as easily as it now is from the British +Provinces, how long would it be before the North would adapt its tariff +to the new order of things? And thus thrown back upon direct taxation, +how many years would it take to open the eyes of the poorer classes +of Secessia to the hardship of their position and its causes? Their +ignorance has been trifled with by men who cover treasonable designs +with a pretence of local patriotism. Neither they nor their misleaders +have any true conception of the people of the Free States, of those +"white slaves" who in Massachusetts alone have a deposit in the Savings +Banks whose yearly interest would pay seven times over the four hundred +thousand dollars which South Carolina cannot raise. + +But even if we leave other practical difficulties out of sight, what +chance of stability is there for a confederacy whose very foundation +is the principle that any member of it may withdraw at the first +discontent? If they could contrive to establish a free-trade treaty with +their chief customer, England, would she consent to gratify Louisiana +with an exception in favor of sugar? Some of the leaders of the +secession movement have already become aware of this difficulty, and +accordingly propose the abolition of all State lines,--the first step +toward a military despotism; for, if our present system have one +advantage greater than another, it is the neutralization of numberless +individual ambitions by adequate opportunities of provincial +distinction. Even now the merits of the Napoleonic system are put +forward by some of the theorists of Alabama and Mississippi, who +doubtless have as good a stomach to be emperors as ever Bottom had to a +bottle of hay, when his head was temporarily transformed to the likeness +of theirs,--and who, were they subjects of the government that looks so +nice across the Atlantic, would, ere this, have been on their way +to Cayenne, a spot where such red-peppery temperaments would find +themselves at home. + +The absurdities with which the telegraphic column of the newspapers has +been daily crowded, since the vagaries of South Carolina finally settled +down into unmistakable insanity, would give us but a poor opinion of the +general intelligence of the country, did we not know that they were due +to the necessities of "Our Own Correspondent." At one time, it is Fort +Sumter that is to be bombarded with floating batteries mounted on rafts +behind a rampart of cotton-bales; at another, it is Mr. Barrett, Mayor +of Washington, announcing his intention that the President-elect shall +be inaugurated, or Mr. Buchanan declaring that he shall cheerfully +assent to it. Indeed! and who gave them any choice in the matter? +Yesterday, it was General Scott who would not abandon the flag which he +had illustrated with the devotion of a lifetime; to-day, it is General +Harney or Commodore Kearney who has concluded to be true to the country +whose livery he has worn and whose bread he has eaten for half a +century; to-morrow, it will be Ensign Stebbins who has been magnanimous +enough not to throw up his commission. What are we to make of the +extraordinary confusion of ideas which such things indicate? In what +other country would it be considered creditable to an officer that he +merely did not turn traitor at the first opportunity? There can be no +doubt of the honor both of the army and navy, and of their loyalty to +their country. They will do their duty, if we do ours in saving them a +country to which they can be loyal. + +We have been so long habituated to a kind of local independence in the +management of our affairs, and the Central Government has fortunately +had so little occasion for making itself felt at home and in the +domestic concerns of the States, that the idea of its relation to us as +a power, except for protection from without, has gradually become vague +and alien to our ordinary habits of thought. We have so long heard the +principle admitted, and seen it acted on with advantage to the general +weal, that the people are sovereign in their own affairs, that we +must recover our presence of mind before we see the fallacy of the +assumption, that the people, or a bare majority of them, in a single +State, can exercise their right of sovereignty as against the will of +the nation legitimately expressed. When such a contingency arises, it is +for a moment difficult to get rid of our habitual associations, and to +feel that we are not a mere partnership, dissolvable whether by mutual +consent or on the demand of one or more of its members, but a nation, +which can never abdicate its right, and can never surrender it while +virtue enough is left in the people to make it worth retaining. It +would seem to be the will of God that from time to time the manhood of +nations, like that of individuals, should be tried by great dangers or +by great opportunities. If the manhood be there, it makes the great +opportunity out of the great danger; if it be not there, then the great +danger out of the great opportunity. The occasion is offered us now of +trying whether a conscious nationality and a timely concentration of the +popular will for its maintenance be possible in a democracy, or whether +it is only despotisms that are capable of the sudden and selfish energy +of protecting themselves from destruction. + +The Republican Party has thus far borne itself with firmness and +moderation, and the great body of the Democratic Party in the Free +States is gradually being forced into an alliance with it. Let us not be +misled by any sophisms about conciliation and compromise. Discontented +citizens may be conciliated and compromised with, but never open rebels +with arms in their hands. If there be any concessions which justice may +demand on the one hand and honor make on the other, let us try if we can +adjust them with the Border Slave-States; but a government has already +signed its own death-warrant, when it consents to make terms with +law-breakers. First reëstablish the supremacy of order, and then it will +be time to discuss terms; but do not call it a compromise, when you +give up your purse with a pistol at your head. This is no time for +sentimentalisms about the empty chair at the national hearth; all the +chairs would be empty soon enough, if one of the children is to amuse +itself with setting the house on fire, whenever it can find a match. +Since the election of Mr. Lincoln, not one of the arguments has lost its +force, not a cipher of the statistics has been proved mistaken, on +which the judgment of the people was made up. Nobody proposes, or +has proposed, to interfere with any existing rights of property; +the majority have not assumed to decide upon any question of the +righteousness or policy of certain social arrangements existing in +any part of the Confederacy; they have not undertaken to constitute +themselves the conscience of their neighbors; they have simply +endeavored to do their duty to their own posterity, and to protect them +from a system which, as ample experience has shown, and that of +our present difficulty were enough to show, fosters a sense of +irresponsibleness to all obligation in the governing class, and in the +governed an ignorance and a prejudice which may be misled at any moment +to the peril of the whole country. + +But the present question is one altogether transcending all limits of +party and all theories of party-policy. It is a question of national +existence; it is a question whether Americans shall govern America, or +whether a disappointed clique shall nullify all government now, and +render a stable government difficult hereafter; it is a question, not +whether we shall have civil war under certain contingencies, but whether +we shall prevent it under any. It is idle, and worse than idle, to +talk about Central Republics that can never be formed. We want neither +Central Republics nor Northern Republics, but our own Republic and that +of our fathers, destined one day to gather the whole continent under a +flag that shall be the most august in the world. Having once known what +it was to be members of a grand and peaceful constellation, we shall not +believe, without further proof, that the laws of our gravitation are to +be abolished, and we flung forth into chaos, a hurlyburly of jostling +and splintering stars, whenever Robert Toombs or Robert Rhett, or any +other Bob of the secession kite, may give a flirt of self-importance. +The first and greatest benefit of government is that it keeps the +peace, that it insures every man his right, and not only that, but the +permanence of it. In order to this, its first requisite is stability; +and this once firmly settled, the greater the extent of conterminous +territory that can be subjected to one system and one language and +inspired by one patriotism, the better. That there should be some +diversity of interests is perhaps an advantage, since the necessity of +legislating equitably for all gives legislation its needful safeguards +of caution and largeness of view. A single empire embracing the whole +world, and controlling, without extinguishing, local organizations and +nationalities, has been not only the dream of conquerors, but the ideal +of speculative philanthropists. Our own dominion is of such extent and +power, that it may, so far as this continent is concerned, be looked +upon as something like an approach to the realization of such an ideal. +But for slavery, it might have succeeded in realizing it; and in +spite of slavery, it may. One language, one law, one citizenship over +thousands of miles, and a government on the whole so good that we seem +to have forgotten what government means,--these are things not to be +spoken of with levity, privileges not to be surrendered without a +struggle. And yet while Germany and Italy, taught by the bloody and +bitter and servile experience of centuries, are striving toward unity as +the blessing above all others desirable, we are to allow a Union, +that for almost eighty years has been the source and the safeguard of +incalculable advantages, to be shattered by the caprice of a rabble that +has outrun the intention of its leaders, while we are making up our +minds what coercion means! Ask the first constable, and he will tell +you that it is the force necessary for executing the laws. To avoid +the danger of what men who have seized upon forts, arsenals, and other +property of the United States, and continue to hold them by military +force, may choose to call civil war, we are allowing a state of things +to gather head which will make real civil war the occupation of the +whole country for years to come, and establish it as a permanent +institution. There is no such antipathy between the North and the South +as men ambitious of a consideration in the new republic, which their +talents and character have failed to secure them in the old, would fain +call into existence by asserting that it exists. The misunderstanding +and dislike between them is not so great as they were within living +memory between England and Scotland, as they are now between England and +Ireland. There is no difference of race, language, or religion. Yet, +after a dissatisfaction of near a century, and two rebellions, there is +no part of the British dominion more loyal than Scotland, no British +subjects who would be more loath to part with the substantial advantages +of their imperial connection than the Scotch; and even in Ireland, after +a longer and more deadly feud, there is no sane man who would consent +to see his country irrevocably cut off from power and consideration +to obtain an independence which would be nothing but Donnybrook Fair +multiplied by every city, town, and village in the island. The same +considerations of policy and advantage which render the union of +Scotland and Ireland with England a necessity apply with even more force +to the several States of our Union. To let one, or two, or half a dozen +of them break away in a freak of anger or unjust suspicion, or, still +worse, from mistaken notions of sectional advantage, would be to fail in +our duty to ourselves and our country, would be a fatal blindness to +the lessons which immemorial history has been tracing on the earth's +surface, either with the beneficent furrow of the plough, or, when that +was unheeded, the fruitless gash of the cannon-ball. + +When we speak of coercion, we do not mean violence, but only the +assertion of constituted and acknowledged authority. Even if seceding +States could be conquered back again, they would not be worth the +conquest. We ask only for the assertion of a principle which shall give +the friends of order in the discontented quarters a hope to rally round, +and the assurance of the support they have a right to expect. There is +probably a majority, and certainly a powerful minority, in the seceding +States, who are loyal to the Union; and these should have that support +which the prestige of the General Government can alone give them. It is +not to the North or to the Republican Party that the malcontents are +called on to submit, but to the laws, and to the benign intentions of +the Constitution, as they were understood by its framers. What the +country wants is a permanent settlement; and it has learned, by repeated +trial, that compromise is not a cement, but a wedge. The Government did +not hesitate to protect the doubtful right of property of a Virginian +in Anthony Burns by the exercise of coercion, and the loyalty of +Massachusetts was such that her own militia could be used to enforce an +obligation abhorrent, and, as there is reason to believe, made purposely +abhorrent, to her dearest convictions and most venerable traditions; and +yet the same Government tampers with armed treason, and lets _I dare +not_ wait upon _I would_, when it is a question of protecting the +acknowledged property of the Union, and of sustaining, nay, preserving +even, a gallant officer whose only fault is that he has been too true +to his flag. While we write, the newspapers bring us the correspondence +between Mr. Buchanan and the South Carolina "Commissioners," and surely +never did a government stoop so low as ours has done, not only in +consenting to receive these ambassadors from Nowhere, but in suggesting +that a soldier deserves court-martial who has done all he could to +maintain himself in a forlorn hope, with rebellion in his front and +treachery in his rear. Our Revolutionary heroes had old-fashioned +notions about rebels, suitable to the straightforward times in which +they lived,--times when blood was as freely shed to secure our national +existence as milk-and-water is now to destroy it. Mr. Buchanan might +have profited by the example of men who knew nothing of the modern +arts of Constitutional interpretation, but saw clearly the distinction +between right and wrong. When a party of the Shays rebels came to +the house of General Pomeroy, in Northampton, and asked if he could +accommodate them,--the old soldier, seeing the green sprigs in their +hats, the badges of their treason, shouted to his son, "Fetch me my +hanger, and I'll _accommodate_ the scoundrels!" General Jackson, we +suspect, would have accommodated rebel commissioners in the same +peremptory style. + +While our government, like Giles in the old rhyme, is wondering whether +it is a government or not, emissaries of treason are cunningly working +upon the fears and passions of the Border States, whose true interests +are infinitely more on the side of the Union than of Slavery. They are +luring the ambitious with visionary promises of Southern grandeur +and prosperity, and deceiving the ignorant into the belief that the +principles and practice of the Free States were truly represented by +John Brown. All this might have been prevented, had Mr. Buchanan in his +Message thought of the interests of his country instead of those of his +party. It is not too late to check and neutralize it now. A decisively +national and patriotic policy is all that can prevent excited men from +involving themselves so deeply that they will find "returning as tedious +as go o'er," and be more afraid of cowardice than of consequences. + +Slavery is no longer the matter in debate, and we must beware of +being led off upon that side-issue. The matter now in hand is the +reëstablishment of order, the reaffirmation of national unity, and the +settling once for all whether there can be such a thing as a government +without the right to use its power in self-defence. The Republican Party +has done all it could lawfully do in limiting slavery once more to the +States in which it exists, and in relieving the Free States from forced +complicity with an odious system. They can be patient, as Providence is +often patient, till natural causes work that conviction which conscience +has been unable to effect. They believe that the violent abolition of +slavery, which would be sure to follow sooner or later the disruption +of our Confederacy, would not compensate for the evil that would be +entailed upon both races by the abolition of our nationality and the +bloody confusion that would follow it. More than this, they believe +that there can be no permanent settlement except in the definite +establishment of the principle, that this government, like all others, +rests upon the everlasting foundations of just Authority,--that that +authority, once delegated by the people, becomes a common stock of Power +to be wielded for the common protection, and from which no minority +or majority of partners can withdraw its contribution under any +conditions,--that this Power is what makes us a nation, and implies +a corresponding duty of submission, or, if that be refused, then a +necessary right of self-vindication. We are citizens, when we make laws; +we become subjects, when we attempt to break them after they are +made. Lynch-law may be better than no law in new and half-organized +communities, but we cannot tolerate its application in the affairs of +government. The necessity of suppressing rebellion by force may be a +terrible one, but its consequences, whatever they may be, do not weigh +a feather in comparison with those that would follow from admitting the +principle that there is no social compact binding on any body of men too +numerous to be arrested by a United States Marshal. + +As we are writing these sentences, the news comes to us that South +Carolina has taken the initiative, and chosen the arbitrament of war. +She has done it because her position was desperate, and because she +hoped thereby to unite the Cotton States by a complicity in blood, as +they are already committed by a unanimity in bravado. Major Anderson +deserves more than ever the thanks of his country for his wise +forbearance. The foxes in Charleston, who have already lost their tails +in the trap of Secession, wished to throw upon him the responsibility of +that second blow which begins a quarrel, and the silence of his guns has +balked them. Nothing would have pleased them so much as to have one of +his thirty-two-pound shot give a taste of real war to the boys who are +playing soldier at Morris's Island. But he has shown the discretion of a +brave man. South Carolina will soon learn how much she has undervalued +the people of the Free States. Because they prefer law to bowie-knives +and revolvers, she has too lightly reckoned on their caution and +timidity. She will find, that, though slow to kindle, they are as slow +to yield, and that they are willing to risk their lives for the defence +of law, though not for the breach of it. They are beginning to question +the value of a peace that is forced on them at the point of the bayonet, +and is to be obtained only by an abandonment of rights and duties. + +When we speak of the courage and power of the Free States, we do not +wish to be understood as descending to the vulgar level of meeting brag +with brag. We speak of them only as among the elements to be gravely +considered by the fanatics who may render it necessary for those who +value the continued existence of this Confederacy as it deserves to be +valued to kindle a back-fire, and to use the desperate means which God +has put into their hands to be employed in the last extremity of free +institutions. And when we use the term Coercion, nothing is farther from +our thoughts than the carrying of blood and fire among those whom +we still consider our brethren of South Carolina. These civilized +communities of ours have interests too serious to be risked on a +childish wager of courage,--a quality that can always be bought cheaper +than day-labor on a railway-embankment. We wish to see the Government +strong enough for the maintenance of law, and for the protection, if +need be, of the unfortunate Governor Pickens from the anarchy he has +allowed himself to be made a tool of for evoking. Let the power of the +Union be used for any other purpose than that of shutting and barring +the door against the return of misguided men to their allegiance. At the +same time we think legitimate and responsible force prudently exerted +safer than the submission, without a struggle, to unlawful and +irresponsible violence. + +Peace is the greatest of blessings, when it is won and kept by manhood +and wisdom; but it is a blessing that will not long be the housemate of +cowardice. It is God alone who is powerful enough to let His authority +slumber; it is only His laws that are strong enough to protect and +avenge themselves. Every human government is bound to make its laws +so far resemble His, that they shall be uniform, certain, and +unquestionable in their operation; and this it can do only by a timely +show of power, and by an appeal to that authority which is of divine +right, inasmuch as its office is to maintain that order which is the +single attribute of the Infinite Reason that we can clearly apprehend +and of which we have hourly example. + + * * * * * + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +Personal History of Lord Bacon, From Unpublished Papers. By WILLIAM +HEPWORTH DIXON, of the Inner Temple. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. pp. +424. + +The life of Bacon, as it has been ordinarily written, presents contrasts +so strange, that thoughtful readers have been compelled either to doubt +the accuracy of the narrative, or to admit that in his case Nature +departed from her usual processes, and embodied antithesis in a man. The +character suggested by the events of his life has long been in direct +opposition to the character impressed on his writings; and Macaulay, who +gave to the popular opinion its most emphatic and sparkling expression, +increased this difference by exaggerating the opposite elements of the +human epigram, and ended in manufacturing the most brilliant monstrosity +that ever bore the name of a person. Lord Campbell followed with a +biography having all the appearance of conscientious research and +judicial impartiality, but which was really nothing more than a weak +translation of Macaulay's vivid sentences into such English "as it had +pleased God to endow him withal." Bacon, to all inquiring men, still +remained outside of the statements of both; and after the lapse of +nearly two centuries, the slight biographical sketch by his chaplain, +Dr. Rawleigh, conveyed a juster idea of the man than all the +biographies by which it had been succeeded, but not superseded. + +Mr. Dixon's "Personal History of Lord Bacon" is the first attempt to +vindicate his fame by original research into unpublished documents. It +is a mortifying reflection to all who speak the English tongue, that +this task should have been deferred so long. There has been no lack +of such research in regard to insignificant individuals who have been +accidentally connected with events which come within the cognizance +of English historians; but the greatest Englishman among all English +politicians and statesmen since the Norman Conquest has heretofore been +honored with no biographer who considered him worthy the labor which has +been lavished on inferior men. The readers of Macaulay's four volumes +of English history have often expressed their amazement at his minute +knowledge of the political mediocrities of the time of James II. +and William III. He spared neither time nor labor in collecting and +investigating facts regarding comparatively unknown persons who happened +to be connected with his subject; but in his judgment of a man who, +considered simply as a statesman, was infinitely greater than Halifax +or Dauby, he depends altogether on hearsay, and gives that hearsay +the worst possible appearance. In his article on Bacon, he not merely +evinces no original research, but he so combines the loose statements he +takes for granted, that, in his presentation of them, they make out +a stronger case against Bacon than is warranted by their fair +interpretation. Indeed, leaving out the facts which Macaulay suppresses +or is ignorant of, and taking into account only those which he includes, +his judgment of Bacon is still erroneous. Long before we read Mr. +Dixon's book, we had reversed Macaulay's opinion merely by scrutinizing, +and restoring to their natural relations, Macaulay's facts. + +But Mr. Dixon's volume, while in style and matter it is one of the most +interesting and entertaining books of the season, is especially valuable +for the new light it sheds on the subject by the introduction of +original materials. These materials, to be sure, were within the reach +of any person who desired to write an impartial biography; but Mr. Dixon +no less deserves honor for withstanding the prejudice that Bacon's +moral character was unquestionably settled as base, and for daring to +investigate anew the testimony on which the judgment was founded. And +there can be no doubt that he has dispelled the horrible chimera, that +the same man can be thoroughly malignant or mean in his moral nature and +thoroughly beneficent or exalted in his intellectual nature. While we do +not doubt that depravity and intelligence can make an unholy alliance, +we do doubt that the intelligence thus prompted can exhibit, to an eye +that discerns spirits, all the vital signs of benevolence. If, in the +logic of character, Iago or Jerry Sneak be in the premises, it is +impossible to find Bacon in the conclusion. + +The value of Mr. Dixon's book consists in its introduction of new facts +to illustrate every questionable incident in Bacon's career. It is +asserted, for instance, that Bacon, as a member of Parliament, was +impelled solely by interested motives, and opposed the government merely +to force the government to recognize his claims to office. Mr. Dixon +brings forward facts to prove that his opposition is to be justified +on high grounds of statesmanship; that he was both a patriot and a +reformer; that great constituencies were emulous to make him their +representative; that in wit, in learning, in reason, in moderation, in +wisdom, in the power of managing and directing men's minds and passions, +he was the first man in the House of Commons; that the germs of great +improvements are to be found in his speeches; that, when he was +overborne by the almost absolute power of the Court, his apparent +sycophancy was merely the wariness of a wise statesman; that Queen +Elizabeth eventually acknowledged his services to the country, and, far +from neglecting him, repeatedly extended to him most substantial +marks of her favor. This portion of Mr. Dixon's volume, founded on +state-papers, will surprise both the defamers and the eulogists of +Bacon. It contains facts of which both Macaulay and Basil Montagu were +ignorant. + +Of Bacon's relations with Essex we never had but one opinion. All the +testimony brought forward to convict Bacon of treachery to Essex seemed +to us inconclusive. The facts, as stated by Macaulay and Lord Campbell, +do not sustain their harsh judgment. A parallel may be found in the +present political condition of our own country. Let us suppose Senator +Toombs so fortunate as to have had a wise counsellor, who for ten years +had borne to him the same relation which Bacon bore to Essex. Let us +suppose that it was understood between them that both were in favor +of the Union and the Constitution, and that nothing was to be done to +forward the triumph of their party which was not strictly legal. Then +let us suppose that Mr. Toombs, from the impulses of caprice and +passion, had secretly established relations with desperate disunionists, +and had thus put in jeopardy not only the interests, but the lives, of +those who were equally his friends and the friends of the Constitution. +Let us further suppose that he had suddenly placed himself at the +head of an armed force to overturn the United States government at +Washington, while he was still a Senator from Georgia, sworn to support +the Constitution of the United States, and that his cheated friend and +counsellor had just left the President of the United States, after a +long conference, in which he had attempted to show, to an incredulous +listener, that Senator Toombs was a devoted friend to the Union, though +dissatisfied with some of the members of the Administration. This is a +very faint illustration of the political relations between Essex +and Bacon, admitting the generally received facts on which Bacon is +execrated as false to his friend. Mr. Dixon adduces new facts which +completely justify Bacon's conduct. If Bacon, like Essex, had been ruled +by his passions, he would have been a far fiercer denouncer of Essex's +treason. He had every reason to be enraged. He was a wise man duped by a +foolish one. He was in danger of being implicated in a treason which he +abhorred, through the perfidy of a man who was generally considered as +his friend and patron, and who was supposed to act from his advice. As +Bacon doubtless knew what we now for the first time know, every candid +reader must be surprised at the moderation of his course. Essex would +not have hesitated to shoot or stab Bacon, had Bacon behaved to him as +he had behaved to Bacon. But we pardon, it seems, the most hateful +and horrible selfishness which springs from the passions; our moral +condemnation is reserved for that faint form of selfishness which may be +suspected to have its source in the intellect. + +In regard to the other charges against Bacon, we think that Mr. Dixon +has brought forward evidence which must materially modify the current +opinions of Bacon's personal character. He has proved that Bacon, as a +practical statesman, was in advance of his age, rather than behind it. +He has proved that his philosophy penetrated his politics, and that he +gave wise advice, and recommended large, liberal, and humane measures to +a generation which could not appreciate them. He has proved that he did +everything that a man in his situation could do for the cause of truth +and justice which did not necessitate his retirement from public life. +The abuses by which he may have profited he not only did not defend, +but tried to reform. Among the statesmen of his day he appears not only +intellectually superior, but conventionally respectable,--a fact which +would seem to be established by the bare statement, that he died +wretchedly poor, while most of them died enormously rich. + +But Mr. Dixon, in his advocacy of Bacon, overlooks the circumstance, +that no man could hold high office under James I., without complying +with abuses calculated to damage his reputation with posterity. We have +no doubt that Bacon's compliance was connected with considerations which +Mr. Dixon entirely ignores. Far from discriminating between Bacon the +philosopher and Bacon the politician, we have always thought that they +were intimately connected. Bacon's Method, the thing on which, as a +philosopher, he especially prided himself, was defective. It left out +that power by which all discoveries have since his time been made, +namely, scientific genius. Its successful working depended on an immense +collection of facts, which no individual, and no society of individuals, +could possibly make. He himself was never weary of asserting that the +Method could never produce its beneficent effects, unless it were +assisted by the revenues of a nation. Of the course which physical +science really followed he had no prevision. Copernicus, Kepler, +Galileo, Gilbert, he never appreciated. He was an intellectual autocrat, +who had matured his own scheme of interpreting Nature, and thought, +that, if it were systematically carried out, the inmost secrets of +Nature could he mastered. His desire to be Lord Chancellor of England +was subsidiary to his larger desire to be Lord Chancellor of Nature +herself. He hoped, by managing James and Buckingham, to flatter them +into aiding, by the revenues of the State, his grand philosophical +scheme. Combine the facts which Mr. Dixon has disinterred with the facts +which every thoughtful reader of Bacon's philosophical works already +knows, and the vindication of Bacon as a man is complete. + +We are inclined to think that he failed in both of the objects of his +highest ambition. His philosophic Method is demonstrably a failure; his +attempt to convert James and Buckingham to his views resulted in his own +unjust disgrace with contemporaries and posterity. The truth is, that, +cool, serene, comprehensive, and unimpassioned as he appears, he was +from his youth actuated by a fanaticism which seems less intense than +the fanaticism of a man like Cromwell only because it was infinitely +more broad. Had he succeeded in the design he proposed to himself, +his intellectual domination would not be confined to England, or the +kingdoms of the civilized world, but would be commensurate with the +whole domain of Nature and man. + +We are so grateful to Mr. Dixon for what he has done, that we are not +disposed to quarrel with him for what he has left undone. He has added +such a mass of incontrovertible facts to the materials which must enter +into the future biography of Bacon, that his book cannot fail to exact +cordial praise from the most captious critics. Bacon, in his aspirations +and purposes, was a very much greater man than he appears in Mr. Dixon's +biography; but still to Mr. Dixon belongs the credit of rescuing his +personal reputation from undeserved ignominy. If we add to this his +vivid pictures of the persons and events of the Elizabethan age, and his +bright, sharp, and brief way of flashing his convictions and discoveries +on the mind of the reader, we indicate merits which will make his volume +generally and justly popular. The letters of Lady Ann Bacon, the mother +of the philosopher and statesman-letters for which we are indebted to +Mr. Dixon's exhaustive research--would alone be sufficient to justify +the publication of his interesting book. + + +_Autobiography of Dr. Alexander Carlyle, Minister of Inveresk_. With +Memorials of the Men and Events of his Time. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. +12mo. pp. 480. + +Who was he? and what was he like?--Sir Walter Scott answered these +interrogatories more than thirty years ago, in this wise. He says, in +his "Review of the Life and Works of John Home,"--"Dr. Carlyle was, for +a long period, clergyman of Musselburgh; his character was as excellent +as his conversation was amusing and instructive; his person and +countenance, even at a very advanced age, were so lofty and commanding, +as to strike every artist with his resemblance to the Jupiter Tonans of +the Pantheon." + +Sixty years ago, this old Scottish clergyman sat down, one January day, +in Musselburgh, and began to write his "Autobiography." He had lived +seventy-nine years among scenes of great interest, and had known men of +remarkable genius. He wrote and died. The manuscript he left has been +often read and enjoyed by clever men and women, who in their turn have +gone to the churchyard to sleep with the venerable old man the story of +whose life they had perused. Sir Walter himself once caught a glimpse +of the time-stained sheets. All are now dead who could by any chance he +pained by the publication of facts in which their relatives look part +long years ago. So the world has now another volume to add to the store +of biography, and the future historian will have another treasury of +facts from which to illumine his pages. + +Himself the son of a clergyman, Alexander Carlyle had a good +school-drilling in Prestonpans, where he was born. One of the stories of +his childhood is very amusing, inasmuch as it pictures a dozen old women +listening to young Alexander, aged six, who reads the Song of Solomon to +them in a graveyard, he all the while perched on a tombstone. My Lord +Grange was the principal man in Prestonpans parish; and Master Carlyle, +with his excellent father, had great reverence for the patron who had +been the cause of the family's transplantation from Annandale. My +Lady was a very lively person, daughter of the man who shot President +Lockhart in the dark because he had infuriated him in an arbitration +case in the court. This great family attracted the boyish wonder of +young Carlyle, and some of the gossiping stories that he heard in +his father's house made his juvenile ears tingle. Poor Lady Grange! +Quarrelling with her husband one day, on his return from London, where +pretty Fanny Lindsay, who kept a coffee-house in the Haymarket, had +bewitched him, she never knew peace again. Her temper, never very +soothing or placable, got entire possession of her life, and she rained +stormy gusts of passion on her guilty lord. He trembled and endured, +till he found a razor concealed under his wife's pillow, and then he +determined to remove his violent helpmeet to a safe seclusion. By main +force, with the aid of accomplices, he seized the lady in his house in +Edinburgh, and bore her through Stirling to the Highlands. Thence she +was taken to St. Kilda's desolate island, far off in the Western Ocean, +and there kept for the remainder of her days, scantily furnished with +only the coarsest fare. Her condition was most wretched to the last. +In those days, licentiousness and religious enthusiasm were not +incompatible associates, and Lord Grange frequently spent his evenings +with the Minister of Prestonpans, praying, and settling high points of +Calvinism with the old pastor. Good Mrs. Carlyle used to complain that +they did not part without wine, and that late hours were consequent upon +the claret they liberally imbibed after their pious discussions. + +Dr. Doddridge's famous Colonel Gardiner came to reside in Minister +Carlyle's parish, and told the story of his remarkable conversion, with +his own lips, to the clergyman. The hook which turned him from his +wicked career was Gurnall's "Christian Armor," a volume placed many +years before, by a mother's hand, in his trunk, and until then +neglected. Young Carlyle hoard Gardiner tell the story of his change of +life several times to different sets of people, and he thought Doddridge +had marred the tale by introducing the incident of a blaze of light, +which the Colonel himself never spoke of having seen, when he related +his conversion. + +When Alexander was eleven years old, he took a little journey with his +father and another clergyman by the name of Jardine; and the two pious, +elderly gentlemen, having a great turn for fun and buffoonery, made +sport wherever they went. Turning their wigs hind-part foremost, and +making faces, they delighted in diverting the children they encountered +on the way. + +Of many of the incidents of the Porteous Mob young Carlyle was a +witness. He was in the Tolbooth Church, at Edinburgh, when Robertson, a +condemned smuggler, who was brought in to listen to the discourse and +prayers before execution, made his escape. The congregation were coming +into church while all the bells were ringing, when the criminal, +watching his opportunity, sprang suddenly over a pew, and was next heard +of in Holland. When, a few weeks afterwards, Wilson, another smuggler, +was executed, Carlyle, with some of his school-fellows, was in a window +on the north side of the Grass-Market, and heard Porteous order his +guard to fire on the people. A young lad, who had been killed by a slug +entering his head, was brought into the house where the boys were on +that occasion. + +In the summer of 1737, young Carlyle might have been seen during the +evening hours walking anxiously about the Prestonpans fields. That +season he had lost one of his fellow-pupils and dearest friends, and +they had often agreed together that whichever might die first should +appear there to the other, and reveal the secrets beyond the barrier. +And so the survivor paced the meadows, hoping to meet his old companion, +who never appeared. In November of that year he was at college, and his +acquaintance with Robertson, afterwards the eminent historian, then +began. John Home, celebrated at a later period as the author of +"Douglas," also became an intimate friend. He now decided to choose a +profession, and had wellnigh concluded an agreement with two surgeons +to study theirs, when he became disgusted with the meanness of the +doctors, who had bought for dissection the body of a child of a poor +tailor for six shillings, the price asked being six shillings and +sixpence, from which they made the needy man abate the sixpence. Turning +from the niggardly surgeons, he enrolled his name as a student of +divinity, and was frequently in Edinburgh attending the lectures at +Divinity Hall. Wonderfully cheap was the living in those days, when, +at the Edinburgh ordinaries, a good dinner could be had for fourpence, +small beer included. John Witherspoon, years after a member of the +American Congress, then a frank, generous young fellow, was a companion +of Carlyle at this period, and they often went fishing together in the +streams near Gifford Hall. + +The city of Glasgow, whither young Carlyle had gone to pursue his +studies, was at this time far inferior in point of commerce to what it +afterwards became. The tobacco-trade with the American colonies and the +traffic in sugar and rum with the West Indies were the chief branches of +business. Carlyle did not find the merchants of those days interesting +or learned people, though they held a weekly club, where they discussed +the nature and principle of trade, and invited Alexander to join it. But +he found life in Glasgow very dull, and was constantly complaining that +there was neither a teacher of French nor of music in the town. There +was but one concert during the two winters he spent there. Post-chaises +and hackney-coaches were unknown, their places being supplied by three +or four old sedan-chairs, which did a brisk business in carrying +midwives about in the night, and old ladies to church and the +dancing-assemblies. The principal merchants began their business early +in the morning, and took dinner about noon with their families at home. +Afterwards they resorted to the coffee-house, to read the newspapers +and enjoy a bowl of punch. Until an arch fellow from Dublin came to be +master of the chief coffee-house, nine o'clock was the hour for these +worthy mercantile gentlemen to be at home in the evening. The seductive +Irish stranger began his wiles by placing a few nice cold relishing +things on the table, and so gradually led the way to hot suppers and +midnight symposia. Towards the end of his college-session, Carlyle was +introduced to a club which gave him great satisfaction. The principal +member was Robert Simson, the celebrated mathematician. Simson was a +great humorist, and was particularly averse to the company of ladies. +Matthew Stewart, afterwards Professor of Mathematics at Edinburgh, was a +constant attendant at this club. + +On the breaking out of the Rebellion of 1745, the young +divinity-student, having returned to Edinburgh, joined the Volunteers, +and entered warmly into all the bustle and business of those exciting +days. In the Battle of Prestonpans he took part, and was active to the +end. When Prince Charles Edward issued a proclamation of pardon to the +Volunteers, Carlyle went down to the Abbey Court to see him. The Prince +mounted his horse, while the young man stood by, and rode away to the +east side of Arthur's Seat. Charles was at that time a good-looking +gentleman, of about five feet ten inches, with dark red hair and black +eyes. + +One Monday morning in October, a hundred and fifteen years ago, young +Carlyle set out for Rotterdam, on his way to Leyden, to join the British +students there. Among them he found Charles Townshend and John Wilkes, +names afterwards famous in English politics. With Wilkes he became +intimate, and many a spirited talk they had together in their daily +rambles. + +But we cannot dwell upon the incidents of Carlyle's student-life on the +Continent. Soon after his return to Scotland he made acquaintance with +Smollett, whose lively, agreeable manners rendered him universally +popular. Thomson, the author of "The Seasons," and Armstrong the poet, +were also at this time among his friends. In 1746 he preached his +first sermon before the Presbytery of Haddington, and got "universal +approbation," especially from one young lady, to whom he had been long +attached. Robertson the historian and Home the dramatist were now among +his neighbors, and no doubt used their influence in getting the young +clergyman a living. He finally settled at Inveresk, where his life was +a very pleasant round of cares and duties. Hume, Adam Smith, Blair, +Smollett, and Robertson now figure largely in his personal record, so +that he had no lack of genial companions. Adam Smith he describes as "a +very absent man in society, moving his lips, talking to himself, +and smiling, in the midst of large companies." Robertson was a very +different person, and held all the conversation-threads in his own +fingers, forgetting, alas! sometimes, that he had not been present in +many a scene which he described as an eye-witness. + +Carlyle went some distance on the way toward London with Home, when he +carried his tragedy of "Douglas" for examination to the critics. Six +other clergymen, accompanied the precious manuscript on that expedition, +and the fun was prodigious. Garrick read the play and pronounced it +totally unfit for the stage! "Douglas" was afterwards brought out in +Edinburgh with unbounded success. David Hume ran about crying it up as +the first performance he world had seen for half a century. + +Carlyle's visit to Shenstone is very graphically described in the +"Autobiography." The poet was then "a large, heavy, fat man, dressed in +white clothes and silver lace." One night in Edinburgh, Dr. Robertson +gave a small supper-party to "the celebrated Dr. Franklin," and Carlyle +met him that evening at table. They came together afterwards several +times. + +But we must refer our readers to the book itself, our limits not +allowing more space for a glance at one of the most entertaining works +in modern biography. + + +_The Laws of Race, as connected with Slavery_. By the Author of "The Law +of the Territories," "Rustic Rhymes," etc. Philadelphia: W.P. Hazard. +1860. 8vo. pp. 70. + +There is no lack of talk and writing among us on political topics; but +there is great lack of independent and able thought concerning them. +The disputes and the manoeuvres of parties interfere with the study and +recognition of the active principles which silently mould the national +character and history. The double-faced platforms of conventions, the +loose manifestoes of itinerant candidates for the Presidency, the +rhetorical misrepresentations of "campaign documents," form the staple +of our political literature. + +The writer of the pamphlet before us is one of the few men who not only +think for themselves, nut whose thoughts deserve attention. His essay +on "The Law of the Territories" was distinguished not more by its sound +reasoning than by the candor of its statements and the calmness of its +tone and temper. If his later essay, on "The Laws of Race, as connected +with Slavery," be on the whole less satisfactory, this is to be +attributed, not to any want in it of the same qualities of thought +and style as were displayed in his earlier work, but to the greater +complexify and difficulty of the subject itself. The question of Race, +so far as it affects actual national conditions, is one of the deepest +and most intricate which can be presented to the student of politics. It +is impossible to investigate it without meeting with difficulties which +in the present state of knowledge cannot be solved, or without opening +paths of speculation which no human foresight can trace to their end. +This is, indeed, no reason for not attempting its discussion; and Mr. +Fisher, in treating it in its relation to Slavery, has done good work, +and has brought forward important, though much neglected considerations. +He endeavors to place the whole subject of the relations of the white +and the black races in this country on philosophic grounds, and to +deduce the principles which must govern them from the teachings of +ethnological science, or, in other words, from natural laws which human +device can neither abrogate nor alter. + +From these teachings he derives the three following conclusions. + +"The white race must of necessity, by reason of its superiority, govern +the negro, wherever the two live together. + +"The two races can never amalgamate, and form a new species of man, but +must remain forever distinct,--though mulattoes and other grades always +exist, because constantly renewed. + +"Each race has a tendency to occupy exclusively that portion of the +country suited to its nature." + +If true, these conclusions are of the utmost importance. They are higher +laws, which "must rule our politics and our destiny, either by the +Constitution or over it, either with the Union or without it; and no +wit or force of man is strong enough to resist them." It is to the +exposition of the results which follow from these conclusions, assuming +them to be true, that the larger part of the present essay is devoted. + +That these propositions express, or at least point the way to essential +truths, we are fully persuaded. But we are not ready to accept all the +inferences which the author draws from them, or to admit that they +afford sufficient basis for some of his minor assumptions. + +Arguing from his first conclusion, the author draws the inference that +"slavery is the necessary result" of the nature of the black and of the +white man. "The negro is by nature indolent and improvident." "He is +also ignorant." "He requires restraint and guidance"; "otherwise he +would sink into helpless, hopeless vice, idleness, and misery." But in +these words, and in others to the same purport, Mr. Fisher assumes that +the nature of the black is incapable of such improvement as to make what +he calls the necessary condition of servitude needless in the interest +of either race. We are surprised that so good a reasoner should speak +of the ignorance of the black as a natural disqualification for +independence, and the more so, because, in another passage, Mr. Fisher +says, with truth, "We darken his mind with ignorance." That some form +of subjection of the negro may be necessary for a time that extends far +into the future is a point we will not dispute; but that slavery, as +that word is generally understood, is the necessary result of his nature +and of our nature we believe to be utterly untrue. The whole history +of American slavery, far from exhibiting the negro as incapable of +improvement, shows him making a slow and irregular advance in the +development of intellectual and moral qualities, under circumstances +singularly unfavorable. It is the plea of the advocates of the +slave-trade, that the black is civilized by contact with the white. +The plea is not without truth. It is the universal testimony of +slave-owners, and the common observation of travellers, that the city +and house slaves, that is, those who are brought into most constant and +close relations with the whites, show higher mental development than +those who are confined to the fields. The experiment of education, +continued for more than one generation, has never been tried. The black +is in many of his endowments inferior to the white; but until he and +his children and his children's children have shown an incapacity to be +raised by a suitable training, honestly given, to an intellectual and +moral condition that shall fit them for self-dependence, we have no +right to assert that slavery is a necessary condition, if in the meaning +of necessary we include the idea of permanence. It is not needful to +present here other objections to this sweeping assertion. They are old, +well-known, and unanswerable. + +But leaving this and other points on which we find ourselves at issue +with Mr. Fisher, we come to what we regard as the most important part of +his pamphlet,--the results which he shows to follow from the law, that +"each race has a tendency to occupy exclusively that portion of the +country suited to its nature." In the States that lie on the Gulf of +Mexico the negro "has found a congenial climate and obtained a permanent +foothold." "The negro multiplies there; the white man dwindles and +decays." We should be glad to quote at length the striking pages in +which Mr. Fisher shows the prospect of the ultimate and not distant +ascendency of the black race in this new Africa. The considerations he +presents are of vital consequence to the South, of consequence only less +than vital to the North. But by the side of "New-Africa" are States and +Territories in which the black race has little or no foothold. Free, +civilized, and prosperous communities are brought face to face, as it +were, with the mixed and degenerating populations of the Slave country. +In the Free States the white race is increasing in numbers and advancing +in prosperity with unexampled rapidity. In the Slave States the black +race is growing in far greater proportion than the white, the most +important elements of prosperity are becoming exhausted, and the +forces of civilization are incompetent to hold their own against the +ever-increasing weight of barbarism. Shall this new Africa push its +boundaries beyond their present limits? Shall more territory be yielded +to the already wide-spread African, race? It is not the question, +whether the unoccupied spaces of the South and West shall be settled by +Northern white emigrants with their natural property, or by Southern +white emigrants with their legal property,--and there an end; but it +is the question, whether New England or New Africa shall extend her +limits,--whether the country shall be occupied a century hence by a +civilized or by a barbarous race. Every rood of ground yielded to the +pretensions of the masters of slaves is so much of the heirloom of +freedom and of civilization lost without hope of recovery. Slavery is +transient. + +As an institution, such as it has developed itself in our Southern +States, it has already, given tokens of decay. But the qualities of race +are so slowly affected by change as to admit of being called constant +and permanent. The predominant influence of the blacks in the Cotton +States is already (even putting aside the results of slavery) exhibiting +itself in the lowering of the whites. These States are becoming +uninhabitable for the whites,--not by reason of climate, or of slavery +as an institution, but by reason of the operation of the inevitable +increase of the slaves. They must have the land, and the stronger race +will be driven out by the weaker, on account of the preponderance of +their numbers and the _vis inertice_ of their natures. There is no room +in the United States, or in any of their unsettled territory, for the +expansion of this transatlantic Africa. Where the black race is now +settled it will stay, but it must be confined within its present limits. + +We do not look upon the simple secession of the Slave States, or of +any one of them, as dangerous, so far as the extension of slavery is +concerned,--rather, on the contrary, as likely to end the great debate +by securing all unoccupied territory to the North, to freedom, and to +the white races. It is only, if an attempt should be made, for the sake +of what is miscalled peace, and for the sake of the Union, to conciliate +the misguided and unfortunate people of the South by compromise or +concession, that we fear the consequences. + +The responsibility under which we are to act is not for our own moral +convictions alone, but also for the happiness of all future times. There +is no room for concession, no space for compromise, in the settlement of +the question of the prevalence of the black or of the white race on this +continent,--in other words, the prevalence of liberty and Christianity +and all their attendant blessings, or that of ignorance and barbarism +with their train. "We will decide this question," says Mr. Fisher, whose +words were written before the necessity for decision was so distinctly +presented as at present, "we will decide it, if we can, as a united +people; but if we cannot, if cotton and slavery and the negro have +already weakened our Southern brethren by their spells and enchantments, +so that the South cannot decide according to the traditions and impulses +of our race, then we of the North will still decide it, as by right we +may,--by right of reason, of race, and of law." + + +_The Conduct of Life_. By R.W. EMERSON Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. +pp. 288. + +It is a singular fact, that Mr. Emerson is the most steadily attractive +lecturer in America. Into that somewhat cold-waterish region adventurers +of the sensation kind come down now and then with a splash, to become +disregarded King Logs before the next season. But Mr. Emerson always +draws. A lecturer now for something like a quarter of a century, one +of the pioneers of the lecturing system, the charm of his voice, his +manner, and his matter has never lost its power over his earlier +hearers, and continually winds new ones in its enchanting meshes. What +they do not fully understand they take on trust, and listen, saying to +themselves, as the old poet of Sir Philip Sidney,-- + + "A sweet, attractive, kind of grace, + A full assurance given by looks, + Continual comfort in a face, + The lineaments of gospel books." + +We call it a singular fact, because we Yankees are thought to be fond of +the spread-eagle style, and nothing can be more remote from that than +his. We are reckoned a practical folk, who would rather hear about a +new air-tight stove than about Plato; yet our favorite teacher's +practicality is not in the least of the Poor Richard variety. If he +have any Buncombe constituency, it is that unrealized commonwealth of +philosophers which Plotinus proposed to establish; and if he were to +make an almanac, his directions to farmers would be something like +this:--"OCTOBER: _Indian Summer_; now is the time to get in your early +Vedas." What, then, is his secret? Is it not that he out-Yankees us all? +that his range includes us all? that he is equally at home with the +potato-disease and original sin, with pegging shoes and the Over-soul? +that, as we try all trades, so has he tried all cultures? and above all, +that his mysticism gives us a counterpoise to our super-practicality? + +There is no man living to whom, as a writer, so many of us feel +and thankfully acknowledge so great an indebtedness for ennobling +impulses,--none whom so many cannot abide. What does he mean? ask these +last. Where is his system? What is the use of it all? What the deuse +have we to do with Brahma? Well, we do not propose to write an essay on +Emerson at the fag-end of a February "Atlantic," with Secession longing +for somebody to hold it, and Chaos come again in the South Carolina +teapot. We will only say that we have found grandeur and consolation in +a starlit night without caring to ask what it meant, save grandeur and +consolation; we have liked Montaigne, as some ten generations before us +have done, without thinking him so systematic as some more eminently +tedious (or shall we say tediously eminent?) authors; we have thought +roses as good in their way as cabbages, though the latter would have +made a better show in the witness-box, if cross-examined as to their +usefulness; and as for Brahma, why, he can take care of himself, and +won't bite us at any rate. + +The bother with Mr. Emerson is, that, though he writes in prose, he is +essentially a poet. If you undertake to paraphrase what he says, and to +reduce it to words of one syllable for infant minds, you will make +as sad work of it as the good monk with his analysis of Homer in the +"Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum." We look upon him as one of the few men +of genius whom our age has produced, and there needs no better proof of +it than his masculine faculty of fecundating other minds. Search for his +eloquence in his books and you will perchance miss it, but meanwhile you +will find that it has kindled all your thoughts. For choice and pith of +language he belongs to a better age than ours, and might rub shoulders +with Fuller and Browne,--though he does use that abominable word, +_reliable_. His eye for a fine, telling phrase that will carry true is +like that of a backwoodsman for a rifle; and he will dredge you up a +choice word from the ooze of Cotton Mather himself. A diction at once so +rich and so homely as his we know not where to match in these days of +writing by the page; it is like homespun cloth-of-gold. The many cannot +miss his meaning, and only the few can find it. It is the open secret of +all true genius. What does he mean, quotha? He means inspiring hints, a +divining-rod to your deeper nature, "plain living and high thinking." +We meant only to welcome this book, and not to review it. Doubtless we +might pick our quarrel with it here and there; but all that our readers +care to know is, that it contains essays on Fate, Power, Wealth, +Culture, Behavior, Worship, Considerations by the Way, Beauty, and +Illusions. They need no invitation to Emerson. "Would you know," says +Goethe, "the ripest cherries? Ask the boys and the blackbirds." He does +not advise you to inquire of the crows. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +Struggle for Life. By the Author of "Seven Stormy Sundays," etc. Boston. +Walker, Wise, & Co. 12mo. pp. 311. $1.00. + +The Laws of Race, as connected with Slavery. By the Author of "The Law +of the Territories," etc. Philadelphia. Willis P. Hazard. 8vo. paper, +pp. 70. 38 cts. + +On the Study of Words. 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Small 4to. pp. 131. $1.50. + +The New American Encyclopaedia: a Popular Dictionary of General +Knowledge. Edited by George Ripley and Charles A. Dana. Volume XI Mac to +Moxa. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. pp. 788, vii. $3.00. + +The Silver Penny Series. Comprising Six Volumes, neatly put up in a Box, +for Children. Boston. Walker, Wise, & Co. 24mo. 25 cts. each. + +The Odyssey of Homer, with the Hymns, Epigrams, and Battle of the Frogs +and Mice. Literally translated, with Explanatory Notes, by Theodore +Alois Buckley, B.A. New York. Harper L Brothers. 16mo. pp. 432. 75 cts. + +Herodotus. Recensuit Josephus Williams Blakesley, S.T.B. New York. +Harper & Brothers. 32mo. 2 vols. pp. 362 and 364. $1.50. + +Hymns for Mothers and Children. Compiled by the Author of "Violet," +"Daisy," etc. Boston. Walker, Wise, & Co. 12mo. pp. 287. $1.25. + +Martin's Natural History. Translated from the Thirty-Fifth German +Edition. By Sarah A. Myers. Containing Two Hundred and Sixty-Two +beautifully-colored Illustrations. Second Series. New York. Phinney, +Blakeman, & Mason. 12mo. pp. 490. $1.50. + +History of Latin Christianity; including that of the Popes, to the +Pontificate of Nicolas V. By Henry Hart Milman, D.D. Vol. III. New York. +Sheldon & Co. 12mo. pp. 525. $1.50. + +Studies from Life. By the Author of "John Halifax," etc. New York. +Harper & Brothers. 16mo. pp. 290. 75 cts. + +Hallam's Middle Ages. Boston Library Edition. Boston. Crosby, Nichols, +Lee, & Co. Crown 8vo. 3 vols. $3.75. + +The Printer-Boy; or, How Ben Franklin made his Mark. An Example for +Youth. By William M. Thayer. Boston. J.E. Tilton & Co. 18mo. pp. 261. 75 +cts. + +The Diary of George Washington, from 1789 to 1791; embracing the Opening +of the First Congress, and his Tours through New England, Long Island, +and the Southern States, together with his Journal of a Tour to the +Ohio, in 1753. Edited by Benson J. Lossing. New York. Charles B. +Richardson & Co. 12mo. pp. 248. $1.00 + +Songs for the Sorrowing. By H.N. With an Introduction, by Wm. R. +Williams, D.D. New York. Phinney, Blakeman, & Mason, 12mo. pp. 284. +$1.00. + +Chambers's Encyclopaedia. A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the +People. Part 22. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. paper, pp. 63. 15 cts. + +Men and Times of the Revolution; or, Memoirs of Elkanah Watson, +including his Journal of Travels in Europe and America, his Journals of +Travels from the Year 1777 to 1842, and his Correspondence with Public +Men, and Reminiscences and Incidents of the American Revolution. Edited +by his Son, Whinlow C. Watson. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. +557. $1.50. + +Up the River. By Jacob Abbott. New York. Harper & Brothers. 18mo. pp. +192. 50 cts. + +Coins, Medals, and Seals, Ancient and Modern. Illustrated and described +by W.C. Prime. New York. Harper & Brothers. Small 4to. pp. 292. $3.00. + +Principles of Physics; or, Natural Philosophy. Designed for the Use of +Colleges and Schools. By Benjamin Silliman, Jr. Philadelphia. H.C. Peck +& Theodore Bliss. 12mo. pp. 700. $2.00. + +What we Eat. An Account of the most Common Adulterations of Food and +Drink, with Simple Tests by which many of them may be detected. By +Thomas H. Hoskins, M.D. Boston. T.O.H.P. Burnham. 12mo. pp. 218. 63 cts. + +Correspondence of Fräulein Günderode and Bettine von Arnim. Boston. +T.O.H.P. Burnham. 12mo. pp. 344. $1.00. + +The Personal History of Lord Bacon. From Unpublished Documents. By W. +Hepworth Dixon, of the Inner Temple. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. pp. +424, xx. $1.25. + +The Autobiography of Rev. Dr. Alexander Carlyle, Minister of Inveresk. +With Memorials of the Men and Events of his Times. Boston. Ticknor & +Fields. 12mo. pp. 480. $1.50. + +The Life and Times of Philip Schuyler. By Benson J. Lossing. New York. +Mason Brothers. 12mo. pp. 502. $1.50. + +The Works of Francis Bacon. Collected and edited by James Spedding, +M.A., Robert Leslie Ellis, M.A., and Douglas Denon Heath. Volume XIII. +Being Volume III. of the Literary and Professional Works. Boston. Brown +& Taggard. 12mo. pp. 418. $1.50. + +Twelve Discourses. By Henry M. Dexter. Boston. Printed for the Pine +Street Fair. 16mo. pp. 219. $1.25. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11117 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5d9e68c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #11117 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11117) diff --git a/old/11117-8.txt b/old/11117-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..12e7576 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11117-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8890 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Atlantic Monthly Volume 7, No. 40, February, +1861, by Various + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly Volume 7, No. 40, February, 1861 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: February 16, 2004 [eBook #11117] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY VOLUME 7, NO. 40, +FEBRUARY, 1861*** + + +E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. VII.--FEBRUARY, 1861.--NO. XL. + + + + + + + +OUR ARTISTS IN ITALY. + +WILLIAM PAGE. + + +Among artists, William Page is a painter. + +This proposition may seem, to the great public which has so long and so +well known him and his works, somewhat unnecessary. There are few +who are not familiar with his paintings. Whether these seem great or +otherwise, whether the Venus be pure or gross, we may not here discuss; +the public has, and will have, many estimates; yet on one point there +is no difference of opinion, apparently. The world willingly calls him +whose hand wrought these pictures a painter. It has done so as a matter +of course; and we accept the title. + +But perhaps the title comes to us from this man's studio, charged with a +significance elevating it above the simply self-evident, and rendering +it worthy of the place we have given it as a germ proposition. + +Not every one who uses pigments can say, "I also am a painter." To him +who would make visible the ideal, there are presented the marble, the +pencil, and the colors; and should he employ either of these, just in +proportion to his obedience to the laws of each will he be a sculptor, +a designer, or a painter; and the revelations in stone, in light and +shade, or on canvas, shall be his witnesses forevermore,--witnesses of +him not only as an artist, in view of his relation to the ideal world, +but as possessing a right to the especial title conferred by the means +which he has chosen to be his interpreter. + +The world has too much neglected these means of interpretation. It has +condemned the science which would perfect the art, as if the false could +ever become the medium of the true. The art of painting has suffered +especially from the influence of mistaken views. + +Nor could it be otherwise. Color-manifestation, of all art-utterance, +is the least simple. It requires the fulfilment of a greater number +of conditions than are involved in any other art. He who has selected +colors as his medium cannot with impunity neglect form; light and +shade must be to him as important as they are to the designer in +_chiaro-scuro;_ while above all are the mystery and power of color. + +There is perplexity in this. The science of form seems to be vast enough +for any man's genius. No more than he accomplishes is demanded of the +genuine sculptor. His life has been grand with noble fulfilments. We, +and all generations, hold his name in the sacred simplicity which has +ever been the sign of the consummate. Men say, Phidias, Praxiteles, and +know that they did greatly and sufficiently. + +Yet with the science which these men had we combine elements equally +great, and still truth demands the consummate. Hence success in painting +has been the rarest success which the world has known. If we search +its history page by page, the great canvas-leaves written over with +innumerable names yield us less than a score of those who have overcome +the difficulties of its science, through that, achieving art, and +becoming painters. + +Yes, many men have painted, many great artists have painted, without +earning the title which excellence gives. Overbeck, the apostle artist, +whose rooms are sacred with the presence of the divine, never earned +that name. Nor did thousands who before him wrought patiently and +earnestly. + +We think that we have among us a man who _has_ earned it. + +What does this involve? Somewhat more than the ability critically to +distinguish colors and to use them skilfully. + +Although practice may discipline and develop this power, there must +exist an underlying physiological fitness, or all study and experience +will be unavailing. In many persons, the organization of the eye is such +that there can be no correct perception of the value, relation, and +harmony of hues. There exists often an utter inability to perceive +differences between even the primary colors. + +The late sculptor Bartholomew declared himself unable to decide which +of two pieces of drapery, the one crimson and the other green, was the +crimson. Nor was this the result of inexperience. He had been for years +familiar not only with Nature's coloring, but with the works of the best +schools of art, and had been in continual contact with the first living +artists. + +The instances of this peculiar blindness are exceptional, yet not +more so than is the perfection of vision which enables the eye to +discriminate accurately the innumerable tints derived from the three +primitives. + +Nothing can be finer than the sense of identity and harmony resulting +from this exquisite organization. We have been told that there is a +workman at the Gobelin manufactory who can select twenty-two thousand +tints of the material employed in the construction of its famous +tapestries. This capability is, of course, almost wholly dependent upon +rare physical qualifications; yet it is the basis, the very foundation +of a painter's power. + +Still, it is _but_ the foundation. An "eye for color" never yet made any +man a colorist. + +Perhaps there can be no severer test of this faculty of perception than +the copying of excellent pictures. And among the few successful copies +which have been produced, Page's stand unsurpassed. + +The ability to perceive Nature, when translated into art, is, however, a +possession which this painter shares with many. Nor is he alone in the +skill which enables him to realize upon his own canvas the effects which +some master has rendered. + +It is in the presence of Nature itself that a power is demanded with +which mechanical superiority and physical qualifications have little to +do. Here the man stands alone,--the only medium between the ideal and +the outward world, wherefrom he must choose the signs which alone are +permitted to become the language of his expression. None can help him, +as before he was helped by the man whose success was the parent of his +own. Here is no longer copying. + +In the first place, is to be found the limit of the palette. Confining +ourselves to the external, what, of all the infinitude of phenomena to +which the vision is related, so corresponds to the power of the palette +that it may become adequately representative thereof? + +Passing over many minor points in which there seems to be an imperfect +relation between Nature's effects and those of pigments, we will briefly +refer to the great discrepancy occasioned by the luminosity of light. In +all the lower effects of light, in the illumination of Nature and the +revelation of colored surfaces, in the exquisite play and power of +reflected light and color, and in the depth and richness of these when +transmitted, we find a noble and complete response on the palette. But +somewhere in the ascending scale a departure from this happy relation +begins to be apparent. The _color_-properties of light are no longer +the first. Another element--an element the essential nature of which +is absorbed in the production of the phenomena of color--now asserts +itself. Hitherto the painter has dealt with light indirectly, through +the mediatorship of substances. The rays have been given to him, broken +tenderly for his needs;--ocean and sky, mountain and valley, draperies +and human faces, all things, from stars to violets, have diligently +prepared for him, as his demands have arisen, the precious light. And +while he has restrained himself to the representation of Nature subdued +to the limit of his materials, he has been victorious. + +Turner, in whose career can be found almost all that the student needs +for example and for warning, is perhaps the best illustration of wise +temperance in the choice of Nature to be rendered into art. Nothing can +be finer than some of those early works wrought out in quiet pearly +grays,--the tone of Nature in her soberest and tenderest moods. In +these, too, may be observed those touches of brilliant color,--bits of +gleaming drapery, perhaps,--prophetic flecks along the gray dawn. Such +pictures are like pearls; but art demands amber, also. + +When necessity has borne the artist out of this zone, the peaceful +domain of the imitator, he finds himself impelled to produce effects +which are no longer the simple phases of color, but such as the means at +his disposal fail to accomplish. In the simpler stages of coloring, when +he desired to represent an object as blue or red, it was but necessary +to use blue or red material. Now he has advanced to a point where this +principle is no longer applicable. The illuminative power of light +compels new methods of manipulation. + +As examples of a thorough comprehension of the need of such a change in +the employment of means, of the character of that change, of the skill +necessary to embody its principles, and of utter success in the result, +we have but to suggest the name and works of Titian. + +But the laws which Titian discovered have been unheeded for centuries; +and they might have remained so, had not the mind of William Page +felt the necessity of their revival and use. To him there could be no +chance-work. Art must have laws as definite and immutable as those of +science; indeed, the body in which the spirit of art is developed, and +through which it acts, must be science itself. He saw, that, if exact +imitation of Nature be taken as the law in painting, there must +inevitably occur the difficulty to which we have before referred,--that, +above a certain point, paint no longer undergoes transfiguration, +thereby losing its character as mere coloring material,--that, if the +ordinary tone of Nature be held as the legitimate key-note, the scope of +the palette would be exhausted before success could be achieved. + +Any one of Turner's latest pictures may serve to illustrate the nature +of this difficulty. Although in his early practice he was remarkable for +his judicious restraint, it is evident that the splendors of the higher +phenomena of light had for him unlimited fascination; and he may be +traced advancing cautiously through that period of his career which was +marked by the influence of Claude, toward what he hoped would prove, and +perhaps believed to be, a realization of such splendors. + +It must have been observed by those who have studied his later pictures, +that, while the low passages of the composition are wonderfully fine +and representative, all the higher parts, those supposed or intended to +stand for the radiance of dazzling light, fail utterly in representative +capacity. There is an abundance of the most brilliant pigment, but it is +still paint,--unmitigated ochre and white lead. The spectator is obliged +to recede from the picture until distance enables the eye to transmute +the offending material and reconcile the conflicting passages. + +To accomplish the result of rendering the quality and effect of high +light was one of the problems to which Mr. Page years ago turned his +attention; and he found its solution in the transposition of the scale. +The pitch of Nature could not be adopted as the immutable in art. That +were impossible, unless art presumed to cope with Nature. + +More than he, no man could respect the properties and qualities of the +visible world. His ideas of the truthful rendering of that which became +the subject of his pencil might seem preposterous to those who knew not +the wonderful significancy which he attached to individual forms and +tints. Yet, in imitation, where is the limit? What is possible? Must +there be any sacrifice? + +Evidently there must be; and of course it follows that the less +important must be sacrificed. Nature herself has taught the artist that +the most variable of all her phenomena is that of _tone_. Other truths +of Nature have a character of permanency which the artist cannot modify +without violating the first principles of art. He is required to render +the essential; and to render the essential of that which art cannot +sacrifice, if it would, and continue art, he foregoes the non-essential +and evanescent. + +Not only is this permitted,--it is demanded. It is a law through which +alone success is attainable. In obedience to it, Mr. Page adopts a key +somewhat lower than that of Nature as a point of departure, using his +degrees of color frugally, especially in the ascending scale. With this +economy, when he approaches the luminous effects of Nature, he finds, +just where any other palette would be exhausted, upon his own a reserve +of high color. With this, seeking only a corresponding effect of light +in that lower tone which assumes no rivalry with the infinite glory of +Nature, he attains to a representation fully successful. + +We would not have it understood that a mere transposition of the scale +is all that is required to accomplish such a result; only this,--that in +no other way can such a result be secured. To color well, to color so +that forms upon the canvas give back tints like those of the objects +which have served as models, is only half the work. Quality, as well as +color, must be attained. Local, reflected, and transmitted color can be +imitated; but as in the attempt to represent light its luminousness is +the element which defeats the artist, so, throughout Nature, quality, +texture, are the elements which most severely test his power. + +Could any indispensable truth be considered secondary, it might be +assumed that rendering truthfully the qualities of Nature is the first +and highest of art. The forms and colors of objects vary infinitely. +It might be said that the law of all existence is, in these two +particulars, that of change. From the time a human being is born until +it disappears in the grave, from the day when the first leaves break the +mould to that which sees the old tree fall, the form of each has been +modified hourly. + +But that which differentiates objects more completely than any other +property is quality. The sky over us, and the waters of the earth, are +subject to infinite variations. Yet, whether in the tiny drop that +trembles at the point of a leaf or in the vast ocean-globe of our +planet, in the torpor of forest-ponds or in the wrath of cataracts, +water never loses its quality of wetness,--the open sky never that of +dryness. These two characteristics are of course entirely the reverse +of each other,--as unlike as are the properties of transparency and +opacity,--which they involve. + +So, throughout Nature, one truth, that of texture, is the +distinguishing; and this distinctive element is that which cannot be +sacrificed; for through it are Nature's finest laws manifested. And the +painter finds in his obedience to her demands his highest power over +the material which serves him in his efforts to embody the true and the +beautiful. + +It is, then, this which compels us to estimate Mr. Page a painter,--a +man especially organized for his profession,--chosen by its +demands,--set apart, by his wonderful adaptation to its requirements, +from all the world. In virtue of this specialty, the necessity arose +early in his life to seek excellence in his department of art,--to +search the depths of its philosophy and discover its vital +principles,--to analyze its methods and expose its errors. It led him to +investigate the relation between the phenomena of Nature and the +effects of painting; it guided him to a clear perception of the laws +of art-translation; above all, it compelled him to practise what he +believed to be the true. + +Thus much of the painter;--now what of the artist? + +It does not necessarily follow, that, because a man is a great painter, +he is also a great artist. Yet we may safely infer, that, if he has been +true in one department of the several which constitute art, he cannot +have been false in others. Should there be a shortcoming, it must be +that of a man whose mission does not include that wherein he fails. +Fidelity to himself is all we should demand. We say this for those who +are disposed to depreciate what an artist actually accomplishes, because +in some one point Turner or Overbeck surpasses him. Nor do we say it +apologetically. The man, who, basing his action upon the evident purpose +of the organization which God has given him, fulfils his destiny, +requires no apology. + +We have seen something of the faithfulness which has marked Mr. Page's +pursuit of excellence in the external of his art. He has wrought that +which proves his claim to a broader title than that of painter. Were +it not for the vagueness which involves the appellation of historical +painter, it might be that. Even were we obliged to confine our interest +and study to the portraiture which he has executed, we might, in view of +its remarkable character, designate it as historical. + +Than a really great portrait, no work of art can be more truly +historical. We feel the subjectiveness of compositions intended to +transmit facts to posterity,--and unless we know the artist, we are at a +loss as to the degree of trust which we may place in his impressions. +A true portrait is objective. The individuality of the one whom it +represents was the ruling force in the hour of its production; and to +the spirit of a household, a community, a kingdom, or an age, that +individuality is the key. There is, too, in a genuine portrait an +internal evidence of its authenticity. No artist ever was great enough +to invent the combination of lines, curves, and planes which composes +the face of a man. There is the accumulated significance of a +lifetime,--subtile traces of failures or of victories wrought years ago. +How these will manifest themselves, no experience can point out, no +intuition can foresee or imagine. The modifications are infinite, and +each is completely removed from the region of the accidental. + +But, although details and their combinations in the human face and form +cannot be wrought from the imagination, the truthfulness or falsity of +their representation is instantly evident. It is because of this, that +the unity of a portrait carries conviction of its truth and of the +unimpeachability of its evidence, that this phase of art becomes +so valuable as history. Compared with the worth of Titian's Philip +II.,--the Madrid picture, of which Mr. Wild has an admirable +study,--what value can be attached to any historical composition of its +period? + +It has not been the lot of Mr. Page to paint a mighty man, so inlocked +with the rugged forces of his age. His sitters have come from more +peaceful, nobler walks of life,--and their portraits are beloved even +more than they are admired. Not yet are they the pride of pompous +galleries, but the glory and saintliness of homes. + +Could we enter these homes, and discuss freely the character of their +treasures, we would gladly linger in the presence of the more precious. +But so inseparably associated are they with their originals, so much +more nearly related to them than to the artist, that no fitting analysis +can be made of the representation without involving that of the +individual represented. + +Three portraits have, however, such wonderful excellence, and through +this excellence have become so well known, that we may be forgiven for +alluding to them. In a former paper, the writer spoke of the portrait of +a man in his divinest development. The first of these three works is the +representation of a woman, and is truly "somewhat miraculous." It is a +face rendered impressive by the grandest repose,--a repose that pervades +the room and the soul,--a repose not to be mistaken for serenity, but +which is power in equilibrium. No brilliancy of color, no elaboration of +accessories, no intricacy of composition attracts the attention of +the observer. There is no need of these. But he who is worthy of the +privilege stands suddenly conscious of a presence such as the world has +rarely known. He feels that the embodiment before him is the record of +a great Past, as well as the reflection of a proud Present,--a Past +in which the soul has ever borne on through and above all obstacles of +discouragement and temptation to a success which was its inheritance. +He sees, too, the possibilities of the near Future; how from that fine +equipoise the soul might pass out into rare manifestations, appearing +in the sweetness and simplicity of a little child, in the fearful +tumultuousness of a Lady Macbeth, in the passionate tenderness of a +Romeo, or in the Gothic grandeur of a Scotch sorceress,--in the love of +kindred, in the fervor of friendship, and in the nobleness of the truest +womanhood. + +Another portrait--can it have been painted in this century?--presents a +widely different character. We have seen the rendering of a nature made +too solemn by the possession of genius to admit of splendor of coloring. +This picture is that of ripe womanhood, manifesting itself in the +fulness of summer's goldenest light. Color, in all its richness as +color, in all its strength as a representative agent, in all its glory +as the minister of light, in all its significance as the sign and +expression of plenitude of life,--life at one with Nature;--thus we +remember it, as it hung upon the wall of that noble room in the Roman +home of Crawford. + +A later portrait, and one artistically the finest of Mr. Page's +productions, although executed in Rome, has found a home in Cambridge. +Here no grave subdual of color was called for, nor was there any need of +its fullest power,--but, instead thereof, we have color in the purity +of its pearl expression. A mild lustre, inexpressibly clear, seems to +pervade the picture, and beam forth the revelation of a white soul. +Shadows there are none,--only still softer light, to carry back the +receding forms. But interest in technicalities is lost in the nobler +sense of sweet influences. We are at peace in the presence of a peace +which passeth all understanding. We are holy in the ineffable light +of immortal holiness. We are blessed in the consciousness of complete +harmony. + +Surely, none but a great painter could have achieved such success; +surely, no mere painter could thus have appealed to us. + +These works we have chosen to represent the artist's power in the +direction of portraiture,--not only because of their wonderful merit as +embodiments of individualism, but to illustrate a law which has not yet +had its due influence in art, but which must be the very life of its +next revival, when painting shall be borne up until it marks the +century. + +We refer to the expressional power of color,--not the conventional +significance whereby certain colors have been associated arbitrarily +with mental conditions. This last has often violated all the principles +of natural relation; yet no fact is more generally accepted than +this,--that colors, from the intensity of the primitives to the last +faint tints derived therefrom, bear fixed and demonstrable relations to +the infinite moods and phases of human life. As among themselves the +hues of the palette exist in immutable conditions of positive affinity +or repulsion, so are they all related to the soul as definitely in +harmony or in discord. There has been imperfect recognition of this at +various times in the history of painting since the age of Giotto,--the +most notable examples having occurred in the Venetian school. + +But even in that golden age of art, this property of color was but +rarely perceived and called into use under the guidance of principles. +Still, the sense of the value and the harmonies of colors was so keen +among the Venetian artists, that, intuitively, subjects were chosen +which required an expression admitting of the most lavish use and +magnificent display of color. + +Paul Veronese, the splendor of whose conceptions seemed ever to select +the pomp and wealth of banquets and ceremonies,--Giorgione, for whom the +world revolved in an atmosphere of golden glory,--each had a fixed ideal +of noble coloring; and it is questionable whether either ever modified +that ideal for the sake of any expressional purpose. + +Titian, from whom no property or capability of color was concealed, +could not forego the power which he secured through obedience to the law +of its relation to the human soul. Were we asked which among pictures is +most completely illustrative of this obedience, we should answer, "The +Entombment," in the Louvre. Each breadth of color mourns,--sky and earth +and all the conscious air are laden with sorrow. + +In portraiture, however, the great master was inclined to give the full +perfection of the highest type of coloring. That rich glow which is +bestowed by the Venetian sun did, indeed, seem typical of the life +beneath it; and Titian may have been justified in bringing thither +those who were the recipients of his favors. One only did he not +invite,--Philip II.; him he placed, dark and ominous, against a sky +barred with blood. + +Is it in virtue of conformity to law, and under the government of the +principles of correspondence, that Mr. Page has wrought with mind and +hand? + +Otherwise it cannot be; for, in the three portraits to which allusion +has been made, such subtile distinctions of character find expression in +equally subtile differences of tint, that no touch could have been given +from vague apprehensions of truth. No ambiguity perplexes the spectator; +he beholds the inevitable. + +Other works than those of portraiture have won for Mr. Page the +attention of the world. This attention has elicited from individuals +praise and dispraise, dealt out promptly, and with little qualification. +But we have looked in vain for some truly appreciative notice of the +so-called historical pictures executed by this artist. We do not object +to the prompt out-speaking of the public. So much is disposed of, when +the mass has given or withheld its approval. We know whether or not the +work appeals to the hearts of human beings. Often, too, it is the most +nearly just of any which may be rendered. Usually, the conclusions +of the great world are correct, while its reasonings are absurd. Its +decisions are immediate and clear; its arguments, subsequent and vague. + +This measure, however, cannot be meted to all artists. A painter may +appeal to some wide, yet superficial sympathy, and attain to no other +excellence. + +That Mr. Page might have found success in this direction will not be +denied by any one who has seen the engraving of a girl and lamb, from +one of his early works. It is as sweet and tenderly simple as a face by +Francia. But not only did he refuse to confine himself to this style +of art, as, when that engraving is before us, we wish he had done,--he +passed out of and away from it. And those phases which followed +have been such as are the least fitted to stand the trial of public +exhibition. His pictures do not command the eye by extraordinary +combinations of assertive colors,--nor do they, through great pathos, +deep tenderness, or any overcharged emotional quality, fascinate and +absorb the spectator. + +Much of the middle portion of this artist's professional life is marked +by changes. It was a period of growth,--of continual development and of +obvious transition. Not infrequently, the transition seemed to be from +the excellent to the crude. Nevertheless, we doubt not, that, through +all vicissitudes, there has been a steady and genuine growth of Mr. +Page's best artistic power, and that he has been true to his specialty. + +We should like to believe that the Venetian visit of 1853 was the +closing of one period of transition, and the beginning of a new era in +Mr. Page's artistic career. It is pleasant to think of the painter's +pilgrimage to that studio of Titian, Venice,--for it was all his,--not +in nebulous prophetic youth,--not before his demands had been revealed +to his consciousness,--not before those twenty long years of solitary, +hard, earnest work,--but in the full ripeness of manhood, when prophecy +had dawned into confident fulfilment, when the principles of his +science had been found, and when of this science his art had become the +demonstration. It was fine to come then, and be for a while the guest of +Titian. + +There is evidence that he began after this visit to do what for years he +had been learning to do,--yet, of course, as is ever the case with the +earnest man, doing as a student, as one who feels all truth to be of the +infinite. + +The result has been a series of remarkable pictures. There are among +these the specimens of portraiture, a few landscapes, and a number of +ideal, or, as they have been called, historical works. Of these last +named there is somewhat to be said; and those to which we shall refer +are selected for the purpose of illustrating principles, rather than for +that of description. These are all associated with history. There are +three representations of Venus, and several renderings of Scriptural +subjects. + +If these pictures are valuable, they are so in virtue of elements which +can be appreciated. To present these elements to the world, to appeal to +those who can recognize them, is, it is fair to assume, the object of +exposition. Not merely praise, but the more wholesome meed of justice, +is the desire of a true artist; and as we deal with such a one, we do +not hesitate to speak of his works as they impress us. + +First of all, in view of the artist's skill as a painter, it is well +to regard the external of his work. Here, in both Scriptural and +mythological subjects, there is little to condemn. The motives have been +bravely and successfully wrought out; the work is nobly, frankly done. +The superiority of methods which render the texture and quality of +objects becomes apparent. There is no attempt at illusion; yet the +representation of substances and spaces is faultless,--as, for instance, +the sky of the "Venus leading forth the Trojans." Nor have we seen that +chaste, pearly lustre of the most beautiful human skin so well rendered +as in the bosom of the figure which gleams against the blue. + +But there is a pretension to more than technical excellence in the +mythological works; there is a declaration of physical beauty in the +very idea; in both these and the Scriptural there is an assumption of +historical value. + +While we believe that the problem of physical beauty can be solved and +demonstrated, and the representations of Venus can be proved to possess +or to lack the beautiful, we choose to leave now, as we should be +compelled to do after discussion, the decision of the question to +those who raise it. It is of little avail to prove a work of art +beautiful,--of less, to prove it ugly. Spectators and generations cannot +be taken one by one and convinced. But where the operation of judgment +is from the reasoning rather than from the intuitive nature, facts, +opinions, and impressions may exert healthful influences. + +The Venus of Page we cannot accept,--not because it may be unbeautiful, +for that might be but a shortcoming,--not because of any technical +failure, for, with the exception of weakness in the character of waves, +nothing can be finer,--not because it lacks elevated sentiment, for this +Venus was not the celestial,--but because it has nothing to do with +the present, neither is it of the past, nor related in any wise to any +imaginable future. + +The present has no ideal of which the Venus of the ancients is a +manifestation. Other creations of that marvellous Greek mind might be +fitly used to symbolize phases of the present. Hercules might labor now; +there are other stables than the Augean; and not yet are all Hydras +slain. Armor is needed; and a Vulcan spirit is making the anvil ring +beneath the earth-crust of humanity. But Venus, the voluptuous, the +wanton,--no sensuousness pervading any religion of this era finds in her +its fitting type and sign. She, her companions, and her paramours, with +the magnificent religion which evolved them, were entombed centuries +ago; and no angel has rolled the stone from the door of their sepulchre. +They are dead; the necessity which called the Deistic ideal into +existence is dead; the ideal itself is dead, since Paul preached in +Athens its funeral sermon. + +As history of past conditions, no value can be attached to +representations produced in subsequent ages. In this respect all these +pictures must be false. The best can only approximate truth. Yet his +two pictures of Scriptural subjects--one from the remoteness of Hebrew +antiquity, the other from the early days of Christianity--are most +valuable even as history: not the history of the flight from Egypt, nor +that of the flight into Egypt, but the history of what these mighty +events have become after the lapse of many centuries. + +Herein lies the difference between Mythology and Christianity: the one +arose, culminated, and perished, soul and body, when the shadow of the +Cross fell athwart Olympus; the other is immortal,--immortal as is +Christ, immortal as are human souls, of which it is the life. No century +has been when it has not found, and no century can be when it will not +find, audible and visible utterance. The music of the "Messiah" reveals +the relation of its age to the great central idea of Christianity. Frà +Angelico, Leonardo, Bach, Milton, Overbeck, were the revelators of human +elevation, as sustained by the philosophy of which Christ was the great +interpreter. + +Therefore, to record that elevation, to be the historian of the present +in its deepest significance, the noblest occupation. Dwelling, as an +artist must dwell, in the deep life of his theme, his work must go forth +utterly new, alive, and startling. + +Thus did we find the "Flight into Egypt" a picture full of the spirit of +that marvellous age, hallowed by the sweet mystery which all these years +have given. Who of those who were so fortunate as to see this work of +Mr. Page will ever forget the solemn, yet radiant tone pervading the +landscape of sad Egypt, along which went the fugitives? Nothing ever +swallowed by the insatiable sea, save its human victims, is more worthy +of lament than this lost treasure. + +Thus, too, is the grandest work of Mr. Page's life, the Moses with hands +upheld above the battle. Were we on the first page instead of the last, +we could not refrain from describing it. Yet in its presence the impulse +is toward silence. We feel, that, viewed even in its mere external, it +is as simple and majestic as the Hebrew language. The far sky, with its +pallid moon,--the deep, shadowy valley, with its ghostly warriors,--the +group on the near mountain, with its superb youth, its venerable age, +and its manhood too strong and vital for the destructive years;--in the +presence of such a creation there is time for a great silence. + + + + +KNITTING SALE-SOCKS. + + +"He's took 'ith all the sym't'ms,--thet 's one thing sure! Dretful pain +in hez back an' l'ins, legs feel 's ef they hed telegraph-wires inside +'em workin' fur dear life, head aches, face fevered, pulse at 2.40, +awful stetch in the side, an' pressed fur breath. You guess it's +neuralogy, Lurindy? I do'no' nothin' abeout yer high-flyin' names fur +rheumatiz. _I_ don't guess so!" + +"But, Aunt Mimy, what _do_ you guess?" asked mother. + +"I don' guess nothin' at all,--I nigh abeout know!" + +"Well,--you don't think it's"---- + +"I on'y wish it mebbe the veryaloud,--I on'y wish it mebbe. But that's +tew good luck ter happen ter one o' the name. No, Miss Ruggles, +I--think--it's--the raal article at first hand." + +"Goodness, Aunt Mimy! what"---- + +"Yes, I du; an' you'll all hev it stret through the femily, every one; +you needn't expect ter go scot-free, Emerline, 'ith all your rosy +cheeks; an' you'll all hev ter stay in canteen a month ter the least; +an' ef you're none o' yer pertected by vaticination, I reckon I"---- + +"Well, Aunt Mimy, if that's your opinion, I'll harness the filly and +drive over for Dr. Sprague." + +"Lor'! yer no need ter du _thet_, Miss Ruggles,--I kin kerry yer all +through jest uz well uz Dr. Sprague, an' a sight better, ef the truth +wuz knowed. I tuk Miss Deacon Smiler an' her hull femily through the +measles an' hoopin'-cough, like a parcel o' pigs, this fall. They _du_ +say Jane's in a poor way an' Nathan'l's kind o' declinin'; but, uz I +know they say it jest ter spite me, I don' so much mind. You _a'n't_ +gwine now, be ye?" + +"There's safety in a multitude of counsellors, you know, Aunt Mimy, and +I think on the whole I had best." + +"Wal! ef that's yer delib'rate ch'ice betwixt Dr. Sprague an' me, ye +kin du ez ye like. I never force my advice on no one, 'xcept this,--I'd +advise Emerline there ter throw them socks inter the fire; there'll +never none o' them be fit ter sell, 'nless she wants ter spread the +disease. Wal, I'm sorry yer 've concluded ter hev thet old quack +Sprague; never hed no more diplomy 'n I; don' b'lieve he knows cow-pox +from kine, when he sees it. The poor young man's hed his last well day, +I'm afeard. Good-day ter ye; say good-bye fur me ter Stephen. I'll call +ag'in, ef ye happen ter want any one ter lay him eout." + +And, staying to light her little black pipe, she jerked together the +strings of her great scarlet hood, wrapped her cloak round her like a +sentinel at muster, and went puffing down the hill like a steamboat. + +Aunt Mimy Ruggles wasn't any relation to us, I wouldn't have you think, +though our name was Ruggles, too. Aunt Mimy used to sell herbs, and she +rose from that to taking care of the sick, and so on, till once Dr. +Sprague having proved that death came through her ignorance, she had to +abandon some branches of her art; and she was generally roaming round +the neighborhood, seeking whom she could devour in the others. And so +she came into our house just at dinner-time, and mother asked her to sit +by, and then mentioned Cousin Stephen, and she went up to see him, and +so it was. + +Now it can't be pleasant for any family to have such a thing turn up, +especially if there's a pretty girl in it; and I suppose I was as pretty +as the general run, at that time,--perhaps Cousin Stephen thought a +trifle prettier; pink cheeks, blue eyes, and hair the color and shine of +a chestnut when it bursts the burr, can't be had without one 's rather +pleasant-looking; and then I'm very good-natured and quick-tempered, and +I've got a voice for singing, and I sing in the choir, and a'n't afraid +to open my mouth. I don't look much like Lurindy, to be sure; but +then Lurindy's an old maid,--as much as twenty-five,--and don't go to +singing-school.--At least, these thoughts ran through my head as I +watched Aunt Mimy down the hill.--Lurindy a'n't so very pretty, +I continued to think,--but she's so very good, it makes up. At +sewing-circle and quilting and frolics, I'm as good as any; but somehow +I'm never any 'count at home; that's because Lurindy is by, at home. +Well, Lurindy has a little box in her drawer, and there's a letter in +it, and an old geranium-leaf, and a piece of black silk ribbon that +looks too broad for anything but a sailor's necktie, and a shell. I +don't know what she wants to keep such old stuff for, I'm sure. + +We're none so rich,--I suppose I may as well tell the truth, that we're +nearly as poor as poor can be. We've got the farm, but it's such a small +one that mother and I can carry it on ourselves, with now and then a +day's help or a bee,--but a bee's about as broad as it is long,--and +we raise just enough to help the year out, but don't sell. We've got +a cow and the filly and some sheep; and mother shears and cards, and +Lurindy spins,--I can't spin, it makes my head swim,--and I knit, +knit socks and sell them. Sometimes I have needles almost as big as a +pipe-stem, and choose the coarse, uneven yarn of the thrums, and +then the work goes off like machinery. Why, I can knit two pair, and +sometimes three, a day, and get just as much for them as I do for the +nice ones,--they're warm. But when I want to knit well, as I did the day +Aunt Mimy was in, I take my best blue needles and my fine white yarn +from the long wool, and it takes me from daybreak till sundown to knit +one pair. I don't know why Aunt Jemimy should have said what she did +about my socks; I'm sure Stephen hadn't been any nearer them than he had +to the cabbage-bag Lurindy was netting, and there wasn't such a nice +knitter in town as I, everybody will tell you. She always did seem to +take particular pleasure in hectoring and badgering me to death. + +Well, I wasn't going to be put down by Aunt Mimy, so I made the needles +fly while mother was gone for the doctor. By-and-by I heard a knock up +in Stephen's room,--I suppose he wanted something,--but Lurindy didn't +hear it, and I didn't so much want to go, so I sat still and began to +count out loud the stitches to my narrowings. By-and-by he knocked +again. + +"Lurindy," says I, "a'n't that Steve a-knocking?" + +"Yes," says she,--"why don't you go?"--for I had been tending him a good +deal that day. + +"Well," says I, "there's a number of reasons; one is, I'm just binding +off my heel." + +Lurindy looked at me a minute, then all at once she smiled. + +"Well, Emmy," says she, "if you like a smooth skin more than a smooth +conscience, you're welcome,"--and went up-stairs herself. + +I suppose I had ought to 'a' gone, and I suppose I'd ought to wanted to +have gone, but somehow it wasn't so much fear as that I didn't want to +see Stephen himself now. So Lurindy stayed up chamber, and was there +when mother and the doctor come. And the doctor said he feared Aunt Mimy +was right, and nobody but mother and Lurindy must go near Stephen, (you +see, he found Lurindy there,) and they must have as little communication +with me as possible. And his boots creaked down the back-stairs, and +then he went. + +Mother came down a little while after, for some water to put on +Stephen's head, which was a good deal worse, she said; and about the +middle of the evening I heard her crying for me to come and help them +hold him,--he was raving. I didn't go very quick; I said, "Yes,--just +as soon as I've narrowed off my toe"; and when at last I pushed back my +chair to go, mother called in a disapproving voice and said that they'd +got along without me and I'd better go to bed. + +Well, after I was in bed I began to remember all that had happened +lately. Somehow my thoughts went back to the first time Cousin Stephen +came to our place, when I was a real little girl, and mother'd sent me +to the well and I had dropped the bucket in, and he ran straight down +the green slippery stones and brought it up, laughing. Then I remembered +how we'd birds-nested together, and nutted, and come home on the +hay-carts, and how we'd been in every kind of fun and danger together; +and how, when my new Portsmouth lawn took fire, at Martha Smith's +apple-paring, he caught me right in his arms and squeezed out the fire +with his own hands; and how, when he saw once I had a notion of going +with Elder Hooper's son James, he stepped aside till I saw what a nincom +Jim Hooper was, and then he appeared as if nothing had happened, and +was just as good as ever; and how, when the ice broke on Deacon Smith's +pond, and I fell in, and the other boys were all afraid, Steve came and +saved my life again at risk of his own; and how he always seemed to +think the earth wasn't good enough for me to walk on; and how I'd +wished, time and again, I might have some way to pay him back; and here +it was, and I'd failed him. Then I remembered how I'd been to his place +in Berkshire,--a rich old farm, with an orchard that smelled like the +Spice Islands in the geography, with apples and pears and quinces +and peaches and cherries and plums,--and how Stephen's mother, Aunt +Emeline, had been as kind to me as one's own mother could be. But now +Aunt Emeline and Uncle 'Siah were dead, and Stephen came a good deal +oftener over the border than he'd any right to. Today, he brought some +of those new red-streaks, and wanted mother to try them; next time, +they'd made a lot more maple-sugar on his place than he wanted; and next +time, he thought mother's corn might need hoeing, or it was fine weather +to get the grass in: I don't know what we should have done without him. +Then I thought how Stephen looked, the day he was pall-bearer to Charles +Payson, who was killed sudden by a fall,--so solemn and pale, nowise +craven, but just up to the occasion, so that, when the other girls burst +out crying at sight of the coffin and at thought of Charlie, I cried, +too,--but it was only because Stephen looked so beautiful. Then I +remembered how he looked the other day when he came, his cheeks were +so red with the wind, and his hair, those bright curls, was all blown +about, and he laughed with the great hazel eyes he has, and showed his +white teeth;--and now his beauty would be spoiled, and he'd never care +for me again, seeing I hadn't cared for him. And the wind began to +come up; and it was so lonesome and desolate in that little bed-room +down-stairs, I felt as if we were all buried alive; and I couldn't get +to sleep; and when the sleet and snow began to rattle on the pane, I +thought there wasn't any one to see me and I'd better cry to keep it +company; and so I sobbed off to dreaming at last, and woke at sunrise +and found it still snowing. + +Next morning, I heard mother stepping across the kitchen, and when I +came out, she said Lurindy'd just gone to sleep; they'd had a shocking +night. So I went out and watered the creatures and milked Brindle, and +got mother a nice little breakfast, and made Stephen some gruel. And +then I was going to ask mother if I'd done so very wrong in letting +Lurindy nurse Stephen, instead of me; and then I saw she wasn't thinking +about that; and besides, there didn't really seem to be any reason why +she shouldn't;--she was a great deal older than I, and so it was more +proper; and then Stephen hadn't ever _said_ anything to me that should +give me a peculiar right to nurse him more than other folks. So I just +cleared away the things, made everything shine like a pin, and took +my knitting. I'd no sooner got the seam set than I was called to send +something up on a contrivance mother'd rigged in the back-entry over a +pulley. And then I had to make a red flag, and find a stick, and hang it +out of the window by which there were the most passers. Well, I did it; +but I didn't hurry,--I didn't get the flag out till afternoon; somehow I +hated to, it always seemed such a low-lived disease, and I was mortified +to acknowledge it, and I knew nobody'd come near us for so long,--though +goodness knows I didn't want to see anybody. Well, when that was done, +Lurindy came down, and I had to get her something to eat, and then she +went up-stairs, and mother took _her_ turn for some sleep; and there +were the creatures to feed again, and what with putting on, and taking +off, and tending fires, and doing errands, and the night's milking, and +clearing the paths, I didn't knit another stitch that day, and was glad +enough, when night came, to go to bed myself. + +Well, so we went on for two or three days. I'd got my second sock pretty +well along in that time,--just think! half a week knitting half a +sock!--and was setting the heel, when in came Aunt Mimy. + +"I a'n't afeard on it," says she; "don't you be skeert. I jest stepped +in ter see ef the young man wuz approachin' his eend." + +"No," said I, "he isn't, any more than you are, Aunt Mimy." + +"Any more 'n I be?" she answered. "Don't you lose yer temper, Emerline. +We're all approachin' it, but some gits a leetle ahead; it a'n't no +disgrace, ez I knows on. What yer doin' of? Knittin' sale-socks yet? +and, my gracious! still ter work on the same pair! You'll make yer +fortin', Emerline!" + +I didn't say anything, I was so provoked. + +"I don' b'lieve you know heow ter take the turns w'en yer mother a'n't +by to help," she continued. "Can't ye take up the heel? Widden ev'ry +fourth. Here, let me! You won't? Wal, I alluz knowed you wuz mighty +techy, Emerline Ruggles, but ye no need ter fling away in thet style. +Neow I'll advise ye ter let socks alone; they're tew intricate fur +sech ez you. Mitt'ns is jest abeout 'ithin the compass uv your +mind,--mitt'ns, men's single mitt'ns, put up on needles larger 'n them +o' yourn be, an' by this rule. Seventeen reounds in the wrist,--tew an' +one's the best seam"---- + +"Now, Miss Jemimy, just as if I didn't know how to knit mittens!" + +"Wal, it seems you don't," said she, "though I don' deny but you may +know heow ter give 'em; an' ez I alluz like ter du w'at good I kin, I'm +gwine ter show ye." + +"Show away," says I; "but I'll be bound, I've knit and sold and eaten up +more mittens than ever you put your hands in!" + +"Du tell! I'm glad to ha' heern you've got sech a good digestion," says +she, hunting up a piece of paper to light her pipe. "Wal, ez I +wuz sayin'," says she, "tew an' one's the best seam, handiest an' +'lastickest; twenty stetches to a needle, cast up so loose thet the fust +one's ter one eend uv the needle an' the last ter t'other eend,--thet +gives a good pull." + +"I guess your smoke will hurt Stephen's head," said I, thinking to +change her ideas. + +"Oh, don't you bother abeout Stephen's head; ef it can't stan' thet,'t +a'n't good fur much. Wal, an' then you set yer thumb an' knit plain, +'xcept a seam-stetch each side uv yer thumb; an' you widden tew +stetches, one each side,--s'pose ye know heow ter widden? an' +narry?--ev'ry third reound, tell yer 've got nineteen stetches acrost +yer thumb; then ye knit, 'ithout widdenin', a matter uv seven or eight +reounds more,----you listenin', Emerline?" + +"Lor', Miss Jemimy, don't you know better than to ask questions when I'm +counting? Now I've got to go and begin all over again." + +"Highty-tighty, Miss! You're a weak sister, ef ye can't ceount an' chat, +tew. Wal, ter make a long matter short, then ye drop yer thumb onter +some thread an' cast up seven stetches an' knit reound fur yer hand, an' +every other time you narry them seven stetches away ter one, fur the +gore." + +"Dear me, Aunt Mimy! do be quiet a minute! I believe mother's +a-calling." + +"I'll see," said Aunt Mimy,--and she stepped to the door and listened. + +"No," says she, coming back on tiptoe,--"an' you didn't think you heern +any one neither. It's ruther small work fur ter be foolin' an old woman. +Hows'ever, I don' cherish grudges; so, ez I wuz gwine ter say, ye knit +thirty-six reounds above wheer ye dropped yer thumb, an' then ye toe off +in ev'ry fifth stetch, an' du it reg'Iar, Emerline; an' then take up yer +thumb on tew needles, an' on t'other you pick up the stetches I told yer +ter cast up, an' knit twelve reounds, an' thumb off 'ith narryin' ev'ry +third"---- + +"Well, Miss Jemimy, I guess I shall know how to knit mittens, now!" + +"Ef ye don't, 't a'n't my fault. When you've fastened off the eends, you +roll 'em up in a damp towel, an' press 'em 'ith a middlin' warm iron on +the wrong side. There!" + +After this, Miss Mimy smoked awhile in silence, satisfied and gratified. +At last she knocked the ashes out of her pipe. + +"Wal," says she, "I must be onter my feet. I'd liked ter seen yer ma, +but I won't disturb her, an' you can du ez well. Yer ma promised me a +mess o' tea, an' I guess I may ez well take it neow ez any day." + +"Why, Miss Mimy," said I, "there a'n't above four or five messes left, +and we can't get any more till I sell my socks." + +"Wal, never mind, then, you can le' me take one, an' mebbe I kin make up +the rest at Miss Smilers's." + +So I went into the pantry to get it, and Aunt Mimy followed me, of +course. + +"Them's nice-lookin' apples," said she. "Come from Stephen's place? Poor +young man, he won't never want 'em! S'pose he won't hev no objection +ter my tryin' a dozen,"--and she dropped that number into her great +pocket. + +"Nice-lookin' butter, tew," said she. "Own churnin'? Wal, you _kin_ +du sunthin', Emerline. W'en I wuz a heousekeeper, I used ter keep the +femily in butter an' sell enough to Miss Smith--she thet wuz Mary +Breown--ter buy our shoes, all off uv one ceow. S'pose I take this pat?" + +I was kind of dumfoundered at first; I forgot Aunt Mimy was the biggest +beggar in Rockingham County. + +"No," says I, as soon as I got my breath, "I sha'n't suppose any such +thing. You're as well able to make your butter as I am to make it for +you." + +"Wal, Emerline Ruggles! I alluz knowed you wuz close ez the bark uv a +tree; it's jest yer father's narrer-contracted sperrit; you don' favor +yer ma a speck. She's ez free ez water." + +"If mother's a mind to give away her eye-teeth, it don't follow that I +should," said I; "and I won't give you another atom; and you just clear +out!" + +"Wal, you kin keep yer butter, sence you're so sot on it, an' I'll take +a leetle dust o' pork instead." + +"Let's see you take it!" said I. + +"I guess I'll speak 'ith yer ma. I shall git a consider'ble bigger +piece, though I don't like ter add t' 'er steps." + +"Now look here, Miss Mimy," says I,--"if you'll promise not to ask for +another thing, and to go right away, I'll get you a piece of pork." + +So I went down cellar, and fished round in the pork-barrel and found +quite a respectable piece. Coming up, just as my head got level with the +floor, what should I see but Miss Jemimy pour all the sugar into her +bag and whip the bowl back on the shelf, and turn round and face me as +innocent as Moses in the bulrushes. After she had taken the pork, she +looked round a minute and said,-- + +"Wal, arter all, I nigh upon forgot my arrant. Here's a letter they giv' +me fur Lurindy, at the post-office; ev'rybody else's afeard ter come up +here";--and by-and-by she brought it up from under all she'd stowed away +there. "Thet jest leaves room," says she. + +"For what?" says I. + +"Fur tew or three uv them eggs." + +I put them into her bag and said, + +"Now you remember your promise, Aunt Mimy!" + +"Lor' sakes!" says she, "you're in a mighty berry ter git me off. Neow +you've got all you kin out uv me, the letter, 'n' the mitt'ns, I may go, +may I? I niver see a young gal so furrard 'ith her elders in all my born +days! I think Stephen Lee's well quit uv ye, fur my part, ef he hed to +die ter du it. I don't 'xpect ye ter thank me fur w'at instruction I +gi'n ye;--there's some folks I niver du 'xpect nothin' from; you can't +make a silk pus out uv a sow's ear. W'at ye got thet red flag out +the keepin'-room winder fur? 