initial commit of ebook 20899HEADmain

143 files changed, 28963 insertions, 0 deletions

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/20899-8.txt b/20899-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4b53d28
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9552 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Continental Monthly , Vol. 2 No. 5, 
+November 1862, 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: The Continental Monthly , Vol. 2 No. 5,  November 1862
+       Devoted to Literature and National Policy
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: March 25, 2007 [EBook #20899]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY  ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Janet Blenkinship and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+(This file was produced from images generously made
+available by Cornell University Digital Collections)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE
+
+CONTINENTAL MONTHLY:
+
+DEVOTED TO
+
+LITERATURE AND NATIONAL POLICY.
+
+
+VOL. II.--NOVEMBER, 1862.--NO. V.
+
+
+
+
+THE CAUSES OF THE REBELLION.
+
+
+No other nation was ever convulsed by an internal struggle so tremendous
+as that which now rends our own unhappy country. No mere rebellion has
+ever before spread its calamitous effects so widely, beyond the scene of
+its immediate horrors. Just in proportion to the magnitude of the evils
+it has produced, is the enormity of the crime involved, on one side or
+the other; and good men may well feel solicitous to know where rests the
+burden of this awful responsibility.
+
+The long train of preparatory events preceding the outbreak, and the
+extraordinary acts by which the conspirators signalized its
+commencement, point, with sufficient certainty, to the incendiaries who
+produced the vast conflagration, and who appear to be responsible for
+the ruin which has ensued. But it remains to inquire by what means the
+great mass of inflammable materials was accumulated and made ready to
+take fire at the touch; what justification there may be for the authors
+of the fatal act, or what palliation of the guilt which seems to rest
+upon them. The reputation of the American people, and of the free
+government which is their pride and glory, must suffer in the estimation
+of mankind, unless they can be fairly acquitted of all responsibility
+for the civil war, which not only desolates large portions of our own
+country, but seriously interferes with the prosperity of multitudinous
+classes, and the stability of large industrial interests, in other
+lands.
+
+Neither in the physical nor in the moral world, can the effects of any
+phenomenon go beyond the nature and extent of its causes. Mighty
+convulsions, like that which now shakes this continent, must have their
+roots in far distant times, and must gather their nutriment of passion
+and violence from a wide field of sympathetic opinion. No influence of
+mere individuals, no sudden acts of government even, no temporary causes
+of any nature whatsoever, are adequate to produce results so widespread
+and astounding. The social forces which contend in such a conflict, must
+have been 'nursing their wrath' and gathering their strength for years,
+in order to exhibit the gigantic death-struggle, in which they are now
+engaged.
+
+Gen. Jackson, after having crushed the incipient rebellion of 1832,
+wrote, in a private letter, recently published, that the next attempt to
+overthrow the Union would be instigated by the same party, but based
+upon the question of slavery.
+
+That single-hearted patriot, in his boundless devotion to the Union,
+seemed to be gifted with almost preternatural foresight; nor did he
+exhibit greater sagacity in penetrating the motives and purposes of men,
+than in comprehending the nature and influence of great social causes,
+then in operation, and destined, as he clearly foresaw, to be wielded by
+wicked men as instruments of stupendous mischief to the country. His
+extraordinary prevision of the present attempt to overthrow the Union,
+signalizes the evident affiliation of this rebellion with that which he
+so wisely and energetically destroyed in embryo, by means of the
+celebrated proclamation and force bill.
+
+It was, however, only in the real motive and ultimate object of the
+conspirators of 1832, that the attempt of South Carolina at that time
+was the lineal progenitor of the rebellion of the present day. The
+purpose was the same in both cases, but the means chosen at the two
+epochs were altogether different. In the first attempt, the purpose was,
+indeed, to break up the Union and to establish a separate confederacy;
+but this was to be done upon the ground of alleged inequality and
+oppression, as well as unconstitutionality, in the mode of levying
+duties upon foreign importations. The attempt, however, proved to be
+altogether premature. The question involved, being neither geographical
+nor sectional in character, was not then, if it could ever be,
+susceptible of being made the instrument of concentrating and
+intensifying hostile opinion against the federal power. Louisiana, with
+her great sugar interest, was a tariff State, and advocated protection
+as ardently as it was opposed in the greater part of the North-West, and
+in extensive districts of the North. She was not even invited to join
+the proposed confederacy. Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware were decided
+in their support of the protective policy, while Tennessee, Missouri,
+and North Carolina were divided on the question. Mr. Calhoun himself,
+the very prophet of nullification, could not obliterate the memory of
+his own former opinions, and it was difficult to induce the people to
+coöperate in overthrowing the Federal Government, simply for adopting a
+policy which the very authors of this movement had themselves so
+recently thoroughly approved.
+
+Thus, opinion was broken into fragments; and nowhere outside of South
+Carolina did it acquire sufficient unanimity and power to impart any
+great momentum to the revolutionary design. Besides, in the absence of
+clear and deep convictions, the question itself was of such a nature,
+that strong passions could not easily spring from it. The interests
+involved were not necessarily in conflict; their opposition was more
+apparent than real, so that an adjustment could readily be made without
+sacrifice of principle. In short, the subject of dispute did not contain
+within itself the elements of civil war, capable of development to that
+extreme, at the time and under the circumstances when the futile attempt
+at separation was made. Doubtless, the sinister exertions of restless
+and ambitious men, acting upon ignorant prejudices, might, under some
+circumstances, have engendered opinions, even upon the tariff question,
+sufficiently strong and violent for the production of civil commotion.
+Had the conditions been more favorable to the plot; had the conspirators
+of that day been as well prepared as those of 1861; had they been
+equally successful in sowing dissatisfaction and hatred in the minds of
+the Southern people; had they found in Gen. Jackson the weak and pliant
+instrument of treason which James Buchanan afterward became in the hands
+of Davis and his coadjutors, the present rebellion might have been
+anticipated, and the germ of secession wholly extirpated and destroyed,
+in the contest which would then have ensued. The Union would doubtless
+have been maintained, and, in the end, strengthened; the fatal element
+of discord would scarcely have survived to work and plot in secret for
+more than a quarter of a century. It is true, slavery would have
+remained; but in the absence of other causes, slavery would not
+necessarily have brought the country to the present crisis. Providence
+may have so ordered the events of that day as to leave the revolutionary
+element in existence, in order that it might eventually fasten upon
+slavery as the instrument of its treason, and thus bring this system,
+condemned alike by the lessons of experience and by the moral sense of
+mankind, to that complete eventual destruction, which seems to be
+inevitably approaching.
+
+The idea of an independent Southern confederacy, to be constituted of a
+fragment of the Union, survived the contest of 1832, and has been
+cherished with zeal and enthusiasm, by a small party of malcontents,
+from that day to this. Either from honest conviction or from the syren
+seductions of ambition, or perhaps from that combination of both which
+so often misleads the judgment of the wisest and best of men, this party
+has pursued its end with unrivalled zeal and consummate tact, never for
+a single moment abating its efforts to convince the South of the
+advantages of separation. But all its ability and all its untiring
+labors failed to make any serious impression, until the great and
+powerful interest of slavery was enlisted in the cause, and used as the
+means of reaching the feelings, and arousing the prejudices of the
+Southern people. The theories of nullification and secession, while
+accepted by many leading minds in that section, never made any serious
+impression upon the mass of the people. Indeed, it may be said with
+truth, that the honest instincts of the people invariably rejected these
+pernicious and dangerous theories, whenever they were distinctly
+involved in the elections. Nevertheless, there was an undercurrent of
+opinion in favor of them: the minds of the people were familiarized with
+the doctrines, and thus made ready to embrace them, whenever they should
+be satisfied it was indispensable to their safety and liberty to avail
+themselves of their benefit.
+
+These abstract principles, however industriously and successfully
+taught, would not of themselves have availed to urge the people on to
+the desperate contest into which they have been madly precipitated. The
+dogma of the right of secession was not left a mere barren idea: it was
+accompanied with constant teachings respecting the incompatibility of
+interests, and the inevitable conflict, between the North and the South;
+the superiority of slavery over every other form of labor; and the
+imminent danger of the overthrow of this benign institution by Northern
+fanaticism, and by the unfriendly influence of the commercial and
+financial policy of that section. Thus, the mischievous error of
+secession was roused to life and action by the exhibition of those
+unreal phantoms, so often conjured up to frighten the South--abolition,
+agrarianism, and protective oppression.
+
+All these deceptive ideas were required to be infused into the minds of
+the people, in order to prepare the way for rebellious action. The right
+of secession was an indispensable condition, without which there could
+be no justification for the violent measures to be adopted. No
+considerable number of American citizens could be found ready to lay
+treasonable hands upon their government; but a great step would be taken
+if they could be convinced that the constitution provided for its own
+abrogation, and that the act of destruction could at any time be legally
+and regularly accomplished. The absolute humanity, justice, and morality
+of slavery, its excellence as a social institution, and its efficiency
+in maintaining order and insuring progress, must be fully established
+and universally admitted, in order to enlist the powerful motives of
+self-interest on the side of the projected revolution. And finally, it
+was necessary to show that the divine institution was in danger, that
+the free labor of the North was actively hostile to it and planning its
+ruin, and that this hostility was to be aided by all the selfish desires
+of the protectionists and the dangerous violence of the agrarian
+'mudsills' of the other section. It was not of the least importance that
+these statements or any of them should be true. Let them be thoroughly
+believed by the people, and that conviction would answer all the
+purposes of the conspirators. Accordingly, for more than a quarter of a
+century, these heresies and falsehoods were most industriously instilled
+into the minds of the Southern people, of whom the great mass are
+unfortunately, and, from their peculiar condition, necessarily, kept in
+that state of ignorance which would favor the reception of such
+incredible and monstrous fallacies.
+
+The argument as to the right of secession has been exhausted; and if it
+had not been, it does not come within the scope and design of this paper
+to discuss the question. Enemies of the United States, foreign and
+domestic, will continue to believe, or at least to profess to believe
+and try to convince themselves, that the Constitution of 1787, which
+superseded the Confederation, contained all the defects of the latter
+which it was specially designed to remedy,--that the league of the
+preceding period was prolonged in the succeeding organization, only to
+be the fatal object of future discontent and ambition. Certainly this
+doctrine is the basis of the rebellion, and without it no successful
+movement could have been made to secure cooperation from any of the
+States. Nevertheless, it cannot be considered one of the impelling
+causes which moved the rebellious States to action, for it is not of
+itself an active principle. It rather served to smooth the way, by
+removing obstacles which opposed the operation of real motives.
+Veneration for the work of the fathers of the republic, respect for the
+Constitution and love of the Union, as things of infinite value, worthy
+to be cherished and defended, stood in the way of the conspiracy which
+compassed the destruction of the government. It was necessary to remove
+this obstacle, and to eradicate these patriotic sentiments, which had
+taken strong hold of the minds and hearts of the people of both
+sections. For more than two generations the Union had been held sacred,
+beyond all other earthly blessings. It was an object of the first
+magnitude to unsettle this long-cherished sentiment.
+
+The conspirators were altogether too shrewd and full of tact to approach
+their object directly. They adopted the artifice of arousing and
+studiously cultivating another sentiment of equal strength, which should
+spring up side by side with their love of the Union, flourish for a time
+in friendly cooperation with it, but ultimately supplant and entirely
+supersede it. This was the plausible and attractive sentiment of State
+pride, concealing in itself the idea of perfect sovereignty, with the
+right of nullification and secession. With consummate ability, with
+untiring industry and perseverance, and without a moment's cessation for
+more than a quarter of a century, this fruitful but pernicious seed of
+disorganization was sown broadcast among the Southern people. So long as
+there was no occasion to put the theory into practice, there seemed to
+be no ground for alarm. The question was one rather of curious subtlety
+than of practical importance. Meanwhile, the minds of men became
+familiar with the thought; they entertained it without aversion; the
+germs of ultimate discord and dissolution silently took root, and slowly
+grew up in the understandings of men. Not that the principle was
+adopted; it was rather tolerated than accepted. But this was the very
+thing intended by the wily conspirators. They expected nothing better;
+for they knew well that an accident or a bold precipitation of events
+would cause the popular mind to seize this principle and use it, as the
+only justification for revolutionary violence. Thus this doctrine, which
+is the embodiment of anarchy, was carefully prepared for the occasion,
+and artfully placed within easy mental reach of those who would be
+called upon to wield it.
+
+_Pari passu_ with the dissemination and growth of this dangerous
+opinion, the political school which cherished it endeavored to promote
+the object steadily held in view, by restricting and embarrassing the
+action of the Federal Government in every possible way. Notwithstanding
+the distrust and aversion of the Jackson party against them, continued
+long after the events of 1832, they succeeded in forming, first a
+coalition, and finally a thorough union with the great popular
+organization--the democratic party. Holding the balance of power between
+that party and their opponents, they dictated terms to the successive
+democratic conventions, and, in effect, controlled their nominations and
+their policy. They imposed upon that party the formidable dogma of 'a
+strict construction of the Constitution,' and under that plausible
+pretext, denied to the Government the exercise of every useful power
+necessary to make it strong and efficient within the limits of its
+legitimate functions. Their evident object, though cautiously and
+successfully concealed, was to weaken the Federal Government, and build
+up the power of the separate States, so that the former, shorn of its
+constitutional vigor, and crippled in its proper field of action, might,
+at the critical moment, fall an easy prey to their iniquitous designs.
+The navigation of the great Mississippi river, the imperial highway of
+the continent, could not be improved, because every impediment taken
+away, and every facility given to commerce on its bosom, were so much
+strength added to the bonds of the Union. The harbors of the great lakes
+and of the Atlantic coast could not be rendered secure by the agency of
+the Federal Government, because every beneficent act of this nature
+fixed it more firmly in the affections of the people, and gave it
+additional influence at home and abroad. The great Pacific railroad--a
+measure of infinite importance to the unity of the nation, to the
+development of the country, and to the general prosperity, as well as to
+the public defence--a work so grand in its proportions, and so universal
+in its benefits, that only the power of a great nation was equal to its
+accomplishment or capable and worthy of its proper control--this great
+and indispensable measure was defeated from year to year, so long as the
+conspirators remained in Congress to oppose it, and was only passed in
+the end, after they had launched the rebellion, and made their open
+attack against the Government, which they had so long sought to
+embarrass and weaken, in view of this very contingency.
+
+While yielding these principles in theory, the democratic party did not
+always adhere to them in practice. The instinct of patriotism was often
+stronger than the obligations of party necessity and party policy.
+Moreover, the text of these doctrines in the democratic creed was
+frequently a subject of grave dispute in the party, and unanimity never
+prevailed in regard to it. Yet the subtle poison infused into the body
+of the organization, extended its baleful influence to all questions,
+and too often paralyzed the arm of the Government in every field of its
+appropriate action.
+
+Never was presented in history a better illustration of the effect of
+false and mischievous ideas. It would be unjust, because it would be
+untrue, to suspect the democratic party of any clear knowledge of the
+ends to which these principles were intended to lead, or of any
+participation in the treasonable purpose. Many members of that party saw
+the danger in time, and abandoned the organization before it was caught
+in the meshes of the great conspiracy. Some, however, even in the loyal
+States, clung to Breckinridge and the fatal abstractions of the party
+creed, until these reached their final and legitimate culmination, in
+the ghastly paralysis of the most indispensable functions of the
+Government--the ruinous abnegation of all power of self-defence--the
+treacherous attempt at national suicide only failing for want of courage
+to perpetrate the supreme act, which was exhibited by the administration
+of James Buchanan, in its last hours, when it proclaimed the doctrine of
+secession to be unfounded in constitutional right, and yet denied the
+power of the Government to prevent its own destruction. The threats of
+an imperious band of traitors, operating upon the fears of a weak old
+man, who was already implicated in the treason, drove him to the verge
+of the abyss into which he was willing to plunge his country, but from
+which, at the last moment, he drew back, dismayed at the thought of
+sacrificing himself.
+
+The doctrine of secession, long and laboriously taught, and the cognate
+principles calculated to diminish the power of the Federal Government
+and magnify that of the States, thus served to smooth the way, to lay
+the track, upon which the engine of rebellion was to be started. But
+there was still wanting the motive power which should impel the machine
+and give it energy and momentum. Something tangible was
+required--something palpable to the masses--on the basis of which
+violent antagonisms and hatreds could be engendered, and fearful dangers
+could be pictured to the popular imagination.
+
+The protective system, loudly denounced as unequal and oppressive, as
+well as unconstitutional, had proved wholly insufficient to arouse
+rebellion in 1832. It would have proved equally so in 1861: but then the
+ultra free trade tariff of 1856 was still in existence; and it continued
+in force, until, to increase dissatisfaction, and invite the very system
+which they pretended to oppose and deplore, the conspirators in
+Congress, having power to defeat the 'Morrill Tariff,' deliberately
+stepped aside, and suffered it to become a law. But this was merely a
+piece of preliminary strategy intended to give them some advantage in
+the great battle which was eventually to be fought on other fields. It
+might throw some additional weight into their scale; it might give them
+some plausible ground for hypocritical complaint; and might even, to
+some extent, serve to hide the real ground of their movement; yet, of
+itself, it could never be decisive of anything. It could neither justify
+revolution in point of morals, nor could it blind the people of the
+South to the terrible calamities which the experiment of secession was
+destined to bring upon them.
+
+Slavery alone, with the vast material prosperity apparently created by
+it, with the debatable and exciting questions, moral, political, and
+social, which arise out of it, and with the palpable dangers, which, in
+spite of every effort to deny it, plainly brood over the system--slavery
+alone had the power to produce the civil war, and to shake the continent
+to its foundations. In the present crisis of the struggle, it would be a
+waste of time and of thought to attempt to trace back to its origin the
+long current of excitement on the slavery question, beginning in 1834,
+and swelling in magnitude until the present day; or to seek to fix the
+responsibility for the various events which marked its progress, from
+the earliest agitation down to the great rebellion, which is evidently
+the consummation and the end of it all. The only lesson important to be
+learned, and that which is the sum of all these great events, plainly
+taught by the history of this generation, and destined to characterize
+it in all future time, is, that slavery had in itself the germs of this
+profound agitation, and that, for thirty years, it stirred the moral and
+political elements of this nation as no other cause had power to do. It
+is of little consequence, for the purpose in view, to inquire what
+antagonisms struggled with slavery in this immense contest, covering so
+great an area in space, and so long a period of time. All ideas and all
+interests were involved. Moral, social, political, and economical
+considerations clashed and antagonized in the gigantic conflict.
+
+Is slavery right or wrong? Has it the sanction of enlightened
+conscience, or of the divine law as revealed in the Old and New
+Testaments? The last words of this moral contest have scarcely yet
+ceased to reverberate in our ears, even while the sound of cannon tells
+of other arguments and another arbitrament, which must soon cut short
+all the jargon of the logicians. But one of the most remarkable features
+of the whole case, has been the indignation with which the slave
+interest, from beginning to end, has resisted the discussion of these
+moral questions. As if such inquiries could, by any possibility, be
+prevented! As if a system, good and right in itself, defensible in the
+light of sound reason, could suffer by the fullest examination which
+could be made in private or in public, or by the profoundest agitation
+which could arise from the use of mere moral means! The discussions, the
+agitations, and all the fierce passions which attended them, were
+unavoidable. Human nature must be changed and wholly revolutionized
+before such agitations can be suppressed. They are the means appointed
+by the Creator for the progress of humanity. The seeds of them are
+planted in the heart of man, and, in the sunshine and air of freedom,
+they must germinate and grow, and eventually produce such fruit as the
+eternal laws of God have made necessary from the beginning.
+
+The social question shaped itself amidst the turbulent elements, and
+came out clear and well defined, in the perfect contrast and antagonism
+of the two sectional systems. Free labor, educated, skilful, prosperous,
+self-poised, and independent, grew into great strength, and accumulated
+untold wealth, in all the States in which slavery had been supplanted.
+Unexampled and prodigious inventive energy had multiplied the physical
+power of men by millions, and these wonderful creations of wealth and
+power seemed destined to have no bounds in the favored region in which
+this system of free labor prevailed. Immigration, attracted by this
+boundless prosperity, flowed in with a steady stream, and an overflowing
+population was fast spreading the freedom and prosperity of the Northern
+States to all the uncultivated regions of the Union.
+
+On the other hand, by a sort of social repulsion--a sort of polarity
+which intensifies opposition and repugnance--the theory of slavery was
+carried to an extreme never before known in the history of mankind.
+Capital claimed to own labor, as the best relation in which the two
+could be placed toward each other. The masses of men, compelled to spend
+their lives in physical toil, were held to be properly kept in
+ignorance, under the guidance of intelligent masters. The skilful
+control of the master, when applied to slaves, was hold to be superior
+in its results to the self-regulating energies of educated men, laboring
+for their own benefit, and impelled by the powerful motives of
+self-interest and independent enterprise. The safety of society demanded
+the subordination of the laboring class; and especially in free
+governments, where the representative system prevails, was it necessary
+that working men should be held in subjection. Slavery, therefore, was
+not only justifiable; it was the only possible condition on which free
+society could be organized, and liberal institutions maintained. This
+was 'the corner stone' of the new confederacy. The opposite system in
+the free States, at the first touch of internal trouble and civil war,
+would prove the truth of the new theory by bread riots and agrarian
+overthrow of property and of all other institutions held sacred in the
+true conditions of social order.
+
+Such was the monstrous inversion of social phenomena which the Southern
+mind accepted at the hands of their leading men, and conceived to be
+possible in this advanced age of the world. Seizing upon a system
+compatible only with the earliest steps in the progress of man, and
+suitable only to the moral sentiments and unenlightened ideas of the
+most backward races of the world, they undertook to naturalize and
+establish it--nay, to perpetuate it, and to build up society on its
+basis--in the nineteenth century, and among the people of one of the
+freest and most enlightened nations! Evidently, this was a monstrous
+perversion of intellect--a blindness and madness scarcely finding a
+parallel in history. It was expected, too, that this anomalous social
+proceeding--this backward march of civilization on this continent--would
+excite no animadversion and arouse no antagonism in the opposite
+section. It involved the reopening of the slave trade, and it was
+expected that foreign nations would abate their opposition, lower their
+flags, and suffer the new empire, founded on 'the corner stone of
+slavery,' to march forward in triumph and achieve its splendid destiny.
+
+These moral and social ideas might have had greater scope to work out
+their natural results, had not the political connections between the
+North and the South implicated the two sections, alike, in the
+consequences of any error or folly on the part of either. Taxation and
+representation, and the surrender of fugitive slaves, all provided for
+in the Constitution, were the points in which the opposite polities came
+into contact in the ordinary workings of the Federal Government.
+Perpetual conflicts necessarily arose. But it was chiefly on the
+question of territorial extension, and in the formation of new States,
+that the most inveterate of all the contests were engendered. The
+constitutional provisions applicable to these questions are not without
+some obscurity, and this afforded a plausible opportunity for all the
+impracticable subtleties arising out of the doctrine of strict
+construction. From the time of the admission of Missouri, in 1820, down
+to the recent controversy about Kansas, the territorial question was
+unsettled, and never failed to be the cause of terrible agitation.
+
+But the march of events soon superseded the question; and even while the
+contest was fiercest and most bitter, the silent operation of general
+causes was sweeping away the whole ground of dispute. The growth of
+population in the Northern States was so unexampled, and so far exceeded
+that of the Southern States, that there could be no actual rivalry in
+the settlement of the territories. The latter already had more territory
+than they could possibly occupy and people. While the Northern
+population, swollen by European emigration, was taking possession of the
+new territories and filling them with industry and prosperity, slavery
+was repelling white emigration, and the South, from sheer want of men,
+was wholly unable to meet the competition. Yet, with most unreasonable
+clamors, intended only to arouse the passions of the ignorant, Southern
+statesmen insisted on establishing the law of slavery where they could
+not plant the institution itself. They finally demanded that slavery
+should be recognized everywhere within the national domain; and that the
+Federal power should be pledged for its protection, even against the
+votes of the majority of the people. This was nothing less than an
+attempt to check the growth of the country, by the exclusion of free
+States, when it was impossible to increase it by the addition of any
+others.
+
+Upon the failure of this monstrous demand, civil war was to be
+inaugurated! A power which had been relatively dwindling and diminishing
+from the beginning--which, in the very nature of things, could not
+maintain its equality in numbers and in constitutional weight--this
+minority demanded the control of the Government, in its growth, and in
+all its policy, and, in the event of refusal, threatened to rend and
+destroy it. Such pretensions could not have been made with sincerity.
+They were but the sinister means of exciting sectional enmities,
+and preparing for the final measures of the great conspiracy.
+Having discarded the rational and humane views of their own
+fathers--Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and others--it was but the
+natural sequel that they should signalize their degeneracy by aiming to
+overthrow the work in which those sages had embodied their generous
+ideas--the Constitution of the United States and the whole fabric of
+government resting upon it.
+
+In what manner these mischievous absurdities became acceptable to the
+Southern people--by what psychological miracle so great a transformation
+was accomplished in so short a time--is only to be explained by
+examining some of the delusions which blinded the authors of the
+rebellion, and enabled them to mislead the masses who confided too
+implicitly in the leadership of their masters.
+
+Weak as were the Southern people in point of numbers and political
+power, compared with those of the opposite section, the haughty
+slaveholders easily persuaded themselves and their dependents that they
+could successfully cope in arms with the Northern adversary, whom they
+affected to despise for his cowardly and mercenary disposition. Wealth,
+education, and ample leisure gave them the best opportunity for
+political studies and public employments. Long experience imparted skill
+in all the arts of government, and enabled them, by superior ability, to
+control the successive administrations at Washington. Proud and
+confident, they indulged the belief that their great political prestige
+would continue to serve them among their late party associates in the
+North, and that the counsels of the adversary would be distracted, and
+his power weakened, by the fatal effects of dissension. All warlike
+sentiment and capacity was believed to be extinct among the traders and
+manufacturers, 'the shopkeepers and pedlars,' of the Middle and Eastern
+States. Hence a vigorous attack in arms against the Federal Government
+was expected to be met with no energetic and effective resistance. A
+peaceable dissolution of the Union, and the impossibility of war--at
+least of any serious and prolonged hostilities--was a cardinal point in
+the teachings of the secessionists. The fraudulent as well as violent
+measures by which they sought to disarm the Federal Government and to
+forestall its action, were only adopted 'to make assurance doubly sure.'
+
+Beyond all doubt, the system of slavery encourages those habits and
+passions which make the soldier, and which instigate and maintain wars.
+The military spirit and that of slavery are congenial; for both belong
+to an early stage in the progress of civilization, when each is
+necessary to the support and continuance of the other. It was therefore
+to be expected that the Southern people would be better prepared for the
+organization, and also for the manoeuvring of armies. But the mistake
+and the fatal delusion cherished by the conspirators, was the belief
+that the Northern people were without manly spirit, and incapable of
+being aroused by sentiments of patriotism. It was an equal
+miscalculation to anticipate that the fabric of Northern free society
+would fall to pieces, and be thrown into irremediable disorder, at the
+first appearance of civil commotion. This false idea was the offspring
+of the slave system, which boasted of the solidity of its own
+organization and the impossibility of its overthrow. From their
+standpoint, amid the darkness of a social organization, in which one
+half the population is not more than semi-civilized, the slaveholders
+could not easily obtain any other view. Long accustomed to wield
+irresponsible power as masters, enjoying wealth and independence from
+the unrewarded labor of the slave, but liberal and humane, condescending
+and indulgent, so long as the untutored black was quiet and obedient,
+the planter very naturally imagined his system to be the perfection of
+social order. In the atmosphere of luxurious ease which surrounded him,
+were the elements of a mental mirage which distorted everything in his
+deceptive vision. He weighed the two systems, and found his own
+immeasurably more powerful than its antagonist. Fatal mistake! fatal but
+inevitable, in his condition, in the midst of the blinding refractions
+of the medium which enveloped him.
+
+Prosperity had made him giddy. Cotton was not merely King--it was God.
+Moral considerations were nothing. The sentiment of right, he argued,
+would have no influence over starving operatives; and England and
+France, as well as the Eastern States of the Union, would stand aghast
+and yield to the masterstroke which should deprive them of the material
+of their labor. Millions were dependent on it in all the great centres
+of civilization, and the ramifications of its power extended into all
+ranks of society and all departments of industry and commerce. It was
+only necessary to wave this imperial sceptre over the nations, and all
+of them would fall prostrate and acknowledge the supremacy of the power
+which wielded it. Nothing could be more plausible than this delusion.
+Satan himself, when about to wage war in heaven, could not have invented
+one better calculated to marshal his hosts and give promise of success
+in rebellion against the authority of the Most High. But alas! the
+supreme error of this anticipation lay in omitting from the calculation
+all power of principle. The right still has authority over the minds of
+men and in the counsels of nations. Factories may cease their din; men
+and women may be thrown out of employment; the marts of commerce may be
+silent and deserted; but truth and justice still command some respect
+among men, and God yet remains the object of their adoration.
+
+Drunk with power and dazzled with prosperity, monopolizing cotton, and
+raising it to the influence of a veritable fetich, the authors of the
+rebellion did not admit a doubt of the success of their attack on the
+Federal Government. They dreamed of perpetuating slavery, though all
+history shows the decline of the system as industry, commerce, and
+knowledge advance. The slaveholders proposed nothing less than to
+reverse the currents of humanity, and to make barbarism flourish in the
+bosom of civilization. They even thought of extending the system, by
+opening the slave trade and enlarging the boundaries of their projected
+empire, Mexico and Central America, Cuba and St. Domingo, with the whole
+West Indian group of islands, awaited the consolidation of their power,
+and stood ready to swell the glory of their triumph.
+
+But these enticing visions quickly faded away from their sight. At an
+early day after the inauguration of their government, they were
+compelled to disavow the design of reopening the slave trade, and in no
+event is it probable their recognition will be yielded by foreign
+governments, except on the basis of ultimate emancipation. How such a
+proposition will be received by their deluded followers, remains yet to
+be ascertained by an experiment which the authors of the rebellion will
+be slow to try among their people. One of the most effective appeals
+made to the non-slaveholders of the South, in order to start the
+revolution, was to their fears and prejudices against the threatened
+equality and competition of the emancipated negro. The immense influence
+of this appeal can scarcely be estimated by those not intimately
+acquainted with the social condition of the great mass of the Southern
+people. Among them, the distinction of color is maintained with the
+utmost rigor, and the barrier between the two races, social and
+political, is held to be impassable and eternal. The smallest taint of
+African blood in the veins of any man is esteemed a degradation from
+which he can never recover. Toward the negro, as an inferior, the white
+man is often affable and kind, cruelty being the exception, universally
+condemned and often punished; but toward the black man as an equal, an
+implacable hostility is instantly arrayed. This intense and
+unconquerable prejudice, it is well known, is not confined wholly to the
+South; but it prevails there without dissent, and is, in fact, one of
+the fundamental principles of social organization.
+
+When, therefore, the leaders of the rebellion succeeded in persuading
+the Southern masses that the success of the Republican party would
+eventually liberate the slave and place him on an equality with the
+whites, an irresistible impulse was given to their cause. To the extent
+that this charge was credited was the rebellion consolidated and
+embittered. Had it been universally believed, there would have been few
+dissenting voices throughout the seceding States. All would have rushed
+headlong into the rebellion. And even now, every measure adopted on our
+part, in the field or in Congress, which can be distorted as looking to
+a similar end, must prove to be a strong stimulus in sustaining and
+invigorating the enemy. Happily, while the system of slavery naturally
+discourages education, and leaves the mass of whites comparatively
+uninformed, and peculiarly subject to be deceived and misled, there are
+yet many highly intelligent men among the non-slaveholders, and some
+liberal and unprejudiced ones among the slaveholders themselves. These
+serve to break the force of the appeals made to the ignorant, and they
+have had a powerful influence in maintaining the love of the Union and
+the true spirit of our institutions, among considerable numbers, in all
+parts of the South.
+
+From the foregoing views, it is plain, that only in a certain sense can
+slavery be pronounced the cause of the rebellion. It was not the first
+and original motive; neither is it the sole end of the conspirators. But
+in another sense, it may justly be considered the cause of the war; for
+without it, the war could never have taken place.
+
+There was no actual necessity to destroy the Union for the protection of
+slavery and for its continued existence. Construed in any rational sense
+likely to be adopted, the Constitution afforded ample security--far
+more, indeed, than could be found under a separate confederacy. This was
+evident to the leaders of the rebellion, though it was their policy to
+conceal the truth from the people, by the fierce passions artfully
+aroused in the beginning. Slavery could not have been perpetuated,
+because its permanence is against the decrees of nature. But it could
+have lived out a peaceful and perhaps a prosperous existence, gradually
+disappearing without convulsion or bloodshed. Discussion and agitation
+could not have been prevented, nor could the inevitable end have been
+averted. Yet the whole movement could well have been controlled and
+directed, by the adoption of wise and well-considered measures, not
+inconsistent with the natural laws governing the case, whose final
+operation it was wholly impossible to prevent.
+
+But this system of gradual amelioration, and peaceful development of
+ends that must come, did not satisfy the ambition of the conspirators.
+They saw their last opportunity for a successful rebellion, and they
+determined not to let it pass unimproved. The vast power of the slave
+interest; the passions easily to be excited by it; the encouraging
+delusions clustering around it; and the fearful apprehensions growing
+out of its darker aspects, all contributed to make it the very
+instrument for accomplishing the long-cherished design.
+
+Slavery has been the chief means of bringing about the rebellion. It is
+the lever, resting upon the fulcrum of State sovereignty, by which the
+conspirators have been able, temporarily, to force one section of the
+Union from its legitimate connections. Thus used for this unhallowed
+purpose, and become tainted with treason and crimsoned with the blood of
+slaughtered citizens, slavery necessarily subjects itself to all the
+fearful contingencies and responsibilities of the rebellion. Whether the
+confederate cause shall succeed or fail, the slave institution, thus
+fatally involved in it, cannot long survive. In either event, its doom
+is fixed. Like one of those reptiles, which, in the supreme act of
+hostility, extinguish their own lives inflicting a mortal wound upon
+their victims, slavery, roused to the final paroxysm of its hate and
+rage, injects all its venom into the veins of the Union, exhausts itself
+in the effort, and inevitably dies.
+
+
+
+
+WORD-MURDER.
+
+
+The time has come when we must have an entirely new lot
+of superlatives--intensifiers of meaning--verifiers of
+earnestness--asserters of exactness, etc., etc. The old ones are as dead
+as herrings; killed off, too, as herrings are, by being taken from their
+natural element. What between passionate men and affected women, all the
+old stand-bys are used up, and the only practical question is, Where are
+the substitutes to come from? Who shall be trusted to invent them? Not
+the linguists: they would make them too long and slim. Not the mob: they
+would make them too short and stout.
+
+There are plenty of words made; but in these times they are all nouns,
+and what we want are adverbs--'words that qualify verbs, participles,
+adjectives, and other adverbs.' We could get along well enough with the
+old adjectives, badly as the superlative degree of some of them has been
+used. They are capable of being qualified when they become too weak--or,
+rather, when our taste becomes too strong--just as old ladies _qualify_
+their tea when they begin to find the old excitement insufficient. But
+even this must be done with reason, or we shall soon find with the new
+supply, as we are now finding with the old, that the bottle gives out
+before the tea-caddy. The whole language is sufficient, except in the
+_excessives_--the _ultimates_.
+
+Why use up the sublime to express the ridiculous? Why be only noticeable
+from the force of your language as compared with the feebleness of what
+you have to say? Why chain Pegasus to an ox cart, or make your
+Valenciennes lace into horse blankets? If the noble tools did the
+ignoble work any better, it might be some satisfaction; but cutting
+blocks with a razor is proverbially unprofitable, and a
+million-magnifying microscope does not help a bit to tell the time by
+the City Hall clock. And again: the beggar doth but make his mishaps the
+more conspicuous by climbing a tree, while the poor bird of paradise,
+when once fairly on the ground, must needs stay and die, being kept from
+rising into her more natural element by the very weight of her beauties.
+Like this last-named victim of misdirected ambition, poetical
+expressions, being once fairly reduced to the level of ordinary use, so
+that all feel at liberty to take them in vain, can never 'revocare
+gradem.'
+
+The elegant, however, is not so much of a loss, as the strong and
+serviceable part of the language;--which, so far, is like grain in a
+hopper, always being added to at the top, and ground away at the bottom.
+The good old unmistakable words seem to sink the faster from their
+greater specific gravity compared to the chaff that surrounds them; for
+example: _Indeed_ used to be a fine and reliable word for impressing an
+assertion, but now it is almost discarded except as a sort of
+questioning expression of surprise, which might advantageously be
+shortened thus:?! Strictly interpreted, it denotes a lack of faith,
+suggesting a possible discrepancy between the words of the speaker and
+the deeds they relate to. It is but one step removed from the politeness
+of the Sligo Irishwomen, who say, 'You are a liar,' meaning exactly
+what an American lady does in saying 'You don't mean so!'
+
+I suppose it seemed as if the force of language could no further go,
+when men first said _really_. "What is more indisputable than reality?
+But it has come to be a sort of vulcanizer, to make plain English,
+irony. Nowadays, when a young lady adds, 'really,' one may know that she
+means to cast a doubt over the seriousness of what she says, or to
+moderate its significance. 'Really, sir, you must not talk so,' is the
+appropriate form for a tone of decided encouragement to continue your
+remarks--probably complimentary to herself, or the opposite to some
+friend. And so we might go on down, taking every word of the sort from
+the dictionary, and comparing its usefulness now, with that of the time
+when it had no ambiguity.
+
+_Positively_, _seriously_, _perfectly_, and their synonymes, have been
+subtracted, one after another, from our list of absolute words,--Burked,
+carried off, and consumed, by people who, if they had each had the
+finishing off of one word, instead of each doing a part at the ruin of
+all, would deserve to have their names handed down to posterity in
+connection with the ruin they had wrought, as much as ever Erostratus or
+Martin did; the former, we all know, was he of whom it is said:
+
+  'The ambitious youth who fired th' Ephesian dome
+  Outlives in fame the pious fool that reared it.'
+
+The latter, it is not so well known, did likewise by Yorkminster, for a
+similar purpose, and is now, as Mrs. Partington would say, 'Expatiating
+his offence' in a lunatic asylum. But their name is legion. How many a
+man, perhaps, 'father of a family, member of the church, and doing a
+snug business,' hears every day or two 'positively and without joking or
+exaggeration, the most perfectly absurd and ridiculous thing, he ever
+heard in all his born days!'
+
+_Actually_ was a nice word. We suffered a loss when it died, and it
+deserves this obituary notice. It was a pretty word to speak and to
+write, and there was a crisp exactness about its very sound that gave it
+meaning. _Requiescat in pace._ But last and most to be lamented, comes
+_literally_. I could be pathetic about that word. So classic--so
+perfect--it crystallized the asseveration honored with its assistance.
+And so early dead! Cut off untimely in the green freshness of its
+days--and I have not even the Homeric satisfaction of burying it! It
+still wanders in the shades of purgatory, _Vox et præterea nihil_; being
+bandied about from mouth to mouth of the profane vulgar. And not even by
+them alone is disrespect offered it, for the grave and practical Mr.
+Layard says somewhere in the account of his uncoveries, 'They
+_literally_ bathed my shoes with their tears!' _Idem, sed quantum
+mutatus ab illo!_ I am almost tempted to the ambiguous wish that he
+might have _slipped in literally_ to one of the many graves he robbed
+figuratively.
+
+Now listen for a moment to Miss Giggley, who is telling of her
+temptation to laugh at some young unfortunate who thought he was making
+himself very agreeable. 'Really and truly, upon my word and honor, I
+positively thought I--should--die: as sure as I'm alive.' You pretty
+liar! You smiling murderess! You playful puss, gracefully toying with
+the victims your sweet mouth kills! Those expletives were like five
+strong men standing in a row, and you were like a bright,
+innocent-looking electric machine, with its transparent and clear-voiced
+cylinder, which is capable (give it only enough turnings) of making the
+men, at a shock, into five long, prostrate heaps of clay, lifeless,
+useless, and offensive, as are the expletives in question, by reason of
+a succession of just such shocking assaults as the untruth you this
+moment swore to.
+
+Anonymous writers, as a class, might be called the Boythorns of
+Literature. All of them, from Junius down, have shown a great
+satisfaction in waving a tremendously sharp sword out from behind a
+fence. Sometimes the hand that has held the weapon was strong enough to
+have done good service wherever it might have been engaged, but always
+the wielding is a little more fearless than if the owner's face were
+visible, and usually it is the better for his cause that it was not. We
+all know what a _very_ large cannon the monkey touched off, and how, if
+any one _had_ been in the way, it might have hurt him very much. As when
+a traveller writes of a far country, he tries to make it seem worth all
+the trouble he took to go there, so a critic must find enough bad about
+a book to make his article on it important and interesting.
+
+These exaggerators--these _captatores_ (and _occisores_)
+_verborum_--have no idea of the adaptation of means to ends. They are
+not deficient in forces--they have a powerful army, but no generalship.
+Horse, foot, and artillery; it's all vanguard. Right, left, and
+centre--but all vanguard. At the first glimpse, pioneers and scouts,
+rank and file, sappers and miners, sutlers and supernumeraries, all come
+thundering down like a thousand of brick, and gleaming in the purple and
+gold of imagery, to rout, disperse, and confound their obstacle; even if
+it's only a corporal's guard of one private!
+
+This _specialité_ in newspapers has occasionally been ridiculed, though
+not very well. Dickens's _Eatonsville Gazette_ and _Independent_ are
+perhaps the best caricatures; and they are a very good embodiment of a
+particular class of partisan provincial papers; but they are utterly
+inadequate to characterize the exaggeration that runs riot through the
+whole tribe of periodicals--and _amok_ through the serried ranks of
+Anglo-Saxon words. See the _New York Rostrum_; daily, weekly, and
+semi-weekly. It is rampant! It suspects an abuse, and it ramps against
+it. It seizes an idea, and it ramps toward its development. All who are
+not with it are against it, and all who are against it are either fools
+or knaves. The _Rostrum_ never chronicles railroad accidents. Oh, no! It
+only tells its readers of dastardly and cowardly outrages, committed by
+blood-thirsty fiends in the shape of presidents and directors against
+virtuous and estimable passengers, whole hecatombs of whom are
+assassinated to gratify the hideous appetite for carnage of the
+officials aforesaid; every one of whom, from the president to the
+water-boys, ought to suffer the extremest penalty of the law. It doesn't
+say that they ought to be hung. No! capital punishment was the most
+benighted characteristic of barbarism. It is a horrid atrocity to bring
+it down to the present day. Nobody ought to be subjected to it but the
+slimy reptiles who advocate its continuance.
+
+Not only does the _Rostrum_ behave like a wild bull of Bashan when it is
+fairly under way, but it is a perfect rocket at starting. It makes haste
+to commit itself. It is continually entering into bonds to break the
+peace. Its principle is not unlike that of the Irishman in a row:
+'Wherever you see a head, hit it.' It deals around little doses of
+shillelah, just by way of experiment; and if the unlucky head does not
+happen to be that of an enemy, make it one; so it's all right again. It
+carries whole baskets of chips on its shoulders, knock one off who will.
+
+Forgive me, good _Rostrum_! I honestly believe thee to be the best paper
+in this world; and my morning breakfast and car ride would be as fasting
+and a pilgrimage, without thee! It takes all my philosophy and more than
+all my piety (besides the lying abed late, and the coffee, which we only
+have once a week) to dispense with thee on Sunday. No paper is so
+untrammelled as thou art, for thou hast no shackles but those thou
+thrustest thine own wrists into; and I prize thee more than a whole
+sheaf of thy compeers, who always try to decide safely by deciding last.
+Thou art prompt, brave, and straightforward. In nine cases out of ten,
+when there are two cages open, thou dashest impetuously into the right
+one. Verily, thou art a little more headstrong than strong-headed, and a
+little less long-headed than headlong; but I say, rather let me be
+occasionally wrong with thee than always mean with some of thy rivals.
+But why be intemperate in thine advocacy of the nigger question, so
+overbearing in thine efforts for freedom of speech, or why enslave
+thyself in the cause of liberty? I could imagine a paper without even
+thy faults--and for this, I know full well that if thou notice me at
+all, it will be as a besotted and dangerous old fogy.
+
+To be sure, the _Rostrum_ might be found guilty on other counts of the
+general crime of word-murder. It has done for the word _height_ by
+spelling it _hight_, at the same time giving a supererogatory kick to
+the good old English participle (already deceased) of the latter
+orthography. And then, it is not always quite certain whether its events
+occurred or _transpired_! The misapplication of this last word is a
+shocking abuse of our defenceless mother tongue, and one I have not
+often seen publicly rebuked. It is not long since I saw the poor
+dissyllable in question evidently misapplied in the dedication of a
+book, and on Sunday, not long ago, I heard the pastor of one of the
+first churches in the city preach of the power directing the events
+which _transpire_ in this world!
+
+There are two ways of getting public duties attended to; one of which is
+to advertise for proposals,--a very expensive way; and the other is to
+get up a public meeting or association, when all men think it an honor
+to be elected officers for the sake of seeing their names in the papers.
+Now this last way is the best, in so many respects that it shall be
+adopted without hesitation for our purposes. Let there be a new Humane
+Society established, principally for the prevention of cruelty to words,
+and let the chief officer of the society be so named as to suggest its
+chief office--that of 'moderator.' And let us hope that as words are the
+things in question, deeds will abound, as we so well know the truth of
+the reverse, that where deeds are to be looked for, words prevail
+amazingly. Outside of its primary beneficent purpose, it may make
+provision for charities incidental thereunto. It may appoint one
+committee for the prevention of cruelty to compositors, to examine the
+chirography of all MSS. about to be 'put in hand,' and, in any case it
+thinks necessary, return mercilessly the whole scrawled mass to the
+author to have t's crossed, i's dotted, a's and o's joined at the top,
+etc., etc. Another privileged three may be merciful to the authors
+themselves, by providing for the better reading of proofs, by examining
+and qualifying the readers thereof; a class in this country very
+deficient, and for a happy reason: namely, that we have not yet a
+multitude of literary men, very well educated and very poor, who can
+find nothing better to do. This last committee would find comparatively
+little occupation, when the previous one had become effective in _its_
+line.
+
+To what an illimitable enterprise does the vastness of our plans lead
+us! Long vistas open before our eyes, with fine prospects for patronage
+and the gift of many offices. It is at least equal in dignity and
+grandeur to the city government, and nothing prevents its becoming a
+vast scheme of corruption, except that it never can, by any possibility,
+possess a penny of revenue. Of course there should be a committee of
+repairs and supplies, and one of immigration, the latter to provide for
+the naturalization of foreign words and their proper treatment before
+they could take care of themselves; the former for furnishing a supply
+to meet the growing demand mentioned at the beginning of this article,
+and for patching up several of the most obvious imperfections we now
+suffer from. We want a word for _the opposite of a compliment_. Not that
+this is as great a defect as the lack of the word _compliment_ would be
+in these smooth-spoken times, but still the want is felt, and the
+feeling is shown by such awkward expedients as the expression 'a
+left-handed compliment.' Then, besides, they might give the seal of
+legitimacy to a fine lot of words and phrases, the need of which is
+shown by their being spontaneously invented, and universally adopted by
+the vulgar; but which are not classic, have never been written except in
+caricature, and are therefore inadmissible to the writings of us
+cowardly fellows who 'do' the current literature. For instance: the word
+_onto_, to bear the same relation to _on_ and _upon_, that the word
+_into_ does to _in_ and _within_, has no synonyme, and if we had once
+adopted it, we should be surprised at our own self-denial in having had
+it so long in our ears without taking it for the use of our mouths and
+pens.
+
+The judiciary department should have full power to try _all_ defilers of
+the well of English, be they these offenders we have been talking
+of--spendthrifts and drunkards in the use of its strong waters--or be
+they punsters, or be they the latest development of miscreants, the
+_transposers_. To the punsters shall be adjudged a perpetual strabismus,
+that they may look two ways at once, forever--always seeing double with
+their bodily eyes, as they have been in the habit of doing with their
+mental ones. Even so to the transposer. Let him be inverted, and hung by
+the heels till _healed_ of his disorder.
+
+If this idea of an association is seized upon, I should be happy to
+suggest well-qualified persons for all the offices _except_ the highest.
+The most appropriate incumbent for that, modesty forbids my mentioning.
+But the matter must not be let drop. Unless there can be some check put
+to the present extravagance, we shall all take to _swearing_, for I am
+sure that is the first step beyond it.
+
+
+
+
+STEWART, AND THE DRY GOODS TRADE OF NEW YORK.
+
+
+Those who have watched the growth of New York, have found a striking
+criterion of its gradual advance in the different aspects of the dry
+goods trade. We select this branch of business as a better illustration
+of the progress of our metropolis than any other, since in breadth, as
+well as in enterprise, it has always taken the lead. What grocer,
+hardwareman, druggist, or any other of the different tradesmen of the
+metropolis, ever wrought out of nothing the majestic structures or the
+enormous traffic which is represented by some of our dry goods concerns.
+
+Dry goods originally held their headquarters between Wall street and
+Coenties slip. In those days Front street for grocers, and Pearl for dry
+goods men, within the limits above mentioned, sufficed for all the
+demands of trade, and in many instances the jobber lived in the upper
+part of his store. The great fire of 1835 put an end to all that was
+left of these primitive manners, and the burnt district was in due time
+covered with new brick stores, of a style vastly superior to those of
+the past. At the same time the advance in the price of lots fully made
+up the loss of insurance on buildings which was inevitable from the
+universal bankruptcy of fire offices. As trade appeared to be firmly
+established in that section, a mammoth hotel was built near Coenties
+slip for the accommodation of country merchants, and was long famous as
+the 'Pearl Street House.' A jobbing concern at that day might be
+satisfied with the first floor and basement of a building twenty-five
+feet by sixty to eighty, in which a business of from one hundred
+thousand to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars could be done. Such
+a business was then thought of respectable amount, and few exceeded it.
+
+The trade even at that early day was remarkable for its
+precariousness--and while a few made fortunes, whole ranks were swept
+away by occasional panics. In 1840, Hanover square was the dry goods
+emporium of New York, and there a few years earlier Eno & Phelps
+commenced a thriving trade which grew into famous proportions. As an
+illustration of the risks of trade, we may mention that we know of no
+other concern engaged in that vicinity at that time which escaped
+eventual bankruptcy. Near Eno & Phelps stood the granite establishment
+of Arthur Tappan & Co., while lesser concerns were crowded in close
+proximity. The first disposition to abandon this section was shown by
+opening new stores in Cedar street, which soon became so popular as a
+jobbing resort that its rents quadrupled. The Cedar street jobbers would
+in the present day be considered mere Liliputians, since many of their
+stores measured less than eighteen by thirty feet. They were occupied by
+a class of active men, who bought of importers and sold to country
+dealers on the principle of the nimble sixpence. Of this class (now
+about extinct) a few built up large concerns, while others, after
+hopelessly contending year after year with adverse fortune, sunk
+eventually into bankruptcy, and may in some instances now be found in
+the ranks of clerkship. From Cedar street, trade moved to Liberty,
+Nassau, and John streets, while as these new emporiums prospered, Pearl
+street gradually lost its prestige, until the general hegira of trade in
+1848, which left that ancient mart deserted. The Pearl street hotel,
+which once was thronged by country dealers and city drummers, was then
+altered into a warehouse for storage, while the jobbing houses, where
+merchants were wont to congregate, fell into baser uses, and property
+sunk in value correspondingly.
+
+The 'hegira,' to which we have referred, led from the east to the north
+side of the town, and was so exacting in its demands, that at length no
+man could hope to sell goods except in the new locality. Meanwhile,
+property in Cortlandt, Dey, Vesey, and the neighboring streets, rose
+immensely, and old rookeries were replaced by elegant stores. The chief
+features in this improvement were increased size and enlarged room. L.O.
+Wilson & Co. took the lead in this by opening a store extending through
+from Cortlandt to Dey street, whose spacious hall could have swallowed
+up a half dozen old fashioned Pearl street concerns.
+
+It was Mr. Wilson's ambition to break the bondage of antiquated habit,
+and inaugurate a revolution in trade. He had been a prominent Pearl
+street man, and had retired with a snug fortune, but had too active a
+mind to be satisfied with the quiet of retired life, and hence returned
+to trade with renewed energy. The new concern created a decided
+sensation, and for several years was successful, but we regret that we
+cannot record for it any other end than that which is the general fate
+of New York merchants. The movement which had now been inaugurated,
+continued with rapid progress until Barclay, Warren, Murray, and
+Chambers streets were transformed from quiet abodes of wealthy citizens
+to bustling avenues of trade. With this change the demand for size and
+ornament still continued, and was accompanied by enormous increase in
+rents. A newly-built Pearl street jobbing house in 1836 might be worth
+$1,500 per annum, while $3,000 was considered enormous; but now rents
+advanced to rates, which, compared with these, seemed fabulous. To meet
+these expenses, the consolidation of firms was resorted to, and the
+standard of a good year's trade extended from $250,000 to a million and
+upward.
+
+From 1848 to 1860 the principle of extension was in active operation.
+From Chambers street the work of renovation progressed upward, until
+even Canal street was invaded by jobbers, and until a space of a half
+mile square had been entirely torn down and rebuilt. Vast fortunes were
+made in the twinkling of an eye. A German grocer, who held a lease of
+the corner of Warren and Church streets, received $10,000 for two years
+of unexpired lease. The fellow found that the property was needed for
+the improvement of adjacent lots, and made a bold and successful strike
+for a premium. The church property, corner of Duane and Church streets,
+one hundred feet square, was sold for $28,000, and within a week resold
+to a builder for $48,000. The widening of streets now became popular,
+and a spot long famed for the degradation of its inhabitants, was thrown
+open to the activities of trade, and its rookeries replaced by marble
+palaces. What a transformation for Reade, Duane, Church, and Anthony
+streets, once synonymous with misery and crime, thus to become the
+splendid seats of trade!
+
+The growth of the dry goods trade had by 1860 assumed proportions which
+twenty years previously could not have entered into the wildest dreams.
+Indeed, had a prophet stood in Hanover square at that epoch, and
+portrayed the future, he would have been met with the charge of lunacy.
+$30,000 rent for a store was not more absurd than the idea that trade
+would ever wing its way to a neighborhood chiefly known through the
+police reports, and only visited by respectable people in the work of
+philanthropy. The enterprise of New York houses, in either following or
+leading this movement, is admirably illustrated, and as the merchants of
+New York are among her public men, we purpose a brief reference to a few
+leading houses. As it is nothing new to state that only three per cent.
+of our mercantile community are successful in making fortunes, the
+results of these examples need not surprise the reader.
+
+Among the chief concerns of nearly forty years' career, may be mentioned
+C.W. & J.T. Moore & Co., who began in a small way in Pearl street,
+followed the flood of trade to Broadway, and afterward took possession
+of the splendid store built by James E. Whiting, on the site of the
+Broadway theatre. Bowen & McNamee commenced somewhere about 1840, having
+sprung from the bankrupt house of Arthur Tappan & Co. Their first
+establishment was in Beaver street, whence they removed to a marble
+palace which they built in Broadway in 1850, having, in ten years,
+realized an enormous fortune in the silk trade. Encouraged by the
+success following this second movement, the firm sold their store at an
+enormous advance, and purchased the corner of Broadway and Pearl
+streets, thus indicating that trade had advanced a mile up town. The
+palatial store which they erected on this spot will long mark the
+climacteric point in mercantile architecture. It was supposed at the
+time of its erection to be the finest jobbing store in existence, and
+although since then both Mr. Astor and James E. Whiting have each put up
+a splendid marble establishment in Broadway, they have not surpassed the
+one we refer to. Messrs. Bowen & McNamee were early identified with the
+progressive views of New England politics, which they maintained
+throughout their business career. At an early day a system of
+persecution was opened upon them by a portion of the New York press on
+the score of their anti-slavery sentiments, to which they replied by
+announcing that 'they had goods for sale, not opinions.' This bold
+expression became quite popular in its day, and did much to extend the
+business of the high-toned concern which proclaimed it, so that what was
+lost by prejudice was more than gained from legions of new friends,
+until, for a time, they reaped a golden harvest from a trade which
+ramified to all parts of the North, East, and West.
+
+Another famous concern which sustained a position diametrically
+opposite to the one we have just mentioned, was that of Henrys, Smith &
+Townsend. This house was for more than a quarter of a century
+distinguished in the dry goods line, but held a Southern trade, and its
+members were men of corresponding proclivities. Commencing in Hanover
+square, the firm had followed the drift of trade into Broadway, and had
+become immensely rich. Like Bowen & McNamee (or Bowen, Holmes & Co.,
+their later firm), they led in political, as well as in mercantile
+enterprise, and these two houses, like Calpe and Abyla, were for years
+set over against each other as the trade representatives of the Northern
+and Southern sentiment.
+
+Yet, whatever may have been their difference of opinion, we are well
+persuaded of the fact that both houses were composed of patriotic and
+high-minded men, who differed simply because their views were of an
+extreme character. We might record other distinguished firms, which like
+these arose to greatness from humble beginnings, and at last fell like
+them beneath the revulsion which preceded the present civil war; but
+these will serve as general illustrations.
+
+With this revulsion the glory of the great houses has passed away. The
+marble palaces which formerly rented for $20,000 to $50,000, either
+stand empty or are tenanted at a nominal rate; and the enormous traffic
+of millions annually, has sunk down to the proportions of primitive
+times. Those grand Broadway stores must hereafter be divided, for no one
+concern can fill them, and the dreams of merchant and of builder are
+alike exploded. The dry goods trade in New York is now under a process
+of change, and as the dispensation of high rents and broad floors, long
+credits and enormous sales, seems to be passing away, it is a question
+of no small interest what shape the trade will put on. We will not
+attempt to answer that question. We prefer to give a sketch of the man
+who has done the most to solve it--Mr. A. T. Stewart.
+
+Mr. Stewart possesses one of the most truly executive minds in America.
+Indeed, as respects this feature, we doubt if any exception could be
+made to according him the very first position among our business men.
+Others may occasionally equal him in grasp of intellect, as in the
+instance of George Law, or Cornelius Vanderbilt; but, considered in the
+point of executive ability, we consider him unapproachable. He has long
+been chief among American dry goods dealers, and is known far and wide
+as the largest merchant (that is, buyer and seller) on this continent,
+and perhaps in the world. Yet there are thousands, including New Yorkers
+as well as country people, who have lost sight of Mr. Stewart's
+personality, and mention his name daily, and, perhaps, hourly, merely as
+the representative of a mammoth house of trade. The reason of this is
+obvious: hundreds and thousands have dealt year after year in that
+marble palace without ever beholding its proprietor. To such persons the
+name 'Stewart' has become merely a symbol, or, at most, a term of
+locality. To them he is a myth, with no personal entity. To their minds
+the term sets forth, instead of so many feet stature encased in
+broadcloth, with countenance, character, and voice like other men,
+merely a train of ideas, a marble front, plate glass, gorgeous drapery,
+legion of clerks, paradise of fashion, crowds of customers, and all the
+fascination of a day of shopping. 'Where did you get that love of a
+shawl?' asks Miss Matilda Namby Pamby of her friend Miss Araminta
+Vacuum. 'Why, at Stewart's, of course,' is the inevitable reply; 'and so
+cheap! only $250.' Now, to this pair of lady economists, what is
+'Stewart's' but a mere locality, as impersonal as Paris or Brussels, or
+any other mart of finery? We would correct this tendency to the unreal
+(which, by the way, is very natural), by stating that behind the mythic
+idea, there _is_ a Stewart; not a mere locality, but a man--plain,
+earnest, and industrious--who, amid this army of clerks and bustle of
+external traffic, drives the secret machinery with wonderful precision.
+Purchasers at retail are the most liable to the symbolic idea, since
+they never behold the existing Stewart. They see hundreds of salesmen,
+some stout and some thin, some long and some short, some florid and some
+pale, moving about in broadcloth, with varied port of dignity and
+importance, who may look as if they would like to own a palace. Yet
+among these the proprietor will be sought in vain. But if one ascends to
+the second story, he will find himself in a new world. This is the
+wholesale establishment, and here Mr. Stewart appears as the presiding
+genius.
+
+As one enters this department he may observe, in a large office on the
+side of the house looking into Chambers street, the grandmaster of the
+mammoth establishment, sitting at the desk, and occupied by the pressing
+demands of so important a position. Here, from eight in the morning
+until a late dinner hour, he is engrossed by the schemes and plans of
+his active brain. He bears a calm and thoughtful appearance, and yet,
+such is his executive ability, that the burden which would crush others
+is borne by him with comparative ease. His aspect and manners are plain
+and simple to a remarkable degree, and a stranger would be surprised to
+acknowledge in that tall form and quiet countenance, the Autocrat of the
+Dry Goods Trade. This man did not achieve this position save by patient
+toil; his greatness was not 'thrust upon him.' It has arisen from forty
+years of close application to the branch of trade which he adopted in
+early life, and to which he has bent his rare powers of mind. Like most
+of our successful men, he began the world with no capital beside brains;
+and like Daniel Webster and Louis Philippe, his early employment was
+teaching. The instructor, however, was soon merged in the business man,
+and in 1827 his unpretending name was displayed in Broadway, The little
+concern in which he then was salesman, buyer, financier, and sole
+manager, has gradually increased in importance, until it has become the
+present marble palace. It is probable that much of his early prosperity
+was owing to a remarkably fine taste in the selection of dress goods;
+but the subsequent breadth of his operations and their splendid success
+may be ascribed to his love of order, and its influence upon his
+operations. Years of practice upon this idea have enabled him to reduce
+everything to a system. Beside this, he is a first-class judge of
+character, reads men and schemes at a glance, and continually exhibits a
+depth of penetration which astonishes all who witness it. Thus, although
+sitting alone in his office, he is apparently conscious of whatever is
+going on in all parts of his establishment. So completely is he _en
+rapport_ with matters on the different floors, that the clerks sometimes
+imagine that there must be an invisible telegraph girdling the huge
+building. These men often say, by way of pleasant illustration of this
+fact, that if any one of them is absent, he is the very man to be first
+called for. From this it may be understood that it is not an easy matter
+to vary from the rigid system which holds its alternative of diligence
+or discharge over all beneath its control. We have referred to Mr.
+Stewart's habits of order as a means by which he controls his vast
+business with apparent ease. To explain this more explicitly, we may
+state that each department or branch of trade is under a distinct
+manager. These wholesale departments have been increased every year,
+until there is hardly an item in the comprehensive variety of the dry
+goods trade that is not here to be found. The advantage of this
+progressive movement was lately shown by the fact that, while Mr.
+Stewart lost enormous sums by Southern repudiation, he made up a large
+portion of the loss by the recent advance in domestics, a department
+which he had just added to his stock. The numerous failures which take
+place among New York business men give Mr. Stewart the choice among
+them for his managers, and a representation of the finest business
+talent of the city can, at this moment, be found in his establishment.
+These men turn their energies into that mighty channel which flows into
+his treasury. Indeed, to this merchant prince, they are what his
+marshals were to Napoleon, and, like him, this Autocrat of Trade sits
+enthroned in the insulated majesty of mercantile greatness.
+
+It may be inferred that no man in the concern works harder than its
+owner, and we believe that this is acknowledged by all its employés. Day
+after day he wears the harness of silent and patient toil.
+
+It is not generally known that during these hours of application, and
+while engrossed in the management of his immense operations, no one is
+allowed to address him personally until his errand or business shall
+have been first laid before a subordinate. If it is of such a character
+that that gentleman can attend to it, it goes no farther, and hence it
+vests with him to communicate it to his principal. To illustrate this
+circumstance, we relate the following incident: A few weeks ago a person
+entered the wholesale department, with an air of great importance, and
+demanded to see the proprietor. That proprietor could very easily be
+seen, as he was sitting in his office, but the stranger was courteously
+met by the assistant, with the usual inquiry as to the nature of his
+business. The stranger, who was a Government man, bristled up and
+exclaimed, indignantly, 'Sir, I come from Mr. Lincoln, and shall tell my
+business to no one but Mr. Stewart.' 'Sir,' replied the inevitable Mr.
+Brown, 'if Mr. Lincoln himself were to come here, he would not see Mr.
+Stewart until he should have first told me his business.'
+
+The amount of annual sales made at this establishment is not known
+outside of the circle of managers, but may be variously estimated at
+from ten to thirty millions. This includes the retail department, whose
+daily trade varies, according to weather and season, from three thousand
+to twelve thousand dollars per day. To supply this vast demand for
+goods, Mr. Stewart has agencies in Paris, London, Manchester, Belfast,
+Lyons, and other European marts. Two of the above cities are the
+permanent residences of his partners; and while Mr. Fox represents the
+house in Manchester, Mr. Warton occupies the same position in Paris.
+These gentlemen are the only partners of the great house of A.T. Stewart
+& Co.
+
+The marble block which the firm now occupies was built nearly twenty
+years ago. It had been the site of an old-fashioned hotel--which, like
+many others of its class, bore the name of 'Washington,' and which was
+eventually destroyed by fire. Mr. Stewart bought the plot at auction for
+less than $70,000, a sum which now would be considered beneath half its
+value. To this was subsequently added adjacent lots in Broadway, Reade
+and Chambers streets, and the present magnificent pile reared. To such
+of our readers as walk Broadway, we need not add any detail of its
+dimensions, nor mention what is now well known, that, large as it is, it
+is still too small for the increasing business. Hence another mercantile
+palace has been erected by Mr. Stewart in Broadway near Tenth street.
+This is intended for the retail trade, and is, no doubt, the most
+convenient, as well as the most splendid structure of the kind in the
+world. After the retail department shall have been thus removed up town
+the present store will be devoted to the wholesale trade.
+
+If any of our readers should inquire what impulse moves the energies of
+one whose circumstances might warrant a life of ease, we presume that
+the reply would be force of character and the strength of habit. Mr.
+Stewart has an empire in the world of merchandise which he can neither
+be expected to resign or abdicate. We cannot regret that law of
+centralization which builds up one marble palace, where hundreds have
+failed utterly to make a living. Centralization of trade has its
+objections, and yet, upon the whole, there is, no doubt, a much
+healthier and happier condition prevailing among the parties connected
+with Mr. Stewart, than would be found among the struggling concerns (say
+fifty or more) whose place he has taken. Centralization is a law in
+trade whose movement crushes the weak by an inevitable step, while, by
+compelling them to take refuge beneath the protection of the strong it
+affords a better condition than the one from which they have been
+driven. To his early perception of this law Mr. Stewart largely owes his
+present colossal fortune.
+
+
+
+
+UNHEEDED GROWTH.
+
+
+  As on the top of Lebanon,
+    Slowly the Temple grew,
+  All unobserved, though every shaft
+    A giant shadow threw:
+
+  Unheeded, though the golden pomp
+    Of ponderous roof and spire,
+  Wrought in the chambers of the earth,
+    Like subterranean fire:
+
+  Until the huge translated pile,
+    By brother kings upreared,
+  On Zion's hill, enthroned at last,
+    In silence reappeared.
+
+  So, not with observation comes
+    God's kingdom in the heart;
+  But like that Temple, silently,
+    With golden doors apart.
+
+  And all the Mighty Ones that watch,
+    With folded wings above,
+  Trembling with awe, now stoop to earth,
+    On messages of love.
+
+  Another Temple riseth fast,
+    Unbuilt of mortal hands,
+  Upheaving to the battle-blast
+    Of Freedom's conquering bands!
+
+  The bannered host--the darkened skies--
+    The thunderings all about,
+  Foreshadow but a Nation's birth,
+    Answering a Nation's shout!
+
+
+
+
+RED, YELLOW, AND BLUE.
+
+
+Alas for the old fashions! Wonder, incredulity, curiosity, and a crowd
+of primitive sensations, the whooping host that greeted, like misformed
+brutes on Circean shores, the steamboat and the telegraph, are passing
+away on a Lethean tide, and our mysteries are departing from among us.
+The intelligence which so long gazed wistfully upon the barred door of
+nature, or picked unsuccessfully at the bolts, with skeleton theories,
+and vague speculations, had learned to try the 'open sesame' of science.
+The master key is turning, the shafts yield, and already a dim glory
+shines through.
+
+While the strides of a positive philosophy are crippled by enthusiastic
+rhapsodies about intuition and instinct, her footsteps are still
+indelible, and her progress is certain and accelerating. Reason is
+written on her brow; she appeals to the universal gift, and denies the
+authoritative dictations of fallible genius, as much as a moral equality
+disallows the divine right of kings. Speculators among stars,
+speculators among sounds and colors, are the skirmishers in front of an
+intellectual post, whose tread reverberates but little in their rear.
+Accoutred with a few empiric facts and inductive minds, they aspire to
+beautiful and stable theories, whence they may descend, by deductive
+steps, accurate even to mathematical absoluteness, to the very arcana of
+what has been the inexplicable. To them the true, the beautiful, must be
+facts, defined, realized, and vigorously analyzed. Visible embodiments
+of an incomprehensible grace must be disintegrated, and the thinnest
+essences escape not the analytical rack whereon they confess the causal
+entity of their composition. 'Broad-browed genius' may toss his locks in
+the studio redolent of art; his eye may light, and his nervous fingers
+print the grand creation on the canvas. The divine afflatus is in his
+nostrils; it is his spirit, and his picture is the reflex of his soul.
+But keen-eyed Science lays a shadowy hand upon the 'holy coloring,' and
+says: 'Truly, the harmony is beautiful; it has pleased a sympathetic
+instinct from the first. Yet, from the first, my laws have been upon
+it--inexorable laws, which answer to the mind as instinct echoes to the
+soul.'
+
+The august simile of the philosopher, who likened the world to a vast
+animal, is appearing each day as too real for poetry. The ocean lungs
+pulse a gigantic breath at every tide, her continental limbs vibrate
+with light and electricity, her Cyclopean fires burn within, and her
+atmosphere, ever giving, ever receiving, subserves the stupendous
+equilibrium, and betrays the universal motion. Motion is material life;
+from the molecular quiverings in the crystal diamond, to the light
+vibrations of a meridian sun--from the half-smothered sound of a
+whispered love, to the whirl of the uttermost orb in space, there is
+life in moving matter, as perfect in particulars, and as magnificent in
+range, as the animation which swells the tiny lung of the polyp, or
+vitalizes the uncouth python floundering in the saurian slime of a
+half-cooled planet.
+
+When a polar continent heaves from the bosom of the deep, or when the
+inquiring eye rests upon the serrated rock, the antique victim of some
+drift-dispersing glacier, the mind perceives the effects and recognizes
+the existence of nature's omnipotent muscles, and their appalling power.
+
+But that adventurer who chases the chain of necessity to the sources of
+this grand instability, is merged at once in a haze of speculations,
+beautiful as sunlight through morning mists, but uncertain as the
+veriest chimeras. While beyond the idea of comprehensive motion the
+colossal symmetry of Truth expands in ultimate outlines, her features
+are shrouded, but in such an attractive clare-obscure of inviting
+analogies and semi-satisfying glimpses, that the temptation to guess at
+the ideal face almost overpowers the desire to kiss the real and shining
+feet below. Unfortunately, there is the domain of the myths and
+immaterials, _there_ is the home of the law and the force, _there_ dwell
+the Odyles, the electricities, the magnetisms, and affinities, and there
+the speculative Æneas pursues shadows more fleeting than the Stygian
+ghosts, and the grasp of the metaphysician closes on shapes whose
+embrace is vacancy. The bark that ploughs within this mystic expanse,
+sheds from its cleaving keel but coruscations of phosphorescent
+sparkles, which glimmer and quench in a gloom that Egyptian seers never
+penetrated, and modern guessers cannot conjecture through. There is,
+indeed, 'oak and triple brass' upon his breast who steeps his lips in
+the chalice of the Rosicrucian, and the doom of Prometheus is the fabled
+defeat which is waiting for the wanderer in those opaque spaces. While
+we warily, therefore, tread not upon the ground whose trespass brought
+the vulture of unfilled desire, the craving void for visionary lore upon
+the heaven-born, earth-punished speculator, we can still find flowery
+paths and full fruition, in meadows wherein the light of reason requires
+no support from the _ignes fatui_ of imagination; meadows after all so
+broad, that did not metaphysics 'teach man his tether,' they would seem
+illimitable. The book of nature is not spread before us, turning leaf
+after leaf at every sunrise, with new delineations on every page, to be
+stared at with vacant inanity, or criticized with imbecile verbosity.
+The rivulet does not tinkle and the sky does not look blue that people
+may feed the ear alone with the one, or satisfy the eye alone with the
+other; the nerves which carry the sensation to the brain, flutter with
+the news, and knock at the house of mind for explanation. We do not
+anticipate being hurried into any extravaganza about the rural felicity
+of green trees, clinking cowbells, cane chairs, and cigars, when we
+recall to the trainer of surburban vines the harmony, the analogy, the
+relationship, which he must have observed between sounds and colors in
+nature's album of melodies.
+
+When, at evening, the zenith blue melts away toward the horizon in
+dreamy violet, and the retreating sun leaves limber shafts of orange
+light, like Parthian arrows, among the green branches of the elms, what
+sounds can charm the ear like the soft chirrup of the cricket, the
+homely drone of the hive-seeking bee, and the cool rustle of the breeze
+through the tops of the spring-sodden water grasses? How fondly the mind
+blends the evening colors and the incipient voices of the night! 'Oh,'
+says the metaphysician, 'this is association: just so a strain of music
+reminds you of a fine passage in a book you have read, or a beautiful
+tone in a picture you have seen; just so the Ranz des Vaches bears the
+exile to the timber house, with shady leaves, corbelled and
+strut-supported, whose very weakness appeals to the avalanche that
+shakes an icicly beard in monition from the impeding crags.'
+
+Well, let association play her part in some cases; when a habit has
+necessitated the recurrence of two distinct ideas together, they will
+certainly be associated at times when the habit is gone; but suppose the
+analogy is felt when the ideas have never before been in juxtaposition,
+or when there has even been no sensation at all to generate one of the
+notions. How, for instance, did the sightless imaginer ever conceive
+that red must be like the sound of the trumpet? Simply because the
+analogy between color and music is deeper than the idea of either, more
+absolute than association could make it; because certain tints are
+calculated to produce exactly similar impressions on the eye that
+certain sounds do upon the ear; or, to use a mathematical turn of
+expression, because some color [Greek: x] is to the eye as some sound
+[Greek: x] is to the ear.
+
+That this mathematical turn of expression is no vagary, but perfectly
+germane to the subject, and accurate in application, we propose to prove
+to those who love coincidences and analogies sufficiently to fish them
+out of a little dilute science.
+
+Light and sound are the daughters of motion. Color and music, the
+ethereal and aërial offspring of this ancestry, born with the world,
+fostered in Biblical times, expanded in China and Egypt, living on the
+painted jar, and breathing in the oaten reed, deified in Greece, and
+analyzed to-day, are natural cousins at the least, and they have come
+from the spacious home of their progenitor, upon our dusky and silent
+sphere, like Peace and Goodwill, with hands bound in an oath and
+contract never to part. We will spare a dissertation on chaos; we will
+not speak of matter and inertia; but as our greatest and purest fountain
+of light is the sun, we may be allowed a modest exposition of his
+philosophical state, as a granite gate to the garden beyond. Ninety-five
+millions of miles to the north, east, south, or west of us, up or down,
+as the case may be, stands the molten centre of our system--an orb,
+whose atoms, turbulent with electricity, gravity, or whatever mechanists
+please to call the attraction of particle for particle, are forever
+urging to its centre, forever meeting with repulsions when they slide
+within the forbidden limits of molecular exclusiveness, and eternally
+vibrating with a quake and quiver which lights and heats the worlds
+around. In other words, this agitation is one that, transmitted to an
+ethereal medium, produces therein corresponding vibrations or waves,
+which are light and heat.
+
+As sound is the symmetrical aërial motion, if our atmosphere embraced
+our sun, and extended throughout space, we should _perhaps_ hear in the
+ambient the fundamental chord, resolvable into the diatonic scale--as we
+look upon the beam of white which the prism decomposes into the solar
+spectrum, and in the ghostly watches of the night, we might recognize
+the 'music of the spheres' as the planets rushed around their airy
+orbits, with a noise like the 'noise of many waters,' no longer a poetic
+illusion, but a harmonic fact.
+
+Light, whether white or colored, is transmitted through ether in waves
+of measurable length: each atom of the medium, when disturbed, moves
+around its place of rest in an orbit of variable dimension and
+eccentricity. On the character of the orbit depends the character of the
+light; and on the velocity of orbit motion, its intensity. Like the
+gentle pulsations which circle from the point where fell the pebble in
+the purple lake, come the grateful twilight waves, red with the last
+kiss of day; like the fierce struggles of the storm-beaten ocean floods
+come the lightning waves, blazing through the thunder clouds, howling in
+riven agony: so great is the variety of character in these orbicular
+disturbances, which, acting upon the optic nerves, produce the sensation
+of multiform light and color.
+
+Waves of light, like waves of sound, are of different lengths, and while
+the eye prefers some single waves to others, it recognizes a harmony in
+certain combinations, which it cannot discover in different ones.
+
+While, however, the constitution of individual eyes acknowledges one
+color more pleasing than another, there is none, perhaps, which does not
+prefer the coldest monochromatic to entire absence of color, as in blank
+white, or to an absolute vacancy of light, as in black.
+
+Sepia pieces are more agreeable than the neatest drawings in China ink,
+or the most graceful curves done in chalk upon a blackboard. But however
+the eye may admire a severe and simple unity, it relishes still more a
+harmonious complexity; and a very mediocre little _pensée_ in water
+colors, will prove more generally attractive than the monochromatic
+copies in the Liber Veritatis.
+
+But to this complexity there must be limits--an endless and incongruous
+variety teases and revolts; the discordant effect of innumerable tints,
+among which some are sure to be uncongenial to each other, is always
+extremely irritating. There ought, then, to be a scale of color, it
+would seem, within whose limits the purest harmonies are to be found,
+and beyond which subdivisions should be no more allowed than in constant
+musical notes. When this idea strikes, as it must have, many artists,
+reason, consideration, instinct, and all, refer at once to the solar
+spectrum as such an one. The analogy between this scale, which governs
+the chromatics of the sunset and thunderstorm, and that which the
+science of man has established, empirically, for harmonies, is
+remarkable, and we shall try to make it patent. They are both scales of
+seven: the tonic, mediant, and dominant, find their types in red,
+yellow, and blue, while the modifications on which the diatonic scale is
+constructed, resemble, numerically and esthetically, the well-known
+variations in the spectrum.
+
+The theory of harmonies in optics is the same as in acoustics, the same
+as in everything--it is based on simplicity. Those colors, like those
+notes, the number of whose vibrations or waves in the same time bear
+some simple ratio to each other, are harmonious; an absolute equality
+produces unison; and a group of harmonies is melody both in music and in
+color. At this point we cannot but hint at the analogy already
+discovered between the elements of music and the elements of form.
+Angles harmonize in simple analysis, or intricate synthesis, whose
+circular ratios are simple.
+
+Numerical proportions are the roots of that shaft of harmony which,
+springing from motion, rises and spreads into the nature around us,
+which the senses appreciate, the spirit feels, and the reason
+understands. Beauty is order, and the infinity of the law is testified
+in the ever-swelling proofs of an unlimited consonance in creation, of
+which these analogies are the smallest types. But the idea of numerical
+analogy is not new to our age, now that the atomic theory is
+established, and people are turned back to the days when the much
+bescouted alchemist pored with rheumy eyes over the crucible, about to
+be the tomb of elective affinity, and whence a golden angel was to
+develop from a leaden saint: when they are reminded of the Pythagorean
+numbers, and the arithmetic of the realists of old, they may very well
+imagine that the vain world, like an empty fashion, has cycled around to
+some primitive phase, and look for the door of that academy 'where none
+could enter but those who understood geometry.'
+
+But to return. When the ear accepts a tone, or the eye a single color,
+it is noticed that these organs, satiated finally with the sterile
+simplicity, echo, as it were, in a soliloquizing manner, to themselves,
+other notes or tints, which are the complementary or harmony-completing
+ones: so that if nature does not at once present a satisfaction, the
+organization of the senses allows them internal resources whereon to
+retreat. 'There is a world without, and a world within,' which may be
+called complementary worlds. But nature is ever liberal, and her chords
+are generally harmonies, or exquisite modifications of concord. The
+chord of the tonic, in music, is the primal type of this harmony in
+sound; it is perfectly satisfactory to the tympanum; and the ear,
+knowing no further elements (for the tonic chord combines them all), can
+ask for nothing more.
+
+This chord, constructed on the tonic C, or Do, as a key note, and
+consisting of the 1st, 3d, and 5th of the diatonic scale, or Do, Mi,
+Sol, is called the fundamental chord. The harmony in color which
+corresponds to this, and leaves nothing for the eye to desire, is, of
+course, the light that nature is full of--sunlight. White light is then
+the fundamental chord of color, and it is constructed on the red as the
+tonic, consisting of red, yellow, and blue, the 1st, 3d, and 5th of the
+solar spectrum.
+
+This little analogy is suggestive, but its development is striking.
+
+The diatonic scale in music, determined by calculation and actual
+experiment on vibrating chords, stands as follows. It will be easily
+understood by musicians, and its discussion appears in most treatises on
+acoustics:
+
+  Do   Re   Mi   Fa  Sol   La   Ti   Do
+
+  C,   D,   E,   F,   G,   A,   B,   C, &c.
+
+  1   9/8  5/4  4/3  3/2  5/3  15/8  2.
+
+The intervals, or relative pitches of the notes to the tonic C, appear
+expressed in the fractions, which are determined by assuming the wave
+length or amount of vibration of C as unity, and finding the ratio of
+the wave length of any other note to it. The value of an interval is
+therefore found by dividing the wave length of the graver by that of the
+acuter note, or the number of vibrations of the acuter in a given time
+by the corresponding number of the graver. These fractions, it is seen,
+comprise the simplest ratios between the whole numbers 1 and 2, so that
+in this scale are the simple and satisfactory elements of harmony in
+music, and everybody knows that it is used as such. Now nature exposes
+to us a scale of color to which we have adverted; it is thus:
+
+  Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.
+
+Let us investigate this, and see if her science is as good as mortal
+penetration; let us see if she too has hit upon the simplest fractions
+between 1 and 2, for a scale of 7. We can determine the relative pitch
+of any member of this scale to another, easily, as the wave lengths of
+all are known from experiment.
+
+The waves of red are the longest; it corresponds, then, to the tonic.
+Let us assume it as unity, and deduce the pitch of orange by dividing
+the first by the second.
+
+The length of a red wave is 0.0000266 inches; the length of an orange
+wave is 0.0000240 inches; the fraction required then is 266/240;
+dividing both members of this expression by 30, it reduces to 9/8,
+almost exactly. This is encouraging. We find a remarkable coincidence in
+ratio, and in elements which occupy the same place on the corresponding
+scales. Again, the length of a yellow wave is 0.0000227 inches; its
+pitch on the scale is therefore 266/227; dividing both terms by 55, the
+reduced fraction approximates to 5/4 with great accuracy, when we
+consider the deviations from truth liable to occur in the delicate
+measurements necessary to determine the length of a light vibration, or
+the amount of quiver in a tense cord. A green wave is 0.0000211 inches
+in length; its pitch is then 266/211, which reduced, becomes 4/3; in
+like manner the subsequent intervals may be determined, which all prove
+to be complete analogues, except, perhaps, violet, whose fraction is
+266/167, which reduces nearer 16/9 than 15/8. But these small
+discrepancies, which might be expected in the results of physical
+measurements, do not cripple the analogy which appears now in the two
+following scales:
+
+
+  DIATONIC OR NATURAL SCALE OF MUSIC.
+
+  C,   D,   E´,  F,   G,   A,   B,   C´   D´   E´, &c.
+
+  1   9/8  5/4  4/3  3/2  5/3  15/8  2  18/8  10/4
+
+
+  DIATONIC OR NATURAL SCALE OF COLOR.
+
+  Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.
+  1     9/8      5/4     4/3   3/2    5/3     16/9
+
+
+Thus orange is to red what D is to C; and to resume the proportion we
+used before, red is to eye as C is to ear; yellow: eye: Mi: ear; and so
+on the proportion extends, till the analogy embraces chords, harmonies,
+melodies, and compositions even.
+
+We have already mentioned the chord of the tonic, and the corresponding
+eye-music, red, yellow, and blue; let us consider the chord of the
+dominant or 5th note, whose analogue is blue. This chord is constructed
+on the 5th of the diatonic as a fundamental note, and consists of the
+5th, 7th, and 9th, or returning the 9th an octave, the 5th, 7th, and 2d.
+The parallel harmony among the spectral colors is blue, violet, and
+orange. The name 'dominant' indicates the nature of this chord; its
+often recurring importance in harmonic combinations of a certain key
+make it easily recognized, and it is even more pleasing than the tonic
+in its subdued character.
+
+Out of doors this chord is preëminent in the sunset key, and the western
+skies ever chant their evening hymn in the 5th, 7th, and 2d of the
+ethereal music. The correspondence of the sub-dominant would be red,
+green, and indigo; of the chord of the 6th, red, yellow, and indigo; and
+so on, the curious mind may elicit the symmetrical to any notes, half
+notes, or combinations of notes. It is evident that as a note may be
+interpolated between any two of the scale, for reach or variety, and
+called, _e.g._ [sharp]-F or [flat-]G, so a half tint between green and blue
+is a kind of analogical [sharp]green or [flat]blue.
+
+It seems to us that the elementary angles which Mr. Hay conceives to be
+the tonic, mediant, and dominant, in formal symmetry, will soon be
+proved to decompose into a scale of linear harmony, forming another beam
+in this glory of natural analogy. These angles are the fundamental ones
+of the pentagon square, and equilateral triangle--respectively 108°,
+90°, and 60°. Some such scale it is known existed when art was at its
+culmination in buried Greece, and it was less the stupendous genius of
+her designers than the soul of the universe which their rules taught
+them how to infuse into form, which rendered the marbles of Hellas
+synonymes for immortality.
+
+The most beautiful and conclusive, and yet most mysterious sign, that
+points the seeker to the prosecution of this last analogy, remains yet
+for us to remark, and for some investigator yet to take advantage of. It
+is the nodal figures which arrange themselves upon an elastic plate (as
+of glass), when it is made to vibrate (strewed with sand) by a fiddle
+bow drawn across its edge, so as to produce a pitch of some intensity.
+These have been investigated, and found subject to certain laws, which
+link into the chain of symmetry that philosophers have already grasped.
+Among these figures, of which the simplest arise from the deepest
+pitches, the angles mentioned occur.
+
+But however interesting it might be to follow out these episodical
+instances, they would lead us too far from our original compass.
+
+We have plainly exhibited the identity of principle which governs the
+bases of sound and color, and might fairly write Q.E.D. to our
+proposition; but the fact so determined has a farther bearing upon art,
+which it may not be out of place to enlarge upon.
+
+The painter's palette, charged with color, is the instrument with which
+he thrills a melody to the eye, even as the magniloquent organ or the
+sigh-breathing flute speak to the ear. And just as the compass of all
+instruments is constructed on the diatonic scale, so should the range of
+the palette depend upon the tinges of the spectrum.
+
+While artists of a certain school pretend to imitate Nature, who paints
+literally with a pencil dipped in rainbow, they make use of a
+complication of tints, at which their goddess would shudder. In mixing
+and mixing on the groaning palette, they generate an unhappy brood of
+misformed tones, which never can agree upon the canvas; while the
+pigments, impure at best, become doubly so by amalgamation, the
+ramifications of contrast which such differences superinduce are sure to
+prove sometimes repulsive.
+
+Contrast is nature's charm, the bubbling source that she exhausts for
+her prettiest harmonies and varieties.
+
+But earthen pitchers are easily broken at the brink, and if the
+slippery streams thence flowing are not judiciously checked, they merge
+into a harsh flood that sweeps away all grace, like the magic fountain
+in the German myth, whose fairy tricklings, uncovered for a single
+night, burst into a curbless flood, that drowned the sleeping landscape
+ere the dawn. The small reactions of contrast in infinitesimal tints,
+are perhaps neglected or unforeseen, but their influence is fearfully
+apparent in the end.
+
+The simplicity of beauty is very limited, and he who dabbles in infinite
+decompositions of color will be certain to encounter turbid and
+unnatural tones, whose ultimate result will be an inharmonious and
+disunited whole.
+
+It is true that in the landscape, and cloudscape, and waterscape, there
+are wonderful extremes of chromatic gradation, for it is the hand and
+mind of nature that adorns herself; she can see unerringly, and lay on
+divinely, the remotest intricacies of shade, and her colors are pure
+light, swimming in ether.
+
+But these media do not come bottled up in tin tubes, and to this gift a
+mortal hand ought not to presume. It might as well aspire to draw
+infinitely as to tint infinitesimally; for before it can find use for
+all the colors in nature, it ought to have all nature upon the canvas.
+But finally, we hold that reproductive art is as much part and parcel of
+human nature as the appreciative, or sensation of beauty; and that any
+one can learn to copy and color a landscape or design, as well as to
+perform upon a musical instrument. Let genius still wield the creative
+wand, but in the wide domain of art, over his grotto alone be it
+written, _Procul o procul este profani_.
+
+
+
+
+ONE OF THE MILLION.
+
+
+Shoemaker Scheffer opened his shop within sight of the college
+buildings, and expected to live by trade. He was young and skilful,
+obliging, and prompt, and acquired, ere long, a substantial reputation.
+Prosperity did not mislead him; he applied his income to the furtherance
+of his business, abhorred debt, squandered nothing, was exact and
+persevering.
+
+At work early and late, he seemed the model of contentment, as he was of
+industry. Prompt, obliging, careful, he made the future easy of
+prediction.
+
+But though the ruddy firelight shines well on the window panes, what
+griefs, what agonies, what discords, are developed around the
+hearthstone. Scheffer's quiet demeanor was, in some degree, deception.
+One woman in the world knew it was so--no other being did.
+
+The immediate excitant of his unrest was found in the college students,
+who passed his place of business at all hours of the day. He remembered
+that he might have worked his way into the ranks of those fellows.
+Nothing vexed him so much as to see a lounger among them; for he must
+needs think of the time when, a stripling, he agonized over his choice,
+and said to himself, thinking of his mother (dead now, when the comfort
+he toiled for was secured), 'Time enough for books when I am sure of
+bread; flesh is needy and perishing, spirit is eternal.' He had walked
+out of school to the counter of his uncle, and stood behind it seven
+years, doing with earnest might what his hand found to do.
+
+And here he was now, on his own ground, wistfully looking over his
+barriers into the college yard, and, shall we say it, envying the
+career of every studious lad--most of all that of the scholarly Harry
+Cromwell, and the broad-browed, proud young Mitchell, who came into his
+shop now and then, in remembrance of old days; for these lads could all
+remember when they stood in one straight line among the social forces,
+and neither had marched out of the old division to take rank in the new.
+
+One day Paul Mitchell strolled into Scheffer's shop. Scheffer, at the
+moment, was reading a newspaper, and he did not instantly throw the
+sheet aside: he thought it unlikely that Paul required his service. But
+at last, laying the paper away, and going up to Mitchell, he asked:
+
+'What will you have, this morning?'
+
+Paul's bright eyes smiled, full of fun.
+
+'I'll have fifty thousand dollars, straight, and a library like that in
+the Atheneum.'
+
+'You want shoeing more,' was Scheffer's dry response; and, turning from
+the youth, he went back to his counter, and emptied thereon a large box
+of patent leathers, which he began to assort.
+
+Gradually Paul approached, and at last he took up a pair of the boots,
+and asked the price. Scheffer named it; Paul threw them down again.
+
+'You might as well ask fifty dollars as three. It's you fellows who have
+all the money.'
+
+'Do you think so?' answered Scheffer; and he began to collect his goods
+again, and to pack them in separate boxes. He was careful, however, to
+throw aside the pair that had tempted Mitchell to confess a truth.
+
+At last, when the counter was cleared, he took the boots, and said to
+the boy, pointing to one of the sofas:
+
+'Sit down there, my man.'
+
+Paul did as bidden. Scheffer untied his shoestring, drew off the dusty,
+worn-out shoe, and tried the pair in his hand. The fit was perfect.
+
+Then Scheffer looked up, and, without rising, asked:
+
+'How long have you to study before you graduate?'
+
+'Five years.'
+
+'Why do you speak in that way?'
+
+'How did I speak?' asked Paul.
+
+'Discouraged like.'
+
+'You're mistaken.'
+
+'Am I? Then why look so solemn? I'd like your chance.'
+
+'You would!' exclaimed Paul, incredulous. 'Why, you had such a chance
+yourself once, and you didn't accept it, if they know the facts at
+home.'
+
+Scheffer stood up.
+
+'Who says that?' he asked, quietly. Still, the question had a hurried
+sound to Paul. '_Did_ any one in that house remember!'
+
+'Josephine told me so. She thinks you made a wise choice. So do I. I
+wish I was as well off as you are, doing something for a support. And it
+was on account of your mother you made the choice! But my mother insists
+on my having a profession. Stuff! But nobody seems satisfied. That's one
+kind of consolation.'
+
+Scheffer was silent for a moment. Half of Paul's words were unheard; but
+enough had struck through sense to spirit, and he said:
+
+'Do you want to be shod for the next five years? I'll strike a bargain
+with you, Paul.'
+
+'What can I do for you?' asked the astonished lad.
+
+'I'll tell you, and if you don't like it, why, no matter--that's all.'
+And Scheffer added, in an earnest tone: 'I don't know but it's living
+near the college, hearing the bell ring, and seeing the fellows with
+their books, has bewitched me; any way, I'm thinking I must have an
+education, and I wish to get it systematically. I always thought I could
+have it when I chose; but if I don't bestir myself, I shall not be able
+to choose much longer.'
+
+August wiped his forehead as he spoke; but he had said it. Gravely,
+anxiously he looked at Paul. He could have forgiven him even a smile.
+But Paul did not smile. Neither did he hesitate too long to rob his
+words of grace.
+
+'What will you study?' he asked.
+
+'Whatever you set me at.'
+
+'Latin?'
+
+'They say a fool is not a perfect fool till he has studied Latin. No, I
+thank you. Five years, did you say?'
+
+'Five years,' repeated Paul, this time without sighing.
+
+'Well, get the books I need. You know what they are. Bring the bill to
+me. Have it made out in your name, though, I'll settle the account.
+Mum's the word, Paul. I won't have snobs laughing at the learned
+shoemaker. The secret is mine.'
+
+Paul promised. Scheffer thereupon picked up the student's worn-out
+shoes, and tossed them into a distant heap of rubbish, and the lad went
+on his way rejoicing. He was a widow's son, and poor; and to be shod as
+a gentleman should be was a serious matter to him.
+
+
+II.
+
+But, as to the secret, there was Josephine, who shared the family burden
+of poverty and pride; Josephine, who was a beauty, and not spoiled at
+that, but light of heart and cheerful, disposed to make the best of
+things; laughing lightly over mishaps which made her mother weep;
+Josephine, of whose fair womanhood as much was hoped in a worldly way as
+of Paul's talents; Josephine, to whom Paul told everything: how could he
+withhold from her August Scheffer's curious secret?
+
+That afternoon, when he went home, Paul found her in the porch. She had
+a book; of course, it was one of Cromwell's. Paul discovered that when
+he had settled himself near her, with a book in his own hand. He had
+come to her so conscious of his late bargain, and the immediate benefit
+he had derived therefrom, that he expected an instant leaning toward
+discovery on her part. But Josephine was absorbed in her occupation, and
+though she looked up and smiled when she saw Paul coming, she looked
+down again and sighed the next instant, and continued reading with a
+gravity that soon attracted his notice. Her looks troubled him. Of late,
+a shadow seemed to have fallen darkly over her; she was, though Paul
+understood it not, in the struggle of youth with life. Do you know what
+that struggle is? Not all who pass through it go on their way rejoicing,
+over the everlasting blessedness won from the 'good and great angel.'
+For then this earth more manifestly were the world of the redeemed ones.
+
+Not long before, Paul had heard Josephine say that she would not live on
+in this idle way. She must find some work to do. Perhaps, he thought,
+the sense of a necessity her mother instantly and constantly denied when
+Josephine spoke of it, is now again oppressing her. However occasioned,
+Paul's face saddened when he looked at her. The maddening impatience he
+had felt many times--impatience for the strength and efficiency of
+manhood--once more tormented him; it grew an intolerable thought to him
+that so many years must pass before he should be prepared to do a man's
+work, earn a man's wages--do as August Scheffer was doing.
+
+Such sombre reflections as these absorbed him, when he became suddenly
+conscious of the eyes of Josephine. She sat looking upon him; disturbed
+anew, it seemed, by the show of his disturbance. His eyes met hers, and
+she said:
+
+'What is it, Paul? What has gone wrong with you?'
+
+'Nothing. But it is enough to give one the horrors to see _you_ looking
+so like destruction. Something has happened, Josephine; what is it?'
+
+'What fine shoes you have on, Paul!' she said, quickly, pretending to be
+absorbed in the discovery she had only that instant made.
+
+Paul laughed, and blushed.
+
+'I earned them,' said he.
+
+'Earned them!' Josephine's beautiful eyes were full of surprise, of
+admiration even, as she now fixed them on her brother. 'I wish I could
+earn anything--a row of pins, or a loaf of bread.'
+
+'If you did, you wouldn't eat all the loaf yourself. But I spent all my
+wage on myself, you see! But I did earn them--at least, I'm going to,
+before I get through.'
+
+'How in the world did you do it, Paul?'
+
+'I am a tutor, Josephine,' said he, with mock gravity. She answered,
+earnestly:
+
+'You're a good fellow, any way, tutor or not. It's a secret, then, this
+business?'
+
+'Yes, the deadest kind of a dead secret. But I shall tell you. I made a
+mental reservation of you. August Scheffer----'
+
+Josephine started, trembled, looked away from Paul, recovered herself in
+an instant; then looked back again, and straight into his eyes. Paul saw
+nothing strange in this; he went on quietly:
+
+'Scheffer is getting ambitious! If I had a shop and such a business as
+his, catch me bothering about books!'
+
+'He was always fond of reading,' answered Josephine. 'You know what a
+reader his mother was? No, you don't know. You were too young. Well, he
+wants you to help him, and you are to be shod.'
+
+'Yes, that's the whole of it. Why don't you laugh, or be surprised. I
+shall do my best with him.'
+
+'I should hope you would do better than your best. Be punctual and
+steady in this business; for, really, you owe August Scheffer more than
+a shop full of shoes is worth. You will get as much good as you can
+possibly give. I wish I had your chance!'
+
+'To teach him, Josephine?'
+
+'To be a helpful man, dear Paul.'
+
+'As far as I can see, everybody in these days is wishing that he was
+somebody else. That's what's the matter with Scheffer.'
+
+'No,' said Josephine, quietly; 'it isn't. Not that. He wouldn't take any
+man's place that lives. Ask him.'
+
+'Of course he would say 'No.' He is proud as Lucifer.'
+
+'I like his spirit.'
+
+'Yes, and you like Cromwell's spirit, too. What in the world do you
+suppose _he_ is going to do?'
+
+'What?' asked Josephine, as if she did not know.
+
+Paul surveyed her for a moment. _Did_ she not know? He could not decide.
+He could look through most people, simple, earnest, penetrating fellow
+that he was; but not through Josephine.
+
+'Cromwell is going abroad,' he said, finally. 'He's been talking with a
+sea captain for a month back. It's all out now. He's going to quit his
+class, and take deck passage for Havre; going to the school of mines in
+Paris, and, when through with that, on a mineral hunt from Africa to
+Siberia. And he hasn't a cent of money! Perhaps that's the spirit you
+like. Perhaps you won't object to my going with him.'
+
+Josephine looked at Paul; she was not in the least alarmed. 'I like the
+spirit well enough,' she said, 'but it isn't your kind; it would be
+misery to do a thing in that way, for you. He has another 'fervor.''
+
+'Yes, he has,' said Paul, with a deeper meaning than his sister guessed.
+
+'You say I like a queer kind of spirit,' said she. 'I like independence.
+But there's some great lack in me, there must be. I'm what you call too
+prudent, I suppose. I seem unable to put out of sight the chances of
+failure; and it can't be that people who venture a great deal think much
+of them. I wish, as you do, that Harry had a little money--ever so
+little--to fall back on. He never seems to think of accidents, or
+sickness; but he is going to a strange country, and, to be sure, if he
+is able to do exactly what he expects, he will succeed; and in the _end_
+he will, I know, whatever happens. But it would be dreadful for him to
+meet with misfortunes, though he laughs at my croaking. Everything is to
+turn out just as he wants! But do things often, I wonder?'
+
+'Yes, with August Scheffer--the only one I know of.'
+
+'But you never _can_ know the struggle he passed through; it was
+terrible. You call him a philosopher; he is so, because he found out
+early how to fight the good fight. Nothing will ever look so alluring to
+him as the career he might have had by choosing the thing he did not
+choose.' Ceasing to speak aloud and to Paul, Josephine added, in a voice
+no one could hear: 'I was in the midst of that struggle; I understand
+him as no one else does. And--he knows it.'
+
+'Tell me about it,' said Paul. 'You don't know how much I admire
+Scheffer.'
+
+'Well you may,' she answered; 'but there is nothing to tell. He had the
+opportunity to keep at school, or to go into his uncle's shop--and he
+chose the shop on his mother's account.'
+
+'And I chose a profession on _my_ mother's account,' said Paul bitterly.
+
+Josephine laid her hand on his; it was a gentle touch, but it recalled
+him.
+
+'The best choice in both cases,' said she. 'Any one can see you are not
+expert enough to make a successful trader. Ask August if a man must not
+have a talent for trade, just as an artist must have a genius for
+painting.'
+
+'Then you think August a born trader?'
+
+'I know he can do more than one thing well,' she answered.
+
+'If you think so well of August,' said he, 'I don't see how you _can_
+think better of another fellow. The town couldn't contain him if he
+heard what you said just now.'
+
+Josephine turned a page of her book.
+
+'He knows perfectly well what I think of him, Paul.'
+
+The very frankness of her words and manner misled the boy. The curious
+suspicion that for a moment had beset him fled fast before his laughter.
+
+She went on reading--seemed to do so. But an image for which the writer
+of that book was not responsible stood, all the while, clear and
+immovable in her memory. Before her, in a rude shed, were a boy and a
+girl. The girl had a basket in her hand, filled with chips, which she
+had raked from the sawdust; the boy was offering her assistance; but he
+knew well enough there was no wood to be sawn or split. It was growing
+dark and cold within the house, and still more dismal without it. The
+hearts of these two are warmer than their hands.
+
+'I've done it,' said the boy. 'I brought my books home last night,
+Josey, and I'm going to my uncle in the morning.'
+
+'What did he say?'
+
+'He wouldn't say a word. It was my choice, and I must stand by it,' he
+answered. 'It's for my mother! If I had only you, and was working for
+you, I would take the other track. But, you see, it is for her; and I'm
+her only son.'
+
+'You will be August Scheffer, whatever you may do,' she said, in a soft,
+sweet voice.
+
+--And did August Scheffer ever stand for less among powers and places,
+than when, in the darkening wood shed, he spoke these words:
+
+'But, Josey, will things always be the same with us?'
+
+--Things had changed, indeed. The whole world had changed since then.
+Had the changing world rolled in between them? Since then the widow
+Mitchell had worked her way out of the worst of her distresses.
+Josephine had become a beautiful woman. Paul was striding on toward a
+profession. The family had removed to one of those box-like dwellings
+opposite the college grounds, and the fair face of Mrs. Mitchell's
+daughter was the theme of many a student's dreaming--of Harry
+Cromwell's, most conspicuous among students--of his dreaming, day and
+night. It was his book she held.
+
+
+III.
+
+It happened, of course, that Paul dropped into Scheffer's shop the next
+day. August was on the lookout, and conducted him forthwith into a quiet
+corner. The books were there delivered, but the package remained
+unopened. Scheffer had his reasons. He wanted leisure to examine
+them--above all, privacy. He also saw, or thought he saw, that Paul was
+in haste to be gone; and there was something on his mind of which he
+desired to be free.
+
+Paul was only disturbed about a proposal he wished to make to Scheffer.
+
+He was electrified when Scheffer himself broached the subject, and
+transacted it half, at a stroke, though all unconsciously, by asking:
+
+'What has become of Hal Cromwell? He took so many prizes last year.'
+
+Paul's eyes brightened strangely, his whole countenance became luminous.
+Scheffer surveyed the change as if it were not half agreeable to him.
+'Harry is here yet, but he won't be long. That's a secret, though. He's
+going to France. Guess how.'
+
+'In a balloon, I suppose. He hasn't any money.'
+
+'No,' said Paul, half offended at the tone in which this was spoken.
+'He's going to work his passage. He's one of the fellows who can do
+without money.'
+
+'Indeed!' said Scheffer.
+
+Paul went on: 'He hasn't more than twenty dollars. He sold all his
+prizes long ago.'
+
+'Is he going to travel?' asked Scheffer, quietly.
+
+'Travel! no. Not yet awhile, I mean. He's mad, just now, on minerals and
+geology. He's going to school in Paris, where he can learn all about
+such things. Then he's going to hunt up specimens for cabinets; then
+he'll be sending curiosities over here by the ship load. If any one
+wanted to speculate, he'd pay an enormous interest on the money lent
+him. But catch him asking the loan of a threepenny bit of any man! You
+know him.'
+
+'Yes,' he said; 'we've had many a rough day together. About the time his
+father got into trouble, my father did more than one good turn for him.
+But that's neither here nor there.'
+
+'Yes, it is,' said Paul, quickly; 'if your father helped his father,
+it's a token that you will help him.'
+
+Scheffer was not so clear on that point: his reply might have chilled
+Paul's enthusiasm, could anything have done that.
+
+'I can tell you what, Mitchell,' he said, 'I don't wonder at Cromwell,
+and I don't blame him. I believe it's better to go hungry on your own
+earnings than full fed at another man's expense. One can starve at home
+with a better grace than he can among strangers. That's my mind. It
+mayn't be his.'
+
+'It's mine, though,' said Paul. 'If I had the money--if I had a hundred
+dollars, I should insist on his taking them. I wish my mother had put me
+to a trade: it's all nonsense, this slaving for the sake of
+position--what you call it.'
+
+'Don't talk so,' said Scheffer. 'If Harry Cromwell wants anything of me,
+I should be ashamed of him if he wouldn't ask it. As to wishing that you
+had a trade, if there's a mechanical turn in you, you'll twist into it
+yet. But I don't believe there is. Go on as you have begun. It will all
+come out right.'
+
+Paul scanned the fine face of the speaker in a spirit of inquiry
+unguessed of August. He was thinking of Josephine, and of her words.
+Then he said, 'So you always say. But I can't see it. If I could, then
+I'd be a philosopher like you. Do you mean I should speak to Harry?'
+
+Scheffer hesitated.
+
+'I see him every day,' said he. 'Sometimes he comes in here. Don't you
+think he would be better pleased if it should happen of itself, you
+know--not as if we had talked over his affairs. He is such a proud
+fellow.'
+
+Paul readily acceded to this plan. He told Josephine what he had done,
+and she worked on with a lighter heart. She was thinking of Scheffer.
+How slowly he had grown up into her sight again! Man and woman, if they
+looked at each other now, must it be across a great gulf? What had
+education done for her! Could she thank the teaching that had brought
+her to see in her womanhood something beyond the reach of a man like
+Scheffer? Could she thank the culture that gave her a position for which
+nature and habits like his were all unfit? This maturity seemed
+unnatural to the heart of that remembered childhood, which, in its
+brave, loving generosity, could trust a boy to any work or station,
+feeling that in the workman would be securely lodged himself.
+
+Even more than she suspected, Josephine had been moved by the secret
+Paul had confided to her--of Scheffer's new ambition. No new ambition
+was it, she could testify. In the fulness of time the bud had come to
+flower, and on the same stem fair fruits were ripening.
+
+And now, it was he who would relieve her of the anxiety she felt on
+Cromwell's behalf. She kept these things in her heart.
+
+
+IV.
+
+Cromwell strolled into Scheffer's shop within the week. When Scheffer
+saw him coming, he satisfied himself at a glance that the visit was an
+unsuggested one.
+
+There was only one other person in the world whose appearance within his
+doors could so much disturb the master of the place as Harry Cromwell's.
+That one was Josephine. Let _her_ but come, and it was a day indeed.
+
+But the disturbance created by her presence was very different from that
+excited by the entrance of this student. He, inadvertently, or
+otherwise, and it mattered not which, set Scheffer's heart into such a
+fume of jealousy, as perhaps the heart of philosopher never knew before.
+For, it was generally supposed among those who were interested in the
+affairs transacted on the point of space occupied by these people, that
+Cromwell's ambition was less undefined than that of young men generally.
+In short, that he was already, though alone in the world, burdened in
+mind with family cares--looking upon himself, even then, as the oldest
+son of the widow Mitchell.
+
+He had said frankly, that he could not afford to give so much of his
+life to preparatory study as would be required if he chose any one of
+the professions open to him. He must go to work in some direction where
+the rewards of labor were sooner obtained.
+
+When Cromwell came into the shop, August advanced to wait upon him.
+Cromwell was in a cheerful mood. He stretched his hand across the
+counter, and shook hands with his old acquaintance, as if he were
+thinking of days when the little white house of Daniel Scheffer stood
+between two cottages, occupied respectively by families of equal poverty
+and condition--the Cromwells and the Mitchells.
+
+It wasn't often that they met in these days, he said; and he looked
+about him with a sort of surprise not disagreeable to Scheffer, for
+there was nothing offensive in it. Scheffer was always ready to make
+allowance for the little vanities and weaknesses of others. He was not
+surprised that Cromwell, handsome as he was, and brilliant
+intellectually, as he was proving himself to be, should overlook old
+times and old friends. Present times, and cares, and neighbors, would,
+of course, engage him to the neglect of what was past and gone.
+
+'Prospering as usual!' said Harry, 'How do you manage it, August? for I
+am going to launch out into the world, and I can't expect to succeed
+more suddenly than you have.'
+
+August answered, taking the praise as if it were well meant, and he knew
+it was well earned:
+
+'By sticking to a thing, when I have made up my mind it is best. It's
+the only way I know of, Harry. I thought, from all I had heard, that you
+had found that out.'
+
+'Don't trust report. I've done little yet to satisfy a man; got a few
+prizes; what do you suppose I care for them?'
+
+'You care for what they mean to other folks,' said Scheffer.
+
+'Not much, I assure you. A little praise, like music, is pleasant. But a
+man can't live on sound. Show me your seven-league boots, Scheffer; I'm
+going to take a stroll around the world.'
+
+'What do you mean?' asked Scheffer, without moving.
+
+'I'm going over the ocean.'
+
+'India rubber soles?' asked Scheffer, again speaking in his quietest
+manner, but really feeling great excitement.
+
+Cromwell laughed. 'I suppose they have iron-bound boots, even in Paris;
+but I thought I'd like to take something out of your shop with me;
+something of your own make, if possible. Do you know, Scheffer, you've
+had more to do with me, a vast deal, than you ever supposed? I've had
+the feeling that you were watching me as often as ever I got into lazy
+ways, just as if you stood by that window and searched me out across the
+grounds, no matter where I was lurking. I shall take my time when I am
+well rid of you. But I'll have the boots for a token; and when I am
+tired and sick of my work, as I shall be a hundred times, I'll pretend
+that you put some magic into the soles. Give them to me with a strong
+squeak.'
+
+Cromwell laughed, but he was at least two thirds in earnest.
+
+Still August did not stir. 'Are you really going away?' he asked.
+
+'If I'm a live man, next week.'
+
+'Going to France?'
+
+'To France. To Paris for one year. In five years I shall be home again,
+and I mean to bring with me two or three cabinets of minerals, worth
+thousands of dollars apiece.'
+
+Cromwell's eyes flashed; they fell on Scheffer, who stood silent,
+motionless, a cold shiver running over him from his head to his feet.
+
+'What, then, brave fellow?' asked August. It was well to know the worst,
+and Harry seemed to be in a communicative mood.
+
+'Why, what are _you_ working for?'
+
+'Because I've nothing else to do,' said Scheffer, with a shrug. 'I hate
+to be idle.'
+
+'No; you are making your fortune; you'll have a house and a family some
+day. It's written, a hundred girls would think the chance beyond their
+desert; or they _might_ think so.'
+
+'Yes; well--I don't want a hundred girls.'
+
+'Nor one, I suppose.'
+
+Behind this idle talk the gravest and sharpest scrutiny was bestowed by
+each man on his fellow. Both were thinking of Josephine, but neither
+would name her.
+
+'You're a philosopher, Paul says,' continued Cromwell. 'Paul is always
+talking about you. I don't like to leave that boy; but knowing that you
+are his friend should make me comfortable. Beside, I couldn't do
+anything for the lad, if he stood in need of a ten-penny bit.'
+
+Cromwell laughed, but not in recklessness--in pride.
+
+'How can you afford to travel, then?' asked Scheffer.
+
+'Oh, I shall go as some other good fellows have gone--on foot; for I
+shall work my passage, and get somehow from Havre to Paris.'
+
+'What next?'
+
+'Hard work, you know.'
+
+'Yes; I know what hard work means. But do you? Such hard work as this
+will be?'
+
+'Do you take me for a dunce? Of course I know; and I shall tell you how
+I did it, five years from now.'
+
+Then Scheffer said, not hesitating--for anything like a doubtfulness of
+manner on his part would have defeated his design:
+
+'I want to invest some money, Harry. Take a couple of hundred for me,
+and buy some of the specimens; or find them, if you like that better.
+You shall sell them, when you get back, and pay me a percentage,
+whatever you can afford.'
+
+There was no delay in the answer. It had all the readiness, and the
+sound, of sincerity.
+
+'Sooner from you, August, than from any other man; but not from any man.
+I should feel that I was mortgaged. I must begin my own master, as I
+told Josephine Mitchell. What I bring to her shall be fruit from the
+tree of my own planting.'
+
+August, for a moment, was like a man struck dumb; but when he spoke, he
+was the philosopher again.
+
+'That's all foolishness,' he said, in a gentle voice; but there was no
+tenderness in it: it was but the firmness of self-control that made the
+voice so mild, and the expostulation, so deliberate. 'It's like using an
+old tool, when you have a new invention that would save half the labor.
+You'd laugh at a man for that.'
+
+'Laugh away! But I must go out my own man, Scheffer. You'd do the same
+thing. Don't talk about it. Have you any of those boots I asked for?'
+
+Scheffer found a pair. He named the price. Cromwell paid for them, and
+shook his hand when they separated; for, in the press of business, he
+said, it might be he should not find time to call on his old friend
+again.
+
+The young men did not meet again. But a fortnight after Cromwell sailed,
+Scheffer was called upon to pay a note at the bank; a note that bore his
+own signature, and stated that, for 'value received, I promise to pay to
+the order of Henry Cromwell, four hundred dollars.'
+
+The demand was made in such a manner, and at such a time, as to vex
+Scheffer to the utmost.
+
+Cromwell, it seemed, could not consent to accept a favor at his hands;
+yet he could condescend to make that manner of use of him! He paid the
+sum due on the note, but at the same time was beset by a sore
+temptation.
+
+This was the temptation, and this his resistance: If Harry had gone,
+leaving anywhere, in any woman's heart, a hope in him, should he not
+dispel it? Should he not convince her that it rested on a foundation
+looser than the sand? He did not do so! When Paul spoke now and then of
+Cromwell, and prophesied proudly of him, August took the words as an
+echo of Josephine's thought, and said to himself:
+
+'Oh! well; it makes no difference.'
+
+But, for all that, he kept on with his studies, and sometimes on Sunday
+would walk past the college grounds on Monumental square; for that was
+also walking past the cottage occupied by Josephine.
+
+
+V.
+
+The college, in those days, could have produced no student more
+industrious than August.
+
+He advanced with rapid strides through the elementary books, for he
+chose to begin at the beginning, and he was proud of his progress. But
+he kept his studies secret. He would risk nothing by reporting his own
+progress. No man should honor his future to the prejudice of his past.
+The story of Minerva, born to the prerogatives of wisdom, was more
+attractive to him than that life which '_grew_ in grace, and in favor
+with God and man.'
+
+He had no plans in reference to future studies. His tutor was fairly
+puzzled; for he was not long in discovering that it was not the delight
+of knowledge, but the ends which knowledge may serve, that prompted to
+such industry.
+
+One evening Paul threw himself on one of the red-plush sofas Scheffer
+had transferred to his private apartment. He was in one of those serious
+moods that had become frequent since Cromwell went away; or, rather,
+since he had come into this near relation with a working and prosperous
+man.
+
+'It's easy enough to be poor for one's self,' said the anxious
+youngster; 'but whether one _ought_ to be poor, when money is to be
+honestly made, and at only a trifling risk, though by desperate hard
+work--that's the question.'
+
+'H'm!' said Scheffer.
+
+'Well,' said Paul, irritated by his seeming indifference, 'a fellow is
+in a deuced bad plight, if he has to plead poverty, when he ought to be
+able to help one or two beside himself! I envy you, Scheffer. I envy you
+every time I come here. You can do so much! You could leap all the
+college gates in no time, if you were fool enough to try.'
+
+'I'm not,' said Scheffer. 'I know I can't work with many irons in the
+fire--never could. And I've nothing to complain of. I'm prospering, as
+you say. That's the chief thing, I suppose. Folks seem to think so. I'm
+one of the million; I must do as the rest--build a house, and marry a
+wife some day. But not till I can support her like a lady, I tell you,
+Paul.'
+
+There was the difference of many years between the man and the boy, but
+to no other person was Scheffer in the habit of saying such things.
+
+'I'd like to see Madam Scheffer,' said Paul, with a quiet laugh.
+Scheffer was indulgent toward that mirth; he smiled as he said:
+
+'Be patient, as I am, and you shall see her. There was a Mrs. Scheffer
+once--my mother that was; if there's another like her--I believe there
+is!'
+
+'Can't you draw me her portrait?'
+
+'Perhaps I could, if I cared.'
+
+'But you don't care. Well, I can get it out of Josephine; she remembers
+your mother.'
+
+Paul looked so much like his sister when he named the name of Josephine
+and of his mother in one breath, that Scheffer could not refuse him.
+
+'Medium size,' he said, 'and built to last. Graceful, as any mother
+would have been--if--as she was, in spite of hard work--it was her
+nature, and her nature was a strong one. She has light hair, that curls
+as if it liked to, and her eyes are blue. It is a fair face, Paul, and
+she has a kind smile.'
+
+'But tell me her name; for you need not say it's a fancy sketch.'
+
+'May be not; but that, you see, is my secret.'
+
+There was no such thing, in reality, as intruding further on this
+ground. Still, half embarrassed, Mitchell persisted:
+
+'Where is she, though?'
+
+'Where? I can't tell that.'
+
+'With Cromwell?'
+
+'It may be.'
+
+'Would you trust her with him?'
+
+'Is he not to be trusted?' asked August, so quickly as to startle Paul.
+
+If Paul was to be startled--but he was not. The teller in the bank had
+told him--(Paul was one of those persons with whom acquaintances of
+every quality lodge their secrets)--of the note Scheffer had taken up
+with so little fuss and so much amazement. He saw that August for a
+moment suspected that he knew the facts, but he was not yet prepared to
+confess such knowledge; for he knew as well as Scheffer what Harry
+Cromwell was to Josephine. So he answered:
+
+'I should say so, August--if any man on earth could be.'
+
+'So I supposed,' said Scheffer, quietly; and Paul hurried back to the
+old queer topic, and said, half in jest: 'You mean to keep house,
+Scheffer, I'll be bound.'
+
+Scheffer's dark face brightened; he would share with Paul his pleasant
+dream--the pleasant dream he cherished, though his sober sense denied
+its possibility, and his consistent realism charged upon him the special
+folly of fools.
+
+'Aye,' said he; 'there'll be a library in it--but more select than that
+of the Atheneum you were wishing for! You shall have the freedom of my
+house, lad--I'll not forget how kind you've been to me. I shall have a
+flower garden, and a yard deep enough for shade trees like those--but
+you don't remember the place.'
+
+Scheffer got up and walked away to the window.
+
+'I've not the slightest doubt that you'll do everything you say! I vow I
+wouldn't like to be the man to stand in your way to anything.'
+
+Scheffer came back, and sat on the sofa beside Paul. His voice had an
+almost fatherly tenderness in it when he began to speak, and it took no
+colder tone.
+
+'You were saying something about an improvement you could suggest in
+some of the tools we use. Here they are. What did you mean?' He pulled
+out a box from underneath the sofa.
+
+Paul took the box, and looked over its contents; but it was easy to see
+that he was in search of nothing. He was soon through his investigation,
+and restored the box to its place. Then he looked at Scheffer, and
+laughed.
+
+But Scheffer answered the look by one that seemed to say that he
+expected an explanation; whereupon Paul, now grave enough, stirred by a
+sudden confidence, pulled from his pocket a box much smaller than that
+which held August's tools, and passed it into his friend's hands.
+Scheffer took it, but he did not attempt to loosen the cord that secured
+the cover. Then Paul said:
+
+'You do not really suppose that I am the only idle person in the world.
+I have been at work longer than Josephine, though you might not believe
+it; but what I have done, no one has yet seen. If I had the money,
+Scheffer! I'd--well--look at the thing! I want you should study it, of
+course.'
+
+August, however, was in no haste. He was more desirous to learn the
+meaning of what Paul had said about Josephine. But that could not be
+asked by him; and so he unfastened the cord, opened the box, and beheld
+within a miniature machine, whose meaning no one in the world, Paul
+Mitchell excepted, could explain. That was Paul's thought of pride.
+
+'That's _my_ secret,' said he. 'That's my beauty! and I'd build a house
+for it, if I had the money, to be sure, as you are going to do for
+yours. How do you like it?'
+
+'Explain; then I can tell you.' It was still the father-voice that
+spoke; but the tone was that of a man whose son has forestalled hope,
+and justified the most vague of ambitious wishes.
+
+'That, Scheffer, is a contrivance for printing. Will you please to
+examine it? It's to be used henceforth, for all time, understand! by
+bankers in their banks, and by all men of great business. See--'
+
+He arose, and brought near to the sofa a small table, on which he placed
+the machine. Then he set it in motion. 'For numbering notes, and so on.
+Does it work, August?'
+
+Scheffer, though admiring and amazed, said not a word, but sat down
+before the machine, and studied it in every part.
+
+His judgment was satisfied when at last he gave it.
+
+'It's worth money to you, Mitchell.'
+
+'Do you believe it, Scheffer? Worth money. Oh, my goodness!'
+
+'Paul, you expected that.'
+
+'I knew it; but to hear you say so, makes me feel like a man. Then I
+shall do for my mother what you did for yours, and get Josephine out of
+that school-teaching freak of hers. She has actually gone and done it,
+Scheffer.... Worth money, eh? Then I shall do some things as well as
+others, Mr. Scheffer.'
+
+Scheffer smiled. He understood this exultation too well not to share it
+and to be deeply moved by it.
+
+'I suppose so,' said he. 'I always believed in you.'
+
+'Well, then, look here.'
+
+Paul's voice broke; he looked on the floor, and was a long time in
+producing the second box. When he had fairly drawn it forth, he gave a
+sudden and wonderful look at Scheffer, that penetrated like fire to the
+heart of the man.
+
+'There,' said he, 'that's my pet. That's the Rachel of this Jacob. Look
+close, and see what you'll do with it, supposing you turn lockpick some
+day.'
+
+It was a veritable lock. He drew out a chain of keys, a hundred of
+them.
+
+'Now,' said he, in a low voice, 'you may ransack the town, as I've done,
+and get all your keys together. I want to see if you can find one, or
+contrive one with any locksmith's help, that will fit into that lock.
+I'll give you a month to try it. I'd give another man six. But you'll do
+the work of six in a sixth of the time. It's a lock on a new principle,
+and the principle is mine, because I applied it first. Eh? Hang it! If I
+had the money I wouldn't be so beggarly poor as I am. But I've had to
+beg and borrow, and almost steal, to get these things, that were in my
+brain, into a decent shape, as you see them. When I get started,
+Scheffer, you shall inspect all my inventions.'
+
+'Then you are started,' said August. 'Don't say that again, I'd mortgage
+my stock but you should have what you need to help you. Have you any
+tools to work with, my son?'
+
+'Oh, yes; that is, my neighbor has. He keeps a carpenter's shop, you
+know. I'm a capital hand at borrowing.'
+
+'Have you got a room at home where you can work?'
+
+'Acres of room! You've seen the house.'
+
+'I've walked past it sometimes,' answered Scheffer, with a smile.
+
+'Well, it isn't such a mite of a place as you'd think. There's room
+enough.'
+
+'It looks pretty and snug. I have often admired those flower beds; the
+place don't look much like others in the same row: one might know that.
+Paul, I've seen the time when I'd thought the man who offered me help
+was an angel. I'm older than you are. Of course you must experiment, and
+where's the merit of carrying plans about in your head a dozen years,
+waiting a chance to prove whether they're worth anything or not? Tell me
+now, do you want any money?'
+
+'No,' Paul answered quickly, yet with inward hesitation. 'I'll come to
+you, though,' he added, 'when I do. I'll let you know the very day. But
+I I have something to study out yet. I'm going to get patents, you
+know.'
+
+
+VI.
+
+Paul returned home, and in a musing mood seated himself under the
+grapevine that grew on the brick wall in the rear of the cottage, the
+sole ornament and pride of the narrow yard. He may have been here an
+hour, when he heard strange noises in the house, then a heavy closing of
+the street door, and the voice of Josephine calling him. In the lobby
+stood an open iron-bound chest. A glance at the box explained it to
+Paul; but he said nothing--not a word--in explanation to Josephine or
+his mother, who stood expressing surprise and wonder, while he found the
+key and opened the heavy lid. They saw it was a tool chest.
+
+Paul was the first to speak; for when he exhibited the contents, a
+deeper silence seemed to fall upon the women.
+
+'It's no mistake,' he said to his mother. 'This belongs to August
+Scheffer. He has lent it to me. Isn't it kind of him? For I told him I
+had to borrow when I worked.'
+
+'No,' said Paul's mother. 'It's anything but kind. You could waste time
+enough in such doings, Paul, without getting a tempter into the house.
+What do you want of tools? Do you get along with your books so fast you
+don't know what to do with your time? August Scheffer is just like his
+father, he never, as long as he lived, found out the use of money; if he
+had, his wife wouldn't have been left a beggar.'
+
+'And August would never have been himself,' said Paul. 'That would have
+been a pity.'
+
+'No,' said Josephine; 'he would always have been himself.'
+
+'Don't talk like a simpleton, child. You are old enough to see that
+August might have been a very different man from what he is, if his
+father before him hadn't always this same ridiculous way of throwing the
+money he earned about like dust.'
+
+'Well, mother--' began Paul: he hesitated, but a glance at Josephine
+decided him. 'I can tell you that if Harry Cromwell comes to any good,
+you and every one else will have to thank Scheffer for it.'
+
+Josephine looked at Paul with serious, curious interest; but he saw that
+she was not greatly excited by what he had said. He looked at his
+mother, and resolved to say no more. And by that resolution he would
+have held, but for his mother's words.
+
+'We shall never hear the end of that,' said she. 'Scheffer's father
+signed for Oliver Cromwell; but what of that? he lost his money. Better
+men have done as much for worse; but I don't know that it deserved to be
+talked of to all generations.'
+
+'It was a generous act,' said Paul. 'But August has beat his father at
+that, I can tell you, if you want to hear.'
+
+'Some slander, I suppose,' said the mother. 'I suppose every young man
+within fifty miles is jealous of Harry; it's well he has gone far enough
+to get rid of it all.'
+
+'Well, mother, keep your good opinion of him. It isn't from Scheffer I
+heard it. You don't want to know what a noble fellow he is;' and he
+wound up with August's frequent saying, 'it makes no difference.'
+
+'I want to hear what you are going to do with this box, though,' said
+Mrs. Mitchell. 'There's not a room in the house big enough to hold it.'
+
+Paul plead for a corner of his own room; a startling proposal, indeed,
+for those who heard it, the 'room' being hardly an apology for a closet.
+He pleads well, however, for he carried the point, and space was in some
+way provided; and Mrs. Mitchell, who had hopes of a future for her
+children that should throw a glory round their unfolding and her closing
+years, heard the boy say, with, some sort of faith: 'Oh, mother, you
+don't know yet what a genius you've got in your boy;' and when she left
+him he was still laughing over the boast. But Josephine saw that as he
+stooped over the chest there were tears in his eyes.
+
+For that reason she did not leave him to rejoice alone over his
+treasure. And for the reason that she did not leave him, he said to her,
+observing with what interest she took up one bright tool after another
+from its place:
+
+'Scheffer has bought this box for me. You see, don't you, the tools were
+never used before? Not one of them.'
+
+'Yes,' said Josephine, 'that's easy to be seen.'
+
+'I must keep them and use them, I suppose!'
+
+'You intend to do it, Paul. Are you trying to deceive me? Do you suppose
+I don't know that of course he had a reason for sending them to you!
+People are not in the habit of sending such things to boys who don't
+know how to use them.'
+
+'But, Josephine, I shall pay him for them.'
+
+'Yes, or else I shall, Paul. But let him enjoy the gift; for I know how
+it pleased him to send it.'
+
+'And I won't serve him as another fellow did, too proud to accept a
+favor of him till he should get beyond sight and sound, so stingy of his
+thanks. That's what your Cromwell did! I hate the hateful fellow.'
+
+'My Cromwell? Did he that?' But Josephine neither swooned, nor cried,
+nor blushed; was not overwhelmed with shame, nor indignation, nor
+distress. Some such exhibition, that should be as a confession, Paul had
+looked for, trembling, when the daring deed was done, of exposing a
+lover's baseness to the woman he loved.
+
+'Yes,' said Paul, cooled somewhat by his sister's calmness. 'I knew I
+ought to let you know. But I thought I never could. He wouldn't take the
+money August offered him, but he got it from the bank, on a forged
+note.'
+
+'Paul!' exclaimed Josephine. The lad looked again at his sister; but he
+now saw through her horrified surprise; there was really no danger in
+continuing this revelation; elated, he went on:
+
+'Forged and paid! so the young fellow told me. That's not Scheffer,
+understand. _He_ don't know that I have got wind of it; he thinks it is
+safe with him; and you never would have known anything but for me!
+August thinks too much of you, I've found that out, to tell you, or me
+either, that Cromwell is a scamp.'
+
+'What have I to do with all this, Paul?' asked his sister, with a
+well-assumed indifference. She had time now to consider whether she had
+not betrayed too much interest in the affairs of these young men, the
+scientific forger and the man of trade.
+
+'Why,' answered Paul, with no less composure, inwardly rejoicing in what
+he considered his triumph, 'you have to make the best of it, I
+suppose--satisfy mother--marry Cromwell when he comes back, rich as
+Croesus, with ship-loads of treasure. That's what the handsome girls are
+for, to marry off to rich men, isn't it?'
+
+Paul had had his say, but that was his only consolation. Whatever answer
+Josephine might have made was prevented by the voice of her mother
+calling from the foot of the stairs. Yet he chose to consider that
+sufficient confession, in regard to some of his suspicions, was given in
+her words as she went down; though what she said was merely,
+
+'Paul, if you don't join the detectives, you'll fail of your mission.'
+
+
+VII.
+
+Scheffer's uniform good luck took a sudden turn one day. The fine row of
+buildings that faced the college grounds took fire one morning, and his
+shop was burned with the rest. He saved but little of his stock, and it
+was but recently that he had greatly added to it. His loss was a severe
+one.
+
+Toward nightfall of that day, Paul looked for Scheffer, and found him in
+a room to which he had removed the remnants of his goods. He was alone
+there, and trying to come to an understanding with himself, singing
+meanwhile, but, it must be said, in not the most straightforward and
+perfectly musical manner.
+
+Paul came expressly deputed by his mother to bring Scheffer home to tea
+with him. The news of his disaster had set August before her in a
+different light from that in which he had stood in the days of his
+vulgar prosperity. Calamity restored him to his place again--the son of
+an old neighbor, the son of a good woman--one of the heirs of
+misfortune: and who might not have expected this event, that knew in
+August's veins the Scheffer blood was flowing? Yes; the mother of
+Josephine was this day disposed to compassion, helped, may be, to that
+gentleness by the letter she had recently received from Cromwell, in
+which he detailed his successes in a manner that made the heart of the
+prophetess to rejoice.
+
+Scheffer hesitated for a moment, only one, over that invitation. But he
+did hesitate. And Paul, the lynx-eyed, saw it. Scheffer might invent
+whatever excuse seemed best to his own kindliness of heart: Paul was
+convinced that his friend felt no confidence in the impulse that had
+obtained for him an open door in the house that he had seen, in spite of
+Josephine's friendliness, was closed on him all these years.
+
+Paul did not urge the invitation. Instead, he produced a purse--sole
+purse of the house of Mitchell, that had not, in a generation, held as
+many bank notes as this now contained. He put this purse into Scheffer's
+hands, and said, moving back from him a pace:
+
+'That is yours. I knew you fibbed about the tool chest. You had no use
+for it. So we have bought it. Look if I have counted the money right. I
+knew you would never tell me the truth about the cost, so I've been to
+the maker, and asked him a civil question. No dodging, Mr. Scheffer.'
+
+Mr. Scheffer did not 'dodge.' He emptied the purse, counted the bills,
+put them into his own leather pocket-book; then he handed the purse to
+Paul.
+
+Paul did not expect this. It was plain that he did not. He thought that
+Scheffer would have 'stood' against receiving the payment for his gift.
+He had said so to Josephine; but Josephine had replied, 'You are
+mistaken, Paul. You don't know him, after all. But, if you _are_ right,
+insist on his taking the money. Do not go too far, however. If he should
+seem to be offended, bring it back to me, and I will attend to it.'
+
+_Was_ he offended? Paul was in doubt. The doubt made him desperate, and
+he exclaimed:
+
+'I meant that for a present. Josephine worked it.'
+
+Scheffer's eye fell on the light and pretty trifle; a change came over
+him. He would have struggled hard and long before he would have
+surrendered that little tissue of floss, but now less than vanity to
+him. 'Josephine worked it.' What are words?
+
+'I suppose,' he began; but he did not conclude what he had on his
+tongue; he did _not_ say to Paul that he supposed it was Josephine's
+money too--her earnings--that paid for the chest.
+
+There came an awkward silence into the confused and dismal room.
+Scheffer stood among his ruins, not like a ruined man: he could not
+talk, however. He could say nothing whatever in continuance, about the
+fire. It was never his habit to boast; as little his practice to lament.
+
+'Paul,' he said at last, resuming his dismal endeavor to arrange and
+assort the chaotic remnant of his goods, 'I got your box under weigh
+last night. There's a friend of mine going to see it; and you needn't be
+worrying on account of this--this fire; for I shall have money enough to
+push your business pretty soon; and there are two good fellows standing
+ready to buy your rights to the patent in this State, on your own terms,
+I guess, if you are tolerably reasonable. You can have five thousand
+dollars, if you will be easy with them about the payments. They are as
+safe as the best in town. I settled all that last night. All you have to
+do is to come to an agreement.'
+
+Paul's heart beat as fast as any young man's heart beats when the result
+of secret toil, of wakeful nights, and patient endurance of home
+misconception, is before him in the form of honorable success. But
+instead of thanks, these words escaped him in a tumult:
+
+'Scheffer, have you heard the news from Cromwell?'
+
+Scheffer considered ere he answered; he was puzzled, looking at Paul,
+such a contradiction and confusion of signs he read in the lad's face.
+
+'I heard that your family had great tidings from him,' he answered
+finally.
+
+'He is dead!'
+
+'Poor Josephine!'
+
+What was it that brought so low the head of the man who had stood all
+day bravely erect, enduring the condolence of people, sustaining himself
+in the shock of integrity? Scheffer sat down when he heard this news,
+and wept.
+
+And Paul wept with him. There, in that chamber of ruins, they deplored
+the loss of the proud, ambitious, brilliant, and dishonest wordling, who
+had long ago gone out of _their_ world with a lie on his soul.
+
+Then Paul produced the foreign letter he had brought with him from the
+mail, as he came in his search for Scheffer. The letter he read aloud.
+It was written by one of Harry's fellow students, his companion in that
+notable journey Cromwell made to the Ural, and the Zavods of Siberia. He
+had returned to Paris, and thence had written of his various successes
+to his friends: they knew it was his purpose to sail at once for
+Alexandria. His preparations, wrote this correspondent, were complete;
+but, on the day when the vessel sailed, he died--sickened and died in
+one morning; his disease was of the heart.
+
+'Poor Josephine!' groaned August again; this time his pity had comment.
+
+'It's awful!' said Paul. 'Josephine cried when she heard of your
+misfortune. She won't do more when she sees this letter.' Paul was
+entirely reckless of consequences. He was determined Scheffer's fire
+should serve a private purpose of illumination, 'It is so rare a thing,
+her crying,' he continued, 'I should have thought the fire would have
+been put out by it.'
+
+Scheffer's tears ceased falling. But he spoke in a low voice, somewhat
+broken, too:
+
+'It's enough to wipe out _my_ regrets. If she cared that much, I don't
+consider it a misfortune. Tell her so, Paul.'
+
+'I will, after you have told her yourself, Scheffer,' said Paul. Then
+casting all their fortunes on a word, speaking hurriedly, impetuously,
+driven on by admiration and gratitude toward Scheffer, and a
+determination to end all misunderstandings at once and forever, he
+continued: 'I found it all out, myself, without prying. The young fellow
+in the bank told me. I knew that you never would. It made me love you,
+that did. I told Josephine, but not till I thought I might safely. He
+didn't get that money from the bank till Josephine had told him she
+could not promise herself to him before he went away. Poor fellow! It
+made him mad, I think.'
+
+'Paul,' said Scheffer, with reproof, and yet the mildest, in his voice,
+'he is dead. That was an ugly twist, but it wasn't his nature to grow in
+a crooked fashion. Harry will come out straight yet. He is in better
+circumstances now than ever before. I could forgive a man for worse
+things than he had the wit to do, if he loved Josephine.'
+
+'There! I'm glad we are back on that ground! I hate mysteries,'
+exclaimed Paul.
+
+'Except in locks,' said Scheffer.
+
+'Why _wouldn't_ she promise Harry? It is what mother expected. And I was
+fool enough to wonder. You are wiser than we; so tell me, Scheffer, did
+anything ever happen in old times that binds her yet? Do you suppose she
+ever loved a lad when she was a child?'
+
+'I know she did,' said Scheffer, looking not away from Paul, neither
+busying himself any longer with the endeavor to bring order out of
+chaos. 'I know she did.'
+
+Then Paul laughed again, as he had not laughed in many a day; but it was
+laughter that did not jar the silence of the room--such laughter as
+formed a fit prelude for words like these:
+
+'Find out if the lad is alive yet. There is a piece of business worthy
+of Scheffer himself! I'm tired of hunting out secrets. Promise me,
+August--promise before you leave this room--before you breathe again.'
+
+Scheffer did.
+
+Mrs. Mitchell waited tea that evening for at least an hour. Josephine
+was sure that if August could be found, Paul would bring him home. At
+last they came. Home at last! The darkness might besiege the house, it
+could not enter the hearts there; rain might fall on Scheffer's ruins,
+it could not prevent the rising of the Phoenix. Not recognized
+altogether as the household's eldest son, he stood under the roof of the
+little house on Cottage Row. But enough! he was satisfied: he saw two
+women smiling on him--one from her heart. And from the circle that night
+Paul, triumphant and joyful, excluded the vision of death.
+
+
+
+
+LAS ORACIONES.
+
+  I moved among the moving multitude
+  In old Manila, when the afternoon
+  Releases labor, and the scorching skies
+  Are tempered with the coming on of night.
+  Above the 'ever loyal city,' rose
+  The surging sound of unloosed tongues and feet,
+  As the encompassed town and suburbs vast,
+  The boated river and the sentinelled bridge
+  Swarmed, parti-colored, with the populace.
+  The sovereign sun, that through the toilsome day
+  No eye had seen for brightness, now subdued,
+  Stepping, like Holy Pontiff, from his throne,
+  Neared to the people, and, with level rays,
+  As hands outstretching, benedictions shed.
+  Full the effulgence flashed upon the walls
+  Which girt the city with a strength renowned,
+  Rimming them with new glory: bright it gleamed
+  Upon the swarthy soldiery, as they filed
+  A dazzling phalanx through the gaping crowd
+  With martial intonation, and it played
+  Softly upon the evening-breathing throng
+  On the Calsada's broad and dashing drive,
+  On gay, armorial equipage, wherein
+  Dozed dowagers: on unbonneted dames
+  In open chariots, toying daintily
+  With dark hidalgos, as they sipped the scene
+  In languishing contentment, and between
+  Responsive glances, showing hidden fire,
+  With fluent breath of Spanish repartee.
+  There lounged senoras, fat officials' wives,
+  From their soft cushions casting cool disdain
+  On the mestiza, who, in hired hack,
+  Blooming in beauty of commingled blood,
+  And robed in slippery tissue, rainbow-bright,
+  Sat, in her sandal-footed grace, a queen
+  Among her fellows, they who yesterday
+  Whirled her lithe figure in the tireless dance,
+  And now, with airy compliment, kept bright
+  The flame she yet may quench in wedlock dull.
+  Thus rolled the wealthy in their liveried ease,
+  'Mid walking peasantry and pale Chinese,
+  And curious-shirted Creole; while, tight swathed
+  Up to their shrivelled features, mummy like,
+  The Indian women filled the motley scene.
+  Meanwhile, the sovereign sun had crowned the palms
+  Standing in stately clusters; and from thence
+  Scaled the high walls and climbed the citadel,
+  Pouring a parting radiance on the tower
+  Of San Sebastian: mounting to its goal,
+  It swept the public dial plate and lay,
+  E'en in the face of stern recording time
+  Smiling significance; thence slowly crept
+  Up to the turret, blazing, momently,
+  Thence reached the dizzy ball; and, last of all,
+  Kissed with its dying lips the sacred cross.
+
+  Then pealed the solemn vesper bell to prayer,
+  And suddenly--completely--with a hush,
+  As if a god-like voice had stricken it dead,
+  Stood still the city!
+
+                           Motionless the life
+  That but an instant off stirred the warm air
+  With murmurs multifarious, and the waves
+  Of great humanity, sunk silenced there,
+  With stillness so supreme, that pulses beat
+  More quickly from the contrast, and the soul
+  Hearkened to listen, humbled and subdued
+  As when the Saviour uttered 'Peace, be still.'
+  The tardy laborer, walled within the town,
+  Brought the uplifted hammer noiseless down,
+  And stood in meek confession, tool in hand.
+  The mother hushed the baby lullaby,
+  And o'er her sleeping innocence exhaled
+  Voiceless thanksgiving. Children ceased to play,
+  Feeling an awe they comprehended not,
+  And stood, unconscious of their beauty's pose,
+  As those Murillo's pencil glorifies.
+  Upon the airy esplanade the steed
+  No longer pawed the air in wantonness,
+  But, like his compeer of the fabled song,
+  Stood statued with his rider, while below
+  The beggar ceased his cry importunate,
+  And to a Higher Almoner than man
+  Sent up a dumb appeal. In folly's court
+  The laugh was hushed, and the half-uttered jest
+  Fell witless into air, and burning thought
+  Cooled, as it flowed, unmoulded into speech.
+  As throbbed the distant bell with serious pause,--
+  Standing bareheaded in the dewless air,
+  Or prostrate in their penitence to earth,
+  Or bending with veiled lids,--the people prayed.
+  Then was that moment, in its muteness, worth
+  The laboring day that bore it, for all sense
+  Seemed filtered of its grossness; what was earth
+  Sunk settling with the dust to earth again,
+  As through the calm, pure atmosphere, arose
+  One mingling meditation unto Heaven.
+  Oh, beautiful is silence, when it falls
+  On housed assemblies bowed in voiceless prayer:
+  But when it lays its finger on the heart
+  Of a great city, stilling all the wheels
+  Of life's employment, that to Heaven may turn
+  Its many thousand reverend breathing souls
+  With gesture simultaneous; when proud man
+  Like multitudinous marble, moveless stands
+  With God communing, then does silence seem,
+  In its unworded eloquence, sublime.
+  Therein, doth Romish worship point rebuke
+  To him who doth ignore it, for therein
+  It rises to a majesty of praise
+  O'erspanning huge cathedrals, for it makes
+  The censer, candle, rosary, and book
+  But senseless mockeries.
+
+                                So sunk the sun
+  Till on its amber throne, like drapery doffed,
+  Lay piled th' imperial purple. Then the stir
+  Of an awakened world swept through the crowd,
+  As forest leaves are wind-swept after lulls,
+  And, with the sense of a renewing joy,
+  The murmurous people turned them to their homes.
+
+  MANILA, 1856.
+
+
+
+
+MY MARYLAND!
+
+
+THE SEPTEMBER RAID.
+
+  They took thy boots, they took thy coats,
+              My Maryland!
+  And paid for them in 'Confed' notes,
+              My Maryland!
+  They gobbled down thy corn like goats,
+  And rooted up thy truck like shoats,
+  But then--they didn't get thy votes
+              Or volunteers--my Maryland!
+
+
+
+
+A MERCHANT'S STORY.
+
+  'All of which I saw, and part of which I was.'
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+On the cleared plot in front of the store were assembled, as I have
+said, about a hundred men, women, and children, witnessing a 'turkey
+match.' It was a motley gathering. All classes and colors and ages were
+there. The young gentleman who boasted his hundred darkies, and the
+small planter who worked in the field with his five negroes; the 'poor
+trash' who scratched a bare subsistence from a sorry patch of beans and
+'collards,' and the swearing, staggering bully who did not condescend to
+do anything; the young child that could scarcely walk alone, and the old
+man who could hardly stand upright; the brawny field hand who had toiled
+over night to finish his task in time for 'de shootin;' and the
+well-dressed body servant who had roused 'young massa oncommon airly'
+for the same purpose; all, white, black, and yellow--and some neither
+white, black, nor yellow--were there; scattered over various parts of
+the ground, engaged in lounging, playing, drinking, smoking, chewing,
+chatting, swearing, wrangling, and looking on at the turkey match.
+
+A live turkey was fastened to an ordinary bean pole, in a remote quarter
+of the ground, and when I emerged from the cabin, seven or eight
+'natives' had entered for 'a shot.' The payment of a 'bit,' 'cash down,'
+to Tom, who officiated as master of ceremonies, secured a chance of
+hitting the turkey's head with a rifle bullet at 'long distance.' Any
+other 'hit' was considered 'foul,' and passed for nothing. Whoever shot
+the mark took the prize, and was expected to 'treat the crowd.' As 'the
+crowd' seemed a thirsty one, it struck me that turkey would prove
+expensive eating to the fortunate shots; but they were oblivious to
+expense, and in a state of mind that unfitted them for close financial
+calculations.
+
+Nearly every marksman present had 'carried off his poultry,' and Tom had
+already reaped a harvest of dimes from the whiskey drinking. 'Why, bless
+ye,' he said to me, 'I should be broke, clean done up, if it warn't fur
+the drinks; I haint got more'n a bit, or three fips, fur nary a fowl;
+the fust shot allers brings down the bird; they're all cocksure on the
+trigger--ary man on 'em kin hit a turkey's eye at a hundred paces.' This
+was true; and in such schools were trained the unerring marksmen who are
+now 'bringing down' the bravest youth of our country, like fowls at a
+turkey match.
+
+A disturbance had broken out on a remote part of the ground, and,
+noticing about twenty negro men and women seated on a log near by, I
+went in that direction, in hopes of meeting the negro trader. It was a
+dog fight. Inside an imaginary ring about ten feet in diameter, two dogs
+were clenched in what seemed a life-and-death struggle. One was holding
+the other down by the lower jaw, while a man, evidently the owner of the
+half-vanquished brute, was trying to separate them. Outside this ring
+about twenty other brutes--men, women, and children--were cheering the
+combatants, and calling on the meddler to desist. It was strange how the
+peacemaker managed to stand up against the volleys of oaths they
+showered on him; he did, however, and persisted in his laudable efforts,
+till a tall, rawboned, heavy-jawed fellow stepped into the ring, and,
+taking him by the collar, pulled him away, saying: 'Let 'em be--it's a
+fair fight; d---- yer pictur--let 'em alone.'
+
+'Take thet! you whelp,' said the other, planting a heavy blow between
+the intruder's eyes. Blow followed blow; they clenched; went down; rose
+up; fought on--at one end of the ring the canines, at the other the
+humans; while the rest looked on, shouting, 'Let 'er rip! Go in, Wade!
+Hit 'im agin! Smash his mug! Pluck the grizzly! Hurrah fur Smith! Drown
+his peepers! Never say die! Go in agin!' till the blood flowed, and dogs
+and men rolled over on the ground together.
+
+Disgusted with this exhibition of nineteenth-century civilization, I
+turned and walked away. As I did so, I noticed, following me at a short
+distance, a well-dressed man of about thirty-five. He wore a slouched
+hat, a gray coat and lower garments, and enormous high-top boots, to one
+of which was affixed a brass spur. Over his shoulder, holding the two
+ends in his hands, he carried a strong, flexible whip, silver mounted,
+and polished like patent leather. He was about six feet high, stoutly
+built, with a heavy, inexpressive face, and a clear, sharp gray eye. One
+glance satisfied me that he was the negro trader.
+
+As he approached he held out his hand in a free, hearty way, saying:
+'Cunnel, good evenin'.'
+
+'Good evenin',' I replied, intentionally adopting his accent; 'but yer
+wrong, stranger; I'm nary cunnel.'
+
+'Well, Major, then?'
+
+'No, Gin'ral; not even a sargint.'
+
+'Then ye're _Squire_----,' and he hesitated for me to fill up the blank.
+
+'No; not even Squire----,' I added, laughing. 'I've nary title; I'm
+plain _Mister_ Kirke; nothin' else.'
+
+'Well, _Mister_ Kirke, ye're the fust man I've met in the hull Suthern
+country who wus jest nobody at all; and drot me ef I doan't like ye
+for't. Ev'ry d----d little upstart, now-a-days, has a handle ter his
+name--they all b'long ter the nobility, ha! ha!' and he again brought
+his hand down upon mine with a concussion that made the woods ring.
+
+'Come,' he added; 'let's take a drink.'
+
+'Glad ter drink with ye, stranger; but I karn't go Tom's sperrets--it's
+hard ter take.'
+
+'That's a fact, but I keeps the raal stuff. That's the pizen fur ye;' he
+replied, holding up a small willow flask, and starting toward the bar.
+Entering a cloud of tobacco smoke, and groping our way over groups of
+drunken chivalry, who lay 'loosely around,' we approached the counter.
+
+'Har, you lousy sorrel-top,' said the trader to the red-faced and
+red-headed bar tender; 'har, give us some mugs.'
+
+'Sorrel-top' placed two glasses on the counter, and my new acquaintance
+proceeded to rinse them thoroughly. They were of a clear grass-green
+color, and holding one up to the light, the trader said: 'Now luk a'
+them. Them's 'bout as green as the fellers that drink out on 'em--a
+man's stumac's got ter be of cast iron ter stand the stuff they sell
+har.'
+
+'It's better'n you kin 'ford ter drink,' exclaimed the bar tender, in
+high dudgeon.
+
+'Who spoke ter ye--take thet!' rejoined the trader, discharging the
+contents of the glass full in the man's face. The sorrel-crowned worthy
+bore the indignity silently, evidently deeming discretion the better
+part of valor.
+
+'Buy'n ony nigs, Kirke?' said the trader, inserting his arm in mine, and
+leading me away from the shanty: 'I've got a prime lot--_prime_;' and he
+smacked his lips together at the last word, in the manner that is common
+to professional liquor tasters. He scented a trade afar off, and his
+organs of taste, sympathizing with his olfactories, gave out that token
+of satisfaction.
+
+'Well, I doan't know. What ye got?'
+
+'Some o' the likeliest property ye ever seed--men and wimmin. All bought
+round har; haint ben ter Virginny yit. Come 'long, I'll show ye;' and he
+proceeded toward the group of chattels. He was becoming altogether too
+familiar, but I called to mind a favorite maxim of good old Mr.
+Russell--_Necessitus non arbit legum_--and quietly submitted.
+
+The negroes were seated on a fallen pine, in a remote quarter of the
+ground, and were chained together by the wrists, in gangs of four or
+five, the outside one having one hand secured by a cord bound about the
+waist. The men wore woollen hats, and the women neat Madras turbans, and
+both had thick linsey clothing, warm enough for any weather. Their dusky
+faces were sleek and oily, and their kinky locks combed as straight as
+nature would permit. The trader had 'rigged them up,' as a jockey 'rigs
+up' his horses for market.
+
+Pausing before a brawny specimen of the yellow species, he said: 'Thar,
+Kirke, luk o' thar; thar's a boy fur ye--a nig thet kin work--'tend ten
+thousand boxes (turpentine) easy. He's the sort. Prime stuff
+_thet_--(feeling of his arms and thighs)--hard--hard as rock--siners
+like rope. Come o' good stock, he did--the old Devereaux blood--(a
+highly respectable family in those parts)--they's the raal quality--none
+on yer shams or mushrooms; but genuwine 'stockracy--blamed if they
+haint. What d'ye say ter him?'
+
+'Well, he moight do, p'raps--but I rather reckon ye've done him up sum;
+'iled his face, greased his wool, and sech like. It's all right, ye
+know--onything's far in trade; but ye karn't come it over me, ole
+feller. I'm up ter sech doin's. I _am_, Mr.----,' and I paused for him
+to finish the sentence.
+
+'Larkin,' he added quickly and good-humoredly; 'Jake Larkin, and yours,
+by----,' and he gave my hand another shake. 'Yer one on 'em, I swar, and
+I own up; I _hev_ 'iled em' a trifle--jest a trifle; but ye kin see
+through thet; we hev ter do it ter fix the green 'uns, ye knows.'
+
+'Yes, I knows--'iled 'em inside and out, haint ye?'
+
+'No, on my soul--only one glass ter day--true as preachin'.'
+
+'Boy,' I said to the yellow man, 'how much whiskey hev ye drunk ter day?
+Now, tell the truth.'
+
+'Nary drop, massa; hed a moufful o' _sperrets_--a berry little
+moufful--dat's all.'
+
+'Taint 'nough, Larkin! Come, now, doan't be mean with nigs. Give 'em sum
+more--sum o' thet tall brandy o' your'n; a good swig. They karn't stand
+it out har in the cold without a little warmin' up.'
+
+'Well, I'm blamed ef I won't. Har, you, Jim,' speaking to a well-dressed
+darky standing near. 'Har, go ter thet red-headed woodpecker, thar at
+the cabin, and tell him I'll smash his peepers if he doan't send me sum
+glasses ter onst--d'ye har? Go.'
+
+The gentlemanly darky went, and soon returned with the glassware; and
+meanwhile Larkin directed another well-clad negro man to 'bring the
+jugs.' They were strung across the back of a horse which was tied near,
+and, uncorking one of them, the trader said: 'I allers carry my own
+pizen. 'Taint right to give even nigs sech hell-fire as they sell round
+har; it git's a feller's stumac used ter tophet 'fore the rest on him is
+'climated.'
+
+'Well, it does,' I replied; 'it's the devil's own warming pan.'
+
+Each negro received a fair quantity of the needed beverage, and seemed
+the better for it. A little brandy, 'for the stomach's sake,' is enjoyed
+by those dusky denizens of the low latitudes.
+
+When they were all supplied, the trader said to me: 'Now, what d'ye say,
+Kirke? What'll ye give fur the boy?'
+
+'Well, I reckon I doan't want no boys jest now; and I doan't know as I
+wants ary 'ooman nother; but if ye've got a right likely gal--one
+thet'll sew, and nuss good--I moight buy her fur a friend o' mine. His
+wife's hed twins, and he moight use her ter look arter the young 'uns.'
+
+'Young or old?'
+
+'Young and sprightly.'
+
+'They is high, ye knows--but thar's a gal that'll suit. Git up gals;'
+and a row of five women rose: 'No; git up thar, whar we kin see ye.'
+They stepped up on the log. 'Now, thar's a gal fur ye,' he continued,
+pointing to a clean, tidy mulatto woman, not more than nineteen, with a
+handsome but meek, sorrow-marked face: 'Luk at thet!' and he threw up
+her dress to her knees, while the poor girl reached down her shackled
+hands in the vain effort to prevent the indignity. He was about to show
+off other good points, when I said: 'Never mind--I see what she is. Let
+'em git down.'
+
+They resumed their seats, and he continued: 'Thet's jest the gal ye
+wants, Kirke--good at nussin', wet or dry; good at breedin', too; hed
+two young 'uns, a'ready. Ye kin * * * * *' [The rest of this discourse
+will not bear repeating.]
+
+'No, thank you.'
+
+'Well, jest as ye say. She's sound, though; sold fur no fault. Har young
+massa's ben a-usin' on har--young 'uns are his'n. Old man got pious;
+couldn't stand sech doin's no how--ter home--so he says ter me, 'Jake,
+says he, take har ter Orleans--she's jest the sort--ye'll make money
+sellin' har ter some o' them young bloods. Ha! ha! thet's religion for
+ye! I doan't know, Kirke, mebbe ye b'long ter the church, and p'raps yer
+one o' the screamin' sort; but any how, I say, d---- sech religion as
+thet. Jake Larkin's a spec'lator, but he wouldn't do a thing like
+thet--ef he would, d---- him.'
+
+[The dealer in negroes never applies the term 'trader' to himself; he
+prefers the softer word, 'speculator.' The phrase 'negro trader' is used
+only by the rest of the community, who are 'holier than he.']
+
+'I doan't b'lieve ye would, Larkin; yer a good fellow, at bottom, I
+reckon.'
+
+'Well, Kirke, yer a trump. Come, hev another drink.'
+
+'No; excuse me; karn't stand more'n one horn a day: another'd lay me out
+flatter'n a stewpan. But ter business. How much fur thet gal--cash down?
+Come, talk it out.'
+
+'Well, at a word--twelve hun'red.'
+
+'Too much; bigger'n my pile; couldn't put so much inter one gal, nohow.
+Wouldn't give thet money fur ary nig in Car'lina.'
+
+'Oh, buy me, good massa. Mister Larkin'll take less'n dat, I reckon;
+_do_ buy me,' said the girl, who had been eying me very closely during
+the preceding dialogue.
+
+'I would, my good girl, if I could; but you'll not exactly suit my
+friend.'
+
+'Buy har fur yourself, then, Kirke. She'd suit you. She's sound, I tell
+ye--ye'd make money on har.'
+
+'Not much, I reckon,' I replied, dryly.
+
+'Why not? She'll breed like a rabbit.' * * * * *
+
+'I wouldn't own her for the whole State: if I had her, I'd free her on
+the spot!' The cool bestiality of the trader disgusted me, and I forgot
+myself.
+
+He started back surprised; then quietly remarked: 'Ye're a Nutherner, I
+swar; no corncracker ever held sech doctrines as them.'
+
+'Yes,' I replied, dropping the accent, which my blunder had rendered
+useless; 'I _am_ a Northerner; but I want a nurse, notwithstanding, for
+a friend.'
+
+'Whar d'ye live?' asked the trader, in the same free, good-natured tone
+as before.
+
+'In New York.'
+
+'In York! What! Yer not Mr. Kirke, of Randall, Kirke & Co.? But,
+blamenation, ye _ar_! How them whiskers has altered ye! I _thort_ I'd
+seed ye afore. Haint ye come it over me slick? Tuk in clean, swallered
+hull. But thar's my hand, Mr. Kirke; I'm right glad ter see ye.'
+
+'Where have you met me, my good fellow? I don't remember _you_.'
+
+'Down ter Orleans. Seed ye inter Roye, Struthers & Co.'s. The ole man
+thinks a heap o' you; ye give 'em a pile of business, doan't ye.'
+
+'No, not much of our own. They buy cotton for our English
+correspondents, and negotiate through us, that is all. Roye is a fine
+old gentleman.'
+
+'Yes, he ar; I'm in with him.'
+
+'How _in_ with him?'
+
+'Why, in this business--we go snacks; I do the buyin', and he finds the
+rocks. We use a pile--sometimes a hun'red, sometimes two hun'red
+thousand.'
+
+'Is it possible! Then you do a large business?'
+
+'Yes, right smart; I handle 'bout a thousand--big and little--ev'ry
+year.'
+
+'That _is_ large. You do not buy and sell them all, yourself, do you?'
+
+'Oh, no? I hardly ever sells; once in a while I run agin a buyer--_like
+you_--ha! ha!--and let one drap; but gin'rally I cage 'em, and when I
+git 'bout a hun'red together, I take 'em ter Orleans, and auction 'em
+off. Thar's no fuss and dicker 'bout thet, ye knows.'
+
+'Yes, I know! But how do you manage so large a gang? I should think some
+would get away.'
+
+'No, they doan't. I put the ribands on 'em; and, 'sides, ye see them
+boys, thar?' pointing to three splendid specimens of property, loitering
+near; 'I've hed them boys nigh on ter ten year, and I haint lost nary a
+nig sense I had 'em. They're cuter and smarter nor I am, any day.'
+
+'Then you pick the negroes up round the country, and send them to a
+rendezvous, where you put them in jail till you make up your number?'
+
+'Yes, the boys takes 'em down ter the pen. I'm pickin' sum up round har,
+now, ye see, and I send 'em ter Goldsboro'. When I've toted these down
+thar, the boys and I'll go up ter Virginny.'
+
+'Why don't you send them on by stage? I should think it would hurt them
+to camp out at this season.'
+
+'Hurt 'em! Lord bless ye, fresh air never hurt a nig; they're never so
+happy as sleepin' on the groun', with nothin' over 'em, and thar heels
+close ter a light-wood fire.'
+
+'But the delicate house women and the children, can they bear it?'
+
+'It do come a trifle hard on them, but it doan't last long. I allers
+takes ter the railroad when I gets a gang together.'
+
+'Well, come; I want a woman. Show me all you have.'
+
+'Do ye mean so, raally, Mr. Kirke? I thort ye wus a comin' it on me, and
+I swar ye does do the Suthern like a native. I'm blamed ef I didn't
+s'pose ye b'longed round har. Ha! ha! How the ole man would larf ter
+hear it!'
+
+'But I _am_ a native, Larkin; born within sight of Bunker Hill.'
+
+'Yes, thet kind o' native; and them's the sort, too. They make all-fired
+smart spec'lators. I knows a dozen on 'em, thet hev made thar pile, and
+haint older'n I am, nother.'
+
+'Is it possible! Yankees in this business?'
+
+'Yes, lots on 'em. Some on yer big folks up ter York and Bostin are in
+it deep; but they go the 'portin' line, gin'rally, and thet--d--d if
+_I'd_ do it, anyhow.'
+
+'Well, about the woman. None of these will do; are they all you have?'
+
+'No, I've got one more, but I've sort o' 'lotted har ter a young feller
+down ter Orleans. He told me ter git him jest sech a gal. She's 'most
+white, and brought up tender like, and them kind is high prized, ye
+knows.'
+
+'Yes, I know; but where is she--let me see her?'
+
+'She's in the store;' and rising, he led the way to the shanty.
+
+When we arrived at the part of the ground where the marksmen were
+stationed, we found an altercation going on between Tom and a young
+planter. It appeared that the young man had paid for a shot, and
+insisted on his body servant taking his place in the lists. To that Tom,
+and the stout yeomen who had entered for the turkey, objected, on
+account of the yellow man's station and complexion.
+
+The young gentleman was dressed in the highest style of fashion, and,
+though not more than nineteen, was evidently a 'blood' of 'the very
+first water.' The body servant was a good-looking quadroon, and sported
+an enormous diamond pin and a heavy gold watch chain. In his sleek
+beaver hat, and nicely-brushed suit of black broadcloth, he looked a
+much better-dressed gentleman than any one on the ground.
+
+As we approached, Tom, every pimple on his red face swelling with
+virtuous indignation, was delivering himself of the following harangue:
+
+'We doan't put ourselfs on a futtin' with niggers, Mr. Gaston. We doan't
+keer if they do b'long ter kid-gloved 'ristocrats like ye is; they
+karn't come in har, no how! Ye'd better go home. Ye orter be in better
+business then prowlin' round shootin' matches, with yer scented,
+bedevilled-up buck niggers. Go home, and wash the smell out o' yer
+cloes. Yer d----d muskmelon (Tom's word for musk) makes ye smell jest
+like hurt skunks; and ye ar skunks, clar through ter the innards. Whew!
+Clar eöut, I tell ye!'
+
+The young man's face reddened. The blood of the chivalry was rising. He
+replied:
+
+'Keep a civil tongue in your head, you thieving scoundrel; if you don't,
+the next time I catch you trading with my nigs, I'll see you get a
+hundred lashes; d----d if I don't.'
+
+Tom bade him go to a very warm latitude, and denied trading with
+negroes.
+
+'You lie, you sneaking whelp; you've got the marks on your back now, for
+dealing with Pritchett's.'
+
+Tom returned the lie, when the young man's face grew a trifle redder,
+and his whip rising in the air, it fell across Tom's nose in a very
+uncomfortable manner--for Tom. The liquor vender reeled, but, recovering
+himself in a moment, he aimed a heavy blow at the young gentleman's
+frontispiece. That 'parlor ornament' would have been sadly disfigured,
+had not the darky caught the stroke on his left arm, and at the same
+moment planted what the 'profession' call a 'wiper,' just behind Tom's
+left ear. Tom's private dram shop went down--'caved in'--was 'laid out
+sprawling;' and two or three minutes elapsed before it got on its legs
+again. When it did, it frothed at the mouth like a mug of ale with too
+much head on it.
+
+They were not more than six paces apart, when Tom rose, and drawing a
+double-barrelled pistol from his pocket, aimed it at the planter. The
+latter was in readiness for him. His six-shooter was level with Tom's
+breast, and his hand on the trigger, when, just as he seemed ready to
+fire, the negro trader coolly stepped before him, and twisted the weapon
+from his hand. Turning then to Tom, Larkin said, 'Now, you clar out.
