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diff --git a/23004-8.txt b/23004-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9977edf --- /dev/null +++ b/23004-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1257 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of In Madeira Place, by Heman White Chaplin + +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: In Madeira Place + 1887 + +Author: Heman White Chaplin + +Release Date: October 12, 2007 [EBook #23004] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN MADEIRA PLACE *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +IN MADEIRA PLACE + +1887 + +By Heman White Chaplin + + +Turning from the street which follows the line of the wharves, into +Madeira Place, you leave at once an open region of docks and spars for +comparative retirement. Wagons seldom enter Madeira Place: it is too +hard to turn them in it; and then the inhabitants, for the most part, +have a convenient way of buying their coal by the basket. How much +trouble it would save, if we would all buy our coal by the basket! + +A few doors up the place a passageway makes off to the right, through a +high wooden gate that is usually open; and at the upper corner of this +passage stands a brick house, whose perpetually closed blinds suggest +the owner's absence. But the householders of Madeira Place do not absent +themselves, even in summer; they could hardly get much nearer to the +sea. And if you will take the pains to seat yourself, toward the close +of day, upon an opposite doorstep, between two rows of clamorous little +girls sliding, with screams of painful joy, down the rough hammered +stone, to the improvement of their clothing, you will see that the house +is by-no means untenanted. + +Every evening it is much the same thing. First, following close upon the +heels of sunset, comes a grizzly, tall, and slouching man, in the cap +and blouse of a Union soldier, bearing down with his left hand upon +a cane, and dragging his left foot heavily behind him, while with his +right hand he holds by a string a cluster of soaring toy balloons, and +also drags, by its long wooden tongue, a rude child's cart, in which is +a small hand-organ. + +Next will come, most likely, a dark, bent, keen-eyed old woman, with her +parchment face shrunk into deep wrinkles. She bears a dangling placard, +stating, in letters of white upon a patent-leather background, what you +might not otherwise suspect,--that she was a soldier under the great +Napoleon, and fought with him at Waterloo. She also bears, since +music goes with war, a worn accordion. She is the old woman to whose +shrivelled, expectant countenance you sometimes offer up a copper coin, +as she kneels by the flagged crossway path of the Park. + +She is succeeded, perhaps, by a couple of black-haired, short, +broad-shouldered men, leading a waddling, unconcerned bear, and talking +earnestly together in a language which you will hardly follow. + +Then you will see six or eight or ten other sons and daughters of toil, +most of them with balloons. + +All these people will turn, between the high, ball-topped gate-posts, +into the alley, and descend at once to the left, by a flight of three or +four steps, to a side basement door. + +As they begin to flock in, you will see through the alley gate a dark, +thick-set man, of middle age, but with very little hair, come and stand +at the foot of the steps, in the doorway. It is Sorel, the master of the +house; for this is the _Maison Sorel_. Some of his guests he greets +with a Noachian deluge of swift French words and high-pitched cries of +welcome. It is thus that he receives those capitalists, the bear-leaders +from the Pyrenees; it is thus that he greets the grizzled man in the +blue cap and blouse,--Fidèle the old soldier, Fidèle the pensioner, to +whom a great government, far away, at Washington, doubtless with much +else on its mind, never forgets to send by mail, each quarter-day +morning, a special, personal communication, marked with Fidèle's own +name, enclosing the preliminaries of a remittance: "Accept" (as it +were) "this slight tribute." "_Ah! que c'est un gouvernement! Voilà une +république!_" + +Even a Frenchman may be proud to be an American! + +Most of his guests, however, Sorel receives with a mere pantomime +of wide-opened eyes and extended hands and shrugged-up shoulders, +accompanied by a long-drawn "_Eh!_" by which he bodies forth a thousand +refinements of thought which language would fail to express. Does a +fresh immigrant from the Cévennes bring back at night but one or two of +the gay balloons with which she was stocked in the morning, or, better, +none; or, on the other hand, does a stalwart man just from the rich Brie +country return at sundown in abject despair, bringing back almost all +of the red and blue globes which floated like a radiant constellation +of hope about his head when he set forth in the early morning, Sorel can +express, by his "_Eh!_" and some slight movement, with subtle exactness +and with no possibility of being misapprehended, the precise shade of +feeling with which the result inspires him. + +But there he stops. Nothing is said. Sorel is a philosopher: he has +indicated volumes, and he will not dilute with language. One who has +fired a little lead bullet does not need to throw after it a bushel of +mustard-seed. + +The company, as they come in, one by one, wash their hands and faces, +if they see fit, at the kitchen sink, and dry them on a long +roller-towel,--a device adopted, probably, from the Americans. Then they +retire to the room behind the kitchen, and seat themselves at a long +table, at which the bear-leaders place themselves only after seeing +their animal fed, in the coalhole, where he is quartered. + +At the supper-table all is joy, even with the hopeless. Fidèle beams +with good-humor, and not infrequently is called on to describe, amid a +general hush, for the benefit of some new-comer from "_la belle France_" +the quarterly receipt of the communication from Washington: how he stays +at home that day, and shaves, and waits at the door for "_la poste_;" +how the gray-uniformed letter-carrier appears, hands out a letter "as +large as that," and nods smilingly to Fidèle: he, too, fought at "_la +Montagne du Lookout_." The amount of the sergeant's pension astonishes +them, wonted as they are to the pecuniary treatment of soldiers in the +Old World. "_Mais_, it is a fortune! Fidèle is a _vrai rentier!