'Cause Lurindy's nussin' Stephen? Wal, +good-day!" + +And so Aunt Mimy disappeared, and the pat of butter with her. + +I called Lurindy and gave her the letter, and after a little while I +heard my name, and Lurindy was sitting on the top of the stairs with her +head on her knees, and mother was leaning over the banisters. Pretty +soon Lurindy lifted up her head, and I saw she had been crying, and +between the two I made out that Lurindy'd been engaged a good while to +John Talbot, who sailed out of Salem on long voyages to India and China; +and that now he'd come home, sick with a fever, and was lying at the +house of his aunt, who wasn't well herself; and as he'd given all his +money to help a shipmate in trouble, she couldn't hire him a nurse, and +there he was; and, finally, she'd consider it a great favor, if Lurindy +would come down and help her. + +Now Lurindy'd have gone at once, only she'd been about Stephen, so that +she'd certainly carry the contagion, and might be taken sick herself, as +soon as she arrived; and mother couldn't go and take care of John, for +the same reason; and there was nobody but me. Lurindy had a half-eagle +that John had given her once to keep; and I got a little bundle together +and took all the precautions Dr. Sprague advised; and he drove me off +in his sleigh, and said, as he was going about sixteen miles to see +a patient, he'd put me on the cars at the nearest station. Well, he +stopped a minute at the post-office, and when he came out he had another +letter for Lurindy. I took it, and, after a moment, concluded I'd better +read it. + +"What are you about?" says the Doctor; "your name isn't Lurindy, is it?" + +"I wish it was," says I, "and then I shouldn't be here." + +"Oh! you're sorry to leave Stephen?" says he. "Well, you can comfort +yourself with reflecting that Lurindy's a great deal the best nurse." + +As if that was any comfort! If Lurindy was the best nurse, she'd ought +to have had the privilege of taking care of her own lover, and not of +other folks's. Besides, for all I knew, Stephen would be dead before +ever I came back, and here I was going away and leaving him! Well, I +didn't feel so very bright; so I read the letter. The Doctor asked me +what ailed John Talbot. I thought, if I told him that Miss Jane Talbot +wrote now so that Lurindy shouldn't come, and that he was sick just as +Stephen was, he wouldn't let me go. So I said I supposed he'd burnt his +mouth, like the man in the South, eating cold pudding and porridge; men +always cried out at a scratch. And he said, "Oh, do they?" and laughed. + +After about two hours' driving, there came a scream as if all the +panthers in Coos County were let loose to yell, and directly we stopped +at a little place where a red flag was hung out. I asked the Doctor if +they'd got the small-pox here, too; but before he could answer, the +thunder running along the ground deafened me, and in a minute he had put +me inside the cars and was off. + +I was determined I wouldn't appear green before so many folks, though +I'd never seen the cars before; so I took my seat, and paid my fare to +Old Salem, and looked about me. Pretty soon a woman came bustling in +from somewhere, and took the seat beside me. There she fidgeted round so +that I thought I should have flown. + +"Miss," says she, at length, "will you close your window? I never travel +with a window open; my health's delicate." + +I tried to shut it, but it wouldn't go up or down, till a gentleman put +out his cane and touched it, and down it slid, like Signor Blitz. It did +seem as if everything about the cars went by miracle. I thanked him, but +I found afterward it would have been more polite not to have spoken. +After that woman had done everything she could think of to plague and +annoy the whole neighborhood, she got out at Ipswich, and somebody +met her that looked just like our sheriff; and I shouldn't be a bit +surprised to hear that she'd gone to jail. When she got out, somebody +else got in, and took the same seat. + +"Miss," says she, "will you have the goodness to open your window? this +air is stifling." + +And she did everything that the other woman didn't do. When she found +I wouldn't talk, she turned to the young gentleman and lady that sat +opposite, and that looked as if there was a great deal too much company +in the cars, and found they wouldn't talk either, and at last she caught +the conductor and made him talk. + +AH this while we were swooping over the country in the most terrific +manner. I thought how frightened mother and Lurindy'd be, if they should +see me. It was no use trying to count the cattle or watch the fences, +and the birch-trees danced rigadoons enough to make one dizzy, and +we dashed through everybody's back-yard, and ran so close up to the +kitchens that we could have seen what they had for dinner, if we had +stayed long enough; and finally I made up my mind that the engine had +run away with the driver, and John Talbot would never have me to tend +him; and I began to wonder, as I saw the sparks and cinders and great +clouds of steam and smoke, if those tornadoes that smash round so out +West in the newspapers weren't just passenger-trains, like us, off the +track,--when all at once it grew as dark as midnight. + +"Now," says I to myself, "it's certain. They've run the thing into the +ground. However, we can't go long now." + +And just as I was thinking about Korah and his troop, I remembered what +the Doctor had told me about Salem Tunnel, and it began to grow lighter, +and we began to go slower, and I picked up my wits and looked about +me again. I had only time to notice that the young gentleman and lady +looked very much relieved, and to shake my shawl from the clutch of the +woman beside me, when we stopped at Salem, safe and sound. + +I had a good deal of trouble to find Miss Talbot's house, but find it I +did; and the first thing she gave me was a scolding for coming, thinking +I was Lurindy, and her tongue wasn't much cooler when she found I +wasn't; and then finally she said, as long as I was there, I might stay; +and I went right up to see John, and a sight he was! + +It was about three months I stayed and took the greater part of the care +of him. Sometimes in the midnight, when he was quite beside himself, and +dreaming out loud, it was about as good as a story-book to hear him. He +told me of some great Indian cities where there were men in white, with +skins swarthier than old red Guinea gold, and with great shawls all +wrought in palm-leaves of gold and crimson bound on their heads, who +could sink a ship with their lacs of rupees; and of islands where the +shores came down to the water's edge and unrolled like a green ribbon, +and brooks came sparkling down behind them, and great trees hung above +like banners, and beautiful women came off on rafts and skiffs loaded +with fruit,--the islands set like jewels on the back of the sea, and the +sky covered them with light and hung above them bluer than the hangings +of the Tabernacle, and they sent long rivers of spice out on the air to +entice the sailor back,--islands where night never came. Sometimes, when +he talked on so, I remembered that I'd felt rather touched up when I +found that Lurindy'd had a sweetheart all this time, and mother knew it, +and they'd never told me, and I wondered how it happened. Now it came +across me, that, quite a number of years before, Lurindy had gone to +Salem and worked in the mills. She didn't stay long, because it didn't +agree with her,--the neighbors said, because she was lazy. Lurindy lazy, +indeed! There a'n't one of us knows how to spell the first syllable +of that word. But that's where she must have got acquainted with +John Talbot. He'd been up at our place, too; but I was over to Aunt +Emeline's, it seems. But one night, about this time, I thought he was +dying, he'd got so very low; and I thought how dreadful it was for +Lurindy never to see him again, and how it was all my selfish fault, and +how maybe he wouldn't 'a' died, if he'd had her to have taken care of +him; and I suppose no convicted felon ever endured more remorse than I +did, sitting and watching that dying man all that long and lonely night. +But with the morning he was better,--they always are a great deal worse +when they are getting well from it; he laughed when the doctor came, and +said he guessed he'd weathered that gale; and by-and-by he got well. + +He meant to have gone up and seen Lurindy, after all, but his ship was +ready for sea just as he was; and I thought it was about as well, for +he wasn't looking his prettiest. And so he declared I was the neatest +little trimmer that ever trod water, and he believed he should know a +Ruggles by the cut of her jib, (I wonder if he'd have known Aunt Mimy,) +and if ever he went master, he'd name his ship for me, and call it the +Sister of Charity. And he kissed me on both cheeks, and looked serious +enough when he sent his love to Lurindy, and went away; and no sooner +was he gone than Miss Talbot said I'd better have the doctor myself; and +I didn't sit up again for about three weeks. + +All this time I hadn't heard a word from home, and, for all I knew, +Stephen might be dead and buried. I didn't feel so very light-hearted, +you may be sure, when one day Miss Talbot brought me a letter. It was +from mother, and it seemed Stephen'd only had a bad fever, and had been +up and gone home for more than a week. So I wrote back, as soon as I +could, all about John, and how he'd gone to sea again, and how Miss +Talbot, who set sights by John, was rather lonely, and I thought I'd +keep her company a little longer, and try a spell in the mills, seeing +that our neighbors didn't think a girl had been properly accomplished +till she'd had a term or two in the factory. The fact was, I didn't want +to go home just then; I thought, maybe, if I waited a bit, my face would +get back to looking as it used to. So I worked in the piece-room, light +work and good pay, sent mother and Lurindy part of my wages, and paid my +board to Miss Talbot. She'd become quite attached to me, and I to her, +for all she was such an old-maidish thing; but I'd got to thinking an +old maid wasn't such a very bad thing, after all. Fourth of July came at +last, and the mills were closed, and I went with some of the other girls +on an excursion down the harbor; and when I got home, Miss Talbot told +me my Cousin Stephen had been down to see me, and had been obliged to go +home in the last train. I wondered why Stephen didn't stay, and then it +flashed upon me that she'd told him all about it, and he didn't want to +see me afterwards. I knew mother and Lurindy suspected why I didn't come +home, and now, thinks I, they _know_; but I asked no questions. + +When September came, I saw it wasn't any use delaying, and I might as +well go back to knitting sale-socks then as any time. However, I didn't +go till October. You needn't think I'd stayed away from the farm all +that time, while the tender things were opening, the tiny top-heavy +beans pushing up, the garden-sarse greening, the little grass-blades +two and two,--while all the young creatures were coming forward, the +chickens breaking the shell, and the gosling-storm brewing and dealing +destruction,--while the strawberries were growing ripe and red up in the +high field, and the hay and clover were getting in,--you needn't think +I'd stayed away from all that had been pleasant in my life, without many +a good heart-ache; and when at last I saw the dear old gray house again, +all weather-beaten and homely, standing there with its well-sweep among +the elms, I fairly cried. Mother and Lurindy ran out to meet me, when +they saw the stage stop, and after we got into the house it seemed if +they would never get done kissing me. And mother stirred round and made +hot cream-biscuits for tea, and got the best china, and we sat up till +nigh midnight, talking, and I had to tell everything John did and said +and thought and looked, over and over again. + +By-and-by I unpacked my trunk, and there was a little parcel in the +bottom of it, and I pulled it up. + +"There, Lurindy," says I, "John told me to tell you to have your +wedding-dress ready against he came home,--he's gone mate,--and here it +is." And I unrolled the neatest brown silk you ever saw, just fit for +Lurindy, she's so pale and genteel, and threw it into her lap. I'd +stayed the other month to get enough to buy it. + +The first thing Lurindy did, by way of thanks, was to burst into tears +and declare she never could take it, that she never should marry now; +and the more I urged her, the more she cried. But at last she said she'd +accept it conditionally,--and the condition was, I should be married +when she was. + +"Well," says I, "agreed, if you'll provide the necessary article; +because I can't very well marry my shadow, and I don't know any one else +that would be fool enough to have such a little fright." + +At that Lurindy felt all the worse, and it took all the spirits I had to +build up hers and mother's. I suppose I was sorry to see they felt +so bad, (and they hadn't meant that I should,) because it gave the +finishing stroke to my conviction; and after I was in bed, I grew +sorrier still; and if I cried, 't wasn't on account of myself, but I saw +how Lurindy 'd always feel self-accused, though she hadn't ought to, +whenever she looked at me, and how all her life she'd feel my scarred +face like a weight on her happiness, and think I owed it to John, and +how intolerable such an obligation, though it was only a fancied one, +would be; and I saw, too, that it all came from my not going up-stairs +that first time when Stephen knocked,--because if I had gone, I should +have been there when the doctor came, and Lurindy 'd have gone to have +taken care of John herself, and it would have been her face that was +ruined instead of mine; and though it was a great deal better that +it should be mine, still she'd have been easier in her mind;--and so +thinking and worrying, I fell asleep. + +Next day was baking-day, and Stephen was coming in the afternoon, and it +was almost five o'clock when we got cleared up, and I went up-stairs to +change my dress. I thought 't wasn't any use to trim myself out in bows +and ruffles now, so I just put on my brown gingham and a white linen +collar; but Lurindy came and tied a pink ribbon at my throat, and fixed +my hair herself, and looked down and said,-- + +"Well, I don't see but you're about as pretty as ever you was." + +That almost finished me; but I contrived to laugh, and got down-stairs. +Mother 'd run over to the village to get some yarn to knit up, for she +'d used all our own wool. It was getting dark, and I had just brought in +another log, and hung the kettle on the crane. The log hadn't taken fire +yet, and there was only a light glimmer, from the coals, on the ceiling. +I heard the back-door-latch click, and thought it was mother, and +commenced humming in the middle of a tune, as if I'd been humming the +rest and had just reached that part; but the figure standing there was a +sight too tall for mother. + +"Oh, Stephen," says I,--and my heart jumped in my throat, but I just +swallowed it down, and thanked Heaven that the evening was so dark,--"is +that you?" + +"Yes," says he, stepping forward, and putting out his hands, and making +as if he would kiss me. Just for a minute I hung back, then I went and +gave him my hand in a careless way. + +"Yes," says he; "and I can't say that you seem so very glad to see me." + +"Oh, yes," I answered, "I am glad. Did you drive over?" + +"Well," says he, "maybe you are; but I should call it a mighty cool +reception, after almost a year's absence. However, I suppose it's the +best manners not to show any cordiality; you've had a chance to learn +more politeness down at Salem than we have up here in the country." + +I was a little struck up by Stephen's running on so,--he was generally +so quiet, and said so little, and then in such short sentences. But in a +minute I reckoned he thought I was nervous, and was trying to put me at +my ease,--and he knew of old that the best way to do that was to rouse +my temper. + +"I ha'n't seen anybody at Salem better-mannered 'n mother and Lurindy," +said I. + +"Come home for Thanksgiving?" asked Stephen, hanging up his coat. + +I kept still a minute, for I couldn't for the life of me see what I had +to give thanks for. Then it came over me what a cheery, comfortable home +this was, and how Stephen would always be my kind, warm-hearted friend, +and how thankful I ought to be that my life had been spared, and that I +was useful, that I'd made such good friends as I had down to Salem, and +that I wasn't soured against all mankind on account of my misfortune. + +"Yes, Stephen," says I, "I've come home for Thanksgiving; and I have a +great deal to give thanks for." + +"So have I," said he. + +"Stephen," says I, "I don't exactly know, but I shouldn't wonder if I'd +had a change of heart." + +"Don't know of anybody that needed it less," says Stephen, warming his +hands. "However, if it makes you any more comfortable, I sha'n't object; +except the part of it that belongs to me,--I sha'n't have that changed." + +The fire'd begun to brighten now, and the room was red and +pleasant-looking; still I knew he couldn't see me plainly, and I waited +a minute, and lingered round, pretending I was doing something, which +I wasn't; I hated to break the old way of things; and then I took the +tongs and blew a coal and lighted the dip and held it up, as if I was +looking for something. Pretty soon I found it; it was a skein of linen +thread I was going to wind for Lurindy. Then I got the swifts and came +and sat down in front of the candle. + +"There," says I, "the swifts is broken. What shall I do?" + +"I'll hold the thread, if that's your trouble," says Stephen, and came +and sat opposite to me while I wound. + +I wondered whether he was looking at me, but I didn't durst look +up,--and then I couldn't, if my life had depended upon it. At last we +came to the end; then I managed to get a glance edgeways. He hadn't been +looking at all, I don't believe, till that very moment, when he raised +his eyes. + +"Are folks always so sober, when they've had a change of heart?" he +asked, with his pleasant smile. + +"They are, when they've had a change of face," I was going to say; but +just then mother came in with her bundle of yarn, and Lurindy came down, +and there was such a deal of welcoming and talking, that I slipped round +and laid the table and had the tea made before they thought of it. I'd +about made up my mind now that Stephen would act as if nothing had +happened, and pretend to like me just the same, because he was so +tender-hearted and couldn't bear to hurt my feelings nor anybody's; and +I'd made up my mind, too, that, as soon as he gave me a chance, I'd tell +him I was set against marriage: leastwise, I wouldn't have him, because +I wouldn't have any man marry me out of pity; and the more I cared for +him, the more I couldn't hamper an ugly face on him forever. So, you +see, I had quite resolved, that, cost me what it would, I'd say 'No,' if +Stephen asked me. Well, it's a very good thing to make resolutions; but +it's a great deal better to break them, sometimes. + +Having come to my conclusions, I grew as merry as any of them; and when +mother put two spoons into Stephen's cup, I told him he was going to +have a present. And he said he guessed he knew what it was; and I said +it must be a mitten, I'd heard that Martha Smith had taken to knitting +lately; and he confounded Martha Smith. Mother and Lurindy were very +busy talking about the yarn, and how Mr. Fisher wanted the next socks +knit; and Stephen asked me what that dish was beside me. I said, it was +lemon-pie, and the top-crust was made of kisses, and would he have +some? And he said, he didn't care for anybody's kisses but mine, and he +believed he wouldn't. And I told him the receipt of this came from the +Queen's own kitchen. And he said, he didn't know that the Queen of +England was any better than the Queen of Hearts. Then I said, I supposed +he remembered how the latter lady was served by the Knave of Hearts +in 'Mother Goose'? And he replied, that he wasn't going to be +Jack-at-a-pinch for anybody. And so on, till mother finished tea. + +After tea, I sat up to the table and ended some barley-trimming that I'd +just learned how to make; and as the little kernels came tumbling out +from under my fingers, Stephen sat beside and watched them as if it +was a field of barley, growing, reaped, and threshed under his eyes. +By-and-by I finished it; and then, rummaging round in the table-drawer, +I found the sock that I was knitting, waiting at the very stitch where I +left it, 'most a year ago. + +"Well, if that isn't lucky!" said I. And I sat down on a stool by the +fireside, determined to finish that sock that night; and no sooner had +I set the needles to dancing, like those in the fairy-story, than open +came the kitchen-door again, and in, out of the dark, stepped Aunt Mimy. + +"Good-evenin', Miss Ruggles!" says she. "Heow d' ye du, Emerline? hope +yer gwine ter stay ter hum a spell. Why, Stephen, 's this you? Quite a +femily-party, I declare fur't! Wai, Miss Ruggles, I got kind o' tired +settin' in the dark, an', ez I looked out an' see the dips blazin' in +yer winder, thinks I, I'll jest run up an' see w'at's ter pay." + +"Why, there's only one dip," says Lurindy. + +"Wal, thet's better 'n none," answered Miss Mimy. + +I had enough of the old Adam left in me to be riled at her way of +begging as much as ever I was; but I saw that Stephen was amused; he +hadn't ever happened to be round, when Aunt Mimy was at her tricks. + +"No, Miss Ruggles," continued she, "I thank the Lord I ha'n't got a +complainin' sperrit, an' hed jest ez lieves see by my neighbor's dip ez +my own, an', mebbe ye 'll say, a sight lieveser." + +And then Miss Mimy pulled out a stocking without beginning or end, and +began to knit as fast as she could rattle, after she 'd fixed one needle +in a chicken-bone, and pinned the chicken-bone to her side. + +"Wal, Emerline," says she, "I s'pose ye've got so grand down ter the +mills, thet, w'at 'ith yer looms an' machines an' tic-doloreux, ye won't +hev nothin' ter say ter the old way uv knittin' socks." + +"Does this look like it, Aunt Mimy?" says I, shaking my needles by way +of answer. "I'm going to finish this pair to-night." + +"Oh," says she, "you be, be you? Wal, ef I don't e'en a'most vum it's +the same one! ef ye ha'n't been nigh abeout a hull year a-knittin' one +pair uv socks!" + +"How do you know they're the same pair?" asked I. + +"By a mark I see you sot in 'em ter the top, ef ye want ter know, afore +I thought it would be hangin' by the eyelids the rest uv yer days. Wal, +I never 'xpected ye'd be much help ter yer mother; ye're tew fond uv +hikin' reound the village." + +"Indeed, Miss Mimy," said Lurindy, kind of indignant, "she's always been +the greatest help to mother." + +"I don't know how I should have made both ends meet this year, if it +hadn't been for her wages," said mother. + +Stephen was whittling Miss Mimy's portrait on the end of a stick, and +laughing. I was provoked with mother and Lurindy for answering the +thing, and was just going to speak up, when I caught Stephen's eye, and +thought better of it. Pretty soon Aunt Mimy produced a bundle of herbs +from her pocket, and laid them on the table. + +"Oh, thank you, Aunt Jemimy," says mother. "Pennyroyal and catnip's +always acceptable." + +"Yes," said Aunt Mimy. "An' I'll take my pay in some uv yer dried +apples. Heow much does Fisher give fur socks, Miss Ruggles?" she asked, +directly. + +"Fifty cents and I find,--fifteen and he finds." + +"An' ye take yer pay out uv the store? Varry reasonable. I wuz thinkin' +uv tryin' my han' myself;--business's ruther dull, folks onkimmon well +this fall. Heow many strings yer gwine ter give me fur the yarbs?" + +Then mother went up garret to get the apples and spread the herbs to +dry, and Lurindy wanted some different needles, and went after her. +Stephen'd just heaped the fire, and the great blaze was tumbling up +the chimney, and Miss Mimy lowered her head and looked over her great +horn-bowed spectacles at me. + +"Wal, Emerline Ruggles," says she, after a while, going back to her +work, "you've lost all _your_ pink cheeks!" + +I suppose it took me rather sudden, for all at once a tear sprung and +fell right down my work. I saw it glistening on the bright needles a +minute, and then my eyes filmed so that I felt there was more coming, +and I bent down to the fire and made believe count my narrowings. After +all, Aunt Mimy was kind of privileged by everybody to say what she +pleased. But Stephen didn't do as every one did, always. + +"Emmie's beauty wasn't all in her pink cheeks, Miss Mimy," I heard him +say, as I went into the back-entry to ask mother to bring down the mate +of my sock. + +"Wal, wherever it was, there's precious little of it left!" said she, +angry at being took up, which maybe she never was before in her life. + +"You don't agree with her friends," said he, cutting in the stick the +great mole on the side of her nose; "_they_ all think she's got more +than ever she had." + +Mother tossed me down the mate, and I went back. + +"Young folks," said Aunt Mimy, after two or three minutes' silence, "did +ye ever hear tell o' 'Miah Kemp?" + +"Any connection of old Parson Kemp in the other parish?" asked Stephen. + +"Yes," said Aunt Mimy,--"his brother. Wal, w'en I wuz a young gal, +livin' ter hum,--my father wuz ez wealthy ez any farmer thereabeouts, ye +know,--I used ter keep company 'ith 'Miah Kemp. 'Miah wuz a stun-mason, +the best there wuz in the deestrik, an' the harnsomest boy there +tew,--though I say it thet shouldn't say it,--he hed close-curlin' black +hair, an' an arm it done ye good ter lean on. Wal, one spring-night,--I +mind it well,--we wuz walkin' deown the lane together, an' the wind +wuz blowin', the laylocks wuz in bloom, an' all overhead the lane wuz +rustlin' 'ith the great purple plumes in the moonlight, an' the air wuz +sweeter 'ith their breath than any air I've ever taken sence, an' ez we +wuz walkin', 'Miah wuz askin' me fur ter fix eour weddin'-day. Wal, w'en +he left me at the bars, I agreed we'd be merried the fifteenth day uv +July comin', an' I walked hum; an' I mind heow I wondered ef Eve wuz +so happy in Paradise, or ef Paradise wuz half so beautiful ez thet +scented lane. The nex' mornin', ez I wuz milkin', the ceow tuk fright +an' begun ter cut up, an' she cut up so thet I run an' she arter me,--an' +the long an' the short uv it wuz thet she tossed me, an' w'en they got +me up they foun' I hedn't but one eye. Wal, uv course, my looks wuz +sp'iled,--fur I'd been ez pretty'z Emerline wuz,--you wuz pretty once, +Emerline,--an' I sent 'Miah Kemp word I'd hev no more ter du 'ith him +nor any one else neow. 'Miah, he come ter see me; but I wuz detarmined, +an' I stuck ter my word. He did an' said everything thet mortal man +could,--thet he loved me better'n ever, an' thet 't would be the death +uv him, an' tuk on drefful. But w'en he'd got through, I giv' him the +same answer, though betwixt ourselves it a'most broke my heart ter say +it. I kep' a stiff upper-lip, an' he grew desp'rate, an' tuk all sorts +uv dangerous jobs, blastin' rocks an' haulin' stuns. One night,--'t wuz +jest a year from the night I'd walked 'ith him in thet lane,--I wuz +stan'in' by the door, an' all ter once I heerd a noise an' crash ez ef +all the thunderbolts in the Almighty's hand hed fallen together, an' I +run deown the lane an' met the men bringin' up sunthin' on an old door. +They hed been blastin' Elder Payson's rock, half-way deown the new well, +an' the mine hedn't worked, an' 'Miah'd gone deown ter see w'at wuz in +it; an' jest ez he got up ag'in, off it went, an' here he wuz 'ith a +great splinter in his chist,--ef the rest uv it wuz him. They couldn't +kerry him no furder, an' sot him deown; an' there wuz all the trees +a-wavin' overhead ag'in, an' all the sweet scents a-beatin' abeout the +air, jest uz it wuz a year ago w'en he parted from me so strong an' +whole an' harnsome; all the fleowers wuz a-blossomin', all the winds wuz +blowin' an' this lump uv torn flesh an' broken bones wuz 'Miah. I laid +deown on the grass beside him, an' put my lips close to hisn, an' I +could feel the breath jest stirrin' between; an' the doctor came an' +said 't warn't no use; an' they threw a blanket over us, an' there I +laid tell the sun rose an' sparkled in the dew an' the green leaves an' +the purple bunches, an' the air came frolickin' fresh an' sweet abeout +us; an' though I'd knowed it long, layin' there in the dark, neow I see +fur sartain thet there warn't no breath on them stiff lips, an' the +forehead was cold uz the stuns beneath us, an' the eyes wuz fixed an' +glazed in thet las' look uv love an' tortur' an' reproach thet he giv' +me. They say I went distracted; an' I _du_ b'lieve I've be'n cracked +ever sence." + +Here Aunt Mimy, who had told her whole story without moving a muscle, +commenced rocking violently back and forth. + +"I don't often remember all this," says she, after a little, "but las' +spring it all flushed over me; an' w'en I heerd heow Emerline'd +be'n sick,--I hear a gre't many things ye do' no' nothin' abeout, +children,--I thought I'd tell her, fust time I see her." + +"What made you think of it last spring?" asked Stephen. + +"The laylocks wuz in bloom," said Miss Mirny,--"the laylocks wuz in +bloom." + +Just then mother came down with the apples, and some dip-candles, and +a basket of broken victuals; and Miss Mimy tied her cloak and said she +believed she must be going. And Stephen went and got his hat and coat, +and said,-- + +"Miss Mimy, wouldn't you like a little company to help you carry your +bundles? Come, Emmie, get your shawl." + +So I ran and put on my things, and Stephen and I went home with Aunt +Mimy. + +"Emmie," says Stephen, as we were coming back, and he'd got hold of my +hand in his, where I'd taken his arm, "what do you think of Aunt Mimy +now?" + +"Oh," says I, "I'm sorry I've ever been sharp with her." + +"I don't know," said Stephen. "'Ta'n't in human nature not to pity her; +but then she brought her own trouble on herself, you see." + +"Yes," said I. + +"I don't know how to blast rocks," says Stephen, when we'd walked a +little while without saying anything,--"but I suppose there is something +as desperate that I can do." + +"Oh, you needn't go to threatening me!" thinks I; and, true enough, he +hadn't any need to. + +"Emmie," says he, "if you say 'No,' when I ask you to have me, I sha'n't +ask you again." + +"Well?" says I, after a step or two, seeing he didn't speak. + +"Well?" says he. + +"I can't say 'Yes' or 'No' either, till you ask me," said I. + +He stopped under the starlight and looked in my eyes. + +"Emmie," says he, "did you ever doubt that I loved you?" + +"Once I thought you did," said I; "but it's different now." + +"I _do_ love you," said he, "and you know it." + +"Me, Stephen?" said I,--"with my face like a speckled sparrow's egg?" + +"Yes, you," said he; and he bent down and kissed me, and then we walked +on. + +By-and-by Stephen said, When would I come and be the life of his house +and the light of his eyes? That was rather a speech for Stephen; and +I said, I would go whenever he wanted me. And then we went home very +comfortably, and Stephen told mother it was all right, and mother and +Lurindy did what they'd got very much into the habit of doing,--cried; +and I said, I should think I was going to be buried, instead of married; +and Stephen took my knitting-work away, and said, as I had knit all our +trouble and all our joy into that thing, he meant to keep it just as it +was; and that was the end of my knitting sale-socks. + +I suppose, now I've told you so far, you'd maybe like to know the rest. +Well, Lurindy and John were married Thanksgiving morning; and just as +they moved aside, Stephen and I stepped up and took John and Aunt Mimy +rather by surprise by being married too. + +"Wal," says Aunt Mimy, "ef ever you hang eout another red flag, 't won't +be because Lurindy's nussin' Stephen!" + +I don't suppose there's a happier little woman in the State than me. I +should like to see her, if there is. I go over home pretty often; and +Aunt Mimy makes just as much of my baby--I've named him John--as mother +does; and that's enough to ruin any child that wasn't a cherub born. And +Miss Mimy always has a bottle of some new nostrum of her own stilling +every time she sees any of us; we've got enough to swim a ship, on the +top shelf of the pantry to-day, if it was all put together. As for +Stephen, there he comes now through the huckleberry-pasture, with the +baby on his arm; he seems to think there never was a baby before; and +sometimes--Stephen's such a homebody--I'm tempted to think that maybe +I've married my own shadow, after all. However, I wouldn't have it other +than it is. Lurindy, she lives at home the most of the time; and once in +a while, when Stephen and mother and I and she are all together, and as +gay as larks, and the baby is creeping round, swallowing pins and hooks +and eyes as if they were blueberries, and the fire is burning, and the +kettle singing, and the hearth swept clean, it seems as if heaven had +actually come down, or we'd all gone up without waiting for our robes; +it seems as if it was altogether too much happiness for one family. And +I've made Stephen take a paper on purpose to watch the ship-news; for +John sails captain of a fruiter to the Mediterranean, and, sure enough, +its little gilt figure-head that goes dipping in the foam is nothing +else than the Sister of Charity. + + + + +SCUPPAUG. + + +The crowd was decidedly a heterogeneous one on the edge of which I stood +at eight o'clock, A.M., one scorching July morning, under an awning at +the end of a rickety pier, waiting for the excursion-steamer which was +to convey us to the distant sand-banks over which the clear waters lap, +away down below the green-sloped highlands of Neversink,--sea-shoal +banks, from which silvery fishes were warning us off with their waving +fins. + +Now the crowd, being a heterogeneous one, as I have said, had the vulgar +element pervading it to a dominant extent. It consisted mainly of such +"common people," indeed, that no person of exquisite refinement would +have thought of feeling his way through it, unless his hands were +protected by what Aminadab Sleek calls "little goat-gloves." And +yet there is another style of mitten, a large, unshapely, bloated +knuckle-fender, stuffed with curled hair, that might be far more +appropriate to the operation of shouldering in among such "muscular +Christians" as the majority around, on the occasion to which I refer. + +In the resorts to which habitual tipplers have recourse for consolation +of the spirituous kind, a cheap variety is usually on hand to meet +exigencies,--the exigency of a commercial crisis, for instance, when the +last lonely dime of the drinker is painfully extracted from the pocket, +to be replaced by seven inconsiderable cents. This abomination is termed +"all sorts" by the publican and his indispensable sinner. It is the +accumulation of the drainage of innumerable gone drinks,--fancy and +otherwise. The exquisite in the "little goat-gloves" would not hob-nob +with me in that execrable beverage; no more would I with him; and yet +one of its components may be the aristocratic Champagne. In the social +elements of a water-excursion-party may be found the "all sorts" of a +particular kind of city-life,--the good of it and the bad of it, with +a dash of something that is very low. But I am going to talk about the +thing as I found it,--the rough side of the social mill-stone; and, +seeing that I have suffered nothing by contact with it, I suppose no +harm will come to such as listen to the little I have got to say on the +subject. + +A benevolent desire to launch far and wide the already well-spread +reputation of the New York rowdy impels the present writer to declare +his conviction, that, should Physiology offer a premium for the +production of a perfect and unmitigated specimen of _polisson_, +Experience would seek for it among the choice representatives of the +class in question,--ay, and find it, too. Nor would the ardor of search +be chilled by the suggestion of scarcity conveyed in the practical +sarcasm of the sly old cynic, when he scorched human nature with a horn +lantern by instituting a search with it on the sun-bright highways for +an unauthenticated type of man. And yet the rowdy, like many another +ugly and repulsive thing, may have his use. In the East Indies, it is +customary to keep a live turtle in the wayside water-tanks which are so +precious in that thirsty land, the movements of the animal, as well as +the industry with which it devours all noxious particles which chance +may have conveyed into the waters, serving to keep them in a condition +of purity and health. The rowdy is the turtle in the tank,--so far, +at least, as being an ugly beast to look at and a great promoter of +commotion,--by which latter service he keeps the community alive to +the presence of impure particles in the social element, if he does not +assist in getting rid of them. An alligator in an aquarium might furnish +a better comparison for him in other respects. + +Of this class there are many branches; but the one with which I have to +deal at present is to be studied to most advantage by visiting some pier +of the great river-frontage of New York, to which excursion-boats rush +emulously at appointed hours, crossing and jostling each other with +proper respect for their individual rights as free commoners of +the well-tilled waters. Here, as, with audacious disregard of the +chance-medley of smashed guards and obliterated paddle-boxes, the great +water-wagons graze wheels upon the ripple-paved turnpike of the river, +the steamboat-runner, squalidly red from the effects of last night's +carouse, and reeking sensibly of the alcoholic "morning call," may be +recognized by the native manner in which he makes the pier peculiarly +his own,--by the inflammatory character--which unremitting dissipation +has imparted to the inhaling apparatus of his unclassical features,--by +the filthy splendor of his linen, which a low-buttoning waistcoat, +gorgeous and dirty likewise, unbosoms disadvantageously to the gaze of +the beholder,--by the invariable "diamond" pin, of gift-book style, with +which the juncture of the first-mentioned integument is effected, if +not adorned,--and, above all, by the massive guards and guy-chains with +which his watch is hitched on to the belaying arrangements of Chatham +Street garments, the original texture and tint of which have long been +superseded by predominant grease. Hand and elbow with the professional +city-rowdy the steamboat-runner is ever to be found: at the cribs, where +the second-rate men of the "fancy" hold their secret meetings; clinging +about the doors of the Court of Sessions, where, as eavesdroppers,--for +they are known to the door-keeper, and rejected from the friendship of +that stern officer,--they strive, with ear at keyhole, to catch a word +or two which may give them a clue to the probable fate of "Jim," who +is in the dock there, on his trial for homicide or some such light +peccadillo; loitering round the dog-pit institutions, where +the quadrupeds look so amazingly like men and the men like +quadrupeds,--especially in that one where the eye of taste may be +gratified by the supernatural symmetry of the stuffed bull-terriers in +glass cases, the enormity of which specimens is accounted for by the +gentlemanly proprietor, who tells us that "the man as stuffed 'em never +stuffed anythink else afore, only howls." + +I suppose it must have been the tacit acknowledgment of some superiority +by me inappreciable, that accorded to one individual of the small +assemblage of roughs under notice a decidedly influential position among +the congenial spirits hovering around. The superior blanchness of this +person's linen would seem to indicate that his association with mere +runners was but occasional and for commercial ends. Also might that +conclusion have been deduced from the immaculacy of his cream-white +Panama hat. That was a jaunty article, with upturned brim, the pride +of which was discernible in the very simplicity with which it sat, +unadulterated by band or trimmings, upon the closely cropped, +mole-colored head of the wearer. Thirty dollars, at least, must have +been its marketable value. Instead of being fitted with chain-tackle, +the watch of this superior person maintained its connection with the +open air by means of a broad watered ribbon plummeted straight down his +leg with a seal hardly inferior in size to a deep-sea lead. This daring +recurrence to first principles is much to be observed, of late, among +the choice spirits of the so-called "sporting" fraternity of New York. + +This man, as I supposed, and as I subsequently heard from my friend +Locus, of the police, who came upon the pier, was not a runner now, but +had risen from that respectable rank by large exercise of the virtues so +intimately associated with it. In attributing an exalted position to him +I was right. He was the keeper of a house of entertainment for emigrants +in one of the down-town tributaries to Broadway, where tickets could +also be had for California and most other parts of the world, at an +advance of not more than one-third on the rates charged at the regular +steamboat-offices. Considering the respectability of this person's +occupation, I was surprised when Locus referred to him, familiarly, as +"Flashy Joe," adding that he was widely known, if not respected, and +that he would, probably, be entitled some day to have his portrait +placed in a gallery of which he, Locus, knew, but into which my +aesthetic researches have not hitherto led me. + +There was another noticeable character in the rough part of the +heterogeneous crowd. This man, while on a footing of the greatest +intimacy with the runners, was far inferior to them in the matter +of dress. Locus, in reply to my queries, informed me that he was a +professional oyster-opener; but, judging from his appearance in general, +I should have guessed that he was a professional oyster-catcher also,--a +human dredge, employed chiefly at the bottom of the sea. A perfect +Hercules in build, "Lobster Bob," as Locus called him, made his +appearance on the wharf with two enormous creels of oysters, one +balanced on each hip, with the careless ease of unconscious strength, +His costume consisted solely of a ragged blue cotton shirt and trousers, +immense knobby cowskin boots white with age, and a mouldy drab felt hat. +The button-less blue shirt flapped widely open from his brawny chest; +and his shirt-sleeves, rolled up to the shoulder, gave full display to a +pair of arms of a mould not usually to be found outside the prize-ring, +and but seldom within the sanctuary of that magic circle. As if in +compensation for the merely nominal allowance of costume tolerated by +this crustacean professor, his chest and arms were entirely covered with +a wild arabesque of tattoo-work, in blue and red. Many and original +artists must have been employed in the embellishment of Robert's tawny +hide. The one to whose sense of the fitness of things was intrusted +the illustration of his right arm had seized boldly upon the oval +protuberance of the biceps, a few skilfully disposed dots and dashes +upon which had converted it into a face which was no bad reproduction of +Bob's own. On the broad flexors of his sun-bronzed fore-arm there blazed +a grand device which might have puzzled a whole college of heralds to +interpret,--a combination of eagles and banners and shields, coruscating +with stars and radiant with stripes. But more suggestive than any of +these shams was the stern reality of a purple scar which ran round the +back of his neck, from ear to ear. More than one man must have been +hurt, when that scar was made. + +Notwithstanding the bull-dog projection of this formidable giant's lower +jaw, there sometimes beamed on his face that good-natured expression +often observable in men whose unusual muscular development places them +on a footing of physical superiority to those with whom they shoulder +along the road of life. When the runners "chaffed" him, nevertheless, +it was in a mild way, and with manifest respect for his muscle,--a +sentiment in no way diminished when he suddenly clutched one of the +least cautious among them by the nape of the neck, and held him out at +arm's-length, for some seconds, over the drowny water that kept lazily +licking at the green moss on the old stakes of the rickety pier. + +Even unto the Prince of Darkness, saith proverbial philosophy, let us +concede his due. If, then, a single ray of good illuminates at some +happy moment the dark spirit of these roughs, let it be recorded with +that bare, unfledged truth which is so much better a bird than uncandor +with the finest of feathers upon him. + +Feeling his way into the circle with a stick, there came a poor blind +man, of diminutive stature, squeezing beneath his left arm a suffocating +accordion, which, every now and then, as he stumbled against the uneven +planks of the wharf, gave a querulous squeak, doleful in its cadence as +the feeble quavers evoked by Mr. William Davidge, comedian, from +the asthmatic clarionet of Jem Bags, in the farce of the "Wandering +Minstrel." + +"Come, b'hoys!" cried Lobster Bob, "let's have a squeeze of music from +Billy, afore the boat comes up"; and, plumping down one of his creels in +the middle of the crowd, he lifted up the musician, and seated him upon +the rough, cold oysters,--a throne fitter, certainly, for a follower of +Neptune than a votary of Apollo. One of the roughs danced an ungraceful +measure to the music of the accordion, mimicking, as he did so, the +queer contortions into which the musician twisted his features in +perfect harmony with his woful strains. All of them were gentle to the +blind man, though, as if his darkness had brought to them a ray of +light; and presently one of them takes off the musician's cap, drops +into it a silver dime, and goes the rounds of the throng with many +jocose appeals in favor of the owner, to whom he presently returns it +in a condition of silver lining analogous to, but more substantial than +that of the poet's cloud. + +But now the poor music of the accordion was quite extinguished by the +bellowing of the brazen horns of the "cotillon band" on the deck of our +expected steamer, as she rounded to from the upper piers at which she +had been taking in excursionists. This caused a stir in the crowd under +the awning, many of whom were fathers of families taking their wives and +children out for a rare holiday. The smallest babies had not been left +at home, but were there in all their primary scarletude, set off by the +whitest of lace-frilled caps trimmed with the bluest of ribbons. And now +came the time for these small choristers to take up the "wondrous tale"; +for the big horns had ceased to wrangle, and the crushing and rushing of +the crowd woke up infancy to a sense of its wrongs and a consciousness +of the necessity for action. + +There were some nice-looking girls around, neatly dressed, too, though +by no means in their Sunday-best; for _la petite New-Yorkaise_ is aware +of the mishaps to be encountered by those who venture far out to sea in +ships. They had sweethearts with them, for the most part, or brothers, +or cousins, mayhap: but they were sadly neglected by these protectors, +as we stood under the awning on the pier; for the male mind was full of +fishing, and the male hands were employed in making up tackle with a +most unscientific kind of skill. + +And now the final rush came, as the steamer made fast alongside the +outermost of the boats already lying at the pier, across the decks of +which our heterogeneous crowd began to make its way with as little +scrambling as possible, on account of the petticoat-hoops, which +are capital monitors in a turmoil. Women swayed their babies like +balancing-poles, as they tottered along the gangway-plank. Men tried to +secure themselves from being brushed into eternity by the powerful sweep +of skirts. My own personal reminiscence of this transit from the wharf +to the gallant bark of our choice is melancholy and vague, being marked +chiefly to memory by the complicated curse bestowed upon me by a hideous +old Irish-woman, whose oranges I accidentally upset in the crowd, and by +whom I was subsequently derided with buffo song and scurrilous dance as +long as the steamer remained within hearing and sight. + +Away we are steaming down the bay, at last, a motley party of men, +women, and children of all sizes and sorts: husbands, wives, milliners +and their lovers; young men who have brought no young women with them, +because they have come for fishing and fishing only; and advanced +fathers, who, making a virtue of having brought out wife and child for +a holiday, now leave them a good deal to take care of themselves, and +devote all their energies to being pleasant as remotely from them as +circumstances will allow. Roughs, to the number of a dozen or so, mostly +steamboat-runners and their congeners, are of the party, headed by +Flashy Joe. Lobster Bob has set up his oyster-plank in a central +situation. Venders of unfresh-looking refreshments have established +themselves on board; and the bar-keeper, near the forecastle, is +preparing himself for the worst. + +By-and-by I noticed a good-looking specimen of Young New York on board, +and was introduced to him by a cigar. He was a handsome boy, with dark, +oval face, and Arabian eyes. The silky black line that just marked the +curve of his upper lip gave promise of a splendid moustache; his closely +crisped black hair was but just visible below the rim of his jaunty +straw hat, the band of which was a tasselled cord of crimson silk; while +his lithe figure was suggested rather than displayed by the waving lines +of his loose brown jacket with tapering _gigot_ sleeves. His low-cut +shirt-collar and narrow silken neck-tie were in the style called +"English," as quite decidedly, also, were his cross-barred trousers of +balloony build; nor, although thus flinging himself for diversion into +the vortex of the lower crowd, had he foregone the luxury of tan-colored +kid gloves and patent-leather shoes. He was a bright boy, and precocious +as a lady-killer; for, already, before we had left far behind us the +pleasant slopes of Bay Ridge, with its peeping villa-parapets of +brown and white, and its umbrageous masses of chromatic green, he +had evidently engaged the affections of an _espiègle_ little +straw-bonnet-maker, who did her hair something like his own, in a +close-curled crop, and had her pretty little person safely shut up in a +high-necked dress. + +That young lady had a suitor with her, who was clearly not a sweetheart, +however, by a good deal, but merely a follower tolerated for the day, +and on the score of convenience only. He was a tall, gaunt, pale young +man, with long hands and feet, slouching shoulders and narrow chest, +and a strange, indescribable nullity of expression dwelling upon his +features. He did not appear to be encouraged much by little Straw-Goods, +whose mind was probably occupied with prospective possibilities of being +led out to the festive dance by Young New York. Altogether, he was an +unsatisfactory-looking young man, his unfinished look reminding one of +raw material, though it would have been hard to say for what. + +But the band had now ceased mellowing out the favorite medley which +begins with "Casta Diva" and runs over into the lovely cadences of +"Gentle Annie"; and the abrupt transition from that mournful strain to a +light cotillon air warned four hundred holiday-people that the festive +dance was about to begin on the wide floor between the engine-room and +the saloon. Cotillons are a leading pastime among the people; and as the +water was pretty smooth down the bay, and a splendid breeze rushed aft +between-decks, many laughing girls and well-dressed matronly women now +made their appearance on the floor. Dancing without noise is a luxury as +yet uncalled for. Dancers must have music, we know,--and what is +music, but wild noise caught and trained? But these cotillons were +unnecessarily boisterous, on account of the roughs, who, looked upon as +outsiders by the better-behaved portion of the throng, got up a wild +war-step of their own on the skirts of the legitimate dance, dishonestly +appropriating to their coarse movements the music intended for it +alone, as they stamped and shouted, and wheeled round with a ludicrous +affectation of grace, in the space between the dancers and the bulkheads +of the deck. One of these roughs, a drunken, young fellow of wiry build, +whose hair, face, eyes, nose, ears, and hands were all of the color of +tomato-catchup, might have made an excellent low comedian, had destiny +led him upon the "boards." He had just been complaining to his +companions that his hand had been refused for the dance by a girl at +whom he pointed the red finger of wrath,--a pale, but very interesting +seamstress, who was whirling about with a much decenter young man than +the red one is ever likely to be. And then he nobly took his revenge +by the clever, but unprincipled way in which he caricatured the rather +remarkable dancing of the young man who was the object of his hate, and +whose style of movement it would not be consistent with this writer's +duty to deny was amenable to severity, and must, in any society, have +subjected him who indulged in it to the scorn of the flouter and the +contempt of all high-minded men. + +All through the dance, it was a thing to be remembered, how superior in +deportment the women were to the men. Probably it was from a natural +instinct for grace, and abhorrence of the ludicrous, that they merely +skimmed through the figures, without any of the demonstrations displayed +by their beaux. It was pleasant to look at the nice little straw-goods +damsel with the boyish hair, and to mark the contrast between her kitten +glidings and the premeditated atrocities of Raw Material, as he wove and +unwove his ungainly legs before her, in a manner appalling to witness. +She had only a common palm-leaf fan, I remarked,--worth, probably, about +two cents. But Young New York, as he waited patiently for the deadly +ocean-malady to fall upon Raw Material, who was unquestionably a subject +for it, and was drinking, besides, drew tightly up his tan-colored +gloves, and, twirling with finger and thumb the air just about where +it must some day be displaced by the future tendrils of the coming +moustache, affirmed upon oath his intention of presenting her with a fan +more worthy of her well-kept little hand, ere kind Fortune could have +time to drop another excursion-ticket into her work-basket. + +Should the solemn question arise as to how I knew that one of these +young women was in the straw-bonnet line, another a milliner, a third +a dress-maker, and so forth, I will answer it by stating that the left +forefinger of the seamstress, long since vulcanized into a little +file, furnishes the infallible sign which indicates the class. To the +practised eye, the varieties are known by many a token: by the smart +little close-grained cereal bonnet which little Straw-Goods put away +before she came into the dance; by the spicy creation of silk and +ribbons which roosts demurely, like a cedar-bird, on the back hair of +the pale girl, who is a milliner; by the superior manner in which the +hoops are disguised in the structure surrounding that blonde young wife +with the pink baby, who is a dressmaker. Let the lofty read studiously +the signs that in the heavens are portentous of storm or of shine; I, +who am of commoner clay, must content myself with deciphering those that +are of earth. + +But a "sea-change" was upon us. Last night there was a tornado of +rain and thunder and wind, and the effects of the latter were now +perceptible, as we began to rock through the ground-swell off Sandy +Hook, and down past the twin light-houses on the high, sunny ridges +of Neversink. The music ceased, the dancers deserted the 'tween-decks +floor, and, as the rocking of the boat increased, there arose in the +direction of the ladies' cabin audible suggestions of woe. + +And now the twin beacon-towers of Neversink were far, far behind, having +taken a position with regard to us which may be described, in military +phrase, as an _échelon_ movement upon our flank, and we went surging +through a fleet of little green fishing-boats, manned each by a single +fisherman in a red shirt, whose two horny hands appeared to be a couple +too few for the hauling in of the violet and silver _porgies_, with +which the well of his little green craft was alive and flapping. In the +middle of this fleet we rounded to, the anchor was let go, and we were +hard and fast upon the Fishing-Banks. + +The first thing done, on these excursions, by those who come to +fish,--which includes nearly all the men,--is to establish a claim +somewhere along the railing of the steamer, by attaching to it a strong +whip-cord fishing-line, with a leaden sinker and hook of moderate +size,--the latter lashed on, in most instances, with a disregard for art +which must be intensely disgusting to any man whose piscatorial memories +are associated with the wily salmon and the epicurean trout. Triangular +tin boxes are brought along by the fishermen to hold their bait, which +consists of soft clams, liberally sprinkled with salt to keep them in a +wholesome condition for the afternoon take. Attaching a line to any +part of the rail or combings, or to any projecting point of the boat, +establishes the _droit de pêche_ at that particular spot,--a right +respected with such rigorous etiquette, that the owner may then go his +way with confidence, to inspect the resources of the bar, or join the +gay throng of dancers between-decks. + +There must be something singularly fascinating in this curious pastime +of fishing with a hand-line from the jumping-off places of a steamboat +or pier. Doubtless it is from a defective sympathetic organization +that the writer of these pages does not himself "seem to see it." +Nevertheless, I look upon the illusion with a respect almost bordering +upon fear, although not quite in that spirit of veneration which moves +illogical savages to fall down and worship the stranger lunatic whom +chance has led to their odorous residences. Dwelling one summer on the +New Jersey shore, I used to loiter, day after day, upon a deserted +wharf, at the end of which was ever to be seen a broad-beamed fisherman, +sitting upon an uncomfortably wooden chair, from which he dabbled +perpetually with his whip-cord line in the shallow water that washed the +slimy face-timbers of the wharf. There he sat, day after day, and +all day, and, for aught I know, all through the summer-night, a +big-timbered, sea-worthy man, reading contentedly a daily paper of local +growth, and pulling up never a better bit of sea-luck than the puny, +mean-spirited fishling called by unscientific persons the _burgall_. +I would at any time have freely given ten cents for the privilege of +overhauling old broad-beam's carpet-bag, which he always placed before +him on the string-piece, with a view, I suppose, of frustrating anything +like a guerrilla plunder-movement upon his widely extended rear. Ay, +there must be something strangely entrancing in dragging the shoal +waters with a hand-line, for unsuspicious, easily duped members of the +acanthopterygian tribe of fishes,--under which alarming denomination +come, I believe, nearly all the finny fellows to be met with on these +sand-banks, from the bluefish to the burgall. Only think how stuck up +they would be above the lowly mollusks of the same waters, if they +knew themselves as Acanthopterygii, and were aware that their +great-grandfather was an Acanthopteryx before them, and so away back in +the age of waters that once were over all! "Very ancient and fish-like" +is their genealogy, to be sure! + +In the far-away days, when Neversink _was_, but the twin beacon-towers +that now watch upon its heights were _not_,--when Sandy Hook was a hook +only, and not a telegraph-station, from which the first glimpse of an +inward-bound argosy is winked by lightning right in at the window of the +down-town office where Mercator sits jingling the coins in his trousers' +pockets,--in those days, the only excursion-boats that rocked upon the +ground-swell over the pale, sandy reaches of the Fishing-Banks were the +tiny barklets that shot out on calm days from the sweeping coves, with +their tawny tarred-and-feathered crews: for of such grotesque result of +the decorative art of Lynch doth ever remind me the noble Indian warrior +in his plumes and paint. Unfitted, by the circumscribed character of +their sea-craft, their tackle, and their skill, for pushing their +enterprise out into the deeper water, where the shark might haply say to +the horse-mackerel,--"Come, old horse, let you and me hook ourselves on, +and take these foolish tawny fellows and their brown cockle-shell down +into the under-tow,"--they supplied their primitive wants by enticing +from the shallows the beautiful, sunny-scaled shoal-fish, well named by +ichthyologists _Argyrops_, the "silver-eyed." But the poor Indian, +who knew no Greek,--poor old savage, lament for him with a scholarly +_eheu!_--called this shiner of the sea, in his own barbarous lingo, +_Scuppaug_. Can any master of Indian dialects tell us whether that word, +too, means "him of the silver eye"? If it does, revoke, O student, your +shrill _eheu_ for the Greekless and untrousered savage of the canoe, +suppress your feelings, and go steadily into rhabdomancy with several +divining-rods, in search of the Pierian spring which must surely exist +somewhere among the guttural districts of the Ojibbeway tongue. + +And here there is diversion for philologist as well as fisherman; for +while the latter is catching the fish, the former may seize on the fact, +that in this word, _Scuppaug_, is to be found the origin of the two +separate names by which Argyrops, the silver-eyed, is miscalled in local +vernacular. True to the national proclivity for clipping names, the +fishermen of Rhode Island appeal to him by the first syllable only of +his Indian one,--for in the waters thereabout he is talked of by the +familiar abbreviation, _Scup._ But to the excursionists and fishermen of +New York he is known only as _Porgy,_ or _Paugie_, a form as obviously +derived from the last syllable of his Indian name as the emphatic +"siree" of our greatest orators is from the modest monosyllable "sir." +_Porgy_ seems to be the accepted form of the word; but letters of the +old, unphonetic kind are poor guides to pronunciation. And a beautiful, +clean-scaled fish is Porgy,--whose _g_, by-the-by, as I learned from a +funny man in the heterogeneous crowd, is pronounced "hard, as in 'git +eowt.'" A lovely fish is he, as he comes dripping up the side of the +vessel from his briny pastures. Silver is the pervading gleam of his +oval form; but while he is yet wet and fresh, the silver is flushed with +a chromatic radiance of gold, and violet, and pale metallic green, all +blending and harmonizing like the mother-o'-pearl lustre in some rare +sea-shell. The true value of this fish is not of a commercial kind, +for he cannot be deemed particularly exquisite in a gastronomic sense; +neither is he staple as a provision of food. His virtue lies in the +inducement offered to him by the citizen of moderate means, who, for +a trifling outlay, can secure for himself and family the invigorating +influence of the salt sea-breezes, by having a run down outside the Hook +any fine day in summer, with an object. The average weight of the porgy +of these banks may be set down at about a pound. + +Five minutes after we came to anchor, there must have been at least two +hundred and fifty whip-cord lines stretching out into the three-fathom +water from every available rail and fender of the old boat. Most of the +men had brought their tackle with them, and their tin canisters of bait. +To those who had not, the articles were ready at hand; for speculators +had mingled in the crowd, one of whom affixed his "shingle" to a post +between-decks, setting forth,--"Fishing-Lines and Hooks, with Sinkers +and Bait,"--the latter consisting of clams in the shell, contained in +a barrel big enough for the supply of the whole flotilla of green boats +and red shirts, which still hung around us like swallows in the wake of +an osprey. Two or three of our excursionists--men, perhaps, whose +minds indulged in dear memories of a brook that babbles by a mill--had +fishing-rods with them, and made great ado with scientific lunges and +casts, producing much discord, indeed, by flicking away wildly outside +their proper sea-limits. Most industrious among the hand-fishers I +remarked a small, spare man, who, under the careful supervision of a +buxom young wife in a "loud" tartan silk, baited no hook nor broke water +with his lead until he had first folded and put carefully away between +the handle and lid of the family prog-basket his tight little black +frock-coat, and passed his small legs through the tough creases of a +pair of stout blue "Denim" overalls. These, pulled up to his neck, and +hitched on there with shoulder-straps, served for waistcoat and trousers +and all, imparting to him the cool atmospheric effect so much admired in +that curious picture of Gainsborough's, known to connoisseurs as "The +Blue Boy." Then he fished the waters with a will; and it was but a +scurvy remark of Flashy Joe, who said that "it was about an even chance +whether he took porgy or porgy took _him_." But it seems to me that this +unskilled labor of fishing from a steamboat must be epidemic, if not +contagious; for even Young New York, who in the early forenoon doubted +visibly his discretion at having got himself into such an ugly scrape as +an "excursion-spree," put off his delicate gloves, and set to hauling, +hand over hand, as if for a bet. + +But I believe I have committed a breach of etiquette in giving +precedence to Scuppaug over the skipper, a very large and thoroughly +pickled old man, who now bustled deliberately about the decks, with as +few clothes on his broad back and stern-post legs as were consistent +with decorum and with the requirements of those by-laws of society which +extend even to Sandy Hook and the rest of the Jerseys, as well as to the +fishing-banks that shoal out from the same. Strictly speaking, this old +man of our part of the sea was not the captain of the boat, but the +pilot, who takes command of her when she abandons her proper line on +the rivers, and ventures to that "far Cathay" of city-navigators +indefinitely spoken of as "outside the Hook." The smooth-water captain +of the steamer, who was nobody to talk of now, was a slim, pale young +man, in a black dresscoat, tall, silky hat, and shoes of a material +which has long years ago been patented, on account of its matchless +ability to shine. This commander remained permanently within the +"office," where he was probably very poorly by himself during all this +"high old time." The stout old pilot was the real skipper; and now that +the vessel had come to anchor, he turned from his lighter duties to the +grave pastime of the day, and fished earnestly through a large hole in +the paddlebox,--the porgies that came to his allurements arriving at +their destination by a series of flapping manoeuvres from blade to blade +of the wheel. For so burly a man, and one with such a chest for the +stowage of sea-breezes and monsoons, the skipper was provided with a +wonderfully small voice, suggesting, as he lectured upon sea-fishing to +the novices who were getting into "snarls" with their tackle hard by +where he sat, the circumstance of a tree-toad discoursing from the +hollow of a brave old oak. + +"If you want to ketch good fish," said he, sententiously, to Young New +York, whose hook persisted in baiting itself with his thumb,--"if you +want to ketch reel snorters, you must have a heavy line, heavy lead, and +gimp tackle. Then take your own time, haul in, hand over hand, and no +matter what the heft, you'll be sure to fetch him." + +Young New York produced from his breast-pocket the blue enamelled case +in which reposed his ivory tablets, and, seating himself upon the +chain-box, wrote down with golden pencil the dictum of the sage. + +Notwithstanding the storm of yesterday, from which the discontented +foreboded a stampede of the fish to deeper waters, porgies to an +extraordinary amount were soon heaped on the decks, at the feet of each +fisherman, the more careful of whom put them into baskets or barrels. +But in general they were thrown carelessly on the deck, with a string +passed through their gills to keep them from straying out of their +proper lots. When these bright fishes are lying the deck, it is curious +to watch them flushing and gasping there, with that singular, dubious +expression of mouth peculiar to fishes out of water, as if more struck +by the absence of that element than by their novel position among the +accessories of dry life. Now and then a blackfish was hauled in,--an +event greeted with a loud cheer from all parts of the boat. When a very +large one was announced, people came rushing from all quarters to see +it; but the greatest tribute to largeness in a fish that I remember +anywhere to have seen was the altered expression on the face of a baby +some six months old, whose features settled permanently down into the +collapse of imbecility, from the moment of the arrival on the upper deck +of a blackfish two feet long. + +By this time the scene on the forecastle was quite a picture of the +Dutch school. Grouped everywhere among the fish and fishers were +matronly women and unbonneted damsels, most of them with handkerchiefs +tied upon their heads; for they had got over their sea-sickness, now, +and were coming by twos and threes from the saloon, to breathe a little +fresh air and look on at the sport. One pretty, Jewish-looking girl, +wrapped in a red and white shawl, was sitting on the big anchor near +the bows, and three or four others looked quite picturesque, as they +reclined on the heavy coils of the great cable. More central to the +picture than was at all advantageous to it sat our friend Raw Material, +with his head jammed recklessly into the capstan, abandoning himself +to his misery. For the inevitable malady had fallen upon him among the +first; and as he sat there, helpless and without hope, upon one of +those life-preserving stools that remind one, by their shape, of the +"properties" of Saturn in the mythology of old, he looked like Languor +on an hour-glass, timing the duration of Woe. All along the bulwarks +on both sides of the boat, men and boys were crowding upon each other, +casting out and hauling in their lines with unflagging spirit. Slim +city-children, blistered wholesomely as to their legs, from knee to +ankle, by the sun and the salt air, harnessed themselves to little heaps +of fish, and were driven about the upper deck in various fashionable +styles, including four-in-hand and tandem, by other slim city-children, +whose lower extremities had been treated in the same beneficial manner +by the same eminent physicians. The musicians had laid away their +cornopeans and other cunningly twisted horns upon the broad disk of the +big drum, in a dark alcove between-decks, and were fishing savagely in +German and broken English, according to the nationality with which their +affairs happened to get entangled. Even the colored _chef de cuisine_, +a muscular mulatto, with a beard of a rash disposition, coming out on +wrong parts of his face in little eruptive pustules of black wool, +sported his lines out of the galley-airholes, and his porgies were +simmering in the pan while their memories were yet green in the +submarine parishes from which they came. Have these finny creatures +their full revenge upon fishermankind, when a smack sinks foundered into +the swallowing deep? Do the midnight revellers in the sea-caverns +call out in broad Scuppaug to the attendant mermaid for a "half-dozen +large-sized jolterheads on the half monkey-jacket?" To these queries I +hope that Poetical Justice, if still living, will forward a reply at +her earliest convenience. Porgy now began to pervade the air with an +astringent perfume of the sea: none of your Fulton Market smells of +stagnating fish, but a clean, wholesome, coralline odor, such as we +may imagine supplied to the Peris "beneath the dark sea" by the scaly +fellows in the toilet line down there, who are likely to keep it for +sale in conch-shells,--quarts and pints. Porgy prevailed to that extent, +in fact, that it came to be talked of, by-and-by, as a circulating +medium; and a hard-fisted mechanic averred his intention of compensating +his landlady for his board with porgy, for the week that was passing +away. + +For some time, luck appeared to favor the starboard side of the boat, +at which the take was much greater than at the other. Hence, discontent +began to crawl in at the port-gangways, and the fishermen on that +side were gradually edging over to the other, to look for a chance of +stealing in their lines clandestinely between the ranks. This led to +an interchange of bad compliments, as well as to a very perceptible +slanting of the deck, and the captain piped out to the hands to shift +the chain-box. And by this action was resolved for me a riddle with +regard to the properties and uses of a prematurely stout man of fabulous +girth, who had been dimly revealed to me, once or twice in the course +of the voyage, through some long vista of the 'tween-decks, but seemed +always to melt into air,--or, more probably, oil,--upon any advance +being made to a closer inspection. Now, as a couple of the deck-hands +hauled and howled unsuccessfully at the unwieldy chain-box, this +mysterious person suddenly appeared, as if spirited up, and, throwing +himself stomach on to the loaded vehicle, shot across with it to the +other side of the deck with wonderful velocity, retiring, then, with a +gliding movement, so as to preserve the rectitude of the deck, which +now seemed inclined to slope rather too much the other way. I will not +undertake to say, for certain, that the stout man was paid for doing +this; but, as his hands were small and remarkably white, indications +that he toiled not with _them_, and as he made his appearance on deck +only when movable ballast was wanted, I am bound to suppose that he +secured a living by sitting heavily and throwing himself on for weight, +in circumstances under which such actions command a standard value. + +Three hours having gone by since we came to anchor, the healthful toil +of fishing in the salt sea produced its natural result,--a ravenous +appetite for food and drink; and a common consent to partake of +refreshments now began to develop itself. The wives had much to do with +this, as they detailed themselves along the railings, influencing +their husbands with hints about the hamper and flask. For most of the +family-people had brought their provisions with them; and, in many +cases, the basket was flanked by a stone jar which looked as if it might +contain lager-beer,--as, in several instances, it did. Where there were +many small children in a party, however, I noticed that the beverage +obtained from the jar was milk,--real Orange County cow-produce, let us +hope, and none of that sickly town-abomination, the vending of which +ought to be made by our legislators a felony, at least. Ham-sandwiches, +greatly enhanced in flavor by the circumstance of their outer surfaces +being impressed with a reverse of yesterday's news, from the contact of +the pieces of newspaper in which they were wrapped up, formed the staple +of the feast. Large bowls of the various, seasonable berries were also +in request; and all the shady places of the ship were soon occupied by +families, who distributed themselves in independent groups, as people +do in the sylvan localities dedicated to picnics. All were hungry and +happy, all better in mind and body,--illustrating the wise providence of +the instinct that whispers to the over-wrought artisan and bids him go +sometimes forth on a summer's day to the woods and waters,--a move which +the marine character of the subject impels me to speak of nautically, +but reverently, as taking himself and family into the graving-dock of +Nature, for the necessary repairs. + +Some of the girls now stole slyly about among the lines, and popped the +baits timidly into the blue water. The pale seamstress, who has quite +a rose-flush on her cheek now, has hooked a good-sized porgy, and her +screams in this terrible predicament have brought several smart young +men to her rescue. Another girl, pretty and well-dressed,--in the +glove-making line, as I guess from the family she is with, all of +whom, from paterfamilias to baby, are begloved in a manner entirely +irrespective of expense,--is kneeling pensively on the stern-benches +of the upper deck, paying out the line with confidence in herself, but +evidently hoping for masculine assistance in the process of hauling it +in. + +And where were our dear friends, the roughs, all this time? and how came +it that they were so quiet? They have been asleep,--snoring off the +effects of last night's diversions, and fortifying their constitutions +against the influences to come. Ever since the music ceased playing, +these fellows have been rolled away, singly or in heaps, in crooked +corners, into which they seem to fit naturally. But now they began to +rally, waking up and stretching themselves and yawning,--the last two +actions appearing to be the leading operations of a rowdy's toilet; and, +gathering round Lobster Bob, who has been steadily employed in opening +oysters for all who have a midsummer faith in those mollusks, they +commenced rapidly swallowing great quantities of the various kinds, +which they seasoned to an alarming extent with coarse black pepper +and brownish salt. The fierce thirst, which, with these men, is not a +consequence, because it is a thing that was and is and ever will be, was +brought vividly to their minds by this unnecessary adstimulation; and +now the bar-keeper, whose lager-beer was wellnigh exhausted, from its +connection with ham-sandwiches, had enough to do to furnish them with +whiskey, of which stimulant there was but too large a supply on hand. +The consequence of this was soon apparent in the ugly hilarity with +which the rowdies entered upon the enjoyment of the afternoon. First, in +spite of the remonstrances of the Teuton whose proper chattel it was, +they seized upon the large drum, with which they made an astounding din +in the public promenades of the vessel, abetted, I am sorry to say, by +some who ought to have known better,--and did, probably, before the +whiskey had curdled their wits. In this proceeding, as in all their +movements, they were marshalled by Flashy Joe, whose comparatively +spruce appearance, when he came on board in the morning, had been a good +deal deteriorated by broken slumbers in places not remote from coals, +and by the subsequent course of drinks. Quiet people were beginning to +express some dissatisfaction with the noise made by these fellows, who, +however, kept pretty much by themselves, as yet, and had got only to the +musical stage of the proceedings, chorusing with unearthly yells a song +contributed to the harmony of the afternoon by the first ruffian, the +burden of which ran,-- + + "When this old hat was ny-oo, my boys, + When this old hat was ny-oo-ooo!" + +No voice in this chorus dwelt more decidedly by itself than the shrill +one belonging to the small, spare man already spoken of as having a +buxom young wife and blue cotton overalls. During his wife's adjournment +to the ladies' cabin, this person, I am obliged to record, had become +boisterously drunk,--a condition in which the contradictory elements +that make up the characters of most men are generally developed to an +instructive extent. In his first paroxysm, the fighting man within him +was all aroused, as is generally the case with diminutive men, when +under the influence of drink. Already he had tucked his sleeves up to +fight a large German musician, who could have put him into the bell of +his brass-horn and played him out, without much trouble. But the song +pacified him; and, with a misty sense of his importance in a convivial +point of view, on account of the manner in which he had acquitted +himself in the chorus, he now essayed a higher flight, and treated the +party to a new version of "The Pope," oddly condensed into one verse, as +follows:-- + + "The Pope, he leads a happy life, + He fears no married care nor strife, + His wives are many as be will: + I would the Sultan's place, then, fill!" + +At this moment the buxom young wife descended suddenly from the upper +deck by the forecastle-ladder, like Nemesis from a thunder-cloud, and, +seizing upon the small warbler, to whom she administered a preliminary +shake which must have sadly changed the current of his ideas, drove him +ignominiously before her toward the stern of the vessel, rapping him +occasionally about the ears with the hard end of her fan, to keep him on +a straight course. Persons who traced the matter farther said that he +was driven all the way to the upper deck, pushed with gentle violence +into a state-room, the door locked upon him, and the key pocketed by the +lady, who said triumphantly, as she walked away,--"That's the Sultan's +place for _him_, I guess!" The moral to this little episode is but +a horn-book one, and without any pretension to didactic force: That +respectable citizens, like the small, spare man, would do well, on +excursion-trips or elsewhere, to avoid whiskey and black-guards; and +that wives might be saved a deal of trouble by keeping their eyes +permanently on their husbands, when the latter are of uncertain ways. + +This little domestic drama had hardly been played out, when a more +serious one--almost a tragedy--was enacted on the forecastle. It +originated in the misconduct of the red man, who, seized with a desire +to catch porgies, went a short way to work for tackle, by snatching away +the line of a peaceable, but stout Frenchman, who was paralyzed for a +moment by the novelty of the thing, but, immediately recovering himself, +expressed his dissent by smashing an earthen-ware dish, containing a +great mess of raw clams for bait, upon the head of the red man, as he +stooped over the railing to fish. This led to a general fight, in which +blood flowed freely, and the roughs were getting rather the upper-hand. +Knives were drawn by some of the Germans and others in self-defence, +and great consternation reigned in the afterpart of the boat and +the neighborhood of the ladies' cabin. Then the slim captain of the +boat--the one in the black dress-coat--hurriedly whispered something to +Lobster Bob, who rushed away aft, where the fight was now agglomerating, +headed by the red man and Flashy Joe, both covered with blood, and +looking like demons, as they wrestled and bit through the Crowd. Just +as they hustled past a large chest intended for the stowage of +life-preservers, Lobster Bob kicked the lid of it open with a bang, and, +seizing up the red man, neck and crop, with his huge, tattooed hands, +dropped him into it and shut down the lid, which was promptly sat upon +by the large, stout, smiling man already favorably spoken of in these +pages, who suddenly made his appearance from nowhere in particular. The +picture of contentment, he sat there like one who knew how, caressing +slowly his large knees with his short, plump hands, until the cries from +the chest began to wax feeble, when he slowly arose, vanished, and I +never saw him again. The red rowdy was then dragged, half-suffocated, +from his imprisonment, and as much life as he ought ever to be intrusted +with restored to him by the stout old skipper, who was at hand with a +couple of buckets full of cold salt-water, with which he drenched him +liberally, as he slunk away. A diversion thus effected, the disturbance +was quelled. All was quiet in a short time, and the word was passed to +heave the anchor and 'bout ship for home. + +On the way back, we took a pleasant course inside the Hook, which +brought the charming scenery of the Jersey shore and of Staten Island +before us, as a pleasant drop-curtain on the melodrama just closed. The +music again struck up, and dancing was resumed with fresh vigor,--the +waltzing of all other couples being quite eclipsed by that of Young New +York and little Straw-Goods, who had effectually got rid of her tipsy +persecutor ever since the ground-swell, and was keeping rather in the +background of late, with a sober-minded lady whom she called "aunty." +With the exception of the few who took to whiskey and bad company, all +appeared contented, and the better for their sea-holiday. The very +musicians played with greater spirit than they did before, owing, +perhaps, to their remarkable success in the porgy-fishery. One of the +horn-players, far too knowing to let his fish out of sight, has propped +his music-book up against a pyramid of them, as upon a desk. The +good-looking man who plays upon the double-bass is equally prudent with +regard to his trophies, which he has hung up around the post on which +is pinned the score to which he looks for directions when it becomes +necessary to bind together with string-music the pensive interchanges of +the sax-horn and bassoon. + +And now, as our vessel neared the wharf from which we had started while +the sun was yet in the east, I looked forward to see what signs of +the times were astir on the forecastle. All had deserted it, and +were tending aft, with their tackle, their fish, and their +prog-baskets,--all, at least, except Raw Material, of whom we enjoyed +now an uninterrupted view, as he sat in his old position, with his head +jammed obstinately into the capstan. But how was this?--he was round at +the opposite side of it now; and I puzzled myself for a moment, thinking +whether this change of bearings could be accounted for by the fact of +the boat being headed the other way. + +But Young New York, who is far more nautical than I am, and has a big +brother in one of the yacht-clubs, derided the idea, and said he must +have gone round with the handspikes, when the anchor was hove. + +And there he remained, as we went our way,--a modern Spartan slave in a +kind of marine pillory,--conveying to the red-legged children of Gotham, +as they toddled ashore, a useful lesson on the doubtful relations +existing between whiskey and pleasure. + + + + +COBBLER KEEZAR'S VISION. + + + The beaver cut his timber + With patient teeth that day, + The minks were fish-wards, and the cows + Surveyors of highway,-- + + When Keezar sat on the hillside + Upon his cobbler's form, + With a pan of coals on either hand + To keep his waxed-ends warm. + + And there, in the golden weather, + He stitched and hammered and sung; + In the brook he moistened his leather, + In the pewter mug his tongue. + + Well knew the tough old Teuton + Who brewed the stoutest ale, + And he paid the good-wife's reckoning + In the coin of song and tale. + + The songs they still are singing + Who dress the hills of vine, + The tales that haunt the Brocken + And whisper down the Rhine. + + Woodsy and wild and lonesome, + The swift stream wound away, + Through birches and scarlet maples + Flashing in foam and spray,-- + + Down on the sharp-horned ledges + Plunging in steep cascade, + Tossing its white-maned waters + Against the hemlock's shade. + + Woodsy and wild and lonesome, + East and west and north and south; + Only the village of fishers + Down at the river's mouth; + + Only here and there a clearing + With its farm-house rude and new, + And tree-stumps, swart as Indians, + Where the scanty harvest grew. + + No shout of home-bound reapers, + No vintage-song he heard, + And on the green no dancing feet + The merry violin stirred. + + "Why should folk be glum," said Keezar, + "When Nature herself is glad, + And the painted woods are laughing + At the faces so sour and sad?" + + Small heed had the careless cobbler + What sorrow of heart was theirs + Who travailed in pain with the births of God, + And planted a state with prayers,-- + + Hunting of witches and warlocks, + Smiting the heathen horde,-- + One hand on the mason's trowel, + And one on the soldier's sword! + + But give him his ale and cider, + Give him his pipe and song, + Little he cared for church or state, + Or the balance of right and wrong. + + "'Tis work, work, work," he muttered,-- + "And for rest a snuffle of psalms!" + He smote on his leathern apron + With his brown and waxen palms. + + "Oh for the purple harvests + Of the days when I was young! + For the merry grape-stained maidens, + And the pleasant songs they sung! + + "Oh for the breath of vineyards, + Of apples and nuts and wine! + For an oar to row and a breeze to blow + Down the grand old river Rhine!" + + A tear in his blue eye glistened + And dropped on his beard so gray. + "Old, old am I," said Keezar, + "And the Rhine flows far away!" + + But a cunning man was the cobbler; + He could call the birds from the trees, + Charm the black snake out of the ledges, + And bring back the swarming bees. + + All the virtues of herbs and metals, + All the lore of the woods he knew, + And the arts of the Old World mingled + With the marvels of the New. + + Well he knew the tricks of magic, + And the lapstone on his knee + Had the gift of the Mormon's goggles + Or the stone of Doctor Dee. + + For the mighty master Agrippa + Wrought it with spell and rhyme + From a fragment of mystic moonstone + In the tower of Nettesheim. + + To a cobbler Minnesinger + The marvellous stone gave he,-- + And he gave it, in turn, to Keezar, + Who brought it over the sea. + + He held up that mystic lapstone, + He held it up like a lens, + And he counted the long years coming + By twenties and by tens. + + "One hundred years," quoth Keezar, + "And fifty have I told: + Now open the new before me, + And shut me out the old!" + + Like a cloud of mist, the blackness + Rolled from the magic stone, + And a marvellous picture mingled + The unknown and the known. + + Still ran the stream to the river, + And river and ocean joined; + And there were the bluffs and the blue sea-line, + And cold north hills behind. + + But the mighty forest was broken + By many a steepled town, + By many a white-walled farm-house + And many a garner brown. + + Turning a score of mill-wheels, + The stream no more ran free; + White sails on the winding river, + White sails on the far-off sea. + + Below in the noisy village + The flags were floating gay, + And shone on a thousand faces + The light of a holiday. + + Swiftly the rival ploughmen + Turned the brown earth from their shares; + Here were the farmer's treasures, + There were the craftsman's wares. + + Golden the good-wife's butter, + Ruby her currant-wine; + Grand were the strutting turkeys, + Fat were the beeves and swine. + + Yellow and red were the apples, + And the ripe pears russet-brown, + And the peaches had stolen blushes + From the girls who shook them down. + + And with blooms of hill and wild-wood, + That shame the toil of art, + Mingled the gorgeous blossoms + Of the garden's tropic heart. + + "What is it I see?" said Keezar: + "Am I here, or am I there? + Is it a fête at Bingen? + Do I look on Frankfort fair? + + "But where are the clowns and puppets, + And imps with horns and tail? + And where are the Rhenish flagons? + And where is the foaming ale? + + "Strange things, I know, will happen,-- + Strange things the Lord permits; + But that droughty folk should be jolly + Puzzles my poor old wits. + + "Here are smiling manly faces, + And the maiden's step is gay; + Nor sad by thinking, nor mad by drinking, + Nor mopes, nor fools are they. + + "Hero's pleasure without regretting, + And good without abuse, + The holiday and the bridal + Of beauty and of use. + + "Here's a priest and there is a Quaker,-- + Do the cat and the dog agree? + Have they burned the stocks for oven-wood? + Have they cut down the gallows-tree? + + "Would the old folk know their children? + Would they own the graceless town, + With never a ranter to worry + And never a witch to drown?" + + Loud laughed the cobbler Keezar, + Laughed like a school-boy gay; + Tossing his arms above him, + The lapstone rolled away. + + It rolled down the rugged hill-side, + It spun like a wheel bewitched, + It plunged through the leaning willows, + And into the river pitched. + + There, in the deep, dark water, + The magic stone lies still, + Under the leaning willows + In the shadow of the hill. + + But oft the idle fisher + Sits on the shadowy bank, + And his dreams make marvellous pictures + Where the wizard's moonstone sank. + + And still, in the summer twilights, + When the river seems to run + Out from the inner glory, + Warm with the melted sun, + + The weary mill-girl lingers + Beside the charmed stream, + And the sky and the golden water + Shape and color her dream. + + Fair wave the sunset gardens, + The rosy signals fly; + Her homestead beckons from the cloud, + And love goes sailing by! + + + + +THE FIRST ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH. + + +"In the name of the Prophet:--Figs!" + +"Eh, bien, Sare! wiz you Field and ze uzzers! Zey is ver' good men, sans +doute, an' zey know how make ze money; mais--gros matérialistes, I tell +you, Sare! Vat zen? I sall sink I know, I! Oui, Monsieur, I, César +Prévost, who has ze honneur to stand before you,--I am ze original +inventeur of ze Télégraphique Communication wiz Europe!" + +It was about the period when, with the fast world of cities, De Sauty +was beginning to become type of an "ism"; already the attention of +excitement-hunters had travelled far from Trinity Bay, and Cyrus Field +had yielded his harvest. Nevertheless, to me, who had just come to +town from a quiet country seclusion into which news made its entry +teredo-fashion only, the performances of the Agamemnon and Niagara were +matters of fresh and vivid interest. So I purchased Mr. Briggs's book, +and went to Guy's, to cut the leaves over a steak and a bottle of +Edinburgh ale. It was while I was thus engaged that the little Frenchman +had accosted me, calling my attention to his wares with such perfect +courtesy, such airy grace, that I was forced to look at his baskets. +And looking, I was induced to lay down my book and examine them more +closely; for they were really pretty,--made of extremely white and +delicate wood, showing an exquisite taste in their design, and being +neatly and carefully finished. Then it was, that, having apparently +noticed the title of my book, M. César Prévost had used the language +above quoted, and with such _empressement_ of manner, that my attention +was diverted from his wares to himself. I looked at him with some +curiosity. + +He was a little old Frenchman, lean as a haunch of dried venison, and +scarcely less dark in complexion,--though his color was nearer that of +rappee snuff, and had not the rich blood-lined purple of venison. His +face was wofully meagre, and seemed scored and overlaid with care-marks. +Nevertheless, there was an energetic, nervous, almost humorsome mobility +about his mouth; while his little beady black eyes, quick, warm, +scintillant, had ten times the life one would have expected to find +keeping company with his fifty years. In dress, he was very threadbare, +and, sooth to say, not over-clean; yet he was jaunty, and moved with the +air of a man much better clad. I was impressed with his appearance, and +especially with his voice, which was vibrant, firm, and excellently +intoned. It is my foible, perhaps, but I am always charmed with +_bonhommie_, I class originality among the cardinal virtues, and I am +as eager in the chase after eccentricity as a veteran fox-hunter is in +pursuit of Reynard. M. César promised a compensative proportion of all +three qualities, could I only "draw him out"; and besides, he was not +like Mr. Canning's "Knife-Grinder,"--for, evidently, he _had_ a story to +tell. + +Observing my scrutiny, he smiled; a singular, ironical smile it was, yet +without a particle of bitterness or of cynicism. + +"Eh, bien!" said he; "you stare, Monsieur! you sink me an excentrique. +Vraiment! I am use to zat,--I am use to have persons smile +reeseeblement, to tap zere fronts, an' spek of ze strait-jackets. Never +fear,--I am toujours harmless! Mais, Monsieur, it is true, vat I tell +you: I am ze origi_nal_ inventeur of ze Atlantic Telegraph! You mus' +not comprehend me, Sare, to intend somesing vat persons call ze +Telegraph,--such like ze Electric Telegraph of Monsieur Morse,--a +vulgaire sing of ze vire and ze acid. Mon Dieu, non! far more +perfect,--far more grrand,--far more _original!_ Ze acid may burn ze +finger,--ze vire vill become rrusty,--ze isolation subject always to ze +atmosphere. Ah, bah! Vat make you in zat event? As ze pure lustre of ze +diamant of Golconde to ze distorted rays of a morsel of bottle-glass, so +my grrand invention to ze modes of ze telegraph in vogue at present!" + +"Monsieur, you shall tell me about it," said I, pointing to a seat on +the other side of the table; "sit down there, and tell me about your +invention, and in your native language,--that is, if you can spare the +time to do so, and to drink a glass of Bordeaux with me." + +He accepted my invitation as a gentleman would, sipped his wine like a +connoisseur, passed me a few compliments, such as any French gentleman +might toss to you, if you had asked him to join you in a glass of wine +in one of his city's _cafés_, and then proceeded with his story. My +translation gives but a faint echo of the impression made upon me by +his life, vigor, and originality; but still I have striven to do him as +little injustice as possible. + +"Monsieur, it is ten years since I accomplished, put in practice, and +evoked practical results from this international communication, which +your two peoples have failed to establish, in spite of all their money, +their great ships, and the united wisdom of their _savans_. I am a +Frenchman, Monsieur,--and, you know, France is the congenial soil of +Science. In that country, where they laugh ever and _se jouent de tout_, +Science is sacred;--the Academy has even _pas_ of the army; honors there +are higher prized than the very wreaths of glory. Among the votaries +of Science in France, César Prévost was the humblest,--_serviteur, +Monsieur._ Nevertheless, though my place was only in the outermost porch +of the temple, I was a faithful, devoted, self-sacrificing worshipper of +the goddess; and therefore, because earnest fidelity has ever its crown +of reward, it happened to me to make a grand discovery,--a discovery +more momentous, it may be, than that of gunpowder or the telescope,--ten +million hundred times more worth than the vaunted great achievement of +M. le Professeur Morse. Not that its whole import came to me at once. +No, Monsieur, it is full twenty years now since the first light of it +glimmered upon César Prévost's mind, and he gave ten years of his life +to it--ten faithful years--before it was perfect to his satisfaction. +Ah, Monsieur, and 'tis more than one year now that I have been what you +see me, in consequence of it. _Eh, bien!_ I shall die so,--rightly,--but +my discovery shall live forever. + +"But pardon, Monsieur,--I see that you are impatient. You shall +immediately hear all I have to say,--after I have, in a few words, given +you a brief insight into the nature of my invention. Come, then!--Has it +ever occurred to Monsieur to reflect upon that something which we call +_Sympathy?_ The philosophers, you know, and the physiologists, the +followers of that _coquin_, Mesmer, and the _bêtes_ Spiritualists, as +they now dub themselves,--these have written, talked, and speculated +much about it. I doubt not these fellows have aided Monsieur +in perplexing his brain respecting the diverse, the world-wide +ramifications of this physiological problem. The limits, indeed, +of Sympathy have not been, cannot be, rightly set or defined; and +there are those who embrace under such a capitulation half the +dark mysteries that bother our heads when we think of Life's +under-current,--instinct,--clairvoyance,--trance,--ecstasy,--all the +dim and inner sensations of the Spirit, where it touches the Flesh as +perceptibly, but as unseen and unanalyzed, as the kiss of the breeze at +evening. _Sans doute,_ Monsieur, 'tis very wonderful, all this,--and +then, also, 'tis very convenient. Our ships must have a steersman, you +know. And, _par exemple,_ unless we call it sympathetic, that strange +susceptibility which we see in many persons, detect in ourselves +sometimes, what name have we to give it at all? Unless we call it +sympathy, how shall we define those mysterious premonitions, shadowy +warnings, solemn foretokens, that fall upon us now and then as the dew +falls upon the grass-leaf, that make our blood to shiver and our flesh +to quake, and will not by any means permit themselves to be passed by +or nullified? 'T is a fact that is irrepressible; and, in persons with +imagination of morbid tendency, this spontaneous sympathy takes a +hold so strong as to present visibly the image about which there is +concern,--and, behold! your veritable spectre is begotten! So, again, of +your 'love at first sight,' _comme on dit_,--that inevitable attraction +which one person exerts towards another, in spite, it may be, both of +reason and judgment. If this be not child of sympathy, what parentage +shall we assign it? And antipathy, Monsieur, the medal's reverse,--your +_bête noire_, for instance,--expound me that! Why do you so shudder at +sight of this or that innocent object? You cannot reason it away,--'t is +always there; you cannot explain it, nor diagnose its symptoms,--'t is +a part of you, governed by the same laws that govern your 'elective +affinities' throughout. But note, Monsieur! You and I and man in general +are not alone in this: the whole organic world--nay, some say the entire +universe, inorganic as well as organic--is subject to these impalpable +sympathetic forces. Is the hypothesis altogether fanciful of chemical +election and rejection,--of the kiss and the kick of the magnet? Your +Sensitive-Plant, your Dionea, your Rose of Jericho, your Orinoco-blossom +that sets itself afloat in superb faith that the ever-moving waters +will bring it to meet its mate and lover,--are not these instances of +sympathy? And tell me by what means your eye conquers the furious dog +that would bite you,--tell me how that dog is able to follow your +traces, and to find the quail or the fox for you,--tell me how the cat +chills the bird it would spring upon,--how the serpent fascinates its +victim with a flash of its glittering eye. Our 'dumb beasts' yet have a +language of their own, unguessed of us, yet perfectly intelligible +to them,--how? We call this, Instinct. _Eh, bien, Monsieur!_ what is +Instinct, but Sympathy? + +"Bah! it amounts to nothing, all this, if we only look at it in such +relations. For centuries have _stupides_ bothered their brains about +such matters, seeking to account for them. As well devote one's time to +puzzling over 'Aelia Laelia'! Mysteries were not meant to be put in +the spelling-books, Monsieur. Ah, bah! a far different path did +César Prévost pursue! He studied these phenomena, not to _explain_ +them,--being too wise to dream of living _par amours_ with such barren +virgins as are Whence and Why (your Bacon was very shrewd, Monsieur). +What cared I about _causes_? Let Descartes, and Polignac, and Reid, and +Cudworth, _et id omne genus_, famish themselves in this desert; but ask +it not of César Prévost! He is always considerate to the impossible. He +says this, always:--Here we have certain interesting phenomena; their +causes are involved in mystery impenetrable; their esoteric nature is +beyond the reach of any microscope;--what then? My Heaven! let us do +what we _can_ with them. Let us seek out their _relations_; let us +investigate the laws regulating their interdependence,--if there be such +laws; and _aprés_, let us inquire if there be any _practical results_ +obtainable from such relations and laws. + +"You follow me, Monsieur? _Eh, bien!_ This was the system, and César +Prévost came speedily to _one_ law,--a law so important, that, like +Aaron's serpent, it put all the rest out of sight forever, engrossing +thereafter his whole attention. This law, which pervades the entire +animal economy, and is of course important in proportion to its +universality, is as follows:--_The sympathetic harmony between animals, +other things being equal, is _IN INVERSE PROPORTION _to their rank +in that scale of comparison in which man is taken as the maximum of +perfection._ Consequently, man is most deficient in this instinctive +something, which, for lack of a better term, I have ventured to style +'sympathetic harmony,' while the simplest organization has it most +developed. This last, you perceive, Monsieur, is only inductively +true;--when we get below a certain stage in the scale, we find the +difficulties of observation increase in a larger ratio than the +augmented sympathy, and so we are not compensated; 't is, for instance, +like the telescope, where, after you have reached a certain power, the +deficiency of light overbalances the degree of multiplication. Knowing +this, my first aim was to find out what animal would suit best,--what +one that could be easily observed was most susceptible, most +sympathetic. 'T was a long labor, Monsieur; I shall not tire you with +the details. Enough that I found in the _snail_ the instrument I +needed,--and in the snail of the Rocky Mountains the most perfect of his +kind. You smile, Monsieur. _Eh, bien!_ 't is not philosophic to laugh at +the means by which one achieves something. Smile how you will, 't is a +fact that in the snail which is so common and grows to such an enormous +size in the valleys and on the slopes of your great Cordilleras I found +an animal combining a maximum of sympathetic harmony with the greatest +facility of being observed, the best health and habits, and the utmost +simplicity of _prononcée_ manifestation. But, you ask, what seek I, +then? My Heaven, Monsieur! there was the grand Idea,--the Idea upon +which I build my pride,--the Idea that is _mine!_ When it came to me, +Monsieur, this Idea, a great calm filled all my soul, and I felt then +the spirit of Kepler, when he said he could wait during centuries to +be recognized, since the laws he had demonstrated were eternal and +immutable as the Great God Himself! Yes, Monsieur! For in that crude, +undeveloped Idea were already germinating the wonders of an achievement +grander than any of Schwartz, or Guttenberg, or Galileo. Oh, this +beautiful, grand simplicity of Science, which was able, from the snail +itself, the very type and symbol and byword of torpidity and inaction, +to evolve what was to conquer time and space,--to outrun the wildest +imaginings of Puck himself!" + +----What a coltish fire of enthusiasm pranced in the worthy little +Frenchman's veins, to be sure! + +"_Eh, bien!_ Now, distance made no matter; it was forever subdued. +I could as soon send messages to the Sun itself as to my next-door +neighbor! Smile on, Monsieur! César Prévost shall not be piqued at your +incredulity. He also was amazed, prostrated, when all the stupendous +consequences of his discovery first flashed upon his mind; and it was +very long before he could rid his mind of the notion that he was become +victim to the phantasms of a ridiculous dream. _Eh, bien!_ 't was very +simple, once analyzed. Know one fact, and you have all. And this one +fact, so simple, yet so grand, was just this:--_That a male and female +snail, having been once, by contact, put in communication with one +another, so as to become what magnetizers call en rapport the one with +the other, continue ever after to sympathize, no matter what space may +divide them._ 'T is in a nutshell, you perceive,--and giving me the +entire principle of an unlimited telegraphic communication. All that was +to do was to systematize it. Tedious work, you may conceive, Monsieur; +yet I did not shrink from it, nor find it irksome, for my assured +result was ever leading me onward. Ah, bah! what did I not dream +then?--_Passons!_ + +"I was not rich, and so, to save the trouble and expense of importing +my snails to Paris,--vast trouble and expense, of course, since my +experiments were so numerous,--I came across the Atlantic, and fixed +myself at a point near St. Louis, where I could study in peace and have +the subjects of my experiments close at hand. I used to pay the trappers +liberally to get my snails for me, instructing them how to gather and +how to transport them; and to divert all suspicion from my real +objects, I pretended to be a _gourmet_, who used the snails solely for +gastronomic purposes,--whereby, Monsieur," said César Prévost, with +a humorous smile, "I was unfortunate enough to inspire the hearty +_garçons_ with a supreme contempt for me, and they used to say I 'vas +not bettaire zan one blarsted Digger Injun!' _Mon Dieu!_ what martyrs +the votaries of Science have been, always! + +"_Eh, bien!_ I shall not bother you with my experiments. In brief, let +me give you only results, so as to be just comprehensible. Given my law, +I had to find, _first,_ the manner exactly in which snails manifest +their sympathy, the one for the other,--_c'est à dire,_ how Snail A +tells you that something is happening to his comrade, Snail B. There was +a constant law for this, hard to find, but I achieved it. _Second,_ +to make my telegraph perfect, and pat my system beyond the touch of +accident, I had to discover how to _destroy_ the _rapport_ between +Snails A and B. Unless I could do this, I could never be sure my +instruments were perfectly isolated, so to speak. 'Twas a difficult +task, Monsieur; for the snail is the most constant in its attachments of +all the animal kingdom, and I have known them to die, time and again, +because their mates had died,-- + + "'Pining away in a green and yaller melancholie,' + +"as your grand poet has it, Monsieur. Still, I succeeded, and I am very +proud to announce it;--'twas a great feat, indeed--no less than to +_subvert an instinct!_ _Third_, I found out the way to keep them +perfectly isolated, so as to prevent any subvention of a higher +influence from weakening or destroying the previous _rapport_. +_Fourth,_ what sort of influence brought to bear upon Snail B would be +sympathetically indicated most palpably in Snail A. So, Monsieur, you +may fancy I had my hands full. + +"But I succeeded, after long labor. Then I spent much time in seeking to +perfect an Alphabetical System, and also a Recording Apparatus, capable +of exactly setting forth the _quality_ of the sympathy manifested, as +well as the _number_ of the manifestations. When these things were +all perfected, I should have a complete system of Telegraph, which no +circumstances of time, distance, or atmosphere could impair, which would +put on record its every step, and permit no opportunity for error or for +accident. + +"_Eh, bien!_ Man proposes,--God disposes. Monsieur, when I began my +experiments, when I devoted myself, my energies, and my life itself +to developing and utilizing my discovery, my motives were purely, +exclusively scientific. My sole aim was to win the position of an +eminent _savant,_ who, by conferring a signal benefit upon the race, +should merit the common applause of mankind. But, as time wore on, as +my labors began to be successful, as the grand possibilities of my +achievement arrayed themselves before me, other dreams usurped my +brain. I, the inventor of this thing, so glorious in its aspect, so +incomputable in its results,--was I to permit myself to go without +reward? Fame? Ah, bah! what bread would Fame butter? 'Twas a bubble, a +name, an empty, profitless sound, this _coquin_ of Fame! _'Proximus +sum egomet mihi,'_ says Terence,--or, as your English proverb has +it, 'Charity begins at home.' I bethought me of the usual fate of +discoverers and inventors,--neglected, scoffed at, ill-used, left to +starve. The blesser of the world with infinite riches must nibble his +crust _au sixième._ Why, then? Because, in their sublime eagerness to +serve others, they forget to care for themselves. _Eh, bien!_ One must +still keep his powder dry, said your great Protector. This discovery was +to double the effectiveness of men's hands,--therefore, was grandly to +enrich them. But could it not be also made a notable instrument for +wealth in _one_ man's hands? Ah! brave thought! How, if, none the less +resolved to give man eventually the benefit of my Idea, I should yet +keep it in abeyance, till I had made my own sufficient profit out of it? +It could be done;--surely, to use it well were less difficult than to +have invented it. So dreams of wealth and luxury began to fill my brain. +I would enrich myself till I had become a _power_, emphatically,--till +all purchasable things were within my reach. Then I should likewise +become a benefactor of the race; for my intentions were liberal, and +intelligence sustained adequately can effect miracles. Then, when I had +made myself veritably the Apostle of Riches, I would put the capstone +to man's debt to me, by endowing him with knowledge in the uses of this +great instrument whereby I had made myself so great. Ah, Monsieur, you +see, Haroun Alraschid had set me on his throne for an hour by way of +jest, and I imagined myself Caliph in Bagdad forever! + +"Full of such purposes, and of the fiery impatience of yearning begotten +of them, I hastened to bring my work to efficiency for use. I had worked +in silence, alone, secretly; for I dreaded to have my discovery guessed, +my aims anticipated and foreclosed upon. But, hasten how I would, +the processes were too slow for my means,--and just when, like the +alchemist, my crucible promised the grand projection, came the dreaded +explosion. My money exhausted itself! I found myself, a stranger in a +strange land, without a dollar. _Eh, bien, Monsieur!_ 't is not in César +Prévost to despair. Ah, in those days, especially, had I a heart big +with the strength of hope! To accomplish my ends, a partner was needed +at best, money or no money; so now it was only necessary for me to find +one who to the essential qualities of heart and brain conjoined a purse +of sufficient size. Before long, I came across the very man. Monsieur, +when I recall the past, I behold many instances where I erred and was +foolish; but the single bitter reflection I have is, that my own ruin +involved the ruin of John Meavy, my partner and good comrade. I remember +what he was when I found him,--happy, prosperous, large-hearted,--in +every sense a noble man. I ruined him! Ah, could I but--_Eh, bien!_ 't +is too late, now; he is dead; _requiescat!_ I have the bliss to know he +found no fault with the end.--_Passons!_ + +"When I first knew John Meavy, he was a merchant, living with the quiet +ease of a well-to-do bachelor. Though he had been brought up to trade, +the stain of money was not upon him. Generous, charitable, liberal of +thought, he was the gentlest enthusiast in other men's behalf that ever +the sun shone on. It was the fact that he possessed fifty thousand +dollars and was trustworthy that first drew rue towards him; but I +had not known him long ere I gave him my ardent love, and thereafter +thoughts of wealth were pleasant to me as much for his sake as for my +own. John was a student, and a lover of Science, as well as a man of +trade; and, in the first moments of our intercourse, I took care to let +drop words that I knew would attract his curiosity and interest. Like +all you Americans, John Meavy was a man of perfect faith in all that +regarded 'Progress,' and especially did he believe in the infinite +perfectibility of Science in the hands of an energetic people. This +was the chord upon which I played, and the responsive note was easily +evoked. He sought me out, came to me eagerly, and, by degrees, I +divulged to him all my plans. He was ambitious to work for mankind, and +I convinced him that I could give him the means to do so. My faith, +Monsieur! that John Meavy had not one least morsel of selfishness in all +his character! How far was he from dreaming of wealth for its own sake, +and for the voluptuous surroundings with which my fancy enlarged upon +it! No, indeed,--my invention to John Meavy was nothing; but, as a means +to profit you and me and the rest of us, 't was a thing of the grandest +import. So, at first, he would not have had us keep our secret for a +day; but I--by a sophistry that is only sophistic when we add to the +consideration man's impotent and easily perverted will--brought him into +my plans, showing him what an instrument for good vast riches would be +in his hands. And he was the more easily persuaded because of the very +grand purity of his nature. _Sans doute_, he felt it to be altogether +true, what I told him, that, in _his_ hands, a hundred million dollars +would be worth more to mankind at large than the whole French kingdom. +_Mais, Monsieur_, you cannot own a hundred millions and be good. As +well expect to find the same virtue in London that prevails in a quiet +country-town. You cannot filter oceans, Monsieur, and the dead fish in +them _will_ cause a stink. But I did not know this till afterwards. + +"So, having inoculated John, I bestowed upon him my confidence without +reserve; for I knew he was one to appreciate such treatment, and would +repay me in kind. 'Here it all is, _mon ami_,' said I; 'this is my +invention; these the means for reducing it to practice; money is all I +need. If you will join me, and provide the funds required, we will enter +into a partnership for ten years, enrich ourselves, and then give it to +all the world.' + +"'Ten years! must the world wait so long?' + +"'The world has waited six thousand years for this century, _camarade_. +We shall require so long to enrich ourselves. And then, remember,--the +longer they are kept out of it, the more perfect will our invention +be, and, consequently, the greater their profit from it. Science has +suffered too much already by its seven-months' children, my good friend. +_Eh, bien!_ What say you? Will you be my partner?' + +"'Yes, César. 'T is a noble scheme, such as only a noble man could +originate. But, Prévost, do not speak to me of an equal partnership. I +must not pattern after my country's way of overlooking the inventor. Let +us go into business upon this basis:--Prévost one share, John Meavy one +share, Invention one share.' + +"'Bah! John Meavy!' I cried. 'If I have discovered something, so also +have you, namely: a pocket deep enough, a heart honest enough, and a +faith strong enough to make that something available;--I expected sooner +to find the philosopher's-stone than all these, good friend. No, John +Meavy,--if you share with me, you share equally. Then I shall be sure +that you are equally interested with myself; so we shall succeed.' + +"_Eh, bien!_ We arranged it; and that very day, after I had pointed out +to John the state of my experiments, my noble comrade took me with him +to his place of business, put all his books open before me, explained +exactly the condition of his affairs, and concluded by giving me a check +for five thousand dollars. 'There,' said he, 'take that, pay your +debts, provide for yourself, and go on and reduce your invention to the +practical working you speak about. Meantime, I will wind up my business +in readiness to join you. Six months from now, the firm of Prévost and +Meavy, established to-day, will begin business together.' + +"_Mon pauvre_ John Meavy! + +"_Eh bien, Monsieur!_" resumed the little Frenchman, after a short +pause,--"one cannot help one's self, after it is too late. _Allons, +donc!_--I had lately, thinking over the matter in the light of my +intense desire to begin a career, and under the pressure of urgent +poverty, given up the notion of bringing my invention to absolute +perfection as a system of telegraphing. Instead of elaborating a +complete alphabet, I proposed to carry into effect a substitute already +perfected, one simple almost beyond belief, needing few preparations, +involving trifling cost, and capable of being made immediately +operative. Further experience has taught me that the very same means, +aided by a little deeper generalization, and an arbitrary set of +signals, would have given me an entire alphabet. But just now I had no +time to extend my experiments, needing all my time to make sure and +acquire skill in what was already achieved. I must insure against the +chance of mistake; for when we were applying our invention to the +acquisition of money, any error would necessarily be fatal. + +"The six months went rapidly by, and before they were over I was all +ready. But John said, 'Wait!' He saw no need of hurry; and his affairs +were not quite settled. _Eh, bien!_ I tranquillized my eager, impatient +soul by gaining an insight into the art of book-keeping and the theory +and practice of trade. At last the probationary period expired, and, +prompt to the hour, my comrade announced his readiness to begin our +business. The friends of John Meavy were reluctant to have him leave St. +Louis. They did not know what enterprise he was about to join in; but +they heard that I had some share in it, and they did not scruple to hint +that I might be an adventurer, who would 'diddle' him out of his money. +However, John only smiled, and told me all they said, in his frank way, +as if it were some good joke. So, finally, we took leave of St. Louis, +and came to New York, to organize the great house of Meavy & Prévost: +John bearing his share in the concern, forty odd thousand dollars, with +many letters to persons of eminence and influence; and I carefully +seeing to _my_ share,--a few scientific works, some valuable chemical +apparatus, and two dozen jars full of Rocky Mountain snails! _Eh, bien, +Monsieur!_ my stock in trade was _magnifique_, in comparison with that +with which my compatriot Girard commenced business. + +"By John's advice, we began our operations in a plain, quiet way, as +exporters of breadstuffs. This we did, first, that the firm might make +itself well enough known, and gain the confidence of the Bourse, so that +the doors might be open to our subsequent operations; that I, secondly, +might learn the business, and secure the proper recognition as John's +partner. Meantime, John was making himself familiar with the way to +practise my invention; and both of us, gaining daily assurance of our +power by reason of the discovery, were also daily increasing in love and +confidence for each other. Happy days, those, Monsieur! _Eh, bien!_ had +the invention only proved a fiction then! + +"In another six months we had matured our plans, and, as our present +business seemed lamentably slow in the light of my gigantic projects, I +was eager enough to begin work in earnest. I had proved our telegraph +thoroughly, and, ere I set out for London, to establish there a branch +of the house of John Meavy & Co., I advised my good comrade to venture +largely, so as to turn our capital over as often as possible, for there +was no room for doubt or fear. But John did not guess how high I dreamed +of rising in fortune; _he_ had no ambition to rival the Rothschilds. + +"Monsieur, let me explain to you now the system of work we had agreed +upon, and each slightest detail of which was perfectly familiar to +us from constant manipulation, so that mistake or mishap, from any +conceivable cause, was utterly impossible. + +"Our business, nominally the buying of breadstuffs for exportation, was +really one of speculation upon the New York market _as affected_ by the +European markets,--a species of brokerage, which, ostensibly and in +the eyes of the world attended by great risk, was really a thing of +specifically safe and certain profits, thanks to the telegraphic system, +the secret of which we alone possessed. In our tentative efforts, we +fixed upon _flour_ as the best-adapted subject for our experiments, +being a commodity simple to deal with, and requiring fewer complications +in our arrangements than anything else. But, in my own private mind, I +had resolved, that, as soon as our capital had grown large enough, +and our credit was become sufficiently extensive, we would change our +business to that of buying and selling cotton, as a better speculative; +or, perhaps, would enter upon that grand arena of sudden fortune and +sudden ruin, the stock-market. For the present, however, flour suited +us well enough. It is well known, that, at that time, much more than at +present, the price of breadstuffs in New York was regulated by the price +in Liverpool. But Monsieur is not a merchant, I think? _Eh, bien_!--then +I must take care to make myself intelligible. You know, Monsieur, that, +in the stock-market especially, and more or less in every other kind of +speculation, the greater part of the transactions are _fictitious_, to +a certain extent. _Par exemple:_ you buy or you sell so many barrels of +flour, at such a price, _on time_, as it is called,--that is, you engage +to receive, or to deliver, so many barrels, at the prices and in the +times agreed upon, in the hope, that, before the period of your contract +comes round, prices will have so varied as to enable you to buy, or +sell, the quantity bargained for, upon terms that will give you a +profit. In a word, you simply agree to _run the risk_ of a change +of prices such as to give you a profitable return. The operation is +identical with that of betting that such a card will be turned, or +that such a horse will win in a race, or such a candidate be elected +President. On 'Change we are charitable enough to suppose each +speculator possessed of _data_ such as to make his venture seem +reasonable to himself. This is the system, and, though very like +gambling, it has the advantage of presenting to men of small means the +chance of large profits, provided they are willing to run the risk; +since, while with a capital of ten thousand dollars I could make an +_actual_ purchase of only two thousand barrels of flour at five dollars +a barrel, the profit on which, at an advance of twenty-five cents per +barrel, would be very small,--by risking _all_ my money upon a single +venture, and leaving myself a 'margin' of fifty cents to cover the +greatest probable decline in price per barrel, I may purchase 'on time' +all of twenty thousand barrels, the profit upon which, at the same rate, +would be equal to fifty per cent of my entire capital. This is the +legitimate system by which such rapid fortunes are made and lost upon +'Change. Now suppose, that, operating in this way, you are in possession +of a secret means of intelligence, instantaneous, to be relied on, +peculiar to yourself,--does not Monsieur perceive that it insures one +a fortune incalculable, and to be made within the shortest time? If I +to-day learn that to-morrow's steamer will bring news that cotton has +advanced one cent a pound, of course I am justified in buying cotton to +the utmost extent that my capital and credit will afford me means, being +sure of selling it to-morrow at a higher price; and if I am continually +in the receipt of similar information, I can turn my capital over fifty +times in a year, and double it every time. There is actually _no limit_ +to the possible fortune of a man who is so favored, provided he conjoins +prudence and boldness to his manner of transacting business. The +supplying of such secret and unshared information to the firm of John +Meavy & Co. was the end of my invention, Monsieur. I was to go to +Liverpool, and act as signaller, while he was to stay in New York, +receive the information, and buy or sell in accordance with it. + +"Our apparatus was very simple. At each terminus of our line, so to +speak, we had a room, inaccessible save to ourselves. These rooms, +darkened, and carefully kept at a fixed temperature, contained nothing, +save, in one corner of each, a chronometer regulated with precision, +and, in opposite corners, a set of boxes, containing each a snail. At +the signalling end, at a fixed hour, which the chronometer gives with +the greatest accuracy, and when I know that my partner, by agreement, +will be present at the other end to receive intelligence, I go into my +room, informed as to the condition of the Liverpool market, and prepared +to transmit particulars of the same to him. Here are two boxes, divided +into three compartments each, and a _male_ snail in each compartment. +If flour is down, offering a chance for profit in New York upon 'time' +sales, I approach the box marked _minus_, the three snails of which are +called _x_, _y_, and _z_. I take up a little tube,--such a one as is +used by chemists to drop infinitesimal portions of any liquid; I dip +this into a vial marked _No_. 1, containing a solution of salt in +water,--there is a row of these vials, the solution in each being of a +different strength,--and then, with the moistened tube, I touch snail +_x_, or snail _y_, or snail _z_, or any two of them, or all three, once, +twice, three times, or repeatedly, according to the news I wish to +signal,--noting the effect of the poison, and recording the particulars +in a book kept for the purpose,--recording them with a nicety of +intelligent discrimination such as can be obtained only by long and +practised observation. I send an abstract of this record by every mail +to my partner, so as to verify our results and to detect immediately any +derangement. At _his_ end of our line the brave John Meavy waits before +two similar boxes, in each compartment of which is a _female_ snail. He +is a skilled observer, and his quick eve beholds snails _a_, _b_, _c_ +exactly (through sympathy) _repeating_ the effects I am producing in +_x_, _y_, _z_,--though the distance between them is over three thousand +miles! He knows the meaning of these slight effects, and, going upon +'Change, buys or sells with a perfect assurance of profit. + +"Such was my telegraph, in its rudest outline; but I had systematized it +to a degree of far greater nicety. I provided entirely against man's +imperfect and defective powers of observation. These movements and +squirmings, which in snails _x_, _y_, _z_, were the effect of a physical +cause, (salt-water.) were, in snails _a_, _b_, _c_, the result of +sympathy for _x_, _y_, _z_, as I have said,--a result constant, +determinate, and always to be depended upon. That is the _law_ of +their _rapport_,--not a _theory_, but a _law_, established by long, +exhaustive, and conclusive experimentation. The reason for it I +cannot assign,--did not pretend to investigate; but the _fact_ I had +ascertained: _x_, _y_, _z_, so touched, squirm, contract, and expand +their articulations, and exude from their pores a certain slimy sweat, +of agony it may be,--anyhow, a slimy exudation comes from them, +--and, _simultaneously_, and _just as much_ in kind, degree, quality, +everything, snails _a_, _b_, _c_ repeat the process. Such is the law, +constant as gravitation. Consequently, all that the _operator_ has to +concern himself about is, to understand that so many touches, with fluid +of such intensity, to so many snails, and repeated so often, produce +such and such an effect upon them, as, collectively considered, to +convey, through _a_, _b_, _c_, a certain piece of information. Knowing +this, skill in manipulation and accurate memory are all the qualities +he requires to conjoin to such knowledge. But the _observer_ has a much +more delicate office to perform, and, until I invented my recording +apparatus, the functions of this post could be discharged only roughly +and imperfectly, so evanescent and complex the manifestations. But I +discovered a _chemical_ observer, employing tests that nothing could +escape, nor anything deceive. The clock that indicates the hour for +receipt of news puts in motion the filaments of certain delicate +machinery connected with the boxes wherein are _a_, _b_, _c_. These +snails are placed upon a gauze-like substance, which, though firm enough +to support them undisturbed, permits both their natural excretions, and +their exudations under excitement, to filter through readily. As soon +as the hour comes, the machinery moves, and there begins to pass the +_recording paper_, so to speak, which I invented,--a paper not meant +to receive any vulgar mechanical impression, but one which, to the +instructed eye, and by the aid of the microscope, sets forth in _plain +language_ the nature of the functional disturbance in each snail, its +quality, its intensity, and its duration. I do not exaggerate, Monsieur. +This paper, in a word, is chemically prepared, saturated in a substance +that renders it perfectly sympathetic to whatever fluid exudes from the +snail, and thus, and by means of its motion, it records the quantity and +quality of the impression with unvarying accuracy. The observing hour +over, the clock-work stops, the paper is examined, and the result +recorded carefully. _Par exemple:_ I touch snail _x_, once, twice, three +times, with the weak solution, No. 1; John Meavy, receiving this fact, +through the sympathetic report of snail _a_, the chemical paper, and the +microscope, reads, as plainly as if it had been printed in pica type: +'_Flour declined threepence_.' If the fluid used is stronger, the +touches more numerous, and bestowed upon _y_ and _z_ also,--then the +decline or advance is proportionately great. Is it not a grandly simple +thing, this telegraph of mine, Monsieur?" + +----I was dazzled, perplexed,--so entirely new, strange, incredible was +all this to me; but I expressed to the little Frenchman, in what terms I +could command, my profound sense of his genius and originality. + +"_Eh, bien!_ I went to Europe," resumed he, "and John Meavy, my brave +comrade, stayed in New York, buying and selling flour, and turning over +his capital with a rapidity of success that surprised everybody; while +his modest demeanor, his chivalry of manner, and his noble generosity +won the admission of all, that Prosperity chose well, when she elected +John for her favorite. + +"At the end of a year we were worth nearly half a million of dollars, +and our credit was perfect. Then, however, John wrote for me to come +home. He was engaged to be married, he said, wanted me to be present at +the ceremony, and wished my aid in effecting some changes in our mode of +business. I was not unwilling, for I also had some suggestions to make. +I was tired of my place as operator; I yearned to quit my post of simple +spectator, and to plunge head-foremost into the strife of money-getting. +Apart from my irksome position, I felt myself more fit for John's +post than he was. As the capital we worked with increased, John waxed +cautious, and, most illogically, announced himself afraid to venture, +--as if his risk were not as great with ten thousand as with a million! +This did not suit me. I felt myself capable of using money as mere +counters, I divested it of all the terrors of magnitude, and thus I knew +I could do as much in proportion with five million dollars as with +five dollars. And the result, I was perfectly aware, would be to those +achieved by John as the elephant in his normal strength compares with +the elephant whose strength is to his size as the flea's strength to +_his_ size. John could take the flea's leap with five dollars, but was +satisfied with the elephant's leap with five million dollars. + +"So I took the next steamer, reached New York safely, and was most +cordially welcomed by my noble John Meavy, who seemed exuberant with the +happiness in store for him. Before he would say a word about business, +he insisted upon taking me to his betrothed's, and introduced me to his +lovely Cornelia. He had chosen well, Monsieur: his bride was worthy a +throne; she was worthy John Meavy himself,--a woman refined, charming, +entirely perfect. At John's solicitation, I was his groomsman; I +accompanied him upon his wedding-tour; and mine was the last hand he +clasped, as he stood on the steamer's deck, on his way to Europe to take +my place at the head of the Liverpool house. How many kind words he +lavished upon me! how many a good and kindly piece of advice he murmured +in my ear at that farewell moment! Ah! I do not think John wished to go +thither; he was ever a home-body; and I am sure his wife disliked it +much. But they saw it was my desire, they seemed to regard me as the +builder-up of their fortunes, and they yielded without a murmur. _Bête_ +that I was! Yet I was not selfish, Monsieur. Building up in dreams my +fortune Babel-high, I built up also ever the fortune of John Meavy and +his peerless wife to a point just as near the clouds. _Eh, bien!_ it +amounted to nothing in the end, all this; but--I was not selfish! + +"Our business was nominally the old one; but, in fact, in accordance +with the new arrangements John and I had agreed upon, I was to begin +cotton-speculation, and John was to keep me informed regarding the +fluctuations of the Liverpool market in that staple. My first efforts, +though successful of necessity, were small, I wished John to gain +confidence in my mode of conducting the business, before I ventured upon +more extensive operations. + +"Meantime, John's letters put me in continual fine spirits. He kept his +telegraphic apparatus at home, and so was much with Cornelia. He and his +wife, he said, were very happy; people could not love one another more +than they did. He blessed me a thousand times, because my invention had +taken him to New York, and so had enabled him to meet Cornelia. But--ah, +these 'buts,' Monsieur!--if you will search long enough the brightest, +the clearest blue sky, you will always find some little speck, some +faint film of cloud,--'t is your 'but,' Monsieur!--John fancied his +wife was not altogether so happy as it was possible for her to be. She +did not like the cold, colorless Liverpool, nor the foggy people there. +She pined a little, perhaps, for old home-associations, wrote John. +Could I not think of some means to increase her content? I knew the +human heart so well; I was such a genius, moreover. Ah, bah! Monsieur, +'t is the old song: I felt myself capable of sweeping the little cloud +from the sky also, as I had done everything else,--I, this sublime +genius! Monsieur, a moment look upon him, this genius, this triple blind +fool! _Eh, bien!_ I considered:--Cornelia, like all tender, susceptible +people, owes much to _little things_. She will not have to remain there +long; meantime, can I not revive in her mind the associations to which +she is used, and so both make her happy and bless my good comrade, John +Meavy? How, then? Once, during John's wedding-trip, we had stopped one +evening in a little country-town, and while we were there, talking +pleasantly by the open window, a mocking-bird, caged before a house +across the way, had struck up a perfect symphony of his rich and +multitudinous song. Cornelia was delighted beyond measure, and seemed to +yearn for the bird. John tried to buy it; but it was a pet; its owners +were well-to-do, and would not sell: so Cornelia had to go away without +it, and I fancied she was greatly chagrined, though, of course, she said +nothing, and seemed soon to forget it. So now the notion came to me:--I +will send Cornelia a mocking-bird. Its music will charm her,--its notes +will recall a thousand sounds of home,--it will give her occupation, +something to think about and to care for, until more important cares +intervene,--and so it will help to banish this _triste_ mood of _ennui. +Eh, bien!_ I soon had a very fine bird. Ah, Monsieur, I cannot tell +you what a fine bird was that fellow,--_Don Juan_ his name,--such an +arch-rascal! such a merry eye he had! such a proud, Pompadour throat! +such volumes of song! such splendid powers of mimicry! I kept him +with me a week to test his gifts, and I began to envy Cornelia her +treasure,--he was so tame, so bold, so intelligent. In that week, by +whistling to him in my leisure hours, I taught him to perform almost +perfectly that lively _aria_ of Meyerbeer's, _'Folle è quei che l'oro +aduna,'_ and also to mimic beautifully the chirping of a cricket. Well, +I sent _Don Juan_ out, and received due information of his safe arrival. +The medicine acted like a charm. Cornelia wrote me a grateful letter, +full of enthusiastic praises of 'her pet, her darling, the dearest, +sweetest, cutest little bird that ever anybody owned.' And I was more +than rewarded by the heartfelt thanks of my noble John Meavy. _Diantre!