+Make tracks, or I'll lamm ye like blamenation. Be off, I tell ye,' he
+added as Tom showed an unwillingness to move. 'A sensible man like ye
+arn't a gwine ter waste good powder on sech a muskrat sort of a thing as
+this is, is ye? Come, clar!' and he placed his hand on Tom's shoulder,
+and accelerated his rather slow movements toward the groggery. Returning
+then to the young man, he said:
+
+'And now you, Mr. Gustavus Adolphus Pocahontas Powhatan Gaston, s'pose
+_you_ clar out, too?'
+
+'I shall go when I please--not before,' said Mr. Gaston.
+
+'You'll please mighty sudden, then, _I_ reckon. A young man of your
+edication should be 'bout better business than gittin' inter brawls with
+low groggery keepers, and 'sultin' decent white folks with your
+scented-up niggers. Yer a disgrace ter yer good ole father, and them as
+was afore him. With yer larnin' and money ye moight be doin' suthin' fur
+them as is below ye; but instead o' thet, yer doin' nothin' but hangin'
+round bar rooms, gittin' drunk, playin' cards, drivin' fast hosses, and
+keepin' nigger wimmin. I'm ashamed o' ye. Yer gwine straight ter hell,
+ye is; and the hull country's gwine thar, too, 'cause it's raisin' a
+crap of jest sech idle, no-account, blusterin', riproaring young fools
+as you is. Now, go home. Make tracks ter onst, or I'll hev thet d----d
+nigger's neck o' your'n stretched fur strikin' a white man, I will! Ye
+knows me, and I'll do it, as sure's my name's Jake Larkin.'
+
+The young planter listened rather impatiently to this harangue, but said
+nothing. When it was concluded, he told his servant to bring up the
+horses; and then turning to the trader, said:
+
+'Well, Right Reverend Mr. Larkin, you'll please to make yourself scarce
+around the plantation in future. If you come near it, just remember that
+we _keep dogs_, and that we use them for chasing--_niggers_.' The last
+word was emphasized in a way that showed he classed Larkin with the
+wares he dealt in.
+
+'Yer father, young man, is a honest man, and a gentleman. He knows I'm
+one, if I _do_ trade in niggers; and he'll want ter see me when I want
+ter come.'
+
+The negro by this time had brought up the horses. 'Good evening, Mr.
+Larkin,' said young Hopeful, as he mounted and rode off.
+
+'Good evenin', replied the trader, coolly, but respectfully.
+
+'Good evenin', _Mister_ Larkin,' said the gentleman's gentleman, as he
+also mounted to ride off. The emphasis on the 'Mister' was too much for
+the trader, and taking one spring toward the darky, he laid his stout
+whip across his face. The scented ebony roared, and just then his horse,
+a high-blooded animal, reared and threw him. When he had gathered
+himself up, Larkin made several warm applications of his thick boot to
+the inexpressible part of the darky's person, and, roaring with pain,
+that personage made off at a gait faster than that of his runaway horse.
+
+During the affray the occupants of the ground gathered around the
+belligerents; but as soon as it was over, they went quietly back to
+'old-sledge' 'seven-up,' 'pitch-and-toss,' 'chuck-a-luck,' and the
+'turkey match.'
+
+As we walked toward the shanty, the trader said: 'Thet feller's a fool.
+What a chance he's throwin' away! He arn't of no more use than a rotten
+coon skin or a dead herrin', he arn't. All on our young bucks is jest
+like him. The country's going to the devil, sure;' and with this choice
+bit of moralizing, he entered the cabin.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+The Squire was pacing to and fro in the upper end of the room, and the
+woman and children were seated on the low bench near the counter.
+Phyllis lifted her eyes to my face as I entered, with a hopeful,
+inquiring expression, but they fell again when the trader said: 'Thet's
+the gal fur ye, Mr. Kirke; the most perfectest gal in seven States; good
+at onything, washin', ironin', nussin', breedin'; rig'larly fotched up;
+worth her weight in gold; d----d if she haint.' Turning then to Preston,
+he exclaimed: 'Why, Squire, how ar ye?'
+
+'Very well,' replied my friend, coolly.
+
+'How's times?' continued the trader.
+
+'Very well,' said Preston, in a tone which showed a decided distaste for
+conversation.
+
+'Well, glad on it. I heerd ye were hard put. Glad on it, Squire.'
+
+The Squire took no further notice of him; and, turning to his property,
+the trader said: 'Stand up, gal, and let me show the gentleman what yer
+made of. Doan't look so down in the mouth, gal; this gentleman's got a
+friend thet'll keep ye in the style ye's fotched up ter.'
+
+Phyllis rose and made a strong effort to appear composed.
+
+'Now, Mr. Kirke, luk at thet rig,' said Larkin, seizing her rudely by
+the arm and turning her half around; 'straight's a rail. Luk at thet
+ankle and fut--nimble's a squirrel, and healthy!--why, ye couldn't
+sicken har if ye put har ter hosspetal work.'
+
+'Well, never mind. I see what she is. What's your price?'
+
+'But ye haint seed har, yit! She's puny like, I knows, but she's solid,
+_I_ reckon; thar haint a pound of loose stuff on har--it's all muscle.
+See thar--jest look o' thet,' and he stripped the sleeve of her dress
+to the elbow; 'thar's a arm fur ye--whiter'n buttermilk, and harder'n
+cheese. Feel on't.'
+
+The poor woman submitted meekly to this rough handling of her person,
+but I said impatiently:
+
+'I tell you, Larkin, I'm satisfied. Name your price. I've no time to
+lose: the stage will be along in five minutes.'
+
+'The stage! Lord bless ye, Mr. Kirke, it's broke down--'twon't be har
+fur an hour--I knows. Now look o' thet,' he continued, drawing the poor
+woman's thin dress tightly across her limbs, while he proceeded, despite
+my repeated attempts to interrupt him, with his disgusting exhibitions,
+which it would be disgraceful even to describe. 'Ye doan't mind, do ye,
+gal?' he added, chucking her under the chin in a rude, familiar way, and
+giving a brutal laugh. Phyllis shrank away from him, but made no reply.
+She had evidently braced her mind to the ordeal, and was prepared to
+bear anything rather than offend him. I determined to stop any further
+proceeding, and said to him:
+
+'I tell you, Larkin, I'm satisfied. I cannot waste more time in this
+manner. Name your price at once.'
+
+'Time! Mr. Kirke? why yer time arn't worth nothin' jest now. The stage
+won't be 'long till dark. Ye haint seed half on har, yit. I doan't want
+ter sell ye a damaged article. I want ter show ye she's sound's a
+nut--_ye won't pay my price ef I doan't_. Look a thar, now,' and with a
+quick, dexterous movement, he tore open the front of her dress. * * * * *
+
+The poor girl, unable to use her hands, bent over nearly double, and
+strained the children to her breast to hide her shame. A movement at the
+other end of the room made me look at the Squire. With his jaws set, his
+hands clenched, and his face on fire, he bounded toward the trader. In a
+moment he would have been upon him. My own blood boiled, but, knowing
+that an outbreak would be fatal to our purpose, I planted myself firmly
+in his way, and said, as I took him by the arm and held him by main
+force:
+
+'Stand back, Preston; this is my affair.'
+
+'Yes, Squire,' added the trader, 'ye'd better be quiet. Ye'll turn
+trader, yerself, yit. If things is true, ye'll have ter begin on yer own
+nigs, mighty sudden.'
+
+'If I am brought to that,' replied the Squire, with the calm dignity
+which was natural to him, 'I shall treat them like human beings--not
+like brutes.'
+
+'Ye'll show 'em off the best how ye kin; let ye alone fur thet; I know
+yer hull parson tribe; thar haint nary a honest one among ye.'
+
+Preston turned silently away, as if disdaining to waste words on such a
+subject; and I said to the trader:
+
+'Mr. Larkin, I've told you I've no time to lose. Name your price at
+once, or I'll not buy the woman at all.'
+
+'Well, jest as ye say, Mr. Kirke. But ye see she's a rare 'un; would
+bring two thousand in Orleans, sure's a gun.'
+
+'Pshaw! you know better than that; but, name your price.'
+
+'What, fur the hull, or the 'ooman alone?'
+
+'Either way; I've no particular use for the children, but I'll buy them
+if cheap.'
+
+'Oh! _do_ buy us,' cried the little girl, taking hold of my coat; 'do
+buy us--please do, good massa.'
+
+'Shet up, ye young whelp,' said the trader, raising his whip. The little
+thing slunk back affrighted, and commenced sobbing, but said no more.
+
+'Well, Mr. Kirke, the lot cost me sixteen fifty, hard rocks, and 'twas
+dirt cheap, 'cause the 'ooman alone'll bring more'n thet. I couldn't hev
+bought har fur thet, but har owner wus hard up. Ye see he's Gin'ral----,
+down ter Newbern, one of yer rig'lar 'ristocrats, the raal ole-fashioned
+sort--keeps a big plantation, house in town; fine wines; fine wimmin;
+fast hosses; and goes it mighty strong. Well, he's allers a trifle
+under--ev'ry year 'bout two thousand short; and ev'ry year I buy a
+couple or so of nigs on him ter make it up. He's a pertickerler friend
+o' mine, ye see; he thinks a heap o' me--he does. Well, when I gets
+'long thar t'other day, he says ter me, says he: 'Lark,' (he allers
+calls me Lark; thet's the name I goes by 'mong my intimate 'quaintance),
+well, says he; 'Lark, thar's Phylly. I want ye ter take har. She's the
+likeliest gal in the world--good old Virginny blood, father one of the
+raal old stock. Ye knows she's right, good ev'ry way, prays like a camp
+meetin', and virtuous ter kill; thar ain't none round har thet's up to
+har at thet--tried ter cum round har myself, but couldn't git nigher'n a
+rod--won't hev but one man, and'll stick ter him like death; jest the
+gal fur one o' them New Orleans bloods as wants one thet'll be true ter
+'em. Do ye take, Lark?' says he. 'Well, I do, says I, and I knows just
+the feller fur har; one of yer raal high-flyers--rich's a Jew--twenty
+thousand a year--lives like a prince--got one or two on 'em now; but he
+says to me when I comes off, 'Lark,' says he, 'find me a gal, raather
+pale, tidy, hard's a nut, and not bigger'n a cotton bale.' Wall, says I,
+'I will,' and, Gin'ral, Phylly's the gal! She'll hev good times, live
+like a queen, hev wines, dresses, hosses, operas, and all them sort o'
+things--ye knows them ar fellers doan't stand fur trifles.' 'Yes, I
+knows, Lark,' says the Gin'ral, 'and bein' it's so, ye kin take har,
+Lark; but I wouldn't sell har ter ary nother man livin'--if I would,
+d----n me. Ye kin hev har, Lark, but ye must take the young 'uns; she's
+got two, ye knows, and it hain't Christian-like ter sell 'em apart.'
+'D----n the young 'uns, Gin'ral,' says I,' I karn't do nary a thing with
+them. What'll one o' them young bloods want o' them? They goes in fur
+home manufactures.' 'Yes, I knows, Lark,' says he, 'but ye kin sell 'em
+off thar--ony planter'll buy 'em--they'll pay ter raise. They're two
+likely little gals, ye knows; honest born, white father, and'll make
+han'some wimmin--han'somer'n thar mother, and sell higher when they's
+grow'd; ye'd better take 'em, Lark. If ye doan't, I'm d----d if I'll
+sell ye the mother; fur, ye see, I _must_ have the hull vally, now,
+that's honest.' 'Wall, Gin'ral,' says I, 'ye allers talks right out,
+that's what I likes in ye. What's the price?' 'Wall,' says he, 'bein'
+it's ye, and ye've a good master in yer eye for Phylly, I'll say two
+thousand fur the lot--the gal alone'll fetch twenty-five hun'red down
+ter Orleans.' 'Whew!' says I, 'Gin'ral, ye've been a takin' suthin'.
+(But he hadn't; he war soberer than a church clock; 'twarn't more'n
+'lev'n, and he's never drunk 'fore evenin'.) Wall,' says I, 'karn't
+think of it, nohow, Gin'ral.' Then he come down ter eighteen, but I
+counted out sixteen fifty--good rags of the old State Bank--and I'm
+blamed if he didn't take it. I'd no idee he wud; but debt, Mr. Kirke,
+debt's the devil--but it helps us, 'cause, I s'pose (and he laughed his
+hardened, brutal laugh), we do the devil's own work. But be thet how it
+may, if these high flyin' planters didn't run inter it, and hev ter pay
+up, nigger spec'latin' wouldn't be worth follerin'. Well, I took the
+nig's, and thar they is; and bein' it's you, Mr. Kirke, and yer a friend
+of the ole man, you shill hev the lot fur a hun'red and fifty more, or
+the 'ooman alone fur fifteen hun'red; but ary nother white man couldn't
+toch 'em fur less'n two thousand--if they could, d----n me.'
+
+The stage had not arrived, and I had submitted to this lengthy harangue,
+because I saw I could more certainly accomplish the purchase by
+indulging the humor of the trader. The suspense was, no doubt, agony to
+Phyllis, and the Squire manifested decided impatience, but the delay
+seemed unavoidable. It was difficult for Preston to control himself. He
+chafed like a chained tiger. At first he paced up and down the farther
+side of the apartment, then sat down, then rose and paced the room
+again, and then again sat down, every now and then glaring upon Larkin
+with a look of savage ferocity that showed the wild beast was rising in
+him. The trader once in a while looked toward him with a cool unconcern
+that indicated two things: nerves of iron, and perfect familiarity with
+such demonstrations.
+
+Fearing an explosion, I at last stepped up to the Squire, and said to
+him in a low tone: 'Let me beg of you to leave the room--_do_--you may
+spoil all.' He made no reply, but did as I requested.
+
+When he had gone, Larkin remarked, in an indifferent way, 'The Squire's
+got the devil in him. He's some when his blood's up--edged tools,
+dangerous ter handle--he is--I knows him.' I'd ruther have six like Tom
+on me, ony time, than one like him. But he karn't skeer me. The man
+doan't breathe thet kin turn Jake Larkin a hair.'
+
+'I see he's excited,' I replied; 'but why is he so interested in this
+woman?'
+
+'Why? She was fotched up 'long with him--children together. He owned har
+till he got in the nine-holes one day, and sold har ter the Gin'ral. I'd
+bet a pile the young 'uns ar his'n. He knows har as he do the psa'm
+book. Ha! ha!' and he laughed his brutal laugh, as, chucking Phyllis
+again under the chin, he asked, 'Doan't he, gal?'
+
+She shrank away from him, but said nothing.
+
+'Doan't be squeamy, gal; out with it; we'll think the more on ye fur't.
+Arn't the young 'uns his'n? Didn't ye b'long ter the Squire till he got
+so d----d pious five year ago?'
+
+'Yes, master; I belonged to him; Master Robert wus allers pious.'
+
+'Yes, I knows; he wus allers preachin' pious. But didn't ye b'long ter
+him--ye knows what I means--till he got so d----d camp-meetin' pious
+five year ago?'
+
+'Master Robert was allers camp-meetin' pious,' replied the woman,
+looking down, and drawing her thin shawl more closely over her open
+bosom.
+
+'Well,' said Larkin, 'ye karn't git nothin' out o' har, but it's
+so--sartin! Ev'ry 'un says so; and what ev'ry 'un says arn't more'n a
+mile from the truth. Jest look o' that little 'un. Doan't ye see the
+Squire's eyes and forrerd thar?' and he took the little girl roughly by
+the arm, and turned her face toward mine. The lower part of her features
+were like her mother's, but her eyes, hair, and forehead were Preston's!
+
+'Yes, I see,' I said; 'but you spoke of two little girls; where is the
+other?'
+
+'Well, you see, I bought 'em both, and the Gin'ral give me a bill o'
+sale on 'em; but when we come to look arter the young 'un in the
+mornin', she warn't thar. The Gin'ral's 'ooman--she's a 'ooman fur me--a
+hull team--she makes him stan' round, _I_ reckon. Well, she'd a likin'
+for the little 'un, and she swoore she shouldn't be sold. She told me
+ter my face she'd packed har off whar I couldn't git har, nohow; and she
+said she'd raise the town, and hev me driv' out if I 'tempted it.'
+
+'What did you do then?' I asked.
+
+'Well, ye knows the Gin'ral's a honerubble man; so, when he seed his
+'ooman was sot thet way, he throw'd in the yaller boy--and he's wuth a
+hun'red more'n the gal, ony day. His mother took on ter kill, 'cause the
+Gin'ral'd sort o' promised him ter har, and she'd been a savin' up ter
+buy him. But the Gin'ral's a honerubble man, and he didn't flinch a
+hair--not a hair. Thet's the sort ter deal with, I say. I stuck fur the
+little gal, though--'cause, ye see, I'd takin' a likin' ter har
+myself--she's the pootiest little thing ye ever seed, she is; but the
+Gin'ral he said 'twarn't no use, fur his 'ooman would have har way, and
+finally I guv in, and took another bill o' sale. And what d'ye think!
+I'd no more'n got it inter my pocket, 'fore the Gin'ral's 'ooman pulled
+out a gold watch, two or three diamond pins, a ring or two, and some
+wimmin's fixin's, and says she, 'See thar, _Mister_ Larkin, them's what
+I got fur the little gal. _I've_ sold har--sold har this mornin', and
+guv the bill o' sale; and if the Gin'ral doan't cartify it, he woan't
+git no peace, I reckon. I was bound ter see one on 'em done right by, I
+was.' Well, I told har she wus ahead o' my time, and I put out raather
+sudden, I did. A 'ooman's the devil; I'd ruther trade with twenty men
+than one 'ooman, I swar.'
+
+When he spoke of her child, the slave woman burst into tears. Her
+emotion drowned the curiosity which had made me a patient listener to
+the trader's story, and recalled me to the business in hand. With some
+twinges of conscience for having kept the wretched girl so long on the
+rack, I said to him, 'Well, Larkin, let's get through with this. Name
+your lowest price for the lot.'
+
+'P'raps you'd as lief throw out the boy. I'll take off three hundred fur
+him.'
+
+'Oh! doan't ye leab Ally, massa; buy Ally too, massa; oh do, good
+massa!' he cried, with an expression of keen agony such as I had never
+till then seen in a child. He was a 'likely' little fellow, with a
+round, good-natured face, and a bright, intelligent eye; and though I
+presumed Preston felt no particular interest in him, I thought of his
+mother, depriving herself of sleep and rest to save up the price of her
+boy, and I said: 'No, I have taken a liking to him; I'll take the whole
+or none.'
+
+'Well, then, seventeen fifty, not a dime less. Thet's only a hun'red
+profit.'
+
+'Will a hundred profit satisfy you?'
+
+'Yes, bein' as you's a friend of the ole man, and I hain't had 'em only
+four days.'
+
+I quietly sat down on the bench, beside the little girl, and taking her
+hand in mine, and playing with her small fingers in a careless way,
+said: 'Well, I will give you a hundred profit; but, Larkin,' and I
+looked him directly in the eye and smiled, 'you cannot intend to come
+the Yankee over me! I am one of them myself, you know, and understand
+such things. These people cost you twelve hundred--not a mill more.'
+
+'The h----ll they did! P'raps ye mean ter say I lie?' he replied, in an
+excited tone, his face reddening with anger.
+
+'No, I don't. I merely state a fact, and you know it. So keep cool.'
+
+'It's a d----d lie, sir. I doan't keer who says it,' he exclaimed, now
+really excited.
+
+'Come, come, my fine fellow,' I said, rising and facing him; 'skip the
+hard words, and don't get up too much steam--it might hurt you, _or your
+friends_.'
+
+'What d'ye mean? Speak out, Mr. Kirke. If ye doan't want ter buy 'em,
+say so, and hev done with it.' This was said in a more moderate tone. He
+had evidently taken my meaning, and feared he had gone too far.
+
+'I mean simply this. This woman and the children cost you twelve hundred
+dollars four days ago. Preston wants them--_must_ have them--and he will
+give thirteen hundred for them, and pay you in a year, with interest;
+that's all.'
+
+'Well, come now, Mr. Kirke, thet's liberal, arn't it! S'pose I doan't
+take it, what then?'
+
+'Then Roye, Struthers & Co. will stop your supplies, _or I'll stop
+their's_--that's 'SARTIN',' and I laughed good-humoredly as I said it.
+
+'Well, yer one on 'em, Mr. Kirke, thet's a fact;' and then he added,
+seriously, 'but ye karn't mean to saddle my doin's onter them.'
+
+'Yes, I will; and tell them they have you to thank for it.'
+
+'What,' and he struck his forehead with his hand; 'what a dangnation
+fool I wus ter tell ye 'bout them!'
+
+'Of course, you were; and a greater one to say you paid sixteen fifty
+for the property. I'd have given fifteen hundred for them if you had
+told the truth. But come, what do you say; are they Preston's or not?'
+
+'No, I karn't do it; karn't take Preston's note--'tain't wuth a hill o'
+beans. Give me the money, and it's a trade.'
+
+'Preston is cramped, and cannot pay the money just now. I'll give you
+my note, if you prefer it.'
+
+'Payable in York, interest and exchange?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Well, it's done. And now, d----n the nigs. I'll never buy ary 'nother
+good-lookin' 'un as long's I live.'
+
+'I hope you won't,' I replied, laughing.
+
+He then produced a blank note and a bill of sale, and drawing from his
+pocket a pen and a small ink bottle, said to me: 'Thar, Mr. Kirke, ye
+fill up the note, and I'll make out the bill o' sale. I'm handy at such
+doin's.'
+
+'Give me the key of these bracelets first. Make out the bill to
+Preston--Robert Preston, of Jones County.'
+
+He handed me the key, and I unlocked the shackles. 'Now, Phyllis,' I
+said, 'it is over. Go and tell Master Robert.'
+
+She rose, threw her arms wildly above her head, and staggering weakly
+forward, without saying a word, left the cabin. Yelping and leaping with
+joy, the yellow boy followed her; but the little girl came to me, and
+looking up timidly in my face, said: 'O massa! Rosey so glad 'ou got
+mammy--Rosey _so_ glad. Rosey lub 'ou, massa--Rosey lub 'ou a heap.' I
+thought of the little girl I had left at home, and with a sudden impulse
+lifted the child from the floor and kissed her. She put her little arms
+about my neck, laid her soft cheek against mine, and burst into tears.
+She was not accustomed to much kindness.
+
+I filled out the note and gave it to the trader; and, with the bill of
+sale in my hand, was about to go in search of Preston, when he and
+Phyllis entered the cabin. I handed him the document, and glancing it
+over, he placed it in his pocket book.
+
+'Now, Larkin,' I said, 'this is a wretched business; give it up; there's
+too much of the man in you for this sort of thing.'
+
+'Well, p'raps yer right, Mr. Kirke; but I'm in it, and I karn't git out;
+but it seems ter me it tain't no wuss dealin' in 'em then ownin' 'em.'
+
+'I don't know. Is it not a little worse on the man himself? Does it not
+sort of harden you--blunt your better feelings, to be always buying and
+selling people that do not want to be bought and sold?'
+
+'Well, p'raps it do; it's a cussed business ony how. But thar's my hand,
+Mr. Kirke. Yer a gentleman, I swar, if ye _hev_ come it over me, ha! ha!
+How slick you done it! I likes ye the better fur it; and if Jake Larkin
+kin ever do ye a good turn, he'll do it. I allers takes ter a man thet's
+smarter nor I am, I do,' and he gave my hand another of his powerful
+shakes.
+
+'I thank you, Larkin; and if I can ever serve you, it will give me great
+pleasure to do so.'
+
+'I doan't doubt it, Mr. Kirke, I doan't; and I'll call on ye, sure, if
+ye ever kin do me ony good. Good-by; ye want ter be with the Squire;
+good-by;' and giving my hand another shake, he left the cabin.
+
+Which was the worse--that coarse, hardened man, or the institution which
+had made him what he was?
+
+It was many years before the trader and I met again. When we did, he
+kept his word!
+
+
+
+
+THE UNION.
+
+II.
+
+
+Having stated the course of England on the slavery question and the
+rebellion, gladly would I rest here; but, as a Northern man, by
+parentage, birth, and education, always devoted to the Union, twice
+elected by Mississippi to the Senate of the United States, as the ardent
+opponent of nullification and secession, and, _upon that very question_,
+having announced in my first address, of January, 1833, the right and
+duty of the Government, by "_coercion_," if necessary, to suppress
+rebellion or secession by any State, truth and justice compel me to say,
+that we of the North, next to England, are responsible for the
+introduction of slavery into the South. Upon a much smaller scale than
+England, but, under her flag, which was then ours, and the force of
+colonial tradition, we followed the wretched example of England, and
+Northern vessels, sailing from Northern ports, and owned by Northern
+merchants, brought back to our shores from Africa their living cargoes.
+
+Small numbers only of these slaves were brought from their tropical
+African homes to the colder North, where their labor was unprofitable,
+but, were taken to the South, and against their earnest protest, forced
+upon them. It was not the South that engaged in the African slave trade.
+It was not the South that brought slavery into America. No, it was
+forced upon the South, against their protest, mainly by England, but
+partly, also, by the North. Believing, as I do, that this war was
+produced by slavery, we should still remember by whom the slaves were
+imported here.
+
+Nor should we forget how zealously, from first to last, Virginia,
+Maryland, and Delaware, in framing the Federal Constitution, sustained
+by Washington, Franklin, and Hamilton, and by New York, Pennsylvania,
+and New Jersey, opposed the continuance, even for a day, of the African
+slave trade, and how they were overborne by the unfortunate coalition of
+the Eastern States with Georgia and the Carolinas, legalizing the
+execrable traffic for twenty years, and how fearfully the predictions of
+those great prophet statesmen, George Mason, of Virginia, and Luther
+Martin, of Maryland, have been fulfilled, that this fatal measure, by
+the force of its moral influence in favor of slavery, and by the rapid
+importation of negroes here, would menace the peace and safety of the
+Union.
+
+Indeed, when the Constitution was framed, Virginia, Maryland, and
+Delaware, not only opposed the African slave trade, but interdicted the
+interstate slave trade. All these States then regarded slavery as a
+great evil, destined soon to disappear, and the failure to adopt gradual
+emancipation arose, mainly, from the fact, that the majority could not
+agree as to the practical details of the measure. In Virginia,
+Washington, Jefferson, George Mason, Madison and Monroe, Marshall and
+St. George Tucker, were all gradual emancipationists. Even as late as
+1830, the measure failed, only by a single vote in the Virginia State
+Convention; and this year, Western Virginia has voted for manumission
+with great unanimity. Let us then, as a nation, do our full duty on this
+question to all loyal citizens; and the border States, acting by compact
+with the Federal Government, will surely adopt the system of gradual
+emancipation and colonization. The failure of any State to adopt the
+measure immediately, although greatly to be deplored, is no indication
+as to what their course will be when the rebellion shall have been
+suppressed, and Congress acted definitely on the subject.
+
+As the North, next to England, was mainly responsible for forcing
+slavery upon the South, honor demands that the whole nation, as an act
+of justice, and as a measure that would greatly exalt the character of
+the country, should bear any loss that may arise to loyal citizens from
+a change of system in any State. Indeed, under all the circumstances,
+the nation cannot afford to leave all the sacrifice, and all the glory
+of such an achievement, to the South only. It will be a grand historical
+fact in the progress of humanity, and must adorn the annals of the
+nation.
+
+I speak now of the slaves of the loyal. What course should be pursued
+with the slaves of rebels, is a very different question. As regards the
+seceded States, it is clear, as our army advances, that the slaves of
+the disloyal, _seized_ or coming _voluntarily_ within our lines, with or
+without previous proclamation, necessarily will be, and ought to be
+emancipated, under that clause of the Constitution authorizing Congress
+to 'make rules concerning captures on _land_ and water,' and the law
+carrying that provision into effect. There never has been a war, foreign
+or intestine, in which slaves coming within the lines of an army have
+not been emancipated. In the case of Rose vs. Himly, 2d Curtis, 87, the
+Supreme Court of the United States declared that, in case of rebellion,
+'_belligerent_ rights may be superadded to those of _sovereignty_,' and
+that we may punish the rebels as _traitors_, or, treating them, by land
+and sea, as we now do, as _belligerents_, under the war power, which is
+also a constitutional power, we may enforce the same military
+contributions, or make the same captures, as in case of a foreign war.
+Indeed, if this were otherwise, our Constitution, as claimed by
+secessionists and anti-coercionists, at home and abroad, would have been
+a miserable failure, and would have invited rebellion, by depriving us
+of the power to suppress it by all war measures recognized by the law of
+nations. Such is the law, ancient and modern, and the uniform practice
+of nations in suppressing rebellion. Such acts are not bills of
+attainder, operating as judgments without war or capture, but the
+exercise by Congress of the power expressly granted by the Constitution,
+applicable, as the Supreme Court has declared, in case of rebellion, to
+'make rules concerning captures on land and water.' But this provision
+implies capture or conquest, and the act of Congress proposes no mere
+paper edicts, which, without capture or conquest, can only operate as
+offers of conditional amnesty to rebels, or freedom to slaves. This
+great constitutional war power, as our army advances, should be clearly
+_proclaimed_ and _exercised_, and the slaves of the disloyal, used, as
+they are, to supply the means of support to the rebel armies, should be
+emancipated, as required by Congress, and employed, at reasonable wages,
+in some useful labor in aid of the Union cause. In this way, the rebel
+whites and masters must soon, to a vast extent, leave the army, to raise
+the provisions now supplied by their slaves, and the war thus much more
+speedily be brought to a successful conclusion. By paper edicts I mean
+those designed to operate as judgments or sentences, without capture or
+conquest, and not those announced under the acts of Congress, in
+advance, but only to become operative and consummated in the contingency
+of capture or conquest. The unconditional friends of the Union should
+not only adhere to the Constitution as the bulwark of our cause, but
+will find in that great instrument the most ample power to suppress the
+rebellion. It is the rebels who are striving to overthrow the
+Constitution, and we who are resolved to maintain and enforce it, in war
+and in peace, as 'the _supreme_ law of the land,' in _every State_, from
+the lakes to the gulf, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
+
+It is vain to deny the prejudice in the North against the negro race,
+constantly increasing as the numbers multiply, accompanied by the stern
+refusal of social or political equality with the negro, and the serious
+apprehension among their working classes of the degradation of labor by
+negro association, and the reduction of wages to a few cents a day by
+negro competition--all demonstrating, as a question of interest, as well
+as of humanity, that it is best for them, as for us, that the
+separation, though necessarily gradual and voluntary, must be complete
+and eternal.
+
+Wherever the vote of the people of any State of the North has been taken
+on this question, it has been uniformly for the exclusion of the free
+negro race. In the midst of the excitement of the slavery question in
+Kansas, when the republicans acted alone upon the question of the
+adoption of their celebrated Topeka constitution, they submitted the
+free negro question to a distinct vote of the people, which was almost
+unanimous for their exclusion. The recent similar overwhelming vote, to
+the same effect, of the people of Illinois, is another clear test of the
+present sentiment of the nation. That sentiment is this: that the negro,
+although to be regarded as a man, and treated with humanity, belongs, as
+they believe, to an inferior race, communion or association with whom is
+not desired by the whites. Those who regard the slavery question as the
+only, or the principal difficulty, are greatly mistaken. The _negro_
+question is far deeper. It is not slavery, as a mere political
+institution, that is sustained in the South, but the greater question of
+the intermingling and equality of races. In this aspect, it is far more
+a question of race than of slavery. If, as among the Greeks and Romans,
+the white race were enslaved here, the institution would instantly
+disappear. Among the many millions of the population of the South, less
+than a tenth are slaveholders. Why, then, is it, that the
+non-slaveholding masses there support the institution? It is the
+instinct, the sentiment, the prejudice, if you please, of race, almost
+universal and unalterable. It is the fear that if the slaves of the
+South were emancipated, the non-slaveholding whites would be sunk down
+to their level. But let the non-slaveholders of the South know that
+colonization abroad would certainly accompany gradual emancipation, and
+they would support the measure. They do not wish the Africans among
+them; but if that must be the case, then they desire them to remain as
+slaves, and not to be raised to their own condition as freemen, to
+degrade labor and reduce its wages, as they believe. Abolition alone,
+touches then merely the surface of this question. It lies far deeper, in
+the antagonism of race, and the laws of nature. In this respect there is
+a union of sentiment between the masses, North and South, both opposing
+the introduction of free blacks.
+
+Should the slaves be gradually manumitted and colonized abroad with
+their consent, and the North be thereafter reproached with aiding to
+force slavery upon the South, we could then truly say, that we had
+finally freely united with the South in expending our treasure to remove
+the evil. The offence of our forefathers would then be gloriously
+redeemed by the justice and generosity of their children, and made
+instrumental in carrying commerce, civilization, and Christianity to the
+benighted regions of Africa. Nor should the colonization be confined to
+Africa, but extended to 'Mexico, Central and Southern America' (as
+proposed in my Texas letter of the 8th January, 1844), and to the West
+Indies, or such other homes as might be preferred by the negro race.
+
+From my youth upward, at all times and under all circumstances, whether
+residing North or South, whether in public or in private life, I have
+ever supported gradual emancipation, accompanied by colonization, as the
+only remedy for the evil of slavery. In my Texas letter, just referred
+to, published at its date over my signature, being then a senator from
+Mississippi, I expressed the following opinions on this great question:
+
+'Again the question is asked, is slavery never to disappear from the
+Union? This is a startling and momentous question, but the answer is
+easy and the proof is clear--_it will certainly disappear if Texas is
+reannexed to the Union_, not by abolition, but in spite of all its
+frenzy, slowly and gradually, by diffusion, as it has thus nearly
+receded from several of the more Northern of the slaveholding States,
+and as it will certainly continue more rapidly to recede by the
+reannexation of Texas, into _Mexico and Central and Southern America_.
+Providence * * * thus will open Texas as a safety-valve, into and
+through which slavery will slowly and gradually recede, and finally
+disappear into the boundless regions of Mexico, and Central and Southern
+America. Beyond the Del Norte _slavery will not pass_; not only because
+it is forbidden by law, but because the colored races there preponderate
+in the ratio of ten to one over the whites, and holding, as they do, the
+government and most of the offices in their own possession, they will
+never permit the enslavement of any portion of the colored race, which
+makes and executes the laws of the country. In Bradford's Atlas the
+facts are given as follows:
+
+'Mexico, area 1,690,000 square miles; population eight millions, one
+sixth white, and all the rest Indians, Africans, Mulattoes, Zambos, and
+other colored races. Central America, area 186,000 square miles;
+population nearly two millions, one sixth white, and the rest Negroes,
+Zambos, and other colored races. South America, area 6,500,000 square
+miles; population fourteen millions, one million white, four millions
+Indians, and the remainder, being nine millions, blacks and other
+colored races. The outlet for our negro race through this vast region
+can never be opened but by the reannexation of Texas; but, in that
+event, there, in that extensive country, bordering on our negro
+population, and four times greater in area than the whole Union, with a
+sparse population of but three to the square mile, where nine tenths of
+the people are of the colored races--there, upon that fertile soil, and
+in that delicious climate, so admirably adapted to the negro race, as
+all experience has now clearly shown, the free black would find a home.
+There, also, as the _slaves_, in the lapse of time, from the density of
+population and other causes, are _emancipated_, they will disappear,
+from time to time, west of the Del Norte, and beyond the limits of the
+Union, and among a race of their own color will be diffused through this
+vast region, where they will not be a _degraded caste_, and where, as to
+climate and social and moral condition, and all the hopes and comforts
+of life, they can occupy, _amid equals_, a position they can never
+attain in any part of this Union.'
+
+This, it is true, was a slow process, but it was peaceful, progressive,
+and certain, especially when Texas should have been checkered by
+railroads, and her system connected with that of the South and of
+Mexico. I desired then, however, to accelerate this action, by making it
+a part of the _compact_ of Texas with the Federal Government, that the
+proceeds of the sales of her public lands, exceeding two hundred
+millions of acres, should be devoted in aid of the colonization
+described in this extract. The principle, however, was adopted of State
+action by irrevocable _compact_ with the Federal Government, by which,
+provision therein was made for abolishing slavery in all such States
+north of a certain parallel of latitude (embracing a territory larger
+than New England), as might be thereafter admitted by subdivision of the
+State of Texas. The power of action on this subject, by _compact_ of a
+State with the General Government, was then clearly established, in
+perfect accordance with repeated previous acts of Congress, then cited
+by me. The doctrine rests upon the elemental principle of the combined
+authority of the nation, and a State, acting by compact within its
+limits.
+
+It being clearly our interest and duty to adopt this system of gradual
+emancipation in the loyal States, with colonization abroad, aided by
+Congress, the constitutional power being unquestionable, and the
+expense comparatively small (less than a few months' cost of the war,)
+it is a signal mark of that special Providence, which has so often
+shielded our beloved country from imminent peril, that the President of
+the United States should have recommended, and Congress should have
+adopted, by so large a majority, this _very system_, by which slavery
+might soon disappear, at least from the border States. In making an
+appropriation for gradual emancipation and colonization, so much of the
+overture as embraced colonization might and should be extended to the
+North, as well as the South, so as, with their consent, to colonize
+beyond our limits the free blacks of _every State_.
+
+In a former letter, published over my signature, of the 30th September,
+1856, called 'AN APPEAL FOR THE UNION,' I said: '_I have never
+believed in a peaceable dissolution of the Union_. * * _No; it will be
+war_, CIVIL WAR, _of all others the most sanguinary and
+ferocious._ * * _It will be marked_ * * _by frowning fortresses, by
+opposing batteries, by gleaming sabres, by bristling bayonets, by the
+tramp of contending armies, by towns and cities sacked and pillaged, by
+dwellings given to the flames, and fields laid waste and desolate. It
+will be a second fall of mankind; and while we shall be performing here
+the bloody drama of a nations suicide, from_ THE THRONES OF
+EUROPE _will arise the exulting shouts of despots, and upon their
+gloomy banners shall be inscribed, as, they believe, never to be
+effaced, their motto_, MAN IS INCAPABLE OF SELF-GOVERNMENT.'
+Alluding to the subject of the present discussion, I then also said: '_I
+see, too, what, in this probable crisis of my country's destiny, it is
+my duty again to repeat from my Texas letter_: * * THE AFRICAN
+RACE, _gradually disappearing from our borders, passing, in part,
+out of our limits to Mexico, and Central and Southern America, and in
+part returning to the shores of their ancestors, there, it is hoped, to
+carry Christianity, civilization, and freedom throughout the benighted
+regions of the sons of Ham_.' My views, then, of 1844, were thus
+distinctly reiterated in 1856, in favor of the gradual extinction of
+slavery, accompanied by colonization.
+
+The President of the United States, in view of the limited appropriation
+by Congress, and the economy of short voyages, has recommended one of
+the great interoceanic routes through the American isthmus for a new
+negro colony. It is a great object to secure the control of this isthmus
+by a friendly race, born on our soil, and the selection corresponds with
+the views expressed in my Texas letter of 1844. As, however, the negroes
+can only be colonized by their own consent, we should therefore, and as
+an act of humanity and justice, open all suitable homes abroad for their
+free choice. After much reflection, I think it is their interest and
+ours (when the nation shall make large and adequate appropriations),
+mainly to seek Liberia as a permanent home, establishing there, among
+their own race, and in the land of their ancestors, a great republic.
+Liberia has already largely contributed to the decline of the African
+slave trade. She has reclaimed from barbarism, for civilization,
+Christianity, liberty, and the English language, 700 miles of the coast,
+running far into the interior, reaching a high, healthy, well watered,
+rich, and beautiful country. She has already civilized and Christianized
+300,000 native Africans, and brought them into willing obedience to her
+government. As her power extends along the coast and into the interior,
+she may soon extinguish the slave trade. This would relieve our
+squadron, stationed by treaty on the African coast to suppress that
+traffic, and leave the large sums, annually expended by Congress for
+that purpose, to be applied in further aid of the cause of colonization.
+
+Providence, for several centuries, has mysteriously connected our
+destiny with that of the African race. This rebellion developes that
+purpose; the civilization of that race here, and their transfer to the
+land of their fathers, carrying with them our language, laws, religion,
+and free institutions, redeemed from the curse of slavery. Now, indeed,
+we see the approaching fulfilment of prophecy, when 'Ethiopia shall
+stretch forth her hands unto God.' We have just established commercial
+and diplomatic relations with Liberia, and, in separating from the race
+here, let us do them ample justice. Let us purchase for Liberia (which
+can be done for a small sum), the great adjacent coast and interior of
+Africa, and thus eventually evangelize and civilize that whole region.
+Liberia would thus expand and become the great Afric-American republic,
+and the dominant nation of that immense continent. Commerce, the first
+great missionary--like St. John in the wilderness, preceding the advent
+of the Redeemer--would penetrate that dark region, and the execrable
+trade in human beings, give way to the interchange of products and
+manufactures.
+
+The _Westminster Review_ has said, 'The Americans are planting free
+negroes on the coast of Africa; a greater event, probably, in its
+consequences, than any that has occurred since Columbus set sail for the
+New World.' Let us now adopt gradual emancipation, and the colonization
+of Africa, and the voyage of the great discoverer will have given
+civilization and Christianity to two continents, and eventually, we
+trust, the blessings of liberty to all mankind.
+
+The divers products and fabrics of Africa and of our Union invite
+reciprocal commerce. We want her gold, coffee, ivory, dyestuffs, and
+numerous raw materials of manufactures; and she wishes our fabrics,
+engines, agricultural implements, breadstuffs, and provisions. The trade
+will give immense and profitable employment to our shipping. From the
+Cape of Good Hope to the Mediterranean, from the Atlantic to the Red sea
+and the Indian ocean, Africa is tropical or semi-tropical. She has most
+of the products of the East and West Indies. She can produce cheaper and
+better cotton than any other region, except our Southern States, to
+which, from their fertile soil, and climate favored by the Gulf Stream,
+free white labor will eventually give us, substantially, a monopoly of
+that great staple. She equals any country in the production of sugar,
+coffee, and cocoa. In palm oil and ivory she has almost a monopoly. Of
+spices, she has the clove, nutmeg, pepper, and cinnamon. Of dyes and
+dyewoods, she has indigo, camwood, harwood, and the materials for the
+best blue, brown, red, and yellow colors. In nuts, she has the palm, the
+ground, the cocoa, and the castor. In gums, she has the copal, senegal,
+mastic, India rubber, and gutta percha. In fruits, she has the orange,
+lime, lemon, citron, tamarind, papaw, banana, fig, grape, date,
+pineapple, guava, and plantain. In vegetables, she has the yam, cassado,
+tan yan, and sweet potato. She has beeswax and honey, and most valuable
+skins and furs. In woods, she has the ebony, mangrove, silver tree,
+teak, unevah, lignumvitæ, rosewood, and mahogany. She has birds with the
+sweetest notes and brightest plumage, and fish and animals in the
+greatest variety. There are the giant elephant, rhinoceros, and
+hippopotamus. There the lordly lion roams, the monarch of his native
+forest, as if conscious of furnishing robes for royalty and symbolizing
+the flag of a great nation. Where animals of such sagacity, courage,
+power, and majesty are found, why should not man be great also? Our
+ancestors, the Britons, were once savages; so were our Celtic and Saxon
+forefathers, and most of them were slaves. What are their descendants
+now? Let Shakespeare, Newton, Fox, Burke, Pitt, Peel, Washington,
+Wellington, Franklin and Hamilton, Madison and Jefferson, the Adamses,
+Webster, Clay, and Jackson answer the question. I am hopeful of complete
+success; but whatever the result may be, we owe to ourselves, to our
+moral and material progress, but, above all, to the down-trodden race so
+long enslaved among us, to make the great experiment. If we succeed, it
+will be a monument to our glory, that will endure when time shall have
+crumbled the pyramids. If we fail, it will have been a noble effort in
+the cause of justice and humanity. Here, with the sentiment almost
+universal against the negro race, indicated by the votes and acts of all
+sections, and their exclusion everywhere, North and South, practically,
+from all social or political equality with the whites, they can never
+have among us any of those hopes, aspirations, energy, or opportunities,
+enabling them to test their capacity for great improvement. It is only
+where they shall be equals among equals, that they can ever attain high
+elevation. I take the facts as they are, and know that this prejudice of
+race here is ineradicable. In making the vain and hopeless effort to
+change it, we sacrifice to an impracticable idea our own good, and that
+of the race whose welfare we seek to promote. Colonization has
+heretofore been opposed by many, because they believed it hostile to
+manumission; but now, when emancipation is proposed, with appropriations
+to enable the manumitted to choose freely between remaining here and
+homes elsewhere, why should such a system encounter any hostility?
+Especially, when millions will vote for emancipation, if connected with
+voluntary colonization, why continue to oppose it? What objection is
+there to furnishing the means to enable the free or freed blacks to
+remain or to emigrate, and why should any of their friends wish to
+deprive them of such a privilege? Opposition springs also from
+confounding the border with the seceded States--the slaves of the loyal
+with those of the disloyal, and the conduct of the war; but the
+questions are different and independent.
+
+On this subject of what is called abroad the prejudice of color, the
+North has been censured, even by many of our best friends. But it is
+impossible for Europe, where the African race are not, and never have
+been, either as slaves or freemen, to solve for us this most difficult
+problem of the social equality of the white and black races. Where
+marriage between them is unknown, such social equality cannot exist.
+Europe has an idea and a theory, but no practical knowledge of the
+subject. We have the facts and experience. Efforts have been made here
+for a century to establish this social equality, but the failure is
+complete. New England has devoted years of toil and thousands of dollars
+to accomplish this object, and the Quakers, and Franklin's Pennsylvania
+society, spared neither time nor money. Statesmen, philanthropists, and
+Christians have labored for years in the cause, but the case grows worse
+with each succeeding census. State after State, including now a large
+majority, forbid their introduction. The repugnance is invincible, and
+the census of 1840 (as shown by the tables annexed to my Texas letter of
+January, 1844) proved that one sixth of the negroes of the North are
+supported by taxation of the whites--a sum which would soon colonize
+them all. The free negroes, regarded here as an inferior caste, have no
+adequate motive for industry or exertion. Each year, as their numbers
+augment, intensifies the prejudice, invites collision in various
+pursuits, with competition for wages, and renders colonization more
+necessary. We must not any longer keep the free negro here in an
+exhausted receiver, or mix the races, as chemical ingredients in a
+laboratory, for the edification of experimental philosophers. Such
+empiricism as regards the negro race, after our repeated failures, is
+cruel and unjust. We have made the trial here for nearly a century, and
+the race continues to retrograde. Compare their progress and condition
+in America and Liberia, and what friend of the race or of humanity can
+desire to retain them among us? The voice of nature and of experience
+proclaims, that America is our home and Africa is theirs; and let us, in
+a spirit of true kindness and sympathy for them, obey the mandate.
+
+There will soon be a great change among the free blacks on this subject.
+When Liberia shall expand and become a considerable power--when she
+shall have great marts of commerce, and her flag shall float in our
+harbors--when the Messages of her President, the reports of her Cabinet,
+the debates in her Congress shall be read here, her ministers and
+consuls be found among us, and the ambition of her race shall thus be
+aroused, we shall probably have as great a negro exodus from our country
+to Africa, as there ever was from Europe to America.
+
+When the gold so profusely scattered through Africa shall reach our
+shores, as also her rich and varied products, when our reciprocal
+commerce shall be counted by millions of dollars, the home of their
+ancestors will present irresistible attractions to the negro race.
+Ceasing to be menials and inferiors, they will then go where they will
+be welcomed as citizens and rulers of a great republic. They will go
+where they govern themselves, and not where they are governed or
+enslaved by others. They will go where they give all the votes, and hold
+all the offices, and not where their exclusion is complete. They will go
+where the flag, the army, and navy, and government are theirs--and
+theirs also the social position--equals among equals, peers among peers.
+This they can never attain here: indeed, they will continue to
+retrograde, and become a mere element of social and political agitation.
+The complete success of Liberia must extinguish African slavery, here,
+and throughout the world. Emigration there, is the true interest and
+destiny of the negro race. Let us aid them to fulfil it. This is alike
+our interest and our duty. If they have been wronged here, let us pave
+their way with kindness and with gold on their return to the land of
+their forefathers. Let us aid them in building up there a great nation,
+which will call us blessed. Let the curse of slavery be forgotten, in
+the prosperous career of a great and free Afric-American republic. Born
+on our soil, let them transfer our language and institutions to Africa.
+Our material progress has been marvellous; but such an act, on our part,
+would indicate a moral advance, that would greatly exalt us among
+nations. Every dollar thus expended, would come back to us with compound
+interest, giving us also that which money cannot purchase, the
+consolation of good deeds, the favor of Heaven, and the blessing of
+mankind.
+
+I have stated that so much of the overture made by Congress to the
+States, as regards appropriations for colonizing abroad their free
+blacks, should be extended to the free, as well as the slave States.
+Among the alleged evils of emancipation apprehended at the North, is the
+belief that this policy would fill the free States with manumitted
+slaves. But, by extending the proposed compacts, so far as regards
+colonization, to the free as well as the slave States, this result would
+not only be arrested, but the number of free blacks in the North, as
+well as the South, would soon be greatly diminished. The brutal assaults
+lately made by mobs on unoffending blacks in some of the free States is
+truly disgraceful. It is, however, a warning of the fatal consequences
+of retaining the free blacks in the North, especially when, from
+increasing density of population, or other causes, the struggle for
+subsistence, and competition for work and wages, between whites and
+negroes, should become general. In view of these facts, surely no friend
+of the negro race would persuade them to remain here.
+
+     NOTE.--This was printed before the President's emancipation
+     proclamation, but is not hostile to it, when accompanied by capture
+     or conquest.
+
+
+
+
+THE WOLF HUNT.
+
+  AIR--'Una niña bonita y hermosa.'
+
+
+  We will ride to the wolf hunt together,
+    Where thousands must yield up their breath,
+  By the night, by the light--in all weather!
+    Then hurrah, for the wild hunt of death!
+  Where the deep cannon bays for our beagle,
+    Over mountain and valley we come,
+  While the death-fife now screams like an eagle
+        To the roll
+          and the roll
+            and the roll
+              and the roll of the drum.
+
+  Fatherland!--how the wild beasts are yelling!
+    Blood drips from each ravenous mouth;
+  Blood of brothers, each torn from his dwelling
+    By the wild, hungry wolves of the South.
+
+  CHORUS--Where the deep cannon bays for our beagle, &c.
+
+  Let them rave! for our rifles are ready;
+    Let them howl! for our sabres are keen;
+  And the nerve of the hunter is steady
+    When the track of the wére-wolf is seen.
+
+  CHORUS--Where the deep cannon bays for our beagle, &c.
+
+  Yes, the foul wolves have been o'er the border,
+    But the fields were piled high with their slain,
+  Till we drove them, in frantic disorder,
+    To their dark home of hunger again.
+
+  CHORUS--Where the deep cannon bays for our beagle, &c.
+
+  So we'll ride to the wolf hunt together,
+    Where the bullet stops many a breath,
+  By the night, by the light--in all weather,
+    To the wild Northern wolf hunt of death.
+  Where the deep cannon bays for our beagle,
+    Over mountain and valley we come;
+  While the death-fife now screams like an eagle
+        To the roll
+          and the roll
+            and the roll
+              and the roll of the drum.
+
+
+
+
+THE POETRY OF NATURE.
+
+
+Among the many marvellous myths of antiquity, I know of none more
+directly applicable to Man and Art than that of the great struggle
+between Antæus the Earth-born and Hercules.
+
+Lifted on high by brute force, Antæus is stifled; but falling and
+touching Earth, he revives. Man, borne by the irresistible force of
+circumstance, may become false, frivolous, and weak: his Art may dwindle
+to mere imitation, his Poetry turn to wailing and convulsions: but let
+him once fall back to Nature--to the all-cherishing Earth, the Mother of
+Beauty--and all his Works and Songs become as seas, rivers, green
+leaves, and the music of birds.
+
+We have too long needed the touch of fresh and holy Earth. Too long has
+our love of picture and poem, and of all that the glorious impulse _to
+create in beauty_ achieves, been fickle as the wind; based on discordant
+fancies and distorted tradition. Symbolism in art, at present means only
+an arbitrary and puerile substitution of one object or caprice for
+another. The most successful poetic simile is often as thoroughly
+conventional, and consequently as perishable, as possible. In short, we
+are _not_ in an age when there is one poetry alike for _all_ men; when
+the artist and bard are _truly_ great and honored, and their works
+regarded as the Best that man can do. The few who comprehend this in all
+its sad significance look from their towers tearfully forth into the
+dark night, and wail, 'Great PAN is dead!'
+
+But he is not dead, nor sleepeth. He will yet return in that awful dawn
+of the day which will know no end. Already faint gleams of its glory
+gild the steep hills, the high places, and the groves sacred of old to
+the Starry Queen, and a reviving breath sweeps from the blue sea,
+calling up in ruined fane, and on the green turf where once stood
+temples in the olden time, fresh ideals of those forms of ineffable
+beauty, faun and fay, born of the primeval myth. There is already a
+quivering in the ancient graves, and strange lights flicker over the
+mighty stones consecrated by tradition to incantations, not of morbid
+fears, but of the strong and beautiful in nature. For in the
+Utilitarianism, in the steam and machinery of 'this age without faith,'
+I see the first necessary step of a return to real needs, solid facts,
+and natural laws. It is the first part of the doing away with rococo
+sentimentalisms, mediæval tatters, and all wretched and ragged
+remainders and reminders of states of society which have nothing in
+common with our present needs. And it will be a revival, not of the
+ancient adoration of Nature as a mythology and a superstition, but as a
+heartfelt love of all that is beautiful, and joyous, and healthy in
+itself. Then the gods will indeed return and live again among us; not as
+literal beings, however, but as blessings in all that is best for man.
+Nor will 'Romance' be wanting--that influence which the age, without
+defining, still declares is essential to poetry. In Science, in
+Humanity, and in perfecting human ties and interests by the influence of
+love, there exists a romance which is exquisitely fascinating, and which
+lends itself to tenderer and more graceful dreams than Trouveur or
+Minnesinger _of any age_ ever knew--dreams the more delightful because
+they will not fade away with the mists of morning, but be fulfilled in
+clear sunlight, line by line, before man.
+
+It is not difficult to prove what I have here asserted of this tendency
+toward the Real in modern literature and art. Within twenty, nay, within
+ten years, men of genius have abandoned the Supernatural and the Gothic
+as affording fit themes for creative efforts. That unfortunate creature
+the Ghost--especially the Ghost in Armor--as well as the Historical or
+Sensational personages who live only in the superlative--are at present
+in general demand only by that harmless class who read 'for
+entertainment,' and even they are beginning to ungratefully mock their
+old friends. It is not difficult to foresee that the Romance so dear to
+the last generation will soon become the exclusive heritage of the
+vulgar. Meanwhile, genial sketches of fresh, unaffected Nature, draughts
+from real life, are beginning to be loved with keen zest. What novels
+are so successful as those in which the writer has truthfully mirrored
+the heart or the home? What pictures are so loved as those which set
+before us the Real, or, rather, the Ideal in its true meaning--that of
+the perfected essence of the Real?
+
+When this tendency shall have fairly placed man on the right road--when
+we shall have learned to follow and set forth Nature as she is, in
+spirit and in truth, the great cherishing mother, ever young, ever
+joyous, of all beauty and all pleasure, then we may anticipate the last
+and greatest era of human culture. Then we may hope for a more than
+Greek art--an art freed from every strain of oppression and injustice.
+To effect this we must, however, do what the earliest founders of poetry
+find mythology did: search Nature closely, bear constantly in mind her
+one great principle of potent Being, continually displaying itself in
+all things as life and death, mutually creating each other, and acting
+in all organic life by the mystery of Love, Then, while establishing
+those affinities and correspondences between natural objects which
+constitute Poetry, let it be ever present to the mind that each is, so
+to speak, always polarized with its positive end of activity, creation
+or birth, and its negative of cessation, decay and death. It is by the
+constant _realization_ of this solemn and beautiful truth in all things
+that Nature eventually appears so strengthening and cheerful. The flower
+and the fruit, the delight of anticipation and the luxury of
+realization, are the delightful culmination of every natural existence;
+and it is to perfect these that all action tends. Decay, disease, pain,
+and death, are only kindly agencies acting more effectually and rapidly,
+to sweep away that which is fading, and hasten it into new forms of
+beauty and pleasure.
+
+  'Nature within her placid breast receives
+  All her creation; and the body pays
+  Itself the due of nature, and its end
+  Is self-consummated.'[A]
+
+[Footnote A: LUCAN, _Pharsalia_.]
+
+Birth is thus an essential part of death, and death of birth--both
+forming, by their inseparable action, the highest and first intelligible
+stage of the inscrutable mystery of the active power of Nature. 'This,'
+the reader may say, 'is, however, only the old theme, worn threadbare by
+poet and moralist.' Let him look more earnestly into it--let him
+_master_ it, and he will find it the germ of a deeper, a bolder, and a
+more genial Art than the world has known for ages. It is no slander on
+the intellect or sensibility of this day to say that its admiration for
+Nature is really at a low ebb, and that, with thousands even of the
+educated, nothing gives so little solid satisfaction as lovely
+scenery or other inartificially beautiful phenomena. The reason
+is that Poetry--the hymn which _should_ elevate the soul in
+Nature-worship--instead of reflecting in every simile, every image,
+directly or indirectly, the deep mystery of life which intuitively
+associates with itself that of love and all loveliness, is satisfied
+with mere _comparisons_ based on casual and petty resemblance. The
+reader or critic of modern times, when the poet speaks of 'rosy-fingered
+dawn,' or of 'cheeks like damask roses,' is quite satisfied with the
+accuracy of the simile as to delicate color, and with the refined, vague
+association of perfume and of individual memories attached to the
+flower. But if we could realize by even the dimmest hint that the mind
+of the poet was penetrated and filled by the knowledge that the rose was
+a flower-favorite of man in all lands in primeval ages, and, as Geology
+asserts, literally coeval with him; that its points of resemblance to
+woman properly gave it place in the oldest mythology as the floral
+type of the female godhead; that it was the earth-born reflection
+of the morning star, and rose from the foam with it when the
+Aphrodite-Astarte-Venus-Anadyomeno came to life; that, as the nearest
+symbol of beautiful virginity expanding into womanhood and maternity, it
+was appropriately allied to dawning life and light, and consequently to
+the rosy Aurora and to blushing youth; and that finally, in withered
+age, set around by sharp thorns, it is a striking likeness of wounding
+death, yet from which new roses may spring--we should find that in a
+knowledge of all these interchangable symbolisms lies a music and a
+color, a perfume and a feeling, as of a perfectly satisfactory Thought.
+Let it be observed that each of these rose-correspondences is directly
+based on Nature, and that, to a mind familiar with the antithetic
+identity of life and death, all are promptly soluble and mutually
+convertible, as by mental-magic alchemy. There is a truth and
+earnestness in them which, while stimulating the joyous sentiment, gives
+to every allusion to the rose the value of genius, and not of accident
+or the _chic_ of a 'happy idea.'
+
+But with the rose there are a thousand beautiful objects all consecrated
+by myth and legend, based on deeply-seated affinities, all reflecting
+the solemn mystery of birth and death in unity, all expressing love and
+pleasure, and all mutually convertible one into the other. All the
+differently-named Venuses, yes, all the goddesses of ancient mythology,
+are but _one_ Venus and one goddess--all gods blend in one Arch-Bel, or
+'Belerus old,' of myriad names--he, the inscrutable Abyss,
+self-developing into male and female--who is reflected again in every
+object which springs from them. All mountains meet in 'the solemn
+mystery of the guarded mount'--the lily teaches the same lessons as the
+rose and the sea shell--each and all are seen in the light ark which
+skims the waves, or floats high in heaven as the pearly-horned moon; and
+then the dew of the morning and the foaming sea become the wine of life
+and the honey of the flower, and they are found again in the
+CUP. So on through all beautiful forms, whether of nature or of
+the simpler creations of man--wherever we meet one, there, to the eye of
+him who has studied the purely natural science of symbolism, is a full
+garden of flowers of thought. Once master the primary solution of the
+great problem, once learn the method of its application, and every
+flower and simple attribute of life becomes invested with deep
+significance and earnest, passionate beauty. But this can be no half-way
+study, to be modified or qualified by prejudices. Do you seek, thirst
+for Truth, O reader? Dare you grasp it without blanching, without
+blushing? Then cast away _all_ the loathsome littleness which has rusted
+and fouled around you, and look at Nature as she literally _is_, in her
+naked beauty, conceiving and forming, quickening and warming into
+infinitely varied and lovely life, and then _forming_ once again with
+the strong and harsh influences of death, pain and decay. It avails
+nothing to be squeamish and timid in the tremendous laboratory of Truth.
+There is but little account taken of your parlor-propriety in the depths
+of ocean, where wild sea-monsters engender, where the million-tonned
+coral-rock rises to be crowned with palms, amid swaying tides and
+currents which cast up in a night leagues of sandy peninsulas. Little
+heed is taken of your prudish scruples or foul follies, where the
+screaming eagle chases his mate on the road of the mad North-wind;
+little care for _your_ pitiful perversions of health and truth into
+scurvy jests or still scurvier blushes, wherever life takes new form as
+life, ever begetting through the endless chain of being. There is no
+learning a little and leaving the rest, for him who would explore the
+fountain-springs of Poetry and of Nature. The true poet, like the true
+man of science, cannot limit vision and thought to a handful of twigs or
+a cluster of leaves. In the minutest detail he recalls the roots, trunk,
+and branches--the smallest part is to him a reflection of the whole, and
+formed by the same laws.
+
+The great minds of the early mythologic and hitherto Unknown Age had
+this advantage in shaping that stupendous _Lehre_ or lore which embraced
+under the same laws, mythology, language, science, poetry, and art--they
+modified nothing and avoided nothing for fear of shocking conventional
+and artificial feelings. Nature was to them what she was to
+herself--_literal_. The great law of reproduction, around whose primary
+stage gathers all that is attractive or beautiful in organic life; the
+'moment' _toward_ which everything blossoms, and _from_ which everything
+fades, was not by them ignored as non-existent, or treated in paltry
+equivoque, as though it were a secondary consequence and a vile
+corruption, instead of a healthy cause. Their science was, it is true,
+only founded on observation (and therefore easily warped to error by
+_apparent_ analogies) instead of induction, while their æsthetics had
+the same illusive basis; and yet, by fearlessly following the great
+_manifest_ laws of organic life, they were enabled to lay the
+foundations of all which in later ages came to perfection in the Hindu
+Mahabarata, and Sacrintala--in Greek statues, and, it may be, in Greek
+humanity--in Norse Eddas, and Druidic mysteries. All of these, and, with
+them, all that Phoenician, Etruscan, and Egyptian gave to beauty, owe
+their origin to the fearless incarnation in early times of the manifest
+laws of Nature in myth, song, and legend. He who would feel Nature as
+they felt it--a real, quickening presence, a thrilling, wildly beautiful
+life, inspiring the Moerad to madness by the intensity of rushing
+mountain torrent and passionately rustling leaves, a spirit breathing a
+god into every gray old rock and an exquisite _love_ into every
+flower--should take up the clue which these old myths afford, and follow
+it to the end. Then the Hidden in forgotten lore will be revealed to
+him, the Orgie and Mystery will yield to him all, and more than all,
+they gave to Pythagoras of old. He will hold the key to every faith--nay
+more, he will form and feel new faiths for himself in studying mountains
+and seas. To him the cliff, high-rising above the foaming tide, the
+serpent gliding through the summer grass, the cool dark woodland path
+winding into arching leafy shadows, the brook and the narrow rocky pass,
+the red sunset and the crimson flower, gnarled roots and caverns, lakes,
+promontories, and headlands, will all have a strange meaning--not vague
+and mystical, but literal and expressive--a mutual and self-reflecting
+meaning, embodying all of the Beautiful that man loves best in life, and
+consecrated by the exquisite fables of a joyous mythology.
+
+I have long thought that a work devoted to the natural poetry and
+antique mystery of such objects as occur most prominently in Nature
+would be acceptable to all lovers of the Beautiful. It would be worth
+the while, I should think, to all such, to know that every object, by
+land or sea, was once the subject of a myth, that this myth had a
+meaning founded in the deepest laws of life, and that all were curiously
+connected and mutually reflected in one vast system. It would be worth
+while to know, not only that dove and goblet, flower and ring were each
+the 'motive' of a graceful fable, but also that this fable was something
+more than merely fanciful or graceful--that it had a deep meaning, and
+that each and all were essential parts of one vast whole. And it would
+be pleasant, I presume, to see these myths and meanings somewhat
+illustrated by poem or proverb, or other literary ornament. What is here
+offered is, indeed, little more than a beginning--for the actual
+completion of such a work would involve the learning and labor, not of a
+man, but of an age. I trust, however, that these chapters may induce
+some curiosity and research into the marvels and mysteries of antique
+symbolism, and perhaps invest with a new interest many objects hitherto
+valued more for their external attractions than for their associations.
+
+The reading world has for many years received with favor works
+purporting to teach with poetic illustration the Language of Flowers.
+But we learn from ancient lore that there is a secret language and a
+symbolism, not only of flowers, but of _all_ natural objects. These
+objects, on one side, or from one point of view, all stand for each
+other, and are, in fact, synonymes--the whole representing singly the
+Venus-mystery of love and generation, or _life_. That is to say, this is
+what they do _positively_--for negatively, at the same time, and under
+the same forms, they also typify death, repulsion, darkness--even as the
+same word in Hebrew often means unity or harmony when read backward, and
+the reverse when taken forward. Why they represent _opposites_ (the
+great opposites of existence, life and death, lust and loathing,
+darkness and light) is evident enough to any one who will reflect that
+each was intended to represent in itself all Nature, and that in Nature
+the great mystery of mysteries is the springing of death from life and
+of life from death by means of the agency of sexual action through
+vitality and light.
+
+I would beg the reader to constantly bear in mind this fact when
+studying the symbolism and mythology of Nature--that among the ancients
+every object, beginning with the serpent, typified _all that is_, or all
+Nature, and consequently the opposites of Death and Life, united in one,
+as also the male and female principle, darkness and light, sleep and
+waking, and, in fact, _all_ antagonisms. Even when, as in the case of
+the goat, the wild boar, or the Typhon serpent of the waters,
+destruction is more peculiarly implied, the fact that destruction is
+simply a preparation for fresh life was never forgotten. The destroying,
+undulating, wavy serpent of the waters was _also_ the type of life, and
+wound around the staff of Escalapius as a healing emblem, recalling the
+brazen serpent of Moses. In like manner the Tree of Life or of Knowledge
+was the tree also of Death, or of Good and of Evil, _arbor cogniti boni
+et mali_, and, according to the Rabbis, of sexual generation, from
+eating of which the first parents became self-conscious. Beans, which
+were symbols of impurity and peculiarly identified with evil
+(MENKE, _De Leguminibus Veterum_, Gottingen, 1814), were also
+typical of supporting life and of reviving spring and light. To see all
+reflected in each, and each in all, is, in fact, the key to all the
+mysteries of symbolism and the clue to the whole poetry of Nature.
+
+I propose in the following chapters to discuss the poetry and mystery of
+flowers, herbs, and other objects, and give not only their ancient
+signification, but also their more modern meaning, as set forth in song
+and in tradition.
+
+  THE ROSE.
+
+  'I felix Rosa, mollibusque sertis
+  Nostri cinge comas Apollinaris.
+  Quas tu nectere candidas, sed olim,
+  Sic te semper amet Venus, memento!'
+
+  MARTIAL, Epig. 88, lib. 7.
+
+Among the most exquisite outbreathings of feeling in Nature we have the
+Rose. Many flowers are in certain senses more beautiful, but as, among
+women, she who charms is not always the most highly gifted with
+conventional attractions, so it is with the Queen of the Garden, whose
+proud simplicity is delicately blended with a familiar, friendly grace,
+which wins by the tenderest spell of association.
+
+Of all flowers, of all ages, in every land, the Rose has ever been most
+intimately connected with humanity--a sentiment so earnestly expressed
+and so lovingly repeated in the poetry, art, and myths of the olden
+time, that it would seem as if tradition had once recorded what science
+has only recently discovered, that this plant was coeval with Man.
+Inferior, indeed, to the sacred Lotus as a religious symbol, the Rose
+has always been superior to her sister of the silent waters as
+expressing the most delicate mysteries of Beauty and of Love. The Lotus,
+the only rival of the Rose in the early Nature-worship,[A] furnished
+indeed in its name alone a solemn formula of faith which has been more
+frequently repeated than any other on earth. It was the flower of
+mystery, the primeval emblem of Pantheism in beauty, the blossom of the
+Morning Land. But the Rose belongs to the revellers and lovers in
+Persia, to the worship and banquets of the joyous Greeks, to those who
+meet in gardens by moonlight beside fountains, the children of Aphrodite
+the Foam-born.
+
+[Footnote A: The Lotus was to the Egyptian and Hindu not only an image
+of physical life, but of life in all its strength and splendor, the type
+of the generating and forming force of Nature in itself, expressing the
+idea of 'water, health, life.' The Hindu imagined in its form the whole
+earth, swimming like the lotus on water; the pistils represent Mount
+Meru (the world's central point and the Indian Olympus), the stamens are
+the peaks of the surrounding mountains, the four central leaves of its
+crown are the four great divisions of the earth, according to the four
+points of the compass, while the other leaves represented the circles of
+the earth surrounding India. On the lotus is throned Brahma the creator,
+and Lakshmi, the goddess of all blessings.
+
+_Die Symbolik und Mythologie der Natur_, VON J. B. FRIEDERICH,
+Würzburg, 1859.]
+
+From the earliest age the World of Thought has been disputed by two
+Spirits, and none are mightier than they. One, fearful in mysterious
+beauty, the Queen of all that is occult and inscrutable, rises in cloudy
+state from the antique Orient--from the Egypt of the Only Isis, and from
+the Avatar land of Brahma--solemnly breathing the love of the All in
+One. Infinitely lovely is the dark-browed Queen, and she bears in her
+hand the lotus. Against her, in laughing sunlight, amid green leaves and
+birdsong, waving merry warning, stands a brighter form--the incarnation
+of purely earthly beauty--for she is all of earth and life; the Spirit
+of the Actual and Material; and she is crowned with roses.
+
+These are the Thought-Queens of Greece and India, of France and of
+Germany. But the Christianity of the middle ages declared that the
+flower was neither a Rose nor Lotus, and placed in the hand of its Queen
+of Heaven the Lily of Martyrdom!
+
+Dear reader, sit among green leaves until the birds no longer fear you;
+or else peer from some quiet corner into your June garden, so that you
+may watch its blossoms unobserved--as the little damsel in the Danish
+tale did the dancing lilies. When the fever of life and self grows calm,
+a feeling will steal over you, as of wonder, that the flowers seem to be
+breathing and beautying _for themselves_, and not for man. A pure, holy
+life, quite apart from all ultimate destinies of bouquets and wreaths
+and human uses, seems to prevail among them. Each has its expression,
+its ineffably tender idea, not more clearly formulized, it is true, than
+those which music conveys, yet quite as delicious. One might say that
+they seem to talk together; but they do not think as we think or dream
+as we dream--not even symbolically. It will be long ere you appreciate
+more than their fresh joy of existence. But, little by little one herb
+and flower after the other becomes individualized--they are artists
+living themselves out into hues and lines and parts of a tableau; the
+vine draws itself in an arabesque which is perfect _because_
+self-forming; and the whole harmonize with the sway of sunlight and
+shadow, with rustling breeze and hurrying ant on the footpath, and
+chirping birds, so exquisitely that you may feel, as you never have in
+studying human art or in poetry, that tones, colors, curves, organisms
+_form_ altogether, or separately, the effect of each other. If among
+them all there be a Rose, you will then find _why_ it was that she was
+Flower Queen in Eden, and in all ages. No matter what rivals are
+present, the Rose will first suggest _Woman_--Woman in her most
+exquisite loveliness.
+
+We find, indeed, in detail, that no flower furnishes so many obvious
+points of comparison to a fair girl. Its delicate tints of white and red
+are suggestive of her complexion, the bud is like prettily pouting lips,
+while the exquisite perfume is, especially among the excitable children
+of the East, the most daintily piquant of exotic stimulants. The
+Nature-worship of the early ages, which saw in all things the action of
+the male and female principles of generation, did not fail to discover
+in the mossy rose (as it had done in the cup, the ring, the gate, the
+mountain-path, and every other imaginable type of opening, passing
+through, and receiving) a striking symbol of the Queen of Love, and of
+her chief attribute. In accordance with the first rule of the first
+religion, which was to identify the male and female godheads in the
+Producer, they also discovered in the Rosebud a symbol of the male
+principle, or of germinating life, from which unchanged word, as has
+been thought, the name of Buddh' or Buddha was given--or taken.
+
+As the flower dearest to Venus and the Graces--nay, in a certain sense,
+the very Venus herself, dew-dripping and odorous, the Rose soon shed the
+Aurora light to which it was compared, and its winning perfume, over
+every antique dream of love and beauty. It rises with the sea-foam when
+Aphrodite comes in pearly whiteness from the blue waters; or it is born
+of the blood of the dying Adonis when he--the type of summer
+beauty--dies by the tusk of the boar, the emblem of winter, of
+destruction, and of death; or it springs from the exquisitely pure and
+sacred drops incarnadine of the goddess herself when scratched by
+thorns, in pursuit of her darling. And as among the ancients, whether
+Etruscan or Egyptian, it was usual to celebrate the rites of Venus
+during banquets, the rose, with which the revellers and their goblets
+were crowned, became also the symbol of Dionysus--or of Bacchus. And as
+silence should be especially kept as to the secret pleasures of love and
+the favors of fair ladies, as well as to what is uttered when heated by
+wine, the rose was also hung up at all orgies to intimate
+silence--whence the expression _sub rosa_, 'under the rose.' And
+therefore Harpocrates, the god of silence and mystery (or of the secret
+productive force of Nature), bears this flower--the first emblem of
+'still life'--silence as to the joys of love and wine.
+
+  'Let us the Rose of Love entwine
+  Round the cheek-flushed god of wine:
+  As the rose its gaudy leaves
+  Round our twisted temples weaves,
+  Let us sip the time away,
+  Let us laugh as blithe as they.
+
+  'Rose, oh rose, the gem of flowers!
+  Rose, the care of vernal hours!
+  Rose, of every god the joy!
+  With roses Venus' darling boy
+  Links the Graces in a round
+  With him in flowery fetters bound.
+
+  'With roses, Bacchus, crown my head:
+  The lyre in hand thy courts I'll tread,
+  And, with some full-bosomed maid,
+  Dance, nodding with the rosy braid,
+  That veils me with its clustered shade.'
+
+  ANACREON.
+
+The study of mythologic symbolism gives a thousand indications that in
+prehistoric ages, among the worshippers of the Serpent and the Fire, all
+the deepest feelings of men, whether artistic, religious, or sensual,
+were concentrated on the real or fancied affinities of natural objects
+with an earnestness of which we of the present age have no conception.
+Poetry, as it exists for us, is a pretty rococo fancy; to the
+worshippers and framers of myths it was a truth of tremendous
+significance. To such minds a Rose freshly blowing was a symbol, not
+merely of Divinity in a barren, abstract manner, but of Divinity in its
+most vivid and fascinating forms. It was GOD, male and female,
+manifested as love, as perfume, and as light. Believing that every
+flower on earth was the reflection of an arch-typal star in heaven, they
+honored the Rose by holding that as a flower it was generated by and
+reflected the sun, and the morning star, and, in fact, the moon also.
+So, in a poem of the Arab Meflana Dschelaledin:
+
+  'The full rose, in its glory, is like the sun,
+  Thou seest all its leaves, each like unto the moon.'
+
+It was therefore one of the flowers of Light. Its color was that of the
+Aurora--not in Homer alone, but in all ancient song, Dawn is
+rosy-fingered, rosy-hued. This resemblance to the morning is beautifully
+set forth by Ausonius:
+
+  'There Pæstan roses blushed before my view,
+  Bedropped with early morning's freshening dew;
+  'Twere doubtful if the blossoms of the rose
+  Had robbed the morning, or the morning those:
+  In dew, in tint the same, the star and flower,
+  For both confess the Queen of Beauty's power.
+  Perchance their sweets the same; but this more nigh
+  Exhales its breath, while that embalms the sky:
+  Of flower and star the goddess is the same,
+  And both she tinged with hues of roseate flame.'
+
+As the warmest floral type of love, of light, of revelling, and of the
+glowing dawn, the Rose became naturally the symbol of Youth. Here again,
+some decided resemblance was, as usual, required, and it was found in
+the Blush, the most characteristic, as well as the most beautiful,
+indication of affinity in early life between the moral and physical
+nature. Youth is the rose-time of love, the June of its summer; its
+hours are those of the morning-star of life, and of its dawn; the lover
+is the bud, the bride the blushing flower expanding in perfume. Every
+resemblance in it refers to _incipient_ life. The Bud is GOD,
+or Buddh', as the procreating deity, while the opening flower is the
+conceiving Aphrodite. All is early and transitory. The tendency of roses
+to quickly fade has given the poets of every land a most obvious simile
+for 'fleeting youth.'
+
+    'Go, lovely rose!
+  Tell her that wastes her time and me,
+    That now she knows,
+  When I resemble her to thee,
+  How sweet and fair she seems to be!
+
+   *       *       *       *       *
+
+    'Then die, that she
+  The common fate of all things rare
+    May read in thee--
+  How small a part of time they share
+  That are so wondrous sweet and rare.'
+
+In connection with youth, freshness, and blushes, the rose became,
+naturally enough, a type of reality and of natural truth. So in Hafiz:
+
+  'Can cheeks where living roses blow,
+  Where nature spreads her richest dyes,
+  Require the borrowed gloss of Art?'
+
+The deepest and most solemn mystery which the Nature-love of the
+earliest times attached to every object, was that it reflected its very
+opposite, and must always be regarded as identified with it in a
+primitive origin, in which both existed undeveloped. So we have seen
+that the rose, while female as the _expanding_ flower, was yet male as
+the _contracted_ bud. As a symbol of joyousness, youth, light, beauty,
+and the blushing dawn, it was eminently the floral type of _life_--a
+simile which has been employed by the poets of every land, Spenser among
+others:
+
+  'The whiles some one did chant this lovely lay:
+  Ah see, who so fair thing dost fain to see,
+  In springing flower the image of thy day;
+  All see thy virgin ROSE, how sweetly she
+  Doth first peep forth with bashful modesty,
+  That fairer seems the less you see her may;
+  Lo! see soon after, how more bold and free
+  Her bared bosom she doth broad display;
+  Lo! see soon after, how she fades and falls away.
+
+  'So passeth, in the passing of a day
+  Of mortal life, the leaf, the bud, the flower,
+  Nor more doth flourish after first decay,
+  That erst was sought to deck both bed and bower
+  Of many a lady, many a paramour:
+  Gather the rose of love while yet in time,
+  Whilst loving thou may'st loved be with equal crime.'
+
+But, as implying Life, the Rose also reflected Death, and this seemed to
+ray from the cruel thorns, which, as the German couplet says, remain
+after the leaves have vanished:
+
+  'The rose falls away,
+  But the thorns ever stay.'
+
+And a far older Hindu proverb solemnly exclaims: 'Hast thou obtained thy
+wish; exult not: canst thou not see how the thorn pierces the finger at
+the same instant when the rose is gathered?'
+
+Birth and Death, as typified in the Rose, and their mutual production,
+are beautifully expressed by Ausonius in the remainder of the poem
+already cited:
+
+  'I saw a moment's interval divide
+  The rose that blossomed from the rose that died.
+  _This_ with its cap of tufted moss looked green;
+  _That_, tipped with reddening purple, peeped between;
+  One reared its obelisk with opening swell,
+  The bud unsheathed its crimson pinnacle;
+  Another, gathering every purpled fold,
+  Its foliage multiplied; its blooms unrolled,
+  The teeming chives shot forth; the petals spread;
+  The bow-pot's glory reared its smiling head;
+  While this, that ere the passing moment flew
+  Flamed forth one blaze of scarlet on the view,
+  Now shook from withering stalk the waste perfume,
+  Its verdure stript, and pale its faded bloom,
+  I marvelled at the spoiling flight of time,
+  That roses thus grew old in earliest prime.
+  E'en while I speak, the crimson leaves drop round,
+  And a red brightness veils the blushing ground.
+  These forms, these births, these changes, bloom, decay,
+  Appear and vanish in the self-same day.
+  The flower's brief grace, O Nature! moves my sighs,
+  Thy gifts, just shown, are ravished from our eyes.
+  One day the rose's age; and while it blows
+  In dawn of youth, it withers to its close.
+  The rose the glittering sun beheld at morn,
+  Spread to the light its blossoms newly born,
+  When in his round he looks from evening skies
+  Already droops in age, and fades, and dies.
+  Yet blest that, soon to fade, the numerous flower
+  Succeeds herself, and still prolongs her hour.
+  O virgins! roses cull, while yet ye may;
+  So bloom your hours, and so shall haste away.'
+
+A Jewish legend declares that a famed cabalist was vainly pursued by
+Death through many forms. But at last the grim enemy changed himself
+into the perfume of a rose, which the magician--his suspicion lulled for
+the instant--inhaled, and died. In many German cities--Hildesheim,
+Bremen, and Lübeck among others--it is said that the death of a prebend
+is heralded by the discovery of a white rose under his seat in the
+cathedral. 'And,' as J. B. Friederich states (_Symbolik und Mythologie
+der Natur_, p. 225), 'in the Tyrol the rose has a _deathly_ meaning,
+since it is there believed that whoever wears an Alpine rose in his hat
+during a thunderstorm will be struck by the lightning; for which reason
+it is called the thunder-rose--a name probably derived from the
+consecration of that flower to Donar, the god of thunder.'
+
+The fantastic symbolism of the middle ages twined the Rose into
+innumerable capricious forms, few of which, however, have any direct
+derivation from _Nature_. Thus the Rose, from being typical of literal
+love, became that of Christ; from symbolizing the light of Aurora, it
+was made significant as the rose-window bearing the cross. The
+five-leaved rose indicated the love of GOD for Man, as set
+forth by His five wounds; while the eight-leaved typified that of the
+believer for the Lord. The Rose also emblemed the Virgin Mary, and from
+her was reflected through countless works of art and many legends, all
+of which are 'tenderly beautiful,' and, it may be added, generally
+rather silly--as, for instance, that of the holy friar Josbert of Doel,
+who sang daily five hymns in honor of the Virgin; in reward of which,
+immediately after his death, there grew from his mouth, ears, and
+nostrils, five roses, each marked with the words of a hymn. It has been
+usual to say much, of late years, of the 'child-like and earnest,'
+'tender and trusting' spirit which inspired these saintly legends, and
+to praise with them the morbid delicacy of a Fra Angelico. Believe me,
+reader, when I say that no vigorous and healthy mind ever passed through
+a period of adoration for and cultivation of mediæval Roman Catholic
+Art, who did not eventually see that this _naïve_ and innocent
+art-expression of the foulest, darkest, and most oppressive stage of
+history, had precisely the same foundation in truth as the love of the
+French court during the days of the Regency for a shepherd's life and
+child-like rural pleasures. A wicked and degraded age seeks for relief
+in contemplating its opposite; a healthy one--like the Greek--glories in
+itself, and strives to raise self to the highest standard of truth and
+beauty. None of the symbolisms of the middle ages grew directly from
+_Nature_--it was based on second-hand reveries, and on emblems from
+which all juice and life had been drained ages before in the East.
+
+Yes--look at the beautiful Rose, radiant with dewdrops, ruddy in the
+morning light, or dreamily lovely, with the moonbeams melting through
+her moon-shaped petals. Unchanged since that primeval age when she was a
+living idol--a visible and blest presence of the Great Goddess of beauty
+and love--whether as Astarte or Ma Nerf Baaltis, Ashtaroth or Venus. Let
+her breathe in her fragrance of the far times when millions in a strange
+and busy age now forgotten thronged rose-garlanded to the temples; when,
+bearing roses, they gathered to wild worship at the Feast of the New
+Moon, under shady groves or in picturesque high places among the ancient
+rocks. Rose-breathing, rose-perfumed, amid sweetest music and black
+Assyrian eyes, in the gliding dance under thousands of brazen serpent
+lamps, or far in dusky fragrant forests, they adored the Rose Queen--the
+very visible spirit and incarnation of nature in her loveliest form.
+Over many a shining sea passed the barks, rose-wreathed, to the far
+isles of the South: she--the Rose--was there! From many a steep crag
+looked out on the blue ocean the temple of the Star Queen, the Heaven
+and Sea-born sister of the Rose: and she was there. Through beautiful
+temples the lover strayed to meet his love, and, taking the rose from
+her brow, won her in worship of the Serpent-light of Loveliness: for
+she, the Rose--the Mystery of all Rapture--was ever there! On coin and
+jewel, in prayer and song they bore the Rose-Venus to every land in a
+living, ever-thrilling romaunt--far goldener, more thrilling with poetry
+than was in later times the dull lay of De Loris and Clopinel: for
+wherever man found joy and beauty in life, feast, and song, she--the
+Rose Incarnate--was there. In the Rose was the twin sister of all the
+mysteries: we may read them as clearly in her, if we will, as ever did
+rapt Sidonian, or priest, or daughter of the Aryan, or whatever the
+early unknown burning race may have been, which built fire-towers in
+melting Lesbos, and names Cor-on, the crowned Corinthos, ere yet a
+syllable of Greek had ever rung on earth. She is the Cup; her calyx and
+dew reflect the goblet of life, and the nectar-wine of life, typical in
+early times of endless generation, in later days of _re_-generation.
+Born of the sea, she recalls the Cor-olla Cup-Ark in which
+Hercules--Arech El Es--crossed the sea between the rosy dawn and ruddy
+sundown, 'strength upborne by love and life.' She is the Morning Star
+which hovered over Aphrodite when the Queen rose from the sea, since
+each was either in that Trinity; as in later days the star shone on him
+who rose from Maria the sea, accompanied by _Iona_, the dove. She is the
+Shell and the Ark of so many ancient legends--that Ark into which life
+enters, and from which it is born--the Ark of Earth, in which Adon and
+the flowers sleep till Spring--the Ark of maternal Being, from which man
+is born--the exquisite and beautiful Rose. She is the Door or Gate of
+the Transition or Passing Through from death to life: wherever man
+enters, _there_ is the Rose, and with her all the twin-symbols;--and
+when, bearing a rose, you chance to pass through some antique rock-gap,
+far inland, near a running stream, start not, reader, should a strange
+thrill, as of a solemn vanished life, sweep over you; for so surely as
+you live, know that in ancient days the footsteps of the rose-bearing
+worshipper went before you through that narrow pass, performing, by so
+doing, the rite typical of new birth, revival, and the Covenant. She is
+the cavern, the secret lair of life and the casket in which that one
+great arcanum and impenetrable secret of motherhood is forever
+concealed--forever and forever. They found it hidden--those priests of
+old--in Woman and in the Rose, in fruits, and in all that lives or
+grows; they traced the mystery up to godhood; they found it reflected in
+every object of reception and transit--in the temple, and house, and
+vase, and moon-like horns; they saw it in the woodland path, winding
+away in darkness among the trees; it lurked in seeds and nuts: man could
+crush the grape and burn the flower, but he could _not_ solve the
+inscrutable mystery of generation and life; and so he hallowed it. Hail
+to thee, thou, its fairest earthly form, O Rose of sunlight and luxury
+and love!
+
+In a 'Floral Dictionary' at hand, I find the rose means, 'genteel,
+pretty.' In another, twenty-four very different interpretations are
+ascribed to as many varieties of this flower. It is almost needless to
+say that the modern 'Language of Flowers' is, for the greater part,
+merely the arbitrary invention of writers entirely ignorant of the
+signification anciently attached to natural objects. The primary meaning
+of the rose is _love_; and it is a rose-garland, and not a tulip, which
+should stand for a 'declaration of passion,' and, at the same time, for
+a pledge of secrecy. Many of these modern fancies are, however, very
+beautiful; as, for instance, in that German lyric in which the Angel of
+the Flowers confers a fresh grace on the rose by veiling it in moss:
+
+  'And, robed in Nature's simplest weed,
+  Could there a flower that rose exceed?'
+
+But our task is to investigate those antique meanings of flowers, that
+secret language of life and love consecrated to them for thousands of
+years, and now buried under forgotten lays, legends, and strange relics
+of art.
+
+
+
+
+MACCARONI AND CANVAS.
+
+IX.
+
+
+ROMAN FIRESIDES.
+
+It was a warm day in October when Caper engaged rooms in the Babuino;
+the sun shone cheerfully, and he took no heed of the cold weather to
+come: in fact he entertained the popular idea that the land half-way
+between the tropics and paradise, called Italy, stood in no need of
+pokers and coal hods: he was mistaken. Awaking one morning to the fact
+that it was cold, he began an examination of his rooms for a fireplace:
+there was none. He searched for a chimney--in vain. He went to see his
+landlady about it: she was standing on a balcony, superintending the
+engineering of a bucket in its downward search for water. The house was
+five stories high, and from each story what appeared to be a lightning
+rod ran down into what seemed to be a well, in a small garden. Up and
+down these rods, tin buckets, fastened to ropes, were continually
+running, rattling, clanking down, or being drawn splashing, dripping up;
+and as they were worked assiduously, it made lively music for those
+dwelling in the back part of the house.
+
+Having mentioned to the landlady that he wanted a fire, the good woman
+reflected a moment, and then directed the servant to haul out a sheet
+iron vessel mounted on legs: this was next filled with charcoal, on
+which was thrown live coals, and the entire arrangement being placed
+outside the door on the balcony, the servant bent over and fanned it
+with a turkey feather fan. Caper looked on in astonishment.
+
+'Are you going to embark in the roast chestnut trade?' he asked.
+
+'_Ma che!_' answered madame; 'that is your fire.'
+
+'It will bring on asphyxia.'
+
+'We are never asphyxied in Rome with it. You see, the girl fans all the
+venom out of it; and when she takes it into your room it will be just as
+harmless as--let me see--as a baby without teeth.'
+
+This comparison settled the question, for it proved it wouldn't bite.
+Caper managed to worry through the cold weather with this poor consoler:
+it gave him headaches, but it kept his head otherwise cool, and his feet
+warm; and, as he lived mostly in his studio, where he had a good wood
+stove, he was no great loser.
+
+'But,' said he, descanting on this subject to Rocjean, 'how can the
+Romans fight for their firesides, when they haven't any?'
+
+'They will fight for their _scaldine_, especially the old women and the
+young women,' answered Rocjean, 'to the last gasp. There is nothing they
+stick to like these: even their husbands and lovers are not so near and
+dear to them.'
+
+'What are they? and, how much do they cost?' asked Caper, artistically.
+
+'Crockery baskets with handles; ten _baiocchi_,' replied Rocjean, 'You
+must have noticed them; why, look out of that window: do you see that
+girl in the house opposite. She has one on the window sill, under her
+nose, while her hands are both held over the charcoal fire that is
+burning in it. If there were any proof needed that the idea of a future
+punishment by fire did not originate in Rome, the best reply would be
+the bitter hatred the Romans have of cold. I can fancy the income of the
+church twice as large if they had only thought to have filled purgatory
+with icebergs and a corresponding state of the thermometer. A Roman, in
+winter time, would pay twice as many _baiocchi_ for prayers to get a
+deceased friend out of the cold, as he could otherwise be induced to.
+The English and other foreigners have, little by little, induced hotel
+and boarding house keepers to introduce grates and stoves, with good
+coal and wood fires, wherever they may hire lodgings; but the old Romans
+still stand by braseras and scaldinas.'
+
+'I caught a bad cold yesterday, thanks to this barbarous custom,' said
+Caper. 'I was in the Vatican, looking at a pretty girl copying a head of
+Raphael's, and depending on imagination and charcoal to warm me: the
+results were chills and the snuffles.'
+
+'Let that be a warning to you against entering art galleries during cold
+weather. To visit the Borghese collection with the thermometer below
+freezing point, and see all those semi-nude paintings, whether of saints
+or sinners, chills the heart; not only that they have no clothes, but
+that the artists who made the pictures were so radically vulgar--because
+they were affected!'
+
+'But,' spoke Caper,'they probably painted them in the merry spring time,
+when they had forgotten all about frozen fountains and oranges iced; or,
+it may be, in their day wood was cheaper than it is now, and money
+plentier.'
+
+'Yes, in the days when three million pilgrims visited Rome in a year.
+But would you believe it? within thirty miles of this city I have seen
+enough timber lying rotting on the ground, to half warm the Eternal
+City? The country people, in the commune where I lived one summer, had
+the privilege of gathering wood in the forest that crowns the range of
+mountains backing up from the sea, and separating the Pontine Marshes
+from the higher lands of the Campagna: but the trunks of the hewn trees,
+after such light branches as the women could hack off were carried away,
+were left to rot; for there was no way to get them to Rome--an hour's
+distance by railroad. Cold? The Romans are numbed to the heart: wait
+until they are warmed up; wait until they have a chance to make
+money--there will be no poets like Casti in those days--Casti, who wrote
+two hundred sonnets against a man who dunned him for--thirty cents! Talk
+about knowing enough to go into the house when it rains! Why the Roman
+shopkeepers of the poorer class don't know enough to shut their shop
+doors when they are starved with cold: you will find this to be the
+fact. Look, too, at the poor little children! do they ever think of
+playing fire engine, and thus warming themselves in a wholesome manner?
+No! One day I was painting away, when I heard a poor, thin little voice,
+as of a small dinner bell with a croup, and hoping at last I might see
+the little ones having a good frolic, I went to the window and looked
+out. What did I see? A small boy with a large, tallow-colored head,
+carrying a large black cross in the pit of his stomach; another small
+boy ringing a bell; and five others following along, in a crushed,
+despondent manner--inviting other boys to hear the catechism explained
+in the parish church. Meat for babes! I don't wonder the Roman women all
+want to be men, when I see the men without half the spirit of the women,
+and, such as they are, loafing away the winter evenings for warmth in
+wine shops or cafes. Poor Roman women, huddled together in your dark
+rooms, feebly lighted with a poor lamp, and hugging _scaldine_ for
+better comfort! Would that the American woman could see her Italian
+sister, and bless her stars that she did not live under the cap and
+cross keys.'
+
+'The cold has one good effect,' interrupted Caper; 'the forcible
+gesticulation of the Italians, which we all admire so much, arises from
+the necessity they have to do so--in order to keep warm. I have,
+however, an idea to better the condition of the wood sawyers in the
+Papal States, by introducing a saw buck or saw horse: as it is, they
+hold the wood in their hands, putting the saw between their knees, and
+then fairly rubbing the wood through the saw, instead of the saw through
+the wood. How, too, the Romans manage to cut wood with such axes as they
+have is passing strange. It would be well to introduce an American axe
+here, handle and all.'
+
+'We have an old, old saying in France,' spoke Rocjean:
+
+  '_Jamais cheval n'y homme
+  S'amenda pour aller a Rome._'
+
+'Never horse or man mended, that unto Rome wended.' Your American axe is
+useless without American energy, and would not, if introduced here, mend
+the present shiftless style of wood chopping: evidently the people will
+one day take it up and try it--when their minds and arms are free. As it
+is, the genuine Romans live through their winters without wood in a
+merry kind of humor; taking the charcoal sent them by chance for cooking
+with great good nature; and, without words, blessing GOD for
+giving them vigorous frames and sturdy bodies to withstand cold and
+heat. After all, the want of fixed firesides by no manner of means
+annoys the buxom Roman woman of the people: she picks up her moving
+stove, the _scaldina_, and trots out to see her nearest gossip, knowing
+that her reception will be warm, for she brings warmth with her. There
+is a copy of Galignani, a round of bull beef, and a dirty coal fire,
+even in Rome, for every Englishman who will pay for them; but why, oh
+why! forever hoist the banner of the Blues over the gay gardens of every
+earthly paradise? Why hide Psyche under a hogshead?'
+
+'Are you asking me those hard questions? For if you are,' said Caper, 'I
+will answer you thus: A fishwoman passing along a street in
+Philadelphia one day, heard from an open window the silver-voiced
+Brignoli practising an aria, possibly from the Traviata: 'That voice,'
+quoth she, 'would be a fortune for a woman in shad time!''
+
+
+THE VIOLETS OF THE VILLA BORGHESE.
+
+  'It is well to be off with the old love
+  Before you are on with the new:'
+
+hummed James Caper, as he sauntered, one morning early, through the dewy
+grass of the Villa Borghese, with his uncle, Bill Browne, leisurely
+picking a little bouquet of violets--'dim, but sweeter than the lids of
+Juno's eyes, or Cytherea's breath.'--and pleasantly thinking of the
+pretty face of his last love, the blonde Rose, who was at that moment
+smiling on somebody else in Naples.
+
+'There is nothing keeps a man out of mischief so well as the little
+portrait a pair of lovely eyes photographs on his heart; is there now,
+Uncle Bill?'
+
+'No, Jim, you are 'bout right there: if you want to keep the devil out
+of your heart, you must keep an angel in it. If you can't find a
+permanent resident, why you must take up with transient customers. First
+and last, I've had the pictures of half the pretty girls in Saint Louis
+hanging up in my gallery: as one grows dim I take up another, and that's
+the way I preserve my youth. If it hadn't been for business, I should
+have been a married man long ago; and my advice to you, Jim, is to stop
+off being a bachelor the instant you are home again.'
+
+'I think I shall, the instant I find one with the beauty of an Italian,
+the grace of a French girl, the truth and tenderness of a German, the
+health of an Englishwoman, and--'
+
+'Draw it mild, my boy,' broke in Uncle Bill: 'here she comes!'
+
+Caper and his uncle were standing, as the latter spoke, under the group
+of stone pines, from whose feet there was a lovely view of the Albanian
+snow-capped mountains, and they saw coming toward them two ladies. There
+was the freshness of the morning in their cheeks, and though one was
+older than the other, joy-bringing years had passed so kindly with her,
+that if Caper had not known she was the mother of the younger lady--they
+would have passed for sisters. When he first saw them, the latter was
+gathering a few violets; when she rose, he saw the face of all others he
+most longed to see.
+
+He had first seen her the life of a gay party at Interlachen; then alone
+in Florence, with her mother for companion, patiently copying the Bella
+di Tiziano in the Pitti palace; then in Venice, one sparkling morning,
+as he stepped from his gondola on the marble steps of a church, he met
+her again: this time he had rendered himself of assistance to the mother
+and daughter, in procuring admittance for them to the church, which was
+closed to the public for repairs, and could only be seen by an especial
+permit, which Caper fortunately had obtained. They were grateful for his
+attention, and when, a few days afterward, he met them in company with
+other of his American friends, and received a formal introduction, the
+acquaintance proved one of the most delightful he had made in Europe,
+rendering his stay in Venice marked by the rose-colored light of a new
+love, warming each scene that passed before his dreamy gaze. But other
+cities, other faces: memory slept to awake again with renewed strength
+at the first flash of light from the eyes of Ida Buren, there, over the
+spring violets of the Villa Borghese.
+
+The meeting between Mrs. Buren, her daughter, and Caper, was marked, on
+the part of the ladies, with that cordiality which the truly well bred
+show instinctively to those who merit it--to those who, brave and loyal,
+prove, by word and look, that theirs is the right to stand within the
+circle of true politeness and courtesy.
+
+'And so,' Mrs. Buren concluded her greeting, 'we are here in Rome,
+picking violets with the dew on them, and waiting for the nightingales
+to sing before we leave for Naples.'
+
+'And forget,' said Caper, among the violets of Pæstum, the poor flowers
+of the Borghese? I protest against it, and beg to add this little
+bouquet to yours, that their united perfume may cause you to remember
+them.'
+
+'I accept them for you, mother,' spoke Ida; 'and that they may not be
+forgotten, I will make a sketch at once of that fountain under the ilex
+trees, and Mr. Caper in classic costume, making floral offerings to
+Bacchus--of violets.'
+
+'And why not to Flora?'
+
+'I have yet to learn that Flora has a shrine at--Monte Testaccio! where
+the Signore Caper, if report speaks true, often goes and worships.'
+
+'That shrine is abandoned hereafter: where shall my new one be?'
+
+'In the Piazza di Spagna, No.----,' said Mrs. Buren, smiling at Caper's
+mournful tone of voice. 'While the violets bloom we shall be there. Good
+morning!'
+
+The ladies continued their walk, and although, as they turned away, Ida
+dropped a tiny bunch of violets, hidden among two leaves, Caper, when he
+picked it up, did not return it to her, but kept it many a day as a
+souvenir of his fair countrywoman.
+
+'They are,' said Uncle Bill, slowly and solemnly, 'two of the finest
+specimens of Englishwomen I ever saw, upon me word, be gad!'
+
+'They are,' said Caper, 'two of the handsomest Americans I ever met.'
+
+'Americans?' asked Uncle Bill, emphatically.
+
+'Americans!' answered Caper, triumphantly.
+
+'Shut up your paint shop, James, my son, call in the auctioneer, stick
+up a bill 'TO LET.' Let us return at once to the land of our
+birth. No such attractions exist in this turkey-trodden,
+maccaroni-eating, picture-peddling, stone-cutting, mass-singing land of
+donkeys. Let us go. Americans!'
+
+'Yes, Americans--Bostonians,'
+
+'Farewell, seventy-five niggers--good-by, my speculations in Lewsianny
+cotton planting--depart from behind me, sugar crops on Bayou Fooshe! I
+am of those who want a Mrs. Browne, a duplicate of the elderly lady who
+has just departed, at any price. James, my son, this morning shalt thou
+breakfast with me at Nazzari's; and if thou hast not a bully old
+breakfast, it's because the dimes ain't in me--and I know they are.
+Nothing short of cream de Boozy frappayed, paddy frog grass pie, fill it
+of beef, and myonhays of pullits, with all kinds of saucy sons and so
+forth, will do for us. We have been among angels--shall we not eat like
+the elect? Forward!'
+
+During breakfast, Caper discoursed at length with his uncle of the two
+ladies they met in the villa.
+
+Mrs. Buren, left a widow years since, with a large fortune, had educated
+her only child, Ida, systematically, solidly, and healthily. The child's
+mind, vine-like, clings for support to something already firm and
+established, that it may climb upward in a healthy, natural growth,
+avoiding the earth; so the daughter had found in her mother a guide
+toward the clear air where there is health and purity. Ida Buren, with
+clear brown eyes, high spirits, rosy cheeks, and full perfected form, at
+one glance revealed the attributes that Uncle Bill had claimed for her
+so quickly. With all the beauty of an Italian, she had her perceptions
+of color and harmony in the violets she gathered; the truth and
+tenderness of a German, to appreciate their sentiment; the health of an
+Englishwoman, to tramp through the dewy grass to pick them; the grace of
+a Frenchwoman, to accept them from Nature with a _merci, madame_!
+
+Caper had now a lovely painting to hang up in his heart, one in unison
+with the purity and beauty of the violets of the Villa Borghese.
+
+
+THE CARNIVAL.
+
+There is lightness and brightness, music, laughter, merry jests, masks,
+bouquets, flying flowers, and _confetti_ around you; you are in the
+Corso, no longer the sober street of a solemn old city, but the
+brilliant scene of a pageant, rivalling your dreams of Fairy land,
+excelling them; for it is fresh, sparkling, real before your eyes. From
+windows and balconies wave in the wind all-colored tapestries, flutter
+red, white, and golden draperies; laugh out in festal garments gay
+revellers; fly through the golden sunlight showers of perfumed flowers;
+beam down on you glances from wild, loving eyes, sparkling with fun,
+gleaming with excitement, thrilling with witching life.
+
+Hurrah for to-day! _Fiori, fiori, ecco fiori_! Baskets of flowers,
+bunches of flowers, bouquets of flowers, flowers natural and flowers
+artificial, flowers tied up and flowers loose. _Confetti, confetti, ecco
+confetti_! Sugar plums white, sugar plums blue, bullets and buckshot of
+lime water and flour. Whiz! down comes the Carnival shower: '_Bella,
+donzella_, this bouquet for thee!' Up go the white camellias and blue
+violets: 'down comes a rosebud for me.' What wealth of loveliness and
+beauty in thousands of balconies and windows; what sheen of brilliance
+in the vivid colors of the varied costumes!
+
+The Carnival has come!
+
+Right and left fly flowers; and here and there dart in between wheels
+and under horses' legs, dirty, daring Roman boys, grasping the falling
+flowers or _confetti_. From a balcony, some wealthy _forestiero_ ('Ugh!
+how rich they are!' grumbles the coachman) scatters _baiocchi_
+broadcast, and down in the dirt and mud roll and tumble the little
+ragamuffins, who never have muffins, and always have rags--and 'spang!'
+down comes a double handful of hard _confetti_ on Caper's head, as he
+rides by in an open carriage. He bombards the window with a double
+handful of white buckshot; but a woman in full Albano costume, crimson
+and white, aims directly at him a beautiful bouquet. Not to be outdone,
+Caper throws her a still larger one, which she catches and keeps--never
+throwing him the one she aimed! He is sold! But 'whiz, whir!' right and
+left fly flowers and _confetti_; and--oh, joy unspeakable!--an
+Englishman's chimney-pot hat is knocked from his head by a strong
+bouquet; and we know
+
+  'There is a noun in Hebrew means 'I am,'
+  The English always use to govern d----n,'
+
+and that he is using it severely, and don't see the fun, you know--of
+_throwing things_! Who cares? _Avanti!_
+
+Caper had filled the carriage with loose flowers, small bouquets, a
+basket of _confetti_, legal and illegal size, for the Carnival. Edict
+strictly prohibited persons from throwing large-sized bouquets and
+_confetti_; consequently, everybody considered themselves compelled to
+_dis_obey the command. Rocjean, who was in the carriage with Caper,
+delighted the Romans with his ingenuity in attaching bouquets to the end
+of a long fish pole, and thus gently engineering them to ladies in
+windows or balconies. The crowd in the Corso grows larger and
+larger--the scene in this long street resembles a theatre in open air,
+with decorations and actors, assisted by a large supply of infantry and
+cavalry soldiers to keep order and attend to the scenes. The prosaic
+shops are no longer shops, but opera boxes, filled with actors and
+actresses instead of spectators, wearing all varieties of costume; the
+Italian ones predominant, gay, bright, and beautifully adapted to rich,
+peach-like complexions. Why call them olive complexions? For all the
+olives ever seen are of the color of a sick green pumpkin, or a too, too
+ripe purple plum; and who has ever yet seen a beautiful Italian maiden
+of either of these morbid colors?
+
+The windows and balconies of the Corso are opera boxes. 'Whiz!' The
+flying bouquets and white pills show plainly that the _prime donne_ are
+making their positively first appearances for the season. Look at that
+French soldier in company with another, who is passing under a balcony,
+when a tiny bunch of flowers falls, or is thrown at him: he stoops to
+grasp it: too late, _mon brave_, a Roman boy is ahead of you: no use
+swearing; so he grasps his comrade by the arm, and points to the
+balcony, which is not more than six feet above his head.
+
+'_Mon Dieu, qu'elle est gentille!_'
+
+And there stands the beauty, a thorough soldier's girl; weighs her
+hundred and seventy pounds, has cheeks like new-cut beefsteaks, hair
+black as charcoal, eyes bright as fire, and an arm capable of cooking
+for a regiment. She is dressed in full Albanian costume, has the dew of
+the fields in her air, and oh, when she smiles, she shows such splendid
+teeth!--the _contadine_ have them, and don't ruin them by continual
+eating! The soldier stops, 'Oh lord, she is neat!' He wants to return
+her flowery compliment with a similar one; but, _Tu bleu!_ one can't buy
+bouquets on four sous a day income--even in Rome: so he looks around for
+a waif, and spies on the pavement something green; he gallantly throws
+it up, and with a smile and, wave of the hand like a Chevalier Bayard on
+a bender, he bids adieu to the fair maiden. He threw up half a head of
+lettuce.
+
+'_Ach mein Gott! wollen sie nur?_' and in return for a double handful of
+_confetti_ flung into a carriage full of German artists ahead of him,
+'bang!' comes into Caper's vehicle a shower of lime pills and other
+stunners--not including the language--and he is in for it. A minute, and
+the whole Corso rains, hails, and pelts flowers and white pills; nothing
+else is visible: up there laugh down at them whole balconies, filled
+with delirious men and women, throwing on their devoted heads, American,
+French, German, rattling, tumbling, fistfuls of _confetti_ and wild
+flowers:--even that half head of lettuce was among the things flying!
+English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Germans, Italians, Americans, and those
+wild northern bloods--all grit and game--the Russians, are down on them
+like a thousand of bricks. Hurrah! the carriages move on--they are safe.
+Hurrah for a new fight with fresh faces! _Avanti!_
+
+Comes a carriage load of wild Rustians. Ivan, the _mondjik_, fresh from
+the Nevskoi Prospekt, now drives for the first time in the Corso--_Dam
+na vodka, Sabakoutchelovek_, thinks he. Yes, my sweet son of a dog, thou
+shalt have _vodka_ to drink after all this scrimmage is over. So he
+holds in his horses with one hand, crowds down his fur hat with the
+other, so that his eyes will be safe; and then bravely faces the
+stinging shower of _confetti_ his lord and master draws down on him. Up
+on the back seat of this carriage, all life and fire, stands the Russian
+prince, with headpiece of mail and red surtout, a Carnival Circassian,
+'down on' the slow-plodding Italians, and throwing himself away with
+flowers and fun. Isn't he a picture? how his blue eyes gleam, how his
+long, wavy moustache curls with the play of features! how the flowers
+fly--how the rubles fly for them! Look at the other Russians--there are
+beards for you! beards grown where brandy freezes! but, they are thawed
+out now. Look at these men: hear their wild northern tongue, how it
+rolls out the sounds that frighten Italians back to sleepy sonnets and
+voluptuous songs. Hurrah, my Russians! look fate in the face. _Your_
+road is--onward!
+
+'Ah, yes; and really, my dear'--here a handful of white pills and lime
+dust breaks the sentence--'really my dear, hadn't we better'--'bang!'
+comes a tough bouquet, and hits milady on that bonnet--'better go to the
+hotel?'
+
+'Indeed, now,' milady continues, 'they don't respect persons, these low
+Italians. They haven't the faintest idea of dignity.'
+
+These 'low Italians' were more than probably fellow countrymen and women
+of the speaker; but they may have been 'low' all the same in her social
+barometer, for they pitched and flung, hurled and threw all the missiles
+they could lay hands on into the carriage of their unmistakable
+compatriots, with hearty delight; since the gentleman, who was not
+gentle, sat upright as a church steeple, never moving a muscle, and
+looking angry and worried at being flung at; and the milady also sat _a
+la mode de_ church steeple--throwing nothing but angry looks. They
+_went_ to the hotel. Sorrow go with them!
+
+Caper and Rocjean now began to throw desperately, for they had a large
+supply of flowers and _confetti_ on hand, which they were anxious to
+dispose of suddenly--since in ten minutes the horses would run, and then
+the carriages must leave the Corso. It was the last day of Carnival, and
+to-morrow--sackcloth and ashes. How the masks crowd around them; how the
+beautiful faces, unmasked, are smiling! Look at them well, stamp them on
+your heart, for many and many one shall we see never again. Another
+Carnival will bring them again, like song birds in summer; but a long,
+long winter will be between, and we will be far, far away.
+
+The Corso is cleared, the infantry half keeps the crowd within bounds, a
+charge of cavalry sweeps the street, and then come rattling, clattering,
+rushing on the bare-backed horses, urged on by cries, shouts, yells; and
+frightened thus to top speed, while the Dutch metal, tied to their sides
+increases their alarm--whir! they are past us, and--the bay horse is
+ahead.
+
+Again the carriages are in the Corso; here and there a few bouquets are
+thrown, floral farewells to the merry season: then as dusk comes on, and
+red and golden behind San Angelo flames the funeral pyre of the sun, and
+through the blue night twinkles the evening star, see down the Corso a
+faint light gleaming. Another and another light shines from balcony and
+window, flashes from rolling carriage, and flames out from along the
+dusky walls, till, _presto!_ you turn your head, and up the Corso, and
+down the Corso, there is one burst of trembling light, and ten thousand
+tapers are brightly gleaming, madly waving, brilliantly swaying to and
+fro.
+
+_Moccoli! ecco, moccoli!_
+
+Along roll carriages; high in air gleam tapers, upheld by those within;
+from every balcony and window shine out the swaying tapers. Hurrah!
+here, there, hand to hand are contests to put out these shining lights,
+and SENZA MOCCOLI! 'Out with the tapers!' rings forth in
+trumpet tones, in gay, laughing tones, in merry tones, the length of the
+whole glorious Corso.
+
+Daring beauty, wild, lovely bacchante, with black, beaming eyes, tempt
+us not with that bright flame to destruction! Look at her, as she stands
+so proudly and erectly on the highest seat in the carriage, her arms
+thrown up, her wild eyes gleaming from under jet black, dishevelled
+locks, while the night breeze flutters in wavy folds the drapery of her
+classic dress. _Senza moccoli!_ she sends the challenge ringing down
+through fifteen centuries. He braves all; the carriage is climbed, the
+taper is within his reach.
+
+'To-morrow I leave!'
+
+She flings the burning taper away from her.
+
+'Then take this kiss!'
+
+'SENZA MOCCOLI!' black, witching eyes--farewell!
+
+'Boom!' rings out the closing bell; fast fades the light, 'Out with the
+tapers!' the shout swells up, up, up, then slowly dies, as die an
+organ's tones--and Carnival is ended.
+
+A handful of beautiful flowers, found among gray, crumbling ruins; a few
+notes of wild, stirring music, suddenly heard, then quickly dying away
+in the lone watches of the night: these are the hours of the Roman
+Carnival.
+
+  'Played is the comedy, deserted now the scene.'
+
+
+THE VERMILION MIRACLE.
+
+Miracles are no longer performed in Rome. As soon as the police are
+officially informed, they prevent their being worked even in the
+Campagna:--official information, however, always travels much faster
+when the spurs of heretical incredulity are applied--otherwise it lags;
+and the performances of miracle-mongers insure crowded houses, sometimes
+for years.
+
+Among Caper's artist friends was a certain Blaise Monet, French by
+nature, Parisian by birth, artist or writer according to circumstances.
+Circumstances--that is to say, two thousand francs left him by a
+deceased relation--created him a temporary artist in Rome.
+
+'When the money is gone,' said he, 'I shall endow some barber
+with my goat's hair brushes, and resume the stylus: the first
+have attractions--capillary--for me; the latter has the
+attraction--gravitation of francs--still more interesting--that is to
+say, more stylish.'
+
+Blaise Monet with the May breezes fled to a small town on top of a high
+mountain, in order to enjoy them until autumn: with the rains of October
+he descended on Rome.
+
+'How did you enjoy yourself up in that hawk's nest?' Caper asked him,
+when he first saw him after his return to the city.
+
+'Like the king D'Yvétot. My house was a castle, my drink good wine, my
+food solid--the cheese a little too much so, and a little too much of
+it: no matter--the views made up for it. Gr-r-rand, magnificent,
+splendid--in fact, paradise for twenty baiocchi a day, all told.'
+
+'And as for affairs of the heart?'
+
+'My friend, mourn with me: that hole was--so to speak in regard to that
+matter--a monastery, without doors, windows, or holes; and a wall around
+it, so high, it shut out--hope! I wish you could have seen the camel who
+was my monastic jailer.'
+
+'That is, when you say camel, you mean jackass?'
+
+'Precisely! Well, my friend, his name was Father Cipriano; though why
+they call a man father who has no legal children, I can't conceive,
+though probably many of his flock do. He prejudiced the minds of the
+maidens against me, and made an attempt to injure my reputation among
+the young men and elders--in vain. The man who could paint a scorpion on
+the wall so naturally as even to delude Father Ciprian into beating it
+for ten minutes with that bundle of sticks they call a broom; the man
+who could win three races on a bare-backed horse, treat all hands to
+wine, and even bestow segars on a few of the elders; win a _terno_ at
+the Timbola, and give it back to the poor of the town; catch hold of the
+rope and help pull by the horns, all over town, the ox, thus
+preparatorily made tender before it was slaughtered: such a man could
+not have the ill will of the men.
+
+'Believe me, I did all my possible to touch the hearts of the maidens. I
+serenaded them, learning fearful _rondinelle_, so as to be popular; I
+gathered flowers for them; I volunteered to help them pick chestnuts and
+cut firewood; I helped to make fireworks and fire balloons for the
+festivals; I drew their portraits in charcoal on a white wall, along the
+main street; and when they passed, with copper water jars on their
+heads, filled with water from the fountain, they exclaimed:
+
+''_Ecco!_ that is Elisa, that is Maricuccia, that is Francesca.'
+
+'But I threw my little favors away: there was a black cloud over all, in
+a long black robe, called Padre Cipriano; and their hearts were
+untouched.
+
+'I made one good friend, a widow lady, the Signora Margarita Baccio: she
+was about thirty-three years of age, and was mourning for a second
+husband--who did not come; the first one having departed for _Cielo_ a
+few months past, as she told me. The widow having a small farm to hoe
+and dig, and about twelve miles to walk daily, I had but limited
+opportunities to study her character; but I believe, if I had, I should
+not have discovered much, since she had very little: she was deplorably
+ignorant, and excessively superstitious--but good natured and
+hopeful--looking out for husband No. 2. She it was that informed me that
+Padre Cipriano had set the faces of the maidens against me, and for this
+I determined to be revenged.
+
+'A short time before I left the town, my oil colors were about used up.
+I had made nearly a hundred sketches, and not caring to send to Rome for
+more paints, I used my time making pencil sketches. Among the tubes of
+oil colors left, of course there was the vermilion, that will outlast
+for a landscape painter all others, I managed to paint a jackass's head
+for the landlord of the inn where I boarded, with my refuse
+colors:--after all were gone, there still remained the vermilion. One
+day, out in the fields sketching an old tower, and watching the pretty
+little lizards darting in and out the old ruins, an idea struck me. The
+next day I commenced my plan.
+
+'I caught about fifty lizards, and painted a small vermilion cross on
+the head of each one, using severe drying oil and turpentine, in order
+to insure their not being rubbed off.
+
+'The next dark night, when Padre Cipriano was returning from an
+excursion, he saw an apparition: phosphorus eyes, from the apothecary; a
+pair of horns, from the butcher; a tall form, made from reeds, held up
+by Blaise Monet, and covered with his long cloak, made in the Rue
+Cadet--strode before him with these words:
+
+''I am the shade of Saint Inanimus, boiled to death by Roman legions,
+for the sake of my religion--in oil. My bones long since have mouldered
+in the dust, but, where they lie, the little lizards bear a red cross on
+their heads. Seek near the old tower by the old Roman road, here at the
+foot of this mountain, and over it erect a chapel, and cause prayers to
+be said for Saint Inanimus: I, who was boiled to death for the sake of
+my religion--in oil.'
+
+''Sh-sh-shade of S-s-saint Ann-on-a-muss, w-w-what k-kind of oi-oil was
+it?' gasped Padre Cipriano.
+
+'The shade seemed to collect himself as if about to bestow a kick on the
+padre, but changed his mind as he screamed:
+
+''Hog oil. Go!'
+
+'The priest departed in fear and trembling, and the next day the whole
+town rang with the news that an apparition had visited Padre Cipriano,
+and that a procession for some reason was to be made at once to the old
+tower. Accordingly all the population that could, set forth at an early
+hour in the afternoon, the padre first informing them of all the
+circumstances attending the ghostly visitor, the red-headed cross
+lizards by no means omitted. Arrived at the tower, they were fortunate
+enough to find a red-cross lizard, then another, and another; and it
+being buzzed about that one of them was worth, I don't know how many
+gallons of holy water--the inhabitants moreover believing, if they had
+one, they could commit all kinds of sins free gratis, without
+confession, &c.,--there at once commenced, consequently, a most
+indecorous riot among those in the procession; taking advantage of
+which, the lizards made hurried journeys to other old ruins. The
+inhabitants of another small town, having heard of the _Miracolo delle
+lucertole_, came up in force to secure a few lizards for their
+households: then commenced those exquisite battles seen nowhere else in
+such perfection as in southern Italy.
+
+'His eyes starting out of his head, his hands and legs shaking with
+excitement, one man stands in front of another so 'hopping mad' that you
+would believe them both dancing the tarantella, if you did not hear them
+shout--such voices for an opera chorus!--
+
+''You say that to _me_? to ME? to ME!' Hands working.
+
+''I do, to _you!_'
+
+''To me, _me_, ME?' striking himself on his breast.
+
+''Yes, yes, I do, I do!'
+
+''What, to ME! ME! _I_?' both hands pointing toward
+his own body, as if to be sure of the identity of the person; and that
+there might not be the possibility of any mistake, he again shouts,
+screams, yells, shrieks: 'To me? What, that to ME! to ME!'
+hands and arms working like a crab's.
+
+'Then the entire population rush, in with, 'Bravo, Johnny, bravo!' At
+last, after they have screamed themselves black in the face, and swung
+their arms and legs until they are ready to drop off, both combatants
+coolly walk off; and a couple of fresh hands rush in, assisted by the
+splendid Roman chorus, and begin:
+
+''What, ME? ME?' &c.
+
+'But the battle of the lizards was conducted with more spirit than the
+general run of quarrels, for the people were fighting for remission of
+their sins as it were--the possession of every sanctified red-headed
+lizard being so much money saved from the church, so many years out of
+purgatory.
+
+'The _gendarmerie_ heard the row, and at once rushed down--four soldiers
+comprised the garrison--to dissipate the crowd: this they managed to do
+in a peaceable way. There happened to be a heretical spur in the town,
+in the shape of three German artists, and this incited the bishop of the
+province, who was at once informed of the miracle-working doings of
+Father Ciprian, to displace him.
+
+'Thus, my dear friend, I was left to make love to the girls until I had
+to return to Rome--unfortunately only two weeks' time--for the
+newly-appointed priest had not the opportunity to set them against me.
+
+'The moral of this long story is: that even vermilion can be worked up
+in a miraculous manner--if you put the powerful reflective faculty in
+motion; and doing so, you can have the satisfaction of knowing that by
+its means you can cause an invisible sign to be stuck up over even a
+country town in Italy: '_All Persons are Forbidden to Work Miracles
+Here!_''
+
+
+THE POPOLO EXHIBITION.
+
+The government, aware of its foreign reputation for patronizing the
+_Belle Arti_, has an annual display of such paintings and sculpture as
+artists may see fit to send, and--the censor see fit to admit: for, in
+_this_ exhibition, 'nothing is shown that will shock the most fastidious
+taste'--and it can be found thus, in a building in the Piazza del
+Popolo.
+
+Caper's painting for the display was rejected for some reason. It
+represented a sinister-looking brigand, stealing away with Two Keys in
+one hand and a spilt cap in the other, suddenly kicked over by a
+large-sized donkey, his mane and tail flying, head up, and an air of
+liberty about him generally, which probably shocked Antonelli's tool the
+censor's sense of the proprieties.
+
+Rocjean consoled Caper with the reflection that his painting was refused
+admittance because the donkey had gradually grown to be emblematical of
+the state--in fact, was so popularly known to the _forestieri_ as the
+Roman Locomotive, with allusions to its steam whistle, &c., highly
+annoying to the chief authorities--and therefore, its introduction in a
+painting was intolerable, and not to be endured.
+
+The works of art included contributions from Americans, Italians,
+Belgians, Swiss, English, Hessians, French, Dutch, Danes, Bavarians,
+Spaniards, Norwegians, Prussians, Russians, Austrians, Finns,
+Esthonians, Lithuanians, Laplanders, and Samoyedes. There was little
+evidence of the handiwork of mature artists; they either withheld their
+productions from dislike of the managers, or through determination of
+giving their younger brethren a fair field and a clear show. A careful
+observer could see that these young artists had not profited to the
+fullest extent by the advantages held out to them through a residence in
+the Imperial City. There was a wine-yness, and a pretty-girl-yness, and
+tobacco-ness, about paintings and sculpture, that could have been picked
+up just as well in Copenhagen or Madrid or New York as in Rome. Michael
+Angelo evidently had not 'struck in' on their canvases, or Praxiteles
+struck out from their marbles. Theirs was an unrevealed religion to
+these neophytes.
+
+The study of a piece of old Turkey carpet, or a camel's hair shawl, or a
+butterfly's wing, or a bouquet of many flowers would have taught the
+best artist in the exhibition more concerning color than he would learn
+in ten years simply copying the best of the old painters, who had
+themselves studied directly from these things and their like.
+
+In sculpture, as in painting, the artists showed the same tame following
+other sculptors; the same fear of facing Nature, and studying her face
+to face. A pretty kind of statue of Modesty a man would make, who would
+take the legs of a satyr, the body of a Venus, the head of Bacchus, the
+arms of Eros, and thus construct her; yet scarcely a modern statue is
+made wherein some such incongruous models do not play their part. Go
+with a clear head, not one ringing with last night's debauch, and study
+the Dying Gladiator! That will be enough--something more than five
+tenths of you young Popolites can stand, if you catch but the faintest
+conception of the mind once moving the sculptor of such a statue. After
+you have earnestly thought over such a masterpiece, go back to your
+studio: break up your models for legs, arms, bodies, and heads: take the
+scalpel in hand, and study _anatomy_ as if your heart was in it. Have
+the living model nude before you at all times. Close your studio door to
+all 'orders,' be they ever so tempting: if a fastidious world will have
+you make 'nude statues dressed in stockinet,' tell it to get behind you!
+After long years of earnest study and labor, carve a hand, a foot: if,
+when you have finished it, one living soul says, with truth, 'Blood,
+bones, and muscles seem under the marble!' believe that you are not far
+off from exceeding great reward.
+
+In the Popolo exhibition for 1858 was a marble statuette of Daphnis and
+Chloe, by Luigi Guglielmi, of Rome.
+
+Chloe had a low-necked dress on.
+
+The Roman censor disapproved of this. In a city claiming to be the 'HOME
+OF ART'--THEY PINNED A PIECE OF FOOLSCAP PAPER AROUND THE NECK OF
+CHLOE.
+
+Rome is the cradle of art:--if so, the sooner the world changes its
+nurse, the better for the babe!
+
+
+
+
+'MISSED FIRE!'
+
+  Oh not in Independence Hall
+    Will ye proclaim your will;
+  Nor read aloud your negro call,
+    As yet, on Bunker Hill.
+
+  He said he would, and thought he could,
+    And tried--and missed it clean;--
+  Now he's o'er the Border, and awa',
+    Weel thrashed and unco' mean.
+
+
+
+
+THE PROCLAMATION.
+
+[SEPTEMBER 22, 1862.]
+
+
+  Now who has done the greatest deed
+    Which History has ever known,
+  And who, in Freedom's direst need,
+    Became her bravest champion?
+  Who a whole continent set free?
+    Who killed the curse and broke the ban
+  Which made a lie of liberty?
+    You--Father ABRAHAM--you're the man!
+
+  The deed is done. Millions have yearned
+    To see the spear of Freedom cast:--
+  The dragon writhed and roared and burned:
+    You've smote him full and square at last.
+  O Great and True! You do not know,
+    You cannot tell, you cannot feel
+  How far through time your name must go,
+  Honored by all men, high or low,
+    Wherever Freedom's votaries kneel.
+
+  This wide world talks in many a tongue--
+    This world boasts many a noble state--
+  In _all_, your praises will be sung,
+    In all the great will call you great.
+  Freedom! Where'er that word is known,
+    On silent shore, by sounding sea,
+  'Mid millions or in deserts lone,
+    Your noble name shall ever be.
+
+  The word is out--the deed is done;
+    Let no one carp or dread delay:
+  When such a steed is fairly on,
+    Fate never fails to find a way.
+  Hurrah! hurrah! The track is clear,
+    We know your policy and plan;
+  We'll stand by you through every year:
+    Now, Father ABRAHAM, _you're_ our man!
+
+
+
+
+THE PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+
+The unexampled extent of newspaper issues in the United States has often
+excited the astonishment of intelligent observers; but it is doubtful
+whether the whole of the enormous truth could have been fully
+appreciated without the actual figures which reveal it. According to the
+"preliminary report" of the 8th census, 1860, recently published by the
+Hon. J.C.G. Kennedy, the superintendent, it appears that the annual
+circulation of newspapers and periodicals is no less than 927,951,548,
+or at the rate of 34.36 for every white man, woman, and child of our
+population. The annual value of all the printing done in the United
+States, for that year, is stated at a fraction less than thirty nine and
+three quarters millions of dollars.
+
+These numbers are sufficiently astounding; but the rate of increase
+since 1850, is, if possible, even more so. In that year, says Mr.
+Kennedy, the whole circulation amounted to 426,409,978 copies; and the
+rate of increase for the decade is 117.61 per cent., while the increase
+of the white population during the same period was only 38.12 per cent.
+If the circulation should continue to grow in the same proportion for
+the next ten years, the number of newspapers and periodicals issued in
+1870 will be a little over two billions.
+
+In addition to these domestic publications, no inconsiderable number of
+foreign journals is introduced into the United States. "The British
+Almanac and Companion" for 1862 states the number in 1860 to have been
+as follows: from Great Britain, 1,557,689; from France, 270,655; from
+Bremen, 41,171; from Prussia, 83,349. These figures comprehend only the
+foreign newspapers, and not the periodicals, some of which are
+republished in the United States.
+
+Persons competent to form a correct judgment, do not hesitate to say
+that the number of newspapers taken in this country, exceeds that in all
+the world beside. So vast an amount of reading matter, voluntarily
+sought for and consumed by the people, at a cost of so many millions of
+dollars, is one of the most remarkable phenomena of the present age of
+wonders, and proves the avidity with which information is received, as
+well as the incalculable influence which the press must have on the
+public mind. The popular newspaper, issued in immense numbers, is in
+truth emphatically an American institution. Nowhere else could an
+audience, capable of reading, be found sufficiently numerous to absorb
+the issues of our teeming press. It is the offspring and indispensable
+accompaniment of universal education and popular representative
+government. These could scarcely be maintained without it. Everywhere in
+Europe, except perhaps in England, Italy, and Switzerland, the press is
+little more than an engine of the government, used chiefly, or only, for
+its own political purposes. Here it enjoys absolute freedom, being
+responsible only to the laws for any abuse of its high privilege.
+
+This entire freedom promotes unbounded growth in journalism, and gives a
+circulation to the remotest cabin in the land. And if the unrestricted
+energies of the system produce fruits somewhat wild, not imbued with the
+refined flavor of better-cultivated productions, their universal
+distribution and bounteous fulness of supply make up somewhat for the
+deficiency in quality, and give promise of a future improvement, which
+will leave nothing to be desired. If every leaf of the forest were a
+sibylline record, and every month of the year should bring round the
+deciduous influences of autumn, the leaves that would then "strew the
+vales" of our country would give some adequate idea of the immense
+shower of these printed missiles which falls every day, every week, and
+every month, into the hands of the American people. Do they come as "a
+kindly largess to the soil they grew on," or do they scatter mischief
+where they fall? Of the power, for good or for evil, of this vast
+intellectual agency, there can be no question. But what is the nature of
+this influence? How does it affect the character and welfare of the
+community in which its unregulated and unlimited authority prevails?
+
+The daily papers of New York, and of some other cities, contain, in each
+sheet, an amount of printed matter equal to sixty-four pages of an
+ordinary octavo volume. The scope and variety of the information
+embodied in them, and the uniformity with which they are maintained from
+year to year, give evidence of wonderful enterprise, mechanical skill,
+and intellectual ability. Concentrating news from all parts of the
+world, by means of a vast and expensive organization, and discussing,
+with more or less profound learning and logic, all the important
+questions of the day, they have established an immense spiritual power
+in the bosom of modern society, such as was not known to the nations in
+past ages.
+
+It is true that much of the space in the great dailies, so voluminous as
+has been stated, is occupied in mere business notices and individual
+advertisements; and such is the case, generally, with the daily and
+weekly papers throughout the country. But even this, the humblest
+department of the newspaper, may justly be considered an invaluable
+instrument of civilization. It multiplies to an unlimited extent the
+means of communication among men, and is, therefore, a labor-saving
+invention of precisely the same character as the railroad and the steam
+engine. In a few brief phrases, made expressive by conventional
+understanding, every man can converse with thousands of his neighbors,
+and even of distant strangers. Without change of place, without labor of
+limbs or of lungs, the man of business can, in a single day, and every
+day, if he will, inform a whole community of his own wants, and of his
+readiness to meet the wants of others. The newspaper performs the work
+of thousands of messengers, and saves countless hours of labor to the
+whole community in which it circulates. In some sense, every man is
+brought nearer to every other. Each hears the innumerable voices which
+address him, and is able to distinguish the individual message which
+each one has sent.
+
+It is difficult to estimate the value of this simple agency in its
+social aspect. Its material saving is plain to the most cursory thought;
+but its higher influence in binding society together and making it
+homogeneous, if not equally apparent, is at least quite as indisputable.
+Civilization is the direct result of bringing mankind into cooperation
+and combined effort, so that the whole power of mind and body of whole
+communities is brought to bear in unison for the accomplishment of
+social ends. Therefore, as a mere instrument of intercommunication,
+rendering more direct and intimate the relations of individuals, and
+promoting ease, celerity, and harmony in their combined movements, the
+power of the press is prodigious and invaluable. But when this power is
+extended beyond the bounds of mere material interests and the relations
+of ordinary business--when it appeals to the intellect and enters the
+domain of art, literature, science, and philosophy, embracing politics,
+morality, and all the highest interests of mankind, its capacity for
+good would seem to be illimitable.
+
+In future ages, these innumerable sheets, which float so lightly on the
+surface of our civilization, will form imperishable records of the
+manners, habits, occupations, and the whole intellectual existence of
+our people. They are so numerous that no accident can destroy them all;
+and they will present to the eye of the future student of history the
+most lively, natural, and perfect picture--the very moving panorama--of
+the busy and teeming life of the present generation. No exhumed relics
+of buried cities, no hieroglyphic inscriptions upon ancient monuments,
+with whatever skill and genius deciphered, nor even any labored
+descriptions of past ages, which may have survived the ravages of time,
+will be equal to these memorials, in their power to recall the daily
+work, the amusements, the business, and, in short, the whole material,
+intellectual, and social being of our people.
+
+The types and footprints of creation, imprinted on the rocks and
+imbedded in the strata of the earth, giving knowledge of the existence
+and habits of extinct species of animals, and teaching how geological
+periods have succeeded each other, with their causes and concomitants,
+are not so plain and distinct to us, as will be these daily effusions,
+advertisements, and business notices of all kinds in the ordinary
+newspapers of the country, to future generations of men, who shall there
+seek to learn the successive and gradual steps by which the social
+fabric shall be built up on the foundations of human thought and action.
+Like the worm that crawls over the mud ere it hardens into rock; or the
+leaf that fixes its form and impress in the bed of coal; or like the
+bowlder that forms the pencil point of a mighty iceberg, scratching the
+rocks in its movement across a submerged plain, destined to be upheaved
+as a continent in some future convulsion; or like the coral insect,
+which, in forming his separate cell, unconsciously assists in laying the
+foundation of islands and vast regions of solid earth; we, the creatures
+of the hour, all unconscious of the record we are making, leave
+imperishable memorials of our existence and works, in the apparently
+petty and fugitive contents of the journals which we read daily, and in
+which we make known our business and our wants. Narratives and formal
+descriptions may be one-sided, and may easily deceive and mislead; but
+these indications, which will be preserved in the social strata as they
+slowly subside in the ocean of humanity, carry in themselves perfect
+fulness and absolute verity.
+
+One of the most significant and influential results of the wide and
+rapid circulation of newspapers is to be found in the simultaneous
+impression made on the popular mind throughout the vast extent of our
+country. Flashed on the telegraph, daguerreotyped and made visible in
+the newspaper, every event of any importance, occurring in any part of
+the world, is communicated, almost at the same moment, to many millions
+of people. All are impressed at the same time with the same thoughts, or
+with such kindred ideas as will naturally arise from reflection upon the
+same facts. Humor, with its thousand tongues, is hushed; and the
+telegraph, under control of agents employed to sift the truth, and
+responsible for it, takes its place. Falsehood still may, and, indeed,
+often does tamper with this mighty instrument; but its speed is so great
+that it can overtake even falsehood, and soon counteract and correct the
+mischief. What is the import of this momentous fact,--the instantaneous
+communication of information over a continent, and the participation of
+all minds, in the same thoughts, virtually at the same time? Undoubtedly
+the result must be a closeness of intercourse and a completeness of
+cooperation, which will give to the social organization a power and
+efficiency in accomplishing great ends, such as no human thought has
+ever heretofore conceived. Society becomes a unity in the highest and
+truest sense of that term; like the bodily frame of the individual man,
+it is connected throughout all its parts by a network of nerves, every
+member sympathizing with every other, feeling the same impulses, having
+the same knowledge, and forming judgments upon the same facts. When
+sentiments are perfectly harmonious among men, the increase of power is
+not merely in proportion to numbers. It grows in a much higher ratio.
+The effect is something like that of multiplying the surfaces in a
+galvanic battery, or increasing the coils in an electro-magnetic
+apparatus. Passion in a multitude becomes a tornado. Eloquence moves a
+large audience with a power vastly greater than when the listeners are
+few. Similar is that strange influence which fashion exerts in all
+societies. Nor is this sympathetic multiplication of power limited to
+passion or artistic sentiment: it extends to opinions and all
+intellectual phenomena. A person feeling strong emotions or having
+profound convictions, and knowing them to be shared by millions of
+others, inevitably experiences a strengthening and intensifying
+influence from the sympathy of his fellows. If he knew himself to be
+solitary and alone in his opinions, unsupported by that human sympathy
+which every one craves, his ideas would languish, and be greatly
+diminished in their power. It is only great minds, of exceptional
+character, which can do battle, single-handed, against the world. Most
+men require to be propped and supported on all sides, by the great power
+of public opinion. The approach to unanimity of thought promoted by the
+general circulation of newspapers, has something of the marvellous
+effects seen in other cases, in enhancing the moral and intellectual
+power of the community.
+
+The telegraph is the legitimate offspring of the newspaper. In the
+absence of the latter, there would have been comparatively little use
+for the former. Without the almost universal distribution of the
+newspaper, instantaneous communication of news would not have been so
+much required, and the invention for that purpose would hardly have been
+made. It is probably in the United States alone, with its unlimited
+circulation of newspapers, that this extraordinary application of
+natural forces could have been conceived. It is here those wonderful
+lightning presses have been constructed, under the stimulus of that vast
+demand for daily papers which arises from the general education of the
+people and their avidity for information. In no other state of things
+could such combinations have been imagined, because there would have
+been no occasion for the inventive effort, and even the very idea would
+not have occurred. Although the wide extent of our country, the vast
+distances separating important centres of commerce and industry, and the
+general activity and energy of men in this free government, all
+concurred in enforcing the necessity of this latest wonder of human
+ingenuity--the telegraph,--yet the newspaper, with its boundless
+circulation and power of distribution, was indispensable to make it
+available and to give it all its inestimable value.
+
+But, after all, the prodigious influence of the press, aided by its
+great instrument, the telegraph, derives its moral and political value
+chiefly from the lessons it teaches, and the good purposes it aims to
+accomplish. Unhappily, if the newspaper may be the means of doing
+incalculable good, it may also be instrumental in doing infinite
+mischief. If it may multiply the power of the community, by promoting
+harmony of thought and feeling, it may direct this concentrated energy
+to the wrong end, as well as to the right. Being a great vehicle for the
+communication of ideas on all subjects, it becomes a mighty instrument
+of education; entering almost every house in the land, and reaching the
+eye of every man, woman, and child who can read, it exercises almost
+supreme control over the sentiments of the masses. It is a tremendous
+intellectual engine, radiating the light of knowledge to the extremities
+of the land, and, in its turn, wielding, to some extent, the
+incalculable power which that knowledge imparts to its recipients.
+
+Like every other human agency, the press is liable to be controlled by
+sinister influences. Perhaps, from the entire absence of all direct
+responsibility, from its usual entire devotion to public affairs, and
+the acknowledged influence of its representations on the popular mind,
+it is peculiarly exposed to the seductions of patronage, and to the
+temptations of personal and mercenary interests. A mere party journal,
+involved in a perpetual conflict for power, and for the accompanying
+spoils, is, of all the depositaries of moral power, at once the most
+dangerous and the most contemptible. To it, truth is of secondary
+importance; having satisfied itself that no prosperity, or even liberty,
+can exist without the success of its men and measures, it makes
+everything bend to this purpose. The end justifies the means. Impartial
+statement or rational investigation is seldom to be found in its
+columns. Nevertheless, in the general competition which arises where the
+press is free, the _tendency_ will always be toward the true and the
+good. Rival journals will advocate different theories and maintain
+opposite systems; but free discussion will gradually eliminate error,
+and out of the multitudinous rays of different colors, diffused
+throughout society, will eventually come that perfect combination which
+constitutes the clear, pure, homogeneous light of truth. And even
+pending the early struggle and confusion which attend the inauguration
+of a free press, divergencies of opinion, ever tending to harmony,
+cannot become so great as to produce fatal effects. The rebellion of the
+Southern States of this Union could never have happened, in the presence
+of universal education and of a free press, whose emanations could have
+penetrated as widely as those which reach the people of the opposite
+section.
+
+In view of the high functions of the press and its immense influence in
+the nation,--its perpetual daily lessons, falling on the public mind
+like drops that wear away the hardest rock and work their channel where
+they will,--it is of the first importance to comprehend the power behind
+this imperial throne, which directs and controls it. Does it assume to
+originate and establish principles in government and morals? Or does it
+aspire only to the humbler office of propagating such ideas as have been
+sanctioned by the best judgment of the age, of illustrating their
+operation, and making them acceptable to the people? The fugitive essays
+and hurried comments on passing events, which fill the columns of
+newspapers, do not ordinarily constitute solid foundations on which the
+principles of social or political action can be safely established. The
+men usually employed in this work of distributing ideas, are not they
+who are capable of building up substantial systems by the slow process
+of induction, or who can, by the opposite system, apply great general
+truths to the purposes of national prosperity and happiness. They are
+far too much engaged in the active business of life,--too deeply
+involved in the strifes and turmoils of mankind,--too thoroughly imbued
+with the spirit of the passing hour, with all its passions and
+prejudices--to be the philosophic guides of humanity, and to lay down,
+with the serene logic of truth, the bases of moral and political
+progress. The inevitable sympathy between the editor and his daily
+readers--the action and reaction which constantly take place and
+insensibly lead the journalist into the paths of popular opinion and
+passion--these are too apt to render him altogether unfit to be an
+oracle in the great work of social organization and government. The
+common sense of the multitude is often an invaluable corrective of
+speculative error; but the impulses and strong prejudices of
+communities, though calculated to sweep along with them the judgments of
+all, are mostly pernicious, and sometimes dangerous in the extreme. The
+true remedy for these evils and dangers is, to employ in the management
+of the daily press, the noblest intellect, combined with the most
+incorruptible purity of motive. Commanding the entire confidence of the
+nation, and worthy of it, the lessons of this great teacher--the central
+light-giving orb of civilization--will be received with reverence and
+gratitude, and with a benign and fructifying influence, something like
+that which the sun sheds on the world of nature.
+
+A French philosopher, writing in 1840, says of us:
+
+     'This universal colony, notwithstanding the eminent temporal
+     advantages of its present position, must be regarded as, in fact,
+     in all important respects, more remote from a true social
+     reorganization than the nations from whom it is derived, and to
+     whom it will owe, in course of time, its final regeneration. The
+     philosophical induction into that ulterior state is not to be
+     looked for in America--whatever may be the existing illusions about
+     the political superiority of a society in which the elements of
+     modern civilization are, with the exception of industrial activity,
+     most imperfectly developed.'
+
+It may be admitted that we are yet somewhat behind the foremost nations
+of Europe in the higher walks of philosophy, and certainly in the
+practical application of true social principles, which, as yet, we do
+not fully comprehend, even if they do. But the conclusion of this author
+cannot be sound. However moderate may be our standard of knowledge in
+the United States, this knowledge, such as it is, is more widely
+diffused among the people who are to profit by it, than in any other
+country. If our attainments be comparatively small in philosophic
+statesmanship, the whole population partakes more or less in such
+progress as we have made; for education is universal, and whatever ideas
+are generated in the highest order of minds, soon become the familiar
+possession of all to the extremities of the land. Government yields with
+little opposition or delay to the interests and intelligence, and it may
+be, to the ignorance of the people: there is no other nation on the
+globe in which social forms and institutions are so plastic in the hands
+of wise and energetic men. By means of universal education and the
+perfect distribution of knowledge, we are laying the broadest possible
+basis on which the noblest structure may be raised, if we can only
+command the wisdom to build aright. The question, therefore, is, whether
+a whole people thoroughly educated and with the most perfect machinery
+for the diffusion of knowledge, though starting from a moderate
+condition of enlightenment, will outrun or fall behind other nations in
+which the few may be wiser, while the multitude is greatly more
+ignorant, and in which the forms of government and of social,
+organization are more rigid, and inaccessible to change or improvement.
+To answer this question will not cause much hesitation, at least in the
+mind of an American; and if we are not altogether what we think
+ourselves, the wisest and best of mankind, we may at least claim to be
+on the way to the highest improvement, with no serious obstacles in our
+path.
+
+
+
+
+OUR FRIENDS ABROAD.
+
+  Two souls alone are friends of ours
+  In all the British isles;
+  Who sorrow for our darkened hours
+  And greet our luck with smiles.
+  "And who may those twain outcasts be
+  Whose favor ye have won?"
+  The first is Queen of England's realm,
+  The other that good Queen's son.
+
+
+
+
+WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?
+
+     'Do but grasp into the thick of human life. Every one _lives_
+     it--to not many is it _known_; and seize it where you will, it is
+     interesting.'--_Goethe._
+
+     'SUCCESSFUL.--Terminating in accomplishing what is wished
+     or intended.'--_Webster's Dictionary._
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+DIAMOND CUT--PASTE.
+
+Elihu Joslin belonged to that class of knaves who are cowardly as well
+as unscrupulous. He never hesitated to cheat where he had an
+opportunity, trusting to his powers of blustering and browbeating to
+sustain him. When these failed, that is, when he encountered persons who
+were not imposed on nor intimidated by his swaggering, bullying mien, he
+showed his craven nature by an abject submission. From being an errand
+boy in an old-established paper house in the city, he had himself become
+the proprietor of a large business in the same line. He had but a single
+idea--to make money. And he did make it. His reputation among the trade
+was very bad. But this did not, as it ought to have done, put him out of
+the pale of business negotiations. Every merchant knows that there are
+many rich men in business, whose acts of dishonesty and whose tricks
+form a subject of conversation and anecdote with their associates in
+trade, yet who are not only tolerated, but are by some actually courted.
+Joslin, when quite a young man, had been the assignee of his employer,
+who hoped to find in him a pliant tool. He soon found his mistake. He
+had put himself completely in the power of his clerk, and the latter
+took full advantage of it. The result was, his principal was beggared,
+and Joslin rose on his ruins.
+
+It was a favorite practice with Joslin to discover men who were short of
+money, lend them what they wanted, and thus, after a while, get control
+of all they possessed. When Joslin first met Mr. Burns, he hoped to
+entangle him as he had his friend. But the former was too good a
+merchant and in too sound a position to be brought in this way into his
+toils. He was therefore obliged to have recourse to sheer knavery to
+compass his object. The fact of Mr. Burns living so far from the city,
+the great expense which would be entailed on him by a litigation, and
+the natural repugnance he thought Mr. Burns would have to a lawsuit,
+emboldened him to employ the most high-handed measures to cheat him. The
+fact was, Mr. Burns's paper had become well known in the market, and
+commanded a ready sale. The manufacture was even--the texture firm and
+hard. There was a continually increasing demand for it. Joslin
+determined on--even for him--some audacious strokes. He sent a lot of
+the paper to an obscure auctioneer, one of his tools, and had it bid off
+in the name of a young man in his store. He thereupon reported the
+entire consignment to be unsalable, and credited Mr. Burns with the
+whole lot at the auction prices, less expenses. In this way he claimed
+to have no funds when Mr. Burns's drafts became due, and called on the
+latter for the ready money. The previous consignment he pretended to
+have sold in the city, at a time when paper was much lower than usual,
+but he had returned for this the then market price. Really he had not
+sold the paper at all. Knowing it was about to rise, he simply reported
+a sale, and kept the paper on hand to take advantage of the market, and
+he was now selling it at an advance of ten per cent, on the previous
+rates.
+
+Mr. Burns had never before encountered so desperate a knave. As we have
+said, the affair troubled him greatly. True, he was determined to
+investigate it thoroughly, but he could not well afford the time to go
+himself to New York. His chief man at the paper mill had failed to
+accomplish anything; so it was a great relief when Hiram volunteered his
+services. Mr. Burns could not tell why, but he had a singular confidence
+that Hiram would bring the matter out right. He was up to see his
+confidential clerk off in the stage, which passed through Burnsville
+before daylight, and which was to call at the office for its passenger.
+From that office a light could be seen glimmering as early as three
+o'clock. Hiram, after an hour or two in bed, where he did not close his
+eyes, had risen, and taking his valise in his hand, had gone to the
+office, and was again deep in the accounts. He would make memorandums
+from time to time, and at last wrote a brief note to Mr. Burns, asking
+him to send forward by the first mail a full power of attorney. At
+length the stage horn was heard. Hiram rose, opened his valise, and
+placed his papers within it. The stage wheeled rapidly round the corner,
+and drew up at the office door; Hiram extinguished the light, seized his
+valise, stepped quietly out, and was in the act of turning the key--he
+had a duplicate--when Mr. Burns arrived.
+
+'I thought,' he said, 'I would see you off. You will have a fine day,
+and reach New Haven in ample time for the boat.'
+
+'I have left a brief note on your table,' responded Hiram, 'to ask for a
+power of attorney. I think it may be important.'
+
+'You shall have it. Good luck to you. Write me how you get along.
+Good-by.'
+
+He shook Hiram's hand with an enthusiasm which belonged to his nature.
+The latter extended his cold, dry palm to his employer, and said, 'Good
+morning, sir,' and got inside. He did not in the least enter into Mr.
+Burns's cheerful, sympathizing spirit. If the truth must be told, he had
+not the slightest sympathy for him; neither did any desire to extricate
+him from this awkward business induce the present adventure. He cared no
+more for Mr. Burns than he did for Mr. Joslin. But he did enjoy the idea
+of meeting that knave and circumventing him. It was the pleasantest
+'duty' he ever had undertaken. On it his whole thoughts were centred.
+What did he care whether the day was fair or foul--whether the roads
+were good or bad? He longed to get to work at Joslin.
+
+The stage door closed, and the vehicle rolled swiftly away. Mr. Burns
+stood a moment looking after it. He had felt the entire absence of
+responsive sympathy in his clerk, and his old feeling returned, as it
+invariably did at times. He walked slowly toward his house.
+
+'Why is it that I so often wish I was rid of that fellow, when he serves
+me so effectually?'
+
+Mr. Burns turned before entering, and cast his eyes over the horizon.
+Daylight was just streaking the sky from the east. Joel Burns paused,
+and directed his glance over the town--the town he had founded and made
+to flourish. Tears stood in his eyes. Wherefore? He was thinking of the
+time when, after Mr. Bellows's death, he had, step by step, carefully
+travelled over this locality, while laying plans for his future career.
+Here--just here--he had marked four trees to indicate the site for his
+house, and here he had built it.
+
+'Oh, Sarah, why had you to leave me?'
+
+The words, uttered audibly, recalled him to himself. He opened and
+passed through the gate, and stepped on the piazza.
+
+'Is that you, father?' It was his daughter's voice. He looked up and saw
+her at the window. 'I heard you go out, and I have been watching for you
+ever since. Did Mr. Meeker get off?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Wait, father, and I will come down and take a walk with you. Wouldn't
+you like it?'
+
+'Yes, dear, very much.'
+
+They walked on together in silence. Presently Sarah perceived they were
+going in the direction of the burying ground. Mr. Burns entered it with
+his daughter, and soon stood by his wife's grave.
+
+'She left us early, my child. You do not forget her?'
+
+'Oh no, father!'
+
+'Do you remember all about her--_all_?'
+
+'Yes, everything.'
+
+'I know it--I know you do. Why is it, Sarah, that lately I feel more
+solitary than usual?'
+
+'Do you, father?'
+
+'Yes, since--' He paused, unwilling, it would seem, to finish the
+sentence.
+
+'You know, father, I have not been quite so much with you since Mr.
+Meeker came. You are more in the office.'
+
+'So I am. I wish--' He hesitated again. Evidently something oppressed
+him.
+
+Just then the first slanting rays of the morning sun gleamed over the
+place--pleasant rays, which seemed to change the current of Mr. Burns's
+thoughts, lighting up his soul as they were lighting the universe.
+
+He spoke cheerfully: "Let us run home, now. And, Sarah, won't you see
+that we have a very nice breakfast? Early rising has given me an
+appetite."
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+All this time the stage was conveying Hiram Meeker toward his
+goal--toward Elihu Joslin. He reached New Haven in time for the boat,
+and early the following morning was in New York. At this date the town
+had not assumed its present magnificent proportions. Broadway, above
+Canal street, was lined with private residences instead of stores, and
+Bleecker street was one of the most fashionable in the city.
+Nevertheless it was already imposing, especially to a young man from the
+country.
+
+Hiram had visited New York on two several occasions when a boy, in
+company with his mother, but latterly had not found any opportunity to
+do so. Lauding from the boat, he made his way to the then leading hotel,
+'The Franklin House,' and entered his name, and presently went in to
+breakfast. After he had finished, he stepped out on the sidewalk. He
+beheld a continuous stream of human beings pouring along this
+extraordinary thoroughfare. Omnibuses, carts, wagons, and vehicles of
+every description already filled the way.
+
+Hiram stood and regarded the scene. 'What a field here!' he said to
+himself. 'Look at this mass of people. Every other man an idiot--and of
+the rest, not one in a thousand has more than a medium share of brains.
+What a field, indeed, to undertake to manage and direct and control
+these fellows! What machinery though! Not too fast. This is the place
+for me. Burnsville-pho! Now, friend Joslin, * * * *
+
+Hiram made his way to the store of H. Bennett & Co., in Pearl street.
+Mr. Bennett was in; glad to see Hiram, but wonderfully busy. He invited
+his relative to dinner--indeed, asked him why he had not come direct to
+his house. Then he turned away to business.
+
+All this did not fluster Hiram in the slightest. He waited a few
+minutes; then took occasion to interrupt Mr. Bennett, and say he wished
+to speak with him on something of importance.
+
+'Certainly,' replied the other. 'What can I do for you?'
+
+'I come to New York on special business,' said Hiram. 'It is necessary I
+should know just what kind of a person Elihu Joslin is--the large paper
+dealer in Nassau street. I have not your facilities for ascertaining,
+and I ask you, as a particular favor, to find out for me.'
+
+'Joslin!' exclaimed Mr. Bennett. 'I hope none of your people are in his
+clutches. He is a very hard case to deal with, so they say.'
+
+'Is he rich?'
+
+'Yes, worth a couple of hundred thousand, easy.'
+
+'How does he stand with the trade?'
+
+'Oh, unpopular enough, I should imagine. Can't tell you particularly--is
+not in my line, you know; but if the matter is really pressing, you
+shall learn all you wish to in an hour.'
+
+'Thank you. I must know all about him prior to a personal interview,
+which I am to have.'
+
+'I see. Call in at twelve o'clock, and the information will be ready for
+you.'
+
+'One word more. Do you know the house of Orris & Tweed, auctioneers?'
+
+'Orris & Tweed? Never heard their name before.'
+
+'It is in the directory.'
+
+'I dare say. That don't amount to anything.'
+
+'Please let me know something of them, too. I am sorry to give you this
+trouble; but I am a greenhorn in New York, and have a difficult matter
+on my hands.'
+
+'No trouble--at least, I don't count it such to help a friend in the way
+of business. Besides, if you are a greenhorn, you act as if you know
+what you are about.'
+
+H. Bennett, of the prosperous house of Bennett & Co., would not have
+devoted five minutes extra to his namesake in the way of social chat;
+regarding such conduct in business hours, and in the busy season, as
+worse than superfluous; but as a matter of business, though purely
+incidental and profitless, he would have given the whole day to Hiram's
+affair, if absolutely necessary.
+
+Mr. Bennett here gave some special directions to one of his numerous
+clerks, a sharp, active-looking fellow, with a keen eye and an air like
+a game cock, who vanished as soon as they were received.
+
+Hiram left the store, and turning into Wall street, walked on till he
+reached Nassau street, in which was the establishment of Elihu Joslin.
+He strolled on without any special purpose, till his attention was
+arrested by an obstruction on the sidewalk. It was simply the ordinary
+circumstance of the delivery of goods. In this instance a dray was
+backed up to the curbstone, with paper. Hiram looked at it carefully. It
+was of Mr. Burns's manufacture. He glanced up to see the name of the
+house. It was not Joslin.
+
+A new thought flashed on him. Actuated by it, he commenced to speak with
+the carman, but checked himself, and walked boldly into the store, and
+back to the counting room.
+
+'I see you have Burns's paper. I want to purchase a small quantity of
+it.'
+
+'We couldn't supply you, to-day--have just got this in to fill an order.
+His paper stands so high that it is scarce in the market. How much do
+you want? We may get some more in by Thursday.'
+
+'Only a few reams to make out an assortment. I suppose I can buy of you
+on as good terms as of Joslin.'
+
+'For a small lot, I am sure, better; indeed, I have this direct from
+him, which is the same thing as if sent from the mill. You know the
+manufacturers will sell only to jobbers. You are in the retail line, I
+presume?'
+
+'I am; and I wish you would spare me a couple of reams out of this lot,
+and send them round to H. Bennett & Co.'s, Pearl street.'
+
+The merchant recognized in Hiram a young country storekeeper, and,
+desirous as all merchants are to make new acquaintances, was willing to
+accommodate him. H. Bennett & Co. was a first-class name, and this
+decided him to break into the lot, which was already sold to somebody
+else.
+
+Hiram paid for his purchase, called up a carman instanter, and never
+took his eye off the paper till it was delivered at Mr. Bennett's store.
+
+That gentleman was standing at the door, saying good-by to a first-rate
+customer, when Hiram came up with his cart, and directed his two reams
+of paper to be deposited inside.
+
+'Well, youngster, what's all this? said Mr. Bennett, good humoredly.
+
+'A little speculation of mine,' quoth Hiram, quietly.
+
+'Well, men do sometimes buy their own _paper_, I know--that is, when
+there is a promise to pay written on it; but this is a blank lot.'
+
+'It will prove a prize to me, unless I am mistaken.'
+
+Mr. Bennett caught the general idea on the instant. The two exchanged
+looks, such as are only current between very 'cute, knowing,
+sharp-witted men. Hiram was betrayed into returning Mr. Bennett's leer
+before he was aware of it. It was a spontaneous recognition, and he felt
+ashamed at being thus thrown off his guard. He colored slightly, and
+said something about his duty to his employer.
+
+'There's where you're right,' replied Mr. Bennett. 'A man who does not
+serve his employer well will not serve himself well in the long run;
+that you may be sure of.'
+
+The conversation ended here. Hiram strolled out again for half an hour;
+and when he returned, Mr. Bennett was able to give him a daguerreotype
+of Elihu Joslin's character, which agreed with that with which we have
+already favored the reader. As to 'Orris & Tweed, auctioneers,' they
+were not much better than Peter Funks--lived by acting as stool pigeons,
+and cheating generally.
+
+Hiram left the store rejoicing at this intelligence, and took his way
+direct to Joslin's place. Inquiring if that personage was in, he was
+told yes, but specially engaged. Hiram sat for a full hour, waiting
+patiently: then he was told to go into the private counting room.
+
+Entering, he beheld a large, overgrown, rough-looking man, about five
+and thirty, with black hair and eyes, and a coarse, florid complexion,
+who looked up and nodded carelessly on his entering.
+
+'This is Mr. Joslin, I presume?'
+
+Yes.'
+
+'My name is Meeker, I come from Burnsville--am in the employ of Mr.
+Burns.'
+
+'Well?'
+
+'I have come down to take a look at York, and knowing you owned half the
+paper mill, guessed you was a friend of Mr. Burns, and might not object
+to let some of your folks show me about a little.'
+
+'You don't belong in the mill, then?'
+
+'No; but I've been all over it. It's curious work--paper making.'
+
+'How long are you going to stay here?'
+
+'Well, I want to make a little visit and see the place. In fact, I've a
+notion to come here by-and-by, and I would like to look about first.
+Don't you want a clerk yourself?'
+
+'What can you do?'
+
+'I can tend store first rate.'
+
+'What do you want to leave Burns for?'
+
+'I didn't say I wanted to leave him. He's a first-rate man, if he was
+only a little sharper--got too many soft spots: that's what I hear folks
+say. But I think I should like New York.'
+
+'Well, Nicker--'
+
+'Meeker, if you please.'
+
+'All right, I say, Meeker; we are pretty busy now, but if you want to
+see the elephant--and I suppose you do--I will introduce you to one of
+my boys, who will give you a chance.'
+
+He stepped out, beckoning Hiram to follow.
+
+'Hill! Tell Hill to come here, some of you. Hill, this is Mr. Meeker, in
+the employ of our particular friend, Mr. Burns, of Burnsville. He wants
+to see something of the city. You must do what you can for him. I would
+not wish to slight any one, you know, who belongs with Mr. Burns.'
+
+'All right, sir,' said Hill, a jaunty, devil-may-care looking fellow,
+with a sallow, sickly face, evidently the result of excess and
+dissipation.' If the young gentleman will tell me where he stops. I will
+call for him this evening.'
+
+'At the Franklin House,' responded Hiram.
+
+'The devil!' exclaimed Joslin. 'Tall quarters, I should say.'
+
+'Ain't it a good place, sir? I was told it was a good house on board
+the boat.'
+
+'Good! I should think it was. The best in New York. A dollar and a half
+a day: did you understand that?'
+
+'No, sir; I did not ask the price.'
+
+'Green, that's a fact,' said Joslin to himself.' Never mind,' he
+continued, 'Hill will recommend you to his boarding place, if you like.
+Good day;' and Hiram took his leave.
+
+'I say, Hill, I want to find out how matters stand with Burns. You've
+got just the chance now. Put this chap through generally. His mother
+don't seem to know he's out. Don't mind a few dollars: you understand?
+And recollect, pump him dry.'
+
+'Dry as a sandbank,' said Hill, who was already chuckling over the sport
+in prospect.
+
+Mr. Joslin continued his instructions, which, as they were of a strictly
+private nature, we should be violating confidence to record.
+
+Hiram occupied himself the remainder of the day in looking about the
+town. He took one of Brower's omnibuses and rode to the end of the route
+in Broadway, opposite Bond street. Here he descended and retraced his
+steps. Broadway was then the general promenade. Hiram's pulse beat quick
+as he gazed on the beauty and fashion of the metropolis moving
+magnificently along. Susceptible as he was, he had never before been so
+impressed with female charms. He thought of the belles of Hampton and
+Burnsville with a species of disgust. His own costume, which he regarded
+as so perfect, he perceived had a provincial, country look, when
+contrasted with that of the gentlemen he encountered. Now in business
+matters, Hiram was as much at home and as self-possessed in New York as
+in Connecticut. But when it came to the display he now beheld, he felt
+and acknowledged his inferiority.
+
+Here Hiram _was_ green. He did not stop to reflect that fine feathers
+make fine birds, so suddenly was he confronted with the glittering
+panorama. He continued to mingle with the crowd which swept along, and
+sometimes the blood would rush swiftly to his brain, causing him to
+reel, as dark eyes would be turned languidly on him, exhibiting, as he
+was ready to believe, an incipient interest in his destiny.
+
+Below Canal street the character of the current began to change, till
+gradually Hiram was freed from the exciting trial he had been subjected
+to. He collected his thoughts and brought his mind back to his work--and
+his work Hiram Meeker never neglected. Slowly the old current drove out
+the new. Gradually his mind returned to its even tenor. He walked
+through the custom house. He entered the exchange. He visited the
+shipping; and when he got back to the hotel, he was tired and hungry
+enough. But, tired and hungry as he was, he proceeded at once to open
+his valise and take out a bundle of papers. Glancing over certain
+account sales, his eye fell on the name of HILL as purchaser. A
+peculiar gleam of satisfaction passed over his face as he replaced the
+papers in his valise and went down to dinner.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+At the appointed hour, the young gentleman whom Mr. Joslin had addressed
+as 'Hill' waited on Hiram at the Franklin House. He sent up his card,
+and Hiram descended to meet him. He could scarcely recognize the young
+man before him, dressed in a ridiculous extreme of fashion, and covered
+with rings, pins, and gold chains, as the clerk hard at work with coat
+off, superintending the stowing away of a lot of merchandise. But Hiram
+was in no way deceived or taken in by the imposing manner in which Mr.
+Hill had got himself up. He saw quickly the difference between the real
+and the flash fashionable. But he did not betray this by word or sign,
+and continued to maintain the character he had assumed of an
+unsophisticated, verdant country youth.
+
+Mr. Hill at the outset proposed they should take a drink, to which Hiram
+readily assented. They proceeded to the bar, when the young man asked
+his companion what he would have.
+
+'A glass of lemonade,' replied Hiram.
+
+'Lemonade!' exclaimed the other. 'You don't call that drinking with a
+fellow, do you?'
+
+'I can't take anything stronger,' answered Hiram. 'I belong to the
+temperance society.'
+
+'Temperance society!' retorted Hill, a good deal chapfallen that he was
+to lose his chief weapon of attack. 'I thought the pledge didn't hold
+when you were away from home?'
+
+'Oh, yes it does; our minister says it holds everywhere. Still, I
+wouldn't mind taking some soda and sarsaparilla, though Dr. Stevens says
+there's alcohol in the sarsaparilla.'
+
+Hiram was impracticable. Hill could not induce him even to take a little
+wine. He was so much chagrined that he poured out for himself a double
+portion of brandy, and, before he had finished it, regained his good
+humor.
+
+'Well, what do you say to another glass? I think I can stand the brandy,
+if you can the lemonade.'
+
+Hiram had no objections.