_ Ah! +_une république comme ça!_" + +Generally, however, Fidèle contents himself at the evening meal with +smiling good-humoredly on everybody and rapidly passing in, under his +drooping mustache, spoonfuls of soup, morsels from the long French loaf, +and draughts of lager beer; for only the rich can have wine in this +country, and in the matter of drink an exile must needs lower his +standard, as the prodigal lowered his. + +While Sorel and his wife and their busy maid fly in and out with +_potage_ and _rôti_, "_t-r-r-rès succulent_," the history of which we +must not pry too deeply into, there is much excited conversation. You +see at once that many amusing things happen to one who sells balloons +all day upon the Park. And there are varied fortunes to recount. Such +a lady actually wished to buy three for fifty cents! Such a +"police-er-mann" is to be highly commended; such another looks with an +evil eye upon all: he should truly be removed from office. There is a +rumor that a license fee is to be required by the city. + +All this is food for discussion. + +After supper they all sit about the kitchen or in the alley-way, +chatting, smoking. She who has been lucky in her sales basks in Sorel's +favor. The unfortunate peasant from the Brie country feels the little +bullet in his heart, and nurses a desperate resolution to redeem himself +on the morrow: one must live. + +Sometimes, if you happen to pass there on a warm evening, you may see +a young woman, rather handsome, sitting sidewise on the outer basement +steps, looking absently before her, straight-backed, upright, with her +hands clasped about one knee, with her skirt sweeping away: a picture of +Alsace. I have never been able to find out who she is. + +One evening there is a little flutter among this brood. A gentleman, +at the alley door, wishes to see M. Sorel. M. Sorel leads the gentleman +out, through the alley gate, to the front street-door; then, retiring +whence he came, he shortly appears from within at the front door, +which opens only after a struggle. A knot of small boys has instantly +gathered, apparently impressed with a vague, awful expectation that the +gentleman about to enter will never come out. Realizing, however, that +in that case there will be nothing to see, they slowly disperse when the +door is closed, and resume their play. + +Sorel ushers the gentleman into the front parlor, which is Sorel's +bedroom, which is also the storehouse of his merchandise, which is also +the nursery. At this moment an infant is sleeping in a trundle-bed. + +The gentleman takes a chair. So does Sorel. + +The gentleman does not talk French. Fortunately, M. Sorel can speak the +English: he has learned it in making purchases for his table. + +"I am an officer of the government," says Mr. Fox, with a very sharp, +distinct utterance, "in the custom-house. You know 'customhouse'?" + +M. Sorel does not commit himself. He is an importer of toys. One must +be on his guard. + +Thereupon, a complicated explanation: this street, and that street, +and the other street, and this building, and the market, and the great +building standing here. + +Ah! yes! M. Sorel identifies the building. Then he is informed that many +government officers are there. He knew it very well before. + +The conversation goes a step farther. + +Mr. Fox is one of those officers. The government is at present in need +of a gentleman absolutely trustworthy, for certain important duties: +perhaps to judge of silks; perhaps to oversee the weighing of sugar, of +iron, of diamonds; perhaps to taste of wines. Who can say what service +this great government may not need from its children! + +With some labor, since the English is only a translucent, and not a +transparent medium to Sorel, this is made clear. Still the horizon is +dark. + +Mr. Fox draws his chair nearer, facing Sorel, who looks uneasy: Sorel's +feelings, to the thousandth degree of subdivision, are always declaring +themselves in swift succession upon his face. + +Mr. Fox proceeds. + +"The great officer of the custom-house, the collector--" + +"_Le chef?_" interrupts Sorel. + +--yes, the _chef_ (Mr. Fox seizes upon the word and clings to it),--the +_chef_ has been speaking anxiously to Mr. Fox about this vacancy: Mr. +Fox is in the _chefs_ confidence. + +"Ah!" from Sorel, in a tone of utter bewilderment. + +"We must have," the _chef_ had said to Mr. Fox,--"we must have for +this place a noble man, a man with a large heart" (the exact required +dimensions Mr. Fox does not give); "a man who loves his government, a +man who has showed himself ready to die for her; we must have"--here Mr. +Fox bends forward and lays his hand upon Sorel's knee, and looks him in +the eye,--"we must have--_a soldier!_" + +"Ah!" says Sorel, moving his chair back a little, unconsciously, "_il +faut un soldat!_ I un-'stan',--_le chef_ 'e boun' to 'ave one sol'ier!" + +Still no comprehension of the stranger's object. Curiosity, however, +prompts Sorel at this point to an inquiry: "'Ow much 'e goin' pay 'im?" + +Mr. Fox suggests that he guess. M. Sorel guesses, boldly, and +high,--almost insolently high,--eight dollars a week: she is so +generous, _la République!