_ +had I only wrung the thing's neck! + +"_Eh, bien!_ The period upon which I calculated for my grand speculative +_coup_ had nearly arrived. Owing to a variety of circumstances, the +cotton-market had for some months been in a very perturbed condition; +and I, who had closely scrutinized its aspects, felt sure that before +long there would be some decided movement that would make itself felt +to all the financial centres. This movement I resolved to profit by, in +order to achieve riches at a single stroke. I had recommended John to +increase his observations, and keep me carefully preadvised of every +change. But I did not tell him how extensively I meant to operate, for +I knew 't would make him anxious, and, moreover, I wished to dazzle him +with a sudden magnificent achievement. Well, things slowly drew towards +the point I desired. There was a certain war in embryo, I thought, the +inevitable result of which would be to beat down the price of cotton to +a minimum. Would the war come off? A steamer arrived with such news as +made it certain that another fortnight would settle the question. How +anxiously, how tremulously I watched my telegraph then,--noting down all +the fluctuations so faithfully reported to me by John Meavy,--all my +brain on fire with visions of unwonted, magnificent achievement! For +two days the prices wavered and rippled to and fro, like the uncertain +rippling of the waters at turning of the tide. Then, on the morning of +the third day, the long-expected change was announced, and in a way that +startled me, prepared though I was,--so violent was the decline. Down, +down, down, down to the very lowest! reported my faithful snails. I did +not need to consult the sympathetic paper, for the agonized writhings of +the poor animals spoke plainly enough to the naked eye. I seized my hat, +rushed to my office, and began my grand _coup. Eh, bien!_ I shall not go +into details. Suffice it to say, for three days I was in communication +with cotton men all over the country; and, without becoming known abroad +as the party at work, I sold 'on time' such a quantity of 'the staple' +that my operations had the effect to put down the prices everywhere; and +if John Meavy's report were correct, our profits during those three days +would exceed three millions of dollars! Having now done all I could, and +feeling completely worn out, I went home, for the first time since +the news, flung myself upon a bed, and slept an unbroken sleep during +twenty-four hours. After that, refreshed and gay, I went once more to +the operating-room to see what further reports had arrived since I had +received the decisive intelligence. Decisive, indeed! Monsieur, when I +looked through the glass lids into the boxes, there lay my snails, stiff +and dead! Not only my faithful ones, _a, b, c,_ but likewise the _plus_ +ones, _d, e, f!_ Yes, there they lay, _plus_ and _minus,_ each in his +compartment, convulsed and distorted, as if their last agonies had been +terrible to endure! Stiff and dead! _Mon Dieu, Monsieur!_ and I had +pledged the name and credit of the house of John Meavy and Co. to an +extent from which there _could_ be no recovery, if aught untoward had +happened! _Eh, bien. Monsieur!_ César Prévost is fortunate in a very +elastic temperament. Yet I did not dare think of John Meavy. However, if +the thing was done, it was too late for remedy now. _Eh, bien!_ I +would wait. Meantime, I carefully examined to see if any cause was +discoverable to have produced these deaths. None. 'T was irresistible, +then, that the cause was at John's end. What? An accident,--perhaps, +nervous, he had dosed them too heavily; but--I dared not think about +it,--I would only--wait! + +"_Eh, bien, Monsieur!_ It would be seven days yet before I could get +news. I waited,--waited calmly and composedly. _Mon Dieu!_ they talk of +heroism in leading a forlorn hope,--César Prévost was a hero for those +eight days. I do not think about them even now. + +"On the third day came a steamer with news of uncertain import, but on +the whole favorable. By the same advice a letter reached me from my old +comrade, John Meavy: his affairs were prosperous, he and his wife very +happy, and _Don Juan_ more charming than ever. + +"Monsieur, the fourth day came,--the fifth,--the sixth,--the +seventh,--finding me still waiting. No one, to see me, could have +guessed I had not slept for a week. _Eh, bien!_ I will not dwell upon +it! + +"The morning of the eighth day came. I breakfasted, read my paper, +smoked my cigar, and walked leisurely to my counting-room. I answered +the letters. I sauntered round to bank, paid a note that had fallen due, +got a check cashed, and, having counted the money and secured it in my +pocket-book, I walked out and stood upon the bank-steps, talking with a +business-friend, who inquired after John Meavy. 'T was a pleasant theme +to converse about, this,--for _me!_ + +"A news-boy came running down Wall Street, with papers under his arm. +'Here you are!' he cried. 'Extray! Steamer just in! Latest news from +Europe! All 'bout the new alliance! Consols firm,--cotton riz! Extray, +Sir?' + +"I bought one, and the boy ran off as I paid him and snatched the paper +from his hand. + +"'You gave that rascal a gold dollar for a half-dime,' said my friend. + +"'Did I?' + +"A gold dollar! I wondered very quaintly what he would say, when, in a +few days, he heard of the failure of John Meavy & Co. for three millions +of dollars. A gold dollar! + +"_Eh, bien, Monsieur!_ I shall not dwell upon it. Enough,--we were +ruined. I had played my grand _coup,_ and lost. For myself, nothing. +But--John Meavy! Oh, Monsieur, I could not think! I went to my office, +and sat there all day, stupid, only twirling my watch-key, and repeating +to myself,--'A gold dollar! a gold dollar!' The afternoon had nearly +gone when one of my clerks roused me:--'A letter for you, Mr. Prévost; +it came by the steamer to-day.' + +"Monsieur," said the little Frenchman, producing a well-worn +pocket-book, and taking out from it a tattered, yellow sheet, which he +unfolded before me,--"Monsieur, you shall read that letter." + +It was this:-- + +"MY DEAR CESAR:-- + +"You must blame me and poor _Don Juan_ for the suspension of your +Telegraph. I write, myself, to tell you how careless I have been; for +poor John is in such a state of agitation, and seems to fear such +calamities, that I will not let him write;--though what evil can come +of it, beyond the inconvenience, I cannot see, nor will he tell me. You +must answer this immediately, so as to prove to John that nothing has +gone wrong; and so give me a chance to scold this good husband of mine +for his vain and womanish apprehensions. But let me tell you how it +happened to the poor snails,--_Don Juan_ is so tame, that I do not +pretend to keep him shut up in his cage, but let him fly about our +sitting-room, just as he pleases. The next room to this, you know, is +the one where we kept the snails. I have been helping John with these +for some time, and it is my custom, when he goes on 'Change, to look +after the ugly creatures, and especially to open the boxes and give them +air. Well, this morning,--you must not scold me, César, for I have wept +enough for my carelessness, and as I write am trembling all over like +a leaf,--this morning, I went into the snail-room as usual, opened the +boxes, noted how well all six looked, and then, going to the window, +stood there for some minutes, looking out at the people across the way +preparing for the illumination to-night, (for we are going to have peace +at last, and every one is so rejoiced!) and forgetting entirely that I +had left open both the door of this room and that of the sitting-room +also, until I heard the flutter of _Don Juan's_ wings behind me. I +turned, and was horror-stricken to find him perched on the boxes, +and pecking away at the poor snails, as if they were strawberries! I +screamed, and ran to drive him off, but I was too late,--for, just as I +caught him, the greedy fellow picked up and swallowed the last one of +the entire six! I felt almost like killing _him,_ then; but I could +not,--nor could _you_ have done it, César, had you but seen the arch +defiance of his eye, as he fluttered out of my hands, flew back to his +cage, and began to pour forth a whole world of melody! + +"My dear César, I know my carelessness was most culpable, but it +_cannot_ be so bad as John fears. Oh, if anything should happen now, by +my fault, when we are so prosperous and happy, I could never forgive +myself! Do write to me as soon as possible, and relieve the anxiety of + +"Affectionately yours, CORNELIA." + +The little Frenchman looked at me with a glance half sad, half comical, +as I returned the letter to him. + +"_Eh, bien, Monsieur!_" said he, shrugging his shoulders,--"you've heard +my story. 'Twas fate,--what could one do?" + +"But that is not all,--John Meavy,"--said I. + +The little Frenchman looked very grave and sad. + +"Monsieur, my brave _camarade,_ John Meavy, had been brought up in a +stern school. His ideas of credit and of mercantile honor were pitched +very high indeed. He imagined himself disgraced forever, and--he did not +survive it." + +"You do not mean"---- + +"I mean, Monsieur, that I lost the bravest and truest and most generous +friend that ever man had, when John Meavy died. And that dose of Prussic +Acid should properly have gone to me, whose fault it all was, instead +of to him, so innocent. _Eh, bien, Monsieur!_ his lot was the happiest, +after all." + +"But Cornelia?" said I, after a pause. + +The little Frenchman rose, with a quiet and graceful air, full of +sadness, yet of courtesy; and I knew then that he was no longer my guest +and entertainer, but once more the chapman with his wares. + +"Monsieur, Cornelia is under my protection. You will comprehend +_that_--after that--she has not escaped with impunity. Some little +strings snapped in the harp. She is _touchée_, here," said he, resting +one finger lightly upon his forehead,--"but 'tis all for the best, _sans +doute._ She is quiet, peaceable,--and she does not remember. She sits in +my house, working, and the bird sings to her ever. 'Tis a gallant bird, +Monsieur. And though I am poor, I can yet make some provision for her +comfort. She has good taste, and is very industrious. These baskets are +all of her make; when I have no other employ, I sell them about, and +use the money for her. _Eh, bien!_ 'tis a small price,--fifty cents; if +Monsieur will purchase one, he will possess a basket really handsome, +and will have contributed something to the comfort of one of the +Good God's _protégées. Mille remerciements, Monsieur,_--for this +purchase,--for your entertainment,--for your courtesy! + +"_Bon jour, Monsieur!_" + + * * * * * + +About half an hour after this, I had occasion to traverse one of the +corridors of Barnan's Hotel, when I saw a group of gentlemen, most of +whom sported "Atlantic Cable Charms" on their watchchains, gathered +about a person who had secured their rapt attention to some story he was +narrating. + +"_Eh, bien, Messieurs!_" I heard him say, in a peculiar naïve broken +English, "it would be yet seven days before I could get ze news,--and--I +wait. Oui! calm_lie_, composed_lie_, with insouciance beyond guess, I +wait"-- + +"I wonder," said I to myself, as I passed on, "I wonder if M. César +Prévost's account of his remarkable invention of the First Atlantic +Telegraph have not some subtile connection with his desire to find as +speedy and remunerative a sale as possible for his pretty baskets!" + + + + +LADY BYRON. + + +It is seldom that a woman becomes the world's talk but by some great +merit or fault of her own, or some rare qualification so bestowed by +Nature as to be incapable of being hidden. Great genius, rare beauty, a +fitness for noble enterprise, the venturous madness of passion, account +for ninety-nine cases in the hundred of a woman becoming the subject of +general conversation and interest. Lady Byron's was the hundredth case. +There was a time when it is probable that she was spoken of every day in +every house in England where the family could read; and for years the +general anxiety to hear anything that could be told of her was almost as +striking in Continental society and in the United States as in her own +country. Yet she had neither genius, nor conspicuous beauty, nor "a +mission," nor any quality of egotism which could induce her to brave the +observation of the world for any personal aim. She had good abilities, +well cultivated for the time when she was young; she was rather pretty, +and her countenance was engaging from its expression of mingled +thoughtfulness and brightness; she was as lady-like as became her birth +and training; and her strength of character was so tempered with modesty +and good taste that she was about the last woman that could have been +supposed likely to become celebrated in any way, or, yet more, to be +passionately disputed about and censured, in regard to her temper and +manners: yet such was her lot. No breath of suspicion ever dimmed her +good repute, in the ordinary sense of the expression: but to this day +she is misapprehended, wherever her husband's genius is adored; and she +is charged with precisely the faults which it was most impossible for +her to commit. For the original notoriety she was not answerable; but +for the protracted misapprehension of her character she was. She early +decided that it was not necessary or desirable to call the world into +council on her domestic affairs; her husband's doing it was no reason +why she should; and for nearly forty years she preserved a silence, +neither haughty nor sullen, but merely natural, on matters in which +women usually consider silence appropriate. She never inquired what +effect this silence had on public opinion in regard to her, nor +countenanced the idea that public opinion bore any relation whatever to +her private affairs and domestic conduct. Such independence and such +reticence naturally quicken the interest and curiosity of survivors; +and they also stimulate those who knew her as she was to explain her +characteristics to as many as wish to understand them, after disputing +about them for the lifetime of a whole generation. + +Anne Isabella Noel Milbanke (that was her maiden name) was an only +child. Her father, Sir Ralph Milbanke, was the sixth baronet of that +name. Her mother was a Noel, daughter of Viscount and Baron Wentworth, +and remotely descended from royalty,--that is, from the youngest son of +Edward I. After the death of Lady Milbanke's father and brother, the +Barony of Wentworth was in abeyance between the daughter of Lady +Milbanke and the son of her sister till 1856, when, by the death of that +cousin, Lord Scarsdale, Lady Byron became possessed of the inheritance +and title. During her childhood and youth, however, her parents were not +wealthy; and it was understood that Miss Milbanke would have no fortune +till the death of her parents, though her expectations were great. +Though this want of immediate fortune did not prove true, the report of +it was probably advantageous to the young girl, who was sought for other +things than her fortune. When Lord Byron thought of proposing, the +friend who had brought him to the point of submitting to marriage +objected to Miss Milbanke on two grounds,--that she had no fortune, and +that she was a learned lady. The gentleman was as wrong in his facts +as mischievous in his advice to the poet to many. Miss Milbanke had +fortune, and she was not a learned lady. Such men as the two who held +a consultation on the points, whether a man entangled in intrigues and +overwhelmed with debts should release himself by involving a trusting +girl in his difficulties, and whether the girl should be Miss Milbanke +or another, were not likely to distinguish between the cultivated +ability of a sensible girl and the pedantry of a blue-stocking; and +hence, because Miss Milbanke was neither ignorant nor silly, she was +called a learned lady by Lord Byron's associates. He bore testimony, in +due time, to her agreeable qualities as a companion,--her brightness, +her genial nature, her quiet good sense; and we heard no more of her +"learning" and "mathematics," till it suited her enemies to get up a +theory of incompatibility of temper between her and her husband. The +fact was, she was well-educated, as education was then, and had the +acquirements which are common in every house among the educated classes +of English society. + +She was born in 1792, and passed her early years chiefly on her father's +estates of Halnaby, near Darlington, Yorkshire, and Seaham, in Durham. +She retained a happy recollection of her childhood and youth, if one may +judge by her attachment to the old homes, when she had lost the power of +attaching herself, in later life, to any permanent home. When an offer +of service was made to her, some years since, by a person residing on +the Northumberland coast, the service she asked was that a pebble might +be sent her from the beach at Seaham, to be made into a brooch, and worn +for love of the old place. + +Her father, as a Yorkshire baronet, spent his money freely. A good deal +of it went in election-expenses, and the hospitality of the house was +great. It was too orderly and sober and old-fashioned for Lord Byron's +taste, and he quizzed it accordingly; but he admitted the kindliness of +it, and the amiability which made guests glad to go there and sorry to +come away. His special records of Miss Milbanke's good-humor, spirit, +and pleasantness indicate the source of subsequent misrepresentations of +her. Till he saw it, he could not conceive that order and dutifulness +could coexist with liveliness and great charms of mind and manners; and +when the fact was out of sight, he went back to his old notion, that +affectionate parents and dutiful daughters must be dull, prudish, and +tiresome. + +"Bell" was beloved as only daughters are, but so unspoiled as to be +sought in marriage as eagerly as if she had been a merry member of a +merry tribe. Lord Byron himself offered early, and was refused, like +many other suitors. Her feelings were not the same, however, to him as +to others. It is no wonder that a girl not out of her teens should be +captivated by the young poet whom the world was beginning to worship for +his genius as very few men are worshipped in their prime, and who could +captivate young and old, man, woman, and child, when he chose to try. +As yet, his habits of life and mind had not told upon his manners, +conversation, and countenance as they did afterwards. The beauty of his +face, the reserved and hesitating grace of his manner, and the pith and +strength of such conversation as he was tempted into might well win +the heart of a girl who was certainly far more fond of poetry than of +mathematics. Yet she refused him. Perhaps she did not know him enough. +Perhaps she did not know her own feelings at the moment. She afterwards +found that she had always loved him. His renewed offers at the close +of two years made her very happy. She was drawing near the end of her +portion of life's happiness; and she seems to have had no suspicion of +the baselessness of her natural and innocent bliss. It is probable that +nobody about her knew, any more than herself, how and why Lord Byron +offered to her a second time, till Moore published the facts in his +"Life" of the poet. The thrill of disgust which ran through every good +heart, on reading the story, made all sympathizers ask how she +could bear to learn how she had been treated in the confidences of +profligates. Perhaps she had known it long before, as her husband had +repeatedly tried his powers of terrifying and depressing her; but, at +all events, she could bear anything,--not only with courage and in +silence, but with calmness and inexhaustible mercy. According to Moore's +account, a friend of Byron's urged him to marry, as a remedy for the +melancholy restlessness and disorder of his life; "and, after much +discussion, he consented." The next proceedings were in character with +this "consent." Byron named Miss Milbanke: the friend objected, on the +grounds of her possession of learning and supposed want of fortune; and +Byron actually commissioned his adviser to propose for him to the lady +he did not prefer. She refused him; and then future proceedings were +determined by his friend's admiration of the letter he had got ready for +Miss Milbanke. It was such a pretty letter, it would be a pity not to +send it. So it was sent. + +If she could have known, as she hung over that letter, what eyes had +read lines that should have been her own secret property, and as what +kind of alternative the letter had been prepared, what a different life +might hers have been! But she could not dream of being laid hold of as a +speculation in that style, and she was happy,--as women are for once in +their lives, and as she deserved to be. There was another alternative, +besides that of two ladies to be weighed in the balance. Byron was +longing to go abroad again, and he would have preferred that to +marrying; but the importunity of his friends decided him for marriage. +In a short time, and for a short time, Miss Milbanke's influence was too +strong for his wayward nature and his pernicious friends to resist. His +heart was touched, his mind was soothed, and he thought better of women, +and perhaps of the whole human race, than he had ever done before. He +wrote to Moore, who owned he had "never liked her," and who boded evil +things from the marriage, that she was so good that he wished he was +better,--that he had been quite mistaken in supposing her of "a very +cold disposition." These gentlemen had heard of her being regarded as "a +pattern lady in the North"; and they had made up an image of a prude and +a blue in their own minds, which Byron presently set himself to work to +pull down. He wrote against Moore's notion of her as "strait-laced," in +a spirit of justice awakened by his new satisfactions and hopes: but +there are in the narrative no signs of love on his part,--nothing more +than an amiable complacency in the discovery of her attachment to him. + +The engagement took place in September, 1814, and the marriage in the +next January. Moore saw him in the interval, and had no remaining hope, +from that time, that Byron could ever make or find happiness in +married life. He was satisfied that love was, in Byron's case, only an +imagination; and he pointed to a declaration of Byron's, that, when in +the society of the woman he loved, even at the happiest period of his +attachment, he found himself secretly longing to be alone. Secretly +during the courtship, but not secretly after marriage. + +"Tell me, Byron," said his wife, one day, not long after they were +married, and he was moodily staring into the fire,--"am I in your way?" + +"Damnably," was the answer. + +It will be remembered by all readers that the reason he assigned for the +good terms on which he remained with his half-sister, Mrs. Leigh, was +that they seldom or never saw each other. + +When Moore saw him in London, he was in a troubled state of mind about +his affairs. His embarrassments were so pressing that he meditated +breaking off the match; but it was within a month of the wedding-day, +and he said he had gone too far to retract.--How it was that Sir Ralph +Milbanke did not make it his business to ascertain all the conditions +of a union with a man of Byron's reputation it is difficult to imagine. +Every movement of the idolized poet was watched, anecdotes of his life +and ways were in all mouths; and a prudent father, if encouraging his +addresses at all, should naturally have ascertained the chances of his +daughter having an honorable and happy home. Sir Ralph probably thought +so, when there were ten executions in the house in the first few months +after the marriage. Those difficulties, however, did not affect the +happiness of the marriage unfavorably. The wife was not the less of the +heroic temperament for being "a pattern young lady." She was one whose +spirit was sure to rise under pressure, and who was always most cheerful +when trouble called forth her energies on behalf of others. Liberal with +her own property, making light of privation, full of clear and practical +resource in emergency, she won her husband's admiration in the midst of +the difficulties into which he had plunged her. For a time he was not +ashamed of that admiration; and his avowals of it are happily on record. + +They were married on the second of January. The wedding-day was +miserable. Byron awoke in one of his melancholy moods, and wandered +alone in the grounds till called to be married. His wayward mind was +full of all the associations that were least congenial with the day. +His thoughts were full of Mary Chaworth, and of old scenes in his life, +which he fancied he loved because he was now leaving them behind. +He declared that his poem of "The Dream" was a true picture of his +wedding-morning; and there are circumstances, not told in his "Life," +which render this probable. After the ceremony and breakfast, the young +couple left Seaham for Sir Ralph's seat at Halnaby. Towards dusk of that +winter-day, the carriage drove up to the door, where the old butler +stood ready to receive his young lady and her bridegroom. The moment the +carriage-door was opened, the bridegroom jumped out and walked away. +When his bride alighted, the old servant was aghast. She came up +the steps with the listless gait of despair. Her face and movements +expressed such utter horror and desolation, that the old butler longed +to offer his arm to the lonely young creature, as an assurance of +sympathy and protection. Various stories got abroad as to the cause of +this horror, one probably as false as another; and, for his own part, +Byron met them by a false story of Miss Milbanke's lady's-maid having +been stuck in, bodkin-wise, between them. As Lady Byron certainly soon +got over the shock, the probability is that she satisfied herself that +he had been suffering under one of the dark moods to which he was +subject, both constitutionally and as the poet of moods. + +It is scarcely possible at our time of day to make sufficient allowance +for such a woman having entered upon such a marriage, in spite of the +notoriety of the risks. Byron was then the idol of much more than the +literary world. His poetry was known by heart by multitudes of men and +women who read very little else; and one meets, at this day, elderly +men, who live quite outside of the regions of literature, who believe +that there never could have been such a poet before, and would say, if +they dared, that there will never be such another again. He appeared at +the moment when society was restless and miserable, and discontented +with the Fates and the universe and all that it contained. The general +sensibility had not for long found any expression in poetry. Literature +seemed something quite apart from experience, and with which none but +a particular class had any concern. At such a time, when Europe +lay desolate under the ravage and incessant menace of the French +Empire,--when England had an insane King, a profligate Regent, an +atrocious Ministry, and a corrupt Parliament,--when the war drained the +kingdom of its youth, and every class of its resources,--when there was +chronic discontent in the manufacturing districts, and hunger among the +rural population, with a perpetual extension of pauperism, swallowing +up the working and even the middle classes,--when everybody was full of +anxiety, dread, or a reactionary recklessness,--there suddenly appeared +a new strain of poetry which seemed to express every man's mood. Every +man took up the song. Byron's musical woe resounded through the land. +People who had not known exactly what was the matter with them now found +that life was what Byron said it was, and that they were sick of it. I +can well remember the enthusiasm,--the better, perhaps, for never having +shared it. At first I was too young, and afterwards I found too much of +moods and too little of matter to create any lasting attachment to +his poetry. But the music of it rang in all ears, and the rush of its +popularity could not be resisted by any but downright churlish persons. +I remember how ladies, in morning calls, recited passages of Byron to +each other,--and how gentlemen, in water-parties, whispered his short +poems to their next neighbor. If a man was seen walking with his head +down and his lips moving, he was revolving Byron's last romance; and +children who began, to keep albums wrote, in double lines on the first +page, some stanza which caught them by its sound, if they were not up to +its sense. On some pane in every inn-window there was a scrap of Byron; +and in young ladies' portfolios there were portraits of the poet, +recognizable, through all bad drawing and distortion, by the cast of the +beautiful features and the Corsair style. Where a popularity like this +sprang up, there must be sufficient reason for it to cause it to involve +more or less all orders of minds; and the wisest and most experienced +men, and the most thoroughly trained scholars, fell into the general +admiration, and keenly enjoyed so melodious an expression of a general +state of feeling, without asking too pertinaciously for higher views and +deeper meanings. Old Quakers were troubled at detecting hidden copies +and secret studies of Byron among young men and maidens who were to be +preserved from all stimulants to the passions; and they were yet more +troubled, when, looking to see what the charm was which so wrought upon +the youth of their sect, they found themselves carried away by it, +beyond all power to forget what they had read. The idolatry of the poet, +which marked that time, was an inevitable consequence of the singular +aptness of his utterance. His dress, manners, and likings were adopted, +so far as they could be ascertained, by hundreds of thousands of youths +who were at once sated with life and ambitious of fame, or at least of a +reputation for fastidious discontent; young ladies declared that Byron +was everything that was great and good; and even our best literature of +criticism shows how respectful and admiring the hardest reviewers grew, +after the poet had become the pet and the idol of all England. At such a +time, how should "Bell" Milbanke resist the intoxication,--even before +the poet addressed himself particularly to her? A great reader in the +quietness of her home, where all her tastes were indulged,--a lover of +poetry, and so genial and sympathizing as to be always sure to be filled +with the spirit of her time,--how could she fail to idolize Byron as +others did? And what must have been her exaltation, when he told her +that the welfare of his whole life depended upon her! Between her +exaltation, her love, her sympathy, and her admiration, she might well +make allowance for his eccentricities first, and for worse afterwards. +Thus, probably, it was that she got over the shock of that +wedding-drive, and was again the bright, affectionate, trusting and +winning woman whom he had described before and was to describe again to +his skeptical friend Moore. + +Before six weeks were over, he wrote to Moore (after some previous +hankerings) that he should go abroad soon, "and alone, too." He did not +go then. In April the death of Lord Wentworth occurred, causing Sir +Ralph and Lady Milbanke to take the name of Noel, according to Lord +Wentworth's will, and assuring the prospect of ultimate accession of +wealth. Meantime, the new expenses of his married life, entered upon +without any extrication from old debts, caused such embarrassment, that, +after many other humiliations had been undergone, he offered his +books for sale. As Lady Byron maintained a lifelong silence about the +sufferings of her married life, little is known of that miserable year +beyond what all the world saw: executions in the house; increasing gloom +and recklessness in the husband; a bright patience and resoluteness in +the wife; and an immense pity felt by the poet's adorers for his trials +by a persecuting Fate. During the summer and autumn, his mention of his +wife to his correspondents became less frequent and more formal. His +tone about his approaching "papaship" tells nothing. He was not likely +to show to such men any good or natural feelings on the occasion. In +December, his daughter, Augusta Ada, was born; and early in January, he +wrote to Moore so melancholy a "Heigho!" on occasion of his having been +married a year, as to incite that critical observer to write him an +inquiry about the state of his domestic spirits. The end was near, and +the world was about to see its idol and his wife tested in moral action +of a very stringent kind. + +By means of the only publication ever made or authorized by Lady Byron +on the subject of her domestic life, her vindication of her parents, +contained in the Appendix of Moore's "Life" of the poet, we know, that, +during her confinement, Lord Byron's nearest relatives were alarmed by +tokens of eccentricity so marked, that they informed her, as soon as she +was recovered, that they believed him insane. His confidential servant +bore the same testimony; and she naturally believed it, when she resumed +her place in the household, and saw how he was going on. On the sixth of +January, the day after he wrote the "Heigho!" to Moore, he desired his +wife, in writing, to go to her parents on the first day that it was +possible for her to travel. Her physicians would not let her go earlier +than the fifteenth; and on that day she went. She never saw her husband +again. + +She had, in agreement with his family, consulted Dr. Baillie on her +husband's behalf; and he, supposing the insanity to be real, advised, +before seeing Lord Byron, that she should obey his wish about absenting +herself, as an experiment,--and that, in the interval, she should +converse only on light and cheerful topics. She observed these +directions, and, in the spirit of them, wrote two letters, on the +journey, which bore no marks of the trouble which existed between them. +These letters were afterwards used, even circulated, to create a belief +that Lady Byron had been suddenly persuaded to desert her husband, +though he at least was well aware that the fact was not so. It soon +appeared that he was not insane. Such was the decision of physicians, +relatives, and presently of Lady Byron herself. While there was any +room for supposing disease to be the cause of his conduct, she and +her parents were anxious to use all tenderness with him, and devote +themselves to his welfare; but when it became necessary to consider him +sane, his wife declared that she could not return to him. + +It is not necessary to dwell on the imputations Lord Byron spread abroad +at the time, and his biographer afterwards, against the parents of his +wife, and everybody belonging to them who could be supposed to have +the slightest influence over Lady Byron's views or feelings. Those +allegations were publicly shown by her to be false, nearly thirty years +ago. I refer to them now solely because they were the occasion of the +only public disclosure Lady Byron ever voluntarily made on any part of +the subject of her married life. It is needless to exhibit how different +in this respect was the conduct of her husband and his friends. + +It became known by that statement, after some years, that, when Lady +Noel went to London, to see what could and ought to be done, she +obtained good legal opinions on the case, so far as she knew it. Those +opinions declared Lady Byron fully justified in refusing to rejoin her +husband. The parents, however, never knew the whole; and it was on yet +more substantial grounds that Lady Byron formed her resolution. The +facts were submitted, as the world has since known, as an A.B. case, to +Dr. Lushington and Sir Samuel Romilly; and those able lawyers and good +men peremptorily decided, that the wife, whoever she might be, must +never see her husband again. When they learned whose case it was, they +not only gave their full sanction to her refusal to return, but +declared that they would never countenance in any way a change in that +resolution. Dr. Lushington's statement to this effect appears in the +Appendix to Moore's "Life," as a part of Lady Byron's vindication of her +parents. + +It was very hard on her to be compelled to speak at all. For six years +she had kept silence utterly, bearing all imputations without reply. But +when it was brought to her notice that her parents were charged with the +gravest offences by her husband's biographer, after the death of both, +and when no other near relative was in existence, she had no choice. She +must exonerate them. The testimony was, as she said, "extorted" from +her. The respect which had been felt for her during the first years of +silence was not impaired by this disclosure; but it was by one which +occurred a few years later. A statement on her domestic affairs was +published, in her name, in a magazine of large circulation.[A] It +did not really explain anything, while it seemed to break through a +dignified reserve which had won a high degree of general esteem. It +was believed that feminine weakness had prevailed at last; and her +reputation suffered accordingly with many who had till then regarded her +with favor and even reverence. + +[Footnote A: _New Monthly Magazine_, 1836.] + +This was the climax of the hardship of her case. She had no concern +whatever with this act of publication. It was one of poor Campbell's +disastrous pranks. He could not conceive how he could have done such a +thing, and was desperately sorry; but there was little good in that. The +mischief was done which could never be thoroughly repaired. She once +more suffered in silence; for she was not weak enough to complain of +irremediable evils. Nine years afterwards she wrote to a friend, who had +been no less unjustifiably betrayed,--"I am grieved for you, as regards +the actual position; but it will come right. I was myself made to +_appear_ responsible for a publication by Campbell, most unfairly, some +years ago; so that, if I had not imagination enough to enter into your +case, experience would have taught me to do so." + +Those who are old enough to remember the year 1816 will easily recall +the fluctuations of opinion which took place as to the merits of the +husband and the wife, whose separation was as interesting to ten +thousand households as any family event of their own. Then, and for a +few years after, was Lady Byron the world's talk,--innocently, most +reluctantly, and unavoidably. + +At first, while her influence left its impression on his mind, Lord +Byron did her some sort of justice,--fitful and partial, but very +precious to her then, no doubt,--and almost as precious now to the +friends who understood her. It was not till he was convinced that she +would never return, not till he began to quail under the world's ill +opinion, and especially, not till he felt secure that he might rely on +his wife's fidelity and mercy, her silence and magnanimity, that he +changed his tone to one of aspersion and contempt, and his mode of +attack to that of charming, amusing, or inflaming the public with verses +against her and her friends. We have his own testimony to her domestic +merits in the interval between the parting and his lapse into a state of +malignant feeling. In March, 1816, within two months after her leaving +him, Byron wrote thus to Moore:-- + +"I must set you right in one point, however. The fault was _not_--no, +nor even the misfortune--in my 'choice' (unless in choosing at all); +for I do not believe--and I must say it, in the very dregs of all this +bitter business--that there ever was a better, or even a brighter, a +kinder, or a more amiable and agreeable being than Lady B. I never had, +nor can have, any reproach to make her, while with me. Where there is +blame, it belongs to myself; and, if I cannot redeem, I must bear it." + +To us, this is enough; and nothing that he wrote afterwards, in angry +and spiteful moods, can have the slightest effect on our impression of +her: but the case was otherwise at the time. Lord Byron's praise of her +to Moore was not known till the "Life" appeared; whereas pieces like +"The Chanty Ball," coming out from time to time, made the world suppose +that Lady Byron was one of those people, satirized in all literatures, +who violate domestic duty, and make up for it by philanthropic effort +and display. It is the prevalence of this impression to this day which +makes it necessary to present the reality of the case after the lapse of +many years. During Lady Byron's life, no one had a right to speak, if +she chose to be silent; but the more modest and shrinking she was +in regard to her own vindication, the stronger is the appeal to the +fidelity of her friends to see that her reputation does not suffer +through her magnanimity. We have guidance here in her own course in the +case of her parents. Abhorrent as all publicity was to her, she felt and +avowed the obligation to publish those facts of her life in which their +reputation was concerned. The duty is far more easy, but not less +imperative, to practise the same fidelity in regard to her, now that the +truth can be told of her without shocking her modesty. We may hear some +commonplaces about the feelings of the dead and the sensibilities of +survivors, as always happens in such cases: but the sensibilities of +survivors ought to relate, in the first place, to the fair fame of the +dead; and the feelings of the dead, having been duly respected during +life, merge after death into the general beauty of the self-sacrificing +character which would not utter the word by which the adverse judgment +of the world might have been reversed in a moment. While, at this day, +she is regarded as the cause of her husband's sins, by her coldness, +formality, and what not,--fidelity and love to her memory absolutely +require, not fresh disclosures of a private character, but a new +presentment of the evidence long ago given to the world by herself and +by her husband's very partial biographer. This is what I have done, +after thirty years more of life have proved the quality of her mind and +heart. + +As she loved early, she loved steadily and forever. It was through that +love that her magnanimity was so transcendent. When Lord Byron was +dying, he said to his confidential servant, Fletcher, "Go to Lady +Byron,--you will see her, and say"----and here his voice faltered, and +for nearly twenty minutes he muttered words which it was impossible to +catch. The man was obliged to tell him that he had not understood a +syllable. Byron's distress was great; but, as he said, it was too late. +Fletcher, on his return to England, did "go to Lady Byron," and did +see her: but she could only pace the room in uncontrollable agitation, +striving to obtain voice to ask the questions which were surging in her +heart. She could not speak, and he was obliged to leave her. To those +with whom she conversed freely, and to whom she wrote familiarly, it +was strangely interesting to hear, or to read, lines and phrases from +Byron's poems dropped, like native speech, from her tongue or her pen. +Those well-remembered lines or phrases seemed new, and were wonderfully +moving, when coming from her to whom they must have been so much more +than to any one else. How she surmounted such acts as the publication of +"Fare thee well!" and certain others of his safe appeals to the public, +no one could exactly understand. That she forgave them, and loved him to +the end, is enough for us to know; for our interest is in the greatness +of her heart, and not in the littleness of his. + +Her life thenceforth was one of unremitting bounty to society, +administered with as much skill and prudence as benevolence. As we +have seen, her parents died a few years after her return to them for +protection. She lived in retirement, changing her abode frequently, +partly for the benefit of her child's education and the promotion of her +benevolent schemes, and partly from a restlessness which was one of the +few signs of injury received from the spoiling of associations with +_home._ She felt a satisfaction which her friends rejoiced in, when her +daughter married Lord King, at present the Earl of Lovelace, in 1835; +and when grief upon grief followed in the appearance of mortal disease +in her only child, her quiet patience stood her in good stead, as +before. She even found strength to appropriate the blessings of the +occasion, and took comfort, as did her dying daughter, in the intimate +friendship which grew closer as the time of parting drew nigh. Lady +Lovelace died in 1852; and for her few remaining years, Lady Byron +was devoted to her grandchildren. But nearer calls never lessened her +interest in remoter objects. Her mind was of the large and clear quality +which could comprehend remote interests in their true proportions, and +achieve each aim as perfectly as if it were the only one. Her agents +used to say that it was impossible to mistake her directions; and thus +her business was usually well done. There was no room, in her case, for +the ordinary doubts, censures, and sneers about the misapplication of +bounty. Her taste did not lie in the "Charity Ball" direction; her funds +were not lavished in encouraging hypocrisy and improvidence among the +idle and worthless; and the quality of her charity was, in fact, +as admirable as its quantity. Her chief aim was the extension and +improvement of popular education; but there was no kind of misery that +she heard of that she did not palliate to the utmost, and no kind of +solace that her quick imagination and sympathy could devise that she did +not administer. In her methods, she united consideration and frankness +with singular success. For one instance among a thousand:--A lady with +whom she had had friendly relations some time before, and who became +impoverished in a quiet way by hopeless sickness, preferred poverty, +with an easy conscience, to a competency attended by some uncertainty +about the perfect rectitude of the resource. Lady Byron wrote to an +intermediate person exactly what she thought of the case. Whether the +judgment of the sufferer was right or mistaken was nobody's business but +her own: this was the first point. Next, a voluntary poverty could never +be pitied by anybody: that was the second. But it was painful to others +to think of the mortification to benevolent feelings which attends +poverty; and there could be no objection to arresting that pain. +Therefore she, Lady Byron, had lodged in a neighboring bank the sum of +one hundred pounds, to be used for benevolent purposes; and in order to +preclude all outside speculation, she had made the money payable to the +order of the intermediate person, so that the sufferer's name need not +appear at all. Five-and-thirty years of unremitting secret bounty like +this must make up a great amount of human happiness: but this was only +one of a wide variety of methods of doing good. It was the unconcealable +magnitude of her beneficence, and its wise quality, which made her a +second time the theme of English conversation in all honest households +within the four seas. Years ago, it was said far and wide, that Lady +Byron was doing more good than anybody else in England; and it was +difficult to imagine how anybody could do more. Lord Byron spent every +shilling that the law allowed him out of her property, while he lived, +and left away from her every shilling that he could deprive her of by +his will; yet she had eventually a large income at her command. In the +management of it she showed the same wise consideration that marked all +her practical decisions. She resolved to spend her whole income, seeing +how much the world needed help at the moment. Her care was for the +existing generation, rather than for a future one, which would have +its own friends. She usually declined trammelling herself with annual +subscriptions to charities, preferring to keep her freedom from year to +year, and to achieve definite objects by liberal bounty, rather than to +extend partial help over a large surface which she could not herself +superintend. + +It was her first industrial school that awakened the admiration of the +public, which had never ceased to take an interest in her, while sorely +misjudging her character. We hear much now--and everybody hears it with +pleasure--of the spread of education in "common things." But, long +before Miss Coutts inherited her wealth, long before a name was found +for such a method of training, Lady Byron had instituted the thing, and +put it in the way of making its own name. She was living at Ealing, in +Middlesex, in 1834; and there she opened one of the first industrial +schools in England, if not the very first. She sent out a master to +Switzerland, to be instructed in De Fellenburg's method. She took on +lease five acres of land, and spent several hundred pounds in rendering +the buildings upon it fit for the purposes of the school. A liberal +education was afforded to the children of artisans and laborers, during +the half of the day when they were not employed in the field or garden. +The allotments were rented by the boys, who raised and sold produce +which afforded them a considerable yearly profit, if they were good +workmen. Those who worked in the field earned wages,--their labor being +paid by the hour, according to the capability of the young laborer. +They kept their accounts of expenditure and receipts, and acquired good +habits of business, while learning the occupation of their lives. Some +mechanical trades were taught, as well as the arts of agriculture. Part +of the wisdom of the management lay in making the pupils pay. Of one +hundred pupils, half were boarders. They paid little more than half the +expense of their maintenance; and the day-scholars paid three-pence per +week. Of course, a large part of the expense was borne by Lady Byron, +besides the payments she made for children who could not otherwise have +entered the school. The establishment flourished steadily till 1852, +when the owner of the land required it back for building-purposes. +During the eighteen years that the Ealing schools were in action, they +did a world of good in the way of incitement and example. The Poor-Law +Commissioners pointed out their merits. Land-owners and other wealthy +persons visited them, and went home and set up similar establishments. +During those years, too, Lady Byron had herself been at work in various +directions, to the same purpose. + +A more extensive industrial scheme was instituted on her Leicestershire +property; and not far off, she opened a girls' school, and an infant +school; and when a season of distress came, as such seasons are apt to +befall the poor Leicestershire stocking-weavers, Lady Byron fed the +children for months together, till they could resume their payments. +These schools were opened in 1840. The next year, she built a +school-house on her Warwickshire property; and five years later, she set +up an iron school-house on another Leicestershire estate. By this time, +her educational efforts were costing her several hundred pounds a year +in the mere maintenance of existing establishments; but this is the +smallest consideration in the case. She has sent out tribes of boys and +girls into life fit to do their part there with skill and credit and +comfort. Perhaps it is a still more important consideration, that scores +of teachers and trainers have been led into their vocation, and duly +prepared for it, by what they saw and learned in her schools. As for the +best and the worst of the Ealing boys,--the best have, in a few cases, +been received into the Battersea Training School, whence they could +enter on their career as teachers to the greatest advantage; and the +worst found their school a true reformatory, before reformatory schools +were heard of. At Bristol she bought a house for a reformatory +for girls; and there her friend, Miss Carpenter, faithfully and +energetically carries out her own and Lady Byron's aims, which were one +and the same. + +There would be no end, if I were to catalogue the schemes of which these +are a specimen. It is of more consequence to observe that her mind was +never narrowed by her own acts, as the minds of benevolent people are so +apt to be. To the last, her interest in great political movements, at +home and abroad, was as vivid as ever. She watched every step won in +philosophy, every discovery in science, every token of social change and +progress, in every shape. Her mind was as liberal as her heart and hand, +No diversity of opinion troubled her; she was respectful to every sort +of individuality, and indulgent to all constitutional peculiarities. +It must have puzzled those who kept up the notion of her being +"strait-laced," to see how indulgent she was even to epicurean +tendencies,--the remotest of all from her own. + +But I must stop; for I do not wish my honest memorial to degenerate into +panegyric.--Among her latest known acts were her gifts to the Sicilian +cause, and her manifestations on behalf of the antislavery cause in the +United States. Her kindness to William and Ellen Craft must be well +known there; and it is also related in the newspapers that she +bequeathed a legacy to a young American, to assist him under any +disadvantages he might suffer as an abolitionist. + +All these deeds were done under a heavy burden of ill-health. Before +she had passed middle life, her lungs were believed to be irreparably +injured by partial ossification. She was subject to attacks so serious, +that each one for many years was expected to be the last. She arranged +her affairs in correspondence with her liabilities; so that the same +order would have been found, whether she died suddenly or after long +warning. + +She was to receive one more accession of outward greatness before she +departed. She became Baroness Wentworth in November, 1856. This is one +of the facts of her history; but it is the least interesting to us, as +probably to her. We care more to know that her last days were bright in +honor, and cheered by the attachment of old friends, worthy to pay the +duty she deserved. Above all, it is consoling to know that she who so +long outlived her only child was blessed with the unremitting and tender +care of her granddaughter. She died on the sixteenth of May, 1860. + +The portrait of Lady Byron, as she was at the time of her marriage, is +probably remembered by some of my readers. It is very engaging. +Her countenance afterwards became much worn; but its expression of +thoughtfulness and composure was very interesting. Her handwriting +accorded well with the character of her mind. It was clear, elegant, +and womanly. Her manners differed with circumstances. Her shrinking +sensitiveness might embarrass one visitor, while another would be +charmed with her easy, significant, and vivacious conversation. It +depended much on whom she talked with. The abiding certainty was, that +she had strength for the hardest of human trials, and the composure +which belongs to strength. For the rest, it is enough to point to her +deeds, and to the mourning of her friends round the chasm which her +departure has made in their life, and in the society in which it is +spent. All that could be done in the way of personal love and honor was +done while she lived; it only remains now to see that her name and fame +are permitted to shine forth at last in their proper light. + + + + +GETTING HOME AGAIN. + + +It is a good thing, said an aged Chinese Travelling Philosopher, for +every man, sooner or later, to get back again to his own tea-cup. +And Ling Ching Ki Hi Fum (for that was the name of the profound old +gentleman who said it) was right. Travel may be "the conversion of +money into mind,"--and happy the man who has turned much coin into that +precious commodity,--but it is a good thing, after being tossed about +the world from the Battery to Africa,--that dry nurse of lions, as +Horace calls her,--to anchor once more beside the old familiar tea-urn +on the old familiar tea-table. This is the only "steamy column" worth +hailing with a glad welcome after long absence from home, and fully +entitled to be heartily applauded for its "bubbling and loud-hissing" +propensities. + +We are not a Marco Polo or a William de Rubruquis, and we have no +wonders to tell of the Great Mogul or the Great Cham. We did not sail +for Messrs. Pride, Pomp, Circumstance, and Company; consequently, we +have no great exploits to recount. We have been wrecked at sea only once +in our many voyages, and, so far as we know our own tastes, do not care +to solicit aid again to be thrown into the same awkward situation. But +for a time we have been + + "Placed far amid the melancholy main," + +and now we are among our own tea-cups. This is happiness enough for a +cold winter's night. Mid-ocean, and mid tea-cups! Stupendous change, +let us tell you, worthy friend, who never yet set sail where sharks and +other strange sea-cattle bob their noses above the brine,--who never +lived forty days in the bowels of a ship, unable to hold your head up to +the captain's bluff "good morning" or the steward's cheery "good night." +Sir Philip Sidney discourses of a riding-master he encountered in +Vienna, who spoke so eloquently of the noble animal he had to deal with, +that he almost persuaded Sir Philip to wish himself a horse. We have +known ancient mariners expatiate so lovingly on the frantic enjoyments +of the deep sea, that very youthful listeners have for the time resolved +to know no other existence. If the author of the "Arcadia" had been +permitted to become a prancing steed, he might, after the first +exhilarating canter, have lamented his equine state. How many a first +voyage, begun in hilarious impatience, has caused a bitter repentance! +The sea is an overrated element, and we have nothing to say in its +favor. Because we are out of its uneasy lap to-night, we almost resemble +in felicity Richter's _Walt_, who felt himself so happy, that he was +transported to the third heaven, and held the other two in his hand, +that he might give them away. To-morrow morning we shall not hear that +swashing, scaring sound directly overhead on the wet deck, which has so +often murdered our slumbers. Delectable the sensation that we don't care +a rope's-end "how many knots" we are going, and that our ears are so far +away from that eternal "Ay, ay, Sir!" "The whales," says old Chapman, +speaking of Neptune, "exulted under him, and knew their mighty king." +Let them exult, say we, and be blowed, and all due honor to their salt +sovereign! but of their personal acquaintance we are not ambitious. We +have met them now and then in the sixty thousand miles of their watery +playing-places we have passed over, and they are not pretty to look at. +Roll on, et cetera, et cetera,--and so will we, for the present, at +least, as far out of _your_ reach as possible. + +Yes, wise denizen of the Celestial Empire, it is a good, nay, a great +thing, to return even to so small a home-object as an old tea-cup. As +we lift the bright brim to our so long absent lips, we repeat it. As we +pour out our second, our third, and our fourth, we say it again. Ling +Ching, you were right! + +And now, as the rest of the household have all gone up bed-ward, and +left us with their good-night tones, + + "Like flowers' voices, if they could but speak," + +we dip our pen into the cocked hat of the brave little bronze warrior +who has fed us many a year with ink from the place where his brains +ought to be. Pausing before we proceed to paper, we look around on our +household gods. The coal bursts into crackling fits of merriment, as we +thrust the poker between the iron ribs of the grate. It seems to say, +in the jolliest possible manner of which it is capable, "Oh, go no more +a-roaming, a-roaming, across the windy sea!" How odd it seems to be +sitting here again, listening to the old clock out there in the entry! +Often we seemed to hear it during the months that have flown away, when +we knew that "our ancient" was standing sentinel for Time in another +hemisphere. One night, dark and stormy on the Mediterranean, as we lay +wakeful and watchful in the little steamer that was bearing us painfully +through the noisy tempest towards Saint Peter's and the Colosseum, +suddenly, above the tumult of the voyage, our household monitor began +audibly and regularly, we thought, to mark the seconds. Then it must +have been only fancy. Now it is something more, and we know that our +mahogany friend is really wagging his brassy beard just outside the +door. We remember now, as we lay listening that rough night at sea, how +Milton's magic sounding line came to us beating a sad melody with the +old clock's imagined tramp,-- + + "The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint." + +Let the waves bark to-night far out on "the desolate, rainy seas,"--the +old clock is all right in the entry! + +Landed, and all safe at last! our much-abused, lock-broken, unhinged +portmanteau unpacked and laid ignobly to rest under the household eaves! +Stay a moment,--let us pitch our inky passport into the fire. How it +writhes and grows black in the face! And now it will trouble its owner +no more forever. It was a foolish, extravagant companion, and we are +glad to be rid of it. One little blazing fragment lifts itself out +of the flame, and we can trace on the smouldering relic the stamp of +Austria. Go back again into the grate, and perish with the rest, dark +blot! + +"We look round our quiet apartment, and wonder if it be all true, this +getting home again. We stir the fire once more to assure ourself that we +are not somewhere else,--that the street outside our window is not +known as Jermyn Street in the Haymarket,--or the Via Babuino near the +Pincio,--or Princes Street, near the Monument. How do we determine that +we are not dreaming, and that we shall not wake up to-morrow morning and +find ourself on the Arno? Perhaps we are _not_ really back again where +there are no + + "Eremites and friars, + White, black, and gray, with all their trumpery." + +Perhaps we are a flamingo, a banyan-tree, or a mandarin. But there +stands the tea-cup, and our identity is sure! + +Here at last, then, for a live certainty! But how strange it all seems, +resting safely in our easy slippers, to recall some of the far-off +scenes so lately present to us! Yesterday was it, or a few weeks ago, +that this "excellent canopy," our modest roof, dwelt three thousand +miles away to the westward of us? At this moment stowed away in a +snuggery called our own; and then--how brief a period it seems! what a +small parenthesis in time--putting another man's latch-key into another +man's door, night after night, in a London fog, and feeling for the +unfamiliar aperture with all the sensation of an innocent housebreaker! +Muffled here in the oldest of dressing-gowns, that never lifted its +blessed arms ten rods from the spot where it was born; and only a few +weeks ago lolling out of C.R.'s college-window at Oxford, counting the +deer, as they nibbled the grass, and grouped themselves into beautiful +pictures on the sward of ancient Magdalen! + +As we look into the red fire in the grate, we think of the scarlet +coats we saw not long ago in Stratford,--when E.F., kindest of men and +merriest of hosts, took us to the "meet." We gaze round the field again, +and enjoy the enlivening scene. White-haired and tall, our kind-hearted +friend walks his glossy mare up and down the turf. His stalwart sons, +with sport imbrowned, proud of their sire, call our attention to the +sparkle in the old man's eye. We are mounted on a fiery little animal, +and are half-frightened at the thought of what she may do with us when +the chase is high. Confident that a roll is inevitable, and that, with a +dislocated neck, enjoyment would be out of the question, we pull bridle, +and carefully dismount, hoping not to attract attention. Whereat all our +jolly English cousins beg to inquire, "What's the row?" We whisper to +the red-coated brave prancing near us, that "we have changed our mind, +and will not follow the hunt to-day,--another time we shall be most +happy,--just now we are not quite up to the mark,--next week we shall be +all right again," etc., etc. One of the lithe hounds, who seems to have +steel springs in his hind legs, looks contemptuously at the American +stranger, and turns up his long nose like a moral insinuation. Off they +fly! we watch the beautiful cavalcade bound over the brook and sweep +away into the woodland passes. Then we saunter down by the Avon, and +dream away the daylight in endless visions of long ago, when sweet Will +and his merry comrades moved about these pleasant haunts. Returning to +the hall, we find we have walked ten miles over the breezy country, +and knew it not,--so pleasant is the fragrant turf that has been often +pressed by the feet of Nature's best-beloved high-priest! Round the +mahogany tree that night we hear the hunters tell the glories of their +sport,--how their horses, like Homer's steeds, + + "Devoured up the plain"; + +and we can hear now, in imagination, the voices of the deep-mouthed +hounds rising and swelling among the Warwick glens. + +Neither can we forget, as we sit here musing, whose green English +carpet, down in Kent, we so lately rested on under the trees,--nor how +we wandered off with the lord of that hospitable manor to an old castle +hard by his grounds, and climbed with him to the turret-tops,--nor how +we heard him repeople in fancy the aged ruin, as we leaned over the +wall and looked into the desolate court-yard below. The world has given +audience to this man, thought we, for many a year; but one who has never +heard the sound of his laughing voice knows not half his wondrous power. +When he reads his "Christmas Carol," go far to hear him, judicious +friend, if you happen to be in England, and let us all hope together +that we shall have that keen gratification next year in America. To know +him is to love and esteem him tenfold more than if you only read of him. + +Let us bear in mind, too, how happily the hours went by with us so +recently in the vine-embowered cottage of dear L.H., the beautiful old +man with silver hair,-- + + "As hoary frost with spangles doth attire + The mossy branches of an oak." + +The sound of the poet's voice was like the musical fall of water in our +ears, and every sentence he uttered then is still a melody. As we sit +dreamily here, he speaks to us again of "life's morning march, when his +bosom was young," and of his later years, when his struggles were many +and keen, and only his pen was the lever which rolled poverty away from +his door. We can hear him, as we pause over this leaf, as we heard the +old clock that night at sea. He tells us of his cherished companions, +now all gone,--of Shelley, and Keats, and Charles Lamb, whom he +loved,--of Byron, and Coleridge, and the rest. As we sit at his little +table, he hands us a manuscript, and says it is the "Endymion," John +Keats's gift to himself. He reads to us from it some of his favorite +lines, and the tones of his voice are very tender over his dead friend's +poem. As we pass out of his door that evening, the moon falls on his +white locks, his thin hand rests for a moment on our shoulder, and we +hear him say very kindly, "God bless you!" + +In London, not long after this, we meet again the bard of "Rimini," and +his discourse is still sweet as any dulcimer. Another old man is with +him, a poet also, whose songs are among the bravest in England's +Helicon. We observe how these two friends love each other, and as they +stand apart in the anteroom, the eldest with his arm around his brother +bard, we think it is a very pleasant sight, and not to be forgotten +ever. And when, a few months later, we are among the Alpine hills, and +word comes to us that L.H. is laid to rest in Kensal Green Churchyard, +we are grateful to have looked upon his cheerful countenance, and to +have heard him say, "God bless you!" + +We cry your mercy, gayest of cities, with your bright Bois de Boulogne, +and your splendid _café's!_ We do not much affect your shows, but we +cannot dismiss forever the cheerful little room, cloud-environed almost, +up to which we have so often toiled, after days of hard walking among +the gaudy streets of the French capital. One pleasant scene, at least, +rises unbidden, as we recall the past. It is a brisk, healthy morning, +and we walk in the direction of the Tuileries. Bending our steps toward +the Palace, (it is yet early, and few loiterers are abroad in the leafy +avenues,) we observe a group of three persons, not at all distinguished +in their appearance, having a roystering good time in the Imperial +Garden. One of them is a little boy, with a chubby, laughing face, who +shouts loudly to his father, a grave, thoughtful gentleman, who runs +backwards, endeavoring to out-race his child. The mother, a fair-haired +woman, with her bonnet half loose in the wind, strives to attract the +boy's attention and win him to her side. They all run and leap in the +merry morning-air, and, as we watch them more nearly, we know them to +be the royal family out larking before Paris is astir. Play on, great +Emperor, sweet lady, and careless boy-prince! You have hung up a picture +in our gallery of memory, very pleasant to look at, this cold night in +America. May you always be as happy as when you romped together in the +garden! + +The days that are fled still knock at the door and enter. We are walking +on the banks of the Esk, toward a friendly dwelling in Lasswade,--_Mavis +Bush_ they call the pretty place at the foot of the hill. A slight +figure, clad in black, waits for us at the garden-gate, and bids us +welcome in accents so kindly, that we, too, feel the magic influence of +his low, sweet voice,--an effect which Wordsworth described to us years +before as eloquence set to music. The face of our host is very pale, +and, when he puts his thin arm within ours, we feel how frail a body may +contain a spirit of fire. We go into his modest abode and listen to his +wonderful talk, wishing all the while that the hours were months, that +we might linger there, spellbound, day and night, before the master of +our English tongue. He proposes a ramble across the meadows to Roslin +Chapel, and on the way he discourses of the fascinating drug so +painfully associated with his name in literature,--of Christopher +North, in whose companionship he delighted among the Lakes,--of Elia, +whom he recalled as the most lovable man among his friends, and whom he +has well described elsewhere as a Diogenes with the heart of a Saint +John. In the dark evening he insists upon setting out with us on our +return to Edinburgh. When it grows late, and the mists are heavy on the +mountains, we stand together, clasping hands of farewell in the dim +road, the cold Scotch hills looming up all about us. As the small figure +of the English Opium-Eater glides away into the midnight distance, our +eyes strain after him to catch one more glimpse. The Esk roars, and we +hear his footsteps no longer. + +The scene changes, as the clock strikes in the entry. We are lingering +in the piazza of the Winged Lion, and the bronze giants in their turret +overlooking the square raise their hammers and beat the solemn march of +Time. As we float away through the watery streets, old Shylock +shuffles across the bridge,--black barges glide by us in the silent +canals,--groups of unfamiliar faces lean from the balconies,--and we +hear the plashing waters lap the crumbling walls of Venice, with its +dead Doges and decaying palaces. + +Again we stir the fire, and feel it is home all about us. But we like +to sit here and think of that rosy evening, last summer, when we came +walking into Interlachen, and beheld the ghost-like figure of the +Jungfrau issuing out of her cloudy palace to welcome the stars,--of a +cool, bright, autumnal morning on the western battlements overlooking +Genoa, the blue Mediterranean below mirroring the silent fleet that lay +so motionless on its bosom,--of a midnight visit to the Colosseum with +a band of German students, who bore torches in and out of the time-worn +arches, and sang their echoing songs to the full moon,--of days, how +many and how magical! when we awoke every morning to say, "We are in +Rome!" + +But it grows late, and it is time now to give over these reflections. So +we wind up our watch, and put out the candle. + + * * * * * + + +A DRY-GOODS JOBBER IN 1861. + + +What is a dry-goods jobber? No wonder you ask. You have been hunting, +perhaps, for our peripatetic postoffice, and have stumbled upon Milk +Street and Devonshire Street and Franklin Street. You are almost ready +to believe in the lamp of Aladdin, that could build palaces in a night. +Looking up to the stately and costly structures which have usurped the +place of once familiar dwellings, and learning that they are, for the +most part, tenanted by dry-goods jobbers, you feel that for such huge +results there must needs be an adequate cause, and so you ask, What is a +dry-goods jobber? + +It is more than a curious question. For parents desirous of finding +their true sphere for promising and for unpromising sons, it is +eminently a practical question. It is a question comprehensive of +dollars and cents,--also of bones and sinews, of muscles, nerves, and +brains, of headache, heartache, and the cyclopaedia of being, doing, +and enduring. An adequate answer to such a question must needs ask your +indulgence, for it cannot be condensed into a very few words. + +A dry-goods jobber is a wholesale buyer and seller, for cash or for +approved credit, of all manner of goods, wares, and materials, large +and small, coarse and fine, foreign and domestic, which pertain to the +clothing, convenience, and garnishing, by night and by day, of men, +women, and children: from a button to a blanket; from a calico to a +carpet; from stockings to a head-dress; from an inside handkerchief to a +waterproof; from a piece of tape to a thousand bales of shirtings; not +forgetting linen, silk, or woollen fabrics, for drapery or upholstery, +for bed or table, including hundreds of items which time would fail me +to recite. All these the dry-goods jobber provides for his customer, the +retailer, who in his turn will dispense them to the consumer. + +A really competent and successful dry-goods jobber, in the year of +grace, one thousand, eight hundred and sixty-one, is a new creation. He +is begotten of the times. Of him, as truly as of the poet, and with yet +more emphasis, it must be said, He is born, not made. He is a poet, a +philosopher, an artist, an engineer, a military commander, an advocate, +an attorney, a financier, a steam-engine, a telegraph-operator, a +servant-of-all-work, a Job, a Hercules, and a Bonaparte, rolled into +one. + +"Exaggeration!" do you say? Not at all.--You asked for information? You +shall have it, to your heart's content. + +To a youth, for a time interrupted in his preparation for college, I +said,-- + +Never mind; this falls in exactly with my well-considered plan. You +shall go into a dry-goods store till your eyes recover strength; it will +be the best year's schooling of your life. + +"How so?" was the dubious answer; "what can I learn there?" + +Learn? Everything,--common sense included, which is generally excluded +from the University curriculum: for example, time, place, quantity, and +the worth of each. You shall learn length, breadth, and thickness; hard +and soft; pieces and yards; dozens and the fractions thereof; order and +confusion, cleanliness and dirt,--to love the one and hate the other; +materials, colors, and shades of color; patience, manners, decency +in general; system and method, and the relation these sustain to +independence; in short, that there is a vast deal more out of books than +in books; and, finally, that the man who knows only what is in books is +generally a lump of conceit, and of about as much weight in the scales +of actual life as the ashes of the Alexandrian library, or the worms in +any parchments that may have survived that conflagration. + +"Whew!" was his ejaculation; "I didn't know there was so much." + +I dare say not. Most of your limited days have passed under the training +of men who are in the like predicament,--whose notion of the chief end +of man is, to convert lively boys into thick dictionaries,--and who +honestly believe that the chief want of the age is your walking +dictionary. Any other type of humanity, they tell us, "won't pay." +Much they know of what will and what won't pay! This comes of partial +education,--of one-sided, of warped, and biased education. It puts one +out of patience, this arrogance of the University, this presuming +upon the ignorance of the million, this assertion of an indispensable +necessity to make the boy of the nineteenth century a mere expert in +some subdivision of one of the sciences. The obstinacy of an hereditary +absolutism, which the world has outgrown, still lingers in our schools +of learning. Let us admit the divine right of Science, admit the fitness +of a limited number of our youth to become high-priests in her temple, +but no divine right of fossil interpreters of Science to compel the +entire generation to disembowel their sons and make of these living +temples mere receptacles of Roman, Grecian, or Egyptian relics. We +don't believe that "mummy is medicinal," the Arabian doctor Haly to the +contrary notwithstanding. If it ever was, its day has gone by. Therefore +let all sensible people pray for a Cromwell,--not to pull down +University Science, but to set up the Commonwealth of Common Sense, to +subordinate the former to the latter, and to proclaim an education for +our own age and for its exigencies. Your dry-goods jobber stands in +violent contrast to your University man in the matter of practical +adaptation. His knowledge is no affair of dried specimens, but every +particle of it a living knowledge, ready, at a moment's warning, for all +or any of the demands of life. + +You are perhaps thinking,--"Yes, that is supposable, because the lessons +learned by the jobber are limited to the common affairs of daily life, +are not prospective; because, belonging only to the passing day, they +are easily surveyed on all sides, and their full use realized at once; +in short, a mere matter of buying and selling goods: a very inferior +thing, as compared with the dignified and scholarly labors of the +student." + +How mistaken this estimate is will appear, as we advance to something +like a comprehensive survey of the dry-goods jobber's sphere. + +First, then, he is a buyer of all manner of goods, wares, and materials +proper to his department in commerce. He is minutely informed in the +history of raw materials. He knows the countries from which they +come,--the adaptation of soils and climates to their raising,--the skill +of the cultivators,--the shipping usages,--the effect of transportation +by land and sea on raw materials, and on manufactured articles,--with +all the mysteries of insurance allowances and usages, the debentures +on exportation, and the duties on importation, in his own and in other +lands. His forecast is taxed to the utmost, as to what may be the +condition of his own market, six, twelve, or eighteen months from the +time of ordering goods, both as to the quantity which may be in market, +and as to the fashion, which is always changing,--and also as to the +condition of his customers to pay for goods, which will often depend +upon the fertility of the season. As respects home-purchases, he is +compelled to learn, or to suffer for the want of knowing, that the +difference between being a skilful, pleasant buyer and the opposite is a +profit or loss of from five to seven and a half or ten per cent.,--or, +in other words, the difference, oftentimes, between success and ruin, +between comfort and discomfort, between being a welcome and a hated +visitor, between being honored as an able merchant and contemned as a +mean man or an unmitigated bore. + +Is your curiosity piqued to know wherein buyers thus contrasted may +differ? They differ endlessly, like the faces you meet on the street. +Thus, one man is born to an open, frank, friendly, and courteous manner; +another is cold, reserved, and suspicious. One is prompt, hilarious, +and provocative of every good feeling, whenever you chance to meet; the +other is slow, morose, and fit to waken every dormant antipathy in your +soul. An able buyer is, or becomes, observing to the last degree. He +knows the slightest differences in quality and in style, and possesses +an almost unerring taste,--knows the condition of the market,--knows +every holder of the article he wants, and the lowest price of each. He +knows the peculiarities of the seller,--his strong points and his weak +points, his wisdom and his foibles, his very temperament, and how it is +acted upon by his dinner or the want of it. He knows the estimate put +upon his own note by that seller. He knows what his note will sell for +in the street. He knows to a feather's weight the influence of each of +these items upon the mind of the seller of whom he wishes to make a +purchase. Talk about diplomacy!--there's not a man in any court in +Europe who knows his position, his fulcrum, and his lever, and the use +he can make of them, as this man knows. He can unravel any combination, +penetrate any disguise, surmount any obstacle. Beyond all other men, he +knows when to talk, and when to refrain from talking,--how to throw the +burden of negotiation on the seller,--how to get the goods he wants +at his own price, not at _his_ asking, but on _the suggestion of the +seller_, prompted by his own politely obvious unwillingness to have the +seller part with his merchandise at any price not entirely acceptable to +himself. + +The incompetent man, on the other hand, is presuming, exacting, and +unfeeling. He not only desires, but asserts the desire, in the +very teeth of the seller, to have something which that seller has +predetermined that he shall not have. He fights a losing game from the +start. He will probably begin by depreciating the goods which he knows, +or should know, that the seller has reason to hold in high esteem. He +will be likely enough to compare them to some other goods which he knows +to be inferior. He will thus arouse a feeling of dislike, if not of +anger, where his interest should teach him to conciliate and soothe; and +if he sometimes carry his point, his very victory is in effect a defeat, +since it procures him an increased antipathy. This the judicious +buyer never does. He repudiates, as a mere half-truth, and a relic of +barbarism, the maxim, "There is no friendship in trade." + +"But," you are asking, "do only those succeed who are born to these +extraordinary endowments? And those who do succeed, are they, in +fact, each and all of them, such wonderfully capable men as you have +described?" + +If by success you mean mere money-making, it is not to be denied that +some men do that by an instinct, little, if at all, superior to that of +the dog who smells out a bone. There are exceptions to all rules; and +there are chances in all games, even in games of skill. Lord Timothy +Dexter, as he is facetiously called, shipped warming-pans to the West +Indies, in defiance of all geographical objections to the venture, and +made money by the shipment,--not because warming-pans were wanted there, +but because the natives mistook and used them for molasses-ladles. It +must be owned that a portion of the successful ones are _lucky_,--that +a portion of them use the blunt weapon of an indomitable will, as an +efficient substitute for the finer edge of that nice tact and good +manners which they lack. Their very rudeness seems to commend them to +the rude natures which confound refinement with trickery and assume that +brutality must needs be honest. + +But there are other things to be said of buying. The dry-goods jobber +frequents the auction-room. If you have never seen a large sale of +dry-goods at auction, you have missed one of the remarkable incidents +of our day. You are not yet aware of how much an auctioneer and two or +three hundred jobbers can do and endure in the short space of three +hours. You must know that fifty or a hundred thousand dollars' worth of +goods may easily change owners in that time. You are not to dream of the +leisurely way of disposing of somebody's household-furniture or library, +which characterizes the doings of one or two of our fellow-citizens who +manage such matters within speaking distance of King's Chapel: but are +rather to picture to yourself a congregation of three hundred of the +promptest men in our Atlantic cities, with a sprinkling of Westerners +quite as wide awake for bargains, each of them having marked his +catalogue; an auctioneer who considers the sale of a hundred lots an +hour his proper _rôle_, and who is able to see the lip, eye, or finger +of the man whose note he covets, in spite of all sounds, signs, or +opaque bodies. The man of unquiet nerves or of exacting lungs would +do well to leave that arena to the hard-heads and cool-bloods who can +pursue their aim and secure their interests: undisturbed either by +the fractional rat-a-tat-tat of the auctioneer's "Twenty-seven +af--naf--naf--naf,--who'll give me thirty?" or by the banter and +comicalities which a humor-loving auctioneer will interject between +these bird-notes, without changing his key, or arresting his sale a +moment. If you would see the evidence of comprehensive and minute +knowledge, of good taste, quick wit, sound judgment, and electrical +decision, attend an auction-sale in New York some morning. There will be +no lack of fun to season the solemnity of business, nor of the mixture +of courtesy and selfishness usual in every gathering, whether for +philanthropic, scientific, or commercial purposes. Many dry-goods +jobbers will attend the sale with no intention of buying, but simply to +note the prices obtained, and, having traced the goods to their owners, +to get the same in better order and on better terms; the commission paid +to the auctioneer being divided, or wholly conceded by the seller to the +buyer, according to his estimate of the note. + +A dry-goods buyer will sometimes spend a month in New York, the first +third or half of which he will devote to ascertaining what goods are in +the market, and what are to arrive; also to learning the mood of the +English, French, and Germans who hold the largest stocks. Sometimes +these gentlemen will make an early trial of their goods at auction. +Unsatisfactory results will rouse their phlegm or fire, and they declare +they will not send another piece of goods to auction, come what may. For +local or temporary reasons, buyers sometimes persist in holding back +till the season is so far advanced that the foreign gentlemen become +alarmed. Their credits in London, Paris, and Amsterdam are running out; +they are anxious to make remittances; and then ensues one of those +dry-goods panics so characteristic of New York and its mixed multitude; +an avalanche of goods descends upon the auction-rooms, and prices +drop ten, twenty, forty per cent., it may be, and the unlucky or +short-sighted men who made early purchases are in desperate haste to run +off their stocks before the market is irreparably broken down. Whether, +therefore, to buy early or late, in large or in small quantities, at +home or abroad,--are questions beset with difficulty. He who imports +largely may land his goods in a bare market and reap a golden harvest, +or in a market so glutted with goods that the large sums he counts out +to pay the duties may be but a fraction of the loss he knows to be +inevitable. + +In addition to the problems belonging to time and place of purchasing, +to quantities and prices, there is a host of other problems begotten of +styles, of colors, of assortments, of texture and finish, of adaptation +to one market or another. The profit on a case of goods is often +sacrificed by the introduction or omission of one color or figure, +the presence or absence of which makes the merchandise desirable or +undesirable. Little less than omniscience will suffice to guard against +the sometimes sudden, and often most unaccountable, freaks of fashion, +whose fiat may doom a thing, in every respect admirably adapted to its +intended use, to irretrievable condemnation and loss of value. And when +you remember that the purchases of dry-goods must be made in very large +quantities, from a month to six or even twelve months before the buyer +can sell them, and that his sales are many times larger than his +capital, and most of them on long credit, you have before you a +combination of exigencies hardly to be paralleled elsewhere. + +The crisis of 1857 brought a general collapse. Scores and scores of +jobbers failed; very few dared to buy goods. Mills were compelled to run +on short time, or to cease altogether. The country became bare of +the common necessaries of life. In process of time trade rallied. +Manufacturing recommenced; orders for goods poured in; and for a +twelve-month and more the manufacturer has had it all his own way. His +goods are all sold ahead, months ahead of his ability to manufacture. +He makes his own price, and chooses his customer. This operates not +unkindly on the jobbers who are wealthy and independent; but for those +who have but lately begun to mount the hill of difficulty, it offers one +more impediment. For, to men who have a great many goods to sell, it +is a matter of moment to secure the customers who can buy in large +quantities, and whose notes will bring the money of banks or private +capitalists as soon as offered. Against such buyers, men of limited +means and of only average business-ability have but a poor chance. +There will always be some articles of merchandise in the buying or +selling of which they cannot compete. + +When a financial crisis overtakes the community, we hear much and sharp +censure of all _speculation_. Speculators, one and all, are forthwith +consigned to an abyss of obloquy. The virtuous public outside of trade +washes its hands of all participation in the iniquity. This same +virtuous public knows very little of what it is talking about. What is +speculation? Shall we say, in brief and in general, that it consists in +running risks, in taking extra-hazardous risks, on the chance of making +unusually large profits? Is it that men have abandoned the careful ways +of the fathers, and do not confine themselves to small stores, small +stocks, and cash transactions? And do you know who it is that has +compelled this change? That same public who denounce speculation in one +breath, and in the next clamor for goods at low prices, and force +the jobber into large stores and large sales at small profits as the +indispensable condition of his very existence. + +Those who thus rail at speculation are generally quite unaware that +their own inexorable demand for goods at low prices is one of the +principal efficient causes of that of which they complain. They do not +know that the capacious maw of the insatiable public is yearly filled +with millions on millions of shirtings and sheetings, and other articles +of prime necessity, without one farthing of profit to the jobber. The +outside world reason from the assumption, that the jobber might, but +will not, avoid taking considerable risks. They do not consider, +for they do not know, how entirely all is changed from the days and +circumstances in which a very small business would suffice to maintain +the merchant. They do not consider, that, an immense amount of goods +being of compulsion sold without profit, a yet other huge amount must +be so sold as to compensate for this. Nor do they consider that the +possibility of doing this is often contingent upon the buyer's carefully +calculated probability of a rise in the article he is purchasing. Many a +time is the jobber enabled and inclined to purchase largely only by the +assurance that from the time of his purchase the price will be advanced. + +The _selling_ of dry-goods is another department in high art about which +the ignorance of outsiders is ineffable. I was once asked, in the way +of courtesy and good neighborhood, to call on a clergyman in our +vicinity,--which I did. Desirous of doing his part in the matter of good +fellowship and smooth conversation, he began thus:-- + +"Well, now, Mr. Smith, you know all about business: I suppose, if I were +to go into a store to buy goods, nineteen men out of twenty would cheat +me, if they could; wouldn't they?" + +"No, Sir!" I answered, with a swelling of indignation at the injustice, +a mingling of pity for the ignorance, and a foreboding of small benefit +from the preaching of a minister of the gospel who knew so little of the +world he lived in. "No, Sir; nineteen men in twenty would not cheat you, +if they could; for the best of all reasons,--it would be dead against +their own interest." + +Not a day passes but the question is asked by our youths who are being +initiated in the routine of selling goods,--"Is this honest? Is that +honest? Is it honest to mark your goods as costing more than they do +cost? Is it honest to ask one man more than you ask another? Ought not +the same price to be named to every buyer? Isn't it cheating to get +twenty-five per cent. profit? Can a man sell goods without lying? Are +men compelled to lie and cheat a little in order to earn an honest +living?" What is the reason that these questions will keep coming up? +That they can no more be laid than Banquo's ghost? Here are some of the +reasons. First, and foremost, multitudes of young men, whose parents +followed the plough, the loom, or the anvil, have taken it into their +heads, that they will neither dig, hammer, nor ply the shuttle. To soil +their hands with manual labor they cannot abide. The sphere of commerce +looks to their longing eyes a better thing than lying down in green +pastures, or than a peaceful life beside still waters, procured by +laborious farming, or by any mechanical pursuit. Clean linen and stylish +apparel are inseparably associated in their minds with an easy and +elegant life, and so they pour into our cities, and the ranks of the +merchants are filled, and over-filled, many times. Once, the merchant +had only to procure an inviting stock, and his goods sold themselves. +He did not go after customers; they came to him; and it was a matter of +favor to them to supply their wants. Now, all that is changed. There are +many more merchants than are needed; buyers are in request; and buyers +whose credit is the best, to a very great extent, dictate the prices at +which they will buy. The question is no longer, How large a profit can +I get? but, How small a profit shall I accept? The competition for +customers is so fierce that the seller hardly dares ask any profit, for +fear his more anxious neighbor will undersell him. In order to attract +customers, one thing after another has been made "a leading article," +a bait to be offered at cost or even less than cost,--that being +oftentimes the condition on which alone the purchaser will make a +beginning of buying. + +"Jenkins," cried an anxious seller, "you don't buy anything of me, and I +can sell you as cheap as any. Here's a bale of sheetings now, at eight +cents, will do you good." + +"How many have you got?" + +"Oh, plenty." + +"Well, how many?" + +"Fifteen bales." + +"Well, I'll take them." + +"Come in and buy something more." + +"No, nothing more to-day." + +There was a loss of seventy-five dollars, and he did not dare buy more. + +It will be obvious that the selling a part of one's goods at less than +cost enhances the necessity of getting a profit on the rest. But how +to do this, under the sharp scrutiny of a buyer who knows that his own +success, not to say his very existence, depends upon his paying no +profit possible to be avoided,--no profit, at all events, not certainly +paid by some sharp neighbor who is competing with him for the same +trade? + +"But is there anything in all this," you are asking, "to preclude the +jobber's telling the truth?" Nothing. "Anything to preclude strict +honesty?" Nothing. "Why, then, do the questions you have quoted +continually recur?" + +I answer: In order to get his share of the best custom in his line, the +dry-goods jobber has taken a store in the best position in town, at a +rent of from three to fifty thousand dollars a year; has hired men and +boys at all prices, from fifty dollars to five thousand,--and enough of +these to result in an aggregate of from five to fifty thousand dollars +a year for help, without which his business cannot be done. Add to +this the usual average for store-expenses of every name, and for +the family-expenses of two, five, or seven partners, and you find a +dry-goods firm under the necessity of getting out of their year's sales +somewhere from fifteen to a hundred and fifty thousand dollars profit, +before they shall have saved one cent to meet the losses of an +unfavorable season. + +Now, though there is nothing even in all these urgencies to justify a +single lie or fraud, there is much to sharpen a man's wits to secure the +sale of his goods,--much to educate him in all manner of expedients to +baffle the inquiries of customers who would be offended, if they could +discover that he ever charged them the profit without which he could +never meet his expenses. And the jobber's problem is complicated by the +folly, universally prevalent among buyers, of expecting some partiality +or peculiarity of favor over their neighbors who are just as good as +themselves. Every dry-goods jobber knows that his customer's foolish +hope and expectation often demand three absurdities of him: first, the +assurance that he has the advantage over all other jobbers in a better +stock of goods, better bought; secondly, that he has a peculiar +friendship for himself; and thirdly, that, though of other men he must +needs get a profit, in his special instance he shall ask little or +none; and that, such is his regard for him, it is a matter of no moment +whether he live in Lowell or Louisiana, in New Bedford or Nebraska, or +whether he pay New England bank-notes within thirty days, or wild-cat +money and wild lands, which may be converted into cash, with more or +less expense and loss, somewhere between nine months and nine-and-twenty +years. + +And yet the uninitiated "can't understand how an honest merchant can +have two prices for the same goods." An honest man has but one price +for the same goods, and that is the cash price. All outside of that is +barter,--goods for notes. His first inquiry is, What is the market-value +of the note offered? True, he knows that many of the notes he takes +cannot be sold at all; but he also knows that the notes he is willing to +take will in the aggregate be guarantied by a reservation of one, two, +or three per cent., and that the note of the particular applicant for +credit will tend to swell or to diminish the rate; and he cannot afford +to exchange his goods for any note, except at a profit which will +guaranty its payment when due,--which, in other words, will make the +note equal in value to cash. + +Now it is just because all business-contingencies cannot be worked into +an unvarying form, as regular as the multiplication-table, and as plain +to the apprehension of all men, that a vast amount of lying and of +dishonesty is imputed, where it does not exist. Merchants are much like +other men,--wise and unwise, far-sighted and short-sighted, selfish +and unselfish, honest and dishonest. But that they are as a class more +dishonest than other men is so far from being true, that I much doubt if +we should overstrain the matter, if we should affirm that they are +the most honest class of men in the community. There is much in their +training which contributes directly, and most efficiently, to this +result. Their very first lessons are in feet and inches, in pounds and +ounces, in exact calculations, in accounts and balances. Carelessness, +mistakes, inaccuracies, they are made to understand, are unpardonable +sins. The boy who goes into a store learns, for the first time, that +half a cent, a quarter of a cent, an eighth of a cent, may be a matter +of the gravest import. He finds a thorough book-keeper absolutely +refusing himself rest till he has detected an error of ten cents in a +business of six months. And every day's experience enforces the lesson. +It is giving what is due, and claiming what is due, from year's end to +year's end. Among merchants it is matter of common notoriety, that the +prompt and exact adherence to orders insisted on by merchants, and +prompt advice of receipt of business and of progress, cannot be expected +from our worthy brethren at the bar. (The few honorable exceptions are +respectfully informed that they are not referred to.) We do not expect +them to weigh or measure the needless annoyance to which they often +subject us, because they have never been, like ourselves, trained to +the use of weights and measures; and therefore we are not willing to +stigmatize them as dishonest, though they do, in fact, often steal +our time and strength and patience, by withholding an answer to a +business-letter. + +None but those who are in the business know the assiduous attention with +which the dry-goods jobber follows up his customers. None but they know +the urgent necessity of doing this. The jobber may have travelled a +thousand miles to make his customer's acquaintance, and to prevail upon +him to come to Boston to make his purchases; and some neighbor, who +boards at the hotel he happens to make his resting-place, lights upon +him, shows him attention, tempts him with bargains not to be refused, +prevails upon him to make the bulk of his purchases of him, before +his first acquaintance even hears of his arrival. To guard against +disappointments such as this, the jobber sends his salesmen to live at +hotels, haunts the hotels himself, studies the hotel-register far more +assiduously than he can study his own comfort, or the comfort of his +wife and children. Of one such jobber it was said, facetiously,--"He +goes the round of all the hotels every morning with a lantern, to wake +up his customers." I had an errand one day at noon to such a devotee. +Inquiring for him in the counting-room, I was told by his book-keeper +to follow the stairs to the top of the store, and I should find him. I +mounted flight after flight to the attic, and there I found, not only +the man, but also one or two of his customers, surrounding a huge +packing-case, upon which they had extemporized a dinner, cold turkey +and tongue, and other edibles, taken standing, with plenty of fun for a +dessert. The next time we happened to meet, I said,--"So you take not +only time, but also customers, by the forelock!" + +"Yes, to be sure," was his answer; "let 'em go to their hotel to dinner +in the middle of a bill, and somebody lights upon 'em, and carries 'em +off to buy elsewhere; or they begin to remember that it is a long way +home, feel homesick, slip off to New York as being so far on the way, +and that's the last you see of 'em. No, we're bound to see 'em through, +and no let-up till they've bought all they've got on their memorandum." + +We have not yet touched the question of credit. To whom shall the jobber +sell his goods? It is the question of questions. Many a man who has +bought well, who in other respects has sold well, who possessed all +the characteristics which recommend a man to the confidence and to the +good-will of his fellows, has made shipwreck of his fortunes because of +his inability to meet this question. He sold his goods to men who never +paid him. To say that in this the most successful jobbers are governed +by an instinct, by an intuitive conviction which is superior to all +rules of judgment, would be to allege what it would be difficult to +prove. It would be less difficult to maintain that every competent +merchant, however unconscious of the fact, has a standard of judgment by +which he tries each applicant for credit. There are characteristics of +men who can safely be credited, entirely familiar to his thoughts. He +looks upon the man and instantly feels that he is or is not the man +for him. He thinks his decision an instinct, or an intuition, because, +through much practice, these mental operations have become so rapid as +to defy analysis. Not being infallible, he sometimes mistakes; and when +he so mistakes, he will be sure to say,--I made that loss because I +relied too much upon this characteristic, or because I did not allow +its proper weight to the absence of some other,--because I thought his +shrewdness or his honesty, his enterprise or his economy, would save +him: implying that he had observed some non-conformity to his standard, +but had relied upon some excellency in excess to make up for it. + +What are the perplexities which beset the question, To whom shall the +jobber sell his goods? They are manifold; and some of them are peculiar +to our country. Our territory is very extensive; our population very +heterogeneous; the economy and close calculation which recommend a man +in Massachusetts may discredit him in Louisiana. The very countenance is +often a sure indication of character and of capacity, when it is one of +a class and a region whose peculiarities we thoroughly understand; +but coming to us from other classes and regions, we are often at +fault,--more especially in these latter days, when all strong-mindedness +is presumed to be foreshadowed in a stiff beard. Time was when something +could be inferred from a lip, a mouth, a chin,--when character could be +found in the contour and color of a cheek; but that time has passed. +The time was, when, among a homogeneous people, a few time-honored +characteristics were both relied on and insisted on: for example, good +parentage, good moral character, a thorough training, and superior +capacity, joined to industry, economy, sound judgment, and good manners. +But Young America has learned to make light of some of these, and to +dispense altogether with others of them. + +Once the buyer was required to prove himself an honest, worthy, and +capable man. If he wanted credit, he must humbly sue for it, and prove +himself deserving of it; and no man thought of applying for it who was +not prepared to furnish irrefragable evidence. Once, a reference to some +respectable acquaintance would serve the purpose; and neighbors held +themselves bound to tell all they knew. The increase of merchants, and +fierce competition for customers, have changed this. Men now +regard their knowledge of other men as a part of their capital or +stock-in-trade. Their knowledge has been acquired at much cost of labor +and money; and they hold themselves absolved from all obligation to +give away what they have thus expensively acquired. Moreover, their +confidence has sometimes been betrayed, and their free communications +have been remorselessly used to their disadvantage. Alas, it cannot +be denied that even dry-goods jobbers, with all their extraordinary +endowments, are not quite perfect! for some of them will "state the +thing that is not," and others "convey" their neighbor's property into +their own coffers: men who prefer gain to godliness, and mistake much +money for respectability. + +There are very few men, in certain sections of the country, who will +absolutely refuse to give a letter of introduction to a neighbor on the +simple ground of ill-desert. Men dread the ill-will of their neighbor, +and particularly the ill-will of an unscrupulous neighbor; so, when such +a neighbor asks a letter, they give it. I remember such a one bringing a +dozen or more letters, some of which contained the highest commendation. +The writer of one of these letters sent a private note, through the +mail, warning one of the persons addressed against the bearer of his own +commendatory letter. Those who had no warning sold, and lost. It would +be difficult to find a man, however unworthy, who could not, from some +quarter, obtain a very respectable letter of introduction. One of the +greatest rogues that ever came to Boston brought letters from two of +the foremost houses in New York to two firms second to none in Boston. +Neither of these gentlemen was in fault in the matter; the train had +been laid by some obliging cousin in a banking-house in London. + +In making up our account of the difficulties with which a dry-goods +jobber has to deal, in conducting a successful business, it must be +distinctly stated, that on no man can he count for information which +will, however remotely or slightly, compromise the interest of the one +inquired of. Never, perhaps, was it so true as now, that "the seller has +need of a hundred eyes." The competent jobber uses his eyes first of all +upon the person of the man who desires to buy of him. He questions him +about himself, with such directness or indirectness as instinct and +experience dictate. He learns to discriminate between the sensitiveness +of the high-toned honest man and the sensitiveness of the rogue. Many +men of each class are inclined to resent and resist the catechism. +Strange as it may seem, the very men who would inexorably refuse a +credit to those who should decline to answer their inquiries are the men +most inclined to resent any inquiry about themselves. While they demand +the fullest and most particular information from their customers, +they wonder that others will not take them on their own estimate of +themselves. + +The jobber next directs his attention to the buyer's knowledge of goods: +of their quality, their style, their worth in market, and their fitness +for his own market; all of which will come to light, as he offers to +his notice the various articles he has for sale. He will improve the +opportunity to draw him out in general conversation, so guiding it as to +touch many points of importance, and yet not so as to betray a want of +confidence. He sounds him as to his knowledge of other merchants at home +and in the city; takes the names of his references,--of several, if he +can get them; puts himself in communication with men who know him, both +at his home and in the city. If he can harmonize the information derived +from all these sources into a consistent and satisfactory whole, he will +then do his utmost to secure his customer, both by selling him his goods +at a profit so small that he need have little fear of any neighbor's +underselling him, and also by granting every possible accommodation as +to the time and manner of payment. + +A moderately thoughtful man will by this time begin to think the +elements of toil and of perplexity already suggested sufficient for the +time and strength of any man, and more than he would wish to undertake. +But experience alone could teach him in how many ways indulged customers +can and do manage to make the profit they pay so small, and the toil +and vexation they occasion so great, that the jobber is often put upon +weighing the question, Should I not be richer without them? Thus, for +example, some of them will affect to doubt that the jobber wishes to +sell to them, and propose, as a test, that he shall let them have +some choice article at the cost, or at less than the cost, now on one +pretext, and now on another,--intimating an indisposition to buy, if +they cannot be indulged in that one thing. If they carry their point, +that exceptional price is thenceforth claimed as the rule. Another day +the concession will be asked on something else; and by extending this +game so as to include a number of jobbers, these shrewd buyers will +manage to lay in an assorted stock on which there will have been little +or no profit to the sellers. To cap the climax of vexation, these +persons will very probably come in, after not many days, and propose +to cash their notes at double interest off. Only an official of +the Inquisition could turn the thumb-screw so many times, and so +remorselessly. + +But we have yet to consider the collection of debts. The jobber who has +not capital so ample as to buy only for cash is expected invariably to +settle his purchases by giving his note, payable at bank on a fixed day. +He pays it when due, or fails. Not so with his customers: multitudes +of them shrink from giving a note payable at bank, and some altogether +refuse to do so. They wish to buy on open account; or to give a note to +be paid at maturity, if convenient,--otherwise not. The number of really +prompt and punctual men, as compared with those who are otherwise, is +very small. The number of those who never fail is smaller still. The +collection-laws are completely alike, probably, in no two States. Some +of them appear to have been constructed for the accommodation, not of +honest creditors, but of dishonest debtors. In others, they are such as +to put each jobber in fear of every other,--a first attachment taking +all the property, if the debt be large enough, leaving little or +nothing, usually, for those who have been willing to give the debtor +such indulgence as might enable him to pay in full, were it granted by +all his creditors. + +No jobber can open his letters in the morning in the certainty of +finding no tidings of a failure. No jobber, leaving his breakfast-table, +can assure his wife and children, sick or well, that he will dine or sup +with them; any one of a dozen railroad-trains may, for aught he knows, +be sweeping him away to some remote point, to battle with the mischances +of trade, the misfortunes of honest men, or the knavery of rogues and +the meshes of the law. Once in the cars, he casts his eye around in +uneasy expectation of finding some one or more of his neighbors bound on +the same errand. While yet peering over the seats in front of him, he is +unpleasantly startled by a slap on the shoulder, and, "Ah, John! +bound East? What's in the wind? Any ducks in these days?" +"Why,--yes,--no,--that is, I'm going down along,--little uncertain how +far,--depends on circumstances." "So, so,--I see,--mum's the word." +Well, neither is quite ready to trust the other,--neither quite ready to +know the worst; so long as a blow is suspended, it may not fall; and so, +with desperate exertions, they change the subject, converse on things +indifferent,--or subside into more or less moody meditations upon their +respective chances and prospects. + +Any jobber who has seen service will tell you stories without number of +these vexatious experiences, sometimes dashed with the comical in no +common measure. He will tell you of how they arrived at the last town +on the railroad, some six or seven of them; of how not a word had been +lisped of their destination; of the stampede from the railroad-station +to the tavern; of the spirited bids for horses and wagons; of the +chop-fallen disappointment of the man for whom no vehicle remained; of +his steeple-chase a-bareback; and of their various successes with writs +and officers, in their rush for the store of the delinquent debtor. Of +three such Jehus, the story goes, that, two of them having bought the +monopoly of the inside of the only vehicle, and, in so doing, as they +thought, having utterly precluded any chance for the third, their +dauntless competitor instantly mounted with the driver, commenced +negotiations for the horse, which speedily resulted in a purchase, and +thereupon detached the horse from the vehicle, drove on, and effected a +first attachment, which secured his debt. + +The occurrence of "a bad year" compels many a jobber to abandon his +store and home for one, two, or three months together, and visit his +customers scattered all over the land, to make collections. Then it is +that the power of persuasion, if possessed, is brought into efficient +use; discrimination, too, is demanded; good judgment, and power of +combination. For a debt that cannot be paid in money may possibly be +paid partly in money, or in merchandise of some sort, and in part +secured; and, among the securities offered, to choose those which will +involve the least delay is generally no easy matter. + +To those who, without experience, are commencing a jobbing-business, +a capital of thirty, forty, or fifty thousand dollars seems an +inexhaustible fund. Experience teaches that an incautious and unskilful +man may easily bury even the largest of these sums in a single season. +If not actually lost, it has in effect ceased to be capital, because it +cannot be collected, and the notes he has taken are such as will not be +discounted. + +Success in the jobbing-business makes such demand on talent and capacity +as outsiders seldom dream of. Half-a-dozen Secretaries of State, with a +Governor and a President thrown in, would not suffice to constitute a +first-class jobbing-firm. The general or special incompetency of these +distinguished functionaries in their several spheres may probably be +covered by the capacity of their subordinates. The President of these +United States--of late years, at all events--is not supposed to be in +a position to know whether the will is or is not "a self-determining +power." But no jobbing-firm can thus cloak its deficiencies, or shirk +its responsibilities. Goods must be bought, and sold, and paid for; and +a master-spirit in each department, capable of penetrating to every +particular, and of controlling every subordinate, cannot be dispensed +with. He must know that every man to whom he delegates any portion of +his work is competent and trustworthy. He must be able to feel that the +thing which he deputes to each will be as surely and as faithfully done +as though done by his own hand. No criticism is more common or more +depreciatory than that "Such a one will not succeed, because he has +surrounded himself with incompetent men." + +It is much to be regretted that it cannot be said, that no man can +succeed in the jobbing-business who is not a model of courtesy. +Unhappily, our community has not yet reached that elevation. But this +may with truth be affirmed,--that many a man fails for the want of +courtesy, and for the want of that good-will to his fellows from which +all real courtesy springs. There is small chance for any man to succeed +who does not command his own spirit. There is no chance whatever for +an indolent man; and, in the long run, little or no chance for the +dishonest man. The same must be said for the timid and for the rash man. +Nor can we offer any encouragement to the intermittent man. From year's +end to year's end, the dry-goods jobber finds himself necessitated to be +studying his stock and his ledger. He knows, that, while men sleep, the +enemy will be sowing tares. In his case, the flying moments are the +enemy, and bad stock and bad debts are the tares. To weed out each of +these is his unceasing care. And as both the one and the other are +forever choking the streams of income which should supply the means of +paying his own notes, his no less constant care is to provide such other +conduits as shall insure him always a full basin at the bank. Nobody but +a jobber can know the vexation of a jobber who cannot find money to cash +his notes when they are beginning to be thrown into the market at a +price a shade lower than his neighbor's notes are sold at. + +In conclusion, a few material facts should be stated. + +As a general proposition, it is not to be denied, that those who are +in haste to get rich will find in the dry-goods jobbing-business many +temptations and snares into which one may easily fall. A young man who +is not fortified by a faithful home-training, and by sound religious +principle, will be likely enough to degenerate into a heartless +money-maker. + +While the young man who has been well trained at home, who appreciates +good manners, good morals, and good books, will derive immense advantage +in acquiring that quick discernment, that intuitive apprehension of +the rights and of the pleasure of others, and that nice tact, which +characterize the highest style of merchants,--he who has not been thus +prepared will be more than likely to mistake _brusquerie_ for manliness, +and brutality for the sublime of independence. As in a great house there +are vessels unto honor and also unto dishonor, so in the purlieus of +the dry-goods trade there are gentlemen who would honor and adorn any +society, and also men whose manners would shame Hottentots,--whose +language, innocent of all preference for Worcester or Webster, a terror +to all decent ideas, like scarecrows in corn-fields, is dressed in the +cast-off garments of the refuse of all classes. + +Success in retailing does not necessarily qualify a man to succeed in +the dry-goods jobbing-business. The game is played on a much larger +scale; it includes other chances, and demands other qualifications, +natural and acquired. Instances are not wanting of men who, in the +smaller towns, had made to themselves a name and acquired an honorable +independence, sinking both capital and courage in their endeavors to +manage the business of a city-jobber. + +It should be well remembered, that, while it is not indispensable to +success in the jobbing-business that each partner should be an expert +in every department of the business, in buying, selling, collecting, +paying, and book-keeping, it is absolutely necessary that each should +be such in his own department,--and that the firm, as a unit, should +include a completely competent man for each and every one of these +departments. The lack of the qualities which are indispensable to any +one of these may, and probably will, prove an abyss deep enough to +ingulf the largest commercial ship afloat. + +Finally, to avoid disappointment, the man who would embark in the +dry-goods trade should make up his mind to meet every variety of +experience known to mortals, and to be daunted by nothing. He will +assuredly find fair winds and head winds, clear skies and cloudy skies, +head seas and cross seas as well as stern seas. A wind that justifies +studding-sails may change, without premonition, to a gale that will make +ribbons of top-sails and of storm-sails. The best crew afloat cannot +preclude all casualties, or exclude sleepless nights and cold sweats now +and then; but a quick eye, a cool head, a prompt hand, and indomitable +perseverance will overcome almost all things. + + + + +THE OLD HOMESTEAD. + + + The wet trees hang above the walks + Purple with damps and earthish stains, + And strewn by moody, absent rains + With rose-leaves from the wild-grown stalks. + + Unmown, in heavy, tangled swaths, + The ripe June-grass is wanton blown; + Snails slime the untrodden threshold-stone, + Along the sills hang drowsy moths. + + Down the blank visage of the wall, + Where many a wavering trace appears + Like a forgotten trace of tears, + From swollen caves the slow drops crawl. + + Where everything was wide before, + The curious wind, that comes and goes, + Finds all the latticed windows close, + Secret and close the bolted door. + + And with the shrewd and curious wind, + That in the arched doorway cries, + And at the bolted portal tries, + And harks and listens at the blind,-- + + Forever lurks my thought about, + And in the ghostly middle-night + Finds all the hidden windows bright, + And sees the guests go in and out,-- + + And lingers till the pallid dawn, + And feels the mystery deeper there + In silent, gust-swept chambers, bare, + With all the midnight revel gone; + + But wanders through the lonesome rooms, + Where harsh the astonished cricket calls, + And, from the hollows of the walls + Vanishing, stare unshapen glooms; + + And lingers yet, and cannot come + Out of the drear and desolate place, + So full of ruin's solemn grace, + And haunted with the ghost of home. + + + + +THE PROFESSOR'S STORY. + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +THE NEWS REACHES THE DUDLEY MANSION. + + +Early the next morning Abel Stebbins made his appearance at Dudley +Venner's, and requested to see the maän o' the haouse abaout somethin' +o' consequence. Mr. Venner sent word that the messenger should wait +below, and presently appeared in the study, where Abel was making +himself at home, as is the wont of the republican citizen, when he hides +the purple of empire beneath the apron of domestic service. + +"Good mornin', Squire!" said Abel, as Mr. Venner entered. "My name's +Stebbins, 'n' I'm stoppin' f'r a spell 'ith ol' Doctor Kittredge." + +"Well, Stebbins," said Mr. Dudley Venner, "have you brought any special +message from the Doctor?" + +"Y' ha'n't heerd nothin' abaout it, Squire, d' ye mean t' say?" said +Abel,--beginning to suspect that he was the first to bring the news of +last evening's events. + +"About--what?" asked Mr. Venner, with some interest. + +"Dew tell, naow! Waal, that beats all! Why, that 'ere Portagee relation +o' yourn 'z been tryin' t' ketch a fellah 'n a slippernoose, 'n' got +ketched himself,--that's all. Y' ha'n't heerd noth'n' abaout it?" + +"Sit down," said Mr. Dudley Venner, calmly, "and tell me all you have to +say." + +So Abel sat down and gave him an account of the events of the last +evening. It was a strange and terrible surprise to Dudley Venner to find +that his nephew, who had been an inmate of his house and the companion +of his daughter, was to all intents and purposes guilty of the gravest +of crimes. But the first shock was no sooner over than he began to think +what effect the news would have on Elsie. He imagined that there was a +kind of friendly feeling between them, and he feared some crisis would +be provoked in his daughter's mental condition by the discovery. He +would wait, however, until she came from her chamber, before disturbing +her with the evil tidings. + +Abel did not forget his message with reference to the equipments of the +dead mustang. + +"The' was some things on the hoss, Squire, that the man he ketched +said he didn' care no gre't abaout; but perhaps you'd like to have 'em +fetched to the mansion-haouse. Ef y' _didn'_ care abaout 'em, though, +I shouldn' min' keepin' on 'em; they might come handy some time or +'nother: they say, holt on t' anything for ten year 'n' there'll be some +kin' o' use for't." + +"Keep everything," said Dudley Venner. "I don't want to see anything +belonging to that young man." + +So Abel nodded to Mr. Venner, and left the study to find some of the men +about the stable to tell and talk over with them the events of the +last evening. He presently came upon Elbridge, chief of the equine +department, and driver of the family-coach. + +"Good mornin', Abe," said Elbridge. "What's fetched y' daown here so +all-fired airly?" + +"You're a darned pooty lot daown here, you be!" Abel answered. "Better +keep your Portagees t' home nex' time, ketchin' folks 'ith slippernooses +raoun' their necks, 'n' kerryin' knives 'n their boots!" + +"What 'r' you jawin' abaout?" Elbridge said, looking up to see if he was +in earnest, and what he meant. + +"Jawin' abaout? You'll find aout 'z soon 'z y' go into that 'ere stable +o' yourn! Y' won't curry that 'ere long-tailed black hoss no more; 'n' +y' won't set y'r eyes on the fellah that rid him, ag'in, in a hurry!" + +Elbridge walked straight to the stable, without saying a word, found the +door unlocked, and went in. + +"Th' critter's gone, sure enough!" he said. "Glad on't! The darndest, +kickin'est, bitin'est beast th't ever I see, 'r ever wan' t' see ag'in! +Good reddance! Don' wan' no snappin'-turkles in my stable! Whar's the +man gone th't brought the critter?" + +"Whar he's gone? Guess y' better go 'n aäsk my ol' man; he kerried him +off laäs' night; 'n' when he comes back, mebbe he'll tell ye whar he's +gone tew!" + +By this time Elbridge had found out that Abel was in earnest, and had +something to tell. He looked at the litter in the mustang's stall, then +at the crib. + +"Ha'n't ëat b't haälf his feed. Ha'n't been daown on his straw. Must ha' +been took aout somewhere abaout ten 'r 'leven o'clock. I know that 'ere +critter's ways. The fellah's had him aout nights afore; b't I never +thought nothin' o' no mischief. He's a kin' o' haälf Injin. What is 't +the chap's been a-doin' on? Tell 's all abaout it." + +Abel sat down on a meal-chest, picked up a straw and put it into his +mouth. Elbridge sat down at the other end, pulled out his jackknife, +opened the penknife-blade, and began sticking it into the lid of the +meal-chest. The Doctor's man had a story to tell, and he meant to +get all the enjoyment out of it. So he told it with every luxury of +circumstance. Mr. Venner's man heard it all with open mouth. No listener +in the gardens of Stamboul could have found more rapture in a tale heard +amidst the perfume of roses and the voices of birds and tinkling of +fountains than Elbridge in following Abel's narrative, as they sat there +in the aromatic ammoniacal atmosphere of the stable, the grinding of the +horses' jaws keeping evenly on through it all, with now and then the +interruption of a stamping hoof, and at intervals a ringing crow from +the barnyard. + +Elbridge stopped a minute to think, after Abel had finished. + +"Who's took care o' them things that was on the hoss?" he said, gravely. + +"Waäl, Langden, he seemed to kin' o' think I'd ought to have 'em,--'n' +the Squire, he didn' seem to have no 'bjection; 'n' so,--waäl, I +cal'late I sh'll jes' holt on to 'em myself; they a'n't good f'r much, +but they're cur'ous t' keep t' look at." + +Mr. Venner's man did not appear much gratified by this arrangement, +especially as he had a shrewd suspicion that some of the ornaments of +the bridle were of precious metal, having made occasional examinations +of them with the edge of a file. But he did not see exactly what to do +about it, except to get them from Abel in the way of bargain. + +"Waäl, no,--they _a'n't_ good for much 'xcep' to look at. 'F y' ever rid +on that seddle once, y' wouldn' try it ag'in, very spry,--not 'f y' +c'd haälp y'rsaälf. I tried it,--darned 'f I sot daown f'r th' nex' +week,--ëat all my victuals stan'in'. I sh'd like t' hev them things wal +enough to heng up 'n the stable; 'f y' want t' trade some day, fetch 'em +along daown." + +Abel rather expected that Elbridge would have laid claim to the saddle +and bridle on the strength of some promise or other presumptive title, +and thought himself lucky to get off with only promising that he would +think abaout tradin'. + +When Elbridge returned to the house, he found the family in a state of +great excitement. Mr. Venner had told Old Sophy, and she had informed +the other servants. Everybody knew what had happened, excepting Elsie. +Her father had charged them all to say nothing about it to her; he would +tell her, when she came down. + +He heard her step at last,--a light, gliding step,--so light that her +coming was often unheard, except by those who perceived the faint rustle +that went with it. She was paler than common this morning, as she came +into her father's study. + +After a few words of salutation, he said, quietly,-- + +"Elsie, my dear, your cousin Richard has left us." + +She grew still paler, as she asked,-- + +"_Is he dead?