+
+Hill lighted a segar. Hiram did not smoke.
+
+'I hope you are not going to refuse my next invitation,' said Hill. 'I
+have got tickets for the theatre: what do you say?'
+
+Hiram had often discussed the theatre question, both at the lyceum and
+on other occasions. It was to be condemned--no doubt about it. But the
+Rev. Mr. Goddard had once remarked in his hearing that he thought if a
+good opportunity was presented for a young man to visit the theatre, he
+had perhaps better do so, than feel an irritating curiosity all his life
+about it.
+
+Seeing Hiram hesitate, Hill proceeded to urge him. 'You had better go,'
+he said. 'Lots to be seen. You don't know what you are losing, I tell
+you.'
+
+Hiram was not influenced by his companion's importunity, but he decided
+to go, nevertheless. The elder Kean was then in New York, and the old
+Park Theatre in all its glory. That evening Kean was to play Shylock in
+the 'Merchant of Venice.' Hill, greatly pleased that at last he had made
+some headway, took another glass of brandy and water, and the young men
+proceeded to the theatre. The house was crowded from galleries to pit.
+The orchestra was playing when they entered.
+
+Hiram was blinded by the brilliancy of the gaslights. His heart beat
+fast in spite of his effort to be composed.
+
+The play began with some second-rate actors, who went through the first
+scene with the usual affected stage strut and tone. Hiram thought he
+never witnessed anything more unnatural and ridiculous. Even in the
+second, where Portia and Nerissa hold a dialogue, he was rather
+disgusted than otherwise. The machinery had scarcely been adjusted for
+the third scene, when a storm of applause burst from all parts of the
+house; clapping of hands, stamping of feet, bravos, and various noises
+of welcome commingled, and Hiram beheld an old man enter, somewhat bent,
+dressed in a Hebrew cap and tunic, having a short cane, which would
+serve either for support or as a means of defence. As he advanced, he
+cast sidelong, suspicious, and sinister glances from beneath bushy,
+beetling eyebrows.
+
+At first Hiram was inclined to believe it was a real personage, so
+natural was his entrance--so destitute of all trick, or of anything got
+up.
+
+'That's Kean,' whispered Hill.
+
+Hiram held his breath as the words of the Jew broke distinctly on the
+house:
+
+'_Three thousand ducats--well._'
+
+He entered at once with the deepest interest into the play. With head
+leaning forward, eyes open wide and fixed on the speaker, he drank in
+every word. From the first he sympathized with the main character. When
+Shylock went on to say: 'Yet his means are in supposition: he hath an
+argosy bound to Tipolis, another to the Indies. I understand, moreover,
+upon the Rialto, he hath a third at Mexico, a fourth for England; and
+other ventures he hath, squandered abroad. But ships are but boards,
+sailors but men. There be land rats and water rats, land thieves and
+water thieves--I mean pirates; and there is the peril of waters, winds,
+and rocks. The man is notwithstanding sufficient:'--Hiram unconsciously
+shook his head, as if he doubted it.
+
+His whole soul was now centred in the performance. When it came to the
+trial, in the fourth act, he turned and twisted his body, as if he could
+with difficulty abstain from advising Shylock to accept the offer of
+Bassanio: 'For the three thousand ducats here is six.'
+
+It does not appear that Hiram felt any sympathy for the merchant who was
+to lose the pound of flesh; but for Shylock, when turned out of court
+stripped of all he had, it was intense. When at last he exclaims:
+
+  'Nay, take my life and all; pardon not that:
+  You take my house when you do take the prop
+  That doth sustain my house; you take my life
+  When you do take the means whereby I live:'
+
+Hiram leaned back, and exclaimed audibly: 'It's too bad, I declare!'
+
+All this time, Hill sat as quietly as he could. He laughed whenever
+Launcelot Gobbo appeared; and tried hard to get Hiram to go out and take
+more lemonade between the acts. Hiram would not move. He offered to
+introduce him to lots of pretty girls whom he pointed out in the
+distance; but it was useless. Hill began to think he would not make much
+of Hiram, after all. The evening was past, and he had as yet
+accomplished just nothing.
+
+The play was over. The farce had been performed. It did not interest
+Hiram. He thought everything over-strained and unnatural. It was now
+late, Hiram had declined various seductive invitations of Hill, when the
+latter finally insisted they should have some oysters. Hiram assented,
+and the two descended into Windust's.
+
+'Well, old fellow, what are you doing here?' was Hill's exclamation to a
+young man with notebook and pencil, seated at one of the small tables,
+on which already smoked an oyster stew and some brandy toddy.
+
+'Hallo, Hill, is that you? Sit down. What will you have?' was the reply.
+
+Hiram regarded the speaker curiously. He was twenty-two or three years
+old--serious looking, with black hair, dark eyes, and pale, bony
+features. He had the easy, indifferent air of one careless of opinion,
+or independent of it.
+
+'My friend, Mr. Meeker, from Connecticut.'
+
+'Mr. Meeker, Mr. Innis.'
+
+After these salutations, the parties sat down, and orders were given.
+
+'Excuse me,' said Innis; 'I am not quite through my work.'
+
+'Go ahead,' replied Hill; whereat the other proceeded with his pencil
+and notebook, scratching away in a most rapid manner.
+
+Seeing Hiram look as if he did not exactly comprehend the employment,
+Hill remarked, 'Innis is _item_ man and reporter for the _Clarion_, and
+you will see his notice of Kean's performance, which he is just
+finishing, in to-morrow morning's paper.'
+
+This struck Hiram as rapid work, considerably increasing his respect for
+the stranger, and led him to regard Innis still more critically. His
+appearance had impressed him favorably from the first.
+
+Suddenly he exclaimed, 'Wern't you at Newton Academy?'
+
+'Yes; and so were you. I remember now. You were a little fellow. You
+took the first prize in bookkeeping.'
+
+'And _you_ learned shorthand of Chellis.'
+
+'Which counts now, at any rate. I should starve without it.'
+
+During this colloquy Hill sat in utter amazement.
+
+'You a Newton boy?' he exclaimed at last.
+
+'Yes,' said Hiram.
+
+'And you know him, and no mistake?' to Innis.
+
+Innis nodded.
+
+'Then old Joslin may go to the devil. I--'
+
+'He'll go soon enough, and without your permission; and if you are not
+careful, you'll go with him,' interrupted Innis, rising. 'I am all right
+now,' he continued. 'I've but to step a block and a half and back. I
+will be with you again in three minutes;' and he darted off to hand in
+his evening's report.
+
+Hill sat looking at Hiram, who, with all his impenetrability wore a
+surprised and puzzled expression.
+
+'You don't remember me,' he said.
+
+'No.'
+
+'Why, I am Deacon Hill's son, of Newton. I quit the academy, I guess,
+just about the time you came. Innis and I were there together. Well, I
+declare, your innocent look threw me off the track; but I have seen you
+many a time in Hampton. You used to be with Jessup, didn't you?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'You've been coming possum over Joslin; isn't it so?'
+
+'I don't understand you.'
+
+'Oh, never mind; he's a cursed knave, anyway. I shall quit him first of
+January--keeps me on promises and the lowest kind of a salary, and no
+end of the dirty work--'
+
+'Such as sham sales of my employer's paper sold A.H. Hill,' interrupted
+Hiram, dryly.
+
+'Hallo! where did you get hold of that?' said Hill, laughing.
+
+Hiram made no reply; and Innis entering at this moment, the subject was
+changed.
+
+Hill, who had already imbibed more than was good for him, ordered a
+brandy toddy; and Hiram, true to his temperance principles, partook of a
+cup of hot coffee. Before the toddy was half finished, Hill, who was
+already illustrating the proverb that 'children, fools, and drunken men
+speak truth,' commenced again about his employer, Joslin.
+
+'Really, Mr. Hill, I don't think you ought to refer to your confidential
+relations with your principal,' said Hiram, gravely. He knew, cunning
+fellow, it would only be adding fuel to the fire.
+
+'You be----,' said Hill. 'I tell you what it is, Innis: here's a sell.
+I'm fairly come over. He is on Joslin's track--I know it, and I'll own
+up.' He thereupon proceeded to give a general account of Joslin, and how
+he did business, and what a cowardly, lying knave he was.
+
+Innis laughed. Hiram was quiet, but he did not miss a word. The little
+supper was finished, and the trio rose to depart.
+
+'I had no idea it was so late,' said Innis.
+
+'Have you far to go?' said Hiram.
+
+'Yes, to Chelsea; and the omnibuses have stopped.'
+
+'Come and stay with me: I have a very nice room.'
+
+Innis saw Hiram was in earnest, and after a little hesitation he
+assented. Hill bid them good night, and hiccoughed off toward his own
+quarters; and Hiram with Innis went to the Franklin House.
+
+When these young men reached their room, they did not go to bed. They
+sat up for an hour or two. What this conference led to we shall see
+by-and-by.
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Hiram rose early, notwithstanding the late hours of the previous night.
+Innis breakfasted with him and then took his departure. On going to the
+post office, Hiram found a letter from Mr. Burns, enclosing a full power
+of attorney, as he had requested. He then went to H. Bennett & Co.,
+where he took up at least an hour of that gentleman's time, apparently
+quite to that gentleman's satisfaction. Thence Hiram proceeded to the
+office of a well-known counsellor at law, who had been recommended to
+him by Mr. Bennett.
+
+The day was spent in preparing certain ominous-looking documents. I am
+told that on the occasion Hiram exhibited a breadth and clearness of
+comprehension which astonished the counsellor, who could not help
+suggesting to the young man that he would make an excellent lawyer,
+which compliment Hiram received with something very like a sneer. That
+evening Hiram went to bed early. He slept well. His plans were
+perfected--his troops in order of battle, only waiting for the signal to
+be given.
+
+He awoke about sunrise, and rang his bell. A sleepy servant at length
+replied to it.
+
+'Bring me a _Clarion_,' said Hiram.
+
+'The papers won't be along, sir, for half an hour.'
+
+'Well, let me have one the moment they come. Here's a quarter; bring a
+_Clarion_ quick, and I shall ask no change.'
+
+I record this instance of an impatient spirit in Hiram, as probably the
+last he ever exhibited through his whole life. What could cause it?
+
+Presently the waiter came back. The _Clarion_ was in his hand. Hiram
+took it eagerly, turned swiftly to the 'City Items,' and nodded with
+intense satisfaction as his eye rested on one paragraph.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At ten o'clock precisely, Hiram presented himself at the counting room
+of Elihu Joslin. Again he was forced to wait some time, and again he
+waited most patiently.
+
+[I ought to state that Hill, in order to keep up his credit with his
+employer, his bravado being sensibly cooled the following morning, had
+made up all sorts of stories about Mr. Burns's affairs, which, as he
+reported, had been pumped from Hiram, whom he professed to have left in
+a most dilapidated state at the hotel.]
+
+At length Mr. Joslin would see Hiram. The latter entered and sat down.
+
+'Well, my young friend,' said the merchant, 'what do you think of New
+York? Equal to Burnsville, eh? Did Hill do the polite thing by you?'
+
+'Mr. Joslin,' said Hiram, seriously, and quite in his natural manner,
+while he fixed his quiet but strangely searching eyes on him, 'I have an
+important communication to make to you?'
+
+'Well?'
+
+'I am not what I appear to be!'
+
+'No? What the devil are you then?'
+
+'I am the CONFIDENTIAL CLERK of Joel Burns, sent here by him to ferret
+out and punish your rascalities. Stay,' continued Hiram--perceiving
+Joslin was about to break forth in some violent demonstrations. 'Sit
+down, sir, and hear me through quietly. It is your best course. It is
+your ONLY course. Now listen. You have undertaken to cheat my
+employer. You have rendered false accounts of sales, using your own
+clerks for sham purchasers, and employing stool-pigeon auctioneers. You
+have attempted to swindle him generally. I have the whole story here.
+_You are in my power_.'
+
+'By----! that's more than I'll stand,' shouted Joslin, 'from any d----d
+Connecticut Yankee.'
+
+'Stop,' said Hiram, authoritatively. 'A word more, and you are ruined
+past all redemption. Read that,' and he handed him the _Clarion_,
+placing his finger on a particular paragraph. Joslin took the paper. His
+hand trembled, but he managed to read as follows:
+
+     'Some extraordinary disclosures have reached us, involving a
+     wholesale paper house in Nassau street in large swindling
+     transactions. We forbear to give the name of the party implicated,
+     but understand that the police to-morrow will be in possession of
+     the facts.'
+
+'Here,' said Hiram, showing a bundle of papers, 'are the documents.
+Outside there on the curbstone stands an officer. I mean to make short
+work of it. Will you behave rationally or not?'
+
+Joslin sat down.
+
+'What do you want?' he said at length.
+
+'I want nothing but what is HONEST, sir--_that_ I mean to
+have,' said Hiram, in a mild, but very firm tone. 'Here is the account
+as it ought to be rendered. Look it over, and put your name to it.'
+
+'Really, this will take time--a good deal of time,' said Joslin,
+recovering from his stupor. 'I must consult my bookkeeper.'
+
+'You will consult nobody, and you will settle this account before I
+leave the room.'
+
+Joslin took the document. He trembled from head to foot. He saw himself
+completely circumvented.
+
+Hiram proceeded to show him just how the account ought to stand. Very
+coolly and very accurately he went through the whole.
+
+'I suppose you are right,' said Joslin, moodily, and he affixed his
+signature to the paper, and began to think he was getting off easy.
+'Now, do you want anything more of me?'
+
+'Yes,' said Hiram, 'considerably more. You own one half of the paper
+mill with Mr. Burns. You must sell out to him. Here is an agreement to
+sell, drawn ready for your signature.'
+
+'D----d if I will do it for all Burnsville! You've settled with me, and
+you can't stir a peg farther. Outwitted yourself this time!' said
+Joslin, triumphantly.
+
+'Not quite so fast. _You_ have settled with Mr. Burns by signing that
+paper, which gives the lie to your other accounts, and is so much
+evidence for me before a police court; but Mr. Burns has _not_ settled
+with you, and _won't_ settle with you till you bind yourself, by signing
+this document, to sell out to him, on reasonable terms.'
+
+Joslin was again struck dumb.
+
+'You will receive,' continued Hiram, 'just what you paid for it, less my
+expenses, and charges for my time and trouble in coming to New York,
+counsel fees, and so forth; and you may think yourself fortunate in
+falling into conscientious hands!'
+
+Not to pursue the interview farther, Hiram accomplished just exactly
+what he undertook to do before he entered Joslin's store that morning.
+The accounts were made right, and Hiram turned to leave the store with
+the agreement to sell in his pocket. He stopped before going out.
+
+'Mark you,' he said; 'when Joel Burns gets a clean deed of your half the
+paper mill, according to this agreement, I will tear up these little
+documents'--exhibiting some law papers. 'Don't forget. You have
+undertaken to settle with me. I shan't have settled with you till I get
+the deed. Good morning.'
+
+It was only twelve o'clock when all this was concluded. Hiram marched
+out of the store triumphant. His impulse on touching the pavement was to
+jump up and down, run, kick up his heels, and shout all sorts of huzzas.
+He did none of these, but walked up to the Park very quietly, and then
+into Broadway. But his heart beat exultantly. A glow of absolute
+satisfaction suffused his mental, moral, and physical system. It was
+just the happiest moment of his life. The day was fine--the air clear
+and bracing. Broadway was filled to overflowing. How he enjoyed the
+promenade! It was when turning to retrace his steps, after reaching the
+limits of fashionable resort, that his feelings became so buoyant that
+it seemed as if he must find some outlet for them. The exquisite beauty
+of the ladies, the richness of their dresses, and the air and style with
+which they glided along, put new excitement into his soul.
+
+'One of these days I shall make their acquaintance. Oh! what a place
+this is,' he muttered.
+
+Unconsciously he stopped quite still, almost in an ecstacy.
+
+At that moment his attention was attracted by a hearse, which, having
+accomplished its task, was proceeding at a rapid rate up Broadway.
+Careening this way and that, it jolted swiftly over the pavement. The
+driver, either hardened by habit, or, it may be, a little tipsy,
+exhibited a rollicking, reckless air, as he urged his horse along. As he
+came opposite Hiram, their eyes met. Influenced by I know not what,
+perhaps for a joke, perhaps to give the young fellow who was so
+verdantly staring at him a start, he half checked the animal, as if
+about to pull up, and gesturing to Hiram in the style of an omnibus
+driver, motioned him to get inside!
+
+Never before, never afterward, did Hiram receive such a shock. Dismay
+was so evident on his face, that the man gave vent to a coarse laugh at
+the success of his experiment, applied the lash to his brute, and dashed
+furiously on.
+
+What sent that hearse along just then and there? It gave you a ghostly
+reminder, Hiram. It made you recollect that you were not to lose sight
+of the other side.
+
+That morning Hiram forgot, yes, _forgot_ to say his prayers. So entirely
+was he carried away by the Joslin business, that for once he neglected
+this invariable duty. Now this was not singular under the circumstances.
+To a genuine spirit the omission would have been followed by no morbid
+recollections. As Hiram, after the affair of the hearse, took his way to
+the hotel, the fact that he had not sought God's blessing on his
+morning's work suddenly presented itself. He was persuaded the shock he
+received was providential. Arrived at the Franklin, he mounted to his
+room, and read three or four times the customary amount in the Bible,
+and prayed longer and more energetically than he ever did before in his
+life. He was now much more calm, but still a good deal depressed. It was
+not till after he had partaken of an excellent dinner that he felt
+entire equanimity.
+
+That evening Hiram was to spend at Mr. Bennett's. True to his rule,
+which he applied with severity, not to let pleasure interfere with
+business, he had declined all his cousin's invitations. Now he was at
+liberty to go and enjoy himself. Mr. Bennett lived in a very handsome
+house in a fashionable street. His daughters were all older than Hiram,
+but still they were very pretty, and by no means _passée_. Mrs. Bennett
+was quite a grand lady. Mr. B. received Hiram very cordially, and asked
+immediately how he had got along. Hiram replied briefly. Mr. B. was
+delighted. Mrs. B. received Hiram very graciously, but with something of
+a patronizing manner, very different from what she exhibited when
+spending several weeks at Hampton. The two girls were more cordial.
+Hiram's country-bred politeness, which omitted not the least point
+required by books of etiquette, amused them much as the vigorous and
+very scientific dancing of a country belle amuses the city-bred girl who
+walks languidly through the measure. Notwithstanding, Hiram managed to
+make himself agreeable. It was not till two or three young gentlemen of
+the city came in that they showed slight signs of weariness, and Hiram
+was transferred to mamma. Our hero was not slow to perceive the
+disadvantage under which he labored. He was not one whit discouraged. He
+watched his rivals closely. He smiled occasionally in disdain while
+listening to some of the conversation. 'They are almost fools,' he said
+to himself. 'The tailor has done the whole.' Never mind, I can afford to
+wait.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next morning Hiram took the boat for New Haven, and on the following
+morning reached Burnsville. He had written but a line to Mr. Burns, to
+acknowledge the receipt of the power of attorney, and had given his
+employer no inkling of what he was attempting to do.
+
+As the stage, a little after sunrise, drove into that beautiful village,
+Hiram felt glad to get back to its quiet, charming repose. He thought of
+the glare and hustle and excitement of New York with no satisfaction,
+contrasted with the placid beauty of the scene he now witnessed. The
+idea of being welcomed by Louisa and Charlotte Hawkins filled his mind
+with pleasure, and Sarah Burns did not at that moment suffer in
+comparison with the Miss Bennetts.
+
+'It _is_ a happy spot!' said Hiram. 'Can I do better than stay in it?'
+
+It was an instinct of his better nature which spoke. He had given way to
+it for a moment, but _only_ for a moment. The next, the old sense
+returned and was triumphant.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The stage whirled on, and soon Hiram was driven up to the house of Mrs.
+Hawkins. How rejoiced they all were to see him! The widow Hawkins had
+missed him so much! As for Louisa and Charlotte, they were ready to
+devour him.
+
+Hiram hurried through his breakfast, hastily adjusted his toilette, and
+walked over to Mr. Burns's house. He rang the bell. The door was opened
+by Mr. Burns himself. He greeted Hiram most cordially.
+
+'I did not expect you back so soon. Come in; we are just sitting down to
+breakfast.'
+
+'I have already breakfasted,' said Hiram, 'and am going to the office.
+Please look these papers over,' he continued. 'By them you will see
+precisely what I have been able to do.'
+
+Mr. Burns took the papers and turned to go in. He thought Hiram had
+accomplished little, and he did not wish to mortify him by asking what.
+
+Just then Sarah Burns came tripping down stairs, and, passing her
+father, extended her hand to Hiram, and said:
+
+'Welcome back! What have you done?'
+
+'Do not forget your promise,' replied Hiram, in a low, distinct tone. 'I
+have WON!'
+
+
+
+
+AURORA.
+
+     'For Waterloo,' says Victor Hugo, 'was not a battle: it was a
+     change of front of the universe.'
+
+
+Great events are developed by nearness. "To-day," says Emerson, "is a
+king in disguise." Probably half the soldiers of Constantine's army
+regarded their leader's adoption of the Cross as his sign of hope and
+triumph as of small account. Their pay and rations, their weapons, their
+officers, were the same as before; the enemy before them, their duty to
+beat him, were unchanged. What availed a symbol more or less on the
+imperial banner? Even admit that it indicated the emperor's personal
+rejection of the old and adoption of the newer faith, what of that?
+Would not everybody else abide by the religion of his own choice,
+whatever that might be? Away, then, with all theological babble, which
+plain people can never half understand! Rome and the emperor for ever!
+Yet in that despised symbol, announcing that the Empire had become the
+protector instead of the persecutor of the Christian faith, was the germ
+of a greater transformation than was wrought by the Deluge.
+
+The Proclamation of Freedom by President Lincoln is doubtless open to
+criticism. Why did he not declare all slaves emancipated? Why not make
+such legal manumission operative at once? Why intimate that certain
+States should (or might) be excepted from its operation? Why not declare
+the slaves liberated because of the essential, inevitable wrong of
+holding them in bondage? Why not appeal to God for His blessing on the
+cause henceforward inseparably identified with that of Right and
+Liberty? Such questions may be multiplied indefinitely; but to what end?
+What matters that the Proclamation might or should be different, since
+we have practical concern only with the Proclamation as it is?
+
+For more than a lifetime, slavery has been accepted and regarded as a
+national institution. The American in Europe was "perplexed in the
+extreme" by the questionings and criticisms of humane, intelligent
+observers, who could not comprehend how a country should contain Four
+Millions of slaves by the official census, yet not be a slaveholding
+country. With our capital a slaveholding city; with our fortresses in
+good part constructed by the labor of slaves; with our flag the chief
+shelter of the African Slave Trade, and our statute book disgraced by
+the most arbitrary and inhuman Fugitive Slave Law ever devised, it _was_
+a nice operation to prove this no slaveholding country, but only one
+wherein certain citizens, by virtue of local laws, over which we had no
+control, were permitted to hold Blacks in slavery. And, when it is
+notorious that the active partisans of slavery filled every Federal
+office, even in the nominally free States, and excluded rigorously from
+office every opponent of the baleful system, it is certain that the
+shrug of the polite Frenchman who listened to our demonstration that
+ours, after all, was not a slaveholding country, was an indication of
+complaisance rather than of conviction. To prove this nothing of the
+sort, while Brazil was placed at the head of modern slaveholding
+countries, was to overtax the resources of human sophistry.
+
+The Proclamation is an immense fact. If it were no more than a
+recognition from the highest quarter of the deadly antagonism between
+slavery and the Union, it would have inexhaustible significance. The
+American republic, bleeding at every pore while fighting desperately for
+life, arraigns slavery as her chief enemy and peril. The truth was long
+since clear to every candid mind; but truth gains force by recognition.
+Thousands realize a fact thus proclaimed, who have hitherto ignored and
+resisted it.
+
+For thirty years, the charge of disloyalty has borne heavily on the
+American champion of Universal Liberty. True, as to a very few, who
+could not obtain the assent of their consciences to compacts which bound
+them to aid the oppressor against his victim, they were made a weapon of
+offense against all. Abolitionists were execrated and hooted by the mob
+as champions at once of Negro Equality and of National dissolution.
+
+The times are bravely altered. The partnership between Slavery and
+Unionism is absolutely dissolved. Like most divorces, this involves a
+deadly quarrel. Not even the soaring platitudes of George Francis Train
+can longer evoke cheers for the Union blent with curses on Abolition. In
+a strictly, sternly real sense, "Liberty and Union" are henceforth "one
+and inseparable!"
+
+For thirty years, our great seaboard merchants, our shippers, our
+factors, have given their patronage to pro-slavery journals and their
+votes to pro-slavery politicians, with intent to preserve the Union and
+lay the red spectre of civil war. Their recompense is found in the
+repudiation of the immense debts for merchandise due them from the
+South, and a gigantic war waged by the Slave Power for the overthrow of
+the Union. The profits of a lifetime of obsequious pandering to the
+master crime of our era are swept away at a blow, and the arm that
+strikes it is that of the monster they have made such sacrifices of
+conscience and manhood to conciliate. Was ever retribution more signal?
+
+To-day, the American Union, through the official action of its President
+and Congress, stands distinctly on the side of Liberty for All. Its
+success in the fearful struggle forced upon it involves the overthrow
+and extinction of American slavery. The sentiment of nationality, the
+instinct which impels every people to deprecate and resist the
+dismemberment and degradation of their country, the impulse of loyalty,
+are all arrayed against the traitorous "institution" which, after having
+so long bent the Union to its ends, now seeks its destruction. It once
+seemed to the majority patriotic to champion slavery; it is now a sacred
+duty to resist the bloody Moloch unto death.
+
+The very hesitation of the President to take the decisive step gives
+weight to his ultimate decision. The compromisers have never tired of
+eulogizing his firmness, his candor, his patience, his clearness of
+vision, his independence, and his unsectional patriotism. His
+associations were largely with the Border State school of conservatives.
+His favorite counsellor was the most eminent and sturdy Republican
+opponent of an emancipation policy. His decision in favor of that
+policy, like the Proclamation which announces it, is entirely his own.
+The "pressure" to which he deferred was that of an urgent public
+necessity and the emphatic conviction of the great mass of our loyal
+citizens.
+
+And, though few days have elapsed since the Proclamation was uttered,
+the evils predicted by its opponents are already banished to the limbo
+of chimera. Those officers who threatened to resign in case an
+emancipation policy were adopted make no haste to justify their menaces.
+As yet, not one of them has done so; in time, a few may screw their
+courage to the sticking-point. There are enough who can be spared; and
+they are generally those who deprecate and denounce an "Abolition war."
+May they yet prove men of their word!
+
+Outside of the army, the general feeling is one of wonder that this act
+of direst portent to the rebellion has been so long delayed. Even the
+rebels share in this amazement. When secession was first openly mooted
+at the South, every Unionist argued that secession was practical
+abolition. It has puzzled them to comprehend the weary months through
+which their prophecies were left unfulfilled. They will be perplexed no
+longer.
+
+The Opposition in the loyal States is manifestly weakened by the
+Proclamation. Their dream is of wearing out the Unionists by
+disappointments and delays, restoring a Democratic ascendency in the
+government, and then buying back the rebels to an outward loyalty by new
+concessions and guaranties to slavery. Hence torpid campaigns, languid
+strategy, advances without purpose, and surrenders without necessity.
+But the policy of emancipation brings the quarrel to a speedy decision.
+The rebel States must promptly triumph or brave a social dissolution.
+Every Union advance into a rebel region henceforth clears a broad
+district of slaves. The few are hurried off by their masters; the many
+escape to a land of freedom. How signally this process will be
+accellerated after the first of January, few will yet believe. Let the
+war simply go on, with fluctuating fortunes, for a year or two longer,
+and the new slave empire will be nearly denuded of slaves. The process
+is at once inevitable and irresistible. Whether the able-bodied slaves
+thus escaping to the loyal States shall or shall not be used in whatever
+way they may be found most serviceable against the cruel despotism which
+so long robbed them of their earnings while crushing out their manhood,
+is purely a question of time. There are thousands who would last year
+have revolted against the employment of Blacks in any way in our
+struggle, who are now ripe for it: every week, as it transpires, adds to
+their number. Loyal men hesitated at first, believing that the rebellion
+would easily and speedily be put down. These have now discovered their
+mistake and amended it. An aristocracy of three hundred thousand
+generally capable, energetic persons, accustomed to rule, and
+recognizing a deadly foe in every opponent of their wishes, surrounded
+by twice so many shrewd and skilful parasites, and wielding the entire
+resources of ten millions of people, are not easily conquered. The poor
+Whites fill the ranks of their armies; the Blacks grow the food and
+perform the labor essential to the subsistence of those armies and of
+their families. Slavery unassailed is the strongest natural base of a
+gigantic rebellion: it easily adapts all the resources of a people to
+the stern exigencies of war. Slavery resisted and undermined is a very
+different affair, as the annals of this struggle are destined to prove.
+
+Let no doubts, then, vex the mind of a single hearty Unionist as to the
+issue of our great contest. The Proclamation has not added a thousand to
+the number of our enemies, while it has supplied four millions with the
+most cogent reasons for being henceforth our friends. These millions are
+humble, ignorant, timid, distrustful, and now grinding in the
+prison-house of the traitors. They are not, let us frankly admit, the
+equals in prowess, capacity, or opportunity, of four millions of Whites;
+but they are, nevertheless, human beings; they have human affections and
+aspirations, and they feel the stirrings of the universal and
+indestructible human longing for liberty. "Breaking in a nigger" is a
+rough and pretty effectual process: it crushes down the manhood of its
+subject, but does not crush it out. Should the republic say to-morrow to
+its Black step-children, "We want one hundred thousand of you to aid in
+this struggle against the slaveholding rebels, and will treat you in
+every respect as human beings should be treated," it would not have to
+wait long for the full number. Hitherto a low prejudice, studiously
+fostered by Democratic politicians for the vilest party ends, has
+repelled and expelled this abused race from the militia service of the
+Union. The exclusion is absurd where its impulse is not treasonable, and
+must share the fate of all absurdities. "Would you," asked a Unionist of
+a Democrat, "refuse the aid of a negro, if you were assailed and your
+life threatened by an assassin?" "Yes," replied the Democrat; "I would
+rather be killed by a White man than saved by a nigger." Who does not
+_know_ that this man at heart sympathizes with the rebellion, and
+deprecates the War for the Union as unnecessary and ruinous?
+
+That war will go on. Our new and vast levies, our new iron-clads, our
+new policy, will add immensely to the strength already put forth in
+vindication of the rightful authority of the Federal government and the
+integrity of the Union. Yet a little while, and the immense superiority
+in every respect of the moral and material forces of the loyal States
+will make themselves felt and respected. Yet a little while, and the
+authority of the Nation will be acknowledged by its now revolted
+citizens, and the rebellion will subside as suddenly as it broke upon
+us. Yet a little while, and ours will again be a land of peace,
+returning joyfully to the pursuits of productive industry and radiant
+with the sunlight of Universal Liberty.
+
+
+
+
+HOW THEY DID IT.
+
+  The magnates of Richmond all swore out of hand,
+  That the war must go in the enemies' land;
+  And it did: when they crossed to the Maryland shore
+  They turned all into foes who were friendly before!
+
+
+
+
+FROM MOUNT LAFAYETTE, WHITE MOUNTAINS.
+
+  Silence and light and scenes stupendous greet
+  My wondering sense and sight! Here midway meet
+  Those rocky splendors where th' embracing clouds
+  Above, below, wrap them in misty shrouds.
+
+  Our mules with cautious feet the sharp ascent
+  Accomplish; and, the steep o'ertopped, all spent
+  Our strength, we look wild nature in the face,
+  Some features of the human soul to trace.
+
+  A phantom drap'ry betwixt sky and earth,
+  Of blending tints, spans in impulsive birth
+  Th' entranced view! A heav'nly arch it forms--
+  It seems suspended by some seraph's arms!
+
+  Ethereal Rainbow! Daughter of the Shower!
+  Thy beauty lends enchantment to the hour.
+  The seraph arm grows weary--now is furled
+  The gleam in dreamy vapor from the world!
+
+  And now in purple shadows stand the hills:
+  The night winds beat their stony sides, and trills
+  From hidden rivulets, and stealthy creep
+  Of some lone reptile down the grooved steep,
+
+  Divert the eye and ear--th' restricted breath
+  Of each rapt soul is heard--and still as death
+  Stand the dumb mules. Homeward we turn our eyes,
+  And leave the region of the naked skies.
+
+
+
+INDEPENDENCE.
+
+[1776.]
+
+
+  Freeman! if you pant for glory,
+  If you sigh to live in story,
+      If you burn with patriot zeal;
+  Seize this bright, auspicious hour,
+  Chase those venal tools of power,
+      Who subvert the public weal.
+
+
+
+
+THE HOMESTEAD BILL.
+
+
+After a severe struggle of more than a quarter of a century, from March,
+1836, to May, 1862, the Homestead bill has become a law. We quote its
+main provisions, as follows:
+
+     'That any person who is the head of a family or arrived at the age
+     of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States, or
+     shall have filed his declaration of intention to become such, as
+     required by the naturalization laws of the United States, and has
+     never borne arms against the United States government, or given aid
+     and comfort to its enemies, from and after the 1st January, 1863,
+     shall be entitled to enter one quarter section or a less quantity
+     of unappropriated public land, upon which said person may have
+     filed a preëmption claim, or which may at the time the application
+     is made be subject to preëmption at $1.25 or less per acre, or
+     eighty acres or less of such unappropriated land at $2.50 per acre,
+     to be located in a body in conformity to the legal subdivisions of
+     the public lands, and after the same shall have been surveyed, &c.
+
+     'SEC. 2. That the person applying for the benefit of this
+     act shall, upon application to the register of the land office in
+     which he or she is about to make such entry, make affidavit before
+     the said register or receiver that he or she is the head of a
+     family, or is twenty-one years of age or more, or shall have
+     performed service in the army or navy of the United States, and
+     that he has never borne arms against the government of the United
+     Stales, or given aid and comfort to its enemies, and that such
+     application is made for his or her exclusive use and benefit, and
+     that said entry is made for the purpose of actual settlement and
+     cultivation, and not either directly or indirectly for the use or
+     benefit of any other person or persons whomsoever: and upon filing
+     the said affidavit with the register or receiver, and on the
+     _payment of ten dollars_, he or she shall thereupon be permitted to
+     enter the quantity of land specified,' &c.
+
+Settlement and cultivation for five years required, when the patent
+issues--the land secured in case of the settler's death, to the widow,
+children, or heirs--the settler must be a citizen of the United States
+before the patent is given--the land is subject to no debt incurred
+before the emanation of the patent. As the title remains for five years
+in the government, and until the patent issues, the land, in the
+meantime, could scarcely be subject to taxation. The land is
+substantially a gift, the $10 (£2. 0. 16.) being only sufficient to pay
+for the survey and incidental expenses.
+
+Whilst natives are included in this act, Europeans already here, or who
+may come hereafter, participate alike in its benefits. The emigrant can
+make the entry and settle upon the land merely on filing the declaration
+of intention to become a citizen, and it is only after the lapse of five
+years therefrom, that he must be naturalized.
+
+This law should be widely circulated, at home and abroad, and especially
+in Ireland and Germany. It should be published in all leading presses,
+and distributed in printed circulars. By law, two sections (1,280 acres)
+are reserved in each township of six miles square, from the sale of
+which to establish free schools, where all children can be instructed,
+so that our material progress may be accompanied by universal education
+and intellectual development.
+
+This great domain reserved, as farms and homesteads for the industrious
+masses of Europe and America, is thus described by the Hon. Joseph S.
+Wilson, in his great historical and statistical report, as commissioner
+of the General Land Office of Nov. 29, 1860:
+
+     'Of the 3,250,000 of square miles which constitute the territorial
+     extent of the Union, the public lands embrace an area of 2,265,625
+     square miles, or 1,450,000,000 of acres, being more than two thirds
+     of our geographical extent, and nearly three times as large as the
+     United States at the ratification of the definitive treaty of peace
+     in 1783 with Great Britain. This empire domain extends from the
+     northern line of Texas, the gulf of Mexico, reaching to the
+     Atlantic ocean, northwesterly to the Canada line bordering upon the
+     great lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior, extending westward
+     to the Pacific ocean, with Puget's sound on the north, the
+     Mediterranean sea of our extreme northwestern possessions.'
+
+     'It includes fifteen sovereignties known as the 'Land States,' and
+     an extent of territory sufficient for thirty-two additional, each
+     equal to the great central land State of Ohio.
+
+     'It embraces soils capable of abundant yield of the rich
+     productions of the tropics, of sugar, cotton, rice, tobacco, corn,
+     and the grape, the vintage, now a staple, particularly so of
+     California; of the great cereals, wheat and corn, in the western,
+     northwestern, and Pacific States, and in that vast interior region
+     from the valley of the Mississippi river to the Rocky mountains;
+     and thence to the chain formed by the Sierra Nevada and Cascades,
+     the eastern wall of the Pacific slope, every variety of soil is
+     found revealing its wealth.
+
+     'Instead of dreary inarable wastes, as supposed in earlier times,
+     the millions of buffalo, elk, deer, mountain sheep, the primitive
+     inhabitants of the soil, fed by the hand of nature, attest its
+     capacity for the abundant support of a dense population through the
+     skilful toil of the agriculturist, dealing with the earth under the
+     guidance of the science of the present age.
+
+     'Not only is the yield of food for man in this region abundant, but
+     it holds in its bosom the precious metals of gold, silver, with
+     cinnabar, the useful metals of iron, lead, copper, interspersed
+     with immense belts or strata of that propulsive element coal, the
+     source of riches and power, and now the indispensable agent not
+     only for domestic purposes of life, but in the machine shop, the
+     steam car, and steam vessel, quickening the advance of civilization
+     and the permanent settlement of the country, and being the agent of
+     active and constant intercommunication with every part of the
+     republic.'
+
+Kansas having been admitted since the date of this report, our public
+domain, thus described officially, now includes the sixteen _land
+States_, and _all_ the Territories.
+
+Of this vast region (originally 1,450,000,000 acres), there was surveyed
+up to September, 1860, 441,067,915 acres, and 394,088,712 acres disposed
+of by sales, grants, &c., leaving, as the commissioner states,'the total
+area of unsold and unappropriated, of offered and unoffered lands of the
+public domain on the 30th September, 1860, 1,055,911,288 acres.' This is
+'land surface,' exclusive of lakes, bays, rivers, &c., 1,055,911,288
+acres, or 1,649,861 square miles, and exceeds one half the area of the
+whole Union. The area of New York being 47,000 square miles, is less
+than a thirty-fifth part of our public domain. England (proper) has
+50,922 square miles, France 203,736, Prussia 107,921, and Germany 80,620
+square miles: The area then of our public domain is more than eight
+times as large as France, more than fifteen times as large as Prussia,
+more than twenty times as large as Germany, more than thirty-two times
+as large as England, and larger (excluding Russia) than all Europe,
+containing more than 200 millions of people.
+
+As England (proper) contained in 1861, 18,949,916 inhabitants, if our
+public domain were as densely settled, its population would exceed 606
+millions, and it would be 260,497,561, if numbering as many to the
+square mile as Massachusetts. But if, contrary to the opinion before
+quoted of the commissioner, one fourth of this domain was unfit for
+agriculture, grazing, mining, commerce, or manufactures, the remainder
+would still contain 195,373,171 inhabitants (if as densely settled as
+Massachusetts), and with every variety of soil, climate, mineral and
+agricultural products. Its average fertility far exceeds that of Europe,
+as does also the extent of its mines, especially gold, silver, coal, and
+iron.
+
+These lands are surveyed at the expense of the government into
+town-ships of six miles square, subdivided into sections, and these into
+quarter sections (160 acres), set apart for homesteads. Our system of
+public surveys into squares, by lines running due north and south, east
+and west, is so simple as to have precluded all disputes as to boundary
+or title. This domain reaches from the 24th to the 49th parallel, from
+the lakes to the gulf, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Its
+isothermes (the lines of equal mean annual temperature) strike on the
+north the coast of Norway midway, touch St. Petersburg in Russia, and
+pass through Manchooria to the coast of Asia, about three degrees south
+of the mouth of the Amour river. On the south, these isothermes run
+through northern Africa, and nearly the centre of Egypt near Thebes,
+cross northern Arabia, Persia, northern Hindostan, and southern China
+near Canton. No empire in the world of contiguous territory possesses
+such a variety of climate, soil, forests, and prairies, fruits, and
+fisheries, animal, vegetable, mineral, and agricultural products. It has
+all those of Europe, and many in addition, with a climate, as shown by
+the international census, far more salubrious, with a more genial sun,
+and millions in other countries are already fed and clothed by our
+surplus products.
+
+Of this vast domain, less than two per cent. is cursed by slavery, which
+is prohibited by law in ten of these land States, and in all the
+Territories. Indeed, when the present rebellion shall be crushed, and
+this vast territorial region (accelerated by the Homestead bill) shall
+be settled and admitted as States, three fourths of the States will then
+be free States, and thus authorized by the Constitution to amend that
+instrument. Thus we can by just and lawful measures make emancipation
+universal. From the progress of events, we shall probably celebrate the
+4th of July, 1876, our first centennial, now less than fourteen years
+distant, as a nation, of _freemen_, with slavery abolished or rapidly
+disappearing. State will then have succeeded State in unbroken column,
+from the Atlantic to the Pacific, united by imperial railroads
+traversing the continent. Adjacent regions, geographically connected
+with us, will then consummate the political union designed by
+Providence, The Homestead bill, having accomplished its great work
+within our present limits, will then commence a new career, and carry
+our banner in peaceful triumph, over the continent. Our Review, then, is
+called CONTINENTAL, as prefiguring the destiny of our country.
+
+Now, however, within our present vast domain, not only the poor, but our
+own industrious classes and those of Europe may not only find a home,
+but a farm for each settler, substantially as a free gift by the
+government. Here all who would rather be owners than tenants, and wish
+to improve and cultivate their own soil, are invited. Here, too, all who
+would become equals among equals, citizens (not subjects) of a great and
+free country, enjoying the right of suffrage, and eligible to every
+office except the presidency, can come and occupy with us this great
+inheritance. Here liberty, equality, and fraternity reign supreme, not
+in theory or in name only, but in truth and reality. This is the
+brotherhood of man, secured and protected by our organic law. Here the
+Constitution and the people are the only sovereigns, and the government
+is administered by their elected agents, and for the benefit of the
+people. Those toiling elsewhere for wages that will scarcely support
+existence, for the education of whose children no provision is made by
+law, who are excluded from the right of suffrage, may come here and be
+voters and citizens, find a farm given as a homestead, free schools
+provided for their children at the public expense, and hold any office
+but the presidency, to which their children, born here, are eligible.
+What does England for any one of its toiling millions who rejects this
+munificent offer? He is worked and taxed there to his utmost endurance,
+or pressed into military service. He has the right to _work_, to
+_fight_, and _pay taxes_, but not to vote. Unschooled ignorance is his
+lot and that of his descendants. If a farmer, he works and improves the
+land of others, in constant terror of rent day, the landlord, and
+eviction. Indeed, the annual rent of a single acre in England exceeds
+the price--$10 (£2. 0. 16)--payable for the ownership in fee simple of
+the entire homestead of 160 acres, granted him here by the government.
+For centuries that are past, and for all time to come, there, severe
+toil, poverty, ignorance, the workhouse, or low wages, impressment, and
+disfranchisement, would seem to be his lot. Here, freedom, competence,
+the right of suffrage, the homestead farm, and free schools for his
+children.
+
+In selecting these homestead farms, the emigrant can have any
+temperature, from St. Petersburg to Canton. He can have a cold, a
+temperate, or a warm climate, and farming or gardening, grazing or
+vintage, varied by fishing or hunting. He can raise wheat, rye, Indian
+corn, oats, rice, indigo, cotton, tobacco, cane or maple sugar and
+molasses, sorghum, wool, peas and beans, Irish or sweet potatoes,
+barley, buckwheat, wine, butter, cheese, hay, clover, and all the
+grasses, hemp, hops, flax and flaxseed, silk, beeswax and honey, and
+poultry, in uncounted abundance. If he prefers a stock farm, he can
+raise horses, asses, and mules, camels, milch cows, working oxen and
+other cattle, goats, sheep, and swine. In many locations, these will
+require neither housing nor feeding throughout the year. He can have
+orchards, and all the fruits and vegetables of Europe, and many in
+addition. He can have an Irish or German, Scotch, English, or Welsh,
+French, Swiss, Norwegian, or American neighborhood. He can select the
+shores of oceans, lakes, or rivers; live on tide water or higher lands,
+valleys or mountains. He can be near a church of his own denomination;
+the freedom of conscience is complete; he pays no tithes, nor church
+tax, except voluntarily. His sons and daughters, on reaching twenty-one
+years of age, or sooner, if the head of a family, or having served in
+the army, are each entitled to a homestead of 160 acres; and if he dies,
+the title is secured to his widow, children, or heirs. Our flag is his,
+and covers him everywhere with its protection. He is our brother, and he
+and his children will enjoy with us the same heritage of competence and
+freedom. He comes where labor is king, and toil is respected and
+rewarded. If before, or instead of receiving his homestead, he chooses
+to pursue his profession, or business, to work at his trade, or for
+daily wages, he will find them double the European rate, and subsistence
+cheaper. From whatever part of Europe he may come, he will meet his
+countrymen here, and from them and us receive a cordial welcome. A
+government which gives him a farm, the right to vote, and free schools
+for his children, must desire his welfare. And well has this been
+merited by our immigrants, for, side by side with our native sons, have
+they ever upheld our banner with devoted courage.
+
+Of all the epidemic insanities which occasionally afflict nations, none
+exceeded in folly the recent frenzy, which, by diminishing immigration,
+would have retarded our progress in wealth, power, and population,
+Nearly all our railroads and canals have been constructed mainly by
+immigrants, thus rapidly improving our whole country, and furnishing
+profitable business, employment, and augmented wages in all the pursuits
+of industry. Simultaneously with the homestead, Congress has provided
+the means for constructing the imperial railway which will soon unite
+the Atlantic with the Pacific. Passing, as it will, for several thousand
+miles, through our public domain, it will add much to the value of the
+homestead lands. It should be remembered, especially by the Irish and
+Germans, who are asked in the South to fight the rebel battles, that,
+but for the opposition of Mr. Calhoun and the secession leaders, this
+bill would long since have been a law.
+
+It was first proposed by Robert J. Walker, in October, 1830, and again,
+in a speech made by him against nullification and secession, at Natchez,
+Mississippi, on the first Monday of January, 1833, and then published in
+the _Mississippi Journal_. From that speech we make the following
+extract: 'The public lands are now unincumbered by the public debt: no
+more sales are necessary, unless (to settlers) at a price required to
+pay the expenses of survey and sale. This is the period for the new
+States to produce this beneficial change in the policy of the
+Government, (instead of) the present onerous system, which arrests the
+cultivation of our soil, and growth of our country.' Here the Homestead
+bill was recommended by a _Union_ man, in a speech against secession;
+and as the opponent of that heresy, he was elected to the United States
+Senate by Mississippi, on the 8th of January, 1836.
+
+In the United States Senate Journal, of 31st March, 1836, will be found
+the following entry: 'Agreeable to notice, Mr. Walker asked and obtained
+leave to bring in a bill to reduce and graduate the price of the public
+lands in favor of actual settlers only, to provide a standing preëmption
+law, to authorize the sale and entry of all the public lands in forty
+acre lots, &c. On motion by Mr. Calhoun, that this bill be referred to
+the Committee on Public Lands, ayes 19, nays 25. On motion by Mr.
+Walker, ordered that this bill be referred to a select committee of
+five, to be appointed by the Vice-President. Mr. Walker (chairman),
+Ewing of Ohio, Linn, Prentiss and Ewing of Illinois, are appointed the
+committee.' And now, that we may understand the motive of the hostile
+motion made by Mr. Calhoun, I make the following extract from Gales &
+Beaton's _Congressional Register_, vol. xii., part 1, page 1027, March
+31, 1836, containing the debate, on this bill: 'Mr. Walker asked and
+obtained leave to introduce a bill to reduce and graduate the price of
+public lands to actual settlers only, &c. The bill having been read
+twice, Mr. Walker moved that it be referred to a committee of five. Mr.
+Calhoun opposed the bill, and moved a reference to the Committee on
+Public Lands. Mr. Walker rose and said:
+
+* * 'He had heard with regret the actual settlers denounced in the
+Senate as squatters, as if that were a term of reproach. Our glorious
+Anglo-Saxon ancestry, the pilgrims who landed on Plymouth rock, the
+early settlers at Jamestown, were squatters. They settled this continent
+with less pretension to title than the settlers on the public lands.
+Daniel Boone was a squatter; Christopher Columbus was a squatter.
+
+* * They are the men who cultivate the soil in peace, and defend your
+country in war, when those who denounce them are reposing upon beds of
+down. These are the men who, in the trackless wilderness and upon the
+plains of Orleans, carried forward to victory, the bannered eagle of our
+great and glorious Union. These are the men with whom the patriot
+Jackson achieved his great and glorious victories; and if but one
+thousand of these much abused squatters, these Western riflemen, had
+been at Bladensburg beneath their great commander, never would a British
+army have polluted the soil where stands the capitol of the Union. They
+would have driven back the invader ere the torch of the incendiary had
+reached the capitol, or they would have left their bones bleaching there
+(as did the Spartans at Thermopylæ), alike, in death or victory, the
+patriot defenders of their country's soil, and fame, and honor. [Here
+Mr. Walker was interrupted by warm applause from the crowded galleries.]
+It is proposed to send this bill to the Committee on Public Lands, that
+has already reported against reducing the price of the public lands,
+against granting preemptions to settlers, against every other material
+feature of this bill--to send this bill there, to have another report
+against us. No, said Mr. Walker; we have had one report against the new
+States, and the settlers in them, and now let them be heard through the
+report of a select committee: let argument encounter argument, and the
+question be decided on its real merits.'
+
+The opposition of Mr. Calhoun to this measure, was based upon the idea,
+_originating with him_, that, selling the public lands, only in small
+tracts, and at reduced prices, exclusively to actual settlers, would be
+hostile to large plantations, prevent the transfer of slavery to new
+Territories, and the multiplication of slave States. This view was
+gradually adopted by nearly all the advocates of secession, and delayed
+for years the success of the homestead policy. The measure also
+encountered then serious opposition from the supporters of the bill
+(opposed by Mr. Calhoun), distributing among the States the proceeds of
+the sales of the public lands. A majority of the Committee of Public
+Lands of the Senate favored then the distribution policy, and therefore
+Mr. Calhoun's motion to refer the Homestead bill to that committee was
+designed to defeat the measure.
+
+Mr. Walker's bill granted a homestead of a quarter section to every
+settler on payment of twenty dollars, _after_ three years' occupancy and
+possession.
+
+The special committee, to which this bill was referred, would not go so
+far, but authorized Mr. Walker to report 'A bill to arrest monopolies of
+the public lands and purchases thereof for speculation, and substitute
+sales to actual settlers only, in limited quantities, and at reduced
+prices,' &c. This report will be found in vol. 5, Sen. Doc., 1st
+session, 24th Congress, No. 402. 'In Senate of the United States, June
+15, 1836, Mr. Walker made the following report:'
+
+_Extracts._--'The committee have adopted the principle that the public
+lands should be held as a sacred reserve for the _cultivators of the
+soil_; that monopolies by individuals or companies should be prevented;
+that sales should be made only in limited quantities to _actual
+settlers_, and the price in their favor reduced and graduated.' * * The
+old system 'is throwing the public domain into the hands of speculating
+monopolists. It is reviving many of the evils of the old feudal system
+of Europe. Under that system, the lands were owned in vast bodies by a
+few wealthy barons, and leased by them to an impoverished and dependent
+tenantry.'
+
+A bill based on this principle, and reported by Mr. Walker at a
+succeeding session, passed the Senate, but was defeated in the House. In
+each of his annual reports as Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Walker
+strongly recommended the homestead policy, which encountered the
+continual opposition of Mr. Calhoun.
+
+In his inaugural address as Governor of Kansas, of the 27th May, 1857,
+Mr. Walker thus strongly advocated the Homestead policy:
+
+     'If my will could have prevailed as regards the public lands, as
+     indicated in my public career, and especially in the bill presented
+     by me, as chairman of the Committee on Public Lands, to the Senate
+     of the United States, which passed that body but failed in the
+     House, I would authorize no sales of these lands except for
+     settlement and cultivation, reserving not merely a preëmption, but
+     a HOMESTEAD of a quarter section of land in favor of every
+     _actual settler_, whether coming from other States or _emigrating
+     from Europe_. Great and populous States would thus be added to the
+     Confederacy, until we should soon have one unbroken line of States,
+     from the Atlantic to the Pacific, giving immense additional power
+     and security to the Union, and facilitating intercourse between all
+     its parts. This would be alike beneficial to the old and to the new
+     States. To the _working men_ of the old States, as well as of the
+     new, it would be of incalculable advantage, not merely by affording
+     them a home in the West, but by maintaining the _wages of labor_,
+     by enabling the working classes to emigrate and become cultivators
+     of the soil, when the rewards of daily toil should sink below a
+     fair remuneration. Every new State, beside, adds to the customers
+     of the old States, consuming their manufactures, employing their
+     merchants, giving business to their vessels and canals, their
+     railroads and cities, and a powerful impulse to their industry and
+     prosperity. Indeed, it is the growth of the mighty West which has
+     added, more than all other causes combined, to the power and
+     prosperity of the whole country; whilst, at the same time, through
+     the channels of business and commerce, it has been building up
+     immense cities in the Eastern Atlantic and Middle States, and
+     replenishing the Federal treasury with large payments from the
+     settlers upon the public lands, rendered of real value only by
+     their labor, and thus, from increased exports, bringing back
+     augmented imports, and soon largely increasing the revenue of the
+     Government from that source also.'--_See Doc. Vol. I., No. 8, 1st
+     Sess. XXXVth Congress._
+
+It will no doubt be remembered how much this address was denounced by
+the secession leaders, and with what fury Mr. Walker was assailed by
+them for insisting on the rejection of the Lecompton Constitution, by
+which, it was attempted, by fraud and forgery, to force slavery upon
+Kansas, against the will of the people.
+
+In June, 1860, a Homestead bill was passed by Congress, securing to
+actual settlers a quarter section of the public lands, at twenty-five
+cents per acre, which was vetoed by Mr. Buchanan. The veto message says:
+'The Secretary of the Interior estimated the revenue from the public
+lands for the nest fiscal year at $4,000,000, on the presumption that
+the present land system would remain unchanged. Should this bill become
+a law, he does not believe that $1,000,000 will be derived from this
+source.' It would thus seem that Jacob Thompson, then Secretary of the
+Interior, was permitted to dictate the financial portion of this veto.
+He is now in the traitor army; but before leaving the Cabinet, he
+communicated to the enemy at Charleston important information he had
+received officially and confidentially. Whilst still Secretary, he was
+permitted by Mr. Buchanan to accept from Mississippi, _after_ she had
+seceded, the post of her ambassador to North Carolina, to induce her to
+secede; which public mission he openly fulfilled, still remaining a
+member of the Cabinet. Such was the abyss of degradation to which the
+late Administration had then fallen. Indeed, Thompson (like Floyd and
+Cobb), was never dismissed by Mr. Buchanan, but resigned his office,
+receiving then, after all these treasonable and perfidious acts, a most
+complimentary letter from the late President.
+
+Mr. Thompson's financial argument against the Homestead bill is most
+fallacious. Our national wealth, by the last census, was
+$16,159,616,068, and its increase during the last ten years
+$8,925,481,011, or 126.45 per cent. Now if, as a consequence of the
+Homestead bill, there should be occupied, improved, and cultivated,
+during the next ten years, 50,000 additional farms by settlers, or only
+5,000 per annum, it would make an aggregate of 8,000,000 acres. If,
+including houses, fences, barns, and other improvements, we should value
+each of these farms at ten dollars an acre, it would make an aggregate
+of $80,000,000. But if we add the products of these farms, allowing only
+one half of each (80 acres) to be cultivated, and the average annual
+value of the crops, stock included, to be only ten dollars per acre, it
+would give $40,000,000 a year, and, in ten years, $400,000,000,
+independent of the reinvestment of capital. It is clear that, thus, vast
+additional employment would be given to labor, freight to steamers,
+railroads, and canals, and markets for manufactures.
+
+The homestead privilege will largely increase immigration. Now, beside
+the money brought here by immigrants, the census proves that the average
+annual value of the labor of Massachusetts _per capita_ was, in 1860,
+$220 for each man, woman, and child, independent of the gains of
+commerce--very large, but not given. Assuming that of the immigrants at
+an average annual value of only $100 each, or less than 33 cents a day,
+it would make, in ten years, at the rate of 100,000 each year, the
+following aggregate:
+
+  1st year  100,000 = $10,000,000
+  2d    "   200,000 "  20,000,000
+  3d    "   300,000 "  30,000,000
+  4th   "   400,000 "  40,000,000
+  5th   "   500,000 "  50,000,000
+  6th   "   600,000 "  60,000,000
+  7th   "   700,000 "  70,000,000
+  8th   "   800,000 "  80,000,000
+  9th   "   900,000 "  90,000,000
+  10th  " 1,000,000 " 100,000,000
+                      -----------
+      Total,         $550,000,000
+
+In this table, the labor of all immigrants each year is properly added
+to those arriving the succeeding year, so as to make the aggregate, the
+last year, one million. This would make the value of the labor of this
+million of immigrants, in ten years, $550,000,000, independent of the
+annual accumulation of capital, and the labor of the children of the
+immigrants after the first ten years, which, with their descendants,
+would go on constantly increasing.
+
+But, by the actual official returns (see page 14 of Census), the number
+of alien immigrants to the United States, from December, 1850, to
+December, 1860, was 2,598,216, or an annual average of 259,821, say
+260,000. The effect, then, of this immigration, on the basis of the last
+table, upon the increase of national wealth, was as follows:
+
+  1st year    260,000 =   $26,000,000
+  2d   "      520,000 "    52,000,000
+  3d   "      780,000 "    78,000,000
+  4th  "    1,040,000 "   104,000,000
+  5th  "    1,300,000 "   130,000,000
+  6th  "    1,560,000 "   156,000,000
+  7th  "    1,820,000 "   182,000,000
+  8th  "    2,080,000 "   208,000,000
+  9th  "    2,340,000 "   234,000,000
+  10th  "   2,600,000 "   260,000,000
+                          ------------
+        Total,          $1,430,000,000
+
+Thus the value of the labor of the immigrants from 1850 to 1860, was
+fourteen hundred and thirty millions of dollars, making no allowance for
+the accumulation of capital by annual reinvestment, nor for the natural
+increase of population, amounting by the census in ten years to about
+twenty-four per cent. This addition to our wealth by the labor of the
+children, in the first ten years, would be small; but in the second, and
+each succeeding decennium, when we count children and their descendants,
+it would be large and constantly augmenting. But the census shows, that
+our wealth increases each ten years at the rate of 126.45 per cent. Now
+then, take our increase of wealth in consequence of immigration as
+before stated, and compound it at the rate of 126.45 per cent, every ten
+years, and the result is largely over three billions of dollars in 1870,
+and over seven billions of dollars in 1880, independent of the effect of
+any immigration succeeding 1860. If these results are astonishing, we
+must remember that immigration here is augmented population, and that it
+is population and labor that create wealth. Capital, indeed, is but the
+accumulation of labor. Immigration, then, from 1850 to 1860, added to
+our national wealth a sum more than double our whole debt on the first
+of July last, and augmenting in a ratio much more rapid than its
+increase, and thus enabling us to bear the war expenses.
+
+As the homestead privilege must largely increase immigration, and add
+especially to the cultivation of our soil, it will contribute more than
+any other measure to increase our population, wealth, and power, augment
+our revenue from duties and taxes, and soon enable us to repeal the tax
+bill, or, at least, confine it to a few articles of luxury.
+
+Nor has this immigration merely increased our wealth; but it has filled
+our army with brave _volunteer_ soldiers, Irish, Germans, and of other
+nationalities, who, side by side with our native sons, are now pouring
+out their blood on every battle field in defence of our flag and Union.
+Thousands of them have suffered in rebel dungeons, where many are still
+languishing--thousands are wounded, disabled for life, or filling a
+soldier's grave.
+
+Thus has the immigrant proved himself worthy to participate with our
+native sons in the homestead privilege. He fights our battle, and dies,
+that the Union may live.
+
+Come, then, our European brother, and enjoy with us every privilege of
+an American citizen. The altar of freedom is consecrated by the
+sacrament of our commingled blood. Countrymen of Lafayette and
+Montgomery, of Steuben and DeKalb, of Koscinsko and Pulaski! you are
+fighting, like them, in the same great cause, under the same banner, and
+for the same glorious Union, and, like them, you will reap an
+immortality of glory, and the gratitude of our country and of mankind.
+As century shall follow century, in marking this crisis of human
+destiny, history will record the stupendous fact, that the blood of all
+Europe commingled freely with our own in the mighty contest, the pledges
+of the freedom and brotherhood of man!
+
+We have seen that the Homestead bill was of Union origin, opposed by Mr.
+Calhoun and the pro-slavery party. We have seen that the bill was vetoed
+by Mr. Buchanan, quoting the opposing argument of a traitor member of
+his Cabinet, now in the rebel army. The vote in the Senate after the
+veto, was, yeas 28 (not two thirds), and nays 18. (Sen. Journal, 757,
+June 23, 1860.) Of the yeas, all but three were from the free States;
+and of the nays, _all_ were from the slave States. The opposition, then,
+as foreshadowed by Mr. Calhoun in 1836, was _exclusively sectional_ and
+pro-slavery. As Mr. Buchanan changed his policy as to Kansas upon the
+threats of the secession leaders in 1857, so he sacrificed upon their
+mandate the Homestead bill in 1860.
+
+Most of the eighteen Southern Senators who voted against this bill, are
+now in the rebel service. Among these eighteen nays, are Jefferson
+Davis, Bragg, Mason, Hunter, Mallory, Chesnut, Yulee, Wigfall,
+Fitzpatrick, Iveson, Johnson of Arkansas, Hemphill, and Sebastian. Now,
+then, when Irish and Germans in the South are asked to fight for the
+pro-slavery rebellion, let them remember that the secession leaders
+voted unanimously against the homestead bill, whilst the North then gave
+its entire vote in, favor of the measure, and have now made it the law
+of the land.
+
+As it is a blessed thing for the poor and landless to receive,
+substantially as a gift, a farm from the Government, where they and
+their children may till their own soil, and enjoy competence, freedom,
+and free schools, let them never forget, that this was the act of the
+North, and opposed by the South. If the rebels succeed, they will hold
+the public domain in their States and Territories for large plantations,
+to be cultivated by slaves, and sink their 'poor whites,' as nearly as
+practicable, to the level of their slaves, in accordance with their
+theory, that capital should own labor.
+
+Texas, is very nearly six times as large as New York, and more than one
+half the area is public domain of the State, with a most salubrious
+climate, with all the products of the North and South, as shown by the
+census, and with three times as many cattle (2,733,267) as in any other
+State. This vast domain, if the South succeeds, will be cultivated in
+large tracts by slaves; but with our success, the State title will be
+forfeited to the Government, and the land colonized by loyal freemen,
+and subjected to the Homestead law, so that educated free white labor
+can raise there sugar, cotton, rice, tobacco, and indigo, as well as the
+crops of the North. It appears by the history of the reign of Henry II.,
+that Ireland (in the year 1102) was the _first country which abolished
+slavery_, England still retaining it for many centuries; and Germany
+scarcely participated in the African slave trade. And now those two
+brave and mighty races, the Celtic and Teutonic, so devoted to liberty
+and the rights of man, will never erect the temple of their faith upon
+the Confederate _corner stone_, the ownership, of man by man, and of
+labor by capital. No--they are fighting in the great cause, (now,
+henceforth, and forever inseparable,) of LIBERTY and UNION. And when, as
+the result of this rebellion, slavery shall disappear from our country,
+the words of the Sermon on the Mount, announcing the brotherhood of man,
+and adopted by our fathers in the Declaration of American Independence,
+may be inscribed on our banner, 'that _all men_ are created EQUAL; that
+they are endowed by their CREATOR with _inalienable_ RIGHTS; that among
+these are life, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of happiness.' Such was the
+faith plighted to God, our country, and humanity, on the day of the
+nation's birth; in crushing this rebellion, and inaugurating the reign
+of universal freedom, we are now fulfilling that pledge. Slavery having
+struck down our flag, having dissevered our States, having, with
+sacrilegious steps, entered our holy temples, separated churches, and
+erected a government based on dehumanizing man, under the _Union as it
+was_: liberty will reunite us by fraternal and indissoluble ties, under
+the UNION AS IT WILL BE.
+
+
+
+
+LITERARY NOTICES
+
+
+     THE PATIENCE OF HOPE. By the Author of A PRESENT
+     HEAVEN. With an Introduction by JOHN G. WHITTIER,
+     '_Et teneo et teneor._' Boston: Ticknor & Fields.
+
+A work less remarkable for talent than for tender, pious feeling--less
+marked by genius than goodness, yet of a kind which the impartial critic
+will still sincerely commend, simply because its defects are negative
+while its merits are positive and apparent to all who will read only a
+few pages in it. The author seems to us as one who has gleaned the best
+from mystical Christianity or Quietism, without having taken up its
+defects--one who has found in TAULER or GUYON, or perhaps still more in
+FÉNÉLON, something to love, and has loved it without effort. We are
+certain that the work is one which will enjoy a very extensive
+popularity among all liberal-minded yet truly devout Christians.
+
+     HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH THE SECOND, CALLED FREDERICK THE
+     GREAT. By THOMAS CARLYLE. In four volumes. Vol. III.
+     New York: Harper & Brothers. Boston: A.K. Loring. 1862.
+
+To judge CARLYLE well, one should have outgrown a love for him. Then,
+and not till then, will the reader ace him as he is--a genius obscured
+and belittled by eccentricity in judgment and grotesqueness in literary
+art; a man who must be seen, out of whom much may be taken, but not with
+profit unless we leave much behind; a writer who was ahead of his age in
+1830, but who is wellnigh thirty years behind it now; one still
+worshipping heroes, and quite ignorant that great ideas are taking for
+the world the place of great men. It is curious to consider that
+CARLYLE, without understanding the first principles of the French
+Revolution, should have written most readably on it, and that, still
+more blind to the manifest path of free labor and of utility, he should
+still have assumed a pseudo-radical position. Yet, after all, nothing is
+strange when a man is wrong in his premises. Carp at them as he may,
+CARLYLE is of the destructives rather than the builders, and, like all
+literary destructives, continually flies for shelter to the
+conservatives, even as Rabelais fled for safety to the Pope.
+
+In this third volume of Friedrich the Second, he who neither overrates
+nor underrates CARLYLE may read with great profit. In it one
+sees, as in a brilliant series of highly-colored views--overcolored very
+often--shifting with strange rapidity and in wild lights, how from June,
+1740, to August, 1744, King Frederick lived his own life, and
+incidentally that of Prussia and a good part of the civilized world with
+it, as all active and earnest monarchs are wont to do. That it is
+piquant and interesting--to the well-educated taste more so than any
+novel--is true enough; and if the author acts despotically and talks
+arbitrarily, we may smile, and leave him to settle it with his dead men.
+He must be dumb indeed who can read it and not feel his thinking powers
+greatly stimulated, and with it, if he be a writer, his faculty of
+creating.
+
+     JENKINS'S VEST-POCKET LEXICON. BY JABEZ JENKINS.
+     Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. Boston: A.K. Loring. 1862.
+
+A dictionary is generally referred to for unfamiliar--not for well-known
+words; but it is in large and copious ones only that such words are
+given, and every one has not always at hand his WEBSTER and WORCESTER
+'unabridged.' In view of this want, JABEZ JENKINS has compiled an
+admirable little two-and-a-half-inch square English 'Lexicon of all
+_except_ familiar words, including the principal scientific and
+technical terms, and foreign moneys, weights, and measures.' The common
+Latin and French phrases of two and three words, and the principal names
+of classical mythology, are also given; 'omitting,' says J.J., 'what
+everybody knows, and containing what everybody wants to know, and
+cannot readily find.' It would be difficult to exaggerate the great
+practical utility of this admirable little book, in which, we have, so
+to speak, the very quintessence of a dictionary given _in poco_. We
+should not have looked for a joke, however, in an abridged
+dictionary--but there is one. 'This Lexicon,' says its author, 'will be
+found a convenient, and, it is hoped, a valuable _vade mecum_; and,
+though not inspiring the same degree of _veneration_ as some of its
+leviathan contemporaries, may possibly occupy a place much nearer the
+heart, viz., in the heart-pocket.' Let us not forget, by the way, to
+mention that S. AUSTIN ALLIBONE has indorsed this little work as one of
+the most important and useful publications of the day.
+
+     INSIDE OUT. A Curious Book by a Singular Man. New York:
+     Miller, Mathews & Clasback, 767 Broadway. Boston; A.K. Loring.
+
+The first instalment of the promised oddity of this work occurs in the
+first page--in fact, several pages before it--in the assertion that
+'this work is respectfully dedicated to the first young lady who can
+truthfully assert that she has read from title page to colophon WITHOUT
+SKIPPING. Such is the determination of the author.'
+
+It is needless to say that the determined author has hit upon a
+tolerably effectual means of securing a few lady readers. As for the
+work itself, it is, with more eccentricity of thought and less
+familiarity with composition than we should anticipate in a bad one. It
+is bold, rather sensational, involving a high-pressure murder and the
+somewhat _connu_ father-in-difficulties with a daughter, but
+interesting, and on the whole likely enough--in New York, where any
+amount of anything may be supposed to take place at any time without in
+the slightest degree violating the conditions of probability. For his
+_bete noir_ or grand villain, the Singular Man seems to have studied
+very carefully the gentleman who is said to have _poséd_ for
+'DENS-DEATH' in 'Cecil Dreeme,' and has to our mind approached
+him more closely even than WINTHROP has done. Among the
+characters one--'Charles Tewphunny'--strikes us as a reality; a
+vigorous, earnest, cheerful nature, clear and fine even through the
+obscurity and occasional crudity of his word-painter. We like
+Charles--_he_ should have been the favored one by love, as he is in
+being the true hero of the tale.
+
+The work is in fact crude, as though hastily written and had not been at
+all reviewed--at least by an experienced writer. On the other hand, its
+author is evidently a gentleman, one widely familiar with life--even a
+town life in many details--and is most unmistakably a scholar of rare
+ripeness. So manifest is his ability, and so remarkable the varied
+learning and experience which gleam (unknown to the author himself)
+through many unconscious allusions, that we wonder at finding such
+peculiar gifts turned to illustrate a tale, above all one so carelessly
+constructed as this is. We find fault with the names: 'Malfaire,'
+'Tewphunny,' 'Mrs. Kairfull,' are not well devised; and yet again we at
+once regret all harsher judgment in some truly human, refined, and
+delicate passage, which is as creditable to the author's taste as heart.
+Taking it altogether, 'Inside Out' is, according to promise, a very
+curious book indeed. In justice to the publishers, we must say a word in
+favor of its neat binding and very attractive typography.
+
+     COUNTRY LIVING AND COUNTRY THINKING. By GAIL
+     HAMILTON. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1862.
+
+The Essay, after long years of sleep, has sprung up of late to, at
+least, popularity, and from the pens of the Country Parson and his
+disciples has sent word-pictures and personal experiences well through
+the country. Among the most promising of the American members of the
+'Parson's' flock is GAIL HAMILTON, a lively, well-writing,
+intensely-Yankee woman; that is to say, a bird who would fly far and
+fast indeed were she not well bound down by Puritanical chains, and who,
+in default of other experience-means of expression, clinks her fetters
+in measures which are merry enough for the many, albeit somewhat
+sorrowful at times to those who feel how much more she might have done
+under more genial influences and in a freer field. We could also wish a
+little less of the endless I and Me and Mine of the Essays, and wonder
+if the author will never tire of her intense self-setting forth. But
+this is the constant fault of the personal essay, let who will write it;
+and since it has great names to sanction it, we may perhaps let it
+pass.
+
+
+
+
+EDITOR'S TABLE
+
+
+The President's Proclamation is based mainly on the act of Congress to
+which he refers. That act was passed with great approach to unanimity
+among unconditional Unionists, and met their approbation throughout the
+country. That the rebel States, as a military question, must be deprived
+of the 'sinews of war,' which, with them, are the _sinews of slaves_, is
+quite certain. They have boasted, as well before as since the rebellion,
+that their great strength in war consisted in their ability to send all
+the whites to battle, whilst the slaves were retained at home to
+cultivate the lands and provide subsistence for armies. Take from the
+South its slaves, and the necessary supplies must cease for want of
+laborers in the field, or the whites must be withdrawn from the armies
+to raise provisions. In either event, the rebellion must terminate in
+defeat. There are thousands then, who, under ordinary circumstances,
+would oppose emancipation, yet who will support this measure as a
+_military necessity_. As regards the Border States, the President still
+adheres to his original programme: emancipation with their consent,
+compensation by Congress, and colonization beyond our limits.
+
+As regards the seceded States, the proclamation only applies to such of
+them as shall persist in rebellion after the first of January next, and
+even in those States compensation for their slaves is to be made to all
+who are loyal.
+
+The friends of Secession in Europe, and especially in France and
+England, have contended that slavery was not the cause of the rebellion,
+and it has been suggested that the rebels would themselves adopt a
+system of gradual emancipation. Even now it is alleged that if MR.
+LINCOLN had not issued this proclamation, we should have had
+something very similar from JEFFERSON DAVIS.
+
+However this may be, these professions of the friends of the South in
+Europe, and particularly of their friends in France and England, will
+soon be tested.
+
+If the South objects to emancipation, and denounces this proclamation,
+they will make this contest, on their part, still more clearly a war for
+the maintenance, perpetuity, and unlimited extension of slavery.
+
+If, under such circumstances, England continues to support the
+rebellion, she must do so as the open and avowed advocate of slavery.
+What is to be done with the slaves when they are emancipated? is a grave
+question, which we shall discuss at a future period. There can be little
+doubt, however, that emancipation, on a scale so extensive, would give a
+great impulse to the cause of colonization.
+
+There are, however, three classes of States in which this proclamation
+will have no effect on the 1st of January next:
+
+  1st. The Border States.
+
+  2d. Such of the rebel States, and such
+  parts of them, as shall return to their allegiance
+  before that date.
+
+  3d. Such of the rebel States, and such
+  parts of them, as shall not then have been
+  conquered.
+
+In the mean time there may be rebel States, or portions of them, where
+the apprehended loss of their slaves, as a consequence of persisting in
+the rebellion, may induce a return to the Union, and thus hasten a
+successful conclusion of the war.
+
+How far this proclamation, merely as such, would avail to change the
+status of slaves in such seceded States as may not be occupied by us and
+conquered before the first of January next, may be more appropriately
+discussed when, if ever, such a contingency shall happen.
+
+In the mean time, whatever may be the effect of this proclamation upon
+the institution of slavery, which was the cause of the war, let us all
+unite in its vigorous prosecution, and in carrying, promptly and
+triumphantly, the flag of the Union throughout every State, from
+Richmond and Charleston to Mobile and Savannah. Our next campaign must
+witness the final overthrow of the rebellion.
+
+
+THE REBEL NUMBERS.
+
+The whole number of males in the rebel States, by the census of 1860,
+between 15 and 60 years of age (excepting East Tennessee and Western
+Virginia), is less than one million; of whom, from physical disability,
+sickness, alienage, &c., at least 100,000 are not available. Of the
+remaining 900,000, at least 200,000 have been withdrawn by death,
+wounds, sickness, parole, capture, &c., reducing the number to 700,000;
+of whom, for indispensable pursuits, at least one third must remain at
+home, reducing their present maximum forces to 466,000. Now, if these
+disappear no more rapidly in the future than in the past (although the
+war will be prosecuted with much more vigor), their numbers would be
+diminished at the rate of at least 12,000 a month. Therefore, as there
+are no means of obtaining new recruits, it is clear that the rebellion
+must soon fail for want of troops to meet our immense armies. It is true
+no allowance has been made for recruits from the Border States; but
+these (greatly overestimated) would be more than counter-balanced by the
+inability to obtain troops from that large portion of the Rebel States
+occupied by our forces, such as all the coast from New Orleans to
+Norfolk, nearly all the Mississippi River, and considerable sections of
+West and Middle Tennessee, North Alabama, North Mississippi, and
+Arkansas. The days of the rebellion, then, are numbered.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sharpsburg is a name which will be long remembered, and is destined to
+be found in many a lay and legend. Among the earliest written
+commemorating it, we have the following, from one whose lyrics are well
+known to our readers:
+
+
+THE POTOMAC AT SHARPSBURG.
+
+BY H. L. SPENCER.
+
+
+  Once smiling fields stretched far on either side,
+    Where bowed to every breeze the ripening grain;
+  But now with carnage are those waters dyed,
+    And all around are slumbering the slain.
+    Patriots and heroes! unto whom in vain
+  Ne'er cried the voice of Right,--their names shall be
+  Graved on a million hearts, and with just pride
+    Shall children say, 'For Truth and Liberty
+    Our fathers fought at SHARPSBURG, where they fell--
+    They _bravely fought_, as history's pages tell.'
+    Not for the fallen toll the funeral bell,--
+  _Their_ rest is peaceful--_they_ the goal have won.
+    Let the thinned ranks be filled, and let us see
+  Complete the glorious work by them begun.
+
+Yes--forward! onward! Let it be complete. _Scripta est_--it is written,
+and it will be done. After going so far in the great cause which has
+become our religion and our life, it were hardly worth while to retreat.
+Life and fortune are of small account now in this tremendous opening of
+new truths and new interests. And we are only at the beginning! With
+every new death the cause grows more sacred, and the North more grandly
+earnest. 'Hurrah for the faithful dead!'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+MRS. H. BEECHER STOWE AND THE DUCHESS OF SUTHERLAND.
+
+MY DEAR MRS. STOWE:
+
+Your great work, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' will no longer circulate in
+England. Mr. Mason, the Southern ambassador, has convinced us all that
+slavery is a divine institution, that whipping and branding are really
+good for the negro, and education dangerous. Indeed, we dare not educate
+our own working classes. We begin to perceive the truth of the _corner
+stone_ principle of the Southern Confederacy, that capital should always
+own labor, whether white or black. Then we would have no more strikes,
+or riots, or claims for higher wages, or for the right of suffrage, and
+all would be peace. You see my opinion of slavery has changed; and so
+has that of England in church and state, except the working classes, who
+wish to vote, and such pestiferous democrats as Bright and Cobden.
+
+This rebellion came just in the right time for us. In a few years more
+of your success, we should have been compelled to establish free
+schools, give the vote by ballot, and extend the suffrage, until the
+people should rule here, as with you. But now that your rebellion has
+proved the failure of republics, we shall yield no more. Slavery, in
+dissolving your Union, has accomplished all this for us, and therefore
+must be a good institution. Some one has sent me one Edmund Kirke's
+anti-slavery novel, entitled, 'Among the Pines.' Your people seem to
+have gone crazy over it; but it will have no readers here. Is this Kirke
+a Scotchman? I had a tenant called Kirke, who was evicted for avowing
+republican opinions. Can this be the same man? I told the Confederate
+minister, Mr. Mason, that if some Southron would write a good novel in
+favor of slavery, it would have a great circulation here; and he said he
+would name this in his next despatch to his Government. He has a fine
+aristocratic air, and could scarcely be descended from the women
+(imported and sold as wives for a few pounds of tobacco to the
+Virginians) who were the mothers of the F. F. V.'s. But Mr. M. says
+slavery will soon build up a splendid nobility in the South.
+
+Jefferson Davis is very popular here, and was lately cheered in Exeter
+Hall; but Yancey and Wigfall are idolized. Our great favorite in the
+North is Ex-President Buchanan. When did the head of a Government ever
+before have the courage to aid a rebellion against it, so gracefully
+yielding it the national forts, ships, mints, guns, and arsenals? But
+what we most admire is his message, in which he proved you have no right
+to coerce the South or suppress rebellion. This was a splendid discovery
+for us, as it demonstrated how superior our Government is to yours. If
+Mr. Buchanan would come here, we would raise him to the peerage, and, in
+commemoration of his two great acts, would give him the double title of
+the Duke of Lecompton and Disunion. Floyd, Cobb, and Thompson should
+each be earls. Thompson should be called Earl Arnold, in gratitude for
+the services to us of the celebrated Benedict Arnold.
+
+I told Mr. M. how much we had condemned his fugitive slave law; but he
+convinced me that it was a most humane and excellent measure. Fugitives
+from the kindest masters, and ungrateful for all the blessings of
+slavery, why should they not be brought back in chains? He reminded me
+of Generals Shields, Corcoran, and Meagher, Irishmen commanding Irish
+troops for the North, and said they should be brought back to Ireland
+and hung on Emmet's scaffold. You know we keep that scaffold still
+standing, as a terror to Irish rebels, although we admire so much
+rebellion in America. Mr. M. spoke also of Sigel, Heintzelman,
+Rosecrans, Asboth, and expressed his surprise that the Bourbon princes
+would fight side by side with the _mudsills_ of the North.
+
+In a few years, Mr. M. said, the South would establish a monarchy, and
+that a son of the Queen should marry a daughter of Jefferson Davis, and
+thus unite the two dynasties by kindred ties. It was his opinion that
+the South would limit the right of suffrage to slaveholders, numbering
+about two hundred thousand; that they would have a house of peers, lords
+temporal and spiritual, composed (including bishops) of all who held
+over five hundred slaves; but that their Archbishop of _Canting_bury
+should own at least one thousand. He thought the number requisite for
+the peerage would be enlarged after the reopening of the African slave
+trade, which would soon furnish England cheap cotton. His remarks on
+this subject reminded me how large a portion of my fortune was
+accumulated, during the last century, by the profits of the African
+slave trade. Mr. M. told me the King of Dahomey would furnish the South
+one hundred thousand slaves a year, for twenty dollars each, and that
+England should have the profits of the trade as before, and Liverpool
+again be the great slave port. He alluded to the CONTINENTAL
+MONTHLY, which he said was an abolition journal, and denounced
+Kirke, Kimball, Leland, Henry, Greeley, Stanton, and Walker. He was
+specially severe on Walker and Stanton, charging them with the defeat of
+the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution, and the consequent accession of
+Kansas and all the Territories to the free States, He said Walker and
+Stanton had no right to reject the Oxford and McGee returns, although
+they were forged. And now, dear Mrs. Stowe, if you would only change, as
+we all have here, and write, as you only can, a great novel to prove the
+beauties of slavery, its circulation here would be enormous, and we
+would make you a duchess. Adieu until my next.
+
+P.S.--I have invested all my United States stock in Confederate bonds.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The style of the foregoing letter would point to the Duchess of
+Sutherland as the author, but such a change would be miraculous. Was the
+copy of the letter found in an intercepted despatch from Mr. Mason to
+Jefferson Davis?
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+  THE
+
+  CONTINENTAL MONTHLY:
+
+  EDITORS:
+
+  HON. ROBERT J. WALKER, CHARLES G. LELAND,
+
+  HON. FRED. P. STANTON, EDMUND KIRKE.
+
+
+The readers of the CONTINENTAL are aware of the important
+position it has assumed, of the influence which it exerts, and of the
+brilliant array of political and literary talent of the highest order
+which supports it. No publication of the kind has, in this country, so
+successfully combined the energy and freedom of the daily newspaper with
+the higher literary tone of the first-class monthly; and it is very
+certain that no magazine has given wider range to its contributors, or
+preserved itself so completely from the narrow influences of party or of
+faction. In times like the present, such a journal is either a power in
+the land or it is nothing. That the CONTINENTAL is not the
+latter is abundantly evidenced _by what it has done_--by the reflection
+of its counsels in many important public events, and in the character
+and power of those who are its staunchest supporters.
+
+By the accession of HON. ROBERT J. WALKER and HON. F. P.
+STANTON to its editorial corps, the CONTINENTAL acquires a
+strength and a political significance which, to those who are aware of
+the ability and experience of these gentlemen, must elevate it to a
+position far above any previously occupied by any publication of the
+kind in America. Preserving all "the boldness, vigor, and ability" which
+a thousand journals have attributed to it, it will at once greatly
+enlarge its circle of action, and discuss, fearlessly and frankly, every
+principle involved in the great questions of the day. The first minds of
+the country, embracing men most familiar with its diplomacy and most
+distinguished for ability, are to become its contributors; and it is no
+mere "flattering promise of a prospectus" to say, that this "magazine
+for the times" will employ the first intellect in America, under
+auspices which no publication ever enjoyed before in this country.
+
+CHARLES GODFREY LELAND, the accomplished scholar and author, who has
+till now been the sole Editor of the Magazine, will, beside his
+editorial labors, continue his brilliant contributions to its pages; and
+EDMUND KIRKE, author of "AMONG THE PINES," will contribute to each
+issue, having already begun a work on Southern Life and Society, which
+will be found far more widely descriptive, and, in all respects,
+superior to the first.
+
+While the CONTINENTAL will express decided opinions on the
+great questions of the day, it will not be a mere political journal:
+much the larger portion of its columns will be enlivened, as heretofore,
+by tales, poetry, and humor. In a word, the CONTINENTAL will be
+found, under its new staff of Editors, occupying a position, and
+presenting attractions never before found in a magazine.
+
+TERMS TO CLUBS.
+
+  Two copies for one year,        Five dollars.
+  Three copies for one year,      Six dollars.
+  Six copies for one year,        Eleven dollars.
+  Eleven copies for one year,     Twenty dollars.
+  Twenty copies for one year,     Thirty-six dollars.
+
+  PAID IN ADVANCE
+
+  _Postage, Thirty-six cents a year_, TO BE PAID BY THE SUBSCRIBER.
+
+  SINGLE COPIES.
+
+  Three Dollars a year, IN ADVANCE.--_Postage paid by the Publisher._
+
+  JOHN F. TROW, 50 Greene St., N.Y.
+
+  PUBLISHER FOR THE PROPRIETORS.
+
+As an inducement to new subscribers, the Publisher offers the
+following very liberal premiums:
+
+Any person remitting $8, in advance, will receive the Magazine from
+July, 1862, to January, 1864, thus securing the whole of Mr. KIMBALL's
+and Mr. KIRKE's new serials, which are alone worth the price of
+subscription. Or, if preferred, a subscriber can take the Magazine for
+1863 and a copy of "AMONG THE PINES," or of "UNDERCURRENTS OF WALL ST.,"
+by R. B. KIMBALL, bound in cloth (the book to be sent postage paid).
+
+Any person remitting $4.50, will receive the Magazine from its
+commencement, January, 1862, to January, 1864, thus securing Mr.
+KIMBALL'S "WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?" and Mr. KIRKE's "AMONG THE PINES" and
+"MERCHANT'S STORY," and nearly 8,000 octavo pages of the best literature
+in the world. Premium subscribers to pay their own postage.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+[Illustration: THE FINEST FARMING LANDS WHEAT CORN COTTON FRUITS &
+VEGETABLES]
+
+~EQUAL TO ANY IN THE WORLD!!!~
+
+MAY BE PROCURED
+
+~At FROM $8 to $12 PER ACRE,~
+
+Near Markets, Schools, Railroads, Churches, and all the blessings of
+Civilization.
+
+1,200,000 Acres, in Farms of 40, 80, 120, 160 Acres and upwards, in
+ILLINOIS, the Garden State of America.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Illinois Central Railroad Company offer, ON LONG CREDIT, the
+beautiful and fertile PRAIRIE LANDS lying along the whole line of their
+Railroad. 700 MILES IN LENGTH, upon the most Favorable Terms for
+enabling Farmers, Manufacturers, Mechanics and Workingmen to make for
+themselves and their families a competency, and a HOME they can call
+THEIR OWN, as will appear from the following statements:
+
+ILLINOIS.
+
+Is about equal in extent to England, with a population of 1,722,666, and
+a soil capable of supporting 20,000,000. No State in the Valley of the
+Mississippi offers so great an inducement to the settler as the State of
+Illinois. There is no part of the world where all the conditions of
+climate and soil so admirably combine to produce those two great
+staples, CORN and WHEAT.
+
+CLIMATE.
+
+Nowhere can the Industrious farmer secure such immediate results from
+his labor as on these deep, rich, loamy soils, cultivated with so much
+ease. The climate from the extreme southern part of the State to the
+Terre Haute, Alton and St. Louis Railroad, a distance of nearly 200
+miles, is well adapted to Winter.
+
+WHEAT, CORN, COTTON, TOBACCO.
+
+Peaches, Pears, Tomatoes, and every variety of fruit and vegetables is
+grown in great abundance, from which Chicago and other Northern markets
+are furnished from four to six weeks earlier than their immediate
+vicinity. Between the Terre Haute, Alton & St. Louis Railway and the
+Kankakee and Illinois Rivers, (a distance of 115 miles on the Branch,
+and 136 miles on the Main Trunk,) lies the great Corn and Stock raising
+portion of the State.
+
+THE ORDINARY YIELD
+
+of Corn is from 60 to 80 bushels per acre. Cattle, Horses, Mules, Sheep
+and Hogs are raised here at a small cost, and yield large profits. It is
+believed that no section of country presents greater inducements for
+Dairy Farming than the Prairies of Illinois, a branch of farming to
+which but little attention has been paid, and which must yield sure
+profitable results. Between the Kankakee and Illinois Rivers, and
+Chicago and Dunleith, (a distance of 56 miles on the Branch and 147
+miles by the Main Trunk,) Timothy Hay, Spring Wheat, Corn, &c., are
+produced in great abundance.
+
+AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS.
+
+The Agricultural products of Illinois are greater than those of any
+other State. The Wheat crop of 1861 was estimated at 35,000,000 bushels,
+while the Corn crop yields not less than 140,000,000 bushels besides the
+crop of Oats, Barley, Rye, Buckwheat, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes,
+Pumpkins, Squashes, Flax, Hemp, Peas, Clover, Cabbage, Beets, Tobacco,
+Sorgheim, Grapes, Peaches, Apples, &c., which go to swell the vast
+aggregate of production in this fertile region. Over Four Million tons
+of produce were sent out the State of Illinois during the past year.
+
+STOCK RAISING.
+
+In Central and Southern Illinois uncommon advantages are presented for
+the extension of Stock raising. All kinds of Cattle, Horses, Mules,
+Sheep, Hogs, &c., of the best breeds, yield handsome profits; large
+fortunes have already been made, and the field is open for others to
+enter with the fairest prospects of like results. Dairy Farming also
+presents its inducements to many.
+
+CULTIVATION OF COTTON.
+
+The experiments in Cotton culture are of very great promise. Commencing
+in latitude 39 deg. 30 min. (see Mattoon on the Branch, and Assumption
+on the Main Line), the Company owns thousands of acres well adapted to
+the perfection of this fibre. A settler having a family of young
+children, can turn their youthful labor to a most profitable account in
+the growth and perfection of this plant.
+
+THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD
+
+Traverses the whole length of the State, from the banks of the
+Mississippi and Lake Michigan to the Ohio. As its name imports, the
+Railroad runs through the centre of the State, and on either side of the
+road along its whole length lie the lands offered for sale.
+
+CITIES, TOWNS, MARKETS, DEPOTS.
+
+There are Ninety-eight Depots on the Company's Railway, giving about one
+every seven miles. Cities, Towns and Villages are situated at convenient
+distances throughout the whole route, where every desirable commodity
+may be found as readily as in the oldest cities of the Union, and where
+buyers are to be met for all kinds of farm produce.
+
+EDUCATION.
+
+Mechanics and working-men will find the free school system encouraged by
+the State, and endowed with a large revenue for the support of the
+schools. Children can live in sight of the school, the college, the
+church, and grow up with the prosperity of the leading State in the
+Great Western Empire.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PRICES AND TERMS OF PAYMENT--ON LONG CREDIT.
+
+  80 acres at $10 per acre, with interest at 6 per ct. annually
+  on the following terms:
+
+  Cash payment                 $48 00
+
+  Payment in one year           48 00
+     "    in two years          48 00
+     "    in three years        48 00
+     "    in four years        236 00
+     "    in five years        224 00
+     "    in six years         212 00
+
+
+  40 acres, at $10 00 per acre:
+
+  Cash payment                 $24 00
+
+  Payment in one year           24 00
+     "    in two years          24 00
+     "    in three years        24 00
+     "    in four years        118 00
+     "    in five years        112 00
+     "    in six years         106 00
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+  Number 12                         25 Cents.
+
+
+
+  The
+
+  Continental
+
+  Monthly
+
+  Devoted to Literature and National Policy.
+
+  DECEMBER, 1862.
+
+  NEW YORK:
+
+  JOHN F. TROW, 50 GREENE STREET
+
+  (FOR THE PROPRIETORS).
+
+  HENRY DEXTER AND SINCLAIR TOUSEY.
+
+  WASHINGTON, D.C.: FRANCK TAYLOR.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.--No. XII.
+
+
+  The Union. Hon. Robert J. Walker,                                  641
+  Something we have to Think of, and to Do. C. S. Henry, LL.D.       657
+  Cambridge and Its Colleges,                                        662
+  A Physician's Story,                                               667
+  La Vie Poetique,                                                   679
+  The Ash Tree. Charles G. Leland,                                   682
+  An Englishman in South Carolina,                                   689
+  The Causes of the Rebellion. Hon. F. P. Stanton,                   695
+  On Guard. John G. Nicolay, Private Secretary to President
+    Lincoln,                                                         706
+  Railway Photographs. Isabella McFarlane,                           708
+  The Obstacles to Peace. A Letter to an Englishman.
+    Hon. Horace Greeley,                                             714
+  Thank God for All. Chas. G. Leland,                                718
+  A Merchant's Story. Edmund Kirke,                                  719
+  The Freed Men of the South. Hon. F. P. Stanton,                    730
+  Was He Successful? Richard B. Kimball,                             734
+  Gold. Hon. Robert J. Walker,                                       743
+  Literary Notices,                                                  747
+  Editor's Table,                                                    750
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+ANNOUNCEMENT.
+
+The Proprietors of THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY, warranted by its
+great success, have resolved to increase its influence and usefulness by
+the following changes:
+
+The Magazine has become the property of an association of men of
+character and large means. Devoted to the NATIONAL CAUSE, it
+will ardently and unconditionally support the UNION. Its scope
+will be enlarged by articles relating to our public defences, Army and
+Navy, gunboats, railroads, canals, finance, and currency. The cause of
+gradual emancipation and colonization will be cordially sustained. The
+literary character of the Magazine will be improved, and nothing which
+talent, money, and industry combined can achieve, will be omitted.
+
+The political department will be controlled by HON. ROBERT J. WALKER and
+HON. FREDERIC P. STANTON, of Washington, D.C. Mr. WALKER, after serving
+nine years as Senator, and four years as Secretary of the Treasury, was
+succeeded in the Senate by JEFFERSON DAVIS. MR. STANTON served ten years
+in Congress, acting as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and of Naval
+Affairs. MR. WALKER was succeeded as Governor of Kansas by MR. STANTON,
+and both were displaced by MR. BUCHANAN, for refusing to force slavery
+upon that people by fraud and forgery. The literary department of the
+Magazine will be under the control of CHARLES GODFREY LELAND of Boston,
+and EDMUND KIRKE of New York. MR. LELAND is the present accomplished
+Editor of the Magazine. MR. KIRKE is one of its constant contributors,
+but better known as the author of "Among the Pines," the great picture,
+true to life, of Slavery as it is.
+
+THE CONTINENTAL, while retaining all the old corps of writers,
+who have given it so wide a circulation, will be reënforced by new
+contributors, greatly distinguished as statesmen, scholars, and savans.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, In the year 1862, by
+JAMES R. GILMORE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court
+of the United States for the Southern District of New York.
+
+  JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Continental Monthly , Vol. 2 No.
+5,  November 1862, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY  ***
+
+***** This file should be named 20899-8.txt or 20899-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/8/9/20899/
+
+Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Janet Blenkinship and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+(This file was produced from images generously made
+available by Cornell University Digital Collections)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/20899-8.zip b/20899-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e712ad8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-8.zip
diff --git a/20899-h.zip b/20899-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e8938d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-h.zip
diff --git a/20899-h/20899-h.htm b/20899-h/20899-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0026ced
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-h/20899-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,9843 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Continental Monthly, Vol II, No V, by Various.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
+<!--
+    p {  margin-top: .75em;
+         text-align: justify;
+         margin-bottom: .75em;
+         }
+    h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {
+         text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+         clear: both;
+         }
+    hr { width: 33%;
+	 margin-top: 2em;
+	 margin-bottom: 2em;
+         margin-left: auto;
+         margin-right: auto;
+         clear: both;
+       }
+
+    table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;}
+
+    body{margin-left: 10%;
+         margin-right: 10%;
+        }
+
+    div.centered {text-align: center;} /* work around for IE centering with CSS problem part 1 */
+    div.centered table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;} /* work around for IE centering with CSS problem part 2 */
+
+
+    .pagenum   {right: 1%; font-size: x-small; background-color: inherit; color: gray; text-indent: 0em; text-align: right; position: absolute;  padding: 1px 3px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none}
+    .linenum  {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */
+    .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;}
+
+
+    .author {text-align: right; margin-right: 5%;}
+    .center   {text-align: center;}
+    .smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
+
+     .figcenter {padding-right: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: 0.9em; padding-bottom: 1em; margin: 0px; padding-top: 1em; text-align: center;}
+
+     .figleft     {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top:
+                 0em; margin-right: 0.5em; padding: 0; text-align: center;}
+
+    .left   {float: left; text-align: left;}
+    .right  {float: right; text-align: right;}
+
+    .hover      {border-bottom: 1px dotted red;} /* to mark characters that might have trouble in some browsers, these have a title that will show when hovered over */
+
+
+
+    .footnotes        {border: dashed 1px;}
+    .footnote         {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;}
+    .footnote .label  {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;}
+    .fnanchor         {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;}
+
+
+    // -->
+    /* XML end  ]]>*/
+    </style>
+  </head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Continental Monthly , Vol. 2 No. 5, 
+November 1862, 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: The Continental Monthly , Vol. 2 No. 5,  November 1862
+       Devoted to Literature and National Policy
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: March 25, 2007 [EBook #20899]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY  ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Janet Blenkinship and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+(This file was produced from images generously made
+available by Cornell University Digital Collections)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<h1>THE</h1>
+
+<h1>CONTINENTAL MONTHLY:</h1>
+
+<h4>DEVOTED TO</h4>
+
+<h3>Literature and National Policy.</h3>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Vol</span>. II.&mdash;NOVEMBER, 1862.&mdash;<span class="smcap">No</span>. V.</h3>
+
+
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class='centered'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="70%" cellspacing="0" summary="CONTENTS">
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_CAUSES_OF_THE_REBELLION">THE CAUSES OF THE REBELLION.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#WORD-MURDER">WORD-MURDER.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#STEWART_AND_THE_DRY_GOODS_TRADE_OF_NEW_YORK">STEWART, AND THE DRY GOODS TRADE OF NEW YORK.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#UNHEEDED_GROWTH">UNHEEDED GROWTH.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#RED_YELLOW_AND_BLUE">RED, YELLOW, AND BLUE.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ONE_OF_THE_MILLION">ONE OF THE MILLION.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#LAS_ORACIONES">LAS ORACIONES.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#MY_MARYLAND">MY MARYLAND!&mdash;THE SEPTEMBER RAID.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#A_MERCHANTS_STORY">A MERCHANT'S STORY.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></span></td></tr>
+
+
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_UNION">THE UNION.&mdash;II.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_WOLF_HUNT">THE WOLF HUNT.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_POETRY_OF_NATURE">THE POETRY OF NATURE.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#MACCARONI_AND_CANVAS">MACCARONI AND CANVAS.&mdash;IX.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><a href="#ROMAN_FIRESIDES">ROMAN FIRESIDES.</a></span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><a href="#VIOLETS_OF_THE_VILLA_BORGHESE">VIOLETS OF THE VILLA BORGHESE.</a></span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><a href="#THE_CARNIVAL">THE CARNIVAL.</a></span></td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><a href="#THE_VERMILION_MIRACLE">THE VERMILION MIRACLE.</a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><a href="#THE_POPOLO_EXHIBITION">THE POPOLO EXHIBITION.</a></span></td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#MISSED_FIRE">'MISSED FIRE!'</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_PROCLAMATION">THE PROCLAMATION.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_PRESS_IN_THE_UNITED_STATES">THE PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#OUR_FRIENDS_ABROAD">OUR FRIENDS ABROAD.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#WAS_HE_SUCCESSFUL">WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></span></td></tr>
+
+
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#AURORA">AURORA.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#HOW_THEY_DID_IT">HOW THEY DID IT.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#FROM_MOUNT_LAFAYETTE_WHITE_MOUNTAINS">FROM MOUNT LAFAYETTE, WHITE MOUNTAINS.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#INDEPENDENCE">INDEPENDENCE.</a></td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_HOMESTEAD_BILL">THE HOMESTEAD BILL.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#LITERARY_NOTICES">LITERARY NOTICES</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#EDITORS_TABLE">EDITOR'S TABLE</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CONTENTS_No_XII">CONTENTS.&mdash;No. XII.</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_513" id="Page_513">[Pg 513]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_CAUSES_OF_THE_REBELLION" id="THE_CAUSES_OF_THE_REBELLION"></a>THE CAUSES OF THE REBELLION.</h2>
+
+
+<p>No other nation was ever convulsed by an internal struggle so tremendous
+as that which now rends our own unhappy country. No mere rebellion has
+ever before spread its calamitous effects so widely, beyond the scene of
+its immediate horrors. Just in proportion to the magnitude of the evils
+it has produced, is the enormity of the crime involved, on one side or
+the other; and good men may well feel solicitous to know where rests the
+burden of this awful responsibility.</p>
+
+<p>The long train of preparatory events preceding the outbreak, and the
+extraordinary acts by which the conspirators signalized its
+commencement, point, with sufficient certainty, to the incendiaries who
+produced the vast conflagration, and who appear to be responsible for
+the ruin which has ensued. But it remains to inquire by what means the
+great mass of inflammable materials was accumulated and made ready to
+take fire at the touch; what justification there may be for the authors
+of the fatal act, or what palliation of the guilt which seems to rest
+upon them. The reputation of the American people, and of the free
+government which is their pride and glory, must suffer in the estimation
+of mankind, unless they can be fairly acquitted of all responsibility
+for the civil war, which not only desolates large portions of our own
+country, but seriously interferes with the prosperity of multitudinous
+classes, and the stability of large industrial interests, in other
+lands.</p>
+
+<p>Neither in the physical nor in the moral world, can the effects of any
+phenomenon go beyond the nature and extent of its causes. Mighty
+convulsions, like that which now shakes this continent, must have their
+roots in far distant times, and must gather their nutriment of passion
+and violence from a wide field of sympathetic opinion. No influence of
+mere individuals, no sudden acts of government even, no temporary causes
+of any nature whatsoever, are adequate to produce results so widespread
+and astounding. The social forces which contend in such a conflict, must
+have been 'nursing their wrath' and gathering their strength for years,
+in order to exhibit the gigantic death-struggle, in which they are now
+engaged.</p>
+
+<p>Gen. Jackson, after having crushed the incipient rebellion of 1832,
+wrote, in a private letter, recently published, that the next attempt to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_514" id="Page_514">[Pg 514]</a></span>overthrow the Union would be instigated by the same party, but based
+upon the question of slavery.</p>
+
+<p>That single-hearted patriot, in his boundless devotion to the Union,
+seemed to be gifted with almost preternatural foresight; nor did he
+exhibit greater sagacity in penetrating the motives and purposes of men,
+than in comprehending the nature and influence of great social causes,
+then in operation, and destined, as he clearly foresaw, to be wielded by
+wicked men as instruments of stupendous mischief to the country. His
+extraordinary prevision of the present attempt to overthrow the Union,
+signalizes the evident affiliation of this rebellion with that which he
+so wisely and energetically destroyed in embryo, by means of the
+celebrated proclamation and force bill.</p>
+
+<p>It was, however, only in the real motive and ultimate object of the
+conspirators of 1832, that the attempt of South Carolina at that time
+was the lineal progenitor of the rebellion of the present day. The
+purpose was the same in both cases, but the means chosen at the two
+epochs were altogether different. In the first attempt, the purpose was,
+indeed, to break up the Union and to establish a separate confederacy;
+but this was to be done upon the ground of alleged inequality and
+oppression, as well as unconstitutionality, in the mode of levying
+duties upon foreign importations. The attempt, however, proved to be
+altogether premature. The question involved, being neither geographical
+nor sectional in character, was not then, if it could ever be,
+susceptible of being made the instrument of concentrating and
+intensifying hostile opinion against the federal power. Louisiana, with
+her great sugar interest, was a tariff State, and advocated protection
+as ardently as it was opposed in the greater part of the North-West, and
+in extensive districts of the North. She was not even invited to join
+the proposed confederacy. Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware were decided
+in their support of the protective policy, while Tennessee, Missouri,
+and North Carolina were divided on the question. Mr. Calhoun himself,
+the very prophet of nullification, could not obliterate the memory of
+his own former opinions, and it was difficult to induce the people to
+co&ouml;perate in overthrowing the Federal Government, simply for adopting a
+policy which the very authors of this movement had themselves so
+recently thoroughly approved.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, opinion was broken into fragments; and nowhere outside of South
+Carolina did it acquire sufficient unanimity and power to impart any
+great momentum to the revolutionary design. Besides, in the absence of
+clear and deep convictions, the question itself was of such a nature,
+that strong passions could not easily spring from it. The interests
+involved were not necessarily in conflict; their opposition was more
+apparent than real, so that an adjustment could readily be made without
+sacrifice of principle. In short, the subject of dispute did not contain
+within itself the elements of civil war, capable of development to that
+extreme, at the time and under the circumstances when the futile attempt
+at separation was made. Doubtless, the sinister exertions of restless
+and ambitious men, acting upon ignorant prejudices, might, under some
+circumstances, have engendered opinions, even upon the tariff question,
+sufficiently strong and violent for the production of civil commotion.
+Had the conditions been more favorable to the plot; had the conspirators
+of that day been as well prepared as those of 1861; had they been
+equally successful in sowing dissatisfaction and hatred in the minds of
+the Southern people; had they found in Gen. Jackson the weak and pliant
+instrument of treason which James Buchanan afterward became in the hands
+of Davis and his coadjutors, the present rebellion might have been
+anticipated, and the germ of secession wholly extirpated and destroyed,
+in the contest which would then have ensued. The Union would doubtless
+have been main<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_515" id="Page_515">[Pg 515]</a></span>tained, and, in the end, strengthened; the fatal element
+of discord would scarcely have survived to work and plot in secret for
+more than a quarter of a century. It is true, slavery would have
+remained; but in the absence of other causes, slavery would not
+necessarily have brought the country to the present crisis. Providence
+may have so ordered the events of that day as to leave the revolutionary
+element in existence, in order that it might eventually fasten upon
+slavery as the instrument of its treason, and thus bring this system,
+condemned alike by the lessons of experience and by the moral sense of
+mankind, to that complete eventual destruction, which seems to be
+inevitably approaching.</p>
+
+<p>The idea of an independent Southern confederacy, to be constituted of a
+fragment of the Union, survived the contest of 1832, and has been
+cherished with zeal and enthusiasm, by a small party of malcontents,
+from that day to this. Either from honest conviction or from the syren
+seductions of ambition, or perhaps from that combination of both which
+so often misleads the judgment of the wisest and best of men, this party
+has pursued its end with unrivalled zeal and consummate tact, never for
+a single moment abating its efforts to convince the South of the
+advantages of separation. But all its ability and all its untiring
+labors failed to make any serious impression, until the great and
+powerful interest of slavery was enlisted in the cause, and used as the
+means of reaching the feelings, and arousing the prejudices of the
+Southern people. The theories of nullification and secession, while
+accepted by many leading minds in that section, never made any serious
+impression upon the mass of the people. Indeed, it may be said with
+truth, that the honest instincts of the people invariably rejected these
+pernicious and dangerous theories, whenever they were distinctly
+involved in the elections. Nevertheless, there was an undercurrent of
+opinion in favor of them: the minds of the people were familiarized with
+the doctrines, and thus made ready to embrace them, whenever they should
+be satisfied it was indispensable to their safety and liberty to avail
+themselves of their benefit.</p>
+
+<p>These abstract principles, however industriously and successfully
+taught, would not of themselves have availed to urge the people on to
+the desperate contest into which they have been madly precipitated. The
+dogma of the right of secession was not left a mere barren idea: it was
+accompanied with constant teachings respecting the incompatibility of
+interests, and the inevitable conflict, between the North and the South;
+the superiority of slavery over every other form of labor; and the
+imminent danger of the overthrow of this benign institution by Northern
+fanaticism, and by the unfriendly influence of the commercial and
+financial policy of that section. Thus, the mischievous error of
+secession was roused to life and action by the exhibition of those
+unreal phantoms, so often conjured up to frighten the South&mdash;abolition,
+agrarianism, and protective oppression.</p>
+
+<p>All these deceptive ideas were required to be infused into the minds of
+the people, in order to prepare the way for rebellious action. The right
+of secession was an indispensable condition, without which there could
+be no justification for the violent measures to be adopted. No
+considerable number of American citizens could be found ready to lay
+treasonable hands upon their government; but a great step would be taken
+if they could be convinced that the constitution provided for its own
+abrogation, and that the act of destruction could at any time be legally
+and regularly accomplished. The absolute humanity, justice, and morality
+of slavery, its excellence as a social institution, and its efficiency
+in maintaining order and insuring progress, must be fully established
+and universally admitted, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_516" id="Page_516">[Pg 516]</a></span> order to enlist the powerful motives of
+self-interest on the side of the projected revolution. And finally, it
+was necessary to show that the divine institution was in danger, that
+the free labor of the North was actively hostile to it and planning its
+ruin, and that this hostility was to be aided by all the selfish desires
+of the protectionists and the dangerous violence of the agrarian
+'mudsills' of the other section. It was not of the least importance that
+these statements or any of them should be true. Let them be thoroughly
+believed by the people, and that conviction would answer all the
+purposes of the conspirators. Accordingly, for more than a quarter of a
+century, these heresies and falsehoods were most industriously instilled
+into the minds of the Southern people, of whom the great mass are
+unfortunately, and, from their peculiar condition, necessarily, kept in
+that state of ignorance which would favor the reception of such
+incredible and monstrous fallacies.</p>
+
+<p>The argument as to the right of secession has been exhausted; and if it
+had not been, it does not come within the scope and design of this paper
+to discuss the question. Enemies of the United States, foreign and
+domestic, will continue to believe, or at least to profess to believe
+and try to convince themselves, that the Constitution of 1787, which
+superseded the Confederation, contained all the defects of the latter
+which it was specially designed to remedy,&mdash;that the league of the
+preceding period was prolonged in the succeeding organization, only to
+be the fatal object of future discontent and ambition. Certainly this
+doctrine is the basis of the rebellion, and without it no successful
+movement could have been made to secure cooperation from any of the
+States. Nevertheless, it cannot be considered one of the impelling
+causes which moved the rebellious States to action, for it is not of
+itself an active principle. It rather served to smooth the way, by
+removing obstacles which opposed the operation of real motives.
+Veneration for the work of the fathers of the republic, respect for the
+Constitution and love of the Union, as things of infinite value, worthy
+to be cherished and defended, stood in the way of the conspiracy which
+compassed the destruction of the government. It was necessary to remove
+this obstacle, and to eradicate these patriotic sentiments, which had
+taken strong hold of the minds and hearts of the people of both
+sections. For more than two generations the Union had been held sacred,
+beyond all other earthly blessings. It was an object of the first
+magnitude to unsettle this long-cherished sentiment.</p>
+
+<p>The conspirators were altogether too shrewd and full of tact to approach
+their object directly. They adopted the artifice of arousing and
+studiously cultivating another sentiment of equal strength, which should
+spring up side by side with their love of the Union, flourish for a time
+in friendly cooperation with it, but ultimately supplant and entirely
+supersede it. This was the plausible and attractive sentiment of State
+pride, concealing in itself the idea of perfect sovereignty, with the
+right of nullification and secession. With consummate ability, with
+untiring industry and perseverance, and without a moment's cessation for
+more than a quarter of a century, this fruitful but pernicious seed of
+disorganization was sown broadcast among the Southern people. So long as
+there was no occasion to put the theory into practice, there seemed to
+be no ground for alarm. The question was one rather of curious subtlety
+than of practical importance. Meanwhile, the minds of men became
+familiar with the thought; they entertained it without aversion; the
+germs of ultimate discord and dissolution silently took root, and slowly
+grew up in the understandings of men. Not that the principle was
+adopted; it was rather tolerated than accepted. But this was the very
+thing intended by the wily conspirators. They expected nothing better;
+for they knew well that an accident or a bold precipi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_517" id="Page_517">[Pg 517]</a></span>tation of events
+would cause the popular mind to seize this principle and use it, as the
+only justification for revolutionary violence. Thus this doctrine, which
+is the embodiment of anarchy, was carefully prepared for the occasion,
+and artfully placed within easy mental reach of those who would be
+called upon to wield it.</p>
+
+<p><i>Pari passu</i> with the dissemination and growth of this dangerous
+opinion, the political school which cherished it endeavored to promote
+the object steadily held in view, by restricting and embarrassing the
+action of the Federal Government in every possible way. Notwithstanding
+the distrust and aversion of the Jackson party against them, continued
+long after the events of 1832, they succeeded in forming, first a
+coalition, and finally a thorough union with the great popular
+organization&mdash;the democratic party. Holding the balance of power between
+that party and their opponents, they dictated terms to the successive
+democratic conventions, and, in effect, controlled their nominations and
+their policy. They imposed upon that party the formidable dogma of 'a
+strict construction of the Constitution,' and under that plausible
+pretext, denied to the Government the exercise of every useful power
+necessary to make it strong and efficient within the limits of its
+legitimate functions. Their evident object, though cautiously and
+successfully concealed, was to weaken the Federal Government, and build
+up the power of the separate States, so that the former, shorn of its
+constitutional vigor, and crippled in its proper field of action, might,
+at the critical moment, fall an easy prey to their iniquitous designs.
+The navigation of the great Mississippi river, the imperial highway of
+the continent, could not be improved, because every impediment taken
+away, and every facility given to commerce on its bosom, were so much
+strength added to the bonds of the Union. The harbors of the great lakes
+and of the Atlantic coast could not be rendered secure by the agency of
+the Federal Government, because every beneficent act of this nature
+fixed it more firmly in the affections of the people, and gave it
+additional influence at home and abroad. The great Pacific railroad&mdash;a
+measure of infinite importance to the unity of the nation, to the
+development of the country, and to the general prosperity, as well as to
+the public defence&mdash;a work so grand in its proportions, and so universal
+in its benefits, that only the power of a great nation was equal to its
+accomplishment or capable and worthy of its proper control&mdash;this great
+and indispensable measure was defeated from year to year, so long as the
+conspirators remained in Congress to oppose it, and was only passed in
+the end, after they had launched the rebellion, and made their open
+attack against the Government, which they had so long sought to
+embarrass and weaken, in view of this very contingency.</p>
+
+<p>While yielding these principles in theory, the democratic party did not
+always adhere to them in practice. The instinct of patriotism was often
+stronger than the obligations of party necessity and party policy.
+Moreover, the text of these doctrines in the democratic creed was
+frequently a subject of grave dispute in the party, and unanimity never
+prevailed in regard to it. Yet the subtle poison infused into the body
+of the organization, extended its baleful influence to all questions,
+and too often paralyzed the arm of the Government in every field of its
+appropriate action.</p>
+
+<p>Never was presented in history a better illustration of the effect of
+false and mischievous ideas. It would be unjust, because it would be
+untrue, to suspect the democratic party of any clear knowledge of the
+ends to which these principles were intended to lead, or of any
+participation in the treasonable purpose. Many members of that party saw
+the danger in time, and abandoned the organization before it was caught
+in the meshes of the great conspiracy. Some, however, even in the loyal
+States, clung<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_518" id="Page_518">[Pg 518]</a></span> to Breckinridge and the fatal abstractions of the party
+creed, until these reached their final and legitimate culmination, in
+the ghastly paralysis of the most indispensable functions of the
+Government&mdash;the ruinous abnegation of all power of self-defence&mdash;the
+treacherous attempt at national suicide only failing for want of courage
+to perpetrate the supreme act, which was exhibited by the administration
+of James Buchanan, in its last hours, when it proclaimed the doctrine of
+secession to be unfounded in constitutional right, and yet denied the
+power of the Government to prevent its own destruction. The threats of
+an imperious band of traitors, operating upon the fears of a weak old
+man, who was already implicated in the treason, drove him to the verge
+of the abyss into which he was willing to plunge his country, but from
+which, at the last moment, he drew back, dismayed at the thought of
+sacrificing himself.</p>
+
+<p>The doctrine of secession, long and laboriously taught, and the cognate
+principles calculated to diminish the power of the Federal Government
+and magnify that of the States, thus served to smooth the way, to lay
+the track, upon which the engine of rebellion was to be started. But
+there was still wanting the motive power which should impel the machine
+and give it energy and momentum. Something tangible was
+required&mdash;something palpable to the masses&mdash;on the basis of which
+violent antagonisms and hatreds could be engendered, and fearful dangers
+could be pictured to the popular imagination.</p>
+
+<p>The protective system, loudly denounced as unequal and oppressive, as
+well as unconstitutional, had proved wholly insufficient to arouse
+rebellion in 1832. It would have proved equally so in 1861: but then the
+ultra free trade tariff of 1856 was still in existence; and it continued
+in force, until, to increase dissatisfaction, and invite the very system
+which they pretended to oppose and deplore, the conspirators in
+Congress, having power to defeat the 'Morrill Tariff,' deliberately
+stepped aside, and suffered it to become a law. But this was merely a
+piece of preliminary strategy intended to give them some advantage in
+the great battle which was eventually to be fought on other fields. It
+might throw some additional weight into their scale; it might give them
+some plausible ground for hypocritical complaint; and might even, to
+some extent, serve to hide the real ground of their movement; yet, of
+itself, it could never be decisive of anything. It could neither justify
+revolution in point of morals, nor could it blind the people of the
+South to the terrible calamities which the experiment of secession was
+destined to bring upon them.</p>
+
+<p>Slavery alone, with the vast material prosperity apparently created by
+it, with the debatable and exciting questions, moral, political, and
+social, which arise out of it, and with the palpable dangers, which, in
+spite of every effort to deny it, plainly brood over the system&mdash;slavery
+alone had the power to produce the civil war, and to shake the continent
+to its foundations. In the present crisis of the struggle, it would be a
+waste of time and of thought to attempt to trace back to its origin the
+long current of excitement on the slavery question, beginning in 1834,
+and swelling in magnitude until the present day; or to seek to fix the
+responsibility for the various events which marked its progress, from
+the earliest agitation down to the great rebellion, which is evidently
+the consummation and the end of it all. The only lesson important to be
+learned, and that which is the sum of all these great events, plainly
+taught by the history of this generation, and destined to characterize
+it in all future time, is, that slavery had in itself the germs of this
+profound agitation, and that, for thirty years, it stirred the moral and
+political elements of this nation as no other cause had power to do. It
+is of little consequence, for the purpose in view, to inquire what
+antagonisms struggled with slavery in this immense<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_519" id="Page_519">[Pg 519]</a></span> contest, covering so
+great an area in space, and so long a period of time. All ideas and all
+interests were involved. Moral, social, political, and economical
+considerations clashed and antagonized in the gigantic conflict.</p>
+
+<p>Is slavery right or wrong? Has it the sanction of enlightened
+conscience, or of the divine law as revealed in the Old and New
+Testaments? The last words of this moral contest have scarcely yet
+ceased to reverberate in our ears, even while the sound of cannon tells
+of other arguments and another arbitrament, which must soon cut short
+all the jargon of the logicians. But one of the most remarkable features
+of the whole case, has been the indignation with which the slave
+interest, from beginning to end, has resisted the discussion of these
+moral questions. As if such inquiries could, by any possibility, be
+prevented! As if a system, good and right in itself, defensible in the
+light of sound reason, could suffer by the fullest examination which
+could be made in private or in public, or by the profoundest agitation
+which could arise from the use of mere moral means! The discussions, the
+agitations, and all the fierce passions which attended them, were
+unavoidable. Human nature must be changed and wholly revolutionized
+before such agitations can be suppressed. They are the means appointed
+by the Creator for the progress of humanity. The seeds of them are
+planted in the heart of man, and, in the sunshine and air of freedom,
+they must germinate and grow, and eventually produce such fruit as the
+eternal laws of God have made necessary from the beginning.</p>
+
+<p>The social question shaped itself amidst the turbulent elements, and
+came out clear and well defined, in the perfect contrast and antagonism
+of the two sectional systems. Free labor, educated, skilful, prosperous,
+self-poised, and independent, grew into great strength, and accumulated
+untold wealth, in all the States in which slavery had been supplanted.
+Unexampled and prodigious inventive energy had multiplied the physical
+power of men by millions, and these wonderful creations of wealth and
+power seemed destined to have no bounds in the favored region in which
+this system of free labor prevailed. Immigration, attracted by this
+boundless prosperity, flowed in with a steady stream, and an overflowing
+population was fast spreading the freedom and prosperity of the Northern
+States to all the uncultivated regions of the Union.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, by a sort of social repulsion&mdash;a sort of polarity
+which intensifies opposition and repugnance&mdash;the theory of slavery was
+carried to an extreme never before known in the history of mankind.
+Capital claimed to own labor, as the best relation in which the two
+could be placed toward each other. The masses of men, compelled to spend
+their lives in physical toil, were held to be properly kept in
+ignorance, under the guidance of intelligent masters. The skilful
+control of the master, when applied to slaves, was hold to be superior
+in its results to the self-regulating energies of educated men, laboring
+for their own benefit, and impelled by the powerful motives of
+self-interest and independent enterprise. The safety of society demanded
+the subordination of the laboring class; and especially in free
+governments, where the representative system prevails, was it necessary
+that working men should be held in subjection. Slavery, therefore, was
+not only justifiable; it was the only possible condition on which free
+society could be organized, and liberal institutions maintained. This
+was 'the corner stone' of the new confederacy. The opposite system in
+the free States, at the first touch of internal trouble and civil war,
+would prove the truth of the new theory by bread riots and agrarian
+overthrow of property and of all other institutions held sacred in the
+true conditions of social order.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the monstrous inversion of social phenomena which the Southern
+mind accepted at the hands of their leading men, and conceived to be
+possible in this advanced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_520" id="Page_520">[Pg 520]</a></span> age of the world. Seizing upon a system
+compatible only with the earliest steps in the progress of man, and
+suitable only to the moral sentiments and unenlightened ideas of the
+most backward races of the world, they undertook to naturalize and
+establish it&mdash;nay, to perpetuate it, and to build up society on its
+basis&mdash;in the nineteenth century, and among the people of one of the
+freest and most enlightened nations! Evidently, this was a monstrous
+perversion of intellect&mdash;a blindness and madness scarcely finding a
+parallel in history. It was expected, too, that this anomalous social
+proceeding&mdash;this backward march of civilization on this continent&mdash;would
+excite no animadversion and arouse no antagonism in the opposite
+section. It involved the reopening of the slave trade, and it was
+expected that foreign nations would abate their opposition, lower their
+flags, and suffer the new empire, founded on 'the corner stone of
+slavery,' to march forward in triumph and achieve its splendid destiny.</p>
+
+<p>These moral and social ideas might have had greater scope to work out
+their natural results, had not the political connections between the
+North and the South implicated the two sections, alike, in the
+consequences of any error or folly on the part of either. Taxation and
+representation, and the surrender of fugitive slaves, all provided for
+in the Constitution, were the points in which the opposite polities came
+into contact in the ordinary workings of the Federal Government.
+Perpetual conflicts necessarily arose. But it was chiefly on the
+question of territorial extension, and in the formation of new States,
+that the most inveterate of all the contests were engendered. The
+constitutional provisions applicable to these questions are not without
+some obscurity, and this afforded a plausible opportunity for all the
+impracticable subtleties arising out of the doctrine of strict
+construction. From the time of the admission of Missouri, in 1820, down
+to the recent controversy about Kansas, the territorial question was
+unsettled, and never failed to be the cause of terrible agitation.</p>
+
+<p>But the march of events soon superseded the question; and even while the
+contest was fiercest and most bitter, the silent operation of general
+causes was sweeping away the whole ground of dispute. The growth of
+population in the Northern States was so unexampled, and so far exceeded
+that of the Southern States, that there could be no actual rivalry in
+the settlement of the territories. The latter already had more territory
+than they could possibly occupy and people. While the Northern
+population, swollen by European emigration, was taking possession of the
+new territories and filling them with industry and prosperity, slavery
+was repelling white emigration, and the South, from sheer want of men,
+was wholly unable to meet the competition. Yet, with most unreasonable
+clamors, intended only to arouse the passions of the ignorant, Southern
+statesmen insisted on establishing the law of slavery where they could
+not plant the institution itself. They finally demanded that slavery
+should be recognized everywhere within the national domain; and that the
+Federal power should be pledged for its protection, even against the
+votes of the majority of the people. This was nothing less than an
+attempt to check the growth of the country, by the exclusion of free
+States, when it was impossible to increase it by the addition of any
+others.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the failure of this monstrous demand, civil war was to be
+inaugurated! A power which had been relatively dwindling and diminishing
+from the beginning&mdash;which, in the very nature of things, could not
+maintain its equality in numbers and in constitutional weight&mdash;this
+minority demanded the control of the Government, in its growth, and in
+all its policy, and, in the event of refusal, threatened to rend and
+destroy it. Such pretensions could not have been made with sincerity.
+They were but the sinister means of exciting sectional enmities, and
+preparing for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_521" id="Page_521">[Pg 521]</a></span> final measures of the great conspiracy. Having
+discarded the rational and humane views of their own
+fathers&mdash;Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and others&mdash;it was but the
+natural sequel that they should signalize their degeneracy by aiming to
+overthrow the work in which those sages had embodied their generous
+ideas&mdash;the Constitution of the United States and the whole fabric of
+government resting upon it.</p>
+
+<p>In what manner these mischievous absurdities became acceptable to the
+Southern people&mdash;by what psychological miracle so great a transformation
+was accomplished in so short a time&mdash;is only to be explained by
+examining some of the delusions which blinded the authors of the
+rebellion, and enabled them to mislead the masses who confided too
+implicitly in the leadership of their masters.</p>
+
+<p>Weak as were the Southern people in point of numbers and political
+power, compared with those of the opposite section, the haughty
+slaveholders easily persuaded themselves and their dependents that they
+could successfully cope in arms with the Northern adversary, whom they
+affected to despise for his cowardly and mercenary disposition. Wealth,
+education, and ample leisure gave them the best opportunity for
+political studies and public employments. Long experience imparted skill
+in all the arts of government, and enabled them, by superior ability, to
+control the successive administrations at Washington. Proud and
+confident, they indulged the belief that their great political prestige
+would continue to serve them among their late party associates in the
+North, and that the counsels of the adversary would be distracted, and
+his power weakened, by the fatal effects of dissension. All warlike
+sentiment and capacity was believed to be extinct among the traders and
+manufacturers, 'the shopkeepers and pedlars,' of the Middle and Eastern
+States. Hence a vigorous attack in arms against the Federal Government
+was expected to be met with no energetic and effective resistance. A
+peaceable dissolution of the Union, and the impossibility of war&mdash;at
+least of any serious and prolonged hostilities&mdash;was a cardinal point in
+the teachings of the secessionists. The fraudulent as well as violent
+measures by which they sought to disarm the Federal Government and to
+forestall its action, were only adopted 'to make assurance doubly sure.'</p>
+
+<p>Beyond all doubt, the system of slavery encourages those habits and
+passions which make the soldier, and which instigate and maintain wars.
+The military spirit and that of slavery are congenial; for both belong
+to an early stage in the progress of civilization, when each is
+necessary to the support and continuance of the other. It was therefore
+to be expected that the Southern people would be better prepared for the
+organization, and also for the man&oelig;uvring of armies. But the mistake
+and the fatal delusion cherished by the conspirators, was the belief
+that the Northern people were without manly spirit, and incapable of
+being aroused by sentiments of patriotism. It was an equal
+miscalculation to anticipate that the fabric of Northern free society
+would fall to pieces, and be thrown into irremediable disorder, at the
+first appearance of civil commotion. This false idea was the offspring
+of the slave system, which boasted of the solidity of its own
+organization and the impossibility of its overthrow. From their
+standpoint, amid the darkness of a social organization, in which one
+half the population is not more than semi-civilized, the slaveholders
+could not easily obtain any other view. Long accustomed to wield
+irresponsible power as masters, enjoying wealth and independence from
+the unrewarded labor of the slave, but liberal and humane, condescending
+and indulgent, so long as the untutored black was quiet and obedient,
+the planter very naturally imagined his system to be the perfection of
+social order. In the atmosphere of luxurious ease which sur<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_522" id="Page_522">[Pg 522]</a></span>rounded him,
+were the elements of a mental mirage which distorted everything in his
+deceptive vision. He weighed the two systems, and found his own
+immeasurably more powerful than its antagonist. Fatal mistake! fatal but
+inevitable, in his condition, in the midst of the blinding refractions
+of the medium which enveloped him.</p>
+
+<p>Prosperity had made him giddy. Cotton was not merely King&mdash;it was God.
+Moral considerations were nothing. The sentiment of right, he argued,
+would have no influence over starving operatives; and England and
+France, as well as the Eastern States of the Union, would stand aghast
+and yield to the masterstroke which should deprive them of the material
+of their labor. Millions were dependent on it in all the great centres
+of civilization, and the ramifications of its power extended into all
+ranks of society and all departments of industry and commerce. It was
+only necessary to wave this imperial sceptre over the nations, and all
+of them would fall prostrate and acknowledge the supremacy of the power
+which wielded it. Nothing could be more plausible than this delusion.
+Satan himself, when about to wage war in heaven, could not have invented
+one better calculated to marshal his hosts and give promise of success
+in rebellion against the authority of the Most High. But alas! the
+supreme error of this anticipation lay in omitting from the calculation
+all power of principle. The right still has authority over the minds of
+men and in the counsels of nations. Factories may cease their din; men
+and women may be thrown out of employment; the marts of commerce may be
+silent and deserted; but truth and justice still command some respect
+among men, and God yet remains the object of their adoration.</p>
+
+<p>Drunk with power and dazzled with prosperity, monopolizing cotton, and
+raising it to the influence of a veritable fetich, the authors of the
+rebellion did not admit a doubt of the success of their attack on the
+Federal Government. They dreamed of perpetuating slavery, though all
+history shows the decline of the system as industry, commerce, and
+knowledge advance. The slaveholders proposed nothing less than to
+reverse the currents of humanity, and to make barbarism flourish in the
+bosom of civilization. They even thought of extending the system, by
+opening the slave trade and enlarging the boundaries of their projected
+empire, Mexico and Central America, Cuba and St. Domingo, with the whole
+West Indian group of islands, awaited the consolidation of their power,
+and stood ready to swell the glory of their triumph.</p>
+
+<p>But these enticing visions quickly faded away from their sight. At an
+early day after the inauguration of their government, they were
+compelled to disavow the design of reopening the slave trade, and in no
+event is it probable their recognition will be yielded by foreign
+governments, except on the basis of ultimate emancipation. How such a
+proposition will be received by their deluded followers, remains yet to
+be ascertained by an experiment which the authors of the rebellion will
+be slow to try among their people. One of the most effective appeals
+made to the non-slaveholders of the South, in order to start the
+revolution, was to their fears and prejudices against the threatened
+equality and competition of the emancipated negro. The immense influence
+of this appeal can scarcely be estimated by those not intimately
+acquainted with the social condition of the great mass of the Southern
+people. Among them, the distinction of color is maintained with the
+utmost rigor, and the barrier between the two races, social and
+political, is held to be impassable and eternal. The smallest taint of
+African blood in the veins of any man is esteemed a degradation from
+which he can never recover. Toward the negro, as an inferior, the white
+man is often affable and kind, cruelty being the exception, universally
+condemned and often punished;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_523" id="Page_523">[Pg 523]</a></span> but toward the black man as an equal, an
+implacable hostility is instantly arrayed. This intense and
+unconquerable prejudice, it is well known, is not confined wholly to the
+South; but it prevails there without dissent, and is, in fact, one of
+the fundamental principles of social organization.</p>
+
+<p>When, therefore, the leaders of the rebellion succeeded in persuading
+the Southern masses that the success of the Republican party would
+eventually liberate the slave and place him on an equality with the
+whites, an irresistible impulse was given to their cause. To the extent
+that this charge was credited was the rebellion consolidated and
+embittered. Had it been universally believed, there would have been few
+dissenting voices throughout the seceding States. All would have rushed
+headlong into the rebellion. And even now, every measure adopted on our
+part, in the field or in Congress, which can be distorted as looking to
+a similar end, must prove to be a strong stimulus in sustaining and
+invigorating the enemy. Happily, while the system of slavery naturally
+discourages education, and leaves the mass of whites comparatively
+uninformed, and peculiarly subject to be deceived and misled, there are
+yet many highly intelligent men among the non-slaveholders, and some
+liberal and unprejudiced ones among the slaveholders themselves. These
+serve to break the force of the appeals made to the ignorant, and they
+have had a powerful influence in maintaining the love of the Union and
+the true spirit of our institutions, among considerable numbers, in all
+parts of the South.</p>
+
+<p>From the foregoing views, it is plain, that only in a certain sense can
+slavery be pronounced the cause of the rebellion. It was not the first
+and original motive; neither is it the sole end of the conspirators. But
+in another sense, it may justly be considered the cause of the war; for
+without it, the war could never have taken place.</p>
+
+<p>There was no actual necessity to destroy the Union for the protection of
+slavery and for its continued existence. Construed in any rational sense
+likely to be adopted, the Constitution afforded ample security&mdash;far
+more, indeed, than could be found under a separate confederacy. This was
+evident to the leaders of the rebellion, though it was their policy to
+conceal the truth from the people, by the fierce passions artfully
+aroused in the beginning. Slavery could not have been perpetuated,
+because its permanence is against the decrees of nature. But it could
+have lived out a peaceful and perhaps a prosperous existence, gradually
+disappearing without convulsion or bloodshed. Discussion and agitation
+could not have been prevented, nor could the inevitable end have been
+averted. Yet the whole movement could well have been controlled and
+directed, by the adoption of wise and well-considered measures, not
+inconsistent with the natural laws governing the case, whose final
+operation it was wholly impossible to prevent.</p>
+
+<p>But this system of gradual amelioration, and peaceful development of
+ends that must come, did not satisfy the ambition of the conspirators.
+They saw their last opportunity for a successful rebellion, and they
+determined not to let it pass unimproved. The vast power of the slave
+interest; the passions easily to be excited by it; the encouraging
+delusions clustering around it; and the fearful apprehensions growing
+out of its darker aspects, all contributed to make it the very
+instrument for accomplishing the long-cherished design.</p>
+
+<p>Slavery has been the chief means of bringing about the rebellion. It is
+the lever, resting upon the fulcrum of State sovereignty, by which the
+conspirators have been able, temporarily, to force one section of the
+Union from its legitimate connections. Thus used for this unhallowed
+purpose, and become tainted with treason and crimsoned with the blood of
+slaughtered citizens, slavery necessarily subjects itself to all the
+fearful contingencies and responsibilities of the rebellion. Whether the
+confederate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_524" id="Page_524">[Pg 524]</a></span> cause shall succeed or fail, the slave institution, thus
+fatally involved in it, cannot long survive. In either event, its doom
+is fixed. Like one of those reptiles, which, in the supreme act of
+hostility, extinguish their own lives inflicting a mortal wound upon
+their victims, slavery, roused to the final paroxysm of its hate and
+rage, injects all its venom into the veins of the Union, exhausts itself
+in the effort, and inevitably dies.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="WORD-MURDER" id="WORD-MURDER"></a>WORD-MURDER.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The time has come when we must have an entirely new lot of
+superlatives&mdash;intensifiers of meaning&mdash;verifiers of
+earnestness&mdash;asserters of exactness, etc., etc. The old ones are as dead
+as herrings; killed off, too, as herrings are, by being taken from their
+natural element. What between passionate men and affected women, all the
+old stand-bys are used up, and the only practical question is, Where are
+the substitutes to come from? Who shall be trusted to invent them? Not
+the linguists: they would make them too long and slim. Not the mob: they
+would make them too short and stout.</p>
+
+<p>There are plenty of words made; but in these times they are all nouns,
+and what we want are adverbs&mdash;'words that qualify verbs, participles,
+adjectives, and other adverbs.' We could get along well enough with the
+old adjectives, badly as the superlative degree of some of them has been
+used. They are capable of being qualified when they become too weak&mdash;or,
+rather, when our taste becomes too strong&mdash;just as old ladies <i>qualify</i>
+their tea when they begin to find the old excitement insufficient. But
+even this must be done with reason, or we shall soon find with the new
+supply, as we are now finding with the old, that the bottle gives out
+before the tea-caddy. The whole language is sufficient, except in the
+<i>excessives</i>&mdash;the <i>ultimates</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Why use up the sublime to express the ridiculous? Why be only noticeable
+from the force of your language as compared with the feebleness of what
+you have to say? Why chain Pegasus to an ox cart, or make your
+Valenciennes lace into horse blankets? If the noble tools did the
+ignoble work any better, it might be some satisfaction; but cutting
+blocks with a razor is proverbially unprofitable, and a
+million-magnifying microscope does not help a bit to tell the time by
+the City Hall clock. And again: the beggar doth but make his mishaps the
+more conspicuous by climbing a tree, while the poor bird of paradise,
+when once fairly on the ground, must needs stay and die, being kept from
+rising into her more natural element by the very weight of her beauties.
+Like this last-named victim of misdirected ambition, poetical
+expressions, being once fairly reduced to the level of ordinary use, so
+that all feel at liberty to take them in vain, can never 'revocare
+gradem.'</p>
+
+<p>The elegant, however, is not so much of a loss, as the strong and
+serviceable part of the language;&mdash;which, so far, is like grain in a
+hopper, always being added to at the top, and ground away at the bottom.
+The good old unmistakable words seem to sink the faster from their
+greater specific gravity compared to the chaff that surrounds them; for
+example: <i>Indeed</i> used to be a fine and reliable word for impressing an
+assertion, but now it is almost discarded except as a sort of
+questioning expression of surprise, which might advantageously be
+shortened thus:?! Strictly interpreted, it denotes a lack of faith,
+suggesting a possible discrepancy between the words of the speaker and
+the deeds they relate to. It is but one step removed from the politeness
+of the Sligo Irishwomen, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_525" id="Page_525">[Pg 525]</a></span> say, 'You are a liar,' meaning exactly
+what an American lady does in saying 'You don't mean so!'</p>
+
+<p>I suppose it seemed as if the force of language could no further go,
+when men first said <i>really</i>. "What is more indisputable than reality?
+But it has come to be a sort of vulcanizer, to make plain English,
+irony. Nowadays, when a young lady adds, 'really,' one may know that she
+means to cast a doubt over the seriousness of what she says, or to
+moderate its significance. 'Really, sir, you must not talk so,' is the
+appropriate form for a tone of decided encouragement to continue your
+remarks&mdash;probably complimentary to herself, or the opposite to some
+friend. And so we might go on down, taking every word of the sort from
+the dictionary, and comparing its usefulness now, with that of the time
+when it had no ambiguity.</p>
+
+<p><i>Positively</i>, <i>seriously</i>, <i>perfectly</i>, and their synonymes, have been
+subtracted, one after another, from our list of absolute words,&mdash;Burked,
+carried off, and consumed, by people who, if they had each had the
+finishing off of one word, instead of each doing a part at the ruin of
+all, would deserve to have their names handed down to posterity in
+connection with the ruin they had wrought, as much as ever Erostratus or
+Martin did; the former, we all know, was he of whom it is said:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'The ambitious youth who fired th' Ephesian dome</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Outlives in fame the pious fool that reared it.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The latter, it is not so well known, did likewise by Yorkminster, for a
+similar purpose, and is now, as Mrs. Partington would say, 'Expatiating
+his offence' in a lunatic asylum. But their name is legion. How many a
+man, perhaps, 'father of a family, member of the church, and doing a
+snug business,' hears every day or two 'positively and without joking or
+exaggeration, the most perfectly absurd and ridiculous thing, he ever
+heard in all his born days!'</p>
+
+<p><i>Actually</i> was a nice word. We suffered a loss when it died, and it
+deserves this obituary notice. It was a pretty word to speak and to
+write, and there was a crisp exactness about its very sound that gave it
+meaning. <i>Requiescat in pace.</i> But last and most to be lamented, comes
+<i>literally</i>. I could be pathetic about that word. So classic&mdash;so
+perfect&mdash;it crystallized the asseveration honored with its assistance.
+And so early dead! Cut off untimely in the green freshness of its
+days&mdash;and I have not even the Homeric satisfaction of burying it! It
+still wanders in the shades of purgatory, <i>Vox et pr&aelig;terea nihil</i>; being
+bandied about from mouth to mouth of the profane vulgar. And not even by
+them alone is disrespect offered it, for the grave and practical Mr.
+Layard says somewhere in the account of his uncoveries, 'They
+<i>literally</i> bathed my shoes with their tears!' <i>Idem, sed quantum
+mutatus ab illo!</i> I am almost tempted to the ambiguous wish that he
+might have <i>slipped in literally</i> to one of the many graves he robbed
+figuratively.</p>
+
+<p>Now listen for a moment to Miss Giggley, who is telling of her
+temptation to laugh at some young unfortunate who thought he was making
+himself very agreeable. 'Really and truly, upon my word and honor, I
+positively thought I&mdash;should&mdash;die: as sure as I'm alive.' You pretty
+liar! You smiling murderess! You playful puss, gracefully toying with
+the victims your sweet mouth kills! Those expletives were like five
+strong men standing in a row, and you were like a bright,
+innocent-looking electric machine, with its transparent and clear-voiced
+cylinder, which is capable (give it only enough turnings) of making the
+men, at a shock, into five long, prostrate heaps of clay, lifeless,
+useless, and offensive, as are the expletives in question, by reason of
+a succession of just such shocking assaults as the untruth you this
+moment swore to.</p>
+
+<p>Anonymous writers, as a class, might be called the Boythorns of
+Literature. All of them, from Junius down, have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_526" id="Page_526">[Pg 526]</a></span> shown a great
+satisfaction in waving a tremendously sharp sword out from behind a
+fence. Sometimes the hand that has held the weapon was strong enough to
+have done good service wherever it might have been engaged, but always
+the wielding is a little more fearless than if the owner's face were
+visible, and usually it is the better for his cause that it was not. We
+all know what a <i>very</i> large cannon the monkey touched off, and how, if
+any one <i>had</i> been in the way, it might have hurt him very much. As when
+a traveller writes of a far country, he tries to make it seem worth all
+the trouble he took to go there, so a critic must find enough bad about
+a book to make his article on it important and interesting.</p>
+
+<p>These exaggerators&mdash;these <i>captatores</i> (and <i>occisores</i>)
+<i>verborum</i>&mdash;have no idea of the adaptation of means to ends. They are
+not deficient in forces&mdash;they have a powerful army, but no generalship.
+Horse, foot, and artillery; it's all vanguard. Right, left, and
+centre&mdash;but all vanguard. At the first glimpse, pioneers and scouts,
+rank and file, sappers and miners, sutlers and supernumeraries, all come
+thundering down like a thousand of brick, and gleaming in the purple and
+gold of imagery, to rout, disperse, and confound their obstacle; even if
+it's only a corporal's guard of one private!</p>
+
+<p>This <i>specialit&eacute;</i> in newspapers has occasionally been ridiculed, though
+not very well. Dickens's <i>Eatonsville Gazette</i> and <i>Independent</i> are
+perhaps the best caricatures; and they are a very good embodiment of a
+particular class of partisan provincial papers; but they are utterly
+inadequate to characterize the exaggeration that runs riot through the
+whole tribe of periodicals&mdash;and <i>amok</i> through the serried ranks of
+Anglo-Saxon words. See the <i>New York Rostrum</i>; daily, weekly, and
+semi-weekly. It is rampant! It suspects an abuse, and it ramps against
+it. It seizes an idea, and it ramps toward its development. All who are
+not with it are against it, and all who are against it are either fools
+or knaves. The <i>Rostrum</i> never chronicles railroad accidents. Oh, no! It
+only tells its readers of dastardly and cowardly outrages, committed by
+blood-thirsty fiends in the shape of presidents and directors against
+virtuous and estimable passengers, whole hecatombs of whom are
+assassinated to gratify the hideous appetite for carnage of the
+officials aforesaid; every one of whom, from the president to the
+water-boys, ought to suffer the extremest penalty of the law. It doesn't
+say that they ought to be hung. No! capital punishment was the most
+benighted characteristic of barbarism. It is a horrid atrocity to bring
+it down to the present day. Nobody ought to be subjected to it but the
+slimy reptiles who advocate its continuance.</p>
+
+<p>Not only does the <i>Rostrum</i> behave like a wild bull of Bashan when it is
+fairly under way, but it is a perfect rocket at starting. It makes haste
+to commit itself. It is continually entering into bonds to break the
+peace. Its principle is not unlike that of the Irishman in a row:
+'Wherever you see a head, hit it.' It deals around little doses of
+shillelah, just by way of experiment; and if the unlucky head does not
+happen to be that of an enemy, make it one; so it's all right again. It
+carries whole baskets of chips on its shoulders, knock one off who will.</p>
+
+<p>Forgive me, good <i>Rostrum</i>! I honestly believe thee to be the best paper
+in this world; and my morning breakfast and car ride would be as fasting
+and a pilgrimage, without thee! It takes all my philosophy and more than
+all my piety (besides the lying abed late, and the coffee, which we only
+have once a week) to dispense with thee on Sunday. No paper is so
+untrammelled as thou art, for thou hast no shackles but those thou
+thrustest thine own wrists into; and I prize thee more than a whole
+sheaf of thy compeers, who always try to decide safely by deciding last.
+Thou art prompt, brave, and straightforward.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_527" id="Page_527">[Pg 527]</a></span> In nine cases out of ten,
+when there are two cages open, thou dashest impetuously into the right
+one. Verily, thou art a little more headstrong than strong-headed, and a
+little less long-headed than headlong; but I say, rather let me be
+occasionally wrong with thee than always mean with some of thy rivals.
+But why be intemperate in thine advocacy of the nigger question, so
+overbearing in thine efforts for freedom of speech, or why enslave
+thyself in the cause of liberty? I could imagine a paper without even
+thy faults&mdash;and for this, I know full well that if thou notice me at
+all, it will be as a besotted and dangerous old fogy.</p>
+
+<p>To be sure, the <i>Rostrum</i> might be found guilty on other counts of the
+general crime of word-murder. It has done for the word <i>height</i> by
+spelling it <i>hight</i>, at the same time giving a supererogatory kick to
+the good old English participle (already deceased) of the latter
+orthography. And then, it is not always quite certain whether its events
+occurred or <i>transpired</i>! The misapplication of this last word is a
+shocking abuse of our defenceless mother tongue, and one I have not
+often seen publicly rebuked. It is not long since I saw the poor
+dissyllable in question evidently misapplied in the dedication of a
+book, and on Sunday, not long ago, I heard the pastor of one of the
+first churches in the city preach of the power directing the events
+which <i>transpire</i> in this world!</p>
+
+<p>There are two ways of getting public duties attended to; one of which is
+to advertise for proposals,&mdash;a very expensive way; and the other is to
+get up a public meeting or association, when all men think it an honor
+to be elected officers for the sake of seeing their names in the papers.
+Now this last way is the best, in so many respects that it shall be
+adopted without hesitation for our purposes. Let there be a new Humane
+Society established, principally for the prevention of cruelty to words,
+and let the chief officer of the society be so named as to suggest its
+chief office&mdash;that of 'moderator.' And let us hope that as words are the
+things in question, deeds will abound, as we so well know the truth of
+the reverse, that where deeds are to be looked for, words prevail
+amazingly. Outside of its primary beneficent purpose, it may make
+provision for charities incidental thereunto. It may appoint one
+committee for the prevention of cruelty to compositors, to examine the
+chirography of all MSS. about to be 'put in hand,' and, in any case it
+thinks necessary, return mercilessly the whole scrawled mass to the
+author to have t's crossed, i's dotted, a's and o's joined at the top,
+etc., etc. Another privileged three may be merciful to the authors
+themselves, by providing for the better reading of proofs, by examining
+and qualifying the readers thereof; a class in this country very
+deficient, and for a happy reason: namely, that we have not yet a
+multitude of literary men, very well educated and very poor, who can
+find nothing better to do. This last committee would find comparatively
+little occupation, when the previous one had become effective in <i>its</i>
+line.</p>
+
+<p>To what an illimitable enterprise does the vastness of our plans lead
+us! Long vistas open before our eyes, with fine prospects for patronage
+and the gift of many offices. It is at least equal in dignity and
+grandeur to the city government, and nothing prevents its becoming a
+vast scheme of corruption, except that it never can, by any possibility,
+possess a penny of revenue. Of course there should be a committee of
+repairs and supplies, and one of immigration, the latter to provide for
+the naturalization of foreign words and their proper treatment before
+they could take care of themselves; the former for furnishing a supply
+to meet the growing demand mentioned at the beginning of this article,
+and for patching up several of the most obvious imperfections we now
+suffer from. We want a word for <i>the opposite of a compliment</i>. Not that
+this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_528" id="Page_528">[Pg 528]</a></span> is as great a defect as the lack of the word <i>compliment</i> would be
+in these smooth-spoken times, but still the want is felt, and the
+feeling is shown by such awkward expedients as the expression 'a
+left-handed compliment.' Then, besides, they might give the seal of
+legitimacy to a fine lot of words and phrases, the need of which is
+shown by their being spontaneously invented, and universally adopted by
+the vulgar; but which are not classic, have never been written except in
+caricature, and are therefore inadmissible to the writings of us
+cowardly fellows who 'do' the current literature. For instance: the word
+<i>onto</i>, to bear the same relation to <i>on</i> and <i>upon</i>, that the word
+<i>into</i> does to <i>in</i> and <i>within</i>, has no synonyme, and if we had once
+adopted it, we should be surprised at our own self-denial in having had
+it so long in our ears without taking it for the use of our mouths and
+pens.</p>
+
+<p>The judiciary department should have full power to try <i>all</i> defilers of
+the well of English, be they these offenders we have been talking
+of&mdash;spendthrifts and drunkards in the use of its strong waters&mdash;or be
+they punsters, or be they the latest development of miscreants, the
+<i>transposers</i>. To the punsters shall be adjudged a perpetual strabismus,
+that they may look two ways at once, forever&mdash;always seeing double with
+their bodily eyes, as they have been in the habit of doing with their
+mental ones. Even so to the transposer. Let him be inverted, and hung by
+the heels till <i>healed</i> of his disorder.</p>
+
+<p>If this idea of an association is seized upon, I should be happy to
+suggest well-qualified persons for all the offices <i>except</i> the highest.
+The most appropriate incumbent for that, modesty forbids my mentioning.
+But the matter must not be let drop. Unless there can be some check put
+to the present extravagance, we shall all take to <i>swearing</i>, for I am
+sure that is the first step beyond it.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="STEWART_AND_THE_DRY_GOODS_TRADE_OF_NEW_YORK" id="STEWART_AND_THE_DRY_GOODS_TRADE_OF_NEW_YORK"></a>STEWART, AND THE DRY GOODS TRADE OF NEW YORK.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Those who have watched the growth of New York, have found a striking
+criterion of its gradual advance in the different aspects of the dry
+goods trade. We select this branch of business as a better illustration
+of the progress of our metropolis than any other, since in breadth, as
+well as in enterprise, it has always taken the lead. What grocer,
+hardwareman, druggist, or any other of the different tradesmen of the
+metropolis, ever wrought out of nothing the majestic structures or the
+enormous traffic which is represented by some of our dry goods concerns.</p>
+
+<p>Dry goods originally held their headquarters between Wall street and
+Coenties slip. In those days Front street for grocers, and Pearl for dry
+goods men, within the limits above mentioned, sufficed for all the
+demands of trade, and in many instances the jobber lived in the upper
+part of his store. The great fire of 1835 put an end to all that was
+left of these primitive manners, and the burnt district was in due time
+covered with new brick stores, of a style vastly superior to those of
+the past. At the same time the advance in the price of lots fully made
+up the loss of insurance on buildings which was inevitable from the
+universal bankruptcy of fire offices. As trade appeared to be firmly
+established in that section, a mammoth hotel was built near Coenties
+slip for the accommodation of country merchants, and was long famous as
+the 'Pearl Street House.' A jobbing concern at that day might be
+satisfied with the first floor and basement of a building twenty-five
+feet by sixty to eighty, in which a business of from one hundred
+thou<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_529" id="Page_529">[Pg 529]</a></span>sand to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars could be done. Such
+a business was then thought of respectable amount, and few exceeded it.</p>
+
+<p>The trade even at that early day was remarkable for its
+precariousness&mdash;and while a few made fortunes, whole ranks were swept
+away by occasional panics. In 1840, Hanover square was the dry goods
+emporium of New York, and there a few years earlier Eno &amp; Phelps
+commenced a thriving trade which grew into famous proportions. As an
+illustration of the risks of trade, we may mention that we know of no
+other concern engaged in that vicinity at that time which escaped
+eventual bankruptcy. Near Eno &amp; Phelps stood the granite establishment
+of Arthur Tappan &amp; Co., while lesser concerns were crowded in close
+proximity. The first disposition to abandon this section was shown by
+opening new stores in Cedar street, which soon became so popular as a
+jobbing resort that its rents quadrupled. The Cedar street jobbers would
+in the present day be considered mere Liliputians, since many of their
+stores measured less than eighteen by thirty feet. They were occupied by
+a class of active men, who bought of importers and sold to country
+dealers on the principle of the nimble sixpence. Of this class (now
+about extinct) a few built up large concerns, while others, after
+hopelessly contending year after year with adverse fortune, sunk
+eventually into bankruptcy, and may in some instances now be found in
+the ranks of clerkship. From Cedar street, trade moved to Liberty,
+Nassau, and John streets, while as these new emporiums prospered, Pearl
+street gradually lost its prestige, until the general hegira of trade in
+1848, which left that ancient mart deserted. The Pearl street hotel,
+which once was thronged by country dealers and city drummers, was then
+altered into a warehouse for storage, while the jobbing houses, where
+merchants were wont to congregate, fell into baser uses, and property
+sunk in value correspondingly.</p>
+
+<p>The 'hegira,' to which we have referred, led from the east to the north
+side of the town, and was so exacting in its demands, that at length no
+man could hope to sell goods except in the new locality. Meanwhile,
+property in Cortlandt, Dey, Vesey, and the neighboring streets, rose
+immensely, and old rookeries were replaced by elegant stores. The chief
+features in this improvement were increased size and enlarged room. L.O.
+Wilson &amp; Co. took the lead in this by opening a store extending through
+from Cortlandt to Dey street, whose spacious hall could have swallowed
+up a half dozen old fashioned Pearl street concerns.</p>
+
+<p>It was Mr. Wilson's ambition to break the bondage of antiquated habit,
+and inaugurate a revolution in trade. He had been a prominent Pearl
+street man, and had retired with a snug fortune, but had too active a
+mind to be satisfied with the quiet of retired life, and hence returned
+to trade with renewed energy. The new concern created a decided
+sensation, and for several years was successful, but we regret that we
+cannot record for it any other end than that which is the general fate
+of New York merchants. The movement which had now been inaugurated,
+continued with rapid progress until Barclay, Warren, Murray, and
+Chambers streets were transformed from quiet abodes of wealthy citizens
+to bustling avenues of trade. With this change the demand for size and
+ornament still continued, and was accompanied by enormous increase in
+rents. A newly-built Pearl street jobbing house in 1836 might be worth
+$1,500 per annum, while $3,000 was considered enormous; but now rents
+advanced to rates, which, compared with these, seemed fabulous. To meet
+these expenses, the consolidation of firms was resorted to, and the
+standard of a good year's trade extended from $250,000 to a million and
+upward.</p>
+
+<p>From 1848 to 1860 the principle of extension was in active operation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_530" id="Page_530">[Pg 530]</a></span>
+From Chambers street the work of renovation progressed upward, until
+even Canal street was invaded by jobbers, and until a space of a half
+mile square had been entirely torn down and rebuilt. Vast fortunes were
+made in the twinkling of an eye. A German grocer, who held a lease of
+the corner of Warren and Church streets, received $10,000 for two years
+of unexpired lease. The fellow found that the property was needed for
+the improvement of adjacent lots, and made a bold and successful strike
+for a premium. The church property, corner of Duane and Church streets,
+one hundred feet square, was sold for $28,000, and within a week resold
+to a builder for $48,000. The widening of streets now became popular,
+and a spot long famed for the degradation of its inhabitants, was thrown
+open to the activities of trade, and its rookeries replaced by marble
+palaces. What a transformation for Reade, Duane, Church, and Anthony
+streets, once synonymous with misery and crime, thus to become the
+splendid seats of trade!</p>
+
+<p>The growth of the dry goods trade had by 1860 assumed proportions which
+twenty years previously could not have entered into the wildest dreams.
+Indeed, had a prophet stood in Hanover square at that epoch, and
+portrayed the future, he would have been met with the charge of lunacy.
+$30,000 rent for a store was not more absurd than the idea that trade
+would ever wing its way to a neighborhood chiefly known through the
+police reports, and only visited by respectable people in the work of
+philanthropy. The enterprise of New York houses, in either following or
+leading this movement, is admirably illustrated, and as the merchants of
+New York are among her public men, we purpose a brief reference to a few
+leading houses. As it is nothing new to state that only three per cent.
+of our mercantile community are successful in making fortunes, the
+results of these examples need not surprise the reader.</p>
+
+<p>Among the chief concerns of nearly forty years' career, may be mentioned
+C.W. &amp; J.T. Moore &amp; Co., who began in a small way in Pearl street,
+followed the flood of trade to Broadway, and afterward took possession
+of the splendid store built by James E. Whiting, on the site of the
+Broadway theatre. Bowen &amp; McNamee commenced somewhere about 1840, having
+sprung from the bankrupt house of Arthur Tappan &amp; Co. Their first
+establishment was in Beaver street, whence they removed to a marble
+palace which they built in Broadway in 1850, having, in ten years,
+realized an enormous fortune in the silk trade. Encouraged by the
+success following this second movement, the firm sold their store at an
+enormous advance, and purchased the corner of Broadway and Pearl
+streets, thus indicating that trade had advanced a mile up town. The
+palatial store which they erected on this spot will long mark the
+climacteric point in mercantile architecture. It was supposed at the
+time of its erection to be the finest jobbing store in existence, and
+although since then both Mr. Astor and James E. Whiting have each put up
+a splendid marble establishment in Broadway, they have not surpassed the
+one we refer to. Messrs. Bowen &amp; McNamee were early identified with the
+progressive views of New England politics, which they maintained
+throughout their business career. At an early day a system of
+persecution was opened upon them by a portion of the New York press on
+the score of their anti-slavery sentiments, to which they replied by
+announcing that 'they had goods for sale, not opinions.' This bold
+expression became quite popular in its day, and did much to extend the
+business of the high-toned concern which proclaimed it, so that what was
+lost by prejudice was more than gained from legions of new friends,
+until, for a time, they reaped a golden harvest from a trade which
+ramified to all parts of the North, East, and West.</p>
+
+<p>Another famous concern which sustained a position diametrically
+opposite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_531" id="Page_531">[Pg 531]</a></span> to the one we have just mentioned, was that of Henrys, Smith &amp;
+Townsend. This house was for more than a quarter of a century
+distinguished in the dry goods line, but held a Southern trade, and its
+members were men of corresponding proclivities. Commencing in Hanover
+square, the firm had followed the drift of trade into Broadway, and had
+become immensely rich. Like Bowen &amp; McNamee (or Bowen, Holmes &amp; Co.,
+their later firm), they led in political, as well as in mercantile
+enterprise, and these two houses, like Calpe and Abyla, were for years
+set over against each other as the trade representatives of the Northern
+and Southern sentiment.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, whatever may have been their difference of opinion, we are well
+persuaded of the fact that both houses were composed of patriotic and
+high-minded men, who differed simply because their views were of an
+extreme character. We might record other distinguished firms, which like
+these arose to greatness from humble beginnings, and at last fell like
+them beneath the revulsion which preceded the present civil war; but
+these will serve as general illustrations.</p>
+
+<p>With this revulsion the glory of the great houses has passed away. The
+marble palaces which formerly rented for $20,000 to $50,000, either
+stand empty or are tenanted at a nominal rate; and the enormous traffic
+of millions annually, has sunk down to the proportions of primitive
+times. Those grand Broadway stores must hereafter be divided, for no one
+concern can fill them, and the dreams of merchant and of builder are
+alike exploded. The dry goods trade in New York is now under a process
+of change, and as the dispensation of high rents and broad floors, long
+credits and enormous sales, seems to be passing away, it is a question
+of no small interest what shape the trade will put on. We will not
+attempt to answer that question. We prefer to give a sketch of the man
+who has done the most to solve it&mdash;Mr. A. T. Stewart.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Stewart possesses one of the most truly executive minds in America.
+Indeed, as respects this feature, we doubt if any exception could be
+made to according him the very first position among our business men.
+Others may occasionally equal him in grasp of intellect, as in the
+instance of George Law, or Cornelius Vanderbilt; but, considered in the
+point of executive ability, we consider him unapproachable. He has long
+been chief among American dry goods dealers, and is known far and wide
+as the largest merchant (that is, buyer and seller) on this continent,
+and perhaps in the world. Yet there are thousands, including New Yorkers
+as well as country people, who have lost sight of Mr. Stewart's
+personality, and mention his name daily, and, perhaps, hourly, merely as
+the representative of a mammoth house of trade. The reason of this is
+obvious: hundreds and thousands have dealt year after year in that
+marble palace without ever beholding its proprietor. To such persons the
+name 'Stewart' has become merely a symbol, or, at most, a term of
+locality. To them he is a myth, with no personal entity. To their minds
+the term sets forth, instead of so many feet stature encased in
+broadcloth, with countenance, character, and voice like other men,
+merely a train of ideas, a marble front, plate glass, gorgeous drapery,
+legion of clerks, paradise of fashion, crowds of customers, and all the
+fascination of a day of shopping. 'Where did you get that love of a
+shawl?' asks Miss Matilda Namby Pamby of her friend Miss Araminta
+Vacuum. 'Why, at Stewart's, of course,' is the inevitable reply; 'and so
+cheap! only $250.' Now, to this pair of lady economists, what is
+'Stewart's' but a mere locality, as impersonal as Paris or Brussels, or
+any other mart of finery? We would correct this tendency to the unreal
+(which, by the way, is very natural), by stating that behind the mythic
+idea, there <i>is</i> a Stewart; not a mere locality, but a man&mdash;plain,
+earnest, and industrious&mdash;who, amid this army<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_532" id="Page_532">[Pg 532]</a></span> of clerks and bustle of
+external traffic, drives the secret machinery with wonderful precision.
+Purchasers at retail are the most liable to the symbolic idea, since
+they never behold the existing Stewart. They see hundreds of salesmen,
+some stout and some thin, some long and some short, some florid and some
+pale, moving about in broadcloth, with varied port of dignity and
+importance, who may look as if they would like to own a palace. Yet
+among these the proprietor will be sought in vain. But if one ascends to
+the second story, he will find himself in a new world. This is the
+wholesale establishment, and here Mr. Stewart appears as the presiding
+genius.</p>
+
+<p>As one enters this department he may observe, in a large office on the
+side of the house looking into Chambers street, the grandmaster of the
+mammoth establishment, sitting at the desk, and occupied by the pressing
+demands of so important a position. Here, from eight in the morning
+until a late dinner hour, he is engrossed by the schemes and plans of
+his active brain. He bears a calm and thoughtful appearance, and yet,
+such is his executive ability, that the burden which would crush others
+is borne by him with comparative ease. His aspect and manners are plain
+and simple to a remarkable degree, and a stranger would be surprised to
+acknowledge in that tall form and quiet countenance, the Autocrat of the
+Dry Goods Trade. This man did not achieve this position save by patient
+toil; his greatness was not 'thrust upon him.' It has arisen from forty
+years of close application to the branch of trade which he adopted in
+early life, and to which he has bent his rare powers of mind. Like most
+of our successful men, he began the world with no capital beside brains;
+and like Daniel Webster and Louis Philippe, his early employment was
+teaching. The instructor, however, was soon merged in the business man,
+and in 1827 his unpretending name was displayed in Broadway, The little
+concern in which he then was salesman, buyer, financier, and sole
+manager, has gradually increased in importance, until it has become the
+present marble palace. It is probable that much of his early prosperity
+was owing to a remarkably fine taste in the selection of dress goods;
+but the subsequent breadth of his operations and their splendid success
+may be ascribed to his love of order, and its influence upon his
+operations. Years of practice upon this idea have enabled him to reduce
+everything to a system. Beside this, he is a first-class judge of
+character, reads men and schemes at a glance, and continually exhibits a
+depth of penetration which astonishes all who witness it. Thus, although
+sitting alone in his office, he is apparently conscious of whatever is
+going on in all parts of his establishment. So completely is he <i>en
+rapport</i> with matters on the different floors, that the clerks sometimes
+imagine that there must be an invisible telegraph girdling the huge
+building. These men often say, by way of pleasant illustration of this
+fact, that if any one of them is absent, he is the very man to be first
+called for. From this it may be understood that it is not an easy matter
+to vary from the rigid system which holds its alternative of diligence
+or discharge over all beneath its control. We have referred to Mr.
+Stewart's habits of order as a means by which he controls his vast
+business with apparent ease. To explain this more explicitly, we may
+state that each department or branch of trade is under a distinct
+manager. These wholesale departments have been increased every year,
+until there is hardly an item in the comprehensive variety of the dry
+goods trade that is not here to be found. The advantage of this
+progressive movement was lately shown by the fact that, while Mr.