_ + +Higher! + +"Higher!" Sorel's eyes open. He guesses again, and recklessly: "_Dix +dollars par semaine_; you know--ten dol-lar ever-y week." + +Try again,--again,--again! He guesses,--madly now, as one risks his gold +at Baden: twelve, fourteen, sixteen, eighteen. + +Yes, eighteen dollars a week, and more--a thousand dollars every year. + +Sorel wipes his brow. A thousand dollars in one year! It is like a +temptation of the devil. + +Sorel ventures another inquiry. The _chef_ of the customhouse, esteeming +the old sol'iers so highly, is an old sol'ier himself,--is it not so? +He has fought for his country? Doubtless he has lost an arm. And Sorel +instinctively lets his right arm hang limp, as if the sleeve were empty. + +No; the _chef_ was an editor and a statesman in the time of the war. He +had greatly desired to go to fight, but his duties did not permit it. +Still, he loves the old soldier. + +Another advance in the conversation, this time by Mr. Fox. + +The government, it seems, has now awakened, with deep distress, to the +fact that one class of her soldiers she has hitherto forgotten. The +government--that is, the _chef_ of the customhouse--had this very +morning said to Mr. Fox that this class of old soldiers must be brought +forward, for trust and for honor. "We must choose, for this vacant +place," the _chef_ had said,--here Mr. Fox brings his face forward in +close proximity to Sorel's astonished countenance,--"we must have, not +only an old soldier, but--_a Frenchman!_" + +"Ah!" + +"Such a soldier lives here," says Mr. Fox; "is it not true? So brave, so +honest, so modest, so faithful! Ready to die for his country; worthy of +trust and worthy of reward!" + +"_Mais!_" with amazement. Yes, such a sol-'ier lives here. But can it be +that monsieur refers to our Fidèle? + +Precisely so! + +Whereupon Sorel, hard, hairless, but French, weeps, and embraces Mr. +Fox as the representative of the great government at Washington; and, +weeping and laughing, leads him downstairs and presents him to Fidèle +and to the bear-leaders, and opens a bottle of weak vinegar. + +Such an ovation as Fidèle receives! And such a generous government! To +send a special messenger to seek out the old sergeant in his retirement! +So thoughtful! But it is all of a piece with its unfailing care in the +past. + +Fidèle begins, on the spot, to resume something of his former erectness +and soldierly bearing; to shake off the stoop and slouch which lameness +and the drawing about of his "_musique_" have given him. He wishes to +tell the story of Lookout Mountain. + +As Mr. Fox is about to go, he recollects himself. Oh, by the way, one +thing more. It is not pleasant to mingle sadness with rejoicing. But +Mr. Fox is the reluctant bearer of a gentle reproach from the great +government at Washington. Her French children,--are they not just a +little remiss? And when she is so bountiful, so thoughtful! + +"_Mais_--how you mean?" (with surprise.) + +Why,--and there is a certain pathos in Mr. Fox's tone, as he stands +facing Sorel, with the gaze of a loving, reproachful friend,--why, how +many of the Frenchmen of this quarter are ever seen now at the pleasant +gatherings of the Republicans, in the wardroom? The Republic, the +Republicans,--it is all one. Is that quite kind to the Republic? Should +not her French children, on their part, show filial devotion to the fond +government? + +"_Mais_," M. Sorel swiftly explains, "they are weary of going; they +understand nothing. One sits and smokes a little while, and one talks; +then one puts a little ticket into one's hand; one is jammed into a +long file; one slips his ticket into a box; he knows not for whom he is +voting; it is like a flock of sheep. What is the use of going?" + +Ah! that is the trouble? Then they are unjustly reproached. The +government has indeed neglected to guide them. But suppose that some +officer of the government--Mr. Fox himself, for instance--will be at the +meeting? Then can M. Sorel induce those good French citizens to come? + +Induce them! They will be only too ready; in fact, at a word from M. +Sorel, and particularly when the news of this great honor to Fidèle +shall have spread abroad, twenty, thirty, forty will go to every +meeting,--that is, if a friend be there to guide them. At the very next +meeting, _monsieur_ shall see whether the great government's French +children are neglectful! + +Whereupon the great government, in the person of Mr. Fox, then and +there falls in spirit upon the neck of her French citizen-children, +represented by Sorel and Fidèle, and full reconciliation is made. + +Yes, Mr. Fox will come again. M. Sorel must introduce him to those brave +Frenchmen, his friends and neighbors; Mr. Fox must grasp them by +the hand, one by one. Sorel must take him to the _Société des +Franco-Américains_, where they gather. The government wishes to know +them better. And (this in a confidential whisper) there may be other +places to be filled. What! Suppose, now, that the government should some +day demand the services of M. Sorel himself in the custom-house; and, +since he is a business man, at a still larger salary than a thousand +dollars a year! + +"Ah, _monsieur_" (in a tone of playful reproach), "_vous êtes un +flatteur, n'est ce pas?