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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/31051-8.txt b/31051-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..56650bc --- /dev/null +++ b/31051-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8622 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 92, +June, 1865, 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 Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 92, June, 1865 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: January 23, 2010 [EBook #31051] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, JUNE 1865 *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections.) + + + + + + + + +THE + +ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +_A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics._ + +VOL. XV.--JUNE, 1865.--NO. XCII. + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by TICKNOR AND +FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of +Massachusetts. + + + + +A LETTER ABOUT ENGLAND. + + +Dear Mr. Editor,--The name of your magazine shall not deter me from +sending you my slight reflections But you have been across, and will +agree with me that it is the great misfortune of this earth that so much +salt-water is still lying around between its various countries. The +steam-condenser is supposed to diminish its bulk by shortening the +transit from one point to another; but a delicate conscience must aver +that there is a good deal left. The ocean is chiefly remarkable as the +element out of which the dry land came. It is only when the land and sea +combine to frame the mighty coast-line of a continent, and to fringe it +with weed which the tide uncovers twice a day, that the mind is saluted +with health and beauty. The fine instinct of Mr. Thoreau furnished him +with a truth, without the trouble of a single game at pitch and toss +with the mysterious element; for he says,-- + + "The middle sea contains no crimson dulse, + Its deeper waves cast up no pearls to view, + Along the shore my hand is on its pulse, + And I converse with many a shipwrecked crew." + +On the broad Atlantic there is no smell of the sea. That comes from the +brown rocks whence iodine is exhaled to brace the nerves and the fancy, +while summer woods chasten all the air. At best, the ocean is austere +and unsympathetic; and a sensible, that is, a sensitive, stomach +understands it to be demoralized by the monstrous krakens which are +viciously brooding in its depths. (If the pronoun "it," in the last +sentence, should refer to stomach, the sense will still be clear.) In +fact, this water has been left over from the making of the earth: like +the Dodo and the Moa, it should have evaporated. How pleasant it is to +be assured by Sir Charles Lyell that the land is still rising in so many +quarters of the globe! for we may anticipate that millennial epoch when +there shall be "no more sea." + +However, the old impression which great spaces used to make upon the +imagination gives way to the new sensation of annihilating spaces. It +would be more correct now to speak of differences than of distances. The +difference between one country and another is all that now makes the +distance between them. For man is now overcoming space faster than he is +obliterating national peculiarities. And when one goes abroad, the +universal humanity in whose interest all material and political +triumphs are gained is not felt by him so soon as the specific +divergence which makes the character of lands and people. Oaks and elms, +hawthorn and beeches, are on either side the ocean; but you measure the +voyage by their unlikeness to each other, and wonder how soon you have +got so far. The strawberry ripens with a different flavor and texture. +The sun is less racy in all the common garden-stuff whose names we know. +Pears and peaches we are disappointed in recognizing; they seem as if +ripened by the sun's proxy, the moon; and our boys would hardly pick up +the apples in the fields. But England undulates with grass that seems to +fix the fluent color of the greenest waves on either hand. And our +eagle-eyed blue sky droops its lid over the island, as the moisture +gathers, with a more equable compassion than we know for all shrubs and +blades and grazing cattle. + +Both the pain and the tonic in being absent from your home and country +are administered by difference. In gulping that three thousand miles the +taste is austere, but the stimulus is wholesome. We learn to appreciate, +but also to correct, the fare we have at home. + +The difference is twofold between England and America. England differs, +first, in the inveterate way in which the people hold on to all that +they have inherited; second, in the gradual, but equally inveterate, way +in which they labor to improve their inheritance. The future is gained +by the same temper in which the past is held; so that, if the past is +secure, the future is also: none the less because the past seems so +irrevocably built, but rather in consequence of that, because it betrays +the method of the builders. + +These two characteristics, apparently irreconcilable, are really +organic, and come of position, climate, diet, and slowly amalgamated +races of men. Herne's oak in Windsor Forest and the monarchy in Windsor +Castle grew on the same terms. Branch after branch the oak has fallen, +till on the last day of the summer of 1863 the wind brought the +shattered remnant to the ground. Whether the monarchy decay like this or +not, it has served to shelter a great people; and the English people is +still vital with its slow robustness, and is good for depositing its +annual rings these thousand years. + +Let us look a little more closely at this apparent contradiction. + +The superficial view of England breeds a kind of hopelessness in the +mind of the observer. He says to himself,--"All these stereotyped habits +and opinions, these ways of thinking, writing, building, living, and +dying, seem irrepealable; and the worst fault of their comparative +excellence is, that they appear determined not to yield another inch to +improvement." The Englishman says that America is forever bullying with +her restlessness and innovation. The American might at first say that +England bullied by never budging,--bullied the future, and every +rational or humane suggestion, by planting a portly attitude to +challenge the New Jerusalem in an overbearing chest voice, through which +the timid clarion of the angels is not heard. + +If an observer knows anything of the history of England, he cannot deny +that vast changes have been made in every department of life: domestic +habits, social economics, the courts of law, the Church, the liberty of +the press and of speech, in short, all the roads, whether material or +mental, by which mankind travels to its ultimate purpose, have been +graded, widened, solidly equipped and built. A thousand years have +converted three or four races into one people,--and all that time and +weather have made upon it such strong imprints that you cannot see the +difference between a pyramid and a cathedral sooner than you can the +distinctive nationality of England. But for that very reason you despair +of it, just as you do of a cathedral which cannot be adapted to the +wants of a new religious age. At the same time that you venerate the +history of England, and are thankful for the great expansion which she +gave to human rights, you almost quarrel with it, because at first it +seems like an old stratum with its men and women imbedded; its +institutions, once so softly and lightly deposited, now become a tough +clay; its structures, once so curiously devised for living tenants, now +crusts and shells; its tracks of warm and bleeding feet now set in a +stiff soil that will take no future impression. + +All this is due to the first glance you get at the hard, realistic +England of to-day. You have noticed a machine clutch its raw material +and twist and turn it through its relentless bowels. That is the way the +habits of England seize you when you land, and begin to appropriate your +personality. This is the first offence of England in the eyes of an +American, whose favorite phrase, "the largest liberty," is too +synonymous with the absence of any settled habits. Prescribed ways of +doing everything are the scum which a traveller first gathers in +England. Perhaps he thinks that he has caught the English nationality in +his skimmer; and as he rather contemptuously examines these topmost and +handiest traits, he grumbles to himself that these are the habits of a +very old nation, that lives on an island, and keeps up a fleet, not to +bridge, but to widen narrow seas. Such respect for routine and +observance can nowhere else be perceived. An American is so little +prepared for this that he is disposed to quarrel with it even in +railway-stations, where it is most excellent. But it penetrates all +forms and institutions; the Established Church itself is a specimen of +complete arranging and engineering; the worshippers are classified, +ticketed, and despatched safely rolling on the broad gauge of the +Liturgy, in confidence of being set down at last where the conductors +have contracted to take them. How accurately everybody in England knows +his own place!--and he accepts it, however humble, with a determined +feeling that it is inevitable. The audience is so packed that everybody +remains quiet. The demeanor of the servants is as settled and +universally deferential as Westminster Abbey is Gothic. Mr. Lindsay or +Mr. Roebuck might forget to revile America, or Lord Palmerston, +England's right hand, forget his cunning, as soon as a servant might +forget his place. A thousand years have settled him in it; and you are +supposed by him to have had the benefit of as many years in determining +your own position and relation to him. You are electrified when a waiter +first touches his hat to you; it is as if he had discharged something +into you by the gesture, which is likely to exhaust him, and you expect +to have to offer him a chair. But his deference is an integral part of +the stability of England. When he forgets it, look for a panic in the +Exchange, the collapse of credit, and the assassination of the Queen. + +This mutual deference in a country that is so strictly apportioned into +castes becomes an unconscious toadyism, which is saved from being very +repulsive only by the frank and childlike ways of the people. If it is +carried too far, they are the first to see it. The "Times" could not +report a case of murder without remarking, as it described the direction +of the fatal shot, "What was a very singular fact, a part of the charge, +after crossing the apartment, entered a picture of her Majesty the Queen +on the opposite wall";--that is, in committing the murder, the charge of +powder went too far; it ought to have stuck to its business, instead of +violating one of the chief proprieties of a limited monarchy. But when +the Queen went down to Greenwich summer before last to embark for +Belgium, an over-zealous official issued an order that no person should +be admitted into the yard of the dock, no workman should cross the yard +while she was in it, and no one should look out of a window until she +had gone. This was his British sense of the behavior due to a Queen who +was in mourning for her husband, and might dislike to be observed. But +the whole press derided this order, and subjected it to indignant +criticism; the officer was styled flunky and tyrant, and the Queen +herself was obliged to rebuke and disavow it. + +In doing everything in England, there is so little excitement, because +it is felt to be irregular. The temper of the people is well kept by the +smooth and even island air; the moist southwestern winds come and soothe +with calm lips the check. The thermometer, like everything else, knows +its place; and when once it succeeded in passing through twenty degrees +in the course of a day, the oldest inhabitant of London grew anxious; it +was feared that stocks, too, would fall. The thunderstorms understand +propriety, and simply growl, like the dissatisfied Englishman. Vivid +effects, sharp contrasts, violent exertions, cannot be sustained in that +insular atmosphere. It seems as if London, like a lover of the weed, +were pacified by its own smoke. I saw two huge wagons turn from opposite +quarters into a narrow lane. The drivers kept their horses moving till +the heads of the leaders touched; then they sat still and looked at each +other. Both were determined that it was a point of honor to stay where +they were. After a few words of rather substantial English had passed +between them, both subsided into a dogged equanimity. A crowd gathered +instantly, but with as little tumult as ants make; it regarded the +occurrence as a milder form of pugilism, and watched the result with +interest. A policeman passed blandly from one wagon to the other, +represented the necessities of the public traffic, hoped they would +settle it shortly, urged the matter as an intimate friend of the +parties, till at length the man who was conscious that he turned into +the lane the last gathered up his reins and backed out of it. It was a +little index of the popular disposition; and I expected that as soon as +the country became convinced that it had driven rashly into our civil +strait, it would deliberately back out of it. And this it is now slowly +engaged in doing. + +The two great parties of the Church and Liberalism are blocking each +other in the same manner; but in this case Liberalism has turned into +the great thoroughfare of the world's movement, and finds the Church, +like a disabled omnibus, disputing the passage by simply lying across +it. Dr. Temple and one hundred liberal Fellows of Oxford sent up to +Parliament a petition which prayed for the abolition of the subscription +test. At Oxford two subscriptions are required as a qualification for +academic degrees: one to the Thirty-Nine Articles, and one to the third +article of the thirty-sixth Canon. Liberal clergymen and members of the +Church of England find this test odious, because it constrains the +conscience to accept ancient formulas of belief without the benefit of +private interpretation. The conservatives desire to maintain the test, +thinking that it will be a barrier to the tide of private interpretation +which is just now mounting so high. The petitioners perceive that no +test can prevent a man from having his own thoughts; that it is +therefore obsolete; that it drives out of the Church the best +men,--those, namely, who think with independent vigor, and whose +activity would put a new soul into the old Establishment. When this +petition came up for debate in the House of Commons, the conservative +speakers accused the petitioners of wishing to set up a new school of +theological belief and criticism. Mr. Gladstone made a speech, full of +grace and an even vigor, to the effect that he could not conceive of +religion disconnected from definite statements such as those which the +Church possessed; the idea was to his mind as absurd as to conceive of +manifestations of life without a body. Mr. Goschen, the new member from +London, made his maiden speech on this occasion. It was very earnest and +liberal, and reminded one of American styles of speaking, being less +even and conversational than the style which Englishmen admire. His +opinion was, that all tests should be abolished, and that inclusion was +safer than exclusion: meaning that the Church ought to keep herself so +organized as to absorb the best vitality of every generation, instead of +turning it out to become cold and hostile. The phrase which he used is +the very essence of a republican policy. It represents the tendency of +the people of England, as distinguished from its ministers and the +traditions of its government. That phrase will one day be safely driven +clear through the highway where the omnibus is now lying; but for the +present, the abolition of tests and church-rates, the recognition of +every shade of dissent, and the graver political reformation which waits +behind all these are held in check by the _vis inertiæ_ of an +Establishment that lies across the road. + +During the exciting anti-church-rate contests of 1840, the Church party +in Rochdale, which had been defeated in an attempt to levy a church-rate +where for several years none had been collected, held a meeting to try +the matter over again. It was adjourned from the church to the +graveyard. The vicar, as chairman, occupied one tombstone, and John +Bright stood upon another to make one of his strong defences of the +rights of Voluntaryism. In the course of the discussion, the vicar's +warden rendered an account of the dilapidations of the building which +the proposed rate was to repair, and stated, with great simplicity, that +"the foundations were giving way,"--a significant remark, which the +meeting, though held in a grave place, received with shouts of laughter. +Such a statement may well be taken as symbolical of the condition of the +Establishment, when liberal criticism, represented by Colenso, Stanley, +Jowett, Baden Powell, and a respectable minority, is silently crumbling +the underpinning, while the full service is intoned above and the +pampered ceremonial swells the aisles. + +If the opponents of liberal thinking ever bring an action against a +prominent dissenter from their views, the Privy Council gets rid of the +case by deciding it upon the purely technical position of the +Church,--as in the case of Dr. Williams, whose offence was the +publication of his Essay on Bunsen, and Mr. Wilson, whose essay was +entitled "Séances Historiques de Genève--The National Church." The +Judicial Committee of the Privy Council decide that they have no power +to define what is true and what is false doctrine, but only what has +been established to be the law of the Church upon the true and legal +construction of her Articles and Formularies. + +I. The Church does not require her clergy to believe in the inspiration +of _all_ portions of the Scriptures. + +II. Nor that the Atonement operates by _substitution_ of Christ's +suffering for our sins. + +III. Nor that the phrase "everlasting fire," in the Athanasian Creed, is +to be received as a final and hopeless statement. + +As a specimen of the popular element which is at work among the +uneducated classes to make the people itself of England its real church, +it is worth while to observe what Mr. Spurgeon is doing. His chapel +stands on the southern side of the Thames, between the Victoria and +Surrey Theatres, where the British subject is served with the domestic +and nautical drama. On those stages the language struts and aspirates, +and the effects are borrowed from Vauxhall and Cremorne for plays which +are constructed to hold the greatest possible amount of cockneyism and +grotesqueness, with the principal object of showing how villany and +murder are uniformly overcome by virtue, whose kettle sings upon the hob +above a pile of buttered muffins at last; and the pit, which came in for +a shilling, pays the extra tribute of a tear. These shop-keepers of the +Surrey side sit on Sunday beneath Mr. Spurgeon's platform, whose early +preaching betrayed the proximity of the theatres, but was for that very +reason admirably seasoned to attract his listeners. If he ever did slide +down the rail of his pulpit-stairs, as reported, in order to dramatize +the swift descent of the soul into iniquity, and then painfully climb up +again to show its difficult return, the action was received, doubtless, +in its full ethical import, and shook the suburban heart. His blunt and +ordinary language, sinning frequently against taste, and stooping +sometimes to be coarse, was the very vehicle to take his hearers up at +the pit-door, theatrical or theological, and send them in wholesomer +directions. It was a fortunate--his co-religionists would say +providential--adaptation of an earnest and religious man to the field of +his labor. For, as time passed, the phrases and demeanor of his +preaching improved,--their absurdities have, no doubt, been caricatured +by the London press,--and the temper of the man was more plainly +observed to be sincere, fervent, and devoted to a certain set of +religious preconceptions. The want of culture and of general +intelligence was not so lamentable in such a neighborhood. He led, by +many lengths, the Victoria and Surrey stage. If he had more deeply +reflected upon the subjects which he handled like a simple-hearted boy, +he would have failed to keep four thousand men and women warm in the +hollow of his hand from Sunday to Sunday, for a dozen years, and to +organize their whole moral and religious activity in forms that are +admirably adapted to carry on the work of popular dissent. + +His audience represents the district, and is an advertisement of the +kind of spiritual instruction which it needs and gets. Not many large +heads sit in the pews; narrowness, unreflecting earnestness, and healthy +desires are imprinted upon the faces upturned towards his clear and +level delivery. He is never exactly vapid, and he never soars. His +theology is full of British beer; but the common-sense of his points and +illustrations relative to morals and piety is a lucid interval by which +the hearers profit. They follow his textual allusions in their little +Bibles, and devoutly receive the crude and amusing interpretations as +utterances of the highest exegetical skill. But their faces shine when +the discourse moralizes; it seems to take them by the button, so +friendly it is,--but it looks them closely in the eye, without heat and +distant zeal, with great, manly expostulation, rather, and half-humorous +argument, that sometimes make the tears stand upon the lids. The florid +countenances become a shade paler with listening, the dark complexions +glow with a brooding religiosity. It is plain that he has a hungry +people, and feeds them with what suits their frames the best. His clear +voice, well fuelled by a full, though rather flabby frame, rolls into +all the galleries and corners of the vast building without effort; his +gestures are even and well balanced; and you are, in fact, surprised to +see how good a natural orator he is. You went to hear him, expecting to +find some justification for the stories which impute to him a low and +egotistic presence, and a delivery that depends upon broadness for its +effects. But he appears unpretending, in spite of the satisfied look +which he casts around the congregation when he first steps to the +railing of the platform. He is evidently conscious that he owns the +building and the audience; but, content with that, he makes no attempt +to put them in his pocket; on the contrary, he almost instantly becomes +seriously engaged in transferring into them his lesson for the day. His +style of extemporaneous speaking is conversational,--the better English +suspect all other styles,--and this of itself shows what improvement has +taken place in the Surrey region. If at first he indulged in rant, he +has now subsided into an even vein; he puts things plumply, and tells +his feelings gravely, and makes his points without quackery. So it is +plain that when he gives notice of a contribution for his college, in +which young men are trained for the ministry, and states simply, in +justification, that one hundred and fifty have already left it, and are +now engaged in preaching the dissenting word, he is to be regarded as +one of the decided influences which are now at work to bring the people +up to self-consciousness, self-respect, and political importance. + +It is very characteristic that the National Church is called an +Establishment,--in other words, something that stays where it was put +some time ago. The thing which ought to move first, and move +continually through all the avenues of the public life, to keep them +clear of the obstructions of ignorance and superstition, and prevent the +great travel and intercourse of thought from stagnating, is the thing in +England which is most unwilling to stir. Already a fearful accumulation +of passengers and vehicles, whose patience is nearly exhausted, is +anxious to be let through in time to keep appointment with the world's +grave business. Young thoughts are hurrying to be indorsed; mature paper +dreads to be protested; the hour of the world's liberal exchange is +about to strike. Depend upon it, at the critical moment, when the +pressure in the rear becomes the most emphatic, the people in the +omnibus will have to get out and assist the passengers in drawing it to +one side, where it will remain a long time unmolested. + +But the first thing which you say concerning the men and institutions of +England is, that they are established. In America some things are +finished before they are done; but there are no tottering +trestle-bridges in the routes of English enterprise to let the +travellers through. When a business firm becomes fairly built up, it +lasts a hundred years or more. Shop-signs are not taken down except by +the weather; new fronts grow so slowly along the ancient streets that +they appear to be deposited by secretion, like corals and shells. I took +a book to a printer, and found he was the grandson of the man who +published "Junius" in 1769, doing business in the same dingy court and +office, with the old regularity and deliberation. When I said, that, for +want of time, I should have to risk formidable errata and print at the +rate of sixty-four pages a day, he plainly suspected me of derangement +and of a desire to impart my condition to his machinery. On repeating it +with calmness, he set it down for Yankee braggadocio, and assured me +that not an author in England could print at that rate. Then he went to +work. They detest being hurried, but their latent momentum is very +great. Limited suffrage and many administrative abuses will feel it +soon, as similar things have felt it before. + +But you are deceived at first, and anticipate deterioration rather than +improvement for the people of England. The city of London, with its two +and a half millions of inhabitants, looks like a huge stone that has +been pried over a sweet well; nobody need expect to draw water there any +more; fresh ones must be dug, we say, in America, in Russia, to reach +primitive human nature again, and set it free to make the wilderness +blossom. London looks as if it had slowly grown from the soil and the +climate, like a lichen that clings closely to its rocky site. The heavy, +many-storied buildings of Portland stone are blackened by the smoke till +they appear more like quarries then habitations; the swarms of human +beings look ephemeral as moths. The finest architecture becomes in a few +years indistinguishable, and delicate ornamentation is as much +superfluous as among the weather-stained cliffs and boulders of the +coast. Monumental inscriptions are smutted and half-obliterated, but the +scurf protects the monument. Under the huge pile of St. Paul's the +ceaseless traffic of human passions passes as through a defile of the +hills. When the lights spring forth towards evening, and sparkle on the +great dull masses, it seems as if the buildings had been there forever, +and forever would be, endowed with some elemental process which puts +forth the lighting. Newgate itself, without windows towards the street, +a huge angle of dead walls, with heavy iron fetters suspended over the +gateways, and statues so blackened in their niches as to dispel the +illusion that they ever did or could suggest humanity, is a settled +gloom in the midst of the city, like the thought of a discouraged and +defeated man. It has a terrible suggestion that crime is established in +London,--immutable methods of being guilty and of being condemned--all +old, old, and irrepealable. + +From Primrose Hill, beyond Regent's Park, and towards the open country, +the profile of the city can be seen at one view, as it emerges from the +smoke, is heavily described athwart it, and plunges into it again, like +a great, silent feature of the earth itself, lifted in an atmosphere +whose density seems to be a part of the antiquity. Hidden in that smoke +the streets roll night and day, like great arteries, to feed, replace, +repair, business, pleasure, and misery, but to change it no more than +the blood changes the tricks of an old brain or the settled beating of a +stubborn heart. + +These are some of the physical aspects which seduce a traveller into the +impression that the vigor and glory of England have culminated, and +would fall apart sooner than take on new forms or yield to the moulding +power of popular ideas. + +The impression is deepened by the feeling of hostility to American +institutions, and by the special dislike of the North, which the past +four years have betrayed. The commercial and ruling classes had been +skilfully prepared, by applications of Southern sentiment, for the +declaration of neutrality, which was supposed to contain the triple +chance of destroying a dangerous republic, of securing unlimited +supplies of cotton by free-trade, and of erecting in the South an +oligarchic form of government. Under the circumstances, they felt that +neutrality was a kind of merit in them, and a magnanimity which the +declining North ought to have hailed with enthusiasm, as it showed that +England scorned to take a more deadly advantage of our perilous +position. This anti-Northern feeling is, and always has been, confined +to the Tory classes, in and out of the Government, to the rich and their +dependants, to the confirmed High-Churchmen. Even an American resident, +if he was wealthy, and liked the Church of England, and had settled down +into a British country-seat with British ways of living, would be sure +to misrepresent the North, to be pleased at its defeats and annoyed by +its successes, partly from commercial and partly from pro-slavery +considerations. The America which he remembered, and regretted that he +could not still be proud of, was the America where Pierce and Buchanan +were Presidents, where Jefferson Davis and John B. Floyd were +Secretaries of War. He had, in short, become a Tory; for Toryism is +regard for usages at the expense of men. He and the English Tory desired +the triumph of Slavery, because it was the best thing for the negro, and +the quietest thing for trade and government. The only difference between +them is, that he would own slaves, if he had an opportunity, while the +Englishman would not, partly because his own servants are so excellent. +But both of them would subscribe to the Boston "Courier." The English +Tory hates to have the poor classes of London use the railways on the +Lord's Day, to go and find God's beauty in the Crystal Palace and the +daisy-haunted fields. One of the most striking spectacles in London is +found on Sunday, by standing on some bridge that spans the Thames, to +watch the little river-steamers, black with human beings, that shoot +like big water-bugs from the piers every five minutes, and fussily elbow +their way down-stream to various places of resort. On that day people +cluster like bees all over the omnibuses, till the vehicle looks like a +mere ball of humanity stuck together, rolling down to some +excursion-train. This is a bitter sight to an old-fashioned +Churchman.[A] The American Tory will hate _any_ day that releases the +poor and the oppressed into God's glorious liberty. One of the most +worthy and offensive men you can meet in London is the American Tory of +this description: worthy, because honest and clean and free from vice; +offensive, because totally destitute of republican principle. If +stripped of his wealth, he might become a rich man's invaluable flunky, +and carry the decorous prayer-book to church, bringing up the rear of +the family with formalism. Toryism has a profound respect for external +godliness, and remembers that the Southerner sympathizes with bishops, +who, like Meade of Virginia, preach from the text, "Servants, obey your +masters," and, like Polk of Louisiana, convert old sermons upon the +divine sanction of Slavery into cartridge-paper. We must recollect, too, +that a good many educated Englishmen dislike republican institutions +because they have identified the phrase with all the atrocious things +which successive pro-slavery administrations have conceived and +perpetrated; for the Englishman is dull at understanding foreign +politics, and reads the "Times," though he strongly avers that he is not +influenced by it. An administration appears to an Englishman to be the +country; he has not yet heard an authoritative interpretation of +republicanism, for a Washington cabinet has not till lately spoken the +mind of the common people. But when he understands us better he will +dread us all the more, because the people in all countries speak the +same language in expressing the same wants; and when universal suffrage +puts universal justice on its throne in America, injustice will +everywhere uneasily await the ballot which shall place it in the +minority. The dislike of the English Tory is already passing into this +second stage, when his hope of a dissolved Union gives place to his +dread of a regenerated country that hastens to propagate its best ideas. + +There were three elements in this anti-Northern feeling. First, a +sympathy with the smaller and feebler party. This is a trait which puts +the English people by the side of the Turk in the Crimea, the Circassian +in the Caucasus, the Pole, the Dane,--which inspired Milton's famous +letter, in the name of Cromwell, that espoused the cause of the +Waldenses. In fact, wherever the smaller and weaker party has no +relations with England, the country hurries to protect it. But where, as +in the case of the Irish, the Sepoy, the New-Zealander, the Caffre, and +the Chinese, England's interest is touched by the objections of people +to her own harsh and inveterate rule, she has no magnanimity, and +forgets the sentiments of her nobler minds. The same Cromwell who +threatened Europe in behalf of the Waldenses contrived the massacre of +the Irish at Drogheda. So when sympathy with the distant South +harmonized with dread of the North, she was willingly misled by Southern +agents to see a war of conquest and aggression. + +The second element is a fear of the ultimate consequences of a Union +reconstructed without Slavery; for then Mr. Bright may argue in favor of +universal suffrage, uninterrupted by allusions to the arrogance and +coarseness, the boastful and aggressive spirit belonging to a +pro-slavery America. "Why do you desire the dissolution of the Union?" +asked one Englishman of another. "Oh, I have no reason, except that the +Americans are so bounceable I want to see them humbled." But we were the +weakest when Slavery made us so loud-mouthed and vaporing; we shall be +strongest when the cause of our boasting has disappeared. When a country +is fully conscious of the principles that belong to it, and sees them +cleansed with her children's blood, through eyes that stand full with +tears, she will invite, but no longer threaten; and the flag which she +once waved in the face of all mankind to exasperate will rain persuasion +as often as it is unfurled. + +But it will be a long time before the Englishman appreciates the altered +condition of this country and resigns his prejudices, in consequence of +another element in this un-American feeling, namely, insular ignorance. +Among the contraband articles which are with difficulty smuggled into +any point of the English coast is an accurate knowledge of the polity +and condition of another country. Indifference is the coastguard which +protects, without moving, every inlet and harbor. The Englishman is +surprised, if all the world is not intimately acquainted with the +British Constitution, which is not a written document, but a practical +result that appears in all the administrative forms of the country, and +can be studied only on the spot; but he will not take the trouble to +inquire into the relation which the separate States bear to the Federal +government; and he seems prevented by some congenital deficiency from +understanding how the latter is the direct result of the independence of +the former. The question he asks most frequently is, "Why has not an +independent State the right to secede?" He is infected by nature with +Mr. Calhoun's fallacy. You cannot make a Tory understand that powers are +derived from the consent of the governed, and that the consent is itself +an institution. "What becomes of State rights?" he asks. And when you +reply, that the concentred function of each State is contained within a +diffused popular will whose centre is at Washington, and that +thirty-four concentrations of this kind are nothing more than +thirty-four general conveniences, he takes you slowly by the button, +looks pityingly in your face, and says, "That is a Northern crotchet, +which this civil war has come to cure," and then he leaves you. It is in +vain that you shout after him, "That is a Northern principle, which this +war has come to confirm": he was out of hearing before he left. You feel +that you are a stranger in the house of your own mother. You walk about +among these slow, good-natured men, with plump boys' faces and men's +chests, and hear them speak your language without your sense. They have +a limited one, like their monarchy. How admirably it keeps the square +miles of their own island! how shockingly it tends the acres of Ireland! +how haughtily it ignored and trampled upon the instincts of the Hindoo! +how unwilling it is to see a difference between the circumstances of +Australia and those of England! How it blundered into a neutrality which +was a recognition of infamy! This is the distance which Toryism spreads +between the mother country and our own. + +But this must not be accepted as a final statement of the prospects of +England, or of its relation to America. There is, in the first place, a +great popular sympathy with the North, and it prophesies the future +condition of England. When you use the phrase, "people of England," +understand that the Toryism which governs England is left out. Bigoted +Churchmen, who are afraid that the island will drag its anchor because +Bishop Colenso notices some errors in the Pentateuch,--shifty +politicians, like Russell and Palmerston,--sour ones, like +Roebuck,--scandalous ones, like Lindsay,--and conservatives, like Cecil +and Gladstone, now make all the political blunders which they call +governing England. Their constituents are two thirds of the merchants, +nearly all the literary men, nearly all the clergymen, half the +University fellows and professors. But the people of England have not +yet been mentioned. They govern England at this moment, and yet John +Bright sits almost alone for them in Parliament; John Stuart Mill, +Professors Cairnes, Newman, Goldwin Smith, are almost their only +powerful writers. The people of England put the broad arrow of their +Queen upon the Rebel rams. They stay at home, and by taking the penny +papers slowly undermine the "Times." They have defeated every attempt to +organize a party for Southern recognition, by simply staying away from +the public meetings which the sympathizers called. Once they uttered +their opinion by the lips of starving operatives, when the distress in +the manufacturing districts was deepest, and capitalists were chary of +their aid. The Southern agent was busy then, in all the towns and +villages where the misery dwelt. "You are starving."--"Yes."--"And it +is for want of cotton."--"So it seems."--"Well, do you mean to sit here? +Come out in great force, as in the old Chartist times; tell the +manufacturer and the minister to break that blockade and let bread into +the mouths of your little ones." And the answer was, "We prefer that +they should starve." Again and again, the answer was, "We would rather +starve." And this haggard patience was saving the manufacturer himself +from ruin, who had been engaged in over-manufacturing, till his +warehouses groaned with an enormous stock which the cotton blockade +enabled him to work off. Great fortunes have been made in this way, +while the operative slowly went to rags, road-mending, and the +poor-rates. In London, hard upon midnight, I have often been attracted +by the sound of street-music to a little group, in the centre of which +stood half a dozen pallid and threadbare men, playing gentle tunes upon +the faithful instruments which clung to their sad fortunes. And on a +square of canvas, lighted by a lantern, or set in the flaring gas, I +have read, to the sound of these paupers' music, the story of America: +"Lancashire Weavers out of Work," "Poor Operatives' Band,--a penny, if +you please." That music keeps the heart of England quiet while your +cannons roar. It is the pulse of the people of England, responding in +the faint distance to the throb of victory. + +Another sight which can be seen by day in London streets belongs also to +the people of England. When there was a dearth of troops during the +Crimean War, the coast forts were stripped of their garrisons, and there +was a call made by Government for volunteers to fill their places. +Citizens came forward and manned the forts. This was the origin +of the volunteer force of England, which has grown to be very +formidable,--since jealousy of France, dread of invasion, and the need +of troops for India have always deterred the Government from recalling +the arms which it first put into the hands of the people. The force now +comprises infantry, cavalry, light and heavy artillery, organized like +the regular army, and under the control of the Horse Guards. Rifle-corps +and target-practice have become a mania. The Government encourages it by +magnificent reviews and prizes for the best shooting, utterly +unconscious that Government itself may one day be the target. But a +bloody revolution can hardly occur again in England. It will only be +necessary, at some critical moment, for the London volunteers to march +as far as Charing-Cross on their way towards Parliament and the Palace. +The concession would be there before them. + +Mr. Holyoake, who is one of the most vigorous champions of free thought +and popular rights in England, says,--"Revolution is no longer necessary +in English politics. Our wise and noble forefathers, of those old times +of which modern radicals in many towns know too little, laid broad +foundations of freedom in our midst. It only needs that we build upon +these, and the English educated classes, who always move in the grooves +of precedent, will acquiesce with a reasonable readiness."[B] + +The feeling of the radical class of English workmen is elsewhere +illustrated by Mr. Holyoake with a story from the Allendale mining +district. "Four miners published a volume of poems. One of these four in +his poem talks of tyranny falling at a moment's notice. Tyranny is not +in such a hurry. A 'voice of thunder' is to proclaim its doom. Alas, it +is the voice of steady intelligent purpose, much more difficult to +elicit, and not that of 'thunder,' which is to accomplish that. The poet +of course has a vision about the 'equal share' which the fall of tyranny +is to end in. The 'equal share' system would not last a day, as +everybody who reflects knows, and would give endless trouble to renew it +every morning."[C] + +It is a striking characteristic of English Toryism, that it gives way +just in time. Every reform has hitherto been granted as it was on the +point of being extorted. Official carriages roll over the very spot +where Charles I. dropped his self-willed head; Lady Macbeth might wash +her hands as soon as the English people their memories of the civil +bloodstain. Toryism knows one thing well: that no water-pipes can be +made strong enough to withstand the sudden stoppage of a long column of +water. They will burst and overflow. No matter what material may be in +motion, if the motion be suddenly arrested, heat, in a direct ratio to +the motion, is developed. A decided popular tendency will never be +peremptorily stopped in England. + +It is therefore a grand sight to an American, when the well-appointed +companies of London riflemen march up Fleet Street and the Strand, +through Temple-Bar, that bars nothing any longer, and stands there a +decaying symbol of Toryism itself. The brass bands may play, "Britannia +rules the Waves," or "God save the Queen," but to the American ear they +sound, "The Waves rule Britannia," "God save the Common People!" Every +shouldered musket shall be a vote; the uniform shall represent community +of interest and sentiment. The rhythm of the living column is the march +of England's steady justice into coal-mines and factories, Church and +State. + +For this reason we ought to cultivate pacific relations with the +Government of England. Beware lest the question of the Alabama break +loose to prey upon the true commerce of mankind! A war would put back +the people of England for fifty years. When England is at war, the +people are apt to rally to the Government. The island is so small, that, +when a feeling once gets started, it sweeps all men away into an +inconsiderate and almost savage support of the public honor. If Toryism +cannot secure to itself the benefit of a war upon some point that +involves an English prejudice or interest, it cannot prevent the rising +strength of the people from going into opposition. Dissenters of every +class are emptying the pews of the Establishment; liberal thinkers now +hold University fellowships only to avoid surrendering all the ground to +a reactionary party. The abolition of the stamp-tax has freed the daily +press, and expensive newspapers no longer represent little cliques, but +belong to the people of England, who take their pennyworth of honest +criticism every morning; and the best of these newspapers have been for +three years on the side of Northern republicanism. This is the instinct +of human nature, which knows its rights and hungers to possess them. + +We are maintaining half a million of men in the field, half a million +outlets of our heart's blood, because we believe that inclusion is +better than exclusion. The nation's instinct for that truth has gone +into camp. It is a belief that the life of the Republic depends upon +including every State, and including every citizen, and including every +emigrant, and including every slave, in the right to live, labor, and be +happy, and excluding none. We feel that the blood we lose in fighting +for that plain maxim of republican economy will make again fast enough +when the maxim has prevailed. The weaver of Lancashire, who plays out +his hunger in London streets, and our seamen who make the weaver wait +while they watch three thousand miles of seaboard, are both listening to +the rote of the same great truth, as it dashes on the shores of Time, +and brings bracing air to the people who are sick with waiting. If we +are gaining battles because we love the rights of the common people, our +success will include the English weaver, Dissenters will build churches +on our corner-stone of Liberty, the taxed will borrow our ballot-boxes +to contain their votes, and none shall be excluded but the betrayers of +mankind. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[A] Mr. Holyoake, in an article upon the condition of the lead-miners of +Middlesborough, says, while urging the need of excursions and some forms +of recreation,--"The rough, uncultivated workman is driven to seek in +beer and licentiousness that recreation which a wise piety ought to +provide for him amid the refining scenes of Nature. If excursions were +possible and encouraged, the wife must go as well as the husband; and if +the mother went, the children would go; and if the children went, it +would be impossible to take them in rags and dirt. The pride of the +father would be awakened. His pipe and pot would often be laid upon the +shelf, and the proceeds spent in Sunday clothes for the children. The +steamboat and excursion-train are as great moralizers in their way as +the church and the preacher. We call the attention of the British +Association to this matter, for here their influence would bring about +an improvement. They will send a board of geologists to examine the +condition of the earth of Cleveland, which can very well take care of +itself. Let them send a board of their eminent physicians to look after +the condition of the people." + +[B] From an admirable oration, delivered at Rochdale, Feb. 2, 1864, upon +the political services and career of the late Alderman Livesey. + +[C] From a very lively and instructive report of a visit of the British +Association, in 1863, to Mr. Beaumont's lead mines at Allenheads, fifty +miles from Newcastle. + + + + +A PROSE HENRIADE. + + +People sometimes talk about the quiet of the country. I should like to +know where they find it. I never saw any in this part of the world. The +country seems to me to be the place of all places where everything is +going on. Especially in Spring one becomes almost distracted. What is +Spring in the city? Dead bricks under your feet; dead rocks all around +you. There are beautiful things in the shop-windows, but they never do +anything. It is just the same as it was yesterday and as it will be +to-morrow. I suppose a faint sense of warmth and fragrance does +settle down into the city's old cold heart, and at a few +breathing-holes--little irregular patches, lovely, but minute, called +"Central Park," or "Boston Common"--Nature comes up to blow. And there +are the Spring bonnets. Still, as a general thing, I should not think it +could make much difference whether it were June or January. + +But Spring in the country,--O season rightly named!--a goddess-queen +glides through the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein +springs up to meet her and do obeisance. We, gross and heavy, blind and +deaf, are slow to catch the flutter of her robes, the music of her +footfall, the odor of her breath; the shine of her far-off coming. We +call it cold and Winter still. We huddle about the fires and wonder if +the Spring will never come; and all the while, lo, the Spring is here! +Ten thousand watching eyes, ten thousand waiting ears, laid along the +ground, have signalled the royal approach. Ten thousand times ten +thousand voices sound the notes of preparation. Everywhere there is +hurrying and scurrying. Every tiny, sleeping germ of animal and +vegetable life springs to its feet, wide awake, and girded for the race. +Now you must be wide awake too, or you will be ignominiously left behind +among the baggage. + +The time of the singing of birds is come, and the time of the cackling +of homely, honest barn-yard fowls, who have never had justice done them. +Why do we extol foreign growths and neglect the children of the soil? +Where is there a more magnificent bird than the Rooster? What a lofty +air! What a spirited pose of the head! Note his elaborately scalloped +comb, his stately steppings, the lithe, quick, graceful motions of his +arching neck. Mark his brilliant plumage, smooth and lustrous as satin, +soft as floss silk. What necklace of a duchess ever surpassed in beauty +the circles of feathers which he wears, layer shooting over layer, up +and down, hither and thither, an amber waterfall, swift and soundless as +the light, but never disturbing the matchless order of his array? What +plume from African deserts can rival the rich hues, the graceful curves, +and the palm-like erectness of his tail? All his colors are tropical in +depth and intensity. With every quick motion the tints change as in a +prism, and each tint is more splendid than the last; green more +beautiful than any green, except that of a duck's neck; brown +infiltrated with gold, and ranging through the whole gamut of its +possibilities. I am not sure that this last is correct in point of +expression, but it is correct in point of sense, as any one who ever saw +a red rooster will bear witness. + +Hens are not intrinsically handsome, but they abundantly prove the truth +of the old adage, "Handsome is that handsome does." Lord Kaimes +describes one kind of beauty as that founded on the relations of +objects. And I am sure that the relation of a hen to a dozen fair, +white, pure eggs, and the relation of those eggs to puddings and +custards, and the twenty-five cents which they can have for the asking, +make even an ungainly hen, like many heroines in novels, "not beautiful, +but very interesting." "Twenty thousand dollars," said a connoisseur in +such matters, "is a handsome feature in any lady's face." And the +"cut-cut-cut-ca-D-A-H-cut" of a hen, whose word is as good as her bond +for an egg a day, is a handsome feather in any bird's coat. Once, +however, this trumpet of victory deceived me, though by no fault of the +hen's. I heard it sounding lustily, and I ransacked the barn on tiptoe +to discover the new-made nest and the exultant _mater-familias_. But +instead of a white old hen with yellow legs, who had laid her master +many eggs, there, on a barrel, stood brave Chanticleer, cackling away +for dear life,--Hercules holding the distaff among his Omphales! +Now--for there are many things to be learned from hens--mark the +injustice of the tyrant man. From time immemorial, girls--at least +country girls--have been taught that + + "A whistling girl and a crowing hen + Always come to some bad end"; + +but not a word is said about a cackling rooster! Worse still, a crowing +hen is so rare a thing that its very existence is problematical. I never +heard of one out of that couplet. I have made diligent inquiry, but I +have not been able to find any person who had heard, or who had ever +seen or heard of any one who had heard, a crowing hen. But these very +hands have fed, these very eyes seen, and these ears heard a cackling +rooster! Where is manly impartiality, not to say chivalry? Why do men +overlook the crying sins of their own sex, and expend all their energies +in attempting to eradicate sins which never existed in the other? + +I have lived among hens lately, and I know all about them. They are just +like people. Not a few only, but the whole human race, are +chicken-hearted. + +Hens are fond of little mysteries. With tons of hay at their disposal, +they will steal a nest in a discarded feeding-trough. With nobody in the +world to harbor an evil thought against them, they will hide under the +corn-stalks as carefully as if a sheriff were on their track. They will +not go to their nests while you are about, but tarry midway and meditate +profoundly on fixed fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute, till you +are tired of watching and waiting, and withdraw. No, you did not know it +all before. The world is in a state of Cimmerian darkness regarding +hens. There were never any chickens hatched till three weeks from a week +before Fast Day. How should you, my readers, know anything about them? +Be docile, and I will enlighten you. + +Hens must have a depression where the bump of locality should be, for +they have no manner of tenderness for old haunts. "Where are the birds +in last year's nests?" queries the poet; but he might have asked quite +as pertinently, "Where are the birds in last month's nests?" Echo, if +she were at all familiar with the subject, would reply, "The birds are +all right, but where are the nests?" Hens very sensibly decide that it +is easier to build a new house than to keep the old one in order; and +having laid one round of eggs, off they go to erect, or rather to +excavate, another dwelling. You have scarcely learned the way to their +nook above the great beam when it is abandoned, and they betake +themselves to a hole at the very bottom of the haystack. I wish I could +tell you a story about a Hebrew prophet crawling under a barn after +hen's eggs, and crawling out again from the musty darkness into sweet +light with his clothes full of cobwebs, his eyes full of dust, his hands +full of eggs, to find himself winking and blinking in the midst of a +party of ladies and gentlemen who had come lion-hunting from a farre +countrie. I cannot tell you, because it would be a breach of confidence; +but I am going to edit my Sheikh's Life and Letters, if I live long +enough, and he does not live too long, and then you shall have the whole +story, with names, dates, and costumes. + +Another very singular habit hens have, of dusting themselves. They do +not seem to care for bathing, like canary-birds; but in warm afternoons, +when they have eaten their fill, they like to stroll into the highway, +where the dust lies ankle-deep in heaps and ridges, and settle down and +stir and burrow in it till it has penetrated through all their inmost +feathers, and so filled them, that, when they arise and shake +themselves, they stand in a cloud of dust. I do not like this habit in +the hens; yet I observe how a correspondence exists in all the +Vertebrata; for do not fine ladies similarly dust themselves? They do +not, indeed, sit in the road _à la Turque_. They box up the dust, and +take it to their dressing-rooms, and, because Nature has not provided +them with feathers, ingenuity more than supplies the deficiency with the +softest of white down brushes, that harbor and convey the coveted dust. +I doubt not through the races one resembling purpose runs; and many a +stately matron and many a lovely maiden might truly say unto the hen, +"Thou art my sister." + +Did I say I knew all about hens? The half was not told you, for I am +wise about chickens too. I know their tribe from "egg to bird," as the +country people say, when they wish to express the most radical, sweeping +acquaintance with any subject,--a phrase, by the way, whose felicity is +hardly to be comprehended till experience has unfolded its meaning. + +When hens have laid a certain number of eggs,--twelve or twenty,--they +evince a strong disposition, I might almost say a determination, to +sit.[D] In every such case, it is plain that they ought to be allowed to +sit. It is a violation of Nature to souse them in cold water in order to +make them change their minds; and I believe, with Marcus Antoninus, that +nothing is evil which is according to Nature. But people want eggs, and +they do not care for Nature; and the consequence is, that hens are +obliged to undergo "heroic treatment" of various kinds. Sometimes it is +the cold bath; sometimes it is the hospital. One I tied to the bottom of +a post of the standards; but, eager to escape, and ignorant of the +qualities of cord, she flew up over the top rail, and, the next time I +entered the barn, presented the unpleasing spectacle of a dignified and +deliberate fowl hanging in mid-air by one leg. Greatly alarmed, I +hurried her down. Life was not extinct, except in that leg. I rubbed it +tenderly till warmth was restored, and then it grew so hot that I feared +inflammation would set in, and made local applications to reduce the +tendency, wondering in my own mind whether, in case worse should come to +worst, she could get on at all with a Palmer leg. The next morning the +question became unnecessary, as she walked quite well with her own. The +remaining hens were put in hospital till they signified a willingness to +resume their former profitable habits,--except one who was arbitrarily +chosen to be foster-mother of the future brood. Fifteen eggs, fair and +fresh, reserved for the purpose, I counted out and put into her nest; +and there she sat day after day and all day long, with a quietness, a +silent, patient persistence, which I admired, but could not in the least +imitate; for I kept continually poking under her and prying her up to +see how matters stood. Many hens would have resented so much +interference, but she knew it was sympathy, and not malice; besides, she +was very good-natured, and so was I, and we stood on the best possible +footing towards each other. A. G. says, "A hen's time is not much to +her"; and in this case his opinion was certainly correct. + +One morning I thought I heard a faint noise. Routing out the good old +creature, that I might take observations, eggs still, and no chickens, +were discernible, but the tiniest, little, silvery, sunny-hearted chirp +that you ever heard, inside the eggs, and a little, tender pecking from +every imprisoned chick, standing at his crystal door, and, with his +faint, fairy knock, knock, knock, craving admission into the great +world. Never can I forget or describe the sensations of that moment; +and, as promise rapidly culminated in performance,--as the eggs ceased +to be eggs, and analyzed themselves into shattered shells and chirping +chickens,--it seemed as if I had been transported back to the beginning +of creation. Right before my eyes I saw, in my hands I held, the mystery +of life. These eggs, that had been laid under my very eyes as it were, +that I had my own self hunted and found and confiscated and +restored,--these eggs that I had broken and eaten a thousand times, and +learned of a surety to be nothing but eggs,--were before me now; and, +lo, they were eyes and feathers and bill and claws! Yes, little +puff-ball, I saw you when you were hard and cold and had no more life +than a Lima bean. I might have scrambled you, or boiled you, or made a +pasch-egg of you, and you would not have known that anything was +happening. If you had been cooked then, you would have been only an +omelet; now you may be a fricassee. As I looked at the nest, so lately +full only of white quiet, now swarming with downy life, and vocal with +low, soft music, + + "I felt a newer life in every gale." + +Oh, no one can tell, till he has chickens of his own, what delicious +emotions are stirred in the heart by their downy, appealing tenderness! + +Swarming, however, as the nest seemed, it soon transpired that only +seven chickens had transpired. Eight eggs still maintained their +integrity. I remarked to the hen, that she would better keep on awhile +longer, and I would take the seven into the house, and provide for them. +She assented, having, justly enough, all confidence in my sagacity; and +I put them into a warm old worsted hood, and brought them into the +house. But the hood was not a hen, though it was tucked around them +almost to the point of suffocation; and they filled the house with +dolorous cries,--"yapping" it is called in the rural districts. Nothing +would soothe them but to be cuddled together in somebody's lap, and +brooded with somebody's hand. Then their shrill, piercing shrieks would +die away into a contented chirp of heartfelt satisfaction. I took a +world of comfort in those chickens,--it is so pleasant to feel that you +are really making sentient beings happy. The tiny things grew so +familiar and fond in a few hours that they could hardly tell which was +which,--I or the hen. They would all fall asleep in a soft, stirring +lump for five seconds, and then rouse up, with no apparent cause, but as +suddenly and simultaneously as if the drum had beat a reveille, and go +foraging about in the most enterprising manner. One would snap at a +ring, under the impression that it was petrified dough, I suppose; and +all the rest would rush up determinedly to secure a share in the prize. +Next they would pounce upon a button, evidently thinking it curd; and +though they must have concluded, after a while, that it was the hardest +kind of coagulated milk on record, they were not restrained from +renewing the attack in squads at irregular intervals. When they first +broke camp, we put soaked and sweetened cracker into their bills; but +they developed such an appetite, that, in view of the high price of +sugar, we cut off their allowance, and economized on Indian meal and +bread-water. Every night they went to the hen, and every morning they +came in to me; and still Dame Partlett sat with stolid patience, and +still eight eggs remained. I concluded, at length, to let the eggs take +their chance with another hen, and restore the first to freedom and her +chickens. But just as I was about to commence operations, some one +announced, that, if eggs are inverted during the process of incubation, +the chickens from them will be crazy. Appalled at the thought of a brood +of chickens laboring under an aberration of mind, yet fired with the +love of scientific investigation, I inverted one by way of experiment, +and placed it in another nest. The next morning, when I entered the +barn, Biddy stretched out her neck, and declared that there was no use +in waiting any longer, and she was determined to leave the place, which +she accordingly did, discovering, to my surprise, two little dead, +crushed, flattened chickens, Poor things! I coaxed them on a shingle, +and took them into the house to show to a person whose name has been +often mentioned in these pages, and who, in all experimental matters, +considers my testimony good for nothing without the strongest +corroborative evidence. Notice now the unreasoning obstinacy with which +people will cling to their prejudices in the face of the most palpable +opposing facts. + +"Where did these come from?" I asked. + +"Probably the hen trod on them and killed them," he said. + +"But there were seven whole eggs remaining, and the insane one was in +another nest." + +"Well, he supposed some other hen might have laid in the nest after the +first had begun to sit. They often did." + +"No, for I had counted them every day." + +Here, then, was an equation to be produced between fifteen original eggs +on one side, and seven whole eggs, seven live chickens, two dead +chickens, and another egg on the other. My theory was, that two of the +eggs contained twins. + +"But no," says Halicarnassus,--"such a thing was never known as two live +chickens from one egg. + +"But these were dead chickens," I affirmed. + +"But they were alive when they pecked out. They could not break the +shell when they were dead." + +"But the two dead chickens may have been in the same shell with two live +ones, and, when the live ones broke the shell, the dead ones dropped +out." + +"Nonsense!" + +"But here are the facts, Mr. Gradgrind,--seven live chickens, two dead +chickens, seven whole eggs, and another egg to be accounted for, and +only fifteen eggs to account for them." + +Yet, as if a thing that never happened on our farm is a thing that never +can happen, oblivious of the fact that "a pair of chickens" is a common +phrase enough,--simply because a man never saw twin chickens, he +maintains that there cannot be any such thing as twin chickens. This, +too, in spite of one egg I brought in large enough to hold a brood of +chickens. In fact, it does not look like an egg; it looks like the keel +of a man-of-war. + +The problem remains unsolved. But never, while I remember my addition +table, can you make me believe that seven whole----But the individual +mentioned above is so sore on this point, that, the moment I get as far +as that, he leaves the room, and my equation remains unstated. + +There is a great deal of human nature in hens. They have the same +qualities that people have, but unmodified. A human mother loves her +children, but she is restrained by a sense of propriety from tearing +other mothers' children in pieces. A hen has no such checks; her +motherhood exists without any qualification. Her intense love for her +own brood is softened by no social requirements. If a poor lost waif +from another coop strays into her realm, no pity, no sympathy springing +from the memory of her own offspring, moves her to kindness; but she +goes at it with a demoniac fury, and would peck its little life out, if +fear did not lend it wings. She has a self-abnegation great as that of +human mothers. Her voracity and timidity disappear. She goes almost +without food herself, that her chicks may eat. She scatters the dough +about with her own bill, that it may be accessible to the little bills, +or, perhaps, to teach them how to work. The wire-worms, the bugs, the +flies, all the choice little tidbits that her soul loves, she divides +for her chicks, reserving not a morsel for herself. All their gambols +and pranks and wild ways she bears with untiring patience. They hop up +by twos and threes on her back. They peck at her bill. One saucy little +imp actually jumped up and caught hold of the little red lappet above +her beak, and, hanging to it, swung back and forth half a dozen times; +and she was evidently only amused, and reckoned it a mark of precocity. + +Yet, with all her intense, absorbing parental love, she has very serious +deficiencies,--deficiencies occasioned by the same lack of modification +which I have before mentioned. Devoted to her little ones, she will +scratch vigorously and untiringly to provide them food, yet fails to +remember that they do not stand before her in a straight line out of +harm's way, but are hovering around her on all sides in a dangerous +proximity. Like the poet, she looks not forward nor behind. If they are +beyond reach, very well; if they are not, all the same; scratch, +scratch, scratch in the soil goes her great, strong, horny claw, and up +flies a cloud of dust, and away goes a poor unfortunate, whirling +involuntary somersets through the air without the least warning. She is +a living monument of the mischief that may be done by giving undue +prominence to one idea. I only wonder that so few broken heads and +dislocated joints bear witness to the falseness of such philosophy. I am +quite sure, that, if _I_ should give the chickens such merciless +impulses, they would not recover from the effects so speedily. Unlike +human mothers, too, she has no especial tenderness for invalids. She +makes arrangements only for a healthy family. If a pair of tiny wings +droop, and a pair of tiny legs falter, so much the worse for the poor +unlucky owner; but not one journey the less does Mother Hen take. She is +the very soul of impartiality; but there is no cosseting. Sick or well, +chick must run with the others, or be left behind. Run they do, with a +remarkable uniformity. I marvel to see the perfect understanding among +them all. Obedience is absolute on the one side, and control on the +other, and without a single harsh measure. It is pure Quaker discipline, +simple moral suasion. The specks understand her every word, and so do +I--almost. When she is stepping about in a general way,--and hens always +step,--she has simply a motherly sort of cluck, that is but a general +expression of affection and oversight. But the moment she finds a worm +or a crumb or a splash of dough, the note changes into a quick, eager +"Here! here! here!" and away rushes the brood pell-mell and topsy-turvy. +If a stray cat approaches, or danger in any form, her defiant, menacing +"C-r-r-r-r!" shows her anger and alarm. + +See how, in Bedford jail, John Bunyan turned to good account the lessons +learned in barn-yards. "'Yet again,' said he, 'observe and look.' So +they gave heed and perceived that the hen did walk in a fourfold method +towards her chickens. 1. She had a _common call_, and that she hath all +day long; 2. She had a _special call_, and that she had but sometimes; +3. She had a _brooding note_; and, 4. She had an _outcry_. 'Now,' said +he, 'compare this hen to your king, and these chickens to his obedient +ones. For, answerable to her, himself has his methods which he walketh +in towards his people: by his _common call_ he gives nothing; by his +_special call_ he always has something to give; he has also a _brooding +voice_ for them that are under his wing; and he has an _outcry_ to give +the alarm when he seeth the enemy come. I chose, my darlings, to lead +you into the room where such things are, because you are women, and they +are easy for you.'" Kind Mr. Interpreter! + +To personal fear, as I have intimated, the hen-mother is a stranger; but +her power is not always equal to her pluck. One week ago this very +day,--ah, me! this very hour,--the cat ran by the window with a chicken +in her mouth. Cats are a separate feature in country establishments. In +the city I have understood them to lead a nomadic, disturbed, and +somewhat shabby life. In the country they attach themselves to special +localities and prey upon the human race. We have three steady and +several occasional cats quartered upon us. One was retained for the name +of the thing,--called derivatively Maltesa, and Molly "for short." One +was adopted for charity,--a hideous, saffron-hued, forlorn little +wretch, left behind by a Milesian family, called, from its color, +Aurora, contracted into Rory O'More. The third was a fierce +black-and-white unnamed wild creature, of whom one never got more than a +glimpse in her savage flight. Cats are tolerated here from a tradition +that they catch rats and mice, but they don't. We catch the mice +ourselves and put them in a barrel, and put a cat in after them; and +then she is frightened out of her wits. As for rats, they will gather +wherever corn and potatoes congregate, cats or no cats. It is said in +the country, that, if you write a polite letter to rats, asking them to +go away, they will go. I received my information from one who had tried +the experiment, or known it to be tried, with great success. Standing +ready always to write a letter on the slightest provocation, you may be +sure I did not neglect so good an opportunity. The letter acknowledged +their skill and sagacity, applauded their valor and their perseverance, +but stated, that, in the present scarcity of labor, the resident family +were not able to provide more supplies than were necessary for their own +immediate use and for that of our brave soldiers, and they must +therefore beg the Messrs. Rats to leave their country for their +country's good. It was laid on the potato-chest, and I have never seen a +rat since! + +While I have been penning this quadrupedic episode, you may imagine +Molly, formerly Maltesa, as Kinglake would say, bearing off the chicken +in triumph to her domicile. But the alarm is given, and the whole +plantation turns out to rescue the victim or perish in the attempt. +Molly takes refuge in a sleigh, but is ignominiously ejected. She rushes +_per saltum_ under the corn-barn, and defies us all to follow her. But +she does not know that in a contest strategy may be an overmatch for +swiftness. She is familiar with the sheltering power of the elevated +corn-barn, but she never conjectures to what base uses a clothes-pole +may come, until one plunges into her sides. As she is not a St. Médard +Convulsionist, she does not like it, but strikes a bee-line for the +piazza, and rushes through the lattice-work into the darkness +underneath. We stoop to conquer, and she hurls Greek fire at us from her +wrathful eyes, but cannot stand against a reinforcement of poles which +vex her soul. With teeth still fastened upon her now unconscious victim, +she leaves her place of refuge, which indeed was no refuge for her, and +gallops through the yard and across the field; but an unseen column has +flanked her, and she turns back only to fall into the hands of the main +army,--too late, alas! for the tender chick, who has picked his last +worm and will never chirp again. But his death is speedily avenged. +Within the space of three days, Molly, formerly Maltesa, is taken into +custody, tried, convicted, sentenced, remanded to prison in an old +wagon-box, and transported to Botany Bay, greatly to the delight of Rory +O'More, formerly Aurora, who, in the presence of her overgrown +contemporary, was never suffered to call her soul her own, much less a +bone or a crust. Indeed, Molly never seemed half so anxious to eat, +herself, as she was to bind Rory to total abstinence. When a plate was +set for them, the preliminary ceremony was invariably a box on the ear +for poor Rory, or a grab on the neck, from Molly's spasmodic paw, which +would not release its hold till armed intervention set in and enforced a +growling neutrality. In short, like the hens, these cats held up a +mirror to human nature. They showed what men and women would be, if they +were--cats; which they would be, if a few modifying qualities were left +out. They exhibit selfishness and greed in their pure forms, and we see +and ought to shun the unlovely shapes. Evil propensities may be hidden +by a silver veil, but they are none the less evil and bring forth evil +fruit. Let cats delight to snarl and bite, but let men and women be +generous and beneficent. + +Little chickens, tender and winsome as they are, early discover the same +disposition. When one of them comes into possession of the fore-quarter +of a fly, he does not share it with his brother. He does not even +quietly swallow it himself. He clutches it in his bill and flies around +in circles and irregular polygons, like one distracted, trying to find +a corner where he can gormandize alone. It is no matter that not a +single chicken is in pursuit, nor that there is enough and to spare for +all. He hears a voice we cannot hear, telling him that the Philistines +be upon him. And every chicken snatches his morsel and radiates from +every other as fast as his little legs can carry him. His selfishness +overpowers his sense,--which is, indeed, not a very signal victory, for +his selfishness is very strong and his sense is very weak. It is no +wonder that Hopeful was well-nigh moved to anger, and queried, "Why art +thou so tart, my brother?" when Christian said to him, "Thou talkest +like one upon whose head is the shell to this very day." To be compared +to a chicken is disparaging enough; but to be compared to a chicken so +very young that he has not yet quite divested himself of his shell must +be, as Pet Marjorie would say, "what Nature itself can't endure." A +little chicken's greedy crop blinds his eyes to every consideration +except that of the insect squirming in his bill. He is beautiful and +round and full of cunning ways, but he has no resources for an +emergency. He will lose his reckoning and be quite out at sea, though +only ten steps from home. He never knows enough to turn a corner. All +his intelligence is like light, moving only in straight lines. He is +impetuous and timid, and has not the smallest presence of mind or +sagacity to discern between friend and foe. He has no confidence in any +earthly power that does not reside in an old hen. Her cluck will he +follow to the last ditch, and to nothing else will he give heed. I am +afraid that the Interpreter was putting almost too fine a point upon it, +when he had Christiana and her children "into another room, where was a +hen and chickens, and bid them observe awhile. So one of the chickens +went to the trough to drink, and every time she drank she lift up her +head and her eyes towards heaven. 'See,' said he, 'what this little +chick doth, and learn of her to acknowledge whence your mercies come, by +receiving them with looking up.'" Doubtless the chick lift her eyes +towards heaven, but a close acquaintance with the race would put +anything but acknowledgment in the act. A gratitude that thanks Heaven +for favors received and then runs into a hole to prevent any other +person from sharing the benefit of those favors is a very questionable +kind of gratitude, and certainly should be confined to the bipeds that +wear feathers. + +Yet, if you take away selfishness from a chicken's moral make-up, and +fatuity from his intellectual, you have a very charming little creature +left. For, apart from their excessive greed, chickens seem to be +affectionate. They have sweet social ways. They huddle together with +fond caressing chatter, and chirp soft lullabies. Their toilet +performances are full of interest. They trim each other's bills with +great thoroughness and dexterity, much better indeed than they dress +their own heads,--for their bungling, bungling little claws make sad +work of it. It is as much as they can do to stand on two feet, and they +naturally make several revolutions when they attempt to stand on one. +Nothing can be more ludicrous than their early efforts to walk. They do +not really walk. They sight their object, waver, balance, decide, and +then tumble forward, stopping all in a heap as soon as the original +impetus is lost, generally some way ahead of the place to which they +wished to go. It is delightful to watch them as drowsiness films their +round, bright, black eyes, and the dear old mother croons them under her +ample wings, and they nestle in perfect harmony. How they manage to +bestow themselves with such limited accommodations, or how they manage +to breathe in a room so close, it is difficult to imagine. They +certainly deal a staggering blow to our preconceived notions of the +necessity of oxygen and ventilation, but they make it easy to see whence +the Germans derived their fashion of sleeping under feather-beds. But +breathe and bestow themselves they do. The deep mother-heart and the +broad mother-wings take them all in. They penetrate her feathers, and +open for themselves unseen little doors into the mysterious, brooding, +beckoning darkness. But it is long before they can arrange themselves +satisfactorily. They chirp, and stir, and snuggle, trying to find the +warmest and softest nook. Now an uneasy head is thrust out, and now a +whole tiny body, but it soon reënters in another quarter, and at length +the stir and chirr grow still. You see only a collection of little legs, +as if the hen were a banyan-tree, and presently even they disappear, she +settles down comfortably, and all are wrapped in a slumberous silence. +And as I sit by the hour, watching their winning ways, and see all the +steps of this sleepy subsidence, I can but remember that outburst of +love and sorrow from the lips of Him who, though He came to earth from a +dwelling-place of ineffable glory, called nothing unclean because it was +common, found no homely detail too trivial or too homely to illustrate +the Father's love, but from the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, +the lilies of the field, the stones in the street, the foxes in their +holes, the patch on a coat, the oxen in the furrow, the sheep in the +pit, the camel under his burden, drew lessons of divine pity and +patience, of heavenly duty and delight. Standing in the presence of the +great congregation, seeing, as never man saw, the hypocrisy and the +iniquity gathered before Him,--seeing too, alas! the calamities and the +woe that awaited this doomed people, a god-like pity overbears His +righteous indignation, and cries out in passionate appeal, "O Jerusalem, +Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are +sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, +even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" + + * * * * * + +The agriculturist says that women take care of young chickens much +better than men. I do not know how that may be, but I know that my +experiments with chickens have been attended with a success so brilliant +that unfortunate poultry-fanciers have appealed to me for assistance. I +have even taken ailing chickens from the city to board. A brood of +nineteen had rapidly dwindled down to eleven when it was brought to me, +one even then dying. His little life ebbed away in a few hours; but of +the remaining ten, nine, now in the third week of their abode under my +roof, have recovered health, strength, and spirits, and bid fair to live +to a good old age, if not prematurely cut off. One of them, more feeble +than the others, needed and received especial attention. Him I tended +through dreary days of east wind and rain in a box on the mantel-piece, +nursing him through a severe attack of asthma, feeding and amusing him +through his protracted convalescence, holding him in my hand one whole +Sunday afternoon to relieve him of home-sickness and hen-sickness, and +being rewarded at last by seeing animation and activity come back to his +poor sickly little body. He will never be a robust chicken. He seems to +have a permanent distortion of the spine, and his crop is one-sided; and +if there is any such thing as blind staggers, he has them. Besides, he +has a strong and increasing tendency not to grow. This, however, I +reckon a beauty rather than a blemish. It is the one fatal defect in +chickens that they grow. With them, youth and beauty are truly +inseparable terms. The better they are, the worse they look. After they +are three weeks old, every day detracts from their comeliness. They lose +their plump roundness, their fascinating, soft down, and put out the +most ridiculous little wings and tails and hard-looking feathers, and +are no longer dear, tender chicks, but small hens,--a very uninteresting +Young America. It is said, that, if you give chickens rum, they will not +grow, but retain always their juvenile size and appearance. Under our +present laws it is somewhat difficult, I suppose, to obtain rum, and I +fear it would be still more difficult to administer it. I have concluded +instead to keep some hen sitting through the summer, and so have a +regular succession of young chickens. The growth of my little patient +was not arrested at a sufficiently early stage to secure his perpetual +good looks, and, as I intimated, he will never, probably, be the +Windship of his race; but he has found his appetite, he is free from +acute disease, he runs about with the rest, under-sized, but bright, +happy, and enterprising, and is therefore a well-spring of pleasure. +Indeed, in view of the fact that I have unquestionably saved his life, +we talk seriously of opening a _Hôtel des Invalides_, a kind of +Chicken's Home, that the benefits which he has received may be extended +to all his unfortunate brethren who stand in need. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[D] I say _sit_ out of regard to the proprieties of the occasion; but I +do not expose myself to ridicule by going about among the neighbors and +talking of a _sitting_ hen! Everywhere, but in the "Atlantic," hens +_set_. + + + + +HARPOCRATES. + + "The rest is silence."--HAMLET. + + + I. + + The message of the god I seek + In voice, in vision, or in dream,-- + Alike on frosty Dorian peak, + Or by the slow Arcadian stream: + Where'er the oracle is heard, + I bow the head and bend the knee; + In dream, in vision, or in word, + The sacred secret reaches me. + + II. + + Athwart the dim Trophonian caves, + Bat-like, the gloomy whisper flew; + The lisping plash of Paphian waves + Bathed every pulse in fiery dew: + From Phoebus, on his cloven hill, + A shaft of beauty pierced the air, + And oaks of gray Dodona still + Betrayed the Thunderer's presence there. + + III. + + The warmth of love, the grace of art, + The joys that breath and blood express, + The desperate forays of the heart + Into an unknown wilderness,-- + All these I know: but sterner needs + Demand the knowledge which must dower + The life that on achievement feeds, + The grand activity of power. + + IV. + + What each reveals the shadow throw + Of something unrevealed behind; + The Secret's lips forever close + To mock the secret undivined: + Thence late I come, in weary dreams + The son of Isis to implore, + Whose temple-front of granite gleams + Across the Desert's yellow floor. + + + V. + + Lo! where the sand, insatiate, drinks + The steady splendor of the air, + Crouched on her heavy paws, the Sphinx + Looks forth with old, unwearied stare! + Behind her, on the burning wall, + The long processions flash and glow: + The pillared shadows of the hall + Sleep with their lotus-crowns below. + + + VI. + + A square of dark beyond, the door + Breathes out the deep adytum's gloom: + I cross the court's deserted floor, + And stand within the awful room. + The priests repose from finished rite; + No echo rings from pavements trod; + And sits alone, in swarthy light, + The naked child, the temple's god. + + + VII. + + No sceptre, orb, or mystic toy + Proclaims his godship, young and warm: + He sits alone, a naked boy, + Clad in the beauty of his form. + Dark, solemn stars, of radiance mild, + His eyes illume the golden shade, + And sweetest lips that never smiled + The finger hushes, on them laid. + + + VIII. + + Oh, never yet in trance or dream + That falls when crowned desire has died, + So breathed the air of power supreme, + So breathed, and calmed, and satisfied! + Did then those mystic lips unclose, + Or that diviner silence make + A seeming voice? The flame arose, + The deity his message spake: + + + IX. + + "If me thou knowest, stretch thy hand + And my possessions thou shalt reach: + I grant no help, I break no band, + I sit above the gods that teach. + The latest-born, my realm includes + The old, the strong, the near, the far,-- + Serene beyond their changeful moods, + And fixed as Night's unmoving star. + + + X. + + "A child, I leave the dance of Earth + To be my hornèd mother's care: + My father Ammon's Bacchic mirth, + Delighting gods, I may not share. + I turn from Beauty, Love, and Power, + In singing vale, on laughing sea; + From Youth and Hope, and wait the hour + When weary Knowledge turns to me. + + + XI. + + "Beneath my hand the sacred springs + Of Man's mysterious being burst, + And Death within my shadow brings + The last of life, to greet the first. + There is no god, or grand or fair, + On Orcan or Olympian field, + But must to me his treasures bear, + His one peculiar secret yield. + + + XII. + + "I wear no garment, drop no shade + Before the eyes that all things see; + My worshippers, howe'er arrayed, + Come in their nakedness to me. + The forms of life like gilded towers + May soar, in air and sunshine drest,-- + The home of Passions and of Powers,-- + Yet mine the crypts whereon they rest. + + + XIII. + + "Embracing all, sustaining all, + Consoling with unuttered lore, + Who finds me in my voiceless hall + Shall need the oracles no more. + I am the knowledge that insures + Peace, after Thought's bewildering range; + I am the patience that endures; + I am the truth that cannot change!" + + + + +DELY'S COW. + + +I went down to the farm-yard one day last month, and as I opened the +gate I heard Pat Malony say, "Biddy! Biddy!" I thought at first he was +calling a hen, but then I remembered the hens were all shut into the +poultry-house that day, to be sorted, and numbered, and condemned: so I +looked again, thinking perhaps Pat's little lame sister had strayed up +from the village and gone into the barn after Sylvy's kittens, or a +pigeon-egg, or to see a new calf; but, to my surprise, I saw a red cow, +of no particular beauty or breed, coming out of the stable-door, looking +about her as if in search of somebody or something; and when Pat called +again, "Biddy! Biddy! Biddy!" the creature walked up to him across the +yard, stretched out her awkward neck, sniffed a little, and cropped from +his hand the wisp of rowen hay he held, as composedly as if she were a +tame kitten, and then followed him all round the yard for more, which I +am sorry to say she did not get. Pat had only displayed her +accomplishments to astonish me, and then shut her in her stall again. I +afterward hunted out Biddy's history, and here it is. + +On the Derby turnpike, just before you enter Hanerford, everybody that +ever travelled that road will remember Joseph German's bakery. It was a +red brick house, with dusty windows toward the street, and just inside +the door a little shop, where Mr. German retailed the scalloped cookies, +fluted gingerbread, long loaves of bread, and scantly filled pies, in +which he dealt, and which were manufactured in the long shop, where in +summer you caught glimpses of flour-barrels all a-row, and men who might +have come out of those barrels, so strewed with flour were all their +clothes,--paper-cap and white apron scarcely to be distinguished from +the rest of the dress, as far as color and dustiness went. Here, too, +when her father drove out the cart every afternoon, sitting in front of +the counter with her sewing or her knitting, Dely German, the baker's +pretty daughter, dealt out the cakes and rattled the pennies in her +apron-pocket with so good a grace, that not a young farmer came into +Hanerford with grain or potatoes or live stock, who did not cast a +glance in at the shop-door, going toward town, and go in on his return, +ostensibly to buy a sheet of gingerbread or a dozen cookies for his +refreshment on the drive homeward. It was a curious thing to see how +much hungrier they were on the way home than coming into town. Though +they might have had a good dinner in Hanerford, that never appeased +their appetites entirely, while in the morning they had driven their +slow teams all the way without so much as thinking of cakes and cheese! +So by the time Dely was seventeen, her black eyes and bright cheeks were +well known for miles about, and many a youth, going home to the clean +kitchen where his old mother sat by the fire knitting, or his spinster +sister scolded and scrubbed over his muddy boot-tracks, thought how +pretty it would look to see Dely German sitting on the other side, in +her neat calico frock and white apron, her black hair shining smooth, +and her fresh, bright face looking a welcome. + +But Dely did not think about any one of them in a reciprocal manner; she +liked them all pretty well, but she loved nobody except her father and +mother, her three cats and all their kittens, the big dog, the old +horse, and a wheezy robin that she kept in a cage, because her favorite +cat had half killed it one day, and it never could fly any more. For all +these dumb things she had a really intense affection: as for her father +and mother, she seemed to be a part of them; it never occurred to her +that they could leave her, or she them; and when old Joe German died one +summer day, just after Dely was seventeen, she was nearly distracted. +However, people who must work for their living have to get over their +sorrows, practically, much sooner than those who can afford time to +indulge them; and as Dely knew more about the business and the shop than +anybody but the foreman, she had to resume her place at the counter +before her father had been buried a week. It was a great source of +embarrassment to her rural admirers to see Dely in her black frock, pale +and sober, when they went in; they did not know what to say; they felt +as if their hands and feet had grown very big all at once, and as if the +cents in their pockets never could be got at, at which they turned red +and hot and got choked, and went away, swearing internally at their own +blundering shyness, and deeper smitten than ever with Dely, because they +wanted to comfort her so very much, and didn't know how! + +One, however, had the sense and simplicity to know how, and that was +George Adams, a fine healthy young fellow from Hartland Hollow, who came +in at least once a week with a load of produce from the farm on which he +was head man. The first time he went after his rations of gingerbread, +and found Dely in her mourning, he held out his hand and shook hers +heartily. Dely looked up into his honest blue eyes and saw them full of +pity. + +"I'm real sorry for you!" said George, "My father died two years ago." + +Dely burst into tears, and George couldn't help stroking her bright hair +softly and saying, "Oh, don't!" So she wiped her eyes, and sold him the +cookies he wanted; but from that day there was one of Dely's customers +that she liked best, one team of white horses she always looked out for, +and one voice that hurried the color into her face, if it was ever so +pale and the upshot of pity and produce and gingerbread was that George +Adams and Dely German were heartily in love with each other, and Dely +began to be comforted for her father's loss six months after he died. +Not that she knew why, or that George had ever said anything to her more +than was kind and friendly, but she felt a sense of rest, and yet a +sweet restlessness, when he was in her thoughts or presence, that +beguiled her grief and made her unintentionally happy: it was the old, +old story; the one eternal novelty that never loses its vitality, its +interest, its bewitching power, nor ever will till Time shall be no +more. + +But the year had not elapsed, devoted to double crape and triple +quillings, before Dely's mother, too, began to be consoled. She was a +pleasant, placid, feeble-natured woman, who liked her husband very well, +and fretted at him in a mild, persistent way a good deal. He swore and +chewed tobacco, which annoyed her; he also kept a tight grip of his +money, which was not pleasant; but she missed him very much when he +died, and cried and rocked, and said how afflicted she was, as much as +was necessary, even in the neighbors' opinion. But as time went on, she +found the business very hard to manage; even with Dely and the foreman +to help her, the ledger got all astray, and the day-book followed its +example; so when old Tom Kenyon, who kept the tavern half a mile farther +out, took to coming Sunday nights to see the "Widder German," and +finally proposed to share her troubles and carry on the bakery in a +matrimonial partnership, Mrs. German said she "guessed she would," and +announced to Dely on Monday morning that she was going to have a +step-father. Dely was astonished and indignant, but to no purpose. Mrs. +German cried and rocked, and rocked and cried again, rather more +saliently than when her husband died, but for all that she did not +retract; and in due time she got into the stage with her elderly lover +and went to Meriden, where they got married, and came home next day to +carry on the bakery. + +Joe German had been foolish enough to leave all his property to his +wife, and Dely had no resource but to stay at home and endure her +disagreeable position as well as she could, for Tom Kenyon swore and +chewed, and smoked beside; moreover, he drank,--not to real +drunkenness, but enough to make him cross and intractable; worse than +all, he had a son, the only child of his first marriage, and it soon +became unpleasantly evident to Dely that Steve Kenyon had a mind to +marry her, and his father had a mind he should. Now it is all very well +to marry a person one likes, but to go through that ceremony with one +you dislike is more than anybody has a right to require, in my opinion, +as well as Dely's; so when her mother urged upon her the various +advantages of the match, Steve Kenyon being the present master and +prospective owner of his father's tavern, a great resort for +horse-jockeys, cattle-dealers, and frequenters of State and County +fairs, Dely still objected to marry him. But the more she objected, the +more her mother talked, her step-father swore, and the swaggering lover +persisted in his attentions at all times, so that the poor girl had +scarce a half-hour to herself. She grew thin and pale and unhappy +enough; and one day George Adams, stepping in unexpectedly, found her +with her apron to her eyes, crying most bitterly. It took some +persuasion, and some more daring caresses than he had yet ventured on, +to get Dely's secret trouble to light. I am inclined to think George +kissed her at least once before she would tell him what she was crying +about; but Dely naturally came to the conclusion, that, if he loved her +enough to kiss her, and she loved him enough to like it, she might as +well share her troubles, and the consequence was, George asked her then +and there to share his. Not that either of them thought there would be +troubles under that copartnership, for the day was sufficient to them; +and it did not daunt Dely in the least to know that George's only +possessions were a heifer calf, a suit of clothes, and twenty dollars. + +About a month after this eventful day, Dely went into Hanerford on an +errand, she said; so did George Adams. They stepped into the minister's +together and were married; so Dely's errand was done, and she rode out +on the front seat of George's empty wagon, stopping at the bakery to +tell her mother and get her trunk: having wisely chosen a day for her +errand when her step-father had gone away after a load of flour down to +Hanerford wharves. Mrs. Kenyon went at once into wild hysterics, and +called Dely a jade-hopper, and an ungrateful child; but not +understanding the opprobrium of the one term, and not deserving the +other, the poor girl only cried a little, and helped George with her +trunk, which held all she could call her own in the world,--her clothes, +two or three cheap trinkets, and a few books. She kissed the cats all +round, hugged the dog, was glad her robin had died, and then said +good-bye to her mother, who refused to kiss her, and said George Adams +was a snake in the grass. This was too much for Dely; she wiped her +eyes, and clambered over the wagon-wheel, and took her place beside +George with a smile so much like crying that he began to whistle, and +never stopped for two miles. By that time they were in a piece of thick +pine woods, when, looking both before and behind to be certain no one +was coming, he put his arm round his wife and kissed her, which seemed +to have a consoling effect; and by the time they reached his mother's +little house, Dely was as bright as ever. + +A little bit of a house it was to bring a wife to, but it suited Dely. +It stood on the edge of a pine wood, where the fragrance of the resinous +boughs kept the air sweet and pure, and their leaves thrilled responsive +to every breeze. The house was very small and very red, it had two rooms +below and one above, but it was neater than many a five-story mansion, +and far more cheerful; and when Dely went in at the door, she thought +there could be no prettier sight than the exquisitely neat old woman +sitting in her arm-chair on one side of the fireplace, and her beautiful +cat on the other, purring and winking, while the tea-kettle sang and +sputtered over the bright fire of pine-cones, and the tea-table at the +other side of the room was spread with such clean linen and such shining +crockery that it made one hungry even to look at the brown bread and +butter and pink radishes that were Dely's wedding-supper. + +It is very odd how happy people can be, when they are as poor as +poverty, and don't know where to look for their living but to the work +of their own hands. Genteel poverty is horrible; it is impossible for +one to be poor, and elegant, and comfortable; but downright, simple, +unblushing poverty may be the most blessed of states; and though it was +somewhat of a descent in the social scale for Dely to marry a farm-hand, +foreman though he might be, she loved her George so devoutly and +healthily that she was as happy as a woman could be. George's mother, +the sweetest and tenderest mother to him, took his wife to a place +beside his in her heart, and the two women loved each other the more for +this man's sake; he was a bond between them, not a division; hard work +left them no thought of rankling jealousy to make their lives bitter, +and Dely was happier than ever she had thought she should be away from +her mother. Nor did the hard work hurt her; for she took to her own +share all of it that was out of doors and troublesome to the infirmities +of the old lady. She tended the calf in its little log hut, shook down +the coarse hay for its bed, made its gruel till it grew beyond gruel, +then drove it daily to the pasture where it fed, gave it extra rations +of bread and apple-parings and carrot-tops, till the creature knew her +voice and ran to her call like a pet kitten, rubbing its soft, wet nose +against her red cheek, and showing in a dozen blundering, calfish ways +that it both knew and loved her. + +There are two sorts of people in the world,--those who love animals, and +those who do not. I have seen them both, I have known both; and if sick +or oppressed, or borne down with dreadful sympathies for a groaning +nation in mortal struggle, I should go for aid, for pity, of the relief +of kindred feeling, to those I had seen touched with quick tenderness +for the lower creation,--who remember that "the whole creation +travaileth in pain together," and who learn God's own lesson of caring +for the fallen sparrow, and the ox that treadeth out the corn. With men +or women who despise animals and treat them as mere beasts and brutes I +never want to trust my weary heart or my aching head; but with Dely I +could have trusted both safely, and the calf and the cat agreed with me. + +So, in this happy, homely life, the sweet centre of her own bright +little world, Dely passed the first year of her wedded life, and then +the war came! Dreadful pivot of almost all our late lives! On it also +this rude idyl turned. George enlisted for the war. + +It was not in Dely or his mother to stop him. Though tears fell on every +round of his blue socks and sprinkled his flannel shirts +plentifully,--though the old woman's wan and wrinkled face paled and +saddened, and the young one's fair throat quivered with choking sobs +when they were alone,--still, whenever George appeared, he was greeted +with smiles and cheer, strengthened and steadied from this home armory +better than with sabre and bayonet, "with might in the inner man." +George was a brave fellow, no doubt, and would do good service to his +free country; but it is a question with me, whether, when the Lord calls +out his "noble army of martyrs" before the universe of men and angels, +that army will not be found officered and led by just such women as +these, who fought silently with the flesh and the Devil by their own +hearth, quickened by no stinging excitement of battle, no thrill of +splendid strength and fury in soul and body, no tempting delight of +honor or even recognition from their peers,--upheld only by the dull, +recurrent necessities of duty and love. + +At any rate, George went, and they stayed. The town made them an +allowance as a volunteer's family; they had George's bounty to begin +with; and a friendly boy from the farm near by came and sawed their +wood, took care of the garden, and, when Dely could not go to pasture +with the heifer, drove her to and fro daily. + +After George had been gone three months, Dely had a little baby. Tiny +and bright as it was, it seemed like a small star fallen down from some +upper sky to lighten their darkness. Dely was almost too happy; and the +old grandmother, fast slipping into that other world whence baby seemed +to have but newly arrived, stayed her feeble steps a little longer to +wait upon her son's child. Yet, for all the baby, Dely never forgot her +dumb loves. The cat had still its place on the foot of her bed; and her +first walk was to the barn, where the heifer lowed welcome to her +mistress, and rubbed her head against the hand that caressed her with as +much feeling as a cow can show, however much she may have. And Biddy, +the heifer, was a good friend to that little household, all through that +long ensuing winter. It went to Dely's heart to sell her first calf to +the butcher, but they could not raise it, and when it was taken away she +threw her check apron over her head, and buried her face deep in the +pillow, that she might not hear the cries of appeal and grief her +favorite uttered. After this, Biddy would let no one milk her but her +mistress; and many an inarticulate confidence passed between the two +while the sharp streams of milk spun and foamed into the pail below, as +Dely's skilful hands coaxed it down. + +They heard from George often: he was well, and busy with drill and camp +life,--not in active service as yet. Incidentally, too, Dely heard of +her mother. Old Kenyon was dead of apoplexy, and Steve like to die of +drink. This was a bit of teamster's gossip, but proved to be true. +Toward the end of the winter, old Mother Adams slept quietly in the +Lord. No pain or sickness grasped her, though she knew she was dying, +kissed and blessed Dely, sent a mother's message to George, and took the +baby for the last time into her arms; then she laid her head on the +pillow, smiled and drew a long breath,--no more. + +Poor Dely's life was very lonely; she buried her dead out of her sight, +wrote a loving, sobbing letter to George, and began to try to live +alone. Hard enough it was! March revenged itself on the past toleration +of winter; snow fell in blinding fury, and drifts hid the fences and +fenced the doors all through Hartland Hollow. Day after day Dely +struggled through the path to the barn to feed Biddy and milk her; and a +warm mess of bread and milk often formed her only meal in that bitter +weather. It is not credible to those who think no more of animals than +of chairs and stones how much society and solace they afford to those +who do love them, Biddy was really Dely's friend. Many a long day passed +when no human face but the baby's greeted her from dawn till dusk, But +the cow's beautiful purple eyes always turned to welcome her as she +entered its shed-door; her wet muzzle touched Dely's cheek with a velvet +caress; and while her mistress drew from the downy bag its white and +rich stores, Biddy would turn her head round, and eye her with such mild +looks, and breathe such fragrance toward her, that Dely, in her solitary +and friendless state, came to regard her as a real sentient being, +capable of love and sympathy, and had an affection for her that would +seem utter nonsense to half, perhaps three quarters, of the people in +this unsentimental world. Many a time did the lonely little woman lay +her head on Biddy's neck, and talk to her about George with sobs and +silences interspersed; and many a piece of dry bread steeped in warm +water, or golden carrot, or mess of stewed turnips and bran flavored the +dry hay that was the staple of the cow's diet. The cat was old now, and +objected to the baby so strenuously that Dely regarded her as partly +insane from age; and though she was kind to her of course, and fed her +faithfully, still a cat that could growl at George's baby was not +regarded with the same complacent kindness that had always blessed her +before; and whenever the baby was asleep at milking-time, Pussy was +locked into the closet,--a proceeding she resented. Biddy, on the +contrary, seemed to admire the child,--she certainly did not object to +her,--and necessarily obtained thereby a far higher place in Dely's +heart than the cat. + +As I have already said, Dely had heard of her step-father's death some +time before; and one stormy day, the last week in March, a team coming +from Hanerford with grain stopped at the door of the little red house, +and the driver handed Dely a dirty and ill-written letter from her +mother. Just such an epistle it was as might have been expected from +Mrs. Kenyon,--full of weak sorrow, and entreaties to Dely to come home +and live; she was old and tired, the bakery was coming to trouble for +want of a good manager, the foreman was a rogue, and the business +failing fast, and she wanted George and Dely there: evidently, she had +not heard, when the letter began, of George's departure or baby's birth; +but the latter half said, "Cum, anyway. I want to se the Baby. Ime an +old critur, a sinking into my graiv, and when george cums back from the +wars he must liv hear the rest off his life." + +Dely's tender heart was greatly stirred by the letter, yet she was +undecided what to do. Here she was alone and poor; there would be her +mother,--and she loved her mother, though she could not respect her; +there, too, was plenty for all; and if George should ever come home, the +bakery business was just the thing for him,--he had energy and courage +enough to redeem a sinking affair like that. But then what should she do +with the cow? Puss could go home with her; but Biddy?--there was no +place for Biddy. Pasture was scarce and dear about Hanerford; Dely's +father had given up keeping a cow long before his death for that reason; +but how could Dely leave and sell her faithful friend and companion? Her +heart sank at the thought; it almost turned the scale, for one pitiful +moment, against common-sense and filial feeling. But baby +coughed,--nothing more than a slight cold, yet Dely thought, as she had +often thought before, with a quick thrill of terror, What if baby were +ever sick? Seven miles between her and the nearest doctor; nobody to +send, nobody to leave baby with, and she herself utterly inexperienced +in the care of children. The matter was decided at once; and before the +driver who brought her mother's letter had come, on his next journey, +for the answer he had offered to carry, Dely's letter was written, +sealed, and put on the shelf, and she was busy contriving and piecing +out a warm hood and cloak for baby to ride in. + +But every time she went to the barn to milk Biddy or feed her, the tears +sprang to her eyes, and her mind misgave her. Never before had the +dainty bits of food been so plentiful for her pet, or her neck so +tenderly stroked. Dely had written to her mother that she would come to +her as soon as her affairs were settled, and she had spoken to Orrin +Nye, who brought the letter, to find a purchaser for her cow. +Grandfather Hollis, who bought Biddy, and in whose farm-yard I made her +acquaintance, gave me the drover's account of the matter, which will be +better in his words than mine. It seems he brought quite a herd of milch +cows down to Avondale, which is twenty miles from Hanerford, and hearing +that Grandfather wanted a couple of cows, he came to "trade with him," +as he expressed it. He had two beautiful Ayrshires in the lot,--clean +heads, shining skins, and good milkers,--that mightily pleased the old +gentleman's fancy; for he had long brooded over his favorite scheme of a +pure-blooded herd, and the red and white clouded Ayrshires showed +beautifully on his green hillside pastures, and were good stock besides. +But Aaron Stow insisted so pertinaciously that he should buy this red +cow, that the Squire shoved his hat back and put both his hands in his +pockets, a symptom of determination with him, and began to question him. +They fenced awhile, in true Yankee fashion, till at last Grandfather +became exasperated. + +"Look here, Aaron Stow!" said he, "what in thunder do you pester me so +about that cow for? She's a good enough beast, I see, for a native; but +those Ayrshires are better cows and better blood, and you know it. What +are you navigating round me for, so glib?" + +"Well, now, Squire," returned Aaron, whittling at the gate with sudden +vehemence, "fact is, I've set my mind on your buyin' that critter, an' +you jes' set down on that 'ere milkin'-stool an' I'll tell ye the rights +on 't, though I feel kinder meechin' myself, to be so soft about it as I +be." + +"Leave off shaving my new gate, then, and don't think I'm going to trust +a hundred and eighty-five solid flesh to a three-legged stool. I'm too +old for that. I'll sit on the step here. Now go ahead, man." + +So Grandfather sat down on the step, and Aaron turned his back against +the gate and kicked one boot on the other. He was not used to narration. + +"Well, you know we had a dreadful spell o' weather a month ago, Squire. +There ha'n't never been such a March in my day as this last; an' 't was +worse up our way 'n' 't was here, an' down to Hartland Holler was the +beat of all. Why, it snowed an' it blowed an' it friz till all Natur' +couldn't stan' it no more! Well, about them days I was down to Hartland +Centre a-buyin' some fat cattle for Hanerford market, an' I met Orrin +Nye drivin' his team pretty spry, for he see it was comin' on to snow; +but when he catched sight o' me, he stopped the horses an' hollered out +to me, so I stepped along an' asked what he wanted; an' he said there +was a woman down to the Holler that had a cow to sell, an' he knowed I +was apt to buy cow-critters along in the spring, so he'd spoke about it, +for she was kinder in a hurry to sell, for she was goin' to move. So I +said I'd see to 't, an' he driv along. I thought likely I should git it +cheap, ef she was in a hurry to sell, an' I concluded I'd go along next +day; 't wa'n't more 'n' seven mile from the Centre, down by a piece o' +piny woods, an' the woman was Miss Adams. I used ter know George Adams +quite a spell ago, an' he was a likely feller. Well, it come on to snow +jest as fine an' dry as sand, an' the wind blew like needles, an', come +next day, when I started to foot it down there, I didn't feel as though +I could ha' gone, ef I hadn't been sure of a good bargain; the snow +hadn't driv much, but the weather had settled down dreadful cold; 't was +dead still, an' the air sorter cut ye to breathe it; but I'm naterally +hardy, an' I kep' along till I got there. I didn't feel so all-fired +cold as I hev sometimes, but when I stepped in to the door, an' she +asked me to hev a cheer by the fire, fust I knew I didn't know nothin'; +I come to the floor like a felled ox. I expect I must ha' been nigh on +to dead with clear cold, for she was the best part o' ten minutes +bringin' on me to. She rubbed my hands an' face with camphire an' gin me +some hot tea; she hadn't got no sperits in the house, but she did +everything a little woman could do, an' I was warmed through an' through +afore long, an' we stepped out into the shed to look at the cow. + +"Well, Squire, I ha'n't got much natur' into me noway, an' it 's well I +ha'n't; but that cow beat all, I declare for 't! She put her head round +the minute Miss Adams come in; an' if ever you see a dumb beast pleased, +that 'ere cow was tickled to pieces. She put her nose down to the +woman's cheek, an' she licked her hands, an' she moved up agin' her an' +rubbed her ear on her,--she all but talked; an' when I looked round an' +see them black eyes o' Miss Adams's with wet in 'em, I 'most wished I +had a pocket-handkercher myself. + +"'You won't sell her to a hard master, will you?' says she. 'I want her +to go where she'll be well cared for, an' I shall know where she is; for +if ever things comes right agin, I want to hev her back. She's been half +my livin' an' all my company for quite a spell, an' I shall miss her +dreadfully.' + +"'Well,' says I, 'I'll take her down to Squire Hollis's in Avondale; +he's got a cow-barn good enough for a Representative to set in, an' +clean water, an' chains to halter 'em up with, an' a dry yard where the +water all dreens off as slick as can be, an' there a'n't such a piece o' +land nowhere round for root-crops; an' the Squire he sets such store by +his cows an' things, I've heerd tell he turned off two Irishmen for +abusin' on 'em; an' they has their bags washed an' their tails combed +every day in the year,--an' I don't know but what they ties 'em up with +a blew ribbin.'" + +"Get out!" growled Grandfather. + +"Can't, jest yet, Squire, not t'll I've done. Anyway, I figgered it off +to her, an' she was kinder consoled up to think on 't; for I told her I +thought likely you'd buy her cow, an' when we come to do the tradin' +part, why, con-found it! she wa'n't no more fit to buy an' sell a +critter than my three-year-old Hepsy. I said a piece back I ha'n't got +much natur', an' a man that trades dumb beasts the biggest part o' the +time hedn't oughter hev; but I swan to man! natur' was too much for me +this time; I couldn't no more ha' bought that cow cheap than I could ha' +sold my old gran'ther to a tin-peddler. Somehow, she was so innocent, +an' she felt so to part with the critter, an' then she let me know 't +George was in the army; an' thinks I, I guess I'll help the Gov'ment +along some; I can't fight, 'cause I'm subject to rheumatiz in my back, +but I can look out for them that can; so, take the hull on 't, long an' +broad, why, I up an' gin her seventy-five dollars for that cow,--an' I'd +ha' gin twenty more not to ha' seen Miss Adams's face a-lookin' arter me +an' her when we went away from the door. + +"So now, Squire, you can take her or leave her." + +Aaron Stow knew his man. Squire Hollis pulled out his pocket-book and +paid seventy-five dollars on the spot for a native cow called Biddy. + +"Now clear out with your Ayrshires!" said he, irascibly. "I'm a fool, +but I won't buy them, too." + +"Well, Squire, good day," said Aaron, with a grin. + +But I am credibly informed that the next week he did come back with the +two Ayrshires, and sold them to Grandfather, remarking to the farmer +that he "should ha' been a darned fool to take the old gentleman at his +word; for he never knowed a man hanker arter harnsome stock but what he +bought it, fust or last." + +Now I also discovered that the regiment George enlisted in was one whose +Colonel I knew well: so I wrote and asked about Sergeant Adams. My +report was highly honorable to George, but had some bad news in it: he +had been severely wounded in the right leg, and, though recovering, +would be disabled from further service. A fortnight after I drove into +Hanerford with Grandfather Hollis, and we stopped at the old bakery. It +looked exquisitely neat in the shop, as well as prosperous externally, +and Dely stood behind the counter with a lovely child in her arms. +Grandfather bought about half a bushel of crackers and cookies, while I +played with the baby. As he paid for them, he said in his kind old voice +that nobody can hear without pleasure,-- + +"I believe I have a pet of yours in my barn at Avondale, Mrs. Adams." + +Dely's eyes lighted up, and a quick flush of feeling glowed on her +pretty face. + +"Oh, Sir! you did buy Biddy, then? and you are Squire Hollis?" + +"Yes, Ma'am, and Biddy is well, and well cared for, as fat and sleek as +a mole, and still comes to her name." + +"Thank you kindly, Sir!" said Dely, with an emphasis that gave the +simple phrase most earnest meaning. + +"And how is your husband, Mrs. Adams?" said I. + +A deeper glow displaced the fading blush Grandfather had called out, and +her beautiful eyes flashed at me. + +"Quite well, I thank you, and not so very lame. And he's coming home +next week." + +She took the baby from me, as she spoke, and, looking in its bright +little face, said,-- + +"Call him, Baby!" + +"Pa-pa!" said the child. + +"If ever you come to Avondale, Mrs. Adams, come and see my cows," said +Grandfather, as he gathered up the reins. "You maybe sure I won't sell +Biddy to anybody but you." + +Dely smiled from the steps where she stood; and we drove away. + + + + +NEEDLE AND GARDEN. + +THE STORY OF A SEAMSTRESS WHO LAID DOWN HER NEEDLE AND BECAME A +STRAWBERRY-GIRL. + +WRITTEN BY HERSELF. + + +CHAPTER VI. + +I cannot tell why the price of everything we eat or drink or wear has so +much increased during the last year or two. I have heard many reasons +given, and have read of so many more, all differing, as to lead me to +suspect that no one really knows. Yet there is a general, broad +admission that it must in some way be owing to the war, for every one +knows that such enhancement did not previously exist. But among the +strange, the unaccountable, the utterly heartless facts of this eventful +crisis is the reduction of the wages of the sewing-woman, while the cost +of everything necessary to keep her alive is threefold greater than +before. The salaries of clerks have been raised, the wages of the +working-man increased, in some cases doubled, the labor of men in every +department of business is better paid, yet that of the sewing-woman is +reduced in price. + +The heartlessness of the fact is equalled only by its strangeness. Every +article of clothing which the sewing-woman makes commands a higher price +than formerly, yet she receives much less for her work than when it sold +for a lower one. And while thus meagrely paid, there has been a demand +for the labor of her hands so urgent that the like was never seen among +us. A customer, in the person of the Government, came into the market +and created a demand for clothing, that swept every factory clear of its +accumulated stock, and bound the proprietors in contracts for more, +which required them to run night and day. All this unexampled product +was to be made up into tents, accoutrements, and army-clothing, and +principally by women. One would suppose, that, with so unusual a call +for female labor, there would be an increase of female wages. It was so +in the case of those who fabricated cannon, muskets, powder, and all +other articles which a government consumes in time of war, and which men +produce: they demanded higher wages for their work, and obtained them: +the increase showing itself to the buyer in the enhanced price of the +article. + +This enhancement became contagious: it spread to everything,--doubling +and trebling the price of whatever the community required, except the +single item of the sewing-woman's labor. Had the price of this remained +even stationary, it would have excited surprise; but that her wages +should be cut down at a time when everybody's else went up excited +astonishment among such as became aware of it, while the reduction +coming contemporaneously with an unprecedented rise in the price of all +the necessaries of life overwhelmed this deserving class with +indescribable misery. Multitudes of them gave up the commonest articles +of food,--coffee, tea, butter, and sugar,--and others dispensed even +with many of the actual necessaries. How could they eat butter at sixty +cents a pound, when earning only fifteen cents a day? + +Finally the reduction of sewing-women's wages became so shamefully great +as to raise a wailing cry from these poor victims of cupidity, which +attracted public attention. It was shown that as the price of food rose, +their wages went down. In 1861 the sewing-woman received seventeen and a +half cents for making a shirt, sugar being then thirteen cents a pound; +but in 1864, when sugar was up to thirty cents, the price for making a +shirt had been ground down to eight cents! It was nearly the same with +all other articles of her work, as the following list of cruel +reductions in the prices paid at our arsenal and by contractors will +show. + + +COMPARISON OF PRICES FOR 1861 AND 1864. + + _Arsenal._ _Arsenal._ _Contractors._ + 1861. 1864. 1864. + Shirts, 17-1/2 15 8 + Drawers, 12-1/2 10 7 @ 8 + Infantry Pantaloons, 42-1/2 27 17 @ 20 + Cavalry Pantaloons, 60 50 28 @ 30 + Lined Blouses, 45 40 20 + Unlined Blouses, 40 35 15 @ 20 + Cavalry Jackets, 1.12-1/2 1.00 75 @ 80 + Overalls, 25 20 8 + Bed Sacks, 20 20 7 + Covering Canteens, 4 2-1/2 -- + +Here was a state of things wholly without parallel in our previous +social history. On such wages women could not exist; they were the +strongest and surest temptation to the abandonment of a virtuous course +of life. Labor was here evidently cheated of its just reward. The +Government gave out the work by contract at the prices indicated in the +first two columns, and the contractors put it out among the sewing-women +at the inhuman rates set down in the third column. In this wrong the +Government participated; for it reduced its prices to the sewing-women, +while it was constantly increasing those it paid to every other class of +work-people. Even the freedmen on the sea-islands or in the contraband +camps made better wages,--while the liberated negro washer-woman, who +had never been paid wages during a life of sixty years, was suddenly +elevated to a position about the camps which enabled her to earn more, +every day, than thousands of intelligent and exemplary needle-women in +Philadelphia. + +An extraordinary feature of the case was, that, while there was probably +four times as much sewing to be done, there were at least ten times as +many women to do it as before. The condition of things showed that this +must be the fact, because, though the work to be given out was enormous +in amount, yet there was a crowd and pressure to obtain it which was +even greater. I saw this myself on more than one occasion. + +While congratulating ourselves that our women have not yet been degraded +to working at coal-mining, dressed in men's attire, or at gathering up +manure in the streets of a great city, we may be sure, that, if, in this +emergency, they were saved from actual starvation, it was not through +any generous, spontaneous outpouring of that sympathy whose fountain is +in the bottom of men's pockets. They pined, and worked, and saved +themselves. + +At last they met together in public, common sufferers under a common +calamity, interchanged their experiences, and mingled their tears. If +the personal history of the pupils in my sewing-school was diversified, +in this assembly the domestic experience of each individual was in +mournful harmony with that of all. The great majority were wives of +soldiers who had gone forth to uphold the flag of our country. Hundreds +of them were clad in mourning,--their husbands had died in +battle,--their remittances of pay had ceased,--their dependence had been +suddenly cut off,--and they were thus thrown back upon the needle, which +they had laid down on getting married. Oh, how many hollow cheeks and +attenuated figures were to be seen in that sad meeting of working-women! +There was the dull eye, the pinched-up face, which betokened absolute +deprivation of necessary food,--yet withal, the careful adjustment of a +faded shawl or dress, the honest pride, even in the depth of misery, to +be at least decent, after the effort to preserve the old gentility had +been found vain. + +It was the extraordinary number of the wives and daughters of the killed +and wounded in battle, who, suddenly added to the standing army of +sewing-women, had glutted the labor-market of the city, and whose +impatient necessity for employment had enabled heartless contractors to +cut down the making of a shirt to eight cents. I remember, when the +first rumor of the first battle reached our city, how the news-resorts +were thronged by these women to know whether they had been made widows +or not,--how the crowd pressed up to and surged around the placards +containing the lists of killed and wounded,--how those away off from +these centres of early intelligence waited feverishly for the morning +paper to tell them whether they were to be miserable or happy. I +remember, too, how, as the bloody contest went on, this impatient +anxiety died out,--use seemed to have made their condition a sort of +second nature,--they kept at home, hopeful, but resigned. Alas! how +many, in the end, needed all the resignation that God mercifully extends +to the stricken deer of the great human family! + +They came together on the occasion referred to to compare grievances, +and devise whatever poor remedy might be found to be in the power of a +body of friendless needle-women. The straits to which many of these +deserving widows had been reduced were awful. The rich men of my native +city may hang their heads in shame over the recital of sufferings at +their very door. No generous movement had been made by any of them in +mitigation. + +One widow, taking out shirts at the arsenal, earned two dollars and +forty cents in two weeks, but was denied permission to take them in when +done, though urgently needing her pay, being told that she would be +making too much money. Another made vests with ten button-holes and +three pockets for fifteen cents, furnishing her own cotton at twenty +cents a spool. A third, whose husband was then in the army, found the +price of infantry-pantaloons reduced from forty-two to twenty-seven +cents,--reduced by the Government itself,--but she made eight pair a +week, took care of five children, and was always on the verge of +starvation. She declared, that, if it were not for her children, she +would gladly lie down and die! A fourth worked for contractors on +overalls at five cents a pair! Having the aid of a sewing-machine, she +made six pair daily, but was the object of insult and abuse from her +employer. + +The widow of a brave man who gave up his life at Fredericksburg worked +for the Government, and made eight pair of pantaloons a week, receiving +two dollars and sixteen cents for the uninterrupted labor of six days of +eighteen hours each. Another made thirteen pair of drawers for a dollar, +and by working early and late could sometimes earn two dollars in the +week. The wife of another soldier, still fighting to uphold the flag, +worked on great-coats for the contractors at thirty cents each, and +earned eighty cents a week, keeping herself and three children on that! +A wounded hero came home to die, and did so, after lingering six months +dependent on his wife. With six children, she could earn only two +dollars and a quarter a week, though working incessantly. She did +contrive to feed them, but they went barefoot all winter. + +An aged woman worked on tents, making in each tent forty-six +button-holes, sewing on forty-six buttons, then buttoning them together, +then making twenty eyelet-holes,--all for sixteen cents. After working a +whole day without tasting food, she took in her work just five minutes +after the hour for receiving and paying for the week's labor. She was +told there was no more work for her. Then she asked them to pay her for +what she had just delivered, but was refused. She told them she was +without a cent, and that, if forced to wait till another pay-day, she +must starve. The reply was, "Starve and be d----d! That is none of my +business. We have our rules, and shall not break them for any ----." + +A soldier's wife had bought coal by the bucketful all winter, at the +rate of sixteen dollars a ton, and worked on flannel shirts at a dollar +and thirty cents a dozen. She was never able to eat a full meal, and +many times went to bed hungry. A tailor gave to another sewing-woman a +lot of pantaloons to make up. The cloth being rotten, the stitches of +one pair tore out, but by exercising great care she succeeded in getting +the others made up. When she took them in, he accused her of having +ruined them, and refused to pay her anything. She threatened suit, +whereupon he told her to "sue and be d----d," and finally offered a +shilling a pair, which her necessities forced her to accept. Another +needle-woman worked on hat-leathers at two and a half cents a dozen. She +found her own silk and cotton, and put upwards of five thousand stitches +into the dozen leathers. How could such a slave exist? Her four children +and herself breakfasted on bread and molasses, with malt coffee +sweetened with molasses. They dined on potatoes, and made a quarter peck +serve for three meals! + +So much for the mercy of the Government and the conduct of the trade. +Now for the doings of those who claimed to belong to the religious +class. One public praying man paid less than any other contractor, and +frequently allowed his hands to go unpaid for two or three weeks +together. Another would give only a dollar for making thirteen shirts +and drawers, of which a woman could finish but three in a day. One of +those in his employ, becoming weary of such low pay, applied for work at +another tailor's. There she found the inspector cursing an aged woman. +When solicited for work, he told the applicant to "clear out and be +d----d; he didn't want to see anything in bonnet or hoops again that +day." + +What but fallen women must some of the subjects of such atrocious +treatment become? It was ascertained from a letter sent by one of this +class, that she had given way under the pressure of starvation. She +said,-- + +"I was once an innocent girl, the daughter of a clergyman. Left an +orphan at an early age, I tried hard to make a living, but, unable to +endure the hard labor and live upon the poor pay I received, I fell into +sin. Tell your public that thousands like me have been driven by want to +crime. Tell them, that, though it is well to save human souls from +pollution, it is better that they shall be kept pure, and know no +shame." + +Another confessed as much; but how many more were driven to the same +alternative, who remained mute under their shame, no one can tell. Yet +the men who thus drove virtuous women to despair were amassing large +fortunes. Their names appeared in the newspapers as liberal contributors +to every public charity that was started,--to sanitary fairs, to +women's-aid societies, to the sick and wounded soldiers, to everything +that would be likely to bring their names into print. They figured as +respectable and spirited citizens. Of all men they were supremely loyal. +Loyal to what? Not to the cause of poor famishing women, but to their +own interest. Some of them were church-members, famous as class-leaders +and exhorters, powerful in prayer, especially when made in public, +counterparts of the Pharisees of old. Their wives and daughters wore +silk dresses, hundred-dollar shawls, and had boxes at the opera. + +What would have been said of this unheard-of robbery by the men who won +victories at Gettysburg and Atlanta, had they known that it was +committed on the wives and mothers whom they had left behind? These +women gave up husbands and sons to fight the battles of the nation, +never dreaming that those who remained at home to make fortunes would +seek to do so by starving them. They considered the first sacrifice +great enough; but here was another. Who but they can describe how +terrible it was? + +On this subject employers have generally remained silent, offering few +rebuttals to these charges of cruelty, extortion, and robbery. The +sewing-women and their friends have remonstrated, but the oppressors +have rarely condescended to reply. Even those of the same sex, who have +large establishments and employ numbers of women, have seldom done so. +This silence has been significant of inability, an admission of the +facts alleged. + +Philanthropy has not been idle, however, while these impositions on +sewing-women have been practised. Numerous plans for preventing them, +and for otherwise improving the condition of the sex, have been +proposed, some of which have been put into successful operation,--the +object sought for being to diversify employment by opening other +occupations than that of the needle. It is a settled truism, that the +measure of civilization in a nation is the condition of its women. While +heathen and savage, they are drudges; when enlightened by education and +moulded by Christianity, they rise to the highest plane of humanity. +When a Neapolitan woman gave birth to a girl, it was, until very +recently, the custom of the poorer classes to display a black flag from +an upper window of the house, to avoid the unpleasant necessity of +informing inquirers of the sex of the infant. Even at the birth of a +child in the higher ranks, the midwife and physician who are in +attendance never announce to the anxious mother the sex of the newly +born, if a girl, until pressed to disclose it, because a female child is +never welcome. + +It is much the fashion of the times to say that the sphere of woman is +exclusively within the domestic circle. It is highly probable that the +great majority desire no wider range; but even in the obscure quietude +of that circle they are subject to a thousand chances. We see what kind +of husbands many women obtain,--and that even the most deserving are at +times overtaken by sickness or poverty, and then are left with no +certain means of living. Poets and novelists may limit their destiny to +that of being beautiful and charming, but the wise and considerate have +long since seen that some comprehensive improvement in their condition +is needed. Their resources must be enlarged and made available. It will +increase their self-respect, and make them spurn dependence on the +charity of friends. I am inclined to think that all true women are +working-women,--at least they would be such, if they could obtain the +proper employment. American girls cannot all become house-servants, +and few of them are willing to be such. Their aspirations are +evidently higher. They have sought the factory, the bindery, the +printing-office,--thus graduating, by force of their own inherent +aptitude for better things, to a higher and more intellectual +occupation, leaving the Irish and Germans in undisputed possession of +the kitchen. + +A volume has been printed, giving a list of employments suitable for +women, but meagre in practical suggestions how to secure them. It was +thought that the war would bring about a brisk demand for female labor, +as great armies cannot be collected without causing a corresponding +drain from many occupations into which women would thus find admission. +But the melancholy facts already recited show how fallacious the idea +is, that war can be in any way a blessing to the sex. If some have been +employed in consequence, multitudes who had been previously supported by +their husbands have been compelled to beg for work. The war has +everywhere brought poverty and grief to the humbler classes of American +women. + +It is true that in the West, where the foreign population is large, the +German women go into the fields, and plough, and sow, and reap, and +harvest, with all the skill and activity of the men. It is equally true +of other sections of our country, in which no harvests would be +gathered, but for female help. But these are exceptional cases; and +these women can live without working on shirts at five to eight cents +apiece. + +While the distress was greatest in our city, some one advertised for two +men, to be employed in a millinery establishment, who were acquainted +with trimmings, and before the day had passed, sixty applicants had +presented themselves for the situation: the men had not become scarcer. +Another shop, which advertised for three girls, at a dollar and a half a +week, "intelligent, genteel girls," as the advertisement read, was so +overrun before night with applications for even that pitiful +compensation, that the proprietor lost his temper under the annoyance, +and drove many away with insult and abuse. If the war gives employment +to women in the fields, it affords an insufficient amount of it in the +cities. + +There are more female beggars in our streets, with infants in their +arms, than ever before. The saloons and beer-shops, stripped of their +male bar-tenders, have adopted female substitutes, driven by necessity +to take up with an employment that always demoralizes a woman. The +surgical records of the army show, that, among the wounded brought into +the hospitals, many women have thus been discovered as soldiers. Others +have been detected and sent home, Many of these heroines declared that +they entered the army because they could find no other employment. The +incognito they had preserved was strongly confirmatory of their +truthfulness. These are some of the minor effects of the war upon our +sex. Many have been sadly demoralizing, while probably very few have +been in any way beneficial. + +It is one of the curiosities of the study how to improve the condition +of women, that the most eccentric plans have originated with their own +sex. The deportation of girls from England to Australia and other +colonies, where the majority of settlers are single men, is patronized +and presided over by ladies. It has been so extensive as to confer the +utmost benefit on distant settlements, equalizing the disparity of the +sexes, promoting a higher civilization by a proper infusion of female +society, and providing homes for thousands of virtuous, but friendless +and dependent girls, who had found the utmost difficulty in obtaining +even a precarious living. The exodus of American girls from New England +to California, as teachers first and wives afterwards, which some years +ago took place, originated with an American lady, who personally +superintended the enterprise. All through the West there are families +whose mothers are of the same enterprising class, while the South is not +without its representatives. There is a tribe of writers whose study it +is to ridicule and sneer at these humane and truly noble efforts to make +dependent women comfortable; but happily their sarcasm has been +unavailing. + +I knew a young girl who was without a single relation in the world, so +far as she was aware. She had been picked up from a curb-stone in the +street, at the foot of a lamp-post, when perhaps only a week old,--her +mother having abandoned her to the charity of the first passer. She was +found by the watchman on his midnight beat, who, having no children, +adopted her as his own. One may feel surprised that foundlings are so +frequently adopted into respectable families, especially when infants of +only a few weeks old. But there are solitary couples whose hearts +instinctively yearn for the possession of children. Providence having +denied them offspring, they fill the void in their affections by taking +to their bosoms the helpless, friendless, and abandoned waifs of others. +Foundlings are preferred, because there is no chance of their +reclamation; the mother never troubles herself to demand possession of +her child; she may remember it, but it is only to rejoice at having cast +it off. The new parents are not annoyed by outside interference. The +foundling grows in their affections; they love it as they would their +own offspring; it cannot be torn away from them. + +When only ten years of age, the protectors of the child referred to both +died, and she was turned loose to shift for herself. For three years she +underwent all the hardships incident to changing one bad mistress for +another, being poorly clothed, half fed, her education discontinued, +even the privilege of the Sunday school denied her, a total stranger to +kindness or sympathy. + +An agent of a children's-aid society one day saw her washing the +pavement in front of her mistress's house, and being struck by her +shabby dress and evidently uncared-for condition, accosted her and +ascertained the principal facts of her little history. She was of just +the class whom it was the mission of the society to save from the +destitution and danger of a totally friendless position, by sending them +to good homes in the West. Thither she went, liberated from an +uncompensated bondage to the scrubbing-brush and washtub, and was +ushered into a new and joyous existence by the agency of one of the +noblest charities that Christian benevolence ever put it into the human +heart to extend to orphan children. The foundling of the lamp-post, thus +having an opening made for her, improved it and prospered. Out of the +atmosphere of city life, she grew up virtuous and respected. Her true +origin had been charitably concealed; she was known as an orphan; it +would have done no good to have it said that she was a foundling. She +married well, and became the mother of a family. + +Hundreds of street-tramping orphan girls, with surroundings more +unfriendly to female purity than those of this foundling, have been +taken from the lowest haunts of a shocking city-life by the same noble +charity, and introduced into peaceful country homes, where they have +grown up to be respectable members of society. In this emigration effort +women have been conspicuous actors. In England they have been equally +prominent in promoting the emigration of nearly half a million of +unmarried females to the various colonies. They publish books, and +pamphlets, and magazines, and newspapers, in advocacy of the movement. +Educated and intellectual ladies leave wealthy homes and accompany their +emigrants on voyages of thousands of miles, to see that they are +comfortably cared for. + +It would seem that in the ordering of Divine Providence there will +always be a multitude of women who do not marry. It is shown by the +census of every country in which the population is numbered +periodically, that there is an excess of females. In England there are +thirty women in every hundred who never marry, and there are three +millions who earn their own living. It is there contended that all +effort is improper which is directed toward making celibacy easy for +women, and that marriage, their only true vocation, should be promoted +at any cost, even at that of distributing through the colonies England's +half million of unmarried ones. Some declare that it is impossible to +make the labor of single women remunerative, or their lives free and +happy. But if the occupations of women were raised and diversified as +much as they might be, such impossibility would of itself be impossible. +If it is to be granted that a woman possesses only inferior powers, let +her be taught to use such powers as she has. + +I doubt not that He who created woman has some mission, some purpose, +for those who, in His divine ordering, remain single. There is a church +which has taken note of this great fact, and devotes its single women to +cloisters or to hospitals, sometimes to useful objects, sometimes to +improper ones,--but seeing that they are a numerous class, it has +specifically appropriated them. I presume the lesson of a single life, +the necessity of living alone, must be a difficult one to learn. The +heart, the young heart always, is perpetually seeking for something to +love. Amid the duties of the household, around the domestic fireside, +this loving spirit has room for growth, expansion, and intensity. The +soft tendrils which it is ever throwing out find gentle objects to which +they may cling with indissoluble attachment. Solitude is fatal to the +household affections. The single woman lives in a comparative +solitude,--a solitude of the heart. + +Yet it cannot be denied that even such hermitesses find compensations in +their retirement. If one resolve to remain single,--and it must require +strength of mind to come to this determination,--it is remarkable how +Nature fits such a woman for a position for which she could not have +been created. She takes her stand with a power of endurance not exceeded +by that of the other sex, and becomes more independent and at ease than +they. Let man's condition be what it may, whether rich or poor, he will +find his home cheerless and uncomfortable without the presence of a +woman. His desolateness at an hotel or boarding-house is proverbial. He +is unceasingly conscious that he has no home. But the single woman can +create one for herself. + +Go into the cells of any prison for women, and those who never visited +such abodes will be astonished at the neatness, the order, the +embellishments, which many of them display. The home feeling that seems +to be natural to most of us develops itself here with affecting energy. +No man could surround his penitential cell with graces so profuse and +pleasing as do some of these unfortunate women. + +Thus, go where a woman may, a native instinct teaches and qualifies her +to make a home for herself. If single, taste and housewifery are +combined within even the narrow limits of one or two rooms. Her +singleness need not chill the heart,--for there are other things to love +than men. The power to make tender friendships was born with her, and is +part of her nature; nor does it leave her now. She has, moreover, the +proud satisfaction of knowing that she has never lived to tempt others +to an act of sin and shame. But are the men who live equally solitary +lives as guiltless as she? + + + + +GOING TO SLEEP. + + + I. + + The light is fading down the sky, + The shadows grow and multiply, + I hear the thrushes' evening song; + But I have borne with toil and wrong + So long, so long! + Dim dreams my drowsy senses drown,-- + So, darling, kiss my eyelids down! + + + II. + + My life's brief spring went wasted by,-- + My summer ended fruitlessly; + I learned to hunger, strive, and wait,-- + I found you, love,--oh, happy fate!-- + So late, so late! + Now all my fields are turning brown,-- + So, darling, kiss my eyelids down! + + + III. + + Oh, blessed sleep! oh, perfect rest! + Thus pillowed on your faithful breast, + Nor life nor death is wholly drear, + O tender heart, since you are here, + So dear, so dear! + Sweet love, my soul's sufficient crown! + Now, darling, kiss my eyelids down! + + + + +DOCTOR JOHNS. + + +XX. + +Miss Johns meets the new-comer with as large a share of kindness as she +can force into her manner; but her welcome lacks, somehow, the +sympathetic glow to which Adèle has been used; it has not even the +spontaneity and heartiness which had belonged to the greeting of that +worldly woman, Mrs. Brindlock. And as the wondering little stranger +passes up the path, and into the door of the parsonage, with her hand in +that of the spinster, she cannot help contrasting the one cold kiss of +the tall lady in black with the shower of warm ones which her old +godmother had bestowed at parting. Yet in the eye of the Doctor sister +Eliza had hardly ever worn a more beaming look, and he was duly grateful +for the strong interest which she evidently showed in the child of his +poor friend. She had equipped herself indeed in her best silk and with +her most elaborate toilet, and had exhausted all her strategy,--whether +in respect of dress, of decorations for the chamber, or of the profuse +supper which was in course of preparation,--to make a profound and +favorable impression upon the heart of the stranger. + +The spinster was not a little mortified at her evident want of success, +most notably in respect to the elaborate arrangements of the chamber of +the young guest, who seemed to regard the dainty hangings of the little +bed, and the scattered ornaments, as matters of course; but making her +way to the window which commanded a view of both garden and orchard, +Adèle clapped her hands with glee at sight of the flaming hollyhocks and +the trees laden with golden pippins. It was, indeed, a pretty scene: +silvery traces of the brook sparkled in the green meadow below the +orchard, and the hills beyond were checkered by the fields of buckwheat +in broad patches of white bloom, and these again were skirted by masses +of luxuriant wood that crowned all the heights. To the eye of Adèle, +used only to the bare hill-sides and scanty olive-orchards of +Marseilles, the view was marvellously fair. + +"_Tiens!_ there are chickens and doves," said she, still gazing eagerly +out; "oh, I am sure I shall love this new home!" + +And thus saying, she tripped back from the window to where Miss Eliza +was admiringly intent upon the unpacking and arranging of the little +wardrobe of her guest. Adèle, in the flush of her joyful expectations +from the scene that had burst upon her out of doors, now prattled more +freely with the spinster,--tossing out the folds of her dresses, as they +successively came to light, with her dainty fingers, and giving some +quick, girlish judgment upon each. + +"This godmother gave me, dear, good soul!--and she sewed this bow upon +it; isn't it coquette? And there is the white muslin,--oh, how +crushed!--that was for my church-dress, first communion, you know; but +papa said, 'Better wait,'--so I never wore it." + +Thus woman and child grew into easy acquaintance over the great trunk of +Adèle: the latter plunging her little hands among the silken folds of +dress after dress with the careless air of one whose every wish had been +petted; and the spinster forecasting the pride she would herself take in +accompanying this little sprite, in these French robes, to the house of +her good friends, the Hapgoods, or in exciting the wonderment of those +most excellent people, the Tourtelots. + +Meantime Reuben, with a resolute show of boyish indifference, has been +straying off with Phil Elderkin, although he has caught a glimpse of the +carriage at the door. Later he makes his way into the study, where the +Doctor, after giving him kindly reproof for not being at home to welcome +them, urges upon him the duty of kindness to the young stranger who has +come to make her home with them, and trusts that Providence may overrule +her presence there to the improvement and blessing of both. It is, in +fact, a little lecture which the good, but prosy Doctor pronounces to +the boy; from which he slipping away, so soon as a good gap occurs in +the discourse, strolls with a jaunty affectation of carelessness into +the parlor. His Aunt Eliza is there now seated at the table, and Adèle +standing by the hearth, on which a little fire has just been kindled. +She gives a quick, eager look at him, under which his assumed +carelessness vanishes in an instant. + +"This is Adèle, our little French guest, Reuben." + +The lad throws a quick, searching glance upon her, but is abashed by the +look of half-confidence and half-merriment that he sees twinkling in her +eye. The boy's awkwardness seems to infect her, too, for a moment. + +"I should think, Reuben, you would welcome Adèle to the parsonage," said +the spinster. + +And Reuben, glancing again from under his brow, sidles along the table, +with far less of ease than he had worn when he came whistling through +the hall,--sidles nearer and nearer, till she, with a coy approach that +seems to be full of doubt, meets him with a little furtive hand-shake. +Then he, retiring a step, leans with one elbow on the friendly table, +eying her curiously, and more boldly when he discovers that her look is +downcast, and that she seems to be warming her feet at the blaze. + +Miss Johns has watched narrowly this approach of her two _protégés_, +with an interest quite uncommon to her; and now, with a policy that +would have honored a more adroit tactician, she slips quietly from the +room. + +Reuben feels freer at this, knowing that the gray eye is not upon the +watch; Adèle too, perhaps; at any rate, she lifts her face with a look +that invites Reuben to speech. + +"You came in a ship, didn't you?" + +"Oh, yes! a big, big ship!" + +"I should like to sail in a ship," said Reuben; "did you like it?" + +"Not very much," said Adèle, "the deck was so slippery, and the waves +were so high, oh, so high!"--and the little maid makes an explanatory +gesture with her two hands, the like of which for grace and +expressiveness Reuben had certainly never seen in any girl of Ashfield. +His eyes twinkled at it. + +"Were you afraid?" said he. + +"Oh, not much." + +"Because you know," said Reuben, consolingly, "if the ship had sunk, you +could have come on shore in the small boats." He saw a merry laugh of +wonderment threatening in her face, and continued authoritatively, "Nat +Boody has been in a sloop, and he says they always carry small boats to +pick up people when the big ships go down." + +Adèle laughed outright. "But how would they carry the bread, and the +stove, and the water, and the anchor, and all the things? Besides, the +great waves would knock a small boat in pieces." + +Reuben felt a humiliating sense of being no match for the little +stranger on sea topics, so he changed the theme. + +"Are you going to Miss Onthank's?" + +"_That's_ a funny name," says Adèle; "that's the school, isn't it? Yes, +I suppose I'll go there: you go, don't you?" + +"Yes," says Reuben, "but I don't think I'll go very long." + +"Why not?" says Adèle. + +"I'm getting too big to go to a girls' school," said Reuben. + +"Oh!"--and there was a little playful malice in the girl's observation +that piqued the boy. + +"Do the scholars like her?" continued Adèle. + +"Pretty well," said Reuben; "but she hung up a little girl about as big +as you, once, upon a nail in a corner of the school-room." + +"_Quelle bête!_" exclaimed Adèle. + +"That's French, isn't it?" + +"Yes, and it means she's a bad woman to do such things." + +In this way they prattled on, and grew into a certain familiarity: the +boy entertaining an immense respect for her French, and for her +knowledge of the sea and ships; but stubbornly determined to maintain +the superiority which he thought justly to belong to his superior age +and sex. + +That evening, after the little people were asleep, the spinster and the +Doctor conferred together in regard to Adèle. It was agreed between them +that she should enter at once upon her school duties, and that +particular inquiry concerning her religious beliefs, particular +instruction on that score,--further than what belonged to the judicious +system of Miss Onthank,--should be deferred for the present. At the same +time the Doctor enjoined upon his sister the propriety of commencing +upon the next Saturday evening the usual instructions in the Shorter +Catechism, and of insisting upon punctual attendance upon the family +devotions. The good Doctor hoped by these appointed means gradually to +ripen the religious sensibilities of the little stranger, so that she +might be prepared for that stern denunciation of those follies of the +Romish Church amid which she had been educated, and that it would be his +duty at no distant day to declare to her. + +The spinster had been so captivated by a certain air of modish elegance +in Adèle as to lead her almost to forget the weightier obligations of +her Christian duty toward her. She conceived that she would find in her +a means of recovering some influence over Reuben,--never doubting that +the boy would be attracted by her frolicsome humor, and would be eager +for her companionship. It was possible, moreover, that there might be +some appeal to the boy's jealousies, when he found the favors which he +had spurned were lavished upon Adèle. It was therefore in the best of +temper and with the airiest of hopes (though not altogether spiritual +ones) that Miss Eliza conducted the discussion with the Doctor. In two +things only they had differed, and in this each had gained and each lost +a point. The Doctor utterly refused to conform his pronunciation to the +rigors which Miss Eliza prescribed; for him Adèle should be always and +only Adaly. On the other hand, the parson's exactions in regard to +sundry modifications of the little girl's dress miscarried: the spinster +insisted upon all the furbelows as they had come from the hands of the +French modiste; and in this she left the field with flying colors. + +The next day Doctor Johns wrote to his friend Maverick, announcing the +safe arrival of his child at Ashfield, and spoke in terms which were +warm for him, of the interest which both his sister and himself felt in +her welfare. "He was pained," he said, "to perceive that she spoke +almost with gayety of serious things, and feared greatly that her keen +relish for the beauties and delights of this sinful world, and her +exuberant enjoyment of mere temporal blessings, would make it hard to +wean her from them and to centre her desires upon the eternal world. +But, my friend, all things are possible with God: and I shall diligently +pray that she may return to you, in a few years, sobered in mind, and a +self-denying missionary of the true faith." + + +XXI. + +No such event could take place in Ashfield as the arrival of this young +stranger at the parsonage, without exciting a world of talk up and down +the street. There were stories that she came of a vile Popish family, +and there were those who gravely believed that the poor little creature +had made only a hair-breadth escape from the thongs of the Inquisition. +There were few even of those who knew that she was the daughter of a +wealthy gentleman, now domiciled in France, and an old friend of the +Doctor's, who did not look upon her with a tender interest, as one +miraculously snatched by the hands of the good Doctor from the snares of +perdition. The gay trappings of silks and ribbons in which she paced up +the aisle of the meeting-house upon her first Sunday, under the +patronizing eye of the stern spinster, were looked upon by the more +elderly worshippers--most of all by the mothers of young daughters--as +the badges of the Woman of Babylon, and as fit belongings to those +accustomed to dwell in the tents of wickedness. Even Dame Tourtelot, in +whose pew the face of Miss Almira waxes yellow between two great saffron +bows, commiserates the poor heathen child who has been decked like a +lamb for the sacrifice. "I wonder Miss Eliza don't pull off them ribbons +from the little minx," said she, as she marched home in the +"intermission," locked commandingly to the arm of the Deacon. + +"Waäl, I s'pose they're paid for," returns the Deacon. + +"What's that to do with it, Tourtelot?" + +"Waäl, Huldy, we do pootty much all we can for Almiry in that line: this +'ere Maverick, I guess, doos the same. What's the odds, arter all?" + +"Odds enough, Tourtelot," as the poor man found before bedtime: he had +no flip. + +The Elderkins, however, were more considerate. Very early after her +arrival, Adèle had found her way to their homestead, under the guidance +of Miss Eliza, and by her frank, demonstrative manner had established +herself at once in the affections of the whole family. The Squire, +indeed, had rallied the parson not a little, in his boisterous, hearty +fashion, upon his introduction of such a dangerous young Jesuit into so +orthodox a parish. + +At all which, so seriously uttered as to take the Doctor fairly aback, +good Mrs. Elderkin shook her finger warningly at the head of the Squire, +and said, "Now, for shame, Giles!" + +Good Mrs. Elderkin was, indeed, the pattern woman of the parish in all +charitable deeds,--not only outside, (where so many charitable natures +find their limits,) but indoors. With gentle speech and gentle manner, +she gave, maybe, her occasional closet-counsel to the Squire; but most +times her efforts to win him to a more serious habit of thought are +covered under the shape of some charming plea for a kindness to herself +or the "dear girls," which she knows that he will not have the hardihood +to resist. And even this method she does not push too far,--making it a +cardinal point in her womanly strategy that his home shall be always +grateful to the Squire,--that he shall never be driven from it by any +thought or suspicion of her exactions. Thus, if Grace--who is her oldest +daughter, and almost woman grown--has some evening appointment at Bible +class, or other such gathering, and, the boys being out, appeals timidly +to the father, good Mrs. Elderkin says,-- + +"I am afraid your papa is too tired, Grace; do let him enjoy himself." + +At which the Squire, shaking off his lethargy, says,-- + +"Get your things, child!" + +And as he goes out with Grace, he is rewarded by one of those tender +smiles upon the lip of the mother which captivated him twenty years +before, and which still make his fireside the most cherished spot in the +town. + +No wonder that the little half-orphaned creature, Adèle, with her +explosive warmth of heart, is kindly received among the Elderkins. Phil +was some three years her senior, a ruddy-faced, open-hearted fellow, who +had been well-nurtured, like his two elder brothers, but in whom a +certain waywardness just now appearing was attributed very much, by the +closely observing mother, to the influence of that interesting, but +mischievous boy, Reuben. Phil was the superior in age, indeed, and in +muscle, (as we may find proof,) but in nerve-power the more +delicate-featured boy of the parson outranked him. + +Rose Elderkin was a year younger than the French stranger, and a +marvellously fair type of New England girl-beauty: light brown hair in +unwieldy masses; skin wonderfully clear and transparent, and that +flushed at a rebuke, or a run down the village street, till her cheeks +blazed with scarlet; a lip delicately thin, but blood-red, and +exquisitely cut; a great hazel eye, that in her moments of glee, or any +occasional excitement, fairly danced and sparkled with a kind of insane +merriment, and at other times took on a demure and pensive look, which +to future wooers might possibly prove the more dangerous of the two. The +features named make up a captivating girlish beauty, but one which, +under a New England atmosphere, is rarely carried forward into +womanhood. The lips grow pinched and bloodless; the skin blanched +against all proof of blushes; the eyes sunken, and the blithe sparkle +that was so full of infectious joy is lost forever in that exhausting +blaze of girlhood. But we make no prophecy in regard to the future of +our little friend Rose. Adèle thinks her very charming; Reuben is +disposed to rank her--whatever Phil may think or say--far above Suke +Boody. And in his reading of the delightful "Children of the Abbey," +which he has stolen, (by favor of Phil, who owns the book,) he has +thought of Rose when Amanda first appeared; and when the divine Amanda +is in tears, he has thought of Rose; and when Amanda smiles, with +Mortimer kneeling at her feet, he has still thought of Rose. + +These four, Adèle, Phil, Rose, and Reuben are fellow-attendants at the +school of the excellent Miss Betsey Onthank. The schoolhouse itself is a +modest one, and stands upon a cross-road leading from the main street of +the village, and is upon the side of the little brook which courses +through the valley lying to the westward. A half-dozen or more of +sugar-maples stand near it, and throw over it a grateful shade in +August. In March these trees are exposed to a series of tappings on the +part of the more mechanically inclined of the pupils,--Phil Elderkin +being chiefest,--and gimlets, quills, and dinner-pails are brought into +requisition with prodigious results. In the heats of summer, and when +the brook is low, adventurous ones, of whom Reuben is chiefest, +undertake to dam its current; and it being traditional in the school +that one day a strange fisherman once took out two trout, half as long +as Miss Onthank's ruler, from under the bridge by which the high road +crosses the brook, Reuben plies every artifice, whether of bent pins, or +hooks purchased from the Tew partners, (unknown to Aunt Eliza, who is +prejudiced against fish-hooks as dangerous,) to catch a third; and +finding other resources vain, he punches two or three holes through the +bottom of his little dinner-pail, to make a scoop-net of it, and +manfully wades under the bridge to explore all the hollows of that +unknown region. While in this precarious position, he is reported by +some timid child to the mistress, who straightway sallies out, ferule in +hand and cap-strings flying, and orders him to land; which Reuben, +taking warning by the threatening tone of the old lady, refuses, unless +she promises not to flog him; and the kind-hearted mistress, fearing too +long exposure of the lad to the chilly water, gives the promise. But +with the tell-tale pail dangling at his belt, he does not escape so +easily the inquisitive Aunt Eliza. + +The excellent Miss Onthank--for by this title the parson always +compliments her--is a type of a schoolmistress which is found no longer: +grave, stately, with two great moppets of hair on either side her brow, +(as in the old engravings of Louis Philippe's good queen Amelia,) very +resolute, very learned in the boundaries of all Christian and heathen +countries, patient to a fault, with a marvellous capacity for pointing +out with her bodkin every letter to some wee thing at its first stage of +spelling, and yet keeping an eye upon all the school-room; reading a +chapter from the Bible, and saying a prayer each morning upon her bended +knees,--the little ones all kneeling in concert,--with an air that would +have adorned the most stately prioress of a convent; using her red +ferule betimes on little, mischievous, smarting hands, yet not +over-severe, and kind beneath all her gravity. She regards Adèle with a +peculiar tenderness, and hopes to make herself the humble and unworthy +instrument of redeeming her from the wicked estate in which she has +been reared. And Adèle, though not comprehending the excess of her zeal, +and opening her eyes in great wonderment when the good woman talks about +her "providential deliverance from the artful snares of the adversary," +is as free in her talk with the grave mistress as if she were her mother +confessor. + +Phil and Reuben, being the oldest boys of the school, resent the +indignity of being still subject to woman rule by a concerted series of +rebellious outbreaks. Some six or eight months after the arrival of +Adèle upon the scene, this rebel attitude culminates in an incident that +occasions a change of programme. The rebels on their way to school espy +a few clam-shells before some huckster's door, and, putting two or three +in their pockets, seize the opportunity when the good lady's eyes are +closed in the morning prayer to send two or three scaling about the +room, which fall with a clatter among the startled little ones. One, +aimed more justly by Reuben, strikes the grave mistress full upon the +forehead, and leaves a red cut from which one or two beads of blood +trickle down. + +Adèle, who has not learned yet that obstinate closing of the eyes which +most of the scholars have been taught, and to whom the sight recalls the +painted heads of martyrs in an old church at Marseilles, gives a little +hysteric scream. But the mistress, with face unchanged and voice +uplifted and unmoved, completes her religious duty. + +The whole school is horrified, on rising from their knees, at sight of +the old lady's bleeding head. The mistress wipes her forehead calmly, +and, picking up the shell at her feet, says, "Who threw this?" + +There is silence in the room. + +"Adèle," she continues, "I heard you scream, child; do you know who +threw this?" + +Adèle gives a quick, inquiring glance at Reuben, whose face is +imperturbable, rallies her courage for a struggle against the will of +the mistress, and then bursts into tears. + +Reuben cannot stand this. + +"_I_ threw it, Marm," says he, with a great tremor in his voice. + +The mistress beckons him to her, and, as he walks thither, motions to a +bench near her, and says gravely,-- + +"Sit by me, Reuben." + +There he keeps till school-hours are over, wondering what shape the +punishment will take. At last, when all are gone, the mistress leads him +into her private closet, and says solemnly,-- + +"Reuben, this is a crime against God. I forgive you; I hope He may"; and +she bids him kneel beside her, while she prays in a way that makes the +tears start to the eyes of the boy. + +Then, home,--she walking by his side, and leading him straight into the +study of the grave Doctor, to whom she unfolds the story, begging him +not to punish the lad, believing that he is penitent. And the meekness +and kindliness of the good woman make a Christian picture for the mind +of Reuben, in sad contrast with the prim austerity of Aunt Eliza,--a +picture that he never loses,--that keeps him meekly obedient for the +rest of the quarter; after which, by the advice of Miss Onthank, both +Phil and Reuben are transferred to the boys' academy upon the Common. + + +XXII. + +Meantime, Adèle is making friends in Ashfield and in the parsonage. The +irrepressible buoyancy of her character cannot be kept under even by the +severity of conduct which belongs to the home of the Doctor. If she +yields rigid obedience to all the laws of the household, as she is +taught to do, her vivacity sparkles all the more in those short +intervals of time when the laws are silent. There is something in this +beaming mirth of hers which the Doctor loves, though he struggles +against the love. He shuts his door fast, that the snatches of some +profane song from her little lips (with him all French songs are +profane) may not come in to disturb him; but as her voice rises +cheerily, higher and higher, in the summer dusk, he catches himself +lending a profane ear; the blitheness, the sweetness, the mellowness of +her tones win upon his dreary solitude; there is something softer in +them than in the measured vocables of sister Eliza; it brings a souvenir +of the girlish Rachel, and his memory floats back upon the strains of +the new singer, to the days when that dear voice filled his heart; and +he thinks--thanking Adaly for the thought--she is singing with the +angels now! + +But the spinster, who has no ear for music, in the midst of such a +carol, will cry out in sharp tones from her chamber, "Adèle, Adèle, not +so loud, child! you will disturb the Doctor!" + +Even then Adèle has her resource in the garden and the orchard, where +she never tires of wandering up and down,--and never wandering there but +some fragment of a song breaks from her lips. + +From time to time the Doctor summons her to his study to have serious +talk with her. She has, indeed, shared the Saturday-night instruction in +the Catechism, in company with Reuben, and being quick at words, no +matter how long they may be, she has learned it all; and Reuben and she +dash through "what is required" and "what is forbidden" and "the reasons +annexed" like a pair of prancing horses, kept diligently in hand by that +excellent whip, Miss Johns. But the study has not wrought that gravity +in the mind of the child which the good parson had hoped for; the seed, +he fears, has fallen upon stony places. He therefore, as we have said, +summons her from time to time to his study. + +And Adèle comes, always at the first summons, with a tripping step, and, +with a little coquettish adjustment of her dress and hair, flings +herself into the big chair before him,-- + +"Now, New Papa, here I am!" + +"Ah, Adaly! I wish, child, that you could be more serious than you are." + +"Serious! ha! ha!"--(she sees a look of pain on the face of the Doctor,) +"but I will be,--I am"; and with great effort she throws a most +unnatural expression of repose into her face. + +"You are a good girl, Adaly; but this is not the seriousness I want to +find in you. I want you to feel, my child, that you are walking on the +brink of a precipice,--that your heart is desperately wicked." + +"Oh, no, New Papa! you don't think I'm desperately wicked?"