_" + +Dudley Venner started to see the expression with which Elsie put this +question. + +"He is living,--but dead to us from this day forward," said her father. + +He proceeded to tell her, in a general way, the story he had just heard +from Abel. There could be no doubting it;--he remembered him as the +Doctor's man; and as Abel had seen all with his own eyes,--as Dick's +chamber, when unlocked with a spare key, was found empty, and his bed +had not been slept in, he accepted the whole account as true. + +When he told of Dick's attempt on the young schoolmaster, ("You know +Mr. Langdon very well, Elsie,--a perfectly inoffensive young man, as I +understand,") Elsie turned her face away and slid along by the wall to +the window which looked out on the little grass-plot with the white +stone standing in it. Her father could not see her face, but he knew by +her movements that her dangerous mood was on her. When she heard the +sequel of the story, the discomfiture and capture of Dick, she turned +round for an instant, with a look of contempt and of something like +triumph upon her face. Her father saw that her cousin had become odious +to her. He knew well, by every change of her countenance, by her +movements, by every varying curve of her graceful figure, the +transitions from passion to repose, from fierce excitement to the dull +languor which often succeeded her threatening paroxysms. + +She remained looking out at the window. A group of white fan-tailed +pigeons had lighted on the green plot before it and clustered about one +of their companions who lay on his back, fluttering in a strange way, +with outspread wings and twitching feet. Elsie uttered a faint cry; +these were her special favorites, and often fed from her hand. She threw +open the long window, sprang out, caught up the white fan-tail, and held +it to her bosom. The bird stretched himself out, and then lay still, +with open eyes, lifeless. She looked at him a moment, and, sliding in +through the open window and through the study, sought her own apartment, +where she locked herself in, and began to sob and moan like those that +weep. But the gracious solace of tears seemed to be denied her, and her +grief, like her anger, was a dull ache, longing, like that, to finish +itself with a fierce paroxysm, but wanting its natural outlet. + +This seemingly trifling incident of the death of her favorite appeared +to change all the current of her thought. Whether it were the sight +of the dying bird, or the thought that her own agency might have been +concerned in it, or some deeper grief, which took this occasion to +declare itself,--some dark remorse or hopeless longing,--whatever it +might be, there was an unwonted tumult in her soul. To whom should +she go in her vague misery? Only to Him who knows all His creatures' +sorrows, and listens to the faintest human cry. She knelt, as she had +been taught to kneel from her childhood, and tried to pray. But her +thoughts refused to flow in the language of supplication. She could not +plead for herself as other women plead in their hours of anguish. She +rose like one who should stoop to drink, and find dust in the place of +water. Partly from restlessness, partly from an attraction she hardly +avowed to herself, she followed her usual habit and strolled listlessly +along to the school. + + * * * * * + +Of course everybody at the Institute was full of the terrible adventure +of the preceding evening. Mr. Bernard felt poorly enough; but he had +made it a point to show himself the next morning, as if nothing had +happened. Helen Darley knew nothing of it all until she had risen, when +the gossipy matron of the establishment made her acquainted with all its +details, embellished with such additional ornamental appendages as it +had caught up in transmission from lip to lip. She did not love to +betray her sensibilities, but she was pale and tremulous and very nearly +tearful when Mr. Bernard entered the sitting-room, showing on his +features traces of the violent shock he had received and the heavy +slumber from which he had risen with throbbing brows. What the poor +girl's impulse was, on seeing him, we need not inquire too curiously. If +he had been her own brother, she would have kissed him and cried on +his neck; but something held her back. There is no galvanism in +kiss-your-brother; it is copper against copper: but alien bloods develop +strange currents, when they flow close to each other, with only the +films that cover lip and cheek between them. Mr. Bernard, as some of us +may remember, violated the proprieties and laid himself open to reproach +by his enterprise with a bouncing village-girl, to whose rosy cheek an +honest smack was not probably an absolute novelty. He made it all up by +his discretion and good behavior now. He saw by Helen's moist eye and +trembling lip that her woman's heart was off its guard, and he knew, +by the infallible instinct of sex, that he should be forgiven, if +he thanked her for her sisterly sympathies in the most natural +way,--expressive, and at the same time economical of breath and +utterance. He would not give a false look to their friendship by any +such demonstration. Helen was a little older than he was, but the +aureole of young womanhood had not yet begun to fade from around her. +She was surrounded by that enchanted atmosphere into which the girl +walks with dreamy eyes, and out of which the woman passes with a +story written on her forehead. Some people think very little of these +refinements; they have not studied magnetism, and the law of the square +of the distance. + +So Mr. Bernard thanked Helen for her interest without the aid of the +twenty-seventh letter of the alphabet,--the love labial,--the limping +consonant which it takes two to speak plain. Indeed, he scarcely let her +say a word, at first; for he saw that it was hard for her to conceal her +emotion. No wonder; he had come within a hair's-breadth of losing his +life, and he had been a very kind friend and a very dear companion to +her. + +There were some curious spiritual experiences connected with his last +evening's adventure, which were working very strongly in his mind. It +was borne in upon him irresistibly that he had been _dead_ since he had +seen Helen,--as dead as the son of the Widow of Nain before the bier was +touched and he sat up and began to speak. There was an interval +between two conscious moments which appeared to him like a temporary +annihilation, and the thoughts it suggested were worrying him with +strange perplexities. + +He remembered seeing the dark figure on horseback rise in the saddle and +something leap from its hand. He remembered the thrill he felt as the +coil settled on his shoulders, and the sudden impulse which led him to +fire as he did. With the report of the pistol all became blank, until +he found himself in a strange, bewildered state, groping about for the +weapon, which he had a vague consciousness of having dropped. But, +according to Abel's account, there must have been an interval of some +minutes between these recollections, and he could not help asking, Where +was the mind, the soul, the thinking principle, all this time? + +A man is stunned by a blow with a stick on the head. He becomes +unconscious. Another man gets a harder blow on the head from a bigger +stick, and it kills him. Does he become unconscious, too? If so, _when +does he come to his consciousness_? The man who has had a slight or +moderate blow comes to himself when the immediate shock passes off and +the organs begin to work again, or when a bit of the skull is pried up, +if that happens to be broken. Suppose the blow is hard enough to spoil +the brain and stop the play of the organs, what happens then? + +A British captain was struck by a cannon-ball on the head, just as +he was giving an order, at the Battle of the Nile. Fifteen months +afterwards he was trephined at Greenwich Hospital, having been +insensible all that time. Immediately after the operation his +consciousness returned, and he at once began carrying out the order +he was giving when the shot struck him. Suppose he had never been +trephined, when would his intelligence have returned? When his breath +ceased and his heart stopped beating? + +When Mr. Bernard said to Helen, "I have been dead since I saw you," it +startled her not a little; for his expression was that of perfect good +faith, and she feared that his mind was disordered. When he explained, +not as has been done just now, at length, but in a hurried, imperfect +way, the meaning of his strange assertion, and the fearful Sadduceeisms +which it had suggested to his mind, she looked troubled at first, and +then thoughtful. She did not feel able to answer all the difficulties he +raised, but she met them with that faith which is the strength as well +as the weakness of women,--which makes them weak in the hands of man, +but strong in the presence of the Unseen. + +"It is a strange experience," she said; "but I once had something like +it. I fainted, and lost some five or ten minutes out of my life, as much +as if I had been dead. But when I came to myself, I was the same person +every way, in my recollections and character. So I suppose that loss of +consciousness is not death. And if I was born out of unconsciousness +into infancy with many _family_-traits of mind and body, I can believe, +from my own reason, even without help from Revelation, that I shall be +born again out of the unconsciousness of death with my _individual_ +traits of mind and body. If death is, as it should seem to be, a loss of +consciousness, that does not shake my faith; for I have been put into a +body once already to fit me for living here, and I hope to be in some +way fitted after this life to enjoy a better one. But it is all trust in +God and in his Word. These are enough for me; I hope they are for you." + +Helen was a minister's daughter, and familiar from her childhood with +this class of questions, especially with all the doubts and perplexities +which are sure to assail every thinking child bred in any inorganic +or not thoroughly vitalized faith,--as is too often the case with the +children of professional theologians. The kind of discipline they are +subjected to is like that of the Flat-Head Indian pappooses. At five or +ten or fifteen years old they put their hands up to their foreheads and +ask, What are they strapping down my brains in this way for? So they +tear off the sacred bandages of the great Flat-Head tribe, and there +follows a mighty rush of blood to the long-compressed region. This +accounts, in the most lucid manner, for those sudden freaks with which +certain children of this class astonish their worthy parents at the +period of life when they are growing fast, and, the frontal pressure +beginning to be felt as something intolerable, they tear off the holy +compresses. + +The hour for school came, and they went to the great hall for study. +It would not have occurred to Mr. Silas Peckham to ask his assistant +whether he felt well enough to attend to his duties; and Mr. Bernard +chose to be at his post. A little headache and confusion were all that +remained of his symptoms. + +Later, in the course of the forenoon, Elsie Venner came and took her +place. The girls all stared at her,--naturally enough; for it was hardly +to have been expected that she would show herself, after such an event +in the household to which she belonged. Her expression was somewhat +peculiar, and, of course, was attributed to the shock her feelings had +undergone on hearing of the crime attempted by her cousin and daily +companion. When she was looking on her book, or on any indifferent +object, her countenance betrayed some inward disturbance, which knitted +her dark brows, and seemed to throw a deeper shadow over her features. +But, from time to time, she would lift her eyes toward Mr. Bernard, and +let them rest upon him, without a thought, seemingly, that she herself +was the subject of observation or remark. Then they seemed to lose their +cold glitter, and soften into a strange, dreamy tenderness. The deep +instincts of womanhood were striving to grope their way to the surface +of her being through all the alien influences which overlaid them. +She could be secret and cunning in working out any of her dangerous +impulses, but she did not know how to mask the unwonted feeling which +fixed her eyes and her thoughts upon the only person who had ever +reached the spring of her hidden sympathies. + +The girls all looked at Elsie, whenever they could steal a glance +unperceived, and many of them were struck with this singular expression +her features wore. They had long whispered it around among each other +that she had a liking for the master; but there were too many of them of +whom something like this could be said, to make it very remarkable. Now, +however, when so many little hearts were fluttering at the thought +of the peril through which the handsome young master had so recently +passed, they were more alive than ever to the supposed relation between +him and the dark school-girl. Some had supposed there was a mutual +attachment between them; there was a story that they were secretly +betrothed, in accordance with the rumor which had been current in the +village. At any rate, some conflict was going on in that still, remote, +clouded soul, and all the girls who looked upon her face were impressed +and awed as they had never been before by the shadows that passed over +it. + +One of these girls was more strongly arrested by Elsie's look than the +others. This was a delicate, pallid creature, with a high forehead, and +wide-open pupils, which looked as if they could take in all the shapes +that flit in what, to common eyes, is darkness,--a girl said to be +_clairvoyant_ under certain influences. In the _recess_, as it was +called, or interval of suspended studies in the middle of the forenoon, +this girl carried her autograph-book,--for she had one of those +indispensable appendages of the boarding-school miss of every +degree,--and asked Elsie to write her name in it. She had an +irresistible feeling, that, sooner or later, and perhaps very soon, +there would attach an unusual interest to this autograph. Elsie took the +pen and wrote, in her sharp Italian hand, + + _Elsie Venner, Infelix._ + +It was a remembrance, doubtless, of the forlorn queen of the "Aeneid"; +but its coming to her thought in this way confirmed the sensitive +school-girl in her fears for Elsie, and she let fall a tear upon the +page before she closed it. + +Of course, the keen and practised observation of Helen Darley could not +fail to notice the change of Elsie's manner and expression. She had long +seen that she was attracted to the young master, and had thought, as +the old Doctor did, that any impression which acted upon her affections +might be the means of awakening a new life in her singularly isolated +nature. Now, however, the concentration of the poor girl's thoughts upon +the one object which had had power to reach her deeper sensibilities was +so painfully revealed in her features, that Helen began to fear once +more, lest Mr. Bernard, in escaping the treacherous violence of an +assassin, had been left to the equally dangerous consequences of a +violent, engrossing passion in the breast of a young creature whose love +it would be ruin to admit and might be deadly to reject. She knew her +own heart too well to fear that any jealousy might mingle with her new +apprehensions. It was understood between Bernard and Helen that they +were too good friends to tamper with the silences and edging proximities +of love-making. She knew, too, the simply human, not masculine, interest +which Mr. Bernard took in Elsie; he had been frank with Helen, and more +than satisfied her that with all the pity and sympathy which overflowed +his soul, when he thought of the stricken girl, there mingled not one +drop of such love as a youth may feel for a maiden. + +It may help the reader to gain some understanding of the anomalous +nature of Elsie Venner, if we look with Helen into Mr. Bernard's +opinions and feelings with reference to her, as they had shaped +themselves in his consciousness at the period of which we are speaking. + +At first he had been impressed by her wild beauty, and the contrast of +all her looks and ways with those of the girls around her. Presently a +sense of some ill-defined personal element, which half attracted and +half repelled those who looked upon her, and especially those on whom +she looked, began to make itself obvious to him, as he soon found it was +painfully sensible to his more susceptible companion, the lady-teacher. +It was not merely in the cold light of her diamond eyes, but in all her +movements, in her graceful postures as she sat, in her costume, and, he +sometimes thought, even in her speech, that this obscure and exceptional +character betrayed itself. When Helen had said, that, if they were +living in times when human beings were subject to possession, she should +have thought there was something not human about Elsie, it struck an +unsuspected vein of thought in his own mind, which he hated to put in +words, but which was continually trying to articulate itself among the +dumb thoughts which lie under the perpetual stream of mental whispers. + +Mr. Bernard's professional training had made him slow to accept +marvellous stories and many forms of superstition. Yet, as a man of +science, he well knew that just on the verge of the demonstrable facts +of physics and physiology there is a nebulous border-land which what +is called "common sense" perhaps does wisely not to enter, but which +uncommon sense, or the fine apprehension of privileged intelligences, +may cautiously explore, and in so doing find itself behind the scenes +which make up for the gazing world the show which is called Nature. + +It was with something of this finer perception, perhaps with some degree +of imaginative exaltation, that he set himself to solving the problem +of Elsie's influence to attract and repel those around her. His letter +already submitted to the reader hints in what direction his thoughts +were disposed to turn. Here was a magnificent organization, superb +in vigorous womanhood, with a beauty such as never comes but after +generations of culture; yet through all this rich nature there ran some +alien current of influence, sinuous and dark, as when a clouded streak +seams the white marble of a perfect statue. + +It would be needless to repeat the particular suggestions which had come +into his mind, as they must probably have come into those of the reader +who has noted the singularities of Elsie's tastes and personal traits. +The images which certain poets had dreamed of seemed to have become a +reality before his own eyes. Then came that unexplained adventure of The +Mountain,--almost like a dream in recollection, yet assuredly real in +some of its main incidents,--with all that it revealed or hinted. This +girl did not fear to visit the dreaded region, where danger lurked in +every nook and beneath every tuft of leaves. Did the tenants of the +fatal ledge recognize some mysterious affinity which made them tributary +to the cold glitter of her diamond eyes? Was she from her birth one of +those frightful children, such as he had read about, and the Professor +had told him of, who form unnatural friendships with cold, writhing +ophidians? There was no need of so unwelcome a thought as this; she had +drawn him away from the dark opening in the rock at the moment when he +seemed to be threatened by one of its malignant denizens; that was all +he could be sure of; the counter-fascination might have been a dream, a +fancy, a coincidence. All wonderful things soon grow doubtful in our own +minds, as do even common events, if great interests prove suddenly to +attach to their truth or falsehood. + +--I, who am telling of these occurrences, saw a friend in the great +city, on the morning of a most memorable disaster, hours after the time +when the train which carried its victims to their doom had left. I +talked with him, and was for some minutes, at least, in his company. +When I reached home, I found that the story had gone before that he was +among the lost, and I alone could contradict it to his weeping friends +and relatives. I did contradict it; but, alas! I began soon to doubt +myself, penetrated by the contagion of their solicitude; my recollection +began to question itself; the order of events became dislocated; and +when I heard that he had reached home in safety, the relief was almost +as great to me as to those who had expected to see their own brother's +face no more. + +Mr. Bernard was disposed, then, not to accept the thought of any odious +personal relationship of the kind which had suggested itself to him when +he wrote the letter referred to. That the girl had something of the +feral nature, her wild, lawless rambles in forbidden and blasted regions +of The Mountain at all hours, her familiarity with the lonely haunts +where any other human foot was so rarely seen, proved clearly enough. +But the more he thought of all her strange instincts and modes of being, +the more he became convinced that whatever alien impulse swayed her will +and modulated or diverted or displaced her affections came from some +impression that reached far back into the past, before the days when the +faithful Old Sophy had rocked her in the cradle. He believed that she +had brought her ruling tendency, whatever it was, into the world with +her. + +When the school was over and the girls had all gone, Helen lingered in +the school-room to speak with Mr. Bernard. + +"Did you remark Elsie's ways this forenoon?" she said. + +"No, not particularly; I have not noticed anything as sharply as I +commonly do; my head has been a little queer, and I have been thinking +over what we were talking about, and how near I came to solving the +great problem which every day makes clear to such multitudes of people. +What about Elsie?" + +"Bernard, her liking for you is growing into a passion. I have studied +girls for a long while, and I know the difference between their passing +fancies and their real emotions. I told you, you remember, that Rosa +would have to leave us; we barely missed a scene, I think, if not a +whole tragedy, by her going at the right moment. But Elsie is infinitely +more dangerous to herself and others. Women's love is fierce enough, if +it once gets the mastery of them, always; but this poor girl does not +know what to do with a passion." + +Mr. Bernard had never told Helen the story of the flower in his Virgil, +or that other adventure which he would have felt awkwardly to refer to; +but it had been perfectly understood between them that Elsie showed in +her own singular way a well-marked partiality for the young master. + +"Why don't they take her away from the school, if she is in such a +strange, excitable state?" said Mr. Bernard. + +"I believe they are afraid of her," Helen answered. "It is just one of +those cases that are ten thousand thousand times worse than insanity. I +don't think, from what I hear, that her father has ever given up hoping +that she will outgrow her peculiarities. Oh, these peculiar children for +whom parents go on hoping every morning and despairing every night! If I +could tell you half that mothers have told me, you would feel that the +worst of all diseases of the moral sense and the will are those which +all the Bedlams turn away from their doors as not being the subjects of +insanity!" + +"Do you think her father has treated her judiciously?" said Mr. Bernard. + +"I think," said Helen, with a little hesitation, which Mr. Bernard did +not happen to notice,--"I think he has been very kind and indulgent, and +I do not know that he could have treated her otherwise with a better +chance of success." + +"He must of course be fond of her," Mr. Bernard said; "there is nothing +else in the world for him to love." + +Helen dropped a book she held in her hand, and, stooping to pick it up, +the blood rushed into her cheeks. + +"It is getting late," she said; "you must not stay any longer in +this close school-room. Pray, go and get a little fresh air before +dinner-time." + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +A SOUL IN DISTRESS. + + +The events told in the last two chapters had taken place toward the +close of the week. On Saturday evening the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather +received a note which was left at his door by an unknown person who +departed without saying a word. Its words were these:-- + +"One who is in distress of mind requests the prayers of this +congregation that God would be pleased to look in mercy upon the soul +that he has afflicted." + +There was nothing to show from whom the note came, or the sex or age or +special source of spiritual discomfort or anxiety of the writer. The +handwriting was delicate and might well be a woman's. The clergyman was +not aware of any particular affliction among his parishioners which was +likely to be made the subject of a request of this kind. Surely neither +of the Venners would advertise the attempted crime of their relative in +this way. But who else was there? The more he thought about it, the more +it puzzled him; and as he did not like to pray in the dark, without +knowing for whom he was praying, he could think of nothing better than +to step into old Doctor Kittredge's and see what he had to say about it. + +The old Doctor was sitting alone in his study when the Reverend Mr. +Fairweather was ushered in. He received his visitor very pleasantly, +expecting, as a matter of course, that he would begin with some new +grievance, dyspeptic, neuralgic, bronchitic, or other. The minister, +however, began with questioning the old Doctor about the sequel of the +other night's adventure; for he was already getting a little Jesuitical, +and kept back the object of his visit until it should come up as if +accidentally in the course of conversation. + +"It was a pretty bold thing to go off alone with that reprobate, as you +did," said the minister. + +"I don't know what there was bold about it," the Doctor answered. "All +he wanted was to get away. He was not quite a reprobate, you see; he +didn't like the thought of disgracing his family or facing his uncle. I +think he was ashamed to see his cousin, too, after what he had done." + +"Did he talk with you on the way?" + +"Not much. For half an hour or so he didn't speak a word. Then he asked +where I was driving him. I told him, and he seemed to be surprised into +a sort of grateful feeling. Bad enough, no doubt,--but might be worse. +Has some humanity left in him yet. Let him go. God can judge him,--I +can't." + +"You are too charitable, Doctor," the minister said. "I condemn him just +as if he had carried out his project, which, they say, was to make it +appear as if the schoolmaster had committed suicide. That's what people +think the rope found by him was for. He has saved his neck,--but his +soul is a lost one, I am afraid, beyond question." + +"I can't judge men's souls," the Doctor said. "I can judge their acts, +and hold them responsible for those,--but I don't know much about their +souls. If you or I had found our soul in a half-breed body, and been +turned loose to run among the Indians, we might have been playing +just such tricks as this fellow has been trying. What if you or I had +inherited all the tendencies that were born with his cousin Elsie?" + +"Oh, that reminds me,"--the minister said, in a sudden way,--"I have +received a note, which I am requested to read from the pulpit to-morrow. +I wish you would just have the kindness to look at it and see where you +think it came from." + +The Doctor examined it carefully. It was a woman's or girl's note, he +thought. Might come from one of the school-girls who was anxious about +her spiritual condition. Handwriting was disguised; looked a little like +Elsie Venner's, but not characteristic enough to make it certain. It +would be a new thing, if she had asked public prayers for herself, and a +very favorable indication of a change in her singular moral nature. It +was just possible Elsie might have sent that note. Nobody could foretell +her actions. It would be well to see the girl and find out whether +any unusual impression had been produced on her mind by the recent +occurrence or by any other cause. + +The Reverend Mr. Fairweather folded the note and put it into his pocket. + +"I have been a good deal exercised in mind lately, myself," he said. + +The old Doctor looked at him through his spectacles, and said, in his +usual professional tone,-- + +"Put out your tongue." + +The minister obeyed him in that feeble way common with persons of weak +character,--for people differ as much in their mode of performing this +trifling act as Gideon's soldiers in their way of drinking at the brook. +The Doctor took his hand and placed a finger mechanically on his wrist. + +"It is more spiritual, I think, than bodily," said the Reverend Mr. +Fairweather. + +"Is your appetite as good as usual?" the Doctor asked. + +"Pretty good," the minister answered; "but my sleep, my sleep, +Doctor,--I am greatly troubled at night with lying awake and thinking of +my future,--I am not at ease in mind." + +He looked round at all the doors, to be sure they were shut, and moved +his chair up close to the Doctor's. + +"You do not know the mental trials I have been going through for the +last few months." + +"I think I do," the old Doctor said. "You want to get out of the new +church into the old one, don't you?" + +The minister blushed deeply; he thought he had been going on in a very +quiet way, and that nobody suspected his secret. As the old Doctor was +his counsellor in sickness, and almost everybody's confidant in trouble, +he had intended to impart cautiously to him some hints of the change of +sentiments through which he had been passing. He was too late with his +information, it appeared; and there was nothing to be done but to throw +himself on the Doctor's good sense and kindness, which everybody knew, +and get what hints he could from him as to the practical course he +should pursue. He began, after an awkward pause,-- + +"You would not have me stay in a communion which I feel to be alien to +the true church, would you?" + +"Have you stay, my friend?" said the Doctor, with a pleasant, friendly +look,--"have you stay? Not a month, nor a week, nor a day, if I could +help it. You have got into the wrong pulpit, and I have known it from +the first. The sooner you go where you belong, the better. And I'm very +glad you don't mean to stop half-way. Don't you know you've always come +to me when you've been dyspeptic or sick anyhow, and wanted to put +yourself wholly into my hands, so that I might order you like a child +just what to do and what to take? That's exactly what you want in +religion. I don't blame you for it. You never liked to take the +responsibility of your own body; I don't see why you should want to have +the charge of your own soul. But I'm glad you're going to the Old Mother +of all. You wouldn't have been contented short of that." + +The Reverend Mr. Fairweather breathed with more freedom. The Doctor saw +into his soul through those awful spectacles of his,--into it and +beyond it, as one sees through a thin fog. But it was with a real human +kindness, after all. He felt like a child before a strong man; but the +strong man looked on him with a father's indulgence. Many and many a +time, when he had come desponding and bemoaning himself on account of +some contemptible bodily infirmity, the old Doctor had looked at him +through his spectacles, listened patiently while he told his ailments, +and then, in his large parental way, given him a few words of wholesome +advice, and cheered him up so that he went off with a light heart, +thinking that the heaven he was so much afraid of was not so very near, +after all. It was the same thing now. He felt, as feeble natures always +do in the presence of strong ones, overmastered, circumscribed, shut in, +humbled; but yet it seemed as if the old Doctor did not despise him any +more for what he considered weakness of mind than he used to despise him +when he complained of his nerves or his digestion. + +Men who see _into_ their neighbors are very apt to be contemptuous; but +men who see _through_ them find something lying behind every human soul +which it is not for them to sit in judgment on, or to attempt to sneer +out of the order of God's manifold universe. + +Little as the Doctor had said out of which comfort could be extracted, +his genial manner had something grateful in it. A film of gratitude +came over the poor man's cloudy, uncertain eye, and a look of tremulous +relief and satisfaction played about his weak mouth. He was gravitating +to the majority, where he hoped to find "rest"; but he was dreadfully +sensitive to the opinions of the minority he was on the point of +leaving. + +The old Doctor saw plainly enough what was going on in his mind. + +"I sha'n't quarrel with you," he said,--"you know that very well; but +you mustn't quarrel with me, if I talk honestly with you; it isn't +everybody that will take the trouble. You flatter yourself that you will +make a good many enemies by leaving your old communion. Not so many as +you think. This is the way the common sort of people will talk:--'You +have got your ticket to the feast of life, as much as any other man that +ever lived. Protestantism says,--'Help yourself; here's a clean plate, +and a knife and fork of your own, and plenty of fresh dishes to choose +from.' The Old Mother says,--'Give me your ticket, my dear, and I'll +feed you with my gold spoon off these beautiful old wooden trenchers. +Such nice bits as those good old gentlemen have left for you!' There is +no quarrelling with a man who prefers broken victuals.' That's what the +rougher sort will say; and then, where one scolds, ten will laugh. But, +mind you, I don't either scold or laugh. I don't feel sure that you +could very well have helped doing what you will soon do. You know you +were never easy without some medicine to take when you felt ill in body. +I'm afraid I've given you trashy stuff sometimes, just to keep you +quiet. Now, let me tell you, there is just the same difference in +spiritual patients that there is in bodily ones. One set believes +in wholesome ways of living, and another must have a great list of +specifics for all the soul's complaints. You belong with the last, and +got accidentally shuffled in with the others." + +The minister smiled faintly, but did not reply. Of course, he considered +that way of talking as the result of the Doctor's professional training. +It would not have been worth while to take offence at his plain speech, +if he had been so disposed; for he might wish to consult him the next +day as to "what he should take" for his dyspepsia or his neuralgia. + +He left the Doctor with a hollow feeling at the bottom of his soul, as +if a good piece of his manhood had been scooped out of him. His hollow +aching did not explain itself in words, but it grumbled and worried down +among the unshaped thoughts which lie beneath them. He knew that he had +been trying to reason himself out of his birthright of reason. He knew +that the inspiration which gave him understanding was losing its throne +in his intelligence, and the almighty Majority-Vote was proclaiming +itself in its stead. He knew that the great primal truths, which each +successive revelation only confirmed, were fast becoming hidden beneath +the mechanical forms of thought, which, as with all new converts, +engrossed so large a share of his attention. The "peace," the "rest," +which he had purchased, were dearly bought to one who had been trained +to the arms of thought, and whose noble privilege it might have been +to live in perpetual warfare for the advancing truth which the next +generation will claim as the legacy of the present. + +The Reverend Mr. Fairweather was getting careless about his sermons. He +must wait the fitting moment to declare himself; and in the mean time +he was preaching to heretics. It did not matter much what he preached, +under such circumstances. He pulled out two old yellow sermons from a +heap of such, and began looking over that for the forenoon. Naturally +enough, he fell asleep over it, and, sleeping, he began to dream. + +He dreamed that he was under the high arches of an old cathedral amidst +a throng of worshippers. The light streamed in through vast windows, +dark with the purple robes of royal saints, or blazing with yellow +glories around the heads of earthly martyrs and heavenly messengers. The +billows of the great organ roared among the clustered columns, as the +sea breaks amidst the basaltic pillars which crowd the great cavern of +the Hebrides. The voice of the alternate choirs of singing boys swung +back and forward, as the silver censer swung in the hands of the +white-robed children. The sweet cloud of incense rose in soft, fleecy +mists, full of penetrating suggestions of the East and its perfumed +altars. The knees of twenty generations had worn the pavement; their +feet had hollowed the steps; their shoulders had smoothed the columns. +Dead bishops and abbots lay under the marble of the floor in their +crumbled vestments; dead warriors, in their rusted armor, were stretched +beneath their sculptured effigies. And all at once all the buried +multitudes who had ever worshipped there came thronging in through the +aisles. They choked every space, they swarmed into all the chapels, they +hung in clusters over the parapets of the galleries, they clung to +the images in every niche, and still the vast throng kept flowing and +flowing in, until the living were lost in the rush of the returning dead +who had reclaimed their own. Then, as his dream became more fantastic, +the huge cathedral itself seemed to change into the wreck of some mighty +antediluvian vertebrate; its flying-buttresses arched round like ribs, +its piers shaped themselves into limbs, and the sound of the organ-blast +changed to the wind whistling through its thousand-jointed skeleton. + +And presently the sound lulled, and softened and softened, until it was +as the murmur of a distant swarm of bees. A procession of monks wound +along through an old street, chanting, as they walked, In his dream he +glided in among them and bore his part in the burden of their song. +He entered with the long train under a low arch, and presently he was +kneeling in a narrow cell before an image of the Blessed Maiden holding +the Divine Child in her arms, and his lips seemed to whisper,-- + +_Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis!_ + +He turned to the crucifix, and, prostrating himself before the spare, +agonizing shape of the Holy Sufferer, fell into a long passion of tears +and broken prayers. He rose and flung himself, worn-out, upon his hard +pallet, and, seeming to slumber, dreamed again within his dream. Once +more in the vast cathedral, with throngs of the living choking its +aisles, amidst jubilant peals from the cavernous depths of the great +organ, and choral melodies ringing from the fluty throats of the singing +boys. A day of great rejoicings,--for a prelate was to be consecrated, +and the bones of the mighty skeleton-minster were shaking with anthems, +as if there were life of its own within its buttressed ribs. He looked +down at his feet; the folds of the sacred robe were flowing about them: +he put his hand to his head; it was crowned with the holy mitre. A long +sigh, as of perfect content in the consummation of all his earthly +hopes, breathed through the dreamer's lips, and shaped itself, as it +escaped, into the blissful murmur-- + +_Ego sum Episcopus!_ + +One grinning gargoyle looked in from beneath the roof through an opening +in a stained window. It was the face of a mocking fiend, such as the old +builders loved to place under the eaves to spout the rain through their +open mouths. It looked at him, as he sat in his mitred chair, with its +hideous grin growing broader and broader, until it laughed out aloud,-- +such a hard, stony, mocking laugh, that he awoke out of his second dream +through his first into his common consciousness, and shivered, as he +turned to the two yellow sermons which he was to pick over and weed of +the little thought they might contain, for the next day's service. + +The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather was too much taken up with his own +bodily and spiritual condition to be deeply mindful of others. He +carried the note requesting the prayers of the congregation in his +pocket all day; and the soul in distress, which a single tender petition +might have soothed, and perhaps have saved from despair or fatal error, +found no voice in the temple to plead for it before the Throne of Mercy! + + * * * * * + + +THE GREAT LAKES. + + +If, as is believed by many statisticians, the census of 1860 should +show that the centre of population and power in these United States is +steadily advancing westward, and that by the year 1880 it will be +at some point on the Great Lakes, then, certainly, the history and +resources of those inland seas cannot fail to be interesting to the +general reader. + +It happens that the Indian traditions of this region possess more of the +coherence of history than those of other parts of the country; and, as +preserved by Schoolcraft and embalmed in the poetry of Longfellow, they +show well enough by the side of the early traditions of other primitive +peoples. The conquest of the Lake-shore region by San-ge-man and his +Ojibwas may be as trustworthy a tale as the exploits of Romulus and +Remus; and when we emerge into the light of European record, we find the +Jesuit missionaries preaching the gospel at St. Ignace and the Sault St. +Mary almost as early as the so-called Cavaliers were planting tobacco at +Jamestown, or the Pilgrims smiting the heathen at Plymouth. + +The first white persons who penetrated into the Upper Lake region were +two young fur-traders who left Montreal for that purpose in 1654, and +remained two years among the Indian tribes on those shores. We are +not informed of the details of this journey; but it appears that they +returned with information relative to Lake Superior, and perhaps Lake +Michigan and Green Bay; for in 1659 the fur-traders are known to have +extended their traffic to that bay. The first settlement of Wisconsin +may be dated in 1665, when Claude Allouez established a mission at La +Pointe on Lake Superior. This was before Philadelphia was founded by +William Penn. + +The first account we have of a voyage on Lake Michigan was by Nicholas +Perrot, who, accompanied by some Pottawattomies, passed from Green Bay +to Chicago, in 1670. Two years afterwards the same voyage was undertaken +by Allouez and Dablon. They stopped at the mouth of the Milwaukie River, +then occupied by Kickapoo Indians. In 1673, Fathers Marquette and Joliet +went from Green Bay to the Neenah or Fox River, and, descending the +Wisconsin, discovered the Mississippi on the 17th of June. + +In 1679, La Salle made his voyage up the Lakes in the Griffin, the first +vessel built above the Falls of Niagara. This vessel, the pioneer of the +great fleet which now whitens those waters, was about sixty tons burden, +and carried five guns and thirty-four men. La Salle loaded her at Green +Bay with a cargo of furs and skins, and she sailed on the 18th of +September for Niagara, where she never arrived, nor was any news of her +ever received. The Griffin, with her cargo, was valued at sixty thousand +livres. Thus the want of harbors on Lake Michigan began to be felt +nearly two hundred years ago; and the fate of the Griffin was only a +precursor of many similar calamities since. + +About 1760 was the end of what may be called the religious epoch in +the history of the Northwest, when the dominion passed from French to +English hands, and the military period commenced. This lasted about +fifty years, during which time the combatants were French, English, +Indians, and Americans. Much blood was shed in desultory warfare. +Detroit, Mackinac, and other posts were taken and retaken; in fact, +there never was peace in that land till after the naval victory of Perry +in 1813, when the command of the Lakes passed to the Americans. + +Our military and naval expeditions in the Northwest were, however, +remarkably unfortunate in that war. For want of a naval force on the +Lakes,--a necessity which had been pointed out to the Government by +William Hull, then Governor of the Northwest Territory, before the +declaration of war,--the posts of Chicago, Mackinac, and Detroit were +taken by the British and their Indian allies in 1812, and kept by them +till the next year, when the energy and perseverance of Perry and his +Rhode-Islanders created a fleet upon Lake Erie, and swept the British +vessels from that quarter. + +In 1814, an American squadron of six brigs and schooners sailed from +Lake Erie to retake the post of Mackinac. Colonel Croghan commanded the +troops, which were landed under cover of the guns of the squadron. They +were attacked in the woods on the back of the island by the British and +Indians. Major Holmes, who led the Americans, was killed, and his men +retreated in confusion to the ships, which took them on board and sailed +away. The attack having failed, Captain Sinclair, who commanded the +squadron, returned to Lake Erie with the brigs Niagara and Saint +Lawrence and the schooners Caledonia and Ariel, leaving the Scorpion and +Tigress to operate against the enemy on Lake Huron. The British schooner +Nancy, being at Nattawasaga, under the protection of a block-house +mounting two twenty-four pounders, the American schooners proceeded to +attack her, and, after a short action, destroyed the vessel and the +block-house, the British escaping in their boats. Soon, after, the +American schooners returned to the neighborhood of St. Joseph, where +they were seen by some Indians, who reported at Mackinac that they were +about five leagues apart. An expedition was directly fitted out to +capture them; and Major Dickson, commander of the post, and Lieutenant +Worsley, who had retreated from the block-house above-mentioned, started +with one hundred men in four boats. + +On the third of September, at six o'clock, P.M., they found the Tigress +at anchor, and came within one hundred yards unobserved, when a smart +fire of grape and musketry was opened upon them. They advanced, and, two +boats hoarding her on each side, she was carried, after a short contest, +in which the British lost seven men, killed and wounded, and the +Americans, out of a crew of twenty-eight, had three killed and two +wounded. The prisoners having been sent to Mackinac, the Tigress was got +under way the next day, still keeping the American colors flying, and +proceeded in search of the Scorpion. On the fifth, they came in sight +of her, and, as those on board knew nothing of what had happened to the +Tigress, were suffered to approach within two miles. At daylight the +next morning, the Tigress was again got under way, and running alongside +her late consort, the British carried her by boarding, after a short +scuffle, in which four of the Scorpion's crew were killed and wounded, +and one of the British wounded. The schooners were fine new vessels, of +one hundred tons burden each, and had on board large quantities of arms +and ammunition. + +This account of the earliest naval action on the Upper Lakes is taken +from a British source; for, as may well be imagined, it has never found +its way into any American Naval History or Fourth of July Oration. + +It appears as if the American Government, during the War of 1812, either +from ignorance of the value of the Northwest, or, as some think, from +a fear lest it might, if conquered, become free territory, were very +inefficient in their efforts in that direction. As, however, the same +imbecility was displayed in other quarters, for example, at Washington, +where they allowed the capital to be taken by a handful of British +troops, and as the Yankee who was in the fight said, "They didn't seem +to take no interest," we must acquit the administration of Mr. Madison +of anything worse than going to war without adequate preparation. + +After the War of 1812 was over, the Northwestern Territory was held by +our Government by a kind of military occupation for some twenty years, +when, the Indian title having been extinguished, white settlers began +to occupy Northern Illinois and Wisconsin. The Sacs and Foxes, having +repented of their surrender of this fair country, reentered it in 1832, +but after a short contest were expelled and driven westward, and the +working period commenced. Large cities have sprung up on the Lake +shores, and the broad expanse of Lake Michigan is now whitened by a +thousand sails; and even the rocky cliffs of Superior echo the whistle +of the propeller, instead of the scream of the bald eagle. + +Perhaps the ship-owners of the Atlantic cities are hardly aware of the +growth of this Lake commerce within the last twenty years, and that it +is now nearly equal in amount to the whole foreign trade of the country. +Before entering on the statistics of this trade, however, we will give a +brief description of the Lakes themselves.[A] + +[Footnote A: We are indebted for our facts and details to Lapham's +_Wisconsin_, Foster and Whitney's _Report_, Agassiz's _Lake Superior_, +and works of similar character.] + +Lake Superior, the largest expanse of fresh water on the globe, is 355 +miles in length, 160 in breadth, with a depth of 900 feet. It contains +32,000 square miles of surface, which is elevated 627 feet above the +surface of the ocean, while portions of its bed are several hundred +feet below it. Its coast is 1500 miles in extent, with irregular, rocky +shores, bold headlands, and deep bays. It contains numerous islands, one +of which, Isle Royale, has an area of 230 square miles. The shores +of this lake are rock-bound, sometimes rising into lofty cliffs and +pinnacles, twelve or thirteen hundred feet high. Where the igneous rocks +prevail, the coast is finely indented; where the sandstones abound, it +is gently curved. Lake Superior occupies an immense depression, for +the most part excavated out of the soft and yielding sandstone. Its +configuration on the east and north has been determined by an irregular +belt of granite, which forms a rim, effectually resisting the further +action of its waters. The temperature of the water in summer is about +40°. + +Lake Huron connects with Superior by the St. Mary's River, and is 260 +miles long and 160 broad; its circumference is 1100 miles, its area +20,400. Georgian Bay, 170 miles long and 70 broad, forms the northeast +portion, and lies within British jurisdiction. Saginaw, a deep and +wide-mouthed bay, is the principal indentation on the western coast. The +rim of this lake is composed mostly of detrital rocks, which are rarely +exposed. In the northern portion of the lake, the trap-rocks on the +Canada side intersect the coast. The waters are as deep as those of +Superior, and possess great transparency. They rarely attain a higher +temperature than 50°, and, like those of Superior, have the deep-blue +tint of the ocean. The northern coast of Lake Huron abounds in clusters +of islands; Captain Bayfield is said to have landed on 10,000 of them, +and to have estimated their number at 30,000. + +Lake Michigan, called by the early voyagers Lac des Illinois, is next in +size to Superior, being 320 miles in length and 100 in breadth, with a +circumference, including Green Bay, of 1300 miles. It contains 22,000 +miles of surface, with a depth of 900 feet in the deeper parts, though +near the shore it grows gradually shoal. The rocks which compose its rim +are of a sedimentary nature, and afford few indentations for harbors. +The shores are low, and lined in many places with immense sand-banks. +Green Bay, or Bale des Puans of the Jesuits, on the west coast, is 100 +miles long and 20 broad. Great and Little Traverse Bays occur on the +eastern coast, and Great and Little Bays des Noquets on the northern. +One cluster of islands is found at the outlet of the main lake, and +another at that of Green Bay. Lake Michigan is the only one of the Great +Lakes which lies wholly within American jurisdiction. + +Lake Erie is 240 miles in length, 60 in breadth, and contains an area +of 9,600 square miles. It lies 565 feet above the sea-level, and is +the shallowest of all the Lakes, being only 84 feet in mean depth. Its +waters, in consequence, have the green color of the sea in shallow bays +and harbors. It is connected with Lake Huron by the St. Clair River and +Lake, a shallow expanse of water, twenty miles wide, and by Detroit +River. + +Lake Ontario is 180 miles in length and 55 in breadth, containing 6,300 +square miles. It is connected with Lake Erie by the Niagara River, and +also by the Welland Canal, which admits the passage of vessels of large +burden. This lake lies at a lower level than the others, being only 230 +feet above the sea. It is, however, about 500 feet in depth. + +The whole area of these lakes is over 90,000 miles, and the area of land +drained by them, 335,515 miles. + +The presence of this great body of water modifies the range of the +thermometer, lessening the intensity of the cold in winter and of the +heat in summer, and gives a temperature more uniform on the Lake coasts +than is found in a corresponding latitude on the Mississippi. + +The difference between the temperature of the air and that of the +Lakes gives rise to a variety of optical illusions, known as _mirage._ +Mountains are seen with inverted cones; headlands project from the shore +where none exist; islands clothed with verdure, or girt with cliffs, +rise up from the bosom of the lake, remain awhile, and disappear. +Hardly a day passes, during the summer, without a more or less striking +exhibition of this kind. The same phenomena of rapidly varying +refraction may often be witnessed at sunset, when the sun, sinking into +the lake, undergoes a most striking series of changes. At one moment it +is drawn out into a pear-like shape; the next it takes an elliptical +form; and just as it disappears, the upper part of its disk becomes +elongated into a ribbon of light, which seems to float for a moment upon +the surface of the water. + +Thunder-storms of great violence are not unusual, and sudden gusts of +wind spring up on the Lakes, and those who navigate them pass sometimes +instantaneously from a current of air blowing briskly in one direction +into one blowing with equal force from the opposite quarter. The lower +sails of a vessel are sometimes becalmed, while a smart breeze fills the +upper. + +The storms which agitate the Lakes, though less violent than the +typhoons of the Indian Ocean or the hurricanes of the Atlantic, are +still very dangerous to mariners; and, owing to the want of sea-room, +and the scarcity of good harbors, shipwrecks are but too common, and +frequently attended with much loss of life. A short, ugly sea gets up +very quickly after the wind begins to blow hard, and subsides with equal +celerity when the wind goes down. + +The fluctuations in the level of the waters of these lakes have +attracted much attention among scientific observers; and as early as +1670, Father Dablon, in his "Relations," says,--"As to the tides, it is +difficult to lay down any correct rule. At one time we have found the +motion of the waters to be regular, and at others extremely fluctuating. +We have noticed, however, that at full moon and new moon the tides +change once a day for eight or ten days, while during the remainder of +the time there is hardly any change perceptible.... Three things +are remarkable: 1st. That the currents set almost constantly in one +direction, namely, towards the Lake of the Illinois, [Michigan,] which +does not prevent their ordinary rise and fall; 2d. That they almost +invariably set _against_ the wind,--sometimes with as much force as the +tides at Quebec,--and we have seen ice moving against the wind as +fast as boats under full sail; 3d. That among these currents we have +discovered the emission of a quantity of water which seems to spring up +from the bottom." + +Father Dablon is of opinion that the waters of Lake Superior enter +into the Straits by a subterranean passage. This theory, he says, is +necessary to explain two things, namely: 1st. Without such a passage, it +is impossible to say what becomes of the waters of Lake Superior. This +vast lake has but one visible outlet, namely, the River of St. Mary; +while it receives the waters of a large number of rivers, some of which +are of greater dimensions than the St. Mary. What, then, becomes of the +surplus water? 2d. The difficulty of explaining whence come the waters +of Huron and Michigan. Very few rivers flow into these lakes, and +their volume of water is such as to fortify the belief that it must be +supplied through the subterranean river entering the Straits. + +A large number of facts have been collected by Messrs. Foster and +Whitney on the subject of these oscillations of the Lake level; and, +in fact, these phenomena have been for a long time familiar to the +residents on the Lake shores. They are generally attributed by +scientific men to atmospheric disturbances, which, by increasing or +diminishing the atmospheric pressure, produce a corresponding rise +or fall in the water-level. These are the sudden and irregular +fluctuations. + +The gradual fluctuations are probably caused by the variable amount of +rain which falls in the vast area of country drained by the Lakes. Thus, +at Fort Brady, where the mean of five years' observations is 29.68 +inches, the extremes are 36.92 and 22.44. + +An idea has been long prevalent among the old residents, derived from +the Indians, that there is a variation of the Lake surface which extends +over a period of fourteen years,--that is, the Lakes rise for seven +years, and fall for seven years. The records kept by accurate observers +at various points on the Lakes for the last ten years do not seem to +confirm this theory; but it has been well established by the recent +observations of Colonel Graham, at both ends of Lake Michigan, that +there is a semi-diurnal lunar tide on that lake of at least one third of +a foot. + +The evaporation from this great water-surface must be immense. It has +been estimated at 11,800,000,000,000 cubic feet per annum; and in this +way alone can we account for the difference between the volume of water +which enters the Lakes and that which leaves them at the Falls of +Niagara. Immense as is the quantity of water which pours over the Falls, +it is small in comparison with the floods which combine to make up the +Upper Lakes. + +In the year 1832, about the close of the Black Hawk War, the tonnage of +the Lakes was only 7,000 tons. In 1845 it had increased to 132,000 tons, +and in 1858 it was 404,301 tons. Or, if we take Chicago, the chief city +of the Lakes, we find that her imports and exports were,-- + + Imports. Exports. + In 1836, $ 325,203 $ 1,000 + " 1851, 24,410,400 5,395,471 + " 1859, estimated 60,000,000 24,280,890 + +In the year 1858, there were on the Lakes,-- + + American vessels, 1,194. Tonnage, 399,443 + Canadian " 321. " 59,580 + + Value of American tonnage on the + Lakes, $16,000,000 + + Value of Lake commerce, import + and exports, $600,000,000 + + Number of seamen employed, 13,000 + +Taking the island of Mackinac as the geographical centre of this +navigation, we find the distances as follows:-- + + Miles. + From Mackinac to head of Lake Superior 550 + " " " Chicago 350 + " " " East end of Georgian + Bay 300 + " " " Buffalo 700 + " " " Gulf of St. Lawrence 1,600 + +Or ninety thousand miles of lakes and rivers, extending half across the +continent. + +The following table shows the amount of tonnage belonging to different +cities in 1857:-- + + Tons. Tons. + New York, 1,377,424 Charleston, 56,430 + Boston, 447,966 Detroit, 57,707 + Bath, 189,932 New Bedford, 152,799 + Baltimore, 191,618 New Orleans, 173,167 + Providence, 15,152 Cleveland, 63,361 + Philadelphia, 211,380 Chicago, 67,316 + Buffalo, 100,226 Milwaukie, 22,339 + +This shows that Chicago had in 1857, being then twenty-five years old, a +larger tonnage than Charleston, the capital of the Palmetto Kingdom; and +Milwaukie, still younger than Chicago, owned a larger amount of tonnage +than the old and wealthy city of Providence. + +In 1857, the export of grain from the Lake ports was sixty-five million +bushels; in 1860, it was estimated at one hundred millions. + +The coal-trade of Cleveland, in 1858, was 129,000 tons. A large amount +was also shipped from Erie. + +In 1858, the salt-trade of the Lakes amounted to more than six hundred +thousand barrels, most of which was shipped from the port of Oswego on +Lake Ontario. + +The lumber received at Chicago in 1858 amounted to: Boards, 273,000,000 +feet; shingles, 254,000,000; lath, 45,000,000: worth $2,442,500. + +The present navigable outlets to this great commerce are three in +number. First, the Erie Canal, from Buffalo to Albany, which, in its +enlarged form, takes probably two-thirds of the productions of the Lake +regions. Second, the River St. Lawrence, which, by means of the Welland +Canal, secures a good share of the trade. Third, the Illinois and +Michigan Canal, which conveys large quantities of lumber, salt, and +other heavy goods to the Illinois River and the Mississippi. Of course, +more or less produce is taken to the seaboard by the railroads; but, +even if they could compete in price with water-carriage, it is evident +that they are incapable of moving the surplus grain of the Northwest, +as it now is. Another great navigable outlet to the Lakes is needed, so +that vessels of the largest class may sail from the elevators of Chicago +to the Liverpool docks without breaking bulk; and in reference to this, +a survey has recently been made by Thomas C. Clarke, under the direction +of the Canadian Government, for a ship-navigation between Montreal and +Lake Huron, by way of the Ottawa River, Lake Nipissing, and French +River. The Report shows that the cost of the work for vessels of one +thousand tons burden would be twelve million dollars,--and that it would +cut off a distance nearly equal to the whole length of Lakes Erie and +Ontario, thus saving from three hundred and fifty to four hundred miles +of navigation. In view of the fact that the navigation of St. Clair and +Erie is the most troublesome and dangerous part of the voyage, this plan +certainly deserves attention. + +It is easy to see what a prolific nursery of seamen this Lake commerce +must be, and how valuable a resource in a war with any great naval +power. It is a resource which was wholly wanting to us in the War of +1812, when Commodore Perry had to bring his sailors from the seaboard +with great difficulty and expense. In any future war with England, +supposing such an unhappy event to take place, our great numerical +superiority upon the Lakes in both vessels and sailors would not only +insure our supremacy there, but also afford a large surplus of men for +our ocean marine. + +But it may be said that these men are only fresh-water sailors, after +all, and are not to be relied upon for ocean-navigation. We know there +used to be a notion prevailing, that neither Lake vessels nor Lake men +would do for salt water; but in 1856, the schooner Dean Richmond took a +cargo of wheat from Chicago to Liverpool, beating a large fleet of ocean +craft from Quebec across the Atlantic, and otherwise behaving so well +as to cause the sale of the vessel in England. This voyage encouraged +others to try the experiment, and in 1859 from thirty to forty Lake +vessels loaded for ocean ports. + +That this trade will be very much increased there is no doubt, since +it affords occupation for the Lake marine in the winter, when the Lake +ports are closed by ice. + +On the western shore of Lake Michigan there are large settlements of +Norwegians and Swedes, many of whom follow the Lakes as fishermen and +sailors. Descendants of the old Northern sea-kings, they are as hardy +and adventurous here as in their Scandinavian homes, and run their +vessels earlier and later in the season than other men are willing to +do. + +Science might have anticipated, however, that vessels built for +fresh-water navigation, and loaded at Lake ports, would have an +advantage on the ocean over those loaded on salt water. As is the +density of the water of any sea, so is the displacement, or the sinking +of the vessel therein. Therefore a vessel can carry a larger cargo in +salt water than she can in fresh; and so, a Lake craft, loading at +Chicago as deep as she can swim, will find herself, when she reaches +the ocean, much more buoyant and lively. So, also, as, the more sail a +vessel carries, the deeper she penetrates the water, it follows, that, +the more dense the water, the more sail she can carry. + +In proof of these statements, the "Merchants' Magazine" tells us, that +English vessels bound up the Black Sea take smaller cargoes than those +going to the Mediterranean, because, the former being much less salt +than the latter, vessels are less buoyant thereon, and can carry less. +This difference in buoyancy will probably be enough to offset the higher +seas and rougher weather of the Atlantic. + +Thus it appears that this great basin extends through so many degrees of +latitude that its lakes and streams connect with the mineral regions and +pine forests of the North, the wheat- and corn-lands and cattle-ranges +of the Middle States, and the cotton-and sugar-plantations of the +South. + +The pine forests of Maine, it is well known, have been for some time +failing, under the great demand upon them; and the only resource will +soon be in those of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan, from which many +cargoes have been already sent to the Atlantic ports. The amount of +lumber made in these pineries in 1860 is estimated at twelve hundred +million feet, worth between eight and nine millions of dollars. Most of +this goes to the country west of the Lakes,--to Chicago, to St. Louis, +and even down the river to New Orleans. Since railroads have penetrated +the great prairies and made them habitable, the demand for pine lumber +has greatly increased both for building and fencing; and it has been +estimated, that, if every quarter-section of land in Iowa and Illinois +were surrounded with a "three-board" fence, it would consume every foot +of pine-timber in Michigan. + +As to the copper and iron mines of Lake Superior, many dabblers in fancy +stocks are but too well acquainted with them, and many burned fingers +testify against those investments of capital. Still, the amount of +mineral is immense, and the quality of the purest; and these mines will +no doubt pay well, if worked with skill and capital. + +Since 1845, one hundred and sixteen copper-mining companies have been +organized in Michigan, under the general law of the State; and the +amount of capital invested in them is estimated at six millions of +dollars. Most of this is lost. On the other hand, the "Cliff" and +"Minnesota" mines have returned over two millions of dollars in +dividends. The latter is said to have paid, in 1858, a dividend of +$300,000 on a paid-up capital of $66,000. Mining is a lottery, and this +brilliant prize cannot conceal the fact that blanks fall to the lot of +by far the more numerous part of the ticket-holders. + +The opening of the Sault Canal has very much aided in developing the +resources of the Upper Peninsula. In 1845, the Lake Superior fleet +consisted of three schooners. In 1860, one hundred vessels passed +through the canal, loaded with supplies for the mining country, and +returned with cargoes of copper and iron ore and fish. The copper is +smelted in Detroit, Cleveland, and Boston. In 1859, 3,000 tons were +landed in Detroit, producing from 60 to 70 per cent of ingot copper, +being among the purest ores in the world. + +The iron ore of this region is also of extraordinary purity; and for +all purposes where great strength and tenacity are required, it is +unrivalled, as the following table, showing the relative strength, per +square inch, as compared with other kinds of iron, will prove:-- + + Best Swedish ...... 58.184 + English cable...... 59.105 + Essex Co., N.Y..... 59.962 + Lancaster, Pa...... 58.661 + Common English .... 30.000 + Best Russia ....... 76.069 + Lake Superior ..... 89.582 + +With such iron to be had of American manufacture, why should we use +a rotten English article for car-wheels and boiler-plates, and so +sacrifice the lives of thousands every year? Because, by an unwise +legislation, the foreign article is made a little cheaper to the +American consumer. + +There are ten large forges in operation in Michigan, with a capital of +over two millions of dollars; and the shipments of ore from Marquette +in 1859 were over 75,000 tons. The country back of Marquette is full +of mountains of iron ore, yielding 60 or 70 per cent, of pure metal, +sufficient to supply the world for ages. + +Traces have been found, through the whole of this copper-region, of a +rude species of mining practised here long before it became known to the +whites. The existing races of Indians had not even a tradition by whom +it was done; and the excavations were unknown to them, until pointed out +by the white man. Messrs. Foster and Whitney, in their survey of the +copper-lands, found a pine-stump ten feet in circumference, which must +have grown, flourished, and died since the mound of earth upon which it +stood was thrown out. Mr. Knapp discovered, in 1848, a deserted mine or +excavation, in which, under eighteen feet of rubbish, he found a mass +of native copper weighing over six tons, resting on billets of oak +supported by sleepers of the same material. The ancient miners had +evidently raised the mass about five feet, and then abandoned it. Around +it, among the accumulation of rubbish, were found a large number of +stone hammers, and some copper chisels, but no utensils of iron. In some +instances, explorers have been led to select valuable mining-sites by +the abundance of these stone hammers found about the ground. Traces +of tumuli have also been found in these regions, which would seem +to indicate some connection between these ancient miners and the +mound-builders of the Mississippi Valley,--especially as in those +western mounds copper rings have frequently been found. + +The economical value of the Lake fisheries is considerable. The total +catch of white-fish, trout, and pickerel, the only kinds which are +packed, to any extent, was estimated for 1859 at 110,000 barrels, +worth about $880,000. These find a market through the States of Ohio, +Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois; besides a large quantity which are +consumed in a fresh state, in the Lake cities and towns. + +The White-Fish, (_Coregonus Albus,_) which is the most valuable of all, +somewhat resembles the shad in appearance and taste. It is taken in +seines and other nets,--never with the hook. The white-fish of Lake +Superior are larger, fatter, and of finer flavor than any others. In +this lake they have sometimes been taken weighing fifteen pounds. At the +Sault they are taken in the rapids with dip-nets, by the Chippewas who +live in that vicinity, and are of very fine flavor; those of Detroit +River and the Straits of Mackinac are also very good; but when you go +south, into Lake Erie or Michigan, the quality of the fish deteriorates. +Few travellers ever taste a white-fish in perfection. As eaten upon +hotel-tables at Buffalo or Chicago, it is a poor and tasteless fish. +But, as found at the old French boarding-houses at Mackinac or the +Sault, or, better still, cooked fresh from the icy waters on the +rocky shores of Superior, it is, to our thinking, the best fish that +swims,--better than the true salmon or brook-trout. The famous fish once +so plenty in Otsego Lake, but now nearly extinct, was a _Coregonus_, and +first cousin to this one of the Great Lakes. + +So Sebago Lake, near Portland, some fifty years ago, boasted of a +delicious red-fleshed trout, of large size, which has in these latter +times, from netting or some other improper fishing, nearly or quite +disappeared from those waters, leaving upon the palates of old anglers +the remembrance of a flavor higher and richer than anything now +remaining. + +The Lake Trout, or Mackinac Salmon, is the largest of the family of +_Salmonidoe_, growing, it is said, sometimes to the weight of one +hundred pounds. From twenty to thirty pounds is not uncommon, which is +much larger than the average of _Salmo Salar_, the true salmon. Truth +compels us to add, however, that our salmon of the Lakes is inferior to +his kinsman of the salt water; though, as in the case of the +white-fish, he has been slandered by ignorant people, such as newspaper +letter-writers, and the like. When taken from the clear, cold waters of +Lake Huron or the Straits, and boiled as nearly alive as humanity will +permit, _Salmo Namaycush_ is nearly equal to the true salmon; but after +two or three days in ice, "how stale, flat, and unprofitable!" + +The Muskelunge (_Esox Estor_) is peculiar to this basin, and is the +largest of the pickerels, weighing from ten to eighty pounds. It is a +very handsome and game fish, and is the king, or tyrant, of the water, +devouring without mercy everything smaller than itself; though its +favorite food is the white-fish, which, perhaps, accounts for the +superior flavor of this huge pike, which is one of the very best of +fresh-water fishes. + +Another excellent fish for the table is the Pike-Perch, (_Lucio-Perca_) +or Glass-Eyed Pike, from his large, brilliant eyes. In Ohio, it is +called the salmon, and by the Canadians the pickerel, while, with +singular perversity, they persist in calling our pickerel a pike. It is +a very firm, well-flavored fish, weighing from two to ten pounds, and is +found in all the Great Lakes. + +Professor Agassiz was the first to describe a large and valuable species +of pike, which he found in Lake Superior,--the Northern Pike (_Esox +Boreus_). This is the most common species of pike in the St. Lawrence +basin, though usually confounded with the common pickerel (_Esox +Reticulatus_). It grows to the size of fifteen or twenty pounds, and is +a better table-fish than _Esox Reticulatus_. It may be distinguished by +the rows of spots sides, of a lighter color than the ground upon which +they are arranged. It differs from the Muskelunge in having the lower +jaw full of teeth; whereas in the Muskelunge the anterior half of the +lower jaw is toothless. + +All the streams which empty into Lake Superior, those of the north shore +of Lake Huron, the west shore of Lake Michigan as far as Lake Winnebago, +and all the streams of Lake Ontario, contain the Speckled Trout (_Salmo +Fontinalis_); while they are not found in the streams on the southern +coasts of Lake Michigan, or (so far as we know) in the streams of Lake +Erie. What can determine this limitation of the range of the species? It +cannot be latitude, since trout are found in Pennsylvania and Virginia. +It is not longitude, since they occur in the head-waters of the Iowa +rivers. So Professor Agassiz found that Lake Superior contained species +which were not to be found in the other lakes, and that the other lakes, +again, contained species which did not occur in Lake Superior. He says, +in his work on Lake Superior, + +"It is the great question of the unity or plurality of creations; it is +not less the question of the origin of animals from single pairs or in +large numbers; and, strange to say, a thorough examination of the fishes +of Lake Superior, compared with those of the adjacent waters, is likely +to throw more light upon such questions, than all traditions, however +ancient, however near in point of time to the epoch of Creation itself." + +In Lake Superior is likewise found that remarkable salmon, the +Siscowet,--which is so fat and luscious as to be uneatable in a fresh +state, and requires to be salted to render it fit for food. It commands +a much higher price by the barrel than the lake-trout or white-fish, and +is rarely to be met with out of the Lake cities. + +In this basin is also found the Gar-Pike, (_Lepidosteus,_) a singular +animal, which is the only living representative of the fishes that +existed in the early ages of the earth's history,--and which, by its +formidable array of teeth, its impenetrable armor, and its swiftness and +voracity, gives us some idea of the terrible creatures which peopled the +waters of that period. + +We have thus hastily sketched the character and indicated the resources +of that great Northwest, which, little more than fifty years ago a +wilderness, is now a cluster of republics holding more than the balance +of power in the Union. Idle speculatists, terrified by the violence of +South Carolina, and believing that on her withdrawal the sky is to fall, +are already predicting the dismemberment of East and West. But we think +the chance of it is growing less, year by year. The two are now bound +indissolubly together by lines of railroad, which, during a part of the +year, are the most convenient outlet of the West toward the sea. Those +States, just as they are arriving at a controlling influence in the +affairs of a great and powerful nation, are hardly likely to seclude +themselves from the rest of the world in what would, from its position, +be at best an insignificant republic. + + * * * * * + + +E PLURIBUS UNUM. + + +We do not believe that any government--no, not the Rump Parliament on +its last legs--ever showed such pitiful inadequacy as our own during the +past two months. Helpless beyond measure in all the duties of practical +statesmanship, its members or their dependants have given proof of +remarkable energy in the single department of peculation; and there, not +content with the slow methods of the old-fashioned defaulter, who helped +himself only to what there was, they have contrived to steal what there +was going to be, and have peculated in advance by a kind of official +post-obit. So thoroughly has the credit of the most solvent nation in +the world been shaken, that an administration which still talks of +paying a hundred millions for Cuba is unable to raise a loan of five +millions for the current expenses of Government. Nor is this the worst; +the moral bankruptcy at Washington is more complete and disastrous than +the financial, and for the first time in our history the Executive is +suspected of complicity in a treasonable plot against the very life of +the nation. + +Our material prosperity for nearly half a century has been so +unparalleled, that the minds of men have become gradually more and more +absorbed in matters of personal concern; and our institutions have +practically worked so well and so easily, that we have learned to trust +in our luck, and to take the permanence of our government for granted. +The country has been divided on questions of temporary policy, and the +people have been drilled to a wonderful discipline in the manoeuvres +of party-tactics; but no crisis has arisen to force upon them a +consideration of the fundamental principles of our system, or to arouse +in them a sense of national unity, and make them feel that patriotism +was anything more than a pleasing sentiment,--half Fourth of July and +half Eighth of January,--a feeble reminiscence, rather than a living +fact with a direct bearing on the national well-being. We have had long +experience of that unmemorable felicity which consists in having no +history, so far as history is made up of battles, revolutions, and +changes of dynasty; but the present generation has never been called +upon to learn that deepest lesson of politics which is taught by a +common danger, throwing the people back on their national instincts, and +superseding party-leaders, the peddlers of chicane, with men adequate to +great occasions and dealers in destiny. Such a crisis is now upon us; +and if the virtue of the people make up for the imbecility of the +Executive, as we have little doubt that it will, if the public spirit of +the whole country be awakened in time by the common peril, the present +trial will leave the nation stronger than ever, and more alive to its +privileges and the duties they imply. We shall have learned what is +meant by a government of laws, and that allegiance to the sober will +of the majority, concentrated in established forms and distributed by +legitimate channels, is all that renders democracy possible, is its only +conservative principle, the only thing that has made and can keep us a +powerful nation instead of a brawling mob. + +The theory, that the best government is that which governs least, seems +to have been accepted literally by Mr. Buchanan, without considering the +qualifications to which all general propositions are subject. His course +of conduct has shown up its absurdity, in cases where prompt action is +required, as effectually as Buckingham turned into ridicule the famous +verse,-- + + "My wound is great, because it is so small," + by instantly adding,-- + + "Then it were greater, were it none at all." + +Mr. Buchanan seems to have thought, that, if to govern little was to +govern well, then to do nothing was the perfection of policy. But there +is a vast difference between letting well alone and allowing bad to +become worse by a want of firmness at the outset. If Mr. Buchanan, +instead of admitting the right of secession, had declared it to be, as +it plainly is, rebellion, he would not only have received the unanimous +support of the Free States, but would have given confidence to the +loyal, reclaimed the wavering, and disconcerted the plotters of treason +in the South. + +Either we have no government at all, or else the very word implies the +right, and therefore the duty, in the governing power, of protecting +itself from destruction and its property from pillage. But for Mr. +Buchanan's acquiescence, the doctrine of the right of secession would +never for a moment have bewildered the popular mind. It is simply +mob-law under a plausible name. Such a claim might have been fairly +enough urged under the old Confederation; though even then it would +have been summarily dealt with, in the case of a Tory colony, if +the necessity had arisen. But the very fact that we have a National +Constitution, and legal methods for testing, preventing, or punishing +any infringement of its provisions, demonstrates the absurdity of any +such assumption of right now. When the States surrendered their power to +make war, did they make the single exception of the United States, and +reserve the privilege of declaring war against them at any moment? If we +are a congeries of mediaeval Italian republics, why should the General +Government have expended immense sums in fortifying points whose +strategic position is of continental rather than local consequence? +Florida, after having cost us nobody knows how many millions of dollars +and thousands of lives to render the holding of slaves possible to her, +coolly proposes to withdraw herself from the Union and take with her one +of the keys of the Mexican Gulf, on the plea that her slave-property is +rendered insecure by the Union. Louisiana, which we bought and paid for +to secure the mouth of the Mississippi, claims the right to make her +soil French or Spanish, and to cork up the river again, whenever the +whim may take her. The United States are not a German Confederation, but +a unitary and indivisible nation, with a national life to protect, a +national power to maintain, and national rights to defend against any +and every assailant, at all hazards. Our national existence is all that +gives value to American citizenship. Without the respect which nothing +but our consolidated character could inspire, we might as well be +citizens of the toy-republic of San Marino, for all the protection +it would afford us. If our claim to a national existence was worth a +seven-years' war to establish, it is worth maintaining at any cost; and +it is daily becoming more apparent, that the people, so soon as they +find that secession means anything serious, will not allow themselves to +be juggled out of their rights, as members of one of the great powers of +the earth, by a mere quibble of Constitutional interpretation. + +We have been so much accustomed to the Buncombe style of oratory, to +hearing men offer the pledge of their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor +on the most trivial occasions, that we are apt to allow a great latitude +in such matters, and only smile to think how small an advance any +intelligent pawn-broker would be likely to make on securities of this +description. The sporadic eloquence that breaks out over the country on +the eve of election, and becomes a chronic disease in the two houses of +Congress, has so accustomed us to dissociate words and things, and to +look upon strong language as an evidence of weak purpose, that we attach +no meaning whatever to declamation. Our Southern brethren have been +especially given to these orgies of loquacity, and have so often +solemnly assured us of their own courage, and of the warlike +propensities, power, wealth, and general superiority of that part of the +universe which is so happy as to be represented by them, that, whatever +other useful impression they have made, they insure our never forgetting +the proverb about the woman who talks of her virtue. South Carolina, +in particular, if she has hitherto failed in the application of her +enterprise to manufacturing purposes of a more practical kind, has +always been able to match every yard of printed cotton from the North +with a yard of printed fustian, the product of her own domestic +industry. We have thought no harm of this, so long as no Act of Congress +required the reading of the "Congressional Globe." We submitted to the +general dispensation of long-windedness and short-meaningness as to any +other providential visitation, endeavoring only to hold fast our faith +in the divine government of the world in the midst of so much that was +past understanding. But we lost sight of the metaphysical truth, +that, though men may fail to convince others by a never so incessant +repetition of sonorous nonsense, they nevertheless gradually persuade +themselves, and impregnate their own minds and characters with a belief +in fallacies that have been uncontradicted only because not worth +contradiction. Thus our Southern politicians, by dint of continued +reiteration, have persuaded themselves to accept their own flimsy +assumptions for valid statistics, and at last actually believe +themselves to be the enlightened gentlemen, and the people of the Free +States the peddlers and sneaks they have so long been in the habit of +fancying. They have argued themselves into a kind of vague faith that +the wealth and power of the Republic are south of Mason and Dixon's +line; and the Northern people have been slow in arriving at the +conclusion that treasonable talk would lead to treasonable action, +because they could not conceive that anybody should be so foolish as to +think of rearing an independent frame of government on so visionary +a basis. Moreover, the so often recurring necessity, incident to our +system, of obtaining a favorable verdict from the people, has fostered +in our public men the talents and habits of jury-lawyers at the expense +of statesmanlike qualities; and the people have been so long wonted to +look upon the utterances of popular leaders as intended for immediate +effect and having no reference to principles, that there is scarcely a +prominent man in the country so independent in position and so clear of +any suspicion of personal or party motives, that they can put entire +faith in what he says, and accept him either as the leader or the +exponent of their thoughts and wishes. They have hardly been able to +judge with certainty from the debates in Congress whether secession were +a real danger, or only one of those political feints of which they have +had such frequent experience. + +Events have been gradually convincing them that the peril was actual and +near. They begin to see how unwise, if nothing worse, has been the weak +policy of the Executive in allowing men to play at Revolution till they +learn to think the coarse reality as easy and pretty as the vaudeville +they have been acting. They are fast coming to the conclusion that the +list of grievances put forward by the secessionists is a sham and +a pretence, the veil of a long-matured plot against republican +institutions. And it is time the traitors of the South should know that +the Free States are becoming every day more united in sentiment and more +earnest in resolve, and that, so soon as they are thoroughly satisfied +that secession is something more than empty bluster, a public spirit +will be aroused that will be content with no half-measures, and which no +Executive, however unwilling, can resist. + +The country is weary of being cheated with plays upon words. The United +States are a nation, and not a mass-meeting; theirs is a government, +and not a caucus,--a government that was meant to be capable, and is +capable, of something more than the helpless _please don't_ of a village +constable; they have executive and administrative officers that are not +mere puppet-figures to go through the motions of an objectless activity, +but arms and hands that become supple to do the will of the people so +soon as that will becomes conscious and defines its purpose. It is time +that we turned up our definitions in some more trustworthy dictionary +than that of avowed disunionists and their more dangerous because more +timid and cunning accomplices. Rebellion smells no sweeter because it +is called Secession, nor does Order lose its divine precedence in human +affairs because a knave may nickname it Coercion. Secession means chaos, +and Coercion the exercise of legitimate authority. You cannot dignify +the one nor degrade the other by any verbal charlatanism. The best +testimony to the virtue of coercion is the fact that no wrongdoer ever +thought well of it. The thief in jail, the mob-leader in the hands of +the police, and the murderer on the drop will be unanimous in favor of +this new heresy of the unconstitutionality of Constitutions, with its +Newgate Calendar of confessors, martyrs, and saints. Falstaff's famous +regiment would have volunteered to a man for its propagation or its +defence. Henceforth let every unsuccessful litigant have the right to +pronounce the verdict of a jury sectional, and to quash all proceedings +and retain the property in controversy by seceding from the court-room. +Let the planting of hemp be made penal, because it squints toward +coercion. Why, the first great Secessionist would doubtless have +preferred to divide Heaven peaceably, would have been willing to send +Commissioners, must have thought Michael's proceedings injudicious, and +could probably even now demonstrate the illegality of hell-fire to any +five-year-old imp of average education and intelligence. What a fine +world we should have, if we could only come quietly together in +convention, and declare by unanimous resolution, or even by a +two-thirds' vote, that edge-tools should hereafter cut everybody's +fingers but his that played with them,--that, when two men ride on one +horse, the hindmost shall always sit in front,--and that, when a man +tries to thrust his partner out of bed and gets kicked out himself, he +shall be deemed to have established his title to an equitable division, +and the bed shall be thenceforth his as of right, without detriment to +the other's privilege in the floor! + +If secession be a right, then the moment of its exercise is wholly +optional with those possessing it. Suppose, on the eve of a war with +England, Michigan should vote herself out of the Union and declare +herself annexed to Canada, what kind of a reception would her +Commissioners be likely to meet in Washington, and what scruples should +we feel about coercion? Or, to take a case precisely parallel to that of +South Carolina,--suppose that Utah, after getting herself admitted to +the Union, should resume her sovereignty, as it is pleasantly called, +and block our path to the Pacific, under the pretence that she did not +consider her institutions safe while the other States entertained such +unscriptural prejudices against her special weakness in the patriarchal +line. Is the only result of our admitting a Territory on Monday to be +the giving it a right to steal itself and go out again on Tuesday? Or +do only the original thirteen States possess this precious privilege of +suicide? We shall need something like a Fugitive Slave Law for runaway +republics, and must get a provision inserted in our treaties with +foreign powers, that they shall help us catch any delinquent who may +take refuge with them, as South Carolina has been trying to do with +England and France. It does not matter to the argument, except so far as +the good taste of the proceeding is concerned, at what particular time +a State may make her territory foreign, thus opening one gate of our +national defences and offering a bridge to invasion. The danger of the +thing is in her making her territory foreign under any circumstances; +and it is a danger which the Government must prevent, if only +for self-preservation. Within the limits of the Constitution two +sovereignties cannot coexist; and yet what practical odds does it +make, if a State becomes sovereign by simply declaring herself so? +The legitimate consequence of secession is, not that a State becomes +sovereign, but that, so far as the General Government is concerned, she +has outlawed herself, nullified her own existence as a State, and become +an aggregate of riotous men who resist the execution of the laws. + +We are told that coercion will be civil war; and so is a mob civil war, +till it is put down. In the present case, the only coercion called for +is the protection of the public property and the collection of the +federal revenues. If it be necessary to send troops to do this, they +will not be sectional, as it is the fashion nowadays to call people who +insist on their own rights and the maintenance of the laws, but federal +troops, representing the will and power of the whole Confederacy. A +danger is always great so long as we are afraid of it; and mischief like +that now gathering head in South Carolina may soon become a danger, if +not swiftly dealt with. Mr. Buchanan seems altogether too wholesale a +disciple of the _laissez-faire_ doctrine, and has allowed activity in +mischief the same immunity from interference which is true policy only +in regard to enterprise wisely and profitably directed. He has been +naturally reluctant to employ force, but has overlooked the difference +between indecision and moderation, forgetting the lesson of all +experience, that firmness in the beginning saves the need of force in +the end, and that forcible measures applied too late may be made to seem +violent ones, and thus excite a mistaken sympathy with the sufferers by +their own misdoing. The feeling of the country has been unmistakably +expressed in regard to Major Anderson, and that not merely because he +showed prudence and courage, but because he was the first man holding +a position of trust who did his duty to the nation. Public sentiment +unmistakably demands, that, in the case of Anarchy vs. America, the +cause of the defendant shall not be suffered to go by default. The +proceedings in South Carolina, parodying the sublime initiative of +our own Revolution with a Declaration of Independence that hangs the +franchise of human nature on the kink of a hair, and substitutes for +the visionary right of all men to the pursuit of happiness the more +practical privilege of some men to pursue their own negro,--these +proceedings would be merely ludicrous, were it not for the danger that +the men engaged in them may so far commit themselves as to find the +inconsistency of a return to prudence too galling, and to prefer the +safety of their pride to that of their country. + +It cannot be too distinctly stated or too often repeated, that the +discontent of South Carolina is not one to be allayed by any concessions +which the Free States can make with dignity or even safety. It is +something more radical and of longer standing than distrust of the +motives or probable policy of the Republican Party. It is neither more +nor less than a disbelief in the very principles on which our government +is founded. So long as they practically retained the government of the +country, and could use its power and patronage to their own advantage, +the plotters were willing to wait; but the moment they lost that +control, by the breaking up of the Democratic Party, and saw that their +chance of ever regaining it was hopeless, they declared openly the +principles on which they have all along been secretly acting. Denying +the constitutionality of special protection to any other species of +property or branch of industry, and in 1832 threatening to break up +the Union unless their theory of the Constitution in this respect were +admitted, they went into the late Presidential contest with a claim for +extraordinary protection to a certain kind of property already the +only one endowed with special privileges and immunities. Defeated +overwhelmingly before the people, they now question the right of the +majority to govern, except on their terms, and threaten violence in the +hope of extorting from the fears of the Free; States what they failed +to obtain from their conscience and settled convictions of duty. Their +quarrel is not with the Republican Party, but with the theory of +Democracy. + +The South Carolina politicians have hitherto shown themselves adroit +managers, shrewd in detecting and profiting by the weaknesses of men; +but their experience has not been of a kind to give them practical +wisdom in that vastly more important part of government which depends +for success on common sense and business-habits. The members of the +South Carolina Convention have probably less knowledge of political +economy than any single average Northern merchant whose success depends +on an intimate knowledge of the laws of trade and the world-wide +contingencies of profit and loss. Such a man would tell them, as the +result of invariable experience, that the prosperity of no community was +so precarious as that of one whose very existence was dependent on +a single agricultural product. What divinity hedges cotton, that +competition may not touch it,--that some disease, like that of the +potato and the vine, may not bring it to beggary in a single year, and +cure the overweening conceit of prosperity with the sharp medicine of +Ireland and Madeira? But these South Carolina economists are better at +vaporing than at calculation. They will find to their cost that the +figure's of statistics have little mercy for the figures of speech, +which are so powerful in raising enthusiasm and so helpless in raising +money. The eating of one's own words, as they must do, sooner or later, +is neither agreeable nor nutritious; but it is better to do it before +there is nothing else left to eat. The secessionists are strong in +declamation, but they are weak in the multiplication-table and the +ledger. They have no notion of any sort of logical connection between +treason and taxes. It is all very fine signing Declarations of +Independence, and one may thus become a kind of panic-price hero for a +week or two, even rising to the effigial martyrdom of the illustrated +press; but these gentlemen seem to have forgotten, that, if their +precious document should lead to anything serious, they have been +signing promises to pay for the State of South Carolina to an enormous +amount. It is probably far short of the truth to say that the taxes of +an autonomous palmetto republic would be three times what they are now. +To speak of nothing else, there must be a military force kept constantly +on foot; and the ministers of King Cotton will find that the charge made +by a standing army on the finances of the new empire is likely to be +far more serious and damaging than can be compensated by the glory of a +great many such "spirited charges" as that by which Colonel Pettigrew +and his gallant rifles took Fort Pinckney, with its garrison of one +engineer officer and its armament of no guns. Soldiers are the most +costly of all toys or tools. The outgo for the army of the Pope, never +amounting to ten thousand effective men, in the cheapest country in the +world, has been half a million of dollars a month. Under the present +system, it needs no argument to show that the Non-slaveholding States, +with a free population considerably more than double that of the +Slave-holding States, and with much more generally distributed wealth +and opportunities of spending, pay far more than the proportion +predicable on mere preponderance in numbers of the expenses of a +government supported mainly by a tariff on importations. And it is not +the burden of this difference merely that the new Cotton Republic must +assume. They will need as large, probably a larger, army and navy than +that of the present Union; as numerous a diplomatic establishment; a +postal system whose large yearly deficit they must bear themselves; and +they must assume the main charges of the Indian Bureau. If they adopt +free trade, they will alienate the Border Slave-States, and even +Louisiana; if a system of customs, they have cut themselves off from +the chief consumers of foreign goods. One of the calculations of the +Southern conspirators is to render the Free States tributary to their +new republic, by adopting free trade and smuggling their imported goods +across the border. But this is all moonshine; for, even if smuggling +could not be prevented as easily as it now is from the British +Provinces, how long would it be before the North would adapt its tariff +to the new order of things? And thus thrown back upon direct taxation, +how many years would it take to open the eyes of the poorer classes +of Secessia to the hardship of their position and its causes? Their +ignorance has been trifled with by men who cover treasonable designs +with a pretence of local patriotism. Neither they nor their misleaders +have any true conception of the people of the Free States, of those +"white slaves" who in Massachusetts alone have a deposit in the Savings +Banks whose yearly interest would pay seven times over the four hundred +thousand dollars which South Carolina cannot raise. + +But even if we leave other practical difficulties out of sight, what +chance of stability is there for a confederacy whose very foundation +is the principle that any member of it may withdraw at the first +discontent? If they could contrive to establish a free-trade treaty with +their chief customer, England, would she consent to gratify Louisiana +with an exception in favor of sugar? Some of the leaders of the +secession movement have already become aware of this difficulty, and +accordingly propose the abolition of all State lines,--the first step +toward a military despotism; for, if our present system have one +advantage greater than another, it is the neutralization of numberless +individual ambitions by adequate opportunities of provincial +distinction. Even now the merits of the Napoleonic system are put +forward by some of the theorists of Alabama and Mississippi, who +doubtless have as good a stomach to be emperors as ever Bottom had to a +bottle of hay, when his head was temporarily transformed to the likeness +of theirs,--and who, were they subjects of the government that looks so +nice across the Atlantic, would, ere this, have been on their way +to Cayenne, a spot where such red-peppery temperaments would find +themselves at home. + +The absurdities with which the telegraphic column of the newspapers has +been daily crowded, since the vagaries of South Carolina finally settled +down into unmistakable insanity, would give us but a poor opinion of the +general intelligence of the country, did we not know that they were due +to the necessities of "Our Own Correspondent." At one time, it is Fort +Sumter that is to be bombarded with floating batteries mounted on rafts +behind a rampart of cotton-bales; at another, it is Mr. Barrett, Mayor +of Washington, announcing his intention that the President-elect shall +be inaugurated, or Mr. Buchanan declaring that he shall cheerfully +assent to it. Indeed! and who gave them any choice in the matter? +Yesterday, it was General Scott who would not abandon the flag which he +had illustrated with the devotion of a lifetime; to-day, it is General +Harney or Commodore Kearney who has concluded to be true to the country +whose livery he has worn and whose bread he has eaten for half a +century; to-morrow, it will be Ensign Stebbins who has been magnanimous +enough not to throw up his commission. What are we to make of the +extraordinary confusion of ideas which such things indicate? In what +other country would it be considered creditable to an officer that he +merely did not turn traitor at the first opportunity? There can be no +doubt of the honor both of the army and navy, and of their loyalty to +their country. They will do their duty, if we do ours in saving them a +country to which they can be loyal. + +We have been so long habituated to a kind of local independence in the +management of our affairs, and the Central Government has fortunately +had so little occasion for making itself felt at home and in the +domestic concerns of the States, that the idea of its relation to us as +a power, except for protection from without, has gradually become vague +and alien to our ordinary habits of thought. We have so long heard the +principle admitted, and seen it acted on with advantage to the general +weal, that the people are sovereign in their own affairs, that we +must recover our presence of mind before we see the fallacy of the +assumption, that the people, or a bare majority of them, in a single +State, can exercise their right of sovereignty as against the will of +the nation legitimately expressed. When such a contingency arises, it is +for a moment difficult to get rid of our habitual associations, and to +feel that we are not a mere partnership, dissolvable whether by mutual +consent or on the demand of one or more of its members, but a nation, +which can never abdicate its right, and can never surrender it while +virtue enough is left in the people to make it worth retaining. It +would seem to be the will of God that from time to time the manhood of +nations, like that of individuals, should be tried by great dangers or +by great opportunities. If the manhood be there, it makes the great +opportunity out of the great danger; if it be not there, then the great +danger out of the great opportunity. The occasion is offered us now of +trying whether a conscious nationality and a timely concentration of the +popular will for its maintenance be possible in a democracy, or whether +it is only despotisms that are capable of the sudden and selfish energy +of protecting themselves from destruction. + +The Republican Party has thus far borne itself with firmness and +moderation, and the great body of the Democratic Party in the Free +States is gradually being forced into an alliance with it. Let us not be +misled by any sophisms about conciliation and compromise. Discontented +citizens may be conciliated and compromised with, but never open rebels +with arms in their hands. If there be any concessions which justice may +demand on the one hand and honor make on the other, let us try if we can +adjust them with the Border Slave-States; but a government has already +signed its own death-warrant, when it consents to make terms with +law-breakers. First reëstablish the supremacy of order, and then it will +be time to discuss terms; but do not call it a compromise, when you +give up your purse with a pistol at your head. This is no time for +sentimentalisms about the empty chair at the national hearth; all the +chairs would be empty soon enough, if one of the children is to amuse +itself with setting the house on fire, whenever it can find a match. +Since the election of Mr. Lincoln, not one of the arguments has lost its +force, not a cipher of the statistics has been proved mistaken, on +which the judgment of the people was made up. Nobody proposes, or +has proposed, to interfere with any existing rights of property; +the majority have not assumed to decide upon any question of the +righteousness or policy of certain social arrangements existing in +any part of the Confederacy; they have not undertaken to constitute +themselves the conscience of their neighbors; they have simply +endeavored to do their duty to their own posterity, and to protect them +from a system which, as ample experience has shown, and that of +our present difficulty were enough to show, fosters a sense of +irresponsibleness to all obligation in the governing class, and in the +governed an ignorance and a prejudice which may be misled at any moment +to the peril of the whole country. + +But the present question is one altogether transcending all limits of +party and all theories of party-policy. It is a question of national +existence; it is a question whether Americans shall govern America, or +whether a disappointed clique shall nullify all government now, and +render a stable government difficult hereafter; it is a question, not +whether we shall have civil war under certain contingencies, but whether +we shall prevent it under any. It is idle, and worse than idle, to +talk about Central Republics that can never be formed. We want neither +Central Republics nor Northern Republics, but our own Republic and that +of our fathers, destined one day to gather the whole continent under a +flag that shall be the most august in the world. Having once known what +it was to be members of a grand and peaceful constellation, we shall not +believe, without further proof, that the laws of our gravitation are to +be abolished, and we flung forth into chaos, a hurlyburly of jostling +and splintering stars, whenever Robert Toombs or Robert Rhett, or any +other Bob of the secession kite, may give a flirt of self-importance. +The first and greatest benefit of government is that it keeps the +peace, that it insures every man his right, and not only that, but the +permanence of it. In order to this, its first requisite is stability; +and this once firmly settled, the greater the extent of conterminous +territory that can be subjected to one system and one language and +inspired by one patriotism, the better. That there should be some +diversity of interests is perhaps an advantage, since the necessity of +legislating equitably for all gives legislation its needful safeguards +of caution and largeness of view. A single empire embracing the whole +world, and controlling, without extinguishing, local organizations and +nationalities, has been not only the dream of conquerors, but the ideal +of speculative philanthropists. Our own dominion is of such extent and +power, that it may, so far as this continent is concerned, be looked +upon as something like an approach to the realization of such an ideal. +But for slavery, it might have succeeded in realizing it; and in +spite of slavery, it may. One language, one law, one citizenship over +thousands of miles, and a government on the whole so good that we seem +to have forgotten what government means,--these are things not to be +spoken of with levity, privileges not to be surrendered without a +struggle. And yet while Germany and Italy, taught by the bloody and +bitter and servile experience of centuries, are striving toward unity as +the blessing above all others desirable, we are to allow a Union, +that for almost eighty years has been the source and the safeguard of +incalculable advantages, to be shattered by the caprice of a rabble that +has outrun the intention of its leaders, while we are making up our +minds what coercion means! Ask the first constable, and he will tell +you that it is the force necessary for executing the laws. To avoid +the danger of what men who have seized upon forts, arsenals, and other +property of the United States, and continue to hold them by military +force, may choose to call civil war, we are allowing a state of things +to gather head which will make real civil war the occupation of the +whole country for years to come, and establish it as a permanent +institution. There is no such antipathy between the North and the South +as men ambitious of a consideration in the new republic, which their +talents and character have failed to secure them in the old, would fain +call into existence by asserting that it exists. The misunderstanding +and dislike between them is not so great as they were within living +memory between England and Scotland, as they are now between England and +Ireland. There is no difference of race, language, or religion. Yet, +after a dissatisfaction of near a century, and two rebellions, there is +no part of the British dominion more loyal than Scotland, no British +subjects who would be more loath to part with the substantial advantages +of their imperial connection than the Scotch; and even in Ireland, after +a longer and more deadly feud, there is no sane man who would consent +to see his country irrevocably cut off from power and consideration +to obtain an independence which would be nothing but Donnybrook Fair +multiplied by every city, town, and village in the island. The same +considerations of policy and advantage which render the union of +Scotland and Ireland with England a necessity apply with even more force +to the several States of our Union. To let one, or two, or half a dozen +of them break away in a freak of anger or unjust suspicion, or, still +worse, from mistaken notions of sectional advantage, would be to fail in +our duty to ourselves and our country, would be a fatal blindness to +the lessons which immemorial history has been tracing on the earth's +surface, either with the beneficent furrow of the plough, or, when that +was unheeded, the fruitless gash of the cannon-ball. + +When we speak of coercion, we do not mean violence, but only the +assertion of constituted and acknowledged authority. Even if seceding +States could be conquered back again, they would not be worth the +conquest. We ask only for the assertion of a principle which shall give +the friends of order in the discontented quarters a hope to rally round, +and the assurance of the support they have a right to expect. There is +probably a majority, and certainly a powerful minority, in the seceding +States, who are loyal to the Union; and these should have that support +which the prestige of the General Government can alone give them. It is +not to the North or to the Republican Party that the malcontents are +called on to submit, but to the laws, and to the benign intentions of +the Constitution, as they were understood by its framers. What the +country wants is a permanent settlement; and it has learned, by repeated +trial, that compromise is not a cement, but a wedge. The Government did +not hesitate to protect the doubtful right of property of a Virginian +in Anthony Burns by the exercise of coercion, and the loyalty of +Massachusetts was such that her own militia could be used to enforce an +obligation abhorrent, and, as there is reason to believe, made purposely +abhorrent, to her dearest convictions and most venerable traditions; and +yet the same Government tampers with armed treason, and lets _I dare +not_ wait upon _I would_, when it is a question of protecting the +acknowledged property of the Union, and of sustaining, nay, preserving +even, a gallant officer whose only fault is that he has been too true +to his flag. While we write, the newspapers bring us the correspondence +between Mr. Buchanan and the South Carolina "Commissioners," and surely +never did a government stoop so low as ours has done, not only in +consenting to receive these ambassadors from Nowhere, but in suggesting +that a soldier deserves court-martial who has done all he could to +maintain himself in a forlorn hope, with rebellion in his front and +treachery in his rear. Our Revolutionary heroes had old-fashioned +notions about rebels, suitable to the straightforward times in which +they lived,--times when blood was as freely shed to secure our national +existence as milk-and-water is now to destroy it. Mr. Buchanan might +have profited by the example of men who knew nothing of the modern +arts of Constitutional interpretation, but saw clearly the distinction +between right and wrong. When a party of the Shays rebels came to +the house of General Pomeroy, in Northampton, and asked if he could +accommodate them,--the old soldier, seeing the green sprigs in their +hats, the badges of their treason, shouted to his son, "Fetch me my +hanger, and I'll _accommodate_ the scoundrels!" General Jackson, we +suspect, would have accommodated rebel commissioners in the same +peremptory style. + +While our government, like Giles in the old rhyme, is wondering whether +it is a government or not, emissaries of treason are cunningly working +upon the fears and passions of the Border States, whose true interests +are infinitely more on the side of the Union than of Slavery. They are +luring the ambitious with visionary promises of Southern grandeur +and prosperity, and deceiving the ignorant into the belief that the +principles and practice of the Free States were truly represented by +John Brown. All this might have been prevented, had Mr. Buchanan in his +Message thought of the interests of his country instead of those of his +party. It is not too late to check and neutralize it now. A decisively +national and patriotic policy is all that can prevent excited men from +involving themselves so deeply that they will find "returning as tedious +as go o'er," and be more afraid of cowardice than of consequences. + +Slavery is no longer the matter in debate, and we must beware of +being led off upon that side-issue. The matter now in hand is the +reëstablishment of order, the reaffirmation of national unity, and the +settling once for all whether there can be such a thing as a government +without the right to use its power in self-defence. The Republican Party +has done all it could lawfully do in limiting slavery once more to the +States in which it exists, and in relieving the Free States from forced +complicity with an odious system. They can be patient, as Providence is +often patient, till natural causes work that conviction which conscience +has been unable to effect. They believe that the violent abolition of +slavery, which would be sure to follow sooner or later the disruption +of our Confederacy, would not compensate for the evil that would be +entailed upon both races by the abolition of our nationality and the +bloody confusion that would follow it. More than this, they believe +that there can be no permanent settlement except in the definite +establishment of the principle, that this government, like all others, +rests upon the everlasting foundations of just Authority,--that that +authority, once delegated by the people, becomes a common stock of Power +to be wielded for the common protection, and from which no minority +or majority of partners can withdraw its contribution under any +conditions,--that this Power is what makes us a nation, and implies +a corresponding duty of submission, or, if that be refused, then a +necessary right of self-vindication. We are citizens, when we make laws; +we become subjects, when we attempt to break them after they are +made. Lynch-law may be better than no law in new and half-organized +communities, but we cannot tolerate its application in the affairs of +government. The necessity of suppressing rebellion by force may be a +terrible one, but its consequences, whatever they may be, do not weigh +a feather in comparison with those that would follow from admitting the +principle that there is no social compact binding on any body of men too +numerous to be arrested by a United States Marshal. + +As we are writing these sentences, the news comes to us that South +Carolina has taken the initiative, and chosen the arbitrament of war. +She has done it because her position was desperate, and because she +hoped thereby to unite the Cotton States by a complicity in blood, as +they are already committed by a unanimity in bravado. Major Anderson +deserves more than ever the thanks of his country for his wise +forbearance. The foxes in Charleston, who have already lost their tails +in the trap of Secession, wished to throw upon him the responsibility of +that second blow which begins a quarrel, and the silence of his guns has +balked them. Nothing would have pleased them so much as to have one of +his thirty-two-pound shot give a taste of real war to the boys who are +playing soldier at Morris's Island. But he has shown the discretion of a +brave man. South Carolina will soon learn how much she has undervalued +the people of the Free States. Because they prefer law to bowie-knives +and revolvers, she has too lightly reckoned on their caution and +timidity. She will find, that, though slow to kindle, they are as slow +to yield, and that they are willing to risk their lives for the defence +of law, though not for the breach of it. They are beginning to question +the value of a peace that is forced on them at the point of the bayonet, +and is to be obtained only by an abandonment of rights and duties. + +When we speak of the courage and power of the Free States, we do not +wish to be understood as descending to the vulgar level of meeting brag +with brag. We speak of them only as among the elements to be gravely +considered by the fanatics who may render it necessary for those who +value the continued existence of this Confederacy as it deserves to be +valued to kindle a back-fire, and to use the desperate means which God +has put into their hands to be employed in the last extremity of free +institutions. And when we use the term Coercion, nothing is farther from +our thoughts than the carrying of blood and fire among those whom +we still consider our brethren of South Carolina. These civilized +communities of ours have interests too serious to be risked on a +childish wager of courage,--a quality that can always be bought cheaper +than day-labor on a railway-embankment. We wish to see the Government +strong enough for the maintenance of law, and for the protection, if +need be, of the unfortunate Governor Pickens from the anarchy he has +allowed himself to be made a tool of for evoking. Let the power of the +Union be used for any other purpose than that of shutting and barring +the door against the return of misguided men to their allegiance. At the +same time we think legitimate and responsible force prudently exerted +safer than the submission, without a struggle, to unlawful and +irresponsible violence. + +Peace is the greatest of blessings, when it is won and kept by manhood +and wisdom; but it is a blessing that will not long be the housemate of +cowardice. It is God alone who is powerful enough to let His authority +slumber; it is only His laws that are strong enough to protect and +avenge themselves. Every human government is bound to make its laws +so far resemble His, that they shall be uniform, certain, and +unquestionable in their operation; and this it can do only by a timely +show of power, and by an appeal to that authority which is of divine +right, inasmuch as its office is to maintain that order which is the +single attribute of the Infinite Reason that we can clearly apprehend +and of which we have hourly example. + + * * * * * + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +Personal History of Lord Bacon, From Unpublished Papers. By WILLIAM +HEPWORTH DIXON, of the Inner Temple. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. pp. +424. + +The life of Bacon, as it has been ordinarily written, presents contrasts +so strange, that thoughtful readers have been compelled either to doubt +the accuracy of the narrative, or to admit that in his case Nature +departed from her usual processes, and embodied antithesis in a man. The +character suggested by the events of his life has long been in direct +opposition to the character impressed on his writings; and Macaulay, who +gave to the popular opinion its most emphatic and sparkling expression, +increased this difference by exaggerating the opposite elements of the +human epigram, and ended in manufacturing the most brilliant monstrosity +that ever bore the name of a person. Lord Campbell followed with a +biography having all the appearance of conscientious research and +judicial impartiality, but which was really nothing more than a weak +translation of Macaulay's vivid sentences into such English "as it had +pleased God to endow him withal." Bacon, to all inquiring men, still +remained outside of the statements of both; and after the lapse of +nearly two centuries, the slight biographical sketch by his chaplain, +Dr. Rawleigh, conveyed a juster idea of the man than all the +biographies by which it had been succeeded, but not superseded. + +Mr. Dixon's "Personal History of Lord Bacon" is the first attempt to +vindicate his fame by original research into unpublished documents. It +is a mortifying reflection to all who speak the English tongue, that +this task should have been deferred so long. There has been no lack +of such research in regard to insignificant individuals who have been +accidentally connected with events which come within the cognizance +of English historians; but the greatest Englishman among all English +politicians and statesmen since the Norman Conquest has heretofore been +honored with no biographer who considered him worthy the labor which has +been lavished on inferior men. The readers of Macaulay's four volumes +of English history have often expressed their amazement at his minute +knowledge of the political mediocrities of the time of James II. +and William III. He spared neither time nor labor in collecting and +investigating facts regarding comparatively unknown persons who happened +to be connected with his subject; but in his judgment of a man who, +considered simply as a statesman, was infinitely greater than Halifax +or Dauby, he depends altogether on hearsay, and gives that hearsay +the worst possible appearance. In his article on Bacon, he not merely +evinces no original research, but he so combines the loose statements he +takes for granted, that, in his presentation of them, they make out +a stronger case against Bacon than is warranted by their fair +interpretation. Indeed, leaving out the facts which Macaulay suppresses +or is ignorant of, and taking into account only those which he includes, +his judgment of Bacon is still erroneous. Long before we read Mr. +Dixon's book, we had reversed Macaulay's opinion merely by scrutinizing, +and restoring to their natural relations, Macaulay's facts. + +But Mr. Dixon's volume, while in style and matter it is one of the most +interesting and entertaining books of the season, is especially valuable +for the new light it sheds on the subject by the introduction of +original materials. These materials, to be sure, were within the reach +of any person who desired to write an impartial biography; but Mr. Dixon +no less deserves honor for withstanding the prejudice that Bacon's +moral character was unquestionably settled as base, and for daring to +investigate anew the testimony on which the judgment was founded. And +there can be no doubt that he has dispelled the horrible chimera, that +the same man can be thoroughly malignant or mean in his moral nature and +thoroughly beneficent or exalted in his intellectual nature. While we do +not doubt that depravity and intelligence can make an unholy alliance, +we do doubt that the intelligence thus prompted can exhibit, to an eye +that discerns spirits, all the vital signs of benevolence. If, in the +logic of character, Iago or Jerry Sneak be in the premises, it is +impossible to find Bacon in the conclusion. + +The value of Mr. Dixon's book consists in its introduction of new facts +to illustrate every questionable incident in Bacon's career. It is +asserted, for instance, that Bacon, as a member of Parliament, was +impelled solely by interested motives, and opposed the government merely +to force the government to recognize his claims to office. Mr. Dixon +brings forward facts to prove that his opposition is to be justified +on high grounds of statesmanship; that he was both a patriot and a +reformer; that great constituencies were emulous to make him their +representative; that in wit, in learning, in reason, in moderation, in +wisdom, in the power of managing and directing men's minds and passions, +he was the first man in the House of Commons; that the germs of great +improvements are to be found in his speeches; that, when he was +overborne by the almost absolute power of the Court, his apparent +sycophancy was merely the wariness of a wise statesman; that Queen +Elizabeth eventually acknowledged his services to the country, and, far +from neglecting him, repeatedly extended to him most substantial +marks of her favor. This portion of Mr. Dixon's volume, founded on +state-papers, will surprise both the defamers and the eulogists of +Bacon. It contains facts of which both Macaulay and Basil Montagu were +ignorant. + +Of Bacon's relations with Essex we never had but one opinion. All the +testimony brought forward to convict Bacon of treachery to Essex seemed +to us inconclusive. The facts, as stated by Macaulay and Lord Campbell, +do not sustain their harsh judgment. A parallel may be found in the +present political condition of our own country. Let us suppose Senator +Toombs so fortunate as to have had a wise counsellor, who for ten years +had borne to him the same relation which Bacon bore to Essex. Let us +suppose that it was understood between them that both were in favor +of the Union and the Constitution, and that nothing was to be done to +forward the triumph of their party which was not strictly legal. Then +let us suppose that Mr. Toombs, from the impulses of caprice and +passion, had secretly established relations with desperate disunionists, +and had thus put in jeopardy not only the interests, but the lives, of +those who were equally his friends and the friends of the Constitution. +Let us further suppose that he had suddenly placed himself at the +head of an armed force to overturn the United States government at +Washington, while he was still a Senator from Georgia, sworn to support +the Constitution of the United States, and that his cheated friend and +counsellor had just left the President of the United States, after a +long conference, in which he had attempted to show, to an incredulous +listener, that Senator Toombs was a devoted friend to the Union, though +dissatisfied with some of the members of the Administration. This is a +very faint illustration of the political relations between Essex +and Bacon, admitting the generally received facts on which Bacon is +execrated as false to his friend. Mr. Dixon adduces new facts which +completely justify Bacon's conduct. If Bacon, like Essex, had been ruled +by his passions, he would have been a far fiercer denouncer of Essex's +treason. He had every reason to be enraged. He was a wise man duped by a +foolish one. He was in danger of being implicated in a treason which he +abhorred, through the perfidy of a man who was generally considered as +his friend and patron, and who was supposed to act from his advice. As +Bacon doubtless knew what we now for the first time know, every candid +reader must be surprised at the moderation of his course. Essex would +not have hesitated to shoot or stab Bacon, had Bacon behaved to him as +he had behaved to Bacon. But we pardon, it seems, the most hateful +and horrible selfishness which springs from the passions; our moral +condemnation is reserved for that faint form of selfishness which may be +suspected to have its source in the intellect. + +In regard to the other charges against Bacon, we think that Mr. Dixon +has brought forward evidence which must materially modify the current +opinions of Bacon's personal character. He has proved that Bacon, as a +practical statesman, was in advance of his age, rather than behind it. +He has proved that his philosophy penetrated his politics, and that he +gave wise advice, and recommended large, liberal, and humane measures to +a generation which could not appreciate them. He has proved that he did +everything that a man in his situation could do for the cause of truth +and justice which did not necessitate his retirement from public life. +The abuses by which he may have profited he not only did not defend, +but tried to reform. Among the statesmen of his day he appears not only +intellectually superior, but conventionally respectable,--a fact which +would seem to be established by the bare statement, that he died +wretchedly poor, while most of them died enormously rich. + +But Mr. Dixon, in his advocacy of Bacon, overlooks the circumstance, +that no man could hold high office under James I., without complying +with abuses calculated to damage his reputation with posterity. We have +no doubt that Bacon's compliance was connected with considerations which +Mr. Dixon entirely ignores. Far from discriminating between Bacon the +philosopher and Bacon the politician, we have always thought that they +were intimately connected. Bacon's Method, the thing on which, as a +philosopher, he especially prided himself, was defective. It left out +that power by which all discoveries have since his time been made, +namely, scientific genius. Its successful working depended on an immense +collection of facts, which no individual, and no society of individuals, +could possibly make. He himself was never weary of asserting that the +Method could never produce its beneficent effects, unless it were +assisted by the revenues of a nation. Of the course which physical +science really followed he had no prevision. Copernicus, Kepler, +Galileo, Gilbert, he never appreciated. He was an intellectual autocrat, +who had matured his own scheme of interpreting Nature, and thought, +that, if it were systematically carried out, the inmost secrets of +Nature could he mastered. His desire to be Lord Chancellor of England +was subsidiary to his larger desire to be Lord Chancellor of Nature +herself. He hoped, by managing James and Buckingham, to flatter them +into aiding, by the revenues of the State, his grand philosophical +scheme. Combine the facts which Mr. Dixon has disinterred with the facts +which every thoughtful reader of Bacon's philosophical works already +knows, and the vindication of Bacon as a man is complete. + +We are inclined to think that he failed in both of the objects of his +highest ambition. His philosophic Method is demonstrably a failure; his +attempt to convert James and Buckingham to his views resulted in his own +unjust disgrace with contemporaries and posterity. The truth is, that, +cool, serene, comprehensive, and unimpassioned as he appears, he was +from his youth actuated by a fanaticism which seems less intense than +the fanaticism of a man like Cromwell only because it was infinitely +more broad. Had he succeeded in the design he proposed to himself, +his intellectual domination would not be confined to England, or the +kingdoms of the civilized world, but would be commensurate with the +whole domain of Nature and man. + +We are so grateful to Mr. Dixon for what he has done, that we are not +disposed to quarrel with him for what he has left undone. He has added +such a mass of incontrovertible facts to the materials which must enter +into the future biography of Bacon, that his book cannot fail to exact +cordial praise from the most captious critics. Bacon, in his aspirations +and purposes, was a very much greater man than he appears in Mr. Dixon's +biography; but still to Mr. Dixon belongs the credit of rescuing his +personal reputation from undeserved ignominy. If we add to this his +vivid pictures of the persons and events of the Elizabethan age, and his +bright, sharp, and brief way of flashing his convictions and discoveries +on the mind of the reader, we indicate merits which will make his volume +generally and justly popular. The letters of Lady Ann Bacon, the mother +of the philosopher and statesman-letters for which we are indebted to +Mr. Dixon's exhaustive research--would alone be sufficient to justify +the publication of his interesting book. + + +_Autobiography of Dr. Alexander Carlyle, Minister of Inveresk_. With +Memorials of the Men and Events of his Time. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. +12mo. pp. 480. + +Who was he? and what was he like?--Sir Walter Scott answered these +interrogatories more than thirty years ago, in this wise. He says, in +his "Review of the Life and Works of John Home,"--"Dr. Carlyle was, for +a long period, clergyman of Musselburgh; his character was as excellent +as his conversation was amusing and instructive; his person and +countenance, even at a very advanced age, were so lofty and commanding, +as to strike every artist with his resemblance to the Jupiter Tonans of +the Pantheon." + +Sixty years ago, this old Scottish clergyman sat down, one January day, +in Musselburgh, and began to write his "Autobiography." He had lived +seventy-nine years among scenes of great interest, and had known men of +remarkable genius. He wrote and died. The manuscript he left has been +often read and enjoyed by clever men and women, who in their turn have +gone to the churchyard to sleep with the venerable old man the story of +whose life they had perused. Sir Walter himself once caught a glimpse +of the time-stained sheets. All are now dead who could by any chance he +pained by the publication of facts in which their relatives look part +long years ago. So the world has now another volume to add to the store +of biography, and the future historian will have another treasury of +facts from which to illumine his pages. + +Himself the son of a clergyman, Alexander Carlyle had a good +school-drilling in Prestonpans, where he was born. One of the stories of +his childhood is very amusing, inasmuch as it pictures a dozen old women +listening to young Alexander, aged six, who reads the Song of Solomon to +them in a graveyard, he all the while perched on a tombstone. My Lord +Grange was the principal man in Prestonpans parish; and Master Carlyle, +with his excellent father, had great reverence for the patron who had +been the cause of the family's transplantation from Annandale. My +Lady was a very lively person, daughter of the man who shot President +Lockhart in the dark because he had infuriated him in an arbitration +case in the court. This great family attracted the boyish wonder of +young Carlyle, and some of the gossiping stories that he heard in +his father's house made his juvenile ears tingle. Poor Lady Grange! +Quarrelling with her husband one day, on his return from London, where +pretty Fanny Lindsay, who kept a coffee-house in the Haymarket, had +bewitched him, she never knew peace again. Her temper, never very +soothing or placable, got entire possession of her life, and she rained +stormy gusts of passion on her guilty lord. He trembled and endured, +till he found a razor concealed under his wife's pillow, and then he +determined to remove his violent helpmeet to a safe seclusion. By main +force, with the aid of accomplices, he seized the lady in his house in +Edinburgh, and bore her through Stirling to the Highlands. Thence she +was taken to St. Kilda's desolate island, far off in the Western Ocean, +and there kept for the remainder of her days, scantily furnished with +only the coarsest fare. Her condition was most wretched to the last. +In those days, licentiousness and religious enthusiasm were not +incompatible associates, and Lord Grange frequently spent his evenings +with the Minister of Prestonpans, praying, and settling high points of +Calvinism with the old pastor. Good Mrs. Carlyle used to complain that +they did not part without wine, and that late hours were consequent upon +the claret they liberally imbibed after their pious discussions. + +Dr. Doddridge's famous Colonel Gardiner came to reside in Minister +Carlyle's parish, and told the story of his remarkable conversion, with +his own lips, to the clergyman. The hook which turned him from his +wicked career was Gurnall's "Christian Armor," a volume placed many +years before, by a mother's hand, in his trunk, and until then +neglected. Young Carlyle hoard Gardiner tell the story of his change of +life several times to different sets of people, and he thought Doddridge +had marred the tale by introducing the incident of a blaze of light, +which the Colonel himself never spoke of having seen, when he related +his conversion. + +When Alexander was eleven years old, he took a little journey with his +father and another clergyman by the name of Jardine; and the two pious, +elderly gentlemen, having a great turn for fun and buffoonery, made +sport wherever they went. Turning their wigs hind-part foremost, and +making faces, they delighted in diverting the children they encountered +on the way. + +Of many of the incidents of the Porteous Mob young Carlyle was a +witness. He was in the Tolbooth Church, at Edinburgh, when Robertson, a +condemned smuggler, who was brought in to listen to the discourse and +prayers before execution, made his escape. The congregation were coming +into church while all the bells were ringing, when the criminal, +watching his opportunity, sprang suddenly over a pew, and was next heard +of in Holland. When, a few weeks afterwards, Wilson, another smuggler, +was executed, Carlyle, with some of his school-fellows, was in a window +on the north side of the Grass-Market, and heard Porteous order his +guard to fire on the people. A young lad, who had been killed by a slug +entering his head, was brought into the house where the boys were on +that occasion. + +In the summer of 1737, young Carlyle might have been seen during the +evening hours walking anxiously about the Prestonpans fields. That +season he had lost one of his fellow-pupils and dearest friends, and +they had often agreed together that whichever might die first should +appear there to the other, and reveal the secrets beyond the barrier. +And so the survivor paced the meadows, hoping to meet his old companion, +who never appeared. In November of that year he was at college, and his +acquaintance with Robertson, afterwards the eminent historian, then +began. John Home, celebrated at a later period as the author of +"Douglas," also became an intimate friend. He now decided to choose a +profession, and had wellnigh concluded an agreement with two surgeons +to study theirs, when he became disgusted with the meanness of the +doctors, who had bought for dissection the body of a child of a poor +tailor for six shillings, the price asked being six shillings and +sixpence, from which they made the needy man abate the sixpence. Turning +from the niggardly surgeons, he enrolled his name as a student of +divinity, and was frequently in Edinburgh attending the lectures at +Divinity Hall. Wonderfully cheap was the living in those days, when, +at the Edinburgh ordinaries, a good dinner could be had for fourpence, +small beer included. John Witherspoon, years after a member of the +American Congress, then a frank, generous young fellow, was a companion +of Carlyle at this period, and they often went fishing together in the +streams near Gifford Hall. + +The city of Glasgow, whither young Carlyle had gone to pursue his +studies, was at this time far inferior in point of commerce to what it +afterwards became. The tobacco-trade with the American colonies and the +traffic in sugar and rum with the West Indies were the chief branches of +business. Carlyle did not find the merchants of those days interesting +or learned people, though they held a weekly club, where they discussed +the nature and principle of trade, and invited Alexander to join it. But +he found life in Glasgow very dull, and was constantly complaining that +there was neither a teacher of French nor of music in the town. There +was but one concert during the two winters he spent there. Post-chaises +and hackney-coaches were unknown, their places being supplied by three +or four old sedan-chairs, which did a brisk business in carrying +midwives about in the night, and old ladies to church and the +dancing-assemblies. The principal merchants began their business early +in the morning, and took dinner about noon with their families at home. +Afterwards they resorted to the coffee-house, to read the newspapers +and enjoy a bowl of punch. Until an arch fellow from Dublin came to be +master of the chief coffee-house, nine o'clock was the hour for these +worthy mercantile gentlemen to be at home in the evening. The seductive +Irish stranger began his wiles by placing a few nice cold relishing +things on the table, and so gradually led the way to hot suppers and +midnight symposia. Towards the end of his college-session, Carlyle was +introduced to a club which gave him great satisfaction. The principal +member was Robert Simson, the celebrated mathematician. Simson was a +great humorist, and was particularly averse to the company of ladies. +Matthew Stewart, afterwards Professor of Mathematics at Edinburgh, was a +constant attendant at this club. + +On the breaking out of the Rebellion of 1745, the young +divinity-student, having returned to Edinburgh, joined the Volunteers, +and entered warmly into all the bustle and business of those exciting +days. In the Battle of Prestonpans he took part, and was active to the +end. When Prince Charles Edward issued a proclamation of pardon to the +Volunteers, Carlyle went down to the Abbey Court to see him. The Prince +mounted his horse, while the young man stood by, and rode away to the +east side of Arthur's Seat. Charles was at that time a good-looking +gentleman, of about five feet ten inches, with dark red hair and black +eyes. + +One Monday morning in October, a hundred and fifteen years ago, young +Carlyle set out for Rotterdam, on his way to Leyden, to join the British +students there. Among them he found Charles Townshend and John Wilkes, +names afterwards famous in English politics. With Wilkes he became +intimate, and many a spirited talk they had together in their daily +rambles. + +But we cannot dwell upon the incidents of Carlyle's student-life on the +Continent. Soon after his return to Scotland he made acquaintance with +Smollett, whose lively, agreeable manners rendered him universally +popular. Thomson, the author of "The Seasons," and Armstrong the poet, +were also at this time among his friends. In 1746 he preached his +first sermon before the Presbytery of Haddington, and got "universal +approbation," especially from one young lady, to whom he had been long +attached. Robertson the historian and Home the dramatist were now among +his neighbors, and no doubt used their influence in getting the young +clergyman a living. He finally settled at Inveresk, where his life was +a very pleasant round of cares and duties. Hume, Adam Smith, Blair, +Smollett, and Robertson now figure largely in his personal record, so +that he had no lack of genial companions. Adam Smith he describes as "a +very absent man in society, moving his lips, talking to himself, +and smiling, in the midst of large companies." Robertson was a very +different person, and held all the conversation-threads in his own +fingers, forgetting, alas! sometimes, that he had not been present in +many a scene which he described as an eye-witness. + +Carlyle went some distance on the way toward London with Home, when he +carried his tragedy of "Douglas" for examination to the critics. Six +other clergymen, accompanied the precious manuscript on that expedition, +and the fun was prodigious. Garrick read the play and pronounced it +totally unfit for the stage! "Douglas" was afterwards brought out in +Edinburgh with unbounded success. David Hume ran about crying it up as +the first performance he world had seen for half a century. + +Carlyle's visit to Shenstone is very graphically described in the +"Autobiography." The poet was then "a large, heavy, fat man, dressed in +white clothes and silver lace." One night in Edinburgh, Dr. Robertson +gave a small supper-party to "the celebrated Dr. Franklin," and Carlyle +met him that evening at table. They came together afterwards several +times. + +But we must refer our readers to the book itself, our limits not +allowing more space for a glance at one of the most entertaining works +in modern biography. + + +_The Laws of Race, as connected with Slavery_. By the Author of "The Law +of the Territories," "Rustic Rhymes," etc. Philadelphia: W.P. Hazard. +1860. 8vo. pp. 70. + +There is no lack of talk and writing among us on political topics; but +there is great lack of independent and able thought concerning them. +The disputes and the manoeuvres of parties interfere with the study and +recognition of the active principles which silently mould the national +character and history. The double-faced platforms of conventions, the +loose manifestoes of itinerant candidates for the Presidency, the +rhetorical misrepresentations of "campaign documents," form the staple +of our political literature. + +The writer of the pamphlet before us is one of the few men who not only +think for themselves, nut whose thoughts deserve attention. His essay +on "The Law of the Territories" was distinguished not more by its sound +reasoning than by the candor of its statements and the calmness of its +tone and temper. If his later essay, on "The Laws of Race, as connected +with Slavery," be on the whole less satisfactory, this is to be +attributed, not to any want in it of the same qualities of thought +and style as were displayed in his earlier work, but to the greater +complexify and difficulty of the subject itself. The question of Race, +so far as it affects actual national conditions, is one of the deepest +and most intricate which can be presented to the student of politics. It +is impossible to investigate it without meeting with difficulties which +in the present state of knowledge cannot be solved, or without opening +paths of speculation which no human foresight can trace to their end. +This is, indeed, no reason for not attempting its discussion; and Mr. +Fisher, in treating it in its relation to Slavery, has done good work, +and has brought forward important, though much neglected considerations. +He endeavors to place the whole subject of the relations of the white +and the black races in this country on philosophic grounds, and to +deduce the principles which must govern them from the teachings of +ethnological science, or, in other words, from natural laws which human +device can neither abrogate nor alter. + +From these teachings he derives the three following conclusions. + +"The white race must of necessity, by reason of its superiority, govern +the negro, wherever the two live together. + +"The two races can never amalgamate, and form a new species of man, but +must remain forever distinct,--though mulattoes and other grades always +exist, because constantly renewed. + +"Each race has a tendency to occupy exclusively that portion of the +country suited to its nature." + +If true, these conclusions are of the utmost importance. They are higher +laws, which "must rule our politics and our destiny, either by the +Constitution or over it, either with the Union or without it; and no +wit or force of man is strong enough to resist them." It is to the +exposition of the results which follow from these conclusions, assuming +them to be true, that the larger part of the present essay is devoted. + +That these propositions express, or at least point the way to essential +truths, we are fully persuaded. But we are not ready to accept all the +inferences which the author draws from them, or to admit that they +afford sufficient basis for some of his minor assumptions. + +Arguing from his first conclusion, the author draws the inference that +"slavery is the necessary result" of the nature of the black and of the +white man. "The negro is by nature indolent and improvident." "He is +also ignorant." "He requires restraint and guidance"; "otherwise he +would sink into helpless, hopeless vice, idleness, and misery." But in +these words, and in others to the same purport, Mr. Fisher assumes that +the nature of the black is incapable of such improvement as to make what +he calls the necessary condition of servitude needless in the interest +of either race. We are surprised that so good a reasoner should speak +of the ignorance of the black as a natural disqualification for +independence, and the more so, because, in another passage, Mr. Fisher +says, with truth, "We darken his mind with ignorance." That some form +of subjection of the negro may be necessary for a time that extends far +into the future is a point we will not dispute; but that slavery, as +that word is generally understood, is the necessary result of his nature +and of our nature we believe to be utterly untrue. The whole history +of American slavery, far from exhibiting the negro as incapable of +improvement, shows him making a slow and irregular advance in the +development of intellectual and moral qualities, under circumstances +singularly unfavorable. It is the plea of the advocates of the +slave-trade, that the black is civilized by contact with the white. +The plea is not without truth. It is the universal testimony of +slave-owners, and the common observation of travellers, that the city +and house slaves, that is, those who are brought into most constant and +close relations with the whites, show higher mental development than +those who are confined to the fields. The experiment of education, +continued for more than one generation, has never been tried. The black +is in many of his endowments inferior to the white; but until he and +his children and his children's children have shown an incapacity to be +raised by a suitable training, honestly given, to an intellectual and +moral condition that shall fit them for self-dependence, we have no +right to assert that slavery is a necessary condition, if in the meaning +of necessary we include the idea of permanence. It is not needful to +present here other objections to this sweeping assertion. They are old, +well-known, and unanswerable. + +But leaving this and other points on which we find ourselves at issue +with Mr. Fisher, we come to what we regard as the most important part of +his pamphlet,--the results which he shows to follow from the law, that +"each race has a tendency to occupy exclusively that portion of the +country suited to its nature." In the States that lie on the Gulf of +Mexico the negro "has found a congenial climate and obtained a permanent +foothold." "The negro multiplies there; the white man dwindles and +decays." We should be glad to quote at length the striking pages in +which Mr. Fisher shows the prospect of the ultimate and not distant +ascendency of the black race in this new Africa. The considerations he +presents are of vital consequence to the South, of consequence only less +than vital to the North. But by the side of "New-Africa" are States and +Territories in which the black race has little or no foothold. Free, +civilized, and prosperous communities are brought face to face, as it +were, with the mixed and degenerating populations of the Slave country. +In the Free States the white race is increasing in numbers and advancing +in prosperity with unexampled rapidity. In the Slave States the black +race is growing in far greater proportion than the white, the most +important elements of prosperity are becoming exhausted, and the +forces of civilization are incompetent to hold their own against the +ever-increasing weight of barbarism. Shall this new Africa push its +boundaries beyond their present limits? Shall more territory be yielded +to the already wide-spread African, race? It is not the question, +whether the unoccupied spaces of the South and West shall be settled by +Northern white emigrants with their natural property, or by Southern +white emigrants with their legal property,--and there an end; but it +is the question, whether New England or New Africa shall extend her +limits,--whether the country shall be occupied a century hence by a +civilized or by a barbarous race. Every rood of ground yielded to the +pretensions of the masters of slaves is so much of the heirloom of +freedom and of civilization lost without hope of recovery. Slavery is +transient. + +As an institution, such as it has developed itself in our Southern +States, it has already, given tokens of decay. But the qualities of race +are so slowly affected by change as to admit of being called constant +and permanent. The predominant influence of the blacks in the Cotton +States is already (even putting aside the results of slavery) exhibiting +itself in the lowering of the whites. These States are becoming +uninhabitable for the whites,--not by reason of climate, or of slavery +as an institution, but by reason of the operation of the inevitable +increase of the slaves. They must have the land, and the stronger race +will be driven out by the weaker, on account of the preponderance of +their numbers and the _vis inertice_ of their natures. There is no room +in the United States, or in any of their unsettled territory, for the +expansion of this transatlantic Africa. Where the black race is now +settled it will stay, but it must be confined within its present limits. + +We do not look upon the simple secession of the Slave States, or of +any one of them, as dangerous, so far as the extension of slavery is +concerned,--rather, on the contrary, as likely to end the great debate +by securing all unoccupied territory to the North, to freedom, and to +the white races. It is only, if an attempt should be made, for the sake +of what is miscalled peace, and for the sake of the Union, to conciliate +the misguided and unfortunate people of the South by compromise or +concession, that we fear the consequences. + +The responsibility under which we are to act is not for our own moral +convictions alone, but also for the happiness of all future times. There +is no room for concession, no space for compromise, in the settlement of +the question of the prevalence of the black or of the white race on this +continent,--in other words, the prevalence of liberty and Christianity +and all their attendant blessings, or that of ignorance and barbarism +with their train. "We will decide this question," says Mr. Fisher, whose +words were written before the necessity for decision was so distinctly +presented as at present, "we will decide it, if we can, as a united +people; but if we cannot, if cotton and slavery and the negro have +already weakened our Southern brethren by their spells and enchantments, +so that the South cannot decide according to the traditions and impulses +of our race, then we of the North will still decide it, as by right we +may,--by right of reason, of race, and of law." + + +_The Conduct of Life_. By R.W. EMERSON Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. +pp. 288. + +It is a singular fact, that Mr. Emerson is the most steadily attractive +lecturer in America. Into that somewhat cold-waterish region adventurers +of the sensation kind come down now and then with a splash, to become +disregarded King Logs before the next season. But Mr. Emerson always +draws. A lecturer now for something like a quarter of a century, one +of the pioneers of the lecturing system, the charm of his voice, his +manner, and his matter has never lost its power over his earlier +hearers, and continually winds new ones in its enchanting meshes. What +they do not fully understand they take on trust, and listen, saying to +themselves, as the old poet of Sir Philip Sidney,-- + + "A sweet, attractive, kind of grace, + A full assurance given by looks, + Continual comfort in a face, + The lineaments of gospel books." + +We call it a singular fact, because we Yankees are thought to be fond of +the spread-eagle style, and nothing can be more remote from that than +his. We are reckoned a practical folk, who would rather hear about a +new air-tight stove than about Plato; yet our favorite teacher's +practicality is not in the least of the Poor Richard variety. If he +have any Buncombe constituency, it is that unrealized commonwealth of +philosophers which Plotinus proposed to establish; and if he were to +make an almanac, his directions to farmers would be something like +this:--"OCTOBER: _Indian Summer_; now is the time to get in your early +Vedas." What, then, is his secret? Is it not that he out-Yankees us all? +that his range includes us all? that he is equally at home with the +potato-disease and original sin, with pegging shoes and the Over-soul? +that, as we try all trades, so has he tried all cultures? and above all, +that his mysticism gives us a counterpoise to our super-practicality? + +There is no man living to whom, as a writer, so many of us feel +and thankfully acknowledge so great an indebtedness for ennobling +impulses,--none whom so many cannot abide. What does he mean? ask these +last. Where is his system? What is the use of it all? What the deuse +have we to do with Brahma? Well, we do not propose to write an essay on +Emerson at the fag-end of a February "Atlantic," with Secession longing +for somebody to hold it, and Chaos come again in the South Carolina +teapot. We will only say that we have found grandeur and consolation in +a starlit night without caring to ask what it meant, save grandeur and +consolation; we have liked Montaigne, as some ten generations before us +have done, without thinking him so systematic as some more eminently +tedious (or shall we say tediously eminent?) authors; we have thought +roses as good in their way as cabbages, though the latter would have +made a better show in the witness-box, if cross-examined as to their +usefulness; and as for Brahma, why, he can take care of himself, and +won't bite us at any rate. + +The bother with Mr. Emerson is, that, though he writes in prose, he is +essentially a poet. If you undertake to paraphrase what he says, and to +reduce it to words of one syllable for infant minds, you will make +as sad work of it as the good monk with his analysis of Homer in the +"Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum." We look upon him as one of the few men +of genius whom our age has produced, and there needs no better proof of +it than his masculine faculty of fecundating other minds. Search for his +eloquence in his books and you will perchance miss it, but meanwhile you +will find that it has kindled all your thoughts. For choice and pith of +language he belongs to a better age than ours, and might rub shoulders +with Fuller and Browne,--though he does use that abominable word, +_reliable_. His eye for a fine, telling phrase that will carry true is +like that of a backwoodsman for a rifle; and he will dredge you up a +choice word from the ooze of Cotton Mather himself. A diction at once so +rich and so homely as his we know not where to match in these days of +writing by the page; it is like homespun cloth-of-gold. The many cannot +miss his meaning, and only the few can find it. It is the open secret of +all true genius. What does he mean, quotha? He means inspiring hints, a +divining-rod to your deeper nature, "plain living and high thinking." +We meant only to welcome this book, and not to review it. Doubtless we +might pick our quarrel with it here and there; but all that our readers +care to know is, that it contains essays on Fate, Power, Wealth, +Culture, Behavior, Worship, Considerations by the Way, Beauty, and +Illusions. They need no invitation to Emerson. "Would you know," says +Goethe, "the ripest cherries? Ask the boys and the blackbirds." He does +not advise you to inquire of the crows. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +Struggle for Life. By the Author of "Seven Stormy Sundays," etc. Boston. +Walker, Wise, & Co. 12mo. pp. 311. $1.00. + +The Laws of Race, as connected with Slavery. By the Author of "The Law +of the Territories," etc. Philadelphia. Willis P. Hazard. 8vo. paper, +pp. 70. 38 cts. + +On the Study of Words. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** diff --git a/old/11117-8.zip b/old/11117-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..abc87e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11117-8.zip diff --git a/old/11117.txt b/old/11117.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3dbcac2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11117.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8890 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Atlantic Monthly Volume 7, No. 40, February, +1861, by Various + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly Volume 7, No. 40, February, 1861 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: February 16, 2004 [eBook #11117] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY VOLUME 7, NO. 40, +FEBRUARY, 1861*** + + +E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. VII.--FEBRUARY, 1861.--NO. XL. + + + + + + + +OUR ARTISTS IN ITALY. + +WILLIAM PAGE. + + +Among artists, William Page is a painter. + +This proposition may seem, to the great public which has so long and so +well known him and his works, somewhat unnecessary. There are few +who are not familiar with his paintings. Whether these seem great or +otherwise, whether the Venus be pure or gross, we may not here discuss; +the public has, and will have, many estimates; yet on one point there +is no difference of opinion, apparently. The world willingly calls him +whose hand wrought these pictures a painter. It has done so as a matter +of course; and we accept the title. + +But perhaps the title comes to us from this man's studio, charged with a +significance elevating it above the simply self-evident, and rendering +it worthy of the place we have given it as a germ proposition. + +Not every one who uses pigments can say, "I also am a painter." To him +who would make visible the ideal, there are presented the marble, the +pencil, and the colors; and should he employ either of these, just in +proportion to his obedience to the laws of each will he be a sculptor, +a designer, or a painter; and the revelations in stone, in light and +shade, or on canvas, shall be his witnesses forevermore,--witnesses of +him not only as an artist, in view of his relation to the ideal world, +but as possessing a right to the especial title conferred by the means +which he has chosen to be his interpreter. + +The world has too much neglected these means of interpretation. It has +condemned the science which would perfect the art, as if the false could +ever become the medium of the true. The art of painting has suffered +especially from the influence of mistaken views. + +Nor could it be otherwise. Color-manifestation, of all art-utterance, +is the least simple. It requires the fulfilment of a greater number +of conditions than are involved in any other art. He who has selected +colors as his medium cannot with impunity neglect form; light and +shade must be to him as important as they are to the designer in +_chiaro-scuro;_ while above all are the mystery and power of color. + +There is perplexity in this. The science of form seems to be vast enough +for any man's genius. No more than he accomplishes is demanded of the +genuine sculptor. His life has been grand with noble fulfilments. We, +and all generations, hold his name in the sacred simplicity which has +ever been the sign of the consummate. Men say, Phidias, Praxiteles, and +know that they did greatly and sufficiently. + +Yet with the science which these men had we combine elements equally +great, and still truth demands the consummate. Hence success in painting +has been the rarest success which the world has known. If we search +its history page by page, the great canvas-leaves written over with +innumerable names yield us less than a score of those who have overcome +the difficulties of its science, through that, achieving art, and +becoming painters. + +Yes, many men have painted, many great artists have painted, without +earning the title which excellence gives. Overbeck, the apostle artist, +whose rooms are sacred with the presence of the divine, never earned +that name. Nor did thousands who before him wrought patiently and +earnestly. + +We think that we have among us a man who _has_ earned it. + +What does this involve? Somewhat more than the ability critically to +distinguish colors and to use them skilfully. + +Although practice may discipline and develop this power, there must +exist an underlying physiological fitness, or all study and experience +will be unavailing. In many persons, the organization of the eye is such +that there can be no correct perception of the value, relation, and +harmony of hues. There exists often an utter inability to perceive +differences between even the primary colors. + +The late sculptor Bartholomew declared himself unable to decide which +of two pieces of drapery, the one crimson and the other green, was the +crimson. Nor was this the result of inexperience. He had been for years +familiar not only with Nature's coloring, but with the works of the best +schools of art, and had been in continual contact with the first living +artists. + +The instances of this peculiar blindness are exceptional, yet not +more so than is the perfection of vision which enables the eye to +discriminate accurately the innumerable tints derived from the three +primitives. + +Nothing can be finer than the sense of identity and harmony resulting +from this exquisite organization. We have been told that there is a +workman at the Gobelin manufactory who can select twenty-two thousand +tints of the material employed in the construction of its famous +tapestries. This capability is, of course, almost wholly dependent upon +rare physical qualifications; yet it is the basis, the very foundation +of a painter's power. + +Still, it is _but_ the foundation. An "eye for color" never yet made any +man a colorist. + +Perhaps there can be no severer test of this faculty of perception than +the copying of excellent pictures. And among the few successful copies +which have been produced, Page's stand unsurpassed. + +The ability to perceive Nature, when translated into art, is, however, a +possession which this painter shares with many. Nor is he alone in the +skill which enables him to realize upon his own canvas the effects which +some master has rendered. + +It is in the presence of Nature itself that a power is demanded with +which mechanical superiority and physical qualifications have little to +do. Here the man stands alone,--the only medium between the ideal and +the outward world, wherefrom he must choose the signs which alone are +permitted to become the language of his expression. None can help him, +as before he was helped by the man whose success was the parent of his +own. Here is no longer copying. + +In the first place, is to be found the limit of the palette. Confining +ourselves to the external, what, of all the infinitude of phenomena to +which the vision is related, so corresponds to the power of the palette +that it may become adequately representative thereof? + +Passing over many minor points in which there seems to be an imperfect +relation between Nature's effects and those of pigments, we will briefly +refer to the great discrepancy occasioned by the luminosity of light. In +all the lower effects of light, in the illumination of Nature and the +revelation of colored surfaces, in the exquisite play and power of +reflected light and color, and in the depth and richness of these when +transmitted, we find a noble and complete response on the palette. But +somewhere in the ascending scale a departure from this happy relation +begins to be apparent. The _color_-properties of light are no longer +the first. Another element--an element the essential nature of which +is absorbed in the production of the phenomena of color--now asserts +itself. Hitherto the painter has dealt with light indirectly, through +the mediatorship of substances. The rays have been given to him, broken +tenderly for his needs;--ocean and sky, mountain and valley, draperies +and human faces, all things, from stars to violets, have diligently +prepared for him, as his demands have arisen, the precious light. And +while he has restrained himself to the representation of Nature subdued +to the limit of his materials, he has been victorious. + +Turner, in whose career can be found almost all that the student needs +for example and for warning, is perhaps the best illustration of wise +temperance in the choice of Nature to be rendered into art. Nothing can +be finer than some of those early works wrought out in quiet pearly +grays,--the tone of Nature in her soberest and tenderest moods. In +these, too, may be observed those touches of brilliant color,--bits of +gleaming drapery, perhaps,--prophetic flecks along the gray dawn. Such +pictures are like pearls; but art demands amber, also. + +When necessity has borne the artist out of this zone, the peaceful +domain of the imitator, he finds himself impelled to produce effects +which are no longer the simple phases of color, but such as the means at +his disposal fail to accomplish. In the simpler stages of coloring, when +he desired to represent an object as blue or red, it was but necessary +to use blue or red material. Now he has advanced to a point where this +principle is no longer applicable. The illuminative power of light +compels new methods of manipulation. + +As examples of a thorough comprehension of the need of such a change in +the employment of means, of the character of that change, of the skill +necessary to embody its principles, and of utter success in the result, +we have but to suggest the name and works of Titian. + +But the laws which Titian discovered have been unheeded for centuries; +and they might have remained so, had not the mind of William Page +felt the necessity of their revival and use. To him there could be no +chance-work. Art must have laws as definite and immutable as those of +science; indeed, the body in which the spirit of art is developed, and +through which it acts, must be science itself. He saw, that, if exact +imitation of Nature be taken as the law in painting, there must +inevitably occur the difficulty to which we have before referred,--that, +above a certain point, paint no longer undergoes transfiguration, +thereby losing its character as mere coloring material,--that, if the +ordinary tone of Nature be held as the legitimate key-note, the scope of +the palette would be exhausted before success could be achieved. + +Any one of Turner's latest pictures may serve to illustrate the nature +of this difficulty. Although in his early practice he was remarkable for +his judicious restraint, it is evident that the splendors of the higher +phenomena of light had for him unlimited fascination; and he may be +traced advancing cautiously through that period of his career which was +marked by the influence of Claude, toward what he hoped would prove, and +perhaps believed to be, a realization of such splendors. + +It must have been observed by those who have studied his later pictures, +that, while the low passages of the composition are wonderfully fine +and representative, all the higher parts, those supposed or intended to +stand for the radiance of dazzling light, fail utterly in representative +capacity. There is an abundance of the most brilliant pigment, but it is +still paint,--unmitigated ochre and white lead. The spectator is obliged +to recede from the picture until distance enables the eye to transmute +the offending material and reconcile the conflicting passages. + +To accomplish the result of rendering the quality and effect of high +light was one of the problems to which Mr. Page years ago turned his +attention; and he found its solution in the transposition of the scale. +The pitch of Nature could not be adopted as the immutable in art. That +were impossible, unless art presumed to cope with Nature. + +More than he, no man could respect the properties and qualities of the +visible world. His ideas of the truthful rendering of that which became +the subject of his pencil might seem preposterous to those who knew not +the wonderful significancy which he attached to individual forms and +tints. Yet, in imitation, where is the limit? What is possible? Must +there be any sacrifice? + +Evidently there must be; and of course it follows that the less +important must be sacrificed. Nature herself has taught the artist that +the most variable of all her phenomena is that of _tone_. Other truths +of Nature have a character of permanency which the artist cannot modify +without violating the first principles of art. He is required to render +the essential; and to render the essential of that which art cannot +sacrifice, if it would, and continue art, he foregoes the non-essential +and evanescent. + +Not only is this permitted,--it is demanded. It is a law through which +alone success is attainable. In obedience to it, Mr. Page adopts a key +somewhat lower than that of Nature as a point of departure, using his +degrees of color frugally, especially in the ascending scale. With this +economy, when he approaches the luminous effects of Nature, he finds, +just where any other palette would be exhausted, upon his own a reserve +of high color. With this, seeking only a corresponding effect of light +in that lower tone which assumes no rivalry with the infinite glory of +Nature, he attains to a representation fully successful. + +We would not have it understood that a mere transposition of the scale +is all that is required to accomplish such a result; only this,--that in +no other way can such a result be secured. To color well, to color so +that forms upon the canvas give back tints like those of the objects +which have served as models, is only half the work. Quality, as well as +color, must be attained. Local, reflected, and transmitted color can be +imitated; but as in the attempt to represent light its luminousness is +the element which defeats the artist, so, throughout Nature, quality, +texture, are the elements which most severely test his power. + +Could any indispensable truth be considered secondary, it might be +assumed that rendering truthfully the qualities of Nature is the first +and highest of art. The forms and colors of objects vary infinitely. +It might be said that the law of all existence is, in these two +particulars, that of change. From the time a human being is born until +it disappears in the grave, from the day when the first leaves break the +mould to that which sees the old tree fall, the form of each has been +modified hourly. + +But that which differentiates objects more completely than any other +property is quality. The sky over us, and the waters of the earth, are +subject to infinite variations. Yet, whether in the tiny drop that +trembles at the point of a leaf or in the vast ocean-globe of our +planet, in the torpor of forest-ponds or in the wrath of cataracts, +water never loses its quality of wetness,--the open sky never that of +dryness. These two characteristics are of course entirely the reverse +of each other,--as unlike as are the properties of transparency and +opacity,--which they involve. + +So, throughout Nature, one truth, that of texture, is the +distinguishing; and this distinctive element is that which cannot be +sacrificed; for through it are Nature's finest laws manifested. And the +painter finds in his obedience to her demands his highest power over +the material which serves him in his efforts to embody the true and the +beautiful. + +It is, then, this which compels us to estimate Mr. Page a painter,--a +man especially organized for his profession,--chosen by its +demands,--set apart, by his wonderful adaptation to its requirements, +from all the world. In virtue of this specialty, the necessity arose +early in his life to seek excellence in his department of art,--to +search the depths of its philosophy and discover its vital +principles,--to analyze its methods and expose its errors. It led him to +investigate the relation between the phenomena of Nature and the +effects of painting; it guided him to a clear perception of the laws +of art-translation; above all, it compelled him to practise what he +believed to be the true. + +Thus much of the painter;--now what of the artist? + +It does not necessarily follow, that, because a man is a great painter, +he is also a great artist. Yet we may safely infer, that, if he has been +true in one department of the several which constitute art, he cannot +have been false in others. Should there be a shortcoming, it must be +that of a man whose mission does not include that wherein he fails. +Fidelity to himself is all we should demand. We say this for those who +are disposed to depreciate what an artist actually accomplishes, because +in some one point Turner or Overbeck surpasses him. Nor do we say it +apologetically. The man, who, basing his action upon the evident purpose +of the organization which God has given him, fulfils his destiny, +requires no apology. + +We have seen something of the faithfulness which has marked Mr. Page's +pursuit of excellence in the external of his art. He has wrought that +which proves his claim to a broader title than that of painter. Were +it not for the vagueness which involves the appellation of historical +painter, it might be that. Even were we obliged to confine our interest +and study to the portraiture which he has executed, we might, in view of +its remarkable character, designate it as historical. + +Than a really great portrait, no work of art can be more truly +historical. We feel the subjectiveness of compositions intended to +transmit facts to posterity,--and unless we know the artist, we are at a +loss as to the degree of trust which we may place in his impressions. +A true portrait is objective. The individuality of the one whom it +represents was the ruling force in the hour of its production; and to +the spirit of a household, a community, a kingdom, or an age, that +individuality is the key. There is, too, in a genuine portrait an +internal evidence of its authenticity. No artist ever was great enough +to invent the combination of lines, curves, and planes which composes +the face of a man. There is the accumulated significance of a +lifetime,--subtile traces of failures or of victories wrought years ago. +How these will manifest themselves, no experience can point out, no +intuition can foresee or imagine. The modifications are infinite, and +each is completely removed from the region of the accidental. + +But, although details and their combinations in the human face and form +cannot be wrought from the imagination, the truthfulness or falsity of +their representation is instantly evident. It is because of this, that +the unity of a portrait carries conviction of its truth and of the +unimpeachability of its evidence, that this phase of art becomes +so valuable as history. Compared with the worth of Titian's Philip +II.,--the Madrid picture, of which Mr. Wild has an admirable +study,--what value can be attached to any historical composition of its +period? + +It has not been the lot of Mr. Page to paint a mighty man, so inlocked +with the rugged forces of his age. His sitters have come from more +peaceful, nobler walks of life,--and their portraits are beloved even +more than they are admired. Not yet are they the pride of pompous +galleries, but the glory and saintliness of homes. + +Could we enter these homes, and discuss freely the character of their +treasures, we would gladly linger in the presence of the more precious. +But so inseparably associated are they with their originals, so much +more nearly related to them than to the artist, that no fitting analysis +can be made of the representation without involving that of the +individual represented. + +Three portraits have, however, such wonderful excellence, and through +this excellence have become so well known, that we may be forgiven for +alluding to them. In a former paper, the writer spoke of the portrait of +a man in his divinest development. The first of these three works is the +representation of a woman, and is truly "somewhat miraculous." It is a +face rendered impressive by the grandest repose,--a repose that pervades +the room and the soul,--a repose not to be mistaken for serenity, but +which is power in equilibrium. No brilliancy of color, no elaboration of +accessories, no intricacy of composition attracts the attention of +the observer. There is no need of these. But he who is worthy of the +privilege stands suddenly conscious of a presence such as the world has +rarely known. He feels that the embodiment before him is the record of +a great Past, as well as the reflection of a proud Present,--a Past +in which the soul has ever borne on through and above all obstacles of +discouragement and temptation to a success which was its inheritance. +He sees, too, the possibilities of the near Future; how from that fine +equipoise the soul might pass out into rare manifestations, appearing +in the sweetness and simplicity of a little child, in the fearful +tumultuousness of a Lady Macbeth, in the passionate tenderness of a +Romeo, or in the Gothic grandeur of a Scotch sorceress,--in the love of +kindred, in the fervor of friendship, and in the nobleness of the truest +womanhood. + +Another portrait--can it have been painted in this century?--presents a +widely different character. We have seen the rendering of a nature made +too solemn by the possession of genius to admit of splendor of coloring. +This picture is that of ripe womanhood, manifesting itself in the +fulness of summer's goldenest light. Color, in all its richness as +color, in all its strength as a representative agent, in all its glory +as the minister of light, in all its significance as the sign and +expression of plenitude of life,--life at one with Nature;--thus we +remember it, as it hung upon the wall of that noble room in the Roman +home of Crawford. + +A later portrait, and one artistically the finest of Mr. Page's +productions, although executed in Rome, has found a home in Cambridge. +Here no grave subdual of color was called for, nor was there any need of +its fullest power,--but, instead thereof, we have color in the purity +of its pearl expression. A mild lustre, inexpressibly clear, seems to +pervade the picture, and beam forth the revelation of a white soul. +Shadows there are none,--only still softer light, to carry back the +receding forms. But interest in technicalities is lost in the nobler +sense of sweet influences. We are at peace in the presence of a peace +which passeth all understanding. We are holy in the ineffable light +of immortal holiness. We are blessed in the consciousness of complete +harmony. + +Surely, none but a great painter could have achieved such success; +surely, no mere painter could thus have appealed to us. + +These works we have chosen to represent the artist's power in the +direction of portraiture,--not only because of their wonderful merit as +embodiments of individualism, but to illustrate a law which has not yet +had its due influence in art, but which must be the very life of its +next revival, when painting shall be borne up until it marks the +century. + +We refer to the expressional power of color,--not the conventional +significance whereby certain colors have been associated arbitrarily +with mental conditions. This last has often violated all the principles +of natural relation; yet no fact is more generally accepted than +this,--that colors, from the intensity of the primitives to the last +faint tints derived therefrom, bear fixed and demonstrable relations to +the infinite moods and phases of human life. As among themselves the +hues of the palette exist in immutable conditions of positive affinity +or repulsion, so are they all related to the soul as definitely in +harmony or in discord. There has been imperfect recognition of this at +various times in the history of painting since the age of Giotto,--the +most notable examples having occurred in the Venetian school. + +But even in that golden age of art, this property of color was but +rarely perceived and called into use under the guidance of principles. +Still, the sense of the value and the harmonies of colors was so keen +among the Venetian artists, that, intuitively, subjects were chosen +which required an expression admitting of the most lavish use and +magnificent display of color. + +Paul Veronese, the splendor of whose conceptions seemed ever to select +the pomp and wealth of banquets and ceremonies,--Giorgione, for whom the +world revolved in an atmosphere of golden glory,--each had a fixed ideal +of noble coloring; and it is questionable whether either ever modified +that ideal for the sake of any expressional purpose. + +Titian, from whom no property or capability of color was concealed, +could not forego the power which he secured through obedience to the law +of its relation to the human soul. Were we asked which among pictures is +most completely illustrative of this obedience, we should answer, "The +Entombment," in the Louvre. Each breadth of color mourns,--sky and earth +and all the conscious air are laden with sorrow. + +In portraiture, however, the great master was inclined to give the full +perfection of the highest type of coloring. That rich glow which is +bestowed by the Venetian sun did, indeed, seem typical of the life +beneath it; and Titian may have been justified in bringing thither +those who were the recipients of his favors. One only did he not +invite,--Philip II.; him he placed, dark and ominous, against a sky +barred with blood. + +Is it in virtue of conformity to law, and under the government of the +principles of correspondence, that Mr. Page has wrought with mind and +hand? + +Otherwise it cannot be; for, in the three portraits to which allusion +has been made, such subtile distinctions of character find expression in +equally subtile differences of tint, that no touch could have been given +from vague apprehensions of truth. No ambiguity perplexes the spectator; +he beholds the inevitable. + +Other works than those of portraiture have won for Mr. Page the +attention of the world. This attention has elicited from individuals +praise and dispraise, dealt out promptly, and with little qualification. +But we have looked in vain for some truly appreciative notice of the +so-called historical pictures executed by this artist. We do not object +to the prompt out-speaking of the public. So much is disposed of, when +the mass has given or withheld its approval. We know whether or not the +work appeals to the hearts of human beings. Often, too, it is the most +nearly just of any which may be rendered. Usually, the conclusions +of the great world are correct, while its reasonings are absurd. Its +decisions are immediate and clear; its arguments, subsequent and vague. + +This measure, however, cannot be meted to all artists. A painter may +appeal to some wide, yet superficial sympathy, and attain to no other +excellence. + +That Mr. Page might have found success in this direction will not be +denied by any one who has seen the engraving of a girl and lamb, from +one of his early works. It is as sweet and tenderly simple as a face by +Francia. But not only did he refuse to confine himself to this style +of art, as, when that engraving is before us, we wish he had done,--he +passed out of and away from it. And those phases which followed +have been such as are the least fitted to stand the trial of public +exhibition. His pictures do not command the eye by extraordinary +combinations of assertive colors,--nor do they, through great pathos, +deep tenderness, or any overcharged emotional quality, fascinate and +absorb the spectator. + +Much of the middle portion of this artist's professional life is marked +by changes. It was a period of growth,--of continual development and of +obvious transition. Not infrequently, the transition seemed to be from +the excellent to the crude. Nevertheless, we doubt not, that, through +all vicissitudes, there has been a steady and genuine growth of Mr. +Page's best artistic power, and that he has been true to his specialty. + +We should like to believe that the Venetian visit of 1853 was the +closing of one period of transition, and the beginning of a new era in +Mr. Page's artistic career. It is pleasant to think of the painter's +pilgrimage to that studio of Titian, Venice,--for it was all his,--not +in nebulous prophetic youth,--not before his demands had been revealed +to his consciousness,--not before those twenty long years of solitary, +hard, earnest work,--but in the full ripeness of manhood, when prophecy +had dawned into confident fulfilment, when the principles of his +science had been found, and when of this science his art had become the +demonstration. It was fine to come then, and be for a while the guest of +Titian. + +There is evidence that he began after this visit to do what for years he +had been learning to do,--yet, of course, as is ever the case with the +earnest man, doing as a student, as one who feels all truth to be of the +infinite. + +The result has been a series of remarkable pictures. There are among +these the specimens of portraiture, a few landscapes, and a number of +ideal, or, as they have been called, historical works. Of these last +named there is somewhat to be said; and those to which we shall refer +are selected for the purpose of illustrating principles, rather than for +that of description. These are all associated with history. There are +three representations of Venus, and several renderings of Scriptural +subjects. + +If these pictures are valuable, they are so in virtue of elements which +can be appreciated. To present these elements to the world, to appeal to +those who can recognize them, is, it is fair to assume, the object of +exposition. Not merely praise, but the more wholesome meed of justice, +is the desire of a true artist; and as we deal with such a one, we do +not hesitate to speak of his works as they impress us. + +First of all, in view of the artist's skill as a painter, it is well +to regard the external of his work. Here, in both Scriptural and +mythological subjects, there is little to condemn. The motives have been +bravely and successfully wrought out; the work is nobly, frankly done. +The superiority of methods which render the texture and quality of +objects becomes apparent. There is no attempt at illusion; yet the +representation of substances and spaces is faultless,--as, for instance, +the sky of the "Venus leading forth the Trojans." Nor have we seen that +chaste, pearly lustre of the most beautiful human skin so well rendered +as in the bosom of the figure which gleams against the blue. + +But there is a pretension to more than technical excellence in the +mythological works; there is a declaration of physical beauty in the +very idea; in both these and the Scriptural there is an assumption of +historical value. + +While we believe that the problem of physical beauty can be solved and +demonstrated, and the representations of Venus can be proved to possess +or to lack the beautiful, we choose to leave now, as we should be +compelled to do after discussion, the decision of the question to +those who raise it. It is of little avail to prove a work of art +beautiful,--of less, to prove it ugly. Spectators and generations cannot +be taken one by one and convinced. But where the operation of judgment +is from the reasoning rather than from the intuitive nature, facts, +opinions, and impressions may exert healthful influences. + +The Venus of Page we cannot accept,--not because it may be unbeautiful, +for that might be but a shortcoming,--not because of any technical +failure, for, with the exception of weakness in the character of waves, +nothing can be finer,--not because it lacks elevated sentiment, for this +Venus was not the celestial,--but because it has nothing to do with +the present, neither is it of the past, nor related in any wise to any +imaginable future. + +The present has no ideal of which the Venus of the ancients is a +manifestation. Other creations of that marvellous Greek mind might be +fitly used to symbolize phases of the present. Hercules might labor now; +there are other stables than the Augean; and not yet are all Hydras +slain. Armor is needed; and a Vulcan spirit is making the anvil ring +beneath the earth-crust of humanity. But Venus, the voluptuous, the +wanton,--no sensuousness pervading any religion of this era finds in her +its fitting type and sign. She, her companions, and her paramours, with +the magnificent religion which evolved them, were entombed centuries +ago; and no angel has rolled the stone from the door of their sepulchre. +They are dead; the necessity which called the Deistic ideal into +existence is dead; the ideal itself is dead, since Paul preached in +Athens its funeral sermon. + +As history of past conditions, no value can be attached to +representations produced in subsequent ages. In this respect all these +pictures must be false. The best can only approximate truth. Yet his +two pictures of Scriptural subjects--one from the remoteness of Hebrew +antiquity, the other from the early days of Christianity--are most +valuable even as history: not the history of the flight from Egypt, nor +that of the flight into Egypt, but the history of what these mighty +events have become after the lapse of many centuries. + +Herein lies the difference between Mythology and Christianity: the one +arose, culminated, and perished, soul and body, when the shadow of the +Cross fell athwart Olympus; the other is immortal,--immortal as is +Christ, immortal as are human souls, of which it is the life. No century +has been when it has not found, and no century can be when it will not +find, audible and visible utterance. The music of the "Messiah" reveals +the relation of its age to the great central idea of Christianity. Fra +Angelico, Leonardo, Bach, Milton, Overbeck, were the revelators of human +elevation, as sustained by the philosophy of which Christ was the great +interpreter. + +Therefore, to record that elevation, to be the historian of the present +in its deepest significance, the noblest occupation. Dwelling, as an +artist must dwell, in the deep life of his theme, his work must go forth +utterly new, alive, and startling. + +Thus did we find the "Flight into Egypt" a picture full of the spirit of +that marvellous age, hallowed by the sweet mystery which all these years +have given. Who of those who were so fortunate as to see this work of +Mr. Page will ever forget the solemn, yet radiant tone pervading the +landscape of sad Egypt, along which went the fugitives? Nothing ever +swallowed by the insatiable sea, save its human victims, is more worthy +of lament than this lost treasure. + +Thus, too, is the grandest work of Mr. Page's life, the Moses with hands +upheld above the battle. Were we on the first page instead of the last, +we could not refrain from describing it. Yet in its presence the impulse +is toward silence. We feel, that, viewed even in its mere external, it +is as simple and majestic as the Hebrew language. The far sky, with its +pallid moon,--the deep, shadowy valley, with its ghostly warriors,--the +group on the near mountain, with its superb youth, its venerable age, +and its manhood too strong and vital for the destructive years;--in the +presence of such a creation there is time for a great silence. + + + + +KNITTING SALE-SOCKS. + + +"He's took 'ith all the sym't'ms,--thet 's one thing sure! Dretful pain +in hez back an' l'ins, legs feel 's ef they hed telegraph-wires inside +'em workin' fur dear life, head aches, face fevered, pulse at 2.40, +awful stetch in the side, an' pressed fur breath. You guess it's +neuralogy, Lurindy? I do'no' nothin' abeout yer high-flyin' names fur +rheumatiz. _I_ don't guess so!" + +"But, Aunt Mimy, what _do_ you guess?" asked mother. + +"I don' guess nothin' at all,--I nigh abeout know!" + +"Well,--you don't think it's"---- + +"I on'y wish it mebbe the veryaloud,--I on'y wish it mebbe. But that's +tew good luck ter happen ter one o' the name. No, Miss Ruggles, +I--think--it's--the raal article at first hand." + +"Goodness, Aunt Mimy! what"---- + +"Yes, I du; an' you'll all hev it stret through the femily, every one; +you needn't expect ter go scot-free, Emerline, 'ith all your rosy +cheeks; an' you'll all hev ter stay in canteen a month ter the least; +an' ef you're none o' yer pertected by vaticination, I reckon I"---- + +"Well, Aunt Mimy, if that's your opinion, I'll harness the filly and +drive over for Dr. Sprague." + +"Lor'! yer no need ter du _thet_, Miss Ruggles,--I kin kerry yer all +through jest uz well uz Dr. Sprague, an' a sight better, ef the truth +wuz knowed. I tuk Miss Deacon Smiler an' her hull femily through the +measles an' hoopin'-cough, like a parcel o' pigs, this fall. They _du_ +say Jane's in a poor way an' Nathan'l's kind o' declinin'; but, uz I +know they say it jest ter spite me, I don' so much mind. You _a'n't_ +gwine now, be ye?" + +"There's safety in a multitude of counsellors, you know, Aunt Mimy, and +I think on the whole I had best." + +"Wal! ef that's yer delib'rate ch'ice betwixt Dr. Sprague an' me, ye +kin du ez ye like. I never force my advice on no one, 'xcept this,--I'd +advise Emerline there ter throw them socks inter the fire; there'll +never none o' them be fit ter sell, 'nless she wants ter spread the +disease. Wal, I'm sorry yer 've concluded ter hev thet old quack +Sprague; never hed no more diplomy 'n I; don' b'lieve he knows cow-pox +from kine, when he sees it. The poor young man's hed his last well day, +I'm afeard. Good-day ter ye; say good-bye fur me ter Stephen. I'll call +ag'in, ef ye happen ter want any one ter lay him eout." + +And, staying to light her little black pipe, she jerked together the +strings of her great scarlet hood, wrapped her cloak round her like a +sentinel at muster, and went puffing down the hill like a steamboat. + +Aunt Mimy Ruggles wasn't any relation to us, I wouldn't have you think, +though our name was Ruggles, too. Aunt Mimy used to sell herbs, and she +rose from that to taking care of the sick, and so on, till once Dr. +Sprague having proved that death came through her ignorance, she had to +abandon some branches of her art; and she was generally roaming round +the neighborhood, seeking whom she could devour in the others. And so +she came into our house just at dinner-time, and mother asked her to sit +by, and then mentioned Cousin Stephen, and she went up to see him, and +so it was. + +Now it can't be pleasant for any family to have such a thing turn up, +especially if there's a pretty girl in it; and I suppose I was as pretty +as the general run, at that time,--perhaps Cousin Stephen thought a +trifle prettier; pink cheeks, blue eyes, and hair the color and shine of +a chestnut when it bursts the burr, can't be had without one 's rather +pleasant-looking; and then I'm very good-natured and quick-tempered, and +I've got a voice for singing, and I sing in the choir, and a'n't afraid +to open my mouth. I don't look much like Lurindy, to be sure; but +then Lurindy's an old maid,--as much as twenty-five,--and don't go to +singing-school.--At least, these thoughts ran through my head as I +watched Aunt Mimy down the hill.--Lurindy a'n't so very pretty, +I continued to think,--but she's so very good, it makes up. At +sewing-circle and quilting and frolics, I'm as good as any; but somehow +I'm never any 'count at home; that's because Lurindy is by, at home. +Well, Lurindy has a little box in her drawer, and there's a letter in +it, and an old geranium-leaf, and a piece of black silk ribbon that +looks too broad for anything but a sailor's necktie, and a shell. I +don't know what she wants to keep such old stuff for, I'm sure. + +We're none so rich,--I suppose I may as well tell the truth, that we're +nearly as poor as poor can be. We've got the farm, but it's such a small +one that mother and I can carry it on ourselves, with now and then a +day's help or a bee,--but a bee's about as broad as it is long,--and +we raise just enough to help the year out, but don't sell. We've got +a cow and the filly and some sheep; and mother shears and cards, and +Lurindy spins,--I can't spin, it makes my head swim,--and I knit, +knit socks and sell them. Sometimes I have needles almost as big as a +pipe-stem, and choose the coarse, uneven yarn of the thrums, and +then the work goes off like machinery. Why, I can knit two pair, and +sometimes three, a day, and get just as much for them as I do for the +nice ones,--they're warm. But when I want to knit well, as I did the day +Aunt Mimy was in, I take my best blue needles and my fine white yarn +from the long wool, and it takes me from daybreak till sundown to knit +one pair. I don't know why Aunt Jemimy should have said what she did +about my socks; I'm sure Stephen hadn't been any nearer them than he had +to the cabbage-bag Lurindy was netting, and there wasn't such a nice +knitter in town as I, everybody will tell you. She always did seem to +take particular pleasure in hectoring and badgering me to death. + +Well, I wasn't going to be put down by Aunt Mimy, so I made the needles +fly while mother was gone for the doctor. By-and-by I heard a knock up +in Stephen's room,--I suppose he wanted something,--but Lurindy didn't +hear it, and I didn't so much want to go, so I sat still and began to +count out loud the stitches to my narrowings. By-and-by he knocked +again. + +"Lurindy," says I, "a'n't that Steve a-knocking?" + +"Yes," says she,--"why don't you go?"--for I had been tending him a good +deal that day. + +"Well," says I, "there's a number of reasons; one is, I'm just binding +off my heel." + +Lurindy looked at me a minute, then all at once she smiled. + +"Well, Emmy," says she, "if you like a smooth skin more than a smooth +conscience, you're welcome,"--and went up-stairs herself. + +I suppose I had ought to 'a' gone, and I suppose I'd ought to wanted to +have gone, but somehow it wasn't so much fear as that I didn't want to +see Stephen himself now. So Lurindy stayed up chamber, and was there +when mother and the doctor come. And the doctor said he feared Aunt Mimy +was right, and nobody but mother and Lurindy must go near Stephen, (you +see, he found Lurindy there,) and they must have as little communication +with me as possible. And his boots creaked down the back-stairs, and +then he went. + +Mother came down a little while after, for some water to put on +Stephen's head, which was a good deal worse, she said; and about the +middle of the evening I heard her crying for me to come and help them +hold him,--he was raving. I didn't go very quick; I said, "Yes,--just +as soon as I've narrowed off my toe"; and when at last I pushed back my +chair to go, mother called in a disapproving voice and said that they'd +got along without me and I'd better go to bed. + +Well, after I was in bed I began to remember all that had happened +lately. Somehow my thoughts went back to the first time Cousin Stephen +came to our place, when I was a real little girl, and mother'd sent me +to the well and I had dropped the bucket in, and he ran straight down +the green slippery stones and brought it up, laughing. Then I remembered +how we'd birds-nested together, and nutted, and come home on the +hay-carts, and how we'd been in every kind of fun and danger together; +and how, when my new Portsmouth lawn took fire, at Martha Smith's +apple-paring, he caught me right in his arms and squeezed out the fire +with his own hands; and how, when he saw once I had a notion of going +with Elder Hooper's son James, he stepped aside till I saw what a nincom +Jim Hooper was, and then he appeared as if nothing had happened, and +was just as good as ever; and how, when the ice broke on Deacon Smith's +pond, and I fell in, and the other boys were all afraid, Steve came and +saved my life again at risk of his own; and how he always seemed to +think the earth wasn't good enough for me to walk on; and how I'd +wished, time and again, I might have some way to pay him back; and here +it was, and I'd failed him. Then I remembered how I'd been to his place +in Berkshire,--a rich old farm, with an orchard that smelled like the +Spice Islands in the geography, with apples and pears and quinces +and peaches and cherries and plums,--and how Stephen's mother, Aunt +Emeline, had been as kind to me as one's own mother could be. But now +Aunt Emeline and Uncle 'Siah were dead, and Stephen came a good deal +oftener over the border than he'd any right to. Today, he brought some +of those new red-streaks, and wanted mother to try them; next time, +they'd made a lot more maple-sugar on his place than he wanted; and next +time, he thought mother's corn might need hoeing, or it was fine weather +to get the grass in: I don't know what we should have done without him. +Then I thought how Stephen looked, the day he was pall-bearer to Charles +Payson, who was killed sudden by a fall,--so solemn and pale, nowise +craven, but just up to the occasion, so that, when the other girls burst +out crying at sight of the coffin and at thought of Charlie, I cried, +too,--but it was only because Stephen looked so beautiful. Then I +remembered how he looked the other day when he came, his cheeks were +so red with the wind, and his hair, those bright curls, was all blown +about, and he laughed with the great hazel eyes he has, and showed his +white teeth;--and now his beauty would be spoiled, and he'd never care +for me again, seeing I hadn't cared for him. And the wind began to +come up; and it was so lonesome and desolate in that little bed-room +down-stairs, I felt as if we were all buried alive; and I couldn't get +to sleep; and when the sleet and snow began to rattle on the pane, I +thought there wasn't any one to see me and I'd better cry to keep it +company; and so I sobbed off to dreaming at last, and woke at sunrise +and found it still snowing. + +Next morning, I heard mother stepping across the kitchen, and when I +came out, she said Lurindy'd just gone to sleep; they'd had a shocking +night. So I went out and watered the creatures and milked Brindle, and +got mother a nice little breakfast, and made Stephen some gruel. And +then I was going to ask mother if I'd done so very wrong in letting +Lurindy nurse Stephen, instead of me; and then I saw she wasn't thinking +about that; and besides, there didn't really seem to be any reason why +she shouldn't;--she was a great deal older than I, and so it was more +proper; and then Stephen hadn't ever _said_ anything to me that should +give me a peculiar right to nurse him more than other folks. So I just +cleared away the things, made everything shine like a pin, and took +my knitting. I'd no sooner got the seam set than I was called to send +something up on a contrivance mother'd rigged in the back-entry over a +pulley. And then I had to make a red flag, and find a stick, and hang it +out of the window by which there were the most passers. Well, I did it; +but I didn't hurry,--I didn't get the flag out till afternoon; somehow I +hated to, it always seemed such a low-lived disease, and I was mortified +to acknowledge it, and I knew nobody'd come near us for so long,--though +goodness knows I didn't want to see anybody. Well, when that was done, +Lurindy came down, and I had to get her something to eat, and then she +went up-stairs, and mother took _her_ turn for some sleep; and there +were the creatures to feed again, and what with putting on, and taking +off, and tending fires, and doing errands, and the night's milking, and +clearing the paths, I didn't knit another stitch that day, and was glad +enough, when night came, to go to bed myself. + +Well, so we went on for two or three days. I'd got my second sock pretty +well along in that time,--just think! half a week knitting half a +sock!--and was setting the heel, when in came Aunt Mimy. + +"I a'n't afeard on it," says she; "don't you be skeert. I jest stepped +in ter see ef the young man wuz approachin' his eend." + +"No," said I, "he isn't, any more than you are, Aunt Mimy." + +"Any more 'n I be?" she answered. "Don't you lose yer temper, Emerline. +We're all approachin' it, but some gits a leetle ahead; it a'n't no +disgrace, ez I knows on. What yer doin' of? Knittin' sale-socks yet? +and, my gracious! still ter work on the same pair! You'll make yer +fortin', Emerline!" + +I didn't say anything, I was so provoked. + +"I don' b'lieve you know heow ter take the turns w'en yer mother a'n't +by to help," she continued. "Can't ye take up the heel? Widden ev'ry +fourth. Here, let me! You won't? Wal, I alluz knowed you wuz mighty +techy, Emerline Ruggles, but ye no need ter fling away in thet style. +Neow I'll advise ye ter let socks alone; they're tew intricate fur +sech ez you. Mitt'ns is jest abeout 'ithin the compass uv your +mind,--mitt'ns, men's single mitt'ns, put up on needles larger 'n them +o' yourn be, an' by this rule. Seventeen reounds in the wrist,--tew an' +one's the best seam"---- + +"Now, Miss Jemimy, just as if I didn't know how to knit mittens!" + +"Wal, it seems you don't," said she, "though I don' deny but you may +know heow ter give 'em; an' ez I alluz like ter du w'at good I kin, I'm +gwine ter show ye." + +"Show away," says I; "but I'll be bound, I've knit and sold and eaten up +more mittens than ever you put your hands in!" + +"Du tell! I'm glad to ha' heern you've got sech a good digestion," says +she, hunting up a piece of paper to light her pipe. "Wal, ez I +wuz sayin'," says she, "tew an' one's the best seam, handiest an' +'lastickest; twenty stetches to a needle, cast up so loose thet the fust +one's ter one eend uv the needle an' the last ter t'other eend,--thet +gives a good pull." + +"I guess your smoke will hurt Stephen's head," said I, thinking to +change her ideas. + +"Oh, don't you bother abeout Stephen's head; ef it can't stan' thet,'t +a'n't good fur much. Wal, an' then you set yer thumb an' knit plain, +'xcept a seam-stetch each side uv yer thumb; an' you widden tew +stetches, one each side,--s'pose ye know heow ter widden? an' +narry?--ev'ry third reound, tell yer 've got nineteen stetches acrost +yer thumb; then ye knit, 'ithout widdenin', a matter uv seven or eight +reounds more,----you listenin', Emerline?" + +"Lor', Miss Jemimy, don't you know better than to ask questions when I'm +counting? Now I've got to go and begin all over again." + +"Highty-tighty, Miss! You're a weak sister, ef ye can't ceount an' chat, +tew. Wal, ter make a long matter short, then ye drop yer thumb onter +some thread an' cast up seven stetches an' knit reound fur yer hand, an' +every other time you narry them seven stetches away ter one, fur the +gore." + +"Dear me, Aunt Mimy! do be quiet a minute! I believe mother's +a-calling." + +"I'll see," said Aunt Mimy,--and she stepped to the door and listened. + +"No," says she, coming back on tiptoe,--"an' you didn't think you heern +any one neither. It's ruther small work fur ter be foolin' an old woman. +Hows'ever, I don' cherish grudges; so, ez I wuz gwine ter say, ye knit +thirty-six reounds above wheer ye dropped yer thumb, an' then ye toe off +in ev'ry fifth stetch, an' du it reg'Iar, Emerline; an' then take up yer +thumb on tew needles, an' on t'other you pick up the stetches I told yer +ter cast up, an' knit twelve reounds, an' thumb off 'ith narryin' ev'ry +third"---- + +"Well, Miss Jemimy, I guess I shall know how to knit mittens, now!" + +"Ef ye don't, 't a'n't my fault. When you've fastened off the eends, you +roll 'em up in a damp towel, an' press 'em 'ith a middlin' warm iron on +the wrong side. There!" + +After this, Miss Mimy smoked awhile in silence, satisfied and gratified. +At last she knocked the ashes out of her pipe. + +"Wal," says she, "I must be onter my feet. I'd liked ter seen yer ma, +but I won't disturb her, an' you can du ez well. Yer ma promised me a +mess o' tea, an' I guess I may ez well take it neow ez any day." + +"Why, Miss Mimy," said I, "there a'n't above four or five messes left, +and we can't get any more till I sell my socks." + +"Wal, never mind, then, you can le' me take one, an' mebbe I kin make up +the rest at Miss Smilers's." + +So I went into the pantry to get it, and Aunt Mimy followed me, of +course. + +"Them's nice-lookin' apples," said she. "Come from Stephen's place? Poor +young man, he won't never want 'em! S'pose he won't hev no objection +ter my tryin' a dozen,"--and she dropped that number into her great +pocket. + +"Nice-lookin' butter, tew," said she. "Own churnin'? Wal, you _kin_ +du sunthin', Emerline. W'en I wuz a heousekeeper, I used ter keep the +femily in butter an' sell enough to Miss Smith--she thet wuz Mary +Breown--ter buy our shoes, all off uv one ceow. S'pose I take this pat?" + +I was kind of dumfoundered at first; I forgot Aunt Mimy was the biggest +beggar in Rockingham County. + +"No," says I, as soon as I got my breath, "I sha'n't suppose any such +thing. You're as well able to make your butter as I am to make it for +you." + +"Wal, Emerline Ruggles! I alluz knowed you wuz close ez the bark uv a +tree; it's jest yer father's narrer-contracted sperrit; you don' favor +yer ma a speck. She's ez free ez water." + +"If mother's a mind to give away her eye-teeth, it don't follow that I +should," said I; "and I won't give you another atom; and you just clear +out!" + +"Wal, you kin keep yer butter, sence you're so sot on it, an' I'll take +a leetle dust o' pork instead." + +"Let's see you take it!" said I. + +"I guess I'll speak 'ith yer ma. I shall git a consider'ble bigger +piece, though I don't like ter add t' 'er steps." + +"Now look here, Miss Mimy," says I,--"if you'll promise not to ask for +another thing, and to go right away, I'll get you a piece of pork." + +So I went down cellar, and fished round in the pork-barrel and found +quite a respectable piece. Coming up, just as my head got level with the +floor, what should I see but Miss Jemimy pour all the sugar into her +bag and whip the bowl back on the shelf, and turn round and face me as +innocent as Moses in the bulrushes. After she had taken the pork, she +looked round a minute and said,-- + +"Wal, arter all, I nigh upon forgot my arrant. Here's a letter they giv' +me fur Lurindy, at the post-office; ev'rybody else's afeard ter come up +here";--and by-and-by she brought it up from under all she'd stowed away +there. "Thet jest leaves room," says she. + +"For what?" says I. + +"Fur tew or three uv them eggs." + +I put them into her bag and said, + +"Now you remember your promise, Aunt Mimy!" + +"Lor' sakes!" says she, "you're in a mighty berry ter git me off. Neow +you've got all you kin out uv me, the letter, 'n' the mitt'ns, I may go, +may I? I niver see a young gal so furrard 'ith her elders in all my born +days! I think Stephen Lee's well quit uv ye, fur my part, ef he hed to +die ter du it. I don't 'xpect ye ter thank me fur w'at instruction I +gi'n ye;--there's some folks I niver du 'xpect nothin' from; you can't +make a silk pus out uv a sow's ear. W'at ye got thet red flag out +the keepin'-room winder fur? 'Cause Lurindy's nussin' Stephen? Wal, +good-day!" + +And so Aunt Mimy disappeared, and the pat of butter with her. + +I called Lurindy and gave her the letter, and after a little while I +heard my name, and Lurindy was sitting on the top of the stairs with her +head on her knees, and mother was leaning over the banisters. Pretty +soon Lurindy lifted up her head, and I saw she had been crying, and +between the two I made out that Lurindy'd been engaged a good while to +John Talbot, who sailed out of Salem on long voyages to India and China; +and that now he'd come home, sick with a fever, and was lying at the +house of his aunt, who wasn't well herself; and as he'd given all his +money to help a shipmate in trouble, she couldn't hire him a nurse, and +there he was; and, finally, she'd consider it a great favor, if Lurindy +would come down and help her. + +Now Lurindy'd have gone at once, only she'd been about Stephen, so that +she'd certainly carry the contagion, and might be taken sick herself, as +soon as she arrived; and mother couldn't go and take care of John, for +the same reason; and there was nobody but me. Lurindy had a half-eagle +that John had given her once to keep; and I got a little bundle together +and took all the precautions Dr. Sprague advised; and he drove me off +in his sleigh, and said, as he was going about sixteen miles to see +a patient, he'd put me on the cars at the nearest station. Well, he +stopped a minute at the post-office, and when he came out he had another +letter for Lurindy. I took it, and, after a moment, concluded I'd better +read it. + +"What are you about?" says the Doctor; "your name isn't Lurindy, is it?" + +"I wish it was," says I, "and then I shouldn't be here." + +"Oh! you're sorry to leave Stephen?" says he. "Well, you can comfort +yourself with reflecting that Lurindy's a great deal the best nurse." + +As if that was any comfort! If Lurindy was the best nurse, she'd ought +to have had the privilege of taking care of her own lover, and not of +other folks's. Besides, for all I knew, Stephen would be dead before +ever I came back, and here I was going away and leaving him! Well, I +didn't feel so very bright; so I read the letter. The Doctor asked me +what ailed John Talbot. I thought, if I told him that Miss Jane Talbot +wrote now so that Lurindy shouldn't come, and that he was sick just as +Stephen was, he wouldn't let me go. So I said I supposed he'd burnt his +mouth, like the man in the South, eating cold pudding and porridge; men +always cried out at a scratch. And he said, "Oh, do they?" and laughed. + +After about two hours' driving, there came a scream as if all the +panthers in Coos County were let loose to yell, and directly we stopped +at a little place where a red flag was hung out. I asked the Doctor if +they'd got the small-pox here, too; but before he could answer, the +thunder running along the ground deafened me, and in a minute he had put +me inside the cars and was off. + +I was determined I wouldn't appear green before so many folks, though +I'd never seen the cars before; so I took my seat, and paid my fare to +Old Salem, and looked about me. Pretty soon a woman came bustling in +from somewhere, and took the seat beside me. There she fidgeted round so +that I thought I should have flown. + +"Miss," says she, at length, "will you close your window? I never travel +with a window open; my health's delicate." + +I tried to shut it, but it wouldn't go up or down, till a gentleman put +out his cane and touched it, and down it slid, like Signor Blitz. It did +seem as if everything about the cars went by miracle. I thanked him, but +I found afterward it would have been more polite not to have spoken. +After that woman had done everything she could think of to plague and +annoy the whole neighborhood, she got out at Ipswich, and somebody +met her that looked just like our sheriff; and I shouldn't be a bit +surprised to hear that she'd gone to jail. When she got out, somebody +else got in, and took the same seat. + +"Miss," says she, "will you have the goodness to open your window? this +air is stifling." + +And she did everything that the other woman didn't do. When she found +I wouldn't talk, she turned to the young gentleman and lady that sat +opposite, and that looked as if there was a great deal too much company +in the cars, and found they wouldn't talk either, and at last she caught +the conductor and made him talk. + +AH this while we were swooping over the country in the most terrific +manner. I thought how frightened mother and Lurindy'd be, if they should +see me. It was no use trying to count the cattle or watch the fences, +and the birch-trees danced rigadoons enough to make one dizzy, and +we dashed through everybody's back-yard, and ran so close up to the +kitchens that we could have seen what they had for dinner, if we had +stayed long enough; and finally I made up my mind that the engine had +run away with the driver, and John Talbot would never have me to tend +him; and I began to wonder, as I saw the sparks and cinders and great +clouds of steam and smoke, if those tornadoes that smash round so out +West in the newspapers weren't just passenger-trains, like us, off the +track,--when all at once it grew as dark as midnight. + +"Now," says I to myself, "it's certain. They've run the thing into the +ground. However, we can't go long now." + +And just as I was thinking about Korah and his troop, I remembered what +the Doctor had told me about Salem Tunnel, and it began to grow lighter, +and we began to go slower, and I picked up my wits and looked about +me again. I had only time to notice that the young gentleman and lady +looked very much relieved, and to shake my shawl from the clutch of the +woman beside me, when we stopped at Salem, safe and sound. + +I had a good deal of trouble to find Miss Talbot's house, but find it I +did; and the first thing she gave me was a scolding for coming, thinking +I was Lurindy, and her tongue wasn't much cooler when she found I +wasn't; and then finally she said, as long as I was there, I might stay; +and I went right up to see John, and a sight he was! + +It was about three months I stayed and took the greater part of the care +of him. Sometimes in the midnight, when he was quite beside himself, and +dreaming out loud, it was about as good as a story-book to hear him. He +told me of some great Indian cities where there were men in white, with +skins swarthier than old red Guinea gold, and with great shawls all +wrought in palm-leaves of gold and crimson bound on their heads, who +could sink a ship with their lacs of rupees; and of islands where the +shores came down to the water's edge and unrolled like a green ribbon, +and brooks came sparkling down behind them, and great trees hung above +like banners, and beautiful women came off on rafts and skiffs loaded +with fruit,--the islands set like jewels on the back of the sea, and the +sky covered them with light and hung above them bluer than the hangings +of the Tabernacle, and they sent long rivers of spice out on the air to +entice the sailor back,--islands where night never came. Sometimes, when +he talked on so, I remembered that I'd felt rather touched up when I +found that Lurindy'd had a sweetheart all this time, and mother knew it, +and they'd never told me, and I wondered how it happened. Now it came +across me, that, quite a number of years before, Lurindy had gone to +Salem and worked in the mills. She didn't stay long, because it didn't +agree with her,--the neighbors said, because she was lazy. Lurindy lazy, +indeed! There a'n't one of us knows how to spell the first syllable +of that word. But that's where she must have got acquainted with +John Talbot. He'd been up at our place, too; but I was over to Aunt +Emeline's, it seems. But one night, about this time, I thought he was +dying, he'd got so very low; and I thought how dreadful it was for +Lurindy never to see him again, and how it was all my selfish fault, and +how maybe he wouldn't 'a' died, if he'd had her to have taken care of +him; and I suppose no convicted felon ever endured more remorse than I +did, sitting and watching that dying man all that long and lonely night. +But with the morning he was better,--they always are a great deal worse +when they are getting well from it; he laughed when the doctor came, and +said he guessed he'd weathered that gale; and by-and-by he got well. + +He meant to have gone up and seen Lurindy, after all, but his ship was +ready for sea just as he was; and I thought it was about as well, for +he wasn't looking his prettiest. And so he declared I was the neatest +little trimmer that ever trod water, and he believed he should know a +Ruggles by the cut of her jib, (I wonder if he'd have known Aunt Mimy,) +and if ever he went master, he'd name his ship for me, and call it the +Sister of Charity. And he kissed me on both cheeks, and looked serious +enough when he sent his love to Lurindy, and went away; and no sooner +was he gone than Miss Talbot said I'd better have the doctor myself; and +I didn't sit up again for about three weeks. + +All this time I hadn't heard a word from home, and, for all I knew, +Stephen might be dead and buried. I didn't feel so very light-hearted, +you may be sure, when one day Miss Talbot brought me a letter. It was +from mother, and it seemed Stephen'd only had a bad fever, and had been +up and gone home for more than a week. So I wrote back, as soon as I +could, all about John, and how he'd gone to sea again, and how Miss +Talbot, who set sights by John, was rather lonely, and I thought I'd +keep her company a little longer, and try a spell in the mills, seeing +that our neighbors didn't think a girl had been properly accomplished +till she'd had a term or two in the factory. The fact was, I didn't want +to go home just then; I thought, maybe, if I waited a bit, my face would +get back to looking as it used to. So I worked in the piece-room, light +work and good pay, sent mother and Lurindy part of my wages, and paid my +board to Miss Talbot. She'd become quite attached to me, and I to her, +for all she was such an old-maidish thing; but I'd got to thinking an +old maid wasn't such a very bad thing, after all. Fourth of July came at +last, and the mills were closed, and I went with some of the other girls +on an excursion down the harbor; and when I got home, Miss Talbot told +me my Cousin Stephen had been down to see me, and had been obliged to go +home in the last train. I wondered why Stephen didn't stay, and then it +flashed upon me that she'd told him all about it, and he didn't want to +see me afterwards. I knew mother and Lurindy suspected why I didn't come +home, and now, thinks I, they _know_; but I asked no questions. + +When September came, I saw it wasn't any use delaying, and I might as +well go back to knitting sale-socks then as any time. However, I didn't +go till October. You needn't think I'd stayed away from the farm all +that time, while the tender things were opening, the tiny top-heavy +beans pushing up, the garden-sarse greening, the little grass-blades +two and two,--while all the young creatures were coming forward, the +chickens breaking the shell, and the gosling-storm brewing and dealing +destruction,--while the strawberries were growing ripe and red up in the +high field, and the hay and clover were getting in,--you needn't think +I'd stayed away from all that had been pleasant in my life, without many +a good heart-ache; and when at last I saw the dear old gray house again, +all weather-beaten and homely, standing there with its well-sweep among +the elms, I fairly cried. Mother and Lurindy ran out to meet me, when +they saw the stage stop, and after we got into the house it seemed if +they would never get done kissing me. And mother stirred round and made +hot cream-biscuits for tea, and got the best china, and we sat up till +nigh midnight, talking, and I had to tell everything John did and said +and thought and looked, over and over again. + +By-and-by I unpacked my trunk, and there was a little parcel in the +bottom of it, and I pulled it up. + +"There, Lurindy," says I, "John told me to tell you to have your +wedding-dress ready against he came home,--he's gone mate,--and here it +is." And I unrolled the neatest brown silk you ever saw, just fit for +Lurindy, she's so pale and genteel, and threw it into her lap. I'd +stayed the other month to get enough to buy it. + +The first thing Lurindy did, by way of thanks, was to burst into tears +and declare she never could take it, that she never should marry now; +and the more I urged her, the more she cried. But at last she said she'd +accept it conditionally,--and the condition was, I should be married +when she was. + +"Well," says I, "agreed, if you'll provide the necessary article; +because I can't very well marry my shadow, and I don't know any one else +that would be fool enough to have such a little fright." + +At that Lurindy felt all the worse, and it took all the spirits I had to +build up hers and mother's. I suppose I was sorry to see they felt +so bad, (and they hadn't meant that I should,) because it gave the +finishing stroke to my conviction; and after I was in bed, I grew +sorrier still; and if I cried, 't wasn't on account of myself, but I saw +how Lurindy 'd always feel self-accused, though she hadn't ought to, +whenever she looked at me, and how all her life she'd feel my scarred +face like a weight on her happiness, and think I owed it to John, and +how intolerable such an obligation, though it was only a fancied one, +would be; and I saw, too, that it all came from my not going up-stairs +that first time when Stephen knocked,--because if I had gone, I should +have been there when the doctor came, and Lurindy 'd have gone to have +taken care of John herself, and it would have been her face that was +ruined instead of mine; and though it was a great deal better that +it should be mine, still she'd have been easier in her mind;--and so +thinking and worrying, I fell asleep. + +Next day was baking-day, and Stephen was coming in the afternoon, and it +was almost five o'clock when we got cleared up, and I went up-stairs to +change my dress. I thought 't wasn't any use to trim myself out in bows +and ruffles now, so I just put on my brown gingham and a white linen +collar; but Lurindy came and tied a pink ribbon at my throat, and fixed +my hair herself, and looked down and said,-- + +"Well, I don't see but you're about as pretty as ever you was." + +That almost finished me; but I contrived to laugh, and got down-stairs. +Mother 'd run over to the village to get some yarn to knit up, for she +'d used all our own wool. It was getting dark, and I had just brought in +another log, and hung the kettle on the crane. The log hadn't taken fire +yet, and there was only a light glimmer, from the coals, on the ceiling. +I heard the back-door-latch click, and thought it was mother, and +commenced humming in the middle of a tune, as if I'd been humming the +rest and had just reached that part; but the figure standing there was a +sight too tall for mother. + +"Oh, Stephen," says I,--and my heart jumped in my throat, but I just +swallowed it down, and thanked Heaven that the evening was so dark,--"is +that you?" + +"Yes," says he, stepping forward, and putting out his hands, and making +as if he would kiss me. Just for a minute I hung back, then I went and +gave him my hand in a careless way. + +"Yes," says he; "and I can't say that you seem so very glad to see me." + +"Oh, yes," I answered, "I am glad. Did you drive over?" + +"Well," says he, "maybe you are; but I should call it a mighty cool +reception, after almost a year's absence. However, I suppose it's the +best manners not to show any cordiality; you've had a chance to learn +more politeness down at Salem than we have up here in the country." + +I was a little struck up by Stephen's running on so,--he was generally +so quiet, and said so little, and then in such short sentences. But in a +minute I reckoned he thought I was nervous, and was trying to put me at +my ease,--and he knew of old that the best way to do that was to rouse +my temper. + +"I ha'n't seen anybody at Salem better-mannered 'n mother and Lurindy," +said I. + +"Come home for Thanksgiving?" asked Stephen, hanging up his coat. + +I kept still a minute, for I couldn't for the life of me see what I had +to give thanks for. Then it came over me what a cheery, comfortable home +this was, and how Stephen would always be my kind, warm-hearted friend, +and how thankful I ought to be that my life had been spared, and that I +was useful, that I'd made such good friends as I had down to Salem, and +that I wasn't soured against all mankind on account of my misfortune. + +"Yes, Stephen," says I, "I've come home for Thanksgiving; and I have a +great deal to give thanks for." + +"So have I," said he. + +"Stephen," says I, "I don't exactly know, but I shouldn't wonder if I'd +had a change of heart." + +"Don't know of anybody that needed it less," says Stephen, warming his +hands. "However, if it makes you any more comfortable, I sha'n't object; +except the part of it that belongs to me,--I sha'n't have that changed." + +The fire'd begun to brighten now, and the room was red and +pleasant-looking; still I knew he couldn't see me plainly, and I waited +a minute, and lingered round, pretending I was doing something, which +I wasn't; I hated to break the old way of things; and then I took the +tongs and blew a coal and lighted the dip and held it up, as if I was +looking for something. Pretty soon I found it; it was a skein of linen +thread I was going to wind for Lurindy. Then I got the swifts and came +and sat down in front of the candle. + +"There," says I, "the swifts is broken. What shall I do?" + +"I'll hold the thread, if that's your trouble," says Stephen, and came +and sat opposite to me while I wound. + +I wondered whether he was looking at me, but I didn't durst look +up,--and then I couldn't, if my life had depended upon it. At last we +came to the end; then I managed to get a glance edgeways. He hadn't been +looking at all, I don't believe, till that very moment, when he raised +his eyes. + +"Are folks always so sober, when they've had a change of heart?" he +asked, with his pleasant smile. + +"They are, when they've had a change of face," I was going to say; but +just then mother came in with her bundle of yarn, and Lurindy came down, +and there was such a deal of welcoming and talking, that I slipped round +and laid the table and had the tea made before they thought of it. I'd +about made up my mind now that Stephen would act as if nothing had +happened, and pretend to like me just the same, because he was so +tender-hearted and couldn't bear to hurt my feelings nor anybody's; and +I'd made up my mind, too, that, as soon as he gave me a chance, I'd tell +him I was set against marriage: leastwise, I wouldn't have him, because +I wouldn't have any man marry me out of pity; and the more I cared for +him, the more I couldn't hamper an ugly face on him forever. So, you +see, I had quite resolved, that, cost me what it would, I'd say 'No,' if +Stephen asked me. Well, it's a very good thing to make resolutions; but +it's a great deal better to break them, sometimes. + +Having come to my conclusions, I grew as merry as any of them; and when +mother put two spoons into Stephen's cup, I told him he was going to +have a present. And he said he guessed he knew what it was; and I said +it must be a mitten, I'd heard that Martha Smith had taken to knitting +lately; and he confounded Martha Smith. Mother and Lurindy were very +busy talking about the yarn, and how Mr. Fisher wanted the next socks +knit; and Stephen asked me what that dish was beside me. I said, it was +lemon-pie, and the top-crust was made of kisses, and would he have +some? And he said, he didn't care for anybody's kisses but mine, and he +believed he wouldn't. And I told him the receipt of this came from the +Queen's own kitchen. And he said, he didn't know that the Queen of +England was any better than the Queen of Hearts. Then I said, I supposed +he remembered how the latter lady was served by the Knave of Hearts +in 'Mother Goose'? And he replied, that he wasn't going to be +Jack-at-a-pinch for anybody. And so on, till mother finished tea. + +After tea, I sat up to the table and ended some barley-trimming that I'd +just learned how to make; and as the little kernels came tumbling out +from under my fingers, Stephen sat beside and watched them as if it +was a field of barley, growing, reaped, and threshed under his eyes. +By-and-by I finished it; and then, rummaging round in the table-drawer, +I found the sock that I was knitting, waiting at the very stitch where I +left it, 'most a year ago. + +"Well, if that isn't lucky!" said I. And I sat down on a stool by the +fireside, determined to finish that sock that night; and no sooner had +I set the needles to dancing, like those in the fairy-story, than open +came the kitchen-door again, and in, out of the dark, stepped Aunt Mimy. + +"Good-evenin', Miss Ruggles!" says she. "Heow d' ye du, Emerline? hope +yer gwine ter stay ter hum a spell. Why, Stephen, 's this you? Quite a +femily-party, I declare fur't! Wai, Miss Ruggles, I got kind o' tired +settin' in the dark, an', ez I looked out an' see the dips blazin' in +yer winder, thinks I, I'll jest run up an' see w'at's ter pay." + +"Why, there's only one dip," says Lurindy. + +"Wal, thet's better 'n none," answered Miss Mimy. + +I had enough of the old Adam left in me to be riled at her way of +begging as much as ever I was; but I saw that Stephen was amused; he +hadn't ever happened to be round, when Aunt Mimy was at her tricks. + +"No, Miss Ruggles," continued she, "I thank the Lord I ha'n't got a +complainin' sperrit, an' hed jest ez lieves see by my neighbor's dip ez +my own, an', mebbe ye 'll say, a sight lieveser." + +And then Miss Mimy pulled out a stocking without beginning or end, and +began to knit as fast as she could rattle, after she 'd fixed one needle +in a chicken-bone, and pinned the chicken-bone to her side. + +"Wal, Emerline," says she, "I s'pose ye've got so grand down ter the +mills, thet, w'at 'ith yer looms an' machines an' tic-doloreux, ye won't +hev nothin' ter say ter the old way uv knittin' socks." + +"Does this look like it, Aunt Mimy?" says I, shaking my needles by way +of answer. "I'm going to finish this pair to-night." + +"Oh," says she, "you be, be you? Wal, ef I don't e'en a'most vum it's +the same one! ef ye ha'n't been nigh abeout a hull year a-knittin' one +pair uv socks!" + +"How do you know they're the same pair?" asked I. + +"By a mark I see you sot in 'em ter the top, ef ye want ter know, afore +I thought it would be hangin' by the eyelids the rest uv yer days. Wal, +I never 'xpected ye'd be much help ter yer mother; ye're tew fond uv +hikin' reound the village." + +"Indeed, Miss Mimy," said Lurindy, kind of indignant, "she's always been +the greatest help to mother." + +"I don't know how I should have made both ends meet this year, if it +hadn't been for her wages," said mother. + +Stephen was whittling Miss Mimy's portrait on the end of a stick, and +laughing. I was provoked with mother and Lurindy for answering the +thing, and was just going to speak up, when I caught Stephen's eye, and +thought better of it. Pretty soon Aunt Mimy produced a bundle of herbs +from her pocket, and laid them on the table. + +"Oh, thank you, Aunt Jemimy," says mother. "Pennyroyal and catnip's +always acceptable." + +"Yes," said Aunt Mimy. "An' I'll take my pay in some uv yer dried +apples. Heow much does Fisher give fur socks, Miss Ruggles?" she asked, +directly. + +"Fifty cents and I find,--fifteen and he finds." + +"An' ye take yer pay out uv the store? Varry reasonable. I wuz thinkin' +uv tryin' my han' myself;--business's ruther dull, folks onkimmon well +this fall. Heow many strings yer gwine ter give me fur the yarbs?" + +Then mother went up garret to get the apples and spread the herbs to +dry, and Lurindy wanted some different needles, and went after her. +Stephen'd just heaped the fire, and the great blaze was tumbling up +the chimney, and Miss Mimy lowered her head and looked over her great +horn-bowed spectacles at me. + +"Wal, Emerline Ruggles," says she, after a while, going back to her +work, "you've lost all _your_ pink cheeks!" + +I suppose it took me rather sudden, for all at once a tear sprung and +fell right down my work. I saw it glistening on the bright needles a +minute, and then my eyes filmed so that I felt there was more coming, +and I bent down to the fire and made believe count my narrowings. After +all, Aunt Mimy was kind of privileged by everybody to say what she +pleased. But Stephen didn't do as every one did, always. + +"Emmie's beauty wasn't all in her pink cheeks, Miss Mimy," I heard him +say, as I went into the back-entry to ask mother to bring down the mate +of my sock. + +"Wal, wherever it was, there's precious little of it left!" said she, +angry at being took up, which maybe she never was before in her life. + +"You don't agree with her friends," said he, cutting in the stick the +great mole on the side of her nose; "_they_ all think she's got more +than ever she had." + +Mother tossed me down the mate, and I went back. + +"Young folks," said Aunt Mimy, after two or three minutes' silence, "did +ye ever hear tell o' 'Miah Kemp?" + +"Any connection of old Parson Kemp in the other parish?" asked Stephen. + +"Yes," said Aunt Mimy,--"his brother. Wal, w'en I wuz a young gal, +livin' ter hum,--my father wuz ez wealthy ez any farmer thereabeouts, ye +know,--I used ter keep company 'ith 'Miah Kemp. 'Miah wuz a stun-mason, +the best there wuz in the deestrik, an' the harnsomest boy there +tew,--though I say it thet shouldn't say it,--he hed close-curlin' black +hair, an' an arm it done ye good ter lean on. Wal, one spring-night,--I +mind it well,--we wuz walkin' deown the lane together, an' the wind +wuz blowin', the laylocks wuz in bloom, an' all overhead the lane wuz +rustlin' 'ith the great purple plumes in the moonlight, an' the air wuz +sweeter 'ith their breath than any air I've ever taken sence, an' ez we +wuz walkin', 'Miah wuz askin' me fur ter fix eour weddin'-day. Wal, w'en +he left me at the bars, I agreed we'd be merried the fifteenth day uv +July comin', an' I walked hum; an' I mind heow I wondered ef Eve wuz +so happy in Paradise, or ef Paradise wuz half so beautiful ez thet +scented lane. The nex' mornin', ez I wuz milkin', the ceow tuk fright +an' begun ter cut up, an' she cut up so thet I run an' she arter me,--an' +the long an' the short uv it wuz thet she tossed me, an' w'en they got +me up they foun' I hedn't but one eye. Wal, uv course, my looks wuz +sp'iled,--fur I'd been ez pretty'z Emerline wuz,--you wuz pretty once, +Emerline,--an' I sent 'Miah Kemp word I'd hev no more ter du 'ith him +nor any one else neow. 