_ You know,--I guess you giv'n' me taffy." + +Such a hero as Fidèle is! No more balloons, no more carting about of +"_ma musique_;" a square room upstairs, a bottle of wine at dinner, +short hours, distinction,--in fine, all that the heart can wish. + +I have been speaking in the present: I should have spoken in the past. + +It was shortly after Fidèle's appointment--in the early autumn--that I +first made his and Sorel's acquaintance. + +I was teaching in an evening school, not far from Madeira Place, and +among my scholars was Sorel's only son, a boy of perhaps fourteen, whom +his father had left behind, for a time, at school in France, and had but +lately brought over. He was a shy, modest, intelligent little fellow, +utterly out of place in his rude surroundings. From the pleasant village +home-school, of which he sometimes told me, to the _Maison Sorel_, was a +grating change. + +He was always waiting for me at the schoolroom door, and was always the +last one to speak to me at closing. Perhaps I reminded him of some young +usher whom he had known when life was more pleasant. + +If, however, the _Maison Sorel_ chafed Auguste, it was not for lack of +affection on his father's part Sorel often came with him to the door of +the school-room; and every night, rain or shine, he was there at nine to +accompany him home. It was in this way that I first came to know Sorel; +and whether it was from some kindness that Auguste may have thought +I showed, or because I could talk a little French, Sorel took a great +liking to me. At first, he and Auguste would walk with me a few blocks +after school; then he would look in upon me for a few minutes at the +law-office where I was studying, where I had a large anteroom to myself; +finally, nothing would do but that I should visit him at his house. I +had always been fond of strolling about the wharves, and I should have +liked very well to stop occasionally at Sorel's, if I could have been +allowed to sit in the kitchen and hear the general conversation. But +this was not sufficient state for "M. le maître d'école." I must be +drawn off upstairs to the bedroom parlor, to hear of Auguste's virtues. +Such devotion I have seldom seen. Sorel would have praised Auguste, with +tears in his eyes, for hours together, if I would have stayed to listen. + +He had many things to show in that parlor. He had gyroscopes: and he +would wind them up and set half-a-dozen of those anti-natural tops +spinning straight out in the air for my diversion. There were great +sacks of uninflated balloons, and delicate sheet-rubber, from which +Sorel made up balloons. There were other curious things in rubber,--a +tobacco-pouch, for example, in perfect outward imitation of an iron +kilogramme-weight, with a ring to lift it by, warranted to create +"immense surprise" among those who should lift it for iron; +tobacco-pouches, too, in fac-simile of lobsters and crabs and reptiles, +colored to nature, which Sorel assured me would cause roars of laughter +among my friends: there was no pleasanter way, he said, of entertaining +an evening company than suddenly to display one of these creatures, +and make the ladies scream and run about. He presented me, at different +times, with a gyroscope, a kilogramme-weight and a lobster with a blue +silk lining. + +As time ran on, and, in the early winter, I began practice, Sorel +brought me a little business. He had to sue two Graeco-Roman wrestlers +for board and attach their box-office receipts. Some Frenchman had heard +of a little legacy left him in the Calvados, and wanted me to look up +the matter. + +Fidèle, too, came to me every quarter-day, to make oath before me to his +pension certificate, and stopped and made a short call. He had little to +say about France. His great romance had been the war, although it +seemed to have fused itself into a hazy, high-colored dream of danger, +excitement, suffering, and generous devotion. Tears always rose in his +eyes when he spoke of "_la république?_" + +In those first days of practice, anything by the name of law business +wore a halo, and I used to encourage Sorel's calls, partly for this +reason and partly for practice in talking French with a common man. I +hoped to go to France some day, and I wanted to be able then to talk not +only with the grammatical, but with the dear people who say, "I guess +likely," and "How be you?" in French. + +Moreover, Sorel was rather amusing. He was something of a humorist. Once +he came to tell me, excitedly, that Auguste was learning music: "_Il +touche au violon,--mais_--'e play so _bien!_" And Sorel's eyes opened in +wonder at the boy's quickness. + +"Who teaches him?" I asked. "Some Frenchman who plays in the theatre?" + +"_Mais_, no," Sorel replied, with a broad drollery in his eye; "_un +professeur d'occasion!_" It was a ruined music-teacher, engaged now +in selling balloons from Madeira Place, who was the "_professeur +d'occasion_." + +One day Sorel appeared with a great story to tell. Auguste, it seemed, +had wearied of home, and was determined to go to sea. Nothing could +deter him. Whereupon M. Sorel had hit upon a stratagem. He had hunted +up, somewhere along the wharves, two French sailors with conversational +powers, and had retained them to stay at his house for two or three +days, as chance comers. It was inevitable that Auguste should ply them +with eager questions,--and they knew their part. + +As Sorel, entering into the situation now with all his dramatic nature, +with his eyes wide open, repeated to me some of the tales of horror +which they had palmed off upon innocent Auguste as spontaneous truth, I +could see, myself, the rigging covered with ice an inch thick; sailors +climbing up ("Ah! _comme ils grimpent,--ils grimpent!_") bare-handed, +their hands freezing to the ropes at every touch, and leaving flesh +behind, "_comme_ if you put your tongue to a lam'post in the winter." +I could see the seamen's backs cut up with lashes for the slightest +offences; I tasted the foul, unwholesome food. I think that Sorel half +believed it all himself,--his imagination was so powerful,--forgetting +that he had paid in silver coin for every word of it. At any rate, the +ruse had been successful. Auguste had been thoroughly scared and had +consented to stay at home, and the most threatening cloud of Sorel's +life had blown over. + +Usually, however, Sorel and I talked politics; and to our common +pleasure we generally agreed. Sorel knew very little about the details +of our government, and he would listen to me with the utmost eagerness +while I practised my French upon him, explaining to his wondering mind +the relations of the States to each other and to the general government, +and the