+Stewart lost enormous sums by Southern repudiation, he made up a large
+portion of the loss by the recent advance in domestics, a department
+which he had just added to his stock. The numerous failures which take
+place among New York business men give Mr. Stew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_533" id="Page_533">[Pg 533]</a></span>art the choice among
+them for his managers, and a representation of the finest business
+talent of the city can, at this moment, be found in his establishment.
+These men turn their energies into that mighty channel which flows into
+his treasury. Indeed, to this merchant prince, they are what his
+marshals were to Napoleon, and, like him, this Autocrat of Trade sits
+enthroned in the insulated majesty of mercantile greatness.</p>
+
+<p>It may be inferred that no man in the concern works harder than its
+owner, and we believe that this is acknowledged by all its employ&eacute;s. Day
+after day he wears the harness of silent and patient toil.</p>
+
+<p>It is not generally known that during these hours of application, and
+while engrossed in the management of his immense operations, no one is
+allowed to address him personally until his errand or business shall
+have been first laid before a subordinate. If it is of such a character
+that that gentleman can attend to it, it goes no farther, and hence it
+vests with him to communicate it to his principal. To illustrate this
+circumstance, we relate the following incident: A few weeks ago a person
+entered the wholesale department, with an air of great importance, and
+demanded to see the proprietor. That proprietor could very easily be
+seen, as he was sitting in his office, but the stranger was courteously
+met by the assistant, with the usual inquiry as to the nature of his
+business. The stranger, who was a Government man, bristled up and
+exclaimed, indignantly, 'Sir, I come from Mr. Lincoln, and shall tell my
+business to no one but Mr. Stewart.' 'Sir,' replied the inevitable Mr.
+Brown, 'if Mr. Lincoln himself were to come here, he would not see Mr.
+Stewart until he should have first told me his business.'</p>
+
+<p>The amount of annual sales made at this establishment is not known
+outside of the circle of managers, but may be variously estimated at
+from ten to thirty millions. This includes the retail department, whose
+daily trade varies, according to weather and season, from three thousand
+to twelve thousand dollars per day. To supply this vast demand for
+goods, Mr. Stewart has agencies in Paris, London, Manchester, Belfast,
+Lyons, and other European marts. Two of the above cities are the
+permanent residences of his partners; and while Mr. Fox represents the
+house in Manchester, Mr. Warton occupies the same position in Paris.
+These gentlemen are the only partners of the great house of A.T. Stewart
+&amp; Co.</p>
+
+<p>The marble block which the firm now occupies was built nearly twenty
+years ago. It had been the site of an old-fashioned hotel&mdash;which, like
+many others of its class, bore the name of 'Washington,' and which was
+eventually destroyed by fire. Mr. Stewart bought the plot at auction for
+less than $70,000, a sum which now would be considered beneath half its
+value. To this was subsequently added adjacent lots in Broadway, Reade
+and Chambers streets, and the present magnificent pile reared. To such
+of our readers as walk Broadway, we need not add any detail of its
+dimensions, nor mention what is now well known, that, large as it is, it
+is still too small for the increasing business. Hence another mercantile
+palace has been erected by Mr. Stewart in Broadway near Tenth street.
+This is intended for the retail trade, and is, no doubt, the most
+convenient, as well as the most splendid structure of the kind in the
+world. After the retail department shall have been thus removed up town
+the present store will be devoted to the wholesale trade.</p>
+
+<p>If any of our readers should inquire what impulse moves the energies of
+one whose circumstances might warrant a life of ease, we presume that
+the reply would be force of character and the strength of habit. Mr.
+Stewart has an empire in the world of merchandise which he can neither
+be expected to resign or abdicate. We cannot regret that law of
+centralization which builds up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_534" id="Page_534">[Pg 534]</a></span> one marble palace, where hundreds have
+failed utterly to make a living. Centralization of trade has its
+objections, and yet, upon the whole, there is, no doubt, a much
+healthier and happier condition prevailing among the parties connected
+with Mr. Stewart, than would be found among the struggling concerns (say
+fifty or more) whose place he has taken. Centralization is a law in
+trade whose movement crushes the weak by an inevitable step, while, by
+compelling them to take refuge beneath the protection of the strong it
+affords a better condition than the one from which they have been
+driven. To his early perception of this law Mr. Stewart largely owes his
+present colossal fortune.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="UNHEEDED_GROWTH" id="UNHEEDED_GROWTH"></a>UNHEEDED GROWTH.</h2>
+
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As on the top of Lebanon,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Slowly the Temple grew,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All unobserved, though every shaft</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">A giant shadow threw:</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Unheeded, though the golden pomp</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Of ponderous roof and spire,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wrought in the chambers of the earth,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Like subterranean fire:</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Until the huge translated pile,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">By brother kings upreared,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On Zion's hill, enthroned at last,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In silence reappeared.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So, not with observation comes</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">God's kingdom in the heart;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But like that Temple, silently,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With golden doors apart.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And all the Mighty Ones that watch,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With folded wings above,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trembling with awe, now stoop to earth,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">On messages of love.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Another Temple riseth fast,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Unbuilt of mortal hands,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Upheaving to the battle-blast</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Of Freedom's conquering bands!</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The bannered host&mdash;the darkened skies&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The thunderings all about,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Foreshadow but a Nation's birth,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Answering a Nation's shout!</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_535" id="Page_535">[Pg 535]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="RED_YELLOW_AND_BLUE" id="RED_YELLOW_AND_BLUE"></a>RED, YELLOW, AND BLUE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Alas for the old fashions! Wonder, incredulity, curiosity, and a crowd
+of primitive sensations, the whooping host that greeted, like misformed
+brutes on Circean shores, the steamboat and the telegraph, are passing
+away on a Lethean tide, and our mysteries are departing from among us.
+The intelligence which so long gazed wistfully upon the barred door of
+nature, or picked unsuccessfully at the bolts, with skeleton theories,
+and vague speculations, had learned to try the 'open sesame' of science.
+The master key is turning, the shafts yield, and already a dim glory
+shines through.</p>
+
+<p>While the strides of a positive philosophy are crippled by enthusiastic
+rhapsodies about intuition and instinct, her footsteps are still
+indelible, and her progress is certain and accelerating. Reason is
+written on her brow; she appeals to the universal gift, and denies the
+authoritative dictations of fallible genius, as much as a moral equality
+disallows the divine right of kings. Speculators among stars,
+speculators among sounds and colors, are the skirmishers in front of an
+intellectual post, whose tread reverberates but little in their rear.
+Accoutred with a few empiric facts and inductive minds, they aspire to
+beautiful and stable theories, whence they may descend, by deductive
+steps, accurate even to mathematical absoluteness, to the very arcana of
+what has been the inexplicable. To them the true, the beautiful, must be
+facts, defined, realized, and vigorously analyzed. Visible embodiments
+of an incomprehensible grace must be disintegrated, and the thinnest
+essences escape not the analytical rack whereon they confess the causal
+entity of their composition. 'Broad-browed genius' may toss his locks in
+the studio redolent of art; his eye may light, and his nervous fingers
+print the grand creation on the canvas. The divine afflatus is in his
+nostrils; it is his spirit, and his picture is the reflex of his soul.
+But keen-eyed Science lays a shadowy hand upon the 'holy coloring,' and
+says: 'Truly, the harmony is beautiful; it has pleased a sympathetic
+instinct from the first. Yet, from the first, my laws have been upon
+it&mdash;inexorable laws, which answer to the mind as instinct echoes to the
+soul.'</p>
+
+<p>The august simile of the philosopher, who likened the world to a vast
+animal, is appearing each day as too real for poetry. The ocean lungs
+pulse a gigantic breath at every tide, her continental limbs vibrate
+with light and electricity, her Cyclopean fires burn within, and her
+atmosphere, ever giving, ever receiving, subserves the stupendous
+equilibrium, and betrays the universal motion. Motion is material life;
+from the molecular quiverings in the crystal diamond, to the light
+vibrations of a meridian sun&mdash;from the half-smothered sound of a
+whispered love, to the whirl of the uttermost orb in space, there is
+life in moving matter, as perfect in particulars, and as magnificent in
+range, as the animation which swells the tiny lung of the polyp, or
+vitalizes the uncouth python floundering in the saurian slime of a
+half-cooled planet.</p>
+
+<p>When a polar continent heaves from the bosom of the deep, or when the
+inquiring eye rests upon the serrated rock, the antique victim of some
+drift-dispersing glacier, the mind perceives the effects and recognizes
+the existence of nature's omnipotent muscles, and their appalling power.</p>
+
+<p>But that adventurer who chases the chain of necessity to the sources of
+this grand instability, is merged at once in a haze of speculations,
+beautiful as sunlight through morning mists, but uncertain as the
+veriest chimeras. While beyond the idea of comprehensive motion the
+colossal symmetry of Truth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_536" id="Page_536">[Pg 536]</a></span> expands in ultimate outlines, her features
+are shrouded, but in such an attractive clare-obscure of inviting
+analogies and semi-satisfying glimpses, that the temptation to guess at
+the ideal face almost overpowers the desire to kiss the real and shining
+feet below. Unfortunately, there is the domain of the myths and
+immaterials, <i>there</i> is the home of the law and the force, <i>there</i> dwell
+the Odyles, the electricities, the magnetisms, and affinities, and there
+the speculative &AElig;neas pursues shadows more fleeting than the Stygian
+ghosts, and the grasp of the metaphysician closes on shapes whose
+embrace is vacancy. The bark that ploughs within this mystic expanse,
+sheds from its cleaving keel but coruscations of phosphorescent
+sparkles, which glimmer and quench in a gloom that Egyptian seers never
+penetrated, and modern guessers cannot conjecture through. There is,
+indeed, 'oak and triple brass' upon his breast who steeps his lips in
+the chalice of the Rosicrucian, and the doom of Prometheus is the fabled
+defeat which is waiting for the wanderer in those opaque spaces. While
+we warily, therefore, tread not upon the ground whose trespass brought
+the vulture of unfilled desire, the craving void for visionary lore upon
+the heaven-born, earth-punished speculator, we can still find flowery
+paths and full fruition, in meadows wherein the light of reason requires
+no support from the <i>ignes fatui</i> of imagination; meadows after all so
+broad, that did not metaphysics 'teach man his tether,' they would seem
+illimitable. The book of nature is not spread before us, turning leaf
+after leaf at every sunrise, with new delineations on every page, to be
+stared at with vacant inanity, or criticized with imbecile verbosity.
+The rivulet does not tinkle and the sky does not look blue that people
+may feed the ear alone with the one, or satisfy the eye alone with the
+other; the nerves which carry the sensation to the brain, flutter with
+the news, and knock at the house of mind for explanation. We do not
+anticipate being hurried into any extravaganza about the rural felicity
+of green trees, clinking cowbells, cane chairs, and cigars, when we
+recall to the trainer of surburban vines the harmony, the analogy, the
+relationship, which he must have observed between sounds and colors in
+nature's album of melodies.</p>
+
+<p>When, at evening, the zenith blue melts away toward the horizon in
+dreamy violet, and the retreating sun leaves limber shafts of orange
+light, like Parthian arrows, among the green branches of the elms, what
+sounds can charm the ear like the soft chirrup of the cricket, the
+homely drone of the hive-seeking bee, and the cool rustle of the breeze
+through the tops of the spring-sodden water grasses? How fondly the mind
+blends the evening colors and the incipient voices of the night! 'Oh,'
+says the metaphysician, 'this is association: just so a strain of music
+reminds you of a fine passage in a book you have read, or a beautiful
+tone in a picture you have seen; just so the Ranz des Vaches bears the
+exile to the timber house, with shady leaves, corbelled and
+strut-supported, whose very weakness appeals to the avalanche that
+shakes an icicly beard in monition from the impeding crags.'</p>
+
+<p>Well, let association play her part in some cases; when a habit has
+necessitated the recurrence of two distinct ideas together, they will
+certainly be associated at times when the habit is gone; but suppose the
+analogy is felt when the ideas have never before been in juxtaposition,
+or when there has even been no sensation at all to generate one of the
+notions. How, for instance, did the sightless imaginer ever conceive
+that red must be like the sound of the trumpet? Simply because the
+analogy between color and music is deeper than the idea of either, more
+absolute than association could make it; because certain tints are
+calculated to produce exactly similar impressions on the eye that
+certain sounds do upon the ear; or, to use a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_537" id="Page_537">[Pg 537]</a></span> mathematical turn of
+expression, because some color [Greek: x] is to the eye as some sound
+[Greek: x] is to the ear.</p>
+
+<p>That this mathematical turn of expression is no vagary, but perfectly
+germane to the subject, and accurate in application, we propose to prove
+to those who love coincidences and analogies sufficiently to fish them
+out of a little dilute science.</p>
+
+<p>Light and sound are the daughters of motion. Color and music, the
+ethereal and a&euml;rial offspring of this ancestry, born with the world,
+fostered in Biblical times, expanded in China and Egypt, living on the
+painted jar, and breathing in the oaten reed, deified in Greece, and
+analyzed to-day, are natural cousins at the least, and they have come
+from the spacious home of their progenitor, upon our dusky and silent
+sphere, like Peace and Goodwill, with hands bound in an oath and
+contract never to part. We will spare a dissertation on chaos; we will
+not speak of matter and inertia; but as our greatest and purest fountain
+of light is the sun, we may be allowed a modest exposition of his
+philosophical state, as a granite gate to the garden beyond. Ninety-five
+millions of miles to the north, east, south, or west of us, up or down,
+as the case may be, stands the molten centre of our system&mdash;an orb,
+whose atoms, turbulent with electricity, gravity, or whatever mechanists
+please to call the attraction of particle for particle, are forever
+urging to its centre, forever meeting with repulsions when they slide
+within the forbidden limits of molecular exclusiveness, and eternally
+vibrating with a quake and quiver which lights and heats the worlds
+around. In other words, this agitation is one that, transmitted to an
+ethereal medium, produces therein corresponding vibrations or waves,
+which are light and heat.</p>
+
+<p>As sound is the symmetrical a&euml;rial motion, if our atmosphere embraced
+our sun, and extended throughout space, we should <i>perhaps</i> hear in the
+ambient the fundamental chord, resolvable into the diatonic scale&mdash;as we
+look upon the beam of white which the prism decomposes into the solar
+spectrum, and in the ghostly watches of the night, we might recognize
+the 'music of the spheres' as the planets rushed around their airy
+orbits, with a noise like the 'noise of many waters,' no longer a poetic
+illusion, but a harmonic fact.</p>
+
+<p>Light, whether white or colored, is transmitted through ether in waves
+of measurable length: each atom of the medium, when disturbed, moves
+around its place of rest in an orbit of variable dimension and
+eccentricity. On the character of the orbit depends the character of the
+light; and on the velocity of orbit motion, its intensity. Like the
+gentle pulsations which circle from the point where fell the pebble in
+the purple lake, come the grateful twilight waves, red with the last
+kiss of day; like the fierce struggles of the storm-beaten ocean floods
+come the lightning waves, blazing through the thunder clouds, howling in
+riven agony: so great is the variety of character in these orbicular
+disturbances, which, acting upon the optic nerves, produce the sensation
+of multiform light and color.</p>
+
+<p>Waves of light, like waves of sound, are of different lengths, and while
+the eye prefers some single waves to others, it recognizes a harmony in
+certain combinations, which it cannot discover in different ones.</p>
+
+<p>While, however, the constitution of individual eyes acknowledges one
+color more pleasing than another, there is none, perhaps, which does not
+prefer the coldest monochromatic to entire absence of color, as in blank
+white, or to an absolute vacancy of light, as in black.</p>
+
+<p>Sepia pieces are more agreeable than the neatest drawings in China ink,
+or the most graceful curves done in chalk upon a blackboard. But however
+the eye may admire a severe and simple unity, it relishes still more a
+harmonious complexity; and a very mediocre little <i>pens&eacute;e</i> in water
+colors, will prove more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_538" id="Page_538">[Pg 538]</a></span> generally attractive than the monochromatic
+copies in the Liber Veritatis.</p>
+
+<p>But to this complexity there must be limits&mdash;an endless and incongruous
+variety teases and revolts; the discordant effect of innumerable tints,
+among which some are sure to be uncongenial to each other, is always
+extremely irritating. There ought, then, to be a scale of color, it
+would seem, within whose limits the purest harmonies are to be found,
+and beyond which subdivisions should be no more allowed than in constant
+musical notes. When this idea strikes, as it must have, many artists,
+reason, consideration, instinct, and all, refer at once to the solar
+spectrum as such an one. The analogy between this scale, which governs
+the chromatics of the sunset and thunderstorm, and that which the
+science of man has established, empirically, for harmonies, is
+remarkable, and we shall try to make it patent. They are both scales of
+seven: the tonic, mediant, and dominant, find their types in red,
+yellow, and blue, while the modifications on which the diatonic scale is
+constructed, resemble, numerically and esthetically, the well-known
+variations in the spectrum.</p>
+
+<p>The theory of harmonies in optics is the same as in acoustics, the same
+as in everything&mdash;it is based on simplicity. Those colors, like those
+notes, the number of whose vibrations or waves in the same time bear
+some simple ratio to each other, are harmonious; an absolute equality
+produces unison; and a group of harmonies is melody both in music and in
+color. At this point we cannot but hint at the analogy already
+discovered between the elements of music and the elements of form.
+Angles harmonize in simple analysis, or intricate synthesis, whose
+circular ratios are simple.</p>
+
+<p>Numerical proportions are the roots of that shaft of harmony which,
+springing from motion, rises and spreads into the nature around us,
+which the senses appreciate, the spirit feels, and the reason
+understands. Beauty is order, and the infinity of the law is testified
+in the ever-swelling proofs of an unlimited consonance in creation, of
+which these analogies are the smallest types. But the idea of numerical
+analogy is not new to our age, now that the atomic theory is
+established, and people are turned back to the days when the much
+bescouted alchemist pored with rheumy eyes over the crucible, about to
+be the tomb of elective affinity, and whence a golden angel was to
+develop from a leaden saint: when they are reminded of the Pythagorean
+numbers, and the arithmetic of the realists of old, they may very well
+imagine that the vain world, like an empty fashion, has cycled around to
+some primitive phase, and look for the door of that academy 'where none
+could enter but those who understood geometry.'</p>
+
+<p>But to return. When the ear accepts a tone, or the eye a single color,
+it is noticed that these organs, satiated finally with the sterile
+simplicity, echo, as it were, in a soliloquizing manner, to themselves,
+other notes or tints, which are the complementary or harmony-completing
+ones: so that if nature does not at once present a satisfaction, the
+organization of the senses allows them internal resources whereon to
+retreat. 'There is a world without, and a world within,' which may be
+called complementary worlds. But nature is ever liberal, and her chords
+are generally harmonies, or exquisite modifications of concord. The
+chord of the tonic, in music, is the primal type of this harmony in
+sound; it is perfectly satisfactory to the tympanum; and the ear,
+knowing no further elements (for the tonic chord combines them all), can
+ask for nothing more.</p>
+
+<p>This chord, constructed on the tonic C, or Do, as a key note, and
+consisting of the 1st, 3d, and 5th of the diatonic scale, or Do, Mi,
+Sol, is called the fundamental chord. The harmony in color which
+corresponds to this, and leaves nothing for the eye to desire, is, of
+course, the light that nature is full of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_539" id="Page_539">[Pg 539]</a></span>&mdash;sunlight. White light is then
+the fundamental chord of color, and it is constructed on the red as the
+tonic, consisting of red, yellow, and blue, the 1st, 3d, and 5th of the
+solar spectrum.</p>
+
+<p>This little analogy is suggestive, but its development is striking.</p>
+
+<p>The diatonic scale in music, determined by calculation and actual
+experiment on vibrating chords, stands as follows. It will be easily
+understood by musicians, and its discussion appears in most treatises on
+acoustics:</p>
+
+
+
+<div class='centered'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="65%" cellspacing="0" summary="The diatonic scale in music, determined by calculation and actual
+experiment on vibrating chords, stands as follows">
+<tr><td align='left'>Do</td><td align='left'>Re</td><td align='left'>Mi</td><td align='left'>Fa</td><td align='left'>Sol</td><td align='left'>La</td><td align='left'>Ti</td><td align='left'>Do</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>C,</td><td align='left'>D,</td><td align='left'>E,</td><td align='left'>F,</td><td align='left'>G,</td><td align='left'>A,</td><td align='left'>B,</td><td align='left'>C,</td><td align='left'>&amp;c.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>9/8</td><td align='left'>5/4</td><td align='left'>4/3</td><td align='left'>3/2</td><td align='left'>5/3</td><td align='left'>15/8</td><td align='left'>2.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>The intervals, or relative pitches of the notes to the tonic C, appear
+expressed in the fractions, which are determined by assuming the wave
+length or amount of vibration of C as unity, and finding the ratio of
+the wave length of any other note to it. The value of an interval is
+therefore found by dividing the wave length of the graver by that of the
+acuter note, or the number of vibrations of the acuter in a given time
+by the corresponding number of the graver. These fractions, it is seen,
+comprise the simplest ratios between the whole numbers 1 and 2, so that
+in this scale are the simple and satisfactory elements of harmony in
+music, and everybody knows that it is used as such. Now nature exposes
+to us a scale of color to which we have adverted; it is thus:</p>
+
+<p class='center'>
+Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.
+</p>
+
+<p>Let us investigate this, and see if her science is as good as mortal
+penetration; let us see if she too has hit upon the simplest fractions
+between 1 and 2, for a scale of 7. We can determine the relative pitch
+of any member of this scale to another, easily, as the wave lengths of
+all are known from experiment.</p>
+
+<p>The waves of red are the longest; it corresponds, then, to the tonic.
+Let us assume it as unity, and deduce the pitch of orange by dividing
+the first by the second.</p>
+
+<p>The length of a red wave is 0.0000266 inches; the length of an orange
+wave is 0.0000240 inches; the fraction required then is 266/240;
+dividing both members of this expression by 30, it reduces to 9/8,
+almost exactly. This is encouraging. We find a remarkable coincidence in
+ratio, and in elements which occupy the same place on the corresponding
+scales. Again, the length of a yellow wave is 0.0000227 inches; its
+pitch on the scale is therefore 266/227; dividing both terms by 55, the
+reduced fraction approximates to 5/4 with great accuracy, when we
+consider the deviations from truth liable to occur in the delicate
+measurements necessary to determine the length of a light vibration, or
+the amount of quiver in a tense cord. A green wave is 0.0000211 inches
+in length; its pitch is then 266/211, which reduced, becomes 4/3; in
+like manner the subsequent intervals may be determined, which all prove
+to be complete analogues, except, perhaps, violet, whose fraction is
+266/167, which reduces nearer 16/9 than 15/8. But these small
+discrepancies, which might be expected in the results of physical
+measurements, do not cripple the analogy which appears now in the two
+following scales:</p>
+
+
+<h4>DIATONIC OR NATURAL SCALE OF MUSIC.</h4>
+
+
+<div class='centered'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="65%" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>C,</td><td align='left'>D,</td><td align='left'>E&acute;,</td><td align='left'>F,</td><td align='left'>G,</td><td align='left'>A,</td><td align='left'>B,</td><td align='left'>C&acute;</td><td align='left'>D&acute;</td><td align='left'>E&acute;,</td><td align='left'>&amp;c.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>9/8</td><td align='left'>5/4</td><td align='left'>4/3</td><td align='left'>3/2</td><td align='left'>5/3</td><td align='left'>15/8</td><td align='left'>2</td><td align='left'>18/8</td><td align='left'>10/4</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<h4>DIATONIC OR NATURAL SCALE OF COLOR.</h4>
+
+
+<div class='centered'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="65%" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>Red,</td><td align='left'>Orange,</td><td align='left'>Yellow,</td><td align='left'>Green,</td><td align='left'>Blue,</td><td align='left'>Indigo,</td><td align='left'>Violet.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>9/8</td><td align='left'>5/4</td><td align='left'>4/3</td><td align='left'>3/2</td><td align='left'>5/3</td><td align='left'>16/9</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>Thus orange is to red what D is to C; and to resume the proportion we
+used before, red is to eye as C is to ear; yellow: eye: Mi: ear; and so
+on the proportion extends, till the analogy embraces chords, harmonies,
+melodies, and compositions even.</p>
+
+<p>We have already mentioned the chord of the tonic, and the corresponding
+eye-music, red, yellow, and blue; let us con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_540" id="Page_540">[Pg 540]</a></span>sider the chord of the
+dominant or 5th note, whose analogue is blue. This chord is constructed
+on the 5th of the diatonic as a fundamental note, and consists of the
+5th, 7th, and 9th, or returning the 9th an octave, the 5th, 7th, and 2d.
+The parallel harmony among the spectral colors is blue, violet, and
+orange. The name 'dominant' indicates the nature of this chord; its
+often recurring importance in harmonic combinations of a certain key
+make it easily recognized, and it is even more pleasing than the tonic
+in its subdued character.</p>
+
+<p>Out of doors this chord is pre&euml;minent in the sunset key, and the western
+skies ever chant their evening hymn in the 5th, 7th, and 2d of the
+ethereal music. The correspondence of the sub-dominant would be red,
+green, and indigo; of the chord of the 6th, red, yellow, and indigo; and
+so on, the curious mind may elicit the symmetrical to any notes, half
+notes, or combinations of notes. It is evident that as a note may be
+interpolated between any two of the scale, for reach or variety, and
+called, <i>e.g.</i> <span class="hover" title="[F sharp]">&#9839;F</span> or <span class="hover" title="[G flat]">&#9837;G</span>, so a half tint between
+green and blue is a kind of analogical
+<span class="hover" title="[sharp]">&#9839;</span>&nbsp;green or <span class="hover" title="[flat]">&#9837;</span>&nbsp;blue.</p>
+
+<p>It seems to us that the elementary angles which Mr. Hay conceives to be
+the tonic, mediant, and dominant, in formal symmetry, will soon be
+proved to decompose into a scale of linear harmony, forming another beam
+in this glory of natural analogy. These angles are the fundamental ones
+of the pentagon square, and equilateral triangle&mdash;respectively 108&deg;,
+90&deg;, and 60&deg;. Some such scale it is known existed when art was at its
+culmination in buried Greece, and it was less the stupendous genius of
+her designers than the soul of the universe which their rules taught
+them how to infuse into form, which rendered the marbles of Hellas
+synonymes for immortality.</p>
+
+<p>The most beautiful and conclusive, and yet most mysterious sign, that
+points the seeker to the prosecution of this last analogy, remains yet
+for us to remark, and for some investigator yet to take advantage of. It
+is the nodal figures which arrange themselves upon an elastic plate (as
+of glass), when it is made to vibrate (strewed with sand) by a fiddle
+bow drawn across its edge, so as to produce a pitch of some intensity.
+These have been investigated, and found subject to certain laws, which
+link into the chain of symmetry that philosophers have already grasped.
+Among these figures, of which the simplest arise from the deepest
+pitches, the angles mentioned occur.</p>
+
+<p>But however interesting it might be to follow out these episodical
+instances, they would lead us too far from our original compass.</p>
+
+<p>We have plainly exhibited the identity of principle which governs the
+bases of sound and color, and might fairly write Q.E.D. to our
+proposition; but the fact so determined has a farther bearing upon art,
+which it may not be out of place to enlarge upon.</p>
+
+<p>The painter's palette, charged with color, is the instrument with which
+he thrills a melody to the eye, even as the magniloquent organ or the
+sigh-breathing flute speak to the ear. And just as the compass of all
+instruments is constructed on the diatonic scale, so should the range of
+the palette depend upon the tinges of the spectrum.</p>
+
+<p>While artists of a certain school pretend to imitate Nature, who paints
+literally with a pencil dipped in rainbow, they make use of a
+complication of tints, at which their goddess would shudder. In mixing
+and mixing on the groaning palette, they generate an unhappy brood of
+misformed tones, which never can agree upon the canvas; while the
+pigments, impure at best, become doubly so by amalgamation, the
+ramifications of contrast which such differences superinduce are sure to
+prove sometimes repulsive.</p>
+
+<p>Contrast is nature's charm, the bubbling source that she exhausts for
+her prettiest harmonies and varieties.</p>
+
+<p>But earthen pitchers are easily broken<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_541" id="Page_541">[Pg 541]</a></span> at the brink, and if the
+slippery streams thence flowing are not judiciously checked, they merge
+into a harsh flood that sweeps away all grace, like the magic fountain
+in the German myth, whose fairy tricklings, uncovered for a single
+night, burst into a curbless flood, that drowned the sleeping landscape
+ere the dawn. The small reactions of contrast in infinitesimal tints,
+are perhaps neglected or unforeseen, but their influence is fearfully
+apparent in the end.</p>
+
+<p>The simplicity of beauty is very limited, and he who dabbles in infinite
+decompositions of color will be certain to encounter turbid and
+unnatural tones, whose ultimate result will be an inharmonious and
+disunited whole.</p>
+
+<p>It is true that in the landscape, and cloudscape, and waterscape, there
+are wonderful extremes of chromatic gradation, for it is the hand and
+mind of nature that adorns herself; she can see unerringly, and lay on
+divinely, the remotest intricacies of shade, and her colors are pure
+light, swimming in ether.</p>
+
+<p>But these media do not come bottled up in tin tubes, and to this gift a
+mortal hand ought not to presume. It might as well aspire to draw
+infinitely as to tint infinitesimally; for before it can find use for
+all the colors in nature, it ought to have all nature upon the canvas.
+But finally, we hold that reproductive art is as much part and parcel of
+human nature as the appreciative, or sensation of beauty; and that any
+one can learn to copy and color a landscape or design, as well as to
+perform upon a musical instrument. Let genius still wield the creative
+wand, but in the wide domain of art, over his grotto alone be it
+written, <i>Procul o procul este profani</i>.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="ONE_OF_THE_MILLION" id="ONE_OF_THE_MILLION"></a>ONE OF THE MILLION.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Shoemaker Scheffer opened his shop within sight of the college
+buildings, and expected to live by trade. He was young and skilful,
+obliging, and prompt, and acquired, ere long, a substantial reputation.
+Prosperity did not mislead him; he applied his income to the furtherance
+of his business, abhorred debt, squandered nothing, was exact and
+persevering.</p>
+
+<p>At work early and late, he seemed the model of contentment, as he was of
+industry. Prompt, obliging, careful, he made the future easy of
+prediction.</p>
+
+<p>But though the ruddy firelight shines well on the window panes, what
+griefs, what agonies, what discords, are developed around the
+hearthstone. Scheffer's quiet demeanor was, in some degree, deception.
+One woman in the world knew it was so&mdash;no other being did.</p>
+
+<p>The immediate excitant of his unrest was found in the college students,
+who passed his place of business at all hours of the day. He remembered
+that he might have worked his way into the ranks of those fellows.
+Nothing vexed him so much as to see a lounger among them; for he must
+needs think of the time when, a stripling, he agonized over his choice,
+and said to himself, thinking of his mother (dead now, when the comfort
+he toiled for was secured), 'Time enough for books when I am sure of
+bread; flesh is needy and perishing, spirit is eternal.' He had walked
+out of school to the counter of his uncle, and stood behind it seven
+years, doing with earnest might what his hand found to do.</p>
+
+<p>And here he was now, on his own ground, wistfully looking over his
+bar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_542" id="Page_542">[Pg 542]</a></span>riers into the college yard, and, shall we say it, envying the
+career of every studious lad&mdash;most of all that of the scholarly Harry
+Cromwell, and the broad-browed, proud young Mitchell, who came into his
+shop now and then, in remembrance of old days; for these lads could all
+remember when they stood in one straight line among the social forces,
+and neither had marched out of the old division to take rank in the new.</p>
+
+<p>One day Paul Mitchell strolled into Scheffer's shop. Scheffer, at the
+moment, was reading a newspaper, and he did not instantly throw the
+sheet aside: he thought it unlikely that Paul required his service. But
+at last, laying the paper away, and going up to Mitchell, he asked:</p>
+
+<p>'What will you have, this morning?'</p>
+
+<p>Paul's bright eyes smiled, full of fun.</p>
+
+<p>'I'll have fifty thousand dollars, straight, and a library like that in
+the Atheneum.'</p>
+
+<p>'You want shoeing more,' was Scheffer's dry response; and, turning from
+the youth, he went back to his counter, and emptied thereon a large box
+of patent leathers, which he began to assort.</p>
+
+<p>Gradually Paul approached, and at last he took up a pair of the boots,
+and asked the price. Scheffer named it; Paul threw them down again.</p>
+
+<p>'You might as well ask fifty dollars as three. It's you fellows who have
+all the money.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you think so?' answered Scheffer; and he began to collect his goods
+again, and to pack them in separate boxes. He was careful, however, to
+throw aside the pair that had tempted Mitchell to confess a truth.</p>
+
+<p>At last, when the counter was cleared, he took the boots, and said to
+the boy, pointing to one of the sofas:</p>
+
+<p>'Sit down there, my man.'</p>
+
+<p>Paul did as bidden. Scheffer untied his shoestring, drew off the dusty,
+worn-out shoe, and tried the pair in his hand. The fit was perfect.</p>
+
+<p>Then Scheffer looked up, and, without rising, asked:</p>
+
+<p>'How long have you to study before you graduate?'</p>
+
+<p>'Five years.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why do you speak in that way?'</p>
+
+<p>'How did I speak?' asked Paul.</p>
+
+<p>'Discouraged like.'</p>
+
+<p>'You're mistaken.'</p>
+
+<p>'Am I? Then why look so solemn? I'd like your chance.'</p>
+
+<p>'You would!' exclaimed Paul, incredulous. 'Why, you had such a chance
+yourself once, and you didn't accept it, if they know the facts at
+home.'</p>
+
+<p>Scheffer stood up.</p>
+
+<p>'Who says that?' he asked, quietly. Still, the question had a hurried
+sound to Paul. '<i>Did</i> any one in that house remember!'</p>
+
+<p>'Josephine told me so. She thinks you made a wise choice. So do I. I
+wish I was as well off as you are, doing something for a support. And it
+was on account of your mother you made the choice! But my mother insists
+on my having a profession. Stuff! But nobody seems satisfied. That's one
+kind of consolation.'</p>
+
+<p>Scheffer was silent for a moment. Half of Paul's words were unheard; but
+enough had struck through sense to spirit, and he said:</p>
+
+<p>'Do you want to be shod for the next five years? I'll strike a bargain
+with you, Paul.'</p>
+
+<p>'What can I do for you?' asked the astonished lad.</p>
+
+<p>'I'll tell you, and if you don't like it, why, no matter&mdash;that's all.'
+And Scheffer added, in an earnest tone: 'I don't know but it's living
+near the college, hearing the bell ring, and seeing the fellows with
+their books, has bewitched me; any way, I'm thinking I must have an
+education, and I wish to get it systematically. I always thought I could
+have it when I chose; but if I don't bestir myself, I shall not be able
+to choose much longer.'</p>
+
+<p>August wiped his forehead as he spoke; but he had said it. Gravely,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_543" id="Page_543">[Pg 543]</a></span>
+anxiously he looked at Paul. He could have forgiven him even a smile.
+But Paul did not smile. Neither did he hesitate too long to rob his
+words of grace.</p>
+
+<p>'What will you study?' he asked.</p>
+
+<p>'Whatever you set me at.'</p>
+
+<p>'Latin?'</p>
+
+<p>'They say a fool is not a perfect fool till he has studied Latin. No, I
+thank you. Five years, did you say?'</p>
+
+<p>'Five years,' repeated Paul, this time without sighing.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, get the books I need. You know what they are. Bring the bill to
+me. Have it made out in your name, though, I'll settle the account.
+Mum's the word, Paul. I won't have snobs laughing at the learned
+shoemaker. The secret is mine.'</p>
+
+<p>Paul promised. Scheffer thereupon picked up the student's worn-out
+shoes, and tossed them into a distant heap of rubbish, and the lad went
+on his way rejoicing. He was a widow's son, and poor; and to be shod as
+a gentleman should be was a serious matter to him.</p>
+
+
+<h4>II.</h4>
+
+<p>But, as to the secret, there was Josephine, who shared the family burden
+of poverty and pride; Josephine, who was a beauty, and not spoiled at
+that, but light of heart and cheerful, disposed to make the best of
+things; laughing lightly over mishaps which made her mother weep;
+Josephine, of whose fair womanhood as much was hoped in a worldly way as
+of Paul's talents; Josephine, to whom Paul told everything: how could he
+withhold from her August Scheffer's curious secret?</p>
+
+<p>That afternoon, when he went home, Paul found her in the porch. She had
+a book; of course, it was one of Cromwell's. Paul discovered that when
+he had settled himself near her, with a book in his own hand. He had
+come to her so conscious of his late bargain, and the immediate benefit
+he had derived therefrom, that he expected an instant leaning toward
+discovery on her part. But Josephine was absorbed in her occupation, and
+though she looked up and smiled when she saw Paul coming, she looked
+down again and sighed the next instant, and continued reading with a
+gravity that soon attracted his notice. Her looks troubled him. Of late,
+a shadow seemed to have fallen darkly over her; she was, though Paul
+understood it not, in the struggle of youth with life. Do you know what
+that struggle is? Not all who pass through it go on their way rejoicing,
+over the everlasting blessedness won from the 'good and great angel.'
+For then this earth more manifestly were the world of the redeemed ones.</p>
+
+<p>Not long before, Paul had heard Josephine say that she would not live on
+in this idle way. She must find some work to do. Perhaps, he thought,
+the sense of a necessity her mother instantly and constantly denied when
+Josephine spoke of it, is now again oppressing her. However occasioned,
+Paul's face saddened when he looked at her. The maddening impatience he
+had felt many times&mdash;impatience for the strength and efficiency of
+manhood&mdash;once more tormented him; it grew an intolerable thought to him
+that so many years must pass before he should be prepared to do a man's
+work, earn a man's wages&mdash;do as August Scheffer was doing.</p>
+
+<p>Such sombre reflections as these absorbed him, when he became suddenly
+conscious of the eyes of Josephine. She sat looking upon him; disturbed
+anew, it seemed, by the show of his disturbance. His eyes met hers, and
+she said:</p>
+
+<p>'What is it, Paul? What has gone wrong with you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Nothing. But it is enough to give one the horrors to see <i>you</i> looking
+so like destruction. Something has happened, Josephine; what is it?'</p>
+
+<p>'What fine shoes you have on, Paul!' she said, quickly, pretending to be
+absorbed in the discovery she had only that instant made.</p>
+
+<p>Paul laughed, and blushed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_544" id="Page_544">[Pg 544]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'I earned them,' said he.</p>
+
+<p>'Earned them!' Josephine's beautiful eyes were full of surprise, of
+admiration even, as she now fixed them on her brother. 'I wish I could
+earn anything&mdash;a row of pins, or a loaf of bread.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you did, you wouldn't eat all the loaf yourself. But I spent all my
+wage on myself, you see! But I did earn them&mdash;at least, I'm going to,
+before I get through.'</p>
+
+<p>'How in the world did you do it, Paul?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am a tutor, Josephine,' said he, with mock gravity. She answered,
+earnestly:</p>
+
+<p>'You're a good fellow, any way, tutor or not. It's a secret, then, this
+business?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, the deadest kind of a dead secret. But I shall tell you. I made a
+mental reservation of you. August Scheffer&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>Josephine started, trembled, looked away from Paul, recovered herself in
+an instant; then looked back again, and straight into his eyes. Paul saw
+nothing strange in this; he went on quietly:</p>
+
+<p>'Scheffer is getting ambitious! If I had a shop and such a business as
+his, catch me bothering about books!'</p>
+
+<p>'He was always fond of reading,' answered Josephine. 'You know what a
+reader his mother was? No, you don't know. You were too young. Well, he
+wants you to help him, and you are to be shod.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, that's the whole of it. Why don't you laugh, or be surprised. I
+shall do my best with him.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should hope you would do better than your best. Be punctual and
+steady in this business; for, really, you owe August Scheffer more than
+a shop full of shoes is worth. You will get as much good as you can
+possibly give. I wish I had your chance!'</p>
+
+<p>'To teach him, Josephine?'</p>
+
+<p>'To be a helpful man, dear Paul.'</p>
+
+<p>'As far as I can see, everybody in these days is wishing that he was
+somebody else. That's what's the matter with Scheffer.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Josephine, quietly; 'it isn't. Not that. He wouldn't take any
+man's place that lives. Ask him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course he would say 'No.' He is proud as Lucifer.'</p>
+
+<p>'I like his spirit.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, and you like Cromwell's spirit, too. What in the world do you
+suppose <i>he</i> is going to do?'</p>
+
+<p>'What?' asked Josephine, as if she did not know.</p>
+
+<p>Paul surveyed her for a moment. <i>Did</i> she not know? He could not decide.
+He could look through most people, simple, earnest, penetrating fellow
+that he was; but not through Josephine.</p>
+
+<p>'Cromwell is going abroad,' he said, finally. 'He's been talking with a
+sea captain for a month back. It's all out now. He's going to quit his
+class, and take deck passage for Havre; going to the school of mines in
+Paris, and, when through with that, on a mineral hunt from Africa to
+Siberia. And he hasn't a cent of money! Perhaps that's the spirit you
+like. Perhaps you won't object to my going with him.'</p>
+
+<p>Josephine looked at Paul; she was not in the least alarmed. 'I like the
+spirit well enough,' she said, 'but it isn't your kind; it would be
+misery to do a thing in that way, for you. He has another 'fervor.''</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, he has,' said Paul, with a deeper meaning than his sister guessed.</p>
+
+<p>'You say I like a queer kind of spirit,' said she. 'I like independence.
+But there's some great lack in me, there must be. I'm what you call too
+prudent, I suppose. I seem unable to put out of sight the chances of
+failure; and it can't be that people who venture a great deal think much
+of them. I wish, as you do, that Harry had a little money&mdash;ever so
+little&mdash;to fall back on. He never seems to think of accidents, or
+sickness; but he is going to a strange country, and, to be sure, if he
+is able to do exactly what he expects, he will succeed; and in the <i>end</i>
+he will, I know,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_545" id="Page_545">[Pg 545]</a></span> whatever happens. But it would be dreadful for him to
+meet with misfortunes, though he laughs at my croaking. Everything is to
+turn out just as he wants! But do things often, I wonder?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, with August Scheffer&mdash;the only one I know of.'</p>
+
+<p>'But you never <i>can</i> know the struggle he passed through; it was
+terrible. You call him a philosopher; he is so, because he found out
+early how to fight the good fight. Nothing will ever look so alluring to
+him as the career he might have had by choosing the thing he did not
+choose.' Ceasing to speak aloud and to Paul, Josephine added, in a voice
+no one could hear: 'I was in the midst of that struggle; I understand
+him as no one else does. And&mdash;he knows it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Tell me about it,' said Paul. 'You don't know how much I admire
+Scheffer.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well you may,' she answered; 'but there is nothing to tell. He had the
+opportunity to keep at school, or to go into his uncle's shop&mdash;and he
+chose the shop on his mother's account.'</p>
+
+<p>'And I chose a profession on <i>my</i> mother's account,' said Paul bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>Josephine laid her hand on his; it was a gentle touch, but it recalled
+him.</p>
+
+<p>'The best choice in both cases,' said she. 'Any one can see you are not
+expert enough to make a successful trader. Ask August if a man must not
+have a talent for trade, just as an artist must have a genius for
+painting.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then you think August a born trader?'</p>
+
+<p>'I know he can do more than one thing well,' she answered.</p>
+
+<p>'If you think so well of August,' said he, 'I don't see how you <i>can</i>
+think better of another fellow. The town couldn't contain him if he
+heard what you said just now.'</p>
+
+<p>Josephine turned a page of her book.</p>
+
+<p>'He knows perfectly well what I think of him, Paul.'</p>
+
+<p>The very frankness of her words and manner misled the boy. The curious
+suspicion that for a moment had beset him fled fast before his laughter.</p>
+
+<p>She went on reading&mdash;seemed to do so. But an image for which the writer
+of that book was not responsible stood, all the while, clear and
+immovable in her memory. Before her, in a rude shed, were a boy and a
+girl. The girl had a basket in her hand, filled with chips, which she
+had raked from the sawdust; the boy was offering her assistance; but he
+knew well enough there was no wood to be sawn or split. It was growing
+dark and cold within the house, and still more dismal without it. The
+hearts of these two are warmer than their hands.</p>
+
+<p>'I've done it,' said the boy. 'I brought my books home last night,
+Josey, and I'm going to my uncle in the morning.'</p>
+
+<p>'What did he say?'</p>
+
+<p>'He wouldn't say a word. It was my choice, and I must stand by it,' he
+answered. 'It's for my mother! If I had only you, and was working for
+you, I would take the other track. But, you see, it is for her; and I'm
+her only son.'</p>
+
+<p>'You will be August Scheffer, whatever you may do,' she said, in a soft,
+sweet voice.</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;And did August Scheffer ever stand for less among powers and places,
+than when, in the darkening wood shed, he spoke these words:</p>
+
+<p>'But, Josey, will things always be the same with us?'</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;Things had changed, indeed. The whole world had changed since then.
+Had the changing world rolled in between them? Since then the widow
+Mitchell had worked her way out of the worst of her distresses.
+Josephine had become a beautiful woman. Paul was striding on toward a
+profession. The family had removed to one of those box-like dwellings
+opposite the college grounds, and the fair face of Mrs. Mitchell's
+daughter was the theme of many a student's dreaming&mdash;of Harry
+Cromwell's, most conspicuous among stu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_546" id="Page_546">[Pg 546]</a></span>dents&mdash;of his dreaming, day and
+night. It was his book she held.</p>
+
+
+<h4>III.</h4>
+
+<p>It happened, of course, that Paul dropped into Scheffer's shop the next
+day. August was on the lookout, and conducted him forthwith into a quiet
+corner. The books were there delivered, but the package remained
+unopened. Scheffer had his reasons. He wanted leisure to examine
+them&mdash;above all, privacy. He also saw, or thought he saw, that Paul was
+in haste to be gone; and there was something on his mind of which he
+desired to be free.</p>
+
+<p>Paul was only disturbed about a proposal he wished to make to Scheffer.</p>
+
+<p>He was electrified when Scheffer himself broached the subject, and
+transacted it half, at a stroke, though all unconsciously, by asking:</p>
+
+<p>'What has become of Hal Cromwell? He took so many prizes last year.'</p>
+
+<p>Paul's eyes brightened strangely, his whole countenance became luminous.
+Scheffer surveyed the change as if it were not half agreeable to him.
+'Harry is here yet, but he won't be long. That's a secret, though. He's
+going to France. Guess how.'</p>
+
+<p>'In a balloon, I suppose. He hasn't any money.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Paul, half offended at the tone in which this was spoken.
+'He's going to work his passage. He's one of the fellows who can do
+without money.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed!' said Scheffer.</p>
+
+<p>Paul went on: 'He hasn't more than twenty dollars. He sold all his
+prizes long ago.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is he going to travel?' asked Scheffer, quietly.</p>
+
+<p>'Travel! no. Not yet awhile, I mean. He's mad, just now, on minerals and
+geology. He's going to school in Paris, where he can learn all about
+such things. Then he's going to hunt up specimens for cabinets; then
+he'll be sending curiosities over here by the ship load. If any one
+wanted to speculate, he'd pay an enormous interest on the money lent
+him. But catch him asking the loan of a threepenny bit of any man! You
+know him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' he said; 'we've had many a rough day together. About the time his
+father got into trouble, my father did more than one good turn for him.
+But that's neither here nor there.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, it is,' said Paul, quickly; 'if your father helped his father,
+it's a token that you will help him.'</p>
+
+<p>Scheffer was not so clear on that point: his reply might have chilled
+Paul's enthusiasm, could anything have done that.</p>
+
+<p>'I can tell you what, Mitchell,' he said, 'I don't wonder at Cromwell,
+and I don't blame him. I believe it's better to go hungry on your own
+earnings than full fed at another man's expense. One can starve at home
+with a better grace than he can among strangers. That's my mind. It
+mayn't be his.'</p>
+
+<p>'It's mine, though,' said Paul. 'If I had the money&mdash;if I had a hundred
+dollars, I should insist on his taking them. I wish my mother had put me
+to a trade: it's all nonsense, this slaving for the sake of
+position&mdash;what you call it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't talk so,' said Scheffer. 'If Harry Cromwell wants anything of me,
+I should be ashamed of him if he wouldn't ask it. As to wishing that you
+had a trade, if there's a mechanical turn in you, you'll twist into it
+yet. But I don't believe there is. Go on as you have begun. It will all
+come out right.'</p>
+
+<p>Paul scanned the fine face of the speaker in a spirit of inquiry
+unguessed of August. He was thinking of Josephine, and of her words.
+Then he said, 'So you always say. But I can't see it. If I could, then
+I'd be a philosopher like you. Do you mean I should speak to Harry?'</p>
+
+<p>Scheffer hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>'I see him every day,' said he. 'Sometimes he comes in here. Don't you
+think he would be better pleased if it should happen of itself, you
+know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_547" id="Page_547">[Pg 547]</a></span>&mdash;not as if we had talked over his affairs. He is such a proud
+fellow.'</p>
+
+<p>Paul readily acceded to this plan. He told Josephine what he had done,
+and she worked on with a lighter heart. She was thinking of Scheffer.
+How slowly he had grown up into her sight again! Man and woman, if they
+looked at each other now, must it be across a great gulf? What had
+education done for her! Could she thank the teaching that had brought
+her to see in her womanhood something beyond the reach of a man like
+Scheffer? Could she thank the culture that gave her a position for which
+nature and habits like his were all unfit? This maturity seemed
+unnatural to the heart of that remembered childhood, which, in its
+brave, loving generosity, could trust a boy to any work or station,
+feeling that in the workman would be securely lodged himself.</p>
+
+<p>Even more than she suspected, Josephine had been moved by the secret
+Paul had confided to her&mdash;of Scheffer's new ambition. No new ambition
+was it, she could testify. In the fulness of time the bud had come to
+flower, and on the same stem fair fruits were ripening.</p>
+
+<p>And now, it was he who would relieve her of the anxiety she felt on
+Cromwell's behalf. She kept these things in her heart.</p>
+
+
+<h4>IV.</h4>
+
+<p>Cromwell strolled into Scheffer's shop within the week. When Scheffer
+saw him coming, he satisfied himself at a glance that the visit was an
+unsuggested one.</p>
+
+<p>There was only one other person in the world whose appearance within his
+doors could so much disturb the master of the place as Harry Cromwell's.
+That one was Josephine. Let <i>her</i> but come, and it was a day indeed.</p>
+
+<p>But the disturbance created by her presence was very different from that
+excited by the entrance of this student. He, inadvertently, or
+otherwise, and it mattered not which, set Scheffer's heart into such a
+fume of jealousy, as perhaps the heart of philosopher never knew before.
+For, it was generally supposed among those who were interested in the
+affairs transacted on the point of space occupied by these people, that
+Cromwell's ambition was less undefined than that of young men generally.
+In short, that he was already, though alone in the world, burdened in
+mind with family cares&mdash;looking upon himself, even then, as the oldest
+son of the widow Mitchell.</p>
+
+<p>He had said frankly, that he could not afford to give so much of his
+life to preparatory study as would be required if he chose any one of
+the professions open to him. He must go to work in some direction where
+the rewards of labor were sooner obtained.</p>
+
+<p>When Cromwell came into the shop, August advanced to wait upon him.
+Cromwell was in a cheerful mood. He stretched his hand across the
+counter, and shook hands with his old acquaintance, as if he were
+thinking of days when the little white house of Daniel Scheffer stood
+between two cottages, occupied respectively by families of equal poverty
+and condition&mdash;the Cromwells and the Mitchells.</p>
+
+<p>It wasn't often that they met in these days, he said; and he looked
+about him with a sort of surprise not disagreeable to Scheffer, for
+there was nothing offensive in it. Scheffer was always ready to make
+allowance for the little vanities and weaknesses of others. He was not
+surprised that Cromwell, handsome as he was, and brilliant
+intellectually, as he was proving himself to be, should overlook old
+times and old friends. Present times, and cares, and neighbors, would,
+of course, engage him to the neglect of what was past and gone.</p>
+
+<p>'Prospering as usual!' said Harry, 'How do you manage it, August? for I
+am going to launch out into the world, and I can't expect to succeed
+more suddenly than you have.'</p>
+
+<p>August answered, taking the praise as if it were well meant, and he knew
+it was well earned:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_548" id="Page_548">[Pg 548]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'By sticking to a thing, when I have made up my mind it is best. It's
+the only way I know of, Harry. I thought, from all I had heard, that you
+had found that out.'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't trust report. I've done little yet to satisfy a man; got a few
+prizes; what do you suppose I care for them?'</p>
+
+<p>'You care for what they mean to other folks,' said Scheffer.</p>
+
+<p>'Not much, I assure you. A little praise, like music, is pleasant. But a
+man can't live on sound. Show me your seven-league boots, Scheffer; I'm
+going to take a stroll around the world.'</p>
+
+<p>'What do you mean?' asked Scheffer, without moving.</p>
+
+<p>'I'm going over the ocean.'</p>
+
+<p>'India rubber soles?' asked Scheffer, again speaking in his quietest
+manner, but really feeling great excitement.</p>
+
+<p>Cromwell laughed. 'I suppose they have iron-bound boots, even in Paris;
+but I thought I'd like to take something out of your shop with me;
+something of your own make, if possible. Do you know, Scheffer, you've
+had more to do with me, a vast deal, than you ever supposed? I've had
+the feeling that you were watching me as often as ever I got into lazy
+ways, just as if you stood by that window and searched me out across the
+grounds, no matter where I was lurking. I shall take my time when I am
+well rid of you. But I'll have the boots for a token; and when I am
+tired and sick of my work, as I shall be a hundred times, I'll pretend
+that you put some magic into the soles. Give them to me with a strong
+squeak.'</p>
+
+<p>Cromwell laughed, but he was at least two thirds in earnest.</p>
+
+<p>Still August did not stir. 'Are you really going away?' he asked.</p>
+
+<p>'If I'm a live man, next week.'</p>
+
+<p>'Going to France?'</p>
+
+<p>'To France. To Paris for one year. In five years I shall be home again,
+and I mean to bring with me two or three cabinets of minerals, worth
+thousands of dollars apiece.'</p>
+
+<p>Cromwell's eyes flashed; they fell on Scheffer, who stood silent,
+motionless, a cold shiver running over him from his head to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>'What, then, brave fellow?' asked August. It was well to know the worst,
+and Harry seemed to be in a communicative mood.</p>
+
+<p>'Why, what are <i>you</i> working for?'</p>
+
+<p>'Because I've nothing else to do,' said Scheffer, with a shrug. 'I hate
+to be idle.'</p>
+
+<p>'No; you are making your fortune; you'll have a house and a family some
+day. It's written, a hundred girls would think the chance beyond their
+desert; or they <i>might</i> think so.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; well&mdash;I don't want a hundred girls.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nor one, I suppose.'</p>
+
+<p>Behind this idle talk the gravest and sharpest scrutiny was bestowed by
+each man on his fellow. Both were thinking of Josephine, but neither
+would name her.</p>
+
+<p>'You're a philosopher, Paul says,' continued Cromwell. 'Paul is always
+talking about you. I don't like to leave that boy; but knowing that you
+are his friend should make me comfortable. Beside, I couldn't do
+anything for the lad, if he stood in need of a ten-penny bit.'</p>
+
+<p>Cromwell laughed, but not in recklessness&mdash;in pride.</p>
+
+<p>'How can you afford to travel, then?' asked Scheffer.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I shall go as some other good fellows have gone&mdash;on foot; for I
+shall work my passage, and get somehow from Havre to Paris.'</p>
+
+<p>'What next?'</p>
+
+<p>'Hard work, you know.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; I know what hard work means. But do you? Such hard work as this
+will be?'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you take me for a dunce? Of course I know; and I shall tell you how
+I did it, five years from now.'</p>
+
+<p>Then Scheffer said, not hesitating&mdash;for anything like a doubtfulness of
+manner on his part would have defeated his design:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_549" id="Page_549">[Pg 549]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'I want to invest some money, Harry. Take a couple of hundred for me,
+and buy some of the specimens; or find them, if you like that better.
+You shall sell them, when you get back, and pay me a percentage,
+whatever you can afford.'</p>
+
+<p>There was no delay in the answer. It had all the readiness, and the
+sound, of sincerity.</p>
+
+<p>'Sooner from you, August, than from any other man; but not from any man.
+I should feel that I was mortgaged. I must begin my own master, as I
+told Josephine Mitchell. What I bring to her shall be fruit from the
+tree of my own planting.'</p>
+
+<p>August, for a moment, was like a man struck dumb; but when he spoke, he
+was the philosopher again.</p>
+
+<p>'That's all foolishness,' he said, in a gentle voice; but there was no
+tenderness in it: it was but the firmness of self-control that made the
+voice so mild, and the expostulation, so deliberate. 'It's like using an
+old tool, when you have a new invention that would save half the labor.
+You'd laugh at a man for that.'</p>
+
+<p>'Laugh away! But I must go out my own man, Scheffer. You'd do the same
+thing. Don't talk about it. Have you any of those boots I asked for?'</p>
+
+<p>Scheffer found a pair. He named the price. Cromwell paid for them, and
+shook his hand when they separated; for, in the press of business, he
+said, it might be he should not find time to call on his old friend
+again.</p>
+
+<p>The young men did not meet again. But a fortnight after Cromwell sailed,
+Scheffer was called upon to pay a note at the bank; a note that bore his
+own signature, and stated that, for 'value received, I promise to pay to
+the order of Henry Cromwell, four hundred dollars.'</p>
+
+<p>The demand was made in such a manner, and at such a time, as to vex
+Scheffer to the utmost.</p>
+
+<p>Cromwell, it seemed, could not consent to accept a favor at his hands;
+yet he could condescend to make that manner of use of him! He paid the
+sum due on the note, but at the same time was beset by a sore
+temptation.</p>
+
+<p>This was the temptation, and this his resistance: If Harry had gone,
+leaving anywhere, in any woman's heart, a hope in him, should he not
+dispel it? Should he not convince her that it rested on a foundation
+looser than the sand? He did not do so! When Paul spoke now and then of
+Cromwell, and prophesied proudly of him, August took the words as an
+echo of Josephine's thought, and said to himself:</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! well; it makes no difference.'</p>
+
+<p>But, for all that, he kept on with his studies, and sometimes on Sunday
+would walk past the college grounds on Monumental square; for that was
+also walking past the cottage occupied by Josephine.</p>
+
+
+<h4>V.</h4>
+
+<p>The college, in those days, could have produced no student more
+industrious than August.</p>
+
+<p>He advanced with rapid strides through the elementary books, for he
+chose to begin at the beginning, and he was proud of his progress. But
+he kept his studies secret. He would risk nothing by reporting his own
+progress. No man should honor his future to the prejudice of his past.
+The story of Minerva, born to the prerogatives of wisdom, was more
+attractive to him than that life which '<i>grew</i> in grace, and in favor
+with God and man.'</p>
+
+<p>He had no plans in reference to future studies. His tutor was fairly
+puzzled; for he was not long in discovering that it was not the delight
+of knowledge, but the ends which knowledge may serve, that prompted to
+such industry.</p>
+
+<p>One evening Paul threw himself on one of the red-plush sofas Scheffer
+had transferred to his private apartment. He was in one of those serious
+moods that had become frequent since Cromwell went away; or, rather,
+since he had come into this near relation with a working and prosperous
+man.</p>
+
+<p>'It's easy enough to be poor for one's self,' said the anxious
+youngster; 'but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_550" id="Page_550">[Pg 550]</a></span> whether one <i>ought</i> to be poor, when money is to be
+honestly made, and at only a trifling risk, though by desperate hard
+work&mdash;that's the question.'</p>
+
+<p>'H'm!' said Scheffer.</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' said Paul, irritated by his seeming indifference, 'a fellow is
+in a deuced bad plight, if he has to plead poverty, when he ought to be
+able to help one or two beside himself! I envy you, Scheffer. I envy you
+every time I come here. You can do so much! You could leap all the
+college gates in no time, if you were fool enough to try.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'm not,' said Scheffer. 'I know I can't work with many irons in the
+fire&mdash;never could. And I've nothing to complain of. I'm prospering, as
+you say. That's the chief thing, I suppose. Folks seem to think so. I'm
+one of the million; I must do as the rest&mdash;build a house, and marry a
+wife some day. But not till I can support her like a lady, I tell you,
+Paul.'</p>
+
+<p>There was the difference of many years between the man and the boy, but
+to no other person was Scheffer in the habit of saying such things.</p>
+
+<p>'I'd like to see Madam Scheffer,' said Paul, with a quiet laugh.
+Scheffer was indulgent toward that mirth; he smiled as he said:</p>
+
+<p>'Be patient, as I am, and you shall see her. There was a Mrs. Scheffer
+once&mdash;my mother that was; if there's another like her&mdash;I believe there
+is!'</p>
+
+<p>'Can't you draw me her portrait?'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps I could, if I cared.'</p>
+
+<p>'But you don't care. Well, I can get it out of Josephine; she remembers
+your mother.'</p>
+
+<p>Paul looked so much like his sister when he named the name of Josephine
+and of his mother in one breath, that Scheffer could not refuse him.</p>
+
+<p>'Medium size,' he said, 'and built to last. Graceful, as any mother
+would have been&mdash;if&mdash;as she was, in spite of hard work&mdash;it was her
+nature, and her nature was a strong one. She has light hair, that curls
+as if it liked to, and her eyes are blue. It is a fair face, Paul, and
+she has a kind smile.'</p>
+
+<p>'But tell me her name; for you need not say it's a fancy sketch.'</p>
+
+<p>'May be not; but that, you see, is my secret.'</p>
+
+<p>There was no such thing, in reality, as intruding further on this
+ground. Still, half embarrassed, Mitchell persisted:</p>
+
+<p>'Where is she, though?'</p>
+
+<p>'Where? I can't tell that.'</p>
+
+<p>'With Cromwell?'</p>
+
+<p>'It may be.'</p>
+
+<p>'Would you trust her with him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Is he not to be trusted?' asked August, so quickly as to startle Paul.</p>
+
+<p>If Paul was to be startled&mdash;but he was not. The teller in the bank had
+told him&mdash;(Paul was one of those persons with whom acquaintances of
+every quality lodge their secrets)&mdash;of the note Scheffer had taken up
+with so little fuss and so much amazement. He saw that August for a
+moment suspected that he knew the facts, but he was not yet prepared to
+confess such knowledge; for he knew as well as Scheffer what Harry
+Cromwell was to Josephine. So he answered:</p>
+
+<p>'I should say so, August&mdash;if any man on earth could be.'</p>
+
+<p>'So I supposed,' said Scheffer, quietly; and Paul hurried back to the
+old queer topic, and said, half in jest: 'You mean to keep house,
+Scheffer, I'll be bound.'</p>
+
+<p>Scheffer's dark face brightened; he would share with Paul his pleasant
+dream&mdash;the pleasant dream he cherished, though his sober sense denied
+its possibility, and his consistent realism charged upon him the special
+folly of fools.</p>
+
+<p>'Aye,' said he; 'there'll be a library in it&mdash;but more select than that
+of the Atheneum you were wishing for! You shall have the freedom of my
+house, lad&mdash;I'll not forget how kind you've been to me. I shall have a
+flower garden, and a yard deep enough for shade trees like those&mdash;but
+you don't remember the place.'</p>
+
+<p>Scheffer got up and walked away to the window.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_551" id="Page_551">[Pg 551]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'I've not the slightest doubt that you'll do everything you say! I vow I
+wouldn't like to be the man to stand in your way to anything.'</p>
+
+<p>Scheffer came back, and sat on the sofa beside Paul. His voice had an
+almost fatherly tenderness in it when he began to speak, and it took no
+colder tone.</p>
+
+<p>'You were saying something about an improvement you could suggest in
+some of the tools we use. Here they are. What did you mean?' He pulled
+out a box from underneath the sofa.</p>
+
+<p>Paul took the box, and looked over its contents; but it was easy to see
+that he was in search of nothing. He was soon through his investigation,
+and restored the box to its place. Then he looked at Scheffer, and
+laughed.</p>
+
+<p>But Scheffer answered the look by one that seemed to say that he
+expected an explanation; whereupon Paul, now grave enough, stirred by a
+sudden confidence, pulled from his pocket a box much smaller than that
+which held August's tools, and passed it into his friend's hands.
+Scheffer took it, but he did not attempt to loosen the cord that secured
+the cover. Then Paul said:</p>
+
+<p>'You do not really suppose that I am the only idle person in the world.
+I have been at work longer than Josephine, though you might not believe
+it; but what I have done, no one has yet seen. If I had the money,
+Scheffer! I'd&mdash;well&mdash;look at the thing! I want you should study it, of
+course.'</p>
+
+<p>August, however, was in no haste. He was more desirous to learn the
+meaning of what Paul had said about Josephine. But that could not be
+asked by him; and so he unfastened the cord, opened the box, and beheld
+within a miniature machine, whose meaning no one in the world, Paul
+Mitchell excepted, could explain. That was Paul's thought of pride.</p>
+
+<p>'That's <i>my</i> secret,' said he. 'That's my beauty! and I'd build a house
+for it, if I had the money, to be sure, as you are going to do for
+yours. How do you like it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Explain; then I can tell you.' It was still the father-voice that
+spoke; but the tone was that of a man whose son has forestalled hope,
+and justified the most vague of ambitious wishes.</p>
+
+<p>'That, Scheffer, is a contrivance for printing. Will you please to
+examine it? It's to be used henceforth, for all time, understand! by
+bankers in their banks, and by all men of great business. See&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>He arose, and brought near to the sofa a small table, on which he placed
+the machine. Then he set it in motion. 'For numbering notes, and so on.
+Does it work, August?'</p>
+
+<p>Scheffer, though admiring and amazed, said not a word, but sat down
+before the machine, and studied it in every part.</p>
+
+<p>His judgment was satisfied when at last he gave it.</p>
+
+<p>'It's worth money to you, Mitchell.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you believe it, Scheffer? Worth money. Oh, my goodness!'</p>
+
+<p>'Paul, you expected that.'</p>
+
+<p>'I knew it; but to hear you say so, makes me feel like a man. Then I
+shall do for my mother what you did for yours, and get Josephine out of
+that school-teaching freak of hers. She has actually gone and done it,
+Scheffer.... Worth money, eh? Then I shall do some things as well as
+others, Mr. Scheffer.'</p>
+
+<p>Scheffer smiled. He understood this exultation too well not to share it
+and to be deeply moved by it.</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose so,' said he. 'I always believed in you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, then, look here.'</p>
+
+<p>Paul's voice broke; he looked on the floor, and was a long time in
+producing the second box. When he had fairly drawn it forth, he gave a
+sudden and wonderful look at Scheffer, that penetrated like fire to the
+heart of the man.</p>
+
+<p>'There,' said he, 'that's my pet. That's the Rachel of this Jacob. Look
+close, and see what you'll do with it, supposing you turn lockpick some
+day.'</p>
+
+<p>It was a veritable lock. He drew out a chain of keys, a hundred of
+them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_552" id="Page_552">[Pg 552]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Now,' said he, in a low voice, 'you may ransack the town, as I've done,
+and get all your keys together. I want to see if you can find one, or
+contrive one with any locksmith's help, that will fit into that lock.
+I'll give you a month to try it. I'd give another man six. But you'll do
+the work of six in a sixth of the time. It's a lock on a new principle,
+and the principle is mine, because I applied it first. Eh? Hang it! If I
+had the money I wouldn't be so beggarly poor as I am. But I've had to
+beg and borrow, and almost steal, to get these things, that were in my
+brain, into a decent shape, as you see them. When I get started,
+Scheffer, you shall inspect all my inventions.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then you are started,' said August. 'Don't say that again, I'd mortgage
+my stock but you should have what you need to help you. Have you any
+tools to work with, my son?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, yes; that is, my neighbor has. He keeps a carpenter's shop, you
+know. I'm a capital hand at borrowing.'</p>
+
+<p>'Have you got a room at home where you can work?'</p>
+
+<p>'Acres of room! You've seen the house.'</p>
+
+<p>'I've walked past it sometimes,' answered Scheffer, with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, it isn't such a mite of a place as you'd think. There's room
+enough.'</p>
+
+<p>'It looks pretty and snug. I have often admired those flower beds; the
+place don't look much like others in the same row: one might know that.
+Paul, I've seen the time when I'd thought the man who offered me help
+was an angel. I'm older than you are. Of course you must experiment, and
+where's the merit of carrying plans about in your head a dozen years,
+waiting a chance to prove whether they're worth anything or not? Tell me
+now, do you want any money?'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' Paul answered quickly, yet with inward hesitation. 'I'll come to
+you, though,' he added, 'when I do. I'll let you know the very day. But
+I I have something to study out yet. I'm going to get patents, you
+know.'</p>
+
+
+<h4>VI.</h4>
+
+<p>Paul returned home, and in a musing mood seated himself under the
+grapevine that grew on the brick wall in the rear of the cottage, the
+sole ornament and pride of the narrow yard. He may have been here an
+hour, when he heard strange noises in the house, then a heavy closing of
+the street door, and the voice of Josephine calling him. In the lobby
+stood an open iron-bound chest. A glance at the box explained it to
+Paul; but he said nothing&mdash;not a word&mdash;in explanation to Josephine or
+his mother, who stood expressing surprise and wonder, while he found the
+key and opened the heavy lid. They saw it was a tool chest.</p>
+
+<p>Paul was the first to speak; for when he exhibited the contents, a
+deeper silence seemed to fall upon the women.</p>
+
+<p>'It's no mistake,' he said to his mother. 'This belongs to August
+Scheffer. He has lent it to me. Isn't it kind of him? For I told him I
+had to borrow when I worked.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Paul's mother. 'It's anything but kind. You could waste time
+enough in such doings, Paul, without getting a tempter into the house.
+What do you want of tools? Do you get along with your books so fast you
+don't know what to do with your time? August Scheffer is just like his
+father, he never, as long as he lived, found out the use of money; if he
+had, his wife wouldn't have been left a beggar.'</p>
+
+<p>'And August would never have been himself,' said Paul. 'That would have
+been a pity.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Josephine; 'he would always have been himself.'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't talk like a simpleton, child. You are old enough to see that
+August might have been a very different man from what he is, if his
+father before him hadn't always this same ridiculous way of throwing the
+money he earned about like dust.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, mother&mdash;' began Paul: he hesitated, but a glance at Josephine
+decided him. 'I can tell you that if Harry Cromwell comes to any good,
+you and every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_553" id="Page_553">[Pg 553]</a></span> one else will have to thank Scheffer for it.'</p>
+
+<p>Josephine looked at Paul with serious, curious interest; but he saw that
+she was not greatly excited by what he had said. He looked at his
+mother, and resolved to say no more. And by that resolution he would
+have held, but for his mother's words.</p>
+
+<p>'We shall never hear the end of that,' said she. 'Scheffer's father
+signed for Oliver Cromwell; but what of that? he lost his money. Better
+men have done as much for worse; but I don't know that it deserved to be
+talked of to all generations.'</p>
+
+<p>'It was a generous act,' said Paul. 'But August has beat his father at
+that, I can tell you, if you want to hear.'</p>
+
+<p>'Some slander, I suppose,' said the mother. 'I suppose every young man
+within fifty miles is jealous of Harry; it's well he has gone far enough
+to get rid of it all.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, mother, keep your good opinion of him. It isn't from Scheffer I
+heard it. You don't want to know what a noble fellow he is;' and he
+wound up with August's frequent saying, 'it makes no difference.'</p>
+
+<p>'I want to hear what you are going to do with this box, though,' said
+Mrs. Mitchell. 'There's not a room in the house big enough to hold it.'</p>
+
+<p>Paul plead for a corner of his own room; a startling proposal, indeed,
+for those who heard it, the 'room' being hardly an apology for a closet.
+He pleads well, however, for he carried the point, and space was in some
+way provided; and Mrs. Mitchell, who had hopes of a future for her
+children that should throw a glory round their unfolding and her closing
+years, heard the boy say, with, some sort of faith: 'Oh, mother, you
+don't know yet what a genius you've got in your boy;' and when she left
+him he was still laughing over the boast. But Josephine saw that as he
+stooped over the chest there were tears in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>For that reason she did not leave him to rejoice alone over his
+treasure. And for the reason that she did not leave him, he said to her,
+observing with what interest she took up one bright tool after another
+from its place:</p>
+
+<p>'Scheffer has bought this box for me. You see, don't you, the tools were
+never used before? Not one of them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Josephine, 'that's easy to be seen.'</p>
+
+<p>'I must keep them and use them, I suppose!'</p>
+
+<p>'You intend to do it, Paul. Are you trying to deceive me? Do you suppose
+I don't know that of course he had a reason for sending them to you!
+People are not in the habit of sending such things to boys who don't
+know how to use them.'</p>
+
+<p>'But, Josephine, I shall pay him for them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, or else I shall, Paul. But let him enjoy the gift; for I know how
+it pleased him to send it.'</p>
+
+<p>'And I won't serve him as another fellow did, too proud to accept a
+favor of him till he should get beyond sight and sound, so stingy of his
+thanks. That's what your Cromwell did! I hate the hateful fellow.'</p>
+
+<p>'My Cromwell? Did he that?' But Josephine neither swooned, nor cried,
+nor blushed; was not overwhelmed with shame, nor indignation, nor
+distress. Some such exhibition, that should be as a confession, Paul had
+looked for, trembling, when the daring deed was done, of exposing a
+lover's baseness to the woman he loved.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Paul, cooled somewhat by his sister's calmness. 'I knew I
+ought to let you know. But I thought I never could. He wouldn't take the
+money August offered him, but he got it from the bank, on a forged
+note.'</p>
+
+<p>'Paul!' exclaimed Josephine. The lad looked again at his sister; but he
+now saw through her horrified surprise; there was really no danger in
+continuing this revelation; elated, he went on:</p>
+
+<p>'Forged and paid! so the young fellow told me. That's not Scheffer,
+un<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_554" id="Page_554">[Pg 554]</a></span>derstand. <i>He</i> don't know that I have got wind of it; he thinks it is
+safe with him; and you never would have known anything but for me!
+August thinks too much of you, I've found that out, to tell you, or me
+either, that Cromwell is a scamp.'</p>
+
+<p>'What have I to do with all this, Paul?' asked his sister, with a
+well-assumed indifference. She had time now to consider whether she had
+not betrayed too much interest in the affairs of these young men, the
+scientific forger and the man of trade.</p>
+
+<p>'Why,' answered Paul, with no less composure, inwardly rejoicing in what
+he considered his triumph, 'you have to make the best of it, I
+suppose&mdash;satisfy mother&mdash;marry Cromwell when he comes back, rich as
+Croesus, with ship-loads of treasure. That's what the handsome girls are
+for, to marry off to rich men, isn't it?'</p>
+
+<p>Paul had had his say, but that was his only consolation. Whatever answer
+Josephine might have made was prevented by the voice of her mother
+calling from the foot of the stairs. Yet he chose to consider that
+sufficient confession, in regard to some of his suspicions, was given in
+her words as she went down; though what she said was merely,</p>
+
+<p>'Paul, if you don't join the detectives, you'll fail of your mission.'</p>
+
+
+<h4>VII.</h4>
+
+<p>Scheffer's uniform good luck took a sudden turn one day. The fine row of
+buildings that faced the college grounds took fire one morning, and his
+shop was burned with the rest. He saved but little of his stock, and it
+was but recently that he had greatly added to it. His loss was a severe
+one.</p>
+
+<p>Toward nightfall of that day, Paul looked for Scheffer, and found him in
+a room to which he had removed the remnants of his goods. He was alone
+there, and trying to come to an understanding with himself, singing
+meanwhile, but, it must be said, in not the most straightforward and
+perfectly musical manner.</p>
+
+<p>Paul came expressly deputed by his mother to bring Scheffer home to tea
+with him. The news of his disaster had set August before her in a
+different light from that in which he had stood in the days of his
+vulgar prosperity. Calamity restored him to his place again&mdash;the son of
+an old neighbor, the son of a good woman&mdash;one of the heirs of
+misfortune: and who might not have expected this event, that knew in
+August's veins the Scheffer blood was flowing? Yes; the mother of
+Josephine was this day disposed to compassion, helped, may be, to that
+gentleness by the letter she had recently received from Cromwell, in
+which he detailed his successes in a manner that made the heart of the
+prophetess to rejoice.</p>
+
+<p>Scheffer hesitated for a moment, only one, over that invitation. But he
+did hesitate. And Paul, the lynx-eyed, saw it. Scheffer might invent
+whatever excuse seemed best to his own kindliness of heart: Paul was
+convinced that his friend felt no confidence in the impulse that had
+obtained for him an open door in the house that he had seen, in spite of
+Josephine's friendliness, was closed on him all these years.</p>
+
+<p>Paul did not urge the invitation. Instead, he produced a purse&mdash;sole
+purse of the house of Mitchell, that had not, in a generation, held as
+many bank notes as this now contained. He put this purse into Scheffer's
+hands, and said, moving back from him a pace:</p>
+
+<p>'That is yours. I knew you fibbed about the tool chest. You had no use
+for it. So we have bought it. Look if I have counted the money right. I
+knew you would never tell me the truth about the cost, so I've been to
+the maker, and asked him a civil question. No dodging, Mr. Scheffer.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Scheffer did not 'dodge.' He emptied the purse, counted the bills,
+put them into his own leather pocket-book; then he handed the purse to
+Paul.</p>
+
+<p>Paul did not expect this. It was plain that he did not. He thought that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_555" id="Page_555">[Pg 555]</a></span>
+Scheffer would have 'stood' against receiving the payment for his gift.
+He had said so to Josephine; but Josephine had replied, 'You are
+mistaken, Paul. You don't know him, after all. But, if you <i>are</i> right,
+insist on his taking the money. Do not go too far, however. If he should
+seem to be offended, bring it back to me, and I will attend to it.'</p>
+
+<p><i>Was</i> he offended? Paul was in doubt. The doubt made him desperate, and
+he exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>'I meant that for a present. Josephine worked it.'</p>
+
+<p>Scheffer's eye fell on the light and pretty trifle; a change came over
+him. He would have struggled hard and long before he would have
+surrendered that little tissue of floss, but now less than vanity to
+him. 'Josephine worked it.' What are words?</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose,' he began; but he did not conclude what he had on his
+tongue; he did <i>not</i> say to Paul that he supposed it was Josephine's
+money too&mdash;her earnings&mdash;that paid for the chest.</p>
+
+<p>There came an awkward silence into the confused and dismal room.
+Scheffer stood among his ruins, not like a ruined man: he could not
+talk, however. He could say nothing whatever in continuance, about the
+fire. It was never his habit to boast; as little his practice to lament.</p>
+
+<p>'Paul,' he said at last, resuming his dismal endeavor to arrange and
+assort the chaotic remnant of his goods, 'I got your box under weigh
+last night. There's a friend of mine going to see it; and you needn't be
+worrying on account of this&mdash;this fire; for I shall have money enough to
+push your business pretty soon; and there are two good fellows standing
+ready to buy your rights to the patent in this State, on your own terms,
+I guess, if you are tolerably reasonable. You can have five thousand
+dollars, if you will be easy with them about the payments. They are as
+safe as the best in town. I settled all that last night. All you have to
+do is to come to an agreement.'</p>
+
+<p>Paul's heart beat as fast as any young man's heart beats when the result
+of secret toil, of wakeful nights, and patient endurance of home
+misconception, is before him in the form of honorable success. But
+instead of thanks, these words escaped him in a tumult:</p>
+
+<p>'Scheffer, have you heard the news from Cromwell?'</p>
+
+<p>Scheffer considered ere he answered; he was puzzled, looking at Paul,
+such a contradiction and confusion of signs he read in the lad's face.</p>
+
+<p>'I heard that your family had great tidings from him,' he answered
+finally.</p>
+
+<p>'He is dead!'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Josephine!'</p>
+
+<p>What was it that brought so low the head of the man who had stood all
+day bravely erect, enduring the condolence of people, sustaining himself
+in the shock of integrity? Scheffer sat down when he heard this news,
+and wept.</p>
+
+<p>And Paul wept with him. There, in that chamber of ruins, they deplored
+the loss of the proud, ambitious, brilliant, and dishonest wordling, who
+had long ago gone out of <i>their</i> world with a lie on his soul.</p>
+
+<p>Then Paul produced the foreign letter he had brought with him from the
+mail, as he came in his search for Scheffer. The letter he read aloud.
+It was written by one of Harry's fellow students, his companion in that
+notable journey Cromwell made to the Ural, and the Zavods of Siberia. He
+had returned to Paris, and thence had written of his various successes
+to his friends: they knew it was his purpose to sail at once for
+Alexandria. His preparations, wrote this correspondent, were complete;
+but, on the day when the vessel sailed, he died&mdash;sickened and died in
+one morning; his disease was of the heart.</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Josephine!' groaned August again; this time his pity had comment.</p>
+
+<p>'It's awful!' said Paul. 'Josephine cried when she heard of your
+misfortune. She won't do more when she sees this letter.' Paul was
+entirely reckless of consequences. He was de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_556" id="Page_556">[Pg 556]</a></span>termined Scheffer's fire
+should serve a private purpose of illumination, 'It is so rare a thing,
+her crying,' he continued, 'I should have thought the fire would have
+been put out by it.'</p>
+
+<p>Scheffer's tears ceased falling. But he spoke in a low voice, somewhat
+broken, too:</p>
+
+<p>'It's enough to wipe out <i>my</i> regrets. If she cared that much, I don't
+consider it a misfortune. Tell her so, Paul.'</p>
+
+<p>'I will, after you have told her yourself, Scheffer,' said Paul. Then
+casting all their fortunes on a word, speaking hurriedly, impetuously,
+driven on by admiration and gratitude toward Scheffer, and a
+determination to end all misunderstandings at once and forever, he
+continued: 'I found it all out, myself, without prying. The young fellow
+in the bank told me. I knew that you never would. It made me love you,
+that did. I told Josephine, but not till I thought I might safely. He
+didn't get that money from the bank till Josephine had told him she
+could not promise herself to him before he went away. Poor fellow! It
+made him mad, I think.'</p>
+
+<p>'Paul,' said Scheffer, with reproof, and yet the mildest, in his voice,
+'he is dead. That was an ugly twist, but it wasn't his nature to grow in
+a crooked fashion. Harry will come out straight yet. He is in better
+circumstances now than ever before. I could forgive a man for worse
+things than he had the wit to do, if he loved Josephine.'</p>
+
+<p>'There! I'm glad we are back on that ground! I hate mysteries,'
+exclaimed Paul.</p>
+
+<p>'Except in locks,' said Scheffer.</p>
+
+<p>'Why <i>wouldn't</i> she promise Harry? It is what mother expected. And I was
+fool enough to wonder. You are wiser than we; so tell me, Scheffer, did
+anything ever happen in old times that binds her yet? Do you suppose she
+ever loved a lad when she was a child?'</p>
+
+<p>'I know she did,' said Scheffer, looking not away from Paul, neither
+busying himself any longer with the endeavor to bring order out of
+chaos. 'I know she did.'</p>
+
+<p>Then Paul laughed again, as he had not laughed in many a day; but it was
+laughter that did not jar the silence of the room&mdash;such laughter as
+formed a fit prelude for words like these:</p>
+
+<p>'Find out if the lad is alive yet. There is a piece of business worthy
+of Scheffer himself! I'm tired of hunting out secrets. Promise me,
+August&mdash;promise before you leave this room&mdash;before you breathe again.'</p>
+
+<p>Scheffer did.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Mitchell waited tea that evening for at least an hour. Josephine
+was sure that if August could be found, Paul would bring him home. At
+last they came. Home at last! The darkness might besiege the house, it
+could not enter the hearts there; rain might fall on Scheffer's ruins,
+it could not prevent the rising of the Phoenix. Not recognized
+altogether as the household's eldest son, he stood under the roof of the
+little house on Cottage Row. But enough! he was satisfied: he saw two
+women smiling on him&mdash;one from her heart. And from the circle that night
+Paul, triumphant and joyful, excluded the vision of death.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_557" id="Page_557">[Pg 557]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="LAS_ORACIONES" id="LAS_ORACIONES"></a>LAS ORACIONES.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I moved among the moving multitude</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In old Manila, when the afternoon</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Releases labor, and the scorching skies</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Are tempered with the coming on of night.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Above the 'ever loyal city,' rose</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The surging sound of unloosed tongues and feet,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As the encompassed town and suburbs vast,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The boated river and the sentinelled bridge</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Swarmed, parti-colored, with the populace.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The sovereign sun, that through the toilsome day</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No eye had seen for brightness, now subdued,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stepping, like Holy Pontiff, from his throne,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Neared to the people, and, with level rays,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As hands outstretching, benedictions shed.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Full the effulgence flashed upon the walls</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which girt the city with a strength renowned,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rimming them with new glory: bright it gleamed</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Upon the swarthy soldiery, as they filed</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A dazzling phalanx through the gaping crowd</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With martial intonation, and it played</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Softly upon the evening-breathing throng</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On the Calsada's broad and dashing drive,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On gay, armorial equipage, wherein</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dozed dowagers: on unbonneted dames</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In open chariots, toying daintily</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With dark hidalgos, as they sipped the scene</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In languishing contentment, and between</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Responsive glances, showing hidden fire,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With fluent breath of Spanish repartee.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There lounged senoras, fat officials' wives,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From their soft cushions casting cool disdain</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On the mestiza, who, in hired hack,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Blooming in beauty of commingled blood,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And robed in slippery tissue, rainbow-bright,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sat, in her sandal-footed grace, a queen</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Among her fellows, they who yesterday</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whirled her lithe figure in the tireless dance,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And now, with airy compliment, kept bright</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The flame she yet may quench in wedlock dull.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thus rolled the wealthy in their liveried ease,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Mid walking peasantry and pale Chinese,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And curious-shirted Creole; while, tight swathed</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Up to their shrivelled features, mummy like,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Indian women filled the motley scene.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Meanwhile, the sovereign sun had crowned the palms</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_558" id="Page_558">[Pg 558]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Standing in stately clusters; and from thence</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Scaled the high walls and climbed the citadel,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pouring a parting radiance on the tower</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of San Sebastian: mounting to its goal,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">It swept the public dial plate and lay,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">E'en in the face of stern recording time</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Smiling significance; thence slowly crept</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Up to the turret, blazing, momently,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thence reached the dizzy ball; and, last of all,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kissed with its dying lips the sacred cross.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then pealed the solemn vesper bell to prayer,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And suddenly&mdash;completely&mdash;with a hush,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As if a god-like voice had stricken it dead,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stood still the city!</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">Motionless the life</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That but an instant off stirred the warm air</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With murmurs multifarious, and the waves</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of great humanity, sunk silenced there,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With stillness so supreme, that pulses beat</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">More quickly from the contrast, and the soul</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hearkened to listen, humbled and subdued</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As when the Saviour uttered 'Peace, be still.'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The tardy laborer, walled within the town,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Brought the uplifted hammer noiseless down,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And stood in meek confession, tool in hand.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The mother hushed the baby lullaby,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And o'er her sleeping innocence exhaled</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Voiceless thanksgiving. Children ceased to play,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Feeling an awe they comprehended not,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And stood, unconscious of their beauty's pose,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As those Murillo's pencil glorifies.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Upon the airy esplanade the steed</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No longer pawed the air in wantonness,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But, like his compeer of the fabled song,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stood statued with his rider, while below</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The beggar ceased his cry importunate,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And to a Higher Almoner than man</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sent up a dumb appeal. In folly's court</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The laugh was hushed, and the half-uttered jest</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fell witless into air, and burning thought</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cooled, as it flowed, unmoulded into speech.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As throbbed the distant bell with serious pause,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Standing bareheaded in the dewless air,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or prostrate in their penitence to earth,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or bending with veiled lids,&mdash;the people prayed.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then was that moment, in its muteness, worth</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The laboring day that bore it, for all sense</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Seemed filtered of its grossness; what was earth</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sunk settling with the dust to earth again,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As through the calm, pure atmosphere, arose</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_559" id="Page_559">[Pg 559]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">One mingling meditation unto Heaven.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Oh, beautiful is silence, when it falls</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On housed assemblies bowed in voiceless prayer:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But when it lays its finger on the heart</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of a great city, stilling all the wheels</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of life's employment, that to Heaven may turn</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Its many thousand reverend breathing souls</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With gesture simultaneous; when proud man</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Like multitudinous marble, moveless stands</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With God communing, then does silence seem,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In its unworded eloquence, sublime.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Therein, doth Romish worship point rebuke</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To him who doth ignore it, for therein</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">It rises to a majesty of praise</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O'erspanning huge cathedrals, for it makes</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The censer, candle, rosary, and book</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But senseless mockeries.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 16em;">So sunk the sun</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Till on its amber throne, like drapery doffed,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lay piled th' imperial purple. Then the stir</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of an awakened world swept through the crowd,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As forest leaves are wind-swept after lulls,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And, with the sense of a renewing joy,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The murmurous people turned them to their homes.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Manila</span>, 1856.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="MY_MARYLAND" id="MY_MARYLAND"></a>MY MARYLAND!</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SEPTEMBER RAID.</h3>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They took thy boots, they took thy coats,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;">My Maryland!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And paid for them in 'Confed' notes,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;">My Maryland!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They gobbled down thy corn like goats,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And rooted up thy truck like shoats,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But then&mdash;they didn't get thy votes</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Or volunteers&mdash;my Maryland!</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_560" id="Page_560">[Pg 560]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="A_MERCHANTS_STORY" id="A_MERCHANTS_STORY"></a>A MERCHANT'S STORY.</h2>
+
+<p class='center'>
+'All of which I saw, and part of which I was.'
+</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h3>
+
+<p>On the cleared plot in front of the store were assembled, as I have
+said, about a hundred men, women, and children, witnessing a 'turkey
+match.' It was a motley gathering. All classes and colors and ages were
+there. The young gentleman who boasted his hundred darkies, and the
+small planter who worked in the field with his five negroes; the 'poor
+trash' who scratched a bare subsistence from a sorry patch of beans and
+'collards,' and the swearing, staggering bully who did not condescend to
+do anything; the young child that could scarcely walk alone, and the old
+man who could hardly stand upright; the brawny field hand who had toiled
+over night to finish his task in time for 'de shootin;' and the
+well-dressed body servant who had roused 'young massa oncommon airly'
+for the same purpose; all, white, black, and yellow&mdash;and some neither
+white, black, nor yellow&mdash;were there; scattered over various parts of
+the ground, engaged in lounging, playing, drinking, smoking, chewing,
+chatting, swearing, wrangling, and looking on at the turkey match.</p>
+
+<p>A live turkey was fastened to an ordinary bean pole, in a remote quarter
+of the ground, and when I emerged from the cabin, seven or eight
+'natives' had entered for 'a shot.' The payment of a 'bit,' 'cash down,'
+to Tom, who officiated as master of ceremonies, secured a chance of
+hitting the turkey's head with a rifle bullet at 'long distance.' Any
+other 'hit' was considered 'foul,' and passed for nothing. Whoever shot
+the mark took the prize, and was expected to 'treat the crowd.' As 'the
+crowd' seemed a thirsty one, it struck me that turkey would prove
+expensive eating to the fortunate shots; but they were oblivious to
+expense, and in a state of mind that unfitted them for close financial
+calculations.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly every marksman present had 'carried off his poultry,' and Tom had
+already reaped a harvest of dimes from the whiskey drinking. 'Why, bless
+ye,' he said to me, 'I should be broke, clean done up, if it warn't fur
+the drinks; I haint got more'n a bit, or three fips, fur nary a fowl;
+the fust shot allers brings down the bird; they're all cocksure on the
+trigger&mdash;ary man on 'em kin hit a turkey's eye at a hundred paces.' This
+was true; and in such schools were trained the unerring marksmen who are
+now 'bringing down' the bravest youth of our country, like fowls at a
+turkey match.</p>
+
+<p>A disturbance had broken out on a remote part of the ground, and,
+noticing about twenty negro men and women seated on a log near by, I
+went in that direction, in hopes of meeting the negro trader. It was a
+dog fight. Inside an imaginary ring about ten feet in diameter, two dogs
+were clenched in what seemed a life-and-death struggle. One was holding
+the other down by the lower jaw, while a man, evidently the owner of the
+half-vanquished brute, was trying to separate them. Outside this ring
+about twenty other brutes&mdash;men, women, and children&mdash;were cheering the
+combatants, and calling on the meddler to desist. It was strange how the
+peacemaker managed to stand up against the volleys of oaths they
+showered on him; he did, however, and persisted in his laudable efforts,
+till a tall, rawboned, heavy-jawed fellow stepped into the ring, and,
+taking him by the collar, pulled him away, saying: 'Let 'em be&mdash;it's a
+fair fight; d&mdash;&mdash; yer pictur&mdash;let 'em alone.'</p>
+
+<p>'Take thet! you whelp,' said the other, planting a heavy blow between<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_561" id="Page_561">[Pg 561]</a></span>
+the intruder's eyes. Blow followed blow; they clenched; went down; rose
+up; fought on&mdash;at one end of the ring the canines, at the other the
+humans; while the rest looked on, shouting, 'Let 'er rip! Go in, Wade!
+Hit 'im agin! Smash his mug! Pluck the grizzly! Hurrah fur Smith! Drown
+his peepers! Never say die! Go in agin!' till the blood flowed, and dogs
+and men rolled over on the ground together.</p>
+
+<p>Disgusted with this exhibition of nineteenth-century civilization, I
+turned and walked away. As I did so, I noticed, following me at a short
+distance, a well-dressed man of about thirty-five. He wore a slouched
+hat, a gray coat and lower garments, and enormous high-top boots, to one
+of which was affixed a brass spur. Over his shoulder, holding the two
+ends in his hands, he carried a strong, flexible whip, silver mounted,
+and polished like patent leather. He was about six feet high, stoutly
+built, with a heavy, inexpressive face, and a clear, sharp gray eye. One
+glance satisfied me that he was the negro trader.</p>
+
+<p>As he approached he held out his hand in a free, hearty way, saying:
+'Cunnel, good evenin'.'</p>
+
+<p>'Good evenin',' I replied, intentionally adopting his accent; 'but yer
+wrong, stranger; I'm nary cunnel.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Major, then?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, Gin'ral; not even a sargint.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then ye're <i>Squire</i>&mdash;&mdash;,' and he hesitated for me to fill up the blank.</p>
+
+<p>'No; not even Squire&mdash;&mdash;,' I added, laughing. 'I've nary title; I'm
+plain <i>Mister</i> Kirke; nothin' else.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, <i>Mister</i> Kirke, ye're the fust man I've met in the hull Suthern
+country who wus jest nobody at all; and drot me ef I doan't like ye
+for't. Ev'ry d&mdash;&mdash;d little upstart, now-a-days, has a handle ter his
+name&mdash;they all b'long ter the nobility, ha! ha!' and he again brought
+his hand down upon mine with a concussion that made the woods ring.</p>
+
+<p>'Come,' he added; 'let's take a drink.'</p>
+
+<p>'Glad ter drink with ye, stranger; but I karn't go Tom's sperrets&mdash;it's
+hard ter take.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's a fact, but I keeps the raal stuff. That's the pizen fur ye;' he
+replied, holding up a small willow flask, and starting toward the bar.
+Entering a cloud of tobacco smoke, and groping our way over groups of
+drunken chivalry, who lay 'loosely around,' we approached the counter.</p>
+
+<p>'Har, you lousy sorrel-top,' said the trader to the red-faced and
+red-headed bar tender; 'har, give us some mugs.'</p>
+
+<p>'Sorrel-top' placed two glasses on the counter, and my new acquaintance
+proceeded to rinse them thoroughly. They were of a clear grass-green
+color, and holding one up to the light, the trader said: 'Now luk a'
+them. Them's 'bout as green as the fellers that drink out on 'em&mdash;a
+man's stumac's got ter be of cast iron ter stand the stuff they sell
+har.'</p>
+
+<p>'It's better'n you kin 'ford ter drink,' exclaimed the bar tender, in
+high dudgeon.</p>
+
+<p>'Who spoke ter ye&mdash;take thet!' rejoined the trader, discharging the
+contents of the glass full in the man's face. The sorrel-crowned worthy
+bore the indignity silently, evidently deeming discretion the better
+part of valor.</p>
+
+<p>'Buy'n ony nigs, Kirke?' said the trader, inserting his arm in mine, and
+leading me away from the shanty: 'I've got a prime lot&mdash;<i>prime</i>;' and he
+smacked his lips together at the last word, in the manner that is common
+to professional liquor tasters. He scented a trade afar off, and his
+organs of taste, sympathizing with his olfactories, gave out that token
+of satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I doan't know. What ye got?'</p>
+
+<p>'Some o' the likeliest property ye ever seed&mdash;men and wimmin. All bought
+round har; haint ben ter Virginny yit. Come 'long, I'll show ye;' and he
+proceeded toward the group of chattels. He was becoming altogether too
+familiar, but I called to mind a favorite maxim of good old Mr.
+Russell&mdash;<i>Necessitus non arbit legum</i>&mdash;and quietly submitted.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_562" id="Page_562">[Pg 562]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The negroes were seated on a fallen pine, in a remote quarter of the
+ground, and were chained together by the wrists, in gangs of four or
+five, the outside one having one hand secured by a cord bound about the
+waist. The men wore woollen hats, and the women neat Madras turbans, and
+both had thick linsey clothing, warm enough for any weather. Their dusky
+faces were sleek and oily, and their kinky locks combed as straight as
+nature would permit. The trader had 'rigged them up,' as a jockey 'rigs
+up' his horses for market.</p>
+
+<p>Pausing before a brawny specimen of the yellow species, he said: 'Thar,
+Kirke, luk o' thar; thar's a boy fur ye&mdash;a nig thet kin work&mdash;'tend ten
+thousand boxes (turpentine) easy. He's the sort. Prime stuff
+<i>thet</i>&mdash;(feeling of his arms and thighs)&mdash;hard&mdash;hard as rock&mdash;siners
+like rope. Come o' good stock, he did&mdash;the old Devereaux blood&mdash;(a
+highly respectable family in those parts)&mdash;they's the raal quality&mdash;none
+on yer shams or mushrooms; but genuwine 'stockracy&mdash;blamed if they
+haint. What d'ye say ter him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, he moight do, p'raps&mdash;but I rather reckon ye've done him up sum;
+'iled his face, greased his wool, and sech like. It's all right, ye
+know&mdash;onything's far in trade; but ye karn't come it over me, ole
+feller. I'm up ter sech doin's. I <i>am</i>, Mr.&mdash;&mdash;,' and I paused for him
+to finish the sentence.</p>
+
+<p>'Larkin,' he added quickly and good-humoredly; 'Jake Larkin, and yours,
+by&mdash;&mdash;,' and he gave my hand another shake. 'Yer one on 'em, I swar, and
+I own up; I <i>hev</i> 'iled em' a trifle&mdash;jest a trifle; but ye kin see
+through thet; we hev ter do it ter fix the green 'uns, ye knows.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I knows&mdash;'iled 'em inside and out, haint ye?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, on my soul&mdash;only one glass ter day&mdash;true as preachin'.'</p>
+
+<p>'Boy,' I said to the yellow man, 'how much whiskey hev ye drunk ter day?
+Now, tell the truth.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nary drop, massa; hed a moufful o' <i>sperrets</i>&mdash;a berry little
+moufful&mdash;dat's all.'</p>
+
+<p>'Taint 'nough, Larkin! Come, now, doan't be mean with nigs. Give 'em sum
+more&mdash;sum o' thet tall brandy o' your'n; a good swig. They karn't stand
+it out har in the cold without a little warmin' up.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I'm blamed ef I won't. Har, you, Jim,' speaking to a well-dressed
+darky standing near. 'Har, go ter thet red-headed woodpecker, thar at
+the cabin, and tell him I'll smash his peepers if he doan't send me sum
+glasses ter onst&mdash;d'ye har? Go.'</p>
+
+<p>The gentlemanly darky went, and soon returned with the glassware; and
+meanwhile Larkin directed another well-clad negro man to 'bring the
+jugs.' They were strung across the back of a horse which was tied near,
+and, uncorking one of them, the trader said: 'I allers carry my own
+pizen. 'Taint right to give even nigs sech hell-fire as they sell round
+har; it git's a feller's stumac used ter tophet 'fore the rest on him is
+'climated.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, it does,' I replied; 'it's the devil's own warming pan.'</p>
+
+<p>Each negro received a fair quantity of the needed beverage, and seemed
+the better for it. A little brandy, 'for the stomach's sake,' is enjoyed
+by those dusky denizens of the low latitudes.</p>
+
+<p>When they were all supplied, the trader said to me: 'Now, what d'ye say,
+Kirke? What'll ye give fur the boy?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I reckon I doan't want no boys jest now; and I doan't know as I
+wants ary 'ooman nother; but if ye've got a right likely gal&mdash;one
+thet'll sew, and nuss good&mdash;I moight buy her fur a friend o' mine. His
+wife's hed twins, and he moight use her ter look arter the young 'uns.'</p>
+
+<p>'Young or old?'</p>
+
+<p>'Young and sprightly.'</p>
+
+<p>'They is high, ye knows&mdash;but thar's a gal that'll suit. Git up gals;'
+and a row of five women rose: 'No; git up thar, whar we kin see ye.'
+They stepped up on the log. 'Now, thar's a gal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_563" id="Page_563">[Pg 563]</a></span> fur ye,' he continued,
+pointing to a clean, tidy mulatto woman, not more than nineteen, with a
+handsome but meek, sorrow-marked face: 'Luk at thet!' and he threw up
+her dress to her knees, while the poor girl reached down her shackled
+hands in the vain effort to prevent the indignity. He was about to show
+off other good points, when I said: 'Never mind&mdash;I see what she is. Let
+'em git down.'</p>
+
+<p>They resumed their seats, and he continued: 'Thet's jest the gal ye
+wants, Kirke&mdash;good at nussin', wet or dry; good at breedin', too; hed
+two young 'uns, a'ready. Ye kin * * * * *' [The rest of this discourse
+will not bear repeating.]</p>
+
+<p>'No, thank you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, jest as ye say. She's sound, though; sold fur no fault. Har young
+massa's ben a-usin' on har&mdash;young 'uns are his'n. Old man got pious;
+couldn't stand sech doin's no how&mdash;ter home&mdash;so he says ter me, 'Jake,
+says he, take har ter Orleans&mdash;she's jest the sort&mdash;ye'll make money
+sellin' har ter some o' them young bloods. Ha! ha! thet's religion for
+ye! I doan't know, Kirke, mebbe ye b'long ter the church, and p'raps yer
+one o' the screamin' sort; but any how, I say, d&mdash;&mdash; sech religion as
+thet. Jake Larkin's a spec'lator, but he wouldn't do a thing like
+thet&mdash;ef he would, d&mdash;&mdash; him.'</p>
+
+<p>[The dealer in negroes never applies the term 'trader' to himself; he
+prefers the softer word, 'speculator.' The phrase 'negro trader' is used
+only by the rest of the community, who are 'holier than he.']</p>
+
+<p>'I doan't b'lieve ye would, Larkin; yer a good fellow, at bottom, I
+reckon.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Kirke, yer a trump. Come, hev another drink.'</p>
+
+<p>'No; excuse me; karn't stand more'n one horn a day: another'd lay me out
+flatter'n a stewpan. But ter business. How much fur thet gal&mdash;cash down?
+Come, talk it out.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, at a word&mdash;twelve hun'red.'</p>
+
+<p>'Too much; bigger'n my pile; couldn't put so much inter one gal, nohow.
+Wouldn't give thet money fur ary nig in Car'lina.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, buy me, good massa. Mister Larkin'll take less'n dat, I reckon;
+<i>do</i> buy me,' said the girl, who had been eying me very closely during
+the preceding dialogue.</p>
+
+<p>'I would, my good girl, if I could; but you'll not exactly suit my
+friend.'</p>
+
+<p>'Buy har fur yourself, then, Kirke. She'd suit you. She's sound, I tell
+ye&mdash;ye'd make money on har.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not much, I reckon,' I replied, dryly.</p>
+
+<p>'Why not? She'll breed like a rabbit.' * * * * *</p>
+
+<p>'I wouldn't own her for the whole State: if I had her, I'd free her on
+the spot!' The cool bestiality of the trader disgusted me, and I forgot
+myself.</p>
+
+<p>He started back surprised; then quietly remarked: 'Ye're a Nutherner, I
+swar; no corncracker ever held sech doctrines as them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' I replied, dropping the accent, which my blunder had rendered
+useless; 'I <i>am</i> a Northerner; but I want a nurse, notwithstanding, for
+a friend.'</p>
+
+<p>'Whar d'ye live?' asked the trader, in the same free, good-natured tone
+as before.</p>
+
+<p>'In New York.'</p>
+
+<p>'In York! What! Yer not Mr. Kirke, of Randall, Kirke &amp; Co.? But,
+blamenation, ye <i>ar</i>! How them whiskers has altered ye! I <i>thort</i> I'd
+seed ye afore. Haint ye come it over me slick? Tuk in clean, swallered
+hull. But thar's my hand, Mr. Kirke; I'm right glad ter see ye.'</p>
+
+<p>'Where have you met me, my good fellow? I don't remember <i>you</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>'Down ter Orleans. Seed ye inter Roye, Struthers &amp; Co.'s. The ole man
+thinks a heap o' you; ye give 'em a pile of business, doan't ye.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, not much of our own. They buy cotton for our English
+correspondents, and negotiate through us, that is all. Roye is a fine
+old gentleman.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_564" id="Page_564">[Pg 564]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Yes, he ar; I'm in with him.'</p>
+
+<p>'How <i>in</i> with him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, in this business&mdash;we go snacks; I do the buyin', and he finds the
+rocks. We use a pile&mdash;sometimes a hun'red, sometimes two hun'red
+thousand.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is it possible! Then you do a large business?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, right smart; I handle 'bout a thousand&mdash;big and little&mdash;ev'ry
+year.'</p>
+
+<p>'That <i>is</i> large. You do not buy and sell them all, yourself, do you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, no? I hardly ever sells; once in a while I run agin a buyer&mdash;<i>like
+you</i>&mdash;ha! ha!&mdash;and let one drap; but gin'rally I cage 'em, and when I
+git 'bout a hun'red together, I take 'em ter Orleans, and auction 'em
+off. Thar's no fuss and dicker 'bout thet, ye knows.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I know! But how do you manage so large a gang? I should think some
+would get away.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, they doan't. I put the ribands on 'em; and, 'sides, ye see them
+boys, thar?' pointing to three splendid specimens of property, loitering
+near; 'I've hed them boys nigh on ter ten year, and I haint lost nary a
+nig sense I had 'em. They're cuter and smarter nor I am, any day.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then you pick the negroes up round the country, and send them to a
+rendezvous, where you put them in jail till you make up your number?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, the boys takes 'em down ter the pen. I'm pickin' sum up round har,
+now, ye see, and I send 'em ter Goldsboro'. When I've toted these down
+thar, the boys and I'll go up ter Virginny.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why don't you send them on by stage? I should think it would hurt them
+to camp out at this season.'</p>
+
+<p>'Hurt 'em! Lord bless ye, fresh air never hurt a nig; they're never so
+happy as sleepin' on the groun', with nothin' over 'em, and thar heels
+close ter a light-wood fire.'</p>
+
+<p>'But the delicate house women and the children, can they bear it?'</p>
+
+<p>'It do come a trifle hard on them, but it doan't last long. I allers
+takes ter the railroad when I gets a gang together.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, come; I want a woman. Show me all you have.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do ye mean so, raally, Mr. Kirke? I thort ye wus a comin' it on me, and
+I swar ye does do the Suthern like a native. I'm blamed ef I didn't
+s'pose ye b'longed round har. Ha! ha! How the ole man would larf ter
+hear it!'</p>
+
+<p>'But I <i>am</i> a native, Larkin; born within sight of Bunker Hill.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, thet kind o' native; and them's the sort, too. They make all-fired
+smart spec'lators. I knows a dozen on 'em, thet hev made thar pile, and
+haint older'n I am, nother.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is it possible! Yankees in this business?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, lots on 'em. Some on yer big folks up ter York and Bostin are in
+it deep; but they go the 'portin' line, gin'rally, and thet&mdash;d&mdash;d if
+<i>I'd</i> do it, anyhow.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, about the woman. None of these will do; are they all you have?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, I've got one more, but I've sort o' 'lotted har ter a young feller
+down ter Orleans. He told me ter git him jest sech a gal. She's 'most
+white, and brought up tender like, and them kind is high prized, ye
+knows.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I know; but where is she&mdash;let me see her?'</p>
+
+<p>'She's in the store;' and rising, he led the way to the shanty.</p>
+
+<p>When we arrived at the part of the ground where the marksmen were
+stationed, we found an altercation going on between Tom and a young
+planter. It appeared that the young man had paid for a shot, and
+insisted on his body servant taking his place in the lists. To that Tom,
+and the stout yeomen who had entered for the turkey, objected, on
+account of the yellow man's station and complexion.</p>
+
+<p>The young gentleman was dressed in the highest style of fashion, and,
+though not more than nineteen, was evidently a 'blood' of 'the very
+first water.' The body servant was a good-looking quad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_565" id="Page_565">[Pg 565]</a></span>roon, and sported
+an enormous diamond pin and a heavy gold watch chain. In his sleek
+beaver hat, and nicely-brushed suit of black broadcloth, he looked a
+much better-dressed gentleman than any one on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>As we approached, Tom, every pimple on his red face swelling with
+virtuous indignation, was delivering himself of the following harangue:</p>
+
+<p>'We doan't put ourselfs on a futtin' with niggers, Mr. Gaston. We doan't
+keer if they do b'long ter kid-gloved 'ristocrats like ye is; they
+karn't come in har, no how! Ye'd better go home. Ye orter be in better
+business then prowlin' round shootin' matches, with yer scented,
+bedevilled-up buck niggers. Go home, and wash the smell out o' yer
+cloes. Yer d&mdash;&mdash;d muskmelon (Tom's word for musk) makes ye smell jest
+like hurt skunks; and ye ar skunks, clar through ter the innards. Whew!
+Clar e&ouml;ut, I tell ye!'</p>
+
+<p>The young man's face reddened. The blood of the chivalry was rising. He
+replied:</p>
+
+<p>'Keep a civil tongue in your head, you thieving scoundrel; if you don't,
+the next time I catch you trading with my nigs, I'll see you get a
+hundred lashes; d&mdash;&mdash;d if I don't.'</p>
+
+<p>Tom bade him go to a very warm latitude, and denied trading with
+negroes.</p>
+
+<p>'You lie, you sneaking whelp; you've got the marks on your back now, for
+dealing with Pritchett's.'</p>
+
+<p>Tom returned the lie, when the young man's face grew a trifle redder,
+and his whip rising in the air, it fell across Tom's nose in a very
+uncomfortable manner&mdash;for Tom. The liquor vender reeled, but, recovering
+himself in a moment, he aimed a heavy blow at the young gentleman's
+frontispiece. That 'parlor ornament' would have been sadly disfigured,
+had not the darky caught the stroke on his left arm, and at the same
+moment planted what the 'profession' call a 'wiper,' just behind Tom's
+left ear. Tom's private dram shop went down&mdash;'caved in'&mdash;was 'laid out
+sprawling;' and two or three minutes elapsed before it got on its legs
+again. When it did, it frothed at the mouth like a mug of ale with too
+much head on it.</p>
+
+<p>They were not more than six paces apart, when Tom rose, and drawing a
+double-barrelled pistol from his pocket, aimed it at the planter. The
+latter was in readiness for him. His six-shooter was level with Tom's
+breast, and his hand on the trigger, when, just as he seemed ready to
+fire, the negro trader coolly stepped before him, and twisted the weapon
+from his hand. Turning then to Tom, Larkin said, 'Now, you clar out.
+Make tracks, or I'll lamm ye like blamenation. Be off, I tell ye,' he
+added as Tom showed an unwillingness to move. 'A sensible man like ye
+arn't a gwine ter waste good powder on sech a muskrat sort of a thing as
+this is, is ye? Come, clar!' and he placed his hand on Tom's shoulder,
+and accelerated his rather slow movements toward the groggery. Returning
+then to the young man, he said:</p>
+
+<p>'And now you, Mr. Gustavus Adolphus Pocahontas Powhatan Gaston, s'pose
+<i>you</i> clar out, too?'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall go when I please&mdash;not before,' said Mr. Gaston.</p>
+
+<p>'You'll please mighty sudden, then, <i>I</i> reckon. A young man of your
+edication should be 'bout better business than gittin' inter brawls with
+low groggery keepers, and 'sultin' decent white folks with your
+scented-up niggers. Yer a disgrace ter yer good ole father, and them as
+was afore him. With yer larnin' and money ye moight be doin' suthin' fur
+them as is below ye; but instead o' thet, yer doin' nothin' but hangin'
+round bar rooms, gittin' drunk, playin' cards, drivin' fast hosses, and
+keepin' nigger wimmin. I'm ashamed o' ye. Yer gwine straight ter hell,
+ye is; and the hull country's gwine thar, too, 'cause it's raisin' a
+crap of jest sech idle, no-account, blusterin', riproaring young fools
+as you is. Now, go home. Make tracks ter onst, or I'll hev thet d&mdash;&mdash;d<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_566" id="Page_566">[Pg 566]</a></span>
+nigger's neck o' your'n stretched fur strikin' a white man, I will! Ye
+knows me, and I'll do it, as sure's my name's Jake Larkin.'</p>
+
+<p>The young planter listened rather impatiently to this harangue, but said
+nothing. When it was concluded, he told his servant to bring up the
+horses; and then turning to the trader, said:</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Right Reverend Mr. Larkin, you'll please to make yourself scarce
+around the plantation in future. If you come near it, just remember that
+we <i>keep dogs</i>, and that we use them for chasing&mdash;<i>niggers</i>.' The last
+word was emphasized in a way that showed he classed Larkin with the
+wares he dealt in.</p>
+
+<p>'Yer father, young man, is a honest man, and a gentleman. He knows I'm
+one, if I <i>do</i> trade in niggers; and he'll want ter see me when I want
+ter come.'</p>
+
+<p>The negro by this time had brought up the horses. 'Good evening, Mr.
+Larkin,' said young Hopeful, as he mounted and rode off.</p>
+
+<p>'Good evenin', replied the trader, coolly, but respectfully.</p>
+
+<p>'Good evenin', <i>Mister</i> Larkin,' said the gentleman's gentleman, as he
+also mounted to ride off. The emphasis on the 'Mister' was too much for
+the trader, and taking one spring toward the darky, he laid his stout
+whip across his face. The scented ebony roared, and just then his horse,
+a high-blooded animal, reared and threw him. When he had gathered
+himself up, Larkin made several warm applications of his thick boot to
+the inexpressible part of the darky's person, and, roaring with pain,
+that personage made off at a gait faster than that of his runaway horse.</p>
+
+<p>During the affray the occupants of the ground gathered around the
+belligerents; but as soon as it was over, they went quietly back to
+'old-sledge' 'seven-up,' 'pitch-and-toss,' 'chuck-a-luck,' and the
+'turkey match.'</p>
+
+<p>As we walked toward the shanty, the trader said: 'Thet feller's a fool.
+What a chance he's throwin' away! He arn't of no more use than a rotten
+coon skin or a dead herrin', he arn't. All on our young bucks is jest
+like him. The country's going to the devil, sure;' and with this choice
+bit of moralizing, he entered the cabin.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h3>
+
+<p>The Squire was pacing to and fro in the upper end of the room, and the
+woman and children were seated on the low bench near the counter.
+Phyllis lifted her eyes to my face as I entered, with a hopeful,
+inquiring expression, but they fell again when the trader said: 'Thet's
+the gal fur ye, Mr. Kirke; the most perfectest gal in seven States; good
+at onything, washin', ironin', nussin', breedin'; rig'larly fotched up;
+worth her weight in gold; d&mdash;&mdash;d if she haint.' Turning then to Preston,
+he exclaimed: 'Why, Squire, how ar ye?'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well,' replied my friend, coolly.</p>
+
+<p>'How's times?' continued the trader.</p>
+
+<p>'Very well,' said Preston, in a tone which showed a decided distaste for
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, glad on it. I heerd ye were hard put. Glad on it, Squire.'</p>
+
+<p>The Squire took no further notice of him; and, turning to his property,
+the trader said: 'Stand up, gal, and let me show the gentleman what yer
+made of. Doan't look so down in the mouth, gal; this gentleman's got a
+friend thet'll keep ye in the style ye's fotched up ter.'</p>
+
+<p>Phyllis rose and made a strong effort to appear composed.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Mr. Kirke, luk at thet rig,' said Larkin, seizing her rudely by
+the arm and turning her half around; 'straight's a rail. Luk at thet
+ankle and fut&mdash;nimble's a squirrel, and healthy!&mdash;why, ye couldn't
+sicken har if ye put har ter hosspetal work.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, never mind. I see what she is. What's your price?'</p>
+
+<p>'But ye haint seed har, yit! She's puny like, I knows, but she's solid,
+<i>I</i> reckon; thar haint a pound of loose stuff on har&mdash;it's all muscle.
+See thar&mdash;jest look o' thet,' and he stripped the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_567" id="Page_567">[Pg 567]</a></span> sleeve of her dress
+to the elbow; 'thar's a arm fur ye&mdash;whiter'n buttermilk, and harder'n
+cheese. Feel on't.'</p>
+
+<p>The poor woman submitted meekly to this rough handling of her person,
+but I said impatiently:</p>
+
+<p>'I tell you, Larkin, I'm satisfied. Name your price. I've no time to
+lose: the stage will be along in five minutes.'</p>
+
+<p>'The stage! Lord bless ye, Mr. Kirke, it's broke down&mdash;'twon't be har
+fur an hour&mdash;I knows. Now look o' thet,' he continued, drawing the poor
+woman's thin dress tightly across her limbs, while he proceeded, despite
+my repeated attempts to interrupt him, with his disgusting exhibitions,
+which it would be disgraceful even to describe. 'Ye doan't mind, do ye,
+gal?' he added, chucking her under the chin in a rude, familiar way, and
+giving a brutal laugh. Phyllis shrank away from him, but made no reply.
+She had evidently braced her mind to the ordeal, and was prepared to
+bear anything rather than offend him. I determined to stop any further
+proceeding, and said to him:</p>
+
+<p>'I tell you, Larkin, I'm satisfied. I cannot waste more time in this
+manner. Name your price at once.'</p>
+
+<p>'Time! Mr. Kirke? why yer time arn't worth nothin' jest now. The stage
+won't be 'long till dark. Ye haint seed half on har, yit. I doan't want
+ter sell ye a damaged article. I want ter show ye she's sound's a
+nut&mdash;<i>ye won't pay my price ef I doan't</i>. Look a thar, now,' and with a
+quick, dexterous movement, he tore open the front of her dress. * * * * *</p>
+
+<p>The poor girl, unable to use her hands, bent over nearly double, and
+strained the children to her breast to hide her shame. A movement at the
+other end of the room made me look at the Squire. With his jaws set, his
+hands clenched, and his face on fire, he bounded toward the trader. In a
+moment he would have been upon him. My own blood boiled, but, knowing
+that an outbreak would be fatal to our purpose, I planted myself firmly
+in his way, and said, as I took him by the arm and held him by main
+force:</p>
+
+<p>'Stand back, Preston; this is my affair.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Squire,' added the trader, 'ye'd better be quiet. Ye'll turn
+trader, yerself, yit. If things is true, ye'll have ter begin on yer own
+nigs, mighty sudden.'</p>
+
+<p>'If I am brought to that,' replied the Squire, with the calm dignity
+which was natural to him, 'I shall treat them like human beings&mdash;not
+like brutes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ye'll show 'em off the best how ye kin; let ye alone fur thet; I know
+yer hull parson tribe; thar haint nary a honest one among ye.'</p>
+
+<p>Preston turned silently away, as if disdaining to waste words on such a
+subject; and I said to the trader:</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Larkin, I've told you I've no time to lose. Name your price at
+once, or I'll not buy the woman at all.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, jest as ye say, Mr. Kirke. But ye see she's a rare 'un; would
+bring two thousand in Orleans, sure's a gun.'</p>
+
+<p>'Pshaw! you know better than that; but, name your price.'</p>
+
+<p>'What, fur the hull, or the 'ooman alone?'</p>
+
+<p>'Either way; I've no particular use for the children, but I'll buy them
+if cheap.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! <i>do</i> buy us,' cried the little girl, taking hold of my coat; 'do
+buy us&mdash;please do, good massa.'</p>
+
+<p>'Shet up, ye young whelp,' said the trader, raising his whip. The little
+thing slunk back affrighted, and commenced sobbing, but said no more.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Mr. Kirke, the lot cost me sixteen fifty, hard rocks, and 'twas
+dirt cheap, 'cause the 'ooman alone'll bring more'n thet. I couldn't hev
+bought har fur thet, but har owner wus hard up. Ye see he's Gin'ral&mdash;&mdash;,
+down ter Newbern, one of yer rig'lar 'ristocrats, the raal ole-fashioned
+sort&mdash;keeps a big plantation, house in town; fine wines; fine wimmin;
+fast hosses; and goes it mighty strong. Well, he's allers a trifle
+under&mdash;ev'ry year 'bout two thousand short; and ev'ry year I buy a
+couple or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_568" id="Page_568">[Pg 568]</a></span> so of nigs on him ter make it up. He's a pertickerler friend
+o' mine, ye see; he thinks a heap o' me&mdash;he does. Well, when I gets
+'long thar t'other day, he says ter me, says he: 'Lark,' (he allers
+calls me Lark; thet's the name I goes by 'mong my intimate 'quaintance),
+well, says he; 'Lark, thar's Phylly. I want ye ter take har. She's the
+likeliest gal in the world&mdash;good old Virginny blood, father one of the
+raal old stock. Ye knows she's right, good ev'ry way, prays like a camp
+meetin', and virtuous ter kill; thar ain't none round har thet's up to
+har at thet&mdash;tried ter cum round har myself, but couldn't git nigher'n a
+rod&mdash;won't hev but one man, and'll stick ter him like death; jest the
+gal fur one o' them New Orleans bloods as wants one thet'll be true ter
+'em. Do ye take, Lark?' says he. 'Well, I do, says I, and I knows just
+the feller fur har; one of yer raal high-flyers&mdash;rich's a Jew&mdash;twenty
+thousand a year&mdash;lives like a prince&mdash;got one or two on 'em now; but he
+says to me when I comes off, 'Lark,' says he, 'find me a gal, raather
+pale, tidy, hard's a nut, and not bigger'n a cotton bale.' Wall, says I,
+'I will,' and, Gin'ral, Phylly's the gal! She'll hev good times, live
+like a queen, hev wines, dresses, hosses, operas, and all them sort o'
+things&mdash;ye knows them ar fellers doan't stand fur trifles.' 'Yes, I
+knows, Lark,' says the Gin'ral, 'and bein' it's so, ye kin take har,
+Lark; but I wouldn't sell har ter ary nother man livin'&mdash;if I would,
+d&mdash;&mdash;n me. Ye kin hev har, Lark, but ye must take the young 'uns; she's
+got two, ye knows, and it hain't Christian-like ter sell 'em apart.'
+'D&mdash;&mdash;n the young 'uns, Gin'ral,' says I,' I karn't do nary a thing with
+them. What'll one o' them young bloods want o' them? They goes in fur
+home manufactures.' 'Yes, I knows, Lark,' says he, 'but ye kin sell 'em
+off thar&mdash;ony planter'll buy 'em&mdash;they'll pay ter raise. They're two
+likely little gals, ye knows; honest born, white father, and'll make
+han'some wimmin&mdash;han'somer'n thar mother, and sell higher when they's
+grow'd; ye'd better take 'em, Lark. If ye doan't, I'm d&mdash;&mdash;d if I'll
+sell ye the mother; fur, ye see, I <i>must</i> have the hull vally, now,
+that's honest.' 'Wall, Gin'ral,' says I, 'ye allers talks right out,
+that's what I likes in ye. What's the price?' 'Wall,' says he, 'bein'
+it's ye, and ye've a good master in yer eye for Phylly, I'll say two
+thousand fur the lot&mdash;the gal alone'll fetch twenty-five hun'red down
+ter Orleans.' 'Whew!' says I, 'Gin'ral, ye've been a takin' suthin'.
+(But he hadn't; he war soberer than a church clock; 'twarn't more'n
+'lev'n, and he's never drunk 'fore evenin'.) Wall,' says I, 'karn't
+think of it, nohow, Gin'ral.' Then he come down ter eighteen, but I
+counted out sixteen fifty&mdash;good rags of the old State Bank&mdash;and I'm
+blamed if he didn't take it. I'd no idee he wud; but debt, Mr. Kirke,
+debt's the devil&mdash;but it helps us, 'cause, I s'pose (and he laughed his
+hardened, brutal laugh), we do the devil's own work. But be thet how it
+may, if these high flyin' planters didn't run inter it, and hev ter pay
+up, nigger spec'latin' wouldn't be worth follerin'. Well, I took the
+nig's, and thar they is; and bein' it's you, Mr. Kirke, and yer a friend
+of the ole man, you shill hev the lot fur a hun'red and fifty more, or
+the 'ooman alone fur fifteen hun'red; but ary nother white man couldn't
+toch 'em fur less'n two thousand&mdash;if they could, d&mdash;&mdash;n me.'</p>
+
+<p>The stage had not arrived, and I had submitted to this lengthy harangue,
+because I saw I could more certainly accomplish the purchase by
+indulging the humor of the trader. The suspense was, no doubt, agony to
+Phyllis, and the Squire manifested decided impatience, but the delay
+seemed unavoidable. It was difficult for Preston to control himself. He
+chafed like a chained tiger. At first he paced up and down the farther
+side of the apartment, then sat down, then rose and paced the room
+again, and then again sat down, every now and then glaring upon Larkin
+with a look of savage ferocity that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_569" id="Page_569">[Pg 569]</a></span> showed the wild beast was rising in
+him. The trader once in a while looked toward him with a cool unconcern
+that indicated two things: nerves of iron, and perfect familiarity with
+such demonstrations.</p>
+
+<p>Fearing an explosion, I at last stepped up to the Squire, and said to
+him in a low tone: 'Let me beg of you to leave the room&mdash;<i>do</i>&mdash;you may
+spoil all.' He made no reply, but did as I requested.</p>
+
+<p>When he had gone, Larkin remarked, in an indifferent way, 'The Squire's
+got the devil in him. He's some when his blood's up&mdash;edged tools,
+dangerous ter handle&mdash;he is&mdash;I knows him.' I'd ruther have six like Tom
+on me, ony time, than one like him. But he karn't skeer me. The man
+doan't breathe thet kin turn Jake Larkin a hair.'</p>
+
+<p>'I see he's excited,' I replied; 'but why is he so interested in this
+woman?'</p>
+
+<p>'Why? She was fotched up 'long with him&mdash;children together. He owned har
+till he got in the nine-holes one day, and sold har ter the Gin'ral. I'd
+bet a pile the young 'uns ar his'n. He knows har as he do the psa'm
+book. Ha! ha!' and he laughed his brutal laugh, as, chucking Phyllis
+again under the chin, he asked, 'Doan't he, gal?'</p>
+
+<p>She shrank away from him, but said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>'Doan't be squeamy, gal; out with it; we'll think the more on ye fur't.
+Arn't the young 'uns his'n? Didn't ye b'long ter the Squire till he got
+so d&mdash;&mdash;d pious five year ago?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, master; I belonged to him; Master Robert wus allers pious.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I knows; he wus allers preachin' pious. But didn't ye b'long ter
+him&mdash;ye knows what I means&mdash;till he got so d&mdash;&mdash;d camp-meetin' pious
+five year ago?'</p>
+
+<p>'Master Robert was allers camp-meetin' pious,' replied the woman,
+looking down, and drawing her thin shawl more closely over her open
+bosom.</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' said Larkin, 'ye karn't git nothin' out o' har, but it's
+so&mdash;sartin! Ev'ry 'un says so; and what ev'ry 'un says arn't more'n a
+mile from the truth. Jest look o' that little 'un. Doan't ye see the
+Squire's eyes and forrerd thar?' and he took the little girl roughly by
+the arm, and turned her face toward mine. The lower part of her features
+were like her mother's, but her eyes, hair, and forehead were Preston's!</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I see,' I said; 'but you spoke of two little girls; where is the
+other?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, you see, I bought 'em both, and the Gin'ral give me a bill o'
+sale on 'em; but when we come to look arter the young 'un in the
+mornin', she warn't thar. The Gin'ral's 'ooman&mdash;she's a 'ooman fur me&mdash;a
+hull team&mdash;she makes him stan' round, <i>I</i> reckon. Well, she'd a likin'
+for the little 'un, and she swoore she shouldn't be sold. She told me
+ter my face she'd packed har off whar I couldn't git har, nohow; and she
+said she'd raise the town, and hev me driv' out if I 'tempted it.'</p>
+
+<p>'What did you do then?' I asked.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, ye knows the Gin'ral's a honerubble man; so, when he seed his
+'ooman was sot thet way, he throw'd in the yaller boy&mdash;and he's wuth a
+hun'red more'n the gal, ony day. His mother took on ter kill, 'cause the
+Gin'ral'd sort o' promised him ter har, and she'd been a savin' up ter
+buy him. But the Gin'ral's a honerubble man, and he didn't flinch a
+hair&mdash;not a hair. Thet's the sort ter deal with, I say. I stuck fur the
+little gal, though&mdash;'cause, ye see, I'd takin' a likin' ter har
+myself&mdash;she's the pootiest little thing ye ever seed, she is; but the
+Gin'ral he said 'twarn't no use, fur his 'ooman would have har way, and
+finally I guv in, and took another bill o' sale. And what d'ye think!
+I'd no more'n got it inter my pocket, 'fore the Gin'ral's 'ooman pulled
+out a gold watch, two or three diamond pins, a ring or two, and some
+wimmin's fixin's, and says she, 'See thar, <i>Mister</i> Larkin, them's what
+I got fur the little gal. <i>I've</i> sold har&mdash;sold har this mornin', and
+guv the bill o' sale; and if the Gin'ral doan't cartify it, he woan't
+git no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_570" id="Page_570">[Pg 570]</a></span> peace, I reckon. I was bound ter see one on 'em done right by, I
+was.' Well, I told har she wus ahead o' my time, and I put out raather
+sudden, I did. A 'ooman's the devil; I'd ruther trade with twenty men
+than one 'ooman, I swar.'</p>
+
+<p>When he spoke of her child, the slave woman burst into tears. Her
+emotion drowned the curiosity which had made me a patient listener to
+the trader's story, and recalled me to the business in hand. With some
+twinges of conscience for having kept the wretched girl so long on the
+rack, I said to him, 'Well, Larkin, let's get through with this. Name
+your lowest price for the lot.'</p>
+
+<p>'P'raps you'd as lief throw out the boy. I'll take off three hundred fur
+him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! doan't ye leab Ally, massa; buy Ally too, massa; oh do, good
+massa!' he cried, with an expression of keen agony such as I had never
+till then seen in a child. He was a 'likely' little fellow, with a
+round, good-natured face, and a bright, intelligent eye; and though I
+presumed Preston felt no particular interest in him, I thought of his
+mother, depriving herself of sleep and rest to save up the price of her
+boy, and I said: 'No, I have taken a liking to him; I'll take the whole
+or none.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, then, seventeen fifty, not a dime less. Thet's only a hun'red
+profit.'</p>
+
+<p>'Will a hundred profit satisfy you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, bein' as you's a friend of the ole man, and I hain't had 'em only
+four days.'</p>
+
+<p>I quietly sat down on the bench, beside the little girl, and taking her
+hand in mine, and playing with her small fingers in a careless way,
+said: 'Well, I will give you a hundred profit; but, Larkin,' and I
+looked him directly in the eye and smiled, 'you cannot intend to come
+the Yankee over me! I am one of them myself, you know, and understand
+such things. These people cost you twelve hundred&mdash;not a mill more.'</p>
+
+<p>'The h&mdash;&mdash;ll they did! P'raps ye mean ter say I lie?' he replied, in an
+excited tone, his face reddening with anger.</p>
+
+<p>'No, I don't. I merely state a fact, and you know it. So keep cool.'</p>
+
+<p>'It's a d&mdash;&mdash;d lie, sir. I doan't keer who says it,' he exclaimed, now
+really excited.</p>
+
+<p>'Come, come, my fine fellow,' I said, rising and facing him; 'skip the
+hard words, and don't get up too much steam&mdash;it might hurt you, <i>or your
+friends</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>'What d'ye mean? Speak out, Mr. Kirke. If ye doan't want ter buy 'em,
+say so, and hev done with it.' This was said in a more moderate tone. He
+had evidently taken my meaning, and feared he had gone too far.</p>
+
+<p>'I mean simply this. This woman and the children cost you twelve hundred
+dollars four days ago. Preston wants them&mdash;<i>must</i> have them&mdash;and he will
+give thirteen hundred for them, and pay you in a year, with interest;
+that's all.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, come now, Mr. Kirke, thet's liberal, arn't it! S'pose I doan't
+take it, what then?'</p>
+
+<p>'Then Roye, Struthers &amp; Co. will stop your supplies, <i>or I'll stop
+their's</i>&mdash;that's 'SARTIN',' and I laughed good-humoredly as I said it.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, yer one on 'em, Mr. Kirke, thet's a fact;' and then he added,
+seriously, 'but ye karn't mean to saddle my doin's onter them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I will; and tell them they have you to thank for it.'</p>
+
+<p>'What,' and he struck his forehead with his hand; 'what a dangnation
+fool I wus ter tell ye 'bout them!'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course, you were; and a greater one to say you paid sixteen fifty
+for the property. I'd have given fifteen hundred for them if you had
+told the truth. But come, what do you say; are they Preston's or not?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, I karn't do it; karn't take Preston's note&mdash;'tain't wuth a hill o'
+beans. Give me the money, and it's a trade.'</p>
+
+<p>'Preston is cramped, and cannot pay<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_571" id="Page_571">[Pg 571]</a></span> the money just now. I'll give you
+my note, if you prefer it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Payable in York, interest and exchange?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, it's done. And now, d&mdash;&mdash;n the nigs. I'll never buy ary 'nother
+good-lookin' 'un as long's I live.'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope you won't,' I replied, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>He then produced a blank note and a bill of sale, and drawing from his
+pocket a pen and a small ink bottle, said to me: 'Thar, Mr. Kirke, ye
+fill up the note, and I'll make out the bill o' sale. I'm handy at such
+doin's.'</p>
+
+<p>'Give me the key of these bracelets first. Make out the bill to
+Preston&mdash;Robert Preston, of Jones County.'</p>
+
+<p>He handed me the key, and I unlocked the shackles. 'Now, Phyllis,' I
+said, 'it is over. Go and tell Master Robert.'</p>
+
+<p>She rose, threw her arms wildly above her head, and staggering weakly
+forward, without saying a word, left the cabin. Yelping and leaping with
+joy, the yellow boy followed her; but the little girl came to me, and
+looking up timidly in my face, said: 'O massa! Rosey so glad 'ou got
+mammy&mdash;Rosey <i>so</i> glad. Rosey lub 'ou, massa&mdash;Rosey lub 'ou a heap.' I
+thought of the little girl I had left at home, and with a sudden impulse
+lifted the child from the floor and kissed her. She put her little arms
+about my neck, laid her soft cheek against mine, and burst into tears.
+She was not accustomed to much kindness.</p>
+
+<p>I filled out the note and gave it to the trader; and, with the bill of
+sale in my hand, was about to go in search of Preston, when he and
+Phyllis entered the cabin. I handed him the document, and glancing it
+over, he placed it in his pocket book.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Larkin,' I said, 'this is a wretched business; give it up; there's
+too much of the man in you for this sort of thing.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, p'raps yer right, Mr. Kirke; but I'm in it, and I karn't git out;
+but it seems ter me it tain't no wuss dealin' in 'em then ownin' 'em.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know. Is it not a little worse on the man himself? Does it not
+sort of harden you&mdash;blunt your better feelings, to be always buying and
+selling people that do not want to be bought and sold?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, p'raps it do; it's a cussed business ony how. But thar's my hand,
+Mr. Kirke. Yer a gentleman, I swar, if ye <i>hev</i> come it over me, ha! ha!
+How slick you done it! I likes ye the better fur it; and if Jake Larkin
+kin ever do ye a good turn, he'll do it. I allers takes ter a man thet's
+smarter nor I am, I do,' and he gave my hand another of his powerful
+shakes.</p>
+
+<p>'I thank you, Larkin; and if I can ever serve you, it will give me great
+pleasure to do so.'</p>
+
+<p>'I doan't doubt it, Mr. Kirke, I doan't; and I'll call on ye, sure, if
+ye ever kin do me ony good. Good-by; ye want ter be with the Squire;
+good-by;' and giving my hand another shake, he left the cabin.</p>
+
+<p>Which was the worse&mdash;that coarse, hardened man, or the institution which
+had made him what he was?</p>
+
+<p>It was many years before the trader and I met again. When we did, he
+kept his word!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_572" id="Page_572">[Pg 572]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_UNION" id="THE_UNION"></a>THE UNION.</h2>
+
+<h3>II.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Having stated the course of England on the slavery question and the
+rebellion, gladly would I rest here; but, as a Northern man, by
+parentage, birth, and education, always devoted to the Union, twice
+elected by Mississippi to the Senate of the United States, as the ardent
+opponent of nullification and secession, and, <i>upon that very question</i>,
+having announced in my first address, of January, 1833, the right and
+duty of the Government, by "<i>coercion</i>," if necessary, to suppress
+rebellion or secession by any State, truth and justice compel me to say,
+that we of the North, next to England, are responsible for the
+introduction of slavery into the South. Upon a much smaller scale than
+England, but, under her flag, which was then ours, and the force of
+colonial tradition, we followed the wretched example of England, and
+Northern vessels, sailing from Northern ports, and owned by Northern
+merchants, brought back to our shores from Africa their living cargoes.</p>
+
+<p>Small numbers only of these slaves were brought from their tropical
+African homes to the colder North, where their labor was unprofitable,
+but, were taken to the South, and against their earnest protest, forced
+upon them. It was not the South that engaged in the African slave trade.
+It was not the South that brought slavery into America. No, it was
+forced upon the South, against their protest, mainly by England, but
+partly, also, by the North. Believing, as I do, that this war was
+produced by slavery, we should still remember by whom the slaves were
+imported here.</p>
+
+<p>Nor should we forget how zealously, from first to last, Virginia,
+Maryland, and Delaware, in framing the Federal Constitution, sustained
+by Washington, Franklin, and Hamilton, and by New York, Pennsylvania,
+and New Jersey, opposed the continuance, even for a day, of the African
+slave trade, and how they were overborne by the unfortunate coalition of
+the Eastern States with Georgia and the Carolinas, legalizing the
+execrable traffic for twenty years, and how fearfully the predictions of
+those great prophet statesmen, George Mason, of Virginia, and Luther
+Martin, of Maryland, have been fulfilled, that this fatal measure, by
+the force of its moral influence in favor of slavery, and by the rapid
+importation of negroes here, would menace the peace and safety of the
+Union.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, when the Constitution was framed, Virginia, Maryland, and
+Delaware, not only opposed the African slave trade, but interdicted the
+interstate slave trade. All these States then regarded slavery as a
+great evil, destined soon to disappear, and the failure to adopt gradual
+emancipation arose, mainly, from the fact, that the majority could not
+agree as to the practical details of the measure. In Virginia,
+Washington, Jefferson, George Mason, Madison and Monroe, Marshall and
+St. George Tucker, were all gradual emancipationists. Even as late as
+1830, the measure failed, only by a single vote in the Virginia State
+Convention; and this year, Western Virginia has voted for manumission
+with great unanimity. Let us then, as a nation, do our full duty on this
+question to all loyal citizens; and the border States, acting by compact
+with the Federal Government, will surely adopt the system of gradual
+emancipation and colonization. The failure of any State to adopt the
+measure immediately, although greatly to be deplored, is no indication
+as to what their course will be when the rebellion shall have been
+suppressed, and Congress acted definitely on the subject.</p>
+
+<p>As the North, next to England, was mainly responsible for forcing
+slavery upon the South, honor demands that the whole nation, as an act
+of justice, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_573" id="Page_573">[Pg 573]</a></span> as a measure that would greatly exalt the character of
+the country, should bear any loss that may arise to loyal citizens from
+a change of system in any State. Indeed, under all the circumstances,
+the nation cannot afford to leave all the sacrifice, and all the glory
+of such an achievement, to the South only. It will be a grand historical
+fact in the progress of humanity, and must adorn the annals of the
+nation.</p>
+
+<p>I speak now of the slaves of the loyal. What course should be pursued
+with the slaves of rebels, is a very different question. As regards the
+seceded States, it is clear, as our army advances, that the slaves of
+the disloyal, <i>seized</i> or coming <i>voluntarily</i> within our lines, with or
+without previous proclamation, necessarily will be, and ought to be
+emancipated, under that clause of the Constitution authorizing Congress
+to 'make rules concerning captures on <i>land</i> and water,' and the law
+carrying that provision into effect. There never has been a war, foreign
+or intestine, in which slaves coming within the lines of an army have
+not been emancipated. In the case of Rose vs. Himly, 2d Curtis, 87, the
+Supreme Court of the United States declared that, in case of rebellion,
+'<i>belligerent</i> rights may be superadded to those of <i>sovereignty</i>,' and
+that we may punish the rebels as <i>traitors</i>, or, treating them, by land
+and sea, as we now do, as <i>belligerents</i>, under the war power, which is
+also a constitutional power, we may enforce the same military
+contributions, or make the same captures, as in case of a foreign war.
+Indeed, if this were otherwise, our Constitution, as claimed by
+secessionists and anti-coercionists, at home and abroad, would have been
+a miserable failure, and would have invited rebellion, by depriving us
+of the power to suppress it by all war measures recognized by the law of
+nations. Such is the law, ancient and modern, and the uniform practice
+of nations in suppressing rebellion. Such acts are not bills of
+attainder, operating as judgments without war or capture, but the
+exercise by Congress of the power expressly granted by the Constitution,
+applicable, as the Supreme Court has declared, in case of rebellion, to
+'make rules concerning captures on land and water.' But this provision
+implies capture or conquest, and the act of Congress proposes no mere
+paper edicts, which, without capture or conquest, can only operate as
+offers of conditional amnesty to rebels, or freedom to slaves. This
+great constitutional war power, as our army advances, should be clearly
+<i>proclaimed</i> and <i>exercised</i>, and the slaves of the disloyal, used, as
+they are, to supply the means of support to the rebel armies, should be
+emancipated, as required by Congress, and employed, at reasonable wages,
+in some useful labor in aid of the Union cause. In this way, the rebel
+whites and masters must soon, to a vast extent, leave the army, to raise
+the provisions now supplied by their slaves, and the war thus much more
+speedily be brought to a successful conclusion. By paper edicts I mean
+those designed to operate as judgments or sentences, without capture or
+conquest, and not those announced under the acts of Congress, in
+advance, but only to become operative and consummated in the contingency
+of capture or conquest. The unconditional friends of the Union should
+not only adhere to the Constitution as the bulwark of our cause, but
+will find in that great instrument the most ample power to suppress the
+rebellion. It is the rebels who are striving to overthrow the
+Constitution, and we who are resolved to maintain and enforce it, in war
+and in peace, as 'the <i>supreme</i> law of the land,' in <i>every State</i>, from
+the lakes to the gulf, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific.</p>
+
+<p>It is vain to deny the prejudice in the North against the negro race,
+constantly increasing as the numbers multiply, accompanied by the stern
+refusal of social or political equality with the negro, and the serious
+apprehension among their working classes of the degradation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_574" id="Page_574">[Pg 574]</a></span> of labor by
+negro association, and the reduction of wages to a few cents a day by
+negro competition&mdash;all demonstrating, as a question of interest, as well
+as of humanity, that it is best for them, as for us, that the
+separation, though necessarily gradual and voluntary, must be complete
+and eternal.</p>
+
+<p>Wherever the vote of the people of any State of the North has been taken
+on this question, it has been uniformly for the exclusion of the free
+negro race. In the midst of the excitement of the slavery question in
+Kansas, when the republicans acted alone upon the question of the
+adoption of their celebrated Topeka constitution, they submitted the
+free negro question to a distinct vote of the people, which was almost
+unanimous for their exclusion. The recent similar overwhelming vote, to
+the same effect, of the people of Illinois, is another clear test of the
+present sentiment of the nation. That sentiment is this: that the negro,
+although to be regarded as a man, and treated with humanity, belongs, as
+they believe, to an inferior race, communion or association with whom is
+not desired by the whites. Those who regard the slavery question as the
+only, or the principal difficulty, are greatly mistaken. The <i>negro</i>
+question is far deeper. It is not slavery, as a mere political
+institution, that is sustained in the South, but the greater question of
+the intermingling and equality of races. In this aspect, it is far more
+a question of race than of slavery. If, as among the Greeks and Romans,
+the white race were enslaved here, the institution would instantly
+disappear. Among the many millions of the population of the South, less
+than a tenth are slaveholders. Why, then, is it, that the
+non-slaveholding masses there support the institution? It is the
+instinct, the sentiment, the prejudice, if you please, of race, almost
+universal and unalterable. It is the fear that if the slaves of the
+South were emancipated, the non-slaveholding whites would be sunk down
+to their level. But let the non-slaveholders of the South know that
+colonization abroad would certainly accompany gradual emancipation, and
+they would support the measure. They do not wish the Africans among
+them; but if that must be the case, then they desire them to remain as
+slaves, and not to be raised to their own condition as freemen, to
+degrade labor and reduce its wages, as they believe. Abolition alone,
+touches then merely the surface of this question. It lies far deeper, in
+the antagonism of race, and the laws of nature. In this respect there is
+a union of sentiment between the masses, North and South, both opposing
+the introduction of free blacks.</p>
+
+<p>Should the slaves be gradually manumitted and colonized abroad with
+their consent, and the North be thereafter reproached with aiding to
+force slavery upon the South, we could then truly say, that we had
+finally freely united with the South in expending our treasure to remove
+the evil. The offence of our forefathers would then be gloriously
+redeemed by the justice and generosity of their children, and made
+instrumental in carrying commerce, civilization, and Christianity to the
+benighted regions of Africa. Nor should the colonization be confined to
+Africa, but extended to 'Mexico, Central and Southern America' (as
+proposed in my Texas letter of the 8th January, 1844), and to the West
+Indies, or such other homes as might be preferred by the negro race.</p>
+
+<p>From my youth upward, at all times and under all circumstances, whether
+residing North or South, whether in public or in private life, I have
+ever supported gradual emancipation, accompanied by colonization, as the
+only remedy for the evil of slavery. In my Texas letter, just referred
+to, published at its date over my signature, being then a senator from
+Mississippi, I expressed the following opinions on this great question:</p>
+
+<p>'Again the question is asked, is slavery never to disappear from the
+Union? This is a startling and momentous ques<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_575" id="Page_575">[Pg 575]</a></span>tion, but the answer is
+easy and the proof is clear&mdash;<i>it will certainly disappear if Texas is
+reannexed to the Union</i>, not by abolition, but in spite of all its
+frenzy, slowly and gradually, by diffusion, as it has thus nearly
+receded from several of the more Northern of the slaveholding States,
+and as it will certainly continue more rapidly to recede by the
+reannexation of Texas, into <i>Mexico and Central and Southern America</i>.
+Providence * * * thus will open Texas as a safety-valve, into and
+through which slavery will slowly and gradually recede, and finally
+disappear into the boundless regions of Mexico, and Central and Southern
+America. Beyond the Del Norte <i>slavery will not pass</i>; not only because
+it is forbidden by law, but because the colored races there preponderate
+in the ratio of ten to one over the whites, and holding, as they do, the
+government and most of the offices in their own possession, they will
+never permit the enslavement of any portion of the colored race, which
+makes and executes the laws of the country. In Bradford's Atlas the
+facts are given as follows:</p>
+
+<p>'Mexico, area 1,690,000 square miles; population eight millions, one
+sixth white, and all the rest Indians, Africans, Mulattoes, Zambos, and
+other colored races. Central America, area 186,000 square miles;
+population nearly two millions, one sixth white, and the rest Negroes,
+Zambos, and other colored races. South America, area 6,500,000 square
+miles; population fourteen millions, one million white, four millions
+Indians, and the remainder, being nine millions, blacks and other
+colored races. The outlet for our negro race through this vast region
+can never be opened but by the reannexation of Texas; but, in that
+event, there, in that extensive country, bordering on our negro
+population, and four times greater in area than the whole Union, with a
+sparse population of but three to the square mile, where nine tenths of
+the people are of the colored races&mdash;there, upon that fertile soil, and
+in that delicious climate, so admirably adapted to the negro race, as
+all experience has now clearly shown, the free black would find a home.
+There, also, as the <i>slaves</i>, in the lapse of time, from the density of
+population and other causes, are <i>emancipated</i>, they will disappear,
+from time to time, west of the Del Norte, and beyond the limits of the
+Union, and among a race of their own color will be diffused through this
+vast region, where they will not be a <i>degraded caste</i>, and where, as to
+climate and social and moral condition, and all the hopes and comforts
+of life, they can occupy, <i>amid equals</i>, a position they can never
+attain in any part of this Union.'</p>
+
+<p>This, it is true, was a slow process, but it was peaceful, progressive,
+and certain, especially when Texas should have been checkered by
+railroads, and her system connected with that of the South and of
+Mexico. I desired then, however, to accelerate this action, by making it
+a part of the <i>compact</i> of Texas with the Federal Government, that the
+proceeds of the sales of her public lands, exceeding two hundred
+millions of acres, should be devoted in aid of the colonization
+described in this extract. The principle, however, was adopted of State
+action by irrevocable <i>compact</i> with the Federal Government, by which,
+provision therein was made for abolishing slavery in all such States
+north of a certain parallel of latitude (embracing a territory larger
+than New England), as might be thereafter admitted by subdivision of the
+State of Texas. The power of action on this subject, by <i>compact</i> of a
+State with the General Government, was then clearly established, in
+perfect accordance with repeated previous acts of Congress, then cited
+by me. The doctrine rests upon the elemental principle of the combined
+authority of the nation, and a State, acting by compact within its
+limits.</p>
+
+<p>It being clearly our interest and duty to adopt this system of gradual
+emancipation in the loyal States, with colonization abroad, aided by
+Congress, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_576" id="Page_576">[Pg 576]</a></span> constitutional power being unquestionable, and the
+expense comparatively small (less than a few months' cost of the war,)
+it is a signal mark of that special Providence, which has so often
+shielded our beloved country from imminent peril, that the President of
+the United States should have recommended, and Congress should have
+adopted, by so large a majority, this <i>very system</i>, by which slavery
+might soon disappear, at least from the border States. In making an
+appropriation for gradual emancipation and colonization, so much of the
+overture as embraced colonization might and should be extended to the
+North, as well as the South, so as, with their consent, to colonize
+beyond our limits the free blacks of <i>every State</i>.</p>
+
+<p>In a former letter, published over my signature, of the 30th September,
+1856, called '<span class="smcap">An Appeal for the Union</span>,' I said: '<i>I have never
+believed in a peaceable dissolution of the Union</i>. * * <i>No; it will be
+war</i>, <span class="smcap">civil war</span>, <i>of all others the most sanguinary and
+ferocious.</i> * * <i>It will be marked</i> * * <i>by frowning fortresses, by
+opposing batteries, by gleaming sabres, by bristling bayonets, by the
+tramp of contending armies, by towns and cities sacked and pillaged, by
+dwellings given to the flames, and fields laid waste and desolate. It
+will be a second fall of mankind; and while we shall be performing here
+the bloody drama of a nations suicide, from</i> <span class="smcap">the thrones of
+Europe</span> <i>will arise the exulting shouts of despots, and upon their
+gloomy banners shall be inscribed, as, they believe, never to be
+effaced, their motto</i>, <span class="smcap">Man is incapable of self-government</span>.'
+Alluding to the subject of the present discussion, I then also said: '<i>I
+see, too, what, in this probable crisis of my country's destiny, it is
+my duty again to repeat from my Texas letter</i>: * * <span class="smcap">The African
+race</span>, <i>gradually disappearing from our borders, passing, in part,
+out of our limits to Mexico, and Central and Southern America, and in
+part returning to the shores of their ancestors, there, it is hoped, to
+carry Christianity, civilization, and freedom throughout the benighted
+regions of the sons of Ham</i>.' My views, then, of 1844, were thus
+distinctly reiterated in 1856, in favor of the gradual extinction of
+slavery, accompanied by colonization.</p>
+
+<p>The President of the United States, in view of the limited appropriation
+by Congress, and the economy of short voyages, has recommended one of
+the great interoceanic routes through the American isthmus for a new
+negro colony. It is a great object to secure the control of this isthmus
+by a friendly race, born on our soil, and the selection corresponds with
+the views expressed in my Texas letter of 1844. As, however, the negroes
+can only be colonized by their own consent, we should therefore, and as
+an act of humanity and justice, open all suitable homes abroad for their
+free choice. After much reflection, I think it is their interest and
+ours (when the nation shall make large and adequate appropriations),
+mainly to seek Liberia as a permanent home, establishing there, among
+their own race, and in the land of their ancestors, a great republic.
+Liberia has already largely contributed to the decline of the African
+slave trade. She has reclaimed from barbarism, for civilization,
+Christianity, liberty, and the English language, 700 miles of the coast,
+running far into the interior, reaching a high, healthy, well watered,
+rich, and beautiful country. She has already civilized and Christianized
+300,000 native Africans, and brought them into willing obedience to her
+government. As her power extends along the coast and into the interior,
+she may soon extinguish the slave trade. This would relieve our
+squadron, stationed by treaty on the African coast to suppress that
+traffic, and leave the large sums, annually expended by Congress for
+that purpose, to be applied in further aid of the cause of colonization.</p>
+
+<p>Providence, for several centuries, has mysteriously connected our
+destiny with that of the African race. This rebellion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_577" id="Page_577">[Pg 577]</a></span> developes that
+purpose; the civilization of that race here, and their transfer to the
+land of their fathers, carrying with them our language, laws, religion,
+and free institutions, redeemed from the curse of slavery. Now, indeed,
+we see the approaching fulfilment of prophecy, when 'Ethiopia shall
+stretch forth her hands unto God.' We have just established commercial
+and diplomatic relations with Liberia, and, in separating from the race
+here, let us do them ample justice. Let us purchase for Liberia (which
+can be done for a small sum), the great adjacent coast and interior of
+Africa, and thus eventually evangelize and civilize that whole region.
+Liberia would thus expand and become the great Afric-American republic,
+and the dominant nation of that immense continent. Commerce, the first
+great missionary&mdash;like St. John in the wilderness, preceding the advent
+of the Redeemer&mdash;would penetrate that dark region, and the execrable
+trade in human beings, give way to the interchange of products and
+manufactures.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Westminster Review</i> has said, 'The Americans are planting free
+negroes on the coast of Africa; a greater event, probably, in its
+consequences, than any that has occurred since Columbus set sail for the
+New World.' Let us now adopt gradual emancipation, and the colonization
+of Africa, and the voyage of the great discoverer will have given
+civilization and Christianity to two continents, and eventually, we
+trust, the blessings of liberty to all mankind.</p>
+
+<p>The divers products and fabrics of Africa and of our Union invite
+reciprocal commerce. We want her gold, coffee, ivory, dyestuffs, and
+numerous raw materials of manufactures; and she wishes our fabrics,
+engines, agricultural implements, breadstuffs, and provisions. The trade
+will give immense and profitable employment to our shipping. From the
+Cape of Good Hope to the Mediterranean, from the Atlantic to the Red sea
+and the Indian ocean, Africa is tropical or semi-tropical. She has most
+of the products of the East and West Indies. She can produce cheaper and
+better cotton than any other region, except our Southern States, to
+which, from their fertile soil, and climate favored by the Gulf Stream,
+free white labor will eventually give us, substantially, a monopoly of
+that great staple. She equals any country in the production of sugar,
+coffee, and cocoa. In palm oil and ivory she has almost a monopoly. Of
+spices, she has the clove, nutmeg, pepper, and cinnamon. Of dyes and
+dyewoods, she has indigo, camwood, harwood, and the materials for the
+best blue, brown, red, and yellow colors. In nuts, she has the palm, the
+ground, the cocoa, and the castor. In gums, she has the copal, senegal,
+mastic, India rubber, and gutta percha. In fruits, she has the orange,
+lime, lemon, citron, tamarind, papaw, banana, fig, grape, date,
+pineapple, guava, and plantain. In vegetables, she has the yam, cassado,
+tan yan, and sweet potato. She has beeswax and honey, and most valuable
+skins and furs. In woods, she has the ebony, mangrove, silver tree,
+teak, unevah, lignumvit&aelig;, rosewood, and mahogany. She has birds with the
+sweetest notes and brightest plumage, and fish and animals in the
+greatest variety. There are the giant elephant, rhinoceros, and
+hippopotamus. There the lordly lion roams, the monarch of his native
+forest, as if conscious of furnishing robes for royalty and symbolizing
+the flag of a great nation. Where animals of such sagacity, courage,
+power, and majesty are found, why should not man be great also? Our
+ancestors, the Britons, were once savages; so were our Celtic and Saxon
+forefathers, and most of them were slaves. What are their descendants
+now? Let Shakespeare, Newton, Fox, Burke, Pitt, Peel, Washington,
+Wellington, Franklin and Hamilton, Madison and Jefferson, the Adamses,
+Webster, Clay, and Jackson answer the question. I am hopeful of complete
+success; but whatever the result may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_578" id="Page_578">[Pg 578]</a></span> be, we owe to ourselves, to our
+moral and material progress, but, above all, to the down-trodden race so
+long enslaved among us, to make the great experiment. If we succeed, it
+will be a monument to our glory, that will endure when time shall have
+crumbled the pyramids. If we fail, it will have been a noble effort in
+the cause of justice and humanity. Here, with the sentiment almost
+universal against the negro race, indicated by the votes and acts of all
+sections, and their exclusion everywhere, North and South, practically,
+from all social or political equality with the whites, they can never
+have among us any of those hopes, aspirations, energy, or opportunities,
+enabling them to test their capacity for great improvement. It is only
+where they shall be equals among equals, that they can ever attain high
+elevation. I take the facts as they are, and know that this prejudice of
+race here is ineradicable. In making the vain and hopeless effort to
+change it, we sacrifice to an impracticable idea our own good, and that
+of the race whose welfare we seek to promote. Colonization has
+heretofore been opposed by many, because they believed it hostile to
+manumission; but now, when emancipation is proposed, with appropriations
+to enable the manumitted to choose freely between remaining here and
+homes elsewhere, why should such a system encounter any hostility?
+Especially, when millions will vote for emancipation, if connected with
+voluntary colonization, why continue to oppose it? What objection is
+there to furnishing the means to enable the free or freed blacks to
+remain or to emigrate, and why should any of their friends wish to
+deprive them of such a privilege? Opposition springs also from
+confounding the border with the seceded States&mdash;the slaves of the loyal
+with those of the disloyal, and the conduct of the war; but the
+questions are different and independent.</p>
+
+<p>On this subject of what is called abroad the prejudice of color, the
+North has been censured, even by many of our best friends. But it is
+impossible for Europe, where the African race are not, and never have
+been, either as slaves or freemen, to solve for us this most difficult
+problem of the social equality of the white and black races. Where
+marriage between them is unknown, such social equality cannot exist.
+Europe has an idea and a theory, but no practical knowledge of the
+subject. We have the facts and experience. Efforts have been made here
+for a century to establish this social equality, but the failure is
+complete. New England has devoted years of toil and thousands of dollars
+to accomplish this object, and the Quakers, and Franklin's Pennsylvania
+society, spared neither time nor money. Statesmen, philanthropists, and
+Christians have labored for years in the cause, but the case grows worse
+with each succeeding census. State after State, including now a large
+majority, forbid their introduction. The repugnance is invincible, and
+the census of 1840 (as shown by the tables annexed to my Texas letter of
+January, 1844) proved that one sixth of the negroes of the North are
+supported by taxation of the whites&mdash;a sum which would soon colonize
+them all. The free negroes, regarded here as an inferior caste, have no
+adequate motive for industry or exertion. Each year, as their numbers
+augment, intensifies the prejudice, invites collision in various
+pursuits, with competition for wages, and renders colonization more
+necessary. We must not any longer keep the free negro here in an
+exhausted receiver, or mix the races, as chemical ingredients in a
+laboratory, for the edification of experimental philosophers. Such
+empiricism as regards the negro race, after our repeated failures, is
+cruel and unjust. We have made the trial here for nearly a century, and
+the race continues to retrograde. Compare their progress and condition
+in America and Liberia, and what friend of the race or of humanity can
+desire to retain them among us? The voice of nature and of experience<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_579" id="Page_579">[Pg 579]</a></span>
+proclaims, that America is our home and Africa is theirs; and let us, in
+a spirit of true kindness and sympathy for them, obey the mandate.</p>
+
+<p>There will soon be a great change among the free blacks on this subject.
+When Liberia shall expand and become a considerable power&mdash;when she
+shall have great marts of commerce, and her flag shall float in our
+harbors&mdash;when the Messages of her President, the reports of her Cabinet,
+the debates in her Congress shall be read here, her ministers and
+consuls be found among us, and the ambition of her race shall thus be
+aroused, we shall probably have as great a negro exodus from our country
+to Africa, as there ever was from Europe to America.</p>
+
+<p>When the gold so profusely scattered through Africa shall reach our
+shores, as also her rich and varied products, when our reciprocal
+commerce shall be counted by millions of dollars, the home of their
+ancestors will present irresistible attractions to the negro race.
+Ceasing to be menials and inferiors, they will then go where they will
+be welcomed as citizens and rulers of a great republic. They will go
+where they govern themselves, and not where they are governed or
+enslaved by others. They will go where they give all the votes, and hold
+all the offices, and not where their exclusion is complete. They will go
+where the flag, the army, and navy, and government are theirs&mdash;and
+theirs also the social position&mdash;equals among equals, peers among peers.
+This they can never attain here: indeed, they will continue to
+retrograde, and become a mere element of social and political agitation.
+The complete success of Liberia must extinguish African slavery, here,
+and throughout the world. Emigration there, is the true interest and
+destiny of the negro race. Let us aid them to fulfil it. This is alike
+our interest and our duty. If they have been wronged here, let us pave
+their way with kindness and with gold on their return to the land of
+their forefathers. Let us aid them in building up there a great nation,
+which will call us blessed. Let the curse of slavery be forgotten, in
+the prosperous career of a great and free Afric-American republic. Born
+on our soil, let them transfer our language and institutions to Africa.
+Our material progress has been marvellous; but such an act, on our part,
+would indicate a moral advance, that would greatly exalt us among
+nations. Every dollar thus expended, would come back to us with compound
+interest, giving us also that which money cannot purchase, the
+consolation of good deeds, the favor of Heaven, and the blessing of
+mankind.</p>
+
+<p>I have stated that so much of the overture made by Congress to the
+States, as regards appropriations for colonizing abroad their free
+blacks, should be extended to the free, as well as the slave States.
+Among the alleged evils of emancipation apprehended at the North, is the
+belief that this policy would fill the free States with manumitted
+slaves. But, by extending the proposed compacts, so far as regards
+colonization, to the free as well as the slave States, this result would
+not only be arrested, but the number of free blacks in the North, as
+well as the South, would soon be greatly diminished. The brutal assaults
+lately made by mobs on unoffending blacks in some of the free States is
+truly disgraceful. It is, however, a warning of the fatal consequences
+of retaining the free blacks in the North, especially when, from
+increasing density of population, or other causes, the struggle for
+subsistence, and competition for work and wages, between whites and
+negroes, should become general. In view of these facts, surely no friend
+of the negro race would persuade them to remain here.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>NOTE.&mdash;This was printed before the President's emancipation
+proclamation, but is not hostile to it, when accompanied by capture
+or conquest.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_580" id="Page_580">[Pg 580]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_WOLF_HUNT" id="THE_WOLF_HUNT"></a>THE WOLF HUNT.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Air</span>&mdash;'Una ni&ntilde;a bonita y hermosa.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">We will ride to the wolf hunt together,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Where thousands must yield up their breath,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By the night, by the light&mdash;in all weather!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Then hurrah, for the wild hunt of death!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where the deep cannon bays for our beagle,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Over mountain and valley we come,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While the death-fife now screams like an eagle</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">To the roll</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">and the roll</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">and the roll</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;">and the roll of the drum.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fatherland!&mdash;how the wild beasts are yelling!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Blood drips from each ravenous mouth;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Blood of brothers, each torn from his dwelling</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">By the wild, hungry wolves of the South.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Chorus</span>&mdash;Where the deep cannon bays for our beagle, &amp;c.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Let them rave! for our rifles are ready;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Let them howl! for our sabres are keen;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And the nerve of the hunter is steady</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">When the track of the w&eacute;re-wolf is seen.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Chorus</span>&mdash;Where the deep cannon bays for our beagle, &amp;c.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yes, the foul wolves have been o'er the border,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But the fields were piled high with their slain,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Till we drove them, in frantic disorder,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To their dark home of hunger again.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Chorus</span>&mdash;Where the deep cannon bays for our beagle, &amp;c.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So we'll ride to the wolf hunt together,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Where the bullet stops many a breath,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By the night, by the light&mdash;in all weather,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To the wild Northern wolf hunt of death.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where the deep cannon bays for our beagle,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Over mountain and valley we come;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While the death-fife now screams like an eagle</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">To the roll</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">and the roll</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">and the roll</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;">and the roll of the drum.</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_581" id="Page_581">[Pg 581]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_POETRY_OF_NATURE" id="THE_POETRY_OF_NATURE"></a>THE POETRY OF NATURE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Among the many marvellous myths of antiquity, I know of none more
+directly applicable to Man and Art than that of the great struggle
+between Ant&aelig;us the Earth-born and Hercules.</p>
+
+<p>Lifted on high by brute force, Ant&aelig;us is stifled; but falling and
+touching Earth, he revives. Man, borne by the irresistible force of
+circumstance, may become false, frivolous, and weak: his Art may dwindle
+to mere imitation, his Poetry turn to wailing and convulsions: but let
+him once fall back to Nature&mdash;to the all-cherishing Earth, the Mother of
+Beauty&mdash;and all his Works and Songs become as seas, rivers, green
+leaves, and the music of birds.</p>
+
+<p>We have too long needed the touch of fresh and holy Earth. Too long has
+our love of picture and poem, and of all that the glorious impulse <i>to
+create in beauty</i> achieves, been fickle as the wind; based on discordant
+fancies and distorted tradition. Symbolism in art, at present means only
+an arbitrary and puerile substitution of one object or caprice for
+another. The most successful poetic simile is often as thoroughly
+conventional, and consequently as perishable, as possible. In short, we
+are <i>not</i> in an age when there is one poetry alike for <i>all</i> men; when
+the artist and bard are <i>truly</i> great and honored, and their works
+regarded as the Best that man can do. The few who comprehend this in all
+its sad significance look from their towers tearfully forth into the
+dark night, and wail, 'Great <span class="smcap">Pan</span> is dead!'</p>
+
+<p>But he is not dead, nor sleepeth. He will yet return in that awful dawn
+of the day which will know no end. Already faint gleams of its glory
+gild the steep hills, the high places, and the groves sacred of old to
+the Starry Queen, and a reviving breath sweeps from the blue sea,
+calling up in ruined fane, and on the green turf where once stood
+temples in the olden time, fresh ideals of those forms of ineffable
+beauty, faun and fay, born of the primeval myth. There is already a
+quivering in the ancient graves, and strange lights flicker over the
+mighty stones consecrated by tradition to incantations, not of morbid
+fears, but of the strong and beautiful in nature. For in the
+Utilitarianism, in the steam and machinery of 'this age without faith,'
+I see the first necessary step of a return to real needs, solid facts,
+and natural laws. It is the first part of the doing away with rococo
+sentimentalisms, medi&aelig;val tatters, and all wretched and ragged
+remainders and reminders of states of society which have nothing in
+common with our present needs. And it will be a revival, not of the
+ancient adoration of Nature as a mythology and a superstition, but as a
+heartfelt love of all that is beautiful, and joyous, and healthy in
+itself. Then the gods will indeed return and live again among us; not as
+literal beings, however, but as blessings in all that is best for man.