'Miah, he come ter see me; but I wuz detarmined, +an' I stuck ter my word. He did an' said everything thet mortal man +could,--thet he loved me better'n ever, an' thet 't would be the death +uv him, an' tuk on drefful. But w'en he'd got through, I giv' him the +same answer, though betwixt ourselves it a'most broke my heart ter say +it. I kep' a stiff upper-lip, an' he grew desp'rate, an' tuk all sorts +uv dangerous jobs, blastin' rocks an' haulin' stuns. One night,--'t wuz +jest a year from the night I'd walked 'ith him in thet lane,--I wuz +stan'in' by the door, an' all ter once I heerd a noise an' crash ez ef +all the thunderbolts in the Almighty's hand hed fallen together, an' I +run deown the lane an' met the men bringin' up sunthin' on an old door. +They hed been blastin' Elder Payson's rock, half-way deown the new well, +an' the mine hedn't worked, an' 'Miah'd gone deown ter see w'at wuz in +it; an' jest ez he got up ag'in, off it went, an' here he wuz 'ith a +great splinter in his chist,--ef the rest uv it wuz him. They couldn't +kerry him no furder, an' sot him deown; an' there wuz all the trees +a-wavin' overhead ag'in, an' all the sweet scents a-beatin' abeout the +air, jest uz it wuz a year ago w'en he parted from me so strong an' +whole an' harnsome; all the fleowers wuz a-blossomin', all the winds wuz +blowin' an' this lump uv torn flesh an' broken bones wuz 'Miah. I laid +deown on the grass beside him, an' put my lips close to hisn, an' I +could feel the breath jest stirrin' between; an' the doctor came an' +said 't warn't no use; an' they threw a blanket over us, an' there I +laid tell the sun rose an' sparkled in the dew an' the green leaves an' +the purple bunches, an' the air came frolickin' fresh an' sweet abeout +us; an' though I'd knowed it long, layin' there in the dark, neow I see +fur sartain thet there warn't no breath on them stiff lips, an' the +forehead was cold uz the stuns beneath us, an' the eyes wuz fixed an' +glazed in thet las' look uv love an' tortur' an' reproach thet he giv' +me. They say I went distracted; an' I _du_ b'lieve I've be'n cracked +ever sence." + +Here Aunt Mimy, who had told her whole story without moving a muscle, +commenced rocking violently back and forth. + +"I don't often remember all this," says she, after a little, "but las' +spring it all flushed over me; an' w'en I heerd heow Emerline'd +be'n sick,--I hear a gre't many things ye do' no' nothin' abeout, +children,--I thought I'd tell her, fust time I see her." + +"What made you think of it last spring?" asked Stephen. + +"The laylocks wuz in bloom," said Miss Mirny,--"the laylocks wuz in +bloom." + +Just then mother came down with the apples, and some dip-candles, and +a basket of broken victuals; and Miss Mimy tied her cloak and said she +believed she must be going. And Stephen went and got his hat and coat, +and said,-- + +"Miss Mimy, wouldn't you like a little company to help you carry your +bundles? Come, Emmie, get your shawl." + +So I ran and put on my things, and Stephen and I went home with Aunt +Mimy. + +"Emmie," says Stephen, as we were coming back, and he'd got hold of my +hand in his, where I'd taken his arm, "what do you think of Aunt Mimy +now?" + +"Oh," says I, "I'm sorry I've ever been sharp with her." + +"I don't know," said Stephen. "'Ta'n't in human nature not to pity her; +but then she brought her own trouble on herself, you see." + +"Yes," said I. + +"I don't know how to blast rocks," says Stephen, when we'd walked a +little while without saying anything,--"but I suppose there is something +as desperate that I can do." + +"Oh, you needn't go to threatening me!" thinks I; and, true enough, he +hadn't any need to. + +"Emmie," says he, "if you say 'No,' when I ask you to have me, I sha'n't +ask you again." + +"Well?" says I, after a step or two, seeing he didn't speak. + +"Well?" says he. + +"I can't say 'Yes' or 'No' either, till you ask me," said I. + +He stopped under the starlight and looked in my eyes. + +"Emmie," says he, "did you ever doubt that I loved you?" + +"Once I thought you did," said I; "but it's different now." + +"I _do_ love you," said he, "and you know it." + +"Me, Stephen?" said I,--"with my face like a speckled sparrow's egg?" + +"Yes, you," said he; and he bent down and kissed me, and then we walked +on. + +By-and-by Stephen said, When would I come and be the life of his house +and the light of his eyes? That was rather a speech for Stephen; and +I said, I would go whenever he wanted me. And then we went home very +comfortably, and Stephen told mother it was all right, and mother and +Lurindy did what they'd got very much into the habit of doing,--cried; +and I said, I should think I was going to be buried, instead of married; +and Stephen took my knitting-work away, and said, as I had knit all our +trouble and all our joy into that thing, he meant to keep it just as it +was; and that was the end of my knitting sale-socks. + +I suppose, now I've told you so far, you'd maybe like to know the rest. +Well, Lurindy and John were married Thanksgiving morning; and just as +they moved aside, Stephen and I stepped up and took John and Aunt Mimy +rather by surprise by being married too. + +"Wal," says Aunt Mimy, "ef ever you hang eout another red flag, 't won't +be because Lurindy's nussin' Stephen!" + +I don't suppose there's a happier little woman in the State than me. I +should like to see her, if there is. I go over home pretty often; and +Aunt Mimy makes just as much of my baby--I've named him John--as mother +does; and that's enough to ruin any child that wasn't a cherub born. And +Miss Mimy always has a bottle of some new nostrum of her own stilling +every time she sees any of us; we've got enough to swim a ship, on the +top shelf of the pantry to-day, if it was all put together. As for +Stephen, there he comes now through the huckleberry-pasture, with the +baby on his arm; he seems to think there never was a baby before; and +sometimes--Stephen's such a homebody--I'm tempted to think that maybe +I've married my own shadow, after all. However, I wouldn't have it other +than it is. Lurindy, she lives at home the most of the time; and once in +a while, when Stephen and mother and I and she are all together, and as +gay as larks, and the baby is creeping round, swallowing pins and hooks +and eyes as if they were blueberries, and the fire is burning, and the +kettle singing, and the hearth swept clean, it seems as if heaven had +actually come down, or we'd all gone up without waiting for our robes; +it seems as if it was altogether too much happiness for one family. And +I've made Stephen take a paper on purpose to watch the ship-news; for +John sails captain of a fruiter to the Mediterranean, and, sure enough, +its little gilt figure-head that goes dipping in the foam is nothing +else than the Sister of Charity. + + + + +SCUPPAUG. + + +The crowd was decidedly a heterogeneous one on the edge of which I stood +at eight o'clock, A.M., one scorching July morning, under an awning at +the end of a rickety pier, waiting for the excursion-steamer which was +to convey us to the distant sand-banks over which the clear waters lap, +away down below the green-sloped highlands of Neversink,--sea-shoal +banks, from which silvery fishes were warning us off with their waving +fins. + +Now the crowd, being a heterogeneous one, as I have said, had the vulgar +element pervading it to a dominant extent. It consisted mainly of such +"common people," indeed, that no person of exquisite refinement would +have thought of feeling his way through it, unless his hands were +protected by what Aminadab Sleek calls "little goat-gloves." And +yet there is another style of mitten, a large, unshapely, bloated +knuckle-fender, stuffed with curled hair, that might be far more +appropriate to the operation of shouldering in among such "muscular +Christians" as the majority around, on the occasion to which I refer. + +In the resorts to which habitual tipplers have recourse for consolation +of the spirituous kind, a cheap variety is usually on hand to meet +exigencies,--the exigency of a commercial crisis, for instance, when the +last lonely dime of the drinker is painfully extracted from the pocket, +to be replaced by seven inconsiderable cents. This abomination is termed +"all sorts" by the publican and his indispensable sinner. It is the +accumulation of the drainage of innumerable gone drinks,--fancy and +otherwise. The exquisite in the "little goat-gloves" would not hob-nob +with me in that execrable beverage; no more would I with him; and yet +one of its components may be the aristocratic Champagne. In the social +elements of a water-excursion-party may be found the "all sorts" of a +particular kind of city-life,--the good of it and the bad of it, with +a dash of something that is very low. But I am going to talk about the +thing as I found it,--the rough side of the social mill-stone; and, +seeing that I have suffered nothing by contact with it, I suppose no +harm will come to such as listen to the little I have got to say on the +subject. + +A benevolent desire to launch far and wide the already well-spread +reputation of the New York rowdy impels the present writer to declare +his conviction, that, should Physiology offer a premium for the +production of a perfect and unmitigated specimen of _polisson_, +Experience would seek for it among the choice representatives of the +class in question,--ay, and find it, too. Nor would the ardor of search +be chilled by the suggestion of scarcity conveyed in the practical +sarcasm of the sly old cynic, when he scorched human nature with a horn +lantern by instituting a search with it on the sun-bright highways for +an unauthenticated type of man. And yet the rowdy, like many another +ugly and repulsive thing, may have his use. In the East Indies, it is +customary to keep a live turtle in the wayside water-tanks which are so +precious in that thirsty land, the movements of the animal, as well as +the industry with which it devours all noxious particles which chance +may have conveyed into the waters, serving to keep them in a condition +of purity and health. The rowdy is the turtle in the tank,--so far, +at least, as being an ugly beast to look at and a great promoter of +commotion,--by which latter service he keeps the community alive to +the presence of impure particles in the social element, if he does not +assist in getting rid of them. An alligator in an aquarium might furnish +a better comparison for him in other respects. + +Of this class there are many branches; but the one with which I have to +deal at present is to be studied to most advantage by visiting some pier +of the great river-frontage of New York, to which excursion-boats rush +emulously at appointed hours, crossing and jostling each other with +proper respect for their individual rights as free commoners of +the well-tilled waters. Here, as, with audacious disregard of the +chance-medley of smashed guards and obliterated paddle-boxes, the great +water-wagons graze wheels upon the ripple-paved turnpike of the river, +the steamboat-runner, squalidly red from the effects of last night's +carouse, and reeking sensibly of the alcoholic "morning call," may be +recognized by the native manner in which he makes the pier peculiarly +his own,--by the inflammatory character--which unremitting dissipation +has imparted to the inhaling apparatus of his unclassical features,--by +the filthy splendor of his linen, which a low-buttoning waistcoat, +gorgeous and dirty likewise, unbosoms disadvantageously to the gaze of +the beholder,--by the invariable "diamond" pin, of gift-book style, with +which the juncture of the first-mentioned integument is effected, if +not adorned,--and, above all, by the massive guards and guy-chains with +which his watch is hitched on to the belaying arrangements of Chatham +Street garments, the original texture and tint of which have long been +superseded by predominant grease. Hand and elbow with the professional +city-rowdy the steamboat-runner is ever to be found: at the cribs, where +the second-rate men of the "fancy" hold their secret meetings; clinging +about the doors of the Court of Sessions, where, as eavesdroppers,--for +they are known to the door-keeper, and rejected from the friendship of +that stern officer,--they strive, with ear at keyhole, to catch a word +or two which may give them a clue to the probable fate of "Jim," who +is in the dock there, on his trial for homicide or some such light +peccadillo; loitering round the dog-pit institutions, where +the quadrupeds look so amazingly like men and the men like +quadrupeds,--especially in that one where the eye of taste may be +gratified by the supernatural symmetry of the stuffed bull-terriers in +glass cases, the enormity of which specimens is accounted for by the +gentlemanly proprietor, who tells us that "the man as stuffed 'em never +stuffed anythink else afore, only howls." + +I suppose it must have been the tacit acknowledgment of some superiority +by me inappreciable, that accorded to one individual of the small +assemblage of roughs under notice a decidedly influential position among +the congenial spirits hovering around. The superior blanchness of this +person's linen would seem to indicate that his association with mere +runners was but occasional and for commercial ends. Also might that +conclusion have been deduced from the immaculacy of his cream-white +Panama hat. That was a jaunty article, with upturned brim, the pride +of which was discernible in the very simplicity with which it sat, +unadulterated by band or trimmings, upon the closely cropped, +mole-colored head of the wearer. Thirty dollars, at least, must have +been its marketable value. Instead of being fitted with chain-tackle, +the watch of this superior person maintained its connection with the +open air by means of a broad watered ribbon plummeted straight down his +leg with a seal hardly inferior in size to a deep-sea lead. This daring +recurrence to first principles is much to be observed, of late, among +the choice spirits of the so-called "sporting" fraternity of New York. + +This man, as I supposed, and as I subsequently heard from my friend +Locus, of the police, who came upon the pier, was not a runner now, but +had risen from that respectable rank by large exercise of the virtues so +intimately associated with it. In attributing an exalted position to him +I was right. He was the keeper of a house of entertainment for emigrants +in one of the down-town tributaries to Broadway, where tickets could +also be had for California and most other parts of the world, at an +advance of not more than one-third on the rates charged at the regular +steamboat-offices. Considering the respectability of this person's +occupation, I was surprised when Locus referred to him, familiarly, as +"Flashy Joe," adding that he was widely known, if not respected, and +that he would, probably, be entitled some day to have his portrait +placed in a gallery of which he, Locus, knew, but into which my +aesthetic researches have not hitherto led me. + +There was another noticeable character in the rough part of the +heterogeneous crowd. This man, while on a footing of the greatest +intimacy with the runners, was far inferior to them in the matter +of dress. Locus, in reply to my queries, informed me that he was a +professional oyster-opener; but, judging from his appearance in general, +I should have guessed that he was a professional oyster-catcher also,--a +human dredge, employed chiefly at the bottom of the sea. A perfect +Hercules in build, "Lobster Bob," as Locus called him, made his +appearance on the wharf with two enormous creels of oysters, one +balanced on each hip, with the careless ease of unconscious strength, +His costume consisted solely of a ragged blue cotton shirt and trousers, +immense knobby cowskin boots white with age, and a mouldy drab felt hat. +The button-less blue shirt flapped widely open from his brawny chest; +and his shirt-sleeves, rolled up to the shoulder, gave full display to a +pair of arms of a mould not usually to be found outside the prize-ring, +and but seldom within the sanctuary of that magic circle. As if in +compensation for the merely nominal allowance of costume tolerated by +this crustacean professor, his chest and arms were entirely covered with +a wild arabesque of tattoo-work, in blue and red. Many and original +artists must have been employed in the embellishment of Robert's tawny +hide. The one to whose sense of the fitness of things was intrusted +the illustration of his right arm had seized boldly upon the oval +protuberance of the biceps, a few skilfully disposed dots and dashes +upon which had converted it into a face which was no bad reproduction of +Bob's own. On the broad flexors of his sun-bronzed fore-arm there blazed +a grand device which might have puzzled a whole college of heralds to +interpret,--a combination of eagles and banners and shields, coruscating +with stars and radiant with stripes. But more suggestive than any of +these shams was the stern reality of a purple scar which ran round the +back of his neck, from ear to ear. More than one man must have been +hurt, when that scar was made. + +Notwithstanding the bull-dog projection of this formidable giant's lower +jaw, there sometimes beamed on his face that good-natured expression +often observable in men whose unusual muscular development places them +on a footing of physical superiority to those with whom they shoulder +along the road of life. When the runners "chaffed" him, nevertheless, +it was in a mild way, and with manifest respect for his muscle,--a +sentiment in no way diminished when he suddenly clutched one of the +least cautious among them by the nape of the neck, and held him out at +arm's-length, for some seconds, over the drowny water that kept lazily +licking at the green moss on the old stakes of the rickety pier. + +Even unto the Prince of Darkness, saith proverbial philosophy, let us +concede his due. If, then, a single ray of good illuminates at some +happy moment the dark spirit of these roughs, let it be recorded with +that bare, unfledged truth which is so much better a bird than uncandor +with the finest of feathers upon him. + +Feeling his way into the circle with a stick, there came a poor blind +man, of diminutive stature, squeezing beneath his left arm a suffocating +accordion, which, every now and then, as he stumbled against the uneven +planks of the wharf, gave a querulous squeak, doleful in its cadence as +the feeble quavers evoked by Mr. William Davidge, comedian, from +the asthmatic clarionet of Jem Bags, in the farce of the "Wandering +Minstrel." + +"Come, b'hoys!" cried Lobster Bob, "let's have a squeeze of music from +Billy, afore the boat comes up"; and, plumping down one of his creels in +the middle of the crowd, he lifted up the musician, and seated him upon +the rough, cold oysters,--a throne fitter, certainly, for a follower of +Neptune than a votary of Apollo. One of the roughs danced an ungraceful +measure to the music of the accordion, mimicking, as he did so, the +queer contortions into which the musician twisted his features in +perfect harmony with his woful strains. All of them were gentle to the +blind man, though, as if his darkness had brought to them a ray of +light; and presently one of them takes off the musician's cap, drops +into it a silver dime, and goes the rounds of the throng with many +jocose appeals in favor of the owner, to whom he presently returns it +in a condition of silver lining analogous to, but more substantial than +that of the poet's cloud. + +But now the poor music of the accordion was quite extinguished by the +bellowing of the brazen horns of the "cotillon band" on the deck of our +expected steamer, as she rounded to from the upper piers at which she +had been taking in excursionists. This caused a stir in the crowd under +the awning, many of whom were fathers of families taking their wives and +children out for a rare holiday. The smallest babies had not been left +at home, but were there in all their primary scarletude, set off by the +whitest of lace-frilled caps trimmed with the bluest of ribbons. And now +came the time for these small choristers to take up the "wondrous tale"; +for the big horns had ceased to wrangle, and the crushing and rushing of +the crowd woke up infancy to a sense of its wrongs and a consciousness +of the necessity for action. + +There were some nice-looking girls around, neatly dressed, too, though +by no means in their Sunday-best; for _la petite New-Yorkaise_ is aware +of the mishaps to be encountered by those who venture far out to sea in +ships. They had sweethearts with them, for the most part, or brothers, +or cousins, mayhap: but they were sadly neglected by these protectors, +as we stood under the awning on the pier; for the male mind was full of +fishing, and the male hands were employed in making up tackle with a +most unscientific kind of skill. + +And now the final rush came, as the steamer made fast alongside the +outermost of the boats already lying at the pier, across the decks of +which our heterogeneous crowd began to make its way with as little +scrambling as possible, on account of the petticoat-hoops, which +are capital monitors in a turmoil. Women swayed their babies like +balancing-poles, as they tottered along the gangway-plank. Men tried to +secure themselves from being brushed into eternity by the powerful sweep +of skirts. My own personal reminiscence of this transit from the wharf +to the gallant bark of our choice is melancholy and vague, being marked +chiefly to memory by the complicated curse bestowed upon me by a hideous +old Irish-woman, whose oranges I accidentally upset in the crowd, and by +whom I was subsequently derided with buffo song and scurrilous dance as +long as the steamer remained within hearing and sight. + +Away we are steaming down the bay, at last, a motley party of men, +women, and children of all sizes and sorts: husbands, wives, milliners +and their lovers; young men who have brought no young women with them, +because they have come for fishing and fishing only; and advanced +fathers, who, making a virtue of having brought out wife and child for +a holiday, now leave them a good deal to take care of themselves, and +devote all their energies to being pleasant as remotely from them as +circumstances will allow. Roughs, to the number of a dozen or so, mostly +steamboat-runners and their congeners, are of the party, headed by +Flashy Joe. Lobster Bob has set up his oyster-plank in a central +situation. Venders of unfresh-looking refreshments have established +themselves on board; and the bar-keeper, near the forecastle, is +preparing himself for the worst. + +By-and-by I noticed a good-looking specimen of Young New York on board, +and was introduced to him by a cigar. He was a handsome boy, with dark, +oval face, and Arabian eyes. The silky black line that just marked the +curve of his upper lip gave promise of a splendid moustache; his closely +crisped black hair was but just visible below the rim of his jaunty +straw hat, the band of which was a tasselled cord of crimson silk; while +his lithe figure was suggested rather than displayed by the waving lines +of his loose brown jacket with tapering _gigot_ sleeves. His low-cut +shirt-collar and narrow silken neck-tie were in the style called +"English," as quite decidedly, also, were his cross-barred trousers of +balloony build; nor, although thus flinging himself for diversion into +the vortex of the lower crowd, had he foregone the luxury of tan-colored +kid gloves and patent-leather shoes. He was a bright boy, and precocious +as a lady-killer; for, already, before we had left far behind us the +pleasant slopes of Bay Ridge, with its peeping villa-parapets of +brown and white, and its umbrageous masses of chromatic green, he +had evidently engaged the affections of an _espiegle_ little +straw-bonnet-maker, who did her hair something like his own, in a +close-curled crop, and had her pretty little person safely shut up in a +high-necked dress. + +That young lady had a suitor with her, who was clearly not a sweetheart, +however, by a good deal, but merely a follower tolerated for the day, +and on the score of convenience only. He was a tall, gaunt, pale young +man, with long hands and feet, slouching shoulders and narrow chest, +and a strange, indescribable nullity of expression dwelling upon his +features. He did not appear to be encouraged much by little Straw-Goods, +whose mind was probably occupied with prospective possibilities of being +led out to the festive dance by Young New York. Altogether, he was an +unsatisfactory-looking young man, his unfinished look reminding one of +raw material, though it would have been hard to say for what. + +But the band had now ceased mellowing out the favorite medley which +begins with "Casta Diva" and runs over into the lovely cadences of +"Gentle Annie"; and the abrupt transition from that mournful strain to a +light cotillon air warned four hundred holiday-people that the festive +dance was about to begin on the wide floor between the engine-room and +the saloon. Cotillons are a leading pastime among the people; and as the +water was pretty smooth down the bay, and a splendid breeze rushed aft +between-decks, many laughing girls and well-dressed matronly women now +made their appearance on the floor. Dancing without noise is a luxury as +yet uncalled for. Dancers must have music, we know,--and what is +music, but wild noise caught and trained? But these cotillons were +unnecessarily boisterous, on account of the roughs, who, looked upon as +outsiders by the better-behaved portion of the throng, got up a wild +war-step of their own on the skirts of the legitimate dance, dishonestly +appropriating to their coarse movements the music intended for it +alone, as they stamped and shouted, and wheeled round with a ludicrous +affectation of grace, in the space between the dancers and the bulkheads +of the deck. One of these roughs, a drunken, young fellow of wiry build, +whose hair, face, eyes, nose, ears, and hands were all of the color of +tomato-catchup, might have made an excellent low comedian, had destiny +led him upon the "boards." He had just been complaining to his +companions that his hand had been refused for the dance by a girl at +whom he pointed the red finger of wrath,--a pale, but very interesting +seamstress, who was whirling about with a much decenter young man than +the red one is ever likely to be. And then he nobly took his revenge +by the clever, but unprincipled way in which he caricatured the rather +remarkable dancing of the young man who was the object of his hate, and +whose style of movement it would not be consistent with this writer's +duty to deny was amenable to severity, and must, in any society, have +subjected him who indulged in it to the scorn of the flouter and the +contempt of all high-minded men. + +All through the dance, it was a thing to be remembered, how superior in +deportment the women were to the men. Probably it was from a natural +instinct for grace, and abhorrence of the ludicrous, that they merely +skimmed through the figures, without any of the demonstrations displayed +by their beaux. It was pleasant to look at the nice little straw-goods +damsel with the boyish hair, and to mark the contrast between her kitten +glidings and the premeditated atrocities of Raw Material, as he wove and +unwove his ungainly legs before her, in a manner appalling to witness. +She had only a common palm-leaf fan, I remarked,--worth, probably, about +two cents. But Young New York, as he waited patiently for the deadly +ocean-malady to fall upon Raw Material, who was unquestionably a subject +for it, and was drinking, besides, drew tightly up his tan-colored +gloves, and, twirling with finger and thumb the air just about where +it must some day be displaced by the future tendrils of the coming +moustache, affirmed upon oath his intention of presenting her with a fan +more worthy of her well-kept little hand, ere kind Fortune could have +time to drop another excursion-ticket into her work-basket. + +Should the solemn question arise as to how I knew that one of these +young women was in the straw-bonnet line, another a milliner, a third +a dress-maker, and so forth, I will answer it by stating that the left +forefinger of the seamstress, long since vulcanized into a little +file, furnishes the infallible sign which indicates the class. To the +practised eye, the varieties are known by many a token: by the smart +little close-grained cereal bonnet which little Straw-Goods put away +before she came into the dance; by the spicy creation of silk and +ribbons which roosts demurely, like a cedar-bird, on the back hair of +the pale girl, who is a milliner; by the superior manner in which the +hoops are disguised in the structure surrounding that blonde young wife +with the pink baby, who is a dressmaker. Let the lofty read studiously +the signs that in the heavens are portentous of storm or of shine; I, +who am of commoner clay, must content myself with deciphering those that +are of earth. + +But a "sea-change" was upon us. Last night there was a tornado of +rain and thunder and wind, and the effects of the latter were now +perceptible, as we began to rock through the ground-swell off Sandy +Hook, and down past the twin light-houses on the high, sunny ridges +of Neversink. The music ceased, the dancers deserted the 'tween-decks +floor, and, as the rocking of the boat increased, there arose in the +direction of the ladies' cabin audible suggestions of woe. + +And now the twin beacon-towers of Neversink were far, far behind, having +taken a position with regard to us which may be described, in military +phrase, as an _echelon_ movement upon our flank, and we went surging +through a fleet of little green fishing-boats, manned each by a single +fisherman in a red shirt, whose two horny hands appeared to be a couple +too few for the hauling in of the violet and silver _porgies_, with +which the well of his little green craft was alive and flapping. In the +middle of this fleet we rounded to, the anchor was let go, and we were +hard and fast upon the Fishing-Banks. + +The first thing done, on these excursions, by those who come to +fish,--which includes nearly all the men,--is to establish a claim +somewhere along the railing of the steamer, by attaching to it a strong +whip-cord fishing-line, with a leaden sinker and hook of moderate +size,--the latter lashed on, in most instances, with a disregard for art +which must be intensely disgusting to any man whose piscatorial memories +are associated with the wily salmon and the epicurean trout. Triangular +tin boxes are brought along by the fishermen to hold their bait, which +consists of soft clams, liberally sprinkled with salt to keep them in a +wholesome condition for the afternoon take. Attaching a line to any +part of the rail or combings, or to any projecting point of the boat, +establishes the _droit de peche_ at that particular spot,--a right +respected with such rigorous etiquette, that the owner may then go his +way with confidence, to inspect the resources of the bar, or join the +gay throng of dancers between-decks. + +There must be something singularly fascinating in this curious pastime +of fishing with a hand-line from the jumping-off places of a steamboat +or pier. Doubtless it is from a defective sympathetic organization +that the writer of these pages does not himself "seem to see it." +Nevertheless, I look upon the illusion with a respect almost bordering +upon fear, although not quite in that spirit of veneration which moves +illogical savages to fall down and worship the stranger lunatic whom +chance has led to their odorous residences. Dwelling one summer on the +New Jersey shore, I used to loiter, day after day, upon a deserted +wharf, at the end of which was ever to be seen a broad-beamed fisherman, +sitting upon an uncomfortably wooden chair, from which he dabbled +perpetually with his whip-cord line in the shallow water that washed the +slimy face-timbers of the wharf. There he sat, day after day, and +all day, and, for aught I know, all through the summer-night, a +big-timbered, sea-worthy man, reading contentedly a daily paper of local +growth, and pulling up never a better bit of sea-luck than the puny, +mean-spirited fishling called by unscientific persons the _burgall_. +I would at any time have freely given ten cents for the privilege of +overhauling old broad-beam's carpet-bag, which he always placed before +him on the string-piece, with a view, I suppose, of frustrating anything +like a guerrilla plunder-movement upon his widely extended rear. Ay, +there must be something strangely entrancing in dragging the shoal +waters with a hand-line, for unsuspicious, easily duped members of the +acanthopterygian tribe of fishes,--under which alarming denomination +come, I believe, nearly all the finny fellows to be met with on these +sand-banks, from the bluefish to the burgall. Only think how stuck up +they would be above the lowly mollusks of the same waters, if they +knew themselves as Acanthopterygii, and were aware that their +great-grandfather was an Acanthopteryx before them, and so away back in +the age of waters that once were over all! "Very ancient and fish-like" +is their genealogy, to be sure! + +In the far-away days, when Neversink _was_, but the twin beacon-towers +that now watch upon its heights were _not_,--when Sandy Hook was a hook +only, and not a telegraph-station, from which the first glimpse of an +inward-bound argosy is winked by lightning right in at the window of the +down-town office where Mercator sits jingling the coins in his trousers' +pockets,--in those days, the only excursion-boats that rocked upon the +ground-swell over the pale, sandy reaches of the Fishing-Banks were the +tiny barklets that shot out on calm days from the sweeping coves, with +their tawny tarred-and-feathered crews: for of such grotesque result of +the decorative art of Lynch doth ever remind me the noble Indian warrior +in his plumes and paint. Unfitted, by the circumscribed character of +their sea-craft, their tackle, and their skill, for pushing their +enterprise out into the deeper water, where the shark might haply say to +the horse-mackerel,--"Come, old horse, let you and me hook ourselves on, +and take these foolish tawny fellows and their brown cockle-shell down +into the under-tow,"--they supplied their primitive wants by enticing +from the shallows the beautiful, sunny-scaled shoal-fish, well named by +ichthyologists _Argyrops_, the "silver-eyed." But the poor Indian, +who knew no Greek,--poor old savage, lament for him with a scholarly +_eheu!_--called this shiner of the sea, in his own barbarous lingo, +_Scuppaug_. Can any master of Indian dialects tell us whether that word, +too, means "him of the silver eye"? If it does, revoke, O student, your +shrill _eheu_ for the Greekless and untrousered savage of the canoe, +suppress your feelings, and go steadily into rhabdomancy with several +divining-rods, in search of the Pierian spring which must surely exist +somewhere among the guttural districts of the Ojibbeway tongue. + +And here there is diversion for philologist as well as fisherman; for +while the latter is catching the fish, the former may seize on the fact, +that in this word, _Scuppaug_, is to be found the origin of the two +separate names by which Argyrops, the silver-eyed, is miscalled in local +vernacular. True to the national proclivity for clipping names, the +fishermen of Rhode Island appeal to him by the first syllable only of +his Indian one,--for in the waters thereabout he is talked of by the +familiar abbreviation, _Scup._ But to the excursionists and fishermen of +New York he is known only as _Porgy,_ or _Paugie_, a form as obviously +derived from the last syllable of his Indian name as the emphatic +"siree" of our greatest orators is from the modest monosyllable "sir." +_Porgy_ seems to be the accepted form of the word; but letters of the +old, unphonetic kind are poor guides to pronunciation. And a beautiful, +clean-scaled fish is Porgy,--whose _g_, by-the-by, as I learned from a +funny man in the heterogeneous crowd, is pronounced "hard, as in 'git +eowt.'" A lovely fish is he, as he comes dripping up the side of the +vessel from his briny pastures. Silver is the pervading gleam of his +oval form; but while he is yet wet and fresh, the silver is flushed with +a chromatic radiance of gold, and violet, and pale metallic green, all +blending and harmonizing like the mother-o'-pearl lustre in some rare +sea-shell. The true value of this fish is not of a commercial kind, +for he cannot be deemed particularly exquisite in a gastronomic sense; +neither is he staple as a provision of food. His virtue lies in the +inducement offered to him by the citizen of moderate means, who, for +a trifling outlay, can secure for himself and family the invigorating +influence of the salt sea-breezes, by having a run down outside the Hook +any fine day in summer, with an object. The average weight of the porgy +of these banks may be set down at about a pound. + +Five minutes after we came to anchor, there must have been at least two +hundred and fifty whip-cord lines stretching out into the three-fathom +water from every available rail and fender of the old boat. Most of the +men had brought their tackle with them, and their tin canisters of bait. +To those who had not, the articles were ready at hand; for speculators +had mingled in the crowd, one of whom affixed his "shingle" to a post +between-decks, setting forth,--"Fishing-Lines and Hooks, with Sinkers +and Bait,"--the latter consisting of clams in the shell, contained in +a barrel big enough for the supply of the whole flotilla of green boats +and red shirts, which still hung around us like swallows in the wake of +an osprey. Two or three of our excursionists--men, perhaps, whose +minds indulged in dear memories of a brook that babbles by a mill--had +fishing-rods with them, and made great ado with scientific lunges and +casts, producing much discord, indeed, by flicking away wildly outside +their proper sea-limits. Most industrious among the hand-fishers I +remarked a small, spare man, who, under the careful supervision of a +buxom young wife in a "loud" tartan silk, baited no hook nor broke water +with his lead until he had first folded and put carefully away between +the handle and lid of the family prog-basket his tight little black +frock-coat, and passed his small legs through the tough creases of a +pair of stout blue "Denim" overalls. These, pulled up to his neck, and +hitched on there with shoulder-straps, served for waistcoat and trousers +and all, imparting to him the cool atmospheric effect so much admired in +that curious picture of Gainsborough's, known to connoisseurs as "The +Blue Boy." Then he fished the waters with a will; and it was but a +scurvy remark of Flashy Joe, who said that "it was about an even chance +whether he took porgy or porgy took _him_." But it seems to me that this +unskilled labor of fishing from a steamboat must be epidemic, if not +contagious; for even Young New York, who in the early forenoon doubted +visibly his discretion at having got himself into such an ugly scrape as +an "excursion-spree," put off his delicate gloves, and set to hauling, +hand over hand, as if for a bet. + +But I believe I have committed a breach of etiquette in giving +precedence to Scuppaug over the skipper, a very large and thoroughly +pickled old man, who now bustled deliberately about the decks, with as +few clothes on his broad back and stern-post legs as were consistent +with decorum and with the requirements of those by-laws of society which +extend even to Sandy Hook and the rest of the Jerseys, as well as to the +fishing-banks that shoal out from the same. Strictly speaking, this old +man of our part of the sea was not the captain of the boat, but the +pilot, who takes command of her when she abandons her proper line on +the rivers, and ventures to that "far Cathay" of city-navigators +indefinitely spoken of as "outside the Hook." The smooth-water captain +of the steamer, who was nobody to talk of now, was a slim, pale young +man, in a black dresscoat, tall, silky hat, and shoes of a material +which has long years ago been patented, on account of its matchless +ability to shine. This commander remained permanently within the +"office," where he was probably very poorly by himself during all this +"high old time." The stout old pilot was the real skipper; and now that +the vessel had come to anchor, he turned from his lighter duties to the +grave pastime of the day, and fished earnestly through a large hole in +the paddlebox,--the porgies that came to his allurements arriving at +their destination by a series of flapping manoeuvres from blade to blade +of the wheel. For so burly a man, and one with such a chest for the +stowage of sea-breezes and monsoons, the skipper was provided with a +wonderfully small voice, suggesting, as he lectured upon sea-fishing to +the novices who were getting into "snarls" with their tackle hard by +where he sat, the circumstance of a tree-toad discoursing from the +hollow of a brave old oak. + +"If you want to ketch good fish," said he, sententiously, to Young New +York, whose hook persisted in baiting itself with his thumb,--"if you +want to ketch reel snorters, you must have a heavy line, heavy lead, and +gimp tackle. Then take your own time, haul in, hand over hand, and no +matter what the heft, you'll be sure to fetch him." + +Young New York produced from his breast-pocket the blue enamelled case +in which reposed his ivory tablets, and, seating himself upon the +chain-box, wrote down with golden pencil the dictum of the sage. + +Notwithstanding the storm of yesterday, from which the discontented +foreboded a stampede of the fish to deeper waters, porgies to an +extraordinary amount were soon heaped on the decks, at the feet of each +fisherman, the more careful of whom put them into baskets or barrels. +But in general they were thrown carelessly on the deck, with a string +passed through their gills to keep them from straying out of their +proper lots. When these bright fishes are lying the deck, it is curious +to watch them flushing and gasping there, with that singular, dubious +expression of mouth peculiar to fishes out of water, as if more struck +by the absence of that element than by their novel position among the +accessories of dry life. Now and then a blackfish was hauled in,--an +event greeted with a loud cheer from all parts of the boat. When a very +large one was announced, people came rushing from all quarters to see +it; but the greatest tribute to largeness in a fish that I remember +anywhere to have seen was the altered expression on the face of a baby +some six months old, whose features settled permanently down into the +collapse of imbecility, from the moment of the arrival on the upper deck +of a blackfish two feet long. + +By this time the scene on the forecastle was quite a picture of the +Dutch school. Grouped everywhere among the fish and fishers were +matronly women and unbonneted damsels, most of them with handkerchiefs +tied upon their heads; for they had got over their sea-sickness, now, +and were coming by twos and threes from the saloon, to breathe a little +fresh air and look on at the sport. One pretty, Jewish-looking girl, +wrapped in a red and white shawl, was sitting on the big anchor near +the bows, and three or four others looked quite picturesque, as they +reclined on the heavy coils of the great cable. More central to the +picture than was at all advantageous to it sat our friend Raw Material, +with his head jammed recklessly into the capstan, abandoning himself +to his misery. For the inevitable malady had fallen upon him among the +first; and as he sat there, helpless and without hope, upon one of +those life-preserving stools that remind one, by their shape, of the +"properties" of Saturn in the mythology of old, he looked like Languor +on an hour-glass, timing the duration of Woe. All along the bulwarks +on both sides of the boat, men and boys were crowding upon each other, +casting out and hauling in their lines with unflagging spirit. Slim +city-children, blistered wholesomely as to their legs, from knee to +ankle, by the sun and the salt air, harnessed themselves to little heaps +of fish, and were driven about the upper deck in various fashionable +styles, including four-in-hand and tandem, by other slim city-children, +whose lower extremities had been treated in the same beneficial manner +by the same eminent physicians. The musicians had laid away their +cornopeans and other cunningly twisted horns upon the broad disk of the +big drum, in a dark alcove between-decks, and were fishing savagely in +German and broken English, according to the nationality with which their +affairs happened to get entangled. Even the colored _chef de cuisine_, +a muscular mulatto, with a beard of a rash disposition, coming out on +wrong parts of his face in little eruptive pustules of black wool, +sported his lines out of the galley-airholes, and his porgies were +simmering in the pan while their memories were yet green in the +submarine parishes from which they came. Have these finny creatures +their full revenge upon fishermankind, when a smack sinks foundered into +the swallowing deep? Do the midnight revellers in the sea-caverns +call out in broad Scuppaug to the attendant mermaid for a "half-dozen +large-sized jolterheads on the half monkey-jacket?" To these queries I +hope that Poetical Justice, if still living, will forward a reply at +her earliest convenience. Porgy now began to pervade the air with an +astringent perfume of the sea: none of your Fulton Market smells of +stagnating fish, but a clean, wholesome, coralline odor, such as we +may imagine supplied to the Peris "beneath the dark sea" by the scaly +fellows in the toilet line down there, who are likely to keep it for +sale in conch-shells,--quarts and pints. Porgy prevailed to that extent, +in fact, that it came to be talked of, by-and-by, as a circulating +medium; and a hard-fisted mechanic averred his intention of compensating +his landlady for his board with porgy, for the week that was passing +away. + +For some time, luck appeared to favor the starboard side of the boat, +at which the take was much greater than at the other. Hence, discontent +began to crawl in at the port-gangways, and the fishermen on that +side were gradually edging over to the other, to look for a chance of +stealing in their lines clandestinely between the ranks. This led to +an interchange of bad compliments, as well as to a very perceptible +slanting of the deck, and the captain piped out to the hands to shift +the chain-box. And by this action was resolved for me a riddle with +regard to the properties and uses of a prematurely stout man of fabulous +girth, who had been dimly revealed to me, once or twice in the course +of the voyage, through some long vista of the 'tween-decks, but seemed +always to melt into air,--or, more probably, oil,--upon any advance +being made to a closer inspection. Now, as a couple of the deck-hands +hauled and howled unsuccessfully at the unwieldy chain-box, this +mysterious person suddenly appeared, as if spirited up, and, throwing +himself stomach on to the loaded vehicle, shot across with it to the +other side of the deck with wonderful velocity, retiring, then, with a +gliding movement, so as to preserve the rectitude of the deck, which +now seemed inclined to slope rather too much the other way. I will not +undertake to say, for certain, that the stout man was paid for doing +this; but, as his hands were small and remarkably white, indications +that he toiled not with _them_, and as he made his appearance on deck +only when movable ballast was wanted, I am bound to suppose that he +secured a living by sitting heavily and throwing himself on for weight, +in circumstances under which such actions command a standard value. + +Three hours having gone by since we came to anchor, the healthful toil +of fishing in the salt sea produced its natural result,--a ravenous +appetite for food and drink; and a common consent to partake of +refreshments now began to develop itself. The wives had much to do with +this, as they detailed themselves along the railings, influencing +their husbands with hints about the hamper and flask. For most of the +family-people had brought their provisions with them; and, in many +cases, the basket was flanked by a stone jar which looked as if it might +contain lager-beer,--as, in several instances, it did. Where there were +many small children in a party, however, I noticed that the beverage +obtained from the jar was milk,--real Orange County cow-produce, let us +hope, and none of that sickly town-abomination, the vending of which +ought to be made by our legislators a felony, at least. Ham-sandwiches, +greatly enhanced in flavor by the circumstance of their outer surfaces +being impressed with a reverse of yesterday's news, from the contact of +the pieces of newspaper in which they were wrapped up, formed the staple +of the feast. Large bowls of the various, seasonable berries were also +in request; and all the shady places of the ship were soon occupied by +families, who distributed themselves in independent groups, as people +do in the sylvan localities dedicated to picnics. All were hungry and +happy, all better in mind and body,--illustrating the wise providence of +the instinct that whispers to the over-wrought artisan and bids him go +sometimes forth on a summer's day to the woods and waters,--a move which +the marine character of the subject impels me to speak of nautically, +but reverently, as taking himself and family into the graving-dock of +Nature, for the necessary repairs. + +Some of the girls now stole slyly about among the lines, and popped the +baits timidly into the blue water. The pale seamstress, who has quite +a rose-flush on her cheek now, has hooked a good-sized porgy, and her +screams in this terrible predicament have brought several smart young +men to her rescue. Another girl, pretty and well-dressed,--in the +glove-making line, as I guess from the family she is with, all of +whom, from paterfamilias to baby, are begloved in a manner entirely +irrespective of expense,--is kneeling pensively on the stern-benches +of the upper deck, paying out the line with confidence in herself, but +evidently hoping for masculine assistance in the process of hauling it +in. + +And where were our dear friends, the roughs, all this time? and how came +it that they were so quiet? They have been asleep,--snoring off the +effects of last night's diversions, and fortifying their constitutions +against the influences to come. Ever since the music ceased playing, +these fellows have been rolled away, singly or in heaps, in crooked +corners, into which they seem to fit naturally. But now they began to +rally, waking up and stretching themselves and yawning,--the last two +actions appearing to be the leading operations of a rowdy's toilet; and, +gathering round Lobster Bob, who has been steadily employed in opening +oysters for all who have a midsummer faith in those mollusks, they +commenced rapidly swallowing great quantities of the various kinds, +which they seasoned to an alarming extent with coarse black pepper +and brownish salt. The fierce thirst, which, with these men, is not a +consequence, because it is a thing that was and is and ever will be, was +brought vividly to their minds by this unnecessary adstimulation; and +now the bar-keeper, whose lager-beer was wellnigh exhausted, from its +connection with ham-sandwiches, had enough to do to furnish them with +whiskey, of which stimulant there was but too large a supply on hand. +The consequence of this was soon apparent in the ugly hilarity with +which the rowdies entered upon the enjoyment of the afternoon. First, in +spite of the remonstrances of the Teuton whose proper chattel it was, +they seized upon the large drum, with which they made an astounding din +in the public promenades of the vessel, abetted, I am sorry to say, by +some who ought to have known better,--and did, probably, before the +whiskey had curdled their wits. In this proceeding, as in all their +movements, they were marshalled by Flashy Joe, whose comparatively +spruce appearance, when he came on board in the morning, had been a good +deal deteriorated by broken slumbers in places not remote from coals, +and by the subsequent course of drinks. Quiet people were beginning to +express some dissatisfaction with the noise made by these fellows, who, +however, kept pretty much by themselves, as yet, and had got only to the +musical stage of the proceedings, chorusing with unearthly yells a song +contributed to the harmony of the afternoon by the first ruffian, the +burden of which ran,-- + + "When this old hat was ny-oo, my boys, + When this old hat was ny-oo-ooo!" + +No voice in this chorus dwelt more decidedly by itself than the shrill +one belonging to the small, spare man already spoken of as having a +buxom young wife and blue cotton overalls. During his wife's adjournment +to the ladies' cabin, this person, I am obliged to record, had become +boisterously drunk,--a condition in which the contradictory elements +that make up the characters of most men are generally developed to an +instructive extent. In his first paroxysm, the fighting man within him +was all aroused, as is generally the case with diminutive men, when +under the influence of drink. Already he had tucked his sleeves up to +fight a large German musician, who could have put him into the bell of +his brass-horn and played him out, without much trouble. But the song +pacified him; and, with a misty sense of his importance in a convivial +point of view, on account of the manner in which he had acquitted +himself in the chorus, he now essayed a higher flight, and treated the +party to a new version of "The Pope," oddly condensed into one verse, as +follows:-- + + "The Pope, he leads a happy life, + He fears no married care nor strife, + His wives are many as be will: + I would the Sultan's place, then, fill!" + +At this moment the buxom young wife descended suddenly from the upper +deck by the forecastle-ladder, like Nemesis from a thunder-cloud, and, +seizing upon the small warbler, to whom she administered a preliminary +shake which must have sadly changed the current of his ideas, drove him +ignominiously before her toward the stern of the vessel, rapping him +occasionally about the ears with the hard end of her fan, to keep him on +a straight course. Persons who traced the matter farther said that he +was driven all the way to the upper deck, pushed with gentle violence +into a state-room, the door locked upon him, and the key pocketed by the +lady, who said triumphantly, as she walked away,--"That's the Sultan's +place for _him_, I guess!" The moral to this little episode is but +a horn-book one, and without any pretension to didactic force: That +respectable citizens, like the small, spare man, would do well, on +excursion-trips or elsewhere, to avoid whiskey and black-guards; and +that wives might be saved a deal of trouble by keeping their eyes +permanently on their husbands, when the latter are of uncertain ways. + +This little domestic drama had hardly been played out, when a more +serious one--almost a tragedy--was enacted on the forecastle. It +originated in the misconduct of the red man, who, seized with a desire +to catch porgies, went a short way to work for tackle, by snatching away +the line of a peaceable, but stout Frenchman, who was paralyzed for a +moment by the novelty of the thing, but, immediately recovering himself, +expressed his dissent by smashing an earthen-ware dish, containing a +great mess of raw clams for bait, upon the head of the red man, as he +stooped over the railing to fish. This led to a general fight, in which +blood flowed freely, and the roughs were getting rather the upper-hand. +Knives were drawn by some of the Germans and others in self-defence, +and great consternation reigned in the afterpart of the boat and +the neighborhood of the ladies' cabin. Then the slim captain of the +boat--the one in the black dress-coat--hurriedly whispered something to +Lobster Bob, who rushed away aft, where the fight was now agglomerating, +headed by the red man and Flashy Joe, both covered with blood, and +looking like demons, as they wrestled and bit through the Crowd. Just +as they hustled past a large chest intended for the stowage of +life-preservers, Lobster Bob kicked the lid of it open with a bang, and, +seizing up the red man, neck and crop, with his huge, tattooed hands, +dropped him into it and shut down the lid, which was promptly sat upon +by the large, stout, smiling man already favorably spoken of in these +pages, who suddenly made his appearance from nowhere in particular. The +picture of contentment, he sat there like one who knew how, caressing +slowly his large knees with his short, plump hands, until the cries from +the chest began to wax feeble, when he slowly arose, vanished, and I +never saw him again. The red rowdy was then dragged, half-suffocated, +from his imprisonment, and as much life as he ought ever to be intrusted +with restored to him by the stout old skipper, who was at hand with a +couple of buckets full of cold salt-water, with which he drenched him +liberally, as he slunk away. A diversion thus effected, the disturbance +was quelled. All was quiet in a short time, and the word was passed to +heave the anchor and 'bout ship for home. + +On the way back, we took a pleasant course inside the Hook, which +brought the charming scenery of the Jersey shore and of Staten Island +before us, as a pleasant drop-curtain on the melodrama just closed. The +music again struck up, and dancing was resumed with fresh vigor,--the +waltzing of all other couples being quite eclipsed by that of Young New +York and little Straw-Goods, who had effectually got rid of her tipsy +persecutor ever since the ground-swell, and was keeping rather in the +background of late, with a sober-minded lady whom she called "aunty." +With the exception of the few who took to whiskey and bad company, all +appeared contented, and the better for their sea-holiday. The very +musicians played with greater spirit than they did before, owing, +perhaps, to their remarkable success in the porgy-fishery. One of the +horn-players, far too knowing to let his fish out of sight, has propped +his music-book up against a pyramid of them, as upon a desk. The +good-looking man who plays upon the double-bass is equally prudent with +regard to his trophies, which he has hung up around the post on which +is pinned the score to which he looks for directions when it becomes +necessary to bind together with string-music the pensive interchanges of +the sax-horn and bassoon. + +And now, as our vessel neared the wharf from which we had started while +the sun was yet in the east, I looked forward to see what signs of +the times were astir on the forecastle. All had deserted it, and +were tending aft, with their tackle, their fish, and their +prog-baskets,--all, at least, except Raw Material, of whom we enjoyed +now an uninterrupted view, as he sat in his old position, with his head +jammed obstinately into the capstan. But how was this?--he was round at +the opposite side of it now; and I puzzled myself for a moment, thinking +whether this change of bearings could be accounted for by the fact of +the boat being headed the other way. + +But Young New York, who is far more nautical than I am, and has a big +brother in one of the yacht-clubs, derided the idea, and said he must +have gone round with the handspikes, when the anchor was hove. + +And there he remained, as we went our way,--a modern Spartan slave in a +kind of marine pillory,--conveying to the red-legged children of Gotham, +as they toddled ashore, a useful lesson on the doubtful relations +existing between whiskey and pleasure. + + + + +COBBLER KEEZAR'S VISION. + + + The beaver cut his timber + With patient teeth that day, + The minks were fish-wards, and the cows + Surveyors of highway,-- + + When Keezar sat on the hillside + Upon his cobbler's form, + With a pan of coals on either hand + To keep his waxed-ends warm. + + And there, in the golden weather, + He stitched and hammered and sung; + In the brook he moistened his leather, + In the pewter mug his tongue. + + Well knew the tough old Teuton + Who brewed the stoutest ale, + And he paid the good-wife's reckoning + In the coin of song and tale. + + The songs they still are singing + Who dress the hills of vine, + The tales that haunt the Brocken + And whisper down the Rhine. + + Woodsy and wild and lonesome, + The swift stream wound away, + Through birches and scarlet maples + Flashing in foam and spray,-- + + Down on the sharp-horned ledges + Plunging in steep cascade, + Tossing its white-maned waters + Against the hemlock's shade. + + Woodsy and wild and lonesome, + East and west and north and south; + Only the village of fishers + Down at the river's mouth; + + Only here and there a clearing + With its farm-house rude and new, + And tree-stumps, swart as Indians, + Where the scanty harvest grew. + + No shout of home-bound reapers, + No vintage-song he heard, + And on the green no dancing feet + The merry violin stirred. + + "Why should folk be glum," said Keezar, + "When Nature herself is glad, + And the painted woods are laughing + At the faces so sour and sad?" + + Small heed had the careless cobbler + What sorrow of heart was theirs + Who travailed in pain with the births of God, + And planted a state with prayers,-- + + Hunting of witches and warlocks, + Smiting the heathen horde,-- + One hand on the mason's trowel, + And one on the soldier's sword! + + But give him his ale and cider, + Give him his pipe and song, + Little he cared for church or state, + Or the balance of right and wrong. + + "'Tis work, work, work," he muttered,-- + "And for rest a snuffle of psalms!" + He smote on his leathern apron + With his brown and waxen palms. + + "Oh for the purple harvests + Of the days when I was young! + For the merry grape-stained maidens, + And the pleasant songs they sung! + + "Oh for the breath of vineyards, + Of apples and nuts and wine! + For an oar to row and a breeze to blow + Down the grand old river Rhine!" + + A tear in his blue eye glistened + And dropped on his beard so gray. + "Old, old am I," said Keezar, + "And the Rhine flows far away!" + + But a cunning man was the cobbler; + He could call the birds from the trees, + Charm the black snake out of the ledges, + And bring back the swarming bees. + + All the virtues of herbs and metals, + All the lore of the woods he knew, + And the arts of the Old World mingled + With the marvels of the New. + + Well he knew the tricks of magic, + And the lapstone on his knee + Had the gift of the Mormon's goggles + Or the stone of Doctor Dee. + + For the mighty master Agrippa + Wrought it with spell and rhyme + From a fragment of mystic moonstone + In the tower of Nettesheim. + + To a cobbler Minnesinger + The marvellous stone gave he,-- + And he gave it, in turn, to Keezar, + Who brought it over the sea. + + He held up that mystic lapstone, + He held it up like a lens, + And he counted the long years coming + By twenties and by tens. + + "One hundred years," quoth Keezar, + "And fifty have I told: + Now open the new before me, + And shut me out the old!" + + Like a cloud of mist, the blackness + Rolled from the magic stone, + And a marvellous picture mingled + The unknown and the known. + + Still ran the stream to the river, + And river and ocean joined; + And there were the bluffs and the blue sea-line, + And cold north hills behind. + + But the mighty forest was broken + By many a steepled town, + By many a white-walled farm-house + And many a garner brown. + + Turning a score of mill-wheels, + The stream no more ran free; + White sails on the winding river, + White sails on the far-off sea. + + Below in the noisy village + The flags were floating gay, + And shone on a thousand faces + The light of a holiday. + + Swiftly the rival ploughmen + Turned the brown earth from their shares; + Here were the farmer's treasures, + There were the craftsman's wares. + + Golden the good-wife's butter, + Ruby her currant-wine; + Grand were the strutting turkeys, + Fat were the beeves and swine. + + Yellow and red were the apples, + And the ripe pears russet-brown, + And the peaches had stolen blushes + From the girls who shook them down. + + And with blooms of hill and wild-wood, + That shame the toil of art, + Mingled the gorgeous blossoms + Of the garden's tropic heart. + + "What is it I see?" said Keezar: + "Am I here, or am I there? + Is it a fete at Bingen? + Do I look on Frankfort fair? + + "But where are the clowns and puppets, + And imps with horns and tail? + And where are the Rhenish flagons? + And where is the foaming ale? + + "Strange things, I know, will happen,-- + Strange things the Lord permits; + But that droughty folk should be jolly + Puzzles my poor old wits. + + "Here are smiling manly faces, + And the maiden's step is gay; + Nor sad by thinking, nor mad by drinking, + Nor mopes, nor fools are they. + + "Hero's pleasure without regretting, + And good without abuse, + The holiday and the bridal + Of beauty and of use. + + "Here's a priest and there is a Quaker,-- + Do the cat and the dog agree? + Have they burned the stocks for oven-wood? + Have they cut down the gallows-tree? + + "Would the old folk know their children? + Would they own the graceless town, + With never a ranter to worry + And never a witch to drown?" + + Loud laughed the cobbler Keezar, + Laughed like a school-boy gay; + Tossing his arms above him, + The lapstone rolled away. + + It rolled down the rugged hill-side, + It spun like a wheel bewitched, + It plunged through the leaning willows, + And into the river pitched. + + There, in the deep, dark water, + The magic stone lies still, + Under the leaning willows + In the shadow of the hill. + + But oft the idle fisher + Sits on the shadowy bank, + And his dreams make marvellous pictures + Where the wizard's moonstone sank. + + And still, in the summer twilights, + When the river seems to run + Out from the inner glory, + Warm with the melted sun, + + The weary mill-girl lingers + Beside the charmed stream, + And the sky and the golden water + Shape and color her dream. + + Fair wave the sunset gardens, + The rosy signals fly; + Her homestead beckons from the cloud, + And love goes sailing by! + + + + +THE FIRST ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH. + + +"In the name of the Prophet:--Figs!" + +"Eh, bien, Sare! wiz you Field and ze uzzers! Zey is ver' good men, sans +doute, an' zey know how make ze money; mais--gros materialistes, I tell +you, Sare! Vat zen? I sall sink I know, I! Oui, Monsieur, I, Cesar +Prevost, who has ze honneur to stand before you,--I am ze original +inventeur of ze Telegraphique Communication wiz Europe!" + +It was about the period when, with the fast world of cities, De Sauty +was beginning to become type of an "ism"; already the attention of +excitement-hunters had travelled far from Trinity Bay, and Cyrus Field +had yielded his harvest. Nevertheless, to me, who had just come to +town from a quiet country seclusion into which news made its entry +teredo-fashion only, the performances of the Agamemnon and Niagara were +matters of fresh and vivid interest. So I purchased Mr. Briggs's book, +and went to Guy's, to cut the leaves over a steak and a bottle of +Edinburgh ale. It was while I was thus engaged that the little Frenchman +had accosted me, calling my attention to his wares with such perfect +courtesy, such airy grace, that I was forced to look at his baskets. +And looking, I was induced to lay down my book and examine them more +closely; for they were really pretty,--made of extremely white and +delicate wood, showing an exquisite taste in their design, and being +neatly and carefully finished. Then it was, that, having apparently +noticed the title of my book, M. Cesar Prevost had used the language +above quoted, and with such _empressement_ of manner, that my attention +was diverted from his wares to himself. I looked at him with some +curiosity. + +He was a little old Frenchman, lean as a haunch of dried venison, and +scarcely less dark in complexion,--though his color was nearer that of +rappee snuff, and had not the rich blood-lined purple of venison. His +face was wofully meagre, and seemed scored and overlaid with care-marks. +Nevertheless, there was an energetic, nervous, almost humorsome mobility +about his mouth; while his little beady black eyes, quick, warm, +scintillant, had ten times the life one would have expected to find +keeping company with his fifty years. In dress, he was very threadbare, +and, sooth to say, not over-clean; yet he was jaunty, and moved with the +air of a man much better clad. I was impressed with his appearance, and +especially with his voice, which was vibrant, firm, and excellently +intoned. It is my foible, perhaps, but I am always charmed with +_bonhommie_, I class originality among the cardinal virtues, and I am +as eager in the chase after eccentricity as a veteran fox-hunter is in +pursuit of Reynard. M. Cesar promised a compensative proportion of all +three qualities, could I only "draw him out"; and besides, he was not +like Mr. Canning's "Knife-Grinder,"--for, evidently, he _had_ a story to +tell. + +Observing my scrutiny, he smiled; a singular, ironical smile it was, yet +without a particle of bitterness or of cynicism. + +"Eh, bien!" said he; "you stare, Monsieur! you sink me an excentrique. +Vraiment! I am use to zat,--I am use to have persons smile +reeseeblement, to tap zere fronts, an' spek of ze strait-jackets. Never +fear,--I am toujours harmless! Mais, Monsieur, it is true, vat I tell +you: I am ze origi_nal_ inventeur of ze Atlantic Telegraph! You mus' +not comprehend me, Sare, to intend somesing vat persons call ze +Telegraph,--such like ze Electric Telegraph of Monsieur Morse,--a +vulgaire sing of ze vire and ze acid. Mon Dieu, non! far more +perfect,--far more grrand,--far more _original!_ Ze acid may burn ze +finger,--ze vire vill become rrusty,--ze isolation subject always to ze +atmosphere. Ah, bah! Vat make you in zat event? As ze pure lustre of ze +diamant of Golconde to ze distorted rays of a morsel of bottle-glass, so +my grrand invention to ze modes of ze telegraph in vogue at present!" + +"Monsieur, you shall tell me about it," said I, pointing to a seat on +the other side of the table; "sit down there, and tell me about your +invention, and in your native language,--that is, if you can spare the +time to do so, and to drink a glass of Bordeaux with me." + +He accepted my invitation as a gentleman would, sipped his wine like a +connoisseur, passed me a few compliments, such as any French gentleman +might toss to you, if you had asked him to join you in a glass of wine +in one of his city's _cafes_, and then proceeded with his story. My +translation gives but a faint echo of the impression made upon me by +his life, vigor, and originality; but still I have striven to do him as +little injustice as possible. + +"Monsieur, it is ten years since I accomplished, put in practice, and +evoked practical results from this international communication, which +your two peoples have failed to establish, in spite of all their money, +their great ships, and the united wisdom of their _savans_. I am a +Frenchman, Monsieur,--and, you know, France is the congenial soil of +Science. In that country, where they laugh ever and _se jouent de tout_, +Science is sacred;--the Academy has even _pas_ of the army; honors there +are higher prized than the very wreaths of glory. Among the votaries +of Science in France, Cesar Prevost was the humblest,--_serviteur, +Monsieur._ Nevertheless, though my place was only in the outermost porch +of the temple, I was a faithful, devoted, self-sacrificing worshipper of +the goddess; and therefore, because earnest fidelity has ever its crown +of reward, it happened to me to make a grand discovery,--a discovery +more momentous, it may be, than that of gunpowder or the telescope,--ten +million hundred times more worth than the vaunted great achievement of +M. le Professeur Morse. Not that its whole import came to me at once. +No, Monsieur, it is full twenty years now since the first light of it +glimmered upon Cesar Prevost's mind, and he gave ten years of his life +to it--ten faithful years--before it was perfect to his satisfaction. +Ah, Monsieur, and 'tis more than one year now that I have been what you +see me, in consequence of it. _Eh, bien!_ I shall die so,--rightly,--but +my discovery shall live forever. + +"But pardon, Monsieur,--I see that you are impatient. You shall +immediately hear all I have to say,--after I have, in a few words, given +you a brief insight into the nature of my invention. Come, then!--Has it +ever occurred to Monsieur to reflect upon that something which we call +_Sympathy?_ The philosophers, you know, and the physiologists, the +followers of that _coquin_, Mesmer, and the _betes_ Spiritualists, as +they now dub themselves,--these have written, talked, and speculated +much about it. I doubt not these fellows have aided Monsieur +in perplexing his brain respecting the diverse, the world-wide +ramifications of this physiological problem. The limits, indeed, +of Sympathy have not been, cannot be, rightly set or defined; and +there are those who embrace under such a capitulation half the +dark mysteries that bother our heads when we think of Life's +under-current,--instinct,--clairvoyance,--trance,--ecstasy,--all the +dim and inner sensations of the Spirit, where it touches the Flesh as +perceptibly, but as unseen and unanalyzed, as the kiss of the breeze at +evening. _Sans doute,_ Monsieur, 'tis very wonderful, all this,--and +then, also, 'tis very convenient. Our ships must have a steersman, you +know. And, _par exemple,_ unless we call it sympathetic, that strange +susceptibility which we see in many persons, detect in ourselves +sometimes, what name have we to give it at all? Unless we call it +sympathy, how shall we define those mysterious premonitions, shadowy +warnings, solemn foretokens, that fall upon us now and then as the dew +falls upon the grass-leaf, that make our blood to shiver and our flesh +to quake, and will not by any means permit themselves to be passed by +or nullified? 'T is a fact that is irrepressible; and, in persons with +imagination of morbid tendency, this spontaneous sympathy takes a +hold so strong as to present visibly the image about which there is +concern,--and, behold! your veritable spectre is begotten! So, again, of +your 'love at first sight,' _comme on dit_,--that inevitable attraction +which one person exerts towards another, in spite, it may be, both of +reason and judgment. If this be not child of sympathy, what parentage +shall we assign it? And antipathy, Monsieur, the medal's reverse,--your +_bete noire_, for instance,--expound me that! Why do you so shudder at +sight of this or that innocent object? You cannot reason it away,--'t is +always there; you cannot explain it, nor diagnose its symptoms,--'t is +a part of you, governed by the same laws that govern your 'elective +affinities' throughout. But note, Monsieur! You and I and man in general +are not alone in this: the whole organic world--nay, some say the entire +universe, inorganic as well as organic--is subject to these impalpable +sympathetic forces. Is the hypothesis altogether fanciful of chemical +election and rejection,--of the kiss and the kick of the magnet? Your +Sensitive-Plant, your Dionea, your Rose of Jericho, your Orinoco-blossom +that sets itself afloat in superb faith that the ever-moving waters +will bring it to meet its mate and lover,--are not these instances of +sympathy? And tell me by what means your eye conquers the furious dog +that would bite you,--tell me how that dog is able to follow your +traces, and to find the quail or the fox for you,--tell me how the cat +chills the bird it would spring upon,--how the serpent fascinates its +victim with a flash of its glittering eye. Our 'dumb beasts' yet have a +language of their own, unguessed of us, yet perfectly intelligible +to them,--how? We call this, Instinct. _Eh, bien, Monsieur!_ what is +Instinct, but Sympathy? + +"Bah! it amounts to nothing, all this, if we only look at it in such +relations. For centuries have _stupides_ bothered their brains about +such matters, seeking to account for them. As well devote one's time to +puzzling over 'Aelia Laelia'! Mysteries were not meant to be put in +the spelling-books, Monsieur. Ah, bah! a far different path did +Cesar Prevost pursue! He studied these phenomena, not to _explain_ +them,--being too wise to dream of living _par amours_ with such barren +virgins as are Whence and Why (your Bacon was very shrewd, Monsieur). +What cared I about _causes_? Let Descartes, and Polignac, and Reid, and +Cudworth, _et id omne genus_, famish themselves in this desert; but ask +it not of Cesar Prevost! He is always considerate to the impossible. He +says this, always:--Here we have certain interesting phenomena; their +causes are involved in mystery impenetrable; their esoteric nature is +beyond the reach of any microscope;--what then? My Heaven! let us do +what we _can_ with them. Let us seek out their _relations_; let us +investigate the laws regulating their interdependence,--if there be such +laws; and _apres_, let us inquire if there be any _practical results_ +obtainable from such relations and laws. + +"You follow me, Monsieur? _Eh, bien!_ This was the system, and Cesar +Prevost came speedily to _one_ law,--a law so important, that, like +Aaron's serpent, it put all the rest out of sight forever, engrossing +thereafter his whole attention. This law, which pervades the entire +animal economy, and is of course important in proportion to its +universality, is as follows:--_The sympathetic harmony between animals, +other things being equal, is _IN INVERSE PROPORTION _to their rank +in that scale of comparison in which man is taken as the maximum of +perfection._ Consequently, man is most deficient in this instinctive +something, which, for lack of a better term, I have ventured to style +'sympathetic harmony,' while the simplest organization has it most +developed. This last, you perceive, Monsieur, is only inductively +true;--when we get below a certain stage in the scale, we find the +difficulties of observation increase in a larger ratio than the +augmented sympathy, and so we are not compensated; 't is, for instance, +like the telescope, where, after you have reached a certain power, the +deficiency of light overbalances the degree of multiplication. Knowing +this, my first aim was to find out what animal would suit best,--what +one that could be easily observed was most susceptible, most +sympathetic. 'T was a long labor, Monsieur; I shall not tire you with +the details. Enough that I found in the _snail_ the instrument I +needed,--and in the snail of the Rocky Mountains the most perfect of his +kind. You smile, Monsieur. _Eh, bien!_ 't is not philosophic to laugh at +the means by which one achieves something. Smile how you will, 't is a +fact that in the snail which is so common and grows to such an enormous +size in the valleys and on the slopes of your great Cordilleras I found +an animal combining a maximum of sympathetic harmony with the greatest +facility of being observed, the best health and habits, and the utmost +simplicity of _prononcee_ manifestation. But, you ask, what seek I, +then? My Heaven, Monsieur! there was the grand Idea,--the Idea upon +which I build my pride,--the Idea that is _mine!_ When it came to me, +Monsieur, this Idea, a great calm filled all my soul, and I felt then +the spirit of Kepler, when he said he could wait during centuries to +be recognized, since the laws he had demonstrated were eternal and +immutable as the Great God Himself! Yes, Monsieur! For in that crude, +undeveloped Idea were already germinating the wonders of an achievement +grander than any of Schwartz, or Guttenberg, or Galileo. Oh, this +beautiful, grand simplicity of Science, which was able, from the snail +itself, the very type and symbol and byword of torpidity and inaction, +to evolve what was to conquer time and space,--to outrun the wildest +imaginings of Puck himself!" + +----What a coltish fire of enthusiasm pranced in the worthy little +Frenchman's veins, to be sure! + +"_Eh, bien!_ Now, distance made no matter; it was forever subdued. +I could as soon send messages to the Sun itself as to my next-door +neighbor! Smile on, Monsieur! Cesar Prevost shall not be piqued at your +incredulity. He also was amazed, prostrated, when all the stupendous +consequences of his discovery first flashed upon his mind; and it was +very long before he could rid his mind of the notion that he was become +victim to the phantasms of a ridiculous dream. _Eh, bien!_ 't was very +simple, once analyzed. Know one fact, and you have all. And this one +fact, so simple, yet so grand, was just this:--_That a male and female +snail, having been once, by contact, put in communication with one +another, so as to become what magnetizers call en rapport the one with +the other, continue ever after to sympathize, no matter what space may +divide them._ 'T is in a nutshell, you perceive,--and giving me the +entire principle of an unlimited telegraphic communication. All that was +to do was to systematize it. Tedious work, you may conceive, Monsieur; +yet I did not shrink from it, nor find it irksome, for my assured +result was ever leading me onward. Ah, bah! what did I not dream +then?--_Passons!_ + +"I was not rich, and so, to save the trouble and expense of importing +my snails to Paris,--vast trouble and expense, of course, since my +experiments were so numerous,--I came across the Atlantic, and fixed +myself at a point near St. Louis, where I could study in peace and have +the subjects of my experiments close at hand. I used to pay the trappers +liberally to get my snails for me, instructing them how to gather and +how to transport them; and to divert all suspicion from my real +objects, I pretended to be a _gourmet_, who used the snails solely for +gastronomic purposes,--whereby, Monsieur," said Cesar Prevost, with +a humorous smile, "I was unfortunate enough to inspire the hearty +_garcons_ with a supreme contempt for me, and they used to say I 'vas +not bettaire zan one blarsted Digger Injun!' _Mon Dieu!_ what martyrs +the votaries of Science have been, always! + +"_Eh, bien!_ I shall not bother you with my experiments. In brief, let +me give you only results, so as to be just comprehensible. Given my law, +I had to find, _first,_ the manner exactly in which snails manifest +their sympathy, the one for the other,--_c'est a dire,_ how Snail A +tells you that something is happening to his comrade, Snail B. There was +a constant law for this, hard to find, but I achieved it. _Second,_ +to make my telegraph perfect, and pat my system beyond the touch of +accident, I had to discover how to _destroy_ the _rapport_ between +Snails A and B. Unless I could do this, I could never be sure my +instruments were perfectly isolated, so to speak. 'Twas a difficult +task, Monsieur; for the snail is the most constant in its attachments of +all the animal kingdom, and I have known them to die, time and again, +because their mates had died,-- + + "'Pining away in a green and yaller melancholie,' + +"as your grand poet has it, Monsieur. Still, I succeeded, and I am very +proud to announce it;--'twas a great feat, indeed--no less than to +_subvert an instinct!_ _Third_, I found out the way to keep them +perfectly isolated, so as to prevent any subvention of a higher +influence from weakening or destroying the previous _rapport_. +_Fourth,_ what sort of influence brought to bear upon Snail B would be +sympathetically indicated most palpably in Snail A. So, Monsieur, you +may fancy I had my hands full. + +"But I succeeded, after long labor. Then I spent much time in seeking to +perfect an Alphabetical System, and also a Recording Apparatus, capable +of exactly setting forth the _quality_ of the sympathy manifested, as +well as the _number_ of the manifestations. When these things were +all perfected, I should have a complete system of Telegraph, which no +circumstances of time, distance, or atmosphere could impair, which would +put on record its every step, and permit no opportunity for error or for +accident. + +"_Eh, bien!_ Man proposes,--God disposes. Monsieur, when I began my +experiments, when I devoted myself, my energies, and my life itself +to developing and utilizing my discovery, my motives were purely, +exclusively scientific. My sole aim was to win the position of an +eminent _savant,_ who, by conferring a signal benefit upon the race, +should merit the common applause of mankind. But, as time wore on, as +my labors began to be successful, as the grand possibilities of my +achievement arrayed themselves before me, other dreams usurped my +brain. I, the inventor of this thing, so glorious in its aspect, so +incomputable in its results,--was I to permit myself to go without +reward? Fame? Ah, bah! what bread would Fame butter? 'Twas a bubble, a +name, an empty, profitless sound, this _coquin_ of Fame! _'Proximus +sum egomet mihi,'_ says Terence,--or, as your English proverb has +it, 'Charity begins at home.' I bethought me of the usual fate of +discoverers and inventors,--neglected, scoffed at, ill-used, left to +starve. The blesser of the world with infinite riches must nibble his +crust _au sixieme._ Why, then? Because, in their sublime eagerness to +serve others, they forget to care for themselves. _Eh, bien!_ One must +still keep his powder dry, said your great Protector. This discovery was +to double the effectiveness of men's hands,--therefore, was grandly to +enrich them. But could it not be also made a notable instrument for +wealth in _one_ man's hands? Ah! brave thought! How, if, none the less +resolved to give man eventually the benefit of my Idea, I should yet +keep it in abeyance, till I had made my own sufficient profit out of it? +It could be done;--surely, to use it well were less difficult than to +have invented it. So dreams of wealth and luxury began to fill my brain. +I would enrich myself till I had become a _power_, emphatically,--till +all purchasable things were within my reach. Then I should likewise +become a benefactor of the race; for my intentions were liberal, and +intelligence sustained adequately can effect miracles. Then, when I had +made myself veritably the Apostle of Riches, I would put the capstone +to man's debt to me, by endowing him with knowledge in the uses of this +great instrument whereby I had made myself so great. Ah, Monsieur, you +see, Haroun Alraschid had set me on his throne for an hour by way of +jest, and I imagined myself Caliph in Bagdad forever! + +"Full of such purposes, and of the fiery impatience of yearning begotten +of them, I hastened to bring my work to efficiency for use. I had worked +in silence, alone, secretly; for I dreaded to have my discovery guessed, +my aims anticipated and foreclosed upon. But, hasten how I would, +the processes were too slow for my means,--and just when, like the +alchemist, my crucible promised the grand projection, came the dreaded +explosion. My money exhausted itself! I found myself, a stranger in a +strange land, without a dollar. _Eh, bien, Monsieur!_ 't is not in Cesar +Prevost to despair. Ah, in those days, especially, had I a heart big +with the strength of hope! To accomplish my ends, a partner was needed +at best, money or no money; so now it was only necessary for me to find +one who to the essential qualities of heart and brain conjoined a purse +of sufficient size. Before long, I came across the very man. Monsieur, +when I recall the past, I behold many instances where I erred and was +foolish; but the single bitter reflection I have is, that my own ruin +involved the ruin of John Meavy, my partner and good comrade. I remember +what he was when I found him,--happy, prosperous, large-hearted,--in +every sense a noble man. I ruined him! Ah, could I but--_Eh, bien!_ 't +is too late, now; he is dead; _requiescat!_ I have the bliss to know he +found no fault with the end.--_Passons!_ + +"When I first knew John Meavy, he was a merchant, living with the quiet +ease of a well-to-do bachelor. Though he had been brought up to trade, +the stain of money was not upon him. Generous, charitable, liberal of +thought, he was the gentlest enthusiast in other men's behalf that ever +the sun shone on. It was the fact that he possessed fifty thousand +dollars and was trustworthy that first drew rue towards him; but I +had not known him long ere I gave him my ardent love, and thereafter +thoughts of wealth were pleasant to me as much for his sake as for my +own. John was a student, and a lover of Science, as well as a man of +trade; and, in the first moments of our intercourse, I took care to let +drop words that I knew would attract his curiosity and interest. Like +all you Americans, John Meavy was a man of perfect faith in all that +regarded 'Progress,' and especially did he believe in the infinite +perfectibility of Science in the hands of an energetic people. This +was the chord upon which I played, and the responsive note was easily +evoked. He sought me out, came to me eagerly, and, by degrees, I +divulged to him all my plans. He was ambitious to work for mankind, and +I convinced him that I could give him the means to do so. My faith, +Monsieur! that John Meavy had not one least morsel of selfishness in all +his character! How far was he from dreaming of wealth for its own sake, +and for the voluptuous surroundings with which my fancy enlarged upon +it! No, indeed,--my invention to John Meavy was nothing; but, as a means +to profit you and me and the rest of us, 't was a thing of the grandest +import. So, at first, he would not have had us keep our secret for a +day; but I--by a sophistry that is only sophistic when we add to the +consideration man's impotent and easily perverted will--brought him into +my plans, showing him what an instrument for good vast riches would be +in his hands. And he was the more easily persuaded because of the very +grand purity of his nature. _Sans doute_, he felt it to be altogether +true, what I told him, that, in _his_ hands, a hundred million dollars +would be worth more to mankind at large than the whole French kingdom. +_Mais, Monsieur_, you cannot own a hundred millions and be good. As +well expect to find the same virtue in London that prevails in a quiet +country-town. You cannot filter oceans, Monsieur, and the dead fish in +them _will_ cause a stink. But I did not know this till afterwards. + +"So, having inoculated John, I bestowed upon him my confidence without +reserve; for I knew he was one to appreciate such treatment, and would +repay me in kind. 'Here it all is, _mon ami_,' said I; 'this is my +invention; these the means for reducing it to practice; money is all I +need. If you will join me, and provide the funds required, we will enter +into a partnership for ten years, enrich ourselves, and then give it to +all the world.' + +"'Ten years! must the world wait so long?' + +"'The world has waited six thousand years for this century, _camarade_. +We shall require so long to enrich ourselves. And then, remember,--the +longer they are kept out of it, the more perfect will our invention +be, and, consequently, the greater their profit from it. Science has +suffered too much already by its seven-months' children, my good friend. +_Eh, bien!_ What say you? Will you be my partner?' + +"'Yes, Cesar. 'T is a noble scheme, such as only a noble man could +originate. But, Prevost, do not speak to me of an equal partnership. I +must not pattern after my country's way of overlooking the inventor. Let +us go into business upon this basis:--Prevost one share, John Meavy one +share, Invention one share.' + +"'Bah! John Meavy!' I cried. 'If I have discovered something, so also +have you, namely: a pocket deep enough, a heart honest enough, and a +faith strong enough to make that something available;--I expected sooner +to find the philosopher's-stone than all these, good friend. No, John +Meavy,--if you share with me, you share equally. Then I shall be sure +that you are equally interested with myself; so we shall succeed.' + +"_Eh, bien!_ We arranged it; and that very day, after I had pointed out +to John the state of my experiments, my noble comrade took me with him +to his place of business, put all his books open before me, explained +exactly the condition of his affairs, and concluded by giving me a check +for five thousand dollars. 'There,' said he, 'take that, pay your +debts, provide for yourself, and go on and reduce your invention to the +practical working you speak about. Meantime, I will wind up my business +in readiness to join you. Six months from now, the firm of Prevost and +Meavy, established to-day, will begin business together.' + +"_Mon pauvre_ John Meavy! + +"_Eh bien, Monsieur!_" resumed the little Frenchman, after a short +pause,--"one cannot help one's self, after it is too late. _Allons, +donc!_--I had lately, thinking over the matter in the light of my +intense desire to begin a career, and under the pressure of urgent +poverty, given up the notion of bringing my invention to absolute +perfection as a system of telegraphing. Instead of elaborating a +complete alphabet, I proposed to carry into effect a substitute already +perfected, one simple almost beyond belief, needing few preparations, +involving trifling cost, and capable of being made immediately +operative. Further experience has taught me that the very same means, +aided by a little deeper generalization, and an arbitrary set of +signals, would have given me an entire alphabet. But just now I had no +time to extend my experiments, needing all my time to make sure and +acquire skill in what was already achieved. I must insure against the +chance of mistake; for when we were applying our invention to the +acquisition of money, any error would necessarily be fatal. + +"The six months went rapidly by, and before they were over I was all +ready. But John said, 'Wait!' He saw no need of hurry; and his affairs +were not quite settled. _Eh, bien!_ I tranquillized my eager, impatient +soul by gaining an insight into the art of book-keeping and the theory +and practice of trade. At last the probationary period expired, and, +prompt to the hour, my comrade announced his readiness to begin our +business. The friends of John Meavy were reluctant to have him leave St. +Louis. They did not know what enterprise he was about to join in; but +they heard that I had some share in it, and they did not scruple to hint +that I might be an adventurer, who would 'diddle' him out of his money. +However, John only smiled, and told me all they said, in his frank way, +as if it were some good joke. So, finally, we took leave of St. Louis, +and came to New York, to organize the great house of Meavy & Prevost: +John bearing his share in the concern, forty odd thousand dollars, with +many letters to persons of eminence and influence; and I carefully +seeing to _my_ share,--a few scientific works, some valuable chemical +apparatus, and two dozen jars full of Rocky Mountain snails! _Eh, bien, +Monsieur!_ my stock in trade was _magnifique_, in comparison with that +with which my compatriot Girard commenced business. + +"By John's advice, we began our operations in a plain, quiet way, as +exporters of breadstuffs. This we did, first, that the firm might make +itself well enough known, and gain the confidence of the Bourse, so that +the doors might be open to our subsequent operations; that I, secondly, +might learn the business, and secure the proper recognition as John's +partner. Meantime, John was making himself familiar with the way to +practise my invention; and both of us, gaining daily assurance of our +power by reason of the discovery, were also daily increasing in love and +confidence for each other. Happy days, those, Monsieur! _Eh, bien!_ had +the invention only proved a fiction then! + +"In another six months we had matured our plans, and, as our present +business seemed lamentably slow in the light of my gigantic projects, I +was eager enough to begin work in earnest. I had proved our telegraph +thoroughly, and, ere I set out for London, to establish there a branch +of the house of John Meavy & Co., I advised my good comrade to venture +largely, so as to turn our capital over as often as possible, for there +was no room for doubt or fear. But John did not guess how high I dreamed +of rising in fortune; _he_ had no ambition to rival the Rothschilds. + +"Monsieur, let me explain to you now the system of work we had agreed +upon, and each slightest detail of which was perfectly familiar to +us from constant manipulation, so that mistake or mishap, from any +conceivable cause, was utterly impossible. + +"Our business, nominally the buying of breadstuffs for exportation, was +really one of speculation upon the New York market _as affected_ by the +European markets,--a species of brokerage, which, ostensibly and in +the eyes of the world attended by great risk, was really a thing of +specifically safe and certain profits, thanks to the telegraphic system, +the secret of which we alone possessed. In our tentative efforts, we +fixed upon _flour_ as the best-adapted subject for our experiments, +being a commodity simple to deal with, and requiring fewer complications +in our arrangements than anything else. But, in my own private mind, I +had resolved, that, as soon as our capital had grown large enough, +and our credit was become sufficiently extensive, we would change our +business to that of buying and selling cotton, as a better speculative; +or, perhaps, would enter upon that grand arena of sudden fortune and +sudden ruin, the stock-market. For the present, however, flour suited +us well enough. It is well known, that, at that time, much more than at +present, the price of breadstuffs in New York was regulated by the price +in Liverpool. But Monsieur is not a merchant, I think? _Eh, bien_!--then +I must take care to make myself intelligible. You know, Monsieur, that, +in the stock-market especially, and more or less in every other kind of +speculation, the greater part of the transactions are _fictitious_, to +a certain extent. _Par exemple:_ you buy or you sell so many barrels of +flour, at such a price, _on time_, as it is called,--that is, you engage +to receive, or to deliver, so many barrels, at the prices and in the +times agreed upon, in the hope, that, before the period of your contract +comes round, prices will have so varied as to enable you to buy, or +sell, the quantity bargained for, upon terms that will give you a +profit. In a word, you simply agree to _run the risk_ of a change +of prices such as to give you a profitable return. The operation is +identical with that of betting that such a card will be turned, or +that such a horse will win in a race, or such a candidate be elected +President. On 'Change we are charitable enough to suppose each +speculator possessed of _data_ such as to make his venture seem +reasonable to himself. This is the system, and, though very like +gambling, it has the advantage of presenting to men of small means the +chance of large profits, provided they are willing to run the risk; +since, while with a capital of ten thousand dollars I could make an +_actual_ purchase of only two thousand barrels of flour at five dollars +a barrel, the profit on which, at an advance of twenty-five cents per +barrel, would be very small,--by risking _all_ my money upon a single +venture, and leaving myself a 'margin' of fifty cents to cover the +greatest probable decline in price per barrel, I may purchase 'on time' +all of twenty thousand barrels, the profit upon which, at the same rate, +would be equal to fifty per cent of my entire capital. This is the +legitimate system by which such rapid fortunes are made and lost upon +'Change. Now suppose, that, operating in this way, you are in possession +of a secret means of intelligence, instantaneous, to be relied on, +peculiar to yourself,--does not Monsieur perceive that it insures one +a fortune incalculable, and to be made within the shortest time? If I +to-day learn that to-morrow's steamer will bring news that cotton has +advanced one cent a pound, of course I am justified in buying cotton to +the utmost extent that my capital and credit will afford me means, being +sure of selling it to-morrow at a higher price; and if I am continually +in the receipt of similar information, I can turn my capital over fifty +times in a year, and double it every time. There is actually _no limit_ +to the possible fortune of a man who is so favored, provided he conjoins +prudence and boldness to his manner of transacting business. The +supplying of such secret and unshared information to the firm of John +Meavy & Co. was the end of my invention, Monsieur. I was to go to +Liverpool, and act as signaller, while he was to stay in New York, +receive the information, and buy or sell in accordance with it. + +"Our apparatus was very simple. At each terminus of our line, so to +speak, we had a room, inaccessible save to ourselves. These rooms, +darkened, and carefully kept at a fixed temperature, contained nothing, +save, in one corner of each, a chronometer regulated with precision, +and, in opposite corners, a set of boxes, containing each a snail. At +the signalling end, at a fixed hour, which the chronometer gives with +the greatest accuracy, and when I know that my partner, by agreement, +will be present at the other end to receive intelligence, I go into my +room, informed as to the condition of the Liverpool market, and prepared +to transmit particulars of the same to him. Here are two boxes, divided +into three compartments each, and a _male_ snail in each compartment. +If flour is down, offering a chance for profit in New York upon 'time' +sales, I approach the box marked _minus_, the three snails of which are +called _x_, _y_, and _z_. I take up a little tube,--such a one as is +used by chemists to drop infinitesimal portions of any liquid; I dip +this into a vial marked _No_. 1, containing a solution of salt in +water,--there is a row of these vials, the solution in each being of a +different strength,--and then, with the moistened tube, I touch snail +_x_, or snail _y_, or snail _z_, or any two of them, or all three, once, +twice, three times, or repeatedly, according to the news I wish to +signal,--noting the effect of the poison, and recording the particulars +in a book kept for the purpose,--recording them with a nicety of +intelligent discrimination such as can be obtained only by long and +practised observation. I send an abstract of this record by every mail +to my partner, so as to verify our results and to detect immediately any +derangement. At _his_ end of our line the brave John Meavy waits before +two similar boxes, in each compartment of which is a _female_ snail. He +is a skilled observer, and his quick eve beholds snails _a_, _b_, _c_ +exactly (through sympathy) _repeating_ the effects I am producing in +_x_, _y_, _z_,--though the distance between them is over three thousand +miles! He knows the meaning of these slight effects, and, going upon +'Change, buys or sells with a perfect assurance of profit. + +"Such was my telegraph, in its rudest outline; but I had systematized it +to a degree of far greater nicety. I provided entirely against man's +imperfect and defective powers of observation. These movements and +squirmings, which in snails _x_, _y_, _z_, were the effect of a physical +cause, (salt-water.) were, in snails _a_, _b_, _c_, the result of +sympathy for _x_, _y_, _z_, as I have said,--a result constant, +determinate, and always to be depended upon. That is the _law_ of +their _rapport_,--not a _theory_, but a _law_, established by long, +exhaustive, and conclusive experimentation. The reason for it I +cannot assign,--did not pretend to investigate; but the _fact_ I had +ascertained: _x_, _y_, _z_, so touched, squirm, contract, and expand +their articulations, and exude from their pores a certain slimy sweat, +of agony it may be,--anyhow, a slimy exudation comes from them, +--and, _simultaneously_, and _just as much_ in kind, degree, quality, +everything, snails _a_, _b_, _c_ repeat the process. Such is the law, +constant as gravitation. Consequently, all that the _operator_ has to +concern himself about is, to understand that so many touches, with fluid +of such intensity, to so many snails, and repeated so often, produce +such and such an effect upon them, as, collectively considered, to +convey, through _a_, _b_, _c_, a certain piece of information. Knowing +this, skill in manipulation and accurate memory are all the qualities +he requires to conjoin to such knowledge. But the _observer_ has a much +more delicate office to perform, and, until I invented my recording +apparatus, the functions of this post could be discharged only roughly +and imperfectly, so evanescent and complex the manifestations. But I +discovered a _chemical_ observer, employing tests that nothing could +escape, nor anything deceive. The clock that indicates the hour for +receipt of news puts in motion the filaments of certain delicate +machinery connected with the boxes wherein are _a_, _b_, _c_. These +snails are placed upon a gauze-like substance, which, though firm enough +to support them undisturbed, permits both their natural excretions, and +their exudations under excitement, to filter through readily. As soon +as the hour comes, the machinery moves, and there begins to pass the +_recording paper_, so to speak, which I invented,--a paper not meant +to receive any vulgar mechanical impression, but one which, to the +instructed eye, and by the aid of the microscope, sets forth in _plain +language_ the nature of the functional disturbance in each snail, its +quality, its intensity, and its duration. I do not exaggerate, Monsieur. +This paper, in a word, is chemically prepared, saturated in a substance +that renders it perfectly sympathetic to whatever fluid exudes from the +snail, and thus, and by means of its motion, it records the quantity and +quality of the impression with unvarying accuracy. The observing hour +over, the clock-work stops, the paper is examined, and the result +recorded carefully. _Par exemple:_ I touch snail _x_, once, twice, three +times, with the weak solution, No. 1; John Meavy, receiving this fact, +through the sympathetic report of snail _a_, the chemical paper, and the +microscope, reads, as plainly as if it had been printed in pica type: +'_Flour declined threepence_.' If the fluid used is stronger, the +touches more numerous, and bestowed upon _y_ and _z_ also,--then the +decline or advance is proportionately great. Is it not a grandly simple +thing, this telegraph of mine, Monsieur?" + +----I was dazzled, perplexed,--so entirely new, strange, incredible was +all this to me; but I expressed to the little Frenchman, in what terms I +could command, my profound sense of his genius and originality. + +"_Eh, bien!_ I went to Europe," resumed he, "and John Meavy, my brave +comrade, stayed in New York, buying and selling flour, and turning over +his capital with a rapidity of success that surprised everybody; while +his modest demeanor, his chivalry of manner, and his noble generosity +won the admission of all, that Prosperity chose well, when she elected +John for her favorite. + +"At the end of a year we were worth nearly half a million of dollars, +and our credit was perfect. Then, however, John wrote for me to come +home. He was engaged to be married, he said, wanted me to be present at +the ceremony, and wished my aid in effecting some changes in our mode of +business. I was not unwilling, for I also had some suggestions to make. +I was tired of my place as operator; I yearned to quit my post of simple +spectator, and to plunge head-foremost into the strife of money-getting. +Apart from my irksome position, I felt myself more fit for John's +post than he was. As the capital we worked with increased, John waxed +cautious, and, most illogically, announced himself afraid to venture, +--as if his risk were not as great with ten thousand as with a million! +This did not suit me. I felt myself capable of using money as mere +counters, I divested it of all the terrors of magnitude, and thus I knew +I could do as much in proportion with five million dollars as with +five dollars. And the result, I was perfectly aware, would be to those +achieved by John as the elephant in his normal strength compares with +the elephant whose strength is to his size as the flea's strength to +_his_ size. John could take the flea's leap with five dollars, but was +satisfied with the elephant's leap with five million dollars. + +"So I took the next steamer, reached New York safely, and was most +cordially welcomed by my noble John Meavy, who seemed exuberant with the +happiness in store for him. Before he would say a word about business, +he insisted upon taking me to his betrothed's, and introduced me to his +lovely Cornelia. He had chosen well, Monsieur: his bride was worthy a +throne; she was worthy John Meavy himself,--a woman refined, charming, +entirely perfect. At John's solicitation, I was his groomsman; I +accompanied him upon his wedding-tour; and mine was the last hand he +clasped, as he stood on the steamer's deck, on his way to Europe to take +my place at the head of the Liverpool house. How many kind words he +lavished upon me! how many a good and kindly piece of advice he murmured +in my ear at that farewell moment! Ah! I do not think John wished to go +thither; he was ever a home-body; and I am sure his wife disliked it +much. But they saw it was my desire, they seemed to regard me as the +builder-up of their fortunes, and they yielded without a murmur. _Bete_ +that I was! Yet I was not selfish, Monsieur. Building up in dreams my +fortune Babel-high, I built up also ever the fortune of John Meavy and +his peerless wife to a point just as near the clouds. _Eh, bien!_ it +amounted to nothing in the end, all this; but--I was not selfish! + +"Our business was nominally the old one; but, in fact, in accordance +with the new arrangements John and I had agreed upon, I was to begin +cotton-speculation, and John was to keep me informed regarding the +fluctuations of the Liverpool market in that staple. My first efforts, +though successful of necessity, were small, I wished John to gain +confidence in my mode of conducting the business, before I ventured upon +more extensive operations. + +"Meantime, John's letters put me in continual fine spirits. He kept his +telegraphic apparatus at home, and so was much with Cornelia. He and his +wife, he said, were very happy; people could not love one another more +than they did. He blessed me a thousand times, because my invention had +taken him to New York, and so had enabled him to meet Cornelia. But--ah, +these 'buts,' Monsieur!--if you will search long enough the brightest, +the clearest blue sky, you will always find some little speck, some +faint film of cloud,--'t is your 'but,' Monsieur!--John fancied his +wife was not altogether so happy as it was possible for her to be. She +did not like the cold, colorless Liverpool, nor the foggy people there. +She pined a little, perhaps, for old home-associations, wrote John. +Could I not think of some means to increase her content? I knew the +human heart so well; I was such a genius, moreover. Ah, bah! Monsieur, +'t is the old song: I felt myself capable of sweeping the little cloud +from the sky also, as I had done everything else,--I, this sublime +genius! Monsieur, a moment look upon him, this genius, this triple blind +fool! _Eh, bien!_ I considered:--Cornelia, like all tender, susceptible +people, owes much to _little things_. She will not have to remain there +long; meantime, can I not revive in her mind the associations to which +she is used, and so both make her happy and bless my good comrade, John +Meavy? How, then? Once, during John's wedding-trip, we had stopped one +evening in a little country-town, and while we were there, talking +pleasantly by the open window, a mocking-bird, caged before a house +across the way, had struck up a perfect symphony of his rich and +multitudinous song. Cornelia was delighted beyond measure, and seemed to +yearn for the bird. John tried to buy it; but it was a pet; its owners +were well-to-do, and would not sell: so Cornelia had to go away without +it, and I fancied she was greatly chagrined, though, of course, she said +nothing, and seemed soon to forget it. So now the notion came to me:--I +will send Cornelia a mocking-bird. Its music will charm her,--its notes +will recall a thousand sounds of home,--it will give her occupation, +something to think about and to care for, until more important cares +intervene,--and so it will help to banish this _triste_ mood of _ennui. +Eh, bien!_ I soon had a very fine bird. Ah, Monsieur, I cannot tell +you what a fine bird was that fellow,--_Don Juan_ his name,--such an +arch-rascal! such a merry eye he had! such a proud, Pompadour throat! +such volumes of song! such splendid powers of mimicry! I kept him +with me a week to test his gifts, and I began to envy Cornelia her +treasure,--he was so tame, so bold, so intelligent. In that week, by +whistling to him in my leisure hours, I taught him to perform almost +perfectly that lively _aria_ of Meyerbeer's, _'Folle e quei che l'oro +aduna,'_ and also to mimic beautifully the chirping of a cricket. Well, +I sent _Don Juan_ out, and received due information of his safe arrival. +The medicine acted like a charm. Cornelia wrote me a grateful letter, +full of enthusiastic praises of 'her pet, her darling, the dearest, +sweetest, cutest little bird that ever anybody owned.' And I was more +than rewarded by the heartfelt thanks of my noble John Meavy. _Diantre!_ +had I only wrung the thing's neck! + +"_Eh, bien!_ The period upon which I calculated for my grand speculative +_coup_ had nearly arrived. Owing to a variety of circumstances, the +cotton-market had for some months been in a very perturbed condition; +and I, who had closely scrutinized its aspects, felt sure that before +long there would be some decided movement that would make itself felt +to all the financial centres. This movement I resolved to profit by, in +order to achieve riches at a single stroke. I had recommended John to +increase his observations, and keep me carefully preadvised of every +change. But I did not tell him how extensively I meant to operate, for +I knew 't would make him anxious, and, moreover, I wished to dazzle him +with a sudden magnificent achievement. Well, things slowly drew towards +the point I desired. There was a certain war in embryo, I thought, the +inevitable result of which would be to beat down the price of cotton to +a minimum. Would the war come off? A steamer arrived with such news as +made it certain that another fortnight would settle the question. How +anxiously, how tremulously I watched my telegraph then,--noting down all +the fluctuations so faithfully reported to me by John Meavy,--all my +brain on fire with visions of unwonted, magnificent achievement! For +two days the prices wavered and rippled to and fro, like the uncertain +rippling of the waters at turning of the tide. Then, on the morning of +the third day, the long-expected change was announced, and in a way that +startled me, prepared though I was,--so violent was the decline. Down, +down, down, down to the very lowest! reported my faithful snails. I did +not need to consult the sympathetic paper, for the agonized writhings of +the poor animals spoke plainly enough to the naked eye. I seized my hat, +rushed to my office, and began my grand _coup. Eh, bien!_ I shall not go +into details. Suffice it to say, for three days I was in communication +with cotton men all over the country; and, without becoming known abroad +as the party at work, I sold 'on time' such a quantity of 'the staple' +that my operations had the effect to put down the prices everywhere; and +if John Meavy's report were correct, our profits during those three days +would exceed three millions of dollars! Having now done all I could, and +feeling completely worn out, I went home, for the first time since +the news, flung myself upon a bed, and slept an unbroken sleep during +twenty-four hours. After that, refreshed and gay, I went once more to +the operating-room to see what further reports had arrived since I had +received the decisive intelligence. Decisive, indeed! Monsieur, when I +looked through the glass lids into the boxes, there lay my snails, stiff +and dead! Not only my faithful ones, _a, b, c,_ but likewise the _plus_ +ones, _d, e, f!_ Yes, there they lay, _plus_ and _minus,_ each in his +compartment, convulsed and distorted, as if their last agonies had been +terrible to endure! Stiff and dead! _Mon Dieu, Monsieur!_ and I had +pledged the name and credit of the house of John Meavy and Co. to an +extent from which there _could_ be no recovery, if aught untoward had +happened! _Eh, bien. Monsieur!_ Cesar Prevost is fortunate in a very +elastic temperament. Yet I did not dare think of John Meavy. However, if +the thing was done, it was too late for remedy now. _Eh, bien!_ I +would wait. Meantime, I carefully examined to see if any cause was +discoverable to have produced these deaths. None. 'T was irresistible, +then, that the cause was at John's end. What? An accident,--perhaps, +nervous, he had dosed them too heavily; but--I dared not think about +it,--I would only--wait! + +"_Eh, bien, Monsieur!_ It would be seven days yet before I could get +news. I waited,--waited calmly and composedly. _Mon Dieu!_ they talk of +heroism in leading a forlorn hope,--Cesar Prevost was a hero for those +eight days. I do not think about them even now. + +"On the third day came a steamer with news of uncertain import, but on +the whole favorable. By the same advice a letter reached me from my old +comrade, John Meavy: his affairs were prosperous, he and his wife very +happy, and _Don Juan_ more charming than ever. + +"Monsieur, the fourth day came,--the fifth,--the sixth,--the +seventh,--finding me still waiting. No one, to see me, could have +guessed I had not slept for a week. _Eh, bien!_ I will not dwell upon +it! + +"The morning of the eighth day came. I breakfasted, read my paper, +smoked my cigar, and walked leisurely to my counting-room. I answered +the letters. I sauntered round to bank, paid a note that had fallen due, +got a check cashed, and, having counted the money and secured it in my +pocket-book, I walked out and stood upon the bank-steps, talking with a +business-friend, who inquired after John Meavy. 'T was a pleasant theme +to converse about, this,--for _me!_ + +"A news-boy came running down Wall Street, with papers under his arm. +'Here you are!' he cried. 'Extray! Steamer just in! Latest news from +Europe! All 'bout the new alliance! Consols firm,--cotton riz! Extray, +Sir?' + +"I bought one, and the boy ran off as I paid him and snatched the paper +from his hand. + +"'You gave that rascal a gold dollar for a half-dime,' said my friend. + +"'Did I?' + +"A gold dollar! I wondered very quaintly what he would say, when, in a +few days, he heard of the failure of John Meavy & Co. for three millions +of dollars. A gold dollar! + +"_Eh, bien, Monsieur!_ I shall not dwell upon it. Enough,--we were +ruined. I had played my grand _coup,_ and lost. For myself, nothing. +But--John Meavy! Oh, Monsieur, I could not think! I went to my office, +and sat there all day, stupid, only twirling my watch-key, and repeating +to myself,--'A gold dollar! a gold dollar!' The afternoon had nearly +gone when one of my clerks roused me:--'A letter for you, Mr. Prevost; +it came by the steamer to-day.' + +"Monsieur," said the little Frenchman, producing a well-worn +pocket-book, and taking out from it a tattered, yellow sheet, which he +unfolded before me,--"Monsieur, you shall read that letter." + +It was this:-- + +"MY DEAR CESAR:-- + +"You must blame me and poor _Don Juan_ for the suspension of your +Telegraph. I write, myself, to tell you how careless I have been; for +poor John is in such a state of agitation, and seems to fear such +calamities, that I will not let him write;--though what evil can come +of it, beyond the inconvenience, I cannot see, nor will he tell me. You +must answer this immediately, so as to prove to John that nothing has +gone wrong; and so give me a chance to scold this good husband of mine +for his vain and womanish apprehensions. But let me tell you how it +happened to the poor snails,--_Don Juan_ is so tame, that I do not +pretend to keep him shut up in his cage, but let him fly about our +sitting-room, just as he pleases. The next room to this, you know, is +the one where we kept the snails. I have been helping John with these +for some time, and it is my custom, when he goes on 'Change, to look +after the ugly creatures, and especially to open the boxes and give them +air. Well, this morning,--you must not scold me, Cesar, for I have wept +enough for my carelessness, and as I write am trembling all over like +a leaf,--this morning, I went into the snail-room as usual, opened the +boxes, noted how well all six looked, and then, going to the window, +stood there for some minutes, looking out at the people across the way +preparing for the illumination to-night, (for we are going to have peace +at last, and every one is so rejoiced!) and forgetting entirely that I +had left open both the door of this room and that of the sitting-room +also, until I heard the flutter of _Don Juan's_ wings behind me. I +turned, and was horror-stricken to find him perched on the boxes, +and pecking away at the poor snails, as if they were strawberries! I +screamed, and ran to drive him off, but I was too late,--for, just as I +caught him, the greedy fellow picked up and swallowed the last one of +the entire six! I felt almost like killing _him,_ then; but I could +not,--nor could _you_ have done it, Cesar, had you but seen the arch +defiance of his eye, as he fluttered out of my hands, flew back to his +cage, and began to pour forth a whole world of melody! + +"My dear Cesar, I know my carelessness was most culpable, but it +_cannot_ be so bad as John fears. Oh, if anything should happen now, by +my fault, when we are so prosperous and happy, I could never forgive +myself! Do write to me as soon as possible, and relieve the anxiety of + +"Affectionately yours, CORNELIA." + +The little Frenchman looked at me with a glance half sad, half comical, +as I returned the letter to him. + +"_Eh, bien, Monsieur!_" said he, shrugging his shoulders,--"you've heard +my story. 'Twas fate,--what could one do?" + +"But that is not all,--John Meavy,"--said I. + +The little Frenchman looked very grave and sad. + +"Monsieur, my brave _camarade,_ John Meavy, had been brought up in a +stern school. His ideas of credit and of mercantile honor were pitched +very high indeed. He imagined himself disgraced forever, and--he did not +survive it." + +"You do not mean"---- + +"I mean, Monsieur, that I lost the bravest and truest and most generous +friend that ever man had, when John Meavy died. And that dose of Prussic +Acid should properly have gone to me, whose fault it all was, instead +of to him, so innocent. _Eh, bien, Monsieur!_ his lot was the happiest, +after all." + +"But Cornelia?" said I, after a pause. + +The little Frenchman rose, with a quiet and graceful air, full of +sadness, yet of courtesy; and I knew then that he was no longer my guest +and entertainer, but once more the chapman with his wares. + +"Monsieur, Cornelia is under my protection. You will comprehend +_that_--after that--she has not escaped with impunity. Some little +strings snapped in the harp. She is _touchee_, here," said he, resting +one finger lightly upon his forehead,--"but 'tis all for the best, _sans +doute._ She is quiet, peaceable,--and she does not remember. She sits in +my house, working, and the bird sings to her ever. 'Tis a gallant bird, +Monsieur. And though I am poor, I can yet make some provision for her +comfort. She has good taste, and is very industrious. These baskets are +all of her make; when I have no other employ, I sell them about, and +use the money for her. _Eh, bien!_ 'tis a small price,--fifty cents; if +Monsieur will purchase one, he will possess a basket really handsome, +and will have contributed something to the comfort of one of the +Good God's _protegees. Mille remerciements, Monsieur,_--for this +purchase,--for your entertainment,--for your courtesy! + +"_Bon jour, Monsieur!_" + + * * * * * + +About half an hour after this, I had occasion to traverse one of the +corridors of Barnan's Hotel, when I saw a group of gentlemen, most of +whom sported "Atlantic Cable Charms" on their watchchains, gathered +about a person who had secured their rapt attention to some story he was +narrating. + +"_Eh, bien, Messieurs!_" I heard him say, in a peculiar naive broken +English, "it would be yet seven days before I could get ze news,--and--I +wait. Oui! calm_lie_, composed_lie_, with insouciance beyond guess, I +wait"-- + +"I wonder," said I to myself, as I passed on, "I wonder if M. Cesar +Prevost's account of his remarkable invention of the First Atlantic +Telegraph have not some subtile connection with his desire to find as +speedy and remunerative a sale as possible for his pretty baskets!" + + + + +LADY BYRON. + + +It is seldom that a woman becomes the world's talk but by some great +merit or fault of her own, or some rare qualification so bestowed by +Nature as to be incapable of being hidden. Great genius, rare beauty, a +fitness for noble enterprise, the venturous madness of passion, account +for ninety-nine cases in the hundred of a woman becoming the subject of +general conversation and interest. Lady Byron's was the hundredth case. +There was a time when it is probable that she was spoken of every day in +every house in England where the family could read; and for years the +general anxiety to hear anything that could be told of her was almost as +striking in Continental society and in the United States as in her own +country. Yet she had neither genius, nor conspicuous beauty, nor "a +mission," nor any quality of egotism which could induce her to brave the +observation of the world for any personal aim. She had good abilities, +well cultivated for the time when she was young; she was rather pretty, +and her countenance was engaging from its expression of mingled +thoughtfulness and brightness; she was as lady-like as became her birth +and training; and her strength of character was so tempered with modesty +and good taste that she was about the last woman that could have been +supposed likely to become celebrated in any way, or, yet more, to be +passionately disputed about and censured, in regard to her temper and +manners: yet such was her lot. No breath of suspicion ever dimmed her +good repute, in the ordinary sense of the expression: but to this day +she is misapprehended, wherever her husband's genius is adored; and she +is charged with precisely the faults which it was most impossible for +her to commit. For the original notoriety she was not answerable; but +for the protracted misapprehension of her character she was. She early +decided that it was not necessary or desirable to call the world into +council on her domestic affairs; her husband's doing it was no reason +why she should; and for nearly forty years she preserved a silence, +neither haughty nor sullen, but merely natural, on matters in which +women usually consider silence appropriate. She never inquired what +effect this silence had on public opinion in regard to her, nor +countenanced the idea that public opinion bore any relation whatever to +her private affairs and domestic conduct. Such independence and such +reticence naturally quicken the interest and curiosity of survivors; +and they also stimulate those who knew her as she was to explain her +characteristics to as many as wish to understand them, after disputing +about them for the lifetime of a whole generation. + +Anne Isabella Noel Milbanke (that was her maiden name) was an only +child. Her father, Sir Ralph Milbanke, was the sixth baronet of that +name. Her mother was a Noel, daughter of Viscount and Baron Wentworth, +and remotely descended from royalty,--that is, from the youngest son of +Edward I. After the death of Lady Milbanke's father and brother, the +Barony of Wentworth was in abeyance between the daughter of Lady +Milbanke and the son of her sister till 1856, when, by the death of that +cousin, Lord Scarsdale, Lady Byron became possessed of the inheritance +and title. During her childhood and youth, however, her parents were not +wealthy; and it was understood that Miss Milbanke would have no fortune +till the death of her parents, though her expectations were great. +Though this want of immediate fortune did not prove true, the report of +it was probably advantageous to the young girl, who was sought for other +things than her fortune. When Lord Byron thought of proposing, the +friend who had brought him to the point of submitting to marriage +objected to Miss Milbanke on two grounds,--that she had no fortune, and +that she was a learned lady. The gentleman was as wrong in his facts +as mischievous in his advice to the poet to many. Miss Milbanke had +fortune, and she was not a learned lady. Such men as the two who held +a consultation on the points, whether a man entangled in intrigues and +overwhelmed with debts should release himself by involving a trusting +girl in his difficulties, and whether the girl should be Miss Milbanke +or another, were not likely to distinguish between the cultivated +ability of a sensible girl and the pedantry of a blue-stocking; and +hence, because Miss Milbanke was neither ignorant nor silly, she was +called a learned lady by Lord Byron's associates. He bore testimony, in +due time, to her agreeable qualities as a companion,--her brightness, +her genial nature, her quiet good sense; and we heard no more of her +"learning" and "mathematics," till it suited her enemies to get up a +theory of incompatibility of temper between her and her husband. The +fact was, she was well-educated, as education was then, and had the +acquirements which are common in every house among the educated classes +of English society. + +She was born in 1792, and passed her early years chiefly on her father's +estates of Halnaby, near Darlington, Yorkshire, and Seaham, in Durham. +She retained a happy recollection of her childhood and youth, if one may +judge by her attachment to the old homes, when she had lost the power of +attaching herself, in later life, to any permanent home. When an offer +of service was made to her, some years since, by a person residing on +the Northumberland coast, the service she asked was that a pebble might +be sent her from the beach at Seaham, to be made into a brooch, and worn +for love of the old place. + +Her father, as a Yorkshire baronet, spent his money freely. A good deal +of it went in election-expenses, and the hospitality of the house was +great. It was too orderly and sober and old-fashioned for Lord Byron's +taste, and he quizzed it accordingly; but he admitted the kindliness of +it, and the amiability which made guests glad to go there and sorry to +come away. His special records of Miss Milbanke's good-humor, spirit, +and pleasantness indicate the source of subsequent misrepresentations of +her. Till he saw it, he could not conceive that order and dutifulness +could coexist with liveliness and great charms of mind and manners; and +when the fact was out of sight, he went back to his old notion, that +affectionate parents and dutiful daughters must be dull, prudish, and +tiresome. + +"Bell" was beloved as only daughters are, but so unspoiled as to be +sought in marriage as eagerly as if she had been a merry member of a +merry tribe. Lord Byron himself offered early, and was refused, like +many other suitors. Her feelings were not the same, however, to him as +to others. It is no wonder that a girl not out of her teens should be +captivated by the young poet whom the world was beginning to worship for +his genius as very few men are worshipped in their prime, and who could +captivate young and old, man, woman, and child, when he chose to try. +As yet, his habits of life and mind had not told upon his manners, +conversation, and countenance as they did afterwards. The beauty of his +face, the reserved and hesitating grace of his manner, and the pith and +strength of such conversation as he was tempted into might well win +the heart of a girl who was certainly far more fond of poetry than of +mathematics. Yet she refused him. Perhaps she did not know him enough. +Perhaps she did not know her own feelings at the moment. She afterwards +found that she had always loved him. His renewed offers at the close +of two years made her very happy. She was drawing near the end of her +portion of life's happiness; and she seems to have had no suspicion of +the baselessness of her natural and innocent bliss. It is probable that +nobody about her knew, any more than herself, how and why Lord Byron +offered to her a second time, till Moore published the facts in his +"Life" of the poet. The thrill of disgust which ran through every good +heart, on reading the story, made all sympathizers ask how she +could bear to learn how she had been treated in the confidences of +profligates. Perhaps she had known it long before, as her husband had +repeatedly tried his powers of terrifying and depressing her; but, at +all events, she could bear anything,--not only with courage and in +silence, but with calmness and inexhaustible mercy. According to Moore's +account, a friend of Byron's urged him to marry, as a remedy for the +melancholy restlessness and disorder of his life; "and, after much +discussion, he consented." The next proceedings were in character with +this "consent." Byron named Miss Milbanke: the friend objected, on the +grounds of her possession of learning and supposed want of fortune; and +Byron actually commissioned his adviser to propose for him to the lady +he did not prefer. She refused him; and then future proceedings were +determined by his friend's admiration of the letter he had got ready for +Miss Milbanke. It was such a pretty letter, it would be a pity not to +send it. So it was sent. + +If she could have known, as she hung over that letter, what eyes had +read lines that should have been her own secret property, and as what +kind of alternative the letter had been prepared, what a different life +might hers have been! But she could not dream of being laid hold of as a +speculation in that style, and she was happy,--as women are for once in +their lives, and as she deserved to be. There was another alternative, +besides that of two ladies to be weighed in the balance. Byron was +longing to go abroad again, and he would have preferred that to +marrying; but the importunity of his friends decided him for marriage. +In a short time, and for a short time, Miss Milbanke's influence was too +strong for his wayward nature and his pernicious friends to resist. His +heart was touched, his mind was soothed, and he thought better of women, +and perhaps of the whole human race, than he had ever done before. He +wrote to Moore, who owned he had "never liked her," and who boded evil +things from the marriage, that she was so good that he wished he was +better,--that he had been quite mistaken in supposing her of "a very +cold disposition." These gentlemen had heard of her being regarded as "a +pattern lady in the North"; and they had made up an image of a prude and +a blue in their own minds, which Byron presently set himself to work to +pull down. He wrote against Moore's notion of her as "strait-laced," in +a spirit of justice awakened by his new satisfactions and hopes: but +there are in the narrative no signs of love on his part,--nothing more +than an amiable complacency in the discovery of her attachment to him. + +The engagement took place in September, 1814, and the marriage in the +next January. Moore saw him in the interval, and had no remaining hope, +from that time, that Byron could ever make or find happiness in +married life. He was satisfied that love was, in Byron's case, only an +imagination; and he pointed to a declaration of Byron's, that, when in +the society of the woman he loved, even at the happiest period of his +attachment, he found himself secretly longing to be alone. Secretly +during the courtship, but not secretly after marriage. + +"Tell me, Byron," said his wife, one day, not long after they were +married, and he was moodily staring into the fire,--"am I in your way?" + +"Damnably," was the answer. + +It will be remembered by all readers that the reason he assigned for the +good terms on which he remained with his half-sister, Mrs. Leigh, was +that they seldom or never saw each other. + +When Moore saw him in London, he was in a troubled state of mind about +his affairs. His embarrassments were so pressing that he meditated +breaking off the match; but it was within a month of the wedding-day, +and he said he had gone too far to retract.--How it was that Sir Ralph +Milbanke did not make it his business to ascertain all the conditions +of a union with a man of Byron's reputation it is difficult to imagine. +Every movement of the idolized poet was watched, anecdotes of his life +and ways were in all mouths; and a prudent father, if encouraging his +addresses at all, should naturally have ascertained the chances of his +daughter having an honorable and happy home. Sir Ralph probably thought +so, when there were ten executions in the house in the first few months +after the marriage. Those difficulties, however, did not affect the +happiness of the marriage unfavorably. The wife was not the less of the +heroic temperament for being "a pattern young lady." She was one whose +spirit was sure to rise under pressure, and who was always most cheerful +when trouble called forth her energies on behalf of others. Liberal with +her own property, making light of privation, full of clear and practical +resource in emergency, she won her husband's admiration in the midst of +the difficulties into which he had plunged her. For a time he was not +ashamed of that admiration; and his avowals of it are happily on record. + +They were married on the second of January. The wedding-day was +miserable. Byron awoke in one of his melancholy moods, and wandered +alone in the grounds till called to be married. His wayward mind was +full of all the associations that were least congenial with the day. +His thoughts were full of Mary Chaworth, and of old scenes in his life, +which he fancied he loved because he was now leaving them behind. +He declared that his poem of "The Dream" was a true picture of his +wedding-morning; and there are circumstances, not told in his "Life," +which render this probable. After the ceremony and breakfast, the young +couple left Seaham for Sir Ralph's seat at Halnaby. Towards dusk of that +winter-day, the carriage drove up to the door, where the old butler +stood ready to receive his young lady and her bridegroom. The moment the +carriage-door was opened, the bridegroom jumped out and walked away. +When his bride alighted, the old servant was aghast. She came up +the steps with the listless gait of despair. Her face and movements +expressed such utter horror and desolation, that the old butler longed +to offer his arm to the lonely young creature, as an assurance of +sympathy and protection. Various stories got abroad as to the cause of +this horror, one probably as false as another; and, for his own part, +Byron met them by a false story of Miss Milbanke's lady's-maid having +been stuck in, bodkin-wise, between them. As Lady Byron certainly soon +got over the shock, the probability is that she satisfied herself that +he had been suffering under one of the dark moods to which he was +subject, both constitutionally and as the poet of moods. + +It is scarcely possible at our time of day to make sufficient allowance +for such a woman having entered upon such a marriage, in spite of the +notoriety of the risks. Byron was then the idol of much more than the +literary world. His poetry was known by heart by multitudes of men and +women who read very little else; and one meets, at this day, elderly +men, who live quite outside of the regions of literature, who believe +that there never could have been such a poet before, and would say, if +they dared, that there will never be such another again. He appeared at +the moment when society was restless and miserable, and discontented +with the Fates and the universe and all that it contained. The general +sensibility had not for long found any expression in poetry. Literature +seemed something quite apart from experience, and with which none but +a particular class had any concern. At such a time, when Europe +lay desolate under the ravage and incessant menace of the French +Empire,--when England had an insane King, a profligate Regent, an +atrocious Ministry, and a corrupt Parliament,--when the war drained the +kingdom of its youth, and every class of its resources,--when there was +chronic discontent in the manufacturing districts, and hunger among the +rural population, with a perpetual extension of pauperism, swallowing +up the working and even the middle classes,--when everybody was full of +anxiety, dread, or a reactionary recklessness,--there suddenly appeared +a new strain of poetry which seemed to express every man's mood. Every +man took up the song. Byron's musical woe resounded through the land. +People who had not known exactly what was the matter with them now found +that life was what Byron said it was, and that they were sick of it. I +can well remember the enthusiasm,--the better, perhaps, for never having +shared it. At first I was too young, and afterwards I found too much of +moods and too little of matter to create any lasting attachment to +his poetry. But the music of it rang in all ears, and the rush of its +popularity could not be resisted by any but downright churlish persons. +I remember how ladies, in morning calls, recited passages of Byron to +each other,--and how gentlemen, in water-parties, whispered his short +poems to their next neighbor. If a man was seen walking with his head +down and his lips moving, he was revolving Byron's last romance; and +children who began, to keep albums wrote, in double lines on the first +page, some stanza which caught them by its sound, if they were not up to +its sense. On some pane in every inn-window there was a scrap of Byron; +and in young ladies' portfolios there were portraits of the poet, +recognizable, through all bad drawing and distortion, by the cast of the +beautiful features and the Corsair style. Where a popularity like this +sprang up, there must be sufficient reason for it to cause it to involve +more or less all orders of minds; and the wisest and most experienced +men, and the most thoroughly trained scholars, fell into the general +admiration, and keenly enjoyed so melodious an expression of a general +state of feeling, without asking too pertinaciously for higher views and +deeper meanings. Old Quakers were troubled at detecting hidden copies +and secret studies of Byron among young men and maidens who were to be +preserved from all stimulants to the passions; and they were yet more +troubled, when, looking to see what the charm was which so wrought upon +the youth of their sect, they found themselves carried away by it, +beyond all power to forget what they had read. The idolatry of the poet, +which marked that time, was an inevitable consequence of the singular +aptness of his utterance. His dress, manners, and likings were adopted, +so far as they could be ascertained, by hundreds of thousands of youths +who were at once sated with life and ambitious of fame, or at least of a +reputation for fastidious discontent; young ladies declared that Byron +was everything that was great and good; and even our best literature of +criticism shows how respectful and admiring the hardest reviewers grew, +after the poet had become the pet and the idol of all England. At such a +time, how should "Bell" Milbanke resist the intoxication,--even before +the poet addressed himself particularly to her? A great reader in the +quietness of her home, where all her tastes were indulged,--a lover of +poetry, and so genial and sympathizing as to be always sure to be filled +with the spirit of her time,--how could she fail to idolize Byron as +others did? And what must have been her exaltation, when he told her +that the welfare of his whole life depended upon her! Between her +exaltation, her love, her sympathy, and her admiration, she might well +make allowance for his eccentricities first, and for worse afterwards. +Thus, probably, it was that she got over the shock of that +wedding-drive, and was again the bright, affectionate, trusting and +winning woman whom he had described before and was to describe again to +his skeptical friend Moore. + +Before six weeks were over, he wrote to Moore (after some previous +hankerings) that he should go abroad soon, "and alone, too." He did not +go then. In April the death of Lord Wentworth occurred, causing Sir +Ralph and Lady Milbanke to take the name of Noel, according to Lord +Wentworth's will, and assuring the prospect of ultimate accession of +wealth. Meantime, the new expenses of his married life, entered upon +without any extrication from old debts, caused such embarrassment, that, +after many other humiliations had been undergone, he offered his +books for sale. As Lady Byron maintained a lifelong silence about the +sufferings of her married life, little is known of that miserable year +beyond what all the world saw: executions in the house; increasing gloom +and recklessness in the husband; a bright patience and resoluteness in +the wife; and an immense pity felt by the poet's adorers for his trials +by a persecuting Fate. During the summer and autumn, his mention of his +wife to his correspondents became less frequent and more formal. His +tone about his approaching "papaship" tells nothing. He was not likely +to show to such men any good or natural feelings on the occasion. In +December, his daughter, Augusta Ada, was born; and early in January, he +wrote to Moore so melancholy a "Heigho!" on occasion of his having been +married a year, as to incite that critical observer to write him an +inquiry about the state of his domestic spirits. The end was near, and +the world was about to see its idol and his wife tested in moral action +of a very stringent kind. + +By means of the only publication ever made or authorized by Lady Byron +on the subject of her domestic life, her vindication of her parents, +contained in the Appendix of Moore's "Life" of the poet, we know, that, +during her confinement, Lord Byron's nearest relatives were alarmed by +tokens of eccentricity so marked, that they informed her, as soon as she +was recovered, that they believed him insane. His confidential servant +bore the same testimony; and she naturally believed it, when she resumed +her place in the household, and saw how he was going on. On the sixth of +January, the day after he wrote the "Heigho!" to Moore, he desired his +wife, in writing, to go to her parents on the first day that it was +possible for her to travel. Her physicians would not let her go earlier +than the fifteenth; and on that day she went. She never saw her husband +again. + +She had, in agreement with his family, consulted Dr. Baillie on her +husband's behalf; and he, supposing the insanity to be real, advised, +before seeing Lord Byron, that she should obey his wish about absenting +herself, as an experiment,--and that, in the interval, she should +converse only on light and cheerful topics. She observed these +directions, and, in the spirit of them, wrote two letters, on the +journey, which bore no marks of the trouble which existed between them. +These letters were afterwards used, even circulated, to create a belief +that Lady Byron had been suddenly persuaded to desert her husband, +though he at least was well aware that the fact was not so. It soon +appeared that he was not insane. Such was the decision of physicians, +relatives, and presently of Lady Byron herself. While there was any +room for supposing disease to be the cause of his conduct, she and +her parents were anxious to use all tenderness with him, and devote +themselves to his welfare; but when it became necessary to consider him +sane, his wife declared that she could not return to him. + +It is not necessary to dwell on the imputations Lord Byron spread abroad +at the time, and his biographer afterwards, against the parents of his +wife, and everybody belonging to them who could be supposed to have +the slightest influence over Lady Byron's views or feelings. Those +allegations were publicly shown by her to be false, nearly thirty years +ago. I refer to them now solely because they were the occasion of the +only public disclosure Lady Byron ever voluntarily made on any part of +the subject of her married life. It is needless to exhibit how different +in this respect was the conduct of her husband and his friends. + +It became known by that statement, after some years, that, when Lady +Noel went to London, to see what could and ought to be done, she +obtained good legal opinions on the case, so far as she knew it. Those +opinions declared Lady Byron fully justified in refusing to rejoin her +husband. The parents, however, never knew the whole; and it was on yet +more substantial grounds that Lady Byron formed her resolution. The +facts were submitted, as the world has since known, as an A.B. case, to +Dr. Lushington and Sir Samuel Romilly; and those able lawyers and good +men peremptorily decided, that the wife, whoever she might be, must +never see her husband again. When they learned whose case it was, they +not only gave their full sanction to her refusal to return, but +declared that they would never countenance in any way a change in that +resolution. Dr. Lushington's statement to this effect appears in the +Appendix to Moore's "Life," as a part of Lady Byron's vindication of her +parents. + +It was very hard on her to be compelled to speak at all. For six years +she had kept silence utterly, bearing all imputations without reply. But +when it was brought to her notice that her parents were charged with the +gravest offences by her husband's biographer, after the death of both, +and when no other near relative was in existence, she had no choice. She +must exonerate them. The testimony was, as she said, "extorted" from +her. The respect which had been felt for her during the first years of +silence was not impaired by this disclosure; but it was by one which +occurred a few years later. A statement on her domestic affairs was +published, in her name, in a magazine of large circulation.