--and she +says it with a charming eagerness of manner. + +"Yes, desperately wicked, Adaly,--leaning to the things of this world, +and not fastening your affections on things above, on the realities +beyond the grave." + +"But all that is so far away, New Papa!" + +"Not so far as you think, child; they may come to-day." + +Adèle is sobered in earnest now, and tosses her little feet back and +forth, in an agony of apprehension. + +The Doctor continues,-- + +"_To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts_"; and the +sentiment and utterance are so like to the usual ones of the pulpit, +that Adèle takes courage again. + +The little girl has a profound respect for the Doctor; his calmness, his +equanimity, his persistent zeal in his work, would alone provoke it. But +she sees, furthermore,--what she does not see always in "Aunt Eliza,"--a +dignity of character that is proof against all irritating humors; then, +too, he has appeared to Adèle a very pattern of justice. She had taken +exceptions, indeed, when, on one or two rare occasions, he had reached +down the birch rod which lay upon the same hooks with the sword of Major +Johns, in the study, and had called in Reuben for extraordinary +discipline; but the boy's manifest acquiescence in the affair when his +cool moments came next morning, and the melancholy air of kindness with +which the Doctor went in to kiss him a goodnight, after such regimen, +kept alive her faith in the unvarying justice of the parson. Therefore +she tried hard to torture her poor little heart into a feeling of its +own blackness, (for that it was very black she had the good man's +averment,) she listened gravely to all he had to urge, and when he had +fairly overburdened her with the enumeration of her wicked, worldly +appetites, she could only say, with a burst of emotion,-- + +"Well, but, New Papa, the good God will forgive me." + +"Yes, Adaly, yes,--I trust so, if forgiveness be sought in fear and +trembling. But remember, 'When God created man, he entered into a +covenant of life with him upon condition of perfect obedience.'" + +This brings back to poor Adèle the drudgery of the Saturday's Catechism, +associated with the sharp correctives of Aunt Eliza; and she can only +offer a pleading kiss to the Doctor, and ask plaintively,-- + +"May I go now?" + +"One moment, Adaly,"--and he makes her kneel beside him, while he prays, +fervently, passionately, drawing her frail little figure to himself, +even as he prays, as if he would carry her with him in his arms into the +celestial presence. + +The boy Reuben, too, has had his seasons of this closet struggle; but +they are rarer now; the lad has shrewdly learned to adjust himself to +all the requirements of such occasions. He has put on a leaden +acquiescence in the Doctor's theories, whether with regard to +sanctification or redemption, that is most disheartening to the parson. +Does any question of the Doctor's, by any catch-word, suggest an answer +from the "Shorter Catechism" as applicable, Reuben is ready with it on +the instant. + +Does the Doctor ask,-- + +"Do you know, my son, the sinfulness of the estate in which you are +living?" + +"Sinfulness of the estate whereunto man fell?" says Reuben, briskly. + +"Know it like a book:--'Consists in the guilt of _Adam's_ first sin the +want of original righteousness and the corruption of his whole nature +which is commonly called original sin together with all actual +transgressions which proceed from it.' There's a wasp on your shoulder, +father,--there's two of 'em; I'll kill em." + +No wonder the good Doctor is disheartened, and trusts more and more, in +respect to his boy, to the silent influences of the Spirit. + +Adèle has no open quarrels with Miss Johns; she is obedient; she, too, +has fallen under the influence of that magnetic voice, and accepts the +orders and the commendations conveyed by it as if they were utterances +of Fate. Yet, with her childish instincts, she has formed a very fair +estimate of the character of Miss Eliza; it is doubtful even if she has +not fathomed it in certain directions more correctly and profoundly than +the grave Doctor. She sees clearly that the spinster's unvarying +solicitude in regard to the dress and appearance of "dear Adèle" is due +more to that hard pride of character which she nurses every day of her +life than to any tenderness for the little stranger. For at the hands of +her old godmother and of her father Adèle has known what real tenderness +was. It is a lesson children never unlearn. + +"Adèle, my dear, you look charmingly to-day, with that pink bow in your +hair. Do you know, I think pink is becoming to you, my child?" + +And Adèle listens with a composed smile, not unwilling to be admired. +What girl of--any age is? But the admiration of Miss Johns does not +touch her; it never calls a tear to her eye. + +In the bright belt-buckle, in the big leg-of-mutton sleeves, in the +glittering brooch containing coils of the Johns' hair, in the jaunty +walk and authoritative air of the spinster, the quick, keen eye of Adèle +sees something more than the meek Christian teacher and friend. It is a +sin in her to see it, perhaps; but she cannot help it. + +Miss Johns has not succeeded in exciting the jealousy of Reuben,--at +least, not in the manner she had hoped. Her influence over him is +clearly on the wane. He sees, indeed, her exaggerated devotion to the +little stranger,--which serves, in her presence, at least, to call out +all his indifference. Yet even this, Adèle, with her girlish instinct, +seems to understand, too, and bears the boy no grudge in consequence of +it. Nay, when he has received some special administration of the +parson's discipline, she allows her sympathy to find play in a tender +word or two that touch Reuben more than he dares to show. + +And when they meet down the orchard, away from the lynx eye of Aunt +Eliza, there are rare apples far out upon overhanging limbs that he can +pluck, by dint of venturous climbing, for her; and as he sees through +the boughs her delicate figure tripping through the grass, and lingers +to watch it, there comes a thought that _she_ must be the Amanda of the +story, and not Rose,--and he, perched in the apple-tree, a glowing +Mortimer. + + +XXIII. + +In the year 183-, Mr. Maverick writes to his friend Johns that the +disturbed condition of public affairs in France will compel him to +postpone his intended visit to America, and may possibly detain him for +a long time to come. He further says,--"In order to prevent all possible +hazards which may grow out of our revolutionary fervor on this side of +the water, I have invested in United States securities, for the benefit +of my dear little Adèle, a sum of money which will yield some seven +hundred dollars a year. Of this I propose to make you trustee, and +desire that you should draw so much of the yearly interest as you may +determine to be for her best good, denying her no reasonable requests, +and making your household reckoning clear of all possible deficit on her +account. + +"I am charmed with the improved tone of her letters, and am delighted to +see by them that even under your grave regimen she has not lost her old +buoyancy of spirits. My dear Johns, I owe you a debt in this matter +which I shall never be able to repay. Kiss the little witch for me; tell +her that 'Papa' always thinks of her, as he sits solitary upon the green +bench under the arbor. God bless the dear one, and keep all trouble from +her!" + +She, gaining in height now month by month, wins more and more upon the +grave Doctor,--wins upon Rose, who loves her as she loves her +sisters,--wins upon Phil, whose liking for her is becoming demonstrative +to a degree that prompts a little jealousy in the warm-blooded Reuben, +and that drives out all thought of the pink cheeks and fat arms of Suke +Boody. Miss Johns still regards her with admiring eyes, and shows all +her old assiduity in looking after her comforts and silken trappings. +Day after day, in summer weather, Rose and she idle together along the +embowered paths of the village; the Tew partners greet the pair with +smiles; good Mistress Elderkin has always a cordial welcome; the stout +Squire stoops to kiss the little Jesuit, who blushes at the tender +affront through all the brownness of her cheek, like a rose. Day after +day the rumble of the mill breaks on the country quietude; and as autumn +comes in, burning with all its forest fires, the farmer's flails beat +time together, as they did ten years before. + +At the academy, Phil and Reuben plot mischief, and they cement their +friendship with not a few boyish quarrels. + +Thus, Reuben, in the way of the boyish pomologists of those days, has +buried at midsummer in the orchard a dozen or more of the finest +windfalls from the early apple-trees, that they may mellow, away from +the air, into good eating condition, and he has marked the spot in his +boyish way with a little pyramid of stones. Strolling down the orchard a +few days later, he sees Phil coming away from that locality, with his +pockets bulging out ominously, and munching a great apple with +extraordinary relish. Perhaps there is a thought that he may design a +gift out of the stolen stores for Adèle; at any rate, Reuben flies at +him. + +"I say, Phil, that's doosed mean now, to be stealing my apples!" + +"Who's stole your apples?" says Phil, with a great roar of voice. + +"You have," says Reuben; and having now come near enough to find his +pyramid of stones all laid low, he says more angrily,--"You're a thief! +and you've got 'em in your pocket!" + +"Thief!" says Phil, looking threateningly, and throwing away his apple +half-eaten, "if you call me a thief, I say you're a----you know what." + +"Well, blast you," says Reuben, boiling with rage, "say it! Call me a +liar, if you dare!" + +"I do dare," says Phil, "if you accuse me of stealing your apples; and I +say you're a liar, and be darned to you!" + +At this, Reuben, though he is the shorter by two or three inches, and no +match for his foe at fisticuffs, plants a blow straight in Philip's +face. (He said afterward, when all was settled, that he was ten times +more mortified to think that he had done such a thing in his father's +orchard.) + +But Phil closed upon him, and kneading him with his knuckles in the +back, and with a trip, threw him heavily, falling prone upon him. +Reuben, in a frenzy, and with a torrent of much worse language than he +was in the habit of using, was struggling to turn him, when a sharp, +loud voice, which they both knew only too well, came down the +wind,--"Boys! boys!" and presently the Doctor comes up panting. + +"What does this mean? Philip, I'm ashamed of you!" he continues; and +Philip rises. + +Reuben, rising, too, the instant after, and with his fury unchecked, +dashes at Phil again; when the Doctor seizes him by the collar and drags +him aside. + +"He struck me," says Phil. + +"And he stole my apples and called me a liar," says Reuben, with the +tears starting, though he tries desperately to keep them back, seeing +that Phil shows no such evidence of emotion. + +"Tut! tut!" says the Doctor,--"you are both too angry for a straight +story. Come with me." + +And taking each by the hand, he led them through the garden and house, +directly into his study. There he opens a closet-door, with the sharp +order, "Step in here, Reuben, until I hear Philip's story." This Phil +tells straight-forwardly,--how he was passing through the orchard with a +pocketful of apples, which a neighbor's boy had given, and how Reuben +came upon him with swift accusation, and then the fight. "But he hurt me +more than I hurt him," says Phil, wiping his nose, which showed a little +ooze of blood. + +"Good!" says the Doctor,--"I think you tell the truth." + +"Thank you," says Phil,--"I know I do, Doctor." + +Next Reuben is called out. + +"Do you _know_ he took the apples?" asks the Doctor. + +"Don't know," says Reuben,--"but he was by the place, and the stones +thrown down." + +"And is that sufficient cause, Reuben, for accusing your friend?" + +At which, Reuben, shifting his position uneasily from one foot to the +other, says,-- + +"I believe he did, though." + +"Stop, Sir!" says the Doctor in a voice that makes Reuben sidle away. + +"Here," says Phil, commiserating him in a grand way, and beginning to +discharge his pockets on the Doctor's table, "he may have them, if he +wants them." + +Reuben stares at them a moment in astonishment, then breaks out with a +great tremor in his voice, but roundly enough,-- + +"By George! they're not the same apples at all. I'm sorry I told you +that, Phil." + +"Don't say 'By George' before me, or anywhere else," says the Doctor, +sharply. "It's but a sneaking oath, Sir; yet" (more gently) "I'm glad of +your honesty, Reuben." + +At the instigation of the parson they shake hands; after which he leads +them both into his closet, beckoning them to kneel on either side of +him, as he commends them in his stately way to Heaven, trusting that +they may live in good-fellowship henceforth, and keep His counsel, who +was the great Peacemaker, always in their hearts. + +Next morning, when Reuben goes to reconnoitre the place of his buried +treasure, he finds all safe, and taking the better half of the fruit, he +marches away with a proud step to the Elderkin house. The basket is for +Phil. But Phil is not at home; so he leaves the gift, and a message, +with a short story of it all, with the tender Rose, whose eyes dance +with girlish admiration at this stammered tale of his, and her fingers +tremble when they touch the boy's in the transfer of his little burden. + +Reuben walks away prouder yet; is not this sweet-faced girl, after all, +Amanda? + +There come quarrels, however, with the academy teacher not so easily +smoothed over. The Doctor and the master hold long consultations. +Reuben, it is to be feared, has bad associates. The boy makes interest, +through Nat Boody, with the stage-driver; and one day the old ladies are +horrified at seeing the parson's son mounted on the box of the coach +beside the driver, and putting his boyish fingers to the test of +four-in-hand. Of course he is a truant that day from school, and toiling +back footsore and weary, after tea, he can give but a lame account of +himself. He brings, another time, a horrid fighting cur, (as Miss Eliza +terms it in her disgust,) for which he has bartered away the new muffler +that the spinster has knit. He thinks it a splendid bargain. Miss Johns +and the Doctor do not. + +He is reported by credible witnesses as loitering about the tavern in +the summer nights, long after prayers are over at the parsonage, and the +lights are out: thus it is discovered, to the great horror of the +household, that by connivance with Phil he makes his way over the roof +of the kitchen from his chamber-window to join in these night forays. +After long consideration, in which Grandfather Handby is brought into +consultation, it is decided to place the boy for a while under the +charge of the latter for discipline, and with the hope that removal from +his town associates may work good. But within a fortnight after the +change is made, Grandfather Handby drives across the country in his +wagon, with Reuben seated beside him with a comic gravity on his face; +and the old gentleman, pleading the infirmities of age, and giving the +boy a farewell tap on the cheek, (for he loves him, though he has +whipped him almost daily,) restores him to the paternal roof. + +At this crisis, Squire Elderkin--who, to tell truth, has a little fear +of the wayward propensities of the parson's son in misleading +Phil--recommends trial of the discipline of a certain Parson Brummem, +who fills the parish-pulpit upon Bolton Hill. This dignitary was a tall, +lank, leathern-faced man, of incorruptible zeal and stately gravity, who +held under his stern dominion a little flock of two hundred souls, and +who, eking out a narrow parochial stipend by the week-day office of +teaching, had gained large repute for his subjugation of refractory +boys. + +A feeble little invalid wife cringed beside him along the journey of +life; and it would be pitiful to think that she had not long ago +entered, in way of remuneration, upon paths of pleasantness beyond the +grave. + +Parson Brummem received Brother Johns, when he drove with Reuben to the +parsonage-door, on that wild waste of Bolton Hill, with all the unction +of manner that belonged to him; but it was so grave an unction as to +chill poor Reuben to the marrow of his bones. A week's experience only +dispersed the chill when the tingle of the parson's big rod wrought a +glow in him that was almost madness. Yet Reuben chafed not so much at +the whippings--to which he was well used--as at the dreariness of the +new home, the melancholy waste of common over which March winds blew all +the year, the pinched faces that met him without other recognition than, +"One o' Parson Brummem's b'ys." Nor indoors was the aspect more +inviting: a big red table, around which sat six fellow-martyrs with +their slates and geographies; a tall desk, at which Brummem indited his +sermons; and from time to time a little side-door opening timidly, +through which came a weary woman's voice, "Ezekiel, dear, one minute!" +at which the great man strides thither, and lends, his great ear to the +family council. + +Ah, the long, weary mornings, when the sun, pouring through the +curtainless south windows a great blaze upon the oaken floor, lights up +for Reuben only the cobwebbed corners, the faded roundabouts of +fellow-martyrs, the dismal figures of Daboll, the shining tail-coat of +Master Brummem, as he stalks up and down from hour to hour, collecting +in this way his scattered thoughts for some new argumentative thrust of +the quill into the sixthly or the seventhly of his next week's sermon! +And the long and weary afternoons, when the sun with a mocking bounty +pours through the dusty and curtainless windows to the west, lighting +only again the gray and speckled roundabouts of the fagging boys, the +maps of Malte-Brun, and the shining forehead of the Brummem! + +There is a dismal, graceless, bald air about town and house and master, +which is utterly revolting to the lad, whose childish feet had pattered +beside the tender Rachel along the embowered paths of Ashfield. The lack +of congeniality affronts his whole nature. In the keenness of his +martyrdom, (none the less real because fancied,) the leathern-faced, +gaunt Brummem takes the shape of some Giant Despair with bloody maw and +mace,--and he, the child of some Christiana, for whose guiding hand he +gropes vainly: she has gone before to the Celestial City! + +The rod of the master does not cure the chronic state of moody rebellion +into which Reuben lapses, with these fancies on him. It drives him at +last to an act of desperation. The lesson in Daboll that day was a hard +one; but it was not the lesson, or his short-comings in it,--it was not +the hand of the master, which had been heavy on him,--but it was a +vague, dismal sense of the dreariness of his surroundings, of the +starched looks that met him, of the weary monotony, of the lack of +sympathy, which goaded him to the final overt act of rebellion,--which +made him dash his leathern-bound arithmetic full into the face of the +master, and then sit down, burying his face in his hands. + +The stern doctrines of Parson Brummem had taught him, at least, a rigid +self-command. He did not strike the lad. But recovering from his +amazement, he says, "Very well, very well, Master Reuben, we will sleep +upon this"; and then, tapping at the inner door, "Keziah, make ready the +little chamber over the hall for Master Johns: he must be by himself +to-night: give him a glass of water and a slice of dry bread: nothing +else, Sir," (turning to Reuben now,) "until you come to me to-morrow at +nine, in this place, and ask my pardon"; and he motions him to the door. + +Reuben staggers out,--staggers up the stairs into the dismal chamber. It +looks out only upon a bald waste of common. Shortly after, a slatternly +maid brings his prison fare, and, with a little kindly discretion, has +added secretly a roll of gingerbread. Reuben thanks her, and says, +"You're a good woman, Keziah; and I say, won't you fetch me my cap, +there's a good un; it's cold here." The maid, with great show of +caution, complies; a few minutes after, the parson comes, and, looking +in warningly, closes and locks the door outside. + +A weary evening follows, in which thoughts of Adèle, of nights at the +Elderkins', of Phil, of Rose, flash upon him, and spend their richness, +leaving him more madly disconsolate. Then come thoughts of the morning +humiliation, of the boys pointing their fingers at him after school. + +"No, they sha'n't, by George!" + +And with this decision he dropped asleep; with this decision ripened in +him, he woke at three in the morning,--waited for the hall clock to +strike, that he might be sure of his hour,--tied together the two sheets +of Mistress Brummem's bed, opened the window gently, dropped out his +improvised cable, slid upon it safely to the ground, and before day had +broken or any of the townsfolk were astir, had crossed all the more open +portion of the village, and by sunrise had plunged into the wooded +swamp-land which lay three miles westward toward the river. + + + + +THE GREAT LAKES: + +THEIR OUTLETS AND DEFENCES. + + +Four years ago there appeared in this magazine two articles upon the +Great Lakes and their Harbors.[E] In these papers the commercial +importance of the Lakes was set forth, and it was shown that their +commerce was at that time nearly equal in amount to the whole foreign +trade of the country. Within those four years the relative value of +these two branches of commerce has greatly changed. The foreign trade, +under the efforts of open foes and secret enemies, has fallen off very +largely. A committee of the New York Board of Trade, in an appeal to the +Secretary of the Navy for protection against British pirates, made the +statement, that the imports into that port during the first quarter of +1860, in American vessels, were $62,598,326,--in foreign vessels, +$30,918,051; and that in 1863, during the same period, the imports in +American vessels were $23,403,830,--in foreign vessels, $65,889,853;--in +other words, that in three years of war, our navigation on the ocean had +declined more than one half, and that of foreign nations had increased +in nearly the same proportion. + +The two great branches of internal trade before the war consisted of the +trade of the Lakes and the canals leading from them to the seaboard, and +the trade of the Mississippi and its tributaries. The latter branch +being interrupted or destroyed by the Rebellion, it follows that at the +present time the principal commerce left to the Atlantic cities is that +of the Great Lakes and the States about them, usually known as the +Northwest. + +This commerce amounts at present to at least twelve hundred millions of +dollars annually, and increases so rapidly that all estimates of its +prospective value have hitherto fallen far short of the truth. It +employs about two thousand vessels and twenty thousand sailors, besides +four great lines of railroad. It sends to the seaboard one hundred +million bushels of grain, two million hogs, and half a million of +cattle, composing the principal part of the food of the Atlantic States, +(it being well known that the wheat crop of New York would hardly feed +her people for one third of the year, and that that of New England is +sufficient for only about three weeks' consumption,) and affording a +large surplus for exportation. + +In a memorial of the Hon. S. B. Ruggles of New York to President +Lincoln, on the enlargement of the New York canals, he says,--"The +cereal wealth yearly floated on these waters now exceeds one hundred +million bushels. It is difficult to present a distinct idea of a +quantity so enormous. Suffice it to say, that the portion of it (about +two thirds) moving to market on the Erie and Oswego Canals requires a +line of boats more than forty miles long to carry it." On the Lakes it +requires a fleet of five thousand vessels carrying twenty thousand +bushels each. If loaded in railroad-cars of the usual capacity, it would +take two hundred and fifty thousand of them, or a train more than one +thousand miles in length. The four great lines from the Lakes to the +seaboard would each have to run four hundred cars a day for half the +year to carry this grain to market. Speaking of the grain-trade, Mr. +Ruggles says,--"Its existence is a new fact in the history of man. In +quantity, it already much exceeds the whole export of cereals from the +Russian Empire, the great compeer of the United States, whose total +export of cereals was in 1857 but forty-nine million bushels, being less +than half the amount carried in 1861 upon the American Lakes. It was the +constant aim of ancient Rome, even in the zenith of its power, to +provision the capital and the adjacent provinces from the outlying +portions of the empire. The yearly crop contributed by Egypt was fifteen +million bushels. Under the prudent administration of the Emperor +Severus, a large store of corn was accumulated and kept on hand, +sufficient to guard the empire from famine for seven years. The total +amount thus provided was but one hundred and ninety million bushels. The +product of 1860 in the five Lake States of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, +Illinois, and Wisconsin, was three hundred and fifty-four million +bushels." + +Another branch of the Lake trade, which is yet in its infancy, but which +promises to reach vast proportions in a few years, is the iron and +copper trade of Lake Superior. In 1864 about two hundred and forty-eight +thousand tons of iron ore and seventeen thousand tons of copper ore and +metal were shipped from that lake,--enough to load thirteen hundred and +twenty-five vessels of two hundred tons burden. This trade has wholly +grown up within the last ten years. + +Let the Erie and Oswego Canals be again enlarged, as advocated so ably +by Mr. Ruggles, let the railroad lines be equipped with double tracks, +and this trade of the Lake country will still follow them up and +outstrip their efforts. The man is now living in Chicago, hardly past +middle age, who, less than thirty years ago, shipped the first invoice +of grain from that city which now ships fifty millions; and should he +live to the common age of mankind, he will probably see the shipment of +a hundred millions from that port alone. + +The population of Illinois has doubled in each of the last two decades, +and there is no reason why it should not continue to do so in the next. +That would give it in 1870 about three and a half millions of people, +most of them farmers and producers, and farmers who, by help of their +fertile soil, the ease of its cultivation, and the general use of +agricultural machinery, are able to produce a very large amount of grain +or meat to the working hand. + +These fleets of sail-vessels and steamers, and these railroad-trains +which go Eastward thus loaded with grain and provisions, return West +with freight more various, though as valuable. The teas, silks, and +spices of India, the coffee of Brazil, the sugar and cigars of Cuba, the +wines and rich fabrics of France, the varied manufactures of England, +and the products of the New England workshops and factories, all find a +market in the Northwest. + +What, then, is the proper and sufficient outlet of this commerce? The +Canadians, although their share of it is only one quarter as large as +our own, have shown us the way. They have constructed canals connecting +Lakes Erie and Ontario, and others around the rapids of the St. +Lawrence. Let us do the same on the American side, so that vessels may +load in Chicago or Milwaukee, and deliver their cargoes in New York, +Boston, or Liverpool, without breaking bulk. To Europe this is the +shorter route, as the figures will show:-- + +Distance from Chicago to New York + by lakes, canal, and river 1,500 miles +Distance from New York to Liverpool 2,980 " + ----- + 4,480 " + +Distance from Chicago to Montreal by + Welland Canal 1,348 miles +Distance from Montreal to Liverpool 2,740 " + ----- + 4,088 " + +The St. Lawrence River is the natural outlet of the Lakes, and, if +rendered accessible to us by canals, must be the cheapest outlet. It is +well known that a few years ago corn was worth on the prairies of +Illinois only ten cents per bushel, when the same article was selling in +New York at seventy cents, six sevenths of the price being consumed in +transportation. The consequence was, that many farmers found it more for +their interest to use their surplus corn for fuel than to sell it for +ten cents. The great disturbance in values caused by the war, and the +vast demand for grain and forage for the army, have reduced this +disproportion in prices very much for the time, but it may be looked for +again on the return of peace. + +Now it would seem that one of the most important questions to be +settled in this country is how to cheapen food. If, by the construction +of these canals to give access to the St. Lawrence, grain can be laid +down in New York ten cents a bushel cheaper than it now is done, the +saving on the present shipments of breadstuffs from the Lakes would be +ten millions of dollars annually. It is probable, however, that the +saving in freight would be much greater than this, if the canals were +built of sufficient capacity to admit the largest class of Lake vessels. +This direct trade between the Upper Lakes and Europe was commenced a few +years before the breaking out of the Rebellion, and was beginning to +assume important proportions, when the war put a stop to it, as it has +to so much of our foreign commerce. + +While the present article was in preparation, the bill for the +construction of these canals passed the House of Representatives, as +also one for the deepening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, +concerning which the report of the Hon. Isaac N. Arnold of Illinois, +chairman of the committee of the House on the defence of lakes and +rivers, thus remarks:--"The realization of the grand idea of a +ship-canal from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, for military and +commercial purposes, is the great work of the age. In effect, +commercially, it turns the Mississippi into Lake Michigan, and makes an +outlet for the Great Lakes at New Orleans, and of the Mississippi at New +York. It brings together the two great systems of water communication of +our country,--the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence, and the canals +connecting the Lakes with the ocean on the east, and the Mississippi and +Missouri, with all their tributaries, on the west and south. This +communication, so vast, can be effected at small expense, and with no +long delay. It is but carrying out the plan of Nature. A great river, +rivalling the St. Lawrence in volume, at no distant day was discharged +from Lake Michigan, by the Illinois, into the Mississippi. Its banks, +its currents, its islands, and deposits can still be easily traced, and +it only needs a deepening of the present channel for a few miles, to +reopen a magnificent river from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi." + +It is a very important point, in considering this question of the +enlargement of existing canals and the construction of new ones, that +they have, under the new conditions of naval warfare, come to be an +important element in the harbor defences of the Lakes. We have the +testimony of Captain Ericsson himself, whose Monitor vessels have +already done so much for the country, as to this availability. He +writes,--"An impregnable war-vessel, twenty-five feet wide and two +hundred feet long, with a shot-proof turret, carrying a gun of fifteen +inch calibre, with a ball of four hundred and fifty pounds, and capable +of destroying any hostile vessel that can be put on the Lakes, will +draw, without ammunition, coal, or stores, but six feet and six inches +water, and consequently will need only a canal wide and deep enough to +float a vessel of those dimensions, with locks of sufficient size to +pass it." + +Great Britain has already secured to herself the means of access to the +Lakes by her system of Canadian canals, and the Military Committee of +the House express the opinion, that, in case of a war with that power, +"a small fleet of light-draught, heavily armed, iron-clad gunboats, +could, in one short month, in despite of any opposition that could be +made by extemporized batteries, pass up the St. Lawrence, and shell +every city and village from Ogdensburg to Chicago. At one blow it could +sweep our commerce from that entire chain of lakes. Such a fleet would +have it in its power to inflict a loss to be reckoned only by hundreds +of millions, so vast is the wealth thus exposed to the depredations of a +maritime enemy." We were saved from such a blow, a few months ago, only +by the failure of the Rebel agents in Canada to procure, either by +purchase or piracy, a swift armed steamer. + +Ever since the War of 1812, England has been preparing, in the event of +another war, to strike at this, our vital point. In 1814 the Duke of +Wellington declared "that a naval superiority on the Lakes is a _sine +qua non_ of success in war on the frontier of Canada." Years before, +William Hall, Governor of the Northwestern Territory, made the same +declaration to our Government, and the capture of Detroit by the British +in 1812 was due to their failure to respond to his appeal for a naval +force. In 1817 the Lakes were put on a peace establishment of one gun on +each side, which was a good bargain for England, she having at that time +larger interests on the Lakes than the United States. Now ours exceed +hers in the ratio of four to one. + +What said the London "Times" in January, 1862, in reference to the Trent +excitement? "As soon as the St. Lawrence opens again there will be an +end of our difficulty. We can then pour into the Lakes such a fleet of +gunboats, and other craft, as will give us the complete and immediate +command of those waters. Directly the navigation is clear, we can send +up vessel after vessel without any restriction, except such as are +imposed by the size of the canals. The Americans would have no such +resource. They would have no access to the Lakes from the sea, and it is +impossible that they could construct vessels of any considerable power +in the interval that would elapse before the ice broke up. With the +opening of spring the Lakes would be ours." + +This is just what the English did in the War of 1812. They secured the +command of the Lakes at the beginning of the war, and kept it and that +of all the adjacent country, till Perry built a fleet on Lake Erie, with +which he wrested their supremacy from them by hard fighting. Let us not +be caught in that way a second time. + +There is a party in the country opposed to the enlargement of these +canals. It is represented in Congress by able men. Their principal +arguments are the following: First, that there is no military necessity +for the enlargement; that materials for building gunboats can be +accumulated at various points on the Lakes, to be used in the event of +war. Secondly, that by sending a strong force to destroy the Canadian +canals, the enemy's gunboats can be prevented from entering the Lakes. A +third argument is, that it is useless to attempt to contend with +England, the greatest naval power in the world; that we shall never have +vessels enough to afford a fleet on the coast and one on the Lakes; that +England would never allow us to equal her in that respect, and that it +would be changing the entire policy of the nation to attempt it. A +fourth argument which we have seen gravely stated against the canal +enlargements is, that the mouth of the St. Lawrence is the place to +defend the Lakes, and that, if that hole were stopped, the rats could +not enter. + +In reply to the first of these arguments, the above quotation from the +London "Times" shows that the British Government well know the +importance of striking the first blow, and that long before our gunboats +could be launched that blow would have been delivered. + +As to the second, we may be sure that the Canadian canals would be +defended with all the power and skill of England; and we know, by the +experience of the last four years, the difference between offensive and +defensive warfare, both sides being equally matched in fighting +qualities. + +The third argument is the same used by Jefferson and his party before +the War of 1812. He thought that to build war vessels was only to build +them for the British, as they would be sure to take them. As to changing +the policy of the nation, by increasing our navy, let us hope that it is +already changed, and forever. Its policy has heretofore been a Southern +policy, a slaveholders' policy; it has discouraged the navy, and kept it +down to the smallest possible dimensions, because a navy is essentially +a Northern institution. You cannot man a navy with slaves or mean +whites; it must have a commercial marine behind it, and that the South +never had. Our navy ought never again to be inferior in fighting +strength to that of England. In that way we shall always avoid war. + +As to the plan of defending the Lakes at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, +we would ask this question: If the blockade of Wilmington was a task +beyond the power of our navy, how would it be able to blockade an +estuary from fifty to a hundred miles in width? + +With these enlarged canals, by which gunboats and monitors could be +moved from the Atlantic and the Mississippi to the Lakes, and _vice +versa_, and by the system of shore defences recommended some years ago +by General Totten, namely, strong fortifications at Mackinaw, perfectly +commanding those straits, and serving as a refuge to war steamers, works +at the lower end of Lake Huron, at Detroit, and at the entrance of +Niagara River, these waters will be protected from all foreign enemies. +Lake Ontario will also need a system of works to protect our important +canals and railroads, which in many places approach so near the shore as +to be in danger from an enterprising enemy. It is recommended by the +Military Committee, that a naval depot should be established at Erie, as +the most safe and suitable harbor on the lake of that name. + +If, as is probable, a naval station and depot should be thought +necessary on the Upper Lakes, the city of Milwaukee has strong claims to +be chosen for its site. There is the best and safest harbor on Lake +Michigan, so situated as to be easily defended, in the midst of a +heavily timbered country, accessible to the iron and copper of Lake +Superior and the coal of Illinois. Milwaukee enjoys one of the cheapest +markets for food, together with a very healthy climate. Finally, she is +connected by rail with the great Western centres of population, so that +all the necessary troops for her defence could be gathered about her at +twenty-four hours' notice. + +It may be well here to remark, that as yet the Northwest has had little +assistance from the General Government. Large sums of money have +annually been laid out in the defences of the seaboard, both North and +South, while this immense Lake region has had the annual appropriation +of one eighteen pounder! Every small river and petty inlet on the +Southern coast, whence a bale of cotton or a barrel of turpentine could +be shipped, has had its fort; while the important post of Mackinaw, the +Gibraltar of the Lakes, is garrisoned by an invalid sergeant, who sits +solitary on its ruinous walls. + +The result at which we arrive is, that these canal enlargements would at +once be valuable, both as commercial and military works. They have a +national importance, in that they will assist in feeding and defending +the nation. The States interested in them have a population of ten +millions, they have seventy-one representatives in Congress, and they +have furnished fully one half the fighting-men who have gone to defend +our flag and protect our nationality in the field. How that work has +been done, let the victorious campaigns of Grant and Sherman attest. +Those great leaders are Western men, and their invincible columns, who, +from Belmont to Savannah, have, like Cromwell's Ironsides, "never met an +enemy whom they have not broken in pieces," are men of Western birth or +training. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[E] See Nos. for February and March, 1861,--Vol. VII. pp. 226, 313. + + + + +TO CAROLINA CORONADO. + + + A lily anchored by the Spanish main, + Swaying and shining in the surge of youth, + Yet holding in thy breast the gold of truth,-- + + Such didst thou seem above the waves of pain, + And through the stormy turbulence of war, + Until we heard thy patriot voice afar! + + Now, Sister, with the burning heart of Spain, + We speak to thee from this New England strand, + And grasp and hold thee with a firm right hand! + + For thou hast touched our people with thy word,-- + Only a gentle woman's word, but one + With the great work our Nation has begun. + + By Liberty thy earnest soul was stirred, + And waked and urged Estremadura's men + To pour the heroic wine of life again. + + As in the dawn of Summer flits a bird + From his low nest and springs into the air, + Hurrying a double concert and a prayer,-- + + So Liberty, with thy sweet voice allied, + Walks in thy footsteps, with her laurel strows + Thy footway, with thy trustful spirit glows. + + Esteem her friendship with unwavering pride! + Teach thou thy children what the years have brought, + Wisdom and love superior to thy thought! + + Once thou hast said, "All men may win her side, + But women never!" Sister, do not fear, + Recall thy words, since Love has made truth clear. + + For Love is master, and we know no other, + Save self-compelling service to the right, + Which is but Love in the seraphic sight. + + Teach this thy sons and to each man thy brother,-- + A secret learned in silent joys of home, + A secret whence the lights of being come. + + So guided by this lamp, O wife and mother, + Turn thine eyes hither to the Western shore, + Where red streams run and iron thunders roar! + + We watch the star of Freedom slowly rise + And glimmer through the changes of the time, + While errors beat their low retreating chime. + + We ask for nought, we need not to be wise, + We find both men and women at their post, + Equal and different in one mighty host. + + Divided suffering, unity of cries,-- + Divided labor, unity of life,-- + Divided struggle, one reward for strife. + + As autumn winds sweep over tossing seas + And reach the happy shore, and fling the flowers + And lower each gorgeous head by their rude powers,-- + + So sweep the winds of war through quiet leas + And bend our budding treasures in the dust, + Yet Freedom's cause shall neither mar nor rust. + + The seed shall spring where none can thirst or freeze, + Shall bear a floweret fairer than the old, + As lilies shine before all blossoms told: + + A liberty for woman in her home, + Bound by the only chains which give her peace,-- + Immortal chains which death may not release: + + A liberty where Justice wide may roam, + And Reverence sit the chief at every feast, + With Love as master, and Contempt as least: + + A liberty where the oppressed may come, + The black and white, the woman and the man, + And recognize themselves in Heaven's wide plan + + Then while the morning odors of the sea + Blow from the westward and caress thy brow, + Remember where thy loving sisters bow: + + Perchance beneath the hand of Victory, + Which leaves a tear and then a silentness, + While crowds move by forgetful of one less; + + Or where a burst of gracious ecstasy + Rising shall fill the eastward flitting air, + And with thy spirit mount the hills of prayer. + + + + +REGNARD. + + +Since, in modern literature, there are so few really good comedies that +we may count them all upon our fingers, a man who has written two must +be worth knowing. We ask permission to introduce Jean François Regnard +to those who do not know him. + +He comes recommended by the great critic Boileau, who liked him, +quarrelled with him, and made up again. Forty years later, Voltaire +wrote that the man who did not enjoy Regnard was not capable of +appreciating Molière. Then came M. de La Harpe, the authority in such +matters for two generations: he devotes a chapter to Regnard, and calls +him the worthy successor of Molière. And Béranger, in his charming +autobiography, an epilogue worthy of the noble part he had played upon +the stage of the world, speaks of the unflagging gayety and abundant wit +of Regnard's dialogue, and of his lively and graceful style. "In my +opinion," he adds, "Regnard would be the first of modern comedians, if +Molière had not been given to us." + +In spite of the idle complainings into which authors are betrayed by the +pleasure human nature takes in talking about self to attentive +listeners, all who are familiar with the history of the brethren of the +quill know, that, as a class, they have had a large share of the good +things of the earth,--cheerful occupation, respected position, +comfortable subsistence, and long life. France, in particular, has been +the _Pays de Cocagne_ of book-makers for the last two hundred years. +Neither praise, pay, nor rank has been wanting to those who deserved +them. But in the long line of _littérateurs_ who have flourished since +Cardinal Richelieu founded the Academy, few were so fortunate as +Regnard. He entered upon his career with wealth, health, and a jovial +temperament: three supreme blessings he kept through life. + +He was born in Paris in 1655, three years before Molière brought his +company from the provinces to the Hôtel de Bourbon, and opened the new +theatre with the "Précieuses Ridicules." Regnard's father, a citizen of +Paris and a shopkeeper, died when his son was a lad, leaving him one +hundred and twenty thousand livres,--a fortune for a man of the middle +class at that period. Like most independent young fellows, Regnard made +use of his money to travel. He went to Italy, and spent a year in the +famous cities of the Peninsula,--but returned home with thirty thousand +additional livres in his pocket, won at play. He soon went back to the +land of pleasure and of luck. At Bologna he fell in love with a lady +from the South of France, whom he calls Elvire. The lady was married, +the husband was with her; they were travellers like himself. Regnard +joined the party, and sailed with them from Civita Vecchia in an English +ship bound for Toulon. The vessel was captured, off Nice, by a Barbary +corsair, and brought into Algiers; the crew and passengers were sold to +the highest bidder. One Achmet Talem paid fifteen hundred livres for +Regnard, and one thousand for the lady. This low price might lead us to +imagine that the Moorish taste in beauty differed from that of Regnard; +but the Algerine market may have been overstocked with women on the day +of sale. Achmet took his new chattels to Constantinople. Perceiving +Regnard's talent for _ragoûts_ and sauces, he made a cook of him. What +became of Elvire history has omitted, perhaps discreetly, to relate. +After two years of toil and ill-treatment, Regnard received money from +home to buy his freedom. He paid twelve thousand livres for himself and +the fair Provençale. Achmet more than quadrupled his investment, and no +doubt thought slavery a divine institution. + +In Paris once more, Regnard hung his chains in his library and was +preparing to lead a comfortable life with Elvire, when the superfluous +husband, whose death had been reported, most unseasonably reappeared. He +had been ransomed by the Mathurins, a religious order, who believed it +to be the duty of Christians to deliver their fellow-men from +bondage,--Abolitionists of the seventeenth century, who, strange as some +of us may think it, were honored by their countrymen and the Christian +world. Regnard yielded gracefully the right he had acquired by purchase +to the prior claim of the husband, and made preparations for another +journey. With two compatriots, De Fercourt and De Corberon, he traversed +the Low Countries and Denmark and crossed over to Stockholm. The King of +Sweden received the travellers graciously and proposed a visit to +Lapland. Furnished with the royal letters of recommendation, they sailed +up the Gulf of Bothnia to Torneo, and thence pushed north by land until +they came to Lake Tornoetrask. Eighteen miles from the lower end of +the lake they ascended a high mountain which they named Metavara, "from +the Latin word _meta_ and the Finlandic word _vara_, which means rock: +that is to say, the rock of limits." "We were four hours in climbing to +the top by paths which no mortal had as yet known. When we reached it, +we perceived the whole extent of Lapland, and the Icy Ocean as far as +the North Cape, on the side it turns to the west. This may, indeed, be +called arriving at the end of the world and jostling the axle of the +pole (_se frotter à l'essieu du pôle_)." Here they set up a tablet of +stone they had brought with their luggage,--_monument éternel_, Regnard +says. "It shall make known to posterity that three Frenchmen did not +cease to travel northward until the earth failed them; that, in spite of +the difficulties they encountered, which would have turned back most +others, they reached the end of the world and planted their column; the +ground was wanting, but not the courage to press on." These sounding +verses were cut upon the eternal monument:-- + + "Gallia nos genuit; vidit nos Africa; Gangem + Hausimus, Europamque oculis lustravimus omnem; + Casibus et variis acti terrâque marique, + Hic tandem stetimus, nobis ubi defuit orbis. + De Fercourt, De Corberon, Regnard. + Anno 1681, die 22 Augusti." + +"The inscription will never be read, except by the bears," Regnard adds. +A melancholy thought to the French mind! If nobody saw it or talked +about it, half the pleasure of the exploit was gone. The Frenchmen had +foreseen this difficulty, and had taken their precautions. Four days' +journey to the southward stood an ancient church, near which the Lapps +held their annual fair. In this church, in a conspicuous position, they +had already deposited the same verses, carved upon a board. In 1718, +thirty-six years after, another French traveller, La Motraye, read the +lines upon the stone tablet,--too late to gratify Regnard. + +"Travellers' stories,"--"_A beau mentir qui vient de loin_,"--these +proverbs date from the seventeenth century. It was not expected of such +adventurous gentlemen that they should tell the simple truth, any more +than we expect veracity from sportsmen. We listen without surprise and +disbelieve without a smile. Some exaggeration, too, was pardonable to +help out the verse; but "_nobis ubi defuit orbis_" goes beyond a +reasonable license. The mountain _Metavara_ is in Lat. 68° 30'; the +North Cape in 71° 10'. There were still one hundred and fifty miles of +solid _orbis_ before Regnard and his friends; and they had need of +optics sharp to see the Cape from the spot they stood upon. + +The 27th of September found the three Arctic explorers back again in +Stockholm. Thence they took boat for Dantzic, travelled in Poland, +Hungary, and Austria, and left Vienna for Paris a few months before the +famous siege, when Sobieski, the "man sent from God whose name was +John," routed the Turks and delivered Christendom forever from the fear +of the Ottoman arms. + +Before this time Regnard must have heard that Duquesne had avenged his +African sufferings. In the autumn of 1681 the Huguenot Admiral shelled +Algiers from bomb-ketches, then used for the first time. The Dey was +forced to surrender. His lively conquerors treated him with the honors +of wit as well as of war. They made a _mot_ for him, of the kind they +get up so cleverly in Paris. When the Turk is told how much it had cost +the great monarch of France to fit out the fleet which had just reduced +a part of his city to ashes, he exclaims, amazed at the useless +extravagance,--"For half the money I would have burned the whole town." + +Cervantes was a slave in Algiers a hundred years before Regnard, and no +doubt used his experience in the story of the Captive in "Don Quixote." +Regnard also worked his African materials up into a tale,--"La +Provençale,"--and varnished them with the sentimentality fashionable in +his day. Zelmis (himself) is a conquering hero; women adore him. He is +full of courage, resources, and devotion to one only,--Elvire,--who is +beautiful as a dream, and dignified as the wife of a Roman Senator. The +King of Algiers is on the quay when the captives are brought ashore. He +falls in love with Elvire on the spot, and adds her to his collection. +But his passion is respectful and pure. Aided by Zelmis, she escapes +from the harem. They are retaken and brought back; but instead of the +whipping usually bestowed upon returned runaways, the generous king, +despairing of winning Elvire's affections, gives her her liberty. In the +mean time Zelmis has had his troubles. His master has four wives, +beautiful as houris. All four cast eyes of flame upon the well-favored +infidel. Faithful to Elvire, Zelmis of course defends himself as +heroically as Joseph. The ladies revenge the slight in the same way as +the wife of Potiphar. The attractive Frenchman is condemned to +impalement, when his consul interferes with a ransom, and he is released +just in time to embark for France with Elvire. + +Although Regnard often alludes with pride to his travels, the sketch he +has left of them is meagre and uninteresting, and written in a harsh and +awkward style. Lapland was a _terra incognita_,--Poland, Hungary, and +Bohemia not much better known; yet this clever young Parisian has little +to relate beyond a few names, which he generally misspells or misplaces. +No descriptions of town or country or scenery; no traits of manners, +character, or customs, except a dull page on the sorcery and the funeral +ceremonies of the Lapps. The only eminent man he notices is Evelius, the +astronomer of Dantzic,--one of the foreign _savans_ of distinction on +whom Louis XIV. bestowed pensions in his grand manner, omitting to pay +them after the second year. Regnard seems to have written to let his +countrymen know where he had been,--not to tell them what he had seen. +Had he made ever so good a book out of his really remarkable journey, +little notice would have been taken of it. Voyages and travels were +looked upon as a dull branch of fiction,--not nearly so amusing or +improving as cockney excursions from one town of France to another in +the neighborhood, described after the manner of Bachaumont and Chapelle: +not sentimental journeys, by any means; eating, drinking, and sleeping +are the points of interest:-- + + "Bon vin, bon gîte, bon lit, + Belle hôtesse, bon appétit." + +Even Regnard, who had seen so much of the world, tried his hand at this +kind of travel-writing and failed lamentably. + +At thirty, Regnard closed a chapter in his life, and turned over a new +leaf. He gave up wandering and gambling, the ruling passions of his +youth, and settled himself comfortably for the rest of his days. For +occupation and official position, he bought an assistant-treasurership +in the _Bureau des Finances_. His house in the Rue Richelieu became +famous for good company and good things, intellectual as well as +material. In the country his _Terre de Grillon_ was planted with so much +taste that the lively persons who liked to visit there called it a +_Séjour enchanté_. In laying out his grounds, his intimate, Dufresny, +was doubtless of use to him. This spendthrift poet, reputed +great-grandson of Henri Quatre and the _belle jardinière_, had great +skill in landscape gardening, admitted even by those who found his +verses tedious. He it was, probably, who introduced Regnard to the +stage. For several years they supplied the Théatre Italien with amusing +trifles,--working together in one of those literary partnerships so +common among French playwrights. The "Joueur" broke up this business +connection. Dufresny accused Regnard of having stolen the plot from him, +and brought out a "Joueur" of his own. Regnard insisted that Dufresny +was the pirate. The public decided in favor of Regnard. Dufresny's play +was hopelessly damned, and no appeal ever taken from the first sentence. +The verdict of the _bel-esprits_ was recorded in an epigram, which ended +thus:-- + + "Mais quiconque aujourd'hui voit l'un et l'autre ouvrage + Dit que Regnard a l'avantage + D'avoir été le 'bon larron.'"[F] + +Dufresny had more wit than dramatic talent. He will live in the memories +of married men for his famous speech,-- + + "Comment, Monsieur! Vous n'y étiez pas obligé." + +It was in 1696, twelve years after his return to Paris, that Regnard +sent the "Joueur," a comedy in five acts, and in verse, to the Théatre +Français. It was received with enthusiastic applause. Nothing equal to +it had appeared in twenty-four years since the death of the great +master; nor did the eighteenth century produce any comedy which can be +compared with it for action, wit, and literary finish,--not excepting +the "Turcaret" of Le Sage, and Beaumarchais's "Barber of Seville," which +are both better known to-day. + +Regnard sat to himself for the portrait of Valère. The wild and +fascinating excitement of play, the gambler's exultation when he is +successful, his furious curses on his bad luck when he loses, his +superstitious veneration for his winnings, are drawn from the life. When +Fortune smiles, Valère neglects Angélique, his rich _fiancée_; when he +is penniless, his love revives, and he is at her feet until his valet +devises some new plan of raising money. He swears, if she will forgive +him, never again to touch dice or cards, and five minutes afterward +pledges for a thousand crowns a miniature set in diamonds she has just +given him to bind their reconciliation, and hurries back to the +gaming-table. He wins, but thinks his gains too sacred to pay away, even +to redeem the portrait of Angélique. + + "Rien ne porte malheur comme de payer ses dettes," + +is his answer to the prudent Hector,--a maxim current among many who +never play. At last comes a reverse of fortune so sweeping that he +cannot conceal it. Angélique might have forgiven him his broken +promises, but the pawnbroker enters with her picture and demands the +thousand crowns. This is too much. She rejects him and gives her hand to +his rival. His indignant father casts him off forever. But no feeling of +regret or of repentance arises in the mind of the gambler. He turns +coolly upon his heel, and calls to his valet,-- + + "Va! va! consolons-nous, Hector,--et quelque jour + Le Jeu m'acquittera des pertes de l'amour." + +Richard is the name of this prince of rascally and quick-witted valets; +but he calls himself Hector, after the knave of spades, because he +serves a gambler. He has good sense as well as ingenuity; for he gives +his master the best advice, while he strains his invention and his +impudence to help him on to destruction. Nérine, maid to Angélique, +declares open war against Valère, and vows that her mistress shall not +throw herself away upon a silly dandy, an insipid puppet, with nothing +to recommend him but his fine clothes and his swagger. + +"True enough," laughs Hector, "but + + "C'est le goút d'à présent; tes cris sont superflus, + Mon enfant." + +"And Valère is a spendthrift, an inveterate gambler, who will bring her +to misery and want." + +"What of that? + + "Tant que tu voudras, parle, prêche, tempête, + Ta maîtresse est coiffée,... + Elle est dans nos filets." + +"And such an outrageous _roué_ that he cannot live in his father's +house." + +"We do not deny it," Hector answers. "It is no fault of ours. + + "Valère a déserté la maison paternelle, + Mais ce n'est point à lui qu'il faut faire querelle; + Et si Monsieur son père avait voulu sortir, + Nous y serions encore;... + Ces pères, bien souvent, sont obstinés en diable." + +Nevertheless, the obdurate parent, in the hope of reforming his son, and +of providing for him by the excellent match with Angélique, hunts up the +prodigal and lectures him after the manner of fathers. Hector joins in, +and expresses strongly his disapprobation of games of chance; "_les jeux +innocents, où l'esprit se déploie_," are the only safe pastime. + +"But will our father pay our debts this time?" + +"Not a crown." + +"Will he lend us the money at one per cent a month? Once out of this +pecuniary strait, we can marry Angélique, and be rich and virtuous. +Besides, we have assets as well as debts: here is our schedule." + +The elder softens a little and takes the paper. At the head of the list +of debts he finds Hector's bill for wages and services rendered, leading +off a long file of Aarons and Levys; and the assets consist of a debt of +honor owing by an officer killed at the Battle of Fleurus, and the +good-will of a match at _tric-trac_ with a poor player who had already +lost games enough to make his defeat certain. + +The action of the comedy does not lag or limp from the opening scene to +Valère's last words. The versification is easy and natural; the dialogue +abounds in wit and comic humor; it is short and quick, with none of +those tedious declamations which weary and unsettle the attention of an +audience. Take it all in all, we may say, that, if Molière had chosen +the same subject, he could hardly have handled it better. + +Not that Regnard can pretend to rank with Molière in genius, or even +near him. The "Gambler" is admirably done; but it is the only comedy in +which Regnard attempted character. He drew from his experience. Molière +was so skilful a moral anatomist that he required only a whim or a +weakness to construct a consistent character. This wonderful man found +the French comic stage occupied by a few stock personages, imported from +Spain and Italy. The elders were fathers or uncles, rich, miserly, and +perverse, instinctively disposed to keep a tight rein on the young +people, of whose personal expenses and matrimonial projects they +invariably disapproved. The persecuted juniors were all alike, colorless +shadows, mere lay figures to hang a plot on: _Léandre, amant de +Célimène; Célimène amante de Léandre_: helpless creatures, who would +have been quite at the mercy of the old dragons of the story, were it +not for the powerful assistance of the rascally soubrettes. These clever +sinners abounded in cunning contrivances, disguises, and tricks, which +resulted in the signal discomfiture of the parents and guardians. In the +last act, they are forced to consent to all the marriages, and are +cheated out of most of their property; they are even lucky to escape +with their lives. There was no mercy for Age in those plays. + + "Pluck the lined crutch from the old limping sire; + With it beat out his brains." + +The theatre was the temple of youth, of love, and of feasting. Away with +the dull old people! Providence created them only to pay the bills. + + "Fuyez d'ici, sombre vieillesse,-- + Car en amour les vieillards ne sont bons + Qu'à payer les violons." + +Did gentlemen of a certain age go to the theatre in the seventeenth +century? expend their money to see themselves abused and ridiculed? Did +they laugh at these indignities and enjoy them? We might wonder, if we +did not know that Frenchmen never grow old, so long as they have an eye +left for ogling or a leg to caper with. + +Molière took these old inhabitants of the stage into his service, and +injected new life into their veins. He gave them the foibles, the +follies, and the vices he saw about him, and made them speak in a new +language of unrivalled wit, humor, and mirth. But his genius was +shackled by the artificial conventions of the theatre, which did not +allow him time or space to fully develop a character. A grand comic +creation like Falstaff was impossible. He introduces a single propensity +of mankind, exhibits it in all its relations to society, shows it to us +on every side; but it remains only a trait of character, although we see +it in half a dozen different lights. Tartuffe is the one exception; in +him, hypocrisy hides covetousness and lust; and Tartuffe is Molière's +masterpiece. But in most of his comedies he displays rather a knowledge +of the world than a knowledge of human nature. In his walk he has no +equal at home or abroad; but his walk is not the highest. We feel that +something is wanting, and yet we can hardly extol him too highly. He +brought comedy into close relation with every-day life; he is the father +of the modern French stage, which has gradually cast off the old +conventional personages. The French dramatists of to-day are not men of +genius like Molière, but, in their airy, sparkling plays, they represent +the freaks, follies, and fancies of society so exquisitely that nothing +remains to be desired. They furnish the model and the materials for the +theatre of all other nations. + +When Regnard came before the public, the stage remained as Molière had +left it The only new personage was the Marquis, first introduced in the +"Mère Coquette," by Quinault, the sweet and smooth writer of operas,--of +whom it was said, that he had boned (_désossé_) the French language. The +Marquis is the ancestor of our Fop,-- + + "Loose in morals and in manners vain, + In conversation frivolous, in dress extreme,"-- + +who in turn has become antiquated and tiresome. Regnard's only original +character is the Gambler; in his other comedies he made use of the old, +familiar masks, and won success by his keen sense of the ridiculous, his +wit, and his unceasing jollity and fun. His Crispins and Scapins are +perfect. What impudent, worthless, amusing rogues! To keep inside of the +law is their only rule of right. "Honesty is a fool, and Trust, his +sworn brother, a very simple gentleman." They came of an ancient race, +these Crispins and Scapins, that had flourished in Italy and in Spain +since Plautus and Terence brought them over from Greece. They found +their way to France, and even reached England in their migration, +following in the train of Charles II. when he returned from exile, and +during a short life on that side of the Channel added drunkenness and +brutality to their gayer vices. The character was true to Nature in +Athens or in Rome, where men of talent might often be bound to devote +their brains to the service of those who owned their bodies, and by +their condition as slaves were released from all obligations of honor or +of honesty. In the seventeenth century it might pass in France; for the +line between gentle and simple was so sharply drawn that ladies of rank +saw no greater impropriety in disrobing before their footmen than before +their dogs. But the progress of liberty or of _égalité_ blotted out the +valets of comedy. Even in Regnard's time the inconsistencies of the +character were noticed. Jasmin, in the "Sérénade," utters revolutionary +doctrine:--"How can an honorable valet devote himself to the interests +of a penniless master? We grow tricky in waiting upon such fellows. They +scold us; sometimes they beat us. We have more wit than they. We support +them; we are obliged to invent, for their benefit, all sorts of knavery, +in which they are always ready to take a share; and, withal, they are +the masters, and we the servants. It is not just. Hereafter I mean to +scheme for myself, and become a master in my turn." + +Scapin has joined his brother pagans beyond the Styx; but Lisette blooms +in evergreen youth. This young French person's theory of woman's rights +is different from the one which obtains in New England; nor does she +trouble herself at all to seek for woman's mission. She found it years +ago. It is to deceive a man. She is satisfied with her condition, and +with the old mental and moral attributes of her sex. When Crispin +disguises himself in her clothes, he exclaims,-- + + "L'addresse et l'artifice ont passé dans mon coeur; + Qu'on a sous cet habit et d'esprit et de ruse-- + Rien n'est si trompeur qu'animal porte-jupe." + +This animal is as clever and as cunning in Paris to-day as when Crispin +felt the inspiration of the petticoats. + +In 1708, after another period of twelve years, "Le Légataire Universel" +was played at the same theatre. In this piece the author relied entirely +upon the _vis comica_ of his plot and dialogue. Géronte, a rich, miserly +old bachelor, with as many ailments as years,-- + + "Vieux et cassé, fiévreux, épileptique, + Paralytique, étique, asthmatique, hydropique,"-- + +has for a nephew Ergaste, with well-grounded hopes of inheriting, and +that shortly. These are suddenly dashed by the announcement that his +uncle has resolved to marry Isabelle, a girl to whom Ergaste himself is +attached. The nephew keeps his own secret, and judiciously commends the +choice of his uncle. Géronte is delighted with him; even asks his advice +about a present for the damsel,--something pretty, but cheap. + + "Je voudrais inventer quelque petit cadeau + Qui coutât peu, mais qui parût nouveau." + +Meeting with no opposition, the old gentleman gradually loses his relish +for matrimony; and Madame Argante, the mother, promises Ergaste to give +Isabelle to him, instead of to his uncle, provided Géronte will declare +his nephew heir to his estate. Unluckily, there are two other +collaterals, country cousins, whom Géronte has never seen, but whom he +wishes to remember. Crispin, valet to Ergaste, assisted by Lisette, the +old man's housekeeper and nurse, personifies first the male and then the +female relative from the rural districts so well that Géronte orders +them out of his house in disgust, swears that he will not leave them a +sous, and sends for a notary to draw his will in favor of Ergaste. But +the excitement of the last interview with Crispin, as a widow, is too +much for his strength. He becomes unconscious, and apparently breathes +his last just as the notary knocks at the door. In this moment of +agonizing disappointment, the indomitable Crispin comes to the rescue. +He puts on the dressing-gown and cap of Géronte, reclines in his +easy-chair, counterfeits his voice, and dictates a will to the notary. +Firstly, he bequeaths to Lisette two thousand crowns, on condition that +she marry Crispin; secondly, he leaves to Crispin an annuity of fifteen +hundred crowns, to reward his devotion to his master; the rest of the +estate, real and personal, to go to Ergaste. The residuary legatee +remonstrates warmly with the testator against his foolish generosity to +Crispin and Lisette; but the sham Géronte insists, and Ergaste is +obliged to submit. The notary withdraws to make the necessary copies of +the will, and the plotters are chuckling over the success of their +plans, when, to their dismay, Géronte enters, alive. He tells them that +he feels his strength departing, and bids them send at once for the +notary to settle his worldly affairs. The notary, who is ignorant of any +deceit, assures him that he has made his will already, and shows him the +document. The conspirators seize the chance of escape, confirm the +notary's story, and relate all the circumstances of the conference, +Géronte protests that he recollects nothing of it; he feels certain he +could not have given more than twenty crowns to Lisette; as to Crispin, +he had never heard of him. The answer is always, "_C'est votre +léthargie_." While perplexed and hesitating, the old man discovers that +a large sum in notes has been abstracted from his hoard. Ergaste had +secured them as an alleviation in case of the worst, and had placed them +in the hands of Isabelle. She promises to return them, if Géronte will +make Ergaste his heir and her husband. In his anxiety for his money, +Géronte consents to everything, and allows the will to stand. + +Nothing, La Harpe tells us, ever made a French audience laugh so +heartily as the scene of the will. Falbaire, one of the _poètes +négligés_ of the eighteenth century, says, in a note to his drama, "The +Monks of Japan," that the Jesuits furnished Regnard with the idea of +this scene. In 1626, the reverend fathers, by precisely the same +stratagem employed by Crispin, obtained possession of the estate of a M. +d'Ancier of Bésançon, who died suddenly and intestate. It is proper to +add that M. Falbaire's drama was written against the Jesuits. + +There are two other plays, out of some twenty that Regnard published, +which will repay a reader: "Les Menéchmes," imitated from Plautus, like +Shakspeare's Dromios, and "Démocrite,"[G] which reminds one a little of +Molière's "Amphitryon." Both are distinguished for that perpetual +gayety, the most pleasing of all qualities, which is the characteristic +of their author. It seems impossible for him to be dull; he never nods; +his bow, such as it is, is always strung. It is remarkable that his +comic scenes, although crammed with fun, never run down into farce; nor +does he find it necessary to eke out his wit with buffoonery. He had an +instinctive taste which preserved him from coarseness; although he wrote +a century and a half ago, there is less of the low and indelicate than +in the plays we see posted at the doors of our theatres. The French of +the time of Louis XIV. must have been a much more refined people than +the contemporary English. At least, Thalia in Paris was a vestal, +compared with her tawdry, indecent, and drunken London sister. One is +ashamed to be seen reading the unblushing profligacy of Wycherley, +Cibber, Vanbrugh, and Congreve. + +We must admit that Regnard's mantle of decorum is not without a rent. In +the "Légataire," as in the "Malade Imaginaire," may be found a good deal +of pleasantry on the first of the three principal remedies of the +physicians of the period, as mentioned by Molière in his burlesque +Latin:-- + + "Clysterium donare, + Postea purgare, + Ensuita seignare." + +It seems to have been a good joke in France then; it is so +now,--wonderfully fresh and new,--defying time and endless repetition. +American eyes do not see much fun in it; they rather turn away in +disgust. But on the risible organs of the French purgative medicines +operate violently; and the favorite weapon of their medical service, +primitive in shape and exaggerated in dimensions, is a property +indispensable to every theatre. Regnard used it as a part of the stage +machinery,--worked it in as a stock pleasantry, the effect of which was +certain. Were he writing now, he would do the same thing. But in the +"Joueur" nobody is ill; it may be read by that typical creature, the +"most virtuous female," publicly and without a blush. + +Gentlemen and ladies whose morals are not fully fledged are generally +advised to beware of attempting to skim over the fiction of modern +France. They may take up Regnard without risking a fall; for there is +little danger of being led astray by the picaresque knaveries of Scapin +and Lisette. In 1700 love for another man's wife had not come to be +considered one of the fine arts. Nowadays the victims of this kind of +misplaced affection are the heroes of French novels and plays. The +husband, odious and tiresome _ex officio_, has succeeded to the miserly +father or tyrannical guardian. He is the giant of French romance, who +keeps the lovely and uneasy lady locked up in Castle Matrimony. He +cannot help himself, poor fellow!--he is compelled to fill that +unenviable position, whenever Madame chooses. Sentimental young Arthurs +and Ernests stand in the place of Ergaste and Cléante, and are always +ready to make war upon the unlucky giant. They overcome him as of old, +scale the walls, and carry off the capricious fair one. We have hardly +changed for the better. Ergaste and Cléante were not sentimental, but +they were marrying men and broke no commandments. + +Regnard's life of fifty years covers the whole of the literary age of +Louis XIV. Before 1660 the French had no literature worth preserving, +except Rabelais, Montaigne, a few odes of Malherbe, a page or two of +Marot, and the tragedies of Corneille. Pascal published the "Provincial +Letters" in the year of Regnard's birth. La Fontaine had written a few +indifferent verses; Molière was almost unknown. In 1686, when Regnard +became an author, the Voitures, Balzacs, and Benserades, the men of +fantastic conceits, the vanguard of the grand army of French wits, had +marched away to Pluto and to Lethe. One or two stragglers, like Ménage +and Chapelle, lingered to wonder at the complete change of taste. The +age had ripened fast. Not many years before, Barbin the bookseller +ordered his hacks to _faire du St. Évremond_. St. Évremond was still +living in England, dirty and witty; and Barbin still kept his shop, but +gave no more orders for wares of that description. Many of the greatest +names of the era were already carved on tombs: La Rochefoucauld, Pascal, +Corneille, Molière. Bossuet was a man of sixty; La Fontaine a few years +older; Boileau and Racine close upon fifty. When Regnard died, in 1710, +the eighteenth century had begun. Fontenelle, Le Sage, Bayle, men of +nearly the same age as himself, belong to it. + +In 1686 King Louis had reached the full meridian of his _Gloire_, +_Grandeur_, _Éclat_. No monarch in Europe was so powerful. He had +conquered Flanders, driven the Dutch under water, seized Franche-Comté, +annexed Lorraine, ravaged the Palatinate, bombarded Algiers and Genoa, +and by a skilful disregard of treaties and of his royal word kept his +neighbors at swords' points until he was ready to destroy them. The +Emperor was afraid of him, Philip of Spain his most humble servant, +Charles II. in his pay. He had bullied the Pope, and brought the Doge of +Genoa to Paris to ask pardon for selling powder to the Algerines and +ships to Spain. He was _Louis le Grand, le roi vraiment roi, le +demi-dieu qui nous gouverne, Deodatus, Sol nec pluribus impar_. Regnard +witnessed the cloudy setting of this splendid luminary. After the secret +marriage with Mme. de Maintenon, in 1686, Fortune deserted the King. He +was everywhere defeated, or his victories were Cadmean, as disastrous as +defeats. The fleet that was to replace James II. on his throne was +destroyed at La Hogue by Russell. The Camisards defied for years the +army sent against them. Rooke took Gibraltar. Peterborough defeated the +Bourbon forces in Spain. Blenheim, Oudenarde, Ramillies, Malplaquet, +brought ruin upon France before Regnard was withdrawn from the scene. + +Meanwhile the Eighteenth Century, with its godlessness and its +debauchery, was born. Hypocrisy watched over its infancy. When Louis +reformed, and took a pious elderly second wife, it was the fashion to be +religious; and whoever wished to stand well at court followed the +fashion. "You who live in France have wonderful advantages for saving +your souls," wrote St. Évremond from London. "Vice is quite out of date +with you. It is in bad taste to sin,--as offensive to good manners as to +morality. And those of you who might be forgetful of their hereafter are +led to salvation by a becoming deference to the habits and observances +of well-bred people." The monarch himself was utterly ignorant in +matters of religion; the Duchess of Orleans wrote to her German +friends, that he had never even read the Bible. He was shocked to hear +that Christ had demeaned himself to speak the language of the poor and +the humble. "_Il avait la foi du charbonnier_," Cardinal Fleury +said,--the blind, unreasoning faith of the African in his fetich. He +considered it due to _gloire_ to assist Divine Providence in its +government of the souls of men. Was he not the greatest prince of the +earth, the eldest son of the Church, standing nearer to the throne of +grace than any insignificant pope? Of course he was responsible for the +orthodoxy of his subjects, a _demi-dieu qui nous gouverne_. He came to +think religion a part of his royal prerogative, and misbelief treason +against his royal person. He was quite capable of going a step beyond +Cardinal Wolsey, and of writing, "_Ego et Deus meus_." He said to a +prelate whose management of some ecclesiastical business particularly +gratified him,--"_J'ignore si Dieu vous tiendra compte de la conduite +que vous avez tenue; mais quant à moi, je vous assure que je ne +l'oublierai jamais_." The spiritual powers are never backward in taking +advantage of favorable circumstances: Huguenots, Jansenists, and +Quietists were sternly put down, and the girdle of superstition +tightened until it began to crack. The skeptics were quiet,--asked but +few questions,--pretended to be satisfied with the time-honored answers +Mother Church keeps for her uneasy children,--and seemed to be busy with +the "Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes," and the "Dispute sur les +Cérémonies Chinoises." It was not yet the time for them to announce +pompously their radical theories as new and true. A thin varnish of +decorum and orthodoxy overspread everything; but one may see the shadow +of the coming _Régence_ in Regnard's works. He and gentlemen like him +went to mass in the morning, and to pleasure for the rest of the day and +night. + + "Ils sont chrétiens à la messe, + Ils sont païens à l'opéra." + +Regnard was almost as much of a pagan as his favorite Horace,--called +for wines, roses, and perfumes, and sang his Lydia and his Lalage almost +in the same words. His creed and his philosophy were pagan. He adored +three goddesses,--_la Comédie_, _la Musique_, _la bonne Chère_; his +solution of the problem of life was enjoyment. + + "Fair tout ce qu'on veut, vivre exempt de chagrin, + Ne se rien refuser,--Voilà tout mon systême, + Et de mes jours ainsi j'attraperai la fin." + +Wisdom was given to man to temper pleasure,--to avoid excess, which +destroys pleasure. Regnard had agreeable recollections of the past; the +present satisfied him; he was as careless of the unknown future as De +Retz, whose _épouvantable tranquillité_, appalling ease of mind on that +point, so shocked poor Mme. de Sévigné. All other speculations he put +quietly aside with a doubt or a _cui bono_. It was a witty and refined +selfishness, and nothing beyond. Spiritual light, faith, none; hope that +to-morrow might pass as smoothly as to-day; love, only that particular +affection which man feels for his female fellow-creature. Such a +heathenish frame of mind will find little favor in this era of +yearnings, seekings, teachings. It was, indeed, a lamentable condition +of moral darkness; but the error, though grievous, has its attractive +side. + + "On court après la vérité; + Ah! croyez moi, l'erreur a son mérite." + +It is a relief in these dyspeptic times to turn back to Regnard, the +big, rosy, and jolly pagan, enjoying to the utmost the four blessings +invoked upon the head of Argan by the chorus of Doctors:-- + + "Salus, honor et argentum. + Arque bonum appetitum." + +Comfortable, contented with himself and with the world, he was free from +the sadness, the misgivings, and the enervating doubts which overrun so +many morbid minds,--symptoms of moral weakness, and of the want of +healthy occupation. Hence lady poets, more than all others, love to +indulge in these feeble repinings, and take the privilege of their sex +to shed tears on paper. In his bachelor establishment, Rue de +Richelieu, there was, he tells us,-- + + "Grande chere, vin délicieux, + Belle maison, liberté toute entière, + Bals, concerts, enfin tout ce qui peut satisfaire + Le goût, les oreilles, les yeux." + +The _Société choisie_ was numerous; for a good cook never fails to make +friends for his master, and Regnard's cook dealt with fat capons, +plover, and ortolans. His lettuce, mushrooms, and artichokes were grown +under his own eyes. The choice vintages of France, in casks, lay in his +cellar. He gave wine to nourish wit, not to furnish an opportunity for +ostentatious gabble about age and price. How he revels in the +description of good cheer! There rises from his pages _fumet_ of game +and the _bouquet d'un vin exquis_. + + "Et des perdrix! Morbleu! d'un fumet admirable + Sentez plutôt, Quel baume! Mon Dieu!" + +Why are American authors so commonly wan and gaunt, with none of the +external marks of healthy gayety? Is it the climate, or the lack of +out-door exercise, or hot-air furnaces, or rascally cooks? They look as +if, like Burns's man, they "were made to mourn." If they conceive a +joke, their sad, sharp voices and angular gesticulations make it +miscarry. Now and then they rebel against their constitutions, poor +fellows, and try to imitate the jovial ancestors they have read of; +babble shrilly of _noctes coenæque Deûm, petits soupers_, and what +not. It is mostly idle talk. They know too well that digestion does not +wait upon appetite in the evening,--and that they will feel better for +the next week, if they restrict their debauch to dandelion coffee and +Graham bread. Moreover, the age of conviviality is gone, as much as the +age of chivalry. _Petits soupers_ are impossible in this part of the +world. Let us manfully confess one reason: they cost too much. And we +have not the wit, nor the wicked women, nor the same jolly paganism. +Juno Lucina reigns here in the stead of Venus; and Bacchus is two +dollars a bottle. + +But these and other good things Regnard had in abundance, and so lived +smoothly and happily on, defying time,--for he held, with Mme. de +Thianges, "_On ne viellit point à table_" until one day he overheated +himself in shooting, drank abundantly of cold water, and fell +dead,--Euthanasia. He died a bachelor, and, if we may judge from many of +his verses, seems, like Thackeray, to have wondered why Frenchmen ever +married. But he had a keen eye for "the fair defect of Nature." +Strabon's description of young Criseïs before her glass could have been +written only by an amateur:-- + + "Je la voyais tantôt devant une toilette + D'une _mouche assasine irriter ses attraits_." + +Neither Molière, Regnard, nor Le Sage was a member of the Academy. + +Béranger thinks it remarkable that the _improvisations folles et +charmantes_ of Regnard should now be neglected in France. We do not +recollect to have met with him even in the "Causeries" of Ste. Beuve, +who has ransacked the French Temple of Fame from garret to cellar for +_feuilleton_ materials; yet the "Légataire" kept a foothold on the stage +for a hundred and twenty years. But the Temple of Fame is overcrowded. +Every day some worthy fellow is turned out to make room for a new-comer. +Our libraries are not large enough to hold the mob of authors who press +in. What with newspapers, magazines, and the last new novel, few persons +have time to read more than the titles on the backs of their books. They +are familiar with the great names, take their excellence on trust, and +allow them to stand neglected and dusty on their shelves. But with +another generation the great names will become mere shadows of a name; +and so on to oblivion. Father Time has a good taste in literature, it is +true. He mows down with his critical scythe the tares which spring up in +such daily abundance; but, unfortunately, he cannot stop there: after a +lapse of years, he sweeps away also the fruit of the good seed to make +room for the productions of his younger children. + + "For he's their parent and he is their grave." + +The doom is universal; it cannot be avoided. There must be an end to all +temporal things, and why not to books? The same endless night awaits a +Plato and a penny-a-liner. Our Eternities of Fame, like all else +appertaining to humanity, will some day pass away. Even Milton and +Shakspeare, our great staple international poets, who have been brought +out whenever the American ambassador to England dined in public, are +travelling the same downward path. How many of us, man or woman, on the +sunny side of thirty, have gone through the "Paradise Lost"? And +Shakspeare, in spite of new editions and of new commentators, is not +half as much read as fifty years since. Perhaps the time will come when +English speaking people will not know to whom they owe so many of the +proverbs, metaphors, and eloquent words which enrich their daily talk. + +Will none escape this inexorable fate? Homer and Robinson Crusoe seem to +us to have the most tenacity of life. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[F] The proverbial French expression for the thief who rebuked his +reviling comrade at the crucifixion. + +[G] Démocrite, in an attack upon a heavy diner-out, says,-- + + "Il creuse son tombeau sans cesse avec ses dents,"-- + +and thus anticipates Sir Astley Cooper by many years. It is lucky that +these fellows, who took a mean advantage of seniority to get off our +good things before us, have perished, or they might give us trouble. At +least two Frenchmen could claim "the glorious Epicurean paradox" of one +of the seven wise men of Boston, "Give us the luxuries of life, and we +will dispense with its necessaries,"--M. de Voltaire, and M. de +Coulanges, a generation earlier. These "flashing moments" of the wise in +Boston, as in other great places, are often, like heat-lightning, +reflections of a previous flash. + + + + +JOHN BROWN'S RAID: + +HOW I GOT INTO IT, AND HOW I GOT OUT OF IT. + + +It was a wet Monday in October, on my return from a journey, with a +large party of friends and acquaintances, as far north as Chicago and as +far south as St. Louis and the Iron Mountain. We were gradually nearing +home, and the fun and jollity grew apace as we got closer to the end of +our holiday and to the beginning of our every-day work. Our day's ride +was intended to be from Cumberland (on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad) +to Baltimore. The murky drizzle made our comfortable car all the more +cozy, and the picturesque glories of that part of Western Virginia, +through which we had come very leisurely and enjoyably, were heightened +by the contrast of the dull cloud that hung over the valley of the +Potomac. At Martinsburg the train was stopped for an unusually long +time; and in spite of close questioning, we were obliged to satisfy our +curiosity with a confused story of an outbreak and a strike among the +workmen at the armory, with a consequent detention of trains, at +Harper's Ferry. The train pushed on slowly, and at last came to a dead +halt at a station called The Old Furnace. There a squad of half a dozen +lazy Virginia farmers--we should call them a picket just now, in our day +of military experiences--told us half a dozen stories about the troubles +ahead, and finally the people in charge of our train determined to send +it back to wait for further news from below. A young engineer who was +employed on the railroad was directed to go along the track to examine +it, and see what, if any, damage had been done. As I had brushed up an +acquaintance with him, I volunteered to accompany him, and then was +joined by a young Englishman, a Guardsman on his travels, one of the +Welsh Wynns, just returning from a shooting-tour over the Prairies. We +started off in the rain and mud, and kept together till we came to a +bridle-path crossing the railroad and climbing up the hills. Here we met +a country doctor, who offered to guide us to Bolivar, whence we could +come down to the Ferry, and as the trains would be detained there for +several hours, there would be time enough to see all the armory +workshops and wonders. So off we started up the muddy hillside, leaving +our engineer to his task on the railroad; for what pedestrian would not +prefer the worst dirt road to the best railroad for an hour's walking? +Our Englishman was ailing and really unwell, and half-way up the rough +hill left us to return to the easy comfort of the train. + +My guide--Dr. Marmion was the name he gave in exchange for mine--said +that the row at the Ferry was nothing but a riotous demonstration by the +workmen. He came from quite a distance, and, hearing these vague +reports, had turned off to visit his patients in this quarter, so that +he might learn the real facts; and as it was then only a little past +nine, he had time to do his morning's work in Bolivar. So there we +parted, he agreeing to join me again at the Ferry; and he did so later +in the day. + +Turning to the left on the main pike, I found little knots of lounging +villagers gathered in the rain and mud, spitting, swearing, and +discussing the news from the Ferry. Few of them had been there, and none +of them agreed in their account of the troubles; so I plodded on over +the hill and down the sharp slope that led to the Ferry. Just as I began +the descent, a person rode up on horseback, gun in hand, and as we came +in sight of the armory, he told me the true story,--that a band of men +were gathered together to set the slaves free, and that, after starting +the outbreak on the night before, they had taken refuge down below. He +pointed with his gun, and we were standing side by side, when a sudden +flash and a sharp report and a bullet stopped his story and his life. + +The few people above us looked down from behind the shelter of houses +and fences;--from below not a soul was visible in the streets and alleys +of Harper's Ferry, and only a few persons could be seen moving about the +buildings in the armory inclosure. In a minute, some of the townspeople, +holding out a white handkerchief, came down to the fallen man, and, +quite undisturbed, carried him up the hill and to the nearest +house,--all with hardly a question or a word of explanation. Shocked by +what was then rare enough to be appalling,--sudden and violent death by +fire-arms in the hands of concealed men,--I started off again, meaning +to go down to the Ferry, with some vague notion of being a peace-maker, +and at least of satisfying my curiosity as to the meaning of all these +mysteries: for while I saw that that fatal rifle-shot meant destruction, +I had no conception of a plot. + +Just as I reached the point where I had joined the poor man who had +fallen,--it was a Mr. Turner, formerly a captain in the army, and a +person deservedly held in high esteem by all his friends and +neighbors,--a knot of two or three armed men stopped me, and after a +short parley directed me to some one in authority, who would hear my +story. The guard who escorted me to the great man was garrulous and kind +enough to tell me more in detail the story, now familiar to all of us, +of the capture of Mr. Lewis Washington and other persons of note in the +Sunday night raid of a body of unknown men. The dread of something yet +to come, with which the people were manifestly possessed, was such as +only those can know who have lived in a Slave State; and while there was +plenty of talk of the steadiness of the slaves near the Ferry, it was +plain that that was the magazine that was momentarily in danger of going +off and carrying them all along with it. + +The officers of the neighboring militia had gathered together in the +main tavern of the place, without waiting for their men, but not +unmindful of the impressive effect of full uniform, and half a dozen +kinds of military toggery were displayed on the half-dozen persons +convened in a sort of drum-head court-martial. I was not the only +prisoner, and had an opportunity to hear the recitals of my fellows in +luck. First and foremost of all was a huge, swaggering, black-bearded, +gold-chain and scarlet-velvet-waistcoated, piratical-looking fellow, who +announced himself as a Border Ruffian, of Virginia stock, and now +visiting his relations near the Ferry; but he said that he had fought +with the Southern Rights party in the Kansas war, and that when he +heard of the "raid," as he familiarly called the then unfamiliar feat of +the Sunday night just past, he knew who was at the top and bottom of it, +and he described in a truthful sort of way the man whose name and +features were alike unknown to all his listeners,--"Ossawatomie Brown," +"Old John Brown." Garnishing the story of their earlier contests with +plentiful oaths, he gave us a lively picture of their personal +hand-to-hand rights in the West, and said that he had come to help fight +his old friend and enemy, and to fight him fair, just as they did in +"M'souri." He wanted ten or a dozen men to arm themselves to the teeth, +and he'd lead 'em straight on. His indignation at his arrest and at the +evident incredulity of his hearers and judges was not a whit less hearty +and genuine than his curses on their cowardice in postponing any attack +or risk of fighting until the arrival of militia, or soldiers, or help +of some kind, in strength to overpower the little band in the armory, to +make resistance useless, and an attack, if that was necessary, safe +enough to secure some valiant man to lead it on. + +My story was soon told, I was a traveller; my train had been stopped; I +had started off on foot, meaning to walk over the hill to the Ferry, and +expecting there to meet the train to go on to Baltimore. The +interruptions were plentiful, and the talk blatant. I showed a ticket, a +memorandum-book giving the dates and distances of my recent journey, and +a novel (I think it was one of Balzac's) in French, and on it was +written in pencil my name and address. That was the key-note of plenty +of suspicion. How could they believe any man from a Northern city +innocent of a knowledge of the plot now bursting about their ears? Would +not my travelling-companions from the same latitude be ready to help +free the slaves? and if I was set at liberty, would it not be only too +easy to communicate between the little host already beleaguered in the +armory engine-house and the mythical great host that was gathered in the +North and ready to pour itself over the South? Of course all this, the +staple of their every-day discussions, was strange enough to my ears; +and I listened in a sort of silent wonderment that men could talk such +balderdash. Any serious project of a great Northern movement on behalf +of Southern slaves was then as far from credible and as strange to my +ears as it was possible to be. It seemed hardly worth while to answer +their suggestions; I therefore spoke of neighbors of theirs who were +friends of mine, and of other prominent persons in this and other parts +of Virginia who were acquaintances, and for a little time I hoped to be +allowed to go free; but after more loud talk and a squabble that marked +by its growing violence the growing drunkenness of the whole party, +court and guard and spectators all, I was ordered along with the other +prisoners to be held in custody for the present. We were marched off, +first to one house and then to another, looking for a convenient prison, +and finally found one in a shop. Here--it was a country store--we sat +and smoked and drank and chatted with our guard and with their friends +inside and out. Now and then a volley was fired in the streets of the +village below us, and we would all go to a line fence where we could see +its effects: generally it was only riotous noise, but occasionally it +was directed against the engine-house or on some one moving through the +armory-yard. + +As the militia in and out of uniform, and the men from far and near, +armed in all sorts of ways, began to come into the village in squads, +their strength seemed to give them increased confidence, and especially +in the perfectly safe place where I sat with half a dozen others under a +heavy guard. Now and then an ugly-looking fowling-piece or an awkwardly +handled pistol was threateningly pointed at us, with a half-laughing and +half-drunken threat of keeping us safe. Toward afternoon we were ordered +for the night to Charlestown, and to the jail there that has grown so +famous by its hospitality to our successors. The journey across was +particularly enlivening. My special guard was a gentlemanly young +lawyer, one of the Kennedys of that ilk; and to his cleverness I think I +owed my safe arrival at the end of our journey. Every turn in the road +brought us face to face with an angry crowd, gathering from far and +near, armed and ready to do instant justice on a helpless victim. +Kennedy, however, gracefully waived them back to the wagons behind us, +where other prisoners, in less skilful hands, were pretty badly used. +The houses on the road were utterly deserted; on the first news of an +outbreak by the slaves, the women and children were hurried off to the +larger towns,--the men coming slowly back in squads and arming as best +they could, and the negroes keeping themselves hid out of sight on all +sides. + +The eight miles' distance to Charlestown was lengthened out by the rain +and mud, and the various hindrances of the way, so that the day was +closing as we came into the main street of the straggling little town. +The first odd sight was a procession of black and white children playing +soldiers, led by a chubby black boy, full of a sense of authority, and +evidently readily accepted by his white and black comrades in childlike +faith. The next was a fine, handsome house, where a large number of +ladies from the country round had been gathered together, and as we were +greeted in going by, my guide stopped, and introducing me, I explained +my position. They were all ready with their sympathy, and all +overpowering with their gratitude, when I pooh-poohed their fear of a +great Northern invasion, and said that the people of the North were just +as innocent of any participation in this business as they themselves +were. Our line of march resumed brought us to the prison, and I was not +sorry to have the shock of an enforced visit somewhat lessened by a +general invitation from mine host of an adjoining tavern to liquor up. +Of course I was noways chary of invitations to the crowd, and the +bar-room being full, I made the bar my rostrum, and indulged in a piece +of autobiography that was intended to gain the general consent to return +to my fellow-travellers, who were reported still at Martinsburg. If I +cannot boast of great success _at_ the bar, I am as little proud of my +eloquence _on_ the bar. One of the Kennedys, brother to my guard, did +suggest taking me to his house, half a mile off; but to that Colonel +Davenport, a bustling great man of the village, answered, that, as there +was sure to be some hanging at night, it would be safer to be in the +prison, as well from the mob as from any escape on my own part, and it +was better to stay contentedly where I was. Doctor Marmion, my +acquaintance of the morning, rode over to find me and to explain his +part in my visit to the Ferry, hoping that such a confirmation of my +story would secure my immediate release. But by that time I was in the +custody of the sheriff, by some military legal process; and while that +officer was kind and civil, he refused to do anything, except promise me +an early hearing before the court-martial, which was to reassemble the +next day. Finally, I was hustled through a gaping, pot-valiant crowd, +into the prison, where the mob had violently taken possession; and it +was a good while before I could be got up stairs and safely locked into +my cell. The bolts were shot pretty sharply, but the sense of relief +from the threats and impertinence of the bullying fellows outside quite +outweighed my sensation of novelty on finding myself in such strange +quarters. My supper was sent up, my friendly guard gave me cigars, and a +buxom daughter of the jailer lent me a candle. I lay down on a rough cot +and was soon asleep; my last recollection was of my sturdy guard, armed +and wakeful, in front of my cell; and I woke after several hours of +sound, refreshing slumber, startled by the noise of his angry answers to +some still more angry and very drunken men. They had, so I learned +partly then and partly afterwards, broken into the jail, and hurried +from the cell next to mine a poor black prisoner, who was forthwith +hanged; and, whetted by their sport, they had returned to find a fresh +victim. Fortunately, in the turmoil of their first attack, the only +other prisoner easily got hold of was a white boy, who escaped, while I +owed my safety to Kennedy's earnest protestations, and to his ready use +of a still more convincing argument, a loaded pistol and a quick hand. + +Early morning was very welcome, for it brought the court-martial up to +Charlestown, and I was soon ready for a hearing. Fortunately, after a +good deal of angry discussion and some threats of a short shrift, a +message came up from the Ferry from Governor Wise; and as I boldly +claimed acquaintance with him, they granted me leave to send down a note +to him, asking for his confirmation of my statements. While this was +doing, I was paroled and served my Kansas colleague by advice to hold +his tongue; he did so, and was soon released; and my messenger returned +with such advices, in the shape of a pretty sharp reprimand to the busy +court-martial for their interference with the liberty of the citizen, as +speedily got me my freedom. I used it to buy such articles of clothing +as could be had in Charlestown, and my prison clothes were gladly thrown +aside. Some of my fellow-travellers reached the place in time to find me +snugly ensconced in the tavern, waiting for an ancient carriage; with +them we drove back to the Ferry in solemn state. The same deserted +houses and the same skulking out of sight by the inhabitants showed the +fear that outlasted even the arrival of heavy militia reinforcements. We +stopped at Mr. Lewis Washington's, and, without let or hindrance, walked +through the pretty grounds and the bright rooms and the neat negro huts, +all alike lifeless, and yet showing at every turn the suddenness and the +recentness of the fright that had carried everybody off. Our ride +through Bolivar was cheered by a vigorous greeting from my captor of the +day before,--the village shoemaker, a brawny fellow,--who declared that +he knew I was all right, that he had taken care of me, that he would not +have me hanged or shot, and "wouldn't I give him sum't to have a drink +all round, and if I ever came again, please to stop and see him"; and so +I did, when I came back with my regiment in war-times; but then no +shoemaker was to be found. + +I paid my respects to Governor Wise, and thanked him for my release; was +introduced to Colonel Lee, (now the Rebel general,) and to the officers +of the little squad of marines who had carried the stronghold of the +"invaders," as the Governor persistently called them. In company with +"Porte Crayon," Mr. Strothers, a native of that part of Virginia, and +well known by his sketches of Southern life in "Harper's Magazine," I +went to the engine-house, and there saw the marks of the desperate +defence and of the desperate bravery of John Brown and his men. I saw, +too, John Brown himself. Wounded, bleeding, haggard, and defeated, and +expecting death with more or less of agony as it was more or less near, +John Brown was the finest specimen of a man that I ever saw. His great, +gaunt form, his noble head and face, his iron-gray hair and patriarchal +beard, with the patient endurance of his own suffering, and his painful +anxiety for the fate of his sons and the welfare of his men, his +reticence when jeered at, his readiness to turn away wrath with a kind +answer, his whole appearance and manner, what he looked, what he +said,--all impressed me with the deepest sense of reverence. If his +being likened to anything in history could have made the scene more +solemn, I should say that he was likest to the pictured or the ideal +representation of a Roundhead Puritan dying for his faith, and silently +glorying in the sacrifice not only of life, but of all that made life +dearest to him. His wounded men showed in their patient endurance the +influence of his example; while the vulgar herd of lookers-on, fair +representatives of the cowardly militia-men who had waited for the +little force of regulars to achieve the capture of the engine-house and +its garrison, were ready to prove their further cowardice by maltreating +the prisoners. The marines, who alone had sacrificed life in the +attack, were sturdily bent on guarding them from any harsh handling. I +turned away sadly from the old man's side, sought and got the +information he wanted concerning "his people," as he called them, and +was rewarded with his thanks in a few simple words, and in a voice that +was as gentle as a woman's. The Governor, as soon as he was told of the +condition of the prisoners, had them cared for, and, in all his +bitterness at their doings, never spoke of them in terms other than +honorable to himself and to them. He persistently praised John Brown for +his bravery and his endurance; and he was just as firm in declaring him +the victim of shrewd and designing men, whose schemes he would yet +fathom. + +The day was a busy one; for little squads of regulars were sent out on +the Maryland Heights to search for the stores accumulated there; and +each foraging party was followed by a tail of stragglers from all the +volunteers on the ground, who valiantly kept on to the Maryland side of +the bridge that crossed the Potomac, and then, their courage oozing out +of their fingers and toes both, stopped there and waited for the return +of the regulars. On the instant of their arrival, each time fetching a +great hay-wagon full of captured goods, tents, picks, spades, pikes, the +tag-rag and bobtail party at once set to work to help themselves to the +nearest articles, and were soon seen making off homeward with their +contraband of war on their backs. The plunder, however, was not confined +to the captured property. A strong force of militia soon invaded the +armory, and every man helped himself to a rifle and a brace of pistols, +and then, tiring of the load, began to chaffer and bargain for their +sale. Governor Wise was called on to interfere and preserve the +Government property; he came into the little inclosure of the works, and +began an eloquent address, but seeing its uselessness, broke off and put +his Richmond Grays on guard; and then the distribution of public +property was made through the regular channels,--that is, the men inside +brought guns and pistols to the men on guard, and they passed them out +to their friends beyond, so that the trade went on almost as free as +ever. + +Night soon came, and it was made hideous by the drunken noise and +turmoil of the crowd in the village; matters were made worse, too, by +the Governor's order to impress all the horses; and the decent, sober +men trudged home rather out of humor with their patriotic sacrifice; +while the tipsy and pot-valiant militia fought and squabbled with each +other, and only ceased that sport to pursue and hunt down some fugitive +negroes, and one or two half-maddened drunken fellows who in their +frenzy proclaimed themselves John Brown's men. Tired out at last, the +Governor took refuge in the Wager House;--for an hour or two, he had +stood on the porch haranguing an impatient crowd as "Sons of Virginia!" +Within doors the scene was stranger still. Huddled together in the worst +inn's worst room, the Governor and his staff at a table with tallow +candles guttering in the darkness, the Richmond Grays lying around the +floor in picturesque and (then) novel pursuit of soft planks, a motley +audience was gathered together to hear the papers captured at John +Brown's house--the Kennedy farm on Maryland Heights--read out with the +Governor's running comments. The purpose of all this was plain enough. +It was meant to serve as proof of a knowledge and instigation of the +raid by prominent persons and party-leaders in the North. The most +innocent notes and letters, commonplace newspaper-paragraphs and printed +cuttings, were distorted and twisted by the reading and by the talking +into clear instructions and positive plots. However, the main impression +was of the picturesqueness of the soldiers resting on their knapsacks, +and their arms stacked in the dark corners,--of the Governor and his +satellites, some of them in brilliant militia array, seated around the +lighted table,--and of the grotesque eloquence with which either the +Governor or some of his prominent people would now and then burst out +into an oratorical tirade, all thrown away on his sleepy auditors, and +lost to the world for want of some clever shorthand writer. + +In the morning I was glad to hear that my belated train had spent the +last forty-eight hours at Martinsburg, and I did not a bit regret that +my two days had been so full of adventure and incident. Waiting for its +coming, I walked once more through the village, with one of the watchmen +of the armory, who had been captured by John Brown and spent the night +with him in the engine-house, and heard in all its freshness the story +now so well known. Then I bade Governor Wise good-bye, and was duly +thanked for my valiant services to the noble Mother of States, and +rewarded by being offered the honorary and honorable title of A.D.C. to +the commander-in-chief of Virginia, both for past services and for the +future tasks to be met, of beating off invading hosts from the +North,--all in the Governor's eye. Luckily for both sides, I declined +the handsome offer; for my next visit to Virginia was as an A.D.C. to a +general commanding troops, not of the North, but of the United States, +invading, not the Virginia of John Brown's time, but the Virginia of a +wicked Southern Confederacy. + +Not long after, I received a letter of thanks from Governor Wise, +written at Richmond and with a good deal of official flattery. His son +Jennings, an old acquaintance of mine in pleasant days in Germany, came +to see me, too, with civil messages from his father. Poor fellow! he +paid the forfeit of his rebellious treason with his life at Roanoke +Island. His father pays the heavier penalty of living to see the civil +war fomented by him making its dreadful progress, and in its course +crushing out all his ancient popularity and power. + +In spite of many scenes of noble heroism and devoted bravery in +legitimate warfare, and in the glorious campaigns of our own successful +armies, I have never seen any life in death so grand as that of John +Brown, and to me there is more than an idle refrain in the solemn chorus +of our advancing hosts,-- + + "John Brown's body lies mouldering in the ground, + As we go marching on!" + +In the summer of 1862, I was brought again to Harper's Ferry, with my +regiment, and the old familiar scenes were carefully revisited. The +terrible destruction of fine public buildings, the wanton waste of +private property, the deserted village instead of the thriving town, the +utter ruin and wretchedness of the country all about, and the bleak +waste of land from Harper's Ferry to Charlestown, are all set features +in every picture of the war in Virginia. At my old head-quarters in +Charlestown jail there was less change than I had expected; its sturdy +walls had withstood attack and defence better than the newer and more +showy structures; the few inhabitants left behind after the ebb and flow +of so many army waves, Rebel and Union succeeding each other at pretty +regular intervals, were the well-to-do of former days, looking after +their household gods, sadly battered and the worse for wear, but still +cherished very dearly. Of my old acquaintances, it was a melancholy +pleasure to learn that Colonel Baylor, who was mainly anxious to have me +hanged, had in this war been reduced to the ranks for cowardice, and +then was shot in the act of desertion. Kennedy was still living at home, +but his brother was in the Rebel service. The lesser people were all +scattered; the better class of workmen had gone to Springfield or to +private gun-shops in the North,--the poorer sort, either into the Rebel +army or to some other dim distance, and all trace of them was lost. + +The thousands who have come and gone through Harper's Ferry and past +Bolivar Heights will recall the waste and desolation of what was once a +blooming garden-spot, full of thrift and industry and comfort almost +unknown elsewhere south of the fatal slave-line; thousands who are yet +to pass that way will see in the ruins of the place traces of the +avenging spirit that has marked forever the scene of _John Brown's +Raid_. + + + + +SCHUMANN'S QUINTETTE IN E FLAT MAJOR. + + +It was near sundown when we reached the sea-side hotel. By the time we +were settled in our apartment, and I had my invalid undressed and in +bed, the soft, long summer twilight was nearly over. The maid, having +cleared away the litter of unpacking, was sitting in the anteroom, near +enough to be within call. The poor suffering body that held so lightly +the half-escaped spirit lay on the bed, exhausted with the journey, but +feeling already soothed by the pleasant sea-breeze which sighed gently +in at the open window. + +Our rooms were on the ground-floor of a one-story cottage. A little +distance off was the large hotel, to which the cottage was attached by a +long arcade or covered gallery. We could hear fragments of the music +which the band was playing to the gay idlers who were wandering about +the balconies or through the hotel grounds; while laughs and little +shrieks, uttered by the children as their pursuing nurses caught them up +for bed, mingled not unpleasantly with the silvery hum arising from the +fashionable crowd and the festal clang of the instruments. + +Sleep half hovered over, half winged off from the pillow. I fanned the +peacock plumes slowly to and fro in the delicious air, gazed with a +suppressed sigh on the darkening West, and repeated with a rhythmical +beat the beautiful Hebrew poem in Ecclesiasticus, which I had so often +recited through many long years by the side of that sick-bed, to soothe +the ear of the sufferer. I had just reached these lines,-- + + "A present remedy of all + Is the speeding coming of a cloud, + And a dew that meeteth it, + By the heat that cometh, + Shall overpower it. + + "At His word the wind is still; + And with His thought + He appeaseth the deep; + And the Lord hath plumed islands therein,"-- + +when I noticed that sleep had settled firmly on the dark eyelids, and +the panting breath came through the poor clay in little soughs and +sighs, as if body and soul, tired with combat, had each sunk down for a +momentary rest on the weary battle-field of life. + +The music of the band had ceased; the gay crowd had withdrawn into the +hotel to prepare for the entertainments of the evening, and there was a +lull of human sounds. Then arose the grand roar of the ocean, which with +the regular break of the billows on the beach beneath the cliff made the +theme where before it had played the bass. + +I crept stealthily out of the bed-room, and, after exchanging my +travelling-gown for a cool white robe, stretched my tired body on the +lounge in the anteroom. + +There I lay with cold finger-tips pressed against burning eyelids, and +icy palms holding with a firm grasp throbbing temples, under which +flowed the hot, seething tide of mortal anguish, anxiety, and aching +love. Some one touched me on the shoulder. I looked up. It was Max who +was standing beside me. + +"There is a great musical treat for you," he said in a low voice. "The +A---- Society is here, and also part of B----'s Opera Troupe, with +Madame C----, and D----, the great tenor. The troupe and society united +are to give such a concert as rarely falls to the lot of mortals to +hear. I never saw a better programme. Look!" + +I read over the concert-bill. First there was an overture; then several +scenes from "Lucia di Lammermoor,"--that great Shakspearian drama, whose +dread catastrophe of Death and Doom leaves in the memory of the hearer a +heavenly sorrow unmixed with earthly taint. It was the master-work of +two poets, Scott and Donizetti, who had conceived it at the best period +of their lives, when they were in all the vigor of manhood, and when +mind and fancy had become ripened by experience. It was formed in one +of those supreme instants, which come like "angels' visits" to artists, +when they were enabled, through a power more like inspiration than art, +to throw aside all outward influences, and fashion as deftly as Nature +could the sad life of the Master of Ravenswood and his "sweet spirit's +mate." + +The Lucia scenes were grouped together and occupied the main part of the +programme. They were those that told the story of the brief passion, +from the sweet birth of love up to the solemn hour when both lovers +passed away to that resting-place "where nothing could touch them +further." + +My eyes lingered over the titles of the scenes, while my memory swiftly +recalled their characteristics:--the First Duet between Lucia and +Edgardo, a passionate burst of youthful love, as delicious as the tender +dialogues between Romeo and his Juliet;--the Sextette, that masterly +pyramidal piece of vocal harmony, in which the voices group around those +of the two lovers, and all mount up glowingly like a flame on a +sacrificial altar;--the heart-rending passage where Lucia's spirit, +frantic through woe, rises supreme over native timidity and +irresolution, and, with one fierce burst of love and grief, which +startles alike tyrant and friend, soars aloft in the terrible, but grand +realm of madness;--and the Finale, where the dying Edgardo sighs out +that delicious air which has been well styled, "a melody of Plato sung +by a Christian soul." + +The programme closed fitly with Schumann's Quintette in E flat Major. + +This Quintette is one of remarkable power and beauty. It is for 'rano, +viola, first and second violin, and 'cello. It is divided into four +movements: _Allegro brillante_; _In moda d'una Marcia_; _Scherzo_; and +_Allegro ma non troppo_. + +As I handed the bill back to Max, he whispered to my maid, who left the +room an instant, and returned with a mantle on her arm. + +"Come," he said, in a decided tone, "you must go, and quickly, too, for +they are already playing the overture. You can surely trust Ernestine +with the watching, as you will be such a short distance off; my +serving-man shall wait in the arcade, and come for you, if you are +needed." + +Then, raising me with kind force from the lounge, he wrapped the mantle +around me. As we passed out, we stood for an instant at the +bed-room-door, looking at the invalid. The breath still came in short +pants, but the truce was being kept: sleep had come in between as a +transient mediator. + +I noticed in the dim light the attenuated frame, the shrunken features, +the pinched nostrils, the very shadowy outlining of death. With choking +throat and swelling breast I looked at Max, my eyes saying what my voice +could not,-- + +"I cannot go." + +Without a word of reply, he lifted me out of the apartment, and in a few +moments we were sitting in a dim corner of the concert-room, listening +to the charming First Duet. + +The scenes followed one another rapidly, and displayed even more +powerfully than I had ever noticed before the one pervading theme. Sense +and imagination became possessed with it; at each succeeding passage the +interest increased continuously, until at the end the passion mounted up +as on mighty wings and carried my sad heart aloft and beyond "the +ordinary conditions of humanity." + +The prima donna, Madame C----, and Signor D----, the tenor, had a sad +story of scandal floating about them; it was on every one's lips. Madame +C---- was no longer in her first youth, but she was still very +beautiful, more attractive than she had been in her younger days,--so +those said who had seen and heard her years before. + +Her young womanhood had been devoted to patient, honest study, which was +rewarded with success, and calm, passionless prosperity. She had married +brilliantly, and left the stage, but after an absence of many years had +returned to it to aid her husband in some reverse of fortune. Her +married life had been tranquilly happy, for she had loved with all the +sweet serenity of a cold, unexacting nature. + +But now it was whispered that this beautiful, pure woman, who had +resisted--indeed, like another Una, had never felt--the temptations +which had environed her on the stage, and in the courtly circle to which +she had been raised by her husband's rank, was being strangely +influenced by a gifted, handsome tenor singer, with whom she had been +associated since her return to her professional life. + +This person was about her husband's age, a year or two her senior, and +unmarried. The infatuation, it was said, existed on both sides, and the +two lovers were so blinded by their strange passion as to seem +unconscious of any other sight or presence. The husband, report added, +behaved with remarkable prudence and good breeding; indeed, some doubted +if he noticed the affair,--for he treated not only his wife, but the +reputed lover, with familiar and kind friendliness. + +The recollection of this scandal flitted over my memory as I listened to +the First Duet. Madame C---- was a blonde; she had rich, deep violet +eyes, and a lovely skin: her hair, too, was a waving mass of the poet's +and painter's golden hue. She was about middle height, and had a full, +well-developed person. + +"When I saw her in Paris and Vienna, twenty years ago," whispered Max, +"she was too pale and slender, and the expression of those brilliant +eyes was as cold and still as glacier depths." + +Not so now, I thought,--for they fairly blazed with a passionate fire, +as the music welled up on her beautiful quivering lips; indeed, the +melody appeared to come from them, as much as from her mouth, and I +seemed to be listening with my looks as well as my hearing. She was not +well, evidently,--for there was a bright red, feverish spot on either +cheek, and her movements were feeble and trembling; but her voice was +full of the deepest pathos. + +"In her best days she never sang so well," said Max, as the room rang +with applause at the termination of the duo, "Time may have taken away a +little fulness from her lower notes; but the touching tenderness which +envelops them, as a purple mist hanging over a forest in autumn, fully +compensates for the loss of youthful vigor." + +Her voice was, indeed, wonderful,--not simply clear and flexible, but +dazzling and glancing, like the lightning that plays around the horizon +on a hot midsummer's night; and her execution was as if the Cherub +All-Knowledge and the Seraph All-Love had united their divine powers in +one human form. + +In the Sextette, which followed, the tenor showed to great advantage. +His voice, though no longer young, was beautifully managed; it had an +exquisite _timbre_, and on this night there was added to it a rare +expression and character. + +When he asked the poor trembling Lucia if the signature to the marriage +contract was hers, there was a concentrated rage in his singing that was +fearful; and Madame C---- almost cowered to the floor, as he held her +firmly by the wrist,--for the scenes were sung in costume and with +action,--and demanded,-- + + "A me rispondi. Son tue cifre? Rispondi!" + +Her affirmative was like the silvery wail of a fallen angel. Then +followed the terrible imprecation passage. He darted out the + + "Maledetto sia l'istante!" + +with such startling fury that the notes and words seemed to be forked, +stinging, serpent tongues. + +The _Stretta_ ensued, and the music-tide flowed so high and full that +the fashionable audience forgot all artificial conventionalities, and +yielded themselves freely to the ennobling emotions of human sympathy. +Above the whole sublime assemblage of sounds wailed out that fearful +note of the fallen cherub; and the fainting of Lucia, at the close of +the Sextette, I felt sure was not a feigned one. + +As the curtain fell over the temporary stage, several gentlemen hurried +out to make inquiries about Madame C----, for there seemed to be an +opinion similar to mine pervading the room. The curtain rose, and it was +announced that she was too ill to sing again; but the murmur of regret +was silenced almost immediately by the appearance of the chorus with +Signor D----, the tenor. + +They began the Finale. Signor D----looked haggard and wan, but very +stern, and there was more of wrath than repentance in his singing. Was +it fancy or reality? The heart-rending + + "O bell' alma innamorata!" + +seemed to be accompanied by distant, half-veiled sobs. No one else +appeared to notice them, and I half doubted their reality. + +The Finale ended; and for a few moments the gay crowd buzzed, and some +stood up and looked about at their neighbors. The interval was short, +however,--for the Quintette performers came upon the stage, and took +their places. + +I leaned back and covered my face with my hand. My memory was still +ringing with echoes of the forlorn cry of wrecked love, mingled with the +imaginary sobs I had just heard; therefore I hardly listened to the +majestic opening of full, harmonious chords, which lead grandly into a +sort of cantabile movement. + +The curious modulations which followed aroused me, and I soon busied +myself in tracing the changes from major to minor, and from one minor +key to another, as sorrows chase each other in life. Just at this part +of the composition occurs the passage which sounds like a weird, ghostly +call or summons: when I heard it, my fancy began working, and, like +Heine, I saw spectres in the music sounds. + +The air seemed to have grown suddenly "nipping and eager." I +unconsciously drew my mantle around my shoulders, as a shiver ran over +me, such as nurses tell us in childhood is caused by some one walking +over our graves. I fancied I saw before me the ghost scene in "Hamlet." +There was the castle platform,--the gloomy battlements,--the sound of +distant wassail; and dimly defined by the vague light of my fancy, stood +the sad young Danish prince, shivering in the "shrewd, biting" +night-air, tortured with those apprehensions and sickening doubts + + "That cloud the mind and fire the brain," + +but talking with a feigned and courtly indifference to his dear friend, +"the profound scholar and perfect gentleman," Horatio; and in the gloom +around them seemed to be arising the questionable shape which was + + "So horridly to shake his disposition." + +Strangely the music displayed its fine forms, mingling most curiously +with, while it created, my fancied pictures,--and though my senses +followed the changing visions, which flitted like a phantasmagoria +before my eyes, my mind traced clearly the music train; but when the +diminished seventh resolved gracefully into the melody which is taken +alternately by 'cello and viola,--the close of the first movement,--my +vision faded gradually away. + +There was a short pause, but the fine artists who were executing the +Quintette did not by any undignified movement break the illusion which +the music had created; although a violin-string needed raising, it was +done with quiet and skilful dexterity, and they proceeded to the second +movement. + +Smoothly and mournfully the Funeral March opened. The solemn melody +which glides softly through it is totally unlike the restless trampings +of Fate heard in other great compositions of the kind; yet Fate is +unmistakably there, quiet, but relentless, like + + "the Pontic sea, + Whose icy current and compulsive course + Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on." + +The _Scherzo_, with its beautiful octave run for the piano and delicious +change of harmony in the next measure,--the weird melody sketched out by +the first violin, and then yielded up to the piano,--and the strange, +but truly inspired, modulations which follow,--lapped my spirit in a +sweet bewilderment. I forgot all the before and after of that "sad and +incapable story" of human life and love which my fancy had been weaving +from the coarse, vulgar threads of common rumor; and even the pictures +vanished which had been evoked of the young prince, + + "In his blown youth blasted with ecstasy." + +I ceased following the modulations, interesting as they were; for often +music fills the thoughts so full that the ear forgets to listen to the +sweet harmonies. + +But I was again aroused by the fine suspension and sequence which open +the last movement of the Quintette,--the _Allegro ma non troppo_. The +fugued passage, the reiteration of the opening theme, and the sad close +were all as tragic as the last scene in "Hamlet," the + + "quarry that cries on, Havoc!"-- + +but it was also as graceful and touching as the words of the dying +prince to his friend,-- + + "Horatio, I am dead: + Thou liv'st. Report me and my cause aright + To the unsatisfied." + +A thousand rumors flitted about the room as the concert broke up. Madame +C---- was so ill, they feared she was dying; and, strange to say, the +tenor, on leaving the platform after the Lucia finale, had been seized +with violent cramps and vomitings, which could not be checked, and he +also was lying in a very critical state. There were dark hints and many +improbable imaginings. + + "All was not well, they deemed; + Some knew perchance, + And some besides were too discreetly wise + To more than hint their knowledge in surmise." + +About an hour after midnight I was lying on the lounge in the anteroom +of the cottage. The faithful maid had taken my place by the +sick-bed,--for my invalid was still sleeping. It was a long, quiet +sleep; and so low and peaceful had grown those suffering, panting +breaths, that they almost startled me into a hope of happier days. Could +health, long absent, be returning? A state of continuous illness, if +free from acute pain, would be a relief. + +These half-formed hopes made me restless, and, instead of taking the +physical repose I needed, I rose from the lounge, and walked out on the +deserted lawn in front of the cottage. The moon was at the full, and +shone brighter than day's twilight. The night was warm, but not +oppressive,--for there was a gentle air blowing, filled with the +invigorating briny odor of the ocean; yet I felt choked and stifled. + +"Just for a breath from the beach," I said to myself, as I descended the +steps leading down from the cliff. + +On reaching the sands, instead of being alone, as I had hoped, I found +two persons already there. I drew back quickly, intending to return; but +they were passing too swiftly to notice me. As they went by, the bright +full moon gleamed over their pale, wan faces, and I recognized in them +Madame C----and the tenor! + +They were talking earnestly, in low, rapid Italian. She leaned on his +arm,--indeed, they seemed to be sustaining each other, for both appeared +feeble and faint; but, tottering as they were, they sped rapidly by, and +so near to me that the corner of Madame C----'s mantle flapped in my +face, and left a strange subtile perfume behind it. + +But what struck me most was the expression of their faces,--such wild, +sad, longing, entreating love! As they disappeared around a corner of +the cliff which jutted out, a dreadful suspicion seized me. Could they +be seeking self-destruction? Were they going to bury their unhallowed +love, with its shame and sorrow, in one wildering embrace beneath those +surging ocean-waves? + +As one in a dream, I moved along the beach, hardly knowing whither I +went. Mechanically I ascended the flight of steps which led to the part +of the cliff directly opposite the hotel entrance. As I walked up the +lawn, I noticed a great commotion in the house. There were lights +flitting about, people running up and down stairs, and many persons +talking confusedly on the gallery and in the hall. + +"What is the matter?" I asked of a waiter who was passing near me, +looking frightened and bewildered. + +He stopped, and answered with all the keen eagerness of an untrained +person, to whom the communicating of a startling story to an uninformed +superior is a perfect godsend. + +"Very strange doings, Ma'am,--very strange!" + +"Aha!" I thought; "they have discovered the absence or flight of those +unhappy creatures." + +"Very strange doings!" he repeated. "The foreign lady who sang to-night, +and the gentleman too, is both dead." + +"Dead!" I exclaimed. "Why, you are mistaken. I saw them just this +instant on the sands below the cliff." + +The man looked at me as if he thought me crazy. + +"I mean the singers, Ma'am,--them as sang at the concert to-night. They +was both taken nigh about the same time, was handled just alike, and +died here a little while ago, a'most at once, as you might say. Folks is +talking hard about the husband of the Madame." + +Then he added, in a lower tone, confidentially, "They do say he poisoned +'em; for, you see, he it was that dressed the lobster salad at dinner, +and made 'em both eat hearty of it, though they were unwilling; and now +they have him over in the office there, in custody." + +"But, my good man," I said, as soon as I could get my breath, "I assure +you they are not dead." + +"Well, Ma'am, if you don't believe my words, you can see 'em with your +own eyes, if you choose"; and he led the way into the hall of the hotel. + +I followed him. We entered a side room,--a sort of reception +_salon_,--where the two poor creatures were, indeed lying extended on +sofas. Several startled persons were gazing at them, but the larger +portion of the crowd were drawn off to the other side of the hotel, +where the unhappy, stunned husband was listening to the fearful charges +of murder,--murder of his wife and his friend! + +I stepped up to the dead bodies,--one after the other. Their dresses had +not even been changed. The stage finery looked very pitiful. A muslin +mantle had been thrown over Madame C----'s bare shoulders and beautiful +bosom; from it arose the same curious perfume I had noticed on the +beach. It was as if that delicate, rare smell had been kept in a box of +some kind of odoriferous resinous wood. + +I touched their cold brows, their icy fingers,--noticed the poor +features, drawn by acute suffering,--and strange as it was, I could see +on both faces, as if behind a gauzy film, the same sad, wild, longing +look of love I had observed on the countenances of those two shadowy +beings I had met on the sands. + +I left the hotel, and walked to the cottage, with my mind in a sad, +bewildered state. I entered the open door, and went to the sick-room. +There stood Max and Ernestine, and she was weeping. + +"It is all over!" he said; "and I am glad she was not here." + +I advanced hurriedly forward, pushed them aside, and stood by the bed. +Yes, that long, quiet sleep had, indeed, been a forerunner of life,--the +true life! All was truly over,--the long years of suffering, the blessed +years of loving care, the combat and the struggle; and on the +battle-field rested the dread shadows of Night and Death! + +And I? I sank on the poor body-shell with one low, long wail, and Nature +kindly extended over me her blessed veil of forgetfulness. + + + + +RICHARD COBDEN. + + +On the third day of April last a most impressive and unusual scene was +witnessed in the English House of Commons. For some time before the hour +for sitting, the members had gathered about the halls and lobbies in +whispering groups. One of its leading members had passed away, and there +was a consultation as to whether the House should move an adjournment. +It is not the custom of the House of Commons to adjourn in case of the +death of one of its members, unless that member is an officer of the +Government or of extraordinary prominence. The last person for whom it +had adjourned was Sir G. Cornwall Lewis. It was considered in the +present case that there were some members whose hostility to the +departed would not stop at the grave, and that the harmony which alone +would make an adjournment graceful as a tribute would be unattainable; +so it was decided that the motion should not be made. When the great, +deep-toned Westminster clock struck four, the members took their seats. +Then slowly entered the ministers, with Lord Palmerston at their head; +and for some moments sitting there with their hats on, one might have +supposed it a silent meeting of Friends. At this moment all eyes were +turned to the door as one entered who is a Friend indeed: heavily, with +head bowed under his terrible sorrow, John Bright walked to his place, +by the side of which was a vacancy never to be filled. Lord Palmerston, +on rising, was received with a cheer which rang through the hall like a +wailing cry, and was followed by a deep hush. As the white-haired old +man, who had seen the leading men of more than two generations fall at +his side, began to speak of the "great loss" which the House and the +nation had suffered, his voice quivered, and recovered itself only when +it sank to a low tone that was deeply pathetic. And when, having +recounted the instances in which Richard Cobden, with his "great +ambition to be useful to his country," had been signally useful, each +instance followed by the refusal of proffered honors and emoluments, he +said, "Mr. Cobden's name will be forever engraved on the most +interesting pages of the history of this country," there was a +spontaneous burst of applause throughout the House. When Mr. Disraeli +arose to speak concerning the man whom for so many years he had met only +in uncompromising political combat, it was at once felt how irresistible +was the force of a right and true man. No yielding, equivocating, +South-by-North politician could ever have brought a lifelong antagonist +to stand by his grave and say,--"I believe, that, when the verdict of +posterity is recorded on his life and conduct, it will be said of him, +that, looking to all he said and did, he was without doubt the greatest +political character the pure middle class of this country has yet +produced,--an ornament to the House of Commons, and an honor to +England." Then arose, as if trying to lift a great burden, noble John +Bright. Twice he tried to speak and his voice failed; at length, with +broken utterance, but with that eloquent simplicity which characterizes +him beyond all speakers whom I have heard,--"I feel that I cannot +address the House on this occasion. Every expression of sympathy which I +have heard has been most grateful to my heart; but the time which has +elapsed, since I was present when the manliest and gentlest spirit that +ever actuated or tenanted the human form took its flight, is so short, +that I dare not even attempt to give utterance to the feelings by which +I am oppressed. I shall leave it to some calmer moment, when I may have +an opportunity of speaking to some portion of my countrymen the lesson +which I think will be learned from the life and character of my friend. +I have only to say, that, after twenty years of most intimate and most +brotherly friendship with him, I little knew how much I loved him, until +I found that I had lost him." As he spoke the concluding words, which +plaintively told his sense of loneliness, the tears that can become a +manly man came thick and fast, and all who were in the House wept with +him. There have been cases in which the House of Commons has adjourned +in honor of deceased members; but perhaps never before has it showed its +emotions in generous tears. Did I say that _all_ wept? I must recall it. +There actually were two or three who, during the entire scene, had +nothing but sneers to give, and sat, as I heard a member remark, "a +group fit for the pencil of Retzsch, fresh from its delineations of +Mephistopheles." I need not write upon the page which mentions Richard +Cobden their names, which, to reverse Palmerston's praise, are engraved +only upon the least creditable pages of the history of their own or of +others' countries. + +When John Bright sat down, some minds were borne back over eight years +when Cobden was addressing a large public meeting without the presence +of his usual companion. Mr. Bright was then in the far South, in +consequence of ill-health of a character to excite grave apprehension +among his friends. During his address, Mr. Cobden, having occasion to +allude to his absent friend, was so overpowered by his feelings that he +could not proceed for several minutes; and rarely has a great audience +been so deeply moved as was that by this emotion in one to whose heart, +true and ruddy, any sentimentality was unattributable. + +To write the history of this friendship between Bright and Cobden, to +tell how the sturdy hearts of these strong men became riveted to each +other, would be to record the best pages of recent English history. For +these men joined hands at the altar of a noble cause; and their souls +have been welded in the fires of a fierce and unceasing struggle for +humanity. + +Richard Cobden was born near Midhurst, Sussex, at his father's +farm-house, Dunford, June 3, 1804. His father was one of the class who +regarded the repeal of the Corn Laws as identical with their ruin. Young +Richard was at an early age placed in a London warehouse, where he so +pressed every leisure moment of his time into the acquisition of +information that his employer reproved him with a warning that lads so +fond of reading were apt to spoil their prospects. (This old gentleman +afterwards became unfortunate, and the young man he had thus warned +contributed fifty pounds for his comfort every year until his death.) +There has been some attempt on the part of certain persons, who have +never forgiven Mr. Cobden for their being in the wrong in the matter of +the Corn Laws, to sneer at him as an uncultivated man. This was, of +course, to be expected by one who made all the old bones in the +scholastic coffins at Oxford rattle again and again, by declaring that +he regarded "a single copy of the 'Times' newspaper as of more +importance than all the works of Thucydides,"--a thing which he has for +some years been willing to pledge himself not to repeat,--or +illustrating the nature of English education by representing +Englishmen's complete knowledge of the Ilissus, which he had once seen +dammed up by washerwomen, and their utter ignorance of the Mississippi, +flowing its two thousand miles through a magnificent country peopled by +their own race. But these partisan sneers could not affect the judgment +of any who knew Mr. Cobden, or those who read his works on Russia and +the United States and his pamphlets on subjects of current interest, +that his classical and historical culture was equal to that of the +majority of his critics, whilst his acquaintance with general philosophy +and political economy was remarkable. + +Mr. Cobden left the ordinary business of the warehouse in which he was +employed to become a commercial traveller, in which capacity he gained +much knowledge of Continental peoples and their languages. At length he +was able to establish himself in the calico business at Manchester, in +the firm "Richard Cobden & Co." The "Cobden prints" became celebrated, +the business flourished, and Mr. Cobden, at the time when he began his +political career, was receiving, as his share of the income, about +forty-five thousand dollars per annum. It was probably about the year +1830, when England was feeling the first ground-swells of the great +Reform agitation, that Mr. Cobden felt called to give himself entirely +to his country's service. He resolved, however, to study for some years +with reference to public questions. In 1834-5 he made a tour through +many countries, including Egypt, Greece, and Turkey, Canada and the +United States. On his return he wrote several pamphlets, in the name of +"A Manchester Manufacturer," which excited attention, and one ("England, +Ireland, and America") a lively controversy. About this time appeared +his first contribution to the Eastern question in a little work entitled +"Russia." In all these his fundamental ideas--Retrenchment, +Non-Intervention, Free Trade--were set forth in a very spirited and +eloquent way. It is now very evident that Mr. Cobden was the product and +utterance of his country at that time; and though he was held to be an +economical visionary, never was visionary in conservative England +blessed with seeing his visions so soon harden into facts. But he was +not so absorbed in national politics, and in his proposed "Smithian +Society," in which the "Wealth of Nations" was to be discussed, as to +forget the more circumscribed duties of a citizen of Manchester. +Manchester was not yet a city with municipal representation, when he +wrote a pamphlet entitled "Incorporate your Borough," which did as much +as anything else to raise it to that dignity; and Manchester showed its +gratitude by electing him to be alderman in the first town-council. + +It is hard for us at this date to realize the condition of England when +that horrible _Sirocco_, as Robert Browning called it, the tax on corn, +was blighting the land. The suicidal policy which had prevailed since +the Peace of 1815 had brought the country to the verge of ruin; and +when, in 1838, those reformers of Manchester repaired to that first +meeting of the Anti-Corn-Law League, it was through crowds of pale, +haggard, starving men, each with his starving family at home, muttering +treason, and prepared for violence at any touch. The banner of Chartism +was already lifted. It was then that these resolute men, with Cobden at +their head, met and vowed sacredly that their League should never be +disbanded until those laws had been repealed. The devotion with which +Richard Cobden fought that good fight may be illustrated by the story +that once his little daughter said to her mother concerning her +father,--"Mother, who is that gentleman that comes here sometimes?" With +a similar devotion to humanity did this tenderest of parents inspire his +companions; and it is not in the nature of things that such labors so +put forth shall fail. One by one the haughty aristocrats yielded; and +when at last Cobden had conquered the conqueror of Napoleon, the battle +was won. The "Times" pooh-poohed the movement, until one day the news +came that a few gentlemen of Manchester had subscribed between forty and +fifty thousand pounds for repeal, when it suddenly discovered that "the +Anti-Corn-Law movement was a great fact." When, in 1841, the new Whig +Ministry, with Sir Robert Peel at their head, came in, elected as +Protectionists, gaunt Famine took its stand by the Royal Mace, like a +Banquo. Sir Robert driving along Fleet Street might see those whom this +new unwelcome commoner represented grimly gazing of "Punch,"--that of +the Premier turning his back on a starving man with half-naked wife and +child, and buttoning up his coat with the words, "I'm very sorry, my +good man, but I can do nothing for you,--nothing!" But though Peel was +the Premier apparent, Cobden was the Premier actual. And means were +found of softening Sir Robert's heart,--these, namely: it was intimated +to him one morning, that, if a division of the House should go against +the Ministry, the Queen would feel compelled to call upon Richard +Cobden, manufacturer, to make a cabinet for her. So the Ministry +yielded, and the League reached its triumph in 1846. It is due to the +memory of Peel to say that he joined with the triumphant nation to yield +every laurel to the brow to which it belonged, and uttered the memorable +prediction that Cobden's name would be forever venerated and loved, +whenever "the poor man ate his daily bread, sweeter because no longer +leavened with a bitter sense of unwise and unjust taxation." + +In the year 1839 Mr. Cobden had heard John Bright speak with great power +at a meeting in Rochdale. A little later, when Bright had just lost his +wife at Leamington, Cobden visited him there. He found him in great +grief. "Think," said Cobden, "think in your sorrow, of the thousands of +men, women, and children, who are this moment starving under the +infamous laws which it is your task and mine to help remove. Come with +me, and we will never rest until we have abolished the Corn Laws." Then +and there were those hands clasped in a sacred cause which were never to +be unclasped but by death. + +Mr. Cobden took his seat in Parliament in 1841, representing Stockport. +He had not only before the triumph of 1846 sacrificed his time and +impaired his health, but also given up his fortune to the cause, and was +a poor man. By a great spontaneous subscription, the nation reimbursed +his actual losses, and amongst other things built the house at Midhurst, +where he resided on the spot that his father had occupied. Immediately +after the repeal Mr. Cobden started on a Continental tour; and in every +city he was met with a triumphal reception, so deeply had his great work +in England affected the interests of all Europe. During his absence he +was elected to represent the great constituency of the West Riding in +Yorkshire, which he accepted. + +It was perhaps in those furious days which preceded the Crimean War that +the noble personal qualities with which Mr. Cobden was endowed shone out +most clearly. When all England, from the thunder of the "Times" to the +quiet Muse of Tennyson, was enlisted for war, Cobden took his stand, and +refused to bow to the tempest. In a moment the nation seemed to forget +the services of years, and Cobden, denounced as a "Peace-at-any-price +man," lost the ear of the country, as did Bright and others in those +days of political anarchy. To the ability and independence with which +Cobden and Bright withstood the popular current then, Mr. Kinglake, the +opponent of both, has done justice. It was, in fact, not true that +Cobden was a "Peace-at-any-price man." Though he maintained earnestly +the principle of non-intervention, it was because he thought that +England in its present hands could not be trusted to intervene always in +the right interest; and never was there a more pointed confirmation of +his suspicion than the event of a war which gave the victory won by the +blood of the people over to the French Emperor, that he might with it +bind back every nation that in Southern Europe was near to its +redemption. The strongest chains binding Circassia, Poland, Hungary, and +Venetia, were forged in the fires of the Crimean War. This popular wave +reached its height and broke, as such waves will, and the people much +ashamed returned to their true leaders. So when, immediately after the +end of the Crimean War, the disgraceful bombardment of Canton occurred, +Cobden was still there in Parliament ready to risk all again. His +resolution condemning the action of Sir John Bowring (who, by the way, +was Cobden's personal friend) was passed in the House by a vote of 263 +to 247. Palmerston appealed to the selfishness of the country on the +subject of Chinese trade, and was sustained. These were the days when +Gladstone and Disraeli lay down together. Cobden, Bright, Gibson, +Cardwell, Layard, Fox, Miall, and others, all lost their seats. To this +interval we are indebted that John Bright recovered strength in a +foreign land, and that we received in the United States the second visit +of Cobden. Whilst they were absent, the reaction set in: Bright was +elected by Birmingham, Cobden by Rochdale. Nay, so strong was the +feeling in Cobden's case, that Palmerston found it to his purpose to +invite him into the Cabinet; and when, returning from America, Cobden +sailed up the Mersey, he was met by a deputation from Liverpool who +informed him of his appointment among the new Ministry. He at once +declined the appointment, for reasons which have not hitherto been given +to the public. Since his death a personal friend of his has written, +that, on this occasion, "he told Lord Palmerston, in answer to +remonstrances against his decision to decline the honor, that he had +always regarded his Lordship as one of the most dangerous ministers +England could possibly have, and that his views had not undergone the +slightest change. He felt that it would be doing violence to his own +sense of duty, and injuring his own character for consistency in the +eyes of his countrymen, to profess to act with a minister to whom he had +all along been opposed on public grounds." + +Mr. Cobden's next great service was in bringing about the treaty of free +commerce with France, a service which has endeared him to the French +beyond all English statesmen, and which brought him from the Queen the +offer of a Baronetcy, which he declined, as he also did in January last +Mr. Gladstone's offer of the chairmanship of the Board of Audit, at a +salary of two thousand pounds. Well might Gladstone say of him, as he +did,--"Rare is the privilege of any man who, having fourteen years ago +rendered to his country one signal and splendid service, now again, +within the same brief span of life, decorated neither by rank nor title, +bearing no mark to distinguish him from the people whom he loves, has +been permitted to perform a great and memorable service to his sovereign +and to his country." + +By the death of Mr. Cobden America has lost one of her truest friends, +one who in all this conflict, which has been reflected in England in a +fierce warfare of parties, has been in the thick or the fight, "the +white plume of Navarre." Nothing told more for the American cause in +Europe than the celebrated speech of Cobden, made at the time when the +busy Southerners were trying to show that the war was not for Slavery, +but Free Trade, in which he declared that he had found the Southerners, +and Jefferson Davis himself, whom he had visited, utterly indifferent to +the Free Trade movement. He was accustomed to speak of American affairs +as an American. I well remember his vehement expressions of feeling +concerning the McClellan campaign in Virginia,--in connection with which +he told me that he was at one time travelling with Jefferson Davis and +McClellan together, and that Davis whispered to him, that, in case of +war, "That man [McClellan] is one of the first we should put into +service." I thought Mr. Cobden inclined to attribute McClellan's +failures to something worse than incapacity. But this is only one +instance of the way in which he followed our war-steps, and was +interested in the subordinate questions which are usually interesting +only to Americans. It is with a melancholy pleasure that we now know +that his last public utterance was the letter on American affairs to our +minister at Copenhagen, which reached England in the American papers the +day before his death,--and that one of his last acts was to send from +his death-bed a contribution to a poor and paralyzed American sailor who +with his family was suffering in London, without any personal appeal +having been made to him. These were the last pulses of a heart that beat +only for humanity. + +Mr. Cobden was one of the finest speakers I have ever heard. There was a +play as of summer lightning about his eloquence, which, whilst it did +not strike and crash opponents, was purifying the atmosphere of the +debate, and lightning up every detail of fact, so that error could not +flourish in his presence, nor even well hide itself. There was a +terseness and massiveness in his speech, curiously blended with subtilty +and fervor. A question of finance would grow pathetic under his touch, +and he could create a soul under the ribs of statistics. He might vie +with Lowell's ideal Jonathan for "calculating fanaticism" and "cast-iron +enthusiasm." But, after all, what more need be said than the epitaph +proposed for his grave: "_He gave the people bread_"? + + + + +MODERN IMPROVEMENTS AND OUR NATIONAL DEBT. + + +At the commencement of the Rebellion it was the general opinion of +statesmen and financiers in other countries, and the opinion of many +among ourselves, that our resources were inadequate to a long +continuance of the war, and that it must soon terminate under pecuniary +exhaustion, if from no other cause. Our experience has shown that this +view was fallacious. After having sustained for several years the +largest army known to modern times, our available resources seem to be +unimpaired. The country is, indeed, largely in debt; but its powers of +production are so great that it can undoubtedly meet all future demands +as easily as it has met those of the past. + +The ability or inability of a nation engaged in war to sustain heavy +public expenses is to be measured not so much by its nominal debt as by +the relation which the sum of its _production_ bears to that of its +necessary _consumption_. A nation heavily in debt may continue to make +large public expenditures and still prosper and increase in wealth, if +its powers of production are correspondingly large also. It is a fact of +the most encouraging kind, that the power of production exhibited by the +United States far exceeds, in proportion to their population, that of +any other nation heretofore involved in a long and costly war. The case +which most nearly approaches ours, in this regard, is that of England, +during her war with Napoleon, from 1803 to 1815. But since the +termination of that long contest, the progress of discovery, +improvements in the machinery and in the processes of manufacture, more +effective implements of agriculture, the general introduction of +railways,[H] and other time- and labor-saving agencies, together with +the constantly increasing influence of the applied sciences, have so +augmented the productive power of humanity, that the experience of the +most advanced nations fifty years ago furnishes no adequate criterion of +what the United States can do now. + +It is not easy to determine the precise ratio in which production has +been increased by these instrumentalities. It is unquestionably very +large,--not less, probably, than threefold. That is to say, a given +population, including all ages and conditions, can produce the articles +necessary for its subsistence, such as food, clothing, and shelter, to +an extent three times as great, with these agencies, as it could produce +without them. Hence it appears, that, if the people of the loyal States +could return to the standard of living that prevailed fifty years ago, +the amount of their production would be sufficient to subsist not only +themselves, but twice as many more in addition. To accomplish this, they +would have, indeed, to devote themselves more to the production of +articles of prime necessity and less to those of mere ornament and +luxury. That they have the productive energy necessary to such a result +there can be no doubt. + +This encouraging view of our condition is fully sustained by official +statements, which show that the industrial products of the country +increase in a greater ratio than the population. In 1850 the aggregate +value of the products of agriculture, mining, manufactures, and the +mechanic arts, in the United States, was $2,345,000.000. In 1860 the +aggregate was $3,756,000,000. This is an increase in ten years of sixty +per cent, whereas the increase of population during that decade was only +thirty-five and a half per cent. Thus we see that during the ten years +ending with 1860--the date of the last census--the products of the +industry of the country increased almost twice as fast as the population +increased. If to this we add the remarkable fact that the value of +taxable property increased during the same period _a hundred and +twenty-six_ per cent, we have striking proof of the existence of a vast +and rapidly increasing productive power,--a power largely due to the +influence of those improvements which have been alluded to. + +One obvious effect of war is to transfer a portion of labor from the +sphere of effective _production_ to that of extraordinary _consumption_. +To what extent the relations of production and consumption among us have +been changed during the present contest it is impossible to state. That +consumption has been largely increased by our military operations is +apparent to all. It is equally apparent that production also has been +augmented, though not, perhaps, to the same extent. The extraordinary +demand for various commodities for war purposes has brought all the +producing agencies of the country into a high state of activity and +efficiency, giving to the loyal States a larger aggregate production +than they had before the war. Of mining and manufactures this is +unquestionably true. As regards the products of the soil, the +Commissioner of Agriculture, in his Report for 1863, says,--"Although +the year just closed has been a year of war on the part of the Republic, +over a wider field and on a grander scale than any recorded in history, +yet, strange as it may appear, the great interests of agriculture have +not materially suffered in the loyal States.... Notwithstanding there +have been over a million of men employed in the army and navy, withdrawn +chiefly from the producing classes, and liberally fed, clothed, and paid +by the Government, yet the yield of most of the great staples of +agriculture for 1863 exceeds that of 1862.... This wonderful fact of +history--a young republic carrying on a gigantic war on its own +territory and coasts, and at the same time not only feeding itself and +foreign nations, but furnishing vast quantities of raw materials for +commerce and manufactures--proves that we are essentially an +agricultural people; that three years of war have not as yet seriously +disturbed, but rather increased, industrial pursuits; and that the +withdrawal of agricultural labor, and the loss of life by disease and +battle, have been more than compensated by _machinery_ and maturing +growth at home, and by the increased influx of immigration from abroad." + +In illustration of the character of those agencies to which we owe the +remarkable and gratifying results thus portrayed by the Commissioner, I +give the following official statement in regard to two of the more +prominent modern implements of agriculture. Mr. Kennedy, in his Census +Report for 1860, informs us "that a threshing-machine in Ohio, worked by +three men, with some assistance from the farm hands, did the work of +seventy flails, and that thirty steam-threshers only were required to +prepare for market the wheat crop of two counties in Ohio, which would +have required the labor of forty thousand men." As it took probably less +than two hundred men to work the machines, the immense saving in human +labor becomes instantly apparent. + +Again, in his last Patent-Office Report, Mr. Holloway states "that from +reliable returns in his possession it is shown that forty thousand +reapers were manufactured and sold in 1863, and that it is estimated by +the manufacturers that over ninety thousand will be required to meet the +demand for 1864"; and these machines, he says, will save the labor of +four hundred and fifty thousand men. + +If the aggregate produce of the loyal States, notwithstanding the large +amount of labor that has been withdrawn from production by the demands +of the war, is actually greater than ever before, and if, as we have +already shown, the sum of that produce is three times as great as the +people of those States, using proper economy, would _necessarily_ +consume, surely no one should feel any anxiety in regard to the ability +of the United States to meet all their pecuniary obligations. + +I have already said that England, in her war with Napoleon, furnishes +the best criterion in history for judging of our own financial +situation; and though the two cases are far from running parallel to +each other, it may be interesting to compare them in some of their +aspects. + +At the restoration of peace in 1815, the national debt of England +amounted in Federal currency to $4,305,000,000. It is impossible as yet +to say what will be the ultimate amount of our national debt. It amounts +now to rather more than one half of the debt of Great Britain, and, at +its present ratio of increase, it will take nearly four years more to +make our debt equal to hers. + +Now, for the purposes of this statement, let us assume that it will take +four years more to finish the war and to adjust and settle all its +contingent claims, and that at the close of that period, say in 1869, we +shall be at peace, with a restored Union, and with a national debt as +large as that of England when peace returned to her in 1815,--how will +the ability of this country to sustain and pay its debt compare with the +ability of England to do the same at the time above referred to? + +The simple fact that England was able to assume so vast a debt, and to +sustain the burden through half a century, during which her prosperity +has scarcely known abatement, and her wealth has been constantly and +largely increasing, ought to satisfy every American citizen that his own +country can at least do as well. But we can do more and better; for a +comparison of the two countries in the matter of ability shows that the +preponderance is greatly in our favor. + +At the respective periods of comparison just named, to wit, 1815 and +1869, the population of the United Kingdom of Great Britain was less +than _one half_ of what the population of the United States will be, and +its amount of foreign trade was less than _one third_. In 1815 the +"factory system" was in its infancy and imperfectly organized, the +steam-engine was unperfected and in comparatively limited use. The +railway, the steamboat, the telegraph, the reaper, the thresher, and +many other important improvements and discoveries which tend to augment +the productive power of nations, have all come since that day. So far as +relates to the question of ability to sustain heavy financial burdens, +England, in 1815, can hardly be compared for a moment with a country +like our own, possessing as it does, in abundance and perfection, the +potent agencies of productive and distributing power just referred to. + +It is true that England is now enjoying, to a large extent, the benefit +of these important agencies; but she had to supply the capital to create +them, after she had assumed the maximum of her enormous debt,--whereas +those agencies were all in active operation among us before any part of +our national debt was incurred. I hardly need suggest that it makes a +vast difference whether a nation has or has not these material +advantages at the time when it is contracting a heavy debt, and that our +position in this respect, so far as the question of ability is +concerned, is a position of immeasurable superiority. + +In regard to the paying of our debt after the return of peace, we +possess some decided advantages, to which I will very briefly allude. Of +these the most obvious are, a greater ratio in the increase of +population, and more extensive natural resources. During the decade +which ended in 1861, the population of the United Kingdom of Great +Britain increased from 27,495,297 to 29,049,540, or less than _six per +cent._ In the ten years which ended in 1860, our increase of population +was from 23,191,876 to 31,445,089, or _thirty-five and a half per cent_. +Thus it appears that during the last ten years for which we have +official returns, the population of the United States increased in a +ratio sixfold greater than that of the United Kingdom. This disparity in +our favor will undoubtedly increase from year to year. + +The home territory of Great Britain is quite inadequate to support even +her present population. This circumstance places that country in a +position of comparative dependence. While she _must_ draw from other +countries a very considerable proportion of her breadstuffs and other +provisions, we supply not only ourselves, but others largely also. The +money which England pays to other nations for bread alone would equal in +thirty years the entire amount of her national debt. + +We need but a resolute and united purpose to sustain with comparative +ease our national burdens, whatever may be their extent. Those who doubt +this under-estimate not only the magnitude of our national resources, +but the powerful aid which modern improvements lend to their +development. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[H] Some estimate of the influence of railways alone may be formed by +reference to the following statement, which occurs in an address of +Robert Stephenson before the Institution of Civil Engineers, in 1856:-- + +"The result, then, is, that, upon the existing traffic of the United +Kingdom of Great Britain, railways are affecting a direct saving to the +people of not less than forty million pounds per annum; and that sum +exceeds by about fifty per cent the entire interest of our national +debt. It may be said, therefore, that the railway system neutralizes to +the people the bad effects of the debt with which the state is +incumbered. It places us in as good position as if the debt did not +exist." + + + + +THE CHIMNEY-CORNER. + +VI. + + +LITTLE FOXES.