+Nor will 'Romance' be wanting&mdash;that influence which the age, without
+defining, still declares is essential to poetry. In Science, in
+Humanity, and in perfecting human ties and interests by the influence of
+love, there exists a romance which is exquisitely fascinating, and which
+lends itself to tenderer and more graceful dreams than Trouveur or
+Minnesinger <i>of any age</i> ever knew&mdash;dreams the more delightful because
+they will not fade away with the mists of morning, but be fulfilled in
+clear sunlight, line by line, before man.</p>
+
+<p>It is not difficult to prove what I have here asserted of this tendency
+toward the Real in modern literature and art. Within twenty, nay, within
+ten years, men of genius have abandoned the Supernatural and the Gothic
+as affording fit themes for creative efforts. That unfortunate creature
+the Ghost&mdash;especially the Ghost in Armor&mdash;as well as the His<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_582" id="Page_582">[Pg 582]</a></span>torical or
+Sensational personages who live only in the superlative&mdash;are at present
+in general demand only by that harmless class who read 'for
+entertainment,' and even they are beginning to ungratefully mock their
+old friends. It is not difficult to foresee that the Romance so dear to
+the last generation will soon become the exclusive heritage of the
+vulgar. Meanwhile, genial sketches of fresh, unaffected Nature, draughts
+from real life, are beginning to be loved with keen zest. What novels
+are so successful as those in which the writer has truthfully mirrored
+the heart or the home? What pictures are so loved as those which set
+before us the Real, or, rather, the Ideal in its true meaning&mdash;that of
+the perfected essence of the Real?</p>
+
+<p>When this tendency shall have fairly placed man on the right road&mdash;when
+we shall have learned to follow and set forth Nature as she is, in
+spirit and in truth, the great cherishing mother, ever young, ever
+joyous, of all beauty and all pleasure, then we may anticipate the last
+and greatest era of human culture. Then we may hope for a more than
+Greek art&mdash;an art freed from every strain of oppression and injustice.
+To effect this we must, however, do what the earliest founders of poetry
+find mythology did: search Nature closely, bear constantly in mind her
+one great principle of potent Being, continually displaying itself in
+all things as life and death, mutually creating each other, and acting
+in all organic life by the mystery of Love, Then, while establishing
+those affinities and correspondences between natural objects which
+constitute Poetry, let it be ever present to the mind that each is, so
+to speak, always polarized with its positive end of activity, creation
+or birth, and its negative of cessation, decay and death. It is by the
+constant <i>realization</i> of this solemn and beautiful truth in all things
+that Nature eventually appears so strengthening and cheerful. The flower
+and the fruit, the delight of anticipation and the luxury of
+realization, are the delightful culmination of every natural existence;
+and it is to perfect these that all action tends. Decay, disease, pain,
+and death, are only kindly agencies acting more effectually and rapidly,
+to sweep away that which is fading, and hasten it into new forms of
+beauty and pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Nature within her placid breast receives</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All her creation; and the body pays</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Itself the due of nature, and its end</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is self-consummated.'<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p>Birth is thus an essential part of death, and death of birth&mdash;both
+forming, by their inseparable action, the highest and first intelligible
+stage of the inscrutable mystery of the active power of Nature. 'This,'
+the reader may say, 'is, however, only the old theme, worn threadbare by
+poet and moralist.' Let him look more earnestly into it&mdash;let him
+<i>master</i> it, and he will find it the germ of a deeper, a bolder, and a
+more genial Art than the world has known for ages. It is no slander on
+the intellect or sensibility of this day to say that its admiration for
+Nature is really at a low ebb, and that, with thousands even of the
+educated, nothing gives so little solid satisfaction as lovely scenery
+or other inartificially beautiful phenomena. The reason is that
+Poetry&mdash;the hymn which <i>should</i> elevate the soul in
+Nature-worship&mdash;instead of reflecting in every simile, every image,
+directly or indirectly, the deep mystery of life which intuitively
+associates with itself that of love and all loveliness, is satisfied
+with mere <i>comparisons</i> based on casual and petty resemblance. The
+reader or critic of modern times, when the poet speaks of 'rosy-fingered
+dawn,' or of 'cheeks like damask roses,' is quite satisfied with the
+accuracy of the simile as to delicate color, and with the refined, vague
+association of perfume and of individual memories attached to the
+flower. But if we could realize by even the dimmest hint that the mind
+of the poet was penetrated and filled by the knowledge that the rose was
+a flower-favorite of man in all lands in primeval ages, and, as Geol<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_583" id="Page_583">[Pg 583]</a></span>ogy
+asserts, literally coeval with him; that its points of resemblance to
+woman properly gave it place in the oldest mythology as the floral type
+of the female godhead; that it was the earth-born reflection of the
+morning star, and rose from the foam with it when the
+Aphrodite-Astarte-Venus-Anadyomeno came to life; that, as the nearest
+symbol of beautiful virginity expanding into womanhood and maternity, it
+was appropriately allied to dawning life and light, and consequently to
+the rosy Aurora and to blushing youth; and that finally, in withered
+age, set around by sharp thorns, it is a striking likeness of wounding
+death, yet from which new roses may spring&mdash;we should find that in a
+knowledge of all these interchangable symbolisms lies a music and a
+color, a perfume and a feeling, as of a perfectly satisfactory Thought.
+Let it be observed that each of these rose-correspondences is directly
+based on Nature, and that, to a mind familiar with the antithetic
+identity of life and death, all are promptly soluble and mutually
+convertible, as by mental-magic alchemy. There is a truth and
+earnestness in them which, while stimulating the joyous sentiment, gives
+to every allusion to the rose the value of genius, and not of accident
+or the <i>chic</i> of a 'happy idea.'</p>
+
+<p>But with the rose there are a thousand beautiful objects all consecrated
+by myth and legend, based on deeply-seated affinities, all reflecting
+the solemn mystery of birth and death in unity, all expressing love and
+pleasure, and all mutually convertible one into the other. All the
+differently-named Venuses, yes, all the goddesses of ancient mythology,
+are but <i>one</i> Venus and one goddess&mdash;all gods blend in one Arch-Bel, or
+'Belerus old,' of myriad names&mdash;he, the inscrutable Abyss,
+self-developing into male and female&mdash;who is reflected again in every
+object which springs from them. All mountains meet in 'the solemn
+mystery of the guarded mount'&mdash;the lily teaches the same lessons as the
+rose and the sea shell&mdash;each and all are seen in the light ark which
+skims the waves, or floats high in heaven as the pearly-horned moon; and
+then the dew of the morning and the foaming sea become the wine of life
+and the honey of the flower, and they are found again in the
+<span class="smcap">CUP</span>. So on through all beautiful forms, whether of nature or of
+the simpler creations of man&mdash;wherever we meet one, there, to the eye of
+him who has studied the purely natural science of symbolism, is a full
+garden of flowers of thought. Once master the primary solution of the
+great problem, once learn the method of its application, and every
+flower and simple attribute of life becomes invested with deep
+significance and earnest, passionate beauty. But this can be no half-way
+study, to be modified or qualified by prejudices. Do you seek, thirst
+for Truth, O reader? Dare you grasp it without blanching, without
+blushing? Then cast away <i>all</i> the loathsome littleness which has rusted
+and fouled around you, and look at Nature as she literally <i>is</i>, in her
+naked beauty, conceiving and forming, quickening and warming into
+infinitely varied and lovely life, and then <i>forming</i> once again with
+the strong and harsh influences of death, pain and decay. It avails
+nothing to be squeamish and timid in the tremendous laboratory of Truth.
+There is but little account taken of your parlor-propriety in the depths
+of ocean, where wild sea-monsters engender, where the million-tonned
+coral-rock rises to be crowned with palms, amid swaying tides and
+currents which cast up in a night leagues of sandy peninsulas. Little
+heed is taken of your prudish scruples or foul follies, where the
+screaming eagle chases his mate on the road of the mad North-wind;
+little care for <i>your</i> pitiful perversions of health and truth into
+scurvy jests or still scurvier blushes, wherever life takes new form as
+life, ever begetting through the endless chain of being. There is no
+learning a little and leaving the rest, for him who would explore the
+fountain-springs of Poetry and of Nature. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_584" id="Page_584">[Pg 584]</a></span> true poet, like the true
+man of science, cannot limit vision and thought to a handful of twigs or
+a cluster of leaves. In the minutest detail he recalls the roots, trunk,
+and branches&mdash;the smallest part is to him a reflection of the whole, and
+formed by the same laws.</p>
+
+<p>The great minds of the early mythologic and hitherto Unknown Age had
+this advantage in shaping that stupendous <i>Lehre</i> or lore which embraced
+under the same laws, mythology, language, science, poetry, and art&mdash;they
+modified nothing and avoided nothing for fear of shocking conventional
+and artificial feelings. Nature was to them what she was to
+herself&mdash;<i>literal</i>. The great law of reproduction, around whose primary
+stage gathers all that is attractive or beautiful in organic life; the
+'moment' <i>toward</i> which everything blossoms, and <i>from</i> which everything
+fades, was not by them ignored as non-existent, or treated in paltry
+equivoque, as though it were a secondary consequence and a vile
+corruption, instead of a healthy cause. Their science was, it is true,
+only founded on observation (and therefore easily warped to error by
+<i>apparent</i> analogies) instead of induction, while their &aelig;sthetics had
+the same illusive basis; and yet, by fearlessly following the great
+<i>manifest</i> laws of organic life, they were enabled to lay the
+foundations of all which in later ages came to perfection in the Hindu
+Mahabarata, and Sacrintala&mdash;in Greek statues, and, it may be, in Greek
+humanity&mdash;in Norse Eddas, and Druidic mysteries. All of these, and, with
+them, all that Phoenician, Etruscan, and Egyptian gave to beauty, owe
+their origin to the fearless incarnation in early times of the manifest
+laws of Nature in myth, song, and legend. He who would feel Nature as
+they felt it&mdash;a real, quickening presence, a thrilling, wildly beautiful
+life, inspiring the Moerad to madness by the intensity of rushing
+mountain torrent and passionately rustling leaves, a spirit breathing a
+god into every gray old rock and an exquisite <i>love</i> into every
+flower&mdash;should take up the clue which these old myths afford, and follow
+it to the end. Then the Hidden in forgotten lore will be revealed to
+him, the Orgie and Mystery will yield to him all, and more than all,
+they gave to Pythagoras of old. He will hold the key to every faith&mdash;nay
+more, he will form and feel new faiths for himself in studying mountains
+and seas. To him the cliff, high-rising above the foaming tide, the
+serpent gliding through the summer grass, the cool dark woodland path
+winding into arching leafy shadows, the brook and the narrow rocky pass,
+the red sunset and the crimson flower, gnarled roots and caverns, lakes,
+promontories, and headlands, will all have a strange meaning&mdash;not vague
+and mystical, but literal and expressive&mdash;a mutual and self-reflecting
+meaning, embodying all of the Beautiful that man loves best in life, and
+consecrated by the exquisite fables of a joyous mythology.</p>
+
+<p>I have long thought that a work devoted to the natural poetry and
+antique mystery of such objects as occur most prominently in Nature
+would be acceptable to all lovers of the Beautiful. It would be worth
+the while, I should think, to all such, to know that every object, by
+land or sea, was once the subject of a myth, that this myth had a
+meaning founded in the deepest laws of life, and that all were curiously
+connected and mutually reflected in one vast system. It would be worth
+while to know, not only that dove and goblet, flower and ring were each
+the 'motive' of a graceful fable, but also that this fable was something
+more than merely fanciful or graceful&mdash;that it had a deep meaning, and
+that each and all were essential parts of one vast whole. And it would
+be pleasant, I presume, to see these myths and meanings somewhat
+illustrated by poem or proverb, or other literary ornament. What is here
+offered is, indeed, little more than a beginning&mdash;for the actual
+completion of such a work would involve the learning and labor, not of a
+man, but of an age. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_585" id="Page_585">[Pg 585]</a></span> trust, however, that these chapters may induce
+some curiosity and research into the marvels and mysteries of antique
+symbolism, and perhaps invest with a new interest many objects hitherto
+valued more for their external attractions than for their associations.</p>
+
+<p>The reading world has for many years received with favor works
+purporting to teach with poetic illustration the Language of Flowers.
+But we learn from ancient lore that there is a secret language and a
+symbolism, not only of flowers, but of <i>all</i> natural objects. These
+objects, on one side, or from one point of view, all stand for each
+other, and are, in fact, synonymes&mdash;the whole representing singly the
+Venus-mystery of love and generation, or <i>life</i>. That is to say, this is
+what they do <i>positively</i>&mdash;for negatively, at the same time, and under
+the same forms, they also typify death, repulsion, darkness&mdash;even as the
+same word in Hebrew often means unity or harmony when read backward, and
+the reverse when taken forward. Why they represent <i>opposites</i> (the
+great opposites of existence, life and death, lust and loathing,
+darkness and light) is evident enough to any one who will reflect that
+each was intended to represent in itself all Nature, and that in Nature
+the great mystery of mysteries is the springing of death from life and
+of life from death by means of the agency of sexual action through
+vitality and light.</p>
+
+<p>I would beg the reader to constantly bear in mind this fact when
+studying the symbolism and mythology of Nature&mdash;that among the ancients
+every object, beginning with the serpent, typified <i>all that is</i>, or all
+Nature, and consequently the opposites of Death and Life, united in one,
+as also the male and female principle, darkness and light, sleep and
+waking, and, in fact, <i>all</i> antagonisms. Even when, as in the case of
+the goat, the wild boar, or the Typhon serpent of the waters,
+destruction is more peculiarly implied, the fact that destruction is
+simply a preparation for fresh life was never forgotten. The destroying,
+undulating, wavy serpent of the waters was <i>also</i> the type of life, and
+wound around the staff of Escalapius as a healing emblem, recalling the
+brazen serpent of Moses. In like manner the Tree of Life or of Knowledge
+was the tree also of Death, or of Good and of Evil, <i>arbor cogniti boni
+et mali</i>, and, according to the Rabbis, of sexual generation, from
+eating of which the first parents became self-conscious. Beans, which
+were symbols of impurity and peculiarly identified with evil
+(<span class="smcap">Menke</span>, <i>De Leguminibus Veterum</i>, Gottingen, 1814), were also
+typical of supporting life and of reviving spring and light. To see all
+reflected in each, and each in all, is, in fact, the key to all the
+mysteries of symbolism and the clue to the whole poetry of Nature.</p>
+
+<p>I propose in the following chapters to discuss the poetry and mystery of
+flowers, herbs, and other objects, and give not only their ancient
+signification, but also their more modern meaning, as set forth in song
+and in tradition.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><b>THE ROSE.</b></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'I felix Rosa, mollibusque sertis</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nostri cinge comas Apollinaris.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Quas tu nectere candidas, sed olim,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sic te semper amet Venus, memento!'</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;"><span class="smcap">Martial</span>, Epig. 88, lib. 7.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Among the most exquisite outbreathings of feeling in Nature we have the
+Rose. Many flowers are in certain senses more beautiful, but as, among
+women, she who charms is not always the most highly gifted with
+conventional attractions, so it is with the Queen of the Garden, whose
+proud simplicity is delicately blended with a familiar, friendly grace,
+which wins by the tenderest spell of association.</p>
+
+<p>Of all flowers, of all ages, in every land, the Rose has ever been most
+intimately connected with humanity&mdash;a sentiment so earnestly expressed
+and so lovingly repeated in the poetry, art, and myths of the olden
+time, that it would seem as if tradition had once recorded what science
+has only recently discov<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_586" id="Page_586">[Pg 586]</a></span>ered, that this plant was coeval with Man.
+Inferior, indeed, to the sacred Lotus as a religious symbol, the Rose
+has always been superior to her sister of the silent waters as
+expressing the most delicate mysteries of Beauty and of Love. The Lotus,
+the only rival of the Rose in the early Nature-worship,<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> furnished
+indeed in its name alone a solemn formula of faith which has been more
+frequently repeated than any other on earth. It was the flower of
+mystery, the primeval emblem of Pantheism in beauty, the blossom of the
+Morning Land. But the Rose belongs to the revellers and lovers in
+Persia, to the worship and banquets of the joyous Greeks, to those who
+meet in gardens by moonlight beside fountains, the children of Aphrodite
+the Foam-born.</p>
+
+
+<p>From the earliest age the World of Thought has been disputed by two
+Spirits, and none are mightier than they. One, fearful in mysterious
+beauty, the Queen of all that is occult and inscrutable, rises in cloudy
+state from the antique Orient&mdash;from the Egypt of the Only Isis, and from
+the Avatar land of Brahma&mdash;solemnly breathing the love of the All in
+One. Infinitely lovely is the dark-browed Queen, and she bears in her
+hand the lotus. Against her, in laughing sunlight, amid green leaves and
+birdsong, waving merry warning, stands a brighter form&mdash;the incarnation
+of purely earthly beauty&mdash;for she is all of earth and life; the Spirit
+of the Actual and Material; and she is crowned with roses.</p>
+
+<p>These are the Thought-Queens of Greece and India, of France and of
+Germany. But the Christianity of the middle ages declared that the
+flower was neither a Rose nor Lotus, and placed in the hand of its Queen
+of Heaven the Lily of Martyrdom!</p>
+
+<p>Dear reader, sit among green leaves until the birds no longer fear you;
+or else peer from some quiet corner into your June garden, so that you
+may watch its blossoms unobserved&mdash;as the little damsel in the Danish
+tale did the dancing lilies. When the fever of life and self grows calm,
+a feeling will steal over you, as of wonder, that the flowers seem to be
+breathing and beautying <i>for themselves</i>, and not for man. A pure, holy
+life, quite apart from all ultimate destinies of bouquets and wreaths
+and human uses, seems to prevail among them. Each has its expression,
+its ineffably tender idea, not more clearly formulized, it is true, than
+those which music conveys, yet quite as delicious. One might say that
+they seem to talk together; but they do not think as we think or dream
+as we dream&mdash;not even symbolically. It will be long ere you appreciate
+more than their fresh joy of existence. But, little by little one herb
+and flower after the other becomes individualized&mdash;they are artists
+living themselves out into hues and lines and parts of a tableau; the
+vine draws itself in an arabesque which is perfect <i>because</i>
+self-forming; and the whole harmonize with the sway of sunlight and
+shadow, with rustling breeze and hurrying ant on the footpath, and
+chirping birds, so exquisitely that you may feel, as you never have in
+studying human art or in poetry, that tones, colors, curves, organisms
+<i>form</i> altogether, or separately, the effect of each other. If among
+them all there be a Rose, you will then find <i>why</i> it was that she was
+Flower Queen in Eden, and in all ages. No matter what rivals are
+present, the Rose will first suggest <i>Woman</i>&mdash;Woman in her most
+exquisite loveliness.</p>
+
+<p>We find, indeed, in detail, that no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_587" id="Page_587">[Pg 587]</a></span> flower furnishes so many obvious
+points of comparison to a fair girl. Its delicate tints of white and red
+are suggestive of her complexion, the bud is like prettily pouting lips,
+while the exquisite perfume is, especially among the excitable children
+of the East, the most daintily piquant of exotic stimulants. The
+Nature-worship of the early ages, which saw in all things the action of
+the male and female principles of generation, did not fail to discover
+in the mossy rose (as it had done in the cup, the ring, the gate, the
+mountain-path, and every other imaginable type of opening, passing
+through, and receiving) a striking symbol of the Queen of Love, and of
+her chief attribute. In accordance with the first rule of the first
+religion, which was to identify the male and female godheads in the
+Producer, they also discovered in the Rosebud a symbol of the male
+principle, or of germinating life, from which unchanged word, as has
+been thought, the name of Buddh' or Buddha was given&mdash;or taken.</p>
+
+<p>As the flower dearest to Venus and the Graces&mdash;nay, in a certain sense,
+the very Venus herself, dew-dripping and odorous, the Rose soon shed the
+Aurora light to which it was compared, and its winning perfume, over
+every antique dream of love and beauty. It rises with the sea-foam when
+Aphrodite comes in pearly whiteness from the blue waters; or it is born
+of the blood of the dying Adonis when he&mdash;the type of summer
+beauty&mdash;dies by the tusk of the boar, the emblem of winter, of
+destruction, and of death; or it springs from the exquisitely pure and
+sacred drops incarnadine of the goddess herself when scratched by
+thorns, in pursuit of her darling. And as among the ancients, whether
+Etruscan or Egyptian, it was usual to celebrate the rites of Venus
+during banquets, the rose, with which the revellers and their goblets
+were crowned, became also the symbol of Dionysus&mdash;or of Bacchus. And as
+silence should be especially kept as to the secret pleasures of love and
+the favors of fair ladies, as well as to what is uttered when heated by
+wine, the rose was also hung up at all orgies to intimate
+silence&mdash;whence the expression <i>sub rosa</i>, 'under the rose.' And
+therefore Harpocrates, the god of silence and mystery (or of the secret
+productive force of Nature), bears this flower&mdash;the first emblem of
+'still life'&mdash;silence as to the joys of love and wine.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Let us the Rose of Love entwine</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Round the cheek-flushed god of wine:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As the rose its gaudy leaves</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Round our twisted temples weaves,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Let us sip the time away,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Let us laugh as blithe as they.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Rose, oh rose, the gem of flowers!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rose, the care of vernal hours!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rose, of every god the joy!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With roses Venus' darling boy</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Links the Graces in a round</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With him in flowery fetters bound.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'With roses, Bacchus, crown my head:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The lyre in hand thy courts I'll tread,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And, with some full-bosomed maid,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dance, nodding with the rosy braid,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That veils me with its clustered shade.'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10em;"><span class="smcap">Anacreon</span>.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The study of mythologic symbolism gives a thousand indications that in
+prehistoric ages, among the worshippers of the Serpent and the Fire, all
+the deepest feelings of men, whether artistic, religious, or sensual,
+were concentrated on the real or fancied affinities of natural objects
+with an earnestness of which we of the present age have no conception.
+Poetry, as it exists for us, is a pretty rococo fancy; to the
+worshippers and framers of myths it was a truth of tremendous
+significance. To such minds a Rose freshly blowing was a symbol, not
+merely of Divinity in a barren, abstract manner, but of Divinity in its
+most vivid and fascinating forms. It was GOD, male and female,
+manifested as love, as perfume, and as light. Believing that every
+flower on earth was the reflection of an arch-typal star in heaven, they
+honored the Rose by holding that as a flower it was generated by and
+reflected the sun, and the morning star, and, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_588" id="Page_588">[Pg 588]</a></span> fact, the moon also.
+So, in a poem of the Arab Meflana Dschelaledin:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'The full rose, in its glory, is like the sun,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thou seest all its leaves, each like unto the moon.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>It was therefore one of the flowers of Light. Its color was that of the
+Aurora&mdash;not in Homer alone, but in all ancient song, Dawn is
+rosy-fingered, rosy-hued. This resemblance to the morning is beautifully
+set forth by Ausonius:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'There P&aelig;stan roses blushed before my view,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bedropped with early morning's freshening dew;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Twere doubtful if the blossoms of the rose</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Had robbed the morning, or the morning those:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In dew, in tint the same, the star and flower,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For both confess the Queen of Beauty's power.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Perchance their sweets the same; but this more nigh</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Exhales its breath, while that embalms the sky:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of flower and star the goddess is the same,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And both she tinged with hues of roseate flame.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>As the warmest floral type of love, of light, of revelling, and of the
+glowing dawn, the Rose became naturally the symbol of Youth. Here again,
+some decided resemblance was, as usual, required, and it was found in
+the Blush, the most characteristic, as well as the most beautiful,
+indication of affinity in early life between the moral and physical
+nature. Youth is the rose-time of love, the June of its summer; its
+hours are those of the morning-star of life, and of its dawn; the lover
+is the bud, the bride the blushing flower expanding in perfume. Every
+resemblance in it refers to <i>incipient</i> life. The Bud is <span class="smcap">God</span>,
+or Buddh', as the procreating deity, while the opening flower is the
+conceiving Aphrodite. All is early and transitory. The tendency of roses
+to quickly fade has given the poets of every land a most obvious simile
+for 'fleeting youth.'</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Go, lovely rose!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tell her that wastes her time and me,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That now she knows,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When I resemble her to thee,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">How sweet and fair she seems to be!</span><br />
+</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%; Margin-left: 2em; Margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;" />
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Then die, that she</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The common fate of all things rare</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">May read in thee&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">How small a part of time they share</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That are so wondrous sweet and rare.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>In connection with youth, freshness, and blushes, the rose became,
+naturally enough, a type of reality and of natural truth. So in Hafiz:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Can cheeks where living roses blow,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where nature spreads her richest dyes,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Require the borrowed gloss of Art?'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The deepest and most solemn mystery which the Nature-love of the
+earliest times attached to every object, was that it reflected its very
+opposite, and must always be regarded as identified with it in a
+primitive origin, in which both existed undeveloped. So we have seen
+that the rose, while female as the <i>expanding</i> flower, was yet male as
+the <i>contracted</i> bud. As a symbol of joyousness, youth, light, beauty,
+and the blushing dawn, it was eminently the floral type of <i>life</i>&mdash;a
+simile which has been employed by the poets of every land, Spenser among
+others:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'The whiles some one did chant this lovely lay:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ah see, who so fair thing dost fain to see,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In springing flower the image of thy day;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All see thy virgin ROSE, how sweetly she</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Doth first peep forth with bashful modesty,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That fairer seems the less you see her may;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lo! see soon after, how more bold and free</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Her bared bosom she doth broad display;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lo! see soon after, how she fades and falls away.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'So passeth, in the passing of a day</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of mortal life, the leaf, the bud, the flower,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor more doth flourish after first decay,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That erst was sought to deck both bed and bower</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of many a lady, many a paramour:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gather the rose of love while yet in time,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whilst loving thou may'st loved be with equal crime.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>But, as implying Life, the Rose also reflected Death, and this seemed to
+ray from the cruel thorns, which, as the German couplet says, remain
+after the leaves have vanished:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'The rose falls away,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But the thorns ever stay.'</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_589" id="Page_589">[Pg 589]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And a far older Hindu proverb solemnly exclaims: 'Hast thou obtained thy
+wish; exult not: canst thou not see how the thorn pierces the finger at
+the same instant when the rose is gathered?'</p>
+
+<p>Birth and Death, as typified in the Rose, and their mutual production,
+are beautifully expressed by Ausonius in the remainder of the poem
+already cited:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'I saw a moment's interval divide</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The rose that blossomed from the rose that died.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>This</i> with its cap of tufted moss looked green;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>That</i>, tipped with reddening purple, peeped between;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">One reared its obelisk with opening swell,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The bud unsheathed its crimson pinnacle;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Another, gathering every purpled fold,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Its foliage multiplied; its blooms unrolled,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The teeming chives shot forth; the petals spread;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The bow-pot's glory reared its smiling head;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While this, that ere the passing moment flew</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Flamed forth one blaze of scarlet on the view,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Now shook from withering stalk the waste perfume,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Its verdure stript, and pale its faded bloom,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I marvelled at the spoiling flight of time,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That roses thus grew old in earliest prime.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">E'en while I speak, the crimson leaves drop round,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And a red brightness veils the blushing ground.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">These forms, these births, these changes, bloom, decay,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Appear and vanish in the self-same day.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The flower's brief grace, O Nature! moves my sighs,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thy gifts, just shown, are ravished from our eyes.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">One day the rose's age; and while it blows</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In dawn of youth, it withers to its close.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The rose the glittering sun beheld at morn,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Spread to the light its blossoms newly born,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When in his round he looks from evening skies</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Already droops in age, and fades, and dies.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yet blest that, soon to fade, the numerous flower</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Succeeds herself, and still prolongs her hour.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O virgins! roses cull, while yet ye may;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So bloom your hours, and so shall haste away.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>A Jewish legend declares that a famed cabalist was vainly pursued by
+Death through many forms. But at last the grim enemy changed himself
+into the perfume of a rose, which the magician&mdash;his suspicion lulled for
+the instant&mdash;inhaled, and died. In many German cities&mdash;Hildesheim,
+Bremen, and L&uuml;beck among others&mdash;it is said that the death of a prebend
+is heralded by the discovery of a white rose under his seat in the
+cathedral. 'And,' as J. B. Friederich states (<i>Symbolik und Mythologie
+der Natur</i>, p. 225), 'in the Tyrol the rose has a <i>deathly</i> meaning,
+since it is there believed that whoever wears an Alpine rose in his hat
+during a thunderstorm will be struck by the lightning; for which reason
+it is called the thunder-rose&mdash;a name probably derived from the
+consecration of that flower to Donar, the god of thunder.'</p>
+
+<p>The fantastic symbolism of the middle ages twined the Rose into
+innumerable capricious forms, few of which, however, have any direct
+derivation from <i>Nature</i>. Thus the Rose, from being typical of literal
+love, became that of Christ; from symbolizing the light of Aurora, it
+was made significant as the rose-window bearing the cross. The
+five-leaved rose indicated the love of <span class="smcap">God</span> for Man, as set
+forth by His five wounds; while the eight-leaved typified that of the
+believer for the Lord. The Rose also emblemed the Virgin Mary, and from
+her was reflected through countless works of art and many legends, all
+of which are 'tenderly beautiful,' and, it may be added, generally
+rather silly&mdash;as, for instance, that of the holy friar Josbert of Doel,
+who sang daily five hymns in honor of the Virgin; in reward of which,
+immediately after his death, there grew from his mouth, ears, and
+nostrils, five roses, each marked with the words of a hymn. It has been
+usual to say much, of late years, of the 'child-like and earnest,'
+'tender and trusting' spirit which inspired these saintly legends, and
+to praise with them the morbid delicacy of a Fra Angelico. Believe me,
+reader, when I say that no vigorous and healthy mind ever passed through
+a period of adoration for and cultivation of medi&aelig;val Roman Catholic
+Art, who did not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_590" id="Page_590">[Pg 590]</a></span> eventually see that this <i>na&iuml;ve</i> and innocent
+art-expression of the foulest, darkest, and most oppressive stage of
+history, had precisely the same foundation in truth as the love of the
+French court during the days of the Regency for a shepherd's life and
+child-like rural pleasures. A wicked and degraded age seeks for relief
+in contemplating its opposite; a healthy one&mdash;like the Greek&mdash;glories in
+itself, and strives to raise self to the highest standard of truth and
+beauty. None of the symbolisms of the middle ages grew directly from
+<i>Nature</i>&mdash;it was based on second-hand reveries, and on emblems from
+which all juice and life had been drained ages before in the East.</p>
+
+<p>Yes&mdash;look at the beautiful Rose, radiant with dewdrops, ruddy in the
+morning light, or dreamily lovely, with the moonbeams melting through
+her moon-shaped petals. Unchanged since that primeval age when she was a
+living idol&mdash;a visible and blest presence of the Great Goddess of beauty
+and love&mdash;whether as Astarte or Ma Nerf Baaltis, Ashtaroth or Venus. Let
+her breathe in her fragrance of the far times when millions in a strange
+and busy age now forgotten thronged rose-garlanded to the temples; when,
+bearing roses, they gathered to wild worship at the Feast of the New
+Moon, under shady groves or in picturesque high places among the ancient
+rocks. Rose-breathing, rose-perfumed, amid sweetest music and black
+Assyrian eyes, in the gliding dance under thousands of brazen serpent
+lamps, or far in dusky fragrant forests, they adored the Rose Queen&mdash;the
+very visible spirit and incarnation of nature in her loveliest form.
+Over many a shining sea passed the barks, rose-wreathed, to the far
+isles of the South: she&mdash;the Rose&mdash;was there! From many a steep crag
+looked out on the blue ocean the temple of the Star Queen, the Heaven
+and Sea-born sister of the Rose: and she was there. Through beautiful
+temples the lover strayed to meet his love, and, taking the rose from
+her brow, won her in worship of the Serpent-light of Loveliness: for
+she, the Rose&mdash;the Mystery of all Rapture&mdash;was ever there! On coin and
+jewel, in prayer and song they bore the Rose-Venus to every land in a
+living, ever-thrilling romaunt&mdash;far goldener, more thrilling with poetry
+than was in later times the dull lay of De Loris and Clopinel: for
+wherever man found joy and beauty in life, feast, and song, she&mdash;the
+Rose Incarnate&mdash;was there. In the Rose was the twin sister of all the
+mysteries: we may read them as clearly in her, if we will, as ever did
+rapt Sidonian, or priest, or daughter of the Aryan, or whatever the
+early unknown burning race may have been, which built fire-towers in
+melting Lesbos, and names Cor-on, the crowned Corinthos, ere yet a
+syllable of Greek had ever rung on earth. She is the Cup; her calyx and
+dew reflect the goblet of life, and the nectar-wine of life, typical in
+early times of endless generation, in later days of <i>re</i>-generation.
+Born of the sea, she recalls the Cor-olla Cup-Ark in which
+Hercules&mdash;Arech El Es&mdash;crossed the sea between the rosy dawn and ruddy
+sundown, 'strength upborne by love and life.' She is the Morning Star
+which hovered over Aphrodite when the Queen rose from the sea, since
+each was either in that Trinity; as in later days the star shone on him
+who rose from Maria the sea, accompanied by <i>Iona</i>, the dove. She is the
+Shell and the Ark of so many ancient legends&mdash;that Ark into which life
+enters, and from which it is born&mdash;the Ark of Earth, in which Adon and
+the flowers sleep till Spring&mdash;the Ark of maternal Being, from which man
+is born&mdash;the exquisite and beautiful Rose. She is the Door or Gate of
+the Transition or Passing Through from death to life: wherever man
+enters, <i>there</i> is the Rose, and with her all the twin-symbols;&mdash;and
+when, bearing a rose, you chance to pass through some antique rock-gap,
+far inland, near a running stream, start not, reader, should a strange
+thrill, as of a solemn vanished life, sweep over you; for so surely as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_591" id="Page_591">[Pg 591]</a></span>
+you live, know that in ancient days the footsteps of the rose-bearing
+worshipper went before you through that narrow pass, performing, by so
+doing, the rite typical of new birth, revival, and the Covenant. She is
+the cavern, the secret lair of life and the casket in which that one
+great arcanum and impenetrable secret of motherhood is forever
+concealed&mdash;forever and forever. They found it hidden&mdash;those priests of
+old&mdash;in Woman and in the Rose, in fruits, and in all that lives or
+grows; they traced the mystery up to godhood; they found it reflected in
+every object of reception and transit&mdash;in the temple, and house, and
+vase, and moon-like horns; they saw it in the woodland path, winding
+away in darkness among the trees; it lurked in seeds and nuts: man could
+crush the grape and burn the flower, but he could <i>not</i> solve the
+inscrutable mystery of generation and life; and so he hallowed it. Hail
+to thee, thou, its fairest earthly form, O Rose of sunlight and luxury
+and love!</p>
+
+<p>In a 'Floral Dictionary' at hand, I find the rose means, 'genteel,
+pretty.' In another, twenty-four very different interpretations are
+ascribed to as many varieties of this flower. It is almost needless to
+say that the modern 'Language of Flowers' is, for the greater part,
+merely the arbitrary invention of writers entirely ignorant of the
+signification anciently attached to natural objects. The primary meaning
+of the rose is <i>love</i>; and it is a rose-garland, and not a tulip, which
+should stand for a 'declaration of passion,' and, at the same time, for
+a pledge of secrecy. Many of these modern fancies are, however, very
+beautiful; as, for instance, in that German lyric in which the Angel of
+the Flowers confers a fresh grace on the rose by veiling it in moss:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'And, robed in Nature's simplest weed,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Could there a flower that rose exceed?'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>But our task is to investigate those antique meanings of flowers, that
+secret language of life and love consecrated to them for thousands of
+years, and now buried under forgotten lays, legends, and strange relics
+of art.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="MACCARONI_AND_CANVAS" id="MACCARONI_AND_CANVAS"></a>MACCARONI AND CANVAS.</h2>
+
+<h3>IX.</h3>
+
+
+<h3><a name="ROMAN_FIRESIDES" id="ROMAN_FIRESIDES"></a>ROMAN FIRESIDES.</h3>
+
+<p>It was a warm day in October when Caper engaged rooms in the Babuino;
+the sun shone cheerfully, and he took no heed of the cold weather to
+come: in fact he entertained the popular idea that the land half-way
+between the tropics and paradise, called Italy, stood in no need of
+pokers and coal hods: he was mistaken. Awaking one morning to the fact
+that it was cold, he began an examination of his rooms for a fireplace:
+there was none. He searched for a chimney&mdash;in vain. He went to see his
+landlady about it: she was standing on a balcony, superintending the
+engineering of a bucket in its downward search for water. The house was
+five stories high, and from each story what appeared to be a lightning
+rod ran down into what seemed to be a well, in a small garden. Up and
+down these rods, tin buckets, fastened to ropes, were continually
+running, rattling, clanking down, or being drawn splashing, dripping up;
+and as they were worked assiduously, it made lively music for those
+dwelling in the back part of the house.</p>
+
+<p>Having mentioned to the landlady<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_592" id="Page_592">[Pg 592]</a></span> that he wanted a fire, the good woman
+reflected a moment, and then directed the servant to haul out a sheet
+iron vessel mounted on legs: this was next filled with charcoal, on
+which was thrown live coals, and the entire arrangement being placed
+outside the door on the balcony, the servant bent over and fanned it
+with a turkey feather fan. Caper looked on in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>'Are you going to embark in the roast chestnut trade?' he asked.</p>
+
+<p>'<i>Ma che!</i>' answered madame; 'that is your fire.'</p>
+
+<p>'It will bring on asphyxia.'</p>
+
+<p>'We are never asphyxied in Rome with it. You see, the girl fans all the
+venom out of it; and when she takes it into your room it will be just as
+harmless as&mdash;let me see&mdash;as a baby without teeth.'</p>
+
+<p>This comparison settled the question, for it proved it wouldn't bite.
+Caper managed to worry through the cold weather with this poor consoler:
+it gave him headaches, but it kept his head otherwise cool, and his feet
+warm; and, as he lived mostly in his studio, where he had a good wood
+stove, he was no great loser.</p>
+
+<p>'But,' said he, descanting on this subject to Rocjean, 'how can the
+Romans fight for their firesides, when they haven't any?'</p>
+
+<p>'They will fight for their <i>scaldine</i>, especially the old women and the
+young women,' answered Rocjean, 'to the last gasp. There is nothing they
+stick to like these: even their husbands and lovers are not so near and
+dear to them.'</p>
+
+<p>'What are they? and, how much do they cost?' asked Caper, artistically.</p>
+
+<p>'Crockery baskets with handles; ten <i>baiocchi</i>,' replied Rocjean, 'You
+must have noticed them; why, look out of that window: do you see that
+girl in the house opposite. She has one on the window sill, under her
+nose, while her hands are both held over the charcoal fire that is
+burning in it. If there were any proof needed that the idea of a future
+punishment by fire did not originate in Rome, the best reply would be
+the bitter hatred the Romans have of cold. I can fancy the income of the
+church twice as large if they had only thought to have filled purgatory
+with icebergs and a corresponding state of the thermometer. A Roman, in
+winter time, would pay twice as many <i>baiocchi</i> for prayers to get a
+deceased friend out of the cold, as he could otherwise be induced to.
+The English and other foreigners have, little by little, induced hotel
+and boarding house keepers to introduce grates and stoves, with good
+coal and wood fires, wherever they may hire lodgings; but the old Romans
+still stand by braseras and scaldinas.'</p>
+
+<p>'I caught a bad cold yesterday, thanks to this barbarous custom,' said
+Caper. 'I was in the Vatican, looking at a pretty girl copying a head of
+Raphael's, and depending on imagination and charcoal to warm me: the
+results were chills and the snuffles.'</p>
+
+<p>'Let that be a warning to you against entering art galleries during cold
+weather. To visit the Borghese collection with the thermometer below
+freezing point, and see all those semi-nude paintings, whether of saints
+or sinners, chills the heart; not only that they have no clothes, but
+that the artists who made the pictures were so radically vulgar&mdash;because
+they were affected!'</p>
+
+<p>'But,' spoke Caper,'they probably painted them in the merry spring time,
+when they had forgotten all about frozen fountains and oranges iced; or,
+it may be, in their day wood was cheaper than it is now, and money
+plentier.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, in the days when three million pilgrims visited Rome in a year.
+But would you believe it? within thirty miles of this city I have seen
+enough timber lying rotting on the ground, to half warm the Eternal
+City? The country people, in the commune where I lived one summer, had
+the privilege of gathering wood in the forest that crowns the range of
+mountains backing up from the sea, and separating the Pontine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_593" id="Page_593">[Pg 593]</a></span> Marshes
+from the higher lands of the Campagna: but the trunks of the hewn trees,
+after such light branches as the women could hack off were carried away,
+were left to rot; for there was no way to get them to Rome&mdash;an hour's
+distance by railroad. Cold? The Romans are numbed to the heart: wait
+until they are warmed up; wait until they have a chance to make
+money&mdash;there will be no poets like Casti in those days&mdash;Casti, who wrote
+two hundred sonnets against a man who dunned him for&mdash;thirty cents! Talk
+about knowing enough to go into the house when it rains! Why the Roman
+shopkeepers of the poorer class don't know enough to shut their shop
+doors when they are starved with cold: you will find this to be the
+fact. Look, too, at the poor little children! do they ever think of
+playing fire engine, and thus warming themselves in a wholesome manner?
+No! One day I was painting away, when I heard a poor, thin little voice,
+as of a small dinner bell with a croup, and hoping at last I might see
+the little ones having a good frolic, I went to the window and looked
+out. What did I see? A small boy with a large, tallow-colored head,
+carrying a large black cross in the pit of his stomach; another small
+boy ringing a bell; and five others following along, in a crushed,
+despondent manner&mdash;inviting other boys to hear the catechism explained
+in the parish church. Meat for babes! I don't wonder the Roman women all
+want to be men, when I see the men without half the spirit of the women,
+and, such as they are, loafing away the winter evenings for warmth in
+wine shops or cafes. Poor Roman women, huddled together in your dark
+rooms, feebly lighted with a poor lamp, and hugging <i>scaldine</i> for
+better comfort! Would that the American woman could see her Italian
+sister, and bless her stars that she did not live under the cap and
+cross keys.'</p>
+
+<p>'The cold has one good effect,' interrupted Caper; 'the forcible
+gesticulation of the Italians, which we all admire so much, arises from
+the necessity they have to do so&mdash;in order to keep warm. I have,
+however, an idea to better the condition of the wood sawyers in the
+Papal States, by introducing a saw buck or saw horse: as it is, they
+hold the wood in their hands, putting the saw between their knees, and
+then fairly rubbing the wood through the saw, instead of the saw through
+the wood. How, too, the Romans manage to cut wood with such axes as they
+have is passing strange. It would be well to introduce an American axe
+here, handle and all.'</p>
+
+<p>'We have an old, old saying in France,' spoke Rocjean:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'<i>Jamais cheval n'y homme</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>S'amenda pour aller a Rome.</i>'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>'Never horse or man mended, that unto Rome wended.' Your American axe is
+useless without American energy, and would not, if introduced here, mend
+the present shiftless style of wood chopping: evidently the people will
+one day take it up and try it&mdash;when their minds and arms are free. As it
+is, the genuine Romans live through their winters without wood in a
+merry kind of humor; taking the charcoal sent them by chance for cooking
+with great good nature; and, without words, blessing <span class="smcap">God</span> for
+giving them vigorous frames and sturdy bodies to withstand cold and
+heat. After all, the want of fixed firesides by no manner of means
+annoys the buxom Roman woman of the people: she picks up her moving
+stove, the <i>scaldina</i>, and trots out to see her nearest gossip, knowing
+that her reception will be warm, for she brings warmth with her. There
+is a copy of Galignani, a round of bull beef, and a dirty coal fire,
+even in Rome, for every Englishman who will pay for them; but why, oh
+why! forever hoist the banner of the Blues over the gay gardens of every
+earthly paradise? Why hide Psyche under a hogshead?'</p>
+
+<p>'Are you asking me those hard questions? For if you are,' said Caper, 'I
+will answer you thus: A fishwoman passing along a street in
+Philadelphia<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_594" id="Page_594">[Pg 594]</a></span> one day, heard from an open window the silver-voiced
+Brignoli practising an aria, possibly from the Traviata: 'That voice,'
+quoth she, 'would be a fortune for a woman in shad time!''</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="VIOLETS_OF_THE_VILLA_BORGHESE" id="VIOLETS_OF_THE_VILLA_BORGHESE"></a>THE VIOLETS OF THE VILLA BORGHESE.</h3>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'It is well to be off with the old love</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Before you are on with the new:'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>hummed James Caper, as he sauntered, one morning early, through the dewy
+grass of the Villa Borghese, with his uncle, Bill Browne, leisurely
+picking a little bouquet of violets&mdash;'dim, but sweeter than the lids of
+Juno's eyes, or Cytherea's breath.'&mdash;and pleasantly thinking of the
+pretty face of his last love, the blonde Rose, who was at that moment
+smiling on somebody else in Naples.</p>
+
+<p>'There is nothing keeps a man out of mischief so well as the little
+portrait a pair of lovely eyes photographs on his heart; is there now,
+Uncle Bill?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, Jim, you are 'bout right there: if you want to keep the devil out
+of your heart, you must keep an angel in it. If you can't find a
+permanent resident, why you must take up with transient customers. First
+and last, I've had the pictures of half the pretty girls in Saint Louis
+hanging up in my gallery: as one grows dim I take up another, and that's
+the way I preserve my youth. If it hadn't been for business, I should
+have been a married man long ago; and my advice to you, Jim, is to stop
+off being a bachelor the instant you are home again.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think I shall, the instant I find one with the beauty of an Italian,
+the grace of a French girl, the truth and tenderness of a German, the
+health of an Englishwoman, and&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Draw it mild, my boy,' broke in Uncle Bill: 'here she comes!'</p>
+
+<p>Caper and his uncle were standing, as the latter spoke, under the group
+of stone pines, from whose feet there was a lovely view of the Albanian
+snow-capped mountains, and they saw coming toward them two ladies. There
+was the freshness of the morning in their cheeks, and though one was
+older than the other, joy-bringing years had passed so kindly with her,
+that if Caper had not known she was the mother of the younger lady&mdash;they
+would have passed for sisters. When he first saw them, the latter was
+gathering a few violets; when she rose, he saw the face of all others he
+most longed to see.</p>
+
+<p>He had first seen her the life of a gay party at Interlachen; then alone
+in Florence, with her mother for companion, patiently copying the Bella
+di Tiziano in the Pitti palace; then in Venice, one sparkling morning,
+as he stepped from his gondola on the marble steps of a church, he met
+her again: this time he had rendered himself of assistance to the mother
+and daughter, in procuring admittance for them to the church, which was
+closed to the public for repairs, and could only be seen by an especial
+permit, which Caper fortunately had obtained. They were grateful for his
+attention, and when, a few days afterward, he met them in company with
+other of his American friends, and received a formal introduction, the
+acquaintance proved one of the most delightful he had made in Europe,
+rendering his stay in Venice marked by the rose-colored light of a new
+love, warming each scene that passed before his dreamy gaze. But other
+cities, other faces: memory slept to awake again with renewed strength
+at the first flash of light from the eyes of Ida Buren, there, over the
+spring violets of the Villa Borghese.</p>
+
+<p>The meeting between Mrs. Buren, her daughter, and Caper, was marked, on
+the part of the ladies, with that cordiality which the truly well bred
+show instinctively to those who merit it&mdash;to those who, brave and loyal,
+prove, by word and look, that theirs is the right to stand within the
+circle of true politeness and courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>'And so,' Mrs. Buren concluded her greeting, 'we are here in Rome,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_595" id="Page_595">[Pg 595]</a></span>
+picking violets with the dew on them, and waiting for the nightingales
+to sing before we leave for Naples.'</p>
+
+<p>'And forget,' said Caper, among the violets of P&aelig;stum, the poor flowers
+of the Borghese? I protest against it, and beg to add this little
+bouquet to yours, that their united perfume may cause you to remember
+them.'</p>
+
+<p>'I accept them for you, mother,' spoke Ida; 'and that they may not be
+forgotten, I will make a sketch at once of that fountain under the ilex
+trees, and Mr. Caper in classic costume, making floral offerings to
+Bacchus&mdash;of violets.'</p>
+
+<p>'And why not to Flora?'</p>
+
+<p>'I have yet to learn that Flora has a shrine at&mdash;Monte Testaccio! where
+the Signore Caper, if report speaks true, often goes and worships.'</p>
+
+<p>'That shrine is abandoned hereafter: where shall my new one be?'</p>
+
+<p>'In the Piazza di Spagna, No.&mdash;&mdash;,' said Mrs. Buren, smiling at Caper's
+mournful tone of voice. 'While the violets bloom we shall be there. Good
+morning!'</p>
+
+<p>The ladies continued their walk, and although, as they turned away, Ida
+dropped a tiny bunch of violets, hidden among two leaves, Caper, when he
+picked it up, did not return it to her, but kept it many a day as a
+souvenir of his fair countrywoman.</p>
+
+<p>'They are,' said Uncle Bill, slowly and solemnly, 'two of the finest
+specimens of Englishwomen I ever saw, upon me word, be gad!'</p>
+
+<p>'They are,' said Caper, 'two of the handsomest Americans I ever met.'</p>
+
+<p>'Americans?' asked Uncle Bill, emphatically.</p>
+
+<p>'Americans!' answered Caper, triumphantly.</p>
+
+<p>'Shut up your paint shop, James, my son, call in the auctioneer, stick
+up a bill '<span class="smcap">To Let</span>.' Let us return at once to the land of our
+birth. No such attractions exist in this turkey-trodden,
+maccaroni-eating, picture-peddling, stone-cutting, mass-singing land of
+donkeys. Let us go. Americans!'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Americans&mdash;Bostonians,'</p>
+
+<p>'Farewell, seventy-five niggers&mdash;good-by, my speculations in Lewsianny
+cotton planting&mdash;depart from behind me, sugar crops on Bayou Fooshe! I
+am of those who want a Mrs. Browne, a duplicate of the elderly lady who
+has just departed, at any price. James, my son, this morning shalt thou
+breakfast with me at Nazzari's; and if thou hast not a bully old
+breakfast, it's because the dimes ain't in me&mdash;and I know they are.
+Nothing short of cream de Boozy frappayed, paddy frog grass pie, fill it
+of beef, and myonhays of pullits, with all kinds of saucy sons and so
+forth, will do for us. We have been among angels&mdash;shall we not eat like
+the elect? Forward!'</p>
+
+<p>During breakfast, Caper discoursed at length with his uncle of the two
+ladies they met in the villa.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Buren, left a widow years since, with a large fortune, had educated
+her only child, Ida, systematically, solidly, and healthily. The child's
+mind, vine-like, clings for support to something already firm and
+established, that it may climb upward in a healthy, natural growth,
+avoiding the earth; so the daughter had found in her mother a guide
+toward the clear air where there is health and purity. Ida Buren, with
+clear brown eyes, high spirits, rosy cheeks, and full perfected form, at
+one glance revealed the attributes that Uncle Bill had claimed for her
+so quickly. With all the beauty of an Italian, she had her perceptions
+of color and harmony in the violets she gathered; the truth and
+tenderness of a German, to appreciate their sentiment; the health of an
+Englishwoman, to tramp through the dewy grass to pick them; the grace of
+a Frenchwoman, to accept them from Nature with a <i>merci, madame</i>!</p>
+
+<p>Caper had now a lovely painting to hang up in his heart, one in unison
+with the purity and beauty of the violets of the Villa Borghese.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_596" id="Page_596">[Pg 596]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="THE_CARNIVAL" id="THE_CARNIVAL"></a>THE CARNIVAL.</h3>
+
+<p>There is lightness and brightness, music, laughter, merry jests, masks,
+bouquets, flying flowers, and <i>confetti</i> around you; you are in the
+Corso, no longer the sober street of a solemn old city, but the
+brilliant scene of a pageant, rivalling your dreams of Fairy land,
+excelling them; for it is fresh, sparkling, real before your eyes. From
+windows and balconies wave in the wind all-colored tapestries, flutter
+red, white, and golden draperies; laugh out in festal garments gay
+revellers; fly through the golden sunlight showers of perfumed flowers;
+beam down on you glances from wild, loving eyes, sparkling with fun,
+gleaming with excitement, thrilling with witching life.</p>
+
+<p>Hurrah for to-day! <i>Fiori, fiori, ecco fiori</i>! Baskets of flowers,
+bunches of flowers, bouquets of flowers, flowers natural and flowers
+artificial, flowers tied up and flowers loose. <i>Confetti, confetti, ecco
+confetti</i>! Sugar plums white, sugar plums blue, bullets and buckshot of
+lime water and flour. Whiz! down comes the Carnival shower: '<i>Bella,
+donzella</i>, this bouquet for thee!' Up go the white camellias and blue
+violets: 'down comes a rosebud for me.' What wealth of loveliness and
+beauty in thousands of balconies and windows; what sheen of brilliance
+in the vivid colors of the varied costumes!</p>
+
+<p>The Carnival has come!</p>
+
+<p>Right and left fly flowers; and here and there dart in between wheels
+and under horses' legs, dirty, daring Roman boys, grasping the falling
+flowers or <i>confetti</i>. From a balcony, some wealthy <i>forestiero</i> ('Ugh!
+how rich they are!' grumbles the coachman) scatters <i>baiocchi</i>
+broadcast, and down in the dirt and mud roll and tumble the little
+ragamuffins, who never have muffins, and always have rags&mdash;and 'spang!'
+down comes a double handful of hard <i>confetti</i> on Caper's head, as he
+rides by in an open carriage. He bombards the window with a double
+handful of white buckshot; but a woman in full Albano costume, crimson
+and white, aims directly at him a beautiful bouquet. Not to be outdone,
+Caper throws her a still larger one, which she catches and keeps&mdash;never
+throwing him the one she aimed! He is sold! But 'whiz, whir!' right and
+left fly flowers and <i>confetti</i>; and&mdash;oh, joy unspeakable!&mdash;an
+Englishman's chimney-pot hat is knocked from his head by a strong
+bouquet; and we know</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'There is a noun in Hebrew means 'I am,'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The English always use to govern d&mdash;&mdash;n,'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>and that he is using it severely, and don't see the fun, you know&mdash;of
+<i>throwing things</i>! Who cares? <i>Avanti!</i></p>
+
+<p>Caper had filled the carriage with loose flowers, small bouquets, a
+basket of <i>confetti</i>, legal and illegal size, for the Carnival. Edict
+strictly prohibited persons from throwing large-sized bouquets and
+<i>confetti</i>; consequently, everybody considered themselves compelled to
+<i>dis</i>obey the command. Rocjean, who was in the carriage with Caper,
+delighted the Romans with his ingenuity in attaching bouquets to the end
+of a long fish pole, and thus gently engineering them to ladies in
+windows or balconies. The crowd in the Corso grows larger and
+larger&mdash;the scene in this long street resembles a theatre in open air,
+with decorations and actors, assisted by a large supply of infantry and
+cavalry soldiers to keep order and attend to the scenes. The prosaic
+shops are no longer shops, but opera boxes, filled with actors and
+actresses instead of spectators, wearing all varieties of costume; the
+Italian ones predominant, gay, bright, and beautifully adapted to rich,
+peach-like complexions. Why call them olive complexions? For all the
+olives ever seen are of the color of a sick green pumpkin, or a too, too
+ripe purple plum; and who has ever yet seen a beautiful Italian maiden
+of either of these morbid colors?</p>
+
+<p>The windows and balconies of the Corso are opera boxes. 'Whiz!' The
+flying bouquets and white pills show plainly that the <i>prime donne</i> are
+making<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_597" id="Page_597">[Pg 597]</a></span> their positively first appearances for the season. Look at that
+French soldier in company with another, who is passing under a balcony,
+when a tiny bunch of flowers falls, or is thrown at him: he stoops to
+grasp it: too late, <i>mon brave</i>, a Roman boy is ahead of you: no use
+swearing; so he grasps his comrade by the arm, and points to the
+balcony, which is not more than six feet above his head.</p>
+
+<p>'<i>Mon Dieu, qu'elle est gentille!</i>'</p>
+
+<p>And there stands the beauty, a thorough soldier's girl; weighs her
+hundred and seventy pounds, has cheeks like new-cut beefsteaks, hair
+black as charcoal, eyes bright as fire, and an arm capable of cooking
+for a regiment. She is dressed in full Albanian costume, has the dew of
+the fields in her air, and oh, when she smiles, she shows such splendid
+teeth!&mdash;the <i>contadine</i> have them, and don't ruin them by continual
+eating! The soldier stops, 'Oh lord, she is neat!' He wants to return
+her flowery compliment with a similar one; but, <i>Tu bleu!</i> one can't buy
+bouquets on four sous a day income&mdash;even in Rome: so he looks around for
+a waif, and spies on the pavement something green; he gallantly throws
+it up, and with a smile and, wave of the hand like a Chevalier Bayard on
+a bender, he bids adieu to the fair maiden. He threw up half a head of
+lettuce.</p>
+
+<p>'<i>Ach mein Gott! wollen sie nur?</i>' and in return for a double handful of
+<i>confetti</i> flung into a carriage full of German artists ahead of him,
+'bang!' comes into Caper's vehicle a shower of lime pills and other
+stunners&mdash;not including the language&mdash;and he is in for it. A minute, and
+the whole Corso rains, hails, and pelts flowers and white pills; nothing
+else is visible: up there laugh down at them whole balconies, filled
+with delirious men and women, throwing on their devoted heads, American,
+French, German, rattling, tumbling, fistfuls of <i>confetti</i> and wild
+flowers:&mdash;even that half head of lettuce was among the things flying!
+English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Germans, Italians, Americans, and those
+wild northern bloods&mdash;all grit and game&mdash;the Russians, are down on them
+like a thousand of bricks. Hurrah! the carriages move on&mdash;they are safe.
+Hurrah for a new fight with fresh faces! <i>Avanti!</i></p>
+
+<p>Comes a carriage load of wild Rustians. Ivan, the <i>mondjik</i>, fresh from
+the Nevskoi Prospekt, now drives for the first time in the Corso&mdash;<i>Dam
+na vodka, Sabakoutchelovek</i>, thinks he. Yes, my sweet son of a dog, thou
+shalt have <i>vodka</i> to drink after all this scrimmage is over. So he
+holds in his horses with one hand, crowds down his fur hat with the
+other, so that his eyes will be safe; and then bravely faces the
+stinging shower of <i>confetti</i> his lord and master draws down on him. Up
+on the back seat of this carriage, all life and fire, stands the Russian
+prince, with headpiece of mail and red surtout, a Carnival Circassian,
+'down on' the slow-plodding Italians, and throwing himself away with
+flowers and fun. Isn't he a picture? how his blue eyes gleam, how his
+long, wavy moustache curls with the play of features! how the flowers
+fly&mdash;how the rubles fly for them! Look at the other Russians&mdash;there are
+beards for you! beards grown where brandy freezes! but, they are thawed
+out now. Look at these men: hear their wild northern tongue, how it
+rolls out the sounds that frighten Italians back to sleepy sonnets and
+voluptuous songs. Hurrah, my Russians! look fate in the face. <i>Your</i>
+road is&mdash;onward!</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, yes; and really, my dear'&mdash;here a handful of white pills and lime
+dust breaks the sentence&mdash;'really my dear, hadn't we better'&mdash;'bang!'
+comes a tough bouquet, and hits milady on that bonnet&mdash;'better go to the
+hotel?'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, now,' milady continues, 'they don't respect persons, these low
+Italians. They haven't the faintest idea of dignity.'</p>
+
+<p>These 'low Italians' were more than probably fellow countrymen and women
+of the speaker; but they may have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_598" id="Page_598">[Pg 598]</a></span> been 'low' all the same in her social
+barometer, for they pitched and flung, hurled and threw all the missiles
+they could lay hands on into the carriage of their unmistakable
+compatriots, with hearty delight; since the gentleman, who was not
+gentle, sat upright as a church steeple, never moving a muscle, and
+looking angry and worried at being flung at; and the milady also sat <i>a
+la mode de</i> church steeple&mdash;throwing nothing but angry looks. They
+<i>went</i> to the hotel. Sorrow go with them!</p>
+
+<p>Caper and Rocjean now began to throw desperately, for they had a large
+supply of flowers and <i>confetti</i> on hand, which they were anxious to
+dispose of suddenly&mdash;since in ten minutes the horses would run, and then
+the carriages must leave the Corso. It was the last day of Carnival, and
+to-morrow&mdash;sackcloth and ashes. How the masks crowd around them; how the
+beautiful faces, unmasked, are smiling! Look at them well, stamp them on
+your heart, for many and many one shall we see never again. Another
+Carnival will bring them again, like song birds in summer; but a long,
+long winter will be between, and we will be far, far away.</p>
+
+<p>The Corso is cleared, the infantry half keeps the crowd within bounds, a
+charge of cavalry sweeps the street, and then come rattling, clattering,
+rushing on the bare-backed horses, urged on by cries, shouts, yells; and
+frightened thus to top speed, while the Dutch metal, tied to their sides
+increases their alarm&mdash;whir! they are past us, and&mdash;the bay horse is
+ahead.</p>
+
+<p>Again the carriages are in the Corso; here and there a few bouquets are
+thrown, floral farewells to the merry season: then as dusk comes on, and
+red and golden behind San Angelo flames the funeral pyre of the sun, and
+through the blue night twinkles the evening star, see down the Corso a
+faint light gleaming. Another and another light shines from balcony and
+window, flashes from rolling carriage, and flames out from along the
+dusky walls, till, <i>presto!</i> you turn your head, and up the Corso, and
+down the Corso, there is one burst of trembling light, and ten thousand
+tapers are brightly gleaming, madly waving, brilliantly swaying to and
+fro.</p>
+
+<p><i>Moccoli! ecco, moccoli!</i></p>
+
+<p>Along roll carriages; high in air gleam tapers, upheld by those within;
+from every balcony and window shine out the swaying tapers. Hurrah!
+here, there, hand to hand are contests to put out these shining lights,
+and <span class="smcap">Senza moccoli</span>! 'Out with the tapers!' rings forth in
+trumpet tones, in gay, laughing tones, in merry tones, the length of the
+whole glorious Corso.</p>
+
+<p>Daring beauty, wild, lovely bacchante, with black, beaming eyes, tempt
+us not with that bright flame to destruction! Look at her, as she stands
+so proudly and erectly on the highest seat in the carriage, her arms
+thrown up, her wild eyes gleaming from under jet black, dishevelled
+locks, while the night breeze flutters in wavy folds the drapery of her
+classic dress. <i>Senza moccoli!</i> she sends the challenge ringing down
+through fifteen centuries. He braves all; the carriage is climbed, the
+taper is within his reach.</p>
+
+<p>'To-morrow I leave!'</p>
+
+<p>She flings the burning taper away from her.</p>
+
+<p>'Then take this kiss!'</p>
+
+<p>'<span class="smcap">Senza moccoli</span>!' black, witching eyes&mdash;farewell!</p>
+
+<p>'Boom!' rings out the closing bell; fast fades the light, 'Out with the
+tapers!' the shout swells up, up, up, then slowly dies, as die an
+organ's tones&mdash;and Carnival is ended.</p>
+
+<p>A handful of beautiful flowers, found among gray, crumbling ruins; a few
+notes of wild, stirring music, suddenly heard, then quickly dying away
+in the lone watches of the night: these are the hours of the Roman
+Carnival.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Played is the comedy, deserted now the scene.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="THE_VERMILION_MIRACLE" id="THE_VERMILION_MIRACLE"></a>THE VERMILION MIRACLE.</h3>
+
+<p>Miracles are no longer performed in Rome. As soon as the police are
+offi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_599" id="Page_599">[Pg 599]</a></span>cially informed, they prevent their being worked even in the
+Campagna:&mdash;official information, however, always travels much faster
+when the spurs of heretical incredulity are applied&mdash;otherwise it lags;
+and the performances of miracle-mongers insure crowded houses, sometimes
+for years.</p>
+
+<p>Among Caper's artist friends was a certain Blaise Monet, French by
+nature, Parisian by birth, artist or writer according to circumstances.
+Circumstances&mdash;that is to say, two thousand francs left him by a
+deceased relation&mdash;created him a temporary artist in Rome.</p>
+
+<p>'When the money is gone,' said he, 'I shall endow some barber with my
+goat's hair brushes, and resume the stylus: the first have
+attractions&mdash;capillary&mdash;for me; the latter has the
+attraction&mdash;gravitation of francs&mdash;still more interesting&mdash;that is to
+say, more stylish.'</p>
+
+<p>Blaise Monet with the May breezes fled to a small town on top of a high
+mountain, in order to enjoy them until autumn: with the rains of October
+he descended on Rome.</p>
+
+<p>'How did you enjoy yourself up in that hawk's nest?' Caper asked him,
+when he first saw him after his return to the city.</p>
+
+<p>'Like the king D'Yv&eacute;tot. My house was a castle, my drink good wine, my
+food solid&mdash;the cheese a little too much so, and a little too much of
+it: no matter&mdash;the views made up for it. Gr-r-rand, magnificent,
+splendid&mdash;in fact, paradise for twenty baiocchi a day, all told.'</p>
+
+<p>'And as for affairs of the heart?'</p>
+
+<p>'My friend, mourn with me: that hole was&mdash;so to speak in regard to that
+matter&mdash;a monastery, without doors, windows, or holes; and a wall around
+it, so high, it shut out&mdash;hope! I wish you could have seen the camel who
+was my monastic jailer.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is, when you say camel, you mean jackass?'</p>
+
+<p>'Precisely! Well, my friend, his name was Father Cipriano; though why
+they call a man father who has no legal children, I can't conceive,
+though probably many of his flock do. He prejudiced the minds of the
+maidens against me, and made an attempt to injure my reputation among
+the young men and elders&mdash;in vain. The man who could paint a scorpion on
+the wall so naturally as even to delude Father Ciprian into beating it
+for ten minutes with that bundle of sticks they call a broom; the man
+who could win three races on a bare-backed horse, treat all hands to
+wine, and even bestow segars on a few of the elders; win a <i>terno</i> at
+the Timbola, and give it back to the poor of the town; catch hold of the
+rope and help pull by the horns, all over town, the ox, thus
+preparatorily made tender before it was slaughtered: such a man could
+not have the ill will of the men.</p>
+
+<p>'Believe me, I did all my possible to touch the hearts of the maidens. I
+serenaded them, learning fearful <i>rondinelle</i>, so as to be popular; I
+gathered flowers for them; I volunteered to help them pick chestnuts and
+cut firewood; I helped to make fireworks and fire balloons for the
+festivals; I drew their portraits in charcoal on a white wall, along the
+main street; and when they passed, with copper water jars on their
+heads, filled with water from the fountain, they exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>''<i>Ecco!</i> that is Elisa, that is Maricuccia, that is Francesca.'</p>
+
+<p>'But I threw my little favors away: there was a black cloud over all, in
+a long black robe, called Padre Cipriano; and their hearts were
+untouched.</p>
+
+<p>'I made one good friend, a widow lady, the Signora Margarita Baccio: she
+was about thirty-three years of age, and was mourning for a second
+husband&mdash;who did not come; the first one having departed for <i>Cielo</i> a
+few months past, as she told me. The widow having a small farm to hoe
+and dig, and about twelve miles to walk daily, I had but limited
+opportunities to study her character; but I believe, if I had, I should
+not have discovered much, since she had very little: she was deplorably
+ig<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_600" id="Page_600">[Pg 600]</a></span>norant, and excessively superstitious&mdash;but good natured and
+hopeful&mdash;looking out for husband No. 2. She it was that informed me that
+Padre Cipriano had set the faces of the maidens against me, and for this
+I determined to be revenged.</p>
+
+<p>'A short time before I left the town, my oil colors were about used up.
+I had made nearly a hundred sketches, and not caring to send to Rome for
+more paints, I used my time making pencil sketches. Among the tubes of
+oil colors left, of course there was the vermilion, that will outlast
+for a landscape painter all others, I managed to paint a jackass's head
+for the landlord of the inn where I boarded, with my refuse
+colors:&mdash;after all were gone, there still remained the vermilion. One
+day, out in the fields sketching an old tower, and watching the pretty
+little lizards darting in and out the old ruins, an idea struck me. The
+next day I commenced my plan.</p>
+
+<p>'I caught about fifty lizards, and painted a small vermilion cross on
+the head of each one, using severe drying oil and turpentine, in order
+to insure their not being rubbed off.</p>
+
+<p>'The next dark night, when Padre Cipriano was returning from an
+excursion, he saw an apparition: phosphorus eyes, from the apothecary; a
+pair of horns, from the butcher; a tall form, made from reeds, held up
+by Blaise Monet, and covered with his long cloak, made in the Rue
+Cadet&mdash;strode before him with these words:</p>
+
+<p>''I am the shade of Saint Inanimus, boiled to death by Roman legions,
+for the sake of my religion&mdash;in oil. My bones long since have mouldered
+in the dust, but, where they lie, the little lizards bear a red cross on
+their heads. Seek near the old tower by the old Roman road, here at the
+foot of this mountain, and over it erect a chapel, and cause prayers to
+be said for Saint Inanimus: I, who was boiled to death for the sake of
+my religion&mdash;in oil.'</p>
+
+<p>''Sh-sh-shade of S-s-saint Ann-on-a-muss, w-w-what k-kind of oi-oil was
+it?' gasped Padre Cipriano.</p>
+
+<p>'The shade seemed to collect himself as if about to bestow a kick on the
+padre, but changed his mind as he screamed:</p>
+
+<p>''Hog oil. Go!'</p>
+
+<p>'The priest departed in fear and trembling, and the next day the whole
+town rang with the news that an apparition had visited Padre Cipriano,
+and that a procession for some reason was to be made at once to the old
+tower. Accordingly all the population that could, set forth at an early
+hour in the afternoon, the padre first informing them of all the
+circumstances attending the ghostly visitor, the red-headed cross
+lizards by no means omitted. Arrived at the tower, they were fortunate
+enough to find a red-cross lizard, then another, and another; and it
+being buzzed about that one of them was worth, I don't know how many
+gallons of holy water&mdash;the inhabitants moreover believing, if they had
+one, they could commit all kinds of sins free gratis, without
+confession, &amp;c.,&mdash;there at once commenced, consequently, a most
+indecorous riot among those in the procession; taking advantage of
+which, the lizards made hurried journeys to other old ruins. The
+inhabitants of another small town, having heard of the <i>Miracolo delle
+lucertole</i>, came up in force to secure a few lizards for their
+households: then commenced those exquisite battles seen nowhere else in
+such perfection as in southern Italy.</p>
+
+<p>'His eyes starting out of his head, his hands and legs shaking with
+excitement, one man stands in front of another so 'hopping mad' that you
+would believe them both dancing the tarantella, if you did not hear them
+shout&mdash;such voices for an opera chorus!&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>''You say that to <i>me</i>? to <span class="smcap">me</span>? to ME!' Hands working.</p>
+
+<p>''I do, to <i>you!</i>'</p>
+
+<p>''To me, <i>me</i>, ME?' striking himself on his breast.</p>
+
+<p>''Yes, yes, I do, I do!'</p>
+
+<p>''What, to <span class="smcap">me</span>! <span class="smcap">me</span>! <i>I</i>?' both hands<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_601" id="Page_601">[Pg 601]</a></span> pointing toward
+his own body, as if to be sure of the identity of the person; and that
+there might not be the possibility of any mistake, he again shouts,
+screams, yells, shrieks: 'To me? What, that to <span class="smcap">me</span>! to ME!'
+hands and arms working like a crab's.</p>
+
+<p>'Then the entire population rush, in with, 'Bravo, Johnny, bravo!' At
+last, after they have screamed themselves black in the face, and swung
+their arms and legs until they are ready to drop off, both combatants
+coolly walk off; and a couple of fresh hands rush in, assisted by the
+splendid Roman chorus, and begin:</p>
+
+<p>''What, <span class="smcap">me</span>? <span class="smcap">me</span>?' &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>'But the battle of the lizards was conducted with more spirit than the
+general run of quarrels, for the people were fighting for remission of
+their sins as it were&mdash;the possession of every sanctified red-headed
+lizard being so much money saved from the church, so many years out of
+purgatory.</p>
+
+<p>'The <i>gendarmerie</i> heard the row, and at once rushed down&mdash;four soldiers
+comprised the garrison&mdash;to dissipate the crowd: this they managed to do
+in a peaceable way. There happened to be a heretical spur in the town,
+in the shape of three German artists, and this incited the bishop of the
+province, who was at once informed of the miracle-working doings of
+Father Ciprian, to displace him.</p>
+
+<p>'Thus, my dear friend, I was left to make love to the girls until I had
+to return to Rome&mdash;unfortunately only two weeks' time&mdash;for the
+newly-appointed priest had not the opportunity to set them against me.</p>
+
+<p>'The moral of this long story is: that even vermilion can be worked up
+in a miraculous manner&mdash;if you put the powerful reflective faculty in
+motion; and doing so, you can have the satisfaction of knowing that by
+its means you can cause an invisible sign to be stuck up over even a
+country town in Italy: '<i>All Persons are Forbidden to Work Miracles
+Here!</i>''</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="THE_POPOLO_EXHIBITION" id="THE_POPOLO_EXHIBITION"></a>THE POPOLO EXHIBITION.</h3>
+
+<p>The government, aware of its foreign reputation for patronizing the
+<i>Belle Arti</i>, has an annual display of such paintings and sculpture as
+artists may see fit to send, and&mdash;the censor see fit to admit: for, in
+<i>this</i> exhibition, 'nothing is shown that will shock the most fastidious
+taste'&mdash;and it can be found thus, in a building in the Piazza del
+Popolo.</p>
+
+<p>Caper's painting for the display was rejected for some reason. It
+represented a sinister-looking brigand, stealing away with Two Keys in
+one hand and a spilt cap in the other, suddenly kicked over by a
+large-sized donkey, his mane and tail flying, head up, and an air of
+liberty about him generally, which probably shocked Antonelli's tool the
+censor's sense of the proprieties.</p>
+
+<p>Rocjean consoled Caper with the reflection that his painting was refused
+admittance because the donkey had gradually grown to be emblematical of
+the state&mdash;in fact, was so popularly known to the <i>forestieri</i> as the
+Roman Locomotive, with allusions to its steam whistle, &amp;c., highly
+annoying to the chief authorities&mdash;and therefore, its introduction in a
+painting was intolerable, and not to be endured.</p>
+
+<p>The works of art included contributions from Americans, Italians,
+Belgians, Swiss, English, Hessians, French, Dutch, Danes, Bavarians,
+Spaniards, Norwegians, Prussians, Russians, Austrians, Finns,
+Esthonians, Lithuanians, Laplanders, and Samoyedes. There was little
+evidence of the handiwork of mature artists; they either withheld their
+productions from dislike of the managers, or through determination of
+giving their younger brethren a fair field and a clear show. A careful
+observer could see that these young artists had not profited to the
+fullest extent by the advantages held out to them through a residence in
+the Imperial City. There was a wine-yness, and a pretty-girl-yness, and
+tobacco-ness, about paintings and sculpture, that could have been picked
+up just as well in Copenhagen or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_602" id="Page_602">[Pg 602]</a></span> Madrid or New York as in Rome. Michael
+Angelo evidently had not 'struck in' on their canvases, or Praxiteles
+struck out from their marbles. Theirs was an unrevealed religion to
+these neophytes.</p>
+
+<p>The study of a piece of old Turkey carpet, or a camel's hair shawl, or a
+butterfly's wing, or a bouquet of many flowers would have taught the
+best artist in the exhibition more concerning color than he would learn
+in ten years simply copying the best of the old painters, who had
+themselves studied directly from these things and their like.</p>
+
+<p>In sculpture, as in painting, the artists showed the same tame following
+other sculptors; the same fear of facing Nature, and studying her face
+to face. A pretty kind of statue of Modesty a man would make, who would
+take the legs of a satyr, the body of a Venus, the head of Bacchus, the
+arms of Eros, and thus construct her; yet scarcely a modern statue is
+made wherein some such incongruous models do not play their part. Go
+with a clear head, not one ringing with last night's debauch, and study
+the Dying Gladiator! That will be enough&mdash;something more than five
+tenths of you young Popolites can stand, if you catch but the faintest
+conception of the mind once moving the sculptor of such a statue. After
+you have earnestly thought over such a masterpiece, go back to your
+studio: break up your models for legs, arms, bodies, and heads: take the
+scalpel in hand, and study <i>anatomy</i> as if your heart was in it. Have
+the living model nude before you at all times. Close your studio door to
+all 'orders,' be they ever so tempting: if a fastidious world will have
+you make 'nude statues dressed in stockinet,' tell it to get behind you!
+After long years of earnest study and labor, carve a hand, a foot: if,
+when you have finished it, one living soul says, with truth, 'Blood,
+bones, and muscles seem under the marble!' believe that you are not far
+off from exceeding great reward.</p>
+
+<p>In the Popolo exhibition for 1858 was a marble statuette of Daphnis and
+Chloe, by Luigi Guglielmi, of Rome.</p>
+
+<p>Chloe had a low-necked dress on.</p>
+
+<p>The Roman censor disapproved of this. In a city claiming to be the 'HOME
+OF ART'&mdash;<span class="smcap">they pinned a piece of foolscap paper around the neck of
+Chloe.</span></p>
+
+<p>Rome is the cradle of art:&mdash;if so, the sooner the world changes its
+nurse, the better for the babe!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="MISSED_FIRE" id="MISSED_FIRE"></a>'MISSED FIRE!'</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Oh not in Independence Hall</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Will ye proclaim your will;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor read aloud your negro call,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">As yet, on Bunker Hill.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He said he would, and thought he could,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And tried&mdash;and missed it clean;&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Now he's o'er the Border, and awa',</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Weel thrashed and unco' mean.</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_603" id="Page_603">[Pg 603]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_PROCLAMATION" id="THE_PROCLAMATION"></a>THE PROCLAMATION.</h2>
+
+<p class='center'>[<span class="smcap">September</span> 22, 1862.]</p>
+
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Now who has done the greatest deed</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Which History has ever known,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And who, in Freedom's direst need,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Became her bravest champion?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who a whole continent set free?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Who killed the curse and broke the ban</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which made a lie of liberty?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">You&mdash;Father <span class="smcap">Abraham</span>&mdash;you're the man!</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The deed is done. Millions have yearned</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To see the spear of Freedom cast:&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The dragon writhed and roared and burned:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">You've smote him full and square at last.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O Great and True! You do not know,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">You cannot tell, you cannot feel</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">How far through time your name must go,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Honored by all men, high or low,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wherever Freedom's votaries kneel.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">This wide world talks in many a tongue&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">This world boasts many a noble state&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In <i>all</i>, your praises will be sung,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In all the great will call you great.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Freedom! Where'er that word is known,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">On silent shore, by sounding sea,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Mid millions or in deserts lone,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Your noble name shall ever be.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The word is out&mdash;the deed is done;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Let no one carp or dread delay:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When such a steed is fairly on,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Fate never fails to find a way.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hurrah! hurrah! The track is clear,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">We know your policy and plan;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">We'll stand by you through every year:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Now, Father <span class="smcap">Abraham</span>, <i>you're</i> our man!</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_604" id="Page_604">[Pg 604]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_PRESS_IN_THE_UNITED_STATES" id="THE_PRESS_IN_THE_UNITED_STATES"></a>THE PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The unexampled extent of newspaper issues in the United States has often
+excited the astonishment of intelligent observers; but it is doubtful
+whether the whole of the enormous truth could have been fully
+appreciated without the actual figures which reveal it. According to the
+"preliminary report" of the 8th census, 1860, recently published by the
+Hon. J.C.G. Kennedy, the superintendent, it appears that the annual
+circulation of newspapers and periodicals is no less than 927,951,548,
+or at the rate of 34.36 for every white man, woman, and child of our
+population. The annual value of all the printing done in the United
+States, for that year, is stated at a fraction less than thirty nine and
+three quarters millions of dollars.</p>
+
+<p>These numbers are sufficiently astounding; but the rate of increase
+since 1850, is, if possible, even more so. In that year, says Mr.
+Kennedy, the whole circulation amounted to 426,409,978 copies; and the
+rate of increase for the decade is 117.61 per cent., while the increase
+of the white population during the same period was only 38.12 per cent.
+If the circulation should continue to grow in the same proportion for
+the next ten years, the number of newspapers and periodicals issued in
+1870 will be a little over two billions.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to these domestic publications, no inconsiderable number of
+foreign journals is introduced into the United States. "The British
+Almanac and Companion" for 1862 states the number in 1860 to have been
+as follows: from Great Britain, 1,557,689; from France, 270,655; from
+Bremen, 41,171; from Prussia, 83,349. These figures comprehend only the
+foreign newspapers, and not the periodicals, some of which are
+republished in the United States.</p>
+
+<p>Persons competent to form a correct judgment, do not hesitate to say
+that the number of newspapers taken in this country, exceeds that in all
+the world beside. So vast an amount of reading matter, voluntarily
+sought for and consumed by the people, at a cost of so many millions of
+dollars, is one of the most remarkable phenomena of the present age of
+wonders, and proves the avidity with which information is received, as
+well as the incalculable influence which the press must have on the
+public mind. The popular newspaper, issued in immense numbers, is in
+truth emphatically an American institution. Nowhere else could an
+audience, capable of reading, be found sufficiently numerous to absorb
+the issues of our teeming press. It is the offspring and indispensable
+accompaniment of universal education and popular representative
+government. These could scarcely be maintained without it. Everywhere in
+Europe, except perhaps in England, Italy, and Switzerland, the press is
+little more than an engine of the government, used chiefly, or only, for
+its own political purposes. Here it enjoys absolute freedom, being
+responsible only to the laws for any abuse of its high privilege.</p>
+
+<p>This entire freedom promotes unbounded growth in journalism, and gives a
+circulation to the remotest cabin in the land. And if the unrestricted
+energies of the system produce fruits somewhat wild, not imbued with the
+refined flavor of better-cultivated productions, their universal
+distribution and bounteous fulness of supply make up somewhat for the
+deficiency in quality, and give promise of a future improvement, which
+will leave nothing to be desired. If every leaf of the forest were a
+sibylline record, and every month of the year should bring round the
+deciduous influences of autumn, the leaves that would then "strew the
+vales" of our country would give some adequate idea of the immense
+shower of these printed missiles which falls every day,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_605" id="Page_605">[Pg 605]</a></span> every week, and
+every month, into the hands of the American people. Do they come as "a
+kindly largess to the soil they grew on," or do they scatter mischief
+where they fall? Of the power, for good or for evil, of this vast
+intellectual agency, there can be no question. But what is the nature of
+this influence? How does it affect the character and welfare of the
+community in which its unregulated and unlimited authority prevails?</p>
+
+<p>The daily papers of New York, and of some other cities, contain, in each
+sheet, an amount of printed matter equal to sixty-four pages of an
+ordinary octavo volume. The scope and variety of the information
+embodied in them, and the uniformity with which they are maintained from
+year to year, give evidence of wonderful enterprise, mechanical skill,
+and intellectual ability. Concentrating news from all parts of the
+world, by means of a vast and expensive organization, and discussing,
+with more or less profound learning and logic, all the important
+questions of the day, they have established an immense spiritual power
+in the bosom of modern society, such as was not known to the nations in
+past ages.</p>
+
+<p>It is true that much of the space in the great dailies, so voluminous as
+has been stated, is occupied in mere business notices and individual
+advertisements; and such is the case, generally, with the daily and
+weekly papers throughout the country. But even this, the humblest
+department of the newspaper, may justly be considered an invaluable
+instrument of civilization. It multiplies to an unlimited extent the
+means of communication among men, and is, therefore, a labor-saving
+invention of precisely the same character as the railroad and the steam
+engine. In a few brief phrases, made expressive by conventional
+understanding, every man can converse with thousands of his neighbors,
+and even of distant strangers. Without change of place, without labor of
+limbs or of lungs, the man of business can, in a single day, and every
+day, if he will, inform a whole community of his own wants, and of his
+readiness to meet the wants of others. The newspaper performs the work
+of thousands of messengers, and saves countless hours of labor to the
+whole community in which it circulates. In some sense, every man is
+brought nearer to every other. Each hears the innumerable voices which
+address him, and is able to distinguish the individual message which
+each one has sent.</p>
+
+<p>It is difficult to estimate the value of this simple agency in its
+social aspect. Its material saving is plain to the most cursory thought;
+but its higher influence in binding society together and making it
+homogeneous, if not equally apparent, is at least quite as indisputable.
+Civilization is the direct result of bringing mankind into cooperation
+and combined effort, so that the whole power of mind and body of whole
+communities is brought to bear in unison for the accomplishment of
+social ends. Therefore, as a mere instrument of intercommunication,
+rendering more direct and intimate the relations of individuals, and
+promoting ease, celerity, and harmony in their combined movements, the
+power of the press is prodigious and invaluable. But when this power is
+extended beyond the bounds of mere material interests and the relations
+of ordinary business&mdash;when it appeals to the intellect and enters the
+domain of art, literature, science, and philosophy, embracing politics,
+morality, and all the highest interests of mankind, its capacity for
+good would seem to be illimitable.</p>
+
+<p>In future ages, these innumerable sheets, which float so lightly on the
+surface of our civilization, will form imperishable records of the
+manners, habits, occupations, and the whole intellectual existence of
+our people. They are so numerous that no accident can destroy them all;
+and they will present to the eye of the future student of history the
+most lively, natural, and perfect picture&mdash;the very moving panorama&mdash;of
+the busy and teeming life of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_606" id="Page_606">[Pg 606]</a></span> present generation. No exhumed relics
+of buried cities, no hieroglyphic inscriptions upon ancient monuments,
+with whatever skill and genius deciphered, nor even any labored
+descriptions of past ages, which may have survived the ravages of time,
+will be equal to these memorials, in their power to recall the daily
+work, the amusements, the business, and, in short, the whole material,
+intellectual, and social being of our people.</p>
+
+<p>The types and footprints of creation, imprinted on the rocks and
+imbedded in the strata of the earth, giving knowledge of the existence
+and habits of extinct species of animals, and teaching how geological
+periods have succeeded each other, with their causes and concomitants,
+are not so plain and distinct to us, as will be these daily effusions,
+advertisements, and business notices of all kinds in the ordinary
+newspapers of the country, to future generations of men, who shall there
+seek to learn the successive and gradual steps by which the social
+fabric shall be built up on the foundations of human thought and action.
+Like the worm that crawls over the mud ere it hardens into rock; or the
+leaf that fixes its form and impress in the bed of coal; or like the
+bowlder that forms the pencil point of a mighty iceberg, scratching the
+rocks in its movement across a submerged plain, destined to be upheaved
+as a continent in some future convulsion; or like the coral insect,
+which, in forming his separate cell, unconsciously assists in laying the
+foundation of islands and vast regions of solid earth; we, the creatures
+of the hour, all unconscious of the record we are making, leave
+imperishable memorials of our existence and works, in the apparently
+petty and fugitive contents of the journals which we read daily, and in
+which we make known our business and our wants. Narratives and formal
+descriptions may be one-sided, and may easily deceive and mislead; but
+these indications, which will be preserved in the social strata as they
+slowly subside in the ocean of humanity, carry in themselves perfect
+fulness and absolute verity.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most significant and influential results of the wide and
+rapid circulation of newspapers is to be found in the simultaneous
+impression made on the popular mind throughout the vast extent of our
+country. Flashed on the telegraph, daguerreotyped and made visible in
+the newspaper, every event of any importance, occurring in any part of
+the world, is communicated, almost at the same moment, to many millions
+of people. All are impressed at the same time with the same thoughts, or
+with such kindred ideas as will naturally arise from reflection upon the
+same facts. Humor, with its thousand tongues, is hushed; and the
+telegraph, under control of agents employed to sift the truth, and
+responsible for it, takes its place. Falsehood still may, and, indeed,
+often does tamper with this mighty instrument; but its speed is so great
+that it can overtake even falsehood, and soon counteract and correct the
+mischief. What is the import of this momentous fact,&mdash;the instantaneous
+communication of information over a continent, and the participation of
+all minds, in the same thoughts, virtually at the same time? Undoubtedly
+the result must be a closeness of intercourse and a completeness of
+cooperation, which will give to the social organization a power and
+efficiency in accomplishing great ends, such as no human thought has
+ever heretofore conceived. Society becomes a unity in the highest and
+truest sense of that term; like the bodily frame of the individual man,
+it is connected throughout all its parts by a network of nerves, every
+member sympathizing with every other, feeling the same impulses, having
+the same knowledge, and forming judgments upon the same facts. When
+sentiments are perfectly harmonious among men, the increase of power is
+not merely in proportion to numbers. It grows in a much higher ratio.
+The effect is something like that of multiplying the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_607" id="Page_607">[Pg 607]</a></span> surfaces in a
+galvanic battery, or increasing the coils in an electro-magnetic
+apparatus. Passion in a multitude becomes a tornado. Eloquence moves a
+large audience with a power vastly greater than when the listeners are
+few. Similar is that strange influence which fashion exerts in all
+societies. Nor is this sympathetic multiplication of power limited to
+passion or artistic sentiment: it extends to opinions and all
+intellectual phenomena. A person feeling strong emotions or having
+profound convictions, and knowing them to be shared by millions of
+others, inevitably experiences a strengthening and intensifying
+influence from the sympathy of his fellows. If he knew himself to be
+solitary and alone in his opinions, unsupported by that human sympathy
+which every one craves, his ideas would languish, and be greatly
+diminished in their power. It is only great minds, of exceptional
+character, which can do battle, single-handed, against the world. Most
+men require to be propped and supported on all sides, by the great power
+of public opinion. The approach to unanimity of thought promoted by the
+general circulation of newspapers, has something of the marvellous
+effects seen in other cases, in enhancing the moral and intellectual
+power of the community.</p>
+
+<p>The telegraph is the legitimate offspring of the newspaper. In the
+absence of the latter, there would have been comparatively little use
+for the former. Without the almost universal distribution of the
+newspaper, instantaneous communication of news would not have been so
+much required, and the invention for that purpose would hardly have been
+made. It is probably in the United States alone, with its unlimited
+circulation of newspapers, that this extraordinary application of
+natural forces could have been conceived. It is here those wonderful
+lightning presses have been constructed, under the stimulus of that vast
+demand for daily papers which arises from the general education of the
+people and their avidity for information. In no other state of things
+could such combinations have been imagined, because there would have
+been no occasion for the inventive effort, and even the very idea would
+not have occurred. Although the wide extent of our country, the vast
+distances separating important centres of commerce and industry, and the
+general activity and energy of men in this free government, all
+concurred in enforcing the necessity of this latest wonder of human
+ingenuity&mdash;the telegraph,&mdash;yet the newspaper, with its boundless
+circulation and power of distribution, was indispensable to make it
+available and to give it all its inestimable value.</p>
+
+<p>But, after all, the prodigious influence of the press, aided by its
+great instrument, the telegraph, derives its moral and political value
+chiefly from the lessons it teaches, and the good purposes it aims to
+accomplish. Unhappily, if the newspaper may be the means of doing
+incalculable good, it may also be instrumental in doing infinite
+mischief. If it may multiply the power of the community, by promoting
+harmony of thought and feeling, it may direct this concentrated energy
+to the wrong end, as well as to the right. Being a great vehicle for the
+communication of ideas on all subjects, it becomes a mighty instrument
+of education; entering almost every house in the land, and reaching the
+eye of every man, woman, and child who can read, it exercises almost
+supreme control over the sentiments of the masses. It is a tremendous
+intellectual engine, radiating the light of knowledge to the extremities
+of the land, and, in its turn, wielding, to some extent, the
+incalculable power which that knowledge imparts to its recipients.</p>
+
+<p>Like every other human agency, the press is liable to be controlled by
+sinister influences. Perhaps, from the entire absence of all direct
+responsibility, from its usual entire devotion to public affairs, and
+the acknowledged influence of its representations on the popular<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_608" id="Page_608">[Pg 608]</a></span> mind,
+it is peculiarly exposed to the seductions of patronage, and to the
+temptations of personal and mercenary interests. A mere party journal,
+involved in a perpetual conflict for power, and for the accompanying
+spoils, is, of all the depositaries of moral power, at once the most
+dangerous and the most contemptible. To it, truth is of secondary
+importance; having satisfied itself that no prosperity, or even liberty,
+can exist without the success of its men and measures, it makes
+everything bend to this purpose. The end justifies the means. Impartial
+statement or rational investigation is seldom to be found in its
+columns. Nevertheless, in the general competition which arises where the
+press is free, the <i>tendency</i> will always be toward the true and the
+good. Rival journals will advocate different theories and maintain
+opposite systems; but free discussion will gradually eliminate error,
+and out of the multitudinous rays of different colors, diffused
+throughout society, will eventually come that perfect combination which
+constitutes the clear, pure, homogeneous light of truth. And even
+pending the early struggle and confusion which attend the inauguration
+of a free press, divergencies of opinion, ever tending to harmony,
+cannot become so great as to produce fatal effects. The rebellion of the
+Southern States of this Union could never have happened, in the presence
+of universal education and of a free press, whose emanations could have
+penetrated as widely as those which reach the people of the opposite
+section.</p>
+
+<p>In view of the high functions of the press and its immense influence in
+the nation,&mdash;its perpetual daily lessons, falling on the public mind
+like drops that wear away the hardest rock and work their channel where
+they will,&mdash;it is of the first importance to comprehend the power behind
+this imperial throne, which directs and controls it. Does it assume to
+originate and establish principles in government and morals? Or does it
+aspire only to the humbler office of propagating such ideas as have been
+sanctioned by the best judgment of the age, of illustrating their
+operation, and making them acceptable to the people? The fugitive essays
+and hurried comments on passing events, which fill the columns of
+newspapers, do not ordinarily constitute solid foundations on which the
+principles of social or political action can be safely established. The
+men usually employed in this work of distributing ideas, are not they
+who are capable of building up substantial systems by the slow process
+of induction, or who can, by the opposite system, apply great general
+truths to the purposes of national prosperity and happiness. They are
+far too much engaged in the active business of life,&mdash;too deeply
+involved in the strifes and turmoils of mankind,&mdash;too thoroughly imbued
+with the spirit of the passing hour, with all its passions and
+prejudices&mdash;to be the philosophic guides of humanity, and to lay down,
+with the serene logic of truth, the bases of moral and political
+progress. The inevitable sympathy between the editor and his daily
+readers&mdash;the action and reaction which constantly take place and
+insensibly lead the journalist into the paths of popular opinion and
+passion&mdash;these are too apt to render him altogether unfit to be an
+oracle in the great work of social organization and government. The
+common sense of the multitude is often an invaluable corrective of
+speculative error; but the impulses and strong prejudices of
+communities, though calculated to sweep along with them the judgments of
+all, are mostly pernicious, and sometimes dangerous in the extreme. The
+true remedy for these evils and dangers is, to employ in the management
+of the daily press, the noblest intellect, combined with the most
+incorruptible purity of motive. Commanding the entire confidence of the
+nation, and worthy of it, the lessons of this great teacher&mdash;the central
+light-giving orb of civilization&mdash;will be received with reverence and
+gratitude, and with a benign and fructifying in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_609" id="Page_609">[Pg 609]</a></span>fluence, something like
+that which the sun sheds on the world of nature.</p>
+
+<p>A French philosopher, writing in 1840, says of us:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'This universal colony, notwithstanding the eminent temporal
+advantages of its present position, must be regarded as, in fact,
+in all important respects, more remote from a true social
+reorganization than the nations from whom it is derived, and to
+whom it will owe, in course of time, its final regeneration. The
+philosophical induction into that ulterior state is not to be
+looked for in America&mdash;whatever may be the existing illusions about
+the political superiority of a society in which the elements of
+modern civilization are, with the exception of industrial activity,
+most imperfectly developed.'</p></div>
+
+<p>It may be admitted that we are yet somewhat behind the foremost nations
+of Europe in the higher walks of philosophy, and certainly in the
+practical application of true social principles, which, as yet, we do
+not fully comprehend, even if they do. But the conclusion of this author
+cannot be sound. However moderate may be our standard of knowledge in
+the United States, this knowledge, such as it is, is more widely
+diffused among the people who are to profit by it, than in any other
+country. If our attainments be comparatively small in philosophic
+statesmanship, the whole population partakes more or less in such
+progress as we have made; for education is universal, and whatever ideas
+are generated in the highest order of minds, soon become the familiar
+possession of all to the extremities of the land. Government yields with
+little opposition or delay to the interests and intelligence, and it may
+be, to the ignorance of the people: there is no other nation on the
+globe in which social forms and institutions are so plastic in the hands
+of wise and energetic men. By means of universal education and the
+perfect distribution of knowledge, we are laying the broadest possible
+basis on which the noblest structure may be raised, if we can only
+command the wisdom to build aright. The question, therefore, is, whether
+a whole people thoroughly educated and with the most perfect machinery
+for the diffusion of knowledge, though starting from a moderate
+condition of enlightenment, will outrun or fall behind other nations in
+which the few may be wiser, while the multitude is greatly more
+ignorant, and in which the forms of government and of social,
+organization are more rigid, and inaccessible to change or improvement.
+To answer this question will not cause much hesitation, at least in the
+mind of an American; and if we are not altogether what we think
+ourselves, the wisest and best of mankind, we may at least claim to be
+on the way to the highest improvement, with no serious obstacles in our
+path.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="OUR_FRIENDS_ABROAD" id="OUR_FRIENDS_ABROAD"></a>OUR FRIENDS ABROAD.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Two souls alone are friends of ours</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In all the British isles;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who sorrow for our darkened hours</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And greet our luck with smiles.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"And who may those twain outcasts be</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whose favor ye have won?"</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The first is Queen of England's realm,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The other that good Queen's son.</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_610" id="Page_610">[Pg 610]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="WAS_HE_SUCCESSFUL" id="WAS_HE_SUCCESSFUL"></a>WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'Do but grasp into the thick of human life. Every one <i>lives</i>
+it&mdash;to not many is it <i>known</i>; and seize it where you will, it is
+interesting.'&mdash;<i>Goethe.</i></p>
+
+<p>'<span class="smcap">Successful</span>.&mdash;Terminating in accomplishing what is wished
+or intended.'&mdash;<i>Webster's Dictionary.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h3>
+
+<h3>DIAMOND CUT&mdash;PASTE.</h3>
+
+<p>Elihu Joslin belonged to that class of knaves who are cowardly as well
+as unscrupulous. He never hesitated to cheat where he had an
+opportunity, trusting to his powers of blustering and browbeating to
+sustain him. When these failed, that is, when he encountered persons who
+were not imposed on nor intimidated by his swaggering, bullying mien, he
+showed his craven nature by an abject submission. From being an errand
+boy in an old-established paper house in the city, he had himself become
+the proprietor of a large business in the same line. He had but a single
+idea&mdash;to make money. And he did make it. His reputation among the trade
+was very bad. But this did not, as it ought to have done, put him out of
+the pale of business negotiations. Every merchant knows that there are
+many rich men in business, whose acts of dishonesty and whose tricks
+form a subject of conversation and anecdote with their associates in
+trade, yet who are not only tolerated, but are by some actually courted.
+Joslin, when quite a young man, had been the assignee of his employer,
+who hoped to find in him a pliant tool. He soon found his mistake. He
+had put himself completely in the power of his clerk, and the latter
+took full advantage of it. The result was, his principal was beggared,
+and Joslin rose on his ruins.</p>
+
+<p>It was a favorite practice with Joslin to discover men who were short of
+money, lend them what they wanted, and thus, after a while, get control
+of all they possessed. When Joslin first met Mr. Burns, he hoped to
+entangle him as he had his friend. But the former was too good a
+merchant and in too sound a position to be brought in this way into his
+toils. He was therefore obliged to have recourse to sheer knavery to
+compass his object. The fact of Mr. Burns living so far from the city,
+the great expense which would be entailed on him by a litigation, and
+the natural repugnance he thought Mr. Burns would have to a lawsuit,
+emboldened him to employ the most high-handed measures to cheat him. The
+fact was, Mr. Burns's paper had become well known in the market, and
+commanded a ready sale. The manufacture was even&mdash;the texture firm and
+hard. There was a continually increasing demand for it. Joslin
+determined on&mdash;even for him&mdash;some audacious strokes. He sent a lot of
+the paper to an obscure auctioneer, one of his tools, and had it bid off
+in the name of a young man in his store. He thereupon reported the
+entire consignment to be unsalable, and credited Mr. Burns with the
+whole lot at the auction prices, less expenses. In this way he claimed
+to have no funds when Mr. Burns's drafts became due, and called on the
+latter for the ready money. The previous consignment he pretended to
+have sold in the city, at a time when paper was much lower than usual,
+but he had returned for this the then market price. Really he had not
+sold the paper at all. Knowing it was about to rise, he simply reported
+a sale, and kept the paper on hand to take advantage of the market, and
+he was now selling it at an advance of ten per cent, on the previous
+rates.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Burns had never before encountered so desperate a knave. As we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_611" id="Page_611">[Pg 611]</a></span> have
+said, the affair troubled him greatly. True, he was determined to
+investigate it thoroughly, but he could not well afford the time to go
+himself to New York. His chief man at the paper mill had failed to
+accomplish anything; so it was a great relief when Hiram volunteered his
+services. Mr. Burns could not tell why, but he had a singular confidence
+that Hiram would bring the matter out right. He was up to see his
+confidential clerk off in the stage, which passed through Burnsville
+before daylight, and which was to call at the office for its passenger.
+From that office a light could be seen glimmering as early as three
+o'clock. Hiram, after an hour or two in bed, where he did not close his
+eyes, had risen, and taking his valise in his hand, had gone to the
+office, and was again deep in the accounts. He would make memorandums
+from time to time, and at last wrote a brief note to Mr. Burns, asking
+him to send forward by the first mail a full power of attorney. At
+length the stage horn was heard. Hiram rose, opened his valise, and
+placed his papers within it. The stage wheeled rapidly round the corner,
+and drew up at the office door; Hiram extinguished the light, seized his
+valise, stepped quietly out, and was in the act of turning the key&mdash;he
+had a duplicate&mdash;when Mr. Burns arrived.</p>
+
+<p>'I thought,' he said, 'I would see you off. You will have a fine day,
+and reach New Haven in ample time for the boat.'</p>
+
+<p>'I have left a brief note on your table,' responded Hiram, 'to ask for a
+power of attorney. I think it may be important.'</p>
+
+<p>'You shall have it. Good luck to you. Write me how you get along.
+Good-by.'</p>
+
+<p>He shook Hiram's hand with an enthusiasm which belonged to his nature.
+The latter extended his cold, dry palm to his employer, and said, 'Good
+morning, sir,' and got inside. He did not in the least enter into Mr.
+Burns's cheerful, sympathizing spirit. If the truth must be told, he had
+not the slightest sympathy for him; neither did any desire to extricate
+him from this awkward business induce the present adventure. He cared no
+more for Mr. Burns than he did for Mr. Joslin. But he did enjoy the idea
+of meeting that knave and circumventing him. It was the pleasantest
+'duty' he ever had undertaken. On it his whole thoughts were centred.
+What did he care whether the day was fair or foul&mdash;whether the roads
+were good or bad? He longed to get to work at Joslin.</p>
+
+<p>The stage door closed, and the vehicle rolled swiftly away. Mr. Burns
+stood a moment looking after it. He had felt the entire absence of
+responsive sympathy in his clerk, and his old feeling returned, as it
+invariably did at times. He walked slowly toward his house.</p>
+
+<p>'Why is it that I so often wish I was rid of that fellow, when he serves
+me so effectually?'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Burns turned before entering, and cast his eyes over the horizon.
+Daylight was just streaking the sky from the east. Joel Burns paused,
+and directed his glance over the town&mdash;the town he had founded and made
+to flourish. Tears stood in his eyes. Wherefore? He was thinking of the
+time when, after Mr. Bellows's death, he had, step by step, carefully
+travelled over this locality, while laying plans for his future career.
+Here&mdash;just here&mdash;he had marked four trees to indicate the site for his
+house, and here he had built it.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Sarah, why had you to leave me?'</p>
+
+<p>The words, uttered audibly, recalled him to himself. He opened and
+passed through the gate, and stepped on the piazza.</p>
+
+<p>'Is that you, father?' It was his daughter's voice. He looked up and saw
+her at the window. 'I heard you go out, and I have been watching for you
+ever since. Did Mr. Meeker get off?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Wait, father, and I will come down and take a walk with you. Wouldn't
+you like it?'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_612" id="Page_612">[Pg 612]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Yes, dear, very much.'</p>
+
+<p>They walked on together in silence. Presently Sarah perceived they were
+going in the direction of the burying ground. Mr. Burns entered it with
+his daughter, and soon stood by his wife's grave.</p>
+
+<p>'She left us early, my child. You do not forget her?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, father!'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you remember all about her&mdash;<i>all</i>?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, everything.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know it&mdash;I know you do. Why is it, Sarah, that lately I feel more
+solitary than usual?'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you, father?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, since&mdash;' He paused, unwilling, it would seem, to finish the
+sentence.</p>
+
+<p>'You know, father, I have not been quite so much with you since Mr.
+Meeker came. You are more in the office.'</p>
+
+<p>'So I am. I wish&mdash;' He hesitated again. Evidently something oppressed
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Just then the first slanting rays of the morning sun gleamed over the
+place&mdash;pleasant rays, which seemed to change the current of Mr. Burns's
+thoughts, lighting up his soul as they were lighting the universe.</p>
+
+<p>He spoke cheerfully: "Let us run home, now. And, Sarah, won't you see
+that we have a very nice breakfast? Early rising has given me an
+appetite."</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h3>
+
+<p>All this time the stage was conveying Hiram Meeker toward his
+goal&mdash;toward Elihu Joslin. He reached New Haven in time for the boat,
+and early the following morning was in New York. At this date the town
+had not assumed its present magnificent proportions. Broadway, above
+Canal street, was lined with private residences instead of stores, and
+Bleecker street was one of the most fashionable in the city.
+Nevertheless it was already imposing, especially to a young man from the
+country.</p>
+
+<p>Hiram had visited New York on two several occasions when a boy, in
+company with his mother, but latterly had not found any opportunity to
+do so. Lauding from the boat, he made his way to the then leading hotel,
+'The Franklin House,' and entered his name, and presently went in to
+breakfast. After he had finished, he stepped out on the sidewalk. He
+beheld a continuous stream of human beings pouring along this
+extraordinary thoroughfare. Omnibuses, carts, wagons, and vehicles of
+every description already filled the way.</p>
+
+<p>Hiram stood and regarded the scene. 'What a field here!' he said to
+himself. 'Look at this mass of people. Every other man an idiot&mdash;and of
+the rest, not one in a thousand has more than a medium share of brains.
+What a field, indeed, to undertake to manage and direct and control
+these fellows! What machinery though! Not too fast. This is the place
+for me. Burnsville-pho! Now, friend Joslin, * * * *</p>
+
+<p>Hiram made his way to the store of H. Bennett &amp; Co., in Pearl street.
+Mr. Bennett was in; glad to see Hiram, but wonderfully busy. He invited
+his relative to dinner&mdash;indeed, asked him why he had not come direct to
+his house. Then he turned away to business.</p>
+
+<p>All this did not fluster Hiram in the slightest. He waited a few
+minutes; then took occasion to interrupt Mr. Bennett, and say he wished
+to speak with him on something of importance.</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly,' replied the other. 'What can I do for you?'</p>
+
+<p>'I come to New York on special business,' said Hiram. 'It is necessary I
+should know just what kind of a person Elihu Joslin is&mdash;the large paper
+dealer in Nassau street. I have not your facilities for ascertaining,
+and I ask you, as a particular favor, to find out for me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Joslin!' exclaimed Mr. Bennett. 'I hope none of your people are in his
+clutches. He is a very hard case to deal with, so they say.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is he rich?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, worth a couple of hundred thousand, easy.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_613" id="Page_613">[Pg 613]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'How does he stand with the trade?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, unpopular enough, I should imagine. Can't tell you particularly&mdash;is
+not in my line, you know; but if the matter is really pressing, you
+shall learn all you wish to in an hour.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you. I must know all about him prior to a personal interview,
+which I am to have.'</p>
+
+<p>'I see. Call in at twelve o'clock, and the information will be ready for
+you.'</p>
+
+<p>'One word more. Do you know the house of Orris &amp; Tweed, auctioneers?'</p>
+
+<p>'Orris &amp; Tweed? Never heard their name before.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is in the directory.'</p>
+
+<p>'I dare say. That don't amount to anything.'</p>
+
+<p>'Please let me know something of them, too. I am sorry to give you this
+trouble; but I am a greenhorn in New York, and have a difficult matter
+on my hands.'</p>
+
+<p>'No trouble&mdash;at least, I don't count it such to help a friend in the way
+of business. Besides, if you are a greenhorn, you act as if you know
+what you are about.'</p>
+
+<p>H. Bennett, of the prosperous house of Bennett &amp; Co., would not have
+devoted five minutes extra to his namesake in the way of social chat;
+regarding such conduct in business hours, and in the busy season, as
+worse than superfluous; but as a matter of business, though purely
+incidental and profitless, he would have given the whole day to Hiram's
+affair, if absolutely necessary.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bennett here gave some special directions to one of his numerous
+clerks, a sharp, active-looking fellow, with a keen eye and an air like
+a game cock, who vanished as soon as they were received.</p>
+
+<p>Hiram left the store, and turning into Wall street, walked on till he
+reached Nassau street, in which was the establishment of Elihu Joslin.
+He strolled on without any special purpose, till his attention was
+arrested by an obstruction on the sidewalk. It was simply the ordinary
+circumstance of the delivery of goods. In this instance a dray was
+backed up to the curbstone, with paper. Hiram looked at it carefully. It
+was of Mr. Burns's manufacture. He glanced up to see the name of the
+house. It was not Joslin.</p>
+
+<p>A new thought flashed on him. Actuated by it, he commenced to speak with
+the carman, but checked himself, and walked boldly into the store, and
+back to the counting room.</p>
+
+<p>'I see you have Burns's paper. I want to purchase a small quantity of
+it.'</p>
+
+<p>'We couldn't supply you, to-day&mdash;have just got this in to fill an order.
+His paper stands so high that it is scarce in the market. How much do
+you want? We may get some more in by Thursday.'</p>
+
+<p>'Only a few reams to make out an assortment. I suppose I can buy of you
+on as good terms as of Joslin.'</p>
+
+<p>'For a small lot, I am sure, better; indeed, I have this direct from
+him, which is the same thing as if sent from the mill. You know the
+manufacturers will sell only to jobbers. You are in the retail line, I
+presume?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am; and I wish you would spare me a couple of reams out of this lot,
+and send them round to H. Bennett &amp; Co.'s, Pearl street.'</p>
+
+<p>The merchant recognized in Hiram a young country storekeeper, and,
+desirous as all merchants are to make new acquaintances, was willing to
+accommodate him. H. Bennett &amp; Co. was a first-class name, and this
+decided him to break into the lot, which was already sold to somebody
+else.</p>
+
+<p>Hiram paid for his purchase, called up a carman instanter, and never
+took his eye off the paper till it was delivered at Mr. Bennett's store.</p>
+
+<p>That gentleman was standing at the door, saying good-by to a first-rate
+customer, when Hiram came up with his cart, and directed his two reams
+of paper to be deposited inside.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, youngster, what's all this? said Mr. Bennett, good humoredly.</p>
+
+<p>'A little speculation of mine,' quoth Hiram, quietly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_614" id="Page_614">[Pg 614]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'Well, men do sometimes buy their own <i>paper</i>, I know&mdash;that is, when
+there is a promise to pay written on it; but this is a blank lot.'</p>
+
+<p>'It will prove a prize to me, unless I am mistaken.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bennett caught the general idea on the instant. The two exchanged
+looks, such as are only current between very 'cute, knowing,
+sharp-witted men. Hiram was betrayed into returning Mr. Bennett's leer
+before he was aware of it. It was a spontaneous recognition, and he felt
+ashamed at being thus thrown off his guard. He colored slightly, and
+said something about his duty to his employer.</p>
+
+<p>'There's where you're right,' replied Mr. Bennett. 'A man who does not
+serve his employer well will not serve himself well in the long run;
+that you may be sure of.'</p>
+
+<p>The conversation ended here. Hiram strolled out again for half an hour;
+and when he returned, Mr. Bennett was able to give him a daguerreotype
+of Elihu Joslin's character, which agreed with that with which we have
+already favored the reader. As to 'Orris &amp; Tweed, auctioneers,' they
+were not much better than Peter Funks&mdash;lived by acting as stool pigeons,
+and cheating generally.</p>
+
+<p>Hiram left the store rejoicing at this intelligence, and took his way
+direct to Joslin's place. Inquiring if that personage was in, he was
+told yes, but specially engaged. Hiram sat for a full hour, waiting
+patiently: then he was told to go into the private counting room.</p>
+
+<p>Entering, he beheld a large, overgrown, rough-looking man, about five
+and thirty, with black hair and eyes, and a coarse, florid complexion,
+who looked up and nodded carelessly on his entering.</p>
+
+<p>'This is Mr. Joslin, I presume?'</p>
+
+<p>Yes.'</p>
+
+<p>'My name is Meeker, I come from Burnsville&mdash;am in the employ of Mr.
+Burns.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well?'</p>
+
+<p>'I have come down to take a look at York, and knowing you owned half the
+paper mill, guessed you was a friend of Mr. Burns, and might not object
+to let some of your folks show me about a little.'</p>
+
+<p>'You don't belong in the mill, then?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; but I've been all over it. It's curious work&mdash;paper making.'</p>
+
+<p>'How long are you going to stay here?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I want to make a little visit and see the place. In fact, I've a
+notion to come here by-and-by, and I would like to look about first.
+Don't you want a clerk yourself?'</p>
+
+<p>'What can you do?'</p>
+
+<p>'I can tend store first rate.'</p>
+
+<p>'What do you want to leave Burns for?'</p>
+
+<p>'I didn't say I wanted to leave him. He's a first-rate man, if he was
+only a little sharper&mdash;got too many soft spots: that's what I hear folks
+say. But I think I should like New York.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Nicker&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Meeker, if you please.'</p>
+
+<p>'All right, I say, Meeker; we are pretty busy now, but if you want to
+see the elephant&mdash;and I suppose you do&mdash;I will introduce you to one of
+my boys, who will give you a chance.'</p>
+
+<p>He stepped out, beckoning Hiram to follow.</p>
+
+<p>'Hill! Tell Hill to come here, some of you. Hill, this is Mr. Meeker, in
+the employ of our particular friend, Mr. Burns, of Burnsville. He wants
+to see something of the city. You must do what you can for him. I would
+not wish to slight any one, you know, who belongs with Mr. Burns.'</p>
+
+<p>'All right, sir,' said Hill, a jaunty, devil-may-care looking fellow,
+with a sallow, sickly face, evidently the result of excess and
+dissipation.' If the young gentleman will tell me where he stops. I will
+call for him this evening.'</p>
+
+<p>'At the Franklin House,' responded Hiram.</p>
+
+<p>'The devil!' exclaimed Joslin. 'Tall quarters, I should say.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ain't it a good place, sir? I was told<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_615" id="Page_615">[Pg 615]</a></span> it was a good house on board
+the boat.'</p>
+
+<p>'Good! I should think it was. The best in New York. A dollar and a half
+a day: did you understand that?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, sir; I did not ask the price.'</p>
+
+<p>'Green, that's a fact,' said Joslin to himself.' Never mind,' he
+continued, 'Hill will recommend you to his boarding place, if you like.
+Good day;' and Hiram took his leave.</p>
+
+<p>'I say, Hill, I want to find out how matters stand with Burns. You've
+got just the chance now. Put this chap through generally. His mother
+don't seem to know he's out. Don't mind a few dollars: you understand?
+And recollect, pump him dry.'</p>
+
+<p>'Dry as a sandbank,' said Hill, who was already chuckling over the sport
+in prospect.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Joslin continued his instructions, which, as they were of a strictly
+private nature, we should be violating confidence to record.</p>
+
+<p>Hiram occupied himself the remainder of the day in looking about the
+town. He took one of Brower's omnibuses and rode to the end of the route
+in Broadway, opposite Bond street. Here he descended and retraced his
+steps. Broadway was then the general promenade. Hiram's pulse beat quick
+as he gazed on the beauty and fashion of the metropolis moving
+magnificently along. Susceptible as he was, he had never before been so
+impressed with female charms. He thought of the belles of Hampton and
+Burnsville with a species of disgust. His own costume, which he regarded
+as so perfect, he perceived had a provincial, country look, when
+contrasted with that of the gentlemen he encountered. Now in business
+matters, Hiram was as much at home and as self-possessed in New York as
+in Connecticut. But when it came to the display he now beheld, he felt
+and acknowledged his inferiority.</p>
+
+<p>Here Hiram <i>was</i> green. He did not stop to reflect that fine feathers
+make fine birds, so suddenly was he confronted with the glittering
+panorama. He continued to mingle with the crowd which swept along, and
+sometimes the blood would rush swiftly to his brain, causing him to
+reel, as dark eyes would be turned languidly on him, exhibiting, as he
+was ready to believe, an incipient interest in his destiny.</p>
+
+<p>Below Canal street the character of the current began to change, till
+gradually Hiram was freed from the exciting trial he had been subjected
+to. He collected his thoughts and brought his mind back to his work&mdash;and
+his work Hiram Meeker never neglected. Slowly the old current drove out
+the new. Gradually his mind returned to its even tenor. He walked
+through the custom house. He entered the exchange. He visited the
+shipping; and when he got back to the hotel, he was tired and hungry
+enough. But, tired and hungry as he was, he proceeded at once to open
+his valise and take out a bundle of papers. Glancing over certain
+account sales, his eye fell on the name of <span class="smcap">Hill</span> as purchaser. A
+peculiar gleam of satisfaction passed over his face as he replaced the
+papers in his valise and went down to dinner.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h3>
+
+<p>At the appointed hour, the young gentleman whom Mr. Joslin had addressed
+as 'Hill' waited on Hiram at the Franklin House. He sent up his card,
+and Hiram descended to meet him. He could scarcely recognize the young
+man before him, dressed in a ridiculous extreme of fashion, and covered
+with rings, pins, and gold chains, as the clerk hard at work with coat
+off, superintending the stowing away of a lot of merchandise. But Hiram
+was in no way deceived or taken in by the imposing manner in which Mr.
+Hill had got himself up. He saw quickly the difference between the real
+and the flash fashionable. But he did not betray this by word or sign,
+and continued to maintain the character he had assumed of an
+unsophisticated, verdant country youth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_616" id="Page_616">[Pg 616]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hill at the outset proposed they should take a drink, to which Hiram
+readily assented. They proceeded to the bar, when the young man asked
+his companion what he would have.</p>
+
+<p>'A glass of lemonade,' replied Hiram.</p>
+
+<p>'Lemonade!' exclaimed the other. 'You don't call that drinking with a
+fellow, do you?'</p>
+
+<p>'I can't take anything stronger,' answered Hiram. 'I belong to the
+temperance society.'</p>
+
+<p>'Temperance society!' retorted Hill, a good deal chapfallen that he was
+to lose his chief weapon of attack. 'I thought the pledge didn't hold
+when you were away from home?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, yes it does; our minister says it holds everywhere. Still, I
+wouldn't mind taking some soda and sarsaparilla, though Dr. Stevens says
+there's alcohol in the sarsaparilla.'</p>
+
+<p>Hiram was impracticable. Hill could not induce him even to take a little
+wine. He was so much chagrined that he poured out for himself a double
+portion of brandy, and, before he had finished it, regained his good
+humor.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, what do you say to another glass? I think I can stand the brandy,
+if you can the lemonade.'</p>
+
+<p>Hiram had no objections.</p>
+
+<p>Hill lighted a segar. Hiram did not smoke.</p>
+
+<p>'I hope you are not going to refuse my next invitation,' said Hill. 'I
+have got tickets for the theatre: what do you say?'</p>
+
+<p>Hiram had often discussed the theatre question, both at the lyceum and
+on other occasions. It was to be condemned&mdash;no doubt about it. But the
+Rev. Mr. Goddard had once remarked in his hearing that he thought if a
+good opportunity was presented for a young man to visit the theatre, he
+had perhaps better do so, than feel an irritating curiosity all his life
+about it.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing Hiram hesitate, Hill proceeded to urge him. 'You had better go,'
+he said. 'Lots to be seen. You don't know what you are losing, I tell
+you.'</p>
+
+<p>Hiram was not influenced by his companion's importunity, but he decided
+to go, nevertheless. The elder Kean was then in New York, and the old
+Park Theatre in all its glory. That evening Kean was to play Shylock in
+the 'Merchant of Venice.' Hill, greatly pleased that at last he had made
+some headway, took another glass of brandy and water, and the young men
+proceeded to the theatre. The house was crowded from galleries to pit.
+The orchestra was playing when they entered.</p>
+
+<p>Hiram was blinded by the brilliancy of the gaslights. His heart beat
+fast in spite of his effort to be composed.</p>
+
+<p>The play began with some second-rate actors, who went through the first
+scene with the usual affected stage strut and tone. Hiram thought he
+never witnessed anything more unnatural and ridiculous. Even in the
+second, where Portia and Nerissa hold a dialogue, he was rather
+disgusted than otherwise. The machinery had scarcely been adjusted for
+the third scene, when a storm of applause burst from all parts of the
+house; clapping of hands, stamping of feet, bravos, and various noises
+of welcome commingled, and Hiram beheld an old man enter, somewhat bent,
+dressed in a Hebrew cap and tunic, having a short cane, which would
+serve either for support or as a means of defence. As he advanced, he
+cast sidelong, suspicious, and sinister glances from beneath bushy,
+beetling eyebrows.</p>
+
+<p>At first Hiram was inclined to believe it was a real personage, so
+natural was his entrance&mdash;so destitute of all trick, or of anything got
+up.</p>
+
+<p>'That's Kean,' whispered Hill.</p>
+
+<p>Hiram held his breath as the words of the Jew broke distinctly on the
+house:</p>
+
+<p>'<i>Three thousand ducats&mdash;well.</i>'</p>
+
+<p>He entered at once with the deepest interest into the play. With head
+leaning forward, eyes open wide and fixed on the speaker, he drank in
+every word. From the first he sympathized with the main character. When
+Shylock went<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_617" id="Page_617">[Pg 617]</a></span> on to say: 'Yet his means are in supposition: he hath an
+argosy bound to Tipolis, another to the Indies. I understand, moreover,
+upon the Rialto, he hath a third at Mexico, a fourth for England; and
+other ventures he hath, squandered abroad. But ships are but boards,
+sailors but men. There be land rats and water rats, land thieves and
+water thieves&mdash;I mean pirates; and there is the peril of waters, winds,
+and rocks. The man is notwithstanding sufficient:'&mdash;Hiram unconsciously
+shook his head, as if he doubted it.</p>
+
+<p>His whole soul was now centred in the performance. When it came to the
+trial, in the fourth act, he turned and twisted his body, as if he could
+with difficulty abstain from advising Shylock to accept the offer of
+Bassanio: 'For the three thousand ducats here is six.'</p>
+
+<p>It does not appear that Hiram felt any sympathy for the merchant who was
+to lose the pound of flesh; but for Shylock, when turned out of court
+stripped of all he had, it was intense. When at last he exclaims:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Nay, take my life and all; pardon not that:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">You take my house when you do take the prop</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That doth sustain my house; you take my life</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When you do take the means whereby I live:'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Hiram leaned back, and exclaimed audibly: 'It's too bad, I declare!'</p>
+
+<p>All this time, Hill sat as quietly as he could. He laughed whenever
+Launcelot Gobbo appeared; and tried hard to get Hiram to go out and take
+more lemonade between the acts. Hiram would not move. He offered to
+introduce him to lots of pretty girls whom he pointed out in the
+distance; but it was useless. Hill began to think he would not make much
+of Hiram, after all. The evening was past, and he had as yet
+accomplished just nothing.</p>
+
+<p>The play was over. The farce had been performed. It did not interest
+Hiram. He thought everything over-strained and unnatural. It was now
+late, Hiram had declined various seductive invitations of Hill, when the
+latter finally insisted they should have some oysters. Hiram assented,
+and the two descended into Windust's.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, old fellow, what are you doing here?' was Hill's exclamation to a
+young man with notebook and pencil, seated at one of the small tables,
+on which already smoked an oyster stew and some brandy toddy.</p>
+
+<p>'Hallo, Hill, is that you? Sit down. What will you have?' was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>Hiram regarded the speaker curiously. He was twenty-two or three years
+old&mdash;serious looking, with black hair, dark eyes, and pale, bony
+features. He had the easy, indifferent air of one careless of opinion,
+or independent of it.</p>
+
+<p>'My friend, Mr. Meeker, from Connecticut.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Meeker, Mr. Innis.'</p>
+
+<p>After these salutations, the parties sat down, and orders were given.</p>
+
+<p>'Excuse me,' said Innis; 'I am not quite through my work.'</p>
+
+<p>'Go ahead,' replied Hill; whereat the other proceeded with his pencil
+and notebook, scratching away in a most rapid manner.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing Hiram look as if he did not exactly comprehend the employment,
+Hill remarked, 'Innis is <i>item</i> man and reporter for the <i>Clarion</i>, and
+you will see his notice of Kean's performance, which he is just
+finishing, in to-morrow morning's paper.'</p>
+
+<p>This struck Hiram as rapid work, considerably increasing his respect for
+the stranger, and led him to regard Innis still more critically. His
+appearance had impressed him favorably from the first.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly he exclaimed, 'Wern't you at Newton Academy?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; and so were you. I remember now. You were a little fellow. You
+took the first prize in bookkeeping.'</p>
+
+<p>'And <i>you</i> learned shorthand of Chellis.'</p>
+
+<p>'Which counts now, at any rate. I should starve without it.'</p>
+
+<p>During this colloquy Hill sat in utter amazement.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_618" id="Page_618">[Pg 618]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'You a Newton boy?' he exclaimed at last.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Hiram.</p>
+
+<p>'And you know him, and no mistake?' to Innis.</p>
+
+<p>Innis nodded.</p>
+
+<p>'Then old Joslin may go to the devil. I&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'He'll go soon enough, and without your permission; and if you are not
+careful, you'll go with him,' interrupted Innis, rising. 'I am all right
+now,' he continued. 'I've but to step a block and a half and back. I
+will be with you again in three minutes;' and he darted off to hand in
+his evening's report.</p>
+
+<p>Hill sat looking at Hiram, who, with all his impenetrability wore a
+surprised and puzzled expression.</p>
+
+<p>'You don't remember me,' he said.</p>
+
+<p>'No.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, I am Deacon Hill's son, of Newton. I quit the academy, I guess,
+just about the time you came. Innis and I were there together. Well, I
+declare, your innocent look threw me off the track; but I have seen you
+many a time in Hampton. You used to be with Jessup, didn't you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes.'</p>
+
+<p>'You've been coming possum over Joslin; isn't it so?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't understand you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, never mind; he's a cursed knave, anyway. I shall quit him first of
+January&mdash;keeps me on promises and the lowest kind of a salary, and no
+end of the dirty work&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Such as sham sales of my employer's paper sold A.H. Hill,' interrupted
+Hiram, dryly.</p>
+
+<p>'Hallo! where did you get hold of that?' said Hill, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>Hiram made no reply; and Innis entering at this moment, the subject was
+changed.</p>
+
+<p>Hill, who had already imbibed more than was good for him, ordered a
+brandy toddy; and Hiram, true to his temperance principles, partook of a
+cup of hot coffee. Before the toddy was half finished, Hill, who was
+already illustrating the proverb that 'children, fools, and drunken men
+speak truth,' commenced again about his employer, Joslin.</p>
+
+<p>'Really, Mr. Hill, I don't think you ought to refer to your confidential
+relations with your principal,' said Hiram, gravely. He knew, cunning
+fellow, it would only be adding fuel to the fire.</p>
+
+<p>'You be&mdash;&mdash;,' said Hill. 'I tell you what it is, Innis: here's a sell.
+I'm fairly come over. He is on Joslin's track&mdash;I know it, and I'll own
+up.' He thereupon proceeded to give a general account of Joslin, and how
+he did business, and what a cowardly, lying knave he was.</p>
+
+<p>Innis laughed. Hiram was quiet, but he did not miss a word. The little
+supper was finished, and the trio rose to depart.</p>
+
+<p>'I had no idea it was so late,' said Innis.</p>
+
+<p>'Have you far to go?' said Hiram.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, to Chelsea; and the omnibuses have stopped.'</p>
+
+<p>'Come and stay with me: I have a very nice room.'</p>
+
+<p>Innis saw Hiram was in earnest, and after a little hesitation he
+assented. Hill bid them good night, and hiccoughed off toward his own
+quarters; and Hiram with Innis went to the Franklin House.</p>
+
+<p>When these young men reached their room, they did not go to bed. They
+sat up for an hour or two. What this conference led to we shall see
+by-and-by.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h3>
+
+<p>Hiram rose early, notwithstanding the late hours of the previous night.
+Innis breakfasted with him and then took his departure. On going to the
+post office, Hiram found a letter from Mr. Burns, enclosing a full power
+of attorney, as he had requested. He then went to H. Bennett &amp; Co.,
+where he took up at least an hour of that gentleman's time, apparently
+quite to that gentleman's satisfaction. Thence Hiram proceeded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_619" id="Page_619">[Pg 619]</a></span> to the
+office of a well-known counsellor at law, who had been recommended to
+him by Mr. Bennett.</p>
+
+<p>The day was spent in preparing certain ominous-looking documents. I am
+told that on the occasion Hiram exhibited a breadth and clearness of
+comprehension which astonished the counsellor, who could not help
+suggesting to the young man that he would make an excellent lawyer,
+which compliment Hiram received with something very like a sneer. That
+evening Hiram went to bed early. He slept well. His plans were
+perfected&mdash;his troops in order of battle, only waiting for the signal to
+be given.</p>
+
+<p>He awoke about sunrise, and rang his bell. A sleepy servant at length
+replied to it.</p>
+
+<p>'Bring me a <i>Clarion</i>,' said Hiram.</p>
+
+<p>'The papers won't be along, sir, for half an hour.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, let me have one the moment they come. Here's a quarter; bring a
+<i>Clarion</i> quick, and I shall ask no change.'</p>
+
+<p>I record this instance of an impatient spirit in Hiram, as probably the
+last he ever exhibited through his whole life. What could cause it?</p>
+
+<p>Presently the waiter came back. The <i>Clarion</i> was in his hand. Hiram
+took it eagerly, turned swiftly to the 'City Items,' and nodded with
+intense satisfaction as his eye rested on one paragraph.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>At ten o'clock precisely, Hiram presented himself at the counting room
+of Elihu Joslin. Again he was forced to wait some time, and again he
+waited most patiently.</p>
+
+<p>[I ought to state that Hill, in order to keep up his credit with his
+employer, his bravado being sensibly cooled the following morning, had
+made up all sorts of stories about Mr. Burns's affairs, which, as he
+reported, had been pumped from Hiram, whom he professed to have left in
+a most dilapidated state at the hotel.]</p>
+
+<p>At length Mr. Joslin would see Hiram. The latter entered and sat down.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, my young friend,' said the merchant, 'what do you think of New
+York? Equal to Burnsville, eh? Did Hill do the polite thing by you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Joslin,' said Hiram, seriously, and quite in his natural manner,
+while he fixed his quiet but strangely searching eyes on him, 'I have an
+important communication to make to you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am not what I appear to be!'</p>
+
+<p>'No? What the devil are you then?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am the CONFIDENTIAL CLERK of Joel Burns, sent here by him to ferret
+out and punish your rascalities. Stay,' continued Hiram&mdash;perceiving
+Joslin was about to break forth in some violent demonstrations. 'Sit
+down, sir, and hear me through quietly. It is your best course. It is
+your <span class="smcap">ONLY</span> course. Now listen. You have undertaken to cheat my
+employer. You have rendered false accounts of sales, using your own
+clerks for sham purchasers, and employing stool-pigeon auctioneers. You
+have attempted to swindle him generally. I have the whole story here.
+<i>You are in my power</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>'By&mdash;&mdash;! that's more than I'll stand,' shouted Joslin, 'from any d&mdash;&mdash;d
+Connecticut Yankee.'</p>
+
+<p>'Stop,' said Hiram, authoritatively. 'A word more, and you are ruined
+past all redemption. Read that,' and he handed him the <i>Clarion</i>,
+placing his finger on a particular paragraph. Joslin took the paper. His
+hand trembled, but he managed to read as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'Some extraordinary disclosures have reached us, involving a
+wholesale paper house in Nassau street in large swindling
+transactions. We forbear to give the name of the party implicated,
+but understand that the police to-morrow will be in possession of
+the facts.'</p></div>
+
+<p>'Here,' said Hiram, showing a bundle of papers, 'are the documents.
+Outside there on the curbstone stands an officer. I mean to make short
+work of it. Will you behave rationally or not?'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_620" id="Page_620">[Pg 620]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Joslin sat down.</p>
+
+<p>'What do you want?' he said at length.</p>
+
+<p>'I want nothing but what is <span class="smcap">HONEST</span>, sir&mdash;<i>that</i> I mean to
+have,' said Hiram, in a mild, but very firm tone. 'Here is the account
+as it ought to be rendered. Look it over, and put your name to it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Really, this will take time&mdash;a good deal of time,' said Joslin,
+recovering from his stupor. 'I must consult my bookkeeper.'</p>
+
+<p>'You will consult nobody, and you will settle this account before I
+leave the room.'</p>
+
+<p>Joslin took the document. He trembled from head to foot. He saw himself
+completely circumvented.</p>
+
+<p>Hiram proceeded to show him just how the account ought to stand. Very
+coolly and very accurately he went through the whole.</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose you are right,' said Joslin, moodily, and he affixed his
+signature to the paper, and began to think he was getting off easy.
+'Now, do you want anything more of me?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Hiram, 'considerably more. You own one half of the paper
+mill with Mr. Burns. You must sell out to him. Here is an agreement to
+sell, drawn ready for your signature.'</p>
+
+<p>'D&mdash;&mdash;d if I will do it for all Burnsville! You've settled with me, and
+you can't stir a peg farther. Outwitted yourself this time!' said
+Joslin, triumphantly.</p>
+
+<p>'Not quite so fast. <i>You</i> have settled with Mr. Burns by signing that
+paper, which gives the lie to your other accounts, and is so much
+evidence for me before a police court; but Mr. Burns has <i>not</i> settled
+with you, and <i>won't</i> settle with you till you bind yourself, by signing
+this document, to sell out to him, on reasonable terms.'</p>
+
+<p>Joslin was again struck dumb.</p>
+
+<p>'You will receive,' continued Hiram, 'just what you paid for it, less my
+expenses, and charges for my time and trouble in coming to New York,
+counsel fees, and so forth; and you may think yourself fortunate in
+falling into conscientious hands!'</p>
+
+<p>Not to pursue the interview farther, Hiram accomplished just exactly
+what he undertook to do before he entered Joslin's store that morning.
+The accounts were made right, and Hiram turned to leave the store with
+the agreement to sell in his pocket. He stopped before going out.</p>
+
+<p>'Mark you,' he said; 'when Joel Burns gets a clean deed of your half the
+paper mill, according to this agreement, I will tear up these little
+documents'&mdash;exhibiting some law papers. 'Don't forget. You have
+undertaken to settle with me. I shan't have settled with you till I get
+the deed. Good morning.'</p>
+
+<p>It was only twelve o'clock when all this was concluded. Hiram marched
+out of the store triumphant. His impulse on touching the pavement was to
+jump up and down, run, kick up his heels, and shout all sorts of huzzas.
+He did none of these, but walked up to the Park very quietly, and then
+into Broadway. But his heart beat exultantly. A glow of absolute
+satisfaction suffused his mental, moral, and physical system. It was
+just the happiest moment of his life. The day was fine&mdash;the air clear
+and bracing. Broadway was filled to overflowing. How he enjoyed the
+promenade! It was when turning to retrace his steps, after reaching the
+limits of fashionable resort, that his feelings became so buoyant that
+it seemed as if he must find some outlet for them. The exquisite beauty
+of the ladies, the richness of their dresses, and the air and style with
+which they glided along, put new excitement into his soul.</p>
+
+<p>'One of these days I shall make their acquaintance. Oh! what a place
+this is,' he muttered.</p>
+
+<p>Unconsciously he stopped quite still, almost in an ecstacy.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment his attention was attracted by a hearse, which, having
+accomplished its task, was proceeding at a rapid rate up Broadway.
+Careening this way and that, it jolted swiftly over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_621" id="Page_621">[Pg 621]</a></span> the pavement. The
+driver, either hardened by habit, or, it may be, a little tipsy,
+exhibited a rollicking, reckless air, as he urged his horse along. As he
+came opposite Hiram, their eyes met. Influenced by I know not what,
+perhaps for a joke, perhaps to give the young fellow who was so
+verdantly staring at him a start, he half checked the animal, as if
+about to pull up, and gesturing to Hiram in the style of an omnibus
+driver, motioned him to get inside!</p>
+
+<p>Never before, never afterward, did Hiram receive such a shock. Dismay
+was so evident on his face, that the man gave vent to a coarse laugh at
+the success of his experiment, applied the lash to his brute, and dashed
+furiously on.</p>
+
+<p>What sent that hearse along just then and there? It gave you a ghostly
+reminder, Hiram. It made you recollect that you were not to lose sight
+of the other side.</p>
+
+<p>That morning Hiram forgot, yes, <i>forgot</i> to say his prayers. So entirely
+was he carried away by the Joslin business, that for once he neglected
+this invariable duty. Now this was not singular under the circumstances.
+To a genuine spirit the omission would have been followed by no morbid
+recollections. As Hiram, after the affair of the hearse, took his way to
+the hotel, the fact that he had not sought God's blessing on his
+morning's work suddenly presented itself. He was persuaded the shock he
+received was providential. Arrived at the Franklin, he mounted to his
+room, and read three or four times the customary amount in the Bible,
+and prayed longer and more energetically than he ever did before in his
+life. He was now much more calm, but still a good deal depressed. It was
+not till after he had partaken of an excellent dinner that he felt
+entire equanimity.</p>
+
+<p>That evening Hiram was to spend at Mr. Bennett's. True to his rule,
+which he applied with severity, not to let pleasure interfere with
+business, he had declined all his cousin's invitations. Now he was at
+liberty to go and enjoy himself. Mr. Bennett lived in a very handsome
+house in a fashionable street. His daughters were all older than Hiram,
+but still they were very pretty, and by no means <i>pass&eacute;e</i>. Mrs. Bennett
+was quite a grand lady. Mr. B. received Hiram very cordially, and asked
+immediately how he had got along. Hiram replied briefly. Mr. B. was
+delighted. Mrs. B. received Hiram very graciously, but with something of
+a patronizing manner, very different from what she exhibited when
+spending several weeks at Hampton. The two girls were more cordial.
+Hiram's country-bred politeness, which omitted not the least point
+required by books of etiquette, amused them much as the vigorous and
+very scientific dancing of a country belle amuses the city-bred girl who
+walks languidly through the measure. Notwithstanding, Hiram managed to
+make himself agreeable. It was not till two or three young gentlemen of
+the city came in that they showed slight signs of weariness, and Hiram
+was transferred to mamma. Our hero was not slow to perceive the
+disadvantage under which he labored. He was not one whit discouraged. He
+watched his rivals closely. He smiled occasionally in disdain while
+listening to some of the conversation. 'They are almost fools,' he said
+to himself. 'The tailor has done the whole.' Never mind, I can afford to
+wait.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The next morning Hiram took the boat for New Haven, and on the following
+morning reached Burnsville. He had written but a line to Mr. Burns, to
+acknowledge the receipt of the power of attorney, and had given his
+employer no inkling of what he was attempting to do.</p>
+
+<p>As the stage, a little after sunrise, drove into that beautiful village,
+Hiram felt glad to get back to its quiet, charming repose. He thought of
+the glare and hustle and excitement of New York with no satisfaction,
+contrasted with the placid beauty of the scene he now witnessed. The
+idea of being wel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_622" id="Page_622">[Pg 622]</a></span>comed by Louisa and Charlotte Hawkins filled his mind
+with pleasure, and Sarah Burns did not at that moment suffer in
+comparison with the Miss Bennetts.</p>
+
+<p>'It <i>is</i> a happy spot!' said Hiram. 'Can I do better than stay in it?'</p>
+
+<p>It was an instinct of his better nature which spoke. He had given way to
+it for a moment, but <i>only</i> for a moment. The next, the old sense
+returned and was triumphant.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The stage whirled on, and soon Hiram was driven up to the house of Mrs.
+Hawkins. How rejoiced they all were to see him! The widow Hawkins had
+missed him so much! As for Louisa and Charlotte, they were ready to
+devour him.</p>
+
+<p>Hiram hurried through his breakfast, hastily adjusted his toilette, and
+walked over to Mr. Burns's house. He rang the bell. The door was opened
+by Mr. Burns himself. He greeted Hiram most cordially.</p>
+
+<p>'I did not expect you back so soon. Come in; we are just sitting down to
+breakfast.'</p>
+
+<p>'I have already breakfasted,' said Hiram, 'and am going to the office.
+Please look these papers over,' he continued. 'By them you will see
+precisely what I have been able to do.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Burns took the papers and turned to go in. He thought Hiram had
+accomplished little, and he did not wish to mortify him by asking what.</p>
+
+<p>Just then Sarah Burns came tripping down stairs, and, passing her
+father, extended her hand to Hiram, and said:</p>
+
+<p>'Welcome back! What have you done?'</p>
+
+<p>'Do not forget your promise,' replied Hiram, in a low, distinct tone. 'I
+have <span class="smcap">WON</span>!'</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="AURORA" id="AURORA"></a>AURORA.</h2>
+
+<p class='center'>'For Waterloo,' says Victor Hugo, 'was not a battle: it was a
+change of front of the universe.'</p>
+
+
+<p>Great events are developed by nearness. "To-day," says Emerson, "is a
+king in disguise." Probably half the soldiers of Constantine's army
+regarded their leader's adoption of the Cross as his sign of hope and
+triumph as of small account. Their pay and rations, their weapons, their
+officers, were the same as before; the enemy before them, their duty to
+beat him, were unchanged. What availed a symbol more or less on the
+imperial banner? Even admit that it indicated the emperor's personal
+rejection of the old and adoption of the newer faith, what of that?
+Would not everybody else abide by the religion of his own choice,
+whatever that might be? Away, then, with all theological babble, which
+plain people can never half understand! Rome and the emperor for ever!
+Yet in that despised symbol, announcing that the Empire had become the
+protector instead of the persecutor of the Christian faith, was the germ
+of a greater transformation than was wrought by the Deluge.</p>
+
+<p>The Proclamation of Freedom by President Lincoln is doubtless open to
+criticism. Why did he not declare all slaves emancipated? Why not make
+such legal manumission operative at once? Why intimate that certain
+States should (or might) be excepted from its operation? Why not declare
+the slaves liberated because of the essential, inevitable wrong of
+holding them in bondage? Why not appeal to God for His blessing on the
+cause henceforward inseparably<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_623" id="Page_623">[Pg 623]</a></span> identified with that of Right and
+Liberty? Such questions may be multiplied indefinitely; but to what end?
+What matters that the Proclamation might or should be different, since
+we have practical concern only with the Proclamation as it is?</p>
+
+<p>For more than a lifetime, slavery has been accepted and regarded as a
+national institution. The American in Europe was "perplexed in the
+extreme" by the questionings and criticisms of humane, intelligent
+observers, who could not comprehend how a country should contain Four
+Millions of slaves by the official census, yet not be a slaveholding
+country. With our capital a slaveholding city; with our fortresses in
+good part constructed by the labor of slaves; with our flag the chief
+shelter of the African Slave Trade, and our statute book disgraced by
+the most arbitrary and inhuman Fugitive Slave Law ever devised, it <i>was</i>
+a nice operation to prove this no slaveholding country, but only one
+wherein certain citizens, by virtue of local laws, over which we had no
+control, were permitted to hold Blacks in slavery. And, when it is
+notorious that the active partisans of slavery filled every Federal
+office, even in the nominally free States, and excluded rigorously from
+office every opponent of the baleful system, it is certain that the
+shrug of the polite Frenchman who listened to our demonstration that
+ours, after all, was not a slaveholding country, was an indication of
+complaisance rather than of conviction. To prove this nothing of the
+sort, while Brazil was placed at the head of modern slaveholding
+countries, was to overtax the resources of human sophistry.</p>
+
+<p>The Proclamation is an immense fact. If it were no more than a
+recognition from the highest quarter of the deadly antagonism between
+slavery and the Union, it would have inexhaustible significance. The
+American republic, bleeding at every pore while fighting desperately for
+life, arraigns slavery as her chief enemy and peril. The truth was long
+since clear to every candid mind; but truth gains force by recognition.
+Thousands realize a fact thus proclaimed, who have hitherto ignored and
+resisted it.</p>
+
+<p>For thirty years, the charge of disloyalty has borne heavily on the
+American champion of Universal Liberty. True, as to a very few, who
+could not obtain the assent of their consciences to compacts which bound
+them to aid the oppressor against his victim, they were made a weapon of
+offense against all. Abolitionists were execrated and hooted by the mob
+as champions at once of Negro Equality and of National dissolution.</p>
+
+<p>The times are bravely altered. The partnership between Slavery and
+Unionism is absolutely dissolved. Like most divorces, this involves a
+deadly quarrel. Not even the soaring platitudes of George Francis Train
+can longer evoke cheers for the Union blent with curses on Abolition. In
+a strictly, sternly real sense, "Liberty and Union" are henceforth "one
+and inseparable!"</p>
+
+<p>For thirty years, our great seaboard merchants, our shippers, our
+factors, have given their patronage to pro-slavery journals and their
+votes to pro-slavery politicians, with intent to preserve the Union and
+lay the red spectre of civil war. Their recompense is found in the
+repudiation of the immense debts for merchandise due them from the
+South, and a gigantic war waged by the Slave Power for the overthrow of
+the Union. The profits of a lifetime of obsequious pandering to the
+master crime of our era are swept away at a blow, and the arm that
+strikes it is that of the monster they have made such sacrifices of
+conscience and manhood to conciliate. Was ever retribution more signal?</p>
+
+<p>To-day, the American Union, through the official action of its President
+and Congress, stands distinctly on the side of Liberty for All. Its
+success in the fearful struggle forced upon it involves the overthrow
+and extinction of American slavery. The sentiment of nation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_624" id="Page_624">[Pg 624]</a></span>ality, the
+instinct which impels every people to deprecate and resist the
+dismemberment and degradation of their country, the impulse of loyalty,
+are all arrayed against the traitorous "institution" which, after having
+so long bent the Union to its ends, now seeks its destruction. It once
+seemed to the majority patriotic to champion slavery; it is now a sacred
+duty to resist the bloody Moloch unto death.</p>
+
+<p>The very hesitation of the President to take the decisive step gives
+weight to his ultimate decision. The compromisers have never tired of
+eulogizing his firmness, his candor, his patience, his clearness of
+vision, his independence, and his unsectional patriotism. His
+associations were largely with the Border State school of conservatives.
+His favorite counsellor was the most eminent and sturdy Republican
+opponent of an emancipation policy. His decision in favor of that
+policy, like the Proclamation which announces it, is entirely his own.
+The "pressure" to which he deferred was that of an urgent public
+necessity and the emphatic conviction of the great mass of our loyal
+citizens.</p>
+
+<p>And, though few days have elapsed since the Proclamation was uttered,
+the evils predicted by its opponents are already banished to the limbo
+of chimera. Those officers who threatened to resign in case an
+emancipation policy were adopted make no haste to justify their menaces.
+As yet, not one of them has done so; in time, a few may screw their
+courage to the sticking-point. There are enough who can be spared; and
+they are generally those who deprecate and denounce an "Abolition war."
+May they yet prove men of their word!</p>
+
+<p>Outside of the army, the general feeling is one of wonder that this act
+of direst portent to the rebellion has been so long delayed. Even the
+rebels share in this amazement. When secession was first openly mooted
+at the South, every Unionist argued that secession was practical
+abolition. It has puzzled them to comprehend the weary months through
+which their prophecies were left unfulfilled. They will be perplexed no
+longer.</p>
+
+<p>The Opposition in the loyal States is manifestly weakened by the
+Proclamation. Their dream is of wearing out the Unionists by
+disappointments and delays, restoring a Democratic ascendency in the
+government, and then buying back the rebels to an outward loyalty by new
+concessions and guaranties to slavery. Hence torpid campaigns, languid
+strategy, advances without purpose, and surrenders without necessity.
+But the policy of emancipation brings the quarrel to a speedy decision.
+The rebel States must promptly triumph or brave a social dissolution.
+Every Union advance into a rebel region henceforth clears a broad
+district of slaves. The few are hurried off by their masters; the many
+escape to a land of freedom. How signally this process will be
+accellerated after the first of January, few will yet believe. Let the
+war simply go on, with fluctuating fortunes, for a year or two longer,
+and the new slave empire will be nearly denuded of slaves. The process
+is at once inevitable and irresistible. Whether the able-bodied slaves
+thus escaping to the loyal States shall or shall not be used in whatever
+way they may be found most serviceable against the cruel despotism which
+so long robbed them of their earnings while crushing out their manhood,
+is purely a question of time. There are thousands who would last year
+have revolted against the employment of Blacks in any way in our
+struggle, who are now ripe for it: every week, as it transpires, adds to
+their number. Loyal men hesitated at first, believing that the rebellion
+would easily and speedily be put down. These have now discovered their
+mistake and amended it. An aristocracy of three hundred thousand
+generally capable, energetic persons, accustomed to rule, and
+recognizing a deadly foe in every opponent of their wishes, surrounded
+by twice so many shrewd and skilful parasites, and wielding the entire
+resources of ten millions of peo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_625" id="Page_625">[Pg 625]</a></span>ple, are not easily conquered. The poor
+Whites fill the ranks of their armies; the Blacks grow the food and
+perform the labor essential to the subsistence of those armies and of
+their families. Slavery unassailed is the strongest natural base of a
+gigantic rebellion: it easily adapts all the resources of a people to
+the stern exigencies of war. Slavery resisted and undermined is a very
+different affair, as the annals of this struggle are destined to prove.</p>
+
+<p>Let no doubts, then, vex the mind of a single hearty Unionist as to the
+issue of our great contest. The Proclamation has not added a thousand to
+the number of our enemies, while it has supplied four millions with the
+most cogent reasons for being henceforth our friends. These millions are
+humble, ignorant, timid, distrustful, and now grinding in the
+prison-house of the traitors. They are not, let us frankly admit, the
+equals in prowess, capacity, or opportunity, of four millions of Whites;
+but they are, nevertheless, human beings; they have human affections and
+aspirations, and they feel the stirrings of the universal and
+indestructible human longing for liberty. "Breaking in a nigger" is a
+rough and pretty effectual process: it crushes down the manhood of its
+subject, but does not crush it out. Should the republic say to-morrow to
+its Black step-children, "We want one hundred thousand of you to aid in
+this struggle against the slaveholding rebels, and will treat you in
+every respect as human beings should be treated," it would not have to
+wait long for the full number. Hitherto a low prejudice, studiously
+fostered by Democratic politicians for the vilest party ends, has
+repelled and expelled this abused race from the militia service of the
+Union. The exclusion is absurd where its impulse is not treasonable, and
+must share the fate of all absurdities. "Would you," asked a Unionist of
+a Democrat, "refuse the aid of a negro, if you were assailed and your
+life threatened by an assassin?" "Yes," replied the Democrat; "I would
+rather be killed by a White man than saved by a nigger." Who does not
+<i>know</i> that this man at heart sympathizes with the rebellion, and
+deprecates the War for the Union as unnecessary and ruinous?</p>
+
+<p>That war will go on. Our new and vast levies, our new iron-clads, our
+new policy, will add immensely to the strength already put forth in
+vindication of the rightful authority of the Federal government and the
+integrity of the Union. Yet a little while, and the immense superiority
+in every respect of the moral and material forces of the loyal States
+will make themselves felt and respected. Yet a little while, and the
+authority of the Nation will be acknowledged by its now revolted
+citizens, and the rebellion will subside as suddenly as it broke upon
+us. Yet a little while, and ours will again be a land of peace,
+returning joyfully to the pursuits of productive industry and radiant
+with the sunlight of Universal Liberty.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="HOW_THEY_DID_IT" id="HOW_THEY_DID_IT"></a>HOW THEY DID IT.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The magnates of Richmond all swore out of hand,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That the war must go in the enemies' land;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And it did: when they crossed to the Maryland shore</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They turned all into foes who were friendly before!</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_626" id="Page_626">[Pg 626]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="FROM_MOUNT_LAFAYETTE_WHITE_MOUNTAINS" id="FROM_MOUNT_LAFAYETTE_WHITE_MOUNTAINS"></a>FROM MOUNT LAFAYETTE, WHITE MOUNTAINS.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Silence and light and scenes stupendous greet</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My wondering sense and sight! Here midway meet</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Those rocky splendors where th' embracing clouds</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Above, below, wrap them in misty shrouds.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Our mules with cautious feet the sharp ascent</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Accomplish; and, the steep o'ertopped, all spent</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Our strength, we look wild nature in the face,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Some features of the human soul to trace.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A phantom drap'ry betwixt sky and earth,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of blending tints, spans in impulsive birth</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Th' entranced view! A heav'nly arch it forms&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">It seems suspended by some seraph's arms!</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ethereal Rainbow! Daughter of the Shower!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thy beauty lends enchantment to the hour.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The seraph arm grows weary&mdash;now is furled</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The gleam in dreamy vapor from the world!</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And now in purple shadows stand the hills:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The night winds beat their stony sides, and trills</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From hidden rivulets, and stealthy creep</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of some lone reptile down the grooved steep,</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Divert the eye and ear&mdash;th' restricted breath</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of each rapt soul is heard&mdash;and still as death</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stand the dumb mules. Homeward we turn our eyes,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And leave the region of the naked skies.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="INDEPENDENCE" id="INDEPENDENCE"></a>INDEPENDENCE.</h2>
+
+<h4>[1776.]</h4>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Freeman! if you pant for glory,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If you sigh to live in story,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">If you burn with patriot zeal;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Seize this bright, auspicious hour,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chase those venal tools of power,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Who subvert the public weal.</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_627" id="Page_627">[Pg 627]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_HOMESTEAD_BILL" id="THE_HOMESTEAD_BILL"></a>THE HOMESTEAD BILL.</h2>
+
+
+<p>After a severe struggle of more than a quarter of a century, from March,
+1836, to May, 1862, the Homestead bill has become a law. We quote its
+main provisions, as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'That any person who is the head of a family or arrived at the age
+of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States, or
+shall have filed his declaration of intention to become such, as
+required by the naturalization laws of the United States, and has
+never borne arms against the United States government, or given aid
+and comfort to its enemies, from and after the 1st January, 1863,
+shall be entitled to enter one quarter section or a less quantity
+of unappropriated public land, upon which said person may have
+filed a pre&euml;mption claim, or which may at the time the application
+is made be subject to pre&euml;mption at $1.25 or less per acre, or
+eighty acres or less of such unappropriated land at $2.50 per acre,
+to be located in a body in conformity to the legal subdivisions of
+the public lands, and after the same shall have been surveyed, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>'<span class="smcap">Sec</span>. 2. That the person applying for the benefit of this
+act shall, upon application to the register of the land office in
+which he or she is about to make such entry, make affidavit before
+the said register or receiver that he or she is the head of a
+family, or is twenty-one years of age or more, or shall have
+performed service in the army or navy of the United States, and
+that he has never borne arms against the government of the United
+Stales, or given aid and comfort to its enemies, and that such
+application is made for his or her exclusive use and benefit, and
+that said entry is made for the purpose of actual settlement and
+cultivation, and not either directly or indirectly for the use or
+benefit of any other person or persons whomsoever: and upon filing
+the said affidavit with the register or receiver, and on the
+<i>payment of ten dollars</i>, he or she shall thereupon be permitted to
+enter the quantity of land specified,' &amp;c.</p></div>
+
+<p>Settlement and cultivation for five years required, when the patent
+issues&mdash;the land secured in case of the settler's death, to the widow,
+children, or heirs&mdash;the settler must be a citizen of the United States
+before the patent is given&mdash;the land is subject to no debt incurred
+before the emanation of the patent. As the title remains for five years
+in the government, and until the patent issues, the land, in the
+meantime, could scarcely be subject to taxation. The land is
+substantially a gift, the $10 (&pound;2. 0. 16.) being only sufficient to pay
+for the survey and incidental expenses.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst natives are included in this act, Europeans already here, or who
+may come hereafter, participate alike in its benefits. The emigrant can
+make the entry and settle upon the land merely on filing the declaration
+of intention to become a citizen, and it is only after the lapse of five
+years therefrom, that he must be naturalized.</p>
+
+<p>This law should be widely circulated, at home and abroad, and especially
+in Ireland and Germany. It should be published in all leading presses,
+and distributed in printed circulars. By law, two sections (1,280 acres)
+are reserved in each township of six miles square, from the sale of
+which to establish free schools, where all children can be instructed,
+so that our material progress may be accompanied by universal education
+and intellectual development.</p>
+
+<p>This great domain reserved, as farms and homesteads for the industrious
+masses of Europe and America, is thus described by the Hon. Joseph S.
+Wilson, in his great historical and statistical report, as commissioner
+of the General Land Office of Nov. 29, 1860:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'Of the 3,250,000 of square miles which constitute the territorial
+extent of the Union, the public lands embrace an area of 2,265,625
+square miles, or 1,450,000,000 of acres, being more than two thirds
+of our geographical extent, and nearly three times as large as the
+United States at the ratification of the definitive treaty of peace
+in 1783 with Great Britain. This empire domain extends from the
+northern line of Texas, the gulf of Mexico, reaching to the
+Atlantic ocean, northwesterly to the Canada line bordering upon the
+great lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior, extending westward
+to the Pacific ocean, with Puget's sound on the north, the
+Mediterranean sea of our extreme northwestern possessions.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_628" id="Page_628">[Pg 628]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'It includes fifteen sovereignties known as the 'Land States,' and
+an extent of territory sufficient for thirty-two additional, each
+equal to the great central land State of Ohio.</p>
+
+<p>'It embraces soils capable of abundant yield of the rich
+productions of the tropics, of sugar, cotton, rice, tobacco, corn,
+and the grape, the vintage, now a staple, particularly so of
+California; of the great cereals, wheat and corn, in the western,
+northwestern, and Pacific States, and in that vast interior region
+from the valley of the Mississippi river to the Rocky mountains;
+and thence to the chain formed by the Sierra Nevada and Cascades,
+the eastern wall of the Pacific slope, every variety of soil is
+found revealing its wealth.</p>
+
+<p>'Instead of dreary inarable wastes, as supposed in earlier times,
+the millions of buffalo, elk, deer, mountain sheep, the primitive
+inhabitants of the soil, fed by the hand of nature, attest its
+capacity for the abundant support of a dense population through the
+skilful toil of the agriculturist, dealing with the earth under the
+guidance of the science of the present age.</p>
+
+<p>'Not only is the yield of food for man in this region abundant, but
+it holds in its bosom the precious metals of gold, silver, with
+cinnabar, the useful metals of iron, lead, copper, interspersed
+with immense belts or strata of that propulsive element coal, the
+source of riches and power, and now the indispensable agent not
+only for domestic purposes of life, but in the machine shop, the
+steam car, and steam vessel, quickening the advance of civilization
+and the permanent settlement of the country, and being the agent of
+active and constant intercommunication with every part of the
+republic.'</p></div>
+
+<p>Kansas having been admitted since the date of this report, our public
+domain, thus described officially, now includes the sixteen <i>land
+States</i>, and <i>all</i> the Territories.</p>
+
+<p>Of this vast region (originally 1,450,000,000 acres), there was surveyed
+up to September, 1860, 441,067,915 acres, and 394,088,712 acres disposed
+of by sales, grants, &amp;c., leaving, as the commissioner states,'the total
+area of unsold and unappropriated, of offered and unoffered lands of the
+public domain on the 30th September, 1860, 1,055,911,288 acres.' This is
+'land surface,' exclusive of lakes, bays, rivers, &amp;c., 1,055,911,288
+acres, or 1,649,861 square miles, and exceeds one half the area of the
+whole Union. The area of New York being 47,000 square miles, is less
+than a thirty-fifth part of our public domain. England (proper) has
+50,922 square miles, France 203,736, Prussia 107,921, and Germany 80,620
+square miles: The area then of our public domain is more than eight
+times as large as France, more than fifteen times as large as Prussia,
+more than twenty times as large as Germany, more than thirty-two times
+as large as England, and larger (excluding Russia) than all Europe,
+containing more than 200 millions of people.</p>
+
+<p>As England (proper) contained in 1861, 18,949,916 inhabitants, if our
+public domain were as densely settled, its population would exceed 606
+millions, and it would be 260,497,561, if numbering as many to the
+square mile as Massachusetts. But if, contrary to the opinion before
+quoted of the commissioner, one fourth of this domain was unfit for
+agriculture, grazing, mining, commerce, or manufactures, the remainder
+would still contain 195,373,171 inhabitants (if as densely settled as
+Massachusetts), and with every variety of soil, climate, mineral and
+agricultural products. Its average fertility far exceeds that of Europe,
+as does also the extent of its mines, especially gold, silver, coal, and
+iron.</p>
+
+<p>These lands are surveyed at the expense of the government into
+town-ships of six miles square, subdivided into sections, and these into
+quarter sections (160 acres), set apart for homesteads. Our system of
+public surveys into squares, by lines running due north and south, east
+and west, is so simple as to have precluded all disputes as to boundary
+or title. This domain reaches from the 24th to the 49th parallel, from
+the lakes to the gulf, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Its
+isothermes (the lines of equal mean annual temperature) strike on the
+north the coast of Norway midway, touch St. Petersburg in Russia, and
+pass through Manchooria to the coast of Asia, about three degrees south
+of the mouth of the Amour river. On the south, these isothermes run
+through northern Africa, and nearly the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_629" id="Page_629">[Pg 629]</a></span> centre of Egypt near Thebes,
+cross northern Arabia, Persia, northern Hindostan, and southern China
+near Canton. No empire in the world of contiguous territory possesses
+such a variety of climate, soil, forests, and prairies, fruits, and
+fisheries, animal, vegetable, mineral, and agricultural products. It has
+all those of Europe, and many in addition, with a climate, as shown by
+the international census, far more salubrious, with a more genial sun,
+and millions in other countries are already fed and clothed by our
+surplus products.</p>
+
+<p>Of this vast domain, less than two per cent. is cursed by slavery, which
+is prohibited by law in ten of these land States, and in all the
+Territories. Indeed, when the present rebellion shall be crushed, and
+this vast territorial region (accelerated by the Homestead bill) shall
+be settled and admitted as States, three fourths of the States will then
+be free States, and thus authorized by the Constitution to amend that
+instrument. Thus we can by just and lawful measures make emancipation
+universal. From the progress of events, we shall probably celebrate the
+4th of July, 1876, our first centennial, now less than fourteen years
+distant, as a nation, of <i>freemen</i>, with slavery abolished or rapidly
+disappearing. State will then have succeeded State in unbroken column,
+from the Atlantic to the Pacific, united by imperial railroads
+traversing the continent. Adjacent regions, geographically connected
+with us, will then consummate the political union designed by
+Providence, The Homestead bill, having accomplished its great work
+within our present limits, will then commence a new career, and carry
+our banner in peaceful triumph, over the continent. Our Review, then, is
+called <span class="smcap">Continental</span>, as prefiguring the destiny of our country.</p>
+
+<p>Now, however, within our present vast domain, not only the poor, but our
+own industrious classes and those of Europe may not only find a home,
+but a farm for each settler, substantially as a free gift by the
+government. Here all who would rather be owners than tenants, and wish
+to improve and cultivate their own soil, are invited. Here, too, all who
+would become equals among equals, citizens (not subjects) of a great and
+free country, enjoying the right of suffrage, and eligible to every
+office except the presidency, can come and occupy with us this great
+inheritance. Here liberty, equality, and fraternity reign supreme, not
+in theory or in name only, but in truth and reality. This is the
+brotherhood of man, secured and protected by our organic law. Here the
+Constitution and the people are the only sovereigns, and the government
+is administered by their elected agents, and for the benefit of the
+people. Those toiling elsewhere for wages that will scarcely support
+existence, for the education of whose children no provision is made by
+law, who are excluded from the right of suffrage, may come here and be
+voters and citizens, find a farm given as a homestead, free schools
+provided for their children at the public expense, and hold any office
+but the presidency, to which their children, born here, are eligible.
