diff options
Diffstat (limited to '20899-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 20899-h/20899-h.htm | 9843 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 20899-h/images/imgffl.jpg | bin | 0 -> 32305 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 20899-h/images/imgfinger.jpg | bin | 0 -> 9939 bytes |
3 files changed, 9843 insertions, 0 deletions
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.—NOVEMBER, 1862.—<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!—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.—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.—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.—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 +coöperate 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—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,—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—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.</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—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.</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—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.</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—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—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.</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—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.</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—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<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—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.</p> + +<p>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.</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—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.'</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 manœuvring 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—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—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—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.</p> + +<p>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 <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>—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;—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—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,—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—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, <i>Vox et præterea 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—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.</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—these <i>captatores</i> (and <i>occisores</i>) +<i>verborum</i>—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!</p> + +<p>This <i>specialité</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—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—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,—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 <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—spendthrifts and drunkards in the use of its strong waters—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—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—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.</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 & 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. & 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.</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 & +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.</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—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—plain, +earnest, and industrious—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 employés. 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 +& 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—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—the darkened skies—</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—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—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 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 <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 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.</p> + +<p>As sound is the symmetrical aërial 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—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>pensée</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—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—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>—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'>&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´,</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'>D´</td><td align='left'>E´,</td><td align='left'>&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 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, <i>e.g.</i> <span class="hover" title="[F sharp]">♯F</span> or <span class="hover" title="[G flat]">♭G</span>, so a half tint between +green and blue is a kind of analogical +<span class="hover" title="[sharp]">♯</span> green or <span class="hover" title="[flat]">♭</span> 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—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.</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—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—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—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—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.</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—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—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——'</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—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 <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—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—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—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—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>—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>—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 stu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_546" id="Page_546">[Pg 546]</a></span>dents—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—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—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.'</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>—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—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—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—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—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—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—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—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—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—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.'</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—my mother that was; if there's another like her—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—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.'</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—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:</p> + +<p>'I should say so, August—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—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—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.'</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—well—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—'</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—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.</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—' 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—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?'</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—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.</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—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—her earnings—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—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—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—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—promise before you leave this room—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—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—completely—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,—</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,—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—they didn't get thy votes</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Or volunteers—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—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.</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—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—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.'</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—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>——,' and he hesitated for me to fill up the blank.</p> + +<p>'No; not even Squire——,' 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——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.</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—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—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—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—<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—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—<i>Necessitus non arbit legum</i>—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—a nig thet kin work—'tend ten +thousand boxes (turpentine) easy. He's the sort. Prime stuff +<i>thet</i>—(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?'</p> + +<p>'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 <i>am</i>, Mr.——,' and I paused for him +to finish the sentence.</p> + +<p>'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 <i>hev</i> '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.'</p> + +<p>'Yes, I knows—'iled 'em inside and out, haint ye?'</p> + +<p>'No, on my soul—only one glass ter day—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>—a berry little +moufful—dat's all.'</p> + +<p>'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.'</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—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—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.'</p> + +<p>'Young or old?'</p> + +<p>'Young and sprightly.'</p> + +<p>'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<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—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—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—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.'</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—cash down? +Come, talk it out.'</p> + +<p>'Well, at a word—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—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 & 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 & 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—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.'</p> + +<p>'Is it possible! Then you do a large business?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, right smart; I handle 'bout a thousand—big and little—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—<i>like +you</i>—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.'</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—d—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—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——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!'</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——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—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.</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—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——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—<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——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—nimble's a squirrel, and healthy!—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—it's all muscle. +See thar—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—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—'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:</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—<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—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—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——, +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<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—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 <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—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.'</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—<i>do</i>—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—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.'</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—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——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—ye knows what I means—till he got so d——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—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—she's a 'ooman fur me—a +hull team—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—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, <i>Mister</i> Larkin, them's what +I got fur the little gal. <i>I've</i> 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<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—not a mill more.'</p> + +<p>'The h——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——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—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—<i>must</i> have them—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 & Co. will stop your supplies, <i>or I'll stop +their's</i>—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—'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——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—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—Rosey <i>so</i> 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.</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—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—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—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—<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—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—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.</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, 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<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—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—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—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.</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—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.</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.—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>—'Una niña 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—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!—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>—Where the deep cannon bays for our beagle, &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 wére-wolf is seen.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Chorus</span>—Where the deep cannon bays for our beagle, &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>—Where the deep cannon bays for our beagle, &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—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 Antæus the Earth-born and Hercules.</p> + +<p>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.</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, 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 <i>of any age</i> 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.</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—especially the Ghost in Armor—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—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?