system of State and Federal courts. He was very quick, and he +took in the ingenious scheme with great facility. Then he would tell me +about the workings of government in the French villages and departments; +and as he read French papers, he had always something in the way of news +or explanation of recent events. I have since come to believe that he +was exceedingly well informed. + +The most singular thing about him to me was how he could cherish on the +one hand such devotion as he plainly did, to France, and on the other +hand such a passionate attachment to the United States. In truth, that +double patriotism is one of the characteristic features of our country. + +I could lead him, in twenty minutes, through the whole gamut of emotion, +by talking about Auguste, and then of politics. It was irresistible, +the temptation to lead him out. A word about Auguste, and he would wipe +tears from his eyes. A mention of Gambetta, and the bare idea filled +him with enthusiasm; he was instantly, in imagination, one of a surging +crowd, throwing his hat in the air, or drawing Gambetta's carriage +through the streets of Paris. I had only to speak of Alsace to bring +him to a mood of sullen ugliness and hatred. He was, I have no doubt, +a pretty good-tempered man; he was certainly warm-hearted; his apparent +harshness to his balloon-venders was probably nothing more than +necessary parental severity, and he was always ready to recognize their +successes. But I have never seen a more wicked and desperate expression +than an allusion to Alsace called up in his face and in his whole +bearing. Sometimes he would laugh, when I mentioned the severed +province; but it was with a hard, metallic, cruel laugh.' He felt the +loss as he would have felt the loss of a limb. The first time I brought +up the topic, I saw the whole bitter story of the dismembering of +France. + +There was another subject which called out that same bitter revengeful +look, and that cruel nasal laugh,--the royalist factions and the +Bonapartists. When we spoke of them, and I watched his face and heard +his soulless laughter, I saw the French Revolution. + +But he could always be brought back to open childish delight and warmth +by a reference to the United States. Our government, in his eyes, +embodied all that was good. France was now a "_république_," to be sure, +and he rejoiced in the fact; but he plainly felt the power and settled +stability of our republic, and he seemed to have a filial devotion +toward it closely akin to his love for Auguste. + +How fortunate we were! Here were no _Légitimistes_, no _Orléanistes_, no +_Bonapartistes_, for a perpetual menace! Here all citizens, however +else their views might differ, believed, at least, in the republic, +and desired to stay her hands. There were no factions here continually +plotting in the darkness. Here the machinery of government was all in +view, and open to discussion and improvement Ah, what a proud, happy +country is this!"_Que c'est une république!_" + +I gathered enthusiasm myself from this stranger's ardor for the country +of his adoption. I think that I appreciated better, through him, the +free openness of our institutions. It is of great advantage to meet an +intense man, of associations different from your own, who, by his very +intensity and narrowness, instantly puts you at his standpoint. I viewed +the United States from the shores of a sister republic which has +to contend against strong and organized political forces not fully +recognized in the laws, working beneath the surface, which nevertheless +are facts. + +One acquaintance leads to another. Through Sorel, whose house was the +final resort of Frenchmen in distress, and their asylum if they were +helpless, not only Fidèle, but a number of other Frenchmen of that +neighborhood, began to come to me with their small affairs. I was the +_avocat_ who "speak French." I am afraid that they were surprised at my +"French" when they heard it. + +There was a willow-worker from the Pas-de-Calais, a deformed man, +walking high and low, and always wanting to rise from his chair and lay +his hand upon my shoulder, as he talked, who came to consult me about +the recovery of a hundred francs which he had advanced at _Anvers_ to +a Belgian tailor upon the pledge of a sewing-machine, on consideration +that the tailor, who was to come in a different steamer, should take +charge of the willow-worker's dog on the voyage: the willow-worker had a +wife and six children to look after. This was a lofty contest; but I +had time then. I found a little amusement in the case, and I had the +advantage of two or three hours in all of practical French conversation +with men thoroughly in earnest. Finally, I had the satisfaction of +settling their dispute, and so keeping them from a quarrel. + +Then there was a French cook, out of a job, who wanted me to find him a +place. He was gathering mushrooms, meanwhile, for the hotels. One day he +surprised me by coming into my office in a white linen cap, brandishing +in his hand a long, gleaming knife. He only desired, however, to tell +me that he had found a place at one of the clubs, and to show, in his +pride, the shining blade which he had just bought as his equipment. + +But the man who impressed me most, after Sorel, was Carron. He first +appeared as the friend of the cook,--whom he introduced to me, with many +flourishes and compliments, although he was an utter stranger himself. +Carron was a well-built and rather handsome man, of medium height, +and was then perhaps fifty years of age. He had a remarkably bright, +intelligent face, curling brown hair, and a full, wavy brown beard. He +kept a rival boarding-house, not far from Sorel's, in a gabled wooden +house two hundred years old, which was anciently the home of an eminent +Puritan divine. In the oak-panelled room where the theologian wrote his +famous tract upon the Carpenter