--PART V. + +INTOLERANCE. + +"And what are you going to preach about this month, Mr. Crowfield?" + +"I am going to give a sermon on _Intolerance_, Mrs. Crowfield." + +"Religious intolerance?" + +"No,--domestic and family and educational intolerance,--one of the seven +deadly sins on which I am preaching,--one of 'the foxes.'" + + * * * * * + +People are apt to talk as if all the intolerance in life were got up and +expended in the religious world; whereas religious intolerance is only a +small branch of the radical, strong, all-pervading intolerance of human +nature. + +Physicians are quite as intolerant as theologians. They never have had +the power of burning at the stake for medical opinions, but they +certainly have shown the will. Politicians are intolerant. Philosophers +are intolerant, especially those who pique themselves on liberal +opinions. Painters and sculptors are intolerant. And housekeepers are +intolerant, virulently denunciatory concerning any departures from their +particular domestic creed. + +Mrs. Alexander Exact, seated at her domestic altar, gives homilies on +the degeneracy of modern housekeeping equal to the lamentations of Dr. +Holdfast as to the falling off from the good old faith. + +"Don't tell me about pillow-cases made without felling," says Mrs. +Alexander; "it's slovenly and shiftless. I wouldn't have such a +pillow-case in my house any more than I'd have vermin." + +"But," says a trembling young housekeeper, conscious of unfelled +pillow-cases at home, "don't you think, Mrs. Alexander, that some of +these old traditions might be dispensed with? It really is not necessary +to do all the work that has been done so thoroughly and exactly,--to +double-stitch every wristband, fell every seam, count all the threads of +gathers, and take a stitch to every gather. It makes beautiful sewing, +to be sure; but when a woman has a family of little children and a small +income, if all her sewing is to be kept up in this perfect style, she +wears her life out in stitching. Had she not better slight a little, and +get air and exercise?" + +"Don't tell me about air and exercise! What did my grandmother do? Why, +she did all her own work, and made grandfather's ruffled shirts besides, +with the finest stitching and gathers; and she found exercise enough, I +warrant you. Women of this day are miserable, sickly, degenerate +creatures." + +"But, my dear Madam, look at poor Mrs. Evans, over the way, with her +pale face and her eight little ones." + +"Miserable manager," said Mrs. Alexander. "If she'd get up at five +o'clock the year round, as I do, she'd find time enough to do things +properly, and be the better for it." + +"But, my dear Madam, Mrs. Evans is a very delicately organized, nervous +woman." + +"Nervous! Don't tell me! Every woman nowadays is nervous. She can't get +up in the morning, because she's nervous. She can't do her sewing +decently, because she's nervous. Why, I might have been as nervous as +she is, if I'd have petted and coddled myself as she does. But I get up +early, take a walk in the fresh air of a mile or so before breakfast, +and come home feeling the better for it. I do all my own sewing,--never +put out a stitch; and I flatter myself my things are made as they ought +to be. I always make my boys' shirts and Mr. Exact's, and they are made +as shirts ought to be,--and yet I find plenty of time for calling, +shopping, business, and company. It only requires management and +resolution." + +"It is perfectly wonderful, to be sure, Mrs. Exact, to see all that you +do; but don't you get very tired sometimes?" + +"No, not often. I remember, though, the week before last Christmas, I +made and baked eighteen pies and ten loaves of cake in one day, and I +was really quite worn out; but I didn't give way to it. I told Mr. Exact +I thought it would rest me to take a drive into New York and attend the +Sanitary Fair, and so we did. I suppose Mrs. Evans would have thought +she must go to bed and coddle herself for a month." + +"But, dear Mrs. Exact, when a woman is kept awake nights by crying +babies"-- + +"There's no need of having crying babies; my babies never cried; it's +just as you begin with children. I might have had to be up and down +every hour of the night with mine, just as Mrs. Evans does; but I knew +better. I used to take 'em up about ten o'clock, and feed and make 'em +all comfortable; and that was the last of 'em, till I was ready to get +up in the morning. I never lost a night's sleep with any of mine." + +"Not when they were teething?" + +"No. I knew how to manage that. I used to lance their gums myself, and I +never had any trouble: it's all in management. I weaned 'em all myself, +too: there's no use in having any fuss in weaning children." + +"Mrs. Exact, you are a wonderful manager; but it would be impossible to +bring up all babies so." + +"You'll never make me believe that: people only need to begin right. I'm +sure I've had a trial of eight." + +"But there's that one baby of Mrs. Evans's makes more trouble than all +your eight. It cries every night so that somebody has to be up walking +with it; it wears out all the nurses, and keeps poor Mrs. Evans sick +all the time." + +"Not the least need of it; nothing but shiftless management. Suppose I +had allowed my children to be walked with; I might have had terrible +times, too; but I began right. I set down my foot that they should lie +still, and they did; and if they cried, I never lighted a candle, or +took 'em up, or took any kind of notice of it; and so, after a little, +they went off to sleep. Babies very soon find out where they can take +advantage, and where they can't. It's nothing but temper makes babies +cry; and if I couldn't hush 'em any other way, I should give 'em a few +good smart slaps, and they would soon learn to behave themselves." + +"But, dear Mrs. Exact, you were a strong, healthy woman, and had strong, +healthy children." + +"Well, isn't that baby of Mrs. Evans's healthy, I want to know? I'm sure +it is a great creature, and thrives and grows fat as fast as ever I saw +a child. You needn't tell me anything is the matter with that child but +temper, and its mother's coddling management." + +Now, in the neighborhood where she lives, Mrs. Alexander Exact is the +wonderful woman, the Lady Bountiful, the pattern female. Her cake never +rises on one side, or has a heavy streak in it. Her furs never get a +moth in them; her carpets never fade; her sweetmeats never ferment; her +servants never neglect their work; her children never get things out of +order; her babies never cry, never keep one awake o' nights; and her +husband never in his life said, "My dear, there's a button off my +shirt." Flies never infest her kitchen, cockroaches and red ants never +invade her premises, a spider never had time to spin a web on one of her +walls. Everything in her establishment is shining with neatness, crisp +and bristling with absolute perfection,--and it is she, the +ever-up-and-dressed, unsleeping, wide-awake, omnipresent, never-tiring +Mrs. Exact, that does it all. + +Besides keeping her household ways thus immaculate, Mrs. Exact is on all +sorts of charitable committees, does all sorts of fancy-work for fairs; +and whatever she does is done perfectly. She is a most available, most +helpful, most benevolent woman, and general society has reason to +rejoice in her existence. + +But, for all this, Mrs. Exact is as intolerant as Torquemada or a +locomotive-engine. She has her own track, straight and inevitable; her +judgments and opinions cut through society in right lines, with all the +force of her example and all the steam of her energy, turning out +neither for the old nor the young, the weak nor the weary. She cannot, +and she will not, conceive the possibility that there may be other sorts +of natures than her own, and that other kinds of natures must have other +ways of living and doing. + +Good and useful as she is, she is terrible as an army with banners to +her poor, harassed, delicate, struggling neighbor across the way, who, +in addition to an aching, confused head, an aching back, sleepless, +harassed nights, and weary, sinking days, is burdened everywhere and +every hour with the thought that Mrs. Exact thinks all her troubles are +nothing but poor management, and that she might do just like her, if she +would. With very little self-confidence or self-assertion, she is +withered and paralyzed by this discouraging thought. _Is_ it, then, her +fault that this never-sleeping baby cries all night, and that all her +children never could and never would be brought up by those exact rules +which she hears of as so efficacious in the household over the way? The +thought of Mrs. Alexander Exact stands over her like a constable; the +remembrance of her is grievous; the burden of her opinion is heavier +than all her other burdens. + +Now the fact is, that Mrs. Exact comes of a long-lived, strong-backed, +strong-stomached race, with "limbs of British oak and nerves of wire." +The shadow of a sensation of nervous pain or uneasiness never has been +known in her family for generations, and her judgments of poor little +Mrs. Evans are about as intelligent as those of a good stout Shanghai +hen on a humming-bird. Most useful and comfortable, these Shanghai +hens,--and very ornamental, and in a small way useful, these +humming-birds; but let them not regulate each other's diet, or lay down +schemes for each other's housekeeping. Has not one as much right to its +nature as the other? + +This intolerance of other people's natures is one of the greatest causes +of domestic unhappiness. The perfect householders are they who make +their household rule so flexible that all sorts of differing natures may +find room to grow and expand and express themselves without infringing +upon others. + +Some women are endowed with a tact for understanding human nature and +guiding it. They give a sense of largeness and freedom; they find a +place for every one, see at once what every one is good for, and are +inspired by Nature with the happy wisdom of not wishing or asking of any +human being more than that human being was made to give. They have the +portion in due season for all: a bone for the dog; catnip for the cat; +cuttle-fish and hemp-seed for the bird; a book or review for their +bashful literary visitor; lively gossip for thoughtless Miss Seventeen; +knitting for Grandmamma; fishing-rods, boats, and gunpowder for Young +Restless, whose beard is just beginning to grow;--and they never fall +into pets, because the canary-bird won't relish the dog's bone, or the +dog eat canary-seed, or young Miss Seventeen read old Mr. Sixty's +review, or young Master Restless take delight in knitting-work, or old +Grandmamma feel complacency in guns and gunpowder. + +Again, there are others who lay the foundations of family life so +narrow, straight, and strict, that there is room in them only for +themselves and people exactly like themselves; and hence comes much +misery. + +A man and woman come together out of different families and races, often +united by only one or two sympathies, with many differences. Their first +wisdom would be to find out each other's nature, and accommodate to it +as a fixed fact; instead of which, how many spend their lives in a blind +fight with an opposite nature, as good as their own in its way, but not +capable of meeting their requirements! + +A woman trained in an exact, thriving, business family, where her father +and brothers bore everything along with true worldly skill and energy, +falls in love with a literary man, who knows nothing of affairs, whose +life is in his library and his pen. Shall she vex and torment herself +and him because he is not a business man? Shall she constantly hold up +to him the example of her father and brothers, and how they would manage +in this and that case? or shall she say cheerily and once for all to +herself,--"My husband has no talent for business; that is not his forte; +but then he has talents far more interesting: I cannot have everything; +let him go on undisturbed, and do what he can do well, and let me try to +make up for what he cannot do; and if there be disabilities come on us +in consequence of what we neither of us can do, let us both take them +cheerfully"? + +In the same manner a man takes out of the bosom of an adoring family one +of those delicate, petted singing-birds that seem to be created simply +to adorn life and make it charming. Is it fair, after he has got her, to +compare her housekeeping, and her efficiency and capability in the +material part of life, with those of his mother and sisters, who are +strong-limbed, practical women, that have never thought about anything +but housekeeping from their cradle? Shall he all the while vex himself +and her with the remembrance of how his mother used to get up at five +o'clock and arrange all the business of the day,--how she kept all the +accounts,--how she saw to everything and settled everything,--how there +never were break-downs or irregularities in her system? + +This would be unfair. If a man wanted such a housekeeper, why did he not +get one? There were plenty of single women, who understood washing, +ironing, clear-starching, cooking, and general housekeeping, better than +the little canary-bird which he fell in love with, and wanted for her +plumage and her song, for her merry tricks, for her bright eyes and +pretty ways. Now he has got his bird, let him keep it as something fine +and precious, to be cared for and watched over, and treated according to +the laws of its frail and delicate nature; and so treating it, he may +many years keep the charms which first won his heart. He may find, too, +if he watches and is careful, that a humming-bird can, in its own small, +dainty way, build a nest as efficiently as a turkey-gobbler, and hatch +her eggs and bring up her young in humming-bird fashion; but to do it, +she must be left unfrightened and undisturbed. + +But the evils of domestic intolerance increase with the birth of +children. As parents come together out of different families with +ill-assorted peculiarities, so children are born to them with natures +differing from their own and from each other. + +The parents seize on their first new child as a piece of special +property which they are forthwith to turn to their own account. The poor +little waif, just drifted on the shores of Time, has perhaps folded up +in it a character as positive as that of either parent; but, for all +that, its future course is marked out for it, all arranged and +predetermined. + +John has a perfect mania for literary distinction. His own education was +somewhat imperfect, but he is determined his children shall be +prodigies. His first-born turns out a girl, who is to write like Madame +de Staël,--to be an able, accomplished woman. He bores her with +literature from her earliest years, reads extracts from Milton to her +when she is only eight years old and is secretly longing to be playing +with her doll's wardrobe. He multiplies governesses, spares no expense, +and when, after all, his daughter turns out to be only a very pretty, +sensible, domestic girl, fond of cross-stitching embroidery, and with a +more decided vocation for sponge-cake and pickles than for poetry and +composition, he is disappointed and treats her coldly; and she is +unhappy and feels that she has vexed her parents, because she cannot be +what Nature never meant her to be. If John had taken meekly the present +that Mother Nature gave him, and humbly set himself to inquire what it +was and what it was good for, he might have had years of happiness with +a modest, amiable, and domestic daughter, to whom had been given the +instinct to study household good. + +But, again, a bustling, pickling, preserving, stocking-knitting, +universal-housekeeping woman has a daughter who dreams over her +knitting-work and hides a book under her sampler,--whose thoughts are +straying in Greece, Rome, Germany,--who is reading, studying, thinking, +writing, without knowing why; and the mother sets herself to fight this +nature, and to make the dreamy scholar into a driving, thorough-going, +exact woman-of-business. How many tears are shed, how much temper +wasted, how much time lost, in such encounters! + +Each of these natures, under judicious training, might be made to +complete itself by cultivation of that which it lacked. The born +housekeeper can never be made a genius, but she may add to her household +virtues some reasonable share of literary culture and appreciation,--and +the born scholar may learn to come down out of her clouds, and see +enough of this earth to walk its practical ways without stumbling; but +this must be done by tolerance of their nature,--by giving it play and +room,--first recognizing its existence and its rights, and then seeking +to add to it the properties it wants. + +A driving Yankee housekeeper, fruitful of resources, can work with any +tools or with no tools at all. If she absolutely cannot get a +tack-hammer with a claw on one end, she can take up carpet-nails with an +iron spoon, and drive them down with a flat-iron; and she has sense +enough not to scold, though she does her work with them at considerable +disadvantage. She knows that she is working with tools made to do +something else, and never thinks of being angry at their unhandiness. +She might have equal patience with a daughter unhandy in physical +things, but acute and skilful in mental ones, if she once had the idea +suggested to her. + +An ambitious man has a son whom he destines to a learned profession. He +is to be the Daniel Webster of the family. The boy has a robust, +muscular frame, great physical vigor and enterprise, a brain bright and +active in all that may be acquired through the bodily senses, but which +is dull and confused and wandering when put to abstract book-knowledge. +He knows every ship at the wharf, her build, tonnage, and sailing +qualities; he knows every railroad-engine, its power, speed, and hours +of coming and going; he is always busy, sawing, hammering, planing, +digging, driving, making bargains, with his head full of plans, all +relating to something outward and physical. In all these matters his +mind works strongly, his ideas are clear, his observation acute, his +conversation sensible and worth listening to. But as to the distinction +between common nouns and proper nouns, between the subject and the +predicate of a sentence, between the relative pronoun and the +demonstrative adjective pronoun, between the perfect and the +preter-perfect tense, he is extremely dull and hazy. The region of +abstract ideas is to him a region of ghosts and shadows. Yet his youth +is mainly a dreary wilderness of uncomprehended, incomprehensible +studies, of privations, tasks, punishments, with a sense of continual +failure, disappointment, and disgrace, because his father is trying to +make a scholar and a literary man out of a boy whom Nature made to till +the soil or manage the material forces of the world. He might be a +farmer, an engineer, a pioneer of a new settlement, a sailor, a soldier, +a thriving man of business; but he grows up feeling that his nature is a +crime, and that he is good for nothing, because he is not good for what +he had been blindly predestined to before he was born. + +Another boy is a born mechanic; he understands machinery at a glance; he +is all the while pondering and studying and experimenting. But his +wheels and his axles and his pulleys are all swept away, as so much +irrelevant lumber; he is doomed to go into the Latin School, and spend +three or four years in trying to learn what he never can learn +well,--disheartened by always being at the tail of his class, and seeing +many a boy inferior to himself in general culture who is rising to +brilliant distinction simply because he can remember those hopeless, +bewildering Greek quantities and accents which he is constantly +forgetting,--as, for example, how properispomena become paroxytones when +the ultimate becomes long, and proparoxytones become paroxytones when +the ultimate becomes long, while paroxytones with a short penult remain +paroxytones. Each of this class of rules, however, having about sixteen +exceptions, which hold good except in three or four other exceptional +cases under them, the labyrinth becomes delightfully wilder and wilder; +and the crowning beauty of the whole is, that, when the bewildered boy +has swallowed the whole,--tail, scales, fins, and bones,--he then is +allowed to read the classics in peace, without the slightest occasion to +refer to them again during his college course. + +The great trouble with the so-called classical course of education is, +that it is made strictly for but one class of minds, which it drills in +respects for which they have by nature an aptitude, and to which it +presents scarcely enough of difficulty to make it a mental discipline, +while to another and equally valuable class of minds it presents +difficulties so great as actually to crush and discourage. There are, we +will venture to say, in every ten boys in Boston four, and those not the +dullest or poorest in quality, who could never go through the discipline +of the Boston Latin School without such a strain on the brain and +nervous system as would leave them no power for anything else. + +A bright, intelligent boy, whose talents lay in the line of natural +philosophy and mechanics, passed with brilliant success through the +Boston English High School. He won the first medals, and felt all that +pride and enthusiasm which belong to a successful student. He entered +the Latin Classical School. With a large philosophic and reasoning +brain, he had a very poor verbal and textual memory; and here he began +to see himself distanced by boys who had hitherto looked up to him. They +could rattle off catalogues of names; they could do so all the better +from the habit of not thinking of what they studied. They could commit +the Latin Grammar, coarse print and fine, and run through the +interminable mazes of Greek accents and Greek inflections. This boy of +large mind and brain, always behindhand, always incapable, utterly +discouraged, no amount of study could place on an equality with his +former inferiors. His health failed, and he dropped from school. Many a +fine fellow has been lost to himself, and lost to an educated life, by +just such a failure. The collegiate system is like a great coal-screen: +every piece not of a certain size must fall through. This may do well +enough for screening coal; but what if it were used indiscriminately for +a mixture of coal and diamonds? + +"Poor boy!" said Ole Bull, compassionately, when one sought to push a +schoolboy from the steps of an omnibus, where he was getting a +surreptitious ride. "Poor boy! let him stay. Who knows his trials? +Perhaps he studies Latin." + +The witty Heinrich Heine says, in bitter remembrance of his early +sufferings,--"The Romans would never have conquered the world, if they +had had to learn their own language. They had leisure, because they were +born with the knowledge of what nouns form their accusatives in _im_." + +Now we are not among those who decry the Greek and Latin classics. We +think it a glorious privilege to read both those grand old tongues, and +that an intelligent, cultivated man who is shut out from the converse of +the splendid minds of those olden times loses a part of his birthright; +and therefore it is that we mourn that but one dry, hard, technical +path, one sharp, straight, narrow way, is allowed into so goodly a land +of knowledge. We think there is no need that the study of Greek and +Latin should be made such a horror. There is many a man without a verbal +memory, who could neither recite in order the paradigms of the Greek +verbs, nor repeat the lists of nouns that form their accusative in one +termination or another, who, nevertheless, by the exercise of his +faculties of comparison and reasoning, could learn to read the Greek and +Latin classics so as to take their sense and enjoy their spirit; and +that is all that they are worth caring for. We have known one young +scholar, who could not by any possibility repeat the lists of exceptions +to the rules in the Latin Grammar, who yet delightedly filled his +private note-book with quotations from the "Æneid," and was making +extracts of literary gems from his Greek Reader, at the same time that +he was every day "screwed" by his tutor upon some technical point of the +language. + +Is there not many a master of English, many a writer and orator, who +could not repeat from memory the list of nouns ending in _y_ that form +their plural in _ies_, with the exceptions under it? How many of us +could do this? Would it help a good writer and fluent speaker to know +the whole of Murray's Grammar by heart, or does real knowledge of a +language ever come in this way? + +At present the rich stores of ancient literature are kept like the +savory stew which poor Dominie Sampson heard simmering in the witch's +kettle. One may have much appetite, but there is but one way of getting +it. The Meg Merrilies of our educational system, with her harsh voice, +and her "Gape, sinner, and swallow," is the only introduction,--and so, +many a one turns and runs frightened from the feast. + +This intolerant mode of teaching the classical languages is peculiar to +them alone. Multitudes of girls and boys are learning to read and to +speak German, French, and Italian, and to feel all the delights of +expatiating in the literature of a new language, purely because of a +simpler, more natural, less pedantic mode of teaching these languages. + +Intolerance in the established system of education works misery in +families, because family pride decrees that every boy of good status in +society, will he, nill he, shall go through college, or he almost +forfeits his position as a gentleman. + +"Not go to Cambridge!" says Scholasticus to his first-born. "Why, I went +there,--and my father, and his father, and his father before him. Look +at the Cambridge Catalogue and you will see the names of our family ever +since the College was founded!" + +"But I can't learn Latin and Greek," says young Scholasticus. "I can't +remember all those rules and exceptions. I've tried, and I can't. If you +could only know how my head feels when I try! And I won't be at the foot +of the class all the time, if I have to get my living by digging." + +Suppose, now, the boy is pushed on at the point of the bayonet to a kind +of knowledge in which he has no interest, communicated in a way that +requires faculties which Nature has not given him,--what occurs? + +He goes through his course, either shamming, shirking, parrying, all the +while consciously discredited and dishonored,--or else putting forth an +effort that is a draft on all his nervous energy, he makes merely a +decent scholar, and loses his health for life. + +Now, if the principle of toleration were once admitted into classical +education,--if it were admitted that the great object is to read and +enjoy a language, and the stress of the teaching were placed on the few +things absolutely essential to this result,--if the tortoise were +allowed time to creep, and the bird permitted to fly, and the fish to +swim, towards the enchanted and divine sources of Helicon,--all might in +their own way arrive there, and rejoice in its flowers, its beauty, and +its coolness. + +"But," say the advocates of the present system, "it is good mental +discipline." + +I doubt it. It is mere waste of time. + +When a boy has learned that in the genitive plural of the first +declension of Greek nouns the final syllable is circumflexed, but to +this there are the following exceptions: 1. That feminine adjectives and +participles in [Greek: -os, -ê, -on] are accented like the genitive +masculine, but other feminine adjectives and participles are perispomena +in the genitive plural; 2. That the substantives _chrestes_, _aphue_, +_etesiai_, and _chlounes_ in the genitive plural remain paroxytones, +(Kühner's _Elementary Greek Grammar_, page 22,)--I say, when a boy has +learned this and twenty other things just like it, his mind has not been +one whit more disciplined than if he had learned the list of the old +thirteen States, the number and names of the newly adopted ones, the +times of their adoption, and the population, commerce, mineral and +agricultural wealth of each. These, too, are merely exercises of memory, +but they are exercises in what is of some interest and some use. + +The particulars above cited are of so little use in understanding the +Greek classics that I will venture to say that there are intelligent +English scholars, who have never read anything but Bohn's translations, +who have more genuine knowledge of the spirit of the Greek mind, and the +peculiar idioms of the language, and more enthusiasm for it, than many a +poor fellow who has stumbled blindly through the originals with the +bayonet of the tutor at his heels, and his eyes and ears full of the +Scotch snuff of the Greek Grammar. + +What then? Shall we not learn these ancient tongues? By all means. "So +many times as I learn a language, so many times I become a man," said +Charles V.; and he said rightly. Latin and Greek are foully belied by +the prejudices created by this technical, pedantic mode of teaching +them, which makes one ragged, prickly bundle of all the dry facts of the +language, and insists upon it that the boy shall not see one glimpse of +its beauty, glory, or interest, till he has swallowed and digested the +whole mass. Many die in this wilderness with their shoes worn out before +reaching the Promised Land of Plato and the Tragedians. + +"But," say our college authorities, "look at England. An English +schoolboy learns three times the Latin and Greek that our boys learn, +and has them well drubbed in." + +And English boys have three times more beef and pudding in their +constitution than American boys have, and three times less of nerves. +The difference of nature must be considered here; and the constant +influence flowing from English schools and universities must be tempered +by considering who we are, what sort of boys we have to deal with, what +treatment they can bear, and what are the needs of our growing American +society. + +The demands of actual life, the living, visible facts of practical +science, in so large and new a country as ours, require that the ideas +of the ancients should be given us in the shortest and most economical +way possible, and that scholastic technicalities should be reserved to +those whom Nature made with especial reference to their preservation. + +On no subject is there more intolerant judgment, and more suffering from +such intolerance, than on the much mooted one of the education of +children. + +Treatises on education require altogether too much of parents, and +impose burdens of responsibility on tender spirits which crush the life +and strength out of them. Parents have been talked to as if each child +came to them a soft, pulpy mass, which they were to pinch and pull and +pat and stroke into shape quite at their leisure,--and a good pattern +being placed before them, they were to proceed immediately to set up and +construct a good human being in conformity therewith. + +It is strange that believers in the divine inspiration of the Bible +should have entertained this idea, overlooking the constant and +affecting declaration of the great Heavenly Father that _He_ has +nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against Him, +together with His constant appeals,--"What could have been done more to +my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it +should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?" If even God, +wiser, better, purer, more loving, admits Himself baffled in this great +work, is it expedient to say to human beings that the forming power, the +deciding force, of a child's character is in their hands? + +Many a poor feeble woman's health has been strained to breaking, and her +life darkened, by the laying on her shoulders of a burden of +responsibility that never ought to have been placed there; and many a +mother has been hindered from using such powers as God has given her, +because some preconceived mode of operation has been set up before her +which she could no more make effectual than David could wear the armor +of Saul. + +A gentle, loving, fragile creature marries a strong-willed, energetic +man, and by the laws of natural descent has a boy given to her of twice +her amount of will and energy. She is just as helpless, in the mere +struggle of will and authority with such a child, as she would be in a +physical wrestle with a six-foot man. + +What then? Has Nature left her helpless for her duties? Not if she +understands her nature, and acts in the line of it. She has no power of +command, but she has power of persuasion. She can neither bend nor break +the boy's iron will, but she can melt it. She has tact to avoid the +conflict in which she would be worsted. She can charm, amuse, please, +and make willing; and her fine and subtile influences, weaving +themselves about him day after day, become more and more powerful. Let +her alone, and she will have her boy yet. + +But now some bustling mother-in-law or other privileged expounder says +to her,-- + +"My dear, it's your solemn duty to break that boy's will. I broke my +boy's will short off. Keep your whip in sight, meet him at every turn, +fight him whenever he crosses you, never let him get one victory, and +finally his will will be wholly subdued." + +Such advice is mischievous, because what it proposes is as utter an +impossibility to the woman's nature as for a cow to scratch up worms for +her calf, or a hen to suckle her chickens. + +There are men and women of strong, resolute will who are gifted with the +power of governing the wills of others. Such persons can govern in this +way,--and their government, being in the line of their nature, acting +strongly, consistently, naturally, makes everything move harmoniously. +Let them be content with their own success, but let them not set up as +general education-doctors, or apply their experience to all possible +cases. + +Again, there are others, and among some of the loveliest and purest +natures, who have no power of command. They have sufficient tenacity of +will as respects their own course, but have no compulsory power over the +wills of others. Many such women have been most successful mothers, when +they followed the line of their own natures, and did not undertake what +they never could do. + +_Influence_ is a slower acting force than authority. It seems weaker, +but in the long run it often effects more. It always does better than +mere force and authority without its gentle modifying power. + +If a mother is high-principled, religious, affectionate, if she never +uses craft or deception, if she governs her temper and sets a good +example, let her hold on in good hope, though she cannot produce the +discipline of a man-of-war in her noisy little flock, or make all move +as smoothly as some other women to whom God has given another and +different talent; and let her not be discouraged, if she seem often to +accomplish but little in that great work of forming human character +wherein the great Creator of the world has declared Himself at times +baffled. + +Family tolerance must take great account of the stages and periods of +development and growth in children. + +The passage of a human being from one stage of development to another, +like the sun's passage across the equator, frequently has its storms and +tempests. The change to manhood and womanhood often involves brain, +nerves, body, and soul in confusion; the child sometimes seems lost to +himself and his parents,--his very nature changing. In this sensitive +state come restless desires, unreasonable longings, unsettled purposes; +and the fatal habit of indulgence in deadly stimulants, ruining all the +life, often springs form the cravings of this transition period. + +Here must come in the patience of the saints. The restlessness must be +soothed, the family hearth must be tolerant enough to keep there the +boy, whom Satan will receive and cherish, them if his mother does not. +The male element sometimes pours into a boy, like the tides in the Bay +of Fundy, with tumult and tossing. He is noisy, vociferous, uproarious, +and seems bent only on disturbance; he despises conventionalities, he +hates parlors, he longs for the woods, the sea, the converse of rough +men, and kicks at constraint of all kinds. Have patience now, let love +have its perfect work, and in a year or two, if no deadly physical +habits set in, a quiet, well-mannered gentleman will be evolved. +Meanwhile, if he does not wipe his shoes, and if he will fling his hat +upon the floor, and tear his clothes, and bang and hammer and shout, and +cause general confusion in his belongings, do not despair; if you only +get your son, the hat and clothes and shoes and noise and confusion do +not matter. Any amount of toleration that keeps a boy contented at home +is treasure well expended at this time of life. + +One thing not enough reflected on is, that in this transition period +between childhood and maturity the heaviest draft and strain of school +education occurs. The boy is fitting for the university, the girl going +through the studies of the college senior year, and the brain-power, +which is working almost to the breaking-point to perfect the physical +change, has the additional labor of all the drill and discipline of +school. + +The girl is growing into a tall and shapely woman, and the poor brain is +put to it to find enough phosphate of lime, carbon, and other what not, +to build her fair edifice. The bills flow in upon her thick and fast; +she pays out hand over hand: if she had only her woman to build, she +might get along, but now come in demands for algebra, geometry, music, +language, and the poor brain-bank stops payment; some part of the work +is shabbily done, and a crooked spine or weakened lungs are the result. + +Boarding-schools, both for boys and girls, are for the most part +composed of young people in this most delicate, critical portion of +their physical, mental, and moral development, whose teachers are +expected to put them through one straight, severe course of drill, +without the slightest allowance for the great physical facts of their +being. No wonder they are difficult to manage, and that so many of them +drop, physically, mentally, and morally halt and maimed. It is not the +teacher's fault; he but fulfils the parent's requisition, which dooms +his child without appeal to a certain course, simply because others have +gone through it. + +Finally, as my sermon is too long already, let me end with a single +reflection. Every human being has some handle by which he may be lifted, +some groove in which he was meant to run; and the great work of life, as +far as our relations with each other are concerned, is to lift each one +by his own proper handle, and run each one in his own proper groove. + + + + +THE JAGUAR HUNT. + + + The dark jaguar was abroad in the land; + His strength and his fierceness what foe could withstand? + The breath of his anger was hot on the air, + And the white lamb of Peace he had dragged to his lair. + + Then up rose the Farmer; he summoned his sons: + "Now saddle your horses, now look to your guns!" + And he called to his hound, as he sprang from the ground + To the back of his black pawing steed with a bound. + + Oh, their hearts, at the word, how they tingled and stirred! + They followed, all belted and booted and spurred. + "Buckle tight, boys!" said he, "for who gallops with me, + Such a hunt as was never before he shall see! + + "This traitor, we know him! for when he was younger, + We flattered him, patted him, fed his fierce hunger: + But now far too long we have borne with the wrong, + For each morsel we tossed makes him savage and strong." + + Then said one, "He must die!" And they took up the cry, + "For this last crime of his he must die! he must die!" + But the slow eldest-born sauntered sad and forlorn, + For his heart was at home on that fair hunting-morn. + + "I remember," he said, "how this fine cub we track + Has carried me many a time on his back!" + And he called to his brothers, "Fight gently! be kind!" + And he kept the dread hound, Retribution, behind. + + The dark jaguar on a bough in the brake + Crouched, silent and wily, and lithe as a snake: + They spied not their game, but, as onward they came, + Through the dense leafage gleamed two red eyeballs of flame. + + Black-spotted, and mottled, and whiskered, and grim, + White-bellied, and yellow, he lay on the limb, + All so still that you saw but just one tawny paw + Lightly reach through the leaves and as softly withdraw. + + Then shrilled his fierce cry, as the riders drew nigh, + And he shot from the bough like a bolt from the sky: + In the foremost he fastened his fangs as he fell, + While all the black jungle reëchoed his yell. + + Oh, then there was carnage by field and by flood! + The green sod was crimsoned, the rivers ran blood, + The cornfields were trampled, and all in their track + The beautiful valley lay blasted and black. + + Now the din of the conflict swells deadly and loud, + And the dust of the tumult rolls up like a cloud: + Then afar down the slope of the Southland recedes + The wild rapid clatter of galloping steeds. + + With wide nostrils smoking, and flanks dripping gore, + The black stallion bore his bold rider before, + As onward they thundered through forest and glen, + A-hunting the dark jaguar to his den. + + In April, sweet April, the chase was begun; + It was April again, when the hunting was done: + The snows of four winters and four summers green + Lay red-streaked and trodden and blighted between. + + Then the monster stretched all his grim length on the ground; + His life-blood was wasting from many a wound; + Ferocious and gory and snarling he lay, + Amid heaps of the whitening bones of his prey. + + Then up spoke the slow eldest son, and he said, + "All he needs now is just to be fostered and fed! + Give over the strife! Brothers, put up the knife! + We will tame him, reclaim him, but take not his life!" + + But the Farmer flung back the false words in his face: + "He is none of my race, who gives counsel so base! + Now let loose the hound!" And the hound was unbound, + And like lightning the heart of the traitor he found. + + "So rapine and treason forever shall cease!" + And they wash the stained fleece of the pale lamb of Peace; + When, lo! a strong angel stands wingèd and white + In a wonderful raiment of ravishing light! + + Peace is raised from the dead! In the radiance shed + By the halo of glory that shines round her head, + Fair gardens shall bloom where the black jungle grew, + And all the glad valley shall blossom anew! + + + + +LATE SCENES IN RICHMOND. + + +In the July (1864) number of this magazine there is an article entitled +"The May Campaign in Virginia," which gives an outline of the operations +of the Army of the Potomac in its march from its encampment on the +Rapidan, through the tangled thickets of the Wilderness, to the bloody +fields of Spottsylvania, across the North Anna, to the old battle-ground +of Cold Harbor. The closing paragraph of that article is an appropriate +introduction to the present. It is as follows:-- + +"The line of advance taken by General Grant turned the Rebels from +Washington. The country over which the two armies marched is a +desolation. There is no subsistence remaining. The railroads are +destroyed. Lee has no longer the power to invade the North. On the other +hand, General Grant can swing upon the James, and isolate the Rebel army +from direct communication with the South. That accomplished, and, sooner +or later, with Hunter in the Shenandoah, with Union cavalry sweeping +down to Wilmington, Weldon, and Danville, and up to the Blue Ridge, +cutting railroads, burning bridges, destroying supplies of ammunition +and provisions, the question with Lee must be, not one of earthworks and +cannon and powder and ball, but of subsistence. Plainly, the day is +approaching when the Army of the Potomac, unfortunate at times in the +past, derided, ridiculed, but now triumphant through unparalleled +hardship, endurance, courage, persistency, will plant its banners on the +defences of Richmond, crumble the Rebel army beyond the possibility of +future cohesion, and, in conjunction with the forces in other +departments, crush out the last vestige of the Rebellion." + +So it has proved. The railroads are destroyed, the bridges burned, the +supplies of ammunition and provision exhausted; the flag of the Union +floats over the city which the Rebels have called their capital; the +troops of the Union patrol the streets of Richmond, and occupy all the +principal towns of Virginia; Lee's army has melted away, and the power +of the Rebellion is broken. + +Before entering upon a narration of the campaign of a week which gave us +Richmond and the Rebel army at the same time, it will widen our scope of +vision to inquire + + +HOW RICHMOND BECAME THE CAPITAL OF THE CONFEDERACY. + +On the 17th of April, 1861, Virginia in Convention passed an Ordinance +of Secession. The Convention, when elected on the 4th of February +preceding, was largely Anti-Secession; but the events which had taken +place,--the firing on Sumter, its surrender, with the machinations of +the leaders of Secession,--their misrepresentations of the North, of +what Mr. Lincoln would do,--their promises that there would be no war, +that the Yankees would not fight,--their bullyings when they could not +cajole, their threatenings when they could not intimidate,--their +rejoicings at the bloodless victory won by South Carolina, +single-handed, over a starved garrison,--their bonfires and +illuminations, their baskets of Champagne and bottles of whiskey,--all +of these forces combined were sufficient to carry the Ordinance of +Secession through the Convention. But it was hampered by a proviso +submitting it to the people for ratification on the Fourth Thursday of +May following. + +John Letcher was Governor of Virginia. Weak in intellect, grovelling in +his tastes, often drunk, rarely sober, at times making such beastly +exhibition of himself that the Richmond press pronounced him a public +nuisance, he was a fit tool of the Secession conspirators. Ready to do +what he could to commit the State to overt acts against the United +States Government, on the evening after the passage of the Ordinance he +issued orders to the State militia around Winchester to seize the +Arsenal at Harper's Ferry,--on his own sole responsibility, and without +a shadow of authority from the people of the State, inaugurating civil +war, a proceeding which he followed up directly afterwards by +proclaiming Virginia a member of the Confederacy, and thus carrying the +State at once out of the Union, without awaiting the formality of a +popular vote. + +Already the intentions of the Confederate Government were manifest. + +"I prophesy that the flag which now flaunts the breeze here will float +over the old Capitol in Washington before the first of May," said Mr. +L.P. Walker, Secretary of War, the evening after the fall of Sumter, to +a crazy crowd in Montgomery, then the Rebel capital. + +"From the mountain-tops and valleys to the shores of the sea, there is +one wild shout of fierce resolve to capture Washington City at all and +every human hazard. That filthy cage of unclean birds must and will +assuredly be purified by fire," shouted John Mitchell, through the +"Richmond Examiner," on the 23d of April. + +"Washington City will soon be too hot to hold Abraham Lincoln and his +Government," wrote the editor of the "Raleigh Standard" on the 24th. + +"We are in lively hope, that, before three months roll by, the +Government, Congress, Departments and all, will have been removed to the +present Federal capital," wrote the Montgomery correspondent of the +"Charleston Courier" on the 28th of the same month. + +"We are not in the secrets of our authorities enough to specify the day +on which Jeff Davis will dine at the White House, and Ben McCullough +take his siesta in General Sickles's gilded tent. We should not like to +produce any disappointment by naming too soon or too early a day; but it +will save trouble, if the gentlemen will keep themselves in readiness to +dislodge at a moment's notice," said the "Richmond Whig" on the 22d of +May. + +The Rebel Congress had already adjourned, and was on its way to +Richmond. Not only Congress, but all the Departments, were on the move, +intending to tarry at Richmond but a day or two, till General Scott, and +Abraham Lincoln, and the Yankees, who were swarming into Washington, +were driven out. Thus Richmond became, though only temporarily, as all +hands in the South supposed, the capital of the Confederacy. + +A week later Jeff Davis was welcomed to Richmond by the people, says +Pollard, the author of the "Southern History of the War," an implacable +hater of the North, "with a burst of genuine joy and enthusiasm to which +none of the military pageants of the North could furnish a parallel." +President Davis, in response to the call of the populace, made a +speech, in which he said,-- + +"When the time and occasion serve, we shall smite the smiter with manly +arms, as did our fathers before us, and as becomes their sons. To the +enemy we leave the base _acts of the assassin and incendiary_; to them +we leave it to insult helpless women: to us belongs vengeance upon men. +We will make the battle-fields in Virginia another Buena Vista, drenched +with more precious blood than flowed there." + +But Colonel Robert E. Lee, who was in command of the Rebel forces in +Virginia, was not quite ready to take Washington; and so the Rebel +Congress commenced its sessions in the State capital. Mr. Memminger set +up his printing-presses, and issued his promises to pay the debts of the +Confederacy two years after the treaty of peace with the United States; +Mr. Mallory began to consider how to construct rams; while Mr. Toombs, +and his successor, Mr. Benjamin, wrote letters of instruction from the +State Department to Rebel agents in Europe, and looked longingly and +expectantly for immediate recognition of the Confederacy as an +independent power among the nations. + +The sleepy city awoke to a new life. Regiments of infantry came pouring +in, not only from the hills and valleys of the Old Dominion, but from +every nook and corner of the Confederate States,--the Palmetto Guards, +Marion Rifles, Jeff-Davis Grays, Whippy-Swamp Grenadiers, Chickasaw +Braves, Tigers, Dare-Devils, and Yankee-Butchers,--fired with patriotism +and whiskey, proud to be in Richmond, to march through its streets, +beneath the flags wrought by the fair ladies of the sunny South, for +whom each man had sworn to kill a Yankee! Lieutenants, captains, majors, +colonels, and generals, glittering with golden stars, with clanking +sabres, and twinkling spurs, thronged the hotels in all the pomp of +modern chivalry. With the marching of troops, and the gathering of men +from every precinct of the Confederacy in search of official position in +the bureaus or to obtain contracts from Government,--with the rush and +whirl of business, and the inflation of prices of all commodities,--with +the stream of gayety and fashion attendant upon the Confederate court, +where Mrs. Jefferson Davis was queen-regnant,--with its gilded +drinking-saloons and gambling-hells,--Richmond became a Babylon. + + +"ON TO RICHMOND!" + +It was a natural cry, that slogan of the North in the early months of +the war; for, in ordinary warfare, to capture an enemy's capital is +equivalent to conquering a peace. It was thought that the taking of +Richmond would be the end of the Rebellion. Time has disabused us of +this idea. To have taken Richmond in 1861 would only have been the +repacking of the Department trunks for Montgomery or some other +convenient Southern city. The vitality of the Rebellion existed not in +cities, towns, or capitals, but in that which could die only by +annihilation,--Human Slavery. That was and is the "original sin" of the +Rebellion,--the total depravity and innate heinousness, to use +theological terminology, without which there could not have been +treason, secession, and rebellion. + +But forgetting all this,--looking constantly at effect, without +searching for cause,--hearing only the drum-beat of the armed legions of +the South mustering for the overthrow of the nation,--wilfully shutting +our ears to the clanking of the chains of the slave-coffle,--deaf to the +prayer, "How long, O Lord?" uttered morning, noon, and night by men and +women who were turned back to bondage from our lines,--forgetting that +Justice and Right are the foundations of the throne of God,--the army of +General McDowell marched confidently out to Bull Run on its way to +Richmond, and returned to Washington defeated, routed, disorganized, +humiliated. And yet we now see that to the South the victory which set +the whole Confederacy on flame was a defeat, and to the North that which +seemed an overwhelming disaster was a triumph; for so God changes the +warp and woof of human events. The Southern leaders became +over-confident. They could have taken Washington, but did not make the +attempt to do so till the golden moment had passed, never to return. "We +have let Washington slip through our fingers," was the bitter +lamentation of the "Richmond Examiner," a few days after the Battle of +Bull Run,--after the second uprising of the people to save the Union. + +When God takes a proud and wayward nation in hand, and instructs it by +the hard lessons of adversity,--by plans overthrown, ambition checked, +pride humiliated, and hopes disappointed, which wring tears from the +eyes of widows and orphans, and by which men in the prime of life are +bowed down to the grave with grief for sons slain in battle,--He does it +for a great purpose. But the nation was blind to the moral of the +terrible lesson. We are slow to receive and accept eternal truths. And +so, instead of aiming at Slavery as the life of the Rebellion, McClellan +marched up the Peninsula through the mud to capture Richmond, and +conquer a peace simply by taking the Rebel capital. He was learned in +military lore, had visited Europe, and made war after the European +pattern. But in a war of ideas and principles, the mere taking of an +enemy's capital cannot end the contest. In such a strife there is the +war of invisible forces,--the marshalling of Cherubim and Seraphim +against rebellious hosts,--the old contest of the heavenly fields +renewed on earth. + +The nation was long in awaking to the consciousness that driving Lee out +of Richmond would not end the Rebellion. It was more than this: it was a +casting-out of prejudice, a discarding of political chicanery and a +time-serving policy, and a recognition of Justice, Right, and Freedom as +the true elements of political economy. There was an increasing desire +on the part of the people to root out Slavery from American soil. + +It will be for the future historian to trace the providential dealings +of God with the nation, and to show how far and in what degree the +failure of Burnside at Fredericksburg and of Hooker at Chancellorsville +was affected by the want of moral perceptions on the part of the army +and of the people at that stage of the war: for there were thousands of +officers and soldiers at that time who were not willing to fight by the +side of a negro. We have not advanced far enough even now to allow the +colored man full privileges of citizenship. We are willing that he +should be a soldier, carry a gun, and fire a bullet at the enemy; but +are we willing that he should march up to the ballot-box, and fire a +peaceful ballot against the same enemy? Strange incongruity! + +The colored men of Richmond, of Charleston, of Savannah, of all the +South, have been and are now the true Union men of the seceded States. +When or where have they raised their hands against the Union? They have +fought for the flag of the Union, and have earned by their patriotism +and valor a name and a place in history. Citizenship is theirs by +natural right; besides, they have earned it. Make the freedman a voter, +a land-owner, a tax-payer, permit him to sue and be sued, give him in +every respect free franchise, and the recompense will be security, +peace, and prosperity. Anything less than absolute right will sooner or +later bring trouble in its train. Now, in this day of settlement, this +reconstruction of the nation, this renewal of life, it is the privilege +of America to become the world's great teacher and benefactor. + +After the disaster at Chancellorsville, there came a season of sober +reflection, and men began to understand that this is God's war. Then +there came a commander who believed that the power of the Rebellion lay +not in Richmond, but in the Rebel army, and that the taking of Richmond +was altogether a secondary consideration,--that the only way of +subduing the Rebellion was to fight it down. He was ready to employ +soldiers of every hue. This brings us to consider + + +HOW RICHMOND WAS TAKEN. + +General Grant, fresh from his great success at Vicksburg and +Chattanooga, having shown that he had military genius of a high order, +was created Lieutenant-General, and appointed to the command of all the +armies of the Union in the field. It was the beginning of a new +_régime_. Up to that time there had been little concert of action +between commanders. The armies lacked a head. The President, General +Halleck, Secretary Stanton, had ideas of their own upon the best methods +and plans for conducting the war. Department commanders worked at cross +purposes. Each officer in the field naturally looked upon his sphere of +action as the most important of all, and each had his own plan of +operations to lay before the Secretary of War. A million men were +tugging manfully at the Car of Freedom, which was at a stand-still, or +moved only by inches, because they had no head. But when the President +appointed General Grant to the command, he gave up his own plans, while +General Halleck became a subordinate. The department commanders found +all their plans set aside. There was not merely concert of action, but +unity of action, under the controlling force of an imperial will. + +In the article entitled "The May Campaign in Virginia," the movements of +the Army of the Potomac, from the Rapidan to Cold Harbor, are given. It +is not intended in the present article to dwell in detail upon all the +subsequent movements of that army and its allies, the Armies of the +James and the Shenandoah. Volumes are needed to narrate the operations +around Petersburg,--the battles fought on the 18th and 19th of June east +of that city,--the struggles for the Weldon Railroad,--the movements +between the James and the Appomattox, and north of the James,--the +failure in the springing of the mine,--the march of the Fifth Corps to +Stony Creek,--the battles between the Weldon Road and Hatcher's +Run,--the many contests, sharp, fierce, and bloody, between the opposing +lines, whenever an attempt was made by either army to erect new +works,--the fights on Hatcher's Run,--the attack upon Fort Harrison, +north of the James,--the successive attempts of each commander to break +the lines of the other, ending with the Fort Stedman affair, the last +offensive effort of General Lee. The new campaign which was inaugurated +the next day after the attack on Fort Stedman compelled the Rebel chief +to stand wholly on the defensive. + +The appointment of General Grant to the command of all the armies was +not only the beginning of a new _régime_, but the adoption of a new +idea,--that Lee's army was the objective point, rather than the city of +Richmond. + +"The power of the Rebellion lies in the Rebel army," said General Grant +to the writer one evening in June last. We had been conversing upon Fort +Donelson and Pittsburg Landing. One by one his staff officers dropped +off to their own tents, and we were alone. It was a quiet, starlit +night. The Lieutenant-General was enjoying his fragrant Havana cigar, +and was in a mood for conversation, not upon what he was going to do, +but upon what had been done. He is always wisely reticent upon the +present and future, but agreeably communicative upon what has passed +into history. + +"I have lost a good many men since the army left the Rapidan, but there +was no help for it. The Rebel army must be destroyed before we can put +down the Rebellion," he continued.[I] + +There was a disposition at that time on the part of the disloyal press +of the North to bring General Grant into bad odor. He was called "The +Butcher." Even some Republican Congressmen were ready to demand his +removal. General Grant alluded to it and said,-- + +"God knows I don't want to see men slaughtered; but we have appealed to +arms, and we have got to fight it out." + +He had already given public utterance to the expression,--"I intend to +fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer." + +Referring to the successive flank movements which had been made, from +the Rapidan to the Wilderness, to Spottsylvania, to the North Anna, to +the Chickahominy, to Petersburg, he said,-- + +"My object has been to get between Lee and his southern communications." + +At that time the Weldon Road was in the hands of the enemy, and Early +was on a march down the Valley, towards Washington. This movement was +designed to frighten Grant and send him back by steamboat to defend the +capital; but the Sixth Corps only was sent, while the troops remaining +still kept pressing on in a series of flank movements, which resulted in +the seizure of the Weldon Road. That was the most damaging blow which +Lee had received. He made desperate efforts to recover what had been +lost, but in vain. It was the beginning of the end. Then the public +generally could see the meaning of General Grant's strategy,--that the +Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and all the terrible battles which had been +fought, were according to a plan, which, if carried out, must end in +victory. The Richmond newspapers, which had ridiculed the campaign, and +had found an echo in the disloyal press of the North, began to discuss +the question of supplies; and to keep their courage up, they indulged in +boastful declarations that the Southside Railroad never could be taken. + +The march of Sherman from Atlanta to Savannah and through South +Carolina, destroying railroads and supplies,--the taking of +Wilmington,--Sheridan's movement from Winchester up the Valley of the +Shenandoah, striking the James River Canal and the Central Railroad, and +then the transfer of his whole force from the White House to the left +flank of the Army of the Potomac,--were parts of a well matured design +to weaken Lee's army. + +Everything was ready for the final blow. The forces of General Grant +were disposed as follows. The Army of the James, composed of the +Twenty-Fourth and Twenty-Fifth Corps, and commanded by General Ord, was +north of the James River, its right flank resting near the old +battle-field of Glendale, and its left flank on the Appomattox. The +Ninth Army Corps--the right wing of the Army of the Potomac--was next in +line, then the Sixth, and then the Second, its left resting on Hatcher's +Run. The Fifth was in rear of the Second. The line thus held was nearly +forty miles in length, defended on the front and rear by strong +earthworks and abatis. + +General Grant's entire force could not have been much less than a +hundred and thirty thousand, including Sheridan's cavalry, the force at +City Point, and the provisional brigade at Fort Powhatan. Lee's whole +force was not far from seventy thousand,--or seventy-five thousand, +including the militia of Richmond and Petersburg; but he was upon the +defensive, and held an interior and shorter line. + +The work which General Grant had in hand was the seizure of the +Southside Railroad by an extension of his left flank. He had attempted +it once with the Fifth Corps, at Dabney's Mill, and had failed; but that +attempt had been of value: he had gained a knowledge of the country. His +engineers had mapped it, the roads, the streams, the houses. The fight +at Dabney's Mill was a random stroke,--a "feeling of the position," to +use a term common in camp,--which enabled him to detect the weak point +of Lee's lines. To comprehend the movement, it is necessary to +understand the geographical and topographical features of the country, +which are somewhat peculiar. Hatcher's Run is a branch of the Nottoway +River, which has its rise in a swamp about four miles from the +Appomattox and twenty southwest of Petersburg. The Southside Railroad +runs southwest from Petersburg, along the ridge of land between the +Appomattox and the head-waters of the Nottoway, protected by the swamp +of Hatcher's Run and by the swamp of Stony Creek, another tributary of +the Nottoway. + +The point aimed at by General Grant is known as the "Five Forks," a +place where five roads meet, on the table-land between the head-waters +of Hatcher's Run and Stony Creek. It was the most accessible gateway +leading to the railroad. If he could break through at that point, he +would turn Lee's flank, deprive him of the protection of the swamps, use +them for his own cover, and seize the railroad. To take the Five Forks +was to take all; for the long and terrible conflict had become so shorn +of its outside proportions, so reduced to simple elements, that, if Lee +lost that position, all was lost,--Petersburg, Richmond, his army, and +the Confederacy. + +Surprise is expressed that the Rebellion went down so suddenly, in a +night, at one blow, toppling over like a child's house of cards, +imposing to look upon, yet of very little substance; but the +calculations of General Grant were to give a finishing stroke. + +If, by massing the main body of his troops upon the extreme left of his +line, he succeeded in carrying the position of the Five Forks, it would +compel Lee to evacuate Richmond. Lee's line of retreat must necessarily +be towards Danville; but Grant, at the Five Forks, would be nearer +Danville by several miles than Lee; and he would thus, instead of the +exterior line, have the interior, with the power to push Lee at every +step farther from his direct line of retreat. That Grant saw all this, +and executed his plan, is evidence of great military ability. The plan +involved not merely the carrying of the Five Forks, but great activity +afterwards. The capture of Lee was a forethought, not an afterthought. + +"Commissaries will prepare twelve days' rations," was his order, which +meant a long march, and the annihilation of Lee's army. An ordinary +commander might have been satisfied with merely breaking down the door, +and seizing the railroad, knowing that it would be the beginning of +dissolution to the Rebel army; but Grant's plan went farther,--the +routing of the burglar from his house, and dispatching him on the spot. +Perhaps Lee saw what the end would be, and did the best he could with +his troops; but inasmuch as he did not issue the order for the transfer +of a division from Richmond to the south side till Saturday night, after +the Five Forks were lost, it may be presumed that he did not fully +comprehend the importance of holding that gateway. If he had seen that +Richmond must be eventually evacuated, he might have saved his army by a +sudden withdrawal from both Richmond and Petersburg on Friday night, +pushing down the Southside Road, and throwing his whole force on +Sheridan and the Fifth Corps, which would have enabled him to reach +Danville. Not doing that, he lost all. + +It is not intended in this article to give the details of the attack at +the Five Forks and along the line, but merely to show how the forces +were wielded in that last magnificent, annihilating blow. + +On the 25th of March, the Twenty-Fourth Corps was transferred from the +north side of the James to Hatcher's Run, taking the position of the +Second Corps. + +The force designed for the attack upon the Five Forks was composed of +the Fifth Corps and Sheridan's Cavalry,--the whole under command of +Sheridan. The Second Corps was massed across Hatcher's Run, and kept in +position to frustrate any attempt which might be made to cut Sheridan +off from the support of the main army. + +Sheridan found a large force in front of him, along Chamberlain's Creek, +three miles west of Dinwiddie Court-House. He had hard fighting, and was +repulsed. There was want of cooperation on the part of Warren, +commanding the Fifth Corps, who was relieved of his command the next +morning, General Griffin succeeding him. A heavy rain-storm came on. +Wagons went hub-deep in the mud. The swamps were overflowed. The army +came to a stand-still. The soldiers were without tents. Thousands had +thrown away their blankets. There was gloom and discouragement +throughout the camp. But all the axes and shovels were brought into +requisition, and the men went to work building corduroy roads. It was +much better for the _morale_ of the army than to sit by bivouac-fires +waiting for sunny skies. The week passed away. The Richmond papers were +confident and boastful of final success. + +"We are very hopeful of the campaign which is opening, and trust that we +are to reap a large advantage from the operations evidently near at +hand.... We have only to resolve that we will never surrender, and it +will be impossible that we shall ever be taken," said the "Sentinel," in +its issue of Saturday morning, April 1st, the last paper ever issued +from that office. The editor was not aware of the fact, that on Friday +evening, while he was penning this paragraph, Sheridan was bursting open +the door at the Five Forks and had the Rebellion by the throat. Lee +attempted to retrieve the disaster on Saturday by depleting his left and +centre to reinforce his right. Then came the order from Grant, "Attack +vigorously all along the line." How splendidly it was executed! The +Ninth, the Sixth, the Second, the Twenty-Fourth Corps, all went tumbling +in upon the enemy's works, like breakers upon the beach, tearing away +_chevaux-de-frise_, rushing into the ditches, sweeping over the +embankments, and dashing through the embrasures of the forts. In an hour +the C. S. A.,--the Confederate Slave Argosy,--the Ship of State launched +but four years ago, which went proudly sailing, with the death's-head +and cross-bones at her truck, on a cruise against Civilization and +Christianity, hailed as a rightful belligerent, furnished with guns, +ammunition, provisions, and all needful supplies, by England and France, +was thrown a helpless wreck upon the shores of Time! + +It would be interesting to follow the troops in their victorious advance +upon Petersburg, their closing in upon Lee, the magnificent tactics of +the pursuit, and the scenes of the surrender; but in this article we +have space only to glance at + + +SCENES IN RICHMOND. + +"My line is broken in three places, and Richmond must be evacuated," was +Lee's despatch to Davis, received by the arch-traitor at eleven and a +half o'clock in St. Paul's Church. He read it with blanched cheeks, and +left the church in haste. + +Davis had robbed the banks of Virginia a few days before, seizing the +bullion in the name of the Confederacy; and his first thought was how to +secure the treasure. + +He hurried to the executive mansion, passed up the winding stairway to +his business apartment, seated himself at a small table, wrote an order +for the removal of the coin to Danville, and for the evacuation of the +city. + +There was no evening service in the churches on that Sunday. Ministers +and congregations were otherwise employed. The Reverend Mr. Hoge, ablest +of the Presbyterian pastors, fiercest advocate of them all for Slavery +as a divine missionary institution, bitterest hater of the North, packed +his carpet-bag and took a long Sabbath-day's journey towards the South. +The Reverend Mr. Duncan, of the Methodist Church, did the same work of +necessity. Lumpkin, who for many years has kept a slave-trader's jail, +also had a work of necessity on hand,--fifty men, women, and children, +who must be saved to the missionary institution for the future +enlightenment of Africa. Although it was the Lord's day, (perhaps he was +comforted by the thought, that, the better the day, the better the +deed,) the coffle-gang was made up in the jail-yard, within pistol-shot +of Davis's parlor-window, within a stone's throw of the Monumental +Church, and a sad and weeping throng, chained two and two, the last +slave-coffle that shall ever tread the streets of Richmond, were hurried +to the Danville Depot. Slavery being the corner-stone of the +Confederacy, it was fitting that this gang, keeping step to the music of +their clanking chains, should accompany Jeff Davis's secretaries, +Benjamin and Trenholm, and the Reverend Messrs. Hoge and Duncan, in +their flight. The whole Rebel Government was on the move, and all +Richmond desired to be. No thoughts of taking Washington now, or of the +flag of the Confederacy flaunting in the breeze over the old Capitol! +Hundreds of officials were at the depot, to get away from the doomed +city. Public documents, the archives of the Confederacy, were hastily +gathered up, tumbled into boxes and barrels, and taken to the trains, or +carried into the streets and set on fire. Coaches, carriages, wagons, +carts, wheelbarrows, everything in the shape of a vehicle was brought +into use. There was a jumble of boxes, chests, trunks, valises, +carpet-bags,--a crowd of excited men sweating as they never sweat +before,--women with dishevelled hair, unmindful of their wardrobes, +wringing their hands,--children crying in the crowd,--sentinels guarding +each entrance to the train, pushing back at the point of the bayonet the +panic-stricken multitude, giving precedence to Davis and the high +officials, and informing Mr. Lumpkin that his niggers could not be +taken. Oh, what a loss was there! It would have been fifty thousand +dollars out of somebody's pocket in 1861, but millions now of +Confederate promises to pay, which the hurrying multitude and that +coffled gang were treading under foot,--literally trampling the bonds of +the Confederate States of America in the mire, as they marched to the +station; for the streets were as thickly strown with four per cents, six +per cents, eight per cents as the forest with last year's leaves. + +"The faith of the Confederate States is pledged to provide and establish +sufficient revenues for the regular payment of the interest, and for the +redemption of the principal," read the bonds; but there was a sudden +eclipse of faith, and not merely an eclipse, but a collapse, a +shrivelling up, like a parched scroll, of the entire Confederacy, which, +like its bonds, notes, and certificates of indebtedness, was old rags! + +In the Sabbath evening twilight, the trains, with the fugitive +Government, its stolen bullion, and its Doctors of Divinity on board, +moved out from the city. + +At the same hour, the Governor of Virginia, William Smith, and the +Assembly, were embarked in a canal-boat, on the James River and Kanawha +Canal, moving for Lynchburg. On all the roads were men, women, and +children, in carriages of every description, with multitudes on +horseback and on foot, fleeing from the Rebel capital. Men who could not +get away were secretly at work, during those night-hours, burying plate +and money in gardens; ladies secreted their jewels, barred and bolted +their doors, and passed a sleepless night, fearful of the morrow, which +would bring the hated, despised, Vandal horde of Yankee ruffians: for +such were the epithets which they had persistently applied to the +soldiers of the Union throughout the war. + +But before the entrance of the Union army they had an experience from +their friends. Following the example of the Government, which had robbed +the banks, the soldiers pillaged the city, breaking open stores, and +helping themselves to whatever suited their convenience and taste, of +clothing, fancy goods, eatables, and drinkables. + +But the Government itself was not quite through with its operations in +Richmond. The Secretary of War, John C. Breckinridge, with General +Ewell, remained till daylight on Monday morning to clear up things,--not +to burn public archives in order to destroy evidence of Confederate +villany, but to commit more crime, so deep, damning, that the stanchest +friends of the Confederacy recoil with horror from the act. + +To prevent the United States from obtaining possession of a few thousand +hogsheads of tobacco, a thousand houses were destroyed by fire, the +heart of the city was eaten out,--all of the business portions, all the +banks and insurance-offices, half of the newspapers, mills, depots, +bridges, foundries, workshops, dwellings, churches, thirty squares in +all, swept clean by the devouring flames. It was the work of the +Confederate Government. And not only this, but human life was +remorselessly sacrificed. + +In the outskirts of the city, on the Mechanicsville road, was the +almshouse, filled with the lame, the blind, the halt, the bedridden, the +sick, and the poor. Ten rods distant was a magazine containing fifteen +or twenty kegs of powder, of little value to a victorious army with full +supplies of ammunition. They could have been rolled into the creek near +at hand; but the order of Jeff Davis was to blow up the magazines, and +the order must be executed. + +"We give you fifteen minutes to get out of the way," was the sole notice +to that crowd of helpless creatures lying in their cots, at three +o'clock in the morning. Men and women begged for mercy. In vain their +cries. The officer in charge of the matter was inexorable. Clotheless +and shoeless, the inmates of the almshouse ran in terror from the spot +to seek shelter in the ravines. But there were those who could not run, +who, while the train was laying, rent the air with shrieks of terror. +The train was fired at the expiration of the allotted time. The whole +side of the house went in with a crash, as if it were no more than +pasteboard. Windows flew into minutest particles. Bricks, stones, +timbers, beams, and boards went whirling through the air. Trees were +wrenched off as though a giant had twisted them into withes. The city +rocked as if upheaved by an earthquake. The dozen poor wretches +remaining in the almshouse were torn to pieces. Their bodies were but +blackened masses of flesh, when the fugitives who had sought shelter in +the fields returned to the shattered ruins. + +How stirring the events of that morning! Lee retreating, Grant pursuing; +Davis a fugitive; the Governor and Legislature of Virginia seeking +safety in a canal-boat; Doctors of Divinity fleeing from the wrath to +come; the troops of the Union marching up the streets; the old flag +waving over the Capitol; Rebel iron-clads blowing up; Richmond in +flames; the fiery billows rolling on from house to house, from block to +block, from square to square, unopposed in their progress by the +panic-stricken, stupefied, bewildered crowd; and the Northern Vandals +laying aside their arms, manning the engines, putting out the fire, and +saving the city from total destruction! Through the terrible day, all +through the succeeding night, the smoke of its torment went up to +heaven. Strange, weird, the scenes of that Monday night,--the glimmering +flames, the clouds of smoke hanging like a funeral pall above the ruins, +the crowd of woe-begone, houseless, homeless creatures wandering through +the streets:-- + + "Such resting found the soles of unblest feet!" + + +VISIT OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. + +Among the memorable events of the week was the visit of President +Lincoln to the city of Richmond. He had been tarrying at City Point, +holding daily consultations with General Grant, visiting the army and +the iron-clads at Aiken's Landing,--thus avoiding the swarm of +place-hunters that darkened the doors of the executive mansion. + +On Tuesday noon a tug-boat belonging to the navy was seen steaming up +the James, regardless of torpedoes and obstructions. A mile below the +city, where the water becomes shoal, President Lincoln, accompanied by +Admiral Porter, Captain Adams of the navy, Captain Penrose of the army, +and Lieutenant Clemmens of the Signal Corps, put off from the tug in a +launch manned by twelve sailors, whose long, steady oar-strokes quickly +carried the party to the landing-place,--a square above Libby Prison. + +There was no committee of reception, no guard of honor, no grand +display of troops, no assembling of an eager multitude to welcome him. + +He entered the city unheralded; six sailors, armed with carbines, +stepped upon the shore, followed by the President, who held his little +son by the hand, and Admiral Porter; the officers followed, and six more +sailors brought up the rear. The writer of this article was there upon +the spot, and, joining the party, became an observer of the memorable +event. + +There were forty or fifty freedmen, who had been sole possessors of +themselves for twenty-four hours, at work on the bank of the canal, +securing some floating timber, under the direction of a Lieutenant. +Somehow they obtained the information that the man who was head and +shoulders taller than all others around him, with features large and +irregular, with a mild eye and pleasant countenance, was President +Lincoln. + +"God bless you, Sah!" said one, taking off his cap and bowing very low. + +"Hurrah! hurrah! President Linkum hab come!" was the shout which rang +through the street. + +The Lieutenant found himself without a command. What cared those +freedmen, fresh from the house of bondage, for floating timber or +military commands? Their deliverer had come,--he who, next to the Lord +Jesus, was their best friend! It was not an hurrah that they gave, but a +wild, jubilant cry of inexpressible joy. + +They gathered round the President, ran ahead, hovered upon the flanks of +the little company, and hung like a dark cloud upon the rear. Men, +women, and children joined the constantly increasing throng. They came +from all the by-streets, running in breathless haste, shouting and +hallooing and dancing with delight. The men threw up their hats, the +women waved their bonnets and handkerchiefs, clapped their hands, and +sang, "Glory to God! glory! glory! glory!"--rendering all the praise to +God, who had heard their wailings in the past, their meanings for wives, +husbands, children, and friends sold out of their sight, had given them +freedom, and, after long years of waiting, had permitted them thus +unexpectedly to behold the face of their great benefactor. + +"I thank you, dear Jesus, that I behold President Linkum!" was the +exclamation of a woman who stood upon the threshold of her humble home, +and with streaming eyes and clasped hands gave thanks aloud to the +Saviour of men. + +Another, more demonstrative in her joy, was jumping and striking her +hands with all her might, crying,--"Bless de Lord! Bless de Lord! Bless +de Lord!" as if there could be no end of her thanksgiving. + +The air rang with a tumultuous chorus of voices. The street became +almost impassable on account of the increasing multitude. Soldiers were +summoned to clear the way. How strange the event! The President of the +United States--he who had been hated, despised, maligned above all other +men living, to whom the vilest epithets had been applied by the people +of Richmond--was walking their streets, receiving thanksgivings, +blessings, and praises from thousands who hailed him as the ally of the +Messiah! How bitter the reflections of that moment to some who beheld +him!--memory running back, perhaps, to that day in May, 1861, when +Jefferson Davis, their President, entered the city,--the pageant of that +hour, his speech, his promise to smite the smiter, to drench the fields +of Virginia with richer blood than that shed at Buena Vista! How that +part of the promise had been kept!--how their sons, brothers, and +friends had fallen!--how all else predicted had failed!--how the land +had been filled with mourning!--how the State had become a +desolation!--how their property, their hoarded wealth, had disappeared! +They had been invited to a gorgeous banquet; the fruit was fair to the +eye, of golden hue and beautiful; but it had turned to ashes. They had +been promised a place among the nations, a position of commanding +influence and fame. Cotton was the king of kings, and England, France, +and the whole civilized world would bow in humble submission to his +Majesty. That was the promise; but now their king was dethroned, their +government overthrown, their President and his cabinet vagrants, driven +from house and home to be wanderers upon the earth. They had been +promised affluence, Richmond was to be the metropolis of the +Confederacy, and Virginia the all-powerful State of the new nation. How +terrible the cheat! Their thousand-dollar bonds were not worth a penny. +A million dollars would not purchase a dinner. Their money was +valueless, their slaves were freemen, the heart of their city was eaten +out. They had been cheated in everything. Those whom they had trusted +had given the unkindest cut of all,--adding arson and robbery to their +other crimes. Thus had they fallen from highest anticipation of bliss to +deepest actual woe. The language of the Arch-Rebel of the universe, in +"Paradise Lost," was most appropriate to them:-- + + "'Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,' + Said then the lost Archangel, 'this the seat, + That we must change for heaven, this mournful gloom + For that celestial light?'" + +Abraham Lincoln was walking their streets; and, worst of all, that +plain, honest-hearted man was recognizing the "niggers" as human beings +by returning their salutations! The walk was long, and the President +halted a moment to rest. "May de good Lord bless you, President Linkum!" +said an old negro, removing his hat, and bowing with tears of joy +rolling down his cheeks. The President removed his own hat, and bowed in +silence; but it was a bow which upset the forms, laws, customs, and +ceremonies of centuries. It was a death-shock to chivalry, and a mortal +wound to caste. Recognize a nigger! Faugh! A woman in an adjoining house +beheld it, and turned from the scene in unspeakable disgust. There were +men in the crowd who had daggers in their eyes; but the chosen assassin +was not there, the hour for the damning work had not come, and that +great-hearted man passed on to the executive mansion of the late +Confederacy. + +Want of space compels us to pass over other scenes,--the visit of the +President to the State-House,--the jubilant shouts of the crowd,--the +rush of freedmen into the Capitol grounds, where, till the appearance of +their deliverer, they had never been permitted to enter,--the ride of +the President through the streets,--his visit to Libby Prison,--the +distribution of bread to the destitute,--the groups of heartbroken men +amid the ruins, who beheld nought but ruins,--a ruined city, a ruined +State, a ruined Confederacy, a ruined people,--ruined in hopes and +expectations,--ruined for the past, the present, and the +future,--without power, influence, or means of beginning life +anew,--deceived, subjugated, humiliated,--poverty-stricken in +everything. All that they had possessed was irretrievably lost, and they +had nothing to show for it. All their heroism, valor, courage, hardship, +suffering, expenditure of treasure, and sacrifice of blood had availed +them nothing. There could be no comfort in their mourning, no +alleviation to their sorrow. + +Forgetting that Justice is the mightiest power of the universe, that +Righteousness is eternal, and that anything short of it is transitory, +they planned a gorgeous edifice with Slavery for its corner-stone; but +suddenly, and in an hour, their superstructure and foundation, crumbled. +They grasped at dominion, and sank in perdition. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[I] I write from memory, not pretending to give the exact words uttered +during the conversation. + + + + +DOWN! + +(APRIL, 1965) + + + + Yard-Arm to yard-arm we lie + Alongside the Ship of Hell; + And still, through the sulphury sky, + The terrible clang goes high,-- + Broadside and battle-cry, + And the pirates' maddened yell! + + Our Captain's cold on the deck; + Our brave Lieutenant's a wreck,-- + He lies in the hold there, hearing + The storm of fight going on overhead, + Tramp and thunder to wake the dead, + The great guns jumping overhead, + And the whole ship's company cheering! + + Four hours the Death-Fight has roared, + (Gun-deck and berth-deck blood-wet!) + Her mainmast's gone by the board, + Down come topsail and jib! + We're smashing her, rib by rib, + And the pirate yells grow weak,-- + But the Black Flag flies there yet, + The Death's Head grinning apeak! + + Long has she haunted the seas, + Terror of sun and breeze; + Her deck has echoed with groans; + Her hold is a horrid den, + Piled to the orlop with bones + Of starved and of murdered men! + They swarm 'mid her shrouds in hosts, + The smoke is murky with ghosts! + + But to-day her cruise shall be short! + She's bound to the Port she cleared from, + She's nearing the Light she steered from,-- + Ah, the Horror sees her fate! + Heeling heavy to port, + She strikes, but all too late! + Down with her cursed crew, + Down with her damned freight, + To the bottom of the Blue, + Ten thousand fathom deep! + With God's glad sun o'erhead,-- + That is the way to weep, + So will we mourn our dead! + + + + +THE PLACE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN HISTORY. + + +The funeral procession of the late President of the United States has +passed through the land from Washington to his final resting-place in +the heart of the Prairies. Along the line of more than fifteen hundred +miles his remains were borne, as it were, through continued lines of the +people; and the number of mourners and the sincerity and unanimity of +grief were such as never before attended the obsequies of a human being; +so that the terrible catastrophe of his end hardly struck more awe than +the majestic sorrow of the people. The thought of the individual was +effaced; and men's minds were drawn to the station which he filled, to +his public career, to the principles he represented, to his martyrdom. +There was at first impatience at the escape of his murderer, mixed with +contempt for the wretch who was guilty of the crime; and there was +relief in the consideration, that one whose personal insignificance was +in such a contrast with the greatness of his crime had met with a sudden +and ignoble death. No one stopped to remark on the personal qualities of +Abraham Lincoln, except to wonder that his gentleness of nature had not +saved him from the designs of assassins. It was thought then, and the +event is still so recent it is thought now, that the analysis and +graphic portraiture of his personal character and habits should be +deferred to less excited times; as yet the attempt would wear the aspect +of cruel indifference or levity, inconsistent with the sanctity of the +occasion. Men ask one another only, Why has the President been struck +down, and why do the people mourn? We think we pay the best tribute to +his memory and the most fitting respect to his name, if we ask after the +relation in which he stands to the history of his country and his +fellow-man. + +Before the end of 1865, it will have been two hundred and forty-six +years since the first negro slaves were landed in Virginia from a Dutch +trading-vessel, two hundred and twenty-eight since a Massachusetts +vessel returned from the Bahamas with negro slaves for a part of its +cargo, two hundred and twenty years since men of Boston introduced them +directly from Guinea. Slavery in the United States had not its origin in +British policy: it sprung up among Americans themselves, who in that +respect acquiesced in the customs and morals of the age. But at a later +day the importation of slaves was insisted upon by the government of the +mother country, under the influence of mercantile avarice, with the +further purpose of weakening the rising Colonies, and impeding the +establishment among them of branches of industry that might compete with +the productions of England. Climate and the logical consequences of the +principles of the Puritans checked the increase of slaves in +Massachusetts, from which it gradually disappeared without the necessity +of any special act of manumission; in Virginia, the country within the +reach of tide-water was crowded with negroes, and the marts were +supplied by continuous importations, which the Colony was not suffered +to prohibit or restrain. + +The middle of the eighteenth century was marked by a rising of opinion +in favor of freedom. The statesmen of Massachusetts read the great work +of Montesquieu on the Spirit of Laws; and in bearing their first very +remarkable testimony against slavery, they simply adopted his words, +repeated without passion,--for they had no dread of the increase of +slavery within their own borders, and never doubted of its speedy and +natural decay. The great men of Virginia, on the contrary, were struck +with terror as they contemplated its social condition; they drew their +lessons, not from France, not from abroad, but from themselves and the +scenes around them; and half in the hope of rescuing that ancient +Commonwealth from the corrupting element of slavery, and half in the +agony of despair, they went in advance of all the world in their +reprobation of the slave-trade and of slavery, and of the dangerous +condition of the white man as the master of bondmen. In the years +preceding the war of the Revolution, the Ancient Dominion rocked with +the strife of contending parties: the King with all his officers and +many great slaveholders on the one side, against a hardy people in the +back country and the best of the slaveholders themselves. On the side of +liberty many were conspicuous,--among them Richard Henry Lee, George +Wythe, Jefferson, who from his youth was the pride of Virginia; but all +were feeble in comparison with the enthusiastic fervor and prophetic +instincts of George Mason. They reasoned, that slavery was inconsistent +with Christianity, was in conflict with the rights of man; that it was a +slow poison, daily contaminating the minds and morals of their people; +that, by reducing a part of their own species to abject inferiority, +they lost the idea of the dignity of man, which the hand of Nature had +implanted within them for great and useful purposes; that, by the habit +from infancy of trampling on the rights of human nature, every liberal +sentiment was extinguished or enfeebled; that every gentleman was born a +petty tyrant, and by the practice of cruelty and despotism became +callous to the finer dictates of the soul; that in such an infernal +school were to be educated the future legislators and rulers of +Virginia. And before the war broke out, the House of Burgesses of +Virginia was warned of the choice that lay before them: either the +Constitution must by degrees work itself clear by its own innate +strength and the virtue and resolution of the community, or the laws of +impartial Providence would avenge on their posterity the injury done to +a class of unhappy men debased by their injustice. + +At the opening of the war of the Revolution, the Narragansett country of +Rhode Island, the Southern part of Long Island, New York City and the +counties on the Hudson, and East New Jersey had in their population +about as large a proportion of slaves as Missouri four years ago. In all +the Colonies collectively the black men were to the white men as five to +twenty-one. The British authorities unanimously held that the master +lost his claim to his slave by the act of rebellion. In Virginia a +system of emancipation was inaugurated; and the emancipation of slaves +by success in arms Jefferson pronounced to be right. But the system of +emancipation took no large proportions: partly because the invaders in +the beginning of the war were driven from the Chesapeake; partly because +the large slaveholders of South Carolina, on the subjugation of the low +country in that State, renewed their allegiance to the Crown; and partly +because British officers chose to ship slaves of rebels to the markets +of the West Indies. Yet the continued occupation of Rhode Island, Long +Island, and New York City, and the exodus of slaves with other refugees +at the time of peace, facilitated the movements in Rhode Island and New +York for the abrogation of slavery. At the end of the war the proportion +of free people to slaves was greatly increased; and, whatever wilful +blindness may assert, the free black had the privileges of a citizen. + +Here, then, was an opening for relieving the body politic from the great +anomaly of bondage in the midst of freedom. But though divine justice +never slumbers, the opportunity was but partially seized. The diminution +of the number of laborers at the South revived the importation of +slaves. The first Congress had agreed not to tolerate that traffic; the +Confederacy left its encouragement or prohibition to the pleasure of +each State; and the Constitution continued that liberty for twenty +years. At the same time slavery was excluded from the whole of the +territory of the United States. The vote of New Jersey only was wanting +to have sustained the proposition of Jefferson, by which it would have +been excluded not only from all the territory then in their possession, +but from all that they might gain. + +The jealousy of the Southern States of the power of the North may be +traced through the annals of Congress from the first, which assembled in +1774. The old notions of the independence and sovereignty of each +separate State, though the Constitution was framed for the express +purpose of modifying them, clung to life with tenacity. When John Adams +was elected President, before any overt act, before any other cause of +alarm than his election, the Legislature of Virginia took steps for an +armed organization of the State, and old and long-cherished sentiments +adverse to Union were renewed. The continuance of the Union was in +peril. It was then that the great Virginia statesman, now perfectly +satisfied with the amended Constitution, came to the rescue. By the +simple force of ideas, embodying in one system all the conquests of the +eighteenth century in behalf of human rights, the freedom of conscience, +speech, and the press, he ruled the willing minds of the people. The +South, where his great strength lay with the poor whites, and where he +was known as the champion of human freedom, trusted in his zeal for +individual liberty and for the adjusted liberty of the States; the North +heard from him sincere and consistent denunciations of slavery, such as +had never been surpassed, except by George Mason. The thought never +crossed the mind of Jefferson that the General Government had not proper +powers of coercion. On taking the office of President, his watchword +was, "We are all Federalists, we are all Republicans"; and the two +principles of universal freedom and equality, and the right of each +State to regulate its own internal domestic affairs, became not so much +the doctrine of a party as the accepted creed of the nation. In his +administration of affairs, Jefferson did not suffer one power of the +General Government to be weakened. No one man did so much as he towards +consolidating the Union. + +But the question of Slavery was not solved. The purchase of Louisiana +increased the States in which slaves were tolerated; the settlement of +the Northwest strengthened the power of freedom; but as yet there had +been no fracture in public opinion. Missouri asked to be admitted to the +Union, and it was found, that, without any party organization, without +formal preparation, a majority of the House of Representatives desired +to couple its admission with the condition that it should emancipate its +slaves. That slavery was evil was still the undivided opinion of the +nation; but it was perceived that the friends of freedom had missed the +proper moment for action,--that Congress had tolerated slavery in +Missouri as a Territory, and were thus inconsistent in claiming to +suppress slavery in the State; and they escaped from the difficulty by +what was called a Compromise. It was agreed that for the future slavery +should never be carried to the north of the southern boundary of +Missouri; and this was interpreted by the South as the devoting of all +the territory south of that line to the owners of slaves. + +From that day Slavery became the foundation of a political party, under +the guise of a zeal for the rights of States. It began to be perceptible +at the next Presidential election; but Calhoun, who was willing to be +considered a candidate for the Presidency, was still as decidedly for +the Union as John Quincy Adams or Webster. Walking one day with Seaton +of the "Intelligencer" on the banks of the Potomac, Seaton dissuaded him +from being at that day a candidate for the Presidency, giving as a +reason, that, in case of success and reelection, he would go out of the +public service in the vigor of life. "I will, at the end of my second +term, go into retirement and write my memoirs," was Calhoun's answer: a +proof that at that time Disunion had not crossed his mind. + +The younger Adams had been undoubtedly at the South the candidate of the +Union party. The incipient opposition to Union threw itself with the +intensest heat into the opposition to Adams; and Jackson, who was +victorious through his own popularity, was elected by a vast majority. +Jackson was honest, patriotic, and brave: he refused his confidence to +the oligarchical party, represented by Calhoun and Macduffie; and after +passionate struggles, which convulsed the country, he defied their +hostility, and told them to their faces, "The Union must be preserved." + +The bitterness of disappointed ambition led to the formation and gradual +enunciation of new political opinions. In the strife about the practical +effects of Nullification, the question was raised by the Nullifiers, +whether obedience to the laws of a State was a good plea for resistance +to the laws of the United States; and so, for the first time in our +history, a political party came to the principle, that primary +allegiance was due to the State, a secondary one only to the United +States; and this view was taught in schools and colleges and popular +meetings. The second theory, that grew up with the first, was, that +slavery was a divine institution, best for the black man and best for +the white. + +At the election which followed the retirement of Jackson, the Democratic +party stood by its old tradition of the evil of slavery, and the hope +that by the innate vigor of the respective States it would gradually be +thrown off; the opposite party likewise held to the same tradition, in +the belief that the progress of commerce and domestic industry would in +due time quietly remove what all sound political economy condemned. The +new party, the party of State Sovereignty and Slavery,--for the two +heads sprung from one root,--had not power enough to prevent the +election of one who represented the policy of Jackson. But they were +full of passionate ardor and of restless activity; and in the next +Presidential election they threw themselves upon the Whig party, with +which they joined hands. The Whig party was at that day strong enough to +have done without them; but the uncontrollable wish for success, which +had been long delayed, led to the cry of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," and +this meant a union of the interests of the North with the interest of +Slavery. Harrison had votes enough to elect him without one vote from +the Southern oligarchy; but the compact was made; Harrison was elected +and died, and the representative of the oligarchy, a man at heart false +to the national flag, became President for nearly four years. + +His administration is marked by the annexation of Texas to the United +States: a measure sure, in the belief of Calhoun, to confirm the empire +of Slavery,--sure, as others believed, to prevent the foundation of an +adventurous government, that, if left to independence, would have +reopened the slave-trade and subdued by force of arms all California and +Mexico to the sway of Slavery. The faith of the last proved the true +one. Under the administration of Polk, California was annexed, not to +independent, slaveholding Texas, but to the Union. This constitutes the +turning-point in the series of events; the first emigrants to her +borders formed a constitution excluding slavery. + +At the next election a change took place, profoundly affecting the +Democratic party, and, as a consequence, the country. Hitherto the +position of the Northern Democracy had been that of Jefferson, that +slavery was altogether evil; and Cass, the Democratic candidate, still +expressed his prayer for the final doom of slavery. Against his election +a third party was formed; and Van Buren, a former Democratic President, +who had been sustained by the South as well as by the North, taking with +him one half the Democracy of New York, consented to be the candidate of +that party. We judge not his act; but the consequences were sad. To the +South his appearance as a candidate on that basis had the aspect of +treachery; at the North the Democratic party lost its power to resist +the arrogance of the South: for, in the first place, large numbers of +its best men had left its ranks; and next, those who remained behind +were eager to clear themselves of the charge of sectional narrowness; +and those who had gone out and come back, in their zeal to recover the +favor of the South, went beyond all bounds in their professions of +repentance. The old compromise of Jefferson fell into disrepute; the +Democratic party itself was thrown into confusion; the power of any one +of its distinguished men to resist the increasing arrogance of the +slaveholders was taken away; a word in public for what twenty years +before had been the creed of every one was followed by the ban of the +majority of the party. So fell one bulwark against slavery. + +Still another bulwark against it was destined to fall away. The +annexation of California brought with it the question of the admission +of California as a State of freemen. The only way to have avoided +convulsing the country was to have confined the discussion to the one +question of the admission of California. Unhappily, Clay, truly +representing a State which halted in its choice between freedom and +slavery, proposed a combination of measures. Further, the representation +of the Free States had steadily increased from the origin of the +Government; the admission of California threatened, at last, to open the +way for a corresponding disproportion in the Senate. The country, +remembering how Webster, on a great occasion, had greatly resisted the +heresy of Nullification, looked to him now to clear away the mists of +artful misrepresentations of the Constitution, and show that neither in +that Constitution nor in the history of the country at the time of its +formation had there been any justification of the demand for such +equality of representation. But this time the great orator failed; the +passionate desire for being President led him to make a speech intended +to conciliate the support of the South. In that he failed miserably at +the moment; a few days later, Calhoun, on his death-bed, avowed himself +the adviser of a secession of the whole body of the slaveholding States. +Still blinded by ambition, Webster, on a tour through New York, as a +candidate, formally proposed the establishment of a party representing +the property of the country, crystallizing round the slaveholders, and +including the commercial and corporate industrial wealth of the North. +The effect on his own advancement was absolutely nothing. In due time, +as a candidate, he fell stone dead; and it is to his credit that he did +so. The South knew that he was a Union man, and would not answer their +purpose. As he heard of the slight given by those whom he had courted, +his large head fell on his breast, his voice faltered, and big tears +trickled down his cheeks. His cheerfulness never returned; he languished +and died; but the evil that lived after him was, that the great party to +which he had belonged was no more able to stem the rising fury of the +South, and broke to pieces. + +Thus, by untoward circumstances, the truth that could alone confirm the +Union, and which heretofore had been substantially supported by both the +great traditional parties of the country, no longer had a clear and +commanding exponent in either of them. The result of the next election +showed that the old Whig party had lost all power over the public mind. +The strife went on, and hope centred in the supreme judicial tribunal of +the land, to whose members a secure tenure of office had been given, +that they might be above all temptation of serving the time. The +politicians of the North were becoming alarmed by the issues which were +forced upon them by those of the South with whom they still wished to be +friends; they longed to shift the responsibility of the decision upon +the Supreme Court. The Court was slow to be swerved. The case of Dred +Scott was before them; and the decision of the Court was embodied in an +opinion which would have produced no excitement. But the Court was +entreated to give their decision another form. They long resisted, and +were long divided; but perseverance overcame them; and at last a most +reluctant majority, a bare majority, was won to enter the arena of +politics, and attempt the suppression of differences of opinion: for, +said one of the judges, "the peace and harmony of the country require +the settlement of Constitutional principles of the highest +importance,"--not knowing that injustice overturns peace and harmony, +and that a depraved judiciary portends civil war. + +The man who took the Presidential chair in 1857 had no traditional party +against him; he owed his nomination to confidence in his moderation and +supposed love of Union. He might have united the whole North and secured +a good part of the South. Constitutionally timid, on taking the oath of +office, he betrayed his own weakness, and foreshadowed the forthcoming +decision of the Supreme Court. Under the wing of the Executive, +Chief-Justice Taney gave his famed disquisition. The delivery of that +opinion was an act of revolution. The truth of history was scorned; the +voice of passion was put forward as the rule of law; doctrines were laid +down which, if they are just, give a full sanction to the rebellion +which ensued. The country was stung to the quick by the reckless conduct +of a body which it needed to trust, and which now was leading the way to +the overthrow of the Constitution and the dismemberment of the Republic. +At the same time, the President, in selecting the members of his +cabinet, chose four of the seven from among those who were prepared to +sacrifice the country to the interests of Slavery. In time of peace the +finances were wilfully ill-administered, and in the midst of wealth and +credit the country was saved from bankruptcy only by the patriotism of +the city of New York, against the treacherous intention of the Secretary +of the Treasury. Cannon and muskets and military stores were sent in +numbers where they could most surely fall into the hands of the coming +rebellion; troops of the United States were placed under disloyal +officers and put out of the way; the navy was scattered abroad. And +then, that nothing might be wanting to increase the agony of the +country, an attempt to force the institution of Slavery on the people of +Kansas, that refused it, received the encouragement and aid of the +President. The conspirators resolved at the next Presidential election +to compel the choice of a candidate of their own, or of one against whom +they could unite the South; and all the influence of the Administration, +through its patronage, was used to confine the election to that issue. + +Virginia statesmen, more than ninety years ago, had foretold that each +State Constitution must work itself clear of the evil of slavery by its +own innate vigor, or await the doom of impartial Providence. Judgment +slumbered no longer,--though wise men after the flesh were not chosen as +its messengers and avengers. + +The position of Abraham Lincoln, on the day of his inauguration, was +apparently one of helpless debility. A bark canoe in a tempest on +mid-ocean seemed hardly less safe. The vital tradition of the country on +Slavery no longer had its adequate expression in either of the two great +political parties, and the Supreme Court had uprooted the old landmarks +and guides. The men who had chosen him President did not constitute a +consolidated party, and did not profess to represent either of the +historic parties which had been engaged in the struggles of three +quarters of a century. They were a heterogeneous body of men, of the +most various political attachments in former years, and on many +questions of economy of the most discordant opinions. Scarcely knowing +each other, they did not form a numerical majority of the whole country, +were in a minority in each branch of Congress except from the wilful +absence of members, and they could not be sure of their own continuance +as an organized body. They did not know their own position, and were +startled by the consequences of their success. The new President himself +was, according to his own description, a man of defective education, a +lawyer by profession, knowing nothing of administration beyond having +been master of a very small post-office, knowing nothing of war but as +a captain of volunteers in a raid against an Indian chief, repeatedly a +member of the Illinois Legislature, once a member of Congress. He spoke +with ease and clearness, but not with eloquence. He wrote concisely and +to the point, but was unskilled in the use of the pen. He had no +accurate knowledge of the public defences of the country, no exact +conception of its foreign relations, no comprehensive perception of his +duties. The qualities of his nature were not suited to hardy action. His +temper was soft and gentle and yielding; reluctant to refuse anything +that presented itself to him as an act of kindness; loving to please and +willing to confide; not trained to confine acts of good-will within the +stern limits of duty. He was of the temperament called melancholic, +scarcely concealed by an exterior of lightness of humor,--having a deep +and fixed seriousness, jesting lips, and wanness of heart. And this man +was summoned to stand up directly against a power with which Henry Clay +had never directly grappled, before which Webster at last had quailed, +which no President had offended and yet successfully administered the +Government, to which each great political party had made concessions, to +which in various measures of compromise the country had repeatedly +capitulated, and with which he must now venture a struggle for the life +or death of the nation. + +The credit of the country had not fully recovered from the shock it had +treacherously received in the former administration. A part of the +navy-yards were intrusted to incompetent agents or enemies. The social +spirit of the city of Washington was against him, and spies and enemies +abounded in the circles of fashion. Every executive department swarmed +with men of treasonable inclinations, so that it was uncertain where to +rest for support. The army officers had been trained in unsound +political principles. The chief of staff of the highest of the general +officers, wearing the mask of loyalty, was a traitor at heart. The +country was ungenerous towards the negro, who in truth was not in the +least to blame,--was impatient that such a strife should have grown out +of his condition, and wished that he were far away. On the side of +prompt decision the advantage was with the Rebels; the President sought +how to avoid war without compromising his duty; and the Rebels, who knew +their own purpose, won incalculable advantages by the start which they +thus gained. The country stood aghast, and would not believe in the full +extent of the conspiracy to shatter it in pieces; men were uncertain if +there would be a great uprising of the people. The President and his +cabinet were in the midst of an enemy's country and in personal danger, +and at one time their connections with the North and West were cut off; +and that very moment was chosen by the trusted chief of staff of the +Lieutenant-General to go over to the enemy. + +Every one remembers how this state of suspense was terminated by the +uprising of a people who now showed strength and virtues which they were +hardly conscious of possessing. + +In some respects Abraham Lincoln was peculiarly fitted for his task, in +connection with the movement of his countrymen. He was of the Northwest; +and this time it was the Mississippi River, the needed outlet for the +wealth of the Northwest, that did its part in asserting the necessity of +Union. He was one of the mass of the people; he represented them, +because he was of them; and the mass of the people, the class that lives +and thrives by self-imposed labor, felt that the work which was to be +done was a work of their own: the assertion of equality against the +pride of oligarchy; of free labor against the lordship over slaves; of +the great industrial people against all the expiring aristocracies of +which any remnants had tided down from the Middle Age. He was of a +religious turn of mind, without superstition; and the unbroken faith of +the mass was like his own. As he went along through his difficult +journey, sounding his way, he held fast by the hand of the people, and +"tracked its footsteps with even feet." "His pulse's beat twinned with +their pulses." He committed faults; but the people were resolutely +generous, magnanimous, and forgiving; and he in his turn was willing to +take instructions from their wisdom. + +The measure by which Abraham Lincoln takes his place, not in American +history only, but in universal history, is his Proclamation of January +1, 1863, emancipating all slaves within the insurgent States. It was, +indeed, a military necessity, and it decided the result of the war. It +took from the public enemy one or two millions of bondmen, and placed +between one and two hundred thousand brave and gallant troops in arms on +the side of the Union. A great deal has been said in time past of the +wonderful results of the toil of the enslaved negro in the creation of +wealth by the culture of cotton; and now it is in part to the aid of the +negro in freedom that the country owes its success in its movement of +regeneration,--that the world of mankind owes the continuance of the +United States as the example of a Republic. The death of President +Lincoln sets the seal to that Proclamation, which must be maintained. It +cannot but be maintained. It is the only rod that can safely carry off +the thunderbolt. He came to it perhaps reluctantly; he was brought to +adopt it, as it were, against his will, but compelled by inevitable +necessity. He disclaimed all praise for the act, saying reverently, +after it had succeeded, "The nation's condition God alone can claim." + +And what a futurity is opened before the country when its institutions +become homogeneous! From all the civilized world the nations will send +hosts to share the wealth and glory of this people. It will receive all +good ideas from abroad; and its great principles of personal equality +and freedom--freedom of conscience and mind,--freedom of speech and +action,--freedom of government through ever-renewed common consent--will +undulate through the world like the rays of light and heat from the sun. +With one wing touching the waters of the Atlantic and the other on the +Pacific, it will grow into a greatness of which the past has no +parallel; and there can be no spot in Europe or in Asia so remote or so +secluded as to shut out its influence. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. + + +The Refugee. By Herman Melville, Author of "Omoo," etc. Philadelphia. T. +B. Peterson & Brothers, 12mo. pp. 286. $2.00. + +Three Years in the Army of the Potomac. By Henry N. Blake, late Captain +in the Eleventh Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers. Boston. Lee & +Shepard. 16mo. pp. 319. $1.50. + +Too Strange not to be True. A Tale. By Lady Georgiana Fullerton. Three +Volumes in One. With Illustrations. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. +paper. pp. 274. $1.50 + +The Life and Times of Sir William Johnson, Bart. By William L. Stone. In +Two Volumes. Albany. J. Munsell. 8vo. pp. xvi., 555; xvi., 544. $7.00. + +Lord Oakburn's Daughters. By Mrs. Henry Wood. Philadelphia. T. B. +Peterson & Brothers. 8vo. pp. 370. $2.00. + +Lyrical Recreations. By Samuel Ward. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. +pp. xvi., 271. $2.00. + +Virginia, and Other Poems. By John Henry Vosburg. New York. James +Miller. 16mo. pp. 180. $1.25. + +High Life in Washington. A True Picture from Life of Real Persons and +Characters. By Mrs. N. P. Lasselle. Philadelphia. T. B. Peterson & +Brothers. 12mo. pp. 396. $2.00. + +Trial of John Y. Beall, as a Spy and Guerrillero, by Military +Commission. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. paper, pp. 94. 50 cts. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. +92, June, 1865, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, JUNE 1865 *** + +***** This file should be named 31051-8.txt or 31051-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/0/5/31051/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://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. 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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 Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 92, June, 1865 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: January 23, 2010 [EBook #31051] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, JUNE 1865 *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_641" id="Page_641">[Pg 641]</a></span></p> + +<h4>THE</h4> + +<h1>ATLANTIC MONTHLY.</h1> + +<h2><i>A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics.</i></h2> + +<h3>VOL. XV.—JUNE, 1865.—NO. XCII.</h3> + +<p>Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by <span class="smcap">Ticknor and +Fields,</span> in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of +Massachusetts.</p> + +<p class="notes">Transcriber's Note: Minor typos have been corrected and footnotes moved +to the end of the article. Table of contents has been created for the HTML version.</p> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#A_LETTER_ABOUT_ENGLAND"><b>A LETTER ABOUT ENGLAND.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#A_PROSE_HENRIADE"><b>A PROSE HENRIADE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#HARPOCRATES"><b>HARPOCRATES.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#DELYS_COW"><b>DELY'S COW.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#NEEDLE_AND_GARDEN"><b>NEEDLE AND GARDEN.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#GOING_TO_SLEEP"><b>GOING TO SLEEP.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#DOCTOR_JOHNS"><b>DOCTOR JOHNS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_GREAT_LAKES"><b>THE GREAT LAKES.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#TO_CAROLINA_CORONADO"><b>TO CAROLINA CORONADO.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#REGNARD"><b>REGNARD.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#JOHN_BROWNS_RAID"><b>JOHN BROWN'S RAID.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SCHUMANNS_QUINTETTE_IN_E_FLAT_MAJOR"><b>SCHUMANN'S QUINTETTE IN E FLAT MAJOR.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#RICHARD_COBDEN"><b>RICHARD COBDEN.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#MODERN_IMPROVEMENTS_AND_OUR_NATIONAL_DEBT"><b>MODERN IMPROVEMENTS AND OUR NATIONAL DEBT.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_CHIMNEY-CORNER"><b>THE CHIMNEY-CORNER.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_JAGUAR_HUNT"><b>THE JAGUAR HUNT.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#LATE_SCENES_IN_RICHMOND"><b>LATE SCENES IN RICHMOND.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#DOWN"><b>DOWN!</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_PLACE_OF_ABRAHAM_LINCOLN_IN_HISTORY"><b>THE PLACE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN HISTORY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#RECENT_AMERICAN_PUBLICATIONS"><b>RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS.</b></a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_LETTER_ABOUT_ENGLAND" id="A_LETTER_ABOUT_ENGLAND"></a>A LETTER ABOUT ENGLAND.</h2> + + +<p>Dear Mr. Editor,—The name of your magazine shall not deter me from +sending you my slight reflections But you have been across, and will +agree with me that it is the great misfortune of this earth that so much +salt-water is still lying around between its various countries. The +steam-condenser is supposed to diminish its bulk by shortening the +transit from one point to another; but a delicate conscience must aver +that there is a good deal left. The ocean is chiefly remarkable as the +element out of which the dry land came. It is only when the land and sea +combine to frame the mighty coast-line of a continent, and to fringe it +with weed which the tide uncovers twice a day, that the mind is saluted +with health and beauty. The fine instinct of Mr. Thoreau furnished him +with a truth, without the trouble of a single game at pitch and toss +with the mysterious element; for he says,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The middle sea contains no crimson dulse,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Its deeper waves cast up no pearls to view,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Along the shore my hand is on its pulse,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And I converse with many a shipwrecked crew."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>On the broad Atlantic there is no smell of the sea. That comes from the +brown rocks whence iodine is exhaled to brace the nerves and the fancy, +while summer woods chasten all the air. At best, the ocean is austere +and unsympathetic; and a sensible, that is, a sensitive, stomach +understands it to be demoralized by the monstrous krakens which are +viciously brooding in its depths. (If the pronoun "it," in the last +sentence, should refer to stomach, the sense will still be clear.) In +fact, this water has been left over from the making of the earth: like +the Dodo and the Moa, it should have evaporated. How pleasant it is to +be assured by Sir Charles Lyell that the land is still rising in so many +quarters of the globe! for we may anticipate that millennial epoch when +there shall be "no more sea."</p> + +<p>However, the old impression which great spaces used to make upon the +imagination gives way to the new sensation of annihilating spaces. It +would be more correct now to speak of differences than of distances. The +difference between one country and another is all that now makes the +distance between them. For man is now overcoming space faster than he is +obliterating national peculiarities. And when one goes abroad, the +universal humanity in whose interest all material and political +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_642" id="Page_642">[Pg 642]</a></span>triumphs are gained is not felt by him so soon as the specific +divergence which makes the character of lands and people. Oaks and elms, +hawthorn and beeches, are on either side the ocean; but you measure the +voyage by their unlikeness to each other, and wonder how soon you have +got so far. The strawberry ripens with a different flavor and texture. +The sun is less racy in all the common garden-stuff whose names we know. +Pears and peaches we are disappointed in recognizing; they seem as if +ripened by the sun's proxy, the moon; and our boys would hardly pick up +the apples in the fields. But England undulates with grass that seems to +fix the fluent color of the greenest waves on either hand. And our +eagle-eyed blue sky droops its lid over the island, as the moisture +gathers, with a more equable compassion than we know for all shrubs and +blades and grazing cattle.</p> + +<p>Both the pain and the tonic in being absent from your home and country +are administered by difference. In gulping that three thousand miles the +taste is austere, but the stimulus is wholesome. We learn to appreciate, +but also to correct, the fare we have at home.</p> + +<p>The difference is twofold between England and America. England differs, +first, in the inveterate way in which the people hold on to all that +they have inherited; second, in the gradual, but equally inveterate, way +in which they labor to improve their inheritance. The future is gained +by the same temper in which the past is held; so that, if the past is +secure, the future is also: none the less because the past seems so +irrevocably built, but rather in consequence of that, because it betrays +the method of the builders.</p> + +<p>These two characteristics, apparently irreconcilable, are really +organic, and come of position, climate, diet, and slowly amalgamated +races of men. Herne's oak in Windsor Forest and the monarchy in Windsor +Castle grew on the same terms. Branch after branch the oak has fallen, +till on the last day of the summer of 1863 the wind brought the +shattered remnant to the ground. Whether the monarchy decay like this or +not, it has served to shelter a great people; and the English people is +still vital with its slow robustness, and is good for depositing its +annual rings these thousand years.</p> + +<p>Let us look a little more closely at this apparent contradiction.</p> + +<p>The superficial view of England breeds a kind of hopelessness in the +mind of the observer. He says to himself,—"All these stereotyped habits +and opinions, these ways of thinking, writing, building, living, and +dying, seem irrepealable; and the worst fault of their comparative +excellence is, that they appear determined not to yield another inch to +improvement." The Englishman says that America is forever bullying with +her restlessness and innovation. The American might at first say that +England bullied by never budging,—bullied the future, and every +rational or humane suggestion, by planting a portly attitude to +challenge the New Jerusalem in an overbearing chest voice, through which +the timid clarion of the angels is not heard.</p> + +<p>If an observer knows anything of the history of England, he cannot deny +that vast changes have been made in every department of life: domestic +habits, social economics, the courts of law, the Church, the liberty of +the press and of speech, in short, all the roads, whether material or +mental, by which mankind travels to its ultimate purpose, have been +graded, widened, solidly equipped and built. A thousand years have +converted three or four races into one people,—and all that time and +weather have made upon it such strong imprints that you cannot see the +difference between a pyramid and a cathedral sooner than you can the +distinctive nationality of England. But for that very reason you despair +of it, just as you do of a cathedral which cannot be adapted to the +wants of a new religious age. At the same time that you venerate the +history of England, and are thankful for the great expansion which she +gave to human rights, you almost quarrel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_643" id="Page_643">[Pg 643]</a></span> with it, because at first it +seems like an old stratum with its men and women imbedded; its +institutions, once so softly and lightly deposited, now become a tough +clay; its structures, once so curiously devised for living tenants, now +crusts and shells; its tracks of warm and bleeding feet now set in a +stiff soil that will take no future impression.</p> + +<p>All this is due to the first glance you get at the hard, realistic +England of to-day. You have noticed a machine clutch its raw material +and twist and turn it through its relentless bowels. That is the way the +habits of England seize you when you land, and begin to appropriate your +personality. This is the first offence of England in the eyes of an +American, whose favorite phrase, "the largest liberty," is too +synonymous with the absence of any settled habits. Prescribed ways of +doing everything are the scum which a traveller first gathers in +England. Perhaps he thinks that he has caught the English nationality in +his skimmer; and as he rather contemptuously examines these topmost and +handiest traits, he grumbles to himself that these are the habits of a +very old nation, that lives on an island, and keeps up a fleet, not to +bridge, but to widen narrow seas. Such respect for routine and +observance can nowhere else be perceived. An American is so little +prepared for this that he is disposed to quarrel with it even in +railway-stations, where it is most excellent. But it penetrates all +forms and institutions; the Established Church itself is a specimen of +complete arranging and engineering; the worshippers are classified, +ticketed, and despatched safely rolling on the broad gauge of the +Liturgy, in confidence of being set down at last where the conductors +have contracted to take them. How accurately everybody in England knows +his own place!—and he accepts it, however humble, with a determined +feeling that it is inevitable. The audience is so packed that everybody +remains quiet. The demeanor of the servants is as settled and +universally deferential as Westminster Abbey is Gothic. Mr. Lindsay or +Mr. Roebuck might forget to revile America, or Lord Palmerston, +England's right hand, forget his cunning, as soon as a servant might +forget his place. A thousand years have settled him in it; and you are +supposed by him to have had the benefit of as many years in determining +your own position and relation to him. You are electrified when a waiter +first touches his hat to you; it is as if he had discharged something +into you by the gesture, which is likely to exhaust him, and you expect +to have to offer him a chair. But his deference is an integral part of +the stability of England. When he forgets it, look for a panic in the +Exchange, the collapse of credit, and the assassination of the Queen.</p> + +<p>This mutual deference in a country that is so strictly apportioned into +castes becomes an unconscious toadyism, which is saved from being very +repulsive only by the frank and childlike ways of the people. If it is +carried too far, they are the first to see it. The "Times" could not +report a case of murder without remarking, as it described the direction +of the fatal shot, "What was a very singular fact, a part of the charge, +after crossing the apartment, entered a picture of her Majesty the Queen +on the opposite wall";—that is, in committing the murder, the charge of +powder went too far; it ought to have stuck to its business, instead of +violating one of the chief proprieties of a limited monarchy. But when +the Queen went down to Greenwich summer before last to embark for +Belgium, an over-zealous official issued an order that no person should +be admitted into the yard of the dock, no workman should cross the yard +while she was in it, and no one should look out of a window until she +had gone. This was his British sense of the behavior due to a Queen who +was in mourning for her husband, and might dislike to be observed. But +the whole press derided this order, and subjected it to indignant +criticism; the officer was styled flunky and tyrant, and the Queen +herself was obliged to rebuke and disavow it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_644" id="Page_644">[Pg 644]</a></span></p> + +<p>In doing everything in England, there is so little excitement, because +it is felt to be irregular. The temper of the people is well kept by the +smooth and even island air; the moist southwestern winds come and soothe +with calm lips the check. The thermometer, like everything else, knows +its place; and when once it succeeded in passing through twenty degrees +in the course of a day, the oldest inhabitant of London grew anxious; it +was feared that stocks, too, would fall. The thunderstorms understand +propriety, and simply growl, like the dissatisfied Englishman. Vivid +effects, sharp contrasts, violent exertions, cannot be sustained in that +insular atmosphere. It seems as if London, like a lover of the weed, +were pacified by its own smoke. I saw two huge wagons turn from opposite +quarters into a narrow lane. The drivers kept their horses moving till +the heads of the leaders touched; then they sat still and looked at each +other. Both were determined that it was a point of honor to stay where +they were. After a few words of rather substantial English had passed +between them, both subsided into a dogged equanimity. A crowd gathered +instantly, but with as little tumult as ants make; it regarded the +occurrence as a milder form of pugilism, and watched the result with +interest. A policeman passed blandly from one wagon to the other, +represented the necessities of the public traffic, hoped they would +settle it shortly, urged the matter as an intimate friend of the +parties, till at length the man who was conscious that he turned into +the lane the last gathered up his reins and backed out of it. It was a +little index of the popular disposition; and I expected that as soon as +the country became convinced that it had driven rashly into our civil +strait, it would deliberately back out of it. And this it is now slowly +engaged in doing.</p> + +<p>The two great parties of the Church and Liberalism are blocking each +other in the same manner; but in this case Liberalism has turned into +the great thoroughfare of the world's movement, and finds the Church, +like a disabled omnibus, disputing the passage by simply lying across +it. Dr. Temple and one hundred liberal Fellows of Oxford sent up to +Parliament a petition which prayed for the abolition of the subscription +test. At Oxford two subscriptions are required as a qualification for +academic degrees: one to the Thirty-Nine Articles, and one to the third +article of the thirty-sixth Canon. Liberal clergymen and members of the +Church of England find this test odious, because it constrains the +conscience to accept ancient formulas of belief without the benefit of +private interpretation. The conservatives desire to maintain the test, +thinking that it will be a barrier to the tide of private interpretation +which is just now mounting so high. The petitioners perceive that no +test can prevent a man from having his own thoughts; that it is +therefore obsolete; that it drives out of the Church the best +men,—those, namely, who think with independent vigor, and whose +activity would put a new soul into the old Establishment. When this +petition came up for debate in the House of Commons, the conservative +speakers accused the petitioners of wishing to set up a new school of +theological belief and criticism. Mr. Gladstone made a speech, full of +grace and an even vigor, to the effect that he could not conceive of +religion disconnected from definite statements such as those which the +Church possessed; the idea was to his mind as absurd as to conceive of +manifestations of life without a body. Mr. Goschen, the new member from +London, made his maiden speech on this occasion. It was very earnest and +liberal, and reminded one of American styles of speaking, being less +even and conversational than the style which Englishmen admire. His +opinion was, that all tests should be abolished, and that inclusion was +safer than exclusion: meaning that the Church ought to keep herself so +organized as to absorb the best vitality of every generation, instead of +turning it out to become cold and hostile.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_645" id="Page_645">[Pg 645]</a></span> The phrase which he used is +the very essence of a republican policy. It represents the tendency of +the people of England, as distinguished from its ministers and the +traditions of its government. That phrase will one day be safely driven +clear through the highway where the omnibus is now lying; but for the +present, the abolition of tests and church-rates, the recognition of +every shade of dissent, and the graver political reformation which waits +behind all these are held in check by the <i>vis inertiæ</i> of an +Establishment that lies across the road.</p> + +<p>During the exciting anti-church-rate contests of 1840, the Church party +in Rochdale, which had been defeated in an attempt to levy a church-rate +where for several years none had been collected, held a meeting to try +the matter over again. It was adjourned from the church to the +graveyard. The vicar, as chairman, occupied one tombstone, and John +Bright stood upon another to make one of his strong defences of the +rights of Voluntaryism. In the course of the discussion, the vicar's +warden rendered an account of the dilapidations of the building which +the proposed rate was to repair, and stated, with great simplicity, that +"the foundations were giving way,"—a significant remark, which the +meeting, though held in a grave place, received with shouts of laughter. +Such a statement may well be taken as symbolical of the condition of the +Establishment, when liberal criticism, represented by Colenso, Stanley, +Jowett, Baden Powell, and a respectable minority, is silently crumbling +the underpinning, while the full service is intoned above and the +pampered ceremonial swells the aisles.</p> + +<p>If the opponents of liberal thinking ever bring an action against a +prominent dissenter from their views, the Privy Council gets rid of the +case by deciding it upon the purely technical position of the +Church,—as in the case of Dr. Williams, whose offence was the +publication of his Essay on Bunsen, and Mr. Wilson, whose essay was +entitled "Séances Historiques de Genève—The National Church." The +Judicial Committee of the Privy Council decide that they have no power +to define what is true and what is false doctrine, but only what has +been established to be the law of the Church upon the true and legal +construction of her Articles and Formularies.</p> + +<p>I. The Church does not require her clergy to believe in the inspiration +of <i>all</i> portions of the Scriptures.</p> + +<p>II. Nor that the Atonement operates by <i>substitution</i> of Christ's +suffering for our sins.</p> + +<p>III. Nor that the phrase "everlasting fire," in the Athanasian Creed, is +to be received as a final and hopeless statement.</p> + +<p>As a specimen of the popular element which is at work among the +uneducated classes to make the people itself of England its real church, +it is worth while to observe what Mr. Spurgeon is doing. His chapel +stands on the southern side of the Thames, between the Victoria and +Surrey Theatres, where the British subject is served with the domestic +and nautical drama. On those stages the language struts and aspirates, +and the effects are borrowed from Vauxhall and Cremorne for plays which +are constructed to hold the greatest possible amount of cockneyism and +grotesqueness, with the principal object of showing how villany and +murder are uniformly overcome by virtue, whose kettle sings upon the hob +above a pile of buttered muffins at last; and the pit, which came in for +a shilling, pays the extra tribute of a tear. These shop-keepers of the +Surrey side sit on Sunday beneath Mr. Spurgeon's platform, whose early +preaching betrayed the proximity of the theatres, but was for that very +reason admirably seasoned to attract his listeners. If he ever did slide +down the rail of his pulpit-stairs, as reported, in order to dramatize +the swift descent of the soul into iniquity, and then painfully climb up +again to show its difficult return, the action was received, doubtless, +in its full ethical import, and shook the suburban heart. His blunt and +ordinary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_646" id="Page_646">[Pg 646]</a></span> language, sinning frequently against taste, and stooping +sometimes to be coarse, was the very vehicle to take his hearers up at +the pit-door, theatrical or theological, and send them in wholesomer +directions. It was a fortunate—his co-religionists would say +providential—adaptation of an earnest and religious man to the field of +his labor. For, as time passed, the phrases and demeanor of his +preaching improved,—their absurdities have, no doubt, been caricatured +by the London press,—and the temper of the man was more plainly +observed to be sincere, fervent, and devoted to a certain set of +religious preconceptions. The want of culture and of general +intelligence was not so lamentable in such a neighborhood. He led, by +many lengths, the Victoria and Surrey stage. If he had more deeply +reflected upon the subjects which he handled like a simple-hearted boy, +he would have failed to keep four thousand men and women warm in the +hollow of his hand from Sunday to Sunday, for a dozen years, and to +organize their whole moral and religious activity in forms that are +admirably adapted to carry on the work of popular dissent.</p> + +<p>His audience represents the district, and is an advertisement of the +kind of spiritual instruction which it needs and gets. Not many large +heads sit in the pews; narrowness, unreflecting earnestness, and healthy +desires are imprinted upon the faces upturned towards his clear and +level delivery. He is never exactly vapid, and he never soars. His +theology is full of British beer; but the common-sense of his points and +illustrations relative to morals and piety is a lucid interval by which +the hearers profit. They follow his textual allusions in their little +Bibles, and devoutly receive the crude and amusing interpretations as +utterances of the highest exegetical skill. But their faces shine when +the discourse moralizes; it seems to take them by the button, so +friendly it is,—but it looks them closely in the eye, without heat and +distant zeal, with great, manly expostulation, rather, and half-humorous +argument, that sometimes make the tears stand upon the lids. The florid +countenances become a shade paler with listening, the dark complexions +glow with a brooding religiosity. It is plain that he has a hungry +people, and feeds them with what suits their frames the best. His clear +voice, well fuelled by a full, though rather flabby frame, rolls into +all the galleries and corners of the vast building without effort; his +gestures are even and well balanced; and you are, in fact, surprised to +see how good a natural orator he is. You went to hear him, expecting to +find some justification for the stories which impute to him a low and +egotistic presence, and a delivery that depends upon broadness for its +effects. But he appears unpretending, in spite of the satisfied look +which he casts around the congregation when he first steps to the +railing of the platform. He is evidently conscious that he owns the +building and the audience; but, content with that, he makes no attempt +to put them in his pocket; on the contrary, he almost instantly becomes +seriously engaged in transferring into them his lesson for the day. His +style of extemporaneous speaking is conversational,—the better English +suspect all other styles,—and this of itself shows what improvement has +taken place in the Surrey region. If at first he indulged in rant, he +has now subsided into an even vein; he puts things plumply, and tells +his feelings gravely, and makes his points without quackery. So it is +plain that when he gives notice of a contribution for his college, in +which young men are trained for the ministry, and states simply, in +justification, that one hundred and fifty have already left it, and are +now engaged in preaching the dissenting word, he is to be regarded as +one of the decided influences which are now at work to bring the people +up to self-consciousness, self-respect, and political importance.</p> + +<p>It is very characteristic that the National Church is called an +Establishment,—in other words, something that stays where it was put +some time ago.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_647" id="Page_647">[Pg 647]</a></span> The thing which ought to move first, and move +continually through all the avenues of the public life, to keep them +clear of the obstructions of ignorance and superstition, and prevent the +great travel and intercourse of thought from stagnating, is the thing in +England which is most unwilling to stir. Already a fearful accumulation +of passengers and vehicles, whose patience is nearly exhausted, is +anxious to be let through in time to keep appointment with the world's +grave business. Young thoughts are hurrying to be indorsed; mature paper +dreads to be protested; the hour of the world's liberal exchange is +about to strike. Depend upon it, at the critical moment, when the +pressure in the rear becomes the most emphatic, the people in the +omnibus will have to get out and assist the passengers in drawing it to +one side, where it will remain a long time unmolested.</p> + +<p>But the first thing which you say concerning the men and institutions of +England is, that they are established. In America some things are +finished before they are done; but there are no tottering +trestle-bridges in the routes of English enterprise to let the +travellers through. When a business firm becomes fairly built up, it +lasts a hundred years or more. Shop-signs are not taken down except by +the weather; new fronts grow so slowly along the ancient streets that +they appear to be deposited by secretion, like corals and shells. I took +a book to a printer, and found he was the grandson of the man who +published "Junius" in 1769, doing business in the same dingy court and +office, with the old regularity and deliberation. When I said, that, for +want of time, I should have to risk formidable errata and print at the +rate of sixty-four pages a day, he plainly suspected me of derangement +and of a desire to impart my condition to his machinery. On repeating it +with calmness, he set it down for Yankee braggadocio, and assured me +that not an author in England could print at that rate. Then he went to +work. They detest being hurried, but their latent momentum is very +great. Limited suffrage and many administrative abuses will feel it +soon, as similar things have felt it before.</p> + +<p>But you are deceived at first, and anticipate deterioration rather than +improvement for the people of England. The city of London, with its two +and a half millions of inhabitants, looks like a huge stone that has +been pried over a sweet well; nobody need expect to draw water there any +more; fresh ones must be dug, we say, in America, in Russia, to reach +primitive human nature again, and set it free to make the wilderness +blossom. London looks as if it had slowly grown from the soil and the +climate, like a lichen that clings closely to its rocky site. The heavy, +many-storied buildings of Portland stone are blackened by the smoke till +they appear more like quarries then habitations; the swarms of human +beings look ephemeral as moths. The finest architecture becomes in a few +years indistinguishable, and delicate ornamentation is as much +superfluous as among the weather-stained cliffs and boulders of the +coast. Monumental inscriptions are smutted and half-obliterated, but the +scurf protects the monument. Under the huge pile of St. Paul's the +ceaseless traffic of human passions passes as through a defile of the +hills. When the lights spring forth towards evening, and sparkle on the +great dull masses, it seems as if the buildings had been there forever, +and forever would be, endowed with some elemental process which puts +forth the lighting. Newgate itself, without windows towards the street, +a huge angle of dead walls, with heavy iron fetters suspended over the +gateways, and statues so blackened in their niches as to dispel the +illusion that they ever did or could suggest humanity, is a settled +gloom in the midst of the city, like the thought of a discouraged and +defeated man. It has a terrible suggestion that crime is established in +London,—immutable methods of being guilty and of being condemned—all +old, old, and irrepealable.</p> + +<p>From Primrose Hill, beyond Regent's Park, and towards the open country,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_648" id="Page_648">[Pg 648]</a></span> +the profile of the city can be seen at one view, as it emerges from the +smoke, is heavily described athwart it, and plunges into it again, like +a great, silent feature of the earth itself, lifted in an atmosphere +whose density seems to be a part of the antiquity. Hidden in that smoke +the streets roll night and day, like great arteries, to feed, replace, +repair, business, pleasure, and misery, but to change it no more than +the blood changes the tricks of an old brain or the settled beating of a +stubborn heart.</p> + +<p>These are some of the physical aspects which seduce a traveller into the +impression that the vigor and glory of England have culminated, and +would fall apart sooner than take on new forms or yield to the moulding +power of popular ideas.</p> + +<p>The impression is deepened by the feeling of hostility to American +institutions, and by the special dislike of the North, which the past +four years have betrayed. The commercial and ruling classes had been +skilfully prepared, by applications of Southern sentiment, for the +declaration of neutrality, which was supposed to contain the triple +chance of destroying a dangerous republic, of securing unlimited +supplies of cotton by free-trade, and of erecting in the South an +oligarchic form of government. Under the circumstances, they felt that +neutrality was a kind of merit in them, and a magnanimity which the +declining North ought to have hailed with enthusiasm, as it showed that +England scorned to take a more deadly advantage of our perilous +position. This anti-Northern feeling is, and always has been, confined +to the Tory classes, in and out of the Government, to the rich and their +dependants, to the confirmed High-Churchmen. Even an American resident, +if he was wealthy, and liked the Church of England, and had settled down +into a British country-seat with British ways of living, would be sure +to misrepresent the North, to be pleased at its defeats and annoyed by +its successes, partly from commercial and partly from pro-slavery +considerations. The America which he remembered, and regretted that he +could not still be proud of, was the America where Pierce and Buchanan +were Presidents, where Jefferson Davis and John B. Floyd were +Secretaries of War. He had, in short, become a Tory; for Toryism is +regard for usages at the expense of men. He and the English Tory desired +the triumph of Slavery, because it was the best thing for the negro, and +the quietest thing for trade and government. The only difference between +them is, that he would own slaves, if he had an opportunity, while the +Englishman would not, partly because his own servants are so excellent. +But both of them would subscribe to the Boston "Courier." The English +Tory hates to have the poor classes of London use the railways on the +Lord's Day, to go and find God's beauty in the Crystal Palace and the +daisy-haunted fields. One of the most striking spectacles in London is +found on Sunday, by standing on some bridge that spans the Thames, to +watch the little river-steamers, black with human beings, that shoot +like big water-bugs from the piers every five minutes, and fussily elbow +their way down-stream to various places of resort. On that day people +cluster like bees all over the omnibuses, till the vehicle looks like a +mere ball of humanity stuck together, rolling down to some +excursion-train. This is a bitter sight to an old-fashioned +Churchman.<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> The American Tory will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_649" id="Page_649">[Pg 649]</a></span> hate <i>any</i> day that releases the +poor and the oppressed into God's glorious liberty. One of the most +worthy and offensive men you can meet in London is the American Tory of +this description: worthy, because honest and clean and free from vice; +offensive, because totally destitute of republican principle. If +stripped of his wealth, he might become a rich man's invaluable flunky, +and carry the decorous prayer-book to church, bringing up the rear of +the family with formalism. Toryism has a profound respect for external +godliness, and remembers that the Southerner sympathizes with bishops, +who, like Meade of Virginia, preach from the text, "Servants, obey your +masters," and, like Polk of Louisiana, convert old sermons upon the +divine sanction of Slavery into cartridge-paper. We must recollect, too, +that a good many educated Englishmen dislike republican institutions +because they have identified the phrase with all the atrocious things +which successive pro-slavery administrations have conceived and +perpetrated; for the Englishman is dull at understanding foreign +politics, and reads the "Times," though he strongly avers that he is not +influenced by it. An administration appears to an Englishman to be the +country; he has not yet heard an authoritative interpretation of +republicanism, for a Washington cabinet has not till lately spoken the +mind of the common people. But when he understands us better he will +dread us all the more, because the people in all countries speak the +same language in expressing the same wants; and when universal suffrage +puts universal justice on its throne in America, injustice will +everywhere uneasily await the ballot which shall place it in the +minority. The dislike of the English Tory is already passing into this +second stage, when his hope of a dissolved Union gives place to his +dread of a regenerated country that hastens to propagate its best ideas.</p> + +<p>There were three elements in this anti-Northern feeling. First, a +sympathy with the smaller and feebler party. This is a trait which puts +the English people by the side of the Turk in the Crimea, the Circassian +in the Caucasus, the Pole, the Dane,—which inspired Milton's famous +letter, in the name of Cromwell, that espoused the cause of the +Waldenses. In fact, wherever the smaller and weaker party has no +relations with England, the country hurries to protect it. But where, as +in the case of the Irish, the Sepoy, the New-Zealander, the Caffre, and +the Chinese, England's interest is touched by the objections of people +to her own harsh and inveterate rule, she has no magnanimity, and +forgets the sentiments of her nobler minds. The same Cromwell who +threatened Europe in behalf of the Waldenses contrived the massacre of +the Irish at Drogheda. So when sympathy with the distant South +harmonized with dread of the North, she was willingly misled by Southern +agents to see a war of conquest and aggression.</p> + +<p>The second element is a fear of the ultimate consequences of a Union +reconstructed without Slavery; for then Mr. Bright may argue in favor of +universal suffrage, uninterrupted by allusions to the arrogance and +coarseness, the boastful and aggressive spirit belonging to a +pro-slavery America. "Why do you desire the dissolution of the Union?" +asked one Englishman of another. "Oh, I have no reason, except that the +Americans are so bounceable I want to see them humbled." But we were the +weakest when Slavery made us so loud-mouthed and vaporing; we shall be +strongest when the cause of our boasting has disappeared. When a country +is fully conscious of the principles that belong to it, and sees them +cleansed with her children's blood, through eyes that stand full with +tears, she will invite, but no longer threaten; and the flag which she +once waved in the face of all mankind to exasperate will rain persuasion +as often as it is unfurled.</p> + +<p>But it will be a long time before the Englishman appreciates the altered +condition of this country and resigns his prejudices, in consequence of +another<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_650" id="Page_650">[Pg 650]</a></span> element in this un-American feeling, namely, insular ignorance. +Among the contraband articles which are with difficulty smuggled into +any point of the English coast is an accurate knowledge of the polity +and condition of another country. Indifference is the coastguard which +protects, without moving, every inlet and harbor. The Englishman is +surprised, if all the world is not intimately acquainted with the +British Constitution, which is not a written document, but a practical +result that appears in all the administrative forms of the country, and +can be studied only on the spot; but he will not take the trouble to +inquire into the relation which the separate States bear to the Federal +government; and he seems prevented by some congenital deficiency from +understanding how the latter is the direct result of the independence of +the former. The question he asks most frequently is, "Why has not an +independent State the right to secede?" He is infected by nature with +Mr. Calhoun's fallacy. You cannot make a Tory understand that powers are +derived from the consent of the governed, and that the consent is itself +an institution. "What becomes of State rights?" he asks. And when you +reply, that the concentred function of each State is contained within a +diffused popular will whose centre is at Washington, and that +thirty-four concentrations of this kind are nothing more than +thirty-four general conveniences, he takes you slowly by the button, +looks pityingly in your face, and says, "That is a Northern crotchet, +which this civil war has come to cure," and then he leaves you. It is in +vain that you shout after him, "That is a Northern principle, which this +war has come to confirm": he was out of hearing before he left. You feel +that you are a stranger in the house of your own mother. You walk about +among these slow, good-natured men, with plump boys' faces and men's +chests, and hear them speak your language without your sense. They have +a limited one, like their monarchy. How admirably it keeps the square +miles of their own island! how shockingly it tends the acres of Ireland! +how haughtily it ignored and trampled upon the instincts of the Hindoo! +how unwilling it is to see a difference between the circumstances of +Australia and those of England! How it blundered into a neutrality which +was a recognition of infamy! This is the distance which Toryism spreads +between the mother country and our own.</p> + +<p>But this must not be accepted as a final statement of the prospects of +England, or of its relation to America. There is, in the first place, a +great popular sympathy with the North, and it prophesies the future +condition of England. When you use the phrase, "people of England," +understand that the Toryism which governs England is left out. Bigoted +Churchmen, who are afraid that the island will drag its anchor because +Bishop Colenso notices some errors in the Pentateuch,—shifty +politicians, like Russell and Palmerston,—sour ones, like +Roebuck,—scandalous ones, like Lindsay,—and conservatives, like Cecil +and Gladstone, now make all the political blunders which they call +governing England. Their constituents are two thirds of the merchants, +nearly all the literary men, nearly all the clergymen, half the +University fellows and professors. But the people of England have not +yet been mentioned. They govern England at this moment, and yet John +Bright sits almost alone for them in Parliament; John Stuart Mill, +Professors Cairnes, Newman, Goldwin Smith, are almost their only +powerful writers. The people of England put the broad arrow of their +Queen upon the Rebel rams. They stay at home, and by taking the penny +papers slowly undermine the "Times." They have defeated every attempt to +organize a party for Southern recognition, by simply staying away from +the public meetings which the sympathizers called. Once they uttered +their opinion by the lips of starving operatives, when the distress in +the manufacturing districts was deepest, and capitalists were chary of +their aid. The Southern agent was busy then, in all the towns and +villages where the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_651" id="Page_651">[Pg 651]</a></span> misery dwelt. "You are starving."—"Yes."—"And it +is for want of cotton."—"So it seems."—"Well, do you mean to sit here? +Come out in great force, as in the old Chartist times; tell the +manufacturer and the minister to break that blockade and let bread into +the mouths of your little ones." And the answer was, "We prefer that +they should starve." Again and again, the answer was, "We would rather +starve." And this haggard patience was saving the manufacturer himself +from ruin, who had been engaged in over-manufacturing, till his +warehouses groaned with an enormous stock which the cotton blockade +enabled him to work off. Great fortunes have been made in this way, +while the operative slowly went to rags, road-mending, and the +poor-rates. In London, hard upon midnight, I have often been attracted +by the sound of street-music to a little group, in the centre of which +stood half a dozen pallid and threadbare men, playing gentle tunes upon +the faithful instruments which clung to their sad fortunes. And on a +square of canvas, lighted by a lantern, or set in the flaring gas, I +have read, to the sound of these paupers' music, the story of America: +"Lancashire Weavers out of Work," "Poor Operatives' Band,—a penny, if +you please." That music keeps the heart of England quiet while your +cannons roar. It is the pulse of the people of England, responding in +the faint distance to the throb of victory.</p> + +<p>Another sight which can be seen by day in London streets belongs also to +the people of England. When there was a dearth of troops during the +Crimean War, the coast forts were stripped of their garrisons, and there +was a call made by Government for volunteers to fill their places. +Citizens came forward and manned the forts. This was the origin of the +volunteer force of England, which has grown to be very +formidable,—since jealousy of France, dread of invasion, and the need +of troops for India have always deterred the Government from recalling +the arms which it first put into the hands of the people. The force now +comprises infantry, cavalry, light and heavy artillery, organized like +the regular army, and under the control of the Horse Guards. Rifle-corps +and target-practice have become a mania. The Government encourages it by +magnificent reviews and prizes for the best shooting, utterly +unconscious that Government itself may one day be the target. But a +bloody revolution can hardly occur again in England. It will only be +necessary, at some critical moment, for the London volunteers to march +as far as Charing-Cross on their way towards Parliament and the Palace. +The concession would be there before them.</p> + +<p>Mr. Holyoake, who is one of the most vigorous champions of free thought +and popular rights in England, says,—"Revolution is no longer necessary +in English politics. Our wise and noble forefathers, of those old times +of which modern radicals in many towns know too little, laid broad +foundations of freedom in our midst. It only needs that we build upon +these, and the English educated classes, who always move in the grooves +of precedent, will acquiesce with a reasonable readiness."<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a></p> + +<p>The feeling of the radical class of English workmen is elsewhere +illustrated by Mr. Holyoake with a story from the Allendale mining +district. "Four miners published a volume of poems. One of these four in +his poem talks of tyranny falling at a moment's notice. Tyranny is not +in such a hurry. A 'voice of thunder' is to proclaim its doom. Alas, it +is the voice of steady intelligent purpose, much more difficult to +elicit, and not that of 'thunder,' which is to accomplish that. The poet +of course has a vision about the 'equal share' which the fall of tyranny +is to end in. The 'equal share' system would not last a day, as +everybody who reflects knows, and would give endless trouble to renew it +every morning."<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_652" id="Page_652">[Pg 652]</a></span></p><p>It is a striking characteristic of English Toryism, that it gives way +just in time. Every reform has hitherto been granted as it was on the +point of being extorted. Official carriages roll over the very spot +where Charles I. dropped his self-willed head; Lady Macbeth might wash +her hands as soon as the English people their memories of the civil +bloodstain. Toryism knows one thing well: that no water-pipes can be +made strong enough to withstand the sudden stoppage of a long column of +water. They will burst and overflow. No matter what material may be in +motion, if the motion be suddenly arrested, heat, in a direct ratio to +the motion, is developed. A decided popular tendency will never be +peremptorily stopped in England.</p> + +<p>It is therefore a grand sight to an American, when the well-appointed +companies of London riflemen march up Fleet Street and the Strand, +through Temple-Bar, that bars nothing any longer, and stands there a +decaying symbol of Toryism itself. The brass bands may play, "Britannia +rules the Waves," or "God save the Queen," but to the American ear they +sound, "The Waves rule Britannia," "God save the Common People!" Every +shouldered musket shall be a vote; the uniform shall represent community +of interest and sentiment. The rhythm of the living column is the march +of England's steady justice into coal-mines and factories, Church and +State.</p> + +<p>For this reason we ought to cultivate pacific relations with the +Government of England. Beware lest the question of the Alabama break +loose to prey upon the true commerce of mankind! A war would put back +the people of England for fifty years. When England is at war, the +people are apt to rally to the Government. The island is so small, that, +when a feeling once gets started, it sweeps all men away into an +inconsiderate and almost savage support of the public honor. If Toryism +cannot secure to itself the benefit of a war upon some point that +involves an English prejudice or interest, it cannot prevent the rising +strength of the people from going into opposition. Dissenters of every +class are emptying the pews of the Establishment; liberal thinkers now +hold University fellowships only to avoid surrendering all the ground to +a reactionary party. The abolition of the stamp-tax has freed the daily +press, and expensive newspapers no longer represent little cliques, but +belong to the people of England, who take their pennyworth of honest +criticism every morning; and the best of these newspapers have been for +three years on the side of Northern republicanism. This is the instinct +of human nature, which knows its rights and hungers to possess them.</p> + +<p>We are maintaining half a million of men in the field, half a million +outlets of our heart's blood, because we believe that inclusion is +better than exclusion. The nation's instinct for that truth has gone +into camp. It is a belief that the life of the Republic depends upon +including every State, and including every citizen, and including every +emigrant, and including every slave, in the right to live, labor, and be +happy, and excluding none. We feel that the blood we lose in fighting +for that plain maxim of republican economy will make again fast enough +when the maxim has prevailed. The weaver of Lancashire, who plays out +his hunger in London streets, and our seamen who make the weaver wait +while they watch three thousand miles of seaboard, are both listening to +the rote of the same great truth, as it dashes on the shores of Time, +and brings bracing air to the people who are sick with waiting. If we +are gaining battles because we love the rights of the common people, our +success will include the English weaver, Dissenters will build churches +on our corner-stone of Liberty, the taxed will borrow our ballot-boxes +to contain their votes, and none shall be excluded but the betrayers of +mankind.</p> + +<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> Mr. Holyoake, in an article upon the condition of the +lead-miners of Middlesborough, says, while urging the need of excursions +and some forms of recreation,—"The rough, uncultivated workman is +driven to seek in beer and licentiousness that recreation which a wise +piety ought to provide for him amid the refining scenes of Nature. If +excursions were possible and encouraged, the wife must go as well as the +husband; and if the mother went, the children would go; and if the +children went, it would be impossible to take them in rags and dirt. The +pride of the father would be awakened. His pipe and pot would often be +laid upon the shelf, and the proceeds spent in Sunday clothes for the +children. The steamboat and excursion-train are as great moralizers in +their way as the church and the preacher. We call the attention of the +British Association to this matter, for here their influence would bring +about an improvement. They will send a board of geologists to examine +the condition of the earth of Cleveland, which can very well take care +of itself. Let them send a board of their eminent physicians to look +after the condition of the people."</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> From an admirable oration, delivered at Rochdale, Feb. 2, +1864, upon the political services and career of the late Alderman +Livesey.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> From a very lively and instructive report of a visit of the +British Association, in 1863, to Mr. Beaumont's lead mines at +Allenheads, fifty miles from Newcastle.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_653" id="Page_653">[Pg 653]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="A_PROSE_HENRIADE" id="A_PROSE_HENRIADE"></a>A PROSE HENRIADE.</h2> + + +<p>People sometimes talk about the quiet of the country. I should like to +know where they find it. I never saw any in this part of the world. The +country seems to me to be the place of all places where everything is +going on. Especially in Spring one becomes almost distracted. What is +Spring in the city? Dead bricks under your feet; dead rocks all around +you. There are beautiful things in the shop-windows, but they never do +anything. It is just the same as it was yesterday and as it will be +to-morrow. I suppose a faint sense of warmth and fragrance does settle +down into the city's old cold heart, and at a few +breathing-holes—little irregular patches, lovely, but minute, called +"Central Park," or "Boston Common"—Nature comes up to blow. And there +are the Spring bonnets. Still, as a general thing, I should not think it +could make much difference whether it were June or January.</p> + +<p>But Spring in the country,—O season rightly named!—a goddess-queen +glides through the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein +springs up to meet her and do obeisance. We, gross and heavy, blind and +deaf, are slow to catch the flutter of her robes, the music of her +footfall, the odor of her breath; the shine of her far-off coming. We +call it cold and Winter still. We huddle about the fires and wonder if +the Spring will never come; and all the while, lo, the Spring is here! +Ten thousand watching eyes, ten thousand waiting ears, laid along the +ground, have signalled the royal approach. Ten thousand times ten +thousand voices sound the notes of preparation. Everywhere there is +hurrying and scurrying. Every tiny, sleeping germ of animal and +vegetable life springs to its feet, wide awake, and girded for the race. +Now you must be wide awake too, or you will be ignominiously left behind +among the baggage.</p> + +<p>The time of the singing of birds is come, and the time of the cackling +of homely, honest barn-yard fowls, who have never had justice done them. +Why do we extol foreign growths and neglect the children of the soil? +Where is there a more magnificent bird than the Rooster? What a lofty +air! What a spirited pose of the head! Note his elaborately scalloped +comb, his stately steppings, the lithe, quick, graceful motions of his +arching neck. Mark his brilliant plumage, smooth and lustrous as satin, +soft as floss silk. What necklace of a duchess ever surpassed in beauty +the circles of feathers which he wears, layer shooting over layer, up +and down, hither and thither, an amber waterfall, swift and soundless as +the light, but never disturbing the matchless order of his array? What +plume from African deserts can rival the rich hues, the graceful curves, +and the palm-like erectness of his tail? All his colors are tropical in +depth and intensity. With every quick motion the tints change as in a +prism, and each tint is more splendid than the last; green more +beautiful than any green, except that of a duck's neck; brown +infiltrated with gold, and ranging through the whole gamut of its +possibilities. I am not sure that this last is correct in point of +expression, but it is correct in point of sense, as any one who ever saw +a red rooster will bear witness.</p> + +<p>Hens are not intrinsically handsome, but they abundantly prove the truth +of the old adage, "Handsome is that handsome does." Lord Kaimes +describes one kind of beauty as that founded on the relations of +objects. And I am sure that the relation of a hen to a dozen fair, +white, pure eggs, and the relation of those eggs to puddings and +custards, and the twenty-five cents which they can have for the asking, +make even an ungainly hen, like many heroines in novels, "not beautiful, +but very interesting." "Twenty thousand dollars," said a connoisseur in +such matters,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_654" id="Page_654">[Pg 654]</a></span> "is a handsome feature in any lady's face." And the +"cut-cut-cut-ca-<span class="smcap">D-A-H</span>-cut" of a hen, whose word is as good as her bond +for an egg a day, is a handsome feather in any bird's coat. Once, +however, this trumpet of victory deceived me, though by no fault of the +hen's. I heard it sounding lustily, and I ransacked the barn on tiptoe +to discover the new-made nest and the exultant <i>mater-familias</i>. But +instead of a white old hen with yellow legs, who had laid her master +many eggs, there, on a barrel, stood brave Chanticleer, cackling away +for dear life,—Hercules holding the distaff among his Omphales! +Now—for there are many things to be learned from hens—mark the +injustice of the tyrant man. From time immemorial, girls—at least +country girls—have been taught that</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"A whistling girl and a crowing hen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Always come to some bad end";<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>but not a word is said about a cackling rooster! Worse still, a crowing +hen is so rare a thing that its very existence is problematical. I never +heard of one out of that couplet. I have made diligent inquiry, but I +have not been able to find any person who had heard, or who had ever +seen or heard of any one who had heard, a crowing hen. But these very +hands have fed, these very eyes seen, and these ears heard a cackling +rooster! Where is manly impartiality, not to say chivalry? Why do men +overlook the crying sins of their own sex, and expend all their energies +in attempting to eradicate sins which never existed in the other?</p> + +<p>I have lived among hens lately, and I know all about them. They are just +like people. Not a few only, but the whole human race, are +chicken-hearted.</p> + +<p>Hens are fond of little mysteries. With tons of hay at their disposal, +they will steal a nest in a discarded feeding-trough. With nobody in the +world to harbor an evil thought against them, they will hide under the +corn-stalks as carefully as if a sheriff were on their track. They will +not go to their nests while you are about, but tarry midway and meditate +profoundly on fixed fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute, till you +are tired of watching and waiting, and withdraw. No, you did not know it +all before. The world is in a state of Cimmerian darkness regarding +hens. There were never any chickens hatched till three weeks from a week +before Fast Day. How should you, my readers, know anything about them? +Be docile, and I will enlighten you.</p> + +<p>Hens must have a depression where the bump of locality should be, for +they have no manner of tenderness for old haunts. "Where are the birds +in last year's nests?" queries the poet; but he might have asked quite +as pertinently, "Where are the birds in last month's nests?" Echo, if +she were at all familiar with the subject, would reply, "The birds are +all right, but where are the nests?" Hens very sensibly decide that it +is easier to build a new house than to keep the old one in order; and +having laid one round of eggs, off they go to erect, or rather to +excavate, another dwelling. You have scarcely learned the way to their +nook above the great beam when it is abandoned, and they betake +themselves to a hole at the very bottom of the haystack. I wish I could +tell you a story about a Hebrew prophet crawling under a barn after +hen's eggs, and crawling out again from the musty darkness into sweet +light with his clothes full of cobwebs, his eyes full of dust, his hands +full of eggs, to find himself winking and blinking in the midst of a +party of ladies and gentlemen who had come lion-hunting from a farre +countrie. I cannot tell you, because it would be a breach of confidence; +but I am going to edit my Sheikh's Life and Letters, if I live long +enough, and he does not live too long, and then you shall have the whole +story, with names, dates, and costumes.</p> + +<p>Another very singular habit hens have, of dusting themselves. They do +not seem to care for bathing, like canary-birds; but in warm afternoons, +when they have eaten their fill, they like to stroll into the highway, +where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_655" id="Page_655">[Pg 655]</a></span> the dust lies ankle-deep in heaps and ridges, and settle down and +stir and burrow in it till it has penetrated through all their inmost +feathers, and so filled them, that, when they arise and shake +themselves, they stand in a cloud of dust. I do not like this habit in +the hens; yet I observe how a correspondence exists in all the +Vertebrata; for do not fine ladies similarly dust themselves? They do +not, indeed, sit in the road <i>à la Turque</i>. They box up the dust, and +take it to their dressing-rooms, and, because Nature has not provided +them with feathers, ingenuity more than supplies the deficiency with the +softest of white down brushes, that harbor and convey the coveted dust. +I doubt not through the races one resembling purpose runs; and many a +stately matron and many a lovely maiden might truly say unto the hen, +"Thou art my sister."</p> + +<p>Did I say I knew all about hens? The half was not told you, for I am +wise about chickens too. I know their tribe from "egg to bird," as the +country people say, when they wish to express the most radical, sweeping +acquaintance with any subject,—a phrase, by the way, whose felicity is +hardly to be comprehended till experience has unfolded its meaning.</p> + +<p>When hens have laid a certain number of eggs,—twelve or twenty,—they +evince a strong disposition, I might almost say a determination, to +sit.<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a> In every such case, it is plain that they ought to be allowed to +sit. It is a violation of Nature to souse them in cold water in order to +make them change their minds; and I believe, with Marcus Antoninus, that +nothing is evil which is according to Nature. But people want eggs, and +they do not care for Nature; and the consequence is, that hens are +obliged to undergo "heroic treatment" of various kinds. Sometimes it is +the cold bath; sometimes it is the hospital. One I tied to the bottom of +a post of the standards; but, eager to escape, and ignorant of the +qualities of cord, she flew up over the top rail, and, the next time I +entered the barn, presented the unpleasing spectacle of a dignified and +deliberate fowl hanging in mid-air by one leg. Greatly alarmed, I +hurried her down. Life was not extinct, except in that leg. I rubbed it +tenderly till warmth was restored, and then it grew so hot that I feared +inflammation would set in, and made local applications to reduce the +tendency, wondering in my own mind whether, in case worse should come to +worst, she could get on at all with a Palmer leg. The next morning the +question became unnecessary, as she walked quite well with her own. The +remaining hens were put in hospital till they signified a willingness to +resume their former profitable habits,—except one who was arbitrarily +chosen to be foster-mother of the future brood. Fifteen eggs, fair and +fresh, reserved for the purpose, I counted out and put into her nest; +and there she sat day after day and all day long, with a quietness, a +silent, patient persistence, which I admired, but could not in the least +imitate; for I kept continually poking under her and prying her up to +see how matters stood. Many hens would have resented so much +interference, but she knew it was sympathy, and not malice; besides, she +was very good-natured, and so was I, and we stood on the best possible +footing towards each other. A. G. says, "A hen's time is not much to +her"; and in this case his opinion was certainly correct.</p> + +<p>One morning I thought I heard a faint noise. Routing out the good old +creature, that I might take observations, eggs still, and no chickens, +were discernible, but the tiniest, little, silvery, sunny-hearted chirp +that you ever heard, inside the eggs, and a little, tender pecking from +every imprisoned chick, standing at his crystal door, and, with his +faint, fairy knock, knock, knock, craving admission into the great +world. Never can I forget or describe the sensations of that moment; +and, as promise rapidly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_656" id="Page_656">[Pg 656]</a></span> culminated in performance,—as the eggs ceased +to be eggs, and analyzed themselves into shattered shells and chirping +chickens,—it seemed as if I had been transported back to the beginning +of creation. Right before my eyes I saw, in my hands I held, the mystery +of life. These eggs, that had been laid under my very eyes as it were, +that I had my own self hunted and found and confiscated and +restored,—these eggs that I had broken and eaten a thousand times, and +learned of a surety to be nothing but eggs,—were before me now; and, +lo, they were eyes and feathers and bill and claws! Yes, little +puff-ball, I saw you when you were hard and cold and had no more life +than a Lima bean. I might have scrambled you, or boiled you, or made a +pasch-egg of you, and you would not have known that anything was +happening. If you had been cooked then, you would have been only an +omelet; now you may be a fricassee. As I looked at the nest, so lately +full only of white quiet, now swarming with downy life, and vocal with +low, soft music,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I felt a newer life in every gale."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Oh, no one can tell, till he has chickens of his own, what delicious +emotions are stirred in the heart by their downy, appealing tenderness!</p> + +<p>Swarming, however, as the nest seemed, it soon transpired that only +seven chickens had transpired. Eight eggs still maintained their +integrity. I remarked to the hen, that she would better keep on awhile +longer, and I would take the seven into the house, and provide for them. +She assented, having, justly enough, all confidence in my sagacity; and +I put them into a warm old worsted hood, and brought them into the +house. But the hood was not a hen, though it was tucked around them +almost to the point of suffocation; and they filled the house with +dolorous cries,—"yapping" it is called in the rural districts. Nothing +would soothe them but to be cuddled together in somebody's lap, and +brooded with somebody's hand. Then their shrill, piercing shrieks would +die away into a contented chirp of heartfelt satisfaction. I took a +world of comfort in those chickens,—it is so pleasant to feel that you +are really making sentient beings happy. The tiny things grew so +familiar and fond in a few hours that they could hardly tell which was +which,—I or the hen. They would all fall asleep in a soft, stirring +lump for five seconds, and then rouse up, with no apparent cause, but as +suddenly and simultaneously as if the drum had beat a reveille, and go +foraging about in the most enterprising manner. One would snap at a +ring, under the impression that it was petrified dough, I suppose; and +all the rest would rush up determinedly to secure a share in the prize. +Next they would pounce upon a button, evidently thinking it curd; and +though they must have concluded, after a while, that it was the hardest +kind of coagulated milk on record, they were not restrained from +renewing the attack in squads at irregular intervals. When they first +broke camp, we put soaked and sweetened cracker into their bills; but +they developed such an appetite, that, in view of the high price of +sugar, we cut off their allowance, and economized on Indian meal and +bread-water. Every night they went to the hen, and every morning they +came in to me; and still Dame Partlett sat with stolid patience, and +still eight eggs remained. I concluded, at length, to let the eggs take +their chance with another hen, and restore the first to freedom and her +chickens. But just as I was about to commence operations, some one +announced, that, if eggs are inverted during the process of incubation, +the chickens from them will be crazy. Appalled at the thought of a brood +of chickens laboring under an aberration of mind, yet fired with the +love of scientific investigation, I inverted one by way of experiment, +and placed it in another nest. The next morning, when I entered the +barn, Biddy stretched out her neck, and declared that there was no use +in waiting any longer, and she was determined to leave the place, which +she accordingly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_657" id="Page_657">[Pg 657]</a></span> did, discovering, to my surprise, two little dead, +crushed, flattened chickens, Poor things! I coaxed them on a shingle, +and took them into the house to show to a person whose name has been +often mentioned in these pages, and who, in all experimental matters, +considers my testimony good for nothing without the strongest +corroborative evidence. Notice now the unreasoning obstinacy with which +people will cling to their prejudices in the face of the most palpable +opposing facts.</p> + +<p>"Where did these come from?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Probably the hen trod on them and killed them," he said.</p> + +<p>"But there were seven whole eggs remaining, and the insane one was in +another nest."</p> + +<p>"Well, he supposed some other hen might have laid in the nest after the +first had begun to sit. They often did."</p> + +<p>"No, for I had counted them every day."</p> + +<p>Here, then, was an equation to be produced between fifteen original eggs +on one side, and seven whole eggs, seven live chickens, two dead +chickens, and another egg on the other. My theory was, that two of the +eggs contained twins.</p> + +<p>"But no," says Halicarnassus,—"such a thing was never known as two live +chickens from one egg.</p> + +<p>"But these were dead chickens," I affirmed.</p> + +<p>"But they were alive when they pecked out. They could not break the +shell when they were dead."</p> + +<p>"But the two dead chickens may have been in the same shell with two live +ones, and, when the live ones broke the shell, the dead ones dropped +out."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!"</p> + +<p>"But here are the facts, Mr. Gradgrind,—seven live chickens, two dead +chickens, seven whole eggs, and another egg to be accounted for, and +only fifteen eggs to account for them."</p> + +<p>Yet, as if a thing that never happened on our farm is a thing that never +can happen, oblivious of the fact that "a pair of chickens" is a common +phrase enough,—simply because a man never saw twin chickens, he +maintains that there cannot be any such thing as twin chickens. This, +too, in spite of one egg I brought in large enough to hold a brood of +chickens. In fact, it does not look like an egg; it looks like the keel +of a man-of-war.</p> + +<p>The problem remains unsolved. But never, while I remember my addition +table, can you make me believe that seven whole——But the individual +mentioned above is so sore on this point, that, the moment I get as far +as that, he leaves the room, and my equation remains unstated.</p> + +<p>There is a great deal of human nature in hens. They have the same +qualities that people have, but unmodified. A human mother loves her +children, but she is restrained by a sense of propriety from tearing +other mothers' children in pieces. A hen has no such checks; her +motherhood exists without any qualification. Her intense love for her +own brood is softened by no social requirements. If a poor lost waif +from another coop strays into her realm, no pity, no sympathy springing +from the memory of her own offspring, moves her to kindness; but she +goes at it with a demoniac fury, and would peck its little life out, if +fear did not lend it wings. She has a self-abnegation great as that of +human mothers. Her voracity and timidity disappear. She goes almost +without food herself, that her chicks may eat. She scatters the dough +about with her own bill, that it may be accessible to the little bills, +or, perhaps, to teach them how to work. The wire-worms, the bugs, the +flies, all the choice little tidbits that her soul loves, she divides +for her chicks, reserving not a morsel for herself. All their gambols +and pranks and wild ways she bears with untiring patience. They hop up +by twos and threes on her back. They peck at her bill. One saucy little +imp actually jumped up and caught hold of the little red lappet above +her beak, and, hanging to it, swung back and forth half a dozen times; +and she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_658" id="Page_658">[Pg 658]</a></span> was evidently only amused, and reckoned it a mark of precocity.</p> + +<p>Yet, with all her intense, absorbing parental love, she has very serious +deficiencies,—deficiencies occasioned by the same lack of modification +which I have before mentioned. Devoted to her little ones, she will +scratch vigorously and untiringly to provide them food, yet fails to +remember that they do not stand before her in a straight line out of +harm's way, but are hovering around her on all sides in a dangerous +proximity. Like the poet, she looks not forward nor behind. If they are +beyond reach, very well; if they are not, all the same; scratch, +scratch, scratch in the soil goes her great, strong, horny claw, and up +flies a cloud of dust, and away goes a poor unfortunate, whirling +involuntary somersets through the air without the least warning. She is +a living monument of the mischief that may be done by giving undue +prominence to one idea. I only wonder that so few broken heads and +dislocated joints bear witness to the falseness of such philosophy. I am +quite sure, that, if <i>I</i> should give the chickens such merciless +impulses, they would not recover from the effects so speedily. Unlike +human mothers, too, she has no especial tenderness for invalids. She +makes arrangements only for a healthy family. If a pair of tiny wings +droop, and a pair of tiny legs falter, so much the worse for the poor +unlucky owner; but not one journey the less does Mother Hen take. She is +the very soul of impartiality; but there is no cosseting. Sick or well, +chick must run with the others, or be left behind. Run they do, with a +remarkable uniformity. I marvel to see the perfect understanding among +them all. Obedience is absolute on the one side, and control on the +other, and without a single harsh measure. It is pure Quaker discipline, +simple moral suasion. The specks understand her every word, and so do +I—almost. When she is stepping about in a general way,—and hens always +step,—she has simply a motherly sort of cluck, that is but a general +expression of affection and oversight. But the moment she finds a worm +or a crumb or a splash of dough, the note changes into a quick, eager +"Here! here! here!" and away rushes the brood pell-mell and topsy-turvy. +If a stray cat approaches, or danger in any form, her defiant, menacing +"C-r-r-r-r!" shows her anger and alarm.</p> + +<p>See how, in Bedford jail, John Bunyan turned to good account the lessons +learned in barn-yards. "'Yet again,' said he, 'observe and look.' So +they gave heed and perceived that the hen did walk in a fourfold method +towards her chickens. 1. She had a <i>common call</i>, and that she hath all +day long; 2. She had a <i>special call</i>, and that she had but sometimes; +3. She had a <i>brooding note</i>; and, 4. She had an <i>outcry</i>. 