+What does England for any one of its toiling millions who rejects this
+munificent offer? He is worked and taxed there to his utmost endurance,
+or pressed into military service. He has the right to <i>work</i>, to
+<i>fight</i>, and <i>pay taxes</i>, but not to vote. Unschooled ignorance is his
+lot and that of his descendants. If a farmer, he works and improves the
+land of others, in constant terror of rent day, the landlord, and
+eviction. Indeed, the annual rent of a single acre in England exceeds
+the price&mdash;$10 (&pound;2. 0. 16)&mdash;payable for the ownership in fee simple of
+the entire homestead of 160 acres, granted him here by the government.
+For centuries that are past, and for all time to come, there, severe
+toil, poverty, ignorance, the workhouse, or low wages, impressment, and
+disfranchisement, would seem to be his lot. Here, freedom, competence,
+the right of suffrage,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_630" id="Page_630">[Pg 630]</a></span> the homestead farm, and free schools for his
+children.</p>
+
+<p>In selecting these homestead farms, the emigrant can have any
+temperature, from St. Petersburg to Canton. He can have a cold, a
+temperate, or a warm climate, and farming or gardening, grazing or
+vintage, varied by fishing or hunting. He can raise wheat, rye, Indian
+corn, oats, rice, indigo, cotton, tobacco, cane or maple sugar and
+molasses, sorghum, wool, peas and beans, Irish or sweet potatoes,
+barley, buckwheat, wine, butter, cheese, hay, clover, and all the
+grasses, hemp, hops, flax and flaxseed, silk, beeswax and honey, and
+poultry, in uncounted abundance. If he prefers a stock farm, he can
+raise horses, asses, and mules, camels, milch cows, working oxen and
+other cattle, goats, sheep, and swine. In many locations, these will
+require neither housing nor feeding throughout the year. He can have
+orchards, and all the fruits and vegetables of Europe, and many in
+addition. He can have an Irish or German, Scotch, English, or Welsh,
+French, Swiss, Norwegian, or American neighborhood. He can select the
+shores of oceans, lakes, or rivers; live on tide water or higher lands,
+valleys or mountains. He can be near a church of his own denomination;
+the freedom of conscience is complete; he pays no tithes, nor church
+tax, except voluntarily. His sons and daughters, on reaching twenty-one
+years of age, or sooner, if the head of a family, or having served in
+the army, are each entitled to a homestead of 160 acres; and if he dies,
+the title is secured to his widow, children, or heirs. Our flag is his,
+and covers him everywhere with its protection. He is our brother, and he
+and his children will enjoy with us the same heritage of competence and
+freedom. He comes where labor is king, and toil is respected and
+rewarded. If before, or instead of receiving his homestead, he chooses
+to pursue his profession, or business, to work at his trade, or for
+daily wages, he will find them double the European rate, and subsistence
+cheaper. From whatever part of Europe he may come, he will meet his
+countrymen here, and from them and us receive a cordial welcome. A
+government which gives him a farm, the right to vote, and free schools
+for his children, must desire his welfare. And well has this been
+merited by our immigrants, for, side by side with our native sons, have
+they ever upheld our banner with devoted courage.</p>
+
+<p>Of all the epidemic insanities which occasionally afflict nations, none
+exceeded in folly the recent frenzy, which, by diminishing immigration,
+would have retarded our progress in wealth, power, and population,
+Nearly all our railroads and canals have been constructed mainly by
+immigrants, thus rapidly improving our whole country, and furnishing
+profitable business, employment, and augmented wages in all the pursuits
+of industry. Simultaneously with the homestead, Congress has provided
+the means for constructing the imperial railway which will soon unite
+the Atlantic with the Pacific. Passing, as it will, for several thousand
+miles, through our public domain, it will add much to the value of the
+homestead lands. It should be remembered, especially by the Irish and
+Germans, who are asked in the South to fight the rebel battles, that,
+but for the opposition of Mr. Calhoun and the secession leaders, this
+bill would long since have been a law.</p>
+
+<p>It was first proposed by Robert J. Walker, in October, 1830, and again,
+in a speech made by him against nullification and secession, at Natchez,
+Mississippi, on the first Monday of January, 1833, and then published in
+the <i>Mississippi Journal</i>. From that speech we make the following
+extract: 'The public lands are now unincumbered by the public debt: no
+more sales are necessary, unless (to settlers) at a price required to
+pay the expenses of survey and sale. This is the period for the new
+States to produce this beneficial change in the policy of the
+Government, (instead of) the present onerous system, which ar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_631" id="Page_631">[Pg 631]</a></span>rests the
+cultivation of our soil, and growth of our country.' Here the Homestead
+bill was recommended by a <i>Union</i> man, in a speech against secession;
+and as the opponent of that heresy, he was elected to the United States
+Senate by Mississippi, on the 8th of January, 1836.</p>
+
+<p>In the United States Senate Journal, of 31st March, 1836, will be found
+the following entry: 'Agreeable to notice, Mr. Walker asked and obtained
+leave to bring in a bill to reduce and graduate the price of the public
+lands in favor of actual settlers only, to provide a standing pre&euml;mption
+law, to authorize the sale and entry of all the public lands in forty
+acre lots, &amp;c. On motion by Mr. Calhoun, that this bill be referred to
+the Committee on Public Lands, ayes 19, nays 25. On motion by Mr.
+Walker, ordered that this bill be referred to a select committee of
+five, to be appointed by the Vice-President. Mr. Walker (chairman),
+Ewing of Ohio, Linn, Prentiss and Ewing of Illinois, are appointed the
+committee.' And now, that we may understand the motive of the hostile
+motion made by Mr. Calhoun, I make the following extract from Gales &amp;
+Beaton's <i>Congressional Register</i>, vol. xii., part 1, page 1027, March
+31, 1836, containing the debate, on this bill: 'Mr. Walker asked and
+obtained leave to introduce a bill to reduce and graduate the price of
+public lands to actual settlers only, &amp;c. The bill having been read
+twice, Mr. Walker moved that it be referred to a committee of five. Mr.
+Calhoun opposed the bill, and moved a reference to the Committee on
+Public Lands. Mr. Walker rose and said:</p>
+
+<p>* * 'He had heard with regret the actual settlers denounced in the
+Senate as squatters, as if that were a term of reproach. Our glorious
+Anglo-Saxon ancestry, the pilgrims who landed on Plymouth rock, the
+early settlers at Jamestown, were squatters. They settled this continent
+with less pretension to title than the settlers on the public lands.
+Daniel Boone was a squatter; Christopher Columbus was a squatter.</p>
+
+<p>* * They are the men who cultivate the soil in peace, and defend your
+country in war, when those who denounce them are reposing upon beds of
+down. These are the men who, in the trackless wilderness and upon the
+plains of Orleans, carried forward to victory, the bannered eagle of our
+great and glorious Union. These are the men with whom the patriot
+Jackson achieved his great and glorious victories; and if but one
+thousand of these much abused squatters, these Western riflemen, had
+been at Bladensburg beneath their great commander, never would a British
+army have polluted the soil where stands the capitol of the Union. They
+would have driven back the invader ere the torch of the incendiary had
+reached the capitol, or they would have left their bones bleaching there
+(as did the Spartans at Thermopyl&aelig;), alike, in death or victory, the
+patriot defenders of their country's soil, and fame, and honor. [Here
+Mr. Walker was interrupted by warm applause from the crowded galleries.]
+It is proposed to send this bill to the Committee on Public Lands, that
+has already reported against reducing the price of the public lands,
+against granting preemptions to settlers, against every other material
+feature of this bill&mdash;to send this bill there, to have another report
+against us. No, said Mr. Walker; we have had one report against the new
+States, and the settlers in them, and now let them be heard through the
+report of a select committee: let argument encounter argument, and the
+question be decided on its real merits.'</p>
+
+<p>The opposition of Mr. Calhoun to this measure, was based upon the idea,
+<i>originating with him</i>, that, selling the public lands, only in small
+tracts, and at reduced prices, exclusively to actual settlers, would be
+hostile to large plantations, prevent the transfer of slavery to new
+Territories, and the multiplication of slave States. This view was
+gradually adopted by nearly all the advocates of secession, and delayed
+for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_632" id="Page_632">[Pg 632]</a></span> years the success of the homestead policy. The measure also
+encountered then serious opposition from the supporters of the bill
+(opposed by Mr. Calhoun), distributing among the States the proceeds of
+the sales of the public lands. A majority of the Committee of Public
+Lands of the Senate favored then the distribution policy, and therefore
+Mr. Calhoun's motion to refer the Homestead bill to that committee was
+designed to defeat the measure.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Walker's bill granted a homestead of a quarter section to every
+settler on payment of twenty dollars, <i>after</i> three years' occupancy and
+possession.</p>
+
+<p>The special committee, to which this bill was referred, would not go so
+far, but authorized Mr. Walker to report 'A bill to arrest monopolies of
+the public lands and purchases thereof for speculation, and substitute
+sales to actual settlers only, in limited quantities, and at reduced
+prices,' &amp;c. This report will be found in vol. 5, Sen. Doc., 1st
+session, 24th Congress, No. 402. 'In Senate of the United States, June
+15, 1836, Mr. Walker made the following report:'</p>
+
+<p><i>Extracts.</i>&mdash;'The committee have adopted the principle that the public
+lands should be held as a sacred reserve for the <i>cultivators of the
+soil</i>; that monopolies by individuals or companies should be prevented;
+that sales should be made only in limited quantities to <i>actual
+settlers</i>, and the price in their favor reduced and graduated.' * * The
+old system 'is throwing the public domain into the hands of speculating
+monopolists. It is reviving many of the evils of the old feudal system
+of Europe. Under that system, the lands were owned in vast bodies by a
+few wealthy barons, and leased by them to an impoverished and dependent
+tenantry.'</p>
+
+<p>A bill based on this principle, and reported by Mr. Walker at a
+succeeding session, passed the Senate, but was defeated in the House. In
+each of his annual reports as Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Walker
+strongly recommended the homestead policy, which encountered the
+continual opposition of Mr. Calhoun.</p>
+
+<p>In his inaugural address as Governor of Kansas, of the 27th May, 1857,
+Mr. Walker thus strongly advocated the Homestead policy:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'If my will could have prevailed as regards the public lands, as
+indicated in my public career, and especially in the bill presented
+by me, as chairman of the Committee on Public Lands, to the Senate
+of the United States, which passed that body but failed in the
+House, I would authorize no sales of these lands except for
+settlement and cultivation, reserving not merely a pre&euml;mption, but
+a <span class="smcap">Homestead</span> of a quarter section of land in favor of every
+<i>actual settler</i>, whether coming from other States or <i>emigrating
+from Europe</i>. Great and populous States would thus be added to the
+Confederacy, until we should soon have one unbroken line of States,
+from the Atlantic to the Pacific, giving immense additional power
+and security to the Union, and facilitating intercourse between all
+its parts. This would be alike beneficial to the old and to the new
+States. To the <i>working men</i> of the old States, as well as of the
+new, it would be of incalculable advantage, not merely by affording
+them a home in the West, but by maintaining the <i>wages of labor</i>,
+by enabling the working classes to emigrate and become cultivators
+of the soil, when the rewards of daily toil should sink below a
+fair remuneration. Every new State, beside, adds to the customers
+of the old States, consuming their manufactures, employing their
+merchants, giving business to their vessels and canals, their
+railroads and cities, and a powerful impulse to their industry and
+prosperity. Indeed, it is the growth of the mighty West which has
+added, more than all other causes combined, to the power and
+prosperity of the whole country; whilst, at the same time, through
+the channels of business and commerce, it has been building up
+immense cities in the Eastern Atlantic and Middle States, and
+replenishing the Federal treasury with large payments from the
+settlers upon the public lands, rendered of real value only by
+their labor, and thus, from increased exports, bringing back
+augmented imports, and soon largely increasing the revenue of the
+Government from that source also.'&mdash;<i>See Doc. Vol. I., No. 8, 1st
+Sess. XXXVth Congress.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>It will no doubt be remembered how much this address was denounced by
+the secession leaders, and with what fury Mr. Walker was assailed by
+them for insisting on the rejection of the Lecompton<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_633" id="Page_633">[Pg 633]</a></span> Constitution, by
+which, it was attempted, by fraud and forgery, to force slavery upon
+Kansas, against the will of the people.</p>
+
+<p>In June, 1860, a Homestead bill was passed by Congress, securing to
+actual settlers a quarter section of the public lands, at twenty-five
+cents per acre, which was vetoed by Mr. Buchanan. The veto message says:
+'The Secretary of the Interior estimated the revenue from the public
+lands for the nest fiscal year at $4,000,000, on the presumption that
+the present land system would remain unchanged. Should this bill become
+a law, he does not believe that $1,000,000 will be derived from this
+source.' It would thus seem that Jacob Thompson, then Secretary of the
+Interior, was permitted to dictate the financial portion of this veto.
+He is now in the traitor army; but before leaving the Cabinet, he
+communicated to the enemy at Charleston important information he had
+received officially and confidentially. Whilst still Secretary, he was
+permitted by Mr. Buchanan to accept from Mississippi, <i>after</i> she had
+seceded, the post of her ambassador to North Carolina, to induce her to
+secede; which public mission he openly fulfilled, still remaining a
+member of the Cabinet. Such was the abyss of degradation to which the
+late Administration had then fallen. Indeed, Thompson (like Floyd and
+Cobb), was never dismissed by Mr. Buchanan, but resigned his office,
+receiving then, after all these treasonable and perfidious acts, a most
+complimentary letter from the late President.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Thompson's financial argument against the Homestead bill is most
+fallacious. Our national wealth, by the last census, was
+$16,159,616,068, and its increase during the last ten years
+$8,925,481,011, or 126.45 per cent. Now if, as a consequence of the
+Homestead bill, there should be occupied, improved, and cultivated,
+during the next ten years, 50,000 additional farms by settlers, or only
+5,000 per annum, it would make an aggregate of 8,000,000 acres. If,
+including houses, fences, barns, and other improvements, we should value
+each of these farms at ten dollars an acre, it would make an aggregate
+of $80,000,000. But if we add the products of these farms, allowing only
+one half of each (80 acres) to be cultivated, and the average annual
+value of the crops, stock included, to be only ten dollars per acre, it
+would give $40,000,000 a year, and, in ten years, $400,000,000,
+independent of the reinvestment of capital. It is clear that, thus, vast
+additional employment would be given to labor, freight to steamers,
+railroads, and canals, and markets for manufactures.</p>
+
+<p>The homestead privilege will largely increase immigration. Now, beside
+the money brought here by immigrants, the census proves that the average
+annual value of the labor of Massachusetts <i>per capita</i> was, in 1860,
+$220 for each man, woman, and child, independent of the gains of
+commerce&mdash;very large, but not given. Assuming that of the immigrants at
+an average annual value of only $100 each, or less than 33 cents a day,
+it would make, in ten years, at the rate of 100,000 each year, the
+following aggregate:</p>
+
+
+
+<div class='centered'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="50%" cellspacing="0" summary="at the rate of 100,000 each year, the
+following aggregate">
+<tr><td align='right'>1st</td><td align='center'>year</td><td align='right'>100,000</td><td align='center'>=</td><td align='right'>$10,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>2d</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>200,000</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>20,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>3d</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>300,000</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>30,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>4th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>400,000</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>40,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>5th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>500,000</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>50,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>6th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>600,000</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>60,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>7th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>700,000</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>70,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>8th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>800,000</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>80,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>9th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>900,000</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>90,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>10th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>1,000,000</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>100,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' colspan="4">&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' colspan="3">&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>Total,</td><td align='right'>$550,000,000</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>In this table, the labor of all immigrants each year is properly added
+to those arriving the succeeding year, so as to make the aggregate, the
+last year, one million. This would make the value of the labor of this
+million of immigrants, in ten years, $550,000,000, independent of the
+annual accumulation of capital, and the labor of the children of the
+immigrants after the first ten years, which, with their descendants,
+would go on constantly increasing.</p>
+
+<p>But, by the actual official returns (see page 14 of Census), the number
+of alien<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_634" id="Page_634">[Pg 634]</a></span> immigrants to the United States, from December, 1850, to
+December, 1860, was 2,598,216, or an annual average of 259,821, say
+260,000. The effect, then, of this immigration, on the basis of the last
+table, upon the increase of national wealth, was as follows:</p>
+
+
+
+<div class='centered'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="50%" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='right'>1st</td><td align='center'>year</td><td align='right'>260,000</td><td align='center'>=</td><td align='right'>$26,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>2d</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>520,000</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>52,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>3d</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>780,000</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>78,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>4th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>1,040,000</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>104,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>5th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>1,300,000</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>130,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>6th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>1,560,000</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>156,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>7th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>1,820,000</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>182,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>8th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>2,080,000</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>208,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>9th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>2,340,000</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>234,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>10th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>2,600,000</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>260,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' colspan="4">&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right' colspan="3">&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>Total,</td><td align='right'>$1,430,000,000</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>Thus the value of the labor of the immigrants from 1850 to 1860, was
+fourteen hundred and thirty millions of dollars, making no allowance for
+the accumulation of capital by annual reinvestment, nor for the natural
+increase of population, amounting by the census in ten years to about
+twenty-four per cent. This addition to our wealth by the labor of the
+children, in the first ten years, would be small; but in the second, and
+each succeeding decennium, when we count children and their descendants,
+it would be large and constantly augmenting. But the census shows, that
+our wealth increases each ten years at the rate of 126.45 per cent. Now
+then, take our increase of wealth in consequence of immigration as
+before stated, and compound it at the rate of 126.45 per cent, every ten
+years, and the result is largely over three billions of dollars in 1870,
+and over seven billions of dollars in 1880, independent of the effect of
+any immigration succeeding 1860. If these results are astonishing, we
+must remember that immigration here is augmented population, and that it
+is population and labor that create wealth. Capital, indeed, is but the
+accumulation of labor. Immigration, then, from 1850 to 1860, added to
+our national wealth a sum more than double our whole debt on the first
+of July last, and augmenting in a ratio much more rapid than its
+increase, and thus enabling us to bear the war expenses.</p>
+
+<p>As the homestead privilege must largely increase immigration, and add
+especially to the cultivation of our soil, it will contribute more than
+any other measure to increase our population, wealth, and power, augment
+our revenue from duties and taxes, and soon enable us to repeal the tax
+bill, or, at least, confine it to a few articles of luxury.</p>
+
+<p>Nor has this immigration merely increased our wealth; but it has filled
+our army with brave <i>volunteer</i> soldiers, Irish, Germans, and of other
+nationalities, who, side by side with our native sons, are now pouring
+out their blood on every battle field in defence of our flag and Union.
+Thousands of them have suffered in rebel dungeons, where many are still
+languishing&mdash;thousands are wounded, disabled for life, or filling a
+soldier's grave.</p>
+
+<p>Thus has the immigrant proved himself worthy to participate with our
+native sons in the homestead privilege. He fights our battle, and dies,
+that the Union may live.</p>
+
+<p>Come, then, our European brother, and enjoy with us every privilege of
+an American citizen. The altar of freedom is consecrated by the
+sacrament of our commingled blood. Countrymen of Lafayette and
+Montgomery, of Steuben and DeKalb, of Koscinsko and Pulaski! you are
+fighting, like them, in the same great cause, under the same banner, and
+for the same glorious Union, and, like them, you will reap an
+immortality of glory, and the gratitude of our country and of mankind.
+As century shall follow century, in marking this crisis of human
+destiny, history will record the stupendous fact, that the blood of all
+Europe commingled freely with our own in the mighty contest, the pledges
+of the freedom and brotherhood of man!</p>
+
+<p>We have seen that the Homestead bill was of Union origin, opposed by Mr.
+Calhoun and the pro-slavery party. We have seen that the bill was vetoed
+by Mr. Buchanan, quoting the opposing ar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_635" id="Page_635">[Pg 635]</a></span>gument of a traitor member of
+his Cabinet, now in the rebel army. The vote in the Senate after the
+veto, was, yeas 28 (not two thirds), and nays 18. (Sen. Journal, 757,
+June 23, 1860.) Of the yeas, all but three were from the free States;
+and of the nays, <i>all</i> were from the slave States. The opposition, then,
+as foreshadowed by Mr. Calhoun in 1836, was <i>exclusively sectional</i> and
+pro-slavery. As Mr. Buchanan changed his policy as to Kansas upon the
+threats of the secession leaders in 1857, so he sacrificed upon their
+mandate the Homestead bill in 1860.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the eighteen Southern Senators who voted against this bill, are
+now in the rebel service. Among these eighteen nays, are Jefferson
+Davis, Bragg, Mason, Hunter, Mallory, Chesnut, Yulee, Wigfall,
+Fitzpatrick, Iveson, Johnson of Arkansas, Hemphill, and Sebastian. Now,
+then, when Irish and Germans in the South are asked to fight for the
+pro-slavery rebellion, let them remember that the secession leaders
+voted unanimously against the homestead bill, whilst the North then gave
+its entire vote in, favor of the measure, and have now made it the law
+of the land.</p>
+
+<p>As it is a blessed thing for the poor and landless to receive,
+substantially as a gift, a farm from the Government, where they and
+their children may till their own soil, and enjoy competence, freedom,
+and free schools, let them never forget, that this was the act of the
+North, and opposed by the South. If the rebels succeed, they will hold
+the public domain in their States and Territories for large plantations,
+to be cultivated by slaves, and sink their 'poor whites,' as nearly as
+practicable, to the level of their slaves, in accordance with their
+theory, that capital should own labor.</p>
+
+<p>Texas, is very nearly six times as large as New York, and more than one
+half the area is public domain of the State, with a most salubrious
+climate, with all the products of the North and South, as shown by the
+census, and with three times as many cattle (2,733,267) as in any other
+State. This vast domain, if the South succeeds, will be cultivated in
+large tracts by slaves; but with our success, the State title will be
+forfeited to the Government, and the land colonized by loyal freemen,
+and subjected to the Homestead law, so that educated free white labor
+can raise there sugar, cotton, rice, tobacco, and indigo, as well as the
+crops of the North. It appears by the history of the reign of Henry II.,
+that Ireland (in the year 1102) was the <i>first country which abolished
+slavery</i>, England still retaining it for many centuries; and Germany
+scarcely participated in the African slave trade. And now those two
+brave and mighty races, the Celtic and Teutonic, so devoted to liberty
+and the rights of man, will never erect the temple of their faith upon
+the Confederate <i>corner stone</i>, the ownership, of man by man, and of
+labor by capital. No&mdash;they are fighting in the great cause, (now,
+henceforth, and forever inseparable,) of <span class="smcap">Liberty</span> and
+<span class="smcap">Union</span>. And when, as the result of this rebellion, slavery shall
+disappear from our country, the words of the Sermon on the Mount,
+announcing the brotherhood of man, and adopted by our fathers in the
+Declaration of American Independence, may be inscribed on our banner,
+'that <i>all men</i> are created <span class="smcap">Equal</span>; that they are endowed by
+their <span class="smcap">Creator</span> with <i>inalienable</i> <span class="smcap">Rights</span>; that among
+these are life, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of happiness.' Such was the
+faith plighted to God, our country, and humanity, on the day of the
+nation's birth; in crushing this rebellion, and inaugurating the reign
+of universal freedom, we are now fulfilling that pledge. Slavery having
+struck down our flag, having dissevered our States, having, with
+sacrilegious steps, entered our holy temples, separated churches, and
+erected a government based on dehumanizing man, under the <i>Union as it
+was</i>: liberty will reunite us by fraternal and indissoluble ties, under
+the <span class="smcap">Union as it will be</span>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_636" id="Page_636">[Pg 636]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="LITERARY_NOTICES" id="LITERARY_NOTICES"></a>LITERARY NOTICES</h2>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">The Patience of Hope</span>. By the Author of A <span class="smcap">Present
+Heaven</span>. With an Introduction by <span class="smcap">John G. Whittier</span>,
+'<i>Et teneo et teneor.</i>' Boston: Ticknor &amp; Fields.</p></div>
+
+<p>A work less remarkable for talent than for tender, pious feeling&mdash;less
+marked by genius than goodness, yet of a kind which the impartial critic
+will still sincerely commend, simply because its defects are negative
+while its merits are positive and apparent to all who will read only a
+few pages in it. The author seems to us as one who has gleaned the best
+from mystical Christianity or Quietism, without having taken up its
+defects&mdash;one who has found in <span class="smcap">Tauler</span> or <span class="smcap">Guyon</span>, or
+perhaps still more in <span class="smcap">F&eacute;n&eacute;lon</span>, something to love, and has loved
+it without effort. We are certain that the work is one which will enjoy
+a very extensive popularity among all liberal-minded yet truly devout
+Christians.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">History of Friedrich the Second, called Frederick the
+Great</span>. By <span class="smcap">Thomas Carlyle</span>. In four volumes. Vol. III.
+New York: Harper &amp; Brothers. Boston: A.K. Loring. 1862.</p></div>
+
+<p>To judge <span class="smcap">Carlyle</span> well, one should have outgrown a love for him.
+Then, and not till then, will the reader ace him as he is&mdash;a genius
+obscured and belittled by eccentricity in judgment and grotesqueness in
+literary art; a man who must be seen, out of whom much may be taken, but
+not with profit unless we leave much behind; a writer who was ahead of
+his age in 1830, but who is wellnigh thirty years behind it now; one
+still worshipping heroes, and quite ignorant that great ideas are taking
+for the world the place of great men. It is curious to consider that
+<span class="smcap">Carlyle</span>, without understanding the first principles of the
+French Revolution, should have written most readably on it, and that,
+still more blind to the manifest path of free labor and of utility, he
+should still have assumed a pseudo-radical position. Yet, after all,
+nothing is strange when a man is wrong in his premises. Carp at them as
+he may, <span class="smcap">Carlyle</span> is of the destructives rather than the
+builders, and, like all literary destructives, continually flies for
+shelter to the conservatives, even as Rabelais fled for safety to the
+Pope.</p>
+
+<p>In this third volume of Friedrich the Second, he who neither overrates
+nor underrates <span class="smcap">Carlyle</span> may read with great profit. In it one
+sees, as in a brilliant series of highly-colored views&mdash;overcolored very
+often&mdash;shifting with strange rapidity and in wild lights, how from June,
+1740, to August, 1744, King Frederick lived his own life, and
+incidentally that of Prussia and a good part of the civilized world with
+it, as all active and earnest monarchs are wont to do. That it is
+piquant and interesting&mdash;to the well-educated taste more so than any
+novel&mdash;is true enough; and if the author acts despotically and talks
+arbitrarily, we may smile, and leave him to settle it with his dead men.
+He must be dumb indeed who can read it and not feel his thinking powers
+greatly stimulated, and with it, if he be a writer, his faculty of
+creating.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Jenkins's Vest-Pocket Lexicon</span>. BY <span class="smcap">Jabez Jenkins</span>.
+Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott &amp; Co. Boston: A.K. Loring. 1862.</p></div>
+
+<p>A dictionary is generally referred to for unfamiliar&mdash;not for well-known
+words; but it is in large and copious ones only that such words are
+given, and every one has not always at hand his <span class="smcap">Webster</span> and
+<span class="smcap">Worcester</span> 'unabridged.' In view of this want, <span class="smcap">Jabez
+Jenkins</span> has compiled an admirable little two-and-a-half-inch square
+English 'Lexicon of all <i>except</i> familiar words, including the principal
+scientific and technical terms, and foreign moneys, weights, and
+measures.' The common Latin and French phrases of two and three words,
+and the principal names of classical mythology, are also given;
+'omitting,' says J.J., 'what everybody knows, and containing what
+everybody wants to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_637" id="Page_637">[Pg 637]</a></span> know, and cannot readily find.' It would be
+difficult to exaggerate the great practical utility of this admirable
+little book, in which, we have, so to speak, the very quintessence of a
+dictionary given <i>in poco</i>. We should not have looked for a joke,
+however, in an abridged dictionary&mdash;but there is one. 'This Lexicon,'
+says its author, 'will be found a convenient, and, it is hoped, a
+valuable <i>vade mecum</i>; and, though not inspiring the same degree of
+<i>veneration</i> as some of its leviathan contemporaries, may possibly
+occupy a place much nearer the heart, viz., in the heart-pocket.' Let us
+not forget, by the way, to mention that <span class="smcap">S. Austin Allibone</span> has
+indorsed this little work as one of the most important and useful
+publications of the day.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Inside Out</span>. A Curious Book by a Singular Man. New York:
+Miller, Mathews &amp; Clasback, 767 Broadway. Boston; A.K. Loring.</p></div>
+
+<p>The first instalment of the promised oddity of this work occurs in the
+first page&mdash;in fact, several pages before it&mdash;in the assertion that
+'this work is respectfully dedicated to the first young lady who can
+truthfully assert that she has read from title page to colophon WITHOUT
+SKIPPING. Such is the determination of the author.'</p>
+
+<p>It is needless to say that the determined author has hit upon a
+tolerably effectual means of securing a few lady readers. As for the
+work itself, it is, with more eccentricity of thought and less
+familiarity with composition than we should anticipate in a bad one. It
+is bold, rather sensational, involving a high-pressure murder and the
+somewhat <i>connu</i> father-in-difficulties with a daughter, but
+interesting, and on the whole likely enough&mdash;in New York, where any
+amount of anything may be supposed to take place at any time without in
+the slightest degree violating the conditions of probability. For his
+<i>bete noir</i> or grand villain, the Singular Man seems to have studied
+very carefully the gentleman who is said to have <i>pos&eacute;d</i> for
+<span class="smcap">'Dens-death'</span> in 'Cecil Dreeme,' and has to our mind approached
+him more closely even than <span class="smcap">Winthrop</span> has done. Among the
+characters one&mdash;'Charles Tewphunny'&mdash;strikes us as a reality; a
+vigorous, earnest, cheerful nature, clear and fine even through the
+obscurity and occasional crudity of his word-painter. We like
+Charles&mdash;<i>he</i> should have been the favored one by love, as he is in
+being the true hero of the tale.</p>
+
+<p>The work is in fact crude, as though hastily written and had not been at
+all reviewed&mdash;at least by an experienced writer. On the other hand, its
+author is evidently a gentleman, one widely familiar with life&mdash;even a
+town life in many details&mdash;and is most unmistakably a scholar of rare
+ripeness. So manifest is his ability, and so remarkable the varied
+learning and experience which gleam (unknown to the author himself)
+through many unconscious allusions, that we wonder at finding such
+peculiar gifts turned to illustrate a tale, above all one so carelessly
+constructed as this is. We find fault with the names: 'Malfaire,'
+'Tewphunny,' 'Mrs. Kairfull,' are not well devised; and yet again we at
+once regret all harsher judgment in some truly human, refined, and
+delicate passage, which is as creditable to the author's taste as heart.
+Taking it altogether, 'Inside Out' is, according to promise, a very
+curious book indeed. In justice to the publishers, we must say a word in
+favor of its neat binding and very attractive typography.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Country Living and Country Thinking</span>. By <span class="smcap">Gail
+Hamilton</span>. Boston: Ticknor &amp; Fields. 1862.</p></div>
+
+<p>The Essay, after long years of sleep, has sprung up of late to, at
+least, popularity, and from the pens of the Country Parson and his
+disciples has sent word-pictures and personal experiences well through
+the country. Among the most promising of the American members of the
+'Parson's' flock is <span class="smcap">Gail Hamilton</span>, a lively, well-writing,
+intensely-Yankee woman; that is to say, a bird who would fly far and
+fast indeed were she not well bound down by Puritanical chains, and who,
+in default of other experience-means of expression, clinks her fetters
+in measures which are merry enough for the many, albeit somewhat
+sorrowful at times to those who feel how much more she might have done
+under more genial influences and in a freer field. We could also wish a
+little less of the endless I and Me and Mine of the Essays, and wonder
+if the author will never tire of her intense self-setting forth. But
+this is the constant fault of the personal essay, let who will write it;
+and since it has great names to sanction it, we may perhaps let it
+pass.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_638" id="Page_638">[Pg 638]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="EDITORS_TABLE" id="EDITORS_TABLE"></a>EDITOR'S TABLE</h2>
+
+
+<p>The President's Proclamation is based mainly on the act of Congress to
+which he refers. That act was passed with great approach to unanimity
+among unconditional Unionists, and met their approbation throughout the
+country. That the rebel States, as a military question, must be deprived
+of the 'sinews of war,' which, with them, are the <i>sinews of slaves</i>, is
+quite certain. They have boasted, as well before as since the rebellion,
+that their great strength in war consisted in their ability to send all
+the whites to battle, whilst the slaves were retained at home to
+cultivate the lands and provide subsistence for armies. Take from the
+South its slaves, and the necessary supplies must cease for want of
+laborers in the field, or the whites must be withdrawn from the armies
+to raise provisions. In either event, the rebellion must terminate in
+defeat. There are thousands then, who, under ordinary circumstances,
+would oppose emancipation, yet who will support this measure as a
+<i>military necessity</i>. As regards the Border States, the President still
+adheres to his original programme: emancipation with their consent,
+compensation by Congress, and colonization beyond our limits.</p>
+
+<p>As regards the seceded States, the proclamation only applies to such of
+them as shall persist in rebellion after the first of January next, and
+even in those States compensation for their slaves is to be made to all
+who are loyal.</p>
+
+<p>The friends of Secession in Europe, and especially in France and
+England, have contended that slavery was not the cause of the rebellion,
+and it has been suggested that the rebels would themselves adopt a
+system of gradual emancipation. Even now it is alleged that if <span class="smcap">Mr.
+Lincoln</span> had not issued this proclamation, we should have had
+something very similar from <span class="smcap">Jefferson Davis</span>.</p>
+
+<p>However this may be, these professions of the friends of the South in
+Europe, and particularly of their friends in France and England, will
+soon be tested.</p>
+
+<p>If the South objects to emancipation, and denounces this proclamation,
+they will make this contest, on their part, still more clearly a war for
+the maintenance, perpetuity, and unlimited extension of slavery.</p>
+
+<p>If, under such circumstances, England continues to support the
+rebellion, she must do so as the open and avowed advocate of slavery.
+What is to be done with the slaves when they are emancipated? is a grave
+question, which we shall discuss at a future period. There can be little
+doubt, however, that emancipation, on a scale so extensive, would give a
+great impulse to the cause of colonization.</p>
+
+<p>There are, however, three classes of States in which this proclamation
+will have no effect on the 1st of January next:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">1st. The Border States.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">2d. Such of the rebel States, and such</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">parts of them, as shall return to their allegiance</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">before that date.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">3d. Such of the rebel States, and such</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">parts of them, as shall not then have been</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conquered.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>In the mean time there may be rebel States, or portions of them, where
+the apprehended loss of their slaves, as a consequence of persisting in
+the rebellion, may induce a return to the Union, and thus hasten a
+successful conclusion of the war.</p>
+
+<p>How far this proclamation, merely as such, would avail to change the
+status of slaves in such seceded States as may not be occupied by us and
+conquered before the first of January next, may be more appropriately
+discussed when, if ever, such a contingency shall happen.</p>
+
+<p>In the mean time, whatever may be the effect of this proclamation upon
+the institution of slavery, which was the cause of the war, let us all
+unite in its vigorous prosecution, and in carrying, promptly and
+triumphantly, the flag of the Union throughout every State, from
+Richmond and Charleston to Mobile and Savannah. Our next campaign must
+witness the final overthrow of the rebellion.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_639" id="Page_639">[Pg 639]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h4>THE REBEL NUMBERS.</h4>
+
+<p>The whole number of males in the rebel States, by the census of 1860,
+between 15 and 60 years of age (excepting East Tennessee and Western
+Virginia), is less than one million; of whom, from physical disability,
+sickness, alienage, &amp;c., at least 100,000 are not available. Of the
+remaining 900,000, at least 200,000 have been withdrawn by death,
+wounds, sickness, parole, capture, &amp;c., reducing the number to 700,000;
+of whom, for indispensable pursuits, at least one third must remain at
+home, reducing their present maximum forces to 466,000. Now, if these
+disappear no more rapidly in the future than in the past (although the
+war will be prosecuted with much more vigor), their numbers would be
+diminished at the rate of at least 12,000 a month. Therefore, as there
+are no means of obtaining new recruits, it is clear that the rebellion
+must soon fail for want of troops to meet our immense armies. It is true
+no allowance has been made for recruits from the Border States; but
+these (greatly overestimated) would be more than counter-balanced by the
+inability to obtain troops from that large portion of the Rebel States
+occupied by our forces, such as all the coast from New Orleans to
+Norfolk, nearly all the Mississippi River, and considerable sections of
+West and Middle Tennessee, North Alabama, North Mississippi, and
+Arkansas. The days of the rebellion, then, are numbered.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Sharpsburg is a name which will be long remembered, and is destined to
+be found in many a lay and legend. Among the earliest written
+commemorating it, we have the following, from one whose lyrics are well
+known to our readers:</p>
+
+
+<h4>THE POTOMAC AT SHARPSBURG.</h4>
+
+<p class='center'>BY H. L. SPENCER.</p>
+
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Once smiling fields stretched far on either side,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Where bowed to every breeze the ripening grain;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But now with carnage are those waters dyed,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And all around are slumbering the slain.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Patriots and heroes! unto whom in vain</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ne'er cried the voice of Right,&mdash;their names shall be</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Graved on a million hearts, and with just pride</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Shall children say, 'For Truth and Liberty</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Our fathers fought at <span class="smcap">Sharpsburg</span>, where they fell&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">They <i>bravely fought</i>, as history's pages tell.'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Not for the fallen toll the funeral bell,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Their</i> rest is peaceful&mdash;<i>they</i> the goal have won.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Let the thinned ranks be filled, and let us see</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Complete the glorious work by them begun.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Yes&mdash;forward! onward! Let it be complete. <i>Scripta est</i>&mdash;it is written,
+and it will be done. After going so far in the great cause which has
+become our religion and our life, it were hardly worth while to retreat.
+Life and fortune are of small account now in this tremendous opening of
+new truths and new interests. And we are only at the beginning! With
+every new death the cause grows more sacred, and the North more grandly
+earnest. 'Hurrah for the faithful dead!'</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+
+<h4>MRS. H. BEECHER STOWE AND THE DUCHESS OF SUTHERLAND.</h4>
+
+<p><span class="smcap"  style="margin-left: 2em;">My Dear Mrs. Stowe</span>:</p>
+
+<p>Your great work, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' will no longer circulate in
+England. Mr. Mason, the Southern ambassador, has convinced us all that
+slavery is a divine institution, that whipping and branding are really
+good for the negro, and education dangerous. Indeed, we dare not educate
+our own working classes. We begin to perceive the truth of the <i>corner
+stone</i> principle of the Southern Confederacy, that capital should always
+own labor, whether white or black. Then we would have no more strikes,
+or riots, or claims for higher wages, or for the right of suffrage, and
+all would be peace. You see my opinion of slavery has changed; and so
+has that of England in church and state, except the working classes, who
+wish to vote, and such pestiferous democrats as Bright and Cobden.</p>
+
+<p>This rebellion came just in the right time for us. In a few years more
+of your success, we should have been compelled to establish free
+schools, give the vote by ballot, and extend the suffrage, until the
+people should rule here, as with you. But now that your rebellion has
+proved the failure of republics, we shall yield no more. Slavery, in
+dissolving your Union, has accomplished all this for us, and therefore
+must be a good institution. Some one has sent me one Edmund<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_640" id="Page_640">[Pg 640]</a></span> Kirke's
+anti-slavery novel, entitled, 'Among the Pines.' Your people seem to
+have gone crazy over it; but it will have no readers here. Is this Kirke
+a Scotchman? I had a tenant called Kirke, who was evicted for avowing
+republican opinions. Can this be the same man? I told the Confederate
+minister, Mr. Mason, that if some Southron would write a good novel in
+favor of slavery, it would have a great circulation here; and he said he
+would name this in his next despatch to his Government. He has a fine
+aristocratic air, and could scarcely be descended from the women
+(imported and sold as wives for a few pounds of tobacco to the
+Virginians) who were the mothers of the F. F. V.'s. But Mr. M. says
+slavery will soon build up a splendid nobility in the South.</p>
+
+<p>Jefferson Davis is very popular here, and was lately cheered in Exeter
+Hall; but Yancey and Wigfall are idolized. Our great favorite in the
+North is Ex-President Buchanan. When did the head of a Government ever
+before have the courage to aid a rebellion against it, so gracefully
+yielding it the national forts, ships, mints, guns, and arsenals? But
+what we most admire is his message, in which he proved you have no right
+to coerce the South or suppress rebellion. This was a splendid discovery
+for us, as it demonstrated how superior our Government is to yours. If
+Mr. Buchanan would come here, we would raise him to the peerage, and, in
+commemoration of his two great acts, would give him the double title of
+the Duke of Lecompton and Disunion. Floyd, Cobb, and Thompson should
+each be earls. Thompson should be called Earl Arnold, in gratitude for
+the services to us of the celebrated Benedict Arnold.</p>
+
+<p>I told Mr. M. how much we had condemned his fugitive slave law; but he
+convinced me that it was a most humane and excellent measure. Fugitives
+from the kindest masters, and ungrateful for all the blessings of
+slavery, why should they not be brought back in chains? He reminded me
+of Generals Shields, Corcoran, and Meagher, Irishmen commanding Irish
+troops for the North, and said they should be brought back to Ireland
+and hung on Emmet's scaffold. You know we keep that scaffold still
+standing, as a terror to Irish rebels, although we admire so much
+rebellion in America. Mr. M. spoke also of Sigel, Heintzelman,
+Rosecrans, Asboth, and expressed his surprise that the Bourbon princes
+would fight side by side with the <i>mudsills</i> of the North.</p>
+
+<p>In a few years, Mr. M. said, the South would establish a monarchy, and
+that a son of the Queen should marry a daughter of Jefferson Davis, and
+thus unite the two dynasties by kindred ties. It was his opinion that
+the South would limit the right of suffrage to slaveholders, numbering
+about two hundred thousand; that they would have a house of peers, lords
+temporal and spiritual, composed (including bishops) of all who held
+over five hundred slaves; but that their Archbishop of <i>Canting</i>bury
+should own at least one thousand. He thought the number requisite for
+the peerage would be enlarged after the reopening of the African slave
+trade, which would soon furnish England cheap cotton. His remarks on
+this subject reminded me how large a portion of my fortune was
+accumulated, during the last century, by the profits of the African
+slave trade. Mr. M. told me the King of Dahomey would furnish the South
+one hundred thousand slaves a year, for twenty dollars each, and that
+England should have the profits of the trade as before, and Liverpool
+again be the great slave port. He alluded to the <span class="smcap">Continental
+Monthly</span>, which he said was an abolition journal, and denounced
+Kirke, Kimball, Leland, Henry, Greeley, Stanton, and Walker. He was
+specially severe on Walker and Stanton, charging them with the defeat of
+the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution, and the consequent accession of
+Kansas and all the Territories to the free States, He said Walker and
+Stanton had no right to reject the Oxford and McGee returns, although
+they were forged. And now, dear Mrs. Stowe, if you would only change, as
+we all have here, and write, as you only can, a great novel to prove the
+beauties of slavery, its circulation here would be enormous, and we
+would make you a duchess. Adieu until my next.</p>
+
+<p>P.S.&mdash;I have invested all my United States stock in Confederate bonds.</p>
+
+
+<p>The style of the foregoing letter would point to the Duchess of
+Sutherland as the author, but such a change would be miraculous. Was the
+copy of the letter found in an intercepted despatch from Mr. Mason to
+Jefferson Davis?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_641" id="Page_641">[Pg 641]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class='footnotes'>
+
+<h3>FOOTNOTES</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> <span class="smcap">Lucan</span>, <i>Pharsalia</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> The Lotus was to the Egyptian and Hindu not only an image
+of physical life, but of life in all its strength and splendor, the type
+of the generating and forming force of Nature in itself, expressing the
+idea of 'water, health, life.' The Hindu imagined in its form the whole
+earth, swimming like the lotus on water; the pistils represent Mount
+Meru (the world's central point and the Indian Olympus), the stamens are
+the peaks of the surrounding mountains, the four central leaves of its
+crown are the four great divisions of the earth, according to the four
+points of the compass, while the other leaves represented the circles of
+the earth surrounding India. On the lotus is throned Brahma the creator,
+and Lakshmi, the goddess of all blessings.
+</p><p>
+<i>Die Symbolik und Mythologie der Natur</i>, <span class="smcap">von J. B. Friederich</span>,
+W&uuml;rzburg, 1859.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+  <h1>THE</h1>
+
+  <h1>CONTINENTAL MONTHLY:</h1>
+
+  <h4>EDITORS:</h4>
+
+  <h3>HON. ROBERT J. WALKER, CHARLES G. LELAND,</h3>
+
+  <h3>HON. FRED. P. STANTON, EDMUND KIRKE.</h3>
+
+
+
+<p>The readers of the <span class="smcap">Continental</span> are aware of the important
+position it has assumed, of the influence which it exerts, and of the
+brilliant array of political and literary talent of the highest order
+which supports it. No publication of the kind has, in this country, so
+successfully combined the energy and freedom of the daily newspaper with
+the higher literary tone of the first-class monthly; and it is very
+certain that no magazine has given wider range to its contributors, or
+preserved itself so completely from the narrow influences of party or of
+faction. In times like the present, such a journal is either a power in
+the land or it is nothing. That the <span class="smcap">Continental</span> is not the
+latter is abundantly evidenced <i>by what it has done</i>&mdash;by the reflection
+of its counsels in many important public events, and in the character
+and power of those who are its staunchest supporters.</p>
+
+<p>By the accession of <span class="smcap">Hon. Robert J. Walker</span> and <span class="smcap">Hon. F. P.
+Stanton</span> to its editorial corps, the <span class="smcap">Continental</span> acquires a
+strength and a political significance which, to those who are aware of
+the ability and experience of these gentlemen, must elevate it to a
+position far above any previously occupied by any publication of the
+kind in America. Preserving all "the boldness, vigor, and ability" which
+a thousand journals have attributed to it, it will at once greatly
+enlarge its circle of action, and discuss, fearlessly and frankly, every
+principle involved in the great questions of the day. The first minds of
+the country, embracing men most familiar with its diplomacy and most
+distinguished for ability, are to become its contributors; and it is no
+mere "flattering promise of a prospectus" to say, that this "magazine
+for the times" will employ the first intellect in America, under
+auspices which no publication ever enjoyed before in this country.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Charles Godfrey Leland</span>, the accomplished scholar and author,
+who has till now been the sole Editor of the Magazine, will, beside his
+editorial labors, continue his brilliant contributions to its pages; and
+<span class="smcap">Edmund Kirke</span>, author of "<span class="smcap">Among the Pines</span>," will
+contribute to each issue, having already begun a work on Southern Life
+and Society, which will be found far more widely descriptive, and, in
+all respects, superior to the first.</p>
+
+<p>While the <span class="smcap">Continental</span> will express decided opinions on the
+great questions of the day, it will not be a mere political journal:
+much the larger portion of its columns will be enlivened, as heretofore,
+by tales, poetry, and humor. In a word, the <span class="smcap">Continental</span> will be
+found, under its new staff of Editors, occupying a position, and
+presenting attractions never before found in a magazine.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<h4>TERMS TO CLUBS.</h4>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="1" width="70%" cellspacing="0" summary="Subscription Costs">
+<tr><td align='left'>Two copies for one year,</td><td align='left'>Five dollars.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Three copies for one year,</td><td align='left'>Six dollars.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Six copies for one year,</td><td align='left'>Eleven dollars.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Eleven copies for one year,</td><td align='left'>Twenty dollars.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Twenty copies for one year,</td><td align='left'>Thirty-six dollars.</td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2" align='center'>PAID IN ADVANCE</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p class='center'><i>Postage, Thirty-six cents a year</i>, to be paid <span class="smcap">by the
+Subscriber</span>.</p>
+
+<h4>SINGLE COPIES.</h4>
+
+<p class='center'>Three dollars a year, <span class="smcap">in advance</span>. <i>Postage paid by the
+Publisher</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p class='center'>JOHN F. TROW, 50 Greene St., N. Y.,<br />
+PUBLISHER FOR THE PROPRIETORS.</p>
+
+
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgfinger.jpg" alt="pointing finger" title="pointing finger" /></div><p>As an Inducement to new subscribers, the
+Publisher offers the following liberal premiums:</p>
+
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgfinger.jpg" alt="pointing finger" title="pointing finger" /></div><p>Any person remitting $3, in advance, will
+receive the magazine from July, 1862, to January, 1864, thus securing
+the whole of Mr. <span class="smcap">Kimball's</span> and Mr. <span class="smcap">Kirke's</span> new
+serials, which are alone worth the price of subscription. Or, if
+preferred, a subscriber can take the magazine for 1863 and a copy of
+"Among the Pines," or of "Undercurrents of Wall Street," by <span class="smcap">R. B.
+Kimball</span>, bound in cloth, or of "Sunshine in Thought," by
+<span class="smcap">Charles Godfrey Leland</span> (retail price, $1. 25.) The book to be sent postage paid.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/imgfinger.jpg" alt="pointing finger" title="pointing finger" /></div><p>Any person remitting $4.50, will receive the
+magazine from its commencement, January, 1862, to January, 1864, thus
+securing Mr. <span class="smcap">Kimball's</span> "Was He Successful? "and <span class="smcap">Mr.
+Kirke's</span> "Among the Pines," and "Merchant's Story," and nearly 3,000
+octavo pages of the best literature in the world. Premium subscribers to
+pay their own postage.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/imgffl.jpg" alt="Finest Farming Lands" title="Finest Farming Lands" /></div>
+
+
+<h3>EQUAL TO ANY IN THE WORLD!!!</h3>
+
+<h4>MAY BE PROCURED</h4>
+
+<h3>At FROM $8 to $12 PER ACRE,</h3>
+
+<p class='center'>Near Markets, Schools, Railroads, Churches, and all the blessings of
+Civilization.</p>
+
+<h4>1,200,000 Acres, in Farms of 40, 80, 120, 160 Acres and upwards, in
+ILLINOIS, the Garden State of America.</h4>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<blockquote><p>The Illinois Central Railroad Company offer, ON LONG CREDIT, the
+beautiful and fertile PRAIRIE LANDS lying along the whole line of their
+Railroad. 700 MILES IN LENGTH, upon the most Favorable Terms for
+enabling Farmers, Manufacturers, Mechanics and Workingmen to make for
+themselves and their families a competency, and a HOME they can call
+THEIR OWN, as will appear from the following statements:</p></blockquote>
+
+<h4>ILLINOIS.</h4>
+
+<p>Is about equal in extent to England, with a population of 1,722,666, and
+a soil capable of supporting 20,000,000. No State in the Valley of the
+Mississippi offers so great an inducement to the settler as the State of
+Illinois. There is no part of the world where all the conditions of
+climate and soil so admirably combine to produce those two great
+staples, <span class="smcap">Corn</span> and <span class="smcap">Wheat</span>.</p>
+
+<h4>CLIMATE.</h4>
+
+<p>Nowhere can the Industrious farmer secure such immediate results from
+his labor as on these deep, rich, loamy soils, cultivated with so much
+ease. The climate from the extreme southern part of the State to the
+Terre Haute, Alton and St. Louis Railroad, a distance of nearly 200
+miles, is well adapted to Winter.</p>
+
+<h4>WHEAT, CORN, COTTON, TOBACCO.</h4>
+
+<p>Peaches, Pears, Tomatoes, and every variety of fruit and vegetables is
+grown in great abundance, from which Chicago and other Northern markets
+are furnished from four to six weeks earlier than their immediate
+vicinity. Between the Terre Haute, Alton &amp; St. Louis Railway and the
+Kankakee and Illinois Rivers, (a distance of 115 miles on the Branch,
+and 136 miles on the Main Trunk,) lies the great Corn and Stock raising
+portion of the State.</p>
+
+<h4>THE ORDINARY YIELD</h4>
+
+<p>of Corn is from 60 to 80 bushels per acre. Cattle, Horses, Mules, Sheep
+and Hogs are raised here at a small cost, and yield large profits. It is
+believed that no section of country presents greater inducements for
+Dairy Farming than the Prairies of Illinois, a branch of farming to
+which but little attention has been paid, and which must yield sure
+profitable results. Between the Kankakee and Illinois Rivers, and
+Chicago and Dunleith, (a distance of 56 miles on the Branch and 147
+miles by the Main Trunk,) Timothy Hay, Spring Wheat, Corn, &amp;c., are
+produced in great abundance.</p>
+
+<h4>AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS.</h4>
+
+<p>The Agricultural products of Illinois are greater than those of any
+other State. The Wheat crop of 1861 was estimated at 35,000,000 bushels,
+while the Corn crop yields not less than 140,000,000 bushels besides the
+crop of Oats, Barley, Rye, Buckwheat, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes,
+Pumpkins, Squashes, Flax, Hemp, Peas, Clover, Cabbage, Beets, Tobacco,
+Sorgheim, Grapes, Peaches, Apples, &amp;c., which go to swell the vast
+aggregate of production in this fertile region. Over Four Million tons
+of produce were sent out the State of Illinois during the past year.</p>
+
+<h4>STOCK RAISING.</h4>
+
+<p>In Central and Southern Illinois uncommon advantages are presented for
+the extension of Stock raising. All kinds of Cattle, Horses, Mules,
+Sheep, Hogs, &amp;c., of the best breeds, yield handsome profits; large
+fortunes have already been made, and the field is open for others to
+enter with the fairest prospects of like results. Dairy Farming also
+presents its inducements to many.</p>
+
+<h4>CULTIVATION OF COTTON.</h4>
+
+<p>The experiments in Cotton culture are of very great promise. Commencing
+in latitude 39 deg. 30 min. (see Mattoon on the Branch, and Assumption
+on the Main Line), the Company owns thousands of acres well adapted to
+the perfection of this fibre. A settler having a family of young
+children, can turn their youthful labor to a most profitable account in
+the growth and perfection of this plant.</p>
+
+<h4>THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD</h4>
+
+<p>Traverses the whole length of the State, from the banks of the
+Mississippi and Lake Michigan to the Ohio. As its name imports, the
+Railroad runs through the centre of the State, and on either side of the
+road along its whole length lie the lands offered for sale.</p>
+
+<h4>CITIES, TOWNS, MARKETS, DEPOTS.</h4>
+
+<p>There are Ninety-eight Depots on the Company's Railway, giving about one
+every seven miles. Cities, Towns and Villages are situated at convenient
+distances throughout the whole route, where every desirable commodity
+may be found as readily as in the oldest cities of the Union, and where
+buyers are to be met for all kinds of farm produce.</p>
+
+<h4>EDUCATION.</h4>
+
+<p>Mechanics and working-men will find the free school system encouraged by
+the State, and endowed with a large revenue for the support of the
+schools. Children can live in sight of the school, the college, the
+church, and grow up with the prosperity of the leading State in the
+Great Western Empire.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<h4>PRICES AND TERMS OF PAYMENT&mdash;ON LONG CREDIT.</h4>
+
+<p class='center'>
+80 acres at $10 per acre, with interest at 6 per ct. annually
+on the following terms:</p>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="65%" cellspacing="0" summary="Cost of Land">
+<tr><td align='left'>Cash payment</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>$48 00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Payment</td><td align='left'>in one year</td><td align='right'>48 00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>in two years</td><td align='right'>48 00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>in three years</td><td align='right'>48 00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>in four years</td><td align='right'>236 00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>in five years</td><td align='right'>224 00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>in six years</td><td align='right'>212 00</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p class='center'>40 acres, at $10 00 per acre:</p>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="65%" cellspacing="0" summary="Cost of Land">
+<tr><td align='left'>Cash payment</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>$24 00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Payment</td><td align='left'>in one year</td><td align='right'>24 00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>in two years</td><td align='right'>24 00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>in three years</td><td align='right'>24 00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>in four years</td><td align='right'>118 00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>in five years</td><td align='right'>112 00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>in six years</td><td align='right'>106 00</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<p class='center'>Address <b>Land Commissioner,</b> <i>Illinois Central Railroad, Chicago, Ill.</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_643" id="Page_643">[Pg 643]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+
+<blockquote><p><span class="left">Number 12</span><span class="right">25 Cents.</span><br /></p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<h1>The<br />
+Continental<br />
+Monthly</h1>
+
+
+<h3>Devoted To Literature and National Policy.</h3>
+
+
+
+<h3>DECEMBER, 1862.</h3>
+
+
+<p class='center'>NEW YORK:<br />
+JOHN F. TROW, 50 GREEN STREET<br />
+(FOR THE PROPIETORS)<br />
+  HENRY DEXTER AND SINCLAIR TOUSEY.<br />
+
+  WASHINGTON, D.C.: FRANCK TAYLOR.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_644" id="Page_644">[Pg 644]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS_No_XII" id="CONTENTS_No_XII"></a>CONTENTS.&mdash;No. XII.</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<div class='centered'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="65%" cellspacing="0" summary="CONTENTS. No. XII.">
+<tr><td align='left'>The Union. Hon. Robert J. Walker,</td><td align='right'>641</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Something we have to Think of, and to Do. C. S. Henry, LL.D.</td><td align='right'>657</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Cambridge and Its Colleges,</td><td align='right'>662</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A Physician's Story,</td><td align='right'>667</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>La Vie Poetique,</td><td align='right'>679</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Ash Tree. Charles G. Leland,</td><td align='right'>682</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>An Englishman in South Carolina,</td><td align='right'>689</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Causes of the Rebellion. Hon. F. P. Stanton,</td><td align='right'>695</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>On Guard. John G. Nicolay, Private Secretary to President Lincoln,</td><td align='right'>706</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Railway Photographs. Isabella McFarlane,</td><td align='right'>708</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Obstacles to Peace. A Letter to an Englishman. Hon. Horace Greeley, 714</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Thank God for All. Chas. G. Leland,</td><td align='right'>718</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A Merchant's Story. Edmund Kirke,</td><td align='right'>719</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Freed Men of the South. Hon. F. P. Stanton,</td><td align='right'>730</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Was He Successful? Richard B. Kimball,</td><td align='right'>734</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Gold. Hon. Robert J. Walker,</td><td align='right'>743</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Literary Notices,</td><td align='right'>747</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Editor's Table,</td><td align='right'>750</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+
+<h3>ANNOUNCEMENT.</h3>
+
+<p>The Proprietors of <span class="smcap">The Continental Monthly</span>, warranted by its
+great success, have resolved to increase its influence and usefulness by
+the following changes:</p>
+
+<p>The Magazine has become the property of an association of men of
+character and large means. Devoted to the <span class="smcap">National Cause</span>, it
+will ardently and unconditionally support the <span class="smcap">Union</span>. Its scope
+will be enlarged by articles relating to our public defences, Army and
+Navy, gunboats, railroads, canals, finance, and currency. The cause of
+gradual emancipation and colonization will be cordially sustained. The
+literary character of the Magazine will be improved, and nothing which
+talent, money, and industry combined can achieve, will be omitted.</p>
+
+<p>The political department will be controlled by <span class="smcap">Hon. Robert J.
+Walker</span> and <span class="smcap">Hon. Frederic P. Stanton</span>, of Washington, D.C.
+Mr. <span class="smcap">Walker</span>, after serving nine years as Senator, and four years
+as Secretary of the Treasury, was succeeded in the Senate by
+<span class="smcap">Jefferson Davis</span>. <span class="smcap">Mr. Stanton</span> served ten years in
+Congress, acting as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and of Naval
+Affairs. <span class="smcap">Mr. Walker</span> was succeeded as Governor of Kansas by
+<span class="smcap">Mr. Stanton</span>, and both were displaced by <span class="smcap">Mr. Buchanan</span>,
+for refusing to force slavery upon that people by fraud and forgery. The
+literary department of the Magazine will be under the control of
+<span class="smcap">Charles Godfrey Leland</span> of Boston, and <span class="smcap">Edmund Kirke</span> of
+New York. <span class="smcap">Mr. Leland</span> is the present accomplished Editor of the
+Magazine. <span class="smcap">Mr. Kirke</span> is one of its constant contributors, but
+better known as the author of "Among the Pines," the great picture, true
+to life, of Slavery as it is.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Continental</span>, while retaining all the old corps of writers,
+who have given it so wide a circulation, will be re&euml;nforced by new
+contributors, greatly distinguished as statesmen, scholars, and savans.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Entered</span>, according to Act of Congress, In the year 1862, by
+<span class="smcap">James R. Gilmore</span>, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court
+of the United States for the Southern District of New York.</p>
+
+<p class='center'>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">John F. Trow, Printer</span>.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Continental Monthly , Vol. 2 No.
+5,  November 1862, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY  ***
+
+***** This file should be named 20899-h.htm or 20899-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/8/9/20899/
+
+Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Janet Blenkinship and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+(This file was produced from images generously made
+available by Cornell University Digital Collections)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/20899-h/images/imgffl.jpg b/20899-h/images/imgffl.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..28db1fc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-h/images/imgffl.jpg
diff --git a/20899-h/images/imgfinger.jpg b/20899-h/images/imgfinger.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..52e4dc6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-h/images/imgfinger.jpg
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p513.png b/20899-page-images/p513.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c30ce90
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p513.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p514.png b/20899-page-images/p514.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fb3e9b8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p514.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p515.png b/20899-page-images/p515.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a75d9d2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p515.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p516.png b/20899-page-images/p516.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..15e698a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p516.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p517.png b/20899-page-images/p517.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a8d9d76
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p517.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p518.png b/20899-page-images/p518.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ec1b2be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p518.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p519.png b/20899-page-images/p519.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..71bc62d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p519.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p520.png b/20899-page-images/p520.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e82d979
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p520.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p521.png b/20899-page-images/p521.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f708312
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p521.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p522.png b/20899-page-images/p522.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a3bd38c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p522.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p523.png b/20899-page-images/p523.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dc0d25d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p523.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p524.png b/20899-page-images/p524.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1b99337
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p524.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p525.png b/20899-page-images/p525.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bee1879
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p525.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p526.png b/20899-page-images/p526.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f76dc68
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p526.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p527.png b/20899-page-images/p527.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..91177f9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p527.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p528.png b/20899-page-images/p528.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c6264c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p528.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p529.png b/20899-page-images/p529.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..00a69a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p529.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p530.png b/20899-page-images/p530.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e40a480
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p530.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p531.png b/20899-page-images/p531.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d96d249
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p531.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p532.png b/20899-page-images/p532.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ab1282d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p532.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p533.png b/20899-page-images/p533.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5405b66
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p533.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p534.png b/20899-page-images/p534.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5c18f43
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p534.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p535.png b/20899-page-images/p535.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e42447e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p535.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p536.png b/20899-page-images/p536.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b001afd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p536.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p537.png b/20899-page-images/p537.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..96f18b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p537.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p538.png b/20899-page-images/p538.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..274d4d2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p538.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p539.png b/20899-page-images/p539.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0f98571
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p539.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p540.png b/20899-page-images/p540.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ec6f34d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p540.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p541.png b/20899-page-images/p541.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0dee43e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p541.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p542.png b/20899-page-images/p542.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..27cda4f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p542.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p543.png b/20899-page-images/p543.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1efa371
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p543.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p544.png b/20899-page-images/p544.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3e5b50d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p544.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p545.png b/20899-page-images/p545.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..645770a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p545.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p546.png b/20899-page-images/p546.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5ed6a76
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p546.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p547.png b/20899-page-images/p547.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f04c002
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p547.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p548.png b/20899-page-images/p548.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..14876e7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p548.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p549.png b/20899-page-images/p549.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..95c0f75
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p549.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p550.png b/20899-page-images/p550.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c168796
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p550.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p551.png b/20899-page-images/p551.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ae8e507
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p551.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p552.png b/20899-page-images/p552.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7cf86a1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p552.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p553.png b/20899-page-images/p553.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e0c8c57
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p553.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p554.png b/20899-page-images/p554.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..151ef3d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p554.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p555.png b/20899-page-images/p555.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0b2173f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p555.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p556.png b/20899-page-images/p556.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..03acd9f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p556.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p557.png b/20899-page-images/p557.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..383f97d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p557.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p558.png b/20899-page-images/p558.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..293083b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p558.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p559.png b/20899-page-images/p559.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..76468b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p559.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p560.png b/20899-page-images/p560.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..05cba05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p560.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p561.png b/20899-page-images/p561.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dc59e54
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p561.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p562.png b/20899-page-images/p562.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d35d779
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p562.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p563.png b/20899-page-images/p563.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..df84ee5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p563.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p564.png b/20899-page-images/p564.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..78a9b98
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p564.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p565.png b/20899-page-images/p565.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f082d33
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p565.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p566.png b/20899-page-images/p566.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..62ca1f9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p566.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p567.png b/20899-page-images/p567.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5d46db4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p567.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p568.png b/20899-page-images/p568.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d5f971b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p568.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p569.png b/20899-page-images/p569.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..af28b3b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p569.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p570.png b/20899-page-images/p570.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..50db22d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p570.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p571.png b/20899-page-images/p571.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ae42e02
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p571.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p572.png b/20899-page-images/p572.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b2c47a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p572.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p573.png b/20899-page-images/p573.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5d73ea0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p573.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p574.png b/20899-page-images/p574.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e8eab42
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p574.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p575.png b/20899-page-images/p575.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2e8eb56
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p575.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p576.png b/20899-page-images/p576.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..db2b3e6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p576.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p577.png b/20899-page-images/p577.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..32c2f24
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p577.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p578.png b/20899-page-images/p578.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..213e267
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p578.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p579.png b/20899-page-images/p579.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cd549e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p579.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p580.png b/20899-page-images/p580.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..72fe486
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p580.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p581.png b/20899-page-images/p581.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d106840
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p581.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p582.png b/20899-page-images/p582.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c1770a4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p582.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p583.png b/20899-page-images/p583.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1888a5c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p583.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p584.png b/20899-page-images/p584.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..51c15cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p584.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p585.png b/20899-page-images/p585.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e850a43
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p585.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p586.png b/20899-page-images/p586.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2f73204
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p586.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p587.png b/20899-page-images/p587.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b1f3431
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p587.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p588.png b/20899-page-images/p588.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aafbbab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p588.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p589.png b/20899-page-images/p589.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b07bb44
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p589.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p590.png b/20899-page-images/p590.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c555f84
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p590.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p591.png b/20899-page-images/p591.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7e98ea4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p591.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p592.png b/20899-page-images/p592.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..79544bb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p592.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p593.png b/20899-page-images/p593.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..01d1573
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p593.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p594.png b/20899-page-images/p594.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5086af9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p594.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p595.png b/20899-page-images/p595.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d3b2860
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p595.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p596.png b/20899-page-images/p596.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e547fb3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p596.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p597.png b/20899-page-images/p597.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2a546d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p597.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p598.png b/20899-page-images/p598.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f0312d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p598.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p599.png b/20899-page-images/p599.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..863c77c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p599.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p600.png b/20899-page-images/p600.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1884cbb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p600.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p601.png b/20899-page-images/p601.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5bea2d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p601.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p602.png b/20899-page-images/p602.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5edb7e5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p602.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p603.png b/20899-page-images/p603.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b97e3f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p603.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p604.png b/20899-page-images/p604.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a693062
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p604.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p605.png b/20899-page-images/p605.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..36967bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p605.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p606.png b/20899-page-images/p606.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..25ac62e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p606.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p607.png b/20899-page-images/p607.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..52963c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p607.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p608.png b/20899-page-images/p608.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..72081c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p608.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p609.png b/20899-page-images/p609.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4285ce8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p609.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p610.png b/20899-page-images/p610.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e9a0bbe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p610.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p611.png b/20899-page-images/p611.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..813a0e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p611.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p612.png b/20899-page-images/p612.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6c059b9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p612.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p613.png b/20899-page-images/p613.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1e9041b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p613.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p614.png b/20899-page-images/p614.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ca36dc4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p614.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p615.png b/20899-page-images/p615.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..faceddc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p615.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p616.png b/20899-page-images/p616.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9d6aa4b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p616.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p617.png b/20899-page-images/p617.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7cf39f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p617.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p618.png b/20899-page-images/p618.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e08c0e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p618.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p619.png b/20899-page-images/p619.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ea7db3d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p619.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p620.png b/20899-page-images/p620.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ba98ff8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p620.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p621.png b/20899-page-images/p621.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ea18cd2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p621.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p622.png b/20899-page-images/p622.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8906feb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p622.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p623.png b/20899-page-images/p623.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..03266d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p623.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p624.png b/20899-page-images/p624.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e5f6287
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p624.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p625.png b/20899-page-images/p625.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f2640d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p625.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p626.png b/20899-page-images/p626.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0ce2188
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p626.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p627.png b/20899-page-images/p627.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6bee3be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p627.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p628.png b/20899-page-images/p628.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9e3fcfa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p628.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p629.png b/20899-page-images/p629.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..028f8f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p629.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p630.png b/20899-page-images/p630.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..61ef164
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p630.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p631.png b/20899-page-images/p631.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7010128
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p631.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p632.png b/20899-page-images/p632.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..614c1d1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p632.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p633.png b/20899-page-images/p633.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f58b33f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p633.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p634.png b/20899-page-images/p634.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..71528e7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p634.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p635.png b/20899-page-images/p635.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d87c92f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p635.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p636.png b/20899-page-images/p636.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..796d992
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p636.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p637.png b/20899-page-images/p637.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ce338d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p637.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p638.png b/20899-page-images/p638.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..da0baab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p638.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p639.png b/20899-page-images/p639.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bd118e7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p639.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p640.png b/20899-page-images/p640.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..40eb35b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p640.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p641.png b/20899-page-images/p641.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..968f12d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p641.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p642.png b/20899-page-images/p642.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aa6cb69
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p642.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p643.png b/20899-page-images/p643.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..be756f6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p643.png
diff --git a/20899-page-images/p644.png b/20899-page-images/p644.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..822161e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899-page-images/p644.png
diff --git a/20899.txt b/20899.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f6bb69a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9552 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Continental Monthly , Vol. 2 No. 5,
+November 1862, 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: The Continental Monthly , Vol. 2 No. 5,  November 1862
+       Devoted to Literature and National Policy
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: March 25, 2007 [EBook #20899]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY  ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Janet Blenkinship and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+(This file was produced from images generously made
+available by Cornell University Digital Collections)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE
+
+CONTINENTAL MONTHLY:
+
+DEVOTED TO
+
+LITERATURE AND NATIONAL POLICY.
+
+
+VOL. II.--NOVEMBER, 1862.--NO. V.
+
+
+
+
+THE CAUSES OF THE REBELLION.
+
+
+No other nation was ever convulsed by an internal struggle so tremendous
+as that which now rends our own unhappy country. No mere rebellion has
+ever before spread its calamitous effects so widely, beyond the scene of
+its immediate horrors. Just in proportion to the magnitude of the evils
+it has produced, is the enormity of the crime involved, on one side or
+the other; and good men may well feel solicitous to know where rests the
+burden of this awful responsibility.
+
+The long train of preparatory events preceding the outbreak, and the
+extraordinary acts by which the conspirators signalized its
+commencement, point, with sufficient certainty, to the incendiaries who
+produced the vast conflagration, and who appear to be responsible for
+the ruin which has ensued. But it remains to inquire by what means the
+great mass of inflammable materials was accumulated and made ready to
+take fire at the touch; what justification there may be for the authors
+of the fatal act, or what palliation of the guilt which seems to rest
+upon them. The reputation of the American people, and of the free
+government which is their pride and glory, must suffer in the estimation
+of mankind, unless they can be fairly acquitted of all responsibility
+for the civil war, which not only desolates large portions of our own
+country, but seriously interferes with the prosperity of multitudinous
+classes, and the stability of large industrial interests, in other
+lands.
+
+Neither in the physical nor in the moral world, can the effects of any
+phenomenon go beyond the nature and extent of its causes. Mighty
+convulsions, like that which now shakes this continent, must have their
+roots in far distant times, and must gather their nutriment of passion
+and violence from a wide field of sympathetic opinion. No influence of
+mere individuals, no sudden acts of government even, no temporary causes
+of any nature whatsoever, are adequate to produce results so widespread
+and astounding. The social forces which contend in such a conflict, must
+have been 'nursing their wrath' and gathering their strength for years,
+in order to exhibit the gigantic death-struggle, in which they are now
+engaged.
+
+Gen. Jackson, after having crushed the incipient rebellion of 1832,
+wrote, in a private letter, recently published, that the next attempt to
+overthrow the Union would be instigated by the same party, but based
+upon the question of slavery.
+
+That single-hearted patriot, in his boundless devotion to the Union,
+seemed to be gifted with almost preternatural foresight; nor did he
+exhibit greater sagacity in penetrating the motives and purposes of men,
+than in comprehending the nature and influence of great social causes,
+then in operation, and destined, as he clearly foresaw, to be wielded by
+wicked men as instruments of stupendous mischief to the country. His
+extraordinary prevision of the present attempt to overthrow the Union,
+signalizes the evident affiliation of this rebellion with that which he
+so wisely and energetically destroyed in embryo, by means of the
+celebrated proclamation and force bill.
+
+It was, however, only in the real motive and ultimate object of the
+conspirators of 1832, that the attempt of South Carolina at that time
+was the lineal progenitor of the rebellion of the present day. The
+purpose was the same in both cases, but the means chosen at the two
+epochs were altogether different. In the first attempt, the purpose was,
+indeed, to break up the Union and to establish a separate confederacy;
+but this was to be done upon the ground of alleged inequality and
+oppression, as well as unconstitutionality, in the mode of levying
+duties upon foreign importations. The attempt, however, proved to be
+altogether premature. The question involved, being neither geographical
+nor sectional in character, was not then, if it could ever be,
+susceptible of being made the instrument of concentrating and
+intensifying hostile opinion against the federal power. Louisiana, with
+her great sugar interest, was a tariff State, and advocated protection
+as ardently as it was opposed in the greater part of the North-West, and
+in extensive districts of the North. She was not even invited to join
+the proposed confederacy. Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware were decided
+in their support of the protective policy, while Tennessee, Missouri,
+and North Carolina were divided on the question. Mr. Calhoun himself,
+the very prophet of nullification, could not obliterate the memory of
+his own former opinions, and it was difficult to induce the people to
+cooeperate in overthrowing the Federal Government, simply for adopting a
+policy which the very authors of this movement had themselves so
+recently thoroughly approved.
+
+Thus, opinion was broken into fragments; and nowhere outside of South
+Carolina did it acquire sufficient unanimity and power to impart any
+great momentum to the revolutionary design. Besides, in the absence of
+clear and deep convictions, the question itself was of such a nature,
+that strong passions could not easily spring from it. The interests
+involved were not necessarily in conflict; their opposition was more
+apparent than real, so that an adjustment could readily be made without
+sacrifice of principle. In short, the subject of dispute did not contain
+within itself the elements of civil war, capable of development to that
+extreme, at the time and under the circumstances when the futile attempt
+at separation was made. Doubtless, the sinister exertions of restless
+and ambitious men, acting upon ignorant prejudices, might, under some
+circumstances, have engendered opinions, even upon the tariff question,
+sufficiently strong and violent for the production of civil commotion.
+Had the conditions been more favorable to the plot; had the conspirators
+of that day been as well prepared as those of 1861; had they been
+equally successful in sowing dissatisfaction and hatred in the minds of
+the Southern people; had they found in Gen. Jackson the weak and pliant
+instrument of treason which James Buchanan afterward became in the hands
+of Davis and his coadjutors, the present rebellion might have been
+anticipated, and the germ of secession wholly extirpated and destroyed,
+in the contest which would then have ensued. The Union would doubtless
+have been maintained, and, in the end, strengthened; the fatal element
+of discord would scarcely have survived to work and plot in secret for
+more than a quarter of a century. It is true, slavery would have
+remained; but in the absence of other causes, slavery would not
+necessarily have brought the country to the present crisis. Providence
+may have so ordered the events of that day as to leave the revolutionary
+element in existence, in order that it might eventually fasten upon
+slavery as the instrument of its treason, and thus bring this system,
+condemned alike by the lessons of experience and by the moral sense of
+mankind, to that complete eventual destruction, which seems to be
+inevitably approaching.
+
+The idea of an independent Southern confederacy, to be constituted of a
+fragment of the Union, survived the contest of 1832, and has been
+cherished with zeal and enthusiasm, by a small party of malcontents,
+from that day to this. Either from honest conviction or from the syren
+seductions of ambition, or perhaps from that combination of both which
+so often misleads the judgment of the wisest and best of men, this party
+has pursued its end with unrivalled zeal and consummate tact, never for
+a single moment abating its efforts to convince the South of the
+advantages of separation. But all its ability and all its untiring
+labors failed to make any serious impression, until the great and
+powerful interest of slavery was enlisted in the cause, and used as the
+means of reaching the feelings, and arousing the prejudices of the
+Southern people. The theories of nullification and secession, while
+accepted by many leading minds in that section, never made any serious
+impression upon the mass of the people. Indeed, it may be said with
+truth, that the honest instincts of the people invariably rejected these
+pernicious and dangerous theories, whenever they were distinctly
+involved in the elections. Nevertheless, there was an undercurrent of
+opinion in favor of them: the minds of the people were familiarized with
+the doctrines, and thus made ready to embrace them, whenever they should
+be satisfied it was indispensable to their safety and liberty to avail
+themselves of their benefit.
+
+These abstract principles, however industriously and successfully
+taught, would not of themselves have availed to urge the people on to
+the desperate contest into which they have been madly precipitated. The
+dogma of the right of secession was not left a mere barren idea: it was
+accompanied with constant teachings respecting the incompatibility of
+interests, and the inevitable conflict, between the North and the South;
+the superiority of slavery over every other form of labor; and the
+imminent danger of the overthrow of this benign institution by Northern
+fanaticism, and by the unfriendly influence of the commercial and
+financial policy of that section. Thus, the mischievous error of
+secession was roused to life and action by the exhibition of those
+unreal phantoms, so often conjured up to frighten the South--abolition,
+agrarianism, and protective oppression.
+
+All these deceptive ideas were required to be infused into the minds of
+the people, in order to prepare the way for rebellious action. The right
+of secession was an indispensable condition, without which there could
+be no justification for the violent measures to be adopted. No
+considerable number of American citizens could be found ready to lay
+treasonable hands upon their government; but a great step would be taken
+if they could be convinced that the constitution provided for its own
+abrogation, and that the act of destruction could at any time be legally
+and regularly accomplished. The absolute humanity, justice, and morality
+of slavery, its excellence as a social institution, and its efficiency
+in maintaining order and insuring progress, must be fully established
+and universally admitted, in order to enlist the powerful motives of
+self-interest on the side of the projected revolution. And finally, it
+was necessary to show that the divine institution was in danger, that
+the free labor of the North was actively hostile to it and planning its
+ruin, and that this hostility was to be aided by all the selfish desires
+of the protectionists and the dangerous violence of the agrarian
+'mudsills' of the other section. It was not of the least importance that
+these statements or any of them should be true. Let them be thoroughly
+believed by the people, and that conviction would answer all the
+purposes of the conspirators. Accordingly, for more than a quarter of a
+century, these heresies and falsehoods were most industriously instilled
+into the minds of the Southern people, of whom the great mass are
+unfortunately, and, from their peculiar condition, necessarily, kept in
+that state of ignorance which would favor the reception of such
+incredible and monstrous fallacies.
+
+The argument as to the right of secession has been exhausted; and if it
+had not been, it does not come within the scope and design of this paper
+to discuss the question. Enemies of the United States, foreign and
+domestic, will continue to believe, or at least to profess to believe
+and try to convince themselves, that the Constitution of 1787, which
+superseded the Confederation, contained all the defects of the latter
+which it was specially designed to remedy,--that the league of the
+preceding period was prolonged in the succeeding organization, only to
+be the fatal object of future discontent and ambition. Certainly this
+doctrine is the basis of the rebellion, and without it no successful
+movement could have been made to secure cooperation from any of the
+States. Nevertheless, it cannot be considered one of the impelling
+causes which moved the rebellious States to action, for it is not of
+itself an active principle. It rather served to smooth the way, by
+removing obstacles which opposed the operation of real motives.
+Veneration for the work of the fathers of the republic, respect for the
+Constitution and love of the Union, as things of infinite value, worthy
+to be cherished and defended, stood in the way of the conspiracy which
+compassed the destruction of the government. It was necessary to remove
+this obstacle, and to eradicate these patriotic sentiments, which had
+taken strong hold of the minds and hearts of the people of both
+sections. For more than two generations the Union had been held sacred,
+beyond all other earthly blessings. It was an object of the first
+magnitude to unsettle this long-cherished sentiment.
+
+The conspirators were altogether too shrewd and full of tact to approach
+their object directly. They adopted the artifice of arousing and
+studiously cultivating another sentiment of equal strength, which should
+spring up side by side with their love of the Union, flourish for a time
+in friendly cooperation with it, but ultimately supplant and entirely
+supersede it. This was the plausible and attractive sentiment of State
+pride, concealing in itself the idea of perfect sovereignty, with the
+right of nullification and secession. With consummate ability, with
+untiring industry and perseverance, and without a moment's cessation for
+more than a quarter of a century, this fruitful but pernicious seed of
+disorganization was sown broadcast among the Southern people. So long as
+there was no occasion to put the theory into practice, there seemed to
+be no ground for alarm. The question was one rather of curious subtlety
+than of practical importance. Meanwhile, the minds of men became
+familiar with the thought; they entertained it without aversion; the
+germs of ultimate discord and dissolution silently took root, and slowly
+grew up in the understandings of men. Not that the principle was
+adopted; it was rather tolerated than accepted. But this was the very
+thing intended by the wily conspirators. They expected nothing better;
+for they knew well that an accident or a bold precipitation of events
+would cause the popular mind to seize this principle and use it, as the
+only justification for revolutionary violence. Thus this doctrine, which
+is the embodiment of anarchy, was carefully prepared for the occasion,
+and artfully placed within easy mental reach of those who would be
+called upon to wield it.
+
+_Pari passu_ with the dissemination and growth of this dangerous
+opinion, the political school which cherished it endeavored to promote
+the object steadily held in view, by restricting and embarrassing the
+action of the Federal Government in every possible way. Notwithstanding
+the distrust and aversion of the Jackson party against them, continued
+long after the events of 1832, they succeeded in forming, first a
+coalition, and finally a thorough union with the great popular
+organization--the democratic party. Holding the balance of power between
+that party and their opponents, they dictated terms to the successive
+democratic conventions, and, in effect, controlled their nominations and
+their policy. They imposed upon that party the formidable dogma of 'a
+strict construction of the Constitution,' and under that plausible
+pretext, denied to the Government the exercise of every useful power
+necessary to make it strong and efficient within the limits of its
+legitimate functions. Their evident object, though cautiously and
+successfully concealed, was to weaken the Federal Government, and build
+up the power of the separate States, so that the former, shorn of its
+constitutional vigor, and crippled in its proper field of action, might,
+at the critical moment, fall an easy prey to their iniquitous designs.
+The navigation of the great Mississippi river, the imperial highway of
+the continent, could not be improved, because every impediment taken
+away, and every facility given to commerce on its bosom, were so much
+strength added to the bonds of the Union. The harbors of the great lakes
+and of the Atlantic coast could not be rendered secure by the agency of
+the Federal Government, because every beneficent act of this nature
+fixed it more firmly in the affections of the people, and gave it
+additional influence at home and abroad. The great Pacific railroad--a
+measure of infinite importance to the unity of the nation, to the
+development of the country, and to the general prosperity, as well as to
+the public defence--a work so grand in its proportions, and so universal
+in its benefits, that only the power of a great nation was equal to its
+accomplishment or capable and worthy of its proper control--this great
+and indispensable measure was defeated from year to year, so long as the
+conspirators remained in Congress to oppose it, and was only passed in
+the end, after they had launched the rebellion, and made their open
+attack against the Government, which they had so long sought to
+embarrass and weaken, in view of this very contingency.
+
+While yielding these principles in theory, the democratic party did not
+always adhere to them in practice. The instinct of patriotism was often
+stronger than the obligations of party necessity and party policy.
+Moreover, the text of these doctrines in the democratic creed was
+frequently a subject of grave dispute in the party, and unanimity never
+prevailed in regard to it. Yet the subtle poison infused into the body
+of the organization, extended its baleful influence to all questions,
+and too often paralyzed the arm of the Government in every field of its
+appropriate action.
+
+Never was presented in history a better illustration of the effect of
+false and mischievous ideas. It would be unjust, because it would be
+untrue, to suspect the democratic party of any clear knowledge of the
+ends to which these principles were intended to lead, or of any
+participation in the treasonable purpose. Many members of that party saw
+the danger in time, and abandoned the organization before it was caught
+in the meshes of the great conspiracy. Some, however, even in the loyal
+States, clung to Breckinridge and the fatal abstractions of the party
+creed, until these reached their final and legitimate culmination, in
+the ghastly paralysis of the most indispensable functions of the
+Government--the ruinous abnegation of all power of self-defence--the
+treacherous attempt at national suicide only failing for want of courage
+to perpetrate the supreme act, which was exhibited by the administration
+of James Buchanan, in its last hours, when it proclaimed the doctrine of
+secession to be unfounded in constitutional right, and yet denied the
+power of the Government to prevent its own destruction. The threats of
+an imperious band of traitors, operating upon the fears of a weak old
+man, who was already implicated in the treason, drove him to the verge
+of the abyss into which he was willing to plunge his country, but from
+which, at the last moment, he drew back, dismayed at the thought of
+sacrificing himself.
+
+The doctrine of secession, long and laboriously taught, and the cognate
+principles calculated to diminish the power of the Federal Government
+and magnify that of the States, thus served to smooth the way, to lay
+the track, upon which the engine of rebellion was to be started. But
+there was still wanting the motive power which should impel the machine
+and give it energy and momentum. Something tangible was
+required--something palpable to the masses--on the basis of which
+violent antagonisms and hatreds could be engendered, and fearful dangers
+could be pictured to the popular imagination.
+
+The protective system, loudly denounced as unequal and oppressive, as
+well as unconstitutional, had proved wholly insufficient to arouse
+rebellion in 1832. It would have proved equally so in 1861: but then the
+ultra free trade tariff of 1856 was still in existence; and it continued
+in force, until, to increase dissatisfaction, and invite the very system
+which they pretended to oppose and deplore, the conspirators in
+Congress, having power to defeat the 'Morrill Tariff,' deliberately
+stepped aside, and suffered it to become a law. But this was merely a
+piece of preliminary strategy intended to give them some advantage in
+the great battle which was eventually to be fought on other fields. It
+might throw some additional weight into their scale; it might give them
+some plausible ground for hypocritical complaint; and might even, to
+some extent, serve to hide the real ground of their movement; yet, of
+itself, it could never be decisive of anything. It could neither justify
+revolution in point of morals, nor could it blind the people of the
+South to the terrible calamities which the experiment of secession was
+destined to bring upon them.
+
+Slavery alone, with the vast material prosperity apparently created by
+it, with the debatable and exciting questions, moral, political, and
+social, which arise out of it, and with the palpable dangers, which, in
+spite of every effort to deny it, plainly brood over the system--slavery
+alone had the power to produce the civil war, and to shake the continent
+to its foundations. In the present crisis of the struggle, it would be a
+waste of time and of thought to attempt to trace back to its origin the
+long current of excitement on the slavery question, beginning in 1834,
+and swelling in magnitude until the present day; or to seek to fix the
+responsibility for the various events which marked its progress, from
+the earliest agitation down to the great rebellion, which is evidently
+the consummation and the end of it all. The only lesson important to be
+learned, and that which is the sum of all these great events, plainly
+taught by the history of this generation, and destined to characterize
+it in all future time, is, that slavery had in itself the germs of this
+profound agitation, and that, for thirty years, it stirred the moral and
+political elements of this nation as no other cause had power to do. It
+is of little consequence, for the purpose in view, to inquire what
+antagonisms struggled with slavery in this immense contest, covering so
+great an area in space, and so long a period of time. All ideas and all
+interests were involved. Moral, social, political, and economical
+considerations clashed and antagonized in the gigantic conflict.
+
+Is slavery right or wrong? Has it the sanction of enlightened
+conscience, or of the divine law as revealed in the Old and New
+Testaments? The last words of this moral contest have scarcely yet
+ceased to reverberate in our ears, even while the sound of cannon tells
+of other arguments and another arbitrament, which must soon cut short
+all the jargon of the logicians. But one of the most remarkable features
+of the whole case, has been the indignation with which the slave
+interest, from beginning to end, has resisted the discussion of these
+moral questions. As if such inquiries could, by any possibility, be
+prevented! As if a system, good and right in itself, defensible in the
+light of sound reason, could suffer by the fullest examination which
+could be made in private or in public, or by the profoundest agitation
+which could arise from the use of mere moral means! The discussions, the
+agitations, and all the fierce passions which attended them, were
+unavoidable. Human nature must be changed and wholly revolutionized
+before such agitations can be suppressed. They are the means appointed
+by the Creator for the progress of humanity. The seeds of them are
+planted in the heart of man, and, in the sunshine and air of freedom,
+they must germinate and grow, and eventually produce such fruit as the
+eternal laws of God have made necessary from the beginning.
+
+The social question shaped itself amidst the turbulent elements, and
+came out clear and well defined, in the perfect contrast and antagonism
+of the two sectional systems. Free labor, educated, skilful, prosperous,
+self-poised, and independent, grew into great strength, and accumulated
+untold wealth, in all the States in which slavery had been supplanted.
+Unexampled and prodigious inventive energy had multiplied the physical
+power of men by millions, and these wonderful creations of wealth and
+power seemed destined to have no bounds in the favored region in which
+this system of free labor prevailed. Immigration, attracted by this
+boundless prosperity, flowed in with a steady stream, and an overflowing
+population was fast spreading the freedom and prosperity of the Northern
+States to all the uncultivated regions of the Union.
+
+On the other hand, by a sort of social repulsion--a sort of polarity
+which intensifies opposition and repugnance--the theory of slavery was
+carried to an extreme never before known in the history of mankind.
+Capital claimed to own labor, as the best relation in which the two
+could be placed toward each other. The masses of men, compelled to spend
+their lives in physical toil, were held to be properly kept in
+ignorance, under the guidance of intelligent masters. The skilful
+control of the master, when applied to slaves, was hold to be superior
+in its results to the self-regulating energies of educated men, laboring
+for their own benefit, and impelled by the powerful motives of
+self-interest and independent enterprise. The safety of society demanded
+the subordination of the laboring class; and especially in free
+governments, where the representative system prevails, was it necessary
+that working men should be held in subjection. Slavery, therefore, was
+not only justifiable; it was the only possible condition on which free
+society could be organized, and liberal institutions maintained. This
+was 'the corner stone' of the new confederacy. The opposite system in
+the free States, at the first touch of internal trouble and civil war,
+would prove the truth of the new theory by bread riots and agrarian
+overthrow of property and of all other institutions held sacred in the
+true conditions of social order.
+
+Such was the monstrous inversion of social phenomena which the Southern
+mind accepted at the hands of their leading men, and conceived to be
+possible in this advanced age of the world. Seizing upon a system
+compatible only with the earliest steps in the progress of man, and
+suitable only to the moral sentiments and unenlightened ideas of the
+most backward races of the world, they undertook to naturalize and
+establish it--nay, to perpetuate it, and to build up society on its
+basis--in the nineteenth century, and among the people of one of the
+freest and most enlightened nations! Evidently, this was a monstrous
+perversion of intellect--a blindness and madness scarcely finding a
+parallel in history. It was expected, too, that this anomalous social
+proceeding--this backward march of civilization on this continent--would
+excite no animadversion and arouse no antagonism in the opposite
+section. It involved the reopening of the slave trade, and it was
+expected that foreign nations would abate their opposition, lower their
+flags, and suffer the new empire, founded on 'the corner stone of
+slavery,' to march forward in triumph and achieve its splendid destiny.
+
+These moral and social ideas might have had greater scope to work out
+their natural results, had not the political connections between the
+North and the South implicated the two sections, alike, in the
+consequences of any error or folly on the part of either. Taxation and
+representation, and the surrender of fugitive slaves, all provided for
+in the Constitution, were the points in which the opposite polities came
+into contact in the ordinary workings of the Federal Government.
+Perpetual conflicts necessarily arose. But it was chiefly on the
+question of territorial extension, and in the formation of new States,
+that the most inveterate of all the contests were engendered. The
+constitutional provisions applicable to these questions are not without
+some obscurity, and this afforded a plausible opportunity for all the
+impracticable subtleties arising out of the doctrine of strict
+construction. From the time of the admission of Missouri, in 1820, down
+to the recent controversy about Kansas, the territorial question was
+unsettled, and never failed to be the cause of terrible agitation.
+
+But the march of events soon superseded the question; and even while the
+contest was fiercest and most bitter, the silent operation of general
+causes was sweeping away the whole ground of dispute. The growth of
+population in the Northern States was so unexampled, and so far exceeded
+that of the Southern States, that there could be no actual rivalry in
+the settlement of the territories. The latter already had more territory
+than they could possibly occupy and people. While the Northern
+population, swollen by European emigration, was taking possession of the
+new territories and filling them with industry and prosperity, slavery
+was repelling white emigration, and the South, from sheer want of men,
+was wholly unable to meet the competition. Yet, with most unreasonable
+clamors, intended only to arouse the passions of the ignorant, Southern
+statesmen insisted on establishing the law of slavery where they could
+not plant the institution itself. They finally demanded that slavery
+should be recognized everywhere within the national domain; and that the
+Federal power should be pledged for its protection, even against the
+votes of the majority of the people. This was nothing less than an
+attempt to check the growth of the country, by the exclusion of free
+States, when it was impossible to increase it by the addition of any
+others.
+
+Upon the failure of this monstrous demand, civil war was to be
+inaugurated! A power which had been relatively dwindling and diminishing
+from the beginning--which, in the very nature of things, could not
+maintain its equality in numbers and in constitutional weight--this
+minority demanded the control of the Government, in its growth, and in
+all its policy, and, in the event of refusal, threatened to rend and
+destroy it. Such pretensions could not have been made with sincerity.
+They were but the sinister means of exciting sectional enmities,
+and preparing for the final measures of the great conspiracy.
+Having discarded the rational and humane views of their own
+fathers--Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and others--it was but the
+natural sequel that they should signalize their degeneracy by aiming to
+overthrow the work in which those sages had embodied their generous
+ideas--the Constitution of the United States and the whole fabric of
+government resting upon it.
+
+In what manner these mischievous absurdities became acceptable to the
+Southern people--by what psychological miracle so great a transformation
+was accomplished in so short a time--is only to be explained by
+examining some of the delusions which blinded the authors of the
+rebellion, and enabled them to mislead the masses who confided too
+implicitly in the leadership of their masters.
+
+Weak as were the Southern people in point of numbers and political
+power, compared with those of the opposite section, the haughty
+slaveholders easily persuaded themselves and their dependents that they
+could successfully cope in arms with the Northern adversary, whom they
+affected to despise for his cowardly and mercenary disposition. Wealth,
+education, and ample leisure gave them the best opportunity for
+political studies and public employments. Long experience imparted skill
+in all the arts of government, and enabled them, by superior ability, to
+control the successive administrations at Washington. Proud and
+confident, they indulged the belief that their great political prestige
+would continue to serve them among their late party associates in the
+North, and that the counsels of the adversary would be distracted, and
+his power weakened, by the fatal effects of dissension. All warlike
+sentiment and capacity was believed to be extinct among the traders and
+manufacturers, 'the shopkeepers and pedlars,' of the Middle and Eastern
+States. Hence a vigorous attack in arms against the Federal Government
+was expected to be met with no energetic and effective resistance. A
+peaceable dissolution of the Union, and the impossibility of war--at
+least of any serious and prolonged hostilities--was a cardinal point in
+the teachings of the secessionists. The fraudulent as well as violent
+measures by which they sought to disarm the Federal Government and to
+forestall its action, were only adopted 'to make assurance doubly sure.'
+
+Beyond all doubt, the system of slavery encourages those habits and
+passions which make the soldier, and which instigate and maintain wars.
+The military spirit and that of slavery are congenial; for both belong
+to an early stage in the progress of civilization, when each is
+necessary to the support and continuance of the other. It was therefore
+to be expected that the Southern people would be better prepared for the
+organization, and also for the manoeuvring of armies. But the mistake
+and the fatal delusion cherished by the conspirators, was the belief
+that the Northern people were without manly spirit, and incapable of
+being aroused by sentiments of patriotism. It was an equal
+miscalculation to anticipate that the fabric of Northern free society
+would fall to pieces, and be thrown into irremediable disorder, at the
+first appearance of civil commotion. This false idea was the offspring
+of the slave system, which boasted of the solidity of its own
+organization and the impossibility of its overthrow. From their
+standpoint, amid the darkness of a social organization, in which one
+half the population is not more than semi-civilized, the slaveholders
+could not easily obtain any other view. Long accustomed to wield
+irresponsible power as masters, enjoying wealth and independence from
+the unrewarded labor of the slave, but liberal and humane, condescending
+and indulgent, so long as the untutored black was quiet and obedient,
+the planter very naturally imagined his system to be the perfection of
+social order. In the atmosphere of luxurious ease which surrounded him,
+were the elements of a mental mirage which distorted everything in his
+deceptive vision. He weighed the two systems, and found his own
+immeasurably more powerful than its antagonist. Fatal mistake! fatal but
+inevitable, in his condition, in the midst of the blinding refractions
+of the medium which enveloped him.
+
+Prosperity had made him giddy. Cotton was not merely King--it was God.
+Moral considerations were nothing. The sentiment of right, he argued,
+would have no influence over starving operatives; and England and
+France, as well as the Eastern States of the Union, would stand aghast
+and yield to the masterstroke which should deprive them of the material
+of their labor. Millions were dependent on it in all the great centres
+of civilization, and the ramifications of its power extended into all
+ranks of society and all departments of industry and commerce. It was
+only necessary to wave this imperial sceptre over the nations, and all
+of them would fall prostrate and acknowledge the supremacy of the power
+which wielded it. Nothing could be more plausible than this delusion.
+Satan himself, when about to wage war in heaven, could not have invented
+one better calculated to marshal his hosts and give promise of success
+in rebellion against the authority of the Most High. But alas! the
+supreme error of this anticipation lay in omitting from the calculation
+all power of principle. The right still has authority over the minds of
+men and in the counsels of nations. Factories may cease their din; men
+and women may be thrown out of employment; the marts of commerce may be
+silent and deserted; but truth and justice still command some respect
+among men, and God yet remains the object of their adoration.
+
+Drunk with power and dazzled with prosperity, monopolizing cotton, and
+raising it to the influence of a veritable fetich, the authors of the
+rebellion did not admit a doubt of the success of their attack on the
+Federal Government. They dreamed of perpetuating slavery, though all
+history shows the decline of the system as industry, commerce, and
+knowledge advance. The slaveholders proposed nothing less than to
+reverse the currents of humanity, and to make barbarism flourish in the
+bosom of civilization. They even thought of extending the system, by
+opening the slave trade and enlarging the boundaries of their projected
+empire, Mexico and Central America, Cuba and St. Domingo, with the whole
+West Indian group of islands, awaited the consolidation of their power,
+and stood ready to swell the glory of their triumph.
+
+But these enticing visions quickly faded away from their sight. At an
+early day after the inauguration of their government, they were
+compelled to disavow the design of reopening the slave trade, and in no
+event is it probable their recognition will be yielded by foreign
+governments, except on the basis of ultimate emancipation. How such a
+proposition will be received by their deluded followers, remains yet to
+be ascertained by an experiment which the authors of the rebellion will
+be slow to try among their people. One of the most effective appeals
+made to the non-slaveholders of the South, in order to start the
+revolution, was to their fears and prejudices against the threatened
+equality and competition of the emancipated negro. The immense influence
+of this appeal can scarcely be estimated by those not intimately
+acquainted with the social condition of the great mass of the Southern
+people. Among them, the distinction of color is maintained with the
+utmost rigor, and the barrier between the two races, social and
+political, is held to be impassable and eternal. The smallest taint of
+African blood in the veins of any man is esteemed a degradation from
+which he can never recover. Toward the negro, as an inferior, the white
+man is often affable and kind, cruelty being the exception, universally
+condemned and often punished; but toward the black man as an equal, an
+implacable hostility is instantly arrayed. This intense and
+unconquerable prejudice, it is well known, is not confined wholly to the
+South; but it prevails there without dissent, and is, in fact, one of
+the fundamental principles of social organization.
+
+When, therefore, the leaders of the rebellion succeeded in persuading
+the Southern masses that the success of the Republican party would
+eventually liberate the slave and place him on an equality with the
+whites, an irresistible impulse was given to their cause. To the extent
+that this charge was credited was the rebellion consolidated and
+embittered. Had it been universally believed, there would have been few
+dissenting voices throughout the seceding States. All would have rushed
+headlong into the rebellion. And even now, every measure adopted on our
+part, in the field or in Congress, which can be distorted as looking to
+a similar end, must prove to be a strong stimulus in sustaining and
+invigorating the enemy. Happily, while the system of slavery naturally
+discourages education, and leaves the mass of whites comparatively
+uninformed, and peculiarly subject to be deceived and misled, there are
+yet many highly intelligent men among the non-slaveholders, and some
+liberal and unprejudiced ones among the slaveholders themselves. These
+serve to break the force of the appeals made to the ignorant, and they
+have had a powerful influence in maintaining the love of the Union and
+the true spirit of our institutions, among considerable numbers, in all
+parts of the South.
+
+From the foregoing views, it is plain, that only in a certain sense can
+slavery be pronounced the cause of the rebellion. It was not the first
+and original motive; neither is it the sole end of the conspirators. But
+in another sense, it may justly be considered the cause of the war; for
+without it, the war could never have taken place.
+
+There was no actual necessity to destroy the Union for the protection of
+slavery and for its continued existence. Construed in any rational sense
+likely to be adopted, the Constitution afforded ample security--far
+more, indeed, than could be found under a separate confederacy. This was
+evident to the leaders of the rebellion, though it was their policy to
+conceal the truth from the people, by the fierce passions artfully
+aroused in the beginning. Slavery could not have been perpetuated,
+because its permanence is against the decrees of nature. But it could
+have lived out a peaceful and perhaps a prosperous existence, gradually
+disappearing without convulsion or bloodshed. Discussion and agitation
+could not have been prevented, nor could the inevitable end have been
+averted. Yet the whole movement could well have been controlled and
+directed, by the adoption of wise and well-considered measures, not
+inconsistent with the natural laws governing the case, whose final
+operation it was wholly impossible to prevent.
+
+But this system of gradual amelioration, and peaceful development of
+ends that must come, did not satisfy the ambition of the conspirators.
+They saw their last opportunity for a successful rebellion, and they
+determined not to let it pass unimproved. The vast power of the slave
+interest; the passions easily to be excited by it; the encouraging
+delusions clustering around it; and the fearful apprehensions growing
+out of its darker aspects, all contributed to make it the very
+instrument for accomplishing the long-cherished design.
+
+Slavery has been the chief means of bringing about the rebellion. It is
+the lever, resting upon the fulcrum of State sovereignty, by which the
+conspirators have been able, temporarily, to force one section of the
+Union from its legitimate connections. Thus used for this unhallowed
+purpose, and become tainted with treason and crimsoned with the blood of
+slaughtered citizens, slavery necessarily subjects itself to all the
+fearful contingencies and responsibilities of the rebellion. Whether the
+confederate cause shall succeed or fail, the slave institution, thus
+fatally involved in it, cannot long survive. In either event, its doom
+is fixed. Like one of those reptiles, which, in the supreme act of
+hostility, extinguish their own lives inflicting a mortal wound upon
+their victims, slavery, roused to the final paroxysm of its hate and
+rage, injects all its venom into the veins of the Union, exhausts itself
+in the effort, and inevitably dies.
+
+
+
+
+WORD-MURDER.
+
+
+The time has come when we must have an entirely new lot
+of superlatives--intensifiers of meaning--verifiers of
+earnestness--asserters of exactness, etc., etc. The old ones are as dead
+as herrings; killed off, too, as herrings are, by being taken from their
+natural element. What between passionate men and affected women, all the
+old stand-bys are used up, and the only practical question is, Where are
+the substitutes to come from? Who shall be trusted to invent them? Not
+the linguists: they would make them too long and slim. Not the mob: they
+would make them too short and stout.
+
+There are plenty of words made; but in these times they are all nouns,
+and what we want are adverbs--'words that qualify verbs, participles,
+adjectives, and other adverbs.' We could get along well enough with the
+old adjectives, badly as the superlative degree of some of them has been
+used. They are capable of being qualified when they become too weak--or,
+rather, when our taste becomes too strong--just as old ladies _qualify_
+their tea when they begin to find the old excitement insufficient. But
+even this must be done with reason, or we shall soon find with the new
+supply, as we are now finding with the old, that the bottle gives out
+before the tea-caddy. The whole language is sufficient, except in the
+_excessives_--the _ultimates_.
+
+Why use up the sublime to express the ridiculous? Why be only noticeable
+from the force of your language as compared with the feebleness of what
+you have to say? Why chain Pegasus to an ox cart, or make your
+Valenciennes lace into horse blankets? If the noble tools did the
+ignoble work any better, it might be some satisfaction; but cutting
+blocks with a razor is proverbially unprofitable, and a
+million-magnifying microscope does not help a bit to tell the time by
+the City Hall clock. And again: the beggar doth but make his mishaps the
+more conspicuous by climbing a tree, while the poor bird of paradise,
+when once fairly on the ground, must needs stay and die, being kept from
+rising into her more natural element by the very weight of her beauties.
+Like this last-named victim of misdirected ambition, poetical
+expressions, being once fairly reduced to the level of ordinary use, so
+that all feel at liberty to take them in vain, can never 'revocare
+gradem.'
+
+The elegant, however, is not so much of a loss, as the strong and
+serviceable part of the language;--which, so far, is like grain in a
+hopper, always being added to at the top, and ground away at the bottom.
+The good old unmistakable words seem to sink the faster from their
+greater specific gravity compared to the chaff that surrounds them; for
+example: _Indeed_ used to be a fine and reliable word for impressing an
+assertion, but now it is almost discarded except as a sort of
+questioning expression of surprise, which might advantageously be
+shortened thus:?! Strictly interpreted, it denotes a lack of faith,
+suggesting a possible discrepancy between the words of the speaker and
+the deeds they relate to. It is but one step removed from the politeness
+of the Sligo Irishwomen, who say, 'You are a liar,' meaning exactly
+what an American lady does in saying 'You don't mean so!'
+
+I suppose it seemed as if the force of language could no further go,
+when men first said _really_. "What is more indisputable than reality?
+But it has come to be a sort of vulcanizer, to make plain English,
+irony. Nowadays, when a young lady adds, 'really,' one may know that she
+means to cast a doubt over the seriousness of what she says, or to
+moderate its significance. 'Really, sir, you must not talk so,' is the
+appropriate form for a tone of decided encouragement to continue your
+remarks--probably complimentary to herself, or the opposite to some
+friend. And so we might go on down, taking every word of the sort from
+the dictionary, and comparing its usefulness now, with that of the time
+when it had no ambiguity.
+
+_Positively_, _seriously_, _perfectly_, and their synonymes, have been
+subtracted, one after another, from our list of absolute words,--Burked,
+carried off, and consumed, by people who, if they had each had the
+finishing off of one word, instead of each doing a part at the ruin of
+all, would deserve to have their names handed down to posterity in
+connection with the ruin they had wrought, as much as ever Erostratus or
+Martin did; the former, we all know, was he of whom it is said:
+
+  'The ambitious youth who fired th' Ephesian dome
+  Outlives in fame the pious fool that reared it.'
+
+The latter, it is not so well known, did likewise by Yorkminster, for a
+similar purpose, and is now, as Mrs. Partington would say, 'Expatiating
+his offence' in a lunatic asylum. But their name is legion. How many a
+man, perhaps, 'father of a family, member of the church, and doing a
+snug business,' hears every day or two 'positively and without joking or
+exaggeration, the most perfectly absurd and ridiculous thing, he ever
+heard in all his born days!'
+
+_Actually_ was a nice word. We suffered a loss when it died, and it
+deserves this obituary notice. It was a pretty word to speak and to
+write, and there was a crisp exactness about its very sound that gave it
+meaning. _Requiescat in pace._ But last and most to be lamented, comes
+_literally_. I could be pathetic about that word. So classic--so
+perfect--it crystallized the asseveration honored with its assistance.
+And so early dead! Cut off untimely in the green freshness of its
+days--and I have not even the Homeric satisfaction of burying it! It
+still wanders in the shades of purgatory, _Vox et praeterea nihil_; being
+bandied about from mouth to mouth of the profane vulgar. And not even by
+them alone is disrespect offered it, for the grave and practical Mr.
+Layard says somewhere in the account of his uncoveries, 'They
+_literally_ bathed my shoes with their tears!' _Idem, sed quantum
+mutatus ab illo!_ I am almost tempted to the ambiguous wish that he
+might have _slipped in literally_ to one of the many graves he robbed
+figuratively.
+
+Now listen for a moment to Miss Giggley, who is telling of her
+temptation to laugh at some young unfortunate who thought he was making
+himself very agreeable. 'Really and truly, upon my word and honor, I
+positively thought I--should--die: as sure as I'm alive.' You pretty
+liar! You smiling murderess! You playful puss, gracefully toying with
+the victims your sweet mouth kills! Those expletives were like five
+strong men standing in a row, and you were like a bright,
+innocent-looking electric machine, with its transparent and clear-voiced
+cylinder, which is capable (give it only enough turnings) of making the
+men, at a shock, into five long, prostrate heaps of clay, lifeless,
+useless, and offensive, as are the expletives in question, by reason of
+a succession of just such shocking assaults as the untruth you this
+moment swore to.
+
+Anonymous writers, as a class, might be called the Boythorns of
+Literature. All of them, from Junius down, have shown a great
+satisfaction in waving a tremendously sharp sword out from behind a
+fence. Sometimes the hand that has held the weapon was strong enough to
+have done good service wherever it might have been engaged, but always
+the wielding is a little more fearless than if the owner's face were
+visible, and usually it is the better for his cause that it was not. We
+all know what a _very_ large cannon the monkey touched off, and how, if
+any one _had_ been in the way, it might have hurt him very much. As when
+a traveller writes of a far country, he tries to make it seem worth all
+the trouble he took to go there, so a critic must find enough bad about
+a book to make his article on it important and interesting.
+
+These exaggerators--these _captatores_ (and _occisores_)
+_verborum_--have no idea of the adaptation of means to ends. They are
+not deficient in forces--they have a powerful army, but no generalship.
+Horse, foot, and artillery; it's all vanguard. Right, left, and
+centre--but all vanguard. At the first glimpse, pioneers and scouts,
+rank and file, sappers and miners, sutlers and supernumeraries, all come
+thundering down like a thousand of brick, and gleaming in the purple and
+gold of imagery, to rout, disperse, and confound their obstacle; even if
+it's only a corporal's guard of one private!
+
+This _specialite_ in newspapers has occasionally been ridiculed, though
+not very well. Dickens's _Eatonsville Gazette_ and _Independent_ are
+perhaps the best caricatures; and they are a very good embodiment of a
+particular class of partisan provincial papers; but they are utterly
+inadequate to characterize the exaggeration that runs riot through the
+whole tribe of periodicals--and _amok_ through the serried ranks of
+Anglo-Saxon words. See the _New York Rostrum_; daily, weekly, and
+semi-weekly. It is rampant! It suspects an abuse, and it ramps against
+it. It seizes an idea, and it ramps toward its development. All who are
+not with it are against it, and all who are against it are either fools
+or knaves. The _Rostrum_ never chronicles railroad accidents. Oh, no! It
+only tells its readers of dastardly and cowardly outrages, committed by
+blood-thirsty fiends in the shape of presidents and directors against
+virtuous and estimable passengers, whole hecatombs of whom are
+assassinated to gratify the hideous appetite for carnage of the
+officials aforesaid; every one of whom, from the president to the
+water-boys, ought to suffer the extremest penalty of the law. It doesn't
+say that they ought to be hung. No! capital punishment was the most
+benighted characteristic of barbarism. It is a horrid atrocity to bring
+it down to the present day. Nobody ought to be subjected to it but the
+slimy reptiles who advocate its continuance.
+
+Not only does the _Rostrum_ behave like a wild bull of Bashan when it is
+fairly under way, but it is a perfect rocket at starting. It makes haste
+to commit itself. It is continually entering into bonds to break the
+peace. Its principle is not unlike that of the Irishman in a row:
+'Wherever you see a head, hit it.' It deals around little doses of
+shillelah, just by way of experiment; and if the unlucky head does not
+happen to be that of an enemy, make it one; so it's all right again. It
+carries whole baskets of chips on its shoulders, knock one off who will.
+
+Forgive me, good _Rostrum_! I honestly believe thee to be the best paper
+in this world; and my morning breakfast and car ride would be as fasting
+and a pilgrimage, without thee! It takes all my philosophy and more than
+all my piety (besides the lying abed late, and the coffee, which we only
+have once a week) to dispense with thee on Sunday. No paper is so
+untrammelled as thou art, for thou hast no shackles but those thou
+thrustest thine own wrists into; and I prize thee more than a whole
+sheaf of thy compeers, who always try to decide safely by deciding last.
+Thou art prompt, brave, and straightforward. In nine cases out of ten,
+when there are two cages open, thou dashest impetuously into the right
+one. Verily, thou art a little more headstrong than strong-headed, and a
+little less long-headed than headlong; but I say, rather let me be
+occasionally wrong with thee than always mean with some of thy rivals.
+But why be intemperate in thine advocacy of the nigger question, so
+overbearing in thine efforts for freedom of speech, or why enslave
+thyself in the cause of liberty? I could imagine a paper without even
+thy faults--and for this, I know full well that if thou notice me at
+all, it will be as a besotted and dangerous old fogy.
+
+To be sure, the _Rostrum_ might be found guilty on other counts of the
+general crime of word-murder. It has done for the word _height_ by
+spelling it _hight_, at the same time giving a supererogatory kick to
+the good old English participle (already deceased) of the latter
+orthography. And then, it is not always quite certain whether its events
+occurred or _transpired_! The misapplication of this last word is a
+shocking abuse of our defenceless mother tongue, and one I have not
+often seen publicly rebuked. It is not long since I saw the poor
+dissyllable in question evidently misapplied in the dedication of a
+book, and on Sunday, not long ago, I heard the pastor of one of the
+first churches in the city preach of the power directing the events
+which _transpire_ in this world!
+
+There are two ways of getting public duties attended to; one of which is
+to advertise for proposals,--a very expensive way; and the other is to
+get up a public meeting or association, when all men think it an honor
+to be elected officers for the sake of seeing their names in the papers.
+Now this last way is the best, in so many respects that it shall be
+adopted without hesitation for our purposes. Let there be a new Humane
+Society established, principally for the prevention of cruelty to words,
+and let the chief officer of the society be so named as to suggest its
+chief office--that of 'moderator.' And let us hope that as words are the
+things in question, deeds will abound, as we so well know the truth of
+the reverse, that where deeds are to be looked for, words prevail
+amazingly. Outside of its primary beneficent purpose, it may make
+provision for charities incidental thereunto. It may appoint one
+committee for the prevention of cruelty to compositors, to examine the
+chirography of all MSS. about to be 'put in hand,' and, in any case it
+thinks necessary, return mercilessly the whole scrawled mass to the
+author to have t's crossed, i's dotted, a's and o's joined at the top,
+etc., etc. Another privileged three may be merciful to the authors
+themselves, by providing for the better reading of proofs, by examining
+and qualifying the readers thereof; a class in this country very
+deficient, and for a happy reason: namely, that we have not yet a
+multitude of literary men, very well educated and very poor, who can
+find nothing better to do. This last committee would find comparatively
+little occupation, when the previous one had become effective in _its_
+line.
+
+To what an illimitable enterprise does the vastness of our plans lead
+us! Long vistas open before our eyes, with fine prospects for patronage
+and the gift of many offices. It is at least equal in dignity and
+grandeur to the city government, and nothing prevents its becoming a
+vast scheme of corruption, except that it never can, by any possibility,
+possess a penny of revenue. Of course there should be a committee of
+repairs and supplies, and one of immigration, the latter to provide for
+the naturalization of foreign words and their proper treatment before
+they could take care of themselves; the former for furnishing a supply
+to meet the growing demand mentioned at the beginning of this article,
+and for patching up several of the most obvious imperfections we now
+suffer from. We want a word for _the opposite of a compliment_. Not that
+this is as great a defect as the lack of the word _compliment_ would be
+in these smooth-spoken times, but still the want is felt, and the
+feeling is shown by such awkward expedients as the expression 'a
+left-handed compliment.' Then, besides, they might give the seal of
+legitimacy to a fine lot of words and phrases, the need of which is
+shown by their being spontaneously invented, and universally adopted by
+the vulgar; but which are not classic, have never been written except in
+caricature, and are therefore inadmissible to the writings of us
+cowardly fellows who 'do' the current literature. For instance: the word
+_onto_, to bear the same relation to _on_ and _upon_, that the word
+_into_ does to _in_ and _within_, has no synonyme, and if we had once
+adopted it, we should be surprised at our own self-denial in having had
+it so long in our ears without taking it for the use of our mouths and
+pens.
+
+The judiciary department should have full power to try _all_ defilers of
+the well of English, be they these offenders we have been talking
+of--spendthrifts and drunkards in the use of its strong waters--or be
+they punsters, or be they the latest development of miscreants, the
+_transposers_. To the punsters shall be adjudged a perpetual strabismus,
+that they may look two ways at once, forever--always seeing double with
+their bodily eyes, as they have been in the habit of doing with their
+mental ones. Even so to the transposer. Let him be inverted, and hung by
+the heels till _healed_ of his disorder.
+
+If this idea of an association is seized upon, I should be happy to
+suggest well-qualified persons for all the offices _except_ the highest.
+The most appropriate incumbent for that, modesty forbids my mentioning.
+But the matter must not be let drop. Unless there can be some check put
+to the present extravagance, we shall all take to _swearing_, for I am
+sure that is the first step beyond it.
+
+
+
+
+STEWART, AND THE DRY GOODS TRADE OF NEW YORK.
+
+
+Those who have watched the growth of New York, have found a striking
+criterion of its gradual advance in the different aspects of the dry
+goods trade. We select this branch of business as a better illustration
+of the progress of our metropolis than any other, since in breadth, as
+well as in enterprise, it has always taken the lead. What grocer,
+hardwareman, druggist, or any other of the different tradesmen of the
+metropolis, ever wrought out of nothing the majestic structures or the
+enormous traffic which is represented by some of our dry goods concerns.
+
+Dry goods originally held their headquarters between Wall street and
+Coenties slip. In those days Front street for grocers, and Pearl for dry
+goods men, within the limits above mentioned, sufficed for all the
+demands of trade, and in many instances the jobber lived in the upper
+part of his store. The great fire of 1835 put an end to all that was
+left of these primitive manners, and the burnt district was in due time
+covered with new brick stores, of a style vastly superior to those of
+the past. At the same time the advance in the price of lots fully made
+up the loss of insurance on buildings which was inevitable from the
+universal bankruptcy of fire offices. As trade appeared to be firmly
+established in that section, a mammoth hotel was built near Coenties
+slip for the accommodation of country merchants, and was long famous as
+the 'Pearl Street House.' A jobbing concern at that day might be
+satisfied with the first floor and basement of a building twenty-five
+feet by sixty to eighty, in which a business of from one hundred
+thousand to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars could be done. Such
+a business was then thought of respectable amount, and few exceeded it.
+
+The trade even at that early day was remarkable for its
+precariousness--and while a few made fortunes, whole ranks were swept
+away by occasional panics. In 1840, Hanover square was the dry goods
+emporium of New York, and there a few years earlier Eno & Phelps
+commenced a thriving trade which grew into famous proportions. As an
+illustration of the risks of trade, we may mention that we know of no
+other concern engaged in that vicinity at that time which escaped
+eventual bankruptcy. Near Eno & Phelps stood the granite establishment
+of Arthur Tappan & Co., while lesser concerns were crowded in close
+proximity. The first disposition to abandon this section was shown by
+opening new stores in Cedar street, which soon became so popular as a
+jobbing resort that its rents quadrupled. The Cedar street jobbers would
+in the present day be considered mere Liliputians, since many of their
+stores measured less than eighteen by thirty feet. They were occupied by
+a class of active men, who bought of importers and sold to country
+dealers on the principle of the nimble sixpence. Of this class (now
+about extinct) a few built up large concerns, while others, after
+hopelessly contending year after year with adverse fortune, sunk
+eventually into bankruptcy, and may in some instances now be found in
+the ranks of clerkship. From Cedar street, trade moved to Liberty,
+Nassau, and John streets, while as these new emporiums prospered, Pearl
+street gradually lost its prestige, until the general hegira of trade in
+1848, which left that ancient mart deserted. The Pearl street hotel,
+which once was thronged by country dealers and city drummers, was then
+altered into a warehouse for storage, while the jobbing houses, where
+merchants were wont to congregate, fell into baser uses, and property
+sunk in value correspondingly.
+
+The 'hegira,' to which we have referred, led from the east to the north
+side of the town, and was so exacting in its demands, that at length no
+man could hope to sell goods except in the new locality. Meanwhile,
+property in Cortlandt, Dey, Vesey, and the neighboring streets, rose
+immensely, and old rookeries were replaced by elegant stores. The chief
+features in this improvement were increased size and enlarged room. L.O.
+Wilson & Co. took the lead in this by opening a store extending through
+from Cortlandt to Dey street, whose spacious hall could have swallowed
+up a half dozen old fashioned Pearl street concerns.
+
+It was Mr. Wilson's ambition to break the bondage of antiquated habit,
+and inaugurate a revolution in trade. He had been a prominent Pearl
+street man, and had retired with a snug fortune, but had too active a
+mind to be satisfied with the quiet of retired life, and hence returned
+to trade with renewed energy. The new concern created a decided
+sensation, and for several years was successful, but we regret that we
+cannot record for it any other end than that which is the general fate
+of New York merchants. The movement which had now been inaugurated,
+continued with rapid progress until Barclay, Warren, Murray, and
+Chambers streets were transformed from quiet abodes of wealthy citizens
+to bustling avenues of trade. With this change the demand for size and
+ornament still continued, and was accompanied by enormous increase in
+rents. A newly-built Pearl street jobbing house in 1836 might be worth
+$1,500 per annum, while $3,000 was considered enormous; but now rents
+advanced to rates, which, compared with these, seemed fabulous. To meet
+these expenses, the consolidation of firms was resorted to, and the
+standard of a good year's trade extended from $250,000 to a million and
+upward.
+
+From 1848 to 1860 the principle of extension was in active operation.
+From Chambers street the work of renovation progressed upward, until
+even Canal street was invaded by jobbers, and until a space of a half
+mile square had been entirely torn down and rebuilt. Vast fortunes were
+made in the twinkling of an eye. A German grocer, who held a lease of
+the corner of Warren and Church streets, received $10,000 for two years
+of unexpired lease. The fellow found that the property was needed for
+the improvement of adjacent lots, and made a bold and successful strike
+for a premium. The church property, corner of Duane and Church streets,
+one hundred feet square, was sold for $28,000, and within a week resold
+to a builder for $48,000. The widening of streets now became popular,
+and a spot long famed for the degradation of its inhabitants, was thrown
+open to the activities of trade, and its rookeries replaced by marble
+palaces. What a transformation for Reade, Duane, Church, and Anthony
+streets, once synonymous with misery and crime, thus to become the
+splendid seats of trade!
+
+The growth of the dry goods trade had by 1860 assumed proportions which
+twenty years previously could not have entered into the wildest dreams.
+Indeed, had a prophet stood in Hanover square at that epoch, and
+portrayed the future, he would have been met with the charge of lunacy.
+$30,000 rent for a store was not more absurd than the idea that trade
+would ever wing its way to a neighborhood chiefly known through the
+police reports, and only visited by respectable people in the work of
+philanthropy. The enterprise of New York houses, in either following or
+leading this movement, is admirably illustrated, and as the merchants of
+New York are among her public men, we purpose a brief reference to a few
+leading houses. As it is nothing new to state that only three per cent.
+of our mercantile community are successful in making fortunes, the
+results of these examples need not surprise the reader.
+
+Among the chief concerns of nearly forty years' career, may be mentioned
+C.W. & J.T. Moore & Co., who began in a small way in Pearl street,
+followed the flood of trade to Broadway, and afterward took possession
+of the splendid store built by James E. Whiting, on the site of the
+Broadway theatre. Bowen & McNamee commenced somewhere about 1840, having
+sprung from the bankrupt house of Arthur Tappan & Co. Their first
+establishment was in Beaver street, whence they removed to a marble
+palace which they built in Broadway in 1850, having, in ten years,
+realized an enormous fortune in the silk trade. Encouraged by the
+success following this second movement, the firm sold their store at an
+enormous advance, and purchased the corner of Broadway and Pearl
+streets, thus indicating that trade had advanced a mile up town. The
+palatial store which they erected on this spot will long mark the
+climacteric point in mercantile architecture. It was supposed at the
+time of its erection to be the finest jobbing store in existence, and
+although since then both Mr. Astor and James E. Whiting have each put up
+a splendid marble establishment in Broadway, they have not surpassed the
+one we refer to. Messrs. Bowen & McNamee were early identified with the
+progressive views of New England politics, which they maintained
+throughout their business career. At an early day a system of
+persecution was opened upon them by a portion of the New York press on
+the score of their anti-slavery sentiments, to which they replied by
+announcing that 'they had goods for sale, not opinions.' This bold
+expression became quite popular in its day, and did much to extend the
+business of the high-toned concern which proclaimed it, so that what was
+lost by prejudice was more than gained from legions of new friends,
+until, for a time, they reaped a golden harvest from a trade which
+ramified to all parts of the North, East, and West.
+
+Another famous concern which sustained a position diametrically
+opposite to the one we have just mentioned, was that of Henrys, Smith &
+Townsend. This house was for more than a quarter of a century
+distinguished in the dry goods line, but held a Southern trade, and its
+members were men of corresponding proclivities. Commencing in Hanover
+square, the firm had followed the drift of trade into Broadway, and had
+become immensely rich. Like Bowen & McNamee (or Bowen, Holmes & Co.,
+their later firm), they led in political, as well as in mercantile
+enterprise, and these two houses, like Calpe and Abyla, were for years
+set over against each other as the trade representatives of the Northern
+and Southern sentiment.
+
+Yet, whatever may have been their difference of opinion, we are well
+persuaded of the fact that both houses were composed of patriotic and
+high-minded men, who differed simply because their views were of an
+extreme character. We might record other distinguished firms, which like
+these arose to greatness from humble beginnings, and at last fell like
+them beneath the revulsion which preceded the present civil war; but
+these will serve as general illustrations.
+
+With this revulsion the glory of the great houses has passed away. The
+marble palaces which formerly rented for $20,000 to $50,000, either
+stand empty or are tenanted at a nominal rate; and the enormous traffic
+of millions annually, has sunk down to the proportions of primitive
+times. Those grand Broadway stores must hereafter be divided, for no one
+concern can fill them, and the dreams of merchant and of builder are
+alike exploded. The dry goods trade in New York is now under a process
+of change, and as the dispensation of high rents and broad floors, long
+credits and enormous sales, seems to be passing away, it is a question
+of no small interest what shape the trade will put on. We will not
+attempt to answer that question. We prefer to give a sketch of the man
+who has done the most to solve it--Mr. A. T. Stewart.
+
+Mr. Stewart possesses one of the most truly executive minds in America.
+Indeed, as respects this feature, we doubt if any exception could be
+made to according him the very first position among our business men.
+Others may occasionally equal him in grasp of intellect, as in the
+instance of George Law, or Cornelius Vanderbilt; but, considered in the
+point of executive ability, we consider him unapproachable. He has long
+been chief among American dry goods dealers, and is known far and wide
+as the largest merchant (that is, buyer and seller) on this continent,
+and perhaps in the world. Yet there are thousands, including New Yorkers
+as well as country people, who have lost sight of Mr. Stewart's
+personality, and mention his name daily, and, perhaps, hourly, merely as
+the representative of a mammoth house of trade. The reason of this is
+obvious: hundreds and thousands have dealt year after year in that
+marble palace without ever beholding its proprietor. To such persons the
+name 'Stewart' has become merely a symbol, or, at most, a term of
+locality. To them he is a myth, with no personal entity. To their minds
+the term sets forth, instead of so many feet stature encased in
+broadcloth, with countenance, character, and voice like other men,
+merely a train of ideas, a marble front, plate glass, gorgeous drapery,
+legion of clerks, paradise of fashion, crowds of customers, and all the
+fascination of a day of shopping. 'Where did you get that love of a
+shawl?' asks Miss Matilda Namby Pamby of her friend Miss Araminta
+Vacuum. 'Why, at Stewart's, of course,' is the inevitable reply; 'and so
+cheap! only $250.' Now, to this pair of lady economists, what is
+'Stewart's' but a mere locality, as impersonal as Paris or Brussels, or
+any other mart of finery? We would correct this tendency to the unreal
+(which, by the way, is very natural), by stating that behind the mythic
+idea, there _is_ a Stewart; not a mere locality, but a man--plain,
+earnest, and industrious--who, amid this army of clerks and bustle of
+external traffic, drives the secret machinery with wonderful precision.
+Purchasers at retail are the most liable to the symbolic idea, since
+they never behold the existing Stewart. They see hundreds of salesmen,
+some stout and some thin, some long and some short, some florid and some
+pale, moving about in broadcloth, with varied port of dignity and
+importance, who may look as if they would like to own a palace. Yet
+among these the proprietor will be sought in vain. But if one ascends to
+the second story, he will find himself in a new world. This is the
+wholesale establishment, and here Mr. Stewart appears as the presiding
+genius.
+
+As one enters this department he may observe, in a large office on the
+side of the house looking into Chambers street, the grandmaster of the
+mammoth establishment, sitting at the desk, and occupied by the pressing
+demands of so important a position. Here, from eight in the morning
+until a late dinner hour, he is engrossed by the schemes and plans of
+his active brain. He bears a calm and thoughtful appearance, and yet,
+such is his executive ability, that the burden which would crush others
+is borne by him with comparative ease. His aspect and manners are plain
+and simple to a remarkable degree, and a stranger would be surprised to
+acknowledge in that tall form and quiet countenance, the Autocrat of the
+Dry Goods Trade. This man did not achieve this position save by patient
+toil; his greatness was not 'thrust upon him.' It has arisen from forty
+years of close application to the branch of trade which he adopted in
+early life, and to which he has bent his rare powers of mind. Like most
+of our successful men, he began the world with no capital beside brains;
+and like Daniel Webster and Louis Philippe, his early employment was
+teaching. The instructor, however, was soon merged in the business man,
+and in 1827 his unpretending name was displayed in Broadway, The little
+concern in which he then was salesman, buyer, financier, and sole
+manager, has gradually increased in importance, until it has become the
+present marble palace. It is probable that much of his early prosperity
+was owing to a remarkably fine taste in the selection of dress goods;
+but the subsequent breadth of his operations and their splendid success
+may be ascribed to his love of order, and its influence upon his
+operations. Years of practice upon this idea have enabled him to reduce
+everything to a system. Beside this, he is a first-class judge of
+character, reads men and schemes at a glance, and continually exhibits a
+depth of penetration which astonishes all who witness it. Thus, although
+sitting alone in his office, he is apparently conscious of whatever is
+going on in all parts of his establishment. So completely is he _en
+rapport_ with matters on the different floors, that the clerks sometimes
+imagine that there must be an invisible telegraph girdling the huge
+building. These men often say, by way of pleasant illustration of this
+fact, that if any one of them is absent, he is the very man to be first
+called for. From this it may be understood that it is not an easy matter
+to vary from the rigid system which holds its alternative of diligence
+or discharge over all beneath its control. We have referred to Mr.
+Stewart's habits of order as a means by which he controls his vast
+business with apparent ease. To explain this more explicitly, we may
+state that each department or branch of trade is under a distinct
+manager. These wholesale departments have been increased every year,
+until there is hardly an item in the comprehensive variety of the dry
+goods trade that is not here to be found. The advantage of this
+progressive movement was lately shown by the fact that, while Mr.
+Stewart lost enormous sums by Southern repudiation, he made up a large
+portion of the loss by the recent advance in domestics, a department
+which he had just added to his stock. The numerous failures which take
+place among New York business men give Mr. Stewart the choice among
+them for his managers, and a representation of the finest business
+talent of the city can, at this moment, be found in his establishment.
+These men turn their energies into that mighty channel which flows into
+his treasury. Indeed, to this merchant prince, they are what his
+marshals were to Napoleon, and, like him, this Autocrat of Trade sits
+enthroned in the insulated majesty of mercantile greatness.
+
+It may be inferred that no man in the concern works harder than its
+owner, and we believe that this is acknowledged by all its employes. Day
+after day he wears the harness of silent and patient toil.
+
+It is not generally known that during these hours of application, and
+while engrossed in the management of his immense operations, no one is
+allowed to address him personally until his errand or business shall
+have been first laid before a subordinate. If it is of such a character
+that that gentleman can attend to it, it goes no farther, and hence it
+vests with him to communicate it to his principal. To illustrate this
+circumstance, we relate the following incident: A few weeks ago a person
+entered the wholesale department, with an air of great importance, and
+demanded to see the proprietor. That proprietor could very easily be
+seen, as he was sitting in his office, but the stranger was courteously
+met by the assistant, with the usual inquiry as to the nature of his
+business. The stranger, who was a Government man, bristled up and
+exclaimed, indignantly, 'Sir, I come from Mr. Lincoln, and shall tell my
+business to no one but Mr. Stewart.' 'Sir,' replied the inevitable Mr.
+Brown, 'if Mr. Lincoln himself were to come here, he would not see Mr.
+Stewart until he should have first told me his business.'
+
+The amount of annual sales made at this establishment is not known
+outside of the circle of managers, but may be variously estimated at
+from ten to thirty millions. This includes the retail department, whose
+daily trade varies, according to weather and season, from three thousand
+to twelve thousand dollars per day. To supply this vast demand for
+goods, Mr. Stewart has agencies in Paris, London, Manchester, Belfast,
+Lyons, and other European marts. Two of the above cities are the
+permanent residences of his partners; and while Mr. Fox represents the
+house in Manchester, Mr. Warton occupies the same position in Paris.
+These gentlemen are the only partners of the great house of A.T. Stewart
+& Co.
+
+The marble block which the firm now occupies was built nearly twenty
+years ago. It had been the site of an old-fashioned hotel--which, like
+many others of its class, bore the name of 'Washington,' and which was
+eventually destroyed by fire. Mr. Stewart bought the plot at auction for
+less than $70,000, a sum which now would be considered beneath half its
+value. To this was subsequently added adjacent lots in Broadway, Reade
+and Chambers streets, and the present magnificent pile reared. To such
+of our readers as walk Broadway, we need not add any detail of its
+dimensions, nor mention what is now well known, that, large as it is, it
+is still too small for the increasing business. Hence another mercantile
+palace has been erected by Mr. Stewart in Broadway near Tenth street.
+This is intended for the retail trade, and is, no doubt, the most
+convenient, as well as the most splendid structure of the kind in the
+world. After the retail department shall have been thus removed up town
+the present store will be devoted to the wholesale trade.
+
+If any of our readers should inquire what impulse moves the energies of
+one whose circumstances might warrant a life of ease, we presume that
+the reply would be force of character and the strength of habit. Mr.
+Stewart has an empire in the world of merchandise which he can neither
+be expected to resign or abdicate. We cannot regret that law of
+centralization which builds up one marble palace, where hundreds have
+failed utterly to make a living. Centralization of trade has its
+objections, and yet, upon the whole, there is, no doubt, a much
+healthier and happier condition prevailing among the parties connected
+with Mr. Stewart, than would be found among the struggling concerns (say
+fifty or more) whose place he has taken. Centralization is a law in
+trade whose movement crushes the weak by an inevitable step, while, by
+compelling them to take refuge beneath the protection of the strong it
+affords a better condition than the one from which they have been
+driven. To his early perception of this law Mr. Stewart largely owes his
+present colossal fortune.
+
+
+
+
+UNHEEDED GROWTH.
+
+
+  As on the top of Lebanon,
+    Slowly the Temple grew,
+  All unobserved, though every shaft
+    A giant shadow threw:
+
+  Unheeded, though the golden pomp
+    Of ponderous roof and spire,
+  Wrought in the chambers of the earth,
+    Like subterranean fire:
+
+  Until the huge translated pile,
+    By brother kings upreared,
+  On Zion's hill, enthroned at last,
+    In silence reappeared.
+
+  So, not with observation comes
+    God's kingdom in the heart;
+  But like that Temple, silently,
+    With golden doors apart.
+
+  And all the Mighty Ones that watch,
+    With folded wings above,
+  Trembling with awe, now stoop to earth,
+    On messages of love.
+
+  Another Temple riseth fast,
+    Unbuilt of mortal hands,
+  Upheaving to the battle-blast
+    Of Freedom's conquering bands!
+
+  The bannered host--the darkened skies--
+    The thunderings all about,
+  Foreshadow but a Nation's birth,
+    Answering a Nation's shout!
+
+
+
+
+RED, YELLOW, AND BLUE.
+
+
+Alas for the old fashions! Wonder, incredulity, curiosity, and a crowd
+of primitive sensations, the whooping host that greeted, like misformed
+brutes on Circean shores, the steamboat and the telegraph, are passing
+away on a Lethean tide, and our mysteries are departing from among us.
+The intelligence which so long gazed wistfully upon the barred door of
+nature, or picked unsuccessfully at the bolts, with skeleton theories,
+and vague speculations, had learned to try the 'open sesame' of science.
+The master key is turning, the shafts yield, and already a dim glory
+shines through.
+
+While the strides of a positive philosophy are crippled by enthusiastic
+rhapsodies about intuition and instinct, her footsteps are still
+indelible, and her progress is certain and accelerating. Reason is
+written on her brow; she appeals to the universal gift, and denies the
+authoritative dictations of fallible genius, as much as a moral equality
+disallows the divine right of kings. Speculators among stars,
+speculators among sounds and colors, are the skirmishers in front of an
+intellectual post, whose tread reverberates but little in their rear.
+Accoutred with a few empiric facts and inductive minds, they aspire to
+beautiful and stable theories, whence they may descend, by deductive
+steps, accurate even to mathematical absoluteness, to the very arcana of
+what has been the inexplicable. To them the true, the beautiful, must be
+facts, defined, realized, and vigorously analyzed. Visible embodiments
+of an incomprehensible grace must be disintegrated, and the thinnest
+essences escape not the analytical rack whereon they confess the causal
+entity of their composition. 'Broad-browed genius' may toss his locks in
+the studio redolent of art; his eye may light, and his nervous fingers
+print the grand creation on the canvas. The divine afflatus is in his
+nostrils; it is his spirit, and his picture is the reflex of his soul.
+But keen-eyed Science lays a shadowy hand upon the 'holy coloring,' and
+says: 'Truly, the harmony is beautiful; it has pleased a sympathetic
+instinct from the first. Yet, from the first, my laws have been upon
+it--inexorable laws, which answer to the mind as instinct echoes to the
+soul.'
+
+The august simile of the philosopher, who likened the world to a vast
+animal, is appearing each day as too real for poetry. The ocean lungs
+pulse a gigantic breath at every tide, her continental limbs vibrate
+with light and electricity, her Cyclopean fires burn within, and her
+atmosphere, ever giving, ever receiving, subserves the stupendous
+equilibrium, and betrays the universal motion. Motion is material life;
+from the molecular quiverings in the crystal diamond, to the light
+vibrations of a meridian sun--from the half-smothered sound of a
+whispered love, to the whirl of the uttermost orb in space, there is
+life in moving matter, as perfect in particulars, and as magnificent in
+range, as the animation which swells the tiny lung of the polyp, or
+vitalizes the uncouth python floundering in the saurian slime of a
+half-cooled planet.
+
+When a polar continent heaves from the bosom of the deep, or when the
+inquiring eye rests upon the serrated rock, the antique victim of some
+drift-dispersing glacier, the mind perceives the effects and recognizes
+the existence of nature's omnipotent muscles, and their appalling power.
+
+But that adventurer who chases the chain of necessity to the sources of
+this grand instability, is merged at once in a haze of speculations,
+beautiful as sunlight through morning mists, but uncertain as the
+veriest chimeras. While beyond the idea of comprehensive motion the
+colossal symmetry of Truth expands in ultimate outlines, her features
+are shrouded, but in such an attractive clare-obscure of inviting
+analogies and semi-satisfying glimpses, that the temptation to guess at
+the ideal face almost overpowers the desire to kiss the real and shining
+feet below. Unfortunately, there is the domain of the myths and
+immaterials, _there_ is the home of the law and the force, _there_ dwell
+the Odyles, the electricities, the magnetisms, and affinities, and there
+the speculative AEneas pursues shadows more fleeting than the Stygian
+ghosts, and the grasp of the metaphysician closes on shapes whose
+embrace is vacancy. The bark that ploughs within this mystic expanse,
+sheds from its cleaving keel but coruscations of phosphorescent
+sparkles, which glimmer and quench in a gloom that Egyptian seers never
+penetrated, and modern guessers cannot conjecture through. There is,
+indeed, 'oak and triple brass' upon his breast who steeps his lips in
+the chalice of the Rosicrucian, and the doom of Prometheus is the fabled
+defeat which is waiting for the wanderer in those opaque spaces. While
+we warily, therefore, tread not upon the ground whose trespass brought
+the vulture of unfilled desire, the craving void for visionary lore upon
+the heaven-born, earth-punished speculator, we can still find flowery
+paths and full fruition, in meadows wherein the light of reason requires
+no support from the _ignes fatui_ of imagination; meadows after all so
+broad, that did not metaphysics 'teach man his tether,' they would seem
+illimitable. The book of nature is not spread before us, turning leaf
+after leaf at every sunrise, with new delineations on every page, to be
+stared at with vacant inanity, or criticized with imbecile verbosity.
+The rivulet does not tinkle and the sky does not look blue that people
+may feed the ear alone with the one, or satisfy the eye alone with the
+other; the nerves which carry the sensation to the brain, flutter with
+the news, and knock at the house of mind for explanation. We do not
+anticipate being hurried into any extravaganza about the rural felicity
+of green trees, clinking cowbells, cane chairs, and cigars, when we
+recall to the trainer of surburban vines the harmony, the analogy, the
+relationship, which he must have observed between sounds and colors in
+nature's album of melodies.
+
+When, at evening, the zenith blue melts away toward the horizon in
+dreamy violet, and the retreating sun leaves limber shafts of orange
+light, like Parthian arrows, among the green branches of the elms, what
+sounds can charm the ear like the soft chirrup of the cricket, the
+homely drone of the hive-seeking bee, and the cool rustle of the breeze
+through the tops of the spring-sodden water grasses? How fondly the mind
+blends the evening colors and the incipient voices of the night! 'Oh,'
+says the metaphysician, 'this is association: just so a strain of music
+reminds you of a fine passage in a book you have read, or a beautiful
+tone in a picture you have seen; just so the Ranz des Vaches bears the
+exile to the timber house, with shady leaves, corbelled and
+strut-supported, whose very weakness appeals to the avalanche that
+shakes an icicly beard in monition from the impeding crags.'
+
+Well, let association play her part in some cases; when a habit has
+necessitated the recurrence of two distinct ideas together, they will
+certainly be associated at times when the habit is gone; but suppose the
+analogy is felt when the ideas have never before been in juxtaposition,
+or when there has even been no sensation at all to generate one of the
+notions. How, for instance, did the sightless imaginer ever conceive
+that red must be like the sound of the trumpet? Simply because the
+analogy between color and music is deeper than the idea of either, more
+absolute than association could make it; because certain tints are
+calculated to produce exactly similar impressions on the eye that
+certain sounds do upon the ear; or, to use a mathematical turn of
+expression, because some color [Greek: x] is to the eye as some sound
+[Greek: x] is to the ear.
+
+That this mathematical turn of expression is no vagary, but perfectly
+germane to the subject, and accurate in application, we propose to prove
+to those who love coincidences and analogies sufficiently to fish them
+out of a little dilute science.
+
+Light and sound are the daughters of motion. Color and music, the
+ethereal and aerial offspring of this ancestry, born with the world,
+fostered in Biblical times, expanded in China and Egypt, living on the
+painted jar, and breathing in the oaten reed, deified in Greece, and
+analyzed to-day, are natural cousins at the least, and they have come
+from the spacious home of their progenitor, upon our dusky and silent
+sphere, like Peace and Goodwill, with hands bound in an oath and
+contract never to part. We will spare a dissertation on chaos; we will
+not speak of matter and inertia; but as our greatest and purest fountain
+of light is the sun, we may be allowed a modest exposition of his
+philosophical state, as a granite gate to the garden beyond. Ninety-five
+millions of miles to the north, east, south, or west of us, up or down,
+as the case may be, stands the molten centre of our system--an orb,
+whose atoms, turbulent with electricity, gravity, or whatever mechanists
+please to call the attraction of particle for particle, are forever
+urging to its centre, forever meeting with repulsions when they slide
+within the forbidden limits of molecular exclusiveness, and eternally
+vibrating with a quake and quiver which lights and heats the worlds
+around. In other words, this agitation is one that, transmitted to an
+ethereal medium, produces therein corresponding vibrations or waves,
+which are light and heat.
+
+As sound is the symmetrical aerial motion, if our atmosphere embraced
+our sun, and extended throughout space, we should _perhaps_ hear in the
+ambient the fundamental chord, resolvable into the diatonic scale--as we
+look upon the beam of white which the prism decomposes into the solar
+spectrum, and in the ghostly watches of the night, we might recognize
+the 'music of the spheres' as the planets rushed around their airy
+orbits, with a noise like the 'noise of many waters,' no longer a poetic
+illusion, but a harmonic fact.
+
+Light, whether white or colored, is transmitted through ether in waves
+of measurable length: each atom of the medium, when disturbed, moves
+around its place of rest in an orbit of variable dimension and
+eccentricity. On the character of the orbit depends the character of the
+light; and on the velocity of orbit motion, its intensity. Like the
+gentle pulsations which circle from the point where fell the pebble in
+the purple lake, come the grateful twilight waves, red with the last
+kiss of day; like the fierce struggles of the storm-beaten ocean floods
+come the lightning waves, blazing through the thunder clouds, howling in
+riven agony: so great is the variety of character in these orbicular
+disturbances, which, acting upon the optic nerves, produce the sensation
+of multiform light and color.
+
+Waves of light, like waves of sound, are of different lengths, and while
+the eye prefers some single waves to others, it recognizes a harmony in
+certain combinations, which it cannot discover in different ones.
+
+While, however, the constitution of individual eyes acknowledges one
+color more pleasing than another, there is none, perhaps, which does not
+prefer the coldest monochromatic to entire absence of color, as in blank
+white, or to an absolute vacancy of light, as in black.
+
+Sepia pieces are more agreeable than the neatest drawings in China ink,
+or the most graceful curves done in chalk upon a blackboard. But however
+the eye may admire a severe and simple unity, it relishes still more a
+harmonious complexity; and a very mediocre little _pensee_ in water
+colors, will prove more generally attractive than the monochromatic
+copies in the Liber Veritatis.
+
+But to this complexity there must be limits--an endless and incongruous
+variety teases and revolts; the discordant effect of innumerable tints,
+among which some are sure to be uncongenial to each other, is always
+extremely irritating. There ought, then, to be a scale of color, it
+would seem, within whose limits the purest harmonies are to be found,
+and beyond which subdivisions should be no more allowed than in constant
+musical notes. When this idea strikes, as it must have, many artists,
+reason, consideration, instinct, and all, refer at once to the solar
+spectrum as such an one. The analogy between this scale, which governs
+the chromatics of the sunset and thunderstorm, and that which the
+science of man has established, empirically, for harmonies, is
+remarkable, and we shall try to make it patent. They are both scales of
+seven: the tonic, mediant, and dominant, find their types in red,
+yellow, and blue, while the modifications on which the diatonic scale is
+constructed, resemble, numerically and esthetically, the well-known
+variations in the spectrum.
+
+The theory of harmonies in optics is the same as in acoustics, the same
+as in everything--it is based on simplicity. Those colors, like those
+notes, the number of whose vibrations or waves in the same time bear
+some simple ratio to each other, are harmonious; an absolute equality
+produces unison; and a group of harmonies is melody both in music and in
+color. At this point we cannot but hint at the analogy already
+discovered between the elements of music and the elements of form.
+Angles harmonize in simple analysis, or intricate synthesis, whose
+circular ratios are simple.
+
+Numerical proportions are the roots of that shaft of harmony which,
+springing from motion, rises and spreads into the nature around us,
+which the senses appreciate, the spirit feels, and the reason
+understands. Beauty is order, and the infinity of the law is testified
+in the ever-swelling proofs of an unlimited consonance in creation, of
+which these analogies are the smallest types. But the idea of numerical
+analogy is not new to our age, now that the atomic theory is
+established, and people are turned back to the days when the much
+bescouted alchemist pored with rheumy eyes over the crucible, about to
+be the tomb of elective affinity, and whence a golden angel was to
+develop from a leaden saint: when they are reminded of the Pythagorean
+numbers, and the arithmetic of the realists of old, they may very well
+imagine that the vain world, like an empty fashion, has cycled around to
+some primitive phase, and look for the door of that academy 'where none
+could enter but those who understood geometry.'
+
+But to return. When the ear accepts a tone, or the eye a single color,
+it is noticed that these organs, satiated finally with the sterile
+simplicity, echo, as it were, in a soliloquizing manner, to themselves,
+other notes or tints, which are the complementary or harmony-completing
+ones: so that if nature does not at once present a satisfaction, the
+organization of the senses allows them internal resources whereon to
+retreat. 'There is a world without, and a world within,' which may be
+called complementary worlds. But nature is ever liberal, and her chords
+are generally harmonies, or exquisite modifications of concord. The
+chord of the tonic, in music, is the primal type of this harmony in
+sound; it is perfectly satisfactory to the tympanum; and the ear,
+knowing no further elements (for the tonic chord combines them all), can
+ask for nothing more.
+
+This chord, constructed on the tonic C, or Do, as a key note, and
+consisting of the 1st, 3d, and 5th of the diatonic scale, or Do, Mi,
+Sol, is called the fundamental chord. The harmony in color which
+corresponds to this, and leaves nothing for the eye to desire, is, of
+course, the light that nature is full of--sunlight. White light is then
+the fundamental chord of color, and it is constructed on the red as the
+tonic, consisting of red, yellow, and blue, the 1st, 3d, and 5th of the
+solar spectrum.
+
+This little analogy is suggestive, but its development is striking.
+
+The diatonic scale in music, determined by calculation and actual
+experiment on vibrating chords, stands as follows. It will be easily
+understood by musicians, and its discussion appears in most treatises on
+acoustics:
+
+  Do   Re   Mi   Fa  Sol   La   Ti   Do
+
+  C,   D,   E,   F,   G,   A,   B,   C, &c.
+
+  1   9/8  5/4  4/3  3/2  5/3  15/8  2.
+
+The intervals, or relative pitches of the notes to the tonic C, appear
+expressed in the fractions, which are determined by assuming the wave
+length or amount of vibration of C as unity, and finding the ratio of
+the wave length of any other note to it. The value of an interval is
+therefore found by dividing the wave length of the graver by that of the
+acuter note, or the number of vibrations of the acuter in a given time
+by the corresponding number of the graver. These fractions, it is seen,
+comprise the simplest ratios between the whole numbers 1 and 2, so that
+in this scale are the simple and satisfactory elements of harmony in
+music, and everybody knows that it is used as such. Now nature exposes
+to us a scale of color to which we have adverted; it is thus:
+
+  Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.
+
+Let us investigate this, and see if her science is as good as mortal
+penetration; let us see if she too has hit upon the simplest fractions
+between 1 and 2, for a scale of 7. We can determine the relative pitch
+of any member of this scale to another, easily, as the wave lengths of
+all are known from experiment.
+
+The waves of red are the longest; it corresponds, then, to the tonic.
+Let us assume it as unity, and deduce the pitch of orange by dividing
+the first by the second.
+
+The length of a red wave is 0.0000266 inches; the length of an orange
+wave is 0.0000240 inches; the fraction required then is 266/240;
+dividing both members of this expression by 30, it reduces to 9/8,
+almost exactly. This is encouraging. We find a remarkable coincidence in
+ratio, and in elements which occupy the same place on the corresponding
+scales. Again, the length of a yellow wave is 0.0000227 inches; its
+pitch on the scale is therefore 266/227; dividing both terms by 55, the
+reduced fraction approximates to 5/4 with great accuracy, when we
+consider the deviations from truth liable to occur in the delicate
+measurements necessary to determine the length of a light vibration, or
+the amount of quiver in a tense cord. A green wave is 0.0000211 inches
+in length; its pitch is then 266/211, which reduced, becomes 4/3; in
+like manner the subsequent intervals may be determined, which all prove
+to be complete analogues, except, perhaps, violet, whose fraction is
+266/167, which reduces nearer 16/9 than 15/8. But these small
+discrepancies, which might be expected in the results of physical
+measurements, do not cripple the analogy which appears now in the two
+following scales:
+
+
+  DIATONIC OR NATURAL SCALE OF MUSIC.
+
+  C,   D,   E',  F,   G,   A,   B,   C'   D'   E', &c.
+
+  1   9/8  5/4  4/3  3/2  5/3  15/8  2  18/8  10/4
+
+
+  DIATONIC OR NATURAL SCALE OF COLOR.
+
+  Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.
+  1     9/8      5/4     4/3   3/2    5/3     16/9
+
+
+Thus orange is to red what D is to C; and to resume the proportion we
+used before, red is to eye as C is to ear; yellow: eye: Mi: ear; and so
+on the proportion extends, till the analogy embraces chords, harmonies,
+melodies, and compositions even.
+
+We have already mentioned the chord of the tonic, and the corresponding
+eye-music, red, yellow, and blue; let us consider the chord of the
+dominant or 5th note, whose analogue is blue. This chord is constructed
+on the 5th of the diatonic as a fundamental note, and consists of the
+5th, 7th, and 9th, or returning the 9th an octave, the 5th, 7th, and 2d.
+The parallel harmony among the spectral colors is blue, violet, and
+orange. The name 'dominant' indicates the nature of this chord; its
+often recurring importance in harmonic combinations of a certain key
+make it easily recognized, and it is even more pleasing than the tonic
+in its subdued character.
+
+Out of doors this chord is preeminent in the sunset key, and the western
+skies ever chant their evening hymn in the 5th, 7th, and 2d of the
+ethereal music. The correspondence of the sub-dominant would be red,
+green, and indigo; of the chord of the 6th, red, yellow, and indigo; and
+so on, the curious mind may elicit the symmetrical to any notes, half
+notes, or combinations of notes. It is evident that as a note may be
+interpolated between any two of the scale, for reach or variety, and
+called, _e.g._ [sharp]-F or [flat-]G, so a half tint between green and blue
+is a kind of analogical [sharp]green or [flat]blue.
+
+It seems to us that the elementary angles which Mr. Hay conceives to be
+the tonic, mediant, and dominant, in formal symmetry, will soon be
+proved to decompose into a scale of linear harmony, forming another beam
+in this glory of natural analogy. These angles are the fundamental ones
+of the pentagon square, and equilateral triangle--respectively 108 deg.,
+90 deg., and 60 deg.. Some such scale it is known existed when art was at its
+culmination in buried Greece, and it was less the stupendous genius of
+her designers than the soul of the universe which their rules taught
+them how to infuse into form, which rendered the marbles of Hellas
+synonymes for immortality.
+
+The most beautiful and conclusive, and yet most mysterious sign, that
+points the seeker to the prosecution of this last analogy, remains yet
+for us to remark, and for some investigator yet to take advantage of. It
+is the nodal figures which arrange themselves upon an elastic plate (as
+of glass), when it is made to vibrate (strewed with sand) by a fiddle
+bow drawn across its edge, so as to produce a pitch of some intensity.
+These have been investigated, and found subject to certain laws, which
+link into the chain of symmetry that philosophers have already grasped.
+Among these figures, of which the simplest arise from the deepest
+pitches, the angles mentioned occur.
+
+But however interesting it might be to follow out these episodical
+instances, they would lead us too far from our original compass.
+
+We have plainly exhibited the identity of principle which governs the
+bases of sound and color, and might fairly write Q.E.D. to our
+proposition; but the fact so determined has a farther bearing upon art,
+which it may not be out of place to enlarge upon.
+
+The painter's palette, charged with color, is the instrument with which
+he thrills a melody to the eye, even as the magniloquent organ or the
+sigh-breathing flute speak to the ear. And just as the compass of all
+instruments is constructed on the diatonic scale, so should the range of
+the palette depend upon the tinges of the spectrum.
+
+While artists of a certain school pretend to imitate Nature, who paints
+literally with a pencil dipped in rainbow, they make use of a
+complication of tints, at which their goddess would shudder. In mixing
+and mixing on the groaning palette, they generate an unhappy brood of
+misformed tones, which never can agree upon the canvas; while the
+pigments, impure at best, become doubly so by amalgamation, the
+ramifications of contrast which such differences superinduce are sure to
+prove sometimes repulsive.
+
+Contrast is nature's charm, the bubbling source that she exhausts for
+her prettiest harmonies and varieties.
+
+But earthen pitchers are easily broken at the brink, and if the
+slippery streams thence flowing are not judiciously checked, they merge
+into a harsh flood that sweeps away all grace, like the magic fountain
+in the German myth, whose fairy tricklings, uncovered for a single
+night, burst into a curbless flood, that drowned the sleeping landscape
+ere the dawn. The small reactions of contrast in infinitesimal tints,
+are perhaps neglected or unforeseen, but their influence is fearfully
+apparent in the end.
+
+The simplicity of beauty is very limited, and he who dabbles in infinite
+decompositions of color will be certain to encounter turbid and
+unnatural tones, whose ultimate result will be an inharmonious and
+disunited whole.
+
+It is true that in the landscape, and cloudscape, and waterscape, there
+are wonderful extremes of chromatic gradation, for it is the hand and
+mind of nature that adorns herself; she can see unerringly, and lay on
+divinely, the remotest intricacies of shade, and her colors are pure
+light, swimming in ether.
+
+But these media do not come bottled up in tin tubes, and to this gift a
+mortal hand ought not to presume. It might as well aspire to draw
+infinitely as to tint infinitesimally; for before it can find use for
+all the colors in nature, it ought to have all nature upon the canvas.
+But finally, we hold that reproductive art is as much part and parcel of
+human nature as the appreciative, or sensation of beauty; and that any
+one can learn to copy and color a landscape or design, as well as to
+perform upon a musical instrument. Let genius still wield the creative
+wand, but in the wide domain of art, over his grotto alone be it
+written, _Procul o procul este profani_.
+
+
+
+
+ONE OF THE MILLION.
+
+
+Shoemaker Scheffer opened his shop within sight of the college
+buildings, and expected to live by trade. He was young and skilful,
+obliging, and prompt, and acquired, ere long, a substantial reputation.
+Prosperity did not mislead him; he applied his income to the furtherance
+of his business, abhorred debt, squandered nothing, was exact and
+persevering.
+
+At work early and late, he seemed the model of contentment, as he was of
+industry. Prompt, obliging, careful, he made the future easy of
+prediction.
+
+But though the ruddy firelight shines well on the window panes, what
+griefs, what agonies, what discords, are developed around the
+hearthstone. Scheffer's quiet demeanor was, in some degree, deception.
+One woman in the world knew it was so--no other being did.
+
+The immediate excitant of his unrest was found in the college students,
+who passed his place of business at all hours of the day. He remembered
+that he might have worked his way into the ranks of those fellows.
+Nothing vexed him so much as to see a lounger among them; for he must
+needs think of the time when, a stripling, he agonized over his choice,
+and said to himself, thinking of his mother (dead now, when the comfort
+he toiled for was secured), 'Time enough for books when I am sure of
+bread; flesh is needy and perishing, spirit is eternal.' He had walked
+out of school to the counter of his uncle, and stood behind it seven
+years, doing with earnest might what his hand found to do.
+
+And here he was now, on his own ground, wistfully looking over his
+barriers into the college yard, and, shall we say it, envying the
+career of every studious lad--most of all that of the scholarly Harry
+Cromwell, and the broad-browed, proud young Mitchell, who came into his
+shop now and then, in remembrance of old days; for these lads could all
+remember when they stood in one straight line among the social forces,
+and neither had marched out of the old division to take rank in the new.
+
+One day Paul Mitchell strolled into Scheffer's shop. Scheffer, at the
+moment, was reading a newspaper, and he did not instantly throw the
+sheet aside: he thought it unlikely that Paul required his service. But
+at last, laying the paper away, and going up to Mitchell, he asked:
+
+'What will you have, this morning?'
+
+Paul's bright eyes smiled, full of fun.
+
+'I'll have fifty thousand dollars, straight, and a library like that in
+the Atheneum.'
+
+'You want shoeing more,' was Scheffer's dry response; and, turning from
+the youth, he went back to his counter, and emptied thereon a large box
+of patent leathers, which he began to assort.
+
+Gradually Paul approached, and at last he took up a pair of the boots,
+and asked the price. Scheffer named it; Paul threw them down again.
+
+'You might as well ask fifty dollars as three. It's you fellows who have
+all the money.'
+
+'Do you think so?' answered Scheffer; and he began to collect his goods
+again, and to pack them in separate boxes. He was careful, however, to
+throw aside the pair that had tempted Mitchell to confess a truth.
+
+At last, when the counter was cleared, he took the boots, and said to
+the boy, pointing to one of the sofas:
+
+'Sit down there, my man.'
+
+Paul did as bidden. Scheffer untied his shoestring, drew off the dusty,
+worn-out shoe, and tried the pair in his hand. The fit was perfect.
+
+Then Scheffer looked up, and, without rising, asked:
+
+'How long have you to study before you graduate?'
+
+'Five years.'
+
+'Why do you speak in that way?'
+
+'How did I speak?' asked Paul.
+
+'Discouraged like.'
+
+'You're mistaken.'
+
+'Am I? Then why look so solemn? I'd like your chance.'
+
+'You would!' exclaimed Paul, incredulous. 'Why, you had such a chance
+yourself once, and you didn't accept it, if they know the facts at
+home.'
+
+Scheffer stood up.
+
+'Who says that?' he asked, quietly. Still, the question had a hurried
+sound to Paul. '_Did_ any one in that house remember!'
+
+'Josephine told me so. She thinks you made a wise choice. So do I. I
+wish I was as well off as you are, doing something for a support. And it
+was on account of your mother you made the choice! But my mother insists
+on my having a profession. Stuff! But nobody seems satisfied. That's one
+kind of consolation.'
+
+Scheffer was silent for a moment. Half of Paul's words were unheard; but
+enough had struck through sense to spirit, and he said:
+
+'Do you want to be shod for the next five years? I'll strike a bargain
+with you, Paul.'
+
+'What can I do for you?' asked the astonished lad.
+
+'I'll tell you, and if you don't like it, why, no matter--that's all.'
+And Scheffer added, in an earnest tone: 'I don't know but it's living
+near the college, hearing the bell ring, and seeing the fellows with
+their books, has bewitched me; any way, I'm thinking I must have an
+education, and I wish to get it systematically. I always thought I could
+have it when I chose; but if I don't bestir myself, I shall not be able
+to choose much longer.'
+
+August wiped his forehead as he spoke; but he had said it. Gravely,
+anxiously he looked at Paul. He could have forgiven him even a smile.
+But Paul did not smile. Neither did he hesitate too long to rob his
+words of grace.
+
+'What will you study?' he asked.
+
+'Whatever you set me at.'
+
+'Latin?'
+
+'They say a fool is not a perfect fool till he has studied Latin. No, I
+thank you. Five years, did you say?'
+
+'Five years,' repeated Paul, this time without sighing.
+
+'Well, get the books I need. You know what they are. Bring the bill to
+me. Have it made out in your name, though, I'll settle the account.
+Mum's the word, Paul. I won't have snobs laughing at the learned
+shoemaker. The secret is mine.'
+
+Paul promised. Scheffer thereupon picked up the student's worn-out
+shoes, and tossed them into a distant heap of rubbish, and the lad went
+on his way rejoicing. He was a widow's son, and poor; and to be shod as
+a gentleman should be was a serious matter to him.
+
+
+II.
+
+But, as to the secret, there was Josephine, who shared the family burden
+of poverty and pride; Josephine, who was a beauty, and not spoiled at
+that, but light of heart and cheerful, disposed to make the best of
+things; laughing lightly over mishaps which made her mother weep;
+Josephine, of whose fair womanhood as much was hoped in a worldly way as
+of Paul's talents; Josephine, to whom Paul told everything: how could he
+withhold from her August Scheffer's curious secret?
+
+That afternoon, when he went home, Paul found her in the porch. She had
+a book; of course, it was one of Cromwell's. Paul discovered that when
+he had settled himself near her, with a book in his own hand. He had
+come to her so conscious of his late bargain, and the immediate benefit
+he had derived therefrom, that he expected an instant leaning toward
+discovery on her part. But Josephine was absorbed in her occupation, and
+though she looked up and smiled when she saw Paul coming, she looked
+down again and sighed the next instant, and continued reading with a
+gravity that soon attracted his notice. Her looks troubled him. Of late,
+a shadow seemed to have fallen darkly over her; she was, though Paul
+understood it not, in the struggle of youth with life. Do you know what
+that struggle is? Not all who pass through it go on their way rejoicing,
+over the everlasting blessedness won from the 'good and great angel.'
+For then this earth more manifestly were the world of the redeemed ones.