who Profanely undertook to Dispense the +Word in the way of Public Ministration, and was Divinely struck Dumb in +consequence, Carron now sold beer from a keg. + +It was plain at a glance that his present was not of a piece with his +past I could not place him. His manners were easy and agreeable, and +yet he was not a gentleman. He was well informed, and evidently of some +mental training, and yet he was not quite an educated man. After his +first visit to me, with the cook, he, too, occasionally looked in upon +me, generally late in the afternoon, when I could call the day's work +done and could talk French for half an hour with him, in place of taking +a walk. He was strongly dramatic, like Sorel, but in a different +way. Sorel was intense; Carron was _théâtral_. He was very fond of +declamation; and seeing from the first my wish to learn French,--which +Sorel would never very definitely recognize,--he often recited to me, +for ear practice, and in an exceedingly effective way, passages from the +Old Testament. He seemed to know the Psalms by heart. He was a good deal +of an actor, and he took the part of a Hebrew prophet with great effect. +But his fervor was all stage fire, and he would turn in an instant from +a denunciatory Psalm to a humorous story. Even his stories were of +a religious cast, like those which ministers relate when they gather +socially. He told me once about a priest who was strolling along the +bank of the Loire, when a drunken sailor accosted him and reviled him as +a lazy good-for-nothing, a _fainéant_, and slapped his face. The priest +only turned the other cheek to him. "Strike again," he said; and the +sailor struck. "Now, my friend," said the priest, "the Scripture tells +us that when one strikes us we are to turn the other cheek. There +it ends its instruction and leaves us to follow our own judgment." +Whereupon, being a powerful man, he collared the sailor and plunged him +into the water. He told me, too, with great unction, and with a roguish +gleam in his eye, a story of a small child who was directed to prepare +herself for confession, and, being given a manual for self-examination, +found the wrong places, and appeared with this array of sins: "I have +been unfaithful to my marriage vows.... I have not made the tour of my +diocese." + +Carron had an Irish wife (_une Irlandaise_), much younger than he, whom +he worshipped. He told me, one day, about his courtship. When he first +met her, she knew not a word of French, and he not a word of English. +He was greatly captivated (épris), and he had to contrive some mode of +communication. They were both Catholics. He had a prayer-book with Latin +and French in parallel columns; she had a similar prayer-book but in +Latin and English. They would seat themselves; Carron would find in his +prayer-book a sentence in French which would suit his turn, on a pinch, +and through the medium of the Latin would find the corresponding passage +in English in Norah's prayer-book and point it out to her. Norah, in +her turn, would select and point out some passage in English which would +serve as a tribute to Carron's charms, and he would discover in his +prayer-book, in French, what that tribute was. Why should we deem the +dead languages no longer a practical study, when Latin can gain for a +Frenchman an Irish wife! + +Carron, as I have said, puzzled me. He had not the pensive air of one +who has seen better days. He was more than cheerful in his present life: +he was full of spirits; and yet it was plain that he had been brought +up for something different. I asked him once to tell me, for French +lessons, the story of his life. With the most charming complaisance, he +at once consented; but he proceeded in such endless detail, the first +time, in an account of his early boyhood in a strict Benedictine +monastery school, in the south of France, as to suggest that he was +talking against time. And although his spirited and amusing picture of +his childhood days only awakened my curiosity, I could never persuade +him to resume the history. It was always "the next time." + +He seemed to be poor: but he never asked a favor except for others. On +the contrary, he brought me some little business. A _Belge_ had been +cheated out of five hundred dollars; I recovered half of it for him. +A Frenchman from _le Midi_ had bought out a little business, and the +seller had immediately set up shop next door; I succeeded in shutting up +the rival. I was a prodigy. + +After a time I was told something further as to Carron's life. He had +been a Capuchin monk, in a monastery at or near Paris. The instant that +I heard this statement, I felt in my very soul that it was true. My +eye had always missed something in Carron. I now knew exactly what it +was,--a shaved crown, bare feet, and a cowl. + +It was the usage for the brethren of his order to go about Paris +barefoot, begging. They were not permitted by the _concierges_ to go +into the great apartment hotels. But "Carron, _il est très fin_," said +my informant; "you know,--'e is var' smart." Carron would learn, by +careful inquiry, the name of a resident on an upper floor; then he would +appear at the _concierge's_ door, and would mention the name of this +resident with such adroit, demure, and absolute confidence that he would +be permitted at once to ascend. Once inside, he would go the rounds of +the apartments. So he would get five times as much in a day as any of +his fellows. A certain amount of the receipts he would yield up to the +treasury of the monastery; the rest he kept for himself. After a while +this came to be suspected, and he quietly withdrew to a new country. + +There was not the slightest tangible corroboration of this story. It +might have been the merest gossip or the invention of an enemy. But it +fitted Carron so perfectly, that from the day I heard it I could never, +somehow, question its substantial