'Now,' said +he, 'compare this hen to your king, and these chickens to his obedient +ones. For, answerable to her, himself has his methods which he walketh +in towards his people: by his <i>common call</i> he gives nothing; by his +<i>special call</i> he always has something to give; he has also a <i>brooding +voice</i> for them that are under his wing; and he has an <i>outcry</i> to give +the alarm when he seeth the enemy come. I chose, my darlings, to lead +you into the room where such things are, because you are women, and they +are easy for you.'" Kind Mr. Interpreter!</p> + +<p>To personal fear, as I have intimated, the hen-mother is a stranger; but +her power is not always equal to her pluck. One week ago this very +day,—ah, me! this very hour,—the cat ran by the window with a chicken +in her mouth. Cats are a separate feature in country establishments. In +the city I have understood them to lead a nomadic, disturbed, and +somewhat shabby life. In the country they attach themselves to special +localities and prey upon the human race. We have three steady and +several occasional cats quartered upon us. One was retained for the name +of the thing,—called derivatively Maltesa, and Molly "for short." One +was adopted for charity,—a hideous, saffron-hued, forlorn little +wretch, left behind by a Milesian family, called, from its color, +Aurora, contracted into Rory O'More.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_659" id="Page_659">[Pg 659]</a></span> The third was a fierce +black-and-white unnamed wild creature, of whom one never got more than a +glimpse in her savage flight. Cats are tolerated here from a tradition +that they catch rats and mice, but they don't. We catch the mice +ourselves and put them in a barrel, and put a cat in after them; and +then she is frightened out of her wits. As for rats, they will gather +wherever corn and potatoes congregate, cats or no cats. It is said in +the country, that, if you write a polite letter to rats, asking them to +go away, they will go. I received my information from one who had tried +the experiment, or known it to be tried, with great success. Standing +ready always to write a letter on the slightest provocation, you may be +sure I did not neglect so good an opportunity. The letter acknowledged +their skill and sagacity, applauded their valor and their perseverance, +but stated, that, in the present scarcity of labor, the resident family +were not able to provide more supplies than were necessary for their own +immediate use and for that of our brave soldiers, and they must +therefore beg the Messrs. Rats to leave their country for their +country's good. It was laid on the potato-chest, and I have never seen a +rat since!</p> + +<p>While I have been penning this quadrupedic episode, you may imagine +Molly, formerly Maltesa, as Kinglake would say, bearing off the chicken +in triumph to her domicile. But the alarm is given, and the whole +plantation turns out to rescue the victim or perish in the attempt. +Molly takes refuge in a sleigh, but is ignominiously ejected. She rushes +<i>per saltum</i> under the corn-barn, and defies us all to follow her. But +she does not know that in a contest strategy may be an overmatch for +swiftness. She is familiar with the sheltering power of the elevated +corn-barn, but she never conjectures to what base uses a clothes-pole +may come, until one plunges into her sides. As she is not a St. Médard +Convulsionist, she does not like it, but strikes a bee-line for the +piazza, and rushes through the lattice-work into the darkness +underneath. We stoop to conquer, and she hurls Greek fire at us from her +wrathful eyes, but cannot stand against a reinforcement of poles which +vex her soul. With teeth still fastened upon her now unconscious victim, +she leaves her place of refuge, which indeed was no refuge for her, and +gallops through the yard and across the field; but an unseen column has +flanked her, and she turns back only to fall into the hands of the main +army,—too late, alas! for the tender chick, who has picked his last +worm and will never chirp again. But his death is speedily avenged. +Within the space of three days, Molly, formerly Maltesa, is taken into +custody, tried, convicted, sentenced, remanded to prison in an old +wagon-box, and transported to Botany Bay, greatly to the delight of Rory +O'More, formerly Aurora, who, in the presence of her overgrown +contemporary, was never suffered to call her soul her own, much less a +bone or a crust. Indeed, Molly never seemed half so anxious to eat, +herself, as she was to bind Rory to total abstinence. When a plate was +set for them, the preliminary ceremony was invariably a box on the ear +for poor Rory, or a grab on the neck, from Molly's spasmodic paw, which +would not release its hold till armed intervention set in and enforced a +growling neutrality. In short, like the hens, these cats held up a +mirror to human nature. They showed what men and women would be, if they +were—cats; which they would be, if a few modifying qualities were left +out. They exhibit selfishness and greed in their pure forms, and we see +and ought to shun the unlovely shapes. Evil propensities may be hidden +by a silver veil, but they are none the less evil and bring forth evil +fruit. Let cats delight to snarl and bite, but let men and women be +generous and beneficent.</p> + +<p>Little chickens, tender and winsome as they are, early discover the same +disposition. When one of them comes into possession of the fore-quarter +of a fly, he does not share it with his brother. He does not even +quietly swallow it himself. He clutches it in his bill and flies around +in circles and irregular polygons,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_660" id="Page_660">[Pg 660]</a></span> like one distracted, trying to find +a corner where he can gormandize alone. It is no matter that not a +single chicken is in pursuit, nor that there is enough and to spare for +all. He hears a voice we cannot hear, telling him that the Philistines +be upon him. And every chicken snatches his morsel and radiates from +every other as fast as his little legs can carry him. His selfishness +overpowers his sense,—which is, indeed, not a very signal victory, for +his selfishness is very strong and his sense is very weak. It is no +wonder that Hopeful was well-nigh moved to anger, and queried, "Why art +thou so tart, my brother?" when Christian said to him, "Thou talkest +like one upon whose head is the shell to this very day." To be compared +to a chicken is disparaging enough; but to be compared to a chicken so +very young that he has not yet quite divested himself of his shell must +be, as Pet Marjorie would say, "what Nature itself can't endure." A +little chicken's greedy crop blinds his eyes to every consideration +except that of the insect squirming in his bill. He is beautiful and +round and full of cunning ways, but he has no resources for an +emergency. He will lose his reckoning and be quite out at sea, though +only ten steps from home. He never knows enough to turn a corner. All +his intelligence is like light, moving only in straight lines. He is +impetuous and timid, and has not the smallest presence of mind or +sagacity to discern between friend and foe. He has no confidence in any +earthly power that does not reside in an old hen. Her cluck will he +follow to the last ditch, and to nothing else will he give heed. I am +afraid that the Interpreter was putting almost too fine a point upon it, +when he had Christiana and her children "into another room, where was a +hen and chickens, and bid them observe awhile. So one of the chickens +went to the trough to drink, and every time she drank she lift up her +head and her eyes towards heaven. 'See,' said he, 'what this little +chick doth, and learn of her to acknowledge whence your mercies come, by +receiving them with looking up.'" Doubtless the chick lift her eyes +towards heaven, but a close acquaintance with the race would put +anything but acknowledgment in the act. A gratitude that thanks Heaven +for favors received and then runs into a hole to prevent any other +person from sharing the benefit of those favors is a very questionable +kind of gratitude, and certainly should be confined to the bipeds that +wear feathers.</p> + +<p>Yet, if you take away selfishness from a chicken's moral make-up, and +fatuity from his intellectual, you have a very charming little creature +left. For, apart from their excessive greed, chickens seem to be +affectionate. They have sweet social ways. They huddle together with +fond caressing chatter, and chirp soft lullabies. Their toilet +performances are full of interest. They trim each other's bills with +great thoroughness and dexterity, much better indeed than they dress +their own heads,—for their bungling, bungling little claws make sad +work of it. It is as much as they can do to stand on two feet, and they +naturally make several revolutions when they attempt to stand on one. +Nothing can be more ludicrous than their early efforts to walk. They do +not really walk. They sight their object, waver, balance, decide, and +then tumble forward, stopping all in a heap as soon as the original +impetus is lost, generally some way ahead of the place to which they +wished to go. It is delightful to watch them as drowsiness films their +round, bright, black eyes, and the dear old mother croons them under her +ample wings, and they nestle in perfect harmony. How they manage to +bestow themselves with such limited accommodations, or how they manage +to breathe in a room so close, it is difficult to imagine. They +certainly deal a staggering blow to our preconceived notions of the +necessity of oxygen and ventilation, but they make it easy to see whence +the Germans derived their fashion of sleeping under feather-beds. But +breathe and bestow themselves they do. The deep mother-heart and the +broad mother-wings take them all in. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_661" id="Page_661">[Pg 661]</a></span> penetrate her feathers, and +open for themselves unseen little doors into the mysterious, brooding, +beckoning darkness. But it is long before they can arrange themselves +satisfactorily. They chirp, and stir, and snuggle, trying to find the +warmest and softest nook. Now an uneasy head is thrust out, and now a +whole tiny body, but it soon reënters in another quarter, and at length +the stir and chirr grow still. You see only a collection of little legs, +as if the hen were a banyan-tree, and presently even they disappear, she +settles down comfortably, and all are wrapped in a slumberous silence. +And as I sit by the hour, watching their winning ways, and see all the +steps of this sleepy subsidence, I can but remember that outburst of +love and sorrow from the lips of Him who, though He came to earth from a +dwelling-place of ineffable glory, called nothing unclean because it was +common, found no homely detail too trivial or too homely to illustrate +the Father's love, but from the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, +the lilies of the field, the stones in the street, the foxes in their +holes, the patch on a coat, the oxen in the furrow, the sheep in the +pit, the camel under his burden, drew lessons of divine pity and +patience, of heavenly duty and delight. Standing in the presence of the +great congregation, seeing, as never man saw, the hypocrisy and the +iniquity gathered before Him,—seeing too, alas! the calamities and the +woe that awaited this doomed people, a god-like pity overbears His +righteous indignation, and cries out in passionate appeal, "O Jerusalem, +Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are +sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, +even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The agriculturist says that women take care of young chickens much +better than men. I do not know how that may be, but I know that my +experiments with chickens have been attended with a success so brilliant +that unfortunate poultry-fanciers have appealed to me for assistance. I +have even taken ailing chickens from the city to board. A brood of +nineteen had rapidly dwindled down to eleven when it was brought to me, +one even then dying. His little life ebbed away in a few hours; but of +the remaining ten, nine, now in the third week of their abode under my +roof, have recovered health, strength, and spirits, and bid fair to live +to a good old age, if not prematurely cut off. One of them, more feeble +than the others, needed and received especial attention. Him I tended +through dreary days of east wind and rain in a box on the mantel-piece, +nursing him through a severe attack of asthma, feeding and amusing him +through his protracted convalescence, holding him in my hand one whole +Sunday afternoon to relieve him of home-sickness and hen-sickness, and +being rewarded at last by seeing animation and activity come back to his +poor sickly little body. He will never be a robust chicken. He seems to +have a permanent distortion of the spine, and his crop is one-sided; and +if there is any such thing as blind staggers, he has them. Besides, he +has a strong and increasing tendency not to grow. This, however, I +reckon a beauty rather than a blemish. It is the one fatal defect in +chickens that they grow. With them, youth and beauty are truly +inseparable terms. The better they are, the worse they look. After they +are three weeks old, every day detracts from their comeliness. They lose +their plump roundness, their fascinating, soft down, and put out the +most ridiculous little wings and tails and hard-looking feathers, and +are no longer dear, tender chicks, but small hens,—a very uninteresting +Young America. It is said, that, if you give chickens rum, they will not +grow, but retain always their juvenile size and appearance. Under our +present laws it is somewhat difficult, I suppose, to obtain rum, and I +fear it would be still more difficult to administer it. I have concluded +instead to keep some hen sitting through the summer, and so have a +regular succession of young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_662" id="Page_662">[Pg 662]</a></span> chickens. The growth of my little patient +was not arrested at a sufficiently early stage to secure his perpetual +good looks, and, as I intimated, he will never, probably, be the +Windship of his race; but he has found his appetite, he is free from +acute disease, he runs about with the rest, under-sized, but bright, +happy, and enterprising, and is therefore a well-spring of pleasure. +Indeed, in view of the fact that I have unquestionably saved his life, +we talk seriously of opening a <i>Hôtel des Invalides</i>, a kind of +Chicken's Home, that the benefits which he has received may be extended +to all his unfortunate brethren who stand in need.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> I say <i>sit</i> out of regard to the proprieties of the +occasion; but I do not expose myself to ridicule by going about among +the neighbors and talking of a <i>sitting</i> hen! Everywhere, but in the +"Atlantic," hens <i>set</i>.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="HARPOCRATES" id="HARPOCRATES"></a>HARPOCRATES.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The rest is silence."—<span class="smcap">Hamlet.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">I.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The message of the god I seek<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In voice, in vision, or in dream,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alike on frosty Dorian peak,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or by the slow Arcadian stream:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where'er the oracle is heard,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I bow the head and bend the knee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In dream, in vision, or in word,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The sacred secret reaches me.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">II.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Athwart the dim Trophonian caves,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bat-like, the gloomy whisper flew;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The lisping plash of Paphian waves<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bathed every pulse in fiery dew:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Phœbus, on his cloven hill,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A shaft of beauty pierced the air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And oaks of gray Dodona still<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Betrayed the Thunderer's presence there.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">III.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The warmth of love, the grace of art,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The joys that breath and blood express,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The desperate forays of the heart<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Into an unknown wilderness,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All these I know: but sterner needs<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Demand the knowledge which must dower<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The life that on achievement feeds,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The grand activity of power.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">IV.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What each reveals the shadow throw<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of something unrevealed behind;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Secret's lips forever close<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To mock the secret undivined:<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_663" id="Page_663">[Pg 663]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Thence late I come, in weary dreams<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The son of Isis to implore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose temple-front of granite gleams<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Across the Desert's yellow floor.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="i12">V.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lo! where the sand, insatiate, drinks<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The steady splendor of the air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Crouched on her heavy paws, the Sphinx<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Looks forth with old, unwearied stare!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Behind her, on the burning wall,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The long processions flash and glow:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The pillared shadows of the hall<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sleep with their lotus-crowns below.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="i12">VI.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A square of dark beyond, the door<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Breathes out the deep adytum's gloom:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I cross the court's deserted floor,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And stand within the awful room.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The priests repose from finished rite;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">No echo rings from pavements trod;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sits alone, in swarthy light,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The naked child, the temple's god.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="i12">VII.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No sceptre, orb, or mystic toy<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Proclaims his godship, young and warm:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He sits alone, a naked boy,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Clad in the beauty of his form.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dark, solemn stars, of radiance mild,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His eyes illume the golden shade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sweetest lips that never smiled<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The finger hushes, on them laid.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="i12">VIII.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh, never yet in trance or dream<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That falls when crowned desire has died,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So breathed the air of power supreme,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So breathed, and calmed, and satisfied!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Did then those mystic lips unclose,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or that diviner silence make<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A seeming voice? The flame arose,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The deity his message spake:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="i12">IX.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"If me thou knowest, stretch thy hand<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And my possessions thou shalt reach:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I grant no help, I break no band,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I sit above the gods that teach.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_664" id="Page_664">[Pg 664]</a></span> +<span class="i0">The latest-born, my realm includes<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The old, the strong, the near, the far,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Serene beyond their changeful moods,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And fixed as Night's unmoving star.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="i12">X.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"A child, I leave the dance of Earth<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To be my hornèd mother's care:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My father Ammon's Bacchic mirth,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Delighting gods, I may not share.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I turn from Beauty, Love, and Power,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In singing vale, on laughing sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Youth and Hope, and wait the hour<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When weary Knowledge turns to me.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="i12">XI.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Beneath my hand the sacred springs<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of Man's mysterious being burst,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Death within my shadow brings<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The last of life, to greet the first.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is no god, or grand or fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On Orcan or Olympian field,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But must to me his treasures bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His one peculiar secret yield.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="i12">XII.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I wear no garment, drop no shade<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Before the eyes that all things see;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My worshippers, howe'er arrayed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Come in their nakedness to me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The forms of life like gilded towers<br /></span> +<span class="i2">May soar, in air and sunshine drest,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The home of Passions and of Powers,—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Yet mine the crypts whereon they rest.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="i12">XIII.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Embracing all, sustaining all,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Consoling with unuttered lore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who finds me in my voiceless hall<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shall need the oracles no more.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am the knowledge that insures<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Peace, after Thought's bewildering range;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am the patience that endures;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I am the truth that cannot change!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_665" id="Page_665">[Pg 665]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="DELYS_COW" id="DELYS_COW"></a>DELY'S COW.</h2> + + +<p>I went down to the farm-yard one day last month, and as I opened the +gate I heard Pat Malony say, "Biddy! Biddy!" I thought at first he was +calling a hen, but then I remembered the hens were all shut into the +poultry-house that day, to be sorted, and numbered, and condemned: so I +looked again, thinking perhaps Pat's little lame sister had strayed up +from the village and gone into the barn after Sylvy's kittens, or a +pigeon-egg, or to see a new calf; but, to my surprise, I saw a red cow, +of no particular beauty or breed, coming out of the stable-door, looking +about her as if in search of somebody or something; and when Pat called +again, "Biddy! Biddy! Biddy!" the creature walked up to him across the +yard, stretched out her awkward neck, sniffed a little, and cropped from +his hand the wisp of rowen hay he held, as composedly as if she were a +tame kitten, and then followed him all round the yard for more, which I +am sorry to say she did not get. Pat had only displayed her +accomplishments to astonish me, and then shut her in her stall again. I +afterward hunted out Biddy's history, and here it is.</p> + +<p>On the Derby turnpike, just before you enter Hanerford, everybody that +ever travelled that road will remember Joseph German's bakery. It was a +red brick house, with dusty windows toward the street, and just inside +the door a little shop, where Mr. German retailed the scalloped cookies, +fluted gingerbread, long loaves of bread, and scantly filled pies, in +which he dealt, and which were manufactured in the long shop, where in +summer you caught glimpses of flour-barrels all a-row, and men who might +have come out of those barrels, so strewed with flour were all their +clothes,—paper-cap and white apron scarcely to be distinguished from +the rest of the dress, as far as color and dustiness went. Here, too, +when her father drove out the cart every afternoon, sitting in front of +the counter with her sewing or her knitting, Dely German, the baker's +pretty daughter, dealt out the cakes and rattled the pennies in her +apron-pocket with so good a grace, that not a young farmer came into +Hanerford with grain or potatoes or live stock, who did not cast a +glance in at the shop-door, going toward town, and go in on his return, +ostensibly to buy a sheet of gingerbread or a dozen cookies for his +refreshment on the drive homeward. It was a curious thing to see how +much hungrier they were on the way home than coming into town. Though +they might have had a good dinner in Hanerford, that never appeased +their appetites entirely, while in the morning they had driven their +slow teams all the way without so much as thinking of cakes and cheese! +So by the time Dely was seventeen, her black eyes and bright cheeks were +well known for miles about, and many a youth, going home to the clean +kitchen where his old mother sat by the fire knitting, or his spinster +sister scolded and scrubbed over his muddy boot-tracks, thought how +pretty it would look to see Dely German sitting on the other side, in +her neat calico frock and white apron, her black hair shining smooth, +and her fresh, bright face looking a welcome.</p> + +<p>But Dely did not think about any one of them in a reciprocal manner; she +liked them all pretty well, but she loved nobody except her father and +mother, her three cats and all their kittens, the big dog, the old +horse, and a wheezy robin that she kept in a cage, because her favorite +cat had half killed it one day, and it never could fly any more. For all +these dumb things she had a really intense affection: as for her father +and mother, she seemed to be a part of them; it never occurred to her +that they could leave her, or she them; and when old Joe German died one +summer day, just after Dely was seventeen, she was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_666" id="Page_666">[Pg 666]</a></span> nearly distracted. +However, people who must work for their living have to get over their +sorrows, practically, much sooner than those who can afford time to +indulge them; and as Dely knew more about the business and the shop than +anybody but the foreman, she had to resume her place at the counter +before her father had been buried a week. It was a great source of +embarrassment to her rural admirers to see Dely in her black frock, pale +and sober, when they went in; they did not know what to say; they felt +as if their hands and feet had grown very big all at once, and as if the +cents in their pockets never could be got at, at which they turned red +and hot and got choked, and went away, swearing internally at their own +blundering shyness, and deeper smitten than ever with Dely, because they +wanted to comfort her so very much, and didn't know how!</p> + +<p>One, however, had the sense and simplicity to know how, and that was +George Adams, a fine healthy young fellow from Hartland Hollow, who came +in at least once a week with a load of produce from the farm on which he +was head man. The first time he went after his rations of gingerbread, +and found Dely in her mourning, he held out his hand and shook hers +heartily. Dely looked up into his honest blue eyes and saw them full of +pity.</p> + +<p>"I'm real sorry for you!" said George, "My father died two years ago."</p> + +<p>Dely burst into tears, and George couldn't help stroking her bright hair +softly and saying, "Oh, don't!" So she wiped her eyes, and sold him the +cookies he wanted; but from that day there was one of Dely's customers +that she liked best, one team of white horses she always looked out for, +and one voice that hurried the color into her face, if it was ever so +pale and the upshot of pity and produce and gingerbread was that George +Adams and Dely German were heartily in love with each other, and Dely +began to be comforted for her father's loss six months after he died. +Not that she knew why, or that George had ever said anything to her more +than was kind and friendly, but she felt a sense of rest, and yet a +sweet restlessness, when he was in her thoughts or presence, that +beguiled her grief and made her unintentionally happy: it was the old, +old story; the one eternal novelty that never loses its vitality, its +interest, its bewitching power, nor ever will till Time shall be no +more.</p> + +<p>But the year had not elapsed, devoted to double crape and triple +quillings, before Dely's mother, too, began to be consoled. She was a +pleasant, placid, feeble-natured woman, who liked her husband very well, +and fretted at him in a mild, persistent way a good deal. He swore and +chewed tobacco, which annoyed her; he also kept a tight grip of his +money, which was not pleasant; but she missed him very much when he +died, and cried and rocked, and said how afflicted she was, as much as +was necessary, even in the neighbors' opinion. But as time went on, she +found the business very hard to manage; even with Dely and the foreman +to help her, the ledger got all astray, and the day-book followed its +example; so when old Tom Kenyon, who kept the tavern half a mile farther +out, took to coming Sunday nights to see the "Widder German," and +finally proposed to share her troubles and carry on the bakery in a +matrimonial partnership, Mrs. German said she "guessed she would," and +announced to Dely on Monday morning that she was going to have a +step-father. Dely was astonished and indignant, but to no purpose. Mrs. +German cried and rocked, and rocked and cried again, rather more +saliently than when her husband died, but for all that she did not +retract; and in due time she got into the stage with her elderly lover +and went to Meriden, where they got married, and came home next day to +carry on the bakery.</p> + +<p>Joe German had been foolish enough to leave all his property to his +wife, and Dely had no resource but to stay at home and endure her +disagreeable position as well as she could, for Tom Kenyon swore and +chewed, and smoked beside; moreover,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_667" id="Page_667">[Pg 667]</a></span> he drank,—not to real +drunkenness, but enough to make him cross and intractable; worse than +all, he had a son, the only child of his first marriage, and it soon +became unpleasantly evident to Dely that Steve Kenyon had a mind to +marry her, and his father had a mind he should. Now it is all very well +to marry a person one likes, but to go through that ceremony with one +you dislike is more than anybody has a right to require, in my opinion, +as well as Dely's; so when her mother urged upon her the various +advantages of the match, Steve Kenyon being the present master and +prospective owner of his father's tavern, a great resort for +horse-jockeys, cattle-dealers, and frequenters of State and County +fairs, Dely still objected to marry him. But the more she objected, the +more her mother talked, her step-father swore, and the swaggering lover +persisted in his attentions at all times, so that the poor girl had +scarce a half-hour to herself. She grew thin and pale and unhappy +enough; and one day George Adams, stepping in unexpectedly, found her +with her apron to her eyes, crying most bitterly. It took some +persuasion, and some more daring caresses than he had yet ventured on, +to get Dely's secret trouble to light. I am inclined to think George +kissed her at least once before she would tell him what she was crying +about; but Dely naturally came to the conclusion, that, if he loved her +enough to kiss her, and she loved him enough to like it, she might as +well share her troubles, and the consequence was, George asked her then +and there to share his. Not that either of them thought there would be +troubles under that copartnership, for the day was sufficient to them; +and it did not daunt Dely in the least to know that George's only +possessions were a heifer calf, a suit of clothes, and twenty dollars.</p> + +<p>About a month after this eventful day, Dely went into Hanerford on an +errand, she said; so did George Adams. They stepped into the minister's +together and were married; so Dely's errand was done, and she rode out +on the front seat of George's empty wagon, stopping at the bakery to +tell her mother and get her trunk: having wisely chosen a day for her +errand when her step-father had gone away after a load of flour down to +Hanerford wharves. Mrs. Kenyon went at once into wild hysterics, and +called Dely a jade-hopper, and an ungrateful child; but not +understanding the opprobrium of the one term, and not deserving the +other, the poor girl only cried a little, and helped George with her +trunk, which held all she could call her own in the world,—her clothes, +two or three cheap trinkets, and a few books. She kissed the cats all +round, hugged the dog, was glad her robin had died, and then said +good-bye to her mother, who refused to kiss her, and said George Adams +was a snake in the grass. This was too much for Dely; she wiped her +eyes, and clambered over the wagon-wheel, and took her place beside +George with a smile so much like crying that he began to whistle, and +never stopped for two miles. By that time they were in a piece of thick +pine woods, when, looking both before and behind to be certain no one +was coming, he put his arm round his wife and kissed her, which seemed +to have a consoling effect; and by the time they reached his mother's +little house, Dely was as bright as ever.</p> + +<p>A little bit of a house it was to bring a wife to, but it suited Dely. +It stood on the edge of a pine wood, where the fragrance of the resinous +boughs kept the air sweet and pure, and their leaves thrilled responsive +to every breeze. The house was very small and very red, it had two rooms +below and one above, but it was neater than many a five-story mansion, +and far more cheerful; and when Dely went in at the door, she thought +there could be no prettier sight than the exquisitely neat old woman +sitting in her arm-chair on one side of the fireplace, and her beautiful +cat on the other, purring and winking, while the tea-kettle sang and +sputtered over the bright fire of pine-cones, and the tea-table at the +other side of the room was spread with such clean linen and such shining +crockery that it made one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_668" id="Page_668">[Pg 668]</a></span> hungry even to look at the brown bread and +butter and pink radishes that were Dely's wedding-supper.</p> + +<p>It is very odd how happy people can be, when they are as poor as +poverty, and don't know where to look for their living but to the work +of their own hands. Genteel poverty is horrible; it is impossible for +one to be poor, and elegant, and comfortable; but downright, simple, +unblushing poverty may be the most blessed of states; and though it was +somewhat of a descent in the social scale for Dely to marry a farm-hand, +foreman though he might be, she loved her George so devoutly and +healthily that she was as happy as a woman could be. George's mother, +the sweetest and tenderest mother to him, took his wife to a place +beside his in her heart, and the two women loved each other the more for +this man's sake; he was a bond between them, not a division; hard work +left them no thought of rankling jealousy to make their lives bitter, +and Dely was happier than ever she had thought she should be away from +her mother. Nor did the hard work hurt her; for she took to her own +share all of it that was out of doors and troublesome to the infirmities +of the old lady. She tended the calf in its little log hut, shook down +the coarse hay for its bed, made its gruel till it grew beyond gruel, +then drove it daily to the pasture where it fed, gave it extra rations +of bread and apple-parings and carrot-tops, till the creature knew her +voice and ran to her call like a pet kitten, rubbing its soft, wet nose +against her red cheek, and showing in a dozen blundering, calfish ways +that it both knew and loved her.</p> + +<p>There are two sorts of people in the world,—those who love animals, and +those who do not. I have seen them both, I have known both; and if sick +or oppressed, or borne down with dreadful sympathies for a groaning +nation in mortal struggle, I should go for aid, for pity, of the relief +of kindred feeling, to those I had seen touched with quick tenderness +for the lower creation,—who remember that "the whole creation +travaileth in pain together," and who learn God's own lesson of caring +for the fallen sparrow, and the ox that treadeth out the corn. With men +or women who despise animals and treat them as mere beasts and brutes I +never want to trust my weary heart or my aching head; but with Dely I +could have trusted both safely, and the calf and the cat agreed with me.</p> + +<p>So, in this happy, homely life, the sweet centre of her own bright +little world, Dely passed the first year of her wedded life, and then +the war came! Dreadful pivot of almost all our late lives! On it also +this rude idyl turned. George enlisted for the war.</p> + +<p>It was not in Dely or his mother to stop him. Though tears fell on every +round of his blue socks and sprinkled his flannel shirts +plentifully,—though the old woman's wan and wrinkled face paled and +saddened, and the young one's fair throat quivered with choking sobs +when they were alone,—still, whenever George appeared, he was greeted +with smiles and cheer, strengthened and steadied from this home armory +better than with sabre and bayonet, "with might in the inner man." +George was a brave fellow, no doubt, and would do good service to his +free country; but it is a question with me, whether, when the Lord calls +out his "noble army of martyrs" before the universe of men and angels, +that army will not be found officered and led by just such women as +these, who fought silently with the flesh and the Devil by their own +hearth, quickened by no stinging excitement of battle, no thrill of +splendid strength and fury in soul and body, no tempting delight of +honor or even recognition from their peers,—upheld only by the dull, +recurrent necessities of duty and love.</p> + +<p>At any rate, George went, and they stayed. The town made them an +allowance as a volunteer's family; they had George's bounty to begin +with; and a friendly boy from the farm near by came and sawed their +wood, took care of the garden, and, when Dely could not go to pasture +with the heifer, drove her to and fro daily.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_669" id="Page_669">[Pg 669]</a></span></p> + +<p>After George had been gone three months, Dely had a little baby. Tiny +and bright as it was, it seemed like a small star fallen down from some +upper sky to lighten their darkness. Dely was almost too happy; and the +old grandmother, fast slipping into that other world whence baby seemed +to have but newly arrived, stayed her feeble steps a little longer to +wait upon her son's child. Yet, for all the baby, Dely never forgot her +dumb loves. The cat had still its place on the foot of her bed; and her +first walk was to the barn, where the heifer lowed welcome to her +mistress, and rubbed her head against the hand that caressed her with as +much feeling as a cow can show, however much she may have. And Biddy, +the heifer, was a good friend to that little household, all through that +long ensuing winter. It went to Dely's heart to sell her first calf to +the butcher, but they could not raise it, and when it was taken away she +threw her check apron over her head, and buried her face deep in the +pillow, that she might not hear the cries of appeal and grief her +favorite uttered. After this, Biddy would let no one milk her but her +mistress; and many an inarticulate confidence passed between the two +while the sharp streams of milk spun and foamed into the pail below, as +Dely's skilful hands coaxed it down.</p> + +<p>They heard from George often: he was well, and busy with drill and camp +life,—not in active service as yet. Incidentally, too, Dely heard of +her mother. Old Kenyon was dead of apoplexy, and Steve like to die of +drink. This was a bit of teamster's gossip, but proved to be true. +Toward the end of the winter, old Mother Adams slept quietly in the +Lord. No pain or sickness grasped her, though she knew she was dying, +kissed and blessed Dely, sent a mother's message to George, and took the +baby for the last time into her arms; then she laid her head on the +pillow, smiled and drew a long breath,—no more.</p> + +<p>Poor Dely's life was very lonely; she buried her dead out of her sight, +wrote a loving, sobbing letter to George, and began to try to live +alone. Hard enough it was! March revenged itself on the past toleration +of winter; snow fell in blinding fury, and drifts hid the fences and +fenced the doors all through Hartland Hollow. Day after day Dely +struggled through the path to the barn to feed Biddy and milk her; and a +warm mess of bread and milk often formed her only meal in that bitter +weather. It is not credible to those who think no more of animals than +of chairs and stones how much society and solace they afford to those +who do love them, Biddy was really Dely's friend. Many a long day passed +when no human face but the baby's greeted her from dawn till dusk, But +the cow's beautiful purple eyes always turned to welcome her as she +entered its shed-door; her wet muzzle touched Dely's cheek with a velvet +caress; and while her mistress drew from the downy bag its white and +rich stores, Biddy would turn her head round, and eye her with such mild +looks, and breathe such fragrance toward her, that Dely, in her solitary +and friendless state, came to regard her as a real sentient being, +capable of love and sympathy, and had an affection for her that would +seem utter nonsense to half, perhaps three quarters, of the people in +this unsentimental world. Many a time did the lonely little woman lay +her head on Biddy's neck, and talk to her about George with sobs and +silences interspersed; and many a piece of dry bread steeped in warm +water, or golden carrot, or mess of stewed turnips and bran flavored the +dry hay that was the staple of the cow's diet. The cat was old now, and +objected to the baby so strenuously that Dely regarded her as partly +insane from age; and though she was kind to her of course, and fed her +faithfully, still a cat that could growl at George's baby was not +regarded with the same complacent kindness that had always blessed her +before; and whenever the baby was asleep at milking-time, Pussy was +locked into the closet,—a proceeding she resented. Biddy, on the +contrary, seemed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_670" id="Page_670">[Pg 670]</a></span> to admire the child,—she certainly did not object to +her,—and necessarily obtained thereby a far higher place in Dely's +heart than the cat.</p> + +<p>As I have already said, Dely had heard of her step-father's death some +time before; and one stormy day, the last week in March, a team coming +from Hanerford with grain stopped at the door of the little red house, +and the driver handed Dely a dirty and ill-written letter from her +mother. Just such an epistle it was as might have been expected from +Mrs. Kenyon,—full of weak sorrow, and entreaties to Dely to come home +and live; she was old and tired, the bakery was coming to trouble for +want of a good manager, the foreman was a rogue, and the business +failing fast, and she wanted George and Dely there: evidently, she had +not heard, when the letter began, of George's departure or baby's birth; +but the latter half said, "Cum, anyway. I want to se the Baby. Ime an +old critur, a sinking into my graiv, and when george cums back from the +wars he must liv hear the rest off his life."</p> + +<p>Dely's tender heart was greatly stirred by the letter, yet she was +undecided what to do. Here she was alone and poor; there would be her +mother,—and she loved her mother, though she could not respect her; +there, too, was plenty for all; and if George should ever come home, the +bakery business was just the thing for him,—he had energy and courage +enough to redeem a sinking affair like that. But then what should she do +with the cow? Puss could go home with her; but Biddy?—there was no +place for Biddy. Pasture was scarce and dear about Hanerford; Dely's +father had given up keeping a cow long before his death for that reason; +but how could Dely leave and sell her faithful friend and companion? Her +heart sank at the thought; it almost turned the scale, for one pitiful +moment, against common-sense and filial feeling. But baby +coughed,—nothing more than a slight cold, yet Dely thought, as she had +often thought before, with a quick thrill of terror, What if baby were +ever sick? Seven miles between her and the nearest doctor; nobody to +send, nobody to leave baby with, and she herself utterly inexperienced +in the care of children. The matter was decided at once; and before the +driver who brought her mother's letter had come, on his next journey, +for the answer he had offered to carry, Dely's letter was written, +sealed, and put on the shelf, and she was busy contriving and piecing +out a warm hood and cloak for baby to ride in.</p> + +<p>But every time she went to the barn to milk Biddy or feed her, the tears +sprang to her eyes, and her mind misgave her. Never before had the +dainty bits of food been so plentiful for her pet, or her neck so +tenderly stroked. Dely had written to her mother that she would come to +her as soon as her affairs were settled, and she had spoken to Orrin +Nye, who brought the letter, to find a purchaser for her cow. +Grandfather Hollis, who bought Biddy, and in whose farm-yard I made her +acquaintance, gave me the drover's account of the matter, which will be +better in his words than mine. It seems he brought quite a herd of milch +cows down to Avondale, which is twenty miles from Hanerford, and hearing +that Grandfather wanted a couple of cows, he came to "trade with him," +as he expressed it. He had two beautiful Ayrshires in the lot,—clean +heads, shining skins, and good milkers,—that mightily pleased the old +gentleman's fancy; for he had long brooded over his favorite scheme of a +pure-blooded herd, and the red and white clouded Ayrshires showed +beautifully on his green hillside pastures, and were good stock besides. +But Aaron Stow insisted so pertinaciously that he should buy this red +cow, that the Squire shoved his hat back and put both his hands in his +pockets, a symptom of determination with him, and began to question him. +They fenced awhile, in true Yankee fashion, till at last Grandfather +became exasperated.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Aaron Stow!" said he, "what in thunder do you pester me so +about that cow for? She's a good enough beast, I see, for a native; but +those Ayrshires are better cows and better blood, and you know it. What<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_671" id="Page_671">[Pg 671]</a></span> +are you navigating round me for, so glib?"</p> + +<p>"Well, now, Squire," returned Aaron, whittling at the gate with sudden +vehemence, "fact is, I've set my mind on your buyin' that critter, an' +you jes' set down on that 'ere milkin'-stool an' I'll tell ye the rights +on 't, though I feel kinder meechin' myself, to be so soft about it as I +be."</p> + +<p>"Leave off shaving my new gate, then, and don't think I'm going to trust +a hundred and eighty-five solid flesh to a three-legged stool. I'm too +old for that. I'll sit on the step here. Now go ahead, man."</p> + +<p>So Grandfather sat down on the step, and Aaron turned his back against +the gate and kicked one boot on the other. He was not used to narration.</p> + +<p>"Well, you know we had a dreadful spell o' weather a month ago, Squire. +There ha'n't never been such a March in my day as this last; an' 't was +worse up our way 'n' 't was here, an' down to Hartland Holler was the +beat of all. Why, it snowed an' it blowed an' it friz till all Natur' +couldn't stan' it no more! Well, about them days I was down to Hartland +Centre a-buyin' some fat cattle for Hanerford market, an' I met Orrin +Nye drivin' his team pretty spry, for he see it was comin' on to snow; +but when he catched sight o' me, he stopped the horses an' hollered out +to me, so I stepped along an' asked what he wanted; an' he said there +was a woman down to the Holler that had a cow to sell, an' he knowed I +was apt to buy cow-critters along in the spring, so he'd spoke about it, +for she was kinder in a hurry to sell, for she was goin' to move. So I +said I'd see to 't, an' he driv along. I thought likely I should git it +cheap, ef she was in a hurry to sell, an' I concluded I'd go along next +day; 't wa'n't more 'n' seven mile from the Centre, down by a piece o' +piny woods, an' the woman was Miss Adams. I used ter know George Adams +quite a spell ago, an' he was a likely feller. Well, it come on to snow +jest as fine an' dry as sand, an' the wind blew like needles, an', come +next day, when I started to foot it down there, I didn't feel as though +I could ha' gone, ef I hadn't been sure of a good bargain; the snow +hadn't driv much, but the weather had settled down dreadful cold; 't was +dead still, an' the air sorter cut ye to breathe it; but I'm naterally +hardy, an' I kep' along till I got there. I didn't feel so all-fired +cold as I hev sometimes, but when I stepped in to the door, an' she +asked me to hev a cheer by the fire, fust I knew I didn't know nothin'; +I come to the floor like a felled ox. I expect I must ha' been nigh on +to dead with clear cold, for she was the best part o' ten minutes +bringin' on me to. She rubbed my hands an' face with camphire an' gin me +some hot tea; she hadn't got no sperits in the house, but she did +everything a little woman could do, an' I was warmed through an' through +afore long, an' we stepped out into the shed to look at the cow.</p> + +<p>"Well, Squire, I ha'n't got much natur' into me noway, an' it 's well I +ha'n't; but that cow beat all, I declare for 't! She put her head round +the minute Miss Adams come in; an' if ever you see a dumb beast pleased, +that 'ere cow was tickled to pieces. She put her nose down to the +woman's cheek, an' she licked her hands, an' she moved up agin' her an' +rubbed her ear on her,—she all but talked; an' when I looked round an' +see them black eyes o' Miss Adams's with wet in 'em, I 'most wished I +had a pocket-handkercher myself.</p> + +<p>"'You won't sell her to a hard master, will you?' says she. 'I want her +to go where she'll be well cared for, an' I shall know where she is; for +if ever things comes right agin, I want to hev her back. She's been half +my livin' an' all my company for quite a spell, an' I shall miss her +dreadfully.'</p> + +<p>"'Well,' says I, 'I'll take her down to Squire Hollis's in Avondale; +he's got a cow-barn good enough for a Representative to set in, an' +clean water, an' chains to halter 'em up with, an' a dry yard where the +water all dreens off as slick as can be, an' there a'n't such a piece o' +land nowhere round for root-crops; an' the Squire he sets such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_672" id="Page_672">[Pg 672]</a></span> store by +his cows an' things, I've heerd tell he turned off two Irishmen for +abusin' on 'em; an' they has their bags washed an' their tails combed +every day in the year,—an' I don't know but what they ties 'em up with +a blew ribbin.'"</p> + +<p>"Get out!" growled Grandfather.</p> + +<p>"Can't, jest yet, Squire, not t'll I've done. Anyway, I figgered it off +to her, an' she was kinder consoled up to think on 't; for I told her I +thought likely you'd buy her cow, an' when we come to do the tradin' +part, why, con-found it! she wa'n't no more fit to buy an' sell a +critter than my three-year-old Hepsy. I said a piece back I ha'n't got +much natur', an' a man that trades dumb beasts the biggest part o' the +time hedn't oughter hev; but I swan to man! natur' was too much for me +this time; I couldn't no more ha' bought that cow cheap than I could ha' +sold my old gran'ther to a tin-peddler. Somehow, she was so innocent, +an' she felt so to part with the critter, an' then she let me know 't +George was in the army; an' thinks I, I guess I'll help the Gov'ment +along some; I can't fight, 'cause I'm subject to rheumatiz in my back, +but I can look out for them that can; so, take the hull on 't, long an' +broad, why, I up an' gin her seventy-five dollars for that cow,—an' I'd +ha' gin twenty more not to ha' seen Miss Adams's face a-lookin' arter me +an' her when we went away from the door.</p> + +<p>"So now, Squire, you can take her or leave her."</p> + +<p>Aaron Stow knew his man. Squire Hollis pulled out his pocket-book and +paid seventy-five dollars on the spot for a native cow called Biddy.</p> + +<p>"Now clear out with your Ayrshires!" said he, irascibly. "I'm a fool, +but I won't buy them, too."</p> + +<p>"Well, Squire, good day," said Aaron, with a grin.</p> + +<p>But I am credibly informed that the next week he did come back with the +two Ayrshires, and sold them to Grandfather, remarking to the farmer +that he "should ha' been a darned fool to take the old gentleman at his +word; for he never knowed a man hanker arter harnsome stock but what he +bought it, fust or last."</p> + +<p>Now I also discovered that the regiment George enlisted in was one whose +Colonel I knew well: so I wrote and asked about Sergeant Adams. My +report was highly honorable to George, but had some bad news in it: he +had been severely wounded in the right leg, and, though recovering, +would be disabled from further service. A fortnight after I drove into +Hanerford with Grandfather Hollis, and we stopped at the old bakery. It +looked exquisitely neat in the shop, as well as prosperous externally, +and Dely stood behind the counter with a lovely child in her arms. +Grandfather bought about half a bushel of crackers and cookies, while I +played with the baby. As he paid for them, he said in his kind old voice +that nobody can hear without pleasure,—</p> + +<p>"I believe I have a pet of yours in my barn at Avondale, Mrs. Adams."</p> + +<p>Dely's eyes lighted up, and a quick flush of feeling glowed on her +pretty face.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Sir! you did buy Biddy, then? and you are Squire Hollis?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Ma'am, and Biddy is well, and well cared for, as fat and sleek as +a mole, and still comes to her name."</p> + +<p>"Thank you kindly, Sir!" said Dely, with an emphasis that gave the +simple phrase most earnest meaning.</p> + +<p>"And how is your husband, Mrs. Adams?" said I.</p> + +<p>A deeper glow displaced the fading blush Grandfather had called out, and +her beautiful eyes flashed at me.</p> + +<p>"Quite well, I thank you, and not so very lame. And he's coming home +next week."</p> + +<p>She took the baby from me, as she spoke, and, looking in its bright +little face, said,—</p> + +<p>"Call him, Baby!"</p> + +<p>"Pa-pa!" said the child.</p> + +<p>"If ever you come to Avondale, Mrs. Adams, come and see my cows," said +Grandfather, as he gathered up the reins. "You maybe sure I won't sell +Biddy to anybody but you."</p> + +<p>Dely smiled from the steps where she stood; and we drove away.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_673" id="Page_673">[Pg 673]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="NEEDLE_AND_GARDEN" id="NEEDLE_AND_GARDEN"></a>NEEDLE AND GARDEN.</h2> + +<h3>THE STORY OF A SEAMSTRESS WHO LAID DOWN HER NEEDLE AND BECAME A +STRAWBERRY-GIRL.</h3> + +<h4>WRITTEN BY HERSELF.</h4> + + +<h3>CHAPTER VI.</h3> + +<p>I cannot tell why the price of everything we eat or drink or wear has so +much increased during the last year or two. I have heard many reasons +given, and have read of so many more, all differing, as to lead me to +suspect that no one really knows. Yet there is a general, broad +admission that it must in some way be owing to the war, for every one +knows that such enhancement did not previously exist. But among the +strange, the unaccountable, the utterly heartless facts of this eventful +crisis is the reduction of the wages of the sewing-woman, while the cost +of everything necessary to keep her alive is threefold greater than +before. The salaries of clerks have been raised, the wages of the +working-man increased, in some cases doubled, the labor of men in every +department of business is better paid, yet that of the sewing-woman is +reduced in price.</p> + +<p>The heartlessness of the fact is equalled only by its strangeness. Every +article of clothing which the sewing-woman makes commands a higher price +than formerly, yet she receives much less for her work than when it sold +for a lower one. And while thus meagrely paid, there has been a demand +for the labor of her hands so urgent that the like was never seen among +us. A customer, in the person of the Government, came into the market +and created a demand for clothing, that swept every factory clear of its +accumulated stock, and bound the proprietors in contracts for more, +which required them to run night and day. All this unexampled product +was to be made up into tents, accoutrements, and army-clothing, and +principally by women. One would suppose, that, with so unusual a call +for female labor, there would be an increase of female wages. It was so +in the case of those who fabricated cannon, muskets, powder, and all +other articles which a government consumes in time of war, and which men +produce: they demanded higher wages for their work, and obtained them: +the increase showing itself to the buyer in the enhanced price of the +article.</p> + +<p>This enhancement became contagious: it spread to everything,—doubling +and trebling the price of whatever the community required, except the +single item of the sewing-woman's labor. Had the price of this remained +even stationary, it would have excited surprise; but that her wages +should be cut down at a time when everybody's else went up excited +astonishment among such as became aware of it, while the reduction +coming contemporaneously with an unprecedented rise in the price of all +the necessaries of life overwhelmed this deserving class with +indescribable misery. Multitudes of them gave up the commonest articles +of food,—coffee, tea, butter, and sugar,—and others dispensed even +with many of the actual necessaries. How could they eat butter at sixty +cents a pound, when earning only fifteen cents a day?</p> + +<p>Finally the reduction of sewing-women's wages became so shamefully great +as to raise a wailing cry from these poor victims of cupidity, which +attracted public attention. It was shown that as the price of food rose, +their wages went down. In 1861 the sewing-woman received seventeen and a +half cents for making a shirt, sugar being then thirteen cents a pound; +but in 1864, when sugar was up to thirty cents, the price for making a +shirt had been ground down to eight cents! It was nearly the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_674" id="Page_674">[Pg 674]</a></span> with +all other articles of her work, as the following list of cruel +reductions in the prices paid at our arsenal and by contractors will +show.</p> + +<h4>COMPARISON OF PRICES FOR 1861 AND 1864.</h4> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'><i>Arsenal.</i></td><td align='left'><i>Arsenal.</i></td><td align='left'><i>Contractors.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>1861.</td><td align='right'>1864.</td><td align='right'>1864.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Shirts,</td><td align='right'>17-1/2</td><td align='right'>158</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Drawers,</td><td align='right'>12-1/2</td><td align='right'>10</td><td align='right'>7 @ 8</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Infantry Pantaloons,</td><td align='right'>42-1/2</td><td align='right'>27</td><td align='right'>17 @ 20</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Cavalry Pantaloons,</td><td align='right'>60</td><td align='right'>50</td><td align='right'>28 @ 30</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Lined Blouses,</td><td align='right'>45</td><td align='right'>4020</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Unlined Blouses,</td><td align='right'>40</td><td align='right'>35</td><td align='right'>15 @ 20</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Cavalry Jackets,</td><td align='right'>1.12-1/2</td><td align='right'>1.00</td><td align='right'>75 @ 80</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Overalls,</td><td align='right'>25</td><td align='right'>208</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Bed Sacks,</td><td align='right'>20</td><td align='right'>207</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Covering Canteens,</td><td align='right'>4</td><td align='right'>2-1/2</td><td align='right'>—</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p>Here was a state of things wholly without parallel in our previous +social history. On such wages women could not exist; they were the +strongest and surest temptation to the abandonment of a virtuous course +of life. Labor was here evidently cheated of its just reward. The +Government gave out the work by contract at the prices indicated in the +first two columns, and the contractors put it out among the sewing-women +at the inhuman rates set down in the third column. In this wrong the +Government participated; for it reduced its prices to the sewing-women, +while it was constantly increasing those it paid to every other class of +work-people. Even the freedmen on the sea-islands or in the contraband +camps made better wages,—while the liberated negro washer-woman, who +had never been paid wages during a life of sixty years, was suddenly +elevated to a position about the camps which enabled her to earn more, +every day, than thousands of intelligent and exemplary needle-women in +Philadelphia.</p> + +<p>An extraordinary feature of the case was, that, while there was probably +four times as much sewing to be done, there were at least ten times as +many women to do it as before. The condition of things showed that this +must be the fact, because, though the work to be given out was enormous +in amount, yet there was a crowd and pressure to obtain it which was +even greater. I saw this myself on more than one occasion.</p> + +<p>While congratulating ourselves that our women have not yet been degraded +to working at coal-mining, dressed in men's attire, or at gathering up +manure in the streets of a great city, we may be sure, that, if, in this +emergency, they were saved from actual starvation, it was not through +any generous, spontaneous outpouring of that sympathy whose fountain is +in the bottom of men's pockets. They pined, and worked, and saved +themselves.</p> + +<p>At last they met together in public, common sufferers under a common +calamity, interchanged their experiences, and mingled their tears. If +the personal history of the pupils in my sewing-school was diversified, +in this assembly the domestic experience of each individual was in +mournful harmony with that of all. The great majority were wives of +soldiers who had gone forth to uphold the flag of our country. Hundreds +of them were clad in mourning,—their husbands had died in +battle,—their remittances of pay had ceased,—their dependence had been +suddenly cut off,—and they were thus thrown back upon the needle, which +they had laid down on getting married. Oh, how many hollow cheeks and +attenuated figures were to be seen in that sad meeting of working-women! +There was the dull eye, the pinched-up face, which betokened absolute +deprivation of necessary food,—yet withal, the careful adjustment of a +faded shawl or dress, the honest pride, even in the depth of misery, to +be at least decent, after the effort to preserve the old gentility had +been found vain.</p> + +<p>It was the extraordinary number of the wives and daughters of the killed +and wounded in battle, who, suddenly added to the standing army of +sewing-women, had glutted the labor-market of the city, and whose +impatient necessity for employment had enabled heartless contractors to +cut down the making of a shirt to eight cents. I remember, when the +first rumor of the first battle reached our city, how the news-resorts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_675" id="Page_675">[Pg 675]</a></span> +were thronged by these women to know whether they had been made widows +or not,—how the crowd pressed up to and surged around the placards +containing the lists of killed and wounded,—how those away off from +these centres of early intelligence waited feverishly for the morning +paper to tell them whether they were to be miserable or happy. I +remember, too, how, as the bloody contest went on, this impatient +anxiety died out,—use seemed to have made their condition a sort of +second nature,—they kept at home, hopeful, but resigned. Alas! how +many, in the end, needed all the resignation that God mercifully extends +to the stricken deer of the great human family!</p> + +<p>They came together on the occasion referred to to compare grievances, +and devise whatever poor remedy might be found to be in the power of a +body of friendless needle-women. The straits to which many of these +deserving widows had been reduced were awful. The rich men of my native +city may hang their heads in shame over the recital of sufferings at +their very door. No generous movement had been made by any of them in +mitigation.</p> + +<p>One widow, taking out shirts at the arsenal, earned two dollars and +forty cents in two weeks, but was denied permission to take them in when +done, though urgently needing her pay, being told that she would be +making too much money. Another made vests with ten button-holes and +three pockets for fifteen cents, furnishing her own cotton at twenty +cents a spool. A third, whose husband was then in the army, found the +price of infantry-pantaloons reduced from forty-two to twenty-seven +cents,—reduced by the Government itself,—but she made eight pair a +week, took care of five children, and was always on the verge of +starvation. She declared, that, if it were not for her children, she +would gladly lie down and die! A fourth worked for contractors on +overalls at five cents a pair! Having the aid of a sewing-machine, she +made six pair daily, but was the object of insult and abuse from her +employer.</p> + +<p>The widow of a brave man who gave up his life at Fredericksburg worked +for the Government, and made eight pair of pantaloons a week, receiving +two dollars and sixteen cents for the uninterrupted labor of six days of +eighteen hours each. Another made thirteen pair of drawers for a dollar, +and by working early and late could sometimes earn two dollars in the +week. The wife of another soldier, still fighting to uphold the flag, +worked on great-coats for the contractors at thirty cents each, and +earned eighty cents a week, keeping herself and three children on that! +A wounded hero came home to die, and did so, after lingering six months +dependent on his wife. With six children, she could earn only two +dollars and a quarter a week, though working incessantly. She did +contrive to feed them, but they went barefoot all winter.</p> + +<p>An aged woman worked on tents, making in each tent forty-six +button-holes, sewing on forty-six buttons, then buttoning them together, +then making twenty eyelet-holes,—all for sixteen cents. After working a +whole day without tasting food, she took in her work just five minutes +after the hour for receiving and paying for the week's labor. She was +told there was no more work for her. Then she asked them to pay her for +what she had just delivered, but was refused. She told them she was +without a cent, and that, if forced to wait till another pay-day, she +must starve. The reply was, "Starve and be d——d! That is none of my +business. We have our rules, and shall not break them for any ——."</p> + +<p>A soldier's wife had bought coal by the bucketful all winter, at the +rate of sixteen dollars a ton, and worked on flannel shirts at a dollar +and thirty cents a dozen. She was never able to eat a full meal, and +many times went to bed hungry. A tailor gave to another sewing-woman a +lot of pantaloons to make up. The cloth being rotten, the stitches of +one pair tore out, but by exercising great care she succeeded in getting +the others made up. When she took them in, he accused her of having +ruined them,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_676" id="Page_676">[Pg 676]</a></span> and refused to pay her anything. She threatened suit, +whereupon he told her to "sue and be d——d," and finally offered a +shilling a pair, which her necessities forced her to accept. Another +needle-woman worked on hat-leathers at two and a half cents a dozen. She +found her own silk and cotton, and put upwards of five thousand stitches +into the dozen leathers. How could such a slave exist? Her four children +and herself breakfasted on bread and molasses, with malt coffee +sweetened with molasses. They dined on potatoes, and made a quarter peck +serve for three meals!</p> + +<p>So much for the mercy of the Government and the conduct of the trade. +Now for the doings of those who claimed to belong to the religious +class. One public praying man paid less than any other contractor, and +frequently allowed his hands to go unpaid for two or three weeks +together. Another would give only a dollar for making thirteen shirts +and drawers, of which a woman could finish but three in a day. One of +those in his employ, becoming weary of such low pay, applied for work at +another tailor's. There she found the inspector cursing an aged woman. +When solicited for work, he told the applicant to "clear out and be +d——d; he didn't want to see anything in bonnet or hoops again that +day."</p> + +<p>What but fallen women must some of the subjects of such atrocious +treatment become? It was ascertained from a letter sent by one of this +class, that she had given way under the pressure of starvation. She +said,—</p> + +<p>"I was once an innocent girl, the daughter of a clergyman. Left an +orphan at an early age, I tried hard to make a living, but, unable to +endure the hard labor and live upon the poor pay I received, I fell into +sin. Tell your public that thousands like me have been driven by want to +crime. Tell them, that, though it is well to save human souls from +pollution, it is better that they shall be kept pure, and know no +shame."</p> + +<p>Another confessed as much; but how many more were driven to the same +alternative, who remained mute under their shame, no one can tell. Yet +the men who thus drove virtuous women to despair were amassing large +fortunes. Their names appeared in the newspapers as liberal contributors +to every public charity that was started,—to sanitary fairs, to +women's-aid societies, to the sick and wounded soldiers, to everything +that would be likely to bring their names into print. They figured as +respectable and spirited citizens. Of all men they were supremely loyal. +Loyal to what? Not to the cause of poor famishing women, but to their +own interest. Some of them were church-members, famous as class-leaders +and exhorters, powerful in prayer, especially when made in public, +counterparts of the Pharisees of old. Their wives and daughters wore +silk dresses, hundred-dollar shawls, and had boxes at the opera.</p> + +<p>What would have been said of this unheard-of robbery by the men who won +victories at Gettysburg and Atlanta, had they known that it was +committed on the wives and mothers whom they had left behind? These +women gave up husbands and sons to fight the battles of the nation, +never dreaming that those who remained at home to make fortunes would +seek to do so by starving them. They considered the first sacrifice +great enough; but here was another. Who but they can describe how +terrible it was?</p> + +<p>On this subject employers have generally remained silent, offering few +rebuttals to these charges of cruelty, extortion, and robbery. The +sewing-women and their friends have remonstrated, but the oppressors +have rarely condescended to reply. Even those of the same sex, who have +large establishments and employ numbers of women, have seldom done so. +This silence has been significant of inability, an admission of the +facts alleged.</p> + +<p>Philanthropy has not been idle, however, while these impositions on +sewing-women have been practised. Numerous plans for preventing them, +and for otherwise improving the condition of the sex, have been +proposed, some of which have been put into successful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_677" id="Page_677">[Pg 677]</a></span> operation,—the +object sought for being to diversify employment by opening other +occupations than that of the needle. It is a settled truism, that the +measure of civilization in a nation is the condition of its women. While +heathen and savage, they are drudges; when enlightened by education and +moulded by Christianity, they rise to the highest plane of humanity. +When a Neapolitan woman gave birth to a girl, it was, until very +recently, the custom of the poorer classes to display a black flag from +an upper window of the house, to avoid the unpleasant necessity of +informing inquirers of the sex of the infant. Even at the birth of a +child in the higher ranks, the midwife and physician who are in +attendance never announce to the anxious mother the sex of the newly +born, if a girl, until pressed to disclose it, because a female child is +never welcome.</p> + +<p>It is much the fashion of the times to say that the sphere of woman is +exclusively within the domestic circle. It is highly probable that the +great majority desire no wider range; but even in the obscure quietude +of that circle they are subject to a thousand chances. We see what kind +of husbands many women obtain,—and that even the most deserving are at +times overtaken by sickness or poverty, and then are left with no +certain means of living. Poets and novelists may limit their destiny to +that of being beautiful and charming, but the wise and considerate have +long since seen that some comprehensive improvement in their condition +is needed. Their resources must be enlarged and made available. It will +increase their self-respect, and make them spurn dependence on the +charity of friends. I am inclined to think that all true women are +working-women,—at least they would be such, if they could obtain the +proper employment. American girls cannot all become house-servants, and +few of them are willing to be such. Their aspirations are evidently +higher. They have sought the factory, the bindery, the +printing-office,—thus graduating, by force of their own inherent +aptitude for better things, to a higher and more intellectual +occupation, leaving the Irish and Germans in undisputed possession of +the kitchen.</p> + +<p>A volume has been printed, giving a list of employments suitable for +women, but meagre in practical suggestions how to secure them. It was +thought that the war would bring about a brisk demand for female labor, +as great armies cannot be collected without causing a corresponding +drain from many occupations into which women would thus find admission. +But the melancholy facts already recited show how fallacious the idea +is, that war can be in any way a blessing to the sex. If some have been +employed in consequence, multitudes who had been previously supported by +their husbands have been compelled to beg for work. The war has +everywhere brought poverty and grief to the humbler classes of American +women.</p> + +<p>It is true that in the West, where the foreign population is large, the +German women go into the fields, and plough, and sow, and reap, and +harvest, with all the skill and activity of the men. It is equally true +of other sections of our country, in which no harvests would be +gathered, but for female help. But these are exceptional cases; and +these women can live without working on shirts at five to eight cents +apiece.</p> + +<p>While the distress was greatest in our city, some one advertised for two +men, to be employed in a millinery establishment, who were acquainted +with trimmings, and before the day had passed, sixty applicants had +presented themselves for the situation: the men had not become scarcer. +Another shop, which advertised for three girls, at a dollar and a half a +week, "intelligent, genteel girls," as the advertisement read, was so +overrun before night with applications for even that pitiful +compensation, that the proprietor lost his temper under the annoyance, +and drove many away with insult and abuse. If the war gives employment +to women in the fields, it affords an insufficient amount of it in the +cities.</p> + +<p>There are more female beggars in our streets, with infants in their +arms, than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_678" id="Page_678">[Pg 678]</a></span> ever before. The saloons and beer-shops, stripped of their +male bar-tenders, have adopted female substitutes, driven by necessity +to take up with an employment that always demoralizes a woman. The +surgical records of the army show, that, among the wounded brought into +the hospitals, many women have thus been discovered as soldiers. Others +have been detected and sent home, Many of these heroines declared that +they entered the army because they could find no other employment. The +incognito they had preserved was strongly confirmatory of their +truthfulness. These are some of the minor effects of the war upon our +sex. Many have been sadly demoralizing, while probably very few have +been in any way beneficial.</p> + +<p>It is one of the curiosities of the study how to improve the condition +of women, that the most eccentric plans have originated with their own +sex. The deportation of girls from England to Australia and other +colonies, where the majority of settlers are single men, is patronized +and presided over by ladies. It has been so extensive as to confer the +utmost benefit on distant settlements, equalizing the disparity of the +sexes, promoting a higher civilization by a proper infusion of female +society, and providing homes for thousands of virtuous, but friendless +and dependent girls, who had found the utmost difficulty in obtaining +even a precarious living. The exodus of American girls from New England +to California, as teachers first and wives afterwards, which some years +ago took place, originated with an American lady, who personally +superintended the enterprise. All through the West there are families +whose mothers are of the same enterprising class, while the South is not +without its representatives. There is a tribe of writers whose study it +is to ridicule and sneer at these humane and truly noble efforts to make +dependent women comfortable; but happily their sarcasm has been +unavailing.</p> + +<p>I knew a young girl who was without a single relation in the world, so +far as she was aware. She had been picked up from a curb-stone in the +street, at the foot of a lamp-post, when perhaps only a week old,—her +mother having abandoned her to the charity of the first passer. She was +found by the watchman on his midnight beat, who, having no children, +adopted her as his own. One may feel surprised that foundlings are so +frequently adopted into respectable families, especially when infants of +only a few weeks old. But there are solitary couples whose hearts +instinctively yearn for the possession of children. Providence having +denied them offspring, they fill the void in their affections by taking +to their bosoms the helpless, friendless, and abandoned waifs of others. +Foundlings are preferred, because there is no chance of their +reclamation; the mother never troubles herself to demand possession of +her child; she may remember it, but it is only to rejoice at having cast +it off. The new parents are not annoyed by outside interference. The +foundling grows in their affections; they love it as they would their +own offspring; it cannot be torn away from them.</p> + +<p>When only ten years of age, the protectors of the child referred to both +died, and she was turned loose to shift for herself. For three years she +underwent all the hardships incident to changing one bad mistress for +another, being poorly clothed, half fed, her education discontinued, +even the privilege of the Sunday school denied her, a total stranger to +kindness or sympathy.</p> + +<p>An agent of a children's-aid society one day saw her washing the +pavement in front of her mistress's house, and being struck by her +shabby dress and evidently uncared-for condition, accosted her and +ascertained the principal facts of her little history. She was of just +the class whom it was the mission of the society to save from the +destitution and danger of a totally friendless position, by sending them +to good homes in the West. Thither she went, liberated from an +uncompensated bondage to the scrubbing-brush and washtub, and was +ushered into a new and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_679" id="Page_679">[Pg 679]</a></span> joyous existence by the agency of one of the +noblest charities that Christian benevolence ever put it into the human +heart to extend to orphan children. The foundling of the lamp-post, thus +having an opening made for her, improved it and prospered. Out of the +atmosphere of city life, she grew up virtuous and respected. Her true +origin had been charitably concealed; she was known as an orphan; it +would have done no good to have it said that she was a foundling. She +married well, and became the mother of a family.</p> + +<p>Hundreds of street-tramping orphan girls, with surroundings more +unfriendly to female purity than those of this foundling, have been +taken from the lowest haunts of a shocking city-life by the same noble +charity, and introduced into peaceful country homes, where they have +grown up to be respectable members of society. In this emigration effort +women have been conspicuous actors. In England they have been equally +prominent in promoting the emigration of nearly half a million of +unmarried females to the various colonies. They publish books, and +pamphlets, and magazines, and newspapers, in advocacy of the movement. +Educated and intellectual ladies leave wealthy homes and accompany their +emigrants on voyages of thousands of miles, to see that they are +comfortably cared for.</p> + +<p>It would seem that in the ordering of Divine Providence there will +always be a multitude of women who do not marry. It is shown by the +census of every country in which the population is numbered +periodically, that there is an excess of females. In England there are +thirty women in every hundred who never marry, and there are three +millions who earn their own living. It is there contended that all +effort is improper which is directed toward making celibacy easy for +women, and that marriage, their only true vocation, should be promoted +at any cost, even at that of distributing through the colonies England's +half million of unmarried ones. Some declare that it is impossible to +make the labor of single women remunerative, or their lives free and +happy. But if the occupations of women were raised and diversified as +much as they might be, such impossibility would of itself be impossible. +If it is to be granted that a woman possesses only inferior powers, let +her be taught to use such powers as she has.</p> + +<p>I doubt not that He who created woman has some mission, some purpose, +for those who, in His divine ordering, remain single. There is a church +which has taken note of this great fact, and devotes its single women to +cloisters or to hospitals, sometimes to useful objects, sometimes to +improper ones,—but seeing that they are a numerous class, it has +specifically appropriated them. I presume the lesson of a single life, +the necessity of living alone, must be a difficult one to learn. The +heart, the young heart always, is perpetually seeking for something to +love. Amid the duties of the household, around the domestic fireside, +this loving spirit has room for growth, expansion, and intensity. The +soft tendrils which it is ever throwing out find gentle objects to which +they may cling with indissoluble attachment. Solitude is fatal to the +household affections. The single woman lives in a comparative +solitude,—a solitude of the heart.</p> + +<p>Yet it cannot be denied that even such hermitesses find compensations in +their retirement. If one resolve to remain single,—and it must require +strength of mind to come to this determination,—it is remarkable how +Nature fits such a woman for a position for which she could not have +been created. She takes her stand with a power of endurance not exceeded +by that of the other sex, and becomes more independent and at ease than +they. Let man's condition be what it may, whether rich or poor, he will +find his home cheerless and uncomfortable without the presence of a +woman. His desolateness at an hotel or boarding-house is proverbial. He +is unceasingly conscious that he has no home. But the single woman can +create one for herself.</p> + +<p>Go into the cells of any prison for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_680" id="Page_680">[Pg 680]</a></span> women, and those who never visited +such abodes will be astonished at the neatness, the order, the +embellishments, which many of them display. The home feeling that seems +to be natural to most of us develops itself here with affecting energy. +No man could surround his penitential cell with graces so profuse and +pleasing as do some of these unfortunate women.</p> + +<p>Thus, go where a woman may, a native instinct teaches and qualifies her +to make a home for herself. If single, taste and housewifery are +combined within even the narrow limits of one or two rooms. Her +singleness need not chill the heart,—for there are other things to love +than men. The power to make tender friendships was born with her, and is +part of her nature; nor does it leave her now. She has, moreover, the +proud satisfaction of knowing that she has never lived to tempt others +to an act of sin and shame. But are the men who live equally solitary +lives as guiltless as she?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="GOING_TO_SLEEP" id="GOING_TO_SLEEP"></a>GOING TO SLEEP.</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">I.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The light is fading down the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The shadows grow and multiply,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I hear the thrushes' evening song;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But I have borne with toil and wrong<br /></span> +<span class="i16">So long, so long!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dim dreams my drowsy senses drown,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So, darling, kiss my eyelids down!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="i12">II.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My life's brief spring went wasted by,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My summer ended fruitlessly;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">I learned to hunger, strive, and wait,—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">I found you, love,—oh, happy fate!—<br /></span> +<span class="i16">So late, so late!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now all my fields are turning brown,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So, darling, kiss my eyelids down!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> + +<span class="i12">III.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh, blessed sleep! oh, perfect rest!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus pillowed on your faithful breast,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Nor life nor death is wholly drear,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">O tender heart, since you are here,<br /></span> +<span class="i16">So dear, so dear!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet love, my soul's sufficient crown!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now, darling, kiss my eyelids down!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_681" id="Page_681">[Pg 681]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="DOCTOR_JOHNS" id="DOCTOR_JOHNS"></a>DOCTOR JOHNS.</h2> + + +<h3>XX.</h3> + +<p>Miss Johns meets the new-comer with as large a share of kindness as she +can force into her manner; but her welcome lacks, somehow, the +sympathetic glow to which Adèle has been used; it has not even the +spontaneity and heartiness which had belonged to the greeting of that +worldly woman, Mrs. Brindlock. And as the wondering little stranger +passes up the path, and into the door of the parsonage, with her hand in +that of the spinster, she cannot help contrasting the one cold kiss of +the tall lady in black with the shower of warm ones which her old +godmother had bestowed at parting. Yet in the eye of the Doctor sister +Eliza had hardly ever worn a more beaming look, and he was duly grateful +for the strong interest which she evidently showed in the child of his +poor friend. She had equipped herself indeed in her best silk and with +her most elaborate toilet, and had exhausted all her strategy,—whether +in respect of dress, of decorations for the chamber, or of the profuse +supper which was in course of preparation,—to make a profound and +favorable impression upon the heart of the stranger.</p> + +<p>The spinster was not a little mortified at her evident want of success, +most notably in respect to the elaborate arrangements of the chamber of +the young guest, who seemed to regard the dainty hangings of the little +bed, and the scattered ornaments, as matters of course; but making her +way to the window which commanded a view of both garden and orchard, +Adèle clapped her hands with glee at sight of the flaming hollyhocks and +the trees laden with golden pippins. It was, indeed, a pretty scene: +silvery traces of the brook sparkled in the green meadow below the +orchard, and the hills beyond were checkered by the fields of buckwheat +in broad patches of white bloom, and these again were skirted by masses +of luxuriant wood that crowned all the heights. To the eye of Adèle, +used only to the bare hill-sides and scanty olive-orchards of +Marseilles, the view was marvellously fair.</p> + +<p>"<i>Tiens!</i> there are chickens and doves," said she, still gazing eagerly +out; "oh, I am sure I shall love this new home!"</p> + +<p>And thus saying, she tripped back from the window to where Miss Eliza +was admiringly intent upon the unpacking and arranging of the little +wardrobe of her guest. Adèle, in the flush of her joyful expectations +from the scene that had burst upon her out of doors, now prattled more +freely with the spinster,—tossing out the folds of her dresses, as they +successively came to light, with her dainty fingers, and giving some +quick, girlish judgment upon each.</p> + +<p>"This godmother gave me, dear, good soul!—and she sewed this bow upon +it; isn't it coquette? And there is the white muslin,—oh, how +crushed!—that was for my church-dress, first communion, you know; but +papa said, 'Better wait,'—so I never wore it."</p> + +<p>Thus woman and child grew into easy acquaintance over the great trunk of +Adèle: the latter plunging her little hands among the silken folds of +dress after dress with the careless air of one whose every wish had been +petted; and the spinster forecasting the pride she would herself take in +accompanying this little sprite, in these French robes, to the house of +her good friends, the Hapgoods, or in exciting the wonderment of those +most excellent people, the Tourtelots.</p> + +<p>Meantime Reuben, with a resolute show of boyish indifference, has been +straying off with Phil Elderkin, although he has caught a glimpse of the +carriage at the door. Later he makes his way into the study, where the +Doctor, after giving him kindly reproof for not being at home to welcome +them, urges upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_682" id="Page_682">[Pg 682]</a></span> him the duty of kindness to the young stranger who has +come to make her home with them, and trusts that Providence may overrule +her presence there to the improvement and blessing of both. It is, in +fact, a little lecture which the good, but prosy Doctor pronounces to +the boy; from which he slipping away, so soon as a good gap occurs in +the discourse, strolls with a jaunty affectation of carelessness into +the parlor. His Aunt Eliza is there now seated at the table, and Adèle +standing by the hearth, on which a little fire has just been kindled. +She gives a quick, eager look at him, under which his assumed +carelessness vanishes in an instant.</p> + +<p>"This is Adèle, our little French guest, Reuben."</p> + +<p>The lad throws a quick, searching glance upon her, but is abashed by the +look of half-confidence and half-merriment that he sees twinkling in her +eye. The boy's awkwardness seems to infect her, too, for a moment.</p> + +<p>"I should think, Reuben, you would welcome Adèle to the parsonage," said +the spinster.</p> + +<p>And Reuben, glancing again from under his brow, sidles along the table, +with far less of ease than he had worn when he came whistling through +the hall,—sidles nearer and nearer, till she, with a coy approach that +seems to be full of doubt, meets him with a little furtive hand-shake. +Then he, retiring a step, leans with one elbow on the friendly table, +eying her curiously, and more boldly when he discovers that her look is +downcast, and that she seems to be warming her feet at the blaze.</p> + +<p>Miss Johns has watched narrowly this approach of her two <i>protégés</i>, +with an interest quite uncommon to her; and now, with a policy that +would have honored a more adroit tactician, she slips quietly from the +room.</p> + +<p>Reuben feels freer at this, knowing that the gray eye is not upon the +watch; Adèle too, perhaps; at any rate, she lifts her face with a look +that invites Reuben to speech.</p> + +<p>"You came in a ship, didn't you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes! a big, big ship!"</p> + +<p>"I should like to sail in a ship," said Reuben; "did you like it?"</p> + +<p>"Not very much," said Adèle, "the deck was so slippery, and the waves +were so high, oh, so high!"—and the little maid makes an explanatory +gesture with her two hands, the like of which for grace and +expressiveness Reuben had certainly never seen in any girl of Ashfield. +His eyes twinkled at it.</p> + +<p>"Were you afraid?" said he.</p> + +<p>"Oh, not much."</p> + +<p>"Because you know," said Reuben, consolingly, "if the ship had sunk, you +could have come on shore in the small boats." He saw a merry laugh of +wonderment threatening in her face, and continued authoritatively, "Nat +Boody has been in a sloop, and he says they always carry small boats to +pick up people when the big ships go down."</p> + +<p>Adèle laughed outright. "But how would they carry the bread, and the +stove, and the water, and the anchor, and all the things? Besides, the +great waves would knock a small boat in pieces."</p> + +<p>Reuben felt a humiliating sense of being no match for the little +stranger on sea topics, so he changed the theme.</p> + +<p>"Are you going to Miss Onthank's?"</p> + +<p>"<i>That's</i> a funny name," says Adèle; "that's the school, isn't it? Yes, +I suppose I'll go there: you go, don't you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," says Reuben, "but I don't think I'll go very long."</p> + +<p>"Why not?" says Adèle.</p> + +<p>"I'm getting too big to go to a girls' school," said Reuben.</p> + +<p>"Oh!"—and there was a little playful malice in the girl's observation +that piqued the boy.</p> + +<p>"Do the scholars like her?" continued Adèle.</p> + +<p>"Pretty well," said Reuben; "but she hung up a little girl about as big +as you, once, upon a nail in a corner of the school-room."</p> + +<p>"<i>Quelle bête!</i>" exclaimed Adèle.</p> + +<p>"That's French, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and it means she's a bad woman to do such things."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_683" id="Page_683">[Pg 683]</a></span></p> + +<p>In this way they prattled on, and grew into a certain familiarity: the +boy entertaining an immense respect for her French, and for her +knowledge of the sea and ships; but stubbornly determined to maintain +the superiority which he thought justly to belong to his superior age +and sex.</p> + +<p>That evening, after the little people were asleep, the spinster and the +Doctor conferred together in regard to Adèle. It was agreed between them +that she should enter at once upon her school duties, and that +particular inquiry concerning her religious beliefs, particular +instruction on that score,—further than what belonged to the judicious +system of Miss Onthank,—should be deferred for the present. At the same +time the Doctor enjoined upon his sister the propriety of commencing +upon the next Saturday evening the usual instructions in the Shorter +Catechism, and of insisting upon punctual attendance upon the family +devotions. The good Doctor hoped by these appointed means gradually to +ripen the religious sensibilities of the little stranger, so that she +might be prepared for that stern denunciation of those follies of the +Romish Church amid which she had been educated, and that it would be his +duty at no distant day to declare to her.</p> + +<p>The spinster had been so captivated by a certain air of modish elegance +in Adèle as to lead her almost to forget the weightier obligations of +her Christian duty toward her. She conceived that she would find in her +a means of recovering some influence over Reuben,—never doubting that +the boy would be attracted by her frolicsome humor, and would be eager +for her companionship. It was possible, moreover, that there might be +some appeal to the boy's jealousies, when he found the favors which he +had spurned were lavished upon Adèle. It was therefore in the best of +temper and with the airiest of hopes (though not altogether spiritual +ones) that Miss Eliza conducted the discussion with the Doctor. In two +things only they had differed, and in this each had gained and each lost +a point. The Doctor utterly refused to conform his pronunciation to the +rigors which Miss Eliza prescribed; for him Adèle should be always and +only Adaly. On the other hand, the parson's exactions in regard to +sundry modifications of the little girl's dress miscarried: the spinster +insisted upon all the furbelows as they had come from the hands of the +French modiste; and in this she left the field with flying colors.</p> + +<p>The next day Doctor Johns wrote to his friend Maverick, announcing the +safe arrival of his child at Ashfield, and spoke in terms which were +warm for him, of the interest which both his sister and himself felt in +her welfare. "He was pained," he said, "to perceive that she spoke +almost with gayety of serious things, and feared greatly that her keen +relish for the beauties and delights of this sinful world, and her +exuberant enjoyment of mere temporal blessings, would make it hard to +wean her from them and to centre her desires upon the eternal world. +But, my friend, all things are possible with God: and I shall diligently +pray that she may return to you, in a few years, sobered in mind, and a +self-denying missionary of the true faith."</p> + + +<h3>XXI.</h3> + +<p>No such event could take place in Ashfield as the arrival of this young +stranger at the parsonage, without exciting a world of talk up and down +the street. There were stories that she came of a vile Popish family, +and there were those who gravely believed that the poor little creature +had made only a hair-breadth escape from the thongs of the Inquisition. +There were few even of those who knew that she was the daughter of a +wealthy gentleman, now domiciled in France, and an old friend of the +Doctor's, who did not look upon her with a tender interest, as one +miraculously snatched by the hands of the good Doctor from the snares of +perdition. The gay trappings of silks and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_684" id="Page_684">[Pg 684]</a></span> ribbons in which she paced up +the aisle of the meeting-house upon her first Sunday, under the +patronizing eye of the stern spinster, were looked upon by the more +elderly worshippers—most of all by the mothers of young daughters—as +the badges of the Woman of Babylon, and as fit belongings to those +accustomed to dwell in the tents of wickedness. Even Dame Tourtelot, in +whose pew the face of Miss Almira waxes yellow between two great saffron +bows, commiserates the poor heathen child who has been decked like a +lamb for the sacrifice. "I wonder Miss Eliza don't pull off them ribbons +from the little minx," said she, as she marched home in the +"intermission," locked commandingly to the arm of the Deacon.</p> + +<p>"Waäl, I s'pose they're paid for," returns the Deacon.</p> + +<p>"What's that to do with it, Tourtelot?"</p> + +<p>"Waäl, Huldy, we do pootty much all we can for Almiry in that line: this +'ere Maverick, I guess, doos the same. What's the odds, arter all?"</p> + +<p>"Odds enough, Tourtelot," as the poor man found before bedtime: he had +no flip.</p> + +<p>The Elderkins, however, were more considerate. Very early after her +arrival, Adèle had found her way to their homestead, under the guidance +of Miss Eliza, and by her frank, demonstrative manner had established +herself at once in the affections of the whole family. The Squire, +indeed, had rallied the parson not a little, in his boisterous, hearty +fashion, upon his introduction of such a dangerous young Jesuit into so +orthodox a parish.</p> + +<p>At all which, so seriously uttered as to take the Doctor fairly aback, +good Mrs. Elderkin shook her finger warningly at the head of the Squire, +and said, "Now, for shame, Giles!"</p> + +<p>Good Mrs. Elderkin was, indeed, the pattern woman of the parish in all +charitable deeds,—not only outside, (where so many charitable natures +find their limits,) but indoors. With gentle speech and gentle manner, +she gave, maybe, her occasional closet-counsel to the Squire; but most +times her efforts to win him to a more serious habit of thought are +covered under the shape of some charming plea for a kindness to herself +or the "dear girls," which she knows that he will not have the hardihood +to resist. And even this method she does not push too far,—making it a +cardinal point in her womanly strategy that his home shall be always +grateful to the Squire,—that he shall never be driven from it by any +thought or suspicion of her exactions. Thus, if Grace—who is her oldest +daughter, and almost woman grown—has some evening appointment at Bible +class, or other such gathering, and, the boys being out, appeals timidly +to the father, good Mrs. Elderkin says,—</p> + +<p>"I am afraid your papa is too tired, Grace; do let him enjoy himself."</p> + +<p>At which the Squire, shaking off his lethargy, says,—</p> + +<p>"Get your things, child!"</p> + +<p>And as he goes out with Grace, he is rewarded by one of those tender +smiles upon the lip of the mother which captivated him twenty years +before, and which still make his fireside the most cherished spot in the +town.</p> + +<p>No wonder that the little half-orphaned creature, Adèle, with her +explosive warmth of heart, is kindly received among the Elderkins. Phil +was some three years her senior, a ruddy-faced, open-hearted fellow, who +had been well-nurtured, like his two elder brothers, but in whom a +certain waywardness just now appearing was attributed very much, by the +closely observing mother, to the influence of that interesting, but +mischievous boy, Reuben. Phil was the superior in age, indeed, and in +muscle, (as we may find proof,) but in nerve-power the more +delicate-featured boy of the parson outranked him.</p> + +<p>Rose Elderkin was a year younger than the French stranger, and a +marvellously fair type of New England girl-beauty: light brown hair in +unwieldy masses; skin wonderfully clear and transparent, and that +flushed at a rebuke, or a run down the village street, till her cheeks +blazed with scarlet; a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_685" id="Page_685">[Pg 685]</a></span> lip delicately thin, but blood-red, and +exquisitely cut; a great hazel eye, that in her moments of glee, or any +occasional excitement, fairly danced and sparkled with a kind of insane +merriment, and at other times took on a demure and pensive look, which +to future wooers might possibly prove the more dangerous of the two. The +features named make up a captivating girlish beauty, but one which, +under a New England atmosphere, is rarely carried forward into +womanhood. The lips grow pinched and bloodless; the skin blanched +against all proof of blushes; the eyes sunken, and the blithe sparkle +that was so full of infectious joy is lost forever in that exhausting +blaze of girlhood. But we make no prophecy in regard to the future of +our little friend Rose. Adèle thinks her very charming; Reuben is +disposed to rank her—whatever Phil may think or say—far above Suke +Boody. And in his reading of the delightful "Children of the Abbey," +which he has stolen, (by favor of Phil, who owns the book,) he has +thought of Rose when Amanda first appeared; and when the divine Amanda +is in tears, he has thought of Rose; and when Amanda smiles, with +Mortimer kneeling at her feet, he has still thought of Rose.</p> + +<p>These four, Adèle, Phil, Rose, and Reuben are fellow-attendants at the +school of the excellent Miss Betsey Onthank. The schoolhouse itself is a +modest one, and stands upon a cross-road leading from the main street of +the village, and is upon the side of the little brook which courses +through the valley lying to the westward. A half-dozen or more of +sugar-maples stand near it, and throw over it a grateful shade in +August. In March these trees are exposed to a series of tappings on the +part of the more mechanically inclined of the pupils,—Phil Elderkin +being chiefest,—and gimlets, quills, and dinner-pails are brought into +requisition with prodigious results. In the heats of summer, and when +the brook is low, adventurous ones, of whom Reuben is chiefest, +undertake to dam its current; and it being traditional in the school +that one day a strange fisherman once took out two trout, half as long +as Miss Onthank's ruler, from under the bridge by which the high road +crosses the brook, Reuben plies every artifice, whether of bent pins, or +hooks purchased from the Tew partners, (unknown to Aunt Eliza, who is +prejudiced against fish-hooks as dangerous,) to catch a third; and +finding other resources vain, he punches two or three holes through the +bottom of his little dinner-pail, to make a scoop-net of it, and +manfully wades under the bridge to explore all the hollows of that +unknown region. While in this precarious position, he is reported by +some timid child to the mistress, who straightway sallies out, ferule in +hand and cap-strings flying, and orders him to land; which Reuben, +taking warning by the threatening tone of the old lady, refuses, unless +she promises not to flog him; and the kind-hearted mistress, fearing too +long exposure of the lad to the chilly water, gives the promise. But +with the tell-tale pail dangling at his belt, he does not escape so +easily the inquisitive Aunt Eliza.</p> + +<p>The excellent Miss Onthank—for by this title the parson always +compliments her—is a type of a schoolmistress which is found no longer: +grave, stately, with two great moppets of hair on either side her brow, +(as in the old engravings of Louis Philippe's good queen Amelia,) very +resolute, very learned in the boundaries of all Christian and heathen +countries, patient to a fault, with a marvellous capacity for pointing +out with her bodkin every letter to some wee thing at its first stage of +spelling, and yet keeping an eye upon all the school-room; reading a +chapter from the Bible, and saying a prayer each morning upon her bended +knees,—the little ones all kneeling in concert,—with an air that would +have adorned the most stately prioress of a convent; using her red +ferule betimes on little, mischievous, smarting hands, yet not +over-severe, and kind beneath all her gravity. She regards Adèle with a +peculiar tenderness, and hopes to make herself the humble and unworthy +instrument of redeeming her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_686" id="Page_686">[Pg 686]</a></span> from the wicked estate in which she has +been reared. And Adèle, though not comprehending the excess of her zeal, +and opening her eyes in great wonderment when the good woman talks about +her "providential deliverance from the artful snares of the adversary," +is as free in her talk with the grave mistress as if she were her mother +confessor.</p> + +<p>Phil and Reuben, being the oldest boys of the school, resent the +indignity of being still subject to woman rule by a concerted series of +rebellious outbreaks. Some six or eight months after the arrival of +Adèle upon the scene, this rebel attitude culminates in an incident that +occasions a change of programme. The rebels on their way to school espy +a few clam-shells before some huckster's door, and, putting two or three +in their pockets, seize the opportunity when the good lady's eyes are +closed in the morning prayer to send two or three scaling about the +room, which fall with a clatter among the startled little ones. One, +aimed more justly by Reuben, strikes the grave mistress full upon the +forehead, and leaves a red cut from which one or two beads of blood +trickle down.</p> + +<p>Adèle, who has not learned yet that obstinate closing of the eyes which +most of the scholars have been taught, and to whom the sight recalls the +painted heads of martyrs in an old church at Marseilles, gives a little +hysteric scream. But the mistress, with face unchanged and voice +uplifted and unmoved, completes her religious duty.</p> + +<p>The whole school is horrified, on rising from their knees, at sight of +the old lady's bleeding head. The mistress wipes her forehead calmly, +and, picking up the shell at her feet, says, "Who threw this?"</p> + +<p>There is silence in the room.</p> + +<p>"Adèle," she continues, "I heard you scream, child; do you know who +threw this?"</p> + +<p>Adèle gives a quick, inquiring glance at Reuben, whose face is +imperturbable, rallies her courage for a struggle against the will of +the mistress, and then bursts into tears.</p> + +<p>Reuben cannot stand this.</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> threw it, Marm," says he, with a great tremor in his voice.</p> + +<p>The mistress beckons him to her, and, as he walks thither, motions to a +bench near her, and says gravely,—</p> + +<p>"Sit by me, Reuben."</p> + +<p>There he keeps till school-hours are over, wondering what shape the +punishment will take. At last, when all are gone, the mistress leads him +into her private closet, and says solemnly,—</p> + +<p>"Reuben, this is a crime against God. I forgive you; I hope He may"; and +she bids him kneel beside her, while she prays in a way that makes the +tears start to the eyes of the boy.</p> + +<p>Then, home,—she walking by his side, and leading him straight into the +study of the grave Doctor, to whom she unfolds the story, begging him +not to punish the lad, believing that he is penitent. And the meekness +and kindliness of the good woman make a Christian picture for the mind +of Reuben, in sad contrast with the prim austerity of Aunt Eliza,—a +picture that he never loses,—that keeps him meekly obedient for the +rest of the quarter; after which, by the advice of Miss Onthank, both +Phil and Reuben are transferred to the boys' academy upon the Common.</p> + + +<h3>XXII.</h3> + +<p>Meantime, Adèle is making friends in Ashfield and in the parsonage. The +irrepressible buoyancy of her character cannot be kept under even by the +severity of conduct which belongs to the home of the Doctor. If she +yields rigid obedience to all the laws of the household, as she is +taught to do, her vivacity sparkles all the more in those short +intervals of time when the laws are silent. There is something in this +beaming mirth of hers which the Doctor loves, though he struggles +against the love. He shuts his door fast, that the snatches of some +profane song from her little lips (with him all French songs are +profane) may not come in to disturb him; but as her voice rises +cheerily, higher and higher, in the summer dusk, he catches himself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_687" id="Page_687">[Pg 687]</a></span> +lending a profane ear; the blitheness, the sweetness, the mellowness of +her tones win upon his dreary solitude; there is something softer in +them than in the measured vocables of sister Eliza; it brings a souvenir +of the girlish Rachel, and his memory floats back upon the strains of +the new singer, to the days when that dear voice filled his heart; and +he thinks—thanking Adaly for the thought—she is singing with the +angels now!</p> + +<p>But the spinster, who has no ear for music, in the midst of such a +carol, will cry out in sharp tones from her chamber, "Adèle, Adèle, not +so loud, child! you will disturb the Doctor!"</p> + +<p>Even then Adèle has her resource in the garden and the orchard, where +she never tires of wandering up and down,—and never wandering there but +some fragment of a song breaks from her lips.</p> + +<p>From time to time the Doctor summons her to his study to have serious +talk with her. She has, indeed, shared the Saturday-night instruction in +the Catechism, in company with Reuben, and being quick at words, no +matter how long they may be, she has learned it all; and Reuben and she +dash through "what is required" and "what is forbidden" and "the reasons +annexed" like a pair of prancing horses, kept diligently in hand by that +excellent whip, Miss Johns. But the study has not wrought that gravity +in the mind of the child which the good parson had hoped for; the seed, +he fears, has fallen upon stony places. He therefore, as we have said, +summons her from time to time to his study.</p> + +<p>And Adèle comes, always at the first summons, with a tripping step, and, +with a little coquettish adjustment of her dress and hair, flings +herself into the big chair before him,—</p> + +<p>"Now, New Papa, here I am!"</p> + +<p>"Ah, Adaly! I wish, child, that you could be more serious than you are."</p> + +<p>"Serious! ha! ha!"—(she sees a look of pain on the face of the Doctor,) +"but I will be,—I am"; and with great effort she throws a most +unnatural expression of repose into her face.</p> + +<p>"You are a good girl, Adaly; but this is not the seriousness I want to +find in you. I want you to feel, my child, that you are walking on the +brink of a precipice,—that your heart is desperately wicked."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, New Papa! you don't think I'm desperately wicked?"—and she +says it with a charming eagerness of manner.</p> + +<p>"Yes, desperately wicked, Adaly,—leaning to the things of this world, +and not fastening your affections on things above, on the realities +beyond the grave."</p> + +<p>"But all that is so far away, New Papa!"</p> + +<p>"Not so far as you think, child; they may come to-day."</p> + +<p>Adèle is sobered in earnest now, and tosses her little feet back and +forth, in an agony of apprehension.</p> + +<p>The Doctor continues,—</p> + +<p>"<i>To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts</i>"; and the +sentiment and utterance are so like to the usual ones of the pulpit, +that Adèle takes courage again.</p> + +<p>The little girl has a profound respect for the Doctor; his calmness, his +equanimity, his persistent zeal in his work, would alone provoke it. But +she sees, furthermore,—what she does not see always in "Aunt Eliza,"—a +dignity of character that is proof against all irritating humors; then, +too, he has appeared to Adèle a very pattern of justice. She had taken +exceptions, indeed, when, on one or two rare occasions, he had reached +down the birch rod which lay upon the same hooks with the sword of Major +Johns, in the study, and had called in Reuben for extraordinary +discipline; but the boy's manifest acquiescence in the affair when his +cool moments came next morning, and the melancholy air of kindness with +which the Doctor went in to kiss him a goodnight, after such regimen, +kept alive her faith in the unvarying justice of the parson. Therefore +she tried hard to torture her poor little heart into a feeling of its +own blackness, (for that it was very black she had the good man's +averment,)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_688" id="Page_688">[Pg 688]</a></span> she listened gravely to all he had to urge, and when he had +fairly overburdened her with the enumeration of her wicked, worldly +appetites, she could only say, with a burst of emotion,—</p> + +<p>"Well, but, New Papa, the good God will forgive me."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Adaly, yes,—I trust so, if forgiveness be sought in fear and +trembling. But remember, 'When God created man, he entered into a +covenant of life with him upon condition of perfect obedience.'"</p> + +<p>This brings back to poor Adèle the drudgery of the Saturday's Catechism, +associated with the sharp correctives of Aunt Eliza; and she can only +offer a pleading kiss to the Doctor, and ask plaintively,—</p> + +<p>"May I go now?"</p> + +<p>"One moment, Adaly,"—and he makes her kneel beside him, while he prays, +fervently, passionately, drawing her frail little figure to himself, +even as he prays, as if he would carry her with him in his arms into the +celestial presence.</p> + +<p>The boy Reuben, too, has had his seasons of this closet struggle; but +they are rarer now; the lad has shrewdly learned to adjust himself to +all the requirements of such occasions. He has put on a leaden +acquiescence in the Doctor's theories, whether with regard to +sanctification or redemption, that is most disheartening to the parson. +Does any question of the Doctor's, by any catch-word, suggest an answer +from the "Shorter Catechism" as applicable, Reuben is ready with it on +the instant.</p> + +<p>Does the Doctor ask,—</p> + +<p>"Do you know, my son, the sinfulness of the estate in which you are +living?"</p> + +<p>"Sinfulness of the estate whereunto man fell?" says Reuben, briskly.</p> + +<p>"Know it like a book:—'Consists in the guilt of <i>Adam's</i> first sin the +want of original righteousness and the corruption of his whole nature +which is commonly called original sin together with all actual +transgressions which proceed from it.' There's a wasp on your shoulder, +father,—there's two of 'em; I'll kill em."</p> + +<p>No wonder the good Doctor is disheartened, and trusts more and more, in +respect to his boy, to the silent influences of the Spirit.</p> + +<p>Adèle has no open quarrels with Miss Johns; she is obedient; she, too, +has fallen under the influence of that magnetic voice, and accepts the +orders and the commendations conveyed by it as if they were utterances +of Fate. Yet, with her childish instincts, she has formed a very fair +estimate of the character of Miss Eliza; it is doubtful even if she has +not fathomed it in certain directions more correctly and profoundly than +the grave Doctor. She sees clearly that the spinster's unvarying +solicitude in regard to the dress and appearance of "dear Adèle" is due +more to that hard pride of character which she nurses every day of her +life than to any tenderness for the little stranger. For at the hands of +her old godmother and of her father Adèle has known what real tenderness +was. It is a lesson children never unlearn.</p> + +<p>"Adèle, my dear, you look charmingly to-day, with that pink bow in your +hair. Do you know, I think pink is becoming to you, my child?"</p> + +<p>And Adèle listens with a composed smile, not unwilling to be admired. +What girl of—any age is? But the admiration of Miss Johns does not +touch her; it never calls a tear to her eye.</p> + +<p>In the bright belt-buckle, in the big leg-of-mutton sleeves, in the +glittering brooch containing coils of the Johns' hair, in the jaunty +walk and authoritative air of the spinster, the quick, keen eye of Adèle +sees something more than the meek Christian teacher and friend. It is a +sin in her to see it, perhaps; but she cannot help it.</p> + +<p>Miss Johns has not succeeded in exciting the jealousy of Reuben,—at +least, not in the manner she had hoped. Her influence over him is +clearly on the wane. He sees, indeed, her exaggerated devotion to the +little stranger,—which serves, in her presence, at least, to call out +all his indifference. Yet even this, Adèle, with her girlish instinct, +seems to understand, too, and bears the boy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_689" id="Page_689">[Pg 689]</a></span> no grudge in consequence of +it. Nay, when he has received some special administration of the +parson's discipline, she allows her sympathy to find play in a tender +word or two that touch Reuben more than he dares to show.</p> + +<p>And when they meet down the orchard, away from the lynx eye of Aunt +Eliza, there are rare apples far out upon overhanging limbs that he can +pluck, by dint of venturous climbing, for her; and as he sees through +the boughs her delicate figure tripping through the grass, and lingers +to watch it, there comes a thought that <i>she</i> must be the Amanda of the +story, and not Rose,—and he, perched in the apple-tree, a glowing +Mortimer.</p> + + +<h3>XXIII.</h3> + +<p>In the year 183-, Mr. Maverick writes to his friend Johns that the +disturbed condition of public affairs in France will compel him to +postpone his intended visit to America, and may possibly detain him for +a long time to come. He further says,—"In order to prevent all possible +hazards which may grow out of our revolutionary fervor on this side of +the water, I have invested in United States securities, for the benefit +of my dear little Adèle, a sum of money which will yield some seven +hundred dollars a year. Of this I propose to make you trustee, and +desire that you should draw so much of the yearly interest as you may +determine to be for her best good, denying her no reasonable requests, +and making your household reckoning clear of all possible deficit on her +account.</p> + +<p>"I am charmed with the improved tone of her letters, and am delighted to +see by them that even under your grave regimen she has not lost her old +buoyancy of spirits. My dear Johns, I owe you a debt in this matter +which I shall never be able to repay. Kiss the little witch for me; tell +her that 'Papa' always thinks of her, as he sits solitary upon the green +bench under the arbor. God bless the dear one, and keep all trouble from +her!"</p> + +<p>She, gaining in height now month by month, wins more and more upon the +grave Doctor,—wins upon Rose, who loves her as she loves her +sisters,—wins upon Phil, whose liking for her is becoming demonstrative +to a degree that prompts a little jealousy in the warm-blooded Reuben, +and that drives out all thought of the pink cheeks and fat arms of Suke +Boody. Miss Johns still regards her with admiring eyes, and shows all +her old assiduity in looking after her comforts and silken trappings. +Day after day, in summer weather, Rose and she idle together along the +embowered paths of the village; the Tew partners greet the pair with +smiles; good Mistress Elderkin has always a cordial welcome; the stout +Squire stoops to kiss the little Jesuit, who blushes at the tender +affront through all the brownness of her cheek, like a rose. Day after +day the rumble of the mill breaks on the country quietude; and as autumn +comes in, burning with all its forest fires, the farmer's flails beat +time together, as they did ten years before.</p> + +<p>At the academy, Phil and Reuben plot mischief, and they cement their +friendship with not a few boyish quarrels.</p> + +<p>Thus, Reuben, in the way of the boyish pomologists of those days, has +buried at midsummer in the orchard a dozen or more of the finest +windfalls from the early apple-trees, that they may mellow, away from +the air, into good eating condition, and he has marked the spot in his +boyish way with a little pyramid of stones. Strolling down the orchard a +few days later, he sees Phil coming away from that locality, with his +pockets bulging out ominously, and munching a great apple with +extraordinary relish. Perhaps there is a thought that he may design a +gift out of the stolen stores for Adèle; at any rate, Reuben flies at +him.</p> + +<p>"I say, Phil, that's doosed mean now, to be stealing my apples!"</p> + +<p>"Who's stole your apples?" says Phil, with a great roar of voice.</p> + +<p>"You have," says Reuben; and having now come near enough to find his +pyramid of stones all laid low, he says<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_690" id="Page_690">[Pg 690]</a></span> more angrily,—"You're a thief! +and you've got 'em in your pocket!"</p> + +<p>"Thief!" says Phil, looking threateningly, and throwing away his apple +half-eaten, "if you call me a thief, I say you're a——you know what."</p> + +<p>"Well, blast you," says Reuben, boiling with rage, "say it! Call me a +liar, if you dare!"</p> + +<p>"I do dare," says Phil, "if you accuse me of stealing your apples; and I +say you're a liar, and be darned to you!"</p> + +<p>At this, Reuben, though he is the shorter by two or three inches, and no +match for his foe at fisticuffs, plants a blow straight in Philip's +face. (He said afterward, when all was settled, that he was ten times +more mortified to think that he had done such a thing in his father's +orchard.)</p> + +<p>But Phil closed upon him, and kneading him with his knuckles in the +back, and with a trip, threw him heavily, falling prone upon him. +Reuben, in a frenzy, and with a torrent of much worse language than he +was in the habit of using, was struggling to turn him, when a sharp, +loud voice, which they both knew only too well, came down the +wind,—"Boys! boys!" and presently the Doctor comes up panting.</p> + +<p>"What does this mean? Philip, I'm ashamed of you!" he continues; and +Philip rises.</p> + +<p>Reuben, rising, too, the instant after, and with his fury unchecked, +dashes at Phil again; when the Doctor seizes him by the collar and drags +him aside.</p> + +<p>"He struck me," says Phil.</p> + +<p>"And he stole my apples and called me a liar," says Reuben, with the +tears starting, though he tries desperately to keep them back, seeing +that Phil shows no such evidence of emotion.</p> + +<p>"Tut! tut!" says the Doctor,—"you are both too angry for a straight +story. Come with me."</p> + +<p>And taking each by the hand, he led them through the garden and house, +directly into his study. There he opens a closet-door, with the sharp +order, "Step in here, Reuben, until I hear Philip's story." This Phil +tells straight-forwardly,—how he was passing through the orchard with a +pocketful of apples, which a neighbor's boy had given, and how Reuben +came upon him with swift accusation, and then the fight. "But he hurt me +more than I hurt him," says Phil, wiping his nose, which showed a little +ooze of blood.</p> + +<p>"Good!" says the Doctor,—"I think you tell the truth."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," says Phil,—"I know I do, Doctor."</p> + +<p>Next Reuben is called out.</p> + +<p>"Do you <i>know</i> he took the apples?" asks the Doctor.</p> + +<p>"Don't know," says Reuben,—"but he was by the place, and the stones +thrown down."</p> + +<p>"And is that sufficient cause, Reuben, for accusing your friend?"</p> + +<p>At which, Reuben, shifting his position uneasily from one foot to the +other, says,—</p> + +<p>"I believe he did, though."</p> + +<p>"Stop, Sir!" says the Doctor in a voice that makes Reuben sidle away.</p> + +<p>"Here," says Phil, commiserating him in a grand way, and beginning to +discharge his pockets on the Doctor's table, "he may have them, if he +wants them."</p> + +<p>Reuben stares at them a moment in astonishment, then breaks out with a +great tremor in his voice, but roundly enough,—</p> + +<p>"By George! they're not the same apples at all. I'm sorry I told you +that, Phil."</p> + +<p>"Don't say 'By George' before me, or anywhere else," says the Doctor, +sharply. "It's but a sneaking oath, Sir; yet" (more gently) "I'm glad of +your honesty, Reuben."</p> + +<p>At the instigation of the parson they shake hands; after which he leads +them both into his closet, beckoning them to kneel on either side of +him, as he commends them in his stately way to Heaven, trusting that +they may live in good-fellowship henceforth, and keep His counsel, who +was the great Peacemaker, always in their hearts.</p> + +<p>Next morning, when Reuben goes to reconnoitre the place of his buried +treasure, he finds all safe, and taking the better half of the fruit, he +marches away<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_691" id="Page_691">[Pg 691]</a></span> with a proud step to the Elderkin house. The basket is for +Phil. But Phil is not at home; so he leaves the gift, and a message, +with a short story of it all, with the tender Rose, whose eyes dance +with girlish admiration at this stammered tale of his, and her fingers +tremble when they touch the boy's in the transfer of his little burden.</p> + +<p>Reuben walks away prouder yet; is not this sweet-faced girl, after all, +Amanda?</p> + +<p>There come quarrels, however, with the academy teacher not so easily +smoothed over. The Doctor and the master hold long consultations. +Reuben, it is to be feared, has bad associates. The boy makes interest, +through Nat Boody, with the stage-driver; and one day the old ladies are +horrified at seeing the parson's son mounted on the box of the coach +beside the driver, and putting his boyish fingers to the test of +four-in-hand. Of course he is a truant that day from school, and toiling +back footsore and weary, after tea, he can give but a lame account of +himself. He brings, another time, a horrid fighting cur, (as Miss Eliza +terms it in her disgust,) for which he has bartered away the new muffler +that the spinster has knit. He thinks it a splendid bargain. Miss Johns +and the Doctor do not.</p> + +<p>He is reported by credible witnesses as loitering about the tavern in +the summer nights, long after prayers are over at the parsonage, and the +lights are out: thus it is discovered, to the great horror of the +household, that by connivance with Phil he makes his way over the roof +of the kitchen from his chamber-window to join in these night forays. +After long consideration, in which Grandfather Handby is brought into +consultation, it is decided to place the boy for a while under the +charge of the latter for discipline, and with the hope that removal from +his town associates may work good. But within a fortnight after the +change is made, Grandfather Handby drives across the country in his +wagon, with Reuben seated beside him with a comic gravity on his face; +and the old gentleman, pleading the infirmities of age, and giving the +boy a farewell tap on the cheek, (for he loves him, though he has +whipped him almost daily,) restores him to the paternal roof.</p> + +<p>At this crisis, Squire Elderkin—who, to tell truth, has a little fear +of the wayward propensities of the parson's son in misleading +Phil—recommends trial of the discipline of a certain Parson Brummem, +who fills the parish-pulpit upon Bolton Hill. This dignitary was a tall, +lank, leathern-faced man, of incorruptible zeal and stately gravity, who +held under his stern dominion a little flock of two hundred souls, and +who, eking out a narrow parochial stipend by the week-day office of +teaching, had gained large repute for his subjugation of refractory +boys.</p> + +<p>A feeble little invalid wife cringed beside him along the journey of +life; and it would be pitiful to think that she had not long ago +entered, in way of remuneration, upon paths of pleasantness beyond the +grave.</p> + +<p>Parson Brummem received Brother Johns, when he drove with Reuben to the +parsonage-door, on that wild waste of Bolton Hill, with all the unction +of manner that belonged to him; but it was so grave an unction as to +chill poor Reuben to the marrow of his bones. A week's experience only +dispersed the chill when the tingle of the parson's big rod wrought a +glow in him that was almost madness. Yet Reuben chafed not so much at +the whippings—to which he was well used—as at the dreariness of the +new home, the melancholy waste of common over which March winds blew all +the year, the pinched faces that met him without other recognition than, +"One o' Parson Brummem's b'ys." Nor indoors was the aspect more +inviting: a big red table, around which sat six fellow-martyrs with +their slates and geographies; a tall desk, at which Brummem indited his +sermons; and from time to time a little side-door opening timidly, +through which came a weary woman's voice, "Ezekiel, dear, one minute!" +at which the great man strides thither, and lends, his great ear to the +family council.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_692" id="Page_692">[Pg 692]</a></span></p> + +<p>Ah, the long, weary mornings, when the sun, pouring through the +curtainless south windows a great blaze upon the oaken floor, lights up +for Reuben only the cobwebbed corners, the faded roundabouts of +fellow-martyrs, the dismal figures of Daboll, the shining tail-coat of +Master Brummem, as he stalks up and down from hour to hour, collecting +in this way his scattered thoughts for some new argumentative thrust of +the quill into the sixthly or the seventhly of his next week's sermon! +And the long and weary afternoons, when the sun with a mocking bounty +pours through the dusty and curtainless windows to the west, lighting +only again the gray and speckled roundabouts of the fagging boys, the +maps of Malte-Brun, and the shining forehead of the Brummem!</p> + +<p>There is a dismal, graceless, bald air about town and house and master, +which is utterly revolting to the lad, whose childish feet had pattered +beside the tender Rachel along the embowered paths of Ashfield. The lack +of congeniality affronts his whole nature. In the keenness of his +martyrdom, (none the less real because fancied,) the leathern-faced, +gaunt Brummem takes the shape of some Giant Despair with bloody maw and +mace,—and he, the child of some Christiana, for whose guiding hand he +gropes vainly: she has gone before to the Celestial City!</p> + +<p>The rod of the master does not cure the chronic state of moody rebellion +into which Reuben lapses, with these fancies on him. It drives him at +last to an act of desperation. The lesson in Daboll that day was a hard +one; but it was not the lesson, or his short-comings in it,—it was not +the hand of the master, which had been heavy on him,—but it was a +vague, dismal sense of the dreariness of his surroundings, of the +starched looks that met him, of the weary monotony, of the lack of +sympathy, which goaded him to the final overt act of rebellion,—which +made him dash his leathern-bound arithmetic full into the face of the +master, and then sit down, burying his face in his hands.</p> + +<p>The stern doctrines of Parson Brummem had taught him, at least, a rigid +self-command. He did not strike the lad. But recovering from his +amazement, he says, "Very well, very well, Master Reuben, we will sleep +upon this"; and then, tapping at the inner door, "Keziah, make ready the +little chamber over the hall for Master Johns: he must be by himself +to-night: give him a glass of water and a slice of dry bread: nothing +else, Sir," (turning to Reuben now,) "until you come to me to-morrow at +nine, in this place, and ask my pardon"; and he motions him to the door.</p> + +<p>Reuben staggers out,—staggers up the stairs into the dismal chamber. It +looks out only upon a bald waste of common. Shortly after, a slatternly +maid brings his prison fare, and, with a little kindly discretion, has +added secretly a roll of gingerbread. Reuben thanks her, and says, +"You're a good woman, Keziah; and I say, won't you fetch me my cap, +there's a good un; it's cold here." The maid, with great show of +caution, complies; a few minutes after, the parson comes, and, looking +in warningly, closes and locks the door outside.</p> + +<p>A weary evening follows, in which thoughts of Adèle, of nights at the +Elderkins', of Phil, of Rose, flash upon him, and spend their richness, +leaving him more madly disconsolate. Then come thoughts of the morning +humiliation, of the boys pointing their fingers at him after school.</p> + +<p>"No, they sha'n't, by George!"</p> + +<p>And with this decision he dropped asleep; with this decision ripened in +him, he woke at three in the morning,—waited for the hall clock to +strike, that he might be sure of his hour,—tied together the two sheets +of Mistress Brummem's bed, opened the window gently, dropped out his +improvised cable, slid upon it safely to the ground, and before day had +broken or any of the townsfolk were astir, had crossed all the more open +portion of the village, and by sunrise had plunged into the wooded +swamp-land which lay three miles westward toward the river.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_693" id="Page_693">[Pg 693]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="THE_GREAT_LAKES" id="THE_GREAT_LAKES"></a>THE GREAT LAKES:</h2> + +<h3>THEIR OUTLETS AND DEFENCES.</h3> + + +<p>Four years ago there appeared in this magazine two articles upon the +Great Lakes and their Harbors.<a name="FNanchor_E_5" id="FNanchor_E_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_E_5" class="fnanchor">[E]</a> In these papers the commercial +importance of the Lakes was set forth, and it was shown that their +commerce was at that time nearly equal in amount to the whole foreign +trade of the country. Within those four years the relative value of +these two branches of commerce has greatly changed. The foreign trade, +under the efforts of open foes and secret enemies, has fallen off very +largely. A committee of the New York Board of Trade, in an appeal to the +Secretary of the Navy for protection against British pirates, made the +statement, that the imports into that port during the first quarter of +1860, in American vessels, were $62,598,326,—in foreign vessels, +$30,918,051; and that in 1863, during the same period, the imports in +American vessels were $23,403,830,—in foreign vessels, $65,889,853;—in +other words, that in three years of war, our navigation on the ocean had +declined more than one half, and that of foreign nations had increased +in nearly the same proportion.</p> + +<p>The two great branches of internal trade before the war consisted of the +trade of the Lakes and the canals leading from them to the seaboard, and +the trade of the Mississippi and its tributaries. The latter branch +being interrupted or destroyed by the Rebellion, it follows that at the +present time the principal commerce left to the Atlantic cities is that +of the Great Lakes and the States about them, usually known as the +Northwest.</p> + +<p>This commerce amounts at present to at least twelve hundred millions of +dollars annually, and increases so rapidly that all estimates of its +prospective value have hitherto fallen far short of the truth. It +employs about two thousand vessels and twenty thousand sailors, besides +four great lines of railroad. It sends to the seaboard one hundred +million bushels of grain, two million hogs, and half a million of +cattle, composing the principal part of the food of the Atlantic States, +(it being well known that the wheat crop of New York would hardly feed +her people for one third of the year, and that that of New England is +sufficient for only about three weeks' consumption,) and affording a +large surplus for exportation.</p> + +<p>In a memorial of the Hon. S. B. Ruggles of New York to President +Lincoln, on the enlargement of the New York canals, he says,—"The +cereal wealth yearly floated on these waters now exceeds one hundred +million bushels. It is difficult to present a distinct idea of a +quantity so enormous. Suffice it to say, that the portion of it (about +two thirds) moving to market on the Erie and Oswego Canals requires a +line of boats more than forty miles long to carry it." On the Lakes it +requires a fleet of five thousand vessels carrying twenty thousand +bushels each. If loaded in railroad-cars of the usual capacity, it would +take two hundred and fifty thousand of them, or a train more than one +thousand miles in length. The four great lines from the Lakes to the +seaboard would each have to run four hundred cars a day for half the +year to carry this grain to market. Speaking of the grain-trade, Mr. +Ruggles says,—"Its existence is a new fact in the history of man. In +quantity, it already much exceeds the whole export of cereals from the +Russian Empire, the great compeer of the United States, whose total +export of cereals was in 1857 but forty-nine million bushels, being less +than half the amount carried in 1861 upon the American Lakes. It was the +constant aim of ancient Rome,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_694" id="Page_694">[Pg 694]</a></span> even in the zenith of its power, to +provision the capital and the adjacent provinces from the outlying +portions of the empire. The yearly crop contributed by Egypt was fifteen +million bushels. Under the prudent administration of the Emperor +Severus, a large store of corn was accumulated and kept on hand, +sufficient to guard the empire from famine for seven years. The total +amount thus provided was but one hundred and ninety million bushels. The +product of 1860 in the five Lake States of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, +Illinois, and Wisconsin, was three hundred and fifty-four million +bushels."</p> + +<p>Another branch of the Lake trade, which is yet in its infancy, but which +promises to reach vast proportions in a few years, is the iron and +copper trade of Lake Superior. In 1864 about two hundred and forty-eight +thousand tons of iron ore and seventeen thousand tons of copper ore and +metal were shipped from that lake,—enough to load thirteen hundred and +twenty-five vessels of two hundred tons burden. This trade has wholly +grown up within the last ten years.</p> + +<p>Let the Erie and Oswego Canals be again enlarged, as advocated so ably +by Mr. Ruggles, let the railroad lines be equipped with double tracks, +and this trade of the Lake country will still follow them up and +outstrip their efforts. The man is now living in Chicago, hardly past +middle age, who, less than thirty years ago, shipped the first invoice +of grain from that city which now ships fifty millions; and should he +live to the common age of mankind, he will probably see the shipment of +a hundred millions from that port alone.</p> + +<p>The population of Illinois has doubled in each of the last two decades, +and there is no reason why it should not continue to do so in the next. +That would give it in 1870 about three and a half millions of people, +most of them farmers and producers, and farmers who, by help of their +fertile soil, the ease of its cultivation, and the general use of +agricultural machinery, are able to produce a very large amount of grain +or meat to the working hand.</p> + +<p>These fleets of sail-vessels and steamers, and these railroad-trains +which go Eastward thus loaded with grain and provisions, return West +with freight more various, though as valuable. The teas, silks, and +spices of India, the coffee of Brazil, the sugar and cigars of Cuba, the +wines and rich fabrics of France, the varied manufactures of England, +and the products of the New England workshops and factories, all find a +market in the Northwest.</p> + +<p>What, then, is the proper and sufficient outlet of this commerce? The +Canadians, although their share of it is only one quarter as large as +our own, have shown us the way. They have constructed canals connecting +Lakes Erie and Ontario, and others around the rapids of the St. +Lawrence. Let us do the same on the American side, so that vessels may +load in Chicago or Milwaukee, and deliver their cargoes in New York, +Boston, or Liverpool, without breaking bulk. To Europe this is the +shorter route, as the figures will show:—</p> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'>Distance from Chicago to New York by lakes, canal, and river</td><td align='right'>1,500</td><td align='right'>miles</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Distance from New York to Liverpool</td><td align='right'>2,980</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>——</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>4,480</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Distance from Chicago to Montreal by Welland Canal</td><td align='right'>1,348</td><td align='right'>miles</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Distance from Montreal to Liverpool</td><td align='right'>2,740</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>——</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>4,088</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p>The St. Lawrence River is the natural outlet of the Lakes, and, if +rendered accessible to us by canals, must be the cheapest outlet. It is +well known that a few years ago corn was worth on the prairies of +Illinois only ten cents per bushel, when the same article was selling in +New York at seventy cents, six sevenths of the price being consumed in +transportation. The consequence was, that many farmers found it more for +their interest to use their surplus corn for fuel than to sell it for +ten cents. The great disturbance in values caused by the war, and the +vast demand for grain and forage for the army, have reduced this +disproportion in prices very much for the time, but it may be looked for +again on the return of peace.</p> + +<p>Now it would seem that one of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_695" id="Page_695">[Pg 695]</a></span> most important questions to be +settled in this country is how to cheapen food. If, by the construction +of these canals to give access to the St. Lawrence, grain can be laid +down in New York ten cents a bushel cheaper than it now is done, the +saving on the present shipments of breadstuffs from the Lakes would be +ten millions of dollars annually. It is probable, however, that the +saving in freight would be much greater than this, if the canals were +built of sufficient capacity to admit the largest class of Lake vessels. +This direct trade between the Upper Lakes and Europe was commenced a few +years before the breaking out of the Rebellion, and was beginning to +assume important proportions, when the war put a stop to it, as it has +to so much of our foreign commerce.</p> + +<p>While the present article was in preparation, the bill for the +construction of these canals passed the House of Representatives, as +also one for the deepening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, +concerning which the report of the Hon. Isaac N. Arnold of Illinois, +chairman of the committee of the House on the defence of lakes and +rivers, thus remarks:—"The realization of the grand idea of a +ship-canal from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, for military and +commercial purposes, is the great work of the age. In effect, +commercially, it turns the Mississippi into Lake Michigan, and makes an +outlet for the Great Lakes at New Orleans, and of the Mississippi at New +York. It brings together the two great systems of water communication of +our country,—the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence, and the canals +connecting the Lakes with the ocean on the east, and the Mississippi and +Missouri, with all their tributaries, on the west and south. This +communication, so vast, can be effected at small expense, and with no +long delay. It is but carrying out the plan of Nature. A great river, +rivalling the St. Lawrence in volume, at no distant day was discharged +from Lake Michigan, by the Illinois, into the Mississippi. Its banks, +its currents, its islands, and deposits can still be easily traced, and +it only needs a deepening of the present channel for a few miles, to +reopen a magnificent river from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi."</p> + +<p>It is a very important point, in considering this question of the +enlargement of existing canals and the construction of new ones, that +they have, under the new conditions of naval warfare, come to be an +important element in the harbor defences of the Lakes. We have the +testimony of Captain Ericsson himself, whose Monitor vessels have +already done so much for the country, as to this availability. He +writes,—"An impregnable war-vessel, twenty-five feet wide and two +hundred feet long, with a shot-proof turret, carrying a gun of fifteen +inch calibre, with a ball of four hundred and fifty pounds, and capable +of destroying any hostile vessel that can be put on the Lakes, will +draw, without ammunition, coal, or stores, but six feet and six inches +water, and consequently will need only a canal wide and deep enough to +float a vessel of those dimensions, with locks of sufficient size to +pass it."</p> + +<p>Great Britain has already secured to herself the means of access to the +Lakes by her system of Canadian canals, and the Military Committee of +the House express the opinion, that, in case of a war with that power, +"a small fleet of light-draught, heavily armed, iron-clad gunboats, +could, in one short month, in despite of any opposition that could be +made by extemporized batteries, pass up the St. Lawrence, and shell +every city and village from Ogdensburg to Chicago. At one blow it could +sweep our commerce from that entire chain of lakes. Such a fleet would +have it in its power to inflict a loss to be reckoned only by hundreds +of millions, so vast is the wealth thus exposed to the depredations of a +maritime enemy." We were saved from such a blow, a few months ago, only +by the failure of the Rebel agents in Canada to procure, either by +purchase or piracy, a swift armed steamer.</p> + +<p>Ever since the War of 1812, England has been preparing, in the event of +another<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_696" id="Page_696">[Pg 696]</a></span> war, to strike at this, our vital point. In 1814 the Duke of +Wellington declared "that a naval superiority on the Lakes is a <i>sine +qua non</i> of success in war on the frontier of Canada." Years before, +William Hall, Governor of the Northwestern Territory, made the same +declaration to our Government, and the capture of Detroit by the British +in 1812 was due to their failure to respond to his appeal for a naval +force. In 1817 the Lakes were put on a peace establishment of one gun on +each side, which was a good bargain for England, she having at that time +larger interests on the Lakes than the United States. Now ours exceed +hers in the ratio of four to one.</p> + +<p>What said the London "Times" in January, 1862, in reference to the Trent +excitement? "As soon as the St. Lawrence opens again there will be an +end of our difficulty. We can then pour into the Lakes such a fleet of +gunboats, and other craft, as will give us the complete and immediate +command of those waters. Directly the navigation is clear, we can send +up vessel after vessel without any restriction, except such as are +imposed by the size of the canals. The Americans would have no such +resource. They would have no access to the Lakes from the sea, and it is +impossible that they could construct vessels of any considerable power +in the interval that would elapse before the ice broke up. With the +opening of spring the Lakes would be ours."</p> + +<p>This is just what the English did in the War of 1812. They secured the +command of the Lakes at the beginning of the war, and kept it and that +of all the adjacent country, till Perry built a fleet on Lake Erie, with +which he wrested their supremacy from them by hard fighting. Let us not +be caught in that way a second time.</p> + +<p>There is a party in the country opposed to the enlargement of these +canals. It is represented in Congress by able men. Their principal +arguments are the following: First, that there is no military necessity +for the enlargement; that materials for building gunboats can be +accumulated at various points on the Lakes, to be used in the event of +war. Secondly, that by sending a strong force to destroy the Canadian +canals, the enemy's gunboats can be prevented from entering the Lakes. A +third argument is, that it is useless to attempt to contend with +England, the greatest naval power in the world; that we shall never have +vessels enough to afford a fleet on the coast and one on the Lakes; that +England would never allow us to equal her in that respect, and that it +would be changing the entire policy of the nation to attempt it. A +fourth argument which we have seen gravely stated against the canal +enlargements is, that the mouth of the St. Lawrence is the place to +defend the Lakes, and that, if that hole were stopped, the rats could +not enter.</p> + +<p>In reply to the first of these arguments, the above quotation from the +London "Times" shows that the British Government well know the +importance of striking the first blow, and that long before our gunboats +could be launched that blow would have been delivered.</p> + +<p>As to the second, we may be sure that the Canadian canals would be +defended with all the power and skill of England; and we know, by the +experience of the last four years, the difference between offensive and +defensive warfare, both sides being equally matched in fighting +qualities.</p> + +<p>The third argument is the same used by Jefferson and his party before +the War of 1812. He thought that to build war vessels was only to build +them for the British, as they would be sure to take them. As to changing +the policy of the nation, by increasing our navy, let us hope that it is +already changed, and forever. Its policy has heretofore been a Southern +policy, a slaveholders' policy; it has discouraged the navy, and kept it +down to the smallest possible dimensions, because a navy is essentially +a Northern institution. You cannot man a navy with slaves or mean +whites; it must have a commercial marine behind it, and that the South +never had. Our navy ought never again to be inferior<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_697" id="Page_697">[Pg 697]</a></span> in fighting +strength to that of England. In that way we shall always avoid war.</p> + +<p>As to the plan of defending the Lakes at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, +we would ask this question: If the blockade of Wilmington was a task +beyond the power of our navy, how would it be able to blockade an +estuary from fifty to a hundred miles in width?</p> + +<p>With these enlarged canals, by which gunboats and monitors could be +moved from the Atlantic and the Mississippi to the Lakes, and <i>vice +versa</i>, and by the system of shore defences recommended some years ago +by General Totten, namely, strong fortifications at Mackinaw, perfectly +commanding those straits, and serving as a refuge to war steamers, works +at the lower end of Lake Huron, at Detroit, and at the entrance of +Niagara River, these waters will be protected from all foreign enemies. +Lake Ontario will also need a system of works to protect our important +canals and railroads, which in many places approach so near the shore as +to be in danger from an enterprising enemy. It is recommended by the +Military Committee, that a naval depot should be established at Erie, as +the most safe and suitable harbor on the lake of that name.</p> + +<p>If, as is probable, a naval station and depot should be thought +necessary on the Upper Lakes, the city of Milwaukee has strong claims to +be chosen for its site. There is the best and safest harbor on Lake +Michigan, so situated as to be easily defended, in the midst of a +heavily timbered country, accessible to the iron and copper of Lake +Superior and the coal of Illinois. Milwaukee enjoys one of the cheapest +markets for food, together with a very healthy climate. Finally, she is +connected by rail with the great Western centres of population, so that +all the necessary troops for her defence could be gathered about her at +twenty-four hours' notice.</p> + +<p>It may be well here to remark, that as yet the Northwest has had little +assistance from the General Government. Large sums of money have +annually been laid out in the defences of the seaboard, both North and +South, while this immense Lake region has had the annual appropriation +of one eighteen pounder! Every small river and petty inlet on the +Southern coast, whence a bale of cotton or a barrel of turpentine could +be shipped, has had its fort; while the important post of Mackinaw, the +Gibraltar of the Lakes, is garrisoned by an invalid sergeant, who sits +solitary on its ruinous walls.</p> + +<p>The result at which we arrive is, that these canal enlargements would at +once be valuable, both as commercial and military works. They have a +national importance, in that they will assist in feeding and defending +the nation. The States interested in them have a population of ten +millions, they have seventy-one representatives in Congress, and they +have furnished fully one half the fighting-men who have gone to defend +our flag and protect our nationality in the field. How that work has +been done, let the victorious campaigns of Grant and Sherman attest. +Those great leaders are Western men, and their invincible columns, who, +from Belmont to Savannah, have, like Cromwell's Ironsides, "never met an +enemy whom they have not broken in pieces," are men of Western birth or +training.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_5" id="Footnote_E_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_E_5"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> See Nos. for February and March, 1861,—Vol. VII. pp. 226, +313.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_698" id="Page_698">[Pg 698]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="TO_CAROLINA_CORONADO" id="TO_CAROLINA_CORONADO"></a>TO CAROLINA CORONADO.</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A lily anchored by the Spanish main,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swaying and shining in the surge of youth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet holding in thy breast the gold of truth,—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Such didst thou seem above the waves of pain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And through the stormy turbulence of war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until we heard thy patriot voice afar!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now, Sister, with the burning heart of Spain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We speak to thee from this New England strand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And grasp and hold thee with a firm right hand!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For thou hast touched our people with thy word,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Only a gentle woman's word, but one<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the great work our Nation has begun.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By Liberty thy earnest soul was stirred,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And waked and urged Estremadura's men<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To pour the heroic wine of life again.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As in the dawn of Summer flits a bird<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From his low nest and springs into the air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hurrying a double concert and a prayer,—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So Liberty, with thy sweet voice allied,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Walks in thy footsteps, with her laurel strows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy footway, with thy trustful spirit glows.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Esteem her friendship with unwavering pride!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Teach thou thy children what the years have brought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wisdom and love superior to thy thought!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Once thou hast said, "All men may win her side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But women never!" Sister, do not fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Recall thy words, since Love has made truth clear.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For Love is master, and we know no other,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save self-compelling service to the right,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which is but Love in the seraphic sight.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Teach this thy sons and to each man thy brother,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A secret learned in silent joys of home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A secret whence the lights of being come.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So guided by this lamp, O wife and mother,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Turn thine eyes hither to the Western shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where red streams run and iron thunders roar!<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_699" id="Page_699">[Pg 699]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We watch the star of Freedom slowly rise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And glimmer through the changes of the time,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While errors beat their low retreating chime.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We ask for nought, we need not to be wise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We find both men and women at their post,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Equal and different in one mighty host.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Divided suffering, unity of cries,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Divided labor, unity of life,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Divided struggle, one reward for strife.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As autumn winds sweep over tossing seas<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And reach the happy shore, and fling the flowers<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lower each gorgeous head by their rude powers,—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So sweep the winds of war through quiet leas<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bend our budding treasures in the dust,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet Freedom's cause shall neither mar nor rust.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The seed shall spring where none can thirst or freeze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall bear a floweret fairer than the old,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As lilies shine before all blossoms told:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A liberty for woman in her home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bound by the only chains which give her peace,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Immortal chains which death may not release:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A liberty where Justice wide may roam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Reverence sit the chief at every feast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With Love as master, and Contempt as least:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A liberty where the oppressed may come,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The black and white, the woman and the man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And recognize themselves in Heaven's wide plan<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then while the morning odors of the sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blow from the westward and caress thy brow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Remember where thy loving sisters bow:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Perchance beneath the hand of Victory,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which leaves a tear and then a silentness,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While crowds move by forgetful of one less;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Or where a burst of gracious ecstasy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rising shall fill the eastward flitting air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with thy spirit mount the hills of prayer.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_700" id="Page_700">[Pg 700]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="REGNARD" id="REGNARD"></a>REGNARD.</h2> + + +<p>Since, in modern literature, there are so few really good comedies that +we may count them all upon our fingers, a man who has written two must +be worth knowing. We ask permission to introduce Jean François Regnard +to those who do not know him.</p> + +<p>He comes recommended by the great critic Boileau, who liked him, +quarrelled with him, and made up again. Forty years later, Voltaire +wrote that the man who did not enjoy Regnard was not capable of +appreciating Molière. Then came M. de La Harpe, the authority in such +matters for two generations: he devotes a chapter to Regnard, and calls +him the worthy successor of Molière. And Béranger, in his charming +autobiography, an epilogue worthy of the noble part he had played upon +the stage of the world, speaks of the unflagging gayety and abundant wit +of Regnard's dialogue, and of his lively and graceful style. "In my +opinion," he adds, "Regnard would be the first of modern comedians, if +Molière had not been given to us."</p> + +<p>In spite of the idle complainings into which authors are betrayed by the +pleasure human nature takes in talking about self to attentive +listeners, all who are familiar with the history of the brethren of the +quill know, that, as a class, they have had a large share of the good +things of the earth,—cheerful occupation, respected position, +comfortable subsistence, and long life. France, in particular, has been +the <i>Pays de Cocagne</i> of book-makers for the last two hundred years. +Neither praise, pay, nor rank has been wanting to those who deserved +them. But in the long line of <i>littérateurs</i> who have flourished since +Cardinal Richelieu founded the Academy, few were so fortunate as +Regnard. He entered upon his career with wealth, health, and a jovial +temperament: three supreme blessings he kept through life.</p> + +<p>He was born in Paris in 1655, three years before Molière brought his +company from the provinces to the Hôtel de Bourbon, and opened the new +theatre with the "Précieuses Ridicules." Regnard's father, a citizen of +Paris and a shopkeeper, died when his son was a lad, leaving him one +hundred and twenty thousand livres,—a fortune for a man of the middle +class at that period. Like most independent young fellows, Regnard made +use of his money to travel. He went to Italy, and spent a year in the +famous cities of the Peninsula,—but returned home with thirty thousand +additional livres in his pocket, won at play. He soon went back to the +land of pleasure and of luck. At Bologna he fell in love with a lady +from the South of France, whom he calls Elvire. The lady was married, +the husband was with her; they were travellers like himself. Regnard +joined the party, and sailed with them from Civita Vecchia in an English +ship bound for Toulon. The vessel was captured, off Nice, by a Barbary +corsair, and brought into Algiers; the crew and passengers were sold to +the highest bidder. One Achmet Talem paid fifteen hundred livres for +Regnard, and one thousand for the lady. This low price might lead us to +imagine that the Moorish taste in beauty differed from that of Regnard; +but the Algerine market may have been overstocked with women on the day +of sale. Achmet took his new chattels to Constantinople. Perceiving +Regnard's talent for <i>ragoûts</i> and sauces, he made a cook of him. What +became of Elvire history has omitted, perhaps discreetly, to relate. +After two years of toil and ill-treatment, Regnard received money from +home to buy his freedom. He paid twelve thousand livres for himself and +the fair Provençale. Achmet more than quadrupled his investment, and no +doubt thought slavery a divine institution.</p> + +<p>In Paris once more, Regnard hung his chains in his library and was +preparing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_701" id="Page_701">[Pg 701]</a></span> to lead a comfortable life with Elvire, when the superfluous +husband, whose death had been reported, most unseasonably reappeared. He +had been ransomed by the Mathurins, a religious order, who believed it +to be the duty of Christians to deliver their fellow-men from +bondage,—Abolitionists of the seventeenth century, who, strange as some +of us may think it, were honored by their countrymen and the Christian +world. Regnard yielded gracefully the right he had acquired by purchase +to the prior claim of the husband, and made preparations for another +journey. With two compatriots, De Fercourt and De Corberon, he traversed +the Low Countries and Denmark and crossed over to Stockholm. The King of +Sweden received the travellers graciously and proposed a visit to +Lapland. Furnished with the royal letters of recommendation, they sailed +up the Gulf of Bothnia to Torneo, and thence pushed north by land until +they came to Lake Tornœtrask. Eighteen miles from the lower end of +the lake they ascended a high mountain which they named Metavara, "from +the Latin word <i>meta</i> and the Finlandic word <i>vara</i>, which means rock: +that is to say, the rock of limits." "We were four hours in climbing to +the top by paths which no mortal had as yet known. When we reached it, +we perceived the whole extent of Lapland, and the Icy Ocean as far as +the North Cape, on the side it turns to the west. This may, indeed, be +called arriving at the end of the world and jostling the axle of the +pole (<i>se frotter à l'essieu du pôle</i>)." Here they set up a tablet of +stone they had brought with their luggage,—<i>monument éternel</i>, Regnard +says. "It shall make known to posterity that three Frenchmen did not +cease to travel northward until the earth failed them; that, in spite of +the difficulties they encountered, which would have turned back most +others, they reached the end of the world and planted their column; the +ground was wanting, but not the courage to press on." These sounding +verses were cut upon the eternal monument:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Gallia nos genuit; vidit nos Africa; Gangem<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hausimus, Europamque oculis lustravimus omnem;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Casibus et variis acti terrâque marique,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hic tandem stetimus, nobis ubi defuit orbis.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">De Fercourt, De Corberon, Regnard.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Anno 1681, die 22 Augusti."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"The inscription will never be read, except by the bears," Regnard adds. +A melancholy thought to the French mind! If nobody saw it or talked +about it, half the pleasure of the exploit was gone. The Frenchmen had +foreseen this difficulty, and had taken their precautions. Four days' +journey to the southward stood an ancient church, near which the Lapps +held their annual fair. In this church, in a conspicuous position, they +had already deposited the same verses, carved upon a board. In 1718, +thirty-six years after, another French traveller, La Motraye, read the +lines upon the stone tablet,—too late to gratify Regnard.</p> + +<p>"Travellers' stories,"—"<i>A beau mentir qui vient de loin</i>,"—these +proverbs date from the seventeenth century. It was not expected of such +adventurous gentlemen that they should tell the simple truth, any more +than we expect veracity from sportsmen. We listen without surprise and +disbelieve without a smile. Some exaggeration, too, was pardonable to +help out the verse; but "<i>nobis ubi defuit orbis</i>" goes beyond a +reasonable license. The mountain <i>Metavara</i> is in Lat. 68° 30'; the +North Cape in 71° 10'. There were still one hundred and fifty miles of +solid <i>orbis</i> before Regnard and his friends; and they had need of +optics sharp to see the Cape from the spot they stood upon.</p> + +<p>The 27th of September found the three Arctic explorers back again in +Stockholm. Thence they took boat for Dantzic, travelled in Poland, +Hungary, and Austria, and left Vienna for Paris a few months before the +famous siege, when Sobieski, the "man sent from God whose name was +John," routed the Turks and delivered Christendom forever from the fear +of the Ottoman arms.</p> + +<p>Before this time Regnard must have heard that Duquesne had avenged his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_702" id="Page_702">[Pg 702]</a></span> +African sufferings. In the autumn of 1681 the Huguenot Admiral shelled +Algiers from bomb-ketches, then used for the first time. The Dey was +forced to surrender. His lively conquerors treated him with the honors +of wit as well as of war. They made a <i>mot</i> for him, of the kind they +get up so cleverly in Paris. When the Turk is told how much it had cost +the great monarch of France to fit out the fleet which had just reduced +a part of his city to ashes, he exclaims, amazed at the useless +extravagance,—"For half the money I would have burned the whole town."</p> + +<p>Cervantes was a slave in Algiers a hundred years before Regnard, and no +doubt used his experience in the story of the Captive in "Don Quixote." +Regnard also worked his African materials up into a tale,—"La +Provençale,"—and varnished them with the sentimentality fashionable in +his day. Zelmis (himself) is a conquering hero; women adore him. He is +full of courage, resources, and devotion to one only,—Elvire,—who is +beautiful as a dream, and dignified as the wife of a Roman Senator. The +King of Algiers is on the quay when the captives are brought ashore. He +falls in love with Elvire on the spot, and adds her to his collection. +But his passion is respectful and pure. Aided by Zelmis, she escapes +from the harem. They are retaken and brought back; but instead of the +whipping usually bestowed upon returned runaways, the generous king, +despairing of winning Elvire's affections, gives her her liberty. In the +mean time Zelmis has had his troubles. His master has four wives, +beautiful as houris. All four cast eyes of flame upon the well-favored +infidel. Faithful to Elvire, Zelmis of course defends himself as +heroically as Joseph. The ladies revenge the slight in the same way as +the wife of Potiphar. The attractive Frenchman is condemned to +impalement, when his consul interferes with a ransom, and he is released +just in time to embark for France with Elvire.</p> + +<p>Although Regnard often alludes with pride to his travels, the sketch he +has left of them is meagre and uninteresting, and written in a harsh and +awkward style. Lapland was a <i>terra incognita</i>,—Poland, Hungary, and +Bohemia not much better known; yet this clever young Parisian has little +to relate beyond a few names, which he generally misspells or misplaces. +No descriptions of town or country or scenery; no traits of manners, +character, or customs, except a dull page on the sorcery and the funeral +ceremonies of the Lapps. The only eminent man he notices is Evelius, the +astronomer of Dantzic,—one of the foreign <i>savans</i> of distinction on +whom Louis XIV. bestowed pensions in his grand manner, omitting to pay +them after the second year. Regnard seems to have written to let his +countrymen know where he had been,—not to tell them what he had seen. +Had he made ever so good a book out of his really remarkable journey, +little notice would have been taken of it. Voyages and travels were +looked upon as a dull branch of fiction,—not nearly so amusing or +improving as cockney excursions from one town of France to another in +the neighborhood, described after the manner of Bachaumont and Chapelle: +not sentimental journeys, by any means; eating, drinking, and sleeping +are the points of interest:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Bon vin, bon gîte, bon lit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Belle hôtesse, bon appétit."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Even Regnard, who had seen so much of the world, tried his hand at this +kind of travel-writing and failed lamentably.</p> + +<p>At thirty, Regnard closed a chapter in his life, and turned over a new +leaf. He gave up wandering and gambling, the ruling passions of his +youth, and settled himself comfortably for the rest of his days. For +occupation and official position, he bought an assistant-treasurership +in the <i>Bureau des Finances</i>. His house in the Rue Richelieu became +famous for good company and good things, intellectual as well as +material. In the country his <i>Terre de Grillon</i> was planted with so much +taste that the lively persons who liked to visit there called it a +<i>Séjour enchanté</i>. In laying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_703" id="Page_703">[Pg 703]</a></span> out his grounds, his intimate, Dufresny, +was doubtless of use to him. This spendthrift poet, reputed +great-grandson of Henri Quatre and the <i>belle jardinière</i>, had great +skill in landscape gardening, admitted even by those who found his +verses tedious. He it was, probably, who introduced Regnard to the +stage. For several years they supplied the Théatre Italien with amusing +trifles,—working together in one of those literary partnerships so +common among French playwrights. The "Joueur" broke up this business +connection. Dufresny accused Regnard of having stolen the plot from him, +and brought out a "Joueur" of his own. Regnard insisted that Dufresny +was the pirate. The public decided in favor of Regnard. Dufresny's play +was hopelessly damned, and no appeal ever taken from the first sentence. +The verdict of the <i>bel-esprits</i> was recorded in an epigram, which ended +thus:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Mais quiconque aujourd'hui voit l'un et l'autre ouvrage<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dit que Regnard a l'avantage<br /></span> +<span class="i0">D'avoir été le 'bon larron.'"