[A] It +did not really explain anything, while it seemed to break through a +dignified reserve which had won a high degree of general esteem. It +was believed that feminine weakness had prevailed at last; and her +reputation suffered accordingly with many who had till then regarded her +with favor and even reverence. + +[Footnote A: _New Monthly Magazine_, 1836.] + +This was the climax of the hardship of her case. She had no concern +whatever with this act of publication. It was one of poor Campbell's +disastrous pranks. He could not conceive how he could have done such a +thing, and was desperately sorry; but there was little good in that. The +mischief was done which could never be thoroughly repaired. She once +more suffered in silence; for she was not weak enough to complain of +irremediable evils. Nine years afterwards she wrote to a friend, who had +been no less unjustifiably betrayed,--"I am grieved for you, as regards +the actual position; but it will come right. I was myself made to +_appear_ responsible for a publication by Campbell, most unfairly, some +years ago; so that, if I had not imagination enough to enter into your +case, experience would have taught me to do so." + +Those who are old enough to remember the year 1816 will easily recall +the fluctuations of opinion which took place as to the merits of the +husband and the wife, whose separation was as interesting to ten +thousand households as any family event of their own. Then, and for a +few years after, was Lady Byron the world's talk,--innocently, most +reluctantly, and unavoidably. + +At first, while her influence left its impression on his mind, Lord +Byron did her some sort of justice,--fitful and partial, but very +precious to her then, no doubt,--and almost as precious now to the +friends who understood her. It was not till he was convinced that she +would never return, not till he began to quail under the world's ill +opinion, and especially, not till he felt secure that he might rely on +his wife's fidelity and mercy, her silence and magnanimity, that he +changed his tone to one of aspersion and contempt, and his mode of +attack to that of charming, amusing, or inflaming the public with verses +against her and her friends. We have his own testimony to her domestic +merits in the interval between the parting and his lapse into a state of +malignant feeling. In March, 1816, within two months after her leaving +him, Byron wrote thus to Moore:-- + +"I must set you right in one point, however. The fault was _not_--no, +nor even the misfortune--in my 'choice' (unless in choosing at all); +for I do not believe--and I must say it, in the very dregs of all this +bitter business--that there ever was a better, or even a brighter, a +kinder, or a more amiable and agreeable being than Lady B. I never had, +nor can have, any reproach to make her, while with me. Where there is +blame, it belongs to myself; and, if I cannot redeem, I must bear it." + +To us, this is enough; and nothing that he wrote afterwards, in angry +and spiteful moods, can have the slightest effect on our impression of +her: but the case was otherwise at the time. Lord Byron's praise of her +to Moore was not known till the "Life" appeared; whereas pieces like +"The Chanty Ball," coming out from time to time, made the world suppose +that Lady Byron was one of those people, satirized in all literatures, +who violate domestic duty, and make up for it by philanthropic effort +and display. It is the prevalence of this impression to this day which +makes it necessary to present the reality of the case after the lapse of +many years. During Lady Byron's life, no one had a right to speak, if +she chose to be silent; but the more modest and shrinking she was +in regard to her own vindication, the stronger is the appeal to the +fidelity of her friends to see that her reputation does not suffer +through her magnanimity. We have guidance here in her own course in the +case of her parents. Abhorrent as all publicity was to her, she felt and +avowed the obligation to publish those facts of her life in which their +reputation was concerned. The duty is far more easy, but not less +imperative, to practise the same fidelity in regard to her, now that the +truth can be told of her without shocking her modesty. We may hear some +commonplaces about the feelings of the dead and the sensibilities of +survivors, as always happens in such cases: but the sensibilities of +survivors ought to relate, in the first place, to the fair fame of the +dead; and the feelings of the dead, having been duly respected during +life, merge after death into the general beauty of the self-sacrificing +character which would not utter the word by which the adverse judgment +of the world might have been reversed in a moment. While, at this day, +she is regarded as the cause of her husband's sins, by her coldness, +formality, and what not,--fidelity and love to her memory absolutely +require, not fresh disclosures of a private character, but a new +presentment of the evidence long ago given to the world by herself and +by her husband's very partial biographer. This is what I have done, +after thirty years more of life have proved the quality of her mind and +heart. + +As she loved early, she loved steadily and forever. It was through that +love that her magnanimity was so transcendent. When Lord Byron was +dying, he said to his confidential servant, Fletcher, "Go to Lady +Byron,--you will see her, and say"----and here his voice faltered, and +for nearly twenty minutes he muttered words which it was impossible to +catch. The man was obliged to tell him that he had not understood a +syllable. Byron's distress was great; but, as he said, it was too late. +Fletcher, on his return to England, did "go to Lady Byron," and did +see her: but she could only pace the room in uncontrollable agitation, +striving to obtain voice to ask the questions which were surging in her +heart. She could not speak, and he was obliged to leave her. To those +with whom she conversed freely, and to whom she wrote familiarly, it +was strangely interesting to hear, or to read, lines and phrases from +Byron's poems dropped, like native speech, from her tongue or her pen. +Those well-remembered lines or phrases seemed new, and were wonderfully +moving, when coming from her to whom they must have been so much more +than to any one else. How she surmounted such acts as the publication of +"Fare thee well!" and certain others of his safe appeals to the public, +no one could exactly understand. That she forgave them, and loved him to +the end, is enough for us to know; for our interest is in the greatness +of her heart, and not in the littleness of his. + +Her life thenceforth was one of unremitting bounty to society, +administered with as much skill and prudence as benevolence. As we +have seen, her parents died a few years after her return to them for +protection. She lived in retirement, changing her abode frequently, +partly for the benefit of her child's education and the promotion of her +benevolent schemes, and partly from a restlessness which was one of the +few signs of injury received from the spoiling of associations with +_home._ She felt a satisfaction which her friends rejoiced in, when her +daughter married Lord King, at present the Earl of Lovelace, in 1835; +and when grief upon grief followed in the appearance of mortal disease +in her only child, her quiet patience stood her in good stead, as +before. She even found strength to appropriate the blessings of the +occasion, and took comfort, as did her dying daughter, in the intimate +friendship which grew closer as the time of parting drew nigh. Lady +Lovelace died in 1852; and for her few remaining years, Lady Byron +was devoted to her grandchildren. But nearer calls never lessened her +interest in remoter objects. Her mind was of the large and clear quality +which could comprehend remote interests in their true proportions, and +achieve each aim as perfectly as if it were the only one. Her agents +used to say that it was impossible to mistake her directions; and thus +her business was usually well done. There was no room, in her case, for +the ordinary doubts, censures, and sneers about the misapplication of +bounty. Her taste did not lie in the "Charity Ball" direction; her funds +were not lavished in encouraging hypocrisy and improvidence among the +idle and worthless; and the quality of her charity was, in fact, +as admirable as its quantity. Her chief aim was the extension and +improvement of popular education; but there was no kind of misery that +she heard of that she did not palliate to the utmost, and no kind of +solace that her quick imagination and sympathy could devise that she did +not administer. In her methods, she united consideration and frankness +with singular success. For one instance among a thousand:--A lady with +whom she had had friendly relations some time before, and who became +impoverished in a quiet way by hopeless sickness, preferred poverty, +with an easy conscience, to a competency attended by some uncertainty +about the perfect rectitude of the resource. Lady Byron wrote to an +intermediate person exactly what she thought of the case. Whether the +judgment of the sufferer was right or mistaken was nobody's business but +her own: this was the first point. Next, a voluntary poverty could never +be pitied by anybody: that was the second. But it was painful to others +to think of the mortification to benevolent feelings which attends +poverty; and there could be no objection to arresting that pain. +Therefore she, Lady Byron, had lodged in a neighboring bank the sum of +one hundred pounds, to be used for benevolent purposes; and in order to +preclude all outside speculation, she had made the money payable to the +order of the intermediate person, so that the sufferer's name need not +appear at all. Five-and-thirty years of unremitting secret bounty like +this must make up a great amount of human happiness: but this was only +one of a wide variety of methods of doing good. It was the unconcealable +magnitude of her beneficence, and its wise quality, which made her a +second time the theme of English conversation in all honest households +within the four seas. Years ago, it was said far and wide, that Lady +Byron was doing more good than anybody else in England; and it was +difficult to imagine how anybody could do more. Lord Byron spent every +shilling that the law allowed him out of her property, while he lived, +and left away from her every shilling that he could deprive her of by +his will; yet she had eventually a large income at her command. In the +management of it she showed the same wise consideration that marked all +her practical decisions. She resolved to spend her whole income, seeing +how much the world needed help at the moment. Her care was for the +existing generation, rather than for a future one, which would have +its own friends. She usually declined trammelling herself with annual +subscriptions to charities, preferring to keep her freedom from year to +year, and to achieve definite objects by liberal bounty, rather than to +extend partial help over a large surface which she could not herself +superintend. + +It was her first industrial school that awakened the admiration of the +public, which had never ceased to take an interest in her, while sorely +misjudging her character. We hear much now--and everybody hears it with +pleasure--of the spread of education in "common things." But, long +before Miss Coutts inherited her wealth, long before a name was found +for such a method of training, Lady Byron had instituted the thing, and +put it in the way of making its own name. She was living at Ealing, in +Middlesex, in 1834; and there she opened one of the first industrial +schools in England, if not the very first. She sent out a master to +Switzerland, to be instructed in De Fellenburg's method. She took on +lease five acres of land, and spent several hundred pounds in rendering +the buildings upon it fit for the purposes of the school. A liberal +education was afforded to the children of artisans and laborers, during +the half of the day when they were not employed in the field or garden. +The allotments were rented by the boys, who raised and sold produce +which afforded them a considerable yearly profit, if they were good +workmen. Those who worked in the field earned wages,--their labor being +paid by the hour, according to the capability of the young laborer. +They kept their accounts of expenditure and receipts, and acquired good +habits of business, while learning the occupation of their lives. Some +mechanical trades were taught, as well as the arts of agriculture. Part +of the wisdom of the management lay in making the pupils pay. Of one +hundred pupils, half were boarders. They paid little more than half the +expense of their maintenance; and the day-scholars paid three-pence per +week. Of course, a large part of the expense was borne by Lady Byron, +besides the payments she made for children who could not otherwise have +entered the school. The establishment flourished steadily till 1852, +when the owner of the land required it back for building-purposes. +During the eighteen years that the Ealing schools were in action, they +did a world of good in the way of incitement and example. The Poor-Law +Commissioners pointed out their merits. Land-owners and other wealthy +persons visited them, and went home and set up similar establishments. +During those years, too, Lady Byron had herself been at work in various +directions, to the same purpose. + +A more extensive industrial scheme was instituted on her Leicestershire +property; and not far off, she opened a girls' school, and an infant +school; and when a season of distress came, as such seasons are apt to +befall the poor Leicestershire stocking-weavers, Lady Byron fed the +children for months together, till they could resume their payments. +These schools were opened in 1840. The next year, she built a +school-house on her Warwickshire property; and five years later, she set +up an iron school-house on another Leicestershire estate. By this time, +her educational efforts were costing her several hundred pounds a year +in the mere maintenance of existing establishments; but this is the +smallest consideration in the case. She has sent out tribes of boys and +girls into life fit to do their part there with skill and credit and +comfort. Perhaps it is a still more important consideration, that scores +of teachers and trainers have been led into their vocation, and duly +prepared for it, by what they saw and learned in her schools. As for the +best and the worst of the Ealing boys,--the best have, in a few cases, +been received into the Battersea Training School, whence they could +enter on their career as teachers to the greatest advantage; and the +worst found their school a true reformatory, before reformatory schools +were heard of. At Bristol she bought a house for a reformatory +for girls; and there her friend, Miss Carpenter, faithfully and +energetically carries out her own and Lady Byron's aims, which were one +and the same. + +There would be no end, if I were to catalogue the schemes of which these +are a specimen. It is of more consequence to observe that her mind was +never narrowed by her own acts, as the minds of benevolent people are so +apt to be. To the last, her interest in great political movements, at +home and abroad, was as vivid as ever. She watched every step won in +philosophy, every discovery in science, every token of social change and +progress, in every shape. Her mind was as liberal as her heart and hand, +No diversity of opinion troubled her; she was respectful to every sort +of individuality, and indulgent to all constitutional peculiarities. +It must have puzzled those who kept up the notion of her being +"strait-laced," to see how indulgent she was even to epicurean +tendencies,--the remotest of all from her own. + +But I must stop; for I do not wish my honest memorial to degenerate into +panegyric.--Among her latest known acts were her gifts to the Sicilian +cause, and her manifestations on behalf of the antislavery cause in the +United States. Her kindness to William and Ellen Craft must be well +known there; and it is also related in the newspapers that she +bequeathed a legacy to a young American, to assist him under any +disadvantages he might suffer as an abolitionist. + +All these deeds were done under a heavy burden of ill-health. Before +she had passed middle life, her lungs were believed to be irreparably +injured by partial ossification. She was subject to attacks so serious, +that each one for many years was expected to be the last. She arranged +her affairs in correspondence with her liabilities; so that the same +order would have been found, whether she died suddenly or after long +warning. + +She was to receive one more accession of outward greatness before she +departed. She became Baroness Wentworth in November, 1856. This is one +of the facts of her history; but it is the least interesting to us, as +probably to her. We care more to know that her last days were bright in +honor, and cheered by the attachment of old friends, worthy to pay the +duty she deserved. Above all, it is consoling to know that she who so +long outlived her only child was blessed with the unremitting and tender +care of her granddaughter. She died on the sixteenth of May, 1860. + +The portrait of Lady Byron, as she was at the time of her marriage, is +probably remembered by some of my readers. It is very engaging. +Her countenance afterwards became much worn; but its expression of +thoughtfulness and composure was very interesting. Her handwriting +accorded well with the character of her mind. It was clear, elegant, +and womanly. Her manners differed with circumstances. Her shrinking +sensitiveness might embarrass one visitor, while another would be +charmed with her easy, significant, and vivacious conversation. It +depended much on whom she talked with. The abiding certainty was, that +she had strength for the hardest of human trials, and the composure +which belongs to strength. For the rest, it is enough to point to her +deeds, and to the mourning of her friends round the chasm which her +departure has made in their life, and in the society in which it is +spent. All that could be done in the way of personal love and honor was +done while she lived; it only remains now to see that her name and fame +are permitted to shine forth at last in their proper light. + + + + +GETTING HOME AGAIN. + + +It is a good thing, said an aged Chinese Travelling Philosopher, for +every man, sooner or later, to get back again to his own tea-cup. +And Ling Ching Ki Hi Fum (for that was the name of the profound old +gentleman who said it) was right. Travel may be "the conversion of +money into mind,"--and happy the man who has turned much coin into that +precious commodity,--but it is a good thing, after being tossed about +the world from the Battery to Africa,--that dry nurse of lions, as +Horace calls her,--to anchor once more beside the old familiar tea-urn +on the old familiar tea-table. This is the only "steamy column" worth +hailing with a glad welcome after long absence from home, and fully +entitled to be heartily applauded for its "bubbling and loud-hissing" +propensities. + +We are not a Marco Polo or a William de Rubruquis, and we have no +wonders to tell of the Great Mogul or the Great Cham. We did not sail +for Messrs. Pride, Pomp, Circumstance, and Company; consequently, we +have no great exploits to recount. We have been wrecked at sea only once +in our many voyages, and, so far as we know our own tastes, do not care +to solicit aid again to be thrown into the same awkward situation. But +for a time we have been + + "Placed far amid the melancholy main," + +and now we are among our own tea-cups. This is happiness enough for a +cold winter's night. Mid-ocean, and mid tea-cups! Stupendous change, +let us tell you, worthy friend, who never yet set sail where sharks and +other strange sea-cattle bob their noses above the brine,--who never +lived forty days in the bowels of a ship, unable to hold your head up to +the captain's bluff "good morning" or the steward's cheery "good night." +Sir Philip Sidney discourses of a riding-master he encountered in +Vienna, who spoke so eloquently of the noble animal he had to deal with, +that he almost persuaded Sir Philip to wish himself a horse. We have +known ancient mariners expatiate so lovingly on the frantic enjoyments +of the deep sea, that very youthful listeners have for the time resolved +to know no other existence. If the author of the "Arcadia" had been +permitted to become a prancing steed, he might, after the first +exhilarating canter, have lamented his equine state. How many a first +voyage, begun in hilarious impatience, has caused a bitter repentance! +The sea is an overrated element, and we have nothing to say in its +favor. Because we are out of its uneasy lap to-night, we almost resemble +in felicity Richter's _Walt_, who felt himself so happy, that he was +transported to the third heaven, and held the other two in his hand, +that he might give them away. To-morrow morning we shall not hear that +swashing, scaring sound directly overhead on the wet deck, which has so +often murdered our slumbers. Delectable the sensation that we don't care +a rope's-end "how many knots" we are going, and that our ears are so far +away from that eternal "Ay, ay, Sir!" "The whales," says old Chapman, +speaking of Neptune, "exulted under him, and knew their mighty king." +Let them exult, say we, and be blowed, and all due honor to their salt +sovereign! but of their personal acquaintance we are not ambitious. We +have met them now and then in the sixty thousand miles of their watery +playing-places we have passed over, and they are not pretty to look at. +Roll on, et cetera, et cetera,--and so will we, for the present, at +least, as far out of _your_ reach as possible. + +Yes, wise denizen of the Celestial Empire, it is a good, nay, a great +thing, to return even to so small a home-object as an old tea-cup. As +we lift the bright brim to our so long absent lips, we repeat it. As we +pour out our second, our third, and our fourth, we say it again. Ling +Ching, you were right! + +And now, as the rest of the household have all gone up bed-ward, and +left us with their good-night tones, + + "Like flowers' voices, if they could but speak," + +we dip our pen into the cocked hat of the brave little bronze warrior +who has fed us many a year with ink from the place where his brains +ought to be. Pausing before we proceed to paper, we look around on our +household gods. The coal bursts into crackling fits of merriment, as we +thrust the poker between the iron ribs of the grate. It seems to say, +in the jolliest possible manner of which it is capable, "Oh, go no more +a-roaming, a-roaming, across the windy sea!" How odd it seems to be +sitting here again, listening to the old clock out there in the entry! +Often we seemed to hear it during the months that have flown away, when +we knew that "our ancient" was standing sentinel for Time in another +hemisphere. One night, dark and stormy on the Mediterranean, as we lay +wakeful and watchful in the little steamer that was bearing us painfully +through the noisy tempest towards Saint Peter's and the Colosseum, +suddenly, above the tumult of the voyage, our household monitor began +audibly and regularly, we thought, to mark the seconds. Then it must +have been only fancy. Now it is something more, and we know that our +mahogany friend is really wagging his brassy beard just outside the +door. We remember now, as we lay listening that rough night at sea, how +Milton's magic sounding line came to us beating a sad melody with the +old clock's imagined tramp,-- + + "The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint." + +Let the waves bark to-night far out on "the desolate, rainy seas,"--the +old clock is all right in the entry! + +Landed, and all safe at last! our much-abused, lock-broken, unhinged +portmanteau unpacked and laid ignobly to rest under the household eaves! +Stay a moment,--let us pitch our inky passport into the fire. How it +writhes and grows black in the face! And now it will trouble its owner +no more forever. It was a foolish, extravagant companion, and we are +glad to be rid of it. One little blazing fragment lifts itself out +of the flame, and we can trace on the smouldering relic the stamp of +Austria. Go back again into the grate, and perish with the rest, dark +blot! + +"We look round our quiet apartment, and wonder if it be all true, this +getting home again. We stir the fire once more to assure ourself that we +are not somewhere else,--that the street outside our window is not +known as Jermyn Street in the Haymarket,--or the Via Babuino near the +Pincio,--or Princes Street, near the Monument. How do we determine that +we are not dreaming, and that we shall not wake up to-morrow morning and +find ourself on the Arno? Perhaps we are _not_ really back again where +there are no + + "Eremites and friars, + White, black, and gray, with all their trumpery." + +Perhaps we are a flamingo, a banyan-tree, or a mandarin. But there +stands the tea-cup, and our identity is sure! + +Here at last, then, for a live certainty! But how strange it all seems, +resting safely in our easy slippers, to recall some of the far-off +scenes so lately present to us! Yesterday was it, or a few weeks ago, +that this "excellent canopy," our modest roof, dwelt three thousand +miles away to the westward of us? At this moment stowed away in a +snuggery called our own; and then--how brief a period it seems! what a +small parenthesis in time--putting another man's latch-key into another +man's door, night after night, in a London fog, and feeling for the +unfamiliar aperture with all the sensation of an innocent housebreaker! +Muffled here in the oldest of dressing-gowns, that never lifted its +blessed arms ten rods from the spot where it was born; and only a few +weeks ago lolling out of C.R.'s college-window at Oxford, counting the +deer, as they nibbled the grass, and grouped themselves into beautiful +pictures on the sward of ancient Magdalen! + +As we look into the red fire in the grate, we think of the scarlet +coats we saw not long ago in Stratford,--when E.F., kindest of men and +merriest of hosts, took us to the "meet." We gaze round the field again, +and enjoy the enlivening scene. White-haired and tall, our kind-hearted +friend walks his glossy mare up and down the turf. His stalwart sons, +with sport imbrowned, proud of their sire, call our attention to the +sparkle in the old man's eye. We are mounted on a fiery little animal, +and are half-frightened at the thought of what she may do with us when +the chase is high. Confident that a roll is inevitable, and that, with a +dislocated neck, enjoyment would be out of the question, we pull bridle, +and carefully dismount, hoping not to attract attention. Whereat all our +jolly English cousins beg to inquire, "What's the row?" We whisper to +the red-coated brave prancing near us, that "we have changed our mind, +and will not follow the hunt to-day,--another time we shall be most +happy,--just now we are not quite up to the mark,--next week we shall be +all right again," etc., etc. One of the lithe hounds, who seems to have +steel springs in his hind legs, looks contemptuously at the American +stranger, and turns up his long nose like a moral insinuation. Off they +fly! we watch the beautiful cavalcade bound over the brook and sweep +away into the woodland passes. Then we saunter down by the Avon, and +dream away the daylight in endless visions of long ago, when sweet Will +and his merry comrades moved about these pleasant haunts. Returning to +the hall, we find we have walked ten miles over the breezy country, +and knew it not,--so pleasant is the fragrant turf that has been often +pressed by the feet of Nature's best-beloved high-priest! Round the +mahogany tree that night we hear the hunters tell the glories of their +sport,--how their horses, like Homer's steeds, + + "Devoured up the plain"; + +and we can hear now, in imagination, the voices of the deep-mouthed +hounds rising and swelling among the Warwick glens. + +Neither can we forget, as we sit here musing, whose green English +carpet, down in Kent, we so lately rested on under the trees,--nor how +we wandered off with the lord of that hospitable manor to an old castle +hard by his grounds, and climbed with him to the turret-tops,--nor how +we heard him repeople in fancy the aged ruin, as we leaned over the +wall and looked into the desolate court-yard below. The world has given +audience to this man, thought we, for many a year; but one who has never +heard the sound of his laughing voice knows not half his wondrous power. +When he reads his "Christmas Carol," go far to hear him, judicious +friend, if you happen to be in England, and let us all hope together +that we shall have that keen gratification next year in America. To know +him is to love and esteem him tenfold more than if you only read of him. + +Let us bear in mind, too, how happily the hours went by with us so +recently in the vine-embowered cottage of dear L.H., the beautiful old +man with silver hair,-- + + "As hoary frost with spangles doth attire + The mossy branches of an oak." + +The sound of the poet's voice was like the musical fall of water in our +ears, and every sentence he uttered then is still a melody. As we sit +dreamily here, he speaks to us again of "life's morning march, when his +bosom was young," and of his later years, when his struggles were many +and keen, and only his pen was the lever which rolled poverty away from +his door. We can hear him, as we pause over this leaf, as we heard the +old clock that night at sea. He tells us of his cherished companions, +now all gone,--of Shelley, and Keats, and Charles Lamb, whom he +loved,--of Byron, and Coleridge, and the rest. As we sit at his little +table, he hands us a manuscript, and says it is the "Endymion," John +Keats's gift to himself. He reads to us from it some of his favorite +lines, and the tones of his voice are very tender over his dead friend's +poem. As we pass out of his door that evening, the moon falls on his +white locks, his thin hand rests for a moment on our shoulder, and we +hear him say very kindly, "God bless you!" + +In London, not long after this, we meet again the bard of "Rimini," and +his discourse is still sweet as any dulcimer. Another old man is with +him, a poet also, whose songs are among the bravest in England's +Helicon. We observe how these two friends love each other, and as they +stand apart in the anteroom, the eldest with his arm around his brother +bard, we think it is a very pleasant sight, and not to be forgotten +ever. And when, a few months later, we are among the Alpine hills, and +word comes to us that L.H. is laid to rest in Kensal Green Churchyard, +we are grateful to have looked upon his cheerful countenance, and to +have heard him say, "God bless you!" + +We cry your mercy, gayest of cities, with your bright Bois de Boulogne, +and your splendid _cafe's!_ We do not much affect your shows, but we +cannot dismiss forever the cheerful little room, cloud-environed almost, +up to which we have so often toiled, after days of hard walking among +the gaudy streets of the French capital. One pleasant scene, at least, +rises unbidden, as we recall the past. It is a brisk, healthy morning, +and we walk in the direction of the Tuileries. Bending our steps toward +the Palace, (it is yet early, and few loiterers are abroad in the leafy +avenues,) we observe a group of three persons, not at all distinguished +in their appearance, having a roystering good time in the Imperial +Garden. One of them is a little boy, with a chubby, laughing face, who +shouts loudly to his father, a grave, thoughtful gentleman, who runs +backwards, endeavoring to out-race his child. The mother, a fair-haired +woman, with her bonnet half loose in the wind, strives to attract the +boy's attention and win him to her side. They all run and leap in the +merry morning-air, and, as we watch them more nearly, we know them to +be the royal family out larking before Paris is astir. Play on, great +Emperor, sweet lady, and careless boy-prince! You have hung up a picture +in our gallery of memory, very pleasant to look at, this cold night in +America. May you always be as happy as when you romped together in the +garden! + +The days that are fled still knock at the door and enter. We are walking +on the banks of the Esk, toward a friendly dwelling in Lasswade,--_Mavis +Bush_ they call the pretty place at the foot of the hill. A slight +figure, clad in black, waits for us at the garden-gate, and bids us +welcome in accents so kindly, that we, too, feel the magic influence of +his low, sweet voice,--an effect which Wordsworth described to us years +before as eloquence set to music. The face of our host is very pale, +and, when he puts his thin arm within ours, we feel how frail a body may +contain a spirit of fire. We go into his modest abode and listen to his +wonderful talk, wishing all the while that the hours were months, that +we might linger there, spellbound, day and night, before the master of +our English tongue. He proposes a ramble across the meadows to Roslin +Chapel, and on the way he discourses of the fascinating drug so +painfully associated with his name in literature,--of Christopher +North, in whose companionship he delighted among the Lakes,--of Elia, +whom he recalled as the most lovable man among his friends, and whom he +has well described elsewhere as a Diogenes with the heart of a Saint +John. In the dark evening he insists upon setting out with us on our +return to Edinburgh. When it grows late, and the mists are heavy on the +mountains, we stand together, clasping hands of farewell in the dim +road, the cold Scotch hills looming up all about us. As the small figure +of the English Opium-Eater glides away into the midnight distance, our +eyes strain after him to catch one more glimpse. The Esk roars, and we +hear his footsteps no longer. + +The scene changes, as the clock strikes in the entry. We are lingering +in the piazza of the Winged Lion, and the bronze giants in their turret +overlooking the square raise their hammers and beat the solemn march of +Time. As we float away through the watery streets, old Shylock +shuffles across the bridge,--black barges glide by us in the silent +canals,--groups of unfamiliar faces lean from the balconies,--and we +hear the plashing waters lap the crumbling walls of Venice, with its +dead Doges and decaying palaces. + +Again we stir the fire, and feel it is home all about us. But we like +to sit here and think of that rosy evening, last summer, when we came +walking into Interlachen, and beheld the ghost-like figure of the +Jungfrau issuing out of her cloudy palace to welcome the stars,--of a +cool, bright, autumnal morning on the western battlements overlooking +Genoa, the blue Mediterranean below mirroring the silent fleet that lay +so motionless on its bosom,--of a midnight visit to the Colosseum with +a band of German students, who bore torches in and out of the time-worn +arches, and sang their echoing songs to the full moon,--of days, how +many and how magical! when we awoke every morning to say, "We are in +Rome!" + +But it grows late, and it is time now to give over these reflections. So +we wind up our watch, and put out the candle. + + * * * * * + + +A DRY-GOODS JOBBER IN 1861. + + +What is a dry-goods jobber? No wonder you ask. You have been hunting, +perhaps, for our peripatetic postoffice, and have stumbled upon Milk +Street and Devonshire Street and Franklin Street. You are almost ready +to believe in the lamp of Aladdin, that could build palaces in a night. +Looking up to the stately and costly structures which have usurped the +place of once familiar dwellings, and learning that they are, for the +most part, tenanted by dry-goods jobbers, you feel that for such huge +results there must needs be an adequate cause, and so you ask, What is a +dry-goods jobber? + +It is more than a curious question. For parents desirous of finding +their true sphere for promising and for unpromising sons, it is +eminently a practical question. It is a question comprehensive of +dollars and cents,--also of bones and sinews, of muscles, nerves, and +brains, of headache, heartache, and the cyclopaedia of being, doing, +and enduring. An adequate answer to such a question must needs ask your +indulgence, for it cannot be condensed into a very few words. + +A dry-goods jobber is a wholesale buyer and seller, for cash or for +approved credit, of all manner of goods, wares, and materials, large +and small, coarse and fine, foreign and domestic, which pertain to the +clothing, convenience, and garnishing, by night and by day, of men, +women, and children: from a button to a blanket; from a calico to a +carpet; from stockings to a head-dress; from an inside handkerchief to a +waterproof; from a piece of tape to a thousand bales of shirtings; not +forgetting linen, silk, or woollen fabrics, for drapery or upholstery, +for bed or table, including hundreds of items which time would fail me +to recite. All these the dry-goods jobber provides for his customer, the +retailer, who in his turn will dispense them to the consumer. + +A really competent and successful dry-goods jobber, in the year of +grace, one thousand, eight hundred and sixty-one, is a new creation. He +is begotten of the times. Of him, as truly as of the poet, and with yet +more emphasis, it must be said, He is born, not made. He is a poet, a +philosopher, an artist, an engineer, a military commander, an advocate, +an attorney, a financier, a steam-engine, a telegraph-operator, a +servant-of-all-work, a Job, a Hercules, and a Bonaparte, rolled into +one. + +"Exaggeration!" do you say? Not at all.--You asked for information? You +shall have it, to your heart's content. + +To a youth, for a time interrupted in his preparation for college, I +said,-- + +Never mind; this falls in exactly with my well-considered plan. You +shall go into a dry-goods store till your eyes recover strength; it will +be the best year's schooling of your life. + +"How so?" was the dubious answer; "what can I learn there?" + +Learn? Everything,--common sense included, which is generally excluded +from the University curriculum: for example, time, place, quantity, and +the worth of each. You shall learn length, breadth, and thickness; hard +and soft; pieces and yards; dozens and the fractions thereof; order and +confusion, cleanliness and dirt,--to love the one and hate the other; +materials, colors, and shades of color; patience, manners, decency +in general; system and method, and the relation these sustain to +independence; in short, that there is a vast deal more out of books than +in books; and, finally, that the man who knows only what is in books is +generally a lump of conceit, and of about as much weight in the scales +of actual life as the ashes of the Alexandrian library, or the worms in +any parchments that may have survived that conflagration. + +"Whew!" was his ejaculation; "I didn't know there was so much." + +I dare say not. Most of your limited days have passed under the training +of men who are in the like predicament,--whose notion of the chief end +of man is, to convert lively boys into thick dictionaries,--and who +honestly believe that the chief want of the age is your walking +dictionary. Any other type of humanity, they tell us, "won't pay." +Much they know of what will and what won't pay! This comes of partial +education,--of one-sided, of warped, and biased education. It puts one +out of patience, this arrogance of the University, this presuming +upon the ignorance of the million, this assertion of an indispensable +necessity to make the boy of the nineteenth century a mere expert in +some subdivision of one of the sciences. The obstinacy of an hereditary +absolutism, which the world has outgrown, still lingers in our schools +of learning. Let us admit the divine right of Science, admit the fitness +of a limited number of our youth to become high-priests in her temple, +but no divine right of fossil interpreters of Science to compel the +entire generation to disembowel their sons and make of these living +temples mere receptacles of Roman, Grecian, or Egyptian relics. We +don't believe that "mummy is medicinal," the Arabian doctor Haly to the +contrary notwithstanding. If it ever was, its day has gone by. Therefore +let all sensible people pray for a Cromwell,--not to pull down +University Science, but to set up the Commonwealth of Common Sense, to +subordinate the former to the latter, and to proclaim an education for +our own age and for its exigencies. Your dry-goods jobber stands in +violent contrast to your University man in the matter of practical +adaptation. His knowledge is no affair of dried specimens, but every +particle of it a living knowledge, ready, at a moment's warning, for all +or any of the demands of life. + +You are perhaps thinking,--"Yes, that is supposable, because the lessons +learned by the jobber are limited to the common affairs of daily life, +are not prospective; because, belonging only to the passing day, they +are easily surveyed on all sides, and their full use realized at once; +in short, a mere matter of buying and selling goods: a very inferior +thing, as compared with the dignified and scholarly labors of the +student." + +How mistaken this estimate is will appear, as we advance to something +like a comprehensive survey of the dry-goods jobber's sphere. + +First, then, he is a buyer of all manner of goods, wares, and materials +proper to his department in commerce. He is minutely informed in the +history of raw materials. He knows the countries from which they +come,--the adaptation of soils and climates to their raising,--the skill +of the cultivators,--the shipping usages,--the effect of transportation +by land and sea on raw materials, and on manufactured articles,--with +all the mysteries of insurance allowances and usages, the debentures +on exportation, and the duties on importation, in his own and in other +lands. His forecast is taxed to the utmost, as to what may be the +condition of his own market, six, twelve, or eighteen months from the +time of ordering goods, both as to the quantity which may be in market, +and as to the fashion, which is always changing,--and also as to the +condition of his customers to pay for goods, which will often depend +upon the fertility of the season. As respects home-purchases, he is +compelled to learn, or to suffer for the want of knowing, that the +difference between being a skilful, pleasant buyer and the opposite is a +profit or loss of from five to seven and a half or ten per cent.,--or, +in other words, the difference, oftentimes, between success and ruin, +between comfort and discomfort, between being a welcome and a hated +visitor, between being honored as an able merchant and contemned as a +mean man or an unmitigated bore. + +Is your curiosity piqued to know wherein buyers thus contrasted may +differ? They differ endlessly, like the faces you meet on the street. +Thus, one man is born to an open, frank, friendly, and courteous manner; +another is cold, reserved, and suspicious. One is prompt, hilarious, +and provocative of every good feeling, whenever you chance to meet; the +other is slow, morose, and fit to waken every dormant antipathy in your +soul. An able buyer is, or becomes, observing to the last degree. He +knows the slightest differences in quality and in style, and possesses +an almost unerring taste,--knows the condition of the market,--knows +every holder of the article he wants, and the lowest price of each. He +knows the peculiarities of the seller,--his strong points and his weak +points, his wisdom and his foibles, his very temperament, and how it is +acted upon by his dinner or the want of it. He knows the estimate put +upon his own note by that seller. He knows what his note will sell for +in the street. He knows to a feather's weight the influence of each of +these items upon the mind of the seller of whom he wishes to make a +purchase. Talk about diplomacy!--there's not a man in any court in +Europe who knows his position, his fulcrum, and his lever, and the use +he can make of them, as this man knows. He can unravel any combination, +penetrate any disguise, surmount any obstacle. Beyond all other men, he +knows when to talk, and when to refrain from talking,--how to throw the +burden of negotiation on the seller,--how to get the goods he wants +at his own price, not at _his_ asking, but on _the suggestion of the +seller_, prompted by his own politely obvious unwillingness to have the +seller part with his merchandise at any price not entirely acceptable to +himself. + +The incompetent man, on the other hand, is presuming, exacting, and +unfeeling. He not only desires, but asserts the desire, in the +very teeth of the seller, to have something which that seller has +predetermined that he shall not have. He fights a losing game from the +start. He will probably begin by depreciating the goods which he knows, +or should know, that the seller has reason to hold in high esteem. He +will be likely enough to compare them to some other goods which he knows +to be inferior. He will thus arouse a feeling of dislike, if not of +anger, where his interest should teach him to conciliate and soothe; and +if he sometimes carry his point, his very victory is in effect a defeat, +since it procures him an increased antipathy. This the judicious +buyer never does. He repudiates, as a mere half-truth, and a relic of +barbarism, the maxim, "There is no friendship in trade." + +"But," you are asking, "do only those succeed who are born to these +extraordinary endowments? And those who do succeed, are they, in +fact, each and all of them, such wonderfully capable men as you have +described?" + +If by success you mean mere money-making, it is not to be denied that +some men do that by an instinct, little, if at all, superior to that of +the dog who smells out a bone. There are exceptions to all rules; and +there are chances in all games, even in games of skill. Lord Timothy +Dexter, as he is facetiously called, shipped warming-pans to the West +Indies, in defiance of all geographical objections to the venture, and +made money by the shipment,--not because warming-pans were wanted there, +but because the natives mistook and used them for molasses-ladles. It +must be owned that a portion of the successful ones are _lucky_,--that +a portion of them use the blunt weapon of an indomitable will, as an +efficient substitute for the finer edge of that nice tact and good +manners which they lack. Their very rudeness seems to commend them to +the rude natures which confound refinement with trickery and assume that +brutality must needs be honest. + +But there are other things to be said of buying. The dry-goods jobber +frequents the auction-room. If you have never seen a large sale of +dry-goods at auction, you have missed one of the remarkable incidents +of our day. You are not yet aware of how much an auctioneer and two or +three hundred jobbers can do and endure in the short space of three +hours. You must know that fifty or a hundred thousand dollars' worth of +goods may easily change owners in that time. You are not to dream of the +leisurely way of disposing of somebody's household-furniture or library, +which characterizes the doings of one or two of our fellow-citizens who +manage such matters within speaking distance of King's Chapel: but are +rather to picture to yourself a congregation of three hundred of the +promptest men in our Atlantic cities, with a sprinkling of Westerners +quite as wide awake for bargains, each of them having marked his +catalogue; an auctioneer who considers the sale of a hundred lots an +hour his proper _role_, and who is able to see the lip, eye, or finger +of the man whose note he covets, in spite of all sounds, signs, or +opaque bodies. The man of unquiet nerves or of exacting lungs would +do well to leave that arena to the hard-heads and cool-bloods who can +pursue their aim and secure their interests: undisturbed either by +the fractional rat-a-tat-tat of the auctioneer's "Twenty-seven +af--naf--naf--naf,--who'll give me thirty?" or by the banter and +comicalities which a humor-loving auctioneer will interject between +these bird-notes, without changing his key, or arresting his sale a +moment. If you would see the evidence of comprehensive and minute +knowledge, of good taste, quick wit, sound judgment, and electrical +decision, attend an auction-sale in New York some morning. There will be +no lack of fun to season the solemnity of business, nor of the mixture +of courtesy and selfishness usual in every gathering, whether for +philanthropic, scientific, or commercial purposes. Many dry-goods +jobbers will attend the sale with no intention of buying, but simply to +note the prices obtained, and, having traced the goods to their owners, +to get the same in better order and on better terms; the commission paid +to the auctioneer being divided, or wholly conceded by the seller to the +buyer, according to his estimate of the note. + +A dry-goods buyer will sometimes spend a month in New York, the first +third or half of which he will devote to ascertaining what goods are in +the market, and what are to arrive; also to learning the mood of the +English, French, and Germans who hold the largest stocks. Sometimes +these gentlemen will make an early trial of their goods at auction. +Unsatisfactory results will rouse their phlegm or fire, and they declare +they will not send another piece of goods to auction, come what may. For +local or temporary reasons, buyers sometimes persist in holding back +till the season is so far advanced that the foreign gentlemen become +alarmed. Their credits in London, Paris, and Amsterdam are running out; +they are anxious to make remittances; and then ensues one of those +dry-goods panics so characteristic of New York and its mixed multitude; +an avalanche of goods descends upon the auction-rooms, and prices +drop ten, twenty, forty per cent., it may be, and the unlucky or +short-sighted men who made early purchases are in desperate haste to run +off their stocks before the market is irreparably broken down. Whether, +therefore, to buy early or late, in large or in small quantities, at +home or abroad,--are questions beset with difficulty. He who imports +largely may land his goods in a bare market and reap a golden harvest, +or in a market so glutted with goods that the large sums he counts out +to pay the duties may be but a fraction of the loss he knows to be +inevitable. + +In addition to the problems belonging to time and place of purchasing, +to quantities and prices, there is a host of other problems begotten of +styles, of colors, of assortments, of texture and finish, of adaptation +to one market or another. The profit on a case of goods is often +sacrificed by the introduction or omission of one color or figure, +the presence or absence of which makes the merchandise desirable or +undesirable. Little less than omniscience will suffice to guard against +the sometimes sudden, and often most unaccountable, freaks of fashion, +whose fiat may doom a thing, in every respect admirably adapted to its +intended use, to irretrievable condemnation and loss of value. And when +you remember that the purchases of dry-goods must be made in very large +quantities, from a month to six or even twelve months before the buyer +can sell them, and that his sales are many times larger than his +capital, and most of them on long credit, you have before you a +combination of exigencies hardly to be paralleled elsewhere. + +The crisis of 1857 brought a general collapse. Scores and scores of +jobbers failed; very few dared to buy goods. Mills were compelled to run +on short time, or to cease altogether. The country became bare of +the common necessaries of life. In process of time trade rallied. +Manufacturing recommenced; orders for goods poured in; and for a +twelve-month and more the manufacturer has had it all his own way. His +goods are all sold ahead, months ahead of his ability to manufacture. +He makes his own price, and chooses his customer. This operates not +unkindly on the jobbers who are wealthy and independent; but for those +who have but lately begun to mount the hill of difficulty, it offers one +more impediment. For, to men who have a great many goods to sell, it +is a matter of moment to secure the customers who can buy in large +quantities, and whose notes will bring the money of banks or private +capitalists as soon as offered. Against such buyers, men of limited +means and of only average business-ability have but a poor chance. +There will always be some articles of merchandise in the buying or +selling of which they cannot compete. + +When a financial crisis overtakes the community, we hear much and sharp +censure of all _speculation_. Speculators, one and all, are forthwith +consigned to an abyss of obloquy. The virtuous public outside of trade +washes its hands of all participation in the iniquity. This same +virtuous public knows very little of what it is talking about. What is +speculation? Shall we say, in brief and in general, that it consists in +running risks, in taking extra-hazardous risks, on the chance of making +unusually large profits? Is it that men have abandoned the careful ways +of the fathers, and do not confine themselves to small stores, small +stocks, and cash transactions? And do you know who it is that has +compelled this change? That same public who denounce speculation in one +breath, and in the next clamor for goods at low prices, and force +the jobber into large stores and large sales at small profits as the +indispensable condition of his very existence. + +Those who thus rail at speculation are generally quite unaware that +their own inexorable demand for goods at low prices is one of the +principal efficient causes of that of which they complain. They do not +know that the capacious maw of the insatiable public is yearly filled +with millions on millions of shirtings and sheetings, and other articles +of prime necessity, without one farthing of profit to the jobber. The +outside world reason from the assumption, that the jobber might, but +will not, avoid taking considerable risks. They do not consider, +for they do not know, how entirely all is changed from the days and +circumstances in which a very small business would suffice to maintain +the merchant. They do not consider, that, an immense amount of goods +being of compulsion sold without profit, a yet other huge amount must +be so sold as to compensate for this. Nor do they consider that the +possibility of doing this is often contingent upon the buyer's carefully +calculated probability of a rise in the article he is purchasing. Many a +time is the jobber enabled and inclined to purchase largely only by the +assurance that from the time of his purchase the price will be advanced. + +The _selling_ of dry-goods is another department in high art about which +the ignorance of outsiders is ineffable. I was once asked, in the way +of courtesy and good neighborhood, to call on a clergyman in our +vicinity,--which I did. Desirous of doing his part in the matter of good +fellowship and smooth conversation, he began thus:-- + +"Well, now, Mr. Smith, you know all about business: I suppose, if I were +to go into a store to buy goods, nineteen men out of twenty would cheat +me, if they could; wouldn't they?" + +"No, Sir!" I answered, with a swelling of indignation at the injustice, +a mingling of pity for the ignorance, and a foreboding of small benefit +from the preaching of a minister of the gospel who knew so little of the +world he lived in. "No, Sir; nineteen men in twenty would not cheat you, +if they could; for the best of all reasons,--it would be dead against +their own interest." + +Not a day passes but the question is asked by our youths who are being +initiated in the routine of selling goods,--"Is this honest? Is that +honest? Is it honest to mark your goods as costing more than they do +cost? Is it honest to ask one man more than you ask another? Ought not +the same price to be named to every buyer? Isn't it cheating to get +twenty-five per cent. profit? Can a man sell goods without lying? Are +men compelled to lie and cheat a little in order to earn an honest +living?" What is the reason that these questions will keep coming up? +That they can no more be laid than Banquo's ghost? Here are some of the +reasons. First, and foremost, multitudes of young men, whose parents +followed the plough, the loom, or the anvil, have taken it into their +heads, that they will neither dig, hammer, nor ply the shuttle. To soil +their hands with manual labor they cannot abide. The sphere of commerce +looks to their longing eyes a better thing than lying down in green +pastures, or than a peaceful life beside still waters, procured by +laborious farming, or by any mechanical pursuit. Clean linen and stylish +apparel are inseparably associated in their minds with an easy and +elegant life, and so they pour into our cities, and the ranks of the +merchants are filled, and over-filled, many times. Once, the merchant +had only to procure an inviting stock, and his goods sold themselves. +He did not go after customers; they came to him; and it was a matter of +favor to them to supply their wants. Now, all that is changed. There are +many more merchants than are needed; buyers are in request; and buyers +whose credit is the best, to a very great extent, dictate the prices at +which they will buy. The question is no longer, How large a profit can +I get? but, How small a profit shall I accept? The competition for +customers is so fierce that the seller hardly dares ask any profit, for +fear his more anxious neighbor will undersell him. In order to attract +customers, one thing after another has been made "a leading article," +a bait to be offered at cost or even less than cost,--that being +oftentimes the condition on which alone the purchaser will make a +beginning of buying. + +"Jenkins," cried an anxious seller, "you don't buy anything of me, and I +can sell you as cheap as any. Here's a bale of sheetings now, at eight +cents, will do you good." + +"How many have you got?" + +"Oh, plenty." + +"Well, how many?" + +"Fifteen bales." + +"Well, I'll take them." + +"Come in and buy something more." + +"No, nothing more to-day." + +There was a loss of seventy-five dollars, and he did not dare buy more. + +It will be obvious that the selling a part of one's goods at less than +cost enhances the necessity of getting a profit on the rest. But how +to do this, under the sharp scrutiny of a buyer who knows that his own +success, not to say his very existence, depends upon his paying no +profit possible to be avoided,--no profit, at all events, not certainly +paid by some sharp neighbor who is competing with him for the same +trade? + +"But is there anything in all this," you are asking, "to preclude the +jobber's telling the truth?" Nothing. "Anything to preclude strict +honesty?" Nothing. "Why, then, do the questions you have quoted +continually recur?" + +I answer: In order to get his share of the best custom in his line, the +dry-goods jobber has taken a store in the best position in town, at a +rent of from three to fifty thousand dollars a year; has hired men and +boys at all prices, from fifty dollars to five thousand,--and enough of +these to result in an aggregate of from five to fifty thousand dollars +a year for help, without which his business cannot be done. Add to +this the usual average for store-expenses of every name, and for +the family-expenses of two, five, or seven partners, and you find a +dry-goods firm under the necessity of getting out of their year's sales +somewhere from fifteen to a hundred and fifty thousand dollars profit, +before they shall have saved one cent to meet the losses of an +unfavorable season. + +Now, though there is nothing even in all these urgencies to justify a +single lie or fraud, there is much to sharpen a man's wits to secure the +sale of his goods,--much to educate him in all manner of expedients to +baffle the inquiries of customers who would be offended, if they could +discover that he ever charged them the profit without which he could +never meet his expenses. And the jobber's problem is complicated by the +folly, universally prevalent among buyers, of expecting some partiality +or peculiarity of favor over their neighbors who are just as good as +themselves. Every dry-goods jobber knows that his customer's foolish +hope and expectation often demand three absurdities of him: first, the +assurance that he has the advantage over all other jobbers in a better +stock of goods, better bought; secondly, that he has a peculiar +friendship for himself; and thirdly, that, though of other men he must +needs get a profit, in his special instance he shall ask little or +none; and that, such is his regard for him, it is a matter of no moment +whether he live in Lowell or Louisiana, in New Bedford or Nebraska, or +whether he pay New England bank-notes within thirty days, or wild-cat +money and wild lands, which may be converted into cash, with more or +less expense and loss, somewhere between nine months and nine-and-twenty +years. + +And yet the uninitiated "can't understand how an honest merchant can +have two prices for the same goods." An honest man has but one price +for the same goods, and that is the cash price. All outside of that is +barter,--goods for notes. His first inquiry is, What is the market-value +of the note offered? True, he knows that many of the notes he takes +cannot be sold at all; but he also knows that the notes he is willing to +take will in the aggregate be guarantied by a reservation of one, two, +or three per cent., and that the note of the particular applicant for +credit will tend to swell or to diminish the rate; and he cannot afford +to exchange his goods for any note, except at a profit which will +guaranty its payment when due,--which, in other words, will make the +note equal in value to cash. + +Now it is just because all business-contingencies cannot be worked into +an unvarying form, as regular as the multiplication-table, and as plain +to the apprehension of all men, that a vast amount of lying and of +dishonesty is imputed, where it does not exist. Merchants are much like +other men,--wise and unwise, far-sighted and short-sighted, selfish +and unselfish, honest and dishonest. But that they are as a class more +dishonest than other men is so far from being true, that I much doubt if +we should overstrain the matter, if we should affirm that they are +the most honest class of men in the community. There is much in their +training which contributes directly, and most efficiently, to this +result. Their very first lessons are in feet and inches, in pounds and +ounces, in exact calculations, in accounts and balances. Carelessness, +mistakes, inaccuracies, they are made to understand, are unpardonable +sins. The boy who goes into a store learns, for the first time, that +half a cent, a quarter of a cent, an eighth of a cent, may be a matter +of the gravest import. He finds a thorough book-keeper absolutely +refusing himself rest till he has detected an error of ten cents in a +business of six months. And every day's experience enforces the lesson. +It is giving what is due, and claiming what is due, from year's end to +year's end. Among merchants it is matter of common notoriety, that the +prompt and exact adherence to orders insisted on by merchants, and +prompt advice of receipt of business and of progress, cannot be expected +from our worthy brethren at the bar. (The few honorable exceptions are +respectfully informed that they are not referred to.) We do not expect +them to weigh or measure the needless annoyance to which they often +subject us, because they have never been, like ourselves, trained to +the use of weights and measures; and therefore we are not willing to +stigmatize them as dishonest, though they do, in fact, often steal +our time and strength and patience, by withholding an answer to a +business-letter. + +None but those who are in the business know the assiduous attention with +which the dry-goods jobber follows up his customers. None but they know +the urgent necessity of doing this. The jobber may have travelled a +thousand miles to make his customer's acquaintance, and to prevail upon +him to come to Boston to make his purchases; and some neighbor, who +boards at the hotel he happens to make his resting-place, lights upon +him, shows him attention, tempts him with bargains not to be refused, +prevails upon him to make the bulk of his purchases of him, before +his first acquaintance even hears of his arrival. To guard against +disappointments such as this, the jobber sends his salesmen to live at +hotels, haunts the hotels himself, studies the hotel-register far more +assiduously than he can study his own comfort, or the comfort of his +wife and children. Of one such jobber it was said, facetiously,--"He +goes the round of all the hotels every morning with a lantern, to wake +up his customers." I had an errand one day at noon to such a devotee. +Inquiring for him in the counting-room, I was told by his book-keeper +to follow the stairs to the top of the store, and I should find him. I +mounted flight after flight to the attic, and there I found, not only +the man, but also one or two of his customers, surrounding a huge +packing-case, upon which they had extemporized a dinner, cold turkey +and tongue, and other edibles, taken standing, with plenty of fun for a +dessert. The next time we happened to meet, I said,--"So you take not +only time, but also customers, by the forelock!" + +"Yes, to be sure," was his answer; "let 'em go to their hotel to dinner +in the middle of a bill, and somebody lights upon 'em, and carries 'em +off to buy elsewhere; or they begin to remember that it is a long way +home, feel homesick, slip off to New York as being so far on the way, +and that's the last you see of 'em. No, we're bound to see 'em through, +and no let-up till they've bought all they've got on their memorandum." + +We have not yet touched the question of credit. To whom shall the jobber +sell his goods? It is the question of questions. Many a man who has +bought well, who in other respects has sold well, who possessed all +the characteristics which recommend a man to the confidence and to the +good-will of his fellows, has made shipwreck of his fortunes because of +his inability to meet this question. He sold his goods to men who never +paid him. To say that in this the most successful jobbers are governed +by an instinct, by an intuitive conviction which is superior to all +rules of judgment, would be to allege what it would be difficult to +prove. It would be less difficult to maintain that every competent +merchant, however unconscious of the fact, has a standard of judgment by +which he tries each applicant for credit. There are characteristics of +men who can safely be credited, entirely familiar to his thoughts. He +looks upon the man and instantly feels that he is or is not the man +for him. He thinks his decision an instinct, or an intuition, because, +through much practice, these mental operations have become so rapid as +to defy analysis. Not being infallible, he sometimes mistakes; and when +he so mistakes, he will be sure to say,--I made that loss because I +relied too much upon this characteristic, or because I did not allow +its proper weight to the absence of some other,--because I thought his +shrewdness or his honesty, his enterprise or his economy, would save +him: implying that he had observed some non-conformity to his standard, +but had relied upon some excellency in excess to make up for it. + +What are the perplexities which beset the question, To whom shall the +jobber sell his goods? They are manifold; and some of them are peculiar +to our country. Our territory is very extensive; our population very +heterogeneous; the economy and close calculation which recommend a man +in Massachusetts may discredit him in Louisiana. The very countenance is +often a sure indication of character and of capacity, when it is one of +a class and a region whose peculiarities we thoroughly understand; +but coming to us from other classes and regions, we are often at +fault,--more especially in these latter days, when all strong-mindedness +is presumed to be foreshadowed in a stiff beard. Time was when something +could be inferred from a lip, a mouth, a chin,--when character could be +found in the contour and color of a cheek; but that time has passed. +The time was, when, among a homogeneous people, a few time-honored +characteristics were both relied on and insisted on: for example, good +parentage, good moral character, a thorough training, and superior +capacity, joined to industry, economy, sound judgment, and good manners. +But Young America has learned to make light of some of these, and to +dispense altogether with others of them. + +Once the buyer was required to prove himself an honest, worthy, and +capable man. If he wanted credit, he must humbly sue for it, and prove +himself deserving of it; and no man thought of applying for it who was +not prepared to furnish irrefragable evidence. Once, a reference to some +respectable acquaintance would serve the purpose; and neighbors held +themselves bound to tell all they knew. The increase of merchants, and +fierce competition for customers, have changed this. Men now +regard their knowledge of other men as a part of their capital or +stock-in-trade. Their knowledge has been acquired at much cost of labor +and money; and they hold themselves absolved from all obligation to +give away what they have thus expensively acquired. Moreover, their +confidence has sometimes been betrayed, and their free communications +have been remorselessly used to their disadvantage. Alas, it cannot +be denied that even dry-goods jobbers, with all their extraordinary +endowments, are not quite perfect! for some of them will "state the +thing that is not," and others "convey" their neighbor's property into +their own coffers: men who prefer gain to godliness, and mistake much +money for respectability. + +There are very few men, in certain sections of the country, who will +absolutely refuse to give a letter of introduction to a neighbor on the +simple ground of ill-desert. Men dread the ill-will of their neighbor, +and particularly the ill-will of an unscrupulous neighbor; so, when such +a neighbor asks a letter, they give it. I remember such a one bringing a +dozen or more letters, some of which contained the highest commendation. +The writer of one of these letters sent a private note, through the +mail, warning one of the persons addressed against the bearer of his own +commendatory letter. Those who had no warning sold, and lost. It would +be difficult to find a man, however unworthy, who could not, from some +quarter, obtain a very respectable letter of introduction. One of the +greatest rogues that ever came to Boston brought letters from two of +the foremost houses in New York to two firms second to none in Boston. +Neither of these gentlemen was in fault in the matter; the train had +been laid by some obliging cousin in a banking-house in London. + +In making up our account of the difficulties with which a dry-goods +jobber has to deal, in conducting a successful business, it must be +distinctly stated, that on no man can he count for information which +will, however remotely or slightly, compromise the interest of the one +inquired of. Never, perhaps, was it so true as now, that "the seller has +need of a hundred eyes." The competent jobber uses his eyes first of all +upon the person of the man who desires to buy of him. He questions him +about himself, with such directness or indirectness as instinct and +experience dictate. He learns to discriminate between the sensitiveness +of the high-toned honest man and the sensitiveness of the rogue. Many +men of each class are inclined to resent and resist the catechism. +Strange as it may seem, the very men who would inexorably refuse a +credit to those who should decline to answer their inquiries are the men +most inclined to resent any inquiry about themselves. While they demand +the fullest and most particular information from their customers, +they wonder that others will not take them on their own estimate of +themselves. + +The jobber next directs his attention to the buyer's knowledge of goods: +of their quality, their style, their worth in market, and their fitness +for his own market; all of which will come to light, as he offers to +his notice the various articles he has for sale. He will improve the +opportunity to draw him out in general conversation, so guiding it as to +touch many points of importance, and yet not so as to betray a want of +confidence. He sounds him as to his knowledge of other merchants at home +and in the city; takes the names of his references,--of several, if he +can get them; puts himself in communication with men who know him, both +at his home and in the city. If he can harmonize the information derived +from all these sources into a consistent and satisfactory whole, he will +then do his utmost to secure his customer, both by selling him his goods +at a profit so small that he need have little fear of any neighbor's +underselling him, and also by granting every possible accommodation as +to the time and manner of payment. + +A moderately thoughtful man will by this time begin to think the +elements of toil and of perplexity already suggested sufficient for the +time and strength of any man, and more than he would wish to undertake. +But experience alone could teach him in how many ways indulged customers +can and do manage to make the profit they pay so small, and the toil +and vexation they occasion so great, that the jobber is often put upon +weighing the question, Should I not be richer without them? Thus, for +example, some of them will affect to doubt that the jobber wishes to +sell to them, and propose, as a test, that he shall let them have +some choice article at the cost, or at less than the cost, now on one +pretext, and now on another,--intimating an indisposition to buy, if +they cannot be indulged in that one thing. If they carry their point, +that exceptional price is thenceforth claimed as the rule. Another day +the concession will be asked on something else; and by extending this +game so as to include a number of jobbers, these shrewd buyers will +manage to lay in an assorted stock on which there will have been little +or no profit to the sellers. To cap the climax of vexation, these +persons will very probably come in, after not many days, and propose +to cash their notes at double interest off. Only an official of +the Inquisition could turn the thumb-screw so many times, and so +remorselessly. + +But we have yet to consider the collection of debts. The jobber who has +not capital so ample as to buy only for cash is expected invariably to +settle his purchases by giving his note, payable at bank on a fixed day. +He pays it when due, or fails. Not so with his customers: multitudes +of them shrink from giving a note payable at bank, and some altogether +refuse to do so. They wish to buy on open account; or to give a note to +be paid at maturity, if convenient,--otherwise not. The number of really +prompt and punctual men, as compared with those who are otherwise, is +very small. The number of those who never fail is smaller still. The +collection-laws are completely alike, probably, in no two States. Some +of them appear to have been constructed for the accommodation, not of +honest creditors, but of dishonest debtors. In others, they are such as +to put each jobber in fear of every other,--a first attachment taking +all the property, if the debt be large enough, leaving little or +nothing, usually, for those who have been willing to give the debtor +such indulgence as might enable him to pay in full, were it granted by +all his creditors. + +No jobber can open his letters in the morning in the certainty of +finding no tidings of a failure. No jobber, leaving his breakfast-table, +can assure his wife and children, sick or well, that he will dine or sup +with them; any one of a dozen railroad-trains may, for aught he knows, +be sweeping him away to some remote point, to battle with the mischances +of trade, the misfortunes of honest men, or the knavery of rogues and +the meshes of the law. Once in the cars, he casts his eye around in +uneasy expectation of finding some one or more of his neighbors bound on +the same errand. While yet peering over the seats in front of him, he is +unpleasantly startled by a slap on the shoulder, and, "Ah, John! +bound East? What's in the wind? Any ducks in these days?" +"Why,--yes,--no,--that is, I'm going down along,--little uncertain how +far,--depends on circumstances." "So, so,--I see,--mum's the word." +Well, neither is quite ready to trust the other,--neither quite ready to +know the worst; so long as a blow is suspended, it may not fall; and so, +with desperate exertions, they change the subject, converse on things +indifferent,--or subside into more or less moody meditations upon their +respective chances and prospects. + +Any jobber who has seen service will tell you stories without number of +these vexatious experiences, sometimes dashed with the comical in no +common measure. He will tell you of how they arrived at the last town +on the railroad, some six or seven of them; of how not a word had been +lisped of their destination; of the stampede from the railroad-station +to the tavern; of the spirited bids for horses and wagons; of the +chop-fallen disappointment of the man for whom no vehicle remained; of +his steeple-chase a-bareback; and of their various successes with writs +and officers, in their rush for the store of the delinquent debtor. Of +three such Jehus, the story goes, that, two of them having bought the +monopoly of the inside of the only vehicle, and, in so doing, as they +thought, having utterly precluded any chance for the third, their +dauntless competitor instantly mounted with the driver, commenced +negotiations for the horse, which speedily resulted in a purchase, and +thereupon detached the horse from the vehicle, drove on, and effected a +first attachment, which secured his debt. + +The occurrence of "a bad year" compels many a jobber to abandon his +store and home for one, two, or three months together, and visit his +customers scattered all over the land, to make collections. Then it is +that the power of persuasion, if possessed, is brought into efficient +use; discrimination, too, is demanded; good judgment, and power of +combination. For a debt that cannot be paid in money may possibly be +paid partly in money, or in merchandise of some sort, and in part +secured; and, among the securities offered, to choose those which will +involve the least delay is generally no easy matter. + +To those who, without experience, are commencing a jobbing-business, +a capital of thirty, forty, or fifty thousand dollars seems an +inexhaustible fund. Experience teaches that an incautious and unskilful +man may easily bury even the largest of these sums in a single season. +If not actually lost, it has in effect ceased to be capital, because it +cannot be collected, and the notes he has taken are such as will not be +discounted. + +Success in the jobbing-business makes such demand on talent and capacity +as outsiders seldom dream of. Half-a-dozen Secretaries of State, with a +Governor and a President thrown in, would not suffice to constitute a +first-class jobbing-firm. The general or special incompetency of these +distinguished functionaries in their several spheres may probably be +covered by the capacity of their subordinates. The President of these +United States--of late years, at all events--is not supposed to be in +a position to know whether the will is or is not "a self-determining +power." But no jobbing-firm can thus cloak its deficiencies, or shirk +its responsibilities. Goods must be bought, and sold, and paid for; and +a master-spirit in each department, capable of penetrating to every +particular, and of controlling every subordinate, cannot be dispensed +with. He must know that every man to whom he delegates any portion of +his work is competent and trustworthy. He must be able to feel that the +thing which he deputes to each will be as surely and as faithfully done +as though done by his own hand. No criticism is more common or more +depreciatory than that "Such a one will not succeed, because he has +surrounded himself with incompetent men." + +It is much to be regretted that it cannot be said, that no man can +succeed in the jobbing-business who is not a model of courtesy. +Unhappily, our community has not yet reached that elevation. But this +may with truth be affirmed,--that many a man fails for the want of +courtesy, and for the want of that good-will to his fellows from which +all real courtesy springs. There is small chance for any man to succeed +who does not command his own spirit. There is no chance whatever for +an indolent man; and, in the long run, little or no chance for the +dishonest man. The same must be said for the timid and for the rash man. +Nor can we offer any encouragement to the intermittent man. From year's +end to year's end, the dry-goods jobber finds himself necessitated to be +studying his stock and his ledger. He knows, that, while men sleep, the +enemy will be sowing tares. In his case, the flying moments are the +enemy, and bad stock and bad debts are the tares. To weed out each of +these is his unceasing care. And as both the one and the other are +forever choking the streams of income which should supply the means of +paying his own notes, his no less constant care is to provide such other +conduits as shall insure him always a full basin at the bank. Nobody but +a jobber can know the vexation of a jobber who cannot find money to cash +his notes when they are beginning to be thrown into the market at a +price a shade lower than his neighbor's notes are sold at. + +In conclusion, a few material facts should be stated. + +As a general proposition, it is not to be denied, that those who are +in haste to get rich will find in the dry-goods jobbing-business many +temptations and snares into which one may easily fall. A young man who +is not fortified by a faithful home-training, and by sound religious +principle, will be likely enough to degenerate into a heartless +money-maker. + +While the young man who has been well trained at home, who appreciates +good manners, good morals, and good books, will derive immense advantage +in acquiring that quick discernment, that intuitive apprehension of +the rights and of the pleasure of others, and that nice tact, which +characterize the highest style of merchants,--he who has not been thus +prepared will be more than likely to mistake _brusquerie_ for manliness, +and brutality for the sublime of independence. As in a great house there +are vessels unto honor and also unto dishonor, so in the purlieus of +the dry-goods trade there are gentlemen who would honor and adorn any +society, and also men whose manners would shame Hottentots,--whose +language, innocent of all preference for Worcester or Webster, a terror +to all decent ideas, like scarecrows in corn-fields, is dressed in the +cast-off garments of the refuse of all classes. + +Success in retailing does not necessarily qualify a man to succeed in +the dry-goods jobbing-business. The game is played on a much larger +scale; it includes other chances, and demands other qualifications, +natural and acquired. Instances are not wanting of men who, in the +smaller towns, had made to themselves a name and acquired an honorable +independence, sinking both capital and courage in their endeavors to +manage the business of a city-jobber. + +It should be well remembered, that, while it is not indispensable to +success in the jobbing-business that each partner should be an expert +in every department of the business, in buying, selling, collecting, +paying, and book-keeping, it is absolutely necessary that each should +be such in his own department,--and that the firm, as a unit, should +include a completely competent man for each and every one of these +departments. The lack of the qualities which are indispensable to any +one of these may, and probably will, prove an abyss deep enough to +ingulf the largest commercial ship afloat. + +Finally, to avoid disappointment, the man who would embark in the +dry-goods trade should make up his mind to meet every variety of +experience known to mortals, and to be daunted by nothing. He will +assuredly find fair winds and head winds, clear skies and cloudy skies, +head seas and cross seas as well as stern seas. A wind that justifies +studding-sails may change, without premonition, to a gale that will make +ribbons of top-sails and of storm-sails. The best crew afloat cannot +preclude all casualties, or exclude sleepless nights and cold sweats now +and then; but a quick eye, a cool head, a prompt hand, and indomitable +perseverance will overcome almost all things. + + + + +THE OLD HOMESTEAD. + + + The wet trees hang above the walks + Purple with damps and earthish stains, + And strewn by moody, absent rains + With rose-leaves from the wild-grown stalks. + + Unmown, in heavy, tangled swaths, + The ripe June-grass is wanton blown; + Snails slime the untrodden threshold-stone, + Along the sills hang drowsy moths. + + Down the blank visage of the wall, + Where many a wavering trace appears + Like a forgotten trace of tears, + From swollen caves the slow drops crawl. + + Where everything was wide before, + The curious wind, that comes and goes, + Finds all the latticed windows close, + Secret and close the bolted door. + + And with the shrewd and curious wind, + That in the arched doorway cries, + And at the bolted portal tries, + And harks and listens at the blind,-- + + Forever lurks my thought about, + And in the ghostly middle-night + Finds all the hidden windows bright, + And sees the guests go in and out,-- + + And lingers till the pallid dawn, + And feels the mystery deeper there + In silent, gust-swept chambers, bare, + With all the midnight revel gone; + + But wanders through the lonesome rooms, + Where harsh the astonished cricket calls, + And, from the hollows of the walls + Vanishing, stare unshapen glooms; + + And lingers yet, and cannot come + Out of the drear and desolate place, + So full of ruin's solemn grace, + And haunted with the ghost of home. + + + + +THE PROFESSOR'S STORY. + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +THE NEWS REACHES THE DUDLEY MANSION. + + +Early the next morning Abel Stebbins made his appearance at Dudley +Venner's, and requested to see the maaen o' the haouse abaout somethin' +o' consequence. Mr. Venner sent word that the messenger should wait +below, and presently appeared in the study, where Abel was making +himself at home, as is the wont of the republican citizen, when he hides +the purple of empire beneath the apron of domestic service. + +"Good mornin', Squire!" said Abel, as Mr. Venner entered. "My name's +Stebbins, 'n' I'm stoppin' f'r a spell 'ith ol' Doctor Kittredge." + +"Well, Stebbins," said Mr. Dudley Venner, "have you brought any special +message from the Doctor?" + +"Y' ha'n't heerd nothin' abaout it, Squire, d' ye mean t' say?" said +Abel,--beginning to suspect that he was the first to bring the news of +last evening's events. + +"About--what?" asked Mr. Venner, with some interest. + +"Dew tell, naow! Waal, that beats all! Why, that 'ere Portagee relation +o' yourn 'z been tryin' t' ketch a fellah 'n a slippernoose, 'n' got +ketched himself,--that's all. Y' ha'n't heerd noth'n' abaout it?" + +"Sit down," said Mr. Dudley Venner, calmly, "and tell me all you have to +say." + +So Abel sat down and gave him an account of the events of the last +evening. It was a strange and terrible surprise to Dudley Venner to find +that his nephew, who had been an inmate of his house and the companion +of his daughter, was to all intents and purposes guilty of the gravest +of crimes. But the first shock was no sooner over than he began to think +what effect the news would have on Elsie. He imagined that there was a +kind of friendly feeling between them, and he feared some crisis would +be provoked in his daughter's mental condition by the discovery. He +would wait, however, until she came from her chamber, before disturbing +her with the evil tidings. + +Abel did not forget his message with reference to the equipments of the +dead mustang. + +"The' was some things on the hoss, Squire, that the man he ketched +said he didn' care no gre't abaout; but perhaps you'd like to have 'em +fetched to the mansion-haouse. Ef y' _didn'_ care abaout 'em, though, +I shouldn' min' keepin' on 'em; they might come handy some time or +'nother: they say, holt on t' anything for ten year 'n' there'll be some +kin' o' use for't." + +"Keep everything," said Dudley Venner. "I don't want to see anything +belonging to that young man." + +So Abel nodded to Mr. Venner, and left the study to find some of the men +about the stable to tell and talk over with them the events of the +last evening. He presently came upon Elbridge, chief of the equine +department, and driver of the family-coach. + +"Good mornin', Abe," said Elbridge. "What's fetched y' daown here so +all-fired airly?" + +"You're a darned pooty lot daown here, you be!" Abel answered. "Better +keep your Portagees t' home nex' time, ketchin' folks 'ith slippernooses +raoun' their necks, 'n' kerryin' knives 'n their boots!" + +"What 'r' you jawin' abaout?" Elbridge said, looking up to see if he was +in earnest, and what he meant. + +"Jawin' abaout? You'll find aout 'z soon 'z y' go into that 'ere stable +o' yourn! Y' won't curry that 'ere long-tailed black hoss no more; 'n' +y' won't set y'r eyes on the fellah that rid him, ag'in, in a hurry!" + +Elbridge walked straight to the stable, without saying a word, found the +door unlocked, and went in. + +"Th' critter's gone, sure enough!" he said. "Glad on't! The darndest, +kickin'est, bitin'est beast th't ever I see, 'r ever wan' t' see ag'in! +Good reddance! Don' wan' no snappin'-turkles in my stable! Whar's the +man gone th't brought the critter?" + +"Whar he's gone? Guess y' better go 'n aaesk my ol' man; he kerried him +off laaes' night; 'n' when he comes back, mebbe he'll tell ye whar he's +gone tew!" + +By this time Elbridge had found out that Abel was in earnest, and had +something to tell. He looked at the litter in the mustang's stall, then +at the crib. + +"Ha'n't eat b't haaelf his feed. Ha'n't been daown on his straw. Must ha' +been took aout somewhere abaout ten 'r 'leven o'clock. I know that 'ere +critter's ways. The fellah's had him aout nights afore; b't I never +thought nothin' o' no mischief. He's a kin' o' haaelf Injin. What is 't +the chap's been a-doin' on? Tell 's all abaout it." + +Abel sat down on a meal-chest, picked up a straw and put it into his +mouth. Elbridge sat down at the other end, pulled out his jackknife, +opened the penknife-blade, and began sticking it into the lid of the +meal-chest. The Doctor's man had a story to tell, and he meant to +get all the enjoyment out of it. So he told it with every luxury of +circumstance. Mr. Venner's man heard it all with open mouth. No listener +in the gardens of Stamboul could have found more rapture in a tale heard +amidst the perfume of roses and the voices of birds and tinkling of +fountains than Elbridge in following Abel's narrative, as they sat there +in the aromatic ammoniacal atmosphere of the stable, the grinding of the +horses' jaws keeping evenly on through it all, with now and then the +interruption of a stamping hoof, and at intervals a ringing crow from +the barnyard. + +Elbridge stopped a minute to think, after Abel had finished. + +"Who's took care o' them things that was on the hoss?" he said, gravely. + +"Waael, Langden, he seemed to kin' o' think I'd ought to have 'em,--'n' +the Squire, he didn' seem to have no 'bjection; 'n' so,--waael, I +cal'late I sh'll jes' holt on to 'em myself; they a'n't good f'r much, +but they're cur'ous t' keep t' look at." + +Mr. Venner's man did not appear much gratified by this arrangement, +especially as he had a shrewd suspicion that some of the ornaments of +the bridle were of precious metal, having made occasional examinations +of them with the edge of a file. But he did not see exactly what to do +about it, except to get them from Abel in the way of bargain. + +"Waael, no,--they _a'n't_ good for much 'xcep' to look at. 'F y' ever rid +on that seddle once, y' wouldn' try it ag'in, very spry,--not 'f y' +c'd haaelp y'rsaaelf. I tried it,--darned 'f I sot daown f'r th' nex' +week,--eat all my victuals stan'in'. I sh'd like t' hev them things wal +enough to heng up 'n the stable; 'f y' want t' trade some day, fetch 'em +along daown." + +Abel rather expected that Elbridge would have laid claim to the saddle +and bridle on the strength of some promise or other presumptive title, +and thought himself lucky to get off with only promising that he would +think abaout tradin'. + +When Elbridge returned to the house, he found the family in a state of +great excitement. Mr. Venner had told Old Sophy, and she had informed +the other servants. Everybody knew what had happened, excepting Elsie. +Her father had charged them all to say nothing about it to her; he would +tell her, when she came down. + +He heard her step at last,--a light, gliding step,--so light that her +coming was often unheard, except by those who perceived the faint rustle +that went with it. She was paler than common this morning, as she came +into her father's study. + +After a few words of salutation, he said, quietly,-- + +"Elsie, my dear, your cousin Richard has left us." + +She grew still paler, as she asked,-- + +"_Is he dead?_" + +Dudley Venner started to see the expression with which Elsie put this +question. + +"He is living,--but dead to us from this day forward," said her father. + +He proceeded to tell her, in a general way, the story he had just heard +from Abel. There could be no doubting it;--he remembered him as the +Doctor's man; and as Abel had seen all with his own eyes,--as Dick's +chamber, when unlocked with a spare key, was found empty, and his bed +had not been slept in, he accepted the whole account as true. + +When he told of Dick's attempt on the young schoolmaster, ("You know +Mr. Langdon very well, Elsie,--a perfectly inoffensive young man, as I +understand,") Elsie turned her face away and slid along by the wall to +the window which looked out on the little grass-plot with the white +stone standing in it. Her father could not see her face, but he knew by +her movements that her dangerous mood was on her. When she heard the +sequel of the story, the discomfiture and capture of Dick, she turned +round for an instant, with a look of contempt and of something like +triumph upon her face. Her father saw that her cousin had become odious +to her. He knew well, by every change of her countenance, by her +movements, by every varying curve of her graceful figure, the +transitions from passion to repose, from fierce excitement to the dull +languor which often succeeded her threatening paroxysms. + +She remained looking out at the window. A group of white fan-tailed +pigeons had lighted on the green plot before it and clustered about one +of their companions who lay on his back, fluttering in a strange way, +with outspread wings and twitching feet. Elsie uttered a faint cry; +these were her special favorites, and often fed from her hand. She threw +open the long window, sprang out, caught up the white fan-tail, and held +it to her bosom. The bird stretched himself out, and then lay still, +with open eyes, lifeless. She looked at him a moment, and, sliding in +through the open window and through the study, sought her own apartment, +where she locked herself in, and began to sob and moan like those that +weep. But the gracious solace of tears seemed to be denied her, and her +grief, like her anger, was a dull ache, longing, like that, to finish +itself with a fierce paroxysm, but wanting its natural outlet. + +This seemingly trifling incident of the death of her favorite appeared +to change all the current of her thought. Whether it were the sight +of the dying bird, or the thought that her own agency might have been +concerned in it, or some deeper grief, which took this occasion to +declare itself,--some dark remorse or hopeless longing,--whatever it +might be, there was an unwonted tumult in her soul. To whom should +she go in her vague misery? Only to Him who knows all His creatures' +sorrows, and listens to the faintest human cry. She knelt, as she had +been taught to kneel from her childhood, and tried to pray. But her +thoughts refused to flow in the language of supplication. She could not +plead for herself as other women plead in their hours of anguish. She +rose like one who should stoop to drink, and find dust in the place of +water. Partly from restlessness, partly from an attraction she hardly +avowed to herself, she followed her usual habit and strolled listlessly +along to the school. + + * * * * * + +Of course everybody at the Institute was full of the terrible adventure +of the preceding evening. Mr. Bernard felt poorly enough; but he had +made it a point to show himself the next morning, as if nothing had +happened. Helen Darley knew nothing of it all until she had risen, when +the gossipy matron of the establishment made her acquainted with all its +details, embellished with such additional ornamental appendages as it +had caught up in transmission from lip to lip. She did not love to +betray her sensibilities, but she was pale and tremulous and very nearly +tearful when Mr. Bernard entered the sitting-room, showing on his +features traces of the violent shock he had received and the heavy +slumber from which he had risen with throbbing brows. What the poor +girl's impulse was, on seeing him, we need not inquire too curiously. If +he had been her own brother, she would have kissed him and cried on +his neck; but something held her back. There is no galvanism in +kiss-your-brother; it is copper against copper: but alien bloods develop +strange currents, when they flow close to each other, with only the +films that cover lip and cheek between them. Mr. Bernard, as some of us +may remember, violated the proprieties and laid himself open to reproach +by his enterprise with a bouncing village-girl, to whose rosy cheek an +honest smack was not probably an absolute novelty. He made it all up by +his discretion and good behavior now. He saw by Helen's moist eye and +trembling lip that her woman's heart was off its guard, and he knew, +by the infallible instinct of sex, that he should be forgiven, if +he thanked her for her sisterly sympathies in the most natural +way,--expressive, and at the same time economical of breath and +utterance. He would not give a false look to their friendship by any +such demonstration. Helen was a little older than he was, but the +aureole of young womanhood had not yet begun to fade from around her. +She was surrounded by that enchanted atmosphere into which the girl +walks with dreamy eyes, and out of which the woman passes with a +story written on her forehead. Some people think very little of these +refinements; they have not studied magnetism, and the law of the square +of the distance. + +So Mr. Bernard thanked Helen for her interest without the aid of the +twenty-seventh letter of the alphabet,--the love labial,--the limping +consonant which it takes two to speak plain. Indeed, he scarcely let her +say a word, at first; for he saw that it was hard for her to conceal her +emotion. No wonder; he had come within a hair's-breadth of losing his +life, and he had been a very kind friend and a very dear companion to +her. + +There were some curious spiritual experiences connected with his last +evening's adventure, which were working very strongly in his mind. It +was borne in upon him irresistibly that he had been _dead_ since he had +seen Helen,--as dead as the son of the Widow of Nain before the bier was +touched and he sat up and began to speak. There was an interval +between two conscious moments which appeared to him like a temporary +annihilation, and the thoughts it suggested were worrying him with +strange perplexities. + +He remembered seeing the dark figure on horseback rise in the saddle and +something leap from its hand. He remembered the thrill he felt as the +coil settled on his shoulders, and the sudden impulse which led him to +fire as he did. With the report of the pistol all became blank, until +he found himself in a strange, bewildered state, groping about for the +weapon, which he had a vague consciousness of having dropped. But, +according to Abel's account, there must have been an interval of some +minutes between these recollections, and he could not help asking, Where +was the mind, the soul, the thinking principle, all this time? + +A man is stunned by a blow with a stick on the head. He becomes +unconscious. Another man gets a harder blow on the head from a bigger +stick, and it kills him. Does he become unconscious, too? If so, _when +does he come to his consciousness_? The man who has had a slight or +moderate blow comes to himself when the immediate shock passes off and +the organs begin to work again, or when a bit of the skull is pried up, +if that happens to be broken. Suppose the blow is hard enough to spoil +the brain and stop the play of the organs, what happens then? + +A British captain was struck by a cannon-ball on the head, just as +he was giving an order, at the Battle of the Nile. Fifteen months +afterwards he was trephined at Greenwich Hospital, having been +insensible all that time. Immediately after the operation his +consciousness returned, and he at once began carrying out the order +he was giving when the shot struck him. Suppose he had never been +trephined, when would his intelligence have returned? When his breath +ceased and his heart stopped beating? + +When Mr. Bernard said to Helen, "I have been dead since I saw you," it +startled her not a little; for his expression was that of perfect good +faith, and she feared that his mind was disordered. When he explained, +not as has been done just now, at length, but in a hurried, imperfect +way, the meaning of his strange assertion, and the fearful Sadduceeisms +which it had suggested to his mind, she looked troubled at first, and +then thoughtful. She did not feel able to answer all the difficulties he +raised, but she met them with that faith which is the strength as well +as the weakness of women,--which makes them weak in the hands of man, +but strong in the presence of the Unseen. + +"It is a strange experience," she said; "but I once had something like +it. I fainted, and lost some five or ten minutes out of my life, as much +as if I had been dead. But when I came to myself, I was the same person +every way, in my recollections and character. So I suppose that loss of +consciousness is not death. And if I was born out of unconsciousness +into infancy with many _family_-traits of mind and body, I can believe, +from my own reason, even without help from Revelation, that I shall be +born again out of the unconsciousness of death with my _individual_ +traits of mind and body. If death is, as it should seem to be, a loss of +consciousness, that does not shake my faith; for I have been put into a +body once already to fit me for living here, and I hope to be in some +way fitted after this life to enjoy a better one. But it is all trust in +God and in his Word. These are enough for me; I hope they are for you." + +Helen was a minister's daughter, and familiar from her childhood with +this class of questions, especially with all the doubts and perplexities +which are sure to assail every thinking child bred in any inorganic +or not thoroughly vitalized faith,--as is too often the case with the +children of professional theologians. The kind of discipline they are +subjected to is like that of the Flat-Head Indian pappooses. At five or +ten or fifteen years old they put their hands up to their foreheads and +ask, What are they strapping down my brains in this way for? So they +tear off the sacred bandages of the great Flat-Head tribe, and there +follows a mighty rush of blood to the long-compressed region. This +accounts, in the most lucid manner, for those sudden freaks with which +certain children of this class astonish their worthy parents at the +period of life when they are growing fast, and, the frontal pressure +beginning to be felt as something intolerable, they tear off the holy +compresses. + +The hour for school came, and they went to the great hall for study. +It would not have occurred to Mr. Silas Peckham to ask his assistant +whether he felt well enough to attend to his duties; and Mr. Bernard +chose to be at his post. A little headache and confusion were all that +remained of his symptoms. + +Later, in the course of the forenoon, Elsie Venner came and took her +place. The girls all stared at her,--naturally enough; for it was hardly +to have been expected that she would show herself, after such an event +in the household to which she belonged. Her expression was somewhat +peculiar, and, of course, was attributed to the shock her feelings had +undergone on hearing of the crime attempted by her cousin and daily +companion. When she was looking on her book, or on any indifferent +object, her countenance betrayed some inward disturbance, which knitted +her dark brows, and seemed to throw a deeper shadow over her features. +But, from time to time, she would lift her eyes toward Mr. Bernard, and +let them rest upon him, without a thought, seemingly, that she herself +was the subject of observation or remark. Then they seemed to lose their +cold glitter, and soften into a strange, dreamy tenderness. The deep +instincts of womanhood were striving to grope their way to the surface +of her being through all the alien influences which overlaid them. +She could be secret and cunning in working out any of her dangerous +impulses, but she did not know how to mask the unwonted feeling which +fixed her eyes and her thoughts upon the only person who had ever +reached the spring of her hidden sympathies. + +The girls all looked at Elsie, whenever they could steal a glance +unperceived, and many of them were struck with this singular expression +her features wore. They had long whispered it around among each other +that she had a liking for the master; but there were too many of them of +whom something like this could be said, to make it very remarkable. Now, +however, when so many little hearts were fluttering at the thought +of the peril through which the handsome young master had so recently +passed, they were more alive than ever to the supposed relation between +him and the dark school-girl. Some had supposed there was a mutual +attachment between them; there was a story that they were secretly +betrothed, in accordance with the rumor which had been current in the +village. At any rate, some conflict was going on in that still, remote, +clouded soul, and all the girls who looked upon her face were impressed +and awed as they had never been before by the shadows that passed over +it. + +One of these girls was more strongly arrested by Elsie's look than the +others. This was a delicate, pallid creature, with a high forehead, and +wide-open pupils, which looked as if they could take in all the shapes +that flit in what, to common eyes, is darkness,--a girl said to be +_clairvoyant_ under certain influences. In the _recess_, as it was +called, or interval of suspended studies in the middle of the forenoon, +this girl carried her autograph-book,--for she had one of those +indispensable appendages of the boarding-school miss of every +degree,--and asked Elsie to write her name in it. She had an +irresistible feeling, that, sooner or later, and perhaps very soon, +there would attach an unusual interest to this autograph. Elsie took the +pen and wrote, in her sharp Italian hand, + + _Elsie Venner, Infelix._ + +It was a remembrance, doubtless, of the forlorn queen of the "Aeneid"; +but its coming to her thought in this way confirmed the sensitive +school-girl in her fears for Elsie, and she let fall a tear upon the +page before she closed it. + +Of course, the keen and practised observation of Helen Darley could not +fail to notice the change of Elsie's manner and expression. She had long +seen that she was attracted to the young master, and had thought, as +the old Doctor did, that any impression which acted upon her affections +might be the means of awakening a new life in her singularly isolated +nature. Now, however, the concentration of the poor girl's thoughts upon +the one object which had had power to reach her deeper sensibilities was +so painfully revealed in her features, that Helen began to fear once +more, lest Mr. Bernard, in escaping the treacherous violence of an +assassin, had been left to the equally dangerous consequences of a +violent, engrossing passion in the breast of a young creature whose love +it would be ruin to admit and might be deadly to reject. She knew her +own heart too well to fear that any jealousy might mingle with her new +apprehensions. It was understood between Bernard and Helen that they +were too good friends to tamper with the silences and edging proximities +of love-making. She knew, too, the simply human, not masculine, interest +which Mr. Bernard took in Elsie; he had been frank with Helen, and more +than satisfied her that with all the pity and sympathy which overflowed +his soul, when he thought of the stricken girl, there mingled not one +drop of such love as a youth may feel for a maiden. + +It may help the reader to gain some understanding of the anomalous +nature of Elsie Venner, if we look with Helen into Mr. Bernard's +opinions and feelings with reference to her, as they had shaped +themselves in his consciousness at the period of which we are speaking. + +At first he had been impressed by her wild beauty, and the contrast of +all her looks and ways with those of the girls around her. Presently a +sense of some ill-defined personal element, which half attracted and +half repelled those who looked upon her, and especially those on whom +she looked, began to make itself obvious to him, as he soon found it was +painfully sensible to his more susceptible companion, the lady-teacher. +It was not merely in the cold light of her diamond eyes, but in all her +movements, in her graceful postures as she sat, in her costume, and, he +sometimes thought, even in her speech, that this obscure and exceptional +character betrayed itself. When Helen had said, that, if they were +living in times when human beings were subject to possession, she should +have thought there was something not human about Elsie, it struck an +unsuspected vein of thought in his own mind, which he hated to put in +words, but which was continually trying to articulate itself among the +dumb thoughts which lie under the perpetual stream of mental whispers. + +Mr. Bernard's professional training had made him slow to accept +marvellous stories and many forms of superstition. Yet, as a man of +science, he well knew that just on the verge of the demonstrable facts +of physics and physiology there is a nebulous border-land which what +is called "common sense" perhaps does wisely not to enter, but which +uncommon sense, or the fine apprehension of privileged intelligences, +may cautiously explore, and in so doing find itself behind the scenes +which make up for the gazing world the show which is called Nature. + +It was with something of this finer perception, perhaps with some degree +of imaginative exaltation, that he set himself to solving the problem +of Elsie's influence to attract and repel those around her. His letter +already submitted to the reader hints in what direction his thoughts +were disposed to turn. Here was a magnificent organization, superb +in vigorous womanhood, with a beauty such as never comes but after +generations of culture; yet through all this rich nature there ran some +alien current of influence, sinuous and dark, as when a clouded streak +seams the white marble of a perfect statue. + +It would be needless to repeat the particular suggestions which had come +into his mind, as they must probably have come into those of the reader +who has noted the singularities of Elsie's tastes and personal traits. +The images which certain poets had dreamed of seemed to have become a +reality before his own eyes. Then came that unexplained adventure of The +Mountain,--almost like a dream in recollection, yet assuredly real in +some of its main incidents,--with all that it revealed or hinted. This +girl did not fear to visit the dreaded region, where danger lurked in +every nook and beneath every tuft of leaves. Did the tenants of the +fatal ledge recognize some mysterious affinity which made them tributary +to the cold glitter of her diamond eyes? Was she from her birth one of +those frightful children, such as he had read about, and the Professor +had told him of, who form unnatural friendships with cold, writhing +ophidians? There was no need of so unwelcome a thought as this; she had +drawn him away from the dark opening in the rock at the moment when he +seemed to be threatened by one of its malignant denizens; that was all +he could be sure of; the counter-fascination might have been a dream, a +fancy, a coincidence. All wonderful things soon grow doubtful in our own +minds, as do even common events, if great interests prove suddenly to +attach to their truth or falsehood. + +--I, who am telling of these occurrences, saw a friend in the great +city, on the morning of a most memorable disaster, hours after the time +when the train which carried its victims to their doom had left. I +talked with him, and was for some minutes, at least, in his company. +When I reached home, I found that the story had gone before that he was +among the lost, and I alone could contradict it to his weeping friends +and relatives. I did contradict it; but, alas! I began soon to doubt +myself, penetrated by the contagion of their solicitude; my recollection +began to question itself; the order of events became dislocated; and +when I heard that he had reached home in safety, the relief was almost +as great to me as to those who had expected to see their own brother's +face no more. + +Mr. Bernard was disposed, then, not to accept the thought of any odious +personal relationship of the kind which had suggested itself to him when +he wrote the letter referred to. That the girl had something of the +feral nature, her wild, lawless rambles in forbidden and blasted regions +of The Mountain at all hours, her familiarity with the lonely haunts +where any other human foot was so rarely seen, proved clearly enough. +But the more he thought of all her strange instincts and modes of being, +the more he became convinced that whatever alien impulse swayed her will +and modulated or diverted or displaced her affections came from some +impression that reached far back into the past, before the days when the +faithful Old Sophy had rocked her in the cradle. He believed that she +had brought her ruling tendency, whatever it was, into the world with +her. + +When the school was over and the girls had all gone, Helen lingered in +the school-room to speak with Mr. Bernard. + +"Did you remark Elsie's ways this forenoon?" she said. + +"No, not particularly; I have not noticed anything as sharply as I +commonly do; my head has been a little queer, and I have been thinking +over what we were talking about, and how near I came to solving the +great problem which every day makes clear to such multitudes of people. +What about Elsie?" + +"Bernard, her liking for you is growing into a passion. I have studied +girls for a long while, and I know the difference between their passing +fancies and their real emotions. I told you, you remember, that Rosa +would have to leave us; we barely missed a scene, I think, if not a +whole tragedy, by her going at the right moment. But Elsie is infinitely +more dangerous to herself and others. Women's love is fierce enough, if +it once gets the mastery of them, always; but this poor girl does not +know what to do with a passion." + +Mr. Bernard had never told Helen the story of the flower in his Virgil, +or that other adventure which he would have felt awkwardly to refer to; +but it had been perfectly understood between them that Elsie showed in +her own singular way a well-marked partiality for the young master. + +"Why don't they take her away from the school, if she is in such a +strange, excitable state?" said Mr. Bernard. + +"I believe they are afraid of her," Helen answered. "It is just one of +those cases that are ten thousand thousand times worse than insanity. I +don't think, from what I hear, that her father has ever given up hoping +that she will outgrow her peculiarities. Oh, these peculiar children for +whom parents go on hoping every morning and despairing every night! If I +could tell you half that mothers have told me, you would feel that the +worst of all diseases of the moral sense and the will are those which +all the Bedlams turn away from their doors as not being the subjects of +insanity!" + +"Do you think her father has treated her judiciously?" said Mr. Bernard. + +"I think," said Helen, with a little hesitation, which Mr. Bernard did +not happen to notice,--"I think he has been very kind and indulgent, and +I do not know that he could have treated her otherwise with a better +chance of success." + +"He must of course be fond of her," Mr. Bernard said; "there is nothing +else in the world for him to love." + +Helen dropped a book she held in her hand, and, stooping to pick it up, +the blood rushed into her cheeks. + +"It is getting late," she said; "you must not stay any longer in +this close school-room. Pray, go and get a little fresh air before +dinner-time." + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +A SOUL IN DISTRESS. + + +The events told in the last two chapters had taken place toward the +close of the week. On Saturday evening the Reverend Chauncy Fairweather +received a note which was left at his door by an unknown person who +departed without saying a word. Its words were these:-- + +"One who is in distress of mind requests the prayers of this +congregation that God would be pleased to look in mercy upon the soul +that he has afflicted." + +There was nothing to show from whom the note came, or the sex or age or +special source of spiritual discomfort or anxiety of the writer. The +handwriting was delicate and might well be a woman's. The clergyman was +not aware of any particular affliction among his parishioners which was +likely to be made the subject of a request of this kind. Surely neither +of the Venners would advertise the attempted crime of their relative in +this way. But who else was there? The more he thought about it, the more +it puzzled him; and as he did not like to pray in the dark, without +knowing for whom he was praying, he could think of nothing better than +to step into old Doctor Kittredge's and see what he had to say about it. + +The old Doctor was sitting alone in his study when the Reverend Mr. +Fairweather was ushered in. He received his visitor very pleasantly, +expecting, as a matter of course, that he would begin with some new +grievance, dyspeptic, neuralgic, bronchitic, or other. The minister, +however, began with questioning the old Doctor about the sequel of the +other night's adventure; for he was already getting a little Jesuitical, +and kept back the object of his visit until it should come up as if +accidentally in the course of conversation. + +"It was a pretty bold thing to go off alone with that reprobate, as you +did," said the minister. + +"I don't know what there was bold about it," the Doctor answered. "All +he wanted was to get away. He was not quite a reprobate, you see; he +didn't like the thought of disgracing his family or facing his uncle. I +think he was ashamed to see his cousin, too, after what he had done." + +"Did he talk with you on the way?" + +"Not much. For half an hour or so he didn't speak a word. Then he asked +where I was driving him. I told him, and he seemed to be surprised into +a sort of grateful feeling. Bad enough, no doubt,--but might be worse. +Has some humanity left in him yet. Let him go. God can judge him,--I +can't." + +"You are too charitable, Doctor," the minister said. "I condemn him just +as if he had carried out his project, which, they say, was to make it +appear as if the schoolmaster had committed suicide. That's what people +think the rope found by him was for. He has saved his neck,--but his +soul is a lost one, I am afraid, beyond question." + +"I can't judge men's souls," the Doctor said. "I can judge their acts, +and hold them responsible for those,--but I don't know much about their +souls. If you or I had found our soul in a half-breed body, and been +turned loose to run among the Indians, we might have been playing +just such tricks as this fellow has been trying. What if you or I had +inherited all the tendencies that were born with his cousin Elsie?" + +"Oh, that reminds me,"--the minister said, in a sudden way,--"I have +received a note, which I am requested to read from the pulpit to-morrow. +I wish you would just have the kindness to look at it and see where you +think it came from." + +The Doctor examined it carefully. It was a woman's or girl's note, he +thought. Might come from one of the school-girls who was anxious about +her spiritual condition. Handwriting was disguised; looked a little like +Elsie Venner's, but not characteristic enough to make it certain. It +would be a new thing, if she had asked public prayers for herself, and a +very favorable indication of a change in her singular moral nature. It +was just possible Elsie might have sent that note. Nobody could foretell +her actions. It would be well to see the girl and find out whether +any unusual impression had been produced on her mind by the recent +occurrence or by any other cause. + +The Reverend Mr. Fairweather folded the note and put it into his pocket. + +"I have been a good deal exercised in mind lately, myself," he said. + +The old Doctor looked at him through his spectacles, and said, in his +usual professional tone,-- + +"Put out your tongue." + +The minister obeyed him in that feeble way common with persons of weak +character,--for people differ as much in their mode of performing this +trifling act as Gideon's soldiers in their way of drinking at the brook. +The Doctor took his hand and placed a finger mechanically on his wrist. + +"It is more spiritual, I think, than bodily," said the Reverend Mr. +Fairweather. + +"Is your appetite as good as usual?" the Doctor asked. + +"Pretty good," the minister answered; "but my sleep, my sleep, +Doctor,--I am greatly troubled at night with lying awake and thinking of +my future,--I am not at ease in mind." + +He looked round at all the doors, to be sure they were shut, and moved +his chair up close to the Doctor's. + +"You do not know the mental trials I have been going through for the +last few months." + +"I think I do," the old Doctor said. "You want to get out of the new +church into the old one, don't you?" + +The minister blushed deeply; he thought he had been going on in a very +quiet way, and that nobody suspected his secret. As the old Doctor was +his counsellor in sickness, and almost everybody's confidant in trouble, +he had intended to impart cautiously to him some hints of the change of +sentiments through which he had been passing. He was too late with his +information, it appeared; and there was nothing to be done but to throw +himself on the Doctor's good sense and kindness, which everybody knew, +and get what hints he could from him as to the practical course he +should pursue. He began, after an awkward pause,-- + +"You would not have me stay in a communion which I feel to be alien to +the true church, would you?" + +"Have you stay, my friend?" said the Doctor, with a pleasant, friendly +look,--"have you stay? Not a month, nor a week, nor a day, if I could +help it. You have got into the wrong pulpit, and I have known it from +the first. The sooner you go where you belong, the better. And I'm very +glad you don't mean to stop half-way. Don't you know you've always come +to me when you've been dyspeptic or sick anyhow, and wanted to put +yourself wholly into my hands, so that I might order you like a child +just what to do and what to take? That's exactly what you want in +religion. I don't blame you for it. You never liked to take the +responsibility of your own body; I don't see why you should want to have +the charge of your own soul. But I'm glad you're going to the Old Mother +of all. You wouldn't have been contented short of that." + +The Reverend Mr. Fairweather breathed with more freedom. The Doctor saw +into his soul through those awful spectacles of his,--into it and +beyond it, as one sees through a thin fog. But it was with a real human +kindness, after all. He felt like a child before a strong man; but the +strong man looked on him with a father's indulgence. Many and many a +time, when he had come desponding and bemoaning himself on account of +some contemptible bodily infirmity, the old Doctor had looked at him +through his spectacles, listened patiently while he told his ailments, +and then, in his large parental way, given him a few words of wholesome +advice, and cheered him up so that he went off with a light heart, +thinking that the heaven he was so much afraid of was not so very near, +after all. It was the same thing now. He felt, as feeble natures always +do in the presence of strong ones, overmastered, circumscribed, shut in, +humbled; but yet it seemed as if the old Doctor did not despise him any +more for what he considered weakness of mind than he used to despise him +when he complained of his nerves or his digestion. + +Men who see _into_ their neighbors are very apt to be contemptuous; but +men who see _through_ them find something lying behind every human soul +which it is not for them to sit in judgment on, or to attempt to sneer +out of the order of God's manifold universe. + +Little as the Doctor had said out of which comfort could be extracted, +his genial manner had something grateful in it. A film of gratitude +came over the poor man's cloudy, uncertain eye, and a look of tremulous +relief and satisfaction played about his weak mouth. He was gravitating +to the majority, where he hoped to find "rest"; but he was dreadfully +sensitive to the opinions of the minority he was on the point of +leaving. + +The old Doctor saw plainly enough what was going on in his mind. + +"I sha'n't quarrel with you," he said,--"you know that very well; but +you mustn't quarrel with me, if I talk honestly with you; it isn't +everybody that will take the trouble. You flatter yourself that you will +make a good many enemies by leaving your old communion. Not so many as +you think. This is the way the common sort of people will talk:--'You +have got your ticket to the feast of life, as much as any other man that +ever lived. Protestantism says,--'Help yourself; here's a clean plate, +and a knife and fork of your own, and plenty of fresh dishes to choose +from.' The Old Mother says,--'Give me your ticket, my dear, and I'll +feed you with my gold spoon off these beautiful old wooden trenchers. +Such nice bits as those good old gentlemen have left for you!' There is +no quarrelling with a man who prefers broken victuals.' That's what the +rougher sort will say; and then, where one scolds, ten will laugh. But, +mind you, I don't either scold or laugh. I don't feel sure that you +could very well have helped doing what you will soon do. You know you +were never easy without some medicine to take when you felt ill in body. +I'm afraid I've given you trashy stuff sometimes, just to keep you +quiet. Now, let me tell you, there is just the same difference in +spiritual patients that there is in bodily ones. One set believes +in wholesome ways of living, and another must have a great list of +specifics for all the soul's complaints. You belong with the last, and +got accidentally shuffled in with the others." + +The minister smiled faintly, but did not reply. Of course, he considered +that way of talking as the result of the Doctor's professional training. +It would not have been worth while to take offence at his plain speech, +if he had been so disposed; for he might wish to consult him the next +day as to "what he should take" for his dyspepsia or his neuralgia. + +He left the Doctor with a hollow feeling at the bottom of his soul, as +if a good piece of his manhood had been scooped out of him. His hollow +aching did not explain itself in words, but it grumbled and worried down +among the unshaped thoughts which lie beneath them. He knew that he had +been trying to reason himself out of his birthright of reason. He knew +that the inspiration which gave him understanding was losing its throne +in his intelligence, and the almighty Majority-Vote was proclaiming +itself in its stead. He knew that the great primal truths, which each +successive revelation only confirmed, were fast becoming hidden beneath +the mechanical forms of thought, which, as with all new converts, +engrossed so large a share of his attention. The "peace," the "rest," +which he had purchased, were dearly bought to one who had been trained +to the arms of thought, and whose noble privilege it might have been +to live in perpetual warfare for the advancing truth which the next +generation will claim as the legacy of the present. + +The Reverend Mr. Fairweather was getting careless about his sermons. He +must wait the fitting moment to declare himself; and in the mean time +he was preaching to heretics. It did not matter much what he preached, +under such circumstances. He pulled out two old yellow sermons from a +heap of such, and began looking over that for the forenoon. Naturally +enough, he fell asleep over it, and, sleeping, he began to dream. + +He dreamed that he was under the high arches of an old cathedral amidst +a throng of worshippers. The light streamed in through vast windows, +dark with the purple robes of royal saints, or blazing with yellow +glories around the heads of earthly martyrs and heavenly messengers. The +billows of the great organ roared among the clustered columns, as the +sea breaks amidst the basaltic pillars which crowd the great cavern of +the Hebrides. The voice of the alternate choirs of singing boys swung +back and forward, as the silver censer swung in the hands of the +white-robed children. The sweet cloud of incense rose in soft, fleecy +mists, full of penetrating suggestions of the East and its perfumed +altars. The knees of twenty generations had worn the pavement; their +feet had hollowed the steps; their shoulders had smoothed the columns. +Dead bishops and abbots lay under the marble of the floor in their +crumbled vestments; dead warriors, in their rusted armor, were stretched +beneath their sculptured effigies. And all at once all the buried +multitudes who had ever worshipped there came thronging in through the +aisles. They choked every space, they swarmed into all the chapels, they +hung in clusters over the parapets of the galleries, they clung to +the images in every niche, and still the vast throng kept flowing and +flowing in, until the living were lost in the rush of the returning dead +who had reclaimed their own. Then, as his dream became more fantastic, +the huge cathedral itself seemed to change into the wreck of some mighty +antediluvian vertebrate; its flying-buttresses arched round like ribs, +its piers shaped themselves into limbs, and the sound of the organ-blast +changed to the wind whistling through its thousand-jointed skeleton. + +And presently the sound lulled, and softened and softened, until it was +as the murmur of a distant swarm of bees. A procession of monks wound +along through an old street, chanting, as they walked, In his dream he +glided in among them and bore his part in the burden of their song. +He entered with the long train under a low arch, and presently he was +kneeling in a narrow cell before an image of the Blessed Maiden holding +the Divine Child in her arms, and his lips seemed to whisper,-- + +_Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis!_ + +He turned to the crucifix, and, prostrating himself before the spare, +agonizing shape of the Holy Sufferer, fell into a long passion of tears +and broken prayers. He rose and flung himself, worn-out, upon his hard +pallet, and, seeming to slumber, dreamed again within his dream. Once +more in the vast cathedral, with throngs of the living choking its +aisles, amidst jubilant peals from the cavernous depths of the great +organ, and choral melodies ringing from the fluty throats of the singing +boys. A day of great rejoicings,--for a prelate was to be consecrated, +and the bones of the mighty skeleton-minster were shaking with anthems, +as if there were life of its own within its buttressed ribs. He looked +down at his feet; the folds of the sacred robe were flowing about them: +he put his hand to his head; it was crowned with the holy mitre. A long +sigh, as of perfect content in the consummation of all his earthly +hopes, breathed through the dreamer's lips, and shaped itself, as it +escaped, into the blissful murmur-- + +_Ego sum Episcopus!_ + +One grinning gargoyle looked in from beneath the roof through an opening +in a stained window. It was the face of a mocking fiend, such as the old +builders loved to place under the eaves to spout the rain through their +open mouths. It looked at him, as he sat in his mitred chair, with its +hideous grin growing broader and broader, until it laughed out aloud,-- +such a hard, stony, mocking laugh, that he awoke out of his second dream +through his first into his common consciousness, and shivered, as he +turned to the two yellow sermons which he was to pick over and weed of +the little thought they might contain, for the next day's service. + +The Reverend Chauncy Fairweather was too much taken up with his own +bodily and spiritual condition to be deeply mindful of others. He +carried the note requesting the prayers of the congregation in his +pocket all day; and the soul in distress, which a single tender petition +might have soothed, and perhaps have saved from despair or fatal error, +found no voice in the temple to plead for it before the Throne of Mercy! + + * * * * * + + +THE GREAT LAKES. + + +If, as is believed by many statisticians, the census of 1860 should +show that the centre of population and power in these United States is +steadily advancing westward, and that by the year 1880 it will be +at some point on the Great Lakes, then, certainly, the history and +resources of those inland seas cannot fail to be interesting to the +general reader. + +It happens that the Indian traditions of this region possess more of the +coherence of history than those of other parts of the country; and, as +preserved by Schoolcraft and embalmed in the poetry of Longfellow, they +show well enough by the side of the early traditions of other primitive +peoples. The conquest of the Lake-shore region by San-ge-man and his +Ojibwas may be as trustworthy a tale as the exploits of Romulus and +Remus; and when we emerge into the light of European record, we find the +Jesuit missionaries preaching the gospel at St. Ignace and the Sault St. +Mary almost as early as the so-called Cavaliers were planting tobacco at +Jamestown, or the Pilgrims smiting the heathen at Plymouth. + +The first white persons who penetrated into the Upper Lake region were +two young fur-traders who left Montreal for that purpose in 1654, and +remained two years among the Indian tribes on those shores. We are +not informed of the details of this journey; but it appears that they +returned with information relative to Lake Superior, and perhaps Lake +Michigan and Green Bay; for in 1659 the fur-traders are known to have +extended their traffic to that bay. The first settlement of Wisconsin +may be dated in 1665, when Claude Allouez established a mission at La +Pointe on Lake Superior. This was before Philadelphia was founded by +William Penn. + +The first account we have of a voyage on Lake Michigan was by Nicholas +Perrot, who, accompanied by some Pottawattomies, passed from Green Bay +to Chicago, in 1670. Two years afterwards the same voyage was undertaken +by Allouez and Dablon. They stopped at the mouth of the Milwaukie River, +then occupied by Kickapoo Indians. In 1673, Fathers Marquette and Joliet +went from Green Bay to the Neenah or Fox River, and, descending the +Wisconsin, discovered the Mississippi on the 17th of June. + +In 1679, La Salle made his voyage up the Lakes in the Griffin, the first +vessel built above the Falls of Niagara. This vessel, the pioneer of the +great fleet which now whitens those waters, was about sixty tons burden, +and carried five guns and thirty-four men. La Salle loaded her at Green +Bay with a cargo of furs and skins, and she sailed on the 18th of +September for Niagara, where she never arrived, nor was any news of her +ever received. The Griffin, with her cargo, was valued at sixty thousand +livres. Thus the want of harbors on Lake Michigan began to be felt +nearly two hundred years ago; and the fate of the Griffin was only a +precursor of many similar calamities since. + +About 1760 was the end of what may be called the religious epoch in +the history of the Northwest, when the dominion passed from French to +English hands, and the military period commenced. This lasted about +fifty years, during which time the combatants were French, English, +Indians, and Americans. Much blood was shed in desultory warfare. +Detroit, Mackinac, and other posts were taken and retaken; in fact, +there never was peace in that land till after the naval victory of Perry +in 1813, when the command of the Lakes passed to the Americans. + +Our military and naval expeditions in the Northwest were, however, +remarkably unfortunate in that war. For want of a naval force on the +Lakes,--a necessity which had been pointed out to the Government by +William Hull, then Governor of the Northwest Territory, before the +declaration of war,--the posts of Chicago, Mackinac, and Detroit were +taken by the British and their Indian allies in 1812, and kept by them +till the next year, when the energy and perseverance of Perry and his +Rhode-Islanders created a fleet upon Lake Erie, and swept the British +vessels from that quarter. + +In 1814, an American squadron of six brigs and schooners sailed from +Lake Erie to retake the post of Mackinac. Colonel Croghan commanded the +troops, which were landed under cover of the guns of the squadron. They +were attacked in the woods on the back of the island by the British and +Indians. Major Holmes, who led the Americans, was killed, and his men +retreated in confusion to the ships, which took them on board and sailed +away. The attack having failed, Captain Sinclair, who commanded the +squadron, returned to Lake Erie with the brigs Niagara and Saint +Lawrence and the schooners Caledonia and Ariel, leaving the Scorpion and +Tigress to operate against the enemy on Lake Huron. The British schooner +Nancy, being at Nattawasaga, under the protection of a block-house +mounting two twenty-four pounders, the American schooners proceeded to +attack her, and, after a short action, destroyed the vessel and the +block-house, the British escaping in their boats. Soon, after, the +American schooners returned to the neighborhood of St. Joseph, where +they were seen by some Indians, who reported at Mackinac that they were +about five leagues apart. An expedition was directly fitted out to +capture them; and Major Dickson, commander of the post, and Lieutenant +Worsley, who had retreated from the block-house above-mentioned, started +with one hundred men in four boats. + +On the third of September, at six o'clock, P.M., they found the Tigress +at anchor, and came within one hundred yards unobserved, when a smart +fire of grape and musketry was opened upon them. They advanced, and, two +boats hoarding her on each side, she was carried, after a short contest, +in which the British lost seven men, killed and wounded, and the +Americans, out of a crew of twenty-eight, had three killed and two +wounded. The prisoners having been sent to Mackinac, the Tigress was got +under way the next day, still keeping the American colors flying, and +proceeded in search of the Scorpion. On the fifth, they came in sight +of her, and, as those on board knew nothing of what had happened to the +Tigress, were suffered to approach within two miles. At daylight the +next morning, the Tigress was again got under way, and running alongside +her late consort, the British carried her by boarding, after a short +scuffle, in which four of the Scorpion's crew were killed and wounded, +and one of the British wounded. The schooners were fine new vessels, of +one hundred tons burden each, and had on board large quantities of arms +and ammunition. + +This account of the earliest naval action on the Upper Lakes is taken +from a British source; for, as may well be imagined, it has never found +its way into any American Naval History or Fourth of July Oration. + +It appears as if the American Government, during the War of 1812, either +from ignorance of the value of the Northwest, or, as some think, from +a fear lest it might, if conquered, become free territory, were very +inefficient in their efforts in that direction. As, however, the same +imbecility was displayed in other quarters, for example, at Washington, +where they allowed the capital to be taken by a handful of British +troops, and as the Yankee who was in the fight said, "They didn't seem +to take no interest," we must acquit the administration of Mr. Madison +of anything worse than going to war without adequate preparation. + +After the War of 1812 was over, the Northwestern Territory was held by +our Government by a kind of military occupation for some twenty years, +when, the Indian title having been extinguished, white settlers began +to occupy Northern Illinois and Wisconsin. The Sacs and Foxes, having +repented of their surrender of this fair country, reentered it in 1832, +but after a short contest were expelled and driven westward, and the +working period commenced. Large cities have sprung up on the Lake +shores, and the broad expanse of Lake Michigan is now whitened by a +thousand sails; and even the rocky cliffs of Superior echo the whistle +of the propeller, instead of the scream of the bald eagle. + +Perhaps the ship-owners of the Atlantic cities are hardly aware of the +growth of this Lake commerce within the last twenty years, and that it +is now nearly equal in amount to the whole foreign trade of the country. +Before entering on the statistics of this trade, however, we will give a +brief description of the Lakes themselves.[A] + +[Footnote A: We are indebted for our facts and details to Lapham's +_Wisconsin_, Foster and Whitney's _Report_, Agassiz's _Lake Superior_, +and works of similar character.] + +Lake Superior, the largest expanse of fresh water on the globe, is 355 +miles in length, 160 in breadth, with a depth of 900 feet. It contains +32,000 square miles of surface, which is elevated 627 feet above the +surface of the ocean, while portions of its bed are several hundred +feet below it. Its coast is 1500 miles in extent, with irregular, rocky +shores, bold headlands, and deep bays. It contains numerous islands, one +of which, Isle Royale, has an area of 230 square miles. The shores +of this lake are rock-bound, sometimes rising into lofty cliffs and +pinnacles, twelve or thirteen hundred feet high. Where the igneous rocks +prevail, the coast is finely indented; where the sandstones abound, it +is gently curved. Lake Superior occupies an immense depression, for +the most part excavated out of the soft and yielding sandstone. Its +configuration on the east and north has been determined by an irregular +belt of granite, which forms a rim, effectually resisting the further +action of its waters. The temperature of the water in summer is about +40 deg. + +Lake Huron connects with Superior by the St. Mary's River, and is 260 +miles long and 160 broad; its circumference is 1100 miles, its area +20,400. Georgian Bay, 170 miles long and 70 broad, forms the northeast +portion, and lies within British jurisdiction. Saginaw, a deep and +wide-mouthed bay, is the principal indentation on the western coast. The +rim of this lake is composed mostly of detrital rocks, which are rarely +exposed. In the northern portion of the lake, the trap-rocks on the +Canada side intersect the coast. The waters are as deep as those of +Superior, and possess great transparency. They rarely attain a higher +temperature than 50 deg., and, like those of Superior, have the deep-blue +tint of the ocean. The northern coast of Lake Huron abounds in clusters +of islands; Captain Bayfield is said to have landed on 10,000 of them, +and to have estimated their number at 30,000. + +Lake Michigan, called by the early voyagers Lac des Illinois, is next in +size to Superior, being 320 miles in length and 100 in breadth, with a +circumference, including Green Bay, of 1300 miles. It contains 22,000 +miles of surface, with a depth of 900 feet in the deeper parts, though +near the shore it grows gradually shoal. The rocks which compose its rim +are of a sedimentary nature, and afford few indentations for harbors. +The shores are low, and lined in many places with immense sand-banks. +Green Bay, or Bale des Puans of the Jesuits, on the west coast, is 100 +miles long and 20 broad. Great and Little Traverse Bays occur on the +eastern coast, and Great and Little Bays des Noquets on the northern. +One cluster of islands is found at the outlet of the main lake, and +another at that of Green Bay. Lake Michigan is the only one of the Great +Lakes which lies wholly within American jurisdiction. + +Lake Erie is 240 miles in length, 60 in breadth, and contains an area +of 9,600 square miles. It lies 565 feet above the sea-level, and is +the shallowest of all the Lakes, being only 84 feet in mean depth. Its +waters, in consequence, have the green color of the sea in shallow bays +and harbors. It is connected with Lake Huron by the St. Clair River and +Lake, a shallow expanse of water, twenty miles wide, and by Detroit +River. + +Lake Ontario is 180 miles in length and 55 in breadth, containing 6,300 +square miles. It is connected with Lake Erie by the Niagara River, and +also by the Welland Canal, which admits the passage of vessels of large +burden. This lake lies at a lower level than the others, being only 230 +feet above the sea. It is, however, about 500 feet in depth. + +The whole area of these lakes is over 90,000 miles, and the area of land +drained by them, 335,515 miles. + +The presence of this great body of water modifies the range of the +thermometer, lessening the intensity of the cold in winter and of the +heat in summer, and gives a temperature more uniform on the Lake coasts +than is found in a corresponding latitude on the Mississippi. + +The difference between the temperature of the air and that of the +Lakes gives rise to a variety of optical illusions, known as _mirage._ +Mountains are seen with inverted cones; headlands project from the shore +where none exist; islands clothed with verdure, or girt with cliffs, +rise up from the bosom of the lake, remain awhile, and disappear. +Hardly a day passes, during the summer, without a more or less striking +exhibition of this kind. The same phenomena of rapidly varying +refraction may often be witnessed at sunset, when the sun, sinking into +the lake, undergoes a most striking series of changes. At one moment it +is drawn out into a pear-like shape; the next it takes an elliptical +form; and just as it disappears, the upper part of its disk becomes +elongated into a ribbon of light, which seems to float for a moment upon +the surface of the water. + +Thunder-storms of great violence are not unusual, and sudden gusts of +wind spring up on the Lakes, and those who navigate them pass sometimes +instantaneously from a current of air blowing briskly in one direction +into one blowing with equal force from the opposite quarter. The lower +sails of a vessel are sometimes becalmed, while a smart breeze fills the +upper. + +The storms which agitate the Lakes, though less violent than the +typhoons of the Indian Ocean or the hurricanes of the Atlantic, are +still very dangerous to mariners; and, owing to the want of sea-room, +and the scarcity of good harbors, shipwrecks are but too common, and +frequently attended with much loss of life. A short, ugly sea gets up +very quickly after the wind begins to blow hard, and subsides with equal +celerity when the wind goes down. + +The fluctuations in the level of the waters of these lakes have +attracted much attention among scientific observers; and as early as +1670, Father Dablon, in his "Relations," says,--"As to the tides, it is +difficult to lay down any correct rule. At one time we have found the +motion of the waters to be regular, and at others extremely fluctuating. +We have noticed, however, that at full moon and new moon the tides +change once a day for eight or ten days, while during the remainder of +the time there is hardly any change perceptible.... Three things +are remarkable: 1st. That the currents set almost constantly in one +direction, namely, towards the Lake of the Illinois, [Michigan,] which +does not prevent their ordinary rise and fall; 2d. That they almost +invariably set _against_ the wind,--sometimes with as much force as the +tides at Quebec,--and we have seen ice moving against the wind as +fast as boats under full sail; 3d. That among these currents we have +discovered the emission of a quantity of water which seems to spring up +from the bottom." + +Father Dablon is of opinion that the waters of Lake Superior enter +into the Straits by a subterranean passage. This theory, he says, is +necessary to explain two things, namely: 1st. Without such a passage, it +is impossible to say what becomes of the waters of Lake Superior. This +vast lake has but one visible outlet, namely, the River of St. Mary; +while it receives the waters of a large number of rivers, some of which +are of greater dimensions than the St. Mary. What, then, becomes of the +surplus water? 2d. The difficulty of explaining whence come the waters +of Huron and Michigan. Very few rivers flow into these lakes, and +their volume of water is such as to fortify the belief that it must be +supplied through the subterranean river entering the Straits. + +A large number of facts have been collected by Messrs. Foster and +Whitney on the subject of these oscillations of the Lake level; and, +in fact, these phenomena have been for a long time familiar to the +residents on the Lake shores. They are generally attributed by +scientific men to atmospheric disturbances, which, by increasing or +diminishing the atmospheric pressure, produce a corresponding rise +or fall in the water-level. These are the sudden and irregular +fluctuations. + +The gradual fluctuations are probably caused by the variable amount of +rain which falls in the vast area of country drained by the Lakes. Thus, +at Fort Brady, where the mean of five years' observations is 29.68 +inches, the extremes are 36.92 and 22.44. + +An idea has been long prevalent among the old residents, derived from +the Indians, that there is a variation of the Lake surface which extends +over a period of fourteen years,--that is, the Lakes rise for seven +years, and fall for seven years. The records kept by accurate observers +at various points on the Lakes for the last ten years do not seem to +confirm this theory; but it has been well established by the recent +observations of Colonel Graham, at both ends of Lake Michigan, that +there is a semi-diurnal lunar tide on that lake of at least one third of +a foot. + +The evaporation from this great water-surface must be immense. It has +been estimated at 11,800,000,000,000 cubic feet per annum; and in this +way alone can we account for the difference between the volume of water +which enters the Lakes and that which leaves them at the Falls of +Niagara. Immense as is the quantity of water which pours over the Falls, +it is small in comparison with the floods which combine to make up the +Upper Lakes. + +In the year 1832, about the close of the Black Hawk War, the tonnage of +the Lakes was only 7,000 tons. In 1845 it had increased to 132,000 tons, +and in 1858 it was 404,301 tons. Or, if we take Chicago, the chief city +of the Lakes, we find that her imports and exports were,-- + + Imports. Exports. + In 1836, $ 325,203 $ 1,000 + " 1851, 24,410,400 5,395,471 + " 1859, estimated 60,000,000 24,280,890 + +In the year 1858, there were on the Lakes,-- + + American vessels, 1,194. Tonnage, 399,443 + Canadian " 321. " 59,580 + + Value of American tonnage on the + Lakes, $16,000,000 + + Value of Lake commerce, import + and exports, $600,000,000 + + Number of seamen employed, 13,000 + +Taking the island of Mackinac as the geographical centre of this +navigation, we find the distances as follows:-- + + Miles. + From Mackinac to head of Lake Superior 550 + " " " Chicago 350 + " " " East end of Georgian + Bay 300 + " " " Buffalo 700 + " " " Gulf of St. Lawrence 1,600 + +Or ninety thousand miles of lakes and rivers, extending half across the +continent. + +The following table shows the amount of tonnage belonging to different +cities in 1857:-- + + Tons. Tons. + New York, 1,377,424 Charleston, 56,430 + Boston, 447,966 Detroit, 57,707 + Bath, 189,932 New Bedford, 152,799 + Baltimore, 191,618 New Orleans, 173,167 + Providence, 15,152 Cleveland, 63,361 + Philadelphia, 211,380 Chicago, 67,316 + Buffalo, 100,226 Milwaukie, 22,339 + +This shows that Chicago had in 1857, being then twenty-five years old, a +larger tonnage than Charleston, the capital of the Palmetto Kingdom; and +Milwaukie, still younger than Chicago, owned a larger amount of tonnage +than the old and wealthy city of Providence. + +In 1857, the export of grain from the Lake ports was sixty-five million +bushels; in 1860, it was estimated at one hundred millions. + +The coal-trade of Cleveland, in 1858, was 129,000 tons. A large amount +was also shipped from Erie. + +In 1858, the salt-trade of the Lakes amounted to more than six hundred +thousand barrels, most of which was shipped from the port of Oswego on +Lake Ontario. + +The lumber received at Chicago in 1858 amounted to: Boards, 273,000,000 +feet; shingles, 254,000,000; lath, 45,000,000: worth $2,442,500. + +The present navigable outlets to this great commerce are three in +number. First, the Erie Canal, from Buffalo to Albany, which, in its +enlarged form, takes probably two-thirds of the productions of the Lake +regions. Second, the River St. Lawrence, which, by means of the Welland +Canal, secures a good share of the trade. Third, the Illinois and +Michigan Canal, which conveys large quantities of lumber, salt, and +other heavy goods to the Illinois River and the Mississippi. Of course, +more or less produce is taken to the seaboard by the railroads; but, +even if they could compete in price with water-carriage, it is evident +that they are incapable of moving the surplus grain of the Northwest, +as it now is. Another great navigable outlet to the Lakes is needed, so +that vessels of the largest class may sail from the elevators of Chicago +to the Liverpool docks without breaking bulk; and in reference to this, +a survey has recently been made by Thomas C. Clarke, under the direction +of the Canadian Government, for a ship-navigation between Montreal and +Lake Huron, by way of the Ottawa River, Lake Nipissing, and French +River. The Report shows that the cost of the work for vessels of one +thousand tons burden would be twelve million dollars,--and that it would +cut off a distance nearly equal to the whole length of Lakes Erie and +Ontario, thus saving from three hundred and fifty to four hundred miles +of navigation. In view of the fact that the navigation of St. Clair and +Erie is the most troublesome and dangerous part of the voyage, this plan +certainly deserves attention. + +It is easy to see what a prolific nursery of seamen this Lake commerce +must be, and how valuable a resource in a war with any great naval +power. It is a resource which was wholly wanting to us in the War of +1812, when Commodore Perry had to bring his sailors from the seaboard +with great difficulty and expense. In any future war with England, +supposing such an unhappy event to take place, our great numerical +superiority upon the Lakes in both vessels and sailors would not only +insure our supremacy there, but also afford a large surplus of men for +our ocean marine. + +But it may be said that these men are only fresh-water sailors, after +all, and are not to be relied upon for ocean-navigation. We know there +used to be a notion prevailing, that neither Lake vessels nor Lake men +would do for salt water; but in 1856, the schooner Dean Richmond took a +cargo of wheat from Chicago to Liverpool, beating a large fleet of ocean +craft from Quebec across the Atlantic, and otherwise behaving so well +as to cause the sale of the vessel in England. This voyage encouraged +others to try the experiment, and in 1859 from thirty to forty Lake +vessels loaded for ocean ports. + +That this trade will be very much increased there is no doubt, since +it affords occupation for the Lake marine in the winter, when the Lake +ports are closed by ice. + +On the western shore of Lake Michigan there are large settlements of +Norwegians and Swedes, many of whom follow the Lakes as fishermen and +sailors. Descendants of the old Northern sea-kings, they are as hardy +and adventurous here as in their Scandinavian homes, and run their +vessels earlier and later in the season than other men are willing to +do. + +Science might have anticipated, however, that vessels built for +fresh-water navigation, and loaded at Lake ports, would have an +advantage on the ocean over those loaded on salt water. As is the +density of the water of any sea, so is the displacement, or the sinking +of the vessel therein. Therefore a vessel can carry a larger cargo in +salt water than she can in fresh; and so, a Lake craft, loading at +Chicago as deep as she can swim, will find herself, when she reaches +the ocean, much more buoyant and lively. So, also, as, the more sail a +vessel carries, the deeper she penetrates the water, it follows, that, +the more dense the water, the more sail she can carry. + +In proof of these statements, the "Merchants' Magazine" tells us, that +English vessels bound up the Black Sea take smaller cargoes than those +going to the Mediterranean, because, the former being much less salt +than the latter, vessels are less buoyant thereon, and can carry less. +This difference in buoyancy will probably be enough to offset the higher +seas and rougher weather of the Atlantic. + +Thus it appears that this great basin extends through so many degrees of +latitude that its lakes and streams connect with the mineral regions and +pine forests of the North, the wheat- and corn-lands and cattle-ranges +of the Middle States, and the cotton-and sugar-plantations of the +South. + +The pine forests of Maine, it is well known, have been for some time +failing, under the great demand upon them; and the only resource will +soon be in those of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan, from which many +cargoes have been already sent to the Atlantic ports. The amount of +lumber made in these pineries in 1860 is estimated at twelve hundred +million feet, worth between eight and nine millions of dollars. Most of +this goes to the country west of the Lakes,--to Chicago, to St. Louis, +and even down the river to New Orleans. Since railroads have penetrated +the great prairies and made them habitable, the demand for pine lumber +has greatly increased both for building and fencing; and it has been +estimated, that, if every quarter-section of land in Iowa and Illinois +were surrounded with a "three-board" fence, it would consume every foot +of pine-timber in Michigan. + +As to the copper and iron mines of Lake Superior, many dabblers in fancy +stocks are but too well acquainted with them, and many burned fingers +testify against those investments of capital. Still, the amount of +mineral is immense, and the quality of the purest; and these mines will +no doubt pay well, if worked with skill and capital. + +Since 1845, one hundred and sixteen copper-mining companies have been +organized in Michigan, under the general law of the State; and the +amount of capital invested in them is estimated at six millions of +dollars. Most of this is lost. On the other hand, the "Cliff" and +"Minnesota" mines have returned over two millions of dollars in +dividends. The latter is said to have paid, in 1858, a dividend of +$300,000 on a paid-up capital of $66,000. Mining is a lottery, and this +brilliant prize cannot conceal the fact that blanks fall to the lot of +by far the more numerous part of the ticket-holders. + +The opening of the Sault Canal has very much aided in developing the +resources of the Upper Peninsula. In 1845, the Lake Superior fleet +consisted of three schooners. In 1860, one hundred vessels passed +through the canal, loaded with supplies for the mining country, and +returned with cargoes of copper and iron ore and fish. The copper is +smelted in Detroit, Cleveland, and Boston. In 1859, 3,000 tons were +landed in Detroit, producing from 60 to 70 per cent of ingot copper, +being among the purest ores in the world. + +The iron ore of this region is also of extraordinary purity; and for +all purposes where great strength and tenacity are required, it is +unrivalled, as the following table, showing the relative strength, per +square inch, as compared with other kinds of iron, will prove:-- + + Best Swedish ...... 58.184 + English cable...... 59.105 + Essex Co., N.Y..... 59.962 + Lancaster, Pa...... 58.661 + Common English .... 30.000 + Best Russia ....... 76.069 + Lake Superior ..... 89.582 + +With such iron to be had of American manufacture, why should we use +a rotten English article for car-wheels and boiler-plates, and so +sacrifice the lives of thousands every year? Because, by an unwise +legislation, the foreign article is made a little cheaper to the +American consumer. + +There are ten large forges in operation in Michigan, with a capital of +over two millions of dollars; and the shipments of ore from Marquette +in 1859 were over 75,000 tons. The country back of Marquette is full +of mountains of iron ore, yielding 60 or 70 per cent, of pure metal, +sufficient to supply the world for ages. + +Traces have been found, through the whole of this copper-region, of a +rude species of mining practised here long before it became known to the +whites. The existing races of Indians had not even a tradition by whom +it was done; and the excavations were unknown to them, until pointed out +by the white man. Messrs. Foster and Whitney, in their survey of the +copper-lands, found a pine-stump ten feet in circumference, which must +have grown, flourished, and died since the mound of earth upon which it +stood was thrown out. Mr. Knapp discovered, in 1848, a deserted mine or +excavation, in which, under eighteen feet of rubbish, he found a mass +of native copper weighing over six tons, resting on billets of oak +supported by sleepers of the same material. The ancient miners had +evidently raised the mass about five feet, and then abandoned it. Around +it, among the accumulation of rubbish, were found a large number of +stone hammers, and some copper chisels, but no utensils of iron. In some +instances, explorers have been led to select valuable mining-sites by +the abundance of these stone hammers found about the ground. Traces +of tumuli have also been found in these regions, which would seem +to indicate some connection between these ancient miners and the +mound-builders of the Mississippi Valley,--especially as in those +western mounds copper rings have frequently been found. + +The economical value of the Lake fisheries is considerable. The total +catch of white-fish, trout, and pickerel, the only kinds which are +packed, to any extent, was estimated for 1859 at 110,000 barrels, +worth about $880,000. These find a market through the States of Ohio, +Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois; besides a large quantity which are +consumed in a fresh state, in the Lake cities and towns. + +The White-Fish, (_Coregonus Albus,_) which is the most valuable of all, +somewhat resembles the shad in appearance and taste. It is taken in +seines and other nets,--never with the hook. The white-fish of Lake +Superior are larger, fatter, and of finer flavor than any others. In +this lake they have sometimes been taken weighing fifteen pounds. At the +Sault they are taken in the rapids with dip-nets, by the Chippewas who +live in that vicinity, and are of very fine flavor; those of Detroit +River and the Straits of Mackinac are also very good; but when you go +south, into Lake Erie or Michigan, the quality of the fish deteriorates. +Few travellers ever taste a white-fish in perfection. As eaten upon +hotel-tables at Buffalo or Chicago, it is a poor and tasteless fish. +But, as found at the old French boarding-houses at Mackinac or the +Sault, or, better still, cooked fresh from the icy waters on the +rocky shores of Superior, it is, to our thinking, the best fish that +swims,--better than the true salmon or brook-trout. The famous fish once +so plenty in Otsego Lake, but now nearly extinct, was a _Coregonus_, and +first cousin to this one of the Great Lakes. + +So Sebago Lake, near Portland, some fifty years ago, boasted of a +delicious red-fleshed trout, of large size, which has in these latter +times, from netting or some other improper fishing, nearly or quite +disappeared from those waters, leaving upon the palates of old anglers +the remembrance of a flavor higher and richer than anything now +remaining. + +The Lake Trout, or Mackinac Salmon, is the largest of the family of +_Salmonidoe_, growing, it is said, sometimes to the weight of one +hundred pounds. From twenty to thirty pounds is not uncommon, which is +much larger than the average of _Salmo Salar_, the true salmon. Truth +compels us to add, however, that our salmon of the Lakes is inferior to +his kinsman of the salt water; though, as in the case of the +white-fish, he has been slandered by ignorant people, such as newspaper +letter-writers, and the like. When taken from the clear, cold waters of +Lake Huron or the Straits, and boiled as nearly alive as humanity will +permit, _Salmo Namaycush_ is nearly equal to the true salmon; but after +two or three days in ice, "how stale, flat, and unprofitable!" + +The Muskelunge (_Esox Estor_) is peculiar to this basin, and is the +largest of the pickerels, weighing from ten to eighty pounds. It is a +very handsome and game fish, and is the king, or tyrant, of the water, +devouring without mercy everything smaller than itself; though its +favorite food is the white-fish, which, perhaps, accounts for the +superior flavor of this huge pike, which is one of the very best of +fresh-water fishes. + +Another excellent fish for the table is the Pike-Perch, (_Lucio-Perca_) +or Glass-Eyed Pike, from his large, brilliant eyes. In Ohio, it is +called the salmon, and by the Canadians the pickerel, while, with +singular perversity, they persist in calling our pickerel a pike. It is +a very firm, well-flavored fish, weighing from two to ten pounds, and is +found in all the Great Lakes. + +Professor Agassiz was the first to describe a large and valuable species +of pike, which he found in Lake Superior,--the Northern Pike (_Esox +Boreus_). This is the most common species of pike in the St. Lawrence +basin, though usually confounded with the common pickerel (_Esox +Reticulatus_). It grows to the size of fifteen or twenty pounds, and is +a better table-fish than _Esox Reticulatus_. It may be distinguished by +the rows of spots sides, of a lighter color than the ground upon which +they are arranged. It differs from the Muskelunge in having the lower +jaw full of teeth; whereas in the Muskelunge the anterior half of the +lower jaw is toothless. + +All the streams which empty into Lake Superior, those of the north shore +of Lake Huron, the west shore of Lake Michigan as far as Lake Winnebago, +and all the streams of Lake Ontario, contain the Speckled Trout (_Salmo +Fontinalis_); while they are not found in the streams on the southern +coasts of Lake Michigan, or (so far as we know) in the streams of Lake +Erie. What can determine this limitation of the range of the species? It +cannot be latitude, since trout are found in Pennsylvania and Virginia. +It is not longitude, since they occur in the head-waters of the Iowa +rivers. So Professor Agassiz found that Lake Superior contained species +which were not to be found in the other lakes, and that the other lakes, +again, contained species which did not occur in Lake Superior. He says, +in his work on Lake Superior, + +"It is the great question of the unity or plurality of creations; it is +not less the question of the origin of animals from single pairs or in +large numbers; and, strange to say, a thorough examination of the fishes +of Lake Superior, compared with those of the adjacent waters, is likely +to throw more light upon such questions, than all traditions, however +ancient, however near in point of time to the epoch of Creation itself." + +In Lake Superior is likewise found that remarkable salmon, the +Siscowet,--which is so fat and luscious as to be uneatable in a fresh +state, and requires to be salted to render it fit for food. It commands +a much higher price by the barrel than the lake-trout or white-fish, and +is rarely to be met with out of the Lake cities. + +In this basin is also found the Gar-Pike, (_Lepidosteus,_) a singular +animal, which is the only living representative of the fishes that +existed in the early ages of the earth's history,--and which, by its +formidable array of teeth, its impenetrable armor, and its swiftness and +voracity, gives us some idea of the terrible creatures which peopled the +waters of that period. + +We have thus hastily sketched the character and indicated the resources +of that great Northwest, which, little more than fifty years ago a +wilderness, is now a cluster of republics holding more than the balance +of power in the Union. Idle speculatists, terrified by the violence of +South Carolina, and believing that on her withdrawal the sky is to fall, +are already predicting the dismemberment of East and West. But we think +the chance of it is growing less, year by year. The two are now bound +indissolubly together by lines of railroad, which, during a part of the +year, are the most convenient outlet of the West toward the sea. Those +States, just as they are arriving at a controlling influence in the +affairs of a great and powerful nation, are hardly likely to seclude +themselves from the rest of the world in what would, from its position, +be at best an insignificant republic. + + * * * * * + + +E PLURIBUS UNUM. + + +We do not believe that any government--no, not the Rump Parliament on +its last legs--ever showed such pitiful inadequacy as our own during the +past two months. Helpless beyond measure in all the duties of practical +statesmanship, its members or their dependants have given proof of +remarkable energy in the single department of peculation; and there, not +content with the slow methods of the old-fashioned defaulter, who helped +himself only to what there was, they have contrived to steal what there +was going to be, and have peculated in advance by a kind of official +post-obit. So thoroughly has the credit of the most solvent nation in +the world been shaken, that an administration which still talks of +paying a hundred millions for Cuba is unable to raise a loan of five +millions for the current expenses of Government. Nor is this the worst; +the moral bankruptcy at Washington is more complete and disastrous than +the financial, and for the first time in our history the Executive is +suspected of complicity in a treasonable plot against the very life of +the nation. + +Our material prosperity for nearly half a century has been so +unparalleled, that the minds of men have become gradually more and more +absorbed in matters of personal concern; and our institutions have +practically worked so well and so easily, that we have learned to trust +in our luck, and to take the permanence of our government for granted. +The country has been divided on questions of temporary policy, and the +people have been drilled to a wonderful discipline in the manoeuvres +of party-tactics; but no crisis has arisen to force upon them a +consideration of the fundamental principles of our system, or to arouse +in them a sense of national unity, and make them feel that patriotism +was anything more than a pleasing sentiment,--half Fourth of July and +half Eighth of January,--a feeble reminiscence, rather than a living +fact with a direct bearing on the national well-being. We have had long +experience of that unmemorable felicity which consists in having no +history, so far as history is made up of battles, revolutions, and +changes of dynasty; but the present generation has never been called +upon to learn that deepest lesson of politics which is taught by a +common danger, throwing the people back on their national instincts, and +superseding party-leaders, the peddlers of chicane, with men adequate to +great occasions and dealers in destiny. Such a crisis is now upon us; +and if the virtue of the people make up for the imbecility of the +Executive, as we have little doubt that it will, if the public spirit of +the whole country be awakened in time by the common peril, the present +trial will leave the nation stronger than ever, and more alive to its +privileges and the duties they imply. We shall have learned what is +meant by a government of laws, and that allegiance to the sober will +of the majority, concentrated in established forms and distributed by +legitimate channels, is all that renders democracy possible, is its only +conservative principle, the only thing that has made and can keep us a +powerful nation instead of a brawling mob. + +The theory, that the best government is that which governs least, seems +to have been accepted literally by Mr. Buchanan, without considering the +qualifications to which all general propositions are subject. His course +of conduct has shown up its absurdity, in cases where prompt action is +required, as effectually as Buckingham turned into ridicule the famous +verse,-- + + "My wound is great, because it is so small," + by instantly adding,-- + + "Then it were greater, were it none at all." + +Mr. Buchanan seems to have thought, that, if to govern little was to +govern well, then to do nothing was the perfection of policy. But there +is a vast difference between letting well alone and allowing bad to +become worse by a want of firmness at the outset. If Mr. Buchanan, +instead of admitting the right of secession, had declared it to be, as +it plainly is, rebellion, he would not only have received the unanimous +support of the Free States, but would have given confidence to the +loyal, reclaimed the wavering, and disconcerted the plotters of treason +in the South. + +Either we have no government at all, or else the very word implies the +right, and therefore the duty, in the governing power, of protecting +itself from destruction and its property from pillage. But for Mr. +Buchanan's acquiescence, the doctrine of the right of secession would +never for a moment have bewildered the popular mind. It is simply +mob-law under a plausible name. Such a claim might have been fairly +enough urged under the old Confederation; though even then it would +have been summarily dealt with, in the case of a Tory colony, if +the necessity had arisen. But the very fact that we have a National +Constitution, and legal methods for testing, preventing, or punishing +any infringement of its provisions, demonstrates the absurdity of any +such assumption of right now. When the States surrendered their power to +make war, did they make the single exception of the United States, and +reserve the privilege of declaring war against them at any moment? If we +are a congeries of mediaeval Italian republics, why should the General +Government have expended immense sums in fortifying points whose +strategic position is of continental rather than local consequence? +Florida, after having cost us nobody knows how many millions of dollars +and thousands of lives to render the holding of slaves possible to her, +coolly proposes to withdraw herself from the Union and take with her one +of the keys of the Mexican Gulf, on the plea that her slave-property is +rendered insecure by the Union. Louisiana, which we bought and paid for +to secure the mouth of the Mississippi, claims the right to make her +soil French or Spanish, and to cork up the river again, whenever the +whim may take her. The United States are not a German Confederation, but +a unitary and indivisible nation, with a national life to protect, a +national power to maintain, and national rights to defend against any +and every assailant, at all hazards. Our national existence is all that +gives value to American citizenship. Without the respect which nothing +but our consolidated character could inspire, we might as well be +citizens of the toy-republic of San Marino, for all the protection +it would afford us. If our claim to a national existence was worth a +seven-years' war to establish, it is worth maintaining at any cost; and +it is daily becoming more apparent, that the people, so soon as they +find that secession means anything serious, will not allow themselves to +be juggled out of their rights, as members of one of the great powers of +the earth, by a mere quibble of Constitutional interpretation. + +We have been so much accustomed to the Buncombe style of oratory, to +hearing men offer the pledge of their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor +on the most trivial occasions, that we are apt to allow a great latitude +in such matters, and only smile to think how small an advance any +intelligent pawn-broker would be likely to make on securities of this +description. The sporadic eloquence that breaks out over the country on +the eve of election, and becomes a chronic disease in the two houses of +Congress, has so accustomed us to dissociate words and things, and to +look upon strong language as an evidence of weak purpose, that we attach +no meaning whatever to declamation. Our Southern brethren have been +especially given to these orgies of loquacity, and have so often +solemnly assured us of their own courage, and of the warlike +propensities, power, wealth, and general superiority of that part of the +universe which is so happy as to be represented by them, that, whatever +other useful impression they have made, they insure our never forgetting +the proverb about the woman who talks of her virtue. South Carolina, +in particular, if she has hitherto failed in the application of her +enterprise to manufacturing purposes of a more practical kind, has +always been able to match every yard of printed cotton from the North +with a yard of printed fustian, the product of her own domestic +industry. We have thought no harm of this, so long as no Act of Congress +required the reading of the "Congressional Globe." We submitted to the +general dispensation of long-windedness and short-meaningness as to any +other providential visitation, endeavoring only to hold fast our faith +in the divine government of the world in the midst of so much that was +past understanding. But we lost sight of the metaphysical truth, +that, though men may fail to convince others by a never so incessant +repetition of sonorous nonsense, they nevertheless gradually persuade +themselves, and impregnate their own minds and characters with a belief +in fallacies that have been uncontradicted only because not worth +contradiction. Thus our Southern politicians, by dint of continued +reiteration, have persuaded themselves to accept their own flimsy +assumptions for valid statistics, and at last actually believe +themselves to be the enlightened gentlemen, and the people of the Free +States the peddlers and sneaks they have so long been in the habit of +fancying. They have argued themselves into a kind of vague faith that +the wealth and power of the Republic are south of Mason and Dixon's +line; and the Northern people have been slow in arriving at the +conclusion that treasonable talk would lead to treasonable action, +because they could not conceive that anybody should be so foolish as to +think of rearing an independent frame of government on so visionary +a basis. Moreover, the so often recurring necessity, incident to our +system, of obtaining a favorable verdict from the people, has fostered +in our public men the talents and habits of jury-lawyers at the expense +of statesmanlike qualities; and the people have been so long wonted to +look upon the utterances of popular leaders as intended for immediate +effect and having no reference to principles, that there is scarcely a +prominent man in the country so independent in position and so clear of +any suspicion of personal or party motives, that they can put entire +faith in what he says, and accept him either as the leader or the +exponent of their thoughts and wishes. They have hardly been able to +judge with certainty from the debates in Congress whether secession were +a real danger, or only one of those political feints of which they have +had such frequent experience. + +Events have been gradually convincing them that the peril was actual and +near. They begin to see how unwise, if nothing worse, has been the weak +policy of the Executive in allowing men to play at Revolution till they +learn to think the coarse reality as easy and pretty as the vaudeville +they have been acting. They are fast coming to the conclusion that the +list of grievances put forward by the secessionists is a sham and +a pretence, the veil of a long-matured plot against republican +institutions. And it is time the traitors of the South should know that +the Free States are becoming every day more united in sentiment and more +earnest in resolve, and that, so soon as they are thoroughly satisfied +that secession is something more than empty bluster, a public spirit +will be aroused that will be content with no half-measures, and which no +Executive, however unwilling, can resist. + +The country is weary of being cheated with plays upon words. The United +States are a nation, and not a mass-meeting; theirs is a government, +and not a caucus,--a government that was meant to be capable, and is +capable, of something more than the helpless _please don't_ of a village +constable; they have executive and administrative officers that are not +mere puppet-figures to go through the motions of an objectless activity, +but arms and hands that become supple to do the will of the people so +soon as that will becomes conscious and defines its purpose. It is time +that we turned up our definitions in some more trustworthy dictionary +than that of avowed disunionists and their more dangerous because more +timid and cunning accomplices. Rebellion smells no sweeter because it +is called Secession, nor does Order lose its divine precedence in human +affairs because a knave may nickname it Coercion. Secession means chaos, +and Coercion the exercise of legitimate authority. You cannot dignify +the one nor degrade the other by any verbal charlatanism. The best +testimony to the virtue of coercion is the fact that no wrongdoer ever +thought well of it. The thief in jail, the mob-leader in the hands of +the police, and the murderer on the drop will be unanimous in favor of +this new heresy of the unconstitutionality of Constitutions, with its +Newgate Calendar of confessors, martyrs, and saints. Falstaff's famous +regiment would have volunteered to a man for its propagation or its +defence. Henceforth let every unsuccessful litigant have the right to +pronounce the verdict of a jury sectional, and to quash all proceedings +and retain the property in controversy by seceding from the court-room. +Let the planting of hemp be made penal, because it squints toward +coercion. Why, the first great Secessionist would doubtless have +preferred to divide Heaven peaceably, would have been willing to send +Commissioners, must have thought Michael's proceedings injudicious, and +could probably even now demonstrate the illegality of hell-fire to any +five-year-old imp of average education and intelligence. What a fine +world we should have, if we could only come quietly together in +convention, and declare by unanimous resolution, or even by a +two-thirds' vote, that edge-tools should hereafter cut everybody's +fingers but his that played with them,--that, when two men ride on one +horse, the hindmost shall always sit in front,--and that, when a man +tries to thrust his partner out of bed and gets kicked out himself, he +shall be deemed to have established his title to an equitable division, +and the bed shall be thenceforth his as of right, without detriment to +the other's privilege in the floor! + +If secession be a right, then the moment of its exercise is wholly +optional with those possessing it. Suppose, on the eve of a war with +England, Michigan should vote herself out of the Union and declare +herself annexed to Canada, what kind of a reception would her +Commissioners be likely to meet in Washington, and what scruples should +we feel about coercion? Or, to take a case precisely parallel to that of +South Carolina,--suppose that Utah, after getting herself admitted to +the Union, should resume her sovereignty, as it is pleasantly called, +and block our path to the Pacific, under the pretence that she did not +consider her institutions safe while the other States entertained such +unscriptural prejudices against her special weakness in the patriarchal +line. Is the only result of our admitting a Territory on Monday to be +the giving it a right to steal itself and go out again on Tuesday? Or +do only the original thirteen States possess this precious privilege of +suicide? We shall need something like a Fugitive Slave Law for runaway +republics, and must get a provision inserted in our treaties with +foreign powers, that they shall help us catch any delinquent who may +take refuge with them, as South Carolina has been trying to do with +England and France. It does not matter to the argument, except so far as +the good taste of the proceeding is concerned, at what particular time +a State may make her territory foreign, thus opening one gate of our +national defences and offering a bridge to invasion. The danger of the +thing is in her making her territory foreign under any circumstances; +and it is a danger which the Government must prevent, if only +for self-preservation. Within the limits of the Constitution two +sovereignties cannot coexist; and yet what practical odds does it +make, if a State becomes sovereign by simply declaring herself so? +The legitimate consequence of secession is, not that a State becomes +sovereign, but that, so far as the General Government is concerned, she +has outlawed herself, nullified her own existence as a State, and become +an aggregate of riotous men who resist the execution of the laws. + +We are told that coercion will be civil war; and so is a mob civil war, +till it is put down. In the present case, the only coercion called for +is the protection of the public property and the collection of the +federal revenues. If it be necessary to send troops to do this, they +will not be sectional, as it is the fashion nowadays to call people who +insist on their own rights and the maintenance of the laws, but federal +troops, representing the will and power of the whole Confederacy. A +danger is always great so long as we are afraid of it; and mischief like +that now gathering head in South Carolina may soon become a danger, if +not swiftly dealt with. Mr. Buchanan seems altogether too wholesale a +disciple of the _laissez-faire_ doctrine, and has allowed activity in +mischief the same immunity from interference which is true policy only +in regard to enterprise wisely and profitably directed. He has been +naturally reluctant to employ force, but has overlooked the difference +between indecision and moderation, forgetting the lesson of all +experience, that firmness in the beginning saves the need of force in +the end, and that forcible measures applied too late may be made to seem +violent ones, and thus excite a mistaken sympathy with the sufferers by +their own misdoing. The feeling of the country has been unmistakably +expressed in regard to Major Anderson, and that not merely because he +showed prudence and courage, but because he was the first man holding +a position of trust who did his duty to the nation. Public sentiment +unmistakably demands, that, in the case of Anarchy vs. America, the +cause of the defendant shall not be suffered to go by default. The +proceedings in South Carolina, parodying the sublime initiative of +our own Revolution with a Declaration of Independence that hangs the +franchise of human nature on the kink of a hair, and substitutes for +the visionary right of all men to the pursuit of happiness the more +practical privilege of some men to pursue their own negro,--these +proceedings would be merely ludicrous, were it not for the danger that +the men engaged in them may so far commit themselves as to find the +inconsistency of a return to prudence too galling, and to prefer the +safety of their pride to that of their country. + +It cannot be too distinctly stated or too often repeated, that the +discontent of South Carolina is not one to be allayed by any concessions +which the Free States can make with dignity or even safety. It is +something more radical and of longer standing than distrust of the +motives or probable policy of the Republican Party. It is neither more +nor less than a disbelief in the very principles on which our government +is founded. So long as they practically retained the government of the +country, and could use its power and patronage to their own advantage, +the plotters were willing to wait; but the moment they lost that +control, by the breaking up of the Democratic Party, and saw that their +chance of ever regaining it was hopeless, they declared openly the +principles on which they have all along been secretly acting. Denying +the constitutionality of special protection to any other species of +property or branch of industry, and in 1832 threatening to break up +the Union unless their theory of the Constitution in this respect were +admitted, they went into the late Presidential contest with a claim for +extraordinary protection to a certain kind of property already the +only one endowed with special privileges and immunities. Defeated +overwhelmingly before the people, they now question the right of the +majority to govern, except on their terms, and threaten violence in the +hope of extorting from the fears of the Free; States what they failed +to obtain from their conscience and settled convictions of duty. Their +quarrel is not with the Republican Party, but with the theory of +Democracy. + +The South Carolina politicians have hitherto shown themselves adroit +managers, shrewd in detecting and profiting by the weaknesses of men; +but their experience has not been of a kind to give them practical +wisdom in that vastly more important part of government which depends +for success on common sense and business-habits. The members of the +South Carolina Convention have probably less knowledge of political +economy than any single average Northern merchant whose success depends +on an intimate knowledge of the laws of trade and the world-wide +contingencies of profit and loss. Such a man would tell them, as the +result of invariable experience, that the prosperity of no community was +so precarious as that of one whose very existence was dependent on +a single agricultural product. What divinity hedges cotton, that +competition may not touch it,--that some disease, like that of the +potato and the vine, may not bring it to beggary in a single year, and +cure the overweening conceit of prosperity with the sharp medicine of +Ireland and Madeira? But these South Carolina economists are better at +vaporing than at calculation. They will find to their cost that the +figure's of statistics have little mercy for the figures of speech, +which are so powerful in raising enthusiasm and so helpless in raising +money. The eating of one's own words, as they must do, sooner or later, +is neither agreeable nor nutritious; but it is better to do it before +there is nothing else left to eat. The secessionists are strong in +declamation, but they are weak in the multiplication-table and the +ledger. They have no notion of any sort of logical connection between +treason and taxes. It is all very fine signing Declarations of +Independence, and one may thus become a kind of panic-price hero for a +week or two, even rising to the effigial martyrdom of the illustrated +press; but these gentlemen seem to have forgotten, that, if their +precious document should lead to anything serious, they have been +signing promises to pay for the State of South Carolina to an enormous +amount. It is probably far short of the truth to say that the taxes of +an autonomous palmetto republic would be three times what they are now. +To speak of nothing else, there must be a military force kept constantly +on foot; and the ministers of King Cotton will find that the charge made +by a standing army on the finances of the new empire is likely to be +far more serious and damaging than can be compensated by the glory of a +great many such "spirited charges" as that by which Colonel Pettigrew +and his gallant rifles took Fort Pinckney, with its garrison of one +engineer officer and its armament of no guns. Soldiers are the most +costly of all toys or tools. The outgo for the army of the Pope, never +amounting to ten thousand effective men, in the cheapest country in the +world, has been half a million of dollars a month. Under the present +system, it needs no argument to show that the Non-slaveholding States, +with a free population considerably more than double that of the +Slave-holding States, and with much more generally distributed wealth +and opportunities of spending, pay far more than the proportion +predicable on mere preponderance in numbers of the expenses of a +government supported mainly by a tariff on importations. And it is not +the burden of this difference merely that the new Cotton Republic must +assume. They will need as large, probably a larger, army and navy than +that of the present Union; as numerous a diplomatic establishment; a +postal system whose large yearly deficit they must bear themselves; and +they must assume the main charges of the Indian Bureau. If they adopt +free trade, they will alienate the Border Slave-States, and even +Louisiana; if a system of customs, they have cut themselves off from +the chief consumers of foreign goods. One of the calculations of the +Southern conspirators is to render the Free States tributary to their +new republic, by adopting free trade and smuggling their imported goods +across the border. But this is all moonshine; for, even if smuggling +could not be prevented as easily as it now is from the British +Provinces, how long would it be before the North would adapt its tariff +to the new order of things? And thus thrown back upon direct taxation, +how many years would it take to open the eyes of the poorer classes +of Secessia to the hardship of their position and its causes? Their +ignorance has been trifled with by men who cover treasonable designs +with a pretence of local patriotism. Neither they nor their misleaders +have any true conception of the people of the Free States, of those +"white slaves" who in Massachusetts alone have a deposit in the Savings +Banks whose yearly interest would pay seven times over the four hundred +thousand dollars which South Carolina cannot raise. + +But even if we leave other practical difficulties out of sight, what +chance of stability is there for a confederacy whose very foundation +is the principle that any member of it may withdraw at the first +discontent? If they could contrive to establish a free-trade treaty with +their chief customer, England, would she consent to gratify Louisiana +with an exception in favor of sugar? Some of the leaders of the +secession movement have already become aware of this difficulty, and +accordingly propose the abolition of all State lines,--the first step +toward a military despotism; for, if our present system have one +advantage greater than another, it is the neutralization of numberless +individual ambitions by adequate opportunities of provincial +distinction. Even now the merits of the Napoleonic system are put +forward by some of the theorists of Alabama and Mississippi, who +doubtless have as good a stomach to be emperors as ever Bottom had to a +bottle of hay, when his head was temporarily transformed to the likeness +of theirs,--and who, were they subjects of the government that looks so +nice across the Atlantic, would, ere this, have been on their way +to Cayenne, a spot where such red-peppery temperaments would find +themselves at home. + +The absurdities with which the telegraphic column of the newspapers has +been daily crowded, since the vagaries of South Carolina finally settled +down into unmistakable insanity, would give us but a poor opinion of the +general intelligence of the country, did we not know that they were due +to the necessities of "Our Own Correspondent." At one time, it is Fort +Sumter that is to be bombarded with floating batteries mounted on rafts +behind a rampart of cotton-bales; at another, it is Mr. Barrett, Mayor +of Washington, announcing his intention that the President-elect shall +be inaugurated, or Mr. Buchanan declaring that he shall cheerfully +assent to it. Indeed! and who gave them any choice in the matter? +Yesterday, it was General Scott who would not abandon the flag which he +had illustrated with the devotion of a lifetime; to-day, it is General +Harney or Commodore Kearney who has concluded to be true to the country +whose livery he has worn and whose bread he has eaten for half a +century; to-morrow, it will be Ensign Stebbins who has been magnanimous +enough not to throw up his commission. What are we to make of the +extraordinary confusion of ideas which such things indicate? In what +other country would it be considered creditable to an officer that he +merely did not turn traitor at the first opportunity? There can be no +doubt of the honor both of the army and navy, and of their loyalty to +their country. They will do their duty, if we do ours in saving them a +country to which they can be loyal. + +We have been so long habituated to a kind of local independence in the +management of our affairs, and the Central Government has fortunately +had so little occasion for making itself felt at home and in the +domestic concerns of the States, that the idea of its relation to us as +a power, except for protection from without, has gradually become vague +and alien to our ordinary habits of thought. We have so long heard the +principle admitted, and seen it acted on with advantage to the general +weal, that the people are sovereign in their own affairs, that we +must recover our presence of mind before we see the fallacy of the +assumption, that the people, or a bare majority of them, in a single +State, can exercise their right of sovereignty as against the will of +the nation legitimately expressed. When such a contingency arises, it is +for a moment difficult to get rid of our habitual associations, and to +feel that we are not a mere partnership, dissolvable whether by mutual +consent or on the demand of one or more of its members, but a nation, +which can never abdicate its right, and can never surrender it while +virtue enough is left in the people to make it worth retaining. It +would seem to be the will of God that from time to time the manhood of +nations, like that of individuals, should be tried by great dangers or +by great opportunities. If the manhood be there, it makes the great +opportunity out of the great danger; if it be not there, then the great +danger out of the great opportunity. The occasion is offered us now of +trying whether a conscious nationality and a timely concentration of the +popular will for its maintenance be possible in a democracy, or whether +it is only despotisms that are capable of the sudden and selfish energy +of protecting themselves from destruction. + +The Republican Party has thus far borne itself with firmness and +moderation, and the great body of the Democratic Party in the Free +States is gradually being forced into an alliance with it. Let us not be +misled by any sophisms about conciliation and compromise. Discontented +citizens may be conciliated and compromised with, but never open rebels +with arms in their hands. If there be any concessions which justice may +demand on the one hand and honor make on the other, let us try if we can +adjust them with the Border Slave-States; but a government has already +signed its own death-warrant, when it consents to make terms with +law-breakers. First reestablish the supremacy of order, and then it will +be time to discuss terms; but do not call it a compromise, when you +give up your purse with a pistol at your head. This is no time for +sentimentalisms about the empty chair at the national hearth; all the +chairs would be empty soon enough, if one of the children is to amuse +itself with setting the house on fire, whenever it can find a match. +Since the election of Mr. Lincoln, not one of the arguments has lost its +force, not a cipher of the statistics has been proved mistaken, on +which the judgment of the people was made up. Nobody proposes, or +has proposed, to interfere with any existing rights of property; +the majority have not assumed to decide upon any question of the +righteousness or policy of certain social arrangements existing in +any part of the Confederacy; they have not undertaken to constitute +themselves the conscience of their neighbors; they have simply +endeavored to do their duty to their own posterity, and to protect them +from a system which, as ample experience has shown, and that of +our present difficulty were enough to show, fosters a sense of +irresponsibleness to all obligation in the governing class, and in the +governed an ignorance and a prejudice which may be misled at any moment +to the peril of the whole country. + +But the present question is one altogether transcending all limits of +party and all theories of party-policy. It is a question of national +existence; it is a question whether Americans shall govern America, or +whether a disappointed clique shall nullify all government now, and +render a stable government difficult hereafter; it is a question, not +whether we shall have civil war under certain contingencies, but whether +we shall prevent it under any. It is idle, and worse than idle, to +talk about Central Republics that can never be formed. We want neither +Central Republics nor Northern Republics, but our own Republic and that +of our fathers, destined one day to gather the whole continent under a +flag that shall be the most august in the world. Having once known what +it was to be members of a grand and peaceful constellation, we shall not +believe, without further proof, that the laws of our gravitation are to +be abolished, and we flung forth into chaos, a hurlyburly of jostling +and splintering stars, whenever Robert Toombs or Robert Rhett, or any +other Bob of the secession kite, may give a flirt of self-importance. +The first and greatest benefit of government is that it keeps the +peace, that it insures every man his right, and not only that, but the +permanence of it. In order to this, its first requisite is stability; +and this once firmly settled, the greater the extent of conterminous +territory that can be subjected to one system and one language and +inspired by one patriotism, the better. That there should be some +diversity of interests is perhaps an advantage, since the necessity of +legislating equitably for all gives legislation its needful safeguards +of caution and largeness of view. A single empire embracing the whole +world, and controlling, without extinguishing, local organizations and +nationalities, has been not only the dream of conquerors, but the ideal +of speculative philanthropists. Our own dominion is of such extent and +power, that it may, so far as this continent is concerned, be looked +upon as something like an approach to the realization of such an ideal. +But for slavery, it might have succeeded in realizing it; and in +spite of slavery, it may. One language, one law, one citizenship over +thousands of miles, and a government on the whole so good that we seem +to have forgotten what government means,--these are things not to be +spoken of with levity, privileges not to be surrendered without a +struggle. And yet while Germany and Italy, taught by the bloody and +bitter and servile experience of centuries, are striving toward unity as +the blessing above all others desirable, we are to allow a Union, +that for almost eighty years has been the source and the safeguard of +incalculable advantages, to be shattered by the caprice of a rabble that +has outrun the intention of its leaders, while we are making up our +minds what coercion means! Ask the first constable, and he will tell +you that it is the force necessary for executing the laws. To avoid +the danger of what men who have seized upon forts, arsenals, and other +property of the United States, and continue to hold them by military +force, may choose to call civil war, we are allowing a state of things +to gather head which will make real civil war the occupation of the +whole country for years to come, and establish it as a permanent +institution. There is no such antipathy between the North and the South +as men ambitious of a consideration in the new republic, which their +talents and character have failed to secure them in the old, would fain +call into existence by asserting that it exists. The misunderstanding +and dislike between them is not so great as they were within living +memory between England and Scotland, as they are now between England and +Ireland. There is no difference of race, language, or religion. Yet, +after a dissatisfaction of near a century, and two rebellions, there is +no part of the British dominion more loyal than Scotland, no British +subjects who would be more loath to part with the substantial advantages +of their imperial connection than the Scotch; and even in Ireland, after +a longer and more deadly feud, there is no sane man who would consent +to see his country irrevocably cut off from power and consideration +to obtain an independence which would be nothing but Donnybrook Fair +multiplied by every city, town, and village in the island. The same +considerations of policy and advantage which render the union of +Scotland and Ireland with England a necessity apply with even more force +to the several States of our Union. To let one, or two, or half a dozen +of them break away in a freak of anger or unjust suspicion, or, still +worse, from mistaken notions of sectional advantage, would be to fail in +our duty to ourselves and our country, would be a fatal blindness to +the lessons which immemorial history has been tracing on the earth's +surface, either with the beneficent furrow of the plough, or, when that +was unheeded, the fruitless gash of the cannon-ball. + +When we speak of coercion, we do not mean violence, but only the +assertion of constituted and acknowledged authority. Even if seceding +States could be conquered back again, they would not be worth the +conquest. We ask only for the assertion of a principle which shall give +the friends of order in the discontented quarters a hope to rally round, +and the assurance of the support they have a right to expect. There is +probably a majority, and certainly a powerful minority, in the seceding +States, who are loyal to the Union; and these should have that support +which the prestige of the General Government can alone give them. It is +not to the North or to the Republican Party that the malcontents are +called on to submit, but to the laws, and to the benign intentions of +the Constitution, as they were understood by its framers. What the +country wants is a permanent settlement; and it has learned, by repeated +trial, that compromise is not a cement, but a wedge. The Government did +not hesitate to protect the doubtful right of property of a Virginian +in Anthony Burns by the exercise of coercion, and the loyalty of +Massachusetts was such that her own militia could be used to enforce an +obligation abhorrent, and, as there is reason to believe, made purposely +abhorrent, to her dearest convictions and most venerable traditions; and +yet the same Government tampers with armed treason, and lets _I dare +not_ wait upon _I would_, when it is a question of protecting the +acknowledged property of the Union, and of sustaining, nay, preserving +even, a gallant officer whose only fault is that he has been too true +to his flag. While we write, the newspapers bring us the correspondence +between Mr. Buchanan and the South Carolina "Commissioners," and surely +never did a government stoop so low as ours has done, not only in +consenting to receive these ambassadors from Nowhere, but in suggesting +that a soldier deserves court-martial who has done all he could to +maintain himself in a forlorn hope, with rebellion in his front and +treachery in his rear. Our Revolutionary heroes had old-fashioned +notions about rebels, suitable to the straightforward times in which +they lived,--times when blood was as freely shed to secure our national +existence as milk-and-water is now to destroy it. Mr. Buchanan might +have profited by the example of men who knew nothing of the modern +arts of Constitutional interpretation, but saw clearly the distinction +between right and wrong. When a party of the Shays rebels came to +the house of General Pomeroy, in Northampton, and asked if he could +accommodate them,--the old soldier, seeing the green sprigs in their +hats, the badges of their treason, shouted to his son, "Fetch me my +hanger, and I'll _accommodate_ the scoundrels!" General Jackson, we +suspect, would have accommodated rebel commissioners in the same +peremptory style. + +While our government, like Giles in the old rhyme, is wondering whether +it is a government or not, emissaries of treason are cunningly working +upon the fears and passions of the Border States, whose true interests +are infinitely more on the side of the Union than of Slavery. They are +luring the ambitious with visionary promises of Southern grandeur +and prosperity, and deceiving the ignorant into the belief that the +principles and practice of the Free States were truly represented by +John Brown. All this might have been prevented, had Mr. Buchanan in his +Message thought of the interests of his country instead of those of his +party. It is not too late to check and neutralize it now. A decisively +national and patriotic policy is all that can prevent excited men from +involving themselves so deeply that they will find "returning as tedious +as go o'er," and be more afraid of cowardice than of consequences. + +Slavery is no longer the matter in debate, and we must beware of +being led off upon that side-issue. The matter now in hand is the +reestablishment of order, the reaffirmation of national unity, and the +settling once for all whether there can be such a thing as a government +without the right to use its power in self-defence. The Republican Party +has done all it could lawfully do in limiting slavery once more to the +States in which it exists, and in relieving the Free States from forced +complicity with an odious system. They can be patient, as Providence is +often patient, till natural causes work that conviction which conscience +has been unable to effect. They believe that the violent abolition of +slavery, which would be sure to follow sooner or later the disruption +of our Confederacy, would not compensate for the evil that would be +entailed upon both races by the abolition of our nationality and the +bloody confusion that would follow it. More than this, they believe +that there can be no permanent settlement except in the definite +establishment of the principle, that this government, like all others, +rests upon the everlasting foundations of just Authority,--that that +authority, once delegated by the people, becomes a common stock of Power +to be wielded for the common protection, and from which no minority +or majority of partners can withdraw its contribution under any +conditions,--that this Power is what makes us a nation, and implies +a corresponding duty of submission, or, if that be refused, then a +necessary right of self-vindication. We are citizens, when we make laws; +we become subjects, when we attempt to break them after they are +made. Lynch-law may be better than no law in new and half-organized +communities, but we cannot tolerate its application in the affairs of +government. The necessity of suppressing rebellion by force may be a +terrible one, but its consequences, whatever they may be, do not weigh +a feather in comparison with those that would follow from admitting the +principle that there is no social compact binding on any body of men too +numerous to be arrested by a United States Marshal. + +As we are writing these sentences, the news comes to us that South +Carolina has taken the initiative, and chosen the arbitrament of war. +She has done it because her position was desperate, and because she +hoped thereby to unite the Cotton States by a complicity in blood, as +they are already committed by a unanimity in bravado. Major Anderson +deserves more than ever the thanks of his country for his wise +forbearance. The foxes in Charleston, who have already lost their tails +in the trap of Secession, wished to throw upon him the responsibility of +that second blow which begins a quarrel, and the silence of his guns has +balked them. Nothing would have pleased them so much as to have one of +his thirty-two-pound shot give a taste of real war to the boys who are +playing soldier at Morris's Island. But he has shown the discretion of a +brave man. South Carolina will soon learn how much she has undervalued +the people of the Free States. Because they prefer law to bowie-knives +and revolvers, she has too lightly reckoned on their caution and +timidity. She will find, that, though slow to kindle, they are as slow +to yield, and that they are willing to risk their lives for the defence +of law, though not for the breach of it. They are beginning to question +the value of a peace that is forced on them at the point of the bayonet, +and is to be obtained only by an abandonment of rights and duties. + +When we speak of the courage and power of the Free States, we do not +wish to be understood as descending to the vulgar level of meeting brag +with brag. We speak of them only as among the elements to be gravely +considered by the fanatics who may render it necessary for those who +value the continued existence of this Confederacy as it deserves to be +valued to kindle a back-fire, and to use the desperate means which God +has put into their hands to be employed in the last extremity of free +institutions. And when we use the term Coercion, nothing is farther from +our thoughts than the carrying of blood and fire among those whom +we still consider our brethren of South Carolina. These civilized +communities of ours have interests too serious to be risked on a +childish wager of courage,--a quality that can always be bought cheaper +than day-labor on a railway-embankment. We wish to see the Government +strong enough for the maintenance of law, and for the protection, if +need be, of the unfortunate Governor Pickens from the anarchy he has +allowed himself to be made a tool of for evoking. Let the power of the +Union be used for any other purpose than that of shutting and barring +the door against the return of misguided men to their allegiance. At the +same time we think legitimate and responsible force prudently exerted +safer than the submission, without a struggle, to unlawful and +irresponsible violence. + +Peace is the greatest of blessings, when it is won and kept by manhood +and wisdom; but it is a blessing that will not long be the housemate of +cowardice. It is God alone who is powerful enough to let His authority +slumber; it is only His laws that are strong enough to protect and +avenge themselves. Every human government is bound to make its laws +so far resemble His, that they shall be uniform, certain, and +unquestionable in their operation; and this it can do only by a timely +show of power, and by an appeal to that authority which is of divine +right, inasmuch as its office is to maintain that order which is the +single attribute of the Infinite Reason that we can clearly apprehend +and of which we have hourly example. + + * * * * * + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +Personal History of Lord Bacon, From Unpublished Papers. By WILLIAM +HEPWORTH DIXON, of the Inner Temple. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. pp. +424. + +The life of Bacon, as it has been ordinarily written, presents contrasts +so strange, that thoughtful readers have been compelled either to doubt +the accuracy of the narrative, or to admit that in his case Nature +departed from her usual processes, and embodied antithesis in a man. The +character suggested by the events of his life has long been in direct +opposition to the character impressed on his writings; and Macaulay, who +gave to the popular opinion its most emphatic and sparkling expression, +increased this difference by exaggerating the opposite elements of the +human epigram, and ended in manufacturing the most brilliant monstrosity +that ever bore the name of a person. Lord Campbell followed with a +biography having all the appearance of conscientious research and +judicial impartiality, but which was really nothing more than a weak +translation of Macaulay's vivid sentences into such English "as it had +pleased God to endow him withal." Bacon, to all inquiring men, still +remained outside of the statements of both; and after the lapse of +nearly two centuries, the slight biographical sketch by his chaplain, +Dr. Rawleigh, conveyed a juster idea of the man than all the +biographies by which it had been succeeded, but not superseded. + +Mr. Dixon's "Personal History of Lord Bacon" is the first attempt to +vindicate his fame by original research into unpublished documents. It +is a mortifying reflection to all who speak the English tongue, that +this task should have been deferred so long. There has been no lack +of such research in regard to insignificant individuals who have been +accidentally connected with events which come within the cognizance +of English historians; but the greatest Englishman among all English +politicians and statesmen since the Norman Conquest has heretofore been +honored with no biographer who considered him worthy the labor which has +been lavished on inferior men. The readers of Macaulay's four volumes +of English history have often expressed their amazement at his minute +knowledge of the political mediocrities of the time of James II. +and William III. He spared neither time nor labor in collecting and +investigating facts regarding comparatively unknown persons who happened +to be connected with his subject; but in his judgment of a man who, +considered simply as a statesman, was infinitely greater than Halifax +or Dauby, he depends altogether on hearsay, and gives that hearsay +the worst possible appearance. In his article on Bacon, he not merely +evinces no original research, but he so combines the loose statements he +takes for granted, that, in his presentation of them, they make out +a stronger case against Bacon than is warranted by their fair +interpretation. Indeed, leaving out the facts which Macaulay suppresses +or is ignorant of, and taking into account only those which he includes, +his judgment of Bacon is still erroneous. Long before we read Mr. +Dixon's book, we had reversed Macaulay's opinion merely by scrutinizing, +and restoring to their natural relations, Macaulay's facts. + +But Mr. Dixon's volume, while in style and matter it is one of the most +interesting and entertaining books of the season, is especially valuable +for the new light it sheds on the subject by the introduction of +original materials. These materials, to be sure, were within the reach +of any person who desired to write an impartial biography; but Mr. Dixon +no less deserves honor for withstanding the prejudice that Bacon's +moral character was unquestionably settled as base, and for daring to +investigate anew the testimony on which the judgment was founded. And +there can be no doubt that he has dispelled the horrible chimera, that +the same man can be thoroughly malignant or mean in his moral nature and +thoroughly beneficent or exalted in his intellectual nature. While we do +not doubt that depravity and intelligence can make an unholy alliance, +we do doubt that the intelligence thus prompted can exhibit, to an eye +that discerns spirits, all the vital signs of benevolence. If, in the +logic of character, Iago or Jerry Sneak be in the premises, it is +impossible to find Bacon in the conclusion. + +The value of Mr. Dixon's book consists in its introduction of new facts +to illustrate every questionable incident in Bacon's career. It is +asserted, for instance, that Bacon, as a member of Parliament, was +impelled solely by interested motives, and opposed the government merely +to force the government to recognize his claims to office. Mr. Dixon +brings forward facts to prove that his opposition is to be justified +on high grounds of statesmanship; that he was both a patriot and a +reformer; that great constituencies were emulous to make him their +representative; that in wit, in learning, in reason, in moderation, in +wisdom, in the power of managing and directing men's minds and passions, +he was the first man in the House of Commons; that the germs of great +improvements are to be found in his speeches; that, when he was +overborne by the almost absolute power of the Court, his apparent +sycophancy was merely the wariness of a wise statesman; that Queen +Elizabeth eventually acknowledged his services to the country, and, far +from neglecting him, repeatedly extended to him most substantial +marks of her favor. This portion of Mr. Dixon's volume, founded on +state-papers, will surprise both the defamers and the eulogists of +Bacon. It contains facts of which both Macaulay and Basil Montagu were +ignorant. + +Of Bacon's relations with Essex we never had but one opinion. All the +testimony brought forward to convict Bacon of treachery to Essex seemed +to us inconclusive. The facts, as stated by Macaulay and Lord Campbell, +do not sustain their harsh judgment. A parallel may be found in the +present political condition of our own country. Let us suppose Senator +Toombs so fortunate as to have had a wise counsellor, who for ten years +had borne to him the same relation which Bacon bore to Essex. Let us +suppose that it was understood between them that both were in favor +of the Union and the Constitution, and that nothing was to be done to +forward the triumph of their party which was not strictly legal. Then +let us suppose that Mr. Toombs, from the impulses of caprice and +passion, had secretly established relations with desperate disunionists, +and had thus put in jeopardy not only the interests, but the lives, of +those who were equally his friends and the friends of the Constitution. +Let us further suppose that he had suddenly placed himself at the +head of an armed force to overturn the United States government at +Washington, while he was still a Senator from Georgia, sworn to support +the Constitution of the United States, and that his cheated friend and +counsellor had just left the President of the United States, after a +long conference, in which he had attempted to show, to an incredulous +listener, that Senator Toombs was a devoted friend to the Union, though +dissatisfied with some of the members of the Administration. This is a +very faint illustration of the political relations between Essex +and Bacon, admitting the generally received facts on which Bacon is +execrated as false to his friend. Mr. Dixon adduces new facts which +completely justify Bacon's conduct. If Bacon, like Essex, had been ruled +by his passions, he would have been a far fiercer denouncer of Essex's +treason. He had every reason to be enraged. He was a wise man duped by a +foolish one. He was in danger of being implicated in a treason which he +abhorred, through the perfidy of a man who was generally considered as +his friend and patron, and who was supposed to act from his advice. As +Bacon doubtless knew what we now for the first time know, every candid +reader must be surprised at the moderation of his course. Essex would +not have hesitated to shoot or stab Bacon, had Bacon behaved to him as +he had behaved to Bacon. But we pardon, it seems, the most hateful +and horrible selfishness which springs from the passions; our moral +condemnation is reserved for that faint form of selfishness which may be +suspected to have its source in the intellect. + +In regard to the other charges against Bacon, we think that Mr. Dixon +has brought forward evidence which must materially modify the current +opinions of Bacon's personal character. He has proved that Bacon, as a +practical statesman, was in advance of his age, rather than behind it. +He has proved that his philosophy penetrated his politics, and that he +gave wise advice, and recommended large, liberal, and humane measures to +a generation which could not appreciate them. He has proved that he did +everything that a man in his situation could do for the cause of truth +and justice which did not necessitate his retirement from public life. +The abuses by which he may have profited he not only did not defend, +but tried to reform. Among the statesmen of his day he appears not only +intellectually superior, but conventionally respectable,--a fact which +would seem to be established by the bare statement, that he died +wretchedly poor, while most of them died enormously rich. + +But Mr. Dixon, in his advocacy of Bacon, overlooks the circumstance, +that no man could hold high office under James I., without complying +with abuses calculated to damage his reputation with posterity. We have +no doubt that Bacon's compliance was connected with considerations which +Mr. Dixon entirely ignores. Far from discriminating between Bacon the +philosopher and Bacon the politician, we have always thought that they +were intimately connected. Bacon's Method, the thing on which, as a +philosopher, he especially prided himself, was defective. It left out +that power by which all discoveries have since his time been made, +namely, scientific genius. Its successful working depended on an immense +collection of facts, which no individual, and no society of individuals, +could possibly make. He himself was never weary of asserting that the +Method could never produce its beneficent effects, unless it were +assisted by the revenues of a nation. Of the course which physical +science really followed he had no prevision. Copernicus, Kepler, +Galileo, Gilbert, he never appreciated. He was an intellectual autocrat, +who had matured his own scheme of interpreting Nature, and thought, +that, if it were systematically carried out, the inmost secrets of +Nature could he mastered. His desire to be Lord Chancellor of England +was subsidiary to his larger desire to be Lord Chancellor of Nature +herself. He hoped, by managing James and Buckingham, to flatter them +into aiding, by the revenues of the State, his grand philosophical +scheme. Combine the facts which Mr. Dixon has disinterred with the facts +which every thoughtful reader of Bacon's philosophical works already +knows, and the vindication of Bacon as a man is complete. + +We are inclined to think that he failed in both of the objects of his +highest ambition. His philosophic Method is demonstrably a failure; his +attempt to convert James and Buckingham to his views resulted in his own +unjust disgrace with contemporaries and posterity. The truth is, that, +cool, serene, comprehensive, and unimpassioned as he appears, he was +from his youth actuated by a fanaticism which seems less intense than +the fanaticism of a man like Cromwell only because it was infinitely +more broad. Had he succeeded in the design he proposed to himself, +his intellectual domination would not be confined to England, or the +kingdoms of the civilized world, but would be commensurate with the +whole domain of Nature and man. + +We are so grateful to Mr. Dixon for what he has done, that we are not +disposed to quarrel with him for what he has left undone. He has added +such a mass of incontrovertible facts to the materials which must enter +into the future biography of Bacon, that his book cannot fail to exact +cordial praise from the most captious critics. Bacon, in his aspirations +and purposes, was a very much greater man than he appears in Mr. Dixon's +biography; but still to Mr. Dixon belongs the credit of rescuing his +personal reputation from undeserved ignominy. If we add to this his +vivid pictures of the persons and events of the Elizabethan age, and his +bright, sharp, and brief way of flashing his convictions and discoveries +on the mind of the reader, we indicate merits which will make his volume +generally and justly popular. The letters of Lady Ann Bacon, the mother +of the philosopher and statesman-letters for which we are indebted to +Mr. Dixon's exhaustive research--would alone be sufficient to justify +the publication of his interesting book. + + +_Autobiography of Dr. Alexander Carlyle, Minister of Inveresk_. With +Memorials of the Men and Events of his Time. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. +12mo. pp. 480. + +Who was he? and what was he like?--Sir Walter Scott answered these +interrogatories more than thirty years ago, in this wise. He says, in +his "Review of the Life and Works of John Home,"--"Dr. Carlyle was, for +a long period, clergyman of Musselburgh; his character was as excellent +as his conversation was amusing and instructive; his person and +countenance, even at a very advanced age, were so lofty and commanding, +as to strike every artist with his resemblance to the Jupiter Tonans of +the Pantheon." + +Sixty years ago, this old Scottish clergyman sat down, one January day, +in Musselburgh, and began to write his "Autobiography." He had lived +seventy-nine years among scenes of great interest, and had known men of +remarkable genius. He wrote and died. The manuscript he left has been +often read and enjoyed by clever men and women, who in their turn have +gone to the churchyard to sleep with the venerable old man the story of +whose life they had perused. Sir Walter himself once caught a glimpse +of the time-stained sheets. All are now dead who could by any chance he +pained by the publication of facts in which their relatives look part +long years ago. So the world has now another volume to add to the store +of biography, and the future historian will have another treasury of +facts from which to illumine his pages. + +Himself the son of a clergyman, Alexander Carlyle had a good +school-drilling in Prestonpans, where he was born. One of the stories of +his childhood is very amusing, inasmuch as it pictures a dozen old women +listening to young Alexander, aged six, who reads the Song of Solomon to +them in a graveyard, he all the while perched on a tombstone. My Lord +Grange was the principal man in Prestonpans parish; and Master Carlyle, +with his excellent father, had great reverence for the patron who had +been the cause of the family's transplantation from Annandale. My +Lady was a very lively person, daughter of the man who shot President +Lockhart in the dark because he had infuriated him in an arbitration +case in the court. This great family attracted the boyish wonder of +young Carlyle, and some of the gossiping stories that he heard in +his father's house made his juvenile ears tingle. Poor Lady Grange! +Quarrelling with her husband one day, on his return from London, where +pretty Fanny Lindsay, who kept a coffee-house in the Haymarket, had +bewitched him, she never knew peace again. Her temper, never very +soothing or placable, got entire possession of her life, and she rained +stormy gusts of passion on her guilty lord. He trembled and endured, +till he found a razor concealed under his wife's pillow, and then he +determined to remove his violent helpmeet to a safe seclusion. By main +force, with the aid of accomplices, he seized the lady in his house in +Edinburgh, and bore her through Stirling to the Highlands. Thence she +was taken to St. Kilda's desolate island, far off in the Western Ocean, +and there kept for the remainder of her days, scantily furnished with +only the coarsest fare. Her condition was most wretched to the last. +In those days, licentiousness and religious enthusiasm were not +incompatible associates, and Lord Grange frequently spent his evenings +with the Minister of Prestonpans, praying, and settling high points of +Calvinism with the old pastor. Good Mrs. Carlyle used to complain that +they did not part without wine, and that late hours were consequent upon +the claret they liberally imbibed after their pious discussions. + +Dr. Doddridge's famous Colonel Gardiner came to reside in Minister +Carlyle's parish, and told the story of his remarkable conversion, with +his own lips, to the clergyman. The hook which turned him from his +wicked career was Gurnall's "Christian Armor," a volume placed many +years before, by a mother's hand, in his trunk, and until then +neglected. Young Carlyle hoard Gardiner tell the story of his change of +life several times to different sets of people, and he thought Doddridge +had marred the tale by introducing the incident of a blaze of light, +which the Colonel himself never spoke of having seen, when he related +his conversion. + +When Alexander was eleven years old, he took a little journey with his +father and another clergyman by the name of Jardine; and the two pious, +elderly gentlemen, having a great turn for fun and buffoonery, made +sport wherever they went. Turning their wigs hind-part foremost, and +making faces, they delighted in diverting the children they encountered +on the way. + +Of many of the incidents of the Porteous Mob young Carlyle was a +witness. He was in the Tolbooth Church, at Edinburgh, when Robertson, a +condemned smuggler, who was brought in to listen to the discourse and +prayers before execution, made his escape. The congregation were coming +into church while all the bells were ringing, when the criminal, +watching his opportunity, sprang suddenly over a pew, and was next heard +of in Holland. When, a few weeks afterwards, Wilson, another smuggler, +was executed, Carlyle, with some of his school-fellows, was in a window +on the north side of the Grass-Market, and heard Porteous order his +guard to fire on the people. A young lad, who had been killed by a slug +entering his head, was brought into the house where the boys were on +that occasion. + +In the summer of 1737, young Carlyle might have been seen during the +evening hours walking anxiously about the Prestonpans fields. That +season he had lost one of his fellow-pupils and dearest friends, and +they had often agreed together that whichever might die first should +appear there to the other, and reveal the secrets beyond the barrier. +And so the survivor paced the meadows, hoping to meet his old companion, +who never appeared. In November of that year he was at college, and his +acquaintance with Robertson, afterwards the eminent historian, then +began. John Home, celebrated at a later period as the author of +"Douglas," also became an intimate friend. He now decided to choose a +profession, and had wellnigh concluded an agreement with two surgeons +to study theirs, when he became disgusted with the meanness of the +doctors, who had bought for dissection the body of a child of a poor +tailor for six shillings, the price asked being six shillings and +sixpence, from which they made the needy man abate the sixpence. Turning +from the niggardly surgeons, he enrolled his name as a student of +divinity, and was frequently in Edinburgh attending the lectures at +Divinity Hall. Wonderfully cheap was the living in those days, when, +at the Edinburgh ordinaries, a good dinner could be had for fourpence, +small beer included. John Witherspoon, years after a member of the +American Congress, then a frank, generous young fellow, was a companion +of Carlyle at this period, and they often went fishing together in the +streams near Gifford Hall. + +The city of Glasgow, whither young Carlyle had gone to pursue his +studies, was at this time far inferior in point of commerce to what it +afterwards became. The tobacco-trade with the American colonies and the +traffic in sugar and rum with the West Indies were the chief branches of +business. Carlyle did not find the merchants of those days interesting +or learned people, though they held a weekly club, where they discussed +the nature and principle of trade, and invited Alexander to join it. But +he found life in Glasgow very dull, and was constantly complaining that +there was neither a teacher of French nor of music in the town. There +was but one concert during the two winters he spent there. Post-chaises +and hackney-coaches were unknown, their places being supplied by three +or four old sedan-chairs, which did a brisk business in carrying +midwives about in the night, and old ladies to church and the +dancing-assemblies. The principal merchants began their business early +in the morning, and took dinner about noon with their families at home. +Afterwards they resorted to the coffee-house, to read the newspapers +and enjoy a bowl of punch. Until an arch fellow from Dublin came to be +master of the chief coffee-house, nine o'clock was the hour for these +worthy mercantile gentlemen to be at home in the evening. The seductive +Irish stranger began his wiles by placing a few nice cold relishing +things on the table, and so gradually led the way to hot suppers and +midnight symposia. Towards the end of his college-session, Carlyle was +introduced to a club which gave him great satisfaction. The principal +member was Robert Simson, the celebrated mathematician. Simson was a +great humorist, and was particularly averse to the company of ladies. +Matthew Stewart, afterwards Professor of Mathematics at Edinburgh, was a +constant attendant at this club. + +On the breaking out of the Rebellion of 1745, the young +divinity-student, having returned to Edinburgh, joined the Volunteers, +and entered warmly into all the bustle and business of those exciting +days. In the Battle of Prestonpans he took part, and was active to the +end. When Prince Charles Edward issued a proclamation of pardon to the +Volunteers, Carlyle went down to the Abbey Court to see him. The Prince +mounted his horse, while the young man stood by, and rode away to the +east side of Arthur's Seat. Charles was at that time a good-looking +gentleman, of about five feet ten inches, with dark red hair and black +eyes. + +One Monday morning in October, a hundred and fifteen years ago, young +Carlyle set out for Rotterdam, on his way to Leyden, to join the British +students there. Among them he found Charles Townshend and John Wilkes, +names afterwards famous in English politics. With Wilkes he became +intimate, and many a spirited talk they had together in their daily +rambles. + +But we cannot dwell upon the incidents of Carlyle's student-life on the +Continent. Soon after his return to Scotland he made acquaintance with +Smollett, whose lively, agreeable manners rendered him universally +popular. Thomson, the author of "The Seasons," and Armstrong the poet, +were also at this time among his friends. In 1746 he preached his +first sermon before the Presbytery of Haddington, and got "universal +approbation," especially from one young lady, to whom he had been long +attached. Robertson the historian and Home the dramatist were now among +his neighbors, and no doubt used their influence in getting the young +clergyman a living. He finally settled at Inveresk, where his life was +a very pleasant round of cares and duties. Hume, Adam Smith, Blair, +Smollett, and Robertson now figure largely in his personal record, so +that he had no lack of genial companions. Adam Smith he describes as "a +very absent man in society, moving his lips, talking to himself, +and smiling, in the midst of large companies." Robertson was a very +different person, and held all the conversation-threads in his own +fingers, forgetting, alas! sometimes, that he had not been present in +many a scene which he described as an eye-witness. + +Carlyle went some distance on the way toward London with Home, when he +carried his tragedy of "Douglas" for examination to the critics. Six +other clergymen, accompanied the precious manuscript on that expedition, +and the fun was prodigious. Garrick read the play and pronounced it +totally unfit for the stage! "Douglas" was afterwards brought out in +Edinburgh with unbounded success. David Hume ran about crying it up as +the first performance he world had seen for half a century. + +Carlyle's visit to Shenstone is very graphically described in the +"Autobiography." The poet was then "a large, heavy, fat man, dressed in +white clothes and silver lace." One night in Edinburgh, Dr. Robertson +gave a small supper-party to "the celebrated Dr. Franklin," and Carlyle +met him that evening at table. They came together afterwards several +times. + +But we must refer our readers to the book itself, our limits not +allowing more space for a glance at one of the most entertaining works +in modern biography. + + +_The Laws of Race, as connected with Slavery_. By the Author of "The Law +of the Territories," "Rustic Rhymes," etc. Philadelphia: W.P. Hazard. +1860. 8vo. pp. 70. + +There is no lack of talk and writing among us on political topics; but +there is great lack of independent and able thought concerning them. +The disputes and the manoeuvres of parties interfere with the study and +recognition of the active principles which silently mould the national +character and history. The double-faced platforms of conventions, the +loose manifestoes of itinerant candidates for the Presidency, the +rhetorical misrepresentations of "campaign documents," form the staple +of our political literature. + +The writer of the pamphlet before us is one of the few men who not only +think for themselves, nut whose thoughts deserve attention. His essay +on "The Law of the Territories" was distinguished not more by its sound +reasoning than by the candor of its statements and the calmness of its +tone and temper. If his later essay, on "The Laws of Race, as connected +with Slavery," be on the whole less satisfactory, this is to be +attributed, not to any want in it of the same qualities of thought +and style as were displayed in his earlier work, but to the greater +complexify and difficulty of the subject itself. The question of Race, +so far as it affects actual national conditions, is one of the deepest +and most intricate which can be presented to the student of politics. It +is impossible to investigate it without meeting with difficulties which +in the present state of knowledge cannot be solved, or without opening +paths of speculation which no human foresight can trace to their end. +This is, indeed, no reason for not attempting its discussion; and Mr. +Fisher, in treating it in its relation to Slavery, has done good work, +and has brought forward important, though much neglected considerations. +He endeavors to place the whole subject of the relations of the white +and the black races in this country on philosophic grounds, and to +deduce the principles which must govern them from the teachings of +ethnological science, or, in other words, from natural laws which human +device can neither abrogate nor alter. + +From these teachings he derives the three following conclusions. + +"The white race must of necessity, by reason of its superiority, govern +the negro, wherever the two live together. + +"The two races can never amalgamate, and form a new species of man, but +must remain forever distinct,--though mulattoes and other grades always +exist, because constantly renewed. + +"Each race has a tendency to occupy exclusively that portion of the +country suited to its nature." + +If true, these conclusions are of the utmost importance. They are higher +laws, which "must rule our politics and our destiny, either by the +Constitution or over it, either with the Union or without it; and no +wit or force of man is strong enough to resist them." It is to the +exposition of the results which follow from these conclusions, assuming +them to be true, that the larger part of the present essay is devoted. + +That these propositions express, or at least point the way to essential +truths, we are fully persuaded. But we are not ready to accept all the +inferences which the author draws from them, or to admit that they +afford sufficient basis for some of his minor assumptions. + +Arguing from his first conclusion, the author draws the inference that +"slavery is the necessary result" of the nature of the black and of the +white man. "The negro is by nature indolent and improvident." "He is +also ignorant." "He requires restraint and guidance"; "otherwise he +would sink into helpless, hopeless vice, idleness, and misery." But in +these words, and in others to the same purport, Mr. Fisher assumes that +the nature of the black is incapable of such improvement as to make what +he calls the necessary condition of servitude needless in the interest +of either race. We are surprised that so good a reasoner should speak +of the ignorance of the black as a natural disqualification for +independence, and the more so, because, in another passage, Mr. Fisher +says, with truth, "We darken his mind with ignorance." That some form +of subjection of the negro may be necessary for a time that extends far +into the future is a point we will not dispute; but that slavery, as +that word is generally understood, is the necessary result of his nature +and of our nature we believe to be utterly untrue. The whole history +of American slavery, far from exhibiting the negro as incapable of +improvement, shows him making a slow and irregular advance in the +development of intellectual and moral qualities, under circumstances +singularly unfavorable. It is the plea of the advocates of the +slave-trade, that the black is civilized by contact with the white. +The plea is not without truth. It is the universal testimony of +slave-owners, and the common observation of travellers, that the city +and house slaves, that is, those who are brought into most constant and +close relations with the whites, show higher mental development than +those who are confined to the fields. The experiment of education, +continued for more than one generation, has never been tried. The black +is in many of his endowments inferior to the white; but until he and +his children and his children's children have shown an incapacity to be +raised by a suitable training, honestly given, to an intellectual and +moral condition that shall fit them for self-dependence, we have no +right to assert that slavery is a necessary condition, if in the meaning +of necessary we include the idea of permanence. It is not needful to +present here other objections to this sweeping assertion. They are old, +well-known, and unanswerable. + +But leaving this and other points on which we find ourselves at issue +with Mr. Fisher, we come to what we regard as the most important part of +his pamphlet,--the results which he shows to follow from the law, that +"each race has a tendency to occupy exclusively that portion of the +country suited to its nature." In the States that lie on the Gulf of +Mexico the negro "has found a congenial climate and obtained a permanent +foothold." "The negro multiplies there; the white man dwindles and +decays." We should be glad to quote at length the striking pages in +which Mr. Fisher shows the prospect of the ultimate and not distant +ascendency of the black race in this new Africa. The considerations he +presents are of vital consequence to the South, of consequence only less +than vital to the North. But by the side of "New-Africa" are States and +Territories in which the black race has little or no foothold. Free, +civilized, and prosperous communities are brought face to face, as it +were, with the mixed and degenerating populations of the Slave country. +In the Free States the white race is increasing in numbers and advancing +in prosperity with unexampled rapidity. In the Slave States the black +race is growing in far greater proportion than the white, the most +important elements of prosperity are becoming exhausted, and the +forces of civilization are incompetent to hold their own against the +ever-increasing weight of barbarism. Shall this new Africa push its +boundaries beyond their present limits? Shall more territory be yielded +to the already wide-spread African, race? It is not the question, +whether the unoccupied spaces of the South and West shall be settled by +Northern white emigrants with their natural property, or by Southern +white emigrants with their legal property,--and there an end; but it +is the question, whether New England or New Africa shall extend her +limits,--whether the country shall be occupied a century hence by a +civilized or by a barbarous race. Every rood of ground yielded to the +pretensions of the masters of slaves is so much of the heirloom of +freedom and of civilization lost without hope of recovery. Slavery is +transient. + +As an institution, such as it has developed itself in our Southern +States, it has already, given tokens of decay. But the qualities of race +are so slowly affected by change as to admit of being called constant +and permanent. The predominant influence of the blacks in the Cotton +States is already (even putting aside the results of slavery) exhibiting +itself in the lowering of the whites. These States are becoming +uninhabitable for the whites,--not by reason of climate, or of slavery +as an institution, but by reason of the operation of the inevitable +increase of the slaves. They must have the land, and the stronger race +will be driven out by the weaker, on account of the preponderance of +their numbers and the _vis inertice_ of their natures. There is no room +in the United States, or in any of their unsettled territory, for the +expansion of this transatlantic Africa. Where the black race is now +settled it will stay, but it must be confined within its present limits. + +We do not look upon the simple secession of the Slave States, or of +any one of them, as dangerous, so far as the extension of slavery is +concerned,--rather, on the contrary, as likely to end the great debate +by securing all unoccupied territory to the North, to freedom, and to +the white races. It is only, if an attempt should be made, for the sake +of what is miscalled peace, and for the sake of the Union, to conciliate +the misguided and unfortunate people of the South by compromise or +concession, that we fear the consequences. + +The responsibility under which we are to act is not for our own moral +convictions alone, but also for the happiness of all future times. There +is no room for concession, no space for compromise, in the settlement of +the question of the prevalence of the black or of the white race on this +continent,--in other words, the prevalence of liberty and Christianity +and all their attendant blessings, or that of ignorance and barbarism +with their train. "We will decide this question," says Mr. Fisher, whose +words were written before the necessity for decision was so distinctly +presented as at present, "we will decide it, if we can, as a united +people; but if we cannot, if cotton and slavery and the negro have +already weakened our Southern brethren by their spells and enchantments, +so that the South cannot decide according to the traditions and impulses +of our race, then we of the North will still decide it, as by right we +may,--by right of reason, of race, and of law." + + +_The Conduct of Life_. By R.W. EMERSON Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. +pp. 288. + +It is a singular fact, that Mr. Emerson is the most steadily attractive +lecturer in America. Into that somewhat cold-waterish region adventurers +of the sensation kind come down now and then with a splash, to become +disregarded King Logs before the next season. But Mr. Emerson always +draws. A lecturer now for something like a quarter of a century, one +of the pioneers of the lecturing system, the charm of his voice, his +manner, and his matter has never lost its power over his earlier +hearers, and continually winds new ones in its enchanting meshes. What +they do not fully understand they take on trust, and listen, saying to +themselves, as the old poet of Sir Philip Sidney,-- + + "A sweet, attractive, kind of grace, + A full assurance given by looks, + Continual comfort in a face, + The lineaments of gospel books." + +We call it a singular fact, because we Yankees are thought to be fond of +the spread-eagle style, and nothing can be more remote from that than +his. We are reckoned a practical folk, who would rather hear about a +new air-tight stove than about Plato; yet our favorite teacher's +practicality is not in the least of the Poor Richard variety. If he +have any Buncombe constituency, it is that unrealized commonwealth of +philosophers which Plotinus proposed to establish; and if he were to +make an almanac, his directions to farmers would be something like +this:--"OCTOBER: _Indian Summer_; now is the time to get in your early +Vedas." What, then, is his secret? Is it not that he out-Yankees us all? +that his range includes us all? that he is equally at home with the +potato-disease and original sin, with pegging shoes and the Over-soul? +that, as we try all trades, so has he tried all cultures? and above all, +that his mysticism gives us a counterpoise to our super-practicality? + +There is no man living to whom, as a writer, so many of us feel +and thankfully acknowledge so great an indebtedness for ennobling +impulses,--none whom so many cannot abide. What does he mean? ask these +last. Where is his system? What is the use of it all? What the deuse +have we to do with Brahma? Well, we do not propose to write an essay on +Emerson at the fag-end of a February "Atlantic," with Secession longing +for somebody to hold it, and Chaos come again in the South Carolina +teapot. We will only say that we have found grandeur and consolation in +a starlit night without caring to ask what it meant, save grandeur and +consolation; we have liked Montaigne, as some ten generations before us +have done, without thinking him so systematic as some more eminently +tedious (or shall we say tediously eminent?) authors; we have thought +roses as good in their way as cabbages, though the latter would have +made a better show in the witness-box, if cross-examined as to their +usefulness; and as for Brahma, why, he can take care of himself, and +won't bite us at any rate. + +The bother with Mr. Emerson is, that, though he writes in prose, he is +essentially a poet. If you undertake to paraphrase what he says, and to +reduce it to words of one syllable for infant minds, you will make +as sad work of it as the good monk with his analysis of Homer in the +"Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum." We look upon him as one of the few men +of genius whom our age has produced, and there needs no better proof of +it than his masculine faculty of fecundating other minds. Search for his +eloquence in his books and you will perchance miss it, but meanwhile you +will find that it has kindled all your thoughts. For choice and pith of +language he belongs to a better age than ours, and might rub shoulders +with Fuller and Browne,--though he does use that abominable word, +_reliable_. His eye for a fine, telling phrase that will carry true is +like that of a backwoodsman for a rifle; and he will dredge you up a +choice word from the ooze of Cotton Mather himself. A diction at once so +rich and so homely as his we know not where to match in these days of +writing by the page; it is like homespun cloth-of-gold. The many cannot +miss his meaning, and only the few can find it. It is the open secret of +all true genius. What does he mean, quotha? He means inspiring hints, a +divining-rod to your deeper nature, "plain living and high thinking." +We meant only to welcome this book, and not to review it. Doubtless we +might pick our quarrel with it here and there; but all that our readers +care to know is, that it contains essays on Fate, Power, Wealth, +Culture, Behavior, Worship, Considerations by the Way, Beauty, and +Illusions. They need no invitation to Emerson. "Would you know," says +Goethe, "the ripest cherries? Ask the boys and the blackbirds." He does +not advise you to inquire of the crows. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +Struggle for Life. By the Author of "Seven Stormy Sundays," etc. Boston. +Walker, Wise, & Co. 12mo. pp. 311. $1.00. + +The Laws of Race, as connected with Slavery. By the Author of "The Law +of the Territories," etc. Philadelphia. Willis P. Hazard. 8vo. paper, +pp. 70. 38 cts. + +On the Study of Words. 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