truth. If I had questioned it, I +should have repeated the story to him, to give him an opportunity to +answer. But something warned me not to do so. + +Fidèle held on well at the custom-house, and I think that he became a +general favorite. No one who took the old soldier by the hand and looked +him in the eye could question his absolute honesty; and as for skill in +his duties,--well, it was the custom-house. + +But he was not saving much money. He was free to give and free to lend +to his fellow-countrymen; and, moreover, various ways were pointed +out to him by Mr. Fox, from time to time, in which an old soldier, +delighting to aid his country, could serve her pecuniarily. The +republic,--that is, the Republicans,--it was all one. + +One afternoon, late in summer, Fidèle appeared at my office. He seldom +visited me, except quarterly for his pension affidavit. As he came in +now, I saw that something had happened. His grisly face wore the same +kindly smile that it had always borne, but the light had gone out of it. +His story was short. He had lost his place. He had been notified that +his services would not be needed after Saturday. No reason had been +given him; he was simply dismissed in humiliation. There must be some +misunderstanding, such as occurs between the warmest friends. And was +not the great government his friend? Did it not send him his pension +regularly? Had it not sent a special messenger to seek him out, in his +obscurity, for this position; and was he not far better suited to it now +than at the outset? + +In reply to questions from me, he told me more about Mr. Fox's first +visit than I had hitherto known. I asked him, in a casual way, about the +ward-meetings, and whether the French citizens generally attended them. +No, they had been dropping off; they had become envious, perhaps, of +him; they had formed a club, with Carron for president, and had voted to +act in a body (_en solidarité_). + +Then I told Fidèle that I knew no way to help him, and that I feared his +dismission was final. He could not understand me, but went away, leaning +on his cane, dragging his left foot sidewise behind him, with something +of the air of an old faithful officer who has been deprived of his +sword. + +He had not been gone more than an hour, when the door opened again, and +Carron looked in. Seeing that I was alone, he closed the door and walked +very slowly toward my desk,--erect, demure, impassive, looking straight +forward and not at me, with an air as if he were bearing a candle in +high mass, intoning, as he came, a passage from the Psalms: "_Je me +ré-jouirai; je partagerai Sichem, et je mesurerai la vallée de Succoth. +Galaad sera à moi, Manassé sera à moi.... Moab sera le bassin où je +me laverai et je jetterai mon soulier sur Édom.... Qui est-ce qui me +conduira dans la ville forte? Qui est-ce qui me conduira jusquen Édom?_" +(I will rejoice; I will divide Shechem and mete out the valley of +Succoth. Gilead is mine; Ma-nasseh is mine.... Moab is my washpot; over +Edom will I cast out my shoe.... Who will bring me into the strong city? +Who will lead me into Edom?) + +Carron propounded the closing inquiry with great unction; his manner +expressed entire confidence that some one would be found to lead him +into the strong city, to lead him into Edom. + +I had lost something of my interest in Carron since I had heard the +story of his Parisian exploits; but I could not help being amused at his +manner. It portended something. He made no disclosure, however. Whatever +he had to tell, he went away without telling it, contenting himself +for the present with intimating by his triumphal manner that great good +fortune was in the air. + +On Saturday afternoon, as I was about closing my desk,--a little earlier +than usual, for it was a most tempting late September day, and the waves +of the harbor, which I could just see from my office window, called +loudly to me,--Sorel appeared. I held out my hand, but he affected not +to see it, and he sat down without a word. He was plainly disturbed and +somewhat excited. + +Of course I knew that it was his old friend's misfortune which weighed +upon him; he was proud and fond of Fidèle. + +I seated myself, and waited for him to speak. In a moment he began, with +a low, hard laugh: "_Semble que notre bon Fidèle a sa démission_: you +know,--our Fidèle got bounced!" + +Yes, I said, Fidèle had told me so, and I was very sorry to hear it. + +"_Evidemment_" (this in a tone of irony) "_il faut un homme plus juste, +plus loyale, que le pauvre Fidèle!_ (You know,--they got to 'ave one more +honester man!) _Bien!_ You know who goin' 'ave 'is place?" + +I shook my head. + +Sorel laid down his hat, and wiped his brow with his handkerchief. Then +he went on, no longer speaking in French and then translating,--his +usual concession to my supposed desires,--but mostly now in +quasi-English: "_Mais_, you thing this great _gouvernement_ wan' hones' +men work for her, _n'est-ce pas?_" + +"The government ought to have the most honest men," I said. + +"_Bien_. Now you thing the _gouvernement_ boun' to 'ave some men w'at +mos' know the business, _n'est-ce pas?_" + +"It ought to have them." + +Sorel wiped his brow again. "Now, w'ich you thing the mos' honestes' +man,--Fidèle, or-- _Carron?_ W'ich you thing know the business +bes',--Fidèle, w'at been there, or Carron, w'at ain' been there?" + +"Fidèle, of course." + +"Then tell me, w'at for they bounce' our Fidèle, and let Carron got 'is +place?" and he burst into a harsh, resonant, contemptuous laugh. In +a moment he resumed: "Now," he said, "I only got one more thing to ax +you," and taking his felt hat in his hands, he held it on his knees, +before him, and stooping a little forward, eyed me closely: "You know +w'at we talk sometimes, you an' me, 'bout our Frensh _république_--some +_Orléanistes_, some _Légitimistes_, some _Bonapartistes?