<a name="FNanchor_F_6" id="FNanchor_F_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_F_6" class="fnanchor">[F]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Dufresny had more wit than dramatic talent. He will live in the memories +of married men for his famous speech,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Comment, Monsieur! Vous n'y étiez pas obligé."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It was in 1696, twelve years after his return to Paris, that Regnard +sent the "Joueur," a comedy in five acts, and in verse, to the Théatre +Français. It was received with enthusiastic applause. Nothing equal to +it had appeared in twenty-four years since the death of the great +master; nor did the eighteenth century produce any comedy which can be +compared with it for action, wit, and literary finish,—not excepting +the "Turcaret" of Le Sage, and Beaumarchais's "Barber of Seville," which +are both better known to-day.</p> + +<p>Regnard sat to himself for the portrait of Valère. The wild and +fascinating excitement of play, the gambler's exultation when he is +successful, his furious curses on his bad luck when he loses, his +superstitious veneration for his winnings, are drawn from the life. When +Fortune smiles, Valère neglects Angélique, his rich <i>fiancée</i>; when he +is penniless, his love revives, and he is at her feet until his valet +devises some new plan of raising money. He swears, if she will forgive +him, never again to touch dice or cards, and five minutes afterward +pledges for a thousand crowns a miniature set in diamonds she has just +given him to bind their reconciliation, and hurries back to the +gaming-table. He wins, but thinks his gains too sacred to pay away, even +to redeem the portrait of Angélique.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Rien ne porte malheur comme de payer ses dettes,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>is his answer to the prudent Hector,—a maxim current among many who +never play. At last comes a reverse of fortune so sweeping that he +cannot conceal it. Angélique might have forgiven him his broken +promises, but the pawnbroker enters with her picture and demands the +thousand crowns. This is too much. She rejects him and gives her hand to +his rival. His indignant father casts him off forever. But no feeling of +regret or of repentance arises in the mind of the gambler. He turns +coolly upon his heel, and calls to his valet,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Va! va! consolons-nous, Hector,—et quelque jour<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Le Jeu m'acquittera des pertes de l'amour."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Richard is the name of this prince of rascally and quick-witted valets; +but he calls himself Hector, after the knave of spades, because he +serves a gambler. He has good sense as well as ingenuity; for he gives +his master the best advice, while he strains his invention and his +impudence to help him on to destruction. Nérine, maid to Angélique, +declares open war against Valère, and vows that her mistress shall not +throw herself away upon a silly dandy, an insipid puppet, with nothing +to recommend him but his fine clothes and his swagger.</p> + +<p>"True enough," laughs Hector, "but</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"C'est le goút d'à présent; tes cris sont superflus,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mon enfant."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"And Valère is a spendthrift, an inveterate gambler, who will bring her +to misery and want."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_704" id="Page_704">[Pg 704]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What of that?</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">"Tant que tu voudras, parle, prêche, tempête,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ta maîtresse est coiffée,...<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Elle est dans nos filets."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"And such an outrageous <i>roué</i> that he cannot live in his father's +house."</p> + +<p>"We do not deny it," Hector answers. "It is no fault of ours.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Valère a déserté la maison paternelle,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mais ce n'est point à lui qu'il faut faire querelle;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Et si Monsieur son père avait voulu sortir,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nous y serions encore;...<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ces pères, bien souvent, sont obstinés en diable."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Nevertheless, the obdurate parent, in the hope of reforming his son, and +of providing for him by the excellent match with Angélique, hunts up the +prodigal and lectures him after the manner of fathers. Hector joins in, +and expresses strongly his disapprobation of games of chance; "<i>les jeux +innocents, où l'esprit se déploie</i>," are the only safe pastime.</p> + +<p>"But will our father pay our debts this time?"</p> + +<p>"Not a crown."</p> + +<p>"Will he lend us the money at one per cent a month? Once out of this +pecuniary strait, we can marry Angélique, and be rich and virtuous. +Besides, we have assets as well as debts: here is our schedule."</p> + +<p>The elder softens a little and takes the paper. At the head of the list +of debts he finds Hector's bill for wages and services rendered, leading +off a long file of Aarons and Levys; and the assets consist of a debt of +honor owing by an officer killed at the Battle of Fleurus, and the +good-will of a match at <i>tric-trac</i> with a poor player who had already +lost games enough to make his defeat certain.</p> + +<p>The action of the comedy does not lag or limp from the opening scene to +Valère's last words. The versification is easy and natural; the dialogue +abounds in wit and comic humor; it is short and quick, with none of +those tedious declamations which weary and unsettle the attention of an +audience. Take it all in all, we may say, that, if Molière had chosen +the same subject, he could hardly have handled it better.</p> + +<p>Not that Regnard can pretend to rank with Molière in genius, or even +near him. The "Gambler" is admirably done; but it is the only comedy in +which Regnard attempted character. He drew from his experience. Molière +was so skilful a moral anatomist that he required only a whim or a +weakness to construct a consistent character. This wonderful man found +the French comic stage occupied by a few stock personages, imported from +Spain and Italy. The elders were fathers or uncles, rich, miserly, and +perverse, instinctively disposed to keep a tight rein on the young +people, of whose personal expenses and matrimonial projects they +invariably disapproved. The persecuted juniors were all alike, colorless +shadows, mere lay figures to hang a plot on: <i>Léandre, amant de +Célimène; Célimène amante de Léandre</i>: helpless creatures, who would +have been quite at the mercy of the old dragons of the story, were it +not for the powerful assistance of the rascally soubrettes. These clever +sinners abounded in cunning contrivances, disguises, and tricks, which +resulted in the signal discomfiture of the parents and guardians. In the +last act, they are forced to consent to all the marriages, and are +cheated out of most of their property; they are even lucky to escape +with their lives. There was no mercy for Age in those plays.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Pluck the lined crutch from the old limping sire;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With it beat out his brains."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The theatre was the temple of youth, of love, and of feasting. Away with +the dull old people! Providence created them only to pay the bills.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">"Fuyez d'ici, sombre vieillesse,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Car en amour les vieillards ne sont bons<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Qu'à payer les violons."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Did gentlemen of a certain age go to the theatre in the seventeenth +century? expend their money to see themselves abused and ridiculed? Did +they laugh at these indignities and enjoy them? We might wonder, if we +did not know that Frenchmen never grow old, so long as they have an eye +left for ogling or a leg to caper with.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_705" id="Page_705">[Pg 705]</a></span></p> + +<p>Molière took these old inhabitants of the stage into his service, and +injected new life into their veins. He gave them the foibles, the +follies, and the vices he saw about him, and made them speak in a new +language of unrivalled wit, humor, and mirth. But his genius was +shackled by the artificial conventions of the theatre, which did not +allow him time or space to fully develop a character. A grand comic +creation like Falstaff was impossible. He introduces a single propensity +of mankind, exhibits it in all its relations to society, shows it to us +on every side; but it remains only a trait of character, although we see +it in half a dozen different lights. Tartuffe is the one exception; in +him, hypocrisy hides covetousness and lust; and Tartuffe is Molière's +masterpiece. But in most of his comedies he displays rather a knowledge +of the world than a knowledge of human nature. In his walk he has no +equal at home or abroad; but his walk is not the highest. We feel that +something is wanting, and yet we can hardly extol him too highly. He +brought comedy into close relation with every-day life; he is the father +of the modern French stage, which has gradually cast off the old +conventional personages. The French dramatists of to-day are not men of +genius like Molière, but, in their airy, sparkling plays, they represent +the freaks, follies, and fancies of society so exquisitely that nothing +remains to be desired. They furnish the model and the materials for the +theatre of all other nations.</p> + +<p>When Regnard came before the public, the stage remained as Molière had +left it The only new personage was the Marquis, first introduced in the +"Mère Coquette," by Quinault, the sweet and smooth writer of operas,—of +whom it was said, that he had boned (<i>désossé</i>) the French language. The +Marquis is the ancestor of our Fop,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Loose in morals and in manners vain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In conversation frivolous, in dress extreme,"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>who in turn has become antiquated and tiresome. Regnard's only original +character is the Gambler; in his other comedies he made use of the old, +familiar masks, and won success by his keen sense of the ridiculous, his +wit, and his unceasing jollity and fun. His Crispins and Scapins are +perfect. What impudent, worthless, amusing rogues! To keep inside of the +law is their only rule of right. "Honesty is a fool, and Trust, his +sworn brother, a very simple gentleman." They came of an ancient race, +these Crispins and Scapins, that had flourished in Italy and in Spain +since Plautus and Terence brought them over from Greece. They found +their way to France, and even reached England in their migration, +following in the train of Charles II. when he returned from exile, and +during a short life on that side of the Channel added drunkenness and +brutality to their gayer vices. The character was true to Nature in +Athens or in Rome, where men of talent might often be bound to devote +their brains to the service of those who owned their bodies, and by +their condition as slaves were released from all obligations of honor or +of honesty. In the seventeenth century it might pass in France; for the +line between gentle and simple was so sharply drawn that ladies of rank +saw no greater impropriety in disrobing before their footmen than before +their dogs. But the progress of liberty or of <i>égalité</i> blotted out the +valets of comedy. Even in Regnard's time the inconsistencies of the +character were noticed. Jasmin, in the "Sérénade," utters revolutionary +doctrine:—"How can an honorable valet devote himself to the interests +of a penniless master? We grow tricky in waiting upon such fellows. They +scold us; sometimes they beat us. We have more wit than they. We support +them; we are obliged to invent, for their benefit, all sorts of knavery, +in which they are always ready to take a share; and, withal, they are +the masters, and we the servants. It is not just. Hereafter I mean to +scheme for myself, and become a master in my turn."</p> + +<p>Scapin has joined his brother pagans beyond the Styx; but Lisette blooms +in evergreen youth. This young French<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_706" id="Page_706">[Pg 706]</a></span> person's theory of woman's rights +is different from the one which obtains in New England; nor does she +trouble herself at all to seek for woman's mission. She found it years +ago. It is to deceive a man. She is satisfied with her condition, and +with the old mental and moral attributes of her sex. When Crispin +disguises himself in her clothes, he exclaims,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"L'addresse et l'artifice ont passé dans mon cœur;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Qu'on a sous cet habit et d'esprit et de ruse—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rien n'est si trompeur qu'animal porte-jupe."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>This animal is as clever and as cunning in Paris to-day as when Crispin +felt the inspiration of the petticoats.</p> + +<p>In 1708, after another period of twelve years, "Le Légataire Universel" +was played at the same theatre. In this piece the author relied entirely +upon the <i>vis comica</i> of his plot and dialogue. Géronte, a rich, miserly +old bachelor, with as many ailments as years,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Vieux et cassé, fiévreux, épileptique,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Paralytique, étique, asthmatique, hydropique,"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>has for a nephew Ergaste, with well-grounded hopes of inheriting, and +that shortly. These are suddenly dashed by the announcement that his +uncle has resolved to marry Isabelle, a girl to whom Ergaste himself is +attached. The nephew keeps his own secret, and judiciously commends the +choice of his uncle. Géronte is delighted with him; even asks his advice +about a present for the damsel,—something pretty, but cheap.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Je voudrais inventer quelque petit cadeau<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Qui coutât peu, mais qui parût nouveau."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Meeting with no opposition, the old gentleman gradually loses his relish +for matrimony; and Madame Argante, the mother, promises Ergaste to give +Isabelle to him, instead of to his uncle, provided Géronte will declare +his nephew heir to his estate. Unluckily, there are two other +collaterals, country cousins, whom Géronte has never seen, but whom he +wishes to remember. Crispin, valet to Ergaste, assisted by Lisette, the +old man's housekeeper and nurse, personifies first the male and then the +female relative from the rural districts so well that Géronte orders +them out of his house in disgust, swears that he will not leave them a +sous, and sends for a notary to draw his will in favor of Ergaste. But +the excitement of the last interview with Crispin, as a widow, is too +much for his strength. He becomes unconscious, and apparently breathes +his last just as the notary knocks at the door. In this moment of +agonizing disappointment, the indomitable Crispin comes to the rescue. +He puts on the dressing-gown and cap of Géronte, reclines in his +easy-chair, counterfeits his voice, and dictates a will to the notary. +Firstly, he bequeaths to Lisette two thousand crowns, on condition that +she marry Crispin; secondly, he leaves to Crispin an annuity of fifteen +hundred crowns, to reward his devotion to his master; the rest of the +estate, real and personal, to go to Ergaste. The residuary legatee +remonstrates warmly with the testator against his foolish generosity to +Crispin and Lisette; but the sham Géronte insists, and Ergaste is +obliged to submit. The notary withdraws to make the necessary copies of +the will, and the plotters are chuckling over the success of their +plans, when, to their dismay, Géronte enters, alive. He tells them that +he feels his strength departing, and bids them send at once for the +notary to settle his worldly affairs. The notary, who is ignorant of any +deceit, assures him that he has made his will already, and shows him the +document. The conspirators seize the chance of escape, confirm the +notary's story, and relate all the circumstances of the conference, +Géronte protests that he recollects nothing of it; he feels certain he +could not have given more than twenty crowns to Lisette; as to Crispin, +he had never heard of him. The answer is always, "<i>C'est votre +léthargie</i>." While perplexed and hesitating, the old man discovers that +a large sum in notes has been abstracted from his hoard. Ergaste had +secured them as an alleviation in case of the worst, and had placed them +in the hands of Isabelle. She promises to return them, if Géronte will +make Ergaste his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_707" id="Page_707">[Pg 707]</a></span> heir and her husband. In his anxiety for his money, +Géronte consents to everything, and allows the will to stand.</p> + +<p>Nothing, La Harpe tells us, ever made a French audience laugh so +heartily as the scene of the will. Falbaire, one of the <i>poètes +négligés</i> of the eighteenth century, says, in a note to his drama, "The +Monks of Japan," that the Jesuits furnished Regnard with the idea of +this scene. In 1626, the reverend fathers, by precisely the same +stratagem employed by Crispin, obtained possession of the estate of a M. +d'Ancier of Bésançon, who died suddenly and intestate. It is proper to +add that M. Falbaire's drama was written against the Jesuits.</p> + +<p>There are two other plays, out of some twenty that Regnard published, +which will repay a reader: "Les Menéchmes," imitated from Plautus, like +Shakspeare's Dromios, and "Démocrite,"<a name="FNanchor_G_7" id="FNanchor_G_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_G_7" class="fnanchor">[G]</a> which reminds one a little of +Molière's "Amphitryon." Both are distinguished for that perpetual +gayety, the most pleasing of all qualities, which is the characteristic +of their author. It seems impossible for him to be dull; he never nods; +his bow, such as it is, is always strung. It is remarkable that his +comic scenes, although crammed with fun, never run down into farce; nor +does he find it necessary to eke out his wit with buffoonery. He had an +instinctive taste which preserved him from coarseness; although he wrote +a century and a half ago, there is less of the low and indelicate than +in the plays we see posted at the doors of our theatres. The French of +the time of Louis XIV. must have been a much more refined people than +the contemporary English. At least, Thalia in Paris was a vestal, +compared with her tawdry, indecent, and drunken London sister. One is +ashamed to be seen reading the unblushing profligacy of Wycherley, +Cibber, Vanbrugh, and Congreve.</p> + +<p>We must admit that Regnard's mantle of decorum is not without a rent. In +the "Légataire," as in the "Malade Imaginaire," may be found a good deal +of pleasantry on the first of the three principal remedies of the +physicians of the period, as mentioned by Molière in his burlesque +Latin:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Clysterium donare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Postea purgare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ensuita seignare."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It seems to have been a good joke in France then; it is so +now,—wonderfully fresh and new,—defying time and endless repetition. +American eyes do not see much fun in it; they rather turn away in +disgust. But on the risible organs of the French purgative medicines +operate violently; and the favorite weapon of their medical service, +primitive in shape and exaggerated in dimensions, is a property +indispensable to every theatre. Regnard used it as a part of the stage +machinery,—worked it in as a stock pleasantry, the effect of which was +certain. Were he writing now, he would do the same thing. But in the +"Joueur" nobody is ill; it may be read by that typical creature, the +"most virtuous female," publicly and without a blush.</p> + +<p>Gentlemen and ladies whose morals are not fully fledged are generally +advised to beware of attempting to skim over the fiction of modern +France. They may take up Regnard without risking a fall; for there is +little danger of being led astray by the picaresque knaveries of Scapin +and Lisette. In 1700 love for another man's wife had not come to be +considered one of the fine arts. Nowadays the victims of this kind of +misplaced affection are the heroes of French novels and plays. The +husband, odious and tiresome <i>ex officio</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_708" id="Page_708">[Pg 708]</a></span> has succeeded to the miserly +father or tyrannical guardian. He is the giant of French romance, who +keeps the lovely and uneasy lady locked up in Castle Matrimony. He +cannot help himself, poor fellow!—he is compelled to fill that +unenviable position, whenever Madame chooses. Sentimental young Arthurs +and Ernests stand in the place of Ergaste and Cléante, and are always +ready to make war upon the unlucky giant. They overcome him as of old, +scale the walls, and carry off the capricious fair one. We have hardly +changed for the better. Ergaste and Cléante were not sentimental, but +they were marrying men and broke no commandments.</p> + +<p>Regnard's life of fifty years covers the whole of the literary age of +Louis XIV. Before 1660 the French had no literature worth preserving, +except Rabelais, Montaigne, a few odes of Malherbe, a page or two of +Marot, and the tragedies of Corneille. Pascal published the "Provincial +Letters" in the year of Regnard's birth. La Fontaine had written a few +indifferent verses; Molière was almost unknown. In 1686, when Regnard +became an author, the Voitures, Balzacs, and Benserades, the men of +fantastic conceits, the vanguard of the grand army of French wits, had +marched away to Pluto and to Lethe. One or two stragglers, like Ménage +and Chapelle, lingered to wonder at the complete change of taste. The +age had ripened fast. Not many years before, Barbin the bookseller +ordered his hacks to <i>faire du St. Évremond</i>. St. Évremond was still +living in England, dirty and witty; and Barbin still kept his shop, but +gave no more orders for wares of that description. Many of the greatest +names of the era were already carved on tombs: La Rochefoucauld, Pascal, +Corneille, Molière. Bossuet was a man of sixty; La Fontaine a few years +older; Boileau and Racine close upon fifty. When Regnard died, in 1710, +the eighteenth century had begun. Fontenelle, Le Sage, Bayle, men of +nearly the same age as himself, belong to it.</p> + +<p>In 1686 King Louis had reached the full meridian of his <i>Gloire</i>, +<i>Grandeur</i>, <i>Éclat</i>. No monarch in Europe was so powerful. He had +conquered Flanders, driven the Dutch under water, seized Franche-Comté, +annexed Lorraine, ravaged the Palatinate, bombarded Algiers and Genoa, +and by a skilful disregard of treaties and of his royal word kept his +neighbors at swords' points until he was ready to destroy them. The +Emperor was afraid of him, Philip of Spain his most humble servant, +Charles II. in his pay. He had bullied the Pope, and brought the Doge of +Genoa to Paris to ask pardon for selling powder to the Algerines and +ships to Spain. He was <i>Louis le Grand, le roi vraiment roi, le +demi-dieu qui nous gouverne, Deodatus, Sol nec pluribus impar</i>. Regnard +witnessed the cloudy setting of this splendid luminary. After the secret +marriage with Mme. de Maintenon, in 1686, Fortune deserted the King. He +was everywhere defeated, or his victories were Cadmean, as disastrous as +defeats. The fleet that was to replace James II. on his throne was +destroyed at La Hogue by Russell. The Camisards defied for years the +army sent against them. Rooke took Gibraltar. Peterborough defeated the +Bourbon forces in Spain. Blenheim, Oudenarde, Ramillies, Malplaquet, +brought ruin upon France before Regnard was withdrawn from the scene.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the Eighteenth Century, with its godlessness and its +debauchery, was born. Hypocrisy watched over its infancy. When Louis +reformed, and took a pious elderly second wife, it was the fashion to be +religious; and whoever wished to stand well at court followed the +fashion. "You who live in France have wonderful advantages for saving +your souls," wrote St. Évremond from London. "Vice is quite out of date +with you. It is in bad taste to sin,—as offensive to good manners as to +morality. And those of you who might be forgetful of their hereafter are +led to salvation by a becoming deference to the habits and observances +of well-bred people." The monarch himself was utterly ignorant in +matters of religion; the Duchess of Orleans wrote to her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_709" id="Page_709">[Pg 709]</a></span> German +friends, that he had never even read the Bible. He was shocked to hear +that Christ had demeaned himself to speak the language of the poor and +the humble. "<i>Il avait la foi du charbonnier</i>," Cardinal Fleury +said,—the blind, unreasoning faith of the African in his fetich. He +considered it due to <i>gloire</i> to assist Divine Providence in its +government of the souls of men. Was he not the greatest prince of the +earth, the eldest son of the Church, standing nearer to the throne of +grace than any insignificant pope? Of course he was responsible for the +orthodoxy of his subjects, a <i>demi-dieu qui nous gouverne</i>. He came to +think religion a part of his royal prerogative, and misbelief treason +against his royal person. He was quite capable of going a step beyond +Cardinal Wolsey, and of writing, "<i>Ego et Deus meus</i>." He said to a +prelate whose management of some ecclesiastical business particularly +gratified him,—"<i>J'ignore si Dieu vous tiendra compte de la conduite +que vous avez tenue; mais quant à moi, je vous assure que je ne +l'oublierai jamais</i>." The spiritual powers are never backward in taking +advantage of favorable circumstances: Huguenots, Jansenists, and +Quietists were sternly put down, and the girdle of superstition +tightened until it began to crack. The skeptics were quiet,—asked but +few questions,—pretended to be satisfied with the time-honored answers +Mother Church keeps for her uneasy children,—and seemed to be busy with +the "Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes," and the "Dispute sur les +Cérémonies Chinoises." It was not yet the time for them to announce +pompously their radical theories as new and true. A thin varnish of +decorum and orthodoxy overspread everything; but one may see the shadow +of the coming <i>Régence</i> in Regnard's works. He and gentlemen like him +went to mass in the morning, and to pleasure for the rest of the day and +night.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Ils sont chrétiens à la messe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ils sont païens à l'opéra."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Regnard was almost as much of a pagan as his favorite Horace,—called +for wines, roses, and perfumes, and sang his Lydia and his Lalage almost +in the same words. His creed and his philosophy were pagan. He adored +three goddesses,—<i>la Comédie</i>, <i>la Musique</i>, <i>la bonne Chère</i>; his +solution of the problem of life was enjoyment.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Fair tout ce qu'on veut, vivre exempt de chagrin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ne se rien refuser,—Voilà tout mon systême,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Et de mes jours ainsi j'attraperai la fin."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Wisdom was given to man to temper pleasure,—to avoid excess, which +destroys pleasure. Regnard had agreeable recollections of the past; the +present satisfied him; he was as careless of the unknown future as De +Retz, whose <i>épouvantable tranquillité</i>, appalling ease of mind on that +point, so shocked poor Mme. de Sévigné. All other speculations he put +quietly aside with a doubt or a <i>cui bono</i>. It was a witty and refined +selfishness, and nothing beyond. Spiritual light, faith, none; hope that +to-morrow might pass as smoothly as to-day; love, only that particular +affection which man feels for his female fellow-creature. Such a +heathenish frame of mind will find little favor in this era of +yearnings, seekings, teachings. It was, indeed, a lamentable condition +of moral darkness; but the error, though grievous, has its attractive +side.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">"On court après la vérité;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah! croyez moi, l'erreur a son mérite."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It is a relief in these dyspeptic times to turn back to Regnard, the +big, rosy, and jolly pagan, enjoying to the utmost the four blessings +invoked upon the head of Argan by the chorus of Doctors:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Salus, honor et argentum.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Arque bonum appetitum."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Comfortable, contented with himself and with the world, he was free from +the sadness, the misgivings, and the enervating doubts which overrun so +many morbid minds,—symptoms of moral weakness, and of the want of +healthy occupation. Hence lady poets, more than all others, love to +indulge in these feeble repinings, and take the privilege of their sex +to shed tears on paper.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_710" id="Page_710">[Pg 710]</a></span> In his bachelor establishment, Rue de +Richelieu, there was, he tells us,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Grande chere, vin délicieux,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Belle maison, liberté toute entière,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bals, concerts, enfin tout ce qui peut satisfaire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Le goût, les oreilles, les yeux."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The <i>Société choisie</i> was numerous; for a good cook never fails to make +friends for his master, and Regnard's cook dealt with fat capons, +plover, and ortolans. His lettuce, mushrooms, and artichokes were grown +under his own eyes. The choice vintages of France, in casks, lay in his +cellar. He gave wine to nourish wit, not to furnish an opportunity for +ostentatious gabble about age and price. How he revels in the +description of good cheer! There rises from his pages <i>fumet</i> of game +and the <i>bouquet d'un vin exquis</i>.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Et des perdrix! Morbleu! d'un fumet admirable<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sentez plutôt, Quel baume! Mon Dieu!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Why are American authors so commonly wan and gaunt, with none of the +external marks of healthy gayety? Is it the climate, or the lack of +out-door exercise, or hot-air furnaces, or rascally cooks? They look as +if, like Burns's man, they "were made to mourn." If they conceive a +joke, their sad, sharp voices and angular gesticulations make it +miscarry. Now and then they rebel against their constitutions, poor +fellows, and try to imitate the jovial ancestors they have read of; +babble shrilly of <i>noctes cœnæque Deûm, petits soupers</i>, and what +not. It is mostly idle talk. They know too well that digestion does not +wait upon appetite in the evening,—and that they will feel better for +the next week, if they restrict their debauch to dandelion coffee and +Graham bread. Moreover, the age of conviviality is gone, as much as the +age of chivalry. <i>Petits soupers</i> are impossible in this part of the +world. Let us manfully confess one reason: they cost too much. And we +have not the wit, nor the wicked women, nor the same jolly paganism. +Juno Lucina reigns here in the stead of Venus; and Bacchus is two +dollars a bottle.</p> + +<p>But these and other good things Regnard had in abundance, and so lived +smoothly and happily on, defying time,—for he held, with Mme. de +Thianges, "<i>On ne viellit point à table</i>" until one day he overheated +himself in shooting, drank abundantly of cold water, and fell +dead,—Euthanasia. He died a bachelor, and, if we may judge from many of +his verses, seems, like Thackeray, to have wondered why Frenchmen ever +married. But he had a keen eye for "the fair defect of Nature." +Strabon's description of young Criseïs before her glass could have been +written only by an amateur:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Je la voyais tantôt devant une toilette<br /></span> +<span class="i0">D'une <i>mouche assasine irriter ses attraits</i>."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Neither Molière, Regnard, nor Le Sage was a member of the Academy.</p> + +<p>Béranger thinks it remarkable that the <i>improvisations folles et +charmantes</i> of Regnard should now be neglected in France. We do not +recollect to have met with him even in the "Causeries" of Ste. Beuve, +who has ransacked the French Temple of Fame from garret to cellar for +<i>feuilleton</i> materials; yet the "Légataire" kept a foothold on the stage +for a hundred and twenty years. But the Temple of Fame is overcrowded. +Every day some worthy fellow is turned out to make room for a new-comer. +Our libraries are not large enough to hold the mob of authors who press +in. What with newspapers, magazines, and the last new novel, few persons +have time to read more than the titles on the backs of their books. They +are familiar with the great names, take their excellence on trust, and +allow them to stand neglected and dusty on their shelves. But with +another generation the great names will become mere shadows of a name; +and so on to oblivion. Father Time has a good taste in literature, it is +true. He mows down with his critical scythe the tares which spring up in +such daily abundance; but, unfortunately, he cannot stop there: after a +lapse of years, he sweeps away also the fruit of the good seed to make +room for the productions of his younger children.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"For he's their parent and he is their grave."<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_711" id="Page_711">[Pg 711]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>The doom is universal; it cannot be avoided. There must be an end to all +temporal things, and why not to books? The same endless night awaits a +Plato and a penny-a-liner. Our Eternities of Fame, like all else +appertaining to humanity, will some day pass away. Even Milton and +Shakspeare, our great staple international poets, who have been brought +out whenever the American ambassador to England dined in public, are +travelling the same downward path. How many of us, man or woman, on the +sunny side of thirty, have gone through the "Paradise Lost"? And +Shakspeare, in spite of new editions and of new commentators, is not +half as much read as fifty years since. Perhaps the time will come when +English speaking people will not know to whom they owe so many of the +proverbs, metaphors, and eloquent words which enrich their daily talk.</p> + +<p>Will none escape this inexorable fate? Homer and Robinson Crusoe seem to +us to have the most tenacity of life.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_F_6" id="Footnote_F_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_F_6"><span class="label">[F]</span></a> The proverbial French expression for the thief who rebuked +his reviling comrade at the crucifixion.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_G_7" id="Footnote_G_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_G_7"><span class="label">[G]</span></a> Démocrite, in an attack upon a heavy diner-out, says,— +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Il creuse son tombeau sans cesse avec ses dents,"—<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +and thus anticipates Sir Astley Cooper by many years. It is lucky that +these fellows, who took a mean advantage of seniority to get off our +good things before us, have perished, or they might give us trouble. At +least two Frenchmen could claim "the glorious Epicurean paradox" of one +of the seven wise men of Boston, "Give us the luxuries of life, and we +will dispense with its necessaries,"—M. de Voltaire, and M. de +Coulanges, a generation earlier. These "flashing moments" of the wise in +Boston, as in other great places, are often, like heat-lightning, +reflections of a previous flash.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="JOHN_BROWNS_RAID" id="JOHN_BROWNS_RAID"></a>JOHN BROWN'S RAID:</h2> + +<h3>HOW I GOT INTO IT, AND HOW I GOT OUT OF IT.</h3> + + +<p>It was a wet Monday in October, on my return from a journey, with a +large party of friends and acquaintances, as far north as Chicago and as +far south as St. Louis and the Iron Mountain. We were gradually nearing +home, and the fun and jollity grew apace as we got closer to the end of +our holiday and to the beginning of our every-day work. Our day's ride +was intended to be from Cumberland (on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad) +to Baltimore. The murky drizzle made our comfortable car all the more +cozy, and the picturesque glories of that part of Western Virginia, +through which we had come very leisurely and enjoyably, were heightened +by the contrast of the dull cloud that hung over the valley of the +Potomac. At Martinsburg the train was stopped for an unusually long +time; and in spite of close questioning, we were obliged to satisfy our +curiosity with a confused story of an outbreak and a strike among the +workmen at the armory, with a consequent detention of trains, at +Harper's Ferry. The train pushed on slowly, and at last came to a dead +halt at a station called The Old Furnace. There a squad of half a dozen +lazy Virginia farmers—we should call them a picket just now, in our day +of military experiences—told us half a dozen stories about the troubles +ahead, and finally the people in charge of our train determined to send +it back to wait for further news from below. A young engineer who was +employed on the railroad was directed to go along the track to examine +it, and see what, if any, damage had been done. As I had brushed up an +acquaintance with him, I volunteered to accompany him, and then was +joined by a young Englishman, a Guardsman on his travels, one of the +Welsh Wynns, just returning from a shooting-tour over the Prairies. We +started off in the rain and mud, and kept together till we came to a +bridle-path crossing the railroad and climbing up the hills. Here we met +a country doctor, who offered to guide us to Bolivar, whence we could +come down to the Ferry, and as the trains would be detained there for +several hours, there would be time enough to see all the armory +workshops and wonders. So off we started up the muddy hillside, leaving +our engineer to his task on the railroad; for what pedestrian would not +prefer the worst dirt road to the best railroad for an hour's walking? +Our Englishman was ailing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_712" id="Page_712">[Pg 712]</a></span> and really unwell, and half-way up the rough +hill left us to return to the easy comfort of the train.</p> + +<p>My guide—Dr. Marmion was the name he gave in exchange for mine—said +that the row at the Ferry was nothing but a riotous demonstration by the +workmen. He came from quite a distance, and, hearing these vague +reports, had turned off to visit his patients in this quarter, so that +he might learn the real facts; and as it was then only a little past +nine, he had time to do his morning's work in Bolivar. So there we +parted, he agreeing to join me again at the Ferry; and he did so later +in the day.</p> + +<p>Turning to the left on the main pike, I found little knots of lounging +villagers gathered in the rain and mud, spitting, swearing, and +discussing the news from the Ferry. Few of them had been there, and none +of them agreed in their account of the troubles; so I plodded on over +the hill and down the sharp slope that led to the Ferry. Just as I began +the descent, a person rode up on horseback, gun in hand, and as we came +in sight of the armory, he told me the true story,—that a band of men +were gathered together to set the slaves free, and that, after starting +the outbreak on the night before, they had taken refuge down below. He +pointed with his gun, and we were standing side by side, when a sudden +flash and a sharp report and a bullet stopped his story and his life.</p> + +<p>The few people above us looked down from behind the shelter of houses +and fences;—from below not a soul was visible in the streets and alleys +of Harper's Ferry, and only a few persons could be seen moving about the +buildings in the armory inclosure. In a minute, some of the townspeople, +holding out a white handkerchief, came down to the fallen man, and, +quite undisturbed, carried him up the hill and to the nearest +house,—all with hardly a question or a word of explanation. Shocked by +what was then rare enough to be appalling,—sudden and violent death by +fire-arms in the hands of concealed men,—I started off again, meaning +to go down to the Ferry, with some vague notion of being a peace-maker, +and at least of satisfying my curiosity as to the meaning of all these +mysteries: for while I saw that that fatal rifle-shot meant destruction, +I had no conception of a plot.</p> + +<p>Just as I reached the point where I had joined the poor man who had +fallen,—it was a Mr. Turner, formerly a captain in the army, and a +person deservedly held in high esteem by all his friends and +neighbors,—a knot of two or three armed men stopped me, and after a +short parley directed me to some one in authority, who would hear my +story. The guard who escorted me to the great man was garrulous and kind +enough to tell me more in detail the story, now familiar to all of us, +of the capture of Mr. Lewis Washington and other persons of note in the +Sunday night raid of a body of unknown men. The dread of something yet +to come, with which the people were manifestly possessed, was such as +only those can know who have lived in a Slave State; and while there was +plenty of talk of the steadiness of the slaves near the Ferry, it was +plain that that was the magazine that was momentarily in danger of going +off and carrying them all along with it.</p> + +<p>The officers of the neighboring militia had gathered together in the +main tavern of the place, without waiting for their men, but not +unmindful of the impressive effect of full uniform, and half a dozen +kinds of military toggery were displayed on the half-dozen persons +convened in a sort of drum-head court-martial. I was not the only +prisoner, and had an opportunity to hear the recitals of my fellows in +luck. First and foremost of all was a huge, swaggering, black-bearded, +gold-chain and scarlet-velvet-waistcoated, piratical-looking fellow, who +announced himself as a Border Ruffian, of Virginia stock, and now +visiting his relations near the Ferry; but he said that he had fought +with the Southern Rights party in the Kansas war, and that when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_713" id="Page_713">[Pg 713]</a></span> he +heard of the "raid," as he familiarly called the then unfamiliar feat of +the Sunday night just past, he knew who was at the top and bottom of it, +and he described in a truthful sort of way the man whose name and +features were alike unknown to all his listeners,—"Ossawatomie Brown," +"Old John Brown." Garnishing the story of their earlier contests with +plentiful oaths, he gave us a lively picture of their personal +hand-to-hand rights in the West, and said that he had come to help fight +his old friend and enemy, and to fight him fair, just as they did in +"M'souri." He wanted ten or a dozen men to arm themselves to the teeth, +and he'd lead 'em straight on. His indignation at his arrest and at the +evident incredulity of his hearers and judges was not a whit less hearty +and genuine than his curses on their cowardice in postponing any attack +or risk of fighting until the arrival of militia, or soldiers, or help +of some kind, in strength to overpower the little band in the armory, to +make resistance useless, and an attack, if that was necessary, safe +enough to secure some valiant man to lead it on.</p> + +<p>My story was soon told, I was a traveller; my train had been stopped; I +had started off on foot, meaning to walk over the hill to the Ferry, and +expecting there to meet the train to go on to Baltimore. The +interruptions were plentiful, and the talk blatant. I showed a ticket, a +memorandum-book giving the dates and distances of my recent journey, and +a novel (I think it was one of Balzac's) in French, and on it was +written in pencil my name and address. That was the key-note of plenty +of suspicion. How could they believe any man from a Northern city +innocent of a knowledge of the plot now bursting about their ears? Would +not my travelling-companions from the same latitude be ready to help +free the slaves? and if I was set at liberty, would it not be only too +easy to communicate between the little host already beleaguered in the +armory engine-house and the mythical great host that was gathered in the +North and ready to pour itself over the South? Of course all this, the +staple of their every-day discussions, was strange enough to my ears; +and I listened in a sort of silent wonderment that men could talk such +balderdash. Any serious project of a great Northern movement on behalf +of Southern slaves was then as far from credible and as strange to my +ears as it was possible to be. It seemed hardly worth while to answer +their suggestions; I therefore spoke of neighbors of theirs who were +friends of mine, and of other prominent persons in this and other parts +of Virginia who were acquaintances, and for a little time I hoped to be +allowed to go free; but after more loud talk and a squabble that marked +by its growing violence the growing drunkenness of the whole party, +court and guard and spectators all, I was ordered along with the other +prisoners to be held in custody for the present. We were marched off, +first to one house and then to another, looking for a convenient prison, +and finally found one in a shop. Here—it was a country store—we sat +and smoked and drank and chatted with our guard and with their friends +inside and out. Now and then a volley was fired in the streets of the +village below us, and we would all go to a line fence where we could see +its effects: generally it was only riotous noise, but occasionally it +was directed against the engine-house or on some one moving through the +armory-yard.</p> + +<p>As the militia in and out of uniform, and the men from far and near, +armed in all sorts of ways, began to come into the village in squads, +their strength seemed to give them increased confidence, and especially +in the perfectly safe place where I sat with half a dozen others under a +heavy guard. Now and then an ugly-looking fowling-piece or an awkwardly +handled pistol was threateningly pointed at us, with a half-laughing and +half-drunken threat of keeping us safe. Toward afternoon we were ordered +for the night to Charlestown, and to the jail there that has grown so +famous by its hospitality to our successors. The journey across was +particularly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_714" id="Page_714">[Pg 714]</a></span> enlivening. My special guard was a gentlemanly young +lawyer, one of the Kennedys of that ilk; and to his cleverness I think I +owed my safe arrival at the end of our journey. Every turn in the road +brought us face to face with an angry crowd, gathering from far and +near, armed and ready to do instant justice on a helpless victim. +Kennedy, however, gracefully waived them back to the wagons behind us, +where other prisoners, in less skilful hands, were pretty badly used. +The houses on the road were utterly deserted; on the first news of an +outbreak by the slaves, the women and children were hurried off to the +larger towns,—the men coming slowly back in squads and arming as best +they could, and the negroes keeping themselves hid out of sight on all +sides.</p> + +<p>The eight miles' distance to Charlestown was lengthened out by the rain +and mud, and the various hindrances of the way, so that the day was +closing as we came into the main street of the straggling little town. +The first odd sight was a procession of black and white children playing +soldiers, led by a chubby black boy, full of a sense of authority, and +evidently readily accepted by his white and black comrades in childlike +faith. The next was a fine, handsome house, where a large number of +ladies from the country round had been gathered together, and as we were +greeted in going by, my guide stopped, and introducing me, I explained +my position. They were all ready with their sympathy, and all +overpowering with their gratitude, when I pooh-poohed their fear of a +great Northern invasion, and said that the people of the North were just +as innocent of any participation in this business as they themselves +were. Our line of march resumed brought us to the prison, and I was not +sorry to have the shock of an enforced visit somewhat lessened by a +general invitation from mine host of an adjoining tavern to liquor up. +Of course I was noways chary of invitations to the crowd, and the +bar-room being full, I made the bar my rostrum, and indulged in a piece +of autobiography that was intended to gain the general consent to return +to my fellow-travellers, who were reported still at Martinsburg. If I +cannot boast of great success <i>at</i> the bar, I am as little proud of my +eloquence <i>on</i> the bar. One of the Kennedys, brother to my guard, did +suggest taking me to his house, half a mile off; but to that Colonel +Davenport, a bustling great man of the village, answered, that, as there +was sure to be some hanging at night, it would be safer to be in the +prison, as well from the mob as from any escape on my own part, and it +was better to stay contentedly where I was. Doctor Marmion, my +acquaintance of the morning, rode over to find me and to explain his +part in my visit to the Ferry, hoping that such a confirmation of my +story would secure my immediate release. But by that time I was in the +custody of the sheriff, by some military legal process; and while that +officer was kind and civil, he refused to do anything, except promise me +an early hearing before the court-martial, which was to reassemble the +next day. Finally, I was hustled through a gaping, pot-valiant crowd, +into the prison, where the mob had violently taken possession; and it +was a good while before I could be got up stairs and safely locked into +my cell. The bolts were shot pretty sharply, but the sense of relief +from the threats and impertinence of the bullying fellows outside quite +outweighed my sensation of novelty on finding myself in such strange +quarters. My supper was sent up, my friendly guard gave me cigars, and a +buxom daughter of the jailer lent me a candle. I lay down on a rough cot +and was soon asleep; my last recollection was of my sturdy guard, armed +and wakeful, in front of my cell; and I woke after several hours of +sound, refreshing slumber, startled by the noise of his angry answers to +some still more angry and very drunken men. They had, so I learned +partly then and partly afterwards, broken into the jail, and hurried +from the cell next to mine a poor black prisoner, who was forthwith +hanged; and, whetted by their sport, they had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_715" id="Page_715">[Pg 715]</a></span> returned to find a fresh +victim. Fortunately, in the turmoil of their first attack, the only +other prisoner easily got hold of was a white boy, who escaped, while I +owed my safety to Kennedy's earnest protestations, and to his ready use +of a still more convincing argument, a loaded pistol and a quick hand.</p> + +<p>Early morning was very welcome, for it brought the court-martial up to +Charlestown, and I was soon ready for a hearing. Fortunately, after a +good deal of angry discussion and some threats of a short shrift, a +message came up from the Ferry from Governor Wise; and as I boldly +claimed acquaintance with him, they granted me leave to send down a note +to him, asking for his confirmation of my statements. While this was +doing, I was paroled and served my Kansas colleague by advice to hold +his tongue; he did so, and was soon released; and my messenger returned +with such advices, in the shape of a pretty sharp reprimand to the busy +court-martial for their interference with the liberty of the citizen, as +speedily got me my freedom. I used it to buy such articles of clothing +as could be had in Charlestown, and my prison clothes were gladly thrown +aside. Some of my fellow-travellers reached the place in time to find me +snugly ensconced in the tavern, waiting for an ancient carriage; with +them we drove back to the Ferry in solemn state. The same deserted +houses and the same skulking out of sight by the inhabitants showed the +fear that outlasted even the arrival of heavy militia reinforcements. We +stopped at Mr. Lewis Washington's, and, without let or hindrance, walked +through the pretty grounds and the bright rooms and the neat negro huts, +all alike lifeless, and yet showing at every turn the suddenness and the +recentness of the fright that had carried everybody off. Our ride +through Bolivar was cheered by a vigorous greeting from my captor of the +day before,—the village shoemaker, a brawny fellow,—who declared that +he knew I was all right, that he had taken care of me, that he would not +have me hanged or shot, and "wouldn't I give him sum't to have a drink +all round, and if I ever came again, please to stop and see him"; and so +I did, when I came back with my regiment in war-times; but then no +shoemaker was to be found.</p> + +<p>I paid my respects to Governor Wise, and thanked him for my release; was +introduced to Colonel Lee, (now the Rebel general,) and to the officers +of the little squad of marines who had carried the stronghold of the +"invaders," as the Governor persistently called them. In company with +"Porte Crayon," Mr. Strothers, a native of that part of Virginia, and +well known by his sketches of Southern life in "Harper's Magazine," I +went to the engine-house, and there saw the marks of the desperate +defence and of the desperate bravery of John Brown and his men. I saw, +too, John Brown himself. Wounded, bleeding, haggard, and defeated, and +expecting death with more or less of agony as it was more or less near, +John Brown was the finest specimen of a man that I ever saw. His great, +gaunt form, his noble head and face, his iron-gray hair and patriarchal +beard, with the patient endurance of his own suffering, and his painful +anxiety for the fate of his sons and the welfare of his men, his +reticence when jeered at, his readiness to turn away wrath with a kind +answer, his whole appearance and manner, what he looked, what he +said,—all impressed me with the deepest sense of reverence. If his +being likened to anything in history could have made the scene more +solemn, I should say that he was likest to the pictured or the ideal +representation of a Roundhead Puritan dying for his faith, and silently +glorying in the sacrifice not only of life, but of all that made life +dearest to him. His wounded men showed in their patient endurance the +influence of his example; while the vulgar herd of lookers-on, fair +representatives of the cowardly militia-men who had waited for the +little force of regulars to achieve the capture of the engine-house and +its garrison, were ready to prove their further cowardice by maltreating +the prisoners. The marines,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_716" id="Page_716">[Pg 716]</a></span> who alone had sacrificed life in the +attack, were sturdily bent on guarding them from any harsh handling. I +turned away sadly from the old man's side, sought and got the +information he wanted concerning "his people," as he called them, and +was rewarded with his thanks in a few simple words, and in a voice that +was as gentle as a woman's. The Governor, as soon as he was told of the +condition of the prisoners, had them cared for, and, in all his +bitterness at their doings, never spoke of them in terms other than +honorable to himself and to them. He persistently praised John Brown for +his bravery and his endurance; and he was just as firm in declaring him +the victim of shrewd and designing men, whose schemes he would yet +fathom.</p> + +<p>The day was a busy one; for little squads of regulars were sent out on +the Maryland Heights to search for the stores accumulated there; and +each foraging party was followed by a tail of stragglers from all the +volunteers on the ground, who valiantly kept on to the Maryland side of +the bridge that crossed the Potomac, and then, their courage oozing out +of their fingers and toes both, stopped there and waited for the return +of the regulars. On the instant of their arrival, each time fetching a +great hay-wagon full of captured goods, tents, picks, spades, pikes, the +tag-rag and bobtail party at once set to work to help themselves to the +nearest articles, and were soon seen making off homeward with their +contraband of war on their backs. The plunder, however, was not confined +to the captured property. A strong force of militia soon invaded the +armory, and every man helped himself to a rifle and a brace of pistols, +and then, tiring of the load, began to chaffer and bargain for their +sale. Governor Wise was called on to interfere and preserve the +Government property; he came into the little inclosure of the works, and +began an eloquent address, but seeing its uselessness, broke off and put +his Richmond Grays on guard; and then the distribution of public +property was made through the regular channels,—that is, the men inside +brought guns and pistols to the men on guard, and they passed them out +to their friends beyond, so that the trade went on almost as free as +ever.</p> + +<p>Night soon came, and it was made hideous by the drunken noise and +turmoil of the crowd in the village; matters were made worse, too, by +the Governor's order to impress all the horses; and the decent, sober +men trudged home rather out of humor with their patriotic sacrifice; +while the tipsy and pot-valiant militia fought and squabbled with each +other, and only ceased that sport to pursue and hunt down some fugitive +negroes, and one or two half-maddened drunken fellows who in their +frenzy proclaimed themselves John Brown's men. Tired out at last, the +Governor took refuge in the Wager House;—for an hour or two, he had +stood on the porch haranguing an impatient crowd as "Sons of Virginia!" +Within doors the scene was stranger still. Huddled together in the worst +inn's worst room, the Governor and his staff at a table with tallow +candles guttering in the darkness, the Richmond Grays lying around the +floor in picturesque and (then) novel pursuit of soft planks, a motley +audience was gathered together to hear the papers captured at John +Brown's house—the Kennedy farm on Maryland Heights—read out with the +Governor's running comments. The purpose of all this was plain enough. +It was meant to serve as proof of a knowledge and instigation of the +raid by prominent persons and party-leaders in the North. The most +innocent notes and letters, commonplace newspaper-paragraphs and printed +cuttings, were distorted and twisted by the reading and by the talking +into clear instructions and positive plots. However, the main impression +was of the picturesqueness of the soldiers resting on their knapsacks, +and their arms stacked in the dark corners,—of the Governor and his +satellites, some of them in brilliant militia array, seated around the +lighted table,—and of the grotesque eloquence with which either the +Governor or some of his prominent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_717" id="Page_717">[Pg 717]</a></span> people would now and then burst out +into an oratorical tirade, all thrown away on his sleepy auditors, and +lost to the world for want of some clever shorthand writer.</p> + +<p>In the morning I was glad to hear that my belated train had spent the +last forty-eight hours at Martinsburg, and I did not a bit regret that +my two days had been so full of adventure and incident. Waiting for its +coming, I walked once more through the village, with one of the watchmen +of the armory, who had been captured by John Brown and spent the night +with him in the engine-house, and heard in all its freshness the story +now so well known. Then I bade Governor Wise good-bye, and was duly +thanked for my valiant services to the noble Mother of States, and +rewarded by being offered the honorary and honorable title of A.D.C. to +the commander-in-chief of Virginia, both for past services and for the +future tasks to be met, of beating off invading hosts from the +North,—all in the Governor's eye. Luckily for both sides, I declined +the handsome offer; for my next visit to Virginia was as an A.D.C. to a +general commanding troops, not of the North, but of the United States, +invading, not the Virginia of John Brown's time, but the Virginia of a +wicked Southern Confederacy.</p> + +<p>Not long after, I received a letter of thanks from Governor Wise, +written at Richmond and with a good deal of official flattery. His son +Jennings, an old acquaintance of mine in pleasant days in Germany, came +to see me, too, with civil messages from his father. Poor fellow! he +paid the forfeit of his rebellious treason with his life at Roanoke +Island. His father pays the heavier penalty of living to see the civil +war fomented by him making its dreadful progress, and in its course +crushing out all his ancient popularity and power.</p> + +<p>In spite of many scenes of noble heroism and devoted bravery in +legitimate warfare, and in the glorious campaigns of our own successful +armies, I have never seen any life in death so grand as that of John +Brown, and to me there is more than an idle refrain in the solemn chorus +of our advancing hosts,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"John Brown's body lies mouldering in the ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As we go marching on!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In the summer of 1862, I was brought again to Harper's Ferry, with my +regiment, and the old familiar scenes were carefully revisited. The +terrible destruction of fine public buildings, the wanton waste of +private property, the deserted village instead of the thriving town, the +utter ruin and wretchedness of the country all about, and the bleak +waste of land from Harper's Ferry to Charlestown, are all set features +in every picture of the war in Virginia. At my old head-quarters in +Charlestown jail there was less change than I had expected; its sturdy +walls had withstood attack and defence better than the newer and more +showy structures; the few inhabitants left behind after the ebb and flow +of so many army waves, Rebel and Union succeeding each other at pretty +regular intervals, were the well-to-do of former days, looking after +their household gods, sadly battered and the worse for wear, but still +cherished very dearly. Of my old acquaintances, it was a melancholy +pleasure to learn that Colonel Baylor, who was mainly anxious to have me +hanged, had in this war been reduced to the ranks for cowardice, and +then was shot in the act of desertion. Kennedy was still living at home, +but his brother was in the Rebel service. The lesser people were all +scattered; the better class of workmen had gone to Springfield or to +private gun-shops in the North,—the poorer sort, either into the Rebel +army or to some other dim distance, and all trace of them was lost.</p> + +<p>The thousands who have come and gone through Harper's Ferry and past +Bolivar Heights will recall the waste and desolation of what was once a +blooming garden-spot, full of thrift and industry and comfort almost +unknown elsewhere south of the fatal slave-line; thousands who are yet +to pass that way will see in the ruins of the place traces of the +avenging spirit that has marked forever the scene of <i>John Brown's +Raid</i>.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_718" id="Page_718">[Pg 718]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="SCHUMANNS_QUINTETTE_IN_E_FLAT_MAJOR" id="SCHUMANNS_QUINTETTE_IN_E_FLAT_MAJOR"></a>SCHUMANN'S QUINTETTE IN E FLAT MAJOR.</h2> + + +<p>It was near sundown when we reached the sea-side hotel. By the time we +were settled in our apartment, and I had my invalid undressed and in +bed, the soft, long summer twilight was nearly over. The maid, having +cleared away the litter of unpacking, was sitting in the anteroom, near +enough to be within call. The poor suffering body that held so lightly +the half-escaped spirit lay on the bed, exhausted with the journey, but +feeling already soothed by the pleasant sea-breeze which sighed gently +in at the open window.</p> + +<p>Our rooms were on the ground-floor of a one-story cottage. A little +distance off was the large hotel, to which the cottage was attached by a +long arcade or covered gallery. We could hear fragments of the music +which the band was playing to the gay idlers who were wandering about +the balconies or through the hotel grounds; while laughs and little +shrieks, uttered by the children as their pursuing nurses caught them up +for bed, mingled not unpleasantly with the silvery hum arising from the +fashionable crowd and the festal clang of the instruments.</p> + +<p>Sleep half hovered over, half winged off from the pillow. I fanned the +peacock plumes slowly to and fro in the delicious air, gazed with a +suppressed sigh on the darkening West, and repeated with a rhythmical +beat the beautiful Hebrew poem in Ecclesiasticus, which I had so often +recited through many long years by the side of that sick-bed, to soothe +the ear of the sufferer. I had just reached these lines,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"A present remedy of all<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is the speeding coming of a cloud,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And a dew that meeteth it,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By the heat that cometh,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Shall overpower it.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"At His word the wind is still;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And with His thought<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He appeaseth the deep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the Lord hath plumed islands therein,"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>when I noticed that sleep had settled firmly on the dark eyelids, and +the panting breath came through the poor clay in little soughs and +sighs, as if body and soul, tired with combat, had each sunk down for a +momentary rest on the weary battle-field of life.</p> + +<p>The music of the band had ceased; the gay crowd had withdrawn into the +hotel to prepare for the entertainments of the evening, and there was a +lull of human sounds. Then arose the grand roar of the ocean, which with +the regular break of the billows on the beach beneath the cliff made the +theme where before it had played the bass.</p> + +<p>I crept stealthily out of the bed-room, and, after exchanging my +travelling-gown for a cool white robe, stretched my tired body on the +lounge in the anteroom.</p> + +<p>There I lay with cold finger-tips pressed against burning eyelids, and +icy palms holding with a firm grasp throbbing temples, under which +flowed the hot, seething tide of mortal anguish, anxiety, and aching +love. Some one touched me on the shoulder. I looked up. It was Max who +was standing beside me.</p> + +<p>"There is a great musical treat for you," he said in a low voice. "The +A—— Society is here, and also part of B——'s Opera Troupe, with +Madame C——, and D——, the great tenor. The troupe and society united +are to give such a concert as rarely falls to the lot of mortals to +hear. I never saw a better programme. Look!"</p> + +<p>I read over the concert-bill. First there was an overture; then several +scenes from "Lucia di Lammermoor,"—that great Shakspearian drama, whose +dread catastrophe of Death and Doom leaves in the memory of the hearer a +heavenly sorrow unmixed with earthly taint. It was the master-work of +two poets, Scott and Donizetti, who had conceived it at the best period +of their lives, when they were in all the vigor of manhood, and when +mind and fancy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_719" id="Page_719">[Pg 719]</a></span> had become ripened by experience. It was formed in one +of those supreme instants, which come like "angels' visits" to artists, +when they were enabled, through a power more like inspiration than art, +to throw aside all outward influences, and fashion as deftly as Nature +could the sad life of the Master of Ravenswood and his "sweet spirit's +mate."</p> + +<p>The Lucia scenes were grouped together and occupied the main part of the +programme. They were those that told the story of the brief passion, +from the sweet birth of love up to the solemn hour when both lovers +passed away to that resting-place "where nothing could touch them +further."</p> + +<p>My eyes lingered over the titles of the scenes, while my memory swiftly +recalled their characteristics:—the First Duet between Lucia and +Edgardo, a passionate burst of youthful love, as delicious as the tender +dialogues between Romeo and his Juliet;—the Sextette, that masterly +pyramidal piece of vocal harmony, in which the voices group around those +of the two lovers, and all mount up glowingly like a flame on a +sacrificial altar;—the heart-rending passage where Lucia's spirit, +frantic through woe, rises supreme over native timidity and +irresolution, and, with one fierce burst of love and grief, which +startles alike tyrant and friend, soars aloft in the terrible, but grand +realm of madness;—and the Finale, where the dying Edgardo sighs out +that delicious air which has been well styled, "a melody of Plato sung +by a Christian soul."</p> + +<p>The programme closed fitly with Schumann's Quintette in E flat Major.</p> + +<p>This Quintette is one of remarkable power and beauty. It is for 'rano, +viola, first and second violin, and 'cello. It is divided into four +movements: <i>Allegro brillante</i>; <i>In moda d'una Marcia</i>; <i>Scherzo</i>; and +<i>Allegro ma non troppo</i>.</p> + +<p>As I handed the bill back to Max, he whispered to my maid, who left the +room an instant, and returned with a mantle on her arm.</p> + +<p>"Come," he said, in a decided tone, "you must go, and quickly, too, for +they are already playing the overture. You can surely trust Ernestine +with the watching, as you will be such a short distance off; my +serving-man shall wait in the arcade, and come for you, if you are +needed."</p> + +<p>Then, raising me with kind force from the lounge, he wrapped the mantle +around me. As we passed out, we stood for an instant at the +bed-room-door, looking at the invalid. The breath still came in short +pants, but the truce was being kept: sleep had come in between as a +transient mediator.</p> + +<p>I noticed in the dim light the attenuated frame, the shrunken features, +the pinched nostrils, the very shadowy outlining of death. With choking +throat and swelling breast I looked at Max, my eyes saying what my voice +could not,—</p> + +<p>"I cannot go."</p> + +<p>Without a word of reply, he lifted me out of the apartment, and in a few +moments we were sitting in a dim corner of the concert-room, listening +to the charming First Duet.</p> + +<p>The scenes followed one another rapidly, and displayed even more +powerfully than I had ever noticed before the one pervading theme. Sense +and imagination became possessed with it; at each succeeding passage the +interest increased continuously, until at the end the passion mounted up +as on mighty wings and carried my sad heart aloft and beyond "the +ordinary conditions of humanity."</p> + +<p>The prima donna, Madame C——, and Signor D——, the tenor, had a sad +story of scandal floating about them; it was on every one's lips. Madame +C—— was no longer in her first youth, but she was still very +beautiful, more attractive than she had been in her younger days,—so +those said who had seen and heard her years before.</p> + +<p>Her young womanhood had been devoted to patient, honest study, which was +rewarded with success, and calm, passionless prosperity. She had married +brilliantly, and left the stage, but after an absence of many years had +returned to it to aid her husband in some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_720" id="Page_720">[Pg 720]</a></span> reverse of fortune. Her +married life had been tranquilly happy, for she had loved with all the +sweet serenity of a cold, unexacting nature.</p> + +<p>But now it was whispered that this beautiful, pure woman, who had +resisted—indeed, like another Una, had never felt—the temptations +which had environed her on the stage, and in the courtly circle to which +she had been raised by her husband's rank, was being strangely +influenced by a gifted, handsome tenor singer, with whom she had been +associated since her return to her professional life.</p> + +<p>This person was about her husband's age, a year or two her senior, and +unmarried. The infatuation, it was said, existed on both sides, and the +two lovers were so blinded by their strange passion as to seem +unconscious of any other sight or presence. The husband, report added, +behaved with remarkable prudence and good breeding; indeed, some doubted +if he noticed the affair,—for he treated not only his wife, but the +reputed lover, with familiar and kind friendliness.</p> + +<p>The recollection of this scandal flitted over my memory as I listened to +the First Duet. Madame C—— was a blonde; she had rich, deep violet +eyes, and a lovely skin: her hair, too, was a waving mass of the poet's +and painter's golden hue. She was about middle height, and had a full, +well-developed person.</p> + +<p>"When I saw her in Paris and Vienna, twenty years ago," whispered Max, +"she was too pale and slender, and the expression of those brilliant +eyes was as cold and still as glacier depths."</p> + +<p>Not so now, I thought,—for they fairly blazed with a passionate fire, +as the music welled up on her beautiful quivering lips; indeed, the +melody appeared to come from them, as much as from her mouth, and I +seemed to be listening with my looks as well as my hearing. She was not +well, evidently,—for there was a bright red, feverish spot on either +cheek, and her movements were feeble and trembling; but her voice was +full of the deepest pathos.</p> + +<p>"In her best days she never sang so well," said Max, as the room rang +with applause at the termination of the duo, "Time may have taken away a +little fulness from her lower notes; but the touching tenderness which +envelops them, as a purple mist hanging over a forest in autumn, fully +compensates for the loss of youthful vigor."</p> + +<p>Her voice was, indeed, wonderful,—not simply clear and flexible, but +dazzling and glancing, like the lightning that plays around the horizon +on a hot midsummer's night; and her execution was as if the Cherub +All-Knowledge and the Seraph All-Love had united their divine powers in +one human form.</p> + +<p>In the Sextette, which followed, the tenor showed to great advantage. +His voice, though no longer young, was beautifully managed; it had an +exquisite <i>timbre</i>, and on this night there was added to it a rare +expression and character.</p> + +<p>When he asked the poor trembling Lucia if the signature to the marriage +contract was hers, there was a concentrated rage in his singing that was +fearful; and Madame C—— almost cowered to the floor, as he held her +firmly by the wrist,—for the scenes were sung in costume and with +action,—and demanded,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"A me rispondi. Son tue cifre? Rispondi!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Her affirmative was like the silvery wail of a fallen angel. Then +followed the terrible imprecation passage. He darted out the</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Maledetto sia l'istante!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>with such startling fury that the notes and words seemed to be forked, +stinging, serpent tongues.</p> + +<p>The <i>Stretta</i> ensued, and the music-tide flowed so high and full that +the fashionable audience forgot all artificial conventionalities, and +yielded themselves freely to the ennobling emotions of human sympathy. +Above the whole sublime assemblage of sounds wailed out that fearful +note of the fallen cherub; and the fainting of Lucia, at the close of +the Sextette, I felt sure was not a feigned one.</p> + +<p>As the curtain fell over the temporary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_721" id="Page_721">[Pg 721]</a></span> stage, several gentlemen hurried +out to make inquiries about Madame C——, for there seemed to be an +opinion similar to mine pervading the room. The curtain rose, and it was +announced that she was too ill to sing again; but the murmur of regret +was silenced almost immediately by the appearance of the chorus with +Signor D——, the tenor.</p> + +<p>They began the Finale. Signor D——looked haggard and wan, but very +stern, and there was more of wrath than repentance in his singing. Was +it fancy or reality? The heart-rending</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O bell' alma innamorata!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>seemed to be accompanied by distant, half-veiled sobs. No one else +appeared to notice them, and I half doubted their reality.</p> + +<p>The Finale ended; and for a few moments the gay crowd buzzed, and some +stood up and looked about at their neighbors. The interval was short, +however,—for the Quintette performers came upon the stage, and took +their places.</p> + +<p>I leaned back and covered my face with my hand. My memory was still +ringing with echoes of the forlorn cry of wrecked love, mingled with the +imaginary sobs I had just heard; therefore I hardly listened to the +majestic opening of full, harmonious chords, which lead grandly into a +sort of cantabile movement.</p> + +<p>The curious modulations which followed aroused me, and I soon busied +myself in tracing the changes from major to minor, and from one minor +key to another, as sorrows chase each other in life. Just at this part +of the composition occurs the passage which sounds like a weird, ghostly +call or summons: when I heard it, my fancy began working, and, like +Heine, I saw spectres in the music sounds.</p> + +<p>The air seemed to have grown suddenly "nipping and eager." I +unconsciously drew my mantle around my shoulders, as a shiver ran over +me, such as nurses tell us in childhood is caused by some one walking +over our graves. I fancied I saw before me the ghost scene in "Hamlet." +There was the castle platform,—the gloomy battlements,—the sound of +distant wassail; and dimly defined by the vague light of my fancy, stood +the sad young Danish prince, shivering in the "shrewd, biting" +night-air, tortured with those apprehensions and sickening doubts</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"That cloud the mind and fire the brain,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>but talking with a feigned and courtly indifference to his dear friend, +"the profound scholar and perfect gentleman," Horatio; and in the gloom +around them seemed to be arising the questionable shape which was</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"So horridly to shake his disposition."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Strangely the music displayed its fine forms, mingling most curiously +with, while it created, my fancied pictures,—and though my senses +followed the changing visions, which flitted like a phantasmagoria +before my eyes, my mind traced clearly the music train; but when the +diminished seventh resolved gracefully into the melody which is taken +alternately by 'cello and viola,—the close of the first movement,—my +vision faded gradually away.</p> + +<p>There was a short pause, but the fine artists who were executing the +Quintette did not by any undignified movement break the illusion which +the music had created; although a violin-string needed raising, it was +done with quiet and skilful dexterity, and they proceeded to the second +movement.</p> + +<p>Smoothly and mournfully the Funeral March opened. The solemn melody +which glides softly through it is totally unlike the restless trampings +of Fate heard in other great compositions of the kind; yet Fate is +unmistakably there, quiet, but relentless, like</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">"the Pontic sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose icy current and compulsive course<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The <i>Scherzo</i>, with its beautiful octave run for the piano and delicious +change of harmony in the next measure,—the weird melody sketched out by +the first violin, and then yielded up to the piano,—and the strange, +but truly inspired, modulations which follow,—lapped my spirit in a +sweet bewilderment.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_722" id="Page_722">[Pg 722]</a></span> I forgot all the before and after of that "sad and +incapable story" of human life and love which my fancy had been weaving +from the coarse, vulgar threads of common rumor; and even the pictures +vanished which had been evoked of the young prince,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"In his blown youth blasted with ecstasy."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I ceased following the modulations, interesting as they were; for often +music fills the thoughts so full that the ear forgets to listen to the +sweet harmonies.</p> + +<p>But I was again aroused by the fine suspension and sequence which open +the last movement of the Quintette,—the <i>Allegro ma non troppo</i>. The +fugued passage, the reiteration of the opening theme, and the sad close +were all as tragic as the last scene in "Hamlet," the</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"quarry that cries on, Havoc!"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>but it was also as graceful and touching as the words of the dying +prince to his friend,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i16">"Horatio, I am dead:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou liv'st. Report me and my cause aright<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the unsatisfied."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>A thousand rumors flitted about the room as the concert broke up. Madame +C—— was so ill, they feared she was dying; and, strange to say, the +tenor, on leaving the platform after the Lucia finale, had been seized +with violent cramps and vomitings, which could not be checked, and he +also was lying in a very critical state. There were dark hints and many +improbable imaginings.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"All was not well, they deemed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some knew perchance,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And some besides were too discreetly wise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To more than hint their knowledge in surmise."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>About an hour after midnight I was lying on the lounge in the anteroom +of the cottage. The faithful maid had taken my place by the +sick-bed,—for my invalid was still sleeping. It was a long, quiet +sleep; and so low and peaceful had grown those suffering, panting +breaths, that they almost startled me into a hope of happier days. Could +health, long absent, be returning? A state of continuous illness, if +free from acute pain, would be a relief.</p> + +<p>These half-formed hopes made me restless, and, instead of taking the +physical repose I needed, I rose from the lounge, and walked out on the +deserted lawn in front of the cottage. The moon was at the full, and +shone brighter than day's twilight. The night was warm, but not +oppressive,—for there was a gentle air blowing, filled with the +invigorating briny odor of the ocean; yet I felt choked and stifled.</p> + +<p>"Just for a breath from the beach," I said to myself, as I descended the +steps leading down from the cliff.</p> + +<p>On reaching the sands, instead of being alone, as I had hoped, I found +two persons already there. I drew back quickly, intending to return; but +they were passing too swiftly to notice me. As they went by, the bright +full moon gleamed over their pale, wan faces, and I recognized in them +Madame C——and the tenor!</p> + +<p>They were talking earnestly, in low, rapid Italian. She leaned on his +arm,—indeed, they seemed to be sustaining each other, for both appeared +feeble and faint; but, tottering as they were, they sped rapidly by, and +so near to me that the corner of Madame C——'s mantle flapped in my +face, and left a strange subtile perfume behind it.</p> + +<p>But what struck me most was the expression of their faces,—such wild, +sad, longing, entreating love! As they disappeared around a corner of +the cliff which jutted out, a dreadful suspicion seized me. Could they +be seeking self-destruction? Were they going to bury their unhallowed +love, with its shame and sorrow, in one wildering embrace beneath those +surging ocean-waves?</p> + +<p>As one in a dream, I moved along the beach, hardly knowing whither I +went. Mechanically I ascended the flight of steps which led to the part +of the cliff directly opposite the hotel entrance. As I walked up the +lawn, I noticed a great commotion in the house. There were lights +flitting about, people running up and down stairs, and many persons +talking confusedly on the gallery and in the hall.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_723" id="Page_723">[Pg 723]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What is the matter?" I asked of a waiter who was passing near me, +looking frightened and bewildered.</p> + +<p>He stopped, and answered with all the keen eagerness of an untrained +person, to whom the communicating of a startling story to an uninformed +superior is a perfect godsend.</p> + +<p>"Very strange doings, Ma'am,—very strange!"</p> + +<p>"Aha!" I thought; "they have discovered the absence or flight of those +unhappy creatures."</p> + +<p>"Very strange doings!" he repeated. "The foreign lady who sang to-night, +and the gentleman too, is both dead."</p> + +<p>"Dead!" I exclaimed. "Why, you are mistaken. I saw them just this +instant on the sands below the cliff."</p> + +<p>The man looked at me as if he thought me crazy.</p> + +<p>"I mean the singers, Ma'am,—them as sang at the concert to-night. They +was both taken nigh about the same time, was handled just alike, and +died here a little while ago, a'most at once, as you might say. Folks is +talking hard about the husband of the Madame."</p> + +<p>Then he added, in a lower tone, confidentially, "They do say he poisoned +'em; for, you see, he it was that dressed the lobster salad at dinner, +and made 'em both eat hearty of it, though they were unwilling; and now +they have him over in the office there, in custody."</p> + +<p>"But, my good man," I said, as soon as I could get my breath, "I assure +you they are not dead."</p> + +<p>"Well, Ma'am, if you don't believe my words, you can see 'em with your +own eyes, if you choose"; and he led the way into the hall of the hotel.</p> + +<p>I followed him. We entered a side room,—a sort of reception +<i>salon</i>,—where the two poor creatures were, indeed lying extended on +sofas. Several startled persons were gazing at them, but the larger +portion of the crowd were drawn off to the other side of the hotel, +where the unhappy, stunned husband was listening to the fearful charges +of murder,—murder of his wife and his friend!</p> + +<p>I stepped up to the dead bodies,—one after the other. Their dresses had +not even been changed. The stage finery looked very pitiful. A muslin +mantle had been thrown over Madame C——'s bare shoulders and beautiful +bosom; from it arose the same curious perfume I had noticed on the +beach. It was as if that delicate, rare smell had been kept in a box of +some kind of odoriferous resinous wood.</p> + +<p>I touched their cold brows, their icy fingers,—noticed the poor +features, drawn by acute suffering,—and strange as it was, I could see +on both faces, as if behind a gauzy film, the same sad, wild, longing +look of love I had observed on the countenances of those two shadowy +beings I had met on the sands.</p> + +<p>I left the hotel, and walked to the cottage, with my mind in a sad, +bewildered state. I entered the open door, and went to the sick-room. +There stood Max and Ernestine, and she was weeping.</p> + +<p>"It is all over!" he said; "and I am glad she was not here."</p> + +<p>I advanced hurriedly forward, pushed them aside, and stood by the bed. +Yes, that long, quiet sleep had, indeed, been a forerunner of life,—the +true life! All was truly over,—the long years of suffering, the blessed +years of loving care, the combat and the struggle; and on the +battle-field rested the dread shadows of Night and Death!</p> + +<p>And I? I sank on the poor body-shell with one low, long wail, and Nature +kindly extended over me her blessed veil of forgetfulness.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_724" id="Page_724">[Pg 724]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="RICHARD_COBDEN" id="RICHARD_COBDEN"></a>RICHARD COBDEN.</h2> + + +<p>On the third day of April last a most impressive and unusual scene was +witnessed in the English House of Commons. For some time before the hour +for sitting, the members had gathered about the halls and lobbies in +whispering groups. One of its leading members had passed away, and there +was a consultation as to whether the House should move an adjournment. +It is not the custom of the House of Commons to adjourn in case of the +death of one of its members, unless that member is an officer of the +Government or of extraordinary prominence. The last person for whom it +had adjourned was Sir G. Cornwall Lewis. It was considered in the +present case that there were some members whose hostility to the +departed would not stop at the grave, and that the harmony which alone +would make an adjournment graceful as a tribute would be unattainable; +so it was decided that the motion should not be made. When the great, +deep-toned Westminster clock struck four, the members took their seats. +Then slowly entered the ministers, with Lord Palmerston at their head; +and for some moments sitting there with their hats on, one might have +supposed it a silent meeting of Friends. At this moment all eyes were +turned to the door as one entered who is a Friend indeed: heavily, with +head bowed under his terrible sorrow, John Bright walked to his place, +by the side of which was a vacancy never to be filled. Lord Palmerston, +on rising, was received with a cheer which rang through the hall like a +wailing cry, and was followed by a deep hush. As the white-haired old +man, who had seen the leading men of more than two generations fall at +his side, began to speak of the "great loss" which the House and the +nation had suffered, his voice quivered, and recovered itself only when +it sank to a low tone that was deeply pathetic. And when, having +recounted the instances in which Richard Cobden, with his "great +ambition to be useful to his country," had been signally useful, each +instance followed by the refusal of proffered honors and emoluments, he +said, "Mr. Cobden's name will be forever engraved on the most +interesting pages of the history of this country," there was a +spontaneous burst of applause throughout the House. When Mr. Disraeli +arose to speak concerning the man whom for so many years he had met only +in uncompromising political combat, it was at once felt how irresistible +was the force of a right and true man. No yielding, equivocating, +South-by-North politician could ever have brought a lifelong antagonist +to stand by his grave and say,—"I believe, that, when the verdict of +posterity is recorded on his life and conduct, it will be said of him, +that, looking to all he said and did, he was without doubt the greatest +political character the pure middle class of this country has yet +produced,—an ornament to the House of Commons, and an honor to +England." Then arose, as if trying to lift a great burden, noble John +Bright. Twice he tried to speak and his voice failed; at length, with +broken utterance, but with that eloquent simplicity which characterizes +him beyond all speakers whom I have heard,—"I feel that I cannot +address the House on this occasion. Every expression of sympathy which I +have heard has been most grateful to my heart; but the time which has +elapsed, since I was present when the manliest and gentlest spirit that +ever actuated or tenanted the human form took its flight, is so short, +that I dare not even attempt to give utterance to the feelings by which +I am oppressed. I shall leave it to some calmer moment, when I may have +an opportunity of speaking to some portion of my countrymen the lesson +which I think will be learned from the life and character of my friend. +I have only to say, that, after twenty years of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_725" id="Page_725">[Pg 725]</a></span> most intimate and most +brotherly friendship with him, I little knew how much I loved him, until +I found that I had lost him." As he spoke the concluding words, which +plaintively told his sense of loneliness, the tears that can become a +manly man came thick and fast, and all who were in the House wept with +him. There have been cases in which the House of Commons has adjourned +in honor of deceased members; but perhaps never before has it showed its +emotions in generous tears. Did I say that <i>all</i> wept? I must recall it. +There actually were two or three who, during the entire scene, had +nothing but sneers to give, and sat, as I heard a member remark, "a +group fit for the pencil of Retzsch, fresh from its delineations of +Mephistopheles." I need not write upon the page which mentions Richard +Cobden their names, which, to reverse Palmerston's praise, are engraved +only upon the least creditable pages of the history of their own or of +others' countries.</p> + +<p>When John Bright sat down, some minds were borne back over eight years +when Cobden was addressing a large public meeting without the presence +of his usual companion. Mr. Bright was then in the far South, in +consequence of ill-health of a character to excite grave apprehension +among his friends. During his address, Mr. Cobden, having occasion to +allude to his absent friend, was so overpowered by his feelings that he +could not proceed for several minutes; and rarely has a great audience +been so deeply moved as was that by this emotion in one to whose heart, +true and ruddy, any sentimentality was unattributable.</p> + +<p>To write the history of this friendship between Bright and Cobden, to +tell how the sturdy hearts of these strong men became riveted to each +other, would be to record the best pages of recent English history. For +these men joined hands at the altar of a noble cause; and their souls +have been welded in the fires of a fierce and unceasing struggle for +humanity.</p> + +<p>Richard Cobden was born near Midhurst, Sussex, at his father's +farm-house, Dunford, June 3, 1804. His father was one of the class who +regarded the repeal of the Corn Laws as identical with their ruin. Young +Richard was at an early age placed in a London warehouse, where he so +pressed every leisure moment of his time into the acquisition of +information that his employer reproved him with a warning that lads so +fond of reading were apt to spoil their prospects. (This old gentleman +afterwards became unfortunate, and the young man he had thus warned +contributed fifty pounds for his comfort every year until his death.) +There has been some attempt on the part of certain persons, who have +never forgiven Mr. Cobden for their being in the wrong in the matter of +the Corn Laws, to sneer at him as an uncultivated man. This was, of +course, to be expected by one who made all the old bones in the +scholastic coffins at Oxford rattle again and again, by declaring that +he regarded "a single copy of the 'Times' newspaper as of more +importance than all the works of Thucydides,"—a thing which he has for +some years been willing to pledge himself not to repeat,—or +illustrating the nature of English education by representing +Englishmen's complete knowledge of the Ilissus, which he had once seen +dammed up by washerwomen, and their utter ignorance of the Mississippi, +flowing its two thousand miles through a magnificent country peopled by +their own race. But these partisan sneers could not affect the judgment +of any who knew Mr. Cobden, or those who read his works on Russia and +the United States and his pamphlets on subjects of current interest, +that his classical and historical culture was equal to that of the +majority of his critics, whilst his acquaintance with general philosophy +and political economy was remarkable.</p> + +<p>Mr. Cobden left the ordinary business of the warehouse in which he was +employed to become a commercial traveller, in which capacity he gained +much knowledge of Continental peoples and their languages. At length he +was able<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_726" id="Page_726">[Pg 726]</a></span> to establish himself in the calico business at Manchester, in +the firm "Richard Cobden & Co." The "Cobden prints" became celebrated, +the business flourished, and Mr. Cobden, at the time when he began his +political career, was receiving, as his share of the income, about +forty-five thousand dollars per annum. It was probably about the year +1830, when England was feeling the first ground-swells of the great +Reform agitation, that Mr. Cobden felt called to give himself entirely +to his country's service. He resolved, however, to study for some years +with reference to public questions. In 1834-5 he made a tour through +many countries, including Egypt, Greece, and Turkey, Canada and the +United States. On his return he wrote several pamphlets, in the name of +"A Manchester Manufacturer," which excited attention, and one ("England, +Ireland, and America") a lively controversy. About this time appeared +his first contribution to the Eastern question in a little work entitled +"Russia." In all these his fundamental ideas—Retrenchment, +Non-Intervention, Free Trade—were set forth in a very spirited and +eloquent way. It is now very evident that Mr. Cobden was the product and +utterance of his country at that time; and though he was held to be an +economical visionary, never was visionary in conservative England +blessed with seeing his visions so soon harden into facts. But he was +not so absorbed in national politics, and in his proposed "Smithian +Society," in which the "Wealth of Nations" was to be discussed, as to +forget the more circumscribed duties of a citizen of Manchester. +Manchester was not yet a city with municipal representation, when he +wrote a pamphlet entitled "Incorporate your Borough," which did as much +as anything else to raise it to that dignity; and Manchester showed its +gratitude by electing him to be alderman in the first town-council.</p> + +<p>It is hard for us at this date to realize the condition of England when +that horrible <i>Sirocco</i>, as Robert Browning called it, the tax on corn, +was blighting the land. The suicidal policy which had prevailed since +the Peace of 1815 had brought the country to the verge of ruin; and +when, in 1838, those reformers of Manchester repaired to that first +meeting of the Anti-Corn-Law League, it was through crowds of pale, +haggard, starving men, each with his starving family at home, muttering +treason, and prepared for violence at any touch. The banner of Chartism +was already lifted. It was then that these resolute men, with Cobden at +their head, met and vowed sacredly that their League should never be +disbanded until those laws had been repealed. The devotion with which +Richard Cobden fought that good fight may be illustrated by the story +that once his little daughter said to her mother concerning her +father,—"Mother, who is that gentleman that comes here sometimes?" With +a similar devotion to humanity did this tenderest of parents inspire his +companions; and it is not in the nature of things that such labors so +put forth shall fail. One by one the haughty aristocrats yielded; and +when at last Cobden had conquered the conqueror of Napoleon, the battle +was won. The "Times" pooh-poohed the movement, until one day the news +came that a few gentlemen of Manchester had subscribed between forty and +fifty thousand pounds for repeal, when it suddenly discovered that "the +Anti-Corn-Law movement was a great fact." When, in 1841, the new Whig +Ministry, with Sir Robert Peel at their head, came in, elected as +Protectionists, gaunt Famine took its stand by the Royal Mace, like a +Banquo. Sir Robert driving along Fleet Street might see those whom this +new unwelcome commoner represented grimly gazing of "Punch,"—that of +the Premier turning his back on a starving man with half-naked wife and +child, and buttoning up his coat with the words, "I'm very sorry, my +good man, but I can do nothing for you,—nothing!" But though Peel was +the Premier apparent, Cobden was the Premier actual. And means were +found of softening Sir Robert's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_727" id="Page_727">[Pg 727]</a></span> heart,—these, namely: it was intimated +to him one morning, that, if a division of the House should go against +the Ministry, the Queen would feel compelled to call upon Richard +Cobden, manufacturer, to make a cabinet for her. So the Ministry +yielded, and the League reached its triumph in 1846. It is due to the +memory of Peel to say that he joined with the triumphant nation to yield +every laurel to the brow to which it belonged, and uttered the memorable +prediction that Cobden's name would be forever venerated and loved, +whenever "the poor man ate his daily bread, sweeter because no longer +leavened with a bitter sense of unwise and unjust taxation."</p> + +<p>In the year 1839 Mr. Cobden had heard John Bright speak with great power +at a meeting in Rochdale. A little later, when Bright had just lost his +wife at Leamington, Cobden visited him there. He found him in great +grief. "Think," said Cobden, "think in your sorrow, of the thousands of +men, women, and children, who are this moment starving under the +infamous laws which it is your task and mine to help remove. Come with +me, and we will never rest until we have abolished the Corn Laws." Then +and there were those hands clasped in a sacred cause which were never to +be unclasped but by death.</p> + +<p>Mr. Cobden took his seat in Parliament in 1841, representing Stockport. +He had not only before the triumph of 1846 sacrificed his time and +impaired his health, but also given up his fortune to the cause, and was +a poor man. By a great spontaneous subscription, the nation reimbursed +his actual losses, and amongst other things built the house at Midhurst, +where he resided on the spot that his father had occupied. Immediately +after the repeal Mr. Cobden started on a Continental tour; and in every +city he was met with a triumphal reception, so deeply had his great work +in England affected the interests of all Europe. During his absence he +was elected to represent the great constituency of the West Riding in +Yorkshire, which he accepted.</p> + +<p>It was perhaps in those furious days which preceded the Crimean War that +the noble personal qualities with which Mr. Cobden was endowed shone out +most clearly. When all England, from the thunder of the "Times" to the +quiet Muse of Tennyson, was enlisted for war, Cobden took his stand, and +refused to bow to the tempest. In a moment the nation seemed to forget +the services of years, and Cobden, denounced as a "Peace-at-any-price +man," lost the ear of the country, as did Bright and others in those +days of political anarchy. To the ability and independence with which +Cobden and Bright withstood the popular current then, Mr. Kinglake, the +opponent of both, has done justice. It was, in fact, not true that +Cobden was a "Peace-at-any-price man." Though he maintained earnestly +the principle of non-intervention, it was because he thought that +England in its present hands could not be trusted to intervene always in +the right interest; and never was there a more pointed confirmation of +his suspicion than the event of a war which gave the victory won by the +blood of the people over to the French Emperor, that he might with it +bind back every nation that in Southern Europe was near to its +redemption. The strongest chains binding Circassia, Poland, Hungary, and +Venetia, were forged in the fires of the Crimean War. This popular wave +reached its height and broke, as such waves will, and the people much +ashamed returned to their true leaders. So when, immediately after the +end of the Crimean War, the disgraceful bombardment of Canton occurred, +Cobden was still there in Parliament ready to risk all again. His +resolution condemning the action of Sir John Bowring (who, by the way, +was Cobden's personal friend) was passed in the House by a vote of 263 +to 247. Palmerston appealed to the selfishness of the country on the +subject of Chinese trade, and was sustained. These were the days when +Gladstone and Disraeli lay down together. Cobden, Bright, Gibson, +Cardwell, Layard, Fox, Miall, and others, all lost their seats. To this +interval we are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_728" id="Page_728">[Pg 728]</a></span> indebted that John Bright recovered strength in a +foreign land, and that we received in the United States the second visit +of Cobden. Whilst they were absent, the reaction set in: Bright was +elected by Birmingham, Cobden by Rochdale. Nay, so strong was the +feeling in Cobden's case, that Palmerston found it to his purpose to +invite him into the Cabinet; and when, returning from America, Cobden +sailed up the Mersey, he was met by a deputation from Liverpool who +informed him of his appointment among the new Ministry. He at once +declined the appointment, for reasons which have not hitherto been given +to the public. Since his death a personal friend of his has written, +that, on this occasion, "he told Lord Palmerston, in answer to +remonstrances against his decision to decline the honor, that he had +always regarded his Lordship as one of the most dangerous ministers +England could possibly have, and that his views had not undergone the +slightest change. He felt that it would be doing violence to his own +sense of duty, and injuring his own character for consistency in the +eyes of his countrymen, to profess to act with a minister to whom he had +all along been opposed on public grounds."</p> + +<p>Mr. Cobden's next great service was in bringing about the treaty of free +commerce with France, a service which has endeared him to the French +beyond all English statesmen, and which brought him from the Queen the +offer of a Baronetcy, which he declined, as he also did in January last +Mr. Gladstone's offer of the chairmanship of the Board of Audit, at a +salary of two thousand pounds. Well might Gladstone say of him, as he +did,—"Rare is the privilege of any man who, having fourteen years ago +rendered to his country one signal and splendid service, now again, +within the same brief span of life, decorated neither by rank nor title, +bearing no mark to distinguish him from the people whom he loves, has +been permitted to perform a great and memorable service to his sovereign +and to his country."</p> + +<p>By the death of Mr. Cobden America has lost one of her truest friends, +one who in all this conflict, which has been reflected in England in a +fierce warfare of parties, has been in the thick or the fight, "the +white plume of Navarre." Nothing told more for the American cause in +Europe than the celebrated speech of Cobden, made at the time when the +busy Southerners were trying to show that the war was not for Slavery, +but Free Trade, in which he declared that he had found the Southerners, +and Jefferson Davis himself, whom he had visited, utterly indifferent to +the Free Trade movement. He was accustomed to speak of American affairs +as an American. I well remember his vehement expressions of feeling +concerning the McClellan campaign in Virginia,—in connection with which +he told me that he was at one time travelling with Jefferson Davis and +McClellan together, and that Davis whispered to him, that, in case of +war, "That man [McClellan] is one of the first we should put into +service." I thought Mr. Cobden inclined to attribute McClellan's +failures to something worse than incapacity. But this is only one +instance of the way in which he followed our war-steps, and was +interested in the subordinate questions which are usually interesting +only to Americans. It is with a melancholy pleasure that we now know +that his last public utterance was the letter on American affairs to our +minister at Copenhagen, which reached England in the American papers the +day before his death,—and that one of his last acts was to send from +his death-bed a contribution to a poor and paralyzed American sailor who +with his family was suffering in London, without any personal appeal +having been made to him. These were the last pulses of a heart that beat +only for humanity.</p> + +<p>Mr. Cobden was one of the finest speakers I have ever heard. There was a +play as of summer lightning about his eloquence, which, whilst it did +not strike and crash opponents, was purifying the atmosphere of the +debate, and lightning up every detail of fact, so that error could not +flourish in his presence,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_729" id="Page_729">[Pg 729]</a></span> nor even well hide itself. There was a +terseness and massiveness in his speech, curiously blended with subtilty +and fervor. A question of finance would grow pathetic under his touch, +and he could create a soul under the ribs of statistics. He might vie +with Lowell's ideal Jonathan for "calculating fanaticism" and "cast-iron +enthusiasm." But, after all, what more need be said than the epitaph +proposed for his grave: "<i>He gave the people bread</i>"?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="MODERN_IMPROVEMENTS_AND_OUR_NATIONAL_DEBT" id="MODERN_IMPROVEMENTS_AND_OUR_NATIONAL_DEBT"></a>MODERN IMPROVEMENTS AND OUR NATIONAL DEBT.</h2> + + +<p>At the commencement of the Rebellion it was the general opinion of +statesmen and financiers in other countries, and the opinion of many +among ourselves, that our resources were inadequate to a long +continuance of the war, and that it must soon terminate under pecuniary +exhaustion, if from no other cause. Our experience has shown that this +view was fallacious. After having sustained for several years the +largest army known to modern times, our available resources seem to be +unimpaired. The country is, indeed, largely in debt; but its powers of +production are so great that it can undoubtedly meet all future demands +as easily as it has met those of the past.</p> + +<p>The ability or inability of a nation engaged in war to sustain heavy +public expenses is to be measured not so much by its nominal debt as by +the relation which the sum of its <i>production</i> bears to that of its +necessary <i>consumption</i>. A nation heavily in debt may continue to make +large public expenditures and still prosper and increase in wealth, if +its powers of production are correspondingly large also. It is a fact of +the most encouraging kind, that the power of production exhibited by the +United States far exceeds, in proportion to their population, that of +any other nation heretofore involved in a long and costly war. The case +which most nearly approaches ours, in this regard, is that of England, +during her war with Napoleon, from 1803 to 1815. But since the +termination of that long contest, the progress of discovery, +improvements in the machinery and in the processes of manufacture, more +effective implements of agriculture, the general introduction of +railways,<a name="FNanchor_H_8" id="FNanchor_H_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_H_8" class="fnanchor">[H]</a> and other time- and labor-saving agencies, together with +the constantly increasing influence of the applied sciences, have so +augmented the productive power of humanity, that the experience of the +most advanced nations fifty years ago furnishes no adequate criterion of +what the United States can do now.</p> + +<p>It is not easy to determine the precise ratio in which production has +been increased by these instrumentalities. It is unquestionably very +large,—not less, probably, than threefold. That is to say, a given +population, including all ages and conditions, can produce the articles +necessary for its subsistence, such as food, clothing, and shelter, to +an extent three times as great, with these agencies, as it could produce +without them. Hence it appears, that, if the people of the loyal States +could return to the standard of living that prevailed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_730" id="Page_730">[Pg 730]</a></span> fifty years ago, +the amount of their production would be sufficient to subsist not only +themselves, but twice as many more in addition. To accomplish this, they +would have, indeed, to devote themselves more to the production of +articles of prime necessity and less to those of mere ornament and +luxury. That they have the productive energy necessary to such a result +there can be no doubt.</p> + +<p>This encouraging view of our condition is fully sustained by official +statements, which show that the industrial products of the country +increase in a greater ratio than the population. In 1850 the aggregate +value of the products of agriculture, mining, manufactures, and the +mechanic arts, in the United States, was $2,345,000.000. In 1860 the +aggregate was $3,756,000,000. This is an increase in ten years of sixty +per cent, whereas the increase of population during that decade was only +thirty-five and a half per cent. Thus we see that during the ten years +ending with 1860—the date of the last census—the products of the +industry of the country increased almost twice as fast as the population +increased. If to this we add the remarkable fact that the value of +taxable property increased during the same period <i>a hundred and +twenty-six</i> per cent, we have striking proof of the existence of a vast +and rapidly increasing productive power,—a power largely due to the +influence of those improvements which have been alluded to.</p> + +<p>One obvious effect of war is to transfer a portion of labor from the +sphere of effective <i>production</i> to that of extraordinary <i>consumption</i>. +To what extent the relations of production and consumption among us have +been changed during the present contest it is impossible to state. That +consumption has been largely increased by our military operations is +apparent to all. It is equally apparent that production also has been +augmented, though not, perhaps, to the same extent. The extraordinary +demand for various commodities for war purposes has brought all the +producing agencies of the country into a high state of activity and +efficiency, giving to the loyal States a larger aggregate production +than they had before the war. Of mining and manufactures this is +unquestionably true. As regards the products of the soil, the +Commissioner of Agriculture, in his Report for 1863, says,—"Although +the year just closed has been a year of war on the part of the Republic, +over a wider field and on a grander scale than any recorded in history, +yet, strange as it may appear, the great interests of agriculture have +not materially suffered in the loyal States.... Notwithstanding there +have been over a million of men employed in the army and navy, withdrawn +chiefly from the producing classes, and liberally fed, clothed, and paid +by the Government, yet the yield of most of the great staples of +agriculture for 1863 exceeds that of 1862.... This wonderful fact of +history—a young republic carrying on a gigantic war on its own +territory and coasts, and at the same time not only feeding itself and +foreign nations, but furnishing vast quantities of raw materials for +commerce and manufactures—proves that we are essentially an +agricultural people; that three years of war have not as yet seriously +disturbed, but rather increased, industrial pursuits; and that the +withdrawal of agricultural labor, and the loss of life by disease and +battle, have been more than compensated by <i>machinery</i> and maturing +growth at home, and by the increased influx of immigration from abroad."</p> + +<p>In illustration of the character of those agencies to which we owe the +remarkable and gratifying results thus portrayed by the Commissioner, I +give the following official statement in regard to two of the more +prominent modern implements of agriculture. Mr. Kennedy, in his Census +Report for 1860, informs us "that a threshing-machine in Ohio, worked by +three men, with some assistance from the farm hands, did the work of +seventy flails, and that thirty steam-threshers only were required to +prepare for market the wheat crop of two counties in Ohio,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_731" id="Page_731">[Pg 731]</a></span> which would +have required the labor of forty thousand men." As it took probably less +than two hundred men to work the machines, the immense saving in human +labor becomes instantly apparent.</p> + +<p>Again, in his last Patent-Office Report, Mr. Holloway states "that from +reliable returns in his possession it is shown that forty thousand +reapers were manufactured and sold in 1863, and that it is estimated by +the manufacturers that over ninety thousand will be required to meet the +demand for 1864"; and these machines, he says, will save the labor of +four hundred and fifty thousand men.</p> + +<p>If the aggregate produce of the loyal States, notwithstanding the large +amount of labor that has been withdrawn from production by the demands +of the war, is actually greater than ever before, and if, as we have +already shown, the sum of that produce is three times as great as the +people of those States, using proper economy, would <i>necessarily</i> +consume, surely no one should feel any anxiety in regard to the ability +of the United States to meet all their pecuniary obligations.</p> + +<p>I have already said that England, in her war with Napoleon, furnishes +the best criterion in history for judging of our own financial +situation; and though the two cases are far from running parallel to +each other, it may be interesting to compare them in some of their +aspects.</p> + +<p>At the restoration of peace in 1815, the national debt of England +amounted in Federal currency to $4,305,000,000. It is impossible as yet +to say what will be the ultimate amount of our national debt. It amounts +now to rather more than one half of the debt of Great Britain, and, at +its present ratio of increase, it will take nearly four years more to +make our debt equal to hers.</p> + +<p>Now, for the purposes of this statement, let us assume that it will take +four years more to finish the war and to adjust and settle all its +contingent claims, and that at the close of that period, say in 1869, we +shall be at peace, with a restored Union, and with a national debt as +large as that of England when peace returned to her in 1815,—how will +the ability of this country to sustain and pay its debt compare with the +ability of England to do the same at the time above referred to?</p> + +<p>The simple fact that England was able to assume so vast a debt, and to +sustain the burden through half a century, during which her prosperity +has scarcely known abatement, and her wealth has been constantly and +largely increasing, ought to satisfy every American citizen that his own +country can at least do as well. But we can do more and better; for a +comparison of the two countries in the matter of ability shows that the +preponderance is greatly in our favor.</p> + +<p>At the respective periods of comparison just named, to wit, 1815 and +1869, the population of the United Kingdom of Great Britain was less +than <i>one half</i> of what the population of the United States will be, and +its amount of foreign trade was less than <i>one third</i>. In 1815 the +"factory system" was in its infancy and imperfectly organized, the +steam-engine was unperfected and in comparatively limited use. The +railway, the steamboat, the telegraph, the reaper, the thresher, and +many other important improvements and discoveries which tend to augment +the productive power of nations, have all come since that day. So far as +relates to the question of ability to sustain heavy financial burdens, +England, in 1815, can hardly be compared for a moment with a country +like our own, possessing as it does, in abundance and perfection, the +potent agencies of productive and distributing power just referred to.</p> + +<p>It is true that England is now enjoying, to a large extent, the benefit +of these important agencies; but she had to supply the capital to create +them, after she had assumed the maximum of her enormous debt,—whereas +those agencies were all in active operation among us before any part of +our national debt was incurred. I hardly need suggest that it makes a +vast difference<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_732" id="Page_732">[Pg 732]</a></span> whether a nation has or has not these material +advantages at the time when it is contracting a heavy debt, and that our +position in this respect, so far as the question of ability is +concerned, is a position of immeasurable superiority.</p> + +<p>In regard to the paying of our debt after the return of peace, we +possess some decided advantages, to which I will very briefly allude. Of +these the most obvious are, a greater ratio in the increase of +population, and more extensive natural resources. During the decade +which ended in 1861, the population of the United Kingdom of Great +Britain increased from 27,495,297 to 29,049,540, or less than <i>six per +cent.</i> In the ten years which ended in 1860, our increase of population +was from 23,191,876 to 31,445,089, or <i>thirty-five and a half per cent</i>. +Thus it appears that during the last ten years for which we have +official returns, the population of the United States increased in a +ratio sixfold greater than that of the United Kingdom. This disparity in +our favor will undoubtedly increase from year to year.</p> + +<p>The home territory of Great Britain is quite inadequate to support even +her present population. This circumstance places that country in a +position of comparative dependence. While she <i>must</i> draw from other +countries a very considerable proportion of her breadstuffs and other +provisions, we supply not only ourselves, but others largely also. The +money which England pays to other nations for bread alone would equal in +thirty years the entire amount of her national debt.</p> + +<p>We need but a resolute and united purpose to sustain with comparative +ease our national burdens, whatever may be their extent. Those who doubt +this under-estimate not only the magnitude of our national resources, +but the powerful aid which modern improvements lend to their +development.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_H_8" id="Footnote_H_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_H_8"><span class="label">[H]</span></a> Some estimate of the influence of railways alone may be +formed by reference to the following statement, which occurs in an +address of Robert Stephenson before the Institution of Civil Engineers, +in 1856:— +</p><p> +"The result, then, is, that, upon the existing traffic of the United +Kingdom of Great Britain, railways are affecting a direct saving to the +people of not less than forty million pounds per annum; and that sum +exceeds by about fifty per cent the entire interest of our national +debt. It may be said, therefore, that the railway system neutralizes to +the people the bad effects of the debt with which the state is +incumbered. It places us in as good position as if the debt did not +exist."</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_CHIMNEY-CORNER" id="THE_CHIMNEY-CORNER"></a>THE CHIMNEY-CORNER.</h2> + +<h3>VI.</h3> + + +<h3>LITTLE FOXES.—PART V.</h3> + +<h4>INTOLERANCE.</h4> + +<p>"And what are you going to preach about this month, Mr. Crowfield?"</p> + +<p>"I am going to give a sermon on <i>Intolerance</i>, Mrs. Crowfield."</p> + +<p>"Religious intolerance?"</p> + +<p>"No,—domestic and family and educational intolerance,—one of the seven +deadly sins on which I am preaching,—one of 'the foxes.'"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>People are apt to talk as if all the intolerance in life were got up and +expended in the religious world; whereas religious intolerance is only a +small branch of the radical, strong, all-pervading intolerance of human +nature.</p> + +<p>Physicians are quite as intolerant as theologians. They never have had +the power of burning at the stake for medical opinions, but they +certainly have shown the will. Politicians are intolerant. Philosophers +are intolerant, especially those who pique themselves on liberal +opinions. Painters and sculptors are intolerant. And housekeepers are +intolerant, virulently denunciatory concerning any departures from their +particular domestic creed.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Alexander Exact, seated at her domestic altar, gives homilies on +the degeneracy of modern housekeeping equal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_733" id="Page_733">[Pg 733]</a></span> to the lamentations of Dr. +Holdfast as to the falling off from the good old faith.</p> + +<p>"Don't tell me about pillow-cases made without felling," says Mrs. +Alexander; "it's slovenly and shiftless. I wouldn't have such a +pillow-case in my house any more than I'd have vermin."</p> + +<p>"But," says a trembling young housekeeper, conscious of unfelled +pillow-cases at home, "don't you think, Mrs. Alexander, that some of +these old traditions might be dispensed with? It really is not necessary +to do all the work that has been done so thoroughly and exactly,—to +double-stitch every wristband, fell every seam, count all the threads of +gathers, and take a stitch to every gather. It makes beautiful sewing, +to be sure; but when a woman has a family of little children and a small +income, if all her sewing is to be kept up in this perfect style, she +wears her life out in stitching. Had she not better slight a little, and +get air and exercise?"</p> + +<p>"Don't tell me about air and exercise! What did my grandmother do? Why, +she did all her own work, and made grandfather's ruffled shirts besides, +with the finest stitching and gathers; and she found exercise enough, I +warrant you. Women of this day are miserable, sickly, degenerate +creatures."</p> + +<p>"But, my dear Madam, look at poor Mrs. Evans, over the way, with her +pale face and her eight little ones."</p> + +<p>"Miserable manager," said Mrs. Alexander. "If she'd get up at five +o'clock the year round, as I do, she'd find time enough to do things +properly, and be the better for it."</p> + +<p>"But, my dear Madam, Mrs. Evans is a very delicately organized, nervous +woman."</p> + +<p>"Nervous! Don't tell me! Every woman nowadays is nervous. She can't get +up in the morning, because she's nervous. She can't do her sewing +decently, because she's nervous. Why, I might have been as nervous as +she is, if I'd have petted and coddled myself as she does. But I get up +early, take a walk in the fresh air of a mile or so before breakfast, +and come home feeling the better for it. I do all my own sewing,—never +put out a stitch; and I flatter myself my things are made as they ought +to be. I always make my boys' shirts and Mr. Exact's, and they are made +as shirts ought to be,—and yet I find plenty of time for calling, +shopping, business, and company. It only requires management and +resolution."</p> + +<p>"It is perfectly wonderful, to be sure, Mrs. Exact, to see all that you +do; but don't you get very tired sometimes?"</p> + +<p>"No, not often. I remember, though, the week before last Christmas, I +made and baked eighteen pies and ten loaves of cake in one day, and I +was really quite worn out; but I didn't give way to it. I told Mr. Exact +I thought it would rest me to take a drive into New York and attend the +Sanitary Fair, and so we did. I suppose Mrs. Evans would have thought +she must go to bed and coddle herself for a month."</p> + +<p>"But, dear Mrs. Exact, when a woman is kept awake nights by crying +babies"—</p> + +<p>"There's no need of having crying babies; my babies never cried; it's +just as you begin with children. I might have had to be up and down +every hour of the night with mine, just as Mrs. Evans does; but I knew +better. I used to take 'em up about ten o'clock, and feed and make 'em +all comfortable; and that was the last of 'em, till I was ready to get +up in the morning. I never lost a night's sleep with any of mine."</p> + +<p>"Not when they were teething?"</p> + +<p>"No. I knew how to manage that. I used to lance their gums myself, and I +never had any trouble: it's all in management. I weaned 'em all myself, +too: there's no use in having any fuss in weaning children."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Exact, you are a wonderful manager; but it would be impossible to +bring up all babies so."</p> + +<p>"You'll never make me believe that: people only need to begin right. I'm +sure I've had a trial of eight."</p> + +<p>"But there's that one baby of Mrs. Evans's makes more trouble than all +your eight. It cries every night so that somebody has to be up walking +with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_734" id="Page_734">[Pg 734]</a></span> it; it wears out all the nurses, and keeps poor Mrs. Evans sick +all the time."</p> + +<p>"Not the least need of it; nothing but shiftless management. Suppose I +had allowed my children to be walked with; I might have had terrible +times, too; but I began right. I set down my foot that they should lie +still, and they did; and if they cried, I never lighted a candle, or +took 'em up, or took any kind of notice of it; and so, after a little, +they went off to sleep. Babies very soon find out where they can take +advantage, and where they can't. It's nothing but temper makes babies +cry; and if I couldn't hush 'em any other way, I should give 'em a few +good smart slaps, and they would soon learn to behave themselves."</p> + +<p>"But, dear Mrs. Exact, you were a strong, healthy woman, and had strong, +healthy children."</p> + +<p>"Well, isn't that baby of Mrs. Evans's healthy, I want to know? I'm sure +it is a great creature, and thrives and grows fat as fast as ever I saw +a child. You needn't tell me anything is the matter with that child but +temper, and its mother's coddling management."</p> + +<p>Now, in the neighborhood where she lives, Mrs. Alexander Exact is the +wonderful woman, the Lady Bountiful, the pattern female. Her cake never +rises on one side, or has a heavy streak in it. Her furs never get a +moth in them; her carpets never fade; her sweetmeats never ferment; her +servants never neglect their work; her children never get things out of +order; her babies never cry, never keep one awake o' nights; and her +husband never in his life said, "My dear, there's a button off my +shirt." Flies never infest her kitchen, cockroaches and red ants never +invade her premises, a spider never had time to spin a web on one of her +walls. Everything in her establishment is shining with neatness, crisp +and bristling with absolute perfection,—and it is she, the +ever-up-and-dressed, unsleeping, wide-awake, omnipresent, never-tiring +Mrs. Exact, that does it all.</p> + +<p>Besides keeping her household ways thus immaculate, Mrs. Exact is on all +sorts of charitable committees, does all sorts of fancy-work for fairs; +and whatever she does is done perfectly. She is a most available, most +helpful, most benevolent woman, and general society has reason to +rejoice in her existence.</p> + +<p>But, for all this, Mrs. Exact is as intolerant as Torquemada or a +locomotive-engine. She has her own track, straight and inevitable; her +judgments and opinions cut through society in right lines, with all the +force of her example and all the steam of her energy, turning out +neither for the old nor the young, the weak nor the weary. She cannot, +and she will not, conceive the possibility that there may be other sorts +of natures than her own, and that other kinds of natures must have other +ways of living and doing.</p> + +<p>Good and useful as she is, she is terrible as an army with banners to +her poor, harassed, delicate, struggling neighbor across the way, who, +in addition to an aching, confused head, an aching back, sleepless, +harassed nights, and weary, sinking days, is burdened everywhere and +every hour with the thought that Mrs. Exact thinks all her troubles are +nothing but poor management, and that she might do just like her, if she +would. With very little self-confidence or self-assertion, she is +withered and paralyzed by this discouraging thought. <i>Is</i> it, then, her +fault that this never-sleeping baby cries all night, and that all her +children never could and never would be brought up by those exact rules +which she hears of as so efficacious in the household over the way? The +thought of Mrs. Alexander Exact stands over her like a constable; the +remembrance of her is grievous; the burden of her opinion is heavier +than all her other burdens.</p> + +<p>Now the fact is, that Mrs. Exact comes of a long-lived, strong-backed, +strong-stomached race, with "limbs of British oak and nerves of wire." +The shadow of a sensation of nervous pain or uneasiness never has been +known in her family for generations, and her judgments of poor little +Mrs. Evans are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_735" id="Page_735">[Pg 735]</a></span> about as intelligent as those of a good stout Shanghai +hen on a humming-bird. Most useful and comfortable, these Shanghai +hens,—and very ornamental, and in a small way useful, these +humming-birds; but let them not regulate each other's diet, or lay down +schemes for each other's housekeeping. Has not one as much right to its +nature as the other?</p> + +<p>This intolerance of other people's natures is one of the greatest causes +of domestic unhappiness. The perfect householders are they who make +their household rule so flexible that all sorts of differing natures may +find room to grow and expand and express themselves without infringing +upon others.</p> + +<p>Some women are endowed with a tact for understanding human nature and +guiding it. They give a sense of largeness and freedom; they find a +place for every one, see at once what every one is good for, and are +inspired by Nature with the happy wisdom of not wishing or asking of any +human being more than that human being was made to give. They have the +portion in due season for all: a bone for the dog; catnip for the cat; +cuttle-fish and hemp-seed for the bird; a book or review for their +bashful literary visitor; lively gossip for thoughtless Miss Seventeen; +knitting for Grandmamma; fishing-rods, boats, and gunpowder for Young +Restless, whose beard is just beginning to grow;—and they never fall +into pets, because the canary-bird won't relish the dog's bone, or the +dog eat canary-seed, or young Miss Seventeen read old Mr. Sixty's +review, or young Master Restless take delight in knitting-work, or old +Grandmamma feel complacency in guns and gunpowder.</p> + +<p>Again, there are others who lay the foundations of family life so +narrow, straight, and strict, that there is room in them only for +themselves and people exactly like themselves; and hence comes much +misery.</p> + +<p>A man and woman come together out of different families and races, often +united by only one or two sympathies, with many differences. Their first +wisdom would be to find out each other's nature, and accommodate to it +as a fixed fact; instead of which, how many spend their lives in a blind +fight with an opposite nature, as good as their own in its way, but not +capable of meeting their requirements!</p> + +<p>A woman trained in an exact, thriving, business family, where her father +and brothers bore everything along with true worldly skill and energy, +falls in love with a literary man, who knows nothing of affairs, whose +life is in his library and his pen. Shall she vex and torment herself +and him because he is not a business man? Shall she constantly hold up +to him the example of her father and brothers, and how they would manage +in this and that case? or shall she say cheerily and once for all to +herself,—"My husband has no talent for business; that is not his forte; +but then he has talents far more interesting: I cannot have everything; +let him go on undisturbed, and do what he can do well, and let me try to +make up for what he cannot do; and if there be disabilities come on us +in consequence of what we neither of us can do, let us both take them +cheerfully"?</p> + +<p>In the same manner a man takes out of the bosom of an adoring family one +of those delicate, petted singing-birds that seem to be created simply +to adorn life and make it charming. Is it fair, after he has got her, to +compare her housekeeping, and her efficiency and capability in the +material part of life, with those of his mother and sisters, who are +strong-limbed, practical women, that have never thought about anything +but housekeeping from their cradle? Shall he all the while vex himself +and her with the remembrance of how his mother used to get up at five +o'clock and arrange all the business of the day,—how she kept all the +accounts,—how she saw to everything and settled everything,—how there +never were break-downs or irregularities in her system?</p> + +<p>This would be unfair. If a man wanted such a housekeeper, why did he not +get one? There were plenty of single<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_736" id="Page_736">[Pg 736]</a></span> women, who understood washing, +ironing, clear-starching, cooking, and general housekeeping, better than +the little canary-bird which he fell in love with, and wanted for her +plumage and her song, for her merry tricks, for her bright eyes and +pretty ways. Now he has got his bird, let him keep it as something fine +and precious, to be cared for and watched over, and treated according to +the laws of its frail and delicate nature; and so treating it, he may +many years keep the charms which first won his heart. He may find, too, +if he watches and is careful, that a humming-bird can, in its own small, +dainty way, build a nest as efficiently as a turkey-gobbler, and hatch +her eggs and bring up her young in humming-bird fashion; but to do it, +she must be left unfrightened and undisturbed.</p> + +<p>But the evils of domestic intolerance increase with the birth of +children. As parents come together out of different families with +ill-assorted peculiarities, so children are born to them with natures +differing from their own and from each other.</p> + +<p>The parents seize on their first new child as a piece of special +property which they are forthwith to turn to their own account. The poor +little waif, just drifted on the shores of Time, has perhaps folded up +in it a character as positive as that of either parent; but, for all +that, its future course is marked out for it, all arranged and +predetermined.</p> + +<p>John has a perfect mania for literary distinction. His own education was +somewhat imperfect, but he is determined his children shall be +prodigies. His first-born turns out a girl, who is to write like Madame +de Staël,—to be an able, accomplished woman. He bores her with +literature from her earliest years, reads extracts from Milton to her +when she is only eight years old and is secretly longing to be playing +with her doll's wardrobe. He multiplies governesses, spares no expense, +and when, after all, his daughter turns out to be only a very pretty, +sensible, domestic girl, fond of cross-stitching embroidery, and with a +more decided vocation for sponge-cake and pickles than for poetry and +composition, he is disappointed and treats her coldly; and she is +unhappy and feels that she has vexed her parents, because she cannot be +what Nature never meant her to be. If John had taken meekly the present +that Mother Nature gave him, and humbly set himself to inquire what it +was and what it was good for, he might have had years of happiness with +a modest, amiable, and domestic daughter, to whom had been given the +instinct to study household good.</p> + +<p>But, again, a bustling, pickling, preserving, stocking-knitting, +universal-housekeeping woman has a daughter who dreams over her +knitting-work and hides a book under her sampler,—whose thoughts are +straying in Greece, Rome, Germany,—who is reading, studying, thinking, +writing, without knowing why; and the mother sets herself to fight this +nature, and to make the dreamy scholar into a driving, thorough-going, +exact woman-of-business. How many tears are shed, how much temper +wasted, how much time lost, in such encounters!</p> + +<p>Each of these natures, under judicious training, might be made to +complete itself by cultivation of that which it lacked. The born +housekeeper can never be made a genius, but she may add to her household +virtues some reasonable share of literary culture and appreciation,—and +the born scholar may learn to come down out of her clouds, and see +enough of this earth to walk its practical ways without stumbling; but +this must be done by tolerance of their nature,—by giving it play and +room,—first recognizing its existence and its rights, and then seeking +to add to it the properties it wants.</p> + +<p>A driving Yankee housekeeper, fruitful of resources, can work with any +tools or with no tools at all. If she absolutely cannot get a +tack-hammer with a claw on one end, she can take up carpet-nails with an +iron spoon, and drive them down with a flat-iron; and she has sense +enough not to scold, though she does her work with them at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_737" id="Page_737">[Pg 737]</a></span> considerable +disadvantage. She knows that she is working with tools made to do +something else, and never thinks of being angry at their unhandiness. +She might have equal patience with a daughter unhandy in physical +things, but acute and skilful in mental ones, if she once had the idea +suggested to her.</p> + +<p>An ambitious man has a son whom he destines to a learned profession. He +is to be the Daniel Webster of the family. The boy has a robust, +muscular frame, great physical vigor and enterprise, a brain bright and +active in all that may be acquired through the bodily senses, but which +is dull and confused and wandering when put to abstract book-knowledge. +He knows every ship at the wharf, her build, tonnage, and sailing +qualities; he knows every railroad-engine, its power, speed, and hours +of coming and going; he is always busy, sawing, hammering, planing, +digging, driving, making bargains, with his head full of plans, all +relating to something outward and physical. In all these matters his +mind works strongly, his ideas are clear, his observation acute, his +conversation sensible and worth listening to. But as to the distinction +between common nouns and proper nouns, between the subject and the +predicate of a sentence, between the relative pronoun and the +demonstrative adjective pronoun, between the perfect and the +preter-perfect tense, he is extremely dull and hazy. The region of +abstract ideas is to him a region of ghosts and shadows. Yet his youth +is mainly a dreary wilderness of uncomprehended, incomprehensible +studies, of privations, tasks, punishments, with a sense of continual +failure, disappointment, and disgrace, because his father is trying to +make a scholar and a literary man out of a boy whom Nature made to till +the soil or manage the material forces of the world. He might be a +farmer, an engineer, a pioneer of a new settlement, a sailor, a soldier, +a thriving man of business; but he grows up feeling that his nature is a +crime, and that he is good for nothing, because he is not good for what +he had been blindly predestined to before he was born.</p> + +<p>Another boy is a born mechanic; he understands machinery at a glance; he +is all the while pondering and studying and experimenting. But his +wheels and his axles and his pulleys are all swept away, as so much +irrelevant lumber; he is doomed to go into the Latin School, and spend +three or four years in trying to learn what he never can learn +well,—disheartened by always being at the tail of his class, and seeing +many a boy inferior to himself in general culture who is rising to +brilliant distinction simply because he can remember those hopeless, +bewildering Greek quantities and accents which he is constantly +forgetting,—as, for example, how properispomena become paroxytones when +the ultimate becomes long, and proparoxytones become paroxytones when +the ultimate becomes long, while paroxytones with a short penult remain +paroxytones. Each of this class of rules, however, having about sixteen +exceptions, which hold good except in three or four other exceptional +cases under them, the labyrinth becomes delightfully wilder and wilder; +and the crowning beauty of the whole is, that, when the bewildered boy +has swallowed the whole,—tail, scales, fins, and bones,—he then is +allowed to read the classics in peace, without the slightest occasion to +refer to them again during his college course.</p> + +<p>The great trouble with the so-called classical course of education is, +that it is made strictly for but one class of minds, which it drills in +respects for which they have by nature an aptitude, and to which it +presents scarcely enough of difficulty to make it a mental discipline, +while to another and equally valuable class of minds it presents +difficulties so great as actually to crush and discourage. There are, we +will venture to say, in every ten boys in Boston four, and those not the +dullest or poorest in quality, who could never go through the discipline +of the Boston Latin School without such a strain on the brain and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_738" id="Page_738">[Pg 738]</a></span> +nervous system as would leave them no power for anything else.</p> + +<p>A bright, intelligent boy, whose talents lay in the line of natural +philosophy and mechanics, passed with brilliant success through the +Boston English High School. He won the first medals, and felt all that +pride and enthusiasm which belong to a successful student. He entered +the Latin Classical School. With a large philosophic and reasoning +brain, he had a very poor verbal and textual memory; and here he began +to see himself distanced by boys who had hitherto looked up to him. They +could rattle off catalogues of names; they could do so all the better +from the habit of not thinking of what they studied. They could commit +the Latin Grammar, coarse print and fine, and run through the +interminable mazes of Greek accents and Greek inflections. This boy of +large mind and brain, always behindhand, always incapable, utterly +discouraged, no amount of study could place on an equality with his +former inferiors. His health failed, and he dropped from school. Many a +fine fellow has been lost to himself, and lost to an educated life, by +just such a failure. The collegiate system is like a great coal-screen: +every piece not of a certain size must fall through. This may do well +enough for screening coal; but what if it were used indiscriminately for +a mixture of coal and diamonds?</p> + +<p>"Poor boy!" said Ole Bull, compassionately, when one sought to push a +schoolboy from the steps of an omnibus, where he was getting a +surreptitious ride. "Poor boy! let him stay. Who knows his trials? +Perhaps he studies Latin."</p> + +<p>The witty Heinrich Heine says, in bitter remembrance of his early +sufferings,—"The Romans would never have conquered the world, if they +had had to learn their own language. They had leisure, because they were +born with the knowledge of what nouns form their accusatives in <i>im</i>."</p> + +<p>Now we are not among those who decry the Greek and Latin classics. We +think it a glorious privilege to read both those grand old tongues, and +that an intelligent, cultivated man who is shut out from the converse of +the splendid minds of those olden times loses a part of his birthright; +and therefore it is that we mourn that but one dry, hard, technical +path, one sharp, straight, narrow way, is allowed into so goodly a land +of knowledge. We think there is no need that the study of Greek and +Latin should be made such a horror. There is many a man without a verbal +memory, who could neither recite in order the paradigms of the Greek +verbs, nor repeat the lists of nouns that form their accusative in one +termination or another, who, nevertheless, by the exercise of his +faculties of comparison and reasoning, could learn to read the Greek and +Latin classics so as to take their sense and enjoy their spirit; and +that is all that they are worth caring for. We have known one young +scholar, who could not by any possibility repeat the lists of exceptions +to the rules in the Latin Grammar, who yet delightedly filled his +private note-book with quotations from the "Æneid," and was making +extracts of literary gems from his Greek Reader, at the same time that +he was every day "screwed" by his tutor upon some technical point of the +language.</p> + +<p>Is there not many a master of English, many a writer and orator, who +could not repeat from memory the list of nouns ending in <i>y</i> that form +their plural in <i>ies</i>, with the exceptions under it? How many of us +could do this? Would it help a good writer and fluent speaker to know +the whole of Murray's Grammar by heart, or does real knowledge of a +language ever come in this way?</p> + +<p>At present the rich stores of ancient literature are kept like the +savory stew which poor Dominie Sampson heard simmering in the witch's +kettle. One may have much appetite, but there is but one way of getting +it. The Meg Merrilies of our educational system, with her harsh voice, +and her "Gape, sinner, and swallow," is the only introduction,—and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_739" id="Page_739">[Pg 739]</a></span> so, +many a one turns and runs frightened from the feast.</p> + +<p>This intolerant mode of teaching the classical languages is peculiar to +them alone. Multitudes of girls and boys are learning to read and to +speak German, French, and Italian, and to feel all the delights of +expatiating in the literature of a new language, purely because of a +simpler, more natural, less pedantic mode of teaching these languages.</p> + +<p>Intolerance in the established system of education works misery in +families, because family pride decrees that every boy of good status in +society, will he, nill he, shall go through college, or he almost +forfeits his position as a gentleman.</p> + +<p>"Not go to Cambridge!" says Scholasticus to his first-born. "Why, I went +there,—and my father, and his father, and his father before him. Look +at the Cambridge Catalogue and you will see the names of our family ever +since the College was founded!"</p> + +<p>"But I can't learn Latin and Greek," says young Scholasticus. "I can't +remember all those rules and exceptions. I've tried, and I can't. If you +could only know how my head feels when I try! And I won't be at the foot +of the class all the time, if I have to get my living by digging."</p> + +<p>Suppose, now, the boy is pushed on at the point of the bayonet to a kind +of knowledge in which he has no interest, communicated in a way that +requires faculties which Nature has not given him,—what occurs?</p> + +<p>He goes through his course, either shamming, shirking, parrying, all the +while consciously discredited and dishonored,—or else putting forth an +effort that is a draft on all his nervous energy, he makes merely a +decent scholar, and loses his health for life.</p> + +<p>Now, if the principle of toleration were once admitted into classical +education,—if it were admitted that the great object is to read and +enjoy a language, and the stress of the teaching were placed on the few +things absolutely essential to this result,—if the tortoise were +allowed time to creep, and the bird permitted to fly, and the fish to +swim, towards the enchanted and divine sources of Helicon,—all might in +their own way arrive there, and rejoice in its flowers, its beauty, and +its coolness.</p> + +<p>"But," say the advocates of the present system, "it is good mental +discipline."</p> + +<p>I doubt it. It is mere waste of time.</p> + +<p>When a boy has learned that in the genitive plural of the first +declension of Greek nouns the final syllable is circumflexed, but to +this there are the following exceptions: 1. That feminine adjectives and +participles in -ος, -η, -ον are accented like the genitive +masculine, but other feminine adjectives and participles are perispomena +in the genitive plural; 2. That the substantives <i>chrestes</i>, <i>aphue</i>, +<i>etesiai</i>, and <i>chlounes</i> in the genitive plural remain paroxytones, +(Kühner's <i>Elementary Greek Grammar</i>, page 22,)—I say, when a boy has +learned this and twenty other things just like it, his mind has not been +one whit more disciplined than if he had learned the list of the old +thirteen States, the number and names of the newly adopted ones, the +times of their adoption, and the population, commerce, mineral and +agricultural wealth of each. These, too, are merely exercises of memory, +but they are exercises in what is of some interest and some use.</p> + +<p>The particulars above cited are of so little use in understanding the +Greek classics that I will venture to say that there are intelligent +English scholars, who have never read anything but Bohn's translations, +who have more genuine knowledge of the spirit of the Greek mind, and the +peculiar idioms of the language, and more enthusiasm for it, than many a +poor fellow who has stumbled blindly through the originals with the +bayonet of the tutor at his heels, and his eyes and ears full of the +Scotch snuff of the Greek Grammar.</p> + +<p>What then? Shall we not learn these ancient tongues? By all means. "So +many times as I learn a language, so many times I become a man," said +Charles V.; and he said rightly. Latin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_740" id="Page_740">[Pg 740]</a></span> and Greek are foully belied by +the prejudices created by this technical, pedantic mode of teaching +them, which makes one ragged, prickly bundle of all the dry facts of the +language, and insists upon it that the boy shall not see one glimpse of +its beauty, glory, or interest, till he has swallowed and digested the +whole mass. Many die in this wilderness with their shoes worn out before +reaching the Promised Land of Plato and the Tragedians.</p> + +<p>"But," say our college authorities, "look at England. An English +schoolboy learns three times the Latin and Greek that our boys learn, +and has them well drubbed in."</p> + +<p>And English boys have three times more beef and pudding in their +constitution than American boys have, and three times less of nerves. +The difference of nature must be considered here; and the constant +influence flowing from English schools and universities must be tempered +by considering who we are, what sort of boys we have to deal with, what +treatment they can bear, and what are the needs of our growing American +society.</p> + +<p>The demands of actual life, the living, visible facts of practical +science, in so large and new a country as ours, require that the ideas +of the ancients should be given us in the shortest and most economical +way possible, and that scholastic technicalities should be reserved to +those whom Nature made with especial reference to their preservation.</p> + +<p>On no subject is there more intolerant judgment, and more suffering from +such intolerance, than on the much mooted one of the education of +children.</p> + +<p>Treatises on education require altogether too much of parents, and +impose burdens of responsibility on tender spirits which crush the life +and strength out of them. Parents have been talked to as if each child +came to them a soft, pulpy mass, which they were to pinch and pull and +pat and stroke into shape quite at their leisure,—and a good pattern +being placed before them, they were to proceed immediately to set up and +construct a good human being in conformity therewith.</p> + +<p>It is strange that believers in the divine inspiration of the Bible +should have entertained this idea, overlooking the constant and +affecting declaration of the great Heavenly Father that <i>He</i> has +nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against Him, +together with His constant appeals,—"What could have been done more to +my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it +should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?" If even God, +wiser, better, purer, more loving, admits Himself baffled in this great +work, is it expedient to say to human beings that the forming power, the +deciding force, of a child's character is in their hands?</p> + +<p>Many a poor feeble woman's health has been strained to breaking, and her +life darkened, by the laying on her shoulders of a burden of +responsibility that never ought to have been placed there; and many a +mother has been hindered from using such powers as God has given her, +because some preconceived mode of operation has been set up before her +which she could no more make effectual than David could wear the armor +of Saul.</p> + +<p>A gentle, loving, fragile creature marries a strong-willed, energetic +man, and by the laws of natural descent has a boy given to her of twice +her amount of will and energy. She is just as helpless, in the mere +struggle of will and authority with such a child, as she would be in a +physical wrestle with a six-foot man.</p> + +<p>What then? Has Nature left her helpless for her duties? Not if she +understands her nature, and acts in the line of it. She has no power of +command, but she has power of persuasion. She can neither bend nor break +the boy's iron will, but she can melt it. She has tact to avoid the +conflict in which she would be worsted. She can charm, amuse, please, +and make willing; and her fine and subtile influences, weaving +themselves about him day after day, become more and more powerful.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_741" id="Page_741">[Pg 741]</a></span> Let +her alone, and she will have her boy yet.</p> + +<p>But now some bustling mother-in-law or other privileged expounder says +to her,—</p> + +<p>"My dear, it's your solemn duty to break that boy's will. I broke my +boy's will short off. Keep your whip in sight, meet him at every turn, +fight him whenever he crosses you, never let him get one victory, and +finally his will will be wholly subdued."</p> + +<p>Such advice is mischievous, because what it proposes is as utter an +impossibility to the woman's nature as for a cow to scratch up worms for +her calf, or a hen to suckle her chickens.</p> + +<p>There are men and women of strong, resolute will who are gifted with the +power of governing the wills of others. Such persons can govern in this +way,—and their government, being in the line of their nature, acting +strongly, consistently, naturally, makes everything move harmoniously. +Let them be content with their own success, but let them not set up as +general education-doctors, or apply their experience to all possible +cases.</p> + +<p>Again, there are others, and among some of the loveliest and purest +natures, who have no power of command. They have sufficient tenacity of +will as respects their own course, but have no compulsory power over the +wills of others. Many such women have been most successful mothers, when +they followed the line of their own natures, and did not undertake what +they never could do.</p> + +<p><i>Influence</i> is a slower acting force than authority. It seems weaker, +but in the long run it often effects more. It always does better than +mere force and authority without its gentle modifying power.</p> + +<p>If a mother is high-principled, religious, affectionate, if she never +uses craft or deception, if she governs her temper and sets a good +example, let her hold on in good hope, though she cannot produce the +discipline of a man-of-war in her noisy little flock, or make all move +as smoothly as some other women to whom God has given another and +different talent; and let her not be discouraged, if she seem often to +accomplish but little in that great work of forming human character +wherein the great Creator of the world has declared Himself at times +baffled.</p> + +<p>Family tolerance must take great account of the stages and periods of +development and growth in children.</p> + +<p>The passage of a human being from one stage of development to another, +like the sun's passage across the equator, frequently has its storms and +tempests. The change to manhood and womanhood often involves brain, +nerves, body, and soul in confusion; the child sometimes seems lost to +himself and his parents,—his very nature changing. In this sensitive +state come restless desires, unreasonable longings, unsettled purposes; +and the fatal habit of indulgence in deadly stimulants, ruining all the +life, often springs form the cravings of this transition period.</p> + +<p>Here must come in the patience of the saints. The restlessness must be +soothed, the family hearth must be tolerant enough to keep there the +boy, whom Satan will receive and cherish, them if his mother does not. +The male element sometimes pours into a boy, like the tides in the Bay +of Fundy, with tumult and tossing. He is noisy, vociferous, uproarious, +and seems bent only on disturbance; he despises conventionalities, he +hates parlors, he longs for the woods, the sea, the converse of rough +men, and kicks at constraint of all kinds. Have patience now, let love +have its perfect work, and in a year or two, if no deadly physical +habits set in, a quiet, well-mannered gentleman will be evolved. +Meanwhile, if he does not wipe his shoes, and if he will fling his hat +upon the floor, and tear his clothes, and bang and hammer and shout, and +cause general confusion in his belongings, do not despair; if you only +get your son, the hat and clothes and shoes and noise and confusion do +not matter. Any amount of toleration that keeps a boy contented at home +is treasure well expended at this time of life.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_742" id="Page_742">[Pg 742]</a></span></p> + +<p>One thing not enough reflected on is, that in this transition period +between childhood and maturity the heaviest draft and strain of school +education occurs. The boy is fitting for the university, the girl going +through the studies of the college senior year, and the brain-power, +which is working almost to the breaking-point to perfect the physical +change, has the additional labor of all the drill and discipline of +school.</p> + +<p>The girl is growing into a tall and shapely woman, and the poor brain is +put to it to find enough phosphate of lime, carbon, and other what not, +to build her fair edifice. The bills flow in upon her thick and fast; +she pays out hand over hand: if she had only her woman to build, she +might get along, but now come in demands for algebra, geometry, music, +language, and the poor brain-bank stops payment; some part of the work +is shabbily done, and a crooked spine or weakened lungs are the result.</p> + +<p>Boarding-schools, both for boys and girls, are for the most part +composed of young people in this most delicate, critical portion of +their physical, mental, and moral development, whose teachers are +expected to put them through one straight, severe course of drill, +without the slightest allowance for the great physical facts of their +being. No wonder they are difficult to manage, and that so many of them +drop, physically, mentally, and morally halt and maimed. It is not the +teacher's fault; he but fulfils the parent's requisition, which dooms +his child without appeal to a certain course, simply because others have +gone through it.</p> + +<p>Finally, as my sermon is too long already, let me end with a single +reflection. Every human being has some handle by which he may be lifted, +some groove in which he was meant to run; and the great work of life, as +far as our relations with each other are concerned, is to lift each one +by his own proper handle, and run each one in his own proper groove.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_JAGUAR_HUNT" id="THE_JAGUAR_HUNT"></a>THE JAGUAR HUNT.</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The dark jaguar was abroad in the land;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His strength and his fierceness what foe could withstand?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The breath of his anger was hot on the air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the white lamb of Peace he had dragged to his lair.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then up rose the Farmer; he summoned his sons:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Now saddle your horses, now look to your guns!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he called to his hound, as he sprang from the ground<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the back of his black pawing steed with a bound.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh, their hearts, at the word, how they tingled and stirred!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They followed, all belted and booted and spurred.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Buckle tight, boys!" said he, "for who gallops with me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such a hunt as was never before he shall see!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"This traitor, we know him! for when he was younger,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We flattered him, patted him, fed his fierce hunger:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But now far too long we have borne with the wrong,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For each morsel we tossed makes him savage and strong."<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_743" id="Page_743">[Pg 743]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then said one, "He must die!" And they took up the cry,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"For this last crime of his he must die! he must die!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the slow eldest-born sauntered sad and forlorn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For his heart was at home on that fair hunting-morn.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I remember," he said, "how this fine cub we track<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Has carried me many a time on his back!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he called to his brothers, "Fight gently! be kind!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he kept the dread hound, Retribution, behind.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The dark jaguar on a bough in the brake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Crouched, silent and wily, and lithe as a snake:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They spied not their game, but, as onward they came,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through the dense leafage gleamed two red eyeballs of flame.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Black-spotted, and mottled, and whiskered, and grim,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">White-bellied, and yellow, he lay on the limb,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All so still that you saw but just one tawny paw<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lightly reach through the leaves and as softly withdraw.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then shrilled his fierce cry, as the riders drew nigh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he shot from the bough like a bolt from the sky:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the foremost he fastened his fangs as he fell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While all the black jungle reëchoed his yell.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh, then there was carnage by field and by flood!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The green sod was crimsoned, the rivers ran blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The cornfields were trampled, and all in their track<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The beautiful valley lay blasted and black.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now the din of the conflict swells deadly and loud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the dust of the tumult rolls up like a cloud:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then afar down the slope of the Southland recedes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wild rapid clatter of galloping steeds.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">With wide nostrils smoking, and flanks dripping gore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The black stallion bore his bold rider before,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As onward they thundered through forest and glen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A-hunting the dark jaguar to his den.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In April, sweet April, the chase was begun;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It was April again, when the hunting was done:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The snows of four winters and four summers green<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lay red-streaked and trodden and blighted between.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then the monster stretched all his grim length on the ground;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His life-blood was wasting from many a wound;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ferocious and gory and snarling he lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid heaps of the whitening bones of his prey.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then up spoke the slow eldest son, and he said,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"All he needs now is just to be fostered and fed!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Give over the strife! Brothers, put up the knife!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We will tame him, reclaim him, but take not his life!"<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_744" id="Page_744">[Pg 744]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But the Farmer flung back the false words in his face:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"He is none of my race, who gives counsel so base!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now let loose the hound!" And the hound was unbound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And like lightning the heart of the traitor he found.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"So rapine and treason forever shall cease!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And they wash the stained fleece of the pale lamb of Peace;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When, lo! a strong angel stands wingèd and white<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In a wonderful raiment of ravishing light!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Peace is raised from the dead! In the radiance shed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the halo of glory that shines round her head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fair gardens shall bloom where the black jungle grew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the glad valley shall blossom anew!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="LATE_SCENES_IN_RICHMOND" id="LATE_SCENES_IN_RICHMOND"></a>LATE SCENES IN RICHMOND.</h2> + + +<p>In the July (1864) number of this magazine there is an article entitled +"The May Campaign in Virginia," which gives an outline of the operations +of the Army of the Potomac in its march from its encampment on the +Rapidan, through the tangled thickets of the Wilderness, to the bloody +fields of Spottsylvania, across the North Anna, to the old battle-ground +of Cold Harbor. The closing paragraph of that article is an appropriate +introduction to the present. It is as follows:—</p> + +<p>"The line of advance taken by General Grant turned the Rebels from +Washington. The country over which the two armies marched is a +desolation. There is no subsistence remaining. The railroads are +destroyed. Lee has no longer the power to invade the North. On the other +hand, General Grant can swing upon the James, and isolate the Rebel army +from direct communication with the South. That accomplished, and, sooner +or later, with Hunter in the Shenandoah, with Union cavalry sweeping +down to Wilmington, Weldon, and Danville, and up to the Blue Ridge, +cutting railroads, burning bridges, destroying supplies of ammunition +and provisions, the question with Lee must be, not one of earthworks and +cannon and powder and ball, but of subsistence. Plainly, the day is +approaching when the Army of the Potomac, unfortunate at times in the +past, derided, ridiculed, but now triumphant through unparalleled +hardship, endurance, courage, persistency, will plant its banners on the +defences of Richmond, crumble the Rebel army beyond the possibility of +future cohesion, and, in conjunction with the forces in other +departments, crush out the last vestige of the Rebellion."</p> + +<p>So it has proved. The railroads are destroyed, the bridges burned, the +supplies of ammunition and provision exhausted; the flag of the Union +floats over the city which the Rebels have called their capital; the +troops of the Union patrol the streets of Richmond, and occupy all the +principal towns of Virginia; Lee's army has melted away, and the power +of the Rebellion is broken.</p> + +<p>Before entering upon a narration of the campaign of a week which gave us +Richmond and the Rebel army at the same time, it will widen our scope of +vision to inquire</p> + + +<h3>HOW RICHMOND BECAME THE CAPITAL OF THE CONFEDERACY.</h3> + +<p>On the 17th of April, 1861, Virginia in Convention passed an Ordinance +of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_745" id="Page_745">[Pg 745]</a></span> Secession. The Convention, when elected on the 4th of February +preceding, was largely Anti-Secession; but the events which had taken +place,—the firing on Sumter, its surrender, with the machinations of +the leaders of Secession,—their misrepresentations of the North, of +what Mr. Lincoln would do,—their promises that there would be no war, +that the Yankees would not fight,—their bullyings when they could not +cajole, their threatenings when they could not intimidate,—their +rejoicings at the bloodless victory won by South Carolina, +single-handed, over a starved garrison,—their bonfires and +illuminations, their baskets of Champagne and bottles of whiskey,—all +of these forces combined were sufficient to carry the Ordinance of +Secession through the Convention. But it was hampered by a proviso +submitting it to the people for ratification on the Fourth Thursday of +May following.</p> + +<p>John Letcher was Governor of Virginia. Weak in intellect, grovelling in +his tastes, often drunk, rarely sober, at times making such beastly +exhibition of himself that the Richmond press pronounced him a public +nuisance, he was a fit tool of the Secession conspirators. Ready to do +what he could to commit the State to overt acts against the United +States Government, on the evening after the passage of the Ordinance he +issued orders to the State militia around Winchester to seize the +Arsenal at Harper's Ferry,—on his own sole responsibility, and without +a shadow of authority from the people of the State, inaugurating civil +war, a proceeding which he followed up directly afterwards by +proclaiming Virginia a member of the Confederacy, and thus carrying the +State at once out of the Union, without awaiting the formality of a +popular vote.</p> + +<p>Already the intentions of the Confederate Government were manifest.</p> + +<p>"I prophesy that the flag which now flaunts the breeze here will float +over the old Capitol in Washington before the first of May," said Mr. +L.P. Walker, Secretary of War, the evening after the fall of Sumter, to +a crazy crowd in Montgomery, then the Rebel capital.</p> + +<p>"From the mountain-tops and valleys to the shores of the sea, there is +one wild shout of fierce resolve to capture Washington City at all and +every human hazard. That filthy cage of unclean birds must and will +assuredly be purified by fire," shouted John Mitchell, through the +"Richmond Examiner," on the 23d of April.</p> + +<p>"Washington City will soon be too hot to hold Abraham Lincoln and his +Government," wrote the editor of the "Raleigh Standard" on the 24th.</p> + +<p>"We are in lively hope, that, before three months roll by, the +Government, Congress, Departments and all, will have been removed to the +present Federal capital," wrote the Montgomery correspondent of the +"Charleston Courier" on the 28th of the same month.</p> + +<p>"We are not in the secrets of our authorities enough to specify the day +on which Jeff Davis will dine at the White House, and Ben McCullough +take his siesta in General Sickles's gilded tent. We should not like to +produce any disappointment by naming too soon or too early a day; but it +will save trouble, if the gentlemen will keep themselves in readiness to +dislodge at a moment's notice," said the "Richmond Whig" on the 22d of +May.</p> + +<p>The Rebel Congress had already adjourned, and was on its way to +Richmond. Not only Congress, but all the Departments, were on the move, +intending to tarry at Richmond but a day or two, till General Scott, and +Abraham Lincoln, and the Yankees, who were swarming into Washington, +were driven out. Thus Richmond became, though only temporarily, as all +hands in the South supposed, the capital of the Confederacy.</p> + +<p>A week later Jeff Davis was welcomed to Richmond by the people, says +Pollard, the author of the "Southern History of the War," an implacable +hater of the North, "with a burst of genuine joy and enthusiasm to which +none of the military pageants of the North could furnish a parallel." +President<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_746" id="Page_746">[Pg 746]</a></span> Davis, in response to the call of the populace, made a +speech, in which he said,—</p> + +<p>"When the time and occasion serve, we shall smite the smiter with manly +arms, as did our fathers before us, and as becomes their sons. To the +enemy we leave the base <i>acts of the assassin and incendiary</i>; to them +we leave it to insult helpless women: to us belongs vengeance upon men. +We will make the battle-fields in Virginia another Buena Vista, drenched +with more precious blood than flowed there."</p> + +<p>But Colonel Robert E. Lee, who was in command of the Rebel forces in +Virginia, was not quite ready to take Washington; and so the Rebel +Congress commenced its sessions in the State capital. Mr. Memminger set +up his printing-presses, and issued his promises to pay the debts of the +Confederacy two years after the treaty of peace with the United States; +Mr. Mallory began to consider how to construct rams; while Mr. Toombs, +and his successor, Mr. Benjamin, wrote letters of instruction from the +State Department to Rebel agents in Europe, and looked longingly and +expectantly for immediate recognition of the Confederacy as an +independent power among the nations.