+
+Not long before, Paul had heard Josephine say that she would not live on
+in this idle way. She must find some work to do. Perhaps, he thought,
+the sense of a necessity her mother instantly and constantly denied when
+Josephine spoke of it, is now again oppressing her. However occasioned,
+Paul's face saddened when he looked at her. The maddening impatience he
+had felt many times--impatience for the strength and efficiency of
+manhood--once more tormented him; it grew an intolerable thought to him
+that so many years must pass before he should be prepared to do a man's
+work, earn a man's wages--do as August Scheffer was doing.
+
+Such sombre reflections as these absorbed him, when he became suddenly
+conscious of the eyes of Josephine. She sat looking upon him; disturbed
+anew, it seemed, by the show of his disturbance. His eyes met hers, and
+she said:
+
+'What is it, Paul? What has gone wrong with you?'
+
+'Nothing. But it is enough to give one the horrors to see _you_ looking
+so like destruction. Something has happened, Josephine; what is it?'
+
+'What fine shoes you have on, Paul!' she said, quickly, pretending to be
+absorbed in the discovery she had only that instant made.
+
+Paul laughed, and blushed.
+
+'I earned them,' said he.
+
+'Earned them!' Josephine's beautiful eyes were full of surprise, of
+admiration even, as she now fixed them on her brother. 'I wish I could
+earn anything--a row of pins, or a loaf of bread.'
+
+'If you did, you wouldn't eat all the loaf yourself. But I spent all my
+wage on myself, you see! But I did earn them--at least, I'm going to,
+before I get through.'
+
+'How in the world did you do it, Paul?'
+
+'I am a tutor, Josephine,' said he, with mock gravity. She answered,
+earnestly:
+
+'You're a good fellow, any way, tutor or not. It's a secret, then, this
+business?'
+
+'Yes, the deadest kind of a dead secret. But I shall tell you. I made a
+mental reservation of you. August Scheffer----'
+
+Josephine started, trembled, looked away from Paul, recovered herself in
+an instant; then looked back again, and straight into his eyes. Paul saw
+nothing strange in this; he went on quietly:
+
+'Scheffer is getting ambitious! If I had a shop and such a business as
+his, catch me bothering about books!'
+
+'He was always fond of reading,' answered Josephine. 'You know what a
+reader his mother was? No, you don't know. You were too young. Well, he
+wants you to help him, and you are to be shod.'
+
+'Yes, that's the whole of it. Why don't you laugh, or be surprised. I
+shall do my best with him.'
+
+'I should hope you would do better than your best. Be punctual and
+steady in this business; for, really, you owe August Scheffer more than
+a shop full of shoes is worth. You will get as much good as you can
+possibly give. I wish I had your chance!'
+
+'To teach him, Josephine?'
+
+'To be a helpful man, dear Paul.'
+
+'As far as I can see, everybody in these days is wishing that he was
+somebody else. That's what's the matter with Scheffer.'
+
+'No,' said Josephine, quietly; 'it isn't. Not that. He wouldn't take any
+man's place that lives. Ask him.'
+
+'Of course he would say 'No.' He is proud as Lucifer.'
+
+'I like his spirit.'
+
+'Yes, and you like Cromwell's spirit, too. What in the world do you
+suppose _he_ is going to do?'
+
+'What?' asked Josephine, as if she did not know.
+
+Paul surveyed her for a moment. _Did_ she not know? He could not decide.
+He could look through most people, simple, earnest, penetrating fellow
+that he was; but not through Josephine.
+
+'Cromwell is going abroad,' he said, finally. 'He's been talking with a
+sea captain for a month back. It's all out now. He's going to quit his
+class, and take deck passage for Havre; going to the school of mines in
+Paris, and, when through with that, on a mineral hunt from Africa to
+Siberia. And he hasn't a cent of money! Perhaps that's the spirit you
+like. Perhaps you won't object to my going with him.'
+
+Josephine looked at Paul; she was not in the least alarmed. 'I like the
+spirit well enough,' she said, 'but it isn't your kind; it would be
+misery to do a thing in that way, for you. He has another 'fervor.''
+
+'Yes, he has,' said Paul, with a deeper meaning than his sister guessed.
+
+'You say I like a queer kind of spirit,' said she. 'I like independence.
+But there's some great lack in me, there must be. I'm what you call too
+prudent, I suppose. I seem unable to put out of sight the chances of
+failure; and it can't be that people who venture a great deal think much
+of them. I wish, as you do, that Harry had a little money--ever so
+little--to fall back on. He never seems to think of accidents, or
+sickness; but he is going to a strange country, and, to be sure, if he
+is able to do exactly what he expects, he will succeed; and in the _end_
+he will, I know, whatever happens. But it would be dreadful for him to
+meet with misfortunes, though he laughs at my croaking. Everything is to
+turn out just as he wants! But do things often, I wonder?'
+
+'Yes, with August Scheffer--the only one I know of.'
+
+'But you never _can_ know the struggle he passed through; it was
+terrible. You call him a philosopher; he is so, because he found out
+early how to fight the good fight. Nothing will ever look so alluring to
+him as the career he might have had by choosing the thing he did not
+choose.' Ceasing to speak aloud and to Paul, Josephine added, in a voice
+no one could hear: 'I was in the midst of that struggle; I understand
+him as no one else does. And--he knows it.'
+
+'Tell me about it,' said Paul. 'You don't know how much I admire
+Scheffer.'
+
+'Well you may,' she answered; 'but there is nothing to tell. He had the
+opportunity to keep at school, or to go into his uncle's shop--and he
+chose the shop on his mother's account.'
+
+'And I chose a profession on _my_ mother's account,' said Paul bitterly.
+
+Josephine laid her hand on his; it was a gentle touch, but it recalled
+him.
+
+'The best choice in both cases,' said she. 'Any one can see you are not
+expert enough to make a successful trader. Ask August if a man must not
+have a talent for trade, just as an artist must have a genius for
+painting.'
+
+'Then you think August a born trader?'
+
+'I know he can do more than one thing well,' she answered.
+
+'If you think so well of August,' said he, 'I don't see how you _can_
+think better of another fellow. The town couldn't contain him if he
+heard what you said just now.'
+
+Josephine turned a page of her book.
+
+'He knows perfectly well what I think of him, Paul.'
+
+The very frankness of her words and manner misled the boy. The curious
+suspicion that for a moment had beset him fled fast before his laughter.
+
+She went on reading--seemed to do so. But an image for which the writer
+of that book was not responsible stood, all the while, clear and
+immovable in her memory. Before her, in a rude shed, were a boy and a
+girl. The girl had a basket in her hand, filled with chips, which she
+had raked from the sawdust; the boy was offering her assistance; but he
+knew well enough there was no wood to be sawn or split. It was growing
+dark and cold within the house, and still more dismal without it. The
+hearts of these two are warmer than their hands.
+
+'I've done it,' said the boy. 'I brought my books home last night,
+Josey, and I'm going to my uncle in the morning.'
+
+'What did he say?'
+
+'He wouldn't say a word. It was my choice, and I must stand by it,' he
+answered. 'It's for my mother! If I had only you, and was working for
+you, I would take the other track. But, you see, it is for her; and I'm
+her only son.'
+
+'You will be August Scheffer, whatever you may do,' she said, in a soft,
+sweet voice.
+
+--And did August Scheffer ever stand for less among powers and places,
+than when, in the darkening wood shed, he spoke these words:
+
+'But, Josey, will things always be the same with us?'
+
+--Things had changed, indeed. The whole world had changed since then.
+Had the changing world rolled in between them? Since then the widow
+Mitchell had worked her way out of the worst of her distresses.
+Josephine had become a beautiful woman. Paul was striding on toward a
+profession. The family had removed to one of those box-like dwellings
+opposite the college grounds, and the fair face of Mrs. Mitchell's
+daughter was the theme of many a student's dreaming--of Harry
+Cromwell's, most conspicuous among students--of his dreaming, day and
+night. It was his book she held.
+
+
+III.
+
+It happened, of course, that Paul dropped into Scheffer's shop the next
+day. August was on the lookout, and conducted him forthwith into a quiet
+corner. The books were there delivered, but the package remained
+unopened. Scheffer had his reasons. He wanted leisure to examine
+them--above all, privacy. He also saw, or thought he saw, that Paul was
+in haste to be gone; and there was something on his mind of which he
+desired to be free.
+
+Paul was only disturbed about a proposal he wished to make to Scheffer.
+
+He was electrified when Scheffer himself broached the subject, and
+transacted it half, at a stroke, though all unconsciously, by asking:
+
+'What has become of Hal Cromwell? He took so many prizes last year.'
+
+Paul's eyes brightened strangely, his whole countenance became luminous.
+Scheffer surveyed the change as if it were not half agreeable to him.
+'Harry is here yet, but he won't be long. That's a secret, though. He's
+going to France. Guess how.'
+
+'In a balloon, I suppose. He hasn't any money.'
+
+'No,' said Paul, half offended at the tone in which this was spoken.
+'He's going to work his passage. He's one of the fellows who can do
+without money.'
+
+'Indeed!' said Scheffer.
+
+Paul went on: 'He hasn't more than twenty dollars. He sold all his
+prizes long ago.'
+
+'Is he going to travel?' asked Scheffer, quietly.
+
+'Travel! no. Not yet awhile, I mean. He's mad, just now, on minerals and
+geology. He's going to school in Paris, where he can learn all about
+such things. Then he's going to hunt up specimens for cabinets; then
+he'll be sending curiosities over here by the ship load. If any one
+wanted to speculate, he'd pay an enormous interest on the money lent
+him. But catch him asking the loan of a threepenny bit of any man! You
+know him.'
+
+'Yes,' he said; 'we've had many a rough day together. About the time his
+father got into trouble, my father did more than one good turn for him.
+But that's neither here nor there.'
+
+'Yes, it is,' said Paul, quickly; 'if your father helped his father,
+it's a token that you will help him.'
+
+Scheffer was not so clear on that point: his reply might have chilled
+Paul's enthusiasm, could anything have done that.
+
+'I can tell you what, Mitchell,' he said, 'I don't wonder at Cromwell,
+and I don't blame him. I believe it's better to go hungry on your own
+earnings than full fed at another man's expense. One can starve at home
+with a better grace than he can among strangers. That's my mind. It
+mayn't be his.'
+
+'It's mine, though,' said Paul. 'If I had the money--if I had a hundred
+dollars, I should insist on his taking them. I wish my mother had put me
+to a trade: it's all nonsense, this slaving for the sake of
+position--what you call it.'
+
+'Don't talk so,' said Scheffer. 'If Harry Cromwell wants anything of me,
+I should be ashamed of him if he wouldn't ask it. As to wishing that you
+had a trade, if there's a mechanical turn in you, you'll twist into it
+yet. But I don't believe there is. Go on as you have begun. It will all
+come out right.'
+
+Paul scanned the fine face of the speaker in a spirit of inquiry
+unguessed of August. He was thinking of Josephine, and of her words.
+Then he said, 'So you always say. But I can't see it. If I could, then
+I'd be a philosopher like you. Do you mean I should speak to Harry?'
+
+Scheffer hesitated.
+
+'I see him every day,' said he. 'Sometimes he comes in here. Don't you
+think he would be better pleased if it should happen of itself, you
+know--not as if we had talked over his affairs. He is such a proud
+fellow.'
+
+Paul readily acceded to this plan. He told Josephine what he had done,
+and she worked on with a lighter heart. She was thinking of Scheffer.
+How slowly he had grown up into her sight again! Man and woman, if they
+looked at each other now, must it be across a great gulf? What had
+education done for her! Could she thank the teaching that had brought
+her to see in her womanhood something beyond the reach of a man like
+Scheffer? Could she thank the culture that gave her a position for which
+nature and habits like his were all unfit? This maturity seemed
+unnatural to the heart of that remembered childhood, which, in its
+brave, loving generosity, could trust a boy to any work or station,
+feeling that in the workman would be securely lodged himself.
+
+Even more than she suspected, Josephine had been moved by the secret
+Paul had confided to her--of Scheffer's new ambition. No new ambition
+was it, she could testify. In the fulness of time the bud had come to
+flower, and on the same stem fair fruits were ripening.
+
+And now, it was he who would relieve her of the anxiety she felt on
+Cromwell's behalf. She kept these things in her heart.
+
+
+IV.
+
+Cromwell strolled into Scheffer's shop within the week. When Scheffer
+saw him coming, he satisfied himself at a glance that the visit was an
+unsuggested one.
+
+There was only one other person in the world whose appearance within his
+doors could so much disturb the master of the place as Harry Cromwell's.
+That one was Josephine. Let _her_ but come, and it was a day indeed.
+
+But the disturbance created by her presence was very different from that
+excited by the entrance of this student. He, inadvertently, or
+otherwise, and it mattered not which, set Scheffer's heart into such a
+fume of jealousy, as perhaps the heart of philosopher never knew before.
+For, it was generally supposed among those who were interested in the
+affairs transacted on the point of space occupied by these people, that
+Cromwell's ambition was less undefined than that of young men generally.
+In short, that he was already, though alone in the world, burdened in
+mind with family cares--looking upon himself, even then, as the oldest
+son of the widow Mitchell.
+
+He had said frankly, that he could not afford to give so much of his
+life to preparatory study as would be required if he chose any one of
+the professions open to him. He must go to work in some direction where
+the rewards of labor were sooner obtained.
+
+When Cromwell came into the shop, August advanced to wait upon him.
+Cromwell was in a cheerful mood. He stretched his hand across the
+counter, and shook hands with his old acquaintance, as if he were
+thinking of days when the little white house of Daniel Scheffer stood
+between two cottages, occupied respectively by families of equal poverty
+and condition--the Cromwells and the Mitchells.
+
+It wasn't often that they met in these days, he said; and he looked
+about him with a sort of surprise not disagreeable to Scheffer, for
+there was nothing offensive in it. Scheffer was always ready to make
+allowance for the little vanities and weaknesses of others. He was not
+surprised that Cromwell, handsome as he was, and brilliant
+intellectually, as he was proving himself to be, should overlook old
+times and old friends. Present times, and cares, and neighbors, would,
+of course, engage him to the neglect of what was past and gone.
+
+'Prospering as usual!' said Harry, 'How do you manage it, August? for I
+am going to launch out into the world, and I can't expect to succeed
+more suddenly than you have.'
+
+August answered, taking the praise as if it were well meant, and he knew
+it was well earned:
+
+'By sticking to a thing, when I have made up my mind it is best. It's
+the only way I know of, Harry. I thought, from all I had heard, that you
+had found that out.'
+
+'Don't trust report. I've done little yet to satisfy a man; got a few
+prizes; what do you suppose I care for them?'
+
+'You care for what they mean to other folks,' said Scheffer.
+
+'Not much, I assure you. A little praise, like music, is pleasant. But a
+man can't live on sound. Show me your seven-league boots, Scheffer; I'm
+going to take a stroll around the world.'
+
+'What do you mean?' asked Scheffer, without moving.
+
+'I'm going over the ocean.'
+
+'India rubber soles?' asked Scheffer, again speaking in his quietest
+manner, but really feeling great excitement.
+
+Cromwell laughed. 'I suppose they have iron-bound boots, even in Paris;
+but I thought I'd like to take something out of your shop with me;
+something of your own make, if possible. Do you know, Scheffer, you've
+had more to do with me, a vast deal, than you ever supposed? I've had
+the feeling that you were watching me as often as ever I got into lazy
+ways, just as if you stood by that window and searched me out across the
+grounds, no matter where I was lurking. I shall take my time when I am
+well rid of you. But I'll have the boots for a token; and when I am
+tired and sick of my work, as I shall be a hundred times, I'll pretend
+that you put some magic into the soles. Give them to me with a strong
+squeak.'
+
+Cromwell laughed, but he was at least two thirds in earnest.
+
+Still August did not stir. 'Are you really going away?' he asked.
+
+'If I'm a live man, next week.'
+
+'Going to France?'
+
+'To France. To Paris for one year. In five years I shall be home again,
+and I mean to bring with me two or three cabinets of minerals, worth
+thousands of dollars apiece.'
+
+Cromwell's eyes flashed; they fell on Scheffer, who stood silent,
+motionless, a cold shiver running over him from his head to his feet.
+
+'What, then, brave fellow?' asked August. It was well to know the worst,
+and Harry seemed to be in a communicative mood.
+
+'Why, what are _you_ working for?'
+
+'Because I've nothing else to do,' said Scheffer, with a shrug. 'I hate
+to be idle.'
+
+'No; you are making your fortune; you'll have a house and a family some
+day. It's written, a hundred girls would think the chance beyond their
+desert; or they _might_ think so.'
+
+'Yes; well--I don't want a hundred girls.'
+
+'Nor one, I suppose.'
+
+Behind this idle talk the gravest and sharpest scrutiny was bestowed by
+each man on his fellow. Both were thinking of Josephine, but neither
+would name her.
+
+'You're a philosopher, Paul says,' continued Cromwell. 'Paul is always
+talking about you. I don't like to leave that boy; but knowing that you
+are his friend should make me comfortable. Beside, I couldn't do
+anything for the lad, if he stood in need of a ten-penny bit.'
+
+Cromwell laughed, but not in recklessness--in pride.
+
+'How can you afford to travel, then?' asked Scheffer.
+
+'Oh, I shall go as some other good fellows have gone--on foot; for I
+shall work my passage, and get somehow from Havre to Paris.'
+
+'What next?'
+
+'Hard work, you know.'
+
+'Yes; I know what hard work means. But do you? Such hard work as this
+will be?'
+
+'Do you take me for a dunce? Of course I know; and I shall tell you how
+I did it, five years from now.'
+
+Then Scheffer said, not hesitating--for anything like a doubtfulness of
+manner on his part would have defeated his design:
+
+'I want to invest some money, Harry. Take a couple of hundred for me,
+and buy some of the specimens; or find them, if you like that better.
+You shall sell them, when you get back, and pay me a percentage,
+whatever you can afford.'
+
+There was no delay in the answer. It had all the readiness, and the
+sound, of sincerity.
+
+'Sooner from you, August, than from any other man; but not from any man.
+I should feel that I was mortgaged. I must begin my own master, as I
+told Josephine Mitchell. What I bring to her shall be fruit from the
+tree of my own planting.'
+
+August, for a moment, was like a man struck dumb; but when he spoke, he
+was the philosopher again.
+
+'That's all foolishness,' he said, in a gentle voice; but there was no
+tenderness in it: it was but the firmness of self-control that made the
+voice so mild, and the expostulation, so deliberate. 'It's like using an
+old tool, when you have a new invention that would save half the labor.
+You'd laugh at a man for that.'
+
+'Laugh away! But I must go out my own man, Scheffer. You'd do the same
+thing. Don't talk about it. Have you any of those boots I asked for?'
+
+Scheffer found a pair. He named the price. Cromwell paid for them, and
+shook his hand when they separated; for, in the press of business, he
+said, it might be he should not find time to call on his old friend
+again.
+
+The young men did not meet again. But a fortnight after Cromwell sailed,
+Scheffer was called upon to pay a note at the bank; a note that bore his
+own signature, and stated that, for 'value received, I promise to pay to
+the order of Henry Cromwell, four hundred dollars.'
+
+The demand was made in such a manner, and at such a time, as to vex
+Scheffer to the utmost.
+
+Cromwell, it seemed, could not consent to accept a favor at his hands;
+yet he could condescend to make that manner of use of him! He paid the
+sum due on the note, but at the same time was beset by a sore
+temptation.
+
+This was the temptation, and this his resistance: If Harry had gone,
+leaving anywhere, in any woman's heart, a hope in him, should he not
+dispel it? Should he not convince her that it rested on a foundation
+looser than the sand? He did not do so! When Paul spoke now and then of
+Cromwell, and prophesied proudly of him, August took the words as an
+echo of Josephine's thought, and said to himself:
+
+'Oh! well; it makes no difference.'
+
+But, for all that, he kept on with his studies, and sometimes on Sunday
+would walk past the college grounds on Monumental square; for that was
+also walking past the cottage occupied by Josephine.
+
+
+V.
+
+The college, in those days, could have produced no student more
+industrious than August.
+
+He advanced with rapid strides through the elementary books, for he
+chose to begin at the beginning, and he was proud of his progress. But
+he kept his studies secret. He would risk nothing by reporting his own
+progress. No man should honor his future to the prejudice of his past.
+The story of Minerva, born to the prerogatives of wisdom, was more
+attractive to him than that life which '_grew_ in grace, and in favor
+with God and man.'
+
+He had no plans in reference to future studies. His tutor was fairly
+puzzled; for he was not long in discovering that it was not the delight
+of knowledge, but the ends which knowledge may serve, that prompted to
+such industry.
+
+One evening Paul threw himself on one of the red-plush sofas Scheffer
+had transferred to his private apartment. He was in one of those serious
+moods that had become frequent since Cromwell went away; or, rather,
+since he had come into this near relation with a working and prosperous
+man.
+
+'It's easy enough to be poor for one's self,' said the anxious
+youngster; 'but whether one _ought_ to be poor, when money is to be
+honestly made, and at only a trifling risk, though by desperate hard
+work--that's the question.'
+
+'H'm!' said Scheffer.
+
+'Well,' said Paul, irritated by his seeming indifference, 'a fellow is
+in a deuced bad plight, if he has to plead poverty, when he ought to be
+able to help one or two beside himself! I envy you, Scheffer. I envy you
+every time I come here. You can do so much! You could leap all the
+college gates in no time, if you were fool enough to try.'
+
+'I'm not,' said Scheffer. 'I know I can't work with many irons in the
+fire--never could. And I've nothing to complain of. I'm prospering, as
+you say. That's the chief thing, I suppose. Folks seem to think so. I'm
+one of the million; I must do as the rest--build a house, and marry a
+wife some day. But not till I can support her like a lady, I tell you,
+Paul.'
+
+There was the difference of many years between the man and the boy, but
+to no other person was Scheffer in the habit of saying such things.
+
+'I'd like to see Madam Scheffer,' said Paul, with a quiet laugh.
+Scheffer was indulgent toward that mirth; he smiled as he said:
+
+'Be patient, as I am, and you shall see her. There was a Mrs. Scheffer
+once--my mother that was; if there's another like her--I believe there
+is!'
+
+'Can't you draw me her portrait?'
+
+'Perhaps I could, if I cared.'
+
+'But you don't care. Well, I can get it out of Josephine; she remembers
+your mother.'
+
+Paul looked so much like his sister when he named the name of Josephine
+and of his mother in one breath, that Scheffer could not refuse him.
+
+'Medium size,' he said, 'and built to last. Graceful, as any mother
+would have been--if--as she was, in spite of hard work--it was her
+nature, and her nature was a strong one. She has light hair, that curls
+as if it liked to, and her eyes are blue. It is a fair face, Paul, and
+she has a kind smile.'
+
+'But tell me her name; for you need not say it's a fancy sketch.'
+
+'May be not; but that, you see, is my secret.'
+
+There was no such thing, in reality, as intruding further on this
+ground. Still, half embarrassed, Mitchell persisted:
+
+'Where is she, though?'
+
+'Where? I can't tell that.'
+
+'With Cromwell?'
+
+'It may be.'
+
+'Would you trust her with him?'
+
+'Is he not to be trusted?' asked August, so quickly as to startle Paul.
+
+If Paul was to be startled--but he was not. The teller in the bank had
+told him--(Paul was one of those persons with whom acquaintances of
+every quality lodge their secrets)--of the note Scheffer had taken up
+with so little fuss and so much amazement. He saw that August for a
+moment suspected that he knew the facts, but he was not yet prepared to
+confess such knowledge; for he knew as well as Scheffer what Harry
+Cromwell was to Josephine. So he answered:
+
+'I should say so, August--if any man on earth could be.'
+
+'So I supposed,' said Scheffer, quietly; and Paul hurried back to the
+old queer topic, and said, half in jest: 'You mean to keep house,
+Scheffer, I'll be bound.'
+
+Scheffer's dark face brightened; he would share with Paul his pleasant
+dream--the pleasant dream he cherished, though his sober sense denied
+its possibility, and his consistent realism charged upon him the special
+folly of fools.
+
+'Aye,' said he; 'there'll be a library in it--but more select than that
+of the Atheneum you were wishing for! You shall have the freedom of my
+house, lad--I'll not forget how kind you've been to me. I shall have a
+flower garden, and a yard deep enough for shade trees like those--but
+you don't remember the place.'
+
+Scheffer got up and walked away to the window.
+
+'I've not the slightest doubt that you'll do everything you say! I vow I
+wouldn't like to be the man to stand in your way to anything.'
+
+Scheffer came back, and sat on the sofa beside Paul. His voice had an
+almost fatherly tenderness in it when he began to speak, and it took no
+colder tone.
+
+'You were saying something about an improvement you could suggest in
+some of the tools we use. Here they are. What did you mean?' He pulled
+out a box from underneath the sofa.
+
+Paul took the box, and looked over its contents; but it was easy to see
+that he was in search of nothing. He was soon through his investigation,
+and restored the box to its place. Then he looked at Scheffer, and
+laughed.
+
+But Scheffer answered the look by one that seemed to say that he
+expected an explanation; whereupon Paul, now grave enough, stirred by a
+sudden confidence, pulled from his pocket a box much smaller than that
+which held August's tools, and passed it into his friend's hands.
+Scheffer took it, but he did not attempt to loosen the cord that secured
+the cover. Then Paul said:
+
+'You do not really suppose that I am the only idle person in the world.
+I have been at work longer than Josephine, though you might not believe
+it; but what I have done, no one has yet seen. If I had the money,
+Scheffer! I'd--well--look at the thing! I want you should study it, of
+course.'
+
+August, however, was in no haste. He was more desirous to learn the
+meaning of what Paul had said about Josephine. But that could not be
+asked by him; and so he unfastened the cord, opened the box, and beheld
+within a miniature machine, whose meaning no one in the world, Paul
+Mitchell excepted, could explain. That was Paul's thought of pride.
+
+'That's _my_ secret,' said he. 'That's my beauty! and I'd build a house
+for it, if I had the money, to be sure, as you are going to do for
+yours. How do you like it?'
+
+'Explain; then I can tell you.' It was still the father-voice that
+spoke; but the tone was that of a man whose son has forestalled hope,
+and justified the most vague of ambitious wishes.
+
+'That, Scheffer, is a contrivance for printing. Will you please to
+examine it? It's to be used henceforth, for all time, understand! by
+bankers in their banks, and by all men of great business. See--'
+
+He arose, and brought near to the sofa a small table, on which he placed
+the machine. Then he set it in motion. 'For numbering notes, and so on.
+Does it work, August?'
+
+Scheffer, though admiring and amazed, said not a word, but sat down
+before the machine, and studied it in every part.
+
+His judgment was satisfied when at last he gave it.
+
+'It's worth money to you, Mitchell.'
+
+'Do you believe it, Scheffer? Worth money. Oh, my goodness!'
+
+'Paul, you expected that.'
+
+'I knew it; but to hear you say so, makes me feel like a man. Then I
+shall do for my mother what you did for yours, and get Josephine out of
+that school-teaching freak of hers. She has actually gone and done it,
+Scheffer.... Worth money, eh? Then I shall do some things as well as
+others, Mr. Scheffer.'
+
+Scheffer smiled. He understood this exultation too well not to share it
+and to be deeply moved by it.
+
+'I suppose so,' said he. 'I always believed in you.'
+
+'Well, then, look here.'
+
+Paul's voice broke; he looked on the floor, and was a long time in
+producing the second box. When he had fairly drawn it forth, he gave a
+sudden and wonderful look at Scheffer, that penetrated like fire to the
+heart of the man.
+
+'There,' said he, 'that's my pet. That's the Rachel of this Jacob. Look
+close, and see what you'll do with it, supposing you turn lockpick some
+day.'
+
+It was a veritable lock. He drew out a chain of keys, a hundred of
+them.
+
+'Now,' said he, in a low voice, 'you may ransack the town, as I've done,
+and get all your keys together. I want to see if you can find one, or
+contrive one with any locksmith's help, that will fit into that lock.
+I'll give you a month to try it. I'd give another man six. But you'll do
+the work of six in a sixth of the time. It's a lock on a new principle,
+and the principle is mine, because I applied it first. Eh? Hang it! If I
+had the money I wouldn't be so beggarly poor as I am. But I've had to
+beg and borrow, and almost steal, to get these things, that were in my
+brain, into a decent shape, as you see them. When I get started,
+Scheffer, you shall inspect all my inventions.'
+
+'Then you are started,' said August. 'Don't say that again, I'd mortgage
+my stock but you should have what you need to help you. Have you any
+tools to work with, my son?'
+
+'Oh, yes; that is, my neighbor has. He keeps a carpenter's shop, you
+know. I'm a capital hand at borrowing.'
+
+'Have you got a room at home where you can work?'
+
+'Acres of room! You've seen the house.'
+
+'I've walked past it sometimes,' answered Scheffer, with a smile.
+
+'Well, it isn't such a mite of a place as you'd think. There's room
+enough.'
+
+'It looks pretty and snug. I have often admired those flower beds; the
+place don't look much like others in the same row: one might know that.
+Paul, I've seen the time when I'd thought the man who offered me help
+was an angel. I'm older than you are. Of course you must experiment, and
+where's the merit of carrying plans about in your head a dozen years,
+waiting a chance to prove whether they're worth anything or not? Tell me
+now, do you want any money?'
+
+'No,' Paul answered quickly, yet with inward hesitation. 'I'll come to
+you, though,' he added, 'when I do. I'll let you know the very day. But
+I I have something to study out yet. I'm going to get patents, you
+know.'
+
+
+VI.
+
+Paul returned home, and in a musing mood seated himself under the
+grapevine that grew on the brick wall in the rear of the cottage, the
+sole ornament and pride of the narrow yard. He may have been here an
+hour, when he heard strange noises in the house, then a heavy closing of
+the street door, and the voice of Josephine calling him. In the lobby
+stood an open iron-bound chest. A glance at the box explained it to
+Paul; but he said nothing--not a word--in explanation to Josephine or
+his mother, who stood expressing surprise and wonder, while he found the
+key and opened the heavy lid. They saw it was a tool chest.
+
+Paul was the first to speak; for when he exhibited the contents, a
+deeper silence seemed to fall upon the women.
+
+'It's no mistake,' he said to his mother. 'This belongs to August
+Scheffer. He has lent it to me. Isn't it kind of him? For I told him I
+had to borrow when I worked.'
+
+'No,' said Paul's mother. 'It's anything but kind. You could waste time
+enough in such doings, Paul, without getting a tempter into the house.
+What do you want of tools? Do you get along with your books so fast you
+don't know what to do with your time? August Scheffer is just like his
+father, he never, as long as he lived, found out the use of money; if he
+had, his wife wouldn't have been left a beggar.'
+
+'And August would never have been himself,' said Paul. 'That would have
+been a pity.'
+
+'No,' said Josephine; 'he would always have been himself.'
+
+'Don't talk like a simpleton, child. You are old enough to see that
+August might have been a very different man from what he is, if his
+father before him hadn't always this same ridiculous way of throwing the
+money he earned about like dust.'
+
+'Well, mother--' began Paul: he hesitated, but a glance at Josephine
+decided him. 'I can tell you that if Harry Cromwell comes to any good,
+you and every one else will have to thank Scheffer for it.'
+
+Josephine looked at Paul with serious, curious interest; but he saw that
+she was not greatly excited by what he had said. He looked at his
+mother, and resolved to say no more. And by that resolution he would
+have held, but for his mother's words.
+
+'We shall never hear the end of that,' said she. 'Scheffer's father
+signed for Oliver Cromwell; but what of that? he lost his money. Better
+men have done as much for worse; but I don't know that it deserved to be
+talked of to all generations.'
+
+'It was a generous act,' said Paul. 'But August has beat his father at
+that, I can tell you, if you want to hear.'
+
+'Some slander, I suppose,' said the mother. 'I suppose every young man
+within fifty miles is jealous of Harry; it's well he has gone far enough
+to get rid of it all.'
+
+'Well, mother, keep your good opinion of him. It isn't from Scheffer I
+heard it. You don't want to know what a noble fellow he is;' and he
+wound up with August's frequent saying, 'it makes no difference.'
+
+'I want to hear what you are going to do with this box, though,' said
+Mrs. Mitchell. 'There's not a room in the house big enough to hold it.'
+
+Paul plead for a corner of his own room; a startling proposal, indeed,
+for those who heard it, the 'room' being hardly an apology for a closet.
+He pleads well, however, for he carried the point, and space was in some
+way provided; and Mrs. Mitchell, who had hopes of a future for her
+children that should throw a glory round their unfolding and her closing
+years, heard the boy say, with, some sort of faith: 'Oh, mother, you
+don't know yet what a genius you've got in your boy;' and when she left
+him he was still laughing over the boast. But Josephine saw that as he
+stooped over the chest there were tears in his eyes.
+
+For that reason she did not leave him to rejoice alone over his
+treasure. And for the reason that she did not leave him, he said to her,
+observing with what interest she took up one bright tool after another
+from its place:
+
+'Scheffer has bought this box for me. You see, don't you, the tools were
+never used before? Not one of them.'
+
+'Yes,' said Josephine, 'that's easy to be seen.'
+
+'I must keep them and use them, I suppose!'
+
+'You intend to do it, Paul. Are you trying to deceive me? Do you suppose
+I don't know that of course he had a reason for sending them to you!
+People are not in the habit of sending such things to boys who don't
+know how to use them.'
+
+'But, Josephine, I shall pay him for them.'
+
+'Yes, or else I shall, Paul. But let him enjoy the gift; for I know how
+it pleased him to send it.'
+
+'And I won't serve him as another fellow did, too proud to accept a
+favor of him till he should get beyond sight and sound, so stingy of his
+thanks. That's what your Cromwell did! I hate the hateful fellow.'
+
+'My Cromwell? Did he that?' But Josephine neither swooned, nor cried,
+nor blushed; was not overwhelmed with shame, nor indignation, nor
+distress. Some such exhibition, that should be as a confession, Paul had
+looked for, trembling, when the daring deed was done, of exposing a
+lover's baseness to the woman he loved.
+
+'Yes,' said Paul, cooled somewhat by his sister's calmness. 'I knew I
+ought to let you know. But I thought I never could. He wouldn't take the
+money August offered him, but he got it from the bank, on a forged
+note.'
+
+'Paul!' exclaimed Josephine. The lad looked again at his sister; but he
+now saw through her horrified surprise; there was really no danger in
+continuing this revelation; elated, he went on:
+
+'Forged and paid! so the young fellow told me. That's not Scheffer,
+understand. _He_ don't know that I have got wind of it; he thinks it is
+safe with him; and you never would have known anything but for me!
+August thinks too much of you, I've found that out, to tell you, or me
+either, that Cromwell is a scamp.'
+
+'What have I to do with all this, Paul?' asked his sister, with a
+well-assumed indifference. She had time now to consider whether she had
+not betrayed too much interest in the affairs of these young men, the
+scientific forger and the man of trade.
+
+'Why,' answered Paul, with no less composure, inwardly rejoicing in what
+he considered his triumph, 'you have to make the best of it, I
+suppose--satisfy mother--marry Cromwell when he comes back, rich as
+Croesus, with ship-loads of treasure. That's what the handsome girls are
+for, to marry off to rich men, isn't it?'
+
+Paul had had his say, but that was his only consolation. Whatever answer
+Josephine might have made was prevented by the voice of her mother
+calling from the foot of the stairs. Yet he chose to consider that
+sufficient confession, in regard to some of his suspicions, was given in
+her words as she went down; though what she said was merely,
+
+'Paul, if you don't join the detectives, you'll fail of your mission.'
+
+
+VII.
+
+Scheffer's uniform good luck took a sudden turn one day. The fine row of
+buildings that faced the college grounds took fire one morning, and his
+shop was burned with the rest. He saved but little of his stock, and it
+was but recently that he had greatly added to it. His loss was a severe
+one.
+
+Toward nightfall of that day, Paul looked for Scheffer, and found him in
+a room to which he had removed the remnants of his goods. He was alone
+there, and trying to come to an understanding with himself, singing
+meanwhile, but, it must be said, in not the most straightforward and
+perfectly musical manner.
+
+Paul came expressly deputed by his mother to bring Scheffer home to tea
+with him. The news of his disaster had set August before her in a
+different light from that in which he had stood in the days of his
+vulgar prosperity. Calamity restored him to his place again--the son of
+an old neighbor, the son of a good woman--one of the heirs of
+misfortune: and who might not have expected this event, that knew in
+August's veins the Scheffer blood was flowing? Yes; the mother of
+Josephine was this day disposed to compassion, helped, may be, to that
+gentleness by the letter she had recently received from Cromwell, in
+which he detailed his successes in a manner that made the heart of the
+prophetess to rejoice.
+
+Scheffer hesitated for a moment, only one, over that invitation. But he
+did hesitate. And Paul, the lynx-eyed, saw it. Scheffer might invent
+whatever excuse seemed best to his own kindliness of heart: Paul was
+convinced that his friend felt no confidence in the impulse that had
+obtained for him an open door in the house that he had seen, in spite of
+Josephine's friendliness, was closed on him all these years.
+
+Paul did not urge the invitation. Instead, he produced a purse--sole
+purse of the house of Mitchell, that had not, in a generation, held as
+many bank notes as this now contained. He put this purse into Scheffer's
+hands, and said, moving back from him a pace:
+
+'That is yours. I knew you fibbed about the tool chest. You had no use
+for it. So we have bought it. Look if I have counted the money right. I
+knew you would never tell me the truth about the cost, so I've been to
+the maker, and asked him a civil question. No dodging, Mr. Scheffer.'
+
+Mr. Scheffer did not 'dodge.' He emptied the purse, counted the bills,
+put them into his own leather pocket-book; then he handed the purse to
+Paul.
+
+Paul did not expect this. It was plain that he did not. He thought that
+Scheffer would have 'stood' against receiving the payment for his gift.
+He had said so to Josephine; but Josephine had replied, 'You are
+mistaken, Paul. You don't know him, after all. But, if you _are_ right,
+insist on his taking the money. Do not go too far, however. If he should
+seem to be offended, bring it back to me, and I will attend to it.'
+
+_Was_ he offended? Paul was in doubt. The doubt made him desperate, and
+he exclaimed:
+
+'I meant that for a present. Josephine worked it.'
+
+Scheffer's eye fell on the light and pretty trifle; a change came over
+him. He would have struggled hard and long before he would have
+surrendered that little tissue of floss, but now less than vanity to
+him. 'Josephine worked it.' What are words?
+
+'I suppose,' he began; but he did not conclude what he had on his
+tongue; he did _not_ say to Paul that he supposed it was Josephine's
+money too--her earnings--that paid for the chest.
+
+There came an awkward silence into the confused and dismal room.
+Scheffer stood among his ruins, not like a ruined man: he could not
+talk, however. He could say nothing whatever in continuance, about the
+fire. It was never his habit to boast; as little his practice to lament.
+
+'Paul,' he said at last, resuming his dismal endeavor to arrange and
+assort the chaotic remnant of his goods, 'I got your box under weigh
+last night. There's a friend of mine going to see it; and you needn't be
+worrying on account of this--this fire; for I shall have money enough to
+push your business pretty soon; and there are two good fellows standing
+ready to buy your rights to the patent in this State, on your own terms,
+I guess, if you are tolerably reasonable. You can have five thousand
+dollars, if you will be easy with them about the payments. They are as
+safe as the best in town. I settled all that last night. All you have to
+do is to come to an agreement.'
+
+Paul's heart beat as fast as any young man's heart beats when the result
+of secret toil, of wakeful nights, and patient endurance of home
+misconception, is before him in the form of honorable success. But
+instead of thanks, these words escaped him in a tumult:
+
+'Scheffer, have you heard the news from Cromwell?'
+
+Scheffer considered ere he answered; he was puzzled, looking at Paul,
+such a contradiction and confusion of signs he read in the lad's face.
+
+'I heard that your family had great tidings from him,' he answered
+finally.
+
+'He is dead!'
+
+'Poor Josephine!'
+
+What was it that brought so low the head of the man who had stood all
+day bravely erect, enduring the condolence of people, sustaining himself
+in the shock of integrity? Scheffer sat down when he heard this news,
+and wept.
+
+And Paul wept with him. There, in that chamber of ruins, they deplored
+the loss of the proud, ambitious, brilliant, and dishonest wordling, who
+had long ago gone out of _their_ world with a lie on his soul.
+
+Then Paul produced the foreign letter he had brought with him from the
+mail, as he came in his search for Scheffer. The letter he read aloud.
+It was written by one of Harry's fellow students, his companion in that
+notable journey Cromwell made to the Ural, and the Zavods of Siberia. He
+had returned to Paris, and thence had written of his various successes
+to his friends: they knew it was his purpose to sail at once for
+Alexandria. His preparations, wrote this correspondent, were complete;
+but, on the day when the vessel sailed, he died--sickened and died in
+one morning; his disease was of the heart.
+
+'Poor Josephine!' groaned August again; this time his pity had comment.
+
+'It's awful!' said Paul. 'Josephine cried when she heard of your
+misfortune. She won't do more when she sees this letter.' Paul was
+entirely reckless of consequences. He was determined Scheffer's fire
+should serve a private purpose of illumination, 'It is so rare a thing,
+her crying,' he continued, 'I should have thought the fire would have
+been put out by it.'
+
+Scheffer's tears ceased falling. But he spoke in a low voice, somewhat
+broken, too:
+
+'It's enough to wipe out _my_ regrets. If she cared that much, I don't
+consider it a misfortune. Tell her so, Paul.'
+
+'I will, after you have told her yourself, Scheffer,' said Paul. Then
+casting all their fortunes on a word, speaking hurriedly, impetuously,
+driven on by admiration and gratitude toward Scheffer, and a
+determination to end all misunderstandings at once and forever, he
+continued: 'I found it all out, myself, without prying. The young fellow
+in the bank told me. I knew that you never would. It made me love you,
+that did. I told Josephine, but not till I thought I might safely. He
+didn't get that money from the bank till Josephine had told him she
+could not promise herself to him before he went away. Poor fellow! It
+made him mad, I think.'
+
+'Paul,' said Scheffer, with reproof, and yet the mildest, in his voice,
+'he is dead. That was an ugly twist, but it wasn't his nature to grow in
+a crooked fashion. Harry will come out straight yet. He is in better
+circumstances now than ever before. I could forgive a man for worse
+things than he had the wit to do, if he loved Josephine.'
+
+'There! I'm glad we are back on that ground! I hate mysteries,'
+exclaimed Paul.
+
+'Except in locks,' said Scheffer.
+
+'Why _wouldn't_ she promise Harry? It is what mother expected. And I was
+fool enough to wonder. You are wiser than we; so tell me, Scheffer, did
+anything ever happen in old times that binds her yet? Do you suppose she
+ever loved a lad when she was a child?'
+
+'I know she did,' said Scheffer, looking not away from Paul, neither
+busying himself any longer with the endeavor to bring order out of
+chaos. 'I know she did.'
+
+Then Paul laughed again, as he had not laughed in many a day; but it was
+laughter that did not jar the silence of the room--such laughter as
+formed a fit prelude for words like these:
+
+'Find out if the lad is alive yet. There is a piece of business worthy
+of Scheffer himself! I'm tired of hunting out secrets. Promise me,
+August--promise before you leave this room--before you breathe again.'
+
+Scheffer did.
+
+Mrs. Mitchell waited tea that evening for at least an hour. Josephine
+was sure that if August could be found, Paul would bring him home. At
+last they came. Home at last! The darkness might besiege the house, it
+could not enter the hearts there; rain might fall on Scheffer's ruins,
+it could not prevent the rising of the Phoenix. Not recognized
+altogether as the household's eldest son, he stood under the roof of the
+little house on Cottage Row. But enough! he was satisfied: he saw two
+women smiling on him--one from her heart. And from the circle that night
+Paul, triumphant and joyful, excluded the vision of death.
+
+
+
+
+LAS ORACIONES.
+
+  I moved among the moving multitude
+  In old Manila, when the afternoon
+  Releases labor, and the scorching skies
+  Are tempered with the coming on of night.
+  Above the 'ever loyal city,' rose
+  The surging sound of unloosed tongues and feet,
+  As the encompassed town and suburbs vast,
+  The boated river and the sentinelled bridge
+  Swarmed, parti-colored, with the populace.
+  The sovereign sun, that through the toilsome day
+  No eye had seen for brightness, now subdued,
+  Stepping, like Holy Pontiff, from his throne,
+  Neared to the people, and, with level rays,
+  As hands outstretching, benedictions shed.
+  Full the effulgence flashed upon the walls
+  Which girt the city with a strength renowned,
+  Rimming them with new glory: bright it gleamed
+  Upon the swarthy soldiery, as they filed
+  A dazzling phalanx through the gaping crowd
+  With martial intonation, and it played
+  Softly upon the evening-breathing throng
+  On the Calsada's broad and dashing drive,
+  On gay, armorial equipage, wherein
+  Dozed dowagers: on unbonneted dames
+  In open chariots, toying daintily
+  With dark hidalgos, as they sipped the scene
+  In languishing contentment, and between
+  Responsive glances, showing hidden fire,
+  With fluent breath of Spanish repartee.
+  There lounged senoras, fat officials' wives,
+  From their soft cushions casting cool disdain
+  On the mestiza, who, in hired hack,
+  Blooming in beauty of commingled blood,
+  And robed in slippery tissue, rainbow-bright,
+  Sat, in her sandal-footed grace, a queen
+  Among her fellows, they who yesterday
+  Whirled her lithe figure in the tireless dance,
+  And now, with airy compliment, kept bright
+  The flame she yet may quench in wedlock dull.
+  Thus rolled the wealthy in their liveried ease,
+  'Mid walking peasantry and pale Chinese,
+  And curious-shirted Creole; while, tight swathed
+  Up to their shrivelled features, mummy like,
+  The Indian women filled the motley scene.
+  Meanwhile, the sovereign sun had crowned the palms
+  Standing in stately clusters; and from thence
+  Scaled the high walls and climbed the citadel,
+  Pouring a parting radiance on the tower
+  Of San Sebastian: mounting to its goal,
+  It swept the public dial plate and lay,
+  E'en in the face of stern recording time
+  Smiling significance; thence slowly crept
+  Up to the turret, blazing, momently,
+  Thence reached the dizzy ball; and, last of all,
+  Kissed with its dying lips the sacred cross.
+
+  Then pealed the solemn vesper bell to prayer,
+  And suddenly--completely--with a hush,
+  As if a god-like voice had stricken it dead,
+  Stood still the city!
+
+                           Motionless the life
+  That but an instant off stirred the warm air
+  With murmurs multifarious, and the waves
+  Of great humanity, sunk silenced there,
+  With stillness so supreme, that pulses beat
+  More quickly from the contrast, and the soul
+  Hearkened to listen, humbled and subdued
+  As when the Saviour uttered 'Peace, be still.'
+  The tardy laborer, walled within the town,
+  Brought the uplifted hammer noiseless down,
+  And stood in meek confession, tool in hand.
+  The mother hushed the baby lullaby,
+  And o'er her sleeping innocence exhaled
+  Voiceless thanksgiving. Children ceased to play,
+  Feeling an awe they comprehended not,
+  And stood, unconscious of their beauty's pose,
+  As those Murillo's pencil glorifies.
+  Upon the airy esplanade the steed
+  No longer pawed the air in wantonness,
+  But, like his compeer of the fabled song,
+  Stood statued with his rider, while below
+  The beggar ceased his cry importunate,
+  And to a Higher Almoner than man
+  Sent up a dumb appeal. In folly's court
+  The laugh was hushed, and the half-uttered jest
+  Fell witless into air, and burning thought
+  Cooled, as it flowed, unmoulded into speech.
+  As throbbed the distant bell with serious pause,--
+  Standing bareheaded in the dewless air,
+  Or prostrate in their penitence to earth,
+  Or bending with veiled lids,--the people prayed.
+  Then was that moment, in its muteness, worth
+  The laboring day that bore it, for all sense
+  Seemed filtered of its grossness; what was earth
+  Sunk settling with the dust to earth again,
+  As through the calm, pure atmosphere, arose
+  One mingling meditation unto Heaven.
+  Oh, beautiful is silence, when it falls
+  On housed assemblies bowed in voiceless prayer:
+  But when it lays its finger on the heart
+  Of a great city, stilling all the wheels
+  Of life's employment, that to Heaven may turn
+  Its many thousand reverend breathing souls
+  With gesture simultaneous; when proud man
+  Like multitudinous marble, moveless stands
+  With God communing, then does silence seem,
+  In its unworded eloquence, sublime.
+  Therein, doth Romish worship point rebuke
+  To him who doth ignore it, for therein
+  It rises to a majesty of praise
+  O'erspanning huge cathedrals, for it makes
+  The censer, candle, rosary, and book
+  But senseless mockeries.
+
+                                So sunk the sun
+  Till on its amber throne, like drapery doffed,
+  Lay piled th' imperial purple. Then the stir
+  Of an awakened world swept through the crowd,
+  As forest leaves are wind-swept after lulls,
+  And, with the sense of a renewing joy,
+  The murmurous people turned them to their homes.
+
+  MANILA, 1856.
+
+
+
+
+MY MARYLAND!
+
+
+THE SEPTEMBER RAID.
+
+  They took thy boots, they took thy coats,
+              My Maryland!
+  And paid for them in 'Confed' notes,
+              My Maryland!
+  They gobbled down thy corn like goats,
+  And rooted up thy truck like shoats,
+  But then--they didn't get thy votes
+              Or volunteers--my Maryland!
+
+
+
+
+A MERCHANT'S STORY.
+
+  'All of which I saw, and part of which I was.'
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+On the cleared plot in front of the store were assembled, as I have
+said, about a hundred men, women, and children, witnessing a 'turkey
+match.' It was a motley gathering. All classes and colors and ages were
+there. The young gentleman who boasted his hundred darkies, and the
+small planter who worked in the field with his five negroes; the 'poor
+trash' who scratched a bare subsistence from a sorry patch of beans and
+'collards,' and the swearing, staggering bully who did not condescend to
+do anything; the young child that could scarcely walk alone, and the old
+man who could hardly stand upright; the brawny field hand who had toiled
+over night to finish his task in time for 'de shootin;' and the
+well-dressed body servant who had roused 'young massa oncommon airly'
+for the same purpose; all, white, black, and yellow--and some neither
+white, black, nor yellow--were there; scattered over various parts of
+the ground, engaged in lounging, playing, drinking, smoking, chewing,
+chatting, swearing, wrangling, and looking on at the turkey match.
+
+A live turkey was fastened to an ordinary bean pole, in a remote quarter
+of the ground, and when I emerged from the cabin, seven or eight
+'natives' had entered for 'a shot.' The payment of a 'bit,' 'cash down,'
+to Tom, who officiated as master of ceremonies, secured a chance of
+hitting the turkey's head with a rifle bullet at 'long distance.' Any
+other 'hit' was considered 'foul,' and passed for nothing. Whoever shot
+the mark took the prize, and was expected to 'treat the crowd.' As 'the
+crowd' seemed a thirsty one, it struck me that turkey would prove
+expensive eating to the fortunate shots; but they were oblivious to
+expense, and in a state of mind that unfitted them for close financial
+calculations.
+
+Nearly every marksman present had 'carried off his poultry,' and Tom had
+already reaped a harvest of dimes from the whiskey drinking. 'Why, bless
+ye,' he said to me, 'I should be broke, clean done up, if it warn't fur
+the drinks; I haint got more'n a bit, or three fips, fur nary a fowl;
+the fust shot allers brings down the bird; they're all cocksure on the
+trigger--ary man on 'em kin hit a turkey's eye at a hundred paces.' This
+was true; and in such schools were trained the unerring marksmen who are
+now 'bringing down' the bravest youth of our country, like fowls at a
+turkey match.
+
+A disturbance had broken out on a remote part of the ground, and,
+noticing about twenty negro men and women seated on a log near by, I
+went in that direction, in hopes of meeting the negro trader. It was a
+dog fight. Inside an imaginary ring about ten feet in diameter, two dogs
+were clenched in what seemed a life-and-death struggle. One was holding
+the other down by the lower jaw, while a man, evidently the owner of the
+half-vanquished brute, was trying to separate them. Outside this ring
+about twenty other brutes--men, women, and children--were cheering the
+combatants, and calling on the meddler to desist. It was strange how the
+peacemaker managed to stand up against the volleys of oaths they
+showered on him; he did, however, and persisted in his laudable efforts,
+till a tall, rawboned, heavy-jawed fellow stepped into the ring, and,
+taking him by the collar, pulled him away, saying: 'Let 'em be--it's a
+fair fight; d---- yer pictur--let 'em alone.'
+
+'Take thet! you whelp,' said the other, planting a heavy blow between
+the intruder's eyes. Blow followed blow; they clenched; went down; rose
+up; fought on--at one end of the ring the canines, at the other the
+humans; while the rest looked on, shouting, 'Let 'er rip! Go in, Wade!
+Hit 'im agin! Smash his mug! Pluck the grizzly! Hurrah fur Smith! Drown
+his peepers! Never say die! Go in agin!' till the blood flowed, and dogs
+and men rolled over on the ground together.
+
+Disgusted with this exhibition of nineteenth-century civilization, I
+turned and walked away. As I did so, I noticed, following me at a short
+distance, a well-dressed man of about thirty-five. He wore a slouched
+hat, a gray coat and lower garments, and enormous high-top boots, to one
+of which was affixed a brass spur. Over his shoulder, holding the two
+ends in his hands, he carried a strong, flexible whip, silver mounted,
+and polished like patent leather. He was about six feet high, stoutly
+built, with a heavy, inexpressive face, and a clear, sharp gray eye. One
+glance satisfied me that he was the negro trader.
+
+As he approached he held out his hand in a free, hearty way, saying:
+'Cunnel, good evenin'.'
+
+'Good evenin',' I replied, intentionally adopting his accent; 'but yer
+wrong, stranger; I'm nary cunnel.'
+
+'Well, Major, then?'
+
+'No, Gin'ral; not even a sargint.'
+
+'Then ye're _Squire_----,' and he hesitated for me to fill up the blank.
+
+'No; not even Squire----,' I added, laughing. 'I've nary title; I'm
+plain _Mister_ Kirke; nothin' else.'
+
+'Well, _Mister_ Kirke, ye're the fust man I've met in the hull Suthern
+country who wus jest nobody at all; and drot me ef I doan't like ye
+for't. Ev'ry d----d little upstart, now-a-days, has a handle ter his
+name--they all b'long ter the nobility, ha! ha!' and he again brought
+his hand down upon mine with a concussion that made the woods ring.
+
+'Come,' he added; 'let's take a drink.'
+
+'Glad ter drink with ye, stranger; but I karn't go Tom's sperrets--it's
+hard ter take.'
+
+'That's a fact, but I keeps the raal stuff. That's the pizen fur ye;' he
+replied, holding up a small willow flask, and starting toward the bar.
+Entering a cloud of tobacco smoke, and groping our way over groups of
+drunken chivalry, who lay 'loosely around,' we approached the counter.
+
+'Har, you lousy sorrel-top,' said the trader to the red-faced and
+red-headed bar tender; 'har, give us some mugs.'
+
+'Sorrel-top' placed two glasses on the counter, and my new acquaintance
+proceeded to rinse them thoroughly. They were of a clear grass-green
+color, and holding one up to the light, the trader said: 'Now luk a'
+them. Them's 'bout as green as the fellers that drink out on 'em--a
+man's stumac's got ter be of cast iron ter stand the stuff they sell
+har.'
+
+'It's better'n you kin 'ford ter drink,' exclaimed the bar tender, in
+high dudgeon.
+
+'Who spoke ter ye--take thet!' rejoined the trader, discharging the
+contents of the glass full in the man's face. The sorrel-crowned worthy
+bore the indignity silently, evidently deeming discretion the better
+part of valor.
+
+'Buy'n ony nigs, Kirke?' said the trader, inserting his arm in mine, and
+leading me away from the shanty: 'I've got a prime lot--_prime_;' and he
+smacked his lips together at the last word, in the manner that is common
+to professional liquor tasters. He scented a trade afar off, and his
+organs of taste, sympathizing with his olfactories, gave out that token
+of satisfaction.
+
+'Well, I doan't know. What ye got?'
+
+'Some o' the likeliest property ye ever seed--men and wimmin. All bought
+round har; haint ben ter Virginny yit. Come 'long, I'll show ye;' and he
+proceeded toward the group of chattels. He was becoming altogether too
+familiar, but I called to mind a favorite maxim of good old Mr.
+Russell--_Necessitus non arbit legum_--and quietly submitted.
+
+The negroes were seated on a fallen pine, in a remote quarter of the
+ground, and were chained together by the wrists, in gangs of four or
+five, the outside one having one hand secured by a cord bound about the
+waist. The men wore woollen hats, and the women neat Madras turbans, and
+both had thick linsey clothing, warm enough for any weather. Their dusky
+faces were sleek and oily, and their kinky locks combed as straight as
+nature would permit. The trader had 'rigged them up,' as a jockey 'rigs
+up' his horses for market.
+
+Pausing before a brawny specimen of the yellow species, he said: 'Thar,
+Kirke, luk o' thar; thar's a boy fur ye--a nig thet kin work--'tend ten
+thousand boxes (turpentine) easy. He's the sort. Prime stuff
+_thet_--(feeling of his arms and thighs)--hard--hard as rock--siners
+like rope. Come o' good stock, he did--the old Devereaux blood--(a
+highly respectable family in those parts)--they's the raal quality--none
+on yer shams or mushrooms; but genuwine 'stockracy--blamed if they
+haint. What d'ye say ter him?'
+
+'Well, he moight do, p'raps--but I rather reckon ye've done him up sum;
+'iled his face, greased his wool, and sech like. It's all right, ye
+know--onything's far in trade; but ye karn't come it over me, ole
+feller. I'm up ter sech doin's. I _am_, Mr.----,' and I paused for him
+to finish the sentence.
+
+'Larkin,' he added quickly and good-humoredly; 'Jake Larkin, and yours,
+by----,' and he gave my hand another shake. 'Yer one on 'em, I swar, and
+I own up; I _hev_ 'iled em' a trifle--jest a trifle; but ye kin see
+through thet; we hev ter do it ter fix the green 'uns, ye knows.'
+
+'Yes, I knows--'iled 'em inside and out, haint ye?'
+
+'No, on my soul--only one glass ter day--true as preachin'.'
+
+'Boy,' I said to the yellow man, 'how much whiskey hev ye drunk ter day?
+Now, tell the truth.'
+
+'Nary drop, massa; hed a moufful o' _sperrets_--a berry little
+moufful--dat's all.'
+
+'Taint 'nough, Larkin! Come, now, doan't be mean with nigs. Give 'em sum
+more--sum o' thet tall brandy o' your'n; a good swig. They karn't stand
+it out har in the cold without a little warmin' up.'
+
+'Well, I'm blamed ef I won't. Har, you, Jim,' speaking to a well-dressed
+darky standing near. 'Har, go ter thet red-headed woodpecker, thar at
+the cabin, and tell him I'll smash his peepers if he doan't send me sum
+glasses ter onst--d'ye har? Go.'
+
+The gentlemanly darky went, and soon returned with the glassware; and
+meanwhile Larkin directed another well-clad negro man to 'bring the
+jugs.' They were strung across the back of a horse which was tied near,
+and, uncorking one of them, the trader said: 'I allers carry my own
+pizen. 'Taint right to give even nigs sech hell-fire as they sell round
+har; it git's a feller's stumac used ter tophet 'fore the rest on him is
+'climated.'
+
+'Well, it does,' I replied; 'it's the devil's own warming pan.'
+
+Each negro received a fair quantity of the needed beverage, and seemed
+the better for it. A little brandy, 'for the stomach's sake,' is enjoyed
+by those dusky denizens of the low latitudes.
+
+When they were all supplied, the trader said to me: 'Now, what d'ye say,
+Kirke? What'll ye give fur the boy?'
+
+'Well, I reckon I doan't want no boys jest now; and I doan't know as I
+wants ary 'ooman nother; but if ye've got a right likely gal--one
+thet'll sew, and nuss good--I moight buy her fur a friend o' mine. His
+wife's hed twins, and he moight use her ter look arter the young 'uns.'
+
+'Young or old?'
+
+'Young and sprightly.'
+
+'They is high, ye knows--but thar's a gal that'll suit. Git up gals;'
+and a row of five women rose: 'No; git up thar, whar we kin see ye.'
+They stepped up on the log. 'Now, thar's a gal fur ye,' he continued,
+pointing to a clean, tidy mulatto woman, not more than nineteen, with a
+handsome but meek, sorrow-marked face: 'Luk at thet!' and he threw up
+her dress to her knees, while the poor girl reached down her shackled
+hands in the vain effort to prevent the indignity. He was about to show
+off other good points, when I said: 'Never mind--I see what she is. Let
+'em git down.'
+
+They resumed their seats, and he continued: 'Thet's jest the gal ye
+wants, Kirke--good at nussin', wet or dry; good at breedin', too; hed
+two young 'uns, a'ready. Ye kin * * * * *' [The rest of this discourse
+will not bear repeating.]
+
+'No, thank you.'
+
+'Well, jest as ye say. She's sound, though; sold fur no fault. Har young
+massa's ben a-usin' on har--young 'uns are his'n. Old man got pious;
+couldn't stand sech doin's no how--ter home--so he says ter me, 'Jake,
+says he, take har ter Orleans--she's jest the sort--ye'll make money
+sellin' har ter some o' them young bloods. Ha! ha! thet's religion for
+ye! I doan't know, Kirke, mebbe ye b'long ter the church, and p'raps yer
+one o' the screamin' sort; but any how, I say, d---- sech religion as
+thet. Jake Larkin's a spec'lator, but he wouldn't do a thing like
+thet--ef he would, d---- him.'
+
+[The dealer in negroes never applies the term 'trader' to himself; he
+prefers the softer word, 'speculator.' The phrase 'negro trader' is used
+only by the rest of the community, who are 'holier than he.']
+
+'I doan't b'lieve ye would, Larkin; yer a good fellow, at bottom, I
+reckon.'
+
+'Well, Kirke, yer a trump. Come, hev another drink.'
+
+'No; excuse me; karn't stand more'n one horn a day: another'd lay me out
+flatter'n a stewpan. But ter business. How much fur thet gal--cash down?
+Come, talk it out.'
+
+'Well, at a word--twelve hun'red.'
+
+'Too much; bigger'n my pile; couldn't put so much inter one gal, nohow.
+Wouldn't give thet money fur ary nig in Car'lina.'
+
+'Oh, buy me, good massa. Mister Larkin'll take less'n dat, I reckon;
+_do_ buy me,' said the girl, who had been eying me very closely during
+the preceding dialogue.
+
+'I would, my good girl, if I could; but you'll not exactly suit my
+friend.'
+
+'Buy har fur yourself, then, Kirke. She'd suit you. She's sound, I tell
+ye--ye'd make money on har.'
+
+'Not much, I reckon,' I replied, dryly.
+
+'Why not? She'll breed like a rabbit.' * * * * *
+
+'I wouldn't own her for the whole State: if I had her, I'd free her on
+the spot!' The cool bestiality of the trader disgusted me, and I forgot
+myself.
+
+He started back surprised; then quietly remarked: 'Ye're a Nutherner, I
+swar; no corncracker ever held sech doctrines as them.'
+
+'Yes,' I replied, dropping the accent, which my blunder had rendered
+useless; 'I _am_ a Northerner; but I want a nurse, notwithstanding, for
+a friend.'
+
+'Whar d'ye live?' asked the trader, in the same free, good-natured tone
+as before.
+
+'In New York.'
+
+'In York! What! Yer not Mr. Kirke, of Randall, Kirke & Co.? But,
+blamenation, ye _ar_! How them whiskers has altered ye! I _thort_ I'd
+seed ye afore. Haint ye come it over me slick? Tuk in clean, swallered
+hull. But thar's my hand, Mr. Kirke; I'm right glad ter see ye.'
+
+'Where have you met me, my good fellow? I don't remember _you_.'
+
+'Down ter Orleans. Seed ye inter Roye, Struthers & Co.'s. The ole man
+thinks a heap o' you; ye give 'em a pile of business, doan't ye.'
+
+'No, not much of our own. They buy cotton for our English
+correspondents, and negotiate through us, that is all. Roye is a fine
+old gentleman.'
+
+'Yes, he ar; I'm in with him.'
+
+'How _in_ with him?'
+
+'Why, in this business--we go snacks; I do the buyin', and he finds the
+rocks. We use a pile--sometimes a hun'red, sometimes two hun'red
+thousand.'
+
+'Is it possible! Then you do a large business?'
+
+'Yes, right smart; I handle 'bout a thousand--big and little--ev'ry
+year.'
+
+'That _is_ large. You do not buy and sell them all, yourself, do you?'
+
+'Oh, no? I hardly ever sells; once in a while I run agin a buyer--_like
+you_--ha! ha!--and let one drap; but gin'rally I cage 'em, and when I
+git 'bout a hun'red together, I take 'em ter Orleans, and auction 'em
+off. Thar's no fuss and dicker 'bout thet, ye knows.'
+
+'Yes, I know! But how do you manage so large a gang? I should think some
+would get away.'
+
+'No, they doan't. I put the ribands on 'em; and, 'sides, ye see them
+boys, thar?' pointing to three splendid specimens of property, loitering
+near; 'I've hed them boys nigh on ter ten year, and I haint lost nary a
+nig sense I had 'em. They're cuter and smarter nor I am, any day.'
+
+'Then you pick the negroes up round the country, and send them to a
+rendezvous, where you put them in jail till you make up your number?'
+
+'Yes, the boys takes 'em down ter the pen. I'm pickin' sum up round har,
+now, ye see, and I send 'em ter Goldsboro'. When I've toted these down
+thar, the boys and I'll go up ter Virginny.'
+
+'Why don't you send them on by stage? I should think it would hurt them
+to camp out at this season.'
+
+'Hurt 'em! Lord bless ye, fresh air never hurt a nig; they're never so
+happy as sleepin' on the groun', with nothin' over 'em, and thar heels
+close ter a light-wood fire.'
+
+'But the delicate house women and the children, can they bear it?'
+
+'It do come a trifle hard on them, but it doan't last long. I allers
+takes ter the railroad when I gets a gang together.'
+
+'Well, come; I want a woman. Show me all you have.'
+
+'Do ye mean so, raally, Mr. Kirke? I thort ye wus a comin' it on me, and
+I swar ye does do the Suthern like a native. I'm blamed ef I didn't
+s'pose ye b'longed round har. Ha! ha! How the ole man would larf ter
+hear it!'
+
+'But I _am_ a native, Larkin; born within sight of Bunker Hill.'
+
+'Yes, thet kind o' native; and them's the sort, too. They make all-fired
+smart spec'lators. I knows a dozen on 'em, thet hev made thar pile, and
+haint older'n I am, nother.'
+
+'Is it possible! Yankees in this business?'
+
+'Yes, lots on 'em. Some on yer big folks up ter York and Bostin are in
+it deep; but they go the 'portin' line, gin'rally, and thet--d--d if
+_I'd_ do it, anyhow.'
+
+'Well, about the woman. None of these will do; are they all you have?'
+
+'No, I've got one more, but I've sort o' 'lotted har ter a young feller
+down ter Orleans. He told me ter git him jest sech a gal. She's 'most
+white, and brought up tender like, and them kind is high prized, ye
+knows.'
+
+'Yes, I know; but where is she--let me see her?'
+
+'She's in the store;' and rising, he led the way to the shanty.
+
+When we arrived at the part of the ground where the marksmen were
+stationed, we found an altercation going on between Tom and a young
+planter. It appeared that the young man had paid for a shot, and
+insisted on his body servant taking his place in the lists. To that Tom,
+and the stout yeomen who had entered for the turkey, objected, on
+account of the yellow man's station and complexion.
+
+The young gentleman was dressed in the highest style of fashion, and,
+though not more than nineteen, was evidently a 'blood' of 'the very
+first water.' The body servant was a good-looking quadroon, and sported
+an enormous diamond pin and a heavy gold watch chain. In his sleek
+beaver hat, and nicely-brushed suit of black broadcloth, he looked a
+much better-dressed gentleman than any one on the ground.
+
+As we approached, Tom, every pimple on his red face swelling with
+virtuous indignation, was delivering himself of the following harangue:
+
+'We doan't put ourselfs on a futtin' with niggers, Mr. Gaston. We doan't
+keer if they do b'long ter kid-gloved 'ristocrats like ye is; they
+karn't come in har, no how! Ye'd better go home. Ye orter be in better
+business then prowlin' round shootin' matches, with yer scented,
+bedevilled-up buck niggers. Go home, and wash the smell out o' yer
+cloes. Yer d----d muskmelon (Tom's word for musk) makes ye smell jest
+like hurt skunks; and ye ar skunks, clar through ter the innards. Whew!
+Clar eoeut, I tell ye!'
+
+The young man's face reddened. The blood of the chivalry was rising. He
+replied:
+
+'Keep a civil tongue in your head, you thieving scoundrel; if you don't,
+the next time I catch you trading with my nigs, I'll see you get a
+hundred lashes; d----d if I don't.'
+
+Tom bade him go to a very warm latitude, and denied trading with
+negroes.
+
+'You lie, you sneaking whelp; you've got the marks on your back now, for
+dealing with Pritchett's.'
+
+Tom returned the lie, when the young man's face grew a trifle redder,
+and his whip rising in the air, it fell across Tom's nose in a very
+uncomfortable manner--for Tom. The liquor vender reeled, but, recovering
+himself in a moment, he aimed a heavy blow at the young gentleman's
+frontispiece. That 'parlor ornament' would have been sadly disfigured,
+had not the darky caught the stroke on his left arm, and at the same
+moment planted what the 'profession' call a 'wiper,' just behind Tom's
+left ear. Tom's private dram shop went down--'caved in'--was 'laid out
+sprawling;' and two or three minutes elapsed before it got on its legs
+again. When it did, it frothed at the mouth like a mug of ale with too
+much head on it.
+
+They were not more than six paces apart, when Tom rose, and drawing a
+double-barrelled pistol from his pocket, aimed it at the planter. The
+latter was in readiness for him. His six-shooter was level with Tom's
+breast, and his hand on the trigger, when, just as he seemed ready to
+fire, the negro trader coolly stepped before him, and twisted the weapon
+from his hand. Turning then to Tom, Larkin said, 'Now, you clar out.
+Make tracks, or I'll lamm ye like blamenation. Be off, I tell ye,' he
+added as Tom showed an unwillingness to move. 'A sensible man like ye
+arn't a gwine ter waste good powder on sech a muskrat sort of a thing as
+this is, is ye? Come, clar!' and he placed his hand on Tom's shoulder,
+and accelerated his rather slow movements toward the groggery. Returning
+then to the young man, he said:
+
+'And now you, Mr. Gustavus Adolphus Pocahontas Powhatan Gaston, s'pose
+_you_ clar out, too?'
+
+'I shall go when I please--not before,' said Mr. Gaston.
+
+'You'll please mighty sudden, then, _I_ reckon. A young man of your
+edication should be 'bout better business than gittin' inter brawls with
+low groggery keepers, and 'sultin' decent white folks with your
+scented-up niggers. Yer a disgrace ter yer good ole father, and them as
+was afore him. With yer larnin' and money ye moight be doin' suthin' fur
+them as is below ye; but instead o' thet, yer doin' nothin' but hangin'
+round bar rooms, gittin' drunk, playin' cards, drivin' fast hosses, and
+keepin' nigger wimmin. I'm ashamed o' ye. Yer gwine straight ter hell,
+ye is; and the hull country's gwine thar, too, 'cause it's raisin' a
+crap of jest sech idle, no-account, blusterin', riproaring young fools
+as you is. Now, go home. Make tracks ter onst, or I'll hev thet d----d
+nigger's neck o' your'n stretched fur strikin' a white man, I will! Ye
+knows me, and I'll do it, as sure's my name's Jake Larkin.'
+
+The young planter listened rather impatiently to this harangue, but said
+nothing. When it was concluded, he told his servant to bring up the
+horses; and then turning to the trader, said:
+
+'Well, Right Reverend Mr. Larkin, you'll please to make yourself scarce
+around the plantation in future. If you come near it, just remember that
+we _keep dogs_, and that we use them for chasing--_niggers_.' The last
+word was emphasized in a way that showed he classed Larkin with the
+wares he dealt in.
+
+'Yer father, young man, is a honest man, and a gentleman. He knows I'm
+one, if I _do_ trade in niggers; and he'll want ter see me when I want
+ter come.'
+
+The negro by this time had brought up the horses. 'Good evening, Mr.
+Larkin,' said young Hopeful, as he mounted and rode off.
+
+'Good evenin', replied the trader, coolly, but respectfully.
+
+'Good evenin', _Mister_ Larkin,' said the gentleman's gentleman, as he
+also mounted to ride off. The emphasis on the 'Mister' was too much for
+the trader, and taking one spring toward the darky, he laid his stout
+whip across his face. The scented ebony roared, and just then his horse,
+a high-blooded animal, reared and threw him. When he had gathered
+himself up, Larkin made several warm applications of his thick boot to
+the inexpressible part of the darky's person, and, roaring with pain,
+that personage made off at a gait faster than that of his runaway horse.
+
+During the affray the occupants of the ground gathered around the
+belligerents; but as soon as it was over, they went quietly back to
+'old-sledge' 'seven-up,' 'pitch-and-toss,' 'chuck-a-luck,' and the
+'turkey match.'
+
+As we walked toward the shanty, the trader said: 'Thet feller's a fool.
+What a chance he's throwin' away! He arn't of no more use than a rotten
+coon skin or a dead herrin', he arn't. All on our young bucks is jest
+like him. The country's going to the devil, sure;' and with this choice
+bit of moralizing, he entered the cabin.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+The Squire was pacing to and fro in the upper end of the room, and the
+woman and children were seated on the low bench near the counter.
+Phyllis lifted her eyes to my face as I entered, with a hopeful,
+inquiring expression, but they fell again when the trader said: 'Thet's
+the gal fur ye, Mr. Kirke; the most perfectest gal in seven States; good
+at onything, washin', ironin', nussin', breedin'; rig'larly fotched up;
+worth her weight in gold; d----d if she haint.' Turning then to Preston,
+he exclaimed: 'Why, Squire, how ar ye?'
+
+'Very well,' replied my friend, coolly.
+
+'How's times?' continued the trader.
+
+'Very well,' said Preston, in a tone which showed a decided distaste for
+conversation.
+
+'Well, glad on it. I heerd ye were hard put. Glad on it, Squire.'
+
+The Squire took no further notice of him; and, turning to his property,
+the trader said: 'Stand up, gal, and let me show the gentleman what yer
+made of. Doan't look so down in the mouth, gal; this gentleman's got a
+friend thet'll keep ye in the style ye's fotched up ter.'
+
+Phyllis rose and made a strong effort to appear composed.
+
+'Now, Mr. Kirke, luk at thet rig,' said Larkin, seizing her rudely by
+the arm and turning her half around; 'straight's a rail. Luk at thet
+ankle and fut--nimble's a squirrel, and healthy!--why, ye couldn't
+sicken har if ye put har ter hosspetal work.'
+
+'Well, never mind. I see what she is. What's your price?'
+
+'But ye haint seed har, yit! She's puny like, I knows, but she's solid,
+_I_ reckon; thar haint a pound of loose stuff on har--it's all muscle.
+See thar--jest look o' thet,' and he stripped the sleeve of her dress
+to the elbow; 'thar's a arm fur ye--whiter'n buttermilk, and harder'n
+cheese. Feel on't.'
+
+The poor woman submitted meekly to this rough handling of her person,
+but I said impatiently:
+
+'I tell you, Larkin, I'm satisfied. Name your price. I've no time to
+lose: the stage will be along in five minutes.'
+
+'The stage! Lord bless ye, Mr. Kirke, it's broke down--'twon't be har
+fur an hour--I knows. Now look o' thet,' he continued, drawing the poor
+woman's thin dress tightly across her limbs, while he proceeded, despite
+my repeated attempts to interrupt him, with his disgusting exhibitions,
+which it would be disgraceful even to describe. 'Ye doan't mind, do ye,
+gal?' he added, chucking her under the chin in a rude, familiar way, and
+giving a brutal laugh. Phyllis shrank away from him, but made no reply.
+She had evidently braced her mind to the ordeal, and was prepared to
+bear anything rather than offend him. I determined to stop any further
+proceeding, and said to him:
+
+'I tell you, Larkin, I'm satisfied. I cannot waste more time in this
+manner. Name your price at once.'
+
+'Time! Mr. Kirke? why yer time arn't worth nothin' jest now. The stage
+won't be 'long till dark. Ye haint seed half on har, yit. I doan't want
+ter sell ye a damaged article. I want ter show ye she's sound's a
+nut--_ye won't pay my price ef I doan't_. Look a thar, now,' and with a
+quick, dexterous movement, he tore open the front of her dress. * * * * *
+
+The poor girl, unable to use her hands, bent over nearly double, and
+strained the children to her breast to hide her shame. A movement at the
+other end of the room made me look at the Squire. With his jaws set, his
+hands clenched, and his face on fire, he bounded toward the trader. In a
+moment he would have been upon him. My own blood boiled, but, knowing
+that an outbreak would be fatal to our purpose, I planted myself firmly
+in his way, and said, as I took him by the arm and held him by main
+force:
+
+'Stand back, Preston; this is my affair.'
+
+'Yes, Squire,' added the trader, 'ye'd better be quiet. Ye'll turn
+trader, yerself, yit. If things is true, ye'll have ter begin on yer own
+nigs, mighty sudden.'
+
+'If I am brought to that,' replied the Squire, with the calm dignity
+which was natural to him, 'I shall treat them like human beings--not
+like brutes.'
+
+'Ye'll show 'em off the best how ye kin; let ye alone fur thet; I know
+yer hull parson tribe; thar haint nary a honest one among ye.'
+
+Preston turned silently away, as if disdaining to waste words on such a
+subject; and I said to the trader:
+
+'Mr. Larkin, I've told you I've no time to lose. Name your price at
+once, or I'll not buy the woman at all.'
+
+'Well, jest as ye say, Mr. Kirke. But ye see she's a rare 'un; would
+bring two thousand in Orleans, sure's a gun.'
+
+'Pshaw! you know better than that; but, name your price.'
+
+'What, fur the hull, or the 'ooman alone?'
+
+'Either way; I've no particular use for the children, but I'll buy them
+if cheap.'
+
+'Oh! _do_ buy us,' cried the little girl, taking hold of my coat; 'do
+buy us--please do, good massa.'
+
+'Shet up, ye young whelp,' said the trader, raising his whip. The little
+thing slunk back affrighted, and commenced sobbing, but said no more.
+
+'Well, Mr. Kirke, the lot cost me sixteen fifty, hard rocks, and 'twas
+dirt cheap, 'cause the 'ooman alone'll bring more'n thet. I couldn't hev
+bought har fur thet, but har owner wus hard up. Ye see he's Gin'ral----,
+down ter Newbern, one of yer rig'lar 'ristocrats, the raal ole-fashioned
+sort--keeps a big plantation, house in town; fine wines; fine wimmin;
+fast hosses; and goes it mighty strong. Well, he's allers a trifle
+under--ev'ry year 'bout two thousand short; and ev'ry year I buy a
+couple or so of nigs on him ter make it up. He's a pertickerler friend
+o' mine, ye see; he thinks a heap o' me--he does. Well, when I gets
+'long thar t'other day, he says ter me, says he: 'Lark,' (he allers
+calls me Lark; thet's the name I goes by 'mong my intimate 'quaintance),
+well, says he; 'Lark, thar's Phylly. I want ye ter take har. She's the
+likeliest gal in the world--good old Virginny blood, father one of the
+raal old stock. Ye knows she's right, good ev'ry way, prays like a camp
+meetin', and virtuous ter kill; thar ain't none round har thet's up to
+har at thet--tried ter cum round har myself, but couldn't git nigher'n a
+rod--won't hev but one man, and'll stick ter him like death; jest the
+gal fur one o' them New Orleans bloods as wants one thet'll be true ter
+'em. Do ye take, Lark?' says he. 'Well, I do, says I, and I knows just
+the feller fur har; one of yer raal high-flyers--rich's a Jew--twenty
+thousand a year--lives like a prince--got one or two on 'em now; but he
+says to me when I comes off, 'Lark,' says he, 'find me a gal, raather
+pale, tidy, hard's a nut, and not bigger'n a cotton bale.' Wall, says I,
+'I will,' and, Gin'ral, Phylly's the gal! She'll hev good times, live
+like a queen, hev wines, dresses, hosses, operas, and all them sort o'
+things--ye knows them ar fellers doan't stand fur trifles.' 'Yes, I
+knows, Lark,' says the Gin'ral, 'and bein' it's so, ye kin take har,
+Lark; but I wouldn't sell har ter ary nother man livin'--if I would,
+d----n me. Ye kin hev har, Lark, but ye must take the young 'uns; she's
+got two, ye knows, and it hain't Christian-like ter sell 'em apart.'
+'D----n the young 'uns, Gin'ral,' says I,' I karn't do nary a thing with
+them. What'll one o' them young bloods want o' them? They goes in fur
+home manufactures.' 'Yes, I knows, Lark,' says he, 'but ye kin sell 'em
+off thar--ony planter'll buy 'em--they'll pay ter raise. They're two
+likely little gals, ye knows; honest born, white father, and'll make
+han'some wimmin--han'somer'n thar mother, and sell higher when they's
+grow'd; ye'd better take 'em, Lark. If ye doan't, I'm d----d if I'll
+sell ye the mother; fur, ye see, I _must_ have the hull vally, now,
+that's honest.' 'Wall, Gin'ral,' says I, 'ye allers talks right out,
+that's what I likes in ye. What's the price?' 'Wall,' says he, 'bein'
+it's ye, and ye've a good master in yer eye for Phylly, I'll say two
+thousand fur the lot--the gal alone'll fetch twenty-five hun'red down
+ter Orleans.' 'Whew!' says I, 'Gin'ral, ye've been a takin' suthin'.
+(But he hadn't; he war soberer than a church clock; 'twarn't more'n
+'lev'n, and he's never drunk 'fore evenin'.) Wall,' says I, 'karn't
+think of it, nohow, Gin'ral.' Then he come down ter eighteen, but I
+counted out sixteen fifty--good rags of the old State Bank--and I'm
+blamed if he didn't take it. I'd no idee he wud; but debt, Mr. Kirke,
+debt's the devil--but it helps us, 'cause, I s'pose (and he laughed his
+hardened, brutal laugh), we do the devil's own work. But be thet how it
+may, if these high flyin' planters didn't run inter it, and hev ter pay
+up, nigger spec'latin' wouldn't be worth follerin'. Well, I took the
+nig's, and thar they is; and bein' it's you, Mr. Kirke, and yer a friend
+of the ole man, you shill hev the lot fur a hun'red and fifty more, or
+the 'ooman alone fur fifteen hun'red; but ary nother white man couldn't
+toch 'em fur less'n two thousand--if they could, d----n me.'
+
+The stage had not arrived, and I had submitted to this lengthy harangue,
+because I saw I could more certainly accomplish the purchase by
+indulging the humor of the trader. The suspense was, no doubt, agony to
+Phyllis, and the Squire manifested decided impatience, but the delay
+seemed unavoidable. It was difficult for Preston to control himself. He
+chafed like a chained tiger. At first he paced up and down the farther
+side of the apartment, then sat down, then rose and paced the room
+again, and then again sat down, every now and then glaring upon Larkin
+with a look of savage ferocity that showed the wild beast was rising in
+him. The trader once in a while looked toward him with a cool unconcern
+that indicated two things: nerves of iron, and perfect familiarity with
+such demonstrations.
+
+Fearing an explosion, I at last stepped up to the Squire, and said to
+him in a low tone: 'Let me beg of you to leave the room--_do_--you may
+spoil all.' He made no reply, but did as I requested.
+
+When he had gone, Larkin remarked, in an indifferent way, 'The Squire's
+got the devil in him. He's some when his blood's up--edged tools,
+dangerous ter handle--he is--I knows him.' I'd ruther have six like Tom
+on me, ony time, than one like him. But he karn't skeer me. The man
+doan't breathe thet kin turn Jake Larkin a hair.'
+
+'I see he's excited,' I replied; 'but why is he so interested in this
+woman?'
+
+'Why? She was fotched up 'long with him--children together. He owned har
+till he got in the nine-holes one day, and sold har ter the Gin'ral. I'd
+bet a pile the young 'uns ar his'n. He knows har as he do the psa'm
+book. Ha! ha!' and he laughed his brutal laugh, as, chucking Phyllis
+again under the chin, he asked, 'Doan't he, gal?'
+
+She shrank away from him, but said nothing.
+
+'Doan't be squeamy, gal; out with it; we'll think the more on ye fur't.
+Arn't the young 'uns his'n? Didn't ye b'long ter the Squire till he got
+so d----d pious five year ago?'
+
+'Yes, master; I belonged to him; Master Robert wus allers pious.'
+
+'Yes, I knows; he wus allers preachin' pious. But didn't ye b'long ter
+him--ye knows what I means--till he got so d----d camp-meetin' pious
+five year ago?'
+
+'Master Robert was allers camp-meetin' pious,' replied the woman,
+looking down, and drawing her thin shawl more closely over her open
+bosom.
+
+'Well,' said Larkin, 'ye karn't git nothin' out o' har, but it's
+so--sartin! Ev'ry 'un says so; and what ev'ry 'un says arn't more'n a
+mile from the truth. Jest look o' that little 'un. Doan't ye see the
+Squire's eyes and forrerd thar?' and he took the little girl roughly by
+the arm, and turned her face toward mine. The lower part of her features
+were like her mother's, but her eyes, hair, and forehead were Preston's!
+
+'Yes, I see,' I said; 'but you spoke of two little girls; where is the
+other?'
+
+'Well, you see, I bought 'em both, and the Gin'ral give me a bill o'
+sale on 'em; but when we come to look arter the young 'un in the
+mornin', she warn't thar. The Gin'ral's 'ooman--she's a 'ooman fur me--a
+hull team--she makes him stan' round, _I_ reckon. Well, she'd a likin'
+for the little 'un, and she swoore she shouldn't be sold. She told me
+ter my face she'd packed har off whar I couldn't git har, nohow; and she
+said she'd raise the town, and hev me driv' out if I 'tempted it.'
+
+'What did you do then?' I asked.
+
+'Well, ye knows the Gin'ral's a honerubble man; so, when he seed his
+'ooman was sot thet way, he throw'd in the yaller boy--and he's wuth a
+hun'red more'n the gal, ony day. His mother took on ter kill, 'cause the
+Gin'ral'd sort o' promised him ter har, and she'd been a savin' up ter
+buy him. But the Gin'ral's a honerubble man, and he didn't flinch a
+hair--not a hair. Thet's the sort ter deal with, I say. I stuck fur the
+little gal, though--'cause, ye see, I'd takin' a likin' ter har
+myself--she's the pootiest little thing ye ever seed, she is; but the
+Gin'ral he said 'twarn't no use, fur his 'ooman would have har way, and
+finally I guv in, and took another bill o' sale. And what d'ye think!
+I'd no more'n got it inter my pocket, 'fore the Gin'ral's 'ooman pulled
+out a gold watch, two or three diamond pins, a ring or two, and some
+wimmin's fixin's, and says she, 'See thar, _Mister_ Larkin, them's what
+I got fur the little gal. _I've_ sold har--sold har this mornin', and
+guv the bill o' sale; and if the Gin'ral doan't cartify it, he woan't
+git no peace, I reckon. I was bound ter see one on 'em done right by, I
+was.' Well, I told har she wus ahead o' my time, and I put out raather
+sudden, I did. A 'ooman's the devil; I'd ruther trade with twenty men
+than one 'ooman, I swar.'
+
+When he spoke of her child, the slave woman burst into tears. Her
+emotion drowned the curiosity which had made me a patient listener to
+the trader's story, and recalled me to the business in hand. With some
+twinges of conscience for having kept the wretched girl so long on the
+rack, I said to him, 'Well, Larkin, let's get through with this. Name
+your lowest price for the lot.'
+
+'P'raps you'd as lief throw out the boy. I'll take off three hundred fur
+him.'
+
+'Oh! doan't ye leab Ally, massa; buy Ally too, massa; oh do, good
+massa!' he cried, with an expression of keen agony such as I had never
+till then seen in a child. He was a 'likely' little fellow, with a
+round, good-natured face, and a bright, intelligent eye; and though I
+presumed Preston felt no particular interest in him, I thought of his
+mother, depriving herself of sleep and rest to save up the price of her
+boy, and I said: 'No, I have taken a liking to him; I'll take the whole
+or none.'
+
+'Well, then, seventeen fifty, not a dime less. Thet's only a hun'red
+profit.'
+
+'Will a hundred profit satisfy you?'
+
+'Yes, bein' as you's a friend of the ole man, and I hain't had 'em only
+four days.'
+
+I quietly sat down on the bench, beside the little girl, and taking her
+hand in mine, and playing with her small fingers in a careless way,
+said: 'Well, I will give you a hundred profit; but, Larkin,' and I
+looked him directly in the eye and smiled, 'you cannot intend to come
+the Yankee over me! I am one of them myself, you know, and understand
+such things. These people cost you twelve hundred--not a mill more.'
+
+'The h----ll they did! P'raps ye mean ter say I lie?' he replied, in an
+excited tone, his face reddening with anger.
+
+'No, I don't. I merely state a fact, and you know it. So keep cool.'
+
+'It's a d----d lie, sir. I doan't keer who says it,' he exclaimed, now
+really excited.
+
+'Come, come, my fine fellow,' I said, rising and facing him; 'skip the
+hard words, and don't get up too much steam--it might hurt you, _or your
+friends_.'
+
+'What d'ye mean? Speak out, Mr. Kirke. If ye doan't want ter buy 'em,
+say so, and hev done with it.' This was said in a more moderate tone. He
+had evidently taken my meaning, and feared he had gone too far.
+
+'I mean simply this. This woman and the children cost you twelve hundred
+dollars four days ago. Preston wants them--_must_ have them--and he will
+give thirteen hundred for them, and pay you in a year, with interest;
+that's all.'
+
+'Well, come now, Mr. Kirke, thet's liberal, arn't it! S'pose I doan't
+take it, what then?'
+
+'Then Roye, Struthers & Co. will stop your supplies, _or I'll stop
+their's_--that's 'SARTIN',' and I laughed good-humoredly as I said it.
+
+'Well, yer one on 'em, Mr. Kirke, thet's a fact;' and then he added,
+seriously, 'but ye karn't mean to saddle my doin's onter them.'
+
+'Yes, I will; and tell them they have you to thank for it.'
+
+'What,' and he struck his forehead with his hand; 'what a dangnation
+fool I wus ter tell ye 'bout them!'
+
+'Of course, you were; and a greater one to say you paid sixteen fifty
+for the property. I'd have given fifteen hundred for them if you had
+told the truth. But come, what do you say; are they Preston's or not?'
+
+'No, I karn't do it; karn't take Preston's note--'tain't wuth a hill o'
+beans. Give me the money, and it's a trade.'
+
+'Preston is cramped, and cannot pay the money just now. I'll give you
+my note, if you prefer it.'
+
+'Payable in York, interest and exchange?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Well, it's done. And now, d----n the nigs. I'll never buy ary 'nother
+good-lookin' 'un as long's I live.'
+
+'I hope you won't,' I replied, laughing.
+
+He then produced a blank note and a bill of sale, and drawing from his
+pocket a pen and a small ink bottle, said to me: 'Thar, Mr. Kirke, ye
+fill up the note, and I'll make out the bill o' sale. I'm handy at such
+doin's.'
+
+'Give me the key of these bracelets first. Make out the bill to
+Preston--Robert Preston, of Jones County.'
+
+He handed me the key, and I unlocked the shackles. 'Now, Phyllis,' I
+said, 'it is over. Go and tell Master Robert.'
+
+She rose, threw her arms wildly above her head, and staggering weakly
+forward, without saying a word, left the cabin. Yelping and leaping with
+joy, the yellow boy followed her; but the little girl came to me, and
+looking up timidly in my face, said: 'O massa! Rosey so glad 'ou got
+mammy--Rosey _so_ glad. Rosey lub 'ou, massa--Rosey lub 'ou a heap.' I
+thought of the little girl I had left at home, and with a sudden impulse
+lifted the child from the floor and kissed her. She put her little arms
+about my neck, laid her soft cheek against mine, and burst into tears.
+She was not accustomed to much kindness.
+
+I filled out the note and gave it to the trader; and, with the bill of
+sale in my hand, was about to go in search of Preston, when he and
+Phyllis entered the cabin. I handed him the document, and glancing it
+over, he placed it in his pocket book.
+
+'Now, Larkin,' I said, 'this is a wretched business; give it up; there's
+too much of the man in you for this sort of thing.'
+
+'Well, p'raps yer right, Mr. Kirke; but I'm in it, and I karn't git out;
+but it seems ter me it tain't no wuss dealin' in 'em then ownin' 'em.'
+
+'I don't know. Is it not a little worse on the man himself? Does it not
+sort of harden you--blunt your better feelings, to be always buying and
+selling people that do not want to be bought and sold?'
+
+'Well, p'raps it do; it's a cussed business ony how. But thar's my hand,
+Mr. Kirke. Yer a gentleman, I swar, if ye _hev_ come it over me, ha! ha!
+How slick you done it! I likes ye the better fur it; and if Jake Larkin
+kin ever do ye a good turn, he'll do it. I allers takes ter a man thet's
+smarter nor I am, I do,' and he gave my hand another of his powerful
+shakes.
+
+'I thank you, Larkin; and if I can ever serve you, it will give me great
+pleasure to do so.'
+
+'I doan't doubt it, Mr. Kirke, I doan't; and I'll call on ye, sure, if
+ye ever kin do me ony good. Good-by; ye want ter be with the Squire;
+good-by;' and giving my hand another shake, he left the cabin.
+
+Which was the worse--that coarse, hardened man, or the institution which
+had made him what he was?
+
+It was many years before the trader and I met again. When we did, he
+kept his word!
+
+
+
+
+THE UNION.
+
+II.
+
+
+Having stated the course of England on the slavery question and the
+rebellion, gladly would I rest here; but, as a Northern man, by
+parentage, birth, and education, always devoted to the Union, twice
+elected by Mississippi to the Senate of the United States, as the ardent
+opponent of nullification and secession, and, _upon that very question_,
+having announced in my first address, of January, 1833, the right and
+duty of the Government, by "_coercion_," if necessary, to suppress
+rebellion or secession by any State, truth and justice compel me to say,
+that we of the North, next to England, are responsible for the
+introduction of slavery into the South. Upon a much smaller scale than
+England, but, under her flag, which was then ours, and the force of
+colonial tradition, we followed the wretched example of England, and
+Northern vessels, sailing from Northern ports, and owned by Northern
+merchants, brought back to our shores from Africa their living cargoes.
+
+Small numbers only of these slaves were brought from their tropical
+African homes to the colder North, where their labor was unprofitable,
+but, were taken to the South, and against their earnest protest, forced
+upon them. It was not the South that engaged in the African slave trade.
+It was not the South that brought slavery into America. No, it was
+forced upon the South, against their protest, mainly by England, but
+partly, also, by the North. Believing, as I do, that this war was
+produced by slavery, we should still remember by whom the slaves were
+imported here.
+
+Nor should we forget how zealously, from first to last, Virginia,
+Maryland, and Delaware, in framing the Federal Constitution, sustained
+by Washington, Franklin, and Hamilton, and by New York, Pennsylvania,
+and New Jersey, opposed the continuance, even for a day, of the African
+slave trade, and how they were overborne by the unfortunate coalition of
+the Eastern States with Georgia and the Carolinas, legalizing the
+execrable traffic for twenty years, and how fearfully the predictions of
+those great prophet statesmen, George Mason, of Virginia, and Luther
+Martin, of Maryland, have been fulfilled, that this fatal measure, by
+the force of its moral influence in favor of slavery, and by the rapid
+importation of negroes here, would menace the peace and safety of the
+Union.
+
+Indeed, when the Constitution was framed, Virginia, Maryland, and
+Delaware, not only opposed the African slave trade, but interdicted the
+interstate slave trade. All these States then regarded slavery as a
+great evil, destined soon to disappear, and the failure to adopt gradual
+emancipation arose, mainly, from the fact, that the majority could not
+agree as to the practical details of the measure. In Virginia,
+Washington, Jefferson, George Mason, Madison and Monroe, Marshall and
+St. George Tucker, were all gradual emancipationists. Even as late as
+1830, the measure failed, only by a single vote in the Virginia State
+Convention; and this year, Western Virginia has voted for manumission
+with great unanimity. Let us then, as a nation, do our full duty on this
+question to all loyal citizens; and the border States, acting by compact
+with the Federal Government, will surely adopt the system of gradual
+emancipation and colonization. The failure of any State to adopt the
+measure immediately, although greatly to be deplored, is no indication
+as to what their course will be when the rebellion shall have been
+suppressed, and Congress acted definitely on the subject.
+
+As the North, next to England, was mainly responsible for forcing
+slavery upon the South, honor demands that the whole nation, as an act
+of justice, and as a measure that would greatly exalt the character of
+the country, should bear any loss that may arise to loyal citizens from
+a change of system in any State. Indeed, under all the circumstances,
+the nation cannot afford to leave all the sacrifice, and all the glory
+of such an achievement, to the South only. It will be a grand historical
+fact in the progress of humanity, and must adorn the annals of the
+nation.
+
+I speak now of the slaves of the loyal. What course should be pursued
+with the slaves of rebels, is a very different question. As regards the
+seceded States, it is clear, as our army advances, that the slaves of
+the disloyal, _seized_ or coming _voluntarily_ within our lines, with or
+without previous proclamation, necessarily will be, and ought to be
+emancipated, under that clause of the Constitution authorizing Congress
+to 'make rules concerning captures on _land_ and water,' and the law
+carrying that provision into effect. There never has been a war, foreign
+or intestine, in which slaves coming within the lines of an army have
+not been emancipated. In the case of Rose vs. Himly, 2d Curtis, 87, the
+Supreme Court of the United States declared that, in case of rebellion,
+'_belligerent_ rights may be superadded to those of _sovereignty_,' and
+that we may punish the rebels as _traitors_, or, treating them, by land
+and sea, as we now do, as _belligerents_, under the war power, which is
+also a constitutional power, we may enforce the same military
+contributions, or make the same captures, as in case of a foreign war.
+Indeed, if this were otherwise, our Constitution, as claimed by
+secessionists and anti-coercionists, at home and abroad, would have been
+a miserable failure, and would have invited rebellion, by depriving us
+of the power to suppress it by all war measures recognized by the law of
+nations. Such is the law, ancient and modern, and the uniform practice
+of nations in suppressing rebellion. Such acts are not bills of
+attainder, operating as judgments without war or capture, but the
+exercise by Congress of the power expressly granted by the Constitution,
+applicable, as the Supreme Court has declared, in case of rebellion, to
+'make rules concerning captures on land and water.' But this provision
+implies capture or conquest, and the act of Congress proposes no mere
+paper edicts, which, without capture or conquest, can only operate as
+offers of conditional amnesty to rebels, or freedom to slaves. This
+great constitutional war power, as our army advances, should be clearly
+_proclaimed_ and _exercised_, and the slaves of the disloyal, used, as
+they are, to supply the means of support to the rebel armies, should be
+emancipated, as required by Congress, and employed, at reasonable wages,
+in some useful labor in aid of the Union cause. In this way, the rebel
+whites and masters must soon, to a vast extent, leave the army, to raise
+the provisions now supplied by their slaves, and the war thus much more
+speedily be brought to a successful conclusion. By paper edicts I mean
+those designed to operate as judgments or sentences, without capture or
+conquest, and not those announced under the acts of Congress, in
+advance, but only to become operative and consummated in the contingency
+of capture or conquest. The unconditional friends of the Union should
+not only adhere to the Constitution as the bulwark of our cause, but
+will find in that great instrument the most ample power to suppress the
+rebellion. It is the rebels who are striving to overthrow the
+Constitution, and we who are resolved to maintain and enforce it, in war
+and in peace, as 'the _supreme_ law of the land,' in _every State_, from
+the lakes to the gulf, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
+
+It is vain to deny the prejudice in the North against the negro race,
+constantly increasing as the numbers multiply, accompanied by the stern
+refusal of social or political equality with the negro, and the serious
+apprehension among their working classes of the degradation of labor by
+negro association, and the reduction of wages to a few cents a day by
+negro competition--all demonstrating, as a question of interest, as well
+as of humanity, that it is best for them, as for us, that the
+separation, though necessarily gradual and voluntary, must be complete
+and eternal.
+
+Wherever the vote of the people of any State of the North has been taken
+on this question, it has been uniformly for the exclusion of the free
+negro race. In the midst of the excitement of the slavery question in
+Kansas, when the republicans acted alone upon the question of the
+adoption of their celebrated Topeka constitution, they submitted the
+free negro question to a distinct vote of the people, which was almost
+unanimous for their exclusion. The recent similar overwhelming vote, to
+the same effect, of the people of Illinois, is another clear test of the
+present sentiment of the nation. That sentiment is this: that the negro,
+although to be regarded as a man, and treated with humanity, belongs, as
+they believe, to an inferior race, communion or association with whom is
+not desired by the whites. Those who regard the slavery question as the
+only, or the principal difficulty, are greatly mistaken. The _negro_
+question is far deeper. It is not slavery, as a mere political
+institution, that is sustained in the South, but the greater question of
+the intermingling and equality of races. In this aspect, it is far more
+a question of race than of slavery. If, as among the Greeks and Romans,
+the white race were enslaved here, the institution would instantly
+disappear. Among the many millions of the population of the South, less
+than a tenth are slaveholders. Why, then, is it, that the
+non-slaveholding masses there support the institution? It is the
+instinct, the sentiment, the prejudice, if you please, of race, almost
+universal and unalterable. It is the fear that if the slaves of the
+South were emancipated, the non-slaveholding whites would be sunk down
+to their level. But let the non-slaveholders of the South know that
+colonization abroad would certainly accompany gradual emancipation, and
+they would support the measure. They do not wish the Africans among
+them; but if that must be the case, then they desire them to remain as
+slaves, and not to be raised to their own condition as freemen, to
+degrade labor and reduce its wages, as they believe. Abolition alone,
+touches then merely the surface of this question. It lies far deeper, in
+the antagonism of race, and the laws of nature. In this respect there is
+a union of sentiment between the masses, North and South, both opposing
+the introduction of free blacks.
+
+Should the slaves be gradually manumitted and colonized abroad with
+their consent, and the North be thereafter reproached with aiding to
+force slavery upon the South, we could then truly say, that we had
+finally freely united with the South in expending our treasure to remove
+the evil. The offence of our forefathers would then be gloriously
+redeemed by the justice and generosity of their children, and made
+instrumental in carrying commerce, civilization, and Christianity to the
+benighted regions of Africa. Nor should the colonization be confined to
+Africa, but extended to 'Mexico, Central and Southern America' (as
+proposed in my Texas letter of the 8th January, 1844), and to the West
+Indies, or such other homes as might be preferred by the negro race.
+
+From my youth upward, at all times and under all circumstances, whether
+residing North or South, whether in public or in private life, I have
+ever supported gradual emancipation, accompanied by colonization, as the
+only remedy for the evil of slavery. In my Texas letter, just referred
+to, published at its date over my signature, being then a senator from
+Mississippi, I expressed the following opinions on this great question:
+
+'Again the question is asked, is slavery never to disappear from the
+Union? This is a startling and momentous question, but the answer is
+easy and the proof is clear--_it will certainly disappear if Texas is
+reannexed to the Union_, not by abolition, but in spite of all its
+frenzy, slowly and gradually, by diffusion, as it has thus nearly
+receded from several of the more Northern of the slaveholding States,
+and as it will certainly continue more rapidly to recede by the
+reannexation of Texas, into _Mexico and Central and Southern America_.
+Providence * * * thus will open Texas as a safety-valve, into and
+through which slavery will slowly and gradually recede, and finally
+disappear into the boundless regions of Mexico, and Central and Southern
+America. Beyond the Del Norte _slavery will not pass_; not only because
+it is forbidden by law, but because the colored races there preponderate
+in the ratio of ten to one over the whites, and holding, as they do, the
+government and most of the offices in their own possession, they will
+never permit the enslavement of any portion of the colored race, which
+makes and executes the laws of the country. In Bradford's Atlas the
+facts are given as follows:
+
+'Mexico, area 1,690,000 square miles; population eight millions, one
+sixth white, and all the rest Indians, Africans, Mulattoes, Zambos, and
+other colored races. Central America, area 186,000 square miles;
+population nearly two millions, one sixth white, and the rest Negroes,
+Zambos, and other colored races. South America, area 6,500,000 square
+miles; population fourteen millions, one million white, four millions
+Indians, and the remainder, being nine millions, blacks and other
+colored races. The outlet for our negro race through this vast region
+can never be opened but by the reannexation of Texas; but, in that
+event, there, in that extensive country, bordering on our negro
+population, and four times greater in area than the whole Union, with a
+sparse population of but three to the square mile, where nine tenths of
+the people are of the colored races--there, upon that fertile soil, and
+in that delicious climate, so admirably adapted to the negro race, as
+all experience has now clearly shown, the free black would find a home.
+There, also, as the _slaves_, in the lapse of time, from the density of
+population and other causes, are _emancipated_, they will disappear,
+from time to time, west of the Del Norte, and beyond the limits of the
+Union, and among a race of their own color will be diffused through this
+vast region, where they will not be a _degraded caste_, and where, as to
+climate and social and moral condition, and all the hopes and comforts
+of life, they can occupy, _amid equals_, a position they can never
+attain in any part of this Union.'
+
+This, it is true, was a slow process, but it was peaceful, progressive,
+and certain, especially when Texas should have been checkered by
+railroads, and her system connected with that of the South and of
+Mexico. I desired then, however, to accelerate this action, by making it
+a part of the _compact_ of Texas with the Federal Government, that the
+proceeds of the sales of her public lands, exceeding two hundred
+millions of acres, should be devoted in aid of the colonization
+described in this extract. The principle, however, was adopted of State
+action by irrevocable _compact_ with the Federal Government, by which,
+provision therein was made for abolishing slavery in all such States
+north of a certain parallel of latitude (embracing a territory larger
+than New England), as might be thereafter admitted by subdivision of the
+State of Texas. The power of action on this subject, by _compact_ of a
+State with the General Government, was then clearly established, in
+perfect accordance with repeated previous acts of Congress, then cited
+by me. The doctrine rests upon the elemental principle of the combined
+authority of the nation, and a State, acting by compact within its
+limits.
+
+It being clearly our interest and duty to adopt this system of gradual
+emancipation in the loyal States, with colonization abroad, aided by
+Congress, the constitutional power being unquestionable, and the
+expense comparatively small (less than a few months' cost of the war,)
+it is a signal mark of that special Providence, which has so often
+shielded our beloved country from imminent peril, that the President of
+the United States should have recommended, and Congress should have
+adopted, by so large a majority, this _very system_, by which slavery
+might soon disappear, at least from the border States. In making an
+appropriation for gradual emancipation and colonization, so much of the
+overture as embraced colonization might and should be extended to the
+North, as well as the South, so as, with their consent, to colonize
+beyond our limits the free blacks of _every State_.
+
+In a former letter, published over my signature, of the 30th September,
+1856, called 'AN APPEAL FOR THE UNION,' I said: '_I have never
+believed in a peaceable dissolution of the Union_. * * _No; it will be
+war_, CIVIL WAR, _of all others the most sanguinary and
+ferocious._ * * _It will be marked_ * * _by frowning fortresses, by
+opposing batteries, by gleaming sabres, by bristling bayonets, by the
+tramp of contending armies, by towns and cities sacked and pillaged, by
+dwellings given to the flames, and fields laid waste and desolate. It
+will be a second fall of mankind; and while we shall be performing here
+the bloody drama of a nations suicide, from_ THE THRONES OF
+EUROPE _will arise the exulting shouts of despots, and upon their
+gloomy banners shall be inscribed, as, they believe, never to be
+effaced, their motto_, MAN IS INCAPABLE OF SELF-GOVERNMENT.'
+Alluding to the subject of the present discussion, I then also said: '_I
+see, too, what, in this probable crisis of my country's destiny, it is
+my duty again to repeat from my Texas letter_: * * THE AFRICAN
+RACE, _gradually disappearing from our borders, passing, in part,
+out of our limits to Mexico, and Central and Southern America, and in
+part returning to the shores of their ancestors, there, it is hoped, to
+carry Christianity, civilization, and freedom throughout the benighted
+regions of the sons of Ham_.' My views, then, of 1844, were thus
+distinctly reiterated in 1856, in favor of the gradual extinction of
+slavery, accompanied by colonization.
+
+The President of the United States, in view of the limited appropriation
+by Congress, and the economy of short voyages, has recommended one of
+the great interoceanic routes through the American isthmus for a new
+negro colony. It is a great object to secure the control of this isthmus
+by a friendly race, born on our soil, and the selection corresponds with
+the views expressed in my Texas letter of 1844. As, however, the negroes
+can only be colonized by their own consent, we should therefore, and as
+an act of humanity and justice, open all suitable homes abroad for their
+free choice. After much reflection, I think it is their interest and
+ours (when the nation shall make large and adequate appropriations),
+mainly to seek Liberia as a permanent home, establishing there, among
+their own race, and in the land of their ancestors, a great republic.
+Liberia has already largely contributed to the decline of the African
+slave trade. She has reclaimed from barbarism, for civilization,
+Christianity, liberty, and the English language, 700 miles of the coast,
+running far into the interior, reaching a high, healthy, well watered,
+rich, and beautiful country. She has already civilized and Christianized
+300,000 native Africans, and brought them into willing obedience to her
+government. As her power extends along the coast and into the interior,
+she may soon extinguish the slave trade. This would relieve our
+squadron, stationed by treaty on the African coast to suppress that
+traffic, and leave the large sums, annually expended by Congress for
+that purpose, to be applied in further aid of the cause of colonization.
+
+Providence, for several centuries, has mysteriously connected our
+destiny with that of the African race. This rebellion developes that
+purpose; the civilization of that race here, and their transfer to the
+land of their fathers, carrying with them our language, laws, religion,
+and free institutions, redeemed from the curse of slavery. Now, indeed,
+we see the approaching fulfilment of prophecy, when 'Ethiopia shall
+stretch forth her hands unto God.' We have just established commercial
+and diplomatic relations with Liberia, and, in separating from the race
+here, let us do them ample justice. Let us purchase for Liberia (which
+can be done for a small sum), the great adjacent coast and interior of
+Africa, and thus eventually evangelize and civilize that whole region.
+Liberia would thus expand and become the great Afric-American republic,
+and the dominant nation of that immense continent. Commerce, the first
+great missionary--like St. John in the wilderness, preceding the advent
+of the Redeemer--would penetrate that dark region, and the execrable
+trade in human beings, give way to the interchange of products and
+manufactures.
+
+The _Westminster Review_ has said, 'The Americans are planting free
+negroes on the coast of Africa; a greater event, probably, in its
+consequences, than any that has occurred since Columbus set sail for the
+New World.' Let us now adopt gradual emancipation, and the colonization
+of Africa, and the voyage of the great discoverer will have given
+civilization and Christianity to two continents, and eventually, we
+trust, the blessings of liberty to all mankind.
+
+The divers products and fabrics of Africa and of our Union invite
+reciprocal commerce. We want her gold, coffee, ivory, dyestuffs, and
+numerous raw materials of manufactures; and she wishes our fabrics,
+engines, agricultural implements, breadstuffs, and provisions. The trade
+will give immense and profitable employment to our shipping. From the
+Cape of Good Hope to the Mediterranean, from the Atlantic to the Red sea
+and the Indian ocean, Africa is tropical or semi-tropical. She has most
+of the products of the East and West Indies. She can produce cheaper and
+better cotton than any other region, except our Southern States, to
+which, from their fertile soil, and climate favored by the Gulf Stream,
+free white labor will eventually give us, substantially, a monopoly of
+that great staple. She equals any country in the production of sugar,
+coffee, and cocoa. In palm oil and ivory she has almost a monopoly. Of
+spices, she has the clove, nutmeg, pepper, and cinnamon. Of dyes and
+dyewoods, she has indigo, camwood, harwood, and the materials for the
+best blue, brown, red, and yellow colors. In nuts, she has the palm, the
+ground, the cocoa, and the castor. In gums, she has the copal, senegal,
+mastic, India rubber, and gutta percha. In fruits, she has the orange,
+lime, lemon, citron, tamarind, papaw, banana, fig, grape, date,
+pineapple, guava, and plantain. In vegetables, she has the yam, cassado,
+tan yan, and sweet potato. She has beeswax and honey, and most valuable
+skins and furs. In woods, she has the ebony, mangrove, silver tree,
+teak, unevah, lignumvitae, rosewood, and mahogany. She has birds with the
+sweetest notes and brightest plumage, and fish and animals in the
+greatest variety. There are the giant elephant, rhinoceros, and
+hippopotamus. There the lordly lion roams, the monarch of his native
+forest, as if conscious of furnishing robes for royalty and symbolizing
+the flag of a great nation. Where animals of such sagacity, courage,
+power, and majesty are found, why should not man be great also? Our
+ancestors, the Britons, were once savages; so were our Celtic and Saxon
+forefathers, and most of them were slaves. What are their descendants
+now? Let Shakespeare, Newton, Fox, Burke, Pitt, Peel, Washington,
+Wellington, Franklin and Hamilton, Madison and Jefferson, the Adamses,
+Webster, Clay, and Jackson answer the question. I am hopeful of complete
+success; but whatever the result may be, we owe to ourselves, to our
+moral and material progress, but, above all, to the down-trodden race so
+long enslaved among us, to make the great experiment. If we succeed, it
+will be a monument to our glory, that will endure when time shall have
+crumbled the pyramids. If we fail, it will have been a noble effort in
+the cause of justice and humanity. Here, with the sentiment almost
+universal against the negro race, indicated by the votes and acts of all
+sections, and their exclusion everywhere, North and South, practically,
+from all social or political equality with the whites, they can never
+have among us any of those hopes, aspirations, energy, or opportunities,
+enabling them to test their capacity for great improvement. It is only
+where they shall be equals among equals, that they can ever attain high
+elevation. I take the facts as they are, and know that this prejudice of
+race here is ineradicable. In making the vain and hopeless effort to
+change it, we sacrifice to an impracticable idea our own good, and that
+of the race whose welfare we seek to promote. Colonization has
+heretofore been opposed by many, because they believed it hostile to
+manumission; but now, when emancipation is proposed, with appropriations
+to enable the manumitted to choose freely between remaining here and
+homes elsewhere, why should such a system encounter any hostility?
+Especially, when millions will vote for emancipation, if connected with
+voluntary colonization, why continue to oppose it? What objection is
+there to furnishing the means to enable the free or freed blacks to
+remain or to emigrate, and why should any of their friends wish to
+deprive them of such a privilege? Opposition springs also from
+confounding the border with the seceded States--the slaves of the loyal
+with those of the disloyal, and the conduct of the war; but the
+questions are different and independent.
+
+On this subject of what is called abroad the prejudice of color, the
+North has been censured, even by many of our best friends. But it is
+impossible for Europe, where the African race are not, and never have
+been, either as slaves or freemen, to solve for us this most difficult
+problem of the social equality of the white and black races. Where
+marriage between them is unknown, such social equality cannot exist.
+Europe has an idea and a theory, but no practical knowledge of the
+subject. We have the facts and experience. Efforts have been made here
+for a century to establish this social equality, but the failure is
+complete. New England has devoted years of toil and thousands of dollars
+to accomplish this object, and the Quakers, and Franklin's Pennsylvania
+society, spared neither time nor money. Statesmen, philanthropists, and
+Christians have labored for years in the cause, but the case grows worse
+with each succeeding census. State after State, including now a large
+majority, forbid their introduction. The repugnance is invincible, and
+the census of 1840 (as shown by the tables annexed to my Texas letter of
+January, 1844) proved that one sixth of the negroes of the North are
+supported by taxation of the whites--a sum which would soon colonize
+them all. The free negroes, regarded here as an inferior caste, have no
+adequate motive for industry or exertion. Each year, as their numbers
+augment, intensifies the prejudice, invites collision in various
+pursuits, with competition for wages, and renders colonization more
+necessary. We must not any longer keep the free negro here in an
+exhausted receiver, or mix the races, as chemical ingredients in a
+laboratory, for the edification of experimental philosophers. Such
+empiricism as regards the negro race, after our repeated failures, is
+cruel and unjust. We have made the trial here for nearly a century, and
+the race continues to retrograde. Compare their progress and condition
+in America and Liberia, and what friend of the race or of humanity can
+desire to retain them among us? The voice of nature and of experience
+proclaims, that America is our home and Africa is theirs; and let us, in
+a spirit of true kindness and sympathy for them, obey the mandate.
+
+There will soon be a great change among the free blacks on this subject.
+When Liberia shall expand and become a considerable power--when she
+shall have great marts of commerce, and her flag shall float in our
+harbors--when the Messages of her President, the reports of her Cabinet,
+the debates in her Congress shall be read here, her ministers and
+consuls be found among us, and the ambition of her race shall thus be
+aroused, we shall probably have as great a negro exodus from our country
+to Africa, as there ever was from Europe to America.
+
+When the gold so profusely scattered through Africa shall reach our
+shores, as also her rich and varied products, when our reciprocal
+commerce shall be counted by millions of dollars, the home of their
+ancestors will present irresistible attractions to the negro race.
+Ceasing to be menials and inferiors, they will then go where they will
+be welcomed as citizens and rulers of a great republic. They will go
+where they govern themselves, and not where they are governed or
+enslaved by others. They will go where they give all the votes, and hold
+all the offices, and not where their exclusion is complete. They will go
+where the flag, the army, and navy, and government are theirs--and
+theirs also the social position--equals among equals, peers among peers.
+This they can never attain here: indeed, they will continue to
+retrograde, and become a mere element of social and political agitation.
+The complete success of Liberia must extinguish African slavery, here,
+and throughout the world. Emigration there, is the true interest and
+destiny of the negro race. Let us aid them to fulfil it. This is alike
+our interest and our duty. If they have been wronged here, let us pave
+their way with kindness and with gold on their return to the land of
+their forefathers. Let us aid them in building up there a great nation,
+which will call us blessed. Let the curse of slavery be forgotten, in
+the prosperous career of a great and free Afric-American republic. Born
+on our soil, let them transfer our language and institutions to Africa.
+Our material progress has been marvellous; but such an act, on our part,
+would indicate a moral advance, that would greatly exalt us among
+nations. Every dollar thus expended, would come back to us with compound
+interest, giving us also that which money cannot purchase, the
+consolation of good deeds, the favor of Heaven, and the blessing of
+mankind.
+
+I have stated that so much of the overture made by Congress to the
+States, as regards appropriations for colonizing abroad their free
+blacks, should be extended to the free, as well as the slave States.
+Among the alleged evils of emancipation apprehended at the North, is the
+belief that this policy would fill the free States with manumitted
+slaves. But, by extending the proposed compacts, so far as regards
+colonization, to the free as well as the slave States, this result would
+not only be arrested, but the number of free blacks in the North, as
+well as the South, would soon be greatly diminished. The brutal assaults
+lately made by mobs on unoffending blacks in some of the free States is
+truly disgraceful. It is, however, a warning of the fatal consequences
+of retaining the free blacks in the North, especially when, from
+increasing density of population, or other causes, the struggle for
+subsistence, and competition for work and wages, between whites and
+negroes, should become general. In view of these facts, surely no friend
+of the negro race would persuade them to remain here.
+
+     NOTE.--This was printed before the President's emancipation
+     proclamation, but is not hostile to it, when accompanied by capture
+     or conquest.
+
+
+
+
+THE WOLF HUNT.
+
+  AIR--'Una nina bonita y hermosa.'
+
+
+  We will ride to the wolf hunt together,
+    Where thousands must yield up their breath,
+  By the night, by the light--in all weather!
+    Then hurrah, for the wild hunt of death!
+  Where the deep cannon bays for our beagle,
+    Over mountain and valley we come,
+  While the death-fife now screams like an eagle
+        To the roll
+          and the roll
+            and the roll
+              and the roll of the drum.
+
+  Fatherland!--how the wild beasts are yelling!
+    Blood drips from each ravenous mouth;
+  Blood of brothers, each torn from his dwelling
+    By the wild, hungry wolves of the South.
+
+  CHORUS--Where the deep cannon bays for our beagle, &c.
+
+  Let them rave! for our rifles are ready;
+    Let them howl! for our sabres are keen;
+  And the nerve of the hunter is steady
+    When the track of the were-wolf is seen.
+
+  CHORUS--Where the deep cannon bays for our beagle, &c.
+
+  Yes, the foul wolves have been o'er the border,
+    But the fields were piled high with their slain,
+  Till we drove them, in frantic disorder,
+    To their dark home of hunger again.
+
+  CHORUS--Where the deep cannon bays for our beagle, &c.
+
+  So we'll ride to the wolf hunt together,
+    Where the bullet stops many a breath,
+  By the night, by the light--in all weather,
+    To the wild Northern wolf hunt of death.
+  Where the deep cannon bays for our beagle,
+    Over mountain and valley we come;
+  While the death-fife now screams like an eagle
+        To the roll
+          and the roll
+            and the roll
+              and the roll of the drum.
+
+
+
+
+THE POETRY OF NATURE.
+
+
+Among the many marvellous myths of antiquity, I know of none more
+directly applicable to Man and Art than that of the great struggle
+between Antaeus the Earth-born and Hercules.
+
+Lifted on high by brute force, Antaeus is stifled; but falling and
+touching Earth, he revives. Man, borne by the irresistible force of
+circumstance, may become false, frivolous, and weak: his Art may dwindle
+to mere imitation, his Poetry turn to wailing and convulsions: but let
+him once fall back to Nature--to the all-cherishing Earth, the Mother of
+Beauty--and all his Works and Songs become as seas, rivers, green
+leaves, and the music of birds.
+
+We have too long needed the touch of fresh and holy Earth. Too long has
+our love of picture and poem, and of all that the glorious impulse _to
+create in beauty_ achieves, been fickle as the wind; based on discordant
+fancies and distorted tradition. Symbolism in art, at present means only
+an arbitrary and puerile substitution of one object or caprice for
+another. The most successful poetic simile is often as thoroughly
+conventional, and consequently as perishable, as possible. In short, we
+are _not_ in an age when there is one poetry alike for _all_ men; when
+the artist and bard are _truly_ great and honored, and their works
+regarded as the Best that man can do. The few who comprehend this in all
+its sad significance look from their towers tearfully forth into the
+dark night, and wail, 'Great PAN is dead!'
+
+But he is not dead, nor sleepeth. He will yet return in that awful dawn
+of the day which will know no end. Already faint gleams of its glory
+gild the steep hills, the high places, and the groves sacred of old to
+the Starry Queen, and a reviving breath sweeps from the blue sea,
+calling up in ruined fane, and on the green turf where once stood
+temples in the olden time, fresh ideals of those forms of ineffable
+beauty, faun and fay, born of the primeval myth. There is already a
+quivering in the ancient graves, and strange lights flicker over the
+mighty stones consecrated by tradition to incantations, not of morbid
+fears, but of the strong and beautiful in nature. For in the
+Utilitarianism, in the steam and machinery of 'this age without faith,'
+I see the first necessary step of a return to real needs, solid facts,
+and natural laws. It is the first part of the doing away with rococo
+sentimentalisms, mediaeval tatters, and all wretched and ragged
+remainders and reminders of states of society which have nothing in
+common with our present needs. And it will be a revival, not of the
+ancient adoration of Nature as a mythology and a superstition, but as a
+heartfelt love of all that is beautiful, and joyous, and healthy in
+itself. Then the gods will indeed return and live again among us; not as
+literal beings, however, but as blessings in all that is best for man.
+Nor will 'Romance' be wanting--that influence which the age, without
+defining, still declares is essential to poetry. In Science, in
+Humanity, and in perfecting human ties and interests by the influence of
+love, there exists a romance which is exquisitely fascinating, and which
+lends itself to tenderer and more graceful dreams than Trouveur or
+Minnesinger _of any age_ ever knew--dreams the more delightful because
+they will not fade away with the mists of morning, but be fulfilled in
+clear sunlight, line by line, before man.
+
+It is not difficult to prove what I have here asserted of this tendency
+toward the Real in modern literature and art. Within twenty, nay, within
+ten years, men of genius have abandoned the Supernatural and the Gothic
+as affording fit themes for creative efforts. That unfortunate creature
+the Ghost--especially the Ghost in Armor--as well as the Historical or
+Sensational personages who live only in the superlative--are at present
+in general demand only by that harmless class who read 'for
+entertainment,' and even they are beginning to ungratefully mock their
+old friends. It is not difficult to foresee that the Romance so dear to
+the last generation will soon become the exclusive heritage of the
+vulgar. Meanwhile, genial sketches of fresh, unaffected Nature, draughts
+from real life, are beginning to be loved with keen zest. What novels
+are so successful as those in which the writer has truthfully mirrored
+the heart or the home? What pictures are so loved as those which set
+before us the Real, or, rather, the Ideal in its true meaning--that of
+the perfected essence of the Real?
+
+When this tendency shall have fairly placed man on the right road--when
+we shall have learned to follow and set forth Nature as she is, in
+spirit and in truth, the great cherishing mother, ever young, ever
+joyous, of all beauty and all pleasure, then we may anticipate the last
+and greatest era of human culture. Then we may hope for a more than
+Greek art--an art freed from every strain of oppression and injustice.
+To effect this we must, however, do what the earliest founders of poetry
+find mythology did: search Nature closely, bear constantly in mind her
+one great principle of potent Being, continually displaying itself in
+all things as life and death, mutually creating each other, and acting
+in all organic life by the mystery of Love, Then, while establishing
+those affinities and correspondences between natural objects which
+constitute Poetry, let it be ever present to the mind that each is, so
+to speak, always polarized with its positive end of activity, creation
+or birth, and its negative of cessation, decay and death. It is by the
+constant _realization_ of this solemn and beautiful truth in all things
+that Nature eventually appears so strengthening and cheerful. The flower
+and the fruit, the delight of anticipation and the luxury of
+realization, are the delightful culmination of every natural existence;
+and it is to perfect these that all action tends. Decay, disease, pain,
+and death, are only kindly agencies acting more effectually and rapidly,
+to sweep away that which is fading, and hasten it into new forms of
+beauty and pleasure.
+
+  'Nature within her placid breast receives
+  All her creation; and the body pays
+  Itself the due of nature, and its end
+  Is self-consummated.'[A]
+
+[Footnote A: LUCAN, _Pharsalia_.]
+
+Birth is thus an essential part of death, and death of birth--both
+forming, by their inseparable action, the highest and first intelligible
+stage of the inscrutable mystery of the active power of Nature. 'This,'
+the reader may say, 'is, however, only the old theme, worn threadbare by
+poet and moralist.' Let him look more earnestly into it--let him
+_master_ it, and he will find it the germ of a deeper, a bolder, and a
+more genial Art than the world has known for ages. It is no slander on
+the intellect or sensibility of this day to say that its admiration for
+Nature is really at a low ebb, and that, with thousands even of the
+educated, nothing gives so little solid satisfaction as lovely
+scenery or other inartificially beautiful phenomena. The reason
+is that Poetry--the hymn which _should_ elevate the soul in
+Nature-worship--instead of reflecting in every simile, every image,
+directly or indirectly, the deep mystery of life which intuitively
+associates with itself that of love and all loveliness, is satisfied
+with mere _comparisons_ based on casual and petty resemblance. The
+reader or critic of modern times, when the poet speaks of 'rosy-fingered
+dawn,' or of 'cheeks like damask roses,' is quite satisfied with the
+accuracy of the simile as to delicate color, and with the refined, vague
+association of perfume and of individual memories attached to the
+flower. But if we could realize by even the dimmest hint that the mind
+of the poet was penetrated and filled by the knowledge that the rose was
+a flower-favorite of man in all lands in primeval ages, and, as Geology
+asserts, literally coeval with him; that its points of resemblance to
+woman properly gave it place in the oldest mythology as the floral
+type of the female godhead; that it was the earth-born reflection
+of the morning star, and rose from the foam with it when the
+Aphrodite-Astarte-Venus-Anadyomeno came to life; that, as the nearest
+symbol of beautiful virginity expanding into womanhood and maternity, it
+was appropriately allied to dawning life and light, and consequently to
+the rosy Aurora and to blushing youth; and that finally, in withered
+age, set around by sharp thorns, it is a striking likeness of wounding
+death, yet from which new roses may spring--we should find that in a
+knowledge of all these interchangable symbolisms lies a music and a
+color, a perfume and a feeling, as of a perfectly satisfactory Thought.
+Let it be observed that each of these rose-correspondences is directly
+based on Nature, and that, to a mind familiar with the antithetic
+identity of life and death, all are promptly soluble and mutually
+convertible, as by mental-magic alchemy. There is a truth and
+earnestness in them which, while stimulating the joyous sentiment, gives
+to every allusion to the rose the value of genius, and not of accident
+or the _chic_ of a 'happy idea.'
+
+But with the rose there are a thousand beautiful objects all consecrated
+by myth and legend, based on deeply-seated affinities, all reflecting
+the solemn mystery of birth and death in unity, all expressing love and
+pleasure, and all mutually convertible one into the other. All the
+differently-named Venuses, yes, all the goddesses of ancient mythology,
+are but _one_ Venus and one goddess--all gods blend in one Arch-Bel, or
+'Belerus old,' of myriad names--he, the inscrutable Abyss,
+self-developing into male and female--who is reflected again in every
+object which springs from them. All mountains meet in 'the solemn
+mystery of the guarded mount'--the lily teaches the same lessons as the
+rose and the sea shell--each and all are seen in the light ark which
+skims the waves, or floats high in heaven as the pearly-horned moon; and
+then the dew of the morning and the foaming sea become the wine of life
+and the honey of the flower, and they are found again in the
+CUP. So on through all beautiful forms, whether of nature or of
+the simpler creations of man--wherever we meet one, there, to the eye of
+him who has studied the purely natural science of symbolism, is a full
+garden of flowers of thought. Once master the primary solution of the
+great problem, once learn the method of its application, and every
+flower and simple attribute of life becomes invested with deep
+significance and earnest, passionate beauty. But this can be no half-way
+study, to be modified or qualified by prejudices. Do you seek, thirst
+for Truth, O reader? Dare you grasp it without blanching, without
+blushing? Then cast away _all_ the loathsome littleness which has rusted
+and fouled around you, and look at Nature as she literally _is_, in her
+naked beauty, conceiving and forming, quickening and warming into
+infinitely varied and lovely life, and then _forming_ once again with
+the strong and harsh influences of death, pain and decay. It avails
+nothing to be squeamish and timid in the tremendous laboratory of Truth.
+There is but little account taken of your parlor-propriety in the depths
+of ocean, where wild sea-monsters engender, where the million-tonned
+coral-rock rises to be crowned with palms, amid swaying tides and
+currents which cast up in a night leagues of sandy peninsulas. Little
+heed is taken of your prudish scruples or foul follies, where the
+screaming eagle chases his mate on the road of the mad North-wind;
+little care for _your_ pitiful perversions of health and truth into
+scurvy jests or still scurvier blushes, wherever life takes new form as
+life, ever begetting through the endless chain of being. There is no
+learning a little and leaving the rest, for him who would explore the
+fountain-springs of Poetry and of Nature. The true poet, like the true
+man of science, cannot limit vision and thought to a handful of twigs or
+a cluster of leaves. In the minutest detail he recalls the roots, trunk,
+and branches--the smallest part is to him a reflection of the whole, and
+formed by the same laws.
+
+The great minds of the early mythologic and hitherto Unknown Age had
+this advantage in shaping that stupendous _Lehre_ or lore which embraced
+under the same laws, mythology, language, science, poetry, and art--they
+modified nothing and avoided nothing for fear of shocking conventional
+and artificial feelings. Nature was to them what she was to
+herself--_literal_. The great law of reproduction, around whose primary
+stage gathers all that is attractive or beautiful in organic life; the
+'moment' _toward_ which everything blossoms, and _from_ which everything
+fades, was not by them ignored as non-existent, or treated in paltry
+equivoque, as though it were a secondary consequence and a vile
+corruption, instead of a healthy cause. Their science was, it is true,
+only founded on observation (and therefore easily warped to error by
+_apparent_ analogies) instead of induction, while their aesthetics had
+the same illusive basis; and yet, by fearlessly following the great
+_manifest_ laws of organic life, they were enabled to lay the
+foundations of all which in later ages came to perfection in the Hindu
+Mahabarata, and Sacrintala--in Greek statues, and, it may be, in Greek
+humanity--in Norse Eddas, and Druidic mysteries. All of these, and, with
+them, all that Phoenician, Etruscan, and Egyptian gave to beauty, owe
+their origin to the fearless incarnation in early times of the manifest
+laws of Nature in myth, song, and legend. He who would feel Nature as
+they felt it--a real, quickening presence, a thrilling, wildly beautiful
+life, inspiring the Moerad to madness by the intensity of rushing
+mountain torrent and passionately rustling leaves, a spirit breathing a
+god into every gray old rock and an exquisite _love_ into every
+flower--should take up the clue which these old myths afford, and follow
+it to the end. Then the Hidden in forgotten lore will be revealed to
+him, the Orgie and Mystery will yield to him all, and more than all,
+they gave to Pythagoras of old. He will hold the key to every faith--nay
+more, he will form and feel new faiths for himself in studying mountains
+and seas. To him the cliff, high-rising above the foaming tide, the
+serpent gliding through the summer grass, the cool dark woodland path
+winding into arching leafy shadows, the brook and the narrow rocky pass,
+the red sunset and the crimson flower, gnarled roots and caverns, lakes,
+promontories, and headlands, will all have a strange meaning--not vague
+and mystical, but literal and expressive--a mutual and self-reflecting
+meaning, embodying all of the Beautiful that man loves best in life, and
+consecrated by the exquisite fables of a joyous mythology.
+
+I have long thought that a work devoted to the natural poetry and
+antique mystery of such objects as occur most prominently in Nature
+would be acceptable to all lovers of the Beautiful. It would be worth
+the while, I should think, to all such, to know that every object, by
+land or sea, was once the subject of a myth, that this myth had a
+meaning founded in the deepest laws of life, and that all were curiously
+connected and mutually reflected in one vast system. It would be worth
+while to know, not only that dove and goblet, flower and ring were each
+the 'motive' of a graceful fable, but also that this fable was something
+more than merely fanciful or graceful--that it had a deep meaning, and
+that each and all were essential parts of one vast whole. And it would
+be pleasant, I presume, to see these myths and meanings somewhat
+illustrated by poem or proverb, or other literary ornament. What is here
+offered is, indeed, little more than a beginning--for the actual
+completion of such a work would involve the learning and labor, not of a
+man, but of an age. I trust, however, that these chapters may induce
+some curiosity and research into the marvels and mysteries of antique
+symbolism, and perhaps invest with a new interest many objects hitherto
+valued more for their external attractions than for their associations.
+
+The reading world has for many years received with favor works
+purporting to teach with poetic illustration the Language of Flowers.
+But we learn from ancient lore that there is a secret language and a
+symbolism, not only of flowers, but of _all_ natural objects. These
+objects, on one side, or from one point of view, all stand for each
+other, and are, in fact, synonymes--the whole representing singly the
+Venus-mystery of love and generation, or _life_. That is to say, this is
+what they do _positively_--for negatively, at the same time, and under
+the same forms, they also typify death, repulsion, darkness--even as the
+same word in Hebrew often means unity or harmony when read backward, and
+the reverse when taken forward. Why they represent _opposites_ (the
+great opposites of existence, life and death, lust and loathing,
+darkness and light) is evident enough to any one who will reflect that
+each was intended to represent in itself all Nature, and that in Nature
+the great mystery of mysteries is the springing of death from life and
+of life from death by means of the agency of sexual action through
+vitality and light.
+
+I would beg the reader to constantly bear in mind this fact when
+studying the symbolism and mythology of Nature--that among the ancients
+every object, beginning with the serpent, typified _all that is_, or all
+Nature, and consequently the opposites of Death and Life, united in one,
+as also the male and female principle, darkness and light, sleep and
+waking, and, in fact, _all_ antagonisms. Even when, as in the case of
+the goat, the wild boar, or the Typhon serpent of the waters,
+destruction is more peculiarly implied, the fact that destruction is
+simply a preparation for fresh life was never forgotten. The destroying,
+undulating, wavy serpent of the waters was _also_ the type of life, and
+wound around the staff of Escalapius as a healing emblem, recalling the
+brazen serpent of Moses. In like manner the Tree of Life or of Knowledge
+was the tree also of Death, or of Good and of Evil, _arbor cogniti boni
+et mali_, and, according to the Rabbis, of sexual generation, from
+eating of which the first parents became self-conscious. Beans, which
+were symbols of impurity and peculiarly identified with evil
+(MENKE, _De Leguminibus Veterum_, Gottingen, 1814), were also
+typical of supporting life and of reviving spring and light. To see all
+reflected in each, and each in all, is, in fact, the key to all the
+mysteries of symbolism and the clue to the whole poetry of Nature.
+
+I propose in the following chapters to discuss the poetry and mystery of
+flowers, herbs, and other objects, and give not only their ancient
+signification, but also their more modern meaning, as set forth in song
+and in tradition.
+
+  THE ROSE.
+
+  'I felix Rosa, mollibusque sertis
+  Nostri cinge comas Apollinaris.
+  Quas tu nectere candidas, sed olim,
+  Sic te semper amet Venus, memento!'
+
+  MARTIAL, Epig. 88, lib. 7.
+
+Among the most exquisite outbreathings of feeling in Nature we have the
+Rose. Many flowers are in certain senses more beautiful, but as, among
+women, she who charms is not always the most highly gifted with
+conventional attractions, so it is with the Queen of the Garden, whose
+proud simplicity is delicately blended with a familiar, friendly grace,
+which wins by the tenderest spell of association.
+
+Of all flowers, of all ages, in every land, the Rose has ever been most
+intimately connected with humanity--a sentiment so earnestly expressed
+and so lovingly repeated in the poetry, art, and myths of the olden
+time, that it would seem as if tradition had once recorded what science
+has only recently discovered, that this plant was coeval with Man.
+Inferior, indeed, to the sacred Lotus as a religious symbol, the Rose
+has always been superior to her sister of the silent waters as
+expressing the most delicate mysteries of Beauty and of Love. The Lotus,
+the only rival of the Rose in the early Nature-worship,[A] furnished
+indeed in its name alone a solemn formula of faith which has been more
+frequently repeated than any other on earth. It was the flower of
+mystery, the primeval emblem of Pantheism in beauty, the blossom of the
+Morning Land. But the Rose belongs to the revellers and lovers in
+Persia, to the worship and banquets of the joyous Greeks, to those who
+meet in gardens by moonlight beside fountains, the children of Aphrodite
+the Foam-born.
+
+[Footnote A: The Lotus was to the Egyptian and Hindu not only an image
+of physical life, but of life in all its strength and splendor, the type
+of the generating and forming force of Nature in itself, expressing the
+idea of 'water, health, life.' The Hindu imagined in its form the whole
+earth, swimming like the lotus on water; the pistils represent Mount
+Meru (the world's central point and the Indian Olympus), the stamens are
+the peaks of the surrounding mountains, the four central leaves of its
+crown are the four great divisions of the earth, according to the four
+points of the compass, while the other leaves represented the circles of
+the earth surrounding India. On the lotus is throned Brahma the creator,
+and Lakshmi, the goddess of all blessings.
+
+_Die Symbolik und Mythologie der Natur_, VON J. B. FRIEDERICH,
+Wuerzburg, 1859.]
+
+From the earliest age the World of Thought has been disputed by two
+Spirits, and none are mightier than they. One, fearful in mysterious
+beauty, the Queen of all that is occult and inscrutable, rises in cloudy
+state from the antique Orient--from the Egypt of the Only Isis, and from
+the Avatar land of Brahma--solemnly breathing the love of the All in
+One. Infinitely lovely is the dark-browed Queen, and she bears in her
+hand the lotus. Against her, in laughing sunlight, amid green leaves and
+birdsong, waving merry warning, stands a brighter form--the incarnation
+of purely earthly beauty--for she is all of earth and life; the Spirit
+of the Actual and Material; and she is crowned with roses.
+
+These are the Thought-Queens of Greece and India, of France and of
+Germany. But the Christianity of the middle ages declared that the
+flower was neither a Rose nor Lotus, and placed in the hand of its Queen
+of Heaven the Lily of Martyrdom!
+
+Dear reader, sit among green leaves until the birds no longer fear you;
+or else peer from some quiet corner into your June garden, so that you
+may watch its blossoms unobserved--as the little damsel in the Danish
+tale did the dancing lilies. When the fever of life and self grows calm,
+a feeling will steal over you, as of wonder, that the flowers seem to be
+breathing and beautying _for themselves_, and not for man. A pure, holy
+life, quite apart from all ultimate destinies of bouquets and wreaths
+and human uses, seems to prevail among them. Each has its expression,
+its ineffably tender idea, not more clearly formulized, it is true, than
+those which music conveys, yet quite as delicious. One might say that
+they seem to talk together; but they do not think as we think or dream
+as we dream--not even symbolically. It will be long ere you appreciate
+more than their fresh joy of existence. But, little by little one herb
+and flower after the other becomes individualized--they are artists
+living themselves out into hues and lines and parts of a tableau; the
+vine draws itself in an arabesque which is perfect _because_
+self-forming; and the whole harmonize with the sway of sunlight and
+shadow, with rustling breeze and hurrying ant on the footpath, and
+chirping birds, so exquisitely that you may feel, as you never have in
+studying human art or in poetry, that tones, colors, curves, organisms
+_form_ altogether, or separately, the effect of each other. If among
+them all there be a Rose, you will then find _why_ it was that she was
+Flower Queen in Eden, and in all ages. No matter what rivals are
+present, the Rose will first suggest _Woman_--Woman in her most
+exquisite loveliness.
+
+We find, indeed, in detail, that no flower furnishes so many obvious
+points of comparison to a fair girl. Its delicate tints of white and red
+are suggestive of her complexion, the bud is like prettily pouting lips,
+while the exquisite perfume is, especially among the excitable children
+of the East, the most daintily piquant of exotic stimulants. The
+Nature-worship of the early ages, which saw in all things the action of
+the male and female principles of generation, did not fail to discover
+in the mossy rose (as it had done in the cup, the ring, the gate, the
+mountain-path, and every other imaginable type of opening, passing
+through, and receiving) a striking symbol of the Queen of Love, and of
+her chief attribute. In accordance with the first rule of the first
+religion, which was to identify the male and female godheads in the
+Producer, they also discovered in the Rosebud a symbol of the male
+principle, or of germinating life, from which unchanged word, as has
+been thought, the name of Buddh' or Buddha was given--or taken.
+
+As the flower dearest to Venus and the Graces--nay, in a certain sense,
+the very Venus herself, dew-dripping and odorous, the Rose soon shed the
+Aurora light to which it was compared, and its winning perfume, over
+every antique dream of love and beauty. It rises with the sea-foam when
+Aphrodite comes in pearly whiteness from the blue waters; or it is born
+of the blood of the dying Adonis when he--the type of summer
+beauty--dies by the tusk of the boar, the emblem of winter, of
+destruction, and of death; or it springs from the exquisitely pure and
+sacred drops incarnadine of the goddess herself when scratched by
+thorns, in pursuit of her darling. And as among the ancients, whether
+Etruscan or Egyptian, it was usual to celebrate the rites of Venus
+during banquets, the rose, with which the revellers and their goblets
+were crowned, became also the symbol of Dionysus--or of Bacchus. And as
+silence should be especially kept as to the secret pleasures of love and
+the favors of fair ladies, as well as to what is uttered when heated by
+wine, the rose was also hung up at all orgies to intimate
+silence--whence the expression _sub rosa_, 'under the rose.' And
+therefore Harpocrates, the god of silence and mystery (or of the secret
+productive force of Nature), bears this flower--the first emblem of
+'still life'--silence as to the joys of love and wine.
+
+  'Let us the Rose of Love entwine
+  Round the cheek-flushed god of wine:
+  As the rose its gaudy leaves
+  Round our twisted temples weaves,
+  Let us sip the time away,
+  Let us laugh as blithe as they.
+
+  'Rose, oh rose, the gem of flowers!
+  Rose, the care of vernal hours!
+  Rose, of every god the joy!
+  With roses Venus' darling boy
+  Links the Graces in a round
+  With him in flowery fetters bound.
+
+  'With roses, Bacchus, crown my head:
+  The lyre in hand thy courts I'll tread,
+  And, with some full-bosomed maid,
+  Dance, nodding with the rosy braid,
+  That veils me with its clustered shade.'
+
+  ANACREON.
+
+The study of mythologic symbolism gives a thousand indications that in
+prehistoric ages, among the worshippers of the Serpent and the Fire, all
+the deepest feelings of men, whether artistic, religious, or sensual,
+were concentrated on the real or fancied affinities of natural objects
+with an earnestness of which we of the present age have no conception.
+Poetry, as it exists for us, is a pretty rococo fancy; to the
+worshippers and framers of myths it was a truth of tremendous
+significance. To such minds a Rose freshly blowing was a symbol, not
+merely of Divinity in a barren, abstract manner, but of Divinity in its
+most vivid and fascinating forms. It was GOD, male and female,
+manifested as love, as perfume, and as light. Believing that every
+flower on earth was the reflection of an arch-typal star in heaven, they
+honored the Rose by holding that as a flower it was generated by and
+reflected the sun, and the morning star, and, in fact, the moon also.
+So, in a poem of the Arab Meflana Dschelaledin:
+
+  'The full rose, in its glory, is like the sun,
+  Thou seest all its leaves, each like unto the moon.'
+
+It was therefore one of the flowers of Light. Its color was that of the
+Aurora--not in Homer alone, but in all ancient song, Dawn is
+rosy-fingered, rosy-hued. This resemblance to the morning is beautifully
+set forth by Ausonius:
+
+  'There Paestan roses blushed before my view,
+  Bedropped with early morning's freshening dew;
+  'Twere doubtful if the blossoms of the rose
+  Had robbed the morning, or the morning those:
+  In dew, in tint the same, the star and flower,
+  For both confess the Queen of Beauty's power.
+  Perchance their sweets the same; but this more nigh
+  Exhales its breath, while that embalms the sky:
+  Of flower and star the goddess is the same,
+  And both she tinged with hues of roseate flame.'
+
+As the warmest floral type of love, of light, of revelling, and of the
+glowing dawn, the Rose became naturally the symbol of Youth. Here again,
+some decided resemblance was, as usual, required, and it was found in
+the Blush, the most characteristic, as well as the most beautiful,
+indication of affinity in early life between the moral and physical
+nature. Youth is the rose-time of love, the June of its summer; its
+hours are those of the morning-star of life, and of its dawn; the lover
+is the bud, the bride the blushing flower expanding in perfume. Every
+resemblance in it refers to _incipient_ life. The Bud is GOD,
+or Buddh', as the procreating deity, while the opening flower is the
+conceiving Aphrodite. All is early and transitory. The tendency of roses
+to quickly fade has given the poets of every land a most obvious simile
+for 'fleeting youth.'
+
+    'Go, lovely rose!
+  Tell her that wastes her time and me,
+    That now she knows,
+  When I resemble her to thee,
+  How sweet and fair she seems to be!
+
+   *       *       *       *       *
+
+    'Then die, that she
+  The common fate of all things rare
+    May read in thee--
+  How small a part of time they share
+  That are so wondrous sweet and rare.'
+
+In connection with youth, freshness, and blushes, the rose became,
+naturally enough, a type of reality and of natural truth. So in Hafiz:
+
+  'Can cheeks where living roses blow,
+  Where nature spreads her richest dyes,
+  Require the borrowed gloss of Art?'
+
+The deepest and most solemn mystery which the Nature-love of the
+earliest times attached to every object, was that it reflected its very
+opposite, and must always be regarded as identified with it in a
+primitive origin, in which both existed undeveloped. So we have seen
+that the rose, while female as the _expanding_ flower, was yet male as
+the _contracted_ bud. As a symbol of joyousness, youth, light, beauty,
+and the blushing dawn, it was eminently the floral type of _life_--a
+simile which has been employed by the poets of every land, Spenser among
+others:
+
+  'The whiles some one did chant this lovely lay:
+  Ah see, who so fair thing dost fain to see,
+  In springing flower the image of thy day;
+  All see thy virgin ROSE, how sweetly she
+  Doth first peep forth with bashful modesty,
+  That fairer seems the less you see her may;
+  Lo! see soon after, how more bold and free
+  Her bared bosom she doth broad display;
+  Lo! see soon after, how she fades and falls away.
+
+  'So passeth, in the passing of a day
+  Of mortal life, the leaf, the bud, the flower,
+  Nor more doth flourish after first decay,
+  That erst was sought to deck both bed and bower
+  Of many a lady, many a paramour:
+  Gather the rose of love while yet in time,
+  Whilst loving thou may'st loved be with equal crime.'
+
+But, as implying Life, the Rose also reflected Death, and this seemed to
+ray from the cruel thorns, which, as the German couplet says, remain
+after the leaves have vanished:
+
+  'The rose falls away,
+  But the thorns ever stay.'
+
+And a far older Hindu proverb solemnly exclaims: 'Hast thou obtained thy
+wish; exult not: canst thou not see how the thorn pierces the finger at
+the same instant when the rose is gathered?'
+
+Birth and Death, as typified in the Rose, and their mutual production,
+are beautifully expressed by Ausonius in the remainder of the poem
+already cited:
+
+  'I saw a moment's interval divide
+  The rose that blossomed from the rose that died.
+  _This_ with its cap of tufted moss looked green;
+  _That_, tipped with reddening purple, peeped between;
+  One reared its obelisk with opening swell,
+  The bud unsheathed its crimson pinnacle;
+  Another, gathering every purpled fold,
+  Its foliage multiplied; its blooms unrolled,
+  The teeming chives shot forth; the petals spread;
+  The bow-pot's glory reared its smiling head;
+  While this, that ere the passing moment flew
+  Flamed forth one blaze of scarlet on the view,
+  Now shook from withering stalk the waste perfume,
+  Its verdure stript, and pale its faded bloom,
+  I marvelled at the spoiling flight of time,
+  That roses thus grew old in earliest prime.
+  E'en while I speak, the crimson leaves drop round,
+  And a red brightness veils the blushing ground.
+  These forms, these births, these changes, bloom, decay,
+  Appear and vanish in the self-same day.
+  The flower's brief grace, O Nature! moves my sighs,
+  Thy gifts, just shown, are ravished from our eyes.
+  One day the rose's age; and while it blows
+  In dawn of youth, it withers to its close.
+  The rose the glittering sun beheld at morn,
+  Spread to the light its blossoms newly born,
+  When in his round he looks from evening skies
+  Already droops in age, and fades, and dies.
+  Yet blest that, soon to fade, the numerous flower
+  Succeeds herself, and still prolongs her hour.
+  O virgins! roses cull, while yet ye may;
+  So bloom your hours, and so shall haste away.'
+
+A Jewish legend declares that a famed cabalist was vainly pursued by
+Death through many forms. But at last the grim enemy changed himself
+into the perfume of a rose, which the magician--his suspicion lulled for
+the instant--inhaled, and died. In many German cities--Hildesheim,
+Bremen, and Luebeck among others--it is said that the death of a prebend
+is heralded by the discovery of a white rose under his seat in the
+cathedral. 'And,' as J. B. Friederich states (_Symbolik und Mythologie
+der Natur_, p. 225), 'in the Tyrol the rose has a _deathly_ meaning,
+since it is there believed that whoever wears an Alpine rose in his hat
+during a thunderstorm will be struck by the lightning; for which reason
+it is called the thunder-rose--a name probably derived from the
+consecration of that flower to Donar, the god of thunder.'
+
+The fantastic symbolism of the middle ages twined the Rose into
+innumerable capricious forms, few of which, however, have any direct
+derivation from _Nature_. Thus the Rose, from being typical of literal
+love, became that of Christ; from symbolizing the light of Aurora, it
+was made significant as the rose-window bearing the cross. The
+five-leaved rose indicated the love of GOD for Man, as set
+forth by His five wounds; while the eight-leaved typified that of the
+believer for the Lord. The Rose also emblemed the Virgin Mary, and from
+her was reflected through countless works of art and many legends, all
+of which are 'tenderly beautiful,' and, it may be added, generally
+rather silly--as, for instance, that of the holy friar Josbert of Doel,
+who sang daily five hymns in honor of the Virgin; in reward of which,
+immediately after his death, there grew from his mouth, ears, and
+nostrils, five roses, each marked with the words of a hymn. It has been
+usual to say much, of late years, of the 'child-like and earnest,'
+'tender and trusting' spirit which inspired these saintly legends, and
+to praise with them the morbid delicacy of a Fra Angelico. Believe me,
+reader, when I say that no vigorous and healthy mind ever passed through
+a period of adoration for and cultivation of mediaeval Roman Catholic
+Art, who did not eventually see that this _naive_ and innocent
+art-expression of the foulest, darkest, and most oppressive stage of
+history, had precisely the same foundation in truth as the love of the
+French court during the days of the Regency for a shepherd's life and
+child-like rural pleasures. A wicked and degraded age seeks for relief
+in contemplating its opposite; a healthy one--like the Greek--glories in
+itself, and strives to raise self to the highest standard of truth and
+beauty. None of the symbolisms of the middle ages grew directly from
+_Nature_--it was based on second-hand reveries, and on emblems from
+which all juice and life had been drained ages before in the East.
+
+Yes--look at the beautiful Rose, radiant with dewdrops, ruddy in the
+morning light, or dreamily lovely, with the moonbeams melting through
+her moon-shaped petals. Unchanged since that primeval age when she was a
+living idol--a visible and blest presence of the Great Goddess of beauty
+and love--whether as Astarte or Ma Nerf Baaltis, Ashtaroth or Venus. Let
+her breathe in her fragrance of the far times when millions in a strange
+and busy age now forgotten thronged rose-garlanded to the temples; when,
+bearing roses, they gathered to wild worship at the Feast of the New
+Moon, under shady groves or in picturesque high places among the ancient
+rocks. Rose-breathing, rose-perfumed, amid sweetest music and black
+Assyrian eyes, in the gliding dance under thousands of brazen serpent
+lamps, or far in dusky fragrant forests, they adored the Rose Queen--the
+very visible spirit and incarnation of nature in her loveliest form.
+Over many a shining sea passed the barks, rose-wreathed, to the far
+isles of the South: she--the Rose--was there! From many a steep crag
+looked out on the blue ocean the temple of the Star Queen, the Heaven
+and Sea-born sister of the Rose: and she was there. Through beautiful
+temples the lover strayed to meet his love, and, taking the rose from
+her brow, won her in worship of the Serpent-light of Loveliness: for
+she, the Rose--the Mystery of all Rapture--was ever there! On coin and
+jewel, in prayer and song they bore the Rose-Venus to every land in a
+living, ever-thrilling romaunt--far goldener, more thrilling with poetry
+than was in later times the dull lay of De Loris and Clopinel: for
+wherever man found joy and beauty in life, feast, and song, she--the
+Rose Incarnate--was there. In the Rose was the twin sister of all the
+mysteries: we may read them as clearly in her, if we will, as ever did
+rapt Sidonian, or priest, or daughter of the Aryan, or whatever the
+early unknown burning race may have been, which built fire-towers in
+melting Lesbos, and names Cor-on, the crowned Corinthos, ere yet a
+syllable of Greek had ever rung on earth. She is the Cup; her calyx and
+dew reflect the goblet of life, and the nectar-wine of life, typical in
+early times of endless generation, in later days of _re_-generation.
+Born of the sea, she recalls the Cor-olla Cup-Ark in which
+Hercules--Arech El Es--crossed the sea between the rosy dawn and ruddy
+sundown, 'strength upborne by love and life.' She is the Morning Star
+which hovered over Aphrodite when the Queen rose from the sea, since
+each was either in that Trinity; as in later days the star shone on him
+who rose from Maria the sea, accompanied by _Iona_, the dove. She is the
+Shell and the Ark of so many ancient legends--that Ark into which life
+enters, and from which it is born--the Ark of Earth, in which Adon and
+the flowers sleep till Spring--the Ark of maternal Being, from which man
+is born--the exquisite and beautiful Rose. She is the Door or Gate of
+the Transition or Passing Through from death to life: wherever man
+enters, _there_ is the Rose, and with her all the twin-symbols;--and
+when, bearing a rose, you chance to pass through some antique rock-gap,
+far inland, near a running stream, start not, reader, should a strange
+thrill, as of a solemn vanished life, sweep over you; for so surely as
+you live, know that in ancient days the footsteps of the rose-bearing
+worshipper went before you through that narrow pass, performing, by so
+doing, the rite typical of new birth, revival, and the Covenant. She is
+the cavern, the secret lair of life and the casket in which that one
+great arcanum and impenetrable secret of motherhood is forever
+concealed--forever and forever. They found it hidden--those priests of
+old--in Woman and in the Rose, in fruits, and in all that lives or
+grows; they traced the mystery up to godhood; they found it reflected in
+every object of reception and transit--in the temple, and house, and
+vase, and moon-like horns; they saw it in the woodland path, winding
+away in darkness among the trees; it lurked in seeds and nuts: man could
+crush the grape and burn the flower, but he could _not_ solve the
+inscrutable mystery of generation and life; and so he hallowed it. Hail
+to thee, thou, its fairest earthly form, O Rose of sunlight and luxury
+and love!
+
+In a 'Floral Dictionary' at hand, I find the rose means, 'genteel,
+pretty.' In another, twenty-four very different interpretations are
+ascribed to as many varieties of this flower. It is almost needless to
+say that the modern 'Language of Flowers' is, for the greater part,
+merely the arbitrary invention of writers entirely ignorant of the
+signification anciently attached to natural objects. The primary meaning
+of the rose is _love_; and it is a rose-garland, and not a tulip, which
+should stand for a 'declaration of passion,' and, at the same time, for
+a pledge of secrecy. Many of these modern fancies are, however, very
+beautiful; as, for instance, in that German lyric in which the Angel of
+the Flowers confers a fresh grace on the rose by veiling it in moss:
+
+  'And, robed in Nature's simplest weed,
+  Could there a flower that rose exceed?'
+
+But our task is to investigate those antique meanings of flowers, that
+secret language of life and love consecrated to them for thousands of
+years, and now buried under forgotten lays, legends, and strange relics
+of art.
+
+
+
+
+MACCARONI AND CANVAS.
+
+IX.
+
+
+ROMAN FIRESIDES.
+
+It was a warm day in October when Caper engaged rooms in the Babuino;
+the sun shone cheerfully, and he took no heed of the cold weather to
+come: in fact he entertained the popular idea that the land half-way
+between the tropics and paradise, called Italy, stood in no need of
+pokers and coal hods: he was mistaken. Awaking one morning to the fact
+that it was cold, he began an examination of his rooms for a fireplace:
+there was none. He searched for a chimney--in vain. He went to see his
+landlady about it: she was standing on a balcony, superintending the
+engineering of a bucket in its downward search for water. The house was
+five stories high, and from each story what appeared to be a lightning
+rod ran down into what seemed to be a well, in a small garden. Up and
+down these rods, tin buckets, fastened to ropes, were continually
+running, rattling, clanking down, or being drawn splashing, dripping up;
+and as they were worked assiduously, it made lively music for those
+dwelling in the back part of the house.
+
+Having mentioned to the landlady that he wanted a fire, the good woman
+reflected a moment, and then directed the servant to haul out a sheet
+iron vessel mounted on legs: this was next filled with charcoal, on
+which was thrown live coals, and the entire arrangement being placed
+outside the door on the balcony, the servant bent over and fanned it
+with a turkey feather fan. Caper looked on in astonishment.
+
+'Are you going to embark in the roast chestnut trade?' he asked.
+
+'_Ma che!_' answered madame; 'that is your fire.'
+
+'It will bring on asphyxia.'
+
+'We are never asphyxied in Rome with it. You see, the girl fans all the
+venom out of it; and when she takes it into your room it will be just as
+harmless as--let me see--as a baby without teeth.'
+
+This comparison settled the question, for it proved it wouldn't bite.
+Caper managed to worry through the cold weather with this poor consoler:
+it gave him headaches, but it kept his head otherwise cool, and his feet
+warm; and, as he lived mostly in his studio, where he had a good wood
+stove, he was no great loser.
+
+'But,' said he, descanting on this subject to Rocjean, 'how can the
+Romans fight for their firesides, when they haven't any?'
+
+'They will fight for their _scaldine_, especially the old women and the
+young women,' answered Rocjean, 'to the last gasp. There is nothing they
+stick to like these: even their husbands and lovers are not so near and
+dear to them.'
+
+'What are they? and, how much do they cost?' asked Caper, artistically.
+
+'Crockery baskets with handles; ten _baiocchi_,' replied Rocjean, 'You
+must have noticed them; why, look out of that window: do you see that
+girl in the house opposite. She has one on the window sill, under her
+nose, while her hands are both held over the charcoal fire that is
+burning in it. If there were any proof needed that the idea of a future
+punishment by fire did not originate in Rome, the best reply would be
+the bitter hatred the Romans have of cold. I can fancy the income of the
+church twice as large if they had only thought to have filled purgatory
+with icebergs and a corresponding state of the thermometer. A Roman, in
+winter time, would pay twice as many _baiocchi_ for prayers to get a
+deceased friend out of the cold, as he could otherwise be induced to.
+The English and other foreigners have, little by little, induced hotel
+and boarding house keepers to introduce grates and stoves, with good
+coal and wood fires, wherever they may hire lodgings; but the old Romans
+still stand by braseras and scaldinas.'
+
+'I caught a bad cold yesterday, thanks to this barbarous custom,' said
+Caper. 'I was in the Vatican, looking at a pretty girl copying a head of
+Raphael's, and depending on imagination and charcoal to warm me: the
+results were chills and the snuffles.'
+
+'Let that be a warning to you against entering art galleries during cold
+weather. To visit the Borghese collection with the thermometer below
+freezing point, and see all those semi-nude paintings, whether of saints
+or sinners, chills the heart; not only that they have no clothes, but
+that the artists who made the pictures were so radically vulgar--because
+they were affected!'
+
+'But,' spoke Caper,'they probably painted them in the merry spring time,
+when they had forgotten all about frozen fountains and oranges iced; or,
+it may be, in their day wood was cheaper than it is now, and money
+plentier.'
+
+'Yes, in the days when three million pilgrims visited Rome in a year.
+But would you believe it? within thirty miles of this city I have seen
+enough timber lying rotting on the ground, to half warm the Eternal
+City? The country people, in the commune where I lived one summer, had
+the privilege of gathering wood in the forest that crowns the range of
+mountains backing up from the sea, and separating the Pontine Marshes
+from the higher lands of the Campagna: but the trunks of the hewn trees,
+after such light branches as the women could hack off were carried away,
+were left to rot; for there was no way to get them to Rome--an hour's
+distance by railroad. Cold? The Romans are numbed to the heart: wait
+until they are warmed up; wait until they have a chance to make
+money--there will be no poets like Casti in those days--Casti, who wrote
+two hundred sonnets against a man who dunned him for--thirty cents! Talk
+about knowing enough to go into the house when it rains! Why the Roman
+shopkeepers of the poorer class don't know enough to shut their shop
+doors when they are starved with cold: you will find this to be the
+fact. Look, too, at the poor little children! do they ever think of
+playing fire engine, and thus warming themselves in a wholesome manner?
+No! One day I was painting away, when I heard a poor, thin little voice,
+as of a small dinner bell with a croup, and hoping at last I might see
+the little ones having a good frolic, I went to the window and looked
+out. What did I see? A small boy with a large, tallow-colored head,
+carrying a large black cross in the pit of his stomach; another small
+boy ringing a bell; and five others following along, in a crushed,
+despondent manner--inviting other boys to hear the catechism explained
+in the parish church. Meat for babes! I don't wonder the Roman women all
+want to be men, when I see the men without half the spirit of the women,
+and, such as they are, loafing away the winter evenings for warmth in
+wine shops or cafes. Poor Roman women, huddled together in your dark
+rooms, feebly lighted with a poor lamp, and hugging _scaldine_ for
+better comfort! Would that the American woman could see her Italian
+sister, and bless her stars that she did not live under the cap and
+cross keys.'
+
+'The cold has one good effect,' interrupted Caper; 'the forcible
+gesticulation of the Italians, which we all admire so much, arises from
+the necessity they have to do so--in order to keep warm. I have,
+however, an idea to better the condition of the wood sawyers in the
+Papal States, by introducing a saw buck or saw horse: as it is, they
+hold the wood in their hands, putting the saw between their knees, and
+then fairly rubbing the wood through the saw, instead of the saw through
+the wood. How, too, the Romans manage to cut wood with such axes as they
+have is passing strange. It would be well to introduce an American axe
+here, handle and all.'
+
+'We have an old, old saying in France,' spoke Rocjean:
+
+  '_Jamais cheval n'y homme
+  S'amenda pour aller a Rome._'
+
+'Never horse or man mended, that unto Rome wended.' Your American axe is
+useless without American energy, and would not, if introduced here, mend
+the present shiftless style of wood chopping: evidently the people will
+one day take it up and try it--when their minds and arms are free. As it
+is, the genuine Romans live through their winters without wood in a
+merry kind of humor; taking the charcoal sent them by chance for cooking
+with great good nature; and, without words, blessing GOD for
+giving them vigorous frames and sturdy bodies to withstand cold and
+heat. After all, the want of fixed firesides by no manner of means
+annoys the buxom Roman woman of the people: she picks up her moving
+stove, the _scaldina_, and trots out to see her nearest gossip, knowing
+that her reception will be warm, for she brings warmth with her. There
+is a copy of Galignani, a round of bull beef, and a dirty coal fire,
+even in Rome, for every Englishman who will pay for them; but why, oh
+why! forever hoist the banner of the Blues over the gay gardens of every
+earthly paradise? Why hide Psyche under a hogshead?'
+
+'Are you asking me those hard questions? For if you are,' said Caper, 'I
+will answer you thus: A fishwoman passing along a street in
+Philadelphia one day, heard from an open window the silver-voiced
+Brignoli practising an aria, possibly from the Traviata: 'That voice,'
+quoth she, 'would be a fortune for a woman in shad time!''