</p> + +<p>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 <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—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 +<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—the hymn which <i>should</i> 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 <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—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—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 +<span class="smcap">CUP</span>. 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 <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—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—they +modified nothing and avoided nothing for fear of shocking conventional +and artificial feelings. Nature was to them what she was to +herself—<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 æsthetics 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—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 <i>love</i> 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.</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—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<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—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>—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 <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—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—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—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.</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—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—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 <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>—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—or taken.</p> + +<p>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 <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—the first emblem of +'still life'—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—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 Pæstan 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—</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>—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—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 (<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—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—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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_590" id="Page_590">[Pg 590]</a></span> eventually see that this <i>naïve</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—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 +<i>Nature</i>—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—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 <i>re</i>-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 <i>Iona</i>, 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, <i>there</i> 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<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—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 <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—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—let me see—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—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—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 <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—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—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—'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.</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—'</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—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—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 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.'</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—of violets.'</p> + +<p>'And why not to Flora?'</p> + +<p>'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.'</p> + +<p>'That shrine is abandoned hereafter: where shall my new one be?'</p> + +<p>'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!'</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—Bostonians,'</p> + +<p>'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!'</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—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—never +throwing him the one she aimed! He is sold! But 'whiz, whir!' right and +left fly flowers and <i>confetti</i>; and—oh, joy unspeakable!—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——n,'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>and that he is using it severely, and don't see the fun, you know—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—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!—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—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—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 <i>confetti</i> 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! <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—<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—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. <i>Your</i> +road is—onward!</p> + +<p>'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?'</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—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—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.</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—whir! they are past us, and—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—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—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:—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.</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—that is to say, two thousand francs left him by a +deceased relation—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—capillary—for me; the latter has the +attraction—gravitation of francs—still more interesting—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'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.'</p> + +<p>'And as for affairs of the heart?'</p> + +<p>'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.'</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—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—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—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.</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:—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—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—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.'</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—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 <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—such voices for an opera chorus!—</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>?' &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—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—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.</p> + +<p>'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.</p> + +<p>'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: '<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—the censor see fit to admit: for, in +<i>this</i> 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.</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—in fact, was so popularly known to the <i>forestieri</i> 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.</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—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'—<span class="smcap">they pinned a piece of foolscap paper around the neck of +Chloe.</span></p> + +<p>Rome is the cradle of art:—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—and missed it clean;—</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—Father <span class="smcap">Abraham</span>—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:—</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—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">This world boasts many a noble state—</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—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—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—the very moving panorama—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,—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—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.</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,—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 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—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—to not many is it <i>known</i>; and seize it where you will, it is +interesting.'—<i>Goethe.</i></p> + +<p>'<span class="smcap">Successful</span>.—Terminating in accomplishing what is wished +or intended.'—<i>Webster's Dictionary.</i></p></div> + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h3> + +<h3>DIAMOND CUT—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—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—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.</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—he +had a duplicate—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—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—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.</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—<i>all</i>?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, everything.'</p> + +<p>'I know it—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—' 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—' He hesitated again. Evidently something oppressed +him.</p> + +<p>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.</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—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—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 & 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.</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—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—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 & Tweed, auctioneers?'</p> + +<p>'Orris & 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—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 & 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—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 & 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 & 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—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 & Tweed, auctioneers,' they +were not much better than Peter Funks—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—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—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—got too many soft spots: that's what I hear folks +say. But I think I should like New York.'</p> + +<p>'Well, Nicker—'</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—and I suppose you do—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—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—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—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—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—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.</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—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—'</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—keeps me on promises and the lowest kind of a salary, and no +end of the dirty work—'</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——,' 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.</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 & 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—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—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——! that's more than I'll stand,' shouted Joslin, 'from any d——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—<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—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——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'—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—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>passée</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—</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—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—th' restricted breath</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of each rapt soul is heard—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 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.</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,' &c.</p></div> + +<p>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.</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, &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.</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—$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,<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 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 <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, &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 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.'</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,' &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>—'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 preëmption, 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.'—<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—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"> </td><td align='right'>—————</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' colspan="3"> </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"> </td><td align='right'>—————</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' colspan="3"> </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—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—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 & Fields.</p></div> + +<p>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 <span class="smcap">Tauler</span> or <span class="smcap">Guyon</span>, or +perhaps still more in <span class="smcap">Fénélon</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 & 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—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—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.</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 & Co. Boston: A.K. Loring. 1862.</p></div> + +<p>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 <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—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 & 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—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.'</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—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>poséd</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—'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—<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—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.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Country Living and Country Thinking</span>. By <span class="smcap">Gail +Hamilton</span>. Boston: Ticknor & 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, &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.</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,—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—</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,—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Their</i> rest is peaceful—<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—forward! onward! Let it be complete. <i>Scripta est</i>—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.—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>, +Würzburg, 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>—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'> </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 & 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, &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, &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, &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—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'> </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'> </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.—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 reënforced 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 Binary files differnew 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 Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..52e4dc6 --- /dev/null +++ b/20899-h/images/imgfinger.jpg |