</p> + +<p>The sleepy city awoke to a new life. Regiments of infantry came pouring +in, not only from the hills and valleys of the Old Dominion, but from +every nook and corner of the Confederate States,—the Palmetto Guards, +Marion Rifles, Jeff-Davis Grays, Whippy-Swamp Grenadiers, Chickasaw +Braves, Tigers, Dare-Devils, and Yankee-Butchers,—fired with patriotism +and whiskey, proud to be in Richmond, to march through its streets, +beneath the flags wrought by the fair ladies of the sunny South, for +whom each man had sworn to kill a Yankee! Lieutenants, captains, majors, +colonels, and generals, glittering with golden stars, with clanking +sabres, and twinkling spurs, thronged the hotels in all the pomp of +modern chivalry. With the marching of troops, and the gathering of men +from every precinct of the Confederacy in search of official position in +the bureaus or to obtain contracts from Government,—with the rush and +whirl of business, and the inflation of prices of all commodities,—with +the stream of gayety and fashion attendant upon the Confederate court, +where Mrs. Jefferson Davis was queen-regnant,—with its gilded +drinking-saloons and gambling-hells,—Richmond became a Babylon.</p> + + +<h3>"ON TO RICHMOND!"</h3> + +<p>It was a natural cry, that slogan of the North in the early months of +the war; for, in ordinary warfare, to capture an enemy's capital is +equivalent to conquering a peace. It was thought that the taking of +Richmond would be the end of the Rebellion. Time has disabused us of +this idea. To have taken Richmond in 1861 would only have been the +repacking of the Department trunks for Montgomery or some other +convenient Southern city. The vitality of the Rebellion existed not in +cities, towns, or capitals, but in that which could die only by +annihilation,—Human Slavery. That was and is the "original sin" of the +Rebellion,—the total depravity and innate heinousness, to use +theological terminology, without which there could not have been +treason, secession, and rebellion.</p> + +<p>But forgetting all this,—looking constantly at effect, without +searching for cause,—hearing only the drum-beat of the armed legions of +the South mustering for the overthrow of the nation,—wilfully shutting +our ears to the clanking of the chains of the slave-coffle,—deaf to the +prayer, "How long, O Lord?" uttered morning, noon, and night by men and +women who were turned back to bondage from our lines,—forgetting that +Justice and Right are the foundations of the throne of God,—the army of +General McDowell marched confidently out to Bull Run on its way to +Richmond, and returned to Washington defeated, routed, disorganized, +humiliated. And yet we now see that to the South<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_747" id="Page_747">[Pg 747]</a></span> the victory which set +the whole Confederacy on flame was a defeat, and to the North that which +seemed an overwhelming disaster was a triumph; for so God changes the +warp and woof of human events. The Southern leaders became +over-confident. They could have taken Washington, but did not make the +attempt to do so till the golden moment had passed, never to return. "We +have let Washington slip through our fingers," was the bitter +lamentation of the "Richmond Examiner," a few days after the Battle of +Bull Run,—after the second uprising of the people to save the Union.</p> + +<p>When God takes a proud and wayward nation in hand, and instructs it by +the hard lessons of adversity,—by plans overthrown, ambition checked, +pride humiliated, and hopes disappointed, which wring tears from the +eyes of widows and orphans, and by which men in the prime of life are +bowed down to the grave with grief for sons slain in battle,—He does it +for a great purpose. But the nation was blind to the moral of the +terrible lesson. We are slow to receive and accept eternal truths. And +so, instead of aiming at Slavery as the life of the Rebellion, McClellan +marched up the Peninsula through the mud to capture Richmond, and +conquer a peace simply by taking the Rebel capital. He was learned in +military lore, had visited Europe, and made war after the European +pattern. But in a war of ideas and principles, the mere taking of an +enemy's capital cannot end the contest. In such a strife there is the +war of invisible forces,—the marshalling of Cherubim and Seraphim +against rebellious hosts,—the old contest of the heavenly fields +renewed on earth.</p> + +<p>The nation was long in awaking to the consciousness that driving Lee out +of Richmond would not end the Rebellion. It was more than this: it was a +casting-out of prejudice, a discarding of political chicanery and a +time-serving policy, and a recognition of Justice, Right, and Freedom as +the true elements of political economy. There was an increasing desire +on the part of the people to root out Slavery from American soil.</p> + +<p>It will be for the future historian to trace the providential dealings +of God with the nation, and to show how far and in what degree the +failure of Burnside at Fredericksburg and of Hooker at Chancellorsville +was affected by the want of moral perceptions on the part of the army +and of the people at that stage of the war: for there were thousands of +officers and soldiers at that time who were not willing to fight by the +side of a negro. We have not advanced far enough even now to allow the +colored man full privileges of citizenship. We are willing that he +should be a soldier, carry a gun, and fire a bullet at the enemy; but +are we willing that he should march up to the ballot-box, and fire a +peaceful ballot against the same enemy? Strange incongruity!</p> + +<p>The colored men of Richmond, of Charleston, of Savannah, of all the +South, have been and are now the true Union men of the seceded States. +When or where have they raised their hands against the Union? They have +fought for the flag of the Union, and have earned by their patriotism +and valor a name and a place in history. Citizenship is theirs by +natural right; besides, they have earned it. Make the freedman a voter, +a land-owner, a tax-payer, permit him to sue and be sued, give him in +every respect free franchise, and the recompense will be security, +peace, and prosperity. Anything less than absolute right will sooner or +later bring trouble in its train. Now, in this day of settlement, this +reconstruction of the nation, this renewal of life, it is the privilege +of America to become the world's great teacher and benefactor.</p> + +<p>After the disaster at Chancellorsville, there came a season of sober +reflection, and men began to understand that this is God's war. Then +there came a commander who believed that the power of the Rebellion lay +not in Richmond, but in the Rebel army, and that the taking of Richmond +was altogether a secondary consideration,—that the only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_748" id="Page_748">[Pg 748]</a></span> way of +subduing the Rebellion was to fight it down. He was ready to employ +soldiers of every hue. This brings us to consider</p> + + +<h3>HOW RICHMOND WAS TAKEN.</h3> + +<p>General Grant, fresh from his great success at Vicksburg and +Chattanooga, having shown that he had military genius of a high order, +was created Lieutenant-General, and appointed to the command of all the +armies of the Union in the field. It was the beginning of a new +<i>régime</i>. Up to that time there had been little concert of action +between commanders. The armies lacked a head. The President, General +Halleck, Secretary Stanton, had ideas of their own upon the best methods +and plans for conducting the war. Department commanders worked at cross +purposes. Each officer in the field naturally looked upon his sphere of +action as the most important of all, and each had his own plan of +operations to lay before the Secretary of War. A million men were +tugging manfully at the Car of Freedom, which was at a stand-still, or +moved only by inches, because they had no head. But when the President +appointed General Grant to the command, he gave up his own plans, while +General Halleck became a subordinate. The department commanders found +all their plans set aside. There was not merely concert of action, but +unity of action, under the controlling force of an imperial will.</p> + +<p>In the article entitled "The May Campaign in Virginia," the movements of +the Army of the Potomac, from the Rapidan to Cold Harbor, are given. It +is not intended in the present article to dwell in detail upon all the +subsequent movements of that army and its allies, the Armies of the +James and the Shenandoah. Volumes are needed to narrate the operations +around Petersburg,—the battles fought on the 18th and 19th of June east +of that city,—the struggles for the Weldon Railroad,—the movements +between the James and the Appomattox, and north of the James,—the +failure in the springing of the mine,—the march of the Fifth Corps to +Stony Creek,—the battles between the Weldon Road and Hatcher's +Run,—the many contests, sharp, fierce, and bloody, between the opposing +lines, whenever an attempt was made by either army to erect new +works,—the fights on Hatcher's Run,—the attack upon Fort Harrison, +north of the James,—the successive attempts of each commander to break +the lines of the other, ending with the Fort Stedman affair, the last +offensive effort of General Lee. The new campaign which was inaugurated +the next day after the attack on Fort Stedman compelled the Rebel chief +to stand wholly on the defensive.</p> + +<p>The appointment of General Grant to the command of all the armies was +not only the beginning of a new <i>régime</i>, but the adoption of a new +idea,—that Lee's army was the objective point, rather than the city of +Richmond.</p> + +<p>"The power of the Rebellion lies in the Rebel army," said General Grant +to the writer one evening in June last. We had been conversing upon Fort +Donelson and Pittsburg Landing. One by one his staff officers dropped +off to their own tents, and we were alone. It was a quiet, starlit +night. The Lieutenant-General was enjoying his fragrant Havana cigar, +and was in a mood for conversation, not upon what he was going to do, +but upon what had been done. He is always wisely reticent upon the +present and future, but agreeably communicative upon what has passed +into history.</p> + +<p>"I have lost a good many men since the army left the Rapidan, but there +was no help for it. The Rebel army must be destroyed before we can put +down the Rebellion," he continued.<a name="FNanchor_I_9" id="FNanchor_I_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_I_9" class="fnanchor">[I]</a></p> + +<p>There was a disposition at that time on the part of the disloyal press +of the North to bring General Grant into bad odor. He was called "The +Butcher." Even some Republican Congressmen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_749" id="Page_749">[Pg 749]</a></span> were ready to demand his +removal. General Grant alluded to it and said,—</p> + +<p>"God knows I don't want to see men slaughtered; but we have appealed to +arms, and we have got to fight it out."</p> + +<p>He had already given public utterance to the expression,—"I intend to +fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer."</p> + +<p>Referring to the successive flank movements which had been made, from +the Rapidan to the Wilderness, to Spottsylvania, to the North Anna, to +the Chickahominy, to Petersburg, he said,—</p> + +<p>"My object has been to get between Lee and his southern communications."</p> + +<p>At that time the Weldon Road was in the hands of the enemy, and Early +was on a march down the Valley, towards Washington. This movement was +designed to frighten Grant and send him back by steamboat to defend the +capital; but the Sixth Corps only was sent, while the troops remaining +still kept pressing on in a series of flank movements, which resulted in +the seizure of the Weldon Road. That was the most damaging blow which +Lee had received. He made desperate efforts to recover what had been +lost, but in vain. It was the beginning of the end. Then the public +generally could see the meaning of General Grant's strategy,—that the +Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and all the terrible battles which had been +fought, were according to a plan, which, if carried out, must end in +victory. The Richmond newspapers, which had ridiculed the campaign, and +had found an echo in the disloyal press of the North, began to discuss +the question of supplies; and to keep their courage up, they indulged in +boastful declarations that the Southside Railroad never could be taken.</p> + +<p>The march of Sherman from Atlanta to Savannah and through South +Carolina, destroying railroads and supplies,—the taking of +Wilmington,—Sheridan's movement from Winchester up the Valley of the +Shenandoah, striking the James River Canal and the Central Railroad, and +then the transfer of his whole force from the White House to the left +flank of the Army of the Potomac,—were parts of a well matured design +to weaken Lee's army.</p> + +<p>Everything was ready for the final blow. The forces of General Grant +were disposed as follows. The Army of the James, composed of the +Twenty-Fourth and Twenty-Fifth Corps, and commanded by General Ord, was +north of the James River, its right flank resting near the old +battle-field of Glendale, and its left flank on the Appomattox. The +Ninth Army Corps—the right wing of the Army of the Potomac—was next in +line, then the Sixth, and then the Second, its left resting on Hatcher's +Run. The Fifth was in rear of the Second. The line thus held was nearly +forty miles in length, defended on the front and rear by strong +earthworks and abatis.</p> + +<p>General Grant's entire force could not have been much less than a +hundred and thirty thousand, including Sheridan's cavalry, the force at +City Point, and the provisional brigade at Fort Powhatan. Lee's whole +force was not far from seventy thousand,—or seventy-five thousand, +including the militia of Richmond and Petersburg; but he was upon the +defensive, and held an interior and shorter line.</p> + +<p>The work which General Grant had in hand was the seizure of the +Southside Railroad by an extension of his left flank. He had attempted +it once with the Fifth Corps, at Dabney's Mill, and had failed; but that +attempt had been of value: he had gained a knowledge of the country. His +engineers had mapped it, the roads, the streams, the houses. The fight +at Dabney's Mill was a random stroke,—a "feeling of the position," to +use a term common in camp,—which enabled him to detect the weak point +of Lee's lines. To comprehend the movement, it is necessary to +understand the geographical and topographical features of the country, +which are somewhat peculiar. Hatcher's Run is a branch of the Nottoway +River, which has its rise in a swamp about four miles from the +Appomattox and twenty southwest of Petersburg.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_750" id="Page_750">[Pg 750]</a></span> The Southside Railroad +runs southwest from Petersburg, along the ridge of land between the +Appomattox and the head-waters of the Nottoway, protected by the swamp +of Hatcher's Run and by the swamp of Stony Creek, another tributary of +the Nottoway.</p> + +<p>The point aimed at by General Grant is known as the "Five Forks," a +place where five roads meet, on the table-land between the head-waters +of Hatcher's Run and Stony Creek. It was the most accessible gateway +leading to the railroad. If he could break through at that point, he +would turn Lee's flank, deprive him of the protection of the swamps, use +them for his own cover, and seize the railroad. To take the Five Forks +was to take all; for the long and terrible conflict had become so shorn +of its outside proportions, so reduced to simple elements, that, if Lee +lost that position, all was lost,—Petersburg, Richmond, his army, and +the Confederacy.</p> + +<p>Surprise is expressed that the Rebellion went down so suddenly, in a +night, at one blow, toppling over like a child's house of cards, +imposing to look upon, yet of very little substance; but the +calculations of General Grant were to give a finishing stroke.</p> + +<p>If, by massing the main body of his troops upon the extreme left of his +line, he succeeded in carrying the position of the Five Forks, it would +compel Lee to evacuate Richmond. Lee's line of retreat must necessarily +be towards Danville; but Grant, at the Five Forks, would be nearer +Danville by several miles than Lee; and he would thus, instead of the +exterior line, have the interior, with the power to push Lee at every +step farther from his direct line of retreat. That Grant saw all this, +and executed his plan, is evidence of great military ability. The plan +involved not merely the carrying of the Five Forks, but great activity +afterwards. The capture of Lee was a forethought, not an afterthought.</p> + +<p>"Commissaries will prepare twelve days' rations," was his order, which +meant a long march, and the annihilation of Lee's army. An ordinary +commander might have been satisfied with merely breaking down the door, +and seizing the railroad, knowing that it would be the beginning of +dissolution to the Rebel army; but Grant's plan went farther,—the +routing of the burglar from his house, and dispatching him on the spot. +Perhaps Lee saw what the end would be, and did the best he could with +his troops; but inasmuch as he did not issue the order for the transfer +of a division from Richmond to the south side till Saturday night, after +the Five Forks were lost, it may be presumed that he did not fully +comprehend the importance of holding that gateway. If he had seen that +Richmond must be eventually evacuated, he might have saved his army by a +sudden withdrawal from both Richmond and Petersburg on Friday night, +pushing down the Southside Road, and throwing his whole force on +Sheridan and the Fifth Corps, which would have enabled him to reach +Danville. Not doing that, he lost all.</p> + +<p>It is not intended in this article to give the details of the attack at +the Five Forks and along the line, but merely to show how the forces +were wielded in that last magnificent, annihilating blow.</p> + +<p>On the 25th of March, the Twenty-Fourth Corps was transferred from the +north side of the James to Hatcher's Run, taking the position of the +Second Corps.</p> + +<p>The force designed for the attack upon the Five Forks was composed of +the Fifth Corps and Sheridan's Cavalry,—the whole under command of +Sheridan. The Second Corps was massed across Hatcher's Run, and kept in +position to frustrate any attempt which might be made to cut Sheridan +off from the support of the main army.</p> + +<p>Sheridan found a large force in front of him, along Chamberlain's Creek, +three miles west of Dinwiddie Court-House. He had hard fighting, and was +repulsed. There was want of cooperation on the part of Warren, +commanding the Fifth Corps, who was relieved of his command the next +morning, General Griffin succeeding him. A heavy rain-storm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_751" id="Page_751">[Pg 751]</a></span> came on. +Wagons went hub-deep in the mud. The swamps were overflowed. The army +came to a stand-still. The soldiers were without tents. Thousands had +thrown away their blankets. There was gloom and discouragement +throughout the camp. But all the axes and shovels were brought into +requisition, and the men went to work building corduroy roads. It was +much better for the <i>morale</i> of the army than to sit by bivouac-fires +waiting for sunny skies. The week passed away. The Richmond papers were +confident and boastful of final success.</p> + +<p>"We are very hopeful of the campaign which is opening, and trust that we +are to reap a large advantage from the operations evidently near at +hand.... We have only to resolve that we will never surrender, and it +will be impossible that we shall ever be taken," said the "Sentinel," in +its issue of Saturday morning, April 1st, the last paper ever issued +from that office. The editor was not aware of the fact, that on Friday +evening, while he was penning this paragraph, Sheridan was bursting open +the door at the Five Forks and had the Rebellion by the throat. Lee +attempted to retrieve the disaster on Saturday by depleting his left and +centre to reinforce his right. Then came the order from Grant, "Attack +vigorously all along the line." How splendidly it was executed! The +Ninth, the Sixth, the Second, the Twenty-Fourth Corps, all went tumbling +in upon the enemy's works, like breakers upon the beach, tearing away +<i>chevaux-de-frise</i>, rushing into the ditches, sweeping over the +embankments, and dashing through the embrasures of the forts. In an hour +the C. S. A.,—the Confederate Slave Argosy,—the Ship of State launched +but four years ago, which went proudly sailing, with the death's-head +and cross-bones at her truck, on a cruise against Civilization and +Christianity, hailed as a rightful belligerent, furnished with guns, +ammunition, provisions, and all needful supplies, by England and France, +was thrown a helpless wreck upon the shores of Time!</p> + +<p>It would be interesting to follow the troops in their victorious advance +upon Petersburg, their closing in upon Lee, the magnificent tactics of +the pursuit, and the scenes of the surrender; but in this article we +have space only to glance at</p> + + +<h3>SCENES IN RICHMOND.</h3> + +<p>"My line is broken in three places, and Richmond must be evacuated," was +Lee's despatch to Davis, received by the arch-traitor at eleven and a +half o'clock in St. Paul's Church. He read it with blanched cheeks, and +left the church in haste.</p> + +<p>Davis had robbed the banks of Virginia a few days before, seizing the +bullion in the name of the Confederacy; and his first thought was how to +secure the treasure.</p> + +<p>He hurried to the executive mansion, passed up the winding stairway to +his business apartment, seated himself at a small table, wrote an order +for the removal of the coin to Danville, and for the evacuation of the +city.</p> + +<p>There was no evening service in the churches on that Sunday. Ministers +and congregations were otherwise employed. The Reverend Mr. Hoge, ablest +of the Presbyterian pastors, fiercest advocate of them all for Slavery +as a divine missionary institution, bitterest hater of the North, packed +his carpet-bag and took a long Sabbath-day's journey towards the South. +The Reverend Mr. Duncan, of the Methodist Church, did the same work of +necessity. Lumpkin, who for many years has kept a slave-trader's jail, +also had a work of necessity on hand,—fifty men, women, and children, +who must be saved to the missionary institution for the future +enlightenment of Africa. Although it was the Lord's day, (perhaps he was +comforted by the thought, that, the better the day, the better the +deed,) the coffle-gang was made up in the jail-yard, within pistol-shot +of Davis's parlor-window, within a stone's throw of the Monumental +Church, and a sad and weeping throng,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_752" id="Page_752">[Pg 752]</a></span> chained two and two, the last +slave-coffle that shall ever tread the streets of Richmond, were hurried +to the Danville Depot. Slavery being the corner-stone of the +Confederacy, it was fitting that this gang, keeping step to the music of +their clanking chains, should accompany Jeff Davis's secretaries, +Benjamin and Trenholm, and the Reverend Messrs. Hoge and Duncan, in +their flight. The whole Rebel Government was on the move, and all +Richmond desired to be. No thoughts of taking Washington now, or of the +flag of the Confederacy flaunting in the breeze over the old Capitol! +Hundreds of officials were at the depot, to get away from the doomed +city. Public documents, the archives of the Confederacy, were hastily +gathered up, tumbled into boxes and barrels, and taken to the trains, or +carried into the streets and set on fire. Coaches, carriages, wagons, +carts, wheelbarrows, everything in the shape of a vehicle was brought +into use. There was a jumble of boxes, chests, trunks, valises, +carpet-bags,—a crowd of excited men sweating as they never sweat +before,—women with dishevelled hair, unmindful of their wardrobes, +wringing their hands,—children crying in the crowd,—sentinels guarding +each entrance to the train, pushing back at the point of the bayonet the +panic-stricken multitude, giving precedence to Davis and the high +officials, and informing Mr. Lumpkin that his niggers could not be +taken. Oh, what a loss was there! It would have been fifty thousand +dollars out of somebody's pocket in 1861, but millions now of +Confederate promises to pay, which the hurrying multitude and that +coffled gang were treading under foot,—literally trampling the bonds of +the Confederate States of America in the mire, as they marched to the +station; for the streets were as thickly strown with four per cents, six +per cents, eight per cents as the forest with last year's leaves.</p> + +<p>"The faith of the Confederate States is pledged to provide and establish +sufficient revenues for the regular payment of the interest, and for the +redemption of the principal," read the bonds; but there was a sudden +eclipse of faith, and not merely an eclipse, but a collapse, a +shrivelling up, like a parched scroll, of the entire Confederacy, which, +like its bonds, notes, and certificates of indebtedness, was old rags!</p> + +<p>In the Sabbath evening twilight, the trains, with the fugitive +Government, its stolen bullion, and its Doctors of Divinity on board, +moved out from the city.</p> + +<p>At the same hour, the Governor of Virginia, William Smith, and the +Assembly, were embarked in a canal-boat, on the James River and Kanawha +Canal, moving for Lynchburg. On all the roads were men, women, and +children, in carriages of every description, with multitudes on +horseback and on foot, fleeing from the Rebel capital. Men who could not +get away were secretly at work, during those night-hours, burying plate +and money in gardens; ladies secreted their jewels, barred and bolted +their doors, and passed a sleepless night, fearful of the morrow, which +would bring the hated, despised, Vandal horde of Yankee ruffians: for +such were the epithets which they had persistently applied to the +soldiers of the Union throughout the war.</p> + +<p>But before the entrance of the Union army they had an experience from +their friends. Following the example of the Government, which had robbed +the banks, the soldiers pillaged the city, breaking open stores, and +helping themselves to whatever suited their convenience and taste, of +clothing, fancy goods, eatables, and drinkables.</p> + +<p>But the Government itself was not quite through with its operations in +Richmond. The Secretary of War, John C. Breckinridge, with General +Ewell, remained till daylight on Monday morning to clear up things,—not +to burn public archives in order to destroy evidence of Confederate +villany, but to commit more crime, so deep, damning, that the stanchest +friends of the Confederacy recoil with horror from the act.</p> + +<p>To prevent the United States from obtaining possession of a few thousand +hogsheads of tobacco, a thousand houses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_753" id="Page_753">[Pg 753]</a></span> were destroyed by fire, the +heart of the city was eaten out,—all of the business portions, all the +banks and insurance-offices, half of the newspapers, mills, depots, +bridges, foundries, workshops, dwellings, churches, thirty squares in +all, swept clean by the devouring flames. It was the work of the +Confederate Government. And not only this, but human life was +remorselessly sacrificed.</p> + +<p>In the outskirts of the city, on the Mechanicsville road, was the +almshouse, filled with the lame, the blind, the halt, the bedridden, the +sick, and the poor. Ten rods distant was a magazine containing fifteen +or twenty kegs of powder, of little value to a victorious army with full +supplies of ammunition. They could have been rolled into the creek near +at hand; but the order of Jeff Davis was to blow up the magazines, and +the order must be executed.</p> + +<p>"We give you fifteen minutes to get out of the way," was the sole notice +to that crowd of helpless creatures lying in their cots, at three +o'clock in the morning. Men and women begged for mercy. In vain their +cries. The officer in charge of the matter was inexorable. Clotheless +and shoeless, the inmates of the almshouse ran in terror from the spot +to seek shelter in the ravines. But there were those who could not run, +who, while the train was laying, rent the air with shrieks of terror. +The train was fired at the expiration of the allotted time. The whole +side of the house went in with a crash, as if it were no more than +pasteboard. Windows flew into minutest particles. Bricks, stones, +timbers, beams, and boards went whirling through the air. Trees were +wrenched off as though a giant had twisted them into withes. The city +rocked as if upheaved by an earthquake. The dozen poor wretches +remaining in the almshouse were torn to pieces. Their bodies were but +blackened masses of flesh, when the fugitives who had sought shelter in +the fields returned to the shattered ruins.</p> + +<p>How stirring the events of that morning! Lee retreating, Grant pursuing; +Davis a fugitive; the Governor and Legislature of Virginia seeking +safety in a canal-boat; Doctors of Divinity fleeing from the wrath to +come; the troops of the Union marching up the streets; the old flag +waving over the Capitol; Rebel iron-clads blowing up; Richmond in +flames; the fiery billows rolling on from house to house, from block to +block, from square to square, unopposed in their progress by the +panic-stricken, stupefied, bewildered crowd; and the Northern Vandals +laying aside their arms, manning the engines, putting out the fire, and +saving the city from total destruction! Through the terrible day, all +through the succeeding night, the smoke of its torment went up to +heaven. Strange, weird, the scenes of that Monday night,—the glimmering +flames, the clouds of smoke hanging like a funeral pall above the ruins, +the crowd of woe-begone, houseless, homeless creatures wandering through +the streets:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Such resting found the soles of unblest feet!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h3>VISIT OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.</h3> + +<p>Among the memorable events of the week was the visit of President +Lincoln to the city of Richmond. He had been tarrying at City Point, +holding daily consultations with General Grant, visiting the army and +the iron-clads at Aiken's Landing,—thus avoiding the swarm of +place-hunters that darkened the doors of the executive mansion.</p> + +<p>On Tuesday noon a tug-boat belonging to the navy was seen steaming up +the James, regardless of torpedoes and obstructions. A mile below the +city, where the water becomes shoal, President Lincoln, accompanied by +Admiral Porter, Captain Adams of the navy, Captain Penrose of the army, +and Lieutenant Clemmens of the Signal Corps, put off from the tug in a +launch manned by twelve sailors, whose long, steady oar-strokes quickly +carried the party to the landing-place,—a square above Libby Prison.</p> + +<p>There was no committee of reception,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_754" id="Page_754">[Pg 754]</a></span> no guard of honor, no grand +display of troops, no assembling of an eager multitude to welcome him.</p> + +<p>He entered the city unheralded; six sailors, armed with carbines, +stepped upon the shore, followed by the President, who held his little +son by the hand, and Admiral Porter; the officers followed, and six more +sailors brought up the rear. The writer of this article was there upon +the spot, and, joining the party, became an observer of the memorable +event.</p> + +<p>There were forty or fifty freedmen, who had been sole possessors of +themselves for twenty-four hours, at work on the bank of the canal, +securing some floating timber, under the direction of a Lieutenant. +Somehow they obtained the information that the man who was head and +shoulders taller than all others around him, with features large and +irregular, with a mild eye and pleasant countenance, was President +Lincoln.</p> + +<p>"God bless you, Sah!" said one, taking off his cap and bowing very low.</p> + +<p>"Hurrah! hurrah! President Linkum hab come!" was the shout which rang +through the street.</p> + +<p>The Lieutenant found himself without a command. What cared those +freedmen, fresh from the house of bondage, for floating timber or +military commands? Their deliverer had come,—he who, next to the Lord +Jesus, was their best friend! It was not an hurrah that they gave, but a +wild, jubilant cry of inexpressible joy.</p> + +<p>They gathered round the President, ran ahead, hovered upon the flanks of +the little company, and hung like a dark cloud upon the rear. Men, +women, and children joined the constantly increasing throng. They came +from all the by-streets, running in breathless haste, shouting and +hallooing and dancing with delight. The men threw up their hats, the +women waved their bonnets and handkerchiefs, clapped their hands, and +sang, "Glory to God! glory! glory! glory!"—rendering all the praise to +God, who had heard their wailings in the past, their meanings for wives, +husbands, children, and friends sold out of their sight, had given them +freedom, and, after long years of waiting, had permitted them thus +unexpectedly to behold the face of their great benefactor.</p> + +<p>"I thank you, dear Jesus, that I behold President Linkum!" was the +exclamation of a woman who stood upon the threshold of her humble home, +and with streaming eyes and clasped hands gave thanks aloud to the +Saviour of men.</p> + +<p>Another, more demonstrative in her joy, was jumping and striking her +hands with all her might, crying,—"Bless de Lord! Bless de Lord! Bless +de Lord!" as if there could be no end of her thanksgiving.</p> + +<p>The air rang with a tumultuous chorus of voices. The street became +almost impassable on account of the increasing multitude. Soldiers were +summoned to clear the way. How strange the event! The President of the +United States—he who had been hated, despised, maligned above all other +men living, to whom the vilest epithets had been applied by the people +of Richmond—was walking their streets, receiving thanksgivings, +blessings, and praises from thousands who hailed him as the ally of the +Messiah! How bitter the reflections of that moment to some who beheld +him!—memory running back, perhaps, to that day in May, 1861, when +Jefferson Davis, their President, entered the city,—the pageant of that +hour, his speech, his promise to smite the smiter, to drench the fields +of Virginia with richer blood than that shed at Buena Vista! How that +part of the promise had been kept!—how their sons, brothers, and +friends had fallen!—how all else predicted had failed!—how the land +had been filled with mourning!—how the State had become a +desolation!—how their property, their hoarded wealth, had disappeared! +They had been invited to a gorgeous banquet; the fruit was fair to the +eye, of golden hue and beautiful; but it had turned to ashes. They had +been promised a place among the nations, a position of commanding +influence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_755" id="Page_755">[Pg 755]</a></span> and fame. Cotton was the king of kings, and England, France, +and the whole civilized world would bow in humble submission to his +Majesty. That was the promise; but now their king was dethroned, their +government overthrown, their President and his cabinet vagrants, driven +from house and home to be wanderers upon the earth. They had been +promised affluence, Richmond was to be the metropolis of the +Confederacy, and Virginia the all-powerful State of the new nation. How +terrible the cheat! Their thousand-dollar bonds were not worth a penny. +A million dollars would not purchase a dinner. Their money was +valueless, their slaves were freemen, the heart of their city was eaten +out. They had been cheated in everything. Those whom they had trusted +had given the unkindest cut of all,—adding arson and robbery to their +other crimes. Thus had they fallen from highest anticipation of bliss to +deepest actual woe. The language of the Arch-Rebel of the universe, in +"Paradise Lost," was most appropriate to them:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,'<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Said then the lost Archangel, 'this the seat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That we must change for heaven, this mournful gloom<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For that celestial light?'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Abraham Lincoln was walking their streets; and, worst of all, that +plain, honest-hearted man was recognizing the "niggers" as human beings +by returning their salutations! The walk was long, and the President +halted a moment to rest. "May de good Lord bless you, President Linkum!" +said an old negro, removing his hat, and bowing with tears of joy +rolling down his cheeks. The President removed his own hat, and bowed in +silence; but it was a bow which upset the forms, laws, customs, and +ceremonies of centuries. It was a death-shock to chivalry, and a mortal +wound to caste. Recognize a nigger! Faugh! A woman in an adjoining house +beheld it, and turned from the scene in unspeakable disgust. There were +men in the crowd who had daggers in their eyes; but the chosen assassin +was not there, the hour for the damning work had not come, and that +great-hearted man passed on to the executive mansion of the late +Confederacy.</p> + +<p>Want of space compels us to pass over other scenes,—the visit of the +President to the State-House,—the jubilant shouts of the crowd,—the +rush of freedmen into the Capitol grounds, where, till the appearance of +their deliverer, they had never been permitted to enter,—the ride of +the President through the streets,—his visit to Libby Prison,—the +distribution of bread to the destitute,—the groups of heartbroken men +amid the ruins, who beheld nought but ruins,—a ruined city, a ruined +State, a ruined Confederacy, a ruined people,—ruined in hopes and +expectations,—ruined for the past, the present, and the +future,—without power, influence, or means of beginning life +anew,—deceived, subjugated, humiliated,—poverty-stricken in +everything. All that they had possessed was irretrievably lost, and they +had nothing to show for it. All their heroism, valor, courage, hardship, +suffering, expenditure of treasure, and sacrifice of blood had availed +them nothing. There could be no comfort in their mourning, no +alleviation to their sorrow.</p> + +<p>Forgetting that Justice is the mightiest power of the universe, that +Righteousness is eternal, and that anything short of it is transitory, +they planned a gorgeous edifice with Slavery for its corner-stone; but +suddenly, and in an hour, their superstructure and foundation, crumbled. +They grasped at dominion, and sank in perdition.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I_9" id="Footnote_I_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I_9"><span class="label">[I]</span></a> I write from memory, not pretending to give the exact words +uttered during the conversation.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_756" id="Page_756">[Pg 756]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="DOWN" id="DOWN"></a>DOWN!</h2> + +<h3>(APRIL, 1965)</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yard-Arm to yard-arm we lie<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Alongside the Ship of Hell;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And still, through the sulphury sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The terrible clang goes high,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Broadside and battle-cry,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the pirates' maddened yell!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Our Captain's cold on the deck;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our brave Lieutenant's a wreck,—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He lies in the hold there, hearing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The storm of fight going on overhead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tramp and thunder to wake the dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The great guns jumping overhead,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the whole ship's company cheering!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Four hours the Death-Fight has roared,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">(Gun-deck and berth-deck blood-wet!)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her mainmast's gone by the board,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Down come topsail and jib!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We're smashing her, rib by rib,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the pirate yells grow weak,—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But the Black Flag flies there yet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Death's Head grinning apeak!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Long has she haunted the seas,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Terror of sun and breeze;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her deck has echoed with groans;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Her hold is a horrid den,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Piled to the orlop with bones<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of starved and of murdered men!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They swarm 'mid her shrouds in hosts,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The smoke is murky with ghosts!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But to-day her cruise shall be short!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She's bound to the Port she cleared from,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She's nearing the Light she steered from,—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ah, the Horror sees her fate!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heeling heavy to port,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">She strikes, but all too late!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Down with her cursed crew,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Down with her damned freight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the bottom of the Blue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ten thousand fathom deep!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With God's glad sun o'erhead,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That is the way to weep,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So will we mourn our dead!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_757" id="Page_757">[Pg 757]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="THE_PLACE_OF_ABRAHAM_LINCOLN_IN_HISTORY" id="THE_PLACE_OF_ABRAHAM_LINCOLN_IN_HISTORY"></a>THE PLACE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN HISTORY.</h2> + + +<p>The funeral procession of the late President of the United States has +passed through the land from Washington to his final resting-place in +the heart of the Prairies. Along the line of more than fifteen hundred +miles his remains were borne, as it were, through continued lines of the +people; and the number of mourners and the sincerity and unanimity of +grief were such as never before attended the obsequies of a human being; +so that the terrible catastrophe of his end hardly struck more awe than +the majestic sorrow of the people. The thought of the individual was +effaced; and men's minds were drawn to the station which he filled, to +his public career, to the principles he represented, to his martyrdom. +There was at first impatience at the escape of his murderer, mixed with +contempt for the wretch who was guilty of the crime; and there was +relief in the consideration, that one whose personal insignificance was +in such a contrast with the greatness of his crime had met with a sudden +and ignoble death. No one stopped to remark on the personal qualities of +Abraham Lincoln, except to wonder that his gentleness of nature had not +saved him from the designs of assassins. It was thought then, and the +event is still so recent it is thought now, that the analysis and +graphic portraiture of his personal character and habits should be +deferred to less excited times; as yet the attempt would wear the aspect +of cruel indifference or levity, inconsistent with the sanctity of the +occasion. Men ask one another only, Why has the President been struck +down, and why do the people mourn? We think we pay the best tribute to +his memory and the most fitting respect to his name, if we ask after the +relation in which he stands to the history of his country and his +fellow-man.</p> + +<p>Before the end of 1865, it will have been two hundred and forty-six +years since the first negro slaves were landed in Virginia from a Dutch +trading-vessel, two hundred and twenty-eight since a Massachusetts +vessel returned from the Bahamas with negro slaves for a part of its +cargo, two hundred and twenty years since men of Boston introduced them +directly from Guinea. Slavery in the United States had not its origin in +British policy: it sprung up among Americans themselves, who in that +respect acquiesced in the customs and morals of the age. But at a later +day the importation of slaves was insisted upon by the government of the +mother country, under the influence of mercantile avarice, with the +further purpose of weakening the rising Colonies, and impeding the +establishment among them of branches of industry that might compete with +the productions of England. Climate and the logical consequences of the +principles of the Puritans checked the increase of slaves in +Massachusetts, from which it gradually disappeared without the necessity +of any special act of manumission; in Virginia, the country within the +reach of tide-water was crowded with negroes, and the marts were +supplied by continuous importations, which the Colony was not suffered +to prohibit or restrain.</p> + +<p>The middle of the eighteenth century was marked by a rising of opinion +in favor of freedom. The statesmen of Massachusetts read the great work +of Montesquieu on the Spirit of Laws; and in bearing their first very +remarkable testimony against slavery, they simply adopted his words, +repeated without passion,—for they had no dread of the increase of +slavery within their own borders, and never doubted of its speedy and +natural decay. The great men of Virginia, on the contrary, were struck +with terror as they contemplated its social condition; they drew their +lessons, not from France, not from abroad, but from themselves and the +scenes around them; and half in the hope of rescuing that ancient +Commonwealth from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_758" id="Page_758">[Pg 758]</a></span> corrupting element of slavery, and half in the +agony of despair, they went in advance of all the world in their +reprobation of the slave-trade and of slavery, and of the dangerous +condition of the white man as the master of bondmen. In the years +preceding the war of the Revolution, the Ancient Dominion rocked with +the strife of contending parties: the King with all his officers and +many great slaveholders on the one side, against a hardy people in the +back country and the best of the slaveholders themselves. On the side of +liberty many were conspicuous,—among them Richard Henry Lee, George +Wythe, Jefferson, who from his youth was the pride of Virginia; but all +were feeble in comparison with the enthusiastic fervor and prophetic +instincts of George Mason. They reasoned, that slavery was inconsistent +with Christianity, was in conflict with the rights of man; that it was a +slow poison, daily contaminating the minds and morals of their people; +that, by reducing a part of their own species to abject inferiority, +they lost the idea of the dignity of man, which the hand of Nature had +implanted within them for great and useful purposes; that, by the habit +from infancy of trampling on the rights of human nature, every liberal +sentiment was extinguished or enfeebled; that every gentleman was born a +petty tyrant, and by the practice of cruelty and despotism became +callous to the finer dictates of the soul; that in such an infernal +school were to be educated the future legislators and rulers of +Virginia. And before the war broke out, the House of Burgesses of +Virginia was warned of the choice that lay before them: either the +Constitution must by degrees work itself clear by its own innate +strength and the virtue and resolution of the community, or the laws of +impartial Providence would avenge on their posterity the injury done to +a class of unhappy men debased by their injustice.</p> + +<p>At the opening of the war of the Revolution, the Narragansett country of +Rhode Island, the Southern part of Long Island, New York City and the +counties on the Hudson, and East New Jersey had in their population +about as large a proportion of slaves as Missouri four years ago. In all +the Colonies collectively the black men were to the white men as five to +twenty-one. The British authorities unanimously held that the master +lost his claim to his slave by the act of rebellion. In Virginia a +system of emancipation was inaugurated; and the emancipation of slaves +by success in arms Jefferson pronounced to be right. But the system of +emancipation took no large proportions: partly because the invaders in +the beginning of the war were driven from the Chesapeake; partly because +the large slaveholders of South Carolina, on the subjugation of the low +country in that State, renewed their allegiance to the Crown; and partly +because British officers chose to ship slaves of rebels to the markets +of the West Indies. Yet the continued occupation of Rhode Island, Long +Island, and New York City, and the exodus of slaves with other refugees +at the time of peace, facilitated the movements in Rhode Island and New +York for the abrogation of slavery. At the end of the war the proportion +of free people to slaves was greatly increased; and, whatever wilful +blindness may assert, the free black had the privileges of a citizen.</p> + +<p>Here, then, was an opening for relieving the body politic from the great +anomaly of bondage in the midst of freedom. But though divine justice +never slumbers, the opportunity was but partially seized. The diminution +of the number of laborers at the South revived the importation of +slaves. The first Congress had agreed not to tolerate that traffic; the +Confederacy left its encouragement or prohibition to the pleasure of +each State; and the Constitution continued that liberty for twenty +years. At the same time slavery was excluded from the whole of the +territory of the United States. The vote of New Jersey only was wanting +to have sustained the proposition of Jefferson, by which it would have +been excluded not only from all the territory<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_759" id="Page_759">[Pg 759]</a></span> then in their possession, +but from all that they might gain.</p> + +<p>The jealousy of the Southern States of the power of the North may be +traced through the annals of Congress from the first, which assembled in +1774. The old notions of the independence and sovereignty of each +separate State, though the Constitution was framed for the express +purpose of modifying them, clung to life with tenacity. When John Adams +was elected President, before any overt act, before any other cause of +alarm than his election, the Legislature of Virginia took steps for an +armed organization of the State, and old and long-cherished sentiments +adverse to Union were renewed. The continuance of the Union was in +peril. It was then that the great Virginia statesman, now perfectly +satisfied with the amended Constitution, came to the rescue. By the +simple force of ideas, embodying in one system all the conquests of the +eighteenth century in behalf of human rights, the freedom of conscience, +speech, and the press, he ruled the willing minds of the people. The +South, where his great strength lay with the poor whites, and where he +was known as the champion of human freedom, trusted in his zeal for +individual liberty and for the adjusted liberty of the States; the North +heard from him sincere and consistent denunciations of slavery, such as +had never been surpassed, except by George Mason. The thought never +crossed the mind of Jefferson that the General Government had not proper +powers of coercion. On taking the office of President, his watchword +was, "We are all Federalists, we are all Republicans"; and the two +principles of universal freedom and equality, and the right of each +State to regulate its own internal domestic affairs, became not so much +the doctrine of a party as the accepted creed of the nation. In his +administration of affairs, Jefferson did not suffer one power of the +General Government to be weakened. No one man did so much as he towards +consolidating the Union.</p> + +<p>But the question of Slavery was not solved. The purchase of Louisiana +increased the States in which slaves were tolerated; the settlement of +the Northwest strengthened the power of freedom; but as yet there had +been no fracture in public opinion. Missouri asked to be admitted to the +Union, and it was found, that, without any party organization, without +formal preparation, a majority of the House of Representatives desired +to couple its admission with the condition that it should emancipate its +slaves. That slavery was evil was still the undivided opinion of the +nation; but it was perceived that the friends of freedom had missed the +proper moment for action,—that Congress had tolerated slavery in +Missouri as a Territory, and were thus inconsistent in claiming to +suppress slavery in the State; and they escaped from the difficulty by +what was called a Compromise. It was agreed that for the future slavery +should never be carried to the north of the southern boundary of +Missouri; and this was interpreted by the South as the devoting of all +the territory south of that line to the owners of slaves.</p> + +<p>From that day Slavery became the foundation of a political party, under +the guise of a zeal for the rights of States. It began to be perceptible +at the next Presidential election; but Calhoun, who was willing to be +considered a candidate for the Presidency, was still as decidedly for +the Union as John Quincy Adams or Webster. Walking one day with Seaton +of the "Intelligencer" on the banks of the Potomac, Seaton dissuaded him +from being at that day a candidate for the Presidency, giving as a +reason, that, in case of success and reelection, he would go out of the +public service in the vigor of life. "I will, at the end of my second +term, go into retirement and write my memoirs," was Calhoun's answer: a +proof that at that time Disunion had not crossed his mind.</p> + +<p>The younger Adams had been undoubtedly at the South the candidate of the +Union party. The incipient opposition to Union threw itself with the +intensest heat into the opposition to Adams; and Jackson, who was +victorious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_760" id="Page_760">[Pg 760]</a></span> through his own popularity, was elected by a vast majority. +Jackson was honest, patriotic, and brave: he refused his confidence to +the oligarchical party, represented by Calhoun and Macduffie; and after +passionate struggles, which convulsed the country, he defied their +hostility, and told them to their faces, "The Union must be preserved."</p> + +<p>The bitterness of disappointed ambition led to the formation and gradual +enunciation of new political opinions. In the strife about the practical +effects of Nullification, the question was raised by the Nullifiers, +whether obedience to the laws of a State was a good plea for resistance +to the laws of the United States; and so, for the first time in our +history, a political party came to the principle, that primary +allegiance was due to the State, a secondary one only to the United +States; and this view was taught in schools and colleges and popular +meetings. The second theory, that grew up with the first, was, that +slavery was a divine institution, best for the black man and best for +the white.</p> + +<p>At the election which followed the retirement of Jackson, the Democratic +party stood by its old tradition of the evil of slavery, and the hope +that by the innate vigor of the respective States it would gradually be +thrown off; the opposite party likewise held to the same tradition, in +the belief that the progress of commerce and domestic industry would in +due time quietly remove what all sound political economy condemned. The +new party, the party of State Sovereignty and Slavery,—for the two +heads sprung from one root,—had not power enough to prevent the +election of one who represented the policy of Jackson. But they were +full of passionate ardor and of restless activity; and in the next +Presidential election they threw themselves upon the Whig party, with +which they joined hands. The Whig party was at that day strong enough to +have done without them; but the uncontrollable wish for success, which +had been long delayed, led to the cry of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," and +this meant a union of the interests of the North with the interest of +Slavery. Harrison had votes enough to elect him without one vote from +the Southern oligarchy; but the compact was made; Harrison was elected +and died, and the representative of the oligarchy, a man at heart false +to the national flag, became President for nearly four years.</p> + +<p>His administration is marked by the annexation of Texas to the United +States: a measure sure, in the belief of Calhoun, to confirm the empire +of Slavery,—sure, as others believed, to prevent the foundation of an +adventurous government, that, if left to independence, would have +reopened the slave-trade and subdued by force of arms all California and +Mexico to the sway of Slavery. The faith of the last proved the true +one. Under the administration of Polk, California was annexed, not to +independent, slaveholding Texas, but to the Union. This constitutes the +turning-point in the series of events; the first emigrants to her +borders formed a constitution excluding slavery.</p> + +<p>At the next election a change took place, profoundly affecting the +Democratic party, and, as a consequence, the country. Hitherto the +position of the Northern Democracy had been that of Jefferson, that +slavery was altogether evil; and Cass, the Democratic candidate, still +expressed his prayer for the final doom of slavery. Against his election +a third party was formed; and Van Buren, a former Democratic President, +who had been sustained by the South as well as by the North, taking with +him one half the Democracy of New York, consented to be the candidate of +that party. We judge not his act; but the consequences were sad. To the +South his appearance as a candidate on that basis had the aspect of +treachery; at the North the Democratic party lost its power to resist +the arrogance of the South: for, in the first place, large numbers of +its best men had left its ranks; and next, those who remained behind +were eager to clear themselves of the charge of sectional<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_761" id="Page_761">[Pg 761]</a></span> narrowness; +and those who had gone out and come back, in their zeal to recover the +favor of the South, went beyond all bounds in their professions of +repentance. The old compromise of Jefferson fell into disrepute; the +Democratic party itself was thrown into confusion; the power of any one +of its distinguished men to resist the increasing arrogance of the +slaveholders was taken away; a word in public for what twenty years +before had been the creed of every one was followed by the ban of the +majority of the party. So fell one bulwark against slavery.</p> + +<p>Still another bulwark against it was destined to fall away. The +annexation of California brought with it the question of the admission +of California as a State of freemen. The only way to have avoided +convulsing the country was to have confined the discussion to the one +question of the admission of California. Unhappily, Clay, truly +representing a State which halted in its choice between freedom and +slavery, proposed a combination of measures. Further, the representation +of the Free States had steadily increased from the origin of the +Government; the admission of California threatened, at last, to open the +way for a corresponding disproportion in the Senate. The country, +remembering how Webster, on a great occasion, had greatly resisted the +heresy of Nullification, looked to him now to clear away the mists of +artful misrepresentations of the Constitution, and show that neither in +that Constitution nor in the history of the country at the time of its +formation had there been any justification of the demand for such +equality of representation. But this time the great orator failed; the +passionate desire for being President led him to make a speech intended +to conciliate the support of the South. In that he failed miserably at +the moment; a few days later, Calhoun, on his death-bed, avowed himself +the adviser of a secession of the whole body of the slaveholding States. +Still blinded by ambition, Webster, on a tour through New York, as a +candidate, formally proposed the establishment of a party representing +the property of the country, crystallizing round the slaveholders, and +including the commercial and corporate industrial wealth of the North. +The effect on his own advancement was absolutely nothing. In due time, +as a candidate, he fell stone dead; and it is to his credit that he did +so. The South knew that he was a Union man, and would not answer their +purpose. As he heard of the slight given by those whom he had courted, +his large head fell on his breast, his voice faltered, and big tears +trickled down his cheeks. His cheerfulness never returned; he languished +and died; but the evil that lived after him was, that the great party to +which he had belonged was no more able to stem the rising fury of the +South, and broke to pieces.</p> + +<p>Thus, by untoward circumstances, the truth that could alone confirm the +Union, and which heretofore had been substantially supported by both the +great traditional parties of the country, no longer had a clear and +commanding exponent in either of them. The result of the next election +showed that the old Whig party had lost all power over the public mind. +The strife went on, and hope centred in the supreme judicial tribunal of +the land, to whose members a secure tenure of office had been given, +that they might be above all temptation of serving the time. The +politicians of the North were becoming alarmed by the issues which were +forced upon them by those of the South with whom they still wished to be +friends; they longed to shift the responsibility of the decision upon +the Supreme Court. The Court was slow to be swerved. The case of Dred +Scott was before them; and the decision of the Court was embodied in an +opinion which would have produced no excitement. But the Court was +entreated to give their decision another form. They long resisted, and +were long divided; but perseverance overcame them; and at last a most +reluctant majority, a bare majority, was won to enter the arena of +politics, and attempt the suppression<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_762" id="Page_762">[Pg 762]</a></span> of differences of opinion: for, +said one of the judges, "the peace and harmony of the country require +the settlement of Constitutional principles of the highest +importance,"—not knowing that injustice overturns peace and harmony, +and that a depraved judiciary portends civil war.</p> + +<p>The man who took the Presidential chair in 1857 had no traditional party +against him; he owed his nomination to confidence in his moderation and +supposed love of Union. He might have united the whole North and secured +a good part of the South. Constitutionally timid, on taking the oath of +office, he betrayed his own weakness, and foreshadowed the forthcoming +decision of the Supreme Court. Under the wing of the Executive, +Chief-Justice Taney gave his famed disquisition. The delivery of that +opinion was an act of revolution. The truth of history was scorned; the +voice of passion was put forward as the rule of law; doctrines were laid +down which, if they are just, give a full sanction to the rebellion +which ensued. The country was stung to the quick by the reckless conduct +of a body which it needed to trust, and which now was leading the way to +the overthrow of the Constitution and the dismemberment of the Republic. +At the same time, the President, in selecting the members of his +cabinet, chose four of the seven from among those who were prepared to +sacrifice the country to the interests of Slavery. In time of peace the +finances were wilfully ill-administered, and in the midst of wealth and +credit the country was saved from bankruptcy only by the patriotism of +the city of New York, against the treacherous intention of the Secretary +of the Treasury. Cannon and muskets and military stores were sent in +numbers where they could most surely fall into the hands of the coming +rebellion; troops of the United States were placed under disloyal +officers and put out of the way; the navy was scattered abroad. And +then, that nothing might be wanting to increase the agony of the +country, an attempt to force the institution of Slavery on the people of +Kansas, that refused it, received the encouragement and aid of the +President. The conspirators resolved at the next Presidential election +to compel the choice of a candidate of their own, or of one against whom +they could unite the South; and all the influence of the Administration, +through its patronage, was used to confine the election to that issue.</p> + +<p>Virginia statesmen, more than ninety years ago, had foretold that each +State Constitution must work itself clear of the evil of slavery by its +own innate vigor, or await the doom of impartial Providence. Judgment +slumbered no longer,—though wise men after the flesh were not chosen as +its messengers and avengers.</p> + +<p>The position of Abraham Lincoln, on the day of his inauguration, was +apparently one of helpless debility. A bark canoe in a tempest on +mid-ocean seemed hardly less safe. The vital tradition of the country on +Slavery no longer had its adequate expression in either of the two great +political parties, and the Supreme Court had uprooted the old landmarks +and guides. The men who had chosen him President did not constitute a +consolidated party, and did not profess to represent either of the +historic parties which had been engaged in the struggles of three +quarters of a century. They were a heterogeneous body of men, of the +most various political attachments in former years, and on many +questions of economy of the most discordant opinions. Scarcely knowing +each other, they did not form a numerical majority of the whole country, +were in a minority in each branch of Congress except from the wilful +absence of members, and they could not be sure of their own continuance +as an organized body. They did not know their own position, and were +startled by the consequences of their success. The new President himself +was, according to his own description, a man of defective education, a +lawyer by profession, knowing nothing of administration beyond having +been master of a very small post-office, knowing nothing of war but as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_763" id="Page_763">[Pg 763]</a></span> +a captain of volunteers in a raid against an Indian chief, repeatedly a +member of the Illinois Legislature, once a member of Congress. He spoke +with ease and clearness, but not with eloquence. He wrote concisely and +to the point, but was unskilled in the use of the pen. He had no +accurate knowledge of the public defences of the country, no exact +conception of its foreign relations, no comprehensive perception of his +duties. The qualities of his nature were not suited to hardy action. His +temper was soft and gentle and yielding; reluctant to refuse anything +that presented itself to him as an act of kindness; loving to please and +willing to confide; not trained to confine acts of good-will within the +stern limits of duty. He was of the temperament called melancholic, +scarcely concealed by an exterior of lightness of humor,—having a deep +and fixed seriousness, jesting lips, and wanness of heart. And this man +was summoned to stand up directly against a power with which Henry Clay +had never directly grappled, before which Webster at last had quailed, +which no President had offended and yet successfully administered the +Government, to which each great political party had made concessions, to +which in various measures of compromise the country had repeatedly +capitulated, and with which he must now venture a struggle for the life +or death of the nation.</p> + +<p>The credit of the country had not fully recovered from the shock it had +treacherously received in the former administration. A part of the +navy-yards were intrusted to incompetent agents or enemies. The social +spirit of the city of Washington was against him, and spies and enemies +abounded in the circles of fashion. Every executive department swarmed +with men of treasonable inclinations, so that it was uncertain where to +rest for support. The army officers had been trained in unsound +political principles. The chief of staff of the highest of the general +officers, wearing the mask of loyalty, was a traitor at heart. The +country was ungenerous towards the negro, who in truth was not in the +least to blame,—was impatient that such a strife should have grown out +of his condition, and wished that he were far away. On the side of +prompt decision the advantage was with the Rebels; the President sought +how to avoid war without compromising his duty; and the Rebels, who knew +their own purpose, won incalculable advantages by the start which they +thus gained. The country stood aghast, and would not believe in the full +extent of the conspiracy to shatter it in pieces; men were uncertain if +there would be a great uprising of the people. The President and his +cabinet were in the midst of an enemy's country and in personal danger, +and at one time their connections with the North and West were cut off; +and that very moment was chosen by the trusted chief of staff of the +Lieutenant-General to go over to the enemy.</p> + +<p>Every one remembers how this state of suspense was terminated by the +uprising of a people who now showed strength and virtues which they were +hardly conscious of possessing.</p> + +<p>In some respects Abraham Lincoln was peculiarly fitted for his task, in +connection with the movement of his countrymen. He was of the Northwest; +and this time it was the Mississippi River, the needed outlet for the +wealth of the Northwest, that did its part in asserting the necessity of +Union. He was one of the mass of the people; he represented them, +because he was of them; and the mass of the people, the class that lives +and thrives by self-imposed labor, felt that the work which was to be +done was a work of their own: the assertion of equality against the +pride of oligarchy; of free labor against the lordship over slaves; of +the great industrial people against all the expiring aristocracies of +which any remnants had tided down from the Middle Age. He was of a +religious turn of mind, without superstition; and the unbroken faith of +the mass was like his own. As he went along through his difficult +journey, sounding his way, he held fast by the hand of the people, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_764" id="Page_764">[Pg 764]</a></span> +"tracked its footsteps with even feet." "His pulse's beat twinned with +their pulses." He committed faults; but the people were resolutely +generous, magnanimous, and forgiving; and he in his turn was willing to +take instructions from their wisdom.</p> + +<p>The measure by which Abraham Lincoln takes his place, not in American +history only, but in universal history, is his Proclamation of January +1, 1863, emancipating all slaves within the insurgent States. It was, +indeed, a military necessity, and it decided the result of the war. It +took from the public enemy one or two millions of bondmen, and placed +between one and two hundred thousand brave and gallant troops in arms on +the side of the Union. A great deal has been said in time past of the +wonderful results of the toil of the enslaved negro in the creation of +wealth by the culture of cotton; and now it is in part to the aid of the +negro in freedom that the country owes its success in its movement of +regeneration,—that the world of mankind owes the continuance of the +United States as the example of a Republic. The death of President +Lincoln sets the seal to that Proclamation, which must be maintained. It +cannot but be maintained. It is the only rod that can safely carry off +the thunderbolt. He came to it perhaps reluctantly; he was brought to +adopt it, as it were, against his will, but compelled by inevitable +necessity. He disclaimed all praise for the act, saying reverently, +after it had succeeded, "The nation's condition God alone can claim."</p> + +<p>And what a futurity is opened before the country when its institutions +become homogeneous! From all the civilized world the nations will send +hosts to share the wealth and glory of this people. It will receive all +good ideas from abroad; and its great principles of personal equality +and freedom—freedom of conscience and mind,—freedom of speech and +action,—freedom of government through ever-renewed common consent—will +undulate through the world like the rays of light and heat from the sun. +With one wing touching the waters of the Atlantic and the other on the +Pacific, it will grow into a greatness of which the past has no +parallel; and there can be no spot in Europe or in Asia so remote or so +secluded as to shut out its influence.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="RECENT_AMERICAN_PUBLICATIONS" id="RECENT_AMERICAN_PUBLICATIONS"></a>RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS.</h2> + + +<p>The Refugee. By Herman Melville, Author of "Omoo," etc. Philadelphia. T. +B. Peterson & Brothers, 12mo. pp. 286. $2.00.</p> + +<p>Three Years in the Army of the Potomac. By Henry N. Blake, late Captain +in the Eleventh Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers. Boston. Lee & +Shepard. 16mo. pp. 319. $1.50.</p> + +<p>Too Strange not to be True. A Tale. By Lady Georgiana Fullerton. Three +Volumes in One. With Illustrations. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. +paper. pp. 274. $1.50</p> + +<p>The Life and Times of Sir William Johnson, Bart. By William L. Stone. In +Two Volumes. Albany. J. Munsell. 8vo. pp. xvi., 555; xvi., 544. $7.00.</p> + +<p>Lord Oakburn's Daughters. By Mrs. Henry Wood. Philadelphia. T. B. +Peterson & Brothers. 8vo. pp. 370. $2.00.</p> + +<p>Lyrical Recreations. By Samuel Ward. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. +pp. xvi., 271. $2.00.</p> + +<p>Virginia, and Other Poems. By John Henry Vosburg. New York. James +Miller. 16mo. pp. 180. $1.25.</p> + +<p>High Life in Washington. A True Picture from Life of Real Persons and +Characters. By Mrs. N. P. Lasselle. Philadelphia. T. B. Peterson & +Brothers. 12mo. pp. 396. $2.00.</p> + +<p>Trial of John Y. Beall, as a Spy and Guerrillero, by Military +Commission. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. paper, pp. 94. 50 cts.</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. +92, June, 1865, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, JUNE 1865 *** + +***** This file should be named 31051-h.htm or 31051-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/0/5/31051/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://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. 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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 Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 92, June, 1865 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: January 23, 2010 [EBook #31051] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, JUNE 1865 *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections.) + + + + + + + + +THE + +ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +_A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics._ + +VOL. XV.--JUNE, 1865.--NO. XCII. + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by TICKNOR AND +FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of +Massachusetts. + + + + +A LETTER ABOUT ENGLAND. + + +Dear Mr. Editor,--The name of your magazine shall not deter me from +sending you my slight reflections But you have been across, and will +agree with me that it is the great misfortune of this earth that so much +salt-water is still lying around between its various countries. The +steam-condenser is supposed to diminish its bulk by shortening the +transit from one point to another; but a delicate conscience must aver +that there is a good deal left. The ocean is chiefly remarkable as the +element out of which the dry land came. It is only when the land and sea +combine to frame the mighty coast-line of a continent, and to fringe it +with weed which the tide uncovers twice a day, that the mind is saluted +with health and beauty. The fine instinct of Mr. Thoreau furnished him +with a truth, without the trouble of a single game at pitch and toss +with the mysterious element; for he says,-- + + "The middle sea contains no crimson dulse, + Its deeper waves cast up no pearls to view, + Along the shore my hand is on its pulse, + And I converse with many a shipwrecked crew." + +On the broad Atlantic there is no smell of the sea. That comes from the +brown rocks whence iodine is exhaled to brace the nerves and the fancy, +while summer woods chasten all the air. At best, the ocean is austere +and unsympathetic; and a sensible, that is, a sensitive, stomach +understands it to be demoralized by the monstrous krakens which are +viciously brooding in its depths. (If the pronoun "it," in the last +sentence, should refer to stomach, the sense will still be clear.) In +fact, this water has been left over from the making of the earth: like +the Dodo and the Moa, it should have evaporated. How pleasant it is to +be assured by Sir Charles Lyell that the land is still rising in so many +quarters of the globe! for we may anticipate that millennial epoch when +there shall be "no more sea." + +However, the old impression which great spaces used to make upon the +imagination gives way to the new sensation of annihilating spaces. It +would be more correct now to speak of differences than of distances. The +difference between one country and another is all that now makes the +distance between them. For man is now overcoming space faster than he is +obliterating national peculiarities. And when one goes abroad, the +universal humanity in whose interest all material and political +triumphs are gained is not felt by him so soon as the specific +divergence which makes the character of lands and people. Oaks and elms, +hawthorn and beeches, are on either side the ocean; but you measure the +voyage by their unlikeness to each other, and wonder how soon you have +got so far. The strawberry ripens with a different flavor and texture. +The sun is less racy in all the common garden-stuff whose names we know. +Pears and peaches we are disappointed in recognizing; they seem as if +ripened by the sun's proxy, the moon; and our boys would hardly pick up +the apples in the fields. But England undulates with grass that seems to +fix the fluent color of the greenest waves on either hand. And our +eagle-eyed blue sky droops its lid over the island, as the moisture +gathers, with a more equable compassion than we know for all shrubs and +blades and grazing cattle. + +Both the pain and the tonic in being absent from your home and country +are administered by difference. In gulping that three thousand miles the +taste is austere, but the stimulus is wholesome. We learn to appreciate, +but also to correct, the fare we have at home. + +The difference is twofold between England and America. England differs, +first, in the inveterate way in which the people hold on to all that +they have inherited; second, in the gradual, but equally inveterate, way +in which they labor to improve their inheritance. The future is gained +by the same temper in which the past is held; so that, if the past is +secure, the future is also: none the less because the past seems so +irrevocably built, but rather in consequence of that, because it betrays +the method of the builders. + +These two characteristics, apparently irreconcilable, are really +organic, and come of position, climate, diet, and slowly amalgamated +races of men. Herne's oak in Windsor Forest and the monarchy in Windsor +Castle grew on the same terms. Branch after branch the oak has fallen, +till on the last day of the summer of 1863 the wind brought the +shattered remnant to the ground. Whether the monarchy decay like this or +not, it has served to shelter a great people; and the English people is +still vital with its slow robustness, and is good for depositing its +annual rings these thousand years. + +Let us look a little more closely at this apparent contradiction. + +The superficial view of England breeds a kind of hopelessness in the +mind of the observer. He says to himself,--"All these stereotyped habits +and opinions, these ways of thinking, writing, building, living, and +dying, seem irrepealable; and the worst fault of their comparative +excellence is, that they appear determined not to yield another inch to +improvement." The Englishman says that America is forever bullying with +her restlessness and innovation. The American might at first say that +England bullied by never budging,--bullied the future, and every +rational or humane suggestion, by planting a portly attitude to +challenge the New Jerusalem in an overbearing chest voice, through which +the timid clarion of the angels is not heard. + +If an observer knows anything of the history of England, he cannot deny +that vast changes have been made in every department of life: domestic +habits, social economics, the courts of law, the Church, the liberty of +the press and of speech, in short, all the roads, whether material or +mental, by which mankind travels to its ultimate purpose, have been +graded, widened, solidly equipped and built. A thousand years have +converted three or four races into one people,--and all that time and +weather have made upon it such strong imprints that you cannot see the +difference between a pyramid and a cathedral sooner than you can the +distinctive nationality of England. But for that very reason you despair +of it, just as you do of a cathedral which cannot be adapted to the +wants of a new religious age. At the same time that you venerate the +history of England, and are thankful for the great expansion which she +gave to human rights, you almost quarrel with it, because at first it +seems like an old stratum with its men and women imbedded; its +institutions, once so softly and lightly deposited, now become a tough +clay; its structures, once so curiously devised for living tenants, now +crusts and shells; its tracks of warm and bleeding feet now set in a +stiff soil that will take no future impression. + +All this is due to the first glance you get at the hard, realistic +England of to-day. You have noticed a machine clutch its raw material +and twist and turn it through its relentless bowels. That is the way the +habits of England seize you when you land, and begin to appropriate your +personality. This is the first offence of England in the eyes of an +American, whose favorite phrase, "the largest liberty," is too +synonymous with the absence of any settled habits. Prescribed ways of +doing everything are the scum which a traveller first gathers in +England. Perhaps he thinks that he has caught the English nationality in +his skimmer; and as he rather contemptuously examines these topmost and +handiest traits, he grumbles to himself that these are the habits of a +very old nation, that lives on an island, and keeps up a fleet, not to +bridge, but to widen narrow seas. Such respect for routine and +observance can nowhere else be perceived. An American is so little +prepared for this that he is disposed to quarrel with it even in +railway-stations, where it is most excellent. But it penetrates all +forms and institutions; the Established Church itself is a specimen of +complete arranging and engineering; the worshippers are classified, +ticketed, and despatched safely rolling on the broad gauge of the +Liturgy, in confidence of being set down at last where the conductors +have contracted to take them. How accurately everybody in England knows +his own place!--and he accepts it, however humble, with a determined +feeling that it is inevitable. The audience is so packed that everybody +remains quiet. The demeanor of the servants is as settled and +universally deferential as Westminster Abbey is Gothic. Mr. Lindsay or +Mr. Roebuck might forget to revile America, or Lord Palmerston, +England's right hand, forget his cunning, as soon as a servant might +forget his place. A thousand years have settled him in it; and you are +supposed by him to have had the benefit of as many years in determining +your own position and relation to him. You are electrified when a waiter +first touches his hat to you; it is as if he had discharged something +into you by the gesture, which is likely to exhaust him, and you expect +to have to offer him a chair. But his deference is an integral part of +the stability of England. When he forgets it, look for a panic in the +Exchange, the collapse of credit, and the assassination of the Queen. + +This mutual deference in a country that is so strictly apportioned into +castes becomes an unconscious toadyism, which is saved from being very +repulsive only by the frank and childlike ways of the people. If it is +carried too far, they are the first to see it. The "Times" could not +report a case of murder without remarking, as it described the direction +of the fatal shot, "What was a very singular fact, a part of the charge, +after crossing the apartment, entered a picture of her Majesty the Queen +on the opposite wall";--that is, in committing the murder, the charge of +powder went too far; it ought to have stuck to its business, instead of +violating one of the chief proprieties of a limited monarchy. But when +the Queen went down to Greenwich summer before last to embark for +Belgium, an over-zealous official issued an order that no person should +be admitted into the yard of the dock, no workman should cross the yard +while she was in it, and no one should look out of a window until she +had gone. This was his British sense of the behavior due to a Queen who +was in mourning for her husband, and might dislike to be observed. But +the whole press derided this order, and subjected it to indignant +criticism; the officer was styled flunky and tyrant, and the Queen +herself was obliged to rebuke and disavow it. + +In doing everything in England, there is so little excitement, because +it is felt to be irregular. The temper of the people is well kept by the +smooth and even island air; the moist southwestern winds come and soothe +with calm lips the check. The thermometer, like everything else, knows +its place; and when once it succeeded in passing through twenty degrees +in the course of a day, the oldest inhabitant of London grew anxious; it +was feared that stocks, too, would fall. The thunderstorms understand +propriety, and simply growl, like the dissatisfied Englishman. Vivid +effects, sharp contrasts, violent exertions, cannot be sustained in that +insular atmosphere. It seems as if London, like a lover of the weed, +were pacified by its own smoke. I saw two huge wagons turn from opposite +quarters into a narrow lane. The drivers kept their horses moving till +the heads of the leaders touched; then they sat still and looked at each +other. Both were determined that it was a point of honor to stay where +they were. After a few words of rather substantial English had passed +between them, both subsided into a dogged equanimity. A crowd gathered +instantly, but with as little tumult as ants make; it regarded the +occurrence as a milder form of pugilism, and watched the result with +interest. A policeman passed blandly from one wagon to the other, +represented the necessities of the public traffic, hoped they would +settle it shortly, urged the matter as an intimate friend of the +parties, till at length the man who was conscious that he turned into +the lane the last gathered up his reins and backed out of it. It was a +little index of the popular disposition; and I expected that as soon as +the country became convinced that it had driven rashly into our civil +strait, it would deliberately back out of it. And this it is now slowly +engaged in doing. + +The two great parties of the Church and Liberalism are blocking each +other in the same manner; but in this case Liberalism has turned into +the great thoroughfare of the world's movement, and finds the Church, +like a disabled omnibus, disputing the passage by simply lying across +it. Dr. Temple and one hundred liberal Fellows of Oxford sent up to +Parliament a petition which prayed for the abolition of the subscription +test. At Oxford two subscriptions are required as a qualification for +academic degrees: one to the Thirty-Nine Articles, and one to the third +article of the thirty-sixth Canon. Liberal clergymen and members of the +Church of England find this test odious, because it constrains the +conscience to accept ancient formulas of belief without the benefit of +private interpretation. The conservatives desire to maintain the test, +thinking that it will be a barrier to the tide of private interpretation +which is just now mounting so high. The petitioners perceive that no +test can prevent a man from having his own thoughts; that it is +therefore obsolete; that it drives out of the Church the best +men,--those, namely, who think with independent vigor, and whose +activity would put a new soul into the old Establishment. When this +petition came up for debate in the House of Commons, the conservative +speakers accused the petitioners of wishing to set up a new school of +theological belief and criticism. Mr. Gladstone made a speech, full of +grace and an even vigor, to the effect that he could not conceive of +religion disconnected from definite statements such as those which the +Church possessed; the idea was to his mind as absurd as to conceive of +manifestations of life without a body. Mr. Goschen, the new member from +London, made his maiden speech on this occasion. It was very earnest and +liberal, and reminded one of American styles of speaking, being less +even and conversational than the style which Englishmen admire. His +opinion was, that all tests should be abolished, and that inclusion was +safer than exclusion: meaning that the Church ought to keep herself so +organized as to absorb the best vitality of every generation, instead of +turning it out to become cold and hostile. The phrase which he used is +the very essence of a republican policy. It represents the tendency of +the people of England, as distinguished from its ministers and the +traditions of its government. That phrase will one day be safely driven +clear through the highway where the omnibus is now lying; but for the +present, the abolition of tests and church-rates, the recognition of +every shade of dissent, and the graver political reformation which waits +behind all these are held in check by the _vis inertiae_ of an +Establishment that lies across the road. + +During the exciting anti-church-rate contests of 1840, the Church party +in Rochdale, which had been defeated in an attempt to levy a church-rate +where for several years none had been collected, held a meeting to try +the matter over again. It was adjourned from the church to the +graveyard. The vicar, as chairman, occupied one tombstone, and John +Bright stood upon another to make one of his strong defences of the +rights of Voluntaryism. In the course of the discussion, the vicar's +warden rendered an account of the dilapidations of the building which +the proposed rate was to repair, and stated, with great simplicity, that +"the foundations were giving way,"--a significant remark, which the +meeting, though held in a grave place, received with shouts of laughter. +Such a statement may well be taken as symbolical of the condition of the +Establishment, when liberal criticism, represented by Colenso, Stanley, +Jowett, Baden Powell, and a respectable minority, is silently crumbling +the underpinning, while the full service is intoned above and the +pampered ceremonial swells the aisles. + +If the opponents of liberal thinking ever bring an action against a +prominent dissenter from their views, the Privy Council gets rid of the +case by deciding it upon the purely technical position of the +Church,--as in the case of Dr. Williams, whose offence was the +publication of his Essay on Bunsen, and Mr. Wilson, whose essay was +entitled "Seances Historiques de Geneve--The National Church." The +Judicial Committee of the Privy Council decide that they have no power +to define what is true and what is false doctrine, but only what has +been established to be the law of the Church upon the true and legal +construction of her Articles and Formularies. + +I. The Church does not require her clergy to believe in the inspiration +of _all_ portions of the Scriptures. + +II. Nor that the Atonement operates by _substitution_ of Christ's +suffering for our sins. + +III. Nor that the phrase "everlasting fire," in the Athanasian Creed, is +to be received as a final and hopeless statement. + +As a specimen of the popular element which is at work among the +uneducated classes to make the people itself of England its real church, +it is worth while to observe what Mr. Spurgeon is doing. His chapel +stands on the southern side of the Thames, between the Victoria and +Surrey Theatres, where the British subject is served with the domestic +and nautical drama. On those stages the language struts and aspirates, +and the effects are borrowed from Vauxhall and Cremorne for plays which +are constructed to hold the greatest possible amount of cockneyism and +grotesqueness, with the principal object of showing how villany and +murder are uniformly overcome by virtue, whose kettle sings upon the hob +above a pile of buttered muffins at last; and the pit, which came in for +a shilling, pays the extra tribute of a tear. These shop-keepers of the +Surrey side sit on Sunday beneath Mr. Spurgeon's platform, whose early +preaching betrayed the proximity of the theatres, but was for that very +reason admirably seasoned to attract his listeners. If he ever did slide +down the rail of his pulpit-stairs, as reported, in order to dramatize +the swift descent of the soul into iniquity, and then painfully climb up +again to show its difficult return, the action was received, doubtless, +in its full ethical import, and shook the suburban heart. His blunt and +ordinary language, sinning frequently against taste, and stooping +sometimes to be coarse, was the very vehicle to take his hearers up at +the pit-door, theatrical or theological, and send them in wholesomer +directions. It was a fortunate--his co-religionists would say +providential--adaptation of an earnest and religious man to the field of +his labor. For, as time passed, the phrases and demeanor of his +preaching improved,--their absurdities have, no doubt, been caricatured +by the London press,--and the temper of the man was more plainly +observed to be sincere, fervent, and devoted to a certain set of +religious preconceptions. The want of culture and of general +intelligence was not so lamentable in such a neighborhood. He led, by +many lengths, the Victoria and Surrey stage. If he had more deeply +reflected upon the subjects which he handled like a simple-hearted boy, +he would have failed to keep four thousand men and women warm in the +hollow of his hand from Sunday to Sunday, for a dozen years, and to +organize their whole moral and religious activity in forms that are +admirably adapted to carry on the work of popular dissent. + +His audience represents the district, and is an advertisement of the +kind of spiritual instruction which it needs and gets. Not many large +heads sit in the pews; narrowness, unreflecting earnestness, and healthy +desires are imprinted upon the faces upturned towards his clear and +level delivery. He is never exactly vapid, and he never soars. His +theology is full of British beer; but the common-sense of his points and +illustrations relative to morals and piety is a lucid interval by which +the hearers profit. They follow his textual allusions in their little +Bibles, and devoutly receive the crude and amusing interpretations as +utterances of the highest exegetical skill. But their faces shine when +the discourse moralizes; it seems to take them by the button, so +friendly it is,--but it looks them closely in the eye, without heat and +distant zeal, with great, manly expostulation, rather, and half-humorous +argument, that sometimes make the tears stand upon the lids. The florid +countenances become a shade paler with listening, the dark complexions +glow with a brooding religiosity. It is plain that he has a hungry +people, and feeds them with what suits their frames the best. His clear +voice, well fuelled by a full, though rather flabby frame, rolls into +all the galleries and corners of the vast building without effort; his +gestures are even and well balanced; and you are, in fact, surprised to +see how good a natural orator he is. You went to hear him, expecting to +find some justification for the stories which impute to him a low and +egotistic presence, and a delivery that depends upon broadness for its +effects. But he appears unpretending, in spite of the satisfied look +which he casts around the congregation when he first steps to the +railing of the platform. He is evidently conscious that he owns the +building and the audience; but, content with that, he makes no attempt +to put them in his pocket; on the contrary, he almost instantly becomes +seriously engaged in transferring into them his lesson for the day. His +style of extemporaneous speaking is conversational,--the better English +suspect all other styles,--and this of itself shows what improvement has +taken place in the Surrey region. If at first he indulged in rant, he +has now subsided into an even vein; he puts things plumply, and tells +his feelings gravely, and makes his points without quackery. So it is +plain that when he gives notice of a contribution for his college, in +which young men are trained for the ministry, and states simply, in +justification, that one hundred and fifty have already left it, and are +now engaged in preaching the dissenting word, he is to be regarded as +one of the decided influences which are now at work to bring the people +up to self-consciousness, self-respect, and political importance. + +It is very characteristic that the National Church is called an +Establishment,--in other words, something that stays where it was put +some time ago. The thing which ought to move first, and move +continually through all the avenues of the public life, to keep them +clear of the obstructions of ignorance and superstition, and prevent the +great travel and intercourse of thought from stagnating, is the thing in +England which is most unwilling to stir. Already a fearful accumulation +of passengers and vehicles, whose patience is nearly exhausted, is +anxious to be let through in time to keep appointment with the world's +grave business. Young thoughts are hurrying to be indorsed; mature paper +dreads to be protested; the hour of the world's liberal exchange is +about to strike. Depend upon it, at the critical moment, when the +pressure in the rear becomes the most emphatic, the people in the +omnibus will have to get out and assist the passengers in drawing it to +one side, where it will remain a long time unmolested. + +But the first thing which you say concerning the men and institutions of +England is, that they are established. In America some things are +finished before they are done; but there are no tottering +trestle-bridges in the routes of English enterprise to let the +travellers through. When a business firm becomes fairly built up, it +lasts a hundred years or more. Shop-signs are not taken down except by +the weather; new fronts grow so slowly along the ancient streets that +they appear to be deposited by secretion, like corals and shells. I took +a book to a printer, and found he was the grandson of the man who +published "Junius" in 1769, doing business in the same dingy court and +office, with the old regularity and deliberation. When I said, that, for +want of time, I should have to risk formidable errata and print at the +rate of sixty-four pages a day, he plainly suspected me of derangement +and of a desire to impart my condition to his machinery. On repeating it +with calmness, he set it down for Yankee braggadocio, and assured me +that not an author in England could print at that rate. Then he went to +work. They detest being hurried, but their latent momentum is very +great. Limited suffrage and many administrative abuses will feel it +soon, as similar things have felt it before. + +But you are deceived at first, and anticipate deterioration rather than +improvement for the people of England. The city of London, with its two +and a half millions of inhabitants, looks like a huge stone that has +been pried over a sweet well; nobody need expect to draw water there any +more; fresh ones must be dug, we say, in America, in Russia, to reach +primitive human nature again, and set it free to make the wilderness +blossom. London looks as if it had slowly grown from the soil and the +climate, like a lichen that clings closely to its rocky site. The heavy, +many-storied buildings of Portland stone are blackened by the smoke till +they appear more like quarries then habitations; the swarms of human +beings look ephemeral as moths. The finest architecture becomes in a few +years indistinguishable, and delicate ornamentation is as much +superfluous as among the weather-stained cliffs and boulders of the +coast. Monumental inscriptions are smutted and half-obliterated, but the +scurf protects the monument. Under the huge pile of St. Paul's the +ceaseless traffic of human passions passes as through a defile of the +hills. When the lights spring forth towards evening, and sparkle on the +great dull masses, it seems as if the buildings had been there forever, +and forever would be, endowed with some elemental process which puts +forth the lighting. Newgate itself, without windows towards the street, +a huge angle of dead walls, with heavy iron fetters suspended over the +gateways, and statues so blackened in their niches as to dispel the +illusion that they ever did or could suggest humanity, is a settled +gloom in the midst of the city, like the thought of a discouraged and +defeated man. It has a terrible suggestion that crime is established in +London,--immutable methods of being guilty and of being condemned--all +old, old, and irrepealable. + +From Primrose Hill, beyond Regent's Park, and towards the open country, +the profile of the city can be seen at one view, as it emerges from the +smoke, is heavily described athwart it, and plunges into it again, like +a great, silent feature of the earth itself, lifted in an atmosphere +whose density seems to be a part of the antiquity. Hidden in that smoke +the streets roll night and day, like great arteries, to feed, replace, +repair, business, pleasure, and misery, but to change it no more than +the blood changes the tricks of an old brain or the settled beating of a +stubborn heart. + +These are some of the physical aspects which seduce a traveller into the +impression that the vigor and glory of England have culminated, and +would fall apart sooner than take on new forms or yield to the moulding +power of popular ideas. + +The impression is deepened by the feeling of hostility to American +institutions, and by the special dislike of the North, which the past +four years have betrayed. The commercial and ruling classes had been +skilfully prepared, by applications of Southern sentiment, for the +declaration of neutrality, which was supposed to contain the triple +chance of destroying a dangerous republic, of securing unlimited +supplies of cotton by free-trade, and of erecting in the South an +oligarchic form of government. Under the circumstances, they felt that +neutrality was a kind of merit in them, and a magnanimity which the +declining North ought to have hailed with enthusiasm, as it showed that +England scorned to take a more deadly advantage of our perilous +position. This anti-Northern feeling is, and always has been, confined +to the Tory classes, in and out of the Government, to the rich and their +dependants, to the confirmed High-Churchmen. Even an American resident, +if he was wealthy, and liked the Church of England, and had settled down +into a British country-seat with British ways of living, would be sure +to misrepresent the North, to be pleased at its defeats and annoyed by +its successes, partly from commercial and partly from pro-slavery +considerations. The America which he remembered, and regretted that he +could not still be proud of, was the America where Pierce and Buchanan +were Presidents, where Jefferson Davis and John B. Floyd were +Secretaries of War. He had, in short, become a Tory; for Toryism is +regard for usages at the expense of men. He and the English Tory desired +the triumph of Slavery, because it was the best thing for the negro, and +the quietest thing for trade and government. The only difference between +them is, that he would own slaves, if he had an opportunity, while the +Englishman would not, partly because his own servants are so excellent. +But both of them would subscribe to the Boston "Courier." The English +Tory hates to have the poor classes of London use the railways on the +Lord's Day, to go and find God's beauty in the Crystal Palace and the +daisy-haunted fields. One of the most striking spectacles in London is +found on Sunday, by standing on some bridge that spans the Thames, to +watch the little river-steamers, black with human beings, that shoot +like big water-bugs from the piers every five minutes, and fussily elbow +their way down-stream to various places of resort. On that day people +cluster like bees all over the omnibuses, till the vehicle looks like a +mere ball of humanity stuck together, rolling down to some +excursion-train. This is a bitter sight to an old-fashioned +Churchman.[A] The American Tory will hate _any_ day that releases the +poor and the oppressed into God's glorious liberty. One of the most +worthy and offensive men you can meet in London is the American Tory of +this description: worthy, because honest and clean and free from vice; +offensive, because totally destitute of republican principle. If +stripped of his wealth, he might become a rich man's invaluable flunky, +and carry the decorous prayer-book to church, bringing up the rear of +the family with formalism. Toryism has a profound respect for external +godliness, and remembers that the Southerner sympathizes with bishops, +who, like Meade of Virginia, preach from the text, "Servants, obey your +masters," and, like Polk of Louisiana, convert old sermons upon the +divine sanction of Slavery into cartridge-paper. We must recollect, too, +that a good many educated Englishmen dislike republican institutions +because they have identified the phrase with all the atrocious things +which successive pro-slavery administrations have conceived and +perpetrated; for the Englishman is dull at understanding foreign +politics, and reads the "Times," though he strongly avers that he is not +influenced by it. An administration appears to an Englishman to be the +country; he has not yet heard an authoritative interpretation of +republicanism, for a Washington cabinet has not till lately spoken the +mind of the common people. But when he understands us better he will +dread us all the more, because the people in all countries speak the +same language in expressing the same wants; and when universal suffrage +puts universal justice on its throne in America, injustice will +everywhere uneasily await the ballot which shall place it in the +minority. The dislike of the English Tory is already passing into this +second stage, when his hope of a dissolved Union gives place to his +dread of a regenerated country that hastens to propagate its best ideas. + +There were three elements in this anti-Northern feeling. First, a +sympathy with the smaller and feebler party. This is a trait which puts +the English people by the side of the Turk in the Crimea, the Circassian +in the Caucasus, the Pole, the Dane,--which inspired Milton's famous +letter, in the name of Cromwell, that espoused the cause of the +Waldenses. In fact, wherever the smaller and weaker party has no +relations with England, the country hurries to protect it. But where, as +in the case of the Irish, the Sepoy, the New-Zealander, the Caffre, and +the Chinese, England's interest is touched by the objections of people +to her own harsh and inveterate rule, she has no magnanimity, and +forgets the sentiments of her nobler minds. The same Cromwell who +threatened Europe in behalf of the Waldenses contrived the massacre of +the Irish at Drogheda. So when sympathy with the distant South +harmonized with dread of the North, she was willingly misled by Southern +agents to see a war of conquest and aggression. + +The second element is a fear of the ultimate consequences of a Union +reconstructed without Slavery; for then Mr. Bright may argue in favor of +universal suffrage, uninterrupted by allusions to the arrogance and +coarseness, the boastful and aggressive spirit belonging to a +pro-slavery America. "Why do you desire the dissolution of the Union?" +asked one Englishman of another. "Oh, I have no reason, except that the +Americans are so bounceable I want to see them humbled." But we were the +weakest when Slavery made us so loud-mouthed and vaporing; we shall be +strongest when the cause of our boasting has disappeared. When a country +is fully conscious of the principles that belong to it, and sees them +cleansed with her children's blood, through eyes that stand full with +tears, she will invite, but no longer threaten; and the flag which she +once waved in the face of all mankind to exasperate will rain persuasion +as often as it is unfurled. + +But it will be a long time before the Englishman appreciates the altered +condition of this country and resigns his prejudices, in consequence of +another element in this un-American feeling, namely, insular ignorance. +Among the contraband articles which are with difficulty smuggled into +any point of the English coast is an accurate knowledge of the polity +and condition of another country. Indifference is the coastguard which +protects, without moving, every inlet and harbor. The Englishman is +surprised, if all the world is not intimately acquainted with the +British Constitution, which is not a written document, but a practical +result that appears in all the administrative forms of the country, and +can be studied only on the spot; but he will not take the trouble to +inquire into the relation which the separate States bear to the Federal +government; and he seems prevented by some congenital deficiency from +understanding how the latter is the direct result of the independence of +the former. The question he asks most frequently is, "Why has not an +independent State the right to secede?" He is infected by nature with +Mr. Calhoun's fallacy. You cannot make a Tory understand that powers are +derived from the consent of the governed, and that the consent is itself +an institution. "What becomes of State rights?" he asks. And when you +reply, that the concentred function of each State is contained within a +diffused popular will whose centre is at Washington, and that +thirty-four concentrations of this kind are nothing more than +thirty-four general conveniences, he takes you slowly by the button, +looks pityingly in your face, and says, "That is a Northern crotchet, +which this civil war has come to cure," and then he leaves you. It is in +vain that you shout after him, "That is a Northern principle, which this +war has come to confirm": he was out of hearing before he left. You feel +that you are a stranger in the house of your own mother. You walk about +among these slow, good-natured men, with plump boys' faces and men's +chests, and hear them speak your language without your sense. They have +a limited one, like their monarchy. How admirably it keeps the square +miles of their own island! how shockingly it tends the acres of Ireland! +how haughtily it ignored and trampled upon the instincts of the Hindoo! +how unwilling it is to see a difference between the circumstances of +Australia and those of England! How it blundered into a neutrality which +was a recognition of infamy! This is the distance which Toryism spreads +between the mother country and our own. + +But this must not be accepted as a final statement of the prospects of +England, or of its relation to America. There is, in the first place, a +great popular sympathy with the North, and it prophesies the future +condition of England. When you use the phrase, "people of England," +understand that the Toryism which governs England is left out. Bigoted +Churchmen, who are afraid that the island will drag its anchor because +Bishop Colenso notices some errors in the Pentateuch,--shifty +politicians, like Russell and Palmerston,--sour ones, like +Roebuck,--scandalous ones, like Lindsay,--and conservatives, like Cecil +and Gladstone, now make all the political blunders which they call +governing England. Their constituents are two thirds of the merchants, +nearly all the literary men, nearly all the clergymen, half the +University fellows and professors. But the people of England have not +yet been mentioned. They govern England at this moment, and yet John +Bright sits almost alone for them in Parliament; John Stuart Mill, +Professors Cairnes, Newman, Goldwin Smith, are almost their only +powerful writers. The people of England put the broad arrow of their +Queen upon the Rebel rams. They stay at home, and by taking the penny +papers slowly undermine the "Times." They have defeated every attempt to +organize a party for Southern recognition, by simply staying away from +the public meetings which the sympathizers called. Once they uttered +their opinion by the lips of starving operatives, when the distress in +the manufacturing districts was deepest, and capitalists were chary of +their aid. The Southern agent was busy then, in all the towns and +villages where the misery dwelt. "You are starving."--"Yes."--"And it +is for want of cotton."--"So it seems."--"Well, do you mean to sit here? +Come out in great force, as in the old Chartist times; tell the +manufacturer and the minister to break that blockade and let bread into +the mouths of your little ones." And the answer was, "We prefer that +they should starve." Again and again, the answer was, "We would rather +starve." And this haggard patience was saving the manufacturer himself +from ruin, who had been engaged in over-manufacturing, till his +warehouses groaned with an enormous stock which the cotton blockade +enabled him to work off. Great fortunes have been made in this way, +while the operative slowly went to rags, road-mending, and the +poor-rates. In London, hard upon midnight, I have often been attracted +by the sound of street-music to a little group, in the centre of which +stood half a dozen pallid and threadbare men, playing gentle tunes upon +the faithful instruments which clung to their sad fortunes. And on a +square of canvas, lighted by a lantern, or set in the flaring gas, I +have read, to the sound of these paupers' music, the story of America: +"Lancashire Weavers out of Work," "Poor Operatives' Band,--a penny, if +you please." That music keeps the heart of England quiet while your +cannons roar. It is the pulse of the people of England, responding in +the faint distance to the throb of victory. + +Another sight which can be seen by day in London streets belongs also to +the people of England. When there was a dearth of troops during the +Crimean War, the coast forts were stripped of their garrisons, and there +was a call made by Government for volunteers to fill their places. +Citizens came forward and manned the forts. This was the origin +of the volunteer force of England, which has grown to be very +formidable,--since jealousy of France, dread of invasion, and the need +of troops for India have always deterred the Government from recalling +the arms which it first put into the hands of the people. The force now +comprises infantry, cavalry, light and heavy artillery, organized like +the regular army, and under the control of the Horse Guards. Rifle-corps +and target-practice have become a mania. The Government encourages it by +magnificent reviews and prizes for the best shooting, utterly +unconscious that Government itself may one day be the target. But a +bloody revolution can hardly occur again in England. It will only be +necessary, at some critical moment, for the London volunteers to march +as far as Charing-Cross on their way towards Parliament and the Palace. +The concession would be there before them. + +Mr. Holyoake, who is one of the most vigorous champions of free thought +and popular rights in England, says,--"Revolution is no longer necessary +in English politics. Our wise and noble forefathers, of those old times +of which modern radicals in many towns know too little, laid broad +foundations of freedom in our midst. It only needs that we build upon +these, and the English educated classes, who always move in the grooves +of precedent, will acquiesce with a reasonable readiness."[B] + +The feeling of the radical class of English workmen is elsewhere +illustrated by Mr. Holyoake with a story from the Allendale mining +district. "Four miners published a volume of poems. One of these four in +his poem talks of tyranny falling at a moment's notice. Tyranny is not +in such a hurry. A 'voice of thunder' is to proclaim its doom. Alas, it +is the voice of steady intelligent purpose, much more difficult to +elicit, and not that of 'thunder,' which is to accomplish that. The poet +of course has a vision about the 'equal share' which the fall of tyranny +is to end in. The 'equal share' system would not last a day, as +everybody who reflects knows, and would give endless trouble to renew it +every morning."[C] + +It is a striking characteristic of English Toryism, that it gives way +just in time. Every reform has hitherto been granted as it was on the +point of being extorted. Official carriages roll over the very spot +where Charles I. dropped his self-willed head; Lady Macbeth might wash +her hands as soon as the English people their memories of the civil +bloodstain. Toryism knows one thing well: that no water-pipes can be +made strong enough to withstand the sudden stoppage of a long column of +water. They will burst and overflow. No matter what material may be in +motion, if the motion be suddenly arrested, heat, in a direct ratio to +the motion, is developed. A decided popular tendency will never be +peremptorily stopped in England. + +It is therefore a grand sight to an American, when the well-appointed +companies of London riflemen march up Fleet Street and the Strand, +through Temple-Bar, that bars nothing any longer, and stands there a +decaying symbol of Toryism itself. The brass bands may play, "Britannia +rules the Waves," or "God save the Queen," but to the American ear they +sound, "The Waves rule Britannia," "God save the Common People!" Every +shouldered musket shall be a vote; the uniform shall represent community +of interest and sentiment. The rhythm of the living column is the march +of England's steady justice into coal-mines and factories, Church and +State. + +For this reason we ought to cultivate pacific relations with the +Government of England. Beware lest the question of the Alabama break +loose to prey upon the true commerce of mankind! A war would put back +the people of England for fifty years. When England is at war, the +people are apt to rally to the Government. The island is so small, that, +when a feeling once gets started, it sweeps all men away into an +inconsiderate and almost savage support of the public honor. If Toryism +cannot secure to itself the benefit of a war upon some point that +involves an English prejudice or interest, it cannot prevent the rising +strength of the people from going into opposition. Dissenters of every +class are emptying the pews of the Establishment; liberal thinkers now +hold University fellowships only to avoid surrendering all the ground to +a reactionary party. The abolition of the stamp-tax has freed the daily +press, and expensive newspapers no longer represent little cliques, but +belong to the people of England, who take their pennyworth of honest +criticism every morning; and the best of these newspapers have been for +three years on the side of Northern republicanism. This is the instinct +of human nature, which knows its rights and hungers to possess them. + +We are maintaining half a million of men in the field, half a million +outlets of our heart's blood, because we believe that inclusion is +better than exclusion. The nation's instinct for that truth has gone +into camp. It is a belief that the life of the Republic depends upon +including every State, and including every citizen, and including every +emigrant, and including every slave, in the right to live, labor, and be +happy, and excluding none. We feel that the blood we lose in fighting +for that plain maxim of republican economy will make again fast enough +when the maxim has prevailed. The weaver of Lancashire, who plays out +his hunger in London streets, and our seamen who make the weaver wait +while they watch three thousand miles of seaboard, are both listening to +the rote of the same great truth, as it dashes on the shores of Time, +and brings bracing air to the people who are sick with waiting. If we +are gaining battles because we love the rights of the common people, our +success will include the English weaver, Dissenters will build churches +on our corner-stone of Liberty, the taxed will borrow our ballot-boxes +to contain their votes, and none shall be excluded but the betrayers of +mankind. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[A] Mr. Holyoake, in an article upon the condition of the lead-miners of +Middlesborough, says, while urging the need of excursions and some forms +of recreation,--"The rough, uncultivated workman is driven to seek in +beer and licentiousness that recreation which a wise piety ought to +provide for him amid the refining scenes of Nature. If excursions were +possible and encouraged, the wife must go as well as the husband; and if +the mother went, the children would go; and if the children went, it +would be impossible to take them in rags and dirt. The pride of the +father would be awakened. His pipe and pot would often be laid upon the +shelf, and the proceeds spent in Sunday clothes for the children. The +steamboat and excursion-train are as great moralizers in their way as +the church and the preacher. We call the attention of the British +Association to this matter, for here their influence would bring about +an improvement. They will send a board of geologists to examine the +condition of the earth of Cleveland, which can very well take care of +itself. Let them send a board of their eminent physicians to look after +the condition of the people." + +[B] From an admirable oration, delivered at Rochdale, Feb. 2, 1864, upon +the political services and career of the late Alderman Livesey. + +[C] From a very lively and instructive report of a visit of the British +Association, in 1863, to Mr. Beaumont's lead mines at Allenheads, fifty +miles from Newcastle. + + + + +A PROSE HENRIADE. + + +People sometimes talk about the quiet of the country. I should like to +know where they find it. I never saw any in this part of the world. The +country seems to me to be the place of all places where everything is +going on. Especially in Spring one becomes almost distracted. What is +Spring in the city? Dead bricks under your feet; dead rocks all around +you. There are beautiful things in the shop-windows, but they never do +anything. It is just the same as it was yesterday and as it will be +to-morrow. I suppose a faint sense of warmth and fragrance does +settle down into the city's old cold heart, and at a few +breathing-holes--little irregular patches, lovely, but minute, called +"Central Park," or "Boston Common"--Nature comes up to blow. And there +are the Spring bonnets. Still, as a general thing, I should not think it +could make much difference whether it were June or January. + +But Spring in the country,--O season rightly named!--a goddess-queen +glides through the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein +springs up to meet her and do obeisance. We, gross and heavy, blind and +deaf, are slow to catch the flutter of her robes, the music of her +footfall, the odor of her breath; the shine of her far-off coming. We +call it cold and Winter still. We huddle about the fires and wonder if +the Spring will never come; and all the while, lo, the Spring is here! +Ten thousand watching eyes, ten thousand waiting ears, laid along the +ground, have signalled the royal approach. Ten thousand times ten +thousand voices sound the notes of preparation. Everywhere there is +hurrying and scurrying. Every tiny, sleeping germ of animal and +vegetable life springs to its feet, wide awake, and girded for the race. +Now you must be wide awake too, or you will be ignominiously left behind +among the baggage. + +The time of the singing of birds is come, and the time of the cackling +of homely, honest barn-yard fowls, who have never had justice done them. +Why do we extol foreign growths and neglect the children of the soil? +Where is there a more magnificent bird than the Rooster? What a lofty +air! What a spirited pose of the head! Note his elaborately scalloped +comb, his stately steppings, the lithe, quick, graceful motions of his +arching neck. Mark his brilliant plumage, smooth and lustrous as satin, +soft as floss silk. What necklace of a duchess ever surpassed in beauty +the circles of feathers which he wears, layer shooting over layer, up +and down, hither and thither, an amber waterfall, swift and soundless as +the light, but never disturbing the matchless order of his array? What +plume from African deserts can rival the rich hues, the graceful curves, +and the palm-like erectness of his tail? All his colors are tropical in +depth and intensity. With every quick motion the tints change as in a +prism, and each tint is more splendid than the last; green more +beautiful than any green, except that of a duck's neck; brown +infiltrated with gold, and ranging through the whole gamut of its +possibilities. I am not sure that this last is correct in point of +expression, but it is correct in point of sense, as any one who ever saw +a red rooster will bear witness. + +Hens are not intrinsically handsome, but they abundantly prove the truth +of the old adage, "Handsome is that handsome does." Lord Kaimes +describes one kind of beauty as that founded on the relations of +objects. And I am sure that the relation of a hen to a dozen fair, +white, pure eggs, and the relation of those eggs to puddings and +custards, and the twenty-five cents which they can have for the asking, +make even an ungainly hen, like many heroines in novels, "not beautiful, +but very interesting." "Twenty thousand dollars," said a connoisseur in +such matters, "is a handsome feature in any lady's face." And the +"cut-cut-cut-ca-D-A-H-cut" of a hen, whose word is as good as her bond +for an egg a day, is a handsome feather in any bird's coat. Once, +however, this trumpet of victory deceived me, though by no fault of the +hen's. I heard it sounding lustily, and I ransacked the barn on tiptoe +to discover the new-made nest and the exultant _mater-familias_. But +instead of a white old hen with yellow legs, who had laid her master +many eggs, there, on a barrel, stood brave Chanticleer, cackling away +for dear life,--Hercules holding the distaff among his Omphales! +Now--for there are many things to be learned from hens--mark the +injustice of the tyrant man. From time immemorial, girls--at least +country girls--have been taught that + + "A whistling girl and a crowing hen + Always come to some bad end"; + +but not a word is said about a cackling rooster! Worse still, a crowing +hen is so rare a thing that its very existence is problematical. I never +heard of one out of that couplet. I have made diligent inquiry, but I +have not been able to find any person who had heard, or who had ever +seen or heard of any one who had heard, a crowing hen. But these very +hands have fed, these very eyes seen, and these ears heard a cackling +rooster! Where is manly impartiality, not to say chivalry? Why do men +overlook the crying sins of their own sex, and expend all their energies +in attempting to eradicate sins which never existed in the other? + +I have lived among hens lately, and I know all about them. They are just +like people. Not a few only, but the whole human race, are +chicken-hearted. + +Hens are fond of little mysteries. With tons of hay at their disposal, +they will steal a nest in a discarded feeding-trough. With nobody in the +world to harbor an evil thought against them, they will hide under the +corn-stalks as carefully as if a sheriff were on their track. They will +not go to their nests while you are about, but tarry midway and meditate +profoundly on fixed fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute, till you +are tired of watching and waiting, and withdraw. No, you did not know it +all before. The world is in a state of Cimmerian darkness regarding +hens. There were never any chickens hatched till three weeks from a week +before Fast Day. How should you, my readers, know anything about them? +Be docile, and I will enlighten you. + +Hens must have a depression where the bump of locality should be, for +they have no manner of tenderness for old haunts. "Where are the birds +in last year's nests?" queries the poet; but he might have asked quite +as pertinently, "Where are the birds in last month's nests?" Echo, if +she were at all familiar with the subject, would reply, "The birds are +all right, but where are the nests?" Hens very sensibly decide that it +is easier to build a new house than to keep the old one in order; and +having laid one round of eggs, off they go to erect, or rather to +excavate, another dwelling. You have scarcely learned the way to their +nook above the great beam when it is abandoned, and they betake +themselves to a hole at the very bottom of the haystack. I wish I could +tell you a story about a Hebrew prophet crawling under a barn after +hen's eggs, and crawling out again from the musty darkness into sweet +light with his clothes full of cobwebs, his eyes full of dust, his hands +full of eggs, to find himself winking and blinking in the midst of a +party of ladies and gentlemen who had come lion-hunting from a farre +countrie. I cannot tell you, because it would be a breach of confidence; +but I am going to edit my Sheikh's Life and Letters, if I live long +enough, and he does not live too long, and then you shall have the whole +story, with names, dates, and costumes. + +Another very singular habit hens have, of dusting themselves. They do +not seem to care for bathing, like canary-birds; but in warm afternoons, +when they have eaten their fill, they like to stroll into the highway, +where the dust lies ankle-deep in heaps and ridges, and settle down and +stir and burrow in it till it has penetrated through all their inmost +feathers, and so filled them, that, when they arise and shake +themselves, they stand in a cloud of dust. I do not like this habit in +the hens; yet I observe how a correspondence exists in all the +Vertebrata; for do not fine ladies similarly dust themselves? They do +not, indeed, sit in the road _a la Turque_. They box up the dust, and +take it to their dressing-rooms, and, because Nature has not provided +them with feathers, ingenuity more than supplies the deficiency with the +softest of white down brushes, that harbor and convey the coveted dust. +I doubt not through the races one resembling purpose runs; and many a +stately matron and many a lovely maiden might truly say unto the hen, +"Thou art my sister." + +Did I say I knew all about hens? The half was not told you, for I am +wise about chickens too. I know their tribe from "egg to bird," as the +country people say, when they wish to express the most radical, sweeping +acquaintance with any subject,--a phrase, by the way, whose felicity is +hardly to be comprehended till experience has unfolded its meaning. + +When hens have laid a certain number of eggs,--twelve or twenty,--they +evince a strong disposition, I might almost say a determination, to +sit.[D] In every such case, it is plain that they ought to be allowed to +sit. It is a violation of Nature to souse them in cold water in order to +make them change their minds; and I believe, with Marcus Antoninus, that +nothing is evil which is according to Nature. But people want eggs, and +they do not care for Nature; and the consequence is, that hens are +obliged to undergo "heroic treatment" of various kinds. Sometimes it is +the cold bath; sometimes it is the hospital. One I tied to the bottom of +a post of the standards; but, eager to escape, and ignorant of the +qualities of cord, she flew up over the top rail, and, the next time I +entered the barn, presented the unpleasing spectacle of a dignified and +deliberate fowl hanging in mid-air by one leg. Greatly alarmed, I +hurried her down. Life was not extinct, except in that leg. I rubbed it +tenderly till warmth was restored, and then it grew so hot that I feared +inflammation would set in, and made local applications to reduce the +tendency, wondering in my own mind whether, in case worse should come to +worst, she could get on at all with a Palmer leg. The next morning the +question became unnecessary, as she walked quite well with her own. The +remaining hens were put in hospital till they signified a willingness to +resume their former profitable habits,--except one who was arbitrarily +chosen to be foster-mother of the future brood. Fifteen eggs, fair and +fresh, reserved for the purpose, I counted out and put into her nest; +and there she sat day after day and all day long, with a quietness, a +silent, patient persistence, which I admired, but could not in the least +imitate; for I kept continually poking under her and prying her up to +see how matters stood. Many hens would have resented so much +interference, but she knew it was sympathy, and not malice; besides, she +was very good-natured, and so was I, and we stood on the best possible +footing towards each other. A. G. says, "A hen's time is not much to +her"; and in this case his opinion was certainly correct. + +One morning I thought I heard a faint noise. Routing out the good old +creature, that I might take observations, eggs still, and no chickens, +were discernible, but the tiniest, little, silvery, sunny-hearted chirp +that you ever heard, inside the eggs, and a little, tender pecking from +every imprisoned chick, standing at his crystal door, and, with his +faint, fairy knock, knock, knock, craving admission into the great +world. Never can I forget or describe the sensations of that moment; +and, as promise rapidly culminated in performance,--as the eggs ceased +to be eggs, and analyzed themselves into shattered shells and chirping +chickens,--it seemed as if I had been transported back to the beginning +of creation. Right before my eyes I saw, in my hands I held, the mystery +of life. These eggs, that had been laid under my very eyes as it were, +that I had my own self hunted and found and confiscated and +restored,--these eggs that I had broken and eaten a thousand times, and +learned of a surety to be nothing but eggs,--were before me now; and, +lo, they were eyes and feathers and bill and claws! Yes, little +puff-ball, I saw you when you were hard and cold and had no more life +than a Lima bean. I might have scrambled you, or boiled you, or made a +pasch-egg of you, and you would not have known that anything was +happening. If you had been cooked then, you would have been only an +omelet; now you may be a fricassee. As I looked at the nest, so lately +full only of white quiet, now swarming with downy life, and vocal with +low, soft music, + + "I felt a newer life in every gale." + +Oh, no one can tell, till he has chickens of his own, what delicious +emotions are stirred in the heart by their downy, appealing tenderness! + +Swarming, however, as the nest seemed, it soon transpired that only +seven chickens had transpired. Eight eggs still maintained their +integrity. I remarked to the hen, that she would better keep on awhile +longer, and I would take the seven into the house, and provide for them. +She assented, having, justly enough, all confidence in my sagacity; and +I put them into a warm old worsted hood, and brought them into the +house. But the hood was not a hen, though it was tucked around them +almost to the point of suffocation; and they filled the house with +dolorous cries,--"yapping" it is called in the rural districts. Nothing +would soothe them but to be cuddled together in somebody's lap, and +brooded with somebody's hand. Then their shrill, piercing shrieks would +die away into a contented chirp of heartfelt satisfaction. I took a +world of comfort in those chickens,--it is so pleasant to feel that you +are really making sentient beings happy. The tiny things grew so +familiar and fond in a few hours that they could hardly tell which was +which,--I or the hen. They would all fall asleep in a soft, stirring +lump for five seconds, and then rouse up, with no apparent cause, but as +suddenly and simultaneously as if the drum had beat a reveille, and go +foraging about in the most enterprising manner. One would snap at a +ring, under the impression that it was petrified dough, I suppose; and +all the rest would rush up determinedly to secure a share in the prize. +Next they would pounce upon a button, evidently thinking it curd; and +though they must have concluded, after a while, that it was the hardest +kind of coagulated milk on record, they were not restrained from +renewing the attack in squads at irregular intervals. When they first +broke camp, we put soaked and sweetened cracker into their bills; but +they developed such an appetite, that, in view of the high price of +sugar, we cut off their allowance, and economized on Indian meal and +bread-water. Every night they went to the hen, and every morning they +came in to me; and still Dame Partlett sat with stolid patience, and +still eight eggs remained. I concluded, at length, to let the eggs take +their chance with another hen, and restore the first to freedom and her +chickens. But just as I was about to commence operations, some one +announced, that, if eggs are inverted during the process of incubation, +the chickens from them will be crazy. Appalled at the thought of a brood +of chickens laboring under an aberration of mind, yet fired with the +love of scientific investigation, I inverted one by way of experiment, +and placed it in another nest. The next morning, when I entered the +barn, Biddy stretched out her neck, and declared that there was no use +in waiting any longer, and she was determined to leave the place, which +she accordingly did, discovering, to my surprise, two little dead, +crushed, flattened chickens, Poor things! I coaxed them on a shingle, +and took them into the house to show to a person whose name has been +often mentioned in these pages, and who, in all experimental matters, +considers my testimony good for nothing without the strongest +corroborative evidence. Notice now the unreasoning obstinacy with which +people will cling to their prejudices in the face of the most palpable +opposing facts. + +"Where did these come from?" I asked. + +"Probably the hen trod on them and killed them," he said. + +"But there were seven whole eggs remaining, and the insane one was in +another nest." + +"Well, he supposed some other hen might have laid in the nest after the +first had begun to sit. They often did." + +"No, for I had counted them every day." + +Here, then, was an equation to be produced between fifteen original eggs +on one side, and seven whole eggs, seven live chickens, two dead +chickens, and another egg on the other. My theory was, that two of the +eggs contained twins. + +"But no," says Halicarnassus,--"such a thing was never known as two live +chickens from one egg. + +"But these were dead chickens," I affirmed. + +"But they were alive when they pecked out. They could not break the +shell when they were dead." + +"But the two dead chickens may have been in the same shell with two live +ones, and, when the live ones broke the shell, the dead ones dropped +out." + +"Nonsense!" + +"But here are the facts, Mr. Gradgrind,--seven live chickens, two dead +chickens, seven whole eggs, and another egg to be accounted for, and +only fifteen eggs to account for them." + +Yet, as if a thing that never happened on our farm is a thing that never +can happen, oblivious of the fact that "a pair of chickens" is a common +phrase enough,--simply because a man never saw twin chickens, he +maintains that there cannot be any such thing as twin chickens. This, +too, in spite of one egg I brought in large enough to hold a brood of +chickens. In fact, it does not look like an egg; it looks like the keel +of a man-of-war. + +The problem remains unsolved. But never, while I remember my addition +table, can you make me believe that seven whole----But the individual +mentioned above is so sore on this point, that, the moment I get as far +as that, he leaves the room, and my equation remains unstated. + +There is a great deal of human nature in hens. They have the same +qualities that people have, but unmodified. A human mother loves her +children, but she is restrained by a sense of propriety from tearing +other mothers' children in pieces. A hen has no such checks; her +motherhood exists without any qualification. Her intense love for her +own brood is softened by no social requirements. If a poor lost waif +from another coop strays into her realm, no pity, no sympathy springing +from the memory of her own offspring, moves her to kindness; but she +goes at it with a demoniac fury, and would peck its little life out, if +fear did not lend it wings. She has a self-abnegation great as that of +human mothers. Her voracity and timidity disappear. She goes almost +without food herself, that her chicks may eat. She scatters the dough +about with her own bill, that it may be accessible to the little bills, +or, perhaps, to teach them how to work. The wire-worms, the bugs, the +flies, all the choice little tidbits that her soul loves, she divides +for her chicks, reserving not a morsel for herself. All their gambols +and pranks and wild ways she bears with untiring patience. They hop up +by twos and threes on her back. They peck at her bill. One saucy little +imp actually jumped up and caught hold of the little red lappet above +her beak, and, hanging to it, swung back and forth half a dozen times; +and she was evidently only amused, and reckoned it a mark of precocity. + +Yet, with all her intense, absorbing parental love, she has very serious +deficiencies,--deficiencies occasioned by the same lack of modification +which I have before mentioned. Devoted to her little ones, she will +scratch vigorously and untiringly to provide them food, yet fails to +remember that they do not stand before her in a straight line out of +harm's way, but are hovering around her on all sides in a dangerous +proximity. Like the poet, she looks not forward nor behind. If they are +beyond reach, very well; if they are not, all the same; scratch, +scratch, scratch in the soil goes her great, strong, horny claw, and up +flies a cloud of dust, and away goes a poor unfortunate, whirling +involuntary somersets through the air without the least warning. She is +a living monument of the mischief that may be done by giving undue +prominence to one idea. I only wonder that so few broken heads and +dislocated joints bear witness to the falseness of such philosophy. I am +quite sure, that, if _I_ should give the chickens such merciless +impulses, they would not recover from the effects so speedily. Unlike +human mothers, too, she has no especial tenderness for invalids. She +makes arrangements only for a healthy family. If a pair of tiny wings +droop, and a pair of tiny legs falter, so much the worse for the poor +unlucky owner; but not one journey the less does Mother Hen take. She is +the very soul of impartiality; but there is no cosseting. Sick or well, +chick must run with the others, or be left behind. Run they do, with a +remarkable uniformity. I marvel to see the perfect understanding among +them all. Obedience is absolute on the one side, and control on the +other, and without a single harsh measure. It is pure Quaker discipline, +simple moral suasion. The specks understand her every word, and so do +I--almost. When she is stepping about in a general way,--and hens always +step,--she has simply a motherly sort of cluck, that is but a general +expression of affection and oversight. But the moment she finds a worm +or a crumb or a splash of dough, the note changes into a quick, eager +"Here! here! here!" and away rushes the brood pell-mell and topsy-turvy. +If a stray cat approaches, or danger in any form, her defiant, menacing +"C-r-r-r-r!" shows her anger and alarm. + +See how, in Bedford jail, John Bunyan turned to good account the lessons +learned in barn-yards. "'Yet again,' said he, 'observe and look.' So +they gave heed and perceived that the hen did walk in a fourfold method +towards her chickens. 1. She had a _common call_, and that she hath all +day long; 2. She had a _special call_, and that she had but sometimes; +3. She had a _brooding note_; and, 4. She had an _outcry_. 'Now,' said +he, 'compare this hen to your king, and these chickens to his obedient +ones. For, answerable to her, himself has his methods which he walketh +in towards his people: by his _common call_ he gives nothing; by his +_special call_ he always has something to give; he has also a _brooding +voice_ for them that are under his wing; and he has an _outcry_ to give +the alarm when he seeth the enemy come. I chose, my darlings, to lead +you into the room where such things are, because you are women, and they +are easy for you.'" Kind Mr. Interpreter! + +To personal fear, as I have intimated, the hen-mother is a stranger; but +her power is not always equal to her pluck. One week ago this very +day,--ah, me! this very hour,--the cat ran by the window with a chicken +in her mouth. Cats are a separate feature in country establishments. In +the city I have understood them to lead a nomadic, disturbed, and +somewhat shabby life. In the country they attach themselves to special +localities and prey upon the human race. We have three steady and +several occasional cats quartered upon us. One was retained for the name +of the thing,--called derivatively Maltesa, and Molly "for short." One +was adopted for charity,--a hideous, saffron-hued, forlorn little +wretch, left behind by a Milesian family, called, from its color, +Aurora, contracted into Rory O'More. The third was a fierce +black-and-white unnamed wild creature, of whom one never got more than a +glimpse in her savage flight. Cats are tolerated here from a tradition +that they catch rats and mice, but they don't. We catch the mice +ourselves and put them in a barrel, and put a cat in after them; and +then she is frightened out of her wits. As for rats, they will gather +wherever corn and potatoes congregate, cats or no cats. It is said in +the country, that, if you write a polite letter to rats, asking them to +go away, they will go. I received my information from one who had tried +the experiment, or known it to be tried, with great success. Standing +ready always to write a letter on the slightest provocation, you may be +sure I did not neglect so good an opportunity. The letter acknowledged +their skill and sagacity, applauded their valor and their perseverance, +but stated, that, in the present scarcity of labor, the resident family +were not able to provide more supplies than were necessary for their own +immediate use and for that of our brave soldiers, and they must +therefore beg the Messrs. Rats to leave their country for their +country's good. It was laid on the potato-chest, and I have never seen a +rat since! + +While I have been penning this quadrupedic episode, you may imagine +Molly, formerly Maltesa, as Kinglake would say, bearing off the chicken +in triumph to her domicile. But the alarm is given, and the whole +plantation turns out to rescue the victim or perish in the attempt. +Molly takes refuge in a sleigh, but is ignominiously ejected. She rushes +_per saltum_ under the corn-barn, and defies us all to follow her. But +she does not know that in a contest strategy may be an overmatch for +swiftness. She is familiar with the sheltering power of the elevated +corn-barn, but she never conjectures to what base uses a clothes-pole +may come, until one plunges into her sides. As she is not a St. Medard +Convulsionist, she does not like it, but strikes a bee-line for the +piazza, and rushes through the lattice-work into the darkness +underneath. We stoop to conquer, and she hurls Greek fire at us from her +wrathful eyes, but cannot stand against a reinforcement of poles which +vex her soul. With teeth still fastened upon her now unconscious victim, +she leaves her place of refuge, which indeed was no refuge for her, and +gallops through the yard and across the field; but an unseen column has +flanked her, and she turns back only to fall into the hands of the main +army,--too late, alas! for the tender chick, who has picked his last +worm and will never chirp again. But his death is speedily avenged. +Within the space of three days, Molly, formerly Maltesa, is taken into +custody, tried, convicted, sentenced, remanded to prison in an old +wagon-box, and transported to Botany Bay, greatly to the delight of Rory +O'More, formerly Aurora, who, in the presence of her overgrown +contemporary, was never suffered to call her soul her own, much less a +bone or a crust. Indeed, Molly never seemed half so anxious to eat, +herself, as she was to bind Rory to total abstinence. When a plate was +set for them, the preliminary ceremony was invariably a box on the ear +for poor Rory, or a grab on the neck, from Molly's spasmodic paw, which +would not release its hold till armed intervention set in and enforced a +growling neutrality. In short, like the hens, these cats held up a +mirror to human nature. They showed what men and women would be, if they +were--cats; which they would be, if a few modifying qualities were left +out. They exhibit selfishness and greed in their pure forms, and we see +and ought to shun the unlovely shapes. Evil propensities may be hidden +by a silver veil, but they are none the less evil and bring forth evil +fruit. Let cats delight to snarl and bite, but let men and women be +generous and beneficent. + +Little chickens, tender and winsome as they are, early discover the same +disposition. When one of them comes into possession of the fore-quarter +of a fly, he does not share it with his brother. He does not even +quietly swallow it himself. He clutches it in his bill and flies around +in circles and irregular polygons, like one distracted, trying to find +a corner where he can gormandize alone. It is no matter that not a +single chicken is in pursuit, nor that there is enough and to spare for +all. He hears a voice we cannot hear, telling him that the Philistines +be upon him. And every chicken snatches his morsel and radiates from +every other as fast as his little legs can carry him. His selfishness +overpowers his sense,--which is, indeed, not a very signal victory, for +his selfishness is very strong and his sense is very weak. It is no +wonder that Hopeful was well-nigh moved to anger, and queried, "Why art +thou so tart, my brother?" when Christian said to him, "Thou talkest +like one upon whose head is the shell to this very day." To be compared +to a chicken is disparaging enough; but to be compared to a chicken so +very young that he has not yet quite divested himself of his shell must +be, as Pet Marjorie would say, "what Nature itself can't endure." A +little chicken's greedy crop blinds his eyes to every consideration +except that of the insect squirming in his bill. He is beautiful and +round and full of cunning ways, but he has no resources for an +emergency. He will lose his reckoning and be quite out at sea, though +only ten steps from home. He never knows enough to turn a corner. All +his intelligence is like light, moving only in straight lines. He is +impetuous and timid, and has not the smallest presence of mind or +sagacity to discern between friend and foe. He has no confidence in any +earthly power that does not reside in an old hen. Her cluck will he +follow to the last ditch, and to nothing else will he give heed. I am +afraid that the Interpreter was putting almost too fine a point upon it, +when he had Christiana and her children "into another room, where was a +hen and chickens, and bid them observe awhile. So one of the chickens +went to the trough to drink, and every time she drank she lift up her +head and her eyes towards heaven. 'See,' said he, 'what this little +chick doth, and learn of her to acknowledge whence your mercies come, by +receiving them with looking up.'" Doubtless the chick lift her eyes +towards heaven, but a close acquaintance with the race would put +anything but acknowledgment in the act. A gratitude that thanks Heaven +for favors received and then runs into a hole to prevent any other +person from sharing the benefit of those favors is a very questionable +kind of gratitude, and certainly should be confined to the bipeds that +wear feathers. + +Yet, if you take away selfishness from a chicken's moral make-up, and +fatuity from his intellectual, you have a very charming little creature +left. For, apart from their excessive greed, chickens seem to be +affectionate. They have sweet social ways. They huddle together with +fond caressing chatter, and chirp soft lullabies. Their toilet +performances are full of interest. They trim each other's bills with +great thoroughness and dexterity, much better indeed than they dress +their own heads,--for their bungling, bungling little claws make sad +work of it. It is as much as they can do to stand on two feet, and they +naturally make several revolutions when they attempt to stand on one. +Nothing can be more ludicrous than their early efforts to walk. They do +not really walk. They sight their object, waver, balance, decide, and +then tumble forward, stopping all in a heap as soon as the original +impetus is lost, generally some way ahead of the place to which they +wished to go. It is delightful to watch them as drowsiness films their +round, bright, black eyes, and the dear old mother croons them under her +ample wings, and they nestle in perfect harmony. How they manage to +bestow themselves with such limited accommodations, or how they manage +to breathe in a room so close, it is difficult to imagine. They +certainly deal a staggering blow to our preconceived notions of the +necessity of oxygen and ventilation, but they make it easy to see whence +the Germans derived their fashion of sleeping under feather-beds. But +breathe and bestow themselves they do. The deep mother-heart and the +broad mother-wings take them all in. They penetrate her feathers, and +open for themselves unseen little doors into the mysterious, brooding, +beckoning darkness. But it is long before they can arrange themselves +satisfactorily. They chirp, and stir, and snuggle, trying to find the +warmest and softest nook. Now an uneasy head is thrust out, and now a +whole tiny body, but it soon reenters in another quarter, and at length +the stir and chirr grow still. You see only a collection of little legs, +as if the hen were a banyan-tree, and presently even they disappear, she +settles down comfortably, and all are wrapped in a slumberous silence. +And as I sit by the hour, watching their winning ways, and see all the +steps of this sleepy subsidence, I can but remember that outburst of +love and sorrow from the lips of Him who, though He came to earth from a +dwelling-place of ineffable glory, called nothing unclean because it was +common, found no homely detail too trivial or too homely to illustrate +the Father's love, but from the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, +the lilies of the field, the stones in the street, the foxes in their +holes, the patch on a coat, the oxen in the furrow, the sheep in the +pit, the camel under his burden, drew lessons of divine pity and +patience, of heavenly duty and delight. Standing in the presence of the +great congregation, seeing, as never man saw, the hypocrisy and the +iniquity gathered before Him,--seeing too, alas! the calamities and the +woe that awaited this doomed people, a god-like pity overbears His +righteous indignation, and cries out in passionate appeal, "O Jerusalem, +Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are +sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, +even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" + + * * * * * + +The agriculturist says that women take care of young chickens much +better than men. I do not know how that may be, but I know that my +experiments with chickens have been attended with a success so brilliant +that unfortunate poultry-fanciers have appealed to me for assistance. I +have even taken ailing chickens from the city to board. A brood of +nineteen had rapidly dwindled down to eleven when it was brought to me, +one even then dying. His little life ebbed away in a few hours; but of +the remaining ten, nine, now in the third week of their abode under my +roof, have recovered health, strength, and spirits, and bid fair to live +to a good old age, if not prematurely cut off. One of them, more feeble +than the others, needed and received especial attention. Him I tended +through dreary days of east wind and rain in a box on the mantel-piece, +nursing him through a severe attack of asthma, feeding and amusing him +through his protracted convalescence, holding him in my hand one whole +Sunday afternoon to relieve him of home-sickness and hen-sickness, and +being rewarded at last by seeing animation and activity come back to his +poor sickly little body. He will never be a robust chicken. He seems to +have a permanent distortion of the spine, and his crop is one-sided; and +if there is any such thing as blind staggers, he has them. Besides, he +has a strong and increasing tendency not to grow. This, however, I +reckon a beauty rather than a blemish. It is the one fatal defect in +chickens that they grow. With them, youth and beauty are truly +inseparable terms. The better they are, the worse they look. After they +are three weeks old, every day detracts from their comeliness. They lose +their plump roundness, their fascinating, soft down, and put out the +most ridiculous little wings and tails and hard-looking feathers, and +are no longer dear, tender chicks, but small hens,--a very uninteresting +Young America. It is said, that, if you give chickens rum, they will not +grow, but retain always their juvenile size and appearance. Under our +present laws it is somewhat difficult, I suppose, to obtain rum, and I +fear it would be still more difficult to administer it. I have concluded +instead to keep some hen sitting through the summer, and so have a +regular succession of young chickens. The growth of my little patient +was not arrested at a sufficiently early stage to secure his perpetual +good looks, and, as I intimated, he will never, probably, be the +Windship of his race; but he has found his appetite, he is free from +acute disease, he runs about with the rest, under-sized, but bright, +happy, and enterprising, and is therefore a well-spring of pleasure. +Indeed, in view of the fact that I have unquestionably saved his life, +we talk seriously of opening a _Hotel des Invalides_, a kind of +Chicken's Home, that the benefits which he has received may be extended +to all his unfortunate brethren who stand in need. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[D] I say _sit_ out of regard to the proprieties of the occasion; but I +do not expose myself to ridicule by going about among the neighbors and +talking of a _sitting_ hen! Everywhere, but in the "Atlantic," hens +_set_. + + + + +HARPOCRATES. + + "The rest is silence."--HAMLET. + + + I. + + The message of the god I seek + In voice, in vision, or in dream,-- + Alike on frosty Dorian peak, + Or by the slow Arcadian stream: + Where'er the oracle is heard, + I bow the head and bend the knee; + In dream, in vision, or in word, + The sacred secret reaches me. + + II. + + Athwart the dim Trophonian caves, + Bat-like, the gloomy whisper flew; + The lisping plash of Paphian waves + Bathed every pulse in fiery dew: + From Phoebus, on his cloven hill, + A shaft of beauty pierced the air, + And oaks of gray Dodona still + Betrayed the Thunderer's presence there. + + III. + + The warmth of love, the grace of art, + The joys that breath and blood express, + The desperate forays of the heart + Into an unknown wilderness,-- + All these I know: but sterner needs + Demand the knowledge which must dower + The life that on achievement feeds, + The grand activity of power. + + IV. + + What each reveals the shadow throw + Of something unrevealed behind; + The Secret's lips forever close + To mock the secret undivined: + Thence late I come, in weary dreams + The son of Isis to implore, + Whose temple-front of granite gleams + Across the Desert's yellow floor. + + + V. + + Lo! where the sand, insatiate, drinks + The steady splendor of the air, + Crouched on her heavy paws, the Sphinx + Looks forth with old, unwearied stare! + Behind her, on the burning wall, + The long processions flash and glow: + The pillared shadows of the hall + Sleep with their lotus-crowns below. + + + VI. + + A square of dark beyond, the door + Breathes out the deep adytum's gloom: + I cross the court's deserted floor, + And stand within the awful room. + The priests repose from finished rite; + No echo rings from pavements trod; + And sits alone, in swarthy light, + The naked child, the temple's god. + + + VII. + + No sceptre, orb, or mystic toy + Proclaims his godship, young and warm: + He sits alone, a naked boy, + Clad in the beauty of his form. + Dark, solemn stars, of radiance mild, + His eyes illume the golden shade, + And sweetest lips that never smiled + The finger hushes, on them laid. + + + VIII. + + Oh, never yet in trance or dream + That falls when crowned desire has died, + So breathed the air of power supreme, + So breathed, and calmed, and satisfied! + Did then those mystic lips unclose, + Or that diviner silence make + A seeming voice? The flame arose, + The deity his message spake: + + + IX. + + "If me thou knowest, stretch thy hand + And my possessions thou shalt reach: + I grant no help, I break no band, + I sit above the gods that teach. + The latest-born, my realm includes + The old, the strong, the near, the far,-- + Serene beyond their changeful moods, + And fixed as Night's unmoving star. + + + X. + + "A child, I leave the dance of Earth + To be my horned mother's care: + My father Ammon's Bacchic mirth, + Delighting gods, I may not share. + I turn from Beauty, Love, and Power, + In singing vale, on laughing sea; + From Youth and Hope, and wait the hour + When weary Knowledge turns to me. + + + XI. + + "Beneath my hand the sacred springs + Of Man's mysterious being burst, + And Death within my shadow brings + The last of life, to greet the first. + There is no god, or grand or fair, + On Orcan or Olympian field, + But must to me his treasures bear, + His one peculiar secret yield. + + + XII. + + "I wear no garment, drop no shade + Before the eyes that all things see; + My worshippers, howe'er arrayed, + Come in their nakedness to me. + The forms of life like gilded towers + May soar, in air and sunshine drest,-- + The home of Passions and of Powers,-- + Yet mine the crypts whereon they rest. + + + XIII. + + "Embracing all, sustaining all, + Consoling with unuttered lore, + Who finds me in my voiceless hall + Shall need the oracles no more. + I am the knowledge that insures + Peace, after Thought's bewildering range; + I am the patience that endures; + I am the truth that cannot change!" + + + + +DELY'S COW. + + +I went down to the farm-yard one day last month, and as I opened the +gate I heard Pat Malony say, "Biddy! Biddy!" I thought at first he was +calling a hen, but then I remembered the hens were all shut into the +poultry-house that day, to be sorted, and numbered, and condemned: so I +looked again, thinking perhaps Pat's little lame sister had strayed up +from the village and gone into the barn after Sylvy's kittens, or a +pigeon-egg, or to see a new calf; but, to my surprise, I saw a red cow, +of no particular beauty or breed, coming out of the stable-door, looking +about her as if in search of somebody or something; and when Pat called +again, "Biddy! Biddy! Biddy!" the creature walked up to him across the +yard, stretched out her awkward neck, sniffed a little, and cropped from +his hand the wisp of rowen hay he held, as composedly as if she were a +tame kitten, and then followed him all round the yard for more, which I +am sorry to say she did not get. Pat had only displayed her +accomplishments to astonish me, and then shut her in her stall again. I +afterward hunted out Biddy's history, and here it is. + +On the Derby turnpike, just before you enter Hanerford, everybody that +ever travelled that road will remember Joseph German's bakery. It was a +red brick house, with dusty windows toward the street, and just inside +the door a little shop, where Mr. German retailed the scalloped cookies, +fluted gingerbread, long loaves of bread, and scantly filled pies, in +which he dealt, and which were manufactured in the long shop, where in +summer you caught glimpses of flour-barrels all a-row, and men who might +have come out of those barrels, so strewed with flour were all their +clothes,--paper-cap and white apron scarcely to be distinguished from +the rest of the dress, as far as color and dustiness went. Here, too, +when her father drove out the cart every afternoon, sitting in front of +the counter with her sewing or her knitting, Dely German, the baker's +pretty daughter, dealt out the cakes and rattled the pennies in her +apron-pocket with so good a grace, that not a young farmer came into +Hanerford with grain or potatoes or live stock, who did not cast a +glance in at the shop-door, going toward town, and go in on his return, +ostensibly to buy a sheet of gingerbread or a dozen cookies for his +refreshment on the drive homeward. It was a curious thing to see how +much hungrier they were on the way home than coming into town. Though +they might have had a good dinner in Hanerford, that never appeased +their appetites entirely, while in the morning they had driven their +slow teams all the way without so much as thinking of cakes and cheese! +So by the time Dely was seventeen, her black eyes and bright cheeks were +well known for miles about, and many a youth, going home to the clean +kitchen where his old mother sat by the fire knitting, or his spinster +sister scolded and scrubbed over his muddy boot-tracks, thought how +pretty it would look to see Dely German sitting on the other side, in +her neat calico frock and white apron, her black hair shining smooth, +and her fresh, bright face looking a welcome. + +But Dely did not think about any one of them in a reciprocal manner; she +liked them all pretty well, but she loved nobody except her father and +mother, her three cats and all their kittens, the big dog, the old +horse, and a wheezy robin that she kept in a cage, because her favorite +cat had half killed it one day, and it never could fly any more. For all +these dumb things she had a really intense affection: as for her father +and mother, she seemed to be a part of them; it never occurred to her +that they could leave her, or she them; and when old Joe German died one +summer day, just after Dely was seventeen, she was nearly distracted. +However, people who must work for their living have to get over their +sorrows, practically, much sooner than those who can afford time to +indulge them; and as Dely knew more about the business and the shop than +anybody but the foreman, she had to resume her place at the counter +before her father had been buried a week. It was a great source of +embarrassment to her rural admirers to see Dely in her black frock, pale +and sober, when they went in; they did not know what to say; they felt +as if their hands and feet had grown very big all at once, and as if the +cents in their pockets never could be got at, at which they turned red +and hot and got choked, and went away, swearing internally at their own +blundering shyness, and deeper smitten than ever with Dely, because they +wanted to comfort her so very much, and didn't know how! + +One, however, had the sense and simplicity to know how, and that was +George Adams, a fine healthy young fellow from Hartland Hollow, who came +in at least once a week with a load of produce from the farm on which he +was head man. The first time he went after his rations of gingerbread, +and found Dely in her mourning, he held out his hand and shook hers +heartily. Dely looked up into his honest blue eyes and saw them full of +pity. + +"I'm real sorry for you!" said George, "My father died two years ago." + +Dely burst into tears, and George couldn't help stroking her bright hair +softly and saying, "Oh, don't!" So she wiped her eyes, and sold him the +cookies he wanted; but from that day there was one of Dely's customers +that she liked best, one team of white horses she always looked out for, +and one voice that hurried the color into her face, if it was ever so +pale and the upshot of pity and produce and gingerbread was that George +Adams and Dely German were heartily in love with each other, and Dely +began to be comforted for her father's loss six months after he died. +Not that she knew why, or that George had ever said anything to her more +than was kind and friendly, but she felt a sense of rest, and yet a +sweet restlessness, when he was in her thoughts or presence, that +beguiled her grief and made her unintentionally happy: it was the old, +old story; the one eternal novelty that never loses its vitality, its +interest, its bewitching power, nor ever will till Time shall be no +more. + +But the year had not elapsed, devoted to double crape and triple +quillings, before Dely's mother, too, began to be consoled. She was a +pleasant, placid, feeble-natured woman, who liked her husband very well, +and fretted at him in a mild, persistent way a good deal. He swore and +chewed tobacco, which annoyed her; he also kept a tight grip of his +money, which was not pleasant; but she missed him very much when he +died, and cried and rocked, and said how afflicted she was, as much as +was necessary, even in the neighbors' opinion. But as time went on, she +found the business very hard to manage; even with Dely and the foreman +to help her, the ledger got all astray, and the day-book followed its +example; so when old Tom Kenyon, who kept the tavern half a mile farther +out, took to coming Sunday nights to see the "Widder German," and +finally proposed to share her troubles and carry on the bakery in a +matrimonial partnership, Mrs. German said she "guessed she would," and +announced to Dely on Monday morning that she was going to have a +step-father. Dely was astonished and indignant, but to no purpose. Mrs. +German cried and rocked, and rocked and cried again, rather more +saliently than when her husband died, but for all that she did not +retract; and in due time she got into the stage with her elderly lover +and went to Meriden, where they got married, and came home next day to +carry on the bakery. + +Joe German had been foolish enough to leave all his property to his +wife, and Dely had no resource but to stay at home and endure her +disagreeable position as well as she could, for Tom Kenyon swore and +chewed, and smoked beside; moreover, he drank,--not to real +drunkenness, but enough to make him cross and intractable; worse than +all, he had a son, the only child of his first marriage, and it soon +became unpleasantly evident to Dely that Steve Kenyon had a mind to +marry her, and his father had a mind he should. Now it is all very well +to marry a person one likes, but to go through that ceremony with one +you dislike is more than anybody has a right to require, in my opinion, +as well as Dely's; so when her mother urged upon her the various +advantages of the match, Steve Kenyon being the present master and +prospective owner of his father's tavern, a great resort for +horse-jockeys, cattle-dealers, and frequenters of State and County +fairs, Dely still objected to marry him. But the more she objected, the +more her mother talked, her step-father swore, and the swaggering lover +persisted in his attentions at all times, so that the poor girl had +scarce a half-hour to herself. She grew thin and pale and unhappy +enough; and one day George Adams, stepping in unexpectedly, found her +with her apron to her eyes, crying most bitterly. It took some +persuasion, and some more daring caresses than he had yet ventured on, +to get Dely's secret trouble to light. I am inclined to think George +kissed her at least once before she would tell him what she was crying +about; but Dely naturally came to the conclusion, that, if he loved her +enough to kiss her, and she loved him enough to like it, she might as +well share her troubles, and the consequence was, George asked her then +and there to share his. Not that either of them thought there would be +troubles under that copartnership, for the day was sufficient to them; +and it did not daunt Dely in the least to know that George's only +possessions were a heifer calf, a suit of clothes, and twenty dollars. + +About a month after this eventful day, Dely went into Hanerford on an +errand, she said; so did George Adams. They stepped into the minister's +together and were married; so Dely's errand was done, and she rode out +on the front seat of George's empty wagon, stopping at the bakery to +tell her mother and get her trunk: having wisely chosen a day for her +errand when her step-father had gone away after a load of flour down to +Hanerford wharves. Mrs. Kenyon went at once into wild hysterics, and +called Dely a jade-hopper, and an ungrateful child; but not +understanding the opprobrium of the one term, and not deserving the +other, the poor girl only cried a little, and helped George with her +trunk, which held all she could call her own in the world,--her clothes, +two or three cheap trinkets, and a few books. She kissed the cats all +round, hugged the dog, was glad her robin had died, and then said +good-bye to her mother, who refused to kiss her, and said George Adams +was a snake in the grass. This was too much for Dely; she wiped her +eyes, and clambered over the wagon-wheel, and took her place beside +George with a smile so much like crying that he began to whistle, and +never stopped for two miles. By that time they were in a piece of thick +pine woods, when, looking both before and behind to be certain no one +was coming, he put his arm round his wife and kissed her, which seemed +to have a consoling effect; and by the time they reached his mother's +little house, Dely was as bright as ever. + +A little bit of a house it was to bring a wife to, but it suited Dely. +It stood on the edge of a pine wood, where the fragrance of the resinous +boughs kept the air sweet and pure, and their leaves thrilled responsive +to every breeze. The house was very small and very red, it had two rooms +below and one above, but it was neater than many a five-story mansion, +and far more cheerful; and when Dely went in at the door, she thought +there could be no prettier sight than the exquisitely neat old woman +sitting in her arm-chair on one side of the fireplace, and her beautiful +cat on the other, purring and winking, while the tea-kettle sang and +sputtered over the bright fire of pine-cones, and the tea-table at the +other side of the room was spread with such clean linen and such shining +crockery that it made one hungry even to look at the brown bread and +butter and pink radishes that were Dely's wedding-supper. + +It is very odd how happy people can be, when they are as poor as +poverty, and don't know where to look for their living but to the work +of their own hands. Genteel poverty is horrible; it is impossible for +one to be poor, and elegant, and comfortable; but downright, simple, +unblushing poverty may be the most blessed of states; and though it was +somewhat of a descent in the social scale for Dely to marry a farm-hand, +foreman though he might be, she loved her George so devoutly and +healthily that she was as happy as a woman could be. George's mother, +the sweetest and tenderest mother to him, took his wife to a place +beside his in her heart, and the two women loved each other the more for +this man's sake; he was a bond between them, not a division; hard work +left them no thought of rankling jealousy to make their lives bitter, +and Dely was happier than ever she had thought she should be away from +her mother. Nor did the hard work hurt her; for she took to her own +share all of it that was out of doors and troublesome to the infirmities +of the old lady. She tended the calf in its little log hut, shook down +the coarse hay for its bed, made its gruel till it grew beyond gruel, +then drove it daily to the pasture where it fed, gave it extra rations +of bread and apple-parings and carrot-tops, till the creature knew her +voice and ran to her call like a pet kitten, rubbing its soft, wet nose +against her red cheek, and showing in a dozen blundering, calfish ways +that it both knew and loved her. + +There are two sorts of people in the world,--those who love animals, and +those who do not. I have seen them both, I have known both; and if sick +or oppressed, or borne down with dreadful sympathies for a groaning +nation in mortal struggle, I should go for aid, for pity, of the relief +of kindred feeling, to those I had seen touched with quick tenderness +for the lower creation,--who remember that "the whole creation +travaileth in pain together," and who learn God's own lesson of caring +for the fallen sparrow, and the ox that treadeth out the corn. With men +or women who despise animals and treat them as mere beasts and brutes I +never want to trust my weary heart or my aching head; but with Dely I +could have trusted both safely, and the calf and the cat agreed with me. + +So, in this happy, homely life, the sweet centre of her own bright +little world, Dely passed the first year of her wedded life, and then +the war came! Dreadful pivot of almost all our late lives! On it also +this rude idyl turned. George enlisted for the war. + +It was not in Dely or his mother to stop him. Though tears fell on every +round of his blue socks and sprinkled his flannel shirts +plentifully,--though the old woman's wan and wrinkled face paled and +saddened, and the young one's fair throat quivered with choking sobs +when they were alone,--still, whenever George appeared, he was greeted +with smiles and cheer, strengthened and steadied from this home armory +better than with sabre and bayonet, "with might in the inner man." +George was a brave fellow, no doubt, and would do good service to his +free country; but it is a question with me, whether, when the Lord calls +out his "noble army of martyrs" before the universe of men and angels, +that army will not be found officered and led by just such women as +these, who fought silently with the flesh and the Devil by their own +hearth, quickened by no stinging excitement of battle, no thrill of +splendid strength and fury in soul and body, no tempting delight of +honor or even recognition from their peers,--upheld only by the dull, +recurrent necessities of duty and love. + +At any rate, George went, and they stayed. The town made them an +allowance as a volunteer's family; they had George's bounty to begin +with; and a friendly boy from the farm near by came and sawed their +wood, took care of the garden, and, when Dely could not go to pasture +with the heifer, drove her to and fro daily. + +After George had been gone three months, Dely had a little baby. Tiny +and bright as it was, it seemed like a small star fallen down from some +upper sky to lighten their darkness. Dely was almost too happy; and the +old grandmother, fast slipping into that other world whence baby seemed +to have but newly arrived, stayed her feeble steps a little longer to +wait upon her son's child. Yet, for all the baby, Dely never forgot her +dumb loves. The cat had still its place on the foot of her bed; and her +first walk was to the barn, where the heifer lowed welcome to her +mistress, and rubbed her head against the hand that caressed her with as +much feeling as a cow can show, however much she may have. And Biddy, +the heifer, was a good friend to that little household, all through that +long ensuing winter. It went to Dely's heart to sell her first calf to +the butcher, but they could not raise it, and when it was taken away she +threw her check apron over her head, and buried her face deep in the +pillow, that she might not hear the cries of appeal and grief her +favorite uttered. After this, Biddy would let no one milk her but her +mistress; and many an inarticulate confidence passed between the two +while the sharp streams of milk spun and foamed into the pail below, as +Dely's skilful hands coaxed it down. + +They heard from George often: he was well, and busy with drill and camp +life,--not in active service as yet. Incidentally, too, Dely heard of +her mother. Old Kenyon was dead of apoplexy, and Steve like to die of +drink. This was a bit of teamster's gossip, but proved to be true. +Toward the end of the winter, old Mother Adams slept quietly in the +Lord. No pain or sickness grasped her, though she knew she was dying, +kissed and blessed Dely, sent a mother's message to George, and took the +baby for the last time into her arms; then she laid her head on the +pillow, smiled and drew a long breath,--no more. + +Poor Dely's life was very lonely; she buried her dead out of her sight, +wrote a loving, sobbing letter to George, and began to try to live +alone. Hard enough it was! March revenged itself on the past toleration +of winter; snow fell in blinding fury, and drifts hid the fences and +fenced the doors all through Hartland Hollow. Day after day Dely +struggled through the path to the barn to feed Biddy and milk her; and a +warm mess of bread and milk often formed her only meal in that bitter +weather. It is not credible to those who think no more of animals than +of chairs and stones how much society and solace they afford to those +who do love them, Biddy was really Dely's friend. Many a long day passed +when no human face but the baby's greeted her from dawn till dusk, But +the cow's beautiful purple eyes always turned to welcome her as she +entered its shed-door; her wet muzzle touched Dely's cheek with a velvet +caress; and while her mistress drew from the downy bag its white and +rich stores, Biddy would turn her head round, and eye her with such mild +looks, and breathe such fragrance toward her, that Dely, in her solitary +and friendless state, came to regard her as a real sentient being, +capable of love and sympathy, and had an affection for her that would +seem utter nonsense to half, perhaps three quarters, of the people in +this unsentimental world. Many a time did the lonely little woman lay +her head on Biddy's neck, and talk to her about George with sobs and +silences interspersed; and many a piece of dry bread steeped in warm +water, or golden carrot, or mess of stewed turnips and bran flavored the +dry hay that was the staple of the cow's diet. The cat was old now, and +objected to the baby so strenuously that Dely regarded her as partly +insane from age; and though she was kind to her of course, and fed her +faithfully, still a cat that could growl at George's baby was not +regarded with the same complacent kindness that had always blessed her +before; and whenever the baby was asleep at milking-time, Pussy was +locked into the closet,--a proceeding she resented. Biddy, on the +contrary, seemed to admire the child,--she certainly did not object to +her,--and necessarily obtained thereby a far higher place in Dely's +heart than the cat. + +As I have already said, Dely had heard of her step-father's death some +time before; and one stormy day, the last week in March, a team coming +from Hanerford with grain stopped at the door of the little red house, +and the driver handed Dely a dirty and ill-written letter from her +mother. Just such an epistle it was as might have been expected from +Mrs. Kenyon,--full of weak sorrow, and entreaties to Dely to come home +and live; she was old and tired, the bakery was coming to trouble for +want of a good manager, the foreman was a rogue, and the business +failing fast, and she wanted George and Dely there: evidently, she had +not heard, when the letter began, of George's departure or baby's birth; +but the latter half said, "Cum, anyway. I want to se the Baby. Ime an +old critur, a sinking into my graiv, and when george cums back from the +wars he must liv hear the rest off his life." + +Dely's tender heart was greatly stirred by the letter, yet she was +undecided what to do. Here she was alone and poor; there would be her +mother,--and she loved her mother, though she could not respect her; +there, too, was plenty for all; and if George should ever come home, the +bakery business was just the thing for him,--he had energy and courage +enough to redeem a sinking affair like that. But then what should she do +with the cow? Puss could go home with her; but Biddy?