_ You merember +'ow we talk, you and me?" + +I nodded, + +"We ain' got no _Orléanistes_, no _Bonapartistes' ici_, in this +_gouvernement, n'est-ce pas?_" + +I intimated that I had never met any. + +"Now," he proceeded, with an increased bitterness in his tone and his +hard smile, "I use' thing you one good frien' to me, _mais_, you been +makin' fool of me all that time!" + +"You don't think any such thing," I said. + +"You know," he went on, "who bounce our Fidèle?" + +"No." + +Sorel received my reply with a low, incredulous laugh. Then he laid his +hat down on the floor, drew his chair closer, held out his finger, +and, with the air of one who shows another that he knows his secret he +demanded:-- + +"_Qu'est-ce que c'est qu'un 'Boss'?_" + +I sat silent for a moment, looking at him, not knowing just what to say. + +"_Mais_," he went on, "all the _Américains_" (they were chiefly Irish) +"roun' my 'ouse been tellin' me, long time, '_Le_ Boss goin' bounce +Fidèle.' Me, I laugh w'en they say so. I say, '_Le Boss? C'est un +créature d'imagination, pour nous effrayer,' you know, make us scart +'_C'est un loup-garou,' you know,--w'at make 'fraid li'l chil'ren. +That's w'at I tell them. I thing then you would n't been makin' fool of +me.' + +"They don't know what they are talking about," I said. "How can they +know why Fidèle is removed?" + +"_Mais_, you jus' wait; I goin' tell you. I fin they do know. Fidèle +take he sol'ier-papers, an' he go see _le chef_" (here Sorel rose, and +acted Fidèle). "Fidèle, 'e show 'is papers to _le chef_; 'e say, 'Now +you boun' tell me why _le bon gouvernement_, w'at 's been my frien', +bounce me now.' 'E say _le chef_ boun' to tell 'im,--_il faut +absolument!_ 'E say 'e won' go, way if _le chef_ don' tell 'im; an' you +know, no man can't scare our Fidèle!" + +"Very well," I said; "what did the collector, the _chef_ tell him? +Fidèle is too lame, I suppose?" + +"_Mais, non_," with a suspicious smile. "_Le chef_, he mos' cry,--yas, +sar,--an' 'e say 'e ain' got no trouble 'gainst Fidèle; _la république_, +she ain' got no trouble 'gainst Fidèle. 'E say 'e di'n want Fidèle to +go; _le gouvernement_, she d'n want 'im to go. _Mais_, 'e say, 'e can't +help hisself; _le gouvernement_, she can't help herself. Yas, sar. Then +Fidèle know w'at evarybody been tellin' us was true,--'e 'Boss,' 'e make +'im go!" And Sorel sat back in his chair. + +"Now, I ax you one time more," he resumed: "_qu'est-ce que c'est qu'un +'Boss'?_" + +What could I say! How could I explain, offhand, to this stranger, the +big boss, the little boss, the State boss, the ward boss, the county +boss, all burrowing underneath our theoretical government! How could +I explain to him that Fidèle's department in the custom-house had been +allotted to a Congressman about to run for a second term, who needed it +to control a few more ward-meetings,--needed, in the third ward caucus, +those very French votes which Carron had been shrewd enough to steal +away and organize! What could I say to Sorel which he, innocent as he +was, would not misconstrue as inconsistent with our past glorifications +of our republic! What did I say! I do not know. I only remember that he +interrupted me, harshly and abruptly, as he rose to go. + +"You an' me got great _pitié_, ain' we," he said, "for _notre France, la +pauvre France_, 'cause she got so many folks w'at _tourbillonnent sous +la surface,--les Orléanistes les Bonapartistes_; don' we say so? _Mais, +il n'y en a pas, ici_,--you know, we ain' got none here; don' we say +so? We ain' got no _factionnaires_ here! _Mais non!_" Then, lowering his +voice to a hoarse whisper: "_Votre bonne république,_" he said,--"_c'est +une république du théâtre!_" + +He had hardly closed the door behind him, when he opened it again, and +put in his head, and with his hard, mocking laugh, demanded, "_Qu'est-ce +que c'est qu'un 'Boss'?_" And as he walked down the hall, I could still +hear his scornful laughter. + +He never came to see me again. I sometimes heard of him through Carron, +who had succeeded to Fidèle's position and had elevated a considerable +part of his following: for several weeks they were employed at three +dollars a day in the navy-yard, where, to their utter mystification, +they moved, with a certain planetary regularity, ship-timber from the +west to the east side of the yard, and then back from the east side to +the west. You remember reading about this in the published accounts of +our late congressional contest. + +Though Sorel never visited me again, I occasionally saw him: once near +the evening-school, when I went as a guest; once in the long market; +once in the post-office; and once he touched me on the shoulder, as +I was leaning over the street railing, by the dock, looking down at a +Swedish bark. Each time he had but one thing to say; and having said it, +he would break into his harsh, ironical laugh, and pass along:-- + +"_Qu'est-ce que c'est qu'un 'Boss'?_" + +And Fidèle? + +Still, if you will go to Madeira Place at sunset, you may see the cap +and blouse come slowly in. Still the old sergeant sits at the head of +the table. But his ideal is gone; his idol has clay feet. No longer does +he describe to new-comers from France the receipt of his pension. All +the old fond pride in it is gone, and he takes the money now as dollars +and cents. + +In the conversation, however, around the table the great government at +Washington is by no means forgotten. Sometimes Sorel tells his guests +about the Boss. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of In Madeira Place, by Heman White Chaplin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN MADEIRA PLACE *** + +***** This file should be named 23004-8.txt or 23004-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/0/0/23004/ + +Produced by David Widger + +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. 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