+
+
+THE VIOLETS OF THE VILLA BORGHESE.
+
+  'It is well to be off with the old love
+  Before you are on with the new:'
+
+hummed James Caper, as he sauntered, one morning early, through the dewy
+grass of the Villa Borghese, with his uncle, Bill Browne, leisurely
+picking a little bouquet of violets--'dim, but sweeter than the lids of
+Juno's eyes, or Cytherea's breath.'--and pleasantly thinking of the
+pretty face of his last love, the blonde Rose, who was at that moment
+smiling on somebody else in Naples.
+
+'There is nothing keeps a man out of mischief so well as the little
+portrait a pair of lovely eyes photographs on his heart; is there now,
+Uncle Bill?'
+
+'No, Jim, you are 'bout right there: if you want to keep the devil out
+of your heart, you must keep an angel in it. If you can't find a
+permanent resident, why you must take up with transient customers. First
+and last, I've had the pictures of half the pretty girls in Saint Louis
+hanging up in my gallery: as one grows dim I take up another, and that's
+the way I preserve my youth. If it hadn't been for business, I should
+have been a married man long ago; and my advice to you, Jim, is to stop
+off being a bachelor the instant you are home again.'
+
+'I think I shall, the instant I find one with the beauty of an Italian,
+the grace of a French girl, the truth and tenderness of a German, the
+health of an Englishwoman, and--'
+
+'Draw it mild, my boy,' broke in Uncle Bill: 'here she comes!'
+
+Caper and his uncle were standing, as the latter spoke, under the group
+of stone pines, from whose feet there was a lovely view of the Albanian
+snow-capped mountains, and they saw coming toward them two ladies. There
+was the freshness of the morning in their cheeks, and though one was
+older than the other, joy-bringing years had passed so kindly with her,
+that if Caper had not known she was the mother of the younger lady--they
+would have passed for sisters. When he first saw them, the latter was
+gathering a few violets; when she rose, he saw the face of all others he
+most longed to see.
+
+He had first seen her the life of a gay party at Interlachen; then alone
+in Florence, with her mother for companion, patiently copying the Bella
+di Tiziano in the Pitti palace; then in Venice, one sparkling morning,
+as he stepped from his gondola on the marble steps of a church, he met
+her again: this time he had rendered himself of assistance to the mother
+and daughter, in procuring admittance for them to the church, which was
+closed to the public for repairs, and could only be seen by an especial
+permit, which Caper fortunately had obtained. They were grateful for his
+attention, and when, a few days afterward, he met them in company with
+other of his American friends, and received a formal introduction, the
+acquaintance proved one of the most delightful he had made in Europe,
+rendering his stay in Venice marked by the rose-colored light of a new
+love, warming each scene that passed before his dreamy gaze. But other
+cities, other faces: memory slept to awake again with renewed strength
+at the first flash of light from the eyes of Ida Buren, there, over the
+spring violets of the Villa Borghese.
+
+The meeting between Mrs. Buren, her daughter, and Caper, was marked, on
+the part of the ladies, with that cordiality which the truly well bred
+show instinctively to those who merit it--to those who, brave and loyal,
+prove, by word and look, that theirs is the right to stand within the
+circle of true politeness and courtesy.
+
+'And so,' Mrs. Buren concluded her greeting, 'we are here in Rome,
+picking violets with the dew on them, and waiting for the nightingales
+to sing before we leave for Naples.'
+
+'And forget,' said Caper, among the violets of Paestum, the poor flowers
+of the Borghese? I protest against it, and beg to add this little
+bouquet to yours, that their united perfume may cause you to remember
+them.'
+
+'I accept them for you, mother,' spoke Ida; 'and that they may not be
+forgotten, I will make a sketch at once of that fountain under the ilex
+trees, and Mr. Caper in classic costume, making floral offerings to
+Bacchus--of violets.'
+
+'And why not to Flora?'
+
+'I have yet to learn that Flora has a shrine at--Monte Testaccio! where
+the Signore Caper, if report speaks true, often goes and worships.'
+
+'That shrine is abandoned hereafter: where shall my new one be?'
+
+'In the Piazza di Spagna, No.----,' said Mrs. Buren, smiling at Caper's
+mournful tone of voice. 'While the violets bloom we shall be there. Good
+morning!'
+
+The ladies continued their walk, and although, as they turned away, Ida
+dropped a tiny bunch of violets, hidden among two leaves, Caper, when he
+picked it up, did not return it to her, but kept it many a day as a
+souvenir of his fair countrywoman.
+
+'They are,' said Uncle Bill, slowly and solemnly, 'two of the finest
+specimens of Englishwomen I ever saw, upon me word, be gad!'
+
+'They are,' said Caper, 'two of the handsomest Americans I ever met.'
+
+'Americans?' asked Uncle Bill, emphatically.
+
+'Americans!' answered Caper, triumphantly.
+
+'Shut up your paint shop, James, my son, call in the auctioneer, stick
+up a bill 'TO LET.' Let us return at once to the land of our
+birth. No such attractions exist in this turkey-trodden,
+maccaroni-eating, picture-peddling, stone-cutting, mass-singing land of
+donkeys. Let us go. Americans!'
+
+'Yes, Americans--Bostonians,'
+
+'Farewell, seventy-five niggers--good-by, my speculations in Lewsianny
+cotton planting--depart from behind me, sugar crops on Bayou Fooshe! I
+am of those who want a Mrs. Browne, a duplicate of the elderly lady who
+has just departed, at any price. James, my son, this morning shalt thou
+breakfast with me at Nazzari's; and if thou hast not a bully old
+breakfast, it's because the dimes ain't in me--and I know they are.
+Nothing short of cream de Boozy frappayed, paddy frog grass pie, fill it
+of beef, and myonhays of pullits, with all kinds of saucy sons and so
+forth, will do for us. We have been among angels--shall we not eat like
+the elect? Forward!'
+
+During breakfast, Caper discoursed at length with his uncle of the two
+ladies they met in the villa.
+
+Mrs. Buren, left a widow years since, with a large fortune, had educated
+her only child, Ida, systematically, solidly, and healthily. The child's
+mind, vine-like, clings for support to something already firm and
+established, that it may climb upward in a healthy, natural growth,
+avoiding the earth; so the daughter had found in her mother a guide
+toward the clear air where there is health and purity. Ida Buren, with
+clear brown eyes, high spirits, rosy cheeks, and full perfected form, at
+one glance revealed the attributes that Uncle Bill had claimed for her
+so quickly. With all the beauty of an Italian, she had her perceptions
+of color and harmony in the violets she gathered; the truth and
+tenderness of a German, to appreciate their sentiment; the health of an
+Englishwoman, to tramp through the dewy grass to pick them; the grace of
+a Frenchwoman, to accept them from Nature with a _merci, madame_!
+
+Caper had now a lovely painting to hang up in his heart, one in unison
+with the purity and beauty of the violets of the Villa Borghese.
+
+
+THE CARNIVAL.
+
+There is lightness and brightness, music, laughter, merry jests, masks,
+bouquets, flying flowers, and _confetti_ around you; you are in the
+Corso, no longer the sober street of a solemn old city, but the
+brilliant scene of a pageant, rivalling your dreams of Fairy land,
+excelling them; for it is fresh, sparkling, real before your eyes. From
+windows and balconies wave in the wind all-colored tapestries, flutter
+red, white, and golden draperies; laugh out in festal garments gay
+revellers; fly through the golden sunlight showers of perfumed flowers;
+beam down on you glances from wild, loving eyes, sparkling with fun,
+gleaming with excitement, thrilling with witching life.
+
+Hurrah for to-day! _Fiori, fiori, ecco fiori_! Baskets of flowers,
+bunches of flowers, bouquets of flowers, flowers natural and flowers
+artificial, flowers tied up and flowers loose. _Confetti, confetti, ecco
+confetti_! Sugar plums white, sugar plums blue, bullets and buckshot of
+lime water and flour. Whiz! down comes the Carnival shower: '_Bella,
+donzella_, this bouquet for thee!' Up go the white camellias and blue
+violets: 'down comes a rosebud for me.' What wealth of loveliness and
+beauty in thousands of balconies and windows; what sheen of brilliance
+in the vivid colors of the varied costumes!
+
+The Carnival has come!
+
+Right and left fly flowers; and here and there dart in between wheels
+and under horses' legs, dirty, daring Roman boys, grasping the falling
+flowers or _confetti_. From a balcony, some wealthy _forestiero_ ('Ugh!
+how rich they are!' grumbles the coachman) scatters _baiocchi_
+broadcast, and down in the dirt and mud roll and tumble the little
+ragamuffins, who never have muffins, and always have rags--and 'spang!'
+down comes a double handful of hard _confetti_ on Caper's head, as he
+rides by in an open carriage. He bombards the window with a double
+handful of white buckshot; but a woman in full Albano costume, crimson
+and white, aims directly at him a beautiful bouquet. Not to be outdone,
+Caper throws her a still larger one, which she catches and keeps--never
+throwing him the one she aimed! He is sold! But 'whiz, whir!' right and
+left fly flowers and _confetti_; and--oh, joy unspeakable!--an
+Englishman's chimney-pot hat is knocked from his head by a strong
+bouquet; and we know
+
+  'There is a noun in Hebrew means 'I am,'
+  The English always use to govern d----n,'
+
+and that he is using it severely, and don't see the fun, you know--of
+_throwing things_! Who cares? _Avanti!_
+
+Caper had filled the carriage with loose flowers, small bouquets, a
+basket of _confetti_, legal and illegal size, for the Carnival. Edict
+strictly prohibited persons from throwing large-sized bouquets and
+_confetti_; consequently, everybody considered themselves compelled to
+_dis_obey the command. Rocjean, who was in the carriage with Caper,
+delighted the Romans with his ingenuity in attaching bouquets to the end
+of a long fish pole, and thus gently engineering them to ladies in
+windows or balconies. The crowd in the Corso grows larger and
+larger--the scene in this long street resembles a theatre in open air,
+with decorations and actors, assisted by a large supply of infantry and
+cavalry soldiers to keep order and attend to the scenes. The prosaic
+shops are no longer shops, but opera boxes, filled with actors and
+actresses instead of spectators, wearing all varieties of costume; the
+Italian ones predominant, gay, bright, and beautifully adapted to rich,
+peach-like complexions. Why call them olive complexions? For all the
+olives ever seen are of the color of a sick green pumpkin, or a too, too
+ripe purple plum; and who has ever yet seen a beautiful Italian maiden
+of either of these morbid colors?
+
+The windows and balconies of the Corso are opera boxes. 'Whiz!' The
+flying bouquets and white pills show plainly that the _prime donne_ are
+making their positively first appearances for the season. Look at that
+French soldier in company with another, who is passing under a balcony,
+when a tiny bunch of flowers falls, or is thrown at him: he stoops to
+grasp it: too late, _mon brave_, a Roman boy is ahead of you: no use
+swearing; so he grasps his comrade by the arm, and points to the
+balcony, which is not more than six feet above his head.
+
+'_Mon Dieu, qu'elle est gentille!_'
+
+And there stands the beauty, a thorough soldier's girl; weighs her
+hundred and seventy pounds, has cheeks like new-cut beefsteaks, hair
+black as charcoal, eyes bright as fire, and an arm capable of cooking
+for a regiment. She is dressed in full Albanian costume, has the dew of
+the fields in her air, and oh, when she smiles, she shows such splendid
+teeth!--the _contadine_ have them, and don't ruin them by continual
+eating! The soldier stops, 'Oh lord, she is neat!' He wants to return
+her flowery compliment with a similar one; but, _Tu bleu!_ one can't buy
+bouquets on four sous a day income--even in Rome: so he looks around for
+a waif, and spies on the pavement something green; he gallantly throws
+it up, and with a smile and, wave of the hand like a Chevalier Bayard on
+a bender, he bids adieu to the fair maiden. He threw up half a head of
+lettuce.
+
+'_Ach mein Gott! wollen sie nur?_' and in return for a double handful of
+_confetti_ flung into a carriage full of German artists ahead of him,
+'bang!' comes into Caper's vehicle a shower of lime pills and other
+stunners--not including the language--and he is in for it. A minute, and
+the whole Corso rains, hails, and pelts flowers and white pills; nothing
+else is visible: up there laugh down at them whole balconies, filled
+with delirious men and women, throwing on their devoted heads, American,
+French, German, rattling, tumbling, fistfuls of _confetti_ and wild
+flowers:--even that half head of lettuce was among the things flying!
+English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Germans, Italians, Americans, and those
+wild northern bloods--all grit and game--the Russians, are down on them
+like a thousand of bricks. Hurrah! the carriages move on--they are safe.
+Hurrah for a new fight with fresh faces! _Avanti!_
+
+Comes a carriage load of wild Rustians. Ivan, the _mondjik_, fresh from
+the Nevskoi Prospekt, now drives for the first time in the Corso--_Dam
+na vodka, Sabakoutchelovek_, thinks he. Yes, my sweet son of a dog, thou
+shalt have _vodka_ to drink after all this scrimmage is over. So he
+holds in his horses with one hand, crowds down his fur hat with the
+other, so that his eyes will be safe; and then bravely faces the
+stinging shower of _confetti_ his lord and master draws down on him. Up
+on the back seat of this carriage, all life and fire, stands the Russian
+prince, with headpiece of mail and red surtout, a Carnival Circassian,
+'down on' the slow-plodding Italians, and throwing himself away with
+flowers and fun. Isn't he a picture? how his blue eyes gleam, how his
+long, wavy moustache curls with the play of features! how the flowers
+fly--how the rubles fly for them! Look at the other Russians--there are
+beards for you! beards grown where brandy freezes! but, they are thawed
+out now. Look at these men: hear their wild northern tongue, how it
+rolls out the sounds that frighten Italians back to sleepy sonnets and
+voluptuous songs. Hurrah, my Russians! look fate in the face. _Your_
+road is--onward!
+
+'Ah, yes; and really, my dear'--here a handful of white pills and lime
+dust breaks the sentence--'really my dear, hadn't we better'--'bang!'
+comes a tough bouquet, and hits milady on that bonnet--'better go to the
+hotel?'
+
+'Indeed, now,' milady continues, 'they don't respect persons, these low
+Italians. They haven't the faintest idea of dignity.'
+
+These 'low Italians' were more than probably fellow countrymen and women
+of the speaker; but they may have been 'low' all the same in her social
+barometer, for they pitched and flung, hurled and threw all the missiles
+they could lay hands on into the carriage of their unmistakable
+compatriots, with hearty delight; since the gentleman, who was not
+gentle, sat upright as a church steeple, never moving a muscle, and
+looking angry and worried at being flung at; and the milady also sat _a
+la mode de_ church steeple--throwing nothing but angry looks. They
+_went_ to the hotel. Sorrow go with them!
+
+Caper and Rocjean now began to throw desperately, for they had a large
+supply of flowers and _confetti_ on hand, which they were anxious to
+dispose of suddenly--since in ten minutes the horses would run, and then
+the carriages must leave the Corso. It was the last day of Carnival, and
+to-morrow--sackcloth and ashes. How the masks crowd around them; how the
+beautiful faces, unmasked, are smiling! Look at them well, stamp them on
+your heart, for many and many one shall we see never again. Another
+Carnival will bring them again, like song birds in summer; but a long,
+long winter will be between, and we will be far, far away.
+
+The Corso is cleared, the infantry half keeps the crowd within bounds, a
+charge of cavalry sweeps the street, and then come rattling, clattering,
+rushing on the bare-backed horses, urged on by cries, shouts, yells; and
+frightened thus to top speed, while the Dutch metal, tied to their sides
+increases their alarm--whir! they are past us, and--the bay horse is
+ahead.
+
+Again the carriages are in the Corso; here and there a few bouquets are
+thrown, floral farewells to the merry season: then as dusk comes on, and
+red and golden behind San Angelo flames the funeral pyre of the sun, and
+through the blue night twinkles the evening star, see down the Corso a
+faint light gleaming. Another and another light shines from balcony and
+window, flashes from rolling carriage, and flames out from along the
+dusky walls, till, _presto!_ you turn your head, and up the Corso, and
+down the Corso, there is one burst of trembling light, and ten thousand
+tapers are brightly gleaming, madly waving, brilliantly swaying to and
+fro.
+
+_Moccoli! ecco, moccoli!_
+
+Along roll carriages; high in air gleam tapers, upheld by those within;
+from every balcony and window shine out the swaying tapers. Hurrah!
+here, there, hand to hand are contests to put out these shining lights,
+and SENZA MOCCOLI! 'Out with the tapers!' rings forth in
+trumpet tones, in gay, laughing tones, in merry tones, the length of the
+whole glorious Corso.
+
+Daring beauty, wild, lovely bacchante, with black, beaming eyes, tempt
+us not with that bright flame to destruction! Look at her, as she stands
+so proudly and erectly on the highest seat in the carriage, her arms
+thrown up, her wild eyes gleaming from under jet black, dishevelled
+locks, while the night breeze flutters in wavy folds the drapery of her
+classic dress. _Senza moccoli!_ she sends the challenge ringing down
+through fifteen centuries. He braves all; the carriage is climbed, the
+taper is within his reach.
+
+'To-morrow I leave!'
+
+She flings the burning taper away from her.
+
+'Then take this kiss!'
+
+'SENZA MOCCOLI!' black, witching eyes--farewell!
+
+'Boom!' rings out the closing bell; fast fades the light, 'Out with the
+tapers!' the shout swells up, up, up, then slowly dies, as die an
+organ's tones--and Carnival is ended.
+
+A handful of beautiful flowers, found among gray, crumbling ruins; a few
+notes of wild, stirring music, suddenly heard, then quickly dying away
+in the lone watches of the night: these are the hours of the Roman
+Carnival.
+
+  'Played is the comedy, deserted now the scene.'
+
+
+THE VERMILION MIRACLE.
+
+Miracles are no longer performed in Rome. As soon as the police are
+officially informed, they prevent their being worked even in the
+Campagna:--official information, however, always travels much faster
+when the spurs of heretical incredulity are applied--otherwise it lags;
+and the performances of miracle-mongers insure crowded houses, sometimes
+for years.
+
+Among Caper's artist friends was a certain Blaise Monet, French by
+nature, Parisian by birth, artist or writer according to circumstances.
+Circumstances--that is to say, two thousand francs left him by a
+deceased relation--created him a temporary artist in Rome.
+
+'When the money is gone,' said he, 'I shall endow some barber
+with my goat's hair brushes, and resume the stylus: the first
+have attractions--capillary--for me; the latter has the
+attraction--gravitation of francs--still more interesting--that is to
+say, more stylish.'
+
+Blaise Monet with the May breezes fled to a small town on top of a high
+mountain, in order to enjoy them until autumn: with the rains of October
+he descended on Rome.
+
+'How did you enjoy yourself up in that hawk's nest?' Caper asked him,
+when he first saw him after his return to the city.
+
+'Like the king D'Yvetot. My house was a castle, my drink good wine, my
+food solid--the cheese a little too much so, and a little too much of
+it: no matter--the views made up for it. Gr-r-rand, magnificent,
+splendid--in fact, paradise for twenty baiocchi a day, all told.'
+
+'And as for affairs of the heart?'
+
+'My friend, mourn with me: that hole was--so to speak in regard to that
+matter--a monastery, without doors, windows, or holes; and a wall around
+it, so high, it shut out--hope! I wish you could have seen the camel who
+was my monastic jailer.'
+
+'That is, when you say camel, you mean jackass?'
+
+'Precisely! Well, my friend, his name was Father Cipriano; though why
+they call a man father who has no legal children, I can't conceive,
+though probably many of his flock do. He prejudiced the minds of the
+maidens against me, and made an attempt to injure my reputation among
+the young men and elders--in vain. The man who could paint a scorpion on
+the wall so naturally as even to delude Father Ciprian into beating it
+for ten minutes with that bundle of sticks they call a broom; the man
+who could win three races on a bare-backed horse, treat all hands to
+wine, and even bestow segars on a few of the elders; win a _terno_ at
+the Timbola, and give it back to the poor of the town; catch hold of the
+rope and help pull by the horns, all over town, the ox, thus
+preparatorily made tender before it was slaughtered: such a man could
+not have the ill will of the men.
+
+'Believe me, I did all my possible to touch the hearts of the maidens. I
+serenaded them, learning fearful _rondinelle_, so as to be popular; I
+gathered flowers for them; I volunteered to help them pick chestnuts and
+cut firewood; I helped to make fireworks and fire balloons for the
+festivals; I drew their portraits in charcoal on a white wall, along the
+main street; and when they passed, with copper water jars on their
+heads, filled with water from the fountain, they exclaimed:
+
+''_Ecco!_ that is Elisa, that is Maricuccia, that is Francesca.'
+
+'But I threw my little favors away: there was a black cloud over all, in
+a long black robe, called Padre Cipriano; and their hearts were
+untouched.
+
+'I made one good friend, a widow lady, the Signora Margarita Baccio: she
+was about thirty-three years of age, and was mourning for a second
+husband--who did not come; the first one having departed for _Cielo_ a
+few months past, as she told me. The widow having a small farm to hoe
+and dig, and about twelve miles to walk daily, I had but limited
+opportunities to study her character; but I believe, if I had, I should
+not have discovered much, since she had very little: she was deplorably
+ignorant, and excessively superstitious--but good natured and
+hopeful--looking out for husband No. 2. She it was that informed me that
+Padre Cipriano had set the faces of the maidens against me, and for this
+I determined to be revenged.
+
+'A short time before I left the town, my oil colors were about used up.
+I had made nearly a hundred sketches, and not caring to send to Rome for
+more paints, I used my time making pencil sketches. Among the tubes of
+oil colors left, of course there was the vermilion, that will outlast
+for a landscape painter all others, I managed to paint a jackass's head
+for the landlord of the inn where I boarded, with my refuse
+colors:--after all were gone, there still remained the vermilion. One
+day, out in the fields sketching an old tower, and watching the pretty
+little lizards darting in and out the old ruins, an idea struck me. The
+next day I commenced my plan.
+
+'I caught about fifty lizards, and painted a small vermilion cross on
+the head of each one, using severe drying oil and turpentine, in order
+to insure their not being rubbed off.
+
+'The next dark night, when Padre Cipriano was returning from an
+excursion, he saw an apparition: phosphorus eyes, from the apothecary; a
+pair of horns, from the butcher; a tall form, made from reeds, held up
+by Blaise Monet, and covered with his long cloak, made in the Rue
+Cadet--strode before him with these words:
+
+''I am the shade of Saint Inanimus, boiled to death by Roman legions,
+for the sake of my religion--in oil. My bones long since have mouldered
+in the dust, but, where they lie, the little lizards bear a red cross on
+their heads. Seek near the old tower by the old Roman road, here at the
+foot of this mountain, and over it erect a chapel, and cause prayers to
+be said for Saint Inanimus: I, who was boiled to death for the sake of
+my religion--in oil.'
+
+''Sh-sh-shade of S-s-saint Ann-on-a-muss, w-w-what k-kind of oi-oil was
+it?' gasped Padre Cipriano.
+
+'The shade seemed to collect himself as if about to bestow a kick on the
+padre, but changed his mind as he screamed:
+
+''Hog oil. Go!'
+
+'The priest departed in fear and trembling, and the next day the whole
+town rang with the news that an apparition had visited Padre Cipriano,
+and that a procession for some reason was to be made at once to the old
+tower. Accordingly all the population that could, set forth at an early
+hour in the afternoon, the padre first informing them of all the
+circumstances attending the ghostly visitor, the red-headed cross
+lizards by no means omitted. Arrived at the tower, they were fortunate
+enough to find a red-cross lizard, then another, and another; and it
+being buzzed about that one of them was worth, I don't know how many
+gallons of holy water--the inhabitants moreover believing, if they had
+one, they could commit all kinds of sins free gratis, without
+confession, &c.,--there at once commenced, consequently, a most
+indecorous riot among those in the procession; taking advantage of
+which, the lizards made hurried journeys to other old ruins. The
+inhabitants of another small town, having heard of the _Miracolo delle
+lucertole_, came up in force to secure a few lizards for their
+households: then commenced those exquisite battles seen nowhere else in
+such perfection as in southern Italy.
+
+'His eyes starting out of his head, his hands and legs shaking with
+excitement, one man stands in front of another so 'hopping mad' that you
+would believe them both dancing the tarantella, if you did not hear them
+shout--such voices for an opera chorus!--
+
+''You say that to _me_? to ME? to ME!' Hands working.
+
+''I do, to _you!_'
+
+''To me, _me_, ME?' striking himself on his breast.
+
+''Yes, yes, I do, I do!'
+
+''What, to ME! ME! _I_?' both hands pointing toward
+his own body, as if to be sure of the identity of the person; and that
+there might not be the possibility of any mistake, he again shouts,
+screams, yells, shrieks: 'To me? What, that to ME! to ME!'
+hands and arms working like a crab's.
+
+'Then the entire population rush, in with, 'Bravo, Johnny, bravo!' At
+last, after they have screamed themselves black in the face, and swung
+their arms and legs until they are ready to drop off, both combatants
+coolly walk off; and a couple of fresh hands rush in, assisted by the
+splendid Roman chorus, and begin:
+
+''What, ME? ME?' &c.
+
+'But the battle of the lizards was conducted with more spirit than the
+general run of quarrels, for the people were fighting for remission of
+their sins as it were--the possession of every sanctified red-headed
+lizard being so much money saved from the church, so many years out of
+purgatory.
+
+'The _gendarmerie_ heard the row, and at once rushed down--four soldiers
+comprised the garrison--to dissipate the crowd: this they managed to do
+in a peaceable way. There happened to be a heretical spur in the town,
+in the shape of three German artists, and this incited the bishop of the
+province, who was at once informed of the miracle-working doings of
+Father Ciprian, to displace him.
+
+'Thus, my dear friend, I was left to make love to the girls until I had
+to return to Rome--unfortunately only two weeks' time--for the
+newly-appointed priest had not the opportunity to set them against me.
+
+'The moral of this long story is: that even vermilion can be worked up
+in a miraculous manner--if you put the powerful reflective faculty in
+motion; and doing so, you can have the satisfaction of knowing that by
+its means you can cause an invisible sign to be stuck up over even a
+country town in Italy: '_All Persons are Forbidden to Work Miracles
+Here!_''
+
+
+THE POPOLO EXHIBITION.
+
+The government, aware of its foreign reputation for patronizing the
+_Belle Arti_, has an annual display of such paintings and sculpture as
+artists may see fit to send, and--the censor see fit to admit: for, in
+_this_ exhibition, 'nothing is shown that will shock the most fastidious
+taste'--and it can be found thus, in a building in the Piazza del
+Popolo.
+
+Caper's painting for the display was rejected for some reason. It
+represented a sinister-looking brigand, stealing away with Two Keys in
+one hand and a spilt cap in the other, suddenly kicked over by a
+large-sized donkey, his mane and tail flying, head up, and an air of
+liberty about him generally, which probably shocked Antonelli's tool the
+censor's sense of the proprieties.
+
+Rocjean consoled Caper with the reflection that his painting was refused
+admittance because the donkey had gradually grown to be emblematical of
+the state--in fact, was so popularly known to the _forestieri_ as the
+Roman Locomotive, with allusions to its steam whistle, &c., highly
+annoying to the chief authorities--and therefore, its introduction in a
+painting was intolerable, and not to be endured.
+
+The works of art included contributions from Americans, Italians,
+Belgians, Swiss, English, Hessians, French, Dutch, Danes, Bavarians,
+Spaniards, Norwegians, Prussians, Russians, Austrians, Finns,
+Esthonians, Lithuanians, Laplanders, and Samoyedes. There was little
+evidence of the handiwork of mature artists; they either withheld their
+productions from dislike of the managers, or through determination of
+giving their younger brethren a fair field and a clear show. A careful
+observer could see that these young artists had not profited to the
+fullest extent by the advantages held out to them through a residence in
+the Imperial City. There was a wine-yness, and a pretty-girl-yness, and
+tobacco-ness, about paintings and sculpture, that could have been picked
+up just as well in Copenhagen or Madrid or New York as in Rome. Michael
+Angelo evidently had not 'struck in' on their canvases, or Praxiteles
+struck out from their marbles. Theirs was an unrevealed religion to
+these neophytes.
+
+The study of a piece of old Turkey carpet, or a camel's hair shawl, or a
+butterfly's wing, or a bouquet of many flowers would have taught the
+best artist in the exhibition more concerning color than he would learn
+in ten years simply copying the best of the old painters, who had
+themselves studied directly from these things and their like.
+
+In sculpture, as in painting, the artists showed the same tame following
+other sculptors; the same fear of facing Nature, and studying her face
+to face. A pretty kind of statue of Modesty a man would make, who would
+take the legs of a satyr, the body of a Venus, the head of Bacchus, the
+arms of Eros, and thus construct her; yet scarcely a modern statue is
+made wherein some such incongruous models do not play their part. Go
+with a clear head, not one ringing with last night's debauch, and study
+the Dying Gladiator! That will be enough--something more than five
+tenths of you young Popolites can stand, if you catch but the faintest
+conception of the mind once moving the sculptor of such a statue. After
+you have earnestly thought over such a masterpiece, go back to your
+studio: break up your models for legs, arms, bodies, and heads: take the
+scalpel in hand, and study _anatomy_ as if your heart was in it. Have
+the living model nude before you at all times. Close your studio door to
+all 'orders,' be they ever so tempting: if a fastidious world will have
+you make 'nude statues dressed in stockinet,' tell it to get behind you!
+After long years of earnest study and labor, carve a hand, a foot: if,
+when you have finished it, one living soul says, with truth, 'Blood,
+bones, and muscles seem under the marble!' believe that you are not far
+off from exceeding great reward.
+
+In the Popolo exhibition for 1858 was a marble statuette of Daphnis and
+Chloe, by Luigi Guglielmi, of Rome.
+
+Chloe had a low-necked dress on.
+
+The Roman censor disapproved of this. In a city claiming to be the 'HOME
+OF ART'--THEY PINNED A PIECE OF FOOLSCAP PAPER AROUND THE NECK OF
+CHLOE.
+
+Rome is the cradle of art:--if so, the sooner the world changes its
+nurse, the better for the babe!
+
+
+
+
+'MISSED FIRE!'
+
+  Oh not in Independence Hall
+    Will ye proclaim your will;
+  Nor read aloud your negro call,
+    As yet, on Bunker Hill.
+
+  He said he would, and thought he could,
+    And tried--and missed it clean;--
+  Now he's o'er the Border, and awa',
+    Weel thrashed and unco' mean.
+
+
+
+
+THE PROCLAMATION.
+
+[SEPTEMBER 22, 1862.]
+
+
+  Now who has done the greatest deed
+    Which History has ever known,
+  And who, in Freedom's direst need,
+    Became her bravest champion?
+  Who a whole continent set free?
+    Who killed the curse and broke the ban
+  Which made a lie of liberty?
+    You--Father ABRAHAM--you're the man!
+
+  The deed is done. Millions have yearned
+    To see the spear of Freedom cast:--
+  The dragon writhed and roared and burned:
+    You've smote him full and square at last.
+  O Great and True! You do not know,
+    You cannot tell, you cannot feel
+  How far through time your name must go,
+  Honored by all men, high or low,
+    Wherever Freedom's votaries kneel.
+
+  This wide world talks in many a tongue--
+    This world boasts many a noble state--
+  In _all_, your praises will be sung,
+    In all the great will call you great.
+  Freedom! Where'er that word is known,
+    On silent shore, by sounding sea,
+  'Mid millions or in deserts lone,
+    Your noble name shall ever be.
+
+  The word is out--the deed is done;
+    Let no one carp or dread delay:
+  When such a steed is fairly on,
+    Fate never fails to find a way.
+  Hurrah! hurrah! The track is clear,
+    We know your policy and plan;
+  We'll stand by you through every year:
+    Now, Father ABRAHAM, _you're_ our man!
+
+
+
+
+THE PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+
+The unexampled extent of newspaper issues in the United States has often
+excited the astonishment of intelligent observers; but it is doubtful
+whether the whole of the enormous truth could have been fully
+appreciated without the actual figures which reveal it. According to the
+"preliminary report" of the 8th census, 1860, recently published by the
+Hon. J.C.G. Kennedy, the superintendent, it appears that the annual
+circulation of newspapers and periodicals is no less than 927,951,548,
+or at the rate of 34.36 for every white man, woman, and child of our
+population. The annual value of all the printing done in the United
+States, for that year, is stated at a fraction less than thirty nine and
+three quarters millions of dollars.
+
+These numbers are sufficiently astounding; but the rate of increase
+since 1850, is, if possible, even more so. In that year, says Mr.
+Kennedy, the whole circulation amounted to 426,409,978 copies; and the
+rate of increase for the decade is 117.61 per cent., while the increase
+of the white population during the same period was only 38.12 per cent.
+If the circulation should continue to grow in the same proportion for
+the next ten years, the number of newspapers and periodicals issued in
+1870 will be a little over two billions.
+
+In addition to these domestic publications, no inconsiderable number of
+foreign journals is introduced into the United States. "The British
+Almanac and Companion" for 1862 states the number in 1860 to have been
+as follows: from Great Britain, 1,557,689; from France, 270,655; from
+Bremen, 41,171; from Prussia, 83,349. These figures comprehend only the
+foreign newspapers, and not the periodicals, some of which are
+republished in the United States.
+
+Persons competent to form a correct judgment, do not hesitate to say
+that the number of newspapers taken in this country, exceeds that in all
+the world beside. So vast an amount of reading matter, voluntarily
+sought for and consumed by the people, at a cost of so many millions of
+dollars, is one of the most remarkable phenomena of the present age of
+wonders, and proves the avidity with which information is received, as
+well as the incalculable influence which the press must have on the
+public mind. The popular newspaper, issued in immense numbers, is in
+truth emphatically an American institution. Nowhere else could an
+audience, capable of reading, be found sufficiently numerous to absorb
+the issues of our teeming press. It is the offspring and indispensable
+accompaniment of universal education and popular representative
+government. These could scarcely be maintained without it. Everywhere in
+Europe, except perhaps in England, Italy, and Switzerland, the press is
+little more than an engine of the government, used chiefly, or only, for
+its own political purposes. Here it enjoys absolute freedom, being
+responsible only to the laws for any abuse of its high privilege.
+
+This entire freedom promotes unbounded growth in journalism, and gives a
+circulation to the remotest cabin in the land. And if the unrestricted
+energies of the system produce fruits somewhat wild, not imbued with the
+refined flavor of better-cultivated productions, their universal
+distribution and bounteous fulness of supply make up somewhat for the
+deficiency in quality, and give promise of a future improvement, which
+will leave nothing to be desired. If every leaf of the forest were a
+sibylline record, and every month of the year should bring round the
+deciduous influences of autumn, the leaves that would then "strew the
+vales" of our country would give some adequate idea of the immense
+shower of these printed missiles which falls every day, every week, and
+every month, into the hands of the American people. Do they come as "a
+kindly largess to the soil they grew on," or do they scatter mischief
+where they fall? Of the power, for good or for evil, of this vast
+intellectual agency, there can be no question. But what is the nature of
+this influence? How does it affect the character and welfare of the
+community in which its unregulated and unlimited authority prevails?
+
+The daily papers of New York, and of some other cities, contain, in each
+sheet, an amount of printed matter equal to sixty-four pages of an
+ordinary octavo volume. The scope and variety of the information
+embodied in them, and the uniformity with which they are maintained from
+year to year, give evidence of wonderful enterprise, mechanical skill,
+and intellectual ability. Concentrating news from all parts of the
+world, by means of a vast and expensive organization, and discussing,
+with more or less profound learning and logic, all the important
+questions of the day, they have established an immense spiritual power
+in the bosom of modern society, such as was not known to the nations in
+past ages.
+
+It is true that much of the space in the great dailies, so voluminous as
+has been stated, is occupied in mere business notices and individual
+advertisements; and such is the case, generally, with the daily and
+weekly papers throughout the country. But even this, the humblest
+department of the newspaper, may justly be considered an invaluable
+instrument of civilization. It multiplies to an unlimited extent the
+means of communication among men, and is, therefore, a labor-saving
+invention of precisely the same character as the railroad and the steam
+engine. In a few brief phrases, made expressive by conventional
+understanding, every man can converse with thousands of his neighbors,
+and even of distant strangers. Without change of place, without labor of
+limbs or of lungs, the man of business can, in a single day, and every
+day, if he will, inform a whole community of his own wants, and of his
+readiness to meet the wants of others. The newspaper performs the work
+of thousands of messengers, and saves countless hours of labor to the
+whole community in which it circulates. In some sense, every man is
+brought nearer to every other. Each hears the innumerable voices which
+address him, and is able to distinguish the individual message which
+each one has sent.
+
+It is difficult to estimate the value of this simple agency in its
+social aspect. Its material saving is plain to the most cursory thought;
+but its higher influence in binding society together and making it
+homogeneous, if not equally apparent, is at least quite as indisputable.
+Civilization is the direct result of bringing mankind into cooperation
+and combined effort, so that the whole power of mind and body of whole
+communities is brought to bear in unison for the accomplishment of
+social ends. Therefore, as a mere instrument of intercommunication,
+rendering more direct and intimate the relations of individuals, and
+promoting ease, celerity, and harmony in their combined movements, the
+power of the press is prodigious and invaluable. But when this power is
+extended beyond the bounds of mere material interests and the relations
+of ordinary business--when it appeals to the intellect and enters the
+domain of art, literature, science, and philosophy, embracing politics,
+morality, and all the highest interests of mankind, its capacity for
+good would seem to be illimitable.
+
+In future ages, these innumerable sheets, which float so lightly on the
+surface of our civilization, will form imperishable records of the
+manners, habits, occupations, and the whole intellectual existence of
+our people. They are so numerous that no accident can destroy them all;
+and they will present to the eye of the future student of history the
+most lively, natural, and perfect picture--the very moving panorama--of
+the busy and teeming life of the present generation. No exhumed relics
+of buried cities, no hieroglyphic inscriptions upon ancient monuments,
+with whatever skill and genius deciphered, nor even any labored
+descriptions of past ages, which may have survived the ravages of time,
+will be equal to these memorials, in their power to recall the daily
+work, the amusements, the business, and, in short, the whole material,
+intellectual, and social being of our people.
+
+The types and footprints of creation, imprinted on the rocks and
+imbedded in the strata of the earth, giving knowledge of the existence
+and habits of extinct species of animals, and teaching how geological
+periods have succeeded each other, with their causes and concomitants,
+are not so plain and distinct to us, as will be these daily effusions,
+advertisements, and business notices of all kinds in the ordinary
+newspapers of the country, to future generations of men, who shall there
+seek to learn the successive and gradual steps by which the social
+fabric shall be built up on the foundations of human thought and action.
+Like the worm that crawls over the mud ere it hardens into rock; or the
+leaf that fixes its form and impress in the bed of coal; or like the
+bowlder that forms the pencil point of a mighty iceberg, scratching the
+rocks in its movement across a submerged plain, destined to be upheaved
+as a continent in some future convulsion; or like the coral insect,
+which, in forming his separate cell, unconsciously assists in laying the
+foundation of islands and vast regions of solid earth; we, the creatures
+of the hour, all unconscious of the record we are making, leave
+imperishable memorials of our existence and works, in the apparently
+petty and fugitive contents of the journals which we read daily, and in
+which we make known our business and our wants. Narratives and formal
+descriptions may be one-sided, and may easily deceive and mislead; but
+these indications, which will be preserved in the social strata as they
+slowly subside in the ocean of humanity, carry in themselves perfect
+fulness and absolute verity.
+
+One of the most significant and influential results of the wide and
+rapid circulation of newspapers is to be found in the simultaneous
+impression made on the popular mind throughout the vast extent of our
+country. Flashed on the telegraph, daguerreotyped and made visible in
+the newspaper, every event of any importance, occurring in any part of
+the world, is communicated, almost at the same moment, to many millions
+of people. All are impressed at the same time with the same thoughts, or
+with such kindred ideas as will naturally arise from reflection upon the
+same facts. Humor, with its thousand tongues, is hushed; and the
+telegraph, under control of agents employed to sift the truth, and
+responsible for it, takes its place. Falsehood still may, and, indeed,
+often does tamper with this mighty instrument; but its speed is so great
+that it can overtake even falsehood, and soon counteract and correct the
+mischief. What is the import of this momentous fact,--the instantaneous
+communication of information over a continent, and the participation of
+all minds, in the same thoughts, virtually at the same time? Undoubtedly
+the result must be a closeness of intercourse and a completeness of
+cooperation, which will give to the social organization a power and
+efficiency in accomplishing great ends, such as no human thought has
+ever heretofore conceived. Society becomes a unity in the highest and
+truest sense of that term; like the bodily frame of the individual man,
+it is connected throughout all its parts by a network of nerves, every
+member sympathizing with every other, feeling the same impulses, having
+the same knowledge, and forming judgments upon the same facts. When
+sentiments are perfectly harmonious among men, the increase of power is
+not merely in proportion to numbers. It grows in a much higher ratio.
+The effect is something like that of multiplying the surfaces in a
+galvanic battery, or increasing the coils in an electro-magnetic
+apparatus. Passion in a multitude becomes a tornado. Eloquence moves a
+large audience with a power vastly greater than when the listeners are
+few. Similar is that strange influence which fashion exerts in all
+societies. Nor is this sympathetic multiplication of power limited to
+passion or artistic sentiment: it extends to opinions and all
+intellectual phenomena. A person feeling strong emotions or having
+profound convictions, and knowing them to be shared by millions of
+others, inevitably experiences a strengthening and intensifying
+influence from the sympathy of his fellows. If he knew himself to be
+solitary and alone in his opinions, unsupported by that human sympathy
+which every one craves, his ideas would languish, and be greatly
+diminished in their power. It is only great minds, of exceptional
+character, which can do battle, single-handed, against the world. Most
+men require to be propped and supported on all sides, by the great power
+of public opinion. The approach to unanimity of thought promoted by the
+general circulation of newspapers, has something of the marvellous
+effects seen in other cases, in enhancing the moral and intellectual
+power of the community.
+
+The telegraph is the legitimate offspring of the newspaper. In the
+absence of the latter, there would have been comparatively little use
+for the former. Without the almost universal distribution of the
+newspaper, instantaneous communication of news would not have been so
+much required, and the invention for that purpose would hardly have been
+made. It is probably in the United States alone, with its unlimited
+circulation of newspapers, that this extraordinary application of
+natural forces could have been conceived. It is here those wonderful
+lightning presses have been constructed, under the stimulus of that vast
+demand for daily papers which arises from the general education of the
+people and their avidity for information. In no other state of things
+could such combinations have been imagined, because there would have
+been no occasion for the inventive effort, and even the very idea would
+not have occurred. Although the wide extent of our country, the vast
+distances separating important centres of commerce and industry, and the
+general activity and energy of men in this free government, all
+concurred in enforcing the necessity of this latest wonder of human
+ingenuity--the telegraph,--yet the newspaper, with its boundless
+circulation and power of distribution, was indispensable to make it
+available and to give it all its inestimable value.
+
+But, after all, the prodigious influence of the press, aided by its
+great instrument, the telegraph, derives its moral and political value
+chiefly from the lessons it teaches, and the good purposes it aims to
+accomplish. Unhappily, if the newspaper may be the means of doing
+incalculable good, it may also be instrumental in doing infinite
+mischief. If it may multiply the power of the community, by promoting
+harmony of thought and feeling, it may direct this concentrated energy
+to the wrong end, as well as to the right. Being a great vehicle for the
+communication of ideas on all subjects, it becomes a mighty instrument
+of education; entering almost every house in the land, and reaching the
+eye of every man, woman, and child who can read, it exercises almost
+supreme control over the sentiments of the masses. It is a tremendous
+intellectual engine, radiating the light of knowledge to the extremities
+of the land, and, in its turn, wielding, to some extent, the
+incalculable power which that knowledge imparts to its recipients.
+
+Like every other human agency, the press is liable to be controlled by
+sinister influences. Perhaps, from the entire absence of all direct
+responsibility, from its usual entire devotion to public affairs, and
+the acknowledged influence of its representations on the popular mind,
+it is peculiarly exposed to the seductions of patronage, and to the
+temptations of personal and mercenary interests. A mere party journal,
+involved in a perpetual conflict for power, and for the accompanying
+spoils, is, of all the depositaries of moral power, at once the most
+dangerous and the most contemptible. To it, truth is of secondary
+importance; having satisfied itself that no prosperity, or even liberty,
+can exist without the success of its men and measures, it makes
+everything bend to this purpose. The end justifies the means. Impartial
+statement or rational investigation is seldom to be found in its
+columns. Nevertheless, in the general competition which arises where the
+press is free, the _tendency_ will always be toward the true and the
+good. Rival journals will advocate different theories and maintain
+opposite systems; but free discussion will gradually eliminate error,
+and out of the multitudinous rays of different colors, diffused
+throughout society, will eventually come that perfect combination which
+constitutes the clear, pure, homogeneous light of truth. And even
+pending the early struggle and confusion which attend the inauguration
+of a free press, divergencies of opinion, ever tending to harmony,
+cannot become so great as to produce fatal effects. The rebellion of the
+Southern States of this Union could never have happened, in the presence
+of universal education and of a free press, whose emanations could have
+penetrated as widely as those which reach the people of the opposite
+section.
+
+In view of the high functions of the press and its immense influence in
+the nation,--its perpetual daily lessons, falling on the public mind
+like drops that wear away the hardest rock and work their channel where
+they will,--it is of the first importance to comprehend the power behind
+this imperial throne, which directs and controls it. Does it assume to
+originate and establish principles in government and morals? Or does it
+aspire only to the humbler office of propagating such ideas as have been
+sanctioned by the best judgment of the age, of illustrating their
+operation, and making them acceptable to the people? The fugitive essays
+and hurried comments on passing events, which fill the columns of
+newspapers, do not ordinarily constitute solid foundations on which the
+principles of social or political action can be safely established. The
+men usually employed in this work of distributing ideas, are not they
+who are capable of building up substantial systems by the slow process
+of induction, or who can, by the opposite system, apply great general
+truths to the purposes of national prosperity and happiness. They are
+far too much engaged in the active business of life,--too deeply
+involved in the strifes and turmoils of mankind,--too thoroughly imbued
+with the spirit of the passing hour, with all its passions and
+prejudices--to be the philosophic guides of humanity, and to lay down,
+with the serene logic of truth, the bases of moral and political
+progress. The inevitable sympathy between the editor and his daily
+readers--the action and reaction which constantly take place and
+insensibly lead the journalist into the paths of popular opinion and
+passion--these are too apt to render him altogether unfit to be an
+oracle in the great work of social organization and government. The
+common sense of the multitude is often an invaluable corrective of
+speculative error; but the impulses and strong prejudices of
+communities, though calculated to sweep along with them the judgments of
+all, are mostly pernicious, and sometimes dangerous in the extreme. The
+true remedy for these evils and dangers is, to employ in the management
+of the daily press, the noblest intellect, combined with the most
+incorruptible purity of motive. Commanding the entire confidence of the
+nation, and worthy of it, the lessons of this great teacher--the central
+light-giving orb of civilization--will be received with reverence and
+gratitude, and with a benign and fructifying influence, something like
+that which the sun sheds on the world of nature.
+
+A French philosopher, writing in 1840, says of us:
+
+     'This universal colony, notwithstanding the eminent temporal
+     advantages of its present position, must be regarded as, in fact,
+     in all important respects, more remote from a true social
+     reorganization than the nations from whom it is derived, and to
+     whom it will owe, in course of time, its final regeneration. The
+     philosophical induction into that ulterior state is not to be
+     looked for in America--whatever may be the existing illusions about
+     the political superiority of a society in which the elements of
+     modern civilization are, with the exception of industrial activity,
+     most imperfectly developed.'
+
+It may be admitted that we are yet somewhat behind the foremost nations
+of Europe in the higher walks of philosophy, and certainly in the
+practical application of true social principles, which, as yet, we do
+not fully comprehend, even if they do. But the conclusion of this author
+cannot be sound. However moderate may be our standard of knowledge in
+the United States, this knowledge, such as it is, is more widely
+diffused among the people who are to profit by it, than in any other
+country. If our attainments be comparatively small in philosophic
+statesmanship, the whole population partakes more or less in such
+progress as we have made; for education is universal, and whatever ideas
+are generated in the highest order of minds, soon become the familiar
+possession of all to the extremities of the land. Government yields with
+little opposition or delay to the interests and intelligence, and it may
+be, to the ignorance of the people: there is no other nation on the
+globe in which social forms and institutions are so plastic in the hands
+of wise and energetic men. By means of universal education and the
+perfect distribution of knowledge, we are laying the broadest possible
+basis on which the noblest structure may be raised, if we can only
+command the wisdom to build aright. The question, therefore, is, whether
+a whole people thoroughly educated and with the most perfect machinery
+for the diffusion of knowledge, though starting from a moderate
+condition of enlightenment, will outrun or fall behind other nations in
+which the few may be wiser, while the multitude is greatly more
+ignorant, and in which the forms of government and of social,
+organization are more rigid, and inaccessible to change or improvement.
+To answer this question will not cause much hesitation, at least in the
+mind of an American; and if we are not altogether what we think
+ourselves, the wisest and best of mankind, we may at least claim to be
+on the way to the highest improvement, with no serious obstacles in our
+path.
+
+
+
+
+OUR FRIENDS ABROAD.
+
+  Two souls alone are friends of ours
+  In all the British isles;
+  Who sorrow for our darkened hours
+  And greet our luck with smiles.
+  "And who may those twain outcasts be
+  Whose favor ye have won?"
+  The first is Queen of England's realm,
+  The other that good Queen's son.
+
+
+
+
+WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?
+
+     'Do but grasp into the thick of human life. Every one _lives_
+     it--to not many is it _known_; and seize it where you will, it is
+     interesting.'--_Goethe._
+
+     'SUCCESSFUL.--Terminating in accomplishing what is wished
+     or intended.'--_Webster's Dictionary._
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+DIAMOND CUT--PASTE.
+
+Elihu Joslin belonged to that class of knaves who are cowardly as well
+as unscrupulous. He never hesitated to cheat where he had an
+opportunity, trusting to his powers of blustering and browbeating to
+sustain him. When these failed, that is, when he encountered persons who
+were not imposed on nor intimidated by his swaggering, bullying mien, he
+showed his craven nature by an abject submission. From being an errand
+boy in an old-established paper house in the city, he had himself become
+the proprietor of a large business in the same line. He had but a single
+idea--to make money. And he did make it. His reputation among the trade
+was very bad. But this did not, as it ought to have done, put him out of
+the pale of business negotiations. Every merchant knows that there are
+many rich men in business, whose acts of dishonesty and whose tricks
+form a subject of conversation and anecdote with their associates in
+trade, yet who are not only tolerated, but are by some actually courted.
+Joslin, when quite a young man, had been the assignee of his employer,
+who hoped to find in him a pliant tool. He soon found his mistake. He
+had put himself completely in the power of his clerk, and the latter
+took full advantage of it. The result was, his principal was beggared,
+and Joslin rose on his ruins.
+
+It was a favorite practice with Joslin to discover men who were short of
+money, lend them what they wanted, and thus, after a while, get control
+of all they possessed. When Joslin first met Mr. Burns, he hoped to
+entangle him as he had his friend. But the former was too good a
+merchant and in too sound a position to be brought in this way into his
+toils. He was therefore obliged to have recourse to sheer knavery to
+compass his object. The fact of Mr. Burns living so far from the city,
+the great expense which would be entailed on him by a litigation, and
+the natural repugnance he thought Mr. Burns would have to a lawsuit,
+emboldened him to employ the most high-handed measures to cheat him. The
+fact was, Mr. Burns's paper had become well known in the market, and
+commanded a ready sale. The manufacture was even--the texture firm and
+hard. There was a continually increasing demand for it. Joslin
+determined on--even for him--some audacious strokes. He sent a lot of
+the paper to an obscure auctioneer, one of his tools, and had it bid off
+in the name of a young man in his store. He thereupon reported the
+entire consignment to be unsalable, and credited Mr. Burns with the
+whole lot at the auction prices, less expenses. In this way he claimed
+to have no funds when Mr. Burns's drafts became due, and called on the
+latter for the ready money. The previous consignment he pretended to
+have sold in the city, at a time when paper was much lower than usual,
+but he had returned for this the then market price. Really he had not
+sold the paper at all. Knowing it was about to rise, he simply reported
+a sale, and kept the paper on hand to take advantage of the market, and
+he was now selling it at an advance of ten per cent, on the previous
+rates.
+
+Mr. Burns had never before encountered so desperate a knave. As we have
+said, the affair troubled him greatly. True, he was determined to
+investigate it thoroughly, but he could not well afford the time to go
+himself to New York. His chief man at the paper mill had failed to
+accomplish anything; so it was a great relief when Hiram volunteered his
+services. Mr. Burns could not tell why, but he had a singular confidence
+that Hiram would bring the matter out right. He was up to see his
+confidential clerk off in the stage, which passed through Burnsville
+before daylight, and which was to call at the office for its passenger.
+From that office a light could be seen glimmering as early as three
+o'clock. Hiram, after an hour or two in bed, where he did not close his
+eyes, had risen, and taking his valise in his hand, had gone to the
+office, and was again deep in the accounts. He would make memorandums
+from time to time, and at last wrote a brief note to Mr. Burns, asking
+him to send forward by the first mail a full power of attorney. At
+length the stage horn was heard. Hiram rose, opened his valise, and
+placed his papers within it. The stage wheeled rapidly round the corner,
+and drew up at the office door; Hiram extinguished the light, seized his
+valise, stepped quietly out, and was in the act of turning the key--he
+had a duplicate--when Mr. Burns arrived.
+
+'I thought,' he said, 'I would see you off. You will have a fine day,
+and reach New Haven in ample time for the boat.'
+
+'I have left a brief note on your table,' responded Hiram, 'to ask for a
+power of attorney. I think it may be important.'
+
+'You shall have it. Good luck to you. Write me how you get along.
+Good-by.'
+
+He shook Hiram's hand with an enthusiasm which belonged to his nature.
+The latter extended his cold, dry palm to his employer, and said, 'Good
+morning, sir,' and got inside. He did not in the least enter into Mr.
+Burns's cheerful, sympathizing spirit. If the truth must be told, he had
+not the slightest sympathy for him; neither did any desire to extricate
+him from this awkward business induce the present adventure. He cared no
+more for Mr. Burns than he did for Mr. Joslin. But he did enjoy the idea
+of meeting that knave and circumventing him. It was the pleasantest
+'duty' he ever had undertaken. On it his whole thoughts were centred.
+What did he care whether the day was fair or foul--whether the roads
+were good or bad? He longed to get to work at Joslin.
+
+The stage door closed, and the vehicle rolled swiftly away. Mr. Burns
+stood a moment looking after it. He had felt the entire absence of
+responsive sympathy in his clerk, and his old feeling returned, as it
+invariably did at times. He walked slowly toward his house.
+
+'Why is it that I so often wish I was rid of that fellow, when he serves
+me so effectually?'
+
+Mr. Burns turned before entering, and cast his eyes over the horizon.
+Daylight was just streaking the sky from the east. Joel Burns paused,
+and directed his glance over the town--the town he had founded and made
+to flourish. Tears stood in his eyes. Wherefore? He was thinking of the
+time when, after Mr. Bellows's death, he had, step by step, carefully
+travelled over this locality, while laying plans for his future career.
+Here--just here--he had marked four trees to indicate the site for his
+house, and here he had built it.
+
+'Oh, Sarah, why had you to leave me?'
+
+The words, uttered audibly, recalled him to himself. He opened and
+passed through the gate, and stepped on the piazza.
+
+'Is that you, father?' It was his daughter's voice. He looked up and saw
+her at the window. 'I heard you go out, and I have been watching for you
+ever since. Did Mr. Meeker get off?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Wait, father, and I will come down and take a walk with you. Wouldn't
+you like it?'
+
+'Yes, dear, very much.'
+
+They walked on together in silence. Presently Sarah perceived they were
+going in the direction of the burying ground. Mr. Burns entered it with
+his daughter, and soon stood by his wife's grave.
+
+'She left us early, my child. You do not forget her?'
+
+'Oh no, father!'
+
+'Do you remember all about her--_all_?'
+
+'Yes, everything.'
+
+'I know it--I know you do. Why is it, Sarah, that lately I feel more
+solitary than usual?'
+
+'Do you, father?'
+
+'Yes, since--' He paused, unwilling, it would seem, to finish the
+sentence.
+
+'You know, father, I have not been quite so much with you since Mr.
+Meeker came. You are more in the office.'
+
+'So I am. I wish--' He hesitated again. Evidently something oppressed
+him.
+
+Just then the first slanting rays of the morning sun gleamed over the
+place--pleasant rays, which seemed to change the current of Mr. Burns's
+thoughts, lighting up his soul as they were lighting the universe.
+
+He spoke cheerfully: "Let us run home, now. And, Sarah, won't you see
+that we have a very nice breakfast? Early rising has given me an
+appetite."
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+All this time the stage was conveying Hiram Meeker toward his
+goal--toward Elihu Joslin. He reached New Haven in time for the boat,
+and early the following morning was in New York. At this date the town
+had not assumed its present magnificent proportions. Broadway, above
+Canal street, was lined with private residences instead of stores, and
+Bleecker street was one of the most fashionable in the city.
+Nevertheless it was already imposing, especially to a young man from the
+country.
+
+Hiram had visited New York on two several occasions when a boy, in
+company with his mother, but latterly had not found any opportunity to
+do so. Lauding from the boat, he made his way to the then leading hotel,
+'The Franklin House,' and entered his name, and presently went in to
+breakfast. After he had finished, he stepped out on the sidewalk. He
+beheld a continuous stream of human beings pouring along this
+extraordinary thoroughfare. Omnibuses, carts, wagons, and vehicles of
+every description already filled the way.
+
+Hiram stood and regarded the scene. 'What a field here!' he said to
+himself. 'Look at this mass of people. Every other man an idiot--and of
+the rest, not one in a thousand has more than a medium share of brains.
+What a field, indeed, to undertake to manage and direct and control
+these fellows! What machinery though! Not too fast. This is the place
+for me. Burnsville-pho! Now, friend Joslin, * * * *
+
+Hiram made his way to the store of H. Bennett & Co., in Pearl street.
+Mr. Bennett was in; glad to see Hiram, but wonderfully busy. He invited
+his relative to dinner--indeed, asked him why he had not come direct to
+his house. Then he turned away to business.
+
+All this did not fluster Hiram in the slightest. He waited a few
+minutes; then took occasion to interrupt Mr. Bennett, and say he wished
+to speak with him on something of importance.
+
+'Certainly,' replied the other. 'What can I do for you?'
+
+'I come to New York on special business,' said Hiram. 'It is necessary I
+should know just what kind of a person Elihu Joslin is--the large paper
+dealer in Nassau street. I have not your facilities for ascertaining,
+and I ask you, as a particular favor, to find out for me.'
+
+'Joslin!' exclaimed Mr. Bennett. 'I hope none of your people are in his
+clutches. He is a very hard case to deal with, so they say.'
+
+'Is he rich?'
+
+'Yes, worth a couple of hundred thousand, easy.'
+
+'How does he stand with the trade?'
+
+'Oh, unpopular enough, I should imagine. Can't tell you particularly--is
+not in my line, you know; but if the matter is really pressing, you
+shall learn all you wish to in an hour.'
+
+'Thank you. I must know all about him prior to a personal interview,
+which I am to have.'
+
+'I see. Call in at twelve o'clock, and the information will be ready for
+you.'
+
+'One word more. Do you know the house of Orris & Tweed, auctioneers?'
+
+'Orris & Tweed? Never heard their name before.'
+
+'It is in the directory.'
+
+'I dare say. That don't amount to anything.'
+
+'Please let me know something of them, too. I am sorry to give you this
+trouble; but I am a greenhorn in New York, and have a difficult matter
+on my hands.'
+
+'No trouble--at least, I don't count it such to help a friend in the way
+of business. Besides, if you are a greenhorn, you act as if you know
+what you are about.'
+
+H. Bennett, of the prosperous house of Bennett & Co., would not have
+devoted five minutes extra to his namesake in the way of social chat;
+regarding such conduct in business hours, and in the busy season, as
+worse than superfluous; but as a matter of business, though purely
+incidental and profitless, he would have given the whole day to Hiram's
+affair, if absolutely necessary.
+
+Mr. Bennett here gave some special directions to one of his numerous
+clerks, a sharp, active-looking fellow, with a keen eye and an air like
+a game cock, who vanished as soon as they were received.
+
+Hiram left the store, and turning into Wall street, walked on till he
+reached Nassau street, in which was the establishment of Elihu Joslin.
+He strolled on without any special purpose, till his attention was
+arrested by an obstruction on the sidewalk. It was simply the ordinary
+circumstance of the delivery of goods. In this instance a dray was
+backed up to the curbstone, with paper. Hiram looked at it carefully. It
+was of Mr. Burns's manufacture. He glanced up to see the name of the
+house. It was not Joslin.
+
+A new thought flashed on him. Actuated by it, he commenced to speak with
+the carman, but checked himself, and walked boldly into the store, and
+back to the counting room.
+
+'I see you have Burns's paper. I want to purchase a small quantity of
+it.'
+
+'We couldn't supply you, to-day--have just got this in to fill an order.
+His paper stands so high that it is scarce in the market. How much do
+you want? We may get some more in by Thursday.'
+
+'Only a few reams to make out an assortment. I suppose I can buy of you
+on as good terms as of Joslin.'
+
+'For a small lot, I am sure, better; indeed, I have this direct from
+him, which is the same thing as if sent from the mill. You know the
+manufacturers will sell only to jobbers. You are in the retail line, I
+presume?'
+
+'I am; and I wish you would spare me a couple of reams out of this lot,
+and send them round to H. Bennett & Co.'s, Pearl street.'
+
+The merchant recognized in Hiram a young country storekeeper, and,
+desirous as all merchants are to make new acquaintances, was willing to
+accommodate him. H. Bennett & Co. was a first-class name, and this
+decided him to break into the lot, which was already sold to somebody
+else.
+
+Hiram paid for his purchase, called up a carman instanter, and never
+took his eye off the paper till it was delivered at Mr. Bennett's store.
+
+That gentleman was standing at the door, saying good-by to a first-rate
+customer, when Hiram came up with his cart, and directed his two reams
+of paper to be deposited inside.
+
+'Well, youngster, what's all this? said Mr. Bennett, good humoredly.
+
+'A little speculation of mine,' quoth Hiram, quietly.
+
+'Well, men do sometimes buy their own _paper_, I know--that is, when
+there is a promise to pay written on it; but this is a blank lot.'
+
+'It will prove a prize to me, unless I am mistaken.'
+
+Mr. Bennett caught the general idea on the instant. The two exchanged
+looks, such as are only current between very 'cute, knowing,
+sharp-witted men. Hiram was betrayed into returning Mr. Bennett's leer
+before he was aware of it. It was a spontaneous recognition, and he felt
+ashamed at being thus thrown off his guard. He colored slightly, and
+said something about his duty to his employer.
+
+'There's where you're right,' replied Mr. Bennett. 'A man who does not
+serve his employer well will not serve himself well in the long run;
+that you may be sure of.'
+
+The conversation ended here. Hiram strolled out again for half an hour;
+and when he returned, Mr. Bennett was able to give him a daguerreotype
+of Elihu Joslin's character, which agreed with that with which we have
+already favored the reader. As to 'Orris & Tweed, auctioneers,' they
+were not much better than Peter Funks--lived by acting as stool pigeons,
+and cheating generally.
+
+Hiram left the store rejoicing at this intelligence, and took his way
+direct to Joslin's place. Inquiring if that personage was in, he was
+told yes, but specially engaged. Hiram sat for a full hour, waiting
+patiently: then he was told to go into the private counting room.
+
+Entering, he beheld a large, overgrown, rough-looking man, about five
+and thirty, with black hair and eyes, and a coarse, florid complexion,
+who looked up and nodded carelessly on his entering.
+
+'This is Mr. Joslin, I presume?'
+
+Yes.'
+
+'My name is Meeker, I come from Burnsville--am in the employ of Mr.
+Burns.'
+
+'Well?'
+
+'I have come down to take a look at York, and knowing you owned half the
+paper mill, guessed you was a friend of Mr. Burns, and might not object
+to let some of your folks show me about a little.'
+
+'You don't belong in the mill, then?'
+
+'No; but I've been all over it. It's curious work--paper making.'
+
+'How long are you going to stay here?'
+
+'Well, I want to make a little visit and see the place. In fact, I've a
+notion to come here by-and-by, and I would like to look about first.
+Don't you want a clerk yourself?'
+
+'What can you do?'
+
+'I can tend store first rate.'
+
+'What do you want to leave Burns for?'
+
+'I didn't say I wanted to leave him. He's a first-rate man, if he was
+only a little sharper--got too many soft spots: that's what I hear folks
+say. But I think I should like New York.'
+
+'Well, Nicker--'
+
+'Meeker, if you please.'
+
+'All right, I say, Meeker; we are pretty busy now, but if you want to
+see the elephant--and I suppose you do--I will introduce you to one of
+my boys, who will give you a chance.'
+
+He stepped out, beckoning Hiram to follow.
+
+'Hill! Tell Hill to come here, some of you. Hill, this is Mr. Meeker, in
+the employ of our particular friend, Mr. Burns, of Burnsville. He wants
+to see something of the city. You must do what you can for him. I would
+not wish to slight any one, you know, who belongs with Mr. Burns.'
+
+'All right, sir,' said Hill, a jaunty, devil-may-care looking fellow,
+with a sallow, sickly face, evidently the result of excess and
+dissipation.' If the young gentleman will tell me where he stops. I will
+call for him this evening.'
+
+'At the Franklin House,' responded Hiram.
+
+'The devil!' exclaimed Joslin. 'Tall quarters, I should say.'
+
+'Ain't it a good place, sir? I was told it was a good house on board
+the boat.'
+
+'Good! I should think it was. The best in New York. A dollar and a half
+a day: did you understand that?'
+
+'No, sir; I did not ask the price.'
+
+'Green, that's a fact,' said Joslin to himself.' Never mind,' he
+continued, 'Hill will recommend you to his boarding place, if you like.
+Good day;' and Hiram took his leave.
+
+'I say, Hill, I want to find out how matters stand with Burns. You've
+got just the chance now. Put this chap through generally. His mother
+don't seem to know he's out. Don't mind a few dollars: you understand?
+And recollect, pump him dry.'
+
+'Dry as a sandbank,' said Hill, who was already chuckling over the sport
+in prospect.
+
+Mr. Joslin continued his instructions, which, as they were of a strictly
+private nature, we should be violating confidence to record.
+
+Hiram occupied himself the remainder of the day in looking about the
+town. He took one of Brower's omnibuses and rode to the end of the route
+in Broadway, opposite Bond street. Here he descended and retraced his
+steps. Broadway was then the general promenade. Hiram's pulse beat quick
+as he gazed on the beauty and fashion of the metropolis moving
+magnificently along. Susceptible as he was, he had never before been so
+impressed with female charms. He thought of the belles of Hampton and
+Burnsville with a species of disgust. His own costume, which he regarded
+as so perfect, he perceived had a provincial, country look, when
+contrasted with that of the gentlemen he encountered. Now in business
+matters, Hiram was as much at home and as self-possessed in New York as
+in Connecticut. But when it came to the display he now beheld, he felt
+and acknowledged his inferiority.
+
+Here Hiram _was_ green. He did not stop to reflect that fine feathers
+make fine birds, so suddenly was he confronted with the glittering
+panorama. He continued to mingle with the crowd which swept along, and
+sometimes the blood would rush swiftly to his brain, causing him to
+reel, as dark eyes would be turned languidly on him, exhibiting, as he
+was ready to believe, an incipient interest in his destiny.
+
+Below Canal street the character of the current began to change, till
+gradually Hiram was freed from the exciting trial he had been subjected
+to. He collected his thoughts and brought his mind back to his work--and
+his work Hiram Meeker never neglected. Slowly the old current drove out
+the new. Gradually his mind returned to its even tenor. He walked
+through the custom house. He entered the exchange. He visited the
+shipping; and when he got back to the hotel, he was tired and hungry
+enough. But, tired and hungry as he was, he proceeded at once to open
+his valise and take out a bundle of papers. Glancing over certain
+account sales, his eye fell on the name of HILL as purchaser. A
+peculiar gleam of satisfaction passed over his face as he replaced the
+papers in his valise and went down to dinner.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+At the appointed hour, the young gentleman whom Mr. Joslin had addressed
+as 'Hill' waited on Hiram at the Franklin House. He sent up his card,
+and Hiram descended to meet him. He could scarcely recognize the young
+man before him, dressed in a ridiculous extreme of fashion, and covered
+with rings, pins, and gold chains, as the clerk hard at work with coat
+off, superintending the stowing away of a lot of merchandise. But Hiram
+was in no way deceived or taken in by the imposing manner in which Mr.
+Hill had got himself up. He saw quickly the difference between the real
+and the flash fashionable. But he did not betray this by word or sign,
+and continued to maintain the character he had assumed of an
+unsophisticated, verdant country youth.
+
+Mr. Hill at the outset proposed they should take a drink, to which Hiram
+readily assented. They proceeded to the bar, when the young man asked
+his companion what he would have.
+
+'A glass of lemonade,' replied Hiram.
+
+'Lemonade!' exclaimed the other. 'You don't call that drinking with a
+fellow, do you?'
+
+'I can't take anything stronger,' answered Hiram. 'I belong to the
+temperance society.'
+
+'Temperance society!' retorted Hill, a good deal chapfallen that he was
+to lose his chief weapon of attack. 'I thought the pledge didn't hold
+when you were away from home?'
+
+'Oh, yes it does; our minister says it holds everywhere. Still, I
+wouldn't mind taking some soda and sarsaparilla, though Dr. Stevens says
+there's alcohol in the sarsaparilla.'
+
+Hiram was impracticable. Hill could not induce him even to take a little
+wine. He was so much chagrined that he poured out for himself a double
+portion of brandy, and, before he had finished it, regained his good
+humor.
+
+'Well, what do you say to another glass? I think I can stand the brandy,
+if you can the lemonade.'
+
+Hiram had no objections.
+
+Hill lighted a segar. Hiram did not smoke.
+
+'I hope you are not going to refuse my next invitation,' said Hill. 'I
+have got tickets for the theatre: what do you say?'
+
+Hiram had often discussed the theatre question, both at the lyceum and
+on other occasions. It was to be condemned--no doubt about it. But the
+Rev. Mr. Goddard had once remarked in his hearing that he thought if a
+good opportunity was presented for a young man to visit the theatre, he
+had perhaps better do so, than feel an irritating curiosity all his life
+about it.
+
+Seeing Hiram hesitate, Hill proceeded to urge him. 'You had better go,'
+he said. 'Lots to be seen. You don't know what you are losing, I tell
+you.'
+
+Hiram was not influenced by his companion's importunity, but he decided
+to go, nevertheless. The elder Kean was then in New York, and the old
+Park Theatre in all its glory. That evening Kean was to play Shylock in
+the 'Merchant of Venice.' Hill, greatly pleased that at last he had made
+some headway, took another glass of brandy and water, and the young men
+proceeded to the theatre. The house was crowded from galleries to pit.
+The orchestra was playing when they entered.
+
+Hiram was blinded by the brilliancy of the gaslights. His heart beat
+fast in spite of his effort to be composed.
+
+The play began with some second-rate actors, who went through the first
+scene with the usual affected stage strut and tone. Hiram thought he
+never witnessed anything more unnatural and ridiculous. Even in the
+second, where Portia and Nerissa hold a dialogue, he was rather
+disgusted than otherwise. The machinery had scarcely been adjusted for
+the third scene, when a storm of applause burst from all parts of the
+house; clapping of hands, stamping of feet, bravos, and various noises
+of welcome commingled, and Hiram beheld an old man enter, somewhat bent,
+dressed in a Hebrew cap and tunic, having a short cane, which would
+serve either for support or as a means of defence. As he advanced, he
+cast sidelong, suspicious, and sinister glances from beneath bushy,
+beetling eyebrows.
+
+At first Hiram was inclined to believe it was a real personage, so
+natural was his entrance--so destitute of all trick, or of anything got
+up.
+
+'That's Kean,' whispered Hill.
+
+Hiram held his breath as the words of the Jew broke distinctly on the
+house:
+
+'_Three thousand ducats--well._'
+
+He entered at once with the deepest interest into the play. With head
+leaning forward, eyes open wide and fixed on the speaker, he drank in
+every word. From the first he sympathized with the main character. When
+Shylock went on to say: 'Yet his means are in supposition: he hath an
+argosy bound to Tipolis, another to the Indies. I understand, moreover,
+upon the Rialto, he hath a third at Mexico, a fourth for England; and
+other ventures he hath, squandered abroad. But ships are but boards,
+sailors but men. There be land rats and water rats, land thieves and
+water thieves--I mean pirates; and there is the peril of waters, winds,
+and rocks. The man is notwithstanding sufficient:'--Hiram unconsciously
+shook his head, as if he doubted it.
+
+His whole soul was now centred in the performance. When it came to the
+trial, in the fourth act, he turned and twisted his body, as if he could
+with difficulty abstain from advising Shylock to accept the offer of
+Bassanio: 'For the three thousand ducats here is six.'
+
+It does not appear that Hiram felt any sympathy for the merchant who was
+to lose the pound of flesh; but for Shylock, when turned out of court
+stripped of all he had, it was intense. When at last he exclaims:
+
+  'Nay, take my life and all; pardon not that:
+  You take my house when you do take the prop
+  That doth sustain my house; you take my life
+  When you do take the means whereby I live:'
+
+Hiram leaned back, and exclaimed audibly: 'It's too bad, I declare!'
+
+All this time, Hill sat as quietly as he could. He laughed whenever
+Launcelot Gobbo appeared; and tried hard to get Hiram to go out and take
+more lemonade between the acts. Hiram would not move. He offered to
+introduce him to lots of pretty girls whom he pointed out in the
+distance; but it was useless. Hill began to think he would not make much
+of Hiram, after all. The evening was past, and he had as yet
+accomplished just nothing.
+
+The play was over. The farce had been performed. It did not interest
+Hiram. He thought everything over-strained and unnatural. It was now
+late, Hiram had declined various seductive invitations of Hill, when the
+latter finally insisted they should have some oysters. Hiram assented,
+and the two descended into Windust's.
+
+'Well, old fellow, what are you doing here?' was Hill's exclamation to a
+young man with notebook and pencil, seated at one of the small tables,
+on which already smoked an oyster stew and some brandy toddy.
+
+'Hallo, Hill, is that you? Sit down. What will you have?' was the reply.
+
+Hiram regarded the speaker curiously. He was twenty-two or three years
+old--serious looking, with black hair, dark eyes, and pale, bony
+features. He had the easy, indifferent air of one careless of opinion,
+or independent of it.
+
+'My friend, Mr. Meeker, from Connecticut.'
+
+'Mr. Meeker, Mr. Innis.'
+
+After these salutations, the parties sat down, and orders were given.
+
+'Excuse me,' said Innis; 'I am not quite through my work.'
+
+'Go ahead,' replied Hill; whereat the other proceeded with his pencil
+and notebook, scratching away in a most rapid manner.
+
+Seeing Hiram look as if he did not exactly comprehend the employment,
+Hill remarked, 'Innis is _item_ man and reporter for the _Clarion_, and
+you will see his notice of Kean's performance, which he is just
+finishing, in to-morrow morning's paper.'
+
+This struck Hiram as rapid work, considerably increasing his respect for
+the stranger, and led him to regard Innis still more critically. His
+appearance had impressed him favorably from the first.
+
+Suddenly he exclaimed, 'Wern't you at Newton Academy?'
+
+'Yes; and so were you. I remember now. You were a little fellow. You
+took the first prize in bookkeeping.'
+
+'And _you_ learned shorthand of Chellis.'
+
+'Which counts now, at any rate. I should starve without it.'
+
+During this colloquy Hill sat in utter amazement.
+
+'You a Newton boy?' he exclaimed at last.
+
+'Yes,' said Hiram.
+
+'And you know him, and no mistake?' to Innis.
+
+Innis nodded.
+
+'Then old Joslin may go to the devil. I--'
+
+'He'll go soon enough, and without your permission; and if you are not
+careful, you'll go with him,' interrupted Innis, rising. 'I am all right
+now,' he continued. 'I've but to step a block and a half and back. I
+will be with you again in three minutes;' and he darted off to hand in
+his evening's report.
+
+Hill sat looking at Hiram, who, with all his impenetrability wore a
+surprised and puzzled expression.
+
+'You don't remember me,' he said.
+
+'No.'
+
+'Why, I am Deacon Hill's son, of Newton. I quit the academy, I guess,
+just about the time you came. Innis and I were there together. Well, I
+declare, your innocent look threw me off the track; but I have seen you
+many a time in Hampton. You used to be with Jessup, didn't you?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'You've been coming possum over Joslin; isn't it so?'
+
+'I don't understand you.'
+
+'Oh, never mind; he's a cursed knave, anyway. I shall quit him first of
+January--keeps me on promises and the lowest kind of a salary, and no
+end of the dirty work--'
+
+'Such as sham sales of my employer's paper sold A.H. Hill,' interrupted
+Hiram, dryly.
+
+'Hallo! where did you get hold of that?' said Hill, laughing.
+
+Hiram made no reply; and Innis entering at this moment, the subject was
+changed.
+
+Hill, who had already imbibed more than was good for him, ordered a
+brandy toddy; and Hiram, true to his temperance principles, partook of a
+cup of hot coffee. Before the toddy was half finished, Hill, who was
+already illustrating the proverb that 'children, fools, and drunken men
+speak truth,' commenced again about his employer, Joslin.
+
+'Really, Mr. Hill, I don't think you ought to refer to your confidential
+relations with your principal,' said Hiram, gravely. He knew, cunning
+fellow, it would only be adding fuel to the fire.
+
+'You be----,' said Hill. 'I tell you what it is, Innis: here's a sell.
+I'm fairly come over. He is on Joslin's track--I know it, and I'll own
+up.' He thereupon proceeded to give a general account of Joslin, and how
+he did business, and what a cowardly, lying knave he was.
+
+Innis laughed. Hiram was quiet, but he did not miss a word. The little
+supper was finished, and the trio rose to depart.
+
+'I had no idea it was so late,' said Innis.
+
+'Have you far to go?' said Hiram.
+
+'Yes, to Chelsea; and the omnibuses have stopped.'
+
+'Come and stay with me: I have a very nice room.'
+
+Innis saw Hiram was in earnest, and after a little hesitation he
+assented. Hill bid them good night, and hiccoughed off toward his own
+quarters; and Hiram with Innis went to the Franklin House.
+
+When these young men reached their room, they did not go to bed. They
+sat up for an hour or two. What this conference led to we shall see
+by-and-by.
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Hiram rose early, notwithstanding the late hours of the previous night.
+Innis breakfasted with him and then took his departure. On going to the
+post office, Hiram found a letter from Mr. Burns, enclosing a full power
+of attorney, as he had requested. He then went to H. Bennett & Co.,
+where he took up at least an hour of that gentleman's time, apparently
+quite to that gentleman's satisfaction. Thence Hiram proceeded to the
+office of a well-known counsellor at law, who had been recommended to
+him by Mr. Bennett.
+
+The day was spent in preparing certain ominous-looking documents. I am
+told that on the occasion Hiram exhibited a breadth and clearness of
+comprehension which astonished the counsellor, who could not help
+suggesting to the young man that he would make an excellent lawyer,
+which compliment Hiram received with something very like a sneer. That
+evening Hiram went to bed early. He slept well. His plans were
+perfected--his troops in order of battle, only waiting for the signal to
+be given.
+
+He awoke about sunrise, and rang his bell. A sleepy servant at length
+replied to it.
+
+'Bring me a _Clarion_,' said Hiram.
+
+'The papers won't be along, sir, for half an hour.'
+
+'Well, let me have one the moment they come. Here's a quarter; bring a
+_Clarion_ quick, and I shall ask no change.'
+
+I record this instance of an impatient spirit in Hiram, as probably the
+last he ever exhibited through his whole life. What could cause it?
+
+Presently the waiter came back. The _Clarion_ was in his hand. Hiram
+took it eagerly, turned swiftly to the 'City Items,' and nodded with
+intense satisfaction as his eye rested on one paragraph.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At ten o'clock precisely, Hiram presented himself at the counting room
+of Elihu Joslin. Again he was forced to wait some time, and again he
+waited most patiently.
+
+[I ought to state that Hill, in order to keep up his credit with his
+employer, his bravado being sensibly cooled the following morning, had
+made up all sorts of stories about Mr. Burns's affairs, which, as he
+reported, had been pumped from Hiram, whom he professed to have left in
+a most dilapidated state at the hotel.]
+
+At length Mr. Joslin would see Hiram. The latter entered and sat down.
+
+'Well, my young friend,' said the merchant, 'what do you think of New
+York? Equal to Burnsville, eh? Did Hill do the polite thing by you?'
+
+'Mr. Joslin,' said Hiram, seriously, and quite in his natural manner,
+while he fixed his quiet but strangely searching eyes on him, 'I have an
+important communication to make to you?'
+
+'Well?'
+
+'I am not what I appear to be!'
+
+'No? What the devil are you then?'
+
+'I am the CONFIDENTIAL CLERK of Joel Burns, sent here by him to ferret
+out and punish your rascalities. Stay,' continued Hiram--perceiving
+Joslin was about to break forth in some violent demonstrations. 'Sit
+down, sir, and hear me through quietly. It is your best course. It is
+your ONLY course. Now listen. You have undertaken to cheat my
+employer. You have rendered false accounts of sales, using your own
+clerks for sham purchasers, and employing stool-pigeon auctioneers. You
+have attempted to swindle him generally. I have the whole story here.
+_You are in my power_.'
+
+'By----! that's more than I'll stand,' shouted Joslin, 'from any d----d
+Connecticut Yankee.'
+
+'Stop,' said Hiram, authoritatively. 'A word more, and you are ruined
+past all redemption. Read that,' and he handed him the _Clarion_,
+placing his finger on a particular paragraph. Joslin took the paper. His
+hand trembled, but he managed to read as follows:
+
+     'Some extraordinary disclosures have reached us, involving a
+     wholesale paper house in Nassau street in large swindling
+     transactions. We forbear to give the name of the party implicated,
+     but understand that the police to-morrow will be in possession of
+     the facts.'
+
+'Here,' said Hiram, showing a bundle of papers, 'are the documents.
+Outside there on the curbstone stands an officer. I mean to make short
+work of it. Will you behave rationally or not?'
+
+Joslin sat down.
+
+'What do you want?' he said at length.
+
+'I want nothing but what is HONEST, sir--_that_ I mean to
+have,' said Hiram, in a mild, but very firm tone. 'Here is the account
+as it ought to be rendered. Look it over, and put your name to it.'
+
+'Really, this will take time--a good deal of time,' said Joslin,
+recovering from his stupor. 'I must consult my bookkeeper.'
+
+'You will consult nobody, and you will settle this account before I
+leave the room.'
+
+Joslin took the document. He trembled from head to foot. He saw himself
+completely circumvented.
+
+Hiram proceeded to show him just how the account ought to stand. Very
+coolly and very accurately he went through the whole.
+
+'I suppose you are right,' said Joslin, moodily, and he affixed his
+signature to the paper, and began to think he was getting off easy.
+'Now, do you want anything more of me?'
+
+'Yes,' said Hiram, 'considerably more. You own one half of the paper
+mill with Mr. Burns. You must sell out to him. Here is an agreement to
+sell, drawn ready for your signature.'
+
+'D----d if I will do it for all Burnsville! You've settled with me, and
+you can't stir a peg farther. Outwitted yourself this time!' said
+Joslin, triumphantly.
+
+'Not quite so fast. _You_ have settled with Mr. Burns by signing that
+paper, which gives the lie to your other accounts, and is so much
+evidence for me before a police court; but Mr. Burns has _not_ settled
+with you, and _won't_ settle with you till you bind yourself, by signing
+this document, to sell out to him, on reasonable terms.'
+
+Joslin was again struck dumb.
+
+'You will receive,' continued Hiram, 'just what you paid for it, less my
+expenses, and charges for my time and trouble in coming to New York,
+counsel fees, and so forth; and you may think yourself fortunate in
+falling into conscientious hands!'
+
+Not to pursue the interview farther, Hiram accomplished just exactly
+what he undertook to do before he entered Joslin's store that morning.
+The accounts were made right, and Hiram turned to leave the store with
+the agreement to sell in his pocket. He stopped before going out.
+
+'Mark you,' he said; 'when Joel Burns gets a clean deed of your half the
+paper mill, according to this agreement, I will tear up these little
+documents'--exhibiting some law papers. 'Don't forget. You have
+undertaken to settle with me. I shan't have settled with you till I get
+the deed. Good morning.'
+
+It was only twelve o'clock when all this was concluded. Hiram marched
+out of the store triumphant. His impulse on touching the pavement was to
+jump up and down, run, kick up his heels, and shout all sorts of huzzas.
+He did none of these, but walked up to the Park very quietly, and then
+into Broadway. But his heart beat exultantly. A glow of absolute
+satisfaction suffused his mental, moral, and physical system. It was
+just the happiest moment of his life. The day was fine--the air clear
+and bracing. Broadway was filled to overflowing. How he enjoyed the
+promenade! It was when turning to retrace his steps, after reaching the
+limits of fashionable resort, that his feelings became so buoyant that
+it seemed as if he must find some outlet for them. The exquisite beauty
+of the ladies, the richness of their dresses, and the air and style with
+which they glided along, put new excitement into his soul.
+
+'One of these days I shall make their acquaintance. Oh! what a place
+this is,' he muttered.
+
+Unconsciously he stopped quite still, almost in an ecstacy.
+
+At that moment his attention was attracted by a hearse, which, having
+accomplished its task, was proceeding at a rapid rate up Broadway.
+Careening this way and that, it jolted swiftly over the pavement. The
+driver, either hardened by habit, or, it may be, a little tipsy,
+exhibited a rollicking, reckless air, as he urged his horse along. As he
+came opposite Hiram, their eyes met. Influenced by I know not what,
+perhaps for a joke, perhaps to give the young fellow who was so
+verdantly staring at him a start, he half checked the animal, as if
+about to pull up, and gesturing to Hiram in the style of an omnibus
+driver, motioned him to get inside!
+
+Never before, never afterward, did Hiram receive such a shock. Dismay
+was so evident on his face, that the man gave vent to a coarse laugh at
+the success of his experiment, applied the lash to his brute, and dashed
+furiously on.
+
+What sent that hearse along just then and there? It gave you a ghostly
+reminder, Hiram. It made you recollect that you were not to lose sight
+of the other side.
+
+That morning Hiram forgot, yes, _forgot_ to say his prayers. So entirely
+was he carried away by the Joslin business, that for once he neglected
+this invariable duty. Now this was not singular under the circumstances.
+To a genuine spirit the omission would have been followed by no morbid
+recollections. As Hiram, after the affair of the hearse, took his way to
+the hotel, the fact that he had not sought God's blessing on his
+morning's work suddenly presented itself. He was persuaded the shock he
+received was providential. Arrived at the Franklin, he mounted to his
+room, and read three or four times the customary amount in the Bible,
+and prayed longer and more energetically than he ever did before in his
+life. He was now much more calm, but still a good deal depressed. It was
+not till after he had partaken of an excellent dinner that he felt
+entire equanimity.
+
+That evening Hiram was to spend at Mr. Bennett's. True to his rule,
+which he applied with severity, not to let pleasure interfere with
+business, he had declined all his cousin's invitations. Now he was at
+liberty to go and enjoy himself. Mr. Bennett lived in a very handsome
+house in a fashionable street. His daughters were all older than Hiram,
+but still they were very pretty, and by no means _passee_. Mrs. Bennett
+was quite a grand lady. Mr. B. received Hiram very cordially, and asked
+immediately how he had got along. Hiram replied briefly. Mr. B. was
+delighted. Mrs. B. received Hiram very graciously, but with something of
+a patronizing manner, very different from what she exhibited when
+spending several weeks at Hampton. The two girls were more cordial.
+Hiram's country-bred politeness, which omitted not the least point
+required by books of etiquette, amused them much as the vigorous and
+very scientific dancing of a country belle amuses the city-bred girl who
+walks languidly through the measure. Notwithstanding, Hiram managed to
+make himself agreeable. It was not till two or three young gentlemen of
+the city came in that they showed slight signs of weariness, and Hiram
+was transferred to mamma. Our hero was not slow to perceive the
+disadvantage under which he labored. He was not one whit discouraged. He
+watched his rivals closely. He smiled occasionally in disdain while
+listening to some of the conversation. 'They are almost fools,' he said
+to himself. 'The tailor has done the whole.' Never mind, I can afford to
+wait.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next morning Hiram took the boat for New Haven, and on the following
+morning reached Burnsville. He had written but a line to Mr. Burns, to
+acknowledge the receipt of the power of attorney, and had given his
+employer no inkling of what he was attempting to do.
+
+As the stage, a little after sunrise, drove into that beautiful village,
+Hiram felt glad to get back to its quiet, charming repose. He thought of
+the glare and hustle and excitement of New York with no satisfaction,
+contrasted with the placid beauty of the scene he now witnessed. The
+idea of being welcomed by Louisa and Charlotte Hawkins filled his mind
+with pleasure, and Sarah Burns did not at that moment suffer in
+comparison with the Miss Bennetts.
+
+'It _is_ a happy spot!' said Hiram. 'Can I do better than stay in it?'
+
+It was an instinct of his better nature which spoke. He had given way to
+it for a moment, but _only_ for a moment. The next, the old sense
+returned and was triumphant.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The stage whirled on, and soon Hiram was driven up to the house of Mrs.
+Hawkins. How rejoiced they all were to see him! The widow Hawkins had
+missed him so much! As for Louisa and Charlotte, they were ready to
+devour him.
+
+Hiram hurried through his breakfast, hastily adjusted his toilette, and
+walked over to Mr. Burns's house. He rang the bell. The door was opened
+by Mr. Burns himself. He greeted Hiram most cordially.
+
+'I did not expect you back so soon. Come in; we are just sitting down to
+breakfast.'
+
+'I have already breakfasted,' said Hiram, 'and am going to the office.
+Please look these papers over,' he continued. 'By them you will see
+precisely what I have been able to do.'
+
+Mr. Burns took the papers and turned to go in. He thought Hiram had
+accomplished little, and he did not wish to mortify him by asking what.
+
+Just then Sarah Burns came tripping down stairs, and, passing her
+father, extended her hand to Hiram, and said:
+
+'Welcome back! What have you done?'
+
+'Do not forget your promise,' replied Hiram, in a low, distinct tone. 'I
+have WON!'
+
+
+
+
+AURORA.
+
+     'For Waterloo,' says Victor Hugo, 'was not a battle: it was a
+     change of front of the universe.'
+
+
+Great events are developed by nearness. "To-day," says Emerson, "is a
+king in disguise." Probably half the soldiers of Constantine's army
+regarded their leader's adoption of the Cross as his sign of hope and
+triumph as of small account. Their pay and rations, their weapons, their
+officers, were the same as before; the enemy before them, their duty to
+beat him, were unchanged. What availed a symbol more or less on the
+imperial banner? Even admit that it indicated the emperor's personal
+rejection of the old and adoption of the newer faith, what of that?
+Would not everybody else abide by the religion of his own choice,
+whatever that might be? Away, then, with all theological babble, which
+plain people can never half understand! Rome and the emperor for ever!
+Yet in that despised symbol, announcing that the Empire had become the
+protector instead of the persecutor of the Christian faith, was the germ
+of a greater transformation than was wrought by the Deluge.
+
+The Proclamation of Freedom by President Lincoln is doubtless open to
+criticism. Why did he not declare all slaves emancipated? Why not make
+such legal manumission operative at once? Why intimate that certain
+States should (or might) be excepted from its operation? Why not declare
+the slaves liberated because of the essential, inevitable wrong of
+holding them in bondage? Why not appeal to God for His blessing on the
+cause henceforward inseparably identified with that of Right and
+Liberty? Such questions may be multiplied indefinitely; but to what end?
+What matters that the Proclamation might or should be different, since
+we have practical concern only with the Proclamation as it is?
+
+For more than a lifetime, slavery has been accepted and regarded as a
+national institution. The American in Europe was "perplexed in the
+extreme" by the questionings and criticisms of humane, intelligent
+observers, who could not comprehend how a country should contain Four
+Millions of slaves by the official census, yet not be a slaveholding
+country. With our capital a slaveholding city; with our fortresses in
+good part constructed by the labor of slaves; with our flag the chief
+shelter of the African Slave Trade, and our statute book disgraced by
+the most arbitrary and inhuman Fugitive Slave Law ever devised, it _was_
+a nice operation to prove this no slaveholding country, but only one
+wherein certain citizens, by virtue of local laws, over which we had no
+control, were permitted to hold Blacks in slavery. And, when it is
+notorious that the active partisans of slavery filled every Federal
+office, even in the nominally free States, and excluded rigorously from
+office every opponent of the baleful system, it is certain that the
+shrug of the polite Frenchman who listened to our demonstration that
+ours, after all, was not a slaveholding country, was an indication of
+complaisance rather than of conviction. To prove this nothing of the
+sort, while Brazil was placed at the head of modern slaveholding
+countries, was to overtax the resources of human sophistry.
+
+The Proclamation is an immense fact. If it were no more than a
+recognition from the highest quarter of the deadly antagonism between
+slavery and the Union, it would have inexhaustible significance. The
+American republic, bleeding at every pore while fighting desperately for
+life, arraigns slavery as her chief enemy and peril. The truth was long
+since clear to every candid mind; but truth gains force by recognition.
+Thousands realize a fact thus proclaimed, who have hitherto ignored and
+resisted it.
+
+For thirty years, the charge of disloyalty has borne heavily on the
+American champion of Universal Liberty. True, as to a very few, who
+could not obtain the assent of their consciences to compacts which bound
+them to aid the oppressor against his victim, they were made a weapon of
+offense against all. Abolitionists were execrated and hooted by the mob
+as champions at once of Negro Equality and of National dissolution.
+
+The times are bravely altered. The partnership between Slavery and
+Unionism is absolutely dissolved. Like most divorces, this involves a
+deadly quarrel. Not even the soaring platitudes of George Francis Train
+can longer evoke cheers for the Union blent with curses on Abolition. In
+a strictly, sternly real sense, "Liberty and Union" are henceforth "one
+and inseparable!"
+
+For thirty years, our great seaboard merchants, our shippers, our
+factors, have given their patronage to pro-slavery journals and their
+votes to pro-slavery politicians, with intent to preserve the Union and
+lay the red spectre of civil war. Their recompense is found in the
+repudiation of the immense debts for merchandise due them from the
+South, and a gigantic war waged by the Slave Power for the overthrow of
+the Union. The profits of a lifetime of obsequious pandering to the
+master crime of our era are swept away at a blow, and the arm that
+strikes it is that of the monster they have made such sacrifices of
+conscience and manhood to conciliate. Was ever retribution more signal?
+
+To-day, the American Union, through the official action of its President
+and Congress, stands distinctly on the side of Liberty for All. Its
+success in the fearful struggle forced upon it involves the overthrow
+and extinction of American slavery. The sentiment of nationality, the
+instinct which impels every people to deprecate and resist the
+dismemberment and degradation of their country, the impulse of loyalty,
+are all arrayed against the traitorous "institution" which, after having
+so long bent the Union to its ends, now seeks its destruction. It once
+seemed to the majority patriotic to champion slavery; it is now a sacred
+duty to resist the bloody Moloch unto death.
+
+The very hesitation of the President to take the decisive step gives
+weight to his ultimate decision. The compromisers have never tired of
+eulogizing his firmness, his candor, his patience, his clearness of
+vision, his independence, and his unsectional patriotism. His
+associations were largely with the Border State school of conservatives.
+His favorite counsellor was the most eminent and sturdy Republican
+opponent of an emancipation policy. His decision in favor of that
+policy, like the Proclamation which announces it, is entirely his own.
+The "pressure" to which he deferred was that of an urgent public
+necessity and the emphatic conviction of the great mass of our loyal
+citizens.
+
+And, though few days have elapsed since the Proclamation was uttered,
+the evils predicted by its opponents are already banished to the limbo
+of chimera. Those officers who threatened to resign in case an
+emancipation policy were adopted make no haste to justify their menaces.
+As yet, not one of them has done so; in time, a few may screw their
+courage to the sticking-point. There are enough who can be spared; and
+they are generally those who deprecate and denounce an "Abolition war."
+May they yet prove men of their word!
+
+Outside of the army, the general feeling is one of wonder that this act
+of direst portent to the rebellion has been so long delayed. Even the
+rebels share in this amazement. When secession was first openly mooted
+at the South, every Unionist argued that secession was practical
+abolition. It has puzzled them to comprehend the weary months through
+which their prophecies were left unfulfilled. They will be perplexed no
+longer.
+
+The Opposition in the loyal States is manifestly weakened by the
+Proclamation. Their dream is of wearing out the Unionists by
+disappointments and delays, restoring a Democratic ascendency in the
+government, and then buying back the rebels to an outward loyalty by new
+concessions and guaranties to slavery. Hence torpid campaigns, languid
+strategy, advances without purpose, and surrenders without necessity.
+But the policy of emancipation brings the quarrel to a speedy decision.
+The rebel States must promptly triumph or brave a social dissolution.
+Every Union advance into a rebel region henceforth clears a broad
+district of slaves. The few are hurried off by their masters; the many
+escape to a land of freedom. How signally this process will be
+accellerated after the first of January, few will yet believe. Let the
+war simply go on, with fluctuating fortunes, for a year or two longer,
+and the new slave empire will be nearly denuded of slaves. The process
+is at once inevitable and irresistible. Whether the able-bodied slaves
+thus escaping to the loyal States shall or shall not be used in whatever
+way they may be found most serviceable against the cruel despotism which
+so long robbed them of their earnings while crushing out their manhood,
+is purely a question of time. There are thousands who would last year
+have revolted against the employment of Blacks in any way in our
+struggle, who are now ripe for it: every week, as it transpires, adds to
+their number. Loyal men hesitated at first, believing that the rebellion
+would easily and speedily be put down. These have now discovered their
+mistake and amended it. An aristocracy of three hundred thousand
+generally capable, energetic persons, accustomed to rule, and
+recognizing a deadly foe in every opponent of their wishes, surrounded
+by twice so many shrewd and skilful parasites, and wielding the entire
+resources of ten millions of people, are not easily conquered. The poor
+Whites fill the ranks of their armies; the Blacks grow the food and
+perform the labor essential to the subsistence of those armies and of
+their families. Slavery unassailed is the strongest natural base of a
+gigantic rebellion: it easily adapts all the resources of a people to
+the stern exigencies of war. Slavery resisted and undermined is a very
+different affair, as the annals of this struggle are destined to prove.
+
+Let no doubts, then, vex the mind of a single hearty Unionist as to the
+issue of our great contest. The Proclamation has not added a thousand to
+the number of our enemies, while it has supplied four millions with the
+most cogent reasons for being henceforth our friends. These millions are
+humble, ignorant, timid, distrustful, and now grinding in the
+prison-house of the traitors. They are not, let us frankly admit, the
+equals in prowess, capacity, or opportunity, of four millions of Whites;
+but they are, nevertheless, human beings; they have human affections and
+aspirations, and they feel the stirrings of the universal and
+indestructible human longing for liberty. "Breaking in a nigger" is a
+rough and pretty effectual process: it crushes down the manhood of its
+subject, but does not crush it out. Should the republic say to-morrow to
+its Black step-children, "We want one hundred thousand of you to aid in
+this struggle against the slaveholding rebels, and will treat you in
+every respect as human beings should be treated," it would not have to
+wait long for the full number. Hitherto a low prejudice, studiously
+fostered by Democratic politicians for the vilest party ends, has
+repelled and expelled this abused race from the militia service of the
+Union. The exclusion is absurd where its impulse is not treasonable, and
+must share the fate of all absurdities. "Would you," asked a Unionist of
+a Democrat, "refuse the aid of a negro, if you were assailed and your
+life threatened by an assassin?" "Yes," replied the Democrat; "I would
+rather be killed by a White man than saved by a nigger." Who does not
+_know_ that this man at heart sympathizes with the rebellion, and
+deprecates the War for the Union as unnecessary and ruinous?
+
+That war will go on. Our new and vast levies, our new iron-clads, our
+new policy, will add immensely to the strength already put forth in
+vindication of the rightful authority of the Federal government and the
+integrity of the Union. Yet a little while, and the immense superiority
+in every respect of the moral and material forces of the loyal States
+will make themselves felt and respected. Yet a little while, and the
+authority of the Nation will be acknowledged by its now revolted
+citizens, and the rebellion will subside as suddenly as it broke upon
+us. Yet a little while, and ours will again be a land of peace,
+returning joyfully to the pursuits of productive industry and radiant
+with the sunlight of Universal Liberty.
+
+
+
+
+HOW THEY DID IT.
+
+  The magnates of Richmond all swore out of hand,
+  That the war must go in the enemies' land;
+  And it did: when they crossed to the Maryland shore
+  They turned all into foes who were friendly before!
+
+
+
+
+FROM MOUNT LAFAYETTE, WHITE MOUNTAINS.
+
+  Silence and light and scenes stupendous greet
+  My wondering sense and sight! Here midway meet
+  Those rocky splendors where th' embracing clouds
+  Above, below, wrap them in misty shrouds.
+
+  Our mules with cautious feet the sharp ascent
+  Accomplish; and, the steep o'ertopped, all spent
+  Our strength, we look wild nature in the face,
+  Some features of the human soul to trace.
+
+  A phantom drap'ry betwixt sky and earth,
+  Of blending tints, spans in impulsive birth
+  Th' entranced view! A heav'nly arch it forms--
+  It seems suspended by some seraph's arms!
+
+  Ethereal Rainbow! Daughter of the Shower!
+  Thy beauty lends enchantment to the hour.
+  The seraph arm grows weary--now is furled
+  The gleam in dreamy vapor from the world!
+
+  And now in purple shadows stand the hills:
+  The night winds beat their stony sides, and trills
+  From hidden rivulets, and stealthy creep
+  Of some lone reptile down the grooved steep,
+
+  Divert the eye and ear--th' restricted breath
+  Of each rapt soul is heard--and still as death
+  Stand the dumb mules. Homeward we turn our eyes,
+  And leave the region of the naked skies.
+
+
+
+INDEPENDENCE.
+
+[1776.]
+
+
+  Freeman! if you pant for glory,
+  If you sigh to live in story,
+      If you burn with patriot zeal;
+  Seize this bright, auspicious hour,
+  Chase those venal tools of power,
+      Who subvert the public weal.
+
+
+
+
+THE HOMESTEAD BILL.
+
+
+After a severe struggle of more than a quarter of a century, from March,
+1836, to May, 1862, the Homestead bill has become a law. We quote its
+main provisions, as follows:
+
+     'That any person who is the head of a family or arrived at the age
+     of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States, or
+     shall have filed his declaration of intention to become such, as
+     required by the naturalization laws of the United States, and has
+     never borne arms against the United States government, or given aid
+     and comfort to its enemies, from and after the 1st January, 1863,
+     shall be entitled to enter one quarter section or a less quantity
+     of unappropriated public land, upon which said person may have
+     filed a preemption claim, or which may at the time the application
+     is made be subject to preemption at $1.25 or less per acre, or
+     eighty acres or less of such unappropriated land at $2.50 per acre,
+     to be located in a body in conformity to the legal subdivisions of
+     the public lands, and after the same shall have been surveyed, &c.
+
+     'SEC. 2. That the person applying for the benefit of this
+     act shall, upon application to the register of the land office in
+     which he or she is about to make such entry, make affidavit before
+     the said register or receiver that he or she is the head of a
+     family, or is twenty-one years of age or more, or shall have
+     performed service in the army or navy of the United States, and
+     that he has never borne arms against the government of the United
+     Stales, or given aid and comfort to its enemies, and that such
+     application is made for his or her exclusive use and benefit, and
+     that said entry is made for the purpose of actual settlement and
+     cultivation, and not either directly or indirectly for the use or
+     benefit of any other person or persons whomsoever: and upon filing
+     the said affidavit with the register or receiver, and on the
+     _payment of ten dollars_, he or she shall thereupon be permitted to
+     enter the quantity of land specified,' &c.
+
+Settlement and cultivation for five years required, when the patent
+issues--the land secured in case of the settler's death, to the widow,
+children, or heirs--the settler must be a citizen of the United States
+before the patent is given--the land is subject to no debt incurred
+before the emanation of the patent. As the title remains for five years
+in the government, and until the patent issues, the land, in the
+meantime, could scarcely be subject to taxation. The land is
+substantially a gift, the $10 (L2. 0. 16.) being only sufficient to pay
+for the survey and incidental expenses.
+
+Whilst natives are included in this act, Europeans already here, or who
+may come hereafter, participate alike in its benefits. The emigrant can
+make the entry and settle upon the land merely on filing the declaration
+of intention to become a citizen, and it is only after the lapse of five
+years therefrom, that he must be naturalized.
+
+This law should be widely circulated, at home and abroad, and especially
+in Ireland and Germany. It should be published in all leading presses,
+and distributed in printed circulars. By law, two sections (1,280 acres)
+are reserved in each township of six miles square, from the sale of
+which to establish free schools, where all children can be instructed,
+so that our material progress may be accompanied by universal education
+and intellectual development.
+
+This great domain reserved, as farms and homesteads for the industrious
+masses of Europe and America, is thus described by the Hon. Joseph S.
+Wilson, in his great historical and statistical report, as commissioner
+of the General Land Office of Nov. 29, 1860:
+
+     'Of the 3,250,000 of square miles which constitute the territorial
+     extent of the Union, the public lands embrace an area of 2,265,625
+     square miles, or 1,450,000,000 of acres, being more than two thirds
+     of our geographical extent, and nearly three times as large as the
+     United States at the ratification of the definitive treaty of peace
+     in 1783 with Great Britain. This empire domain extends from the
+     northern line of Texas, the gulf of Mexico, reaching to the
+     Atlantic ocean, northwesterly to the Canada line bordering upon the
+     great lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior, extending westward
+     to the Pacific ocean, with Puget's sound on the north, the
+     Mediterranean sea of our extreme northwestern possessions.'
+
+     'It includes fifteen sovereignties known as the 'Land States,' and
+     an extent of territory sufficient for thirty-two additional, each
+     equal to the great central land State of Ohio.
+
+     'It embraces soils capable of abundant yield of the rich
+     productions of the tropics, of sugar, cotton, rice, tobacco, corn,
+     and the grape, the vintage, now a staple, particularly so of
+     California; of the great cereals, wheat and corn, in the western,
+     northwestern, and Pacific States, and in that vast interior region
+     from the valley of the Mississippi river to the Rocky mountains;
+     and thence to the chain formed by the Sierra Nevada and Cascades,
+     the eastern wall of the Pacific slope, every variety of soil is
+     found revealing its wealth.
+
+     'Instead of dreary inarable wastes, as supposed in earlier times,
+     the millions of buffalo, elk, deer, mountain sheep, the primitive
+     inhabitants of the soil, fed by the hand of nature, attest its
+     capacity for the abundant support of a dense population through the
+     skilful toil of the agriculturist, dealing with the earth under the
+     guidance of the science of the present age.
+
+     'Not only is the yield of food for man in this region abundant, but
+     it holds in its bosom the precious metals of gold, silver, with
+     cinnabar, the useful metals of iron, lead, copper, interspersed
+     with immense belts or strata of that propulsive element coal, the
+     source of riches and power, and now the indispensable agent not
+     only for domestic purposes of life, but in the machine shop, the
+     steam car, and steam vessel, quickening the advance of civilization
+     and the permanent settlement of the country, and being the agent of
+     active and constant intercommunication with every part of the
+     republic.'
+
+Kansas having been admitted since the date of this report, our public
+domain, thus described officially, now includes the sixteen _land
+States_, and _all_ the Territories.
+
+Of this vast region (originally 1,450,000,000 acres), there was surveyed
+up to September, 1860, 441,067,915 acres, and 394,088,712 acres disposed
+of by sales, grants, &c., leaving, as the commissioner states,'the total
+area of unsold and unappropriated, of offered and unoffered lands of the
+public domain on the 30th September, 1860, 1,055,911,288 acres.' This is
+'land surface,' exclusive of lakes, bays, rivers, &c., 1,055,911,288
+acres, or 1,649,861 square miles, and exceeds one half the area of the
+whole Union. The area of New York being 47,000 square miles, is less
+than a thirty-fifth part of our public domain. England (proper) has
+50,922 square miles, France 203,736, Prussia 107,921, and Germany 80,620
+square miles: The area then of our public domain is more than eight
+times as large as France, more than fifteen times as large as Prussia,
+more than twenty times as large as Germany, more than thirty-two times
+as large as England, and larger (excluding Russia) than all Europe,
+containing more than 200 millions of people.
+
+As England (proper) contained in 1861, 18,949,916 inhabitants, if our
+public domain were as densely settled, its population would exceed 606
+millions, and it would be 260,497,561, if numbering as many to the
+square mile as Massachusetts. But if, contrary to the opinion before
+quoted of the commissioner, one fourth of this domain was unfit for
+agriculture, grazing, mining, commerce, or manufactures, the remainder
+would still contain 195,373,171 inhabitants (if as densely settled as
+Massachusetts), and with every variety of soil, climate, mineral and
+agricultural products. Its average fertility far exceeds that of Europe,
+as does also the extent of its mines, especially gold, silver, coal, and
+iron.
+
+These lands are surveyed at the expense of the government into
+town-ships of six miles square, subdivided into sections, and these into
+quarter sections (160 acres), set apart for homesteads. Our system of
+public surveys into squares, by lines running due north and south, east
+and west, is so simple as to have precluded all disputes as to boundary
+or title. This domain reaches from the 24th to the 49th parallel, from
+the lakes to the gulf, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Its
+isothermes (the lines of equal mean annual temperature) strike on the
+north the coast of Norway midway, touch St. Petersburg in Russia, and
+pass through Manchooria to the coast of Asia, about three degrees south
+of the mouth of the Amour river. On the south, these isothermes run
+through northern Africa, and nearly the centre of Egypt near Thebes,
+cross northern Arabia, Persia, northern Hindostan, and southern China
+near Canton. No empire in the world of contiguous territory possesses
+such a variety of climate, soil, forests, and prairies, fruits, and
+fisheries, animal, vegetable, mineral, and agricultural products. It has
+all those of Europe, and many in addition, with a climate, as shown by
+the international census, far more salubrious, with a more genial sun,
+and millions in other countries are already fed and clothed by our
+surplus products.
+
+Of this vast domain, less than two per cent. is cursed by slavery, which
+is prohibited by law in ten of these land States, and in all the
+Territories. Indeed, when the present rebellion shall be crushed, and
+this vast territorial region (accelerated by the Homestead bill) shall
+be settled and admitted as States, three fourths of the States will then
+be free States, and thus authorized by the Constitution to amend that
+instrument. Thus we can by just and lawful measures make emancipation
+universal. From the progress of events, we shall probably celebrate the
+4th of July, 1876, our first centennial, now less than fourteen years
+distant, as a nation, of _freemen_, with slavery abolished or rapidly
+disappearing. State will then have succeeded State in unbroken column,
+from the Atlantic to the Pacific, united by imperial railroads
+traversing the continent. Adjacent regions, geographically connected
+with us, will then consummate the political union designed by
+Providence, The Homestead bill, having accomplished its great work
+within our present limits, will then commence a new career, and carry
+our banner in peaceful triumph, over the continent. Our Review, then, is
+called CONTINENTAL, as prefiguring the destiny of our country.
+
+Now, however, within our present vast domain, not only the poor, but our
+own industrious classes and those of Europe may not only find a home,
+but a farm for each settler, substantially as a free gift by the
+government. Here all who would rather be owners than tenants, and wish
+to improve and cultivate their own soil, are invited. Here, too, all who
+would become equals among equals, citizens (not subjects) of a great and
+free country, enjoying the right of suffrage, and eligible to every
+office except the presidency, can come and occupy with us this great
+inheritance. Here liberty, equality, and fraternity reign supreme, not
+in theory or in name only, but in truth and reality. This is the
+brotherhood of man, secured and protected by our organic law. Here the
+Constitution and the people are the only sovereigns, and the government
+is administered by their elected agents, and for the benefit of the
+people. Those toiling elsewhere for wages that will scarcely support
+existence, for the education of whose children no provision is made by
+law, who are excluded from the right of suffrage, may come here and be
+voters and citizens, find a farm given as a homestead, free schools
+provided for their children at the public expense, and hold any office
+but the presidency, to which their children, born here, are eligible.
+What does England for any one of its toiling millions who rejects this
+munificent offer? He is worked and taxed there to his utmost endurance,
+or pressed into military service. He has the right to _work_, to
+_fight_, and _pay taxes_, but not to vote. Unschooled ignorance is his
+lot and that of his descendants. If a farmer, he works and improves the
+land of others, in constant terror of rent day, the landlord, and
+eviction. Indeed, the annual rent of a single acre in England exceeds
+the price--$10 (L2. 0. 16)--payable for the ownership in fee simple of
+the entire homestead of 160 acres, granted him here by the government.
+For centuries that are past, and for all time to come, there, severe
+toil, poverty, ignorance, the workhouse, or low wages, impressment, and
+disfranchisement, would seem to be his lot. Here, freedom, competence,
+the right of suffrage, the homestead farm, and free schools for his
+children.
+
+In selecting these homestead farms, the emigrant can have any
+temperature, from St. Petersburg to Canton. He can have a cold, a
+temperate, or a warm climate, and farming or gardening, grazing or
+vintage, varied by fishing or hunting. He can raise wheat, rye, Indian
+corn, oats, rice, indigo, cotton, tobacco, cane or maple sugar and
+molasses, sorghum, wool, peas and beans, Irish or sweet potatoes,
+barley, buckwheat, wine, butter, cheese, hay, clover, and all the
+grasses, hemp, hops, flax and flaxseed, silk, beeswax and honey, and
+poultry, in uncounted abundance. If he prefers a stock farm, he can
+raise horses, asses, and mules, camels, milch cows, working oxen and
+other cattle, goats, sheep, and swine. In many locations, these will
+require neither housing nor feeding throughout the year. He can have
+orchards, and all the fruits and vegetables of Europe, and many in
+addition. He can have an Irish or German, Scotch, English, or Welsh,
+French, Swiss, Norwegian, or American neighborhood. He can select the
+shores of oceans, lakes, or rivers; live on tide water or higher lands,
+valleys or mountains. He can be near a church of his own denomination;
+the freedom of conscience is complete; he pays no tithes, nor church
+tax, except voluntarily. His sons and daughters, on reaching twenty-one
+years of age, or sooner, if the head of a family, or having served in
+the army, are each entitled to a homestead of 160 acres; and if he dies,
+the title is secured to his widow, children, or heirs. Our flag is his,
+and covers him everywhere with its protection. He is our brother, and he
+and his children will enjoy with us the same heritage of competence and
+freedom. He comes where labor is king, and toil is respected and
+rewarded. If before, or instead of receiving his homestead, he chooses
+to pursue his profession, or business, to work at his trade, or for
+daily wages, he will find them double the European rate, and subsistence
+cheaper. From whatever part of Europe he may come, he will meet his
+countrymen here, and from them and us receive a cordial welcome. A
+government which gives him a farm, the right to vote, and free schools
+for his children, must desire his welfare. And well has this been
+merited by our immigrants, for, side by side with our native sons, have
+they ever upheld our banner with devoted courage.
+
+Of all the epidemic insanities which occasionally afflict nations, none
+exceeded in folly the recent frenzy, which, by diminishing immigration,
+would have retarded our progress in wealth, power, and population,
+Nearly all our railroads and canals have been constructed mainly by
+immigrants, thus rapidly improving our whole country, and furnishing
+profitable business, employment, and augmented wages in all the pursuits
+of industry. Simultaneously with the homestead, Congress has provided
+the means for constructing the imperial railway which will soon unite
+the Atlantic with the Pacific. Passing, as it will, for several thousand
+miles, through our public domain, it will add much to the value of the
+homestead lands. It should be remembered, especially by the Irish and
+Germans, who are asked in the South to fight the rebel battles, that,
+but for the opposition of Mr. Calhoun and the secession leaders, this
+bill would long since have been a law.
+
+It was first proposed by Robert J. Walker, in October, 1830, and again,
+in a speech made by him against nullification and secession, at Natchez,
+Mississippi, on the first Monday of January, 1833, and then published in
+the _Mississippi Journal_. From that speech we make the following
+extract: 'The public lands are now unincumbered by the public debt: no
+more sales are necessary, unless (to settlers) at a price required to
+pay the expenses of survey and sale. This is the period for the new
+States to produce this beneficial change in the policy of the
+Government, (instead of) the present onerous system, which arrests the
+cultivation of our soil, and growth of our country.' Here the Homestead
+bill was recommended by a _Union_ man, in a speech against secession;
+and as the opponent of that heresy, he was elected to the United States
+Senate by Mississippi, on the 8th of January, 1836.
+
+In the United States Senate Journal, of 31st March, 1836, will be found
+the following entry: 'Agreeable to notice, Mr. Walker asked and obtained
+leave to bring in a bill to reduce and graduate the price of the public
+lands in favor of actual settlers only, to provide a standing preemption
+law, to authorize the sale and entry of all the public lands in forty
+acre lots, &c. On motion by Mr. Calhoun, that this bill be referred to
+the Committee on Public Lands, ayes 19, nays 25. On motion by Mr.
+Walker, ordered that this bill be referred to a select committee of
+five, to be appointed by the Vice-President. Mr. Walker (chairman),
+Ewing of Ohio, Linn, Prentiss and Ewing of Illinois, are appointed the
+committee.' And now, that we may understand the motive of the hostile
+motion made by Mr. Calhoun, I make the following extract from Gales &
+Beaton's _Congressional Register_, vol. xii., part 1, page 1027, March
+31, 1836, containing the debate, on this bill: 'Mr. Walker asked and
+obtained leave to introduce a bill to reduce and graduate the price of
+public lands to actual settlers only, &c. The bill having been read
+twice, Mr. Walker moved that it be referred to a committee of five. Mr.
+Calhoun opposed the bill, and moved a reference to the Committee on
+Public Lands. Mr. Walker rose and said:
+
+* * 'He had heard with regret the actual settlers denounced in the
+Senate as squatters, as if that were a term of reproach. Our glorious
+Anglo-Saxon ancestry, the pilgrims who landed on Plymouth rock, the
+early settlers at Jamestown, were squatters. They settled this continent
+with less pretension to title than the settlers on the public lands.
+Daniel Boone was a squatter; Christopher Columbus was a squatter.
+
+* * They are the men who cultivate the soil in peace, and defend your
+country in war, when those who denounce them are reposing upon beds of
+down. These are the men who, in the trackless wilderness and upon the
+plains of Orleans, carried forward to victory, the bannered eagle of our
+great and glorious Union. These are the men with whom the patriot
+Jackson achieved his great and glorious victories; and if but one
+thousand of these much abused squatters, these Western riflemen, had
+been at Bladensburg beneath their great commander, never would a British
+army have polluted the soil where stands the capitol of the Union. They
+would have driven back the invader ere the torch of the incendiary had
+reached the capitol, or they would have left their bones bleaching there
+(as did the Spartans at Thermopylae), alike, in death or victory, the
+patriot defenders of their country's soil, and fame, and honor. [Here
+Mr. Walker was interrupted by warm applause from the crowded galleries.]
+It is proposed to send this bill to the Committee on Public Lands, that
+has already reported against reducing the price of the public lands,
+against granting preemptions to settlers, against every other material
+feature of this bill--to send this bill there, to have another report
+against us. No, said Mr. Walker; we have had one report against the new
+States, and the settlers in them, and now let them be heard through the
+report of a select committee: let argument encounter argument, and the
+question be decided on its real merits.'
+
+The opposition of Mr. Calhoun to this measure, was based upon the idea,
+_originating with him_, that, selling the public lands, only in small
+tracts, and at reduced prices, exclusively to actual settlers, would be
+hostile to large plantations, prevent the transfer of slavery to new
+Territories, and the multiplication of slave States. This view was
+gradually adopted by nearly all the advocates of secession, and delayed
+for years the success of the homestead policy. The measure also
+encountered then serious opposition from the supporters of the bill
+(opposed by Mr. Calhoun), distributing among the States the proceeds of
+the sales of the public lands. A majority of the Committee of Public
+Lands of the Senate favored then the distribution policy, and therefore
+Mr. Calhoun's motion to refer the Homestead bill to that committee was
+designed to defeat the measure.
+
+Mr. Walker's bill granted a homestead of a quarter section to every
+settler on payment of twenty dollars, _after_ three years' occupancy and
+possession.
+
+The special committee, to which this bill was referred, would not go so
+far, but authorized Mr. Walker to report 'A bill to arrest monopolies of
+the public lands and purchases thereof for speculation, and substitute
+sales to actual settlers only, in limited quantities, and at reduced
+prices,' &c. This report will be found in vol. 5, Sen. Doc., 1st
+session, 24th Congress, No. 402. 'In Senate of the United States, June
+15, 1836, Mr. Walker made the following report:'
+
+_Extracts._--'The committee have adopted the principle that the public
+lands should be held as a sacred reserve for the _cultivators of the
+soil_; that monopolies by individuals or companies should be prevented;
+that sales should be made only in limited quantities to _actual
+settlers_, and the price in their favor reduced and graduated.' * * The
+old system 'is throwing the public domain into the hands of speculating
+monopolists. It is reviving many of the evils of the old feudal system
+of Europe. Under that system, the lands were owned in vast bodies by a
+few wealthy barons, and leased by them to an impoverished and dependent
+tenantry.'
+
+A bill based on this principle, and reported by Mr. Walker at a
+succeeding session, passed the Senate, but was defeated in the House. In
+each of his annual reports as Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Walker
+strongly recommended the homestead policy, which encountered the
+continual opposition of Mr. Calhoun.
+
+In his inaugural address as Governor of Kansas, of the 27th May, 1857,
+Mr. Walker thus strongly advocated the Homestead policy:
+
+     'If my will could have prevailed as regards the public lands, as
+     indicated in my public career, and especially in the bill presented
+     by me, as chairman of the Committee on Public Lands, to the Senate
+     of the United States, which passed that body but failed in the
+     House, I would authorize no sales of these lands except for
+     settlement and cultivation, reserving not merely a preemption, but
+     a HOMESTEAD of a quarter section of land in favor of every
+     _actual settler_, whether coming from other States or _emigrating
+     from Europe_. Great and populous States would thus be added to the
+     Confederacy, until we should soon have one unbroken line of States,
+     from the Atlantic to the Pacific, giving immense additional power
+     and security to the Union, and facilitating intercourse between all
+     its parts. This would be alike beneficial to the old and to the new
+     States. To the _working men_ of the old States, as well as of the
+     new, it would be of incalculable advantage, not merely by affording
+     them a home in the West, but by maintaining the _wages of labor_,
+     by enabling the working classes to emigrate and become cultivators
+     of the soil, when the rewards of daily toil should sink below a
+     fair remuneration. Every new State, beside, adds to the customers
+     of the old States, consuming their manufactures, employing their
+     merchants, giving business to their vessels and canals, their
+     railroads and cities, and a powerful impulse to their industry and
+     prosperity. Indeed, it is the growth of the mighty West which has
+     added, more than all other causes combined, to the power and
+     prosperity of the whole country; whilst, at the same time, through
+     the channels of business and commerce, it has been building up
+     immense cities in the Eastern Atlantic and Middle States, and
+     replenishing the Federal treasury with large payments from the
+     settlers upon the public lands, rendered of real value only by
+     their labor, and thus, from increased exports, bringing back
+     augmented imports, and soon largely increasing the revenue of the
+     Government from that source also.'--_See Doc. Vol. I., No. 8, 1st
+     Sess. XXXVth Congress._
+
+It will no doubt be remembered how much this address was denounced by
+the secession leaders, and with what fury Mr. Walker was assailed by
+them for insisting on the rejection of the Lecompton Constitution, by
+which, it was attempted, by fraud and forgery, to force slavery upon
+Kansas, against the will of the people.
+
+In June, 1860, a Homestead bill was passed by Congress, securing to
+actual settlers a quarter section of the public lands, at twenty-five
+cents per acre, which was vetoed by Mr. Buchanan. The veto message says:
+'The Secretary of the Interior estimated the revenue from the public
+lands for the nest fiscal year at $4,000,000, on the presumption that
+the present land system would remain unchanged. Should this bill become
+a law, he does not believe that $1,000,000 will be derived from this
+source.' It would thus seem that Jacob Thompson, then Secretary of the
+Interior, was permitted to dictate the financial portion of this veto.
+He is now in the traitor army; but before leaving the Cabinet, he
+communicated to the enemy at Charleston important information he had
+received officially and confidentially. Whilst still Secretary, he was
+permitted by Mr. Buchanan to accept from Mississippi, _after_ she had
+seceded, the post of her ambassador to North Carolina, to induce her to
+secede; which public mission he openly fulfilled, still remaining a
+member of the Cabinet. Such was the abyss of degradation to which the
+late Administration had then fallen. Indeed, Thompson (like Floyd and
+Cobb), was never dismissed by Mr. Buchanan, but resigned his office,
+receiving then, after all these treasonable and perfidious acts, a most
+complimentary letter from the late President.
+
+Mr. Thompson's financial argument against the Homestead bill is most
+fallacious. Our national wealth, by the last census, was
+$16,159,616,068, and its increase during the last ten years
+$8,925,481,011, or 126.45 per cent. Now if, as a consequence of the
+Homestead bill, there should be occupied, improved, and cultivated,
+during the next ten years, 50,000 additional farms by settlers, or only
+5,000 per annum, it would make an aggregate of 8,000,000 acres. If,
+including houses, fences, barns, and other improvements, we should value
+each of these farms at ten dollars an acre, it would make an aggregate
+of $80,000,000. But if we add the products of these farms, allowing only
+one half of each (80 acres) to be cultivated, and the average annual
+value of the crops, stock included, to be only ten dollars per acre, it
+would give $40,000,000 a year, and, in ten years, $400,000,000,
+independent of the reinvestment of capital. It is clear that, thus, vast
+additional employment would be given to labor, freight to steamers,
+railroads, and canals, and markets for manufactures.
+
+The homestead privilege will largely increase immigration. Now, beside
+the money brought here by immigrants, the census proves that the average
+annual value of the labor of Massachusetts _per capita_ was, in 1860,
+$220 for each man, woman, and child, independent of the gains of
+commerce--very large, but not given. Assuming that of the immigrants at
+an average annual value of only $100 each, or less than 33 cents a day,
+it would make, in ten years, at the rate of 100,000 each year, the
+following aggregate:
+
+  1st year  100,000 = $10,000,000
+  2d    "   200,000 "  20,000,000
+  3d    "   300,000 "  30,000,000
+  4th   "   400,000 "  40,000,000
+  5th   "   500,000 "  50,000,000
+  6th   "   600,000 "  60,000,000
+  7th   "   700,000 "  70,000,000
+  8th   "   800,000 "  80,000,000
+  9th   "   900,000 "  90,000,000
+  10th  " 1,000,000 " 100,000,000
+                      -----------
+      Total,         $550,000,000
+
+In this table, the labor of all immigrants each year is properly added
+to those arriving the succeeding year, so as to make the aggregate, the
+last year, one million. This would make the value of the labor of this
+million of immigrants, in ten years, $550,000,000, independent of the
+annual accumulation of capital, and the labor of the children of the
+immigrants after the first ten years, which, with their descendants,
+would go on constantly increasing.
+
+But, by the actual official returns (see page 14 of Census), the number
+of alien immigrants to the United States, from December, 1850, to
+December, 1860, was 2,598,216, or an annual average of 259,821, say
+260,000. The effect, then, of this immigration, on the basis of the last
+table, upon the increase of national wealth, was as follows:
+
+  1st year    260,000 =   $26,000,000
+  2d   "      520,000 "    52,000,000
+  3d   "      780,000 "    78,000,000
+  4th  "    1,040,000 "   104,000,000
+  5th  "    1,300,000 "   130,000,000
+  6th  "    1,560,000 "   156,000,000
+  7th  "    1,820,000 "   182,000,000
+  8th  "    2,080,000 "   208,000,000
+  9th  "    2,340,000 "   234,000,000
+  10th  "   2,600,000 "   260,000,000
+                          ------------
+        Total,          $1,430,000,000
+
+Thus the value of the labor of the immigrants from 1850 to 1860, was
+fourteen hundred and thirty millions of dollars, making no allowance for
+the accumulation of capital by annual reinvestment, nor for the natural
+increase of population, amounting by the census in ten years to about
+twenty-four per cent. This addition to our wealth by the labor of the
+children, in the first ten years, would be small; but in the second, and
+each succeeding decennium, when we count children and their descendants,
+it would be large and constantly augmenting. But the census shows, that
+our wealth increases each ten years at the rate of 126.45 per cent. Now
+then, take our increase of wealth in consequence of immigration as
+before stated, and compound it at the rate of 126.45 per cent, every ten
+years, and the result is largely over three billions of dollars in 1870,
+and over seven billions of dollars in 1880, independent of the effect of
+any immigration succeeding 1860. If these results are astonishing, we
+must remember that immigration here is augmented population, and that it
+is population and labor that create wealth. Capital, indeed, is but the
+accumulation of labor. Immigration, then, from 1850 to 1860, added to
+our national wealth a sum more than double our whole debt on the first
+of July last, and augmenting in a ratio much more rapid than its
+increase, and thus enabling us to bear the war expenses.
+
+As the homestead privilege must largely increase immigration, and add
+especially to the cultivation of our soil, it will contribute more than
+any other measure to increase our population, wealth, and power, augment
+our revenue from duties and taxes, and soon enable us to repeal the tax
+bill, or, at least, confine it to a few articles of luxury.
+
+Nor has this immigration merely increased our wealth; but it has filled
+our army with brave _volunteer_ soldiers, Irish, Germans, and of other
+nationalities, who, side by side with our native sons, are now pouring
+out their blood on every battle field in defence of our flag and Union.
+Thousands of them have suffered in rebel dungeons, where many are still
+languishing--thousands are wounded, disabled for life, or filling a
+soldier's grave.
+
+Thus has the immigrant proved himself worthy to participate with our
+native sons in the homestead privilege. He fights our battle, and dies,
+that the Union may live.
+
+Come, then, our European brother, and enjoy with us every privilege of
+an American citizen. The altar of freedom is consecrated by the
+sacrament of our commingled blood. Countrymen of Lafayette and
+Montgomery, of Steuben and DeKalb, of Koscinsko and Pulaski! you are
+fighting, like them, in the same great cause, under the same banner, and
+for the same glorious Union, and, like them, you will reap an
+immortality of glory, and the gratitude of our country and of mankind.
+As century shall follow century, in marking this crisis of human
+destiny, history will record the stupendous fact, that the blood of all
+Europe commingled freely with our own in the mighty contest, the pledges
+of the freedom and brotherhood of man!
+
+We have seen that the Homestead bill was of Union origin, opposed by Mr.
+Calhoun and the pro-slavery party. We have seen that the bill was vetoed
+by Mr. Buchanan, quoting the opposing argument of a traitor member of
+his Cabinet, now in the rebel army. The vote in the Senate after the
+veto, was, yeas 28 (not two thirds), and nays 18. (Sen. Journal, 757,
+June 23, 1860.) Of the yeas, all but three were from the free States;
+and of the nays, _all_ were from the slave States. The opposition, then,
+as foreshadowed by Mr. Calhoun in 1836, was _exclusively sectional_ and
+pro-slavery. As Mr. Buchanan changed his policy as to Kansas upon the
+threats of the secession leaders in 1857, so he sacrificed upon their
+mandate the Homestead bill in 1860.
+
+Most of the eighteen Southern Senators who voted against this bill, are
+now in the rebel service. Among these eighteen nays, are Jefferson
+Davis, Bragg, Mason, Hunter, Mallory, Chesnut, Yulee, Wigfall,
+Fitzpatrick, Iveson, Johnson of Arkansas, Hemphill, and Sebastian. Now,
+then, when Irish and Germans in the South are asked to fight for the
+pro-slavery rebellion, let them remember that the secession leaders
+voted unanimously against the homestead bill, whilst the North then gave
+its entire vote in, favor of the measure, and have now made it the law
+of the land.
+
+As it is a blessed thing for the poor and landless to receive,
+substantially as a gift, a farm from the Government, where they and
+their children may till their own soil, and enjoy competence, freedom,
+and free schools, let them never forget, that this was the act of the
+North, and opposed by the South. If the rebels succeed, they will hold
+the public domain in their States and Territories for large plantations,
+to be cultivated by slaves, and sink their 'poor whites,' as nearly as
+practicable, to the level of their slaves, in accordance with their
+theory, that capital should own labor.
+
+Texas, is very nearly six times as large as New York, and more than one
+half the area is public domain of the State, with a most salubrious
+climate, with all the products of the North and South, as shown by the
+census, and with three times as many cattle (2,733,267) as in any other
+State. This vast domain, if the South succeeds, will be cultivated in
+large tracts by slaves; but with our success, the State title will be
+forfeited to the Government, and the land colonized by loyal freemen,
+and subjected to the Homestead law, so that educated free white labor
+can raise there sugar, cotton, rice, tobacco, and indigo, as well as the
+crops of the North. It appears by the history of the reign of Henry II.,
+that Ireland (in the year 1102) was the _first country which abolished
+slavery_, England still retaining it for many centuries; and Germany
+scarcely participated in the African slave trade. And now those two
+brave and mighty races, the Celtic and Teutonic, so devoted to liberty
+and the rights of man, will never erect the temple of their faith upon
+the Confederate _corner stone_, the ownership, of man by man, and of
+labor by capital. No--they are fighting in the great cause, (now,
+henceforth, and forever inseparable,) of LIBERTY and UNION. And when, as
+the result of this rebellion, slavery shall disappear from our country,
+the words of the Sermon on the Mount, announcing the brotherhood of man,
+and adopted by our fathers in the Declaration of American Independence,
+may be inscribed on our banner, 'that _all men_ are created EQUAL; that
+they are endowed by their CREATOR with _inalienable_ RIGHTS; that among
+these are life, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of happiness.' Such was the
+faith plighted to God, our country, and humanity, on the day of the
+nation's birth; in crushing this rebellion, and inaugurating the reign
+of universal freedom, we are now fulfilling that pledge. Slavery having
+struck down our flag, having dissevered our States, having, with
+sacrilegious steps, entered our holy temples, separated churches, and
+erected a government based on dehumanizing man, under the _Union as it
+was_: liberty will reunite us by fraternal and indissoluble ties, under
+the UNION AS IT WILL BE.
+
+
+
+
+LITERARY NOTICES
+
+
+     THE PATIENCE OF HOPE. By the Author of A PRESENT
+     HEAVEN. With an Introduction by JOHN G. WHITTIER,
+     '_Et teneo et teneor._' Boston: Ticknor & Fields.
+
+A work less remarkable for talent than for tender, pious feeling--less
+marked by genius than goodness, yet of a kind which the impartial critic
+will still sincerely commend, simply because its defects are negative
+while its merits are positive and apparent to all who will read only a
+few pages in it. The author seems to us as one who has gleaned the best
+from mystical Christianity or Quietism, without having taken up its
+defects--one who has found in TAULER or GUYON, or perhaps still more in
+FENELON, something to love, and has loved it without effort. We are
+certain that the work is one which will enjoy a very extensive
+popularity among all liberal-minded yet truly devout Christians.
+
+     HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH THE SECOND, CALLED FREDERICK THE
+     GREAT. By THOMAS CARLYLE. In four volumes. Vol. III.
+     New York: Harper & Brothers. Boston: A.K. Loring. 1862.
+
+To judge CARLYLE well, one should have outgrown a love for him. Then,
+and not till then, will the reader ace him as he is--a genius obscured
+and belittled by eccentricity in judgment and grotesqueness in literary
+art; a man who must be seen, out of whom much may be taken, but not with
+profit unless we leave much behind; a writer who was ahead of his age in
+1830, but who is wellnigh thirty years behind it now; one still
+worshipping heroes, and quite ignorant that great ideas are taking for
+the world the place of great men. It is curious to consider that
+CARLYLE, without understanding the first principles of the French
+Revolution, should have written most readably on it, and that, still
+more blind to the manifest path of free labor and of utility, he should
+still have assumed a pseudo-radical position. Yet, after all, nothing is
+strange when a man is wrong in his premises. Carp at them as he may,
+CARLYLE is of the destructives rather than the builders, and, like all
+literary destructives, continually flies for shelter to the
+conservatives, even as Rabelais fled for safety to the Pope.
+
+In this third volume of Friedrich the Second, he who neither overrates
+nor underrates CARLYLE may read with great profit. In it one
+sees, as in a brilliant series of highly-colored views--overcolored very
+often--shifting with strange rapidity and in wild lights, how from June,
+1740, to August, 1744, King Frederick lived his own life, and
+incidentally that of Prussia and a good part of the civilized world with
+it, as all active and earnest monarchs are wont to do. That it is
+piquant and interesting--to the well-educated taste more so than any
+novel--is true enough; and if the author acts despotically and talks
+arbitrarily, we may smile, and leave him to settle it with his dead men.
+He must be dumb indeed who can read it and not feel his thinking powers
+greatly stimulated, and with it, if he be a writer, his faculty of
+creating.
+
+     JENKINS'S VEST-POCKET LEXICON. BY JABEZ JENKINS.
+     Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. Boston: A.K. Loring. 1862.
+
+A dictionary is generally referred to for unfamiliar--not for well-known
+words; but it is in large and copious ones only that such words are
+given, and every one has not always at hand his WEBSTER and WORCESTER
+'unabridged.' In view of this want, JABEZ JENKINS has compiled an
+admirable little two-and-a-half-inch square English 'Lexicon of all
+_except_ familiar words, including the principal scientific and
+technical terms, and foreign moneys, weights, and measures.' The common
+Latin and French phrases of two and three words, and the principal names
+of classical mythology, are also given; 'omitting,' says J.J., 'what
+everybody knows, and containing what everybody wants to know, and
+cannot readily find.' It would be difficult to exaggerate the great
+practical utility of this admirable little book, in which, we have, so
+to speak, the very quintessence of a dictionary given _in poco_. We
+should not have looked for a joke, however, in an abridged
+dictionary--but there is one. 'This Lexicon,' says its author, 'will be
+found a convenient, and, it is hoped, a valuable _vade mecum_; and,
+though not inspiring the same degree of _veneration_ as some of its
+leviathan contemporaries, may possibly occupy a place much nearer the
+heart, viz., in the heart-pocket.' Let us not forget, by the way, to
+mention that S. AUSTIN ALLIBONE has indorsed this little work as one of
+the most important and useful publications of the day.
+
+     INSIDE OUT. A Curious Book by a Singular Man. New York:
+     Miller, Mathews & Clasback, 767 Broadway. Boston; A.K. Loring.
+
+The first instalment of the promised oddity of this work occurs in the
+first page--in fact, several pages before it--in the assertion that
+'this work is respectfully dedicated to the first young lady who can
+truthfully assert that she has read from title page to colophon WITHOUT
+SKIPPING. Such is the determination of the author.'
+
+It is needless to say that the determined author has hit upon a
+tolerably effectual means of securing a few lady readers. As for the
+work itself, it is, with more eccentricity of thought and less
+familiarity with composition than we should anticipate in a bad one. It
+is bold, rather sensational, involving a high-pressure murder and the
+somewhat _connu_ father-in-difficulties with a daughter, but
+interesting, and on the whole likely enough--in New York, where any
+amount of anything may be supposed to take place at any time without in
+the slightest degree violating the conditions of probability. For his
+_bete noir_ or grand villain, the Singular Man seems to have studied
+very carefully the gentleman who is said to have _posed_ for
+'DENS-DEATH' in 'Cecil Dreeme,' and has to our mind approached
+him more closely even than WINTHROP has done. Among the
+characters one--'Charles Tewphunny'--strikes us as a reality; a
+vigorous, earnest, cheerful nature, clear and fine even through the
+obscurity and occasional crudity of his word-painter. We like
+Charles--_he_ should have been the favored one by love, as he is in
+being the true hero of the tale.
+
+The work is in fact crude, as though hastily written and had not been at
+all reviewed--at least by an experienced writer. On the other hand, its
+author is evidently a gentleman, one widely familiar with life--even a
+town life in many details--and is most unmistakably a scholar of rare
+ripeness. So manifest is his ability, and so remarkable the varied
+learning and experience which gleam (unknown to the author himself)
+through many unconscious allusions, that we wonder at finding such
+peculiar gifts turned to illustrate a tale, above all one so carelessly
+constructed as this is. We find fault with the names: 'Malfaire,'
+'Tewphunny,' 'Mrs. Kairfull,' are not well devised; and yet again we at
+once regret all harsher judgment in some truly human, refined, and
+delicate passage, which is as creditable to the author's taste as heart.
+Taking it altogether, 'Inside Out' is, according to promise, a very
+curious book indeed. In justice to the publishers, we must say a word in
+favor of its neat binding and very attractive typography.
+
+     COUNTRY LIVING AND COUNTRY THINKING. By GAIL
+     HAMILTON. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1862.
+
+The Essay, after long years of sleep, has sprung up of late to, at
+least, popularity, and from the pens of the Country Parson and his
+disciples has sent word-pictures and personal experiences well through
+the country. Among the most promising of the American members of the
+'Parson's' flock is GAIL HAMILTON, a lively, well-writing,
+intensely-Yankee woman; that is to say, a bird who would fly far and
+fast indeed were she not well bound down by Puritanical chains, and who,
+in default of other experience-means of expression, clinks her fetters
+in measures which are merry enough for the many, albeit somewhat
+sorrowful at times to those who feel how much more she might have done
+under more genial influences and in a freer field. We could also wish a
+little less of the endless I and Me and Mine of the Essays, and wonder
+if the author will never tire of her intense self-setting forth. But
+this is the constant fault of the personal essay, let who will write it;
+and since it has great names to sanction it, we may perhaps let it
+pass.
+
+
+
+
+EDITOR'S TABLE
+
+
+The President's Proclamation is based mainly on the act of Congress to
+which he refers. That act was passed with great approach to unanimity
+among unconditional Unionists, and met their approbation throughout the
+country. That the rebel States, as a military question, must be deprived
+of the 'sinews of war,' which, with them, are the _sinews of slaves_, is
+quite certain. They have boasted, as well before as since the rebellion,
+that their great strength in war consisted in their ability to send all
+the whites to battle, whilst the slaves were retained at home to
+cultivate the lands and provide subsistence for armies. Take from the
+South its slaves, and the necessary supplies must cease for want of
+laborers in the field, or the whites must be withdrawn from the armies
+to raise provisions. In either event, the rebellion must terminate in
+defeat. There are thousands then, who, under ordinary circumstances,
+would oppose emancipation, yet who will support this measure as a
+_military necessity_. As regards the Border States, the President still
+adheres to his original programme: emancipation with their consent,
+compensation by Congress, and colonization beyond our limits.
+
+As regards the seceded States, the proclamation only applies to such of
+them as shall persist in rebellion after the first of January next, and
+even in those States compensation for their slaves is to be made to all
+who are loyal.
+
+The friends of Secession in Europe, and especially in France and
+England, have contended that slavery was not the cause of the rebellion,
+and it has been suggested that the rebels would themselves adopt a
+system of gradual emancipation. Even now it is alleged that if MR.
+LINCOLN had not issued this proclamation, we should have had
+something very similar from JEFFERSON DAVIS.
+
+However this may be, these professions of the friends of the South in
+Europe, and particularly of their friends in France and England, will
+soon be tested.
+
+If the South objects to emancipation, and denounces this proclamation,
+they will make this contest, on their part, still more clearly a war for
+the maintenance, perpetuity, and unlimited extension of slavery.
+
+If, under such circumstances, England continues to support the
+rebellion, she must do so as the open and avowed advocate of slavery.
+What is to be done with the slaves when they are emancipated? is a grave
+question, which we shall discuss at a future period. There can be little
+doubt, however, that emancipation, on a scale so extensive, would give a
+great impulse to the cause of colonization.
+
+There are, however, three classes of States in which this proclamation
+will have no effect on the 1st of January next:
+
+  1st. The Border States.
+
+  2d. Such of the rebel States, and such
+  parts of them, as shall return to their allegiance
+  before that date.
+
+  3d. Such of the rebel States, and such
+  parts of them, as shall not then have been
+  conquered.
+
+In the mean time there may be rebel States, or portions of them, where
+the apprehended loss of their slaves, as a consequence of persisting in
+the rebellion, may induce a return to the Union, and thus hasten a
+successful conclusion of the war.
+
+How far this proclamation, merely as such, would avail to change the
+status of slaves in such seceded States as may not be occupied by us and
+conquered before the first of January next, may be more appropriately
+discussed when, if ever, such a contingency shall happen.
+
+In the mean time, whatever may be the effect of this proclamation upon
+the institution of slavery, which was the cause of the war, let us all
+unite in its vigorous prosecution, and in carrying, promptly and
+triumphantly, the flag of the Union throughout every State, from
+Richmond and Charleston to Mobile and Savannah. Our next campaign must
+witness the final overthrow of the rebellion.
+
+
+THE REBEL NUMBERS.
+
+The whole number of males in the rebel States, by the census of 1860,
+between 15 and 60 years of age (excepting East Tennessee and Western
+Virginia), is less than one million; of whom, from physical disability,
+sickness, alienage, &c., at least 100,000 are not available. Of the
+remaining 900,000, at least 200,000 have been withdrawn by death,
+wounds, sickness, parole, capture, &c., reducing the number to 700,000;
+of whom, for indispensable pursuits, at least one third must remain at
+home, reducing their present maximum forces to 466,000. Now, if these
+disappear no more rapidly in the future than in the past (although the
+war will be prosecuted with much more vigor), their numbers would be
+diminished at the rate of at least 12,000 a month. Therefore, as there
+are no means of obtaining new recruits, it is clear that the rebellion
+must soon fail for want of troops to meet our immense armies. It is true
+no allowance has been made for recruits from the Border States; but
+these (greatly overestimated) would be more than counter-balanced by the
+inability to obtain troops from that large portion of the Rebel States
+occupied by our forces, such as all the coast from New Orleans to
+Norfolk, nearly all the Mississippi River, and considerable sections of
+West and Middle Tennessee, North Alabama, North Mississippi, and
+Arkansas. The days of the rebellion, then, are numbered.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sharpsburg is a name which will be long remembered, and is destined to
+be found in many a lay and legend. Among the earliest written
+commemorating it, we have the following, from one whose lyrics are well
+known to our readers:
+
+
+THE POTOMAC AT SHARPSBURG.
+
+BY H. L. SPENCER.
+
+
+  Once smiling fields stretched far on either side,
+    Where bowed to every breeze the ripening grain;
+  But now with carnage are those waters dyed,
+    And all around are slumbering the slain.
+    Patriots and heroes! unto whom in vain
+  Ne'er cried the voice of Right,--their names shall be
+  Graved on a million hearts, and with just pride
+    Shall children say, 'For Truth and Liberty
+    Our fathers fought at SHARPSBURG, where they fell--
+    They _bravely fought_, as history's pages tell.'
+    Not for the fallen toll the funeral bell,--
+  _Their_ rest is peaceful--_they_ the goal have won.
+    Let the thinned ranks be filled, and let us see
+  Complete the glorious work by them begun.
+
+Yes--forward! onward! Let it be complete. _Scripta est_--it is written,
+and it will be done. After going so far in the great cause which has
+become our religion and our life, it were hardly worth while to retreat.
+Life and fortune are of small account now in this tremendous opening of
+new truths and new interests. And we are only at the beginning! With
+every new death the cause grows more sacred, and the North more grandly
+earnest. 'Hurrah for the faithful dead!'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+MRS. H. BEECHER STOWE AND THE DUCHESS OF SUTHERLAND.
+
+MY DEAR MRS. STOWE:
+
+Your great work, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' will no longer circulate in
+England. Mr. Mason, the Southern ambassador, has convinced us all that
+slavery is a divine institution, that whipping and branding are really
+good for the negro, and education dangerous. Indeed, we dare not educate
+our own working classes. We begin to perceive the truth of the _corner
+stone_ principle of the Southern Confederacy, that capital should always
+own labor, whether white or black. Then we would have no more strikes,
+or riots, or claims for higher wages, or for the right of suffrage, and
+all would be peace. You see my opinion of slavery has changed; and so
+has that of England in church and state, except the working classes, who
+wish to vote, and such pestiferous democrats as Bright and Cobden.
+
+This rebellion came just in the right time for us. In a few years more
+of your success, we should have been compelled to establish free
+schools, give the vote by ballot, and extend the suffrage, until the
+people should rule here, as with you. But now that your rebellion has
+proved the failure of republics, we shall yield no more. Slavery, in
+dissolving your Union, has accomplished all this for us, and therefore
+must be a good institution. Some one has sent me one Edmund Kirke's
+anti-slavery novel, entitled, 'Among the Pines.' Your people seem to
+have gone crazy over it; but it will have no readers here. Is this Kirke
+a Scotchman? I had a tenant called Kirke, who was evicted for avowing
+republican opinions. Can this be the same man? I told the Confederate
+minister, Mr. Mason, that if some Southron would write a good novel in
+favor of slavery, it would have a great circulation here; and he said he
+would name this in his next despatch to his Government. He has a fine
+aristocratic air, and could scarcely be descended from the women
+(imported and sold as wives for a few pounds of tobacco to the
+Virginians) who were the mothers of the F. F. V.'s. But Mr. M. says
+slavery will soon build up a splendid nobility in the South.
+
+Jefferson Davis is very popular here, and was lately cheered in Exeter
+Hall; but Yancey and Wigfall are idolized. Our great favorite in the
+North is Ex-President Buchanan. When did the head of a Government ever
+before have the courage to aid a rebellion against it, so gracefully
+yielding it the national forts, ships, mints, guns, and arsenals? But
+what we most admire is his message, in which he proved you have no right
+to coerce the South or suppress rebellion. This was a splendid discovery
+for us, as it demonstrated how superior our Government is to yours. If
+Mr. Buchanan would come here, we would raise him to the peerage, and, in
+commemoration of his two great acts, would give him the double title of
+the Duke of Lecompton and Disunion. Floyd, Cobb, and Thompson should
+each be earls. Thompson should be called Earl Arnold, in gratitude for
+the services to us of the celebrated Benedict Arnold.
+
+I told Mr. M. how much we had condemned his fugitive slave law; but he
+convinced me that it was a most humane and excellent measure. Fugitives
+from the kindest masters, and ungrateful for all the blessings of
+slavery, why should they not be brought back in chains? He reminded me
+of Generals Shields, Corcoran, and Meagher, Irishmen commanding Irish
+troops for the North, and said they should be brought back to Ireland
+and hung on Emmet's scaffold. You know we keep that scaffold still
+standing, as a terror to Irish rebels, although we admire so much
+rebellion in America. Mr. M. spoke also of Sigel, Heintzelman,
+Rosecrans, Asboth, and expressed his surprise that the Bourbon princes
+would fight side by side with the _mudsills_ of the North.
+
+In a few years, Mr. M. said, the South would establish a monarchy, and
+that a son of the Queen should marry a daughter of Jefferson Davis, and
+thus unite the two dynasties by kindred ties. It was his opinion that
+the South would limit the right of suffrage to slaveholders, numbering
+about two hundred thousand; that they would have a house of peers, lords
+temporal and spiritual, composed (including bishops) of all who held
+over five hundred slaves; but that their Archbishop of _Canting_bury
+should own at least one thousand. He thought the number requisite for
+the peerage would be enlarged after the reopening of the African slave
+trade, which would soon furnish England cheap cotton. His remarks on
+this subject reminded me how large a portion of my fortune was
+accumulated, during the last century, by the profits of the African
+slave trade. Mr. M. told me the King of Dahomey would furnish the South
+one hundred thousand slaves a year, for twenty dollars each, and that
+England should have the profits of the trade as before, and Liverpool
+again be the great slave port. He alluded to the CONTINENTAL
+MONTHLY, which he said was an abolition journal, and denounced
+Kirke, Kimball, Leland, Henry, Greeley, Stanton, and Walker. He was
+specially severe on Walker and Stanton, charging them with the defeat of
+the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution, and the consequent accession of
+Kansas and all the Territories to the free States, He said Walker and
+Stanton had no right to reject the Oxford and McGee returns, although
+they were forged. And now, dear Mrs. Stowe, if you would only change, as
+we all have here, and write, as you only can, a great novel to prove the
+beauties of slavery, its circulation here would be enormous, and we
+would make you a duchess. Adieu until my next.
+
+P.S.--I have invested all my United States stock in Confederate bonds.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The style of the foregoing letter would point to the Duchess of
+Sutherland as the author, but such a change would be miraculous. Was the
+copy of the letter found in an intercepted despatch from Mr. Mason to
+Jefferson Davis?
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+  THE
+
+  CONTINENTAL MONTHLY:
+
+  EDITORS:
+
+  HON. ROBERT J. WALKER, CHARLES G. LELAND,
+
+  HON. FRED. P. STANTON, EDMUND KIRKE.
+
+
+The readers of the CONTINENTAL are aware of the important
+position it has assumed, of the influence which it exerts, and of the
+brilliant array of political and literary talent of the highest order
+which supports it. No publication of the kind has, in this country, so
+successfully combined the energy and freedom of the daily newspaper with
+the higher literary tone of the first-class monthly; and it is very
+certain that no magazine has given wider range to its contributors, or
+preserved itself so completely from the narrow influences of party or of
+faction. In times like the present, such a journal is either a power in
+the land or it is nothing. That the CONTINENTAL is not the
+latter is abundantly evidenced _by what it has done_--by the reflection
+of its counsels in many important public events, and in the character
+and power of those who are its staunchest supporters.
+
+By the accession of HON. ROBERT J. WALKER and HON. F. P.
+STANTON to its editorial corps, the CONTINENTAL acquires a
+strength and a political significance which, to those who are aware of
+the ability and experience of these gentlemen, must elevate it to a
+position far above any previously occupied by any publication of the
+kind in America. Preserving all "the boldness, vigor, and ability" which
+a thousand journals have attributed to it, it will at once greatly
+enlarge its circle of action, and discuss, fearlessly and frankly, every
+principle involved in the great questions of the day. The first minds of
+the country, embracing men most familiar with its diplomacy and most
+distinguished for ability, are to become its contributors; and it is no
+mere "flattering promise of a prospectus" to say, that this "magazine
+for the times" will employ the first intellect in America, under
+auspices which no publication ever enjoyed before in this country.
+
+CHARLES GODFREY LELAND, the accomplished scholar and author, who has
+till now been the sole Editor of the Magazine, will, beside his
+editorial labors, continue his brilliant contributions to its pages; and
+EDMUND KIRKE, author of "AMONG THE PINES," will contribute to each
+issue, having already begun a work on Southern Life and Society, which
+will be found far more widely descriptive, and, in all respects,
+superior to the first.
+
+While the CONTINENTAL will express decided opinions on the
+great questions of the day, it will not be a mere political journal:
+much the larger portion of its columns will be enlivened, as heretofore,
+by tales, poetry, and humor. In a word, the CONTINENTAL will be
+found, under its new staff of Editors, occupying a position, and
+presenting attractions never before found in a magazine.
+
+TERMS TO CLUBS.
+
+  Two copies for one year,        Five dollars.
+  Three copies for one year,      Six dollars.
+  Six copies for one year,        Eleven dollars.
+  Eleven copies for one year,     Twenty dollars.
+  Twenty copies for one year,     Thirty-six dollars.
+
+  PAID IN ADVANCE
+
+  _Postage, Thirty-six cents a year_, TO BE PAID BY THE SUBSCRIBER.
+
+  SINGLE COPIES.
+
+  Three Dollars a year, IN ADVANCE.--_Postage paid by the Publisher._
+
+  JOHN F. TROW, 50 Greene St., N.Y.
+
+  PUBLISHER FOR THE PROPRIETORS.
+
+As an inducement to new subscribers, the Publisher offers the
+following very liberal premiums:
+
+Any person remitting $8, in advance, will receive the Magazine from
+July, 1862, to January, 1864, thus securing the whole of Mr. KIMBALL's
+and Mr. KIRKE's new serials, which are alone worth the price of
+subscription. Or, if preferred, a subscriber can take the Magazine for
+1863 and a copy of "AMONG THE PINES," or of "UNDERCURRENTS OF WALL ST.,"
+by R. B. KIMBALL, bound in cloth (the book to be sent postage paid).
+
+Any person remitting $4.50, will receive the Magazine from its
+commencement, January, 1862, to January, 1864, thus securing Mr.
+KIMBALL'S "WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?" and Mr. KIRKE's "AMONG THE PINES" and
+"MERCHANT'S STORY," and nearly 8,000 octavo pages of the best literature
+in the world. Premium subscribers to pay their own postage.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+[Illustration: THE FINEST FARMING LANDS WHEAT CORN COTTON FRUITS &
+VEGETABLES]
+
+~EQUAL TO ANY IN THE WORLD!!!~
+
+MAY BE PROCURED
+
+~At FROM $8 to $12 PER ACRE,~
+
+Near Markets, Schools, Railroads, Churches, and all the blessings of
+Civilization.
+
+1,200,000 Acres, in Farms of 40, 80, 120, 160 Acres and upwards, in
+ILLINOIS, the Garden State of America.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Illinois Central Railroad Company offer, ON LONG CREDIT, the
+beautiful and fertile PRAIRIE LANDS lying along the whole line of their
+Railroad. 700 MILES IN LENGTH, upon the most Favorable Terms for
+enabling Farmers, Manufacturers, Mechanics and Workingmen to make for
+themselves and their families a competency, and a HOME they can call
+THEIR OWN, as will appear from the following statements:
+
+ILLINOIS.
+
+Is about equal in extent to England, with a population of 1,722,666, and
+a soil capable of supporting 20,000,000. No State in the Valley of the
+Mississippi offers so great an inducement to the settler as the State of
+Illinois. There is no part of the world where all the conditions of
+climate and soil so admirably combine to produce those two great
+staples, CORN and WHEAT.
+
+CLIMATE.
+
+Nowhere can the Industrious farmer secure such immediate results from
+his labor as on these deep, rich, loamy soils, cultivated with so much
+ease. The climate from the extreme southern part of the State to the
+Terre Haute, Alton and St. Louis Railroad, a distance of nearly 200
+miles, is well adapted to Winter.
+
+WHEAT, CORN, COTTON, TOBACCO.
+
+Peaches, Pears, Tomatoes, and every variety of fruit and vegetables is
+grown in great abundance, from which Chicago and other Northern markets
+are furnished from four to six weeks earlier than their immediate
+vicinity. Between the Terre Haute, Alton & St. Louis Railway and the
+Kankakee and Illinois Rivers, (a distance of 115 miles on the Branch,
+and 136 miles on the Main Trunk,) lies the great Corn and Stock raising
+portion of the State.
+
+THE ORDINARY YIELD
+
+of Corn is from 60 to 80 bushels per acre. Cattle, Horses, Mules, Sheep
+and Hogs are raised here at a small cost, and yield large profits. It is
+believed that no section of country presents greater inducements for
+Dairy Farming than the Prairies of Illinois, a branch of farming to
+which but little attention has been paid, and which must yield sure
+profitable results. Between the Kankakee and Illinois Rivers, and
+Chicago and Dunleith, (a distance of 56 miles on the Branch and 147
+miles by the Main Trunk,) Timothy Hay, Spring Wheat, Corn, &c., are
+produced in great abundance.
+
+AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS.
+
+The Agricultural products of Illinois are greater than those of any
+other State. The Wheat crop of 1861 was estimated at 35,000,000 bushels,
+while the Corn crop yields not less than 140,000,000 bushels besides the
+crop of Oats, Barley, Rye, Buckwheat, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes,
+Pumpkins, Squashes, Flax, Hemp, Peas, Clover, Cabbage, Beets, Tobacco,
+Sorgheim, Grapes, Peaches, Apples, &c., which go to swell the vast
+aggregate of production in this fertile region. Over Four Million tons
+of produce were sent out the State of Illinois during the past year.
+
+STOCK RAISING.
+
+In Central and Southern Illinois uncommon advantages are presented for
+the extension of Stock raising. All kinds of Cattle, Horses, Mules,
+Sheep, Hogs, &c., of the best breeds, yield handsome profits; large
+fortunes have already been made, and the field is open for others to
+enter with the fairest prospects of like results. Dairy Farming also
+presents its inducements to many.
+
+CULTIVATION OF COTTON.
+
+The experiments in Cotton culture are of very great promise. Commencing
+in latitude 39 deg. 30 min. (see Mattoon on the Branch, and Assumption
+on the Main Line), the Company owns thousands of acres well adapted to
+the perfection of this fibre. A settler having a family of young
+children, can turn their youthful labor to a most profitable account in
+the growth and perfection of this plant.
+
+THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD
+
+Traverses the whole length of the State, from the banks of the
+Mississippi and Lake Michigan to the Ohio. As its name imports, the
+Railroad runs through the centre of the State, and on either side of the
+road along its whole length lie the lands offered for sale.
+
+CITIES, TOWNS, MARKETS, DEPOTS.
+
+There are Ninety-eight Depots on the Company's Railway, giving about one
+every seven miles. Cities, Towns and Villages are situated at convenient
+distances throughout the whole route, where every desirable commodity
+may be found as readily as in the oldest cities of the Union, and where
+buyers are to be met for all kinds of farm produce.
+
+EDUCATION.
+
+Mechanics and working-men will find the free school system encouraged by
+the State, and endowed with a large revenue for the support of the
+schools. Children can live in sight of the school, the college, the
+church, and grow up with the prosperity of the leading State in the
+Great Western Empire.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PRICES AND TERMS OF PAYMENT--ON LONG CREDIT.
+
+  80 acres at $10 per acre, with interest at 6 per ct. annually
+  on the following terms:
+
+  Cash payment                 $48 00
+
+  Payment in one year           48 00
+     "    in two years          48 00
+     "    in three years        48 00
+     "    in four years        236 00
+     "    in five years        224 00
+     "    in six years         212 00
+
+
+  40 acres, at $10 00 per acre:
+
+  Cash payment                 $24 00
+
+  Payment in one year           24 00
+     "    in two years          24 00
+     "    in three years        24 00
+     "    in four years        118 00
+     "    in five years        112 00
+     "    in six years         106 00
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+  Number 12                         25 Cents.
+
+
+
+  The
+
+  Continental
+
+  Monthly
+
+  Devoted to Literature and National Policy.
+
+  DECEMBER, 1862.
+
+  NEW YORK:
+
+  JOHN F. TROW, 50 GREENE STREET
+
+  (FOR THE PROPRIETORS).
+
+  HENRY DEXTER AND SINCLAIR TOUSEY.
+
+  WASHINGTON, D.C.: FRANCK TAYLOR.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.--No. XII.
+
+
+  The Union. Hon. Robert J. Walker,                                  641
+  Something we have to Think of, and to Do. C. S. Henry, LL.D.       657
+  Cambridge and Its Colleges,                                        662
+  A Physician's Story,                                               667
+  La Vie Poetique,                                                   679
+  The Ash Tree. Charles G. Leland,                                   682
+  An Englishman in South Carolina,                                   689
+  The Causes of the Rebellion. Hon. F. P. Stanton,                   695
+  On Guard. John G. Nicolay, Private Secretary to President
+    Lincoln,                                                         706
+  Railway Photographs. Isabella McFarlane,                           708
+  The Obstacles to Peace. A Letter to an Englishman.
+    Hon. Horace Greeley,                                             714
+  Thank God for All. Chas. G. Leland,                                718
+  A Merchant's Story. Edmund Kirke,                                  719
+  The Freed Men of the South. Hon. F. P. Stanton,                    730
+  Was He Successful? Richard B. Kimball,                             734
+  Gold. Hon. Robert J. Walker,                                       743
+  Literary Notices,                                                  747
+  Editor's Table,                                                    750
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+ANNOUNCEMENT.
+
+The Proprietors of THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY, warranted by its
+great success, have resolved to increase its influence and usefulness by
+the following changes:
+
+The Magazine has become the property of an association of men of
+character and large means. Devoted to the NATIONAL CAUSE, it
+will ardently and unconditionally support the UNION. Its scope
+will be enlarged by articles relating to our public defences, Army and
+Navy, gunboats, railroads, canals, finance, and currency. The cause of
+gradual emancipation and colonization will be cordially sustained. The
+literary character of the Magazine will be improved, and nothing which
+talent, money, and industry combined can achieve, will be omitted.
+
+The political department will be controlled by HON. ROBERT J. WALKER and
+HON. FREDERIC P. STANTON, of Washington, D.C. Mr. WALKER, after serving
+nine years as Senator, and four years as Secretary of the Treasury, was
+succeeded in the Senate by JEFFERSON DAVIS. MR. STANTON served ten years
+in Congress, acting as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and of Naval
+Affairs. MR. WALKER was succeeded as Governor of Kansas by MR. STANTON,
+and both were displaced by MR. BUCHANAN, for refusing to force slavery
+upon that people by fraud and forgery. The literary department of the
+Magazine will be under the control of CHARLES GODFREY LELAND of Boston,
+and EDMUND KIRKE of New York. MR. LELAND is the present accomplished
+Editor of the Magazine. MR. KIRKE is one of its constant contributors,
+but better known as the author of "Among the Pines," the great picture,
+true to life, of Slavery as it is.
+
+THE CONTINENTAL, while retaining all the old corps of writers,
+who have given it so wide a circulation, will be reenforced by new
+contributors, greatly distinguished as statesmen, scholars, and savans.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, In the year 1862, by
+JAMES R. GILMORE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court
+of the United States for the Southern District of New York.
+
+  JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Continental Monthly , Vol. 2 No.
+5,  November 1862, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY  ***
+
+***** This file should be named 20899.txt or 20899.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/8/9/20899/
+
+Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Janet Blenkinship and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+(This file was produced from images generously made
+available by Cornell University Digital Collections)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/20899.zip b/20899.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..52f461f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20899.zip
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..ad97d5f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #20899 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20899)