--there was no +place for Biddy. Pasture was scarce and dear about Hanerford; Dely's +father had given up keeping a cow long before his death for that reason; +but how could Dely leave and sell her faithful friend and companion? Her +heart sank at the thought; it almost turned the scale, for one pitiful +moment, against common-sense and filial feeling. But baby +coughed,--nothing more than a slight cold, yet Dely thought, as she had +often thought before, with a quick thrill of terror, What if baby were +ever sick? Seven miles between her and the nearest doctor; nobody to +send, nobody to leave baby with, and she herself utterly inexperienced +in the care of children. The matter was decided at once; and before the +driver who brought her mother's letter had come, on his next journey, +for the answer he had offered to carry, Dely's letter was written, +sealed, and put on the shelf, and she was busy contriving and piecing +out a warm hood and cloak for baby to ride in. + +But every time she went to the barn to milk Biddy or feed her, the tears +sprang to her eyes, and her mind misgave her. Never before had the +dainty bits of food been so plentiful for her pet, or her neck so +tenderly stroked. Dely had written to her mother that she would come to +her as soon as her affairs were settled, and she had spoken to Orrin +Nye, who brought the letter, to find a purchaser for her cow. +Grandfather Hollis, who bought Biddy, and in whose farm-yard I made her +acquaintance, gave me the drover's account of the matter, which will be +better in his words than mine. It seems he brought quite a herd of milch +cows down to Avondale, which is twenty miles from Hanerford, and hearing +that Grandfather wanted a couple of cows, he came to "trade with him," +as he expressed it. He had two beautiful Ayrshires in the lot,--clean +heads, shining skins, and good milkers,--that mightily pleased the old +gentleman's fancy; for he had long brooded over his favorite scheme of a +pure-blooded herd, and the red and white clouded Ayrshires showed +beautifully on his green hillside pastures, and were good stock besides. +But Aaron Stow insisted so pertinaciously that he should buy this red +cow, that the Squire shoved his hat back and put both his hands in his +pockets, a symptom of determination with him, and began to question him. +They fenced awhile, in true Yankee fashion, till at last Grandfather +became exasperated. + +"Look here, Aaron Stow!" said he, "what in thunder do you pester me so +about that cow for? She's a good enough beast, I see, for a native; but +those Ayrshires are better cows and better blood, and you know it. What +are you navigating round me for, so glib?" + +"Well, now, Squire," returned Aaron, whittling at the gate with sudden +vehemence, "fact is, I've set my mind on your buyin' that critter, an' +you jes' set down on that 'ere milkin'-stool an' I'll tell ye the rights +on 't, though I feel kinder meechin' myself, to be so soft about it as I +be." + +"Leave off shaving my new gate, then, and don't think I'm going to trust +a hundred and eighty-five solid flesh to a three-legged stool. I'm too +old for that. I'll sit on the step here. Now go ahead, man." + +So Grandfather sat down on the step, and Aaron turned his back against +the gate and kicked one boot on the other. He was not used to narration. + +"Well, you know we had a dreadful spell o' weather a month ago, Squire. +There ha'n't never been such a March in my day as this last; an' 't was +worse up our way 'n' 't was here, an' down to Hartland Holler was the +beat of all. Why, it snowed an' it blowed an' it friz till all Natur' +couldn't stan' it no more! Well, about them days I was down to Hartland +Centre a-buyin' some fat cattle for Hanerford market, an' I met Orrin +Nye drivin' his team pretty spry, for he see it was comin' on to snow; +but when he catched sight o' me, he stopped the horses an' hollered out +to me, so I stepped along an' asked what he wanted; an' he said there +was a woman down to the Holler that had a cow to sell, an' he knowed I +was apt to buy cow-critters along in the spring, so he'd spoke about it, +for she was kinder in a hurry to sell, for she was goin' to move. So I +said I'd see to 't, an' he driv along. I thought likely I should git it +cheap, ef she was in a hurry to sell, an' I concluded I'd go along next +day; 't wa'n't more 'n' seven mile from the Centre, down by a piece o' +piny woods, an' the woman was Miss Adams. I used ter know George Adams +quite a spell ago, an' he was a likely feller. Well, it come on to snow +jest as fine an' dry as sand, an' the wind blew like needles, an', come +next day, when I started to foot it down there, I didn't feel as though +I could ha' gone, ef I hadn't been sure of a good bargain; the snow +hadn't driv much, but the weather had settled down dreadful cold; 't was +dead still, an' the air sorter cut ye to breathe it; but I'm naterally +hardy, an' I kep' along till I got there. I didn't feel so all-fired +cold as I hev sometimes, but when I stepped in to the door, an' she +asked me to hev a cheer by the fire, fust I knew I didn't know nothin'; +I come to the floor like a felled ox. I expect I must ha' been nigh on +to dead with clear cold, for she was the best part o' ten minutes +bringin' on me to. She rubbed my hands an' face with camphire an' gin me +some hot tea; she hadn't got no sperits in the house, but she did +everything a little woman could do, an' I was warmed through an' through +afore long, an' we stepped out into the shed to look at the cow. + +"Well, Squire, I ha'n't got much natur' into me noway, an' it 's well I +ha'n't; but that cow beat all, I declare for 't! She put her head round +the minute Miss Adams come in; an' if ever you see a dumb beast pleased, +that 'ere cow was tickled to pieces. She put her nose down to the +woman's cheek, an' she licked her hands, an' she moved up agin' her an' +rubbed her ear on her,--she all but talked; an' when I looked round an' +see them black eyes o' Miss Adams's with wet in 'em, I 'most wished I +had a pocket-handkercher myself. + +"'You won't sell her to a hard master, will you?' says she. 'I want her +to go where she'll be well cared for, an' I shall know where she is; for +if ever things comes right agin, I want to hev her back. She's been half +my livin' an' all my company for quite a spell, an' I shall miss her +dreadfully.' + +"'Well,' says I, 'I'll take her down to Squire Hollis's in Avondale; +he's got a cow-barn good enough for a Representative to set in, an' +clean water, an' chains to halter 'em up with, an' a dry yard where the +water all dreens off as slick as can be, an' there a'n't such a piece o' +land nowhere round for root-crops; an' the Squire he sets such store by +his cows an' things, I've heerd tell he turned off two Irishmen for +abusin' on 'em; an' they has their bags washed an' their tails combed +every day in the year,--an' I don't know but what they ties 'em up with +a blew ribbin.'" + +"Get out!" growled Grandfather. + +"Can't, jest yet, Squire, not t'll I've done. Anyway, I figgered it off +to her, an' she was kinder consoled up to think on 't; for I told her I +thought likely you'd buy her cow, an' when we come to do the tradin' +part, why, con-found it! she wa'n't no more fit to buy an' sell a +critter than my three-year-old Hepsy. I said a piece back I ha'n't got +much natur', an' a man that trades dumb beasts the biggest part o' the +time hedn't oughter hev; but I swan to man! natur' was too much for me +this time; I couldn't no more ha' bought that cow cheap than I could ha' +sold my old gran'ther to a tin-peddler. Somehow, she was so innocent, +an' she felt so to part with the critter, an' then she let me know 't +George was in the army; an' thinks I, I guess I'll help the Gov'ment +along some; I can't fight, 'cause I'm subject to rheumatiz in my back, +but I can look out for them that can; so, take the hull on 't, long an' +broad, why, I up an' gin her seventy-five dollars for that cow,--an' I'd +ha' gin twenty more not to ha' seen Miss Adams's face a-lookin' arter me +an' her when we went away from the door. + +"So now, Squire, you can take her or leave her." + +Aaron Stow knew his man. Squire Hollis pulled out his pocket-book and +paid seventy-five dollars on the spot for a native cow called Biddy. + +"Now clear out with your Ayrshires!" said he, irascibly. "I'm a fool, +but I won't buy them, too." + +"Well, Squire, good day," said Aaron, with a grin. + +But I am credibly informed that the next week he did come back with the +two Ayrshires, and sold them to Grandfather, remarking to the farmer +that he "should ha' been a darned fool to take the old gentleman at his +word; for he never knowed a man hanker arter harnsome stock but what he +bought it, fust or last." + +Now I also discovered that the regiment George enlisted in was one whose +Colonel I knew well: so I wrote and asked about Sergeant Adams. My +report was highly honorable to George, but had some bad news in it: he +had been severely wounded in the right leg, and, though recovering, +would be disabled from further service. A fortnight after I drove into +Hanerford with Grandfather Hollis, and we stopped at the old bakery. It +looked exquisitely neat in the shop, as well as prosperous externally, +and Dely stood behind the counter with a lovely child in her arms. +Grandfather bought about half a bushel of crackers and cookies, while I +played with the baby. As he paid for them, he said in his kind old voice +that nobody can hear without pleasure,-- + +"I believe I have a pet of yours in my barn at Avondale, Mrs. Adams." + +Dely's eyes lighted up, and a quick flush of feeling glowed on her +pretty face. + +"Oh, Sir! you did buy Biddy, then? and you are Squire Hollis?" + +"Yes, Ma'am, and Biddy is well, and well cared for, as fat and sleek as +a mole, and still comes to her name." + +"Thank you kindly, Sir!" said Dely, with an emphasis that gave the +simple phrase most earnest meaning. + +"And how is your husband, Mrs. Adams?" said I. + +A deeper glow displaced the fading blush Grandfather had called out, and +her beautiful eyes flashed at me. + +"Quite well, I thank you, and not so very lame. And he's coming home +next week." + +She took the baby from me, as she spoke, and, looking in its bright +little face, said,-- + +"Call him, Baby!" + +"Pa-pa!" said the child. + +"If ever you come to Avondale, Mrs. Adams, come and see my cows," said +Grandfather, as he gathered up the reins. "You maybe sure I won't sell +Biddy to anybody but you." + +Dely smiled from the steps where she stood; and we drove away. + + + + +NEEDLE AND GARDEN. + +THE STORY OF A SEAMSTRESS WHO LAID DOWN HER NEEDLE AND BECAME A +STRAWBERRY-GIRL. + +WRITTEN BY HERSELF. + + +CHAPTER VI. + +I cannot tell why the price of everything we eat or drink or wear has so +much increased during the last year or two. I have heard many reasons +given, and have read of so many more, all differing, as to lead me to +suspect that no one really knows. Yet there is a general, broad +admission that it must in some way be owing to the war, for every one +knows that such enhancement did not previously exist. But among the +strange, the unaccountable, the utterly heartless facts of this eventful +crisis is the reduction of the wages of the sewing-woman, while the cost +of everything necessary to keep her alive is threefold greater than +before. The salaries of clerks have been raised, the wages of the +working-man increased, in some cases doubled, the labor of men in every +department of business is better paid, yet that of the sewing-woman is +reduced in price. + +The heartlessness of the fact is equalled only by its strangeness. Every +article of clothing which the sewing-woman makes commands a higher price +than formerly, yet she receives much less for her work than when it sold +for a lower one. And while thus meagrely paid, there has been a demand +for the labor of her hands so urgent that the like was never seen among +us. A customer, in the person of the Government, came into the market +and created a demand for clothing, that swept every factory clear of its +accumulated stock, and bound the proprietors in contracts for more, +which required them to run night and day. All this unexampled product +was to be made up into tents, accoutrements, and army-clothing, and +principally by women. One would suppose, that, with so unusual a call +for female labor, there would be an increase of female wages. It was so +in the case of those who fabricated cannon, muskets, powder, and all +other articles which a government consumes in time of war, and which men +produce: they demanded higher wages for their work, and obtained them: +the increase showing itself to the buyer in the enhanced price of the +article. + +This enhancement became contagious: it spread to everything,--doubling +and trebling the price of whatever the community required, except the +single item of the sewing-woman's labor. Had the price of this remained +even stationary, it would have excited surprise; but that her wages +should be cut down at a time when everybody's else went up excited +astonishment among such as became aware of it, while the reduction +coming contemporaneously with an unprecedented rise in the price of all +the necessaries of life overwhelmed this deserving class with +indescribable misery. Multitudes of them gave up the commonest articles +of food,--coffee, tea, butter, and sugar,--and others dispensed even +with many of the actual necessaries. How could they eat butter at sixty +cents a pound, when earning only fifteen cents a day? + +Finally the reduction of sewing-women's wages became so shamefully great +as to raise a wailing cry from these poor victims of cupidity, which +attracted public attention. It was shown that as the price of food rose, +their wages went down. In 1861 the sewing-woman received seventeen and a +half cents for making a shirt, sugar being then thirteen cents a pound; +but in 1864, when sugar was up to thirty cents, the price for making a +shirt had been ground down to eight cents! It was nearly the same with +all other articles of her work, as the following list of cruel +reductions in the prices paid at our arsenal and by contractors will +show. + + +COMPARISON OF PRICES FOR 1861 AND 1864. + + _Arsenal._ _Arsenal._ _Contractors._ + 1861. 1864. 1864. + Shirts, 17-1/2 15 8 + Drawers, 12-1/2 10 7 @ 8 + Infantry Pantaloons, 42-1/2 27 17 @ 20 + Cavalry Pantaloons, 60 50 28 @ 30 + Lined Blouses, 45 40 20 + Unlined Blouses, 40 35 15 @ 20 + Cavalry Jackets, 1.12-1/2 1.00 75 @ 80 + Overalls, 25 20 8 + Bed Sacks, 20 20 7 + Covering Canteens, 4 2-1/2 -- + +Here was a state of things wholly without parallel in our previous +social history. On such wages women could not exist; they were the +strongest and surest temptation to the abandonment of a virtuous course +of life. Labor was here evidently cheated of its just reward. The +Government gave out the work by contract at the prices indicated in the +first two columns, and the contractors put it out among the sewing-women +at the inhuman rates set down in the third column. In this wrong the +Government participated; for it reduced its prices to the sewing-women, +while it was constantly increasing those it paid to every other class of +work-people. Even the freedmen on the sea-islands or in the contraband +camps made better wages,--while the liberated negro washer-woman, who +had never been paid wages during a life of sixty years, was suddenly +elevated to a position about the camps which enabled her to earn more, +every day, than thousands of intelligent and exemplary needle-women in +Philadelphia. + +An extraordinary feature of the case was, that, while there was probably +four times as much sewing to be done, there were at least ten times as +many women to do it as before. The condition of things showed that this +must be the fact, because, though the work to be given out was enormous +in amount, yet there was a crowd and pressure to obtain it which was +even greater. I saw this myself on more than one occasion. + +While congratulating ourselves that our women have not yet been degraded +to working at coal-mining, dressed in men's attire, or at gathering up +manure in the streets of a great city, we may be sure, that, if, in this +emergency, they were saved from actual starvation, it was not through +any generous, spontaneous outpouring of that sympathy whose fountain is +in the bottom of men's pockets. They pined, and worked, and saved +themselves. + +At last they met together in public, common sufferers under a common +calamity, interchanged their experiences, and mingled their tears. If +the personal history of the pupils in my sewing-school was diversified, +in this assembly the domestic experience of each individual was in +mournful harmony with that of all. The great majority were wives of +soldiers who had gone forth to uphold the flag of our country. Hundreds +of them were clad in mourning,--their husbands had died in +battle,--their remittances of pay had ceased,--their dependence had been +suddenly cut off,--and they were thus thrown back upon the needle, which +they had laid down on getting married. Oh, how many hollow cheeks and +attenuated figures were to be seen in that sad meeting of working-women! +There was the dull eye, the pinched-up face, which betokened absolute +deprivation of necessary food,--yet withal, the careful adjustment of a +faded shawl or dress, the honest pride, even in the depth of misery, to +be at least decent, after the effort to preserve the old gentility had +been found vain. + +It was the extraordinary number of the wives and daughters of the killed +and wounded in battle, who, suddenly added to the standing army of +sewing-women, had glutted the labor-market of the city, and whose +impatient necessity for employment had enabled heartless contractors to +cut down the making of a shirt to eight cents. I remember, when the +first rumor of the first battle reached our city, how the news-resorts +were thronged by these women to know whether they had been made widows +or not,--how the crowd pressed up to and surged around the placards +containing the lists of killed and wounded,--how those away off from +these centres of early intelligence waited feverishly for the morning +paper to tell them whether they were to be miserable or happy. I +remember, too, how, as the bloody contest went on, this impatient +anxiety died out,--use seemed to have made their condition a sort of +second nature,--they kept at home, hopeful, but resigned. Alas! how +many, in the end, needed all the resignation that God mercifully extends +to the stricken deer of the great human family! + +They came together on the occasion referred to to compare grievances, +and devise whatever poor remedy might be found to be in the power of a +body of friendless needle-women. The straits to which many of these +deserving widows had been reduced were awful. The rich men of my native +city may hang their heads in shame over the recital of sufferings at +their very door. No generous movement had been made by any of them in +mitigation. + +One widow, taking out shirts at the arsenal, earned two dollars and +forty cents in two weeks, but was denied permission to take them in when +done, though urgently needing her pay, being told that she would be +making too much money. Another made vests with ten button-holes and +three pockets for fifteen cents, furnishing her own cotton at twenty +cents a spool. A third, whose husband was then in the army, found the +price of infantry-pantaloons reduced from forty-two to twenty-seven +cents,--reduced by the Government itself,--but she made eight pair a +week, took care of five children, and was always on the verge of +starvation. She declared, that, if it were not for her children, she +would gladly lie down and die! A fourth worked for contractors on +overalls at five cents a pair! Having the aid of a sewing-machine, she +made six pair daily, but was the object of insult and abuse from her +employer. + +The widow of a brave man who gave up his life at Fredericksburg worked +for the Government, and made eight pair of pantaloons a week, receiving +two dollars and sixteen cents for the uninterrupted labor of six days of +eighteen hours each. Another made thirteen pair of drawers for a dollar, +and by working early and late could sometimes earn two dollars in the +week. The wife of another soldier, still fighting to uphold the flag, +worked on great-coats for the contractors at thirty cents each, and +earned eighty cents a week, keeping herself and three children on that! +A wounded hero came home to die, and did so, after lingering six months +dependent on his wife. With six children, she could earn only two +dollars and a quarter a week, though working incessantly. She did +contrive to feed them, but they went barefoot all winter. + +An aged woman worked on tents, making in each tent forty-six +button-holes, sewing on forty-six buttons, then buttoning them together, +then making twenty eyelet-holes,--all for sixteen cents. After working a +whole day without tasting food, she took in her work just five minutes +after the hour for receiving and paying for the week's labor. She was +told there was no more work for her. Then she asked them to pay her for +what she had just delivered, but was refused. She told them she was +without a cent, and that, if forced to wait till another pay-day, she +must starve. The reply was, "Starve and be d----d! That is none of my +business. We have our rules, and shall not break them for any ----." + +A soldier's wife had bought coal by the bucketful all winter, at the +rate of sixteen dollars a ton, and worked on flannel shirts at a dollar +and thirty cents a dozen. She was never able to eat a full meal, and +many times went to bed hungry. A tailor gave to another sewing-woman a +lot of pantaloons to make up. The cloth being rotten, the stitches of +one pair tore out, but by exercising great care she succeeded in getting +the others made up. When she took them in, he accused her of having +ruined them, and refused to pay her anything. She threatened suit, +whereupon he told her to "sue and be d----d," and finally offered a +shilling a pair, which her necessities forced her to accept. Another +needle-woman worked on hat-leathers at two and a half cents a dozen. She +found her own silk and cotton, and put upwards of five thousand stitches +into the dozen leathers. How could such a slave exist? Her four children +and herself breakfasted on bread and molasses, with malt coffee +sweetened with molasses. They dined on potatoes, and made a quarter peck +serve for three meals! + +So much for the mercy of the Government and the conduct of the trade. +Now for the doings of those who claimed to belong to the religious +class. One public praying man paid less than any other contractor, and +frequently allowed his hands to go unpaid for two or three weeks +together. Another would give only a dollar for making thirteen shirts +and drawers, of which a woman could finish but three in a day. One of +those in his employ, becoming weary of such low pay, applied for work at +another tailor's. There she found the inspector cursing an aged woman. +When solicited for work, he told the applicant to "clear out and be +d----d; he didn't want to see anything in bonnet or hoops again that +day." + +What but fallen women must some of the subjects of such atrocious +treatment become? It was ascertained from a letter sent by one of this +class, that she had given way under the pressure of starvation. She +said,-- + +"I was once an innocent girl, the daughter of a clergyman. Left an +orphan at an early age, I tried hard to make a living, but, unable to +endure the hard labor and live upon the poor pay I received, I fell into +sin. Tell your public that thousands like me have been driven by want to +crime. Tell them, that, though it is well to save human souls from +pollution, it is better that they shall be kept pure, and know no +shame." + +Another confessed as much; but how many more were driven to the same +alternative, who remained mute under their shame, no one can tell. Yet +the men who thus drove virtuous women to despair were amassing large +fortunes. Their names appeared in the newspapers as liberal contributors +to every public charity that was started,--to sanitary fairs, to +women's-aid societies, to the sick and wounded soldiers, to everything +that would be likely to bring their names into print. They figured as +respectable and spirited citizens. Of all men they were supremely loyal. +Loyal to what? Not to the cause of poor famishing women, but to their +own interest. Some of them were church-members, famous as class-leaders +and exhorters, powerful in prayer, especially when made in public, +counterparts of the Pharisees of old. Their wives and daughters wore +silk dresses, hundred-dollar shawls, and had boxes at the opera. + +What would have been said of this unheard-of robbery by the men who won +victories at Gettysburg and Atlanta, had they known that it was +committed on the wives and mothers whom they had left behind? These +women gave up husbands and sons to fight the battles of the nation, +never dreaming that those who remained at home to make fortunes would +seek to do so by starving them. They considered the first sacrifice +great enough; but here was another. Who but they can describe how +terrible it was? + +On this subject employers have generally remained silent, offering few +rebuttals to these charges of cruelty, extortion, and robbery. The +sewing-women and their friends have remonstrated, but the oppressors +have rarely condescended to reply. Even those of the same sex, who have +large establishments and employ numbers of women, have seldom done so. +This silence has been significant of inability, an admission of the +facts alleged. + +Philanthropy has not been idle, however, while these impositions on +sewing-women have been practised. Numerous plans for preventing them, +and for otherwise improving the condition of the sex, have been +proposed, some of which have been put into successful operation,--the +object sought for being to diversify employment by opening other +occupations than that of the needle. It is a settled truism, that the +measure of civilization in a nation is the condition of its women. While +heathen and savage, they are drudges; when enlightened by education and +moulded by Christianity, they rise to the highest plane of humanity. +When a Neapolitan woman gave birth to a girl, it was, until very +recently, the custom of the poorer classes to display a black flag from +an upper window of the house, to avoid the unpleasant necessity of +informing inquirers of the sex of the infant. Even at the birth of a +child in the higher ranks, the midwife and physician who are in +attendance never announce to the anxious mother the sex of the newly +born, if a girl, until pressed to disclose it, because a female child is +never welcome. + +It is much the fashion of the times to say that the sphere of woman is +exclusively within the domestic circle. It is highly probable that the +great majority desire no wider range; but even in the obscure quietude +of that circle they are subject to a thousand chances. We see what kind +of husbands many women obtain,--and that even the most deserving are at +times overtaken by sickness or poverty, and then are left with no +certain means of living. Poets and novelists may limit their destiny to +that of being beautiful and charming, but the wise and considerate have +long since seen that some comprehensive improvement in their condition +is needed. Their resources must be enlarged and made available. It will +increase their self-respect, and make them spurn dependence on the +charity of friends. I am inclined to think that all true women are +working-women,--at least they would be such, if they could obtain the +proper employment. American girls cannot all become house-servants, +and few of them are willing to be such. Their aspirations are +evidently higher. They have sought the factory, the bindery, the +printing-office,--thus graduating, by force of their own inherent +aptitude for better things, to a higher and more intellectual +occupation, leaving the Irish and Germans in undisputed possession of +the kitchen. + +A volume has been printed, giving a list of employments suitable for +women, but meagre in practical suggestions how to secure them. It was +thought that the war would bring about a brisk demand for female labor, +as great armies cannot be collected without causing a corresponding +drain from many occupations into which women would thus find admission. +But the melancholy facts already recited show how fallacious the idea +is, that war can be in any way a blessing to the sex. If some have been +employed in consequence, multitudes who had been previously supported by +their husbands have been compelled to beg for work. The war has +everywhere brought poverty and grief to the humbler classes of American +women. + +It is true that in the West, where the foreign population is large, the +German women go into the fields, and plough, and sow, and reap, and +harvest, with all the skill and activity of the men. It is equally true +of other sections of our country, in which no harvests would be +gathered, but for female help. But these are exceptional cases; and +these women can live without working on shirts at five to eight cents +apiece. + +While the distress was greatest in our city, some one advertised for two +men, to be employed in a millinery establishment, who were acquainted +with trimmings, and before the day had passed, sixty applicants had +presented themselves for the situation: the men had not become scarcer. +Another shop, which advertised for three girls, at a dollar and a half a +week, "intelligent, genteel girls," as the advertisement read, was so +overrun before night with applications for even that pitiful +compensation, that the proprietor lost his temper under the annoyance, +and drove many away with insult and abuse. If the war gives employment +to women in the fields, it affords an insufficient amount of it in the +cities. + +There are more female beggars in our streets, with infants in their +arms, than ever before. The saloons and beer-shops, stripped of their +male bar-tenders, have adopted female substitutes, driven by necessity +to take up with an employment that always demoralizes a woman. The +surgical records of the army show, that, among the wounded brought into +the hospitals, many women have thus been discovered as soldiers. Others +have been detected and sent home, Many of these heroines declared that +they entered the army because they could find no other employment. The +incognito they had preserved was strongly confirmatory of their +truthfulness. These are some of the minor effects of the war upon our +sex. Many have been sadly demoralizing, while probably very few have +been in any way beneficial. + +It is one of the curiosities of the study how to improve the condition +of women, that the most eccentric plans have originated with their own +sex. The deportation of girls from England to Australia and other +colonies, where the majority of settlers are single men, is patronized +and presided over by ladies. It has been so extensive as to confer the +utmost benefit on distant settlements, equalizing the disparity of the +sexes, promoting a higher civilization by a proper infusion of female +society, and providing homes for thousands of virtuous, but friendless +and dependent girls, who had found the utmost difficulty in obtaining +even a precarious living. The exodus of American girls from New England +to California, as teachers first and wives afterwards, which some years +ago took place, originated with an American lady, who personally +superintended the enterprise. All through the West there are families +whose mothers are of the same enterprising class, while the South is not +without its representatives. There is a tribe of writers whose study it +is to ridicule and sneer at these humane and truly noble efforts to make +dependent women comfortable; but happily their sarcasm has been +unavailing. + +I knew a young girl who was without a single relation in the world, so +far as she was aware. She had been picked up from a curb-stone in the +street, at the foot of a lamp-post, when perhaps only a week old,--her +mother having abandoned her to the charity of the first passer. She was +found by the watchman on his midnight beat, who, having no children, +adopted her as his own. One may feel surprised that foundlings are so +frequently adopted into respectable families, especially when infants of +only a few weeks old. But there are solitary couples whose hearts +instinctively yearn for the possession of children. Providence having +denied them offspring, they fill the void in their affections by taking +to their bosoms the helpless, friendless, and abandoned waifs of others. +Foundlings are preferred, because there is no chance of their +reclamation; the mother never troubles herself to demand possession of +her child; she may remember it, but it is only to rejoice at having cast +it off. The new parents are not annoyed by outside interference. The +foundling grows in their affections; they love it as they would their +own offspring; it cannot be torn away from them. + +When only ten years of age, the protectors of the child referred to both +died, and she was turned loose to shift for herself. For three years she +underwent all the hardships incident to changing one bad mistress for +another, being poorly clothed, half fed, her education discontinued, +even the privilege of the Sunday school denied her, a total stranger to +kindness or sympathy. + +An agent of a children's-aid society one day saw her washing the +pavement in front of her mistress's house, and being struck by her +shabby dress and evidently uncared-for condition, accosted her and +ascertained the principal facts of her little history. She was of just +the class whom it was the mission of the society to save from the +destitution and danger of a totally friendless position, by sending them +to good homes in the West. Thither she went, liberated from an +uncompensated bondage to the scrubbing-brush and washtub, and was +ushered into a new and joyous existence by the agency of one of the +noblest charities that Christian benevolence ever put it into the human +heart to extend to orphan children. The foundling of the lamp-post, thus +having an opening made for her, improved it and prospered. Out of the +atmosphere of city life, she grew up virtuous and respected. Her true +origin had been charitably concealed; she was known as an orphan; it +would have done no good to have it said that she was a foundling. She +married well, and became the mother of a family. + +Hundreds of street-tramping orphan girls, with surroundings more +unfriendly to female purity than those of this foundling, have been +taken from the lowest haunts of a shocking city-life by the same noble +charity, and introduced into peaceful country homes, where they have +grown up to be respectable members of society. In this emigration effort +women have been conspicuous actors. In England they have been equally +prominent in promoting the emigration of nearly half a million of +unmarried females to the various colonies. They publish books, and +pamphlets, and magazines, and newspapers, in advocacy of the movement. +Educated and intellectual ladies leave wealthy homes and accompany their +emigrants on voyages of thousands of miles, to see that they are +comfortably cared for. + +It would seem that in the ordering of Divine Providence there will +always be a multitude of women who do not marry. It is shown by the +census of every country in which the population is numbered +periodically, that there is an excess of females. In England there are +thirty women in every hundred who never marry, and there are three +millions who earn their own living. It is there contended that all +effort is improper which is directed toward making celibacy easy for +women, and that marriage, their only true vocation, should be promoted +at any cost, even at that of distributing through the colonies England's +half million of unmarried ones. Some declare that it is impossible to +make the labor of single women remunerative, or their lives free and +happy. But if the occupations of women were raised and diversified as +much as they might be, such impossibility would of itself be impossible. +If it is to be granted that a woman possesses only inferior powers, let +her be taught to use such powers as she has. + +I doubt not that He who created woman has some mission, some purpose, +for those who, in His divine ordering, remain single. There is a church +which has taken note of this great fact, and devotes its single women to +cloisters or to hospitals, sometimes to useful objects, sometimes to +improper ones,--but seeing that they are a numerous class, it has +specifically appropriated them. I presume the lesson of a single life, +the necessity of living alone, must be a difficult one to learn. The +heart, the young heart always, is perpetually seeking for something to +love. Amid the duties of the household, around the domestic fireside, +this loving spirit has room for growth, expansion, and intensity. The +soft tendrils which it is ever throwing out find gentle objects to which +they may cling with indissoluble attachment. Solitude is fatal to the +household affections. The single woman lives in a comparative +solitude,--a solitude of the heart. + +Yet it cannot be denied that even such hermitesses find compensations in +their retirement. If one resolve to remain single,--and it must require +strength of mind to come to this determination,--it is remarkable how +Nature fits such a woman for a position for which she could not have +been created. She takes her stand with a power of endurance not exceeded +by that of the other sex, and becomes more independent and at ease than +they. Let man's condition be what it may, whether rich or poor, he will +find his home cheerless and uncomfortable without the presence of a +woman. His desolateness at an hotel or boarding-house is proverbial. He +is unceasingly conscious that he has no home. But the single woman can +create one for herself. + +Go into the cells of any prison for women, and those who never visited +such abodes will be astonished at the neatness, the order, the +embellishments, which many of them display. The home feeling that seems +to be natural to most of us develops itself here with affecting energy. +No man could surround his penitential cell with graces so profuse and +pleasing as do some of these unfortunate women. + +Thus, go where a woman may, a native instinct teaches and qualifies her +to make a home for herself. If single, taste and housewifery are +combined within even the narrow limits of one or two rooms. Her +singleness need not chill the heart,--for there are other things to love +than men. The power to make tender friendships was born with her, and is +part of her nature; nor does it leave her now. She has, moreover, the +proud satisfaction of knowing that she has never lived to tempt others +to an act of sin and shame. But are the men who live equally solitary +lives as guiltless as she? + + + + +GOING TO SLEEP. + + + I. + + The light is fading down the sky, + The shadows grow and multiply, + I hear the thrushes' evening song; + But I have borne with toil and wrong + So long, so long! + Dim dreams my drowsy senses drown,-- + So, darling, kiss my eyelids down! + + + II. + + My life's brief spring went wasted by,-- + My summer ended fruitlessly; + I learned to hunger, strive, and wait,-- + I found you, love,--oh, happy fate!-- + So late, so late! + Now all my fields are turning brown,-- + So, darling, kiss my eyelids down! + + + III. + + Oh, blessed sleep! oh, perfect rest! + Thus pillowed on your faithful breast, + Nor life nor death is wholly drear, + O tender heart, since you are here, + So dear, so dear! + Sweet love, my soul's sufficient crown! + Now, darling, kiss my eyelids down! + + + + +DOCTOR JOHNS. + + +XX. + +Miss Johns meets the new-comer with as large a share of kindness as she +can force into her manner; but her welcome lacks, somehow, the +sympathetic glow to which Adele has been used; it has not even the +spontaneity and heartiness which had belonged to the greeting of that +worldly woman, Mrs. Brindlock. And as the wondering little stranger +passes up the path, and into the door of the parsonage, with her hand in +that of the spinster, she cannot help contrasting the one cold kiss of +the tall lady in black with the shower of warm ones which her old +godmother had bestowed at parting. Yet in the eye of the Doctor sister +Eliza had hardly ever worn a more beaming look, and he was duly grateful +for the strong interest which she evidently showed in the child of his +poor friend. She had equipped herself indeed in her best silk and with +her most elaborate toilet, and had exhausted all her strategy,--whether +in respect of dress, of decorations for the chamber, or of the profuse +supper which was in course of preparation,--to make a profound and +favorable impression upon the heart of the stranger. + +The spinster was not a little mortified at her evident want of success, +most notably in respect to the elaborate arrangements of the chamber of +the young guest, who seemed to regard the dainty hangings of the little +bed, and the scattered ornaments, as matters of course; but making her +way to the window which commanded a view of both garden and orchard, +Adele clapped her hands with glee at sight of the flaming hollyhocks and +the trees laden with golden pippins. It was, indeed, a pretty scene: +silvery traces of the brook sparkled in the green meadow below the +orchard, and the hills beyond were checkered by the fields of buckwheat +in broad patches of white bloom, and these again were skirted by masses +of luxuriant wood that crowned all the heights. To the eye of Adele, +used only to the bare hill-sides and scanty olive-orchards of +Marseilles, the view was marvellously fair. + +"_Tiens!_ there are chickens and doves," said she, still gazing eagerly +out; "oh, I am sure I shall love this new home!" + +And thus saying, she tripped back from the window to where Miss Eliza +was admiringly intent upon the unpacking and arranging of the little +wardrobe of her guest. Adele, in the flush of her joyful expectations +from the scene that had burst upon her out of doors, now prattled more +freely with the spinster,--tossing out the folds of her dresses, as they +successively came to light, with her dainty fingers, and giving some +quick, girlish judgment upon each. + +"This godmother gave me, dear, good soul!--and she sewed this bow upon +it; isn't it coquette? And there is the white muslin,--oh, how +crushed!--that was for my church-dress, first communion, you know; but +papa said, 'Better wait,'--so I never wore it." + +Thus woman and child grew into easy acquaintance over the great trunk of +Adele: the latter plunging her little hands among the silken folds of +dress after dress with the careless air of one whose every wish had been +petted; and the spinster forecasting the pride she would herself take in +accompanying this little sprite, in these French robes, to the house of +her good friends, the Hapgoods, or in exciting the wonderment of those +most excellent people, the Tourtelots. + +Meantime Reuben, with a resolute show of boyish indifference, has been +straying off with Phil Elderkin, although he has caught a glimpse of the +carriage at the door. Later he makes his way into the study, where the +Doctor, after giving him kindly reproof for not being at home to welcome +them, urges upon him the duty of kindness to the young stranger who has +come to make her home with them, and trusts that Providence may overrule +her presence there to the improvement and blessing of both. It is, in +fact, a little lecture which the good, but prosy Doctor pronounces to +the boy; from which he slipping away, so soon as a good gap occurs in +the discourse, strolls with a jaunty affectation of carelessness into +the parlor. His Aunt Eliza is there now seated at the table, and Adele +standing by the hearth, on which a little fire has just been kindled. +She gives a quick, eager look at him, under which his assumed +carelessness vanishes in an instant. + +"This is Adele, our little French guest, Reuben." + +The lad throws a quick, searching glance upon her, but is abashed by the +look of half-confidence and half-merriment that he sees twinkling in her +eye. The boy's awkwardness seems to infect her, too, for a moment. + +"I should think, Reuben, you would welcome Adele to the parsonage," said +the spinster. + +And Reuben, glancing again from under his brow, sidles along the table, +with far less of ease than he had worn when he came whistling through +the hall,--sidles nearer and nearer, till she, with a coy approach that +seems to be full of doubt, meets him with a little furtive hand-shake. +Then he, retiring a step, leans with one elbow on the friendly table, +eying her curiously, and more boldly when he discovers that her look is +downcast, and that she seems to be warming her feet at the blaze. + +Miss Johns has watched narrowly this approach of her two _proteges_, +with an interest quite uncommon to her; and now, with a policy that +would have honored a more adroit tactician, she slips quietly from the +room. + +Reuben feels freer at this, knowing that the gray eye is not upon the +watch; Adele too, perhaps; at any rate, she lifts her face with a look +that invites Reuben to speech. + +"You came in a ship, didn't you?" + +"Oh, yes! a big, big ship!" + +"I should like to sail in a ship," said Reuben; "did you like it?" + +"Not very much," said Adele, "the deck was so slippery, and the waves +were so high, oh, so high!"--and the little maid makes an explanatory +gesture with her two hands, the like of which for grace and +expressiveness Reuben had certainly never seen in any girl of Ashfield. +His eyes twinkled at it. + +"Were you afraid?" said he. + +"Oh, not much." + +"Because you know," said Reuben, consolingly, "if the ship had sunk, you +could have come on shore in the small boats." He saw a merry laugh of +wonderment threatening in her face, and continued authoritatively, "Nat +Boody has been in a sloop, and he says they always carry small boats to +pick up people when the big ships go down." + +Adele laughed outright. "But how would they carry the bread, and the +stove, and the water, and the anchor, and all the things? Besides, the +great waves would knock a small boat in pieces." + +Reuben felt a humiliating sense of being no match for the little +stranger on sea topics, so he changed the theme. + +"Are you going to Miss Onthank's?" + +"_That's_ a funny name," says Adele; "that's the school, isn't it? Yes, +I suppose I'll go there: you go, don't you?" + +"Yes," says Reuben, "but I don't think I'll go very long." + +"Why not?" says Adele. + +"I'm getting too big to go to a girls' school," said Reuben. + +"Oh!"--and there was a little playful malice in the girl's observation +that piqued the boy. + +"Do the scholars like her?" continued Adele. + +"Pretty well," said Reuben; "but she hung up a little girl about as big +as you, once, upon a nail in a corner of the school-room." + +"_Quelle bete!_" exclaimed Adele. + +"That's French, isn't it?" + +"Yes, and it means she's a bad woman to do such things." + +In this way they prattled on, and grew into a certain familiarity: the +boy entertaining an immense respect for her French, and for her +knowledge of the sea and ships; but stubbornly determined to maintain +the superiority which he thought justly to belong to his superior age +and sex. + +That evening, after the little people were asleep, the spinster and the +Doctor conferred together in regard to Adele. It was agreed between them +that she should enter at once upon her school duties, and that +particular inquiry concerning her religious beliefs, particular +instruction on that score,--further than what belonged to the judicious +system of Miss Onthank,--should be deferred for the present. At the same +time the Doctor enjoined upon his sister the propriety of commencing +upon the next Saturday evening the usual instructions in the Shorter +Catechism, and of insisting upon punctual attendance upon the family +devotions. The good Doctor hoped by these appointed means gradually to +ripen the religious sensibilities of the little stranger, so that she +might be prepared for that stern denunciation of those follies of the +Romish Church amid which she had been educated, and that it would be his +duty at no distant day to declare to her. + +The spinster had been so captivated by a certain air of modish elegance +in Adele as to lead her almost to forget the weightier obligations of +her Christian duty toward her. She conceived that she would find in her +a means of recovering some influence over Reuben,--never doubting that +the boy would be attracted by her frolicsome humor, and would be eager +for her companionship. It was possible, moreover, that there might be +some appeal to the boy's jealousies, when he found the favors which he +had spurned were lavished upon Adele. It was therefore in the best of +temper and with the airiest of hopes (though not altogether spiritual +ones) that Miss Eliza conducted the discussion with the Doctor. In two +things only they had differed, and in this each had gained and each lost +a point. The Doctor utterly refused to conform his pronunciation to the +rigors which Miss Eliza prescribed; for him Adele should be always and +only Adaly. On the other hand, the parson's exactions in regard to +sundry modifications of the little girl's dress miscarried: the spinster +insisted upon all the furbelows as they had come from the hands of the +French modiste; and in this she left the field with flying colors. + +The next day Doctor Johns wrote to his friend Maverick, announcing the +safe arrival of his child at Ashfield, and spoke in terms which were +warm for him, of the interest which both his sister and himself felt in +her welfare. "He was pained," he said, "to perceive that she spoke +almost with gayety of serious things, and feared greatly that her keen +relish for the beauties and delights of this sinful world, and her +exuberant enjoyment of mere temporal blessings, would make it hard to +wean her from them and to centre her desires upon the eternal world. +But, my friend, all things are possible with God: and I shall diligently +pray that she may return to you, in a few years, sobered in mind, and a +self-denying missionary of the true faith." + + +XXI. + +No such event could take place in Ashfield as the arrival of this young +stranger at the parsonage, without exciting a world of talk up and down +the street. There were stories that she came of a vile Popish family, +and there were those who gravely believed that the poor little creature +had made only a hair-breadth escape from the thongs of the Inquisition. +There were few even of those who knew that she was the daughter of a +wealthy gentleman, now domiciled in France, and an old friend of the +Doctor's, who did not look upon her with a tender interest, as one +miraculously snatched by the hands of the good Doctor from the snares of +perdition. The gay trappings of silks and ribbons in which she paced up +the aisle of the meeting-house upon her first Sunday, under the +patronizing eye of the stern spinster, were looked upon by the more +elderly worshippers--most of all by the mothers of young daughters--as +the badges of the Woman of Babylon, and as fit belongings to those +accustomed to dwell in the tents of wickedness. Even Dame Tourtelot, in +whose pew the face of Miss Almira waxes yellow between two great saffron +bows, commiserates the poor heathen child who has been decked like a +lamb for the sacrifice. "I wonder Miss Eliza don't pull off them ribbons +from the little minx," said she, as she marched home in the +"intermission," locked commandingly to the arm of the Deacon. + +"Waael, I s'pose they're paid for," returns the Deacon. + +"What's that to do with it, Tourtelot?" + +"Waael, Huldy, we do pootty much all we can for Almiry in that line: this +'ere Maverick, I guess, doos the same. What's the odds, arter all?" + +"Odds enough, Tourtelot," as the poor man found before bedtime: he had +no flip. + +The Elderkins, however, were more considerate. Very early after her +arrival, Adele had found her way to their homestead, under the guidance +of Miss Eliza, and by her frank, demonstrative manner had established +herself at once in the affections of the whole family. The Squire, +indeed, had rallied the parson not a little, in his boisterous, hearty +fashion, upon his introduction of such a dangerous young Jesuit into so +orthodox a parish. + +At all which, so seriously uttered as to take the Doctor fairly aback, +good Mrs. Elderkin shook her finger warningly at the head of the Squire, +and said, "Now, for shame, Giles!" + +Good Mrs. Elderkin was, indeed, the pattern woman of the parish in all +charitable deeds,--not only outside, (where so many charitable natures +find their limits,) but indoors. With gentle speech and gentle manner, +she gave, maybe, her occasional closet-counsel to the Squire; but most +times her efforts to win him to a more serious habit of thought are +covered under the shape of some charming plea for a kindness to herself +or the "dear girls," which she knows that he will not have the hardihood +to resist. And even this method she does not push too far,--making it a +cardinal point in her womanly strategy that his home shall be always +grateful to the Squire,--that he shall never be driven from it by any +thought or suspicion of her exactions. Thus, if Grace--who is her oldest +daughter, and almost woman grown--has some evening appointment at Bible +class, or other such gathering, and, the boys being out, appeals timidly +to the father, good Mrs. Elderkin says,-- + +"I am afraid your papa is too tired, Grace; do let him enjoy himself." + +At which the Squire, shaking off his lethargy, says,-- + +"Get your things, child!" + +And as he goes out with Grace, he is rewarded by one of those tender +smiles upon the lip of the mother which captivated him twenty years +before, and which still make his fireside the most cherished spot in the +town. + +No wonder that the little half-orphaned creature, Adele, with her +explosive warmth of heart, is kindly received among the Elderkins. Phil +was some three years her senior, a ruddy-faced, open-hearted fellow, who +had been well-nurtured, like his two elder brothers, but in whom a +certain waywardness just now appearing was attributed very much, by the +closely observing mother, to the influence of that interesting, but +mischievous boy, Reuben. Phil was the superior in age, indeed, and in +muscle, (as we may find proof,) but in nerve-power the more +delicate-featured boy of the parson outranked him. + +Rose Elderkin was a year younger than the French stranger, and a +marvellously fair type of New England girl-beauty: light brown hair in +unwieldy masses; skin wonderfully clear and transparent, and that +flushed at a rebuke, or a run down the village street, till her cheeks +blazed with scarlet; a lip delicately thin, but blood-red, and +exquisitely cut; a great hazel eye, that in her moments of glee, or any +occasional excitement, fairly danced and sparkled with a kind of insane +merriment, and at other times took on a demure and pensive look, which +to future wooers might possibly prove the more dangerous of the two. The +features named make up a captivating girlish beauty, but one which, +under a New England atmosphere, is rarely carried forward into +womanhood. The lips grow pinched and bloodless; the skin blanched +against all proof of blushes; the eyes sunken, and the blithe sparkle +that was so full of infectious joy is lost forever in that exhausting +blaze of girlhood. But we make no prophecy in regard to the future of +our little friend Rose. Adele thinks her very charming; Reuben is +disposed to rank her--whatever Phil may think or say--far above Suke +Boody. And in his reading of the delightful "Children of the Abbey," +which he has stolen, (by favor of Phil, who owns the book,) he has +thought of Rose when Amanda first appeared; and when the divine Amanda +is in tears, he has thought of Rose; and when Amanda smiles, with +Mortimer kneeling at her feet, he has still thought of Rose. + +These four, Adele, Phil, Rose, and Reuben are fellow-attendants at the +school of the excellent Miss Betsey Onthank. The schoolhouse itself is a +modest one, and stands upon a cross-road leading from the main street of +the village, and is upon the side of the little brook which courses +through the valley lying to the westward. A half-dozen or more of +sugar-maples stand near it, and throw over it a grateful shade in +August. In March these trees are exposed to a series of tappings on the +part of the more mechanically inclined of the pupils,--Phil Elderkin +being chiefest,--and gimlets, quills, and dinner-pails are brought into +requisition with prodigious results. In the heats of summer, and when +the brook is low, adventurous ones, of whom Reuben is chiefest, +undertake to dam its current; and it being traditional in the school +that one day a strange fisherman once took out two trout, half as long +as Miss Onthank's ruler, from under the bridge by which the high road +crosses the brook, Reuben plies every artifice, whether of bent pins, or +hooks purchased from the Tew partners, (unknown to Aunt Eliza, who is +prejudiced against fish-hooks as dangerous,) to catch a third; and +finding other resources vain, he punches two or three holes through the +bottom of his little dinner-pail, to make a scoop-net of it, and +manfully wades under the bridge to explore all the hollows of that +unknown region. While in this precarious position, he is reported by +some timid child to the mistress, who straightway sallies out, ferule in +hand and cap-strings flying, and orders him to land; which Reuben, +taking warning by the threatening tone of the old lady, refuses, unless +she promises not to flog him; and the kind-hearted mistress, fearing too +long exposure of the lad to the chilly water, gives the promise. But +with the tell-tale pail dangling at his belt, he does not escape so +easily the inquisitive Aunt Eliza. + +The excellent Miss Onthank--for by this title the parson always +compliments her--is a type of a schoolmistress which is found no longer: +grave, stately, with two great moppets of hair on either side her brow, +(as in the old engravings of Louis Philippe's good queen Amelia,) very +resolute, very learned in the boundaries of all Christian and heathen +countries, patient to a fault, with a marvellous capacity for pointing +out with her bodkin every letter to some wee thing at its first stage of +spelling, and yet keeping an eye upon all the school-room; reading a +chapter from the Bible, and saying a prayer each morning upon her bended +knees,--the little ones all kneeling in concert,--with an air that would +have adorned the most stately prioress of a convent; using her red +ferule betimes on little, mischievous, smarting hands, yet not +over-severe, and kind beneath all her gravity. She regards Adele with a +peculiar tenderness, and hopes to make herself the humble and unworthy +instrument of redeeming her from the wicked estate in which she has +been reared. And Adele, though not comprehending the excess of her zeal, +and opening her eyes in great wonderment when the good woman talks about +her "providential deliverance from the artful snares of the adversary," +is as free in her talk with the grave mistress as if she were her mother +confessor. + +Phil and Reuben, being the oldest boys of the school, resent the +indignity of being still subject to woman rule by a concerted series of +rebellious outbreaks. Some six or eight months after the arrival of +Adele upon the scene, this rebel attitude culminates in an incident that +occasions a change of programme. The rebels on their way to school espy +a few clam-shells before some huckster's door, and, putting two or three +in their pockets, seize the opportunity when the good lady's eyes are +closed in the morning prayer to send two or three scaling about the +room, which fall with a clatter among the startled little ones. One, +aimed more justly by Reuben, strikes the grave mistress full upon the +forehead, and leaves a red cut from which one or two beads of blood +trickle down. + +Adele, who has not learned yet that obstinate closing of the eyes which +most of the scholars have been taught, and to whom the sight recalls the +painted heads of martyrs in an old church at Marseilles, gives a little +hysteric scream. But the mistress, with face unchanged and voice +uplifted and unmoved, completes her religious duty. + +The whole school is horrified, on rising from their knees, at sight of +the old lady's bleeding head. The mistress wipes her forehead calmly, +and, picking up the shell at her feet, says, "Who threw this?" + +There is silence in the room. + +"Adele," she continues, "I heard you scream, child; do you know who +threw this?" + +Adele gives a quick, inquiring glance at Reuben, whose face is +imperturbable, rallies her courage for a struggle against the will of +the mistress, and then bursts into tears. + +Reuben cannot stand this. + +"_I_ threw it, Marm," says he, with a great tremor in his voice. + +The mistress beckons him to her, and, as he walks thither, motions to a +bench near her, and says gravely,-- + +"Sit by me, Reuben." + +There he keeps till school-hours are over, wondering what shape the +punishment will take. At last, when all are gone, the mistress leads him +into her private closet, and says solemnly,-- + +"Reuben, this is a crime against God. I forgive you; I hope He may"; and +she bids him kneel beside her, while she prays in a way that makes the +tears start to the eyes of the boy. + +Then, home,--she walking by his side, and leading him straight into the +study of the grave Doctor, to whom she unfolds the story, begging him +not to punish the lad, believing that he is penitent. And the meekness +and kindliness of the good woman make a Christian picture for the mind +of Reuben, in sad contrast with the prim austerity of Aunt Eliza,--a +picture that he never loses,--that keeps him meekly obedient for the +rest of the quarter; after which, by the advice of Miss Onthank, both +Phil and Reuben are transferred to the boys' academy upon the Common. + + +XXII. + +Meantime, Adele is making friends in Ashfield and in the parsonage. The +irrepressible buoyancy of her character cannot be kept under even by the +severity of conduct which belongs to the home of the Doctor. If she +yields rigid obedience to all the laws of the household, as she is +taught to do, her vivacity sparkles all the more in those short +intervals of time when the laws are silent. There is something in this +beaming mirth of hers which the Doctor loves, though he struggles +against the love. He shuts his door fast, that the snatches of some +profane song from her little lips (with him all French songs are +profane) may not come in to disturb him; but as her voice rises +cheerily, higher and higher, in the summer dusk, he catches himself +lending a profane ear; the blitheness, the sweetness, the mellowness of +her tones win upon his dreary solitude; there is something softer in +them than in the measured vocables of sister Eliza; it brings a souvenir +of the girlish Rachel, and his memory floats back upon the strains of +the new singer, to the days when that dear voice filled his heart; and +he thinks--thanking Adaly for the thought--she is singing with the +angels now! + +But the spinster, who has no ear for music, in the midst of such a +carol, will cry out in sharp tones from her chamber, "Adele, Adele, not +so loud, child! you will disturb the Doctor!" + +Even then Adele has her resource in the garden and the orchard, where +she never tires of wandering up and down,--and never wandering there but +some fragment of a song breaks from her lips. + +From time to time the Doctor summons her to his study to have serious +talk with her. She has, indeed, shared the Saturday-night instruction in +the Catechism, in company with Reuben, and being quick at words, no +matter how long they may be, she has learned it all; and Reuben and she +dash through "what is required" and "what is forbidden" and "the reasons +annexed" like a pair of prancing horses, kept diligently in hand by that +excellent whip, Miss Johns. But the study has not wrought that gravity +in the mind of the child which the good parson had hoped for; the seed, +he fears, has fallen upon stony places. He therefore, as we have said, +summons her from time to time to his study. + +And Adele comes, always at the first summons, with a tripping step, and, +with a little coquettish adjustment of her dress and hair, flings +herself into the big chair before him,-- + +"Now, New Papa, here I am!" + +"Ah, Adaly! I wish, child, that you could be more serious than you are." + +"Serious! ha! ha!"--(she sees a look of pain on the face of the Doctor,) +"but I will be,--I am"; and with great effort she throws a most +unnatural expression of repose into her face. + +"You are a good girl, Adaly; but this is not the seriousness I want to +find in you. I want you to feel, my child, that you are walking on the +brink of a precipice,--that your heart is desperately wicked." + +"Oh, no, New Papa! you don't think I'm desperately wicked?"--and she +says it with a charming eagerness of manner. + +"Yes, desperately wicked, Adaly,--leaning to the things of this world, +and not fastening your affections on things above, on the realities +beyond the grave." + +"But all that is so far away, New Papa!" + +"Not so far as you think, child; they may come to-day." + +Adele is sobered in earnest now, and tosses her little feet back and +forth, in an agony of apprehension. + +The Doctor continues,-- + +"_To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts_"; and the +sentiment and utterance are so like to the usual ones of the pulpit, +that Adele takes courage again. + +The little girl has a profound respect for the Doctor; his calmness, his +equanimity, his persistent zeal in his work, would alone provoke it. But +she sees, furthermore,--what she does not see always in "Aunt Eliza,"--a +dignity of character that is proof against all irritating humors; then, +too, he has appeared to Adele a very pattern of justice. She had taken +exceptions, indeed, when, on one or two rare occasions, he had reached +down the birch rod which lay upon the same hooks with the sword of Major +Johns, in the study, and had called in Reuben for extraordinary +discipline; but the boy's manifest acquiescence in the affair when his +cool moments came next morning, and the melancholy air of kindness with +which the Doctor went in to kiss him a goodnight, after such regimen, +kept alive her faith in the unvarying justice of the parson. Therefore +she tried hard to torture her poor little heart into a feeling of its +own blackness, (for that it was very black she had the good man's +averment,) she listened gravely to all he had to urge, and when he had +fairly overburdened her with the enumeration of her wicked, worldly +appetites, she could only say, with a burst of emotion,-- + +"Well, but, New Papa, the good God will forgive me." + +"Yes, Adaly, yes,--I trust so, if forgiveness be sought in fear and +trembling. But remember, 'When God created man, he entered into a +covenant of life with him upon condition of perfect obedience.'" + +This brings back to poor Adele the drudgery of the Saturday's Catechism, +associated with the sharp correctives of Aunt Eliza; and she can only +offer a pleading kiss to the Doctor, and ask plaintively,-- + +"May I go now?" + +"One moment, Adaly,"--and he makes her kneel beside him, while he prays, +fervently, passionately, drawing her frail little figure to himself, +even as he prays, as if he would carry her with him in his arms into the +celestial presence. + +The boy Reuben, too, has had his seasons of this closet struggle; but +they are rarer now; the lad has shrewdly learned to adjust himself to +all the requirements of such occasions. He has put on a leaden +acquiescence in the Doctor's theories, whether with regard to +sanctification or redemption, that is most disheartening to the parson. +Does any question of the Doctor's, by any catch-word, suggest an answer +from the "Shorter Catechism" as applicable, Reuben is ready with it on +the instant. + +Does the Doctor ask,-- + +"Do you know, my son, the sinfulness of the estate in which you are +living?" + +"Sinfulness of the estate whereunto man fell?" says Reuben, briskly. + +"Know it like a book:--'Consists in the guilt of _Adam's_ first sin the +want of original righteousness and the corruption of his whole nature +which is commonly called original sin together with all actual +transgressions which proceed from it.' There's a wasp on your shoulder, +father,--there's two of 'em; I'll kill em." + +No wonder the good Doctor is disheartened, and trusts more and more, in +respect to his boy, to the silent influences of the Spirit. + +Adele has no open quarrels with Miss Johns; she is obedient; she, too, +has fallen under the influence of that magnetic voice, and accepts the +orders and the commendations conveyed by it as if they were utterances +of Fate. Yet, with her childish instincts, she has formed a very fair +estimate of the character of Miss Eliza; it is doubtful even if she has +not fathomed it in certain directions more correctly and profoundly than +the grave Doctor. She sees clearly that the spinster's unvarying +solicitude in regard to the dress and appearance of "dear Adele" is due +more to that hard pride of character which she nurses every day of her +life than to any tenderness for the little stranger. For at the hands of +her old godmother and of her father Adele has known what real tenderness +was. It is a lesson children never unlearn. + +"Adele, my dear, you look charmingly to-day, with that pink bow in your +hair. Do you know, I think pink is becoming to you, my child?" + +And Adele listens with a composed smile, not unwilling to be admired. +What girl of--any age is? But the admiration of Miss Johns does not +touch her; it never calls a tear to her eye. + +In the bright belt-buckle, in the big leg-of-mutton sleeves, in the +glittering brooch containing coils of the Johns' hair, in the jaunty +walk and authoritative air of the spinster, the quick, keen eye of Adele +sees something more than the meek Christian teacher and friend. It is a +sin in her to see it, perhaps; but she cannot help it. + +Miss Johns has not succeeded in exciting the jealousy of Reuben,--at +least, not in the manner she had hoped. Her influence over him is +clearly on the wane. He sees, indeed, her exaggerated devotion to the +little stranger,--which serves, in her presence, at least, to call out +all his indifference. Yet even this, Adele, with her girlish instinct, +seems to understand, too, and bears the boy no grudge in consequence of +it. Nay, when he has received some special administration of the +parson's discipline, she allows her sympathy to find play in a tender +word or two that touch Reuben more than he dares to show. + +And when they meet down the orchard, away from the lynx eye of Aunt +Eliza, there are rare apples far out upon overhanging limbs that he can +pluck, by dint of venturous climbing, for her; and as he sees through +the boughs her delicate figure tripping through the grass, and lingers +to watch it, there comes a thought that _she_ must be the Amanda of the +story, and not Rose,--and he, perched in the apple-tree, a glowing +Mortimer. + + +XXIII. + +In the year 183-, Mr. Maverick writes to his friend Johns that the +disturbed condition of public affairs in France will compel him to +postpone his intended visit to America, and may possibly detain him for +a long time to come. He further says,--"In order to prevent all possible +hazards which may grow out of our revolutionary fervor on this side of +the water, I have invested in United States securities, for the benefit +of my dear little Adele, a sum of money which will yield some seven +hundred dollars a year. Of this I propose to make you trustee, and +desire that you should draw so much of the yearly interest as you may +determine to be for her best good, denying her no reasonable requests, +and making your household reckoning clear of all possible deficit on her +account. + +"I am charmed with the improved tone of her letters, and am delighted to +see by them that even under your grave regimen she has not lost her old +buoyancy of spirits. My dear Johns, I owe you a debt in this matter +which I shall never be able to repay. Kiss the little witch for me; tell +her that 'Papa' always thinks of her, as he sits solitary upon the green +bench under the arbor. God bless the dear one, and keep all trouble from +her!" + +She, gaining in height now month by month, wins more and more upon the +grave Doctor,--wins upon Rose, who loves her as she loves her +sisters,--wins upon Phil, whose liking for her is becoming demonstrative +to a degree that prompts a little jealousy in the warm-blooded Reuben, +and that drives out all thought of the pink cheeks and fat arms of Suke +Boody. Miss Johns still regards her with admiring eyes, and shows all +her old assiduity in looking after her comforts and silken trappings. +Day after day, in summer weather, Rose and she idle together along the +embowered paths of the village; the Tew partners greet the pair with +smiles; good Mistress Elderkin has always a cordial welcome; the stout +Squire stoops to kiss the little Jesuit, who blushes at the tender +affront through all the brownness of her cheek, like a rose. Day after +day the rumble of the mill breaks on the country quietude; and as autumn +comes in, burning with all its forest fires, the farmer's flails beat +time together, as they did ten years before. + +At the academy, Phil and Reuben plot mischief, and they cement their +friendship with not a few boyish quarrels. + +Thus, Reuben, in the way of the boyish pomologists of those days, has +buried at midsummer in the orchard a dozen or more of the finest +windfalls from the early apple-trees, that they may mellow, away from +the air, into good eating condition, and he has marked the spot in his +boyish way with a little pyramid of stones. Strolling down the orchard a +few days later, he sees Phil coming away from that locality, with his +pockets bulging out ominously, and munching a great apple with +extraordinary relish. Perhaps there is a thought that he may design a +gift out of the stolen stores for Adele; at any rate, Reuben flies at +him. + +"I say, Phil, that's doosed mean now, to be stealing my apples!" + +"Who's stole your apples?" says Phil, with a great roar of voice. + +"You have," says Reuben; and having now come near enough to find his +pyramid of stones all laid low, he says more angrily,--"You're a thief! +and you've got 'em in your pocket!" + +"Thief!" says Phil, looking threateningly, and throwing away his apple +half-eaten, "if you call me a thief, I say you're a----you know what." + +"Well, blast you," says Reuben, boiling with rage, "say it! Call me a +liar, if you dare!" + +"I do dare," says Phil, "if you accuse me of stealing your apples; and I +say you're a liar, and be darned to you!" + +At this, Reuben, though he is the shorter by two or three inches, and no +match for his foe at fisticuffs, plants a blow straight in Philip's +face. (He said afterward, when all was settled, that he was ten times +more mortified to think that he had done such a thing in his father's +orchard.) + +But Phil closed upon him, and kneading him with his knuckles in the +back, and with a trip, threw him heavily, falling prone upon him. +Reuben, in a frenzy, and with a torrent of much worse language than he +was in the habit of using, was struggling to turn him, when a sharp, +loud voice, which they both knew only too well, came down the +wind,--"Boys! boys!" and presently the Doctor comes up panting. + +"What does this mean? Philip, I'm ashamed of you!" he continues; and +Philip rises. + +Reuben, rising, too, the instant after, and with his fury unchecked, +dashes at Phil again; when the Doctor seizes him by the collar and drags +him aside. + +"He struck me," says Phil. + +"And he stole my apples and called me a liar," says Reuben, with the +tears starting, though he tries desperately to keep them back, seeing +that Phil shows no such evidence of emotion. + +"Tut! tut!" says the Doctor,--"you are both too angry for a straight +story. Come with me." + +And taking each by the hand, he led them through the garden and house, +directly into his study. There he opens a closet-door, with the sharp +order, "Step in here, Reuben, until I hear Philip's story." This Phil +tells straight-forwardly,--how he was passing through the orchard with a +pocketful of apples, which a neighbor's boy had given, and how Reuben +came upon him with swift accusation, and then the fight. "But he hurt me +more than I hurt him," says Phil, wiping his nose, which showed a little +ooze of blood. + +"Good!" says the Doctor,--"I think you tell the truth." + +"Thank you," says Phil,--"I know I do, Doctor." + +Next Reuben is called out. + +"Do you _know_ he took the apples?" asks the Doctor. + +"Don't know," says Reuben,--"but he was by the place, and the stones +thrown down." + +"And is that sufficient cause, Reuben, for accusing your friend?" + +At which, Reuben, shifting his position uneasily from one foot to the +other, says,-- + +"I believe he did, though." + +"Stop, Sir!" says the Doctor in a voice that makes Reuben sidle away. + +"Here," says Phil, commiserating him in a grand way, and beginning to +discharge his pockets on the Doctor's table, "he may have them, if he +wants them." + +Reuben stares at them a moment in astonishment, then breaks out with a +great tremor in his voice, but roundly enough,-- + +"By George! they're not the same apples at all. I'm sorry I told you +that, Phil." + +"Don't say 'By George' before me, or anywhere else," says the Doctor, +sharply. "It's but a sneaking oath, Sir; yet" (more gently) "I'm glad of +your honesty, Reuben." + +At the instigation of the parson they shake hands; after which he leads +them both into his closet, beckoning them to kneel on either side of +him, as he commends them in his stately way to Heaven, trusting that +they may live in good-fellowship henceforth, and keep His counsel, who +was the great Peacemaker, always in their hearts. + +Next morning, when Reuben goes to reconnoitre the place of his buried +treasure, he finds all safe, and taking the better half of the fruit, he +marches away with a proud step to the Elderkin house. The basket is for +Phil. But Phil is not at home; so he leaves the gift, and a message, +with a short story of it all, with the tender Rose, whose eyes dance +with girlish admiration at this stammered tale of his, and her fingers +tremble when they touch the boy's in the transfer of his little burden. + +Reuben walks away prouder yet; is not this sweet-faced girl, after all, +Amanda? + +There come quarrels, however, with the academy teacher not so easily +smoothed over. The Doctor and the master hold long consultations. +Reuben, it is to be feared, has bad associates. The boy makes interest, +through Nat Boody, with the stage-driver; and one day the old ladies are +horrified at seeing the parson's son mounted on the box of the coach +beside the driver, and putting his boyish fingers to the test of +four-in-hand. Of course he is a truant that day from school, and toiling +back footsore and weary, after tea, he can give but a lame account of +himself. He brings, another time, a horrid fighting cur, (as Miss Eliza +terms it in her disgust,) for which he has bartered away the new muffler +that the spinster has knit. He thinks it a splendid bargain. Miss Johns +and the Doctor do not. + +He is reported by credible witnesses as loitering about the tavern in +the summer nights, long after prayers are over at the parsonage, and the +lights are out: thus it is discovered, to the great horror of the +household, that by connivance with Phil he makes his way over the roof +of the kitchen from his chamber-window to join in these night forays. +After long consideration, in which Grandfather Handby is brought into +consultation, it is decided to place the boy for a while under the +charge of the latter for discipline, and with the hope that removal from +his town associates may work good. But within a fortnight after the +change is made, Grandfather Handby drives across the country in his +wagon, with Reuben seated beside him with a comic gravity on his face; +and the old gentleman, pleading the infirmities of age, and giving the +boy a farewell tap on the cheek, (for he loves him, though he has +whipped him almost daily,) restores him to the paternal roof. + +At this crisis, Squire Elderkin--who, to tell truth, has a little fear +of the wayward propensities of the parson's son in misleading +Phil--recommends trial of the discipline of a certain Parson Brummem, +who fills the parish-pulpit upon Bolton Hill. This dignitary was a tall, +lank, leathern-faced man, of incorruptible zeal and stately gravity, who +held under his stern dominion a little flock of two hundred souls, and +who, eking out a narrow parochial stipend by the week-day office of +teaching, had gained large repute for his subjugation of refractory +boys. + +A feeble little invalid wife cringed beside him along the journey of +life; and it would be pitiful to think that she had not long ago +entered, in way of remuneration, upon paths of pleasantness beyond the +grave. + +Parson Brummem received Brother Johns, when he drove with Reuben to the +parsonage-door, on that wild waste of Bolton Hill, with all the unction +of manner that belonged to him; but it was so grave an unction as to +chill poor Reuben to the marrow of his bones. A week's experience only +dispersed the chill when the tingle of the parson's big rod wrought a +glow in him that was almost madness. Yet Reuben chafed not so much at +the whippings--to which he was well used--as at the dreariness of the +new home, the melancholy waste of common over which March winds blew all +the year, the pinched faces that met him without other recognition than, +"One o' Parson Brummem's b'ys." Nor indoors was the aspect more +inviting: a big red table, around which sat six fellow-martyrs with +their slates and geographies; a tall desk, at which Brummem indited his +sermons; and from time to time a little side-door opening timidly, +through which came a weary woman's voice, "Ezekiel, dear, one minute!" +at which the great man strides thither, and lends, his great ear to the +family council. + +Ah, the long, weary mornings, when the sun, pouring through the +curtainless south windows a great blaze upon the oaken floor, lights up +for Reuben only the cobwebbed corners, the faded roundabouts of +fellow-martyrs, the dismal figures of Daboll, the shining tail-coat of +Master Brummem, as he stalks up and down from hour to hour, collecting +in this way his scattered thoughts for some new argumentative thrust of +the quill into the sixthly or the seventhly of his next week's sermon! +And the long and weary afternoons, when the sun with a mocking bounty +pours through the dusty and curtainless windows to the west, lighting +only again the gray and speckled roundabouts of the fagging boys, the +maps of Malte-Brun, and the shining forehead of the Brummem! + +There is a dismal, graceless, bald air about town and house and master, +which is utterly revolting to the lad, whose childish feet had pattered +beside the tender Rachel along the embowered paths of Ashfield. The lack +of congeniality affronts his whole nature. In the keenness of his +martyrdom, (none the less real because fancied,) the leathern-faced, +gaunt Brummem takes the shape of some Giant Despair with bloody maw and +mace,--and he, the child of some Christiana, for whose guiding hand he +gropes vainly: she has gone before to the Celestial City! + +The rod of the master does not cure the chronic state of moody rebellion +into which Reuben lapses, with these fancies on him. It drives him at +last to an act of desperation. The lesson in Daboll that day was a hard +one; but it was not the lesson, or his short-comings in it,--it was not +the hand of the master, which had been heavy on him,--but it was a +vague, dismal sense of the dreariness of his surroundings, of the +starched looks that met him, of the weary monotony, of the lack of +sympathy, which goaded him to the final overt act of rebellion,--which +made him dash his leathern-bound arithmetic full into the face of the +master, and then sit down, burying his face in his hands. + +The stern doctrines of Parson Brummem had taught him, at least, a rigid +self-command. He did not strike the lad. But recovering from his +amazement, he says, "Very well, very well, Master Reuben, we will sleep +upon this"; and then, tapping at the inner door, "Keziah, make ready the +little chamber over the hall for Master Johns: he must be by himself +to-night: give him a glass of water and a slice of dry bread: nothing +else, Sir," (turning to Reuben now,) "until you come to me to-morrow at +nine, in this place, and ask my pardon"; and he motions him to the door. + +Reuben staggers out,--staggers up the stairs into the dismal chamber. It +looks out only upon a bald waste of common. Shortly after, a slatternly +maid brings his prison fare, and, with a little kindly discretion, has +added secretly a roll of gingerbread. Reuben thanks her, and says, +"You're a good woman, Keziah; and I say, won't you fetch me my cap, +there's a good un; it's cold here." The maid, with great show of +caution, complies; a few minutes after, the parson comes, and, looking +in warningly, closes and locks the door outside. + +A weary evening follows, in which thoughts of Adele, of nights at the +Elderkins', of Phil, of Rose, flash upon him, and spend their richness, +leaving him more madly disconsolate. Then come thoughts of the morning +humiliation, of the boys pointing their fingers at him after school. + +"No, they sha'n't, by George!" + +And with this decision he dropped asleep; with this decision ripened in +him, he woke at three in the morning,--waited for the hall clock to +strike, that he might be sure of his hour,--tied together the two sheets +of Mistress Brummem's bed, opened the window gently, dropped out his +improvised cable, slid upon it safely to the ground, and before day had +broken or any of the townsfolk were astir, had crossed all the more open +portion of the village, and by sunrise had plunged into the wooded +swamp-land which lay three miles westward toward the river. + + + + +THE GREAT LAKES: + +THEIR OUTLETS AND DEFENCES. + + +Four years ago there appeared in this magazine two articles upon the +Great Lakes and their Harbors.[E] In these papers the commercial +importance of the Lakes was set forth, and it was shown that their +commerce was at that time nearly equal in amount to the whole foreign +trade of the country. Within those four years the relative value of +these two branches of commerce has greatly changed. The foreign trade, +under the efforts of open foes and secret enemies, has fallen off very +largely. A committee of the New York Board of Trade, in an appeal to the +Secretary of the Navy for protection against British pirates, made the +statement, that the imports into that port during the first quarter of +1860, in American vessels, were $62,598,326,--in foreign vessels, +$30,918,051; and that in 1863, during the same period, the imports in +American vessels were $23,403,830,--in foreign vessels, $65,889,853;--in +other words, that in three years of war, our navigation on the ocean had +declined more than one half, and that of foreign nations had increased +in nearly the same proportion. + +The two great branches of internal trade before the war consisted of the +trade of the Lakes and the canals leading from them to the seaboard, and +the trade of the Mississippi and its tributaries. The latter branch +being interrupted or destroyed by the Rebellion, it follows that at the +present time the principal commerce left to the Atlantic cities is that +of the Great Lakes and the States about them, usually known as the +Northwest. + +This commerce amounts at present to at least twelve hundred millions of +dollars annually, and increases so rapidly that all estimates of its +prospective value have hitherto fallen far short of the truth. It +employs about two thousand vessels and twenty thousand sailors, besides +four great lines of railroad. It sends to the seaboard one hundred +million bushels of grain, two million hogs, and half a million of +cattle, composing the principal part of the food of the Atlantic States, +(it being well known that the wheat crop of New York would hardly feed +her people for one third of the year, and that that of New England is +sufficient for only about three weeks' consumption,) and affording a +large surplus for exportation. + +In a memorial of the Hon. S. B. Ruggles of New York to President +Lincoln, on the enlargement of the New York canals, he says,--"The +cereal wealth yearly floated on these waters now exceeds one hundred +million bushels. It is difficult to present a distinct idea of a +quantity so enormous. Suffice it to say, that the portion of it (about +two thirds) moving to market on the Erie and Oswego Canals requires a +line of boats more than forty miles long to carry it." On the Lakes it +requires a fleet of five thousand vessels carrying twenty thousand +bushels each. If loaded in railroad-cars of the usual capacity, it would +take two hundred and fifty thousand of them, or a train more than one +thousand miles in length. The four great lines from the Lakes to the +seaboard would each have to run four hundred cars a day for half the +year to carry this grain to market. Speaking of the grain-trade, Mr. +Ruggles says,--"Its existence is a new fact in the history of man. In +quantity, it already much exceeds the whole export of cereals from the +Russian Empire, the great compeer of the United States, whose total +export of cereals was in 1857 but forty-nine million bushels, being less +than half the amount carried in 1861 upon the American Lakes. It was the +constant aim of ancient Rome, even in the zenith of its power, to +provision the capital and the adjacent provinces from the outlying +portions of the empire. The yearly crop contributed by Egypt was fifteen +million bushels. Under the prudent administration of the Emperor +Severus, a large store of corn was accumulated and kept on hand, +sufficient to guard the empire from famine for seven years. The total +amount thus provided was but one hundred and ninety million bushels. The +product of 1860 in the five Lake States of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, +Illinois, and Wisconsin, was three hundred and fifty-four million +bushels." + +Another branch of the Lake trade, which is yet in its infancy, but which +promises to reach vast proportions in a few years, is the iron and +copper trade of Lake Superior. In 1864 about two hundred and forty-eight +thousand tons of iron ore and seventeen thousand tons of copper ore and +metal were shipped from that lake,--enough to load thirteen hundred and +twenty-five vessels of two hundred tons burden. This trade has wholly +grown up within the last ten years. + +Let the Erie and Oswego Canals be again enlarged, as advocated so ably +by Mr. Ruggles, let the railroad lines be equipped with double tracks, +and this trade of the Lake country will still follow them up and +outstrip their efforts. The man is now living in Chicago, hardly past +middle age, who, less than thirty years ago, shipped the first invoice +of grain from that city which now ships fifty millions; and should he +live to the common age of mankind, he will probably see the shipment of +a hundred millions from that port alone. + +The population of Illinois has doubled in each of the last two decades, +and there is no reason why it should not continue to do so in the next. +That would give it in 1870 about three and a half millions of people, +most of them farmers and producers, and farmers who, by help of their +fertile soil, the ease of its cultivation, and the general use of +agricultural machinery, are able to produce a very large amount of grain +or meat to the working hand. + +These fleets of sail-vessels and steamers, and these railroad-trains +which go Eastward thus loaded with grain and provisions, return West +with freight more various, though as valuable. The teas, silks, and +spices of India, the coffee of Brazil, the sugar and cigars of Cuba, the +wines and rich fabrics of France, the varied manufactures of England, +and the products of the New England workshops and factories, all find a +market in the Northwest. + +What, then, is the proper and sufficient outlet of this commerce? The +Canadians, although their share of it is only one quarter as large as +our own, have shown us the way. They have constructed canals connecting +Lakes Erie and Ontario, and others around the rapids of the St. +Lawrence. Let us do the same on the American side, so that vessels may +load in Chicago or Milwaukee, and deliver their cargoes in New York, +Boston, or Liverpool, without breaking bulk. To Europe this is the +shorter route, as the figures will show:-- + +Distance from Chicago to New York + by lakes, canal, and river 1,500 miles +Distance from New York to Liverpool 2,980 " + ----- + 4,480 " + +Distance from Chicago to Montreal by + Welland Canal 1,348 miles +Distance from Montreal to Liverpool 2,740 " + ----- + 4,088 " + +The St. Lawrence River is the natural outlet of the Lakes, and, if +rendered accessible to us by canals, must be the cheapest outlet. It is +well known that a few years ago corn was worth on the prairies of +Illinois only ten cents per bushel, when the same article was selling in +New York at seventy cents, six sevenths of the price being consumed in +transportation. The consequence was, that many farmers found it more for +their interest to use their surplus corn for fuel than to sell it for +ten cents. The great disturbance in values caused by the war, and the +vast demand for grain and forage for the army, have reduced this +disproportion in prices very much for the time, but it may be looked for +again on the return of peace. + +Now it would seem that one of the most important questions to be +settled in this country is how to cheapen food. If, by the construction +of these canals to give access to the St. Lawrence, grain can be laid +down in New York ten cents a bushel cheaper than it now is done, the +saving on the present shipments of breadstuffs from the Lakes would be +ten millions of dollars annually. It is probable, however, that the +saving in freight would be much greater than this, if the canals were +built of sufficient capacity to admit the largest class of Lake vessels. +This direct trade between the Upper Lakes and Europe was commenced a few +years before the breaking out of the Rebellion, and was beginning to +assume important proportions, when the war put a stop to it, as it has +to so much of our foreign commerce. + +While the present article was in preparation, the bill for the +construction of these canals passed the House of Representatives, as +also one for the deepening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, +concerning which the report of the Hon. Isaac N. Arnold of Illinois, +chairman of the committee of the House on the defence of lakes and +rivers, thus remarks:--"The realization of the grand idea of a +ship-canal from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, for military and +commercial purposes, is the great work of the age. In effect, +commercially, it turns the Mississippi into Lake Michigan, and makes an +outlet for the Great Lakes at New Orleans, and of the Mississippi at New +York. It brings together the two great systems of water communication of +our country,--the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence, and the canals +connecting the Lakes with the ocean on the east, and the Mississippi and +Missouri, with all their tributaries, on the west and south. This +communication, so vast, can be effected at small expense, and with no +long delay. It is but carrying out the plan of Nature. A great river, +rivalling the St. Lawrence in volume, at no distant day was discharged +from Lake Michigan, by the Illinois, into the Mississippi. Its banks, +its currents, its islands, and deposits can still be easily traced, and +it only needs a deepening of the present channel for a few miles, to +reopen a magnificent river from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi." + +It is a very important point, in considering this question of the +enlargement of existing canals and the construction of new ones, that +they have, under the new conditions of naval warfare, come to be an +important element in the harbor defences of the Lakes. We have the +testimony of Captain Ericsson himself, whose Monitor vessels have +already done so much for the country, as to this availability. He +writes,--"An impregnable war-vessel, twenty-five feet wide and two +hundred feet long, with a shot-proof turret, carrying a gun of fifteen +inch calibre, with a ball of four hundred and fifty pounds, and capable +of destroying any hostile vessel that can be put on the Lakes, will +draw, without ammunition, coal, or stores, but six feet and six inches +water, and consequently will need only a canal wide and deep enough to +float a vessel of those dimensions, with locks of sufficient size to +pass it." + +Great Britain has already secured to herself the means of access to the +Lakes by her system of Canadian canals, and the Military Committee of +the House express the opinion, that, in case of a war with that power, +"a small fleet of light-draught, heavily armed, iron-clad gunboats, +could, in one short month, in despite of any opposition that could be +made by extemporized batteries, pass up the St. Lawrence, and shell +every city and village from Ogdensburg to Chicago. At one blow it could +sweep our commerce from that entire chain of lakes. Such a fleet would +have it in its power to inflict a loss to be reckoned only by hundreds +of millions, so vast is the wealth thus exposed to the depredations of a +maritime enemy." We were saved from such a blow, a few months ago, only +by the failure of the Rebel agents in Canada to procure, either by +purchase or piracy, a swift armed steamer. + +Ever since the War of 1812, England has been preparing, in the event of +another war, to strike at this, our vital point. In 1814 the Duke of +Wellington declared "that a naval superiority on the Lakes is a _sine +qua non_ of success in war on the frontier of Canada." Years before, +William Hall, Governor of the Northwestern Territory, made the same +declaration to our Government, and the capture of Detroit by the British +in 1812 was due to their failure to respond to his appeal for a naval +force. In 1817 the Lakes were put on a peace establishment of one gun on +each side, which was a good bargain for England, she having at that time +larger interests on the Lakes than the United States. Now ours exceed +hers in the ratio of four to one. + +What said the London "Times" in January, 1862, in reference to the Trent +excitement? "As soon as the St. Lawrence opens again there will be an +end of our difficulty. We can then pour into the Lakes such a fleet of +gunboats, and other craft, as will give us the complete and immediate +command of those waters. Directly the navigation is clear, we can send +up vessel after vessel without any restriction, except such as are +imposed by the size of the canals. The Americans would have no such +resource. They would have no access to the Lakes from the sea, and it is +impossible that they could construct vessels of any considerable power +in the interval that would elapse before the ice broke up. With the +opening of spring the Lakes would be ours." + +This is just what the English did in the War of 1812. They secured the +command of the Lakes at the beginning of the war, and kept it and that +of all the adjacent country, till Perry built a fleet on Lake Erie, with +which he wrested their supremacy from them by hard fighting. Let us not +be caught in that way a second time. + +There is a party in the country opposed to the enlargement of these +canals. It is represented in Congress by able men. Their principal +arguments are the following: First, that there is no military necessity +for the enlargement; that materials for building gunboats can be +accumulated at various points on the Lakes, to be used in the event of +war. Secondly, that by sending a strong force to destroy the Canadian +canals, the enemy's gunboats can be prevented from entering the Lakes. A +third argument is, that it is useless to attempt to contend with +England, the greatest naval power in the world; that we shall never have +vessels enough to afford a fleet on the coast and one on the Lakes; that +England would never allow us to equal her in that respect, and that it +would be changing the entire policy of the nation to attempt it. A +fourth argument which we have seen gravely stated against the canal +enlargements is, that the mouth of the St. Lawrence is the place to +defend the Lakes, and that, if that hole were stopped, the rats could +not enter. + +In reply to the first of these arguments, the above quotation from the +London "Times" shows that the British Government well know the +importance of striking the first blow, and that long before our gunboats +could be launched that blow would have been delivered. + +As to the second, we may be sure that the Canadian canals would be +defended with all the power and skill of England; and we know, by the +experience of the last four years, the difference between offensive and +defensive warfare, both sides being equally matched in fighting +qualities. + +The third argument is the same used by Jefferson and his party before +the War of 1812. He thought that to build war vessels was only to build +them for the British, as they would be sure to take them. As to changing +the policy of the nation, by increasing our navy, let us hope that it is +already changed, and forever. Its policy has heretofore been a Southern +policy, a slaveholders' policy; it has discouraged the navy, and kept it +down to the smallest possible dimensions, because a navy is essentially +a Northern institution. You cannot man a navy with slaves or mean +whites; it must have a commercial marine behind it, and that the South +never had. Our navy ought never again to be inferior in fighting +strength to that of England. In that way we shall always avoid war. + +As to the plan of defending the Lakes at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, +we would ask this question: If the blockade of Wilmington was a task +beyond the power of our navy, how would it be able to blockade an +estuary from fifty to a hundred miles in width? + +With these enlarged canals, by which gunboats and monitors could be +moved from the Atlantic and the Mississippi to the Lakes, and _vice +versa_, and by the system of shore defences recommended some years ago +by General Totten, namely, strong fortifications at Mackinaw, perfectly +commanding those straits, and serving as a refuge to war steamers, works +at the lower end of Lake Huron, at Detroit, and at the entrance of +Niagara River, these waters will be protected from all foreign enemies. +Lake Ontario will also need a system of works to protect our important +canals and railroads, which in many places approach so near the shore as +to be in danger from an enterprising enemy. It is recommended by the +Military Committee, that a naval depot should be established at Erie, as +the most safe and suitable harbor on the lake of that name. + +If, as is probable, a naval station and depot should be thought +necessary on the Upper Lakes, the city of Milwaukee has strong claims to +be chosen for its site. There is the best and safest harbor on Lake +Michigan, so situated as to be easily defended, in the midst of a +heavily timbered country, accessible to the iron and copper of Lake +Superior and the coal of Illinois. Milwaukee enjoys one of the cheapest +markets for food, together with a very healthy climate. Finally, she is +connected by rail with the great Western centres of population, so that +all the necessary troops for her defence could be gathered about her at +twenty-four hours' notice. + +It may be well here to remark, that as yet the Northwest has had little +assistance from the General Government. Large sums of money have +annually been laid out in the defences of the seaboard, both North and +South, while this immense Lake region has had the annual appropriation +of one eighteen pounder! Every small river and petty inlet on the +Southern coast, whence a bale of cotton or a barrel of turpentine could +be shipped, has had its fort; while the important post of Mackinaw, the +Gibraltar of the Lakes, is garrisoned by an invalid sergeant, who sits +solitary on its ruinous walls. + +The result at which we arrive is, that these canal enlargements would at +once be valuable, both as commercial and military works. They have a +national importance, in that they will assist in feeding and defending +the nation. The States interested in them have a population of ten +millions, they have seventy-one representatives in Congress, and they +have furnished fully one half the fighting-men who have gone to defend +our flag and protect our nationality in the field. How that work has +been done, let the victorious campaigns of Grant and Sherman attest. +Those great leaders are Western men, and their invincible columns, who, +from Belmont to Savannah, have, like Cromwell's Ironsides, "never met an +enemy whom they have not broken in pieces," are men of Western birth or +training. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[E] See Nos. for February and March, 1861,--Vol. VII. pp. 226, 313. + + + + +TO CAROLINA CORONADO. + + + A lily anchored by the Spanish main, + Swaying and shining in the surge of youth, + Yet holding in thy breast the gold of truth,-- + + Such didst thou seem above the waves of pain, + And through the stormy turbulence of war, + Until we heard thy patriot voice afar! + + Now, Sister, with the burning heart of Spain, + We speak to thee from this New England strand, + And grasp and hold thee with a firm right hand! + + For thou hast touched our people with thy word,-- + Only a gentle woman's word, but one + With the great work our Nation has begun. + + By Liberty thy earnest soul was stirred, + And waked and urged Estremadura's men + To pour the heroic wine of life again. + + As in the dawn of Summer flits a bird + From his low nest and springs into the air, + Hurrying a double concert and a prayer,-- + + So Liberty, with thy sweet voice allied, + Walks in thy footsteps, with her laurel strows + Thy footway, with thy trustful spirit glows. + + Esteem her friendship with unwavering pride! + Teach thou thy children what the years have brought, + Wisdom and love superior to thy thought! + + Once thou hast said, "All men may win her side, + But women never!" Sister, do not fear, + Recall thy words, since Love has made truth clear. + + For Love is master, and we know no other, + Save self-compelling service to the right, + Which is but Love in the seraphic sight. + + Teach this thy sons and to each man thy brother,-- + A secret learned in silent joys of home, + A secret whence the lights of being come. + + So guided by this lamp, O wife and mother, + Turn thine eyes hither to the Western shore, + Where red streams run and iron thunders roar! + + We watch the star of Freedom slowly rise + And glimmer through the changes of the time, + While errors beat their low retreating chime. + + We ask for nought, we need not to be wise, + We find both men and women at their post, + Equal and different in one mighty host. + + Divided suffering, unity of cries,-- + Divided labor, unity of life,-- + Divided struggle, one reward for strife. + + As autumn winds sweep over tossing seas + And reach the happy shore, and fling the flowers + And lower each gorgeous head by their rude powers,-- + + So sweep the winds of war through quiet leas + And bend our budding treasures in the dust, + Yet Freedom's cause shall neither mar nor rust. + + The seed shall spring where none can thirst or freeze, + Shall bear a floweret fairer than the old, + As lilies shine before all blossoms told: + + A liberty for woman in her home, + Bound by the only chains which give her peace,-- + Immortal chains which death may not release: + + A liberty where Justice wide may roam, + And Reverence sit the chief at every feast, + With Love as master, and Contempt as least: + + A liberty where the oppressed may come, + The black and white, the woman and the man, + And recognize themselves in Heaven's wide plan + + Then while the morning odors of the sea + Blow from the westward and caress thy brow, + Remember where thy loving sisters bow: + + Perchance beneath the hand of Victory, + Which leaves a tear and then a silentness, + While crowds move by forgetful of one less; + + Or where a burst of gracious ecstasy + Rising shall fill the eastward flitting air, + And with thy spirit mount the hills of prayer. + + + + +REGNARD. + + +Since, in modern literature, there are so few really good comedies that +we may count them all upon our fingers, a man who has written two must +be worth knowing. We ask permission to introduce Jean Francois Regnard +to those who do not know him. + +He comes recommended by the great critic Boileau, who liked him, +quarrelled with him, and made up again. Forty years later, Voltaire +wrote that the man who did not enjoy Regnard was not capable of +appreciating Moliere. Then came M. de La Harpe, the authority in such +matters for two generations: he devotes a chapter to Regnard, and calls +him the worthy successor of Moliere. And Beranger, in his charming +autobiography, an epilogue worthy of the noble part he had played upon +the stage of the world, speaks of the unflagging gayety and abundant wit +of Regnard's dialogue, and of his lively and graceful style. "In my +opinion," he adds, "Regnard would be the first of modern comedians, if +Moliere had not been given to us." + +In spite of the idle complainings into which authors are betrayed by the +pleasure human nature takes in talking about self to attentive +listeners, all who are familiar with the history of the brethren of the +quill know, that, as a class, they have had a large share of the good +things of the earth,--cheerful occupation, respected position, +comfortable subsistence, and long life. France, in particular, has been +the _Pays de Cocagne_ of book-makers for the last two hundred years. +Neither praise, pay, nor rank has been wanting to those who deserved +them. But in the long line of _litterateurs_ who have flourished since +Cardinal Richelieu founded the Academy, few were so fortunate as +Regnard. He entered upon his career with wealth, health, and a jovial +temperament: three supreme blessings he kept through life. + +He was born in Paris in 1655, three years before Moliere brought his +company from the provinces to the Hotel de Bourbon, and opened the new +theatre with the "Precieuses Ridicules." Regnard's father, a citizen of +Paris and a shopkeeper, died when his son was a lad, leaving him one +hundred and twenty thousand livres,--a fortune for a man of the middle +class at that period. Like most independent young fellows, Regnard made +use of his money to travel. He went to Italy, and spent a year in the +famous cities of the Peninsula,--but returned home with thirty thousand +additional livres in his pocket, won at play. He soon went back to the +land of pleasure and of luck. At Bologna he fell in love with a lady +from the South of France, whom he calls Elvire. The lady was married, +the husband was with her; they were travellers like himself. Regnard +joined the party, and sailed with them from Civita Vecchia in an English +ship bound for Toulon. The vessel was captured, off Nice, by a Barbary +corsair, and brought into Algiers; the crew and passengers were sold to +the highest bidder. One Achmet Talem paid fifteen hundred livres for +Regnard, and one thousand for the lady. This low price might lead us to +imagine that the Moorish taste in beauty differed from that of Regnard; +but the Algerine market may have been overstocked with women on the day +of sale. Achmet took his new chattels to Constantinople. Perceiving +Regnard's talent for _ragouts_ and sauces, he made a cook of him. What +became of Elvire history has omitted, perhaps discreetly, to relate. +After two years of toil and ill-treatment, Regnard received money from +home to buy his freedom. He paid twelve thousand livres for himself and +the fair Provencale. Achmet more than quadrupled his investment, and no +doubt thought slavery a divine institution. + +In Paris once more, Regnard hung his chains in his library and was +preparing to lead a comfortable life with Elvire, when the superfluous +husband, whose death had been reported, most unseasonably reappeared. He +had been ransomed by the Mathurins, a religious order, who believed it +to be the duty of Christians to deliver their fellow-men from +bondage,--Abolitionists of the seventeenth century, who, strange as some +of us may think it, were honored by their countrymen and the Christian +world. Regnard yielded gracefully the right he had acquired by purchase +to the prior claim of the husband, and made preparations for another +journey. With two compatriots, De Fercourt and De Corberon, he traversed +the Low Countries and Denmark and crossed over to Stockholm. The King of +Sweden received the travellers graciously and proposed a visit to +Lapland. Furnished with the royal letters of recommendation, they sailed +up the Gulf of Bothnia to Torneo, and thence pushed north by land until +they came to Lake Tornoetrask. Eighteen miles from the lower end of +the lake they ascended a high mountain which they named Metavara, "from +the Latin word _meta_ and the Finlandic word _vara_, which means rock: +that is to say, the rock of limits." "We were four hours in climbing to +the top by paths which no mortal had as yet known. When we reached it, +we perceived the whole extent of Lapland, and the Icy Ocean as far as +the North Cape, on the side it turns to the west. This may, indeed, be +called arriving at the end of the world and jostling the axle of the +pole (_se frotter a l'essieu du pole_)." Here they set up a tablet of +stone they had brought with their luggage,--_monument eternel_, Regnard +says. "It shall make known to posterity that three Frenchmen did not +cease to travel northward until the earth failed them; that, in spite of +the difficulties they encountered, which would have turned back most +others, they reached the end of the world and planted their column; the +ground was wanting, but not the courage to press on." These sounding +verses were cut upon the eternal monument:-- + + "Gallia nos genuit; vidit nos Africa; Gangem + Hausimus, Europamque oculis lustravimus omnem; + Casibus et variis acti terraque marique, + Hic tandem stetimus, nobis ubi defuit orbis. + De Fercourt, De Corberon, Regnard. + Anno 1681, die 22 Augusti." + +"The inscription will never be read, except by the bears," Regnard adds. +A melancholy thought to the French mind! If nobody saw it or talked +about it, half the pleasure of the exploit was gone. The Frenchmen had +foreseen this difficulty, and had taken their precautions. Four days' +journey to the southward stood an ancient church, near which the Lapps +held their annual fair. In this church, in a conspicuous position, they +had already deposited the same verses, carved upon a board. In 1718, +thirty-six years after, another French traveller, La Motraye, read the +lines upon the stone tablet,--too late to gratify Regnard. + +"Travellers' stories,"--"_A beau mentir qui vient de loin_,"--these +proverbs date from the seventeenth century. It was not expected of such +adventurous gentlemen that they should tell the simple truth, any more +than we expect veracity from sportsmen. We listen without surprise and +disbelieve without a smile. Some exaggeration, too, was pardonable to +help out the verse; but "_nobis ubi defuit orbis_" goes beyond a +reasonable license. The mountain _Metavara_ is in Lat. 68 deg. 30'; the +North Cape in 71 deg. 10'. There were still one hundred and fifty miles of +solid _orbis_ before Regnard and his friends; and they had need of +optics sharp to see the Cape from the spot they stood upon. + +The 27th of September found the three Arctic explorers back again in +Stockholm. Thence they took boat for Dantzic, travelled in Poland, +Hungary, and Austria, and left Vienna for Paris a few months before the +famous siege, when Sobieski, the "man sent from God whose name was +John," routed the Turks and delivered Christendom forever from the fear +of the Ottoman arms. + +Before this time Regnard must have heard that Duquesne had avenged his +African sufferings. In the autumn of 1681 the Huguenot Admiral shelled +Algiers from bomb-ketches, then used for the first time. The Dey was +forced to surrender. His lively conquerors treated him with the honors +of wit as well as of war. They made a _mot_ for him, of the kind they +get up so cleverly in Paris. When the Turk is told how much it had cost +the great monarch of France to fit out the fleet which had just reduced +a part of his city to ashes, he exclaims, amazed at the useless +extravagance,--"For half the money I would have burned the whole town." + +Cervantes was a slave in Algiers a hundred years before Regnard, and no +doubt used his experience in the story of the Captive in "Don Quixote." +Regnard also worked his African materials up into a tale,--"La +Provencale,"--and varnished them with the sentimentality fashionable in +his day. Zelmis (himself) is a conquering hero; women adore him. He is +full of courage, resources, and devotion to one only,--Elvire,--who is +beautiful as a dream, and dignified as the wife of a Roman Senator. The +King of Algiers is on the quay when the captives are brought ashore. He +falls in love with Elvire on the spot, and adds her to his collection. +But his passion is respectful and pure. Aided by Zelmis, she escapes +from the harem. They are retaken and brought back; but instead of the +whipping usually bestowed upon returned runaways, the generous king, +despairing of winning Elvire's affections, gives her her liberty. In the +mean time Zelmis has had his troubles. His master has four wives, +beautiful as houris. All four cast eyes of flame upon the well-favored +infidel. Faithful to Elvire, Zelmis of course defends himself as +heroically as Joseph. The ladies revenge the slight in the same way as +the wife of Potiphar. The attractive Frenchman is condemned to +impalement, when his consul interferes with a ransom, and he is released +just in time to embark for France with Elvire. + +Although Regnard often alludes with pride to his travels, the sketch he +has left of them is meagre and uninteresting, and written in a harsh and +awkward style. Lapland was a _terra incognita_,--Poland, Hungary, and +Bohemia not much better known; yet this clever young Parisian has little +to relate beyond a few names, which he generally misspells or misplaces. +No descriptions of town or country or scenery; no traits of manners, +character, or customs, except a dull page on the sorcery and the funeral +ceremonies of the Lapps. The only eminent man he notices is Evelius, the +astronomer of Dantzic,--one of the foreign _savans_ of distinction on +whom Louis XIV. bestowed pensions in his grand manner, omitting to pay +them after the second year. Regnard seems to have written to let his +countrymen know where he had been,--not to tell them what he had seen. +Had he made ever so good a book out of his really remarkable journey, +little notice would have been taken of it. Voyages and travels were +looked upon as a dull branch of fiction,--not nearly so amusing or +improving as cockney excursions from one town of France to another in +the neighborhood, described after the manner of Bachaumont and Chapelle: +not sentimental journeys, by any means; eating, drinking, and sleeping +are the points of interest:-- + + "Bon vin, bon gite, bon lit, + Belle hotesse, bon appetit." + +Even Regnard, who had seen so much of the world, tried his hand at this +kind of travel-writing and failed lamentably. + +At thirty, Regnard closed a chapter in his life, and turned over a new +leaf. He gave up wandering and gambling, the ruling passions of his +youth, and settled himself comfortably for the rest of his days. For +occupation and official position, he bought an assistant-treasurership +in the _Bureau des Finances_. His house in the Rue Richelieu became +famous for good company and good things, intellectual as well as +material. In the country his _Terre de Grillon_ was planted with so much +taste that the lively persons who liked to visit there called it a +_Sejour enchante_. In laying out his grounds, his intimate, Dufresny, +was doubtless of use to him. This spendthrift poet, reputed +great-grandson of Henri Quatre and the _belle jardiniere_, had great +skill in landscape gardening, admitted even by those who found his +verses tedious. He it was, probably, who introduced Regnard to the +stage. For several years they supplied the Theatre Italien with amusing +trifles,--working together in one of those literary partnerships so +common among French playwrights. The "Joueur" broke up this business +connection. Dufresny accused Regnard of having stolen the plot from him, +and brought out a "Joueur" of his own. Regnard insisted that Dufresny +was the pirate. The public decided in favor of Regnard. Dufresny's play +was hopelessly damned, and no appeal ever taken from the first sentence. +The verdict of the _bel-esprits_ was recorded in an epigram, which ended +thus:-- + + "Mais quiconque aujourd'hui voit l'un et l'autre ouvrage + Dit que Regnard a l'avantage + D'avoir ete le 'bon larron.'"[F] + +Dufresny had more wit than dramatic talent. He will live in the memories +of married men for his famous speech,-- + + "Comment, Monsieur! Vous n'y etiez pas oblige." + +It was in 1696, twelve years after his return to Paris, that Regnard +sent the "Joueur," a comedy in five acts, and in verse, to the Theatre +Francais. It was received with enthusiastic applause. Nothing equal to +it had appeared in twenty-four years since the death of the great +master; nor did the eighteenth century produce any comedy which can be +compared with it for action, wit, and literary finish,--not excepting +the "Turcaret" of Le Sage, and Beaumarchais's "Barber of Seville," which +are both better known to-day. + +Regnard sat to himself for the portrait of Valere. The wild and +fascinating excitement of play, the gambler's exultation when he is +successful, his furious curses on his bad luck when he loses, his +superstitious veneration for his winnings, are drawn from the life. When +Fortune smiles, Valere neglects Angelique, his rich _fiancee_; when he +is penniless, his love revives, and he is at her feet until his valet +devises some new plan of raising money. He swears, if she will forgive +him, never again to touch dice or cards, and five minutes afterward +pledges for a thousand crowns a miniature set in diamonds she has just +given him to bind their reconciliation, and hurries back to the +gaming-table. He wins, but thinks his gains too sacred to pay away, even +to redeem the portrait of Angelique. + + "Rien ne porte malheur comme de payer ses dettes," + +is his answer to the prudent Hector,--a maxim current among many who +never play. At last comes a reverse of fortune so sweeping that he +cannot conceal it. Angelique might have forgiven him his broken +promises, but the pawnbroker enters with her picture and demands the +thousand crowns. This is too much. She rejects him and gives her hand to +his rival. His indignant father casts him off forever. But no feeling of +regret or of repentance arises in the mind of the gambler. He turns +coolly upon his heel, and calls to his valet,-- + + "Va! va! consolons-nous, Hector,--et quelque jour + Le Jeu m'acquittera des pertes de l'amour." + +Richard is the name of this prince of rascally and quick-witted valets; +but he calls himself Hector, after the knave of spades, because he +serves a gambler. He has good sense as well as ingenuity; for he gives +his master the best advice, while he strains his invention and his +impudence to help him on to destruction. Nerine, maid to Angelique, +declares open war against Valere, and vows that her mistress shall not +throw herself away upon a silly dandy, an insipid puppet, with nothing +to recommend him but his fine clothes and his swagger. + +"True enough," laughs Hector, "but + + "C'est le gout d'a present; tes cris sont superflus, + Mon enfant." + +"And Valere is a spendthrift, an inveterate gambler, who will bring her +to misery and want." + +"What of that? + + "Tant que tu voudras, parle, preche, tempete, + Ta maitresse est coiffee,... + Elle est dans nos filets." + +"And such an outrageous _roue_ that he cannot live in his father's +house." + +"We do not deny it," Hector answers. "It is no fault of ours. + + "Valere a deserte la maison paternelle, + Mais ce n'est point a lui qu'il faut faire querelle; + Et si Monsieur son pere avait voulu sortir, + Nous y serions encore;... + Ces peres, bien souvent, sont obstines en diable." + +Nevertheless, the obdurate parent, in the hope of reforming his son, and +of providing for him by the excellent match with Angelique, hunts up the +prodigal and lectures him after the manner of fathers. Hector joins in, +and expresses strongly his disapprobation of games of chance; "_les jeux +innocents, ou l'esprit se deploie_," are the only safe pastime. + +"But will our father pay our debts this time?" + +"Not a crown." + +"Will he lend us the money at one per cent a month? Once out of this +pecuniary strait, we can marry Angelique, and be rich and virtuous. +Besides, we have assets as well as debts: here is our schedule." + +The elder softens a little and takes the paper. At the head of the list +of debts he finds Hector's bill for wages and services rendered, leading +off a long file of Aarons and Levys; and the assets consist of a debt of +honor owing by an officer killed at the Battle of Fleurus, and the +good-will of a match at _tric-trac_ with a poor player who had already +lost games enough to make his defeat certain. + +The action of the comedy does not lag or limp from the opening scene to +Valere's last words. The versification is easy and natural; the dialogue +abounds in wit and comic humor; it is short and quick, with none of +those tedious declamations which weary and unsettle the attention of an +audience. Take it all in all, we may say, that, if Moliere had chosen +the same subject, he could hardly have handled it better. + +Not that Regnard can pretend to rank with Moliere in genius, or even +near him. The "Gambler" is admirably done; but it is the only comedy in +which Regnard attempted character. He drew from his experience. Moliere +was so skilful a moral anatomist that he required only a whim or a +weakness to construct a consistent character. This wonderful man found +the French comic stage occupied by a few stock personages, imported from +Spain and Italy. The elders were fathers or uncles, rich, miserly, and +perverse, instinctively disposed to keep a tight rein on the young +people, of whose personal expenses and matrimonial projects they +invariably disapproved. The persecuted juniors were all alike, colorless +shadows, mere lay figures to hang a plot on: _Leandre, amant de +Celimene; Celimene amante de Leandre_: helpless creatures, who would +have been quite at the mercy of the old dragons of the story, were it +not for the powerful assistance of the rascally soubrettes. These clever +sinners abounded in cunning contrivances, disguises, and tricks, which +resulted in the signal discomfiture of the parents and guardians. In the +last act, they are forced to consent to all the marriages, and are +cheated out of most of their property; they are even lucky to escape +with their lives. There was no mercy for Age in those plays. + + "Pluck the lined crutch from the old limping sire; + With it beat out his brains." + +The theatre was the temple of youth, of love, and of feasting. Away with +the dull old people! Providence created them only to pay the bills. + + "Fuyez d'ici, sombre vieillesse,-- + Car en amour les vieillards ne sont bons + Qu'a payer les violons." + +Did gentlemen of a certain age go to the theatre in the seventeenth +century? expend their money to see themselves abused and ridiculed? Did +they laugh at these indignities and enjoy them? We might wonder, if we +did not know that Frenchmen never grow old, so long as they have an eye +left for ogling or a leg to caper with. + +Moliere took these old inhabitants of the stage into his service, and +injected new life into their veins. He gave them the foibles, the +follies, and the vices he saw about him, and made them speak in a new +language of unrivalled wit, humor, and mirth. But his genius was +shackled by the artificial conventions of the theatre, which did not +allow him time or space to fully develop a character. A grand comic +creation like Falstaff was impossible. He introduces a single propensity +of mankind, exhibits it in all its relations to society, shows it to us +on every side; but it remains only a trait of character, although we see +it in half a dozen different lights. Tartuffe is the one exception; in +him, hypocrisy hides covetousness and lust; and Tartuffe is Moliere's +masterpiece. But in most of his comedies he displays rather a knowledge +of the world than a knowledge of human nature. In his walk he has no +equal at home or abroad; but his walk is not the highest. We feel that +something is wanting, and yet we can hardly extol him too highly. He +brought comedy into close relation with every-day life; he is the father +of the modern French stage, which has gradually cast off the old +conventional personages. The French dramatists of to-day are not men of +genius like Moliere, but, in their airy, sparkling plays, they represent +the freaks, follies, and fancies of society so exquisitely that nothing +remains to be desired. They furnish the model and the materials for the +theatre of all other nations. + +When Regnard came before the public, the stage remained as Moliere had +left it The only new personage was the Marquis, first introduced in the +"Mere Coquette," by Quinault, the sweet and smooth writer of operas,--of +whom it was said, that he had boned (_desosse_) the French language. The +Marquis is the ancestor of our Fop,-- + + "Loose in morals and in manners vain, + In conversation frivolous, in dress extreme,"-- + +who in turn has become antiquated and tiresome. Regnard's only original +character is the Gambler; in his other comedies he made use of the old, +familiar masks, and won success by his keen sense of the ridiculous, his +wit, and his unceasing jollity and fun. His Crispins and Scapins are +perfect. What impudent, worthless, amusing rogues! To keep inside of the +law is their only rule of right. "Honesty is a fool, and Trust, his +sworn brother, a very simple gentleman." They came of an ancient race, +these Crispins and Scapins, that had flourished in Italy and in Spain +since Plautus and Terence brought them over from Greece. They found +their way to France, and even reached England in their migration, +following in the train of Charles II. when he returned from exile, and +during a short life on that side of the Channel added drunkenness and +brutality to their gayer vices. The character was true to Nature in +Athens or in Rome, where men of talent might often be bound to devote +their brains to the service of those who owned their bodies, and by +their condition as slaves were released from all obligations of honor or +of honesty. In the seventeenth century it might pass in France; for the +line between gentle and simple was so sharply drawn that ladies of rank +saw no greater impropriety in disrobing before their footmen than before +their dogs. But the progress of liberty or of _egalite_ blotted out the +valets of comedy. Even in Regnard's time the inconsistencies of the +character were noticed. Jasmin, in the "Serenade," utters revolutionary +doctrine:--"How can an honorable valet devote himself to the interests +of a penniless master? We grow tricky in waiting upon such fellows. They +scold us; sometimes they beat us. We have more wit than they. We support +them; we are obliged to invent, for their benefit, all sorts of knavery, +in which they are always ready to take a share; and, withal, they are +the masters, and we the servants. It is not just. Hereafter I mean to +scheme for myself, and become a master in my turn." + +Scapin has joined his brother pagans beyond the Styx; but Lisette blooms +in evergreen youth. This young French person's theory of woman's rights +is different from the one which obtains in New England; nor does she +trouble herself at all to seek for woman's mission. She found it years +ago. It is to deceive a man. She is satisfied with her condition, and +with the old mental and moral attributes of her sex. When Crispin +disguises himself in her clothes, he exclaims,-- + + "L'addresse et l'artifice ont passe dans mon coeur; + Qu'on a sous cet habit et d'esprit et de ruse-- + Rien n'est si trompeur qu'animal porte-jupe." + +This animal is as clever and as cunning in Paris to-day as when Crispin +felt the inspiration of the petticoats. + +In 1708, after another period of twelve years, "Le Legataire Universel" +was played at the same theatre. In this piece the author relied entirely +upon the _vis comica_ of his plot and dialogue. Geronte, a rich, miserly +old bachelor, with as many ailments as years,-- + + "Vieux et casse, fievreux, epileptique, + Paralytique, etique, asthmatique, hydropique,"-- + +has for a nephew Ergaste, with well-grounded hopes of inheriting, and +that shortly. These are suddenly dashed by the announcement that his +uncle has resolved to marry Isabelle, a girl to whom Ergaste himself is +attached. The nephew keeps his own secret, and judiciously commends the +choice of his uncle. Geronte is delighted with him; even asks his advice +about a present for the damsel,--something pretty, but cheap. + + "Je voudrais inventer quelque petit cadeau + Qui coutat peu, mais qui parut nouveau." + +Meeting with no opposition, the old gentleman gradually loses his relish +for matrimony; and Madame Argante, the mother, promises Ergaste to give +Isabelle to him, instead of to his uncle, provided Geronte will declare +his nephew heir to his estate. Unluckily, there are two other +collaterals, country cousins, whom Geronte has never seen, but whom he +wishes to remember. Crispin, valet to Ergaste, assisted by Lisette, the +old man's housekeeper and nurse, personifies first the male and then the +female relative from the rural districts so well that Geronte orders +them out of his house in disgust, swears that he will not leave them a +sous, and sends for a notary to draw his will in favor of Ergaste. But +the excitement of the last interview with Crispin, as a widow, is too +much for his strength. He becomes unconscious, and apparently breathes +his last just as the notary knocks at the door. In this moment of +agonizing disappointment, the indomitable Crispin comes to the rescue. +He puts on the dressing-gown and cap of Geronte, reclines in his +easy-chair, counterfeits his voice, and dictates a will to the notary. +Firstly, he bequeaths to Lisette two thousand crowns, on condition that +she marry Crispin; secondly, he leaves to Crispin an annuity of fifteen +hundred crowns, to reward his devotion to his master; the rest of the +estate, real and personal, to go to Ergaste. The residuary legatee +remonstrates warmly with the testator against his foolish generosity to +Crispin and Lisette; but the sham Geronte insists, and Ergaste is +obliged to submit. The notary withdraws to make the necessary copies of +the will, and the plotters are chuckling over the success of their +plans, when, to their dismay, Geronte enters, alive. He tells them that +he feels his strength departing, and bids them send at once for the +notary to settle his worldly affairs. The notary, who is ignorant of any +deceit, assures him that he has made his will already, and shows him the +document. The conspirators seize the chance of escape, confirm the +notary's story, and relate all the circumstances of the conference, +Geronte protests that he recollects nothing of it; he feels certain he +could not have given more than twenty crowns to Lisette; as to Crispin, +he had never heard of him. The answer is always, "_C'est votre +lethargie_." While perplexed and hesitating, the old man discovers that +a large sum in notes has been abstracted from his hoard. Ergaste had +secured them as an alleviation in case of the worst, and had placed them +in the hands of Isabelle. She promises to return them, if Geronte will +make Ergaste his heir and her husband. In his anxiety for his money, +Geronte consents to everything, and allows the will to stand. + +Nothing, La Harpe tells us, ever made a French audience laugh so +heartily as the scene of the will. Falbaire, one of the _poetes +negliges_ of the eighteenth century, says, in a note to his drama, "The +Monks of Japan," that the Jesuits furnished Regnard with the idea of +this scene. In 1626, the reverend fathers, by precisely the same +stratagem employed by Crispin, obtained possession of the estate of a M. +d'Ancier of Besancon, who died suddenly and intestate. It is proper to +add that M. Falbaire's drama was written against the Jesuits. + +There are two other plays, out of some twenty that Regnard published, +which will repay a reader: "Les Menechmes," imitated from Plautus, like +Shakspeare's Dromios, and "Democrite,"[G] which reminds one a little of +Moliere's "Amphitryon." Both are distinguished for that perpetual +gayety, the most pleasing of all qualities, which is the characteristic +of their author. It seems impossible for him to be dull; he never nods; +his bow, such as it is, is always strung. It is remarkable that his +comic scenes, although crammed with fun, never run down into farce; nor +does he find it necessary to eke out his wit with buffoonery. He had an +instinctive taste which preserved him from coarseness; although he wrote +a century and a half ago, there is less of the low and indelicate than +in the plays we see posted at the doors of our theatres. The French of +the time of Louis XIV. must have been a much more refined people than +the contemporary English. At least, Thalia in Paris was a vestal, +compared with her tawdry, indecent, and drunken London sister. One is +ashamed to be seen reading the unblushing profligacy of Wycherley, +Cibber, Vanbrugh, and Congreve. + +We must admit that Regnard's mantle of decorum is not without a rent. In +the "Legataire," as in the "Malade Imaginaire," may be found a good deal +of pleasantry on the first of the three principal remedies of the +physicians of the period, as mentioned by Moliere in his burlesque +Latin:-- + + "Clysterium donare, + Postea purgare, + Ensuita seignare." + +It seems to have been a good joke in France then; it is so +now,--wonderfully fresh and new,--defying time and endless repetition. +American eyes do not see much fun in it; they rather turn away in +disgust. But on the risible organs of the French purgative medicines +operate violently; and the favorite weapon of their medical service, +primitive in shape and exaggerated in dimensions, is a property +indispensable to every theatre. Regnard used it as a part of the stage +machinery,--worked it in as a stock pleasantry, the effect of which was +certain. Were he writing now, he would do the same thing. But in the +"Joueur" nobody is ill; it may be read by that typical creature, the +"most virtuous female," publicly and without a blush. + +Gentlemen and ladies whose morals are not fully fledged are generally +advised to beware of attempting to skim over the fiction of modern +France. They may take up Regnard without risking a fall; for there is +little danger of being led astray by the picaresque knaveries of Scapin +and Lisette. In 1700 love for another man's wife had not come to be +considered one of the fine arts. Nowadays the victims of this kind of +misplaced affection are the heroes of French novels and plays. The +husband, odious and tiresome _ex officio_, has succeeded to the miserly +father or tyrannical guardian. He is the giant of French romance, who +keeps the lovely and uneasy lady locked up in Castle Matrimony. He +cannot help himself, poor fellow!--he is compelled to fill that +unenviable position, whenever Madame chooses. Sentimental young Arthurs +and Ernests stand in the place of Ergaste and Cleante, and are always +ready to make war upon the unlucky giant. They overcome him as of old, +scale the walls, and carry off the capricious fair one. We have hardly +changed for the better. Ergaste and Cleante were not sentimental, but +they were marrying men and broke no commandments. + +Regnard's life of fifty years covers the whole of the literary age of +Louis XIV. Before 1660 the French had no literature worth preserving, +except Rabelais, Montaigne, a few odes of Malherbe, a page or two of +Marot, and the tragedies of Corneille. Pascal published the "Provincial +Letters" in the year of Regnard's birth. La Fontaine had written a few +indifferent verses; Moliere was almost unknown. In 1686, when Regnard +became an author, the Voitures, Balzacs, and Benserades, the men of +fantastic conceits, the vanguard of the grand army of French wits, had +marched away to Pluto and to Lethe. One or two stragglers, like Menage +and Chapelle, lingered to wonder at the complete change of taste. The +age had ripened fast. Not many years before, Barbin the bookseller +ordered his hacks to _faire du St. Evremond_. St. Evremond was still +living in England, dirty and witty; and Barbin still kept his shop, but +gave no more orders for wares of that description. Many of the greatest +names of the era were already carved on tombs: La Rochefoucauld, Pascal, +Corneille, Moliere. Bossuet was a man of sixty; La Fontaine a few years +older; Boileau and Racine close upon fifty. When Regnard died, in 1710, +the eighteenth century had begun. Fontenelle, Le Sage, Bayle, men of +nearly the same age as himself, belong to it. + +In 1686 King Louis had reached the full meridian of his _Gloire_, +_Grandeur_, _Eclat_. No monarch in Europe was so powerful. He had +conquered Flanders, driven the Dutch under water, seized Franche-Comte, +annexed Lorraine, ravaged the Palatinate, bombarded Algiers and Genoa, +and by a skilful disregard of treaties and of his royal word kept his +neighbors at swords' points until he was ready to destroy them. The +Emperor was afraid of him, Philip of Spain his most humble servant, +Charles II. in his pay. He had bullied the Pope, and brought the Doge of +Genoa to Paris to ask pardon for selling powder to the Algerines and +ships to Spain. He was _Louis le Grand, le roi vraiment roi, le +demi-dieu qui nous gouverne, Deodatus, Sol nec pluribus impar_. Regnard +witnessed the cloudy setting of this splendid luminary. After the secret +marriage with Mme. de Maintenon, in 1686, Fortune deserted the King. He +was everywhere defeated, or his victories were Cadmean, as disastrous as +defeats. The fleet that was to replace James II. on his throne was +destroyed at La Hogue by Russell. The Camisards defied for years the +army sent against them. Rooke took Gibraltar. Peterborough defeated the +Bourbon forces in Spain. Blenheim, Oudenarde, Ramillies, Malplaquet, +brought ruin upon France before Regnard was withdrawn from the scene. + +Meanwhile the Eighteenth Century, with its godlessness and its +debauchery, was born. Hypocrisy watched over its infancy. When Louis +reformed, and took a pious elderly second wife, it was the fashion to be +religious; and whoever wished to stand well at court followed the +fashion. "You who live in France have wonderful advantages for saving +your souls," wrote St. Evremond from London. "Vice is quite out of date +with you. It is in bad taste to sin,--as offensive to good manners as to +morality. And those of you who might be forgetful of their hereafter are +led to salvation by a becoming deference to the habits and observances +of well-bred people." The monarch himself was utterly ignorant in +matters of religion; the Duchess of Orleans wrote to her German +friends, that he had never even read the Bible. He was shocked to hear +that Christ had demeaned himself to speak the language of the poor and +the humble. "_Il avait la foi du charbonnier_," Cardinal Fleury +said,--the blind, unreasoning faith of the African in his fetich. He +considered it due to _gloire_ to assist Divine Providence in its +government of the souls of men. Was he not the greatest prince of the +earth, the eldest son of the Church, standing nearer to the throne of +grace than any insignificant pope? Of course he was responsible for the +orthodoxy of his subjects, a _demi-dieu qui nous gouverne_. He came to +think religion a part of his royal prerogative, and misbelief treason +against his royal person. He was quite capable of going a step beyond +Cardinal Wolsey, and of writing, "_Ego et Deus meus_." He said to a +prelate whose management of some ecclesiastical business particularly +gratified him,--"_J'ignore si Dieu vous tiendra compte de la conduite +que vous avez tenue; mais quant a moi, je vous assure que je ne +l'oublierai jamais_." The spiritual powers are never backward in taking +advantage of favorable circumstances: Huguenots, Jansenists, and +Quietists were sternly put down, and the girdle of superstition +tightened until it began to crack. The skeptics were quiet,--asked but +few questions,--pretended to be satisfied with the time-honored answers +Mother Church keeps for her uneasy children,--and seemed to be busy with +the "Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes," and the "Dispute sur les +Ceremonies Chinoises." It was not yet the time for them to announce +pompously their radical theories as new and true. A thin varnish of +decorum and orthodoxy overspread everything; but one may see the shadow +of the coming _Regence_ in Regnard's works. He and gentlemen like him +went to mass in the morning, and to pleasure for the rest of the day and +night. + + "Ils sont chretiens a la messe, + Ils sont paiens a l'opera." + +Regnard was almost as much of a pagan as his favorite Horace,--called +for wines, roses, and perfumes, and sang his Lydia and his Lalage almost +in the same words. His creed and his philosophy were pagan. He adored +three goddesses,--_la Comedie_, _la Musique_, _la bonne Chere_; his +solution of the problem of life was enjoyment. + + "Fair tout ce qu'on veut, vivre exempt de chagrin, + Ne se rien refuser,--Voila tout mon systeme, + Et de mes jours ainsi j'attraperai la fin." + +Wisdom was given to man to temper pleasure,--to avoid excess, which +destroys pleasure. Regnard had agreeable recollections of the past; the +present satisfied him; he was as careless of the unknown future as De +Retz, whose _epouvantable tranquillite_, appalling ease of mind on that +point, so shocked poor Mme. de Sevigne. All other speculations he put +quietly aside with a doubt or a _cui bono_. It was a witty and refined +selfishness, and nothing beyond. Spiritual light, faith, none; hope that +to-morrow might pass as smoothly as to-day; love, only that particular +affection which man feels for his female fellow-creature. Such a +heathenish frame of mind will find little favor in this era of +yearnings, seekings, teachings. It was, indeed, a lamentable condition +of moral darkness; but the error, though grievous, has its attractive +side. + + "On court apres la verite; + Ah! croyez moi, l'erreur a son merite." + +It is a relief in these dyspeptic times to turn back to Regnard, the +big, rosy, and jolly pagan, enjoying to the utmost the four blessings +invoked upon the head of Argan by the chorus of Doctors:-- + + "Salus, honor et argentum. + Arque bonum appetitum." + +Comfortable, contented with himself and with the world, he was free from +the sadness, the misgivings, and the enervating doubts which overrun so +many morbid minds,--symptoms of moral weakness, and of the want of +healthy occupation. Hence lady poets, more than all others, love to +indulge in these feeble repinings, and take the privilege of their sex +to shed tears on paper. In his bachelor establishment, Rue de +Richelieu, there was, he tells us,-- + + "Grande chere, vin delicieux, + Belle maison, liberte toute entiere, + Bals, concerts, enfin tout ce qui peut satisfaire + Le gout, les oreilles, les yeux." + +The _Societe choisie_ was numerous; for a good cook never fails to make +friends for his master, and Regnard's cook dealt with fat capons, +plover, and ortolans. His lettuce, mushrooms, and artichokes were grown +under his own eyes. The choice vintages of France, in casks, lay in his +cellar. He gave wine to nourish wit, not to furnish an opportunity for +ostentatious gabble about age and price. How he revels in the +description of good cheer! There rises from his pages _fumet_ of game +and the _bouquet d'un vin exquis_. + + "Et des perdrix! Morbleu! d'un fumet admirable + Sentez plutot, Quel baume! Mon Dieu!" + +Why are American authors so commonly wan and gaunt, with none of the +external marks of healthy gayety? Is it the climate, or the lack of +out-door exercise, or hot-air furnaces, or rascally cooks? They look as +if, like Burns's man, they "were made to mourn." If they conceive a +joke, their sad, sharp voices and angular gesticulations make it +miscarry. Now and then they rebel against their constitutions, poor +fellows, and try to imitate the jovial ancestors they have read of; +babble shrilly of _noctes coenaeque Deum, petits soupers_, and what +not. It is mostly idle talk. They know too well that digestion does not +wait upon appetite in the evening,--and that they will feel better for +the next week, if they restrict their debauch to dandelion coffee and +Graham bread. Moreover, the age of conviviality is gone, as much as the +age of chivalry. _Petits soupers_ are impossible in this part of the +world. Let us manfully confess one reason: they cost too much. And we +have not the wit, nor the wicked women, nor the same jolly paganism. +Juno Lucina reigns here in the stead of Venus; and Bacchus is two +dollars a bottle. + +But these and other good things Regnard had in abundance, and so lived +smoothly and happily on, defying time,--for he held, with Mme. de +Thianges, "_On ne viellit point a table_" until one day he overheated +himself in shooting, drank abundantly of cold water, and fell +dead,--Euthanasia. He died a bachelor, and, if we may judge from many of +his verses, seems, like Thackeray, to have wondered why Frenchmen ever +married. But he had a keen eye for "the fair defect of Nature." +Strabon's description of young Criseis before her glass could have been +written only by an amateur:-- + + "Je la voyais tantot devant une toilette + D'une _mouche assasine irriter ses attraits_." + +Neither Moliere, Regnard, nor Le Sage was a member of the Academy. + +Beranger thinks it remarkable that the _improvisations folles et +charmantes_ of Regnard should now be neglected in France. We do not +recollect to have met with him even in the "Causeries" of Ste. Beuve, +who has ransacked the French Temple of Fame from garret to cellar for +_feuilleton_ materials; yet the "Legataire" kept a foothold on the stage +for a hundred and twenty years. But the Temple of Fame is overcrowded. +Every day some worthy fellow is turned out to make room for a new-comer. +Our libraries are not large enough to hold the mob of authors who press +in. What with newspapers, magazines, and the last new novel, few persons +have time to read more than the titles on the backs of their books. They +are familiar with the great names, take their excellence on trust, and +allow them to stand neglected and dusty on their shelves. But with +another generation the great names will become mere shadows of a name; +and so on to oblivion. Father Time has a good taste in literature, it is +true. He mows down with his critical scythe the tares which spring up in +such daily abundance; but, unfortunately, he cannot stop there: after a +lapse of years, he sweeps away also the fruit of the good seed to make +room for the productions of his younger children. + + "For he's their parent and he is their grave." + +The doom is universal; it cannot be avoided. There must be an end to all +temporal things, and why not to books? The same endless night awaits a +Plato and a penny-a-liner. Our Eternities of Fame, like all else +appertaining to humanity, will some day pass away. Even Milton and +Shakspeare, our great staple international poets, who have been brought +out whenever the American ambassador to England dined in public, are +travelling the same downward path. How many of us, man or woman, on the +sunny side of thirty, have gone through the "Paradise Lost"? And +Shakspeare, in spite of new editions and of new commentators, is not +half as much read as fifty years since. Perhaps the time will come when +English speaking people will not know to whom they owe so many of the +proverbs, metaphors, and eloquent words which enrich their daily talk. + +Will none escape this inexorable fate? Homer and Robinson Crusoe seem to +us to have the most tenacity of life. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[F] The proverbial French expression for the thief who rebuked his +reviling comrade at the crucifixion. + +[G] Democrite, in an attack upon a heavy diner-out, says,-- + + "Il creuse son tombeau sans cesse avec ses dents,"-- + +and thus anticipates Sir Astley Cooper by many years. It is lucky that +these fellows, who took a mean advantage of seniority to get off our +good things before us, have perished, or they might give us trouble. At +least two Frenchmen could claim "the glorious Epicurean paradox" of one +of the seven wise men of Boston, "Give us the luxuries of life, and we +will dispense with its necessaries,"--M. de Voltaire, and M. de +Coulanges, a generation earlier. These "flashing moments" of the wise in +Boston, as in other great places, are often, like heat-lightning, +reflections of a previous flash. + + + + +JOHN BROWN'S RAID: + +HOW I GOT INTO IT, AND HOW I GOT OUT OF IT. + + +It was a wet Monday in October, on my return from a journey, with a +large party of friends and acquaintances, as far north as Chicago and as +far south as St. Louis and the Iron Mountain. We were gradually nearing +home, and the fun and jollity grew apace as we got closer to the end of +our holiday and to the beginning of our every-day work. Our day's ride +was intended to be from Cumberland (on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad) +to Baltimore. The murky drizzle made our comfortable car all the more +cozy, and the picturesque glories of that part of Western Virginia, +through which we had come very leisurely and enjoyably, were heightened +by the contrast of the dull cloud that hung over the valley of the +Potomac. At Martinsburg the train was stopped for an unusually long +time; and in spite of close questioning, we were obliged to satisfy our +curiosity with a confused story of an outbreak and a strike among the +workmen at the armory, with a consequent detention of trains, at +Harper's Ferry. The train pushed on slowly, and at last came to a dead +halt at a station called The Old Furnace. There a squad of half a dozen +lazy Virginia farmers--we should call them a picket just now, in our day +of military experiences--told us half a dozen stories about the troubles +ahead, and finally the people in charge of our train determined to send +it back to wait for further news from below. A young engineer who was +employed on the railroad was directed to go along the track to examine +it, and see what, if any, damage had been done. As I had brushed up an +acquaintance with him, I volunteered to accompany him, and then was +joined by a young Englishman, a Guardsman on his travels, one of the +Welsh Wynns, just returning from a shooting-tour over the Prairies. We +started off in the rain and mud, and kept together till we came to a +bridle-path crossing the railroad and climbing up the hills. Here we met +a country doctor, who offered to guide us to Bolivar, whence we could +come down to the Ferry, and as the trains would be detained there for +several hours, there would be time enough to see all the armory +workshops and wonders. So off we started up the muddy hillside, leaving +our engineer to his task on the railroad; for what pedestrian would not +prefer the worst dirt road to the best railroad for an hour's walking? +Our Englishman was ailing and really unwell, and half-way up the rough +hill left us to return to the easy comfort of the train. + +My guide--Dr. Marmion was the name he gave in exchange for mine--said +that the row at the Ferry was nothing but a riotous demonstration by the +workmen. He came from quite a distance, and, hearing these vague +reports, had turned off to visit his patients in this quarter, so that +he might learn the real facts; and as it was then only a little past +nine, he had time to do his morning's work in Bolivar. So there we +parted, he agreeing to join me again at the Ferry; and he did so later +in the day. + +Turning to the left on the main pike, I found little knots of lounging +villagers gathered in the rain and mud, spitting, swearing, and +discussing the news from the Ferry. Few of them had been there, and none +of them agreed in their account of the troubles; so I plodded on over +the hill and down the sharp slope that led to the Ferry. Just as I began +the descent, a person rode up on horseback, gun in hand, and as we came +in sight of the armory, he told me the true story,--that a band of men +were gathered together to set the slaves free, and that, after starting +the outbreak on the night before, they had taken refuge down below. He +pointed with his gun, and we were standing side by side, when a sudden +flash and a sharp report and a bullet stopped his story and his life. + +The few people above us looked down from behind the shelter of houses +and fences;--from below not a soul was visible in the streets and alleys +of Harper's Ferry, and only a few persons could be seen moving about the +buildings in the armory inclosure. In a minute, some of the townspeople, +holding out a white handkerchief, came down to the fallen man, and, +quite undisturbed, carried him up the hill and to the nearest +house,--all with hardly a question or a word of explanation. Shocked by +what was then rare enough to be appalling,--sudden and violent death by +fire-arms in the hands of concealed men,--I started off again, meaning +to go down to the Ferry, with some vague notion of being a peace-maker, +and at least of satisfying my curiosity as to the meaning of all these +mysteries: for while I saw that that fatal rifle-shot meant destruction, +I had no conception of a plot. + +Just as I reached the point where I had joined the poor man who had +fallen,--it was a Mr. Turner, formerly a captain in the army, and a +person deservedly held in high esteem by all his friends and +neighbors,--a knot of two or three armed men stopped me, and after a +short parley directed me to some one in authority, who would hear my +story. The guard who escorted me to the great man was garrulous and kind +enough to tell me more in detail the story, now familiar to all of us, +of the capture of Mr. Lewis Washington and other persons of note in the +Sunday night raid of a body of unknown men. The dread of something yet +to come, with which the people were manifestly possessed, was such as +only those can know who have lived in a Slave State; and while there was +plenty of talk of the steadiness of the slaves near the Ferry, it was +plain that that was the magazine that was momentarily in danger of going +off and carrying them all along with it. + +The officers of the neighboring militia had gathered together in the +main tavern of the place, without waiting for their men, but not +unmindful of the impressive effect of full uniform, and half a dozen +kinds of military toggery were displayed on the half-dozen persons +convened in a sort of drum-head court-martial. I was not the only +prisoner, and had an opportunity to hear the recitals of my fellows in +luck. First and foremost of all was a huge, swaggering, black-bearded, +gold-chain and scarlet-velvet-waistcoated, piratical-looking fellow, who +announced himself as a Border Ruffian, of Virginia stock, and now +visiting his relations near the Ferry; but he said that he had fought +with the Southern Rights party in the Kansas war, and that when he +heard of the "raid," as he familiarly called the then unfamiliar feat of +the Sunday night just past, he knew who was at the top and bottom of it, +and he described in a truthful sort of way the man whose name and +features were alike unknown to all his listeners,--"Ossawatomie Brown," +"Old John Brown." Garnishing the story of their earlier contests with +plentiful oaths, he gave us a lively picture of their personal +hand-to-hand rights in the West, and said that he had come to help fight +his old friend and enemy, and to fight him fair, just as they did in +"M'souri." He wanted ten or a dozen men to arm themselves to the teeth, +and he'd lead 'em straight on. His indignation at his arrest and at the +evident incredulity of his hearers and judges was not a whit less hearty +and genuine than his curses on their cowardice in postponing any attack +or risk of fighting until the arrival of militia, or soldiers, or help +of some kind, in strength to overpower the little band in the armory, to +make resistance useless, and an attack, if that was necessary, safe +enough to secure some valiant man to lead it on. + +My story was soon told, I was a traveller; my train had been stopped; I +had started off on foot, meaning to walk over the hill to the Ferry, and +expecting there to meet the train to go on to Baltimore. The +interruptions were plentiful, and the talk blatant. I showed a ticket, a +memorandum-book giving the dates and distances of my recent journey, and +a novel (I think it was one of Balzac's) in French, and on it was +written in pencil my name and address. That was the key-note of plenty +of suspicion. How could they believe any man from a Northern city +innocent of a knowledge of the plot now bursting about their ears? Would +not my travelling-companions from the same latitude be ready to help +free the slaves? and if I was set at liberty, would it not be only too +easy to communicate between the little host already beleaguered in the +armory engine-house and the mythical great host that was gathered in the +North and ready to pour itself over the South? Of course all this, the +staple of their every-day discussions, was strange enough to my ears; +and I listened in a sort of silent wonderment that men could talk such +balderdash. Any serious project of a great Northern movement on behalf +of Southern slaves was then as far from credible and as strange to my +ears as it was possible to be. It seemed hardly worth while to answer +their suggestions; I therefore spoke of neighbors of theirs who were +friends of mine, and of other prominent persons in this and other parts +of Virginia who were acquaintances, and for a little time I hoped to be +allowed to go free; but after more loud talk and a squabble that marked +by its growing violence the growing drunkenness of the whole party, +court and guard and spectators all, I was ordered along with the other +prisoners to be held in custody for the present. We were marched off, +first to one house and then to another, looking for a convenient prison, +and finally found one in a shop. Here--it was a country store--we sat +and smoked and drank and chatted with our guard and with their friends +inside and out. Now and then a volley was fired in the streets of the +village below us, and we would all go to a line fence where we could see +its effects: generally it was only riotous noise, but occasionally it +was directed against the engine-house or on some one moving through the +armory-yard. + +As the militia in and out of uniform, and the men from far and near, +armed in all sorts of ways, began to come into the village in squads, +their strength seemed to give them increased confidence, and especially +in the perfectly safe place where I sat with half a dozen others under a +heavy guard. Now and then an ugly-looking fowling-piece or an awkwardly +handled pistol was threateningly pointed at us, with a half-laughing and +half-drunken threat of keeping us safe. Toward afternoon we were ordered +for the night to Charlestown, and to the jail there that has grown so +famous by its hospitality to our successors. The journey across was +particularly enlivening. My special guard was a gentlemanly young +lawyer, one of the Kennedys of that ilk; and to his cleverness I think I +owed my safe arrival at the end of our journey. Every turn in the road +brought us face to face with an angry crowd, gathering from far and +near, armed and ready to do instant justice on a helpless victim. +Kennedy, however, gracefully waived them back to the wagons behind us, +where other prisoners, in less skilful hands, were pretty badly used. +The houses on the road were utterly deserted; on the first news of an +outbreak by the slaves, the women and children were hurried off to the +larger towns,--the men coming slowly back in squads and arming as best +they could, and the negroes keeping themselves hid out of sight on all +sides. + +The eight miles' distance to Charlestown was lengthened out by the rain +and mud, and the various hindrances of the way, so that the day was +closing as we came into the main street of the straggling little town. +The first odd sight was a procession of black and white children playing +soldiers, led by a chubby black boy, full of a sense of authority, and +evidently readily accepted by his white and black comrades in childlike +faith. The next was a fine, handsome house, where a large number of +ladies from the country round had been gathered together, and as we were +greeted in going by, my guide stopped, and introducing me, I explained +my position. They were all ready with their sympathy, and all +overpowering with their gratitude, when I pooh-poohed their fear of a +great Northern invasion, and said that the people of the North were just +as innocent of any participation in this business as they themselves +were. Our line of march resumed brought us to the prison, and I was not +sorry to have the shock of an enforced visit somewhat lessened by a +general invitation from mine host of an adjoining tavern to liquor up. +Of course I was noways chary of invitations to the crowd, and the +bar-room being full, I made the bar my rostrum, and indulged in a piece +of autobiography that was intended to gain the general consent to return +to my fellow-travellers, who were reported still at Martinsburg. If I +cannot boast of great success _at_ the bar, I am as little proud of my +eloquence _on_ the bar. One of the Kennedys, brother to my guard, did +suggest taking me to his house, half a mile off; but to that Colonel +Davenport, a bustling great man of the village, answered, that, as there +was sure to be some hanging at night, it would be safer to be in the +prison, as well from the mob as from any escape on my own part, and it +was better to stay contentedly where I was. Doctor Marmion, my +acquaintance of the morning, rode over to find me and to explain his +part in my visit to the Ferry, hoping that such a confirmation of my +story would secure my immediate release. But by that time I was in the +custody of the sheriff, by some military legal process; and while that +officer was kind and civil, he refused to do anything, except promise me +an early hearing before the court-martial, which was to reassemble the +next day. Finally, I was hustled through a gaping, pot-valiant crowd, +into the prison, where the mob had violently taken possession; and it +was a good while before I could be got up stairs and safely locked into +my cell. The bolts were shot pretty sharply, but the sense of relief +from the threats and impertinence of the bullying fellows outside quite +outweighed my sensation of novelty on finding myself in such strange +quarters. My supper was sent up, my friendly guard gave me cigars, and a +buxom daughter of the jailer lent me a candle. I lay down on a rough cot +and was soon asleep; my last recollection was of my sturdy guard, armed +and wakeful, in front of my cell; and I woke after several hours of +sound, refreshing slumber, startled by the noise of his angry answers to +some still more angry and very drunken men. They had, so I learned +partly then and partly afterwards, broken into the jail, and hurried +from the cell next to mine a poor black prisoner, who was forthwith +hanged; and, whetted by their sport, they had returned to find a fresh +victim. Fortunately, in the turmoil of their first attack, the only +other prisoner easily got hold of was a white boy, who escaped, while I +owed my safety to Kennedy's earnest protestations, and to his ready use +of a still more convincing argument, a loaded pistol and a quick hand. + +Early morning was very welcome, for it brought the court-martial up to +Charlestown, and I was soon ready for a hearing. Fortunately, after a +good deal of angry discussion and some threats of a short shrift, a +message came up from the Ferry from Governor Wise; and as I boldly +claimed acquaintance with him, they granted me leave to send down a note +to him, asking for his confirmation of my statements. While this was +doing, I was paroled and served my Kansas colleague by advice to hold +his tongue; he did so, and was soon released; and my messenger returned +with such advices, in the shape of a pretty sharp reprimand to the busy +court-martial for their interference with the liberty of the citizen, as +speedily got me my freedom. I used it to buy such articles of clothing +as could be had in Charlestown, and my prison clothes were gladly thrown +aside. Some of my fellow-travellers reached the place in time to find me +snugly ensconced in the tavern, waiting for an ancient carriage; with +them we drove back to the Ferry in solemn state. The same deserted +houses and the same skulking out of sight by the inhabitants showed the +fear that outlasted even the arrival of heavy militia reinforcements. We +stopped at Mr. Lewis Washington's, and, without let or hindrance, walked +through the pretty grounds and the bright rooms and the neat negro huts, +all alike lifeless, and yet showing at every turn the suddenness and the +recentness of the fright that had carried everybody off. Our ride +through Bolivar was cheered by a vigorous greeting from my captor of the +day before,--the village shoemaker, a brawny fellow,--who declared that +he knew I was all right, that he had taken care of me, that he would not +have me hanged or shot, and "wouldn't I give him sum't to have a drink +all round, and if I ever came again, please to stop and see him"; and so +I did, when I came back with my regiment in war-times; but then no +shoemaker was to be found. + +I paid my respects to Governor Wise, and thanked him for my release; was +introduced to Colonel Lee, (now the Rebel general,) and to the officers +of the little squad of marines who had carried the stronghold of the +"invaders," as the Governor persistently called them. In company with +"Porte Crayon," Mr. Strothers, a native of that part of Virginia, and +well known by his sketches of Southern life in "Harper's Magazine," I +went to the engine-house, and there saw the marks of the desperate +defence and of the desperate bravery of John Brown and his men. I saw, +too, John Brown himself. Wounded, bleeding, haggard, and defeated, and +expecting death with more or less of agony as it was more or less near, +John Brown was the finest specimen of a man that I ever saw. His great, +gaunt form, his noble head and face, his iron-gray hair and patriarchal +beard, with the patient endurance of his own suffering, and his painful +anxiety for the fate of his sons and the welfare of his men, his +reticence when jeered at, his readiness to turn away wrath with a kind +answer, his whole appearance and manner, what he looked, what he +said,--all impressed me with the deepest sense of reverence. If his +being likened to anything in history could have made the scene more +solemn, I should say that he was likest to the pictured or the ideal +representation of a Roundhead Puritan dying for his faith, and silently +glorying in the sacrifice not only of life, but of all that made life +dearest to him. His wounded men showed in their patient endurance the +influence of his example; while the vulgar herd of lookers-on, fair +representatives of the cowardly militia-men who had waited for the +little force of regulars to achieve the capture of the engine-house and +its garrison, were ready to prove their further cowardice by maltreating +the prisoners. The marines, who alone had sacrificed life in the +attack, were sturdily bent on guarding them from any harsh handling. I +turned away sadly from the old man's side, sought and got the +information he wanted concerning "his people," as he called them, and +was rewarded with his thanks in a few simple words, and in a voice that +was as gentle as a woman's. The Governor, as soon as he was told of the +condition of the prisoners, had them cared for, and, in all his +bitterness at their doings, never spoke of them in terms other than +honorable to himself and to them. He persistently praised John Brown for +his bravery and his endurance; and he was just as firm in declaring him +the victim of shrewd and designing men, whose schemes he would yet +fathom. + +The day was a busy one; for little squads of regulars were sent out on +the Maryland Heights to search for the stores accumulated there; and +each foraging party was followed by a tail of stragglers from all the +volunteers on the ground, who valiantly kept on to the Maryland side of +the bridge that crossed the Potomac, and then, their courage oozing out +of their fingers and toes both, stopped there and waited for the return +of the regulars. On the instant of their arrival, each time fetching a +great hay-wagon full of captured goods, tents, picks, spades, pikes, the +tag-rag and bobtail party at once set to work to help themselves to the +nearest articles, and were soon seen making off homeward with their +contraband of war on their backs. The plunder, however, was not confined +to the captured property. A strong force of militia soon invaded the +armory, and every man helped himself to a rifle and a brace of pistols, +and then, tiring of the load, began to chaffer and bargain for their +sale. Governor Wise was called on to interfere and preserve the +Government property; he came into the little inclosure of the works, and +began an eloquent address, but seeing its uselessness, broke off and put +his Richmond Grays on guard; and then the distribution of public +property was made through the regular channels,--that is, the men inside +brought guns and pistols to the men on guard, and they passed them out +to their friends beyond, so that the trade went on almost as free as +ever. + +Night soon came, and it was made hideous by the drunken noise and +turmoil of the crowd in the village; matters were made worse, too, by +the Governor's order to impress all the horses; and the decent, sober +men trudged home rather out of humor with their patriotic sacrifice; +while the tipsy and pot-valiant militia fought and squabbled with each +other, and only ceased that sport to pursue and hunt down some fugitive +negroes, and one or two half-maddened drunken fellows who in their +frenzy proclaimed themselves John Brown's men. Tired out at last, the +Governor took refuge in the Wager House;--for an hour or two, he had +stood on the porch haranguing an impatient crowd as "Sons of Virginia!" +Within doors the scene was stranger still. Huddled together in the worst +inn's worst room, the Governor and his staff at a table with tallow +candles guttering in the darkness, the Richmond Grays lying around the +floor in picturesque and (then) novel pursuit of soft planks, a motley +audience was gathered together to hear the papers captured at John +Brown's house--the Kennedy farm on Maryland Heights--read out with the +Governor's running comments. The purpose of all this was plain enough. +It was meant to serve as proof of a knowledge and instigation of the +raid by prominent persons and party-leaders in the North. The most +innocent notes and letters, commonplace newspaper-paragraphs and printed +cuttings, were distorted and twisted by the reading and by the talking +into clear instructions and positive plots. However, the main impression +was of the picturesqueness of the soldiers resting on their knapsacks, +and their arms stacked in the dark corners,--of the Governor and his +satellites, some of them in brilliant militia array, seated around the +lighted table,--and of the grotesque eloquence with which either the +Governor or some of his prominent people would now and then burst out +into an oratorical tirade, all thrown away on his sleepy auditors, and +lost to the world for want of some clever shorthand writer. + +In the morning I was glad to hear that my belated train had spent the +last forty-eight hours at Martinsburg, and I did not a bit regret that +my two days had been so full of adventure and incident. Waiting for its +coming, I walked once more through the village, with one of the watchmen +of the armory, who had been captured by John Brown and spent the night +with him in the engine-house, and heard in all its freshness the story +now so well known. Then I bade Governor Wise good-bye, and was duly +thanked for my valiant services to the noble Mother of States, and +rewarded by being offered the honorary and honorable title of A.D.C. to +the commander-in-chief of Virginia, both for past services and for the +future tasks to be met, of beating off invading hosts from the +North,--all in the Governor's eye. Luckily for both sides, I declined +the handsome offer; for my next visit to Virginia was as an A.D.C. to a +general commanding troops, not of the North, but of the United States, +invading, not the Virginia of John Brown's time, but the Virginia of a +wicked Southern Confederacy. + +Not long after, I received a letter of thanks from Governor Wise, +written at Richmond and with a good deal of official flattery. His son +Jennings, an old acquaintance of mine in pleasant days in Germany, came +to see me, too, with civil messages from his father. Poor fellow! he +paid the forfeit of his rebellious treason with his life at Roanoke +Island. His father pays the heavier penalty of living to see the civil +war fomented by him making its dreadful progress, and in its course +crushing out all his ancient popularity and power. + +In spite of many scenes of noble heroism and devoted bravery in +legitimate warfare, and in the glorious campaigns of our own successful +armies, I have never seen any life in death so grand as that of John +Brown, and to me there is more than an idle refrain in the solemn chorus +of our advancing hosts,-- + + "John Brown's body lies mouldering in the ground, + As we go marching on!" + +In the summer of 1862, I was brought again to Harper's Ferry, with my +regiment, and the old familiar scenes were carefully revisited. The +terrible destruction of fine public buildings, the wanton waste of +private property, the deserted village instead of the thriving town, the +utter ruin and wretchedness of the country all about, and the bleak +waste of land from Harper's Ferry to Charlestown, are all set features +in every picture of the war in Virginia. At my old head-quarters in +Charlestown jail there was less change than I had expected; its sturdy +walls had withstood attack and defence better than the newer and more +showy structures; the few inhabitants left behind after the ebb and flow +of so many army waves, Rebel and Union succeeding each other at pretty +regular intervals, were the well-to-do of former days, looking after +their household gods, sadly battered and the worse for wear, but still +cherished very dearly. Of my old acquaintances, it was a melancholy +pleasure to learn that Colonel Baylor, who was mainly anxious to have me +hanged, had in this war been reduced to the ranks for cowardice, and +then was shot in the act of desertion. Kennedy was still living at home, +but his brother was in the Rebel service. The lesser people were all +scattered; the better class of workmen had gone to Springfield or to +private gun-shops in the North,--the poorer sort, either into the Rebel +army or to some other dim distance, and all trace of them was lost. + +The thousands who have come and gone through Harper's Ferry and past +Bolivar Heights will recall the waste and desolation of what was once a +blooming garden-spot, full of thrift and industry and comfort almost +unknown elsewhere south of the fatal slave-line; thousands who are yet +to pass that way will see in the ruins of the place traces of the +avenging spirit that has marked forever the scene of _John Brown's +Raid_. + + + + +SCHUMANN'S QUINTETTE IN E FLAT MAJOR. + + +It was near sundown when we reached the sea-side hotel. By the time we +were settled in our apartment, and I had my invalid undressed and in +bed, the soft, long summer twilight was nearly over. The maid, having +cleared away the litter of unpacking, was sitting in the anteroom, near +enough to be within call. The poor suffering body that held so lightly +the half-escaped spirit lay on the bed, exhausted with the journey, but +feeling already soothed by the pleasant sea-breeze which sighed gently +in at the open window. + +Our rooms were on the ground-floor of a one-story cottage. A little +distance off was the large hotel, to which the cottage was attached by a +long arcade or covered gallery. We could hear fragments of the music +which the band was playing to the gay idlers who were wandering about +the balconies or through the hotel grounds; while laughs and little +shrieks, uttered by the children as their pursuing nurses caught them up +for bed, mingled not unpleasantly with the silvery hum arising from the +fashionable crowd and the festal clang of the instruments. + +Sleep half hovered over, half winged off from the pillow. I fanned the +peacock plumes slowly to and fro in the delicious air, gazed with a +suppressed sigh on the darkening West, and repeated with a rhythmical +beat the beautiful Hebrew poem in Ecclesiasticus, which I had so often +recited through many long years by the side of that sick-bed, to soothe +the ear of the sufferer. I had just reached these lines,-- + + "A present remedy of all + Is the speeding coming of a cloud, + And a dew that meeteth it, + By the heat that cometh, + Shall overpower it. + + "At His word the wind is still; + And with His thought + He appeaseth the deep; + And the Lord hath plumed islands therein,"-- + +when I noticed that sleep had settled firmly on the dark eyelids, and +the panting breath came through the poor clay in little soughs and +sighs, as if body and soul, tired with combat, had each sunk down for a +momentary rest on the weary battle-field of life. + +The music of the band had ceased; the gay crowd had withdrawn into the +hotel to prepare for the entertainments of the evening, and there was a +lull of human sounds. Then arose the grand roar of the ocean, which with +the regular break of the billows on the beach beneath the cliff made the +theme where before it had played the bass. + +I crept stealthily out of the bed-room, and, after exchanging my +travelling-gown for a cool white robe, stretched my tired body on the +lounge in the anteroom. + +There I lay with cold finger-tips pressed against burning eyelids, and +icy palms holding with a firm grasp throbbing temples, under which +flowed the hot, seething tide of mortal anguish, anxiety, and aching +love. Some one touched me on the shoulder. I looked up. It was Max who +was standing beside me. + +"There is a great musical treat for you," he said in a low voice. "The +A---- Society is here, and also part of B----'s Opera Troupe, with +Madame C----, and D----, the great tenor. The troupe and society united +are to give such a concert as rarely falls to the lot of mortals to +hear. I never saw a better programme. Look!" + +I read over the concert-bill. First there was an overture; then several +scenes from "Lucia di Lammermoor,"--that great Shakspearian drama, whose +dread catastrophe of Death and Doom leaves in the memory of the hearer a +heavenly sorrow unmixed with earthly taint. It was the master-work of +two poets, Scott and Donizetti, who had conceived it at the best period +of their lives, when they were in all the vigor of manhood, and when +mind and fancy had become ripened by experience. It was formed in one +of those supreme instants, which come like "angels' visits" to artists, +when they were enabled, through a power more like inspiration than art, +to throw aside all outward influences, and fashion as deftly as Nature +could the sad life of the Master of Ravenswood and his "sweet spirit's +mate." + +The Lucia scenes were grouped together and occupied the main part of the +programme. They were those that told the story of the brief passion, +from the sweet birth of love up to the solemn hour when both lovers +passed away to that resting-place "where nothing could touch them +further." + +My eyes lingered over the titles of the scenes, while my memory swiftly +recalled their characteristics:--the First Duet between Lucia and +Edgardo, a passionate burst of youthful love, as delicious as the tender +dialogues between Romeo and his Juliet;--the Sextette, that masterly +pyramidal piece of vocal harmony, in which the voices group around those +of the two lovers, and all mount up glowingly like a flame on a +sacrificial altar;--the heart-rending passage where Lucia's spirit, +frantic through woe, rises supreme over native timidity and +irresolution, and, with one fierce burst of love and grief, which +startles alike tyrant and friend, soars aloft in the terrible, but grand +realm of madness;--and the Finale, where the dying Edgardo sighs out +that delicious air which has been well styled, "a melody of Plato sung +by a Christian soul." + +The programme closed fitly with Schumann's Quintette in E flat Major. + +This Quintette is one of remarkable power and beauty. It is for 'rano, +viola, first and second violin, and 'cello. It is divided into four +movements: _Allegro brillante_; _In moda d'una Marcia_; _Scherzo_; and +_Allegro ma non troppo_. + +As I handed the bill back to Max, he whispered to my maid, who left the +room an instant, and returned with a mantle on her arm. + +"Come," he said, in a decided tone, "you must go, and quickly, too, for +they are already playing the overture. You can surely trust Ernestine +with the watching, as you will be such a short distance off; my +serving-man shall wait in the arcade, and come for you, if you are +needed." + +Then, raising me with kind force from the lounge, he wrapped the mantle +around me. As we passed out, we stood for an instant at the +bed-room-door, looking at the invalid. The breath still came in short +pants, but the truce was being kept: sleep had come in between as a +transient mediator. + +I noticed in the dim light the attenuated frame, the shrunken features, +the pinched nostrils, the very shadowy outlining of death. With choking +throat and swelling breast I looked at Max, my eyes saying what my voice +could not,-- + +"I cannot go." + +Without a word of reply, he lifted me out of the apartment, and in a few +moments we were sitting in a dim corner of the concert-room, listening +to the charming First Duet. + +The scenes followed one another rapidly, and displayed even more +powerfully than I had ever noticed before the one pervading theme. Sense +and imagination became possessed with it; at each succeeding passage the +interest increased continuously, until at the end the passion mounted up +as on mighty wings and carried my sad heart aloft and beyond "the +ordinary conditions of humanity." + +The prima donna, Madame C----, and Signor D----, the tenor, had a sad +story of scandal floating about them; it was on every one's lips. Madame +C---- was no longer in her first youth, but she was still very +beautiful, more attractive than she had been in her younger days,--so +those said who had seen and heard her years before. + +Her young womanhood had been devoted to patient, honest study, which was +rewarded with success, and calm, passionless prosperity. She had married +brilliantly, and left the stage, but after an absence of many years had +returned to it to aid her husband in some reverse of fortune. Her +married life had been tranquilly happy, for she had loved with all the +sweet serenity of a cold, unexacting nature. + +But now it was whispered that this beautiful, pure woman, who had +resisted--indeed, like another Una, had never felt--the temptations +which had environed her on the stage, and in the courtly circle to which +she had been raised by her husband's rank, was being strangely +influenced by a gifted, handsome tenor singer, with whom she had been +associated since her return to her professional life. + +This person was about her husband's age, a year or two her senior, and +unmarried. The infatuation, it was said, existed on both sides, and the +two lovers were so blinded by their strange passion as to seem +unconscious of any other sight or presence. The husband, report added, +behaved with remarkable prudence and good breeding; indeed, some doubted +if he noticed the affair,--for he treated not only his wife, but the +reputed lover, with familiar and kind friendliness. + +The recollection of this scandal flitted over my memory as I listened to +the First Duet. Madame C---- was a blonde; she had rich, deep violet +eyes, and a lovely skin: her hair, too, was a waving mass of the poet's +and painter's golden hue. She was about middle height, and had a full, +well-developed person. + +"When I saw her in Paris and Vienna, twenty years ago," whispered Max, +"she was too pale and slender, and the expression of those brilliant +eyes was as cold and still as glacier depths." + +Not so now, I thought,--for they fairly blazed with a passionate fire, +as the music welled up on her beautiful quivering lips; indeed, the +melody appeared to come from them, as much as from her mouth, and I +seemed to be listening with my looks as well as my hearing. She was not +well, evidently,--for there was a bright red, feverish spot on either +cheek, and her movements were feeble and trembling; but her voice was +full of the deepest pathos. + +"In her best days she never sang so well," said Max, as the room rang +with applause at the termination of the duo, "Time may have taken away a +little fulness from her lower notes; but the touching tenderness which +envelops them, as a purple mist hanging over a forest in autumn, fully +compensates for the loss of youthful vigor." + +Her voice was, indeed, wonderful,--not simply clear and flexible, but +dazzling and glancing, like the lightning that plays around the horizon +on a hot midsummer's night; and her execution was as if the Cherub +All-Knowledge and the Seraph All-Love had united their divine powers in +one human form. + +In the Sextette, which followed, the tenor showed to great advantage. +His voice, though no longer young, was beautifully managed; it had an +exquisite _timbre_, and on this night there was added to it a rare +expression and character. + +When he asked the poor trembling Lucia if the signature to the marriage +contract was hers, there was a concentrated rage in his singing that was +fearful; and Madame C---- almost cowered to the floor, as he held her +firmly by the wrist,--for the scenes were sung in costume and with +action,--and demanded,-- + + "A me rispondi. Son tue cifre? Rispondi!" + +Her affirmative was like the silvery wail of a fallen angel. Then +followed the terrible imprecation passage. He darted out the + + "Maledetto sia l'istante!" + +with such startling fury that the notes and words seemed to be forked, +stinging, serpent tongues. + +The _Stretta_ ensued, and the music-tide flowed so high and full that +the fashionable audience forgot all artificial conventionalities, and +yielded themselves freely to the ennobling emotions of human sympathy. +Above the whole sublime assemblage of sounds wailed out that fearful +note of the fallen cherub; and the fainting of Lucia, at the close of +the Sextette, I felt sure was not a feigned one. + +As the curtain fell over the temporary stage, several gentlemen hurried +out to make inquiries about Madame C----, for there seemed to be an +opinion similar to mine pervading the room. The curtain rose, and it was +announced that she was too ill to sing again; but the murmur of regret +was silenced almost immediately by the appearance of the chorus with +Signor D----, the tenor. + +They began the Finale. Signor D----looked haggard and wan, but very +stern, and there was more of wrath than repentance in his singing. Was +it fancy or reality? The heart-rending + + "O bell' alma innamorata!" + +seemed to be accompanied by distant, half-veiled sobs. No one else +appeared to notice them, and I half doubted their reality. + +The Finale ended; and for a few moments the gay crowd buzzed, and some +stood up and looked about at their neighbors. The interval was short, +however,--for the Quintette performers came upon the stage, and took +their places. + +I leaned back and covered my face with my hand. My memory was still +ringing with echoes of the forlorn cry of wrecked love, mingled with the +imaginary sobs I had just heard; therefore I hardly listened to the +majestic opening of full, harmonious chords, which lead grandly into a +sort of cantabile movement. + +The curious modulations which followed aroused me, and I soon busied +myself in tracing the changes from major to minor, and from one minor +key to another, as sorrows chase each other in life. Just at this part +of the composition occurs the passage which sounds like a weird, ghostly +call or summons: when I heard it, my fancy began working, and, like +Heine, I saw spectres in the music sounds. + +The air seemed to have grown suddenly "nipping and eager." I +unconsciously drew my mantle around my shoulders, as a shiver ran over +me, such as nurses tell us in childhood is caused by some one walking +over our graves. I fancied I saw before me the ghost scene in "Hamlet." +There was the castle platform,--the gloomy battlements,--the sound of +distant wassail; and dimly defined by the vague light of my fancy, stood +the sad young Danish prince, shivering in the "shrewd, biting" +night-air, tortured with those apprehensions and sickening doubts + + "That cloud the mind and fire the brain," + +but talking with a feigned and courtly indifference to his dear friend, +"the profound scholar and perfect gentleman," Horatio; and in the gloom +around them seemed to be arising the questionable shape which was + + "So horridly to shake his disposition." + +Strangely the music displayed its fine forms, mingling most curiously +with, while it created, my fancied pictures,--and though my senses +followed the changing visions, which flitted like a phantasmagoria +before my eyes, my mind traced clearly the music train; but when the +diminished seventh resolved gracefully into the melody which is taken +alternately by 'cello and viola,--the close of the first movement,--my +vision faded gradually away. + +There was a short pause, but the fine artists who were executing the +Quintette did not by any undignified movement break the illusion which +the music had created; although a violin-string needed raising, it was +done with quiet and skilful dexterity, and they proceeded to the second +movement. + +Smoothly and mournfully the Funeral March opened. The solemn melody +which glides softly through it is totally unlike the restless trampings +of Fate heard in other great compositions of the kind; yet Fate is +unmistakably there, quiet, but relentless, like + + "the Pontic sea, + Whose icy current and compulsive course + Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on." + +The _Scherzo_, with its beautiful octave run for the piano and delicious +change of harmony in the next measure,--the weird melody sketched out by +the first violin, and then yielded up to the piano,--and the strange, +but truly inspired, modulations which follow,--lapped my spirit in a +sweet bewilderment. I forgot all the before and after of that "sad and +incapable story" of human life and love which my fancy had been weaving +from the coarse, vulgar threads of common rumor; and even the pictures +vanished which had been evoked of the young prince, + + "In his blown youth blasted with ecstasy." + +I ceased following the modulations, interesting as they were; for often +music fills the thoughts so full that the ear forgets to listen to the +sweet harmonies. + +But I was again aroused by the fine suspension and sequence which open +the last movement of the Quintette,--the _Allegro ma non troppo_. The +fugued passage, the reiteration of the opening theme, and the sad close +were all as tragic as the last scene in "Hamlet," the + + "quarry that cries on, Havoc!"-- + +but it was also as graceful and touching as the words of the dying +prince to his friend,-- + + "Horatio, I am dead: + Thou liv'st. Report me and my cause aright + To the unsatisfied." + +A thousand rumors flitted about the room as the concert broke up. Madame +C---- was so ill, they feared she was dying; and, strange to say, the +tenor, on leaving the platform after the Lucia finale, had been seized +with violent cramps and vomitings, which could not be checked, and he +also was lying in a very critical state. There were dark hints and many +improbable imaginings. + + "All was not well, they deemed; + Some knew perchance, + And some besides were too discreetly wise + To more than hint their knowledge in surmise." + +About an hour after midnight I was lying on the lounge in the anteroom +of the cottage. The faithful maid had taken my place by the +sick-bed,--for my invalid was still sleeping. It was a long, quiet +sleep; and so low and peaceful had grown those suffering, panting +breaths, that they almost startled me into a hope of happier days. Could +health, long absent, be returning? A state of continuous illness, if +free from acute pain, would be a relief. + +These half-formed hopes made me restless, and, instead of taking the +physical repose I needed, I rose from the lounge, and walked out on the +deserted lawn in front of the cottage. The moon was at the full, and +shone brighter than day's twilight. The night was warm, but not +oppressive,--for there was a gentle air blowing, filled with the +invigorating briny odor of the ocean; yet I felt choked and stifled. + +"Just for a breath from the beach," I said to myself, as I descended the +steps leading down from the cliff. + +On reaching the sands, instead of being alone, as I had hoped, I found +two persons already there. I drew back quickly, intending to return; but +they were passing too swiftly to notice me. As they went by, the bright +full moon gleamed over their pale, wan faces, and I recognized in them +Madame C----and the tenor! + +They were talking earnestly, in low, rapid Italian. She leaned on his +arm,--indeed, they seemed to be sustaining each other, for both appeared +feeble and faint; but, tottering as they were, they sped rapidly by, and +so near to me that the corner of Madame C----'s mantle flapped in my +face, and left a strange subtile perfume behind it. + +But what struck me most was the expression of their faces,--such wild, +sad, longing, entreating love! As they disappeared around a corner of +the cliff which jutted out, a dreadful suspicion seized me. Could they +be seeking self-destruction? Were they going to bury their unhallowed +love, with its shame and sorrow, in one wildering embrace beneath those +surging ocean-waves? + +As one in a dream, I moved along the beach, hardly knowing whither I +went. Mechanically I ascended the flight of steps which led to the part +of the cliff directly opposite the hotel entrance. As I walked up the +lawn, I noticed a great commotion in the house. There were lights +flitting about, people running up and down stairs, and many persons +talking confusedly on the gallery and in the hall. + +"What is the matter?" I asked of a waiter who was passing near me, +looking frightened and bewildered. + +He stopped, and answered with all the keen eagerness of an untrained +person, to whom the communicating of a startling story to an uninformed +superior is a perfect godsend. + +"Very strange doings, Ma'am,--very strange!" + +"Aha!" I thought; "they have discovered the absence or flight of those +unhappy creatures." + +"Very strange doings!" he repeated. "The foreign lady who sang to-night, +and the gentleman too, is both dead." + +"Dead!" I exclaimed. "Why, you are mistaken. I saw them just this +instant on the sands below the cliff." + +The man looked at me as if he thought me crazy. + +"I mean the singers, Ma'am,--them as sang at the concert to-night. They +was both taken nigh about the same time, was handled just alike, and +died here a little while ago, a'most at once, as you might say. Folks is +talking hard about the husband of the Madame." + +Then he added, in a lower tone, confidentially, "They do say he poisoned +'em; for, you see, he it was that dressed the lobster salad at dinner, +and made 'em both eat hearty of it, though they were unwilling; and now +they have him over in the office there, in custody." + +"But, my good man," I said, as soon as I could get my breath, "I assure +you they are not dead." + +"Well, Ma'am, if you don't believe my words, you can see 'em with your +own eyes, if you choose"; and he led the way into the hall of the hotel. + +I followed him. We entered a side room,--a sort of reception +_salon_,--where the two poor creatures were, indeed lying extended on +sofas. Several startled persons were gazing at them, but the larger +portion of the crowd were drawn off to the other side of the hotel, +where the unhappy, stunned husband was listening to the fearful charges +of murder,--murder of his wife and his friend! + +I stepped up to the dead bodies,--one after the other. Their dresses had +not even been changed. The stage finery looked very pitiful. A muslin +mantle had been thrown over Madame C----'s bare shoulders and beautiful +bosom; from it arose the same curious perfume I had noticed on the +beach. It was as if that delicate, rare smell had been kept in a box of +some kind of odoriferous resinous wood. + +I touched their cold brows, their icy fingers,--noticed the poor +features, drawn by acute suffering,--and strange as it was, I could see +on both faces, as if behind a gauzy film, the same sad, wild, longing +look of love I had observed on the countenances of those two shadowy +beings I had met on the sands. + +I left the hotel, and walked to the cottage, with my mind in a sad, +bewildered state. I entered the open door, and went to the sick-room. +There stood Max and Ernestine, and she was weeping. + +"It is all over!" he said; "and I am glad she was not here." + +I advanced hurriedly forward, pushed them aside, and stood by the bed. +Yes, that long, quiet sleep had, indeed, been a forerunner of life,--the +true life! All was truly over,--the long years of suffering, the blessed +years of loving care, the combat and the struggle; and on the +battle-field rested the dread shadows of Night and Death! + +And I? I sank on the poor body-shell with one low, long wail, and Nature +kindly extended over me her blessed veil of forgetfulness. + + + + +RICHARD COBDEN. + + +On the third day of April last a most impressive and unusual scene was +witnessed in the English House of Commons. For some time before the hour +for sitting, the members had gathered about the halls and lobbies in +whispering groups. One of its leading members had passed away, and there +was a consultation as to whether the House should move an adjournment. +It is not the custom of the House of Commons to adjourn in case of the +death of one of its members, unless that member is an officer of the +Government or of extraordinary prominence. The last person for whom it +had adjourned was Sir G. Cornwall Lewis. It was considered in the +present case that there were some members whose hostility to the +departed would not stop at the grave, and that the harmony which alone +would make an adjournment graceful as a tribute would be unattainable; +so it was decided that the motion should not be made. When the great, +deep-toned Westminster clock struck four, the members took their seats. +Then slowly entered the ministers, with Lord Palmerston at their head; +and for some moments sitting there with their hats on, one might have +supposed it a silent meeting of Friends. At this moment all eyes were +turned to the door as one entered who is a Friend indeed: heavily, with +head bowed under his terrible sorrow, John Bright walked to his place, +by the side of which was a vacancy never to be filled. Lord Palmerston, +on rising, was received with a cheer which rang through the hall like a +wailing cry, and was followed by a deep hush. As the white-haired old +man, who had seen the leading men of more than two generations fall at +his side, began to speak of the "great loss" which the House and the +nation had suffered, his voice quivered, and recovered itself only when +it sank to a low tone that was deeply pathetic. And when, having +recounted the instances in which Richard Cobden, with his "great +ambition to be useful to his country," had been signally useful, each +instance followed by the refusal of proffered honors and emoluments, he +said, "Mr. Cobden's name will be forever engraved on the most +interesting pages of the history of this country," there was a +spontaneous burst of applause throughout the House. When Mr. Disraeli +arose to speak concerning the man whom for so many years he had met only +in uncompromising political combat, it was at once felt how irresistible +was the force of a right and true man. No yielding, equivocating, +South-by-North politician could ever have brought a lifelong antagonist +to stand by his grave and say,--"I believe, that, when the verdict of +posterity is recorded on his life and conduct, it will be said of him, +that, looking to all he said and did, he was without doubt the greatest +political character the pure middle class of this country has yet +produced,--an ornament to the House of Commons, and an honor to +England." Then arose, as if trying to lift a great burden, noble John +Bright. Twice he tried to speak and his voice failed; at length, with +broken utterance, but with that eloquent simplicity which characterizes +him beyond all speakers whom I have heard,--"I feel that I cannot +address the House on this occasion. Every expression of sympathy which I +have heard has been most grateful to my heart; but the time which has +elapsed, since I was present when the manliest and gentlest spirit that +ever actuated or tenanted the human form took its flight, is so short, +that I dare not even attempt to give utterance to the feelings by which +I am oppressed. I shall leave it to some calmer moment, when I may have +an opportunity of speaking to some portion of my countrymen the lesson +which I think will be learned from the life and character of my friend. +I have only to say, that, after twenty years of most intimate and most +brotherly friendship with him, I little knew how much I loved him, until +I found that I had lost him." As he spoke the concluding words, which +plaintively told his sense of loneliness, the tears that can become a +manly man came thick and fast, and all who were in the House wept with +him. There have been cases in which the House of Commons has adjourned +in honor of deceased members; but perhaps never before has it showed its +emotions in generous tears. Did I say that _all_ wept? I must recall it. +There actually were two or three who, during the entire scene, had +nothing but sneers to give, and sat, as I heard a member remark, "a +group fit for the pencil of Retzsch, fresh from its delineations of +Mephistopheles." I need not write upon the page which mentions Richard +Cobden their names, which, to reverse Palmerston's praise, are engraved +only upon the least creditable pages of the history of their own or of +others' countries. + +When John Bright sat down, some minds were borne back over eight years +when Cobden was addressing a large public meeting without the presence +of his usual companion. Mr. Bright was then in the far South, in +consequence of ill-health of a character to excite grave apprehension +among his friends. During his address, Mr. Cobden, having occasion to +allude to his absent friend, was so overpowered by his feelings that he +could not proceed for several minutes; and rarely has a great audience +been so deeply moved as was that by this emotion in one to whose heart, +true and ruddy, any sentimentality was unattributable. + +To write the history of this friendship between Bright and Cobden, to +tell how the sturdy hearts of these strong men became riveted to each +other, would be to record the best pages of recent English history. For +these men joined hands at the altar of a noble cause; and their souls +have been welded in the fires of a fierce and unceasing struggle for +humanity. + +Richard Cobden was born near Midhurst, Sussex, at his father's +farm-house, Dunford, June 3, 1804. His father was one of the class who +regarded the repeal of the Corn Laws as identical with their ruin. Young +Richard was at an early age placed in a London warehouse, where he so +pressed every leisure moment of his time into the acquisition of +information that his employer reproved him with a warning that lads so +fond of reading were apt to spoil their prospects. (This old gentleman +afterwards became unfortunate, and the young man he had thus warned +contributed fifty pounds for his comfort every year until his death.) +There has been some attempt on the part of certain persons, who have +never forgiven Mr. Cobden for their being in the wrong in the matter of +the Corn Laws, to sneer at him as an uncultivated man. This was, of +course, to be expected by one who made all the old bones in the +scholastic coffins at Oxford rattle again and again, by declaring that +he regarded "a single copy of the 'Times' newspaper as of more +importance than all the works of Thucydides,"--a thing which he has for +some years been willing to pledge himself not to repeat,--or +illustrating the nature of English education by representing +Englishmen's complete knowledge of the Ilissus, which he had once seen +dammed up by washerwomen, and their utter ignorance of the Mississippi, +flowing its two thousand miles through a magnificent country peopled by +their own race. But these partisan sneers could not affect the judgment +of any who knew Mr. Cobden, or those who read his works on Russia and +the United States and his pamphlets on subjects of current interest, +that his classical and historical culture was equal to that of the +majority of his critics, whilst his acquaintance with general philosophy +and political economy was remarkable. + +Mr. Cobden left the ordinary business of the warehouse in which he was +employed to become a commercial traveller, in which capacity he gained +much knowledge of Continental peoples and their languages. At length he +was able to establish himself in the calico business at Manchester, in +the firm "Richard Cobden & Co." The "Cobden prints" became celebrated, +the business flourished, and Mr. Cobden, at the time when he began his +political career, was receiving, as his share of the income, about +forty-five thousand dollars per annum. It was probably about the year +1830, when England was feeling the first ground-swells of the great +Reform agitation, that Mr. Cobden felt called to give himself entirely +to his country's service. He resolved, however, to study for some years +with reference to public questions. In 1834-5 he made a tour through +many countries, including Egypt, Greece, and Turkey, Canada and the +United States. On his return he wrote several pamphlets, in the name of +"A Manchester Manufacturer," which excited attention, and one ("England, +Ireland, and America") a lively controversy. About this time appeared +his first contribution to the Eastern question in a little work entitled +"Russia." In all these his fundamental ideas--Retrenchment, +Non-Intervention, Free Trade--were set forth in a very spirited and +eloquent way. It is now very evident that Mr. Cobden was the product and +utterance of his country at that time; and though he was held to be an +economical visionary, never was visionary in conservative England +blessed with seeing his visions so soon harden into facts. But he was +not so absorbed in national politics, and in his proposed "Smithian +Society," in which the "Wealth of Nations" was to be discussed, as to +forget the more circumscribed duties of a citizen of Manchester. +Manchester was not yet a city with municipal representation, when he +wrote a pamphlet entitled "Incorporate your Borough," which did as much +as anything else to raise it to that dignity; and Manchester showed its +gratitude by electing him to be alderman in the first town-council. + +It is hard for us at this date to realize the condition of England when +that horrible _Sirocco_, as Robert Browning called it, the tax on corn, +was blighting the land. The suicidal policy which had prevailed since +the Peace of 1815 had brought the country to the verge of ruin; and +when, in 1838, those reformers of Manchester repaired to that first +meeting of the Anti-Corn-Law League, it was through crowds of pale, +haggard, starving men, each with his starving family at home, muttering +treason, and prepared for violence at any touch. The banner of Chartism +was already lifted. It was then that these resolute men, with Cobden at +their head, met and vowed sacredly that their League should never be +disbanded until those laws had been repealed. The devotion with which +Richard Cobden fought that good fight may be illustrated by the story +that once his little daughter said to her mother concerning her +father,--"Mother, who is that gentleman that comes here sometimes?" With +a similar devotion to humanity did this tenderest of parents inspire his +companions; and it is not in the nature of things that such labors so +put forth shall fail. One by one the haughty aristocrats yielded; and +when at last Cobden had conquered the conqueror of Napoleon, the battle +was won. The "Times" pooh-poohed the movement, until one day the news +came that a few gentlemen of Manchester had subscribed between forty and +fifty thousand pounds for repeal, when it suddenly discovered that "the +Anti-Corn-Law movement was a great fact." When, in 1841, the new Whig +Ministry, with Sir Robert Peel at their head, came in, elected as +Protectionists, gaunt Famine took its stand by the Royal Mace, like a +Banquo. Sir Robert driving along Fleet Street might see those whom this +new unwelcome commoner represented grimly gazing of "Punch,"--that of +the Premier turning his back on a starving man with half-naked wife and +child, and buttoning up his coat with the words, "I'm very sorry, my +good man, but I can do nothing for you,--nothing!" But though Peel was +the Premier apparent, Cobden was the Premier actual. And means were +found of softening Sir Robert's heart,--these, namely: it was intimated +to him one morning, that, if a division of the House should go against +the Ministry, the Queen would feel compelled to call upon Richard +Cobden, manufacturer, to make a cabinet for her. So the Ministry +yielded, and the League reached its triumph in 1846. It is due to the +memory of Peel to say that he joined with the triumphant nation to yield +every laurel to the brow to which it belonged, and uttered the memorable +prediction that Cobden's name would be forever venerated and loved, +whenever "the poor man ate his daily bread, sweeter because no longer +leavened with a bitter sense of unwise and unjust taxation." + +In the year 1839 Mr. Cobden had heard John Bright speak with great power +at a meeting in Rochdale. A little later, when Bright had just lost his +wife at Leamington, Cobden visited him there. He found him in great +grief. "Think," said Cobden, "think in your sorrow, of the thousands of +men, women, and children, who are this moment starving under the +infamous laws which it is your task and mine to help remove. Come with +me, and we will never rest until we have abolished the Corn Laws." Then +and there were those hands clasped in a sacred cause which were never to +be unclasped but by death. + +Mr. Cobden took his seat in Parliament in 1841, representing Stockport. +He had not only before the triumph of 1846 sacrificed his time and +impaired his health, but also given up his fortune to the cause, and was +a poor man. By a great spontaneous subscription, the nation reimbursed +his actual losses, and amongst other things built the house at Midhurst, +where he resided on the spot that his father had occupied. Immediately +after the repeal Mr. Cobden started on a Continental tour; and in every +city he was met with a triumphal reception, so deeply had his great work +in England affected the interests of all Europe. During his absence he +was elected to represent the great constituency of the West Riding in +Yorkshire, which he accepted. + +It was perhaps in those furious days which preceded the Crimean War that +the noble personal qualities with which Mr. Cobden was endowed shone out +most clearly. When all England, from the thunder of the "Times" to the +quiet Muse of Tennyson, was enlisted for war, Cobden took his stand, and +refused to bow to the tempest. In a moment the nation seemed to forget +the services of years, and Cobden, denounced as a "Peace-at-any-price +man," lost the ear of the country, as did Bright and others in those +days of political anarchy. To the ability and independence with which +Cobden and Bright withstood the popular current then, Mr. Kinglake, the +opponent of both, has done justice. It was, in fact, not true that +Cobden was a "Peace-at-any-price man." Though he maintained earnestly +the principle of non-intervention, it was because he thought that +England in its present hands could not be trusted to intervene always in +the right interest; and never was there a more pointed confirmation of +his suspicion than the event of a war which gave the victory won by the +blood of the people over to the French Emperor, that he might with it +bind back every nation that in Southern Europe was near to its +redemption. The strongest chains binding Circassia, Poland, Hungary, and +Venetia, were forged in the fires of the Crimean War. This popular wave +reached its height and broke, as such waves will, and the people much +ashamed returned to their true leaders. So when, immediately after the +end of the Crimean War, the disgraceful bombardment of Canton occurred, +Cobden was still there in Parliament ready to risk all again. His +resolution condemning the action of Sir John Bowring (who, by the way, +was Cobden's personal friend) was passed in the House by a vote of 263 +to 247. Palmerston appealed to the selfishness of the country on the +subject of Chinese trade, and was sustained. These were the days when +Gladstone and Disraeli lay down together. Cobden, Bright, Gibson, +Cardwell, Layard, Fox, Miall, and others, all lost their seats. To this +interval we are indebted that John Bright recovered strength in a +foreign land, and that we received in the United States the second visit +of Cobden. Whilst they were absent, the reaction set in: Bright was +elected by Birmingham, Cobden by Rochdale. Nay, so strong was the +feeling in Cobden's case, that Palmerston found it to his purpose to +invite him into the Cabinet; and when, returning from America, Cobden +sailed up the Mersey, he was met by a deputation from Liverpool who +informed him of his appointment among the new Ministry. He at once +declined the appointment, for reasons which have not hitherto been given +to the public. Since his death a personal friend of his has written, +that, on this occasion, "he told Lord Palmerston, in answer to +remonstrances against his decision to decline the honor, that he had +always regarded his Lordship as one of the most dangerous ministers +England could possibly have, and that his views had not undergone the +slightest change. He felt that it would be doing violence to his own +sense of duty, and injuring his own character for consistency in the +eyes of his countrymen, to profess to act with a minister to whom he had +all along been opposed on public grounds." + +Mr. Cobden's next great service was in bringing about the treaty of free +commerce with France, a service which has endeared him to the French +beyond all English statesmen, and which brought him from the Queen the +offer of a Baronetcy, which he declined, as he also did in January last +Mr. Gladstone's offer of the chairmanship of the Board of Audit, at a +salary of two thousand pounds. Well might Gladstone say of him, as he +did,--"Rare is the privilege of any man who, having fourteen years ago +rendered to his country one signal and splendid service, now again, +within the same brief span of life, decorated neither by rank nor title, +bearing no mark to distinguish him from the people whom he loves, has +been permitted to perform a great and memorable service to his sovereign +and to his country." + +By the death of Mr. Cobden America has lost one of her truest friends, +one who in all this conflict, which has been reflected in England in a +fierce warfare of parties, has been in the thick or the fight, "the +white plume of Navarre." Nothing told more for the American cause in +Europe than the celebrated speech of Cobden, made at the time when the +busy Southerners were trying to show that the war was not for Slavery, +but Free Trade, in which he declared that he had found the Southerners, +and Jefferson Davis himself, whom he had visited, utterly indifferent to +the Free Trade movement. He was accustomed to speak of American affairs +as an American. I well remember his vehement expressions of feeling +concerning the McClellan campaign in Virginia,--in connection with which +he told me that he was at one time travelling with Jefferson Davis and +McClellan together, and that Davis whispered to him, that, in case of +war, "That man [McClellan] is one of the first we should put into +service." I thought Mr. Cobden inclined to attribute McClellan's +failures to something worse than incapacity. But this is only one +instance of the way in which he followed our war-steps, and was +interested in the subordinate questions which are usually interesting +only to Americans. It is with a melancholy pleasure that we now know +that his last public utterance was the letter on American affairs to our +minister at Copenhagen, which reached England in the American papers the +day before his death,--and that one of his last acts was to send from +his death-bed a contribution to a poor and paralyzed American sailor who +with his family was suffering in London, without any personal appeal +having been made to him. These were the last pulses of a heart that beat +only for humanity. + +Mr. Cobden was one of the finest speakers I have ever heard. There was a +play as of summer lightning about his eloquence, which, whilst it did +not strike and crash opponents, was purifying the atmosphere of the +debate, and lightning up every detail of fact, so that error could not +flourish in his presence, nor even well hide itself. There was a +terseness and massiveness in his speech, curiously blended with subtilty +and fervor. A question of finance would grow pathetic under his touch, +and he could create a soul under the ribs of statistics. He might vie +with Lowell's ideal Jonathan for "calculating fanaticism" and "cast-iron +enthusiasm." But, after all, what more need be said than the epitaph +proposed for his grave: "_He gave the people bread_"? + + + + +MODERN IMPROVEMENTS AND OUR NATIONAL DEBT. + + +At the commencement of the Rebellion it was the general opinion of +statesmen and financiers in other countries, and the opinion of many +among ourselves, that our resources were inadequate to a long +continuance of the war, and that it must soon terminate under pecuniary +exhaustion, if from no other cause. Our experience has shown that this +view was fallacious. After having sustained for several years the +largest army known to modern times, our available resources seem to be +unimpaired. The country is, indeed, largely in debt; but its powers of +production are so great that it can undoubtedly meet all future demands +as easily as it has met those of the past. + +The ability or inability of a nation engaged in war to sustain heavy +public expenses is to be measured not so much by its nominal debt as by +the relation which the sum of its _production_ bears to that of its +necessary _consumption_. A nation heavily in debt may continue to make +large public expenditures and still prosper and increase in wealth, if +its powers of production are correspondingly large also. It is a fact of +the most encouraging kind, that the power of production exhibited by the +United States far exceeds, in proportion to their population, that of +any other nation heretofore involved in a long and costly war. The case +which most nearly approaches ours, in this regard, is that of England, +during her war with Napoleon, from 1803 to 1815. But since the +termination of that long contest, the progress of discovery, +improvements in the machinery and in the processes of manufacture, more +effective implements of agriculture, the general introduction of +railways,[H] and other time- and labor-saving agencies, together with +the constantly increasing influence of the applied sciences, have so +augmented the productive power of humanity, that the experience of the +most advanced nations fifty years ago furnishes no adequate criterion of +what the United States can do now. + +It is not easy to determine the precise ratio in which production has +been increased by these instrumentalities. It is unquestionably very +large,--not less, probably, than threefold. That is to say, a given +population, including all ages and conditions, can produce the articles +necessary for its subsistence, such as food, clothing, and shelter, to +an extent three times as great, with these agencies, as it could produce +without them. Hence it appears, that, if the people of the loyal States +could return to the standard of living that prevailed fifty years ago, +the amount of their production would be sufficient to subsist not only +themselves, but twice as many more in addition. To accomplish this, they +would have, indeed, to devote themselves more to the production of +articles of prime necessity and less to those of mere ornament and +luxury. That they have the productive energy necessary to such a result +there can be no doubt. + +This encouraging view of our condition is fully sustained by official +statements, which show that the industrial products of the country +increase in a greater ratio than the population. In 1850 the aggregate +value of the products of agriculture, mining, manufactures, and the +mechanic arts, in the United States, was $2,345,000.000. In 1860 the +aggregate was $3,756,000,000. This is an increase in ten years of sixty +per cent, whereas the increase of population during that decade was only +thirty-five and a half per cent. Thus we see that during the ten years +ending with 1860--the date of the last census--the products of the +industry of the country increased almost twice as fast as the population +increased. If to this we add the remarkable fact that the value of +taxable property increased during the same period _a hundred and +twenty-six_ per cent, we have striking proof of the existence of a vast +and rapidly increasing productive power,--a power largely due to the +influence of those improvements which have been alluded to. + +One obvious effect of war is to transfer a portion of labor from the +sphere of effective _production_ to that of extraordinary _consumption_. +To what extent the relations of production and consumption among us have +been changed during the present contest it is impossible to state. That +consumption has been largely increased by our military operations is +apparent to all. It is equally apparent that production also has been +augmented, though not, perhaps, to the same extent. The extraordinary +demand for various commodities for war purposes has brought all the +producing agencies of the country into a high state of activity and +efficiency, giving to the loyal States a larger aggregate production +than they had before the war. Of mining and manufactures this is +unquestionably true. As regards the products of the soil, the +Commissioner of Agriculture, in his Report for 1863, says,--"Although +the year just closed has been a year of war on the part of the Republic, +over a wider field and on a grander scale than any recorded in history, +yet, strange as it may appear, the great interests of agriculture have +not materially suffered in the loyal States.... Notwithstanding there +have been over a million of men employed in the army and navy, withdrawn +chiefly from the producing classes, and liberally fed, clothed, and paid +by the Government, yet the yield of most of the great staples of +agriculture for 1863 exceeds that of 1862.... This wonderful fact of +history--a young republic carrying on a gigantic war on its own +territory and coasts, and at the same time not only feeding itself and +foreign nations, but furnishing vast quantities of raw materials for +commerce and manufactures--proves that we are essentially an +agricultural people; that three years of war have not as yet seriously +disturbed, but rather increased, industrial pursuits; and that the +withdrawal of agricultural labor, and the loss of life by disease and +battle, have been more than compensated by _machinery_ and maturing +growth at home, and by the increased influx of immigration from abroad." + +In illustration of the character of those agencies to which we owe the +remarkable and gratifying results thus portrayed by the Commissioner, I +give the following official statement in regard to two of the more +prominent modern implements of agriculture. Mr. Kennedy, in his Census +Report for 1860, informs us "that a threshing-machine in Ohio, worked by +three men, with some assistance from the farm hands, did the work of +seventy flails, and that thirty steam-threshers only were required to +prepare for market the wheat crop of two counties in Ohio, which would +have required the labor of forty thousand men." As it took probably less +than two hundred men to work the machines, the immense saving in human +labor becomes instantly apparent. + +Again, in his last Patent-Office Report, Mr. Holloway states "that from +reliable returns in his possession it is shown that forty thousand +reapers were manufactured and sold in 1863, and that it is estimated by +the manufacturers that over ninety thousand will be required to meet the +demand for 1864"; and these machines, he says, will save the labor of +four hundred and fifty thousand men. + +If the aggregate produce of the loyal States, notwithstanding the large +amount of labor that has been withdrawn from production by the demands +of the war, is actually greater than ever before, and if, as we have +already shown, the sum of that produce is three times as great as the +people of those States, using proper economy, would _necessarily_ +consume, surely no one should feel any anxiety in regard to the ability +of the United States to meet all their pecuniary obligations. + +I have already said that England, in her war with Napoleon, furnishes +the best criterion in history for judging of our own financial +situation; and though the two cases are far from running parallel to +each other, it may be interesting to compare them in some of their +aspects. + +At the restoration of peace in 1815, the national debt of England +amounted in Federal currency to $4,305,000,000. It is impossible as yet +to say what will be the ultimate amount of our national debt. It amounts +now to rather more than one half of the debt of Great Britain, and, at +its present ratio of increase, it will take nearly four years more to +make our debt equal to hers. + +Now, for the purposes of this statement, let us assume that it will take +four years more to finish the war and to adjust and settle all its +contingent claims, and that at the close of that period, say in 1869, we +shall be at peace, with a restored Union, and with a national debt as +large as that of England when peace returned to her in 1815,--how will +the ability of this country to sustain and pay its debt compare with the +ability of England to do the same at the time above referred to? + +The simple fact that England was able to assume so vast a debt, and to +sustain the burden through half a century, during which her prosperity +has scarcely known abatement, and her wealth has been constantly and +largely increasing, ought to satisfy every American citizen that his own +country can at least do as well. But we can do more and better; for a +comparison of the two countries in the matter of ability shows that the +preponderance is greatly in our favor. + +At the respective periods of comparison just named, to wit, 1815 and +1869, the population of the United Kingdom of Great Britain was less +than _one half_ of what the population of the United States will be, and +its amount of foreign trade was less than _one third_. In 1815 the +"factory system" was in its infancy and imperfectly organized, the +steam-engine was unperfected and in comparatively limited use. The +railway, the steamboat, the telegraph, the reaper, the thresher, and +many other important improvements and discoveries which tend to augment +the productive power of nations, have all come since that day. So far as +relates to the question of ability to sustain heavy financial burdens, +England, in 1815, can hardly be compared for a moment with a country +like our own, possessing as it does, in abundance and perfection, the +potent agencies of productive and distributing power just referred to. + +It is true that England is now enjoying, to a large extent, the benefit +of these important agencies; but she had to supply the capital to create +them, after she had assumed the maximum of her enormous debt,--whereas +those agencies were all in active operation among us before any part of +our national debt was incurred. I hardly need suggest that it makes a +vast difference whether a nation has or has not these material +advantages at the time when it is contracting a heavy debt, and that our +position in this respect, so far as the question of ability is +concerned, is a position of immeasurable superiority. + +In regard to the paying of our debt after the return of peace, we +possess some decided advantages, to which I will very briefly allude. Of +these the most obvious are, a greater ratio in the increase of +population, and more extensive natural resources. During the decade +which ended in 1861, the population of the United Kingdom of Great +Britain increased from 27,495,297 to 29,049,540, or less than _six per +cent._ In the ten years which ended in 1860, our increase of population +was from 23,191,876 to 31,445,089, or _thirty-five and a half per cent_. +Thus it appears that during the last ten years for which we have +official returns, the population of the United States increased in a +ratio sixfold greater than that of the United Kingdom. This disparity in +our favor will undoubtedly increase from year to year. + +The home territory of Great Britain is quite inadequate to support even +her present population. This circumstance places that country in a +position of comparative dependence. While she _must_ draw from other +countries a very considerable proportion of her breadstuffs and other +provisions, we supply not only ourselves, but others largely also. The +money which England pays to other nations for bread alone would equal in +thirty years the entire amount of her national debt. + +We need but a resolute and united purpose to sustain with comparative +ease our national burdens, whatever may be their extent. Those who doubt +this under-estimate not only the magnitude of our national resources, +but the powerful aid which modern improvements lend to their +development. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[H] Some estimate of the influence of railways alone may be formed by +reference to the following statement, which occurs in an address of +Robert Stephenson before the Institution of Civil Engineers, in 1856:-- + +"The result, then, is, that, upon the existing traffic of the United +Kingdom of Great Britain, railways are affecting a direct saving to the +people of not less than forty million pounds per annum; and that sum +exceeds by about fifty per cent the entire interest of our national +debt. It may be said, therefore, that the railway system neutralizes to +the people the bad effects of the debt with which the state is +incumbered. It places us in as good position as if the debt did not +exist." + + + + +THE CHIMNEY-CORNER. + +VI. + + +LITTLE FOXES.--PART V. + +INTOLERANCE. + +"And what are you going to preach about this month, Mr. Crowfield?" + +"I am going to give a sermon on _Intolerance_, Mrs. Crowfield." + +"Religious intolerance?" + +"No,--domestic and family and educational intolerance,--one of the seven +deadly sins on which I am preaching,--one of 'the foxes.'" + + * * * * * + +People are apt to talk as if all the intolerance in life were got up and +expended in the religious world; whereas religious intolerance is only a +small branch of the radical, strong, all-pervading intolerance of human +nature. + +Physicians are quite as intolerant as theologians. They never have had +the power of burning at the stake for medical opinions, but they +certainly have shown the will. Politicians are intolerant. Philosophers +are intolerant, especially those who pique themselves on liberal +opinions. Painters and sculptors are intolerant. And housekeepers are +intolerant, virulently denunciatory concerning any departures from their +particular domestic creed. + +Mrs. Alexander Exact, seated at her domestic altar, gives homilies on +the degeneracy of modern housekeeping equal to the lamentations of Dr. +Holdfast as to the falling off from the good old faith. + +"Don't tell me about pillow-cases made without felling," says Mrs. +Alexander; "it's slovenly and shiftless. I wouldn't have such a +pillow-case in my house any more than I'd have vermin." + +"But," says a trembling young housekeeper, conscious of unfelled +pillow-cases at home, "don't you think, Mrs. Alexander, that some of +these old traditions might be dispensed with? It really is not necessary +to do all the work that has been done so thoroughly and exactly,--to +double-stitch every wristband, fell every seam, count all the threads of +gathers, and take a stitch to every gather. It makes beautiful sewing, +to be sure; but when a woman has a family of little children and a small +income, if all her sewing is to be kept up in this perfect style, she +wears her life out in stitching. Had she not better slight a little, and +get air and exercise?" + +"Don't tell me about air and exercise! What did my grandmother do? Why, +she did all her own work, and made grandfather's ruffled shirts besides, +with the finest stitching and gathers; and she found exercise enough, I +warrant you. Women of this day are miserable, sickly, degenerate +creatures." + +"But, my dear Madam, look at poor Mrs. Evans, over the way, with her +pale face and her eight little ones." + +"Miserable manager," said Mrs. Alexander. "If she'd get up at five +o'clock the year round, as I do, she'd find time enough to do things +properly, and be the better for it." + +"But, my dear Madam, Mrs. Evans is a very delicately organized, nervous +woman." + +"Nervous! Don't tell me! Every woman nowadays is nervous. She can't get +up in the morning, because she's nervous. She can't do her sewing +decently, because she's nervous. Why, I might have been as nervous as +she is, if I'd have petted and coddled myself as she does. But I get up +early, take a walk in the fresh air of a mile or so before breakfast, +and come home feeling the better for it. I do all my own sewing,--never +put out a stitch; and I flatter myself my things are made as they ought +to be. I always make my boys' shirts and Mr. Exact's, and they are made +as shirts ought to be,--and yet I find plenty of time for calling, +shopping, business, and company. It only requires management and +resolution." + +"It is perfectly wonderful, to be sure, Mrs. Exact, to see all that you +do; but don't you get very tired sometimes?" + +"No, not often. I remember, though, the week before last Christmas, I +made and baked eighteen pies and ten loaves of cake in one day, and I +was really quite worn out; but I didn't give way to it. I told Mr. Exact +I thought it would rest me to take a drive into New York and attend the +Sanitary Fair, and so we did. I suppose Mrs. Evans would have thought +she must go to bed and coddle herself for a month." + +"But, dear Mrs. Exact, when a woman is kept awake nights by crying +babies"-- + +"There's no need of having crying babies; my babies never cried; it's +just as you begin with children. I might have had to be up and down +every hour of the night with mine, just as Mrs. Evans does; but I knew +better. I used to take 'em up about ten o'clock, and feed and make 'em +all comfortable; and that was the last of 'em, till I was ready to get +up in the morning. I never lost a night's sleep with any of mine." + +"Not when they were teething?" + +"No. I knew how to manage that. I used to lance their gums myself, and I +never had any trouble: it's all in management. I weaned 'em all myself, +too: there's no use in having any fuss in weaning children." + +"Mrs. Exact, you are a wonderful manager; but it would be impossible to +bring up all babies so." + +"You'll never make me believe that: people only need to begin right. I'm +sure I've had a trial of eight." + +"But there's that one baby of Mrs. Evans's makes more trouble than all +your eight. It cries every night so that somebody has to be up walking +with it; it wears out all the nurses, and keeps poor Mrs. Evans sick +all the time." + +"Not the least need of it; nothing but shiftless management. Suppose I +had allowed my children to be walked with; I might have had terrible +times, too; but I began right. I set down my foot that they should lie +still, and they did; and if they cried, I never lighted a candle, or +took 'em up, or took any kind of notice of it; and so, after a little, +they went off to sleep. Babies very soon find out where they can take +advantage, and where they can't. It's nothing but temper makes babies +cry; and if I couldn't hush 'em any other way, I should give 'em a few +good smart slaps, and they would soon learn to behave themselves." + +"But, dear Mrs. Exact, you were a strong, healthy woman, and had strong, +healthy children." + +"Well, isn't that baby of Mrs. Evans's healthy, I want to know? I'm sure +it is a great creature, and thrives and grows fat as fast as ever I saw +a child. You needn't tell me anything is the matter with that child but +temper, and its mother's coddling management." + +Now, in the neighborhood where she lives, Mrs. Alexander Exact is the +wonderful woman, the Lady Bountiful, the pattern female. Her cake never +rises on one side, or has a heavy streak in it. Her furs never get a +moth in them; her carpets never fade; her sweetmeats never ferment; her +servants never neglect their work; her children never get things out of +order; her babies never cry, never keep one awake o' nights; and her +husband never in his life said, "My dear, there's a button off my +shirt." Flies never infest her kitchen, cockroaches and red ants never +invade her premises, a spider never had time to spin a web on one of her +walls. Everything in her establishment is shining with neatness, crisp +and bristling with absolute perfection,--and it is she, the +ever-up-and-dressed, unsleeping, wide-awake, omnipresent, never-tiring +Mrs. Exact, that does it all. + +Besides keeping her household ways thus immaculate, Mrs. Exact is on all +sorts of charitable committees, does all sorts of fancy-work for fairs; +and whatever she does is done perfectly. She is a most available, most +helpful, most benevolent woman, and general society has reason to +rejoice in her existence. + +But, for all this, Mrs. Exact is as intolerant as Torquemada or a +locomotive-engine. She has her own track, straight and inevitable; her +judgments and opinions cut through society in right lines, with all the +force of her example and all the steam of her energy, turning out +neither for the old nor the young, the weak nor the weary. She cannot, +and she will not, conceive the possibility that there may be other sorts +of natures than her own, and that other kinds of natures must have other +ways of living and doing. + +Good and useful as she is, she is terrible as an army with banners to +her poor, harassed, delicate, struggling neighbor across the way, who, +in addition to an aching, confused head, an aching back, sleepless, +harassed nights, and weary, sinking days, is burdened everywhere and +every hour with the thought that Mrs. Exact thinks all her troubles are +nothing but poor management, and that she might do just like her, if she +would. With very little self-confidence or self-assertion, she is +withered and paralyzed by this discouraging thought. _Is_ it, then, her +fault that this never-sleeping baby cries all night, and that all her +children never could and never would be brought up by those exact rules +which she hears of as so efficacious in the household over the way? The +thought of Mrs. Alexander Exact stands over her like a constable; the +remembrance of her is grievous; the burden of her opinion is heavier +than all her other burdens. + +Now the fact is, that Mrs. Exact comes of a long-lived, strong-backed, +strong-stomached race, with "limbs of British oak and nerves of wire." +The shadow of a sensation of nervous pain or uneasiness never has been +known in her family for generations, and her judgments of poor little +Mrs. Evans are about as intelligent as those of a good stout Shanghai +hen on a humming-bird. Most useful and comfortable, these Shanghai +hens,--and very ornamental, and in a small way useful, these +humming-birds; but let them not regulate each other's diet, or lay down +schemes for each other's housekeeping. Has not one as much right to its +nature as the other? + +This intolerance of other people's natures is one of the greatest causes +of domestic unhappiness. The perfect householders are they who make +their household rule so flexible that all sorts of differing natures may +find room to grow and expand and express themselves without infringing +upon others. + +Some women are endowed with a tact for understanding human nature and +guiding it. They give a sense of largeness and freedom; they find a +place for every one, see at once what every one is good for, and are +inspired by Nature with the happy wisdom of not wishing or asking of any +human being more than that human being was made to give. They have the +portion in due season for all: a bone for the dog; catnip for the cat; +cuttle-fish and hemp-seed for the bird; a book or review for their +bashful literary visitor; lively gossip for thoughtless Miss Seventeen; +knitting for Grandmamma; fishing-rods, boats, and gunpowder for Young +Restless, whose beard is just beginning to grow;--and they never fall +into pets, because the canary-bird won't relish the dog's bone, or the +dog eat canary-seed, or young Miss Seventeen read old Mr. Sixty's +review, or young Master Restless take delight in knitting-work, or old +Grandmamma feel complacency in guns and gunpowder. + +Again, there are others who lay the foundations of family life so +narrow, straight, and strict, that there is room in them only for +themselves and people exactly like themselves; and hence comes much +misery. + +A man and woman come together out of different families and races, often +united by only one or two sympathies, with many differences. Their first +wisdom would be to find out each other's nature, and accommodate to it +as a fixed fact; instead of which, how many spend their lives in a blind +fight with an opposite nature, as good as their own in its way, but not +capable of meeting their requirements! + +A woman trained in an exact, thriving, business family, where her father +and brothers bore everything along with true worldly skill and energy, +falls in love with a literary man, who knows nothing of affairs, whose +life is in his library and his pen. Shall she vex and torment herself +and him because he is not a business man? Shall she constantly hold up +to him the example of her father and brothers, and how they would manage +in this and that case? or shall she say cheerily and once for all to +herself,--"My husband has no talent for business; that is not his forte; +but then he has talents far more interesting: I cannot have everything; +let him go on undisturbed, and do what he can do well, and let me try to +make up for what he cannot do; and if there be disabilities come on us +in consequence of what we neither of us can do, let us both take them +cheerfully"? + +In the same manner a man takes out of the bosom of an adoring family one +of those delicate, petted singing-birds that seem to be created simply +to adorn life and make it charming. Is it fair, after he has got her, to +compare her housekeeping, and her efficiency and capability in the +material part of life, with those of his mother and sisters, who are +strong-limbed, practical women, that have never thought about anything +but housekeeping from their cradle? Shall he all the while vex himself +and her with the remembrance of how his mother used to get up at five +o'clock and arrange all the business of the day,--how she kept all the +accounts,--how she saw to everything and settled everything,--how there +never were break-downs or irregularities in her system? + +This would be unfair. If a man wanted such a housekeeper, why did he not +get one? There were plenty of single women, who understood washing, +ironing, clear-starching, cooking, and general housekeeping, better than +the little canary-bird which he fell in love with, and wanted for her +plumage and her song, for her merry tricks, for her bright eyes and +pretty ways. Now he has got his bird, let him keep it as something fine +and precious, to be cared for and watched over, and treated according to +the laws of its frail and delicate nature; and so treating it, he may +many years keep the charms which first won his heart. He may find, too, +if he watches and is careful, that a humming-bird can, in its own small, +dainty way, build a nest as efficiently as a turkey-gobbler, and hatch +her eggs and bring up her young in humming-bird fashion; but to do it, +she must be left unfrightened and undisturbed. + +But the evils of domestic intolerance increase with the birth of +children. As parents come together out of different families with +ill-assorted peculiarities, so children are born to them with natures +differing from their own and from each other. + +The parents seize on their first new child as a piece of special +property which they are forthwith to turn to their own account. The poor +little waif, just drifted on the shores of Time, has perhaps folded up +in it a character as positive as that of either parent; but, for all +that, its future course is marked out for it, all arranged and +predetermined. + +John has a perfect mania for literary distinction. His own education was +somewhat imperfect, but he is determined his children shall be +prodigies. His first-born turns out a girl, who is to write like Madame +de Stael,--to be an able, accomplished woman. He bores her with +literature from her earliest years, reads extracts from Milton to her +when she is only eight years old and is secretly longing to be playing +with her doll's wardrobe. He multiplies governesses, spares no expense, +and when, after all, his daughter turns out to be only a very pretty, +sensible, domestic girl, fond of cross-stitching embroidery, and with a +more decided vocation for sponge-cake and pickles than for poetry and +composition, he is disappointed and treats her coldly; and she is +unhappy and feels that she has vexed her parents, because she cannot be +what Nature never meant her to be. If John had taken meekly the present +that Mother Nature gave him, and humbly set himself to inquire what it +was and what it was good for, he might have had years of happiness with +a modest, amiable, and domestic daughter, to whom had been given the +instinct to study household good. + +But, again, a bustling, pickling, preserving, stocking-knitting, +universal-housekeeping woman has a daughter who dreams over her +knitting-work and hides a book under her sampler,--whose thoughts are +straying in Greece, Rome, Germany,--who is reading, studying, thinking, +writing, without knowing why; and the mother sets herself to fight this +nature, and to make the dreamy scholar into a driving, thorough-going, +exact woman-of-business. How many tears are shed, how much temper +wasted, how much time lost, in such encounters! + +Each of these natures, under judicious training, might be made to +complete itself by cultivation of that which it lacked. The born +housekeeper can never be made a genius, but she may add to her household +virtues some reasonable share of literary culture and appreciation,--and +the born scholar may learn to come down out of her clouds, and see +enough of this earth to walk its practical ways without stumbling; but +this must be done by tolerance of their nature,--by giving it play and +room,--first recognizing its existence and its rights, and then seeking +to add to it the properties it wants. + +A driving Yankee housekeeper, fruitful of resources, can work with any +tools or with no tools at all. If she absolutely cannot get a +tack-hammer with a claw on one end, she can take up carpet-nails with an +iron spoon, and drive them down with a flat-iron; and she has sense +enough not to scold, though she does her work with them at considerable +disadvantage. She knows that she is working with tools made to do +something else, and never thinks of being angry at their unhandiness. +She might have equal patience with a daughter unhandy in physical +things, but acute and skilful in mental ones, if she once had the idea +suggested to her. + +An ambitious man has a son whom he destines to a learned profession. He +is to be the Daniel Webster of the family. The boy has a robust, +muscular frame, great physical vigor and enterprise, a brain bright and +active in all that may be acquired through the bodily senses, but which +is dull and confused and wandering when put to abstract book-knowledge. +He knows every ship at the wharf, her build, tonnage, and sailing +qualities; he knows every railroad-engine, its power, speed, and hours +of coming and going; he is always busy, sawing, hammering, planing, +digging, driving, making bargains, with his head full of plans, all +relating to something outward and physical. In all these matters his +mind works strongly, his ideas are clear, his observation acute, his +conversation sensible and worth listening to. But as to the distinction +between common nouns and proper nouns, between the subject and the +predicate of a sentence, between the relative pronoun and the +demonstrative adjective pronoun, between the perfect and the +preter-perfect tense, he is extremely dull and hazy. The region of +abstract ideas is to him a region of ghosts and shadows. Yet his youth +is mainly a dreary wilderness of uncomprehended, incomprehensible +studies, of privations, tasks, punishments, with a sense of continual +failure, disappointment, and disgrace, because his father is trying to +make a scholar and a literary man out of a boy whom Nature made to till +the soil or manage the material forces of the world. He might be a +farmer, an engineer, a pioneer of a new settlement, a sailor, a soldier, +a thriving man of business; but he grows up feeling that his nature is a +crime, and that he is good for nothing, because he is not good for what +he had been blindly predestined to before he was born. + +Another boy is a born mechanic; he understands machinery at a glance; he +is all the while pondering and studying and experimenting. But his +wheels and his axles and his pulleys are all swept away, as so much +irrelevant lumber; he is doomed to go into the Latin School, and spend +three or four years in trying to learn what he never can learn +well,--disheartened by always being at the tail of his class, and seeing +many a boy inferior to himself in general culture who is rising to +brilliant distinction simply because he can remember those hopeless, +bewildering Greek quantities and accents which he is constantly +forgetting,--as, for example, how properispomena become paroxytones when +the ultimate becomes long, and proparoxytones become paroxytones when +the ultimate becomes long, while paroxytones with a short penult remain +paroxytones. Each of this class of rules, however, having about sixteen +exceptions, which hold good except in three or four other exceptional +cases under them, the labyrinth becomes delightfully wilder and wilder; +and the crowning beauty of the whole is, that, when the bewildered boy +has swallowed the whole,--tail, scales, fins, and bones,--he then is +allowed to read the classics in peace, without the slightest occasion to +refer to them again during his college course. + +The great trouble with the so-called classical course of education is, +that it is made strictly for but one class of minds, which it drills in +respects for which they have by nature an aptitude, and to which it +presents scarcely enough of difficulty to make it a mental discipline, +while to another and equally valuable class of minds it presents +difficulties so great as actually to crush and discourage. There are, we +will venture to say, in every ten boys in Boston four, and those not the +dullest or poorest in quality, who could never go through the discipline +of the Boston Latin School without such a strain on the brain and +nervous system as would leave them no power for anything else. + +A bright, intelligent boy, whose talents lay in the line of natural +philosophy and mechanics, passed with brilliant success through the +Boston English High School. He won the first medals, and felt all that +pride and enthusiasm which belong to a successful student. He entered +the Latin Classical School. With a large philosophic and reasoning +brain, he had a very poor verbal and textual memory; and here he began +to see himself distanced by boys who had hitherto looked up to him. They +could rattle off catalogues of names; they could do so all the better +from the habit of not thinking of what they studied. They could commit +the Latin Grammar, coarse print and fine, and run through the +interminable mazes of Greek accents and Greek inflections. This boy of +large mind and brain, always behindhand, always incapable, utterly +discouraged, no amount of study could place on an equality with his +former inferiors. His health failed, and he dropped from school. Many a +fine fellow has been lost to himself, and lost to an educated life, by +just such a failure. The collegiate system is like a great coal-screen: +every piece not of a certain size must fall through. This may do well +enough for screening coal; but what if it were used indiscriminately for +a mixture of coal and diamonds? + +"Poor boy!" said Ole Bull, compassionately, when one sought to push a +schoolboy from the steps of an omnibus, where he was getting a +surreptitious ride. "Poor boy! let him stay. Who knows his trials? +Perhaps he studies Latin." + +The witty Heinrich Heine says, in bitter remembrance of his early +sufferings,--"The Romans would never have conquered the world, if they +had had to learn their own language. They had leisure, because they were +born with the knowledge of what nouns form their accusatives in _im_." + +Now we are not among those who decry the Greek and Latin classics. We +think it a glorious privilege to read both those grand old tongues, and +that an intelligent, cultivated man who is shut out from the converse of +the splendid minds of those olden times loses a part of his birthright; +and therefore it is that we mourn that but one dry, hard, technical +path, one sharp, straight, narrow way, is allowed into so goodly a land +of knowledge. We think there is no need that the study of Greek and +Latin should be made such a horror. There is many a man without a verbal +memory, who could neither recite in order the paradigms of the Greek +verbs, nor repeat the lists of nouns that form their accusative in one +termination or another, who, nevertheless, by the exercise of his +faculties of comparison and reasoning, could learn to read the Greek and +Latin classics so as to take their sense and enjoy their spirit; and +that is all that they are worth caring for. We have known one young +scholar, who could not by any possibility repeat the lists of exceptions +to the rules in the Latin Grammar, who yet delightedly filled his +private note-book with quotations from the "AEneid," and was making +extracts of literary gems from his Greek Reader, at the same time that +he was every day "screwed" by his tutor upon some technical point of the +language. + +Is there not many a master of English, many a writer and orator, who +could not repeat from memory the list of nouns ending in _y_ that form +their plural in _ies_, with the exceptions under it? How many of us +could do this? Would it help a good writer and fluent speaker to know +the whole of Murray's Grammar by heart, or does real knowledge of a +language ever come in this way? + +At present the rich stores of ancient literature are kept like the +savory stew which poor Dominie Sampson heard simmering in the witch's +kettle. One may have much appetite, but there is but one way of getting +it. The Meg Merrilies of our educational system, with her harsh voice, +and her "Gape, sinner, and swallow," is the only introduction,--and so, +many a one turns and runs frightened from the feast. + +This intolerant mode of teaching the classical languages is peculiar to +them alone. Multitudes of girls and boys are learning to read and to +speak German, French, and Italian, and to feel all the delights of +expatiating in the literature of a new language, purely because of a +simpler, more natural, less pedantic mode of teaching these languages. + +Intolerance in the established system of education works misery in +families, because family pride decrees that every boy of good status in +society, will he, nill he, shall go through college, or he almost +forfeits his position as a gentleman. + +"Not go to Cambridge!" says Scholasticus to his first-born. "Why, I went +there,--and my father, and his father, and his father before him. Look +at the Cambridge Catalogue and you will see the names of our family ever +since the College was founded!" + +"But I can't learn Latin and Greek," says young Scholasticus. "I can't +remember all those rules and exceptions. I've tried, and I can't. If you +could only know how my head feels when I try! And I won't be at the foot +of the class all the time, if I have to get my living by digging." + +Suppose, now, the boy is pushed on at the point of the bayonet to a kind +of knowledge in which he has no interest, communicated in a way that +requires faculties which Nature has not given him,--what occurs? + +He goes through his course, either shamming, shirking, parrying, all the +while consciously discredited and dishonored,--or else putting forth an +effort that is a draft on all his nervous energy, he makes merely a +decent scholar, and loses his health for life. + +Now, if the principle of toleration were once admitted into classical +education,--if it were admitted that the great object is to read and +enjoy a language, and the stress of the teaching were placed on the few +things absolutely essential to this result,--if the tortoise were +allowed time to creep, and the bird permitted to fly, and the fish to +swim, towards the enchanted and divine sources of Helicon,--all might in +their own way arrive there, and rejoice in its flowers, its beauty, and +its coolness. + +"But," say the advocates of the present system, "it is good mental +discipline." + +I doubt it. It is mere waste of time. + +When a boy has learned that in the genitive plural of the first +declension of Greek nouns the final syllable is circumflexed, but to +this there are the following exceptions: 1. That feminine adjectives and +participles in [Greek: -os, -e, -on] are accented like the genitive +masculine, but other feminine adjectives and participles are perispomena +in the genitive plural; 2. That the substantives _chrestes_, _aphue_, +_etesiai_, and _chlounes_ in the genitive plural remain paroxytones, +(Kuehner's _Elementary Greek Grammar_, page 22,)--I say, when a boy has +learned this and twenty other things just like it, his mind has not been +one whit more disciplined than if he had learned the list of the old +thirteen States, the number and names of the newly adopted ones, the +times of their adoption, and the population, commerce, mineral and +agricultural wealth of each. These, too, are merely exercises of memory, +but they are exercises in what is of some interest and some use. + +The particulars above cited are of so little use in understanding the +Greek classics that I will venture to say that there are intelligent +English scholars, who have never read anything but Bohn's translations, +who have more genuine knowledge of the spirit of the Greek mind, and the +peculiar idioms of the language, and more enthusiasm for it, than many a +poor fellow who has stumbled blindly through the originals with the +bayonet of the tutor at his heels, and his eyes and ears full of the +Scotch snuff of the Greek Grammar. + +What then? Shall we not learn these ancient tongues? By all means. "So +many times as I learn a language, so many times I become a man," said +Charles V.; and he said rightly. Latin and Greek are foully belied by +the prejudices created by this technical, pedantic mode of teaching +them, which makes one ragged, prickly bundle of all the dry facts of the +language, and insists upon it that the boy shall not see one glimpse of +its beauty, glory, or interest, till he has swallowed and digested the +whole mass. Many die in this wilderness with their shoes worn out before +reaching the Promised Land of Plato and the Tragedians. + +"But," say our college authorities, "look at England. An English +schoolboy learns three times the Latin and Greek that our boys learn, +and has them well drubbed in." + +And English boys have three times more beef and pudding in their +constitution than American boys have, and three times less of nerves. +The difference of nature must be considered here; and the constant +influence flowing from English schools and universities must be tempered +by considering who we are, what sort of boys we have to deal with, what +treatment they can bear, and what are the needs of our growing American +society. + +The demands of actual life, the living, visible facts of practical +science, in so large and new a country as ours, require that the ideas +of the ancients should be given us in the shortest and most economical +way possible, and that scholastic technicalities should be reserved to +those whom Nature made with especial reference to their preservation. + +On no subject is there more intolerant judgment, and more suffering from +such intolerance, than on the much mooted one of the education of +children. + +Treatises on education require altogether too much of parents, and +impose burdens of responsibility on tender spirits which crush the life +and strength out of them. Parents have been talked to as if each child +came to them a soft, pulpy mass, which they were to pinch and pull and +pat and stroke into shape quite at their leisure,--and a good pattern +being placed before them, they were to proceed immediately to set up and +construct a good human being in conformity therewith. + +It is strange that believers in the divine inspiration of the Bible +should have entertained this idea, overlooking the constant and +affecting declaration of the great Heavenly Father that _He_ has +nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against Him, +together with His constant appeals,--"What could have been done more to +my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it +should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?" If even God, +wiser, better, purer, more loving, admits Himself baffled in this great +work, is it expedient to say to human beings that the forming power, the +deciding force, of a child's character is in their hands? + +Many a poor feeble woman's health has been strained to breaking, and her +life darkened, by the laying on her shoulders of a burden of +responsibility that never ought to have been placed there; and many a +mother has been hindered from using such powers as God has given her, +because some preconceived mode of operation has been set up before her +which she could no more make effectual than David could wear the armor +of Saul. + +A gentle, loving, fragile creature marries a strong-willed, energetic +man, and by the laws of natural descent has a boy given to her of twice +her amount of will and energy. She is just as helpless, in the mere +struggle of will and authority with such a child, as she would be in a +physical wrestle with a six-foot man. + +What then? Has Nature left her helpless for her duties? Not if she +understands her nature, and acts in the line of it. She has no power of +command, but she has power of persuasion. She can neither bend nor break +the boy's iron will, but she can melt it. She has tact to avoid the +conflict in which she would be worsted. She can charm, amuse, please, +and make willing; and her fine and subtile influences, weaving +themselves about him day after day, become more and more powerful. Let +her alone, and she will have her boy yet. + +But now some bustling mother-in-law or other privileged expounder says +to her,-- + +"My dear, it's your solemn duty to break that boy's will. I broke my +boy's will short off. Keep your whip in sight, meet him at every turn, +fight him whenever he crosses you, never let him get one victory, and +finally his will will be wholly subdued." + +Such advice is mischievous, because what it proposes is as utter an +impossibility to the woman's nature as for a cow to scratch up worms for +her calf, or a hen to suckle her chickens. + +There are men and women of strong, resolute will who are gifted with the +power of governing the wills of others. Such persons can govern in this +way,--and their government, being in the line of their nature, acting +strongly, consistently, naturally, makes everything move harmoniously. +Let them be content with their own success, but let them not set up as +general education-doctors, or apply their experience to all possible +cases. + +Again, there are others, and among some of the loveliest and purest +natures, who have no power of command. They have sufficient tenacity of +will as respects their own course, but have no compulsory power over the +wills of others. Many such women have been most successful mothers, when +they followed the line of their own natures, and did not undertake what +they never could do. + +_Influence_ is a slower acting force than authority. It seems weaker, +but in the long run it often effects more. It always does better than +mere force and authority without its gentle modifying power. + +If a mother is high-principled, religious, affectionate, if she never +uses craft or deception, if she governs her temper and sets a good +example, let her hold on in good hope, though she cannot produce the +discipline of a man-of-war in her noisy little flock, or make all move +as smoothly as some other women to whom God has given another and +different talent; and let her not be discouraged, if she seem often to +accomplish but little in that great work of forming human character +wherein the great Creator of the world has declared Himself at times +baffled. + +Family tolerance must take great account of the stages and periods of +development and growth in children. + +The passage of a human being from one stage of development to another, +like the sun's passage across the equator, frequently has its storms and +tempests. The change to manhood and womanhood often involves brain, +nerves, body, and soul in confusion; the child sometimes seems lost to +himself and his parents,--his very nature changing. In this sensitive +state come restless desires, unreasonable longings, unsettled purposes; +and the fatal habit of indulgence in deadly stimulants, ruining all the +life, often springs form the cravings of this transition period. + +Here must come in the patience of the saints. The restlessness must be +soothed, the family hearth must be tolerant enough to keep there the +boy, whom Satan will receive and cherish, them if his mother does not. +The male element sometimes pours into a boy, like the tides in the Bay +of Fundy, with tumult and tossing. He is noisy, vociferous, uproarious, +and seems bent only on disturbance; he despises conventionalities, he +hates parlors, he longs for the woods, the sea, the converse of rough +men, and kicks at constraint of all kinds. Have patience now, let love +have its perfect work, and in a year or two, if no deadly physical +habits set in, a quiet, well-mannered gentleman will be evolved. +Meanwhile, if he does not wipe his shoes, and if he will fling his hat +upon the floor, and tear his clothes, and bang and hammer and shout, and +cause general confusion in his belongings, do not despair; if you only +get your son, the hat and clothes and shoes and noise and confusion do +not matter. Any amount of toleration that keeps a boy contented at home +is treasure well expended at this time of life. + +One thing not enough reflected on is, that in this transition period +between childhood and maturity the heaviest draft and strain of school +education occurs. The boy is fitting for the university, the girl going +through the studies of the college senior year, and the brain-power, +which is working almost to the breaking-point to perfect the physical +change, has the additional labor of all the drill and discipline of +school. + +The girl is growing into a tall and shapely woman, and the poor brain is +put to it to find enough phosphate of lime, carbon, and other what not, +to build her fair edifice. The bills flow in upon her thick and fast; +she pays out hand over hand: if she had only her woman to build, she +might get along, but now come in demands for algebra, geometry, music, +language, and the poor brain-bank stops payment; some part of the work +is shabbily done, and a crooked spine or weakened lungs are the result. + +Boarding-schools, both for boys and girls, are for the most part +composed of young people in this most delicate, critical portion of +their physical, mental, and moral development, whose teachers are +expected to put them through one straight, severe course of drill, +without the slightest allowance for the great physical facts of their +being. No wonder they are difficult to manage, and that so many of them +drop, physically, mentally, and morally halt and maimed. It is not the +teacher's fault; he but fulfils the parent's requisition, which dooms +his child without appeal to a certain course, simply because others have +gone through it. + +Finally, as my sermon is too long already, let me end with a single +reflection. Every human being has some handle by which he may be lifted, +some groove in which he was meant to run; and the great work of life, as +far as our relations with each other are concerned, is to lift each one +by his own proper handle, and run each one in his own proper groove. + + + + +THE JAGUAR HUNT. + + + The dark jaguar was abroad in the land; + His strength and his fierceness what foe could withstand? + The breath of his anger was hot on the air, + And the white lamb of Peace he had dragged to his lair. + + Then up rose the Farmer; he summoned his sons: + "Now saddle your horses, now look to your guns!" + And he called to his hound, as he sprang from the ground + To the back of his black pawing steed with a bound. + + Oh, their hearts, at the word, how they tingled and stirred! + They followed, all belted and booted and spurred. + "Buckle tight, boys!" said he, "for who gallops with me, + Such a hunt as was never before he shall see! + + "This traitor, we know him! for when he was younger, + We flattered him, patted him, fed his fierce hunger: + But now far too long we have borne with the wrong, + For each morsel we tossed makes him savage and strong." + + Then said one, "He must die!" And they took up the cry, + "For this last crime of his he must die! he must die!" + But the slow eldest-born sauntered sad and forlorn, + For his heart was at home on that fair hunting-morn. + + "I remember," he said, "how this fine cub we track + Has carried me many a time on his back!" + And he called to his brothers, "Fight gently! be kind!" + And he kept the dread hound, Retribution, behind. + + The dark jaguar on a bough in the brake + Crouched, silent and wily, and lithe as a snake: + They spied not their game, but, as onward they came, + Through the dense leafage gleamed two red eyeballs of flame. + + Black-spotted, and mottled, and whiskered, and grim, + White-bellied, and yellow, he lay on the limb, + All so still that you saw but just one tawny paw + Lightly reach through the leaves and as softly withdraw. + + Then shrilled his fierce cry, as the riders drew nigh, + And he shot from the bough like a bolt from the sky: + In the foremost he fastened his fangs as he fell, + While all the black jungle reechoed his yell. + + Oh, then there was carnage by field and by flood! + The green sod was crimsoned, the rivers ran blood, + The cornfields were trampled, and all in their track + The beautiful valley lay blasted and black. + + Now the din of the conflict swells deadly and loud, + And the dust of the tumult rolls up like a cloud: + Then afar down the slope of the Southland recedes + The wild rapid clatter of galloping steeds. + + With wide nostrils smoking, and flanks dripping gore, + The black stallion bore his bold rider before, + As onward they thundered through forest and glen, + A-hunting the dark jaguar to his den. + + In April, sweet April, the chase was begun; + It was April again, when the hunting was done: + The snows of four winters and four summers green + Lay red-streaked and trodden and blighted between. + + Then the monster stretched all his grim length on the ground; + His life-blood was wasting from many a wound; + Ferocious and gory and snarling he lay, + Amid heaps of the whitening bones of his prey. + + Then up spoke the slow eldest son, and he said, + "All he needs now is just to be fostered and fed! + Give over the strife! Brothers, put up the knife! + We will tame him, reclaim him, but take not his life!" + + But the Farmer flung back the false words in his face: + "He is none of my race, who gives counsel so base! + Now let loose the hound!" And the hound was unbound, + And like lightning the heart of the traitor he found. + + "So rapine and treason forever shall cease!" + And they wash the stained fleece of the pale lamb of Peace; + When, lo! a strong angel stands winged and white + In a wonderful raiment of ravishing light! + + Peace is raised from the dead! In the radiance shed + By the halo of glory that shines round her head, + Fair gardens shall bloom where the black jungle grew, + And all the glad valley shall blossom anew! + + + + +LATE SCENES IN RICHMOND. + + +In the July (1864) number of this magazine there is an article entitled +"The May Campaign in Virginia," which gives an outline of the operations +of the Army of the Potomac in its march from its encampment on the +Rapidan, through the tangled thickets of the Wilderness, to the bloody +fields of Spottsylvania, across the North Anna, to the old battle-ground +of Cold Harbor. The closing paragraph of that article is an appropriate +introduction to the present. It is as follows:-- + +"The line of advance taken by General Grant turned the Rebels from +Washington. The country over which the two armies marched is a +desolation. There is no subsistence remaining. The railroads are +destroyed. Lee has no longer the power to invade the North. On the other +hand, General Grant can swing upon the James, and isolate the Rebel army +from direct communication with the South. That accomplished, and, sooner +or later, with Hunter in the Shenandoah, with Union cavalry sweeping +down to Wilmington, Weldon, and Danville, and up to the Blue Ridge, +cutting railroads, burning bridges, destroying supplies of ammunition +and provisions, the question with Lee must be, not one of earthworks and +cannon and powder and ball, but of subsistence. Plainly, the day is +approaching when the Army of the Potomac, unfortunate at times in the +past, derided, ridiculed, but now triumphant through unparalleled +hardship, endurance, courage, persistency, will plant its banners on the +defences of Richmond, crumble the Rebel army beyond the possibility of +future cohesion, and, in conjunction with the forces in other +departments, crush out the last vestige of the Rebellion." + +So it has proved. The railroads are destroyed, the bridges burned, the +supplies of ammunition and provision exhausted; the flag of the Union +floats over the city which the Rebels have called their capital; the +troops of the Union patrol the streets of Richmond, and occupy all the +principal towns of Virginia; Lee's army has melted away, and the power +of the Rebellion is broken. + +Before entering upon a narration of the campaign of a week which gave us +Richmond and the Rebel army at the same time, it will widen our scope of +vision to inquire + + +HOW RICHMOND BECAME THE CAPITAL OF THE CONFEDERACY. + +On the 17th of April, 1861, Virginia in Convention passed an Ordinance +of Secession. The Convention, when elected on the 4th of February +preceding, was largely Anti-Secession; but the events which had taken +place,--the firing on Sumter, its surrender, with the machinations of +the leaders of Secession,--their misrepresentations of the North, of +what Mr. Lincoln would do,--their promises that there would be no war, +that the Yankees would not fight,--their bullyings when they could not +cajole, their threatenings when they could not intimidate,--their +rejoicings at the bloodless victory won by South Carolina, +single-handed, over a starved garrison,--their bonfires and +illuminations, their baskets of Champagne and bottles of whiskey,--all +of these forces combined were sufficient to carry the Ordinance of +Secession through the Convention. But it was hampered by a proviso +submitting it to the people for ratification on the Fourth Thursday of +May following. + +John Letcher was Governor of Virginia. Weak in intellect, grovelling in +his tastes, often drunk, rarely sober, at times making such beastly +exhibition of himself that the Richmond press pronounced him a public +nuisance, he was a fit tool of the Secession conspirators. Ready to do +what he could to commit the State to overt acts against the United +States Government, on the evening after the passage of the Ordinance he +issued orders to the State militia around Winchester to seize the +Arsenal at Harper's Ferry,--on his own sole responsibility, and without +a shadow of authority from the people of the State, inaugurating civil +war, a proceeding which he followed up directly afterwards by +proclaiming Virginia a member of the Confederacy, and thus carrying the +State at once out of the Union, without awaiting the formality of a +popular vote. + +Already the intentions of the Confederate Government were manifest. + +"I prophesy that the flag which now flaunts the breeze here will float +over the old Capitol in Washington before the first of May," said Mr. +L.P. Walker, Secretary of War, the evening after the fall of Sumter, to +a crazy crowd in Montgomery, then the Rebel capital. + +"From the mountain-tops and valleys to the shores of the sea, there is +one wild shout of fierce resolve to capture Washington City at all and +every human hazard. That filthy cage of unclean birds must and will +assuredly be purified by fire," shouted John Mitchell, through the +"Richmond Examiner," on the 23d of April. + +"Washington City will soon be too hot to hold Abraham Lincoln and his +Government," wrote the editor of the "Raleigh Standard" on the 24th. + +"We are in lively hope, that, before three months roll by, the +Government, Congress, Departments and all, will have been removed to the +present Federal capital," wrote the Montgomery correspondent of the +"Charleston Courier" on the 28th of the same month. + +"We are not in the secrets of our authorities enough to specify the day +on which Jeff Davis will dine at the White House, and Ben McCullough +take his siesta in General Sickles's gilded tent. We should not like to +produce any disappointment by naming too soon or too early a day; but it +will save trouble, if the gentlemen will keep themselves in readiness to +dislodge at a moment's notice," said the "Richmond Whig" on the 22d of +May. + +The Rebel Congress had already adjourned, and was on its way to +Richmond. Not only Congress, but all the Departments, were on the move, +intending to tarry at Richmond but a day or two, till General Scott, and +Abraham Lincoln, and the Yankees, who were swarming into Washington, +were driven out. Thus Richmond became, though only temporarily, as all +hands in the South supposed, the capital of the Confederacy. + +A week later Jeff Davis was welcomed to Richmond by the people, says +Pollard, the author of the "Southern History of the War," an implacable +hater of the North, "with a burst of genuine joy and enthusiasm to which +none of the military pageants of the North could furnish a parallel." +President Davis, in response to the call of the populace, made a +speech, in which he said,-- + +"When the time and occasion serve, we shall smite the smiter with manly +arms, as did our fathers before us, and as becomes their sons. To the +enemy we leave the base _acts of the assassin and incendiary_; to them +we leave it to insult helpless women: to us belongs vengeance upon men. +We will make the battle-fields in Virginia another Buena Vista, drenched +with more precious blood than flowed there." + +But Colonel Robert E. Lee, who was in command of the Rebel forces in +Virginia, was not quite ready to take Washington; and so the Rebel +Congress commenced its sessions in the State capital. Mr. Memminger set +up his printing-presses, and issued his promises to pay the debts of the +Confederacy two years after the treaty of peace with the United States; +Mr. Mallory began to consider how to construct rams; while Mr. Toombs, +and his successor, Mr. Benjamin, wrote letters of instruction from the +State Department to Rebel agents in Europe, and looked longingly and +expectantly for immediate recognition of the Confederacy as an +independent power among the nations. + +The sleepy city awoke to a new life. Regiments of infantry came pouring +in, not only from the hills and valleys of the Old Dominion, but from +every nook and corner of the Confederate States,--the Palmetto Guards, +Marion Rifles, Jeff-Davis Grays, Whippy-Swamp Grenadiers, Chickasaw +Braves, Tigers, Dare-Devils, and Yankee-Butchers,--fired with patriotism +and whiskey, proud to be in Richmond, to march through its streets, +beneath the flags wrought by the fair ladies of the sunny South, for +whom each man had sworn to kill a Yankee! Lieutenants, captains, majors, +colonels, and generals, glittering with golden stars, with clanking +sabres, and twinkling spurs, thronged the hotels in all the pomp of +modern chivalry. With the marching of troops, and the gathering of men +from every precinct of the Confederacy in search of official position in +the bureaus or to obtain contracts from Government,--with the rush and +whirl of business, and the inflation of prices of all commodities,--with +the stream of gayety and fashion attendant upon the Confederate court, +where Mrs. Jefferson Davis was queen-regnant,--with its gilded +drinking-saloons and gambling-hells,--Richmond became a Babylon. + + +"ON TO RICHMOND!" + +It was a natural cry, that slogan of the North in the early months of +the war; for, in ordinary warfare, to capture an enemy's capital is +equivalent to conquering a peace. It was thought that the taking of +Richmond would be the end of the Rebellion. Time has disabused us of +this idea. To have taken Richmond in 1861 would only have been the +repacking of the Department trunks for Montgomery or some other +convenient Southern city. The vitality of the Rebellion existed not in +cities, towns, or capitals, but in that which could die only by +annihilation,--Human Slavery. That was and is the "original sin" of the +Rebellion,--the total depravity and innate heinousness, to use +theological terminology, without which there could not have been +treason, secession, and rebellion. + +But forgetting all this,--looking constantly at effect, without +searching for cause,--hearing only the drum-beat of the armed legions of +the South mustering for the overthrow of the nation,--wilfully shutting +our ears to the clanking of the chains of the slave-coffle,--deaf to the +prayer, "How long, O Lord?" uttered morning, noon, and night by men and +women who were turned back to bondage from our lines,--forgetting that +Justice and Right are the foundations of the throne of God,--the army of +General McDowell marched confidently out to Bull Run on its way to +Richmond, and returned to Washington defeated, routed, disorganized, +humiliated. And yet we now see that to the South the victory which set +the whole Confederacy on flame was a defeat, and to the North that which +seemed an overwhelming disaster was a triumph; for so God changes the +warp and woof of human events. The Southern leaders became +over-confident. They could have taken Washington, but did not make the +attempt to do so till the golden moment had passed, never to return. "We +have let Washington slip through our fingers," was the bitter +lamentation of the "Richmond Examiner," a few days after the Battle of +Bull Run,--after the second uprising of the people to save the Union. + +When God takes a proud and wayward nation in hand, and instructs it by +the hard lessons of adversity,--by plans overthrown, ambition checked, +pride humiliated, and hopes disappointed, which wring tears from the +eyes of widows and orphans, and by which men in the prime of life are +bowed down to the grave with grief for sons slain in battle,--He does it +for a great purpose. But the nation was blind to the moral of the +terrible lesson. We are slow to receive and accept eternal truths. And +so, instead of aiming at Slavery as the life of the Rebellion, McClellan +marched up the Peninsula through the mud to capture Richmond, and +conquer a peace simply by taking the Rebel capital. He was learned in +military lore, had visited Europe, and made war after the European +pattern. But in a war of ideas and principles, the mere taking of an +enemy's capital cannot end the contest. In such a strife there is the +war of invisible forces,--the marshalling of Cherubim and Seraphim +against rebellious hosts,--the old contest of the heavenly fields +renewed on earth. + +The nation was long in awaking to the consciousness that driving Lee out +of Richmond would not end the Rebellion. It was more than this: it was a +casting-out of prejudice, a discarding of political chicanery and a +time-serving policy, and a recognition of Justice, Right, and Freedom as +the true elements of political economy. There was an increasing desire +on the part of the people to root out Slavery from American soil. + +It will be for the future historian to trace the providential dealings +of God with the nation, and to show how far and in what degree the +failure of Burnside at Fredericksburg and of Hooker at Chancellorsville +was affected by the want of moral perceptions on the part of the army +and of the people at that stage of the war: for there were thousands of +officers and soldiers at that time who were not willing to fight by the +side of a negro. We have not advanced far enough even now to allow the +colored man full privileges of citizenship. We are willing that he +should be a soldier, carry a gun, and fire a bullet at the enemy; but +are we willing that he should march up to the ballot-box, and fire a +peaceful ballot against the same enemy? Strange incongruity! + +The colored men of Richmond, of Charleston, of Savannah, of all the +South, have been and are now the true Union men of the seceded States. +When or where have they raised their hands against the Union? They have +fought for the flag of the Union, and have earned by their patriotism +and valor a name and a place in history. Citizenship is theirs by +natural right; besides, they have earned it. Make the freedman a voter, +a land-owner, a tax-payer, permit him to sue and be sued, give him in +every respect free franchise, and the recompense will be security, +peace, and prosperity. Anything less than absolute right will sooner or +later bring trouble in its train. Now, in this day of settlement, this +reconstruction of the nation, this renewal of life, it is the privilege +of America to become the world's great teacher and benefactor. + +After the disaster at Chancellorsville, there came a season of sober +reflection, and men began to understand that this is God's war. Then +there came a commander who believed that the power of the Rebellion lay +not in Richmond, but in the Rebel army, and that the taking of Richmond +was altogether a secondary consideration,--that the only way of +subduing the Rebellion was to fight it down. He was ready to employ +soldiers of every hue. This brings us to consider + + +HOW RICHMOND WAS TAKEN. + +General Grant, fresh from his great success at Vicksburg and +Chattanooga, having shown that he had military genius of a high order, +was created Lieutenant-General, and appointed to the command of all the +armies of the Union in the field. It was the beginning of a new +_regime_. Up to that time there had been little concert of action +between commanders. The armies lacked a head. The President, General +Halleck, Secretary Stanton, had ideas of their own upon the best methods +and plans for conducting the war. Department commanders worked at cross +purposes. Each officer in the field naturally looked upon his sphere of +action as the most important of all, and each had his own plan of +operations to lay before the Secretary of War. A million men were +tugging manfully at the Car of Freedom, which was at a stand-still, or +moved only by inches, because they had no head. But when the President +appointed General Grant to the command, he gave up his own plans, while +General Halleck became a subordinate. The department commanders found +all their plans set aside. There was not merely concert of action, but +unity of action, under the controlling force of an imperial will. + +In the article entitled "The May Campaign in Virginia," the movements of +the Army of the Potomac, from the Rapidan to Cold Harbor, are given. It +is not intended in the present article to dwell in detail upon all the +subsequent movements of that army and its allies, the Armies of the +James and the Shenandoah. Volumes are needed to narrate the operations +around Petersburg,--the battles fought on the 18th and 19th of June east +of that city,--the struggles for the Weldon Railroad,--the movements +between the James and the Appomattox, and north of the James,--the +failure in the springing of the mine,--the march of the Fifth Corps to +Stony Creek,--the battles between the Weldon Road and Hatcher's +Run,--the many contests, sharp, fierce, and bloody, between the opposing +lines, whenever an attempt was made by either army to erect new +works,--the fights on Hatcher's Run,--the attack upon Fort Harrison, +north of the James,--the successive attempts of each commander to break +the lines of the other, ending with the Fort Stedman affair, the last +offensive effort of General Lee. The new campaign which was inaugurated +the next day after the attack on Fort Stedman compelled the Rebel chief +to stand wholly on the defensive. + +The appointment of General Grant to the command of all the armies was +not only the beginning of a new _regime_, but the adoption of a new +idea,--that Lee's army was the objective point, rather than the city of +Richmond. + +"The power of the Rebellion lies in the Rebel army," said General Grant +to the writer one evening in June last. We had been conversing upon Fort +Donelson and Pittsburg Landing. One by one his staff officers dropped +off to their own tents, and we were alone. It was a quiet, starlit +night. The Lieutenant-General was enjoying his fragrant Havana cigar, +and was in a mood for conversation, not upon what he was going to do, +but upon what had been done. He is always wisely reticent upon the +present and future, but agreeably communicative upon what has passed +into history. + +"I have lost a good many men since the army left the Rapidan, but there +was no help for it. The Rebel army must be destroyed before we can put +down the Rebellion," he continued.[I] + +There was a disposition at that time on the part of the disloyal press +of the North to bring General Grant into bad odor. He was called "The +Butcher." Even some Republican Congressmen were ready to demand his +removal. General Grant alluded to it and said,-- + +"God knows I don't want to see men slaughtered; but we have appealed to +arms, and we have got to fight it out." + +He had already given public utterance to the expression,--"I intend to +fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer." + +Referring to the successive flank movements which had been made, from +the Rapidan to the Wilderness, to Spottsylvania, to the North Anna, to +the Chickahominy, to Petersburg, he said,-- + +"My object has been to get between Lee and his southern communications." + +At that time the Weldon Road was in the hands of the enemy, and Early +was on a march down the Valley, towards Washington. This movement was +designed to frighten Grant and send him back by steamboat to defend the +capital; but the Sixth Corps only was sent, while the troops remaining +still kept pressing on in a series of flank movements, which resulted in +the seizure of the Weldon Road. That was the most damaging blow which +Lee had received. He made desperate efforts to recover what had been +lost, but in vain. It was the beginning of the end. Then the public +generally could see the meaning of General Grant's strategy,--that the +Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and all the terrible battles which had been +fought, were according to a plan, which, if carried out, must end in +victory. The Richmond newspapers, which had ridiculed the campaign, and +had found an echo in the disloyal press of the North, began to discuss +the question of supplies; and to keep their courage up, they indulged in +boastful declarations that the Southside Railroad never could be taken. + +The march of Sherman from Atlanta to Savannah and through South +Carolina, destroying railroads and supplies,--the taking of +Wilmington,--Sheridan's movement from Winchester up the Valley of the +Shenandoah, striking the James River Canal and the Central Railroad, and +then the transfer of his whole force from the White House to the left +flank of the Army of the Potomac,--were parts of a well matured design +to weaken Lee's army. + +Everything was ready for the final blow. The forces of General Grant +were disposed as follows. The Army of the James, composed of the +Twenty-Fourth and Twenty-Fifth Corps, and commanded by General Ord, was +north of the James River, its right flank resting near the old +battle-field of Glendale, and its left flank on the Appomattox. The +Ninth Army Corps--the right wing of the Army of the Potomac--was next in +line, then the Sixth, and then the Second, its left resting on Hatcher's +Run. The Fifth was in rear of the Second. The line thus held was nearly +forty miles in length, defended on the front and rear by strong +earthworks and abatis. + +General Grant's entire force could not have been much less than a +hundred and thirty thousand, including Sheridan's cavalry, the force at +City Point, and the provisional brigade at Fort Powhatan. Lee's whole +force was not far from seventy thousand,--or seventy-five thousand, +including the militia of Richmond and Petersburg; but he was upon the +defensive, and held an interior and shorter line. + +The work which General Grant had in hand was the seizure of the +Southside Railroad by an extension of his left flank. He had attempted +it once with the Fifth Corps, at Dabney's Mill, and had failed; but that +attempt had been of value: he had gained a knowledge of the country. His +engineers had mapped it, the roads, the streams, the houses. The fight +at Dabney's Mill was a random stroke,--a "feeling of the position," to +use a term common in camp,--which enabled him to detect the weak point +of Lee's lines. To comprehend the movement, it is necessary to +understand the geographical and topographical features of the country, +which are somewhat peculiar. Hatcher's Run is a branch of the Nottoway +River, which has its rise in a swamp about four miles from the +Appomattox and twenty southwest of Petersburg. The Southside Railroad +runs southwest from Petersburg, along the ridge of land between the +Appomattox and the head-waters of the Nottoway, protected by the swamp +of Hatcher's Run and by the swamp of Stony Creek, another tributary of +the Nottoway. + +The point aimed at by General Grant is known as the "Five Forks," a +place where five roads meet, on the table-land between the head-waters +of Hatcher's Run and Stony Creek. It was the most accessible gateway +leading to the railroad. If he could break through at that point, he +would turn Lee's flank, deprive him of the protection of the swamps, use +them for his own cover, and seize the railroad. To take the Five Forks +was to take all; for the long and terrible conflict had become so shorn +of its outside proportions, so reduced to simple elements, that, if Lee +lost that position, all was lost,--Petersburg, Richmond, his army, and +the Confederacy. + +Surprise is expressed that the Rebellion went down so suddenly, in a +night, at one blow, toppling over like a child's house of cards, +imposing to look upon, yet of very little substance; but the +calculations of General Grant were to give a finishing stroke. + +If, by massing the main body of his troops upon the extreme left of his +line, he succeeded in carrying the position of the Five Forks, it would +compel Lee to evacuate Richmond. Lee's line of retreat must necessarily +be towards Danville; but Grant, at the Five Forks, would be nearer +Danville by several miles than Lee; and he would thus, instead of the +exterior line, have the interior, with the power to push Lee at every +step farther from his direct line of retreat. That Grant saw all this, +and executed his plan, is evidence of great military ability. The plan +involved not merely the carrying of the Five Forks, but great activity +afterwards. The capture of Lee was a forethought, not an afterthought. + +"Commissaries will prepare twelve days' rations," was his order, which +meant a long march, and the annihilation of Lee's army. An ordinary +commander might have been satisfied with merely breaking down the door, +and seizing the railroad, knowing that it would be the beginning of +dissolution to the Rebel army; but Grant's plan went farther,--the +routing of the burglar from his house, and dispatching him on the spot. +Perhaps Lee saw what the end would be, and did the best he could with +his troops; but inasmuch as he did not issue the order for the transfer +of a division from Richmond to the south side till Saturday night, after +the Five Forks were lost, it may be presumed that he did not fully +comprehend the importance of holding that gateway. If he had seen that +Richmond must be eventually evacuated, he might have saved his army by a +sudden withdrawal from both Richmond and Petersburg on Friday night, +pushing down the Southside Road, and throwing his whole force on +Sheridan and the Fifth Corps, which would have enabled him to reach +Danville. Not doing that, he lost all. + +It is not intended in this article to give the details of the attack at +the Five Forks and along the line, but merely to show how the forces +were wielded in that last magnificent, annihilating blow. + +On the 25th of March, the Twenty-Fourth Corps was transferred from the +north side of the James to Hatcher's Run, taking the position of the +Second Corps. + +The force designed for the attack upon the Five Forks was composed of +the Fifth Corps and Sheridan's Cavalry,--the whole under command of +Sheridan. The Second Corps was massed across Hatcher's Run, and kept in +position to frustrate any attempt which might be made to cut Sheridan +off from the support of the main army. + +Sheridan found a large force in front of him, along Chamberlain's Creek, +three miles west of Dinwiddie Court-House. He had hard fighting, and was +repulsed. There was want of cooperation on the part of Warren, +commanding the Fifth Corps, who was relieved of his command the next +morning, General Griffin succeeding him. A heavy rain-storm came on. +Wagons went hub-deep in the mud. The swamps were overflowed. The army +came to a stand-still. The soldiers were without tents. Thousands had +thrown away their blankets. There was gloom and discouragement +throughout the camp. But all the axes and shovels were brought into +requisition, and the men went to work building corduroy roads. It was +much better for the _morale_ of the army than to sit by bivouac-fires +waiting for sunny skies. The week passed away. The Richmond papers were +confident and boastful of final success. + +"We are very hopeful of the campaign which is opening, and trust that we +are to reap a large advantage from the operations evidently near at +hand.... We have only to resolve that we will never surrender, and it +will be impossible that we shall ever be taken," said the "Sentinel," in +its issue of Saturday morning, April 1st, the last paper ever issued +from that office. The editor was not aware of the fact, that on Friday +evening, while he was penning this paragraph, Sheridan was bursting open +the door at the Five Forks and had the Rebellion by the throat. Lee +attempted to retrieve the disaster on Saturday by depleting his left and +centre to reinforce his right. Then came the order from Grant, "Attack +vigorously all along the line." How splendidly it was executed! The +Ninth, the Sixth, the Second, the Twenty-Fourth Corps, all went tumbling +in upon the enemy's works, like breakers upon the beach, tearing away +_chevaux-de-frise_, rushing into the ditches, sweeping over the +embankments, and dashing through the embrasures of the forts. In an hour +the C. S. A.,--the Confederate Slave Argosy,--the Ship of State launched +but four years ago, which went proudly sailing, with the death's-head +and cross-bones at her truck, on a cruise against Civilization and +Christianity, hailed as a rightful belligerent, furnished with guns, +ammunition, provisions, and all needful supplies, by England and France, +was thrown a helpless wreck upon the shores of Time! + +It would be interesting to follow the troops in their victorious advance +upon Petersburg, their closing in upon Lee, the magnificent tactics of +the pursuit, and the scenes of the surrender; but in this article we +have space only to glance at + + +SCENES IN RICHMOND. + +"My line is broken in three places, and Richmond must be evacuated," was +Lee's despatch to Davis, received by the arch-traitor at eleven and a +half o'clock in St. Paul's Church. He read it with blanched cheeks, and +left the church in haste. + +Davis had robbed the banks of Virginia a few days before, seizing the +bullion in the name of the Confederacy; and his first thought was how to +secure the treasure. + +He hurried to the executive mansion, passed up the winding stairway to +his business apartment, seated himself at a small table, wrote an order +for the removal of the coin to Danville, and for the evacuation of the +city. + +There was no evening service in the churches on that Sunday. Ministers +and congregations were otherwise employed. The Reverend Mr. Hoge, ablest +of the Presbyterian pastors, fiercest advocate of them all for Slavery +as a divine missionary institution, bitterest hater of the North, packed +his carpet-bag and took a long Sabbath-day's journey towards the South. +The Reverend Mr. Duncan, of the Methodist Church, did the same work of +necessity. Lumpkin, who for many years has kept a slave-trader's jail, +also had a work of necessity on hand,--fifty men, women, and children, +who must be saved to the missionary institution for the future +enlightenment of Africa. Although it was the Lord's day, (perhaps he was +comforted by the thought, that, the better the day, the better the +deed,) the coffle-gang was made up in the jail-yard, within pistol-shot +of Davis's parlor-window, within a stone's throw of the Monumental +Church, and a sad and weeping throng, chained two and two, the last +slave-coffle that shall ever tread the streets of Richmond, were hurried +to the Danville Depot. Slavery being the corner-stone of the +Confederacy, it was fitting that this gang, keeping step to the music of +their clanking chains, should accompany Jeff Davis's secretaries, +Benjamin and Trenholm, and the Reverend Messrs. Hoge and Duncan, in +their flight. The whole Rebel Government was on the move, and all +Richmond desired to be. No thoughts of taking Washington now, or of the +flag of the Confederacy flaunting in the breeze over the old Capitol! +Hundreds of officials were at the depot, to get away from the doomed +city. Public documents, the archives of the Confederacy, were hastily +gathered up, tumbled into boxes and barrels, and taken to the trains, or +carried into the streets and set on fire. Coaches, carriages, wagons, +carts, wheelbarrows, everything in the shape of a vehicle was brought +into use. There was a jumble of boxes, chests, trunks, valises, +carpet-bags,--a crowd of excited men sweating as they never sweat +before,--women with dishevelled hair, unmindful of their wardrobes, +wringing their hands,--children crying in the crowd,--sentinels guarding +each entrance to the train, pushing back at the point of the bayonet the +panic-stricken multitude, giving precedence to Davis and the high +officials, and informing Mr. Lumpkin that his niggers could not be +taken. Oh, what a loss was there! It would have been fifty thousand +dollars out of somebody's pocket in 1861, but millions now of +Confederate promises to pay, which the hurrying multitude and that +coffled gang were treading under foot,--literally trampling the bonds of +the Confederate States of America in the mire, as they marched to the +station; for the streets were as thickly strown with four per cents, six +per cents, eight per cents as the forest with last year's leaves. + +"The faith of the Confederate States is pledged to provide and establish +sufficient revenues for the regular payment of the interest, and for the +redemption of the principal," read the bonds; but there was a sudden +eclipse of faith, and not merely an eclipse, but a collapse, a +shrivelling up, like a parched scroll, of the entire Confederacy, which, +like its bonds, notes, and certificates of indebtedness, was old rags! + +In the Sabbath evening twilight, the trains, with the fugitive +Government, its stolen bullion, and its Doctors of Divinity on board, +moved out from the city. + +At the same hour, the Governor of Virginia, William Smith, and the +Assembly, were embarked in a canal-boat, on the James River and Kanawha +Canal, moving for Lynchburg. On all the roads were men, women, and +children, in carriages of every description, with multitudes on +horseback and on foot, fleeing from the Rebel capital. Men who could not +get away were secretly at work, during those night-hours, burying plate +and money in gardens; ladies secreted their jewels, barred and bolted +their doors, and passed a sleepless night, fearful of the morrow, which +would bring the hated, despised, Vandal horde of Yankee ruffians: for +such were the epithets which they had persistently applied to the +soldiers of the Union throughout the war. + +But before the entrance of the Union army they had an experience from +their friends. Following the example of the Government, which had robbed +the banks, the soldiers pillaged the city, breaking open stores, and +helping themselves to whatever suited their convenience and taste, of +clothing, fancy goods, eatables, and drinkables. + +But the Government itself was not quite through with its operations in +Richmond. The Secretary of War, John C. Breckinridge, with General +Ewell, remained till daylight on Monday morning to clear up things,--not +to burn public archives in order to destroy evidence of Confederate +villany, but to commit more crime, so deep, damning, that the stanchest +friends of the Confederacy recoil with horror from the act. + +To prevent the United States from obtaining possession of a few thousand +hogsheads of tobacco, a thousand houses were destroyed by fire, the +heart of the city was eaten out,--all of the business portions, all the +banks and insurance-offices, half of the newspapers, mills, depots, +bridges, foundries, workshops, dwellings, churches, thirty squares in +all, swept clean by the devouring flames. It was the work of the +Confederate Government. And not only this, but human life was +remorselessly sacrificed. + +In the outskirts of the city, on the Mechanicsville road, was the +almshouse, filled with the lame, the blind, the halt, the bedridden, the +sick, and the poor. Ten rods distant was a magazine containing fifteen +or twenty kegs of powder, of little value to a victorious army with full +supplies of ammunition. They could have been rolled into the creek near +at hand; but the order of Jeff Davis was to blow up the magazines, and +the order must be executed. + +"We give you fifteen minutes to get out of the way," was the sole notice +to that crowd of helpless creatures lying in their cots, at three +o'clock in the morning. Men and women begged for mercy. In vain their +cries. The officer in charge of the matter was inexorable. Clotheless +and shoeless, the inmates of the almshouse ran in terror from the spot +to seek shelter in the ravines. But there were those who could not run, +who, while the train was laying, rent the air with shrieks of terror. +The train was fired at the expiration of the allotted time. The whole +side of the house went in with a crash, as if it were no more than +pasteboard. Windows flew into minutest particles. Bricks, stones, +timbers, beams, and boards went whirling through the air. Trees were +wrenched off as though a giant had twisted them into withes. The city +rocked as if upheaved by an earthquake. The dozen poor wretches +remaining in the almshouse were torn to pieces. Their bodies were but +blackened masses of flesh, when the fugitives who had sought shelter in +the fields returned to the shattered ruins. + +How stirring the events of that morning! Lee retreating, Grant pursuing; +Davis a fugitive; the Governor and Legislature of Virginia seeking +safety in a canal-boat; Doctors of Divinity fleeing from the wrath to +come; the troops of the Union marching up the streets; the old flag +waving over the Capitol; Rebel iron-clads blowing up; Richmond in +flames; the fiery billows rolling on from house to house, from block to +block, from square to square, unopposed in their progress by the +panic-stricken, stupefied, bewildered crowd; and the Northern Vandals +laying aside their arms, manning the engines, putting out the fire, and +saving the city from total destruction! Through the terrible day, all +through the succeeding night, the smoke of its torment went up to +heaven. Strange, weird, the scenes of that Monday night,--the glimmering +flames, the clouds of smoke hanging like a funeral pall above the ruins, +the crowd of woe-begone, houseless, homeless creatures wandering through +the streets:-- + + "Such resting found the soles of unblest feet!" + + +VISIT OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. + +Among the memorable events of the week was the visit of President +Lincoln to the city of Richmond. He had been tarrying at City Point, +holding daily consultations with General Grant, visiting the army and +the iron-clads at Aiken's Landing,--thus avoiding the swarm of +place-hunters that darkened the doors of the executive mansion. + +On Tuesday noon a tug-boat belonging to the navy was seen steaming up +the James, regardless of torpedoes and obstructions. A mile below the +city, where the water becomes shoal, President Lincoln, accompanied by +Admiral Porter, Captain Adams of the navy, Captain Penrose of the army, +and Lieutenant Clemmens of the Signal Corps, put off from the tug in a +launch manned by twelve sailors, whose long, steady oar-strokes quickly +carried the party to the landing-place,--a square above Libby Prison. + +There was no committee of reception, no guard of honor, no grand +display of troops, no assembling of an eager multitude to welcome him. + +He entered the city unheralded; six sailors, armed with carbines, +stepped upon the shore, followed by the President, who held his little +son by the hand, and Admiral Porter; the officers followed, and six more +sailors brought up the rear. The writer of this article was there upon +the spot, and, joining the party, became an observer of the memorable +event. + +There were forty or fifty freedmen, who had been sole possessors of +themselves for twenty-four hours, at work on the bank of the canal, +securing some floating timber, under the direction of a Lieutenant. +Somehow they obtained the information that the man who was head and +shoulders taller than all others around him, with features large and +irregular, with a mild eye and pleasant countenance, was President +Lincoln. + +"God bless you, Sah!" said one, taking off his cap and bowing very low. + +"Hurrah! hurrah! President Linkum hab come!" was the shout which rang +through the street. + +The Lieutenant found himself without a command. What cared those +freedmen, fresh from the house of bondage, for floating timber or +military commands? Their deliverer had come,--he who, next to the Lord +Jesus, was their best friend! It was not an hurrah that they gave, but a +wild, jubilant cry of inexpressible joy. + +They gathered round the President, ran ahead, hovered upon the flanks of +the little company, and hung like a dark cloud upon the rear. Men, +women, and children joined the constantly increasing throng. They came +from all the by-streets, running in breathless haste, shouting and +hallooing and dancing with delight. The men threw up their hats, the +women waved their bonnets and handkerchiefs, clapped their hands, and +sang, "Glory to God! glory! glory! glory!"--rendering all the praise to +God, who had heard their wailings in the past, their meanings for wives, +husbands, children, and friends sold out of their sight, had given them +freedom, and, after long years of waiting, had permitted them thus +unexpectedly to behold the face of their great benefactor. + +"I thank you, dear Jesus, that I behold President Linkum!" was the +exclamation of a woman who stood upon the threshold of her humble home, +and with streaming eyes and clasped hands gave thanks aloud to the +Saviour of men. + +Another, more demonstrative in her joy, was jumping and striking her +hands with all her might, crying,--"Bless de Lord! Bless de Lord! Bless +de Lord!" as if there could be no end of her thanksgiving. + +The air rang with a tumultuous chorus of voices. The street became +almost impassable on account of the increasing multitude. Soldiers were +summoned to clear the way. How strange the event! The President of the +United States--he who had been hated, despised, maligned above all other +men living, to whom the vilest epithets had been applied by the people +of Richmond--was walking their streets, receiving thanksgivings, +blessings, and praises from thousands who hailed him as the ally of the +Messiah! How bitter the reflections of that moment to some who beheld +him!--memory running back, perhaps, to that day in May, 1861, when +Jefferson Davis, their President, entered the city,--the pageant of that +hour, his speech, his promise to smite the smiter, to drench the fields +of Virginia with richer blood than that shed at Buena Vista! How that +part of the promise had been kept!--how their sons, brothers, and +friends had fallen!--how all else predicted had failed!--how the land +had been filled with mourning!--how the State had become a +desolation!--how their property, their hoarded wealth, had disappeared! +They had been invited to a gorgeous banquet; the fruit was fair to the +eye, of golden hue and beautiful; but it had turned to ashes. They had +been promised a place among the nations, a position of commanding +influence and fame. Cotton was the king of kings, and England, France, +and the whole civilized world would bow in humble submission to his +Majesty. That was the promise; but now their king was dethroned, their +government overthrown, their President and his cabinet vagrants, driven +from house and home to be wanderers upon the earth. They had been +promised affluence, Richmond was to be the metropolis of the +Confederacy, and Virginia the all-powerful State of the new nation. How +terrible the cheat! Their thousand-dollar bonds were not worth a penny. +A million dollars would not purchase a dinner. Their money was +valueless, their slaves were freemen, the heart of their city was eaten +out. They had been cheated in everything. Those whom they had trusted +had given the unkindest cut of all,--adding arson and robbery to their +other crimes. Thus had they fallen from highest anticipation of bliss to +deepest actual woe. The language of the Arch-Rebel of the universe, in +"Paradise Lost," was most appropriate to them:-- + + "'Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,' + Said then the lost Archangel, 'this the seat, + That we must change for heaven, this mournful gloom + For that celestial light?'" + +Abraham Lincoln was walking their streets; and, worst of all, that +plain, honest-hearted man was recognizing the "niggers" as human beings +by returning their salutations! The walk was long, and the President +halted a moment to rest. "May de good Lord bless you, President Linkum!" +said an old negro, removing his hat, and bowing with tears of joy +rolling down his cheeks. The President removed his own hat, and bowed in +silence; but it was a bow which upset the forms, laws, customs, and +ceremonies of centuries. It was a death-shock to chivalry, and a mortal +wound to caste. Recognize a nigger! Faugh! A woman in an adjoining house +beheld it, and turned from the scene in unspeakable disgust. There were +men in the crowd who had daggers in their eyes; but the chosen assassin +was not there, the hour for the damning work had not come, and that +great-hearted man passed on to the executive mansion of the late +Confederacy. + +Want of space compels us to pass over other scenes,--the visit of the +President to the State-House,--the jubilant shouts of the crowd,--the +rush of freedmen into the Capitol grounds, where, till the appearance of +their deliverer, they had never been permitted to enter,--the ride of +the President through the streets,--his visit to Libby Prison,--the +distribution of bread to the destitute,--the groups of heartbroken men +amid the ruins, who beheld nought but ruins,--a ruined city, a ruined +State, a ruined Confederacy, a ruined people,--ruined in hopes and +expectations,--ruined for the past, the present, and the +future,--without power, influence, or means of beginning life +anew,--deceived, subjugated, humiliated,--poverty-stricken in +everything. All that they had possessed was irretrievably lost, and they +had nothing to show for it. All their heroism, valor, courage, hardship, +suffering, expenditure of treasure, and sacrifice of blood had availed +them nothing. There could be no comfort in their mourning, no +alleviation to their sorrow. + +Forgetting that Justice is the mightiest power of the universe, that +Righteousness is eternal, and that anything short of it is transitory, +they planned a gorgeous edifice with Slavery for its corner-stone; but +suddenly, and in an hour, their superstructure and foundation, crumbled. +They grasped at dominion, and sank in perdition. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[I] I write from memory, not pretending to give the exact words uttered +during the conversation. + + + + +DOWN! + +(APRIL, 1965) + + + + Yard-Arm to yard-arm we lie + Alongside the Ship of Hell; + And still, through the sulphury sky, + The terrible clang goes high,-- + Broadside and battle-cry, + And the pirates' maddened yell! + + Our Captain's cold on the deck; + Our brave Lieutenant's a wreck,-- + He lies in the hold there, hearing + The storm of fight going on overhead, + Tramp and thunder to wake the dead, + The great guns jumping overhead, + And the whole ship's company cheering! + + Four hours the Death-Fight has roared, + (Gun-deck and berth-deck blood-wet!) + Her mainmast's gone by the board, + Down come topsail and jib! + We're smashing her, rib by rib, + And the pirate yells grow weak,-- + But the Black Flag flies there yet, + The Death's Head grinning apeak! + + Long has she haunted the seas, + Terror of sun and breeze; + Her deck has echoed with groans; + Her hold is a horrid den, + Piled to the orlop with bones + Of starved and of murdered men! + They swarm 'mid her shrouds in hosts, + The smoke is murky with ghosts! + + But to-day her cruise shall be short! + She's bound to the Port she cleared from, + She's nearing the Light she steered from,-- + Ah, the Horror sees her fate! + Heeling heavy to port, + She strikes, but all too late! + Down with her cursed crew, + Down with her damned freight, + To the bottom of the Blue, + Ten thousand fathom deep! + With God's glad sun o'erhead,-- + That is the way to weep, + So will we mourn our dead! + + + + +THE PLACE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN HISTORY. + + +The funeral procession of the late President of the United States has +passed through the land from Washington to his final resting-place in +the heart of the Prairies. Along the line of more than fifteen hundred +miles his remains were borne, as it were, through continued lines of the +people; and the number of mourners and the sincerity and unanimity of +grief were such as never before attended the obsequies of a human being; +so that the terrible catastrophe of his end hardly struck more awe than +the majestic sorrow of the people. The thought of the individual was +effaced; and men's minds were drawn to the station which he filled, to +his public career, to the principles he represented, to his martyrdom. +There was at first impatience at the escape of his murderer, mixed with +contempt for the wretch who was guilty of the crime; and there was +relief in the consideration, that one whose personal insignificance was +in such a contrast with the greatness of his crime had met with a sudden +and ignoble death. No one stopped to remark on the personal qualities of +Abraham Lincoln, except to wonder that his gentleness of nature had not +saved him from the designs of assassins. It was thought then, and the +event is still so recent it is thought now, that the analysis and +graphic portraiture of his personal character and habits should be +deferred to less excited times; as yet the attempt would wear the aspect +of cruel indifference or levity, inconsistent with the sanctity of the +occasion. Men ask one another only, Why has the President been struck +down, and why do the people mourn? We think we pay the best tribute to +his memory and the most fitting respect to his name, if we ask after the +relation in which he stands to the history of his country and his +fellow-man. + +Before the end of 1865, it will have been two hundred and forty-six +years since the first negro slaves were landed in Virginia from a Dutch +trading-vessel, two hundred and twenty-eight since a Massachusetts +vessel returned from the Bahamas with negro slaves for a part of its +cargo, two hundred and twenty years since men of Boston introduced them +directly from Guinea. Slavery in the United States had not its origin in +British policy: it sprung up among Americans themselves, who in that +respect acquiesced in the customs and morals of the age. But at a later +day the importation of slaves was insisted upon by the government of the +mother country, under the influence of mercantile avarice, with the +further purpose of weakening the rising Colonies, and impeding the +establishment among them of branches of industry that might compete with +the productions of England. Climate and the logical consequences of the +principles of the Puritans checked the increase of slaves in +Massachusetts, from which it gradually disappeared without the necessity +of any special act of manumission; in Virginia, the country within the +reach of tide-water was crowded with negroes, and the marts were +supplied by continuous importations, which the Colony was not suffered +to prohibit or restrain. + +The middle of the eighteenth century was marked by a rising of opinion +in favor of freedom. The statesmen of Massachusetts read the great work +of Montesquieu on the Spirit of Laws; and in bearing their first very +remarkable testimony against slavery, they simply adopted his words, +repeated without passion,--for they had no dread of the increase of +slavery within their own borders, and never doubted of its speedy and +natural decay. The great men of Virginia, on the contrary, were struck +with terror as they contemplated its social condition; they drew their +lessons, not from France, not from abroad, but from themselves and the +scenes around them; and half in the hope of rescuing that ancient +Commonwealth from the corrupting element of slavery, and half in the +agony of despair, they went in advance of all the world in their +reprobation of the slave-trade and of slavery, and of the dangerous +condition of the white man as the master of bondmen. In the years +preceding the war of the Revolution, the Ancient Dominion rocked with +the strife of contending parties: the King with all his officers and +many great slaveholders on the one side, against a hardy people in the +back country and the best of the slaveholders themselves. On the side of +liberty many were conspicuous,--among them Richard Henry Lee, George +Wythe, Jefferson, who from his youth was the pride of Virginia; but all +were feeble in comparison with the enthusiastic fervor and prophetic +instincts of George Mason. They reasoned, that slavery was inconsistent +with Christianity, was in conflict with the rights of man; that it was a +slow poison, daily contaminating the minds and morals of their people; +that, by reducing a part of their own species to abject inferiority, +they lost the idea of the dignity of man, which the hand of Nature had +implanted within them for great and useful purposes; that, by the habit +from infancy of trampling on the rights of human nature, every liberal +sentiment was extinguished or enfeebled; that every gentleman was born a +petty tyrant, and by the practice of cruelty and despotism became +callous to the finer dictates of the soul; that in such an infernal +school were to be educated the future legislators and rulers of +Virginia. And before the war broke out, the House of Burgesses of +Virginia was warned of the choice that lay before them: either the +Constitution must by degrees work itself clear by its own innate +strength and the virtue and resolution of the community, or the laws of +impartial Providence would avenge on their posterity the injury done to +a class of unhappy men debased by their injustice. + +At the opening of the war of the Revolution, the Narragansett country of +Rhode Island, the Southern part of Long Island, New York City and the +counties on the Hudson, and East New Jersey had in their population +about as large a proportion of slaves as Missouri four years ago. In all +the Colonies collectively the black men were to the white men as five to +twenty-one. The British authorities unanimously held that the master +lost his claim to his slave by the act of rebellion. In Virginia a +system of emancipation was inaugurated; and the emancipation of slaves +by success in arms Jefferson pronounced to be right. But the system of +emancipation took no large proportions: partly because the invaders in +the beginning of the war were driven from the Chesapeake; partly because +the large slaveholders of South Carolina, on the subjugation of the low +country in that State, renewed their allegiance to the Crown; and partly +because British officers chose to ship slaves of rebels to the markets +of the West Indies. Yet the continued occupation of Rhode Island, Long +Island, and New York City, and the exodus of slaves with other refugees +at the time of peace, facilitated the movements in Rhode Island and New +York for the abrogation of slavery. At the end of the war the proportion +of free people to slaves was greatly increased; and, whatever wilful +blindness may assert, the free black had the privileges of a citizen. + +Here, then, was an opening for relieving the body politic from the great +anomaly of bondage in the midst of freedom. But though divine justice +never slumbers, the opportunity was but partially seized. The diminution +of the number of laborers at the South revived the importation of +slaves. The first Congress had agreed not to tolerate that traffic; the +Confederacy left its encouragement or prohibition to the pleasure of +each State; and the Constitution continued that liberty for twenty +years. At the same time slavery was excluded from the whole of the +territory of the United States. The vote of New Jersey only was wanting +to have sustained the proposition of Jefferson, by which it would have +been excluded not only from all the territory then in their possession, +but from all that they might gain. + +The jealousy of the Southern States of the power of the North may be +traced through the annals of Congress from the first, which assembled in +1774. The old notions of the independence and sovereignty of each +separate State, though the Constitution was framed for the express +purpose of modifying them, clung to life with tenacity. When John Adams +was elected President, before any overt act, before any other cause of +alarm than his election, the Legislature of Virginia took steps for an +armed organization of the State, and old and long-cherished sentiments +adverse to Union were renewed. The continuance of the Union was in +peril. It was then that the great Virginia statesman, now perfectly +satisfied with the amended Constitution, came to the rescue. By the +simple force of ideas, embodying in one system all the conquests of the +eighteenth century in behalf of human rights, the freedom of conscience, +speech, and the press, he ruled the willing minds of the people. The +South, where his great strength lay with the poor whites, and where he +was known as the champion of human freedom, trusted in his zeal for +individual liberty and for the adjusted liberty of the States; the North +heard from him sincere and consistent denunciations of slavery, such as +had never been surpassed, except by George Mason. The thought never +crossed the mind of Jefferson that the General Government had not proper +powers of coercion. On taking the office of President, his watchword +was, "We are all Federalists, we are all Republicans"; and the two +principles of universal freedom and equality, and the right of each +State to regulate its own internal domestic affairs, became not so much +the doctrine of a party as the accepted creed of the nation. In his +administration of affairs, Jefferson did not suffer one power of the +General Government to be weakened. No one man did so much as he towards +consolidating the Union. + +But the question of Slavery was not solved. The purchase of Louisiana +increased the States in which slaves were tolerated; the settlement of +the Northwest strengthened the power of freedom; but as yet there had +been no fracture in public opinion. Missouri asked to be admitted to the +Union, and it was found, that, without any party organization, without +formal preparation, a majority of the House of Representatives desired +to couple its admission with the condition that it should emancipate its +slaves. That slavery was evil was still the undivided opinion of the +nation; but it was perceived that the friends of freedom had missed the +proper moment for action,--that Congress had tolerated slavery in +Missouri as a Territory, and were thus inconsistent in claiming to +suppress slavery in the State; and they escaped from the difficulty by +what was called a Compromise. It was agreed that for the future slavery +should never be carried to the north of the southern boundary of +Missouri; and this was interpreted by the South as the devoting of all +the territory south of that line to the owners of slaves. + +From that day Slavery became the foundation of a political party, under +the guise of a zeal for the rights of States. It began to be perceptible +at the next Presidential election; but Calhoun, who was willing to be +considered a candidate for the Presidency, was still as decidedly for +the Union as John Quincy Adams or Webster. Walking one day with Seaton +of the "Intelligencer" on the banks of the Potomac, Seaton dissuaded him +from being at that day a candidate for the Presidency, giving as a +reason, that, in case of success and reelection, he would go out of the +public service in the vigor of life. "I will, at the end of my second +term, go into retirement and write my memoirs," was Calhoun's answer: a +proof that at that time Disunion had not crossed his mind. + +The younger Adams had been undoubtedly at the South the candidate of the +Union party. The incipient opposition to Union threw itself with the +intensest heat into the opposition to Adams; and Jackson, who was +victorious through his own popularity, was elected by a vast majority. +Jackson was honest, patriotic, and brave: he refused his confidence to +the oligarchical party, represented by Calhoun and Macduffie; and after +passionate struggles, which convulsed the country, he defied their +hostility, and told them to their faces, "The Union must be preserved." + +The bitterness of disappointed ambition led to the formation and gradual +enunciation of new political opinions. In the strife about the practical +effects of Nullification, the question was raised by the Nullifiers, +whether obedience to the laws of a State was a good plea for resistance +to the laws of the United States; and so, for the first time in our +history, a political party came to the principle, that primary +allegiance was due to the State, a secondary one only to the United +States; and this view was taught in schools and colleges and popular +meetings. The second theory, that grew up with the first, was, that +slavery was a divine institution, best for the black man and best for +the white. + +At the election which followed the retirement of Jackson, the Democratic +party stood by its old tradition of the evil of slavery, and the hope +that by the innate vigor of the respective States it would gradually be +thrown off; the opposite party likewise held to the same tradition, in +the belief that the progress of commerce and domestic industry would in +due time quietly remove what all sound political economy condemned. The +new party, the party of State Sovereignty and Slavery,--for the two +heads sprung from one root,--had not power enough to prevent the +election of one who represented the policy of Jackson. But they were +full of passionate ardor and of restless activity; and in the next +Presidential election they threw themselves upon the Whig party, with +which they joined hands. The Whig party was at that day strong enough to +have done without them; but the uncontrollable wish for success, which +had been long delayed, led to the cry of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," and +this meant a union of the interests of the North with the interest of +Slavery. Harrison had votes enough to elect him without one vote from +the Southern oligarchy; but the compact was made; Harrison was elected +and died, and the representative of the oligarchy, a man at heart false +to the national flag, became President for nearly four years. + +His administration is marked by the annexation of Texas to the United +States: a measure sure, in the belief of Calhoun, to confirm the empire +of Slavery,--sure, as others believed, to prevent the foundation of an +adventurous government, that, if left to independence, would have +reopened the slave-trade and subdued by force of arms all California and +Mexico to the sway of Slavery. The faith of the last proved the true +one. Under the administration of Polk, California was annexed, not to +independent, slaveholding Texas, but to the Union. This constitutes the +turning-point in the series of events; the first emigrants to her +borders formed a constitution excluding slavery. + +At the next election a change took place, profoundly affecting the +Democratic party, and, as a consequence, the country. Hitherto the +position of the Northern Democracy had been that of Jefferson, that +slavery was altogether evil; and Cass, the Democratic candidate, still +expressed his prayer for the final doom of slavery. Against his election +a third party was formed; and Van Buren, a former Democratic President, +who had been sustained by the South as well as by the North, taking with +him one half the Democracy of New York, consented to be the candidate of +that party. We judge not his act; but the consequences were sad. To the +South his appearance as a candidate on that basis had the aspect of +treachery; at the North the Democratic party lost its power to resist +the arrogance of the South: for, in the first place, large numbers of +its best men had left its ranks; and next, those who remained behind +were eager to clear themselves of the charge of sectional narrowness; +and those who had gone out and come back, in their zeal to recover the +favor of the South, went beyond all bounds in their professions of +repentance. The old compromise of Jefferson fell into disrepute; the +Democratic party itself was thrown into confusion; the power of any one +of its distinguished men to resist the increasing arrogance of the +slaveholders was taken away; a word in public for what twenty years +before had been the creed of every one was followed by the ban of the +majority of the party. So fell one bulwark against slavery. + +Still another bulwark against it was destined to fall away. The +annexation of California brought with it the question of the admission +of California as a State of freemen. The only way to have avoided +convulsing the country was to have confined the discussion to the one +question of the admission of California. Unhappily, Clay, truly +representing a State which halted in its choice between freedom and +slavery, proposed a combination of measures. Further, the representation +of the Free States had steadily increased from the origin of the +Government; the admission of California threatened, at last, to open the +way for a corresponding disproportion in the Senate. The country, +remembering how Webster, on a great occasion, had greatly resisted the +heresy of Nullification, looked to him now to clear away the mists of +artful misrepresentations of the Constitution, and show that neither in +that Constitution nor in the history of the country at the time of its +formation had there been any justification of the demand for such +equality of representation. But this time the great orator failed; the +passionate desire for being President led him to make a speech intended +to conciliate the support of the South. In that he failed miserably at +the moment; a few days later, Calhoun, on his death-bed, avowed himself +the adviser of a secession of the whole body of the slaveholding States. +Still blinded by ambition, Webster, on a tour through New York, as a +candidate, formally proposed the establishment of a party representing +the property of the country, crystallizing round the slaveholders, and +including the commercial and corporate industrial wealth of the North. +The effect on his own advancement was absolutely nothing. In due time, +as a candidate, he fell stone dead; and it is to his credit that he did +so. The South knew that he was a Union man, and would not answer their +purpose. As he heard of the slight given by those whom he had courted, +his large head fell on his breast, his voice faltered, and big tears +trickled down his cheeks. His cheerfulness never returned; he languished +and died; but the evil that lived after him was, that the great party to +which he had belonged was no more able to stem the rising fury of the +South, and broke to pieces. + +Thus, by untoward circumstances, the truth that could alone confirm the +Union, and which heretofore had been substantially supported by both the +great traditional parties of the country, no longer had a clear and +commanding exponent in either of them. The result of the next election +showed that the old Whig party had lost all power over the public mind. +The strife went on, and hope centred in the supreme judicial tribunal of +the land, to whose members a secure tenure of office had been given, +that they might be above all temptation of serving the time. The +politicians of the North were becoming alarmed by the issues which were +forced upon them by those of the South with whom they still wished to be +friends; they longed to shift the responsibility of the decision upon +the Supreme Court. The Court was slow to be swerved. The case of Dred +Scott was before them; and the decision of the Court was embodied in an +opinion which would have produced no excitement. But the Court was +entreated to give their decision another form. They long resisted, and +were long divided; but perseverance overcame them; and at last a most +reluctant majority, a bare majority, was won to enter the arena of +politics, and attempt the suppression of differences of opinion: for, +said one of the judges, "the peace and harmony of the country require +the settlement of Constitutional principles of the highest +importance,"--not knowing that injustice overturns peace and harmony, +and that a depraved judiciary portends civil war. + +The man who took the Presidential chair in 1857 had no traditional party +against him; he owed his nomination to confidence in his moderation and +supposed love of Union. He might have united the whole North and secured +a good part of the South. Constitutionally timid, on taking the oath of +office, he betrayed his own weakness, and foreshadowed the forthcoming +decision of the Supreme Court. Under the wing of the Executive, +Chief-Justice Taney gave his famed disquisition. The delivery of that +opinion was an act of revolution. The truth of history was scorned; the +voice of passion was put forward as the rule of law; doctrines were laid +down which, if they are just, give a full sanction to the rebellion +which ensued. The country was stung to the quick by the reckless conduct +of a body which it needed to trust, and which now was leading the way to +the overthrow of the Constitution and the dismemberment of the Republic. +At the same time, the President, in selecting the members of his +cabinet, chose four of the seven from among those who were prepared to +sacrifice the country to the interests of Slavery. In time of peace the +finances were wilfully ill-administered, and in the midst of wealth and +credit the country was saved from bankruptcy only by the patriotism of +the city of New York, against the treacherous intention of the Secretary +of the Treasury. Cannon and muskets and military stores were sent in +numbers where they could most surely fall into the hands of the coming +rebellion; troops of the United States were placed under disloyal +officers and put out of the way; the navy was scattered abroad. And +then, that nothing might be wanting to increase the agony of the +country, an attempt to force the institution of Slavery on the people of +Kansas, that refused it, received the encouragement and aid of the +President. The conspirators resolved at the next Presidential election +to compel the choice of a candidate of their own, or of one against whom +they could unite the South; and all the influence of the Administration, +through its patronage, was used to confine the election to that issue. + +Virginia statesmen, more than ninety years ago, had foretold that each +State Constitution must work itself clear of the evil of slavery by its +own innate vigor, or await the doom of impartial Providence. Judgment +slumbered no longer,--though wise men after the flesh were not chosen as +its messengers and avengers. + +The position of Abraham Lincoln, on the day of his inauguration, was +apparently one of helpless debility. A bark canoe in a tempest on +mid-ocean seemed hardly less safe. The vital tradition of the country on +Slavery no longer had its adequate expression in either of the two great +political parties, and the Supreme Court had uprooted the old landmarks +and guides. The men who had chosen him President did not constitute a +consolidated party, and did not profess to represent either of the +historic parties which had been engaged in the struggles of three +quarters of a century. They were a heterogeneous body of men, of the +most various political attachments in former years, and on many +questions of economy of the most discordant opinions. Scarcely knowing +each other, they did not form a numerical majority of the whole country, +were in a minority in each branch of Congress except from the wilful +absence of members, and they could not be sure of their own continuance +as an organized body. They did not know their own position, and were +startled by the consequences of their success. The new President himself +was, according to his own description, a man of defective education, a +lawyer by profession, knowing nothing of administration beyond having +been master of a very small post-office, knowing nothing of war but as +a captain of volunteers in a raid against an Indian chief, repeatedly a +member of the Illinois Legislature, once a member of Congress. He spoke +with ease and clearness, but not with eloquence. He wrote concisely and +to the point, but was unskilled in the use of the pen. He had no +accurate knowledge of the public defences of the country, no exact +conception of its foreign relations, no comprehensive perception of his +duties. The qualities of his nature were not suited to hardy action. His +temper was soft and gentle and yielding; reluctant to refuse anything +that presented itself to him as an act of kindness; loving to please and +willing to confide; not trained to confine acts of good-will within the +stern limits of duty. He was of the temperament called melancholic, +scarcely concealed by an exterior of lightness of humor,--having a deep +and fixed seriousness, jesting lips, and wanness of heart. And this man +was summoned to stand up directly against a power with which Henry Clay +had never directly grappled, before which Webster at last had quailed, +which no President had offended and yet successfully administered the +Government, to which each great political party had made concessions, to +which in various measures of compromise the country had repeatedly +capitulated, and with which he must now venture a struggle for the life +or death of the nation. + +The credit of the country had not fully recovered from the shock it had +treacherously received in the former administration. A part of the +navy-yards were intrusted to incompetent agents or enemies. The social +spirit of the city of Washington was against him, and spies and enemies +abounded in the circles of fashion. Every executive department swarmed +with men of treasonable inclinations, so that it was uncertain where to +rest for support. The army officers had been trained in unsound +political principles. The chief of staff of the highest of the general +officers, wearing the mask of loyalty, was a traitor at heart. The +country was ungenerous towards the negro, who in truth was not in the +least to blame,--was impatient that such a strife should have grown out +of his condition, and wished that he were far away. On the side of +prompt decision the advantage was with the Rebels; the President sought +how to avoid war without compromising his duty; and the Rebels, who knew +their own purpose, won incalculable advantages by the start which they +thus gained. The country stood aghast, and would not believe in the full +extent of the conspiracy to shatter it in pieces; men were uncertain if +there would be a great uprising of the people. The President and his +cabinet were in the midst of an enemy's country and in personal danger, +and at one time their connections with the North and West were cut off; +and that very moment was chosen by the trusted chief of staff of the +Lieutenant-General to go over to the enemy. + +Every one remembers how this state of suspense was terminated by the +uprising of a people who now showed strength and virtues which they were +hardly conscious of possessing. + +In some respects Abraham Lincoln was peculiarly fitted for his task, in +connection with the movement of his countrymen. He was of the Northwest; +and this time it was the Mississippi River, the needed outlet for the +wealth of the Northwest, that did its part in asserting the necessity of +Union. He was one of the mass of the people; he represented them, +because he was of them; and the mass of the people, the class that lives +and thrives by self-imposed labor, felt that the work which was to be +done was a work of their own: the assertion of equality against the +pride of oligarchy; of free labor against the lordship over slaves; of +the great industrial people against all the expiring aristocracies of +which any remnants had tided down from the Middle Age. He was of a +religious turn of mind, without superstition; and the unbroken faith of +the mass was like his own. As he went along through his difficult +journey, sounding his way, he held fast by the hand of the people, and +"tracked its footsteps with even feet." "His pulse's beat twinned with +their pulses." He committed faults; but the people were resolutely +generous, magnanimous, and forgiving; and he in his turn was willing to +take instructions from their wisdom. + +The measure by which Abraham Lincoln takes his place, not in American +history only, but in universal history, is his Proclamation of January +1, 1863, emancipating all slaves within the insurgent States. It was, +indeed, a military necessity, and it decided the result of the war. It +took from the public enemy one or two millions of bondmen, and placed +between one and two hundred thousand brave and gallant troops in arms on +the side of the Union. A great deal has been said in time past of the +wonderful results of the toil of the enslaved negro in the creation of +wealth by the culture of cotton; and now it is in part to the aid of the +negro in freedom that the country owes its success in its movement of +regeneration,--that the world of mankind owes the continuance of the +United States as the example of a Republic. The death of President +Lincoln sets the seal to that Proclamation, which must be maintained. It +cannot but be maintained. It is the only rod that can safely carry off +the thunderbolt. He came to it perhaps reluctantly; he was brought to +adopt it, as it were, against his will, but compelled by inevitable +necessity. He disclaimed all praise for the act, saying reverently, +after it had succeeded, "The nation's condition God alone can claim." + +And what a futurity is opened before the country when its institutions +become homogeneous! From all the civilized world the nations will send +hosts to share the wealth and glory of this people. It will receive all +good ideas from abroad; and its great principles of personal equality +and freedom--freedom of conscience and mind,--freedom of speech and +action,--freedom of government through ever-renewed common consent--will +undulate through the world like the rays of light and heat from the sun. +With one wing touching the waters of the Atlantic and the other on the +Pacific, it will grow into a greatness of which the past has no +parallel; and there can be no spot in Europe or in Asia so remote or so +secluded as to shut out its influence. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. + + +The Refugee. By Herman Melville, Author of "Omoo," etc. Philadelphia. T. +B. Peterson & Brothers, 12mo. pp. 286. $2.00. + +Three Years in the Army of the Potomac. By Henry N. Blake, late Captain +in the Eleventh Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers. Boston. Lee & +Shepard. 16mo. pp. 319. $1.50. + +Too Strange not to be True. A Tale. By Lady Georgiana Fullerton. Three +Volumes in One. With Illustrations. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. +paper. pp. 274. $1.50 + +The Life and Times of Sir William Johnson, Bart. By William L. Stone. In +Two Volumes. Albany. J. Munsell. 8vo. pp. xvi., 555; xvi., 544. $7.00. + +Lord Oakburn's Daughters. By Mrs. Henry Wood. Philadelphia. T. B. +Peterson & Brothers. 8vo. pp. 370. $2.00. + +Lyrical Recreations. By Samuel Ward. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. +pp. xvi., 271. $2.00. + +Virginia, and Other Poems. By John Henry Vosburg. New York. James +Miller. 16mo. pp. 180. $1.25. + +High Life in Washington. A True Picture from Life of Real Persons and +Characters. By Mrs. N. P. Lasselle. Philadelphia. T. B. Peterson & +Brothers. 12mo. pp. 396. $2.00. + +Trial of John Y. Beall, as a Spy and Guerrillero, by Military +Commission. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. paper, pp. 94. 50 cts. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. +92, June, 1865, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, JUNE 1865 *** + +***** This file should be named 31051.txt or 31051.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/0/5/31051/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://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. 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